And in the first place hold fast your Professi­on against Atheistical Perswasions.

But some may say, what, have we any Pa­trons for such an Enormity?

Answ. I am sorry my pen must brand the Times, and stigmatize with infamy those who have been nourished with us in the bosom of the same Church, and washed with us in the same Laver of Regeneration. Time was when a Wolf in England and a venomous crea­ture in Ireland were not more rare than these prophane wretches and first born of Satan; and if there were any, they usually were like Moles and Bats and Birds of the night seldom seen, but covered both their Persons [Page 10] and Doctrines with the Canopies of dark­ness and silence. Atheism that was before but a pitiful Embryo, is now grown up to the stature of a man, a bare-faced enemy, like Saul, higher by the head than the most pestilent Heresies: 'Tis now a vaunting Go­liah, and bids defiance (as the Giants of old) to God and Heaven, to Reason and Religi­on, and the whole Armies of Israel; and if you will believe these bold assailants, all these things are as so many slighted Forts, ready to be calked on us the glorious trophies of their unsearchable Wit and unparallel'd In­geny. And, as many of the great ones a­mongst the Jews espoused Sadducism; so (the greater may be the lamentation) many of noble Extraction are so intoxicated with this poison, that with many'tis accounted but half-dyed Gallantry, if it have not a hand­som tincture of Atheism.

It was of old one of the Laws of Numa Pompilius, that a Strumpet should not touch the Altar of Juno, such a reverence they had for a feigned Goddess; but 'tis nothing for the wanton tongues of these pert men to strike at the divine Essence, at him that draweth out the Heavens like a Curtain, and holdeth the waters in the hollow of his hand, and in comparison of whom the Inhabitants of the Earth are as so many Grashoppers: 'Tis nothing with them to revile the Divine Oracles, to [Page 11] vilifie the Laws of Moses with the title of Solemn Fooleries, and the Institutions of Christ as pieces of Pageantry; to brag they have only an outward man to look after, which requires their care and sollicitude; that style the Lord's Ambassadors, the Lights of the Earth, as so many glaring Exhalations, State-puppets, that speak only the sence of a Law giver, and awe men into a Decorum: And these are accounted men of Learning and of the greatest accomplishments, witty to a miracle; unanswerable, because whatso­ever they write is a perfect miscellany of Nonsence and Obscenity, and 'tis a shame for a Christian and a man of Sobriety to make a Rejoynder. These are also stout and vali­ant in their own imaginations, like that ef­feminate Courtier Proculus in the days of the Emperour Probus, Qui inter fortes se habere credens, si criminum densitate coalescat, Who thought that the multiplication of Vices was the way to make him valorous: and thus like Cocks of the game they crow, flourish and bravado; not that they are unconquerable, but that modest men and pious Souls will not step up on to their dunghil (for fear of defilement) to cope with them: and indeed these men are not fit to be meddled with, that bring Oaths for Arguments, scurrilous Jestings for sober Reasonings, and a piece of obscene Ri­baldry for a Demonstration.

But let us hold fast our Profession against these perswasions. And to this purpose, 1. Consider, what were all the World out of their wits, under mists and deliriums, cloud­ed in their Intellectuals, benighted in their Judgments, till these Cato's dropt out of the Clouds, and these novel Pedagogues gave the World a new Information? What were all the Persian Magi, the Sophi's of Greece, the Indian Gymnosophists, the Roman Augurs, the Jewish Rabbins and the Christian Do­ctors, who had several apprehensions of a Deity and various Modes of Worship, all pur-blind and doltish, till these youngsters appeared? Was there ever a Race of men did sympathize with them in their Senti­ments? 'Tis true here and there we may find one or other speaking contemptuously of their Deities, as Diagoras, Pherecides and Pro­tagoras, whom the Athenians banished as Cri­minals in this particular. But you never heard of a Community or Society of men agreeing in these Principles, which are assert­ed as the greatest and most unquestionable Topicks. Once a Philosopher affirmed Snow was black; but must all the World be his Proselytes, because he maintained such a non-sensical Assertion? So possibly we may in this Age or the other Century meet with an A­theist, but mankind in the general has had other Conceptions; 'tis an Errour Humanity [Page 13] never consented to; and if in these days it be as an Epidemical disease with which se­veral are infected, we must remember we live in the dregs of time, and the Devil is as busie to make all sin as spreading and prolifi­cal as he can, because he knows his time is but short. For if we cast our eyes abroad and consider the inhabitants of the great and spacious world, you will find none but they own something or other as a supreme being, though they are mistaken through ignorance or misperswasion. For most true it is what Cice­ro and many more beside him have affirmed, Intelligi necesse est esse Deos quo­niam insitas eorum vel potius innatas cognitiones habemus; Cicero lib. 1. de na­tura Deorum. We must needs believe that there are gods, because the opinion of them is so generally ingrafted or rather inbred in our minds: And the Idolatry continually practised was a certain demon­stration of a Deity; and the great thing which made the Heathens so much detest the Chri­stians was, because they looked upon them as broaching injurious Doctrines to their received Gods, which made them cry out to the Emperour ever and anon, Tolle Atheos, Takeaway the Atheists, that is, the Christians, as Tertullian says. And when the Christian Religion had run through the several regions of the World, as the foresaid Tertullian tells us, viz. Tertul. lib. adv. Jud. the [Page 14] Moors and Getes, the Roman Precincts, the Spanish borders, the Gallick Provinces, and the unaccessible places of Britain, it was closed with upon this account that it was the most excellent way of worshipping and ado­ring the Divine Majesty. Therefore those that come with their new and impious Lessons and Arguments against the glorious God, never learned them from the Creeds and Confessions of their Progenitors; but as Herostratus to be famous fired the Temple of Diana; so these, that they may be cried up for men of rare Parts and reaching Capacities, forge these irratio­nal Conclusions out of the shop of their de­praved Understandings, which at one and the same time shew the Author's Ignorance and Impiety.

But Secondly, Consider all Nations have not only had some transient Notions of a De­ity, but have outwardly evidenced it suffici­ently by Worship, Homage, Obedience, Du­ty and Service which they have yielded to their respective Gods; which absolutely shews that they looked upon themselves, as under an indispensible necessity of performing such and such Rites, as testifications of a divine Dominion and their Subjection. And this is so known and publickly notorious, that I need not instance in any of the particular Rites which were used in honour of Jupiter, Bacchus, Minerva and the rest, but [Page 15] may remit the capacious Reader to the Hea­thenish Theology, where he may receive suf­ficient information. But to this the Atheist replies, That the Notions and Service of a Deity are not genuine and connate Impressi­ons, but the prints of Education and the po­litick contrivance of cunning Legislators and Divines, on purpose to promote their Inter­est and to keep men from Rebellions and Conspiracies. To this I answer, These ways I grant, that the Notion of a Deity and the conviction of service to it is much improved by good Nurture and the infusion of whole­som Precepts in the Infancy and Minority; but that the Soul has no Notions or Ideas of those things but what is obtained by this tra­ditionary way, is highly absurd and ridicu­lous, and repugnant to all received Maxims and Testimonies. For I argue, Suppose that this and the foregoing Generation taught their Children a mode of Worship, yet let us run it up to the Fountain, who taught the Sons of Adam, Cain and Abel to offer Sacrifice? either they had some divine Revelation so to do, or were prompted to it by the Law of Nature, or were taught so to do by their father Adam: Now the Atheist will not say they were incited to sacrifice by the two first, for then the Plea is unquestionable on our side; It remains therefore as a Conclusion, That Adam instructed them in this Duty: If [Page 16] so, then I further argue, that certainly he saw some reason or supervening necessity for such a Duty, or else he would neither have done it himself nor have required the same of his posterity: For what man will oblige his Heirs or Successors to pay a Pension or yearly Rent, suppose to a King or Lord of a Man­nour, except it were just and legal and upon good considerations. Now Sacrifice is that Homage which we owe to God, whose Crea­tures we are and upon whom we have our de­pendence; would Adam therefore the wisest of men, have entailed this upon Cain and Abel and succeeding Generations, as a sign of their obedience and subordination to a Deity, if there had been no such thing existent? Ei­ther they must make Adam a very Ignoramus; or confess themselves a company of presum­ptuous brain-sick Animals, in skrewing their Wits and mustering up of Arguments to de­throne that God in whom they live, move and have their being.

But again, whereas they say, that the own­ing of a God is merely upon the account of Education, let me present them with an Ob­servation of Elian, who shews in one of his Chapters that few or none of the Barbarians ever were Atheists, and those were the peo­ple that wanted Education: Now if these had not Arts and Sciences as many Grecians and others had to civilize them, and yet were [Page 17] so great adorers of a Deity, then this Ob­jection falls to the ground; for if the Celtae, the Indians, and several o­thers whom Elian reckons up,Elian lib. 2. pag. 43. did observe divine Rites and Ceremonies, and had but bad Tutors or Instructors, then 'tis certain they did them by the dictates ond impulse of the Law of Nature which we contend for. And indeed 'tis most probable that all the Atheism in those times came from some conceited and prag­matical Athenians, who did it to get the re­putation of excellent Wits and bold Adven­turers, that scorned to walk in the common Road of received Maxims; and we may ra­tionally conclude that 'tis so with us in these days, for you do not find a sorry labourer, or a herdsman of Tekoah a defier of the ever blessed God, but only some petty Wits that would have the Titles of great Philo­sophers, learned Rabbies, profound Natura­lists, who broach these impious and de­sperate Conclusions; for the meanest of the poor and most barbarous Savages (if men will not believe the Records of former Ages,Hackluit's English Voyages, volum 3. pag. 737 and 819. yet accord­ing to the attestation of our own Travellers) have been devout and obsequious to their assumed Gods; for Captain Drake who in his furthest travel to the North-west, taking land in [Page 18] Nova Albion, found the Natives about a Sacri­fice; and Captain Candish in his furthest tra­vel to the South-East, taking land in the Island of Capul, observed the Inhabitants to be wor­shippers of that which he imagined to be a Devil: Now these people had not the bene­fit of any good Education, having no excel­lent Laws, Pedagogues or Sophi's amongst them to instruct them, as the other part of the civiliz'd world; which is a plain Demon­stration that the Notion of a Deity does not totally or primitively result from Education and the Instructions and Infusions of Ancestors and Forefathers.

Now as to the Second Part of the Objecti­on, That the apprehensions of a Supreme Power are only the Contrivances of Law-givers and Divines, to promote their Inter­est and facilitate their Regiment among the unwary multitude, I shall, I hope, infringe it sufficiently by shewing that the two Legislators Moses and Christ and the holy Apostles did not in the least act out of such pretences, but reso­lutely followed a divine Revelation and Com­mandment. And first for Moses, who was the Leader of Israel out of Egypt and afterwards was their principal Ruler, I shall I hope evi­dently demonstrate, that it could not be done upon any Politick account for him to attempt so great a Design, as to endeavour the re­duction of Israel from the Egyptian Bondage [Page 19] and Servittude. If we consider first, there was no Policy for Moses to return to Egypt, having been declared formerly by one of their holy Scribes (as Josephus informs us in his Antiquities) to be one that would be the ruine of that Monarchy; for the above named Author Mentions, that an Egyptian that had a Prophetick Spirit, declared to the King of Egypt, that one of the Israelitish Off-spring would be their ruine. And the same Jose­phus brings in this Story; That when Moses was a Child, and the King's Daughter Ther­mutis had brought him into the presence of Pharaoh, that the King put his Crown upon the Child's Head, and the Child in a seeming passion threw the Crown upon the ground and trampled upon it; and this prophetical Scribe being present, told the King in positive termes, this Child was the person that would doe that fatal evil, he had predicted, to the Egyptians; and he counselled the King to make him away. And he had been sacrificed as a victime to their fury if Pharaoh's Daughter had not interposed: now for Moses lying under such a prejudice to think to goe into Egypt a­gain where he might imagine he would be ensnared and made away as an enemy to Mo­narchy and the Peoples safety, was a most ri­diculous contrivance, if divine Revelation had not superseded all such conceptions.

Besides Moses had killed an Egyptian, and it [Page 20] was known, and he was glad to flee for it into the Land of Madian; now for him to returne thither where as soon as he came he might have been arraigned for Murther or Homi­cide, was a journey which no intelligent man would have undertaken: better to Keep sheep in Madian then to be executed in Egypt.

Again, suppose that Moses had not been in the former Circumstances; yet considering his Quality, and the usefulness of the Israe­lites to the Egyptians, it was the most impro­bable Design to undertake that ever was heard of: For Moses was but a sorry Shep­herd, and so looked on at best as a mean Ple­beian, no Orator as himself acknowledged; yet for him to go to a great King, to per­swade him to let six hundred thousand men depart his Dominions, who did all the sla­very of Egypt, and made the Bricks for Py­ramids, and the Walls against the inundati­ons of Nilus, as Josephus tells us; what an unlikely design is this? For suppose that when the King of France is warring against Holland and the Confederate Armies, and labours to get all the men he can to promote his great Designs: Now if so be that an in­considerable Rustick, such an one as we con­jecture Moses was, should come to him and tell him, that he desired him in the Name of God to disband the Armies, to let all his Forces and Auxiliaries go home and serve [Page 21] God quietly, and so perswade him to let all these great undertakings be broken off; would not the King and Courtiers be ready to kick him out as a foolish Enthusiastical Ig­noramus? This was the case of Moses; yet he went confidently to Pharaoh, overlooked all objections and impossibilities that might have been pretended; which shews that not humane Policy, but divine Revelation, was his Pole-star and Director.

Farther, I pray consider when Moses had got lieve of the King for their dismission, how unpolitick is he in the leading of this great Army: For if he had been a cunning Geographer, and had observed the position and situation of Ways and Climats, he would not have led them thus to be entangled by the Mountains and Red Sea, which did ob­struct their passage, and would infallibly have caused him to have been an unavoida­ble prey to the pursuing Egyptians, if a Mi­racle had not made way for their deliver­ance. Besides, when they had mastered that difficulty, and had got into the Wilderness, was it policy to keep them wandring there forty years, where there were such mean conveniencies for so numerous a multitude? Why did he not go on with speed to the Land of Promise and the desirable Canaan, but only that he observed the divine Injun­ons, who sware in his wrath that Generation [Page 22] should not enter into his rest, because of their aggravating and reiterated Impieties with which they had provoked the eyes of the Lord's jealousie: Besides, let it be consider­ed in the last place, that Moses acted not as a Politician; for he did not design to make the Government hereditary, neither did he seek the advancement of his own Off-spring, as we see the wise men of the World do, but delegated his Power and Jurisdiction to Jo­shua his Minister, according as the Lord had appointed: see Deut. 34.9. and so he suc­ceeded him in that Magistracy. All which things being duly pondered, shew that Mo­ses did not in the least consult flesh and blood, or acted out of rational & politick Principles, but in all his Actions was guided by that Su­preme Mover, who put him upon this strange and stupendious Errant and Employment.

Next let us consider whether our Blessed Lord and Saviour and his Apostles acted up­on any of these prudential accounts, (which they suppose them to do) on purpose to gain that Secular Interest, Advancement or Roy­alty which they conjecture, they might aim a [...] in these Designs and Enterprizes.

First, It was impossible Christ could have any design of Self-promotion in this juncture of time, when the Roman Empire might be said to shine in its greatest Lustre and Glory that ever it did; when as a great part of the [Page 23] habitable World put its neck under that Im­perial Yoke: Africa and Syria and other pla­ces had been subdued, and now the Germans, the Gauls, the Britains and what not? all made Tributary, and Jerusalem and Palestine governed by the Roman Procurators, Con­suls, Tetrarchs, Kings and others, Substitutes appointed by the Emperour and Senate.

It appears that Christ had not the least thought to infringe the Liberties and Prero­gative of Caesar, both because he publickly proclaimed his Kingdom was not of this world, commanded to give to Caesar things that were Caesar's; Matth. 22.21. wrought a Miracle,John 6.15. rather than not pay the exacted Tri­bute, that so they might not have any suspi­cion of any disaffection to that Monarchy. And when the people upon the view of his Miracles, supposing him to be the promised Messias would have made him a King, then was the time for the Politician to have made his Market; but he was not ambitious of that temporal Preeminence, but absented himself, delaring his dislike of such Regali­ty and Preferment; which shews that here was nothing of Humane policy, but only that he came (as he said) to do the will of his Father, and to fulfil the great work of Re­demption, to which from all Eternity he was designed. Besides, the Apostles were never [Page 24] animated by such a Spirit as sought Earthly Grandeur; for who can imagine that Twelve naked men should ever reduce Cities, Forts and Castles to their obedience: they seemed rather to run upon the Swords points, by re­proving the Sins and Vices of the times, a­spersing the espoused Deities of the World, preaching a Religion contrary to the humour and Genius of the Kings and Sophi's of that Generation; so that they were whipt, bea­ten, stoned, imprisoned, made the dross and off-scouring of all things: and to be sure if they had not had the Warrant and Express of Heaven, they would never have ventured upon these formidable Encounters. None ever heard of an Apostle that secretly promoted fewds betwixt Kings and Poten­tates, that busied himself about warlike af­fairs and military preparations, that ever gave a word of advice how to manage such and such Hostilities, or to get these and the other Auxiliaries, which are the business and employment of Politicians: But they preach­ed Christ and him crucified, Self-denial, Pati­ence and Resignation, Love and Unity, hea­venly Mindedness, Industry after an Eternal Kingdom and Inheritance, (as might be shown at large:) Therefore it is a mere Sophism of the Atheist, to say that Religion is the con­trivance of wise and sagacious men; for we see Moses, Christ and his Apostles did not [Page 25] act upon such a ground or Basis as these con­jecture, but followed the Dictates of the over-ruling God, who prescribed them their Duties, and commissionated them to follow the Rules of his own Wisdom and Coun­sel.

I shall not stand to furbish the various Ar­guments which may be used against the A­theist; as those from the Fabrick of the World, whose proportion of parts and Sym­metry bespeak an excellent Architect, from Motion which presupposes a Primum Mobile or First Mover. From Arts and Sciences, which cannot be supposed to be the fruits of our Ingeny, without the help of divine In­fusion, as is plain in the case of Bezaleel and Aholiab, Exod. 36.1. Or from the Considera­tion of Spirits and Demons, which lead us up to one Supreme, Infinite and Immaterial Be­ing; for this is sufficiently done to my hand by the Learned; but I shall speak a little to those prodigious Acts which have been done upon the Stage of the World contrary to the course of Nature sometimes, and other things which can by no means be done by the Agency of Natural Causes, which plain­ly demonstrate there is a Divine power which supersedes all ordinary and physical Opera­tions, and does whatsoever pleases it in Hea­ven, and in Earth, and in the Sea, and in all deep places. I shall begin with the stupendi­ous [Page 26] Acts recorded in Scripture; And the first thing which presents it self to our confidera­tion is the Deluge in the days of Noah, which was long before and much exceeded the Ogy­gian and Deucalionian Floods, than which the Heathens usually rise no higher for want of History; and was not this a strange thing that the Water which had kept within its ordinary precincts for the space of 1656. years should break its bounds, and put a pe­riod to the Life and Being of the then survi­ving Mortals; surely there was a supernatu­ral power which had a hand in this doleful Tragedy.

Some foolish Atheists say, that this was ef­fected by natural Causes, seeing (as they af­firm) they find by computation that there was at that time a Conjunction of the moist Planets in the watery Trigon, the effects of which are usually Deluges, Inundations, &c. But this has an easie answer; for it may be shewed, that there has been a like Conjuncti­on of the watery Planets, and yet no such Tragical Effects have ensued. Such a Con­junction there was in the time of Moses, Alsted. Chronol. another about the Babylonish Captivity, an­other fifty one years after Christ, another in the days of Charles the Great, another in the year 1524. which made all the Astrologers predict fatal consequences, insomuch that [Page 27] many in the lower Germany left their houses which were in the Valleys and retired to mountanous places,; and one Dr. Tholosanus (or Insanus rather) made himself a Ship or an Ark for his security against the suspected Deluge: but the Event shewed these Pre­dictions were ridiculous, for it proved a pret­ty dry Winter. Therefore we say, If natu­ral Conjunctions had such effects the World had again and again been destroyed: we conclude therefore that herein was seen the power of an Omnipotent Agent, who brought this miraculous Judgment on purpose to pu­nish the Crimes and Exorbitancies of that im­pious Generation.

But the Atheist laughs again and says, How was it possible that such a quantity of waters could be gathered together, as to over-top the highest Mountains? To this we answer, That in order to the Deluge not only the Sea was let out, the Fountains of the great Deep being broken up, but also the Win­dows and Cataracts of Heaven were opened, that is, that stock and congeries of waters above the Firmament, mentioned Gen. 1.7. was poured down also: For this gathering of the Waters above the Firmament was not the Moisture in the Clouds, as some imagine; for we read of these Waters before the Crea­tion of the Sun, which is the producer of such Exhalations. Now then the Sea being let [Page 28] loose, and the Waters in the Veins and Ca­verns of the Earth; together with that Trea­sury above the Firmament being all called upon the surface of the Earth, what a rise of waters must here of necessity be? and to help which, the waters in the Clouds also and middle Region joyned forces, which is very considerable, God calling them in Job, the Treasures of Snow. And this I know by experience, that by fall of one Snow and a Thawe upon it, a small River which I my self have gone twenty times over in Summer dry-shod, yet this River did rise perpendicu­larly about fourteen or fifteen foot, as I took notice by the Trees on the Bank side, which had their bark pilled off by the pieces of Ice which floated upon the Superficies of the waters: and if the waters rise so high by the fall of some Rain or Snow, what is to be expected when lieve is given to the waters to overflow, and the water in the Clouds and those other above the Firmament to be united and jointly poured upon the Earth: I do not in the least scruple the Truth of Scri­pture as to the Altitude of the waters, having such rational and concurring Causes.

Secondly, Others say it was not necessary that all the Earth should be overflowed, but only the inhabited part of it: For the De­luge being a punishment for the Sin of Man, there was no need for the water to cover the [Page 29] uninhabitable part of the World, but only those territories where the Sons of Adam were situated, which are supposed not to be much above the Confines of Syria and Mesopotamia, Dr. Stillingfleet. and so not over the hundredth part of the Earth was drowned; which if it be so, that inlet of waters which we have above mentioned might easily cause such a high in­undation as Moses asserts. And if the Atheist object against this that place of Scripture which says that all the fowls of the air died, Genes. 7.21. and shall ar­gue thus; That grant the Deluge to be only in Asia, the Fowls by their flight (suppose into the European Regions) might evade destruction: We answer, That all the Fowls within the limits of the Deluge could not thus save themselves, because the Rain came with that force and violence that they were not able to bear wing against it; for it is the Opinion of some Divines, that the water from the Clouds came not then per stil­licidia, by drops and small parcels, but was poured out as out of Spouts and Conduits, which could not but hinder the flight and motion of the agil and winged Creatures. Others bring strenuous and cogent Arguments to prove that the Sea is higher than the Earth, which they demonstrate from drops of wa­ter on a plain Table, which riseth to the eye [Page 30] and has a globular figure; and thus they suppose the Sea to be. They argue also from Springs in the tops of Mountains boiling con­tinually, the cause of which they imagine to come from the Sea, the proper Cause of these Emanations, and so they conclude by Rea­son and Experience, that the water could never ascend thither, except the Fountain and Original were equal and parallel in height with these Eruptions; which if it be, then 'tis no news to have the Earth, even the mountainous part of it covered with waters; especially when God relaxes his power, by which the Sea is miraculously kept within its stated bounds and dimensions: And thus we labour to evince that this Overflowing in the days of Noah was extraordinary and supernatural, caused by the power and Al­mightiness of that divine Being which we un­dertake to demonstrate.

Another Prodigy was the dividing the Red Sea before the Children of Israel, when they fled from the face of Pharaoh; that the water which is a fluid Element, should part asunder and remain as a Wall on the right and left hand, afford a passage to these pursued Sons of Jacob, and drown their im­placable enemies was altogether preternatu­ral, and could not be done without the ope­ration of an Omnipotent Agent. Some to e­vade this are ready to say, That Moses was [Page 31] an expert Artist and enquirer into Natural secrets, led the people over at an Ebb or low water, and the Egyptians not under­standing the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, went so far after them till they were overta­ken with the returning Tide, and so were drowned. But this is a vanity, to think that the Egyptians whose Empire reach'd to the Sea, did not understand the ebbing and flow­ing thereof; and that amongst an Army of fifty thousand Horsemen and two hun­dred thousand Footmen, none should know the Motion of the Sea. Besides, Moses being brought up in the Learning of the Egyptians, it must be granted that Pharaoh had some Sophi's and Wise men with him which under­stood greater Mysteries than this; when as every ordinary Fisherman in England, by his natural Experience and Observation, can tell you to an hour or less of the putting in of Tides, and Fall again of the water.

But again, this is a piece of Nonsence to think that this passage of Israel was at a re­flux or low water; for at the returning of Tides ('tis true) some of the Verges about the Sea as to a little space or compass are left bare: But what is this to the Journey of Israel, who from the Borders of Egypt to the opposite Banks on the Arabian side passed the Sea to the length of three Leagues, a thousand paces or nine miles, as Geographers [Page 32] observe; and that the Sea recoils at any time for the space of nine miles let any produce a precedent. But the Scripture is plain, that the Sea was divided, Exod. 14.21. and so they went not over at a low water.

But it is objected again, Would the Egy­ptians be such Fools as to enter the Sea after Israel, and hazard their safety? To this we an­swer, That Darkness might hinder the perce­ption of the way they were in, and the Cloud which gave Light to Israel was dark to the Egyptians, Exod. 14.20. and so they could not so well discern this miraculous passage. Secondly, the earnestness of Revenge might cause them inconsiderately to follow Israel, as we see many Creatures will follow the prey thorough all difficulties: Thus Shimei pursued his servants, and rashly passed over the Brook Kidron; so the Egyptians in their heat and haste made no difference of paths, but directly followed the Israelites. Thirdly, their Confidence which was increased by Al­mighty God, made them thus hazardous; they concluded they might well go where Israel did, like a Boy that will venture on a piece of Ice which bears his companion: and this boldness was augmented by Almighty God, who did harden their hearts, Gen. 14.17. that is, did take away from them the sense of Fear, as hardening usually signifies in Exo­dus: And so it remains for a Truth that the [Page 33] waters of the Sea were separated and divided by a miraculous force and vertue; the Lan­guage of this and such like Dispensations e­vidently shewing that there is a God.

