confirm Testament 1. To confirm a Deed of Testament made by the Eternal God 2. To expiate all Sin and Misery But it must be offered first I and so it will very shortly it must not lie long here you may be sure This Blood must quickly be carried to Heaven never to be spilt more but offered up for an Attonement before the Mercy-Seat of God for ever 'T will be but three daies and this Flesh and Blood shall live again and after fourty daies it will ascend into the Temple of God This Blood will consecrate and dedicate that place for our flesh and blood to enter into This Blood will be a new and living way to the Mercy-Seat of God for us to have free recourse unto at all times in this life for Grace sufficient to help us in the time of all our need This Blood will cry aloud for Mercy and speak better things than the Blood of Abel which was for Revenge But it must be offered first and it will be accepted No Sacrifice can be complete till it be offered First slain then laid on the Altar then offered up in part or in whole so was Christ first slain then offered up to God Well then I will be as good as my word I will mourn and fast and pray a while but I must not think that this will do my business Sackcloth Ashes Hard lodging and fare Whippings Pilgrimages Reliques Watching Fasting Alms and Oblations c. make a great shew and pomp of Devotion and some of them are good as they may be used But I must have a settled eye upon the Power of Godliness and not upon the Form only I must take heed what I do in the Service of my God lest I offer the Sacrifice of Fools In a word I must look to my heart in all my outward actions It will not serve my turn to read hear or see the history of my Saviour's Passion or Resurrection written preached and acted or represented in Books Sermons and Scenes and for me thereupon to hang down my head like a Bull-rush and grow sad upon it for a day or two I must think of an every daies duty of dying daily and of mortifying and crucifying my self all my life long not by Whipping c. but by Self-denial and cutting off my Right hand or my Right eye or whatsoever is near or dear unto me Self-examination Reformation Zeal Faith Love Hope and such Spiritual duties must be my work all the daies of my life For Bodily exercise profiteth little or nothing but Godliness and a New Creature What a fool was Simon Stylites that lived so long standing between two Walls and Dominius Loricatus that gave himself 540000 stripes in one Lent I look upon my Saviour's Crucifixion as do the Literalists and formal Devotionists but Sursum corda is a good hint to me I must look higher The History I believe but the Mystery and Power of his Death I look after It satisfies not me at all if I had been born and laid in a Manger and crucified and slain with Christ if I had been his Brother and suckt the breasts of his Mother it would not have profited me at all except I did believe the Word of God and keep it for then I should be his Brother Sister and Mother indeed If I had been so happy as to have known him in and after the flesh so as to eat and drink with him and see his Miracles and hear his Doctrine and cast out Devils and heal Diseases as he did in his Name yet from henceforth I will know him no more after that but after a better fashion His Sufferings and Death are past and gone from hence now I know him as he liveth in the power of an endless life All the scandal of the Cross is taken away though he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God Break my heart no more with grief and hardships of the outward Cross but let me love and love again and delight my self in the inward Cross whereby the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World Then stay me with Flagons comfort me with Apples when I am sick of Love I look upon the Love of God in making and confirming his Promises to me in Christ I make my Covenant with my God to forsake the World the Flesh and the Devil This is the state of Grace this is to be in Christ and a New Creature I have looked down to Christ's Sufferings on Earth but now I will look up more to his glorious Actings in Heaven viz. His Sacerdotal entrance his solemn oblation of Himself his Session at the Right hand of God his Intercession his Kingdom over all in protecting his Church and bringing all his Enemies under his feet his spiritual Scepter and Kingdom in our Hearts beating down all the strong holds of Sin and Satan No need therefore of Crosses Pictures Whips Thorns Nails Reliques c. These may work for a while being in sight upon the outward Man to move admiration and sorrow but no constant Faith and fixed Hope and Love as do the virtue of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings which is the true Power of Godliness that brings comfort to the end and in the end and to all Eternity The Flesh I bear it record takes a kind of pleasure in grieving pitying and beholding the shadows of these things but the Spirit of Faith goes higher and rejoyceth in the evidence and demonstrations of the Substances themselves The Letter and Form alone profiteth little it is the Spirit and Faith that must give the true Life Christ saith Except we eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of God we have no Life abiding in us because his Flesh is meat indeed and his Blood is drink indeed but withal he tells us That these words which he speaketh are Spirit and Life Call we therefore in the last place and hold there to the True work of a Christian To crucifie a Lust to kill a Sin to die to sin to rise from Sin and live to Righteousness I whine not at the Passion I weep not for him but I weep for my self and mortifie my Members which are upon the Earth I remember Christ's death and take the Sacrament upon it as the only Memorial that Christ hath ordained I believe and bear in mind the history of the Passion but my main care is to conform thereunto The Mystery is more to me than the History the Spirit than the Letter The Letter is low the Spirit is high Carnal Devotion is in Images and Reliques but Spiritual Devotion is in Mortification and Self-denial The one is the form the other is the power of Godliness We preach and live too low in the bare History in verbal Masses in superstitious Rites These are some of them very good when contained within their own spheres but alwaies very low and mean and never come up to the height
