THE VVORLDS PROSPECT OR A Commentarie upon the 33 of ISAIAH and the 14 vers. In these words The sinners in Sion are afraid In which words are declared how farre the Saints may sinne against Knowledge and Conscience and yet not sinne the sin against the holy Ghost Delivered And set forth by JOHN EMERSONE sometime pastr Dispencer of the word in private LONDON Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Gamage and are to be sold at his shop on London-Bridge neere the Gate 1646. The Contents THe poynt from the Text is this That sinnes against Knowledge and Conscience are sinnes of a high nature and when God doth once set them upon the Conscience they cause horror and vexation both in the Saints and Reprobates From the poynts there be these nine particulars derived 1. All sinnes committed against Knowledge and Conscience are not the sinnes against the holy Ghost for sinnes against Faith are not this sinne 2. All sinnes done wittingly and contrivingly and willingly are not this sinne 3. The sinne of unbeliefe which some maintaine to be the sinne against the holy Ghost is not that sinne 4. Every for swearing and denying of the truth of Christ is not this sinne 5. What sinnes of Knowledge be and how they come to be the sinnes against the holy Ghost 6. A Declaration of this sinne against the holy Ghost 7. A reason given why it is a sinne unpardonable 8. Who the persons be that commit this sinne 9. With what knowledge they must be endued that commit this sinne against the holy Ghost In this ensuing Treatise Every one of these particulars are fully proved As also with a word of comfort spoken in due season to troubled Consciences shewing that they need not feare the assurance of their eternall wel-being With many other poynts which are not named in this preamble THE Worlds Prospect ISAIAH 33. 14. vers. The sinners in Sion are afraid IN these words there be these three things considerable 1. The persons who they are in these words Sinners 2. The place they dwelt which was in Sion 3. The effect of sins in these Sinners In the last part of my Text in these word They are afraid From whence I observe by the way this observation That sinne is the originall cause of wicked mens feare In the word sinners I note onely these two sorts of sinners The first sort of sinners that have the guilt of sinne lying upon their soules which guilt of theirs shall never be washed off with the blood of Christ for these two Reasons First Because Divine Wisedome did never set love and mercy on worke for the satisfying of Divine Justice in their behalf Secondly God the Father did never appoynt the blood of his Sonne to wash off the guilt that is upon their soules and therefore they must dye in their guilt which lyeth upon their soules The second sort of sinners which have the guilt of sinne lying upon their soules yet shall not dye in that guilt for these two Reasons First Because God the Father did wisely contrive wayes to satisfie Divine Justice in their behalf Secondly God the Father loved them and did freely wash them in the fountaine of his Sons blood therefore though they were in guilt yet they shall not dye in their guilt Now in the handling of my Text in the fore-named particulars I shall shew from whence sinners were first derived viz. Adam was the first man that ever sinned and thus The first sinne that ever was in man was first found in our first Parents Adam And so I say by that meanes the sinne of our first Parents Adam was imputed unto Rom. 5. 12. and so called our sin Rom. 4. 25. Sinne was the onely cause of Adams feare Gen. 3. 9. So in like manner sinne is an originall of our feare who are the posteritie of sinfull Adam I come now to speake of the place where these sinners dwelt and that place I told you was in Sion a place I say which God did choose above all other places there onely of purpose to put or place his Name in This place Sion is a place unmoveable and therefore in the Scriptures called Mount Sion of old called Salem being the Mount on which Davids house and Castle was placed being in the City of Jerusalem to the East part of the same 1 King 11. 36. Deut. 11. 7 11. Psal. 132. 14. Psal. 125. 1. Rev. 14. 1. Sion a place where the meanes of grace was out of which place came also Perfection of Beauty Psal. 52. 2. Jehovah there was found in the puritie of Ordinances Sion was the Saints inquiring place in the old time I say it was their place of Residence ☞ there was their hopes in times past in an ordinance-way and there is still their hopes to enjoy Christ in a visible and glorious way for ever Though all the earth be mine yet Sion have I chosen to be the place of my habitation for ever and there will I dwell amongst my people and will goe in and out before them for ever leading them forth even as a Shepheard doth his flock Glorious things are spoken of thee thou City of God for it is the place and City of the great King even Christ Jesus And I heard him say unto me Sonne of Man this is the place of my Throne and the place of the soales of my feet where I will dwell in the middest of the Children of Israel for ever and then my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile neither they nor their Kings These sinners which my Text speakes of had their names given unto them from the hainousnesse of their sinnes I say as they were