act from an inward Principle 34. Every one by Nature is obliged to a Sociable Life 35. Parties in a Covenant must know themselves to be Parties and must know each other and understand what they covenant about 36. God is the Lord Paramount of all Fees 37. A Fee is a Benefice and Grace 38. Angels have and hold in Fee 39. Men have and hold in Fee 40. Grace in Feudo is defeisable 41. Glory in Feudo is indefeisable 42. Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father 43. God shall be all in all 44. Church hath no Legislative Power it is Christs Prerogative 45. If the things be done that are to be done then the things are to be had that are to be had But if the things be not done that are to be done then the things are not had that are to be had 46. Unusquisque potest cedere Jure suo Every one may depart from his own Right It seemeth therefore absurd that these Principles and such as these and what may rationally flow from them should not be certainly known by men the practise whereof in life and conversation is enjoyned by the Authority of God as well as those the practise whereof in life and conversation is forbidden by the Authority of God If we may and do know some things certainly which may be left unknown by us without damage Why should we not as certainly know some things which are better which are commanded to be known and if they be not known we incurr a penalty for not knowing them And if we cannot know them how can we do them and if we cannot know the contrary how can we avoid them The World of wise men have been too careless in the understanding of Moral Truths upon a false opinion and supposition received that there can be no firm or infallible Certainty in them but only a flexible and fallible Probability And this hath been the cause of their sloath in not setting their excellent wits to work upon the search of them as they might have done because they found others before them groping in the dark in great doubts and they were afraid to look out further or tread harder upon such sinking Sands when as the light was hard by and the ground firm under them if they had but dared to venture and few or none did encourage them nay others autoritatively bound them up and charged them not to advance upon the pain and punishment of Heresie and Rebellion that should fall thereon But God hath not dealt so with us but hath bid us try all things and hold fast that which is good and bids us aspire to perfection and shews unto us a more excellent way Aristotle a man rarely learned Aristotle hath done a great deal of mischief in this kind to learned men that have tied themselves up too close to his Oracles because of his mighty Name for a portentous Wit above all men which Estimation by a kind of Fatal Errour he hath had for many ages cast upon him And that proud Emblem which he hath fixed upon the Frontispiece of his Book of Morals hath frightned most men from all hopes of ever obtaining any more than a Probability Indeed and in Truth if we rightly consider things Demonstrations The Subject of a Demonstration is the Proposition to be demonstrated that is in which the necessary Connexion of the Predicate with the Subject is to be manifested by some Principle or more general Effatum which must contain the Reason of that so necessary Connexion So that it sufficeth to make a Demonstration if any Thing or Action hath an Attribute or Predicate whose necessary connexion with the Subject may by some comprehensive Axiom of undoubted Truth be mediately or immediately demonstrated whether that Action or Thing of its self depends upon necessary Causes or not If therefore searching Wits would be more free and bold not without modesty and fear to exert their Faculties they might worthily advance the Commonwealth of Learning in using their great Judgments to the finding out of higher Truths from the plain and prime Principles of Natural and Supernatural Light obvious to them that have skill and want only courage to use them For my own part I acknowledg my own weakness to do any great matters I have attempted to build upon these golden Foundations such matter as may be suitable and durable in my poor Judgment and I wish the stupendious Wits of this Age would help me in these Essayes and vent their famous thoughts more clearly and largely upon these so stately Subjects These and the like Prime Principles here and elsewhere scattered in these volumes are as so many Veins and Arteries Nerves and Fibres from the heart and brain of the Scriptures insinuating themselves and creeping into all the Parts and Members of this Body to enliven and strengthen the same If there be withal a Symmetry and due proportion therein it is the chiefest Beauty it hath or could have as for the Colour or outward Ornaments to set it off to please the Curiosity of the outward view it hath few or none nor did I intend it should or if I had I should according to my Genius industriously wave all tedious wordings or dawbing fucus upon such Notions as to the Judicious Reader will appear more lovely I am sure more useful without them I know full well I might have shortened these Books and Titles very much That others may do for themselves that are more knowing The Authors Apology but the less skilful perhaps would not understand my meaning For to them dum brevis esse laboro obscurus fio if I should be short I should be dark And so as I have contrived by the help of God I go on with my Work In which I protest to determine nothing magisterially but to submit my Judgment humbly to the Scriptures and to the judgment of the wisest freest and most moderate opinions from them which is all in effect that can be said or done to the Worlds end always resting satisfied with the substance of all when all is said that can be said or done that can be done namely Faith and a good Conscience which are all in all Compendiums Lastly I do not say that all these Principles are alike uncontrolable or that because of their number some of them may interfere The Candidly Judicious will pardon in long Tractats what is not strictly and severely Logical in â—ood and Figure and will give some fair allowances to the expatiations of Rhetorick when they do no harm If I had gone contractedly to work to give Hints only by Definitions Aphorisms and Observations I might have tied my self closer to exact Rules which are now implicitely couched in Larger Titles and may easily be reduced into closer Compendiums I cannot tell what the matter is but before I go any further I must needs tell the Reader what troubles me I cannot be rid of some
That therefore the Law is spiritual Ro. 7.14 and a Grace Joh. 1.16 17. of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace for the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ the Grace of the Gospel instead of the grace of the Law 1 Cor. 2.13 The Gospel is in words not taught by mans wisdom but by the Holy Ghost comparing spiritual things with spiritual i. e. the Spiritual things of the Gospel as signified by the Law to the same spiritual things as revealed by Christ So the Righteousness of God in the Gospel from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 i. e. from the faith under the Law to the faith under the Gospel Most true it is as hath been observed that this Spirit of the Law was not discovered in the Law but by revelation of Gods Spirit that made it and that chiefly to Princes and Prophets the Priests had little knowledg besides the Letter The Prophets therefore called up the People higher than the Carnal Ordinance to the spiritual Service of Law Noah is called the Preacher of Righteousness not of the Law of Rites which then was not and they that resisted are charged for resisting the Spirit of God that called them to it 2 Pet. 2.5 St. Stephen taxeth the Jews all along for resisting Gods Spirit under the administration of the Law and now for resisting Christ himself As the Israelites would not understand the power of Gods Spirit in Moses by that act of killing the Egyptian that did the wrong and offering to make peace between the two Israelites that he was sent to be a Judge among them And as the People were rebellious to Moses in the Wilderness so they were to the Great Prophet whom Moses had foretold he concludes thus Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost Act. 7. as your Fathers so you also Which of the Prophets did not your Fathers persecute killing those that foretold of the coming of that Righteous One of whom you are now become the Traitours and Murtherers And all that we read in the Old Testament of the grace of God to that People and of their ungraciousness to him in resisting his grace tends to the same purpose 41. That it is truly said indeed In rendring two kinds of Reason the true Reason being unknown why Christ came not till towards the latter end of the World That God meant first to shew the World that other means which he thought fit to use to reclaim the World by the Fathers and by the Law and by