grievous in such cases The CONTENTS Writing Testimony Confirmation Execution Christ the Executor Executorship conditional Flesh and Blood Christ's Assention Spirit 's Mission TITLE VI. Of the Confirmation of the New Testament NOW the New Testament though it were not written as was the Old with the finger of God upon Tables of Stone but was Nuncupative yet this Nuncupation was by God himself not by any Angel and that unto Christ himself only to be published and accordingly was published by him in his own Person and by his Spirit in the persons of the Apostles and their Disciples through the whole World and afterwards committed to writing by the chief of the Apostles and not only so Writing but written again after a better manner by the spirit of God himself upon the Tables of Mens Hearts Testimony And as for the Testimony given thereunto to prove it to be the Will of God Christ himself did testifie thereof with such mighty miracles as never had been done before Besides the unquestionable Holiness of his life and the solemnity of his death Which things were not done in a corner but in the full view of a greater Congregation than was at Mount Sinai for he preached in their Temple and Synagogues and did wonders in all Judea and suffered death upon Mount Calvary Mat. 27.51 At which time the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom the Earth did quake and the Rocks rent and the graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose The Sun also was darkned after an extraordinary manner when the Moon was at the Full. And after all this was added as the last and greatest Proof of all the glory of his Resurrection and Ascention into Heaven He saith therefore of himself John 18.37 To this end was I born and for this cause I came into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth And the Apostle said of him 1 Tim. 6.13 Rev. 3.14 that before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good Confession Hence he is called the Amen the faithful and true Witness the Martyr of the New Testament to testifie it with his Blood His death was not only a Testimony Confirmation but a Confirmation of the New Testament because his death doth wholly and for ever extinguish in him all will or power to revoke it and evidence that immediately from that Death God's Testament was ipso facto in force and began to take effect for the Justification of Mankind to all the Rights in that Testament contained by the Access of their Faith Thus the immortal God came as near to Death as he could by the Death of his Son in his Divine Nature immortal but made a mortal man to dye in his Father's stead and to demonstrate his own and his Father 's unconceivable Love to lay down his Life for Sinners Which thing deserves a perpetual Commemoration so commanded by Christ in the Holy Eucharist instituted by him for that purpose And as Wills are to be proved and confirmed Execution so they are to be executed and performed or else the Will it self is as dead as he that made it and so was made to no purpose The publick Wills of Legislators are to be put in Execution by sworn Magistrates or else the Law is in vain and a dead Letter And the private Wills of Testators are to be put in Execution by their Heirs or Executors covenanting and swearing so to do else the Will or Law of the Testator is frustrated Now of this New Testament Christ is the Executor or Mediator Christ Executor between God the Testator and the Legataries in the Will expressed to convey unto them from God as a Priest the Expiation of their Sins by his Sacerdotal offering up of himself to God in the Temple of Heaven and the Mission of his Spirit to cleanse their hearts and as a King sitting in the Throne of Heaven to rule his Church and protect them from their Enemies and to raise them up from Death and set them at his Right hand and at his left in heavenly places and as a Prophet to lead them into all Truth And Christ as an Executor and Mediator received to himself this benefit to be the universal Heir of God who was so by Nature and was so appointed by Grace to be Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 And for this purpose had all Power given unto him both in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28.18 and universal honour also wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name That at the name of Jesus Phil. 2.9 every knee should bow of Persons in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth For let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. 1.6 and he hath spoiled Principalities and Powers and triumphed over them openly 1 Cor. 15.27 and hath put all his Enemies under his feet The Reason is because Christ's Executorship was conditional Reason 1 Executorship Conditional that is charged upon the Condition of his own Death he must dye before he can enter upon it and therefore dye that he may perform it because every Testament is a Decree of things to be done after Death and this Testament of God hath this strange Prerogative above the Testaments of men that it is confirmed by the Death of a Man who was God and that the Executor not the Testator dyes and that the Disposition of things to be had or done is made after the Death of the Executor who for that purpose rose from the dead that he might justifie the faithful to the Inheritance of Heaven A Cause quite contrary to the Testaments of men wherin the Testator only dies to confirm his Testament and the Executor surviving performs it Therefore as Christ the principal Heir was fitted to receive his Inheritance ordained for him in that Testament whereof he was Executor So we that are Christ's Co-heirs must be fitted