Treatise of Divinity, Title page – Dedication 1
A Treatise of DIVINITY CONSISTING OF THREE BOOKES.
The First of which Handling the Scripture or Word of God, treateth of its Divine Authority, the Canonicall Bookes, the Authenticall Edition, and severall Versions; the End, Properties, and Interpretation of Scripture.
The Second handling God, sheweth that there is a God, and what he is, in his Essence and severall Attributes, and likewise the distinction of Persons in the Divine Essence.
The third handleth the three principall Workes of God, Decree, Creation, and Providence.
By EDWARD LEIGH Esq. Master of Arts, and one of the Members of the House of Commons.
2 Tim. 3. 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproofe, for correction, for instruction in righteousnesse.
John 7. 3. And this is life eternall, that they know thee the onelyonly true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
Psalm 111. 2. The workes of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
LONDON, Printed by E. Griffin for William Lee, and are to be sold at his shop at the Turkes-head in Fleetstreet, neere Ram-alley. 1646.
June 9. 1646.
I Have perused this excellent and learned Treatise of Divinity with much pleasure, profit, and satisfaction; and finding it to be very sound, judicious, and profitable, I doe allow it to be printed and published.
John Downhant.
TO The Right Honourable THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT.
Right Honourable,
I Intended the Dedication of this Treatise to the Parliament before I had the happinesse to be a Member of so Honourable a Society. Who are so fit to Patronize a worke concerning God, his word and workes, as the Parliament of England, and such a Parliaments, who have heard more of God and his will, and seene more of his wayes in lesse then a lustre of yeares, then many precedent Parliaments have in severall Ages▪ Arduous and important matters concerning Church*Quia de advisamento & …ssensu consilij nostri pro quibusdam or dui…s & urgentibus negotijs, nos, Statum & d…fensionem Regni nostri Angliae & Ecclesiae concernentibus, …uoddam Parliamentum nostrum apud Civitatem Westmonasterium tertio die Novemb…is proximo teneri ordinavimus. or State have been the daily Theme of your serious debates. Queen Elizabeth once in her progresse visiting the County of Suffolke, all the Justices of Peace in that County met her Majesty, having every one his Minister next to his body, which the Queen tooke speciall notice of, and thereupon uttered this Speech, that She had often demanded of her privy Councell, why her County of Suffolke was better governed than any other County, and could never understand the reason thereof, but now She her selfe perceived the reason; it must needs be so (said Shee) where the word and the sword goe together.
You did Honourable worthies) neare the beginning of the Parliament, cause a Synode of Reverend and Able Divines to be called to advise you in Church-affaires. God hath sent unto you (as Jeremie speaketh) all his servants the Prophets, Jer. 7. 25. and 35. 15.choice men out of every County, (as you your selves were elected out of many) to be serviceable to you in the great worke of Reformation. You have had the benefit of their faithfull advise, of their fervent Prayers, and diligent labours. When did any Parliament enter into so solemne a League and Covenant to reforme themselves and Kingdome? when were there so many dayes of Humiliation kept so generally in England? when was there such a constant daily Lecture*Those Gentlemen of the House, and others that live neere Westminster may heare 500 Sermons yearly at least, one every Morning, and foure every Sabbath. of worthy men in Westminster-Abbie before? In the Parliament held 5. E. 3. so many excellent lawes were made, as it was called bonum Parliamentum I hope as you are now in Prayers and Print stiled the Repairers of the breach, and restorers of paths to dwell in, so future Ages will honour you with the title of Optimum Parliamentum. When in the Councell of Constance, talke was Ministred touching the reformation of the Spiritualty, and some said quòd oporteat incipere à Minoritis, the reformation must begin at the Friers, no said the Emperour Sigismond, Foxe in his Booke of Martyrs.Non à minoritis sed a Majoritis incipienda est reformatio, meaning the reformation ought first to begin with the Pope and Cardinals and Bishops, and so discend after to the inferiours. Some Emperours were called Great for their goodnesse; religion makes a Nation or person honourable Rom. 9. 4. compared with 3. 2. That was a worthy Speech of a Germane divine writing to Oecolampadius, Veniat verbum domini, & submittemus, etiamsi nobis essent sexcenta colla: As Queene Elizabeth passed in Triumphall State through the Streets of London after her Coronation, when the Bible was presented unto her at the little-Conduit in Cheape-side, Speeds Chronicle Chap. 24. p. 858.she received the same, with both her hands, and kissing it laid it to her breast, saying, that the same had ever beene her chiefest delight, and should be the rule by which She meant to frame her Government. You have likewise covenanted to reforme the Church according to the word of God, the best Rule both for a Personall and Ecclesiasticall Reformation. There is a double generall subject of reformation. 1. Corrupt persons, 2. Corrupt things. You have cast out a scandalous Ministry; labour to settle (I beseech you) in all the three kingdoms Pious & able Preachers. Christ (the great Reformer of his Church Mal. 3. 2 Matth. 3. 12.) specially purgeth the Sonnes of Levi Mal. 3. 1. because he hath appointed them the office of purging others. secondly the ordinances of God must be both Pure and Perfect in a compleate Reformation. You have cast out a great deale of rubbish; O that the House of God might be built. It was a blemish upon some of those reformations mentioned in Scripture, that the high places were not taken away, and that their reformation needed a further reformation. God did much honour King Edward a Childe, and Queene Elizabeth a woman in making them the beginners of a blessed reformation. O that the Lord would be pleased by you to perfect what they begun, that Christs government, worship, and discipline might be set up in the three Kingdoms. In the times of our troubles, peace and truth have beene joyned together in our Prayers and Capitulations; O let them never be separated, I will reveale unto them the abundance of peace and truth Jer. 33. 6. and the same Prophet *Jer. 9. 3.complaines, that there were none valiant for truth in the earth. Buy the truth and sell it not saith Salomon, contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints. Jude. 3. v.Amicus Socrates, Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas. You have covenanted to extirpate heresies and whatsoever is contrary to sound doctrine. In your first Declaration, there is this memorable passage, It is farre from our purpose or desire, to let loose the golden reines of Discipline and government in the Church, to leave private persons or particular congregations, to take up what forme of divine service they please; for we hold it requisite that there should be through-out the whole Realme a conformity to that order which the Lawes enjoyne according to the word of God. God hath done great things for you and by you, and therefore he expects great things from you. It was a noble resolution in our Josiah, Edward the 6th, when he was pressed by Bishop Ridly and others to tolerate his Sister Masse in her owne Chapell, he would not (though importuned) yeeld thereto, saying, He should dishonour God in it; but being much pressed by them he burst into teares, and they thence concluded, that he had more divinity in his little finger then they in all their bodies; O that you would study to premote Gods glory, and be zealous for his truth, since you have had such experience of his mercy, and likewise could not but perceive the evill of those dangerous errours, which were too much indulged by some of those whom you have cast out.
