The Life of Faith

CHAP. III.

HAving done with this general conviction and exhortation to unbelieving Hypocrites, I proceed to acquaint Believers with their Duty, in several particulars.

1. Worship God as Believers; serve him with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire, Heb. 12.28, 29. A seeing faith, if well excited, would kindle love, desire, fear, and all praying graces. No man prays well, that doth not well know what he prays for. When it comes to seeing, all men can cry loud, and pray when praying will do no good. They will not then speak sleepily, or by rote, Fides intuendo, amorem recipit, amorem sus •• tat: Cor flagrans amore desideria, gemitus, orationes spirat. Faith is the burning-glass which beholding God, receiveth the beams of his communicated love, and inflameth the heart with love to him again; which mounteth up by groans and prayers, till it reach its original, and love forever rest in love.

2. Desire and use the creature as Believers. Interpret all things as they receive their meaning, from the things unseen: understand them in no other sense. It's only God and the life to come that can tell you what's good or bad for you in the world. And therefore the ungodly that cannot go to Heaven for counsel, are carried about by mere deceits. Take heed what you love: and take heed of that you love. God is very jealous of our love: He sheds abroad his own love in our hearts, that our hearts may be fruitful in love to him, which is his chief delight. By love he commandeth love; that we may suitably move toward him, and center in him. He communicateth so much for the procuring of a little, that we should endeavor to give him all that little, and shed none of it inordinately upon the creature by the way. Nothing is great, or greatly to be admired, while the great God is in sight. And it is unsuitable for little things, to have great affections ; and for low matters to have a high esteem. It is the corruption and folly of the mind, and the delusion of the affections to exalt a Shrub above a Cedar, and magnify a Mole-hill above a Mountain; to embrace a shadow or spectrum of felicity, which vanisheth into Nothing, when you bring in the light. The creature is nihil & nullipotens: Nothing should have no interest in us, and be able to do Nothing with us (as to the motions that are under the dominion of the will.) God is All and Almighty: And he that is All, should have All, and command All: And the Omnipotent should do All things with us, by his Interest in Morals ; as he will do by his force in Naturals. I deny not but we may love a friend: One soul in two bodies will have one mind, and will, and love. But as it is not the body of my friend, that I love or converse with principally, but the soul; (and therefore should have no mind of the case, the corps, the empty nest, if the bird were flown) so is it not the person, but Christ in him, or that of God which appeareth on him, that must be the principal object of our love. The man is mutable, and must be loved, as Plato did commend his friend to Dionysius: Haec tibi scribo de homine, viz. animante naturâ mutabili: and therefore must be loved with a reserve. But God is unchangeable, and must be absolutely and unchangeably loved. That life is best that's likest Heaven: There God will be All; and yet even there, it will be no dishonor or displeasure to the Deity, that the glorified humanity of Christ, and the New Jerusalem, and our holy society, are loved more dearly than we can love any creature here on earth: So here, God taketh not that affection as stolen from him, that's given to his servants for his sake, but accepts it as sent to him by them. Let the creature have it, so God have it finally in and by the creature; and then it is not so properly the creature that hath it, as God. If you choose, and love your friends for God, you will use them for God: not flattering them, or desiring to be flattered by them; but to kindle in each other the holy flame which will aspire and mount, and know no bounds, till it reach the boundless element of love. You will not value them as friends, qui omnia dicta & facta vestra laudant, sed qui errata & delicta amice reprehendunt: Not them that call you good; but them that would make you better. And you will let them know, as Phocian did Antipater, that they can never use you, & amici • & adulatoribus ; as friends and flatterers; that differ as a wife and a harlot.

It's hard to love the imperfect creature, without mistakes, and inordinacy in our love: And therefore usually where we love most, we sin most; and our sin finds us out; and then we suffer most: and too much affection is the forerunner of much affliction; which will be much prevented, if Faith might be the guide of Love, and Human Love might be made Divine ; and all to be referred to the things unseen, and animated by them. Love where you can never love too much; where you are sure to have no disappointments; where there is no unkindness to eclipse or interrupt; where the only error is, that God hath not all; and the only grief, that we love no more.

Especially in the midst of your enticing pleasures, or enticing employments and profits in the world, foresee the end; do all in Faith, which telleth you, [ The time is short; it remaineth therefore, that both they that have wives, be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as through they used it not (or not abusing it:) for the fashion of this world passeth away, 1 Cor. 7.29, 30.

3. Imploy your time as becomes Believers. Faith only can acquaint you, what an inconceivable weight doth lie upon this inch of hasty time. As you behave yourselves for a few days, it must go with you in joy or misery forever: You have your appointed time, for your appointed work. God hath turned the glass upon you; much of it is run out already. No price can call back one hour that you have lost. No power or policy can retard its course; Sic fugiunt fraeno non remorante dies. When it comes to the last sand, and time is gone, you will know the worth of it: You will then confess it should have seemed more precious in your eyes, than to have been cast away upon things of naught. O precious time! more worth than all the riches of the world! How highly is it valued by all at last? And how basely is it esteemed new by the most? Now it is no more worth with them, than to be sold for unnecessary sports, and ease, and wasted in idleness and vain delights: But then ; when it's gone, and all's too late, how loud would they cry, if cries could call back Time again! O then what a mercy would it seem, if God would try them once again! and trust them but with another life, or with Hezekiah 's fifteen years! or but with fifteen days, or hours, upon such terms of grace, as they held that life which they abused! It amazeth me to observe the lamentable stupidity of the world, how hard they beg for time when they think it is near an end! and how carelessly they let it slide away, when they have strength and faculties to improve it! They are grievously afraid lest death deprive them of it; and yet they are not afraid to deprive themselves of the use and fruit of it, and to cast it away as contemptuously, as if it were an useless thing. I seldom come near a dying man, but I hear him complain of the loss of Time, and wish it were to spend again, that it might be better valued and used. And yet the living will not be warned. O value Time, as wise men, while you have it; and not as miserable fools, when it is gone! If our Lord said, I must do the work of him that sent me while it is day; for the night cometh when no man can work, Joh. 9.4. What need then have such as we to be doing, and make much of time? O let not company, mirth or business, make you forget the work of Time ! Can you play, or loiter away your hours, with Eternity in your eye? Get the Sun to stand still, and Time to make a truce with you, and to waste no more of the oil of life, before you lose another hour.

O what heads, what hearts have all those men, that standing against the verge of an endless world, can think they have any time to spare! Hath God given you too much? If not, why do you lose it? If he hath, why are you loath that he should shorten it? You would not throw away your gold, as contemptuously as you do your time; when an hours time is more valuable than gold. Frown on that company that would rob you of half an hours time. Tell them you have something else to do, than to feast, or play, or talk away your time unnecessarily. O tell them you were not made for nothing. You are in a race, and must not stand still: You are in a fight, and must not cease. Your work is great; much of it is undone. Your enemies are not idle: Death will not stop: the Judge is coming, and still beholds you: and Heaven or Hell are ready to receive our ending life, and tell us how we spent our time: And can you find time to spare? You are not made as Weather-cocks, to stand up on high for men to look at, and by turning about with every wind, to show them which way it standeth. Turn not your lives into that curse, Levite. 26.20. [ You shall spend your strength in vain. ] Believe it, Time must be reviewed. The day is near, when every man of you had rather find it in your accounts, [so many hours spent in self-examination, and holy meditation; so many in reading the Word of God; so many spent in fervent prayer; and so many in doing good to others] than [so many spent in needless sports and pleasures; so many in idleness and vain discourses; and so many in the less necessary matters of the world.] Ask those that tempt you to mis-spend your time, whether at death and Judgment they had rather themselves have a life of holy diligence to review, or a life consumed in vanity, and transitory delights.

You will not suffer impertinencies to interrupt your counsels, and serious business in the world: You will tell intruders, that you are busy, and cannot have while to attend them. And are you going into Heaven or Hell, and have but a few days time of preparation (God knows 〈…〉 ) and yet can you have while to pass this precious 〈…〉 vain? O what would you not give ere long for one of the hours that you now mis-spend? When the oath is performed, Rev. 10.6. [ That Time shall be no longer. ] Wonderful! that men can find Time for anything, save that for which they had their time! Non tam been vivant, sed quamdiu confiderant (inquit Seneca) cum omnibus p • ssit contingere ut been vivant; ut diu nulli. ] To live well is both possible and necessary, and yet is disregarded: To live long, is neither possible, nor necessary ; and yet is sought by almost all. Incipiunt vivere cum definendum est: immo quidam ante desierunt vivere, quam inciperent. Sen. It's unseasonable we should begin to live, when we should make an end: but it's most unhappy to have made an end, before they do begin: Pulchrum est (inquit idem) consummare vitam ante mortem; & expectare secure reliquam temporis partem. ] Do the great work, and then you may comfortably spend the rest in waiting for the conclusion. Yet you have time, and leave, and helps: you may read, and meditate, and pray, if you will: but shortly Time will be no more. O let not Satan insult over your carcasses and tormented souls, and say, [Now it is too late! Now murmur and repent as long as you will! Now pray, and cry, and spare no • !] O use that Faith which beholdeth the invisible world, and maketh future things as present, and then delay and loiter if you can: Then waste your hours in idleness or vanity if you dare! either light or fire shall awake you.

4. Suffer as Believers. Fear not the wrath of man; but endure as seeing him that is invisible, Heb. 11.27. show plainly, that you seek a better Country, verse. 14, 16. Read often, Heb. 11, and 12 chapters, Behold the Kingdom prepared and secured for you by Christ, and then you will be indifferent which way the wind of human favor or applause shall fit; or what weather Lunatick influences and aspects shall produce. Such a Faith will make you with Abraham, to turn your back on all, and engage in Pilgrimage for an inheritance after to be received; though he knew not whither he went, (with a distinct particular knowledge) Heb. 11.8. As strangers and travellers, you will not be troubled to leave towns and fields, buildings and •• alth, and walks behind you, as knowing that you were 〈◊〉 • ass by them, desiring and seeking a better, that is, an heavenly: And you shall lose nothing by this passing by all in the world: For God will not be ashamed to be called your God; and he hath prepared for you a City, Heb. 11.13, 16. Seriously respect the recompense of reward, and it will make you choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches, than the treasures of the world, v. 25, 26. Stephen 's sight would cause Stephen 's patience. Hold on as Christians; the end is near: Let us run with patience the race that is set before us; looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith; who for the Joy that was set before him, endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God: Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied, and faint in your minds, Heb. 12.2, 3.

You may well endure the buffeting, and scorn, if you foresee the honor. You may well endure the Crown of Thorns, if you foresee the Crown of Glory: You may endure to be forsaken of all, if you see him that will never fail you, nor forsake you: This foretaste of the Rivers of pleasure with the Lord, will drown the taste of the Vinegar and Gall. Whine not like worldlings that have lost their portion, when you are stripped as bare as Job. If you are true Believers, you have All still, for God is All: You have lost Nothing ; for Faith hath made the world as Nothing to you: And will you whine and vex yourself for Nothing? Can you call it Nothing so frequently and easily in your prayers, and ordinary speech; and do you now recall this; or tell us by your serious grief, that you speak but in hypocrisy and jest. [ Frangitur nemo molestiâ adversorum, qui non capitur delectation prosperorum. August. Had there been less Idolatrous Love, there would have been less tormenting grief and care. Our life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that we possess. He is not happy that hath them, but he that neither needeth nor desireth them. [Cum in his quae homines eripiunt, optant, custodiunt, nihil inveneris, non dico quod malis, sed quod velis. Sen.] Superfluity doth but burden and break down: The Corn that's too rank lodgeth; and the branches break that are overladen with fruit. [ Omnia quae superfluunt nocent: segetem nimia sternit ub •• tas: rami onere franguntur ad maturitatem non pervenit faecunditas: Idem quoque animis evenit, quos immoderata prosperitas rumpit; quia non tantum in aliorum injuriam, sed etiam in suam utuntur. Sen. ] It's pleasure, and not pain, that is the worlds most deadly sting: It hath never so much hurt us, as when it hath flattered us into delights or hopes. [Et fera & piscis spe aliqua oblectante decipitur. Sen.] Hope is the bait; prosperity and pleasure the net, that souls are ordinarily ensnared by. Men lose not their souls for poverty, but for riches ; nor for dishonor, but for honor; nor for sorrow, but for delight.

The luxuriances of prosperity, bring us so frequently under the pruning hook. The surfeits and summer fruits of fullness and carnal contentments and delights, do put us to the trouble of our sicknesses and our Physic. [ How hardly shall rich men enter into Heaven? ] saith he that well knew who should enter. Saith A • gustine [Difficile, immo impossible est, ut praesentibus & futuris quis fruatur bonis; ut hic ventrem, & ibi mentem implea • : ut à deliciu ad delicias transeat; & in utroque seculo primus s • t▪ ut in terrâ & in coelo appareat gloriosus? ] The hope is, that [ with God such human impossibilities are possible ] But it's more terrible, than desirable to be put upon so great a difficulty. Sweet dishes will have wasp • and flies; but most of them are drowned in their delights. Saith Boetius of Prosperity and Adversity; I •• a fallit, haec instruit: illa mendacium specie bonorum mentes fruentium ligat: haec cogitatione fragilis faelicitatis absolvit: Itaque illam videas ventrosam fluentem, suique semper ignaram: hanc sobriam, succinctamque ac ipsius adversitatis exercitatione prudentem. A full meal seems best in the eating ; but a light meal is better the next day. More thank God in Heaven for adversity, than for prosperity: And more in Hell cry out of the fruit of prosperity, than of adversity. Many did never look towards Heaven, till affliction cast them on their backs, so that they could look no other way. [ It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes ] saith David, Psal. 119.71. [ Before I was afflicted, I went astray. ] v. 67. [ In very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me ] v. 75. One sight of Heaven by faith will force you to reckon that the sufferings of this present time are unworthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us] Rom. 8.18. To suffer for Christ and righteousness sake, is but to turn an unavoidable fruitless pain, into that which being voluntary, is the more easy, and hath a great reward in Heaven, Matth. 5.11, 12. And to part with that for a Crown of Life, which else we must part with for nothing. Worldly friends, and wealth, and honor, are summer fruit, that will quickly fall. Hungry fowl know where it's harvest [ At simul intonuit fugiunt : Those that must dwell with you in Heaven, are your sure and steadfast friends [ Caetera fortunae, &c. ] Those that are now highest, and least acquainted with the tongue of malice, the unfaithfulness of friends, or rage of enemies, shall shortly say,

There is but the difference of an Est and an Erit, between their mirth and endless sorrows: Their honor, and their endless shame; nor between our sorrow and our endless joy. Their final honor is to be embalmed, and their dust to be covered with a sumptuous monument, and their names extolled by the mouths of men, that little know how poor a comfort all this is to the miserable soul. In the height of their honor you may foresee the Surgeon opening their bowels, and showing the receptacles of the treasure of the Epicure, and what remains of the price that he received for his betrayed soul. He cuts out the heart with a [ Hae sedes livoris erant: jam pascua vermis ] you next tread on his interred corps, that's honored but with a [ Hic jacet] [Here lieth the body of such a one ] And if he have the honor to be magnified by fame or history, it's a fool-trap to ensnare the living, but easeth not the soul in Hell. And shall we envy men such a happiness as this? what if they be able to command men's lives, and to hurt those that they hate for a little while? Is this a matter of honor or of delight? A Pestilence is more honorable, if destroying be an honor. The Devil is more powerful (if God permit him) to do men hurt, than the greatest Tyrant in the world: And yet I hope you envy not his happiness, nor are ambitious to partake of it. If Witches were not kin to Devils, they would never sell their souls for a power to do hurt: And how little do tyrannical worldlings consider, that under a mask of Government and Honor, they do the same?

