Madness by the formal Pharisee 12. His Proneness to judge the true Christian according to the motions of his own untamed corruptions 13. His prudent choice of the vice of Covetousness 14. The Unreasonableness of his censure of those that endeavour after Perfection 15. His ignorant surmise that no man liveth vertuously for the love of Vertue it self 16. The Usefulness of this Parallelisme betwixt the Reproach of Christ and his true Members 1. AND thus you have seen Christ vindicated from all those several Suspicions and Aspersions laid upon him by malicious and ignorant men whereby they would represent him as not possessed of nor acting from so Noble and Divine a Principle of Righteousness as he himself profest and his Followers have ever witnessed of him In which I confess I have been something more large then might have been expected in pleading the cause of a Person so perfectly pure and innocent But I considering our Saviour Christ not so much in himself as in his members I mean his true members who have one common Spirit with him and how they are liable to the same accusations and misconstructions of spightfull and inconsiderate men that himself was in the flesh I thought it fit more fully to insist upon the clearing and well and rightly interpreting of all the Carriages of Christ that thereby those that call themselves his members may know better how to interpret one another or if they be not so themselves that they may however learn not to judge rashly and inconsiderately of them that are and walk indeed as he walked And that my foregoing pains may be the more effectual to this purpose I shall not stick to second them so far as to shew how men ordinarily cast the same or the like soil and dirt upon the truest members of Christ that they did upon Christ himself 2. And that you may take in this with the more evidence give me leave to prefix in your mind the right Image of a true Christian or living member of Christ. And such an one is he who is a branch of the same Vine has derived into him the same sap and Life partakes of one and the same Divine spirit with Christ the fruit whereof is to love God with all a mans heart and with all his Soul and his neighbour as himself and to doe so to others as he himself would be done to And that I may not name that only which seems nothing in too many mens eyes I add also To know and acknowledge the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent And surely whosoever has this in its due measure and vigour of life is conscious to himself and finds the sweet of so great and glorious an accomplishment of Mind that whatever the Wit or Humour of man can add to it will seem of little more value then dust and straws we tread under our feet 3. And now I have told you what a true and living Member of Christ is let me also tell you what a false or titular or Pharisaical Christian is And he is this One that has not the Divine Sap or Spirit derived to him as being and growing in and becoming one with the true Vine Christ Jesus and is not possess'd nor is sensible of that Sufficiency Joy and Satisfaction that is in the inward Life of Christ and the Spirit of Righteousness and eternal and undispensable Truth of God But being dead to what is most necessary pretious and saving in Christianity and only alive or mainly to the Spirit of the world loves himself with all his heart and all his soul and God and his Neighbour only for his own sake or rather uses and rides his Neighbour having haltered him or obliged him with some prudentially and judiciously-bestowed courtesies and worships God rather then loves him nè noceat beseeching him that upon a special Dispensation though he be no better then others nor ever intends nor hopes to be better yet that it may be better with him in the end then with other folk Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his Or it may be what is little better then that in stead of the living Righteousness of Christ he will magnifie himself in some humorous pieces of Holiness of his own For he imagines there is a God and that it is safe to make a friend of him one way or other and therefore that his conscience may be the better excused from those things that are more weighty and substantial he will take up things according to his own humour and phansie as fasting twice in the week making long prayers hearing long sermons sticking curiously to some unnecessary uncertain and fruitless opinions concerning God and Religion such as are warrantable neither out of Scripture nor Reason and growing very hot and zealous in the agitation of these things though to the Disturbance of the Church of God and Injury of his Neighbour yet these trinkets and trumperies of his own humour and complexion this Heat this Noise this Zeal these are the Altar Fire and Holocaust wherewith he sacrifices to God and presents himself an Oblationer before the Almighty And all this to be excused from that which is the very End of all Religion and Worship that is the sacrificing of our own corrupt life and acquiring that prize that is set before us the holy Spirit of Righteousness Equity and Purity whose moderation and guidance is the Light of the world and the Life of man 4. And having thus though but loosely and rudely scattered the delineaments of these two opposite professours of Christianity the true Christian and Pharisaical Humorist I shall from hence as from the Cause and Original derive evidence and light to what I shall now propose to you by way of Parallelisme betwixt what our Saviour in his own person suffered of false Accusations and Aspersions and what his true and living Members are obnoxious to from that Spirit of Pharisaisme that has ever and does to this very day rule still in the world And first of the first Accusation that was laid to our Saviours charge viz. Blasphemy He hath spoken Blasphemy Matth. 26. It is apparent the Pharisaical nature being desirous to be excused from destroying and bringing to nothing in ones self all haughty and ambitious Designes Self-seeking Covetousness and Intemperance doth easily endeavour to make amends for this and to pacifie the conscience and approve ones self to God by laying out all our parts in spinning excellent high Subtilties and amazing Mysteries from any hints taken in Scripture and in adorning the nature of God and Religion according to the garishness of a mans own natural Phansie and Nicety of Wit Whence it may come to pass that these Traditionary Pharisees having made it their business to rack their natural unregenerate minds to find some magnificent conceptions as they imagine them to bestow upon the Deity that one freed by Christ
this was in stead of all other Righteousness to him and that he was reputed as righteous all over now although he were not so at all in any other things 7. Now for Iustification we shall best understand the meaning of the word from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First therefore besides the forensal acception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be just Gen. 38.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thamar is more righteous then I. So Eccles. 31.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that loves gold will not be just Secondly it signifies to appear just Psa. 51.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is that thou maist plainly appear or approve thy self to be just And Psal. 143. â— For in thy sight no man living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall appear just Thirdly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to make just and pure to free from vice and sinfulness Psalm 73. v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore have I cleansed my heart in vain And Eccles. 18.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec tuam probitatem usque ad mortem differas saies the Translation And Rom. 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is dead is freed from sin Also Act. 13.39 And by him all they that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses i. e. Ye are more throughly cleansed and purged from sin and wickedness then you could be ever under the Law of Moses Which is consonant to other passages in Scripture as That the Law makes nothing perfect and again If there had been a Law that could have given life then verily righteousness might have been of the Law And now we have found out a warrantable sense of these words we shall be able more expeditely to discover the sense of the foregoing places of Scripture alledged for this pernicious conceit of a Christians being righteous without any real Righteousness in him 8. Wherefore to that in the 4. to the Romans whose force will be the greater if we adde that also which is written a little before in the 3 chap. v. 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and what he inferrs also vers 9. That Iews and Gentiles and all are under sin Wherein the meaning of the Apostle is to magnifie as was most fit the ministration of the Gospel and so he signifies to the world that whatsoever is discovered hitherto is imperfect lapsed and ruinous all but weak and sinful before the coming in of Christ even the works of the Law themselves and that smooth external Righteousness of mere Morality and Ceremony So that all the world are found guilty before God and by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight For by the Law is but the knowledge of sin vers 20. it gives no strength to perform Wherefore now reckoning nothing upon all these things we are as it were to begin the world again and to endeavour after such a Righteousness as is by Faith in Christ Jesus and not to rest in any thing that may be done by the ordinary power of the flesh but to aspire after that Righteousness which is communicable to us by that Spirit which raised Jesus Christ from the dead But neither Abraham nor any one else can be justified by any carnal righteousness of their own but that highly-spiritual act of Abraham reaching beyond the common rode of Nature who against hope believed in hope that was that which commended Abraham so much to God And thus from the Example of Abraham would the Apostle commend the Christian faith to the world and in particular to the Jews the Offspring of Abraham For at the end of the fourth chapter he makes this use of Abraham's faith being imputed to him for Righteousness that is reputed by God as a very excellent good act as it indeed was that we might also be brought off to believe on him that raised up â—esus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification In which verse are contained the two grand priviledges of the Gospel that is the forgiveness of sins upon the satisfaction of Christs death and the justifying of us that is the making of us just and holy through a sound faith in him that raised Jesus from the dead Which interpretation the 11 verse of the 8 Chapter doth sufficiently countenance But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you viz. to Righteousness as is plain out of the foregoing verse And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse that is The body of death which we desire to be delivered from as the Apostle speaks appears by the presence of Christ in us to be thus deadly a body by reason of sin we feeling for the present nothing but an heavy indisposition to all holinesse and goodnesse in the body and its affections and all sinfulnesse and unclean Atheisticall suggestions from the flesh which is death to the Soul For to be carnally-minded is death So that by reason of the sinfulnesse of our body and the sad heavinesse thereof it appears as deadly and ghastly a thing to us as Mezentius his tying the living and the dead together when once Christ is in us but our Life is then that Righteousnesse which is of the Spirit we finding a comfortable warmth and pleasure in the gratefull arrivals of that holy and Divine sensation But he that raised Christ from the dead will in due time even quicken these our mortall bodies or these dead bodies of ours and make them conspire and come along with ease and chearfulnesse and be ready and active complying Instruments in all things with the Spirit of Righteousness Which belief is a chief Point in the Christian Faith and most of all parallel to that of Abraham's who believing in the Goodness and Power and Faithfulness of God had when both himself and his wife Sara were dry and dead as to natural generation and so hopeless of ever seeing any fruit of her womb who had I say Isaac born to him who bears Ioy and Laughter in the very Name of him and was undoubtedly a Type of Christ according to the Spirit For Isaac is the Wisedom Power and Righteousness of God flowing out and effectually branching it self so through all the Faculties both of mans Soul and Body that the whole man is carried away with joy and triumph to the acting all whatsoever is really and substantially good even with as much satisfaction and pleasure as he eats when he is hungry and drinks when he is dry And thus by our entrance and progress in so holy a
mean The evidence that we are to be inwardly and really righteous and not only so but in an extraordinary manner are the two Powers of the Gospel that comprehend our great and ultimate duty of being holy as he that has called us is holy of becoming perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect The following Gospel-Powers all of them are aids and helps to this design The first whereof is The Promise of the Spirit through Christ's Intercession the second The Example of Christ the third The Meditation on his Passion the fourth on his Resurrection and Ascension and the last on the last Iudgement These Powers are of such admirable efficacy if rightly applied that they are able to pul down every strong hold and to cast out all evil imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ as the Apostle speaks No strength of habituated sin no violence of any lust shall be able to stand before them 3. The first of these Powers is The Promise of the Spirit I do not mean for the doing Miracles for that was but a transient business and accommodate only to the first Ages of the Church but for through-sanctification and cleansing us from all our sins and for our perfect growth in Righteousness and Holiness That this Power is a concomitant to the Dispensation of the Gospel in all true Believers is apparent both from the predictions of the Prophets and from the mouth of our Saviour and his blessed Apostles Esay 44. Hear now O Iacob my servant and Israel whom I have chosen Thus saith the Lord that made thee and framed thee from the womb and will help thee Fear not O Iacob my servant and thou Iesurun whom I have chosen For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy offspring And they shall spring up as among the grass and the willows by the water-courses Which Prophecie is most properly applicable to the Church of Christ who is the true seed of Iacob those wrastlers with God and strivers to get in at the narrow gate that leads to life they are the true Iesurun the upright of heart and sincere seekers after God those that truly hunger and thirst after righteousness and therefore God will satisfie them by the supernatural assistance of his blessed Spirit Again Ezekiel 36. ver 25. prefiguring the blessed dispensations of the Kingdome of Christ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and doe them Also Esay 41. v. 10. where certainly according to analogie of interpretations of Prophecie the seed of Abraham being a Type of the Spiritual Church of Christ and their warfare not carnal but spiritual nor the waters promised by Christ such liquors as run in Brooks and Rivers but emanations of the purifying and refreshing powers of the Spirit of God we may see with what close and faithfull assistance God is pleased to adhere to his true Israel in whom there is no guile but they are sincerely waging war and to the utmost resisting all the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil But thou Israel my servant Iacob whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismaied for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Behold all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded they shall be as nothing and they that strive with thee shall perish Thou shalt seek them and shalt not find them even them that contended with thee they that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee Fear not I will help thee Fear not thou worm Iacob and ye men of Israel behold I will make thee a new sharp threshing-instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaffe Thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the whirlwind shall scatter them and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord and shalt glory in the holy One of Israel When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the vallies I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water This Prophecie is an exquisite description of those full and complete Victories the Church gets against Sin and Satan by the supernatural assistance of the Spirit of God Which Promise is again repeated in the following chapter which though it be larger then the former and part cited already to another purpose yet I cannot refrain from transcribing the whole it being so plain a Prophecie of Christ as appears from the fore-part thereof and of the power of his Kingdome through the Spirit for the vanquishing of all sin and wickedness in them that do truly believe Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth judgement unto truth He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement in the earth and the Isles shall wait for his Law Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath to the people upon it and spirit to those that dwell therein I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles To open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another neither my praise to graven images Behold the former things are come to pass and new things do I declare before they spring forth I
tell you of them Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise from the end of the earth ye that go down to the sea and all that is therein the Isles and the inhabitants thereof Let the Wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice the villages that Kedar doth inhabit Let the inhabitants of the rock sing let them shout from the top of the mountains let them give glory unto the Lord and declare his praise in the islands The Lord shall goe forth as a mighty man he shall stir up jealousie like a man of war he shall cry yea roar he shall prevail against his enemies I have long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry like a travailing woman I will destroy and devour at once I will make wast mountains and hills and dry up all their hearbs I will make the rivers Islands and I will dry up the pools And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not I will lead them in paths that they have not known I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight These things will I doe unto them and not forsake them 4. It is a very high representation of that mighty power of God from above that assists his Church and how Christ by the dispensation of the Gospel does set us free from the bondage of sin how he opens the understandings of the ignorant and procures liberty for those that were shut up in the dungeon of a dark conscience and held in captivity under sin how those that are dry and barren like the wilderness and the tops of rocks shall be watered with springs of living water and how the villages that Kedar possesses that is those that are overshadowed with sorrow and darkness a light shall spring up unto them and how they shall give glory unto the Lord for that he himself will be their champion he shall fight their battels and by the power of his Spirit and by that fire wherewith he will plead with all flesh wither the top and flower of their pride and dry up their restagnant lusts and lighten their paths before them and lead them forth into the land of Righteousness These are the true Warfares and Victories of the Church of Christ as those that have the veil taken off from their eyes and hearts can easily discover And surely with any other usefull sense then this cannot we ordinarily read the like descriptions of the Churches triumphs by Christ over her enemies or by those that have been Types of him as David was an eminent one And therefore if I would read the 18 Psalm I will love thee O Lord my strength c. I should hope for very small edifying thereby but in such a Mystical sense as this is that is by supposing that in me which partakes of Christ that is my inward Mind or Spirit raising war against Saul which is the power of the Flesh the craving pit of Hell that sin that lodges in this mortal body whose vain desires have no bottom nor end 5. I might abound with these allegations out of the Prophets and Psalms but I have given a Key into the hand of the judicious and he may unlock those treasures himself if he desires to have his Faith enriched and strengthened by those plentiful Promises of this assistance we speak of made to them that are serious professors of the Gospel I shall only adde one testimony more which in my apprehension is very express and that is Isa. 35. Strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees Say to them that are of a fearfull heart Be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you Then shall the eyes of the blinde be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped Then shall the lame man leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desart And the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land Springs of water In the habitations of dragons in the places where they lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes And an high-way shall be there and a way and it shall be called a way of holiness the unclean shall not passe over it but he shall walk in the way with them and the simple shall not erre No Lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon it shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away CHAP. IX 1. The great use of the belief of The Promise of the Spirit 2. The eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his bloud what it is 3. Further proof of the Promise of the Spirit 4. That we cannot oblige God by way of Merit 5. Other Testimonies of Scripture tending to the former purpose 1. THese places which we have recited out of the Old Testament cannot but warm and encourage him that reads them by reason of the loftinesse of their Prophetical style provided that he have in himself a facility of mystically applying of things to the great purpose they drive at But what we shall adde out of the New though they will not strike the phansy with so high language yet they will it may be reach ones Reason more surely and extort assent more powerfully even from them that are loth to finde it true That there is such a mighty supernatural assistance afforded from God viz. the Cooperation of his holy Spirit in our conflicts against sin Which perswasion is of great consequence to make us resolute in resisting all Temptations and to gain the victory in every assault and therefore we will produce sufficient evidences of the truth thereof 2. And the first that occurs to my minde is that of our blessed Saviour Luke 11.13 If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him And that this Dispensation of the Spirit of Sanctification is a common gift to all Christians appears out of what we have already recited out of S. Matthew where Iohn professes himself only able to baptize with water unto repentance but that the Baptisme of Christ should be with the holy Ghost and with fire that is with the power of the Spirit that will melt and purifie us as silver is purified in the fire Also from Ioh. 6. where Christ styleth himself the Manna that came down from Heaven and declareth that he that eateth his flesh and drinketh his bloud hath eternal life with other expressions of the like nature Wherefore his Disciples began to be scandalized at it but Jesus answered and
said Does this offend you What if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before That will be a very strange and stupendious spectacle to you and such as will assure you of my Divinity but withall remove my body so far from you that you cannot then if you would mistake so grosly as to think I speak of this body and bloud I carry now about with me It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life that is to say They are touching the spiritual body which is the inmost Temple of the holy Ghost and which you are in some measure to partake of here and which shall have its compleat refinement when I shall crown you with the perfection of Life Eternal at the last day Or They are simply concerning the Spirit and that Life which I my self am according to my Divinity viz. The Eternal Word in whom is the Life and that Life is the light of men This is that which you are to feed on and to drink into your Souls when you have not my particular bodily presence with you For this Word and Spirit is every where to be taken in by them that breath and thirst after this Heavenly sustenance of their Souls and so is that fulfilled which he declares v. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him For the eating of the flesh is in some measure partaking of the spiritual body and the drinking of the bloud the imbibing that life therewith that rayes out from the Eternal Word into all purged and purified hearts whereby Christ dwelleth in them and they in him and God in all 3. Again Iohn 7.37 In the last day that great day of the Feast Iesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believes on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters Which he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive as the Text it self expounds it And therefore is a good ratification of the Mystical sense of those Prophecies we rehersed out of Esay But these things are spoken more plainly and without a Metaphor Ioh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandements And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Which Precept and Promise is like that of Esay chap. 58. which is that if we seriously compose our mindes to do due acts of obedience to God he will pour out his Spirit upon us Then shall thy light break forth like the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward He shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not That is as any spiritual Christian would be apt to interpret the place If thou thirst after Righteousnesse and in the mean time to thy utmost power do the outward functions thereof in thy duties to God and man at length this Spirit of truth will break forth like the morning light within thee and the emanations of the holy Ghost will so throughly refresh thee and strengthen thee that with ease and pleasure thou shalt walk in all the wayes of God which shall be like the flowry Alleys of a Paradise to thee both to thine inward and outward man 4. Not that our endeavours or desires are any obligation to God by way of merit on our part but it is his mercy to the Soul that does in good earnest pant after him For till he has compleated his work in us all our works are worth nothing and whenever they are worth any thing they are not ours but his And to this sense speaks Paul to Titus chap. 3. But after that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us or poured out upon us as the Original has it abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Like that of the Prophet Thou shalt be like a watered garden 5. Adde to these Ioh. 3.5 Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit And Rom. 8.9 But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of God he is none of his And vers 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered And also 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you And lastly Ephes. 3.14 For it were infinite to reckon up all places of Scripture that tend to this purpose For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inward man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us To him therefore be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Amen CHAP. X. 1. A Recapitulation of what has been set down hitherto concerning the Usefulnesse of the Gospel and the Necessity of undeceiving the world in those points that so nearly concern Christian Life 2. The ill condition of those that content themselves with Imaginary Righteousnesse figured out in the Fighters against Ariel and Mount Sion 3. A further demonstration of their fond conceit 4. That a true Christian cannot sin without pain and torture to himself 1. VVE have now abundantly proved out of places of Scripture The necessity of inward Sanctification and reall in-dwelling Righteousness
of God Be not deceived neither Fornicatours nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the kingdome of God And Hebr. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And thus we see that all the Happiness of man and his real good is utterly subverted and destroyed by this mischievous imagination of being righteous otherwise then by true and living Righteousness 10. And it is as plain that this imposture will rob God of his Glory as well as defeat man of his Happiness For whether we understand by the Glory of God the Image of God communicable to men as the Image that is the light of the Sun is the glory of the Sun or whether we understand the acknowledgment of that Excellency and Perfection that is in God first deeply conceived in our hearts and then fully and freely professed by our mouths both these are assuredly taken away by this false conceit And of the former there is no doubt being that the Spirit of Righteousness is that very Glory of God or Image of Christ. Wherefore whatever does intercept this does really eclipse the Glory of God And it is as true also of the other For seeing that the most rich and precious Excellencies of the Divine Nature cannot be discovered by the Soul as they ought to be but by becoming Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou beest it thou seest it as Plotinus speaks it must needs be that they cannot be worthily admired and extolled by any Soul but such as is Divine that is such a Soul as God has poured the Spirit of Righteousness and true Holiness on without which it is impossible to see God To all which Particulars that concern every private man you may add that great summe of an incomputable damage that respects the Publick For what Peace or Faithfulness can there be amongst men where the professed Mysterie of their Religion is the Explosion of real Righteousness Or what can possibly take place in stead thereof but Fraud and Falshood foul Lusts phrantick Factions rude Tumults and bloudy Rebellions To which you may cast in the loss of our very hopes that the World should ever grow better or that the holy Promises of God should take effect For there is not a more cruel or butcherly weapon for the slaying of the Witnesses nor a more impregnable Fort against the approaching Kingdome of Christ and that millennial Happiness which many good and faithfull Christians expect then this hell-hatch'd doctrine of Antinomianisme CHAP. XII 1. Of the attending to the Light within us of which some Spiritualists so much boast 2. That they must mean the Light of Reason and Conscience thereby if they be not Fanaticks Mad-men or Cheats And that this Conscience necessarily takes information from without 3. And particularly from the Holy Scriptures 4. That these Spiritualists acknowledge the fondness of their opinion by their contrary practice 5. An appeal to the Light within them if the Christian Religion according to the literal sense be not true 6. That the Operation of the Divine Spirit is not absolute but restrained to certain laws and conditions as it is in the Spirit of Nature 7. The fourth Gospel-Power The Example of Christ. 8. His purpose of vindicating the Example of Christ from aspersions with the reasons thereof 1. WE have now gone through the Three first Powers of the Gospel of which Three the last namely The Promise of the Spirit may seem so sufficient of it self to some without any thing further and I am sure does so to others that professedly they take up here and exclude or at least neglect all that advantage that accrues from the History of Christ and hereby do antiquate the Christian Religion These are those great Spiritualists that talk so much of The Light within them and the Power within them and boast that they want nothing without to be their Guide and Support but that they can goe of themselves without any external help For keeping to the Light within them the Power of God and the Spirit of God will assist them and will lead them into all truth And truly I cannot but say Amen to what they declare For I know assuredly that it is most true if they would leave off their canting language and say in down-right terms That keeping sincerely to the dictates of Reason and Conscience and the perpetually denying themselves in such things as they know or suspect to be evil with devout addresses to the Throne of Grace for the assistance and illumination of the Holy Spirit to discover and overcome all Errour Falseness Pride and Hypocrisie that may lurk in their hearts I say I am well assured that this Dispensation faithfully kept to will in due time lead unto all Saving Truth and that such a one at the last cannot fail to become a Christian in the soundest and the fullest sense such as firmly adhered to Christ in the first and most unspotted Ages of the Church But if they will call any hot wild Imagination or forcible and unaccountable Suggestion the Light within them and follow that this is not to keep to Reason and Conscience but to be delivered up to a reprobate sense and to expose a mans self to all the temptations that either the Devil or a mans own Lust or a sordid Melancholy can entangle him in 2. Wherefore by the Light within them they must understand an accountable and rational Conscience within them unless they be perfect Fanaticks or Mad-men or what is worse mere Impostors and Cheats who would pretend to a Conscience but yet irrational and unaccountable to any one and hereby have the liberty of doing what they please being given up at length to nothing but Fury and Lust. And then lastly This Conscience within them is not a thing so absolutely within them that it can take no information from what is without For it is manifest that this Lamp of God that burneth in us is fed and nourished from external Objects For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by things that are made for by these from without are we advertised of his Eternal power and Godhead And as we are thus taught by the outward Book of Nature concerning the Existence of God and his general Providence in the world as to the necessities of life both of Men and Beasts so may we also by external VVritings or Records be more fully informed of a more special Providence of his to the Sons of men concerning the State in the other world and of that Eternal life manifested by Christ. But I grant that it is still this Light within us that judges and concludes after the perusal of either the Volumes of Nature or of Divine Revelation 3. But as he that gives his Mind to Mathematicks Architecture Husbandry
having been contracted by our Lapse may justly by Religion be set on our score This Sincere Christian whose Character I have given will be so far from setting the Person of Christ at defiance and vilifying his Passion Intercession and holy Priesthood that he will with the greatest reverence of Devotion that can be imagined love him and adore him and will not quit that sweet Repose of minde he findes in the recounting with himself what an inestimable Friend he has with God for all the Pleasures and greatest Interests of this present life nor presume to be justified by his own Life or Works but by Faith in Christ whom he rejoices to think that he shall see his Judge at the last Day 3. This is the true and sound complexion of a Sincere Christian and he that does not faithfully endeavour to arrive at this state discovers himself to be an halting Hypocrite and one that is no Lover of the Divine Life nor has tasted the sweetness of Sanctity and of the holy Spirit of God nor known the power of his operations He that pretends to be above it he is self-condemned and betraies himself of what Kingdome he is that he is inacted by the envy of Satan against the Kingdome of Christ to antiquate his Offices and to lay aside his Person which he perswades sundry fanatical Souls to do puffing them up with the conceit of Self-perfection on purpose to exclude our Saviour The danger of which errour is no less then the utter forfeiture of their Eternal Salvation For no man shall inherit eternal life but by the donation of the crucified Iesus whom God has appointed Judge at the last day Besides that the very life and moral temper in these Revolters from the Son of God if we compare it with that of the Sincere Christian there is as much difference to them that can tast as betwixt the wilde grape and the sweet So hard a thing is it for either Nature or the Devil to imitate the true tincture of the Spirit of Christ. Their vine is the vine of Sodom and their fruit as the clusters of Gomorrah and their Churches as a field whom the Lord hath blasted there is the smell of the Sulphurous Lake and of the pit of Hell amongst them 4. The last thing I propounded was the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth Of which Opinion as the reasons are slender or none at all so the Usefulness thereof to me invisible not knowing that it promotes any End of the Gospel which I can take notice of But that there may be a Millennium as they usually call it or a Long Period of time wherein a more excellent Reign of Christ then has manifested it self yet to the World may take place truly it seems so reasonable in it self and there are such shrewd places of Scripture seem to speak that way that it is hard for an indifferent man to gainsay it But I conceive then that the Renovation of the state of things will be as S. Peter speaks into new Heavens and new Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell wherein real Sanctity and universal Peacefulness shall bear sway wherein the crucified Iesus shall not be onely complemented aloof off and saluted in Statues and Pictures both himself and his Mother and all his Apostles and most eminent Adherents whenas in the mean time Mars Venus and Pluto and other Idols of the Heathen are cordially lov'd and serv'd all Christendome giving themselves enormously to War and Bloudshed to Lust and Luxury to Wealth and Covetousness worshipping these Deities in Spirit and in truth but as the Divine honour done to our Saviours person shall not then cease so the power of His spirit shall be more potently felt for the unpaganizing of the World and for the destroying of this spiritual Idolatry which is the Inordinate Affections and fierce endeavours of the Animal Life and shall implant such a love and liking of the life of Christ that Peace and Righteousness shall overflow all Contentions about Opinions shall then cease they being priz'd onely by the Pride and Curiosity of the Natural man and all the goodly Inventions of nice Theologers shall then cease and all the foolish and perplexing Arguments of the disputacious Schools shall be laid aside and the Gospel alone shall be exalted in that day And truly the Millennium being in such a sense as this stated it is both probable and very desirable and an opinion that agrees with nay such as may very well further all the designes of the Gospel as any one may discern by making application to the Rules I have set down Of which Rules these few Examples may serve to shew the use and to teach a man how to extricate himself from that mighty cumbersomeness of the numerosity of Opinions whether they be suggested from his own thoughts or offer'd by other men For if he applies them to these Rules he will finde most of them either so little to the designes of the Gospel or so much against them that he will account some not worth the sifting others not worthy the naming much less the entertaining by a sober Christian. Which practises and considerations cannot but tend much to the advancement of the Gospel of Christ if diligently observ'd though but by private Christians I shall onely give some brief touch what is proper for the Magistrate to contribute for the Advancement of Christianity and then we shall conclude CHAP. X. 1 That in those that believe There is a God and a Life to come there is an antecedent Right of Liberty of Conscience not to be invaded by the Civil Magistrate 2. Object That no false Religion is the command of God with the Answer thereto 3. That there is no incongruity to admit That God may command contrary Religions in the world 4 5. The utmost Difficulty in that Position with the Answer thereto 6. That God may introduce a false perswasion into the mind of man as well for probation as punishment 7. That simple falsities in Religion are no forfeiture of Liberty of Conscience 8. That though no falsities in Religion were the command of God yet upon other considerations it is demonstrated that the Religionist ought to be free 9. A further demonstration of this Truth from the gross absurdities that follow the contrary Position 1. BEfore we can well understand the Power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion we must first consider the Common Right of Mankind in this point provided they be not degenerated into Atheisme and Prophaneness For he that believes there is no God nor Reward nor Punishment after this life what plea can he have to Liberty of Conscience or how unproper is it to talk of his Right in matters of Religion who professedly has no Religion at all nor any tie of Conscience upon him to make that wicked profession For Atheisme as it is very coursely false in it self to any man that has the clear exercise of his Reason so is
when others in civil respect put it off are the main Effects of that Spirit that distinguisheth you from others of the Nation 3. Is this therefore the great purchase you have obtained by turning your back on Christ and contemning of his Person to grow rude and clownish to all the World beside But methinks I hear you answer again As for this man we know not what is become of him but behold the Spirit is sensibly present amongst us even at this day But I demand by what Signs O we shiver and quake every joynt of us But that is no certain signe of the Spirit of God Was not the winde suddenly turned into the North or had you not an Ephemera or was not your over-excited Choler entangled or turned out of the way by Phlegme or Melancholy What miraculous power is there in all this O but there are also amongst us that have fallen down into a trance that have foamed and swelled till their buttons break off Wherefore of a truth these men could not but be full of the Spirit and this be a Miracle indeed If your Religion oweth not its growth to the tricks of Juglers and Tumblers or to artificial Epilepsies I do confesse it is a Miracle from these Symptomes if Satan himself drives not on the designe For these are plainly the passions of Pythonicks such a kinde of possession as seized the Pagan-Prophets and Priests of old who were no better then the worshippers of Devils whose Oracles Christ has silenced long since Wherefore examine your selves if you glory not in your shame See how you tread look behinde you or rather search within you who is the Prompter or first Mover in this new Scene of things 4. For tell me I beseech you what did your foaming Prophets when they vented themselves discharge into your ears whereby they may be deemed more Divine then those Fanatick Pagans Was not their continual song so soon as they got upon their feet the burning up of all Ordinances From whence therefore could this voice come but out of the flames of hell or what could swell the bodies of your Inspired but the venome and poison of the Devil which at last working up to their mouths he spit out enviously against the worship of Christs Person and all his holy Offices Which is another evidence against you that your pretended Inspirations are not divine but diabolical and that the mystery of Satan worketh amongst you who would fain pull down Him whom of a truth God hath set up to be a King and Priest to the Nations for ever 5. But the sweetest satisfaction of all is that you are so extraordinarily illuminated that you understand all the Mysteries of Christs kingdom better then any one else and can in a supercilious pity bemoan the ignorance of the World or with an imperious bitterness fly in their faces and reproach them for it especially the Teachers of the people that they have not taken up your Allegorical knacks nor know how to give a mystical meaning of the Gospel from the preaching of Iohn the Baptist to the coming of Christ to Judgement But you are indeed so unilluminated as not to understand that such devices as these are merely Allusions of humane Wit and help very little to the enforcing of that they are made to signifie namely Repentance and Mortification of every evil lust and concupiscence and a renovation of our mindes into the perfect image of Christ that his spirit may rule in us and that the works of death and darknesse may be utterly destroied For this Truth is plainly and literally contained in the Scripture so that if your mindes were not more set upon fancies then savoury instruction you need not run a gadding after any new Guide for the attainment of this light And God be thanked many honest plain-hearted Christians that do not swagger and make such a noise with Mystical phrases as you both hear and live according to these Gospel-Precepts using a secret and silent severity upon themselves not acting the rough and hairy Baptist upon others as you do who love to oâ—tentate your self-chosen austerities to the eyes of the world like the Pharisees who made sowr faces for fear the people should not take notice that they afflicted their bodies with fasting What purchase therefore have you got by your Allegorical Mysteries unlesse you have been emboldned thereby to let go the Historical truth of the Gospel and have found your selves much at ease that your belief is not charged with such miraculous things as are written of Christ partly done already and partly to be done at the end of the World For hereby you do proclaim your selves Infidels and that for all your boasting your spirits are so foul and impure that they are no fit receptacles of the holy Christian Faith but that you have levelled your selves as low as Epicures and Atheists who are no more capable of the belief of these things then the Beasts of the Field 6. If it be thus with you I dare appeal unto you whether you keep so precisely to the light within you but that you have consulted with that blinde Guide H. Nicolas and tasted of the treacherous sops of his abhorred Passover whose Fanatick boldness has led the dance to this mad Apostasy Have you not celebrated his detestable Phase who has gone about to perswade the World that the greatest and truest Arcanum of the Lords Supper is Iudas-like to betray their Master to kill Christ according to the flesh that is to lay aside and misbelieve the Truth of his History Ask your own hearts if the warmth of this sop has not so encouraged you nay inflamed you with insufferable bitternesse against the Ministers of Christ as teaching nothing but lies because they have not ceased to believe the Truth Has not this with him that entred in with it so intoxicated you with rage that you have trampled the holy Bible under your feet Is it not this that hath made you so often roar against and revile the Preacher in the Pulpit and disturb the publick Assemblies by your rude and frantick interpellations Which Extravagancies demonstrate by what Spirit you are led and that you are plainly Rebels against Christ and are revolted to the Powers of the dark Kingdom 7. These things I could not forbear to write as being very much pressed in Spirit thereunto For the Light within me that is my Reason and Conscience does assure me that the ancient and Apostolick Faith according to the Historical meaning thereof is very solid and true and that the Offices of Christ are never to be antiquated till his visible return to Judgement according to the literal sense of the Creed and that Familisme is a mere Flam of the Devil a smooth tale to seduce the simple from their Allegeance to Christ. And therefore I beseech every man in these daies of Liberty to take heed how they turn in thither especially those that are of an
