AN EXACT COLLECTION OF THE WORKS OF Doctor Iackson P. of C. C. C. Oxon Such as were not Published before CHRIST EXERCISING HIS EVERLASTING PRIESTHOOD Mans Freedom from Servitude to Sin effected by Christ sitting at the Right Hand of God and there Officiating as a most Compassionate High-priest in behalf of Sinners OR A TREATISE OF THAT KNOWLEDGE of CHRIST which Consists in the true Estimate or Experimental Valuation of his Death Resurrection and Exercise of his Everlasting Sacerdotal Function in the Heavenly Sanctuarie where he now sitteth at the Right Hand of God the Father THIS ESTIMATE Cannot be rightly made without a Right Understanding of the Primaeval State of Adam Of the Nature of Sin How it first came How it still comes into the World Of Mans Servitude unto Sin Of Free-will How we are sett Free by Christ Of Mortification Election Reprobation All which with other Considerable particulars as of the Use of Reason and Arts in Controversies of Divinitie of Baptism the Lords Supper c. are As an Introduction to Christs Priesthood discoursed on in this Tenth Book of Comments on the Creed AND VSEFVLL TABLES ADDED Verily Verily He that committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin If the Son make you Free then ye shall be Free indeed LONDON Printed by R. Norton for Timothie Garthwait at the little North-Door of S. Pauls Church 1654. THE PREFACE To the Christian and Considerate Reader Grace Mercy c. AS to the Great Richness and Goodly Number of This Author's Writings I shall not here say much having spoken most of what I had to say anent Those two Points in The Account or Preface set before the First Volume of His Workes Printed in Folio the last year And yet Thus much I shall say That I am dayly more and more confirmed in my Judgement There passed upon them being likewise perswaded of This That though it be but the Addition of one Single Unitie to the former Number of his Bookes yet will it prove a Multiplyed Accession of Degrees to the weight and excellency of them I shall perhaps better gratifie The Reader if I can present unto his View any Observables worthy his Notice Concerning the Method and References both of This present and Those his other writings published in His Life-Time And such as I think may be usefull do here follow 1. Of this Great Author's Bookes of Commentaries upon the Creed with their Respective Appendices The Five First I Beleive in God viz. The 1 2 3. Of the Eternal Truth of Scripture c. The 4. Of Justifying Faith The 5. Of the Original of Unbeleif Misbeleif c. Relate unto or Explicate the first Words of the First Article of The Creed 2. His Sixt Book being A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes to which append his Sermons upon 2. God The Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth Chron. 6. 39. upon Jeremie 26. 29. His Treatise of the Signes of The Times and his Sermon upon Luke 21. 1. Referres to the next words of The Creed Now if any shall Object That nigh the One Half of these Treatises and Sermons too are about Divine Providence of which there is no explicit mention in the Creed The Answer is readie and easie So they ought to be it was meet and right they should be so The Good God that made the world with all the comely Ornaments and rich Furniture thereof did neither leave it to it self so soon as it was made nor transmit the Tuition of it to a Guardian or Locum-Tenens but ever did and still doth keep the Government in That Hand which with so great wisdom made the same And His verie Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Son our Saviour's Words Pater meus adhuc operatur teach us to depend upon and trust unto his Constant Providence and support for Conservation And This as a Clew leads or as a Terminus Communis Couples our Faith to his Creative power 3. His Two Sermons the Former of them Call'd Bethlehem and Nazareth upon Jeremie 31. 22. The later upon Galat. 4. 4. enstyled Mankinds Comfort from the weaker sex His Treatise entituled Christ's Answer to Iohn's Question or An Introduction to the Knowledge of Christ His 7. Book of Commentaries upon the Creed Call'd The Knowledge of Christ Jesus Containing The Principles of Christian Theologie And in Jesus Christ his onely Son our Lord which was Conceived by the the Holy Ghost Born of the Virgin Mary qua Talis Christ's Eternal Sonship his Conception Birth and Circumcision in the Fulness of Time being if not the intire Subject yet the Main Scope of these last mentioned parcels respectively referre to that Portion of The Creed wherein we avouch our Faith in The Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ incarnate 4. The Subject of this Great Author's Eighth Book of Commentaries upon The Apostles Creed enstyled Suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified Dead and Buried The Humiliation of the Son of God is the same God and our Lord who was conceived by The Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Marie And The Scope of it is to shew That HEE according to the Scripture before Extant 5. His ninth Book Of the Consecration of the Son of God to his Everlasting Priesthood whereof His Agonie and Bloody Death His Rest in the Grave and in this Authors private opinion see Book 8. pag. 385 He descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the Dead He ascended into Heaven His descension into Hell His Resurrection and Ascension were Respectively the several Giests or Moments some as preparations others as Continuations some as Accomplishments others as Consequents Lookes back somewhat towards the former and forward somewhat toward these Later particulars of the Creed 6. All the Tracts or Books mentioned in the three last Paragraphs for those be They which Directly Destinately and Immediately treat of Christian Theologie qua Talis make but up The First and more Easie Part of The Knowledge of Christ And This to use the Author 's own words Consists in the display of that most admirable Harmonie which ariseth from the Concent of Prophetical with Evangelical Writings or from the Correspondencie of Parallels between Matters of Fact recorded in the Old Testament and the Events answering in proportion to them in the New 7 This Tenth Book not published till now is addressed to The Second part of The Knowledge of Christ which Consists in the True Experimental Valuation of His Vndertakings for mans Redemption viz. Of His taking upon Himself the Form of a Servant of His Death Resurrection and Ascension Of all which several steps or progresses of His O Economie as also of the whole Volume of His other whether Actings or Sufferings for us The most precious Beneficial Effects and saving Influences are Actually and only Derived unto us by the Continued Acts and Constant Exercise of His Everlasting Priesthood executed dayly in The Heavenly Sanctuarie by Him there Sitting
For the full resolution of this Question the Sacred Scriptures are not the sole Competent Judge or Rule Nor doth the determination of it belong to the Cognizance of such as are the best Interpreters of Sacred writ for the true Grammatical or Litteral sence of every proposition contained in it This Case must be reserved to the Schools of Arts or to the certain Rules of true Logick and Philosophy which are the best guides of Reason in all discursive faculties But here I am engaged to do that which in other cases I have endeavoured to avoid that is to make repetition of two great Problems in the Science or Faculty of Theologie heretofore in their several places handled and in some ensuing meditations to be hereafter inculcated The first Problem is In what sense or with what limitations the Scripture is held by all reformed Churches to be the only Rule of Faith The Second In what sense or how far it is true that Recta ratio Reason rectified or rightly managed may be admitted a competent Judge in Controversies belonging to the Faculty of Theologie 2. To the First Problem In what sence the Scripture is held by us to be the sole and competent Rule of Faith and manners I have no more to say for the present then hath been long ago published in the second book of these Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed Sect. 1. Chap. 11. The summe of all in that place delivered is to my best remembrance This No Christian is bound to admit or receive any