to receive the same Inheritance ordained for us in that Testament wherein we are Legataries Reas 2 Flesh and Blood 1 Cor. 15.5 Joh. â— 14 1 Cor. 15.45 Heb. 2.9 2. Because Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of heaven And CHRIST the Word was made Flesh but afterwards he was made Spirit For the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit And JESUS who was made a little lower than the Angels for or by they suffering of Death was crowned with glory and Honour And so Christ was made perfect For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto glory Heb. 2.10 to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through Sufferings And though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered and being made perfect he became the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him And so Christians they are first Flesh For that which is
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
are more false Reasons than true True Knowledge We have no True knowledge it is reserved for another World where we shall understand things exactly as they are and know as we are known Things are in their own nature alwaies the very same Things are here known according to the capacities of our Conceptions which are as various as Temperaments and Faces What another conceives I cannot though upon the same evidence and there is no great hold to what my self conceives for what I believ'd yesterday I may doubt of to day and to morrow be quite deceived The means to discern Truth from Error are but two Means to discern Truth Reason and Experience both these are Cheaters and shew each others cheats An hundred Reasons for one subject may be all false The Rules to â—oderate my Reason and Experience Rules are Principles or Axioms And they are the great Instruments of Deceit for they are so large pliable and stretching that they may be fitted for all Biasses squared and shaped to all forms All Principles are Quodlibets I may hold them which way I will Principles Weather-cocks that may turn to any wind Glasses that represent all faces Almanacks calculated indifferently for divers Climates The contrary Principles to what we now maintain have been in credit with our Fore-fathers as much as ours are now with us and as we have reversed theirs so may an After-age reverse ours What a case then are poor Mortals in Principles are like Common-wealths they have their Revolutions and Periods are altered as Plants removed to different soyls The best warrant for Principles and the surest Quietus est for Deceit Authority is the authority of some Supreme Power and this in the case of Laws is the surest course that can be taken to avoid Contention For some body must determine what is best to be said or done and although their Arrests and Decrees be not always the best yet they are the best that they can make and therefore they are for our practice for Uniformity and Peace but if we add conformity of Judgment because of their Authority we may quickly be deceived And so for the authority and esteem that we have of the Ancients singly or in counsel with others of great Piety and Learning if without enquiry I resolve to think speak or do as they would have me to live and die and all upon their score I am fairly deceived upon good authority But of all Authorities that of Infallibility deceives me most of all Infallibility As to believe that the Pope in nothing can erre that Luther or Calvin in nothing were or that I in my private Spirit in nothing am deceived This even this doth deceive the greatest part of Christendom Christ told his Disciples of the Leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees Matt. 16.6 and they reasoned strongly from their Snap-sacks And when he spake of Meat that he had to eat which they knew not of they little thought Joh. 4 32. that his Meat and Drink was to do the Will of his Father which sent him All their hopes were of a Temporal kingdom and of their Honours under him and after his death all their hopes were dead and buried with him We thought this had been he that should have restored the Kingdom to Israel It was given out that John should not die but he did die Peter halts between Jew and Gentile Who is it that is not deceived In most things we offend all Will. If then the Understanding be so erroneons how can the Will chuse but err Sins of Ignorance reach not the Will they are Sins of Infirmity as Sins are by Passion But Sins of Stubbornness and Malice are grounded on the Will My Lust The direct efficient Cause of Deceit is Lust I complain not of the Truth that there is none nor of the Means of coming to the Truth that they deceive me but I do justly complain where there is cause of my self The Essence of a Mistake is a firm Assent to some falshood under colour of some Truth The Modus is freely or confidently without fear or wit Understanding I trust my Understanding and she cheats me with Appearances for Truths Imagination for Judgment a Dream for Revelation Example for Law Illustration for Proof Probability for Demonstration it may be for it must be Quaintness for strength a Clinch a Crotchet must resolve me I set sail by the Wind of my Lusts I will and I will not at last I know not what I will Sometimes I am ready to curse God and dye will not give a Penny to a Disciple but offer half my Kingdom to my young Mistress From single Thefts I am led to Sacriledg from malice to revenge and murder Magnum est pati Ludibrium à suis my Lust in my bosome mocks me my Enemies are those of my own house Physical Agents and Moral Physical Agents have no Deceits if violent they force if necessary I assent not Moral Agents are but perswasive and