God over and toward these persons no ways clasht with his general purposes of mens ends according to their believing and obeying or disobedience to God in Christ before mentioned The two former being particular purposes perhaps only of temporal destructions for their persâ— wickednesses or at the highest judiâ— purposes of their final estates upon 〈◊〉 foresight or consideration of and with â—â—spect unto their abuses of Gods grace aâ— goodness which yet he purposed accoâ—â—ing to the counsel of his Will to theâ— because it was in his Power and Choâ— whether to make them examples anâ— instances of his severity in resolving theâ— destruction upon the account of their forepast sins or to have purposed further patience and grace to them for the rescuing them from the ways of sin unto salvation as the latter may speak of it intimately it being not so much a purpose of their end peremptorily and absolutely decreed to those persons I suppose as a purpose or rather a dispensation oâ— grace to dispose and order them to oâ— for such an end as he hath purposed to those that believe SECT 5. Of the distinction of Gods Purposes into Respective and Irrespective GOds purposes of mens ends then appear to be not irrespective and previous to the consideration of their way and works but respective to them as rewards for of Gods purposes some aâ—â— Irrespective and some Respective Respective I say not only to men as their object nor only to Christ in whom Gen. 3.15 16 17 c. and with respect to whose undertakings some things yea all that follow thereupon are purposed but with respect also to something veiwed or foreseen in men to Isa 48.3 4 5 6 7 8. and concerning whom they are purposed foreseen I say and so respected either as occasions of or apt dispositions to or meritorious causes of the things purposed with respect to them According to this distinction God did absolutely and irrespectively purpose the Creation of the World and all things therein The Creation of man in a good condition the leaving him to his liberty to obey or disobey his Law purposed also to be given him So the giving forth of Christ and preparing him to be a meet Saviour for us and the preventing men with his grace more or less clearly through him according to his good pleasure were purposed in some consideration irrespectively for though they had respect to the sin and fall and misery of man thereby as occasioning a need of those things yet as to any works of righteousness found in men or to be found in men as deserving them or as preparing and disposing men to such salvation to be wrought in and by Christ for them and for grace to call them they were irrespective But then Gods purposes of hardning rejecting and condemning this or that man were respective and lookt upon them as sinning against his grace and truth rejecting his Son and refusing him as deseâ—ving and rendring them worthy suâ— hardning rejecting and condemning And his purposes of giving more specâ— favour and salvation to such and such men believing as are properly consequent to or rewards of faith respected Christ not only as obtaining such grace but also a received and believed in by those men and so rendring them worthy in a Gospeâ— sense of such grace to be dispensed to them Unto this branch of respective purposes clearly appertain purposes of punishing and rewarding as such though most clearly it is seen in purposes of punishing either by giving up to sin or inflicting destructive vengeance upon menâ— such doubtless was his purpose of casting Adam out of Paradise it had respect to his sin sure he did not absolutely purpose to cast him out whither he sinned or not or to necessitate his sin that he might cast him out The like may be said of his purpose of drowning the World destroying Sodom establishing the Kingdom to Saul or taking it from him and so that such or such a man shall dye of such a death as their wilfull sinnings bring upon them in which though t is true that their days are determined yet its true also that they dye before their times namely before the times they should have lived to had they not ran into such sins Eccles 7.17 As Ahitophel Haman Judas Pharaoh though they must have dyed had they not sinned in such wicked ways as they did yet they should not have dyed such deaths been given up to and destroyed in such a way of judgement had they not been wicked or had they timely thereof repented Such was the purpose of God for hardning Pharaohs heart it had respect to his stubbornness and wickedness foreseen He see he would oppress his people and not let them go Exod. 3.19 20. 4.21 and with respect thereto purposed to harden him that he should not no not by many mighty Signs and Judgements be willing to let them go Such also the purpose of God concerning the believers sufferings of which it 's said 1 Thes 3.3 That we were thereunto appointed surely not as this or that man simply considered but as Believers in and confessors of Christ and so all such as such were appointed to sufferings especially in those times Such surely was Gods purpose and determination concerning Herod Pontius Pilate with the Jews and Gentiles opposing Acts 4.27 28. with 2.23 persecuting and crucifying or rather of his delivering him up to them and determining and fore-bounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what they should do to him his determining counsel therein was joyned with his foreknowledge and with respect to what he foreknew they would be he determined to yeild them up to them and what they should do to him God did not purpose to make them wicked and stir them up or impel them to crucifie him as some over-rashly speak making God the Cauâ— Contriver and Author of their sin bâ— foreseeing what they would be and do if permitted he determined to permit them to do what he pleased to permit what should be done Suffering their malice so far to break forth as might be to his praise and restraining the remainder thereof as Psal 76.10 Not that he needed their crucifying him or Judas betraying him to work mans redemption by nor was it his dying as the effect of their wickedness that did properly ransome us nor did their betraying and crucifying him necessarily bring forth his death No man took his life from him but he laid it down of himself Acts 2.23 3.15 5.30 7.52 John 10.18 though yet they are truly and properly chargeable with killing and slaying him and putting him to death both as to their desire and intention and as to the consequent of what they did to him but he yeilded his life voluntarily to his Father who made his soul an offering for sin And his Death as needful for and effectual to our ransoming and redemption was that which the Fathers wrath or curse of the Law
in their raised and immortalised bodies they shall appear Matth. 13.40 41 42 49 50. 16.26 27. 25.41 46. 3.12 when he shall appear in flaming fire to render vengeance even armed with the power and wrath of God in unspeakable unconceivable terror with an innumerable company of mighty Angels attending on him ready to execute his commands against them and then shall he utterly destroy the Rebels sentence them to be everlastingly companions with the Devil and his Angels that seduced them Rev. 20.10 12 13 14. Isa 30.33 Mark 9.44 45 46 47 48. and whom they chose to adhere and cleave to rather than to folfollow the Lamb in his Light and Grace wherewith he prevented and followed them And then he shall execute the Doom also upon them Rev. 14.9 10 11 12. Isa 66.24 thrusting them down with the Devil and his Angels into an ever-burning Lake of Fire and Brimstone into the Rivers of the wrath of God to be perpetually kindled upon them by the power of that Spirit that came to them and convinced them and being obeyed would have saved them which Spirit being infinite and eternally wise and powerful Oh! how infinite eternal and unbearably great must needs be the wrath executed upon them by him when their bodies being immortal and insepaâ—able from their souls again they shall be capable of enduring it endlesly and being separated from God and all his Creature-comforts too they shall have pure wrath without mixture no dram of good or ease or comfort afforded with it The fire of his wrath shall torment them perpetually and the Conscience of their own willing sinnings against him and despising their Saviour and his salvation when freely offered them and made attainable to them shall perpetually grieve and confound them and as a Worm that dyes not for ever gnaw them All the good they had from God Luk. 16.23 24 25. and might have had for ever had they hearkned to him being evermore before them on the one side and the remembrance of it infinitely dolorous to them and on the other side the several wickednesses committed contrived thought and acted by them in word and deed Jonas 2.8 with the aggravations of them as for what foolish trivial sorry and vile things and against what checks warnings faithfull means of preventing them they have made the forfeiture and sustain the loss of that eternal glory that others have and they might have had in their obeying Christ in the light and truth offered them shall add unconceivably to their everlasting woe and horror and lamentation Rev. 14.8 10 11 12. and yet no ease after inconceivable times or duration nor no way or possibility of Redemption such the terror of the Lord in that day even such as his goodness abused by men in this day and the good the grace the glory trampled under foot by them the worth of the person and sufferings of Christ sin'd against and the greatness of the glory and majesty of God contemned and 〈◊〉 at nought 2 Pet. 2.1 2. Tit. 1.2 2.13 Matth. 11.29 30. 1 Joh. 5.3 2 Cor. 5.11 and that for vile things inâ—nitely below them deserves to be reveâ—ged with The faith exceeding true and precious The hope firm and infinitely glorious The obedience required exceeding reasonable and not grievous because he is ready at hand to effect it in us and therefore also the Terror and Torment upon the refusers exceedingly and incomprehensibly Dolorous SECT 4. A Digression about the Endlesness of the punishments mentioned in the Gospel-Terrors AGainst this Doctrine of the Terrors of the Gospel and endlesness of the torments or punishment to which Christ will at the Great Day adjudge his enemies Some may object that sure it cannot be consistent with his love mercy and goodness to adjudge his Creatures for any cause whatsoever to such endless misery Probably Mr. Hobbs Yea there is an Anonymous Author that hath put out a Discourse on purpose to prove the the Doctrine of Hell torments false and fabulous Therefore I shall add some Considerations here briefly for confirmation of the truth already said thereabout Yet not by way of particular Answer to that Book which I have also otherwise answered to some Friends for indeed it is so monstrous in its assertion and so self-contradictory that I hope none that give credit to God and are able in any measure to judge of things will be snared by it for it saith Sin is only punisht in this life no greater punishment of it than death quite contrary to the words of Christ that tell us John 5.29 That some shall be raised out of their Graves at the last day to condemnation and Dan. 12.2 That some shall rise to shame and everlasting contempt yea that after the Resurrection some shall be adjudged to a second death a lake that burns with fire and brimstone Rev. 20.13 14 15. True the said Author also confesses a second death but he makes it but the same with the first save only as it is judicially executed for he asserts that Adam and all men should have died had they not sinned but now the death that should have been otherwise natural is now judicially executed and so a man that is hanged for murther or the like he makes to dye there in the second death But how cross this is to the Scripture who is so blind as not to see Seeing the Scriptures plainly make the second death to be a death adjudged to some men after their Resurrection from the first as in Rev. 20. before quoted yea the same nameless Author would perswade men that God works in them their sins wills their sins and falls before they will them that Gods will is the womb in which all the actings of men at first conceived that he was never displeased or unsatisfied with the Being oâ—sin and divers the like monstrous assertions that I suppose none but Atheisâ— or Ranters can easily digest and which indeed could they be proved true would render it unreasonable to conceive that God can or will inflict any punishment upon men for sin at all either in this life or after it much less endless Though indeed it might as reasonably be thought that God will punish his creature with endless torments Psal 5.4 5. Habbak 1.12 though their sins deserve them not as that he can or will be the Author Willer and Worker of their sin seeing sin is more directly contrary to his purity and holiness then the inflicting of Pain or Torments upon his Creature is or can be But not to trouble our selves with the several reasonings of the said Author in the said Book which also broadly enough contradicts it self while sometime it represents God as a punisher of sin in this life only sometimes tell us the wicked shall be burnt up with the earth and that shall be their punishment and sometimes that God was never unsatisfied with the being of Sin and so
slain for us he is become the Righteousness of God to and for men and so is set forth in the Gospel of God as he is therein declared to be the forgiver of sins and justifier of them that believe in him upon the account of the Righteousness wrought and compleated in and by him And so he is or in him is held forth to us men the Righteousness of Faith or the Righteousness which is of God by Faith as it 's diversly tearmed that is to say through and by vertue of Christ and the Righteousness performed by him whosoever gives credit to his Testimony and believeth looketh to and stayeth upon him are accepted for righteous in the presence of God though in themselves and with respect to the Righteousness given them in Adam they be sinful and defiled creatures and shall be dealt with as righteous persons in abiding in him and shall have the grace and spirit of God administred to them also both to justifie them in their Consciences and effect in them righteous frames and affections conforming them to God and fitting them for his Kingdom All which also depend upon the Righteousness of Christ to be performed to and in them But this Righteousness comes not to and upon men as the righteousness of the first man should have done had he stood for that should have been by Propagation Rom. 5.17 but this by Spiritual Regeneration free Gift and Imputation and is received by men in coming in to him and being born to and of him of the faith and knowledge of him and of God as manifested in and by him The Righteousness wrought by Christ â—om 3.22 23 24 25. 5.17 18 19 20 21. and that is in Christ is indeed for and to all men to justification of life both so as to justifie exempt or free them from being held under the first judgement or condemnation so as to perish therein and so as to give them life and righteousness in Christ as a thing prepared for them and ready to be in their closing with him imparted to them But it come upon cloaths and makes righteous so as to gracious acceptation and title to the Kingdom and Inheritance promised only those who receive and believe in him SECT 4. Of two kinds of Sin 4. THere is also a twofold consideration of Sin with reference to these two men and the Covenants made with men in and by them The one is natural to us the root and original of which was voluntary to Adam and this stood in the breaking the Law he was under and it is transmitted to us as his righteousness had he stood should have been by propagation so as we come sinners into the world and under the sentence of Death Rom. 5.13 14 Rom. 3.9 10 19 23. as is evident in Children that sin not after the similitude of Adams transgression and so not by imitation and yet do dye And this sin also brings forth and necessitates men naturally to innumerable sins actual sins that stand in the breach of Gods law according to which all have sinned and as they grow up do sin continually till and further then by grace they be prevented and inabled to do better The second kind of sin was not found in the second man the Lord Jesus 1 Pet. 2.22 2 Cor. 5.21 for he had no sin in him nor on him but other mens he never did sin nor was guile found in his mouth but it is found in particular men against the second man and against God in him and the law of grace held forth by him not in him against the law given to him and imposed upon him for making attonement for and ransoming men from under the judgment of the former kind of sin which law he fulfilled to perfection And it is a sinning after the similitude of Adams transgression Rom. 5.14 Hos 6.7 though not simply against the first Covenant but against the second too viz. that in Christ for men hating the light when it comes John 3.19 20. 