Doctrine or proposition as an Article of his Faith unlesse it be contained in the Old or New Testament either Totidem verbis or may be Concludently or Demonstratively deduced from some Sacred Maxim or proposition expresly contained in the Canonical Books in the Old and New Testament Such Maxims as are expresly and plainly contained in Scripture Every Christian Man is bound to believe absolutely But such propositions or Conclusions as may be demonstratively inferred from Canonical unquestionable Maxims they only are bound absolutely to believe which have so much use of Reason or skill in Arts as may enable them clearly to discern the Necessity of the Consequence or concludent Proof of the Deduction The ignorant or illiterate are only bound to believe such Deductions Conditionally See the second Book chap. 2. chap. 4 c. or to practise according to their Teachers instructions with such Reservation or under such Conditions as have been expressed in the second and third Book of these Commentaries 3. But what Propositions though expresly contained in Scriptures be Negative or Affirmative Vniversal Indefinite Particular or Singular Or how any or all of these be Convertible whether Absolutely by Accident or by Contraposition or how to Frame a perfect Syllogism out of them These or the like are points which the holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets and other Pen-men of Sacred and Canonical Writ did never undertake or professe to teach The discussion or determination of Questions of this nature must be had from the Rules of Reason sublimated or regulated by good Arts or faculties And for the bettering or Advancing of Natural Reason in this search the most learned or most sanctified Christian this day living should be very unthankful to the only Lord his Redeemer and Sanctifier if he do not acknowledge it as an especial branch of his All-seeing Providence in raising up unto the World such Lights of Nature and Guides of Reason as Aristotle Plato and others of the Ancient Philosophers were True Reason in whomsoever seated Whether in the Natural or Regenerate man unlesse it be advanced and guarded by such Rules of Arts as these Sages of the old World have by Gods Providence invented or bettered can be no fit Judge but being so advanced and guarded is the most Competent Judge of Controversies in Divinity of such Controversies I mean as arise from Consequences or Deductions made by way of use or application out of the uncontroverted Maxims of sacred Writ And if we would sequester Grammatical or Rhetorical Pride and partialitie to the several Professions wherein respectively men glory we might easily discern all or most of those unhappy Controversies which have set the Christian World for these late years in Combustion to have been hatched maintained and nourished by such pretended Favorites of the Spirit as either never had faithfully Learned any true Logick Philosophie or ingenuous Arts or else had utterly forgotten the Rules which they had learned or heard before they begun to handle controversies in Theologie or entertain disputes about them 4. Obliquity can have no other Cause beside that which is the Cause of the Act whence it necessarily results The Hypothesis for whose clearer discussion these last Theses have been premised is this Whether it being once granted or supposed that the Almighty Creator was the Cause either of our mother Eves desire or of her Actual Eating of the Forbidden Fruit or of her delivery of it to her husband or of his taking and eating it though unawares the same Almighty God must not upon like Necessity be acknowledged to be the Author of all the Obliquities which did accompany the positive Acts or did necessarily result from them This is a Case or Species Facti which we cannot determine by the Rule of Faith It must be tried by the undoubted Rules of Logick or better Arts. These be the only perspective Glasses which can help the Eye of Reason to discover the truth or necessity of the Consequence to wit Whether the Almighty Creator being granted to be the Cause of our Mother Eves first Longing after the forbidden Fruit were not the Cause or Author of her sin Now unto any Rational man that can use the help of the forementioned Rules of Arts which serve as prospective Glasses unto the Eye of Reason that usual Distinction between the Cause or Author of the Act and the Cause or Author of the Obliquity which necessarily ensues upon the Act will appear at the first sight to be False or Frivolous yea to imply a manifest Contradiction For Obliquity or whatsoever other Relation can have no Cause at all besides that which is the Cause of the Habit of the Act or Quality whence it necessarily results And in particular that conformity or similitude which the First man did bear to his Almighty Creator did necessarily result from his substance or manhood as it was the work of God undefaced Nor can we search after any other true Cause of the First mans confirmity to God or his integrity besides him who was the Cause of his manhood or of his Existence with such qualifications as by his Creation he was endowed with In like manner whosoever was the cause whether of his coveting or eating of the Tree in the middle of the Garden was the true Cause of that Obliquity or crooked deviation from Gods Law or of that deformity or dissimilitude unto God himself which did necessarily result
on the Right Hand of Majestie on High 'T is plain then And there he sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty that That Part of this Tenth Book which explicitly treates of Christs Priesthood as it supposes Christ Risen and ascended so it relates specially to that portion of the Creed 8 This Glorious High-Priesthood of the Son of God then is The Office of Perfection The completing finishing or Crowning office That Office amongst us which hath it's name from Finalis Concordia is in no proportion so usefull for agreements or Atonements civil betwixt man and man as This Transcendent Priesthood of Christ is Effectual to all that sue to Him with such Fervence and Reverence as he in the dayes of His Flesh did unto His Father for Reconciling us mortal wretches unto God 9 And here now besides what is said above of the great Excellencie of Christs Priesthood The Intertainment of three or four meditations Homogeneal to this Subject and which so Voluntarily offer themselves as that I cannot reject them As 1. That Melchizedek King of Salem probably Shem the Great certainly Some person of Eminent Pietie as well as Dignitie An Ideal patern of all perfections required in both the sons of Oyle King and Priest A Pater sui seculi A Resemblance of the First Adam but A most lively Type of Christ Had the Priesthood conveighd unto him in some Signal Manner so that Text seemes to imply And he was THE PRIEST of the Most High God 2. That Aaron who was also a Type of Christ did not take this Honour upon himself but was most solemnly and satisfactorily called of God thereto and stated himself and his successors therein 3. That our Lord Jesus Christ The Son The Only Son of God and so by natural Inheritance intituled to the Kingdom and Priesthood of the world did not glorifie himself to be made an High priest but had besides the immeasurable Vnction of the Spirit the Office founded upon him by A most Ample Patent In the Volume of the Book it is written and invested in Him and only in Him by The word of the Oath of God Hebr. 7. 