sinners so they had the names of sinners given unto them And because they sinned against the gift of grace in Sion so they were called sinners of Sion and in the place where they dwelt They were afraid Sinnes committed against Knowledge be sinnes of a high nature and cause feare from these three particulars which were considerable in my Text From them I â—ay are these poynts derived which are these That sinne committed against Conscience and Knowledge be sins of a high naâ—ure and when God doth charge them upon the Conscience they cause terror and vexâ—tion both in the Saints and also in the Reprobates In the opening of the poynt I shall shew unto you how that all sinnes committed against Conscience and Knowledge is not the sinne against the holy Ghost 1. All sinnes committed against Knowledge and Conscience are not this sinne 2 Sam. 12. 9. 1 King 15. 5. sinne against faith is not this sinne 2. Sinnes done wittingly and contriâ—ingly against Knowledge and Conscience are not this sinne 3. All sinnes against gifts and graces are â—ot this sinne 1 Cor. 1. 7 11 12. 2 Sam. 11. â— 25. 2 Sam. 12. 9. The sinne of unbeliefe which some maintaine to be the sinne against the holy Ghost is not that sinne if it had bin this
such a soule as this pardoned I can in no wise yeeld and so goe against Justice Justice according unto truth must be a subject unto me because I am the very Spirit of Truth it selfe and have a proper relation and dependancy upon the other two Persons in the most sacred and glorious Trinitie And therefore I say Justice must yeeld unto me as well as to you You know that soule that sinneth that soule shall dye But this soule hath sinned therefore this soule shall dye And because thy Divine Wisedome did never appoynt thy willed act wisely to set thy love and mercy on worke to contrive a way for such wilfull sinners that so their guilt might have beene washed off Therefore as they are in guilt even so let their guilt remaine to all eternitie This sinner hath out-lived grace and the day of redemption is past and all hopes of mercy is now expired Shall therefore such a soule find mercy who hath thus wilfully opposed me and turned from me Shall he I say find pardon He that hath often sent me away sad shall such a soule as this find mercy This soule I say that hath more then once or twice sent me away sad whensoever I came to execute my Office This vild wretch that hath made flight of me and of those Sacred Dictates which I discovered unto him at such a time and at such a time Surely as I am God equall with you this soule that hath thus and thus sinned ' he shall never find mercy If he find mercy if he be washed in thy Sonnes blood from this his guilt then where is the unitie in us The glorious Trinitie and the most glorious conformitie in our unitie If that this Soules sinnes be pardoned where then is the firmnesse of our Decree If this soules sinnes be pardoned then is our unitie in Trinitie and conformity in unitie overthrowne and the word of truth is falsifyed which shewed unto the world what onenesse there was with us before these worlds were created What shall all our onenesse be dis-joyned for this soules sake Upon this supposed speech the other two Persons give in as it were their consent against the soule then standing at the Barre of Iustice and God speaking to that guiltie soule in this manner As a Iudge doth unto a Malefactor being cast by the the Iury that goeth upon life and death The Iudge telling the Malefactor that he can doe no lesse then the Iury of life and death hath done And therefore I must and doe pronounce sentence of death against thee according unto the Iuries Verdict it being according to righteous judgement I say God in like manner speakes unto the guiltie soule saying as it were in this manner I have pleaded hard in thy behalfe and we cannot prevaile in a full consent for thy personall recovery because we cannot attaine unto the third Persons consent The Sentence of death is passed upon thee according unto the Sentence of a Divine Law and according unto our everlasting Decree written and established in our Divine Law and sealed by all our unanimous consents Upon this one Sentence we hold all in Onenesse we cannot dis-joynt our unitie in Trinitie and unitie in a glorious conformity The Law of the third Person is also the Law of the first Person and the Law of the first Person is also the Law of the second Person and so a generall stabilitie in a blessed and glorious Trinitie And thus the Law of the three glorious Persons is in one Seame like unto the Lawes of the Medes and Persians which altereth not Now because I would not have the Consciences of men troubled because I have shewed you the sad condition of the soule that hath the guilt of sinne upon it I will I say speake a word in due season unto those distressed Consciences and I will a little enlarge my selfe although in regard of the weaknesse of body I am almost spent My beloved friends I speake unto all of you but especially unto beleevers I say there is abundance of mercie in God for you I say it lyeth hid and treasured up in the bowels of Divine goodnesse and thus to be revealed in due time unto you in the Lord Jesus when God his Father breakes out in the sweet influences of his Love in the object of his Love who is the Lord Jesus The breathings