is that holy thing which was born of the Blessed Virgin and is truly called the Son of God and this Son of God is very God the Son incarnate Luke 1.35 Joh. 1.1 14 18. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever after Incarnation as before and before as after Heb. 13.8 with this cautious meaning Before Incarnation he was Jesus Christ as from Eternity purposed in time to be incarnate After Incarnation he is the same Jesus Christ as incarnate according to that Purpose If he be at all compounded then he is not simply Christ and then he is a Deceiver For Simple and Compounded are contraries as Light and Darkness Truth and Falshood If Christ consist of Parts then he is not simply impartial and then he cannot judge the World in Righteousness but must needs approve Murder in David and condemn it in Cain which is Blasphemy The Manhood of Christ is not one part or one half of Christ but it is Christ himself considered as Man And the Godhead of Christ is Christ himself considered as God and yet he is but one Person but one Christ and the Nature of Christ as he is God manifest in the Flesh and the Word made Flesh is but one admitting of just Conception but no Parts and Composition Error 2. All things in Nature are reducible to ten Predicaments of which Relation is one Confut. All things in Nature are reducible to one which one is God of whom and through whom and to whom are all things and this God is our God for ever and ever Rom. 11.36 Psal 48.14 Thus Relation is all in all as being the Nature of God the Father not incarnate the Son incarnate the Holy Ghost not incarnate essentially and yet freely related to all Elect Angels and Men as their God and Portion for ever Error 3. There are four distinct Causes of Justification of Satisfaction for Sin of the Sacraments c. the efficient the material the formal and the final Cause Confut. All Cause touching Religion and Life eternal is either principal or supream or instrumental and subservient And the principal and supream Cause is superlatively and transcendently material and of greatest importance to our Faith and eternal Welfare the Cause of Causes even all in all As to Worldly Science common to us and Heathens there is matter and form distinct But as to Heavenly Science by Faith which Heathens have not there is no such distinction For Heavenly Science by Faith consisteth not in Form but in Power 2 Tim. 3.5 not in Shew and Appearance but in Truth and Reality Rom. 2.20 It is one and the same thing which is the beginning and the end the first and the last the efficient and the final Cause yet not in the same respects Rom. 11.36 Rev. 22.13 Error 4. The Will of Man is effentially free and essentially a Rational Appetite Confut. The Will of Man is essentially rational and intellectual◠but neither essentially free nor essentially an Appetite For if it be essentially free then there can be no Hell And if it be essentially an Appetite then there can be no Heaven Damned Men are Men and in them is perfect intellectual human Will as to natural Substance but no free Will. They cannot be holy and happy if they would Luke 16.26 All Freedom and Liberty is either temporal or eternal in the Damned is neither they cannot but implacably hate God and will Annihilation rather than eternal Damnation In the state of perfect Felicity there shall be in all blessed Men perfect rational and intellectual Will but no Appetite no Desire no Wish no want of any good thing but perfect Satisfaction Rest and Pleasure for ever Psal 17.15 Error 5. The Divine Law is twofold of Works and of Faith or the old and the new Law. Confut. The Divine Law is but one as God the Author of it is one admitting of just Conception but no Division The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 Here the Law and Grace as also Moses and Christ are opposed yet not as contraries but as divers not as Satan and Christ but as subservient and supream Moses as God's Minister delivers the Law by which is the knowledg of Sin and Condemnation due for the same to all the natural Off-spring of fallen Adam And thus the Ministry of Moses and the Law as distinct from and relatively opposed to the Grace of the Gospel in Christ is a killing Letter and the Ministration of Death and Condemnation by reason of Sin in us 2 Cor. 3.6 7 8 9 10. The Law and Moses is not Jesus Christ they cannot purchase for us and bestow on us Gospel-repentance Pardon of Sin Peace of Conscience and eternal Redemption This is utterly above Moses and the Law as distinct from Christ by themselves to effect But now Jesus Christ as distinct from and relatively opposed to Moses and the Law is very God the Son incarnate the Word made Flesh Joh. 1.14 and as such is Mediator and as Mediator he doth purchase the