in the Soul because God is a Spirit without Body yet some Conformity there is for it affords some Organs which are subservient to the Actions of the Soul and so the Body is in its manner an Image of Divine Perfection it doth hear and see and is a Symbol and Instrument of the Perfections of the Soul and of the Maker for the Wisdom Power and other Attributes of God are commonly represented by the Members as the Eyes Ears Mouth and Hands of the Body Lastly The Image of God did consist in the whole Person in Relation to the dominion which God gave Adam over all other Worldly Creatures also as to Happiness and Immortality for as God is Lord over the whole Work of Creation and Enjoys a Supreme Felicity so he constituted him Lord of other Creatures and placed him in a State of happy Immortality But several of these they deny or have corrupted they would not have God's Image to have consisted in Immortality and Righteousness for they affirm Adam to have been created Mortal and that he had died though he had not sinn'd but if so then God's Threatning his Disobedience with Death had been in vain and to no purpose if he had died whether or not he had sinned then Death had been no Punishment for his Sin yet the Apostle saith Rom. 6.23 Chap. 5.12 the Wages of Sin is Death he said before By one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin Though his Body was made of a frail matter yet thorough God's Gift it might have been Immortal as it shall be after the Resurrection that Immortality of our first Parents we call a power and faculty of not dying which to them was Natural for if they had continued in their integrity they had not died and in that State 't was as Natural not to die as not to Sin Death necessarily follows Sin and no Sin no Death as to that holiness and Righteousness wherein chiefly consisted the Image of God in which they were created the Apostle speaks of it when he saith Epes 4.24 that ye put on the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true holiness which in the verse before he called to be renewed in the Spirit of your mind which implies that once in us there was such a thing but was since decay'd and lost in Adam we had and lost it in him but in Christ were restored thereunto but Socinians who pretend to a right of making all things to be as they would laugh at it primum c. to affirm saith one * Smalc exam Err. err 104. That the first Man received in his Creation holiness and supernatural gifts is an Old and stinking Fable They also would have the pains which Adam and Eve underwent to have been natural Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. Chap. 1.31 Chap. 2.17 V. 20. when we read they were a Punishment for their Sin this in them imports a reflection upon God their Maker and 't is to give Scripture the lie when it saith and God saw that every thing he had made was very good and also when God said to Adam in the day that thou Eatest thereof thou shalt surely Die. They say farther that he had not the excellent and certain Knowledge of the Creator nor of the rest of the Creatures which if true then he had been an imperfect Work of God but seeing God who was a competent Judge of the thing left it for him to give names to all Cattel and to the Fowl of the Air and to every Beast of the field which God approved of we must believe he had that certain Knowledge †Se statu prim hom c. 6. v. 23. though Smalcius be of a different Opinion and we also read he knew his Wife to be bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh Now when I am upon this point about Knowledge I shall pass to another which they oppose 't is this That there is a Natural Knowledge of God whereby we mean that Men who have the use of Natural Reason may without special Revelation by the consideration of God's Works in the World know that there is a God a first Cause of all who hath his being of himself and hath given all things theirs but they being used to gainsay Scripture affirm that by the light of nature Men cannot know that there is a God though Paul saith that which may be known of God is manifest in Men Rom. 1.19 20 21 28. for God hath shewed it unto them and it may more appear in the Verses quoted in the Margin and this knowledge is such as to leave them without excuse and this carries them so far as that by nature they do the things contain'd in the law which shew the work of the law written in their hearts Chap. 2.14 15. their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another an evil Conscience attended with terrours for fear of punishment and a good one with joy do demonstrate there is a God revenger for evil and rewarder of good but what 's that to them let Scripture speak never so positively and plainly things must be as they will have them to be The next thing is about Original Sin that is the stain and corruption which we bring into the World and as it is in humane nature 't is so call'd because it hath it's spring and origine from Adam and also because 't is originally and naturally from the Womb in every Man Woman and Child it consists in the privation of that original righteousness wherein the first Man