first forsake God. There can be no divine Hope of that which is not infallibly future and God foresees will never be But where is divine Hope that is divine evidence that the thing hoped for is infallibly future Now in all regenerate Souls there is planted by God divine Hope of their Perseverance and Salvation therefore it will most surely be otherwise God is made the Author of false and deceivable Hope 3. God keeps his Saints in this World from final Apostacy by the holy fear of it this is at once a sure pledg and principal engine of Perseverance Jer. 32.40 Ezek. 36.27 Rom. 11.20 As it is holy Fear so it differs in kind from the fear of Devils and Men ungodly in whom is fear but no holy Fear As it is fear of Apostacy so it differs in kind from the State of blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven in whom is perfect Fear as Fear is the same with reverence and transcendent esteem of God but no fear of Apostacy no possibility of Sin. 4. David in the instant of his Murder and Adultery was ungodly and in a state of Damuation The reason is because God's Judgment over all is by Conscience as his Agent in the Breast of Angels and Men universally and for ever And God's Judgment must be so plain that every Mouth may be stopped and all may clearly perceive the Righteousness of God. But if Persons may be in the same instant both Murderers and Adulterers and yet Godly and in a state of Salvation then cannot every Mouth be stopped nor can the Conscience of Angels and Men universally acquit God. There is in the Soul of David invisibly some spiritual Lust against the Flesh such for kind as is in no unregenerate Man 1 Joh. 3.9 Gal. 5.17 Considered as spiritual so it is invisibly active for God and not idle in the Soul Considered as Lust so it is not active but lusteth to act and for the present cannot act by reason of an excess of contrary Lust which doth overwhelm it and extinguish all godly Act. God's gracious purpose in Christ from everlasting concerning David cannot fail and therefore in time he gives him Repentance and Pardon of those enormous Crimes and so makes advantage thereof to his own Glory the disgrace of Sin the esteem of Holiness the comfort of the Penitent and the silencing of the Impenitent Thus where Sin abounded God's Grace much more abounded and from everlasting to everlasting God's Mercy is on David and all other regenerate Souls Rom. 5.20 Psal 103.17 5. Infallible Certainty as it is in God is the Divine Effence and admits of no degrees as it is in us it is the Image of God a divine effect and admitteth of degrees but so that every degree thereof is truly infallible and Certainty not infallible is a Contradiction as being the same with uncertain certainty So much holy Faith in Christ so much holy Self-knowledg Self-perception Self-feeling and Self-intuition here the same thing is both Act and Object As by living we know we live and by seeing we know we see so we believe and know we believe Joh. 6.69 Faith and Assurance as also Faith and Confidence are distinct yet not asunder they differ as Cause and Effect Now Cause and Effect are mutually related things related are simul naturâ intrinsecally together and do mutually prove and infer each other the effect is eminently in the Cause and the Cause as such is the measure of the Effect Isa 32.17 Eph. 3.12 Heb. 10.22 Regeneration is the Seal of the Spirit by which he doth prove evidence and demonstrate to the Heart and Conscience of the Man regenerate through Faith that he is God's Child by Adoption elect in Christ and an Heir of Heaven This is divine Evidence and therefore he is bound to believe it with divine belief The Holy Ghost and renewed Conscience through Faith do undividedly witness the same thing yet not in the same respects the Holy Ghost doth witness the whole as principal and supream and renewed Conscience doth witness the whole as by his Grace instrumental and subordinate Rom. 8.16 17. 9.1 2 Cor. 1.12 22. Eph. 1.13 14. Doubting of Salvation may be in a godly Man in such sort as Unbelief may but no otherwise The least degree of holy Faith doth sincerely yet not perfectly mortify expel and war against Unbelief and carnal Doubting and Uncertainty CHAP. III. Of the Lord Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and Men. 1. THE Mediatorship of Christ began immediately after Adam's Fall For then God the Son as purposed in time to be Man and as Man to die for Sin gave Repentance and Pardon to Adam through Faith and so founded the New Covenant of which himself is the Mediator principally as he is God the Son subserviently as he is Man according to his own eternal purpose The godly before his Incarnation were saved by Faith in Jesus Christ as purposed to be Incarnate and the Godly since are saved by Faith in the same Jesus Christ as already Incarnate according to that Purpose Thus Jesus Christ is the same Yesterday and to Day and for ever without Parts and Composition Heb. 13.8 For if he consist of Parts then he is not simply impartial and then he cannot judg the World in Righteousness he must needs approve Murder in David and condemn it in Cain Which is Blasphemy If he be at all compounded then he is not simply Christ For simple and compounded are Contraries as Light and