From hence we pass to the standing still of the Sun in the time of Joshua, a strange and extraordinary Act, in which no doubt Omni­potency was the Cause and Author. But says the Atheist, this is contradicted two ways: First. By some of the Jewish Rabbins, who say, that the Sun did go down as at other times; but this was a Globe of Light like one of the Parelii or Mock-Suns, which gave light in the Horizon till Joshua discomfited his enemies. Answer. We are to believe Scripture rather than the Cabalistical dreams of many Jews. But suppose it mere a Globe of Light, it was very miraculous and unpa­rallel'd, and shows the assistance of Divinity in making such a diaphanous and transparent Brightness, which supplied the place of the Sun and gave Light to Joshua. But say they, this Miracle is gainsayed by the new Philo­sophers of the Copernican and Cartesian Par­ty, who boldly affirm that the Earth moves. Answer. In case it were so, yet as to Motion in general there was a Miracle; there was such an alteration in the Measure and Method of Time as could not have hapned without a divine Efficiency, all Created Powers not being able to make Additions or Diminuti­ons [Page 34] as to times and seasons. And notwith­standing all this noise about the Motion of the Earth, yet many of the Learned will not own it for a Topick or veracious Doctrine: For first they say that Miracles being the great Seals and Confirmation of our Religi­on, and testifications of a Deity, it is dange­rous to assert any thing which may make them invalid or insignificant: Besides they say Argumenrs from Sense are not to be sleighted; and whereas these Opinionists ob­ject, That Sense is not a competent Judge be­cause of distance, they reply, That though Sense be not a competent Judge as to perfect and Mathematical strictness and exactness at such a distance, yet it can judge in a good degree; if otherwise, why should we believe any thing that is reported of the Heavenly Bodies, or give credence to those things which are discovered by the help of Tubes and Telescopes, seeing the Eye of Man is the main and Principal Agent in the finding out these Secrets and Rarities? They say further, that if Arguments from Sense be not authen­tick, then possibly Marcion and other Here­ticks might be in the right, who affirmed that Christ had only an imaginary Body, whom Tertullian and others laboured to con­vince by sensible Demonstrations. And Tran­substantiation also might be a more credible Doctrine, if Sense may not be believed, the [Page 35] Papists asserting that though we see the plain and palpable Elements of Bread and Wine, yet they are properly and really the Body and Blood of Christ.

But leaving these things to those that will trouble their Heads with Philosophi­cal Notions, we are satisfied that the Chri­stians, whether they own the old or new Phi­losophy, joyntly acknowledge a Miracle as to the standing still of the Sun in the time of Joshua. And if it be objected, Why did none of the Heathens take notice of this re­markable Day? We say, that their Histories not beginning till about the Trojan War, and this happening many Centuries before, they had no intimation of it; only the Learn­ed think, that when God brought back the Sun so many degrees in the time of Hezekiah, they had some rude Notions thereof, when they report how Jupiter prolonged the night when he committed Adultery with Alomene the Wife of Amphytrion, upon whom he be­gat Hercules, which is the cause of a long Ro­mantick Fable in their Mythology.

Proceed we further to consider the Cause of the Darkness of the Sun in the day of Christ's Crucifixion, which was against all Rules and Orders of Nature whatsoever; for it was no Eclipse, because the Moon was in the full, and Eclipses happen not then na­turally, and the East-part of the Sun was first [Page 36] obscured and first restored, which, as they say, happens not in ordinary Eclipses. And this was particularly taken notice of by Diony­sius the Areopagite, a man skilful in Astrono­my, who being at Heliopolis in Egypt and be­holding this Miracle, cryed out, Either the God of Nature suffers, or the Frame of the World is to be dissolved: All which may be seen in his Writings, to wit, in his 7. Epistle to Polycarp, and in his 11. Epistle to Apollophanes. And as these Miracles, so all the others acted by Christ in the Gospel do fully shew a di­vine Energy; as to cure the Blind, the Deaf and Dumb, the Lunatick and Paralytick, the Ejection of Devils, &c. more particularly, that of Lazaruss is truly notable, who ha­ving been dead four days was certainly cor­rupted; for the Physicians say that seventy two hours are allotted for the Revolution of Humours, and the Body that remains so long dead naturally putrifies. Now the Scripture says of Lazarus, John 11 39. [...], that he was dead four days, to the Resurrecti­on of whom a Divine power must of necssity contribute. How strange a Relation is that of Mr. Mede, quoted in his works from good Authority,Mede pag. 767. Vol. 1. That in the Country of the Omerites, the Jews and the Christians having a Disputation for three days without hope of conquest on either side, at last there happen­ed [Page 37] a terrible Thunder, and Christ himself ap­peared upon a rorid Cloud and uttered these words in an audible voice, Ecce ego appareo vobis qualis à patribus vestris fui crucifixus; Behold I appear to you in the same form I was in when I was crucified by your Fathers; the Christians cryed Miserere, Lord and Christ have mercy upon us; the Jews were struck with blindness which could not be removed till they were baptized. I shall also insert here that wonderful discourse of Camerarius Coun­seller of the Common-wealth of Nuremberg in the 73. Chapter of his Historical Medita­tions, concerning the Resuscitants of Grand Cairo in Egypt. Not far from that City there is a little barren Mountain, where, accord­ing to Tradition, a company of Christians met together in order to Divine Worship, but being set upon by their Enemies, were hew­ed in pieces and covered with Earth; since which time in March every year for three days together may be seen a perfect Emblem of the Resurrection: for there you may be­hold Legs, Arms, Thighs and other Members of the Body arising out of the earth, and are touched by several of the Spectators, and by little and little they hide themselves in the ground again. This is confirmed, as my Author says, by Felix a Jacobine of Ʋlmes, in his History of the admirable things of Pa­lestine and Egypt; and several other Eye-wit­nesses [Page 38] are brought in attesting the truth of this History; all sober persons concluding that it is no Satanical Illusion, but an omnipotent Act of God, to convince the impious Idola­ters of Egypt that there is a Resurrection and Life to come.

What strange discoveries of Murders and punishments upon the Authors do we find; which can be nothing else but the Acts of God and the Effects of his Providence, which the very Heathens were convinced of. Plutarch tells us concerning Mitius the Argive, that be­ing slain in a Sedition, a brazen Statue which stood up in the Market-place fell upon his Murtherer before a great concourse of peo­ple. The like he relates of Bessus the Panno­nian, who having killed his Father, and keeping the murther secret, being invited to a Feast there was a Nest of Swallows, which made a great chattering in the Chimney; he arose from the Table in great anger, and with the end of his Spear threw down the Swal­lows Nest: his Friends asking him the reason of that furious act; said he, Do you not hear what the Swallows said, viz. that I kill'd my Father: Tidings of which being brought to the King, and Circumstances examined, he was found to be the Criminal, and received condign punishment.

A Lucknois Merchant residing in England, sent word to his friends he would be with [Page 39] them within six weeks, and accordingly takes his journey; his Man who was with him murders him in his way to Paris: While he was committing this Villany, a blind man led only by a Dog asks who it was that groaned? the Murtherer replies, it was a sick man that was easing himself. The Servant getting his Master's Bills, takes up great summs of Mo­ney and sets up a new shop at Roan; the Merchant's friends making enquiry for him, and a Carcase being found in the Vines half eaten they suspect his Murder: hereupon they make enquiry what strangers had late­ly come into those parts, and who had set up a new shop, and the Murtherer is taken and examined upon suspicion, which he stoutly denied before Bigot the King's Attorney: they being at a loss for want of Evidence, acciden­tally the blind man comes to the House where Bigot was, and tells them what a groan­ing he heard upon the way, which he sus­pected might be the voice of the murthered Merchant; they asked the blind man if he could know again the voice of him that spake to him, he said he believed he could; then they made twenty men successively to speak before him, but he said none of those voices were such as he heard; then they made the Murtherer speak, and he presently cryed out, That is the Voice I heard on the Mountain where the Rode lay. This was reiterated [Page 40] three or four times,, and still he challenged none but the Murtherer, whom they condem­ned, and he before execution confessed all, and acknowledged he was detected by a spe­cial Providence: So Pasquier in his Book of French Remarks.

At Itzhow in Denmark a man was found slain in the field, the murderer fled, but the Magi­strate made one of the hands of the slain man be cut off & hung in a string in one of the cham­bers of the Town-prison; ten years after the Murtherer coming into the Prison, the dried Hand dropped Blood upon one of the Tables underneath; hereupon they stayed the man, he confessed the fact, and gave glory to God: all which things do shew an over-ruling Po­wer. To which I might add all the notable Prodigies during the first and second Punick War, and others which happened in like manner in the time of the Civil jarrs betwixt Marius and Sylla, others before the death of Galba, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the like about the end of the Va­lerian Persecution;Vide Evagr. Hist. Eccles. lib. 1. cap. 17. de terril illius tem­poribus Attilae, 451. all which were so remarkable that the very Heathens themselves looked upon them as Effects proceeding from incensed Deities; to ap­pease which they had Lustrations, Prayers, Offerings, popitiatory Sacrifices, and the No­vendialia Sacra or the Expiations for nine [Page 41] days, were instituted by the Romans upon this account; All which shew their belief of a Supreme Being, which for us to contemn be­speaks us the most notorious examples of Ig­norance and Infidelity.

But consider again, (and though it be but an old, yet) it remains an unanswerable Plea, If there be no such thing as a God, and if Religion be a Vanity and a Chimera, how comes it to pass that Conscience checks, and the thoughts of a future State amaze us? What need men be under this corroding Worm, when they have committed some hor­rid Crime and Irregularity, if so be there is no Superiour to whom we are to be account­able? Surely it was a strange Pusillanimity in Felix to tremble at that discourse of the great Apostle, when he preached of Righte­ousness, Temperance and Judgment to come, as 'tis Acts 24.25. But it was the consciousness of his own Impieties which made him be un­der such a commotion, when he heard of the doom and fate of such Exorbitances; for he was culpable in all the particulars St. Paul preached on: First for Ju­stice,Dr. Hammond in loc. he had exercised much Cruelty, and undue Admini­strations had taken place in his Goverment; and for Temperance he had trangressed the Rules and Laws of that Vertue, by taking his Wife Drusilla by the force of Enchant­ments [Page 42] from her Husband's Bed, and hearing there would be a time of account, and a day of reckoning for such misdemeanours he was concerned; and what-ever Paul preached, Conscience made application of it, which put him into no little palpitations and confusi­on.Tacitus. What made Tiberius, as the Historian tells us, be so troubled, that all his Fortunes and the Di­vertisements of the Empire could afford him no tranquillity? We find Cain running about like a trembling Vagabond after his Fratri­cide; Nero frighted with the Ghost of his Mother Agrippina; Caligula fearing Jupiter, and running under his Bed when it thundred (though at other times he derided his Supre­macy:) Now if so be that there were no re­venging God, but that men when they were resolved into dust never were to rise and act another part, and their Souls vanished into soft Air, what need Conscience be under these disquietings and vexations, these fears and haunting jealousies? Might not a man shake off such perplexing thoughts as Sampson the Cords, and St. Paul the Viper? And the truth is, Cicero largely ex­plains what the Furies were which the Poets feigned tor­mented these and the other;Cicero in Oratione contra L. Pisonem. he plainly says, Sua quemque fraus, suum facinus, suum scelus de sanitate & de mente deturbat; haec sunt [Page 43] impiorum furiae, flammae, faces; that is, Every man's fraud, and sin, and wickedness is the great disturber of his comforts; these are the Furies, the flames, the firebrands which do affright and scare us; which certainly could not be, ex­cept we were to appear before a Tribunal where Rewards and Punishments shall be administred according to the actions and con­versations either of deserving or delinquent Mortals.

Lastly, Let us consider, if there be no Dei­ty or awful God, how come men to be so startled and amused when they come to die, and to lay down this earthly Tabernacle? For take a Gallant that drunk Scorning like water, that was like Behemoth in Job, that laughed at the spear and habergeon, that was as a brazen Wall against all the essays and as­saults made by the Ambassadors of Heaven; yet when a Disease comes and brings a mes­sage (as to Hezekiah) Set thy house in order, thou shalt die; when the Blood boyls, the Head achs, the Pulse irregular, and all the internal operations disorderly; when there is no other way but one, linquenda domus, & tellus, & placens uxor; when all their Enjoy­ments are to shake hands with them, then they are tame, gentle and meek to a miracle; then they can be content to talk with a man in black, whom they so lately laughed at; then God and Christ, formerly despised, are [Page 44] solemnly invocated as appears from these en­suing Examples: First, of Tullius Hostilius, who succeeded Numa in his Kingdom, and being a Martial man, made a scorn of Numa's Religion and holy Rites, as if they tended to nothing but the effeminating and weak­ning of mens minds; but afterwards (morbo gravi, & multiplici) by a strange and dange­rous Sickness he had, and smitten with the stroke of divine Justice,Plutarchus in vita Numae. he repented himself of his profaneness, and as another re­lates, was the most servile afterwards and slavish to all the Gentile Su­perstitions,Liv. lib. 1. pag. 12. and transfused the same into all his Subjects: So that he who formerly had derided all Religious services, as so many ridiculous Observances, now for fear of an approaching wrath (which his Soul did apprehend) grew, as I may say, a pious Zealot and devout Practitioner of all those Rites and Adorations with which they did accost their respective Deities.

Another Story we have of the Philosopher Bion surnamed Boristenes, who (as Diogenes Laertius tells us in his Life) all the time of his health he was a most obdurate Atheist and opposer of the Gods;Diog. Laert. in vi­ta Bion. but afterwards when he was attacked with a most tormenting ma­lady, he was thereby induced to repent him [Page 45] of the Impieties he was guilty of as to the Gods; and we do not hear him any more a Criminal in that particular: now he was a­bout to leave these terrestrial Mansions, his timorous Soul fearing he should have bad entertainment in other Regions, relented, and so was drawn to a Recantation. Neither is it to be passed by which is reported of those Persians, who being pursued by the Greeks, and being forced to try a passage o­ver the River Strymon, which was but mo­derately frozen, then those that the day be­fore had talked lavishly and contemptuously of a God, with prayers and tears and a signal affectionateness implored the Divine bounty, that the suspected Ice might not break, but that it might bear them now when they were pursued by an implacable Enemy. And if so be that any question these Authorities, as far fetch'd and possibly invented to credit the design of a Deity, I shall conclude this with a remarkable Narration of as learned a Phy­sician as the University of Cambridge affords, who is no Phanatick I am sure, and told me this following Story of a Gentleman (whom I my self knew) which was to this purpose. Says he, This Person of Quality was often­times in my company, and was ever inveigh­ing against these silly Notions of a God, which people had espoused: The Doctor was ready upon all occasions to undeceive him, [Page 46] being a person able to argue with the best of these Antagonists. At last this Gentleman fell sick not far from Cambridge, sent again & again for this Doctor; but Providence so ordered it, that this Doctor was taken ill himself, and could not take a journey to the patient whose Distemper proved mortal; and the Doctor assured me, that he was informed by a nigh Relation where he died, that during the time of his sickness he pathetically invocated God and Jesus Christ, and requested their favour and mercy: which was an evident Demon­stration, that the slumbering Soul was now awakened, and that he looked upon the exi­stence of a divine Being and a future Estate as a certain Reality, which before he had scorned as a fabulous Legend and a Roman­tick Forgery.

Therefore Christian hold fast thy Professi­on against these foolish Cavils of debau­ched men, Satan's Emissaries, who labour to advance the interest of the Prince of Darkness; and if we will give more credence to the vain janglings of these Sciolists, than to the holy Scriptures, given by divine Inspi­ration, confirmed by most remarkable Mi­racles, received by persons of the greatest Parts and Ingeny, and subscribed to by na­tural Conscience, we are fitter to be purged with Helebore, and confined to a Bethlem, than to be Members of a Civil Society. And [Page 47] this I will affirm (not in the least to tax the Wisdom and Gravity of my Superiours, or that I delight in the Execution of sanguinary Laws) that 'tis a hard case that a poor indigent Villain should be whipp'd at a post, or burnt in the hand for petty Larceny, and another climb the Gallows Tree for stealing of some trifles, not much surmounting the value of Thirteen pence half penny, which are but sleight tres­passes against our Brother; and a Feather-Gallant shall openly blaspheme his God, rail at the Soveraign Majesty of Heaven, who breathed into him the breath of Life, bespat­ter the Word of Truth, and the Gospel of Salvation; and yet pass untouched by him that ought not to bear the Sword in vain, but be publickly applauded as a man of a great Spirit, rare Adventurers, a Prodigy of Wit and Learning: as if England were a San­ctuary for Blasphemy; I say, as in the case of the Levite's Concubine, Con­sider of it, take advice, Judges 19.30. and speak your minds.

And one thing more I would have taken into consideration: If a Jesuit be such a dan­gerous person in a Common-wealth, by rea­son of a pre-engagement to his Lord the Pope, and which by virtue of an Equivocation can swear, forswear and unwind himself from all Oaths, Covenants- solemn Vows and Prote­stations; what a person is the Atheist, and [Page 48] how can a King be sure of his Loyalty and Allegiance? For the greatest security he can have is by the imposition of an Oath, as Da­vid did to Shimei; but now if the Atheist be convinced that 'tis only a nominal and fa­bulous Divinity that he has invocated, and that there is no such thing as a Perjury-re­venging God; and that (if with Zimri he should slay his Master) there is no divine Power would ever take cognizance of the Crime; I pray of what validity is the assu­rance that he has given? And what Villany is not this person fit for, if he have but power and opportunity to put his black designs in­to execution? May not I in this case say, Ca­vete vobis Principes, Look to your selves you Kings and Grandees of the world: For truly I should look upon them with the same Eye of suspicion that Caesar did upon Brutus and Cassius, and Mauritius did upon that Murthe­rer Phocas; especially if they be observed to make it their business to be rising, great and popular.

Secondly, Hold fast your Profession against old Pleas and Superstitions, especially those of the Church of Rome.

Christian Religion has ever had the fate to be counted a Novelty; as the Heathen Symmachus said, Nunc dogma nobis Christia­num nascitur, post evolutos mille demum Con­sules; Now Christian Doctrine begins to spring [Page 49] up after the revolution of a thousand Consul­ships, but (praised be God) it has run down its Adversaries, and retorted their weapons upon their own breasts, and these soole­ries in practice heretofore by Ethnick Rome, and other Pagans, are so obsolete in this clear day of the Gospel, that Gentilism especially in the European World has very few Advo­cates. The Fathers of the Church, and the Primitive Defenders of Christianity, such as Minutius Felix, Arnobius, Tertullian, Lactan­tius, Justin Martyr, Saint Augustine in his Book de Civitate Dei, Origen and others have ruined their Opposers, by shewing that though Idolatry be old, yet the Truth is of a longer date; that all the Gentile Theology in respect of Antiquity comes short of the sacred Records, that their eldest Poets are Upstarts in comparison of Moses, Quis poetarum? quis sophistarum? qui non omnino de prophetarum fonte potaverit? inde phi­losophi sitim ingenii sui rigaverunt, &c. Tertullian. Apo­log. advers. Gent. cap. 45. that Orpheus one of the ancientest of them was four hundred years after Moses, their Law-giver Lycurgus six hundred years after Moses, also Solon in the time of Cyrus, and Ho­mer in the dayes of Solomon, and that their Poets steal a great deal out of the Books of Moses, as Ovid, Phocylides, Virgil and others; so that we have no need to grapple with them, neither do we fear to be [Page 50] non-plust by a Heathen, having had his su­perstition silenced by irrefragable Arguments for many Centuries. But now the Church of Rome comes and takes up the Gantlet against us, and tells us they walk in the good old way, upbraid us as Neotericks in Divinity, for thus the Historian brands Calvin, Johannes Bushiers. Luther, and the first Reformers, as if they brought new Systems and Modes of Worship, to which the Primitive Church was a stranger; and they obtrude upon us a company of ancient ob­selete Ceremonies and Observances, as au­thentick proofs of their Antiquity, that so all people might come over to them as the true Asserters of the most ancient and funda­mental Verities: But that we may take of these and the like pretences, we will examine some of their pleas which they use in the be­guiling of the simple and credulous multi­tude: First, they say they have the name of Catholicks, which was alwayes espoused by the Ancient Orthodox Church, and brag with it, as if it were as proper and applicable to them as risibility to a man; they are just like Thrasillus (of whom Elian tells us) who being vitiated in his Intellectuals, thought all the Ships that came into the Harbour were his own, and at their approach rejoyced as if the chief Traffick of the Indies had been con­veyed to him; so the Papists crow with the [Page 51] word Catholick, as if it entirely belonged to them and their party, but we must consider that every one that espouses a Name is not really so as the name importeth. Simon Ma­gus stiled himself the great power of God, but he was only a petty Magician for all that: Alexander gave it out that he was the Son of Jupiter, but he was mortal, and the wound which he got in a battel shortly after convin­ced him of his folly: The Jews had many pretended Messiahs who vaunted they would do great things in order to the restitution of Israel, as Judas and Theudas of Galilee (men­tioned in the Acts of the Apostles) then they had Benthodad, then Moses of Crete, then the King of Thabor, then David Elroy; but they all proved Impostors, as the event shewed. And Paul the Fifth notwithstanding the state­ly Inscription of Paulo-quinto, Vice-Deo, that is, Paul the Fifth the Vice-God, yet wise men looked upon him as an ordinary Bishop for all this swelling appellation; for indeed ma­ny assume names of Grandeur and Dignity, and others out of flattery fasten them upon them, and yet the persons remain still in the same predicament and state they were in be­fore, but every Sophister can detect that fal­lacious way of reasoning, and shew that à no­mine ad rem non valet consequentia, that from the name to the thing is a lame, and oftentimes an untrue consequence; but the Papists in this [Page 52] particular imitate Jacob who got on his Bro­ther Esau's Garments, and so came to his aged Father Isaac and got the blessing: thus they cloath themselves with the specious Titles of Catholick and holy Church, thinking upon this account to have the blessing and primo­geniture. But suppose a man should get ano­ther man's testimonial, and come and shew it to a Superiour, surely it would be look'd on as a trick and piece of gross collusion; so God will own none for true Catholicks but those who walk according to the Doctrines of the true Church, which is founded upon the Foundation of the Prophets and the A­postles, Christ being himself the chief Corner-stone.

But let us consider further, that the greatest Hereticks have called themselves Catholicks, and inscribed most glorious Titles upon the most damnable assertions; the Arians said they were the only Catholicks, and called the other Orthodox Christians Homousians, and Athanasians; thus in like manner did the Novatians and Donatists, if we consult History, Manichaeus writ himself Apostolus Jesu Christi, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, the Ma­cedonian Hereticks bragged, nos rectâ fide in­cedimus, we walk in the right faith; Celsus gave his defence of Paganism this Character, The Word of Truth: and seldom do we meet with a Heretick but assumes great swelling [Page 53] Titles, and labours to varnish over his un­sound Doctrines with the garish paint of Truth and Purity, and if names make Apo­stles then they may easily be inserted in the Catalogue. True Religion looks not at mere outsides, terms and titles, at the form and fi­gure of the Cup, but what is within it, and a genuine Christian is not so because men thus nominate him,Ille est verus & Ger­manus Catholicus qui veritatem Dei qui Ecclesiam qui Corpus Christi dili­git, qui divinae Reli­gioni, qui Catholi­cae Fidei nihil prae­ponit, non hominis Cujuspiam authori­tatem, non am [...]rem, non ingenium, non e­loquentiam, non phi­losophiam. Vincent. Lyrinens. libro ad­vers. profan. Novat. cap. 25. but because he walks in obedience to that Universal Doctrine of Christ, which the Saints in all Ages have assented to; thus Vincentius Lyrinensis tells us, that he is a true and undoubted Catho­lick, who loves the truth of God, the Church the body of Christ, who does not e­steem or prefer any thing a­bove Divine Religion, and the Catholick Faith, not any man's Authority, Wit, Eloquence or Philo­sophy: And we must take this for granted, that as the calling of Jesus Christ, a man glutto­nous and a Wine-bibber, a Friend of Publi­cans and Sinners, a Confederate with Beelze­bub, as it did him no harm, nor ever stained his blessed and divine purity; so our stiling our selves Catholicks or Cathatists, or Saints will avail us nothing, except we add to the [Page 54] name the thing, and to the form the power of godliness.

And if yet they will be so imprudent as to make a noise with Roman Catholick, as if the Church of Rome infused Catholism into other places (as some of them say) let them know that we account this as trifling, childish and nonsensical, to pair a particular and universal together, as the plowing with an Oxe or an Ass, a pretty Wedding of contradictions by the Pope's Omnipotent Licence, which things will easily sue out a just Divorce in any Court of Judicature, where Reason and E­quity may give a free Vote and a Definitive Sentence.

Secondly, Another Plea of theirs is this, the old Succession of Pastors, of Popes, for they tell the World that Saint Peter was at Rome and was made by Christ the Head of the Church, and he delegated this power to his Successours to be the Head of the Univer­sal Church in future Ages, and they say that from the said Saint Peter they have a conti­nued Series or Succession of Pastors, which no Church but they can shew, therefore they are in the right, and 'tis safest to be of their Communion.

But first we have Objecti­ons against this Assertion,Epiphan. 27. Heres. advers. Carpocrat. as that Saint Paul was as much a Bishop at Rome as Saint Peter, for so Epi­phanius [Page 55] and Irenaeus tells us, and declare that he was one of that See,So the Church of Rome is stiled [...], the Plantati­on made by Peter and Paul. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 2. cap. 25. and much pro­bability is here of this thing, for that Saint Paul was here is warranted by the Divine Writings; but as for Saint Peter it is doubted whether ever he were at Rome, or no, for learned men have made several Geographical Descriptions of his Peregrinations, and yet find not any shadow or footstep of his re­sidence there or foundation of a Popedom; and though they pretend his sepulchre is to be seen, yet some of the Ancients attest that Peter died at Jerusalem, and the Pontificians themselves are uncertain what year to fix him there after his removal from Antioch, and are mightily divided in their Computations.