out of the manifestation of the Lord Jesus shall be the breathings out of thy Graces and of thy Solaces and the in-comming of the Lord Jesus shall give light unto all those manifestations of thy soules pardons which thou haddest ever since that thou wert estated in Christ which for a long time hath layne hid in the Hive of thy unbeleefe and hath beene the originall cause of making you to call in question your estate in Christ and your interest in the Lord Jesus and that object upon whom your ever-being dependeth There is I say this one thing which is the onely cause which makes many a distressed Conscience to call in question his soules interest in Christ because hee findes in his owne apprehension a world of soules-deadnesse and weaknesse in his growth of grace I say unto thee whosoever thou art that standest to heare me this day that thou in thy soules distresse art altogether unfit to bee thine owne judge in the want of thy soules comfort thou wilt be ready to say that which thou wilt be againe ready to unsay in thy injoyment of true comfort as David did Psal. 116. 11. You know that there may be in the midst of Winter aboundance of Bees in the Hive although unto the eye of our sense and reason there be but two or three playing about the Hives mouth Even so I say although there but a few graces in thy soule now in the time of this thy affliction I say this time of thy affliction hath not lessened any of thy former graces which thou formerly didst enjoy I say it hath but covered over those thy graces in thy sense and feeling Thy graces be all still where they were in thy first installment into the state of grace Wee have a Proverb That the Spring brings forth all those Herbs and Plants which lay dead all the Winter before Even so I say unto thee That the Spring which is the Morning of the in-comming of the Lord Jesus shall receive all those bosome-discourses which lay dead in thy soule In the time of thy ascension the Sonne of Righteousnesse shall arise and shine upon thee by the blessed force and glorious power of God the Father and so cause the Spirit of God to cast into thy soule a glorious discovery of the interest of thy well-being It is not thy want of grace that is the cause of thy soules complaints but it is the onely want of thy discoverie of them that is the cause of thy soules grievance There 's but a curtaine as it were drawne betweene thee and thy injoyments of all thy graces all thy graces are within that curtaine as the Priests of the old Law were sometimes within the holy place When this curtaine is once drawne then will all thy injoyments appear then shalt thou be swallowed up in the very life of discovery I confesse Sometimes the life of discoverie may bee dis-joynted from the life of injoyment for a small time The Saints have an absence in the midst of their injoyment Yet blessed bee that Divine absence which afterwards wins us unto a Divine enjoyment of him who for a time was pleased to absent himselfe I say here is the comfort of beleevers that a temporall absence is not an eternall withdrawment Blessed bee God who though hee doth sometimes withdraw the sence and feeling of a Divine presence in their enjoyment yet in the want of that enjoyment the Saints enjoy a Divine enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Although the Lord Jesus in thy sense and feeling bee with-drawne from thee yet note this one Consequence It is impossible that hee should ever with-draw himselfe from thee Thou dost enjoy the same presence now which thou didst enjoy ever since thy very first estatement in the state of grace Yesterday thou didst injoy the Lord Jesus and so thou shalt enioy him in like manner for ever Yea with an eternall most glorious unspeakable inioyment So much for this time FINIS Mat. 5. 35. Ezek. 43. â— 8. Luk. 1. 20. Numb. 2. 12. Mat. 26. 70 72 74 75. Isa. 55. 3. Psa. 32. 15 1 King 15 5. The Reas. 1 King 11 9. Quest Answ What the sin against the holy Ghost is Rom. 7. 24 Why it is called the sin against the holy Ghost
Latine tongue and expressed such heavenly expressions that no Reprobate could expresse the like heavenly expressions ☞ If you doe but looke into the book called The Relation of Francis Spyra therein you may see more fuller of him then my tongue shal expresse at this time my conscience bidding me keep within the compasse of Christian charitie judging him to be a glorified Saint in heaven using in I say the time of his distresse such unexpressable words which I in all the dayes of my life never heard nor read of could be in any dying or living Reprobate I doe also bring in S. Peter who with him denyed the truth forswore that he never knew him whom formerly he professed yea wittingly though not willingly he denyed the Lord Jesus who by his most precious blood bought him yet he for all that found and obtained pardon For it is said that the Lord Jesus after he had denyed him looked back upon him Then saith the Text Peter remembred the words of Christ who said unto him Before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice Then he remembred the words of Christ and went out and wept bitterly I say Christ told him that Satan had a desire for to winnow him as wheat was sifted But Christ told him that he had prayed him that his faith should not fayle Luk. 22. 