Love we are to become all Things to all Men and bear all Things rather than rend and divide the Church by nefarious and lewd Schism Ungodly Christians considered as Ungodly are not Christians and Members of the Church But Ungodly Christians considered not as Ungodly but as Christians are a sort of Christians and Church-Members and are not meer Heathens and Persons without They are of the Church and yet they are not the Church Rom. 9.6 5. Loyalty is a Fundamental in Religion as without which human Society cannot subsist and no human Society no Religion Human Society cannot subsist without some to Rule and some to be Ruled If the Ruled may resist and rise in Rebellion against their lawful Rulers set over them by God Mankind is no longer a Society but a Rout and a Foundation is laid for endless War Desolation and Confusion of all Things The Nature of a Fundamental in Religion is to expel its Contrary as Light doth Darkness As then no Man can in the same Instant be both Godly and Ungodly So can no Man in the same Instant be both Loyal and Disloyal Loyalty is not Loyalty unless it be so out of Conscience either Natural and Common such as may be in Heathens and Men not Regenerate or Supernatural and Special such as is in the Regenerate He that is only Loyal out of Self-ends and for Worldly Interest is not Loyal before God. Human Law considered as Human cannot bind the Conscience But considered as subservient to the Divine Law so it is in a large Sense Divine and as Divine it binds the Conscience For all that lies in us we are to live peaceably with all Men. Yet where the Thing enacted and enjoyned is not intrinsecally necessary to the publick Good there a Man hath his choice whether to do the thing or to pay the Penalty In no case may we resist Authority Supream and Subordinate In no case may we obey Man against God. Therefore when no way is left but either we must Suffer or Sin we must patiently and meekly Suffer and lay down our Lives rather than resist or allow the least Sin. CHAP. XII Of Original Sin the state of Infants and their Baptism 1. AS to Life Temporal there are in the Soul Habits distinct from Act and by frequent Acts Men get a Habit. But as to Eternity there is no such Distinction For the Soul as being a spiritual and immortal Substance is the Image of God and is therefore ever in act invisibly From the time that it is first formed in the Womb it ceaseth not to live a Life differing in kind from Brutes and while in the Body is still upon its way to Eternity and either it is Godly and so in the way to Heaven and invisibly active for God or it is Ungodly and so in the way to Hell and invisibly active against him 2. If God shall give unto Adam after his Fall Children by natural Generation and shall not also give them inward heavenly Grace and supernatural Regeneration it is most certain that inwardly and invisibly they will be Graceless and Unregenerate As Graceless and Unregenerate they are Unholy dead in Sin and full of enmity against God and so dying it is above me to prove that they have not in them the never-dying Worm This Original Sin in Infants is neither from God nor from Adam nor from their immediate Parents but it is wholly from themselves inwardly and unsearchably neither by natural necessity nor after the similitude of Adam's Transgression Rom. 5.14 but by legal Necessity Which is a sort of Necessity innocently and unsearchably permitted by God but not willed by him and is not avoidable by either Parents or Children without supernatural Grace in Christ Jesus Even as ungodly grown Men in their Sleep while their Sleep lasteth are unavoidably and inexcusably ungodly 3. The adequate ground of Hope concerning the whole Off-spring of Adam is Divine Election in Christ Jesus If we bottom it not entirely upon this we must needs bottom it upon Reprobation there being no middle or third imaginable Elect and Reprobate as Godly and Ungodly divide all the World. And to bottom Hope of Salvation upon Reprobation is to destroy Hope All the Infants of Godly Parents both or one dying in meer Infancy we may well think are elect and saved as a Part of that holy Catholick Church which consists of the Elect in all Ages And of this Baptism to me seems to be a sacred Sign and Seal 1 Pet. 3.21 Ungodly Christians as hath been said considered not as Ungodly but as Christians are a sort of Christians and not meer Heathens The Infants of such being brought unto us by the Parents or some other Christian in their stead themselves being reasonably letted with desire to have them baptised I conceive it is our Duty as we are Christ's Ministers in Obedience to his Command Mat. 28.19 20. Well suiting with the Grounds of Faith the approved Practice of the Church before Christ's Incarnation the Words and Example of Christ touching Infants Mark. 10.13 14 15 16. and the Practice of the Apostles in baptizing Housholds to baptize there Infants And if they shall be taken away in