Let the world then rejoice while we lament and weep: Our sorrow shall be speedily turned into joy; and our joy shall no man • hen take from us, Joh. 16.20, 22. Envy not a dying man • he happiness of a feather-bed, or a merry dream. You think • t hard in them to deny you the liberties and comforts of this •• fe, though you look for Heaven : And will you be more cruel than the ungodly? Will you envy the trifling commodities or delights of earth, to those that are like to have no more, but to lie in Hell when the sport is ended? It is unreasonable impatience that cannot endure to see them in silks and gallantry a few days, that must be so extremely miserable forever. Your crumbs, and leavings, and overplus is their All. And will you grudge them this much? In this you are unlike your heavenly Father, that doth good to the just and unjust: would you change cases with them? would you change the fruit of your adversity, for the fruit of their prosperity.

Affliction maketh you somewhat more calm, and wise, and sober, and cautelous, and considerate, and preventeth as well as cureth sin. Prosperity makes them (through their abuse) inconsiderate, rash, insensible, foolish, proud, unpersuadable. And the turning away of the simple slayeth them, and the prosperity of fools destroyeth them, Prov. 1.32. It's long since Lazarus 's sores were healed, and his wants relieved; and long since Dives feast was ended. O let me rather be afflicted, than rejected; and be a door-keeper in the house of God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness: and rather be under the rod, than turned out of doors. Look with a serious Faith upon Eternity, and then make a great matter of enjoyments or sufferings here if you can. Great joys and sorrows forbid men to complain of the biting of a Flea. Thunder-claps drown a whispering voice.

O what unbelief our impatiency and disquietness in sufferings do discover! Is this living by faith? and conversing in another world? and taking God for All, and the world for Nothing? What! make such a do of p • verty, imprisonment, injuries, disgrace, with Heaven and Hell before our eyes? The Lord vouchsafe me that condition, in which I shall be nearest to himself, and have most communion with Heaven; be it what it will be for the things of earth. These are the desires to which I will stand.

To thank God for the fruit of past afflictions, as the most necessary mercies of our lives (as some of us have daily cause) and at the same time to be impatient under present afflictions, or inordinately afraid of those to come, is an irrational as well as unbelieving incongruity.

Are we derided, slandered, abused by the ungodly? If we repine that we have enemies and must fight; we repine that we are Christ's souldires, and that is, that we are Christians. [ Quomodo potest imperator militum suorum virtutem probare, nisi habuerit hostem ] saith Lactantius. Enemies of God do not use to fight professedly against himself, but against his soldiers [Non qui contra ipsum Deum pugnent, sed contra milites ejus inquit idem ] If the remnants of goodness had not been a derision among the Heathens themselves, in the more sober sort, a Heathen would not have said, [ Nondum faelix es, si non te turba deriferit: si beatus vis esse, cogita hoc primum contemnere, & ab aliis contemni. Sen.] Thou art not yet happy, if the rabble deride thee not: If thou wilt be blessed, learn first to contemn this, and to be contemned of others. ] No body will deride or persecute us in Heaven.

5. Improve your talents and opportunities in your callings as Believers; especially you that are Governors. God is the original and end of Government. The highest are but his ministers, Rom. 13.6. This world is but the way unto another. Things seen are for things unseen: And Government is to order them to that end: Especially by terrifying evil doers, and by promoting holiness in the earth. The Moral as well as the Natural motion of inferior agents, must proceed from the influence of the superior. The spring and the end of every action truly good, are out of fight. Where these are not discerned, or are ignorantly or maliciously opposed, the action is vitiated, and tendeth to confusion and ruin. God is the end of all holy actions; and carnal self is the end of sin. If God and self are infinitely distinct; you may easily see that the actions material • y the same, that are intended to such distant ends, must needs be very distant. Nothing but saving Faith and Holiness can conquer selfishness in the lowest of the people. But where the flesh hath more plentiful provision, and self is accommodated with the fullest contents of honor and pleasure that the world affords, how difficult a work then is self-denial! And the reign of the flesh is contrary to the reign of Christ. Where the flesh and visible things bear sway, the enemy of Christ bears sway. The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to his Law, nor can be, Rom. 8.7. And how Christ's enemies will receive his Laws, and use his Messengers, and regard his ways and servants, the most of the world have experience to their cost. The interest of the flesh, being contrary to Christ's interest, the competition maintaineth a continual conflict. The Word of God doth seem to be against them: The faithful Ministers that would save them from their sins, do seem to wrong them, and deal too boldly with them. Were it an Elijah, he would be called, The troubler of Israel ; and met with an [ Hast thou found me O mine enemy ] No measure of prudence, knowledge, piety, innocence, meekness or self-denial, will serve to appease the wrath and displeasure of this carnal enmity. If it would, the Apostles had escaped it: or at least it would not have fallen so furiously upon Christ h • mself. Nay, these are the oil that increase the flame. And Satan hath still the bellows in his hand: He knoweth that if he can corrupt or win the Commander, he can rout the Army, and ruin them with the greatest ease. It hath been Satan's grand design, since the Christian name was known on earth, to advance the selfish interest of men against the interest of Christ; and to entangle the Rulers of the world in some cause, that Christ, and his Word, and Servants cannot favor, and so to make them believe that there is a necessity on them to watch against, and subdue the interest of Christ. As if it were necessary that the shore be brought to the boat, and not the boat to the shore: And that the Physician be brought to the Patients mind, or else destroyed or used as his enemy. I am afraid to speak out the terrible words of God in Scripture, that are against such persons, lest you should misunderstand me, and think I misapply them. But Christ feareth no man, and hath not spoken his Word in vain; and his Messengers must be faithful; for he will bear them out; and preventive cautions are easier and safer than reprehensive corrasives. I will but refer you to the texts, that you may peruse them, Matth. 21.44. Matth. 18.3.6. Matth. 25.40, 45. Luke 18.7. Psal. 2. Luke 19.27. Acts 9.4, 5. 1 Thess. 2.15, 16. Read them with fear as the Words of God. Blessed are those Rulers and Nations of the Earth, that perceive and escape this pernicious snare of the grand deceiver; that with all his subtlety and industry, endeavoreth to breed quarrels, and sow dissensions between them and the universal King.

The more God giveth to the carnal and unwise, the more they think themselves engaged against him; because by his commands he seems to take it from them again, by crossing the flesh, which would use it only to fulfil its lusts. Like a Dog that fawneth on you till he have his bone; and then snarleth at you, lest you take it from him; and will fly in your face if you offer to meddle with it. Men readily confess that they have their wealth from God ; because it cannot be denied, and because they would use the name of God, as a cover to hide their covetousness, and unlawful ways of getting: But if you judge by their usage of it, and their returns to God; you would think that they believed, that they had nothing at all from God, but some injuries; and that all their benefits and good were from themselves. The Turkish and Tartarian Emperor will say, that all his grandeur and power is from God; that by making it most Divine, he may procure the more reverence and obedience to himself: But when he hath said so for his own interest, he useth the same power against God and his interest ; to the banishing of his Word and holy Worship, and the forbidding the preaching of the Gospel of salvation; and to the cherishing of tyranny, pride and lust: As if God had armed them against himself, and made his Officers to be his enemies; and gave them power that they might powerfully hinder men's salvation, and made great, to be great oppressors.

As a believing Pastor is a Priest that standeth between God and the people, to mediate under the great Mediator; to receive from God his Word and Ordinances, and deliver them to the flocks; and to offer up supplications in their names to God: So believing Governors of civil Societies or Families, receive from God a power to rule the subjects for their good, and they use it to make the subjects good, that God may be pleased and honored by all! And the obedience which they require, is such as may be given to God in them. They take power from God to use it for God, and are so much more excellent than the greatest of ambitious carnal Princes, as the pleasing and honoring of God, is a more excellent design and work, than the gratifying of fleshly lust, and the advancement of a lump of clay. The Kingdoms of the world would all be used as the Kingdoms of the Lord, if the everlasting Kingdom were well believed. The families of men would be sanctified as Churches unto God, if the eternal house not made with hands, were truly taken for their home, and their trade were to lay up a treasure in Heaven. In Cities and Countries Brethren would dwell in holy peace, and all concur in honoring God, if once they were made fellow Citizens with the Saints, and their Burgeship and conversation were in Heaven, Ephes. 2.19. Phil. 3.20, 21.

6. Resist Temptations as Believers. If you live by Faith, then fight against the world and flesh by Faith. Faith must be your helmet, and the Word of Faith must be your shield, Eph. 6.16. And your victory itself must be by Faith, 1 Joh. 5.4. If Satan tell the flesh of the preferment, riches, or the pleasures of lust, answer him with a believing foresight of God's Judgment, and the life to come. Never look on the baits of sin alone, but still look at once on God and on Eternity: As a just Judge will hear both parties speak, or see their evidences before he will determine: So tell the Tempter, that as you have heard what fleshly allurements can say, you will see also what the Word of God saith, and take a view of Heaven and Hell, and then you will answer him.

7. Rejoice as Believers. Can Faith set open the windows of the soul, and no light of heavenly pleasures enter? Can it peruse the Map of the Land of Promise, or see and taste the bunch of Grapes, without any sweetness to the soul? That is the truest Belief of Heaven, which maketh men likest those that are in Heaven: And what is their character, work and portion, but the Joyes of Heavenly Light and Love! Can we believe that we shall live in Heaven forever? Can we believe that very shortly we shall be there? and not rejoice in such believing? I know we commonly say, that the uncertainty of our proper title, is the cause of all our want of joy: But if that were all, if that were the first and greatest cause, and our belief of the promise itself were lively ; we should at least set our hearts on Heaven as the most delightful and desirable state: and Love would work by more eager desires, and diligent seekings, till it had reached assurance, and cast out the hindrances of our joy. How much would a mere Philosopher rejoice, if he could find out natural evidence, of so much as we know by Faith? You may perceive what their content in finding it, would be, by their exc • eding pains in seeking. The unwearied studies by day and night, which many of them used, with the contempt of the riches and greatness of the world, do tell us how glad they would have been, to have seen but half so far as we may. If they could but discover more clearly and certainly, the principles, and elements, and forms of Beings; the nature of spirits; the causes of motion; the nature and cause of light and heat; the order, course and harmony of the universal system of the world; what joyful acclamations would this produce, in the literal studious sort of men! what joy then should it be to us, to know by Faith the God that made us; the Creation of the world, the Laws and Promises of our Creator, the Mysteries of Redemption and Regeneration; the frame of the new Creature, the entertainment of the spirits of the just with Christ, the Judgment which all the world must undergo, the work and company which we shall have hereafter, and the endless joys which all the sanctified shall possess in the sight and Love of God forever? How blessed an invention would it be, if all the world could be brought again to the use of one universal language? Or if all the Churches could be perfectly reconciled, how joyful would the Author of so great a work be? should we not then rejoice who foresee by Faith, a far more perfect union and consent, than ever must be expected here on earth.

Alas, the ordinary lowness of our Comforts doth tell us, that our Faith is very small! I say not so much [ The sorrows of a doubting heart ] as the little joy which we have in the fore-thoughts of Heaven, when our title seemeth not much doubtful to us: For those sorrows show, that such esteem it a joyful place, and would rejoice if their title were but cleared: But when we have neither the sorrow or solicitousness of the afflicted soul, nor yet the joy which is any whit suitable to the belief of such everlasting joys, we may know what to judge of such an ineffectual belief; at best, it is very low and feeble. It is a joy unspeakable, and full of glory, which unseen things should cause in a Believer, 1 Pet. 1.6, 7, 8. Because it is an exceeding eternal weight of glory, which he believeth, 2 Cor. • 17, 18.

8. Finally, Learn to Die also as Believers. The life of Faith must bring you to the very entrance into glory: where one doth end, the other begins. As our dark life in the womb by nutriment from the Mother, continueth till our passage into the open world. You would die in the womb, if Faith should cease, before it bring you to full intuition and fruition, Heb. 11.22. By faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel. Josephs faith did not die before him, Heb. 11.3. These all died in faith, confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and declaring that they sought a better Country. They that live by faith, must die in faith ; yea and die by faith too. Faith must fetch in their dying comforts. And O how full, and how near a treasure hath it to go to? To die to this world, is to be born into another. Beggars are best when they are abroad. The travail of the ungodly is better to them than their home. But the Believers home is so much better than his travail, that he hath little cause to be afraid of coming to his Journeys end; but should rather every step cry out, O when shall I be at home with Christ! Is it Earth or Heaven that you have prayed for, and labored for, and waited, and suffered for till now? And doth he indeed pray, and labor, and suffer for Heaven, who would not come thither?

It is Faith which overcometh the world and the flesh, which must also overcome the fears of death; and can look with boldness into the loathsome grave, and can triumph over both as victorious through Christ. It is Faith which can say, [Go forth O my soul; depart in peace: Thy course is finished: Thy warfare is accomplished: The day of triumph is now at hand: Thy patience hath no longer work: Go forth with joy: The morning of thy endless joys is near; and the night of fears and darkness at an end. Thy terrible dreams are ending in eternal pleasures: The glorious light will banish all thy dreadful specters, and resolve all those doubts which were bred and cherished in the dark: They whose employment is their weariness and toil, do take the night of darkness and cessation for their rest: But this is thy weariness: Defect of action is thy toil; and thy most grievous labor is to do too little work▪ And thy uncessant Vision, Love and Praise, will be thy uncessant ease and pleasure; and thy endless work, will be thy endless rest! Depart, O my soul, with peace and gladness! Thou leavest not a world, where Wisdom and Piety, Justice and Sobriety, Love, and Peace, and Order, do prevail; but a world of ignorance and folly; of brutish sensuality and rage; of impiety and malignant enmity to good; a world of injustice and oppression; and of confusion and distracting strifes! Thou goest not to a world of darkness, and of wrath; but of Light and Love! From hellish malice, to perfect amity; from Bedlam rage, to perfect wisdom; from mad confusion, to perfect order; to sweetest unity and peace; even to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to the celestial glorious City of God! Thou goest not from Heaven to Earth, from holiness to sin, from the sight of God, into an infernal dungeon; but from Earth to Heaven; from sin and imperfection unto perfect holiness; and from palpable darkness, into the vital splendor of the face of God! Thou goest not amongst enemies, but to dearest friends; nor amongst mere strangers, but to many whom thou hast known by sight, and to more whom thou hast known by faith, and must know by the sweetest communion forever. Thou goest not to unsatisfied Justice, nor to a condemning unreconciled God; but to Love itself; to infinite Goodness; the fountain of all created and communicated good; to the Maker, Redeemer and Sanctifier of souls; to him who prepared Heaven for thee, and now hath prepared thee for Heaven! Go forth then in triumph, and not with terror, O my soul! The prize is won: Possess the things which thou hast so long prayed for, and sought! Make haste and enter into thy Masters joy! Go view the glory which thou hast so long heard of; and take thy place in the heavenly Chore; and bear thy part in their celestial melody! Sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God! And receive that which Christ in his Covenant did promise to give thee at the last. Go boldly to that blessed God, with whom thou hast so powerful a Mediator; and to the Throne of whose grace, thou hast had so oft and sweet access. If Heaven be thy fear or sorrow, what can be thy joy? and where wilt thou have refuge, if thou fly from God? If perfect endless pleasures be thy terror, where then dost thou expect content! If grace have taught thee long ago, to prefer the heavenly and durable felicity; refuse it not now when thou art so near the port! if it have taught thee long ago, to be as a stranger in this Sodom, and to renounce this sinful world and flesh; linger not now as unwilling to depart; repent not of thy choice, when all that the world can do for thee is past, repent not of thy warfare, when thou hast got the victory; nor of thy voyage, when thou art past the storms and waves, and ready to land at the haven of felicity.

