Characters of them which remain with him God is able out of these Stones to raise up Children unto Abraham And in this he resembles himself to a Potter who takes no care to preserve his broken Pots for any other use of them because having the Moulds by him he can make several Vessels of the same Figure out of one Earth as well as another And tho all the Vessels of the same Mould are not the same in identity of Matter yet being the same in Form they are the same to all uses intents and purposes And hence tho the Dead shall not arise with the same identity of Matter with which they died yet being in the same Form they will not know themselves from themselves being the same to all uses intents and purposes But in this God is so curious an Artist that he keeps a several Character in Heaven for every Figure of Man on Earth by which as the Apostle saith every Seed shall receive its own Body Whereas we like Fac-simile Mechanicks make one Mould serve for a thousand Figures But then as God in the Resurrection is not bound up to use the same Matter neither is he obliged to use a different Matter Whenever the Body to be raised doth remain so intire from Corruption that the form of it is not spoiled God uses that form again as it is without composing any other Matter Thus he did with the Body of Christ according to that Promise Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Grave nor suffer thy holy One to see Corruption And thus Christ did with the Bodies he raised in the days of his Flesh All which I instance still to shew the Insignificancy of Death one way or other in order to Eternal Life and that the Death of Man works no change in him To make this still more plain consider when and where the Predestination of God is executed upon Man Christ said Rejoice in this that your Names are written in the Book of Life Which he would not have commanded Man upon Earth if the knowledg of it which seems to be the top of Man's Ambition were not attainable here Now this being part of the secret Will of God as his own Memorandums of what he intends to do it can't be shewn to Man by Inspection But when God comes to execute this secret Will then it becomes part of his revealed Will which belongs to Man Secret things belong to God but things revealed to us and to our Children And the time of the Execution of this Decree being the instance of our Faith in Christ As many as were ordained to Eternal Life believed We may by this be as sure that our Names are written in the Book of Life as if we had wrote it with our own hands And that this instant of Faith is the time of the execution of this Decree appears by what Christ said to the Thief on the Cross This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise From whence some think themselves obliged to believe a separate Existence of the Soul from the Body by Death For say they something of this Man did immediately go into Paradise and we see his Body remains here Ergo his Soul went Whereas Christ did not speak this of the Person but the State of the Man Christ and he were both under the same State before they were executed which was the Law of Death And that very day they both exchanged this State into the State of Life Christ by his own Death and the Man by Faith in him tho the Person of Christ went one way and his another So from the words of David Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Grave there was a Conception raised of the separate Existence of the Soul For think we the Body of David is in the Grave Ergo his Soul is gone to Heaven by it self But Peter evinced this Doctrine as erroneous by shewing that David spoke prophetically of the Resurrection of Christ in which the word Soul comprehends his whole human Life which did die and rise together And that it is translated Soul is an Anglicism not understood in other Languages which have no other word for Soul but the same which is for Life As 't is usual for some peculiar Countries to have an odd Name for a common thing which is not vulgarly known in any other parts of the same Kingdom See how Man's Life came to him at first God first formed the Figure of Man's Body in common Earth from whence Men also form Figures of one another Then to this Figure God added Life by breathing it into him from himself whereby this inanimate Body became a living one But in this Composition the Spirit is so perfectly mixed with and diffused through the whole Body that we can't now say which is Spirit nor which is Earth but the whole is one intire living Creature As in levened Dough we can't say which is the Leven nor which is the Dough. But God who first infused this Life can extract it out again and leave the Body as it was before this Life was thus put into it And this form of Death God chose for Man Dust thou art and unto Dust shalt thou return God unmakes Man just as he made him He takes him to pieces like a jointed Tool he draws in his Breath to himself and leaves the Lump to the Elements of which it was at first composed which by degrees loses its very Form and takes its place again in common with other Matter And thus the Spirit returns to God that gave it for the remainder of the Spirit is with him But in this return the Spirit of Man