20. c. Doth render me wonder-strook at four sorts of men most Active in this Busie Age. 1. At such as think it a Piece of their Christianitie to loath and and despight the Name of Priest as of some pernicious vermin bred out of a Putrid Jewish Carkass whereas it Signifies neither less nor more then a Person intrusted and who is sufficient for that Thing with some part or Branch of Christs Priesthood which is here on earth to be managed and Executed for the Benefit of mankinde even of Him that so Hates the name 2. That the Bishop of that Antient Sea Apostolick should by vertue of such a dimme Commission as cannot be read without Spectacles of Phansie made at Rome Grasp at All in gross as if all Power which Christ Himself doth not personally exercise in the Heavenly Sanctuarie was to pass and be derived by imposition or under the Signature of His Hand and to be shared and dispensed at his discretion 3. That those our Brethren in Christ if yet they will allow us to call them Brethren which have welnigh given over to say Pater Noster who so zealously hate Innovations should contrarie to the Church-Practice of 15. Ages together not only 1. take upon them to Ordain or commissionate men to execute part of Christs Preisthood and 2. to Censure offenders without consent of that Order which hath so fair a Patent to shew and so long Prescription somewhile for the sole Power alwayes for the Main Stroke in Both But even 3. to censure and excommunicate some Persons of that Order and 4. the very Order it self in submission to which when time was they seemed to us to live with a good conscience and in a comfortable Communion with their conforming Brethren which hath in effect proved the cutting off that Goodly Bough whereof themselves were Branches not considering either how ill themselves take it when any thing by others is affirmed that contains in it but a Consequence which will condemn the Practise of the Reformed Churches of these two last Centuries or How ill a Physiognomie the very outward Face of the Act caries as of a Strife managed even unto Blood for Cheif Roomes in Synagogues who should be the greatest or have the Greatest share in Exercising such parts of Christs Priesthood as be concredited to men A thing flat contrarie to the Precepts of Christ and to the humilitie of a Christian whose only strife is to preferre others in Honour before Himself whose onely Ambition is to become like one of those little ones that are weaned from the Breast 4. That the volunteeres of the People who have improved the former Transgression of removing the Ancient Church-Marks which our fathers had set rather the Fathers themselves set for Land-marks and Guides to a total Demolition casting off the sons who had cast out their Fathers and the Branches which had pluckt up their own Roots and so succeeding both as Augmenters and Revengers of the sin especially that any which among them pretend to the Fear of God and Love our Great High-Priest should not scruple at all to execrate all consecration of Persons to serve in Christ's stead and yet Dubb themselves officers when as God knowes they be as far from Abilities to discharge as they are from Authoritie to undertake the duty The Catechizing of their own children and servants in their own private Families and whetting upon them the Confessed Duties of Christianitie Humblness of mind Meekness of Spirit Puritie of Heart c. Being a task large enough for Better Qualifications then the common sort of men generally Have He that searches the hearts knows This is not spoken out of envie at the people of God I could wish all of them were Prophets and my self the most ignorant man in the world not that I would know less then I do but have all others know more then my self The sence of my deep unworthiness to be numbred among those that have obtained a lesse lower part in the Ministery works a remorse for entring though by the right Door yet so praeproperè into it and expresses from me this profession That if it were now to do I should haply as Thales did in another case either find my self too young a novice or too old a Doater to put my shoulders under so formidable though honourable a weight of trust and care 10. When I have besought three of those sorts concerned in these particulars with all the Humilitie and meekness their charitie can imagin in a Dissenting Brother and by the Bowels of mercy in our most Compassionate High-priest Redire ad Cor to take these things into serious thoughts without prejudging their Conscience by and sinister considerations and when I have made supplication to the Almighty who Commanded light to shine out Darkness That
servant yet so that the Brute might have the use not the Excesse of his Masters Crib might be strong to Labour though not to lust But farre more God knowes are Ventris Mancipia Slaves that pay tribute of all Creatures in kinde to their Bellie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil says Hom. 24. Aâ—d subservient to S. Pauls end there is a medicinal Mortification Narcoticks in this kind might be useful Any Bodily Pain Dolor is a good Physical help against ordinary Paroxisms of Lust So is Labor or taking pains Otia si tollas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Diogenes and if love be the Businesse of Holy-day men or Idle Persons Honest Imployment is a fit Pin to drive it out Lastly there is a Moral Mortification by Rules of Reason For surely Reason is not disenabled by being a Forma Informans or in the same soul and subject with sense that it cannot master the lower soule in Man as well as it can do the Appetite of Bruits where at best it Resembles but an Assistent or external Form I have yet one thing to do and that is to Amolish the suspition of praysing much more of vending what has been long a-broach such spoyling Philosophie as in in its Essence includes Enmity to the Ineffable and Free saving Grace of God in Christ Jesus My Answer to them that examine me anent that Point is This. If the Apologizer offend who will make a Defence for him If I build up what I pretend and ought to destroy I make my self a double Transgressor having as bountifully as many others been offerd and dayly needing more extraordinary influx of Grace then any other does Lord keep thy servant from Prides and Presumptuous sins He that once dares say with Mezentius Dextra mihi Deus est or the Epicurean Porker Animum aequum mî ipse parabo My own Right hand shall bring Salvation will soon fall from one wickednesse to an other from Trust in himself to deny or Defye God into an impudent mind or Gyant-like temper De Ira. lib. 1. in fine to cry as Seneca says Caligula did to Jove when it thunderd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord God of Gods he knoweth and let all Israel know that though I have cuâ— up in the Wolds of Gentilism and layd together a Turf or two it is not with intent to make an Altar thereof much lesse to proclaim them for such Sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased Yet if any will say that I have put fire thereon and that they see it Flame Ex Cinere Ethnicorum flat Lixivium Christianorum I assure them I will make no other use of the Ashes but to make a Lee to besprinkle and besmart my own and the eyes of such other sluggish Christians lest whilst we sleep these Philosophers get Heaven before us I have scraped up these Crusts or Limbs of Antiquity to try 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by these foolish people or Natures Wise men I might anger my own flesh into a Godly Jealousie or Emulation to outstrip them as far in proportion as our Means excel theirs And if I have not rather done it for Fear of this thing That these poor Ghosts or Corpses of Vertues Heathen as well as persons should rise in Judgement and condem us Christians who care not to adorn our holy Profession with such not in any degree of proportion such Good Works as the Primitive Christian Worthies did From whose Heroical Degrees of Vertue we are degenerated as farre as Pigmies are from the Gyants of old Not by Reason of any Wane or decay of the Grace of God as if that were feebler now then when coming forth as a Bridegroom of Beauty or Gyant of strength it begun first to Reign through righteousness or was at first shed abroad in the hearts of the faithfull But that we a Generation of Formal sinfull Men by making God to serve with onr sins and his Spirit to ' tend and wait till we were pleased to be weary of them have grieved that holy Spirit and what by receiving the Grace of God in vain what by turning it into Laciviousnesse have vex't and quench't the same To do these Gentle Vertues right then and give them their due for it is not fit Virtutes invertere Many most almost all the forementioned were Good for the Matter Substance Bulk Being the Things of the Law Many of them were sparklings of the light of Nature which like Glow-worms made some shew in the night Apol. Cap. 27 in Tertullians Hyperbole Testimonia animae naturaliter Christianae Dictates or Notions of Conscience the Humane Spirit or Lamp of the Lord Satisfac conscientiae non famae sequatur mala dum benè merearis Sen. de Ira. L. 3. c. 41. These Egyptian Jewels