Thus Faith may sing our Nunc dimittis, when the flesh is lothest to be dissolved.

But we must live by faith, if we would thus die by faith. Such a death doth not use to be the period of a fleshly worldly life; nor of a careless, dull and negligent life. Nature, which brought us into the world, without our forecast or care, will turn us out of the world without it: But it will not give us a joyful passage, nor bring us to a better world without it. It costeth worldlings no small care to die in an honorable or plentiful estate, (that they may fall from an higher place than others, and may have something to make death more grievous and unwelcome to them, and may have a greater account to make at Judgment; and that their passage to Heaven may be as a Camels through a Needle.) And may a believing joyful death be expected, without the preparations of exercise and experience in a believing life? Nature is so much afraid of dying, and an incorporated soul is so incarcerated in sense, and so hardly riseth to serious and satisfying apprehensions of the unseen world, that even true Believers, do find it a work of no small difficulty, to desire to depart, and be with Christ, and to die in the joyful hopes of faith. A little abatement of the terrors of death, a little supporting hope and peace, is all that the greater part of them attain, instead of the fervent desires, and triumphant joys, which the lively belief of endless glory should produce. O therefore make it the work of your lives! of all your lives! your greatest work; your constant work, to live by faith; that the faith which hath first conquered all the rest of your enemies, may be able also to overcome the last; and may do your last work well, when it hath done the rest.

CHAP. I. Directions how to live by Faith: And first how to strengthen Faith: And secondly, the natural Truths presupposed to be considered.

THe Directions which I shall give you, as helps to live by Faith, are of two ranks. 1. Such as tend to the strengthening of your Faith. 2. Such as tell you how to use it.

The first is the greatest part of our task: for no man can use that faith which he hath not; nor can use more of it than he hath. And the commonest reason why we use but little, is because we have but little to use.

But on this subject (supposing it most weighty) I have written many Treatises already (The second part of the Saints Rest: The Unreasonableness of Infidelity: And last of all, The Reasons of the Christian Religion: Besides others which handle it on the by.) And somewhat is said in the beginning of this discourse. But yet because in so great a matter I am more afraid of doing too little than too much; I will here give you an Index of some of the chief Helps, to be close together before you for your memories, to be the constant fuel of your Faith.

In the work of Faith, it is first needful that you get all the prerequisite Helps of Natural Light, and be well acquainted with their Order and Evidence, and their Usefulness to befriend the supernatural revelations: For it is supposed that we are men before we are Christians: We were created before we were redeemed: And we must know that there is a God, before we can know that we have offended him, or that we need a Savior to reconcile us to him: And we must know that we have reasonable souls, before we can know that sin hath corrupted them, or that grace must sanctify them: And we must know, that whatso • ver God saith is true, before we can believe that the Scripture is true, as being his revelation. Faith is an act of Reason ; and Believing is a kind of knowing ; even a knowing by the testim • ny of him whom we believe ; because we have sufficient reason to believe him.

2. And next we must be well acquainted with the evidence of supernatural Truth, which presupposeth the foresaid Natural Verities. I shall set both b • fore you briefly in their order.

1. Think well • f the nature of your souls, of their faculties or p • wers, their excellency, and their proper use: And then you will find, that you are not mere brutes, who know not their Creat • ur, nor live no • by a Law, nor think not of another world; nor •• ar any •• fferings after death: But that you have reas • n, free-will, and executive power to kn • w your Maker, and to live by • ule, a • d to hope for a Reward in another life, and to fear a p • n • shme • t hereafter. And that as no wise Artificer maketh anything in vain ; so God is m • ch less to be thought to hav • given you such souls and faculties in vain.

2. Co • sid • r next how all the world declareth to you, that there is a G • d, wh • is infinite • y p • werful, wise and good. And tha • it is not possible that all things which we see should have no cause, or that the derived Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness • of the creature, should not proceed from that which is more excellent in the first and total cause: Or that God should give more than he had to give.

3. Consider nex • , in wh • t Relation such a creature must needs stand to such a Creator: If he made us of N •• hing ▪ 〈◊〉 is not p • ssible, but that he must be 〈◊〉 Owner, and w • a • d all things absolutely his Own: And if he be our Maker and Owner, and be infinitely powerful, wise and good ; and we be Reasonable-free-agents, made to be guided by Laws or Moral Means unto our end ; it is not possible but that we should stand related to him, as subjects to their rightful Governor. And if he be our Creator, Owner and Ruler, and also infinitely Good, and the grand Benefactor of the world: and if the nature of our souls be, to Love Good as Good; it cannot be possible, that he should not be our End, who is our Creator ; and that we should not be related to him as to the Chiefest Good, both originally as our Benefactor, and finally as our End.

4. And then it is easy for you next to see, what duty you owe to that God to whom you are thus related. That if you are absolutely his Own, you should willingly be at his absolute dispose: And i • he b • your Sovereign Ruler, you should labor most diligently to know his Laws, and absolutely to obey them. And if he be infinitely Good, and your Benefactor and your End, you are absolutely bound to Love him most devotedly, and to place your own felicity in his Love. All this is so evidently the duty of man to God by nature, that nothing but madness can deny it. And this is it which we call Sanctification, or Holiness to the Lord. And our cohabitation and relation to men, will tell us, that Justice and Charity are our duty as to them. And when a man is fully satisfied that Holiness, Justice and Charity, are our duty, he hath a great advantage for his progress towards the Christian Faith.

To which let me add, that as to ourselves also, it is undeniably our duty to take more care for our souls, than for our bodies, and to rule our senses and passions by our Reason, and to subject our lower faculties to the higher, and so to use all sensible and present things, as conduceth to the public good, and to the advancement of our nobler part, and to our greatest benefit, though it cross our sensual appetites.

All this being unquestionably our natural duty, we see that man was made to live in Holiness, Justice, Charity, Temperance, and rational regularity in the world.

5. When you have gone thus far, consider next how far men are generally from the performance of this duty: And how backward human nature is to it, even while they cannot deny it to be their duty: And you will soon perceive that God who made it their duty, did never put in them this enmity thereto: nor ever made them without some aptitude to perform it. And if any would infer that their indisposedn • ss proveth it to be none of their duty, the nature of man will fully confute him; and the conscience and confession of all the sober part of the world. What wretch so blind (if he believe a Deity) who will not confess that he should love God with all his heart, and that Justice, Charity and Sobriety are his duty; and that his sense should be ruled by his reason, &c? The evidence before given is not to be denied. And therefore something is mar'd in nature. Some enemy hath seduced man. And some deplorable change hath befallen him.

6. Yea, if you had no great backwardness to this duty yourself, consider what it must cost you faithfully to perform it, in such a malignant world as we now live in? what envy and wrath, what malice and persecution, what opposition and discouragements on every side we must expect? Universal experience is too full a proof of this. (Besides what it costeth our restrained flesh)

7. Proceed then to think further, that certainly God hath never appointed us so much duty, without convenient Motives to perform it. It cannot be that he should make us more noble than the brutes, to be more miserable: Or that he should make Holiness our duty, that it might be our loss, or our calamity. If there were no other life but this, and men had no hopes of future happiness, nor any fears of punishment, what a Hell would this world be? Heart-wickedness would be but little feared; nor heart-duty regarded: Secret sin against Princes, States, and all degrees, would be boldly committed, and go unpunished (for the most part.) The sins of Princes, and of all that have power to defeat the Law, would have little or no restraint: Every man's interest would oblige him, rather to offend God, who so seldom punisheth here, than to offend a Prince, or any man in power, who seldom lets offenses against himself go unrevenged: And so man, more than God, would be the Ruler of the world, that is, our God.

Nay actually the hopes and fears of another life, among most Hea • hens, Infidels and Heretics, is the principle of Divine Government, by which God keepeth up most of the order and virtue which is in the world.

Yea, think what you should be and do yourself; as to enemies, and as to secret faults, and as to sensual vices, if you thought there were no life but this: And is it possible that the infinitely powerful, wise and good Creator, can be put to govern all mankind, by mere deceit, and a course of lies? as if he wanted better means?

By how much the better any man is, by so much the more regardful is he of the life to come, and the hopes and fears of another life, are so much the more prevalent with him: And is it possible that God should make men good, to make them the most deceived, and most miserable? Hath he commanded all these cares to be our needless torments, which brutes, and fools, and sottish sinners do all scape? Is the greatest obedience to God, become a sign of the greatest folly, or the way to the greatest loss or disappointment?

We are all sure that this life is short and vain: No Infidel can say that he is sure that there is no other life for us: And if this be so, reason commandeth us to prefer the p • ssibilities of such a life to come, before the certain vanities of this life: So that even the Infidels uncertainty will unavoidably infer, that the preferring of the world to come is our duty: And if it be our duty, then the thing in itself is true: For God will not make it all men's duties in the frame of their nature, to seek an Utopia, and pursue a shadow; and to spend their days and chiefest cares for that which is not; Godliness is not such a dreaming night-walk.

Conscience will not suffer dying men to believe that they have more cause to repent of their Godliness, than of their sin, and of their seeking Heaven, than of wallowing in their lusts.

Nay then, these h • avenly desires would be themselves our sins, as being the following of a lie, the aspiring after a state which is above us, and the abuse and loss of our faculties and time: And sensuality would be liker to be our virtue, as being natural to us, and a seeking of our most real felicity.

The common conscience of mankind doth justify the wisdom and virtue of a temperate, holy, heavenly person; and acknowledgeth that our heavenly desires are of God: And doth God give men both natural faculties, which shall never come to the perfection which is their End? and also gracious desires, which shall but deceive us, and never be satisfied? If God had made us for the enjoyments of brutes, he would have given us but the knowledge and desires of brutes.

Every King and mortal Judge can punish faults against Man with death: And hath God no greater or further punishment, for sins as committed against himself? And are his rewards no greater than a man's?

These, and many more such Evidences may assure you, that there is another life of Rewards and punishments ; and that this life is not our final state, but only a • ime of preparation thereunto. Settle this deeply and fixedly in your minds.

8. And look up to the heavenly Regions, and think, Is this world so replenished with inhabitants, both Sea, and Land, and Air itself? And can I dream that the vast and glorious Orbs and Regions, are all uninhabited? O • that they have not more numerous and glorious possessors, than this small opacous spot of earth.

And then think, that those higher creatures are intellectual spirits: (This is many ways apparent) and also of the communion which they have with man: And when we find also an intellectual nature in our selves, why should we not believe, that our likeness of nature, doth infer our likeness in our future duration and abode.

9. And mark well but the inward and outward temptations, which solicit all the world to sin ; and what notable Evidences there be in many of them, of an invisible power ; and you will easily believe that man hath a soul to save or lose, which is of longer duration than the body.

10. Lastly, If yet there be any doubt, consider but of the sensible Evidences of Apparitions, Witchcraft and Possessions, and it cannot choose but much confirm you: Though much be feigned in histories of such things, yet the world hath abundant evidence of that which was certainly unfeigned. See the Devil of Mascon, Mr. Mompessons story lately acted and published: Remigius, Bodins, Danaus, &c. of Witches, Lavater de Spectris ; and what I have written elsewhere.

CHAP. II. The true Method of enquiry into the supernatural Evidences of Faith, and Rules therein to be offered.

WHen you have thus seen what evidence there is of GOD, and his Government, and of a life of reward and punishment hereafter, and of the natural obligations which lie on man to a holy, just, and sober life ; and of the depraved state of the world, which goeth so contrary to such undoubted duty; and how certain all this is even by natural revelation; proceed next to consider what supernatural revelation God hath added, both to confirm you in the same Truths, and to make known such other, as were necessary for mankind to know. Where I must first direct you in the true Method of Enquiry, and then set before you the things themselves, which you are to know.

1. Think not that every unprepared mind is immediately capable of the Truth (either this, or any other, except the first principles which are nota per se, or are next to sense.) All truth requireth a capacity, and due preparation of the recipient: The plainest principles of any Art or Science, are not understood by novices at the first fight or hearing. And therefore it were vain to imagine that things of the greatest distance in history, or profundity in doctrine, can be comprehended at the first attempt, by a disused and unfurnished understanding. There must be at least, as much time, and study, and help supposed and used, to the full discerning of the evidences of faith, as are allowed to the attainment of common Sciences. Though grace, in less time, may give men so much light as is necessary to salvation; yet he that will be able to defend the Truth, and answer Objections, and attain establishing satisfaction in his own mind, must (ordinarily) have proportionable helps, and time, and studies ; unless he look to be taught by miracles.

2. Remember that it is a practical and heavenly doctrine which you are to learn: It is the Art of loving God, and being happy in his love. And therefore a worldly, sensual, vicious soul, must needs be under very great disadvantage for the receiving of such a kind of Truths. Do not therefore impute that to the doubtfulness of the Doctrine, which is but the effect of the enmity and incapacity of your minds: How can he presently relish the spiritual and heavenly doctrine of the Gospel, who is drowned in the love and care of contrary things? Such men receive not the things of the Spirit: They seem to them both foolishness and undesirable.

3. Think not that the history of things done so long ago, and so far off, should have no more obscurities, nor be liable to anymore Objections, than of that which was done in the time and Country where you live. Nor yet that things done in the presence of others, and words spoken in their hearing only, should be known to you otherwise than by historical evidence, (unless every Revelation to others, must have a new Revelation to bring it to each individual person in the world.) And think not that he who is a stranger to all other helps of Church-history, should be as well able to understand the Scripture-history, as those that have those other helps.