But suppose that Saint Peter sat in the Chair there, they stumble in the very threshold, for they are at difference as to his Successours, and the Ancients themselves are divided, for whosoever reads Irenaeus, E­piphanius, Optatus, Ireneus lib. 3. cap. 3. Epiphanius ibid. Saint Au­stin, and of later times Plati­na and others,Optatus lib. 2. con­tra Parmeni. shall find diffe­rent Opinions concerning the first six immediate Successours of this supposed Prince of the Apostles,Augustin. 165. E­pist. ad Genero. for some will have Linus, others Cletus, some Clement to [Page 56] succeed, and if they be uncertain in the first Series or Order of Succession, why may we not conclude the like failures in other Cen­turies, especially if we consider again that there have been so many Schisms in the Ro­man Church, that 'tis a difficult thing to find a true and a right Succession; for by the con­fession of our Adversaries there has been no less than twenty six Schisms in the Roman Church, some of them lasting for a long time: And not only so, but two or three Popes have been at once, as in that great Schism in the thirteenth Century, when there was Gre­gory the Twelfth, Benedict the Thirteenth, and Alexander the Fifth, and questionless all these Competitours pretended a due and a regular Election, Nomination or some right to the Dignity. And as for these Schisms they hapned very early, and continued long; the first began in the year 253. when Novatianus stood up as an Anti-Pope against Cornelius, and these frequent Schisms held on till the year 1439. when Felix was Competitour with Eugenius the Fourth; and further their Succession may be proved not to be so regu­lar if we take notice of the Controversie which has been amongst several of the Learn­ed concerning Pope Joan or John the Eighth, Onuphrius, Bellarmine, Baronius, and Flori­mundus, do look upon such a person as a thing altogether vain and fabulous, although [Page 57] there be a cloud of witnesses that do attest the certainty of the thing, as Platina the keeper of the Library in the Vatican, Theodericus de Niem one of the Popes Secretaries, Trithemius the Abbot, Caranza that writ the sum of the Coun­cils, Rantius, Jacobus, Bergomensis, Mantuan, and several other Historians, who have in express terms recorded the Truth of this Story; besides the Monument of the aforesaid person was to be seen in Rome it self in the time of Pius the Fifth, and another at Siena thrown down by the command of Clement the Eighth, with the assistance of Baronius, and whosoever de­sires further satisfaction in the premises, I remit him to the Learned Dialogue of our own Country-man Mr. Alexander Cook, wherein he manifestly proves against all the surmises and objections made to the contrary, that there was a Woman called Joan Pope of Rome, about two years and odd moneths, &c. in the time of Lotharius, Anno 860. Now if there be such a difference in the finding out such an one as this John the Eighth, may we not rationally conclude there may be strange miscarriages as to other Successions, which might be evidently demonstrated, if it were worth my pains, and the Readers trouble. Moreover let us deal with the Romanists ac­cording to their own principles, which if we do we shall truly shew that neither they nor we can certainly tell whether they have a [Page 58] right Priest or consequently a right Successi­on in any degree, for, according to their own conclusions, to the making up of Sacraments there must go the intention of the Priest; now suppose that when this or any other Pope was made a Priest,Concil. Trident. Sess. 7. Cant. if the ordainer had not in that juncture of time a right intention, then there was (if not a nullity) yet a de­fectiveness in that Order and Sacrament, and consequently the ordained was more or less under the efficacy of that Mystery, and in­vested more or less with a right mission or authoritativeness.

Now they do not know the intentions of hundreds of Ordainers in their Church, and so cannot tell whether the ordained partici­pate of that indelible character conferred by Holy Orders, except they did know the se­crets of men's hearts, and the internal conso­nancy of the mind with the outward impo­sition of hands: And so it follows that no Pope or Priest of theirs can be satisfied in his Call or Mission, except they got a Testimonial of the Bishop that ordained, that his intention was right, pertinent, and correspondent to the institution, which I suppose they have not, and so 'tis very doubtful whether they have at any time a legal Ministery, or an A­postolical Succession.

But more to the purpose, a local or a perso­nal [Page 59] Succession from the Apostles is nothing, unless their be a doctrinal too, and that is the main Succession, when men in their princi­ples and practices are just and strict imitators of Christ and his Disciples: The Mariners at Sea of old had this observation, that if both Castor and Pollux appeared, it was a good O­men of a prosperous Voyage, but if one of them singly shewed himself they judged it fatal; so if those that are to stear and guide the Ship of the Church, can show a personal and a doctrinal succession from the Apostles, then we may comfortably hope that the Church having such Pilots will safely arrive at the Cape of good hope, and the desirable port of happiness and felicity; whereas on the contrary if these Spiritual Guides shall boast of an affinity with Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and yet in their Doctrines and Sermons broach things directly contrary to these Apo­stolical Determinations, 'tis to be feared that the Vessel of the Church will be in danger of Shipwrack, and splitting it self upon the de­structive Rock of humane follies and inventi­ons; therefore in the making up of a right Succession from Christ and his Apostles, there must be a doctrinal agreement, otherwise Suc­cession without Truth is Vetustas erroris, a piece of erroneous Antiquity, as Saint Cyprian observes, so Irenaeus tells us it is our duty to adhere to those who keep the Apostles [Page 60] Doctrine;Adhaerere iis qui Apostolorum do­ctrinam custodiunt, & cum Presbyterii ordine sermonem sa­num, & contempla­tionem sine offensa praestant. Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 44. this he calls the principal Succession. In like manner Saint Ambrose, They have no right to Saint Peter's Inheritance that have not Saint Peter's Faith, and Ter­tullian's Rule is excellent in this particular, the Faith must not be approved on for per­sons sake,Non habent Petri haereditatem qui non habent Petri fidem. Ambrose lib. 1. de poenit. cap. 6. but persons must be looked to and approved up­on the account of Faith: Wherefore we must of neces­sity joyn the Truth of Do­ctrine to Succession,Non ex personis fi­dem, sed ex fide per­sonas probari op [...]r­tet. Tertull. de prae­script. or else 'tis nothing but an empty Chi­mera and a meer formality.

For the Papists themselves know that Sa­mosatenus was an Arch-heretick, and yet he was Successor to Saint Peter at Antioch, and the Greek Church was judged irregular in se­veral things and was excommunicated by Victor, and yet they plead a Succession from Saint Andrew to Alexander of Constantinople, by whose prayers Arius was removed: So that Succession of Pastors without Succession of Doctrine is vain and frivolous, and as the Romans would not allow the Son of Scipio to wear a Ring with his Father's Picture, be­cause he was debauched and did not imitate his Father's Virtues, so no more do we allow [Page 61] the Papists a right Succession from Saint Peter and the Apostles, except they did embrace Saint Peter's Truths and the Evangelical Do­ctrines.

Another Plea of the Papists is this, they say they have the old Mass which we have not, and this Mass they tell us is the Host, or unbloody propitiatory Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, offered up by a Priest as a pleasing Sacrifice to Almighty God, for the Attone­ment of sins for the quick and the dead; and this they say they have for a long time been in the possession of, which we of the new Re­ligion have not.

As for Mass we must first consider the name, and we find the Scripture silent as to the mentioning any such word, neither was it ever used by Christ or his Apostles; only an ignorant popish Priest by good luck found it in a Postscript, Missa fuit haec Epistola: As to the beginning and rise of it, the Learned give us this account, In the Greek Church when the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was ended they sang the Song of Simeon, Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, &c. and because the people after it were to break up the Assembly, it was called [...] the dimissory prayer, and the Minister was said [...], missam facere, to make an end of the work, or send away the people, hence the Latin Church had their [Page 62] missa or dismission,Vide Abrah. Scul­tet. Exercitat. E­vangel. lib. 1. cap. 64. And that so the word missa is u­sed by Cassian even in his time for the dismission of the Congregation. Hence it was that the whole Service from the beginning of it till the time the Hearers were dismissed, came to be called Missa Ca­techumenorum, as that which was af­terwards perform­ed at the celebrati­on of the Eucha­rist was called mis­su fidelium the Mass of Believers, be­cause none but they were present at it. But was never used in that sence which the Romanists put upon it now, by a­ny approved Wri­ter of the Church for the first 400. years. so that missa is no more than missio, which is a sending away, as remissa in the Fathers is the same with remissio; now hence the Latin Church after Sermon when the Lord's Sup­per was to be celebrated, and the Catechumeni, Demoniacks, and the penitents were to re­tire, the Deacon cried ite, missa est, that is, you may be gone, or there is a dismission of you, and thus it was only a valedictory expression as it was then used: But afterwards when Superstition prevailed, and men began to fall into the dotages of the real pre­sence, whereby they thought that the Bread and Wine were transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ, then this Sacrament of the Altar with all its Offi­ces and Observances got the name and title of Mass, which they retain at this day: That there is no such thing as this Mass or propitiatory sacrifice we do declare that the Lord's Supper is a com­memorative Act of Christians, whereby ac­cording [Page 63] to Christ's Institutions by the break­ing of Bread and the drinking of Wine, they shew forth the Lord's death till he come, and we know no Sacrifice here but what is Eu­charistical and gratulatory, whereby the Church gives unfeigned thanks to the eter­nal God for the Redemption of the World by the Blood of the immaculate Lamb Jesus Christ, but that here is a real propitiatory sacrifice we deny.

For first all expiatory sacrifices being typi­cal and figurative of the great sacrifice of Je­sus Christ, had their completion and dismissi­on when he through the eternal spirit offer­ed himself up to God, as a Lamb without spot or blemish, see Heb. 10. vers. 6.

Secondly, this sacrifice of Christ being once offered 'tis no more to be repeated, there was vertue enough in that one act and no need of reiteration, as it is Heb. 7. vers. 27. and Heb. 9.28. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, where the Holy Ghost lays an Emphasis upon the singularity or one­ness of Christ's sacrifice, as comprehending all the ends for which it was intended, and so no need of a repetition.

Thirdly, all expiatory sacrifices required the shedding of blood, the killing of some living creature, so Christ our sacrifice was slain, and the ninth of Heb. 22. without shed­ding of blood was no remission of sins; now [Page 64] here is no shedding of blood in the Mass; for Christus (as they say) incruentè immolatur, 'tis an unbloody sacrifice which is contradictory to the notion of all expiatory Rites whatso­ever.

Fourthly, Christ upon the Cross cryed out 'tis finished, that is, that the work of Re­demption was compleated by the sacrificing of himself, and so God's Justice appeased, and man put into a state of reconciliation; but now if it be needful every day for a Priest to offer up a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead, then the work of Re­demption was not finished, but was to be working out by piece-meal in all the succeed­ing Ages of the Gospel; and thus they will rather give a manifest lie to Jesus Christ, and openly contradict his affirmation, than abjure their beloved Idol.

Therefore instead of the Mass we have the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, a Holy Rite according to Christ's Institution, as a memo­rial of the sacrifice of the death of Christ that blessed Victime, who once offered up himself; and no sacrifice know we of here but that gratulatory one of praise and thanksgiving: Hence we leave them to their own superstitions to worship a breaden God, whereby they are a scorn and reproach to Jews, and Turks, and so lay stumbling blocks in the way of their conversion.

Another plea of the Romanists is this, they say all the Ancients are on their side; and here they make a flourish and affirm that the Holy Apostles, the blessed Martyrs, the glorious Confessors, the Learned Fathers, and Christi­an Doctors all teach as they do; and that the Protestants follow their own private Inspi­rations, scorn Antiquity, dote on Novelty, and have never a Patron for their new Divi­nity.

Now alas what shall we do, if the case be as they pretend, 'twere the best to pack away to Rome, to crave Absolution for our long espoused Schism and Heresie, to get the be­nediction of the Holy Father, and to enter the Lists of their Communion: But I make this Remonstrance both for my self and o­ther Protestants, that our Writers have fully shown, and yet we can make it appear, that the whole current of Antiquity runs our way, and their own Cassander could not but ac­knowledge, that as to Marriage, the Lord's Supper, and several other controverted things betwixt them and us, that anciently they were practised according as they are in use in the Reformed Churches; and for the voluminous Writings of the Fathers, those who have been most studied in them, such as Bishop Jewel, Feild, Whitaker, Willet, Bishop Laud, Birbeck, and several others have shewed that the Fathers unanimously have given their te­stimony [Page 66] for us; so that 'tis needless to quote Authorities: but however that the ordinary Reader may have something by him to stop the reproachful mouth of a scandalizing Priest or Jesuit, I shall not think much to set down a few remarkable testimonies out of the Ancient Fathers, which may be as so ma­ny smooth Stones taken out of the Brook Kidron, to throw at these vaunting Goliahs who desie the Armies of Israel.

And first for the Popes Primacy, let us con­sider that of Saint Cyprian in his Book de Ʋnitate Ecclesiae, Cyprianus de unita­te Ecclesiae, pari consortio honoris, &c. where he affirms, that the rest of the Apostles were the same, that Saint Peter was en­dued with the same equality of honour and jurisdiction;Ʋbicunque fuerit Episcopus sive Ro­mae, sive Eugubii, sive Constantinopo­li, sive Rhegii, si­ve Alexandriae, sive Tanis, ejusdem me­riti, ejusdem est Sa­cerdotis; potentia di­vitiarum, & pau­pertatis humilitas, vel sublimiorem vel inferiorem Episco­pum non facit, om­nes sunt Apostolo­rum successores. Hie­rom. ad Evag. E­pist. 85. so Saint Jerom in his Epistle to Evagrius maintains, that wheresoever a Bishop is, whe­ther at Rome, or Eugubium, at Constantinople, or at Rhegi­um, whether at Alexandria or at Tanis, he hath the same merit & the same Priesthood; the power of riches, and the meanness of poverty do not make a Bishop higher or low­er, but they are all the Suc­cessours of the Apostles.

Nay, which may may put this out of dispute, when John of Constantinople affected a pri­macy over other Bishops, because it was the Seat of the Emperour or new Rome; Triste tamen valde est ut patienter fe­ratur, quatenùs de­spectis omnibus prae­dictus frater Coepis­copus meus solus co­netur appellari E­piscopus; sed in hac ejus superbia quid aliud nisi pro­pinqua jam Anti­christi tempora de­signatur, Gregor. Mag. ad Constan. lib. 4. Epist. 34. Gregory the Great then sitting in the Chair at Rome chides him severely for it, and gives him no better a title than the fore-runner of Antichrist, and complains sad­ly both to the Emperour Mauritius and Constantia the Empress, and makes it a piece of Luciferian pride, as may be seen at large in his Epi­stles; and the said Gregory in opposition to the pride of the said Bishop of Constantinople, O Tempora! O Mo­res! quis est iste qui contra statuta E­vangelica, contra canonum decreta, novum sibi usurpare nomen praesumit? Gregor. ad Maurit. Epist. 32. was the first Bishop which took this title of Servant of Servants, which his Succes­sours out of a feigned humi­lity retain till this day.

Against the Pope's Infallibility we need go no farther than their own Author's Curanza, Spondanus, and others, who tell us Marcelli­nus was an Idolater, Liberius an Arian, Hono­rius a Monothelite, John 22. For the soul's sleeping till the day of judgment, Leo the 10. a notorious Atheist; and if there be such an unerring power with which the Popes are in­vested, [Page 68] why did Pope Stephen rescind the Decrees of Formosus his Predecessour, and John the Ninth the Decrees of Stephen? surely one or other of these failed in their conclusions and determinations.

Against Images what more plain than the words of Epi­phanius to John Bishop of Je­rusalem? Inveni ibi velum tinctum atque de­pictum, & habens i­maginem quasi Chri­sti, vel sancti cujus­dam, non enim satis momini cujus imago fuerit; cum ergo hoc vidissem in Ecclesia Christi contra autho­ritatem Scriptura­rum scidi illud, De­inceps praecipere in Ecclesia Christi isti­usmodi vela quae contra religionem nostram veniunt non appendi, Epipha. E­dit. Lat. in fine o­per. ad Johan. Hy­aerosol. Sayes he, in the Church of the Village of A­nablatha I found a Veil, hang­ing at the Door, painted and having the Image as if it were of Christ or some Saint, for I do not well remember whose Image it was; when I saw therefore that contrary to the Authority of the Scri­ptures, the Image of a man was hanged up in the Church of Christ, I cut it, and gave counsel to the Keepers of the place that they should wrap some poor dead man in it, and he desired the Bishop of the Diocess that such Veils as these which are contrary to our Religion might not be hanged up in the Church of Christ.

Against prayer to Angels we may take no­tice of that of Origen to Celsus, whereas Cel­sus had said that they belong to God, and in [Page 69] that respect we are to pray to them, that they may be propitious to us; Origen answers, Away with the advice of Celsus, who sayes we are to pray to Angels; [...], &c. Origen. contr. Celf. lib. 8. pag. 406. we must pray to him alone, who is God over all, and to the Word of God his only begotten, and the first born of all creatures, that he would present our prayers to his God and our God.

Against prayer in an unknown Tongue, St. Basil in his Homily upon the 28. Psalm, where he sayes, [...], Ba [...]l. Homil. in Psal. 28. Thou hast a Psalm, thou hast a Prophecy, thou hast the E­vangelical Declarations: Let thy Tongue sing and let thy Mind search the meaning of what is spoken, that according to the Apo­stle thou mayest sing with the spirit and sing with understanding.

Against Transubstantiation what can be more plain than that of Saint Augustine, where speaking of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of man; he saith,Facinus vel flagiti­um videtur jubere: figura est ergo, prae­cipiens passioni [...]us Domini esse commu­nicandum atque suaviter & utiliter recondendum esse in memo­ria quod pro nobis caro ejus vulnerata & crucifixa est, August. de Doct. Christ. lib. 3. cap 16. Christ here seemeth to com­mand [Page 70] some heinous act or gross wickedness, he answers, It is a figurative Speech, requiring us to communicate with Christ's sufferings, and sweetly and profitably to keep in memory that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us:Non dubitavit Do­minus dicere, hoc est corpus meum, cum signum daret corpo­ris sui, August. con­trà Adimant. cap. 12. Nay in an­other place he saith, the Lord doubted not to say, this is my body, when he gave the sign of his body.

Against unwritten Traditions, that of Ter­tullian is most remarkable; for having to do with Hermogenes, he sayes, Let Hermogenes and his Ad­herents prove this from the written word;Scriptum esse doce­at Hermogenis of­ficina, si non est scriptum, timeat vae illud adjicicntibus vel detrahentibus de­stinatum, Tertul. contra Hermog. cap. 12. if it be not written, let him fear that wo which is against them that add to, or diminish from sa­cred Truths.

And what more plain than that of Saint Augustine? Let us not hear, thus say I,N [...]n audiamus haec dico, haec dicis, sed audiamus haec dicit D [...]minus, au­ferantur illa de medio quae adpersus nos invi­cem, non ex divinis ca­nonicis libris, sed aliun­de recitamus. Nolo bu­manis documentis, sed divinis oroculis san­ctam Ecclesiam demon­strari, August. de unitat. Eccles. cap. 3. thus sayest thou; but let us hear, thus saith the Lord: Let those things be re­moved out of the way which we alledge one against ano­ther, otherwise than from the Books of Canonical Scri­pture; I will not have the [Page 71] holy Church demonstrated by humane teach­ings, but by divine oracles.

Against the Doctrine of Merit, Saint Chry­sostom has given his testimo­ny fully; [...], Chrysostom. de com­punct. cordis, Tom. 6. Edit. Savil. pag. 157. Although we die a thousand deaths; al­though we did perform all virtuous actions, yet should we come short by far of ren­dring any thing worthy of those honours which are conferred on us by God.

Against the half Sacrament, or the deny­ing the Cup to the Layety, what more pun­ctual than that of Justin Martyr, [...], Justin. Martyr. Apol. 2. in fi­ne pag. 162. who declaring the customs of the Church in his time, sayes, they that are call­ed Deacons amongst us, give to every one that is present of the consecrated Bread and Wine, and after adds, as Christ commanded them.

Against Purgatory Saint Cyprian is most positive; We are contained for a while both good and bad in one house,Intra unum domum bo­ni & mali interim con­tin [...]mu [...], quicquid in­tra domum [...]v [...]nerit pa­ri sorte p [...]rpetimur, do­nec aevi temporalis fine completo, ad ad [...]ernae vel mortis vel immortalita­tis hospitia dividamur, Cypr. ad Demetrian. whatsoe­ver doth happen within the house we suffer alike, until this Temporal life being en­ded, we are divided to the Habitations either of eternal death or immor­tality.

Against that forced Celibacy which they impose upon the Clergy, what more plain than that Speech of Gregory Nazianzen's Fa­ther, who is brought in thus speaking to his Son: [...], Greg. Nazien. Car [...]. in vita sua Edit. Morel. Paris. Tom. 2. pag. 9. Thou art not so old as I have wait­ed or served at the Altar, which is an undeniable testi­mony that he was begotten after his Father was in holy Orders.

Concerning the number of Canonical Books we need not go far for Testimonies, for the Marquess of Worcester in his Confe­rence with the late King, sayes, that Hierom was the first that ever pick'd a hole in the Scriptures, and cut out so many Books out of the word of God with the penknise of Apo­crypha; so that Saint Hierom is on our side, and if it were to our purpose we could show other Learned Men and Councils before him, that gave the same account of them which we do.

Thus we have brought in these several Te­stimonies, which sufficiently demonstrate that this Plea of theirs is nothing but a false insi­nuation, and the Fathers have not given in Evidence according to their Tenents and Surmises, and so their Assertion in this parti­cular is a gross and manifest untruth and for­gery, which by hundreds of other Quotati­ons might be confirmed if it were needful [Page 73] and pertinent to my business, which is not to meddle so much with polemical and contro­verted Points, as to perswade that which has relation to conversation and practice.

Another Plea of theirs is the continuance of Miracles in their Church, whereby 'tis (as they say) evidenced from Heaven to be the true Catholick Church, and this is one of Bellarmine's Notes; and I had taken a little pains in showing their incredible, ridiculous, irrational fooleries in the premises, both from the Legend and other of their approved Wri­tings, but it is so learnedly and satisfactorily done already by the Reverend and never e­nough to be honoured Doctor Edward Stil­lingfleet, that I may spare my pains in this par­ticular, referring the Reader to that Excel­lent Treatise of his, Entituled, A Discourse in the Vindication of the Protestants Grounds of Faith, and an Enquiry into the Miracles of the Roman Church.

And now after their Pleas behold their numerous Superstitions, a Babel and Rapso­dy of confusion, which never entred into the heart of the blessed Jesus, or were practised by him or his Disciples.

And first come to the Lord's Supper, the Mass (as they call it:) Their must be a stately Stone-Altar, abundance of Trinkets; then comes the Priest with a multitude of Conges, Crossings, Kissings, Adorations, Exaltations, [Page 74] and other Antick Gestures, that an ignorant person would believe either he were acting the part of a Conjurer or a Jugler, or else were to manage a company of Puppets to make the Spectators some pretty pastime or diversion.

Go we from hence to Baptism, where we shall find a numerous company of Observan­ces; the Priest must use Salt, and that signifies spiritual seasoning forsooth; it is a wonder they did not add a little Pepper too, that so the Ceremony might have been more signi­ficant.

Cream was another thing in use, some say because it was a little too phlegmatick, they have omitted it, and I much wonder at it; for, me thinks, it might have been of notable use in this piece of spiritual Cookery.

Then comes in Spittle: Well, if it be fast­ing Spittle, I have heard Old Women say it is Medicinal; but King Jame's Mother spoyl­ed this Ecclesiastical Rite, when she said she would have never a pocky Priest of them all to spit in her Child's Mouth.

After this he blows upon the Child, that he may receive the Holy Ghost: Ay, and this blast drives away the Devil, and sends him as far as the Banks of the Red Sea, and the Desarts of Arabia, better than the smoke of the Fishes Liver in Tobit; but I cannot stand to reckon up all the fooleries here, much ex­ceeding [Page 75] a Baker's dozen, by Bellarmine's con­fession.

Observe the Priest farther, and he is sprink­ling and dashing the people with holy water, excellent for those rhat have forgot to wash their Faces in a Morning, and the Devil is as much afraid of it, as of scalding Lead when 'tis thus hallowed and sanctified; you shall see also a printed Indulgence with the five wounds of Christ, and some other pretty Knacks; and if you observe it devoutly, and say the prayers there enjoyned, by virtue hereof you shall be released from the pains of Purgatory, and 'twill prove a notable pass whereby you may go directly from these chi­merical Lodgings, to the Etherial and cele­stial Regions.

Then comes the Reliques of a Saint, Saint Thomas his Shoes, and Garnets Straw,Sc. Missale Roman. secund. Concil. Tri­dent. and these are partly for raising of devotion, and partly for getting of money, and sometimes they cure di­seases (but very seldom for fear of loosing their virtue) if you will believe experi­ence and candid Authors.Praxis Caeremoniar. in Eccles. Roman. per Andream Pis­car about all their Ceremonies.

Another he is mumbling over a few Latin prayers, and has his Beads whereby he reck­ons the number, would he but change his Beads for Counters, he might be well set up, [Page 76] not only for his Devotions, but also for his Recreations, for when the first were over he might then be fitted for post and pair, the old Game of England which pleads Antiqui­ty as much, and is as harmless, for ought I know, as any of their Devices.

Sometimes again you shall see them light abundance of Candles on fair day light, es­pecially on the day of Purification in honour of the Blessed Virgin; just as the Heathens did at the same time in honour of Proserpina, which discovers nothing more than the dark­ness and blindness of their understandings, who are ready to imitate the purblind Gen­tiles sitting in darkness and under the region of the shadow of death.

Sometimes you shall find them at a rare piece of spiritual Pageantry, and that is bap­tizing of Bells, which is done with many Ce­remonies, and the reading of several Psalms, and the Bells must forsooth have Godfathers and Godmothers, who promise, I suppose, not that they shall keep the Faith, but time and tune, and they give them Christian Names; I remember there is John of Lateran, Tom of Lincoln; and that you may not think but there be Females also, in Queen Mary's dayes there was a great Bell of Christ Church called Mary solemnly baptized; and if this be not done, the Papist thinks it can never give a Canonical sound, nor fright a­way [Page 77] evill Spirits as 'tis pretended.