5.40 8.44 Prov. 1.24 25. Psal 81.11 12. and loving darkness rather not coming to Christ for life when called in a word the rejecting Christ and putting him away that 's the original and bottom of it preferring Satan sin and the world before him and refusing to be healed and saved by him And this is the condemning kind of sin the retaining natural corruption against the light and grace of Christ coming to save men from it and the chusing to do Satans will rather than Christs And though this kind of sin comes not to men from any publick root of mankind as the first doth but is received from Satan and committed by men in their particular persons to which through original corruption may apt yet in the seasons of Gods grace it necessitates not yea and though Christ did not primarily and directly in his first stepping in to ransome us come to take away this kind of sin as the former it being consequential to his coming to ransom us and to his bringing grace and salvation to us yet from this sin also he hath by the superabundancy of his Merit Rom. 5.16 and the worth of his Obedience and righteousness received power and authority to justifie and save us and doth forgive it to men and save them from it if upon convincement of it during the day of Gods grace they be prevailed with to own or confess it and repent of it turning in to him with whom there is plenteousness of Redemption for that purpose as was before shewed SECT 5. Of two General Judgements besides Particular ones 5. NOw answerable to those two kinds of sin we find mentioned too in the Gospel Doctrine two General Judgements passing upon all men the first passing upon all men in one man before any man was born to him of which the Apostle saith Rom. 5.16 18. the judgement was of one offence to condemnation and was upon all men to condemnation And this was for sin of the first kind Adams sin and the sin of all men as in him and as made sinners and so necessitated to sin by him and this was the judgement threatned before his sin separation and banishment from the presence of God and there through death in soul and body though after the fall pronounced mitigatedly through the interposure of the second man and it was upon all men the same not to some one way to some another way but to all alike and to condemnation as in the Scriptures above quoted Now the weight of this judgement was executed upon Christ John 12.31 the judgement of this world was upon him when he was sorrowful unto death What is through Christ ordered to men 〈◊〉 is for testimony of Gods displeasure against sin indeed but in such a way as none shall perish everlastingly therein being for nurturing men to look to Christ and God in Christ and so to lay hold of the everlasting life
these things on this side Death and what we say of Heathens may be extended to Idiots and persons born Deaf c. It may be said probably that they have not that good and comfort in their hearts that properly spring from the faith and knowledge of these Truths unless by extraordinary inward Revelation and yet neither can we say they can have no benefit by those things truly asserted to Salvation seeing benefit by them to Salvation may accrue to persons I say not that reject the knowledge and faith of them when afforded or neglected to seek them having opportunity thereto but that by the All-wise Providence of God are deprived of them as is plain in the case of Infants which have both evil and good by what they never had any capacity for the Knowledge and Faith of that is the Sin of Adam and the Death of Christ for them 2. From the Unity of the Doctrine and its Truth though under different degrees and forms of Expression and the vertuous being of the things with God as sure to be done in time which in former Ages were not actually done it follows also That it 's no true or good consequence to say Because some were actually Dead and in Hell before Christs Incarnation and Suffering therefore Christ was not Incarnate or Dyed not for them That he Dyed not for them as in Hell may probably be said but not that he dyed not for them as persons sometimes living on the Earth capable of the Truths being declared to and received by them seeing they had the same Truth in substance declarable or declared to them as a thing to be done in its time that we have now declared to us as a thing already done but if it was in their days true That God was so affected towards them as to appoint his Son in due time to suffer for them then was it also certainly in its time performed for them what ever in the mean time became of them even as it was true for them that were actually Saved and in Paradise or Abraham's bosome before Christ came that Christ when he came should Dye for them not as Saved persons and then in Heaven but as Sinners in their day that needed his Death for their Salvation and accordingly in due time he did suffer for them The Saved being saved through and in belief of and obedience to the same Truth and Grace for the contempt of and disobedience to which the Damned were Condemned and the Damned Condemned for Contempt of the same by which the Believer was Saved But let us descend to a more full and particular account of the said Doctrine and see what it is and what is in it CHAP. II. Of the Doctrine or Faith of the Gospel both more implicitely and generally and more explicitely and particularly SECT 1. Of the Faith of the Gospel more implicitly THe Truth or the Doctrine to be preached and believed is the Doctrine or Faith of the Gospel the sum whereof more implicitly or generally is this The Being and goodness of God both more general to men and more specially to men seeking after and trusting in him as in that of the Apostle He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that seeâ— him out or diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 Or that in 1 Tim. 4.10 That the living God is the Saviour of all men and especially of those that believe The Doctrine contained in either of which sayings it's certain is true Doctrine to be Preached to any or every man nor doth the truth of it or any part of it depend upon any mans knowing or believing it for whether men know or believe that there is a God or not yet it is true That God is Or whether any man do believe or know that God is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him or not yea and whether these or those men do seek him or not yet this is true That God is a Rewarder of them that does diligently seek him It is not indeed true of All That they do diligently seek him but true it is to and for all that God is a Rewarder of them that so do the like may be said of the other passage It is true That God is the Saviour of all men especially of them that Believe whether any man do believe it or no know it or no though men cannot believe in him unless they know him yet such a one he is in himself and as such to be represented to men before they know or believe in him that they may know and believe in him and prove the truth of what he is to them that seek or believe in him in being rewarded and specially saved by him Mens faith or unbelief knowledge or ignorance of this Doctrine may further or hinder their believing in God and seeking after him but neither makes true nor false the Doctrine it self It is as true amongst the Indians and Americans that God is the Saviour of All men especially of them that Believe in him and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him as it is amongst us Christians and to be proved by such of them as believe in him and seek him as well as it is by such of us as so do though those sayings of Truth be not so known amongst them as amongst us We know better what is true for them then they themselves do but that which is true for them is as true for them though they know it not as for us that know it even as a seeing man sees and knows better what is about a Blind man than himself may do though it s nevertheless truly about him for his not seeing it nor is any thing the more about us because we see it to be about us then the same would be if we were blind and could not see it But let us see this Doctrine and what is in it more explicitely true for those that have not that Doctrine opened to them as we have it though more known to be true by us and we there through better furnished for seeking after the benefit of thaâ— Truth and for making it known also to others both in 1. What is supposed and taken for granted in the Gospel and by it implyed tho not properly Gospel or glad tidings by it self considered And in 2. What is properly and directly Gospel and more fully spoken to and insisted on in it SECT 2. Of the Truths supposed and implyed in the Gospel yet not properly and by themselves Gospel OF the former sort are these Articles and Heads of Doctrine that follow viz. 1. That there is a Glorious Divine Power and Being Psal 58.11 â—6 4 5. which is God infinitely above and beyond all other Powers and Beings 2. That this God is but One in himself Tim. 2.5 Cor. 8.4 6. Essence and Being 3. That in that One God John 5.7 there is
made rich being thereby made capable of acting and Suffering for us so as to procure our Salvation being God and Man in one person 5. That in pursuance of our Redemption he was also made under the Law Gal. 4.4 3.13 Rom. 3.19 both as it was upon and against all men and as given to be observed by the Jews that He might Redeem us from the Law that is that being in Bond as it were with us as a clear man that enters Bond for a grear Debtor he might be liable to be called forth to the Payment of our Debt and procure our discharge from it 6. And accordingly God called him forth to the Judgment Joh. 12.31 Heb. 10.5 6 7 8 9 10. 1 Pet. 2.24 as the onely responsible Person and caused the Judgment of the World to pass upon him to which also he willingly and desirously yielded himself bearing our sins in his own body on the Tree and so gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 Rom. 5.12 14 15 16 17 18 19. 1 Cor. 15.17 18 21 22. Joh. 1.29 Phil. 2.6 7 8. with Gen. 3.5 6. Psal 69.4 Gal. 3.10 13. Phil. 2.8 9. Matth. 26.38 39. 27.46 and by the grace of God tasted Death for every man the Second Adam satisfying for the sins of the First and all in and of him as fallen in him both for root and Branch the first Revolt from God in our First Parents and all that Naturally and necessarily spring up from it giving or laying down to that purpose as much as the First Adam usurped or aspired to even the Form of God and enduring all that thereby that the First Adam incurred by way of penalty to himself and all his Posterity equivolently even the Curse of the Law to Death the Death of the Cross in which he sustained and endured not onely great Pains and Torments in his Body but also unspeakable Agonies and Afflictions in his Soul pouring it out to Death John 12.27 Isa 53.8 9 10 11 12. Psal 22.1 2 8 9 10-16 c. 7. That in this his abasement and Death His obedience and sufferings were so well-pleasing Isa 53.10 11 12. Rom. 4.25 1.3 4. Act. 2.24 Rom. 14.9 1 Cor. 15.3 4 5. Matth. 12.40 and satisfactory to God that He in Testimony thereof raised him up from the Dead the third day taking him therein from Prison and Judgment Yea he himself was God-man and so a person not to be swallowed up of Death though to manifest that he was indeed Dead and to sanctifie the Grave to us and Redeem us from it he was pleased to abide in it part of Three Days and Three Nights rose again by his Divine Power and after he had shewed himself by divers infallible proofs to his Disciples Act. 1.1 2 3 4 10. 10.39 40 41. Luk. 24.9.10 50.51 Heb. 9.14 Act. 2.33.36 Heb. 1.3 12.2 Act. 2. 3 4 5. by the space of forty Days after his Resurrection for a manifestation of the Truth of it and confirmation of their Faith in it He in their sight Ascended up visibly into Heaven and there presented his own Crucified and raised Body a spotless Sacrifice to God being taken up thither and there received of God his Father and set down at his Right hand even upon the Throne of Majesty in the Heavens as his after sending forth his Spirit upon his Disciples according to his fore-promise to them and Working many notable Miracles by them also did evidently declare SECT 4. Of the Love of God to fallen Man in glorifying his Son for him and of the compleatness and fitness of Christ as now in Heaven to be the Saviour of all Men and especially of such as Believe SO that now the same Jesus Eph. 4.8 9 10. with Psal 68.18 1 Pet. 3.18 19. Gal. 3.13 Heb. 2.14 2 Tim. 1.10 the Son of God who in love to us was abased and Suffered for us in the weakness of the Flesh and Descended into the lower parts of the Earth to Ransom us from the Sin and Misery fore-come upon us lives also being ascended up on high and having led captivity captive even Sin Death Law Devil who led us Captive at Gods Right hand in the Glory and Power of God thence to succour and Save us in all our Danger Act. 2.33 5 30 31. Matth. 28.18 19 20. Col. 1.19 2.9.10 and from all our Enemies being made in the Name and Authority of the Father the Saviour of all Men and especially of those that Believe unto which also He is compleatly and fully furnished of the Father in that He hath there given gifts in the man for man even for the Rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell amongst them for he hath there made him 1. Lord Act. 2.36 10.36 Phil. 2.10 11. 1 Pet. 13.21 Eph. 1.20 21. Isa 9.6 Joh. 5.22 23. Lord of all giving him all power and all authority in Heaven and in Earth a Name above every Name That at his Name every knee should bow both of things in heaven and in earth and under the earth Angels Men Devils and all Creatures being given into his hand and dispose the whole Government laid upon his shoulders and all Judgment committed into his hand To inable and furnish him in which in the Nature of Man he is also made 2. Christ Act. 2 36. Isa 42.1 61.1.2 11.1 2 3. Act. 10.38 the Anointed one of God filled with the Spirit of God without measure which Spirit is an infinite wise powerful and gracious Spirit inabling and strengthning him to all such Offices and the Works of them as he is anointed and designed to and are needful for our further saving That is to say 1. To be the Great Prophet Act. 3.21 22. the Light of the World to give forth the Light Truth and Knowledge of God and what may concern us to know for our peace and welfare as in his Wisdom he sees fit that whosoever believes in Joh. 1.9 8.12 12.46 Isa 42.1 2 3 4. 49.6 7. 1 Cor. 15.45 John 5.22.23 25. Isa 55.2 3 5. Psal 25.8 9 12 14. Matth. 13.11 1 Pet. 2.25 Joh. 10.2 11. and follows his Light might not abide in Darkness but might see the Light of Life And being a quickning Spirit he is in the Spirit fitted and able so to speak in and through the means he affords to the spirit of Men as to cause the Dead in Spirit to hear and so as that they who in hearing hear or listen to him may live for ever He being more peculiarly ordain'd a further Teacher and Leader to them to shew them the Mysteries of the Kingdom the Secrets of the Lord and as a Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls to feed them with Knowledge and Understanding unto Eternal Life 2. To be the Great Psal 2.1 6.7 8 9. Jer. 10.7 with Rev. 15.4 Isa 33.22 Matth. 28.18 19 20. Psal 149.2 Rev.