was created and in the corruption inherent in our nature whereby we are averse from good and inclined to evil which Socinians who are a line of the generation spoken of Prov. 30.12 Isa 65.5 that are pure in their own eyes even from the Womb and so being righteous in their own conceit think they may say to others come not near to me stand by thy self for I am holier than thou yet 't is said they are not wash'd from their filthiness of this Sin there are two parts the imputation and the inherency as to the first Adam was a publick Person the representative of all Mankind which was in his Loyns as Levi was in Abraham's when to Melchisedec he paid the tenth part of all Heb. 7.9 upon which account as the Apostle observes Levi paid Tithes in Abraham by the same reason whole Mankind which were in Adam's Loyns when he sinn'd are accounted to have sinn'd in him God's Promises and Threatnings were not confin'd in him but extended to his whole Posterity which would have enjoyed the benefit of his Obedience if he had continued in his integrity as they have smarted for his Disobedience as 't is usual among Men to see the Blood and Family of Traytors to suffer for the Crimes of Parents and thereby to forfeit Estates and Dignities this imputation
blessed saviour call'd an High-Priest in one Epistle And in his kind of Priest-Hood he was as much a Priest as ever Aaron was in his and he offered himself as really as ever any expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifice were offer'd under the Law therefore his pretious Blood which was shed upon the Cross till Death intervened is so often mention'd in Scripture chap. 9.12 ver 14. By his own Blood he entered in once c. and the Blood of Christ which through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God even to Death Again Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ver 16. ver 26. Ephes 5.25 Acts. 20.28 thereby to save and sanctifie his Church for he loved it and gave himself for it and so hath purchased it with his own Blood which could not be done without a Sacrifice and a Priest there 's no true proper and real Effect without a true proper and real Cause As the Article of Christ's Satisfaction is one of if not the most Fundamental of our Salvation so the Holy Ghost hath in Scripture taken special care to confirm it in both Testaments Isaiah 53.10 read the whole chap. His Soul was made an Offering for sin saith Isaiah and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquities of us all thereby the Prophet alluding to the Ceremony of the scape Goat Asasel Levit. 16.21 1 Joh. 2.2 1 Pet 2.24 which was loaded with the Sins of the People so in several places of the Psalms c. in the New Testament he is said to be the Propitiation for our sins and who his own self bare our sins in his Body on the Tree with several others to the same Effect full and plain enough 2 Cor. 4.4 except to those in whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds Yet Smalcius as if once had not been enough * Exam. 100 Err. Err. 57.66 said elsewhere That Christ is Metaphorically and improperly called a Priest and that he never offered a true but only a metaphorical sacrifice Again 't is false that Christ upon Earth purged our sins therefore they utterly deny the Merit of our Saviour's Death and thus impiously would overthrow the Foundation of our Salvation whilest St. Paul in several places of his Epistle to the Hebrews doth plainly demonstrate the Necessity Excellency and Efficacy of our Saviour's Sacrifice of himself for our Deliverance from God's Wrath the Curse of the Law and from Sin and Death Here I may shew an instance how far in an Impious way Men can go when God hath left them unto themselves These are the Words Et si nunc Vulgo c. * Racov. Cat. p. 177. And though now it be the Common Opinion of Christians that Christ by his Death hath deserved Salvation for us and fully satisfied for our sins yet that Opinion is Deceitful Erroneous and very Pernicious Where is that Fear of God Modesty Soundness and Humility which that worst sort of Men would in their Opinions and Expressions seem to pretend to But to omit so many other Evidences of their Blasphemous Writings I shall only add some Words of the same Smalcius †Exam. Err. 47.72 Christum nobis c. Christ hath not reconciled God to us nor when offended appeased him towards us God of himself and of his own Will is become favourable to Men without any ones Reconciliation Christ hath not obtain'd the Forgiveness of our sins by the shedding of his Blood for us So then with Paul we may say the Preaching of the Gospel is vain 1 Cor. 15.14.15.17 our Faith is also vain we are yet in our sins and the Apostles are found false Witnesses of God at one blow they with denying Christ's Satisfaction for us to Divine Justice would blast our whole Joy Comfort and Assurance in this Life and hope of Happiness in that which is to come 'T is certain that in the Work of Redemption to give and receive are Relatives for as a Man cannot properly be said to receive a thing except it be given him by another so no Man can properly be said to give except there be another to