his Judgments and Favours were not efficacious that the necessity of Christs coming might appear 42. That this is not to be understood as if God meant to render them inexcusable by using insufficient means that could not take effect But that dispensing to those times such means of Grace as the reasons of his secret Counsels did require proportionable to the obedience and service which he expected at their hands he reserves the full measure of them to the coming of his Son proportionable to the difficulty of bearing the Cross which he purposed for the condition of those Promises which he brought And the same is to be said of the Fathers under the Law of Nature who by walking by that Rule did please God and were advanced farther by his Spirit to nearer Communion with him as appears in the Book of Job presenting large Instances both of Gods correspondence with the godly of the Gentiles and of the Piety of their conversation with him And if God gave his Creatures so much understanding and liberty as he was pleased to allow and as he knew to be sufficient for them if they shall put forth these their abilities to the utmost of the power that God hath given them shall that which he gave for sufficient when used be counted insufficient and they be condemned for doing according as God did enable them Or shall he give them no means at all sufficient and reject them for the insufficiency which he set them in or will God require more than he gives and be so hard a man as to reap where he did not sow and gather where he had not strawed and require Bricks without Straw These are hard thoughts far be it from us to speak or think after this fashion Shall not the Judge of all the World do right 43. That it cannot be supposed that God should employ his Creatures in his service and not reward them for it much less that he should create them with a decree that they should never have power to serve him and be condemned for it 44. That we may not safely think that because Christ came late into the World therefore the benefit of his coming was the less and that all or most of the Nations besides the Jews or most of the Jews did perish for want of Christ No by no means Christ is the same to day yesterday and for ever and the merit of his Mediation extends to all before at and after his coming in the flesh unto the Worlds end 45. That to close up this long Title I conclude with submission not magisterially That seeing the Holy Ghost hath distinguished between the Law and the Gospel none ought to presume to mingle them together as one and the same in their Nature or as one and the same in effect and operation or that one is contained in the other the New Testament in the Old 46. That to let pass therefore the oratorical and hyperbolical expressions of the Fathers in this and other points who were most of them bred in the Schools of Rhetoricians as also the School Terms and other strained expressions of Modern Systematicks let us choose rather to adhere to the form of sound words delivered in the Scriptures which are the Pandects or body of Divinity that we must trust unto and for explication of our conceptions upon them make use of those Jural words that are most homogeneal unto them And to be sure this is the safest way because all Heterogeneous and Exotick terms must needs puzzle the understanding more than such as are genuine and nearer related to the Subject These are connatural and familiar and obvious the other remote difficult and forced Take this Cause and hold it and it may bid fair for the Peace of Christendom Amen Thus Man at first did not like to keep Covenant with God Adam and Eve had a desire to be greater than God thought fit to make them and would fain have been as Gods to themselves without such dependance of God as was by a Covenant to do Gods will for they had a mind to do only their own will and to know Good and Evil and to be Immortal for so was God and so would they have been When therefore out of an aspiring mind they had tasted of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil in hopes to be made
part whom the Priest represented And this did even Abraham do so great a Man so great a Patriarch yea the Prince of Patriarchs the very Root and foundation of God's People Now he that receiveth Tithes is greater than he that give them as he that receiveth Tribute or Taxes is greater than he that paies them and he that receiveth Rents is greater than he that paies them This was the Dignity and Prerogative of the Title of Levi that all the other Tribes who though his Brethren yet were to pay Tithes of all to him and in special to the Priests of the Line of Aaron that came from him which Family only had right to the Priesthood Numb 3. and the rest of that Tribe did minister unto them in and about the Holy things of the Ark and Temple of the Lord. Numb 18. And first the People must give Tithes to the Levites Numb 18.21 then the Levites must give Tithes of their Tithes to the Priests Numb 18.28 which declares the Dignity of the Priests above the Levites as the Clergy receive Tithes of the People of England and then pay the Tithes of their Tithes to the King which shews the Dignity of the King above the Clergy SECTION III. 2. Melchisedec not of Aaron's Tribe And yet farther is demonstrated the Dignity of Melchisedec above the Levitical Priests in that Melchisedec came not from their Tribe nor from the stock of Aaron at all yet he received Tithes and that from Abraham too of whose Loyns Levi was So that Abraham himself became Tributary and therefore subject to Melchisedec which is Christ which is much more honour than for those only to pay Tribute who came from the loyns of Abraham Therefore the Levitical Priests have no cause to boast as that their Line alone had the Priviledge and Prerogative above the rest to take Tithe of the People seeing here is one here greater than they that takes Tithes of them themselves who were then in the loyns of their Father Abraham and yet he neither belongs to their Line nor accounts himself of their stock at all and is bold to Decimate even Abraham himself the Prince and Father of them and of their whole Nation SECTION IV. Abraham Blessed of Melchisedec Gen. 12.23 Secondly Abraham acknowledgeth himself subject to Melchisedec 2. By Receiving a Blessing from Melchisedec For he blessed him that had the Promises i. e. Melchisedec blessed him whom God had promised to Bless so eminently and comprehensively that in him and by him all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed A greater Blessing than this could not be and yet he that had this great Blessing was blessed of Melchisedec and therefore Inferior unto him What honour is this to Bless such a Man Surely a Greater than Abraham is here For without all contradiction the Less is blessed of the Greater Sacerdotal Blessing Every kind of Blessing cannot here be understood for even the least and meanest Persons may humbly wish and pray for a Blessing upon the greatest that are But this must be a Singular and Royal Sacerdotal Blessing which is of great Efficacy and Power and those that are blessed therewith shall be Blessed God seconds the Blessing of the Priest to whom he hath given Authority to Bless in his Name Thus we read Numb 6.27 that God commanded Aaron and his Sons to Bless the People and prescribed them a Form for that Blessing on this wise The Lord bless thee and keep thee The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee The Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee peace After all this the Lord professes there that He will second the Blessing and confirm it upon the People saying They shall put my Name upon the Children of Israel and I will bless them And elsewhere In Blessing I will bless And the Son of Syrach praies God to hear the Prayers of his Servants Eccles 36.17 according to the Blessing of Aaron over his People SECTION V. Levi paid Tithes to Melchisedec III. The Dignity of Melchisedec appears in that Melchisedec was Greater than Levi and Aaron Because Levi paid Tithes to Melchisedec For in tithing Abraham he tithed Levi who then was in Abraham's loyns and so Aaron so great a Priest as he was the Prince of Priests of whose Loyns the Priests were all descended payeth Tithes himself to a Greater Priest than he And as I may say Heb. 7.9 Levi also who receiveth Tithes paid Tithes in Abraham For when Melchisedec took Tithes of Abraham he tithed Levi also and all the Priests Abraham took not Tithes but Levi did and yet Melchisedec took Tithes of him Levi did not receive Tithes in his own Person because he was not then but in his Posterity neither did he give Tithes to Melchisedec in his own Person but in his Father's Person If at that time Levi had been a Person separated from Abraham and had enjoyed his Estate apart by himself then this act of Abraham in paying Tithes to Melchisedec had nothing concerned him but because Levi was then so united and joyned with Abraham that he was one Person with him