Enthusiastick temper such as are most of the honester and better-meaning Quakers For if in their bewildred wandrings they take up their Inne here let them look to it that they be not robbed of all the Articles of the Christian Faith and be stripped into naked Infidelity and Paganisme and which is worst of all be so intoxicated with the cup of this Inchantress as to think this injury their gain and to prefer false Liberty before their Christian Simplicity and those gaudy and phantastick Titles of being Deified and begodded before the real possession of Christian Truth and Godliness 8. These things both here and elsewhere I have been forced to utter to the world for it was as fire within me and the discharging of my burden as it is mine own ease and satisfaction so I do not despair but if there be that sincere Zeal to Truth and Holiness that is pretended that it will redound to the safety of these melancholy Wanderers that look up and down for Truth with that candle of the Lord the Spirit that he has lighted in them But however where it shall not take effect I shall neverthelesse be excused and their bloud will be upon themselves and their accursed Seducers 9. I know the haughty and covetous that rellish nothing but the tearing to themselves undeserved respect from men and clawing of money to them any way with their crooked talons will hardly abstain even from open derision of my zeal and solicitude for so contemned a people and look upon me as a man of very mean designs that would any way intermeddle with these poor despised Pilgrims But these worldly Sophists consider not that the gaining of the meanest Soul to Eternal Salvation is really a greater prize then purchasing whole Kingdoms upon Earth and infinitely above all the pains of any mans applications thereto And besides for mine own part I have ever had so right a sense and touch upon my spirit of their condition that I think none more worthy of a mans best direction then they the most imperious Sects having put such unhandsome vizards upon Christianity that they have frighted away these babes that seem to me very desirous of the sincere milk of the Word Which having been every where so sophisticated by the humours and inventions of men it has driven these anxious Melancholists to seek for a Teacher within and to cast themselves upon him who they know will not deceive them the voice of the Eternall Word within them to which if they be faithfull they assure themselves he will be faithfull to them again Which is no groundless presumption of theirs it supposing nothing but what is very closely consistent with the Nature of God and his Providence And truly as many of them as do persist in that serious and impartial desire of such knowledge as tends to Life and Godliness I do not question but that God will in his due time lead them into the Truth and that they will be more confirmed Christians then ever 10. Which success of theirs will be more speedy and sure if as they set themselves against other vices so they mainly bend their force against Spiritual Pride and affectation of peculiarity in Religion and of finding themselves wiser in the mysteries thereof then the best of Christians have pretended to And above all things if they beware of Enthusiasme either in themselves or others or of thinking that the gift of the Spirit can be any Revelation that is contrary to Reason or the acknowledged History of Christ the truth thereof being so rationally evincible to all such as apply themselves without prejudice to examine it to the bottom If in pursuance of their sincere intentions they keep off from these rocks I doubt not but they will return safe again to Iesus Christ the great Pastor and Bishop of their Souls CHAP. XIV 1. That Publick Worship is essential to Religion and inseparable when free from Persecution The right measure of the Circumstances thereof 2. Of the Fabrick and Beauty of Churches according to that measure 3. The main things he intends to touch upon concerning Publick Worship 4. That the Churches of Christians are not Temples the excellency of our Religion being incompliable with that Notion 5. The vanity of the Sectarians exception against the word Church applied to the appointed places of Publick Worship 6. That though the Church be no Temple yet it is in some sense holy and what respect there is to be had of it and what reverence to be used there 7. Of Catechizing Expounding and Preaching 8. Of Prayer and what is the true praying by the Spirit 9. The Excellency of publick Liturgies 10. What is the right End of the Ministry 11. Certain special uses of Sermons and of the excellency of our Saviour Christs Sermon on the Mount 12. The best way for one to magnifie his Ministry 13. Of the Holy Communion who are to be excluded and of the posture of receiving it 14. Of the time of Baptism and the Signe of the Crosse. 15. Of Songs and Hymns to be composed by the Church and of Holy-daies 16. Of the celebrating the Passion-day and the Holy Communion 17. Of Images and Pictures in places of Publick Worship 18. A summary advertisement concerning Ceremonies and Opinions 1. AFter this charitable Digression to meet with the Quakers let us resume our business in hand and make an end The sixth and last thing that concerns the Care of the Christian Magistrate is Publick Worship Which seems to me so natural and essential to Religion that it cannot fail to appear unless some force hinder it in which case they will venture to meet in private Conventicles that is they will exercise their Acts of Religion as publickly as they dare and will not be content to be confined to their Closets at home Ioint-exercise therefore of Religion is confessed of all sides which therefore must necessarily be external and visible Now no visible actions can be done without visible Circumstances and amongst these Circumstances some are more fit and decorous some less as is manifest at the first sight Nor will it be hard to judge of the fitness or decorum of these Circumstances if we can finde out a measure of them which certainly is the End and meaning of them Which is the expression of our Honour and Reverence to God and to his Son Iesus Christ and the Edification of our Neighbour 2. By which Rule we shall discover concerning the Meeting-House as some had rather call it then the Church that it ought to be of a comely structure proportionably magnificent to the number of the People that are to have recourse to it in the common exercise of their Devotions For though men of equal condition may make bold with themselves and meet in what place they please yet it would be thought a piece of grosse unmannerliness to expect a Prince to give an inferiour Peasant the meeting in a Barn or Cow-stable Would it
persons at great distances off nor doth cease till a due distance after the congress 7. Concerning Preaching that which is most remarkable is this That whereas there are three chief kindes thereof namely Catechizing Expounding a Chapter and Preaching usually so called whereof the first is the best and the last the least considerable of them all this worst and last is the very Idol of some men and the other rejected as things of little worth But assuredly they are of most virtue for the effectual implanting the Gospel of Christ in the mindes of men and of the two as I said Catechizing the better because it enforces the catechized to take notice of what is taught him and what is thus taught him is not so voluminous but that he can carry it away and remember it for ever and withall the most Useful as being the very Fundamentals comprized in the Christian Creed or the first and most natural results from them tending to indispensable duties of life and therefore will alone if sincerely believed and faithfully practised carry a man to Heaven But the next profitable way of Preaching is Expounding of a Chapter provided that he that does so makes it his only business without any vain excursions to shew his reading to render those places of the Chapter that are obscure easie and intelligible to the capacity of the Auditors with some brief but earnest urging of their duties from such passages as most necessarily tend thereto This will make the private Reading of Scripture pleasant to his charge And it will prove the more effectual for their good if he contain himself within the New Testament and fetch only so much out of the Old as will be subservient for the full understanding of the New There is nothing so likely to convince the Conscience as this when men are able to reade and understand the Text of Scripture it self and are sensibly beat upon by the power of that Spirit that is found in those Writings far beyond all the fine Speeches and Phrases of humane Eloquence Which yet is the greatest matter in this Third way of Preaching and the truest use that can be made of it namely not to fill the peoples head with unprofitable or hurtful Opinions but by the artifice of a more florid and flowing style to raise the affections of the Auditors to the love and pursuit of such things as are commanded us by the Precepts of the Gospel I confess therefore This exercise may be of laudable use in such a Congregation where all the people are throughly grounded in the Fundamentals of Christianity and are well skilled in the knowledge of the Bible otherwise if the other Two necessary wayes of Preaching be silenced by this more overly and plausible way it is to the unspeakable detriment of the flock of Christ. Which will happen even then when it is performed after the very best manner How great then is the evil think you when the exercise of their popular Eloquence is nothing but a Stage of ostentation and vain-glory to the Speaker and begets nothing but an unsound blotedness and ventosity of Spirit in his hearers and admirers they being intoxicated with lushious and poisonous Opinions which tend to nothing but the extinguishing of the love and endeavour after true Righteousness and Holiness and the begetting in them a false security of minde and abhorred Libertinisme Had it not been far better that they had rested in the Fundamentals of their Faith comprised in the Apostles Creed with an obligation on their Conscience to live according to the Laws of Christ and his holy Precepts then to be led about and infatuated by the heat and noise of such false Guides 8. Concerning Praying it is an Epidemical mistake That men think extemporary Prayers are by the Spirit and that the Spirit is not in a Set Form Whenas in truth the Spirit may be absent in the highest extemporary heats and present in the use of set Forms where there may appear greater calmness and coolness For the Spirit of Praier does not consist in the invention of words and phrases which is rather a Gift of Nature as the Faculty of extemporary speaking in other cases is proceeding from heat and phansy and copiousness of the Animal Spirits but in a firm belief in God through Christ and in an hearty liking and sincere desire of having those holy things communicated to us that we pray for And therefore he that reads or hears a publick Liturgy read in such a frame of minde as I have described does as truly pray by the Spirit as he that invents words and phrases of his own For there is nothing Divine but this holy Faith and Desire the rest is mere Nature And it is a demonstration how ignorant these men are that talk so loud of the Spirit whenas they cannot so much as discern what is truly Spiritual from what is but Animal and Natural To which you may adde That if none pray by the Spirit but those that invent their own words the whole Congregation are very Spiritless Prayers they all hanging upon the lips of the Minister who alone will be acknowledged to pray by the Spirit Whose pretended assistance is not yet always so powerful as to protect him from the incurring of the danger of Non-sense and of making the Publick Worship of God insipid or else distasteful and loathsome or which is even as ill contemptible and ridiculous 9. Wherefore it is far more safe as it is undoubtedly more solemn to use a publick Liturgy that bears the authority of the whole Church then to venture so holy and devotional a performance upon the uncertainty of any mans private spirit who will be but tempted to ostentate his own conceited Eloquence or forced to discover his own weakness and folly Whenas a set Form will prevent all Pride and knackishness and preserve the publick worship in its due reverence and honour especially where it is contrived with that cautiousness that nothing is expressed therein that engages the Minde in controverted Opinions but speaks according to the known tenour of Scripture undepraved by humane glosses 10. But you will say if a Minister be cut so short in these performances of extemporary Praier and expatiating Preachments how shall he be able to give any eximious Testimony of his abilities in his calling how shall he have the opportunity of shewing his Gifts To which I answer That the end of the Ministry is not the Ostentation of any mans particular Gifts but the Edification of the People which are better edified by diligent catechizing and faithful and judicious expounding of the Scripture then by loose and ranging Discourses out of the Pulpit where he that speaks having taken leave of his short Text may fill the ears of his Auditors with nothing but the noise of his own conceits and inventions whenas in the Exposition of a whole Chapter suppose at a time the peoples mindes will be kept closer to those
AN EXPLANATION OF The grand Mystery OF GODLINESS OR A True and Faithfull Representation OF THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL Of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST the Onely Begotten Son of GOD and Sovereign over Men and Angels By H. More D. D. 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the Mystery of godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory Acts 1.10 11. And while they looked stedfastly toward Heaven as he went up behold two when stood by them in white apparell Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Iesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Gal. 1.8 Though an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then this let him be accursed LONDON Printed by I. Flesher for W. Morden Bookseller in Cambridge 1660. To the READER READER 1. IF thine own Curiosity has given thee the trouble of perusing what I have wrote hitherto that thou maiest not suspect thy task will prove endless give me leave to informe thee that there is no small hopes that this Discourse may prove the last from my hand that shall exercise thy patience In which if thou wilt not believe me on my bare word the better to ease thee of thy fears I shall back it with some reason I must indeed confess That free Speculation and that easie springing up of coherent Thoughts and Conceptions within is a Pleasure to me far above any thing I ever received from external Sense and that lazy activity of Mind in compounding and dissevering of Notions and Ideas in the silent observation of their natural connexions and disagreements as a Holy-day and Sabbath of rest to the Soul But the labour of deriving of these senses of the Mind with their due advantages and circumstances to the Understanding of another and to find out Words which will prove fâ—â—thful witnesses of the peculiarities of my Thoughts this verily is to me a toil and a burden unsupportable besides the very writing of them a trouble so tedious that if any one knew with what impatience and vexatiousness I pen down my Conceptions they might be very well assured that I am not onely free from but incapable of the common disease of this Scripturient Age. 2. No smal Engines therefore could ever move so heavy and sluggish a Soul as mine to so ungratefull a piece of drudgery as thou thy self maiest collect from my very Writings themselves the subjects of them being matters of the highest consequence that the Mind of man can entertain her self withall The writing whereof was in a manner a necessary result of my natural Constitution which freeing me from all the servitude of those petty designs of Ambition Covetousness and the pleasing entanglements of the Body I might either lie fixt for ever in an unactive idleness or else be moved by none but very great Objects Amongst which the least was the Contemplation of this Outward world whose several powers and properties touching variously upon my tender senses made to me such enravishing musick and snatcht away my Soul into so great admiration love and desire of a nearer acquaintance with that Principle from which all these things did flow that the pleasure and joy that frequently accrued to me from hence is plainly unutterable though I have attempted to leave some marks and traces thereof in my Philosophical Poems 3. But being well advised both by the Dictates of my own Conscience and clear information of those Holy Oracles which we all deservedly reverence That God reserves his choicest secrets for the purest minds and that it is uncleanness of Spirit not distance of place that dissevers us from the Deity I was fully convinced that true Holiness was the onely safe Entrance into Divine knowledge and having an unshaken belief of the Existence of God and of his Will that we should be holy even as he is holy there was nothing that is truly sinful that could appear to me assisted by such a power to be unconquerable Which therefore urged me seriously to set my self to the task Of the Experiences and Events of which Enterprize my Second and Third Canto of the Life of the Soul is a real and faithful Record 4. My enjoyments then increasing with my Victories and Innocency and Simplicity filling my mind with ineffable delight in God and his Creation I found my self as loath to die that is to think my Soul mortal as I was when I was a child to be called in to go to bed in Summer evenings there being still light enough as I thought to enjoy my play Which solicitude put me upon my first search into the Nature of the Soul which I pursued chiefly by the guidance of the School of Plato whose Philosophy to this very day I look upon to be more then Humane in the chief strokes thereof But launching out so very early into so deep a Theory I think it not amiss to advertise the Reader that he would do well where he finds a difference in my discoveries to interpret and also rectifie if need be my First thoughts by my Second my Philosophick Poems and whatever is writ in that Volume by my later and better concocted Prose These were the first Essaies of my Youth and how great and serious the Objects of my Mind were therein thou canst easily judge 5. And after this where I seem most light and trivial and play the sportful Satyrist against Enthusiastick Philosophy my design even then was as seasonable serious and of as grand importance as I could possibly undertake which I have more then sufficiently demonstrated in those Writings themselves And though some over-subject to the Fanatick disease have looked upon that unexpected sally of mine as a very extravagant exploit yet I did easily bear with their ignorance deeming it in my silent thoughts in some sort parallel to that of the peevish Hebrew who reproached Moses for slaying of the Egyptian not knowing that it was a preludious act to his delivering of his whole nation from the bondage of Aegypt 6. And I hope I may speak it without vanity that what is discovered concerning Enthusiasme in my Enthusiasmus Triumphatus together with that which is comprehended in this present Volume will contribute no small share to a rightful and justifiable subduing of so dangerous a distemper and to the slaying or at least fettering that wild Beast that the Devil himself rides upon when he warres against the Lamb whose Throne I have seen shaken with the pushings of this monsters horns for these many years together though never clearer then now of late And I dare pronounce with a loud voice aforehand That if ever Christianity be exterminated it will be by Enthusiasme Of so great consequence is it rightly to oppose so deadly an evil Which
highly and most truly magnified and glorified and not in the dark and unintelligible exercise of an irresistible Power By which no other acts of Devotion can be stirred up in us then Fear and Stupour such as seizes upon poor astonished cattel in stormes and lightnings or mighty land-flouds that carry them they know not whether I have styled it also A true and faithful Representation of the Everlasting Gospel c. True as intermingling no humane inventions no◠deductions therewith but contenting my self with what is expresly declared in the Scripture The Truth of which things I think I have demonstrated beyond all exception in the Third part of my Discourse I add also Faithful I having wrote impartially setting down nothing out of any Passion Interest or Side-taking nor out of the spirit of opposition or vain-glory but speaking the Truth freely without any respect to persons or factions not minding either to sooth the one or displease the other but delivering my message so as one that is sensible he must give account thereof within a small space of time before them in the other World And as I profess my self that I have done all things herein with a faithful heart so I doubt not but the Effect will witness for me that what I profess is true For whereas some in an Hypocritical flattery of the External Person of Christ shuffle out all obligation to the Divine Life that Mystical Christ within us and pervert the grace of God in the Gospel to loosness and Libertinisme and others on the contrary whether out of the power of Melancholy that calls the thoughts inward or the scandal they take from abuse of the personal Offices of our Blessed Saviour they seeing the generality of Christians make the external frame of Religion but a palliation for sin or whether from the obscurity of some Articles of the Christian Faith have become plainly Infidels and misbelievers of the whole History of Christ and will have nothing to do with his Person but look upon the Mystery of Christianity as a thing wholy within us and that has no other object then what is either acting or acted in our selves I have with all earnestness of endeavour and with undeniable clearness of Testimony from Reason and Scripture demonstrated the Truth and Necessity of both Christ within and Christ without and have plainly set out the wonderful Wisdome and Goodness of God in contriving so powerful a means as the very exteriour Oeconomy of Christianity is for the renewing of our natures into the glorious image of his Son who is the Life of God and the Soul 's sure pledge of an happy Immortality Besides that there is no Article of the Christian Faith nor any particular Miracle hapning to or done by our Saviour or to be done by him mentioned in the Gospels or any where else in the New Testament but I have given so solid and rational an account thereof that I am confident that no man that has the use of his Understanding shall be able ever to pretend any Reason against Christian Religion such as it is exhibited in the Holy Writings themselves And what is if this be not to set out a Faithful Representation of the Gospel Which I have not rashly termed The Everlasting Gospel of our Lord and Saviour c. being warranted thereto by that of Daniel who styles Christian Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Everlasting Righteousness or The Everlasting Religion as Grotius has well interpreted it Which Religion is denoted by the suffering of the Messias and began from thence and is to remain till he return again visibly in the Clouds of Heaven and put a period to this Stage of things I was also thereunto provoked in way of express opposition to that bold Enthusiast of whom I have spoken so much in the ensuing Treatise who seems to endeavour to superannuate Christianity as it is founded upon the Person of our ever-Blessed Saviour the crucified Jesus and to introduce another Evangelie as he calls it which he pretends to be the Everlasting Gospel and fancies himself that flying Angel in the midst of heaven that is the preacher of it to every nation and kindred and tongue and people 10. As for my Discourse it self I having adventured there to determine none of the more nice and intricate Opinions of Theology but kept my self within the bounds of the confessed Truth of our Religion I hope very few things will occurre that shall not be found inoffensive and perspicuously consonant to Scripture That which I imagine most lyable to censure is that in some matters I may seem over-copious in others too scant As for example my Description of the Animal Life my Display of Paganisme and my Parallelisme betwixt our Saviour and Apollonius may haply seem to some set down over-largely and luxuriantly But truly I thought I could not be too punctuall in describing the Animal life it being so serviceable for our better understanding the Divine whose nature and properties by how much more clearly and distinctly any one conceives and withall has a savoury and experimental rellish thereof with the greater satisfaction shall he peruse what I have writ and understand the Reasonableness and be assured of the Truth and Solidity of the Christian Religion For the Divine Life is in a manner the deepest bottome of this whole Mystery of Godliness we treat of Moreover The more perfect understanding of the nature of the Animal life makes us the abler to judge of the sundry Superstitions of Paganisme wherein though by their subtil Apologies they could clear themselves from Atheisme and the worser sort of Idolatry and could make it good that it was One Eternal Deity be he never so Philosophically defined that was the Chief and Ultimate Object of their Worship yet it is hereby apparent that the best of them exceeds not the Animal bounds forasmuch as they worshipped God in these rude Religions onely out of the sense of the gratifications of the Animal life And if I have more copiously set down how foully and sordidly they have done it my pains therein I hope may be interpreted to very good purpose it being manifest thereby how just a victory Christianity had over Paganisme 11. And for that continued Parallel I have made betwixt the Life of Christ and Apollonius besides the pleasure the Peruser may take in receiving an account of the character and actions of so noble a person as that Pagan was whom his fellow-Heathens did either equalize to or else prefer before our ever-Blessed Saviour and who was not a mere Enthusiastick whifler with a raised style and a canting eloquence but was exemplarily just chaste and generous and did such Miracles as nothing but Magick and the assistance of some of the invisible Powers he was in league with could bring to pass I say beside the pleasure there will accrue to him also the advantage of a more clear and distinct knowledge of the right
then by any other way conceivable For those words of so great sound and of no less import namely the Millennium the Reign of the Saints the New Jerusalem and the like to them that are not very wild or ignorant can signifie nothing else but the recovery of the Church to her ancient Apostolick purity wherein nothing shall be imperiously obtruded upon men but what is plainly discoverable to be the Mind of Christ and his Blessed Apostles There shall be nothing held Essential and Fundamental but the indispensable Law of the Christian life and that Doctrine that depends not upon the fallible deductions of men but is plainly set down in the Scripture other things being left to the free recommendation of the Church ensnaring no mans Conscience nor lording it over the flock of Christ. 14. Which certainly they do that call those things Antichristian that are not and thereby make more Fundamentals then Christ or his Apostles which Errour is the very Essence and Substance of Antichristianisme and of the grand Apostasy of the Church As methinks should appear plainly to any man that considers it from the description of the New Jerusalem whose Foundation and whole Fabrick runs so upon Twelve For truly it seems to me very unsafe and over-near the brinks of reproach to the Spirit of God to conceit that Wisdome which dictated this Prophecy so shallow and trifling as to mean nothing by that so industriously inculcating the number Twelve but the Churches proceeding first from the preaching of the Apostles a Truth that no man never so destitute of the spirit of divination could misse of or possibly think otherwise Wherefore the meaning of the Prophecy questionless is That after the Church has added false Fundamentals to the Christian Faith and as bad Superstructures the time will come when it shall be again restored to its former purity and That as the root Twelve is the Embleme of the pure Church so there is also a root of a number that will discover that Church which is the Mother of this great Apostasy as really in my judgement Mr. Potter in the number 666. has ingeniously demonstrated But it is manifest that all the zealous Corrivals for the Government of this Nation by either decrying things for Antichristian that in themselves are innocent and of an indifferent nature or by obtruding Opinions that are worse then indifferent have but shewed themselves Branches of that great Stock of Apostasy and are too far removed from the reputed merit of either being or beginning of a Church that is purely Apostolical 15. This Honour therefore seems to have been reserved by Providence for the eternizing the happy Reign of our Gracious Soveraign and all the parturient Agonies and zealous presages of the people of this Nation as if there was an approach of some extraordinary Good to be revealed suddenly to the World to have been nothing else if they knew their own meaning but a less explicite presensation of the return of CHARLES the Second to the rightfull Government of his Kingdomes And truely it will be the greatest Miracle to me in the world if he can frustrate our expectation For whether we consider the excellent Qualifications of our Gracious Prince whom Providence has so long time disciplined in the most effectual method of Prudence and Vertue besides the express Declaration of His own Royal inclinations this way or whether we look upon the Reasonableness of the thing it self it being not onely recommended to us both by Precept and Prophecies but also offering so irrefragable evidence from its own nature of the indispensableness of the duty there being no other possible means to reduce the World to a right Christian tenour of Spirit and to recover it to a due strength and soundness of complexion but by shearing off those large excrescencies of either useless or scandalous Ceremonies and Opinions the foments of strife and palliations of Hypocrisy men seeking by these to be excused from the most weighty Precepts of the Gospel or lastly we take notice of the great Interest the wise and reverend Clergy of this Nation cannot but discover herein even in reference to themselves it is almost impossible to doubt of either endeavour or success in this so important affair For certainly nothing can so well secure their peace and make them impregnable as the using of their Power and exercising their Discipline in the behalf of such Truths and Rites as are plainly and confessedly Apostolical and the being more facil and easie in additional circumstances and cutting quite off all useless and entangling Opinions For hereby will their Opposers be manifestly found to fight against God and his Christ while they contest with his Ministers who urge nothing upon the People but what was plainly taught and practised by himself and his Apostles whose Waies and Doctrines are so sacred that they ought to be kept up with all lawful severity Which one plain and generous Rule of Government if faithfully kept to is the most effectual means imaginable of making the world good and for both the Unity and Enlargement of the Church infinitely above all those many fine artifices and small devices of the most professed Politicians in the Church of Rome provided we be not course and sordid but reverent and comely in our publick Worship 16. But to return In the third and last place Although the exigency of the Times which then urged me to write thus carefully touching the Quakers and Familists is now God be thanked changed into a more safe Scene of things and the resettlement of our Gracious Soveraign in his Throne doth again secure the Scepter of Christ to his Church yet I thought it fit not to exâ—unge what I had wrote concerning these Sects For for the present It cannot but contribute considerably to an unfained composure of their Spirits and peaceful acquiescence in the known Christian Truth their minds being more at leisure now better fitted to consider what is true then they were before when the heat of Enthusiastick hopes of I know not what great success inflamed them and blew them up so high that the voice of sober Reason could not well be heard in that fanatick storm and Bluster nor an Errour easily let go which seemed a pledge of the sudden approach of so great advantages to the entertainers of it And then for the future So fundamental a discovery of the unsoundness and madness of these Sects cannot I think but be very effectual for the preventing their spreading hereafter that it will not be any longer in the power of their false Teachers to befool well-meaning men with fine words and make them unawares countenance a Faction the deepest Arcanum whereof is absolute rebellion against the Person of Christ and an utter abrogation of Christian Religion Which task though others heretofore have undertaken and I question not but with like faithful and zealous regard to the good of the Church yet their discovery
a right choice of the Object of this Church-discipline which is to comprehend nothing but what is sound and purely Apostolicall that is the indisputable Truths of our Religion such as we are sure to be the mind of Christ and his Apostles namely the generally-acknowledged Articles of the Christian Faith and plain and indispensable Duties of Life For these are such as deserve to be held up with all possible care and strictness other things so gently recommended that no consciencious man may be pinched thereby That nothing can conciliate more authority to the Church nor more assured peace and tranquillity then to deal bonâ fide with the People and not to make them more foolish and superstitious then they would naturally be and then to pride and please our selves in the sweet rellish of that false satisfaction we find in feeling our power over them and in fansying our selves such marvellous Church-polititians that we can by crafty delusions lead about those whom we should make it our business to undeceive and free from all vain mistakes and set before them the naked Truth and pure light of the Gospel whereby they may become really good and therewith bear a more unfeigned respect to the Ministery and shew more sincere obedience to the Church then they can by being kept to that blind way of admiring outward Formalities and useless Opinions and Ceremonies out of which cannot arise so natural a tie of love and honour to the Priest as by his discovering his faithfulness to his Charge in shewing them the very truth and substance of the Religion he ministers to them and by being instrumental in deriving of the same Christian spirit upon them which he ought to have in an higher measure himself That they may well hazard goodly Structures of Truth by building them upon doubtful and controvertible Foundations such is the setting such a kind of Episcopacy or Presbytery upon the Basis of a Divine right besides their making themselves thereby obnoxious to the suspicion of a design of unmerciful riding and galling the people when they have once by this device so safely lockt themselves into the saddle As if that were not true which I noted before That the exactest platforme of Church-Government by directing or using of it to other Ends then it was instituted by Christ did become thereby the more perfectly Antichristian That Episcopacy simply in it self is not Antichristian as appears even out of that Book which Fanatick Hot-spurres so much abuse to the disturbance of the Church I mean the Apocalypse compared with the acknowledged Church-history concerning this ancient Government which was in use when the Church was most exactly Symmetrall And therefore if this or that Forme of Government were essential to the purity of a Church Episcopacy would not have obtained in that State when she was most pure if it had been Antichristian From whence it also necessarily followes That Presbytery is not jure Divino That if any Mode or Platforme of Church-government be jure Divino I should sooner venture upon Mr. Thorndike's way then any which in my apprehension he has made out with much solidity and freedome of judgement and is not onely truely serviceable to the design of Church-government in generall but also very accommodate to the present constitution of things it being such a mixture of Episcopacy and Presbytery together as may justly if they would be modest and ingenuous satisfie the expectation of both parties That upon an account of Reason and of the nature of the Thing it self Episcopacy joined with Presbytery is better then Presbytery alone forasmuch as it is easier to find one man fitted for so sacred an office then many And there is more ingenuous shame and sense of honour in a single person then in a multitude whose number makes them more bold and daring to pass any thing such as if it were in the power of one single person to stop he could not in point of reputation and self-security fail to use his Negative voice But where the power is in a Multitude without any restraint there cannot but be the hazard of very gross transactions they bolstering up one another by reflexion upon their numerosity and every man in shuffling off the odiousness of the miscarriage to the rest of the lump conceits himself to bear a very inconsiderable share of either the shame or danger of whatever is voted Wherefore there must be a great deal of either Ignorance or Malice to style that Function Antichristian that is thus recommended to us both from the practice of the Primitive Church and the light of Reason 22. Nor can I understand why an ample and honourable Revenue should be accounted Antichristian especially by those whose ordinary ambition and endeavours are to grow rich And for Honour it self it seems to me a symptome of secret Atheisme and Prophaneness in the minds of men while they are so prone to think a man less honourable by being in a more special and nearer manner the Servant of God and of his Son Iesus Christ who is Lord over all Wherefore whosoever has not a very venerable esteem of these peculiar Servants of Christ ought to suspect himself that he is also guilty of some latitant averseness or enmity to Religion it self unless that he can clearly deprehend that his disrespect or disgust arises from the over-long continued fraud and Histrionical imposture of such Functions in the Apostatized Church the gayest Idol being more odious and contemptible then the rudest and most unpolished piece of Timber that pretends to be nothing but what it is Which yet will not excuse him from doing his outward respect to such personages much less encourage him to personall revilements a disorder that S. Paul to an high Priest in a Religion superannuated could not allow himself in Otherwise where they are not Idols but fill out their titles I think no man unless it be out of envy or want of judgement will conceive their Dignities and Revenues ill placed For supernatural Miracles having ceased there is but this one moral Miracle left that I know to awaken the world into a serious belief of the Truth of Christian Religion namely a Bishop refulgent with honour and overflowing with wealth and yet exemplarily humble meek and temperate not thinking himself over-great for the personal discharge of his Office he is intrusted with nor so lull'd asleep in ease and affluency as to let fall the Scepter of Christ out of his hands to be taken up by such as cannot wield it with that paternall affection and judgement that a true Bishop and carefull Watcher over the Souls of men would be sure to do Wherefore to speak out plainly and at once if I had said any thing of Ecclesiastick Policy I should not have forborn to pronounce That such a Bishop as I have hitherto described and that rules his own family well not allowing any scandalous servants to attend him but being a pattern in