dispositive Sensible Objects contain but God's bounty they are Baits but that I bite it is my inordinate Appetite Rational Agents as Satan and Men are remote and partial Causes must first win my Lust to be their Agent and Factor before they can overcome me unless these Philistins plough with my heifer they cannot work upon me They tempt and invite but my Lust deceives me like an Ignis fatuus they disturb my Phantasms and so my Intellect but not my Will no external created Agent can determine that I am principal in the Sin they are accessory in the Deceit Will The least Resistance of my Will would foil a moral Thrust from Man or Devils Christ is tempted as the Son of God Satan is repelled as from the Son of Man he had no Sin in him to second Satan's Assault no Conspirator to betray the Fort beleaguered from without The first Adam might have done as much as the second if he would and so might I still did not my Sin deceive me But God neither deceiveth nor is deceived God is all Truth therefore cannot deceive God is Omnipotent and needs not by means to deceive Deceit argues Impotency the Divel was never so Devilish as to change God with Deceit Say what I will still I am deceived If I say I have no Sin Jam. 1.14 I deceive my self If I confess it my Sin deceives me Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and entised My Lust deceives me Four ways 1. By my apprehensive Faculty my outward and inward Senses 2. By a Real Alteration by Passion of Mind or Distemper of Body 3. By vain and vulgar opinions as that the Sun dances on Easter-day that Cocks crow most against Christmas c. By Poets and Legends and Romances 4. By the Law it self A Casual Cause of Sin Law Casual Cause of Sin Law Sin 's work is to deceive it must
of him that was substituted as Man to die for God who could not die And thus we are made by the best of Testators God himself by the best of Testaments the Gospel the best of Heirs next unto Christ to the best of Inheritances Everlasting Life by the best of Mediators Jesus Christ to whom the Inheritance is first given and in whom it is sure to all the Seed Therefore Believers are stiled God's Beloved as Christ is God's Beloved and with them God is well pleased as with Christ he is well pleased and they are partakers of the same priviledges with Christ for likeness and trueness though not for degree and greatness Testator Amongst men a Testator is bound to institute his lawful children to be his Heirs or to shew just Cause why he doth it not and they must also be instituted or disinherited in his written Testament by Name SECTION XI Appellative 〈◊〉 of Beâ—â—â—â— So doth God institute his Elect Children by the Appellative Name of Believers which is sufficient in such kind of Wills as God's is and in good Men's Wills that are ad pias causas and disinherits the Reprobate by the common Name of Unbelievers shewing the just Cause of their being disinherited because of their Unbelief Thus all the Children of Israel were by the Will of God ordained to enter into the Rest of the Land of Canaan by the common name of God's obedient People but were disinherited and fell in the Wilderness and could not enter into that Rest because of their Disobedience or Unbelief Amongst men Children that are instituted Heirs Consent must adire Hereditatem animo voluntate i. e. enter upon the Inheritance willingly So God's Children must consent and embrace the Promises or else they can have no Right or Title to them and so by refusing they make themselves uncapable and disinherit themselves And such a Testament is God's Testamentum Patris inter Liberos A Testament of Father to Children A Testament of a Father to his Children A Testament for pious Causes Testamentum ad pias causas not inofficious or unkind in giving the Children's part unto strangers without shewing a just Cause For can a Father forget his Child Yes he may No Preterition but God cannot forget his own to make any disinheriting or Preterition of such who of Right were capable to be his Heirs if they did not refuse it for in so doing they made themselves utterly uncapable So that there is no Cause to find fault with God's Will No inofficious Testament as unjust or unnatural as is often amongst men Querela inofficiosi Testamenti a Complaint of an inofficious Testament made unto the Praetor or Chancellor to relieve them with a Child's part from which the Father had excluded them without shewing a just Cause or any Cause at all No no it is not so with God O Israel thy destruction is from thy self but in me is thy help God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth God's waies are alwaies equal but our waies are unequal for the Judge of the World must needs do right God's Will was rightly made as a Father's Will should be and rightly confirmed by the Death of Christ in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen so that the foundation of the Lord standeth sure more sure than Heaven and Earth which shall pass away but not the least title of God's Will shall ever fail His Mercies are sure in him there is no change nor shadow of turning he hath done all that a Father should do And to shew that the immutability of his Purpose according to Election must stand he confirmed his Will by Death in the nature of a Testament whereby he hath given us to understand after the manner of men that he hath left himself no more power or possibility than a Dead man hath to disannul or revoke his own last Will and Testament The CONTENTS Definition of Grace Nature Free-Grace Right Nature Law Throne of Grace Wrath. Works Free Grace Rich Grace Assurance Jews loth to leave the Law TITLE V. Of the Grace of the New Testament