CONTENTS

OF

THE TWENTY-FIRST VOLUME.

THE

REASONS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

THE FIRST PART CONTINUED.

OF NATURAL RELIGION, OR GODLINESS.

CHAP. IX. Of man's subjection to God, or relation to him as

our Ruler ...

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1

X. Of God's particular laws, as known in nature:

what the law of nature is

5

....

XI. 3. Of God's relation to man, as his Benefactor

and his End; or, as his Chief Good; proved

that God is man's End...

XII. Of man's relation to God, as he is our Father,

Benefactor, and End, or Chief Good; and the

Duties of that relation

XIII. Experiments of the difficulty of all this duty, be-

fore proved from nature; and what it must cost

him who will live such a holy life

XIV. That there is a life of retribution after this, proved

XV. Of the intrinsical evils of sin; and of the perpe-

tual punishment due to the sinner, by the un-

doubted law of nature

XVI. Of the present sinful and miserable state of the

world

116

XVII. What natural light declareth of the mercy of God

to sinners, and of the hopes and means of man's

recovery

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122

THE SECOND PART.

OF CHRISTIANITY, AND SUPERNATURAL REVELA-

TION.

CHAP. I. Of the need of a clearer light, or fuller revelation

of the will of God, than all that hath been

opened before

131

II. Of the several religions which are in the world ..

138

III. Of the christian religion; and, 1. What it is

IV. Of the nature and properties of the christian reli-

gion..

....

144

168

V. Of the congruities in the christian religion, which

make it the more easily credible, and are great

preparatives to faith

VI. Of the Witness of Jesus Christ, or the great demon-

strative evidence of his verity and authority, viz.,

the Spirit, in four parts: 1. Antecedently, by

prophecy; 2. Constitutively and inherently, the

image of God, on his person, life, and doc-

trine; 3. Concomitantly, by the miraculous power

and works of Christ and his disciples; 4. Subse-

quently, in the actual salvation of men by reno-

vation: opened: notes added............

VII. Of the subservient proofs and means by which the

fore-mentioned evidences are brought to our cer-

tain knowledge. How we know the antecedent

prophetical testimony, and the constitutive, inhe-

rent evidence. How we know the concomitant

testimony of miracles: 1. By human testimony.

2. By evidence of natural certainty.
3. By

divine attestation in the testifier's miracles. The

proofs of that divine attestation with the wit-

nesses: 1. In the holy constitution of their souls

and doctrine: 2. In their miracles and gifts:

3. In the success of their doctrine to men's sanc-

tification. How the church's testimony of the

181

199

disciples' miracles and doctrine is proved: 1. By

most credible human testimony: 2. By such as

hath natural evidence of certainty: 3. By some

further divine attestation. The way or means of

the church's attestation and tradition. The Scrip-

tures proved the same which the apostles deliver-

ed and the churches received.
How we may

know the fourth part of the Spirit's testimony,

viz., the successes of christian doctrine to men's

sanctification. What sanctification is, and the

acts or parts of it. Consectaries

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241

VIII. Of some other subservient and collateral argu-

ments for the christian verity

287

IX. Yet faith hath many difficulties to overcome: what

they are, and what their causes

301

X. The intrinsical difficulties in the christian faith re-

solved; or, twenty-four objections against Christ-

ianity answered ...

307

XI. The extrinsical difficulties; or, sixteen more objec-

tions resolved.....

358

XII. The reasonable conditions required of them who

will overcome the difficulties of believing, and will

not undo themselves by wilful infidelity

377

......

390

The sum of all, in an address to God

CONSECTARIES.

XIII. 1. What party of Christians should we join with,

or be of, seeing they are divided into so many

XIV. 2. Of the true interest of Christ and his church, and

the souls of men; of the means to promote it, and

its enemies and impediments in the world; which,

being only named in brief propositions, should be

the more heedfully perused by those that dare

pretend the interest of religion and the church,

for the proudest or the most dividing practices;

and those which most directly hinder the success-

ful preaching of the Gospel, and the pure wor-

shipping of God, and the saving of men's souls..

395

398

THE CONCLUSION; or, an Appendix, defending the soul's

immortality against the Somatists, or Epicureans, and

other Pseudo-philosophers ....

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413

MORE REASONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN RELI-

GION, AND NO REASONS AGAINST IT; or,

a Second Appendix to the Reasons of the Christian

Religion:'

I. In answer to a letter from an unknown person, charging

the Holy Scriptures with contradiction

523

II. Some animadversions on the foresaid treatise, ‘De Ve-

ritate,' resolving several questions there included or

implied

556

OF NATURAL RELIGION,

OR

GODLINESS.

CHAP. IX.

II. Of Man's Subjection to God, or Relation to him as our

Governor.

SECT. 1. Man being made thus a rational, free agent, and sociable to be governed, and God being his rightful Governor, is immediately related to God as his subject, as to right and obligation. There is no sovereign without a subject: subjection is our relation to our governor, or else our consent to that relation. In the former sense we take it here. A subject is one that is bound to obey another as his ruler. He that is a subject by right and obligation, and yet doth not consent and actually subject himself to his rightful governor, is a rebel. There cannot be greater obligations to subjection imagined by a created understanding, than the rational creature hath to God. Sect. 2. All men are obliged to consent to this subjection, and to give up themselves absolutely to the government of God. b God's absolute propriety in us, as his creatures, giveth him so full a title to govern us, that our consent is not at all necessary to our obligation and subjection-relative; but only to our actual obedience, which cannot be performed by one that consenteth not. Therefore, God's right and our natural condition are the foundation of our subjection to him, as to obligation and duty; and he that consenteth not, sinneth by high treason against his sovereign. As God did not ask our consent whether he should make us men, so neither whether he should be our

Seneca (Epist. ad Luc. 83, p. (mihi) 711.,) saith, Sic certe vivendum est, tanquam in conspectu vivamus. Sic cogitandum tanquam aliquis in pectus inspicere posset et potest: quid enim prodest ab homine aliquid esse secretum. Nibil Deo clausum interest animis nostris, et cogitationibus mediis intervenit.

Diogenes (in Laert.) said to an immodest woman: Non vereris mulier, ne forte staute post tergum Deo (cuncta enim plena ipso sunt) inhoneste te habeas?