leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife See Gen. 2. 18 21-25 with Matth. 19. 4 5. and Mal. 2. 14 15. Thus did God dignifie it and make it honourable for all mankinde in the first Adam But 2. That it now becomes honourable to us sinful and polluted mankinde and that such enjoyment and use of it as aforesaid is laudable and comely in all is onely by means of the socrifice and mediation of the man Christ Jesus the second Adam by whom it is sanctified and made clean for our use from that shame confusion and pollution that we had procured to our selves in it and in all conditions relations and enjoyments For notwithstanding God had dignified it and made it honourable in the first man and woman as in their first constitution and that was for all in that first publike man male and female yet sin being once entred and death by sin it could not have been honourable in them nor in any of their posterity unless God had devised a means for his banished that they might not be utterly expelled both from his presence and mercy unless God had provided a remedy in a second Adam for sin is a shame and reproach to any people and doth make a separation between God and them and hide good things from them Pro. 14. 34. Jer. 5. 25. Now the first Adam both male and female presently after their creation and excellent constitution sinned against their Creator and therein the whole Nature sinned and departed from God and became polluted with all uncleanness and enmity to him and so came short of that glory of God in and unto which they were created And brought shame and dishonour upon themselves and upon their state and relation of marriage and on the fruit of the body and of the Womb so that all mankind became cursed in all relations conditions and injoyments and in all that they had and did as in and from the first man Adam See Gen. 3. 16 17. Deut. 28. 15. c. with Rom. 3. 9-19-23 Ch. 5. 12. But God hath found out a Ransom a Redeemer and Healer for all mankinde without respect of persons 2 Sam. 14. 14. Rom. 3. 21 22 23. c. and 5. 12-18 God hath crowned his son Jesus with glory and honour above men and Angels that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man And he that onely one in a body prepared him to that purpose dyed for all as the second Adam a surety and publick person in the room and stead of all he dyed their death and therein suffered all the shame reproach and wrath that was their due for the sins and trespasses of the world that came in by the disobedience of one and occasioned the breach between God and man at the first And therein God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them For he hath made him that knew no sin to be sin for us And this for our behoof and commodity that men condemned and dead at Law might live to a comfortable injoyment of his mercies in marriage and the fruits thereof and in a comfortable use of the Creature to the end that they that thus live in their several ages should not benceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again that so through the grace of God bringing salvation to all men in due time they might be made the righteousness of God in him Heb. 2. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15 19 21. with 1 Tim. 2. 6. Tit. 2. 11 12. Wherefore also he is by means of the same death the Mediator between God and man making intercession for the transgressors for the daily taking away those sins of the people in which when light comes they chuse darkness rather that judgement may not speedily be executed but mercies yet continued to rebellious ones 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. Psal 68. 18 19 20. Isa 53. 12. Luk. 13. 6-9 And by means of these two the sacrifice and intercession of the Man Christ Jesus in whom the nature of man is married to God and who is that one Mediator between God and man marriage is sanctified and become honourable in all and so every creature of God sanctified that is made clean for our use that it may be received with thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth For it is sanctified saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 5. by the word of God and prayer that is by the word that was made flesh for us and by his intercession for us By his being made flesh and so by the sacrifice of his own Body once for all made perfect through sufferings he hath made peace for the sins of the world imputed to him abolished death taken the sting out of it redeemed us to himself from the curse of the law And so far taken the evil of the curse and shame out of marriage and creature-injoyments that we may have a laudable and comfortable injoyment of them though still some fruits and remembrances of our sin is left upon them for gratious ends and therefore in the hand of the Mediator who orders them for our good And by his prayer or continued intercession for us he still sanctifies those injoyments of the creature and makes them clean for our use against the provocation of our daily iniquities of a new sort which otherwise would render them unclean and polluted to us full of shame misery and curse