himself and in all his house of unblamable Godliness and Christianity that makes his Visitations in his Diocese in his own person and vibrates that sacred thunder and lightning the truely-dreadfull sentence of Excommunication by no other arme but his own nor to any other aime then the dissipating of Vice and Wickedness and all Rebellion and Disobedience to the known and acknowledged Lawes of Christ that inflicts no Mulcts but what are bestowed in relief of the poor of the respective Parish and the needfull repairs or comely adornings of the Church that is watchfull prudent and compassionate and has the art and patience of conversing with the meanest capacities and the skill and sagacity of finding out the reason where he findes the End of the Gospel notoriously defeated in any place that has counsell in readiness and fit applications whether the Pastour or his charge be discovered to be in fault that exhorts every where to sobriety and brotherly-kindess and is diligent to pluck up or prevent the growth of such Opinions as serve the end of Sin and encourage men to leudness that gravely and severely rebukes the bold offender and affectionately bewails the failings of the weak and chearfully expresses his sincere joy whereever he finds a people live orderly and unblamably and gives the best countenance and encouragement he can devise for the furthering the same I say I could not have forborn to pronounce that to decry such a Bishop as this for Antichristian were an unpardonable piece of Antichristianisme and to murmure against his Visitations to repine at the annuall return of the Sun by whose warmth all things live and flourish For there is not any effectualler means imaginable to make the People believe in good earnest that Religion is worth the looking after then to find themselves lookt after so carefully and affectionately in reference to Religion by persons of so honourable rank and quality 23. Lastly That will also be added to the number of Defects by some that I have not as well endeavoured to shew the Reasonableness of the Precepts of Christ as of his Actions and Miracles To have done this I confess had been pertinent enough had it been needfull For I could not imagine that the Precepts of Christ could seem unreasonable to any that did not pervert the meaning of them They may seem indeed severe and difficult at first sight but the Severity is no greater then the cure of the Disease requires Ut valeant homines ferrum patiuntur ignes And to deny thy self and to mortifie thy self is neither the killing nor denying of any thing in thee but thy Vices upon which there accrews unto thee unspeakable joy and ease Nor are thy Difficulties in these undergoings so great but that thy Helps are farre greater provided thou be an unfeigned Believer For what Lust canst thou stick to part withall for his sake who parted with his life for thee or what present enjoyment canst not thou easily quit if thou believe that future Happiness that attends thee in the other world and how canst thou fail to fly fornication whilest thou considerest that by practising this unclean vice thou makest a vile strampet corrivall with the holy Ghost whose Temple thy Body is if thou beest a Christian and whose Temple it cannot be if thou indulge to thy self so dangerous a liberty there being nothing that does more extinguish the operations of the Spirit then the letting thy self loose to lawless lusts But the Reasons of Christ's Precepts are so obvious in Theory and so faithfull in Experience that I think it needless to insist upon this Theam assuring every one that he shall best understand their solidity by life and practice 24. But there are others whose reprehensions I shall hardly escape for that I have gone about to render the Reason of any thing in Christian Religion Religion seeming to them in the best dress when it appears most unreasonable Which humour is the most treacherous to true Christianity that any thing can be and a sure barre to her progress amongst free and ingenuous persons But truly whenas the Efficacy of the Gospel is not deemed hopeless no not upon the coursely covetous enormously ambitious and sottishly sensual I could see no cause why Freedome Ingenuity Reason and Philosophy should be such crimes as to make men less capable of the benefit thereof and therefore I must profess that for their sakes chiefly that are over-prone to these more noble infirmities of the Mind I have represented Christianity no less Reasonable then it is and that is I hope as Reasonable as any judicious spirit could desire or expect 25. And if in my Discovery of the Reasonableness of things a more then ordinary heat has accompanied that light and may seem to have armed my Style in some places with over-much sharpness and vehemence I would desire so soft and prudent a Soul to consider with himself whether there be not men in the world as bad as I describe and whether he ought in charity to conceit I mean any other then those and being such as they are whether they can deserve less and if he be none of them himself why he should partake of their sinnes by disallowing of their deserved chastisement and rebuke Against which there can be no colourable reason unless that these which deserve this punishment may have grown past feeling Which insensibleness is more to be deplored and pitied then their being exposed to the search of a faithfull Chirurgion the method of whose Art forces him if he could possibly to launce them to the quick But those that have digested Wickedness into Principles and framed Religion it self into a compliance and furtherance to the foulest conversation it is no wonder while they can upon such fantastick grounds conceit themselves the darlings of Heaven and children of the most High that they look for proportionable honour and respect from men and would march on though in these ill wayes as solemnly and securely as the Children of Israel out of Aegypt of whom it is said that not a dogge should move his tongue against any of them 26. Concerning that sense of the Apocalyptick Visions which Mr. Mede has hit upon and which for the main I have professed my self to conceive to be true there is nothing seems to me so harsh therein as that Objection of some who contend that it implies that all the Adherers to the Romane Church after this her Apostacy will be certainly damned The concocting or ruminating on which sad sentence cannot but be to a benigne nature like the eating of the little book which contains the Visions of this Apostacy bitter in the stomack though the first pleasures of unriddling these prophetick aenigmes may be as honey to the mouth And to speak freely for a man to be easily contented that another should be damned is no good sign that himself is in the way of Salvation That was a witty decision of
Solomon in defining her to be the true Mother that could not endure that the Child should be divided and killed And whatever Church is cruell and remorsless in either Temporall persecution or the Eternall damnation of such men as believe in Christ according to the plain and easie meaning of the Scripture and live accordingly she may approve her self to be an imperious Harlot but no discerning spirit will ever take her for the true Mother that new Ierusalem which is the Spouse of Christ or Wife of the Lamb. Wherefore those are very weak Christians that are so low-belled by this terror as to be taken up and captivated by the Church of Rome and acknowledge her the mother-Church by force of that Argument that demonstrates the contrary to say nothing of their disingenuous abuse of the Charity of the Reformed Churches But for my own part I confess that for sureness I had rather exercise my Charity in wishing them Converts from Popery then express any great confidence of their being safe in that Religion Not that it is possible for me who cannot infallibly demonstrate to my self that all that lived under Paganisme are certainly damned to imagine that all that have gone under the name of Papists have tumbled down into Hell But the case is much like that in Shipwrack on the sea or Pestilence in a City where we will suppose not a house free no man can pronounce that it is impossible that such or such a person should escape nor that any of them are in any tolerable safety The danger is alike to them that adhere to the Apostate Church for though there be a possibility of some mens being saved by an extraordinary or miraculous Providence they breaking through all those impediments and snares that are laid in their way and attaining to a Dispensation above the Church they live in as haply some under Paganisme did yet it cannot be denied but that the Oeconomie of that Church naturally tends to the betraying of Souls to Eternall destruction that falling out which our Saviour said of old of the Pharisees They compass sea and land to make one profelyte and when he is made he becomes twofold more the child of the devil then themselves For he will not stint his Hypocrisie in Religion by the measure of their gain that invented the forme and submit to it for their End but for his own namely that he may excuse himself from all reall holiness by keeping to the observation and profession of their vain inventions And thus are the Commandements of God made of none effect by their Traditions In brief the whole frame of that Church is fashioned out so near to the ancient guise of Idolatrous Paganisme or else to the liveless and ineffectual forme of Judaisme both which Christ appeared on purpose to destroy as either contrary or ineffectuall to Salvation and does explicitly recommend to the world a pure and spirituall worship that we should worship the Father in Spirit and in truth or lastly is so full of Contradictions and Impossibilities in their feigned Stories and imperiously-obtruded Opinions that the natural result of being born under such a Religion or of turning to it is either to become a besotted Superstitionist to believe or do any thing that others will have him to do which is a sign the Spirit of Regeneration has not yet passed upon him and that there is no life nor light in him or else which is too frequent to turn down-right Atheist it being so grosly discernable that the Tenents of their Church are impossible and their Practices fraudulent fitted chiefly for filthy lucre and their Ceremonies useless thankless and ridiculous And therefore if any be saved in the Church of Rome they are such as are not truely of it but above it and fend for themselves as well as they may by some pardonable sleights of Prudence accompanied with an impregnable innocency of Spirit and readiness of doing all possible good they can they sparing their own lives and liberties upon no other account then that and out of a perswasion that he that commanded them to be wise as Serpents as well as innocent as Doves has given them no commission inconsiderately and to no purpose to betray themselves into the power of his usurping Enemy But for others that are perfect Papists and swallow down all that Church proposes to them without chewing or distasting any thing it is a Demonstration there is no Principle of life in them but that they are like dead earthen pitchers which receive poison and wholesome liquors with a like admittance And if there be no principle of life there is no seed of Salvation in a man For it is most certainly true and the Scripture it self doth witness to it That unless a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdome of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit This is the new Creature that is created in wisdome righteousness and true holiness The first of which the Church of Rome expunges in that it gives no leave to a man never so regenerate to judge for himself but he must say as the Church sayes right or wrong and for the other two all their superstitious Ceremonies put together adde nothing to them but rather stifle and sufflaminate them Again S. John tell us That he that hates his brother is in the dark and walketh in the dark and knows no whither he goes But others may know it as appears by another saying of the same Apostle Every one that hates his brother is a murderer and no murderer hath eternall life abiding in him But on the contrary he affirms That Love is of God and that he that loveth is born of God and knowes God Now to apply the Case to these Rules If Love be an essential Character of a Regenerate soul and Hatred of Errour Darkness and Eternal Death or to come yet closer If Hatred it self be Murder what will Murder it self be added thereunto And if any thing be Murder I demand whether this be not namely to take away the life of a member of Iesus Christ who does fully and freely profess the Ancient and Apostolick Faith according to the Letter or History of the New Testament and does seriously compose his life according to the Precepts therein contained and does onely declare against and reject the Contradictious Opinions and Idolatrous Practices that have no ground at all in Scripture nor Reason but are quite contrary to both I say if this be no Murder there is no Murder in the world and how guilty the Church of Rome is of this Crime all the world knowes Wherefore this being one of the Principles of that bloudy Church and he that is a perfect Papist being of one mind and suffrage with his Church in all things for she will be held no less then Infallible 't is apparent that no through-paced Papist can ever go to
and what he utters concerning the Spirit chap. 16.14 He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you Wherefore I say the Fathers being every way so fairly invited to bring the Platonick Notion of the Trinity into the Church assuredly if themselves had been Platonists and had fetched the Mystery from that School they would not have failed to have done it 7. Secondly Admit that the ancient Fathers were Platonists and brought the Mystery of the Trinity into the Church of the Christians it does not straight follow That it is therefore a Pagan or Heathenish Mystery Pythagoras and Plato having not received it from Pagans or Heathens but from the learned of the Iews as sundry Authors assert the Iews themselves in long succession having received it as a Divine Tradition and such is Platonisme acknowledged to be by Iamblichus who sayes it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And assuredly if there had not been some very great reason for it men so wise and profoundly knowing as Pythagoras Plato Plotinus and others would never have made so much adoe about it 8. Thirdly and lastly I say it is not only impious but vain and foolish to asperse that Mystery with the reproch of Paganisme that is so plainly to them that be not prejudiced set down and held forth in the Holy Scripture For the very Forme of Baptisme prescribed by our Saviour evidently enough denotes Three Divine Hypostases Of the Father there is no question Concerning the Divinity of the Sonne we shall speak more fully in the Second point we proposed That the Holy Ghost is not a mere Power Property or Attribute of God but an Hypostasis one free enough from being swai'd by Tradition or Authority of any Church and as himself conceits a very close and safe adherer to Scripture does grosly enough acknowledge while he makes it some created Angel that bears the sacred Title of the Holy Ghost and undergoes those Divine functions that are attributed to him But we need not maintain Truth by any mans Error it being sufficiently able to support it self and therefore we will make use of no advantage but what Scripture it self offers us And this Forme of Baptisme affords us something to the evincing that the Holy Ghost is not an Attribute but an Hypostasis For sith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to give up a mans self to the Discipline Government and Authority of this or that Person it is the most natural sense to conceive that all Three mentioned in the Forme are Persons we being so well assured that two of them are But there are other passages of Scripture that will make the point more clear Rom. 15.13 The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Now if the Holy Ghost were but a Power not a Person what a ridiculous Tautology would it be for the sense would be through the power of the holy power Again John 16.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very ill Syntax were it not that there is a Personality in the Holy Spirit which by what follows is most undeniably evident For he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak To receive of one and communicate to others by way of hearing and speaking what can that belong to but a Person or Hypostasis To this you may adde also Mark 13.11 Whatsoever shall be given you in that hour that speak ye for it is not you that speak but the Holy Ghost Now that this Hypostasis is not a created Angel amongst other Reasons the Conception of Christ may well argue it being more congruous That that spirit that moved upon the waters and created the world should form that holy Foetus in the womb of the Virgin then that any created Angel should apply himself to that work for he had not then been the Son of God but of an Angel as in reference to his birth in time 9. Besides this one Individual Spirit in Scripture in represented as every where ready to sanctify to regenerate to distribute various gifts and graces to the Church to have spoke by the mouth of the Prophets to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a discerner of the thoughts of the heart Baptisme also and Benedictions are imparted in his name he is also called to witness which is a piece of Divine worship all which seems more naturally to be understood of him whom we properly call the Spirit of God then of any particular created Angel whatsoever 10. We shall onely adde one place more which will put all out of doubt to them that do not doubt of the Text it self 1 John 5.7 There are three witnesses in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are One What can be writ more plain for the proof of the Triunity of the Godhead But for those that suspect the Clause to be supposititious I shall not trouble my self to confute them that task being performed so solidly and judiciously by a late Interpreter that nothing but Prejudice and Wilfulness can make a man depart unsatisfied with so clear a demonstration Wherefore secure of this Point Concerning the Trinity we go on to the next concerning The Divinity of Christ. CHAP. V. 1. That the natural sense of the First of S. Iohn does evidently witness the Divinity of Christ. 2. A more particular urging of the circumstances of that Chapter 3. That S. Iohn used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Iewish or Cabbalistical notion 4. The Trinity and the Divinity of Christ argued from Divine worship due to him and from his being a Sacrifice for sin 5. That to deny the Trinity and Divinity of Christ or to make the Union of our selves with the Godhead of the same nature with that of Christ's subverts Christianity 6. The uselesness and sauciness of the pretended Deification of Enthusiasts and how destructive it is of Christian Religion 7. The Providence of God in preparing of the Nations by Platonisme for the easier reception of Christianity 1. THat Christ is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a mere Creature but a divine Hypostasis or truly really and Physically not Allegorically and Morally joyn'd with that Divine Hypostasis which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if men would not bring their own sturdy preconceptions but listen to the easy and natural aire of the Text the Beginning of S. Iohns Gospel would put out of all controversy For I 'le appeal to any supposing the Union of Christ's Humanity with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be true in what fitter more significant or better-becoming way could it be expressed then already it is in the Beginning of that Gospel Wherefore to interpret it in any other sense is to delude themselves and to abuse the Scripture through the prepossessions of their
Reason who pretend not to dictate but demonstrate out of Scripture the Sleep of the Soul confidently suggesting to the better gaining Proselytes to their own that the contrary opinion is not Christian but Heathenish derived from the Philosophy of Plato which the Greek Fathers had imbibed and thence introduced into the Church of Christ. To the First of which I answer That our Adversaries Demonstrations for the Sleep of the Soul are but their own Imaginations and Dreams upon the mistaken Text. It is beside my scope to insist long on this matter I shall onely give you a tast of the weakness of the rest of their Arguments by proposing and refuting of those that seem the strongest Their main proof is from the whole tenor of the 15 of the 1 Cor. and more particularly from the 32 verse If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the dead rise not Hence they think may certainly be concluded That the Soul before the Resurrection of the Body has not the Perception or Enjoyment of any thing otherwise the very Remembrance of those sufferings for Christ might be a solace for Paul when he was out of the Body 3. But to answer this Difficulty with the fuller satisfaction let us premise some few things to prepare the way to it As first That the Schemes of speech in Prophets and men inspired are usually such as most powerfully strike the Phansie and most strongly beat upon the Imagination they describing things in the most sensible palpable and particular representations that can be According to which Figure the General Resurrection is set off by mens awaking out of the dust of the Earth and coming out of the Graves when as yet many thousands have wanted Burial their bones rotting on the surface of the Earth and as many thousands have had their intombement in the Waters 4. Secondly That the Holy Writers do not pen down their Conceptions in so strict a Scholastick Method that they keep precisely and punctually to one Title but by a free vibration of Phansie give a touch here and a touch there according as they were moved and actuated by that Spirit that exhibits more to their Minds at once then their Tongue has leasure orderly and distinctly to utter and are more earnestly taken up in making good the main and most usefull scope of their discourse then to satisfie mens Curiosities in particular Niceties 5. Thirdly That many Words in Scripture have a lax and ambiguous sense and that therefore they are to be understood according as Circumstances and Likelyhood of Truth determine and that these Termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of that nature they sometimes signifying the raising up again of a Body out of the grave sometimes merely vivificating of the Body or recovering a Person to life other sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very same with the Jewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius observes which signifies nothing else but Eternal life or a Blessed Immortality Others enlarge the Signification further and make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conservation in Being And Death seeming to us so dangerous a passage as if we were in hazard of either falling asleep or sliding into a Non-subsistence Divine Conservation because we begin then a new state of life is not unfitly termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as giving us as it were a new Subsistence setting us upon our feet again and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as keeping us awake when we seemed in danger of letting go all functions of life Which meaning of the words a late Interpreter handsomely makes good comparing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.17 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 9.16 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The manner of which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Conservation is excellently set out by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may imply a kinde of jogging or stirring up which is used to recover or prevent ones falling into a swoon and God is the grand Author of Life and Motion as the Apostle speaks 6. Fourthly and lastly That the Corinthians being a people given notoriously to the pleasures of the Flesh there is no question to be made but the Temptations of the place had also drawn away some Members of the Church there at Corinth and made them also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there being nothing that does so much extinguish all Hopes and Apprehensions of a Life to come as Carnal and Sensual pleasures it is very likely that those corrupted members fell away in their own judgments from the belief of any Reward after this life and so with Himeneus and Philetus or with the David-Georgians and our modern Nicolaitans allegorized away the real meaning of the Resurrection or the Blessed Immortality into a mere moral sense under pretence whereof they might ostentate themselves more Spiritual and knowing Christians then the rest and yet with less fear and remorse of conscience indulge to themselves all loosness and liberty of enjoying every tempting pleasure of this mortall life 7. Wherefore to the present Argument I answer in general out of this last and the foregoing Premiss That the purpose of the Apostle in this 15 to the Corinthians is to shew That there is a Life after the death of this Body and a Blessed Immortality to be expected A palpable pledge whereof was God's raising of Christs body out of the grave and exhibiting him alive to his Disciples Which was a Sign very significant and expressive of the thing this Blessed Immortality mainly consisting in being clothed with those Heavenly Ethereal and Paradisiacal bodies which Christ will bestow upon those that belong to him at the last day 8. Out of the First I answer That though S. Paul speak in such a Phrase as fixes our Imagination on the Earth only as is plain from that comparison of seed sown and rotting in the ground for men sow not seed upon the Water yet in whatsoever Element the Souls or Bodies of the Saints be found Earth Water or Air nay though we should grant with some that sundry Souls of holy men act in Aery vehicles in this interval betwixt their Death and the Day of Judgment yet it is no more prejudice to them then to those that are found alive in the flesh For none are excluded from the enjoyment of their glorified bodies 9. Out of the Second and Third I answer That S. Paul might very well have Three conceptions vibrating in his minde while he wrote concerning this Mystery the one more Simple and General of the Life and Subsistency of the Soul out of this Earthly Body the other more Special of a Blessed Immortality and the Third most Determinate of all which represented the manner of this Blessedness in being invested with glorified bodies And out of this General I shall direct a
would be which would signifie then at large only the adding of further clothing whether within or without but is to be expounded as circumstances require 4. Being thus fitted for the purpose we shall now briefly paraphrase the six first verses of the 15. chap. which they alledge against us thus 1. For we know that if this Earthly and Mortal Body of ours were destroyed that yet we have an Heavenly one whose Author and Maker is God 2. And for this cause is it that we groan so earnestly to be clothed also with our Heavenly Body within this Earthly 3. Because we being thus clothed when we put off our Earthly Body we shall not be found naked nor our Souls left to float in the crude Air. 4. For we that are in these Earthly Bodies groan earnestly being burdened not as if we had a desire to be stript naked of all Corporeity or that we should be presently rid of these Earthly Bodies before God see fit but that we may have a more Heavenly and Spiritual clothing within that mortality may be swallowed up of life 5. Nor do we arrive to this pitch by our own power but it is God who works upon us as I said both Body and Soul and frames us into this condition by the operation of his holy Spirit which he has given as a pledge of our Eternal Happiness 6. And therefore we are alwaies of a good courage not discontented at any thing For whether we be in this Earthly Body it is tolerable as being our usual and natural home or whether we go out of it which is most desirable we shall then go to the Lord our inward man being so fitly clad for the journey 5. That this is the genuine sense of these verses the 16 verse of the Chapter immediately going before will further confirm where the Apostle saith That though his outward man perish yet his inward man is renewed day by day which is Though his Earthly Body be in a perishing and decaying condition yet his Spiritual and Heavenly gets strength and flourisheth every day more and more Now the Resurrection and Attainment of the Heavenly Body being all one it were worth the while to enquire into the meaning of the Apostle Philipp 3. v. 11. where he professes his unwearied endeavours to attain to the Resurrection of the dead where presently it follows Not as if I had already attained it or as if I were already perfected For if he meant not this Inward Spiritual body inveloped in the Earthly he need not tell the Philippians that he had not yet attain'd it But the Point in hand is sufficiently plain already 6. We have seen what weak Demonstrators the Psychopannychites are against the Life and Operation of Souls out of the Body in their appeals to Scripture We shall now see how improbable their aspersion is of the Opinion being a Pagan or Heathenish invention derived as they say merely from the School of Pythagoras and Plato and from thence introduced into the Church CHAP. VIII 1. That the Opinion of the Soul 's living and acting immediately after Death was not fetched out of Plato by the Fathers because they left out Preexistence an Opinion very rational in it self 2. And such as seems plausible from sundry places of Scripture as those alledged by Menasseh Ben Israel out of Deuteronomy Jeremy and Job 3. as also God's resting on the seventh day 4. That their proclivity to think that the Angel that appeared to the Patriarchs so often was Christ might have been a further inducement 5. Other places of the New Testament which seem to imply the Preexistence of Christ's Soul 6. More of the same kinde out of S. John 7. Force added to the last proofs from the opinion of the Socinians 8. That our Saviour did admit or at least not disapprove the opinion of Preexistence 9. The main scope intended from the preceding allegations namely That the Soul 's living and acting after death is no Pagan opinion out of Plato but a Christian Truth evidenced out of the Scriptures 1. AND I think it is not hard for a man to prove that this sinister conceit of theirs is almost impossible to be true For if the ancient Fathers by vertue of their conversing so much with Plato's writings had brought this opinion of the Souls living and subsisting after death into the Christian Religion they could by no means have omitted the Preexistence of it afore which is so explicite and frequent a Doctrine of the Platonists especially that Tenet being a Key for some main Mysteries of Providence which no other can so handsomly unlock and having so plausible Reasons for it and nothing considerable to be alledged against it For is it not plain that the Soul being an Indivisible and Immaterial Substance can not be generated Now if it be created by God at every effectual act of Venery besides that in general it is harsh that God should precipitate immaculate Souls into defiled Bodies it seems abominable that by so special an act of his as Creation he should be thought to assist Adultery Incest and Buggery Of this see more at large in my Trestise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 12 13. But they 'l still urge That it was not the Unreasonableness of the Opinion but the Uncompliableness of it with Scripture that made them forgoe the Preexistency of the Soul though they retained her Subsistency Life and Activity after death 2. But it had assuredly been no hard matter for them to have made their Cause plausible even out of Scripture it self The Jewes would have contributed something out of the Old Testament Menasseh Ben Israel cites several places to this purpose as Deuteronomy 29.14 15. insinuating there that God making his covenant with the absent and the present that the Souls of the posterity of the Jewes were then in Being though not there present at the Publication of the Law For the division of the Covenanters into absent and present naturally implies that they Both are though some here some in other places This Text is seriously alledged by the generality of the Jewes for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Souls as Grotius has noted upon the place Also Jeremy 1. verse 5. The forenamed Rabbi renders it Antequam formassem te in ventre indidi tibi sapientiam reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel not in Cal. Before I formed thee in the belly I had made thee of a wise ingenie fitted thee to all holy Knowledge c. We will add a third place Job 38. He renders it Nosti te jam tum natum fuisse Knowest thou that thou wast then born and that the number of thy daies are many Then viz. from the beginning of the Creation or when the Light was made a symbol of Intellectual or Immaterial Beings The Seventy also plainly render it to that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know that thou wast formed then and that the number
lovely as he could in those notable ornaments of Wit and Manners and other more miraculous accomplishments that were found in that person But his constant devotions he did to the Sun though they shew him to be a very skilful and orthodox Hierophanta in the Pagan Superstition yet his ignorance in Philosophy demonstrates him no genuine Pythagorean but that he did craftily abuse that name and profession the better to promote his Heathenish design 6. It seems those Spirits that the Indian Magicians and Apollonius were acquainted withall were either very Envious or very Ignorant or at least Philostratus that wrote their Story For in the opening of their Mysteries such things fall from them as are inconsistent with the most Essential parts of Pythagoras his Philosophy and Truth it self But as for this of making the Sun the Supreme Numen these lapsed Spirits being haply as much concerned in the benefit of it as we Mortals as Homer intimates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He rose to shine to Gods as well as men it is not improbable but being fallen so low from the true God that themselves make this the Object of their Worship from whom they finde the most sensible good and are kept from that utter darkness that a sad fate at the long run may bring upon them 7. All which things considered we may well grant what Macrobius so industriously drives at That the worship of the Heathen was terminated in One Supreme Deity which the profounder Mystagogi conceiv'd to be the Sun and they were taught by the Clarian Oracle to call him Iao as if he were the true Iehovah CHAP. II. 1. That the above-said concession advantages the Pagans nothing for as much as there are more Suns then one 2. That not only Unity but the rest of the Divine Attributes are incompetible to the Sun 3. Of Cardan's attributing Understanding to the Sun 's light with a confutation of his fond opinion 4. Another sort of Apologizers for Paganism who pretend the Heathens worshipped One God to which they gave no name 5. A discovery out of their own Religion that this innominated Deity was not the True God but the Material world 1. BUT it is easily demonstrated that they get nothing by this grant For whereas they please themselves most of all in the Unity of this Numen there being as they fancy but one Sun in the world as the Latine word Sol implies and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek Nay Macrobius dotes so much on this Notion that he will not have him called Apollo Delphicus from the place of his worship but from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old Greek word which signifies Unus from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be derived quasi jam non unus yet the noble and free Spirit of Philosophy will not be carried captive with these cobweb-fetters of Superstition and verbal Criticism and therefore those that are more knowing in Nature boldly point us to as many Suns as there are discovered Fixed Stars in the Firmament as is to admiration made clear in that never-sufficiently-extolled Philosophy of Des-Cartes Then which if rightly understood there cannot be found a stronger bar against either the Folly of Paganism or the Profaneness of Atheism 2. But not only this obvious Attribute of Unity is wanting to this Pagan Deity but several others also that are as necessarily included in the Notion of a God such as are Sprituality Immensity Omnipotency Omnisciency and the like For the reflexion of his beams is a demonstration that Light is a Body and therefore unless all Bodies were Light or at least diaphanous he cannot be Immense but he must be excluded by other Bodies And hence he is not Omnipotent no not so much as in his most eminent Property For he cannot illuminate both sides of the Earth at once nor free his own face of those importunate spots that ever and anon lie upon it like filth or scum maugre all the power of his Divinity as Scheiner and Des-Cartes have diligently observed He is also so far from being Omniscient that he has no knowledge at all a Body being uncapable of Cogitation as the Cartesian School judiciously maintains and I have fully demonstrated in my Book Of the Immortality of the Soul 3. But Cardan attributing Understanding to this Luminary writes more like a Priest of the Sun as indeed both himself and his Father have been suspected for Magicians then a man of Reason or a sound Philosopher But that the charge may not seem incredible I will produce his own words Cumque Sol luceat intellectu saies he qui ei est tanquam anima si ab eo secedere posset Intellectas non aliter luceret Sol quà m Terra That is And whereas the Sun shines by Understanding which is to him as a Soul if so be that Understanding should recede from him the Sun would shine no otherwise then the Earth In which he plainly makes Visible light and Intellect all one From whence yet it would follow That the Sun discerns nothing done in the dark and that therefore he is not Omniscient and that a Glow-worm or Rush-candle are better witnesses what is transacted in the Night then he can be For if Visible light and Intellect be all one every new-lighted Lamp or Taper will prove an Intelligence So vain is this Supposition that the Sun is the supreme Numen of the World 4. But there is another sort of Apologizers for Heathenism that frame their Defence more cautiously averring only in general That the various Rites done to Particular Deities were meant to One Supreme Cause of all things though they have the discretion not to venture to name him For the proof whereof they alledge First that when they invoked any particular Deity that was proper for them then to invoke the Priests afterwards added an invocation of all the Deities in general as Servius notes upon that of Virgil Diique Deaeque omnes studium quibus arva tueri Secondly that all the Deities were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is there were Altars that were consecrated to them all in general with such Inscriptions as these DIS DEABUSQE OMNIBUS and DIBUS DEABUSQE OMNIBUS and the like Thirdly that they had one common Feast for them all which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mr. Selden notes Lastly The Aegyptians a people more infamous for Polytheism and variety of Religions then any nation under the cope of Heaven yet their Priests are observed more compendiously to do their Ceremonies to certain Spheres or round Globes whereof there was one in every Temple but kept very close from the sight of the vulgar the Priests reserving the knowledge of the Unity of the Object of their worship as an Arcanum only belonging to themselves 5. But that This One Object of Worship was not the true God but the Material World the very figure they make use of does most naturally intimate and
as with the Ocean who changes his name according to the Coasts he beats upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dionysius notes in his Geographicall Poem 6. And if they took into their Religious consideration the worship of the Genii or Spirits whether such as whole appearance was so horrid and terrible that it caused affrightment or such as whose benign aspect was accompanied with a more pleasing wonderment and joy these they look'd upon also as eminent manifestations of that One Eternal Deity which runs through all things giving life and Being to all whom therefore they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom though they make three viz. Iupiter coelestis Iupiter marinus and Iupiter infernalis the latter two whereof they also call Neptune and Pluto yet it is one Eternal Spirit say they which we worship in these Three whose Kingdome and Dominion is over all though the administration thereof differ according to the nature and merit of them that are Governed The same Apology we may make for that Honour we do to the deceased Heroes whose noble persons and refined Spirits the Divine excellencies more illustriously shone through then ordinary For in truth we do not so much worship them as God shining through them as he that bows to the Sun or Moon through a glass-window intends not his obeisance to the glass but to those Celestial Luminaries nor do we bow our body to those Luminaries but to God who to us appears through all things CHAP. IV. 1. The Heathens Festivals Temples and Images 2. Their Apology for Images 3. The Significancy of the Images of Jupiter and Aeolus 4. Of Ceres 5. Of Apollo 6. Their Plea from the significancy of their Images that their use in Divine worship is no more Idolatrous then that of Books in all Religions as also from the use of Images in the Nation of the Iews 7. Their Answer to those that object the Impossibleness of representing God by any outward Image 8. That we are not to envy the Heathen if they hit upon any thing more weighty in their Apologies for their Religion and why 1. NOW according to the various appearances of This One Divinity that puts forth it self every where our Ancestors instituted various Religious Rites and Ceremonies appointed sundry sorts of Festivals and Sacrifices built Temples set up Altars with several inscriptions and erected Images proper and significative of that or this Divine Power which at set times and places they were to worship To which Religious Customes under which we were born we submitted our selves without being obnoxious as we conceive to any just imputation of Idolatry 2. For we worshipped not those Images which were thus erected no more then any other Nation does the Holy Volumes of their Law or Religion when either they pray out of them have them read or use them in the administring of an Oath For that reverence that is done is not done to the Book but to him whose Word it is said to be to him whom they pray to or swear by and those Images to us are not unlike the Religious Books of others they being very expressive of the circumstances of the exertion of that Divine Power which we at any time adore As you may see in the Images of Iupiter Aeolus Ceres Apollo and the rest 3. For Iupiter who was their God of Thunder as he bore in his left hand a royal Scepter his right hand was charg'd with Thunder according to that of the Poet Cui dextra trisulcis Ignibus armata est Aeolus the God of the Winds he was made standing at the Mouth of a Cave having a linnen garment girt about him and a Smiths bellows under his feet at his right hand stood Iuno covered with a cloud putting a Crown upon his head as having given her Kingdome to him and on his left hand stood a Nymph up to the middle in Water which Iuno gave him to wife Which Image is very significative of the Nature and Causes of the Windes and so intelligible if we do but take notice that Iuno is the Aire that it wants no further explication 4. Ceres was made in the figure of a country-woman sitting upon an Oxe having in her right hand a Plough-share and a basket of Seeds hanging from her arme in her left hand a sickle and a flayle Iuno the Goddess of the Aire and of the Clouds was on one side and Apollo or the Sun on the other intimating how the warmth of the Sun and kindly showrs are to second the labour of the Husbandman or else nothing will prosper 5. The figure of Apollo or the Sun was thus His Image had a Youthful countenance in his right hand he held a Quiver of arrows and a Bow in his left an Harp under his feet was a terrible Monster in the form of a Serpent having three heads viz. of a Wolf of a Lion and of a fawning Dog on the Top of his head was a golden Trivet and about his temples a Crown of Twelve precious stones The meaning whereof though it may seem abstruse at first sight yet if you consider it a while it very fitly sets out the nature of the Sun and of Time whose knowledge depends on him and of Knowledge which depends on Time His Bow and Arrows signify nothing but the darting of his Beams from so far a distance whence he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Poets and his youthful countenance nothing but his unfading vigour which Age seems not at all to diminish His Harp signifies the dance of the Planets about him as if he sate and played to them or at least according to the other Hypothesis as if he led the dance himself playing on his Harp and the rest of the Planets followed him The twelve precious stones signifie the twelve signes of the Zodiack with which he is incircled and the three-headed Serpent deciphers Time in the threefold notion of it Past Present and to come The time past as Macrobius notes like a ravenous Wolfe devouring the memory of things the time present being urgent and raging like a Lion through its instant actuosity and the time to come flattering us with hopes like a fawning Dog And lastly the golden Trivet or Tripod denotes the Threefold object of Knowledge which Time affords them that are wise such as Homer makes Calchas the Priest of Apollo to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who knew what was what is and what 's to come So that it is apparent how strange soever the use of these Images may seem that it was no other then that of Books they raising our minds and it may be with a greater advantage of devotion and admiration into the sense and consideration of that Divine Power which we were to adore 6. Wherefore that imputation is very unjust that would charge us with Idolatry properly so called as if we did worship the Idols themselves But to use Images in Divine worship there being