meer Infancy by Death we may well think that they also are Elect and Saved and that of such also is the Kingdom of God. Though the Parents have not Godly Sincerity yet a sort of Sincerty they have and they do really and not dissemblingly desire Baptism for their Infants and are truly glad of it Either some Infants are eternally elect and endued with the Holy Ghost savingly or not If yea can any Man forbid Water that these should not be baptized which are eternally elect and endued with the Holy Ghost savingly as well as grown Men Act. 10.47 48. If not then all Infants are eternally reprobate and damned the Infant Jesus not excepted Isa 42.1 Luk. 1.35 4. The Contempt of Baptism is damnable in the Contemners but Infants cannot contemn it Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 1.17 The Gospel that is Life eternal through Faith in Christ is simply necessary for all Persons in all Places at all Times from the Fall of Adam to the End of the World But so is not Baptism If the Person die inwardly holy and regenerate as he may though not baptized he is undoubtedly saved 5. If the baptized Infant be not inwardly holy and regenerate as all are not then I conceive it is not in a State of Salvation it is not set free from Guilt eternal yet is its Baptism as ordained of God and dispensed by his Minister neither Nullity nor Mockery but a Divine Bond Oath and Covenant laid upon the Infant to be what all the Off-spring of Adam by God's Law indispensably are bound to be truly holy and God's faithful Servant Either its Regeneration is future or it is not If yea then Baptism is a sure Pledg Seal and Token that it is future If
but to our Faith inwardly For the Opposition is not between Spiritual and Material but between Spiritual and Carnal 1 Cor. 3.1 and 9.11 Rom. 15.27 Spiritual Invisible and Eternal Things are incomparably and transcendently Material they are the Matters of God and of greatest Consequence and Importance to our Souls through Faith. The Soul is not the Form of Man but the Body is the Form of Man and the Soul is the quickening Life and Spirit In beholding a Corpse and dead Man we behold the Form and Appearance of Man but we do not behold the Soul. The Soul is the Image of God and therefore it cannot consist in a dead Form. Rom. 2.20 2 Tim. 3.5 4. Soul and Body are truly distinct as Principal and Instrumental the inward and the outward Man but they are not two essential and compounding Parts of Man. For Man is the Image of God who being without Parts and Composition so must needs be his Image As all in God is God so all in the Image of God is the Image of God. Every Man as to his natural Substance is simply a Man and not a Brute and therefore he must needs be uncompounded For to be simply a Man and yet compounded is a Contradiction Indeed the Body by it self consists of many Parts It will not therefore follow that it is onely one Part of Man. For if it be one only it is not many Gal. 3.16 As to Life Eternal the Soul is the Man not as excluding the Body but the Welfare of the Body is bound up in the Eternal Welfare of the Soul. If the Soul be safe all is safe If that be lost all is lost and the Man is undone for ever As to Life Temporal the Body is the Man not as excluding the Soul but as it is in and by the Body that Man doth visibly live and converse on Earth as a Man and not a Brute and the Body being dead the Man is dead as to this present Life And therefore not one Part of Christ but Christ Himself in respect of his Body was crucified dead buried and lay in the Grave Come see the place where the Lord lay Mat. 28.6 5. Every Artificial Image of Christ as God is an Idol and every Artificial Image of Christ as Man is Superstition and if adored then it is Idolatry Christ as Man is holy and Holiness may not be set forth by a dead Image or Picture Only holy Men and Women in this World as holy are the Image of Christ as he is Man. Rom. 8.29 Any other Image of Christ as Man is a lie and not the Image of Christ Christ is truly a Man but withal a special Man differing in kind from all other Men because he only is by miraculous Conception in the Womb of a Virgin He only is the Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World He only as Man is exalted at God's right Hand above all both Angels and Men They may be set forth by an Artificial Image or Picture but so may not Christ as Man. The only true setting forth of Christ as Man is by the Word and Sacraments through Faith because as Man he differs in specie in kind from all other Men. CHAP. XI Of the Church and Commonwealth 1. THE Holy Catholick Church which we believe as distinct from the elect Angels consists of the whole number of God's Elect in all Ages not as exclusive of what is good and commendable in Hypocrites Hereticks Apostates and Heathens but as liking and loving all that is good and lovely in whomsoever This Church began in penitent Adam and Eve they two were the first Church of the