receive Thus in the Work of Redemption the price which Christ gives the Father receives it as Scripture saith Rev. 5.9 Ephes 5.2 Heb. 10.5.7.10 1 Pet. 1.18.19 Thou hast Redeemed us unto God through thy Blood and Christ hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor Again Ye know that ye were not Redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold But with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot The Blood of Christ and his Death by the Sacrifice of himself is the Meritorious Cause of our Redemption and Salvation This Gospel-Doctrine should not be scoffed at by Men who would pass for Christians yet thereby make Heathens of themselves in joyning with Heathens to mock God's Institutions of the Ceremonial Law which represented Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross let an Heathen who knew no better say †Cat. Distich de Morib l. 4. Stultitia est morte alterius Sperare Salutem 'T is a Folly to look for Salvation by another Man's Death but no Christian should say so I am apt to believe that Roman was not a meer stranger to the Custom of the Jews but as well as Ovid he might have read Moses's Books whereof the Translation by the Septuagint was then Extant and long before for by what that other in his Metamorphoses saith of the Flood of the Tower of Babel represented by the Gyants attempting to scale up to Heaven and some such other things we have ground to believe that he had read the Book of Genesis so might also Cato who though accounted a Wise Man by the World if he by the Verse of his already Quoted intended any thing against the Ceremonies of the Law about Sacrifices which represented that of the Messiah's Death whereby Salvation to Mankind was to be purchased according to the Prophecies of David Isaiah Daniel c. then we may reckon him to have been one of those whom Paul speaks of who professing themselves to be Wise became Fools Rom. 1.22 1 Cor. 1.23 24. so we may all others of his Opinion because as the Doctrine of the Messiah or Christ was to the Jews a stumbling Block so to the Greeks or Gentiles it was Foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ is the power of God and the Wisdom of God but we find Socinians to take part with those who barely are Jews and Greeks but not with them which are called so are more unexcusable than Cato and other Heathens who never had the Gospel-Light shining upon them as they have As they deny Christ's Satisfaction so wholly to deprive him of his Priestly Office they also would take away his
chap. 23.43 with a strong Asseveration he saith Verily to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Which is evidence of his commanding Power there hereupon the words of an antient Doctor are remarkable * Hilar. lib. de Trin. p. 77. Habes conquerentem ad Mortem Relictum se esse quia Homo est Habes eum qui moritur profitentem se in Paradiso Regnare quia Deus est Thou hast him complaining to be forsaken at his Death because he is Man thou hast him who dying declares he Reigns in Paradise because he is God for none but God the King of Heaven hath Right and Power to dispose of places in Paradise When Paul saith He hath a desire to depart and to be with Christ He therein declares Phil. 1.23 how when God's Servants are departed this Life they are with Christ in Heaven a place of Joy and Comfort That there is a Hell we by the Grace of God shall prove it out of Scripture but before I must follow the charge how to make the Soul insensible after Death and the total Annihilation which is plain denial of Hell do take out of most part of the World all manner of Vertue and open a wide Door to all sort of Licentiousness Immorality and Wickedness for if the greater part of the World be as they are contain'd in their Duty more out of Fear of Punishment than love to Vertue what then will not the Covetous Ambitious Unclean Revengeful c. Men and Women dare to do to satisfie their several Passions if once they are persuaded that after this Life no Punishment shall be inflicted upon them for all their Wickednesses Are not Thoughts of Impunity an encouragment for them to commit Crimes For the fear of a Judgment and Torments to come are a Curb upon and Terror to the Wicked as we read that Paul's reasoning of Judgment to come made Felix tremble Acts. 24.25 After this rate they will fear nothing from God after Death and being free from the terrors of Hell's Torments their only care shall be how to avoid the Justice of Men which they can more easily do than that of God who cannot be imposed upon as Men are if they can but hide themselves from Man's Eye they will think they are safe enough 1 Cor. 15.32 and say Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die However let them do what they can to free Men from the Thoughs of Hell yet I defie them to free them from the Terrors of an Evil Conscience Such false Teachers who would persuade others that there shall be no Hell can hardly be able to persuade themselves of it no doubt but they wish it were so neither God nor Hell Acts. 24.15 Scripture saith There shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust After Resurrection shall follow Judgment for the Dead shall rise to come to Judgment which shall pass upon all both Just and Unjust certainly that Judgment and Sentence shall be executed upon both and as for some it will be Eternal Life so by the Rule of Contrarles for others 't will be Eternal Death for as Felicity shall be Eternal so shall Misery be The Word of God speaks of Hell and of Heaven of Goats and Sheep Reprobate and Elect as we read in the description of that Judgment made by our Saviour where mention is made of an everlasting fire and the Eternity of those Torments for Soul and Body Matth. 