against him Yea 2. His Design is broken for us men 1 Tim. 2.5 and 2 Tim. 1.10 even for Adam and all his Posterity inasmuch as through what Christ hath done and Suffered for us He hath so abolished Death the Death that by that Sin came upon us that it notwithstanding we may or might any man in his proper time during the Day of Grace Isa 55.5 6 7. Ezek. 33.11 2 Sam. 14.14 2 Pet. 3.9 1 Cor. 15.20 21. Rom. 5.18 John 5.28 29 25 11.25 26. 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 be Saved and be brought back again to God in that Judgment and Death no man shall Everlastingly Perish but in a Second they that do Christ is the Resurrection and the Life out 〈◊〉 the First so speaking to the Dead in Spirit as to cause them to hear so as they may in hearing and listening to him Live And he will so speak to the Bodily Dead as that out of that Death All shall Live so as to be brought before him as their Soveraign Lord and Judge to be judged by him according as in their life-times they have accepted or rejected him So that notwithstanding their Sin Committed in Adam or their sinfulness thence contracted or the Death therefore ordered to them Prov. 1.22 23. Psal 95.7 8. Isa 45.22 55. 1 2 3 6 7. Rev. 22.17 Eccles 7.1 2 3 4 5. Psal 90.11 39. 4 5 6. John 5.24 Prov. 1.23 Rev. 22.17 2 Pet. 3.13 Rev. 22.3 4. any man in hearing the Voice of Christ as while it is called to day any man may Maugre all that Plot of Satan may be brought back to an happy Estate through Jesus Christ Yea this Death as now ordered through Jesus Christ affords exceeding great Motive and is of singular use to awaken men and provoke them to seek the Lord that they may live and being Justified by Christ as that is certainly to be met with in obeying his Voice any man may come to the injoyment of Fellowship with him in the restauration and glory of our Nature in him so as to have a better Paradise and Tree of Life a better Sabbath a better World even new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness with freedom from temptation and from danger of falling from it then ever Adam had or we in him 3. Yea 1 Pet. 5.8 Ephes 2.2 3. Rev. 20.3 Joh. 8.44 with ver 32 33 34 36. Rom. 10.11 12 c. Whereas Satan is yet busily Plotting though his Head be so broken in Christ as to his First Plot and the Jurisdiction got thereby seeking to draw particular persons into new Snares and to bring them to a new Condemnation by their personal voluntary and unnecessitated slightings and refusings of the Light and Truth or Voice of the Son of God even then when he is calling them and therein setting them free and moving them to listen and adhere to him and men are generally being weak in themselves and through the sweetness they feel Jam. 3.2 Joh. 3.19 20. 1 Tim. 2.5 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Rom. 5.16 Isa 53.12 Luk. 13.7 8 9. Isa 55.7 or fancy in their selfish sinful ways apt to listen to him and in many things we sin all Christ is herein Preached and represented as the Mediator of God and Men the Propitiation for the Sins of the World in the Superabundancy of the vertues of his Death and Sacrifice in which He infinitely out-did the Sin of Adam and its demerit by his Intercession pleading for and obtaining patience and forbearance for men and forgivness ready to be given them for such Sins also upon their letting them go and parting with them whence it s said Let the wicked forsake his ways Ezek. 33.16 and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turn to the Lord for he is gratious and to our God for he will multiply to pardon And in the day that a man turneth all his Iniquities shall be forgiven him none of them shall be mentioned unto him Psal 103. 3 4 6. And with the Lord is plenteousness of Redemption More then meerly to free from the old Score of Sin that came in upon our First account of our sinning in Adam So that he is represented by vertue of that his Mediation the Forgiver of other Sins also Joh. 3.18 5.24 1 Thess 1.9 10. 1 John 1.9 10. the Saviour and Deliverer from the Second Death the Wrath to come Having also Authority and Power and Commission to cleanse us from our unrighteousness we confessing our Sins before him and turning to him so that Iniquity shall not prevail upon us to bring us into Bondage again and so to pull upon on us the second Death Luke 13.8.9 25. Matt. 25.31.35 41. Rev. 20.10 c. which yet he also hath power to leave men to and for their Rebellions against his Grace to Sentence them to and execute upon them and therein to Destroy them for ever with the Devil and his Angels In which his Head shall be forever broken too both in himself and all his Seed as Plotting together against Christ the Seed of the Woman in himself and his Members so as never more to be able to rise up against them SECT 6. How Christ is set forth in the Gospel as the Fulfilling and Fulfiller of the Promises and Prophecies that fore-went of him and of all the Types and Shadows YET further to shew what a compleat Saviour Christ is and how compleat we are in him We may note That he is as the Gospel sets him forth The Accomplishment and the Accomplisher in their due time and way of all the other Prophecies and Promises concerning our Salvation Acts 13.32 33. 1 Cor. 1.20 Col. 2.16 Heb. 10.1 and the body and truth of all Types Figures and Representations of him mentioned in the Scriptures As He is 1. That Seed of Abraham Gen. 18.18 26. Matth. 1.1 2. and of Isaac and of Jacob in whom God Promised That all the families and nations of the earth should be blessed which is accomplished in him Acts 3.25.26 Gal. 3.8 1 Tim. 4.10 1 John 5.11 12. Matth. 22.4 5 8. Luk. 24.19 23 24. Dead and Risen for them and become the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe for God hath in him given us eternal life even to us men so as in having submitting to and receiving Christ in his Light and Truth we may have it Now in Eternal Life is included Remission of Sins Righteousness and all things And these are made ready for all so as any in turning at his Reproofs may and shall certainly receive them none excluded by him till they exclude themselves nor but for so doing Prov. 1.22 23 24. and 9.1 2 3 4 5 12. 2. He is the Shiloh or Peace-maker Gen. 49.10 Eph. 2.13 14 15 16 17. Isa 11.10 11. Rom. 15.6 10 11. Matth. 25.31 32. who hath made Peace by the Blood of his Cross and hath Preached Peace to
it cannot signifie in our Saviours use of it that very place and fire or any such external punishment in this life as the above-mentioned Author would insinuate but a perpetual and everlasting punishment of the damned is evident 1. By our Saviours implying that God only can cast men into it and that after men have killed the body whereas if it were that very punishment or such like men might as well cast the body into it Matth. 10.28 Luke 12.5 Matth. 18.8 9. Mark 9.44 45. or the whole man while alive as kill the body 2. And by his saying God is able to cast the soul also after the body is killed into it as well as the body As also 3. By warning his Disciples and Hearers in general to pluck out the right eye where it offends c. rather than to be cast into that fire but to be cast into that Valley of Hinnom litterally or into any such like external punishment in this life we are not in any great danger of by retaining our lusts and corruptions Psa 73.3 4 5 6 Job 21.8 9 12 13. seeing we be very far remote from that place and many that live in their lusts live and dye in prosperity No nor yet doth it signifie any internal punishment here both because it 's a punishment after the body is killed and because it 's perpetual and everlasting as appears by other expressions joyned with it by which also it 's called as 2. It 's called the fire that shall never be quenched so Mark 9.43 to 49. 3. A Lake burning with fire and brimstone which is the second Death Re◠20.15 4. Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 those expressions of the Worm not dying an◠Fire that is not quenched are borrowed from Isa 66.24 which speaks of the punishment of the wicked in the time 〈◊〉 the new Heavens and new Earth ver 22. which is the time after the Resurrection and the Judgement Rev. 20. and 21. and it 's to be minded that not only that fire is said to be quenchable which may be extinguished while the combustable matter lasteth but also that which goes out of it self for want of matter to feed it it being all consumed for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to be quenched and of the which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is translated unquenchable is derived is used of the lamps of the foolish Virgins which went out for want of Oyl to feed them Matth. 25.8 And therefore if the fire of Gods wrath in which the wicked shall be burned shall end and go out as wanting matter to work upon they being thereby annihilated and their being totally destroyed as the said Author evades those sayings then could it not be called unquenchable And if the wicked should be annihilated in that Judgement must not their Worm needs dye having no subject to subsist in Those expressions therefore joyned with Gehenna as the others also which we have mentioned both signifie the being of such severe torments and punishments after the Resurrections as the worst of punishments here imaginable are but shadows of and also their perpetuity and endless duration which is also expressed in other phrases As 5. Everlasting punishment Matth. 2.46 and everlasting destruction 2 The◠1.7 8. That in Matth. 25.41 is with a◠Emphesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the everlasting fire The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated everlasting is indeed used in the Old Testament to signifie of a long continuance and sometime of an age but that is not its usual if ever its signification in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles but everlasting or never ending Matth. 25 46. it 's the same word that 's used to signifie 1. The lastingness of the life glory and happiness of the righteous and everlasting punishment is opposed to everlasting life as signifying a like duration of the one as of the other even as the fire of the Valley of Hinnom probably burn◠perpetually so long as the old Jerusalem was standing so those torments shall be of equal duration with the new Jerusalem the joy and glory of the Righteous even for ever 2. The duration of the honour and power ascribed to God himself that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too everlasting 1 Tim. 6.16 Yea. 3. The everlastingness of the being o◠God and Christ Rom. 16 2◠Isa 9.6 than which what can be more significant of never ending And yet not only that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 everlasting is used to this purpose but 4. It 's said the smoak of their torment ascends up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ages o◠ages even for ever and over Rev. 14 9 10. an Expression used to in the Glory and Honour ascribed to God and Christ and to set forth the Eternity of God and of his Living Rev. 1.6 and 4.9 and 5.13 14. So that the Scriptures are very Pregnant in laying down this Assertion and therefore it 's to be believed and dreaded and diligence is to be given in looking and yielding up to Christ to be accounted worthy to be delivered therefrom 2. As for the Reasons and Grounds of God's so Punishing they are by the Scriptures signified to be such as these 1. The Greatness and Majesty of God sin'd against and despis'd Deut. 10.17 Matth. 10.28 Luk. 12.5 Isa 27.31 Men Punish Traytors against their Life and Majesty with Bodily Death but God both Body and Soul in a Death as much beyond that of the Body as He is greater than Man that is sin'd against and despis'd Such great Punishment is but answerable to his Greatness as his other Works be 2. The Greatness Unspeakableness Deut. 32.5 6 7 8 9 21 22. Isa 1.2 3 4 5 24. Gen. 1.26 27. Psal 8.3 4 3. 49.12 and Infiniteness of the Love and Goodness of God in and by Christ toward Men that Rebel against him it notwithstanding He not onely inconceivably honoured us in raising us up at the first out of the Dust of the Earth and making us in his own Image Lords of his Works and capable of knowing and having Fellowship with himself but also when we were utterly lost was pleased so to set his heart upon us Joh. 3.16 17. Gal. 4.4 5. 3.13 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom 4.25 1 Pet. 1.21 24. Philip. 2.6 7 8 9. 1 Tim. 2.6 Isa 45.22 Psal 81.9 10 50.1 2. Prov. 1.20 21 22 23. Joh. 16.7 8 9.10 12 13 14 15. Gen. 6.3 Rom. 2.4 5. Psal 68.18 19 20. Job 33.16 29 Psal 68.21 Rom. 2.5 Heb. 6.6 7. 10.26 29. Jonas 2.8 as not to spare his ow◠Son but give him up to the Death the Death of the Cross to Redeem us again and impowred him to Save us and bring us to endless and infinitely Glorious Happiness His Son that was in his Form infinitely Glorious with God his Father was pleased also in Love to abase himself and lay
