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
so taken or that which the thing willing â—est bear or is most agreeable to the business in hand that it may be the better done That Actions may have their just effect it availeth much whether they be done purely and absolutely or are put off till a day be come or suspended till a condition be performed So when any one stipulates purely or absolutely the thing stipulated begins to be due and is due and it may be sued for presently When any Man stipulates conditionally till a day become that time is begun but not come and the thing stipulated cannot be sued for till it come When any Man stipulates conditionally till a thing be done the time is not begun nor the day come while this condition of deed is depending There are some Acts which admit of no condition nor time as Emancipation and Adition upon an inheritance and such Acts of Law And where conditions are admitted they must be possible and good and fit for contract agreeable to Law and good manners and discretion and without fraud for Impossibilium nulla est obligatio SECT III. So the Will is the sole mistress of all moral actions Free-will Deus posuit hominem in manu consilii sui God having left Man to his own choice which to make even in things concerning this life cannot be without the Divine Grace for that liberty of Will is the Gift of God And in greater matters much more doth the same Grace assist and direct our choice which direction or assistance we may observe and use or we may let it alone For the same Will that is free to use is free to refuse God intending that we should glorify him by our free obedience hath set before us good and evill and we may choose which we will and that shall be our portion For all things of this nature he hath left us to our selves that is to our own choice not to our natural strength merely for he hath instructed us what to choose by giving us wisdom to understand the nature of things and the event of actions good or bad and hath invited and excited our Wills by the excellent amabilities of virtue and the glorious objects of Reward and by all the aids of the Spirit of Grace hath enabled our Wills to do their own work well not by new faculties but by new aids Just as Nature is by Physick enabled to proceed in her own work nutriment and removal of contrary impediments so does the Spirit of God in us and to us and for us and after all this the Will is to choose by its own concreated power given of God and again seconded by supernatural help And as sure as God's Grace is necessary so sure it is that we have that grace which is necessary for if we had not God could not in justice or wisdom commad us to do those works which are impossible to be done So God calls every Man to choose the good and eschew the evill and before this choice they must deliberate and God hath revealed this good which he would have us know and choose that we may deliberate and resolve for the best which if we do not it is our fault God is so manifested by the Law written in the hearts and by his benefits and blessings that no Man hath just cause to say he knows not God and if he would use that knowledg well he might have more and nothing is wanting on God's part he may have all things necessary if he will and if he 〈◊〉 his destruction is from himself SECT IV. Imperfection But all this while this state of liberty is but posse non peccare a power not to sin and a power to sin which is but a state of infirmity at the best in comparison of the condition of Angels and Saints glorified It may be a good choice which the will may make and it may be a bad choice according as the Spirit or the flesh may prevail The Mind aims to direct the Will to good and may miss it for the fleshly appetite may draw it down from it s its intended object The scales hang in aequilibrio not knowing which way to tend The Magnetick needle trembles long and waggs this way and that way before it settles upon the Beloved north much adoe It is a sign we do not fully understand and therefore are not fully in love with the Beauties of God as they deserve for if we did we could not possibly incline to disobedience we should have no such liberty left as to deliberate and dispute whether we should do good or no but should absolutely run upon it and do it at the first apprehension For there is no deliberation but when there is something to be refused and something to be preferred which could not be but that we understand good but little and love it less For the Saints and Angels in Heaven and God himself love good altogether and cannot chuse evil at any rate because to do so were imperfection and infelicity which is no perfect liberty and the devils and accursed Souls hate all good and choose all evill without this liberty and indifferency SECT V. Willingness Yet notwithstanding all this infirmity which we cannot help it is no hindrance but that we may be accepted of God doing what we can even in the lowest degree of our natural powers given us of God for God accepteth of a willing mind according to what a Man hath and not according to what he hath not And God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him Acts 10.34 35. and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Cornelius his devout prayers and Alms came up for a memorial before God before Peter came to him to tell him what he ought to do mâ—re And many Heathens understood much of God's works and discoursed rarely well of them and did many excellent things and 't is strange if they should not be so far taught of God to leave them without all excuse as to know what was necessary and stranger that God should ever exact of them what it was impossible for them to know who were Populus voluntarius and would have known more if they could St. Paul before actually converted cry'd out Lord what wouldst thou have me to do Another What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Others What shall we do to be saved who will shew us any good When Christ said to the poor Man Doest thou believe in the Son of God he shewed his willingness in saying Who is the Lord that I might believe on him And when Christ told him I am he and 't is he that hath opened thine eyes he presently reply'd Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief They that were asked if they had received the Holy Ghost answered We have not so much as heard whether there be an Holy Ghost but being willing to hear they were baptised and did receive
inheritance and who hath to do with it if an Earthly King or Parent do so And what is this or can be to an Heavenly Estate Esau being saved as well as Jacob brought up in the same Family and Principles of the Fear of God though for reasons best known to God he had not an equal share of an Estate of Land and Dignity in this World This is enough to satisfie if Men would not be willful for the true sense of that Paragraph Ro. 9.9 c. so much mistaken and misapplied in the world to the dishonour of God and the destruction of ignorant and tender minds And as this so those other controverted points of the Real presence Free will Prayers to Saints c. might easily be understood if Men would learn to observe the scope and Analogy of the Scriptures the standard and rule to try and settle all things by and the publick Interpretation of all doubts without a visible infallible Judg. After these Allegories let us return to the true Title of Justification by Grace Transition All Right of State Power Honour or Profit requires a Title much more the state of Eternal Salvation A means must be used or some act must be done for the reception of a Divine state else the Testamentary acts of God's Predestination or Institution may be ineffectual as they are to all that refuse despise reject Because all Testamentary acts do leave unto the Party instituted a liberty to accept of or refuse the Gift For a Testament is no Law to constrain much less a fate to necessitate but is the Grace or Good will of a Testator to offer and invite to acceptation A Title is the cause that makes a just Right and assures the party thereof and defends it to him against all opposers As Birth doth to an Inheritance Work to Wages Mony to a Purchase Acceptation to a Gift SECT XXXIII Works If then the true Title to our Justification by Faith be Grace then the wrong Title is Works So Grace excludeth Works for he that claimeth by one Title must exclude all the rest Therefore no works of the Law either in the Literal sense as delivered by Moses and understood by the Israelites or in the Spiritual sense as it was declared by Christ and is understood by the Faithful are of efficacy or virtue to create us a true Title to the Right of Eternal Blessedness Seeing then the true Title to Justification by Faith is Grace under the Gospel that of Works under the Law is to be relinquished as an act of God once propounded but ever ineffectual and now altogether expired and dead together with the Law it self that required it For we are dead to the Law Gal. 2.19 that being dead wherein we were held that we might live unto God For seeing God by Christ hath declared his New Will and Testament of the Gospel therefore his former Will of the Law though for a time it were good and useful is now utterly infringed cancelled and void For by the Works of the Law no Flesh living can be justified That is no mortal Man whose life is exactly scann'd by the Law shall by observance thereof be found so compleat as to have performed universal and perpetual obedience to every Precept in every sense thereof without failing The reasoning of this Point by the Apostle runs thus If a Man will be jurally justified by the works of the Law Gal. 2.16 i. e. If he will claim a right to Heaven by the Title of his works then he must be legally justified i. e. declared never to have offended the Law For supposing but not granting that the Law can justifie morally yet it cannot do this to any but to such as are upright every way in the sight of God for if a Man offend in any one Law he is guilty of all and the work of the Law is presently to condemn him without mercy imputing to him a Right to a future Curse Rom. 4.15 saying Cursed is every one that walketh not in all the Commandments of God to do them The Law worketh wrath and whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all i. e. is guilty of Death and of more he could not be guilty if he broke all because Death is a final punishment beyond which there can be no other there being no subject of punishment because the offender is not Now though in Mens Tribunals some may be legally justified as Paul might be Touching the righteousness of the Law blameless Phil. 3.6 yet was he not thereby justified in the sight and knowledg of God So Job was a perfect and upright Man before Men but not before God Luc. 1.6 So Zacharias and Elizabeth were said to be both Righteous before God walking in all the Commandments of God blameless yet truly before God no Man living save Jesus Christ ever was or ever will be legally justified i. e. sinless or blameless before Almighty God See Ro. 1 Ro. 2. Such are all Men shut up under sin by the Law Rom. 3.9 19. that every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God because all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God Therefore all Men being and being declared sinners by Law Heaven can come no other way but to them that are made Righteous and declared so by promise The Scripture hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe The summe is this If a Man have right to Eternal Life by works jurally then he must by these works be declared upright legally before God But no Man living can be declared upright legally before God by his works and therefore works are a wrong Title to Justification which was the thing to be demonstrated Yet though works are no Title to acquire a Right yet they are a tenure to hold a Right that is acquired To be justified or to have righteousness imputed reckoned or accounted is to be absolved and quitted from sin and misery and to be intitled to holiness and happiness and all by Faith not Law v. Gal. 2.21 Gal. 3.18 Ro. 4.3 45. Reward may be of debt to the worker but it is properly and purely of Grace to the Promissary A promise creates a right and he to whom the promise of an inheritance is made by his acceptance thereof is a Person invested with right unto it 1. Therefore Justification is the Acquitting of the penitent Believer by a Judicial act of God's Grace in the Covenant of the Gospel through Christ Justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3.24 through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ 2. Therefore Justification is the Approving commending rewarding adjudging or giving right to holiness and happiness As to impute no sin is to forgive sin so to impute Righteousness is to adjudg to the high reward of Faith
