is that holy thing which was born of the Blessed Virgin and is truly called the Son of God and this Son of God is very God the Son incarnate Luke 1.35 Joh. 1.1 14 18. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever after Incarnation as before and before as after Heb. 13.8 with this cautious meaning Before Incarnation he was Jesus Christ as from Eternity purposed in time to be incarnate After Incarnation he is the same Jesus Christ as incarnate according to that Purpose If he be at all compounded then he is not simply Christ and then he is a Deceiver For Simple and Compounded are contraries as Light and Darkness Truth and Falshood If Christ consist of Parts then he is not simply impartial and then he cannot judge the World in Righteousness but must needs approve Murder in David and condemn it in Cain which is Blasphemy The Manhood of Christ is not one part or one half of Christ but it is Christ himself considered as Man And the Godhead of Christ is Christ himself considered as God and yet he is but one Person but one Christ and the Nature of Christ as he is God manifest in the Flesh and the Word made Flesh is but one admitting of just Conception but no Parts and Composition Error 2. All things in Nature are reducible to ten Predicaments of which Relation is one Confut. All things in Nature are reducible to one which one is God of whom and through whom and to whom are all things and this God is our God for ever and ever Rom. 11.36 Psal 48.14 Thus Relation is all in all as being the Nature of God the Father not incarnate the Son incarnate the Holy Ghost not incarnate essentially and yet freely related to all Elect Angels and Men as their God and Portion for ever Error 3. There are four distinct Causes of Justification of Satisfaction for Sin of the Sacraments c. the efficient the material the formal and the final Cause Confut. All Cause touching Religion and Life eternal is either principal or supream or instrumental and subservient And the principal and supream Cause is superlatively and transcendently material and of greatest importance to our Faith and eternal Welfare the Cause of Causes even all in all As to Worldly Science common to us and Heathens there is matter and form distinct But as to Heavenly Science by Faith which Heathens have not there is no such distinction For Heavenly Science by Faith consisteth not in Form but in Power 2 Tim. 3.5 not in Shew and Appearance but in Truth and Reality Rom. 2.20 It is one and the same thing which is the beginning and the end the first and the last the efficient and the final Cause yet not in the same respects Rom. 11.36 Rev. 22.13 Error 4. The Will of Man is effentially free and essentially a Rational Appetite Confut. The Will of Man is essentially rational and intellectual◠but neither essentially free nor essentially an Appetite For if it be essentially free then there can be no Hell And if it be essentially an Appetite then there can be no Heaven Damned Men are Men and in them is perfect intellectual human Will as to natural Substance but no free Will. They cannot be holy and happy if they would Luke 16.26 All Freedom and Liberty is either temporal or eternal in the Damned is neither they cannot but implacably hate God and will Annihilation rather than eternal Damnation In the state of perfect Felicity there shall be in all blessed Men perfect rational and intellectual Will but no Appetite no Desire no Wish no want of any good thing but perfect Satisfaction Rest and Pleasure for ever Psal 17.15 Error 5. The Divine Law is twofold of Works and of Faith or the old and the new Law. Confut. The Divine Law is but one as God the Author of it is one admitting of just Conception but no Division The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 Here the Law and Grace as also Moses and Christ are opposed yet not as contraries but as divers not as Satan and Christ but as subservient and supream Moses as God's Minister delivers the Law by which is the knowledg of Sin and Condemnation due for the same to all the natural Off-spring of fallen Adam And thus the Ministry of Moses and the Law as distinct from and relatively opposed to the Grace of the Gospel in Christ is a killing Letter and the Ministration of Death and Condemnation by reason of Sin in us 2 Cor. 3.6 7 8 9 10. The Law and Moses is not Jesus Christ they cannot purchase for us and bestow on us Gospel-repentance Pardon of Sin Peace of Conscience and eternal Redemption This