I shall now speake of the threefold Subject I handle in my Booke. 1. The Scripture, 2. God, 3. The Workes of God. It is reported of Charles the Great, that he set his Crown on the Bible,Ego ipse odi meos libros, & sape …pi…e…s interire, quòd …etuo ne morentur lectores, & abducanta l…ctioneipsius scripturae, quae sola omnis sapientiae fon… est. Lutherus in …9 c. Genes. and Luther was so zealous to have the Scriptures read, that he professed, if he thought the reading of his Bookes would hinder the reading of the Scripture he would burne them all before he dyed. Alphonsus King of Spaine and Naples, read the Bible with Lira's glosse foureteen times over. The Emperour Theodosius the second, wrote the New Testament out with his owne hand; many speake much of new light, but the Prophet Esay *Esay 8. 20.saith To the Law, and to the Testimony: if they speake not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Take heed of too much of that new light, which the world is now gazing upon;Jer. 6. 16. and 18. 15. so much new light is breaking forth, that the old zeale is almost extinct by it, saith a Minister*Master Buckley of the Gospell Covenant on Zach. 9. 11, p. 14. and 104. of New-England. The Familists say they are above Ordinances; when the body hath no need of nourishment, then (and not afore) will the soule have no need of Ordinances; we about Westminster have beene better instructed out of the 20. of Exodus 24. Some talke of Revelations and the Testimony of the Spirit. But now the Scripture is compleated, I must not expect any immediate Testimony of the Spirit. Luther saith, if any Spirit should come and speak any thing to him that he brought not Scripture for, he would spit in his face. The Scripture is the best Cynosure to follow, it was Davids Counseller,The Schoolemen a…fi…me that t…ree things cannot be …efined. it is a perfect rule of a Perfect Reformation.
Secondly, all Christian States and Persons should labour for an experimentall practicall knowledge of God and Christ,1 God ob summam formositatem. Phil. 3. 8. 10. the vision of God in Heaven shall make us perfectly Happye.2. Materia prima ab summam informitatem. Quid Deus sit ipse tantum novit, 3. Sinne obsummam deformitatem.what God is, God himselfe doth onelyonly perfectly know. But he hath revealed himselfe to us in his word and workes. That place in 34 of Exodus, 6. 7. verses is as full a description of Gods Attributes, as any in all the Scripture, The Lord, the Lord God, mercifull, and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodnes & truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression & sin, & that will by no meanes clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens Children, unto the third and fourth generation. If God were more known, he would be more loved,Psal. 9 9. honou…ed, feared, trusted. The Heathens extolled the knowledge of a mans self, but Christians must chiefely study to know God.
This is a Noble Subject for a Christian Parliament and a Christian Kingdome to exercise themselves in; O that you would all labour to know Gods excellencies, and to propagate the knowledge of him to the many darke Corners of the Land.
Thirdly, the workes of God are to be diligently observed by a Christian State. One observes that there is a five fold Declaration of the workes of God.Mr Carill on Psal. 1 18. 17. An Arthnieticall Declaration Psal. 40. 5. Secondly, a Logicall Declaration of the workes of God, when we shew the severall kinds of them; as the workes of Creation, the worke of Redemption, the worke of Providence; and distribute those into workes of mercy, or works of Justice. Thirdly, an Historicall Declaration, when we declare the persons acting, the places, the times the Counsels, the mannaging of the severall actions, the events and successes. Fourthly, a Rhetoricall Declaration. Fifthly, a Declaration purely Theologicall, or a practicall Declaration of the works of God.104. Psal. 24.
We should be lifted up by Gods manifold works to the Consideration of his unlimited greatnesse that is the first cause and author of them all; we can turne our eyes no way, but exceeding great multitudes of works wrought by God doe offer themselves to our view.
If we looke upward, downeward, on the right hand, on the left, into our selves and other things; our minds shall be encountred with diversity of rare Workes of Almighty God. These workes are all made with much wisdome Psal. 136. 5. and the serious considering of Gods workes is a great part of the sanctifying of his name. Never had any Parliament more reason to magnifie Gods goodnesse for his singular mercies. Oh that as many of your deliverances were got with supplication, so they might be worne with thankefulnesse; and as you have been a Parliament of many Prayers, so may you be a Parliament of many prayses, which is the earnest desire of
Your Honours Devoted Servant, EDW. LEIGH.