maintains no self-existence having surrender'd it self into the Ocean of Life from whence it first flowed When Rivers return into the Sea they are no more Rivers but lose their Name and Property being merged in the Ocean of their original Fountain And yet God doth retain in his Memory the particular Characters or Ideas of every instance of Life which he doth so extract from whence in the day of the restitution of all things every Body shall have its own Spirit and every Spirit it s own Body But to return to my Argument whence I have a little digressed to descant upon this Opinion of the self-existence of the Soul If this Man that was crucified with Christ did immediately become in the same state with him how comes it that he lies still in the Grave while Christ is ascended into the Heavens To this I say that tho this Man's first Faith did thus qualify him for a change of State yet he had not proceeded far enough in this Faith to qualify himself for an immediate Tanslation of his Person but this he must expect with the rest of them who have died in the same Faith with him and who will not now attain that Perfection till after the Resurrection for there 's no Work in the Grave Man is as safe upon his first Faith in
and the Father Lo I come to do thy Will O God In the Volume of the Book it is written of me I will give thee the Heathen for thy Possession and the utmost parts of the Earth for thine Inheritance The first Text tells us what he came to do and in pursuance of what Agreement The other what he was to have for doing it and who he was to have it from Now God being the undoubted Author of Eternal Life there can be no hazard in this Title for want of a right Person to make the Grant which is more than can be said of any Titles amongst Men. 3. The Contents and Consideration That if he became bound we should be made free He gave his Life a Ransom for many Christ well knew what Man stood bound to under the Law of Death And did as well know that if he himself ever came under that Law he must thereby become bound to the same And that if he should come under the Law before he made an agreement previous to it he should be concluded by the Law to suffer under it upon his account and thereby be incapacitated to capitulate with God about it For the Life of a Man attainted as Christ was the first moment of his Birth is forfeited to the Law and therefore after that he could not have been at liberty to treat with God concerning that Law And thereupon he would not become charged with this Law till he had made this Covenant That we that were before charged with it might thereby be discharged from it By which he was to be neither Surety nor Bail for Man For in both these the Principals still remain liable and the Sureties stand only hazarded with them and have a Remedy over against them Which had been a dishonourable Engagement for the Dignity of so great a Person And therefore he offered himself a Ransom or nothing to be delivered in exchange for the Captives whereby he alone stood bound And as such he was accepted I have trodden the Wine-press alone and none of all the People with me And therefore when he was taken there was not a Man taken with him I am Jesus of Nazareth whom ye seek let these therefore go their way And this was the highest Honour that God could put upon him to accept him a Ransom for the whole World And yet this was not an Honour above his Merit for as in Debts by Civil Contract 't is not the Multitude but the Solvency of the Debtors that makes the Payment so in the Laws of Ransom 't is not the Number but the Dignity of the Persons that is valued in the Exchange And hence this Son of Man being more worth than ten thousands of the people his Death was a greater Honour to the Law than if all the World besides had died under it And could Man from hence understand the force of the Covenant of Eternal Life he might see himself discharged from Death in the very moment the Law fell upon Christ which was the instant of his Birth Because Man was to be ipso facto released upon Christ's becoming bound And after that it was no matter to Man whether Christ had ever given Satisfaction to God or not we might have said to God Look thou to that For God by this Covenant having once accepted Christ for a Ransom Man could never after that have been retaken by any Law of Reprizal altho the Ransom had escaped As soon as the Ram was caught in the Thicket the Sacrifice that before lay bound upon the Altar was let loose Not that the coming of Christ in the Flesh was the Satisfaction but God was thereby sure of his Satisfaction For as certain as Christ by his Birth became a living Child in fact so certain did he that moment become a dead Man in Law But yet all that I have hitherto said doth not amount to instate Man into the same Title of Eternal Life which Christ had after his Resurrection Because a meer Ransom doth in it self amount to no more than to restore us to the same Liberty which we had before we were Captive And then this Ransom by Christ would only have reinstated Man into that Law of Life conditional in which Adam stood before the Fall But God having found out this Salvo for his Honour by that Man Christ Jesus he did at the same