Again, you shall find the Pope sending consecrated Roses to Kings and Princes, though made in Lent, yet better than those that grow in June; these are sent only to his Holinesse's special Friends, and though they neither have any sweet smell, or are pur­gative as the natural, yet under them are comprehended rare Catholick Virtues and Se­cresies, which Hereticks are not fit to be ac­quainted with.

The Pope also sends out hallowed Flags and Banners, to those that fight as he would have them, making the credulous believe, that by virtue of these the Pope's Champion shall become one of the inchanted Knights, absolutely invincible, and so he may assault and encounter Lions, Dragons, Mormors, Wind-mills, and I know not what.

But the most notable and remarkable piece of Foolery and Idolatry was that of the Rood, acted by Bishop Bonner in the time of Queen Mary, which was (as Doctor Heylin tells us) in this manner:Dr. Heylin's Histo­ry, Reformal Reign of Queen Mary, pag. 32. They made a fair I­mage of our Saviour (for this they call the Rood) and they brought it most devoutly into Saint Paul's Quire, and laid it upon the Pavement, (for it was as many of the like are a little gowty in the feet, and could not stand) then they said [Page 78] divers prayers over it (but I suppose it scarce said Amen▪) then they anointed it with oyl, very proper (for it may be this might supple the stiff and inflexible joynts;) then they crept to it, most fit for it could not come to them; and if the Mountain will not come to Mahomet, then let him go to the Mountain; then they kissed it, well, every one as he likes, and then they got cords, not to tie him as the Tyrians did their gods, (for their was no danger of starting) but to draw him up, and then all the Quire sung Te Deum: O a joyful sight! and here they set him to keep Centry, and he stirred not for three or four cold Winters, till Queen Elizabeth came and gave him a dismission, and bid him go warm himself at the fire which was performed.

Now I appeal to an imprejudiced Reader, if that the 44. of Isaiah, where God com­plains of Israel, that they worshipped the stock of a Tree, composed by Smiths and Carpen­ters into the shape and representation of an Idol God, do not as much strike at these Ido­latrous Romanists, as ever it did against the superstitious Israelites, & shall they escape the fury of the divine threatnings any more than they; no surely, for God is as jealous of his glory now as ever he was in the dayes of old.

But now I shall pass these gaudy trifles and obtruded observances, which have nothing of the superscription of Caesar, which these like [Page 79] their Brethren the Pharisees of old lay so much stress upon, as if they were the very soul and life of Religion; and if any seem to oppose them in these ridiculous practises, they pour out whole Floods of Curses and Anathemaes upon him, as if he made it his business to de­throne the Lord Jesus, and evacuate the Gos­pel of Salvation; and let me entreat all pious souls to hold fast their Profession against such delusory Pleas and ceremonious Customs, by which these false Teachers delude the simple: for truly they cause the ignorant to be much like the famous Mathematician Archimedes, who when at the sacking of Syracuse he should have endeavoured the preservation of himself and Family, he busied himself with making Circles in the Dust, and so was slain by a Souldier; thus they cause the unwary multitude to spend their time in simple im­posed fooleries, and ceremonious trifles, white Faith in Christ, repentance towards God, and other Christian virtues and exer­cises are neglected, and so their eternal safety is much endangered; be we therefore so wise as to follow the steps of Christ and his Apo­stles, those Infallible Directors, leaving these blind Guides and their Followers who are like to fall into the Ditch, seeing they will­fully shut their eyes against the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.

3. Hold fast your profession against Enthusi­asms, [Page 80] new Revelations, or pretended spiritual Doctrines so much cried up by many.

'Twas an old but a true observation of Saint Cyprian, that if the De­vil cannot beguile us with an old Superstition,Quos non detine­re potest in viae vo­teris caecitate cir­cumscribit & deci­pit novi itineris er­rore, Cyprian. de Unitat. Eccles. he will se­duce us with a new Revela­tion, if he cannot keep us within the confines of the Romish Church to be abused with their old ceremonious observances and impositions, then he is for making us ramble into new and uncouth paths, catching at shadows, affecting novelties, hankering after high Seraphical Doctrines and Spiritualities, which in the end prove like Oramazes his Egg, wherein he bragged the felicity of the World was contained, but being broke there was nothing besides wind and emptiness. Hence you shall see in these dayes many who under the notion of forsaking Forms, anti­quated Ceremonies, Traditions, beggarly Ru­diments, and the like, quarrel even with the holy Scriptures, the Form of Sound Words, the everlasting Gospel; and nothing will serve them but immediate Dictates, new En­thusiasms, holy Raptures, strange Inspirati­ons, and being under a spiritual frenzy they look upon these alone as the rare qualificati­ons of a grown up Christian, and a perfect man in Christ Jesus; they laugh at our Or­dinances [Page 81] of Baptism, Supper of the Lord, outward Teaching, as if we were under the yoke of Bondage, and the Jewish Pedagogy; Faith in Christ, good Duties, Moral Vertues are all superanuated stuff and Rubbish; they havè far more immediate divine Teachings, the Personality of the Spirit, &c. Their Souls are the Pool of Bethesda, where a Spirit or Angel Stirs; their Soul is a Ship, the Spirit the Rudder and Pilot; their Soul depends upon the immediate suggestions of a Hea­venly Monitor, and according to this Intelli­gence, and the direction of this heavenly Cynosure, they pretend they order and square their Actions and Conversations; when as others are but underling Bible-carriers, ha­ving the Hystory not the Mystery. Hereup­on every Dream has had a divine Stamp, eve­ry thought sacred, mystical, enigmatical, e­very imagination the Counsel of the Holy One; and they with no small measure of con­fidence, as the Prophets of old, say, Thus saith the Lord: and if any will not go at the word of Command, and receive their Injun­ctions as Canonical, they pour out whole Showers of Anathema's upon them, declare them stiff-necked, rebellious, uncircumcised, and by the Decree of Heaven, which they are privy to, they are devoted to the nether­most Hell for their Obstinacy and Incredu­lity. This has been the fate of our Times, [Page 82] the bold Enthusiast has mixed his Dreams, his base Allays with the Scriptures given by divine Inspiration, given the lye to the Word of Truth, and has been as positive in his As­sertions, definitive in his Conclusions, and and magisterial in his Impositions, as if with Moses he had been in the Mount, or with St. Paul had come with Letters Patent from the Third Heaven; and by this means the Go­spel has got a fatal blow, Religion a mortal wound, Truth discredited; and we have had new modes of Worship, unwonted Ser­vices, various Altars, strange Fire, new Creeds, a Faith of a Month or a years stand­ing, squared according to times and seasons, but not according to the Gospel (as Tertulli­an speaks.) In the mean while the people have been under miserable Dotages, Delusi­ons, Circumventions, unstable as Water, or as Ixion's turning Wheel, when they knew not where to repose their fluctuating Spirits, seeing they were made out of love with the good old way, wherein they should have found rest for their souls, Jer. 6.16.

Cons. 1. But let us hold fast our Profession against these; considering, That after Jesus Christ there is not to be another Dispensati­on, as to matter of Doctrine, and Revelati­on of the Mind of God: Indeed in extraor­dinary cases, as about Murder, special Pro­vidences, strange Prognosticks, God is pleas­ed [Page 83] to reveal himself in a miraculous manner, and many Saints have been Prophetical; but a Revelation as to the setting up of a new Canon of Scripture after Christ is not to be expected. The Jewish Doctors tell us, that after Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi were dead, the Holy Ghost ascended into Heaven and departed from Israel, and all extraordi­nary ways of Gods Revelation ceased, save only the daughter of a voice, or a voice that came with Thunder, which was a presignifi­cation of that true Voice or Eternal Word, who was to be the Interpreter of his Fathers Will, whom we are to hearken to; and all other Prophetical Lights, and Revelations or Communications of God's Will, were to yield to that of the Messiah. For 'tis supposed, that in the Transfiguration of Christ,Matth. 17.3. when Moses and E­lias appeared to him, they both struck sail to Christ and submitted to his Oeconomy, Moses for the Law,☜ and Elias for the Prophets; as if all their Oracles were completed in him, and were as so many Glimmerings and borrowed Beams from this Sun of Righteousness; and a Voice from Hea­ven bid, Hear him, who was to be chief and principal Prolocutor.

And 'tis further to be considered, that what the Lord Jesus has delivered, is to be authentick Canon for the last dayes; so [Page 84] Heb. Chap. 1. Ver. 1. In these last days he spoke to us by his Son: And in the Parable, Matth. 21.37. Last of all he sent his Son; and Reve­lations 14.16. 'tis called the everlasting Go­spel, as not to give way to any other intro­duced Doctrine (as that of Moses did) but to remain as the standing Rule by which God will guide his Church, till Time acknowledge its period, and Eternity take place; upon this account Tertullian was bold to affirm that we need not employ our time in cu­rious searches after Truth,Nobis curiositate non opus est post Jesum Christum, Tertul. de praescrip. advers. Haeretic. cap. 8. since Christ has done it to our hands. Therefore if any will come, and with Mahomet pretend great Revelations from the Angel Gabriel; with Dr. Dee shall talk of, converse with Spirits and strange discoveries; or with H. Nicholas shall bring a new Gospel, our Duty is to ana­thematize all such proud invaders of the Royalty of Jesus Christ, and defamers of his settled Truth and established Gospel.

Considerat. 2. For men to neglect the Ca­non of Scripture for these Suggestions it much reflects upon the Wisdom and Goodness of God, as if he had given us some incomplete and defective Light, not able to guide our feet in the ways of Truth and Peace; as if the Father of Lights had vouchsafed us only a dark Lantern to walk by, and the [Page 85] Sun of Righteousness afforded us an imper­fect Beam, and the Law which is a Lamp, were only an Ignis fatuus, a glaring uncer­tain Meteor, which could not direct the clouded and benighted Soul; and so it would make God to leave the sons of men as so ma­ny Travellers out of their Rode without the benefit of a comfortable Guide, except some sudden irradiations now and then break in, which are contingent and arbitrary, accord­ing to the pleasure of the expected Spirit; but this cannot be presumed; for the Almigh­ty deals benignly and graciously with the sons of men, and gives them a perfect Law, full Directions, and bids them walk accord­ingly, and not to be as the horse and mule in whom there is no understanding.

Considerat. 3. Again, by adhering to new Revelations, we seem to invalidate two great Offices of Jesus Christ; his Prophetical Of­fice, as if he had kept back something of the mind of God, as if he had fed our souls with some small Clusters of Canaan, and left the Vintage behind; as if he would only let us see our Beloved through the Lattice, and keep the open manifestations behind to be experienced in extatical Visions and Rap­tures; as if he had only taught us the Ru­diments, and Revelations were to make us Perfectionists; whereas we are plainly told, Christ brought Life and Immortality to light [Page 86] by the Gospel, that the Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation, and the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished to every good work. Besides this strikes at the Kingly Office of Jesus Christ, as if the Laws of this King were dark, cloudy, Enigmatical, as if the Smoke of Si­nai clove to the Doctrine delivered by Christ on the Mount, as if he exacted strict obedi­ence, and had given us but weak Manifesta­tions of our Duty; this would make our blessed Saviour a rigorous Tyrant, rather than any thing else: whereas if we rightly consi­der, the Lord Jesus in the making of Gospel-laws, has done as much as can be required of any good King or Law-giver whatsoever; for we are told that to the making of all good Laws there be these requisites. 1. There is to be Intentio boni communis, ☞ a looking at the general good and welfare of the people for whom the Laws and Institutions are pro­vided; so the blessed Jesus ordered all his Laws, that they might be subservient not on­ly to the great End of God's Glory, but also of our Salvation; and all his aim in the pro­mulging of these excellent Statutes was, that man might perfect Holiness here, in order to Happiness and Felicity hereafter.

2. To the making of a Law there is requi­red Judicium or Prudentia Architectonica, as they usually phrase it; that is, much Wis­dom and Prudence in order to the adapting [Page 87] of Commands according to the Genius and Temperature of the people; so Jesus Christ who is the Wisdom of his Father, has framed these Evangelical Laws so prudently, that they have a natural tendency not only to our future Bliss, but our temporal Well-be­ings; and ordinarily he that disobeys these Precepts, not only violates the holy Injuncti­ons of Heaven, but trespasses even upon his own Conveniences, as might be shown at large.

Again, there is required the Sigillum, the Seal or Ratification of all, the Ordainment or fix'd Resolution of the King that such and such a thing shall be binding and obligatory; so we find in the Gospel the Volumus or Sta­tuimus, the will and pleasure and positive de­termination of the Law-giver. He that be­lieveth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16.16. I tell you nay, Luke 13.5. but except ye re­pent, you shall all likewise pe­rish. Heb. 12.14. Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Be not deceiv­ed, wrath comes upon the children of dis­obedience.

Lastly, to the making of a Law there is re­quired Vox Tubae, the Proclamation of that Law, that every one may be warned of the Law-giver's Mind and his own Duty: so [Page 88] Christ has sent out his Ministers, Preco's and Ambassadors, who entreat us to be reconci­led unto God: Thus he has appointed in the Church some Pastors, Teachers, Evangelists, in all the Centuries since his blessed Incar­nation, to reveal the Truth to the dim-sight­ed Sons of Adam, that so ignorance might not eternally blind them. Now when Christ has taken all this pains, for a Revelation to be superinduced, directly contrary to these ra­tified and promulgated Laws of Christ, it must needs be a great violation of his Kingly Office, when another shall enforce other In­junctions than were proposed by the rightful Prince: For would not his Majesty of Great Britain take it as a great Usurpation of his just Rights, if France or Spain, Pope or Em­perour, should obtrude their Laws upon the English Natives? So those that bring in their fanciful and Enthusiastick Notions against the settled Decrees of the Lord Jesus, we cannot chuse but look upon them as oppo­sers of his Royalty, and so enemies to Caesar.

Considerat. 4. Those that dote upon pre­tended Revelations, do ordinarily a great wrong to the holy Spirit in a Three-fold way.

1. By belying it: Do not many, as Zedeki­ah and other false Prophets, pretend a Com­mission from the Lord when they have none; laying the B [...]ats of their distemper'd Brains at [Page 89] the Spirits Door, as if it were the Parent of these monstrous and untimely Births and irre­gular Conceptions; as if their Copper and Alchimy-coyn came out of the Spirits Mint, or that the Spirit of Truth had given an Im­primatur to their delusions? I could tell you Stories from the mouth of an honest person (yet living as I suppose) a Sea-man,William Heron of Stockton in the Bi­shoprick of Dur­ham. to whom first one Quaker ad­dressed himself, and told him he was sent to him from the Eternal God, who commanded him to carry him beyond Sea, to Hamburgh or some other Town about the Coasts of Holland, that he might declare the things of God: the Seaman concluded (as he told me) if he were sent from God, either God would enable the Dutch to un­derstand English, or else would enable the Quaker to speak to them in their own Dia­lect. Well, the Prophet is shipp'd, landed at the great Town; away he hastens to the Market-cross, makes a long Harangue (as their way is) to bid the people mind the Light within, forsake the Priests that misled them, to whom a mul [...]itude resorted; but not being able to understand him, they de­parted from him as a distracted person: The Quaker seeing they could not understand his Language, repairs to the Seaman, desires him to bring him back to England, and he would [Page 90] do any servile office in the Ship for his meat; which was accordingly performed.

Well, but another, full of the Spirit as he thought, comes to the aforesaid Seaman, and commands him in the name of Almighty God to carry him beyond Sea, and withal in the name of God promises him a safe and a pros­perous Voyage. This Prophet was shipp'd in like manner, from Tinmouth (as I remem­ber;) the Seaman set out with a fine Gale of wind, and put to Sea. Not many Leagues were they gone, but on a sudden a great Storm arises, the Waves beat, all fear present death; they tell this Prophet that he had prophesied lyes to them in the name of the Lord, that they were never in such danget (as the man protested to me) concluded he was another Jonah: after much labour and tugging they recovered Tinmouth-Harbour again, turned out the lying Prophet, hoised up sail the next fair wind, and had a prosperous Voyage.

Another I might add, viz. one William Pearl of Crake in York-shire a Quaker came to me in the year 1659 a (as I remember) and he told me God had plainly revealed it unto him, that I and all other Priests in the Nati­on should now go down, for our time of down­fall was come, with many such like Expressi­ons; I told him that I did believe he did be­lye the Spirit of God and was an Impostor, [Page 91] and whether he were an inspired man or no by the true unerring Spirit, the Event did sufficiently declare. Therefore those that run after these Revelations and lay stress upon them, oftentimes give the lye to the good Spirit of God, making themselves to be taught and instructed by it, whenas the De­vil and their own credulous hearts hurry them on to these delusions: to whom we may apply that in the 14. of Jeremiah, Vers. 14. They prophesie lyes in my name, I have not sent them, neither did I command them, nei­ther spake I unto them; but they prophesie unto you a false vision and divination, a thing of nought, and the deceit of their own hearts; and the Judgment follows, which I wish they would consider.

2. They make the Spirit guilty of Contra­dictions: And this appears, if we consider, that the Scriptures are the inditement of the holy Ghost; for the Prophets of old spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost, as St. Peter declares, 2 Pet. 1. ult. Now if the same ho­ly Ghost spake in the Four Evangelists, in St. Paul and the other Apostles, and they have left it to us upon record in the sacred Oracles, that the Church shall use Baptism, Lords Sup­per, Ordination, publick Assemblies and other Christian Dutyes there inserted, for an Enthusiast to come up publickly and declare that Baptism is childish sprinkling, the Lord's [Page 92] Supper a carnall Ordinance, Ordination by man insignificant (which I have too often heard) and protest God has revealed this to them: Does it not make the Spirit disagree with it self, speaking one thing in St. Paul, another thing in these upstart Prophets, and so guilty of Contradictions, which bor­ders upon the territories of Blasphemy; which all sober Christians should loath and abhor, as a thing highly wicked and Diabo­lical.

Again, these Revelations, if we rest upon them, leave Christians upon the greatest un­certainty imaginable, for they take away the Basis and Foundation of our Faith. In the holy Scriptures we find solid substantial fun­damental Verities, all ratified and confirmed by the finger of God in the operation of Mi­racles, that so they might be credible and gain approbation; these are a good Bottom or Substratum for us to fix our Belief upon, and the Scripture bids us rest here; and if an Angel should come from hea­ven,Galat. 1.8. and preach Doctrines contrary to these settled Truths, we are to set him away with an Anathema and Execra­tion. Now these Enthusiasms and Suggesti­ons are so various, uncertain, contradictory, that the Soul, like Noah's Dove, can find no place for the sole of her foot to rest on, till she retire to the Scripture-Ark. Thus you [Page 93] shall see one thing revealed to day, but an­other pretends a brighter Beam, and to mor­row that is contradicted: As in the case con­cerning the immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, St. Katharine, a holy Wo­man, declared it was revealed to her, that the Mother of our Lord was conceived in sin, as we are; but St. Briget, another Saint in the Romish Church, told a Story quite con­trary, viz. That she had a Revelation that she was not conceived in sin, but was privileged from that hereditary pollution; thus ‘Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus:’ The Soul knows not to what to give assent and credence, but is tossed with doubts and anxieties betwixt Scylla and Charibdis, and is in danger of making shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience. Therefore, Christian, trust not thy Soul with those Vanities, but submit to the Guidance of the good Word of God, this sure word of Prophecy; mind none of those uncertain, though so much applauded, discoveries; but as our blessed Saviour decla­red, the old Wine was the best, so the old Wine of Scripture is the best and most cherishing; whereas the new Wine, new Phansies, Visi­ons, Revelations are windy, flatulent, puffing men up, making them high, swelling, vain-glorious, Pharisaical, and what not? there­fore [Page 94] for fear of being deceived, let the bal­lance of the Sanctuary weigh all, the Oracles of God decide all, the Rule of God Word be the Square of all thy actions, the Scrip­tures the Touch-stone of all thy espoused Doctrines; as for Revelations they are so un­certain, that upon them at least I fear thou wilt be forced to write with Solomon, Vanity of vanities all is vanity.

Considerat. 5. Further let us observe, that resting upon Revelations makes us rather like the Heathens and superstitious Papists, than true Christians; for of old those that attended the Gentile Oracles were exstatick, as the Pythoness of Apollo, and others, and then they gave out strange enigmatical and con­fused Responses; and Mahomet made use of his Paralytick fits, and pretended that then God revealed to him the Mysteries of the Alchoran, and that at other times he had converse with the Angel Gabriel. Licurgus pretended Apollo at Delphos revealed to him the Laws he brought the Lacedemonians; Meno had his from Mercury which he gave to the Egyptians. Numa Pompilius said the God­dess Egeria taught him the Roman Instituti­ons, and Zaleucus feigned that he had corre­spondence with Minerva, which taught him those Statutes which he imposed upon the Locrians.

And the most most of the Roman Foppe­ries, [Page 95] especially Purgatory, are founded upon such like Revelations; abundance of such like you may find in Gregory's Dialogues, in the Legend, in Vitis Patrum, in the Books of Marcus Maurulus dedicated to the Jesuits, comprehending memorable actions and say­ings; there we find that it was revealed to Odilo, that Prayers and Supplications for the Dead were very necessary and advantageous, and a Day was appointed for such Comme­morations, viz. the day after the Feast of All Saints, still continued in the Roman Church; and afterwards Pope Benedict ap­peared to Eldebert a Monk, and told him, that by the Prayers of Odilo he was released out of Purgatory. ('Tis a wonder that the Pope who helps others out could not do the feat for himself.)

And if you will peruse a Book styled the Moral Practices of the Jesuits, set out by the Doctors of the Sorbon; Pag. 379. there you will find that this is one of their Maxims, That 'tis the Perfection of a Christian to keep himself indifferent to what God shall reveal, and not to determine himself to what is revealed in the Gospel, a rare Position! They further maintain, That a professed Friar may dispense with his Vow upon account of a Re­velation; Pure Trouts!Pag. 237. what words shall hold [Page 96] them? Not Scriptures, not Vows. If the Jesuits have a strong impulse or suggestion to kill Kings, to raise Conspiracies or Rebellions, or promote as great wickedness as ever the Devil can prompt them to, they must gird up their loyns and to it; a Revelation is warrant enough, though God and Christ have threat­ned the Crime with no less then eternal and irreversible damnation. In the same Book we are told, how a Jesuite pretended to a vertu­ous Matron, that God had revealed it to him that he should privately take her to wife, which was accordingly believed; and so a Revelation was the best Spokesman and Rhe­torick to win his Mistress. Nay many of their Orders have had their rise and progress from these things, especially the Order of the Je­suits: for we read that Ignatius going to Rome, in order to the erecting of this Society, had a Vision wherein God appeared to him and recommended him and his two associates to Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus assured him that he would assist him, and that all should go well with him at Rome, which proved ac­cordingly. Therefore good Christian who­ever thou art, to the Law and to the Testimony, and let not the book of the Law depart from thee, but take advice there, as to all thy spiritual Enterprizes. Let Heathens and Papists feed upon Dreams and Phancies, but the good Christian Palate should relish no­thing [Page 97] but the Word of Truth, the heaven­ly Manna; this is the proper wholesom nou­rishing food for our immortal Souls.

Considerat. 6. Lastly these pretended Re­velations lay us open to all the delusions of Satan, 'tis his great cunning to draw us from the good Old Way, that being as so many bewildred Travellers we may follow every Light presented to us, causing us to believe we are at Dothan when we are at Samaria, at Sion when we are at Sodom, at Bethel when we are at the Altar of the god of Ekron. 'Tis reported of some savage people that border upon the Sea-costs, to promote their gain they make fires in the night upon the clifts of some dangerous Rocks, on purpose to draw thither unwary Mariners, who think­ing to find an harbour, meet with an unex­pected shipwrack; so the Devil to satisfie his envy, and to enrich himself with the ruines of our immortal Souls, sets out these false Beacons of pretended Revelations, which the simple Multitude embracing as so many divine Rayes, are miserably led to the dan­gerous Gulf of eternal ruine.

This piece of policy Satan made use of very early in the beginning of the Third Century, when Montanus and his two Mini­ons, Prisca and Priscilla bragged of their im­mediate acquaintance with God, converses with Angels, great Impulses and Spirituali­ties, [Page 98] with whose Enchantments Tertullian himself was so deluded, that in after-times he got the brand of an Heretick by some: and the Devil prompted them to such horri­ble wickedness upon the account of divine perswasions, that some of them ended their days in a Halter, being instigated so to do by the Spirit of Error, that they might, as 'twas pretended, sooner take possession of the hea­venly Mansions. More especially that re­markable Story recorded by Eusebius, Euseb. Hist. Lib. 5. Cap. 16. of one Theodotus a Montanist, is not to be pass­ed by, who had a Vision that he should be taken up into Heaven as Enoch and Elias, and by a kind of Diabolical power suffered him­self to be hoised up into the Air, but was let fall again by this Prince of the Air, and so miserably ended his wretched life.