4. Think not that the narrativt of things done in a Country and Age so remote, and to us unknown, should not have many difficulties, arising from our ignorance of the persons, places, manners, customs, and many circumstances, which if we had known, would easily have resolved all such doubts▪

5. Think not that a Book which was written so long ago, in so remote a Country, in a language which few do fully understand, and which may since then have several changes, as to phrases, and proverbial and occasional speeches, should have no more difficulties in it, than a Book that were written at home, in the present Ages in our Country language, and the most usual dialect. To say nothing of our own language, what changes are made in all other tongues, since the times that the Gospel was recorded? Many proverbial speeches and phrases may be now disused and unknown, which were then most easy to be understood. And the transcribing and preserving of the Copies, require us to allow for some defects of human skill and industry therein.

6. Understand the different sorts of Evidence, which are requisite to the different matters in the holy Scriptures. The matters of fact require historical evidence (which yet is made infallible by additional miracles.) The miracles which were wrought to confirm our history, are brought to our knowledge only by other history. The Doctrines which are evident in nature, have further evidence of supernatural revelation, only to help us whose natural fight is much obscured. But it is the supernatural Doctrines, Precepts and Promises, which of themselves require supernatural revelation, to make them credible to man.

7. Mistake not the true Use and End of the holy Scriptures.

1. Think not that the Gospel as written was the first Constitutive or Governing Law of Christ, for the Christian Churches. The Churches were constituted, and the Orders, and Offices, and Government of it settled, and exercised very many years together, before any part of the New Testament was written to them; much more before the writing of the whole. The Apostles had long before taught them what was commanded them by Christ; and had settled them in the order appointed by the Holy Ghost: And therefore you are not to look for the first determination of such doctrines or orders in the Scripture as made thereby; but only for the Records of what was done and established before: For the Apostles being to leave the world, did know the slipperiness of the memory of man, and the danger of changing and corrupting the Christian Doctrine and Orders, if there were not left a sure record of it: And therefore they did that for the sake of posterity.

2. You must not think that all is essential to the Christian Religion, which is contained in the holy Scriptures: Nor that they are only the adequate form or record of that which is strictly and primarily called our Religion, or Christianity. For there are divers particular Books of the New Testament, which contain much more than is essential to Christianity: And many appurtenances, and histories, and genealogies, and circumstances are there recorded, which are indeed subservient helps to our Religion; but are not strictly our Religion itself.

8. As the use of the Scripture must thus be judged of according to the purpose of the holy Spirit; so the Perfection of the Scripture must be judged of, in relation to its intended use. It was not written to be a system of Physicks, nor Oratory ; nor to decide grammatical Controversies about words; but to record in apt expressions the things which God would have men to know, in order to their faith, their duty, and their happiness. And in this respect it is a perfect word. But you must not imagine that it is so far the word of God himself, as if God had shown in it his fullest skill, and made it as perfect in every respect, both phrase and order, as God could do. And if you meet in it with several words, which you think are less grammatical, logical, or rhetorical, than many other men could speak, and which really savor of some human imperfection, remember that this is not at all derogatory to Christianity; but rather tendeth to the strengthening of our faith: For the Scriptures are perfect to their intended use: And God did purposely choose men of imperfect Oratory, to be his Apostles, that his Kingdom might not be in word, but in power ; and that our faith might not be built upon the wisdom and oratory of man, but on the supernatural operations of the Almighty God: As David 's sling and stone must kill Goliath: So unlearned men, that cannot out-wit the world to deceive them, shall by the Spirit and Miracles convince them. Looking for that in the Scripture, which God never intended it for, doth tempt the unskillful into unbelief.

9. Therefore you must be sure to distinguish the Christian Religion, which is the vital part or kernel of the Scriptures, from all the rest : And to get well planted in your mind, the sum of that Religion itself. And that is briefly contained in the two Sacraments, and more largely in the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Decalogue, the summaryes of our Belief, Desire and Practice. And then wonder no more that the other parts of Scripture, have some things of less moment, than that a man hath fingers, nails and hair, as well as a stomach, heart and head.

10. Distinguish therefore between the Method of the Christian Religion, and the Method of the particular Books of Scriptures. The Books were written on several occasions, and in several Methods ; and though that method of them all, be perfect, in order to their proper end; yet is it not necessary that there be in the Method no human imperfection, or that one or all of them, be written in that method which is usually most logical, and best. But the frame of Religion contained in those Books, is composed in the most perfect method in the world. And those systemes of Theology which endeavor to open this method to you, do not feign it, or make it of themselves; but only attempt the explication of what they find in the holy Scriptures, Synthetically or Analytically: (Though indeed all attempts have yet fallen short of any full explication of this divine and perfect harmony.)

11. Therefore the true Order of settling your faith, is not first to require a proof that all the Scriptures is the Word of God; but first to prove the marrow of them, which is properly called the Christian Religion, and then to proceed to strengthen your particular belief of the rest. The contrary opinion, which hath obtained with many in this Age, hath greatly hindered the faith of the unskillful: And it came from a preposterous care of the honor of the Scriptures, through an excessive opposition to the Papists who undervalue them. For hence it comes to pass, that every seeming contradiction, or inconsistency in any Book of Scripture, in Chronology or any other respect, is thought to be a sufficient cause, to make the whole cause of Christianity as difficult as that particular text is: And so all those Readers, who meet with great or inseparable difficulties, in their daily reading of the Scriptures, are thereby exposed to equal temptations, to damning infidelity itself: So that if the Tempter draw any man to doubt of the standing still of the Sun in the time of Joshua ; of the life of Jonas in the belly of the Whale; or any other such passage in any one Book of the Scriptures, he must equally doubt of all his Religion.

But this was not the ancient method of faith: It was many years after Christ's resurrection, before any one Book of the New Testament was written; and almost an Age before it was finished: And all that time the Christian Churches had the same Faith and Religion as we have now; and the same foundation of it: That is, the Gospel preached to them by the Apostles: But what they delivered to them by word of mouth, is now delivered to us in their writings, with all the appurtenances and circumstances, which every Christian did not then hear of. And there were many Articles of the Christian Faith, which the Old Testament did not at all make known: (As that this Jesus is the Christ; that he was born of the Virgin Mary, and is actually crucified, risen and ascended, &c.) And the method of the Apostles was, to teach the people, the sum of Christianity (as Paul doth, 1 Cor. 15.3, 4, &c. and Peter, Act. 2.) and to bring them to the belief of that, and then baptize them, before they wrote anything to them, or taught them the rest which is now in the holy Scriptures; They were first to Disciple the Nations and baptize them, and then to teach them to observe all things whatever Christ commanded: And the main bulk of the Scriptures is made up of this last, and of the main subservient histories and helps.

And accordingly it was the custom of all the Primitive Churches, and ancient Doctors, to teach the people first the Creed and sum of Christianity, and to make them Christians before they taught them so much as to know what Books the Canonical Scriptures did contain: For they had the sum of Christianity itself delivered down collaterally by the two hands of tradition. 1. By the continuation of Baptism, and public Church-professions, was delivered the Creed or Covenant by itself: And 2. By the holy Scriptures, where it was delivered with all the rest; and from whence every novice was not put to gather it of himself; but had it collected to his hand by the Churches.

And you may see in the writings of all the ancient defenders of Christianity (Justin, Athenagoras, Talianus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Arnobius, Theoph. Antioch. Lactantius, Tertullian, • usebius, Augustine, &c.) that they used the method which I now direct you to.

And if you consider it well, you will find that the miracles of Christ himself, and all those of his Apostles after him, were wrought for the confirmation of Christianity itself immediately, and mostly before the particular Epistles or Books were written; and therefore were only remotely and consequentially for the confirmation of those Books as such: as they proved that the Writers of them were guided by the infallible Spirit, in all the proper work of their office; of which the writing of the Scriptures was a part.

1. Therefore settle your belief of Christianity itself; that is, of so much as Baptism containeth, or importeth: This is more easily proved, than the truth of every word in the Scriptures; because there are controversies about the Canon, and the various readings, and such like: And this is the natural method, which Christ and his Spirit have directed us to, and the Apostles and the ancient Churches used. And when this is first soundly proved to you, then you cannot justly take any textual difficulties, to be sufficient cause of raising difficulties to your faith in the essentials: But you may quietly go on in the strength of faith, to clear up all those difficulties by degrees.

I know you will meet with some who think very highly of their own mistakes, and whose unskillfulness in these things is joined with an equal measure of self conceitedness, who will tell you that this method smells of an undervaluing of the Scripture: But I would advise you not to depart from the way of Christ, and his Apostles and Churches, nor to cast yourselves upon causeless hindrances, in so high a matter as Saving Faith is, upon the reverence of the words of any perverted factious wrangler, nor to escape the fangs of censorious ignorance. We cannot better justify the holy Scriptures in the true Method, than they can in their false one: And can better build up, when we have laid the right foundation, than they can who begin in the middle, and omit the foundation, and call the superstructure by that name.

2. Suspect not all Church-history or Tradition, in an extreme opposition to the Papists, who cry up a private unproved Tradition of their own. They tell us of Apostolical Traditions, which their own faction only are the keep • rs of; and of which no true historical evidence is produced: And this they call the Tradition of the Church: But we have another sort of Tradition, which must not be neglected or rejected, unless we will deny humanity, and reject Christianity. Our Traditio tradens, or active Tradition, is primarily nothing but the certain history or usage of the universal Christian Church; as Baptism, the Lord's day, the Ministry, the Church Assemblies, and the daily Church exercises; which are certain proofs what Religion was then received by them. And 2. The Scriptures themselves. Our Traditio tradita is nothing else but these two conjunctly: 1. The Christian Religion, even the Faith then professed, and the Worship and Obedience then exercised. 2. The Books themselves, of the holy Scriptures, which contain all this, with much more. But we are so far from thinking that Apostolical Oral Tradition, is a supplement to the Scriptures, as being larger than them, that we believe the Scriptures to be much larger than such Tradition; and that we have no certainty by any other than Scriptural Tradition, of anymore than the common matters of Christianity, which all the Churches are agreed in. But he that will not believe the most universal practice and history of the Church or world in a matter of fact, must in reason much less believe his eye-sight.

13. When you have soundly proved your foundation, take not every difficult objection which you cannot answer, to be a sufficient cause of doubting: For if the fundamentals be proved truths, you may trust to that proof, and be sure that there are ways of solving the seeming inconsistent points, though you are not yet acquainted with them. There are few Truths so clear, which a sophister may not clog with difficulties: And there is scarce any man that hath so comprehensive a knowledge of the most certain Truths, as to be able to answer all that can be said against it.

14. Come not to this study in a melancholy or distracted frame of mind: For in such a case you are (ordinarily) incapable of so great a work, as the trial of the grounds of Faith: And therefore must live upon the ground-work before laid, and wait for a fitter time to clear it.

15. When new doubts arise, mark whether they proceed not from the advantage which the tempter findeth in your minds, rather than from the difficulty of the thing itself: And whether you have not formerly had good satisfaction against the same doubts which now perplex you: If so, suffer not every discomposure of your minds, to become a means of unbelief: And suffer not Satan to command you to dispute your faith at his pleasure: For if he may choose the time, he may choose the success. Many a man hath cast up a large account well, or written a learned Treatise or Position well, who cannot clear up all objected difficulties on a sudden, nor without Books tell you all that he before wrote; especially if he be half drunk or sleepy, or in the midst of other thoughts o • business.

15. When you are once persuaded of the truth of Christianity, and the holy Scriptures, think not that you need not study it anymore, because you do already confidently believe it: For if your faith be not built on such cogent evidence as will warrant the conclusion (whether it be at the present sound or not) you know not what change assaults may make upon you (as we have known them do on some ancient eminent Professors of the strictest Godliness, who have turned from Christ, and the belief of immortality.)

Take heed how you understand the common saying of the Schools, that Faith differeth from Knowledge, in that it hath not Evidence: It hath not evidence of sense indeed; nor the immediate evidence of things invisible, as in themselves ; but as they are the conclusions which follow the principles which are in themselves more evident. It is evident that God is true; and we can prove by good evidence, that the Christian Verity is his Revelation: And therefore it is evident (though not immediately in itself) that the matter of that word or revelation is true. And as Mr. Rich. Hooker truly saith [No man indeed believeth beyond the degree of evidence of truth which appeareth to him, how confidently soever they may talk.] I remember that our excellent Usher answered me to this case, as out of Ariminensis, that [faith hath evidence of Credibility, and science hath evidence of Certainty. ] But undoubtedly an evidence of Divine Revelation, is evidence of Certainty. And all evidence of Divine Credibility, is evidence of Certainty ; though of human faith and credibility, the case be otherwise.

16. Yea, think not that you have done the settling of your faith, when once you have found out the soundest evidences, and are able to answer all Objections: For you must grow still in the fuller discerning and digesting the same evidences which you have discerned: For you may hold them so loosely, that they may be easily wrested from you: And you may see them with so clear and full a knowledge, as shall stablish your mind against all ordinary causes of mutation. It is one kind (or degree rather) of knowledge of the same things, which the Pupil, and another which the Doctor hath. I am sure the knowledge which I have now of the evidences of the Christian Verity, is much different from what I had thirty years ago, when perhaps I could say near as much as now; and used the same Arguments.

17. Consider well the great contentions of Philosophers; and the great uncertainty of most of those Nations, to which the Infidels would reduce our faith, or which they would make the test by which to try it. They judge Christianity uncertain, because it agreeth not with their uncertainties, or certain errors.

18. Enslave not your Reason to the objects of sense: While we are in the body, our souls are so imprisoned in flesh, and have so much to do with worldly things, that most men by averseness and disuse, can hardly at all employ their minds about any higher things than sensitive; nor go any further than sense conduceth them. He that will not use his soul to contemplate things invisible, will be as unfit for believing, as a Lady is to travel a thousand miles on foot, who never went out of her doors, but in a Sedan or Coach.

19. Where your want of learning, or exercise or light, doth cause any difficulties which you cannot overcome, go to the more wise and experienced Believers, and Pastors of the Church, to be your helpers: For it is their office to be both the preservers and expounders of the sacred Doctrine, and to be the helpers of the people's faith. The Priests lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts, Mal. 2.7.

20. Lastly, Faithfully practice with Love and alacrity what you do believe, lest God in justice leave you to disbelieve that which you would not love and practice.

So much to direct you in the method of your endeavors, for the getting and strengthening of faith.

CHAP. III. The Evidences of Faith.

THese things in the Order of your enquiry being presupposed, proceed to the consideration of the Evidences themselves, which fully prove the Christian Verity: And here (omitting the preparatory considerations recited at large in my [ Reasons of the Christian Religion ] I shall only set before you the grand Evidence itself, with a brief recital of some of those means, which bring it down to our notice in these times.

The great infallible witness of CHRIST, is the SPIRIT of GOD, or the Holy Ghost : Or that divine operation of the Holy Spirit, which infallibly proveth the attestation of God himself, as interesting him in it, as the principal cause.

As we know the Coin of a Prince by his image and superscription, and know his acts by his public proper Seal : And as we know that God is the Creator of the world, by the Seal of his likeness which is upon it: Or as we know the Father of a child, when he is so like him, as no other could beget: So know we Christ and Christianity to be of God, by his unimitable image or impression.

The Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, are the essentialities which we call the Nature of God: These in their proper form, and transcendent perfection, are incommunicable: But when they produce an effect on the creature, which for the resemblance may analogically be called by the same names; the names are logically communicable, though the thing itself (which is the Divine Essence or Perfections) be still incommunicable: But when they only produce effects more heterogeneal or equivocal, then we call those effects only the footsteps or demonstrations of their cause. So GOD, whose Power, Wisdom and Goodness in itself is incommunicable, hath produced intellectual natures, which are so like him, that their likeness is called his Image ; and analogically (yet equivocally) the created faculties of their Power, Intellect and Will ; are called by such names, as we are fain (for want of other words) to apply to God (the things signified being transcendently and inexpressibly in God, but the words first used of, and applied to the creature.) But the same God hath so demonstrated his Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness in the Creation of the material or corporeal parts of the world, that they are the • estigia and infallible proofs of his causation and perfections, (being such as no other cause without him can produce) but, yet not so properly called his Image, as to his Wisdom and Goodness, but only of his Power. But no wise man who seeth this world, can doubt whether a God of perfect Power, Wisdom and Goodness, was the maker of it. Even so the person and doctrine of Christ, or the Christian Religion objectively considered, hath so much of the Image, and so much of the demonstrative impressions of the Nature of God, as may fully assure us that he himself is the approving cause.

And as the Sun hath a double Light, Lux & Lumen, its essential Light in itself, and its emitted beams, or communicated Light ; so the Spirit and Image of God, by which Christ and Christianity are demonstrated, are partly that which is essential, constitutive, and inherent, and partly that which is sent and communicated from him to others.

In the person of Christ, there is the most excellent Image of God. 1. Wonderful Power, by which he wrought miracles, and commanded Sea and Land, Men and Devils, and raised the dead, and raised himself; and is now the glorious Lord of all things. 2. Wonderful Wisdom, by which he formed his Laws, and Kingdom, and by which he knew the hearts of men, and prophesied of things to come. 3. Most wonderful Love and Goodness, by which he healed all diseases, and by which he saved miserable souls, and procured our happiness at so dear a rate.

But as the essential Light of the Sun, is too glorious to be well observed by us; but the emitted Light is it which doth affect our eyes, and is the immediate object of our sight; at least that we can best endure and use; so the Essential Perfections of Jesus Christ, are not so immediately and ordinarily fit for our observation and use, as the lesser communicated beams, which he sent forth. And these are either such as were the immediate effects of the Spirit in Christ himself, or his personal operations, or else the effects of his Spirit in others: And that is either such as went before him, or such as were present with him, or such as followed after him: Even as the emitted Light of the Sun, is either that which is next to its Essence ; or that which streameth further to other creatures: And this last is either that which it sendeth to us before its own appearing or rising, or that which accompanieth its appearing, or that which leaveth behind it as it setteth or passeth away; so must we distinguish in the present case.

But all this is but One Light, and One Spirit.

So then, I should in order speak 1. Of that Spirit in the words and works of Christ himself, which constituteth the Christian Religion. 2. That Spirit in the Prophets and Fathers before Christ, which was the antecedent light. 3. That Spirit in Christ's followers, which was the concomitant and subsequent Light or witness: And 1. In those next his abode on earth: And 2. Of those that are more remote.

CHAP. IV. The Image of God's Wisdom.

1. AND first, observe the three parts of God's Image, or impress upon the Christian Religion in itself as containing the whole work of man's Redemption, as it is found in the works and doctrine of Christ.

1. The WISDOM of it appeareth in these particular observations (which yet show it to us but very defectively, for want of the clearness, and the integrality, and the order of our knowledge: For to see but here and there a parcel of one entire frame or work, and to see those few parcels as dislocated, and not in their proper places and order ; and all this but with a dark imperfect sight, is far from that full and open view of the manifold Wisdom of God in Christ, which Angels and superior intellects have.)

1. Mark how wisely God hath ordered it, that the three Essentialitie • in the Divine Nature, Power, Intellection and Will, Omnipotency, Wisdom and Goodness, and the three persons in the Trinity, the Father, the Word and the Spirit ; and the three Causalities of God, as the Efficient, Directive and final Cause, (of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things ) should have three most eminent specimina or impressions in the world, or three most conspicuous works to declare and glorify them; viz. Nature, Grace and Glory. And that God should accordingly stand related to man in three answerable Relations, viz. as our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Perfecter (by Holiness initially, and Glory finally.)

2. How wisely it is ordered, that seeing Mans Love to God is both his greatest duty ▪ and his perfection and felicity, there should be some standing em • nent means for the attraction and excitation of our Love: And this should be the most eminent manifestation of the Love of God to us; and withal, of his own most perfect Holiness and Goodness: And that as we have as much need of the sense of his Goodness as of his Power, (Loving him being our chief work) that there should be as observable a demonstration of his Goodness extant, as the world is of his Power.

3. Especially when man had fallen by sin from the Love of God, to the Love of his carnal self, and of the creature; and when he was fallen under vindictive Justice, and was conscious of the displeasure of his Maker, and had made himself an heir of Hell: And when man's nature can so hardly love one that in Justice standeth engaged or resolved to damn him, forsake him, and hate him: How wisely is it ordered that he that would recover him to his Love, should first declare his Love to the offender in the fullest sort, and should reconcile himself unto him, and show his readiness to forgive him, and to save him, yea to be his felicity and his chiefest good: That so the Remedy may be answerable to the disease, and to the duty.

4. How wisely is it thus contrived, that the frame and course of man's obedience, should be appointed to consist in Love and Gratitude, and to run out in such praise and cheerful duty as is animated throughout by Love, that so sweet a spring may bring forth answerable streams: That so the Goodness of our Master may appear in the sweetness of our work; and we may not serve the God of Love and Glory, like slaves, with a grudging weary mind; but like children with delight and quietness: And our work and way may be to us a foretaste of our reward and end.

5. And yet how meet was it, that while we live in such a dark material world, in a body of corruptible flesh, among enemies and snares, our duty should have somewhat of caution and vigilancy, and therefore of fear and godly sorrow to teach us to relish grace the more: And that our condition should have in it much of necessity and trouble, to drive us homeward to God, who is our rest. And how aptly doth the very permission of sin itself, subserve this end?

6. How wisely is it thus contrived, that Glory at last should be better relished, and that man who hath the Joy should give God the Glory ; and be bound to this by a double obligation.

7. How aptly is this remedying design, and all the work of man's Redemption, and all the Precepts of the Gospel, built upon, or planted into the Law of natural perfection: Faith being but the means to recover Love ; and Grace being to Nature, but as Medicine is to the Body ; and being to Glory, as Medicine is to Health: So that as a man that was never taught to speak, or to go, or to do any work, or to know any science, or trade, or business, which must be known acquisitively, is a miserable man, as wanting all that which should help him to use his natural powers to their proper ends; so it is much more with him that hath Nature without Grace, which must heal it, and use it to its proper ends.

8. So that it appeareth, that as the Love of Perfection is fitly called the Law of Nature, because it is agreeable to man in his Natural state of Innocency ; so the Law of Grace may be now called, the Law of depraved Nature, because it is as suitable to lapsed man. And when our pravity is undeniable, how credible should it be, that we have such a Law?

9. And there is nothing in the Gospel, either unsuitable to the first Law of Nature, or contradictory to it, or yet of any alien nature; but only that which hath the most excellent aptitude to subserve it: Giving the Glory to God in the highest, by restoring Peace unto the Earth, and Goodness towards men.

10. And when the Divine Monarchy is apt in the order of Government, to communicate some Image of itself to the Creature, as well as the Divine Perfections have communicated their Image to the Creatures in their Natures or Beings, how wisely it is ordered, that mankind should have one universal Vicarious Head or Monarch? There is great reason to believe that there is Monarchy among Angels: And in the world it most apparently excelleth all other forms of Government, in order to Unity, and Strength, and Glory: and if it be apter than some others to degenerate into oppressing Tyranny, that is only caused by the great corruption of human Nature: and therefore if we have a Head who hath no such corruption, there is no place for that objection. And as it is not credible that God would make no communication of this Image of his Dominions in the world; so it is certain, that besides the Lord Jesus, the world hath no other Universal Head (whatever the Pope may pretend, to be an Universal Vicarious Monarch, under the Universal Vicarious Monarch. ) Kingdoms have their Monarchs subordinate to Christ; but the world hath none but Christ alone.

11. And how meet was it that he who was the Monarch or Deputy of God, should be also the Mediator ! and that a polluted sinner dwelling in clay, should not come immediately to God, but by a Reconciler, who is worthy to prevail.

12. And when we had lost the knowledge of God, and of the world to come, and of the way thereto; yea and of our selves too, and our own immortality of soul; how meet was it that a sure Revelation should settle us; that we might know what to seek, and whither to return, and by what way! seeing Light must be the guide of our Love and Power. And who could so infallibly and satisfactorily do this, as a Teacher sent from God, of perfectest knowledge and veracity.

13. And when God intended the free forgiveness of our sins, how meet was it that he who would be the Mediator of our pardon, should yield to those terms, which are consistent with the ends of Government, and expose not the wisdom, and veracity, and justice, and the Laws of God to the worlds contempt: If no mark of odiousness should be put upon sin, nor any demonstration of Justice been made, the Devil would have triumphed, and said, Did not I say truer than God? when he told you of dying, and I told you that you should not die? And if the grand penalty had been remitted to the world, for four thousand years together successively, without any sufficient demonstration of God's Justice undertaken, why should any sinner have feared Hell to the worlds end? If you say, that Repentance alone might be sufficient, I answer, 1. That is no vindication of the Justice and Truth of the Law-maker. 2. Who should bring a sinner to Repentance, whose heart is corrupted with the love of sin? 3. It would hinder Repentance, if men knew that God can forgive all the world upon bare Repentance, without any reparation of the breaches made by sin, in the order of the world. For if he that threateneth future misery or death for sin, can absolutely dispense with that commination, they may think that he may do so as easily by his threatening of death to the impenitent.

If you say, that Threatenings in a Law, are not false, when they are not fulfilled, because they speak not de event • , but de debito poenae ; I answer, they speak directly only de debito ; but withal, he that maketh a Law doth thereby say, This shall be the Rule of your lives, and of my ordinary Judgment. And therefore consequently they speak of an ordinary event also: And they are the Rule of Just Judgment, and therefore Justice must not be contemned by their contempt.

Or if any shall think, that all this proveth not a demonstration of Justice on the Redeemer to be absolutely necessary, but that God could have pardoned the penitent without it; it is nevertheless manifest, that this was a very wise and congruous way: As he that cannot prove that God could not have illuminated, and moved, and quickened the inferior sensitives without the Sun, may yet prove that the Sun is a noble creature, in whose operations God's Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness do appear.

14. And how agreeable is this doctrine of the Sacrifice of Christ, to the common doctrine of Sacrificing, which hath been received throughout almost all the world! And who can imagine any other original of that practice, so early and so universally obtaining, than either divine revelation, or somewhat even in nature, which beareth witness to the necessity of a demonstration of God's Justice and displeasure against sin?

15. How wisely is it determined of God, that he who undertakes all • is, should be Man, and yet more than Man, even God? That the Monarch of Mankind, and the Mediator, and the Teacher of Man, and the Sacrifice for sin, should not be only of another kind; but that he be one that is fit to be familiar with man, and to be interested naturally in his concerns; and one that is by nature and nearness capable of these undertakings and relations? And yet that he be so high and near the Father, as may put a sufficient value on his works, and make him most meet to mediate for us?

16. How wisely is it ordered, that with a perfect doctrine, we should have the pattern of a perfect life, as knowing how agreeable the way of imitation is to our natures and necessities?

17. And as a pattern of all other virtue is still before us; so how fit was it, especially that we should have a lively example, to teach us to contemn this deceitful world, and to set little comparatively, by reputation, wealth, preeminence, grandeur, pleasures, yea and life itself, which are the things which all that perish prefer before God and immortality?

18. And how needful is it that they that must be overtaken with renewed faults, should have a daily remedy and refuge, and a plaster for their wounds; and a more acceptable name than their own to plead with God for pardon?

19. How meet was it that our Savior should rise from the dead (and consequently that he should die) to show us, that his Sacrifice was accepted, and that there is indeed another life for man; and that death and the grave shall not still detain us?

20. And how meet was it that our Savior should ascend into Heaven, and therein our natures be glorified with God; that he might have all power to finish the work of man's salvation, and his possession might be a pledge of our future possession?

21. Most wisely also is it ordered of God, that man might not be left under the Covenant of Works, or of entire nature, which after it was broken, could never justify him, and which was now unsuitable to his lapsed state, and that God should make a New Covenant with him as his Redeemer, as he made the first as his Creator: and that an Act of general pardon and oblivion, might secure us of forgiveness and everlasting life: And that as we had a Rule to live by for preventing sin and misery, we might have a Rule for our duty in order to our recovery.

22. And what more convenient conditions could this Covenant have had, than [ a believing and thankful Acceptance of the mercy, and a penitent and obedient following of our Redeemer unto everlasting life? ]

23. And how convenient is it; that when our King is to depart from earth, and keep his residence in the Court of Heaven, he should appoint his Officers to manage the human part of his remaining work on earth? And that some should do the extraordinary work, in laying the foundation, and leaving a certain Rule and Order to the rest, and that the rest should proceed to build hereupon; and that the wisest and the best of men, should be the Teachers and Guides of the rest unto the end.

24. And how necessary was it that our Sun in glory should continually send down his beams and influence on the earth? even the Spirit of the Father to be his constant Agent here below; and to plead his cause, and do his work on the hearts of men? and that the Apostles, who were to found the Church, should have that Spirit, in so conspicuous a degree, and for such various works of Wonder and Power, as might suffice to confirm their testimony to the world: And that all others as well as they to the end, should have the Spirit for those works of Love and Renovation, which are necessary to their own obedience and salvation.

25. How wisely it is ordered, that he who is our King, is Lord of all, and able to defend his Church, and to repress his proudest enemies.

26. And also that he should be our final Judge, who was our Savior and Law-giver, and made and sealed that Covenant of Grace by which we must be judged: That Judgment may not be over dreadful, but rather desirable to his faithful servants, who shall openly be justified by him before all.

27. How wisely hath God ordered it, that when death is naturally so terrible to man, we should have a Savior that went that way before us, and was once dead, but now liveth, and is where we must be, and hath the keys of death and Heaven; that we may boldly go forth as to his presence, and to the innumerable perfected spirits of the just, and may commend our souls to the hands of our Redeemer, and our Head.

28. As also that this should be plainly revealed ; and that the Scriptures are written in a method and manner fit for all, even for the meanest, and that Ministers be commanded to open it, and apply it, by translation, exposition, and earnest exhortation; that the remedy may be suited to the nature and extent of the disease: And yet that there be some depths, to keep presumptuous daring wits at a distance, and to humble them, and to exercise our diligence.