time find that this would not only do but over-do all that Man had misdone And that this superabundancy might not run in waste God did declare that for this Man should have eternal Life absolute as Christ himself had it And hence Eternal Life is called the Gift of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ over and above our Redemption So that now by this Covenant of Eternal Life we are not only ransomed from that Law under which we fell in Adam but are delivered over into a State and Title which we never had before the Fall viz. that absolute and indefeasible Estate of Eternal Life in which Christ was installed by his Resurrection from the dead And this Redemption from one Law and Deliverance over into another are both done at the same instant without any Interval of Time passing between them As in Conveyances amongst Men the Title vests and devests from one to another by one and the same Act. And hence this Covenant is not called the Covenant of Redemption but the Covenant of Eternal Life as the most worthy Title And therefore he that takes any thing by this Covenant must take Eternal Life or nothing A Believer is never spoken of with a less addition than Eternal Life He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting Life And thus it is in Conveyances among Men whatever is contain'd in the Deed can't be divided but must pass altogether by the Execution of that Deed which as to this now stands next in order 4. The Sealing and Execution for let the Contents of a Writing be what it will it is neither Deed nor Covenant till it is executed This Covenant of Eternal Life being thus formed in Heaven was afterwards sealed and executed by God himself according to all the Forms and Ceremonies of Titles among Men. For God having establish'd Eternal Life by a Law he hath used all the Ceremonies of Law to make a Title to it Every Law prescribes its own Ceremonies by which it is to be executed The Ceremony as I have said by which the Law of Death is executed upon Man is his Birth The Ceremony by which the Jews received the Law of Moses was Circumcision And the Ceremony by which the Covenant of Eternal Life was executed by God is the Blood of Christ And now I am come to that Point that hath puzled the whole World What! Eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of a Man and be saved That this Covenant should be sealed is agreeable to all other Titles amongst Men. But that it should be sealed with the Blood of
abroad that Wisdom is better than Folly Earnest than Jest Love than Hatred Riches than Poverty Health than Sickness A virtuous Woman than a Whore And an honest Man than a Knave And when now and then I cast my Eyes within me I thank God I find Cruelty Covetousness and Envy departed from me I can't envy a Man of Merit because the Labourer is worthy of his Hire And as long as I maintain a perfect Friendship with my self I can be no more a Rival to another plac'd above his Desert than a beautiful Female is to one of her own Sex harder favour'd and finer drest And as I thus envy no Man I can't think my self big enough for any one to envy me But if they do I keep an Answer within my Conscience to all the Hatred and Malice of Man against me They hate me without a Cause Besides this I say no more to any one concerning Religion or Morality either And if any one hath ought of either to say to me whenever they shall please to make that as publick as I have done this I 'll read it But what they shall not think worth their writing I shall not think worth my hearing It is observed in the Mathematicks that the Practice doth not always answer the Theory And that therefore there is no dependance upon the mere Notions of it as they lie in the Brain without putting them together in the form of a Tool or Instrument to see how all things fit Upon which whole sets of thoughts have been lost and the Student set at large again And this made me distrust my own thoughts till I had put them together to see how they would look in the form of an Argument But in doing of this I thank God I have found every Joint and Article to come into its own place and fall in with and sute one another to a hair's breadth beyond my expectation Or else I could not have had the confidence to produce this as an Engine in Divinity to convey Man from Earth to Heaven And to give every one their due this Advantage I have had by Enoch and Elijah That tho neither of them have left the form of their Faith behind them yet their doing the thing before me heartned me on to study out the Invention my self And as I never did nor will desire any Man to confine himself to my Understanding so in making this Inquiry I have set no bounds to my thoughts but the very word of Revelation without regarding the Opinion of other Men about it Not but that there are flights in other Sciences that seem as extravagant to vulgar Apprehensions as this doth and yet they are evincible by Demonstration Every Bungler can do business with bustling and main strength but the perfection of Science is to do the hardest things with the least labour A Mathematician by a right position of his Power at a due distance from the Center will move a weight by the force of one hand which five hundred