Darkness Sincerity and Deceit 2 Cor. 1.12 and 11.3 If he be not simply Christ he is a Deceiver 2. Christ considered as Man died for all Men as Men fallen in Adam equally and alike and shed as much Blood and as fincerely and effectually for Cain and Judas as for Abel and Peter and did all that lay in him as Man to save all Mankind without exception and continueth so to do For he could not be a perfectly holy Man without bearing equal and impartial love to all Men as Men fallen in Adam and to all godly Men as Godly As Man he makes no difference between one Man and another farther then they by Holiness or Sin shall difference themselves Christ considered as God could not die but he who is God manifest in the Flesh God the Son incarnate died in respect of his Body and purchased the Church with his own Blood and obtained Faith Repentance Pardon of Sin Perseverance and eternal Salvation for Abel David and the rest of the Elect in all Ages And temporal Grace Mercy Priviledg and Salvation for Cain Judas and the rest of that sort not with design that they should abuse his Grace that so he might have colour against them and damn them But as unsearchably foreseeing that he not preventing them with his heavenly Grace they would through themselves be graceless impenitent and perish And he whose Thoughts and Ways be far above ours purposed not to prevent them Thus he is the Saviour of all
without all new Act Motion Change and Transition in God unsearchably 3. God is and was and is to come Rev. 1.4 8. He is truly past truly present and truly to come and yet the same God but not in the same respects God as past is neither present nor to come God as present is neither past nor to come God as to come is neither past nor present God is essentially and yet freely related to all both Angels and Men as their Creator Upholder and Governour for ever this Relation was from Eternity future and it remains to Eternity by the free Pleasure of God. Between God and damned Men as Men there is eternal Relation as between Cause and Effect Between God and damned Men as damned there is no Relation at all but perfect and eternal Contrariety he is for ever blessed they are for ever cursed they do implacably hate him and he doth implacably hate them But he doth not hate them as they are Men For as Men they are eternally against their will the Work and Image of God who can in no instant hate his own Work and Image as such Against their will God doth lord and rule over them by Conscience his Agent in their Bosom and in them the Glory of his just Vengeance and Severity for Sin doth eternally shine forth and against their will they fulfil the divine Law by bearing its utmost Penalty 4. God as our Creator is the way to himself as our Redeemer our Sanctifier our Blessedness and End our All in all For unless we were by Creation Men we could not be redeemed holy and blessed Men. Yet is God no way the Author of Sin. We must not deny things plain because we cannot find out to Perfection things unsearchable and too wonderful for us Joh. 6.44 Rom. 11.33 Christ as Mediator is the way to himself as God our Maker and our End our All in all For we being by Sin alienated from God and Enemies in our Minds by wicked Works unless Christ as Mediator Advocate and Intercessor shall by his Grace reconcile us to himself as God we shall die in our Sins and perish for ever Rev. 22.13 Col. 3.11 2 Cor. 5.19 The Holy Ghost as Sanctifier is the way to himself as God our Maker and our End our All in all For we being by Nature dead in Sin and full of Ungodliness and Unrighteousness unless the Holy Ghost as Sanctifier shall quicken our Souls with Spiritual Life and by heavenly Regeneration make us like to himself as God in Righteousness and true Holiness we can never enter into his Kingdom Joh. 3.3 5. 5. The true God is God the Father not Incarnate God the Son Incarnate God the Holy Ghost not Incarnate one God blessed for ever the Reward and Rewarder of all Elect Angels and Men for ever their Blessedness and the Author of their Blessedness their All in all And under God the exalted Manhood of Christ is Sole Supream over all both Angels and Men the First-born of every Creature Col. 1.15 God as God is simply invisible But God as manifest in the Flesh and the fountain-Fountain-cause of all Good to Elect Angels and Men for ever is perfectly seen of all in Heaven Face to face and truly by Faith yet not perfectly of all the Saints on Earth God cannot be seen and known save by his own Light and gracious Manifestation of Himself Now God's first Discovery of Himself is in and by Creation accoâ—â—â—â—â— to his own Eternal Purpose in Christ Jesus Antecedently to this he is not knowable by Angels by Men by Christ Himself as Man. Eph. 3.9 10 11. Joh. 1.18 1 Cor. 13.12 1 Tim. 3.16 1 Tim. 6.16 CHAP. V. Of Adam in Innocency and the entrance of Sin into the World. 