Church with his own Blood and doth obtain for and freely bestow on Abel Peter and the rest of the Elect heavenly Righteousness Faith Repentance Pardon of Sin Perseverance and eternal Redemption These are the highest Blessings and Priviledges in respect whereof Christ as Mediator is to be worshipped with supream Worship otherwise he is a meer Man nothing differing from Moses and our whole Faith is a Lie. Thus the Law and the Gospel are distinct and Faith in Christ doth not abolish but doth establish God's Law Rom. 3.31 Psal 19. and Psal 119. CHAP. XVII Of the Ministry and Church-Discipline 1. THere may be a Church where is no Minister or Pastor but there cannot be a Church without a just esteem of Pastors and Ministers and care to have one where one is wanting Where two or three are gathered together in Christ's Name there is he in the midst of them And where is Christ the Head 〈◊〉 Saints his Members by Faith and Invocation there is a Church both Name and Thing tho there be no Pastor or Minister But those may not be said to be gathered together in Christ's Name who disesteem and contemn Pastors and Ministers 2. Where Ordination may be had consistent with Faith and Piety there it is to be had and they who invade the Ministerial Office without it have no due Call from God he never sent them such Persons do greatly offend against the Order and Unity of God's Church and chosen People and are not to be owned and countenanced in their evil way Where Ordination cannot be had consistent with Faith and Piety there it is not to be had There if a Door be opened for preaching the Gospel one not ordained being able for the Work and faithful may preach baptize give the Lord's Supper and do the whole Ministerial Office with purpose to have Ordination so soon as with Faith and Piety it can
Men specially of them that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 3. Christ considered as God hath no Office but is above Office yet not contrary to it Christ considered as Man hath indeed an Office and but one From his Conception to his Birth thence to his Death Burial and Resurrection thence to his Ascension and Sitting at God's right Hand in Glory thence to his coming to judg the World all this is but one entire office of Christ as Man admitting of just Conception but no Division His Office as Man is to be subservient to himself as God in the work of Redemption this one comprizeth all 4. Christ as Man obedient unto Death is our Pattern and Example a real Martyr and the Prince of Martyrs he discharged his own Debt and Duty and not ours and evangelically merited for himself not for us all that Glory and Reward which as Man he hath for ever at God's right Hand Christ considered as God incarnate is not our Pattern nor a Martyr but infinitely above us he is our Lord and our God our Saviour and Redeemer our Ransom and Atonement for Sin through Faith our All in all he merited nothing for himself but all for us Without shedding of Blood is no Remission And therefore Christ as Man died for Sins yet not his own but ours not as deserving his Death but as deserving our Death and he as Man in obedience to God and out of love to us died for us one Man for all Men as fallen in Adam and so became a Propitiation and Counterprize for the Sin of the whole World yet not without Faith For he that believeth not makes God a Lyar is condemned already and God's Wrath abideth on him 1 Joh. 5.10 Joh. 3.18 36. The obedience of Christ was not two active and passive but simply one as Christ is one As to Eternity the opposition is not between active and passive but between active and idle passive and being at ease Christ as Man nailed to the Cross and pierced with a Spear was invisibly active for God and our eternal Good and not idle And yet in the fame instant he was visibly passive in great pain and not at ease His Death was indeed the most eminent proof of his obedience to God and love to us But still it was obedience and therefore pleasing to God and truly meritorious because it was so For no suffering of Man as distinct from obedience can please God and profit the Soul and merit heavenly Reward 5. Had God not saved fallen Man at all he had done him no wrong but then he had been conscious to himself of going contrary to his own eternal Purpose For from Eternity God the Son was purposed to permit the Fall of Man to be incamate and as Man to dye for Sin and so to enter into Glory and thus to save fallen Man by Christ through Faith and not otherwise This supposed God could not but save fallen Man this only way and yet he thus saved him most freely and willingly and not as constrained and under Law to a Superior And the true reason why the Incarnation doth not change and compound God is because it is the