And those great Hereticks in Germany were all for these Enthusiastical Dreams and Visions, as may be seen at large in the Tra­gedy of Munster, and in the Stories of John of Leyden, David George, Herman the Cobler, and others; more particularly in Switzerland there was one Thomas Scucker by name, a great Enthusiast, that had a Revelation to cut off his Brother Leonard's head, which he did openly with a Sword in the presence of his Parents and others; and when he was haled away to prison, he said he did nothing [Page 99] but what God commanded him, and therein obeyed the Divine Power. What, I pray you, became of all that Converse with Spirits by Dr. Dee, was not Delusion at the bottom of all? Though his Spirits pretended San­ctity, yet at last they told him and his Part­ner, That it was the will of God that they should promiscuously use one anothers Wives, and seem'd to justifie it by the Example of Abraham: Did not they acquaint him as if there should be another Dispensation, ano­ther Gospel, and talked strange things about Government which were but Fables? And many Grandees and Kings and Princes were cozened by him; only Queen Elizabeth and the Pope looked on him as deluded, as the event proved. In later times did not two or three kill their Mother in the Moors in York­shire; and had a strong suggestion they could raise her to life again? Did not one Mr. Brough's Son, who turned a Quaker, one Sunday-morning revile his own Father, who was Minister of Norton in the Bishoprick of Durham? and told his Father that he was sent from God, and he was like the Apostles, that if he should touch poysonous things he should not be hurt; and moreover said, that if he put his hand into the boyling Pot upon the fire, it would not burn him; and when his Father's back was turned, he slipt up his sleeve, and put his hand into the boyling [Page 100] water, and was miserably scalded. I might add many more of this nature, whereby we may see how by adhering to these Enthusiasms and Revelations we are a prey to the Deceiv­er of Souls: therefore let every good Chri­stian stick close to the holy Scriptures, and not be carried away with every specious va­nity. Children in great Cities when they stray from home are oftentimes caught up and spirited away; so when we leave the Church and Scriptures, no marvel if we be a prey to the evil Spirits, who go about seeking whom th y may devour: Let us hold fast therefore the Word of Truth, and let none take this Crown from us. 'Tis said of Gre­gory Crow a Seaman, that when his Ship was split and all his goods lost, he saved nothing but his New Testament that he tyed about his neck, and was found swimming with it; so let us not part with the holy Scriptures, the heavenly Pole-star, the Treasury of Vir­tue, the displayer of Vanity, the Ballance of Equity, and the perfect Rule of Truth and Honesty.

4. Hold fast your Profession against vain Traditions.

In all the Ages of the World men have been ready to espouse a company of traditio­nal Precepts, which serve in some measure their carnal aims and interests, and are as au­thentick with them as the divine Institutions. [Page 101] The Jews of old had abundance of such like Injunctions, as the washing of Pots and Cups, and vain Doctrines about the Corban, Swear­ing, Adultery, &c. and were come to that height of doting impudence, that this was one of their Positions, Qui illotis mani­bus edit, aequè peccat, ut si cum meretrice cu­baret, That to eat with unwashen hands, was as great a crime as fornication; and they prefer­red these Traditions of the Elders before the Law of Moses: Hence we hear this as a Maxim amongst them, That Verba Scribarum sunt amabiliora, quàm verba Legis; the words of the Scribes (that is, these introduced Pre­cepts) were more excellent than the written Law: All which our blessed Saviour repre­hended with all possible z [...]al and fervency, and laboured to reduce men to the standing Rule of the Moral Law, as that which was most necessary and obligatory. But still peo­ple are of this Pharisaical strain, that they must invent and practise new-minted Do­ctrines, the Divination of their own Brains, which are not of the Form of sound words, but have in them the mixture of the poy­sonous Colloquintida; and as the Fly in the pot makes the Apothecarie's Ointment unsavoury, so these take off the edge of the divine Commandment and destroy the pra­ctick Vertue of our Religion.

I shall name a few, often used by ignorant [Page 102] persons among us, which directly strike at industrious Piety, diffusive Charity, holy Preparation for our latter end, &c. which I shall desire the good Christian to avoid as dangerous and destructive Shelves and Rocks in his passage to the Harbour of Eternal Rest.

The first vain Tradition that men espouse is this, That the Sins and Crimes into which they fall, are the acts of Fate and Destiny: They vainly imagine that God has preordained and appointed them to such and such for­tunes, which they cannot avoid. Thus a re­verend Divine (now with God) told a friend of mine, That in his Parish there was a wo­man which was brought to bed of a Child which had been basely begotten, and at the time of her Delivery she was lamenting her sin and wickedness; but the good (or rather bad) Women that were about her, told her, she might be content, it was that fortune was allotted for her, a thing which she was de­stinated to; and with such words as these they laboured to solace and chear up the simple Criminal.

Now this evil surmise, that a man is under a fatal necessity of sinning is a most vile As­sertion; as being, 1. Most heathenish, and so not fit to be owned by Christians: The old Philosophers called it a strong and over ruling Necessity, as Thales; Py­thagoras [Page 103] said the World was surrounded with it;Plutarch. de Placi­tis Philosoph. 3. the Stoicks styled it an Order and Series of Causes, and Possidonius gave Fate the third Seat after Jupiter; and this Destiny did usu­ally bear the blame of all the Irregularities they commited: So Agame­mnon is brought in by Homer as pleading guiltless, [...], Hom. and lay­ing the fault on Fate, and Jupiter. Hence we see that this is an old heathenish Lesson learned out of the School of Zeno, and not delivered by Christ on the Mount. The Manichees also seem'd to concurr with these Heathens, who had their two Principles, their good and evil God, which prompted men either to virtuous or sinful Actions. 2. All the Fathers of the Church have de­cryed this unsavoury Position, as very wick­ed and diabolical. St. Augustin begins his 5. Book de Civitate Dei, with inveighings against such a Doctrine, and will not have the divine Will called by the name of Fate or Destiny, but wishes that those who speak after this fashion,Irenaeus contra Florin. Justin. Mart. Apolog. 2. Epiphan. lib. 1. advers. haeres. 16. pag. 35. Greg. Magn. Hom. 10. super Evang. Chrysost. in Epist. Tim. cap. 3. Hom. 10. & in 1 C [...]r. cap. 1. Hom. 4. would cor­rect themselves, and place their words better: with him agree Minutius Felix, Irenae­us, Epiphanius, St. Chrysostom, Gregory the Great, and seve­ral others. It was the determination also of [Page 104] the first Bracaran Council; If any one shall affirm the Souls and Bodies of men to be guided and bound up by fatal Stars, Concil. Bracaren 1. Canon. 9. as the Pagans and Priscillianists determine, let him be accursed. And the words of the second Arausican Council are to this effect,Concil. Arausic. 2. canon. 25. That some are prede­stinated to evil by the Divine power, we do not only deny it, but if there be any that embrace so evil an opinion, we pronounce them accursed. We could add several more Authorities, if it were needful, and show that the Catholick Church has never in the least owned such spurious Doctrines; and if any will be contentious, we must tell him, we have no such Topicks, nether the Church of God; but if he will find a Patron for such Assertions, he must run to the Stoick and Gentile Pedagogues, who broached such fi­ctitious dotages and deluding forgeries, be­cause they wanted the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ. 3. This makes God the Author of Sin, which is a most damnable Po­sition, contrary to the plain words of St. James, 1.13:Non idem habendus est delicti author qui invenitur inter [...]ctor & condemnat [...]r. Ter­tull. cor. Mar. cap. 9. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. That of Tertullian is most true, He is not to be esteemed the author of Sin who is the forbidder and punisher of it: Such [Page 105] would make God like unto Satan, first to tempt, and then to destroy, making him to deal with man, as the Devil with the Swine, to run them violently down the hill, and then drown them in the waters; so they would make God hurry men by an irresistible Fate to commit this and the other wickedness, and then to punish them in Hell for these unavoid­able Crimes: which thing absolutely razes and destroys two of Gods most glorious Attri­butes, to wit, his Goodness and his Justice. 1. It eclipses his Goodness, and makes him to do that which he swears he will not do, viz. Ezek. 33. ver. 11. desire the death of a sinner; it would make him as tyrannical as Tiberius, who ha­ving a purpose to put certain Virgins to death, because it was not lawful by the Roman Laws to strangle Virgins, first made them to be de­flowred by the Hangman, and then strangled them; and who used also cunning contri­vances to make the sons of Germanicus revile him, that he might take an occasion to put them to death: This is far from the Mercy and Goodness that is in our God,1 Tim. 2.4. who would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Again it clouds the divine Justice; can I honestly punish him for acting that which I forc'd him to? Is the stone to be blamed for running down the hill, when [Page 106] it is thrown by an impetuous hand? So if the Will of Man be superseded, and he made like a Clock or Jack, that has the weights of Ne­cessity and Fatality put on him, how can such an one be accounted a Trangressor? Shall we make our God do that which the Heathens scorned? The Athenians were told by Themistocles, that he knew a thing would make much for their advancement, but it was not fit to be declared to the people; the Senate bid him communicate it to Aristides, and if he approved it, they would receive it: the Counsel was to burn the Naval Sta­tions and Haven-docks of the Grecians, and by this means they should be their Masters presently; Aristides tells the Senate, that the Counsel of Themistocles was profitable, but very dishonest, upon this they refused it, and charged Aristides secrecy. If they had so much uprightness and honesty as not to hurt a few Ships, shall we think that the ho­ly God will make Souls, necessitate them to be immersed in vice and turpitude, and then bundle them for Hell-fire? No surely, shall not the Judge of the World do righteously? 3. It destroys the Nature of the Reasonable Creature. God has taken a great deal of pains in our curious and exact Formation, giving us those noble Faculties which he has denied the generality of his Creatures: There is the Understanding surrounded with Beams, [Page 107] crowned with Light, able to comprehend in some good measure the most glorious and excellent Mysteries: There is the Will, like the Queen upon the Throne, with the affe­ctions as so many Handmaids attending her. And as he gives us these Endowments, so he bids us make use of them; one while he bids us consider our ways, to chuse the good and hate the evil; to fear lest a Promise being made to us of entring into rest, we come short of it; ex­horts us not to be as the horse and the mule in whom there is no understanding; complained of the Jews, that they were worse than the Stork, Crane and Swallow, and taxed Jeru­salem for not minding the time of her visitati­on. Now to what purpose have we these noble Faculties, if Destiny overswayd all? this takes away all care and solicitude, vigi­lancy and circumspection, deliberation and advisement, as a Privy Counseller some­times told Queen Elizabeth, when he sup­posed some to countenance this Opinion. That Repentance and Conversion can be ma­naged without these internal Powers, none I suppose can imagine, and that an irresistible force should set the Wheels a going, and or­der all without our volition or compliance, is judged by many as irrational: not that the Will can really close with the invitations of the Gospel without the assistance of Grace, yet Man still remains a free Agent and self-determining [Page 108] Creature notwithstanding all the divine aids and auxiliaries, and Mr. Baxter himself in his Call to the Ʋnconverted, Pag. 151. seems to censure such Conclusions as these that attribute all to a supernatural Effi­ciency, having no regard to our own Will and Determinations.

This Fatality evacuates the Gospel and Ministry thereof, the ends of which are to inform us of our duty, and to perswade us to the practice of it; and this is done by the proposal of Rewards and Punishments, by Threatnings and Promises, in order to the Reformation of the Sons of Adam. But if Necessity guide all, Instruction is inavailable. What is it to inculcate Lessons to him that cannot take them out, but must necessarily write after that Copy which Fate and Desti­ny have prescribed him; all that a man should learn here is only submission to unal­terable Decrees, patience and contentation to be hurried as the Chariot of blind For­tune pleases; besides, what signifies perswasi­on? would it not be a madness to importune the Sun to have a retrograde Motion, to post backwards from Capricorn to Aries; to invo­cate the Stars, not to have such ominous Con­junctions; to request the Moon not to suffer her self to be eclipsed by the opake shadow of the Earth; to desire the rapid Torrent [Page 109] or Euripus to turn its course, when all these things go orderly according to the Method prefixed by the great Creator? So would it not be a madness to say to the ungodly, Turn, to pray the Sinner not to do so wickedly, to brandish the Spear of Reprehension, and to bring Suada's and Promises to those that are under uncontrollable Determinations? all this will be to as little purpose as Caligula his court­ing of the Moon to be his Paramour, or the Cockle-shells which he set a great Army to gather, as the spoils of the conquered Ocean.

Again, this Fatality destroys Prayer and shuts out Repentance; to what purpose is it for a man to bow his knees to the God and Fa­ther of our Lord Jesus Christ, to desire good and deprecate evil, if all things be thus pre­ordain'd by Fortune? the good that is to come, and the evil that is to be suffer'd, will certainly present themselves without Orizons and passionate Entreaties, and so that Precept of the Gospel of praying continually would be a troublesom and insignificant Duty. Either how can that man fall upon any duties of Re­pentance and Humiliation, that overlooks his own Corruption, the propensity of his Nature to do evil, the slighted and neglect­ed helps of Heaven, and meerly eyes a for­cing Necessity, which like an ignis fatuus has led him into the Labyrinths of Sin and wick­edness? He will not be ready to cry out, Ille [Page 110] ego qui feci, I have done very foolishly, I have sin­ned and what shall I say unto thee, O thou pre­server of men; but he will rather cry out of a supreme Power and fatal Stars, which have made him take the way to Sodom and the Chambers of death.

This Doctrine of Fate takes away all the Process of a Judgment: to what end shall the Al­mighty sit on his Throne, the Books be open­ed, Christ and his Assessours take their pla­ces, and call the kindreds of the Earth, to answer the Interrogatories of the Gospel? all these Trials and Examinations would be as so many petty cheats and hypocritical formali­ties, if a man were a perfect Weather-cock that must turn only as the wind of Fate and Fortune blows him. It annihilates also in a great measure the torments of Hell, which are presumed to be very pungent upon the sense and consideration of mispent time, un­regarded opportunities, neglected Grace, making light of Christ; from hence proceeds that which we call the punishment of loss, the corroding and gnawing of that Worm which dies not, which as an acute sting shall torment the wicked to all Eternity. Now if it were so that a forcible Destiny (maugre all their care and industry to the contrary) had violently detruded them into these infernal Dungeons, this would take away the fore­going Sentiments, and they would bewail [Page 111] only such a thing as a Manichean Deity, or a Planetary Influence, that had subjected them to these transcendent calamities; they would not condole their own viciousness, but cavil at an insuperable power that had plunged them into this state of Damnation. In a word, this Doctrine of necessity would totally deface a holy Conversation, and the practice of respective Duties to God and man; as it is recorded of Tiberius, that he was most negligent as to the Gods and Religious ob­servances, because he was fully perswaded that all things came to pass by Fate and De­stiny. But we might fill a Volume with co­gent Arguments against such a nonsensical Doctrine, rather than a few Paragraphs; all that we shall further say, is only to answer that Objection founded upon Acts 2.23. where it is said that Christ by the determi­nate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God was deliver'd up to the Jews, and so it was impossible but that the Jews should crucifie the Son of God, to execute and bring to pass the divine Fiat and Ordination.

Amongst the several Glosses of Expositors I cannot choose but close with that Note of Mr Calvin upon these words (though I must confess in other places he seems to be altoge­ther of a different Judgment) but here he saith,Calvin. in locum. Ʋt concilium Dei ratione non carere doceat Petrus, prae­scientiam [Page 112] ei adjungit sociam; which is, That God's Counsel or Decree may not want some good ground or reason, behold his Prescience is here annexed as a certain concomitant; wherein he seems to make the Foreknowledge of God, if not an antecedent yet a social Cause of his Decrees: which indeed was the ancient The­ology of Jerome, Prosper, Fulgentius and all the Fathers in a manner before St. Austin, who joyntly affirmed that Predestination was built upon foresight of good and evil; and with them do agree many of our Modern Divines, as Sanctius, A Lapide, Grotius, and then the sence of the place will be this; That Almighty God, when there was no Ransom for Man, resolved to give his own Son a Pro­pitiation for us, and at the same time he fore­saw, that when he should send his Son the im­pious Jews would bring him to an untimely death; yet he was willing to send his Son, to suspend his protection over him, and let him be a prey to their malice and fury, in order to the perfecting the great work of our Redemption; and so here was no Causality or Efficiency from God in order to this wicked Crucifixion, but the Jews acted voluntarily and incompulsively in the ma­nagement of this Crime; he did not necessi­tate their Wills, but only foresaw the mali­cious product thereof, he did not make them wicked, but foresaw their prevarication. And [Page 113] whereas many lay a great stress upon the Pre­science of God, as if, because things cannot be otherwise than God sees them, therefore they are ready to talk of a certain Theolo­gical Fate, as some more nicely determine, yet we may safely and soberly conclude, that this foresight doth not in the least necessitate to Crimes, disturb the order, method and actions of the rational Creature, or do vio­lence to our Faculties; for if God see Judas to be a Traytor and a final impenitent, he sees in like manner all the Intrigues tending that way, the covetous bent of his heart, the de­sire of gain, his base ingratitude, and all o­ther things subservient in that Conspiracy; and all the assistance he has from God is no more than that of ordinary Being and Con­servation, God not forcing him beyond the bent of his natural Temper. If I look out at a window, and see a Ship violently tossed with winds, and a Rock hard by, I know by the Rules of Reason and Experience, that if she once come to dash upon the Rock, a Ship­wrack will follow, yet my foresight has no causality in the Tragedy, but the boysterous winds and raging waves are mainly to blame: So it is in this case, as to God's Prescience and Man's Sin,; if he takes the way to the bottomless Pit, and dashes upon the Rocks of eternal Ruine, he may thank the Waves and Winds of his own impetuous Passions, [Page 114] which have hurried him to this misery, and acquit God who is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works: For those that lay a forcing necessity upon the Prescience of God, draw undue Corollaries from God's Perfe­ction and Omniscience; as if because he knowing how things will be, he must neces­sarily make them so; when as we have an hundred examples from Astronomers, Mathematicians, &c. whereby we can see things manifestly to happen and ensue, and yet we are no way assisting or contributing to such Productions, but they spring from the ener­getical force and vertue of their own proper natural Causes.

Therefore, Christian, hold fast thy Religi­on, which commands thee to work out thy sal­vation with fear and trembling, do good, hate the appearances of evil; stand upon thy guard against thy beloved Lusts, neither embrace unlawful presented pleasures, as if God had designed thee first to sin and then to punish­ment; he that says, Turn you, turn you, has not determined that thou shouldst take the broad way that leads to perdition: He that says, Why will ye die, O house of Israel, has not by an arbitrary power ordered that thou shouldst lie first in sin, and then in eternal Flames: He that hath given thee so many promises and threats, so many helps and advan­tages, so many calls and invitations, does not [Page 115] secretly purpose that thou shouldst first drink iniquity with greediness, that thou mightest afterwards drink the wine of his wrath and fury for evermore. Look therefore to thy self, stand upon thy watch; Sin may be con­quered, the devil repelled, a Victory obtain­ed; beg the assistance of the Spirit of Christ, and fight the Lord's Battels, and accomplish a holy Warfare; there is no Decree, I war­rant thee, that thou shall be a Reprobate, and take up thy lodgings in mansions of Fire and Brimstone, except thou desert the Lord Jesus, and despise the Gospel of Salvation; thou servest a God that will by no means ru­ine thee if thou be not sinful, nor condemn thee except thou be guilty: believe his Oath when he swears he delights not in the death of a sinner, he cannot give thee a greater assurance than when he swears by his own Life and eternal Being;O beatos nos quorum causà Deus jurat, O miserrimos si nec ju­ranti credimus, Ter­tull de poenit. cap. 4. banish there­fore from thy heart these thoughts of Necessity and Fatality, which supersede thy spiritual Active­ness; but gird up the Loyns of thy mind, serve thy Creator in required Duties, break the bands of sinful Customs, imploring the help of Grace that thou maist run and not be weary, walk and not faint. Thou art not as the fallen Angels, sealed up under wrath and woe, or bound up by secret and invisible [Page 116] Chains, thou maist be a Citizen of the new Jerusalem, Life may be obtained by Jesus Christ; therefore arise, be doing, and the Lord be with thee.

2. Another vain Tradition is this, Every man for himself; that is, every one is to mind his own concerns, to do good to himself; and as for others who it may be stand in need of that Charity, Civility and Acts of kindness, to which by the Law of God and Nature we are obliged, they slight and look a squint up­on them; this Self-care and provision is the excellent Topick, and rare Maxim which they embrace; and if with the Jews they were to have Phylacteries and Scrolls with some noted and observable Doctrines inscri­bed on them, you should find these Nabals set down such Sentences as this, Shall I take my bread and my water, and give to those I know not?

This is that which makes so many Christi­ans close-handed, and narrow-hearted, and go contrary to the great Injunctions of our Religion, which bids us cast our bread upon the waters, Eccles. 11.1. give a portion to seven and also to eight, Hebr. 13.16. do good to all, distribute and communicate, to be much in acts of mercy, and to make to our selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnoss, that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting habitatiens, Luk. 16.9.

Now this evil Contractedness amongst Christians makes us very unlike to the glo­rious God, who is pleased to do good con­tinually, and to make use of all his Attributes for the good of mankind. At first he was pleased to make use of his Omnipotency, in the producing all those noble and incompa­rable Forms which our eyes behold; he could have been [...]ppy in himself, but it pleased him to exert his power, first in making the Angels those Sons of the morning, as Job speaks, who continually attend the Throne of his Glory; then by the same Omnipotency out of the dust of the Earth did he raise Man, [...], Clemens Alexand. in Paedagog. that great world's wonder, that piece of rare Workmanship and Embroidery, in which God took more pains, as Clemens Alexandrinus observes, than in the making of other Animals; then ap­peared also the several Ranks and Orders of Creatures with which the Universe is stored. If the Almighty would have kept his Power to himself you had not heard of Angelical Be­ings, Humane Existences, the Legions of va­rious Creatures, the Myriads of Stars and Luminaries; but he was willing to shew his Almightiness in such stupendious producti­ons, which to the strict Observer of natural Curiosities, (as sometimes Galen was) may [Page 118] raise no little wonder and astonishment.

Remember we also how Almighty God lays out his Wisdom in the regulating and or­dering of all things, so that there is nothing but a sweeet Harmony and Concord in the Creation, all things observing their Stations, and those Decrees he has appointed them: If God should but one day give over the guid­ing of the World, the Universe would be an absolute Chaos, and Monument of confusion, the Sea would transgress its bounds, the Stars glide out of their several Orbs, the Elements would jarr and quarrel, and the whole fa­brick of the Creation miserably be displaced; nay the divine Wisdom is so assistant, that the wisest of men could not sway the Sceptre, rule Commonwealths, and order the several Societies and Communities of men without it; which made the Emperour Maximilian in the days of Pope Julius the Se­cond confess ingenuously af­ter this manner;Aeterne Deus, nisi tu vigilares, quam malè esset huic mun­do! ego miser vena­tor, & ebrius atque sceleratus isie Papa Julius: Sic Jacob. Revius de vitis Pon­tif. Roman. pag. 259 Eternal God, if thou should not watch and take care, how ill would this World be governed; I a miser­able hunter on the one side, and the wicked and drunken Pope Julius on the o­ther side; hereby intimating that the divine Wisdom and Providence was admirably seen in the management both of the Civil and Ec­clesiastical Polity.

Consider we further the great Acts of God's Bounty and Goodness every day mani­fested and displayed; he is the great House­keeper of the World, and gives every one his portion in due season; he gives the former and the latter rain, Hosea 2.22. makes the hea­vens hear the earth, the earth to hear the corn and wine, and those to hear Jesreel.

'Tis said of God, that he gives the young lyons meat, Psal. 104. ver. 21. that he strangely provides for them: For where­as the Lion has not swiftness, nor that accu­racy of Smell to take his prey, God orders it, say some, so, that there is a certain kind of Fox which is his hunter and Caterer,Psal. 147.9. and when they are at a loss for sustenance this Cre­ature runs about and finds out provision for them: He also feeds the young Ravens. 'Tis reported by the Naturalists, that the Raven seeing her young ones white and unfea­thered,Vis Deos Propitiari, bonus esto, satis illos colunt quisquis imi­tatus est, Sen. Ep. 95 for the space of seven days leaves them, and till they begin to grow black will not own them, and in the mean time Providence, either by a Dew from heaven, or Flies that are there­abouts, or by a Worm arising out of their own Dung, nourishes them strangely, and so they are preserved: And Pliny and Elian af­firm [Page 120] that as soon as the young ones can fly, they banish them the coast where they were bred, and they are put to great hardship; on­ly God is pleased providentially to order some thing for their support and maintenance. And I cannot but insert Lu­ther's Conjecture,Luther. Colloquiis mensal. who sup­poses that it costs God more in one year in meat for the Sparrows, than the Revenues of the King of France come to.

Now for a Christian to do good to none, but to consult only his own private Interest and For­tunes, makes him in his car­riage to have no sutableness, proportion and conformity with that soveraign Majesty that gave him a Being, and who has left us this Precept upon record,Sicut hoc loco non est aquiparationis, a [...] similitudinis, non aequalitatem decla­rat, at qualitatem vel sinalitudinem, quantum viatores as­sequi possunt, & hic proponit Christus si­gnum ad colliman­dum &c. Sic Critici in loc. viz. Grot. & alii. To be followers of him, and to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, Matthew 5. Ver. 48.

2. This narrow Principle in Christians makes them unlike to the Lord Jesus, who was kind to a Miracle, and communicative of Goodness; what did he not do for the saving of lost man? He did not consult his own ease and private welfare, but left the Presence chamber in Heaven, the Bosom of the Father, the Chorus and Troops of Angels, [Page 121] and came into these lower Regions, and took on him the Nature of Man, and the Office of a Mediator; and 'tis expresly said of him, that [...], that he went up and down doing good, Act. 10.38. One while you shall see him sitting upon a Mountain teaching the people, feeding their Souls, delivering such excellent Precepts as Numa, Lycurgus, Solon and the noted Legislators could never invent: Sometimes you shall see him helping Bodies, opening the blind Eyes, curing the Paralytick, making the dumb to speak,Dedit n [...]bis Christus corpus in cibum san­guinem in potum, a­nimam in pretium, aquam lateris in la­vacrum, Bernard. dispossessing Devils who had taken mens Bodies and made them their Lodg­ings and Repositories, and at the last he gave his life a ransom for us, in order to the compleating the great work of Redemption.

Now, thou stony-hearted Christian, who wilt not lay out thy self for the good of thy Brother, see how contradictory thou art in thy carriage to this holy and divine, (the e­ver blessed Jesus;) therefore if thou expect­est to reign with him when Time shall vanish and Eternity enter, go thou and do like­wise.