is utterly above Moses and the Law as distinct from Christ by themselves to effect But now Jesus Christ as distinct from and relatively opposed to Moses and the Law is very God the Son incarnate the Word made Flesh Joh. 1.14 and as such is Mediator and as Mediator he doth purchase the Church with his own Blood and doth obtain for and freely bestow on Abel Peter and the rest of the Elect heavenly Righteousness Faith Repentance Pardon of Sin Perseverance and eternal Redemption These are the highest Blessings and Priviledges in respect whereof Christ as Mediator is to be worshipped with supream Worship otherwise he is a meer Man nothing differing from Moses and our whole Faith is a Lie. Thus the Law and the Gospel are distinct and Faith in Christ doth not abolish but doth establish God's Law Rom. 3.31 Psal 19. and Psal 119. CHAP. XVII Of the Ministry and Church-Discipline 1. THere may be a Church where is no Minister or Pastor but there cannot be a Church without a just esteem of Pastors and Ministers and care to have one where one is wanting Where two or three are gathered together in Christ's Name there is he in the midst of them And where is Christ the Head 〈◊〉 Saints his Members by Faith and Invocation there is a Church both Name and Thing tho there be no Pastor or Minister But those may not be said to be gathered together in Christ's Name who disesteem and contemn Pastors and Ministers 2. Where Ordination may be had consistent with Faith and Piety there it is to be had and they who invade the Ministerial Office without it have no due Call from God he never sent them such Persons do greatly offend against the Order and Unity of God's Church and chosen People and are not to be owned and countenanced in their evil way Where Ordination cannot be had consistent with Faith and Piety there it is not to be had There if a Door be opened for preaching the Gospel one not ordained being able for the Work and faithful may preach baptize give the Lord's Supper and do the whole Ministerial Office with purpose to have Ordination so soon as with Faith and Piety it can
Principal is that by Faith in the Hearts of all the Regenerate in various Degrees and there is no other Special and Principal Divine Revelation since Adam's Fall. Eph. 1.17 and 4.5 2 Cor. 4.13 2 Pet. 1.1 4. Fundamental Truth is not by way of Number but by way of holy Likeness to God who is simply one and simply one is above Number and not reducible to it The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are three truly divers and distinct yet not three by way of Number Order and Dependence common to us and Heathens but by way of unsearchable Diversity not to be understood savingly without Christian Faithâ— which Heathens have not They who hold that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son do not mean that he proceedeth from them as from two Firsts for there cannot possibly be two Firsts in God Rev. 22.13 And they who hold that he proceedeth only from the Father do yet hold that he is by Nature very and eternal God and the Spirit of the Son and that the Son doth from the Father send the Holy Ghost the Comforter This supposed the Difference seems to be but in Word and not in Substance of Matter 5. It is evident from Job 13.7 Heb. 1.1 2 3. and from the Nature of the thing that there is the Person of God. For God is an intelligent Being though infinitely intelligent and increated and every intelligent Being must needs be a Person Gen. 14.21 Jon. 4.11 Numb 31.28 Now they who hold that the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are three distinct Persons do yet hold that they are but one God. And if they who hold that as they are but one God so they are but one Person do yet hold that the Person of God the Father unbegotten and not incarnate as such is not the Person of God the Son begotten and incarnate in my opinion they both hold the same fundamental and necessary Truth and do but differ in Word The common School-Doctrine that in the Trinity there is alius alius but not aliud aliud And in Christ aliud aliud but not alius alius I conceive to be an Errour For aliud aliud must needs mean either Contrariety or Diversity If it mean Contrariety then it is false that there is Contrariety in Christ If it mean Diversity then it is false that there is not Diversicy in the Trinity So the common distinction of the Works of God within God and without God ad intra adextra is certainly an Errour For every Work