lying conched in Abraham's Loyns so the Embrio in the Womb is part of the Mother therefore also he is justly accounted to have given Tithes to Melchisedec in or through Abraham his Father SECTION VI. Yet all the Actions of a Father's Will Actions of Fathers transmitted to Children with the regularities or irregularities thereof must not be transferred or imputed to be the Actions of the Childrens Will But only those Acts which properly concern the Augmentation or Diminution of the Father's estate which is of right to descend to his Children do as they descend from him by way of Inheritance still the Father or his enjoying what was his outwardly in Estate as they do inwardly in Flesh and Blood And the payment of Tithes is such an Action for as to a Tenth part it decreaseth the Father's Estate which therefore is properly but nine Parts of Ten For the Tithes are paid out of the Father's Goods though they are not his Goods but his to whom they are due which Goods of the Fathers are thus far already the Childrens in that the right of Inheritance of what is their Father's belongs unto the Children when their Father dies Who in the mean time are Lords though Servants even lesser Lords in Reversion to their Father's Estate when it falls For as the Son and Heir after his Father's Decease doth in a manner represent his Father's Person being Flesh of his Flesh and of his Form and Resemblance and by his Succession and Possession of all that was his Father's honour and Estate So likewise the Father before his Children spring from his Loyns and become distinct persons from himself having right to dispose of his Goods as their own doth in a manner also represent the Person of his Son and Heir and of the
and all the sufferings of this world are not reckoned worthy of the glory that shall be revealed The glory of the Resurrection Ascention and Eternal Salvation is the only hope of Christianity No Mediator Priest Prophet or King in Heaven or in Earth No Mediator but Christ but Christ 1. Priests Prophets or Kings alive on earth we pray not to nor to God in their Names They cannot forgive sins nor will God for their sakes and they must die 2. Priests Prophets or Kings departed whose Souls live with God in Rest but not in the highest Glory we pray not to nor to God in their Names Because they cannot know our wants Because they cannot help us Because they are our fellow servants Because no Mediation by Priest Prophet nor King but in Heaven where Mediation should be and where they are not nor can be till they are brought thither by Christ to the general assembly of the spirits of Just men made perfect The end of all Christ's Mediation is to bring us to God End of Christs Meditation to bring us to God 1. By Faith here to have a present Right 2. By Sight hereafter to have a full fruition For we were strangers to God before and could not be reconciled nor come near to God but by Christ there being no other name given under Heaven by which we could be saved but only by the name of Jesus The Holiest of all is prepared for Man by the Man Christ Jesus He enters not for himself but for us His it was from everlasting but becoming a Mediatour he entreth for himself and all mankind The Creature hath an holy boldness to enter into the Presence of the Creatour by Christ's blood What Dust and Ashes What a Worm Can Man see the face of God and live Yes by that man of men Christ Jesus What is man that God should so regard him or that he should have such great respect unto him Who shall dwell with the devouring fire or who shall dwell with everlasting burnings He that hath a pure heart and hath washed his hands in innocency But who can say he is pure that is born of a Woman Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one God charged his Angels with folly and found imperfection in the best of his Saints how much more in man which is a worm and the son of man which is a worm Behold then what manner of love this is with which God hath loved us that we should be called the sons of God! But who hath believed our Report and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed Now what will you do that hear this Gospel Is there a God to go unto or no Will you go to this God or no Shall we pipe unto you and will ye not dance Shall we mourn unto you and will ye not weep Shall we become all things to all of you and will ye not be saved Shall we expose the spiritual wares of God to sale without money and without price and will ye not buy at this cheap rate As the Sybil offered her books and being refused burnt some and asked more and at last burnt them all so will the Gospel being rejected be for ever lost as a pearl that is cast before Swine Then must we shake off the dust of our feet to testifie against you You would not come unto Christ that you might have life The word was brought near unto you even into your hearts that ye might believe in it and do it Christ stood at the door of your hearts but ye would not let him in ye counted your selves unworthy ye rejected the counsel of God against your selves ye despised all and in this your day refused to know the things that belonged to your peace and therefore they are for ever hidden from your eyes for Salvation it self cannot save those that will not be saved Conclusion To Conclude this Whole Book After the consideration of Christ's Person and Office of Mediation as Priest Sacrificing and Offering himself we have great cause to glory in the profession of such a Saviour Gal. 6.14 And what have we truly to glory in save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto us and we unto the world Cross to be gloried in A Cross is a thing not naturally to be gloried in 1. Because it is not joyous at all but rather grievous to flesh and blood 2. Because it is a shameful and accursed thing But Spiritually it may and ought to be gloried in 1. Because it is comfortable to the Spirit and worketh the peaceable fruits of Righteousness to them that are exercised thereby 2. Because it is conformable to Christ Rom. 5.3 4. For this cause we joy in Tribulations knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed They rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake 3. Because God is glorified thereby 4. Because of the great Effects of Christ's Cross Rom. 8.32 1. Christ is crucified for the world the Just for the Unjust God spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us who made his Soul an offering for sin 2. The World is crucified to us The World is God's work Good Alive Blessed Beautiful Heaven and Earth The things of the World are Satan's work Evil Dead Cursed Ugly Vanities Pomps the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of Life All these are crucified to us and Satan the God of this world bruised under our feet and Death and Hell utterly broken 3. The Saints are crucified to the world The Old man is crucified not the Man but the Oldness of the man The New man quickened not the Man but the Newness of the man We glory therefore in the object the Cross and in the effect thereof Crucifixion 1. The object the Cross Things gloried in are commonly of another nature as 1. Knowledg which puffeth us 1 Cor. 8.1 Liberalium Artium cognitio sibi placentes facit the knowledg of Liberal Arts and Sciences is greatly pleasing to us Nullus Animae suavior Cibus there is nothing relisheth better to the Soul Yet comparatively to saving knowledg it is Scientia Contristans he that encreaseth knowledg encreaseth sorrow and it is a weariness to the Flesh a knowledg without an Head The fear of the Lord only rejoyceth the heart 2. Greatness and Prosperity Decet res secundas superbia Pride naturally follows prosperity and Honour makes men look big and brow-beat others These and such like are gloried in with a carnal glory The Cross is either Outward or Inward Cross Outward and Inward 1. The Outward Cross is the Wood and Nails Spears and Thorns and Whips c. belonging thereunto All these are gloried in with a carnal glory And indeed the Flesh of man that is the outward man even as to religious