be perplexed for those sins that are fully and freely pardoned or for those Judgments which are as fully and freely removed by the death of Christ But in this weak Flesh there will be fears and doubts and causeless complaints which will cease by degrees till all be removed when death comes They talk of a Conscience quiet but not good and good but not quiet and good and quiet and neither good nor quiet but such Rimes and Cadences and flashes will give no solid satisfaction to a piercing Spirit Men may run them over with their tongues in hast and they make a jingling noise but in the brain they will keep no time at all In evil Men. 2. In evil Men it is a Disease The customs and habits of sin stop the exercise of the Natural Conscience Pectus inustae Deformant maculae vitiisque inolevit imago This the Casuists not unfitly call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Stony heartedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ferity and barbarity in Men that act such things as the Monsters and Savage Creatures use not to do to their kind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a callousness contracted by long working in wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blindness of mind as was in the Gentiles who became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned Who walked in the vanity of their minds having the Understanding darkned Rom. 1.21 being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling Eph. 4.18 have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all manner of uncleanness with greediness Vitia inolita Vices in bred and increased in them Vitia encaustica Sins burnt in nealed branded stamped stained incorporated in them A stupefaction and dozing of mind a mopish and besotted condition as they that considered not the Miracle of the Loaves For their heart was hardned Make the heart of this People fat and their ears heavy Shut their eyes Mar. 6.52 lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts Is 6.10 and be converted and be healed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benummed Mar. 4.12 as those parts that are forsaken of the Vital Spirits withered and dried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hard heartedness stiffneckedness Iron-sinews inflexible gainsaying given over to a reprobate mind to every good work reprobate Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 Lev. 26.21 c. 1 Thes 5.10 Eph. 4.30 James 2.8 Prov. 1.7 Jer. 5.3 Acts 13.46 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Set your selves with all your might against the motions of the Spirit If ye walk contrary unto me I will walke contrary unto you and punish you seven times c. Quench not the Spirit Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God c. They that observe lying vanity forsake their own mercy despise Knowledg would none of my Counsel Refused to return Judg themselves unworthy of Eternal life Put the good away far from them Turn their faces from Heaven and their backs upon all goodness Will ye also go away Whither should we go for thou hast the words of Eternal Life Their destruction is from themselves In this their day they will not know the things that belong to their peace and therefore they shall be hid from their eyes In seeing they will not see and hearing they will not hear shutting their eyes against the Sun and stopping their ears at the voice of the Charmer though he charme unto them never so often never so wisely they chuse Death rather than Life How often would I have gathered thy Children together as a Hen gathereth her brood under her wings but ye would not Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and after thy hardness and impenitent heart Rom. 2.4 treasurest unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath When they knew God they glorified him not as God Ro. 1.21.28 they did not like to retain God in all their thoughts wherefore God gave them up to a reprobate mind c. Having their consciences seared with a hot iron Departing from the Faith giving heed to Doctrines of Devils SECT I. 1. How do Mens consciences suffer them to do as they do Qu. To lye and flatter to cheat and cousen to rob and steal to kill and destroy to commit all uncleanness with greediness to swear and forswear to extort and oppress and to do all injustice I answer It is the Will the willful Will Answ the domineering brazen-faced will without all fear or shame As for the Natural Conscience in the most wicked Men it is utterly against such doings with their Mind they would serve the Law of God but with their Flesh the Law of sin They delight in the Law of God after the inward Man but there is another law in their members warring against the Law of their Mind and leading them into captivity to the Law of sin But why so little remorse appears in them that do these horrid things Truly I cannot tell what to say in this case If there be no inward pangs I should wonder it must be a very hard heart that never relents and that 's a most desperate condition both of Sin and misery 2. In good Men. How do their consciences come to be so much troubled I answer Why indeed For I know no just cause There is a just cause of fear for the Body that may fall upon a constant and stout Man when sudden and imminent danger threatens death But for a just cause of fear for the Soul to fall upon a faithful justified and sanctified Man engrafted into Christ and adopted the Son and Heir of God I cannot apprehend Fearful they are and may be but it is their fancy their passion and humour that makes them so not their real Conscience There are that put too many causes of Conscience and make doubts which they can never resolve and tye knots which they can never unloose and raise devils which they are never able to lay again Confessors make a Trade of it and a good one too unlock the closets of Mens Hearts but more of their Purses Poor Souls are oppressed by Cases of Conscience as Mens Estates are by Cases of Law and as Mens Bodies are by Physick There are certain plain Rules that would resolve all doubts to a plain meaning Man better than all their subtil Distinctions A few necessary Doctrines of Faith and a good life will do the work and the Brethren ought to be troubled no farther As for those that pretend every thing to be against their Consciences it is a manifest cheat For it is their lust and that hath the casting voice with them in all that they do and whatsoever is contrary to their lusts is falsly affirm'd to be against their Consciences because they will suffer no rule of Law to come upon them
punishment 9. Judicium discernens voluntatem Dei pertinet ad quemlibet pro semetipso The judgment to discern the will of God belongs to every one for himself 10. Lex Dei in mente est regula Conscientiae The Law of God in the mind is the rule of Conscience 11. Conscientia est ignis Inferni Vermis rodens The Conscience is the fire of Hell the Worm that never dies 12. Coelum Terra in Corde humano Heaven and Hell are seated in the Heart of Man 13. Conscientia ante bonum calcar post bonum consolatio The Conscience is a spur unto good and a comfort afterward 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We do not easily fairly judg of our selves without partiality 15. Inter Deum Conscientiam noli vereri nisi causam tuam Betwixt God and thine own Conscience fear nothing if thy cause be good if thy Heart be honest The CONTENTS Transition Old Man Old Leaven Natural Man Carnal Mind New Man New Lump Spiritual Mind New Birth First Resurrection Old Creation Concurrency of God and Man TITLE VI. Of a New Creature Transition THe Conscience being rectified to do all its offices faithfully argues the rectification of the Understanding and Will and all the passions which is the change of the whole Man or the New Creature SECT I. Old Man The New Creature implyes the Old Creature done away which is called in Scripture 1. The Old Man Our Old Man is crucified with him Old Man Ro. 6.6 that the Body of sin might be destroy'd that from henceforth we should not serve sin Put off concerning the former conversation Eph. 4.22 which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renew'd in the Spirit of your minds Put off the Old Man with his deeds and put on the New Man Col. 3.9 which is renew'd in knowledg after the image of him that created him SECT II. 2. Old Leaven Purge out therefore the Old Leaven Old Leaven 1 Cor. 5.7 that ye may be a New Lump as ye are unleavened for Christ our Pass-over is sacrificed for us SECT III. 3. Natural Man Natural Man 1 Cor. 2.14 The Natural Man received not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither indeed can he because they are spiritually discerned SECT IV. 4. Carnal Mind The Law is spiritual but I am carnal Carnal mind Ro. 7.14 Ro. 8.7 sold under sin Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be I speak unto you as unto Spiritual not unto Carnal even as unto Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3.13 Ro. 8.6 2 Cor. 10.4 c. To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual mighty through God to the pulling down strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and being in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled 5. Gall of bitterness Act. I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and bond of perdition 6. Flesh That which is born of the flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit 7. Old Birth Joh. 3. Except a Man be born again of the Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This is the old heart the old Spirit the stony-heart the wrong Spirit old affections and lusts c. SECT V. 2. The New Creature which is called in Scripture 1. The New Man Put on the New Man New Man Eph. 4.24 Col. 3.10 2 Cor. 5.17 which after Christ is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Put on the New Man renewed in knowledg after the image of him that created him If any Man be in Christ he is a New Creature SECT VI. 2. The New Lump Purge out therefore the Old Leaven New Lump 1 Cor. 5.7 that ye may be a new Lump c. SECT VII 3. Spiritual mind To be carnally minded is death Spiritual mind Ro. 8.6 Ro. 12.2 Tit. 3.5 but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may know what is that good and perfect Will of God By the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost For this cause we faint not but though our outward Man perish 2 Cor. 4.16 yet the inward Man is renewed day by day Be ye renewed in the Spirit of your mind Hebr. 6.6 c. If they shall fall away to renew them again by repentance Col. 3.1 c. Set your affections on high seek those things which are above c. SECT VIII New Birth Joh. 1.13 4. New Birth Born of God born not of Blood nor of the will of the Flesh nor of the will of Men but of God He that is born of God doth not commit sin 1 Joh. 3.9 for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot commit sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 4.7 Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God 1 Joh. 5.4 18. He that is born of God overcometh the World and this is the victory that overcometh the World 1 Joh. 2.29 even our Faith Every one that doth righteousness is born of him Tit. 3.5 The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost SECT IX First Resurrection Rev. 20.5 6. 5. The first Resurrection He that hath his part in the first Resurrection upon him the second death shall have no power This is the New heart the heart of Flesh the new Spirit the right Spirit Ez. 11.19 I will put a new Spirit within you I will take the stony-heart out of the Flesh Ez. 18.31 and I will make you a new heart and a new Spirit for why will ye dye Ez. 36.26 O ye House of Israel A New heart will I give you and put a new Spirit within you Ro. 7.6 and I will take away the stony-heart and give you an heart of Flesh 1 Pet. 2.2 Serve God in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter As new born Babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Gal. 2.20 This is crucifixion with Christ I am crucified with Christ I live yet not I Gal. 52.4 but Christ that liveth in me They that are Christs have crucified the Flesh with the affections and lusts Gol. 6.14 This is living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit Glorying in the Cross of Christ by which the World is crucified unto us and we unto the World This is a death unto sin a burial with Christ a rising with him a partaking of the Divine
and tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandred in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth And all these having obtained a good report through faith received not the Promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect For the same Promises were made more lively to us and expect a more lively faith from us and they came in by accession to the same Promises and are made perfect by them together with us in one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for the same blessedness and salvation through him to whom be all praise and glory for ever Amen SECT V. Seeing therefore as hath been demonstrated the Faithful are the Elect people of God and in Covenant with him it must of necessity follow that the Unfaithful are the Reprobated of God and out of Covenant with him For as it is plain that the Elect are the peculiar and choice People because God hath propounded the Right to be chosen by them and they have chosen that Right and are approved of God for choosing that Right So it is as plain that the Reprobate are the strange and Refuse people because God hath propounded the Right to be chosen by them and they have refused that Right and chosen the wrong and are disapproved and condemned of God for choosing the wrong By Faith men are elected or intituled to a Promise of salvation By Infidelity men are rejected from a Promise to damnation Election not to be concealed This is that great point of Election which hath been represented as an Abyss that none could ever see into the bottom of a Mystery unconceivable and therefore dangerous for any but high and mighty Doctors to dispute of and sat intra Cancellos in their retired Schools apart from the rude Multitude from their Chairs not from their Pulpits And their Writings must be lockt up in Archivis never exposed to common view What is the matter Is it the Will of God the Law of God the Testament of God and must it not be known Are not all Laws proclaimed and Testaments opened And are they not made when wisely made so plain that all that are concerned might understand them or else how shall they know what is commanded them and conferred upon them that they might perform that obedience and gratitude which is due from them to such their Rulers and Benefactors The Learned use to say Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet That which concerns all is to be understood by all Does not the good Will and Word of God concern all Is it only to be spoken to the Learned and Nobles in such languages and phrases which they only understand Are we sent to preach only to such as they that are in high places of employment in Church and State and not as well to the poor Watchmen that sit on the Wall that they might hear the Will of God and understand it as well as others Surely God is no respecter of persons but we may plainly perceive his mind and will is to have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth and that in all Nations he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Heb. 10.6 c. Say not therefore in thine heart Who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead But what saith the Scripture The word is nigh unto thee even 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 shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation For the Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Under the favour therefore of the Deeper Clerks my poorest judgment is apt to believe Election an easie Point◠that this Doctrine of Election is the most easie and familiar in all Divinity take Divinity for the Scripture and not for systems and sums and postils or golden decisions c. Especially for Christ's Sermon in the Mount and his other Sermons and answers as also the Sermons of the Apostles and all of their Epistles except that of the Romans and Galatians where most things are easie but some things are hard to be understood which some that are unlearned and hardly honest have wrested to their own destruction and grievously abused the Vulgar in catching at some dubious expressions which may be variously construed and neglecting the main scope of the whole Bible especially of those two most famous Epistles which is to prove Justification by Faith and not by Works or the Righteousness of God which is by Faith distinct from the Righteousness of Man which is by Works And the just rejection of the Jews the Elder Brother for going about to establish their own Righteousness which is by the Law and the just election of the Gentiles the younger Brother for embracing the righteousness of Faith which is by the Gospel SECT VI. Take therefore St. Peters godly Admonition 2 Pet. 1.10 Diligence to make Election sure to give all diligence to make your calling and election sure And do you long and pant and thirst after God and endeavour honestly to close with God in hearing and understanding and doing the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do but well and God will meet you And that of St. Paul Phil. 2.12 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and do of his good pleasure And know that Veritas non est salutanda in transitu Truth is not to be saluted in haste It is the diligent hand that maketh rich And Manus est causa sapientiae It is the hand that is the cause of wisdom Dii omnia laboribus vendunt God gives all upon labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God helpeth all that labour And he that hath and useth well what he hath shall have more Ex mandato mandatum discimus By doing Gods Command we learn to do his command If any man will do his will he shall know the Doctrine whether it be of God or no. We learn to do well by doing well and the more we do well the more we may Devotion comes by prayer and Charity by Alms. The Practical hand makes better than the Speculative brains Vae mihi si haec habeo in mente servo in charta non facio in vitâ Wo be unto me if I
the Name from the Law it self and all others and is truly and really the everlasting Testament and Covenant of God Of this New Testament the Scriptures of the Old Testament do frequently prophesie Jer. 31.32 Behold the days come saith the Lord That I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was a Husband unto them saith the Lord. And in divers other places hereafter to be noted And these are the two distinct Testaments set forth by the Allegory of Abrahams two Sons the one by a Bond-woman and the other by a Free-woman For these are the Two Testaments Covenants the one from Mount Sinai which gendreth to Bondage Gal. 4.24 which is Agar the other from Mount Sion in Jerusalem which is Free-born which is the Mother of us all And therefore we that are under the second Covenant are not Children of the Bond-woman but of the Free-woman Proofs for the title of Testament But the prime places in the Gospel and writings of the Apostles do most fully demonstrate this Notion of a Testament as in the first place those dying words of the Mediatour himself This is my Blood of the New Testament Matt. 26.28 which is shed for many for the remission of sins Where no man dares translate it Covenant or by any other word than Testament which makes the Opposers sweat to make good the rendring of the same word in other places a Covenant as in the eight of the Hebrews they do Heb 9.16 17. whereas in the next Chapter they cannot do it For this cause he is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by the means of death for the redemption of the Transgressours that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testatour for a Testament is of force when men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the Testatour liveth Wherefore neither the first Testament was dedicated without Blood c. So the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 4.24 relate to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 7. If a Son then an Heir of God through Christ and v. 30. The Son of the Bond-woman shall not be Heir with the Son of the Free-woman Gal. 3.15 As also Gal. 3.15 though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be there translated Covenant yet it strongly soundeth a Testament because if it be confirmed first by death no man can disannul it No man can disannul his own Testament because he is dead and hath no will whereas we see daily that Covenants though never so much confirmed by hands and Seals c. are broken every day at the wills and pleasures of them that made them So 1 Cor. 11.25 This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood 2 Cor. 3.6 God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament and v. 14. The Old Testament is done away in Christ And in many other places But more particularly let us take a view of Gal. 3.17 Gal. 3.17 This I say that the Covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disannul that it should make the Promise of none effect The Argument of the Apostle in the Paragraph v. 15 16 17. is thus Though it be but a Mans Covenant yet if it be once confirmed no such Testatour can disannul it or superadd thereunto by any after-Act much less will the most holy and righteous God of heaven disannul his own Testament when once it is confirmed But I say that Gods Testament was confirmed before the giving of the Law and therefore the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after the Institution of the Testament could not disannul or defeat the Promise therein conteined There are two Acts of a Testament Acts of a Testament Institution or Faction when a Testator declares this to be his last Will and Testament by Word or Writing or both Confirmation or Establishing when he silently declareth it to be unalterable and irrevocable by dying or taking his death upon it These two are different Acts done at different times and by different means the one in Life the other in death Now the Old Testament of God for the Promisory Part of it was first instituted or ordained when Abraham lived in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charran for there the Lord had said unto him Gen. 12.2 I will make of thee a great Nation and I will bless thee and make thy Name great and thou shalt be a Blessing c. This Institution was again declared to Abraham when he lived at Sichem for there the Lord appeared unto him and said Gen. 13.4 Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art Northward and Southward for all the Land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed for ever The Sum of this Institution was yet again renewed unto Abraham when he dwelt in the Plain of Mamre which is Hebron where the Lord said unto him Gen. 15.7 I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this Land to inherit it Thus Gods Ordination Institution or Faction of his Testament was sufficiently declared to Abraham immediately after this last Intimation the same Testament was confirmed by God For when Abraham desired some farther Assurance whereby he might know that he should inherit the Land promised Gen. 15.18 God thereupon confirmed or established his Testament by doing a solemn Act which added such Authority and force unto his Testament that by vertue of that Act God deprived himself as a dead man of all power of recalling it Therefore by Gods appointment certain Beasts were slain and divided into half and the pieces laid severally one against another and the Lord as a Burning Lamp passed between those dead pieces and by that passage his Testament was confirmed Gen. 15.18 In that same day Gen. 15.18 the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham In the Hebrew the Lord cut or dispatched his Testament or Promise to Abraham In the Greek he disposed his Disposition to Abraham i. e. he assured it to him saying to thy Seed have I given this Land c. Neither can the Hebrew Word Berith here signifie a Covenant for two Reasons 1. Because the Hebrew Text saith he made a Deed Constitution or Reason 1 Disposition unto Abraham not a Condition or Covenant with Abraham And so the LXX read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Because as to the Act of God Abraham was not the Counterparty Reason 2 with whom it was done but the Beneficiary unto whom it was done God
as it was at first spoken or written Letter was understood by all as Laws ought to be the Doubts were only in the use and practice and to be resolved by the Priest In this sense the Promises of the Law were terrene as long life health power victory c. V. Lev. 26. and Deut. 28. And such in the Letter were the original Promises made to Abraham viz. Canaan In this sense the Precepts of the Law were terrene proportionable to the Promises sitted also to the rudeness and childishness of the Jews called therefore Rude and beggarly elements of the World Gal. 4 3.9 For the Moralities were the least and lowest Precepts of the Law of Nature or restraints from acts unnatural The two Tables are barrs from Impiety and bridles from Inhumanity not made for righteous but for wicked men The Ceremonies were chargeable and troublesome and numerous A yoke which the Jews were not able to bear 1 Tim. 1.9 as Circumcision a painful mark or brand upon their flesh to distinguish them from other people as Sacrifices Washings c. The works were servile external for eye-service and fear of death under the Spirit of bondage In this sense the Judgments of the Law were terrene as violent death by burning stoning c. and other corporal punishments ordinary and Wars Famines and Plagues extraordinary when the Rulers hand was slack to punish according to Law Spirit II. The Spirit of the Law was not understood generally but by extraordinary Revelation to some of better Spirits but never publickly and perfectly revealed to all till preached by Christ who did away the Veil and brought in life and immortality by the Gospel For Promises 1. The Promises thereof are Heavenly as eternal Holiness Life Rest Glory and Joy with God Saints and Angels Precepts 2. The Precepts are masculine sprightly and most refinedly pure and spiritual as poorness of Spirit pureness of heart mercifulness mourning peaceableness meekness hungring and thirsting after Righteousness patience c. unto all which the general and capital Commandment is Love refined beyond legal and natural love as to love our Enemies and to pray for them that hate us c. to bless and not curse c. Judgments 3. The Judgments are eternal death pain and anguish with the Devil and his Angels Works 4. The Works of the Gospel are Cordial as Circumcision of the heart Sacrifice of the Spirit c. Liberal in the free and noble way of Love answerable in some measure to Gods Love who is a Father to us Sons a giver of an Inheritance to us Heirs They are also perfect for universal and perpetual Obedience full and blameless for the reward of Eternal Salvation by Christ Contract The Law of Moses expresly contracted nothing of Eternal Life yet God meant them more than in words he declared And then under that Law there was a sufficient ground for the perswasion thereof God inviting their Obedience by Temporal Blessings they might well believe he would not rest there for such a reward was not suitable to his Greatness to give nor for his own peculiar people to receive So he promised Abraham that he would be his exceeding great Reward yet in terms he expressed nothing but the Land of Canaan nor had he that in possession nor his posterity