which now are filled with gladness refreshing and mercy to men even in all and this that they may be received with thanksgiving as aforesaid of them that believe and know the truth Behold in all this the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world for because He by the grace of God tasted death for every man and gave himself a ransome for all and is our peace the propitiation for the sins of the whole world Therefore Marriage is honourable in all and the bed undefiled We come in the last place to consider some usefulness of this Instruction 1. It aggravates the sin of Fornication if God had prohibited Marriage to any man or to any sort or order of men or rendred it dishonourable or uncomely for any to marry fornication in such had been more excuseable But when at such a rate as through the sacrifice and mediation of his Son and to such a gracious end that men might be accommodated with the more chearfulness to live to him and serve him God hath made marriage honourable in all and the bed undefiled for any to walk in and serve the lusts of uncleanness in whoredom and adultery or seeking content and satisfying to the natural concupiscences in any way forbidden of God must needs be out of measure sinful because without necessity there was a sanctified means to avoid it which either they had or might have had for seeking it of God according to his Will who knows
to the precious bloud of Christ as declared in the Gospel or as the grace in him through it is discovered to them or have not submitted to the washing efficacie thereof not so received the love of the truth as to save them to baptize or wash them into Christ for righteousness and strength For these are still under the guilt of their former sins and so still reputed as such with God though from some other cause or reason they may have ceased from their former course of acting or walking in them or through decay of nature and so of the fleshly strength and lust their former sins may have left them yet the wrath of God abides on them even for those sins of their youth because they have not believed on the Name of the onely begotten Son of God And if still they abide in wilful ignorance and unbelief of that truth through the knowledge of which the Son makes free they are not free indeed for the soul being without this knowledge of God in Christ cannot be good not reconciled to God and so not washed from its sins and therefore so remaining till the day of Gods grace and patience pass away from them they shall die in their sins For if ye ye to whom that hath been testified in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit believe not saith our Saviour that I am he if with the heart ye embrace not or close not with the Testimony of Jesus The Christ in those manifestations of it brought to you to save you from your sins ye shall die in your sins Joh. 3. 18 36. 8. 24. with Prov. 19. 2. This description of Whoremongers and Adulterers that are so repuced of God according to his rule of judging men by Jesus Christ and the grounds of it may be further demonstrated from the Testimony of Jesus as to say 1. That they are children of disobedience to the grace of God that is by and through Christ and such onely that do abide under the guilt and imputation of sin from God so as to remain under his wrath for sin this or any other This is thus demonstrated The guilt of the disobedience of the first man Adam in which we have all sinned and of our natural uncleanness or filthiness of the flesh as meerly and necessarily from thence derived to us in which we are by nature altogether filthy sinners enemies to God full of all ungodliness unrighteousness fornication c. These being by imputation laid upon Christ or caused to meet together upon him and he having been made sin and a curse for them he hath thereby made peace and atonement with God for them and by himself purged them away from before the Father so that he hath redeemed us all mankinde of the Father from under the curse of the Law to himself The Father hath released us into his hands and judgeth no man otherwise then by Jesus Christ unto whom as our surety he hath remitted and released the old debt and first judgement he had against us and hath committed all judgement unto him so that in this his judging by Jesus Christ he holds no man under wrath or at a distance from his Majestie merely because they have a sinful Nature full of enmity to God and inclined to all that is contrary to his Law nor for such sinful actions as merely break forth through natural infirmity or violence of temptations nor shall there be any occasion for that Proverb in the eternal judgement of all men by Jesus Christ The fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge And though now men do bear some fruit of that first sin and natural sinfulness as thence derived in mortalities and death now reigning upon them yet is that death abolished the sting taken out of it and no man shall perish in it but be raised out of it and brought before the Judgement-seat of Christ For as by man came death so by man the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all dye so in Christ shall all be made alive from this death And now while they live here though in mortal state yet are they not by these fruits of sin remaining upon them nor for this filthiness of the flesh held out from God or under his wrath Col. 1. 