29. As also that the life of faith and holiness should have much opposition in the world, that its glory and excellency might the more appear, partly by the presence of its contraries, and partly by its exercise and victories in its trials; and that the godly may have use for patience, and fortitude, and every grace; and may be kept the easilier from loving the world, and taught the more to desire the presence of their Lord.

30. Lastly, And how wisely is it ordered, that God in Heaven, from whom all cometh, should be the end of all his graces and our duties? and that himself alone should be our home and happiness; and that as we are made by him, and for him, so we should live with him, to his praise, and in his love forever: And that there as we shall have both glorified souls and bodies; so both might have a suitable glory; and that our glorified Redeemer might there be in part the Mediator of our fruition, as here he was the Mediator of acquisition.

I have recited hastily a few of the parts of this wondrous frame, to show you, that if you saw them all, and that in the • r true order and method, you might not think strange that [ Now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places is made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, Ephes. 2.11. which was the first part of God's Image upon the Christian Religion, which I was to show you.

But besides all this, the WISDOM of God is expressed in the holy Scriptures thes • several ways: 1. In the Revelation of things past, which could not be known by any mortal man: As the Creation of the world, and what was therein done, before man himself was made: Which experience itself doth help us to believe, because we see exceeding great probabilities that the world was not eternal, nor of any longer duration than the Scriptures mention: in that no place on earth hath any true monument of ancienter original; and in that human Sciences and Arts are yet so imperfect, and such important additions are made but of late.

2. In the Revelation of things distant, out of the reach of man's discovery. So Scripture, History, and Prophecy do frequently speak of preparations and actions of Princes and people afar of.

3. In the Revelation of the secrets of men's hearts: As Elisha told Gebe • i what he did at a distance: Christ told Nathaniel what he said, and where: So frequently Christ told the Jews, and his Disciples, what they thought, and shown that he knew the heart of man: To which we may add, the searching power of the Word of God, which doth so notably rip up the secrets of men's corruptions, and may show all men's hearts unto themselves.

4. In the Revelation of contingent things to come, which is most frequent in the Prophecies and Promises of the Scripture: not only in the Old Testament, as Daniel, &c. but also in the Gospel. When Christ foretelleth his death and resurrection, and the usage and successes of his Apostles, and promiseth them the miraculous gifts of the Spirit; and foretold Peters thrice denying him; and foretold the grievous destr • ction of Jerusalem, with other such like clear predictions.

5. But nothing of all these predictions doth shine so clearly to ourselves, as those great Promises of Christ, which are fulfilled to ourselves, in all generations. Even the Promises and Prophetical descriptions of the great work of Conversion, Regeneration or Sanctification upon men's souls, which is wrought in all Ages, just according to the delineations of it in the world: All the humblings, the repentings, the desires, the faith, the joys, the prayers, and the answers of them, which were foretold, and was found in the first Believers, are performed and given to all true Christians to this day.

To which may be added, all the Prophecies of the extent of the Church; of the conversion of the Kingdoms of the world to Christ; and of the oppositions of the ungodly fort thereto; and of the persecutions of the followers of Christ, which are all fulfilled.

6. The WISDOM of God also is clearly manifested in the concatenation or harmony of all these Revelations: Not only that there is no real contradiction between them, but that they all conjunctly compose one entire frame: As the age of man goeth on from infancy to maturity, and nature fitteth her endowments and provisions accordingly to each degree; so hath the Church proceeded from its infancy, and so have the Revelations of God been suited to its several times: Christ who was promised to Adam, and the Fathers before Moses, for the first two thousand years, and signified by their Sacrifices; was more fully revealed for the next two thousand years, by Moses first in a typical Gospel (the adumbration of the grace to come) and then by the Prophets, (especially Isaiah, Micah, Daniel and Malachi ) in plainer predictions. And then came John the Baptist the fore-runner, and Christ the Messiah, and the Spirit upon the Apostles, and finished the Revelation: So that it may appear to be all one frame, contrived and indicted by one Spirit. And the effects of it have been according to these degrees of the Revelation.

And the end of the world (whether at the end of the last two thousand years, or when else God pleaseth) will shortly show the unbelieving themselves, that the period shall fulfill what is yet unfulfilled to the least jot and tittle.

CHAP. V. The Image of God's Goodness.

II. THE second part of God's Image on our Religion, is that of his matchless GOODNESS. The whole system of it is, the harmonious expression of GOD'S HOLINESS and LOVE. The particulars I must but name, lest I be too long.

1. The Author of it, Jesus Christ, was perfectly Good himself; being God and man; sinless in nature, and in life; living, and dying, and rising to do good ; and making it his office and his work, even in Heaven, to do mankind the greatest good.

2. The Matter of the Christian Religion, is GOD himself the infinite Good. The use of it is, to teach men to know God, and to bring us to him. To which end it maketh a fuller discovery of his blessed nature, attributes and works, than is anywhere else to be found in this world.

3. The utmost End of it is the highest imaginable; the pleasing and glorifying of God: For he that is the Beginning of all, must needs be the End of all.

4. It leadeth man to the highest state of felicity for himself (which is an End conjunct in subordination to the highest. ) There can be no greater happiness imaginable, than the Christian Religion directeth us to attain.

5. It placeth our happiness so certainly and clearly in that which is happiness indeed, that it directeth man's intentions, and desires, and leaveth them no longer to the old variety of opinions about the chiefest good: Nature perfected, and working by its perfectest acts upon the most perfect object, and receiving the most full communications from him, and this forever, must needs be the most perfect felicity of man. To have all our faculties fully perfect, and to live forever in the perfect light and love of God, and to be accordingly beloved of him; this is the end of Christianity.

6. To this end, the whole design of the Christian Religion is to make man good, and to cure him of all evil, and to prepare him justly for that blessed state.

7. To that end the great work of Jesus Christ is, to send down the sanctifying Spirit of God, to make men new creatures, and to regenerate them to the Nature of God himself, and to a heavenly mind and life: That they may not only have precepts which are good, but the power of God to make them good, and a heavenly principle to fit them for Heaven.

8. To that end, the principal means is, the fullest revelation of the love of God to man, that ever was made, and more than is anywhere else revealed. All the design of Christianity is but to show God to man, in the fullest prospect of his Goodness and unmeasurable Love, that so he may appear more amiable to us; and may be more beloved by us; that Loving Goodness may make us good, and make us happy.

9. To encourage us to Love and Goodness, God doth in the Gospel give us the pardon of all our sins, as soon as ever we turn to him by Faith and Repentance: Though we have deserved Hell, he declareth that he will forgive us that desert. If we had come to Hell before we had been redeemed, I think we should have taken that Religion to be good indeed, which would have brought us the tidings of forgiveness, and shown us so ready a way to escape.

10. And this mercy is given by an Universal Covenant, offered to all, without exception: And the Conditions are so reasonable, that no one can have any just pretence against them. It is but to accept the mercy offered with a believing thankful mind, as a condemned man would do a pardon. And what can be more suitable to our miserable state?

11. And to bring us to all this, and make us holy, Christ hath given us a most holy word and doctrine: perfectly holy in its precepts, and in its prohibitions, and all the subservient histories and narratives: And he hath added the perfect pattern of his holy life, that our Rule and Example might agree.

12. So good is this word, that it calleth us to the highest degree of Goodness, and maketh Perfection itself our duty ; that our duty and happiness may agree; and we may not have liberty to be bad and miserable ; but may be every way bound to our own felicity: And yet so good is this Covenant of Grace, that it taketh not advantage of our infirmities to ruin us, but noteth them to humble us, in order to our cure: And i • accepteth sincerity, though it command perfection. And Christ looketh not at our failings, as a severe Judge, but as a Physician, and a tender Father.

13. So good is our Religion, that the great thing which it requireth of us, is to prefer the greatest good, before the lesser, and not to be like children who take it for their riches to fill their pin-box; or like foolish Merchants, who had rather trade for truth, th • n for gold. The great business • of Christian precept • is, to make us know that we are capable of better things than meat, and drink, and lust, and sports, and wealth, and worldly honors; that the Love of God, and the felicity of the soul, in Grace and Glory, may be preferred before the pleasure of a Swine. And is not that good, which calleth us up to the greatest good, and will not allow us to be such enemies to ourselves, as to take up with the lesser?

14. Yea, when we have most, it still engageth us to seek more: And will not allow us to take up with a low degree of grace, or with a little measure of the greatest good: But to show that God would have us to be still better, and to have more, it is made our duty still to ask more, and still to press higher, and labor to be better. Asking in prayer is made our daily work; and God's giving, and our receiving may be our daily blessedness.

15. The mercies here provided for us, extend both to soul and body: For though we may not prefer the less before the greater; yet we shall have it in its place: If we seek first the Kingdom of God, and its righteousness, and labor first for the food which never perisheth, all other things shall be added to us: We shall have then to do us good, but not to do us hurt. For godliness is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, 1 Tim. 4.7, 8. & 6.6.

16. And the future perfect Goodness, may invite us to present imperfect Goodness, the Promises of the Gospel do second the Precepts, with the strongest motives in the world: so that everlasting blessedness and joy, is made the reward of temporal sincerity, in faith, love, and obedience. And if Heaven itself be not a reward sufficient to invite men to be good, there is none sufficient.

17. Yea the penalties and severities of the Christian Religion, do show the Goodness of it. When God doth therefore threaten Hell to save men from it, and to draw them up to the obedience of the Gospel: Threatned evil of punishment, is but to keep them from the evil of sin, and to make men better: And he that will testify his hatred of sinful evil to the highest, doth show himself the greatest enemy of it, and the greatest lover of good; and he that setteth the sharpest hedge before us, and the terrible warnings to keep us from damnation, doth show himself most willing to save us.

18. So good is Christianity, that it turneth all our afflictions unto good : It assureth us that they are sent as needful medicine, however merited by our sin: And it directeth us how to bear them easily, and to make them sweet, and safe, and profitable, and to turn them to our increase of holiness, and to the furtherance of our greatest good, Heb. 1, to 13. Rom. 8.18. 2 Cor. 4.16, 17, 18.

19. It also stablisheth a perpetual office, even the sacred Ministry, for the fuller and surer communication of all this good forementioned. In which observe these particulars, which show the greatness of this benefit. 1. The persons called to it, must (by Christ's appointment) be the wisest and best of men that can be had. 2. The number of them is to be suited to the number of the people, so that none may be without the benefit. 3. Their work is, to declare all this forementioned Goodness and Love of God to man, and to offer them all this grace and mercy; and to teach them to be holy and happy, and to set before them the everlasting joys. 4. The manner of their doing it must be with humility, as the servants of all; with tender love, as Fathers of the flock; with wisdom and skill, lest their work be frustrate; with the greatest importunity, even compelling them to come in, as men that are loath to take any denial; and with patient enduring all oppositions, as those that had rather suffer anything, than the people's souls shall be unhealed, and be damned; and they must conrinue to the end, as those that will never give up a soul as desperate and lost, while there is any hope: And all this must be seconded with their own example of holiness, temperance and love, Acts 20. 2 Tim. 2.24, 25. Matth. 22.8, 9.

20. So good is our Religion, that nothing but doing good is the work in which it doth employ us. Besides all the good of piety and self-preservation, it requireth us to live in love to others, and to do all the good in the world that we are able, Ephes. 2.10. Mat. 5.16. & 6.1, 2, &c. Titus 2.14. Gal. 6.7, 8, 9. Good works must be our study and our life: Our work and our delight: Even our enemies we must love and do good to, Mat. 5.44. Rom. 12.19, 20, 21. And sure that doctrine is good, which is purposely to employ men in doing good to all.

21. So good is Christianity, that it favoreth not any one sin, but is the greatest condemner of them all. It is all for knowledge against hurtful ignorance ; it is all for humility against all pride ; for self-denial against all injurious selfishness ; for spirituality, and the dominion of true Reason, against sensuality and the dominion of the flesh; for heavenliness against a worldly mind; for sincerity and simplicity against all hypocrisy and deceit ; for love against malice ; for unity and peace against divisions and contentions ; for justice and lenity in superiors, and obedience and patience in inferiors; for faithfulness in all relations: Its precepts extend to secret as well as open practices; to the desires and thoughts, as well as to the words and deeds: It alloweth not a thought, or word, or action, which is ungodly, intemperate, rebellious, injurious, unchaste, or covetous or uncharitable, Mat. 5.

22. All the troublesome part of our Religion, is but our warfare against evil; against sin, and the temptations which would make us sinful: And it must needs be good, if all the conflicting part of it be only against evil, Gal. 5.17, 21, 23. Rom. 6. & 7. & 8.1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13.

23. It teacheth us the only way to live in the greatest and most constant joy. If we attain not this, it is because we follow not its precepts. If endless joy foreseen, and all the foresaid mercies in the way, are not matter for continual delight, there is no greater to be thought on. Rejoicing always in the Lord, even in our sharpest persecutions, is a great part of Religious duty, Phil. 3.1, & 4.4. Psal. 33.1. Zech. 10.7. Mat. 5.11, 12. Deut. 12.12, 18.

24. It overcometh both the danger and the fear of death; and that must be good, which conquereth so great an evil ; and maketh the day of the ungodly's fears, and utter misery, to be the day of our desire and felicity, Rom. 6.23. 1 Cor. 15.55. Col. 3.1, 4. Phil. 3.21.

25. It obligeth all the Rulers of the world to use all their power to do good ; against all sin within their reach; and to make their subjects happy both in body and in soul, Rom. 13.3, 4, 5, 6.

26. It appointeth Churches to be Societies of Saints, that holiness and goodness combined may be strong and honorable, 1 Cor. 1.1. & 2.1. 1. Heb. 3.13. 1 Thes. 5.12, 13. That holy Assemblies employed in the holy love and praises of God, might be a representation of the heavenly Jerusalem, Col. 2.5.

27. It doth make the Love and Union of all the Saints to be so strict, that the mercies and joys of every member, might extend to all: All the corporal and spiritual blessings of all the Christians, (yea and persons) in the world, are mine as to my comfort, as long as I can love them as myself: If it would please me to be rich, or honorable, or learned myself, it must please me also to have them so, whom I love as myself. And when millions have so much matter for my joy, how joyfully should I then live! And though I am obliged also to sorrow with them, it is with such a sorrow only, as shall not hinder any seasonable joy, 1 Cor. 12.

28. In these societies, every member is bound to contribute his help to the benefit of each other; so that I have as many obliged to do me good, as there be Christians in the world; at least, according to their several opportunities and capacities; by prayer and such distant means, if they can do no more. And the Religion which giveth every man so great an interest, in the good of all others, and engageth all men to do good to one another is evidently good itself, 1 Cor. 12. Ephes. 4.15, 16.

29. And all this good is not destroyed, but advantaged and aggravated accidentally by our sin: So that where sin abounded, there grace did superabound, Rom. 5.15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Grace hath taken occasion by sin to be Grace indeed, and to be the greater manifestation of the goodness of God, and the greater obligation for gratitude to the sinner.