man's work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward If any man's work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire Let the Clergy take heed what they speak and the Laity take heed what they hear Gal. 1.8 and if you or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than what is already preached let him be accursed Be instant in season and out of season whether the people hear or whether they forbear Look to your selves and to those that hear you shewing both in your lives and in your doctrines uncorruptness gravity and sincerity rightly dividing the word of truth like workmen that need not to be ashamed Let your lips preserve knowledg that the people may enquire the Law at your mouths that ye may be as Scribes throughly furnished for the kingdom of Heaven producing out of your Treasuries things new and old For God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life The CONTENTS Joy Fear Decrees Gospel Dispensations Worship Spiritual Ceremonies Difference of Mosaick and Christian Rites Church of Rome Perfection of Christianity Spiritual Perfection Ritual Worship abolished No other Rites to be superinduced No Rites ever pleased God Greater Perfections in the Christian Religion Prayer and other Duties are Relativi Juris TITLE VIII Of the Genius of the Gospel Joy AND let Clergy and Laity learn to know the Genius of the Gospel better and the providence of God under it Ye have been taught so far inwardly because of your sins and temptations and God's wrath though you repent and believe and live up to the Gospel as near as possibly you can and overmuch Religion hath made you mad Fear Ye have been taught to fear outwardly Plagues Wars Famines Robbings Imprisonments Prodigies of Comets Blazing stars Witchcrafts Thunders Lightnings Storms Tempests fears and fears and nothing but fears all your life long as if there were no Comforter Ye have been taught out of the Old Testament more than the New out of the Fathers and Schoolmen Summists Casuists Postillers Orators Poets Wits and Flashes of Eloquence more than sound Doctrine But you are to learn the peace and tranquillity of the Gospel to eat your bread with joy and singleness of heart not to imagine a sword of Vengeance always hanging over your heads to make your hearts fail within you and your Countenances pale as if God stood over you continually with his sword drawn in his hand that you can never lead a quiet life Is this the Providence of God to fright you in all his Creatures Cur hanc tibi rector Olympi Sollicitis visum Mortalibus addere Curam Noscant venturas ut dira per omina Clades Christian Religion is to preserve men from a constant pedagogy to so many base and servile fears that make men dread to come near it as an Enemy to generousness and universal freedom and comfort of spirit because of such pale and feminine fears and amazements or make men grow weary of it as of a yoke ever galling and pressing down men's spirits and conclude themselves gainers if they can purchase manhood with Atheism and profaneness Fear binds in the powers of the Soul Religion is aimable Decrees till it comes to those horrid representations of God's decreeing of inevitable torments both here and hereafter to his poor creatures before they were or could do good or evil which makes them fear him but they cannot love him nor do any hearty service unto him wishing rather that he had never given them a being than to make them eternally miserable without any cause or fault of them at all only to shew the glory of his power that is how uncontroulably he can tyrannize over them The Devils indeed are in this condition of trembling because they know they are reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day Therefore when they saw Christ they were afraid saying What have we to do with thee thou Jesus the Son of the Most High God art thou come to torment us before the time And surely the Devil would bring men into the same condition by frightning them from the service of God to his Altars as he did the Gentiles Surely other thoughts of God would better become men than the Devils have who nevertheless in this one thing are far better than some men for they know and confess the Justice of God upon them for their Apostasie but these blaspheme God for cruelty and unjustice It being the common principle of Nature in all men both wise and unwise whatsoever other sentiments and different opinions they had that God was Summum Bonum the most bountiful and gracious Being the greater wonder it is to me that so many Doctrines amongst the Heathens and Christians too should be received so contrary to God's goodness and Philanthropy 'T is very strange that the minds of men should be leavened with this sowr conceit and delight to hear of such terrors against themselves and to have God represented to be of that cruel nature to his Creatures which they would be loth to be of to their Children These Jealousies of God cannot stand with a belief of God's goodness for they imagine him to be good to a few of mankind of which number they are a part but for all the rest he looks upon them as dross and cast-aways and therefore he is always contriving new plagues and destructions for this so hated a people that they shall not so much as have the least refreshments of health or peace in this little pitiful span of life and after this painful and short life ended will hurle them into everlasting torments Did ever a more pestilentious vapour breathe from the bottomless Pit to the seizing upon the very vitals of Religion in the Soul's first notions and conceptions of a God to turn off their desires and loves from him whom they were made to love and serve I have often mused with my self about the vulgar conceptions of God's Judgments as if the Divine Goodness studied nothing else like the Heathen Jupiter but to throw his Thunderbolts and Plagues upon every single person for their particular aberrations and upon all Nations for their several corruptions for their conversion or else for their confusion That great and fearful calamities have fallen upon the world especially that of the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole Nation of the Jews c. mentioned in Divine Writ is most evident Together with the Aegyptian Assyrian Persian Grecian and Roman Empires c. cannot be denied together with many particular examples of wicked men signally suffering the Divine Vengeance But that from hence every idle Fancy should dare to specifie the Reasons of God's workings upon those nations and persons I could never yet understand after that fashion My thoughts
Law his right of assembly to him and his heirs for ever Deut. 23.2 who stand excommunicated For A Bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord. As an Alien Forreigner or Stranger is disabled and debarred from the rights and priviledges of inheritances freedoms votes and other common benefits of the Laws Municipal which the Natives do enjoy So the Romans Greeks and other Nations inhabiting Judaea were by the Jews accounted and called sinners We are Jews by Nature and not sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2.15 Because they were Strangers and Aliens who had no right equal with the Native Jews and Proselytes that were made free of their Nation As a villain or Bastard-born who is no actual transgressor against any Law yet by the Law of Nations is made a quasi Transgressor being wholly depersonated and degraded from the common Condition of a Man and depressed into the state of a Beast dead in Law having no Will nor Action nor Possession of any thing but is at the will and in the possession of his Lord subjected to all wrongs and excluded from all Rights having no Estate Office nor Suffrage must be no Witness can have no power to make a Testament Such was the state of Servitude a state of death not life Thus by the Law of God the Gibeonites were accursed Now therefore ye are cursed Jos 9.23 and ye shall none of you be freed from being bond-men and hewers of wood and drawers of water SECT VI. 3. The Distressed who justly according to the secret will of God Distressed for reasons best known to himself are afflicted with some notable and lasting misery such as the Blind and the Lame the Deformed the Lepers the Monster the Deaf and Dumb Innocents Fools and Frantick persons the proper objects of pity and compassion that neither sinned they nor their Parents but that the power of God might be seen and his Name glorified These are generally censured for sinners upon whom God hath layd such extraordinary calamities And so are such as suffer loss of Children Friends Honour Estate by storms and tempests by wars famines or any other fatal changes or chances in this world Such a one was Job yet a perfect and upright Man one that feared God and eschew'd evil yet Job's Friends erroneously condemned him for an hypocrite because so fearfully handled in his Person Children and Estate not considering That though sin be the cause of affliction yet it is neither the perpetual nor total nor sole cause thereof but that there are other good causes and considerations that flow from the secret and good will of God though they be hid from our eyes Thus those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell were counted greater sinners than others because they suffered such things Thus those Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices were counted greater sinners than others because they suffered such grievous things Thus Lazarus a beggar and lying at the Rich Man's gate and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the Rich Man's Table Luc. 16.20 and was deny'd and the dogs came and licked his sores yet was he carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom Thus the Man Blind from his birth and sate and begg'd was judged either for his own sins or for the sins of his Parents to be made so miserable but it