1. GOD created Adam in his own Image truly holy and like unto himself in heavenly Rectitude This heavenly Rectitude he lost by his Fall and it was renewed in him in part by heavenly Regeneration after his Fail but not perfectly while on Earth The state of Adam in Innocency was Supernatural and not Natural For God created all Things and consequently Adam by Jesus Christ according to the eternal Purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph. 3.9 10 11. This is cleaâ—â—â— matter of Faith and wholly Supernatural For of God's eternal purpose in Christ Jesus the light of Nature saith nothing at all God only is holy by Nature that is essentially holy like as he only is by Nature God Gal. 4.8 Adam was holy not by Nature but by Grace and heavenly dependence oâ— God. Which-Grace continued with him 'till he dissiking the Condition in which God made him and affecting to be independent Lord of his own Will chose rather to be ruled by himself than by the holy just and good Will of God. And so God did not necessitate his Fall nor deny him Grace to stand nor take his Grace from him But Adam by wilful eating of the forbidden Fruit did expel and put God's Grace from him and became the Author of his own Ruine 2. Adam needed heavenly Grace to keep him from inward lusting after the forbidden Fruit but not from outward eating of it Bare Lust as in it self is not Sin but all Lust in Man against the Spirit and after what the holy just and good God hath forbidden is very Sin before God tho not before Men Rom. 7.7 In such inordinate Lust the Soul is Principal and the Body is Instrumental The Body by it self cannot lust at all the Soul as to its natural substance is the Image of God and in that respect it must needs be innocent But if the Soul be destitute of inward heavenly Grace it is then full of ungodly and worldly Lusts invisibly in respect whereof it is enmity against God and the Image of the Devil Joh. 8.44 Jude 18. Tit. 2.11 12. Rom. 8.7 3. The divine Law is holy just and good Rom. 7.12 The sum of it is Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and thy Neighbour as thy Self or A Conscience void of Offance both tomard God and toward Man. The divine Law considered outwardly as of old written in Tables of Stone and now in the Bible is man fold But considered inwardly as written in the Heart so it is only one as God is one because it consisteth by Conscience in each ones Bosom and Conscience in each Man can be but one Take away Conscience and Man is not Man but a Brute The nature of Conscience is to be under God and over Man as such it is a Law to it self Rom. 2.14 15. and the great Engine by which God doth govern the whole intellectual World. Adam while innocent was not under the Law and Covenant of Works For the Law of Works as distinct from the Law of Faith doth not exclude sinful Boasting Rom. 3.27 But there could be no sinful boasting in Adam while innocent The Covenant of Works gendreth to Bondage Gal. 4.24 But Bondage was not
Sin and seals them with his holy Spirit and renders them truly godly elect and precious in his sight and severs them from among the ungodly World as to Life Eternal 1 Pet. 1.2 20. Rom. 8.29 30. Acts 13.48 Jude 4. Prov. 16.4 Gal. 1.15 16. Jer. 1.5 2 Pet. 1.10 Eph. 1.11 2. Indeed we are said to be chosen in Christ before the Foundation of the World Ephes 1.4 But that is because Election in Christ is from Eternity future and things future are as present to God who calleth those things which be not as tho they were Rom. 4.17 What is future is as real and certain as what is present yet as future it is not in present being but to come and most surely will be Therefore Election in Christ is no otherwise from Eternity than Faith is For to be chosen in Christ is to be in Christ to be in Christ is to be a Christian A Christian without Faith in Christ is simply impossible Therefore no Faith in Christ no Heavenly Election But God gives Faith to Abel and not to Cain and thereby doth difference Abel from Cain 1 Cor. 4.7 Ephes 2.8 9. Mat. 13.11 And Abel through the same Faith doth renounce and repent of all his Sins and chuse the way of Truth and sincerely covenant his Soul to God and so under God and by his Grace in Christ through Faith Abel is from first to last laudably and rewardably active and instrumental in his own Regeneration and Perseverance doth save himself and doth difference himself from Cain Gal. 6.4 Acts 2.40 1 Tim. 4.16 Deut. 30.19 Psal 119.30 Luke 10.42 Heb. 11.4 3. God worketh Regeneration ever by his Word because his Word is Truth and there cannot be Heavenly Regeneration without Heavenly Truth as the immortal Seed thereof John 17.17 1 Pet. 1.23 In the same instant as to time God doth of naturally unwilling unholy and dead in Sin make us supernaturally willing holy and alive unto Righteousness by Omnipotent Grace in us unsearchably neither contrary to the Intrinsick Nature of the Human Will nor dependent on it but above it and so the Will is not destroyed but fanctified and saved This Omnipotent Grace in us is a Divine Effect produced by God after the Counsel of â—â—s own Will which is the same for ever and can have no new Act Eph. 1.11 James 1.17 There is in all the godly Divine Omnipotency like as there is Divine Nature and the Life of God 2 Pet. 1.4 Eph. 4.18 I 〈◊〉 do all things through Christ which strengthâ—neth me Phil. 4.13 Omnipotency as it is in God is the Divine Effence simply independent and admitteth of no degrees Omnipotency as it is in us is the Image of God a divine Effect simply dependent and admitteth of degrees but so that he who hath the least degree cannot but be a sincere Convert and