THE Gospel is the best of Testaments as those are amongst Men which are made by Fathers to their Children or by Benefactors to miserable Persons by Free Grace without any Petition Mediation or Merit from themselves or others A Testament of Grace Definition of Grace Grace therefore is the act of God's Will spontaneously or mero motu making us his Sons and Heirs in Christ Jesus Here is nothing of Nature or Merit or Mediation in the case here is the mere Motion of the Adopter and unto this to make it complete here is nothing required but the full and free consent of the Adopted to make them as perfect Sons and Heirs by Grace of Adoption as if they had been made so by Nature or Generation Nature 'T is Nature makes us Men and Heirs of Earth but 't is Grace makes us Christians and Heirs of Heaven 'T is Nature makes us the Sons of Men but 't is Grace makes us the Sons of God Free Grace Every Testament is an act of Grace but this is the greatest Grace that ever was even Grace for Grace purely without any motive from the Object to whom it is directed or from any other for him It hath its rise wholly from the Will of the Donor and not at all from the Will of the Receiver So God gave Abraham the Land of Canaan and the Kingdom of Israel to Saul and David It is an independent and unlimited Grace solely issuing from his mere bounty without all bounds of Law Right This with God and Man creates Jus pingue the best Right A Paternal Grace to his Children the Grace of a Patron to his Beneficiary Such a Grace was fittest for God's Grace and Glory fittest for God to give and for his Children to receive Nature stands at a great distance and in a very low sphere from Grace for it makes us no more but barely the Sons of Men that which is born of the Flesh is but flesh but it is Grace only that makes us the Sons of God for that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit 1. Hence Grace is opposed to Nature whereby we are made Men Nature to have an Earthly Inheritance and Dominion after the Image and likeness of God in our Creation but Grace is that whereby we are made Christians to an Heavenly Inheritance and Dominion after the Image and likeness of Christ who was the Natural Son of God born to that Inheritance whereto we after his likeness are called by the Grace of Adoption 2. So God's Grace is opposed to Law not in extremes Law Law gives just that good which is due and no more Grace gives more good than is due yea Grace gives good where none at all is due yea Grace gives good where evil is
due yea Grace gives much good when much evil is due The Law is inexorable and spares none but Grace is easie to be entreated and spares all For Grace is a priviledge above Law rather than extremely contrary to Law An act of Super-justice rather than contrary to Justice For Mercy rejoyceth and triumpheth over Justice as being the special and highest work of God in which he most delighteh This is the Trone of Grace this is the Mercy-Seat Throne of Grace the great Court of Requests and of Chancery Ubi Jus fit Jus datur where Rights are made and where Rights are bestowed whereas in other Courts of Law Rights are only declared Such Courts are much inferior Ubi Jus dicitur where Rights are declared upon Justice to those higher ones where they are created and granted upon Mercy and Bounty and God's Mercies are above all his Works 3. So God's Grace is opposed to Wrath in extremes Wrath. As Grace gives more good than is due by Law so Wrath gives more evil than is due by Law And this Wrath God executes by taking the Sword into his own hands and punishing our sins himself beyond the ordinary way of the Law as Kings by their Prerogatives may do by Wrath to execute Vengeance more than the bare Law calls for upon some extraordinary offences on some extraordinary occasions which they themselves can best judge of especially when the Inferior Judge is negligent of his duty in not inflicting the Punishment which the Law required and when sins have been done with a high hand in open defiance of Rule and Law to the endamagement of the Commonwealth Unto this Wrath God's Grace is extremely opposed For when Law and Anger were heavily against an obstinate Sinner and the Sword of both threatens to devour in an extraordinary way then steps in Mercy and stops the Flood-gate of Anger and saves the dying Soul from the Pit of Ruine which was ready to swallow him up because God sees remorse in him though he have been notoriously wicked yet it is the good will and pleasure of God for the Glory of his Grace to spare as a Father spareth his Son that serveth him to blot out iniquities transgressions and sins and to remember them no more but that they shall be as though they had never been and now that Soul shall live he shall not die SECTION I. Works 4. So God's Grace is opposed to Works which are the Merit of the Creature but this is the Grace of the Creatour Works deserve wages but Eternal life is the gift of God Grace dignifies a Person that deserves it not No man can deserve to be born of his Father or after he is born he cannot deserve to be made the Son and Heir of another man But the only cause of a Son is Love either by Nature or by Adoption and therefore the only cause to be made the Son of God is the Grace of God not the Works of Man Free Grace Such love of God is the Grace of God whereby the Receiver is honoured and profited and yet he never deserved it This is free Justification by Grace Ro. 3.24 of Faith and therefore not of Works that it might be by Grace only otherwise Grace were no more Grace and Works were no more Works This is the Riches of God's Grace whereby we are accepted in the Beloved The gift by