31. intimating thereby that this fall of blessed Peter was but a permission of Satans temptation and tryall of his faith rather then eternall rejection to shew unto after-posterities that Satan may sometime by permission have power given him to batter the faith of the strongest Saint and to make him sometime lye downe in sorrow as the holy Ghost useth the phrase in Esaiah 50. 10 11. This Peter after his Conversion or after the manifestations of pardon he was more couragious then before And the reason why blessed Peter fell so grievously was as I conceive only to let him know that the strength he had was not his owne neither could he stand by that strength but onely in and by the strength of a stronger then himselfe was and afterward to make and to cause him to wait on the Lord that so he in the time of want might renew his strength as the holy Ghost doth use the phrase in Isaiah 40. 31 32. The sinne of unbeliefe which some maintaine to be the sinne against the holy Ghost is not this sinne If it had bin this sinne then had there some of Gods Worthies committed this sinne As for instance Moses although a beleever and faithfull in his place Heb. 3. 2. 5. yet in the very time of tryall was found unbeleeving Numb. 20. 11. And to shew that he was found unbeleeving the Lord told him that he should not bring the people into the Land of Canaan as the 12 vers. tells you Zachariah though a just man as the word testifieth Luk. 1. 6. yet he was found unbeleeving vers. 20. and to shew unto all posteritie this that it was a sinne God did inflict a temporall judgement upon his body Also blessed Thomas although a beleever yet he was found unbeleeving Joh. 20. 25. And to confirme that which I have spoken reade to the 26. vers. In which vers the Lord Jesus stoops unto the act of Thomas his unbeliefe and and confirming his faith with his willingnesse to cure his unbeliefe I will but give you one instance more to confirme what I have hitherto spoken concerning this sinne of unbeliefe which is also supposed of some to be the sinne against the holy Ghost I will bring in these places which they unskilfully name to prove this sinne of unbeliefe to be the sinne against the holy Ghost I say the Disciples of Christ were in the maine poynt of Faith found unbeleeving questioning the truth which Christ did formerly and at that time discover unto them Mark 9. 10. Luk. 24. 21. And to shew that it was a sinne not to beleeve he gently reproves their unbeleeving spirits v. 25. 26. and afterwards labours by the expposition of those Prophets which had before prophesied of him was now since his resurection manifested to be a cleare truth which they before beleeved not vers. 27. And thus I have proved ☜ that the sinne of unbeliefe which some maintaine to be the sinne against the holy Ghost is not this sinne I come now to handle their proofes which they produce for their consequences Ioh. 8. 24. If you beleeve not that I am he yee shall dye in your sinnes Upon these words I thus paraphrase The Lord Jesus convinces the Jewes of their unbeliefe because that they beleeved not that he was the Christ And the reason of their unbeliefe was because they beleeved not that it was he that was to come even the Messias but they looked on him with a carnall eye being I say more carnall then spirituall looking onely for a King whose Kingdome and Reigne shall be altogether temporall And so I say dreaming to Reigne with him in this world they looked that he should have established and restored that their Kingdome But then they seeing the personall presence of Christ so contemptible as the Prophet Jeremiah saith and also the Prophet Isaiah His presence shall be by us not desirable or contemptible When we see him he shall have neither forme nor beauty Therefore these Jewes when they saw Christ with their naturall eyes onely they did not beleeve that he was he which was to com And in the 18. vers. There the Lord Jesus tells the Jewes That he was one that did beare witnesse of himselfe and that the Father did also beare witnesse of him And in the 19. vers. They had a â—esire that he would shew them his Faâ—her Whereupon he tells them That if â—hey had knowne the Father they would also have known him And from hence did 〈◊〉 second cause of their unbeliefe arise And â—ur Saviour Christ tells them plainly That â—f they did not beleeve he was that Christ â—hey should dye in their sinnes Another place is the 1 of Judges 5 vers. How that the Lord having saved the people out of the Land of Aegypt afterwards destroyed them that beleeved not Also Mark 16. 16. He that beleeveth not shall be damned Joh. 3. 18. He that beleeveth not is condemned already because he beleveth not in the Name of the onely begotten Sonne of God Unto this place I doe thus reply That our Lord Jesus doth not absolutely speake of an eternall condemnation if it were spoken of an eternall estate of condemnation then must the Elect themselves be in that estate for their is no difference Rom. 3. 23. The Elect themselves before they be in the estate of faith are first in the estate of unbeleeving 2 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but now ye are washed but yee are sanctified but yee are justified in tâ—â— Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spâ—â—â— of our God In these words you may see the condâ—tion of beleevers set forth