was that the work of God might be manifest SECT VII 4. The Tainted or stained in Blood Tainted who justly according to the will of God are made heirs to their Fathers misery either natural by hereditary diseases or ill conditions or legal by Confiscation of Goods Infamy Bastardy Slavery or other attainder or corruption of blood but especially for crimes of Treason or other high mis-demeanors against the Common-Wealth for which the Children of those Parents are debarred from being heirs to their Estate or Dignity Thus the seven Sons of Saul were hang'd in the Hill before the Lord for their Fathers cruelty against the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21.9 Thus the Sons of Gehezi were made heirs to their Father's Leprosy which clave unto him and to his Seed for ever 2 Kings 5.27 Thus Eli's Sons were turned from the Altar for their Father's neglect besides their own enormities Thus for Achan's Sacriledg his Sons and his Daughters his Oxen and his Asses and his Sheep and all his Tent Jos 7.24 and all that he had were stoned with stones and afterward burnt with fire Thus the Children of Corah Dathan and Abiram and all theirs went down alive into the pit for the Rebellion of their Parents Thus the Children of the Ninevites should have been destroy'd whereof six score thousand could not discern their right hand from their left had not their Parents repented at the preaching of Jonah The CONTENTS Rom. 5.12 explained Recapitulation Accounting Adam's will not ours Levi's paying of tithes All mortal in Adam Righteous in Christ Immortal in Christ Every Individuum acts for it self Sinner legal Sinner moral Sinner jural Psal 51.6 explained Ephes 2.3 explained Soul a spirit Good most common Good lovely v. lib. 7. Tit. 3.2 Vol. Argumenta Laciniana TITLE II. Of Original Sin Rom. 5.12 Explained IN this rank are all the Sons of Adam who for his disobedience are made heirs of his mortality By one Man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all Men for that or in whom all have sinned not actively by transgressing in his transgression but passively by being prejudicated in his judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In his doom all Men were condemned to the state of transgressors These words In whom all sinned signify the same thing with those Vers 15. Through the offence of one many be dead and with these Vers 16. The judgment was upon one to condemnation and with these Vers 19. By one Man's disobedience many were made sinners And with these 1 Cor. 15.22 In Adam all die All which sayings amount to no more but this That by the sin of Adam he and all his Children were made mortal As by the sin of the Gibeonites they and their Children were made bound-slaves and by the sin of Gehezi he and all his Children were made lepers By one Adam sinning sin entred upon all Mankind and for that one Man's sin death came upon him and all Mankind by diminution of strength which caused grief diseases and death For though Adam was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. was made a living Soul not a quickning Spirit yet if he had continued to obey God he had ever remained alive in paradise and whether any higher condition was appointed to him is uncertain to us and was not certain to him Some think after a most long life God would have delivered him from the Body without any grief or pain which the Jews do not call death but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Osculum Pacis the Kiss of peace others think he
the Old Testament Alms is the Graecism thereof signifying the gift of kindness Mercy is the affection or cause and Alms is the effect or act of pity and love to miserable persons Math. 6.1 Take heed that ye do not your Alms before Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Syriack and Arabick read it And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came in probably by the Interpretation of the glosse because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a word less used and more known to the Hellenist Jews than to the Greeks and in the Translation of the Old Testament used commonly for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the notion of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the same sense with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 morally taken is to do kindness Vid. Ps 15.2 Ps 94.4 Ps 106.3 Pro 21.3 Is 30.17 Is 56.1 Is 58.2 Jer. 9.24 Jer. 22.3 Jer. 33.15 And Gnasoth chesed rendred to shew mercy Ps 8.50 Ps 109.16 SECT III. 3. Just Jurally quoad Jura i. e. a proprietary or owner Just Jurally that hath Right Title claim or Interest to any thing in possession or reversion As an heir to an Estate of inheritance a promissary to a Grant as Abraham lived to be the heir of the world Ro. 4.13 who called the Righteous Man from the East i. e. the Man that had the primitive or original right to the promised Land yet Abraham was legally and morally righteous before but not Jurally till this his acceptation of God's promise In this sense the Israelites are called righteous v. Ex. 12.43 45. Ex. 20.10 Ex. 29.33 Ex. 30.33 Lev. 22.10 13. Num. 1.51 Thy people shall be all righteous Ps 69.28 they shall inherit the Land for ever Let them be blotted out of the Book of the living and not be written among the Righteous i. e. Israelites the righteous heirs of the Land upon record for the names of Free-holders and owners were written in Books not such as were legally or morally righteous Ps 118.20 This is the gate which the Lord had made the Righteous shall enter into it i. e. into the Temple into which strangers had no right to enter but remained in the outward Court. Ps 125.3 The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the Righteous i. e. The Stranger shall not rule over the Israelites the righteous heirs of the Land of Canaan The people shall be all righteous Js 60.21 they shall inherit the Land for ever i. e. They shall return from captivity and receive their ancient rights again Jure postliminii Is 26.2 Open ye the gates that the righteous Nation which keep the truth may enter in i. e. That the right owners might re-possess their due from which they had long been kept because during their exile among the Heathens they still kept the truth of God's worship Gen. 30.33 Ps 35.27 So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come i. e. All the young spotted cattel I have right to for my wages Let them be glad that favour my righteousness i. e. my righteous cause my right to my Kingdom Better is a little with righteousness Prov. 16.8 than great Revenues without right Which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the Righteous from him Is 5.23 Gal. 3.6 Rom. 4.5 Noah became heir of the righteousness which is by faith Abraham believed in God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness His faith is counted for righteousness Abraham received the sign of Circumcision A seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had being uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe Rom. 4.11 which could be no moral or legal righteousness but a jural right of inheritance and dignity Ro. 4.13 For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his Seed through the Law but through the righteousness of faith Now promise and heir are matter of Right not of Holiness For if the inheritance be of the Law Gal. 3.18 it is no more of promise What is meant in one place by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a general word for Right the same is expressed in the other by the special word of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best kind of Rights Also to have right by the Law or to have the inheritance by the Law is the same sense Other places use this word to the same purpose the upright shall have dominion over them Psal 49.14 We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith Henceforth is lay'd up for me a Crown of righteousness 2. Tim. 4.8 which the Lord the righteous judg shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing What shall we say then that the Gentiles which follow'd not after Righteousness have attained to Righteousness even the Righteousness which is of Faith But Israel which follow'd after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness Ro. 9.30 31. wherefore because they sought it not by Faith c. For they being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God Ro. 10.3 4. For Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ Ro. 3.20 21 22. unto all and upon all them that believe For if Righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain i. e. the Inheritance spoken of Gal. 3 18. If the Inheritance be of the Law c. For if they which are of the Law be heirs Faith is made voyd and the promise made of no effect Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Hebr. 1.8 A Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom If there had been a Law given which could have given life Gal. 3.21 Ps 9 4 Ps 17.1 verily Righteousness should have been by the Law Thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou satest in the Throne judging right Hear thou right O Lord and attend to my cause and to the justice of my cause In these places and such like I am of opinion that the Jural sense of the word Righteousness for Jus or Right is chiefly respected and yet the Legal or Moral senses are not excluded SECT IV. While I am thus deeply engaged in this great and considerable Business of Jural Righteousness which is the principal vein that runs through this whole Discourse of Justification to the Inheritance of God's Testament And as the clue that guides