were Ornaments to the Persons that wore them and worth our Borrowing and Polishing and Consecrating towards the Adorning of the Tabernacle They had some good Influence upon the Generations and Communities where they were Acted Contra. Jul. Pelag. Lib. 4. Cap. 3. And as they were not effected without Gods good Providence as St. Austin observes that all the Various dispositions or Temperaments of Men are not so they passed not without some notice taken by his Bounty or Temporal Reward given them by God And at the Great Day of Recompenses shall have considerable Allowance or abatement as to Degrees of Punishment Minus enim Fabricius quam Catilina punietur non quia iste bonus sed quia ille magis malus Ibid. minus impius quam Catilina Fabricius non veras virtutes habendo sed à veris non plurimùm Deviando So S. Austin and Mr. Hooker of Cambridge has to my remembrance a very sad saying to that purpose and not to be gainsaid The Pagan and the Philosopher shall have a cool summer Parlour in Hell in comparison of the Debauch't Christian But we have a surer Word of the Great Prophets it shall be more easy for Sidon and Sodom two sinks of sin then for Chorazin and Capernaum Two despisers of Grace O that we could believe what strange unconceivable Confusion will seaze upon the Belial Christian when he shall see the Queen of the South and men of Nineveh Condemn the Jew and hear the Pythagorean and Epicurean impanneld into one Jurie sentence the Gracelesse vile Christian. When we shall see Christians damn'd for cheating one another out of Tullies Offices and subtile Seraphical Schollars for ill manners sentenced without Book out of the Law written in the hearts of Analphabet Idiots when it would be counted a favour Farre above Dives's desire if God would grant it Sit Animamea cum Philosophis All which in effect shall be if we be not more free from Vice or not better Vertued then these forementioned Philosophers were whose works as they were done and raised up so are their writings preserved by Gods Providence to yeild us provoking Examples to imitate and by the help of Gods Grace
C. 18. 19. 20. has a deal to this purpose Errat siquis existimat servitutem in totum hominem descendere Pars melior ejus excepta est See Macrob. Corpus adscriptum Domino mens sui â—uris libera Comes caelestibus exeat Epist 31. Animus bonus Sat. l. 1. c. 7. Deus in humano Corpore Hic tam in servum potest cadere quam in Rom Equitem Quid eques Rom. quid libertinus quid servus nomina ex ambitione aut injuria nata And Epist 47. Ego non ministeriis serves aestimabo sed moribus Servus est sed liber animo Servus est imò Conservus Servus est quis non alius libidini servit alius avaritiae Ambitioni alius Dabo Consularem aniculae servientem divitem ancillulae nobiles juvenes mancipia mimorum superbos osculantes manus servorum Alienorum Sâ—ltus Equum Empturus stratum tantùm fraenos Stultissimus qut hominem ex conditione quae vestis est aestimat The Spartan Youth used this freedom preposlerously when stomaching the disingenuity of his Masters Command to give him an Vrinal he went up to the Garreâ— and threw himself headlong Diogenes * Laert. lib. 6. asserted this liberty even while he was a Prisoner to the Pirate Scirpalus and in Crete upon sale to Xeniades the Fine Corimhia◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he desired to be sold unto saying for so he guessed seeing him passe by in such a Dresse or Garb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That man needs a Master As before he had bidden the Praeco Cry Who will buy a Master saying That he knew How to Rule men and so it seems he did for Xeniades that bought him made him Tutor to his Sons and Ruler of all his house and joyed strangely in the Bargainâ—saying ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that some good Genius or Angel was come into his House and when Diogenes's friends would have redeemed Him he said they were Fond-men Lions were not Servants to their Keepers Keepers were Servants to the Lions And That Sèrvants obeyed Men-Masters but ill Masters were worse Servants to Lust So a Spartan in Plut. Lac. Apoph sufferd not the Bel-man to Cry who will buy a Slave ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou cursed wretch said he Cry who will buy a Captive ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph may be sold and serve Read Epictetus Arriani and see the Freedom of a Servant Naamans Maid may be Captive or taken but Slaverie in Grain cannot be without Vice nor Genuine Freedom with it 5. Note referrs to Chap. 8. Pag. 3019. c. last Marginal note Heathens Testimonies of Original Sin Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur Optimus ille est Qui minimis urgetur denique teipsam Concute numqua tibi vitiorum inseverit olim Natura Hor. Serm. l. 1. Sat. 3. Damnatos tamen ad mores natura recurrit Fixa nescia mutari Juv. Sat. 13. v. 240. Parcendum Teneris nondum implevere Medullas Nequitiae mala nativae Idem Sat. 14. v. 216. Vnicuique dedit vitium natura creato Propert. It 's true indeed Aristotle says in his 3. Book de Anima that the Human soul is like a white Paper or table-Table-Book that has nothing written in and in the 2. Ethic. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that we are born as it were in an Indifferencie or middle Temper Yet this in all Reason can but be meant of Moral Habits or Personal qualifications which are to be got only by Custom And the care he would have taken for Young-ones Education 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shews that he was affraid of some secret Biass or Taint and chiefly that of pleasure which he Cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Austin 7. Tom. 4. l. contra Jul. c-12 Quotes Tullie in his 3. Book de Republica Complaining Hominem non ut à matre sed ut â noverca natura editum in vitam corpore nudo fragili infirmo animo autem anxio ad molestias humili ad timores molli ad Labores prono ad libidines in quo tamen tanquam obrutus quidam divinus ignis ingenij mentis in Hortensius Thus. Quis nisi gurges quis bona mente praeditus non mallet nullas omnino nobis à natura voluptates datas and afterward thus That soul and body were put together as a living man and a dead Sophocles Censures Lust as a Raging Tyrant saying Libenter profugi illinc tanquam ex aliqua furiosa Dominatione Val. Max. L. 4. c. 3. 6. Note To p. 3023. He that minds to see more of the Ancients Opinions about Original sin Let him Read S. Austin Cont. Julian l. 1. where divers Fathers be Cited about that Head 7. Note To Chap. 9. P. 3024. The Margin Seneca de Clement l. 1. c. 23. Videbis Ea saepè committi quae saepè vindicantur Pater tuus Claudius plures intra quinquennium Culleo insuit quam omnibus seculis insutos accepimus Multò minùs audebant liberi nefas ultimum admittere quamdiu sine Lege crimen suit Prudentissimi viri maluerunt velut incredible scelus ultra audaciam positum praeterire quà m dum vindicant ostendere posse fieri Itaque parricidae cum lege Caeperunt illis facinus paena monstravit Natura Contumax in Contrarium atque arduum nitens And so Seneca De Benef. l. 3. c. 16. says Nulla virum habet foemina nisi ut adulterum irritet Quad Licet ingratum est quod non licet acriùs urget Quicquidservatur cupimus magis ipsáque furem Praeda vocat 8. Note To Pag. 3073. The Story of Alexander Pheraeus is in Plutarchs 2. Orat. de Fortun. Alexand. Magni 9. Note To P. 3074. The Storie of Pacuvius Calavius is in Livies 23. Book or as some Count Decad. 3. lib. 3. 10. Note To P. 3081. the words of S. Chrysostom toucht in the Margin if they be surely his are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. Note To P. 3083. Ipsaque Tellus They be Virgils Georg. l. 1. Ante Jovem nulli subigebant arva Coloni Nec signare solum aut partiri Limite Campum Fas erat in medium quaerebant ipsaque Tellus Omnia liberius nullo poscente ferebat All these referre to the Five precedent Sections which the Reader if he please may take for the whole tenth Book And reckon what follows betwixt this and the Eleventh for the Appendix spoken of by the Authour in the 35. Chapter and mentioned in the Marginal note there Or else he may count on as for the better help to memorie it is placed because of the orderly disposition and nearness of the matter coming most Patly and fitly in it is numbred the Sixth Section of the tenth Book An Appendix or Sixt Section Concerning the Limitation of these Two Propositions Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye if through the Spirit ye do Mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live 1. BOth