Men heaving at it all together close upon the Center can't stir And according to this Art it cannot be denied That the whole weight of this Terrestrial Globe is moveable by the strength of a Hair and the force of a Man's Breath only by getting far enough off from the Center before he gives the puff And tho this can't be done by Man for want of a place thus to stand in Yet the demonstration of it to our understanding causes us to adore the Wisdom and Happiness of the Architect of Nature and Ruler of the World who sitting upon the Heavens can reign the Earth with a twined Thread And this prompts us to believe that God can do other impossible things and teach Man to do them too He that believeth on me shall do greater Works than these Not by his own Labour but by putting the Labour-Oar upon God Men may dig and carry till their Hearts ake to remove a Mountain but the Engine of Faith draws down the Power of God which removes it all at once I am not making my self Wings to fly to Heaven with but only making my self ready for that Conveyance which shall be sent me In which I don't pretend any Privilege above other Men that are or will be ready with me Which it seems they say themselves they are not nor shall be till the Resurrection at the last Day But remember that Samuel came up in his old Mantle which makes me think you 'l return much as you went However let us part Friends and every one make the best of his way And if I should lose my self in this untrodden Path of Life I can still find out the beaten Road of Death blindfold And as I would not allure any Man Woman or Child to venture themselves with me till they see my success So their company would do me no good For every one must attain it by their own Faith And if this Faith will do I have it and if it will not do in me it will not do in them for God is no respecter of Persons And yet had I a mind to juggle I would not put the decision upon so blunt a Point I can write and talk too as soft as other Men. With submission to better Judgments and I 'll leave it to you Gentlemen I am but one and I always distrust my self I only hint my Thoughts You 'l please to consider whether you will not think that it may seem to deserve your consideration This is a taking way of speaking But much good may do them that use it I don't desire to take it from them tho 't is the safest way because there can be no advantage taken of it to do themselves any hurt Nor any one else any good But as I have more respect for my self than to trouble the World with common Discourses so I have more reverence for Mankind than to hazard the meanest Figure of it with any Novelty but what I will first pawn my Life to try the Truth or Falshood of it And tho I do own That the very Daring of this Essay is too great an Honour for me to be guilty of yet I know there is that gratitude left in Man that since I am willing to take the shame of my own Mistake they will not begrudg me the result of my success If therefore as I have said before after this I go the way of my Fathers I freely wave that haughty Epitaph Magnis tamen excidit Ausis And instead of that knock under Table That Satan hath beguiled me to play the Fool with my self In which however he hath shewed his Master-piece for I defy the whole Clan of Hell to form another Lie so like to Truth as this is But if I act my Motto and go the way of a Eagle in the Air then I have plaid a Trump upon Death and shew'd my self a Match for the Devil And while I am thus fighting with Death and Hell it looks a little like foul play for Flesh and Blood to interpose themselves against me But if any one hath spight enough to give me a polt thinking to falsify my Faith by taking away my Life I only desire them first to qualify themselves for my Executioners by taking this short Test in their own Consciences Whoever thinks that any thing herein contained is not fair dealing with God and Man and giving the Devil himself his due let him or her burn this Book and cast a Stone at him that wrote it J. Asgill
yet when I say he did not do it voluntarily I don't mean that he did it unwillingly For as he did it with all frankness and generosity of his Will I lay down my Life of my self so he did it with the highest affection of Love to Mankind Greater Love than this hath no Man that he lay down his Life for his Friend But I mean he did not do it purely voluntarily without a necessity of doing it and a Consideration for it First then There was a Necessity upon God himself God told Adam that if he did eat he should die The Devil told Eve that they might eat and not die And these were the first words spoken to Man by God or the Devil upon the truth or falshood whereof the very Beings of them both were to depend for ever For which ever of them could maintain the Truth of his Word against the other he must have been God and the other the Devil And therefore God having turned the Lie upon the Devil he is from thence called a Liar from the beginning and the Father of it and will never be believed again for ever God could not have dispensed with his Word without complementing the Devil with his Godhead in taking the Lie upon himself and this he could not do For God cannot lie without undeifying