through weakness but lived by the power of God And after he had died for our sins rose again for our justification 3. That Christ as a Law-giver propounded the purest Rules of Holiness and the highest Rewards of happiness introduced the most Spiritual worship that ever was manifested unto Mankind that he put an everlasting period to Moses's Rites and confounded the Wisdom of the World by the foolishness and weakness of God which is wiser and stronger than the Wisdom and strength of the World That he brake the Devil's power and malice silenced the lying Oracles and lay'd flat the strong holds of Sin and Satan to the ground And set up his Kingdom against all Principalities and powers and Spiritual wickednesses in high places and the gates of Hell shall never be able to to prevail against it 4. That Christ's Apostles saw and heard all that he did spake and suffered and the Glory of his Resurrection and Ascension and testified to the World all these things which they had seen and heard without all hope of Reward in this Life against all discouragements of persecutions and deaths And that the Spirit of God was so powerful in these illiterate and obscure Men as to indue them with Wisedom and Understanding from on High and with courage and resolution to preach the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and the enduring of the Cross by mortification and self-denyal and renunciation of the World in order thereunto Things hard to be believed done or suffered by Flesh and Blood but mightily assured of performed and endured by themselves and their Disciples out-witting the Learning of Athens and Rome out-pleading the Orators and over-coming the powerful oppositions of both and of all others translated by their Gospel from the power of Darkness of Satan into the glorious Kingdom of the dear Son of God Thus the Ground of our Assurance sufficeth as to credence for matter of Fact SECT II. 2. The second Ground of all the Assurance Matter of Right that is possible and convenient to be had in this Life concerning our Salvation is in matter of Right to the Promises of that Salvation so procured for us is 1. Our consenting to the Promises delivered unto us 2. Our accepting and free embracing them as to our selves drawing the right of those Promises unto us 3. Our obedience or observation of them accordingly preserving those Rights unto us All which is our Faith whereby we are justified to all the Rights procured purchased and published by our Saviour Jesus Christ Thus living and dying and rising again and sending of his Spirit and ascending into Heaven and offering himself to God as a Priest and Sacrifice and sitting at the Right Hand of his Father to rule over all for us Men and for our Salvation That where he is thither he might bring us who is thus gone before us to prepare a place for us This is great Assurance and there can be no evidence nor conveyance or settlement greater or more secure than this The Word of God standing sure and our reliance thereupon We know we are the Sons of God What saith Christ Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word Joh. 5.13 and believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto Life And I will raise him up at the last day He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life Joh. 12.44 that is right unto it and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him We know that we have passed from Death unto Life because we love the Brethren He that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death 1 Joh. 3.14 Eph. 2.5 c. Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickened us together with Christ by Grace ye are all saved and hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in Heavenly places in Jesus Christ That in ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ For by Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of our selves it is the Gift of God The method of this our Assurance is 1. Hearing the Son 2. Believing in him and the Father that sent him 3. Justification 1. From Damnation and Death to Salvation and Life 2. From Sin to Grace 3. From Death in Sin to Life in Righteousness 4. From Death for Sin to Life for Grace 5. From Darkness to Light 6. From Bondage to Liberty SECT III. Matter of Witness 3. The third Ground for all the Assurance that is possible and convenient to be had in this Life concerning our Salvation is in matter of Witness or Earnest thereof which is the Spirit of God When Christ departed from his Disciples by leaving the World he bid them not be troubled at his corporal absence for he would send his Holy Spirit the Comforter to abide with them and so would be spiritually present with them all all that should succeed them in the Faith unto the end of the World Therefore accordingly when they were troubled exceedingly after his death and doubted that he was not the Messiah because he was dead and buried And after his Resurrection they were not fully satisfied but strange thoughts arose in their hearts He shew'd them his hands and his feet Luc. 24.38 c. that they might know that it was he himself and bid them handle him and feel him and look well upon him for a Spirit cannot be seen nor hath Flesh and Bones as he had And while they yet were not fully assured doubting for joy and wonder for their farther satisfaction he took meat and did eat before them And moreover for the greater Assurance he by his Spirit opened their Understandings that they might understand the Scriptures and gave them a Commission to preach the Gospel Joh. 20.22 And farther yet He breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost whosoevers sins ye remit they are remitted and whosoevers sins ye retain they are retained And last of all for the greatest assurance of all he said Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you Luc. 24.49 c. Vid. Act. 1.4 c. But tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem untill ye be endued with power from on High And he lift up his hands and blessed them and in their sight and of above five hundred Brethren together he was carried up to Heaven And then they were satisfied and worshipped and returned to Jerusalem as Christ had commanded them with great joy and waited there for the performance of the Promise Act. 2.1 c. Act. 1. which was performed upon the day of Pentecost by the Mission of the Holy Ghost upon them so as never was before When therefore all the Assurances and Confirmations that could be given to Christ's Disciples were given for their