25.41 Mark 9.45 46. Matth. 13.42 chap. 25.41 are expressed by a worm that never dieth and a fire that never shall be quench'd and a furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth Hence we see First there are after this Life Torments prepared for the Wicked for the Devil and his Angels for his Children Secondly those Torments are great being represented by what can be conceived and expressed to be most painful as is Fire with a mixture of Combustible Matters to make it more fierce therefore call'd Rev. 19.20 A lake of fire burning with brimstone which the beast and false Prophets were cast alive into Whether it will be a material Fire we may not well determine for we must not presume beyond what is written but a fire it is for in many places God's word calls it so Matth. 18.8 Thirdly Those Torments shall be eternal for Scripture saith it and we must not pretend to be wiser and know more or better than God who in the fore-quoted places calls it An everlasting fire that shall never be quenched Jude 7. 't is elsewhere call'd eternal Fire suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire otherwise called Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power and 't is to last to all Eternity for 't is said that the beast and the false prophet with the wicked shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever which latter words plainly shew the continuation without intermission of those Torments and besides Scripture we have reason for it if the joys of Heaven be Everlasting so must the Torments of Hell be now both the justice and Truth of God which are two unshaken Pillars require that there be a continuation not annihilation of the wicked for is it not just that the Soul and Body which together sinn'd against God should also together suffer the pains due to Sin there must be an adequate punishment for offences against an infinite Eternal Majesty but the finite Creature cannot intensively suffer an infinite Torment therefore must extensively that is of an infinite duration and whether or not the fire be Material the wrath and curse of God can supply it with Fewel for ever and ever now that there is a judgment to pass and be executed upon all I am sure it is the Apostles doctrine when he saith for we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ 2 Cor. 5.10 that every one may receive the things done in his Body whether it be good or bad the same Reason there is for bad as for good and our Saviour speaks home when upon account of the Resurrection of the last day he saith they that have done good shall out of their graves come forth to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation but damnation is not Annihilation John 5.28 29 and can men be so impious as to think that the threatning of Hell is but a scare Crow a forged Tale or the Man in Clouts Another errour of theirs about Resurrection is this that the same Bodies which are buried shall not raise the question is not about the quality but about the Substance which shall be the same but of different quality God say they will give Spiritual ones instead of those we had here which is a forgery wholly destructive to the Resurrection of the dead one of the Articles of our Faith for if there be
Son and Holy Ghost be Jehovah yet the Jehovah or Lord who spoke to him was the Son who is the Word of the Father by whom the Father speaks As we read the People of Lystra Act. 14.12 could in their Heathenish way make a difference between Paul and Barnabas calling this last Jupiter and the first Mercury which with them were Father and Son because Paul was the chief Speaker I shall here omit what elsewhere I asserted how the Name the Word is the Son of God's proper Name to say that the Lord God the Son doth testifie of himself that 't is he who spoke in the first beginning of all Isa 52.6 Therefore my People shall know my Name therefore they shall know in that Day that I am he that doth speak behold it is I. And he further having said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. 