exact fulfilling of his own eternal Purpose Which Purpose if he had not in time fulfilled then indeed he had been changed and compounded of Yea and Nay and had not been himself Yea and Amen the same for ever 2 Cor. 1.17 18 19 20. Eph. 3.9 10 11. The work of Christ as Mediator is to reconcile Sinners to God. When this is fully done and all Sin is for ever abolished and God and Men are no longer two divided by Sin but one in perfect Love then shall the Mediatorship of Christ cease and have an end as being fully accomplished As when the Wound is perfectly healed there is no further need of Plaisters The change is not in Christ but in us 1 Cor. 15.24 25 26 27 28. CHAP. IV. Of the Nature of God. 1. WE cannot rightly conceive of God without diversity and distinction and we may admit of no diversity and distinction repugnant to infinite Unity and Perfection Unity and Diversity are well consistent but not Unity and Division 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. God is for ever good to those in Heaven yet just but not severe And he is for ever severe to those in Hell yet just but not good For the opposition is not between Goodness and Justice nor between Severity and Justice but between Goodness and Severity Rom. 11.22 Therefore the divine Goodness as such is not the divine Severity Nor the divine Severity as such the divine Goodness They are most really and not chymerically truly and not feignedly eternally and not temporally divers and distinct and thus all in God is not God. But then what is Goodness to those in Heaven through God's abundant Grace in Christ the same is Severity to those in Hell through their own Sin And what is Severity to those in Hell through their own Sin the same is Goodness to those in Heaven through God's abundant Grace in Christ and thus all in God is God without accident parts and composition and he is truly all in all Not as excluding the Creature and subordinate Causes but the Creature and subordinate Causes as such consist by and depend on God and yet they add nothing to him they do not make him more wise holy just good powerful perfect blessed Of Him through Him and to Him are all things He is simply perfect and unto what is simply perfect there can be no addition God cannot be beholden to us 2. God is a pure Act eternally active and in no instant idle and God being one the divine Act must needs be one Creation Sustentation Gubernation of Angels and Men Incarnation Redemption Regeneration Justification and the like these are neither immanent nor translent Acts of God but Effects produced by God after the Counsel of his own Will which is the same for ever and can have no new Act. The things produced by God are numberless in them is Order Succession Priority and Posteriority dependence of one thing upon another But in God by whom they are unsearchably produced there is no Number no Order no successive Moments and Instants nothing before and after no dependence at all but unsearchable Unity Diversity Eternity Independency Truth Simplicity Goodness Perfection and Excellency above Number Order Time and all that we can conceive yet not repugnant thereto Angels and Men are dependent Beings and not having Blessedness in themselves they go out of themselves by heavenly Self-denial and seek it in God in whose good Will and Pleasure they rest and terminate as their beginning and end their all in all and so they are happy But God being simply independent true and Truth it self cannot deny and go out of himself for any thing that he hath a mind to effect It is but his Omnipotent Word let this or that be and it is when and how he would have it
known in the World 'till Sin brought it in Adam in Innocency was not a Slave but a Son even the Son of God Luke 3.38 And his Obedience was not servile and from meer Fear but it was Filial and with perfect love to God as his most good and bountiful Maker altogether lovely to such as love and be like unto him in heavenly Innocency and never forsaking them 'till first they forsake him The Law of Works considered as subservient to Life eternal is not the Law of Works but the Law of Faith in the Hearts of godly Men in Christ Jesus The Law of Works considered as repugnant to Life eremal is not the Law of God but the Law of Sin and Death in the Hearts of ungodly Men Rom. 3.27 Heb. 8.10 Rom. 8.2 4. Adam began to be the Figure of Christ Rom. 5.14 the Head of Mankind and a publick Person not 'till after his Sin Repentance and Pardon when God gave him Children and thereby made him the first Parent and so a Head and Root to all his lineal Off-spring in a natural way to his own Children immediately to the rest of the World remotely For look as the first Adam doth by natural Generation communicate human Nature to