us and them at the last day 3. We may not think of our selves or others that when we or they have honestly and constantly endeavoured after goodness and come short of what is indeed perfection therefore we shall be all rejected and left under woful disappointments God is not so hard a Master 4. We may not think that every one that in heat of passion despairs or makes away himself is lost for ever or every Mad-man or Fool is damned These have no Will and therefore no sin for the time and therefore cannot suffer justly for such actions but for what they did while they were themselves if ever they were so If never they are sufferers not Sinners no shame to them but for God's Glory 5. We may not think that every one that boasts of his Assurance is sure and of his Perfection is perfect There is cause to suspect such most who least suspect themselves 6. The Cares and Loves of God are not altogether without some fears and jealousies Pietas etiam tuta aliquindo pertimescit Piety though in a safe condition is now and then fearful The liberal Man mistrusteth his Bounty The Believer his Unbelief Lord I believe help thou my unbelief If this be a fault it is a safe one Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Be not high minded but fear Every Man hath not a Mansion in Heaven that pretendeth to it nor is every Man shut out who doubteth of his evidence for Heaven Diffidence is a character of a good Man who would fain be better Though he hath built up his Assurance as strong as he can yet he thinketh himself not sure enough but seeketh farther for Assurance and fortifieth it with his fear and assiduous diligence to make it stand fast for ever The case of every one that uses desperate words is not desperate if they proceed from distempers of Body or ignorance of Mind and not from corrupt consciences We may be bold to say If real despair hath killed her thousands Presumption hath slain her ten thousands Despair is the Daughter of Sin and Darkness but Presumption is the ludibrium of Hope But holy confidence is the Genuine Off-spring of a pure conscience 7. Neglect not the Grace of God nor receive it in vain nor turn it unto wantonness nor sin that Grace may abound But be vigilant and careful and wisely fearful Fortis saepè victus cautus rarissime A strong Man over confident oft falls but a wary Man seldom SECT VI. Proofs For a Close to leave my own Conceptions I will lay most of the Scriptures together concerning this point and let the Reader try what I have said from them or what he himself can gather out of them And they are these Eph. 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by which ye are sealed unto the day of your Redemption And not only they that is the Creation but our selves Ro. 8.23 which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our Bodies Eph. 1.14 The Spirit which is the earnest of our Inheritance untill the Redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Ro. 8.15 Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 4.5 6. To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons and because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father Joh. 1.12 As many as have received him to them gave he power to be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 John 5.16 If any Man sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death There is a sin unto death I do not say ye shall pray for it Ro. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Joh. 16.22 I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no Man taketh from you 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoicing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our conversation in the World 1 Joh. 3.21 Beloved if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God 1 Joh. 16 17. We have known and believed the love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 5.15 And if we know that he hears us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the Petitions that we desired of him Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name he will give it you 2 Pet. 1.10 The rather Brethren give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure For if ye do these things ye shall never fall Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect Ro. 8.33 c. it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the Right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Being perswaded that he that had promised was able also to perform Ro. 4.21 Ye know that all things shall work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 even to them who are the called according to his purpose We know that we have passed from death unto Life 1 Joh. 3.14 16. because we love the Brethren he that loveth not his Brother abideth in death Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren Verily verily I say unto you he that knoweth my Word Joh. 5.23 and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from Death unto Life The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want Ps 23 1 c. he maketh me to lie down in green pastures c. In thee O Lord do I put my trust let me never be ashamed c. Ps 31. i. He that
a Manuduction unto Christ Observe it then that all this while there was no other way of life given either in whole or in part beside the Covenant of Grace And therefore there was no inconstancy either in God's Will or in his Acts only such was his Mercy that he subordinated the Covenant of Works and made it subservient to the Covenant of Grace and so to tend to Evangelical Perfection And he that truly understands and considers what the Covenant of Works requires and how unable he is to perform it it being though ordained for righteousness and life an occasion of sin and death must needs see just cause to flie from Mount Sinai unto Mount Sion or from the Covenant of Works made with Adam to the Covenant of Grace made with Christ and to admire the unspeakable Wisdom and Mercy of God in suffering the Law to enter in Rom. 5.20 21. that the offence might abound that where Sin aboundeth Grace might much more abound That as sin hath raigned unto death even so might Grace raign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Law then which was good was not made Death unto me God forbid But Sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good Rom. 7.13 that sin by the Commandment might become exceeding sinful Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 c. that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe But before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith But after that Faith is come we are no longer under a School-master For ye are the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus The obscurity of this Great Point of Theology which I am forced to be so long upon new Notions arising continually is chiefly occasioned as Origen imagineth by the indistinct Aequivocation of the Word Law in the Epistle to the Romans let that place be viewed where it is said The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 6.2 3. The Aequivocal Word Law for what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit May we not modestly say that the Word Law ascribed to the Concupiscence of the Flesh is not properly but abusively given As it is also in another Place Rom. 7.21 23. where he saith I find a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the Law of God after the Inward Man But I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of sin which is in my Members For if Lust be a Law and do bind it hath no Right so to do because Lust is not of force by God's Prime Institution from whence Law hath its virtue but by the occasion of his Justice in punishing the Fall of our first Parents thereby And hence is this Original way of sinning from our Lusts which we are led away with and deceived by though in themselves they are not naturally sinful but became exorbitant against reason and peccant upon forbidden objects by our own consent of Will and God's just