Grace the kindness and good will of God This Grace of God is without Cause it is it self the supreme and high cause having no other Cause above or beyond it to actuate and move it Nor can any Works so much as concur with Grace because Grace is the sole Cause For if Salvation were of Works it should be of Debt and then it could not be of Grace They are inconsistent and contrary the one to the other Ro. 4.4 Now to him that worketh is the Reward reckoned not of Grace but of Debt But if it be of Grace it is of Gift and then it cannot be of Works Ro. 11.6 And if of Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done Tit. 35. but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost By this Grace I a poor miserable Sinner attainted in the attainder of Adam's sin and born to temporal and eternal Miseries am looked upon with the eye of Mercy to be justified from all my Sin and Misery and to be invested with Holiness and Happiness And the farther Love and Grace of God to me is that all this should be done in a Testamentary way whereby I should be the more sure of it For such an Instrument as a Testament is requires all the favourable construction that can be imagined that it may take effect according to the best meaning of the Testator Rich Grace And still the Exceeding riches of his Grace appears that he did settle this his Testament by the Death of Christ who was his own and only Son whom he substituted to die in his stead For God could have setled his Testament by means less chargeable than was the precious Blood of his own Son but he could not to shew the abundance of his Love who so loved the World as that he sent his only begotten Son into the same and gave him over unto death that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And lastly all this is Grace for Grace that is freely and out of mere Grace and only for the Thanks of the Receiver SECTION II. I have enough then to uphold my Soul withal till I die Assurance and when I die to lie down with my Body in hope of a glorious Resurrection And after my death my Soul shall wait for it and at last it will come at which time my Saviour will come again and call me from the Regions and Receptacles of Rest to put my Soul and Body both into the full possession of the Inheritance to which I have a present Right by Faith in the New Testament of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Against this New Testament established by Jesus Christ the Jews did mightily stickle Jews loth to leave the Law Because the Old Testament was God's Testament written and God had made a solemn Testimony thereof on Mount Sinai where with terrible Lightning and Thunder and the shrill sound of the Trumpet and by the Fire and Smoak and the quaking of the Mountain and the voice of the Angel who represented God it was testified in the sight and hearing of all the People And also because this Law and Testament had a long prescription of fifteen hundred years together and in such cases men do use to struggle very hard and are loth to part with their so ancient Laws Customes and Priviledges especially concerning their Religion and Worship and a Change is commonly very
and improbous as well as originally miserable and calamitous that is oppressed blemished distressed and especially tainted or corrupted from the womb Eccles 25.24 This is the Original sin with which all Men are defiled Rom. 5.12 for which death entred into the world Of the Woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die By one Man sin entred into the world Chrys and death by sin so death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisd 1.12.16 All the Generations of Men were healthful and there is no poyson in them nor the kingdom of death but ungodly Men by their wicked works and words have called it to them Contractio Causae SECT I. This cause of original sin may be thus contracted into these Corollaries or Aphorisms Accounting Corol. 1. All are made sinners in Adam as all are made righteous in Christ so accounted but both are really sinners and really righteous in their own actions 1. Because Adam had our Nature and we his but his Will was not ours Reason Adam's Will not ours nor ours his We were as to our Bodies in his loyns but not as to our Souls nor actually our Bodies neither but seminally causally and virtually But which way can any Man imagine that our Souls were propagated from him or that our Souls were in his Soul as our Bodies were in his Body Did not he judg for himself and choose for himself and do not we judg for our selves and choose for our selves for his Will was his own and our Wills are our own How can we imagine it otherwise He was deceived not we Reason He eat the forbidden fruit not we He was thrust out of Paradise not we 2. Because as it is just in Men to account the Sons of Traitors sinners Reason and punish them accordingly so it is much more just in God to account the Sons of Adam sinners and to punish them accordingly Adam sinned for himself and was punished for himself so that neither his sin was ours nor his punishment ours really but by imputation We are by Nature the Children of wrath Object Because we are Children of sin and of a sinner Solut. Adam a Representative of all Mankind as a Parliament is of a whole Kingdom If a Parliament err the Kingdom erres if they suffer the Kingdom suffers A Representative Will is a real Will in Law not in Nature Parliament's Wills are our Wills their Decrees oblige us because of our consent given to choose them to act for us How did we make such a Compact with Adam Yet Adam was a Corporation and we in him are included so as to stand or fall by him Adam was obliged to obey not to sin