aside all that Glory and Happiness expose himself to and bear upon himself for us all that shame and reproach and sorrow to Death and Curse that was due to us and needful for his Ransoming and Saving us without violation to God's Justice and impeachment of his Holiness and now is infinitely ready to save Men in their listening to and obeying him to which he is not wanting to call and impower them The Holy Spirit comes forth in the Name of God and Christ to reprove men for their Sins set before them God and Christ and in with and from them far greater and better things than they are pursuing after and labouring for and therewith strives and wrestles with them for their Repentance and turning to God to seek him and live to him Yea God Father Son and Spirit are exerciseing wonderful forbearance patience and long-suffering toward Sinners here and lading them with variety of benefits to lead them to Repentance and corrects them in Mercy to break them off from their purposes and bring them to accept of Eternal Life and Happiness and all this love and goodness Men do obstinately and impenitently Sin and Rebel against hateing and opposing themselves against God his Son and Spirit Government Grace Truth c. hardning themselves in their Sins refusing their own Mercies for lying Vanities c. and oh What short of Eternal and Infinite Punishment can answer the Deserts of such Ingratitude and Wickedness against so great love and goodness If they that sin'd against the despised Moses's Law Dyed without Mercy how much sorer Punishment doth the rejecting and despising such a love and lover and neglecting such or so great a Salvation expose us to Psal 90.11 According to his fear both his Greatness and Dreadfulness and his Goodness and Mercy leading and ingageing us now to fear him so will be his Terrour and his Wrath in that day 3. That the hainousness of Mens sins against a God so Great so Good Isa 1.3 4 5. c. Heb. 1.12 Psal 5.4 5. Deutr. 32.5 6.15.16 Jon. 2.8 Jer. 2.13 Isa 55.2 3. Heb. 12.15 16 17. 10.26 Prov. 1.24 25 29.1 Rom. 2.5 Psal 58.2 3 4. Act. 28.27 Matth. 13.14 15. so Gratious together with his infinite Purity and perfect hatred of the least Iniquity they are foolish and ingrateful in neglecting and slighting him despising his love favour and friendship and preferring base unworthy Lusts and Objects of Lust before him a very morsel of Meat before his love and favour who hath done so much for us and tenders such infinite love and favour further to us and therein such unspeakable and infinite happiness They are willful in Sinning when no necessity in so doing Yea hold fast Sin with stubbornness obstinacy and impenitency against all light and warning though often told and convinced of the emptiness vanity and unworthiness of them and though such sweet charming allurements of Grace be afforded them as would they but listen to them would draw them off from their Sins and make them willing to part with them bringing such power with them as would Converâ— and heal them and these wilfully stopt kept out and shun'd lest by the power of God in them they should be Converted and be healed by him and this persisted in Jer. 6.15 16 17 28 29 30. 8.5 6 7. Act. 7.51 13.40 41. with resolution to hold their Idols and Vain ways and not to listen to any counsel that should tend to win them off from them rising up in all their strength as it were to withstand their own Salvation when so forcibly tendred to and urged upon them that they had much to do to beat it off even the power of Gods words reproofs and Counsels and the stretchings out of his Hand therein for their Salvation Dent. 32.21 22. Matth. 3.12 Heb. 10.29 30. This this is that that is infinitely offensive to such an infinitely holy pure and perfect Majesty whose Eyes cannot look upon Iniquity and kindles such a fire of wrath in his Breast against the Sinners as shall burn for ever upon them and shall not be quenched It 's Mens trampling under foot the Son of God and therein all God's love and counting the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they are Sanctifyed and have all their liberty to God an unholy common thing and therein slighting all Christ's Love and Sufferings for them and doing despight to the Spirit of Grace that spake graciously to them and let Gods infinite favour before them 't is this lays them open to the Vengeance of the Almighty and it s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God without the Mediator to interpose being rejected by them Indeed those Men that believe not but deny That Christ died for any but his Elect and those that shall be saved and That he gives any sufficient grace for their Conversion to him And so put the stress of their Sining and Suffering upon Adam's Sin and that also necessitated by God's Decree rendring them inthral'd to Sin so as that with that help afforded of God without any intention of their Salvation they cannot but Sin and Rebel and yet Assert an Eternal and Infinite Torment to be their Portion in their Persons though in their persons never so favoured of God or indued with any such Grace as that they were really ingaged to live to him or had any power or capacity so to do those men I say render God exceeding harsh and such as no Christian heart may indure to think him Clothing him rather with the Titles and Colours of Satan the Abâ—ddon and Man-slayer things not fit to be mentioned then with those Titles of Love and Loveliness that belong to him The unreasonableness of their Doctrine and its contrariety to the Scriptures overthrows the Equity and Justness of such Torments or Gospel-Terrours and its likely puts men upon seeking Evasions to avoid the Belief of such a Doctrine as renders God so unlovely to them But upon the Considerations we have mentioned there appears so much Equity as may silence and vanquish Reason it self into subjection and both provoke to Gospel-Obedience and perswade to believe and judge equitable and so make Men endeavour to avoid and flee from the Gospel-Terrours forementioned And such things also are held forth in the Gospel as true in themselves and fit and meet to be propounded to all and to be believed by them CHAP. IV. Of some Distinctions signified and contained in the Doctrine of the Gospel as before declared THere are also divers Distinctions with reference to Things and Persons signified and contained in the Gospel-Doctrin which we may briefly touch upon before we pass it as to say About Two Adams or Men mentioned in the Scripture as opposed one to the other Two kinds of Covenants Righteousness Sins Judgments Worlds Lives and Deaths A Two-fold appearance of the Person of Christ with the distinct Works of them A Two-fold Personal Coming
Luk. 20.35 36. the Saints shall judge and reign therein receiving double for all their sufferings here yea everlasting rost joy and glory The Children of the Resurrection who shall arise at Christs appearing even the just and they that surviving shall then be changed shall be counted worthy of it and shall be equal to the Angels of God Psal 49.14 15. Isa 66.22 23 24. Rev. 20.6 7. being manifested both in souls and bodies to be his Children and they shall have dominion over the wicked beholding their torments who here had tormented them and shall judge the world even the Nations of the saved or preserved being Kings and Priests unto God beholding his face for evermore and dwelling in his presence impassible immortal Rev. 21.3 4 5 6 7. 22.1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. satisfied with joy and glory for ever where also they shall have their Paradise their Tree of Life their River of pure Water clear as Chrystal in a Spiritual and Heavenly manner without any Serpent to tempt them or curse to afflict and exercise them being fully and perfectly freed from all sin sorrow pain crying and Death their rais'd and changed bodies being made spiritual powerful nimble agile glorious yea they shall shine as Stars in the Kingdom of God ruling with Christ the Nations in righteousness which Nations probably shall consist firstly of the preserved Jews and then of some remnant of the Gentiles miraculously preserved in that great day of perdition of ungodly men Isa 65.17 18 19 20 24 25. Psal 67 4 5 6 7. 96.10 11 12 13. 98.7 8 9. and those as so◠conceive shall under the Governmen 〈◊〉 the raised and changed Saints Till th◠Earth build Houses plant Vineyards beget Children though the Children 〈◊〉 the Resurrection shall neither marry no◠be given in marriage nor dye any more and the earth shall yeild its increase i◠abundance as it would have done before the curse came upon it Discourse on the New Heavens and New Earth But because many things therein are hard to be understood and I have otherwhere more fully delivered my thoughts thereabout 〈◊〉 shall say no more here about them SECT 7. Of two kinds of Lives and Deaths THe Gospel-Doctrine also mentions two Lives 1 Tim. 4.8 and two Deaths the one in this world and the other in the world to come The Life that now is that which we derive from the first Adam Gen. 3.6 4.1 or which God gives us as propagated from him who was made a living soul and begat in his own likeness and because it was not propagated till after the fall Jam. 4.13 14. Job 14.1 Psal 75.3 68.19 20. therefore it is a corrupt and sinful life a vapour a bubble uncertain short and full of misery yet as this old world is upheld by Christ and his mediation that there might be space and opportunity to be born live seek after God and glorifie him in it so is this life given and preserved through him too in a great mixture of mercies and manifold good things to the same purposes But the life that is to come is an Heavenly Spiritual and Eternal Life and it 's said to be to come because as to the whole man it 's not yet come Joh. 5.24 1.13 There is a seed of it here infused and put into the heart and spirit of the Believer by which he is begotten to God and made a spiritual man in some first fruits 2 Cor. 5.16 17. Eph. 2.10 a Son and Heir of God a new creature created in Christ Jesus to good works c. Rom. 8.10 But in as much as this is but the beginning of this life and that only in part in the Spirit the body yet must dye and the soul be loosed from it till the resurrection of the just in which the soul and body shall be reunited and the body be made a living spiritual body and both live in the favour of and in fellowship with God Rev. 21.4 5. and that is yet wholy to come therefore it is called the life to come an everlasting life in which shall be no affliction sorrow decay or death but everlasting uninterrupted health welfare prosperity and happiness 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the life which Christ hath purchased for us and which in him is given us to be enjoyed through the faith of him Col. 3.3 4. Act. 17.26 27 28. 1 Joh. 5.12 and in personal injoyment of and fellowship with him The first life is common to all men as born into the world the second though given in Christ to all yet is had and injoyed only by them that have Christ the rest that rejecting him have him not have not it neither but incur the sentence of death the Death opposed to this Eternal Life the sedond Death For There is also a twofold Death answerable to this twofold Life Rev. 20.13 14. Rom. 5.12 14 18. Heb. 9.27 2 Tim. 1.10 2 Cor. 5.14 Gal. 3.13 Psal 23.4 90.12 2 Cor. 5.8 9. 1 Tim. 6.18 19. Eccles 7.1 Prov. 27.1 Jam. 4.13 14 15. 2 Cor. 12.7 8 9. Isa 57.1 Job 3.12 13 14 15 16. Mat. 25 41 46. Rev. 2.11 〈◊〉 .6.14 with 〈◊〉 Cor. 5.10 11. The first is that which came in by the first Adam and is common to all in their several times but is broken and evacuated by Christ as is before noted the punishment of our sins in Adam being sustained by Christ as to its weight and curse though some shadow and carcase of it is ordered to us to be passed through by us that we might by the consideration of it be stirred up to apply our hearts to wisdom and seek and lay hold of that Eternal Life given us in Christ and be kept humble and low in our selves and always watchful the time and way of it being secret and kept from our foreknowledge so as that we cannot boast our selves of the morrow not knowing what a day may bring forth as also that we might experiment the power and grace of Christ in supporting in it and raising us up out of it and be taken from sorrow and oppression by it and that the wicked might be cut of from doing wickedly and from vexing and oppressing the poor and righteous The second Death is that fearful punishment prepared for the Devil and his Angels forementioned not prepared properly and in Gods first intention for men yet shall be the punishment too of these men that persist in their sins 2 Thes 1.7 8. Heb. 9.27 28. Luke 14.14 1 Cor. 15.23 24. 1 Thes 4.16 17. Rev. 20.6 7 11 12. for their personal rejections of God and Christ and persisting therein to prefer their sins before him But it is not common to all men as the first Death is It is appointed for all men once to dye and out of that all shall be raised and brought to judgement though not all