30. Lastly, All this Goodness is beautified by harmony ; it is all placed in a perfect order. One mercy doth not keep us from another; nor one grace oppose another: nor one duty exclude another. As it is the great declaration of Mercy and Justice wonderfully conspiring in God; (Mercy so used as to magnify Justice; Justice so used as to magnify Mercy, and not only so as to consist) so also it worketh answerably on us: It setteth not Love against filial fear, not joy against necessary sorrow, nor faith against repentance, nor praise and thanksgiving against penitent confession of sin, nor true repentance against the profitable use of the creatures, nor the care of our souls against the peace and quiet of our minds, nor care for our families, against contentedness and trusting God, nor our labor against our necessary rest, nor self-denial against the due care of our own welfare, nor patience against due sensibility, and lawful passion, nor mercy to men against true justice, nor public and private good against each, nor doth it set the duty of the Sovereign and the Subject, the Master and the Servant, the Pastor and the Flock, nor yet their interest, in any contrariety; but all parts of Religion know their place; and every duty (even those which seem most opposite) are helpful to each other; and all interests are co-ordinate; and all doth contribute to the good of the whole, and of every part, Ephes. 4.2, 3, 15, 16.

And now peruse all this together (but let it have more of your thoughts by far, than it hath had of my words) and then determine indifferently, whether the Christian Religion bear not the lively Image and superscription of GOD the prime essential GOOD.

But all this will be more manifest, when we have considered how POWER hath in the execution, brought all this into effect.

CHAP. VI. The Image of God's Power.

III. THE third part of God's Image and superscription on the Christian Religion, is his POWER: And as man's own corruption lieth more in the want of Wisdom and Goodness, than of Power ; therefore he is less capable of discerning God, in the impressions of his Wisdom and Goodness, than of his Power: seeing therefore he is here most capable of conviction, and acknowledging the hand of God, I shall open this also in the several parts, in some degree.

1. In the history of the Creation, the Omnipotency of God is abundantly set forth; which is proved true, both by the agreeableness of the history to the effects, and by much subsequent evidence of the Writers Veracity.

2. The same may be said of God's drowning the old world, and the preserving of Noah and his family in the Ark.

3. And of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from Heaven.

4. The many miracles done by Moses upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and in the opening of the Red Sea, and in the feeding of the Israelites in the wilderness, and keeping their cloths from wearing for forty years; and the pillar which went before them as a fire by night, and a cloud by day, for so long time; and the darkness, and thunder, and trembling of the Mount at the giving of the Law; with the rest of the Miracles then done, not in a corner, or before a few, but before all the people; who were persuaded to receive and obey the Law, by the reason of these motives which their eyes had seen: And if all this had been false; if no plagues had been shown on Egypt ; if no Red Sea had opened; if no Pillar had gone before them; if no such terrible sights and sounds at Mount Sinai had prepared them for the Law; such reasons would have been so unfit to have persuaded them to obedience, that they would rather with any reasonable creatures, have procured scorn.

And to show posterity, that the history of all this was not forged, or to be suspected; 1. They had the Law itself then delivered in two Tables of stone to be still seen. 2. They had a pot of Manna still preserved. 3. They had the miracle-working Rod of Moses and Aaron kept likewise as a monument. 4. They had an Ark of purpose to keep these in, and that in the most inviolable place of worship. 5. They had the braz • n Serpent (till Hezekiah broke it) still to be seen. 6. They had the song of their deliverance at the Red Sea for their continued use. 7. They had set feasts to keep the chief of all these things in remembrance. They had the feast of unleavened bread, which all Israel was to observe for seven days, to keep the remembrance of their passing out of Egypt in so great haste, that they could not stay to knead up, and make their bread, but took it as in meal or unready dough. They had the feast of the Passover, when every family was to eat of the Paschal Lamb, and the door posts to be sprinkled with the blood, to keep in remembrance the night when the Egyptians first born were destroyed, and the Israelites all preserved. And if these had been instituted at that time, upon a pretended occasion which they knew to be untrue, they would rather have derided than observed them. If they had been afterwards instituted in another generation which knew not the story, the beginning would have been known, and the fiction of the name and institution of Moses would have been apparent to all; and the institution would not have been found in the same Law, which was given by Moses: And it could not have been so expressly said, that the Israelites did all observe these feasts and solemnities from the very time of their deliverance, but in those times when the forgery began, all would have known it to be false. 8. And they had many other words and ceremonies among them, and even in God's Public Worship, which were all used to keep up the memory of these things. 9. And they had an office of Priesthood constantly among them, which saw to the execution and preservation of all these. 10. And they had a form of civil Policy then established, and and the Rulers were to preserve the memory of these things, and the practice of this Law, and to learn it themselves, and govern by it: so that the very form of the Common-wealth, and the order of it, was a commemoration hereof: And the Parents were to teach and tell their children all these things, and to expound all these Solemnities, Laws and Ceremonies to them: so that the frame of Church, and State, and Families, was a preservative hereof.

5. But, to pass by all the rest in the Old Testament, the Incarnation of Christ was such a work of Omnipotent Love, as ca • not by us be comprehended. That God should be united to humanity in person! that humanity should thus be advanced into union with the Deity! and Man be set above the Angels! that a Virgin should conceive! that men from the East should be led thither to worship an Infant by the conduct of a Star (which Caesarius thinketh was one of those Angels or Spirits which are called a flame of fire, Psal. 104.4.) That Angels from Heaven should declare his nativity to the Shepherds, and celebrate it with their praises: that John the Baptist should be so called to be his forerunner, and Elizabeth, Zacharias, Simeon, and Anna, should so prophesy of him: That the Spirit should be seen descending on him at his Baptism, and the voice be heard from Heaven, which owned him: that he should fast forty days and nights; and that he should be transfigured before his three Disciples on the Mount, and Moses and Elias seen with him in that glory; and the voice from Heaven again bear witness to him: These, and many such like were the attestations of Divine Omnipotency to the truth of Christ.

6. To these may be next joined, the whole course of miracles performed by Christ, in healing the sick, and raising the dead; and in many other miraculous acts, which are most of the substance of the Gospel-history, and which I have recited together in my Reasons of the Christian Religion ; see Heb. 2.2, 3, 4.

7. And to these may be added, the Power which was given over all the creatures, to Christ our Mediator. All power in Heaven and Earth was given him, Joh. 17.2. & 13.3. Mat. 28.19. Rom. 14.9. Ephes. 1.22, 23. He was made Head over all things to the Church, and all principalities and powers were put under him! And this was not barely asserted by him, but demonstrated. He shown his power over the Devils in casting them out: and his power over Angels by their attendance: and his power of life and death, by raising the dead: and his power over all diseases, by healing them: and his power over the winds and waters, by appeasing them: and his power over our food and natures, by turning water into wine, and by feeding many thousands miraculously: yea and his power over them into whose hands he was resolved to yield himself, by restraining them till his hour was come, and by making them all fall to the ground at his name: and his power over Sun, and Heaven, and Earth, by the darkening of the Sun, and the trembling of the Earth, and the rending of the Rocks, and of the Vail of the Temple, Mat. 27.45, 51. And his power over the dead, by the rising of the bodies of many, Mat. 27.52. And his power over the Saints in Heaven, by the attendance of Moses and Elias: and his power to forgive sins, by taking away the penal maladies; and his power to change hearts, and save souls, by causing his Disciples to leave all and follow him at a word; and Zacchaeus to receive him, and believe; and the thief on the cross to be converted, and to enter that day into Paradise.

8. And his own Resurrection is an undoubted attestation of Divine Omnipotency. If God gave him such a victory over death, and raised him to life when men had killed him, and rolled a stone upon his Sepulcher, and sealed and guarded it, there needeth no further evidence of the Power of God impressing and attesting the Christian Religion, than that which ascertaineth to us the truth of Christ's Resurrection. For he was declared to be the Son of God by POWER, by resurrection from the dead, Rom. 1.4.

9. And his bodily appearance to his congregated Disciples when the doors were shut; his miracle at their fishing, his walking on the Sea, his vanishing out of their sight, Luke 24. when he had discoursed with the two Disciples, his opening their hearts to understand his Word, &c. do all show this part of God's Image on our Religion, even his Power.

10. And so doth his bodily ascending into Heaven before the face of his Disciples, Acts 1.

11. But especially the sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples according as he promised: To cause them that were before so low in knowledge, to be suddenly inspired with languages, and with the full understanding of his own will, and with unanimity and concord herein; this made his Disciples the living monuments and effects of his own Omnipotency, Acts 2.

12. And accordingly all the miracles which they did by this power, recorded partly in the Acts of the Apostles, (or rather, the Acts of Paul, by Luke who was his companion;) which you may there read (and no doubt but other Apostles in their measures did the like as Paul, though they are not recorded; for they had all the same Promise and Spirit. ) This is another impression of POWER.

13. Whereto must be added the great and wonderful gifts of communicating the same Spirit (or doing that upon which God would give it) to those converted Believers on whom they laid their hands (which Simon Magus would fain have bought with money, Acts 8.) To enable them to speak with tongues, to heal diseases, to prophesy, &c. as they themselves had done, which is a great attestation of Omnipotency.

14. And the lamentable destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, foretold by Christ, was an attestation of God's POWER in the revenge or punishment of their unbelief, and putting Christ to death.

15. And so was the great fortitude and constancy of Believers, who underwent all persecutions so joyfully as they did for the sake of Christ; which was the effect of the corroborating Power of the Almighty.

16. And so was the Power which the Apostles had to execute present judgments upon the enemies of the Gospel, (as Elimas and Simon Magus ) and on the abusers of Religion (as Ananias and Saphyra ) and on many whom they excommunicated and delivered up to Satan.

17. The same evidence is found in Christ's Legislation, as an universal Sovereign making Laws for heart and life, for all the world: Taking down the Laws of the Jewish Polity and Ceremonies, which God by Moses had for a time set up: Commanding his Ministers to proclaim his Laws to all the world, and Princes and people to obey them: And by these Laws, conferring on Believers no less than forgiveness and salvation, and binding over the impenitent to everlasting punishment.

18. But the great and continued impress of God's Power, is that which together with his Wisdom and Love, is made and shown in the conve • sion of men's souls to God by Christ. You may here first consider the numbers which were suddenly converted by the preaching of the Apostles at the first. And in how little time there were Churches planted abroad the world: And then, how the Roman Empire was brought in, and subdued to Christ, and Crowns and Scepters resigned to him; and all this according to his own prediction, that when he was lifted up, he would draw all men to him; and according to the predictions of his Prophets. But that which I would especially open, is, the POWER which is manifested in the work of the Spirit on the souls of men, both then and to this day.

Hitherto what I have mentioned belonging to the Scripture itself; it is to be taken as part of our Religion objectively considered: But that which followeth is the effect of that, even our Religion subjectively considered: To observe how God maketh men Believers, and by believing sanctifieth their hearts and lives, is a great motive to further our own believing. Consider the work, 1. As it is in itself, 2. As it is opposed by all its enemies, and you may see that it is the work of God.

1. As the Goodness, so also the Greatness of it, is God's own Image. It is the raising up of our stupid faculties to be lively and active to those holy uses, to which they were become as dead by sin. To cause in an unlearned person, a firmer and more distinct belief of the unseen world, than the most learned Philosophers can attain to by all their natural contemplations: To bring up a soul to place its happiness on things so high, and far from sense! To cause him who naturally is imprisoned in selfishness, to deny himself, and devote himself entirely to God; to love him, to trust him, and to live to him! To raise an earthly mind to Heaven, that our business and hope may be daily there! To overcome our pride, and sensuality, and bring our senses in subjection unto reason, and to keep a holy government in our thoughts, and over our passions, words and deeds; And to live in continual preparation for death, as the only time of our true felicity: And to suffer any loss or pain for the safe accomplishment of this! All this is the work of the POWER of God.

2. Which will the more appear when we consider, what is done against it within us and without us! what privative and positive averseness we have to it, till God do send down that Life, and Light, and Love into our souls, which is indeed his Image! How violently our fleshly sense and appetite, strive against the restraints of God, and would hurry us contrary to the motions of grace! How importunately Satan joineth with his suggestions! What baits the world doth still set before us, to divert us, and pervert us! And how many instruments of its flattery, or its cruelty, are still at work, to stop us, or to turn us back! to invite our affections down to Earth, and ensnare them to some deluding vainty, or to distract us in our heavenly design, and to a • right or discourage us from the holy way.

And if we think this an easy work, because it is also reasonable, do but observe how hardly it goeth on, till the POWER of God by grace accomplish it! what a deal of pains may the best and wisest Parents take with a graceless child, and all in vain! what labors the worthiest Ministers lose on graceless people! and how blind, and dead, and senseless a thing, the graceless heart is, to anything that is holy, even when reason itself cannot gainsay it! And God is pleased ofttimes to weary out Parents, and Masters, and Ministers, with such unteachable and stony hearts, to make them know what naturally they are themselves, to bring them to the more lively acknowledgement of the POWER which is necessary to renew and save a soul. But having spoken at large of this in the forementioned Treatise, I shall take up with these brief intimations.

19. And the preservation of that Grace in the soul which is once given us, is also an effect of the POWER of God. Our strength is in the Lord, and in the power of his might, Eph. 6.10. It is our Lord himself, who is the Lord of life, and whose Priesthood was made after the power of an endless life, Heb. 7.16. who giveth us the Spirit of Power and of Love, and of a sound mind, 2 Tim. 1.7. (or of received wisdom, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is sound understanding received by instruction : And this text expresseth the three parts of God's Image in the new Creature, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . And as Power is given us with Love and Wisdom ; so Power with Love and Wisdom do give it us; and Power also must preserve it, 1 Pet. 1.5. We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, 2 Tim. 1.8. According to the power of God who hath saved us. The Gospel is the Power of God (that is, the instrument of his Power) to our salvation. Rom. 1.16. So 1 Cor. 1.18, To us that are saved it is the power of God ; because Christ whom it revealeth, is the power and wisdom of God, v. 24. And thus our faith standeth in the power of God, 1 Cor. 2.5. 2 Cor. 6.7. And the Kingdom of God in us doth consist in power, 1 Cor. 4.20. The mind of man is very mutable; and he that is possessed once with the desires of things spiritual and eternal, would quickly lose those desires, and turn to present things again, (which are still before him, while higher things are beyond our sense) if the Power and Activity of the divine life, did not preserve the spark which is kindled in us. Though the doctrine of Perseverance be controverted in the Christian Church, yet experience assureth us of that which all parties are agreed in: Some hold that all true Christians persevere; and some hold that all confirmed Christians persevere (that is, those who come to a strong degree of grace) but those that think otherwise do yet all grant, that if any fall away, it is comparatively but a very few, of those who are sincere. When none would persevere if Omnipotency did not preserve them.