Punishment therefore But when the Law of the Spirit of life is clearly meant to be the Gospel preached and alone having the Promise of the Spirit The Law that is weak because of the Flesh that is condemned by the flesh of Christ must needs be understood to be a carnal Law from whence Salvation can never be hoped But that Law by which Justification is had by them which walk after the Spirit and not after the Flesh is Spiritual whether it be the same for the Law of Nature perfected by Christ for the Covenant of Grace or diverse as commanded by Moses for the Covenant of Works When these things are rightly distinguished the difficulty whereof St. Peter as well as Origen complains is taken off for when the Apostle saith Rom. 2.14 That the Gentiles which have not a Law are a Law unto themselves doing by Nature the things contained in the Law shew the Work of the Law written in their hearts It is manifest that although we usurp the Appellation of the Law of Nature indifferently St. Paul doth abstain from giving the Name of a Law to that Light that is in us when he says the Gentiles had no Law but were a Law to themselves because the usurping of the Name Law belongs to the solemn Imposition of that name in the Law of Moses and to the Law of Nature and of sin but by Trope and Figure The Law of Moses is carnal in all men the Covenant of Works The Law of Christ is Spiritual in the Faithful before under and after the Law the Covenant of Grace Therefore the Institutions of Nature in Moses's Law are Scriptures and the Word of God no less than the Gospel but not binding as delivered by Moses but by Christ by whom they were made perfect Neither doth a Believer receive the Moral Law at the hands of Moses but altogether at the hands of Christ Though it be the same Law for Matter and Substance yet in the lowest grounds that was delivered by Moses yet Believers are not to receive it as the Law of Moses but of Christ in the highest perfections thereof For when Christ the Son of God comes and speaks himself Moses the Servant of God must hold his peace as Moses himself foretold A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me Act. 3.22 Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And therefore in the Mount Tabor when Moses and Elias were departed and had given place the voice from Heaven came and said Math. 17.5 This is my Well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye Him And though heretofore God hath spoken divers wayes and in sundry fashions to the World by his Servants the Prophets Heb. 1.2 yet now in these last dayes he hath spoken to us by his Son and this is he that we must trust to And they that believed in Moses must believe in Christ and they that believed before Moses did believe in Christ and they that believe after Moses must believe in Christ and so to the World's end For there never was nor will be
with Penances and Reliques and Indulgences and Outward performances never regarding the Inward killing of Lusts nor expecting a Living Law written in the heart This is to forsake our Husband Christ and cleave to the bondage of the Law which is dead to us by Christ's Cross and might be dead in us by his Spirit if we would believe And the ground of all this Error is from a Novel Interpretation of that Paragraph of the latter part of the seventh of the Romans contrary to all Antiquity Sense or Reason SECTION IV. The Reasons for this Victory over the Law are these Because Grace is stronger than the Law Grace stronger than Law Mercy rejoyces and prevails over Justice The absolving power of the Gospel is stronger than the condemning power of the Law The Mercies of God are above all his Works Prerogative is above Law Custome overcomes Law Mercy much more The Sword of Justice is strong and sharp but Mercy keeps off the blow and holds the hand of Justice from striking If the Law calls aloud for Justice Christ's blood calls louder and pleads for pardon If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father and the blood of Christ is the Propitiation for all sins God will have mercy because he will have mercy and what is that to the Law It is the will of God to pardon and pass by Iniquities Transgressions and Sins and to remember them no more When the strong man enters into the house he keeps it and all that is therein but when a stronger than he comes upon him he binds him hand and foot and casts him out So is the Gospel to the Law 2. Because the Spirit of Grace is stronger than the Spirit of the Law Spirit of Grace stronger than Spirit of Law The Spirit of Sin is strong in it self Lust hath a violent impulse and vehement motion The Spirit of Sin is stronger by the Law and rages and takes on much more for being opposed Like a Lion scorns to be kept in but breaks down all barrs and bounds to run abroad at randome But the Spirit of the Law is stronger for though it cannot curb sin from sinning yet it keeps it under the Curse that it cannot escape it But when the Spirit of Grace in Christ comes it preacheth deliverance to the Captives and recovery of sight to the blind and opens the prison doors to them that were fast bound in misery and iron and publishes the acceptable Year of the Lord. The Word of God is mighty in operation throegh the Spirit for the beating down of the strong holds of Sin and Satan As Light is stronger than Darkness to destroy sin so the Blessing of Grace is stronger than the Curse of the Law to take it quite away Though the Spirit of the Law be the Spirit of God's Justice yet the Spirit of the Gospel is the Spirit of God's Mercy which God will have to be more effectual than the other and Blesses whom the Law curses yea and they shall be Blessed 3. God delights more in Mercy than Vengeance Because God delights more in shewing Mercy than in executing Vengeance in sparing than in punishing As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn and live Judgment is his strange work Bowels of mercy tender pity and Compassion are his delightful properties 4. Because Man is made to be the object of God's Love not Wrath Man Object of God's Love his Blessing not a Curse Life not Death Heaven was prepared for Men and Angels till they sinned and then Hell was prepared for them and since that for all Hypocrites like unto them We cannot imagine in any reason that God made his poor Creatures for everlasting Destruction We may observe it in our selves though we be evil yet we are not so unnatural as to beget children to starve them or beat out their brains or leave them to the wide World or send them to the Hangman to be tormented to death And if we that are evil know well enough notwithstanding to give good things to our children not a Scorpion for a Fish nor a Stone for an Egg how much more then shall our Heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him and how infinitely more pitiful and compassionate is he than we can imagine or express Christs Pleading undeniable to God 5. Because the Pleading of