this Resolution or Determination in the Point proposed was intimated before the whole strength of it relyes upon those places of Scripture wherein it is said He that continues unto the End shall be saved or We are partakers of Christ and his promises if we Continue the Beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the End But though it be True that no man which falls off from the Spirit unto the Flesh before the End of his bodily Life can be partaker of the promises yet is it never said That no man is or can be so confirmed in Grace before the End of his life that he cannot Totally or finally fall As for that Speech frequent in Scripture He that continues unto the End c. it doth not so punctually point out the End of Life as it doth the End or just Measure of this Duty here enjoyned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Language of the Holy Ghost oftimes signifies as much as ad victoriam and denotes that point of time wherein we get the Victory or Conquest over the Flesh or other enemies of the Spirit And the Apostles words Hebr. 3. 14. may well beare this Interpretation if we hold the beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the End That is unto the End or full Measure of our Confidence And all the glorious promises which are made unto such as continue unto the End are as often made and conceived in this Tenour To him that overcomes So it is Revel 3. 5. He that overcometh the same shall be cloathed in white raiment and I will not blot out his Name out of the Book of Life but I will confesse his Name before my Father and before his Angels And again ver 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the Name of my God and the Name of the City of my God which is New Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from my God And the writing of this Name of Jerusalem which cometh down from heaven upon men imports it shall be thus written whilest they live here on earth or whilest it comes down to them not when they ascend in soul unto it And when S. Paul saith that the Names of Clement and other his Fellow-Labourers were written in the Book of Life Phil. 4. 3. Questionlesse his meaning is that they were so written in it that they should never be blotted out and yet were they so written long before they dyed I saw saith S. John the dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Books according to their works Rev. 20. 12. But although men in this Life may attain unto an Immutable estate of Grace yet many finally misse of this Estate because they know not where to find themselves or in what Estate or Condition they should for the Present rank or esteem themselves 11 Some there be which either Expresly or by Inevitable Consequence of what they expresly affirme divide Mankind as formally into Reprobates and Elect The division of all mankind into Elect and Reprobates not right as Philosophers do Substances into Corporeal and Incorporeal By this kind of Division were it sound and Orthodoxal every man from his birth unto his death should be either a Reprobate or One Elect. Now were this Doctrine true We that are Christs Messengers should be at a Non-plus either for administring Comfort to our hearers in trouble of Conscience or for preventing and asswaging Presumption in such as are not conscious of any grosser Sin or not dejected by the Thundring Threats of Gods Law The Truth is There be Three Estates or Conditions of Men not only in Generall but of every man in particular which finally attains unto Salvation First The Estate or Condition of Man as he is the son of Adam For every man as he is the son of Adam is the son of wrath Second The Estate or Condition of Man as he is reconciled to God and admitted into the Priviledge of his Son by Baptisme or ingraftment into his Mystical Body the Church Third The Estate or Condition of Compleat Regeneration or of Election The First estate or condition is the Terminus à quo Eternal Salvation or admission into the Everlasting State of Bliss is the Terminus ad quem of every True Christians Progresse The Two Estates Intermediate that is the Estate of the Sons of God in General by Baptism and the Estate of Election which we have in this Life are the Two several Degrees or steps of our Progress in Christianity But in as much as all men be not at all times either in the Estate of Election or Reprobation and yet all in the end become either Sheep or Goats we must observe Foure Estates of men in General Four Estates of men in general The First The Estate of the Sons of Wrath. The Second The Estate of Reprobates The Third the estate of the Sons of God by Adoption or Baptism The Fourth The estate of the elect or compleatly Regenerate 12. That there is a Difference between the estate or Condition of the Sons of Wrath and the estate of absolute Reprobation A difference likewise between the Estate or Condition of the Sons of God the Estate of Condition of the Elect may be Demonstrated form the several Estates or Conditions of the First Man Adam in his First estate was the Son of God yet not then in the estate of election for so he could not have fallen so foully as he did After his Fall he was in the Sate or Condition of a Son of Wrath Yet not in the estate or condition of absolute Reprobation for so he could not have attained unto the estate of election or Salvation So then every Reprobate is the Son of Wrath but every Son of Wrath is not a Reprobate Every elect Person or every man after election is the Son of God but every Son of God is not in the number of the elect The Award allotted to every one of these estates is either an Act of Mercy or of Iustice Divine But unto the individual Nature or Persons of men no effect of Justice or Mercy can be awarded And therefore the Individual entity or Nature of Man cannot be the Immediate Object of the Divine Decree No part of misery can be determined upon any man or Decreed against him before he be the Son of wrath or a Reprobate For God doth never punish where he is not displeased and displeased he cannot be with our meer Natures Now to be the Son of Wrath in the lowest degree supposeth some work of Satan wrought in the party which is the Son of Wrath That only makes him the Son of Wrath. Adam could not have become the Son of Wrath unlesse he
hath The words cited in the following Chapter See Israels Fast printed in the year 1628. which is owned by Mr. Burtons Name sub-printed Though neither the Printer nor the Place where it was Printed be set down See also The Narration of Mr. H. Burton his Life written by Himself and Printed in London 1643. The Printers name is not there set down in the fift Page of which Book he owns The Book styled Israels Fast and says it was published at a General Fast CHAPTER XXXIX Dr. JACKSON'S VINDICATION of himself written above twenty years agoe OR A Serious Answer to Mr. Burtons Exception taken against a Passage in his Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes AGainst A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes lately published by me some Exceptions have been taken many sought as if it did open a Gap unto Arminianism And yet I have not had the happiness to know either what Point of Arminianism they be which I am suspected to favour or the particular Proposition in that Treatise upon which the Indefinite or confused Suspition is grounded Only thus far I have been beholden unto One man that it hath pleased him to avouch a quarel against One Passage in my Book with subscription of his Name And it is expected by some but by few of my good Friends that I should give him a Serious Answer For my own part I have ever held it a point not of Folly only but of Cowardise and Inhumanity to accept a Challenge from a man desperately set to wast his spirits to spend his strength to wound himself and the Cause he undertakes by a long and furious fight with his own shadow before he can finde the way into the appointed Field Wherefore leaving him with his Assistants and Abettors to wrastle or combat with their own Imaginations which