after him for many Generations but were Pilgrims and strangers yet these all dyed in Faith waiting for that good Land Heb. 11.16 and looking for a better Country that is an Heavenly for which Cause they were content to endure all sorts of Afflictions God having provided some better thing for them being assured that he would provide a recompence for his Servants Sufferings more than this Earth could afford but how or which way or what they did not could not distinctly know Heb. 11.13 14. but seeing them afar off they were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on earth For they that do such things declare plainly that they seek a Country So the Kingdom of Heaven was mystically intimated but not openly propounded as a Condition of Gods Contract in the Law under which there wanted not a sufficient means to attain unto it but this was not the Works of the Law it self but Faith in the Promises And that the wiser and purer sort of Jews had such thoughts as these is plain by the question of the Rich man to our Saviour Master what shall I do that I may have Eternal life To which the Answer is Matt. 19.21 keep the Commandements to which he replyed that he had kept them from his youth up But this would not do being an outward Observation without the inward Love of the heart to God above all things so as to part with them all to gain the Treasure in Heaven The Souls Immortality and the Reward of good or bad after death was revealed though darkly before the Law And accordingly their Conversation was then and under the Law as Strangers not yet arrived to their Country For Adam Enoch Noah Abraham and all those Fathers obtained a good report through Faith not having received here on earth the full Promises of God God having provided some better thing for them Heb. 11.39 40. that they without us should not be made perfect Yea in all their Sufferings their noble Souls were content because they had an eye still to the Recompense of the Reward of the World to come of whom this World was not worthy But that the Law should condition this Eternal Life expresly to be believed there was no need at that time Revelation of Eternal life reserved because it was reserved till the Fulness of time in which the Fulness of all Gods promises and the exactness of all his precepts should be universally proclaimed by his own Son Jesus Christ In the mean time this Law of Moses was tendred as the Civil Law to the Jews and so it was not strange that God should not covenant farther with them than to acknowledg him only to be their God and to serve him as he then should appoint and to depend upon him for their Reward which was the Land of Canaan immediately set before their Eyes for the present to raise them up to outward Obedience at least by that Encouragement but God left them not without witness of higher things giving them to understand by his Prophets that he looked for the inward Obedience of the heart and that they might expect a greater recompense then the Princes of the World were able to bestow These carnal Commandements and Temporal Promises made way Temporals prepare for Eternals as God would have it for the Spiritual Precepts and Eternal Rewards of the Gospel which Moses did not but Christ did covenant for else there had been no need of Christ his coming to make a Covenant which was made before nor of so many and great Miracles when he
but the less it suppresseth it or provideth any Remedy at all against it Rigour The Meer Law as it is the first Covenant of Works contains in it nothing but Rigour and Justice but no Grace nor Mercy at all A Rule it is to declare what is Right and what is Wrong but no means of it self efficacious to the doing of Right or the not doing of Wrong And therefore there is an extraordinary Weakness therein as to the Justification of a Sinner Heb. 7.18 Rom. 8.3 What therefore the Law could not do for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof through the flesh Christ taking the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And that the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus might make us free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 7 5 6 For when we were in the flesh the Motions of Sin by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto Death But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter So sin taking occasion by the Commandment works in us all manner of Concupiscence For without the Law sin is dead And so we were alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and we died And the Commandment which was ordained to Life proved in effect to be unto Death But sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived us and by that Commandment slew us All this while the Law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good And that which is so holy and just and good is not directly nor truly the Cause of our Death nor can it be so God forbid by its own Natural operation for out of good nothing but good can proceed but Sin that it might appear sin naturally worketh death by the occasion of that which is good For Sin taketh occasion by the Commandment to become exceeding sinful The CONTENTS Sin deceives Grace un-deceives My defect Fruition High understanding Ignorance True knowledge Means to discern Truth Rules Principles Authority Infallibility Will. My Lust Vnderstanding Physical and Moral Agents Will. Casual Cause of Sin Law TITLE IV. Of the Deceit of the Law THis seems to be a mystery Sin deceives that we should be deceived into sin by the Law of God It will not therefore be a Digression nor altogether unprofitable if it were to shew how a Law and a good Law and the Spiritual Law of God in the Old Testament should be said by St. Paul to be though but an occasion to deceive us into sin and death Strange that that which was so good should be made so much as the occasion of Evil and of the greatest of Evils to death it self and the greatest of deaths to a death in sin How then did Sin take this occasion by the Commandement of God first to deceive us and then to kill us if we can tell And how great then is the Power of Grace O the depth of the Riches of God's mercy that only can make us alive unto God Grace undeceives and be a death unto Sin and to the death of Sin and kill that which would kill us when nothing else can do it That when Sin did so abound by the occasion of Good Grace might so much the more abound by the occasion of Evil For which we must thank God who hath given us this great victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. When therefore Sin urges the strength of the Law against us and advances the Sword of Justice to strike us to death and that by the accusation of the Devil who hath the power of Death then Grace lays her hand upon the Sword of Justice and stops the mouth of Sin and the clamour of the Law and of the Devil that lays the Law against us and saves us from the stroke of Death and giveth us Victory over all those through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we may be deceived after a sort by the Law but we can no waies be deceived by Grace But yet we have not answered this point How the Law or rather Sin by the Law comes to deceive us This I say then Sin deceives me by misinforming my Understanding and by misguiding my Will The Law orders me to life but Sin deceives me in and by the Law unto death It will be sit therefore to consider here these four Points 1. My defect I am deceived that 's for certain 2. The direct efficient Cause of my deception is Lust 3. The casual or accidental Cause of Sin the Law 4. The Innocency of the Law My Defect My Defect I am plainly deceived He is said to be deceived that akes one thing for another this is all one with an errour or mistake in the Understanding and this in the Will declining to follow right Reason an Erratum He is properly decieved who fails of some end which he intended and aimed at Decipitur de quo aliquid capitur he is deceived from whom something is taken away which he should or would enjoy This is Fraud God praeordained every thing to its proper end All Unreasonable Creatures attain their ends but if they should not they cannot be said to be deceived because they understood them not that they might aim at them Reasonable Creatures fail of their Ends because they are deceived in their Judgments and Endeavours God in the Scriptures opens and offers Eternal life and gives me Understanding to apprehend it and a Will to accept it a Law to direct and his Grace to assist my Humane frailties But I am deceived 1. In my Apprehension by infinite Errors mistaking Falshood for Truth Vice for Vertue Pleasure or Profit for true happiness Temporal life and glory for Eternal 2. In my Prosecution by infinite Errata misdoing evil for good Fruition 3. In my Fruition which I fail of in the end and I deceive my self by way of fraud My Understanding I speak not of her privative Ignorance but of her Errors her oblique and depraved knowledge the more I have the more I am deceived High Understanding An elevate transcendent Understanding frames most irregular conclusions A fine Wit hath more refined Errors Learning it self is but a kind of progress in Error Ignorance When I was quite Ignorant I had no error in me but now I have got a little knowledge I have learned some Rules to erre by Learning is a remedy to Nescience but no bar to Error and Truth carrying the same countenance I have no perfect skill to discern them and especially because little Ore amongst a great deal of Dross and a pound of Error to a dram of Truth We are all deceived in one thing or other Truth is hard to come by and there
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
a Manuduction unto Christ Observe it then that all this while there was no other way of life given either in whole or in part beside the Covenant of Grace And therefore there was no inconstancy either in God's Will or in his Acts only such was his Mercy that he subordinated the Covenant of Works and made it subservient to the Covenant of Grace and so to tend to Evangelical Perfection And he that truly understands and considers what the Covenant of Works requires and how unable he is to perform it it being though ordained for righteousness and life an occasion of sin and death must needs see just cause to flie from Mount Sinai unto Mount Sion or from the Covenant of Works made with Adam to the Covenant of Grace made with Christ and to admire the unspeakable Wisdom and Mercy of God in suffering the Law to enter in Rom. 5.20 21. that the offence might abound that where Sin aboundeth Grace might much more abound That as sin hath raigned unto death even so might Grace raign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Law then which was good was not made Death unto me God forbid But Sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good Rom. 7.13 that sin by the Commandment might become exceeding sinful Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 c. that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe But before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith But after that Faith is come we are no longer under a School-master For ye are the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus The obscurity of this Great Point of Theology which I am forced to be so long upon new Notions arising continually is chiefly occasioned as Origen imagineth by the indistinct Aequivocation of the Word Law in the Epistle to the Romans let that place be viewed where it is said The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 6.2 3. The Aequivocal Word Law for what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit May we not modestly say that the Word Law ascribed to the Concupiscence of the Flesh is not properly but abusively given As it is also in another Place Rom. 7.21 23. where he saith I find a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the Law of God after the Inward Man But I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of sin which is in my Members For if Lust be a Law and do bind it hath no Right so to do because Lust is not of force by God's Prime Institution from whence Law hath its virtue but by the occasion of his Justice in punishing the Fall of our first Parents thereby And hence is this Original way of sinning from our Lusts which we are led away with and deceived by though in themselves they are not naturally sinful but became exorbitant against reason and peccant upon forbidden objects by our own consent of Will and God's just Punishment therefore But when the Law of the Spirit of life is clearly meant to be the Gospel preached and alone having the Promise of the Spirit The Law that is weak because of the Flesh that is condemned by the flesh of Christ must needs be understood to be a carnal Law from whence Salvation can never be hoped But that Law by which Justification is had by them which walk after the Spirit and not after the Flesh is Spiritual whether it be the same for the Law of Nature perfected by Christ for the Covenant of Grace or diverse as commanded by Moses for the Covenant of Works When these things are rightly distinguished the difficulty whereof St. Peter as well as Origen complains is taken off for when the Apostle saith Rom. 2.14 That the Gentiles which have not a Law are a Law unto themselves doing by Nature the things contained in the Law shew the Work of the Law written in their hearts It is manifest that although we usurp the Appellation of the Law of Nature indifferently St. Paul doth abstain from giving the Name of a Law to that Light that is in us when he says the Gentiles had no Law but were a Law to themselves because the usurping of the Name Law belongs to the solemn Imposition of that name in the Law of Moses and to the Law of Nature and of sin but by Trope and Figure The Law of Moses is carnal in all men the Covenant of Works The Law of Christ is Spiritual in the Faithful before under and after the Law the Covenant of Grace Therefore the Institutions of Nature in Moses's Law are Scriptures and the Word of God no less than the Gospel but not binding as delivered by Moses but by Christ by whom they were made perfect Neither doth a Believer receive the Moral Law at the hands of Moses but altogether at the hands of Christ Though it be the same Law for Matter and Substance yet in the lowest grounds that was delivered by Moses yet Believers are not to receive it as the Law of Moses but of Christ in the highest perfections thereof For when Christ the Son of God comes and speaks himself Moses the Servant of God must hold his peace as Moses himself foretold A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me Act. 3.22 Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And therefore in the Mount Tabor when Moses and Elias were departed and had given place the voice from Heaven came and said Math. 17.5 This is my Well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye Him And though heretofore God hath spoken divers wayes and in sundry fashions to the World by his Servants the Prophets Heb. 1.2 yet now in these last dayes he hath spoken to us by his Son and this is he that we must trust to And they that believed in Moses must believe in Christ and they that believed before Moses did believe in Christ and they that believe after Moses must believe in Christ and so to the World's end For there never was nor will be
