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
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
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
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
Christ in the Flesh and so on 6. From thence to these times In which too this will be evidenced that all the said Revelations of God as to the way of mens salvation have either expresly or implyedly spoken of Christ and of his appearance in the Flesh as may be seen in the following Sections of that Induction SECT 3. Of the Dispensation of the knowledge of God and Christ by his words in Paradise and from thence to the Flood NO sooner had our First Parents Tempted of the Serpent Fallen from God and was Convicted thereof by the Voice of God but God in the greatness of his Mercy in threatning Destruction to the Serpent and his Works Preached Grace and Redemption to Mankind and intimately made Promise of a Saviour to us in that expression Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between her seed and thy seed He that is her Seed shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel Indeed these Expressions were somewhat Mystical yet contained in a manner Isa 7.9 9.15 the whole Gospel for surely by the Serpent was primely signifyed That old Serpent the Devil and Satan Rev. 20.1 2. And by his Head his Plot Device and Project and the Principallity and Power he thereby got over Mankind His Plot was to separate between us and God to our utter ruine by inticeing us to Sin against him whom he knew to be so perfect a hater of Sin and to have so solemnly threatned Death to Man in case of his sinning as that he might rationally expect that in case he would draw him to Sin his Ruine would inevitably follow thereupon and that being cast off by God He should be left to his the Serpent Power and Malice to do what He pleas'd with him The bruising of his Head Heb. 2.14 Coll. 2.16 Luk. 11.22 2 Tim. 1.10 Luk. 1.74 75. 1 Pet. 3.18 then could signifie no less then the spoiling of his Plot and devesting him of his Power by destroying his Works and abolishing their Fruit taking away his Armour Sin and the sentence and curse of the Law upon Man for Sin and so evacuating Death the Wages of Sin and setting Man at liberty from Satan so as he may return to God again all which God intimately promised should be done not immediately by himself for he said I will break thy head no God would have Satan know he disdained to match himself with him as it were in the Combat he would do it by a Man one in that nature that he had got Victory over and which was spoiled by him even a Seed to be born to and to come forth of the Woman And so he signifyed both that Man should be Ransomed from that his Fall and from the jurisdiction of the Serpent the Devil thereby obtained And that the Saviour should be a Man nor Adam himself nor Eve but one to descend from them the Seed of the Woman with respect to which Adam hearing and believing it called his Wife by a new Name for whereas before he called her Ishah a Woman Gen. 2.23 with 3.20 or Manness because one with and taken out of Man now he calls her Chavah or Evah because by this gracious appointment of God she was made the Mother of all Living the bringer forth of a Seed remotely that should remedy dead and destroyed Man and remove the Curse come upon the Creation by Man's Sin and so bring in Life and Immortality to Man but for which She might rather have been called the Mother of all Dying This Promise God was pleased to put as a Foundation sure and firm Isa 28.16 under Man's Feet to support and bear him up in all his following Griefs and Sorrows Labours and Turmoyles even to Death that now were to come upon him because of his Sin that he might not despair and sink under them And this before God proceeded to denounce any of those things upon him or to take away Paradise and the Tree of Life from him that so yet the Woman might thenceforth conceive and bear in hope And the Man labour and eat his Bread though in the sweat of his brows yet in Hope and both Man and Woman both live and dye in Hope even in the hope of Eternal Life through this Faith of the Promised Seed or Messiah which is the Faith that the Just have had to live by and to dye in in all Ages So much was implyedly Revealed then to Man even to all Mankind then Being Yea sure and God further implyed That that Seed should be one with himself and so God-man when he after added ver 22. Behold Man is become as one of us to know good and evil not by way of Irony or Derision but by way of Prediction with respect to his former appointment That Man's Nature should be in the Promised Seed as one of the Persons in the Trinity taken up into Unity with God and to his glory and throne of Dignity to have indeed a knowledge of Good and Evil such as the Devil little thought of not such as Adam got by Sin to know the difference between his former good and his present bad Condition but both an Experimental Knowledge of the Depth of Man's Misery to be born by him and of the height of Good in the injoyment of God's Glory to be injoyed of him and such a knowledg of them as is with and is given forth by the Divine Majesty as also thereby may be implyed his Power and Authority over Men in the Person of Christ to Save and enliven Fallen Man and to help him against Satan and all adverse Power being as one of the Persons in the Trinity Isa 11.2 3. 42.1 the Spirit of Might Counsel Judgment upon him c. Thence also God took away that Tree of Life that might have preserved him Immortal in his Fall that he might be forced to look to the Promised Seed and live by the Faith of him in a Mortal Dying condition By the Faith of whom Preached and held forth doubtless by Adam and Eve to their Posterity as they came into the world Abel afterwards offer'd up to God a more acceptable Sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11.4 with Gen. 4.4 Yea doubtless the very Law and practise of Sacrificing mentioned all along after the Fall and propagated to all Nations and places of the world had its rise and spring from the Promise of Christ and was an outward Testimony of their acknowledging themselves Sinners and that they needed by some Ransome or shedding of Blood to have Attonement made for them and that there-through onely they might have access to and liberty to Worship God though all that offered understood not or believed so much and that seems rather the meaning of their Bloody Sacrifices such as Abel brought then of such dry ones as Cain Offered Cain by his Offering seemed onely to acknowledge God Lord of the World the giver of the Creatures to
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
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.
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