of God is an effect simply dependent upon his free Pleasure Eph. 1.11 But no dependence can be in God all in God is simply independent And as there cannot be a Creature without a Creator so there cannot possibly be a Work of God without God Joh. 1.3 And look as it is said of his own Will God begat us Jam. 1.18 So equally it may be said of his own Will he made all Things and themfore not of Nothing For God's Will is not nothing but it is the prime Cause and the prime Cause is superlatively material to our Faith. CHAP. XX. Of Sin and particularly of the Sin against the Holy Ghost 1. SIN is the Transgression of the Law the Wages whereof according to legal Justice is eternal Damnation or it is the Undoing of Body and Soul for ever in Hell if God's Grace in Christ prevent not by giving Repentance and Pardon Look as all in God is God so all in Sin is Sin. With respect to human Judicature Sin is an Effect and Man's Will is the true Cause of it With respect to Divine Judicature it is no Esfect and therefore it can have no Cause but all that sin transgress without Cause Psal 25.3 Joh. 15.25 As to human Judicature Sin is an Accident a thing that comes to pass in time and is distinct from Man's natural Substance and is truly evitable As to Divine Judicature it is no Accident For from Eternity it was future it hath Dominion over the Ungodly and as never repented of it abides in the Conscience for ever and breeds the never-dying Worm This cannot be affirmed of an Accident quod subjecto inest quod potest adesse vel abesse absque subjecti Interitu For nothing eternal can be accidental It is one and the same thing which is both Sin and Guilt but not in the same respects Sin as pleasant ungodly Men do naturally love but as Guâ—lt doth intrinsecally go along with Sin and gripe their Conscience and fill them with legal Terrour so they do naturally hate and flee from it They love Sin but not Hell. 2. The Holy Ghost in Scripture is taken two ways either for God the Holy Ghost and so we are baptized in his Name Or for an Effect produced by him Hereof there are two Kinds principal and subservient principal is that Divine and Holy Nature which God doth plant in the Hearts of all the Regenerate in the instant of their Pardon and Justification by Faith. Eph. 1.13 14. The Holy Ghost in this Sense none of those now in Hell did at any time partake of Considered as a subservient Effect so it was eminently poured forth on the Apostles upon the day of Pentecost and was common in that first Age of the Christian Church It consisted in the Gift of Tongues of Healing of casting out of Devils and other miraculous Distributions The Holy Ghost in this Sense many never Regenerate might partake of and afterward totally fall away perish eternally And this for ought I know is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in that much controverted Scripture Heb. 6.4 5 6. compared with Mat. 7.22 23. and 12.24 to 32. Act. 2. and 8.17 and 10.44 45 46. and 19. 2 3 4 5 6. Luk. 10.20 Joh. 7.39 3. The Sin against the Holy Ghost is therefore simply unpardonable because the Person guilty of it is justly forsaken of God given up to a reprobate Sense to final Obduration in Sin and to strong Delusion to believe a Lie and so he cannot but be finally impenitent and incurably graceless It seems to be a Degree of that kind of implacable Enmity against God and his holy Image which is in the Devil himself The Devils believe and tremble they cannot but have an inward Sense and Conviction that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World and the Judg of all both quick and dead and that the Religion contained in the Bible and sincerely professed by Abel Moses Peter Paul and the rest of the Elect in all Ages is the only true Religion And yet being eternally forsaken of God and left to themselves they have no power evangelically to repent they cannot but implacably hate God and his holy Image blaspheme his Truth and pure Religion and endeavour the utter Extinction of it and the eternal Ruin of every Man. 4. I was before a Blasphemer and a Persocuter and Injurious But I obtained Mercy because I did it ignorantly in Vnbelief 1 Tim. 1.13 This implies that had he done it wilfully and knowingly against the inward Belief and Conviction of his Conscience his Case had been very perilous In my Opinion the safest and easiest way to understand what is the Sin against the Holy Ghost is to make the Devil himself the Standard of it Though