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
man's work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward If any man's work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire Let the Clergy take heed what they speak and the Laity take heed what they hear Gal. 1.8 and if you or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than what is already preached let him be accursed Be instant in season and out of season whether the people hear or whether they forbear Look to your selves and to those that hear you shewing both in your lives and in your doctrines uncorruptness gravity and sincerity rightly dividing the word of truth like workmen that need not to be ashamed Let your lips preserve knowledg that the people may enquire the Law at your mouths that ye may be as Scribes throughly furnished for the kingdom of Heaven producing out of your Treasuries things new and old For God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life The CONTENTS Joy Fear Decrees Gospel Dispensations Worship Spiritual Ceremonies Difference of Mosaick and Christian Rites Church of Rome Perfection of Christianity Spiritual Perfection Ritual Worship abolished No other Rites to be superinduced No Rites ever pleased God Greater Perfections in the Christian Religion Prayer and other Duties are Relativi Juris TITLE VIII Of the Genius of the Gospel Joy AND let Clergy and Laity learn to know the Genius of the Gospel better and the providence of God under it Ye have been taught so far inwardly because of your sins and temptations and God's wrath though you repent and believe and live up to the Gospel as near as possibly you can and overmuch Religion hath made you mad Fear Ye have been taught to fear outwardly Plagues Wars Famines Robbings Imprisonments Prodigies of Comets Blazing stars Witchcrafts Thunders Lightnings Storms Tempests fears and fears and nothing but fears all your life long as if there were no Comforter Ye have been taught out of the Old Testament more than the New out of the Fathers and Schoolmen Summists Casuists Postillers Orators Poets Wits and Flashes of Eloquence more than sound Doctrine But you are to learn the peace and tranquillity of the Gospel to eat your bread with joy and singleness of heart not to imagine a sword of Vengeance always hanging over your heads to make your hearts fail within you and your Countenances pale as if God stood over you continually with his sword drawn in his hand that you can never lead a quiet life Is this the Providence of God to fright you in all his Creatures Cur hanc tibi rector Olympi Sollicitis visum Mortalibus addere Curam Noscant venturas ut dira per omina Clades Christian Religion is to preserve men from a constant pedagogy to so many base and servile fears that make men dread to come near it as an Enemy to generousness and universal freedom and comfort of spirit because of such pale and feminine fears and amazements or make men grow weary of it as of a yoke ever galling and pressing down men's spirits and conclude themselves gainers if they can purchase manhood with Atheism and profaneness Fear binds in the powers of the Soul Religion is aimable Decrees till it comes to those horrid representations of God's decreeing of inevitable torments both here and hereafter to his poor creatures before they were or could do good or evil which makes them fear him but they cannot love him nor do any hearty service unto him wishing rather that he had never given them a being than to make them eternally miserable without any cause or fault of them at all only to shew the glory of his power that is how uncontroulably he can tyrannize over them The Devils indeed are in this condition of trembling because they know they are reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day Therefore when they saw Christ they were afraid saying What have we to do with thee thou Jesus the Son of the Most High God art thou come to torment us before the time And surely the Devil would bring men into the same condition by frightning them from the service of God to his Altars as he did the Gentiles Surely other thoughts of God would better become men than the Devils have who nevertheless in this one thing are far better than some men for they know and confess the Justice of God upon them for their Apostasie but these blaspheme God for cruelty and unjustice It being the common principle of Nature in all men both wise and unwise whatsoever other sentiments and different opinions they had that God was Summum Bonum the most bountiful and gracious Being the greater wonder it is to me that so many Doctrines amongst the Heathens and Christians too should be received so contrary to God's goodness and Philanthropy 'T is very strange that the minds of men should be leavened with this sowr conceit and delight to hear of such terrors against themselves and to have God represented to be of that cruel nature to his Creatures which they would be loth to be of to their Children These Jealousies of God cannot stand with a belief of God's goodness for they imagine him to be good to a few of mankind of which number they are a part but for all the rest he looks upon them as dross and cast-aways and therefore he is always contriving new plagues and destructions for this so hated a people that they shall not so much as have the least refreshments of health or peace in this little pitiful span of life and after this painful and short life ended will hurle them into everlasting torments Did ever a more pestilentious vapour breathe from the bottomless Pit to the seizing upon the very vitals of Religion in the Soul's first notions and conceptions of a God to turn off their desires and loves from him whom they were made to love and serve I have often mused with my self about the vulgar conceptions of God's Judgments as if the Divine Goodness studied nothing else like the Heathen Jupiter but to throw his Thunderbolts and Plagues upon every single person for their particular aberrations and upon all Nations for their several corruptions for their conversion or else for their confusion That great and fearful calamities have fallen upon the world especially that of the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole Nation of the Jews c. mentioned in Divine Writ is most evident Together with the Aegyptian Assyrian Persian Grecian and Roman Empires c. cannot be denied together with many particular examples of wicked men signally suffering the Divine Vengeance But that from hence every idle Fancy should dare to specifie the Reasons of God's workings upon those nations and persons I could never yet understand after that fashion My thoughts
Atheism being a canker in my Estate and theirs and a poyson to me and their Souls that I have not fed my self or mine at all or as I ought or provided for my self or them at all or as I ought that I have not taught my self or them at all or as I ought But especially let not an army of strangers and of miserable persons made so by me come in against me to rail and curse me or go to God with strong cries and tears to help them from the wrongs that I have done them or call for vengeance from Heaven upon me for the same O these are lowd and bitter cries O they rent the very heavens O they come up to the ears of God day and night O what should I do or whether should I go if these Fatherless Widows Strangers should come in against me which God forbid or if the very brutes and inanimate creatures should find mouths to clamour to men to God and to the world against me And all this while which is worse I should cry lowdest against my self in a wounded Conscience which who is able to bear Therefore what ever I do what ever I suffer let me not eat the bread that should nourish others and for want of which they curse and starve Let me not be cloathed with the fleece that should keep others warm and for want of which their nakedness is discovered and they die for cold Let me not shelter my self under the roof of another which should be his castle to save himself nor let me possess the goods or lands of others which they of right should use or enjoy In a word Let none be hurt lamed killed deformed oppressed robbed spoiled or undone by me let no such stain be upon my honour in this world nor no such clog upon my soul to press it down in the world to come But rather let me truly say to my comfort and credit Whose Oxe have I taken or whose Ass have I taken or whom have I defrauded I am innocent from the blood of all men I have endeavoured to get and keep a good Conscience in all things void of offence to God or Man which will bring me peace to my latter end and to all eternity O Adam Adam What inevitable wrongs are done by thee by the miseries and deaths brought upon all thy Race if not the sins by thy example at least the imputation for thy sake What inevitable damnation hast thou brought upon thy self and all men had not the second Adam procured salvation for thee and all men O sinful and cruel men What sins and miseries have you brought upon your selves your families and countries by making them to sin by making them to suffer in peace and war in plenty and want in health and sickness O all ye Oppressours Ranters Rebels and Tyrants How much is the world the worse for you How much is the Church the worse for you What waste and havock and spoil have beastly prodigal and barbarous men made upon the good creatures of God ransacked rifled and preyed upon by your pride and wantonness The first Adam lost all right The second Adam recovered all right God created all right and truth and the Devil created all wrong and falsehood These are the two principles of right and wrong good and evil SECT XXXII Collect. Moral Honesty not doubted of 2 Therefore though many revealed truths of faith are called into question and many natural causes are doubted of yet we cannot if we be in our wits make any just scruple of moral honesty no body can deny it he must put out the light of nature if he do which cannot be A spade must be a spade and honesty is honesty when all is done whether we will or no and goes through the world A true man is the only man when all is done that hath honour and conscience in him his enemies themselves being Judges So there can be no difference about honesty that there is and ought to be such a thing But what that thing is and where to find it what is Right and Truth and Wrong and False we cannot we will not agree but call Right Wrong Lyes Truth Evill Good Darkness Light and é contra Every Man will be in the right a common sin to flatter our selves in sin to preach of it praise it pray for it inveigh against evill commend good but act against it Every Man is as his phancy and passion guides him as his party and interest lyes so he judges so he acts so do States and Kingdoms so do Churches too What shall we do in this case how shall we know Right from Wrong that we may do right I answer 1. God hath shew'd it unto us in the light of Nature if we will open our eyes to see it there it is in the common principles thereof very plain 2. Princes from God have shew'd it unto us in their Laws taken from the Law of Nature for our temporal good 3. Priests from God have shew'd it unto us in God's Laws revealed by the Apostles and Prophets for our spiritual good For the Priest's lips preserve knowledg and God's Law is to be enquired of from their mouthes for the good of the Soul 4. Physicians from God have shew'd it unto us in their skill what is for the Body 5. Lawyers from God shew it unto us in their wisdom what is good good for our Estates But in all we are deceiv'd and lose the Right while it is before us holding the Truth in unrighteousness SECT XXXIII Therefore every Man must see with his own eyes Collect. 3. Use Reason and hear with his own ears and understand with his own heart as well as he can and God will help him Let the world know that to assert Infallibility is a cheat and to set up Supremacy is a cheat and to impose Antiquity in all things is a cheat But right Reason humble and unbiassed not excluding frailties is no cheat He that seeketh findeth he that asketh shall have and he that knocketh at Wisdom's gate shall enter in SECT XXXIV Two Guides God hath given to all Men. Reason of Nature 1. Reason of Nature in common principles Quaedam Jura non scripta sed omnibus scriptis certiora saith Cicero There are some Laws which are not written but they are more certain than all the written Laws in the world This is the fountain of Right and it cannot at the same time send forth sweet waters and bitter This is the Treasure which God hath committed to the charge of every one to keep and improve SECT XXXV 2. Equity of conscience Equity of Conscience in common Conclusions drawn from the pure Truths These must guide us when positive Laws fail us Nec omne quod honestum est legibus praecipitur For not every thing that is honest is commanded by the Laws The reason is because Law-givers are not Diviners and Prophets to fore-see every contingent