all his lineal Off-spring and begetteth Sons and Daughters in his own Likeness after his Image whereby they differ in kind from Brutes So the second Adam Christ Jesus doth by supernatural Regeneration communicate divine and heavenly Nature to all his spiritual Off-spring and begetteth Sons and Daughters like unto God in Righteousness and true Holiness whereby they differ in kind from the ungodly World. The whole Off-spring of Adam doth justly suffer temporal Punishment for his first Sin For in Adam all die 1 Cor. 15.22 Rom. 5.12 Temporal Punishment is well consistent with eternal Joy. But Punishment eternal no one can possibly suffer save for his own Sin never truly repented of 5. God considered as Law-giver doth neither will Sin nor permit it but doth simply nill hate and forbid it and doth all that in him lies to prevent it and the eternal ruine of all both Angels and Men. God considered as above Law yet not contrary to it doth innocently uphold Angels and Men in natural Being while they do of their own accord sin against him And so he doth after a wonderful and unsearchable manner willingly permit Sin and he wills his own Permission of it but he doth not will Sin For all that God doth will he doth will perfectly and without all deceit If God do thus will Sin then he must needs love and be Author of it as truly as he is of Holiness Which is very Blasphemy CHAP. VI. Of Justification 1. JUstification and Righteousness is either Legal or Evangelical Legal is that in the Consciences of the Damned So far as when on Earth they did well refrained from Sin spake Truth and were useful to human Society God by Conscience his Agent in their Bosom will for ever justify and acquit them and lay nothing to their Charge But because they were ungodly and never soundly repented had in them transcendent Vice held it fast to the last in their Hearts and took it with them into Eternity therefore the same Conscience in their Bosom cannot but against their Will for ever justify and acquit God and filence and condemn themselves Evangelical Justification and Righteousness is that by Faith in the Consciences of the Elect. God for the sake of Christ doth by the Gospel through Faith freely and fully pardon all their Sins acquit and set them free from Guilt eternal and from all Curse and Punishment legally due for Sin and then through the same Faith doth regenerate and sanctify them and doth inwardly sentence pronounce judge and esteem them to be what really by his Grace they are truly penitent perfectly pardoned evangelically just and worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven for Christ's sake 2. In Justification by Faith God doth of unjust make us inwardly just but not sinless so as was Adam before his Fall or as the Saints now in Heaven are But the most holy Man while on Earth hath Sin in him and sinneth in all he doth which Sin according to legal Justice deserves Damnation but not according to Justice Evangelical for it is sincerely repented of and so it is not imputed to us but fully pardoned for Christ's sake The eternal Penalty is pardoned and that being abolished all other Penalty becomes medicinal and sanctified and as sanctified it is not Penalty but Priviledg and Gain to the Soul and as such is truly eligible and desirable by a wise Man tho as it is irksom and painful to Nature so it is not desirable but patiently to be born 3. Between Justification and forgiveness of Sin there is this romarkable difference A finless Person may be justified but a sinless Person cannot be pardoned A sinless Person may be falsly accused and by just Sentence cleared and acquitted from that false Charge and so justified Thus God himself is justified but God cannot be pardoned Psal 51.4 Rom. 3.4 Luke 7.29 35. 1 Tim. 3.16 It will for ever remain true that David once was a Sinner a Murderer an Adulterer but as now he is in Heaven he is by Grace for ever sinless and impeccable and so is above Pardon and cannot need it as the whole need not the Physician Justified he may and shall be for ever and most solemnly before all at the day of Judgment but pardoned he cannot be Sin once done cannot by it self be undone but by Grace Evangelical giving us Repentance and Pardon through Faith it may and really is undone and unsinned 4. The Righteousness of God in Christ is through Faith really imputed to us and inherent in us and it could not at all be imputed to us were it not by Faith inherent in us In renouncing all our own Righteousness as dung and loss that we may have compleat and eternal Righteousness even the Righteousness which is of God by Faith in Christ it is manifest that we do not renounce our very renouncing and our very Faith in Christ In order of Nature we are first acquitted and set