20. Lastly, The POWER of God also doth consequently own the Christian Religion, by the Preservation of the Church, in this malicious and opposing world (as well as by the preservation of grace in the soul) which will be the more apparent if you observe, 1. That the number of true Christians is still very small in comparison of the wicked. 2. That all wicked men are naturally (by the corruption of nature) their enemies; because the precepts and practice of Christianity are utterly against their carnal minds and interests. 3. That the doctrine and practice of Christianity is still galling them, and exciting and sublimating this enmity into rage: And God doth by persecutions ordinarily tell us to our smart, that all this is true. 4. That all carnal men are exceeding hardly moved from their own way. 5. That the Government of the Earth is commonly in their hand, because of their numbers, and their wealth. For it is commonly the rich that rule; and the rich are usually bad; so that the godly Christians are in their power. 6. That all the Hypocrites that are among ourselves, have the same sinful nature and enmity against holiness, and are usually as bitter against the power and practice of their own profession, as open Infidels are. 7. That Christianity is not a fruit of nature; Non nati sed facti sumus Christiani, said Tertullian. And therefore if God's Power preserved not Religion, the degenerating of the Christians children from their Parents mind and way, would hasten its extinction in the world. 8. And as it is a Religion which must be taught us; so it requireth or consisteth in so much wisdom, and willingness, and fortitude of mind, that few are naturally apt to receive it▪ because folly, and badness, and feebleness of mind are so common in the world. And as we see that Learning will never be common but in the possession of a very few, because a natural ingenuity is necessary thereto, which few are born with; so would it be with Christianity, if Divine Power maintained it not. 9. And it is a Religion which requireth much time and contemplation, in the learning and in the practicing of it: whereas the world are taken up with so much business for the body, and are so slothful to those exercises of the mind, which bring them no present sensible commodity, that this also would quickly wear it out. 10. And then the terms of it being so contrary to all men's fleshly interest and sense, in self-denial, and forsaking all for Christ; and in mortifying the most beloved sins, and the world putting us to it so ordinarily by persecution; this also would deter the most, and weary out the rest, if the Power of God did not uphold them. That which is done by exceeding industry, against the inclinations and interest of nature, will have no considerable number of practicers. As we see in horses and dogs which are capable with great labor, of being taught extraordinary things in the semblance of reason: And yet because it must cost so much labor, there is but one in a Country that is brought to it. But (though the truly religious are but few in comparison of the wicked, yet) godly persons are not so few as they would be, if it were the work of industry alone. God maketh it as a new nature to them; and (which is very much to be observed) the main change is ofttimes wrought in an hour, and that after all exhortations, and the labors of Parents and Teachers have failed, and left the sinner as seemingly hopeless.

And thus I have shown you 1. That our Religion objectively taken, is the Image of God's WISDOM, GOODNESS and POWER, and thereby fully proved to be from GOD. 2. And that our Religion subjectively taken, is answerably the Spirit or impress of POWER, and of LOVE, and of SOUND UNDERSTANDING, and is in us a constant seal and witness to the truth of Christ.

CHAP. VII. The means of making known all this infallibly to us.

I Suppose the evidence of divine attestation is so clear in this Image of God on the Christian Religion, which I have been opening, that few can doubt of it, who are satisfied of the historical truth of the facts; and therefore this is next to be considered, How the certain knowledge of all these things cometh down to us?

The first question is, whether this Doctrine and Religion indeed be the impress of God's WISDOM, and his GOODNESS and POWER, supposing the truth of the historical part? This is it which I think that few reasonable persons will deny: For the doctrine is legible, and showeth itself.

But the next question is it, which I am now to resolve, How we shall know that this Doctrine was indeed delivered by Christ and his Apostles, and these things done by them, which the Scriptures mention?

And here the first question shall be, How the Apostles, and all other the first witnesses, knew it themselves? For it is by every reasonable man to be supposed, that they who were present, and we who are 1668 years distance, could not receive the knowledge of the matters of fact, in the very same manner. It is certain that their knowledge was by their present sense and reason: They saw Christ and his miracles: They heard his words: They saw him risen from the dead: They discoursed with him, and eat and drunk with him: They saw him ascending up bodily to Heaven. They need no other Revelation to tell them what they saw, and heard, and felt.

If you had asked them then, H • w know you that all these things were said and done? they would have answered you, Because we saw and heard them. But we were not then present: we did not see, and hear, what they did: Nor did we see or hear them, who were the eye-witnesses. And therefore as their senses told it them; so the natural way for our knowledge, must be by derivation from their sense to ours: For when they themselves received it in a way so natural, (though not without the help of God's Spirit, in the remembering, recording and attesting it) we that can less pretend to inspiration, or immediate revelation, have small reason to think that we must know the same facts, by either of those supernatural ways. Nor can our knowledge of a history, carried down through so many ages, be so clearly satisfactory to ourselves, as sight and hearing was to them. And yet we have a certainty, not only infallible ; but so far satisfactory, as is sufficient to warrant all our faith, and duty, and sufferings for the reward which Christ hath set before us.

Let us next then inquire, How did the first Churches know that the Apostles and other Preachers of the Gospel did not deceive them in the matter of fact? I answer, They had their degrees of assurance or knowledge in this part of their belief. 1. They had the most credible human testimony of men that were not like to deceive them. But this was not infallible.

2. They had in their testimony the evidence of a natural certainty: It being naturally impossible, that so many persons should agree together to deceive the world, in such matters of fact, at so dear a rate, in the very place and age when the things were pretended to be done and said, when any one might have presently evinced the falsehood, if they had been liars, about the twice feeding of many thousands miraculously, and the raising of the dead, and many other public miracles, and the darkness at his death, and the rending of the Rocks and Vail of the Temple, and the Earth-quake, and the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon themselves; with many the like they would have been detected and confuted to their confusion: And we should have read what Apologies they made against such detections and confutations! And some of them (at least at their death) would have been forced by conscience, to confess the plot.

3. But to leave no room for doubting, God gave those first Churches, the addition of his own supernatural attestation, by the same threefold impress of his Image before described: 1. In the holy Wisdom and Light which was in their doctrine. 2. In the holy Love, and Piety, and Purity, which was conspicuous in their doctrine, and in their lives. 3. And in the evidences of divine Power, in the many gifts, and wonders and miracles which they wrought and manifested. And these things seem a fuller testimony than the miracles of Christ himself. For Christ's miracles were the deeds of one alone ; and his resurrection was witnessed but by twelve chosen witnesses, and about five hundred other persons; and he conversed with them but forty days, and that by times: But the miracles of the Disciples were wrought by many, and before many thousands, at several times, and in many Countries, and for many and many years together; and in the sight and hearing of many of the Churches: So that these first Churches had sight and hearing, to assure them of the divine miraculous attestation of the truth of their testimony, who told them of the doctrines, miracles, and resurrection of Christ: And all this from Christ's solemn promise and gift, John. 14.12. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father.

But if it be demanded, How did the next Christians of the second age, receive all this from the first Churches, who received it from the Apostles? I answer, by the same evidence, and with some advantages. For 1. They had the credible human testimony of all their Pastors, Neighbors, Parents, who told them but what they saw and heard. 2. They had a greater evidence of natural infallible certainty: For 1. The doctrine was now delivered to them in the records of the sacred Scriptures, and so less liable to the misreports of the ignorant, forgetful or erroneous. 2. The reporters were now more numerous, and the miracles reported more numerous also. 3. They were persons now dispersed over much of the world, and could not possibly agree together to deceive. 4. The deceit would now have been yet more easily detected and abhorred.

3. But besides this, they had also the supernatural testimony of God : For the Apostles converts received the same spirit as they had themselves: And though the miracles of other persons were not so numerous as those of the Apostles; yet the persons were many thousands more that wrought them: All this is asserted in the Scripture itself; as Gal. 3.3, 4. 1 Cor. 14. & 12. and many places: And he that should have told them falsely that they themselves had the spirit of extraordinary gifts and miracles, would hardly have been believed by them. And all this also the following Ages have themselves asserted unto us.

The question then which remaineth is, How we receive all this infallibly from the subsequent Ages or Churches to this day? The answer to which is, still by the same way, with yet greater advantages in some respects, though less in others. As 1. We have the human testimony of all our ancestors, and of many of our enemies. 2. We have greater evidence of natural certainty, that they could not possibly meet or plot together to deceive us. 3. We have still the supernatural divine attestation (though rarely of miracles, yet) of those more necessary and noble operations of the Spirit, in the sanctification of all true Believers; which Spirit accompanieth and worketh by the doctrine which from our ancestors we have received.

More distinctly observe all these conjunct means of our full reception of our Religion.

1. The very Being of the Christians and Churches, is a testimony to us that they believed and received this Religion. For what maketh them Christians and Churches but the receiving of it?

2. The ordinance of Baptism, is a notable tradition of it. For all that ever were made Christians, have been baptized: And Baptism is nothing but the solemn initiation of persons into this Religion, by a vowed consent to it, as summarily there expressed in the Christian Covenant. And this was used to be openly done.

3. The use of the Creed, which at Baptism and other sacred seasons, was always wont to be professed, (together with the Lord's Prayer, and the Decalogue ; the summaries of our faith, desire and practice ) is another notable tradition; by which this Religion hath been sent down to following Ages: For though perhaps all the terms of the Creed were not so early as some think, thus constantly used; yet all the sense and substance of it was.

4. The holy Scriptures or Records of this Religion, containing integrally all the doctrine, and all the necessary matter of fact, is the most complete way of tradition: And it will appear to you in what further shall be said, that we have infallible proof, that these Scriptures are the same, which the first Churches did receive; what ever inconsiderable errors may be crept into any Copies, by the unavoidable oversight of the Scribes.

5. The constant use of the sacred Assemblies, hath been another means of sure tradition: For we have infallible proof of the successive continuation of such Assemblies; and that their use was still, the solemn profession of the Christian Faith, and worshipping God according to it.

6. And the constant use of Reading the Scriptures in those Assemblies, is another full historical tradition: For that which is constantly and publicly read, as the doctrine of their Religion, cannot be changed, without the notice of all the Church, and without an impossible combination of all the Churches in the world.

7. And it secureth the tradition that one set day hath been kept for this public exercise of Religion, from the very first; even the Lord's day (besides all occasional times) The day itself being appointed to celebrate the memorial of Christ's Resurrection, is a most currant history of it; as the feast of unleavened bread, and the Passover was of the Israelites deliverance from Egypt. And the exercises still performed on that day, do make the tradition more complete.

And because some few Sabbatarians among ourselves do keep the old Sabbath only, and call still for Scrip • ure proof for the institution of the Lord's day; let me briefly tell them, that which is enough to evince their error. 1. That the Apostles were Officers immediately commissioned by Christ, to disciple the Nations, and to teach them all that Christ commanded, and so to settle Orders in the Church, Mat. 28.19, 20, 21. Acts 15. &c.

2. That Christ promised and gave them his Spirit infallibly to guide them in the performance of this commission (though not to make them perfectly impeccable) John 16.13.

3. That de facto the Apostles appointed the use of the Lord's day for the Church Assemblies: This being all that is left to be proved, and this being matter of fact, which requireth no other kind of proof but history, part of the history of it is in the Scripture, and the rest in the history of all following Ages. In the Scripture itself it is evident, that the Churches and the Apostles used this day accordingly: And it hath most infallible history (impossible to be false) that the Churches have used it ever to this day, as that which they found practiced in their times by their appointment: And this is not a bare narrative, but an uninterrupted matter of public fact and practice: So universal, that I remember not in all my reading, that ever one enemy questioned it, or ever one Christian, or Heretic denied, or once scrupled it. So that they who tell us that all this is yet but human testimony, do show their egregious inconsiderations, that know not that such human testimony or history in a matter of public constant fact, may be most certain, and all that the nature of the case will allow a sober person to require. And they might as well reject the Canon of the Scriptures, because human testimony is it which in point of fact doth certify us, that these are the very unaltered Canonical Books, which were delivered at first to the Churches: Yea they may reject all the store of historical tradition of Christianity itself, which I am here reciting to the shame of their understandings.

And consider also, that the Lord's day was settled, and constantly used in solemn worship by the Churches, many and many years before any part of the New Testament was written; and above threescore years before it was finished. And when the Churches had so many years been in public possession of it, who would require that the Scriptures should after all, make a Law to institute that which was instituted so long ago.

If you say, that it might have declared the institution, I answer, so it hath, as I have shown; there needing no other declaration, but 1. Christ's commission to the Apostles to order the Church, and declare his commands. 2. And his promise of infallible guidance therein. 3. And the history of the Churches order and practice, to show de facto, what they did: And that history need not be written in Scripture for the Churches that then were; no more than we need a revelation from Heaven to tell us thas the Lord's day is kept in England: And sure the next Age needed no supernatural testimony of it: and therefore neither do we: But yet it is occasionally oft intimated or expressed in the Scripture, though on the by, as that which was no further necessary.

So that I may well conclude, that we have better historical evidence that the Lord's day was actually observed by the Churches, for their public worship and profession of the Christian Faith, than we have that ever there was such a man as William the Conqueror in England, yea or King James ; much more than that there was a Caesar or Cicero.

8. Moreover, the very Office of the Pastors of the Church, and their continuance from the beginning to this day, is a great part of the certain tradition of this Religion. For it is most certain, that the Churches were constituted, and the Assemblies held, and the worship performed with them, and by their conduct, and not without: And it is certain by infallible history, that their office hath been still the same, even to teach men this Christian Religion, and to guide them in the practice of it, and to read the same Scriptures as the word of truth, and to explain it to the people. And therefore as the Judicatures and Offices of the Judges is a certain proof that there have been those Laws by which they judge (especially if they had been also the weekly public Readers and Expounders of them) and so much more is it in our case.

9. And the constant use of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, hath according to his appointment, been an infallible tradition of his Covenant, and a means to keep him in remembrance in the Churches. For when all the Churches in the world have made this Sacramental Commemoration, and renewed covenanting with Christ as dead and risen, to be their constant public practice here, is a tradition of that faith and Covenant which cannot be counterfeit or false.

10. To this we may add, the constant use of Discipline in these Churches: it having been their constant law and practice, to inquire into the faith and lives of the members, and to censure or cast out those that impenitently violated their Religion: which showeth, that de facto that Faith and Religion was then received; and is a means of delivering it down to us. Under which we may mention 1. Their Synods and Officers. 2. And their Canons by which this Discipline was exercised.

11. Another tradition hath been the published confessions of their Faith and R • l • g • on in those Apologies, which persecutions and calumnies have caused them to write.

12. And another is, all those published Confutations of the many heresies, which in every age have risen up; and all the controversies which the Churches have had with them, and among themselves.

13. And another is, all the Treatises, Sermons, and other instructing writings of the Pastors of those times.

14 And another way of tradition hath been by the testimony and sufferings of Confessors and Martyrs, who have endured either torments or death, in the defense and owning of this Religion: In all which ways of tradition, the doctrine and the matter were jointly attested by them. For the Resurrection of Christ (which is part of the matter of fact) was one of the Articles of their Creed, which they suffered for: And all of them received the holy Scriptures, which declare the Apostles miracles; and they received their faith, as delivered by those Apostles, with the confirmation of those miracles: So that when they professed to believe the doctrine, they especially professed to believe the history of the life and death of Christ, and of his Apostles: And the Religion which they suffered for, and daily professed, contained both: And the historical Books called the Gospels, were the chief part of the Scripture which they called, The Word of God, and the Records of the Christian Religion.

15. To this I may add, that all the ordinary