Sp. iritual PerfCCiion. <=9~ ----~~~~~~~r~~~~~~~~ J J the Royalty of God, ar1d t he Rights of J ullice; this fecures our Pardon and Peace, and removes all the difficulties and doubts that are apt to rife in the Minds of Men, Whether God, infinitely provok'd by our. rebellious Sins, will be_ reconcil'd to us? 'Tis our duty to admire t he myllcrious Do£hmes of the Gofpel, wh1ch we do underlland, an d ro adore thofe we do not . \Ve may obferve the fame connexion in Errors as in Divine Truths; for they who rob our Saviour of his Natural Glory, his Eternal Deity, vilify and disbelieve t he value and verrue of hi s l'riel\ly Office, by which ou r Pardon is obtained. In fhort, the Fabrick of our Salvation is built on the contrivance and confent of the Divine Perfons, and the concurrence and concord of the Divine Attributes. 6. The belief of fupernarura l things may be confirm'd by compari!ons and examples of things in Nature; for they pr?ve and perfwade that a thing may be. Our Saviour, w cure the Infidelity of the Phari{ees, reUs them, Tt err, not knoJVing t he Scripture, .::nd ''"Power ofGod. In the Boo!< of Scripture we read •he declaration of God's Wi ll; in the Book of Nature we fee the effects of his Power. The Apollle lays, The wrakneft of God i; jlron7.er than Mm. The expreffion _is firaoge to a wonder - for i~ feems w attribute a defect to God : !I ut be !peaks m that manner, ro declare wHh empbafis, that God is always equal to bi!l'felf, and has no need to llrain his Power to overcome the llrongc ll oppofluon. 1he fame Apollle argues agamll Infidels, that fay, How are the dead rai{td up ? And with what Bodies do they come? Thou fool, that n:hi&h tho11 {owejl is not qt~icl:ned e.xce~t i t .dJe ;. and that which th~t~ {owejJ, thou fowejJ '!ot Pr~ttnifit Dt~s that hody that fhaU be, btu bare gram ; lt maJ chance of Wheat, or {ome other gram; na:'""m ,,..t,,- :tm~::l/i~~?or~tlio~0t Nf.~t::h :~i~h ~~r 0J~d;.~e:n~i~;~gsw~~~~~~sc~~~~~~end~ ~:7iJ;~~: !hall it noc confirm our Belief of the Refu rrcEtion of th~ Bad~, the~ ondcr of Grace, (~tdu .P'~pht~ when 'ds promifed by God the Author of both. AI] ddficulucs vamfl1 before infinite ~;~;~?~~:r. r~V~e;~m»~i~.t~4:~ ~~~a~:;'tfa7';~. in ::~r~ ~~rr:r'~e/:~~e~o:J4!i%e,z:::eo~r ~;)e tt~1te; 2 Tim. r. into the likene.f of hu gloriom Body, by the pow<r whereby he can [11bdue all things to himfelf. The be lief of the Re!urrection is drawn from the clearell fprings of Nature and Scripture. th! di·~~~l~ie;~u~~~',!o~~~:~~~e 0!J~f~~~~~~itnf:r~~=~~gic~i\~:i:a~ltie~~~c~~~~~~ t ain ly much more Cuitable to the tea~onable Mind ro acknowledge, that things may be true which we are not able to concetve and comprehend, than to deny the natural and proper fenCe of many clear and exprefs Texts of Scripture,. that declare thofe things. And by th!S we ma~ rudge of the Glo/fes of Socsnm, and h!S followers, who without reverence of the Marelly of God, and the finccrity of his Word, rack the Scriptures to make them fpeak what they do not, and ufe all Arts to filence them in what they do reveal. Unhappy men! that affect to be elleem'd Ingenious and Subtil, to the extreme hazard of their own Salvation. How much fafer, and more eafy is it to believe the ~!~~7c~;~.~~t:~:l ~~:r:n~~~tt~f~h~hJiffi~~~t~~~h~:~:t~~~tt~:~j'g~~';~~:? elude it, and cha 1 t ~i~ 1\~~~fliiJ~et~0~;~n;f 0~~~: T:\~';~ itffin~:i~~' ~:e~~~'L~v!~:,~~f~~1v~~~~~f fo r our Redemption, fl10uld have declar 'd it, and engag'd his Difciples in all Ages and Places in an Error of filch dreadful Confequcnce, as the Worlhipping thofc who are not God. 2 . 'Tis alledged , That if a Per!on fincerely fearches into the Scripture, and cannot be convinc'd that the fupernatural Doctrines of the Trinity, and others depending upon it are conrain'd in them, be !hall not be Condemn'd by the Righteous Judge of the World for involuntary and fpeculative Errors. To this I an!wer, 1. This pretence has decciv'd many who were guilty of damnable Herefies, and there is great rea!?n to fear deceives Men llilL 1 he heart;, deceit[t~! above all things, and moft deceitful to !t felf Who can fay that neither lnrcre ll nor Paflion, neither Hope nor Fear neither Anger nor Ambition, have interven'd in his Inquiry af,er Truth, but he ha; preferr'd the knowledge of Divine Truths before all Temporal Refpe£b, and yet he cannot btl_ieve what .the Scr~pturc reveals of the ~ature of God, and the reconomy of our Sal vauon: let thas Imagmary Mao produce Ius Plea1 for I believe there was never any fuch . There arc many that make Rea!on the Soveraign Rule of Fa ith, and deter- . mine. filch things cannot be true, becaufe they cannot underftand how they can be true. l'rod1gious Inference! the moll abfurd of all Errors, that mal<es the narrow Mind of · Man,
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