free from Guilt eternal through Faith this is Gospel-justification Afterward yet in the same instant as to time and through the same Faith we are regenerated and sealed with the holy Spirit we love God and do good Works this is Sanctification Eph. 1.13 Thus Justification by Faith is the rise and spring of Sanctification Articulus stantis cadentis Ecclesiae they are truly distinct and yet not asunder while on Earth 5. Evangelical Justification may be considered two ways either as a Gift or as a Reward Considered as a Gift so it is simply free and freely given of God in Christ by the Gospel and no way merited by us but we by Faith do humbly penitently fiducially obediently thankfully and stedfastly receive it and it becomes ours And thus from first to last we are justified by
not then the Infant will outlive the State of Infancy and will live and die ungodly and perish in which Case his Baptism will be an everlasting Witness against him it being supposed that his Conscience was privy to it Baptism is a Seal of the Covenant of Grace which Covenant importeth God's Purpose to give Perseverance and Salvation to all the Regenerate and to Regenerate such and so many as he from Eternity foresees will by his Grace and Free-gift sincerely believe And yet while Unregenerate they are in a State of Damnation As to Life Temporal and Humane Society on Earth ungodly Men have Power over their own Will and Liberty to act or not to act as themselves list and they can if they will refrain from all Sin outwardly and do all Good outwardly and be blameless before Men. But as to Life Eternal and Heavenly Conversation they have no Power they are dead in Sin under the Power of Satan their Power is Impotency Sin hath Dominion over them they are not Lords but Slaves and lorded over by their Lusts and if God shall not prevent them with his Heavenly Grace it is certain that they will never deserve it Therefore the first step to Salvation is holy Despair thereof by all that we of our selves can do without God's eternal Grace in Christ And look what is First in Divinity that same is Last even All in All. CHAP. XIII Of the Lord's Supper 1. LOok as all in God is God without Parts and Composition So all in the Lord's Supper is the Lord's Supper Considered as a Supper so the whole is visible Food for the Belly eaten and drunk with the Mouth outwardly Considered as the Lord's Supper so the whole is invisible Food for the Soul eaten and drunk with the Heart inwardly There may be the Lord's Supper without saving Belief but not without Belief For he that believeth not makes God a Liar and by Consequence the Sacrament a Lie also 1 Joh. 5.10 2. There is no Change at all of the Elements by Consecration but only Religious Use If the Religious Use of Things do necessarily infer a Change in the Things used then God must needs be changed and then he is not God. We use God's Name religiously and God's Name is God Himself as named by this or that Name Jehovah Lord God. I am the Lord that is my Name Isa 42.8 What Change is by Consecration is in the Communicants not at all in the Elements Consecration importeth in all Godly Communicants a real Heavenly Change as to Conversation Conversion from Sin to God they are new Creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 This heavenly Change they evidence exercise and shew forth at the Lord's Table in religious partaking of the Elements in Remembrance of Christ crucified All Change in the Elements by Consecration is simply repugnant to intellectual Sense in all Men and is therefore simply incredible 3. These Words This is my Body as understood without Christian Faith are false and absurd But as understood through Christian Faith they are indeed mysterious yet Superlatively plain true apt and proper The Lord's Supper is truly a Figure as is Baptism 1 Pet. 3.21 yet not a Verbal and Rhetorical Figure common to Us and Heathens but a Divine Celestial and Mysterious Figure instituted by Christ and not understood without Christian Belief which Heathens have not In Points that concern us as Men in common with all the World Christ spake with the Vulgar and so as to be understood of very Heathens But in Points mysterious and Supernatural as is the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper he spake above the Vulgar and so as not to be understood aright without Faith which Heathens have not Ungodly Communicants considered as Ungodly do not eat Christ's Body but inwardly contemn and shut their Hearts against it And thus their partaking doth differ in kind from the inward partaking of the Godly But Ungodly Communicants considered as Communicants do with their Mouth outwardly eat the Bread which is really and not chimerically yet sacramentally and symbolically the Body of Christ no less than do Godly Communicants outwardly And thus their partaking is the same for kind with the partaking of the Godly 1 Cor. 10.1 2 3 4 5. 