AN

APOLOGY

FOR THE

TRUE CHRISTIAN DIVINITY.

PROPOSITION I.

Concerning the true Foundation of Knowledge.

3.

Seeing the height of all happiness is placed in the true knowledge of God, (This is life eternal, to John xvii. know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent,) the true and right understanding of this foundation and ground of knowledge, is that which is most necessary to be known and believed in the first place.

He that desireth to acquire any art or science, seeketh first those means by which that art or science is obtained. If we ought to do so in things natural and earthly, how much more then in spiritual? In this affair then should our inquiry be the more diligent, because he that errs in the entrance is not so easily brought back again into the right way; he that misseth his road from the beginning of his journey, and is deceived in his first marks, at his first setting forth, the greater his mistake is, the more difficult will be his entrance into the right way.

to the true

Thus when a man first proposeth to himself the The way knowledge of God, from a sense of his own un- knowlworthiness, and from the great weariness of his mind, occasioned by the secret checks of his con

edge of

God.

Jewish
Doctors

and Phari-
sees resist

Christ.

John vii.

48, 49.

science, and the tender, yet real glances of God's
light upon
his heart; the earnest desires he has to
be redeemed from his present trouble, and the
fervent breathings he has to be eased of his dis-
ordered passions and lusts, and to find quietness
and peace in the certain knowledge of God, and
in the assurance of his love and good-will towards
him, make his heart tender, and ready to receive
any impression; and so (not having then a distinct
discerning) through forwardness embraceth any
thing that brings present ease. If either through
the reverence he bears to certain persons, or from
the secret inclination to what doth comply with
his natural disposition, he fall upon any principles
or means, by which he apprehends he may come
to know God, and so doth centre himself, it will
be hard to remove him thence again, how wrong
soever they may be: for the first anguish being
over, he becomes more hardy; and the enemy being
near, creates a false peace, and a certain confi-
dence, which is strengthened by the mind's un-
willingness to enter again into new doubtfulness,
or the former anxiety of a search.

This is sufficiently verified in the example of the Pharisees and Jewish Doctors, who most of all resisted Christ, disdaining to be esteemed ignorant; for this vain opinion they had of their knowledge hindered them from the true knowledge; and the mean people, who were not so much pre-occupied with former principles, nor conceited of their own knowledge, did easily believe. Wherefore the Pharisees upbraid them, saying, Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him? But this people, which know not the law, are accursed. This is also abundantly proved by the experience of all such, as being secretly touched with the call of God's grace unto them, do apply themselves to false teachers, where the remedy proves worse than the disease; because instead of knowing God, or the things relating to

their salvation aright, they drink in wrong opin-
ions of him; from which it is harder to be disen-
tangled, than while the soul remains a blank,' or
Tabula rasa.
For they that conceit themselves
wise, are worse to deal with than they that are sen-
sible of their ignorance.
Nor hath it been less
the device of the devil, the great enemy of mar
kind, to persuade men into wrong notions of God,
than to keep them altogether from acknowledging
him; the latter taking with few, because odious;
but the other having been the constant ruin of the
world: for there hath scarce been a nation found,
but hath had some notions or other of religion;
so that not from their denying any Deity, but from
their mistakes and misapprehensions of it, hath
proceeded all the idolatry and superstition of the
world; yea, hence even atheism itself hath pro-
ceeded for these many and various opinions of
God and religion, being so much mixed with the
guessings and uncertain judgments of men, have
begotten in many the opinion, That there is no
God at all. This, and much more that might be
said, may show how dangerous it is to miss in this
first step: All that come not in by the right door, are
accounted as thieves and robbers.

Again, how needful and desirable that knowledge is, which brings life eternal, Epictetus showeth, Epictetus saying excellently well, cap. 38. ἴδι ὅτι τὸ Κυριώ TATOV, &c. Know, that the main foundation of piety is this, to have oplas inoλnes, right opinions and apprehensions of God.

This therefore I judged necessary, as a first principle, in the first place, to affirm; and I suppose will not need much farther explanation or defence, as being generally acknowledged by all (and in these things that are without controversy I love to be brief) as that which will easily commend itself to every man's reason and conscience; and therefore I shall proceed to the next proposition; which,

though it be nothing less certain, yet by the malice of satan, and ignorance of many, comes far more under debate.

PROPOSITION II.

Of Immediate Revelation.

Mat. xi. 27. Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him; and seeing the revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit; therefore the testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed; who as, by the moving of his own Spirit, he disposed the chaos of this world into that wonderful order in which it was in the beginning, and created man a living soul, to rule and govern it, so by the revelation of the same Spirit he hath manifested himself all along unto the sons of men, both patriarchs, prophets, and apostles; which revelations of God by the Spirit, whether by outward voices and appearances, dreams, or inward objective manifestations in the heart, were of old the formal object of their faith, and remain yet so to be; since the object of the saints' faith is the same in all ages, though held forth under divers administrations. Moreover,

these divine inward revelations, which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith, neither do nor can ever contradict the outward testimony of the scriptures, or right and sound reason. Yet from hence it will not follow, that these divine revelations are to be subjected to the test, either of the outward testimony of the scriptures, or of the natural reason of man, as to a more noble or certain rule and touchstone; for this divine revelation, and inward illumination, is that which is evident and clear of

itself, forcing, by its own evidence and clearness, the well-disposed understanding to assent, irresistibly moving the same thereunto, even as the common principles of natural truths do move and incline the mind to a natural assent: as, that the whole is greater than its part; that two contradictories can neither be both true, nor both false.

by apos

ians.

§. I. It is very probable, that many carnal and nat- Revelation ural Christians will oppose this proposition; who, rejected being wholly unacquainted with the movings and tate Christactings of God's Spirit upon their hearts, judge the same nothing necessary; and some are apt to flout at it as ridiculous; yea, to that height are the generality of Christians apostatized and degenerated, that though there be not any thing more plainly asserted, more seriously recommended, or more certainly attested, in all the writings of the holy scriptures, yet nothing is less minded and more rejected by all sorts of Christians, than immediate and divine revelation; insomuch that once to lay claim to it is matter of reproach.

Where

as of old none were ever judged Christians, but such as had the Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii. 9. But now many do boldly call themselves Christians, who make no difficulty of confessing they are without it, and laugh at such as say they have it. Of old they were accounted the sons of God, who were led by the Spirit of God, ibid. ver. 14. But now many aver themselves sons of God, who know nothing of this leader; and he that affirms himself so led, is, by the pretended orthodox of this age, presently proclaimed a heretic. The reason hereof is very manifest, viz. Because many in these days, under the name of Christians, do experimentally find,that they are not actuated nor led by God's Spirit; yea, many great doctors, divines, teachers, and bishops of Christianity, (commonly so called,) have wholly shut their ears from hearing, and