redeemed Upon the increase and multiplication of new Converts and Souls regenerate more were added to the Church successively like as when an Infant is born into the World there is one more added to the Society of Mankind Acts 2.47 The Apostles Commission was not to make a new Church differing in substance from what had been before and was in being at the time of Christ's Ascension but to preserve that Church which he left on Earth and by Apostolical Preaching and Endeavours to enlarge and add to it and so to make Jew and Gentile one in Christ Jesus Outward Variations suited to the Exegencies of the Church in its Militant State do not alter the intrinsecal Nature Essence and Unity of the Church which is the same for substance in all Ages But because Abel is the first who died in Faith and of whose Righteousness there is express mention therefore the Holy Catholick Church is fitly reckoned from him 2. The Church and Commonwealth are not two independent Societies but the Church as such is a holy Commonwealth simply dependent upon God through Christian Faith as to Life eternal And upon the Prince as sole Supream under God over all in his Dominions as to Life Temporal and Coercive rule by the Sword. Look as Homo being a Man includes Animal being a Living Creature So the Church includes human Society as being nothing but Mankind sanctified by Faith in Christ The Power and Authority of Christ as Man exalted at God's right Hand over all is simply dependent upon God And therefore all the Power and Authority of the Church must needs be simply dependent ministerial and subordinate and whatsoever Church claims to it self Power simply independent by that very claim it is proved to be Anti-christian that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition who exalts himself above God and above the Prince his Vice-gerent on Earth 2 Thess 2.3 4. 3. The Church is not two Universal and Particular Invisible and Visible but the Church is simply one as God is one admitting of just Conception but no Division It is one Whole or Universal as comprizing all the Parts But one Whole or Universal as distinct from all the Parts is only Notion and Conceit as a Man in the Moon or Castle in the Air a meer Chimera We see those Men and Women who are the Church Militant but that which makes them the Church Militant we do not see but believe The Church is plain and manifest to those who believe as the Sun at Noon-day is to seeing Men But he who believeth not makes God a Lyar 1 Joh. 5.10 and God being made a Lyar the Church must needs be made a Lyar too 4. It will not stand with Christian Faith Hope and Love to live divided in Heart and Conversation from any the least Member of Christ and true Christian who is evidently and apparently so so far as Man can judg We cannot be more holy than God more pure then Christ Whom he receives we are to receive or we cannot expect to be received by him The Communion of Saints is an Article of Faith unalterably fixed by God as to the substance of it and it consists in Christian Faith Hope and Love These are to the Church and every Member thereof what the Soul is to the Body But saving Christian Faith Hope and
Omniscient which only God is Finally it is a Point of Faith and the very sum of the Bible that since the Fall of Man all Religious Approach to God is to be in and through Christ only They which do otherwise are guilty of flat Idolatry CHAP. XV. Of the Scripture 1. THough heavenly Truth was not put into Writing outwardly till the time of Moses yet was it from the beginning supernaturally written in the Heart of Adam in Innocency and being extinguished by his Fall it was renewed in him in saving measure by heavenly Regeneration after his Fall and by this way kept safe in the inward Records of the Heart and transmitted unto the time of Moses When he by divine Appointment and Inspiration did first put heavenly Truth into writing outwardly this did not alter the intrinsecal nature of it For heavenly Truth as written in the Heart and in the Bible is but one and the same Truth diversly written perfectly in the Bible truly but not perfectly in the Heart of Man since the Fall and the entrance of Sin into the World. 2. Whether all the Books of the Old and New Testament as we reckon them be Canonical Scripture and whether every Word and Sentence therein be exactly translated this is not matter of Divine Belief nor doth Salvation lie on it so as to damn all that err herein but it is matter of human Science and Testimony as subservient to Divine Belief Human Science and Testimony considered as repugnant to Divine Belief is not Science and Testimony but a Lie Considered as subservient vient to Divine Belief so it is in a large sense truly divine and as divine it is infallible And thus the Scripture is the supream Judg and adequate Standard in Controversies of Faith. The sum of the Scripture is Repentance and Remission of Sins through Faith in Christ according