stark naked in the Lupercalia which were celebrated to the honour or rather dishonour of Pan Lycaeus Faunus or Sylvanus for it is nothing but a memorial also of his defeated lechery For Hercules having retired into a wood with his wife Omphale a fair and goodly person and richly attired this Rural God by chance espying her fell in love with her watched where they took up their lodging and silently stole into the Cave by night where Hercules and Omphale having changed garments he lying in his wives clothes and she in his Lions skin made the lustfull God mistake so unluckily that it cost him besides the shame the bruising of his Body against the sides of the Cave where the enraged Heros cast him discharging himself of so uncouth and unsutable a Bed-fellow And this is the Reason why Sylvanus will have his Ceremonies performed by naked men in detestation of that deceit and mistake that may ly under clothes Veste Deus lusus fallentes lumina Vestes Non amat nudos ad sua sacra vocat The God abus'd by cloths that hinder sight Unto his Feasts the naked doth invite So lascivious are the Rites and so frivolous the Theology of the ancient Pagans 5. Flora is a name that sounds more innocently but yet her Solemnities are not performed without shameless wantonness and uncivil mirth lewd Harlots being appointed to run up and down naked pleasing the Spectators with their obscene gestures and Meretricious disportments 6. Their Goddess Venus can be no sooner mentioned then suspected and that deservedly For though Plato and Plotinus acknowledge a Twofold Venus the one Heavenly the other Popular and Carnal yet that Distinction in the true meaning thereof seems only to be lodged amongst the better sort of Philosophers the people doing their devotions to that lower Deity as it appears by the Epithets they give her and the Ceremonies they perform to her For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Argivi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Athenians and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Syracusans worshipped can be no other but that Power which is the President of Lust as the meaning of those unchast Epithets does plainly demonstrate And that Venus which was worshipped at Cyprus the Phallus which was shewn amongst other of her Ceremonies evidently declares her Nature to be of the same kind 7. There was indeed an Urania a Celestial Venus she is called the Queen of Heaven in Scripture Venus Mylitta in Prophane writers Mylitta signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was worshipped as well in some parts of Africk as in Babylonia but the reason of her name which we have already told as also the manner of her Ceremonies do manifestly shew that she was but that Popular Venus we spoke of before For young Women sate in her Temple their places being distinguished by certain lines or threads which any stranger that would make use of their bodies broke and so carried her apart that he had a mind to deal with from the rest and gave her a piece of mony for a requital and after this superstitious kind of fornication she was permitted to marry whom she pleased The better sort of Women made their abode near the Temple in certain Waggons covered like Tents from whence the abomination was called Succoth Benoth and the Goddess her self Benoth for shortness whence the Criticks with great probability derive the Latine word Venus 8. This Venus which was worshipped so in several places is conceived by some to be the Moon as by Philochorus who affirms her to be sacrificed to if by men in womens apparel if by women in mens apparel Which Planet is rightly called the Queen of Heaven and under the name of Hecate is also Maleficarum Venus as Selden notes Astarte also is the same Numen served by her impure Priests men of filthy and effeminate manners The abominableness of the Worship of this Goddess of Lust is lively set out by Eusebius in the life of Constantine Nemus erat delubrum extra publicam viam spurco Veneris daemoni in parte verticis montis Libani in fruticeto positum Erat hîc malitiae Schola omnibus lascivis ubi viri non viri muliebri morbo daemonem placabant And besides this it was as he sayes the Rendezvous of all lewd persons men and women given to wantonness where they committed adultery fornication and Sodomy with impunity because no man of any repute would come amongst them CHAP. XII 1. Of their famous Eleusinia how foule and obscene they were 2. The magnificency of those Rites and how hugely frequented 3. That the bottome thereof was but a piece of Baudery held up by the Obscene and ridiculous story of Ceres and Baubo 4. Of their foul superstitions in Tartary Malabar Narsinga and the whole Continent of America 1. THat so villainous doings are found under so bad a title as this Goddess bears may seem less marvel but such Solemnities as have had the greatest fame for Mysteriousness and Sanctity are not found clear of this course kind of filthiness We will instance in one example for all in the Sacra Eleusinia instituted to the honour of Ceres whom one would expect that she should approve her self an honest country Matron whenas some of the sights to be seen in her Temple as holy as they made those Mysteries were but the ensignes of a Bawdy-house which was the cause I suppose that made Socrates and Demonax not care to be initiated 2. But what by the power of delusive Spirits or the fraud of the Priests that caused unexpected flashings of light and astonishing thunderings besides other strange sights which they exhibited to them that were come to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these Mysteries were in so great request that they were honoured sometimes with the presence of no less then thirty thousand persons Claudian in his de Raptu Proserpinae sets out the solemness of these Rites very livelily Iam mihi cernuntur trepidis delubra moveri Sedibus clarum dispergere culmina lumen Adventum testata Dei jam magnus ab imis Auditur fremitus terris Templumque remugit CECROPIDUM Now do I see the trembling Temple move From the foundation and the Roof all bright To send down sudden day shot from above Sign of the Gods approach Now strange affrights Of bellowing murmurs echoing under ground Fill the CECROPIAN structures with their sound 3. But this magnificent description of the Poet will be quite dash'd out of countenance if we do but produce that smart taunt to their foul Superstition set down by the pen of one of the ancient Fathers Tota in Adytis divinitas tota suspiria Epoptarum totum signaculum linguae simulacrum membri virilis revelatur To this of Tertullian we might add out of Theodoret or rather as some would have it correct Tertullian's mistake For they did
quite conttary to this is so far from such like Tyranny and cruel and handling of others that to satisfie us concerning the justly-suspected wrath of his Father he undergoes all this load himself to win us off to a more perfect and chearful Obedience to his holy Precepts by so great and sensible an Engagement The weight and power of his Scepter being mainly to be felt in the sense of Love which is the strongest â—ie imaginable even to natural Ingenuity But the power of the old Serpent was exercised in fear and terrour and despightfull scorn upon poor distressed mankind There being this great advantage therefore of winning of the Hearts of men from the Kingdome of Darkness to the power of God by Christ's afflictions and sufferings it is no wonder that he submitted himself to them though they were so unspeakably grievous 2. And indeed what can be imagined more grievous then that lively Representation of his bitter Passion unless the Passion it self When in the Mount of Olives at his devotions he was in such an Agony that he sweat as it were great drops of bloud that fel from his face to the ground Besides the despightfull mockings and spittings in his face with cruel and bloody scourgings The consideration whereof would drive a man to any hardship to approve himself faithfull and thankfull to so loving a Saviour What then will the contemplation of his direfull and Tragical Crucifixion where so Divine a person nay where the Son of God in the flesh being disgracefully placed betwixt two thieves his holy and spotless Humanity was so deeply pierced with the present sense and real Agony of Death that the weight and burthen thereof enforced him to cry out Eloi Eloi My God My God why hast thou forsaken me And here he may appeal from the Cross to all the World in the words of Ieremiah Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow 3. Which Sorrow and Passion had it not been as real and as great as it is recounted how slight and ludicrous a matter would the Mystery of Christianity be How prophane therefore and execrable are those wretches that would turn that to the disgrace of Christ which is the Glory of the Gospel as if our Saviour was less Perfect by being thus Passive and so sensible of pain But it is plain that these bold and insolent Enthusiasts which boast so much of Perfection as to equalize themselves or their blind guides with Christ nay prefer them before him I say it is plain they are so ignorant that they doe not know in what the true Perfection consists 4. For I have already declared That in the person of Christ that only which was truly Divine was to have the triumph and victory unassisted with any thing that is precious and praise-worthy in the eyes of the world And the true Perfection approveable before God is found only in that which is Divine not Natural or Animal such as would be applauded by a mere Carnal man And such is Stoicism and Spartanism a power as well relished by wicked men and Apostate Angels nay I may say better then by the holy and regenerate And it is an Exercise of far greater Faith and Obedience to the Divine will to undergoe pain and affliction when it searches us so deep and stings us so vehemently then when by any forced Generosity and Stoutness of Spirit or any Natural or Artificial helps whatsoever we bear against the sense thereof and quit our selves in this heat and stomachfulness as if we were invincible and invulnerable Champions 5. If it had fared thus with Christ at his Death the Solemnity of his Passion had been lost Indeed it had been no Passion nor would have caused any in them that read the Story But his Sufferings being so Great and so Real as they were it is the greatest Attractive of the Eyes and Hearts of men towards him that could possibly be offered to the World Which himself was very well aware of and did foretell it in his life-time When I am lifted up I shall draw all men unto me 6. Which Effects of his Passion those Miraculous Accidents that attended it seem also to presage For what was that rending of the vail of the Temple from the top to the bottome at Ierusalem what were those Earthquakes in more remote places out of Iudea and the torn or cloven Rocks but a Presage how the Earthly Minds and Stony Hearts of all men in time as well Iews as Gentiles would be shaken and broke in pieces with sorrow and grief at his Sufferings who is the Saviour of the World Nay what did the Sun the very life and Soul of the natural world what did that deliquium or swounding fitt of his betoken but that this sad spectacle of the Crucifixion of Christ would so empassion the minds of all ingenuous men and so melt their Hearts with love affection to this universal Saviour that they would willingly die with him that they might also live with him and rejoice with him for ever in Heaven 7. I speak not this to exclude other Significations of these Prodigies For they may also have their truth and use as well as these especially some of them as That of the Eclipse of the Sun which may also signifie that the true light of the world he that was termed by the Prophet The Sun of Righteousness was then a suffering and That of rending the vail of the Temple which no question denoted the rescinding of the Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies and the abrogation of the High-Priests office Christ now having taken away the partition-wall and given every Believer free access to the presence of his Father by his own Death whereby he has reconciled us to God 8. Which offers us a third Reason why this Passion of Christ should be so Tragical as it was and the weight thereof so unsupportable For he bore then the wrath of God for the sins of the World being smitten as the Prophet speaks for our transgressions and the iniquities of us all were laid upon him that is he was an Universal Sacrifice for all Mankind Which the proud and self-conceited Enthusiast that phansies himself so well within that he contemns all external Religion unless it be of his own invention being not at leisure to consider boldly and blasphemously traduces him for weak and delicate that willingly underwent the greatest pain that ever was inflicted upon any mortal that bore a weight more heavy then mount Aetna and too big for the shoulders of any Atlas to bear 9. As little to the purpose are the leguleious Cavils of some Pragmatical Pettifoggers as I may so call them in matters of Divinity who though they be favourable enough to the Person of Christ and seem to condole his ill Hap that he fell thus into the hands of Thieves and Murtherers yet set no price at all upon his Death no more then upon theirs that died with him accounting his
no not the fear of death or torment could hinder them from being open witnesses to the World of all those things which they had seen and most certainly knew concerning the crucified Iesus the Son of God and Saviour of Mankind 3. We have seen in general how requisite this Supernatural assistance was to the Apostles We shall now take notice in particular how congruous at least decorous the First appearance thereof was at the day of Pentecost The Apostles together with other Disciples being met in an upper room at Ierusalem and being all of one mind and of one faith and expectation of the promise of the Spirit at the above-named day of Pentecost of a suddain there came upon them a sound from Heaven as of a mighty rushing winde which filled the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven Tongues like as of Fire which sate upon each of them and they all filled with the Holy Ghost began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance 4. Supposing a God a Providence and the Ministry of Angels and Spirits there is not a jot of this impossible or incredible But we shall also take notice of the Congruity of circumstances which are either for an handsome Symbolical sense or else for a more indispensable convenience as I conceive the Day to be and their assembling thus together on this day of Pentecost in one place For their seeing what happened thus miraculously to every one of them is a stronger confirmation of all their faiths and they are the more sufficient witnesses to all the World of what thus miraculously befell them And the Day of Pentecost was the most convenient time for this to happen because of the greater concurse of people on that day 5. But it does not exclude that more Mystical and Symbolical sense of S. Austine's That as the written Law was given to the Iews on the fiftieth day after the Passeover so the Law of the Spirit which was to be written in mens hearts was thus wonderfully begun here on the same day by the preaching of the Apostles on whom the Spirit descended in such an extraordinary manner Nor does that other sense concerning the Unity of place exclude that Moral intimation of Grotius Deus dona sua promisit unitati That also of their being seated in an upper room must signifie Morally or nothing considerable for else the more removed from the Earth the never nearer to God especially within the smell of the Atmosphere Which Philosophick contemplation Apollonius pursues with a great deal of pomp and gravity indoctrinating Damis while they were travailing on mount Caucasus which the neighbour Inhabitants look'd upon as the holy Mansion of the Gods as other hills also are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that opinion that a man is never the nearer the knowledge of Religion and Vertue if he were mounted upon the highest Athos Olympus or all the Caucasus's in the World unless he contemplate religious and Divine matters not so much in a pure and subtile Air as from an undeprav'd and sincere Spirit 6. But that which is of the greatest significancy is the mighty rushing Wind and the fiery cloven Tongues The former whereof is an Emblem of the External violence which God would doe to the World in the introducing of the acknowledgment of his Son into it For without doubt those wonderfull Miracles that were done by the Apostles beat so strongly upon the outward Senses of men that they were after a manner forcibly driven to acknowledge that the hand of God was with them and that the doctrine which they taught was true The knowledge whereof at last with the fame of their Miracles filled the whole World as that Sound from Heaven and mighty rushing Wind filled the whole house where they sate I am sure the chief Priests complained betimes that the Apostles had filled all Ierusalem with their doctrines 7. The latter viz. the Fiery cloven Tongues the fieriness of them intimates the searching penetrating melting and purifying power of the Spirit as their being cloven or divided the effect of the living word which accompanied their preaching which we may better call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then the Stoicks their meager Reason For this is that which is sharper then any two-edged sword dividing the very joints and marrow and piercing to the inmost penetrals of the heart as may be observed at the preaching of Peter's Sermon Or not to be altogether so Mystical or Spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these divided or cloven tongues may be only an external symbol of that inward power given them to speak and understand several Tongues though they were never taught them Which was a gift of very sober and necessary use as all the Miracles are that were done either by Christ or his Apostles they being to preach to men of several Nations then sojourning at Ierusalem and afterwards to travail into several Countries to convert men to the Faith 8. This is a solid account of all the Circumstances of that great Miracle done partly upon and partly by the Apostles after Christ's Ascension into Heaven Which Divine power ever after assisted them in all their travails and labours in the Gospel as you may see in the Acts. Where you shall find them not only endued with this miraculous power themselves but by prayer and imposition of hands conferring it upon others for the benefit of the Church where you shall see them healing the sick making the lame to walk raising the dead casting out devils and doing over again all the most considerable Miracles of our Saviour and some which he never did as the speaking with tongues and healing by the mere shadow of their bodies which seems more wonderfull then by the touching of the hem of Christ's garment To which you may adde what strangely happened to them as upon their praiers and devotions how the house shaked under them as in an Earthquake through the sensible presence of the Divine power attending them Their being transported through the Air by the hand of an Angel from one place to another Their being visited by Angels in prison who opened the prison doors and made the fetters fall off from their bodies of their own accord The transfiguration of their countenances into an Angelical glory and the appearance of Christ from Heaven to them in a splendour more bright and radiant then the Sun at mid-day as it happened to Paul as he was travailing to Damascus The Credibility of which things as also of the Resurrection and Miracles of Christ the Success it self does plainly argue 9. For it seems utterly impossible that Christ a man cut short of all accomplishments that are plausible to flesh and bloud being neither arm'd by the power of Eloquence the knowledge of Philosophy the authority and honour of the World nor the advantages of Birth or Fortune but on
that they that obey it not shall be damned That Christ knew the very thoughts of mens hearts that he raised the dead that he healed men of incurable diseases that he gave sight to the blind and made the dumb to speak That the Apostles of Christ Matthew Peter and Paul healed one Habib Anaiar of the Leprosie at Antioch and raised the King's daughter from the dead as also gave sight to a childe that was born blinde And lastly three Preeminences the Alcoran gives to Christ which it gives not to any other Prophet to Abraham Moses no nor Mahomet himself The first is That he was carried up to Heaven bodie and soul where it is expresly added in Zuna that he shall return from thence to judge the world with righteous judgment The second That he shall be called The Word of God The third That he should be called The Holy Spirit of God These things you may read more at large in Iohannes Andreas his Confusio Sectae Mahometanae as also in others out of whom you may also add that the Turks have so venerable an esteem of S. Iohn's Gospel that they wear it next their bodies as an amulet when they goe to war to keep them from gun-shot 8. This I thought worth the noting partly that that Honour which is due to Christ may not be given to Mahomet of whom the best that can be said is only this That he did not so utterly pervert and deprave the mystery of the Gospel by either his ignorance political tricks or fanatical humours and whimsies but that there was so much of the substance and virtue thereof left as being seconded with the dint of the Sword was able enough to hew down the more gross Heathenish Idolatry chastise the disobedient Hypocritical Christians and ruine the external dominion of the Devil in the World and partly that we may discern what great hopes there are that in due time when the chief scandals of Christendome are taken away they being so far prepared already in their reverend opinion concerning our blessed Saviour the whole Turkish Empire may of a sudden become true Christians that which is vain and false among them having no better prop then the foolish and idle Visions false pretended Miracles and groundless fables of a mere wily phansifull and unclean Impostour whenas the pure Christian Religion comprehended in the Gospel is so solid sincere rational that no man that is master of his wits but may be throughly satisfied concerning the truth thereof CHAP. XIII 1. The Triumph of the Divine Life not so large hitherto as the overthrow of the external Empire of the Devil 2. Her conspicuous Eminency in the Primitive times 3. The real and cruel Martyrdoms of Christians under the Ten Persecutions a demonstration that their Resurrection is not an Allegorie 4. That to allegorize away that blessed Immortality promised in the Gospel is the greatest blasphemy against Christ that can be imagined 1. YOU see then how large the Success or Event of our Saviour's coming into the World is in reference to the external overthrow of the Kingdome of the Prince of this World that old Usurper over the sons of men If you demand of me how great the Triumph of the Divine Life has been in all this victory I must answer I could wish that it was greater then it is that it had been larger and continued longer but something has been done all this time that way too 2. For Faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a firm Belief of a Life to come and the Effect of this Faith which is the very nature and Spirit of Christ dwelling in us consisting of Purity Humility and Charity this sound constitution was very much in the Church in the Primitive times even then when they had no succour nor support from the hands of men nay when they were cruelly handled by them they chusing rather to be banish'd imprisoned tortured and put to any manner of death then to deny him who had redeemed them with his most precious Bloud and had prepared a place of Eternal happiness for them with himself in Heaven 3. Here Faith and the Divine Life was very conspicuously victorious and triumphant in that in the eyes of all the world it set at nought all the cruel malice of the Devil and the terrour of death it self in the most ghastly vizard he could put on as you may see innumerable Examples in the Ten bloudy Persecutions under the Heathen Emperours Which History must needs make a man abominate such light-headed and false-hearted Allegorists that would intercept the Hopes of a future life by spirituallizing those passages in Scripture that bear that sense into a present Moral and Mystical interpretation as if the Gospel and the precious Promises therein conteined reached no further then this life we now live upon Earth 4. Which is the highest reproach and blasphemie that can be invented against Christ Iesus as if he were rather a Betraier then a Saviour of Mankind and that he was more thirsty after humane bloud then those Indian Gods we have spoken of who were so lavish thereof in their sacrifices and as if it were not Love and dear Compassion towards us that made him lay down his life but hatred and a spightfull plot of making myriads of men to be massacred and sacrificed out of affection to him that thus should betray them Wherefore whosoever interprets the New Testament so as to shuffle off the assurance of Reward and Punishment after the death of the Body is either an arrant Infidel or horrid Blasphemer CHAP. XIV 1. The Corruption of the Church upon the Christian Religion becoming the Religion of the Empire 2. That there did not cease then to be a true and living Church though hid in the Wilderness 3. That though the Divine life was much under yet the Person of our Saviour Christ of the Virgin Mary c. were very richly honoured 4. And the Apostles and Martyrs highly complemented according to the ancient guize of the Pagan Ceremonies 5. The condition of Christianity since the general apostasie compared to that of Una in the Desart amongst the Satyrs 6. That though this has been the state of the Church very long it will not be so alwaies and while it is so yet the real enemies of Christ do lick the dust of his feet 7. The mad work those Apes and Satyrs make with the Christian Truth 8. The great degeneracy of Christendome from the Precepts and Example of Christ in their warrs and bloudshed 9. That though Providence has connived at this Pagan Christianism for a while he will not fail to restore his Church to its pristine purity at the last 10. The full proof of which Conclusion is too voluminous for this place 1. WE have given a light glance upon the condition of the Primitive Church before Christianity became the Religion of the Empire what change would be wrought then a man might
gross Parachronism For it is plain this Spouse is to be married to Christ after the destruction of the City by fire as it appears both by the order of these Visions and by chap. 19. v. 2 3. But the burning of Rome by Totilas was after Constantine's time The beginning of the Millennium Grotius affixes to an Edict of Constantine's which Eusebius speaks of and wherein there is mention made of the Ligation of Satan This makes a pretty shew as also his interpreting the reign of the Martyrs with Christ of that honour they had done them at their Monuments But it is to be considered in how short a time that honour was turned into Idolatrous reproach as also how the thousand years according to his account are expired above three hundred years agoe from whence commences the Devil's being let loose Which we cannot term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little time in respect of the Millennium it being no less then a third part and it is no good sense if it be not understood in respect of it But which is still worse while he interprets the Devil's being let loose of the invasion of the Ottoman Family upon Christendome he reminds us of the great victories the Saracens had who were as very Devils as the Turks and yet had vexed the Christian world much before the year 800. So that according to this account the Devil was let loose in the midst of the Millennium and has been loose almost a Millennium already which therefore in respect of the Millennium cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon this false Hypothesis hangs the conceit of the Turks besieging Constantinople to be the begirting of the holy City by the numerous armies of Gog and Magog For the Greeks themselves styled Constantinople New Sion as Grotius has noted But it is plain the Exposition is a mere hallucination because the holy and beloved City in the Prophecie is not taken God interposing by fire from Heaven and sweeping all away by that finall judgement But the Turks have taken this Sion and have peaceably possessed it these two hundred years I shall conclude with the new Ierusalem the Lambs Bride adorned for her husband which Grotius interprets of the Catholick Church made now more splendid with outward ornaments by the care and cost of Princes Which in my apprehension is no good sense Marriage rather signifying the bringing in some people to Christ that were not united to him before or at least the appearing of a people that was before hid then the external adorning of them that were already the known and professed people of Christ. Besides that the times that Grotius points at are the most unlike that new Ierusalem which is the Church recovered to her Apostolical Symmetry again and to be measured by the golden reed of the Angel and which runs all upon Twelves to shew that it is purely Apostolick and has no other foundation nor structure then Christ and his Apostles For the whole solid Content thereof Length Breadth and Height is twelve thousand furlongs the breadth of the wall also and the height thereof is measured by Twelve So that there is nothing in this new Ierusalem but what is pure and Apostolical which is not so in the garishly-adorned Church that Grotius looks at Besides that it is said there was no Temple there whenas every Church is a Temple under the Roman Hierarchie 10. I might have examined his Expositions of the Vials also with other passages wherein I could have discovered the like errours and mistakes But what I have instanced in already is sufficient to shew upon what unnatural distorted nay I may say impossible applications they are cast that would attempt the interpreting of the Apocalypse without the guide of Synchronisms taken from the innate Characters of the Visions themselves but by the benefit of that Guide how easie and natural sense is made of every Vision and how perfectly answerable to History and Events as is manifest in the Expositions of Mr. Mede Whom I have not preferred thus before Grotius out of any ill will or disrespect to that Miracle of his Age for Learning and Ingenuity but merely out of love to the Truth as I am verily perswaded Grotius has framed his Interpretations but withall which is a further commendation of him out of a very deep sense of the advantages of Peace and out of a Spirit of Sweetness Candor and Humanity for which I do believe him singular and eminent And verily if I were not conscious to my self that the very same spirit did in some measure act me in this discovery of his mistakes that did him in committing of them I mean the sense of Peace and Common good of the Church I had rather be in his Errors accompanied with Humanity and Kindness of Spirit then be in a Truth that must needs be attended with Salvageness Ferocity and Fury But as the Truth I stand for is above Grotius's mistakes so I hope the good of my design will not appear inferiour to his after you have considered the Benefit of Mr. Mede's interpretations of the Apocalypse as well as the Truth thereof CHAP. XVII 1. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not implie That most of the matters in the Apocalypse appertain to the Destruction of Jerusalem and to Rome Heathen 2. The important Usefulness of this Book for the evincing of a Particular Providence the Existence of Angels and the ratification of the highest points in Christianity 3. How excellent an Engine it is against the extravagancy and fury of Fanatick Enthusiasts 4. How the Mouths of the Iews and Atheists are stopped thereby 5. That it is a Mirrour to behold the nature of the Apostasie of the Roman Church in 6. And also for the Reformed Churches to examine themselves by whether they be quite emerged out of this Apostasie with the Author's scruple that makes him suspect they are not 7. What of Will-worship and Idolatry seems still to cleave to us 8. Further Information offered to us from the Vision of the slain Witnesses 9. The dangerous mistakes and purposes of some heated Meditatours upon the Fifth Monarchy 10. The most Usefull consideration of the approach of the Millennium and how the Time may be retarded if not forfeited by their faithlesness and hypocrisie who are most concerned to hasten on those good daies 1. AND truly the Benefit of the Apocalypse so interpreted as Mr. Mede has expounded it is invaluable For the Visions are so perfectly patly applicable to acknowledged History this way that he goes that he that will not believe the Prophecies fulfilled in those things he produces cannot believe the fulfilling of any Prophecies at all whenas on the other side if the Applications were no more weighty nor clearer and fitter then they are Grotius's way this Book of Prophecies would be utterly Useless it being in the power of no man that is not extremely credulous to be satisfied with
made none but our selves onely imagine them Again as for Idolatry another known Character of the Beast cannot we find that also amongst our selves I do not mean Covetousness onely which the Apostle cals Idolatry but the adventuring to erect Imaginations if not Images of God some more horrid and affrightful then those that stand in the most polluted Temples of the Pagans the Statue of Saturn tearing his own children a pieces with his teeth and eating of them is but an Hieroglyphick of Mercy in comparison thereof while in the mean time the mournful Witnesses testifie both out of Moses and out of S. Iohn That the nature of God is quite another thing God is Love and he that abideth in Love abideth in God and God in him The Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth And yet what forcible assaults are there to set up this Idol or false Image in the Temple of every mans Minde which otherwise should be consecrated to the Love of God and the warm and comfortable residence of his Holy Spirit That also is a blind Image of God worse then the Pagan Cupid which some conceited Fondlings set up in favour of themselves That God sees no sin in his Elect let them sin never so grosly whenas the Scripture expresly affirms That his eyes behold his eye-lids try the Children of men and That he is of purer eyes then to endure iniquity any where To say nothing that Opinions themselves that are framed by humane curiosity in points of Religion though otherwise harmless become Idols and have the very same effect that Idols have that is They lay asleep the Minde and besot it so that it becomes senseless of the indispensable motions of the Divine life And further That the tricking up our selves with such curiosities is but a self-chosen holiness and a worshipping and serving God after our own humour which assuredly is little better then Idolatry 8. And lastly more compendiously and at once Let us consider the nature of the Witnesses slain by the Beast of the bottomless pit Which is a childish thing to conceit to be Two persons forasmuch as they prophesy for 1260 years together as Mr. Mede has well defined and I also adde that they are dead in another sense even that time they are said to prophesy as I have above noted and I think there is very little doubt to be made of the Interpretation Let us therefore now consider what these Two Witnesses are And truely according to the richness of Prophetick expression I do not think they are restrained to one single signification but type out at least these two things The Old and New Testament which by a Prosopopoeia are here called the Two Witnesses or else The Magistracy and Ministery forasmuch as those things they are described by are allusions to Moses and Aaron and to Zerobabel and Ieshua The Concinnity of the former interpretation does not depend onely on that obvious allusion to that Latine word Testament but is further ratified from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequently signifiing the Laws or Institutes of God rendred also for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to adde that the Old and New Testament are whether they were called so or no Two eximious Witnesses of the Mind of God unto the World Wherefore now more Prophetico making these Two Books Two persons they may be said to be alive or slain either in a Political or Moral sense They would be alive in a Political sense if they had the only rule in the transactions of the affairs of Church and Commonwealth that there should be no injunctions as indispensable in matters of Religion but such as they plainly determine much less any thing against them And so likewise in State-affairs all Oppression and Tyranny would be prohibited Wherefore while the Inventions of men rule in the Church instead of the Dictates of those holy Oracles and while course Oppression and Tyranny over the members of Christ is prevalent that is while men think they have power and wealth and wit and policy merely to tread down the people and not to succour them and guide them for their real good and to ennoble their spirits as much as they are capable rather then to make them besotted vassals and slaves to put out their eyes to make mill-horses of them that they may the better droile and drudge for the satisfaction of their lusts whereever things are carried on this way the Beast of the bottomless Pit has slain the Two Witnesses in the Political sense the Law of God in the mean time protesting against their proceedings both in the Old and New Testament as is plain to every one that peruses those Writings The Witnesses also would be alive in a Moral sense if those indispensable Precepts of life witnessed by them were really turned into life and practice in us For the External Word is but a dead letter but then is properly alive when that life is begotten in us whereof it testifies Which if it be neglected as also their Rule so farre forth as it respects Ecclesiastick Policy be declined and men act both in Political affairs and in their private capacities according to the Rules of men and their unprofitable Institutes and thereby neglect the indispensable Commands of God who cannot but see that the Two Witnesses we speak of are plainly slain and that the Old and New Testament are but as two liveless carkasses lying unburied indeed for they will not burn them and put their ashes into an urne and hide them under ground for fear of the people but useless and unactive having no power to curb the wicked enormities of the world who have taken up another self-chosen Law to themselves minted and forged by the false Antichristian Church consistent enough with nay very favourable to all those pomps and vanities that we are sworn against in our very Baptisme Whence it is said that the Inhabitants of the World are so glad and triumphant and send gifts to one another upon the slaying of the Witnesses their death conducing so much to the uncurbed fruition of all worldly and carnal enjoyments but the Church in the mean time becoming no better then Sodome and Aegypt a land of Tyranny and Beastliness a City of Carnality and Oppression Wherein to proceed to the other sense Moses and Aaron Zerobabel and Ieshua the holy and legitimate Magistracy and Ministery are slain that is kept out of all Political power by this Beast out of the bottomless pit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which as it may signifie the Sea may be understood of the Ten-horned Beast but as it may signifie a deep pit in the earth such as that from whence Smoke came and the Locusts may signifie the Two-horned Beast who is said to come out of the Earth and is the Master of that Wisdom that is earthly sensual and devilish and which is accompanied with bloudy zeal and
be better For this Article of Infidelity among the rest keeps the Witnesses still dead in all the senses above-named Wherefore let every man reform himself and exhort and encourage his neighbour and witness the good witness of the power of God to the conquering and subduing of all manner of Sin For these times come not on by Rapine and Violence but by the increase of Righteousness upon Earth For the real and speedy advancement whereof there is nothing more effectual then the belief That God will now in these last times of all give more then ordinary assistance to them that will be faithfull in his Covenant and that the work of Righteousness will goe on with much more ease then heretofore and with infinitely better success Wherefore it is good striking while the Iron is hot and making use of this Day of Salvation lest such Prophecies of grace being conditionall it may fare with us as it did with the Israelites whose carkasses fell in the wilderness in a tedious delay and a long leading them about who otherwise had in their own persons entred the promised Land So I do not see that it is impossible or improbable but this Prophecie of the Churches change into so excellent a state may be foreslacked by the ill management and faithlesness of them from whom God more peculiarly expects that they should be industrious Labourers in this white Harvest of Apostolick Purity and Sanctity they having now for some time separated from the great Babylon to build those that are lesser and more tolerable but yet not to be tolerated for ever it being more then high time they should clear up into an holy City of God Otherwise I do not see but the success is likely to answer the endeavours of them that are chiefly concerned And the variety of numbring the period of time by Daies Months and Semi-Times seems to threaten some such matter And therefore according to that laxer computation by Months and Semi-Times there may lie hid a reserve of delay for thirty nay an hundred or two hundred years longer then God otherwise intended to commence this glorious Dispensation But the certainty of the Events of other Prophecies that precede in order if this Promise be not conditional to both Jew and Christian is a Demonstration that it will not fail to take effect This is the faithfullest Account that I can give of the affairs of Christendome from the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles till Christ's coming again in the Spirit to renew his lapsed Church into true Holiness and Righteousness in the rising of the Witnesses and the reigning of the Saints upon Earth a thousand years The close of which will be The Day of Iudgment properly so called which after this long but not impertinent Digression if it be a Digression we shall now take into consideration BOOK VI. CHAP. I. 1. Three chief things considerable in Christ's Return to Iudgment viz. The Visibility of his Person The Resurrection of the Dead and the Conflagration of the World 2. Places of Scripture to prove the Visibility of his Person 3. That there will be then a Resurrection of the dead not in a Moral but a Natural sense demonstrated from undeniable places of Scripture 4. Proofs out of Scripture for the Conflagration of the world as out of Peter the 3 Chap. of his second Epistle 5. An Interpretation of the 12 and 13 verses 6. A Demonstration that the Apostle there describes the Conflagration of the World 7. A Confutation of their opinion that would interpret the Apostle's description of the burning of Jerusalem 8. That the coming of Christ so often mentioned in these two Epistles of Peter is to be understood of his Last coming to Iudgment 9 10. Further confirmation of the said Assertion 11. Other places pointed at for the proving of the Conflagration 1. IN the Return of Christ to Judgment these Three things are to be considered as very nearly annected and comprehended in it The Visibility of his Person and pomp of his coming The Resurrection of the Dead and Conflagration of the World But because all these things are doubted by some that do not profess themselves Anti-Scripturists I shall first produce such places of Scripture as do plainly assert these Points and then in the next place shew how Reasonable the Assertion is 2. The Visible or personal Return of Christ to Iudgment though it may be proved from many places yet I shall content my self with a few And I must confess I look upon the 24 of Matth. from the 30 to the 32 verse where the Son of Man is said to come in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory and to send out his Angels with a mighty sound of a Trumpet to be a pregnant Testimony thereof But the 29 verse to be a description of the state of the World especially of the Roman Empire till the appearance of the sign of the Son of Man But whether this sign of the Son of Man be the same with the Son of Man coming in the clouds or some sign in the Heavens to be given long before his coming for the Conversion of the Jews I take not upon me to decide But from the 32 to the 36 verse I think there our Saviour may reassume his first Subject the Destruction of Ierusalem and therefore being within the view of the Temple and of the City he uses the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these things in his prophecie of them But in the 36 verse pursuing his prediction of the end of the World he saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but concerning THAT day and so he gives wholesome precepts of watchfulness to his Church to the end of this Chapter Which sense is very agreeable to the following Chapter which most easily and naturally is wholy to be understood of the last Judgment But from the 31 verse of that Chapter to the end even they that would wind the former part of the Chapter to another sense acknowledg it to be understood of the last Day And there the Visible Pomp of Christ coming to judge the World is plainly set down viz. his sitting upon a throne with his holy Angels about him To these you may add the Testimonie of the two men clothed in white shining raiments that told the Disciples as they were gazing up into Heaven after Christ as he ascended that he should come down again in the same manner as they had seen him goe into Heaven As also that of S. Paul to the Thessalonians For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we be ever with the Lord. These places are so plain concerning the Visible Appearance of Christ's