3. We find all the Saints of God have been made up of Mercy and Kindness; A­braham run to meet the Angels and was glad of his unknown guests. And 'tis a pretty [Page 122] Observation from Luke 16.22.Appeliatur Sinus Abrahoe ob hospita­litatem ejus, bonis suae virtutesmanent, sic Abrahano ejus hospitalitas Vide M [...]ldon & Groti­um in Locum. that those blessed Regi­ons where the Saints lodge after their Souls quit these earthly Tabernacles, are sty­led Abraham's Bosom, by way of allusion to his Hospitality as the Learned observe. Lot also was of the same Temper: Job made the loyns of the poor to bless him, and clothed them with the fleeces of his wool; Dorcas made Garments for the Widows, and Onesipho­rus refreshed Paul and ministred unto him at Ephesus, 2 Tim. 1.16, 18. And if we consult Histories we shall find the same abounding Charity in others.Dr. Fuller's Eccle­siastical History. 'Tis re­ported of King Oswald, that having given all the meat he had left upon an Easter-day to indigent peo­ple, made the Plates of Silver to be cut in pieces and given to those that wanted the due Alms. Edward the Confessor gave a Ring to one that desired his Charity; my Author says it was St. John who sent it him again by a Pilgrim from Jerusalem. Paulinus Bishop of Nola gave away all his goods to redeem Captives, and a poor Widows Son being left unransomed, and she making great lamenta­tion, he redeemed him with his own bond­age, and became a Vine-dresser. I might be too large if here I should record the seve­ral [Page 123] charitable actions of the Primitive Saints, as of St. Cyprian, of whom 'tis said, that af­ter he was converted by Caecilius, he gave the most part of his estate amongst the poor, that he never turned the Widow or fatherless em­pty from him, having this golden Sentence in his mouth, Nè dormiat in thesauris tuis quod pauperi prodesse potest; Let not that sleep or rust in thy treasury, which may help a distressed man. The like is reported of Chrysostom, that even in his banishment when he was an Exile at Cucusus in Armenia, he employed the money sent him by his friends in redeeming of Cap­tives. The like I might relate of Basil, Cyril, Epiphanius, and others; but these may suf­fice to let us see the gracious Temper of the Saints, who pitied Humanity, cast their bread upon the waters, valued not the wedge of Gold, full Coffers, the guilded dust of the Earth; but had an Eye to the exceeding e­ternal weight of Glory laid up for the Righ­teous. I shall say no more of this, but only present you with that Observation that was often in the mouth of a Reverend divine (my dear friend, now with God) who frequently would say, that amongst all the Sins the Saints of God were guilty of in Scripture,Agreeable with that saying of Lu­ther, That he never found in himself a temptation to be covetous. he never read that ever any of them was a covetous per­son; as if this Sin were di­rectly [Page 124] contrary to a regenerated and renewed Nature.

And to give the noble Heathens their due many of them were exceeding open hearted and merciful: When Cyrus came to die he said, I have been a lover of man and merci­ful, and now I go to that Eternal Being that will reward me. Vespasian counted that day lost in which he had not done good to his friends. How divinely, may I say, did Sene­ca give his advice in order to Mercy and Charity in his 95.Seneca Epist. 95. Epistle he says, We are all Members of one great Body, and Nature has made an alliance amongst us, seeing we are all made of the same Matter, and to the same ends and purposes, and has implanted in us natural sympathies and commiserations; so that accord­ing to its constitution, he seems to be more mi­serable that hurts, than he that suffers. And to give Julian his right praise in this particular,Sozom. Histor. Eccle­siast. Lib. 5. cap. 15. we find him giving instructions to Arsacius one of the chief Priests of Galatia, that he should build Inns and places of refreshment for the poor and strangers, and in a time of famine provided great store of Wheat for the necessitous Inhabitants; all which Examples like the men of Ninive to Israel, will rise up in judgment against us, if we think much to do good when 'tis in the power of our hand [Page 125] to effect it. And to say no more of this, do not all the Creatures of God, which ever and anon are subservient to our necessities, teach us this great Lesson of Mercy, Kindness and Humanity; the Sun affords Light, and Heat, and comfortable Influences, the Earth yields her fruits both for delight and necessity, the Springs of water affords us their refreshing streams; the Sheep cloth us with their Wool, the Birds lend us their Plumes, the Plants their Medicinal Vertues; all which seem by a silent kind of Rhetorick to commend this to us, to do good while we have time, not to monopolize the blessings of Heaven,Demus Christo vesti­menta terrena indu­menta coelestia re­cepturi, demus cibu [...] & potum secularem, cum Abraham, Isa­ack & Jacob ad con­vivium venturi, Cy­pr. de opere & ele­emos. or to hide our Ta­lent in a Napkin, but to lay our selves out for the advan­tage of our Brethren, that our good Works may follow us to that aweful Tribunal, and be Testimonials of our inte­grity, and evidence that we are not nominal Christians, but sincere practi­sers of our Lord's Injunctions.

Therefore good Christian, hold fast thy Profession against such Conclusions, and do good as much as in thee lies to all, especially to those of the houshold of Faith; let thy Pray­ers go up to the Throne of Grace for thy Bre­thren, and let thine alms refresh them; have not a confined narrow Soul, but be as Solo­mon, [Page 126] whose heart was as large as the sand of the Sea: Lay down this as a certain Maxim, Good deeds will never make thee poor. 'Twas a true observation of S [...] ­mon, Prov. 11.24. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth: God by so doing is made thy Debtor, and thou layest up a Bank in Heaven, and by such libe­rality in all probability shalt meet with a re­ward in this Life: Hence it is that some have found Charity the best Policy to be rich, a Speech often used by a noble Person in this Nation, who said there were two ways likely to advance a man, either to get a good place at Court or else to be Charitable. To confirm which, I shall set down a Sto­ry cited by Pontanus, Attica Bellar. part. 1, pag. which he says he had out of Sophro­nius, Patriarch sometimes of Jerusalem, to this effect: There lived at Nisibis a City in Asia, not far from the River Tygris, a Christian woman that was married to a Gentile, and their whole Estate being Fifty Crowns, says the man to the woman, Let us put out this to Usury, that so we may reap a little gain for the relief of our poverty; the woman replied, With all my heart, but pray take my advice, and let us put it out to use to the God of the Christians, and he will repay us, he asked her where he might meet with him, she told him, that he had abundance of poor [Page 127] Servants standing at the Church-porch, and if he gave it them, God would take it as done to himself: upon this account he gave the best part of the little Money he had to those poor and indigent people. After three or four months they spent the remaining money they had reserved, and being necessitous, quoth the husband to the wife, I have follow­ed thy Directions, and have given away my goods, and yet the Christian God does not repay me; she answered, Wait with patience a little, and walk up to the Church, and see if any good may happen to thee: He walk­ed about the Church, and amongst the poor, but none said any thing to him, only at his coming away he found a piece of money ly­ing upon the ground; back he comes, and said, Dear Sister, I have done as thou com­mandedst me, but I have no answer, only I have found one piece of money; she replyed, well, go buy us something, and God will pro­vide for us: To the Market he goes, and buyes a little Fish, a Loaf and some Wine, and brought them home; as the woman was a cutting up the Fish she finds in it a precious Stone; it was very bright and transparent, and they concluded to go to the Jeweller with it; the man brought it, the Jeweller looked on it, and told him he would buy it: Well, said he, give me what you will for it; then, quoth he, I will give thee five Crowns [Page 128] for it; the poor man overjoyed, what! five Crowns said he; the Jeweller thought he spoke Ironically and understood the worth of it, Well, says he, then I will give thee ten Crowns for it, the Seller was silent, and thought he was still mocked; the Jeweller offers then twenty Crowns for it, the man was still astonished, the Buyer comes up to thirty, forty and fifty Crowns; the Seller then begins to think this was a stone of great value and prized it highly (as well he might) at last the Jeweller told him out three hun­dred Crowns for it: Home he comes in a rap­ture of joy to his Wife, told all that had hap­ned, and says, O how grateful, how liberal is the God of the Christians! I lent him fifty Crowns and he has given me three hundred for it; upon this account he turned Christi­an and was baptized. But suppose a man shall not meet with such a reward in this life, yet he shall be well paid in the world to come; Christ who cannot lye hath told us, we shall meet with a recompence at the Resur­rection of the Just, and the 25. of Matthew gives us sufficient assurance in this particular. I shall not think it unworthy my pains to set down that memorable Narration of Synesius Bishop of Prolemais, recited by the same Au­thor This Synesius had a friend a Philosopher named Evagrius, the Bishop labours his Con­version; he scrupled many things in our Re­ligion [Page 129] more especially, could not be perswa­ded to believe that Promise of receiving a hundred fold for what a man lays out for Christ; Sinesius laboured to satisfie him, per­swaded him to become a Christian, and was baptized: After this Evagrius brings three hundred pounds to Sinesius, and tells him he was willing to give it to the Poor, if Si­nesius would be bound for Jesus Christ that he should repay it him in another World, Sinesius sets his hand to a Bond and under­takes Christ should be his Pay-master. After a few years the Philosopher dies, and com­mands them to bury the Bond with him: Three days after the Philosopher appears to Sinesius, and bids him take in his Bond, for Christ had given him full satisfaction; they open the Grave, take the Bond, and find at the bottom of it a Confession newly writ as it were with the hand of Evagrius, that Christ had fully recompenced him for his 300 pounds. This is also confirmed by Cedrenus.

If any shall think these unlikely and incre­dible Stories, though reported by men of worth and credit, they may as well quarrel with all Relations and Hear-says: God is marvellous in his works, and often now and then in an Age does some strange and re­markable Acts for the conviction of an in­credulous World; but I suppose in the first Times of Christianity such things might be [Page 130] more frequent, and I find Divines of very good note fully perswaded of the Relaters Fidelity in these Commemorations. I could add several other things for the confirmation of this, viz. The certainty of a Reward that accompanies Charity in divers other Instan­ces, as that noted one of Gregory the Great,Photii Bibliothec. in excerptis Greg. pag. 484. which Photius tells us of, who one day had invited Eight poor persons to dinner, and when they were set down there proved Nine; the Bishop was ve­ry willing and desirous to know who he was, and conjured him after dinner to de­clare the truth; he told him at last that he was the Beggar who was relieved by him three times in one day without grudging; but ve­rily (quoth he) I am an Angel, and Almigh­ty God for thy Charity has commissionated me to be thy Guardian and Attendant while thou shalt have an abode here below.Eccles. 9.7. Dicit Solomon per Spiritum propheti­cum futurum est ut sic dicet Dominus mundi omnibus ju­stis ante se constitu­tis, Vade, gusta vi­num quod repositum est tibi in horto Eden, i. e. in Paradiso, pro pane & vino quae de­disti pauperibus, Drusius. The Jews in the Targum expounding that place of Ecclefiastes, where 'tis said, Go and eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart, say that Solomon here by a prophetick Spirit speaks the language which God will say to the just at the last day, viz. Come ye [Page 131] just ones, and refresh your selves with delights which I have laid up for you in the Garden of Eden, or in Paradise, for your bread and wine which you have given to the poor and needy. I shall conclude this with the Observation of St. Jerom, Non memini me le­gere malá morte mortuum, qui liben­ter opera charitatis exercuit, multos ha­bet enim intercesso­res, & impossibile est multorum preces non exaudiri, Hieron. who publickly avouched that he never knew a man die an ill death that exercised works of Charity; for, quoth he, there be many intercessors to God for him, and 'tis impossible that the prayers of multitudes should not find acceptance. Let us therefore do good and communicate, knowing that with such sacri­fices God is well pleased.

3. Another vain Tradition is this, That if a man repent a little on his Death-bed, do a chari­table act or two (if he be able) go away quietly he shall be undoubtedly saved. And with this cheat thousands beguil themselves, take not care to leave their habitual wickedness, or addict themselves to the service of the great Creator; but vainly hope, that though they be notorious Criminals, Traitors to the Di­vine Majesty, yet at the last they will throw down the Arms of their Rebellion, beg par­don, plead the Merits of Christ, and so they question not but to escape the stroke of the destroying Angel, and the second Death.

But for a man thus to encourage himself it [Page 132] gives a lye to the whole Book of God, which entails Happiness upon practical and habitu­al Holiness, telling us in express terms, That if we mortifie the deeds of the flesh we shall live, Rom. 8.13. if we do the contrary we shall die; that God is the author of eternal sal­vation to all those that obey him; Hebr. 5.9. that God will be revei­led from heaven in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 2 Thess. 1.8. Now if the Scriptures be the unchangeable Decree of the glorious God, (like the Decrees of the Medes and Persians irreversible) if what is said here be an unmov­able Verity when Heaven and Earth shall pass way, and confess their ashes at the general Conflagration, then these are vain Fancies of presumptuous and credulous Souls, elusory Opinions which assert future Happiness, with­out the practice of Piety and Holiness. The Burgundians (as an Historian tells us) were miserably mis­taken,Philip de Commin. when they took a Field of tall Thistles for an Army with Lan­ces and Spears; and Aldana a Spanish Cap­tain took a Herd of Cattle for the Turkish Troops, gave fire to a train of Gunpowder,Goulart. and blew up the famous Castle of Lippe, with Towers and [Page 133] Cannon and Magazine, and gave by this means liberty to the Bassa to enter Transylva­nia: Such and worse mistakes will they have at the last, who bottom themselves upon such airy hopes and unwarrantable assurances, that they shall come well off when they act the last Scene, though they have served Satan and a commanding Lust in their healthful days; such persons will I fear prove like the mother of Sisera, who, when 'twas asked why Sisera stayed so long, they hopefully answered viz. her Ladies, and she in like manner, that it was because they had taken great spoil, and were busie in the divisi­on of it;Judges 5.30. whereas Sisera was dispatched with a Nail and Hammer in Jaels Tent; So these who think handsom Excuses and Evasions, a little Con­trition or forced Humiliation will bring them off, will find (I fear) a Nail and a Ham­mer, the just severity and indignation of an angry God, because they have loytered a­way their precious time and golden opportu­nities.

2. Such vain Resolutions are altogether inconsistent with the nature of true Repen­tance; for I do not fully correspond with that Definition of Repentance which some give, who say 'tis a hearty sorrow for Sin, though I truly acknowledge that such a kind of Sorrow is an effect, result or concomitant [Page 134] of Repentance; but Repentance in its true Notion is, a Change of the whole man, when, as the Soul (upon a serious conviction and deliberation) likes the Ways of God and Re­ligion, as adapted every way to its temporal and eternal Happiness, and upon reasonable Motives dislikes the ways of ungodliness, as destructive every way to its attainable and desired Felicity, and so it takes in all the Fa­culties of the Soul; the Understanding judg­ing the Laws of Christ as most rational and equitable, the Will submitting to Christ's Regiment and Sceptre, and owning him as its Lord and Governour, and the Affections in their proper places, shewing themselves in­terested and concerned in this holy Regene­ration; Love and Desire is no more worldly, carnal, sensual, but holy, spiritual, refined, fixed upon the most excellent Objects of God, Christ, Saints and those unconceivable Plea­sures which are at God's right hand: Our sor­row is not some worldly misfortune, miss of preferment, a sudden casualty or an accidental disadvantage; but that we have provoked the eyes of the Lord's Jealousie, and have so late entred into the Lord's Vineyard: Our fear is not some frail mortal potent Adversary, a future Disappointment; but we fear him who sits upon the Circle of the Heavens, and whose Kingdom and Supremacy is over all. Thus Repentance and Conversion are synony­mous [Page 135] and coincident, and presuppose one and the same thing in Scripture-notion, accord­ing to that in Acts 3.19. Repent and be con­verted, &c. where Repentance and Conver­sion have one and the same signification; and if Repentance be such a Change of the whole Soul (as we have declared) then we ought to remember that it is not an instantaneous Act, a work suddenly performed, but a Dis­position requiring long time and serious re­flexions; the Understanding must have time to judge and contemplate, the Will consult and ponder before it comply and embrace, and the Assections see complacency in the Object before they exercise their respective Passions: bot how can this be done in so short a space as is oftentimes betwixt sickness and death; the Cunctation of Fabius and not the Celerity of Caesar is here required. There­fore those that think Conversion can be per­formed suddenly (extraordinary cases except­ed) must not command my belief; for God usually goes gradually to work in this great Enterprize, and rashness and precipitancy in this case, too often ends in deceit and hypo­crisie.

But further, when men pretend to repent at the last or in a time of sickness, I presume 'tis rather an act of Fear than any thing else; for men usually hear and are under Convi­ctions even from natural Conscience, that at [Page 136] the last day of Death a man must play his last Game; they have sentiments and apprehen­sions of appearing before an aweful Tribu­nal, a severe Majesty, who will require of us an account of our Stewardship, and make us answer to abundance of Interrogatories con­cerning our former Conversation; and this startles even the best of men, except God strike in and clear up some special Evidences in this dark night of Dissolution. Now a Sinner coming to meditate of these things, That God will call all before his Throne, that neither the greatness nor meanness of Mortals shall be an Argument for an Excepti­on or Non-appearance, that 'tis not the Clifts of the Rocks, the depths of the Sea, the vaults of the Earth, or the thickness of Car­mel can shrowd a man from this Examiner: then great are the thoughts of a mans heart, his lips tremble, his belly quivers and rot­tenness is ready to enter into his bones, and he then cries out with the Jaylour, What shall I do to be saved? How shall I escape ever­lasting burnings? and then his startled Soul would gladly fall upon something which may keep off feared wrath. Thus 'tis reported of Galerius, who had been an enraged Enemy against the Christians; yet at the last, when he was invaded by a verminous Ulcer in his secret parts, which did evaporate so conta­gious and pestilential a smell, that his Phy­sicians, [Page 137] not being able to endure the Stench thereof, fell down dead before him: he, ap­prehending this to be a Judgment of God upon him to retaliate the Tortures he had in­flicted upon the innocent Christians, began to relent, gave commandment for the cessa­tion of the Christian Persecution, and con­fessed the Equity of divine Justice in these proceedings. But I may say, Is not the hand of Joab here? is not this the effect of Fear ra­ther than any thing else? Persons in this case and circumstances are like men ready to drown, that catch at every small twig; so now, being ready to drop into the infernal Pit, they fall upon some petty duties of Humili­ation and Contrition. Such are like Pharaoh, who when the rattling Hail and terrible Thunder was abroad, then he called for Mo­ses and Aaron. But how much such general acts of Repentance will be accepted I shall not be bold to determine, the Scripture seems to require not a necessitous, but a free and voluntary Service, and would have us not to resemble the Horse and Mule, to whom the Whip and Lash are the only motives and in­centives to obedience.

Again, at Death and Sickness men leave not Sin out of choice, but necessity, they are not able to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof; the Hand that removed the ancient Land-mark, that smote the Neigh­bour [Page 138] secretly, that with Ephraim held the Balances of deceit, is now trembling, unact­ive and paralytick; the Eyes, that looked upon no other objects but celebrated Beau­ties, or gazed upon the neighbour's Vine­yard, and were the Windows of the Soul to let in Sin, are now heavy, dusky, clouded with fumes and vapours, dim with the sha­dow of approaching Death; the Ears that delighted in Musick and Harmony, Consort and melodious noises, are deaf and unappre­hensive, and if he hear any thing, 'tis as Je­rome thought he usually heard sounding in his ears, Surgite mortui, Arise you dead and come to Judgment; the Palate, that could so well relish Dainties, taste the generous Wines, that was critical as to Sawces and other sub­servient Appendixes of Riot and Luxury, now has lost the discerning Faculty, the di­gestive Vigour is abated and depraved, and Nature is in such an inverted posture, that what before it earnestly embraced, is now perfectly loathed. The Tongue that uttered the ranting and daring Expressions, now cleavs to the roof of the mouth; and he whose Feet were swift to shed blood, lies like a lame Me­phibosheth, so that he is not able to go to his haunts of pleasure, as in the days of Vanity. Now this is not a leaving of Sin, but rather Sin leaves us, because we are not in a capacity to give it entertainment, and our Lusts are like [Page 139] those that remove from an old crazie falling Cottage, and seek a better Habitation: This parting with sin is not an act of choice and voluntary, but violent, forced and constrain­ed from bodily weakness and natural im­potency.

3. A Disease often comes suddenly, and gives no warning, and makes Repentance im­possible; one is swallowed up with a violent Wave, another perishes like the Children of Job by a Contignation, a sudden Stab sends another into the Regions of separated Souls;Plin. natural. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 7 & 53. Anacreon dies by the Kernel of a Grape, Fabius by a hair in draught of Milk; some die for joy, as Chilon the Lacedemonian when his Son was Victor at the Olympick Games; some by shame and sorrow, as Diodorus, not being able to solve a lusory Question: The Legat of Rhodes having made a curious Ora­tion, fell down and expired immediatly, and Aulus Pompeius died as he saluted the Gods in the Capitol. Thousands of such Examples may be produced, which plainly show, how that a man that intends to be a future peni­tent may be prevented. A man thinks on his Death bed to pray and importune Heaven, and a Disease, as an Apoplexy comes, and tyes the Tongue, spoyls the Senses, preys upon the Intellectuals, and with this rapid Torrent men are carryed into the dead Sea, and [Page 140] so perish presently, finally, and irrecoverably. Or it may be, if the Disease be not so quick and acute, yet the pains are so strong and violent, that Prayers are turned into Com­plainings; a man by increasing dolours is full of tossings from the time of repose to the dawn­ing of the day, so that when he should send up prayers and supplications, by reason of the predominancy of the Distemper, he makes a wailing like the Dragons, and a mourning like the Owls; with the Shunnamite he cries, My head, my head, or with the Prophet, My bow­els, my bowels: O, says he, Is there no Balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician can prescribe a Remedy? Was there ever any sorrow like to my sorrow? I am the man that has seen afflicti­on, and all thy waves and storms have gone over me; and as he is not fit at this time to discourse concerning Bargains, sealing of Contracts and Evidences, so 'tis not a fit time to give diligence to make calling and election sure, or to strike a Covenant with the holy One of Israel: All that a man can do then is only to have some slight desires, transient wishes with Balaam, bemoaning Ejaculations, and those take up the little time usually we have till Death close our Lips with silence, and put a period to Life and Motion. Therefore Christian, whosoever thou art that readest these Lines, be not so unwise as to neglect the season of Grace and time of Visitation, profered oppor­tunities, [Page 141] with vain hopes that these great at­chievements shall be done when thy days hasten to a Conclusion and Death approaches. Alas! this Destroyer comes unawares often, marches furiously like Jehu the Son of Nimshi, gives no warning, sends no summons, uses no Capitulations; but like a violent Hurrican throws down these Clay-cottages: So that a man postes away into the Confines of Eterni­ty, and is at Heaven's Tribunal, when (it may be with the Fool) he thought to have spun out many years upon the Stage of the Earth. Now therefore fall upon the great Duties of Faith and Repentance, mortifie thy Lusts, a­bandon thy sinful Associates, hoise up Sail for the Haven of eternal Rest; give no sleep; to thy Eyes, nor rest to the Temples of thy Head, till thou be reconciled to God through the Blood of Jesus: Go and take words to thy self and say, Turn thou me and I shall be turn­ed; take away all mine iniquity and receive me graciously; remove my sins as a thick cloud from before thy face, and do not, O Lord, exe­cute against me the fierceness of thy wrath, nei­ther return to destroy me, because thou art God and not man. Plead the Satisfaction of Christ, the Merits of the great Reconciler, the kind deportment of the Father to the dissolute Prodigal, and leave not wrestling, with Ja­cob, till thou obtain a blessing: Let these things be first heeded and timely regarded, [Page 142] lest thy Sun do set suddenly and thou lie down in sorrow, and shalt be forced in the infernal Vault to wish, O mihi praeteritos, &c. O that I had time again; O that I were upon terms of Reconciliation with God once more, O that I were again a Probationer for Hea­ven, and had but the least of my neglected Privileges, when alas, it is too late, the Decree is past, the Doom irreversible, the Door shut and the Bridegroom gone in, and the An­gel sworn that time shall be no more, and a ne­ver-to-be-retrieved Eternity has taken pos­session of our Time, Seasons and Opportu­nities. Be wise therefore on this side Hell and the Grave, and mind the things that belong to thy peace before they be hid from thine eyes.

Though this I will add in the last place, I will not say whatsoever the Sinner does on his Death-bed is useless and insignificant (as I am not for Origenian Fancies, as that there is so much Mercy in God that he will be kind to the Devils after certain Periods of Time, so no more do I desire to speak of the Na­turalness of God's Vindictive Justice;) For who has known the mind of God, or who hath been his counseller? his mercy reacheth to hea­ven, and is like the great Deep bottomless and unfathomable; only according to Scrip­ture we cannot promise Happiness and a free­dom from the Second Death where there has [Page 143] not been a holy Life preceeding, and the practice of Christ's Institutions; only that God who has set Laws to the reasonable Cre­ature, may dispense with them or put them into execution as he pleases. And the Anci­ents (except those that were of the Novatian way) were very charitable when they saw men repent at the last,Nec serum est quod verum, nec irremis­sibile quod volunta­rium & quaecunque necessitas cogat ad poenitudinem, nec quantitas criminis, nec brevitas tempo­ris, nec horae extre­mitas, nec vitae e­normitas, (si vera contritio, si pura fue­rit voluptatum mu­tatio) excludit à ve­niâ, Cyprian. lib. de Coen. Dom. and hoped the best; and in articulo mortis, when men were ready to leave their sta­tions here, did relax Church-Censures and punishments, and received such into their Communion (some special Cases only excepted) as may be seen by those that will per­use the Canons of Councils and the Fathers Writings. Therefore if there be any that in extremis, at or near the hour of his departure, is much grieved for his sin and trespasses, and with the Ninivites cries mightily to God, and importunes with more than ordinary ardency the favour of a pro­voked God, far be it from me (notwithstand­ing all this) to rank him among the Repro­bates; neither according to the Rules of Scri­pture, or the nature of Repentance, dare I say he is certainly saved, but shall wave all definitive Sentences in this particular, desiring [Page 144] every good Christian to mind the time of his own Visitation, and leave such an one to stand or fall to his own master.

4. Another Vain Tradition is, That when a man begins to be Religious then he grows melan­choly; he must bid adieu to all his pleasures and contentments, lead a doleful and discon­solate life, like the Owl in the desart or the Pe­lican in the wilderness.