the Son hath above the Servant not to be ejected or punished for every fault as the Servant may doth give the Son this priviledge in faults only such as are ignorances and infirmities but excuseth him not in crimes such as are malignities and wilful presumptions from being disinherited As a Malefactor relapseth into the same crimes or worse after pardon destroies himself As a Slave after liberty sells himself again to bondage is the author of his own ruin My unthankfulness therefore is the cause of the forfeiture of my right by Faith Not that I have no Faith for then I could not be justified but my Faith for want of works becomes dead It had life enough to accept of the promises and legacies of God's Will and Testament but not of the precepts and conditions So my Faith not working by Love dies and looses the right to Blessedness except it revive again by Resipiscence SECT II. Reason Breach of one party disobligeth the other Because God promiseth me a present Right to a future Blessing I accept the Promise and thereupon have right unto it and by this acceptance I do tacitly re-promise unto God that duty which as a beneficiary I owe unto my Lord by the Law of Nature and Equity Now if I for my part perform not this my promise God for his part is disobliged from the performance of his promise of which my unfaithfulness is the cause who have broken the Covenant betwixt God and my Soul My ungraciousness is also the cause of the forfeiture of my right by Faith This is a high degree of unthankfulness 1. To God so High a Person 2. For so Great a Grace as to be his Son and Heir 3. For so Free Grace without any desert desire or motion of mine or any other only my Faith to accept it If therefore to this Great God for so great Grace so freely bestowed upon me I do not return that love honour and obedience with all my heart and with all my Soul as is due from me a Son to such a Father then this extream unthankfulness and ungraciousness of mine deprives me of that benefit which I should have received from it SECT III. From hence will flow these Consequences Mutability of Justification 1. That my state of Justification is mutable It is in it self stable and permanent it may and should be perpetual but during my Natural Life and before I die it may be defeated and destroyed I do not say It must be defeated and destroyed for the mutability of it is not necessary as is the mortality of the Body which must die But the mutability thereof is possible for as it may so it may not be defeated It may not be defeated 1. It may not be defeated For when I was made a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven this state was intended to continue to me for ever For when I am dead and dissolved into dust God still remaineth my Father and my God and Christ my Elder Brother and Co-Heir and from the dead I shall be raised to the possession of my Father's Blessing for God is not the God of the dead but of the living For as Marriages so rights of Inheritances are not temporary for term of years but of perpetuity for ever Hence the Son is said to differ from the Servant because The Servant abideth not in the House for ever John 8.35 i. e. hath no right to abide for ever but the Son abideth for ever i. e. hath right to abide for ever 2. It may be defeated It may be not defeated Gal. 2.18 Else how could I build again my first state of sinfulness which once I destroyed If therefore my state may be not destroyed it may be destroyed I find by good history and sad experience that states of perpetuity have been defeated and destroyed that many a Man which had a good Estate in Fee-simple to him and to his Heirs for ever yet by making himself a transgressor against his Lord and King hath forfeited that his Estate to him and his Heirs for ever That many a Woman who was married for life till death should depart her and her Husband yet by making her self a transgressor against her Husband hath been divorced from her Husband and lost her Husband and her Dower That many a Son who was Heir apparent to his Father's Estate yet by making himself a transgressor against his Father hath been disinherited and lost his Estate And the like is possible concerning my Estate of Justification see the Scriptures Joh. 5.14 Rom. 11.20 1 Cor. 10.12 1 Tim. 1.19 Heb. 3.12 1 Pet. 2.11 Math. 12.43 44. Heb. 6.4 Heb. 10.26 27. 2 Pet. 2.20 As also consider the examples of Aaron David Solomon c. which exhortations and examples do necessarily demonstrate the mutability of my Justification Because to a thing that is impossible there needs no Exhortation Reason or Dehortation And Because of a thing impossible it is impossible that there should be any Example The Grand Reason that my state of Justification may be defeated is because it is Conditional for though God's donation of my present right to be his Son and Heir is absolute without any condition or preceeding act on my part except it be the passive act of my Faith to accept thereof yet my future possession of that inheritance whereto I have now a present right is conditional and that condition runs upon my good behaviour of deporting my self as becomes the Son of God for this condition is sufficiently expressed in God's last Will and Testament Or supposing but not granting that in God's Testament there is no mention made of any such condition yet such a condition must be understood because the very Nature and Equity of the thing requires it And the state of a Son and Heir wherein I stand doth necessarily draw this duty along with it and so bind me thereto that for non-performance thereof my state may be destroyed Yet every trespass will not destroy it neither because God will forgive me a thousand faults upon my repentance and commands me to pray unto him therefore and promises to forgive my trespasses and commands me to forgive my Brother that repenteth though he sin against me seven times in a day nay seventy times seven times Therefore certainly he being my Father will upon my repentance forgive me more times for all the daies of my life For because I am his Son therefore I am not so much under his Law as under his Grace i. e. God will not deal rigorously and strictly with me according to Law to reject or punish me for every trespass like a Slave who is under the will and pleasure of his Lord but he will use me mercifully and kindly to correct me in measure or to forgive me like a Son who is under the love and grace of his Father But if I rise up in open rebellion against my
hath not believed in the name of the only Son of God Joh. 3.36 He that believeth not the Son shall not see Life Joh. 8.24 but the wrath of God abideth in him If ye believe not that I am he Ro. 8.13 Gal. 5.19 Ephes 5.5 ye shall die in your sins if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die The works of the Flesh are manifest c. They which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God For this we know that no whoremonger nor unclean Person nor covetous Man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God or of Christ When therefore any Man can truly be called a Believer in Christ then the Gifts of God are sure unto him as if he had been nominated in God's Book by his special and single Name So Men are reprobated or disinherited not by their proper Names or Surnames but by the Appellative or common names of Unbelievers Unfaithful Rejecters of Christ Carnal Worldly c. And therefore in God's Last Will there is no preterition of any Man or Men personally by name or number but all Men are either Believers or Unbelievers And seeing all Believers are by that common name instituted and all Unbelievers are by that common name disinherited therefore none are instituted or pretermitted by any proper name The Reasons are SECT VI. 1. Because God's Will is a Testament ad pias causas of meer Grace Testament ad pias causas Love and Pity to miserable Persons And in such Wills the Legacies are so numerous that they cannot be personally nominated for if so no Will would hold them and they are not yet all in being to be capable of them by common names as thus I give and bequeath so much to the Poor of such a Parish Town or City to the Prisoners of such a Goal or to the Diseased in such an Hospital So every Poor in such a Parish Town City every Prisoner in such a Goal and every Diseased in such an Hospital are