17.5 Heb. 1.6 addeth Hear ye him And Paul When he bringeth in the first begotten into the World which can be no better understood than of the sending of the Son upon Earth to preach Grace to our first Parents Gen. 3.8 John 14.9 Isa 63.9 and the Presence or Face of the Lord from which Adam and his Wife hid themselves is none but God's Son in whom the Father is seen So that 't is more than probable that here according to the Jerusalem Interpreter the Son of God the Lord commanded Adam to appear to be try'd as indeed presently after passed a Sentence upon him his Wife and the Serpent and hereunto agree some of the Rabbies for by the words the Lord walking in the Garden * Nachmanides one understands the appearing of Schechina in that place and R. Abba explains it of the withdrawing of the Schechina out of the Garden because of Adam's Sin the Son of God who at the beginning of the World in the Garden pronounced Judgment and therein acted the part of a Judge did so afterwards upon Cain for his Brother's Death of whom 't is said Gen. 4.16 that he went out from the Presence of the Lord and Bechai saith it must be from no other than from Schechina Also Enoch the seventh Man from Adam Prophesied saying Jude 14.15 Behold the Lord cometh with ten Thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all which was effected when by the Flood the whole Posterity of Cain and that of Seth only eight Persons excepted Noah with his Family in the Ark were destroyed So afterwards against the Egyptians Cananeans and other wicked People and so it shall continue to the latter end of the World till the last and Universal Judgment be over After the Flood there was wickedness and cause of Judgment found in Noah's Family as appears by the Curse thundered against Canaan Ham's Son As to this Curse before I proceed farther I must take notice how it seems strange that Ham should commit the Sin yet the Curse be pronounced not against him but against his Son which to clear some think and 't is very probable that the young Man first saw his Grandfather's Nakedness and went and told his Father of it for we must believe upon that occasion Noah to have been moved by the Spirit of God for being Drunken and Asleep when he was uncovered he could not of himself know what had happened before he awoke A Curse was pronounced against Canaan and a Blessing upon Japhet and Ham where Noah said The Lord God shall dwell in the Tents of Shem. Gen. 9.26 27. This Lord God is the same who in the Garden judged our first Parents Now these words of Noah * Onkelos Jarchius Nachman Bechai several Rabbies do unanimously interpret of Schechina's dwelling in the Family and Posterity of Shem And Bechai saith something more for he adds That the Schechina dwelt not in the second Temple built by Cyrus of the Posterity of Japhet but only in the first built by Solomon who descended from Shem. Upon God's Words to Abraham Thou shalt be a Blessing Gen. 12.2 chap. 15.1 v. 5. Rakenatensis saith they relate to Schechina and after the Victory over the four Kings this same Son of God promised him his Protection and to be his exceeding great Reward a numerous Posterity the Possession of the Land of Canaan with Old Age to end in a quiet Death v. 7. And the Covenant then made with him v. 15. was a Declaration of his eternal good Pleasure that contained Promises of his future coming into the World to be a Blessing to all Nations namely Christ the Messiah which in due time were performed Luke 1.72 73. Gal. 3.16 17. v. 29. as by Zacharias 't was taken notice of so by Paul to the Heirs according to the Promise which shews that God's Covenant with Abraham contained Spiritual as well as Earthly Eternal as well as Temporal Promises and that the Law neither derogated from the Eternal Will and Testament nor disannull'd of the Promise the other Apparitions of the Schechina unto Abraham Isaac and Jacoh which make a part of what I now am upon I elsewhere sufficiently enlarged Israel upon his Death-Bed mentions him under the Name of Shiloh in that Solemn Prophecy Gen. 49.10 chap. 28.12 13. that he should be of the Tribe of Judah The Vision of Jacob's Ladder reaching both Heaven and Earth and the Angels of God ascending and descending on it is by * Rakenat in h. l. one of the famous Jewish Doctors explained of God Holy and Blessed and of his Schechina whereby indeed Heaven and Earth God and Man were joined together and as I love not to follow nice only solid Notions I shall not take notice of the Opinion of those who say there were six Steps in the Ladder whereof the three lowest signified the three degrees of his Humiliation and the three uppermost those of his Exaltation In the other Vision of Jacob Gen. 31.11 12 13. when he saw the speckled Rams 't is not said he saw rather heard for the Angel spake unto him I am the God of Bethel which †Commen in Thorah p. 41. col 1 2. Bechai doth truly interpret El the Mighty God and also Bethel the House of God that is the Son in whom the Father dwells or Schechina as * Rakenat f. 63. col 3. another hath it Scripture speaks of three Houses of God first of Solomon's Temple secondly Christ's Humane Nature thirdly the Church The same Rabbi saith That the Word Righteousness which is in the Name of Melchisedec doth relate to the Schechina whose Type we know him to have been 1 Kings 8.10.13 Zachar. 6.14 Isa 8.14 1 Tim. 3.15 p. 45. col 2 for I cannot be of the Opinion of two Eminent Modern Divines Cunaeus and Altingius who affirm Melchisedec to be the Son of God himself who at that time after the Victory appeared to Abraham in Man's Shape and blessed him For seeing by David and Paul the Office and