20. Heb. 1. 3. Gal. 3. 13. Joh. 5. 22. Rom. 5. 18. Ezek. 18. 1. with 2 Tim. 1. 10. 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. But this is the condemnation that when light is come into the world men love and chuse darkness rather and for this the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who withhold or smother the truth of God in unrighteousness and would not so receive it as to save them from their ungodliness and unrighteousness Because that which may be known of God was manifested in them and they liked not to retain God in their knowledge John 3. 19. Rom. 1. 18 29. Yet also II. That all that consent to sin so as to yeild up their members to commit or serve it or voluntarily follow after its sinful and unclean lusts and make provision for them to fulfill them that they are guiley before God and under wrath as sinning against that grace that brings salvation to all men this we learn from that branch of the testimony of Jesus that declares him in the vertue of his ransom for all a faithful testimony of Gods goodness to men in due time and therewith warning of the danger of hiding retaining and following the sins of the youth shewing the necessity of being washed from them and leading to repentance even so soon as there is any capacity in the soul to know any thing and strength to act voluntarily after their own choice so soon doth he prevent every man with his goodness that they are not left under a necessity of committing or serving sin nor are their sins and iniquities so left upon them that they may not by the grace of God deny and resist them for though they be naturally dead in sins and trespasses yet the dead are made to hear the voice of the Son of God that in hearing or adhering to what they are made to hear by his preventing grace they might live Though the spirit of a man be as a candle out that cannot light it self nor be lighted by a meer blowing upon it yet the inspiration of the Almighty giveth it understanding that true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world is as we have said a testimony in due time a faithful witness therefore whoever sinneth he is of the Devil and hath voluntarily refused to see know or take notice of Gods goodness which bringeth salvation to all men in due season and therewith teacheth that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 1 Tim. 2. 6. John 16. 8. Rom. 2. 4. Ezek. 33. 10. Joh. 5. 25. Job 32. 8.
chap. 1. 3-7 John 17. 8. As a little further to explain even as the man and wife in marriage are become one in the flâ—sh and in things pertaining to the flesh and outward man So Christ and the soul in this marriage is become one in the Spirit and in things pertaining to the spirit and inward man even in all things pertaining to life and godliness His sufferings his resurrection and glory his Father Spirit Angels children servants all become theirs by Faith not onely prepared given and treasured up in him as in a surety and treasury for them so they were before and are for others that are not joyned to the Lord for by the grace of God he tasted death for every man and gave himself a ransome for all yea he dyed for their sins and rose for their justification according to the Scriptures and is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world and by means thereof hath received gifts in the man for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them God hath prepared eternal life in Christ for all and with him in giving him a testimony to men gives eternal life in the gratious discoveries and tenders of it to them in due time but onely he that hath the Son hath life and he hath it in having him with whom God gives all things pertaining to life and godliness and they are received in receiving him even now spiritually and by Faith as he is received They are by the same spirit of Faith by which they are baptized into Christ baptized into his death even into union and fellowship with him in his personal sufferings and resurrection so that by Faith they dyed and were buried with him and are risen with him through the same faith of the operation of God who bath raised him from the dead and are therein taught and strengthned to reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin to its charges and condemning power by the Law in that he dyed to sin once and alive unto God made capable of receiving mercy from him and of being admitted into fellowship with him through the Mediator by his resurrection from the dead by which they are quickned to a lively hope and have consolation and rejoycing in his sufferings and glory as their own it being theirs by Faith And so his Father Spirit promises all theirs by Faith in him yea his Angels servants creatures even Paul Apollo Cephas the world life and death saith the Apostle all is yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 John 5. 