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-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
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
be had An open Door is the necessities and willingness of the People with protection or connivance of the Magistrate if possible 3. In Ordination God in Christ confers the whole Office as principal and supream by his Word And the Person or Persons ordaining confer the whole Office as instrumental and subordinate Therefore it is not in the power of Men to ordain whom and how they please because they ordain not as Lords but as Stewards they have no power touching this matter but what is simply ministerial subordinate and dependent If therefore God's Word for substance do not go along with the Ordination it is null and void and the same holds good as to Suspending Degrading Silencing and Prohibiting of Ministers from doing the Ministerial Work. Every Minister to be ordained ought to be a faithful Man and able to teach others also 2 Tim. 2.1 For which cause those unto whom it pertaineth to ordain and impose Hands ought to use all possible Care and Circumspection and to lay Hands suddenly on none without due Exploration He may be a valid and justly authorized Minister who is not truly Godly And yet he that is not truly godly can have no sound Comfort in his Ministry as being in a state of Damnation his Ministry may profit others tho not himself But yet all Care is to be used that Persons to be ordained be truly godly so far as Man can judg and that also they be able to teach the People and by good Doctrine guide Souls in the way to Heaven 4. No Power on Earth may impose a Minister upon a People against their just liking For what is against Justice is against God. And no People may refuse a Minister tho unjustly imposed on them when they cannot without general inconvenience and hazard of the publick Peace remedy themselves For of two Evils the lesser is to be chosen Provided the imposed Minister be Orthodox and not Heretiâ—â—â— tolerable and competently able for the Work in some measure But Heretical Schismatical Idolatrous and Wolvish Pastors and Ministers the People are bound to forsake and turn from Where Ministers Residence is necessary by Divine Law there no Law of Man can dispense with it Where it is not necessary by Divine Law there needs no Human Dispensation and the exacting of Money in such case is unrighteous Gain The principal Work of Ministers and the substance of so much Church-order and Discipline as is incumbent on them as Ministers to perform and see to consists in labouring in the Word and Doctrine in preaching the Gospel in giving heed to Doctrine to Exhortation to Reproof to Admonition and Instruction publickly privately in season out of season Where this is not the substance of the Ministerial Work and Discipline is wanting Where this is all the rest will easily follow so much as is necessary and what is not necessary is better forborn 5. The Church is no Church of God unless she have just respect to time and place for publick Worship and she is equally no Church before God if she prefer time and place and bare assembling for publick Worship before Christian Faith Hope and Love and Edification therein As the Sabbath so Time and Place were made for Man and not Man for them And therefore the Church is to meet in one two or three or more places at the same time according as it shall be for Edification And look as it is a good Argument for Infant Baptism the Primitive Patern is baptizing whole Housholds and therefore in baptizing Infants we keep to the Primitive Patern Infants being a necessary part of Housholds So I should think it a good Argument against the Congregationalists The Primitive Patern was that all the Christians in a City be one Church particular and therefore if now every Christian City be one particular Church tho the Christians in it are so many as to make a hundred or two hundred Congregations at the fame time the Primitive Patern is kept Act. 14.23 Tit. 1.5 It is not the place which make the Church but the Church makes the place Every Christian Nation as such is a Church governed invisibly by God through Christian Faith according to the Scripture and governed visibly by the Prince as sole Supream under God over all in his Dominions by the Sword. Tho God do make use of Pastors and Ministers in the guiding and governing of his Church yet he himself is sole Lord over the Couscience and only his Voice is to be heard in the Church and Pastors and Ministers have no Authority but what is Temporal and yet it differs in kind from the Authority of the Prince and Magistrate The Church Militant consists of Mortal Men and Mortal Men can have no Authority Immortal and Eternal Pastors die no less than Princes CHAP. XVIII Of Death Judgment Heaven and Hell everlastingly 1. IF Sin had not been Death had not been and yet Death unto Elect Men through Faith in Christ is rather Life than Death as being through God's Grace the way and passage to Life Everlasting They die who die eternally But they who by Death pass into eternal Joy immediately in respect of their Souls and whose Bodies rest and as it were sleep in the Grave till the Morning of the Resurrection and then shall awake and be raised glorious immortal spiritual like the glorious Body of Christ may be said rather to live than die 2. The Resurrection of the wicked is truly from the Merit and purchase of Christ and specially the Resurrection of the Just The Resurrection as in it self is a Priviledg and Blessing That it proves otherwise to the Wicked is from themselves not from Christ As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 3. As Heaven is it into which Christ ascended when he left this World so it is a proper place created and made by God distinct from Earth and Hell. As Heaven means the Saints everlasting Rest prepared for them from before the Foundation of the World so it is not a place but a state of Felicity and Joy above both Time and Place and all that Man's Heart can now conceive yet not repugnant and contrary to Time and Place For it is God himself as enjoyed in eternal Blessedness Hence it follows that the Spuls of the Godly by Death do all of them pass into eternal Happiness immediately For eternal Happiness not being a place but a state and the Godly by Death passing into Eternity there can be no imaginable instant in which they are not with God in eternal Felicity Only they do innocently long for the Resurrection and rejoyce in the sure hope thereof Psal 16.9 10.11 With respect to the Eye of Sense outwardly the Triumphant State of Christ began not till he rose from the Dead and it was compleated by his Ascension and fitting at the Right-hand of God in Glory With respect to the Eye of Faith inwardly his Triumphant State began