as I see will find them Play enough and make the Enemies of that Religion which they would profess if they knew how too much Sport I shall craveleave Three things proposed First To unfold this mans Notorious Falsification of my Assertion Secondly to shew the Orthodoxall Truth of that Assertion which he falsifieth with the dangerous and Unchristian Consequences of the Proposition Contradictory unto it Thirdly To make it appear how deeply it concerns every Loyall member of the Church and Commonweal of England especially such as are engaged with me to maintain the Religion which we all profess against the Doctrine of the Church of Rome to prevent the further speading of that rigid Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation as it is held by most if not by all which have hitherto excepted against the forementioned Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes 2. The first Exception which to my knowledge was taken against it was in a Book entitled Israels Fast dedicated to the Royal Ioshua and Loyal Elders of Israel now happily assembled in Parliament In the Epistle before that Book he hath Verbatim These Words These Neutralizers or Popish Arminians or Arminian Papists 〈◊〉 what you will under the name of the Church of England dare vent any Arminian Heresie As in a Book lately printed by Authority too there is This most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie That there is a Goodnesse Objective In the Creature which in Order of Nature is precedent to the Act or exercise of Gods Will thus by necessary Consequence making the Creature a God having a Self-Being Independent but only upon Gods bare Prescience upon which and not upon that Supream Cause of Causes Gods Will he hangeth the Being and well-being of all the Creatures And in the Margin of that Epistle just over against the words last quoted he hath these words also Gods eternal and blessed Will Providence Wisdom Free Grace Glory and consequently his whole Essence overturned by an Arminian Trick and that also backed with abused Authority 3. If the Exhibiter of this Complaint will acquit himself from a double slander he must as I conceive the course of all Justice requireth prove these Two points following First That the Proposition which he chargeth with most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie is or hath been maintained by Arminius or some Arminian Secondly That the same Proposition hath been uttered or maintained by me That Arminius or any Arminian did ever in writing or otherwise deliver or mantain that Proposition which this Objector hath censured for a most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie is more then I know more then I can suspect and more I think then the Author of this Accusation can prove unlesse his meaning be that any absurd or Blasphemous Opinion may justly be fathered upon Arminius or ascribed unto the Arminians And if this be his meaning he will prove him self to be a more Gross Arminian Heretick then those whom he only suspects but proves nothing of most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie For I never heard or read that Proposition which he chargeth with most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie delivered by any save only by the Author of the forementioned Epistle to the Royal Joshua and Loyal Elders of Israel 4. This Proposition following I acknowledge to be mine and have avouched it in A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes Cap. 13. Par. 3. Pag. in quarto 149. As there is a Logical Possibility presupposed to the working of the Almighty Power so there is a Goodnesse Objective precedent in order of Nature to the Act or exercise of his Will That either this Logical Possibility which is presupposed to the working of the Almighty Power or the Objective Goodness which is precedent in order of Nature to the Act or exercise of Gods Will should be IN THE CREATVRE I never writ I never said I never was so uncharitable as to think that any man in his right wits had ever said or writ it untill I read it in the forecited Epistle without any Distinction of Letter Point or Parenthesis to notifie whether these words IN THE CREATVRE were conteined in my Proposition or inserted by the Author of that Epistle out of some Probable Collections from Words or Circumstances precedent that my meaning was as he doth make it though my words were not so as he relates them 5. That the Author of this Epistle might conceive such a Proposition Charity may attribute it to his Ignorance in matters handled in that Chapter wherein my former Proposition is contained But why he should insert these words In the Creature into the Proposition by me delivered Christian charitie it self which is not suspitious which Believeth all things that may without imputation of folly be believed cannot attribute it to his Ignorance but to his Passion or to his too much credulitie unto others who suggested the former Proposition unto him as worthie of a Parliamentarie Censure or to his zeal to have me censured as one of the Achans that trouble Israel But what he can say for himself in excuse of this palpable Falsification of my words I leave to them who have just cause and full Authoritie to examine him
those whose doctrin they Follow My purpose is onely to request my Brethren of the Church of England however for the present they stand affected in these poynts to take it into more deep and Logical Consideration then hitherto it hath been taken by English Preachers or Writers Whether According to Forrain Rigid Tenets of Predestination or of Gods absolute irrespective Decree for Election and Reprobation which came to us English at the third hand as from Zwinglius c. which They had at the first from some antient Romish Schoolemen it be possible for us or them to maintain by any rational way That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ either now is or hath been a true Priest or Sacrificer rather then a meer Sacrifice predestinated from eternitie for takeing away the sinnes of the Elect onely Or whether such as They Term Elect from Eternitie needed any Priest at all besides God the Father who did destinate his Onely Son to be a Sacrifice or a mean necessary though subordinate for effecting the principal or utmost end of his Decree to wit his own Glory by the salvation of the Elect My poor Capacitie for these 34. yeares wherein I have lived a Minister or Priest of the Church of England could never nor yet can find any tolerable answer or Evasion to free such as maintaine the often-mentioned Rigid Decree from these Two Imputations The One That they cannot truely or by any rational way acknowledge Christ to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedec The Other That they cannot acknowledge him to be properly instyled such a Judge as in our Creed we profess him to be They will at length be enforced to borrow a more fit expression of his Office from our Sister-Nation and instyle him to be the Doomester or Doomesman of the Quick and of the Dead that is an Inferior Officer which hath no hand or Vote in the course of Justice for Life and Death but onely a power or delegated authoritie to read or pronounce the sentence which the Judge or Cheif Officer of State had written before though not so long before or in such indeleble Characters as the Doom which our Saviour Christ shall pronounce upon Every man at the Great day of his appearance was written in the life-Life-books of life and death everlasting My exhortation unto every man amongst us which beleive in his name shall be that of the Learned and pious Hemingius That we seek not our assurance of Faith or hope in Parcarum Tabulis which were irreversibly written before any part of the world was made if we may beleive some heathen poets or Stoicks but in Gods promises made to Abraham and to be performed by Jesus Christ as he is now our High-Priest and King and as the Supream Judge of Quick and Dead 3. Having thus farr endeavoured to sever the dross or wipe off the Aspersions or such meaner stuffe as have been cast upon or mingled themselves with that Golden Foundation layd by our Apostle Hebr. 9. My next Addressment must be to Dilate or Diduct the Precious Metal contained in it or in the Third Parallel proposed The Parallel was between the anniversarie Sacrifices