but he was obliged to suffer because he sinned We are obliged to obey not to sin but we are obliged to suffer because we sin And we are obliged to suffer because he sinned but how we are obliged to sin because he sinned I cannot understand SECT II. Object Solut. Levi's paying of Tithes Levi pay'd Tithes in Abraham's loyns A token of subjection in the Father which is derived to the Children If the Head yielded the Members must So they pay'd Tithes virtually in their Father before they were born but they must pay them actually in their own persons and for themselves after they are born As heirs have rights to Honours and Estates in their Father's Honours and Estates and also in their shames and Debts while they live but after their death they enjoy the profits and bear the burdens and shames of their Fathers How were our Persons in Adam Seminally as the plant in the root and seed potentially not actually But where were our Wills even where our Souls were with God that gives us them when he frames us in the womb Yet a Jural will we had in Adam to have a right in him and by him or else a wrong as people have in their Knights and Burgesses who nevertheless have distinct wills for themselves in other things as they have in whose wills for their election only their wills are included So Adam was for us all to stand or fall for us all not to do good or bad for us all and now we must all suffer by him though we did not act actually sin in him but virtually We have the same natural Body and inclinations thereof as Adam had But as his Body and his inclinations were personal to himself so our Bodies and our inclinations are personal to our selves If Adam in nature had been created a Child he could not have sinned because he as a Child could have no use of his will When I am born into the world I cannot sin in the world till I come to the use of my reason and will in the world how then could I sin before I was born or had a being in the world any more than as I was as the fruit is in the winter fast asleep in my causes How then say some we were sinners before we were and how indeed not so as they mean let them prove it if they can Corruption of Bodies is manifest and so Health is by weak or strong Progenitors Diseases and Health are much hereditary in Nature but virtues or vices of Souls I could never apprehend any descent or conveyance of them from Parents to their Children Estates Honours and Shames are convey'd and pass upon posterity but not by the passage of Nature but of Law We are all concluded by Adam's will yet how If he had done good altogether his goodness was personally his own nor is it or ever was or ever will be ours but we should be the better for it But being he did evil his evil was personally his own nor is it or ever was or ever will be ours but we shall fare the worse for it Adam was obliged to do good so are we Adam was not obliged to sin no more are we We are as free to good or bad as Adam and Eve were How is a Traitor's blood that runs in his veins or his Son's blood tainted the Wise can tell We put a great stress upon many things as upon this of Original sin and upon Hoc est corpus meum and upon Tu es Petrus and of being born in sin and of the power of the Keyes and of the Free-will and of Imputed Righteousness as also of Predestination Election Reprobation and of a Judg in matters of Faith of Infallibility and Universal Supremacy Heresy c. It was the custom then to speak yea think so as they declare in these matters Who can hinder or blame us justly for labouring to understand the meaning of these things and not be abused as our Fathers were We all agree concerning these matters of Original sin Election Reprobation Free-will Imputed righteousness the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist the washing of Baptism but we cannot agree concerning the manner If we would leave
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
But turbulent minds will raise Sedition upon any occasion whether of errour or truth but most commonly upon occasion of truth and then charge the truth as the cause of the Sedition which themselves caused For was not Sedition raised about and against that truth which Christ and his Apostles preached and yet charged upon him and his Apostles The CONTENTS Transition Calling Election Faithful are Elect. Faith Walking by Faith Worthies of Old Election need not to be concealed Election an easie Point Diligence to make Election sure TITLE VII Of Election CHRIST's Kingdom is an Elective Kingdom Transition Christ is an Elective King chosen of God Christians are Elective Subjects to Christ their King Elective Souldiers to Christ their General chosen by Christ and choosing Christ Listing themselves under him and fighting under his Banner SECT I. I. This is a Christian 's Calling where 1. The Caller is God Calling predestinating and purposing them according to the good pleasure of his will choosing and electing them according to his purpose justifying them and adopting them to be his Children sanctifying them and glorifying them by his Spirit 2. The Called is Man Hearing the Call and therefore so far alive and in his senses given him by God not a stock or a stone or else all Calling had been in vain Able therefore to say Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth Here I am Lord what wouldst thou have me to do I will do any thing What shall I do that I might be saved Understanding the Call of God or else all calling should be in vain and therefore endued from God with wit and memory consenting to his Call which is understood by him and therefore endued with will desire and affection free to choose or to refuse or