2. That this is firmly believed by all true Christians. This must needs be so; because it is the grand inducement to all Piety and Godliness, and none ever disbelieved it, but those, the interest of whose Lusts engaged them to question it, 2 Pet. 3.3, 4, 5. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the Fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, &c. willingly ignorant; their interest puts them upon it, rather than their Conscience, because this Doctrine filleth them with unquiet thoughts, that they cannot so securely follow their sinful practices, ⟨p. 5⟩till they blot out the fear of it, or banish the thoughts of it out of their hearts; but all that obey the teachings of grace (take it for objective or subjective grace) they firmly believe it, Tit. 2.11, 12, 13. For the grace of God, that bringeth Salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present World; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearance of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The sound belief of it is not so much encountered with the doubts of the mind, as the inclinations of their perverse hearts. Now the seeming reasons of partial men are not to be heard, especially as delivered in a scoffing, malicious way; and on the other side, Godliness and Mortification standeth upon such evident reason, as mans unquestionable duty, that it needeth not to be maintained by a lie and manifest falsehood: Certainly, they that deny it do not so much reason against this Article of our Christian Faith, as scoff at it; and it is to be imputed to the malignity of their tempers, rather than the acuteness or sharpness of their reason, that they do not believe it. Many things which they urge are a manifest token of the contrary. As the calamities of the good, 2 Thess. 1.4, 5. So that we glory in you for your Faith and Patience in all your Persecutions and tribulations, that you endure, which ⟨p. 6⟩is a manifest token of the righteous Judgment of God; The perversion of Justice, Eccles. 3.16, 17.
2. That this is firmly believed by all true Christians. This must needs be so; because it is the grand inducement to all Piety and Godliness, and none ever disbelieved it, but those, the interest of whose Lusts ingaged them to question it, 2 Pet. 3.3, 4, 5. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the Fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, &c. willingly ignorant; their interest puts them upon it, rather than their Conscience, because this Doctrine filleth them with unquiet thoughts, that they cannot so securely follow their sinful practices, ⟨p. 5⟩till they blot out the fear of it, or banish the thoughts of it out of their hearts; but all that obey the teachings of grace (take it for objective or subjective grace) they firmly believe it, Tit. 2.11, 12, 13. For the grace of God, that bringeth Salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodl•ness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present World; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearance of the great God, and our Saviour Iesus Christ. The sound belief of it is not so much encountred with the doubts of the mind, as the inclinations of their perverse hearts. Now the seeming reasons of partial men are not to be heard, especially as delivered in a scoffing, malicious way; and on the other side, Godliness and Mortification standeth upon such evident reason, as mans unquestionable duty, that it needeth not to be maintained by a lie and manifest falshood: Certainly, they that deny it do not so much reason against this Article of our Christian Faith, as scoff at it; and it is to be imputed to the malignity of their tempers, rather than the acuteness or sharpness of their reason, that they do not believe it. Many things which they urge are a manifest token of the contrary. As the calamities of the good, 2 Thess. 1.4, 5. So that we glory in you for your Faith and Patience in all your Persecutions and tribulations, that you endure, which ⟨p. 6⟩is a manifest token of the righteous Iudgment of God; The perversion of Justice, Eccles. 3.16, 17.