Christ for Mercy purchased by his own Blood is undeniable to God above all the Pleading of the Law or the Devil that lays the Law against the Brethren whose malicious accuser he is God will not cannot deny his own Son and whatsoever we shall ask the Father in his Name he will deny us nothing SECTION V. Victory procured meritoriously by Christs death 1. This Victory is meritoriously procured for us by Christ's Death O Death I will be thy death O Grave I will be thy destruction And his Resurrection was the pledg to assure us thereof 2. This Victory is really effected and performed in us by the Spirit of Christ raising our Souls from the death of sin to the life of righteousness and our Bodies from the Grave to the life of glory If the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you Rom. 8.11 he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you As if he should have said If the Spirit of Christ dwell in you regenerating your Souls to a New Creature which is the first Resurrection from the first death then the very same Spirit shall also immortalize your Bodies which is the second resurrection from the second death that upon them the second death shall have no Power Thus abundantly hath God provided for us by Jesus Christ both in respect of our Souls and of our Bodies Our Souls raised from the death of sin and the curse of the Law Our Bodies raised from the Grave The Natural Body is raised a Spiritual Body the Corruptible puts on Incorruption Dishonour turn'd into Glory Weakness into Power a Change to be as the Angels in Heaven Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 5.2 We Groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven Victory obtained by the Spirit of Faith 2. But no obtaining this Victory over death purchased for us till by the Spirit of Faith we obtain a Victory over Sin which is also procured for us by Christ who hath received the Promise of the Spirit for all that believe This is that Crown of Life that Christ the first born of God and first begotten from the dead shall set upon the heads of all those that have fought the good fight of faith and have been more than Conquerours For as death proceeds only from Sin for sin is mortal so life
5. Some mens Religion is nothing but a Faculty of Rhetoricating in Preaching and Praying by Inspiration as they call it of the Spirit whereas in truth it is a mere Natural Faculty often helped by Art and Learning in persons grosly hypocritical and debauched There is a mere Natural Enthusiasm of Poetry and Oratory Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus ipso Sedibus Aetheriis Spiritus ille venit And when such Eloquent and fiery men are imployed in Religious Exercises they are fluent to admiration and become extremely popular to lead Multitudes like Pitchers by the Ears into Fanatick Distempers against Church and State in Peace or Warr especially if they be bred in the Schools of Learning or set in Publick Imployments It is farr from my meaning to undervalue or declare against the sincere and ardent affections of Devout Souls naturally and freely breathing out their earnest Ejaculations to God in private But to caution the Simple well-meaning People from mistaking the Natural and Enthusiastick fervour of mens Spirits and the ebulliency of their Fancies and Expressions for a supernatural Inspiration especially if they meddle with Religion or Polity for which they have no warrant from God or Man Let the World know what wise men judge That the Evidence and Demonstration of God's Spirit consisteth not in words and talk as if God were to be heard for their much speaking or glorified by their loud noises and long harangues For that is chiefly to be discerned in Life and Action though the words be few And therefore when some Corinthians were puffed up by reason of a rich Fancy they had expressed by the sweetness of Attick Eloquence in which they were bred so that the Unlearned had their Persons in great Veneration above St. Paul who had not that strain nor could use the entising words of man's wisdom in the business of the Gospel he tells these deceived Souls having the Word of God in respect of persons and their boasting Teachers the Gnosticks That he would come amongst them for he had the Spirit of Discerning and know not the speech of them that were puffed up but the power For the Kingdom of God saith he consisteth not in Word but in Power and Life Wherefore laying aside all these deceitful Fancies let us really set our selves to mortifie all our Lusts and Affections That being Born Crucified Dead Buried and Risen with Christ here we may live Eternally with him in Glory hereafter Amen SECTION I. From all these Premises we derive these Corollaries or Conclusions Of the Consequences of Christ's Death and Resurrection Material Cross 1. There is a Material Cross of Wood. There are Whips Nails a Crown of Thorns Agony and Death at Jerusalem outward visible matter of Fact a History 2. There is a Spirttual Cross The spirit virtue of Death Spiritual Cross Fellowship of Sufferings Death of Sin in the Heart inward invisible matter of Right a Mystery 3. Material Resurrection There is a Material Resurrection from Death and Grave at Jerusalem outward matter of Fact History 4. There is a Spiritual Resurrection virtue Spiritual Resurrection power of Resurrection from Death in Sin to the Life of Righteousness in the heart inward matter of Right Mystery The Historical Faith is only of matter of Fact for Knowledge only as the Devils and Turks c. believe The Justifying Faith is for matter of Right for Merit Virtue Power Comfort of Christ's Death and Resurrection by the Spirit of Christ So are all the Promises of God accepted by us and sealed confirmed to us So we promise and covenant to and with God So we partake of all the Benefits of his Death and Resurrection 5. Material Ascension There is a Material Ascension of Christ into the holy place of Heaven offering up his Blood to consecrate that place for us sitting at the Right Hand of God and making intercession There he rules over all things from thence he sends down his holy Spirit Matter of Fact History 6. There is a Spiritual Ascension Entring into the Hearts Spiritual Ascension Ruling in our Souls by his Spirit Crying Abba Father Matter of Right Mystery So in Christ's Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension there is a History and a Mystery a Letter and a Spirit 1. Christ is born in our Flesh Christ is born in our Spirit We are born in the Flesh we are born again in the Spirit Christ is formed in the Womb of his Mother We are formed in the Womb of Christ We are born in Christ and with Christ and Christ is born in us and with us 2. Christ died in the Flesh we are dead in the Flesh we are dead to the Flesh We are dead in the World we are dead to the World We are dead with Christ and buried with Christ 3. Christ rose in the Flesh Christ riseth in the Spirit We shall rise in the Flesh we shall rise in