Law his right of assembly to him and his heirs for ever Deut. 23.2 who stand excommunicated For A Bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord. As an Alien Forreigner or Stranger is disabled and debarred from the rights and priviledges of inheritances freedoms votes and other common benefits of the Laws Municipal which the Natives do enjoy So the Romans Greeks and other Nations inhabiting Judaea were by the Jews accounted and called sinners We are Jews by Nature and not sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2.15 Because they were Strangers and Aliens who had no right equal with the Native Jews and Proselytes that were made free of their Nation As a villain or Bastard-born who is no actual transgressor against any Law yet by the Law of Nations is made a quasi Transgressor being wholly depersonated and degraded from the common Condition of a Man and depressed into the state of a Beast dead in Law having no Will nor Action nor Possession of any thing but is at the will and in the possession of his Lord subjected to all wrongs and excluded from all Rights having no Estate Office nor Suffrage must be no Witness can have no power to make a Testament Such was the state of Servitude a state of death not life Thus by the Law of God the Gibeonites were accursed Now therefore ye are cursed Jos 9.23 and ye shall none of you be freed from being bond-men and hewers of wood and drawers of water SECT VI. 3. The Distressed who justly according to the secret will of God Distressed for reasons best known to himself are afflicted with some notable and lasting misery such as the Blind and the Lame the Deformed the Lepers the Monster the Deaf and Dumb Innocents Fools and Frantick persons the proper objects of pity and compassion that neither sinned they nor their Parents but that the power of God might be seen and his Name glorified These are generally censured for sinners upon whom God hath layd such extraordinary calamities And so are such as suffer loss of Children Friends Honour Estate by storms and tempests by wars famines or any other fatal changes or chances in this world Such a one was Job yet a perfect and upright Man one that feared God and eschew'd evil yet Job's Friends erroneously condemned him for an hypocrite because so fearfully handled in his Person Children and Estate not considering That though sin be the cause of affliction yet it is neither the perpetual nor total nor sole cause thereof but that there are other good causes and considerations that flow from the secret and good will of God though they be hid from our eyes Thus those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell were counted greater sinners than others because they suffered such things Thus those Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices were counted greater sinners than others because they suffered such grievous things Thus Lazarus a beggar and lying at the Rich Man's gate and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the Rich Man's Table Luc. 16.20 and was deny'd and the dogs came and licked his sores yet was he carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom Thus the Man Blind from his birth and sate and begg'd was judged either for his own sins or for the sins of his Parents to be made so miserable but it was that the work of God might be manifest SECT VII 4. The Tainted or stained in Blood Tainted who justly according to the will of God are made heirs to their Fathers misery either natural by hereditary diseases or ill conditions or legal by Confiscation of Goods Infamy Bastardy Slavery or other attainder or corruption of blood but especially for crimes of Treason or other high mis-demeanors against the Common-Wealth for which the Children of those Parents are debarred from being heirs to their Estate or Dignity Thus the seven Sons of Saul were hang'd in the Hill before the Lord for their Fathers cruelty against the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21.9 Thus the Sons of Gehezi were made heirs to their Father's Leprosy which clave unto him and to his Seed for ever 2 Kings 5.27 Thus Eli's Sons were turned from the Altar for their Father's neglect besides their own enormities Thus for Achan's Sacriledg his Sons and his Daughters his Oxen and his Asses and his Sheep and all his Tent Jos 7.24 and all that he had were stoned with stones and afterward burnt with fire Thus the Children of Corah Dathan and Abiram and all theirs went down alive into the pit for the Rebellion of their Parents Thus the Children of the Ninevites should have been destroy'd whereof six score thousand could not discern their right hand from their left had not their Parents repented at the preaching of Jonah The CONTENTS Rom. 5.12 explained Recapitulation Accounting Adam's will not ours Levi's paying of tithes All mortal in Adam Righteous in Christ Immortal in Christ Every Individuum acts for it self Sinner legal Sinner moral Sinner jural Psal 51.6 explained Ephes 2.3 explained Soul a spirit Good most common Good lovely v. lib. 7. Tit. 3.2 Vol. Argumenta Laciniana TITLE II. Of Original Sin Rom. 5.12 Explained IN this rank are all the Sons of Adam who for his disobedience are made heirs of his mortality By one Man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all Men for that or in whom all have sinned not actively by transgressing in his transgression but passively by being prejudicated in his judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In his doom all Men were condemned to the state of transgressors These words In whom all sinned signify the same thing with those Vers 15. Through the offence of one many be dead and with these Vers 16. The judgment was upon one to condemnation and with these Vers 19. By one Man's disobedience many were made sinners And with these 1 Cor. 15.22 In Adam all die All which sayings amount to no more but this That by the sin of Adam he and all his Children were made mortal As by the sin of the Gibeonites they and their Children were made bound-slaves and by the sin of Gehezi he and all his Children were made lepers By one Adam sinning sin entred upon all Mankind and for that one Man's sin death came upon him and all Mankind by diminution of strength which caused grief diseases and death For though Adam was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. was made a living Soul not a quickning Spirit yet if he had continued to obey God he had ever remained alive in paradise and whether any higher condition was appointed to him is uncertain to us and was not certain to him Some think after a most long life God would have delivered him from the Body without any grief or pain which the Jews do not call death but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Osculum Pacis the Kiss of peace others think he
the Son hath above the Servant not to be ejected or punished for every fault as the Servant may doth give the Son this priviledge in faults only such as are ignorances and infirmities but excuseth him not in crimes such as are malignities and wilful presumptions from being disinherited As a Malefactor relapseth into the same crimes or worse after pardon destroies himself As a Slave after liberty sells himself again to bondage is the author of his own ruin My unthankfulness therefore is the cause of the forfeiture of my right by Faith Not that I have no Faith for then I could not be justified but my Faith for want of works becomes dead It had life enough to accept of the promises and legacies of God's Will and Testament but not of the precepts and conditions So my Faith not working by Love dies and looses the right to Blessedness except it revive again by Resipiscence SECT II. Reason Breach of one party disobligeth the other Because God promiseth me a present Right to a future Blessing I accept the Promise and thereupon have right unto it and by this acceptance I do tacitly re-promise unto God that duty which as a beneficiary I owe unto my Lord by the Law of Nature and Equity Now if I for my part perform not this my promise God for his part is disobliged from the performance of his promise of which my unfaithfulness is the cause who have broken the Covenant betwixt God and my Soul My ungraciousness is also the cause of the forfeiture of my right by Faith This is a high degree of unthankfulness 1. To God so High a Person 2. For so Great a Grace as to be his Son and Heir 3. For so Free Grace without any desert desire or motion of mine or any other only my Faith to accept it If therefore to this Great God for so great Grace so freely bestowed upon me I do not return that love honour and obedience with all my heart and with all my Soul as is due from me a Son to such a Father then this extream unthankfulness and ungraciousness of mine deprives me of that benefit which I should have received from it SECT III. From hence will flow these Consequences Mutability of Justification 1. That my state of Justification is mutable It is in it self stable and permanent it may and should be perpetual but during my Natural Life and before I die it may be defeated and destroyed I do not say It must be defeated and destroyed for the mutability of it is not necessary as is the mortality of the Body which must die But the mutability thereof is possible for as it may so it may not be defeated It may not be defeated 1. It may not be defeated For when I was made a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven this state was intended to continue to me for ever For when I am dead and dissolved into dust God still remaineth my Father and my God and Christ my Elder Brother and Co-Heir and from the dead I shall be raised to the possession of my Father's Blessing for God is not the God of the dead but of the living For as Marriages so rights of Inheritances are not temporary for term of years but of perpetuity for ever Hence the Son is said to differ from the Servant because The Servant abideth not in the House for ever John 8.35 i. e. hath no right to abide for ever but the Son abideth for ever i. e. hath right to abide for ever 2. It may be defeated It may be not defeated Gal. 2.18 Else how could I build again my first state of sinfulness which once I destroyed If therefore my state may be not destroyed it may be destroyed I find by good history and sad experience that states of perpetuity have been defeated and destroyed that many a Man which had a good Estate in Fee-simple to him and to his Heirs for ever yet by making himself a transgressor against his Lord and King hath forfeited that his Estate to him and his Heirs for ever That many a Woman who was married for life till death should depart her and her Husband yet by making her self a transgressor against her Husband hath been divorced from her Husband and lost her Husband and her Dower That many a Son who was Heir apparent to his Father's Estate yet by making himself a transgressor against his Father hath been disinherited and lost his Estate And the like is possible concerning my Estate of Justification see the Scriptures Joh. 5.14 Rom. 11.20 1 Cor. 10.12 1 Tim. 1.19 Heb. 3.12 1 Pet. 2.11 Math. 12.43 44. Heb. 6.4 Heb. 10.26 27. 2 Pet. 2.20 As also consider the examples of Aaron David Solomon c. which exhortations and examples do necessarily demonstrate the mutability of my Justification Because to a thing that is impossible there needs no Exhortation Reason or Dehortation And Because of a thing impossible it is impossible that there should be any Example The Grand Reason that my state of Justification may be defeated is because it is Conditional for though God's donation of my present right to be his Son and Heir is absolute without any condition or preceeding act on my part except it be the passive act of my Faith to accept thereof yet my future possession of that inheritance whereto I have now a present right is conditional and that condition runs upon my good behaviour of deporting my self as becomes the Son of God for this condition is sufficiently expressed in God's last Will and Testament Or supposing but not granting that in God's Testament there is no mention made of any such condition yet such a condition must be understood because the very Nature and Equity of the thing requires it And the state of a Son and Heir wherein I stand doth necessarily draw this duty along with it and so bind me thereto that for non-performance thereof my state may be destroyed Yet every trespass will not destroy it neither because God will forgive me a thousand faults upon my repentance and commands me to pray unto him therefore and promises to forgive my trespasses and commands me to forgive my Brother that repenteth though he sin against me seven times in a day nay seventy times seven times Therefore certainly he being my Father will upon my repentance forgive me more times for all the daies of my life For because I am his Son therefore I am not so much under his Law as under his Grace i. e. God will not deal rigorously and strictly with me according to Law to reject or punish me for every trespass like a Slave who is under the will and pleasure of his Lord but he will use me mercifully and kindly to correct me in measure or to forgive me like a Son who is under the love and grace of his Father But if I rise up in open rebellion against my