at once but the just at Christs coming called therefore the resurrection of the Just and the rest the wicked and such as dye in the time of the personal Reign of Christ with his Saints on the Earth at the end of those thousand years when he shall deliver up the Kingdom to God his Father Mat. 3.7 8. Joh. 3.16 17 18 19 6.40 Ezek. 33.11 The second Death may through the Grace of God be avoided men are not necessitated of God to run into it nay he hath said and sworn as he lives he hath no pleasure that the wicked should dye in it but that rather they should turn from their taking part with Satan and preferring his suggestions before Christ and his Grace Mat. 16.24 25 26 27. 25.41.46 Calls Counsels and Salvation that they might live For this is a very dreadful Death an everlasting punishment out of which if men be once cast into it shall be no release or redemption But having spoken of this more fully before I here pass it with this brief mention of it SECT 8. Of the various appearances of Christ and the Proper works of them and ways of his Saving men 8. LAstly there is mention of divers Appearances and Comings of Christ with their divers Works and Consequences As there is a twofold Personal Appearance of Christ mentioned upon Earth and in Heaven the former is twofold also which are his Personal Comings from Heaven which with their consequents are distinctly mentioned in the Gospel-Doctrine besides some spiritual and providential comings invisible to the eye of man Of which 〈◊〉 shall give a brief touch 1. Heb. 9.26 He came and appeared in the flesh in infirmity and weâ—kness here upon the earth being made partaker with us in flesh and blood made like us and in all thinks tempted as we are excepting sin And this his Appearance was once in the end of the world in the last ages even in the time of the Roman Monarchy spoken of by Daniel the Propet And the end of this his coming and appearing in so low and despicable a form in which also he was poor and without all worldly glory and greatness was that he might be the Saviour of the world by suffering for it and by revealing the truth of God to it for the convincing it and calling it to himself that through him it might be saved Of this coming it is said This is a faithful saying 1 Tim. 1.15 and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and that he once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifices of himself Heb. 9.26 and so he came to be abased amongst men that he might minister to and give his life a ransome for them yea in this his appearance he suffered and died for all and by the grace of God tasted Death for every man and that without limitation or distinction as to the first and most proper end of his death Rom. 5.18 3.19 20 21 22 23 24. 14.9 viz. the ransoming men thereby from the curse and death forecome upon them and his making an attonement for them for there was no difference of men nor distinction in to Righteous and Sinners Good and Bad Believers and the world as he eyed them and came into the world for them in his first undertaking and intention But he found all fallen sinful lost and helpless and as such came to dye for Col. 2.10 Mat. 28.18 19 20. Phil. 2.10 11. and ransom them from that lost estate into his own Lordship and dispose as the Mediator and Saviour of them and obtained a perfect recovery of mans nature in himself and power and authority for his further saving and judging work appointed to him and needful for men And this his coming and appearing and the work of it is perfectly past and done 1 Joh. 4.2 3. Joh. 16.28 Heb. 10.10 11 12 13 14. 9.12 14 15. 7.25 He is thus come and gone again and comes so and in such a way and to such ends no more though the vertues of that his so coming and appearing and of his works or sufferings for us therein abide in him and with God and come down to and upon men and shall do for ever for all he doth and will do further for and to fallen mankind is in the vertues of what he hath done in that his appearing 2. He shall come and appear personally again on the earth a second time Mat. 16.26 27. 26.64 2 Thes 1.7 8. as in Heb. 9.28 but then he shall not come and appear in such a mean and despicable form as before nor with sin upon him imputed to him and to be suffered for by him but in Glory and Majesty even in the Power and Glory of his Father and with all his holy and mighty Angels to raise all men indeed in their times and so actually to save them out of the first Death and Judgement and set them free of that but so as to bring them to a second 2 Cor. 5.10 Heb. 9.28 Mat. 25.31 35. 13.43 in which he who was judged for all shall judge all And he that came to save all men from the first judgement shall not save all men in this or from the death adjudged to in it but only those who now believe and look for him giving them a total and full deliverance out of and freedom from all sin sorrows dangers oppressions death and making them everlastingly happy and glorious with himself but shall execute judgement upon all the ungodly who throughout the day of grace have abiden so and shall be then found so Rev. 21.4 5 6 7. Jude 14.15 2 Thes 1.7 8. Mat. 24.31 Luke 18.8 9. Col. 3.3 4.1 John 3.2 Heb. 9.28 That coming and appearing of his indeed shall be to save his Elect only such as here believe in and obey him In his his first coming and as men were the objects of his undertaking to suffer for them there was no such difference and distinction And this coming is yet wholy to come and spoken off as future He shall appear the second time without sin to salvation to them that look for him And it shall be in the end of the world properly so taken 1 Thes 4.14 15 16. Then he shall descend from Heaven with a shout and sound of the Trumpet and the voyce of the Arch-Angel of God And that his appearing shall be visible to more than his first Rev. 1.7 for that was but in one Country but this shall be to all every eye shall see him they also that perceived him In his first appearing he laid the foundation of the faith in this he will bring up the Head Zech. 4.7 9. stone with shouting and crying grace grace and finish the building Heb. 12.2 1 Thes 1.9 10 Tit. 2.12 13. In that he was the Author in this the
had absolutely and particularly purpose life and that the rest shou◠be left to themselves and to the use o◠the means vouchsafed and receit of the grace in and with them insufficiently tendred or the refusal of it so as that they cannot come to salvation According to the former not men as men or fallen men simply considered are the objects of Gods purposes of Life and Glory to be estated upon them but men as in Christ or as believing on him through the grace of God afforded to them much less are men as men simply considered or as only fallen in Adam the object of his purpose of Dereliction Reprobation or Destruction but men considered as rejecting Christ or refusing to obey him unbelieving and impenitent men But according to the latter men considered either as to be made or as made innocent and unfallen or at most * Super Creatarians Superlapsarians Superlapsarians as fallen are the objects of Gods purposes of their eternal ends however as to the purpose of Eternal Life that is represented as without or in order of nature before the consideration of a Mediator much more without or before the consideration of their believing in him and as to the purpose of Everlasting Death his purpose of not affording sufficient grace such as might be effectual to their Salvation is at least conceived of by them as without the consideration of their fore-rejecting Christ that dyed for them and offered his grace to them and so in effect implies Gods absolute irrespective purpose of leaving them to ineffectual Grace that could not save them and if not the dying of Christ for them rejected as a falshood too yet made to no purpose for them with which latter frame of conceptions of Gods purposes many things appear to clash especially these 1. That it maketh Gods election of men to be out of Christ as being in order of nature before the consideration of him and his death and sufferings for men for in it Christ is considered afterward not as the ground or root of their election but only as a means ordained to bring about that to which before and without the consideration of him they were supposed to have been elected whereas the Scripture speaks of Gods purpose of Election as a thing that was in Christ before the foundations of the world Ephes 1.4 And speaks of him in his sufferings and glory Rom. 8.29 as the Prototype to which God had respect in his predestination of those that were foreknown by him for they were saies the Apostle predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son which plainly implies that his Son in that Image or Estate namely of sufferings and glory was in Gods eye or consideation as a thing preordained and so foreknown of him in his act of predestination Object To that in Eph. 1.4 it may possibly be objected that the Apostle by chosen in Christ may mean in Christ as the eternal word or God only as it 's said all things were created in or by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 1.16 Answ But to that it 's considerable that then we should be blessed too as in him Ephes 1.3 4. as he is God only for it is said we are blessed in him according as we were chosen in him but now evident it is that we are blessed in him as he hath redeemed us from the curse and is risen and ascended Gal. 3.13 14. and therefore in him as so considered we were elected or purposed to be chosen of God 2. That frame also as was before hinted infers a manifest change and alteration from the Scripture-language and more especially as to those of them that deny Christ to have dyed for all or say that God purposed absolutely to leave the greatest part of men as fallen in Adam without any serious desires of vouchsafements of means for their salvation to utter ruine and destruction for then should it rather have been said That God so loved a few or some part of mankind that he gave his only begotten Son that they might absolutely be brought to believe and have eternal life or that those who were precisely appointed to eternal life might believe and so enjoy it rather than that he loved the world and gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Nay it might as truly be said according to their frame of thoughts that God so hated the world that he would not have it saved nor afford any such grace to it as whereby it might in as much as they judge so concerning the far greater part of it which may rather challenge the denomination of the whole than the far lesser even as they say it doth when Christ says I pray not for the world Whence John 17.9 say they sure much less would he dy for the world and what is that in effect but that God did not so love the world as to give his Son for or to it c. 3. In that frame also the greatness of Gods mercy to mankind and the equity of his justice and judgement is more obscured than in the former while it both carries in the bottom of it no really merciful design in God towards the most and implies that he doth and will eternally punish men for what he never vouchsafed them any sufficient and efficacious grace for their avoiding of but ordered his government over them so as he knew must needs necessitate their perdition 4. It also drives the maintainers thereof inevitably upon making God so to design the destruction of most as to necessitate also their sins of which they stick not often either in plain terms or in words every way equivalent thereto to pronounce him the Author Worker Cause c. as Dr. Peirce hath also largely and learnedly proved Yea they some of them the Supralapsarians n◠only render him as one that hath pleasure in the death of the wicked rathe◠than that they should turn and and live contrary to his own Oath Ezek. 33.11 as all of them do but also as one tha◠had pleasure that the righteous should dye and therefore sin for all were righteous in innocent Adam where they represent God reprobating and purposing the damnation of the most To say nothing of their broad contradictions to many plain Scriptures that they oft run into their patronage of mens slothfulness in rendring it either needless to strive to enter the strait gate or impossible to do it to any purpose with many the like SECT 4. 1 Sam. 2.25 2 Chron 25.16 About Elies Sons and Amaziah considered as also something to Act. 13.48 IT is said in 1 Sam. 2.25 that the Sons of Eli hearkned not to the voyce of their Father because the Lord would destroy them and in 2 Chron 25.16 The Prophet sent to Amaziah to reprove him for his Idolatry being refused by him in and threatned by him for his message tells him
inflicted on him brought him to which began to come upon him to death before his enemies came near him as Matth. 26.38 Luke 22.41 42 43 44. John 12.27 28 31. yea and that prest him too on the Cross and brought him to the dust of death as Matth. 26.46 50. with Psalm 22.15 seem to signifie thence also it 's observable that he dyed sooner than the Malefactors that were crucified with him yea so as Pilate wondred that he was so soon dead Mark 15.44 45. 1 Pet. 2.21 22 23 24. Doubtless that wrath and curse that caused his so sore agonies might have brought him to death though his Enemies had had no such hand in it or though he had had no such Enemies but to yeild himself a more perfect exemplary pattern of obedience and patience and to make it manifest that he was made a curse for us according to that Deut. 21.23 He that is hanged is cursed of God there being such Enemies foreseen of God God also foreordained him to be delivered up to them to be so put to death the death of the Cross by them accordingly as he was I might instance in many other particular purposes that appear clearly to have been respective yea even in purposes of dispensing mercies when ever they were purposed as rewards there must needs have been an eye to the works purposed to be rewarded by them 1 King 21.29 As the purpose of respiring the judgement on Ahabs Family till his Sons reign as a reward of Ahabs humiliation of himself 2 King 10.30 and the giving Jehues seed to sit upon the Throne of Israel to the fourth generation as a reward of his executing judgement on Ahabs Family For it could not rightly be said that God would do or did those things to them because of their so doing as it is said of Ahab Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days and to Jehu Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes c. thy Children of the fourth generation shall sit upon the Throne of Israel if those things were before absolutely and irrespectively to those things done by them purposed and doomed to them As I cannot be properly said to give my Son a new Suit for plying his Book well which I without any eye or respect to his so doing Matth. 19.27 28 29. intended absolutely to give him The like might be said of setting the Apostles on twelve Thrones to judge the twelve Tribes of Israel as the reward of their leaving all for him and following him in the regeneration the purpose of that reward to them took in doubtless the foreknowledge and consideration of that their love and faithfulness to him as also the preparation of the Kingdom for the Sheep Matth. 