qualified for such a Legacy and may justly claim by Right and Title of their Poverty Imprisonment Disease or any other condition expressed in the Will and the Executor is bound to perform it And so every Christian hath a Right to Eternal Life by the Title of his Faith 2. Men are thus nominated in common because Christ is the Hypotype by whose right all have right For Christ hath the original right of alliance to be the Son of God The only begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1.114 Whom God hath appointed Heir of all things Not an heir of expectance Hebr. 1.1 but actually seized on his Inheritance Eph. 1.20 For God hath set him at his own right hand in Heavenly places from him we have the same right Joh 1.12 To them gave he power to be called the Sons of God even to as many as believed on his Name Behold what manner of love is this 1 Joh. 3.1 that we should be called the Sons of God so then thou art no more a Servant but a Son and if a Son then an Heir of God through Christ That being justified by his Grace Gal. 4.7 we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal Life If Children Tit. 3.7 Ro. 8.17 then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint heirs with Christ Now Joint-heirs have the same right alike As the Seed of Abraham had all right alike to the Kingdom of Canaan So Believers in Christ Christ and the Children which God hath given him have all right alike to the Kingdom of Heaven The Seed of Abraham by Abraham the Seed of Christ by Christ because the Kingdom of Heaven was originally given to Christ as the Kingdom of Canaan was given to Abraham The Israelite claimed by his Birth the Believer claims by his Faith Gal. 3.26 For ye are all Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus And if ye be Christ 's then are you Abraham 's Seed and Heirs according to the Promise SECT VII Of Physical Operation This great Instrument of Man's Salvation called Faith is an easie Of Physical Operation gentle and noble thing in it self but hath been represented difficult and obscure and great quarrels have been made about it and little hopes of reconciliation concerning it unless second and third thoughts be framed by unbiassed and considering Men so to undeceive themselves and others For hitherto the World hath been imposed upon and amused to conceive that Faith and other Graces of God are habits infused by God into Mens Souls quickning their dead Faculties which neither know nor feel any thing that is done unto them till they see themselves in a new condition and frame of Spirit which they call the Work of Grace irresistible as is the fashioning of a lump of clay into a new mold or the raising of a Man that is dead and rotten or the turning of a wheel by meer strength and keeping it in motion by the spring and weights that are put upon it Hereupon the poor People lye still and endeavour nothing but believe that if they be elected after the Covenant of Grace to the end they are elected in time to the means whether they will or no and that they have no will at all to any Good not so much as to accept it when offered but rather an aversion from it and a proneness to all evil to draw it to them and hatefully to turn all goodness from them This Physical operation which they dream to be upon their Spirits is the same with earthly bodies which are moved by natural or artificial causes of force or virtue the greater strength violently prevailing over the less as we move logs and stones by the power of horses or Men or curiously turning of vast bodies by Engines and Wheels of Art Operation Moral Whereas in deed and in truth the operations upon the Soul are moral rather than physical with no other violence or force than that which is not properly so but intellectual and rational or persuasive and inviting unless you will call that a physical way of the working of Spirits upon Spirits but still it is free and fair without force or battery but rational by information of the judgment and persuasion of the Will For quicquid operatur operatur ad modum operantis quicquid patitur patitur ad modum patientis Whatsoever acts acts according to the quality of the Agent and whatsoever suffer suffers according to the condition of the patient Here is therefore nothing of a real touch of the Agent upon the Patient to create necessarily a real change and alteration of the Patient thereby from what it was before but a virtual motion of instruction and insinuation upon an understanding and free subject to convince and invite the same faculties and call them off to new objects freely from their former mistakes So the vulgar are made to believe of
being the Minister unto another Man's cruelty in following whose judgment he relies also upon his own judgment whereby he gave him power to judg of the Heresy But where will the Magistrate find competent Judges For though many may be free from others errors yet in matters to salvation necessary or not necessary few know accurately how to distinguish which in this case is requisite should be known Otherwise if you believe more things necessary to salvation than really are you will judg him an Heretick who really is not for you will charge him with error in that point which you erroneously think necessary to salvation Whence it must needs follow if you think it the Magistrate's Office to put Hereticks to death that you in your judgment must first sentence this or that Heretick worthy to die But how easily and frequently may it fall out touching your Sentence in it self considered that you should rather be in the error than the party you condemn For of Christians that can come into question of Heresy very few there are who are ignorant of the points sufficient to salvation much less of those that are necessary The case is otherwise in other crimes which common reason constantly condemns which the conscience of the offender condemns in himself and which the Magistrate though himself may be secretly guilty of them is forced by the Law to condemn in others or at least cannot excuse them being willfully committed against some positive Law of Man which commanding nothing naturally dishonest the offender with a safe conscience might and ought to have observed Of these crimes therefore whose cases are clearly laid out by positive Law which particularly design what act is Treason what Murder and what is Felony the Magistrate can and may rightly Judg though himself be not altogether free from the crime which he judgeth But errors whose cases are by no Law specified how can he rightly judg who is himself in an error For in points of Religion even to most Men error is commonly more pleasing than the Truth which being for the most part simple and a stranger finds few patrons to defend it but many and mighty enemies to oppose it who account it a service unto God to serve against the Truth For the Professors of the Truth of Christ even from the beginning of that Profession have suffer'd grievous persecutions from the hands of them who when they killed them did think they did God service Joh. 16.2 as Christ tells his Disciples And the same Master of the Truth testifies elsewhere that the Crosse and persecution should alwaies follow his followers after the Example of their Leader But what greater iniquity can there be than to vex a Man for his Conscience sake For by their Conscience and a full persuasion of the Truth most of those Men must needs be led who are content to expend their Life upon their Profession What greater folly than to force the Faith of Men by external violence and to perswade the Soul by means of the Sword What greater inhumanity than by torments or vexations to compel a man to that dissembling or lying which his Soul abhors as impious and blasphemous What greater indignity than either to murther the Professors of the Truth or to allow Hereticks the glory of Martyrdom and to arm their Errours with an Argument so powerful that the Truth in these times cannot find a greater whereby to commend it self to the Soul What greater Antichristianity than under colour of the Cause of Christ to persecute the poor Members of Christ For if the Cause of Christ needs blood to support it it is rather strengthned by the blood of those that profess the Truth than of them that seem to oppose it Lastly What greater impudence than for us to condemn persecution in the Jew and the Heathen in the Turk and Papist and our selves practice the same Persecution which in others we condemn Is not this either to justifie all Persecution or to condemn our selves in excusably for it Ro. 2.1 For thou art inexcusable O Man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things Is the blood of Persecution but a blast of Merchandize to be cried down when we suffer it and cried up when we practice it according to the vend of other Commodities that pass under humane Commerce To a Jew who alledgeth his Law against Idolaters the Answer may be Let the Jewish Magistrate execute that Law according to the