the Spirit Thus there is a Birth in Sin there is a Birth to and from Sin and there is a Birth for Sin Thus there is a Birth in Sin there is a Birth from Sin and there is a Birth to Sin Thus there is a Life in Sin there is a Life from Sin and there is a Life for Sin So Christ's Death conquers our Sins for us And Christ's Spirit conquers our Sins in us So Christ's Resurrection raiseth us from Sin unto Righteousness Christ's Resurrection justifies his Death to be true and Christ's Resurrection justifies the pardon of our Sins and his Spirit doth actually assure the pardon to our Souls So Christ is in us and with us and we are in Christ and with Christ So Christ lives in us and with us and we live in Christ and with Christ So Christ is crucified in us and with us so we are crucified in Christ and with Christ So Christ dies in us and with us and we die in Christ and with Christ So Christ rises in us and with us so we rise in Christ and with Christ So Christ is glorified in us and with us and we are glorified in Christ and with Christ This is to eat Christ's Flesh and drink his Blood spiritually This is to put off the Old Man and to put on the New Man This is our Regeneration and a New Creature This is our Communion with Christ and Christ's Communion with us This is to dwell in Christ and Christ in us This is to be one with Christ and Christ with us I am my Well-beloved's and my Well-beloved is mine This is to believe all and do all in the Spirit in the Lord and for the Lord. All is our Faith all is his Spirit The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and Life If ye fast or weep for Christ's Death if ye feast or rejoyce for Christ's Resurrection do all in the Spirit Pray Praise Hear Read Sing Meditate Communicate Live in the Spirit Obj. The Language is hard and high Sol. It is
to the slaughter like a Lamb dumb before the shearer Acts 8.32 so opened he not his mouth When he was reviled he reviled not again Who will not believe a Holy Person will such a one forge a Will or falsifie a deed or betray his trust or take his death upon an untruth Therefore was he sent that he might bear witness of the truth 4. By his death Christ took his death upon it Mat. 26.63 Joh. 19.7 that his Message was from God For for his saying that he was the Son of God and came to bear witness of the truth he was condemned to death Yet he persisted to the last to call God Father commended his Spirit into his hands and so gave up the Ghost Luc. 23.46 ratifying this truth with his Bloud That saying caused his death and his death caused the faith of that saying Now the greatest proof that can be made is to take ones death upon it Besides the death of Christ was seconded with many Miracles of the Eclipse of the Sun the shaking of the Earth c. which bred the faith of this truth in many and in some of his Executioners Mat. 27.54 and in the Centurion saying Truly this Man was the Son of God 5. By Resurrection This was so strong a proof that it confirmed all the rest not but that the rest were sufficient but this took away the scandal of the Cross being accused to die as a malefactor and for saying Destroy this Temple and in three daies I will raise it up again And when he fore-told his Passion he comforted his Disciples with his Resurrection and if Christ's Resurrection had not follow'd then his Doctrine and Miracles had been discredited But his Resurrection declared him to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness Rom. 1.4 His Resurrection proved him to be the Judg of the World because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judg the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead This giving assurance is making Faith for so is the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Italian Translation and the English in the Margin offered Faith The Resurrection was of such force to make faith that the Apostles made it the form of their Ordination and Matthias was ordained to be a witness with the rest of the Apostles of the Resurrection Acts 1.22 They made it the summe of all their preaching proving that Jesus was the Christ because God had raised him from the dead Vid. Acts 2 and 3. and 5. and 13. This is the very life of Faith for if Christ be not raised then our faith is vain and we are yet in our sins and the Apostles would have been found lyars and contrivers of cunningly devised Fables 1 Cor. 15.17 For which they would never have suffered as they did to the death Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is the Lord and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Shall we not believe one risen from the dead Dives in Hell supposed Luc. 16.20 that if one should rise from the dead his unbelieving Brethren would believe and repent Can the unbelieving Jew believe other things which he hath not seen as that Abraham was his Father by whom he had all his right to the Land of Canaan and not believe that Jesus is the Christ whom he hath seen by whom he hath right to the Kingdom of Heaven Can he believe that Moses was the Man of God by whom God gave his Law and not that Jesus is the Son of God by whom God gave his Grace For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ Besides the former proofs of his own Christ hath the testimonies of Moses and the Prophets who spake of him since the World began and the very indication of John the Baptist the greatest of them all John 1.45 The Jews boast of Moses and his Writings Joh. 5.46 but Christ saies Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me and therefore he in whom ye trust condemneth you Reason 1. The Reason why Christ thus proves this Last Will of his Father to make faith of it to the World is because he is the Executor or Mediator of it to whom of right it belongeth to prove that Will whereof he is instituted the Heir and by so being the Will receives his very essence and form and without it is null and void Christ therefore came down from Heaven Joh. 6.38 not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him And this is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him may have everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the last day Hebr. 7.22 2. Because Christ is the Surety of God's Testament Every Surety is not an Executor but every Executor is a Surety that stands bound for the Testator to pay all his Debts and Gifts as a Surety is bound to the Creditor for the principal Debtor 3. It is called Faith in Christ because Faith in Christ is the Title or Appellation whereby we are nominated to the Legacies in God's Testament The Executor cannot duly perform the Will of the Testator to pay his Debts and Legacies except the Creditors and Debtors and Legatees be nominated and that they also may know when and how and of whom to claim their just due Now in God's Testament Men are truly and certainly nominated not by their proper names but by appellative and common names as of Faithful Joh. 3.16 and Believers in Christ and Receivers of Christ Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life Verily verily I say unto you Joh. 5.24 He that Heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto Life Acts 16.31 Joh. 6.47 Ro. 3.26 Rom. 10.9 1 Joh. 5.13 Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved thou and thy house He that believeth in me hath everlasting life To declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus If thou shalt confess with thy mouth and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved I have written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal Life Acts 26.18 He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned To receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith which is in Christ Jesus He that believeth not is condemned already Joh. 3.18 because he