4. Unto worthy Communicants the Lord's Supper is the Communion of the Lord's Body and Blood the holy Memorial of his Death heavenly Nourishment for the Soul a sure Pledge Seal Sign and Token of Pardon of Sin Perseverance and Life eternal and a Divine Engagement to Watchfulness and holy Fear of Apostacy No Godly Man doth partake unworthily he may partake not so worthily as some do but the least degree of true Godliness doth produce a degree of worthy communicating differing but in measure and degree from the most Godly Communicants Unto unworthy Communicants the Lord's Supper through their own Sin is a Seal of their Damnation if they die without sound Repentance And in the mean time it layeth a Divine Bond and Engagement upon them instantly to repent If their Repentance by God's eternal Decree be future then the Lord's Supper is a Divine Sign and Seal that it is future If their Repentance be not future then they will die in their Sins and perish and will remember with eternal Self-tormenting Anguish in Hell their partaking without Godly Sincerity Those who contend that Men Unregenerate sin less in not coming than in coming to the Lord's Table do yet expresly grant But yet they that do come unworthily and unwarrantably do find that there which tendeth to their Conversion and frequently effecteth it Mr. B. in his Disputations of Right to Sacraments pag. 31 32. And they who contend that the Unregenerate sin less in coming than in not coming do yet hold and contend that the Persons so come must be adult baptized orthodox and not heretical free from enormous Crimes and Scandals before Men. The bare Elements as distinct from the Word can neither convert nor confirm But the Word as distinct from the Elements and giving being to the whole Sacramental Service may through God's Grace prove effectual for sound Conversion of the Unconverted and certainly will be effectual for building up of the Converted 5. The Flesh and Manhood of Christ is under God the prime instrumental Cause of Life eternal to the Godly in all Ages through Faith As such his Flesh is heavenly Meat and his Blood is heavenly Drink and we through Faith do really and not chimerically spiritually and not corporally eat and drink it What is eaten in that it is eaten must be really present For no Man can eat a thing that is absent There is Relation between the Manhood of Christ and the whole intellectual World as between sole Supream under God and Subjects This Relation is real and not imaginary eternal and not temporal From Eternity it was future and it remains to Eternity by the free Pleasure of God. What is eternal is truly infinite above all Predicaments and consequently above Time and Place
be had An open Door is the necessities and willingness of the People with protection or connivance of the Magistrate if possible 3. In Ordination God in Christ confers the whole Office as principal and supream by his Word And the Person or Persons ordaining confer the whole Office as instrumental and subordinate Therefore it is not in the power of Men to ordain whom and how they please because they ordain not as Lords but as Stewards they have no power touching this matter but what is simply ministerial subordinate and dependent If therefore God's Word for substance do not go along with the Ordination it is null and void and the same holds good as to Suspending Degrading Silencing and Prohibiting of Ministers from doing the Ministerial Work. Every Minister to be ordained ought to be a faithful Man and able to teach others also 2 Tim. 2.1 For which cause those unto whom it pertaineth to ordain and impose Hands ought to use all possible Care and Circumspection and to lay Hands suddenly on none without due Exploration He may be a valid and justly authorized Minister who is not truly Godly And yet he that is not truly godly can have no sound Comfort in his Ministry as being in a state of Damnation his Ministry may profit others tho not himself But yet all Care is to be used that Persons to be ordained be truly godly so far as Man can judg and that also they be able to teach the People and by good Doctrine guide Souls in the way to Heaven 4. No Power on Earth may impose a Minister upon a People against their just liking For what is against Justice is against God. And no People may refuse a Minister tho unjustly imposed on them when they cannot without general inconvenience and hazard of the publick Peace remedy themselves For of two Evils the lesser is to be chosen Provided the imposed Minister be Orthodox and not Heretiâ—â—â— tolerable and competently able for the