to the eternal Purpose of God the Father not incarnate the Son incarnate the Holy Ghost not incarnate This is alâ— saving Evidence in one not as exclusive of things subservient but as supposing and comprizing them 3. With respect to Life Temporal and Human Converse Words are not Things but signs of Mens inward Thoughts and the great Arbiter of Speech is Use quem penes arbitrium est jus norma loquendi With respect to Life eternal and heavenly Conversation by Faith Words are Things and therefore we are commanded to hold fast the form of sound Words and Christ saith By thy Words thou shalt be justified and by thy Words thou shalt be condemned God hath set us a Standard for all our Words unto which none may add from which none may diminish under pain of Damnation The great Mystery of Godliness is The Word was made Flesh Joh. 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 Rev. 22.18 19. Mat. 12.37 2 Tim. 1.13 Indeed where there is an agreement in Substance diversity in Speech for Peace-sake is to be born with But there can be no agreement in Substance without the Scripture as the sole supream Judg and perfect Standard as to all things concerning the Glory of God and the eternal Salvation of the Soul. If we go from this we shall not know where to fix a Foundation is laid for infinite proceeding and so for Atheism and Confusion of all things 4. There are who write that all Words that Man can speak of God at least except Being and Substance are improper or metaphorical But certainly this is a great Error For tho God be above all our Words and Expressions yet he is not above and contrary to Himself he cannot be the Author of Sin he is not God improperly and metaphorically God is good and there are good Angels and Men both these are true and proper But in the sense that God is good essentially independently inderivatively the Author of all Good so none is good but God Every Creature as dependent on God is good and useful to his Glory and the Salvation of his Elect by Christ But the whole Creation as compared with God is as nothing it is less than nothing and Vanity Isa 40.17 18. All Words importing Excellency and Perfection and no way importing Imperfection and Impiety do agree to God simply incomparably transcendently eternally infinitely most truly really and properly and not at all to Angels and Men as compared with God. Dat propriae similem translata metaphora vocem Things heavenly and eternal may be set forth by worldly and temporal Similitudes But so that things heavenly and eternal are the Standard Judex sui obliqui Thus Christ's Flesh as eaten by Faith is Meat indeed and his Blood as drunk by Faith is Drink indeed not metaphorical rhetorical verbal improper and imaginary Food but most real heavenly solid substantial divine transcendent incomparably excellent and eternal Food for the Soul and all worldly and temporal Food for the Body as compared with and repugnant to it is not Food at all but Dung Loss and Damnation eternal but as subservient to it it is true and proper Food for the Body God's good Creature and worthy of Thanksgiving 5. The Fountain-cause of so much doleful Contention among Christians touching Religion is their leaving the Simplicity that is in Christ and guiding themselves by that Philosophy and School-Sophistry which the Scripture calls vain Deceit 2 Cor. 11.3 Col. 2.8 Philosophy considered as subservient to Life Eternal by Faith in Christ is not Philosophy but Christianity largely taken Philosophy considered as repugnant to Life Eternal by Faith in Christ is damnable Impiety the Mother of Herefy and Division that Wisdom which is from beneath which is earthly sensual and devilish Philosophers as such treat of Godâ— of Man of Being of Truth of Good of Unity of Vertue of Nature of Relation of what not not as Christians but as Philosophers not by the Light of Faith in Christ but by the Light of Nature which in Points of Faith is very Darkness And so the whole Doctrine of Philosophers as such is false a meer Building without a Foundation Because Christ is the first and the last in all true Knowledg as being God the Son incarnate and God is All in All. This Philosophers as such be ignorant of and do not build Science upon Christ the sole Foundation of Science by Faith 1 Cor. 3.11 and so they err in the Foundation and all the Science of Philosophers as such is false Science repugnant to Faith in Christ CHAP. XVI Containing a Confutation of sundry Errors held by too many School-men Philosophers and Divines of all Parties by which Controversies are kept up and perpetuated Error 1. THE Man Christ is God in the Concrete but not the Manhood of Christ in the Abstract Before the Incarnation Christ was simple uncompounded impartial and but one Nature After Incarnation he is not simple but compounded and consisteth of two distinct Natures as two essential Parts Confutation The Man Christ is indeed God yet not as he is Man And the Manhood of Christ