all ungodly Persons be the Children of the Devil yet as they are not all Atheists Murderers Adulterers Sodomites Perjured Traitors so they are not all guilty of the Sin against the Holy Ghost They who make Conscience of their ways and fear to sin against God may be sure they have not committed this unpardonable Sin. They who have been convinced and perswaded of God's true Religion and have solemnly covenanted and engaged their Souls to God in Christ Jesus and have professed the way of Truth if afterward they shall renounce the true Religion and blaspheme it and persecute the sincere Professourâ— of it and shall suffer themselves to be deluded so as to believe Lies contrary to the true Religion I think the Case of such is very perilous 5. We are to pray for all Men now living and that shall live hereafter but not for those whom we know to have committed the Sin against the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 5.16 For the Rule of Prayer is not God's unsearchable Prescience what will be but God's Law obliging us to love our Neighbour as our selves and in Token thereof to pray for him while there is any Hope Now of all Ungodly Men while in the World there is humaâ— Hope which is a kind of middle State between the Godly in whom is Divine Hope of Salvation and the Damned in Hell and Persons guilty of the Sin against the Holy Ghost of whom there can be no Hope at all As for such as teach that we must pray for all sorts of Men but not for all of every sort pro generibus singulorum sed non pro singulis generûm it seems to be vain deceit Col. 2.8 For bare Generals as distinct from all the Individuals and Particulars is a meer Chimera Christ as Man prayed for all and in this he is our Patern Christ as God the Son incarnate did not pray for all but did omnipotently intercede for those only whose Salvation was future and for none else so as for them In this he is not our Paternbut infinitely above us Joh. 17.9 20. Luk. 23.34 FINIS ERRATA Pag. 6. line 39. read Counterprice P. 22. l. 27. r. Exigencies P. 25. l. 21. r. these P. 27. l. 39. f. Decree r. Graece P. 28. l. 8. r. to P. 29. l. 2. r. indelibly P. 32. l. 2 1. Index P. 34. l. 17. r. principal and. P. 37. l. 26. r. which makes
immediately after his Death and while his Body hung dead upon the Cross his Soul was with God in Triumphant Joy. In Memory of Christ's Resurrection we rightly observe the Lord's-Day as a Day appointed by God for solemn Religious Worship both publickly and privately The fourth Commandment considered as repugnant to Life eternal by Faith in Christ is meer Judaical Righteousness damnable Impiety and no Command of God But considered as subservient to Life eternal by Faith in Christ so it was typical of Christ's Rest in the Grave and as typical by his Resurrection it was to cease and have an end and in the room of it comes the Lord's Day as the joyful Day on which our Lord rose from the Dead and â—â—th begotten us unto a lively Hope 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Thus the fourth Commandment by Faith in Christ is not abolished but established Rom. 3.31 4. At the Day of Judgment there shall be a perfect opening of all the Good that was in the Wicked and of all the Sin that was in the Righteous not for the Shame and Terrour of the Righteous nor for the Honour and Comfort of the Wicked but that all may have according to their Deeds and it may appear to all that God did not like and approve Sin in his own and that he did not condemn and drinke what was good and commendable in the Wicked that so the Righteous may for 〈◊〉 rejoice in God's Praises and the Mouths of the Wicked may for ever 〈◊〉 This perfect opening shall be by Conscience as God's 〈…〉 in each ones Bosom 5. Eternal Felicity considered as 〈…〉 of no Degrees Thus all both Saints and Angels in 〈…〉 and all in Hell be equally miserable For greater 〈…〉 thâ—n Eternal there cannot possibly be Eternal 〈…〉 admitteth of Degrees For God as he is the Righteous 〈…〉 the World cannot but by Conscience as his Agent in the 〈…〉 and Men eternally difference as between the Righteous and the 〈◊〉 and between the more Wicked and the less Wicked so also between the more and the less abundant in the Love and Service of God and 〈…〉 according to their Deeds Thus the Manhood of Christ hath a 〈…〉 of Glory than the Angels and the Angels who never linned than the Saints and eminent Saints such as Prophets Apostles and Martyrs thâ—n ordinary and common Saints Thus