25.35 36 c. before the foundations of the World was with respect to them as Sheep and as so demeaning themselves as is represented as the reason of the possession of it being adjudged to them But whereas Judas one of the then Twelve to whom Christ promised the forementioned reward by transgression and unfaithfulness lost his share therein it might seem as if there were a reversibility too in Gods promises if not in his purposes therein implyed let us take that therefore next into consideration SECT 6. Of the Reversibility or Irreversibleness of God's Purposes REversibility of God's purposes Psa 33.11 Isa 14.24 46.10.11 Numb 22.19 1 Sam. 15.29 I know will sound somewhat harshly in some Mens Ears as seeming to imply a changeableness in God and to contradict such sayings as those That God purposes and who can turn it back And he will do and perform all his purposes And as he hath purposed it shall stand And that he is not a Man that he should lye nor the Son of Man that he should Repent Which Sayings are without controversie most true yet in some sense and respect and that also according to the Language of the Scripture in other passages which are as true being all the Language of one and the same Holy Spirit of Truth it may be affirmed That Men do miss and deprive themselves of what was in some sense purposed of God to them and that God repents him of his purpose or of the good and evil purposed by him though he Repents not as Men through any change of his Mind by reason of ignorance inadvertency or mutability of his Wi'l but onely changes his work and respects to Men as Men being Changed fall under different unchangeable purposes His irrespective purposes according to their Tenour and so his Absolute and General purposes mentioned in the Gospel stand all firm and unalterable as his purposes of what he would do for Men in Christ and to Christ for Men as also That he will Bless the Believer do good to those that are good and walk uprightly with him and reject the Wicked Evil doer c. and so those purposes against particular Men or Nations that are respective when the Decree brings forth and the day is past the day of Grace and Patience expired towards any in any respect they be then irreversible too As with Saul 1 Sam. 15.29 when he had disobeyed the Lord's Commandment concerning the Amalekites with respect to setling the Kingdom on him and his House But as to his respective purposes which respect some condition in Man which may be changeably in this or that Person and before such day past with respect to the Change made in such Persons by which they pass from under one General Degree or purpose to be under another God may be said to Repent of his purpose toward them or alter or Reverse his purpose as to them when as yet the alteration is wholly in them coming under diverse Irreversible purposes and not in God's purposes themselves in the General either as concerning them or any man as to give some Instances to make the matter more evident and understandable when an evil Man or Unbeliever who as such an Evil Man is under the General purpose of Evil and Punishment for God purposes to hide himself from and stand against Men that are Evil in their Evil ways while Evil generally shall or doth through the grace of God mixed with those Punishments Repent him of and turn from his Evil way then God Repents of the Evil purposed against him that is which his purpose against Evil Doers contain'd in it against him as and while an Evil Doer and doth him good according to his purpose towards Penitents and well-doers under which by his Repentance he is now brought for he is not the same man now as to that formality of him that rendred him an Object of God's purpose of Evil but is another a New Man a Man in Christ with whom old things are past away and all things become new and so the purposes of God concerning him are new purposes 2 Cor. 5.17 the purposes
Dispensations of it have been very divers and different some Persons have had nothing of it as to their knowledge and perception knowable to us as Infants dying in Infancy some have had only some darker significations of some things of it by the Works and Providences of God as many of the Heathen some have also had some rumour of the words of God revealed to and in his Churches and opportunities to seek it out and know it as there revealed as many of the Gentiles in all Ages Some have had it more directly in the words of it given to them to some more immediately for themselves and others to some more mediately by others onely as in all Ages amongst the Jews till after Christ's Ascension though in some Ages more darkly and in others more plainly yea and amongst the Churches of God and the holy Men themselves there is and hath been as we have noted diversity of Dispensations and Administrations And it is a certain Rule that as the Lord being good and upright teaches Sinners the way that they might Fear him Psal 25.8 9 12 13 14. Matt. 13.11 Prâ—â— 1.23 so he more especially and in further dispensations of his Truth teaches those that Fear him shews them his secret and makes known to them his Covenant opens to them the Mysteries of his Kingdom pouring out his holy Spirit upon them And this appears clearly as touching the Revelation or Dispensation of the knowledge of the Truth in the more direct and substantial ways of revealing it besides which we may observe that there were in several Ages certain appendages to the Revelation of it by Word or Oracle in and amongst his Churches though so as in the view and sight of the World in which also we may observe great diversity as we shall God-willing shew in the following Chapter CHAP. VII Of the variety of the Dispensations of the knowledge of God and his truth in respect of certain added Appendages to his Word in Ordinances and Miracles in sundry Ages SECT 1. That God did diversâ—y in sundry Ages mind Men of and confirm them in his Truth by his Ordinances and Miracles and therein what be the Ordinances and Miracles here to be treated of THat there were over and besides the General Works of God and the distinct Revelation of Christ by the Words and Oracles of God other additional means by which he furthered the knowledge of himself and of his good will to men amongst them partly by visible Acts and Rites enjoyned to Men to observe and practice in their worship of him and accordingly either more purely according to appointment or more â—orruptly in swerving from his apappointment practised by Men in their several Ages to instruct them in and â—â—ind them of his Truth otherwise revealed to them and these we call Ordinances and partly by visible Works of his own eâ—traordinarily wrought to ratiâ—â—e and confirm the Truth revealed which we call Miracles the Scriptures also every where do testifie which because they were added to the Words and Oracles of God aforesaid we do not make a distinct way of discovery of Truth but rather Appendages to that way of discovery of it by Words and Oracles rending to confirm it to and preserve it with them which though someâ—ing of them have occasionally been mentioned before yet because they require and deserve a more full consideration we shall here speak to more distinctly and yet as briefly and succinctly as with conVenience we may concerning which let this first be noted that it may be first stated what Ordinances and Miracles we have to speak of that I do not speak of them in the largest extent that those words will reach to as to say I do not by Ordinances mean all Rites and Acts of Worship practifed by any People for there were many Heathenish Rites instituted by evil men at the motion and inâ—inct of unclean and wicked Spirits such 〈◊〉 their Plays and Interludes their strewing of Beds and Purifications of their â—ies Sacrifices to Infernal Spirits their detestable and abominable Rites of Bacchus Ceres and others which can no way be within the compass of whâ— have to speak of those being Ordinanâ— of Satan and not of God Job 38.33 Jer. 31.35 36. 33.25 neither 〈◊〉 intend or shall I speak to all that 〈◊〉 called or were God's Ordinances 〈◊〉 we read of the Ordinances of Heaveâ— as for the rising and setting of the Sâ— the making Winter and Summer Seâ—time and Harvest Heb. 9.27 Arcturus and Pleiadâ— c. which belong to the works of God before spoken of Yea and Death is an Ordinance of God in a large sense since it is appointed for men to die but this 〈◊〉 not to be practised but submitted to and suffered by us Eph. 5.30 31. So Marriage too is an Ordinance of God and so was the Sabbath and the Tree of Life in Paradise before the fall And indeed Marriage â—cially the forming of the Woman out of the Man and bringing her to him at the first hath in it a very great and apt resemblance of the conjunction and communion of the two natures of God and Man in Christ and of Christ and his Church and so gives fit occasion of minding us of Christ's great love in descending to seâ— a Wife amongst men as Jacob of old whâ— went down into Syria Matth. 22.1 4. and for a Wiâ—â—â—ept Sheep both in his taking into unâ—on with himself the nature of Man espoâ—sing and wedding it as it were to the eternal word at the wedding whereâ—â— God also made a Feast Isa 25.6 7. the Feast of Fâ— things full of Marrow made for all People and set forth to us in the Gospel 〈◊〉 the fruit and consequent of that Royal union of our nature with God consummated in the Ascension of Christ into Heaven when the new married Bride as it were was taken home to his Fathers house and adorned and glorified with all the Majesty and Royalty of Heaven the Delicates of which Feast are pardon of Sins Peace with and liberty to God by Christ and welcome through him preached to us in the Gospel As also in his seeking for himself and by the Gospel and its Ordinances and by his Spirit with both espousing men in their particular Persons and Spirits and so the Church as the company of persons so espoused to himself The Marriage of whom with Christ God-man is to be consummated or accomplished at the coming of Christ again and Resurrection of the just when they shall be made partakers of the Glory of Christ and be as a new married Wife altogether brought home to Christ and God in Christ and be cloathed with his Majesty and Glory and be fed and satisfied for ever with his blessed presence and the consolation thereof But though this Ordinance of Marriage aptly minds us of and leads us to consider and press after the further understanding and enjoyment of these things yet it
Exod. 12.3 aptly signifying Joh. 1 2â— That Lamb of God which God as Abraham said Gen. 22.8 would find out for himself for a Burnt-offering and representing his innocency harmlesness meekness profitableness and fitness to be a Sacrifice for us as also the in him is Blessing for all the Families 〈◊〉 the Earth which each of them should accept and seek for 2. Their Lambs were to be perfect of 〈◊〉 First Year a Male without blemish Verâ— 5. 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 2.22 〈◊〉 spot scab or defect in him representing the acceptableness of the Person of Christ to God and fitness for the Work of our Redemption as being without fault or spot of Sin before him nothing defective in him for making satisfaction and attonement for us nothing superfluous or that might be spared of a Masculine Spirit fervent in the business undertook by him in our behalf and of excellent sweetness and nourishment Vers 3. for us 3. Psal 89.19 20. Heb. 4.15 Isa 53.9 They were to take it out of the Flock of the Sheep or of the Goats or Kids to signify That Christ should be one with us of the common Nature of Mankind that is found in good and bad one chosen out of the People and in all points made like unto us yea that he should be numbred with the Transgressors and make his Grave with the Wicked and with the Rich in his Death yet without Sin in him 4. They were to keep it up Vers 6. till the Fourth day after their taking it perhaps to signifie that not till the Four thousandth Year or fourth time of the World Heb. 9.25 26. Christ was to be Manifest and brought forth to his death and Sufferings though set apart thereto in the beginning thereof 5. They were to kill it to signifie Vers 6. Luk. 24.26 Heb. 9.22 26. That the Messias must dye for our Sins no Remission of Sins but by his Blood-shed 6. They were to Kill it in the Evening or between the two Evenings between the declining and setting of the Sun 〈◊〉 signify That in the End of the World or last Ages of it he should appear once to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heh 9.26 7. The whole Congregation was to kill it to signifie That we all had a hand in the Death of Christ It was the Iniquity of us All that God laid upon him and so in some sense he Dyed by that is by occasion of us all and for All Isa 53.5 6. 2 Cor. 5.14 15. 1 Tim. 2.6 8. Vers 9. They were to rost the Flesh of it to signifie As the great Sufferings they had endured in Aegypt so much more the great and fiery Afflictions that should befall Christ in his Soul and Body yea it might note That He not onely should be killed or put to Death in the Flesh but also That his Soul should be in Hell for a time though not left there That he might as well endure the Miseries which our Souls in their seperate State from their Bodies should have endured as what we must have endured before in the Body Math. 26.38 39. and 27.46 Luk. 22.44 Act. 2.31 9. Vers 7. They were to sprinkle its Blood upon the Posts of their Doors the upper Post and the two side Posts but not upon the Threshold Heb. 10.22 29. 12.24 To signifie That he should be the Propitiotory or Reconconciliation for us through Faith in his Blood 1 Pet. 1.1 2. 