truly godly and yet he is freely and willingly so Regeneration is entirely Gods Gift and entirely our Duty and so we do the whole through God's Grace in Christ for God cannot do our Duty or any part of it and we without his Heavenly Grace in Christ can do nothing heavenly and supernatural 〈◊〉 is Regeneration Joh. 15.5 4. God's free Grace in Jesus Christ is the fountain-Fountain-cause of Predestination and Election to Life eternal but God predestinates no Person to 〈◊〉 and he reprobates no Person eternally save for his own Ungodliness in 〈◊〉 instant truly repented of and breeding the never-dying Worm To be ungodly is to be reprobate to every good Work Tit. 1.16 2 Cor. 13 5â— Jer. 6.30 As then God doth by his Grace of ungodly make many godly 〈◊〉 so he doth by the same Grace of reprobate make many elect and all the Elect in Christ he keeps from final Apostacy Christ considered as Man is himself elect Isa 42.1 Christ considered as God the Son incarnate equâ—â— in respect of his Godhead with the Father and the Holy Ghost Phil. 2. â—â— is the Author of Election 5. In God there is necessarily Self-kowledg and Self-knowledg is boâ—â— Act and Object Therefore no Man is the Object of God's Eternal Presciâ—nce and Decree But God from Eternity doth know love and delight in himself as purposed in time to make Adam holy to permit his Fall to give him Repentance and Pardon through Faith to give him Childrenâ— first Cain and then Abel to permit their being born equally in Originally Sin and to give Repentance and Salvation to Abel and not to Cain 〈◊〉 supposed all these things are from Eternity future and Abel through God's Grace will most surely be penitent and saved and Cain through himself will most surely be sinful impenitent and damned and yet they are no Object at all of God's Eternal Prescience and Decree God cannot go out of himself for an Object to terminate his Knowledg and Will upon because he is simply Independent and the same for ever His Omnipotent Word or Saying Let this and that be is the producing of it without all new Act Transition Motion and Change in God Gen. 1.3 9 11. Psal 148.5 CHAP. II. Of Perseverance and Certainty of Salvation 1. ADam being created in perfect Integrity might well love God though not sure of his Perseverance But unto fallen Man in whose Conscience reigns Guilt eternal the holy and Sin-avenging God is not at all lovely in that condition Fear and flee from him as his Judg he may love and draw nigh to him as his gracious God and reconciled Father in Christ he cannot till by Sin-pandoning Grace in Christ through Faith his Conscience be set free from Guilt eternal and in the room thereof be planted godly hope of Life eternal Every degree of this Hope must needs have with it intrinsecally a degree of godly Certainty and infallible Assurance of Perseverance and Salvation because it is Hope in God who is Truth it self and cannot lie Therefore it is called assurance of Hope an Anchor of the Soul both sure and stedfast better Hope by the which we draw nigh to God Heb. 6.11 19. and 7.19 In respect of this better Hope it is that Christ is said to be the Mediator of a better Covenant Heb. 8.6 2. As to Life Temporal and all things worldly and transitory uncertainty may suffice because true Happiness doth not consist therein and no Man can be sure of living another hour But as to Life Eternal as good never a whit as never the better nothing short of divine and heavenly Hope thereof can suffice to fallen Man. Now if the perseverance of all in whom is divine and heavenly Hope in Christ be not infallibly future and a thing that will most surely be in God's good time and through his Grace in Christ then there is no difference between heavenly and worldly Hope Hope in God and Hope in Man Faith in Christ and Infidelity Adam in Innocency could have no divine Hope of his Perseverance but only perfect Assurance that God would not forsake him if he did not
Men specially of them that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 3. Christ considered as God hath no Office but is above Office yet not contrary to it Christ considered as Man hath indeed an Office and but one From his Conception to his Birth thence to his Death Burial and Resurrection thence to his Ascension and Sitting at God's right Hand in Glory thence to his coming to judg the World all this is but one entire office of Christ as Man admitting of just Conception but no Division His Office as Man is to be subservient to himself as God in the work of Redemption this one comprizeth all 4. Christ as Man obedient unto Death is our Pattern and Example a real Martyr and the Prince of Martyrs he discharged his own Debt and Duty and not ours and evangelically merited for himself not for us all that Glory and Reward which as Man he hath for ever at God's right Hand Christ considered as God incarnate is not our Pattern nor a Martyr but infinitely above us he is our Lord and our God our Saviour and Redeemer our Ransom and Atonement for Sin through Faith our All in all he merited nothing for himself but all for us Without shedding of Blood is no Remission And therefore Christ as Man died for Sins yet not his own but ours not as deserving his Death but as deserving our Death and he as Man in obedience