as well as Christians to neither of which capacities could that fearfull destruction of their City be so comfortable a contemplation whenas it drew tears from our Saviour's eyes though at a greater distance of time And his great solicitude that they should have these things alwaies in remembrance after his death is a sign that what he insists upon is a matter of more consequence and longer continuance then what respects the Burning of the City 9. Furthermore the Argument whereby he would set on these things upon the Spirits and belief of them he wrote to that he was an Eye-witness of the glorious Transfiguration of Christ when his person appeared in that splendour which might become a glorified body such as himself will appear in at his return to Judgment makes it still more reasonable that that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that powerful coming of Christ there mentioned is his Final coming in Glory when he shall change our vile bodies into the similitude of his glorious bodie according to the working of his mighty power This chief Article therefore of the Christian Faith in which all Christians are the most highly concerned was that which the Apostle did press so earnestly and carefully upon them before his departure which was the chief Prop of their Faith and Patience and which he affirmed from a special experiment of his own in that glorious Transfiguration on the Mount where Moses and Elias talked with Christ which was a most certain argument of the Soul's Immortality to be no cunningly-contrived fiction but a certain Truth both from what he saw there before his eyes and what he heard discoursed at that holy meeting Where the Passion of Christ was treated of and the exceeding glorious consequences of it of which the greatest of all is his last Return to Judgment when he shall consummate the Happiness of all Believers with everlasting glory and so restore the Creation to a perfect recovery into what they had fallen from and punish the obstinate with eternal Fire Which things being declared without the circumstance of the series of Time it was easie for those three Auditors on the Mount to conceive them to be very shortly to come to pass and therefore to make that Enquiry of Elias his coming first according as their Scribes taught them out of Malachi if simply the Appearance of Elias and his going away again contrary to their expectation and desire did not put them upon that question 10. But that the glorious Coming or powerfull Presence of Christ which he so solicitously would ascertain them of is not his coming to destroy Ierusalem appears further from the nineteenth verse of this Chapter where after he has endeavoured to establish them in the belief of that main Article from the resplendent Transfiguration of the person of Christ of which he was an Eye-witness on mount Tabor as also as Ear-witness of that voice from Heaven This is my beloved Son and of that precious Promise that he was to be the Performer of at the last day which Transfiguration was a visible pledge of his being invested into that supereminent office of the glorious Judge of the quick and the dead and had recommended to them also the Prophecies of the Old Testament as a light that shines in the dark to give some direction yet he insinuates further that they shall have a more clear and firm assurance of this so concerning a Truth the day dawning and the day-star arising at length in their hearts Which is very harsh to applie to any thing but to the more clear conviction by the Spirit of God in their Souls of the truth of this Promise of an Eternal Reward of that Crown of a blessed Immortality to be given at Christ's Return to Judgment at the last day These and such like considerations make it seem to me utterly incredible that by this Fiery Destruction should be understood the burning of Ierusalem and not the Conflagration of the Earth and by the Appearing and Coming of Christ so often mentioned in these Epistles his Vengeance on the Iewes and not his final Return to judge the whole World a supposition in my apprehension far more agreeable to the weight and gravity of this Apostles style Thus much by the way for the rescuing of these two excellent Epistles to that more natural and more solemn and useful sense they were ever understood in till of late though I must confess they have not depraved the meaning of the seventh verse of the last Chapter of the second Epistle it being indeed impossible to interpret it otherwise then of the burning of the World which alone is sufficient for our present purpose 11. We might adde several other passages as well in the Prophets as in the Apocalypse and other places that tend to the same purpose with this of S. Peter for the proving of this final Judgment of God by Fire as also such places of Scripture elsewhere as implie that there is some notorious Punishment reserved for the Devils which shall be inflicted upon them at last For when and upon what occasion can it begin so fitly as at the Conflagration of the World That there is a certain horrible torment in store for them is plain from Matth. 8.29 Art thou come to torment us afore the time and 2 Pet. 2.4 as also Ep. of Jude ver 6. where the Devils are said to be reserved in chains of Darkness unto the Iudgment of the great Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God has confined them to this lower Region of caliginous Air as to a dark Prison till the great Assizes as some very judiciously expound it With which places if you compare that last Malediction or severe sentence of our Saviour against the wicked Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels it will be very easie to infer what this final Punishment is and when and how it will begin But we need not insist upon these things we having sufficiently proved the point already CHAP. II. 1. The Fitness and Necessity of Christ's visible Return to Iudgment 2. Further arguments of his Return to Iudgment for the convincing of them that believe the Miraculousness of his Birth his Transfiguration his Ascension c. 3. Arguments directed to those that are more prone to Infidelitie taken out of Historie where such things are found to have hapned already in some measure as are expected at Christ's visible Appearance 4. That before extraordinary Iudgments there have usually strange Prodigies appeared by the Ministry of Angels as before great Plagues or Pestilences 5. As also before the ruine of Countries by War 6. Before the swallowing down Antioch by an Earthquake 7. At the firing of Sodome and Gomorrha 8. And lastly before the destruction of Jerusalem 1. IT remains now that we shew That these Three main Circumstances of Christ's coming to Judgment which we have proved to be contained in the Mystery of our Religion are
in themselves congruous and reasonable Which we shall first make good concerning the Visible Pomp and glorious Appearance of the person of Christ in the Air attended by his holy Angels he descending as it were with the noise of Battel and Alarm of War an Archangel sounding a Trumpet before him as the Heavenly Camp marches on and moves For he will certainly appear in an Equipage most terrible and glorious and in this solemn and dreadful Order he will face the bold prophane and Atheistical World who by no other means would be convinced of either a Providence or a Deity but with supercilious looks and scornfull speeches have contemned all the hopes of future Reward and laught at the Religious for weak-brain'd Fools or Mad-men But then shall the hearts of the faithfull be filled with joy they seeing so comfortable an Appearance of him whom their Soul longed for who will reward all their Injuries Sorrows and Reproaches with condign Honour and Happiness Nay I may say that Christ will then vindicate himself from all those scorns and revilements that bold and prophane Wretches out of their Sensuality and High-mindedness have cast upon him from Age to Age pleasing themselves and gratifying other Epicurean Brutes of like impiety with themselves with their ungodly jears and scoffs against him who was the highest Example of Divine Perfection that ever appeared in the World Nay I adde further That there is in a manner a Necessity of this Personal Return of Christ thus in glory to judge the World according to his promise that these Blasphemers may not be encouraged to reckon him with such Impostours as David George and Mahomet who though they prefixed a shorter time to their followers shall not again be heard of till they appear before his Tribunal of whom we speak 2. And as for those that do believe that the Person of Christ does still subsist that he was so miraculously born so gloriously transfigured on the Mount so wonderfully raised up from the dead and did so conspicuously ascend into Heaven two Angels in bright garments affirming to them that beheld him that he would thus return again viz. in a personal Visibility what stranger thing is it that he should return then that which they acknowledge to be true of him already And how fit is it that he should still retain this Supremacy over the World none else having bought it so dearly as himself did by his most bitter Death and Passion and he that is so compassionate a Mediatour by reason of his Humane nature will prove the more fit and equal Judge And that there will be a Period and full pause of the Generations of men upon earth I have already little less then demonstrated though it be enough to shew there is no incongruity nor inconvenience in it For that is sufficient to stop modest men from either inventing or embracing such evasive Allegories as do elude the Testimony of the Scripture in an Article of so weighty a concernment as this 3. And as for those that are greater Infidels and look upon the above-framed description of Christ's coming to Judgement to be exceeding improbable if not impossible I say nothing but the very dulness of Atheisme it self can make them conceit thus For it being once admitted That there are Angels as well as men this glorious Appearance of Christ with the holy Angels is as easie and natural to admit as the Martial Pomp of a mighty Army or the Solemnity of a great Assize But that there are Spirits or Angels and that they can appear to men in what Region of the Aire they please History affords innumerable instances And how much for the miraculousness of it does this pompous Approach of Christ in the clouds differ from those fightings and skirmishings of whole Armies in the Aire of which all Ages almost and all Historians ring as well sacred as prophane The clattering also of Armour and the sound of the Trumpet have been very frequently heard from the Heavens as Plinie and other Historians do report Virgil and Ovid record these things with verses sutable to the solemnity of the Prodigies Armorum sonitum toto Germania coelo Audiit Georgic lib. 1. All o're the Heavens the noise of Armes was heard In Germanie And Ovid concerning the same matter Arma ferunt inter nigras crepitantia nubes Terribilesque tubas auditaque cornua coelo Clashing of Armes amidst black pitchy clouds Was heard with Trumpets hoarse and Cornets loud So that the Apostles prediction of Christ's coming thus visibly to judge the world attended with the heavenly Hosts and the Archangel sounding a Trumpet before him is so far from being impossible that it has in some manner and measure been already in the World though those astonishing Prodigies fall infinitly short of the Glory and Terrour of the Day of Judgement 4. Besides if we may compare small things with great as certainly we may the analogy being so conspicuous what particular judgement and vengeance of note has God done in the World wherein there has not been a sensible administration of Angels forerunning it I might make a very copious induction but I will keep my self within measure Before sweeping Plagues and Warrs how frequent are these Apparitions Cardan makes mention of several of the first kind Before the plague at Galaratum there appeared to a young man as he was riding thither in a rainy Night a Cart all covered with fire which gallop he as fast as he would was ever over against him he heard the voice also of Rusticks saying Cave Cave Take heed Take heed This Spectre attended him till he got to the Temple of St. Laurence which was without the town gate and there sunk into the ground both Cart Oxen Rusticks and Fire and all The same Author relates also of a stranger prodigie of a Pestilence in Peru upon the banks of the river Consote near Carthage where there appeared to certain women washing there as their custome was a man of a huge stature with his belly cut up and exenterated and two children in his armes he spoke to them and told them that all the Christian women should die and the greatest part of them also This Spectre was also seen on horse-back on the side of the Hills running swifter then the wind A mighty Plague followed that destroied almost all the Inhabitants of the place That also out of Fincelius is very remarkable The appearing of twelve or fifteen men in Marchia of huge and horrid statures in the corn field with sithes in their hands mowing down Oates with might and main so that the very hitting of the sithes was plainly heard afarre off but in the mean time no Oates were cut down People endeavoured to apprehend them but they ran too swift for them and yet they nevertheless mowed as laboriously in their flight as before A great Plague ensued thereupon I could adde to these what I have been credibly informed
that are so transported and overcome with those Allusions and Allegorical Reflexions as such high Attainments that they think themselves illuminated above the capacities of all other Mortals being more pleased with the gaudy colours of the Rainbow then with the pure light which is reflected thence Which yet all true Christians plainly see and feel in the simplicity of its own nature without any such cloudy refractions and know that the rest is not the dictate of the Spirit but the mere service of Phansy lending its aid to the setting forth of divine Perceptions And yet this slight sallad is the chief food this pretended Prophet feeds his followers withall and the greatest demonstration of his being extraordinarily called and inspired 5. For as for Miracles he never did any as you may see in that Book of his Life entituled Mirabilia Dei where nothing miraculous is recorded unless a certain Prophetical Dream wherein he seemed to be frighted together with some devotional expressions after he awakened out of it as also a lucky escape out of the hands of his Persecutors who haply being not so vigilant as they might be the phrase of the story makes them struck with blindness and lastly his witty questions and answers to the Priest or Confessor when he was a child wherein he does so fully utter the chief of his Doctrine that he seems as wise at eight years old as ever he was since though he lived to a very considerable Age. But any one that has any insight in things may easily discern that the Discourse was never intended for a true History but a spiritual Romance So that as petty businesses as these are they have no assurance of their truth 6. Now for his Pretensions of being the most eminent Preacher of Perfection it is a mere Boast For whether he means by Perfection Love which is the perfection of the Law it cannot be more clearly and advantageously preached then it is in the New Testament by Christ and his Apostles And what Comparison is there betwixt such a Teacher of Love who being the declared Son of God by Signes and Miracles gave his life out of dear compassion to mankind and a soft Fellow that onely talks fine phrases to the World Or whether he pretend to a more general Perfection in the divine Graces or holy Life whose Root is true Faith in God and his Promises through Christ and the branches Charity Humility and Purity it shall appear anon that as for true Faith he is perfectly fallen from it and that he is as a dead tree pulled up from the root And for the present it is evident also out of his own writings not to charge him with accusations out of others that he is far from being perfect either in Charity Humility or Purity For what greater sign of Uncharitableness then to charge all men that are not of his Communialty to be of the Synagogue of Satan and children of the Devil and what greater Pride then to prefer himself before Abraham Moses and Christ and make as if he were God himself come to judge the World with his thousands of Saints and Seraphims And lastly what greater Symptoms of Lust Impurity then to be sunk down from all sense and presage of a life to come To say nothing of his complaints in his Glasse of Righteousness of such as came in to spy out their liberty and his lusty animations against Shamefacedness and Modesty in men and women and their shiness to such acts as ordinary Bashfulness is loath to name Which in my apprehension are very foul spots in that Glasse of his as if it had been breathed upon by the mouth of a menstruous Woman 7. But there is also a more subtil Uncleanness from which who is not free if he knew his own weakness he would be ashamed to profess himself perfect and that is the Impurity of the Astral Spirit in which is the Seat and Dominion of unruly Imagination Hence are our Sidereal or Planet-strucken Preachers and Prophets who being first blasted themselves blast all others that labour with the like impurity by their Fanatick Contagion Those in whom Mortification has not had its full work nor refined the Inmost of their natural Complexions are subject to be smitten and overcome by such Enthusiastick storms till a more perfect Purification commit them to the safe custody of the Intellectual Powers Wherefore let this pretended Prophet boast as much as he will of his glorious Resurrection from the dead it is manifest to the more perfect that he has not yet so much as passed through that Death that should have led him to the unshaken Kingdome of Truth and letten him in to the immovable Calmness and serene stilness of the Intellectual World where the Blasts and Blusters of the Astral Spirit cease and the Violence of Phansy perverts not the faithful representations of Eternal Reason For God is not in these fanatick Herricanoes no more then he was in the tempestuous Wind Earthquake or Fire that passed before the Prophet Elias But the Divine Truth is to be found in that still small voice which is the Echo of the Eternal Word not urg'd upon us by that furious Impulse of complexionall Imagination but descending from the Father of lights with whom there is no shadow of change This was an Attainment out of this Boasters reach of which he had not the least sense or presage and therefore was wholy given up to the hot scalding Impressions of misguided Phansy in his Astral Spirit Which being strangely raised and exalted in this false light has a power by words or writings to fire others and to intoxicate them with the same heat and noise in their enravished Imagination whereby that still and small voice of Incomplexionate Reason cannot be heard CHAP. XIV 1. That neither H. Nicolas nor his Doctrine was prophesied of in Holy Scripture That of the Angel preaching the Everlasting Gospel groundlesly applied to him 2. As also that place Iohn 1.21 of being That Prophet 3. His own mad Application of Acts 17. v. 31. to himself 4. Their Misapplication of 1 Cor. 13. v. 9 10. and Hebr. 6. v. 1 2. to the Doctrine of this new Prophet 5. Their arguing for the authority of the Service of the Love from the Series of Times and Dispensations with the Answer thereunto 6. That the Oeconomie of the Family of Love is quite contrary to the Reign of the Spirit 7. That the Author is not against the Regnum Spiritûs the Cabbalists also speak of but onely affirms that this Dispensation takes not away the Personal Offices of Christ nor the External comeliness of Divine Worship 8. That if this Regnum Spiritûs is to be promoted by the Ministry of some one Person more especially it follows not that it is H. Nicolas he being a mere mistaken Enthusiast or worse 1. AND therefore being blinded with the wind and dust of this Fanatick Tempest they are carried on
the Immortality of the Soul the main Branches of the ancient Cabbala was also communicated But it is no where said nor can be conceived That God the Father distinctly from the Son and Holy Ghost gave the Law to Moses but it was an act as all acts ad extra are of the entire Godhead Nor is the Father nor the Holy Spirit excluded in the oeconomie of the Gospel but their Glory is acknowledged coequal and their Majesty coeternal Nor again can the Church ever cease to be under the Belief of Iesus Christ so as that any other God-service should justle that out by its succession For the Belief of the Promises of Christs coming again visibly to Judgement and Crowning his true members with Eternal Life and Glory must of necessity continue till the Promises themselves be fulfilled Which are but phantastically conceived to be fulfilled in the Service of the Love 6. Moreover how can that Dispensation pretend to be the Ministry of the Spirit where men are kept off from believing the inward manifestations of their own Mind where alone they can be properly said to be taught of God and urged to give up all their Light and Consciences to be rul'd at the pleasure of the Elders of his Family This is not to be inspired by God but to be taught merely by men and to be carved and shaped out like a piece of dead Marble by the hand of the Statuary So wholy unlike the Dispensation of the Spirit is this Oeconomie of the Service of the Love Beside that it is a piece of Rapine and Robbery to appropriate that to their Family which is the Peculiar of every true Believer in Christ who assuredly have the assistance of the Holy Spirit as I have proved at large in the following parts of my Discourse 7. But if any one will adventure to affirme That after this dead Forme of Religion and external flattery of the Person of Christ which has continued too-many Ages there will succeed a more general Reign of the Spirit of Life and experimental knowledge of his Sceptre and Power in us subduing all his enemies there under his feet and renewing the World in true Righteousness and Holiness it is that which I in no wise oppose nay I must confess I have a fatal and unalterable propension to think it to be true and that this may be that Regnum Spiritús which the Cabbalists of old did presage and does begin with the Reviving of the Witnesses in the Apocalypse of S. Iohn Of which things I have already spoke But in the mean time this is not the special work of any one man but like the Vision of Ezekiel where Breath comes from the four Winds of Heaven upon the bones already covered with sinews flesh and skin and behold they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great Army an orderly Company such as the Church of Christ ought to be For this Internal power of the Spirit will not annul or destroy the External Frame of Christian Religion as it referrs to the Offices of the Person of Christ the Head of his Church as these Satanical Impostors would pretend but rectifie and corroborate it and make it more irreprehensibly and enravishingly beautifull as there was more lustre in those raised Bodies after the Spirit of life had entred into them then when they were mere dead carkasses 8. Besides if we did conceive that this Dispensation of Christ in the Spirit was to be in a more special manner promoted by the Ministry of some one Person it does not at all follow that H. Nicolas is the man and not onely so but I am confident I shall make it manifest that it is impossible that it should be he Which I shall have sufficiently performed when I have demonstrated that he is nothing at all of that which he pretends to be but only a mere mistaken Enthusiast if not worse which was the last part of my Purpose And this I conceive is fully evinced by proving him to have laid aside all the Offices of the Person of Christ as he is Man and intercepted all the hopes of his Visible Return to Judgement in the clouds of Heaven and of rewarding all true Believers with that glorious Crown of Life in an Heavenly Body at the last day Which things are so clear in Scripture that the Scripture it self must loose its authority if these things once loose their belief as is manifest by what we have said already in this present Treatise And therefore he that denies these things it is plain he is not inspired of God but is a Minister and Factor for the Devil CHAP. XV. 1. That the Personal Offices of Christ are not to be laid aside That he is a Priest for ever demonstrated out of sundry places of Holy Writ 2. That the Office of being a Iudge is also affixed to his Humane Person proved from several Testimonies of Scripture 3. Places alledged for the excluding Christ's Humanity with Answers thereto 4. The last and most plausible place they do alledge with an Answer to the same 1. NOW that the Humane person of Christ as I may so call it is not to be laide aside is evident not to repeat what I have elsewhere alledged from the whole Epistle of the Author to the Hebrews For he that there is said to be an high Priest for ever is that very man who was crucified on the Cross at Ierusalem who was said to be like unto his brethren in all things that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things appertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that tempted And it is further clear that it is this very man we speak of in that he is said to be born not of the Tribe of Levi but of the Tribe of Iuda chap. 7.14 and yet he is there declared a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec Read the whole Chapter nothing can be more clearly asserted then the Everlasting high-Priesthood of this man who sanctifying the People with his bloud suffered without the gate Which are such particularities as must needs affix the Eternal high-Priesthood to the Humane person of Christ. Again in that he is said to suffer but once it is apparent that it is to be literally understood of his Humane person And every priest standeth dayly ministring and offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away sins But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God c. And yet more fully in the foregoing Chapter For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entreth into
the Scripture-learned teach them which is plainly to deny the History of Christ and to profess our selves mere Infidels Out of which Spirit of Infidelity he has so distortedly allegorized all the clauses of the Creed that to such as are not bewitched and besotted by his fanatick blasts to a better opinion of him then he deserves he must needs appear an Infidel Lastly in his Introduction Chap. 9. sect 35. there again he does boldly affirm That it is certainly mere lies what the Letter-learned institute or set forth how clear soever in understanding if they be yet unreformed by the Love and her Service And in the following Section he plainly declares That the Scriptures are not to be taught nor held forth Historically but as Prefigurations of the Promises that are fulfilled in his Service of the Love Whence it is evident he had no belief in the Letter of the Scripture nor of the miraculous History of Christ and of the Predictions concerning him whereby our Faith should be affixed to his Humane Person Against which he useth all diligence imaginable as if not simple Care but an inspired Envy or Satanical Spite against the honour of his Person did actuate him in all his Writings 2. To which purpose I conceive is that Caution in his Introduction That no man bind his heart to any outward thing which he is served with to the Righteousness of life For of all outward things nothing can be more serviceable then the Humane Person of Christ who suffered for us and redeemed us from the wrath to come if we stand faithfull in the Covenant Those places also where he saith That the Godly life is the very Saviour himself and that no man knows Christ nor can confess him unless his shape be in him that is his Life and Image be in him seem intended as justling against the External Person of Christ as also what he saith Chap. 22. namely That no other Foundation may be laid then that Iesus Christ who from everlasting was and is and abideth for ever whereby I doubt not but he intends the exclusion of his Humane Person whose compute began but about 16 hundred years agoe But the most wonderfull sleight he puts him off by is his Mystical meaning of Christ's celebration of the Passeover with his Disciples Which we shall easily understand if we take notice what he means by Flesh in his Writings namely by Flesh is meant the Letter or History In his Prophecy of the Spirit of Love Chap. 13. ver 4. Verily therefore they do all erre very much that judge according to their understanding out of the earthly Being or out of the Flesh or Letter God's truth which is Heavenly and Spiritual See also Introduct ch 14. sect 20. Now if you will but read his Evangely chap. 21. sect 3 7 8 10. also chap. 22. sect 5 6. and chap. 25. sect 1 2. you shall find in brief for it were too tedious to write these allegorical Ambages that the right Celebration of the Pascha or Passeover with Christ is That he namely Christ after the Flesh they are his own words should be slain that is that Christ according to the Letter or History should be abolished that he may be entertained only according to the Spirit Which is the great Arcanum of this Sect of the Family Behold saith he this is the right Passeover with Christ and the right Supper which the upright Believers and Disciples of Christ keep with Christ to wit that they depart even so with Christ out of the Flesh that is that Christ according to the History or Letter be crucified or slain in them that is nullified and rejected as a mere Legend or Fable and pass into the Spirit that is the spiritual Mystery of Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral of the Fable and out of the Death or Mortality that is out of the dead Letter into the Eternal Life of everlasting Immortality In which sonorous language that you may not promise to your self any such lasting purchase there is nothing meant but the state of Perfection which these Familists phansie to themselves here upon Earth and is everlasting in no other sense then in succession they promising themselves that their Sect will continue for ever and therefore he adds wherethrough sin and all destruction becomes vanquished namely by this state of Perfection wherein sin and every imperfect and destroyable state is swallowed up For they having come to the highest there is no change of things though their persons be mortal according to their own doctrine This Allegorie of the Passeover is so odd a conceit that did I not suppose the Author deeply Fanatical I should suspect it accompanied with a sly jearing and scorn against the History of Christ and to be the product of a scoffing Atheistical Spirit For no Atheist could exercise his wit here with more villainous sliness against the truth of the Scriptures then thus Which makes me sometimes think that he was not simply Fanatical but either Atheistical or possessed by the Devil himself in the mean time not knowing whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was 3. And thus we have had a taste in general how sedulously this Author endeavours to out the Person of Christ. We shall now pursue the matter in two main heads the Office of his Priesthood and his coming visibly to judgment in his Humane person To which is annexed the promise of a glorious Resurrection and Eternal Life in a plain and true sense without any shuffling or equivocating That he makes nothing of the atonement of Christ's personal sufferings he does in my judgment too plainly discover chap. 13. sect 8. of his Documental Sentences where rather then he will acknowledg the usefulness of that Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous who is a propitiation for our sins he does pronounce him that sins by violence or Temptation to be guiltless as the ravished virgin Deuteronomie 22 that so there may be no need of Christ's Sacrifice whose personal death and Priestly office he never takes notice of to this purpose As you may observe further Exhortat chap. 20. from sect 19 to the end of the chapter Where although he supposes a mans stumblings and fallings daily very great and terrible before him and that for that cause he is very wofull of heart feels the pricking of sin the darts of death and condemnation of Hell and so is in much anguish and affliction of mind yet is there no application at all of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross nor any help nor comfort at all held out by his sufferings though it was the most proper place that could be to mention them And chap. 24. in the praiers he puts up there in stead of making use of the mediation of that Christ that felt the pains of death on the Cross for us he makes use only of Gods supposed Promise or Covenant he has made with the House of
the Love sect 3. and 7. See him also upon the Beatitudes sect 6. And it is no wonder we hear nothing of that Reconciliation made by the Cross of Christ for he does plainly aver sect 34. That the true being in the Love is that peace with God and man mentioned Ephes. 2.14 and the true Testament that standeth fast for ever And Exhortation chap. 12.44 Remission of sins is gained only by submitting to the House of the Love The same that David George boasted of his doctrine Therefore my beloved children change ye not nor turn away your selves from the House of Love For there is in the same the stool of grace to an everlasting remission of sins over all such as cleave thereon and to a peace and rest of the life to all such as humble them there-under By such slips and omissions as these those that are not very dull of perception may easily spel out his meaning Which yet is more clear by other places of his Evangely chap. 13. Where he setleth the Everlasting Priesthood not upon Christ's person but makes this Kingly Priest no person at all but a thing a state or condition of him and his followers here upon earth And therefore he calls there this mystical Christ The Lords Sabbath The seventh day in the Paradise of God The perfection c. And chap. 22. he makes the entrance of Christ into heaven and his visible ascending up thither and sitting at the right hand of God and sending down the holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost which was a real effect of his eternal Priesthood and Intercession with God for his Church nothing but the appearing of him according to the Spirit out of the Heavenly Being in their Minds or Souls upon which he sent down his Spiritual or Heavenly Powers Wherefore this Mystical Christ is the only high Priest that he acknowledgeth and will allow him no otherwise then in this mystical and spiritual sense to be an everlasting and true Christ of God See the place of which you will assure your self I have given the right sense if you compare it with chap. 26. sect 10 11 12. where he more plainly affirms That it is the upright being of the Love Christ after the Spirit which he calls the true light which is that high Priest that abideth for ever at the right hand of God in the Heavenly Being Which phrase Heavenly Being alwaies signifies morally or mystically with him and means something within us And yet he has the impudence to alledge Acts 1. v. 11. where Christ is said to ascend into Heaven literally and naturally so called his disciples gazing upon him as he went up Thus you see how industriously nay how madly and rashly he shuffles out the Humane person of Christ from his Priestly Office every where And as he will have the Heaven or most Holy within us so will he have his Sacrifice and Passion within us too Introduct chap. 8.38 Where doe any now saith he keep the Supper of Christ where they break distribute and eat the bread which is the true Body of Christ to a remembrance of Christ that he hath suffered in us for the sins cause the death of the Cross and so his death is published till he come in his glory Where it is plain that the Crucifixion of Christ is a mystery in us and it is insinuated a duty too For the Body and the Flesh of Christ is Christ according to the History Which Christ according to the Flesh is to be slain in us if we celebrate the Passeover aright and thus we must publish his death till he come in glory that is in the Spirit 4. And truely no other is his glorious coming to judgment with this Sect then this Mystical and Spiritual coming which was the second part I intended to pursue which I question not but I shall make as clear as noon-day Of this there are so many Testimonies and so pregnant that the only fear is of being too copious in the proof of this matter Revel Dei cap. 7. There his illuminate Elders together with his Family of Love are the Heavens in which Christ the Son of God comes gloriously and triumphantly to judgment to reign with God and his righteousness everlasting upon earth Which plainly excludes the ending of the World and that coming of Christ that all Christians expect And chap. 15. sect 6. he affirms that in this Eighth day which is the day of the Spirit of Love all the dead that are deceased in the Lord Iesus Christ do rise from the death and all Generations of Heaven and Earth do become judged in the judgement of God with equity Again in his Introduct Chap. 1. he saith That now the true glorious God who is the Resurrection and the Life revealeth his Saints out of his bosome where since the time they fel asleep they have rested untill this day of the Love because they should now in these last times in the resurrection of the righteous be manifested with Christ in glory to a righteous judgement of God on the earth And chap. 12. he there also affirms That in this day of the Love there appear and come to us livingly and gloriously all God's Saints which in times past died and fell asleep in God And chap. 22. there he also tells us how that in sure and firm hope of everlasting life the upright believers have rested in the Lord Iesus Christ till the appearing of his coming which is now in this day of the Love revealed out of the heavenly Being with which Iesus Christ the former Believers of Christ who were fallen asleep rested or died in him are now also manifested in glory being raised from the dead to the intent that they should reign alive with him over all his enemies To which you may add what he has wrote chap. 16. in his Prophecy of the Spirit of Love Make you to flight make you to flight yea get you now all out of the way ye enemies of the Lord and of his service of the Love and give the Lord with his holy ones the roome yet shall ye not escape the vengeance of God For he saith the Lord cometh to judge betwixt the Family of the Love and the rest of the world where-through the Earth is now moved the Heavens troubled the Elements melt with heat and the token of the coming of the Son of man appears in Heaven with which rumour or rushing noise of the power of God and his holy ones the last trumpet doth also presently give forth her sound through whose blast of her vehement sound and through the appearing of the coming of Christ the dead shall stand up and arise unto the judgement of God who having revenged the bloud of his holy ones that the sinners have spilt and shed upon the earth he puts this pure Family in peaceable Possession thereof that they may reign there-over or judge the same with righteousness from henceforth world without
Which must needs be a message of great joy to all people that are of an upright and sincere heart CHAP. XIX 1. That Familism is a Monster bred out of the corruptions of Christianity and ill management of affairs by the Guides of the Church 2. The first Particular of ill Management intimated 3. The second Particular 4. The third Particular 5. The fourth 6. The fifth Particular 7. That this false Prophet H. Nicolas was raised by God to exprobrate to Christendome their universal Degeneracy Prophaneness and Infidelity 8. That though the Evil be discovered it is not to be remedied but by returning to the ancient Apostolick Life and Doctrine 1. AND now after my freedome with your competitours for the rule of Christendome the Illuminated Elders of the lovely Communialty of the Love have the patience to hear me in a word or two O ye conspicuous Lights and Guides of the Communialty of Christ. What think you of this hideous Monster that I have so lively set before your eyes From whence came it Whose brat is this foul errour of Familism Methinks I hear you straight reply H. Nicolas his But I demand further how came H. Nicolas to be such a Monster You will immediately return answer out of Micronius That he received his Metamorphosis from David George But I take leave to ask again Who transformed David George into such an Angel of light To which you 'l quickly reply The Devil His back I confess is broad enough to bear all indeed too broad to satisfie the curiosity of my Querie who would gladly know the more particular causes of so monstrous a production in the bowels of Christendome Which if you be ignorant of give me leave a little to informe you and be not displeased if you find much of the fault laid at your own dores For my own part I humbly conceive that you your selves have congested that putrid matter together which neither Sun nor Moon nor any natural Influence of Heaven but the fiery Wrath of God and his enraged eye of Jealousie has given heat and life to This dangerous Monster therefore have you your selves by Provocation of the Divine Vengeance raised up to your selves and given increase to and strength to subsist Which may appear to you from the due consideration of these Particulars following 2. For first You have so corrupted the Simplicity of Christian Religion by your humane inventions and Opinions which are so incredible so unintelligible so against all Sense and Reason and obtruded on the people with so much force and violence and with an authority and necessity equally indispensable to the very Oracles of God that you are constrained thereby to pronounce of that Religion then which nothing is more reasonable That there is no reasonable account to be given of it but that we are to believe it without examination or inquisition into it and thereby debase it and set it as low as Turcism or the most pittifull piece of Paganism that can be produced You inuring therefore the people to believe things upon no account and obtruding such things upon them as no account can be given of prepare them for the entertaining of every bold Impostor that pretends to an infallible Spirit and commends his adulterous ware upon the same title that you doe yours namely that they are so high and transcendent that they are above the reach of carnal Reason condemning every sober inquisition into the Truth as carnal Wherefore if there be but impudency enough assisted with a fiery Enthusiastick style flowered over with Scriptural Phrases and Allusions with deep and vehement protestations of the irresistible power of the Spirit that transports them and carries them on to that Prophetical Ministry they may securely say what they please and never be tried nor distrusted let them speak never so irrationally and inconsistently For the People are already sufficiently inured to things irrational contradictions and unintelligible whereby the perfectest Non-sense must appear to them the most pure Dialect of the Spirit And therefore there will be no stop but they must needs be carried on with such Torrents of Ecstatick eloquence and be washed away from the body of the Church into this or that Fanatick Sect according as the sutableness of their natural humour and opportunity exposes them to their assaults 3. Again When I consider the ineptness of your Allegations out of Scripture for such Opinions as you are so zealous for and the solemn adorning of the margins of your Theological Treatises with such insignificant citations out of the undeniable Oracles of God as that when one examines them he shall find his understanding as much abused as a mans eye-sight is by that mockery of drawing ones hands one from the other and twisting with his thumbs and forefingers as if there were some subtil string betwixt For assuredly the connexion betwixt your Quotations and your Conclusions is utterly as invisible as that imaginary line to the eyes of the sleepy I cannot but look on the Writings of this Enthusiast as an imitation of yours wherein Providence does reproach to you your unfaithfulness to the credulous people in that you would bear them in hand that all is true you obtrude upon them by your multitude of impertinent references to the holy Writ Which artifice this Mock-Prophet has taken up and out-done you in who stuffes his margins so thick with citations as if every Sentence in the Bible strove to put in their suffrage for him according as he boasts of himself That all the Scriptures from the beginning to the end do point at him and his Ministry if rightly understood Whenas if truly examined though his Margins perpetually point towards the Scriptures they do not at all point at him again in any place nor give him the least nod of approbation nor take any notice at all of him 4. Thirdly Whereas the Mystery of Christianity even as it refers to the External person of Christ is the chiefest obligation of mutuall Love that the Wisdome of God could set forth to the world you that are not only Christians but the Guides of Christendom have so entangled this Mystery with your rash and perverse superadditions with your forgeries subtilties and vain comments that it is become nothing else but a shop of Controversies a School of Contention out of which is heard nothing but brawlings and scoldings about useless Opinions nothing has sprung from thence but Hatred Pride Faction yea barbarous Persecutions and Bloudshed your selves blowing the trumpet out of those holy places which were erected for the preaching of the Gospel of Peace and in an Antichristian phrensy sounding an alarm of warre against such as are in Reconciliation with God through the bloud of Jesus Christ which should be the common cement of Christendome and hold all their hearts together in firm Unity and Concord Wherefore you having thus left empty the Tabernacle of David is it any wonder that a Stranger hath thus stept in and taken