there is perfect Unity and perfect Diversity sweetest Harmony and sweetest Variety no one hath cause to complain no one hath cause to boast he that hath least hath no lack and he that hath most hath nothing over God is All in All and Eternity is All in All. Set aside Eternity and Heaven and Hell Holiness and Sin Angels and Men are meer Dreams and Notions God may do with his own what be pleases but he cannot deny himself and overthrow his own Name Kingdom and Glory And therefore he can in no instant annihilate or eternally torment a holy Man For so to do is not Power but Impotency not Dominion but Tyranny and the abuse of it God's Dominion is by his Will and not against it his Will is essentially and yet freely holy just and good But it is repugnant to infinite Holiness Justice and Goodness to annihilate or eternally to toâ—â—ent a Holy Man. CHAP. XIX Of the Way of Peace 1. TWo Things as I conceive do greatly conduce to Unity and Peace among Christians touching Religion A clear explication of Gospel-Truth and forbearing one another in Love. The former I have endeavoured in the foregoing Chapters and among Persons truly consciencious a clear explication of the Truth is in effect the whole Cure. The latter it is not in my Power to procure Yet this one thing well weighed may do much towards it that Persons eminently Godly may ignorantly hold an Opinion in it self heretical and against the Foundation of Faith and yet not hold it heretically and so as do the Ungodly The reason is because Heavenly and Fundamental Truth is not by way of Syllogism and Human Argumentation Major Minor and Conclusion common to us and Heathens but by way of Holy Likeness to God through Christian Faith which Heathens have not He then who holds one Divine Truth with Holy Belief is thereby free not from all Errour but from all reigning Errour No Errour is safe and yet no meer Man since the Fall of Adam is wholly free from all Errour and every Godly Man is in a safe State not because of his Errour but because Heavenly Truth and not Errour reigns in him 2. The Apostles for some time were in an Errour touching the Nature of Christ's Kingdom which Errour as in it self considered did by consequence overthrow the Kingdom of Christ and yet as it was in them it was no reigning Errour Acts 1.6 The Apostle Peter was in an Errour touching the difference between Jew and Gentile which Errour considered nakedly as in it self was destructive of true Godliness because it did by consequence infer God to be partial unrighteous and a respecter of Persons And yet Peter in this instant was eminently godly Act. 10.34 35. There is no such thing in God as Major and Minor Premises and Conclusion Antecedent and Consequent because all in God is God And therefore there can be no such thing in the Image of God For as all in God is God so all in the Image of God is the Image of God. Therefore no Man is to be counted an Heretick and damnably Erroneous barely because he holds an Opinion in it self Heretical and by Consequence against the Foundation of Faith all the while he doth sincerely hate and detest and disown the Consecouence of his Errour not discerning that it is justly deducible from it There is great difference between ignorantly holding an Errour and bowing to an Idol or worshipping a false God. 3. If Christian Princes and Supream Civil Rulers in their several Dominions would according to their Duty and as becomes nursing Fathers to the Church see with their own Eyes and upon hearing the Arguments and Allegations on both sides wisely and impartially discern between what is plainly contained in God's Word and what is not but is only School-Sophistry and vain Philosophy corrupting Men's Minds from the simplicity that is in Christ and serving only to create Strife and to make plain things obscure and would enjoin all sides to insist upon and unite in plain and wholsome Truth evident by its own intrinsick Light to the Conscience of each Godly Man through Faith and either to cut off and forbear all further Disputes or manage them in Love and in the Spirit of Meekness we should soon see an End of Controversies concerning Religion In the mean time it concerns us all to get and keep well grounded Certainty through Faith of our own Salvation and earnestly to contend for this Faith. This Certainty is by way of special Revelation For all Divine Revelation since Adam's Fall is either Principal and Special or Subservient and Common Special and