2.5 9 1â— which being sprinkled upon our Consciences should be as a defence over and about us but must not be trod under foot or counted as a common thing by us and that in such obedience to and sprinkling of it being sanctifyed thereby God would spare us yea bring us out from the power of Sin and Satan and chuse us to be a People to himself to shew forth his praises 10. It was to be eaten by every Family Vers 4. â— To signifie That the way for us to be made partakers of the Death and Sacrifice of Christ and to live by him and be strengthned for our departure from Sin and Satan and walking after God in the Wilderness of this World is by a particular receipt and application of him to us or exercise of Faith in him as Cruciâ—yed for us as Gal. 2.20 Joh. 6.51.53 c. 11. It might not be eaten raw Vers 9. or sod in water but rosted To signifie perhaps that Christ not nakedly considered either as the Eternal Word or simply as made Flesh and giving himself as an Example to us in his Life or Suffering as an ordinary Man or any ways as the wisdom of the Flesh might represent him to us but as made an Offering for our Sins Christ as Crucified and therethrough prepared and made a meek Sacrifice for us yea and as lifted up and glorified by the Spirit of God to us is to be believed in and fed upon by us 1 Cor. 2.2 2 Cor. 5.14 15 16. Joh. 6.51 12. They were to Eat it whole Joh. 6.35 48 〈◊〉 53 54 55. its Heâ— with its Legs and the appurrenances thereof To signifie That whole Christ was given for us and is given to us and nothing of him is to be neglected by us His Deity his Humanity his Walking Words Actions Sufferings all good to be received meditated and fed upon by us all that appertained to him as Crucified for us He is altogether delectable Cant. 5.16 13. They were to Eat it that Night â—â—rs 10. not to leave of it till the Morning To signifie That in this World or dark time of this Life we are to live by the Faith of Christ and exercise Faith in his Death there will be no need of that in the Morning of the Resurrection Heb. 10.38 Gall. 3.25 as also it might signifie That the Ordinance and the rest of those shadows of the Law were but to continue till the day dawned till Christ appeared and was Dead and Raised and then no further need of those observations They were to Eat it with their Loyns Girt â—ers 12. their Shooes on their Feet their Staves in their Hands and in haste in a Posture ready to walk or travel out of Aegypt To imply That in minding and exercising Faith in Christ Crucifyed for us we are to gird up the Loyns of our Minds not to let them be seattered abroad upon vain things but to set them upon Christ and Heaven the true and heavenly Canaan and our Journey or March thither and to have the hope God's Salvation his Word as a Staff for our Support and so to have our Feet shod with the preparations of the Gospel of Peace ready in haste to follow after Christ out of this World from the Power and Dominion of Sin and Satan under Christ's Kingdom Government and Guidance unto the Glory to which He will carry us 15. vers 8. They were to Eat it with
entring his Kingdom here in its Spiritual State is We cannot enter his Kingdom but by being born of God nor further enter into it to be under the Regiment Power and Priviledges of it then as we are born of God namely of God as objectively discovered to us and looked to or known by us they that know thy Name will trust in thee and as efficiently and efficaciously working by his Power and Spirit in us And so Regeneration contains in it Healing Confirming and Conforming too or they may in the place above quoted be referred to the words after it and denote the time when they should receive their Honour and Reward viz. In the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory that is In the time of the Resurrection and so it signifies That the Regeneration is not compleated till the Resurrection when the Body also shall be changed and be found in the Spirit and Glory of Christ But here I do as usually men do in speaking of Regeneration speak of its First Acts Of making a man in Christ The overcoming of the Heart to close with and believe in God and Christ and depend on him and so the infusing the Spirit and Principles of new and heavenly Life into him And so I distinguish it from healing conforming Operations and it 's sometime included in Conversion as the end or ultimate acts in it as Conversion is usually meant of the Souls first turning to God for otherwise Souls after Regeneration falling into actual Sins or sinful frames must be Converted from them but as I said before it properly follows upon the heart turned to behold or look upon God and Christ as presented in his Gospel and it stands in the framing strengthning and overcoming the heart to close with rest in and rely on God in Christ in and through which his Spirit and Power Framing and Creating it in Christ doth enter into it possess and act it for and towards Christ Ephes 2.10 Numb 21.9 2 King 5.14 And this is by a certain creative Power whence that Phrase We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works Somewhat like the healing of the Israelites in their looking to the Serpent of Brass or the healing of Naaman washing in the waters of Jordan and it hath in it 1. A Spiritual quickening or inlivening of the Soul Psal 36.8 in its listening and looking to Christ to living affection to and likement of him and so desire after him through the presentation of the excellency of him as made known to and apprehended by the Soul as Phil. 3.7 2. A Spiritual quickning and strengthening of the Soul through the same Seed of the knowledge or word of Christ cast into the heart to a fleeing or betaking it self for refuge and rest to him and so to close with and hope in him and in God through him Heb. 6 18 19. Psal 9.10 3. A certain Spiritual inlivening of the Soul in him and upon him his mercy Gal. 2.20 goodness power faithfulness love c. and so to an acting in that life infused and put into it both towards God and towards man which the grace seen and believed by it operates works and begets yea and preserves and carries on in it and it unto and in It is set forth in Ezekiel 36.25 26. By the making the Heart and Spirit new by his Spirit and then putting in his Spirit into the Spirit made new the begetting a new judgment bent and disposition in the Soul and a new heart desire love affection toward God and Christ a new will purpose and resolution for him and then a putting his Word Power and Spirit into that Heart and Spirit renewed to live in it feed act and animate it in and for God according to his mind 4. His healing operations are a kin to those Regenerating operations and may be co-incident with his comforting operations too in part they are spoken of as fruits and consequents to Conversion Matth. 13.15 Least they should be converted and I should heal them but by comparing that with Mark 4.12 It includes or stands in the Remission of Sins at least as the necessary mean to it or womb put of which it proceeds for there for healing it is and their sins should be forgiven them Which by way of Metonomy may signifie and take in the consequents of forgiveness also such as 1. The speaking peace to them c. so the quieting pacifying and comforting of the Heart and Conscience in the sight and view of his goodness and knowledge of his love and favour towards it and of the forgiveness of Sins and hope of Happiness in which the heart-broken and disquieted with convincements reproofs and fears is healed 2. A renewing and rectifying the whole man in mind judgment will and affections and conversation sanctifying of him throughout filling him with right wholsome apprehensions and thoughts of God and Christ and himself and all things with right affections to God healing those distempers before in his heart and affections in their out-running after yanities and doting upon Idols taking offence at God and his Truth hateing what should be loved and loving what should either absolutely or comparatively be hated and so healing the passions fears cares anxieties and griefs of mind c. 3. A removing and taking off Wrath and Judgments that might formerly be inflicted on them for their rebellions or stubbornness against him yea and by degrees and in due time taking off altogether the Disease and Judgment that came upon us in Adam and through his Fall the power of natural Corruption â—nd dominion of Sin and the bodily infirmities and Death too in the Resurrection 5. Comforting Operations are in and through his Word or Truth as it is in Christ and by his hand power and spirit working therein and therewith in shewing help and remedy in Christ and in God and causing the Soul to apprehend and see it even suitable helps to all its needs and Exercises and by begetting lively hope in God and Christ for the receipt of that help both under its afflictions and in due time out of them all and by shewing the gracious and good end of God in his afflicting denying crossing suffering or ordering evils to it the lifting up reviving and chearing of the heart and spirit and maintaining the chearfulness and comfort of it in God as in John 14. He comforted the hearts of his Disciples by and through presenting to them God and his goodness towards them as an object therefore worthy to be believed in by them and himself as a constant lover of them that as well went away from them for their good as came and staid with them even for their helpfulness and salvation that he would send them another Comforter who also and more fully should comfort them by leading them into the Truth causing them to understand the Truths he now spake to them and giving them to
the Earth But SECT 5. How and in what sense the foresaid operations of hardning blinding c. are Attributed unto God and how he worketh in and unto them LEt us view now how or after what manner God may be said to harden blind deceive men and turn their heart to hate his people as Psal 105.25 tho that might be rendred their heart returned to hate his people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Exod. 14.5 Their heart was turned against the People Seeing it is said That God is not a God that hath pleasure in iniquity he hates the workeâ— of it Psal 5.4 5. Ezek. 33.11 and he himself swears that he hath no pleasure in the Death of the wicked namely that they should continue in their Sins and dye but rather that they should turn and live Surely they are not his operations properly and directly aâ— those of his mercy in drawing men to himself and framing them to his mind 〈◊〉 but by a kind of indirect permissive accidental operation as the Sun may be said to cause darkness by leaving the Horizon or to make men blind that look against it and not by it or the like 〈◊〉 yet they are ascribed to God because against his will setting it self to hindâ— them effectively they could not be wrought or because also it is with 〈◊〉 will as a just and righteous thing that such things as hardness blindness deceâ— should befal them for their punishment by running therethrough upon their own Calamities and because they are occasioned by something properly and directly wrought and done by him we may say that by such ways as these God may be said to do them 1. By permitting leaving and giving to men to themselves and to their own imaginations and lusts to be hardned by them not giving forth his grace any further as to such and such a particular or in a total hardning not at all to hinder and keep them back from such hardness and blindness but letting them have their wills and liberty to follow after their â—wn devices and purposes and so to run themselves into desperate stiffness of heart against God and his counsels as in Psal 81.11.14 Israel would none of me So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels And so the Gentiles becoming vain in their own imaginations and not likeing to retain or have God in their Knowledge God give them up to vile affections and to a mind void of Judgment Rom. 1.21 25 26 28. And so as the Sun going from us causes darkness so Christ who is the Light of the World hiding himself from a people it follows upon it Joh. 12.39 40 42. that their â—ryes are blinded and he hath blinded their eyes namely by taking away his Light from them not by imparting or â—utting malice into them but by withdrawing his mercy from them as Augustine well says Non impartiendo malitiam sed non impertiendo misericordiam 2. By giving leave and commission permissively to Satan to enter into them as it were and possess them with lying and false imaginations hopes and fears and so to deceive Job 1. and blind and harden them So the Lord took away all that Job had by permitting 2 Sam. 24.11 with 1 Chron. 21.1 1 King 22.20 21 22 23. and giving leave to Satan to do it And he is said to have moved David against Israel to say Go number the people in letting Satan provoke David to it So he hardned Ahabs heart by giving leave or commission to a lying Spirit to intice him to go to Ramoth Gilead by promising him by the mouth of his false Prophets success and prosperity in his so doing And he may be said to have deceived those Prophets not by his Spirit dictating any deceit to them far be it from us so to Blaspheme him but by giving way and leave to the False Spirit to enter into them and deceive them as in the same way he is said to send men strong Delusions that they may believe a lye c. namely by letting Satan who is forward to such work 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. if permitted bring strong Delusions to men and insinuate them into their sancies as he might be said to * Mark 5.12 13. with Math. 8.31 32. Luk. 8.32 33. send the unclean Spirit into the Herd of Swine when upon their desire of it he gave them leave to go 3. By ordering such good and holy Providences to men as by which their hearts especially if left to themselves and Satan will take occasion to harden â—lind and stiffen themselves in their resolutions for Sin and against God So his very suffering the Magicians to do such â—ings by their Inchantments as Moses and â—aron did by his Finger or ordering Moses and Aaron to do such things as they could do the like occasion'd Pharaoh to 〈◊〉 light by those Judgments yea his gradous readiness to remove the Judgment and give respite to Pharaoh so easily at his promise of doing better and intreaty of Moses to pray for him hardned â—baraoh ' heart or rather as the Apostle says Rom. 2.4 5. He after his hardness and impenitency despising or looking overly upon God's easiness to be intreated and so upon his goodness and long-suffering which should have moved him to Repentance hardned his heart against God and treaâ—red up wrath to himself against a day of Wrath according to that in Psal 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a me as thy self c. And that in Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil doer is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Sons of Men is fully set that is is hardned and made obstinate in them to do evil So that accidentally and eventually God's goodness and forbearance to them hardens them and blinds them because they take boldness thence-through their wickedness to presume to Sin yet more and becoming 〈◊〉 in their imaginations blind themselves and are made uncertain whither God dislike their ways or not or whither there be any God or providence of God because he doth not punish the evil of their ways Again by ordering Israel to march through the Wilderness where according to probability it might be thought they would be intangled and so by ordering a kind of Tryal to Pharaoh whether by all his fore-past Judgments he would yet stand in awe of him seeing he would yet hold fast his covetous design of enriching himself by their bondage He also permitted Satan to put into his heart such a thought that now he might have a good advantage to force them back and so he was strengthned and animated to pursue after them to his Destruction And so God turned the hearts of the Aegyptians to hate his people by ordering such blessings and multiplication to his People as provoked them being evil to envy and fear them and then permitting them