best have long since before this inveterate contest betwixt the Iew and Christian interpreted them so 5. The sixth Character of his Person is the Excellencie of his Doctrine This is intimated as I said Isaiah 53. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many but is more fully express'd Malachi 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come into his Temple which might have been produced as another Prophecie of the Divinity of the Messiah even the messenger of the Covenant whom you delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth For he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in Righteousness Whereby is plainly denoted the purity and sanctity of that Law and Spirit that the Messiah was to communicate to his serious followers that he would throughly purifie them and purge them from their Hypocrisie and Sinfulness And again Isaiah 42. Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my Soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised reed shall he not break and the smoaking flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth judgment unto truth He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the Isles shall wait for his law Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thy hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant unto the people for a light of the Gentiles To open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house And Isaiah 49. Listen O Isles unto me and hearken ye people from far The Lord hath called me from the womb from the bowells of my mother hath he made mention of my name And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me and made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hid me And verse 5. And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Iacob again unto him Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength And he said It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Iacob and to restore the desolations of Israel I will also give thee for a Light to the Gentiles that thou maiest be my Salvation to the end of the earth My Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an allusion to the very name of Isaiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies The Salvation of the Lord Which seems to be alluded to in the first verse also from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name Which is so near a kin to the name of Iesus that the Messiah may seem to be prefigured in the very name of the Prophet Isaiah as well as in his Person As it must be confessed that both these two Prophecies do in some measure belong to Isaiah himself first But considering how the more excellent Kings and Prophets were to be Types of the Messiah and that the language is so very high it cannot be doubted but that in these Divine raptures and exaltations of Spirit the Minde and Tongue of Isaiah was carried above what was competible to his own Person and therefore must naturally be transferred to the Messiah it being plain from other places that there was at last to come some one transcendent Prince and Prophet anointed in an higher manner and measure then any other Which the Iews expected and called their Messiah And therefore it is therewithal manifest that their Messiah was to be an eximious Teacher Prophet or Law-giver 6. The seventh Character is that he should be very welcomely received of the Nations that which these last Prophecies also intimate But I shall add others also To this sense the Jews themselves interpreted that ancient Prophecie of Iacob 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him shall be the gathering together of the Nations the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he is the hope or expectation of the Nations And there is yet one more ancient then that which implies it viz. the Promise to Abraham that he should be a Father of many Nations and that in his seed all Nations of the Earth should be blessed Of which other Prophecies also witness Isay 2.2 And it shall come to pass in the last daies that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it The Jewish Doctours themselves acknowledge this to be understood of the times of the Messiah And chap. 11. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious or Him shall the Gentiles seek viz. in a devotional way shall pray unto him and sing praises unto him For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And his rest shall be glorious sepulcrum ejus erit gloriosum so some turn it and truely not rashly nor without cause For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in several places signifies the rest of the dead Job 3. v. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is in Iob's description of the state of the dead Also Proverbs 21.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall rest in the congregation of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is better for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one as appears Psalm 88. v. 11. Lastly Psalm 23. v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquae requietum implies such a rest as Sleep the brother of death For there is nothing more prone then to lye and sleep on the shadie banks of a River Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well signifie Dormitorium ejus or Sepulcrum ejus erit gloriosum that is That it shall at last be exalted to the nature of a Temple he shall have Divine Honour done unto him and the Gentiles shall pray unto him and adore him as is intimated in the words immediately going before But this was more then
his Church cannot cease himself not ceasing to be but he is a Priest and King for ever according to the Prophecies CHAP. IV. 1. Our Saviour's strict injunction of Purity from whence it is also plain that the Love he commends is not in any sort fleshly but Divine 2. Several places out of the Apostles urging the same duty 3. Two more places to the same purpose 4. The groundless presumption of those that abuse Christianity to a liberty of sinning 5. That this Errour attempted the Church betimes and is too taking at this very day 6. Whence appears the necessity of opposing it which he promises to doe taking the rise of his Discourse from 1 Iohn 3.7 1. THE third Branch of the Divine Life is Purity In the urging whereof both Christ and his Apostles being so earnest it is plain that that Love which they recommend to the World can be no suspected affection like that which the canting language of the Enthusiasts may justly be thought to favour but that it is that pure and holy Love indeed which deservedly we have styled Divine And how severely this Purity we speak of is required I shall give you some few but very sufficient instances Matth. 5.27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart And if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is better for thee that one of thy members should perish then that thy whole body should be cast into Hell And if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee c. What more serious and earnest monition can there be made to Continence and Abstinence from sensual pleasures then this of our Saviour who upon no less penaltie then the torments of Hell interdicts us all looseness and uncleanness forbidding us all preludious preparations to the foul acts of Lust and not permitting so much as an imaginary scene of illicit transactions to which our will could really assent if opportunity were offered 2. And we shall find the Apostles insisting in the footsteps of their Master in this matter 2. Corinth 6. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separated saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God And 1 Thessalon 5. The God of peace sanctifie you wholy and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Iesus Christ. And in the former chapter ver 3. For this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles that know not God And 1 Corinth 6. ver 13. Now the bodie is not for fornication but the Lord and the Lord for the bodie And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also quicken us by his own power Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid And a little after Flee fornication Every sin that a man doth is without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body What know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodie and in your Spirit which are God's Also Coloss. 3.5 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Fornication Uncleanness immoderate affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry For which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience Parallel to which is that Ephes. 5.3 Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us but fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness let it not be so much as once named amongst you as becomes saints Neither filthiness nor foolish talking which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdome of Christ and of God Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not you therefore partakers with them And 1 Corinth 6.9 Know ye not the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Be not deceived neither fornicatours nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdome of God 3. I have made a more ample collection of the enforcements of this duty of Purity and Sanctity then I intended and yet I cannot abstain from adding of two more the one out of S. Peter 1 Epist. ch 2. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. The other out of him which I have already so often cited Rom. 13.12 The night is far spent and the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambring and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 4. I have now abundantly shewn how plainly and explicitly Christ and his Apostles urge all men that are hearers of the Gospel to be carefull and conscionable doers of the same that they should be holy even as Christ was holy in all manner of conversation that they are bound to endeavour and aspire after the participation of the Divine life and all the Branches thereof Humility Love and Purity hating even the garment spotted by the flesh as the Apostle Iude speaks And how this Holiness and Righteousness is required of them with no less seriousness and earnestness then upon the forfeiture of their eternal Salvation if they do not act according to those Precepts Insomuch that I stand amazed while I consider with my self that hellish and abominable gloss that some have put upon the Gospel as if it were a mere school of loosness and that the end of Christs coming into the world was but to bring down a commission to the sons of men whereby they might be enabled to sin with authority I am sure with all desirable security and impunity nothing
Dispensation are we well approved of by God and being justified thus by faith we have peace with him through our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 5.1 So that this Iustification is not a mere belief that Christ died for us in particular or that he was raised from the dead whereby anothers Righteousness is imputed to us but a believing in God that he has accepted the bloud of Christ as a Sacrifice for sin and that he is able through the power of the Spirit to raise us up to newness of life whereby we are encouraged to breath and aspire after this more inward and perfect righteousnesse Which advantages God propounds to all the hearers of the Gospel without any respect of works or former demurenesse of life if so be they will but now come in and close with this high and rich dispensation and be carried on with couragious resolutions to fight against and pull down the man of sin within themselves that this living and new way of real Divine righteousnesse may be set up and rule in their hearts I say if they be encouraged to this holy enterprise by Faith in Christ for the remission of sins and for the power of his Spirit to utterly eradicate and extirpate all inward corruption and wickednesse this Faith is presently imputed to them for Righteousnesse that is they are and are approved by God as dear children of his and as good men and are of the seed of the Promise For they are born now not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but of the will of God and their will is wholly set upon righteousnesse and true holinesse which they hunger and thirst after as sincerely and eagerly as ever they did after their natural meat and drink and God who feeds the young Ravens is not so cruell as to deny them this celestial food which food they reach at and as it were wrest out of his hands by Faith in the power of his Spirit whereby they account themselves able to doe all things 9. And this is the only warrantable notion that I can finde of being justified by faith Nor do those places above recited prove any other then this For that which seems to make most of all for another viz. Rom. 4.5 But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness may very well be interpreted according to that tenour of sense I have already declared For that is the great and comfortable priviledge of the Gospel that without any respect of former works if so be we do but now believe remission of sins in Christ and believe in his power that justifies the ungodly i. e. that makes just the ungodly and purifies and purges them from all sin and iniquity from which by their own naturall power they could not purged and restores them to inward reall righteousnesse by the working of his Spirit this Faith is imputed for Righteousnesse For they that do thus believe are good and righteous men for matter of sincerity so that they have peace with God through the bloud of Christ and by the power of that Spirit that is now working in them are renewed daily more and more into that glorious image and desirable liberty which arises in the further conquest of the Divine life in them and makes them righteous even as Christ was righteous And now the hardest is satisfied the other places alledged will easily fall of themselves by the application of what has been said concerning this nature of Faith and Iustification 10. As for those places of Scripture that seem to attribute the Righteousness of Christ to us as where he is said to be made unto us wisedom righteousness sanctification and redemption the sense is only this that he works in us wisedom righteousness c. Otherwise it might be inferred that we shall have only an imputative Redemption and that we shall not be really saved and redeemed As for that other As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one man many shall be made righteous I say it is a place against themselves For by Adam we became really sinners and sinful contracting original corruption from his loins therefore by Christ we are to be made really righteous And this was the end of his obedience that was obedient even to the death of the crosse that we being buried with him by baptisme into death like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6. Wherefore there really being no ground in Scripture for this childish mistake and it being as unreasonable that one Soul should be righteous for another as that one Body should be in health for another if I shew that the Scripture it self does expresly require of us that we be righteous and holy in our own persons there is then nothing wanting to the full discovery of this childish and ungrounded conceit of being righteous without any Righteousness residing in us 11. And in my apprehension this very Text of S. Iohn is a clear eviction of this Truth it plainly declaring that they are mistaken who ever conceit themselves righteous without doing righteousnesse or without being righteous in such a sense as Christ himself was righteous There are also several other Testimonies of the Apostles to the same purpose some whereof I have noted already as where he saith That Christ was manifested to take away our sins and that he came to destroy the works of the Devil and that he that is born of God sinneth not because the seed of God abideth in him that is a permanent Principle of Divine life and sense whereby he seeth and abhorreth whatsoever is wicked and unholy And again 1 Ioh. â— Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandements He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him but whose keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected Hereby know we that we are in him He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked Like that 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity CHAP. VI. 1. Their alledgement of Gal. 2.16 as also of the whole drift of that Epistle 2. What the Righteousnesse of faith is according to the Apostle 3. In what sense those that are in Christ are said not to be under the Law 4. That the Righteousness of faith is no figment but a reality in us 5. That this Righteousnesse is the New Creature and what this new Creature is according to Scripture 6. That the new Creature consists in Wisedom Righteousness and true Holiness 7. The Righteousnesse of the new Creature 8. His Wisedom and Holinesse 9. That the Righteousness of faith excludes not good Works The wicked treachery of those
the power of his might Put you on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil For we wrestle not against flesh and bloud but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world even against the wicked Spirits of the air Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand in the evil day and having vanquished all to stand Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breast-plate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Above all taking the shield of faith whereby you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of Salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God We shall add only a short speech to the Christian souldier thus harnessed from the Captain of our Salvation Jesus Christ Revel 3. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne Which things thus put together and carefully considered cannot but awaken us out of that drouzy and lazy dream of unoperative Faith and sluggish sordid slavery to sin under pretence of invincible infirmity into a full belief of the mighty power of Christ and of his Armature and Ammunition whereby we are able to overcome all our domestick lusts though abetted and incensed by the fiery Stratagems of the Devil 6. To him that overcomes When I beseech you is this overcoming Is not Victory wone in the same field the battel is fought and is not our warfare here upon this earth wherefore it is plain our Victory must be here also It is in this life we are commanded to kill and slay the old man in us with all his deceiveable lusts who while he is alive will be alwaies plotting and inventing some evil device or other to undermine and root the Kingdome of Christ out of our hearts And therefore we must be wholy the one or wholy the other We cannot serve Christ and Belial Light and Darkness cannot abide together And verily the Apostle has furnished us with so compleat an armature that we cannot but confess our selves stronger then the strong man that has hitherto kept the house so that if he be not dispossessed it is long of us For the faithfull Christian Souldier is so well appointed being girt with Truth his Heart fortified with Uprightness and Sincerity his Mind with representations of Eternal life his feet with readiness unwearied resolution of walking as becomes the Gospel of Christ his Memory with the choicest and most useful encouraging Precepts of the Scripture his whole Soul bearing it self strong in the Faith of the power of God against all assaults and temptations of the enemies of our Salvation that he cannot but get the day and stand Conquerour in the field though his own domestick lusts be assisted by the powers of the Prince of the Air that rules in the Children of disobedience For this shield of Faith is able to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil This is that Faith whereby the ancients have subdued kingdomes and wrought righteousness And this is that whereby every Christian shall advance his conquests against the Kingdome of Darkness and Unrighteousness as much as he pleases For according to a mans Faith so shall it be unto him 7. Wherefore those that plead for a lazy Slackness and Remisness in these attempts are not faithfull Christians but false brethren got amongst us He that puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the kingdome of God Again He that loveth Father or Mother more then me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more then me is not worthy of me Nay he that loveth his own life more then Christ is not worthy of him nor can he be his disciple as our Saviour himself has declared How can then any be Christ's disciple that loves any lust whatsoever though never so pleasant though never so profitable more then the Son of God that redeemed him with his own bloud Wherefore all true Christians have been in this point in good earnest in both practice profession and praiers in breathing and contending after all exquisiteness of purity and integrity both of flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God as the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians According to which also S. Iames in his Epistle general chap. 1. v. 4. Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire being defective in nothing Like that praier of Epaphras for the Colossians chap. 4.12 who is said there to labour fervently for them in praier that they may stand perfect and complete in the whole will of God Which is the same with S. Peter's 1 Epist. the last chapter The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Iesus after that you have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you To which we will add that of the Author to the Hebrews and so conclude Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Iesus the great shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to doe his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII 1. That the Christians assistance is at least equal to his task 2. The two Gospel-powers that comprehend his duty 3. The first Gospel-aid The Promise of the Spirit with Prophecies thereof out of Ezekiel and Esay 4. Some hints of the mystical meaning of the last 5. Another excellent prediction thereof 1. WE have made it very evident That that degree of Righteousness that the Christian is called unto is no lazy sluggish inclination to holiness no maimed halting Hypocritical following after Christ but a sound and chearfull endeavour and at last a joifull acquisition of such a degree of Sanctity and Righteousness as far surmounts the pretensions of all other Religions whatsoever and is indeed so exquisite and perfect that nothing better can be desired or imagined So holy and Heavenly a calling is the calling of a Christian. And indeed the expectation is so great that if our aids and assistances were not proportionable we could never arrive to the End of our calling But our helps are in my apprehension far greater then our task if we were not wanting to our selves 2. We have hitherto seen how necessary inward Sanctification is to a Christian as also to how ample a measure he is called Both these he is indispensably obliged to endeavour and breath after perpetually as is manifestly declared by Christ his Apostles and the Prophets before them Wherefore these two I
and the high pitch thereof together with the mighty assiâ—â—ance hereunto The Promise of the Spirit of God moving and cooperating in the inward man to the finishing and completing all his works in us that we may be holy and blameless without spot or wrinkle or any such thing We have also prevented all perverse glosses of false Teachers whereby they would slacken and enervate the strength and efficacy of these three Powers of the Gospel we have hitherto spoken of by introducing a bare fruitless and steril Faith or the Imputation of an external Righteousness that according to their compute is further removed from us then the highest Star Which errour were it as harmless as groundless any peaceable good Christian could be content to connive at it but it being an old mischievous Stratagem against the Church and so noted by the wisedom of the Apostles an evil Machination found out by the Prince of darkness to undermine the Kingdom of Christ no faithful Adherent to the interest of the Lord Jesus and the advancement of his Rule and Power in the World can with a good conscience slightly pass it over but will use his best endeavour to undeceive the world in so dangerous a mistake 2. And though I be now hasting apace to the next joynt of the Evangelical Engine I am describing yet I cannot passe on with satisfaction to my self before I have also added to the suffrages of the Apostles who unanimously have voted this opinion of being righteous without doing righteousnesse a very dangerous Imposture and Deceit some rational Considerations that may make us still more sensible of the ill consequences thereof For my own part I must confesse that it is to me a thing utterly inconceivable how a man can be righteous here without Righteousnesse or happy hereafter without Righteousnesse here or how any true Christian can please himself in a Palliation more then a Cure or can be satisfied with any thing but that Manna that came down from heaven the very Flesh and Bloud of Christ in that sense I have interpreted it or without feeding his Soul with that real Spirit of Righteousness or the Divine Nature which is meat indeed and drink indeed For I do not understand how the condition of these Opposers of so Essential and Fundamental a Truth can be any other then what the Prophet Esay has prefigured in those that fight against Ariel the Altar of Holocausts where the whole beastly nature is to be burned by the consuming Fire of God and that lay siege against Mount Sion the Hill of that Drinesse and Thirst which God has promised to irrigate with living Springs of water It shall be as when an hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint So shall the multitude of the Nations be that fight against Mount Sion This is the condition of all Sects whatsoever that are contrary to them that thirst and hunger after righteousness For these shall be really satisfied the dew of Divine grace shall plentifully showr down upon this Sion and they shall be filled with Spiritual Manna from Heaven whereas the other their hunger and thirst that is their wants and defects being real but not after real Righteousness are fed only by imaginations and dreams and whenever they awake out of them will finde themselves destitute 3. Nay what is yet worse a man may almost conclude that they are not so much as in a capacity of dreaming of celestial food For that is a function of life to dream of such things as are agreeable to such a species of living creatures and those that dream of such things as are congruous to their nature it is because they have had an enjoyment of them and do sometimes enjoy them according to the order of Nature And certainly he that is a true Christian is not a mere natural man but is that New Creature that is framed in righteousness and true holinesse and therefore he must be fed out of such Principles as he was generated from not of the will of man but the Spirit of God and therefore he does not only dream of but really feed of that Manna that is from Heaven that inward essential Righteousnesse that is from God And as it is impossible for one man to eat to drink and to breath for another in a natural way so also is it alike impossible for any one person to eat and drink and breath in a spiritual way for another And if we were wholly alive to that life that is most certainly in every Christian rightly so called we should think it as inconvenient that any one should be righteous for us as that he should be in health for us For what comfort would it be while we are in a tedious fever a sharp fit of the stone or gout that some other person should be sound and at ease for us 4. And therefore it is too shrewd an indication that men in this imaginary perswasion are in a manner past feeling as the Apostle speaks as being devoid of all divine life and sense otherwise Sin and Immorality would be as harsh to their Souls as these Diseases are painful to their bodies And hence it is that S. Iohn saith That he that is born of God sinneth not because the seed of God remaineth in him as I have noted above For what Principle of life sins against it self what Beast wilfully wounds it self what Tree blasts it self what life will so much as hurt it self any way Will the Eagle swim in the Sea or the Dolphin fly in the Aire Will not all Creatures keep them to their own Element and Original and fly their contrary Element as that which brings destruction or at least a great deal of diseasement to them What regenerate man then can endure to come near the Region of Sin It can be no more pleasant to him then the Smoke to his eyes or the Saw to his hearing How can I do this wickedness and sin against God Nay how can I cut and launce and scorch my self my better self even Christ which lives in me with whom I suffer as often as his image suffers And this may serve for a more generall taste of the unreasonablenesse of this wicked and mischievous Imposture that has ever more or lesse attempted the Church of Christ. But I shall bring you in a more punctual Bill of the losses and damages done thereby CHAP. XI 1. That the want of real Righteousness deprives us of the Divine Wisedom proved out of Scripture 2. As also from the nature of the thing it self 3. That it disadvantages the Soul also in Natural speculations 4. That it stifles all Noble and laudable Actions 5. And exposes the imaginary Religionist to open reproach 6. That mere imaginary Righteousness robs the Soul of her peace of Conscience 7. And of
all divine Ioy 8. Of Health and Safety 9. And of eternal Salvation 10. That God also hereby is deprived of his Glory and the Church frustrated of publick Peace and Happiness 1. THis sad reckoning may be comprized under these two general heads The Good of man and The Glory of God Those particulars in which the Good of man chiefly doth consist be these 1. True Wisedom and a sound Iudgement in things 2. Noble and profitable Actions 3. Honourable Repute 4. Peace and Tranquillity of Minde 5. Divine Ioy and Triumph of Spirit 6. Health and Safety here in this life 7. Eternal Happiness hereafter And now first that we are deceived and cheated of true Wisedom and a sound Mind by this fond supposal That we may be righteous though we be not righteous as Christ was righteous that is in doing of righteousness will sufficiently appear from this That Righteousness and Holiness is the only true way to Divine Wisdome and a sound judgement in things Which may be made good both by manifold testimonies of Scripture and from the nature of the thing it self If any one will doe the will of God he shall know of my doctrine saith Christ whether it be from God or whether I speak of my self John 7. And in the Psalms The fear of the Lord by which is understood Righteousness the eschewing evil and doing good as the Psalmist himself explains it is the beginning of wisdome a sound Iudgement have they that doe thereafter c. And elsewhere The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he is mindfull of his Covenant to make them know it as the Hebrew will be well rendred And Job 32. I said Daies should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdome But there is a spirit in a man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding But how this Inspiration and Spirit of Wisdome has for its abode an heart really righteous the Wisdome of Solomon will tell us insomuch that he that is contented to forgoe Righteousness must also of necessity fall short of Wisdome Wisdome cannot enter into a wicked heart saith he nor dwell in a body that is subject unto sin For the holy Spirit of discipline fleeth from deceit and withdraweth her self from thoughts that are without understanding and is rebuked when wickedness cometh in Wisdome therefore and Unrighteousness cannot abide under the same roof Our bodies cannot be both the Temples of the living God and of a deceitfull Idol And if it were needfull to add any thing Allegorical and Mysterious to these plain Testimonies of Scripture we might also urge that this precious truth That Wisdome rises out of Righteousness was also shadowed out in the fourth days Creation wherein the lights of Heaven were made For that mysterious Jew on the place records this observable priviledge of the number Four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Quaternarie Number is the first Quadrate pariter par or equally equal the measure of Iustice and Equity Wherefore the number here of the Day being a Symbol of Righteousness that which was created in that day viz. the Lights of Heaven may very well be the Symbols of divine Knowledge or Wisdome viz. the Sun of Righteousness as Christ is called intimating that the Divine Wisdome is conceived and brought forth or if you will created in Righteousness So that this Intellectual Sun does not arise and shine upon our Minds til this fourth day the day of Righteousness But then that in the Proverbs is made good That the path of the just is as the shining light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that goes on and shines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 til the firmitude or stability of the day and that 's at Noon which is the Solstice of the day where his altitude does not so sensibly vary So that the sense is That the path of the righteous is like the course of the Sun who still climbs up til he fully reach his Meridian But the way of the wicked is as darkness as it is in the following verse they know not at what they stumble 2. And thus it is plain from Testimonies of Scripture That divine Wisdome and a sound Mind is not to be attained unto but through Righteousness And that consequently he that forgoes real Righteousness must of necessity lose true Wisdome But beside this there are also innate arguments taken from the things themselves whereby the same Truth may be proved For it is apparent that Corruption of the Will like rust eats away the strength defaces the beautie and obscures the brightness of the Understanding and dulls the edge of the natural wit But to point out more at large some Reasons why the unrighteous must be also unwise The first is From the falseness of the wicked heart the second From the asymmetry or incongruity the vitious Mind has with divine Truth And for the former it is a manifest reason why God does not commit the treasures of Wisdome to the unrighteous For he will not put it into the custody of false men How carefull the divine Wisdome is in this point Siracides has very fitly described chap. 4. For first she will walk with a man by crooked waies and bring him unto fear and dread and torment him with her discipline until she have tried his soul and proved him with her judgements Then will she return the straight way unto him and comfort him and shew him her secrets and heap upon him the treasures of knowledge But why she will not commit this great and pretious treasure to polluted and unholy minds is as I have said because of their faithlesness they being so likely to abuse it that is they will either contemn it as a swine does a pearl preferring either the sensual pleasures or the riches or the honours of the world before it and so quenching the good grace of God by their base lusts and evil desires are cast off by God in a deserved scorn For the divine Wisdome is not so vile and cheap a thing as to intrude her self like an impudent woman into the familiarities of men but is rebuked and checked and goes her way at the entrance and appearance of her bold corrivals if they be entertained viz. The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and many such affronts will quite chase her away so that whereas she sought after us before she now sought after by us will be hard to be found or else if we do not seem to contemn her and slight her yet we may shew our selves faithless and treacherous in betraying her to other uses then God intended her As if so be we should thence endeavour to exalt our own name and please our selves in our own arrogancy setting our selves above others or use the quickness and sagacity of our Understandings to deceit or the patronizing of evil in our selves or others I say because the unrighteous man would be subject to
abuse thus treacherously the great gift of God therefore the divine Wisdome may not lodge in his false heart but in stead of that any fortuitous Opinions which his own natural inclinations practices education or confusion of his own mind and conscience shall heap together in him hand over head which he taking for Truth shall notwithstanding abuse and shew the divine Wisdome how he would also use her if he could come at her 't is likely worse or rather he would abuse himself worse with her then with those that meat being worst for the sick which is best for them that are well But beside that the counsell of God is such that he will not give the gift of Wisdome to the wicked heart there is also an incongruity if not an incompossibility in the thing it self The wicked man is uncapable of it The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sun cannot be seen by the Eye unless the Eye receive the likeness of the Sun as Plotinus speaks Wherefore we doe very foolishly in that we bestow so much time in the exercise of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so little in the preparing and fitting of it that afterward the use of it may be with good effect If the Eyes be weak muddy and dim even almost to blindness we are not so foolish as to think to perfect our sight by looking long or often or on many Objects it makes our sight rather worse but the disease of the Eye is first to be taken away and then with ease and in a moment we may see more then before we could in many years by wearisome poaring with our short sight or rather which is more to the purpose we should be able to discern such things as in our former condition we should never have been able at all to discern So the Soul of man in its unrighteous and polluted condition does very unadvisedly with so much curiosity and anxious labour to endeavour the discoveries of divine Truths for there is as yet Laesum organum and she ought to commit her self first to the skill of a faithfull Physitian to Christ who is the healer of the Souls of men as well as he was of their Bodies and so to be re-estated again into that state of health and soundness and Righteousness is this soundness of the Soul and then to use her Faculty when it is able to receive that whereby the Object is discovered In lumine tuo videbimus lucem In thy light we shall see light But if the Eye receive no light it discovers no Object So if the Soul receive no impresse from God it discovers nothing of God For it is most certainly true That like is known by like and therefore unless the Image of God be in us which is Righteousness and true Holiness we know nothing of the Nature of God and so consequently can conclude nothing concerning him to any purpose For we have no measure to applie to him because we are not possessed of any thing homogeneal or of a like nature with him and this only can be a measure for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks But when we are arrived to that Righteousness or rectitude of Spirit or uprightness of Mind by this as by the Geometrical Quadrate we also comprehend with all Saints what is that spiritual breadth and length and depth and height as the Apostle speaks What the Rectitude of an Angle does in Mathematical measurings the same will this Uprightness of Spirit doe in Theological Conclusions 3. And not to make this loss of Wisdome a jot less then it is I further add That Unrighteousness is encumbred with many distempers and impediments whereby even Natural knowledge as well as Divine Wisdome is much hindred in a man Such are Anger Impatience Self-admiration or Self-conceitedness Admiration of persons or a pusillanimous Over-estimation of them Desire of Victory more then of Truth Too close attention to the things of the world as Riches Power and Dignities Immersion of the Mind into the Body and the slaking of that noble and divine fire of the Soul by Intemperance and Luxury with such like All which certainly are very great enemies to all manner of Knowledge as well Natural as Divine And as for Anger which appears in disputes that it blinds the Judgement is an acknowledged truth as those Proverbial sayings witness Impedit ira animum c. and Ira furor brevis and Madness and Wisdome do not consist together This Passion placed upon Religious objects is called Zeal and the Apostle that there may be no mistake calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter Zeal But this inordinate Anger be it in things Humane or Religious it is really a Whirlwinde in our Soul and carries up with it dirt and straws and dust and all in to the Understanding and does alwaies more or less blind the Judgment And how great an enemy Impatience is to that choice piece of Natural knowledge which lies in Mathematicks is evident from hence That those Sciences either find or make the studiers of them of calm and quiet Spirits as Petiscus truly observes But whether the Admiration of our selves or of other Persons be more mischievous to the Truth is not easie to define For though we be more prone to admire our selves yet we may with less checking admire another it looking something like Friendship or Modesty though commonly if not alwaies we have some lurking interest involved in the same and so admire our selves in another with less Envy and Suspectedness Wherefore the next way not basely to admire another is not conceitedly to admire ones self or more favourably to look on a mans own conceits then on a strangers For it will be very hard for one whom Self-love does not impose upon to be imposed upon by any other person whom he cannot love better then himself And as for Desire of Victory the sense of that folly is That a man had rather seem wise then be so or have the glory and fame then the possession of Wisdome And he that is thus affected must of necessity follow such things as are most obvious plausible and popular and so become a fool amongst wise men as well as seem a wise man amongst fools And as for close Attention to the world that man ought to hold there be more Souls then One in a mans body that will hold that ambitious and covetous men have any leisure to be much seen either in Divine or Natural things For their plottings after Wealth and Honour and the putting of their plots in execution will take up the Animadversion of the Soul so much that one Animadversive will not suffice for both these Provinces So that it is possible that men that have not addicted themselves to any such projects but have been ever imploied in
Gardening and the like if he out of a foolish conceit of Light and Reason being only â—â—â—hin one and not without as certainly neither Ink nor Paper nor both put together are any more partakers of the Light of Reason then of Sense and Life would make no use of the Writings of Euclid suppose for Mathematicks nor any other Authour that has writ of such matters and so of the rest of the Faculties I named nor converse with any man by word of mouth nor cast his eyes upon what they have done but only think with himself and sit still by the light of his own lamp within dores will be a very sorry Mathematician Architect Husbandman or Gardener So certainly for Moral and Divine Truth he that will be so taught by himself that he will not use outward advantages such as the Holy Scriptures especially afford will be found at last to have been the Scholar of a very foolish and imperfect Master 4. Besides that these men contradict themselves in their own practices For they vilifie that by which they have been taught and retain the very phrases of what they have learned out of Scripture and know not how to speak without Scripture-terms nor can make any show without Scriptural allusions and that grand Document of keeping to the Light within us they borrow out of S. Iohn's Gospel and yet they are so phrantick and peevish that they would fling away the staffe without which they are not able to make one step in Religion Moreover if this Light within us is so precisely within us that it wants no information from without us why do they themselves scribble such abundance of Pamphlets make Catechisms set out Prophecies why do they exhort rebuke nay reproach and raile against men to convert them if what is without cannot reach that which is within or why do they meet together to hear some one of their Assembly after he has fallen down as in a trance and got up again dictate Oracles out of his disturbed breast For his words which they hear are without and beat upon the Ear they are not the Light within Wherefore it is plain that the Light within may be informed by something which is without whether by voice or writings And if so there is an obligation upon this Light within to be so considerate as to seek the most punctual information it can from what is most likely to inform it from without 5. And therefore they are with all diligence to examine the most venerable Records of Religion and especially of that Religion under which they were not only born but which is absolutely of it self the most renowned Religion that ever was in the World Which therefore none but such as are utterly averse from all Religion as being wholy given up to lust and prophaneness can without examination dare to relinquish and if they will examine it I mean the Christian Religion as it referrs to the Person of Christ that died betwixt two thieves at Jerusalem but rose again the third day that ascended visibly into Heaven and shall again return in a visible manner to judge the quick and the dead I appeal to this Light within them to their Reason and Conscience and that of the most cunning Impostors amongst them all or of whoever will join with them if the evidence for this Religion from Prophecie History and from the Nature of the Religion it self is not such as that nothing but Ignorance of the true meaning thereof and of its right design can hinder it from being acknowledged as a most certain Truth by any but those that are afraid that any Religion that leads to Holiness or promises any thing after this Life should be found true 6. As for that Objection taken from the mighty Power of the Spirit of God as if that were so sufficient of it self that belief therein and assistance therefrom would anticipate the mention and use of any other power whatsoever that may seem to confer to the End of the Gospel the Sanctification of our Souls I answer to this That they that do after this manner argue do erre not knowing the Scriptures For this Power of the Spirit communicable to Believers is not an absolute and omnipotent Power not to be resisted not to be frustrated if there be not due means and wise accommodations concurring with its workings or attempts to work But I may in some manner illustrate the condition thereof from what is observable in the Spirit of Nature the Principle of all natural Generations Growths and Perfections in which there is a kind of Hypothetical Omnipotency as to the work of Nature that is That this Spirit will not fail to assist and complete provided that such and such circumstances in Corporeal Agents be not wanting So is it also in this Divine Spirit or the Holy Ghost as it is communicable to us it will certainly assist and finish its work if there be no impediment on our side which it behoves us to remove out of the way nor any thing wanting which we can applie our selves to for the advance of our Faith perfecting of the holy life such as Meditating on the Scriptures Conferring with Holy men experienced Christians Using with devotion and reverence all the Ordinances of Christ. For though this assistance of the Holy Spirit be unspeakably powerfull to the sincere and diligent yet in the negligent and perverse as I said his attempts are frustrated And therefore Steven expostulates with the Jews in this sense Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost and elsewhere we are exhorted not to grieve the Spirit nor quench the Spirit Which expressions do plainly demonstrate that the Communication of the Spirit is not absolute and omnipotent but received according to certain laws and waies of God's own appointing who of his infinite wisdome has traced out such a method in Christian Religion as is most accommodate to gain Souls to himself of which we have heard part already and shall now proceed to the Four last Powers of the Gospel which are mainly instrumental to the work of the Spirit upon the Hearts of all true Believers 7. And the first of these is the Example of our ever-blessed Saviour who has given us no other Precepts then what himself was the exactest Pattern of and himself such a Pattern of Life that is of Faith in God of Humility Love and Purity that we cannot doubt in following his footsteps that we are in a wrong way he being by voices from heaven and by his miracles upon earth proved and declared to be the only-begotten Son of God Wherefore the nearer we keep to his path the surer we are that we walk upon sound ground Besides that he is our Lord and Soveraign and therefore natural Ingenuity will urge us forward to compose our lives so as is most agreeable to his fashion And he does expresly require this as a Testimonie of