himself and this he can't do because all his Qualities being of his Essence he can't change them That God cannot change is not a deficiency in his Nature but the perfection of his Essence which can be nothing but himself For as it is the happiness of imperfect Beings to be capable of change in order to be made better so it is the happiness of perfect Beings to be incapable of change whereby to be made worse Man can lie because he can't speak Truth there 's nothing that a Man can say but what he can unsay and falsify by the change of his mind which he can change only because he can't fix it as a Man that hath a broken Arm can turn it every way because he can fix it no way Nothing but an absolute Power can be absolute in any thing therefore Man having no absolute Power can't absolutely determine his own Will every change of which subjects him to a Lie either by falsifying his former Resolutions or his present Inclinations But God having an absolute Power to determine his own Will he could not change it after he had so determined it for what is fix'd can't be changed Wherefore God could not dispense with the Breach of his Law to pardon it Which was not for want of Mercy in God for he hath and doth daily pardon ten thousand times the Sins committed by Man against the moral Law which seem as great Offences as this Because the moral Law hath in it self a defeazance or condition annexed to it at the time of the first delivering of it Except ye repent ye shall perish By which this Law may be fulfilled without a performance of it in specie by doing another thing which is admitted to be done instead of it A defeazance is not the same thing with the thing to be defeated but something collateral to it And thus Repentance which is not a performance of the Moral Law is nevertheless accepted instead of it But in this Law delivered to Adam there was no such condition annexed to it at the first delivery The words are absolute In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die which leaves no room for Repentance Adam did repent but he found no place for it he could not find any words of the Law to which he could apply his Repentance to do him any good And when a Deed hath no defeazance or condition annexed to it at the time of the first delivery it can't be added to it afterwards And hence tho this Law delivered to Adam was at the time of the first delivery a Law of Life and Death yet the Law of Life being ended by breach of the Condition there was then nothing left but the Law of Death which became absolute without any condition And this put God upon a necessity of executing the Sentence of the Law upon Man in specie or making himself a Liar which he could not do and therefore the necessity upon him was absolute Which necessity was all the while a contradiction to his Nature which is Love to Man God is Love And this divided him against himself and laid him under a necessity of finding out an Invention to reconcile his Truth to his Love and his Love to his Truth And this Necessity upon God draw'd a Necessity upon Christ to come and execute this Invention because none could do it but himself Now there being such a Necessity for Christ's assuming the Humane Nature and dying under it there was a Covenant made between him and the Father previous to his coming in the Flesh which is called the Covenant of Eternal Life and is the History of the Scriptures altho it be not set down altogether in any one place Rich Metals and precious Stones don't lie together in heaps above ground but being so valuable when found Men think it worth their while to dig down for them in all places where they have any probability of finding them Then if the way and manner of attaining Eternal Life doth lie in so narrow a Volume as the Bible Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life shall we not think it worth our while to search it through for that precious Stone with a new Name which none can read but they that have it And this is a more pleasant Labour than the search for other Jewels for there we meet with nothing of pleasure or profit till we find the very thing we seek for But in making this enquiry we divert our selves with knowledg all the way we go Nor did God think any one Man or any one Age of the World worthy to have the whole of this Covenant revealed to them all at once He was 4000 Years from Adam to Christ delivering it in Types and Shadows to 62 Generations of Men who passed their Age in that time But having thus prefaced it at sundry times and in divers manners to our Fathers by the Prophets he at last spoke it to us by his Son In which these parts do appear 1. The Date 2. The Parties 3. The Contents and Consideration 4. The Sealing and Execution 5. The Witnesses 6. The Ceremony required of Man whereby to execute it on his part and take the advantage of it 1. The Date This was before the Foundation of the World I was set up from everlasting Before Abraham was I am God who created all things by Jesus Christ the Lamb slain before the Foundation of the World The priority of which Date prevents any preincumbrance that could be made of Eternal Life which is more than can be said of any Titles amongst Men. 2. The Parties It was between him