But this is a notorious Falshood, our Re­ligion does not hinder our joy and tranquili­ty, for it bids us rejoyce in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation, and one of the fruits of the Spirit is Joy, and Peace, which usually are a Believer's concomitants. 'Tis true indeed Religion limits that carnal Joy, those sensual Pleasures, those unlawful dila­tations of the Soul, but sober refined mirth and gladness it promotes and furthers; and what is there no joy but what proceeds from Masks and Balls, from Riot and Luxury, from midnight Revels and profuse Banquettings? Is there no pleasure but what Epicurus likes, as Wine and wanton Dalliance, curious Dishes, generous Liquour, jovial Company? Yes surely, there be intellectual Joys which are fit for Souls and spiritual Essences, which are much more sprightly and vigorous than these faint and short-lived Comforts which arise from Lust and Sensuality. Does not a Phi­losopher take more satisfaction, as a Platonist [Page 145] in his Ideas and Speculations, and Archimedes in his Mathematical Rarities, than ever Sar­danapalus, Philoxenus, Anacreon did in their Bowls of Wine, Beds of Roses, multitudes of Concubines, and such like corporeal Delights? A contemplative Athenian has a more lasting Joy than a delicate Sybarite, and he would not quit his speculative Solaces, for the blan­dishings of Sense, the Musical Airs, and the embraces of Venus, which the more dissolute Grecian prizes and extols: So a Christian, he can meditate upon the Divine Majesty toge­gether with his glorious Attributes, his Acts of Omnipotency, his providential Dispensati­ons, his superexcellent Goodness, his exact Justice; he can with the longing Angels pry into the Mystery of Redemption, and behold the depths of God's Love and Wisdom, the Emanations of his Grace and bounty, the sweet Contrivances of Heaven in order to the saving of sinking Mortals: He can meditate upon the excellency of Commands, the sweet­ness of Promises, the strictness of Threats, the Sabbatical Rest and the pleasures of Eternity, which the Epicurean Sect never comprehend­ed; here he can please himself and recreate his comprehensive Soul; these are Nectar and Ambrosia, when these earthly pleasures are gross and feculent, which the Soul looks up­on as Husks and courser fare, in respect of these Viands of Rational and Noetical de­lights, [Page 146] these are the Garlick and Onyons in respect of these spiritual and Angelical dain­ties.

That a Christian is a joyful man, let us first consider, who is it that can chearfully be­have himself in a cloudy day? Let a disaster happen to a carnal Worldling, he hangs down his head like unto a Bulrush, he grows faint and pale, pensive and melancholy, like a dis­appointed Ahab when he could not have Na­both's Vineyard; but the Servant of God is lively and joyful under the greatest pressures. Saint Paul knows that bonds and afflictions abide him at Jerusalem, but he matters not; the perils of the Sea, the perils of Robbers, Shipwracks and Conspiracies all tend to make him miserable, but his vigorous Soul con­temns and triumphs over them: These are the Eagles that confront Tempests and Thunders, Storms and Commotions; Come, says Luther, when all went wrong and he heard of mis­chievous contrivances against the Church, let us sing the 46. Psalm, The Lord of hosts is with us and the God of Jacob is our refuge. Paul and Silas sung in the prison, and Hawkes clapt his hands in the flames. Wicked men are like the sensible Plant, which, if touched by exter­nal force, contracts its leaves and shrinks con­siderably; so let them be touched with some casual disaster, their Musick is turned into howling; and their organ into the voice of [Page 147] them that weep, but a true Christian can lift up his head with joy, sing like the Nightin­gale, though thorns be at her breast, si fractus illabatur orbis, if nature be inverted, and the pillars of the earth tremble, if the fig-tree do not blossom, and there be not fruit in the vine, Habakkuk 3, 17. the labour of the olive perish, &c. yet with Habbakkuck he can rejoyce in the Lord, and joy in the God of his salvation.

Who is it also that can be merry at death? take the Gallant that has gratified his Lusts, that has crowned himself with Rose-buds, that has ransack'd the Creation to please his luxurious Appetite; let Death come, then he shrugs and trembles, his guilty soul dreads an arrest, and nothing is so dismal and ominous as an approaching dissolution; then you shall see a Saul aghast and dispirited, when he is told by the Phantasm, raised up by the Witch of Endor, that he shall cease to be; this is as the Mene-Tekel to Belshazar which makes the Joynts of his Loins to be loosed, and his Knees to smite one against another; but to a Saint of God the thoughts of his departure are not troublesome and vexatious, he kindly entertains this Angel of death, as Lot those that came to Sodom; though I walk, sayes David, through the Region of the Valley of Death, yet will I fear no ill; Moses never mut­tered when God said go to Mount Nebo and [Page 148] die there: I thank God, said the Martyr, when he approached the Stake, I am not far from my Father's House; in like manner Rivet when he came to die, affirmed chearfully, though I lay down this Tabernacle for a while, yet it shall be raised again in glory; out of an holy longing to be with God such persons cry, come Lord Jesus come quickly, why do the Wheels of his Chariots stay so long? the true believer sayes of death as Da­vid of Ahimaaz, he is a good man and brings good tidings, his message is, that now I shall be freed from care and sollicitudes, from trou­blesome Neighbours and dangerous tempta­tions; now shall I have my Nuptials cele­brated, and take possession of the Inheritance of the Saints in life; now shall my sackcloth be turned into Robes of glory, my Com­plaints and Elegies into Hallelujahs and Gra­tulations; I shall not taste any longer of the waters of Marah, but have the blessings of the upper Springs; I shall not be fed any more with the bread and water of affliction, but shall eat of the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God, and drink of the new wine of the Grape with my Saviour in his King­dom: Hence they say with Hylarion, Egre­dere anima mea egredere, go out with chear­fulness, O my soul, and take possession of the pur­chased Inheritance; they sing and rejoyce speaking thus as it were to their flitting souls, [Page 149] awake, awake, Deborah awake, awake, utter a song, arise Barak, and lead captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam; and as they are not ter­rified with the thoughts of death, so neither are they afraid of Judgment, they dread not the Revelation of Christ, the sound of the last Trump, or the voice of the Arch-Angel, the valley of Jehosaphat, the opening of the Books, and the irreversible Dooms: For then their happiness shall be compleated, then shall they be solemnly cleared and acquitted, and shall shine like the brightness of the Fir­mament, and like Stars for ever and ever.

But further the true Christian has cause to rejoyce, if we consider a fourfold advantage that he has above the wicked and prophane, viz. he has the smile of God, the sweet of the promises, the sealings of the Spirit, and the solaces of a good conscience.

1. He has the smile of God, the Almighty looks upon such an one with a chearful aspect and a pleasant brow, he lifts upon such the light of his countenance, and this does won­derfully ravish the soul; O the light of the earthly Sun how does it guild and varnish the Creation, raise up the dumpish plants, and re­vive all sublunary Beings; but what is this to a Ray of Heaven, to a glance of God's Eye? this banishes a disconsolate Night, clears up a gloomy Morning, and as the little Insects sport themselves in Sun-beams, so the soul is [Page 150] full of joy upon these irradiations; give me this sayes the soul, and take you the numerous Flocks, the encrease of the Fields, the load­en Clusters, the fat and thriving Olives, the Kidneys of Wheat, and the pure blood of the Grape; take you, sayes the Spouse, the Gardens of Spices, the Rose of Sharan, and the Lilies of the Valley, Lord lift upon us the light of thy countenance, and this is more than if Corn and Wine encreased: And who can be sorrowful or dejected when the great Poten­tate of Heaven is so favourable and propiti­ous? Can the Courtier be melancholy when the King makes him an object of his love and complacency? Can there be an Egyptian dark­ness when the Sun of Righteousness sends out such pleasant Rayes? Can the soul be pen­sive when the God of comfort and consolati­on does accost her? No surely, this is a joy exceeding sensual Recreations, more florid and blooming than the joy of Harvest, and greater than that of those which divide the Spoil.

2. They have the sweet of the promises, the Gospel is like unto Solomon's Bed paved with love, full of sweet and consolatory pro­mises. the word of life is interwoven with these Flowers and Gems; the Scripture is a Shop furnished with such rich and inestimable Cordials, these promises are as the dew of [...]eaven, and the drops of Hermon, the distill­ing [Page 151] Honey-comb, and the Grapes of Escol; here is the balm of Gilead against the stings of the fiery Serpent, the Water-brooks for the panting Hart, the heavenly Manna for the hungry soul, and what not? Now the soul can go from promise to promise, as the Epi­curizing Bee, from Flower to Flower, and sa­tiate it self with delight and sweetness: The Naturalists tells us of several Creatures that in any Maladies apply them­selves to various plants,Plutarc. de Solert. Animal. Na­ture playing the Physician and appointing a prescript; so when the soul is under any evil dispensation or sad provi­dence, a Christian can apply himself to the promises for support and refreshment; Is Sa­tan busie? Doth he shoot his fiery Darts? Doth the great Leviathan threaten? Doth he labour to winnow us like Wheat with St. Pe­ter, or to buffet us with St. Paul? then the soul hasts away to the promise, The God of peace shall shortly bruise Satan under your feet. Rom. 16.20. What, does an Enemy invade the pleasant Land? And are they ready to turn the Gar­den of Eden into a desolate Wilderness? Are the Chaldeans and Sabeans upon their march? Do mens hearts fail for fear of a people of a strange language and fierce countenance? Are their Horses hoofs like unto flints? And does the dread of them cause men to run to the [Page 152] clifts of the Rocks, and the tops of the rag­ged Rocks? Then a believer can stay his soul upon that promise to Jeremy, Verily it shall go well with thee and thy seed, Jerem. 15.11. and enemies shall use thee kindly in the Land of Captivity: What, is thy Family but poor in Manasseh? Is there but a little Meal in the Barrel, and Oyl in the Cruse? Hast thou a numerous Is­sue? And is thy careful soul under doubts and anxieties how they shall be provided for in future times? Well there is a promise which the fluctuating Christian may fix himself up­on, made to Abraham the Father of the faith­ful, I will be thy God and the God of thy seed after thee: Gen. 17.7. What do Friends and Rela­tions forsake thee? Do Acquaintance cast thee off like a smitten and a wounded Deer? So that thou lookest on the right hand and there is none to help thee, and on the left hand and there is none to take thy part, then a believer applies himself to and embraces that promise, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee: Hebr. 13.6. What does thy outward man de­cay? Dost thou find thy self ready to go to thy long home, to the house appointed for all the living? Do the strong men bow them­selves? The Daughters of Musick cease, and the noise of the Grinders grow low; so that [Page 15] a man saies with Job, my breath is corrupt, my dayes are extinct, and the Grave is ready for me: Then the good Christian reaches these promises against these death qualms; We know if the earthly house of this our tabernacle be dissolved, 2 Cor. 5.1. we have an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens; Revel. 14.13. Bles­sed are the dead which die in the Lord for (so saith the Spirit) they rest from their labours, and their works follow them. I will raise him up at the last day: John 6.39. And can that Spirit be melancholy that has these pretious promises? Can that soul be parched that thus draws water out of the Wells of Salvation? Can that Spouse faint that has these Flaggons and Apples to refresh her? No surely.

3. They have the sealings of the Spirit, and as a seal is used several wayes; so many and singular advantages do they reap by the spirit: 1. A seal is used by way of impression;Ephes. 1.13. so the Holy Spirit in some degree doth imprint the love of God upon the soul, that as the spirit of bondage does stamp and apply wrath and curses, so the spirit of adopti­on does stamp and imprint grace, mercy, re­mission of sins, and acceptation with God: A seal is used by way of appropriation, [Page 154] goods sealed are set apart for the use of the owner; so God does appropriate and set a­part believers by his blessed spirit as his own Heritage, as a Royal Priesthood, a chosen Generation, a peculiar People, he seems to speak that language; These shall be mine when I make up my Jewels, and thus believers are sealed by it unto the day of redemption, E­phes. 4.30.

A seal is used again by way of evidence and demonstration, it shows and bears wit­ness that such a thing was our act and deed; So the spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are the sons of God; Rom, 8.16. and this I make no question may be asserted without the least bordering upon Enthusiasm or phantastical Dreams, and no doubt but those who are the devoted servants of Christ, and make it their business to glorifie God in their Generations, in the discharge of their respective duties, do feel the comforts and breathings of this di­vine Paraclete, raising up their dumpish souls, and filling them with joy unspeakable and full of glory; and how is it possible for him to be in heaviness who has made his soul a Temple of the Holy Ghost, that spirit of peace and joy? of this man we may say he carries his Comforter alwayes with him.

4. They have the solaces of a good Con­science, they have a calm and serene spirit [Page 155] without storms and commotions, like the smooth Pacifick Ocean, which is a stranger to waves and turbulencies: Conscience is like the temperate Zone, where the Elements have an handsom Harmony; it is like the Angel that spoke to Zachary with good and comfor­table words: Hence there is a perpetual Sab­both, a continual Festival, a year of Jubilee; a man eats his bread with joy, and drinks his wine with a merry heart, the Tabret, Harp, and Viol is in their Feasts, and the Instruments of Musick like to David yield not a more me­lodious Echo; This is our re­joycing (sayes St.2 Cor. 1.12, Paul) even the Testimony of our Con­sciences; and when Satan accuses, and men condemn, and Shimeis curse, and the World strives to blast our reputations, and cast us down to hell, this raises us up on Eagles wings, wipes off calumnies, and by a secret Apotheo­sis does make a Malefactor a Saint and a Mar­tyr;August. Epis. Con. Secund. Manic [...]ae. Thus Saint Austin when he was accused by Secundi­nus the Manichee, made this reply, Let my Adversary think or forge what e­ver he please against me, yet I have a quitting excusing conscience, which internally chears me, and so makes reparation.

A wicked man if he have no external dis­asters, yet is Magor-Missabib a terrour to him­self, like the raging Sea whose waters cast up [Page 156] mire and dirt, Judas runs up and down with his thirty pieces of silver, distracted and dis­contented; Cain flies as a Vagabond from the presence of the Lord:Vide pag. 29. Dionysius so fearful that he burnt off his hair with Nut­shells set on fire, because he durst not trust a Barber to shave him; Domitian so timerous that he walked almost continually in his Gal­lery, which he caused to be set with the stone Plengites, that by the brightness thereof (as in a Glass) he might see what was done behind him: Theodorick thought he saw in a Fishes head the Visage of one Symmachus, whom he had most unjustly murthered, Conscientia pec­cati est formidinis mater, conscience of sin is the mother of fear: But an holy man who pleases God, and has got his sin pardoned by the blood of Jesus, has no such frights nor dismal representations, but has a peaceable soul, and a quiet and sedate conscience, and can dolours arrest such a person who entertains so plea­sant a Guest? Such a bosom Friend, such a delightsom Consort? no surely, darkness may as soon overtake the Sun, and cloudiness dull the twinkling Stars, and Luminaries of Hea­ven, as pensiveness and horrour can fasten on such a soul: Therefore Christians be not per­swaded that Religion is an Introduction to woes and heaviness: No, the wayes thereof are wayes of plea­santness Prov. 3.17. [Page 157] and the paths thereof are paths of peace, be but God's Servants and I dare promise you in the words of the Prophet, Your peace shall be as the River, Isaiah 48.18. and your joy as the mighty stream, your boughs shall be green, and the dew shall lie upon your branches. You shall have a new name and a white stone which no man knows but he that has it. Revel. 2.17. And your song shall be this, Isaiah 25.9. lo this is our God we have waited for him, and he will save us, we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation.

5. Hold fast your profession against worldly temptations.

The World is a cunning Dalilah, it entices us with its lusts and allurements, and like the young man in the Proverbs, we are overcome with the enchantments of this Jezabel; when our souls should take the wings of a Cherub and mount Heaven, and with the soaring Eagle take our flight to the celestial Habitations, this poizes us down and clips our wings, im­pedes our motions and pious attempts. O thou Mammon of unrighteousness, how many Proselytes hast thou? O thou fawning Jael, how many turn into thy Tents? O thou wo­man of Tekoah, what alluring Parables dost thou propose? Hence a numerous company of unwary mortals are ensnared and seduced, [Page 158] sleep securely under thy shade, and cry out bonum est esse hic, it is good for us to be here, as if the footstool were more excellent than the Throne, our short conveniencies more de­sirable than the pleasures at God's right hand for evermore; thus we find Demas for­faking Paul, others counting gain godliness, the Mammon of unrighteousness the most a­dorable Deity, which while they pursue they oftentimes make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience; nay some are so bewitched with these sublunary trifles, that give them but a Vine, or a Figtree, or an outward ac­commodation here below, and they will pe­remptorily disclaim and give up their right and title to the New Jerusalem which is above; witness that Atheistical Speech of one of the Dukes of Bourbon in France, who openly said he would not give his part in Paris for that in Paradise.

Now the World in order to the ensnaring of us, presents these two Objections against the practice of Religion: 1. It tells us that if we make Religion our business, we shall be but poor, low, indigent, and fall into con­tempt and infamy; it is wealth gains men credit and respect, and sets them up above the Vulgar: To this I answer.

1. This is an untruth to say that all religious persons are poor and meanly provided for in the World; God is pleased to give to many [Page 159] of his servants the dew of Heaven, and the fat of the Earth, the blessings of the upper and of the nether Springs: What should I tell you of Abraham's Heards, of Jacob's Flocks, of Isaack's Hundred fold in the Land of Abimeleck, of Job the most righteous and most rich man in the Land of Ʋz; and I doubt not but that Cornelius and Dorcas, Gaius, and Onesyphorus whose charity and communicati­on to the Saints was so remarkable and ex­emplary, had a good share of these earthly enjoyments; we can produce many holy men that have had Vines and Fig-trees, numerous Flocks and Cattle upon the Mountains, whose Valleys did laugh and sing, and whose Presses did overflow with Wine, and have had that confluence of temporal blessings, that men with Balaam have been ready to say, How goodly are thy Tents O Jacob, and thy Taberna­cles O Israel? As Gardens by the River sides, as Trees of Lign-Aloes which the Lord hath plant­ed, as Cedar trees besides the Waters.

Besides (suppose thou shouldest be poor) was not Christ and other brave men in the same condition? the blessed Jesus came not into the World as a secular Prince, shining with Pearls, glittering with Silks, overlay'd with Gold, and hemm'd in with a croud of attending servants; he had no stately Palace, no curious Viands, no musical Consorts, no o­dours of Arabia wherewith to perfume his [Page 160] Nostrils, but laid in a Manger, conversing with Publicans and sinners, begging a little water of the Woman of Samaria, eating bar­ley bread, feeding on a few fishes, riding on an Asse's Colt; nor were many of the Primi­tive Saints in a better state, wandring often­times up and down in sheeps-skins and goat-skins; Peter acknowledged Silver and Gold he had none, Paul working with his hands, many of his Disciples ordinary Fisher-men, and many of the famous Heathens have been in a necessitous estate: Publicola buried by a Contribution of money gathered for him; Regulus his Wife and Children maintained by his Friends, and the Daughter of Scipio had a Dowry given her out of the Chamber of the City of Rome: And if such high and ex­cellent persons had such low and mean For­tunes, be thou content; Non cuivis homini, &c. It is not for every man to climb Mount Pisgah, and to have his lot in a plentiful Ca­naan, to lay up Gold as Dust, to have the Riches of the Indies, and the Fortunes of Caesar; for according to the methods of ge­neral providence, there must be high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, the lesser Spo­rades as well as the Stars of the first Magni­tude, the small Ant as well as the great Behe­moth, the Thistle as well as the Cedar in Le­banon, the small Rivulets as well as the com­prehensive Ocean.

Again, God keeps many a Saint sharp, for excellent and advantagious ends; fulness and plenty oftentimes usher in neglect of God, and security: when Jeshurun is fed to the full, then he lifts up his heel against his Master; and we are ready to slight Heaven, to pitch our tents on this side Jordan; supposing Ja­zer and Gilead to be more commodious, than the Land of Promise. Therefore God gives Meat to satisfie Hunger, not to gratifie thy Curiosity; Drink to quench Thirst, and not to please thy affected Palate; Cloaths to co­ver thy Nakedness, and not to be Promoters of Pride and Vanity. If thou hadst plenty, (ten to one) thou wouldst begin to Epicurize, to wax fat, to forget the God that made thee, and to neglect the Rock of thy Salvation, therefore God doth moderately dyet thee, that thou maist not grow a wanton Sodomite, or a lazy Sidonian; but an abstemious Rec­kabite, and temperate Christian: and so maist be more fit for the service of him that gave thee a Being, and sent thee to labour in his Vineyard. To this purpose the story of Eu­logius is remarkable, in the days of Justinus, about the Year, 528. He was a Stone-cutter in Thebais, Paul Syll. lib. 3. cap. 48. Quot by Caus [...]h c. but very Charitable and Religi­ous: Upon a time a Hermit came to his house, whom he most kindly en­tertained; to make him some recompence, [Page 162] the Hermite was very importunate with Al­mighty God, that he would make Eulogius a rich man; which was granted: And upon a time, as Eulogius was digging stones, he found a great Treasure. After this, he leaves his Trade, and goes to Constantinople; and in process of time, gets to be Captain of the Guard to Justinus: There he addicts himself to all Riot and Luxury. The Hermite was commanded by God to go to him, and to see if he could reform him: Away he goes to Constantinople, and after a long and a tedious attendance, speaks with him; but was requi­ted with blows for his admonitions. After­wards Justinus dies, and Justinian succeeds; Hypatius and Pompey raise a Conspiracy against the new Emperour: Eulogius takes their part; but at last they were all conquered, so that Eulogius was glad to run for his life; and all his Goods were confiscated: He retires to Thebais again; and being in great Poverty, falls to his old Trade: The Hermite comes a­gain to him, and found him cool, more mild and patient, than he was at Constantinople: He intreats the Hermite, once more to im­plore God for an amendment of his Estate: The Hermite refuses, and tells him, he plain­ly saw Poverty was the fittest condition for him; for if it were otherwise with him, he would suddenly fall into his old Extravagan­ces and Debauchery.

But further, Another reason why God gives many of his people mean Enjoyments here, is to endear Heaven to them, and to make them willing, quietly to depart from this Vale of misery. A man of pleasure cleaves to the World, as Ruth to Naomi; there is a sad part­ing betwixt them, a passionate farewell, to bid adieu to rich Mannours, delicate, fair, numerous Attendants, stately Palaces: Haec sunt quae fac [...]unt nos invitos mori; These make us unwilling to die; as Charles the fifth some­times answered. Whereas the Christian that has been kept mean and low here, patiently retires and layes down this earthly Taberna­cle, knowing that he has been only a Sojour­ner and a Pilgrim, that he never was For­tunes Favourite, or the World's Darling, and so he lies down in hope and expectation of better Enjoyments than he has met with in his Pilgrimage her below.

And it may be remembred how pleasant will Heaven be to the afflicted Christian, like Sun-shine after Rain, like the desirable Port to the weather beaten Ship, like the Father's House to the wearied Prodigal, like the Wells and Palm-trees at Elim, like the clefts of the Rocks and the secret places of the stairs to the pursued Dove: O how will the soul be transported, to exchange a poor Cot­tage for the glorious Jerusalem, ragged gar­ments for robes of glory, a sheep-hook for a [Page 164] Scepter, waters of Marah for the fountain of life, Vultures and birds of prey (bad Neigh­bours) for an Angelical Retinue, Mournings and Threnodies for Songs of Sion: O the extasie of such a soul! will it not cry out with Esau, I have enough, come unto me all ye that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul; therefore Christian do not thou shrug at affliction and poverty, or the dayes of adversity, at cross dispensations, and mean treatment in the World; others have been in the same circumstances with thee, and ere long thou shalt be better accommodated, therefore close up thy lips with silence and ex­ercise contentation.

But the World objects to Christians in the second place, and says, what my Favourites have, is in fruition; but the Riches and Ad­vantages which you are likely to have, are only in expectation; and 'tis good to be sure, &c.

We answer, Christians have not all Rever­sion, but we have part in hand: God pro­vides for Belivers Meat to eat, and Rayment to put on; and feeds them as Agur prayed, with food convenient for them. Is Eliah glad to flee? A Raven, though an indocible Crea­ture, shall bring him meat. Is Israel in straits? rather than they shall starve, Manna and Quails shall descend from Heaven upon them; and the stony Rock shall send forth Streams [Page 165] in a parched Wilderness. Rather than Lot shall perish, God will provide a Zoar for him. The Meal in the Barrel, and the Oyl in the Cruse, shall be miraculously multiplyed to the Woman of Sarepta, till there be plenty in Israel. God raises up his people many un­expected friends, and they have unhoped and unlooked for Provisions. We read of Mus­culus, that he was brought to those straits, that he was glad to joyn himself to a Weaver, and work with him, for the support of his indigent Family; but they not agreeing in their Principles, the Weaver turn'd him off; not knowing what course to take, and hear­ing that the Town-ditch of Strasburgh was to be scoured, and many Labourers there em­ployed; thither he goes, intending to fall upon that work; but Providence so ordered it, that Buser was acquainted with his arrival; and a Church falling void in the Town, he was called by the Magistrates, to be the Preacher, and so had a comfortable subsist­ence. But the most famous Narrative that I have met with in confirmation of this, is the History of Mr. John Craig of Scotland. Arch Bishop Spots­wood's History of the Church of Scot­land. He was some­times of the Dominican Or­der, and was by Cardinal Pool commended to the Dominicans in Bonony; where he was first made Instructer of the Novices, and then Re­ctor [Page 166] of their School: by chance he light upon some of Calvin's Writings, and so was drawn into a secret liking of the Reformed Religion; which he communicated to an old man of the Monastery, who told him privately that he also was of the same judgment; but if it were revealed their lives would be in danger; but Mr. Craig being too bold in Discourse was taxed for Heresie, committed to the Inquisiti­on at Rome, examined and condemned to be burnt the nineteenth of August 1600. the Night before his intended death, Pope Paul the fourth dies, the people in a tumult break open the Prisons, so that Mr. Craig had liber­ty to escape, he was not got far from the City when he was met by a company of the Ban­detti, or Thieves with which those parts are molested, who apprehending him, and being in danger of his life; one of the Rogues looked stedfastly upon him, and asked him if he had not been at Bononie, he replied yes; quoth the other I very well remember that it was you that relieved me there, and now I will requite your kindness, so he sets him at liberty, and gives him some little money to bear his charges; after this Mr. Craig goes to Bononie, where all his Friends knowing him to be convicted of Hersie forsook him, so that he is forced to shift for himself, and wander in uncouth paths, at last sitting down in a solita­ry posture, and not knowing which way to [Page 167] stear his course, a Dog comes fawning to him with a purse in his mouth, and layes it down at his feet, (but how much money there was in it is not set down) up he gets and follows the Dog a little way, and falls into a Road, and meets with passengers going to the Empe­rour's Court at Vienna, to them he joyns him­self, coming to Vienna he preached before the Emperour with very good liking and appro­bation; but Pius the Third being got into the Chair, sends Letters to the Emperour to return Mr. Craig to Rome as one condemned of Heresie; but the Emperour loath to pre­judice a stranger in his circumstances, gives him leave to depart, and so home he came to Scotland, was Colleague with Mr. Knox, one of the King's principal Ministers, and was 88 years of Age when he died: Thus we see how marvellous God is in his providences to­wards his people, and how he takes care of the outward man.