else all hearing and understanding should be as sounding brass or like a tinkling Cymbal and all calling upon us to hear understand and choose should be all one as to call upon the blind to see the lame and fast bound in iron to run and walk which is to mock us which is to punish us for what we cannot help which is unjust which God forbid So Man is a Subject capable to receive the Heavenly calling which is conveyed into him after the capacity of the Receiver SECT II. Election II. This is a Christians Election where 1. The Elector is God choosing Man a fit subject for God to work upon A rational Agent upon a rational Patient A free Agent upon a free Patient 2. The Elected is Man suffering himself to be chosen of God by consenting to his choice coming from the first free Grace of God acted by which he acts 3. The Elector is Man actively choosing God as God hath chosen him Freely covenanting with God as God hath covenanted with him uniting himself with God as God hath united himself with him One with God as God is one with him having communion with God as God hath communion with him The Soul taketh God as God takes the Soul The Soul and God say mutually one to another as friends I am thine and thou art mine As the Spoused plight their Troths enfolding them one in another each to other saying I am my well-beloved and my well-beloved is mine As those that are in a mutual League together Do fidem accipio fidem Near and dear to one another as friends that are of one Soul So God and Man are of one Spirit So God dwells with us and we with him So we have fellowship with the Father and with the Son So we love God because he loveth us And because we cannot reach to the height of his love we strain till we cry out Stay us with Flagons and comfort us with Apples for we are sick of love and this is without cavilling closing with God and twisting our love in his love as far as the poor Creatures capacity will bear This is our high and precious Calling this is the Covenant and state of Grace and Salvation This Calling and Election of God is sure on God's part and we are to give diligence to make it sure on our part By continuing to hear and bowing down our ear to receive more instruction By frequenting the doors of Wisdom and wearing the threshold of Understanding that we may know more and be wise to salvation By consenting yet more and choosing still that good part that shall never be taken away from us By re-punishing and re-covenanting with God renewing our Vow working together with God and watching over our own hearts and labouring in the work of love so to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 and striving to make our calling and election sure So to fight out the good fight of Faith 2 Tim. 4.7 to finish our course and to lay hold upon the Crown of Righteousness For he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved Be thou faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and I will give thee a Crown of life SECT III. Thus they that have given their Faith to God Faithful are Elect. as God hath given his Faith to them and they that have kept their Faith to God as God hath kept his Faith to them they are the called and chosen of God God is their God and they are Gods People they are faithful in their Promise as God is faithful in his Promise 1. Because the cause of Blessedness is Gods Promise Reason and ex naturâ rei there is not nor can be any other Cor-relative or Cor-respondent to a a Promise but Faith and without Faith a Promise is of no effect The persons therefore Called nominated or elected to Blessedness are all and only the Faithful and the very nature of a Promise so accepted and taken doth nominate and elect them For if the Acception of a Promise be Faith as it is then the Acceptants are the Faithful and thereby must needs be nominated or elected to the thing promised And if they so continue must needs be partakers of the thing promised For this I take for an infallible Principle and Demonstration undeniable That If the things to be done are done then the things to be had are had but if the things to be done are not done then the things to be had are not had So if Faith and Obedience which are the things to be done on our part are done then Grace and Glory which are to be had are had on Gods part but if the things to be done which are Faith and Obedience are not done on our part then the things to be had which are Grace and Glory are not to be had on Gods part Therefore the Faithful and Elect are all one or rather two terms for one and the same subject And consequently no person not faithful of any Nation shall be blessed but all persons that are faithful of all Nations shall be blessed If therefore the Question concerning Universal Grace were fitted to the proper
offered for all and suffered for all that were saved before the Gospel 31. That by all this I do not affirm that all that were saved under the Law though in consideration of Christ did understand in what consideration Christ should be their salvation as Christians under the Gospel do but that they understood it darkly in their Elders and Superiours the Prophets of God and their Disciples the Judges of Israel who were also Prophets and the Fathers of several Ages of whom we read Hebrews 11. who being acquainted with the secret of Gods purpose were to acquaint the People with it so sparingly and by such degrees as the secret wisdom of God had appointed 32. That these things being thus premised I acknowledge the Act of God in dispensing in the execution of his original Law and bringing the grace of the Gospel into effect instead of it not to be the act of a private Person remitting