they being given up into the power of those deformed Fiends of Hell the very thoughts of whose sight and company might be enough to affright any man that is not Atheistically sortish from assimilating himself to those nasty Gaol-birds by repeated acts of Vice and Wickedness Besides what smart of punishment shall reach both their outward Senses and guilty Consciences by the inevitable rod of God's Justice upon them 3. VVherefore it is most indispensably rational to use this VVorld as if we used it not and to addict our selves to such Pleasures as are most proper to the other State such as are those most delicious touches senses of the Divine Love or that pure and intellectual Affection which S. Paul calls Charity VVhereby we delight in the good of another as if it were our own whereby we rejoice in the wisdome goodness of God displaied his Creatures whereby we ardently desire the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ infinitely before any private advantage whatsoever and do faithfully assist and earnestly expect the joyful accomplishment and finishing of the great Mystery of Godliness in the fullest period thereof to a final Triumph over Sin and Satan and a perfect Redemption of the Church of Christ into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God 4. These are the warrantable Pleasures of the Soul that has a designe upon the Life to come of a Soul that is risen with Christ and therefore seeks those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God And upon this very consideration the Apostle enforceth his Exhortation Colos. 3. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon earth Fornication Uncleannesse inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry And our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount Lay not up for your selves treasures upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor thieves break through and steal For where your treasure is there will your heart be also And therefore Saint Paul professes of himself and exhorts others to imitate him that his minde is wholly taken up with those things which are above Philip. 3.17 Brethren be followers of me and mark them that walk so as ye have us for an example For our conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our municipal affairs our negotiations of greatest concernment are in Heaven of which City we are and from whence we look for our Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself 5. And verily he that through Faith is once possest of these things it is a wonder to me how he can think of any thing else As the Prisoner could not abstain from the pleasure of thinking of the known day of his Liberty or a poor man of an Inheritance that would certainly fall to him within the term of few years And if it were Conditional as this of the Kingdome of Heaven is we may easily conceive how much he were concerned to have a care punctually to observe the Conditions propounded or earnestly to endeavour to get such Qualifications as that he may not forfeit the enjoiment of that Fortune which otherwise would naturally fall to his share And how they are to be qualified that are to be Heires of that everlasting Inheritance the Scripture doth plainly set out there must no unclean thing enter into the Holy City None can be Heirs of this Kingdome but the sons of God nor any be the sons of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8. And what are the Fruits and Effects of that domestick Guide the Apostle has plainly told us already Galat. 5. That the fruits of the Spirit are Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentlenesse Goodnesse Faith Meekness Temperance And they that are Christs in whose Title alone it is that we can lay claim to Heaven have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And again Rom. 8. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live that is to say ye shall live the life of Peace and Joy and Righteousness here and of Eternal Glory hereafter 6. Wherefore we see what an urgent Power the Meditation of future Happiness is to the Believer to make him endeavour to the utmost to be Partaker of the Divine Nature and to aspire to a due measure of Holiness without which we shall necessarily be frustrate of our expected Happiness The consideration whereof cannot but wean him from all the exorbitant desires of the Pleasures Profits or Honours of this World Which though they had not intermingled with them many vexations and distasts much care and solicitude but were certain for this life and entire yet Life being uncertain and the longest terme thereof but like a Dream or a Post that goes by in comparison of our future abode elsewhere I dare leave it to the worldly mans own computation what a pittiful bargain he has made in forgoing what is to come for these temporary Enjoyments worse far then he that sold his Birth-right for a mess of Pottage But I shall not dilate any further on so plain a matter All the Wit and Rhetorick of Man cannot move him whom those known but weighty Words of our Saviour will not VVhat will it profit a man to gain the whole VVorld and to lose his own Soul CHAP. XVIII 1. The Day of Judgement the seventh and last Gospel-power fit as well for the regenerate as the unregenerate to think upon 2. The Uncertainty of that Day and that it will surprize the wicked unawares 3. That those that wilfully reject the offers of Grace hâ—re shall be in better condition after Death then the Devils themselves are 4. A Description of the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord. 5. The Affrightment of the Morning-appearance thereof to the wicked 6. A further Description thereof 7. The Translation of the Church of Christ to their Aethereal Mansions with a brief Description of their Heavenly Happinesse 1. WE come now to the Seventh and last Power of the Gospel which is The consideration of the dreadful Solemnity of the Day of Iudgement the very mention whereof from the mouth of Paul made Felix the Governour to tremble And I must confess it is so hard an Engine that it is more fit to beat upon the obdurate hearts of the Unbeliever and Unregenerate that are crusted over with Iron and Flint then for battery against the truly Regenerate and sincere Believers for those other Powers of the Gospel are more proper and abundantly sufficient for carrying them on with courage and constancy in the waies of God But there is in the Day of Iudgement an Object not
mentioned they be proposed in the Scripture but in a more shady obscure and general way that being enough to serve the End they are proposed for And if any one be at a loss how to conceive the Mystery let him make it up with devout admiration and humble veneration Affections better becoming every holy man then a fierce and peremptory pursuit of his own conceited Reason and bold attempt to pry into those things that God has thought fit to hide from him Which is a saucy and clownish as forcibly to unveil or unmask some noble Matron or modest Virgin whether they will or no. 5. But that no fraud be done to Truth nor mankind left liable to all the incredible forgeries and fables of covetous Priests and Impostors we shall more carefully limit this our exaction of Reverence only to such Articles of Religion as are recommended to us not only upon account of Divine Revelation and Serviceableness to some laudable end but are also clear from contradiction and incompossibility For for my own part I am well assured That God who made our Faculties will never offer any thing to us to believe that upon close debate does plainly contradict them Else all Religions were alike credible and the Moons coming out of Mahomet's sleeve as passable as the History of Ionas his being three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly and afterwards coming out alive Which though it be miraculous is not at all impossible 6. And therefore I do with all confidence imaginable assert That the Divinity of Christ and the Triunity so far forth as the Scripture has de-declared it self in these points have nothing of contradiction nor impossibility in them Nay I will go one step further Athanasius his Creed which one would think is expresse enough concerning this Mystery if certain words in it be but varied in that latitude of sense which they are capable of and not only so but must of necessity have in the Creed there may be such an interpretation made of it as the most captious Reason can finde no cavil against CHAP. II. 1. That there is a latitude of Sense in the words of Athanasius his Creed and that One and Unity has not the same signification every where 2. The like in the terms God and Omnipotent 3. Of the word Equal and to what purpose so distinct a knowledge of the Deity was communicated to the Church 4. In what sense the Son and Holy Ghost are God That Divine adoration is their unquestionable right And that there is an intelligible sense of Athanasius his Creed and such as supposes neither Polytheisme Idolatry nor Impossibility 5. That there is no intricacy in the Divinity of Christ but what the Schools have brought in by their false notions of Suppositum and Union Hypostatical 6. That the Union of Christ with the Eternal Word implies no Contradiction and how warrantable an Object he is of Divine worship 7. The Application thereof to the Iews 8. The Union of Christ with God compared with that of the Angels that bore the Name Jehovah in the Old Testament 9. The reasonableness of our Saviours being united with the Eternal Word and how with that Hypostasis distinct from the others 1. NOw that there is necessarily understood this latitude of variety in the sense of several of the words of the Creed is apparent from the consent of those that do subtilize this Mystery to the utmost curiosity For it is impossible for them or any else to think that the Godhead of the whole Trinity is One in the same sense that the Father considered alone is One or the Son or Holy Ghost so considered For then there being no more Unity in the single Hypostases then in the whole Trinity every Hypostasis will be Triune which no man will assert Wherefore there is a latitude of sense in the word One or Unity allowable in the Creed 2. So when the Father is said to be Omnipotent the Son Omnipotent and the Holy Ghost Omnipotent it is evident that Omnipotent has not the same sense in all For the Father has the power of Eternal Generation of the Son and both Son and Father of an Eternal Emission of the Spirit but the Son does not proceed from the Spirit neither is the Father generated of the Son Yet the Spirit and the Son which are both from the Father how infinitely do they exceed the Creation of the World And the like may be said of the term God by which if you understand That which is first of all in such a sense as that all else is from him and he from none the Son and the Spirit cannot be said to be God in this signification because the Father is not from them but they from the Father 3. And therefore it is further manifest that the word Equal is not to be understood mathematically and absolutely but in an useful reference to us Which is a Key that will easily open the whole Mystery of the Creed which God did not communicate to the world to spin and weave unprofitable cobwebs out of but did thus explicitly impart the knowledg of his Divine glory that understanding the Distinctness of his Godhead in the Triunity thereof the Divinity of Christ might the better be conceived and how warrantable an Object he is of our worship Divine Adoration For it passing through the Titles of the Humanity to the Eternal Son of God there cannot be the least scruple or show of Idolatry in such Divine worship 4. For the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God as well as the Father that is to say they are all Eternal Omnipresent Omniscient Omnicreant and therefore Divine Adoration is due without question to the whole Trinity from the Creatures And not upon this account onely but because they are so perfectly One and have the same indivisible Omnipresency and therefore are One entire Godhead One coequal Glory and Majesty coeternal I say then that this latitude of sense being once admitted which is necessarily implied the meaning of Athanasius his Creed may prove such as no imputation of either Polytheisme Idolatry or unconceivable Impossibility can be alledged against it and the end of this Mystery fully served in such an intelligible Interpretation But I shall not undertake any such Paraphrase in this place And what I have already ventured at is rather by way of Essay or invitation to others to make trial then peremptory assertion in so profound a point that deserves rather our humble admiration then curious disquisition It is sufficient that so far as Scripture has determined of this Article it is without exception or Contradiction 5. The Divinity of Christ in my apprehension is a more easie Object of belief being as intelligible as the Union of our Soul and Body For as they two make up one man so God and Man make one Christ as Athanasius himself has expressed it This the Schools call Hypostatical Union which has no intricacy
in it but what they themselves have bestowed upon it For every Substance is of it self an Individual Substance and Universals but a Logical notion arising from our comparing of Substances of like nature together Neither is there any Substance but by due preparatory modifications may be capable of being united with some other Individual Substance and these Two Individual Substances become One whole Substance Which yet are not so One as that they cease to be Two Numerical Substances because they arâ—â—o otherwise said to be One I am sure are no otherwise One then by the apt Union of one with another Which yet hinders not but that they are still and if they are they are Two namely my Soul and Body are still this Individual Soul and this Individual Body though they be as they term it Hypostatically united For it onely implies conjunction not confusion of Substances nor any losse of the Individuality of the Substances thus conjoined For there is no Substance conjoinable with another but remains this Individual Substance even for that very reason because it is a Substance every Substance being of it self Individual as I have already said and yet conjoinable with another Substance whence it is plain that the Scholastick notion of Suppositum is a mere foolery 6. Out of which we may easily understand how that the Humanity of Christ and the Eternal Word may be Hypostatically united without any contradiction to humane Reason unsophisticated with the fopperies of the Schools and both their Hypostases remain still entire Of which I will exhibite this as a more sensible representation Suppose a vast Globe made all of solid Gold saving one very small section which we will suppose of Silver This individual Gold and this individual Silver remaining still this individual Gold and Silver make up one entire Globe which is not an entire Globe without either So in Christ made up as I may so speak of the Second Hypostasis of the Trinity and of that humane Person that conversed at Jerusalem He is that individual Silver and the other that individual Gold and both these together One Christ the sphere of whose Divinity filling all things and being every where at hand cannot but be a warrantable Object of our Praiers and Invocations as the passive Humanity of Christ the prop of our Faith and confidence by his bitter Passion and Intercession 7. What Superstition therefore can there be or least suspicion of Idolatry when we pray unto Christ if we do but think of him to whom we pray For the Eternal Godhead does so outshine every thing in this Object of Devotion that our minde is in a manner wholly transported into God though with a due reflexion of honour upon the Person of our Saviour in virtue of whose Death and Intercession we make our addresses Which Truth might also passe with the Jew without any scruple at all if he do but call to minde with what devout Humility their fore-fathers have adored the presence of Angels To whom in their Law Iehovah the most holy name of God is also attributed And if an Angel that sustains the Person of God onely by way of Embassy has this divine honour how much more then is due to Christ who is Iehovah not onely by Title and external Function but by real Union with the Eternal Son of God Which the Platonists in their Triad also call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same in Greek that Iehovah is in Hebrew 8. Or if they could imagine that there was so extraordinary a kind of Union of these Angels with God where so high a name is attributed to them as being in such an universalizing Rapture that they had lost the sense of their own Personalities and were wholly actuated by God who used them as fully and commandingly as our Soul does our Bodies yet this may fall short in a two-fold respect of that Union which is betwixt the Humanity of Christ the Eternal Word For first it may not be of the same kinde but differs as much it may be as the union of a Spirit with a dead Corps does from the union of the Soul of Man in an healthful body Or if it could be admitted that there was some Principle excited and awaked or some way inserted into the Essence of an Angel whereby he might have real and vital union with God yet it being but temporary it is not to be compared with this lasting and durable union in the Messias Nor does the visible presence of the Angel warrant Divine worship more to him then to Christ. For Christ according to his higher and more adorable nature is every where present 9. I conclude therefore that the Divinity of Christ is not at all repugnant to Reason I mean his Real and Physical union as I may so call it with the Eternal Word For being that it was this VVord or Eternal VVisdome whereby God made all things it is very decorous and congruous that that great Instrument of the restoring so choice a piece of his Creation as Man is should be united particularly to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Eternal VVord Nor is it unconceivable how he may be united particularly and immediately to this Hypostasis and not the other two from what we observe in Nature For even the Faculties of the Soul residing in the same part of the Soul according as the part of the Body is tempered or modified one Faculty may exert it self in the part and another be silent and take no hold thereon And further it is evident that though the Holy Spirit of God and the Spirit of Nature be every where present in the World and lie in the very same points of space yet their actions applications or engagings with things are very distinct For the Spirit of Nature takes hold only of Matter remanding grosse bodies towards the centre of the Earth shaping Vegetables into all that various beauty we finde in them but does not act at all on our Souls or Spirits with divine illumination no more then the Holy Spirit meddles with remanding of Stones downwards or tumbling broken tiles off from an house Which things rightly considered and improved make this Mystery intelligible enough for those that are fit for such Speculations So that I need adde nothing more having already proceeded further then I intended in zeal against the fraud of some and indiscretion of others who so confidently maintain That some main Points in Christian Religion are not onely obscure which I willingly acknowledge and that thereby our Religion is the more Venerable but also repugnant to Reason which I utterly deny and shall in its due place shew the sad inconvenience of so rash an Assertion CHAP. III. 1. That the Communicableness of Christian Religion implies its Reasonableness 2. The right Method of communicating the Christian Mystery 3 4. A brief example of that Method 5. A further continuation thereof 6. How the Mystagogus is to behave himself towards
Libertinism as you may see more at large in that Chapter 5. Wherefore it appears out of what already has been said That there are Terms to be performed on out part in this New Covenant as well as there are Promises on God's part and that Christianity is no such loose remiss and inert Religion as some Deceivers would make it which we shall make still more plain from several other testimonies of Scripture Matth. 11. The Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Whence is plainly intimated that no lazy or careless endeavours will carry us on to the enjoiment of the Promises of the Covenant As elsewhere He that laies his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdome of God And Luke 13.24 Strive to enter in at the streight gate For I say unto you many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Because streight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life but wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that goe in thereat As it is in the parallel place of S. Matthew Which plain places of Scripture one would think should awake those filthy dreamers out of their mischievous conceits opinions whereby they would make us believe the Evangelical dispensation is so soft and delicate a thing that there is no laying of the hand to the plough no crouding or striving but that we shall be carried to heaven on that easie featherbed of unactive Faith or fanatick Libertinism Whenas the Evangelical Oracles tell us that we are to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling that we are to run and to wrastle to fight and to resist even unto bloud 1 Cor. 9.24 Know ye not that they that run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize So run that ye may obtain And every one that strives for the victory is temperate in all things Now they doe it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest by any means when I have preached to others I my self should become a cast-away And yet S. Paul was as chosen a vessel as the choicest of these pieces that befool themselves so with self-flattery that they think they have found an easier way to Salvation then Paul himself knew that think they shall get the victory and the crown by not fighting against their own corruptions but by beating the Air with knackish forms of gracious speeches and vain grandiloquence that tends to nothing but the masking of their own Hypocrisie and unfaithfulness in the Covenant and to the seduction and ruine of others 6. But S. Paul however they would abuse some passages in him to the favouring of their ill cause is an utter disclaimer of such false doctrine and does yet more expresly tell us That the promises of the Gospel are conditional This is a faithfull saying saith he to Timothy 2 Epist. chap. 2. If we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him if we deny him he will also deny us If we deal unfaithfully in the Covenant yet he is faithful and cannot deny himself He will stand to his Covenant in all the intents and purposes thereof whether to punishment or reward And Rom. 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus but their qualification presently follows that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and ver 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you and if this Spirit be in you the body is dead unto sin And again If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live And ver 16. The Spirit it self bears witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God And if Children then Heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also glorified with him Which plainly implies that the Inheritance of Heaven or Kingdome of glory is a conditional Kingdome or Inheritance And not to speak of Kingdoms we shall not so much as have remission of sins but upon condition Matth. 6.14 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses What can be more evident then this CHAP. IX 1. What it is really to enter into this New Covenant 2. That the entring into this Covenant supposes actual Repentance 3. That this New Covenanter is born of water and the Spirit 4. The necessity of the skilfull usage of these new-born Babes in Christ. 5. That some Teachers are mere Witches and Childe-Suckers 1. WE have therefore undeniably demonstrated That this New Gospel-Covenant is a conditional Covenant and but that Hypocrisie and Impietie has made mens souls so degenerate that Sense and Non-sense is alike to them they would from the very sound and signification of the word perceive that there are mutual Terms and Conditions implied or else it could be no Covenant This therefore being premised we shall the better understand what is that due affection and qualification of mind that is required of him that would enter into this Covenant or what it is whereby he has really entred into it For it is not a mere Historical Faith or Belief of those things that are in the New Testament and an acknowledgment that they all tend to the peace and salvation of man and that he is obliged to live up to the utmost of his power to those holy Precepts that are there conteined but further there is a love and liking of the said Precepts as well as a desire of the enjoiment of the promise of Eternal life and a sincere resolution of endeavoring to live as near as he can according to those Evangelical Rules and a chearfull expectation of Divine assistance that God will enable him by the cooperation of his Holy Spirit to make such due progresses in life and Godliness as shall become an unfeigned professour of Faith in Christ Jesus 2. He that upon the perusal of the Records of the Gospel as they are found in the New Testament or by what other way soever the substance thereof is communicated to him and so upon information of his errours and mistakes whether in opinion or practice is thus affected as we have declared it is manifest that he has already repented him of his sins and errours and is in a real mislike of his former Conversation so far forth as it was unconformable to the mind of Christ. So that the state
shun the breath of such a Seducer as of one that is infected with the pestilence and whose converse is death and the eternal ruin of our very Souls 2. The Second Principle that he is closely to keep to is That I had almost said Omnipotent Faith in God through Christ I mean the belief of the assistance of his holy Spirit to overcome all manner of sin in us For if we keep up duely to this nothing will be able to withstand us but by patience and perseverance we shall be able to beat out Satan out of his strongest holds According to thy faith so be it unto thee is true as well in Christs healing our Souls as in his curing the bodies of the sick when he was upon earth This is a prime branch of that saving Faith and the greatest strength and sustentation we have to keep us from sinking back into sin and from being drown'd and carried away with the flouds of ungodliness If we let this hold go all is gone For they that doe not believe that they have power to resist sin must of necessity give up themselves captives to it And this is that which makes S. Paul so affectionately devout in the behalf of the Ephesians that God would be pleased to give them this special gift of Faith for their strength and corroboration of the inward man chap. 3. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love c. according as I have elswhere rehearsed And in the Doxologie immediately following this prayer of what unconceivable efficacy the operations of the Spirit are in us the Apostle again does intimate in a very high strain Now unto him that is able to doe exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Which words plainly imply that such is the inexhaustible richness of Grace and Assistance from the Spirit of God that the effect of its inward workings in us is for the present not imaginable much less expressible Wherefore our Faith cannot be too great in this supernatural Principle and the greater it is the greater courage and the more speedy and more absolute victory 3. And yet there is still another Principle that will further actuate our Faith and make us still more lively resolute and invincible and that is The Love of Christ which every young Christian is to warme himself with and inflame his courage more and more which he will best do by frequent Meditations upon Christs Passion what shame what sorrow and pain he underwent to gain the love of Souls and so to try them to himself in those sweet and inviolable bands of sincere love and friendship that by this golden chain he may pull them up after him from Earth to Heaven Let therefore our new-Covenanter as often as he reflects upon the exceeding great love of his Saviour and finds his heart begin to grow hot being touch'd with a ray from that celestial Flame that bright Sun of righteousness that now shines at the right hand of God let him be sure to remember what compensation he requires for all that dear affection he has shewn to us The lesson is but short and therefore must not be forgotten If you love me keep my Commandements CHAP. XI 1. The diligent search this new-Covenanter ought to make to finde out whatsoever is corrupt and sinful 2. That the truly regenerate cannot be quiet till all corruption be wrought out 3. The most importunate devotions of a living Christian. 4. The difference betwixt a Son of the Second Covenant and a Slave under the First 5. The Mystical completion of a Prophecy of Esay touching this state 1. THE young Christian being thus armed with Faith and Love and an unwavering sense of his duty in becoming holy even as he that called him is holy he will be then both willing and ready to look his enemies in the face and to seek them out if he cannot at first sight finde them and to pull them out of every hiding-place of Hypocrisy and bring them into the open light and slay them And if after diligent search he can finde none yet he will be so modest as to distrust the measure of his skill and will be earnest in Prayer to God to discover what inward hidden wickedness there may lurk yet in him to the end that the old Leven may be utterly cast out and that there may be nothing left that is contrary to the Scepter of Christ and the Kingdome of God in his heart 2. For indeed it is impossible that one is truely regenerate and has the seed of God and the life of his Spirit actually in him should be quiet till all that which is unholy and corrupt be wrought out But the case is much-what as in the natural body that is sick either death or health will in a competent time possess the body If the morbifick matter be not carried away by sweating purging or some evacuation or other Life it self will be carried away but if that which is contrary to life be remov'd Health must certainly take place 3. And so it is in the Divine life it self when it has taken root and growth whatever is contrary to it is burdensome to it like that tyrannick project of tying the living and the dead together Wherefore the true Christian can never be at ease and rest till he has cast off that heavy load the body of sin the old man that stinks earthily and unsavourly if he be perceived at all and indeed so unsufferably that the divine life and sense in a man cannot endure it Nor can endure to be in a condition so sensless that there should be any of that â—our Leven left and yet there be no perception of it And therefore the most importunate address to the throne of Grace in a living Christian is that God would be pleased to discover whatever ugliness or deformity there is in him in either practise or principle Which God of his mercy does by degrees not all at once that there may not arise overmuch distraction and confusion But if we be not wanting to our selves the work will be accomplish'd in due time and the Kingdom of heaven as well within as without will be as a grain of Mustard-seed The Crisis of the disease will be in a competent time as I said before and our whole man re-enlivened with the Spirit of God and restored to the state of righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost 4. For verily to be quiet upon any other terms but these is not to be a Son of the Second Covenant but a careless
Angels of light and fit to enter into the presence of God if they be but neatly elegantly trimm'd up in these fine ornaments of Orthodoxality â—esotted fools blinde and carnal that think to recommend themselves to the Majesty of Heaven by being array'd in these motly coats this strip'd stuff of their own spinning While they thus affect the favour oâ— God by opinionative Knowledge how do they betray their gross Ignorance For how can that which is more pleasing to the natural man nay I may say to the Devil himself then to a regenerate Soul how can that render any one acceptable to God And yet in all the Divisions of the Churches they lay the greatest stress upon this bear the greatest zeal toward it recommend it the most vehemently to the people who following the example of their Pastours if they be but busie hot in these rending points they think themselves fully possest of the life of Christ and that they are very choicely religious though in the mean time Charity to their neighbour be cold they have attain'd to no measure of true Righteousness and Holiness Herein chiefly lies the mystery of Hypocrisy in all the Churches of Christendome counting all pious that are but zealous for the waies and opinions of their Sect and those that are not for it be they never so unblameable and cordial Christians they are either hated as Hereticks or at best pitied for poor Moralists mere Natural Men. 5. These are the most general and very potent Impediments for the hindring the Gospel of taking that effect which it would otherwise have in the Christian World and for making most of the professours of Christianity Hypocrites that is such as make a great show of Godliness but deny the power thereof which should mainly appear in our duty to our Neighbour and in a sober and just conversation doing all things as in the sight of God Now this Hypocrisy in Professours begets Prophaneness Atheisme and Unbelief in such persons as naturally have not so strong propension to matters of Religion that is to say that have not so superstitious a Complexion as to be tied to Religion upon any termes in any dress and from any kinde of Recommenders of it For their natural Nasuteness suggests that if there be any Religion at all most certainly it is not to be divided from sound Morality to which truly both the Prophets Apostles and Precepts of Christ do plentifully witness But they observing that they that make the greatest noise about Religion and are the most zealous therein do neglect the Laws of Honesty and common Humanity that they can easily invade other mens rights that they can juggle dissemble and lie for advantage that they are proud and conceited and love the applause of the People that they are envious fierce and implacable that they are unclean and sensual that they are merciless and cruel and care not to have Kingdomes to flow in bloud for the maintaining of their Tyranny over the consciences of poor deluded Souls when yet the contest is nothing but about hay and stubble the combustible superstructures of Humane Invention of which every vainglorious Superstitionist that would make a show in the flesh has cast on his handfull if not his arm-full for the hiding and smothering of the indispensable Truths of the Gospel and to put men into perplexities and labours for that which is not bread to rack their heads with Nonsense Contradictions and Impossibilities to weary out their bodies with the thankless toyle of endless and needless Ceremonies and to carry out their heart to toyes and trifles and so make them neglect the holy and weighty commands of our Saviour which are intelligible to all men and in some measure approved by all such as are To deal as we would be dealt with To love our neighbours as our selves and the like I say those that are not of so religious a Complexion naturally but have wit and sagacity enough to smell out the Corruptions and discern the Incoherences of the Actions of Professors making observation of these things are by this Scandal exceedingly tempted and very hardly escape the being quite overcome by so perverse a Scene of pretended Piety to think that the whole Business of Religion is nothing but Humour and Madness or at the best but a Plot to enrich the Priest and keep the People in awe 6. This is one great Scandal and effectual counterplot against the power of the Gospel the Vilifying and despising of Moral honesty by those that are great Zelots and high Pretenders to Religion This does advance Atheisme and Prophaneness very much But there is another Miscarriage which I have hinted at already as Epidemical and Universal and at least as effectual to this evil purpose as the former There is scarce any Church in Christendome at this day that does not obtrude not only Falshoods but such Falshoods that will appear to any free spirit pure Contradictions and Impossibilities and that with the same Gravity Authority and Importunity that they doe the holy Oracles of God Now the consequence of this must needs be fad For what knowing and consciencious man but will be driven off if he cannot profess the truth without open asserting of a gross lie If he sees good wine poured out of one bottle but rank poison out of another into the same cup who can perswade him to drink thereof This is a heavy sight to the truly-Religious but the joy and triumph of the Prophane who willingly take this advantage against the whole Mystery of Piety as if there were no truth at all in it because that so gross Falshoods are urg'd upon them with the same Indispensableness with the same Solemness Devoutness as those things that were it not for the serious Impudence of the Priest in other open falsities might pass with them for true But they being not at leisure to perpend things to the bottom but it may be not altogether indisposed to believe a faithfull report from an honest man they finding the Relater foully tripping in some things that he so earnestly urges discredit the whole Narration and so become perfect Atheists and Unbelievers though for their own security they juggle with the Juglers that is comply and doe outward reverence and devotion though they cannot but laugh in their sleeves at either the Ignorance or cunning Deceitfulness of their Ghostly Leaders 7. And that I may not seem to slander the state of Christendome I mean of the whole visible Church in what Nation soever under Heaven if we may believe Historians there is none neither Greek nor Roman neither Lutheran nor Calvinist but will be found guilty of this fault I shall particularize in some one thing in all The Greek as well as the Roman hold Transsubstantiation the Lutheran Consubstantiation things that have no ground in Scripture and are a palpable contradiction to Reason And yet not more contradictious then Absolute Reprobation according as our rigid
and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him There is a further enumeration of the Angelical classes Colos. 1. where the Apostle speaking of this high exaltation of the Person of Christ he intimates not only the Subjection of the Orders of Angels to him but their Reconciliation to God by him and as some would have it a fuller Confirmation of them in his favour vers 15. Who is the Image of the invisible God the First-born of every Creature For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist And he is the Head of the body the Church He is the Beginning the First-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell And making peace through the bloud of his Crosse to reconcile all things by him unto himself whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven So mighty and wonderfull was the result of the Humiliation of our Saviour and so clear and warrantable an Object is he of Divine Adoration 3. Thus is the Divine Life Triumphant in the Person of Christ the Head of his Church But another main design of the Gospel is That the Divine Life may be advanced in us that is that Faith in God through Christ that Humility Love and Purity may have their due growth in us here that thereby we may be fitted to receive that immortal Crown of Glory which he will bestow upon all true believers at the last day when he shall carry his whole Church with songs of Joy and Triumph into his celestial Kingdome That this is the main purpose of the Gospell I have already sufficiently proved and therefore need adde nothing in this place 4. The fourth and last Rule or Measure of Opinions is The Recommendableness of our Religion to those which are without that is to say We must have a special care of affixing thereto any of our own Inventions or Interpretations of Scripture for Christian Truths which may seem uncouth and irrational to strangers and such as are as yet disengaged For though those that by reason of their education have had full acquaintance with Christianity will adhere to their Religion though it may be corrupted with many false glosses and fond opinions of men as indispensably obtruded as the undoubted Scripture it self yet strangers that are free and unaccustomed to them will not fail to boggle at them and being offered to them also with equal Authority with the very Word of God they will be necessitated to fly back and to relinquish the Holy Truth by reason of the indissoluble intertexture of the gross falshoods they find interwoven with it A thing that is seriously to be considered by all those that bear any love to the Gospel and desire that it may be propagated and promoted in the World For certainly it was intended for a more general good and larger diffusion then has been hitherto by reason of its having fallen into faithless and treacherous hands who make it only an instrument of gaining wealth and power to themselves and of riding the people and not of gaining souls to God CHAP. IV. 1. The general use of the foregoing Rules 2. A special use of them in favour of one anothers persons in matters of opinion 3. The examination of Election and Reprobation according to these Rules And how well they agree with that Branch of the Divine Life which we call Humility 4. The disagreement of absolute Reprobation with the first Rule 5. As also with the third 6 And with the second and fourth 1. THese are the four main Rules which I conceive very usefull to examine either other mens Opinions or our own And if the heat of our spirits or the confidence of others would urge upon us pretended Truths for to admit of open falsities or forgeries for what advantage soever is intolerable that are not subservient to these designs above named we may well look upon them as idle curiosities and if they pretend also to Revelation or Inspiration that it is nothing but Madness and fanatick Delusion But if they do not only not promote but countermine those designs above mentioned they are to be looked upon then not as frivolous but dangerous and impious and so to be declined by all means possible And lastly though they appear such as may contribute something to those designs if followed and embraced yet I must adde also this caution that they are not to be forc'd so as that unless a man will profess them he must be accounted no good Christian. For they coming from a fallible and doubtfull hand they ought not in reason to infringe that undoubted right of Christian liberty the Scripture alone being full enough to perfect a Christian both in life and doctrine 2. There is also a further use to be made of these Rules in favour of one anothers persons though of different Opinions that is by taking notice what good they drive at as well as what evil they tend to which makes much for peace and brotherly kindness and may blunt the edge of eager and bitter zeal that makes the over-fervid Zelot think that he that is of a contrary opinion to him intends nothing but mischief by his opposite doctrine In examining therefore every Opinion we are to observe what design of the Gospel it agrees with as well as what it crosses And that the Use of our Rules may the better appear I shall now shew the practice of them by trying some few Opinions of no small note by this Touchstone For it were an endless business to examine all and needless because by these examples he that lists may examine the rest indeed any that either has been or ever will offer it self to the World in matters of Religion 3. The first that occurrs is such an Election and Reprobation that wholly excludes Free will The Controversie is so well known that I need not state it Applying this doctrine to the four Rules I have set down I find in the Third that it has some compliance with that choice branch of the Divine Life namely Humility and a submission of a mans self and all the World to the will of God It is the Lord let him doe what he pleases And that therefore a serious and humble Soul being much taken up and transported with this consideration may think of nothing else but take this Doctrine to be very Truth nay live and die in it and go to heaven when he has done Whence it were a piece of Satanical Fury to persecute any such Opinionist and want of Charity these living as well as other Christians not to bear as good affection to them as to