line upon line here a little and there a little to stir up our poor mind by way of remembrance although we are established in the present Truth and good Government to restrain from vice by penalty of Law These and such like are as I said the subordinate vulgar reasons or arguments ad hominem the causes or rather occasions of the indisposition of the Conscience in bad Men whereby the Conscience is or rather seems to be falsa Lex a false Law a false Gloss a false Instigatrix Notarie Witness and Judg cross to its Creation or rather a false Conscience or no Conscience at all There being an intercision and retardation or adulation instead of Conscience suspending the true exercise of deducting right conclusions from the premises or observing no premises nor conclusions at all But a hurrying after extream and wild passions humours and fancies and a continual course of obstinate rebellion a self-pleasing Perit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum Nothing is done wisely when all is affection or prejudice reason is clouded and Will rules Si possem sanior essem Sed trahit in vitam nova vitiorum Turba Engagements in sin desperate wadings and wallowings in licentiousness Horror and hatred of God and desperate actings against God and all goodness not caring what becomes of us Sic volo sic jubeo stat pro Ratione voluntas Non nisi per scelera ad scelera tutum est iter The CONTENTS Believe Conscience Not believe Conscience Self-Examination Forsake sin Confess sin Collections TITLE V. Of the Restitution of Conscience THe Cure of the strange and wonderful indispositions and distempers of the Soul and Conscience are from God the sole Lord of the Conscience who only understands the errors and deceits that are therein Therefore God hath left some wholesom directions which Spiritual Physicians may prescribe out of his word for the recovery of feeble Souls First therefore as to good Men They advised and required Believe Conscience To believe their own Consciences notwithstanding strong temptations to the contrary and notwithstanding bodily discomposures 1. Because temptations are lyes not Truths the instigations and allurements are in themselves evil and they tend and move to evil therefore they are not in themselves nor in their motions to be trusted I say to believe their Consciences 2. Because they are justified by Faith and sanctified by the Spirit of Truth and therefore have peace with God and are at peace with themselves and do not cannot flatter falsly to a lye because they are of the Truth and the Truth is in them 3. Because diseases and pains in the Body which occasion doubts and fears in the mind are only in the outward Man and the inward Man is not toucht at all But the Soul enjoyes intimate union and communion with God as much when the Body is afflicted more and than at any other time and exercises more Faith and Love and Patience and Hope and hath more trials and experiences of Grace and is more firmly fastned upon the Rock and foundation of Jesus Christ than at any other time The Conscience therefore when observed upon enquiry and search thereinto speaks comfortable Truth which God would have us to believe and we ought to believe it But the passions occasioned by sickness and misery speak nothing but uncomfortable lyes which the Devil would have us to believe but we ought not to believe him nor them 4. Because the natural temper and constitution of many Bodies tend to fears and sorrows in the mind by the vicinity of humours that have a kind of operation upon them Notwithstanding all which passions the Understanding is taught to remember that she hath no reason to doubt of her good condition because these griefs and terrors are no sins of hers but rather her miseries and afflictions indeed of which she hath just cause to complain and ask for a removal but not for pardon which is only proper for sin not misery 5. Because Faith in the Heart is above Sense in the Flesh And we live by Faith and not by Sense and therefore we are to believe Faith and not Sense yea to believe a bove Hope and contrary to Hope which is above Sense and contrary to sense I know not how nor I know not why in the judgment of my Flesh but this I know that he is Faithful which hath promised to give and I have promised to obey and I will trust in him and be obedient unto him though I be sometimes at a stand yet I will not let go my hold but strengthen my self and comfort my self in my God in prosperity and adversity He is my God though I feel not his comforts yet I have them and shall have them and if I want them I shall strive to be content and though I gain nothing desirable from him here yet I shall take God alone to be sufficient for me and to be my exceeding great Reward 6. Because God's Principles breed none but good conclusions Ex veris nil nisi vera sequuntur Though in my error of passion I am not able to make it out yet God shall make it out for me Many an honest Debtor is not able to make out his own dues but a just and merciful Creditor will help him and make it out for him that he shall not be a loser What therefore is wanting in me I believe God will supply and I am sure to be safe in his hands say mine own pretended Conscience and the Devil or Men of devilish Spirits what they will they may vex and perplex me and break my heart with grief but they shall never be able to destroy my Soul and Body in Hell fire For I am fully perswaded that neither height nor depth nor length nor breadth nor Life nor death nor any thing else shall be ever able to separate me from the Love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord and that being justified by Faith I have peace with God and that if God hath justified none shall condemn me no not my own Conscience which is sanctified as is my whole Soul and Body by the Spirit of God which is in me Thus an honest Heart and humble Soule is in a safe condition with God in the midst of fears and terrours occasioned by temptations arising from sickness pains and distempers of a weak Body So am I like a Ship that lives in a storm while the winds drive her and the waves run over her So to the pure all things are pure the Conscience being good all things that come from it are good and all that comes unto it shall be for good Secondly as to wicked Men their remedy is this Not believe Conscience they are advised and required 1. Not to believe their own Consciences notwithstanding strong illusions to the contrary and notwithstanding their bodily good composures and outward peace and prosperity to all things 1. Because flatteries of peace are lyes and not
shall have their Tenants to hold under them in like manner So all are knit together in the bands of Love and Peace And it is not so in the Church of God One Lord one Faith Eph. 4.5 6. one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all One Body one Spirit one hope of our Calling keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace SECT XVII But I suppose much fault is found with those old Lombards Object for introducing this barbarous Constitution in making Kings the Absolute Lords of all Lands and Persons in their Kingdoms and call this Tyranny in the Prince and slavery in the Subject and so disliked by Christians as an unfitting Tenure for them who are the free People of God and therefore not to be slaves and Vassals to the will of any Besides they will say It is more honourable and agreeable to the Law of God Nature and Nations that every one should have an absolute propriety in his own Estate and be able to dispose of it at his own free will and pleasure I answer This kind of subjection in fee to earthly Kings Answ is no impeachment of true Liberty which is consistent with good Laws and very agreeable with the Laws of God which enjoin obedience for conscience sake Nor are the free People of God infringed of their Spiritual liberty though they were brought into thraldom amongst Men as the Israelites were Let every Man abide in the same calling wherein he was called 1 Cor. 7.10 c. Art thou called being a Servant care not for it but if thou mayest be made free use it rather for he that is called in the Lord being a Servant is the Lord's free-man likewise also he that is called being free is Christ's Servant Ye are bought with a price be not ye the Servants of Men Brethren let every Man wherein he is called therein abide with God 1 Cor. 9.29 Though I be free from all Men yet have I made my self Servant unto all that I might gain the more And for the honourable Tenure of Absolute propriety to be in every one it is so indeed as they say honourable But if so what then more honour could the King himself have but only that he hath or should have a greater Estate than the rest And if so many of his Subjects would come up very near him and all others care little for him being for what they enjoy as good every whit as himself and would not this puff up But as to this the Subjects of the World have brought it to that pass that they have in a manner their desires and will be as much Kings of their own Estates as the King himself is God bless him by the Grace of God For however it was from the Custom of the Lombards which was the Custom of the Goths and Vandals and however it ought to be where those Customs were made fundamental Laws yet it is manifest that the great Contesters for liberty have shaken off that yoke of Norman as we or Northern bondage as they call it and yet made themselves never the freer nor happier by it but rather more slavish and miserable which now they patiently and deservedly endure and are silent upon it because they have their wills and brought it upon themselves And much good may do them with it they knew not when they were well and God knows when they will be better It is rather feared that by farther departure from this antient Tenure they will make themselves worse and worse for thereby they are more and more rebellious and thereby make themselves and their Posterity more and more miserable running so long from seeming bondage till they unavoidably plunge themselves really into it The Name only of Fee is retained but the Nature of the thing is quite and clean lost And a Fee-simple as they call it though that be a contradiction in adjecto is an Allodium with them Yet for all this though the People had gotten Liberty to themselves indeed by shaking off the yoke of their Fore-Fathers yet still the constitution of the Lombards was good And supposing their Lords as they then prov'd and might have been so still to be no Tyrants and their Tenants no Rebels as they were not and had no cause to be The Lords had love from their Tenants and their Tenants love to them and they enjoy'd their Liberty and their Lands were sure to them and to their heirs if no Rebellion made a forfeit But now the World is grown prouder it should seem since they have grown more learned and those plain Rules of Honesty Love and Obedience are despised But even in this their wisedoms are befooled and they forsake their own mercy and lose the benefit of that peace and quietness they might enjoy for a humour of self-will and a shadow of that darling Liberty infinitely mistaken in the World and will not have it be otherwise grutching Kings their power to their own woe and the People delight to have it so For all this specious pretence of Liberty it will not out of my Mind but that as there is no less Freedom so there is much more love and safety in this Constitution and more obligation to unity than in any other Where the Common Lord is a common Father to his Tenants who are all fed and taught by him and brought up together to love and honour him Whereas other models he that is an Absolute Proprietary is not a Child at all to his Prince nor so much a Subject as he that is a Feudatary nor is the Prince so much Supreme as others are nor likely to have so much love and duty as others have whose Subjects have their whole dependency and wel-being from them SECT XVIII It is apparent that by this change of Fees into Absolute Estates though it be very good in it self and agreeable with the Natural Liberty and old Roman Laws yet it is not so safe for general preservation according to the Covenant for mutual peace And thereby the Prince hath not the power he had or should have nor the Subjects that love and duty they had or should have but daily encroachments rush one upon another and cut in sunder the antient Bands of Faith and True Allegiance make the Prince a Tyrant and the Subject a Rebel or at least the Prince though just must be forc'd to rule by the Sword because the Subjects by being wanton with peace plenty and priviledges do spurn against his power and rebel against his Person Surely if right Judgment would be taken a Liege Lord of a Fee is no Tyrant and a Vassal in Fee is no slave For a Slave is no person in Law and hath nothing nor can he do any thing in Law so is not a Feudatary or Liege Man Well however Supreme Lords fail of their Lordships and Vassals of their duty in Temporal Kingdoms in this Spiritual