But suppose that what Christians have be in reversion, 'tis but exercising patience for a while: Is it not ordinary to wait here till a Lease be out, till an Apprentiship be expired, till an Heir come to age? Does not the Hus­bandman wait for the pretious Fruits of the Earth? How long staid Jacob, and endured the heat of the Day, and the cold of the Night for his beloved Rachel? nay come to some sins, what sollicitudes and watchings are [Page 168] about them, before they have their accom­plishment? the eye of the Adulterer waits for the twilight; the lurking Thief stays till the midnight darkness takes place; the zealous A­mourist what anxieties and cares, and ominous disapoointments doth he meet with before his desires be accomplished? What trouble has the man of honour before he reach the top and pinacle of preferment? What toyls has the covetous man before he can get such a petty enclosure, such a neighbouring pasture, such an adjoyning Vineyard? And take men such pains, & have they such delays, about the bread that perishes? And wilt not thou wait for the grace brought to thee at the revelati­on of Jesus Christ? Are those flitting and transitory joys more excellent and blooming than eternal pleasures? As the divine Poet said,Herbert. weigh both, and so if rottenness have more, let heaven go; therefore let not a Christian be disheartned if he have not pre­sent enjoyments, the time will come and the day will dawn when he shall be possessour of these long looked for blessings; 'tis like the vision of Habakkuk, it is but for an appointed time, and we have the fidelity of God engag­ed for performance, Be pati­ent brethren, James 5.7. as Saint James speaks, till the coming of the Lord: Hold fast your profession against these [Page 169] worldly temptations; Let not the Garlick, and Onyons, and Flesh-pots of Egypt, estrange your Souls from the Land of Promise; let not these little Glow-worm comforts dazle our eyes, and ravish our souls, but let us look up above, and have often in our remembrance the Glories of the New Jerusalem, the pre­pared delights for the Saints, the Crowns and Robes, the Palms and Hallelujahs reserved for the faithful, and so let this be the victory whereby we over­come the world even our faith. 1 John 5.4.

6. Hold fast your profession against fierce per­secutions, in case they happen.

These make many to leave the Field, for­sake their Colours, and bid an adieu to the Captain of their Salvation; many get into the Ship of the Church, and the Seas grow rough, the Winds high, and the Waves beat, and out they get again, they are for a Halcy­onian calmness, for gentle gales, and not for tempestuous Euroclidons: They will follow Christ to the Mount of Olives, but not to Cal­vary; they will go with him to a Marriage in Cana in Galilee, but not to Herod's Judgment-Hall, or Golgotha: Many are like the Samari­tans, If Israel prospered, then they pretended an alliance with them, and that the Patriarchs were their Ancestors; but when a potent Ene­my came up against Jerusalem, then they dis­owned kindred with them, and said they were [Page 170] Cutheans: So while Religion prospers it finds many Friends and Proselytes, but when per­secution arises for the name of Christ, then too many with Demas forsake their Saviour, and embrace this present World, but hold fast your profession against these, for all that a vi­olent Adversary can do, is either to take away thy goods, or thy life, to which I oppose these considerations.

Considerat. 1. If thy Goods be gone, 'tis no new thing under the Sun to see a man dive­sted of his enjoyments, prosperity and adver­sity have their alternate revolutions: We see many flourishing and rejoycing like a compa­ny of merry Comedians, and one disaster or other comes and smites them (as the Worm did the Goard of Jonah) sometimes an enemy takes the pleasant portion, and seises upon our pain­fully gotten wealth; thus Israel had spoylers, and the Kings of Assyria that came up against them; sometimes our own riches procure our ruine, as Quintus Aurelius in the dayes of Syl­la, had a handsom Farm at Alba, (not far from Rome) which being coveted by a potent Se­natour, a crime was forged, and he indicted and condemned amongst other criminals, who when he was led to execution, cried out, Fundus Albanus me perdidit, the little Land I have at Alba has undone me (and such was Naboth's fate, as the Scriptures tell us) sometimes the Elements combine and make us [Page 171] poor to a Proverb; the fire consumes, the water overwhelms, the earth swallows up, the wind overturns, (as Job experienced) and so man is left in his naked and primitive posture; sometimes the Creatures wage war against us, and exercise Acts of Hostility, the Locust, the Caterpillars, and the Grashoppers, the Lord's great Army (as he calls them) have made havock of plentiful Countries, as Histo­rians tell us; thus Pliny re­lates of a Town in Spain un­dermined by Conies,Plin. Histor. natur. lib. 8. cap. 29. of a Town in Thessaly by Moles, the City Amycle in Italy destroyed by Serpents, a City in France wasted by Frogs, another City in A­frick by Grashoppers, the men of the Island Gyarus compelled to leave their Country be­cause of Scorpions, and the Trerienses driven out by the Scolopendra a sort of Caterpillars, such great damages have arisen from such small and inconsiderable Creatures; oftentimes al­so the Clouds deny their Showers, the Heaven is Brass, and the Earth is Iron, and then the Gates are black with Famine, and the Wells are dry without Water, and so we see that of the Apostle fulfilled [...] the fashion of the World passeth away, 1 Cor. 7.31. 'tis no new thing also to see that which Solomon some­times observed, Princes on foot and servants on horsback; Eccles. 10.7. [Page 172] to see Crowns and Scepters laid in the Dust, a Crassus to become a Codrus, Belizarius to beg, and Dionysius to turn Pedagogue; and if thou be in the same condition with them, re­member that thou hast but the ordinary lot of suffering mortals.

Considerat. 2. But what if men take away thy Goods (while thou stickest close to Jesus) God can give thee more; when Amaziah said to the man of God, What shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the Army of Israel? The man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much more than this: 2 Chron. 25.9. So if men do take away, the Lord can re­store again; Seneca told his Friend that he needed not complain of Fortune so long as Caesar was safe, intimating that he could easily make up all his Losses; so our God is able to supply all our wants, thou servest him that has in his hands the Earth and the fulness there­of, the Beasts upon a thousand hills are his, and the round World is the least part of his Do­minion; he can take the Beggar from the Dunghil, and set him with the Kings of the Earth; he can bless with Job thy latter end more than the beginning, and after an Egypti­an bondage and servitude settle thee in a Land flowing with Milk and Honey: After the taking of Jerusalem the King of Babylon gave charge to Nebuzarradon Captain of the Guard [Page 173] to look well to Jeremiah the Prophet, and to tell him that all the Land of Israel was before him, and where it seemed good and convenient for him to go thither he might go, Jerem. 39.12. and 40.4.

David after all his flittings and peregrinati­ons (occasioned by Saul's cruelty) sate quietly upon the Throne of Israel; Jovianus after he had quitted the Military Employment, be­cause he would not deny his profession in the dayes of Julian, afterwards wore the pur­ple: Endoxia a poor Philosopher's Daughter coming to Constantinople to complain of her two Brothers, who would not give her any portion of her Father's Goods, was unex­pectedly taken in to be Wife to the Empe­rour Theodosius, and we are informed how in the dayes of Henry the Eighth Robert Holgate who was sometimes Archbishop of Canterbu­ry, because he could not peaceably enjoy his small living in Lincolnshire, by reason of the li­tigiousness of a Neighbouring Knight, came up to London to right himself, got into the King's favour, and so by degrees ascended the highest step of Ecclesiastical promotion; therefore Christian rest thy self upon an all-sufficient God in the midst of these totterings here be­low, lean upon the Rock of Ages, fear not, that the great House-keeper of the World will let thee go without a Dole; who can tie the hands or lay shakles upon providence? [Page 174] 'Tis said in Job, Canst thou shut up the Sea with doors, Job 38.31. or bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades? Canst thou hinder the refreshing showers or the gentle gales which cool the Earth, and make the Gardens send out their grateful Odours? Then may you prevent Heaven, and contract the hand of everlasting bounty; fear not therefore, O pious soul, what thou canst lose on Earth, seeing thou hast so rich and so good a Master in Heaven, or suppose thy losses be not made up here, yet Heaven will make amends for all here­after: God only defers thy retributions, till thou enter the confines of eternity, and then thou shalt be sufficiently recompensed; wast thou turned out of thy quiet dwellings and peaceable Habitations? Well, thou shalt be re­ceived into everlasting Mansions, and have a House not made with hands, much exceeding the Temple of Diana, or the Tower of Pha­ros, or those Buildings which have looked so big in the Records of Fame; hadst thou a spot of Ground like Naboth, of which some covetous Ahab deprived thee? well thou shalt enjoy large Territories for it one day, so that thy Song shall be, The Lot is fallen un­to me in a fair Ground, I have a goodly Heri­tage; hadst thou a well of water violently taken from thee? (as the Heardsmen of Lot did that of Abraham's) Thou shalt have a [Page 175] right and title to the Fountain and Springs of the new Jerusalem, and draw water out of the wells of Salvation: Heaven will repay all thy losses, and reimburse thee for all thy dama­ges, Then will thy beloved spread thee a Table, make thee a feast of fat things, of Wine upon the Lees, &c. and say, Eat and drink, O Friends, eat and drink abundantly, then shall thy cup overflow, then shalt thou wash thy steps in butter, and satiate thy soul with fatness, thou shalt know no more want or poverty, straits, famine, or the dayes of adversity, but shalt sit under the shadow of thy beloved with great delight, and his fruit shall be pleasing to thy taste.

Considerat. 3. Moreover in case persecutors should take away our lives; alas we can but live a few dayes according to the course of nature, and so lay down this earthly Taber­nacle a little the sooner; there is a Decree of Mortality which will be executed one day upon the best of us; What man is there that shall not see death? Where is Sampson that could break Cords and carry away Gates? A­zahel that could equalize in swiftness the Roes and the Hinds of the Field? Where is Solo­mon that Master of Physick and Sentences, that could discourse from the Hysop on the Wall to the Cedar in Lebanon? Where are the long lived Patriarchs who passed over their several Centuries? Did not death cut them down at last, and they fell down by the [Page 176] stroke of this Engineer? And though Me­thusulah's Age in our apprehension was Cou­sin-German to Eternity, yet he gave the Grave a visit as well as his Forefathers; we are composed and made up of the same ma­terials with them, and must in like manner pass the dark shadow of the valley of death: Hence if our life be taken away by the hand of an Enemy, 'tis but a small anticipation; if the Fruit be not pluck'd it will fall off the Tree ere long; if you do not crop the Rose of Sharon it will welk and fade within a few dayes; if you do not mow the Grass of the Field, it will pine and wither of its own ac­cord, and be converted to rottenness and pu­trefaction; our life is like unto a Candle, if it be not put out by an extinguisher, it will wast of it self, sink in the socket, and disap­pear: Thus Socrates being told that the Athe­nians had condemned him to death: Well (quoth he) so hath nature done them, if I die now it will not be long ere they bear me company; what makes matter said Saint Austin, August. Epist 122. An febris an ferrum de corpore solverit, whether a disease, a fever, a sword send us to our long home: Oftentimes the [...], a quick and violent death and removal (which Caesar chose) is less painful than those conflicts and agonies which we encounter with arising from ordinary di­stempers; therefore Christian dread not the [Page 177] stroke of a persecutor, if thy life be not taken away by the hand of violence, thou must ere long forgo it, for the Decree is irreversible.

Considerat. 4. Consider again if thy life be taken from thee, thou wilt sooner be at thy Father's House, sooner be at Heaven, and so they will do thee a kindness; Then shall this mortal put on immortality, and this corruptible incorruption, then thou that seest through a glass darkly, shalt see face to face, thou that dwelled in Egypt and Zabulon, in a Land of darkness and dimness, shalt be translated to Goshen, to that City whose light the Lord is; then shall the sprightly soul take the wings of the Morning and attaque the Empyreal Heaven, where thou shalt reside with [...] God the Judge of all, with Jesus the Mediatour of the new Co­venant, with an innumerable company of Angels, with the spirits of just men made perfect, and how wilt thou be harmed? Cleombrotus after he had read Plato of the immortality of the soul threw himself from a Rock into the Sea, desirous to enjoy that blessed state, and ma­ny of the primitive Christians (upon this ac­count) had such a proneness to Martyrdom, that they exceeded bounds a little, and were too prodigal of their blood, which shewed fully the Sentiments they had of a heavenly wel­come. The Romans being full of sorrow for the death of Romulus were told by Proculus that he saw him ride triumphantly into Hea­ven; [Page 178] thus shall it be with thee, when thy soul is dislodged from this earthly Tenement, thou shalt ride as it were upon the wings of a Che­rub, and shalt be conveyed to better Regions than the Elysean Fields, which the Heathens dreamed of; thus the cruelty of men is in some measure beneficial to the Saints, which Saint Basil knew well enough; hence when Modestus Captain to Valence threatned death to him, he said, death shall be to me advan­tage, and will sooner send me to God to whom I live, whose work I perform, and to whom I am continually hastning; the consideration of this made Saint Cyprian affirm, that we are not to put on black habit and mournful attire for our departed godly friends, who are cloathed with white Robes, certain Emblems of perfect Joy, Conquest and Victory: Let him fear death that has not set his House in order, that has been as a brazen pillar against the invitations of the Gospel, that has tram­pled under foot the blood of the Covenant, that has promoted Satan's in­terest:See that excellent piece of St. Cypri­an de mortalitate. Lugeatur mortuus, sed ille quem Gehen­na suscipit, quem Taertarus devorat, in­cujus poenam aeter­nus ignis aestuat, nos quorum exitum Angelorum turba comitatur, quibus obviam Christus accurrit, gravamur magis si diutius in ta­bernaculo isto mortis habitemus, Hieron. Epist. 25. ad Paulam. Let him fear death whom the Legions of dark­ness wait for, whom Hell is likely to receive, whom the ever gnawing worm shall e­ternally [Page 179] corrode, but for the Saints who shall rest upon beds of glory, who shall be con­veyed by officious Angels into Abraham's bo­som, let not them fear a dissolution; but as So­crates sometimes said, Anytus and Melitus may kill me, but they cannot hurt me; so they may say, the persecuting Nero's may deprive us of being here, they may think to cut us down and destroy us, but we shall prove like trans­planted trees, who shall flourish and revive a­gain, send out our branches unto the River, and our boughs to the mighty stream.

Considerat. 5. Remember Christian also how the Heathens have scorned death for a little popular air and glory, that future Gene­rations might extol their valour; and if they upon such accounts could grapple with death and tortures, overlook and contemn the most cross dispensations, should not the expectation of Heaven and eternal life, infuse magnanimi­ty into the most timerous and pufillanimous souls? Rather than Regulus would have the Romans loose by an exchange, he was con­tent to suffer most exquisite tortures, by be­ing put into a barrel with nails, and rowled up and down, and having his eye lids cut off had a sad and a dolorous departure; Mutin [...] Scaevola burnt off his hand before Porsenna, that he seeing such an Emblem of the Roman Valour, might leave besieging the City; Cur­tius to appease the raging pestilence leaped [Page 180] into a gulf in the Market-place, riding upon his Horse Cap-a-pe, charging death (as it were) and defying the assasinate of mankind; how did the Decii devote themselves to ruine, and run upon the Enemies swords in the Latine and Etrurian Wars, that so their Country might enjoy its desired Liberty? and Marcus Pulvillus rather than want the glory of the Dedication of the Temple of Jupiter and Ju­no, when it was told him that his Son was dead, did not desist but went on with his ho­ly Rites. And did they endure so much for an empty name and vanishing titles, for a swell­ing Reputation, which are little more than an impostumated bubble presently blown away; and wilt thou think much to endure a little momentary pain for an immarcessible Crown, and the joys of Paradise? Yes surely, me­thinks thy soul upon the account of Gospel-promises, may be encouraged to as great de­signs, as difficult adventures, as valorous ex­ploits and atchievements, as ever those Heroes undertook, seeing we may write this upon our Banners, I reckon the suf­ferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed. Rom. 8.18.

Consider lastly, if thou shouldest die for the profession of Christ, thou shalt wear the Crown of Martyrs; 'tis taken for an undoubt­ed Maxim, that in Heaven there are degrees [Page 181] of glory, that as there are Stars of a greater and lesser magnitude; so in Heaven some shall have a greater eminency than the rest, not but that every Saint with Esau shall say, I have enough, but yet some shall be dignified with more Emblems of glory according to their laborious industry, and amongst the rest the Martyrs are presumed to lead the van, to have the most polish'd Crowns, and splendid Robes, the [...], the chief Seats in the superiour Mansions: Polycarp that was burnt to ashes, and many of the Saints whose bodies were made night torches, shall be flaming Seraphins (as it were) in that celestial Kingdom; such as Paphnutius that had his Eye bored out for the cause of Christianity, shall be requited with an excllent ray of the beati­fical Vision, those that had the pitchy coat put on and were besmeared with unctuous Li­quours, that their bodies might be more ready fuel for the merciless flames, shall be anointed with the oyl of gladness above their fellows.

Those that in sweat and sorrow carried their burdensom crosses to Calvary, and there were fixed to them, shall have an exceeding eternal weight of Glory, shall be fastned as a nail in a sure place, never to be removed from their seats of rest and glory.

Those that bore in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus, lost their complexions by tormenting dolours, shall appear fair as the [Page 182] Moon, clear as the Sun, like the ruddy Morning and cur­tains of Solomon, Omnia ista deformi­tas detestabilis & te­tra gentilibus, qua­li splendore pensabi­tur, secularis haec & brevis poena, quam c [...]ri & aeterni hono­ris mercede mutabi­tur, Cyprian Epist. 77. the Mar­tyrs (no question) shall be the Benjamins, the sons of the right hand, the Jedediahs, the Josephs who shall be known by their party-coloured robes.

Every Saint shall rejoyce, but the Martyrs shall triumph, as those that have born the bur­den and heat of the day, and have led captivi­ty captive, and been more than Conquerors through Christ assisting them; therefore as Agrippina when she was told that she should bring forth a Son that should rule the Roman empire, but would slay her that gave him breath, she magnanimously replied, let him kill me so he may but govern; so Christian thou mayst confidently say, let them destroy this Temple, let them reduce this Carcass to its primitive dust, and put a period to the dayes of my pilgrimage, so I may but reign with God, reside with Christ, be crowned with the Martyrs, eccho out Anthems with con­quering spirits, and wash my robes in the blood of the Lamb.

Considerat. 6. To conclude, if persecutors be violent and furious, let us take this for granted, either God can calm them or remove them, either he can plane and level the [Page 183] Mountain, or throw it into the Sea: God can calm, he can make a Lyon a Lamb, a Vulture a Dove, he can put a hook in the nose of Leviathan, and make Behemoth tame and flexible; God, is that cunning Lapidary that, can make a rugged Stone a curious Gem, Laban thought to have done great things to Jacob, but God met him by the way, superseded his passions, and gave a charge to him to speak to Jacob neither good nor bad; Israel fear­ed the Persian as well as the Babylonian Monarchy, would have hindred their re­turn to the Holy Land, when lo a De­cree comes from Cyrus, (like Noah's Dove with an Olive-branch) and gives leave to re-edifie the Temple, and then were the Vessels of the Sanctuary restored, and thus the Mountain in Zachariah became a plain in the way of Zerubbabel; Saul was by nature hot and fiery, consenting to the death of Ste­ven, one that made it his business to keep down growing Christianity, but God met him in the way to Damascus, humbled him, took away (as I may say) his Commission, gave him a new patent, and made him an Apostle of the Gentiles; and now behold a change, he that was a persecutor is now a preacher; he that anathematized Christians, now preaches peace by Jesus Christ; he that was as the wilde Boar of the Forrest, fiery and raging, is [Page 184] now like his new Master, meek and lowly; he that was an ominous and portentous Co­met, now sends out sweet, heavenly and Evan­gelical Influences, who but Saint Paul? Now the weapons of his warfare are not carnal, but mighty and spiritual; he is not harassing the Christians, but fighting against principali­ties and powers; he is not beating the ser­vants of Christ, but beating down his own body and bringing it into subjection, and captivating every thing to the obedience of Jesus Christ; he that vomited out flames and fury, comes as a peaceable Ambassadour, bring­ing with him the ministry of Reconciliation, and entreating men for Christ's sake to be re­conciled unto God: Whereby we see what God can do, the power of Divinity, and the operations of an Omnipotent Agent, God has a hammer for an adamantine heart, and can make a flinty soul flexible, and receive the divine signatures and impressions: Thus God sweetned Trajan who stirred up the third per­secution, and stilled his rage upon the medi­ation of Plinius Secundus; and Aurelian being about to sign an Edict against the Christians, God hindred his purpose by cramping his knuckles, and by the fall of a Thunderbolt which had like to have slain him; therefore Christian, wait patiently, God can calm the passions of men, and smooth their rough and uuhewen natures; so that thou shalt see a [Page 185] Tyrant become a Patron, and a Nimrod a nursing Father to the Church.

But if a persecutor will not melt with a beam, God can crush him with a Thunder­bolt, if he will not be moved with soft per­swasions, with a compassionate Suada, God can ruine him with a revenging Nemesis; he can pour a viol of wrath upon the Sun, throw down Crowns and Scepters, humble the greatest Monarchs of the Earth, and let them know they are but worms and dust in compa­rison of the lofty one that inhabits eternity: How many of the Roman Em­perours came to untimely ends after they had been so vexatious to the Christians?Seventy three pe­rished in the space of an hundred years, whereof only three dyed a natural death. Nero that led the van after he had slain many of the ser­vants of Christ, was forc'd to be his own Exe­cutioner; Valerian taken by Sapores King of Persia, fleaed and salted with Salt, and so felt in person some of the punishments the Chri­stians endured; Decius warring against the Barbarians, fell into a pit and was swallowed up and entombed in mud; Julian that cun­ning Enemy of Christ threatned when he came from the Persian War, that he would sa­crifice to the Gods in Christian blood, and e­rect the picture of Venus in all their Temples, but God smote him with a Dart, which whe­ther it came from Heaven, or the Persian Ar­my [Page 186] is yet undecided; and Felix one of the Captains to Charles the Fifth, swore that he would ride up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans, but God cooled his courage, for that very night he was choak'd and strang­led in his own blood; such like things have hapned, God has broke the teeth of the wilde Boar that destroyed the Vineyard, and then have the Churches had rest, and flourished like the Garden of the Lord; fear not there­fore Christian, there is a Moderatour above that can order the most potent Mortals, and over-power the Grandees of the Earth, and if they will not bow to his Golden Scepter, he will make them feel his Iron Rod, and let them know by woful experience, that there is as much difference betwixt him and them, as betwixt the Potter and the Clay, a head of Glass and Brass, unable altogether to hold a contest with the holy one of Israel.

One thing more, good Christian, I would desire of thee, not to be courted out of thy Religion, by those (who it may be to draw thee to their lure) will make thee great pro­mises, as Antigonus to his Friends, Satan to Christ, or Balak offering Balaam no small pro­motion; many of the primitive Christians have been offered great preferments if they would gentilize and deny the Faith; Histo­ries tell us of some that have been taken from their doleful prisons, from the bread and wa­ter [Page 187] of affliction, and have been laid upon downy beds,So Saint Jerom re­lates of a young man in the time of the Decian Perse­cution, that being laid upon a bed of down in a pleasant Garden amongst Lilies and Roses, whither presently comes a beautiful Strumpet, that used all the abominable tricks of her im­pure art to draw him to her desire, which to prevent he bit off a piece of his Tongue, and in defiance spit in her Face, Vit. Paul. Eremit. Tom. 1. p. 237. feasted with delicate Viands, presented with gallant La­dies, which proffered their embraces, all which they have rejected as the baits of Satan who laid siege to the immortal soul, and as Lime­twigs to ensnare the rational part, and make them like the beast that perish.

But scorn preferments and the favour of men, in comparison of God and Christ, to whom thou art devoted, keep thy Virgin soul pure and chaste like the spotless brow of Heaven, and do not prostitute it to these En­chantments, stop thine ears against these Sy­rens, and turn away thine eyes that they be­hold not vanity; what is a great Estate, earthly Riches, secular Advancement? Things from which thou mayst be snatch'd in the twinkling of an eye, and then thou that wast Fellow with Nobles and Heroes, hast nothing but the Worms and Moths of the Grave for thy Companions; suppose thou shouldest be a Favourite of a King, or Person of Honour; alas these high places are slippery, and the [Page 188] tide of Princes favours ebs and flows like the unconstant Ocean, such seem to stand upon the floating Islands, and repose themselves upon turning wheels, where they can promise themselves little settlement or stability; what fate had Pharaoh's Butler, Haman in the time of Assuerosh, Secanus in the dayes of Tiberius, Clitus in the Reign of Alexander, the renown­ed Boethius in the time of Theodorick; omit­ting Domestick Examples? such often climb the Stairs that their downfal may be the great­er: Be true therefore to God and thy Reli­gion; let not the glisterings of Crowns and Scepters ravish thee, the sugared words of great Ones allure thee, or the expectation of swelling Titles, Coronets, or Miters cause thee to quit the Truth and to forsake thy first Love; but as Saint Ambrose said unto Valen­tinian, he would submit to him in any thing that was reasonable, but would never forsake the Nicene Creed; so resolve (with the grace and strength of Christ) to keep thy self an un­alterable Friend to God, a Loyal Spouse to Christ, that when others are melting, flexible and condescending, calling this and the other Rabbi, and shaping their Religion according to the humour of the Grandees of the World; be thou like the solid Earth, like Mount Sion, like Jachin and Boaz, the Pillars of the Tem­ple stedfast and immoveable, and so triumph against the frowns and smiles of Fortune, ex­pecting [Page 189] a recompence at the Resurrection of the Just.