look upon as fundamentally repugnant to Christianity it self if the New Testament be the foundation of Christianity For I know nothing more express then that in those Writings And therefore the denying of the Trinity is the denying of the Authority of the New Testament Or if they will pretend they can interpret things there so as to evade this doctrine by the same reason I think they may evade any and so still the sacred Writ shall stand for a cypher and signifie nothing which tends mainly to the enervating of our Faith and is a gross entrenchment upon the third Rule 4. And truly I think it may be made to appear that it is also particularly against the second For the Divinity of Christ does not fall in so handsomly and kindly without the supposition of a Trinity as I have elswhere intimated and therefore I look upon it as a special piece of Providence that so explicite a knowledge of the Godhead in the Triunity thereof was so generally made known to the world together with Christianity that the Eternal Son of God might be worshipped through Christ and the whole Deity as I may so say distinctly honour'd and adored 5. But they will reply that though they deny the Trinity and Divinity of Christ namely that the Eternal Word was made Flesh yet they assert that Divine Honour is due unto him and therefore do not transgress against the second Rule For they acknowledge that though Christ be but man yet God has given him all power in Heaven and in Earth and that he shall return visibly to judge the quick and the dead and that as the Father has life in himself so has he given him to have life in himself that is the power of enlivening us and quickening us at the last and of changing these vile bodies of ours into the similitude of his glorious body And therefore that their Opinion serves the End of Christianity as well as the other in reference to Divine Worship due to Christ and is more sutable to the fourth Rule these perplexities of Christs Divinity and the Triunity of the Godhead making our Religion less passable and recommendable to those that are without 6. But to this I answer First as before That to take away the Trinity and Divinity of Christ is to take away the Authority of the New Testament or to take such a liberty of forcing and distorting the sense of things as will make it contemptible and useless then which what can be of more dangerous consequence It will be a Trespass not only against one but against all the Rules I have set down and make the Gospel pass very ill not only with strangers but our selves too and turn Christendome back to Infidelity and Paganisme But Secondly I deny that the Scripture declares any thing concerning the Divinity of Christ or the holy Trinity that is impossible contradictious or more unintelligible then things that men do ordinarily assent to that are free Philosophers and admit nothing upon force or Superstition but upon Reason and That the Union of the Eternal Word with the humane Nature of Christ is as conceivable for the Modus as the Union of the Soul and Body That the Intricacies of the Schools are fooleries and not to be taken into our Religion That the Scripture only sets forth a Triunity in the Godhead in general not obscured by any terme that can entangle any one of a tolerable wit and understanding unless he will be so blockish as to think because the second Hypostasis in this Trinity is called Son that the Father was married and had a wife as the Turks fondly object whenas nothing else is signified but that the Son is from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both Thirdly That the first Author Beginner or at least the most eminent Renewer of this Sect that so boldly and stoutly denies the Trinity was one though of a leguleious Wit yet so inept and averse from Divine matters that he flatly denies that the Existence of God is discoverable by the light of Nature and Reason And after he has found him by help of Scripture as he thinks yet he has missed him For that which is not Infinite in Essence cannot be God And therefore it is no wonder if he hangs off so heavily from the admission of that more distinct and full knowledge of him manifested in the holy Oracles that those that symbolize so much with his Genius in other things follow him also in this Fourthly The noblest Spirits best Philosophers that ever appear'd in the world for the Knowledge of Nature and of God and that some Ages before Christ of their own choice without force or obtrusion held the Triunity of the Godhead which though I will not avouch to be perfectly right in all things they being even over-accurate in the describing of it therefore well may trip yet for the main is such that there is reason for it but none at all against it it is very sutable in the general to those general intimations in the Scripture Nor do I believe any Christian bound to hold the Theory in the set formes of humane Invention though he may peruse them believe as much as he thinks good and do think it a decent thing that his Reason cannot perfectly reach nor exhaust so profound a Mystery that therefore he is to make up the rest in humble Adoration Fifthly and lastly By denying the Triunity of the Godhead and Divinity of Christ other Articles of our Faith are made incredible and that Divine Adoration we give to Christ suspected of Idolatry For it will not seem credible to strangers especially that abhor such superstitions that God ever exalted any mere man to such a pitch as the Socinians themselves acknowledge Christ is exalted but that it is some cunning plot to lapse the World or retain it in Idolatrous Worship It will also seem to them incredible if Christ be mere man that he should by a power in himself as he professes be able to perform his promise at the last day that is to raise us all to a glorious and immortall life changing these bodies of flesh into a pure celestial substance which is an act for none but the Deity to doe And therefore if it be done by any thing in himself it is by the Deity residing in him by the Eternal Word by whom all things were created Who was said to be the Son of God before the Incarnation and after the Incarnation both he that was born in time and this Eternal Word is look'd upon as one Son of God by real and Physical union From whence that is easily understood which we alluded to before As the Father has life in himself so has he given to the Son to have life in himself But our Adversaries way is very unconceivable and unintelligible and therefore doth plainly transgress against the Rule he pretends it most agrees with the
the sound and comely frame of a Christian spirit is this Unfeignedly to endeavour the perfecting of all Holiness both in Heart and Actions and not to allow a mans self in any thing that he thinks is a sin and when he is arriv'd at that height of Sanctity that he is not conscious to himself that he does any thing that is unlawful to give the whole praise to God and to His Merits and Intercession that has procured him the assistance of his holy Spirit and by virtue of his Death has so powerfully engaged him to warre against his lusts and to mortifie all his immoderate Passions and withall to remember that though he know nothing by himself yet he is not thereby justified and that a man cannot be sure but that he may mistake himself in some thing or other though he never sin against his own light and to impute it rather to the mercy of God that he has not led him into such violent Temptations as some have been that he finds himself not to have submitted to evil motions then to ostentate his own strength and contemn the Protection of so kind a Saviour who being acquainted with humane infirmity may justly be thought to have kept off those tempestuous Assaults that otherwise might have invaded us Besides that let us be never so perfect now yet it cannot pay the old score because we ought to have been alwaies without sin and therefore our recourse to so compassionate a Saviour is never out of date Which is a Truth indispensable both for the maintaining of the honour of Christ and keeping our selves in a submiss and humble frame of Spirit towards God and towards men So that the Opinion of these Enthusiastick Perfectionists does plainly transgress against both the second and third Rule we have set down CHAP. IX 1 Sincerity the middle way betwixt pretended Infirmity and the boast of Perfection with the description thereof 2. A more full character of the Sincere Christian. 3. That they that endeavour not after that state are Hypocrites and they that pretend to be above it Conspiratours against the everlasting Priesthood of Christ. 4. The Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth and the Millenium in the more sober meaning thereof applied to the above-nam'd Rules 1. TO stear our course right therefore betwixt those Hypocritical Pretenders of Invincible Infirmity and these High-flown Boasters of absolute Perfection we must keep in that safe middle path of Unfeigned Sincerity Which therefore wil neither charge the condition of Nature as being utterly uncorrigible that cannot be reduc'd to Obedience no not by the power of the Spirit of God nor cast it upon God himself as being unwilling or not caring that Nature should be thus reduc'd and brought under to the obedience of Christ But a man will charge himself in all his miscarriages and hold it his duty and such as by Gods assistance he may perform if he be not wanting on his part to yield his Members as Instruments of Righteousness to God as well as he did before yield them as Instruments of Unrighteousness to Sin For Sincerity implying a faithful purpose and will of doing what is right Christ has hereby wone the Castle or Fort of his enemy and all the Ammunition and Engines therein will certainly then be used for right designes The Eyes that before suck'd in rotten corruptive thoughts from false alluring Objects and so set the Heart on fire with filthy lusts are now made Inlets of the light and brightness of the unspotted Wisdome of God fairly pourtraied out in the visible Creature Those Ears that could before drink in with delight the smooth tales of Detraction and Calumny stand now open onely to the sighs of the poor or honest reports of our Neighbour Those Feet that before were swift to shed bloud are now much more ready to rescue the innocent Those Hands that before were onely exercised in griping and pulling from others are now ever open for Alms-deeds and bountiful distribution to the needy That Tongue that in secret would not spare to strike his Friend will now in a just cause defend his Enemy In brief there is no external Action of true Sanctity and Righteousness but the sincere Christian both believes and findes he has a power to perform it and therefore does constantly the good and refuses the evil that his conscience tells him is so indeed and is in his power to do and refrain that is to say He will be sure to refrain from whatsoever is unjust he will never deal with another otherwise then himself would be dealt with he will most certainly abstein from Extortion Adultery Fornication he will never doe any envious or revengeful Actions And not onely so but he does believe that through the grace of God he may be quite devoid of all Envy and Malice and not so much as bear any ill will against any man no not against his Enemies and the same of all other inordinate affections which though they move strongly and rebelliously yet he never assents so far to them as to be willing to doe them though he had a secure opportunity thereof 2. And yet he does not think himself perfect though he thus assents to no Sin while he thinks it so nor at all doubts of his Salvation though he be imperfect And if by the boisterousness and importunity of a Temptation or some unavoidable Inadvertency he falls into any evil action the pleasure he finds from it will be like that which a child gets by falling with his forehead against sharp stones or with his hands into the fire Wherefore his sincere Love to Righteousness and hearty abhorrence from Sin will make him alwaies circumspect For he holds himself bound not onely not to commit sin when it appears to be so which he thinks then impossible for him to do but charges himself with a perpetual watchfulness that he may not commit it when it would insinuate it self under some more specious shape And though by Divine Assistance and faithful Adhesion thereto he finde himself arriv'd to that pitch that he has conquered all corruptions so that he cannot charge himself with either Pride or Lust or Envy or Covetousness or any such like Vice or that he does misbelieve the Promises of God or does not depend upon his Providence or is not willing to submit to his will in all things to whatever condition he shall call him yet he knowing himself withall not infallible nor unconquerable especially without the assistance of Christ as also actually beset with many inconveniences of humane Nature such as are Straying of thoughts Unevenness in Devotion Indisposedness of minde by reason of this Tabernacle of Earth we live in and reflecting on the old reckoning of the Follies of our Life past which nothing but ignorance can conceit to have been without Sin and how all these things though ordinary Philosophy pronounces them to be no Faults but mere Infirmities of Nature they
criminall to adde upon their authority any foolish inventions of his own And if these Agents for Religion neither injuring nor defrauding any one of their Civil rights shall be evilly entreated by those they offer to instruct if they abuse them by imprisonment or any other hard dealing or finally put them to death that State or Kingdom to which they belong may require their bloud at their hands as having grosly and barbarously transgressed against the Law of Nations and the common Right of all mankinde that have not forfeited it some way or other As these have not they allowing this Liberty among themselves and to all others that have a sense and conscience of the same Right and being firmly resolved if it should come to a war and they be Conquerours of their ill Neighbours to use no other means to turn their new Subjects from their old Religion but by peaceably and patiently shewing them the vanity thereof and the excellency and solidity of their own Which cannot by any means be called the Propagation of Religion by the Sword when there shall not be so much force put upon them to change their former Religion if they be found conscientious as to compell them to be present at the Solemnities of the New Only they shall swear fealty to their Conquerours and be well indoctrinated in that common Right of Mankinde That no man is to be persecuted for Religion if he have not forfeited that Right by taking upon him the liberty of persecuting others And therefore they may enjoy their Religion if they can still like it upon equal termes with the conquerours as to their private capacities If the Spaniard had made himself master of the Indies upon these conditions and had abstained from his execrable cruelties he might have justified himself to all the World For this had not been to propagate Religion by the sword but to maintain a mans natural right 3. This Theory I think is very sound at the bottome and that it is very clear what ought to be but hugely unpracticable by reason of that general perverseness and corruption of men Yet I thought it worth the while to expose it to view the acknowledgement thereof being the greatest advantage to Chritian Religion that can possibly be conceived there being nothing so effectual for the easie fall of Turcisme and Paganisme into the profession of Christ as this Prinâ—iple we have explained our Religion being not onely solid in it self but incomparably more demonstrable to all Rational spirits then any Religion ever extant in the World Besides though its use will not extend so farre at the first yet it may be something serviceable to these parts of the world whose eyes are more open to Truth then others are And verily in my judgement this Principle I do thus recommend as it seems to me to deserve the reception of all men as true so of all Christians especially not onely upon point of Policy but as more sutable to that spirit they are of abhorring from force and cruelty who are therefore to permit full Liberty of Conscience to all those that do not forfeit it by mixing with their Religion such Principles as are contrary to good manners and civil Right or repugnant to this very Principle of Liberty we speak of 4. Wherefore those that under pretence of Religion would corrupt the people with such doctrines as plainly countenance Vice and tend to the rooting out of the sense of true Honour and Vertue out of a Nation have lost this Common Right we contend for as being infecters and poisoners of the people amongst whom they live and therefore the therefore the publick Magistrate of what Nation or Religion soever has a power to restrain them their doctrine being so dangerous to the welfare of a State and contrary to the light of Nature and suffrage of the wisest men in all places of the World and in all Ages No Religion fraught with such rotten ware as this is to be received in any coast where they would put in but to be kept out by Strangers and suppressed at home 5. Again those also would forfeit this Right of Liberty whose Religion should contain any thing in it that would weaken the State which received it As if there were some such absurd Superstition as upon pretence of an high esteem fo Virginity and extreme abhorrence from warre should urge the emasculation of every third male-child or the luxation or cutting off their fore-finger or thumb whereby the Country would be depopulated and the Inhabitants made unserviceable for the defence thereof there is no question but the Magistrate might inhibit such a Religion as this 6. As he might in the last place all such as have intermixed with them that wolvish and ferine humour of persecuting others for their Religion that would live quietly by them and would not force any one to their own Faith nor disturb the publick exercise of Religion in others For these have no right to be suffered further then at the discretion of the Magistrate nor can more reasonably plead for Liberty then the Wolfe and Fox crave leave to have their kennels or holes in the midst of a Sheepfold or the Owle or Night-Raven to put in their note amidst a Quire of Nightingales 7. But you 'l say all Religions and Sects are such Foxes and Wolves and therefore there is no Liberty of Religion at all to be given Those that are so I confess are at the mercy of the Magistrate as having forfeited their Right Which forfeiture he may exact more or less severely accordingly as he has more or less security that these crafty and wild Creatures may do no mischief But I do not believe that all men that do profess Religion are of this partial nature nay on the contrary I do verily believe That they that are the most truly religious are the most abhorrent from persecution of conscience sake Wherefore as many as are ready to profess and that upon Oath if it be required That it is their judgement and their Practice does not contradict it that no man is to be incommodated in his Civil rights in his Libety Estate or Life for the cause of such a Religion as whose principles teach not to incommodate others and do avow that theirs is such and that they will be as faithful to the Prince or State in which they live as those of his own Religion these having in no wise forfeited their Right of liberty neither this way nor any other by intermingling Practices or Principles against the light of Nature and laudable Morality it were the highest piece of Injustice that can be committed to abridge them of the safe profession thereof CHAP. XII 1. To what Persons and with what Circumstances the Christian Magistrate is to give Liberty of Conscience And the great advantage thereof to the Truth of Christianity 2. That those that are not Christians are not to be admitted into places of trust by the
not look then like a piece of irreligious rudeness which is truly a kinde of Prophaneness to expect that Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ should give us the meeting in squalid and sordid places even then when we pretend most to shew our Reverence and Devotion to him For though we may make bold one with another to meet where we please yet we making our approaches to God in those places and he thereby making his special approaches to us for in a Philosophical sense he is every where alike questionless it cannot but be an expression of our Reverence unto him to have the Structure of the place proportionably capacious well and fairly built and handsomely adorned and as properly and significantly of our Religion and devotional homages we owe to our crucified Saviour as can be without suspicion of Idolatry or any scandalous Superstition For it is true from the very light of Nature which the knowledge of Christ does not extinguish but direct and perfect That Houses of Publick worship ought to have some Stateliness and Splendour in them expressive of the Reverence we bear to the Godhead we do adore And therefore the Christian Magistrate for the honour of his Saviour who suffered so much shame for him as also for making Christian Religion more recommendable to them that are without for Religion will not seem Religion to any without Publick worship nor a desirable Religion unless this Publick worship be performed with inoffensive Splendour and Decency ought to assist and abett such good practices as these 3. It is beyond the limits of my present Discourse to make any curious inquisition or determination concerning the particularities of this Publick Worship though I cannot abstain from giving some general hints concerning the due managements of the chief matters thereof such as are most obvious to think of and most useful to consider And such are the Enquiries into the nature of the Place of this Publick worship and the Holiness thereof and our Demeanour therein and especially of those chief performances of Preaching Praying Receiving the Sacrament of Baptisme also and of Holy-days To which we may adde those accessory helps of Devotion as some account them Musick and Pictures Concerning which I shall rather simply declare my sense of things then solicitously endeavour to demonstrate my Conclusions by over-operose Reasonings which will but raise a dust and provoke the Polemical Rabble 4. Concerning therefore this House of Publick Worship the Christians meet in I conceive there is no need to phansie it a Temple nay rather it seems fit to look upon it as no Temple the use of that Ceremony being antiquated by the excellency and supereminency of our Religion For the famed Iehovah is not now a Topical Deity nor Christ confined to this or that City or People but is the declared Worship of the whole Earth and is not contained within the wals of any Temple but has his personal Residence in Heaven whither our Devotions are to be directed and our Mindes suspended and lifted up thitherward not debased nor defixed to the corners of any earthly Edifice into which when a man looks he findes nothing worthy of adoration To which Truth both Stephen and Paul give their suffrage the one declaring to the Iews the other to the Areopagites That the most High who is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And our Saviour himself to the Samaritan woman who was solicitous which of those Temples that of Samaria or that of Ierusalem was the right place of Worship he tels her plainly that such Topical or Figurative worshipping of God was shortly to cease That the hour was coming and then was when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth that is by the inward Sanctity of their Souls and with the true service of Prayers and Praises and Alms-deeds of which Incense and Sacrifices were but the figures and shadows Let my prayer be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice To do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased And lastly S. Iohn in his Apocalyps describing the condition of the New Ierusalem which is the Church of Christ in her best state I saw saith he no Temple there for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it That is their worship is directed immediatly towards God and Christ not to any place as the Jews ever worshipped toward the Temple of Ierusalem 5. But though the nature and name of a Temple does not belong to this House of Publick worship according to the sense of Scripture which made also the Primitive Christians carefully abstain from that nomination yet I do not see any ground at all why some of our phanciful Sects should take offence at the name of Church applied thereto For the Church being an house wherein we meet to serve the Lord whether God the Father or Christ his Son both which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this house is naturally there from denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek whence is our English word Church as every trivial Grammarian can tell them 6. But now it being thus plain that it is an house for Divine worship and therefore has a special relation to God though it be not dedicated in such a solemn manner as Solomon's Temple yet it does necessarily contract a kinde of Holiness hereby and by this Holiness some measure of respect namely that it should be kept in handsome repair and be carefully defended from all foulness and nastiness both within and without And because Custome has appropriated it to the service of God unless very great necessity urge it is not to be made use of to any other purposes Those that are otherwise affected in this matter may justly seem guilty of a kinde of Incivility against God as I may so call it and hazard the being accounted Clowns in the sight of the Court of Heaven and all the holy Angels As that also might be reputed a piece of unskilfulness and obsolete Courtship to complement any one part of this House as if there were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there and the Ark of the Covenant For this would be to turn the Church of Christ into a Temple Wherefore those that at their entrance into the Congregation either kneel down or standing do their private devotion and continue bare-headed before Divine Service begin they mean not this Devotion to the Edifice but testifie only with what fear and reverence they make their approaches to God and their Hearts being in preparation to a nearer approach shew their sense of his coming nearer to them by this reverential observance For Veneration is done at the coming of great
infallible Oracles and will more easily discern the prevarications of their Teacher But for the greater assurance against any foul play of this kinde his misinterpretations of these Holy Writings to Loosnesse and Libertinism should be the forfeiture of the exercise of his Function 11. Besides I do not speak so much to exclude Preaching as to bring Catechizing and Expounding into more request which are abundantly more useful and edifying Nay I think that some well-tuned strains of unaffected Eloquence at the chief Festivals of the Year and in occasional Exhortations to the people upon observation of what is most amiss amongst them done with a great deal of seriousness and gravity as also at publick Fasts and Thanksgivings were a thing of excellent use and of the more efficacy it being the more seldom But for other days If our Saviour Christs Sermon on the Mount were read with much reverence and emphatick distinctness it being the advice of so sacred and infallible a person in whose mouth there was neither Errour nor Guile who was the Son of God clothed with the formalities of our flesh on purpose to take the chair awhile amongst us and to read us sound and warrantable Lectures of Divinity in whose behalf God the Father condescended to do the Office of a Praeco and commanded silence out of the Clouds saying This is my beloved Son hear him who was so faithful and compassionate a Pastour to his Flock that he laid down his life for his Sheep and so beloved of his Father that he was miraculously raised from the dead and taken up into heaven and lastly who shall visibly descend thence and judge every man according to his works If this Sermon I say of wholsome advice and holy Precepts were read distinctly and reverently to the people how can it but be more edifying and work more upon their spirits for their good then the sophisticated and affected Rhetorick of a fallible Mortal Besides the keeping out the danger of being either choaked with the crooked and spinose Controversies of Polemical Divinity or of being poisoned or intoxicated with the unwholsome sugar-sops of Antinomianism and Libertinism 12. And lastly to answer still more home to the point If thou hast a desire to magnifie thy Ministry in an eximious manner in stead of ostentating thy Gifts exercise and improve thy Graces to the highest thou canst Endeavour to the utmost to be an unblemished Example to thy flock of Humility of Brotherly kindeness of Obedience to the Magistrate of Temperance of exact Iustness in thy dealing of Compassion to the poor and needy Use thy best Prudence to keep Peace and Love amongst thy charge as it becomes Christians and to invite the more able to a charitable relief and help of those that are in want and necessity that no unsupportable distresse may make the lives of our fellow-members comfortless as also privately to reprove those that are guilty of any scandalous miscarriages but with the wisest and discreetest applications that may be that thy Reprehensions as they ought so they may appear to proceed from nothing but from love and from care and conscience of thy duty In which if thou wouldest not lose thine authority and confidence thou must live exactly in the indispensable Laws of Christ thy self nor make these solemn Reproofs but for the breach of such But if thou be really vitious thy self in these or to make thy self seem more holy rebuke for the neglect of some petty mock-vertues of thine own chusing thou shalt not fail to be either odious or ridiculous But here the great Hypocrisie is this That to compensate their neglect in these indispensable and highly-concerning Duties of the Ministry they abound in empty Lip-labour and endeavour to conciliate authority to themselves by their pretended spiritual Gifts of extemporary Praying and Preaching in stead of that unblemished Sanctity of life of useful Prudence in behalf of their Charge and of Christian Goodnesse and Charity And that they may keep up their credit more certainly with the people they lay their foundation wisely namely by giving them to understand that there is no hope of living as we should do or any need thereof and so making their whole flock as rotten as themselves both in Principles and Practice there being none left to reprove the false Prophet by either example of life or contrariety of doctrine he thus secures to himself his authority entire by his admired clack of the Tongue which some call The knack of preaching and praying Which yet where better intended is of as little efficacy as a Tar-bottle hung out on a Thorn-bush if compared with personal application and private information and reproof For that is like the Adfriction of the pastoral medicine to a diseased Sheep without which the formality of the Bottle on the Bush will do no cure let the flock be gathered about it never so solemnly 13. Touching the Communion None are to be excluded therefrom that professe their belief of the Holy Scriptures of the Apostles Creed in the plain literal and Historical sense thereof unless they stand guilty of some gross and scandalous sins which are to be nominated in some known Law concerning this matter and not to be left to the uncertainty of any private Ministers Judgement and do persist therein impenitent and unreclaimed For it were the greatest treachery to the party that could be by admitting him to this Holy Communion to make him more secure in such sins as will be sure while they are unrepented of to exclude him from that Heavenly Communion of Saints for ever Besides the Scandal and Offence to the rest of the serious and sincere-hearted Communicants to whom the sight will appear as ugly as if one having fallen over head and ears into the dirt should in that black miry hue droppingly dirty place himself at table amongst persons of quality whom the Master of the Feast had invited upon some special entertainment And as for the Posture of the Communicant as there are none that are so curious as to reduce it to that in which Christ and his Disciples celebrated his last Supper so none ought to be so captious as to take offence if one receive the Communion kneeling in devotion to God and humble thankfulnesse for that great Benefit that is signified thereby namely the Death of Christ with the Results thereof and the participation of his body and bloud in that sense I have spoken of elsewhere nor if another take it sitting as it is a celebration of a Supper or that he may clear himself of the suspicion of Idolizing the outward Elements of Bread and Wine For it is as well unjust as uncharitable to be at all scandalized at actions that have such innocent and allowable grounds and the most unsufferable at the celebrating of such a Mystery as is wholly made up of love and affection to Christ and to one another I confess an Uniformity would look better in outward shew but
That the punctual Correspondence of the Event to the Prediction of the Astrologer does not prove the certainty of the Art of Astrology 5. The great Affinity of Astrology with Daemonolatry and of the secret Agency of Daemons in bringing about Predictions 6. That by reason of the secret or familiar Converse of Daemons with pretended Astrologers no argument can be raised from Events for the truth of this Art 7. A Recapitulation of the whole matter argued 8. The just occasions of this Astrological excursion and of his shewing the ridiculous condition of those three high-flown Sticklers against Christianity Apollonius Cardan and Vaninus 356 BOOK VIII CHAP. I. THE End and Usefulness of Christian Religion in general 2. That Christ came into the World to destroy Sin out of it 3. His earnest recommendation of Humility 4. The same urged by the Apostle Paul 361 CHAP. II. 1. Christs enforcement of Love and Charity upon his Church by Precept and his own Example 2. The wretched imposture and false pretensions of the Family of Love to this divine Grace 3. The unreasonableness of the Familists in laying aside the person of Christ to adhere to such a carnal and inconsiderable Guide as Hen. Nicolas 4. That this Whifler never gave any true Specimens of real love to Mankinde as Christ did and his Apostles 5. His unjust usurpation of the Title of Love 6. The unparallel'd endearmentâ— of Christs sufferings in the behalf of Mankiâ—d 364 CHAP. III. 1. The occasion of the Familists usâ—rpation of the Title of Love 2. Earnest precepts oâ—t of the Apostles to follow Love and what kind of Love that is 3. That we câ—nnot love God unlesse we love our neighbour also 4. An Exposition of the 5 and 6 verses of the 1 chapter of the 2 Epist. of S. Peter 5. Saint Paul's rapturous commendation of Charity 6 His accurate description thereof 7. That Love is the highest participation of the Divinity and that whereby we become the Sons of God Aâ—d how injurious these Fanaticks are that rob the Church of Christ of this title to appropriate it to themselves 368 CHAP. IV. 1. Our Saviour's strict injuction of Purity from whence it is also plain that the Love he commends is not in any sort fleshly but Divine 2. Several places out of the Apostles urging the same duty 3. Two more places to the same purpose 4. The groundless presumption of those that abuse Christianity to a liberty of sinning 5. That this Errour attempted the Church betimes and is too taking at this very day 6. Whence appears the necâ—ssiâ—y of opposing it which he promises to do taking the rise of his Discourse from 1 Iohn 3.7 373 CHAP. V. 1. The Apostle's care for young Christians against that Errour of thinking they may be righteous without doing righteously 2. Their obnoxiousness to this contagion with the Causes thereof to be searched into 3. The first sort of Scriptures perverted to this ill end 4. The second sort 5. That the very state of Christian Childhood makes them prone to this Errour 6. What is the nature of that Faith Abraham is so much commended for and what the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. A search after the meaning of the term Justification 8. Justification by faith without the deeds of the Law what may be the meaning of it 9. Scriptures answered that seem to disjoin Reall Righteousness from Faith 10. And to make us only righteous by imputation 11. Undeniable Testimonies of Scripture that prove the necessity of real Righteousness in us 376 CHAP. VI. 1. Their alledgement of Gal. 2.16 as also of the whole drift of that Epistle 2. What the Righteousness of faith is according to the Apostle 3. In what sâ—â—se those that are in Christ are said not to be under the Law 4. That the Righteousness of faith is no figment but a reality in us 5. That this Righteousness is the New Creature and what this new Creature is according to Scripture 6. That the new Creature consists in Wisdome Righteousness and true Holiness 7. The Righteousness of the new Creature 8. His Wâ—sdome and Holiness 9. That the Righteousness of faith excludes not good Works The wicked treachery of those that teach the contrary 384 CHAP. VII 1. That no small measure of Sanctity serves the turn in Christianity 2. As appears out of Scriptures already alledged 3. Further proofs thereof out of the Prophets 4. As also out of the Gospel 5. And other places of the New Testament 6. The strong Armature of a Christian Souldier 7. His earnest endeavour after Perfection 388 CHAP. VIII 1. That the Christians assistance is at least equal to this task 2. The two Gospel-powers that comprehend his duty 3. The first Gospel-aid The Promise of the Spirit with Prophecies thereof out of Ezekiel and Esay 4. Some hints of the mystical meaning of the last 5. Another excellent prediction thereof 391 CHAP. IX 1. The great use of the belief of The Promise of the Spirit 2. The eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his bloud what it is 3. Further proof of the Promise of the Spirit 4. That we cannot oblige God by way of Merit 5. Other Testimonies of Scripture tending to the former purpose 395 CHAP. X. 1. A Recapitulation of what has been set down hitherto concerning the Usefulness of the Gospel and the Necessity of undeceiving the world in those points that so nearly concern Christian Life 2. The ill condition of those that content themselves with Imaginary Righteousness figured out in the Fighters against Ariel and Mount Sion 3. A further demonstration of their fond conceit 4. That a true Christian cannot sin without pain and torture to himself 398 CHAP. XI 1. That the want of real Righteousness deprives us of the Divine Wisdome proved out of Scripture 2. As also from the nature of the thing it self 3. That is disadvantages the Soul also in Natural speculations 4. That it stifles all Noble and laudable Actions 5. And exposes the imaginary Religionist to open reproach 6. That mere imaginary Righteousness robs the Soul of her peace of Conscience 7. And of all divine Ioy 8. Of Health and Safety 9. And of eternal Salvation 10. That God also hereby is deprived of his Glory and the Church frustrated of publick Peace and Happiness 400 CHAP. XII 1. Of the attending to the Light within us of which some Spiritualists so much boast 2. That they must mean the Light of Reason and Conscience thereby if they be not Fanaticks Mad-men or Cheats And that this Conscience necessarily takes information from without 3. And particularly from the Holy Scriptures 4. That these Spiritualists acknowledge the fondness of their opinion by their contrary practice 5. An appeal to the Light within them if the Christian Religion according to the literal sense be not true 6. That the Operation of the Divine Spirit is not absolute but restrained to certain laws and conditions as it is in the Spirit of
Nation he serves 4. That he is to continue or provide an honourable and competent allowance for them that labour in the word and doctrine 5. That the vigilancy of the Christian Magistrate is to keep under such Sects as pretend to Immediate Inspiration unaccountable and unintelligible to sober Reason and why 6. That the endeavour of impoverishing the Clergy smels ranck of Prophaneness Atheisme and Infidelity 7. That the Christian Magistrate is either to erect or keep up Schools of Humane Learning with the weighty grounds thereof 8. A further enforcement of those grounds upon the fanatick Perfectionists 9. The hideous danger of casting away the History of the Gospel upon pretence of keeping to the Light within us 525 CHAP. XIII 1. The Authors application to the better-minded Quakers 2. He desires them of that Sect to search the grounds and compute the gains of their Revolt from Christ. 3. That there are no peculiar Effects of the Spirit of God in the Sect of the Quakers but rather of Pythonism 4. That their Inspirations are not divine but diabolical 5. The vanity of their boasting of the knowledge of their mysterious Allegories 6. The grounds of their insufferable bitterness against the Ministers of Christ. 7. That he was urged by the light within him to give witness to the Truth of the History of the Gospel and to admonish the Quakers His caution to the simple-minded among them how they turn in to Familism 8. His ease and satisfaction of mind from disburdening himself of this duty 9. The compassionableness of their condition 10. And hope of â—heir return to Christ. 530 CHAP. XIV 1. That Publick Worshâ—p is essential to Religion and inseparable when free from Persecution The right measure of the Circumstances thereof 2. Of the Fabrick and Beauty of Churches according to that measure 3. The main things he intends to touch upon concerning Publick Worship 4. That the Churches of Christians are not Temples the excellency of our Religion being incompliable with that Notion 5. The vanity of the Sectarians exception against the word Church applied to the appointed places of Publick Worship 6. That though the Church be no Temple yet it is in some sense holy and what respect there is to be had of it and what reverence to be used there 7. Of Catechizing Expounding and Preaching 8. Of Prayer and what is the true praying by the Spirit 9. The Excellency of publick Liturgies 10. What is the right End of the Ministry 11. Certain special uses of Sermons and of the excellency of our Saviour Christs Sermon on the Mount 12. The best way for one to magnifie his Ministry 13. Of the Holy Communion who are to be excluded and of the posture of receiving it 14. Of the time of Baptism and the Sign of the Cross. 15. Of Songs and Hymns to be composed by the Church and of Holy-daies 16. Of the celebrating the Passion-day and the Holy Communion 17. Of Images and Pictures in places of Publick Worship 18. A summary advertisement concerning Ceremonies and Opâ—nions 535 An INDEX of Places of Scripture that are interpreted in this Treatise Chap. Verse Page Genesis   3. 15. 328. 4. 1 2. 56 57. 49. 10. 283 to 288. Exodus   3. 14 32 34. 457. 34. 8. 457. Deuteronomy   24. 14 15. 22. Iob.   19. 25. 224. 38. 19 21. 22. Psalmes   22. 14 16 18. 329 330. 45. 6. 310. 68. 17 18. 309. 110. 3 4. 310. Proverbs   4. 18. 401. Isaiah   7. 14. 305 328 329. 9. 6. 310. â—1 10. 312. 28. 1. 399. 41. 10. 393. 42. 1 to 16. 394. 49. 5 6 7. 311. 53. 12. 169. 57. 8 11. 397.  15. 12 158. Ieremiah   1. 5. 22. 33. 1 to 12. 306 to 308. Ezekiel   43. 10 c. 289. Daniel   9. 24 to 27. 291 to 300. Micah   5. 2. 12 327. Haggai   2. 6 to 9. 288. Malachi   3. 1. 290. Title of the New Testament  464. Matthew   2. 4 5. 327 328. 5. 5. 363.  17. 362. 10. 28. 28. 12. 23 24. 415. 16. 14. 24. 20. 25. 363. 21. 12. 117.  17. 118. 24. 30 ad finem 212. 25. 1 c. 212 27. 45. 134 135 c. Mark   3. 21. 418. 6. 5 6. 409. 13. 11. 12. 16. 19. 143. Luke   6. 27. 415. 9. 34. 106. 23. 42 43. 28 29. Iohn   1. 1 to 14. 11 12.  14. 99. 3. 14. 430 431.  31. 23. 4. 23 24. 536. 5. 26. 505 507 6. 26. 24.  38. 23.  63. 396. 9. 6. 119. 10. 34 35. 413 414. 12. 31. 78. 13. 34. 364. 14. 28. 9. 16. 8 to 11. 164 165.  13 14. 9 10.  28. 23. 17. 4 5. 23. Acts.   7. 51. 410. 13. 19. 380. Romans   3. 28. 380. 4. 1. 380.  5. 382.  18. 379.  24 25. 380. 5. 1. 381.  12. 383. 8. 10 11. 381. 15. 13. 10. I Corinthians   1. 30. 382. 11. 26. 439. 15. 32. 16 17 18 224. II Corinthi   5. 1 to 6. 19 20 21.  8. 27. Galatians   2. 16 19. 384. 3. 21. 380 384. 4. 15 16. 385.  21 22 23. 468 to 476. Ephesians   4. 30. 410. Philippians   1. 21 to 24. 27. 2. 6 7 8. 23. 3. 11. 21. Colossians   2. 18. 93. I Thessalon   5. 19. 410. II Timothy   1. 12. 19. 4. 8. 19. Hebrews   11. 26. 23. 12. 2. 420.  9. 27.  22. ibid. I Peter   3. 15. 459.  18 19 20. 25 26. II Peter   1. 5. 370 371.  13 15. 27. 3. 5 to 12. 213 214.  16. 384. I Iohn   2. 14. 12. 3. 7. 375 376 c. 4. 2. 23. 5. 7. 11. Revelation   1. 1 3. 200. 2. 10. 180. 4. 1 2 c. 182. 6. 1 to 12. 183 184 185. 8. 7 to 12. 186. 9. 1 to 20. 187 to 190. 10. 7 8 11. 176. 11. 1 2. 185 191.  3 11. 207 208.  7 8 9 11. 177 178 192.  14 to 19. 190. 12. 6. 173 174 195.  7 10 11. 185 186. 13. 1 2. 178 193.  11 12. 194.  17 18. 194 to 197. 14. 6. 255. 17. 3. 192.  8. 193. 19. 7. 198. 20. 3. 198.  4 5 6. 179 180. 21. 2. 198.  15 to 22. 195 198.  22. 537. 22. 6 7. 200 201. Mistakes in the COPY PRaef pag. ix lin 44. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 BOOK pag. 20. l. 19. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 25. l. 22. r. Soul or Spirit pag. 26. l. 8. r. Damoniacal pag. 77. l. 24. r. mankind and the Devil and. pag. 95. l. 35. r. mettled l. 41. r. Th' all pag. 99. l. 41. r. eternity when l.