truths there is no peace to the wicked and what peace can there be so long as their whoredoms and witchcrafts are so many 2. Because they are not justified by Faith therefore they are not at peace with God nor with their own Souls because they are not of the Truth neither is Truth in them 3. Because health and ease in the Body and outward flourishing and tranquillity may be in the Estate though the Soul have no union or communion with God at all Nor is it any sign of God's favour or disfavour to thrive and prosper or to suffer in this World but all things happen alike to all Men in this World and no Man knoweth what is good or bad by any thing that is before him 4. Because their natural tempers and constitution of bodies may tend to mirth joy and rejoycing in the lower faculties while the higher powers of the Mind and Conscience are defiled and have no hope nor comfort in them 5. Because Sense in the Flesh is below Faith in the Heart and they live by Sense and not by Faith and therefore they believe Sense and not Faith because there is no Faith in them to believe And so they live by Sense which is no life but death For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace 1. They have no reason therefore at all to believe their own Consciences falsly so called for the Conscience speaks bitter things unto them and that they may believe and if the Offices of Consciences be suspended in them it is because the habits and customs of sin have taken away the sense thereof and created a hardness darkness stupefaction and numness in them 2. They are to hearken to good counsel without for there is none within or very rare but when it is they are not to neglect it at any hand 3. They are carefully to observe calamities ordinary and extraordinary that happen to themselves or others which are sent of God on purpose to awaken them from their sins 4. They are to cease from the hurry and noise of pleasures and profits of this World and to make a stand sometimes and to retire into their own thoughts and look up to God and remember their later end and put a stop to their nots and excesses and try to shake them off by degrees and strive to enter into a course of honesty sobriety and temperance and see how it may work in them by little and little till they come to their wits again and live like Men by Reason and so farther as Christians by Faith and not meerly as Beasts by Sense And this they may do if they will and recover and come to by breaking off their sins by repentance and their iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor To this end all Men are exhorted Self-Examination 1. To self-examination The Scholar must leave poring alwaies upon his Book and turn over the Book of his own Conscience and learn the state of his own Soul The Statesman and wise politician must leave plodding and contriving publique State affairs and learn to manage the Government of himself The worldly voluptuous and luxurious Persons that mind all things that are without them must learn to come home and dwell with themselves and know the things that are within them by acquainting themselves with themselves more and more and being strangers to others 2. To keep no private sin unforsaken Forsake sin the sin that sticks so close within them the plague of their own heart the Idol of abomination which they have set up in their own Spirit the cursed thing which troubles all things So long as any such thing lurks in the Will the Will is not turned There is a lye in my right hand I hide iniquity under my tongue I mock God and my Soul If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer 3. To confess every sin I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord Confession and so thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin I thought on my waies and turned my heart unto thy testimonies To this end the Conscience must be set a work and made to do its offices by discoursing with our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 4.4 Sym. Aug. Ventilabam Roman Psalt scopabam vulg To commune with our own hearts in our Chambers and be still to dig and delve into our Spirits to hunt there to winnow the chaff from the Corn to sweep and search diligently in every corner of the heart This is the great neglect of the Sons of Men that they do not exercise their faculties nor use the Reason that is in them that they might know themselves Nemo in sese tentat descendere Nemo The Conscience is the light and face of the Soul there they might see and know themselves if they would bethink themselves and think their thoughts over again considering and setting their heart on their waies This is the dilatation or expansion of the Soul spreading the bloudy colours that are ruffled and furled up together the anatomizing of the smallest fibra's of the heart the reflection of the mind upon it self A word spoken to the heart a reckoning and casting up of our accompt a retiring to our own Soul a putting our sins upon our Soul bringing them back to the place from whence they came a retractation a recognition a scrutiny of all circumstances Quis quid ubi quibus auxiliis Cur quomodo quando Who what where by what means why how when Reminiscentia animi dilatatio Reflexio mentis dictio cum corde Reputatio viarum Reditio ad cor Positio super cor c. SECT I. I shall drive in these wedges to keep this Cause from stirring 1. Conscientia obnubilari potest quia non est Deus extingui non potest Collections quia est à Deo The Conscience may be clouded and obscured because it is not God but it cannot be extinguished because it is from God 2. Conscientia non habet potestatem legislativam sed jurisdictionem tantùm non est Frinceps sed Judex non Jus facit sed dicit The Conscience hath no Supreme legislative power but jurisdiction only because she is not a Prince but a Judg she doth not make Right but declares what Right is 3. Conscientia est in omnibus rationalibus Angelis hominibus The Conscience is in all rational Creatures Angels and Men. 4. Conscientia non extinguitur in damnatis The Conscience is not extinguished in the damned but most of all awakened 5. Nemo semper fuit Atheus No Man hath been an Atheist at all times 6. Peccatum semper ambulat cum capite Sin ever accompanies the person of a Sinner 7. Maxima violatio Conscientiae est maximum peccatum The greatest violation of the Conscience is the greatest sin 8. Maximus angor Conscientiae est maxima poena The greatest torment of the Conscience is the greatest