general ordinary way or Medium in and with which the power of God is put forth and operates both for bringing in men to himself and keeping them with himself unto eternal life is the discovery or makiâ—â—own of his Name Power goodne◠〈◊〉 And this in the more clear mean◠〈◊〉 making known his Son distinctly 〈◊〉 love in him to mankind or to the wâ— and so to those souls that he works up◠〈◊〉 To which the Law convincing of sin 〈◊〉 â—ching the knowledg of it with all repâ—â—s and chastisements and judgments are but subordinate and superadded means to drive the Soul to take a more ready view of his foresaid Love Goodness Name c. And all the ordinances and commands of duties but either appointments of and injunctions to ways in which his Name and Son are to be sought and soon that being brought in to him he might justify us and be our righteousness or else to witness to and glorify his Name in word or conversation 1 John 4.19 Rom. 1.16 17. and 2.4 5. Psal 9 10. and 36.7 8 9. Rom. 10.17 and 15.9 10 11 12. John 3.3.5.14 15 16 17. and 1.12 13. Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. Philip 1.27 And therefore they that darken and render doubtfull to men the love pity and good will of God in Christ towards them and readiness to save them through him and put men to seek to find it out by their endeavours after works and frames serve not God therein nor do they profit men but are instruments rather in the hand of Sathan to hurt and hinder them Nor are such rightly begotten to or born of God who not believing but neglecting the name of God and his â—ve and good will in Christ to mankin◠〈◊〉 so towards themselves have their hâ—â—wards God begot and Sprung up and â—ed in them from the conceit and â—deration of any frames changes act◠〈◊〉 and endeavours of their own but are â—dren of the Bondwoman Acts 2 8. 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.8 Jam. 1.18 19. Gal. 4.22 23 24. c. Luke 18.10 11 12. Math. 23.13 Isa 28.12 13 14 15 16 17. and 29. 9 10 11 12 13. Psal 118.22 2 Cor. 4.4 1 Thes 2.16 with 2.4 5 6 7. Rom. 9.30 31. and 10.1 2 3. 12. That those who are begotten and born to God in and by the discoveries of himself his Name and goodness in Christ to mankind so as that through his love to them while sinners and ungodly their hearts are overcome to hope in him and love him and so to yield up themselves to him to be his and to live to him they are the Children of God and of the promise the called according to his purpose the Elect and fore known ones whom he hath praedestinated or fore-ordained in Christ and through him to be conformed to him and his image in sufferings and in glory And accordingly such he hath used to call forth to service and sufferings for him and in their faithfulness therein hath justifyed and approved them and afterwards glorifyed them and so he will yet do which may animate such lovers of him for his love to hold them fast by him in all their sufferings either from o◠〈◊〉 him as knowing they are ordained o◠〈◊〉 thereto for their conforming to him 〈◊〉 1.12 13. and 3.3.5.14 15 16. 〈◊〉 3.7 8.9.26 27 28 29. Rom. 9. 〈◊〉 8.28 29 30 31 32. c. 1 Thes 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.21 Isa 50.8.9 Jam. 5. 〈…〉 Heb. 11.39 40. and 12.1 2 〈◊〉 Thus for the positions SECT 3. Some brief hints of uses of the foregoing Treatise and first of the first branch thereof WHat we have hitherto say'd in this treatise may be diversly usefull And first that which we have noted â—bout the Gospel doctrine as to the faith hope obedience and terrours of it may serve Vse 1 1. First to inform us of and instruct us into 1. The great love mercy pity and good will of God to us and to all men both as men made by him and more abundantly as and notwithstanding fallen from him in Adam and so become in our selves miserable corrupt loathsom and the great grace of our Lord Jesus towards us in so abasing himself at the will and appointment of the Father for us the great price he hath set upon us and provision made for us for our Salvation and happiness In this was manifested the love of God to us that he sent his only begotten Son into the â—woâ— that we might live through him In 〈◊〉 do men waving this demonstration 〈◊〉 seek to know it some other way by â—ing into themselves and indeavour◠〈◊〉 to frame themselves to love him 〈◊〉 is love not that we loved him 〈◊〉 â—he loved us and sent his only begoâ— Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.9 10. And ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that he being rich became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich 2 Cor. 8.9 So that therein also is discovered to us good ground given us in him of looking to and hoping in him and of loving of and living to him that hath done prepared and set before us so greaâ— things as the word of truth speaks of having not spared his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 He dyed for all that they that live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5.15 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them we pray you in Christs stead therefore be ye reconciled unto God ver 19 20. See also Rom. 12.1 2. The wretchedness and misery of our condition by nature who needed such a remedy to be made and provided for us and so the odiousness of our sins both of that sin of Adam and of us all in him and the sinfulness thence contracted and much more yet of continuing in sin against him after and notwithstanding such mercy and kindness shewed us for our redemption and so also the deadness of us through sin both as to the sentence of the law pronouncing us dead and condemned men and the utter deadness of our selves in our powers to help and remedy our selves and one another yea such deadness as no creature power in our selves or in Heaven or Earth could raise us out of it which is clearly seen in the cross of Christ in that he dyed for us all to save and revive us The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead That we were all sentenced to death appears in this that he that came to succour us was fain to dye for us And that we were so wholly lost and dead in our selves as to our helping our selves from under that sentence is seen in this that such a one as Christ was fain to undertake it and perform the Redemption of us
even by his own Death and sufferings which concludes against all flesh yea against the ability of all creatures to have helpt us much more against our own sufficiency to have helped our selves for if there had been a law that could have given life then doubtless God would have spared his Son and righteousness should have been by that Law if either our sins had not been infinitely displeasing unto God but that he could have passed them by without any great satisfaction to his truth and holiness and to his righteous law Or if we or any other creature for us could have helpt us or given the satisfaction requisite he would not have taken such a course for our deliverance But in this glass iâ— seen at once both sins hainousness and mans helplesness yea Gods infinite power love and goodness toward us yea and further our deadness in our selves to help or animate our selves and so the falseness of that conception that man hath free will by nature to any Spiritual good or that such a conceit or opinion springeth from the bowels of such a doctrine as makes Gods good will to be towards all men and Christs Death for all is hereby plainly discovered also for if we by nature had or have any such sparks or principes of life and liberty to what purpose was it that Christ dyed for us to procure into himself for us in the nature of man the power and Spirit of God that living therein he might call and quicken us and cause the dead to hear his voyce that in hearing they might live John 5 25. So that no doctrine so clearly bears witness against man that he is dead in sins and trespasses by nature and hath no sufficiency of himself as of himself so much as to think a good thought as that doth upon which the odium of the contrary conception is usually but falsely fastened we thus judge not as the denyers of those truths infer that if one dyed for all then all must needs be eternally saved but with the Apostles that if one dyed for all then were all deâ—d 2 Cor. 5.14 3. The unspeakableness and certainty both of the happiness of all those that accept of this Grace of God Submit to him and seek their Righteousness and Salvation in and through Christ seeing he hath done so much for all while Sinners that men through him might be Saved And his Son is such a Mighty Merciful and Compleat Saviour as hath been shewed set up on purpose that whosoever Believes in him might assuredly be saved and have everlasting Life John 3.14 15 16 17. and 6.40 Rom. 5.9 10. and 8.32 33 34 c. And also of the Misery and Destruction of all that after all this done for them reject and rebel against him and persist so doing till the day of Grace be out with them In as much as they despise the riches of God's goodness and forbearance that is leading men to repentance and after their impenitent hearts treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath c. Yea are guilty of treading under foot the Son of God counting the Blood of the Covenant shed for their sanctifying an unholy thing and do despite to the Spirit of Grace And therefore as on the one hand if being enemies he hath reconciled us to himself by the death of his Son Faith leads us to reason or infer how shall we not much more be saved by his life so on the other hand it leads to say How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation And of how much forer punishment than Death without mercy as the Law inflicted on the despisers of it shall he be counted worthy of who hath trampled under foot Christ and done such indignities to God and to his Grace as were before mentioned Rom. 2.4 5. and 5.9 10. Psal 68.19 20 21. Heb. 2.3 4. and 10.26 27 28 29. and 12.25 c. Vse 2 2. Again It may move provoke and incourage us to many things As 1. With thankfulness and gladness of heart to receive the tydings of so great Grace and acknowledge it and bless God for it and for all procured for us and streamed forth to us Acts 8.8 Psal 100. and 117. 1 Tim. 1.15 2. To betake our selves to him in Christ to seek him wait upon him hope in him yeild up our selves to him in the obedience of faith and love required of us by him Be reconciled to him Deny ungodliness and worldly lusts living soberly righteously godly in this present evil World living to him that dyed for us and rose again both in our bodies and spirits which are his being bought with so great a price as the Death and Blood of his Son to glorifie and serve him with all chearfulness and faithfulness pressing after the hope set before us in him and taking heed that we incur not those terrors or terrible judgments of the Lord prepared for scorners that that Doctrin presents us with to warn us of sin and arm us against and deter us from sin Isa 55.1 to the 7th Psal 100. 2 Cor. 5.10 11 15 19 20 21. and 6.1 2. Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. Heb. 12.15 16 17 25 28 29. 3. To exercise Love and Charity to others both as it evidenceth such love and goodness in God towards our selves more unworthy of it from him than any others can be of love from us and as it evidences them loved and pitied of him even when yet sinners and unconverted and in a possibility of salvation So it leads us to be followers of God pitying the ignorant and those out of the way and indeavouring their helpfulness as he hath and doth pity help us and hath provided help for them and is graciously extending means of it unto them also embracing and owning those that embrace and own him as we our selves and they are embraced by him doing good to all but chiefly to those of the houshold of Faith and not to retain such a selfish and Cainish disposition as to say Am I my Brothers keeper So be it I know Christ dyed for me what need I care for knowing whether he dyed for my neighbour as if my neighbours welfare pertained nothing to me yea and furnisheth us with matter of truth and goodness to propound to them in all cases both for instructing them in knowledge what to believe and how to walk and for incouraging them in the way of faith and obedience by minding them what they may expect and shall meet with therein and for comforting them in distress and admonishing and warning them of and reproving them for sin and wickedness propounding Gospel Terrours to them without turning them to the Law of Works 1 Joh. 4.9 10 11 12. Eph. 5.1 2. 2 Cor. 5.10 11 14 15 16 19 20 21. Prov. 22.17 18 19 20. And so Vse 3 3. It is also a good Directory to Preachers what to hold forth to the People both for matter of and motive to Faith