intent of it against such Idolaters as are under his jurisdiction But if by a Christian to whom the Law of Moses is expired that Law be alledged against Hereticks the Allegation is not worth answering SECT V. Rules for Hereticks Concerning Hereticks therefore the Rules in the Gospel seem chiefly two one for a Separation to reject them after a first and second admonition Tit. 3.10 the other for a Toleration to suffer them to grow till the harvest For the housholder in that Parable judged that the rooting up of the Tares would also root up the Wheat Math. 13.30 and thereupon also forbad his Servants from medling with the Tares till the time of harvest Shall we therefore think he commanded the Wheat to root up the Tares which were so multiplied that they overgrew the Wheat much less was it his meaning that the Tares should root up the Wheat by arrogating to themselves the name of the Wheat and by obtruding on the Wheat the name of the Tares Seeing then that the being of the Tares is a thing of necessity for there must be Heresies amongst us 1 Cor. 11.13 that they which are approved might be made manifest And seeing the judgment of Heresie is in a manner a Mystery too deep and hard for humane Judicatories where many times truth is arraigned for errour and seeing the extirpation of Heresies is of much danger that the rooting of it out may root out the truth therefore the safest course for the Christian Magistrate is to account the trial of Heresie a Case reserved to the judgment of God to be cut off by the hand of God because Heresie is a thing so dark and secret that none but God can take cognizance of it in such accurate manner as to convict and condemn it The person whom we suspect of Heresie we must avoid for our own safety but let us leave his Judgment to the hand of God to stand or fall to his own Master But if any man be turbulent and endeavour to subvert the state under which he lives the Magistrate according to the Laws in that case provided may and must proceed against him of what opinion soever he be whether Heretick or not For Heresie being but a difference in opinion is a thing in nature so diverse from Sedition that naturally it never causeth Sedition no more than differences in meats and apparel which differences do flow from opinion
are so by generation to their Parents The one must be rightly chosen the other rightly begotten The one may be disfranchized and lose their right of Tenure the other may be disinherited and lose their right of succession By Marriage is not only the generation of the World in the kingdoms of Men but the Regeneration of the Church in the kingdom of God By carnal Marriage there is a just off-spring to be the Sons of Men. By Spiritual Marriage there is a just off-spring to be the Sons of God Devil an Enemy to Marriage For this cause the Devil being a King of the kingdom of Darkness is the greatest promoter of the works of Darkness of which Incestuous and Adulterous lusts are not the least The Devil therefore is and ever hath been and ever will be a very great enemy to Marriage because that tends to a lawful generation towards a holy Seed to increase the kingdom of God but the contrary tends to an unlawful brood towards a prophane Seed to increase the kingdom of the Devil The Devil is the Father of ill begotten Children of Lies God is the Father of right begotten Children of Truth Great Commands under the Law against Uncleanness and promiscuous Conjunctions of the Body much more purity is required under the Gospel both of Soul and Body SECT II. Excellent Civil Laws for Marriage In Civil kingdoms great care hath been taken for the honour and preservation of Marriages and that for many rare ends and mighty reasons of State but more especially amongst the Romans who gave great encouragements thereunto and priviledges to fruitful procreations denying many honours and benefits to haters of or abstainers from lawful marriage To this end they made most excellent Laws in veneration of this honourable state and in detestation of all Incestuous and Spurious broods whereby they counted their noble Roman blood to be defiled and their old Heroick spirits debased That Sacred bond they generally kept inviolable and those that dared to break it by Divorce preventing death were counted infamous in the highest degree as Tully that great man who is upbraided and that deservedly for putting away the Companion of his youth his Wife with whom he had grown old and superinducing another into her place Such an Example of him and one or two more had not been seen in the Commonwealth of Rome for many Ages before or after To the great shame of such as make it a common practice and farther to vilifie the Sacred ordinance and Institution of God himself In order to just Marriage and as a Solemn preparation thereunto Espousals fair Espousals ought to precede which are no more than the mention and serious resolution of future Marriage 1. The original of Marriage in respect of the Institution thereof Originals of Marriage Gen. 2.22 c. Math. 19.5 is Jure divino 2. The original of Marriage in respect of the Instinct of Corporal conjunction is Jure Naturali L. 1. Sect. 3. ff de Inst Jure 3. The original of Marriage in respect of the Consent of Wills is as other Contracts are Ex Jure Civili L. 5. ff eod 4. The original of Marriage in respect of the Solemnities thereof and Prohibitions of degrees are Ex Jure Civili Inst de Nuptiis SECT III. Marriage as the Emperour Justinian defines it Definitions of Marriage Is the conjunction of a Man and a Woman containing an inseparable acquaintance and familiarity of the whole life of them both Sect. 1. Inst 12. Marriage as the Lawyer modestly defines it L. 1. ff de Eitu Nupt. Is the Conjunction of a Male and a Female The Company of the whole life the Communication of Divine and Human Rights In which are many things remarkable As 1. First Marriage is a Conjunction but for the honour of it of minds and affections rather than of Bodies Siquidem Nuptias non concubitus facit sed Consensus For says the Law modestly It is Consent not Copulation that makes Marriages 2. Secondly Marriage is of Male and Female because between more than two at one and the same time it cannot be Gen. 3. Math. 22. 3. Thirdly Marriage is a Consent because the Wife is the Companion of life and for life and Matrimony is the foundation of all Society and by the Civil Law admits no Separation of the Bed undefiled stante Matrimonio while the Marriage is in hope 4. Fourthly Marriage is the Communication of divine and humane Right because God is the Author of Marriage and both the married Couple ought to be of the same religion and devotion to the same God and partakers of the benefits of the same Laws Quia Mariti uxor fortunam Domicilium forum sequitur ejus hominibus decoratur ejus genere nobilitatur privilegiis personalibus gaudet nisi post mariti mortem viro inferioris conditionis nubat Because the Wife follows the fortune family and jurisdiction of her husband is adorned by his Honours ennobled by his Stock rejoyceth in his personal priviledges except after the death of her husband she marries with a husband of inferior quality Effects of Marriage So from just marriages proceed a just Father and Mother to distinguish from a natural Father and Mother So from just marriages proceed just Children to distinguish them from natural Children uncertain and vulgarly derived from the people they know not from whom So Inheritances of honours and estates descend lineally to a direct Issue of true Parents lawfully begotten and to their heirs for ever SECT IV. Who may lawfully marry 1. They that married by the Roman Law must be Citizens and Quirites of Rome not Slaves nor Latins nor Deportati nor Strangers as Cleopatra was to Mark Antony and Titus to Berenice both Egyptians matches very ill resented by the State Nor might the Nobles intermix with the Plebeians by the Law of the twelve Tables 2. They must be ripe of age and fit for Generation 3. They must be free to consent and in their right minds not fools nor mad men and a Matrimony caused by just fear or force was none at all 4. They must not marry without the consent of their Parents first had and obtained as long as they are under their power 5. Amongst Christians they must be promulgated and blessed by the Church 6. Lastly they must be confined within the limits of lawful Degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity to prevent incestuous and nefarious mixtures For this purpose the Jews and Romans and other civiliz'd Nations had respect to Tables of Consanguinity and Affinity for the regulation of wandring and the prohibition of too near approaching lusts Members of Christs Church Just generations of men All the Members of Christ's Church and Kingdom are sprung from Adam and Eve that were married by God The Generations of Men have broken and intangled their lives by excursions from lawful beds stopping the never to be interrupted courses of Blood and letting