of Attonement the Sacrifices of the Red Cow and the One Sacrifice offered Once for all by our Everlasting High-Priest His Sacrifice is truely instyled Everlasting not for this reason alone that it was of Infinite Value or a full price for purchasing the Everlasting Redemption of man-kind but in this respect also that it hath an Everlasting Efficacie for the dayly remission of actual sinnes for purifying the Hearts and Consciences of all such as in Faith dayly pray unto the Father in the name and mediation of his only Son who is likewise rightly instyled an Everlasting Priest not in regard onely that he is now altogether immortal but more especially in that he Perpetually executeth the Office of the High Priesthood by making Continual Intercession for us by accomplishing our Reconciliation unto the Godhead All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the Ministerie of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath commited unto Vs the word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. This Reconciliation Quâ Deus nos sibi reconciliavit was wrought by Christ whilest he went about on earth doing good and by his sufferings upon the Cross c. The Other part of our Reconciliation or reconciliation taken in the Passive Sense Quâ nos Deo reconciliamur is dayly wrought in true Beleivers by this our High-Priest and so wrought by the continuated participation of his Spirit by the interposed renovations or nourishments of that Grace which immediatly descendes to us from the sweet influence of this Sun of righteousness now sitting more Glorious by much in his heavenly Tabernacle then the visible Sun in its Sphere And of This Part of Reconciliation or of Reconciliation in the Passive Sense must that of our Apostle be understood Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 20 21. 4. He that desires to guesse aright at the Eminencie of Christs Priest-hood and Sacrifice in respect of the Aaronical or Legal Services or to take such an indefinite Estimate of both as may advance his Meditations upon The knowledge of Christ crucified and ascended into the heaven of heavens may follow the Scale set by Astronomers betwixt the space of Local distances on earth and the space of the highest Coelestial Orbes or Spheres which answer in proportion to them alwaies allowing a greater Excesse of Proportion between the Excellencie of Christs Priesthood beyond Aarons or Melchisedecks then Astronomers allot betwixt the space of so many Degrees in the heavens and so many miles on earth 5. The Legal Priests or sacrificers were at the same time and by succession Many their Sacrifices or Services were both for their kinds or matter and for the solemn manner of their offerings More The several kinds of their sacrifices and Solemnities I leave unto the Readers search this being an Argument whereof many have written copiously enough in most modern Churches It will be enough for me to observe or call thus much to the Readers Remembrance that all the Offices or Services of Legal Priests were fully accomplished in the Consecration of the Son of God to be our Everlasting High Priest That all their Offerings and Sacrifices whether bloudy or unbloudy whether of Vegetables as of herbs or green Eares of Corn of meal of Loaves whether anniversary or upon special occasions were more then accomplished in his Own Once offering of himself The All-sufficiencie of this his Oblation of himself will best appear from
A Christian Re-union of hearts and minds may be the only Revenge and speedy Conclusion of all our Differings I shall proceed to another observation and'tis This. That the eternal God should fix such a Notable Seal upon Christs Priesthood as His Oath is That Saint Paul should be so Copious and Demonstrative in the Argument as he is And yet that there should be so little notice taken of it by our Divines I must profess both mine own ignorance in the Point and mine unacquaintedness with our English writers to be such that were I at the writing hereof Confined within a Circle till I had given in mine Answer to this Question What English Divine had first writt about Christ's Priesthood I must See his 9. Book Printed 1638. to my knowledge say This Authour From his former Book I had the first and from This a more full discovery of the Excellent Mysteries and Comforts conteined in it 11. And though the wonder be the greater that there should be such a Vacuitie or silence about this High Business among those whose every third word in their popular Discourses is The Lord Jesus Christ who so profess the Knowledge of Christ as if the Monopolie was ingrossed in their Brests it was to dye with them unless learned from them Yet will it be much the less wonderfull when it shall be considered That some of the Doctrines of later times Viz. That the Issues of life and death Everlasting are so past decreed and sealed from Eternitie that no man ever had any possibilitie to attain the Point opposite to that whereat he actually doth arrive That some mens sinnes be remitted not only before they be repented of but before they be Committed c. Do by certain though perhaps unwitting Consequences Render Christ's Priesthood useless and superfluous For what need or use can there be imagined of an Office or Agencie to procure that which cannot but be o◠to mediate for that which is certainly already dispatched In such supposed predetermination Instrumentalitie may have place Officiation can have none 12. But supposing what I wish Every Reader as well or better affected to and more intelligent of the benefits of Christs priesthood then the prefacer is or the Authour himself was Yet is this no securitie but Fault wil be found with the Authour for leading the Reader through a wearie Wilderness rather then per viam Compendij by the nearest avenue of Approach to the Throne of Our Most Gratious High-priest by the long and Thornie wayes of Questions about Adam's First Estate His Actual our Original Actual and Habitual Sin and Servitude thereto about the poor pittance or Scantling of Freewill left us of Mortification c. Let me pray such an One to Consider That it was as impossible for the Authour fruitfully to display the Benefits of Christs Priesthood before he had treated of Those Particulars as it is for the reader to obtaine those Benefits which either Does not or Cares not to understand his own need of them They that be whole will sooner seek to the Physician then he that hath no sense of the venemous Taint or Pestilential ulcer of sin Original which more or less is upon the Body or in the flesh of every mothers son the purest Saint on Earth not excepted will sue to Christ for Cleansing there-from And yet is the daily washing of his feet †Pes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie that part on which we bestow more abundant Comliness and reverence See Muretus his variae Lect. Lib. 3. Cap. 14. Feet in the fowlest sense as needfull to him that walks the cleanest most Circumspectly upon the face of the Earth as is his daily Bread And it is our daily want of This Our most Gratious High-priests Office that till we see him as He is doth best Commend The precious benefits Blessing and washing c. to be received at His hands 13. Well worth the labour then of this Great Authour it was to spend the Five First Sections in handling those particulars with purpose to make them a Fair Introduction to the Main Point The Priesthood of Christ And not to Dissemble with the Reader perhaps He intended no more then Those Five for the Ingredients or Consistencie of the Tenth Book Purposing to subjoyn all or most of those pieces which make up the Sixt Section which be a companie of Elaborate and Choice Tracts as an Appendix to not as members of the Book And I had once thought to have Complyed with mine own apprehension of this intended Method and put them in some place of neutralitie betwixt the Books But when upon Consideration I found that this Disposal would prove confusive inconvenient to the reader at least to him that had not a more Methodical Head then my self I resolved to place them as they now stand And truely they fall in so orderly and so Decently indent with the precedent and following Sections that I repent me of nothing so much in this work as of some marginal notes which by these presents I revoke