Prince though it were possible for him to fulfil his whole Law exactly And therefore the Prince can be a Debtor to no Subject but as he is pleased to make himself so by his free and gracious Promise which gives him to whom th Promise was made a right by grace which by works he could not have Yet God and Princes who have power perfectly to oblige their Subjects do confer good things upon those that obey their Commands to stir up their readiness to obey not as Rewards due but as Free gifts promised The Reason is Because those things which I perfectly owe to another he to whom they are due from me hath already a right unto them so that if I do them properly I part with nothing of that to which for the present I have a right because if I withhold my duty or deny it to him to whom it is due I do him wrong because the right of that office is no longer mine but his to whom I am obliged and therefore if I do what I should do there can be no place left for any Merit at all But when without any perfect obligation on my part I do what I do to another that right which issues from me accrues to him and leaves me a right to be had from him upon whom I did bestow as much work as did countervail the wages he gave me and this is Merit If this Merit be expresly stipulated for it is called Wages if it be left for the manner time quantity and quality thereof to the free will and equity of the Donor it is called a Reward which is either corporeal as Mony Cattel Fields Houses Houshold goods c. or incorporeal as Immunities Priviledges Honours c. Supererogation So that a Merit is a kind of work of Supererogation issuing from our own free will more than we need to do and of which we may glory and for which we may expect thanks And this being a grace to God or man must of necessity destroy the grace of God or man as if they were the better for us When the contrary is most true that we are the better for them and so they merit of us in this case and not we of them at all And therefore all School Disputes of Merits on mans part are but idle talk If there were any such thing as Merit in us Then first we should be the better for doing that good which we were never obliged to do and God should be the better for that good which he could never exact from us But this is absurd SECT I. Demerit On the contrary a Demerit is the Non-performance of a work which is due to another or to which a right on our part should compel us and the Party to whom it is not done had a right to compel us to the doing of the same but we would not do it Therefore all mortal men do demerit many things at Gods hands when they are obliged to obey his Laws and do not and therefore all men are debtors to God and do demerit against him by their evil works Therefore all mortal men do demerit many things at the hand of Princes when they are obliged to obey their Laws and do not and therefore are debtors to their Prince and do demerit against them by their evil works In all Demerits or sins against another there are two things The defect it self or distance from the Rule of the Law according to the execution or intention thereof and the loss accruing thereby to the Law-maker directly or indirectly The Party therefore that demerits or sins is accountable to the Lawmaker for the sin it self or the breach of his Law and for the loss that accrues to him thereby For both which he is bound to suffer punishment commensurable to the offence of the Law and to the loss or damage received thereby And therefore every mortal man is a debtor to God to satisfie for his sin against his Law and for the damage to speak after the manner of men which he received thereby by repentance and amendment and sufficient caution if it could be to do so no more These things may and do hold in Foro humano but how they can or do hold in Foro divino I confess I do not understand And therefore I break off this discourse abruptly what I have said already is come hardly from me and the rest is altogether out of my reach Only this I think I may say That Feudal Subjects can do no more than is due and therefore cannot merit but may do less than is due and therefore do demerit The effect of their work in coming up to the Rule of Feudal Law is their virtue and the benefit if any may be said to be to the Law-maker is their reward But the defect of their work in coming short to the rule of the Feudal Law is their sin and the damage if any may be said to be is their punishment And as every Merit supposeth a work of Supererogation undue and uncommanded and therefore is not imputable to any but to them that do it for the vertue or for the reward thereof So every Demerit supposeth a work of Supererogation unrequired and unforbidden and therefore is not imputable to any but to them that commit it for the vice or for the punishment thereof And therefore as it is contrary to nature Rewards and Punishments for any one to be rewarded for that good deed which cannot be imputed unto him because he never did it so it is contrary to nature for any one to be punished for that evil deed which cannot be imputed unto him because he never committed it For as by Rewards men are encouraged to vertue and the reward ought to be distributed upon the consideration of the good deed so by Punishments men are deterred from vice and the punishment ought to be inflicted upon the consideration of the evil deed And as none are properly capable of the rewards but those persons that have done the vertue as the cause of those rewards so none are properly capable of the punishments but those persons that have committed the sin as the cause of those punishments Therefore as the pleasure and profit of the Reward is properly due by merit to him who acted or concurred to the good done So the grief or disprofit of the Punishment is properly due by demerit to him who acted or concurred to the evil committed So Children are not properly rewarded by Merit when their Father for his vertue is invested with the Fee And Children are not properly punished by Demerit when their Father for his vice is devested of the Fee Because as in that respect Children are not directly rewarded with the investiture of that right which was not properly their own So neither are Children in that respect directly punished with the devestiture of that right which was not properly their own But only by consequence both they are rewarded
are so by generation to their Parents The one must be rightly chosen the other rightly begotten The one may be disfranchized and lose their right of Tenure the other may be disinherited and lose their right of succession By Marriage is not only the generation of the World in the kingdoms of Men but the Regeneration of the Church in the kingdom of God By carnal Marriage there is a just off-spring to be the Sons of Men. By Spiritual Marriage there is a just off-spring to be the Sons of God Devil an Enemy to Marriage For this cause the Devil being a King of the kingdom of Darkness is the greatest promoter of the works of Darkness of which Incestuous and Adulterous lusts are not the least The Devil therefore is and ever hath been and ever will be a very great enemy to Marriage because that tends to a lawful generation towards a holy Seed to increase the kingdom of God but the contrary tends to an unlawful brood towards a prophane Seed to increase the kingdom of the Devil The Devil is the Father of ill begotten Children of Lies God is the Father of right begotten Children of Truth Great Commands under the Law against Uncleanness and promiscuous Conjunctions of the Body much more purity is required under the Gospel both of Soul and Body SECT II. Excellent Civil Laws for Marriage In Civil kingdoms great care hath been taken for the honour and preservation of Marriages and that for many rare ends and mighty reasons of State but more especially amongst the Romans who gave great encouragements thereunto and priviledges to fruitful procreations denying many honours and benefits to haters of or abstainers from lawful marriage To this end they made most excellent Laws in veneration of this honourable state and in detestation of all Incestuous and Spurious broods whereby they counted their noble Roman blood to be defiled and their old Heroick spirits debased That Sacred bond they generally kept inviolable and those that dared to break it by Divorce preventing death were counted infamous in the highest degree as Tully that great man who is upbraided and that deservedly for putting away the Companion of his youth his Wife with whom he had grown old and superinducing another into her place Such an Example of him and one or two more had not been seen in the Commonwealth of Rome for many Ages before or after To the great shame of such as make it a common practice and farther to vilifie the Sacred ordinance and Institution of God himself In order to just Marriage and as a Solemn preparation thereunto Espousals fair Espousals ought to precede which are no more than the mention and serious resolution of future Marriage 1. The original of Marriage in respect of the Institution thereof Originals of Marriage Gen. 2.22 c. Math. 19.5 is Jure divino 2. The original of Marriage in respect of the Instinct of Corporal conjunction is Jure Naturali L. 1. Sect. 3. ff de Inst Jure 3. The original of Marriage in respect of the Consent of Wills is as other Contracts are Ex Jure Civili L. 5. ff eod 4. The original of Marriage in respect of the Solemnities thereof and Prohibitions of degrees are Ex Jure Civili Inst de Nuptiis SECT III. Marriage as the Emperour Justinian defines it Definitions of Marriage Is the conjunction of a Man and a Woman containing an inseparable acquaintance and familiarity of the whole life of them both Sect. 1. Inst 12. Marriage as the Lawyer modestly defines it L. 1. ff de Eitu Nupt. Is the Conjunction of a Male and a Female The Company of the whole life the Communication of Divine and Human Rights In which are many things remarkable As 1. First Marriage is a Conjunction but for the honour of it of minds and affections rather than of Bodies Siquidem Nuptias non concubitus facit sed Consensus For says the Law modestly It is Consent not Copulation that makes Marriages 2. Secondly Marriage is of Male and Female because between more than two at one and the same time it cannot be Gen. 3. Math. 22. 3. Thirdly Marriage is a Consent because the Wife is the Companion of life and for life and Matrimony is the foundation of all Society and by the Civil Law admits no Separation of the Bed undefiled stante Matrimonio while the Marriage is in hope 4. Fourthly Marriage is the Communication of divine and humane Right because God is the Author of Marriage and both the married Couple ought to be of the same religion and devotion to the same God and partakers of the benefits of the same Laws Quia Mariti uxor fortunam Domicilium forum sequitur ejus hominibus decoratur ejus genere nobilitatur privilegiis personalibus gaudet nisi post mariti mortem viro inferioris conditionis nubat Because the Wife follows the fortune family and jurisdiction of her husband is adorned by his Honours ennobled by his Stock rejoyceth in his personal priviledges except after the death of her husband she marries with a husband of inferior quality Effects of Marriage So from just marriages proceed a just Father and Mother to distinguish from a natural Father and Mother So from just marriages proceed just Children to distinguish them from natural Children uncertain and vulgarly derived from the people they know not from whom So Inheritances of honours and estates descend lineally to a direct Issue of true Parents lawfully begotten and to their heirs for ever SECT IV. Who may lawfully marry 1. They that married by the Roman Law must be Citizens and Quirites of Rome not Slaves nor Latins nor Deportati nor Strangers as Cleopatra was to Mark Antony and Titus to Berenice both Egyptians matches very ill resented by the State Nor might the Nobles intermix with the Plebeians by the Law of the twelve Tables 2. They must be ripe of age and fit for Generation 3. They must be free to consent and in their right minds not fools nor mad men and a Matrimony caused by just fear or force was none at all 4. They must not marry without the consent of their Parents first had and obtained as long as they are under their power 5. Amongst Christians they must be promulgated and blessed by the Church 6. Lastly they must be confined within the limits of lawful Degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity to prevent incestuous and nefarious mixtures For this purpose the Jews and Romans and other civiliz'd Nations had respect to Tables of Consanguinity and Affinity for the regulation of wandring and the prohibition of too near approaching lusts Members of Christs Church Just generations of men All the Members of Christ's Church and Kingdom are sprung from Adam and Eve that were married by God The Generations of Men have broken and intangled their lives by excursions from lawful beds stopping the never to be interrupted courses of Blood and letting