to God and out of love to us died for us one Man for all Men as fallen in Adam and so became a Propitiation and Counterprize for the Sin of the whole World yet not without Faith For he that believeth not makes God a Lyar is condemned already and God's Wrath abideth on him 1 Joh. 5.10 Joh. 3.18 36. The obedience of Christ was not two active and passive but simply one as Christ is one As to Eternity the opposition is not between active and passive but between active and idle passive and being at ease Christ as Man nailed to the Cross and pierced with a Spear was invisibly active for God and our eternal Good and not idle And yet in the fame instant he was visibly passive in great pain and not at ease His Death was indeed the most eminent proof of his obedience to God and love to us But still it was obedience and therefore pleasing to God and truly meritorious because it was so For no suffering of Man as distinct from obedience can please God and profit the Soul and merit heavenly Reward 5. Had God not saved fallen Man at all he had done him no wrong but then he had been conscious to himself of going contrary to his own eternal Purpose For from Eternity God the Son was purposed to permit the Fall of Man to be incamate and as Man to dye for Sin and so to enter into Glory and thus to save fallen Man by Christ through Faith and not otherwise This supposed God could not but save fallen Man this only way and yet he thus saved him most freely and willingly and not as constrained and under Law to a Superior And the true reason why the Incarnation doth not change and compound God is because it is the exact fulfilling of his own eternal Purpose Which Purpose if he had not in time fulfilled then indeed he had been changed and compounded of Yea and Nay and had not been himself Yea and Amen the same for ever 2 Cor. 1.17 18 19 20. Eph. 3.9 10 11. The work of Christ as Mediator is to reconcile Sinners to God. When this is fully done and all Sin is for ever abolished and God and Men are no longer two divided by Sin but one in perfect Love then shall the Mediatorship of Christ cease and have an end as being fully accomplished As when the Wound is perfectly healed there is no further need of Plaisters The change is not in Christ but in us 1 Cor. 15.24 25 26 27 28. CHAP. IV. Of the Nature of God. 1. WE cannot rightly conceive of God without diversity and distinction and we may admit of no diversity and distinction repugnant to infinite Unity and Perfection Unity and Diversity are well consistent but not Unity and Division 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. God is for ever good to those in Heaven yet just but not severe And he is for ever severe to those in Hell yet just but not good For the opposition is not between Goodness and Justice nor between Severity and Justice but between Goodness and Severity Rom. 11.22 Therefore the divine Goodness as such is not the divine Severity Nor the divine Severity as such the divine Goodness They are most really and not chymerically truly and not feignedly eternally and not temporally divers and distinct and thus all in God is not God. But then what is Goodness to those in Heaven through God's abundant Grace in Christ the same is Severity to those in Hell through their own Sin And what is Severity to those in Hell through their own Sin the same is Goodness to those in Heaven through God's abundant Grace in Christ and thus all in God is God without accident parts and composition and he is truly all in all Not as excluding the Creature and subordinate Causes but the Creature and subordinate Causes as such consist by and depend on God and yet they add nothing to him they do not make him more wise holy just good powerful perfect blessed Of Him through Him and to Him are all things He is simply perfect and unto what is simply perfect there can be no addition God cannot be beholden to us 2. God is a pure Act eternally active and in no instant idle and God being one the divine Act must needs be one Creation Sustentation Gubernation of Angels and Men Incarnation Redemption Regeneration Justification and the like these are neither immanent nor translent Acts of God but Effects produced by God after the Counsel of his own Will which is the same for ever and can have no new Act. The things produced by God are numberless in them is Order Succession Priority and Posteriority dependence of one thing upon another But in God by whom they are unsearchably produced there is no Number no Order no successive Moments and Instants nothing before and after no dependence at all but unsearchable Unity Diversity Eternity Independency Truth Simplicity Goodness Perfection and Excellency above Number Order Time and all that we can conceive yet not repugnant thereto Angels and Men are dependent Beings and not having Blessedness in themselves they go out of themselves by heavenly Self-denial and seek it in God in whose good Will and Pleasure they rest and terminate as their beginning and end their all in all and so they are happy But God being simply independent true and Truth it self cannot deny and go out of himself for any thing that he hath a mind to effect It is but his Omnipotent Word let this or that be and it is when and how he would have it