this private Interest in the punishment of those sins whereby his Law was transgressed but the act of a Master of a Houshold or the Prince and Soveraign of a Common-wealth disposing of Mankind as his Subjects or houshold Servants But the sufferings of Christ were accepted of God to give him that Satisfaction as might move him in consideration thereof abating that debt of Punishment which we are engaged to by transgressing his Original Law to publish an act of Grace admitting all to remission of sins and right to everlasting life that will undertake to be true Christians 33. That still along in my conceptions upon this point I meet with the exact distinction between the two Covenants and Dispensations of God by the mediation of Moses and of Christ We read that Abraham did agree to the Promise and that his Posterity long time after when it came towards a performance did consent to leave Egypt under the Conduct of Moses and are said to be under the Cloud 1 Cor. 10 1.5 and to pass through the Sea and to be baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and did all eat of the same spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them which Rock was Christ All this while they had not a drop of water to wet them but the Waters were a wall unto them on both sides till they passed through the Red-Sea on dry ground being protected with a Cloud to cover their heads and their Enemies sank like Lead in the mighty Waters 34. That this therefore was the beginning of that Peoples engagement unto God which though shortly after they departed from at Marah yet being reconciled to God by his patience and goodness in fulfilling their desires beyond their deserts they reingaged themselves to God to obey him and keep the Sabbath Exod. 15.25 26. Ex. 16.27 28 29. until being come to Mount Sinai they received the Decalogue and afterwards the whole Law So we being redeemed from the Egypt of this World undertake to leave it under the conduct of Christ and hereupon our sins are drowned in the mystical Waters of Baptism 35. That this argues a correspondency and resemblance but no Identity and sameness between the two Testaments 36. That therefore I cannot but admire but the stream carries them which is strong too that Wise men and learned in the Scriptures should maintain that as the Testaments so the Sacraments are the same If so then the Kingdom of Heaven and the Land of Canaan are both one thing then Baptisme and the passage through the Red-Sea are all one then the Passeover and the Lords-Supper are all one then to believe in Moses for his conduct to Canaan and to believe in Christ for his conduct to Paradise are all one But Christ saith Ye believe in Moses believe also in me 37. That if setting aside the correspondence they make the engagement to God under Moses for the obtaining the Land of Promise one thing and our engagement to God under Christ for the obtaining of Heaven another certainly the immediate assurance of this and the immediate assurance of that are several things And if there be between the Old and New Covenant that correspondence which makes one the figure of the other they may as well be said to be one and the same as my Picture is the same with me because it is called by my name which cannot be But to say that the Sacraments of the Old Law do immediately figure or assure the same thing which the Sacraments of the Gospel do is the same thing as to say the Rest of the Land of Promise and the everlasting Rest of the kingdom of Heaven are both one and the same 38. That upon this ground St. Paul argues concerning the Gospel Deut. 30.12.14 from the words of Moses concerning the Law The Righteousness which is of Faith saith thus Say not in thine heart Who will ascend into Heaven Rom. 10.10 to wit to bring down Christ Or who will go down into the Deep to wit to bring up Christ from the dead But what saith it the word is near thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of Faith which we preach That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe with thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart a man believes to Righteousness and with the mouth confession is made to Salvation The Argument is this That if Moses duly warned the Israelites that they have no excuse for not obeying the Law which he had put as it were in their mouths and into their hearts by his so frequent and plain teaching of them by Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little frequently repeated then if Christ as duly warn the Christians they can have no excuse for not obeying the Gospel which he had put as it were in their mouths and into their hearts by the Apostles preaching in season and out of season If therefore the profession of an Israelite by Circumcision ties him to the Law shall not the profession of a Christian who is the true Israelite by Baptisme and the Circumcision of the Spirit tye him to the Gospel Do therefore the names of a New Covenant or a New Testament signifie no difference between them or so little that they are one and the same in effect and that the one is comprehended in the other Consider well what hath been said and will be said to the contrary 39. That as to the Common salvation both of Jew and Gentile with and without a Law once more give me leave to shew that while they were under this dispensation there was another traffick driving under hand in dark and obscure terms between God and them for the happiness of the World to come to his Law written or unwritten for such reasons and to such an end and with such measures as he requireth for causes best known to himself 40.
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