inspersed here and there by me Timorous because I had the Copie dropping and by Piece-meal that the parts would not Symmetrize so well as I hope they will be found to Do. 14. And this I think was agreeable in the General to the Authours mind who if he had made only the five first Sections the Constitutives of the 10. Book and put what concernes The Priesthood in the 11. or elswhere would probably have put them forth together he having expressed himself to think it A Decorum that the Plaster should go along with the sore And the rather so because he intended and he hath been adaequate to his promise to lance that festered wound or Complication of wounds of Human Nature deeper then most others had done which had treated before him of Sin Original and Mans Servitude to Sin 15. This Preface wil be grown aboue the just stature of a Preface when I shall have told the Reader these 4. Particulars 1. That of the Tracts now published divers were written 15 others 30. more years ago This will both give a reason why in some of them The old Translation is used secure some passages at which otherwise offence might be taken which he that shall now do after he is told thus much will Commend the Author by Falting him enhance his words into the notion of prophesie 2. That the reason why the Authours 4. 5. 6. c. Books were not printed in Sequence is because the owner of the Copies may not as yet without great damage either consent that another man should or afford to do it Himself So that we were inforced to fall upon this Tenth which may be more acceptable to the Reader by being new and no less beneficial seeing He may serve himself of the Quarto ones which in the Interim are parable 3. And when God shall give opportunitie to print the
Quarto's in this Volume we must tell the Reader before hand that the sixt Book of Divine Essence Attributes Providence will not administer to him either the delight or the profit we intended unless God move the hearts of them that have the MS. Copie of the Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Forewarnings betokening Blood which certainly was perfected by the Authour lent or lost in his life time to produce it that it may be annexed to the sixt Book to which of due it appertaines The 4. Particular will give the Reader notice what Subject Matters he is to expect handled in the 11. Book But before we name them he must be reminded that the Authour had in the 9. Book come as farre as the Article of Christs Ascension reckoning Inclusivé in the 39. Chapter of that Book had tackt That Article to the next of His Session at the Right-Hand of God Now the respective Ends or Effects of Christs Ascension into heaven and of His Session at the Right-Hand of Majestie were some of them of Immediate and if I may so say of a Transient dispatch And such I take it were His prepareing a place for his Elect Ones His Consecrating the heavenly Sanctuarie and setting open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers His sending the Holy Ghost in the Grace of comfort Gifts of tongues c. Some are of constant Vse and continue in Esse unto this day so shall unto the worlds end as the Providential Government of His Church and the rest of the world in order to the affaires of his Church which He administers as Lord the Exercise of His Sacerdotal Office which he executes as Christ some shall be manifested at the end of time of this sinfull world when He shall come in great power and Glory to Judge both quick dead What this Authour hath said upon any of these Heads in his Books already printed the Reader if he will take the paines to search may find Of the following Generals with their incident subordinate particulars doth the Eleventh Book treat Of Christs Session at the Right-Hand of God the Grammatical Sense of the words the Real Dignitie answering to them viz. The Exaltation of Christ And whether He was exalted as the Son of God or as the Son of David An excellent state of the question about Ubiquitie Of Christs Lordship or Dominion Of His Coming to Judgement Of the Final Sentence to be awarded by Him to All. Of the Resurrection of the Dead From thence He shall come to Judge the quick and the Dead Of Life Everlasting not the merit of man but the Gift of God and Death the wages of sin So that it is plain the Eleventh Book reflects upon The Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting or resumes the Article of Christs Sitting at the Right-Hand of God and withall proceeds to the Next and to the Two last 16. I Expect the Intelligent Reader will Ask where He may find handld the Articles concerning God the Holie Spirit the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of Sins I must referr the proposer of this rational question which deserves a better answer then I can give it to the Authors owne words Which he may find in the first page of His Treatise Of The Holy Catholick Faith and Church which in the Catalogues of his Works for orders sake is reckon'd the 12. Book of his Commentaries and whereof the first part of three intended was published 1627. In my Comments on the Creed Saith Hee I did Sequester Four points from the Body of the Work The First was the Doctrin Of the most Holie and most Blessed Trinitie So he did intend to Handle the Commandements by way of Catechism to be set down by way of Prayer Soliloquie not of Schoole-Dispute The Second The Holie Catholick Church The Third The Communion of Saints The Fourth The Remission of Sins Points which I cannot Handle in that order they be propounded in the Creed without Interruption of my Method intended So that I have out of Choice reserved these for peculiar Treatises THE AUTHORS Book then of the Holie Catholick Faith Church 't is more then plain The Holie Catholick Church referres to the Article of And for the rest of his Books or Tracts hereafter to be published when they come abroad they must bear some Tessera or Recognizance to signifie their Retainance or to which of the 12. Christian Predicaments they are to be reduced 17. I have yet Two things to recommend unto the Reader The One I humbly present to the Consideration of the Nobilitie Gentrie of the Land who have the Honour Blessing Longo Sanguine Censeri This Author as his manner all-a-long is to open the Earth shew the Out-Burst of the spring leave the Well to be digged by him that meanes to dwell upon the Plat hath page 19. 31. moved a Querie well worth their most exquisite indagation and pursuit 'T is This whether Parents of both sexes may not by frequent voluntarie Commission of some sinnes improve the Corruption of nature in their Children to an Height above the ordinarie Taint descending from Adam or coming from Sin meerely Original not intended by unnecessary affected actual or habitual Transgressing Would any of Them now in this their privacie or vacation please Philosophari to think upon it and Commend their meditations to the world they would be more acceptable and more imperative of practise Coming from themselves consequently be more Contributive to the Revival of virtue unto an Heroical Degree 18. The other is to those of the Clergie who teach the people Knowledge for that end do seek acceptable words out of writings upright and True as for the pretended Favorites of the Spirit it is in vain to speak to them He that has Compassion on the poor ignorant multitude even destroyed for lack of Knowledge of Principles contained in their Creed Catechism c. And a mind to tread in the Good Old way for Aedification of the poor of the Flock may find in this Authors Works matter proper for every Dominical Festival through the year especially for the special ones that is those that Commemorate the Great Benefits received by Christ As also for occasions of Administring Both Sacraments marriages Funerals Fasts c. But let me tell him The Gold he is to find beat out doth somtimes lie in so smal a Compass that unless he observe well he may over-run it For an Experiment he may see 1 grain taken by me beaten out into divers Leaves And for expounding Texts of Scripture this Author seems to have a felicitie not ordinary Oft-times when he pretends but to take One verse he illuminates the Reader in the Epicycle of the Context nay in the next Orbe I mean the Parallel be it in the old or new Testament But the Magisterium of his excellencie