Work in some measure But Heretical Schismatical Idolatrous and Wolvish Pastors and Ministers the People are bound to forsake and turn from Where Ministers Residence is necessary by Divine Law there no Law of Man can dispense with it Where it is not necessary by Divine Law there needs no Human Dispensation and the exacting of Money in such case is unrighteous Gain The principal Work of Ministers and the substance of so much Church-order and Discipline as is incumbent on them as Ministers to perform and see to consists in labouring in the Word and Doctrine in preaching the Gospel in giving heed to Doctrine to Exhortation to Reproof to Admonition and Instruction publickly privately in season out of season Where this is not the substance of the Ministerial Work and Discipline is wanting Where this is all the rest will easily follow so much as is necessary and what is not necessary is better forborn 5. The Church is no Church of God unless she have just respect to time and place for publick Worship and she is equally no Church before God if she prefer time and place and bare assembling for publick Worship before Christian Faith Hope and Love and Edification therein As the Sabbath so Time and Place were made for Man and not Man for them And therefore the Church is to meet in one two or three or more places at the same time according as it shall be for Edification And look as it is a good Argument for Infant Baptism the Primitive Patern is baptizing whole Housholds and therefore in baptizing Infants we keep to the Primitive Patern Infants being a necessary part of Housholds So I should think it a good Argument against the Congregationalists The Primitive Patern was that all the Christians in a City be one Church particular and therefore if now every Christian City be one particular Church tho the Christians in it are so many as to make a hundred or two hundred Congregations at the fame time the Primitive Patern is kept Act. 14.23 Tit. 1.5 It is not the place which make the Church but the Church makes the place Every Christian Nation as such is a Church governed invisibly by God through Christian Faith according to the Scripture and governed visibly by the Prince as sole Supream under God over all in his Dominions by the Sword. Tho God do make use of Pastors and Ministers in the guiding and governing of his Church yet he himself is sole Lord over the Couscience and only his Voice is to be heard in the Church and Pastors and Ministers have no Authority but what is Temporal and yet it differs in kind from the Authority of the Prince and Magistrate The Church Militant consists of Mortal Men and Mortal Men can have no Authority Immortal and Eternal Pastors die no less than Princes CHAP. XVIII Of Death Judgment Heaven and Hell everlastingly 1. IF Sin had not been Death had not been and yet Death unto Elect Men through Faith in Christ is rather Life than Death as being through God's Grace the way and passage to Life Everlasting They die who die eternally But they who by Death pass into eternal Joy immediately in respect of their Souls and whose Bodies rest and as it were sleep in the Grave till the Morning of the Resurrection and then shall awake and be raised glorious immortal spiritual like the glorious Body of Christ may be said rather to live than die 2. The Resurrection of the wicked is truly from the Merit and purchase of Christ and specially the Resurrection of the Just The Resurrection as in it self is a Priviledg and Blessing That it proves otherwise to the Wicked is from themselves not from Christ As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 3. As Heaven is it into which Christ ascended when he left this World so it is a proper place created and made by God distinct from Earth and Hell. As Heaven means the Saints everlasting Rest prepared for them from before the Foundation of the World so it is not a place but a state of Felicity and Joy above both Time and Place and all that Man's Heart can now conceive yet not repugnant and contrary to Time and Place For it is God himself as enjoyed in eternal Blessedness Hence it follows that the Spuls of the Godly by Death do all of them pass into eternal Happiness immediately For eternal Happiness not being a place but a state and the Godly by Death passing into Eternity there can be no imaginable instant in which they are not with God in eternal Felicity Only they do innocently long for the Resurrection and rejoyce in the sure hope thereof Psal 16.9 10.11 With respect to the Eye of Sense outwardly the Triumphant State of Christ began not till he rose from the Dead and it was compleated by his Ascension and fitting at the Right-hand of God in Glory With respect to the Eye of Faith inwardly his Triumphant State began