11 12. Rom. 6. 3-9 c. Col. 2. 12. 1 Cor. 3. 21-23 And on the other hand their weaknesses pollutions wants and imperfections are become his in some answerable sence as the wives are the husbands not now to bear in his own personal body as once he did the imputation of our sins the sence and feeling of all our sicknesses and infirmities so knows how to succour us in ours that still remain upon us But he being raised from the dead dyeth no more nor hath death any more dominion over him nor is sin any more imputed to him But he makes intercession for transgressors and hath compassion even on the ignorant and them that are out of the way and so he is the Saviour of all men the upholder of all that fall that they might know him and believe in him but especially the Saviour of them that believe they being joyned to the Lord their weaknesses and wants are his to heal cleanse and make up for he gave himself for his Church that he might wash and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word and sanctifie it to and for himself and so their works that are theirs as his Spouse are his to perfect what concerns them their sufferings for him his by interpretation and he ingaged on their side as the Apostle and high priest of their profession their special surety or advocate for good to manage their matters for them in heaven and earth to work their works in them and for them to plead their cause and fight their battels and they are taught and strengthned by faith to cast their care on him and wait through the spirit for the hope of his righteousness by faith in perfecting what concerns them Psal 103. 119. 121 122. 138. 8. 145. 18 19. Gal. 5. 5. Heb. 3. 1. 10. 19-23 3. As in the earthly marriage or in the union of it there is but one man and one woman as before is shewed and the woman is originally of the nam yet so as both of God and the man the head of the woman So here 1. The Spouse and Church of Christ is but one the onely one of her mother Cant. 6. 9. Begotten and made by the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with or through the word of truth the Gospel of Christ Jam. 1. 18. And so Jerusalem that is above whence that glorious Gospel is come forth unto us is said to be the mother of all the members here on earth speaking of those under the plain Revelation of the mystery and now since God hath spoken to us in these last days by his Son they all as Isaac are the children of promise and such onely are counted for the Seed even they that are of faith in all ages the children of the Bondwoman have no part here See Gal. 3. with chap. 4. 21-31 Rom. 4. 9. 8. They are such as are made out of Christ's personal body spiritually and so of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5. 30. as was resembled by the woman's being made at first of the man in which she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh Now the Apostle saith not that we are flesh of his flesh c. But with allusion to that resemblance we are of his flesh and of his bones or members of his body even of his personal body that is to say what we are spiritually as the Spouse and Church of Christ and members thereof in particular we are of and by the vertues of his personal body that was broken for us and in which being raised from the dead he liveth and continueth ever and through the discoveries thereof and therein of the pretiousness of his blood unto us and likewise we are therein united to and made members of that his body as the woman in marriage is of her husband so that his things become ours and our weaknesses and wants his to supply and what concerns us his to perfect as before is shewed They are all by one Spirit baptized into one body c. 1 Cor. 12. 13. And what forms of godliness soever any have if they be not born of that Spirit that testifies of Jesus and commends God's love in him they are not of the beloved not of the chosen Generation There are threescore Queens and fourscore Concubines many daughters of the Whore or Synagogue of Satan yea
the despisers are said always to have resisted the holy Ghost Act. 14. 17. 17. 24-28 Prov. 1. 20-24 c. with chap. 8. 1-6 9. 1-6 Isai 65. 1 2. 45. 22. Rom. 1. 18 19-28 2. 4. 10. 18-21 Act. 7. 51. 3. That God not onely allowes it but wills approves and desires it in Christ that men through him might be saved that they might be redeemed and turned from darkness to light and so from under the power of Satan to God and so that therein they might be married to Christ he hath sworn he hath no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked that dieth though they persisting till the day be past he shall laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh yet now he doth not so while yet though dying or in a perishing condition he is not wholly dead or as a tree twice dead and pluckt up by the roots while yet sin is not wholly finished he hath no pleasure at all that they should go on to finish it and bring destruction upon themselves for he would not that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and be saved Ezek. 18. 24 31. 33. 10 11. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Nor can there be a greater argument to evidence the truth of this then that unspeakable gift and prepatation for them in Christ and the provision in him for calling and drawing them in due time of which we have already spoken we may well argue with the wife of Manoah Judg. 13. 23. If the Lord were pleased to stay us saith she he would not have received an offering at our hands nor have sent his Angel to shew us such things as these so and much more may we say If the Lord had any pleasure at all to cut off men in their sins or that they should pine away in their iniquities he would never have himself found out and prepared such a sacrifice such a means for his banished that they might not be expelled and that when otherwise they must needs have dyed in the proper sence of death they must have perished for ever from him and were as water spilt on the ground dead in sins and trespasses neither did nor could seek mercy or reconciliation yea when they were enemies as 2. Sam. 14. 14. Rom. 5. 6-8 Nor would he have sent the Angel of his presence to shew us such things as these to assure us in the light and power of his Spirit that all things are ready and therewith powerfully to invite and call us to the wedding For God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son to be a ransome for all and a testimony in due time as foreshewed that whosoever through this grace believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved John 3. 16 17. Yea he hath declared his acceptation of it as mens kindness that they will accept of him and as that which grievâ—s his Spirit that they will none of him Oh infinite grace and condescention See Jer. 2. 2. Psal 81. 8-13 Isai 48. 17 18. 63. 10. Luk. 19. 41 42. 13. 34. with Matth. 23. 37. who can conceive such a blasphemous thought of the Father of lights in whom is no darkness at all that he should cover hatred with such pretences of love seeing also he abhors that in others Prov. 26. 23-26 See Prov. 8. 6 7 8. 4. That it is an honourable thing for men to be marryed to Christ this may be sufficiently seen in what is said already in the instructions from the nature of Marriage For is it not infinite favour and an unspeakable honour to a man that is a sinner vile dust and ashes and was an enemy and by nature a child of wrath even as others to be admitted and received into a covenant of Peace and reconciliation yea into friendship and familiarity with the Almighty and that by a sacrifice of his own finding out and preparing to be brought into the Kings presence in garments of his own making and preparing for us yea to be joyned to the Lord so as to be an heir together with him of the grace of life and to have all his riches and precious things become ours and all our wants his to supply infirmities and diseases his to heal our works his to work in us and for us the injuries done to us to be taken as done to him and he the Almighty to be ingaged with us and on our side as aforesaid and also to be owned and called by him the sons and friends of God and as if all this were too little to set before us the hope of a far more glorious injoyment of this marriage and the fruits thereof in time to come when he shall be glorified in his Saints and they be glorified together with him we may well say Behold what manner of love is this and whence is this to us as 1 Joh. 3. 1. 1 Chron. 17. 16 17. Luk 1. 43. And yet the honourableness of this state further appears in what is signified and resembled by the honourable ends of Marriage first mentioned as so say That it is the onely and certain means ordained of God for our bringing forth fruit to God that may be acceptable in his sight and remain before him even the fruits of his Spirit in the works of faith and love that may be remembred and rewarded in the day of Christ and spiritual seed or children that may appear on our account as our crown our glory and joy in that day Without me says our Saviour ye can do nothing nothing of this nature out of him or but in union and fellowship with him as is there signified by another resemblance John 15. 5 6. The soul being reconciled and joyned to the Lord by his word received and kept in the heart and abiding in him and walking and working together with him in the unity of the Spirit in what they do they shall bring forth much fruit and the Father shall be glorified by it and it shall remain and they shall ask what they will in his name and it shall be given them the want of this occasions the loss of much work the hasty withering of much fruit that may seem glorious at first and the hindrance of many prayers as in the resemblance 1 Pet. 3. 1-7 Likewise this being joyned to and having fellowship with the Lord resembled by Marriage and the bed undefiled is the onely and certain means ordained of God for avoiding spiritual fornication yea for keeping and cleansing our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him saith our Saviour shall never thirst that is drinking still and drinking abundantly of that he shall have such fulness of satisfaction at home as shall preserve him from thirsting after any