being the Minister unto another Man's cruelty in following whose judgment he relies also upon his own judgment whereby he gave him power to judg of the Heresy But where will the Magistrate find competent Judges For though many may be free from others errors yet in matters to salvation necessary or not necessary few know accurately how to distinguish which in this case is requisite should be known Otherwise if you believe more things necessary to salvation than really are you will judg him an Heretick who really is not for you will charge him with error in that point which you erroneously think necessary to salvation Whence it must needs follow if you think it the Magistrate's Office to put Hereticks to death that you in your judgment must first sentence this or that Heretick worthy to die But how easily and frequently may it fall out touching your Sentence in it self considered that you should rather be in the error than the party you condemn For of Christians that can come into question of Heresy very few there are who are ignorant of the points sufficient to salvation much less of those that are necessary The case is otherwise in other crimes which common reason constantly condemns which the conscience of the offender condemns in himself and which the Magistrate though himself may be secretly guilty of them is forced by the Law to condemn in others or at least cannot excuse them being willfully committed against some positive Law of Man which commanding nothing naturally dishonest the offender with a safe conscience might and ought to have observed Of these crimes therefore whose cases are clearly laid out by positive Law which particularly design what act is Treason what Murder and what is Felony the Magistrate can and may rightly Judg though himself be not altogether free from the crime which he judgeth But errors whose cases are by no Law specified how can he rightly judg who is himself in an error For in points of Religion even to most Men error is commonly more pleasing than the Truth which being for the most part simple and a stranger finds few patrons to defend it but many and mighty enemies to oppose it who account it a service unto God to serve against the Truth For the Professors of the Truth of Christ even from the beginning of that Profession have suffer'd grievous persecutions from the hands of them who when they killed them did think they did God service Joh. 16.2 as Christ tells his Disciples And the same Master of the Truth testifies elsewhere that the Crosse and persecution should alwaies follow his followers after the Example of their Leader But what greater iniquity can there be than to vex a Man for his Conscience sake For by their Conscience and a full persuasion of the Truth most of those Men must needs be led who are content to expend their Life upon their Profession What greater folly than to force the Faith of Men by external violence and to perswade the Soul by means of the Sword What greater inhumanity than by torments or vexations to compel a man to that dissembling or lying which his Soul abhors as impious and blasphemous What greater indignity than either to murther the Professors of the Truth or to allow Hereticks the glory of Martyrdom and to arm their Errours with an Argument so powerful that the Truth in these times cannot find a greater whereby to commend it self to the Soul What greater Antichristianity than under colour of the Cause of Christ to persecute the poor Members of Christ For if the Cause of Christ needs blood to support it it is rather strengthned by the blood of those that profess the Truth than of them that seem to oppose it Lastly What greater impudence than for us to condemn persecution in the Jew and the Heathen in the Turk and Papist and our selves practice the same Persecution which in others we condemn Is not this either to justifie all Persecution or to condemn our selves in excusably for it Ro. 2.1 For thou art inexcusable O Man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things Is the blood of Persecution but a blast of Merchandize to be cried down when we suffer it and cried up when we practice it according to the vend of other Commodities that pass under humane Commerce To a Jew who alledgeth his Law against Idolaters the Answer may be Let the Jewish Magistrate execute that Law according to the intent of it against such Idolaters as are under his jurisdiction But if by a Christian to whom the Law of Moses is expired that Law be alledged against Hereticks the Allegation is not worth answering SECT V. Rules for Hereticks Concerning Hereticks therefore the Rules in the Gospel seem chiefly two one for a Separation to reject them after a first and second admonition Tit. 3.10 the other for a Toleration to suffer them to grow till the harvest For the housholder in that Parable judged that the rooting up of the Tares would also root up the Wheat Math. 13.30 and thereupon also forbad his Servants from medling with the Tares till the time of harvest Shall we therefore think he commanded the Wheat to root up the Tares which were so multiplied that they overgrew the Wheat much less was it his meaning that the Tares should root up the Wheat by arrogating to themselves the name of the Wheat and by obtruding on the Wheat the name of the Tares Seeing then that the being of the Tares is a thing of necessity for there must be Heresies amongst us 1 Cor. 11.13 that they which are approved might be made manifest And seeing the judgment of Heresie is in a manner a Mystery too deep and hard for humane Judicatories where many times truth is arraigned for errour and seeing the extirpation of Heresies is of much danger that the rooting of it out may root out the truth therefore the safest course for the Christian Magistrate is to account the trial of Heresie a Case reserved to the judgment of God to be cut off by the hand of God because Heresie is a thing so dark and secret that none but God can take cognizance of it in such accurate manner as to convict and condemn it The person whom we suspect of Heresie we must avoid for our own safety but let us leave his Judgment to the hand of God to stand or fall to his own Master But if any man be turbulent and endeavour to subvert the state under which he lives the Magistrate according to the Laws in that case provided may and must proceed against him of what opinion soever he be whether Heretick or not For Heresie being but a difference in opinion is a thing in nature so diverse from Sedition that naturally it never causeth Sedition no more than differences in meats and apparel which differences do flow from opinion