he then conversing with them and instructing them and as he was so doing he was taken up out of their sight into heaven and they stood gazing up after him Luke 24.51 Acts 1.9 which things are not applicable to Christ within them Again it s said He shall come not in but with his Saints Jude 14. accompanied with them and they shall be all caught up to meet him together in the air 1 Thes 4.16,17 But in the spiritual coming of Christ in the Saints there is no such being caught up into the air there to meet him besides that thought denieth and destroyeth the Humanity of Christ and all its unspeakable glory upon its â—nexpressible sufferings for it springeth from such a conceit that there is no spiritual glorified body of Christ for him to come in but onely the mystical his people and it leadeth to the denial of all that glory that the Saints shall have in their bodies by and after the resurrection of them yea then we destroy the faith which witnesseth that even that that is gone up to heaven from the earth and is no longer in the world with his Disciples but is contained in heaven shall at the time of the Restitution of all things descend from thence and come again even Christ in that his sometime dead but now raised and glorified body to judge the world in righteousness and that then they that have here suffered and been put to death for righteousness sake and for their testimony to Christ shall be raised up again out of all their death and be by his glorious and divine power presented alive set free from all their mortality and corruption that now cleaveth to them and receive the great and full reward of all that patient waiting upon God and warring against the Beast the World Satan and Sin which untill then is laid up and reserved in heaven for them Acts 3.13,14,21 Then shall it be that they shall have no more pain sorrow crying or death but shall be compleatly like him even to Christ whom they have honored and whom then they shall see as he is and not onely have glory but appear in glory to all with him but not till then as some wrongfully understand or apply the things so spoken Thence need of Patience and Faith throughout all the dayes of warfare and therein to follow the steps of the Fathers who all died in Faith not having received the Promises for indeed God hath so ordered for the full performance harvest and full possession of these great Promises that one Saint of Christ shall not prevent another Abraham and Isaac shall not be perfect without us nor we without them the then living shall not prevent or be before them that long since are faln asleep and as to their bodies are dead Heb. 11.40 1 Thes 4.15 Therefore also they are grosly erroneous and to be avoided as destroyers of the faith who say that the Resurrection is now made or is already past and the day of the Lord even of that his discent from and coming in the clouds of heaven so much spoken of in the Scriptures is already come to them 2 Tim. 2.17 and they are in glory and have already as much fulness of it as is ever to be had by any These are the mockers fore-spoken of that contradict the tenour of the Apostles Doctrine These are of them that say they are Apostles but are not but are found to be lyars Revel 2.2 And therefore thou who ever thou art that art called to and believâ—st in Christ fly thou from them and gird up the loyns of thy mind to waite with long-suffering and patience for the great Harvest the salvation to be revealed at the great appearance of the Lord Jesus and the resurrection of the just knowing that those that deny these things are of the same strain with the ancient Hereticks long since condemned by the Apostles and given over by them to Satan for blaspheming but mind thou the faithful and true sayings of God and wait for them offering up thy very body also a sacrifice to God holy and acceptable by Jesus Christ to do and suffer his Will knowing that thy labour shall not be vain in the Lord thou shalt receive it in a far better state then thou layst it down in for him and therein also the reward of all those things here wrought and suffered for his Name Sect. 4. Of the Resurrection BUt because it hath been the old trick of Satan and a master-piece of his subtilties to stagger and subvert men as much as he is able about the Resurrection And because it is so fundamental a point and so properly Christian that the denial thereof overthrows the whole Christian Faith and Relâ—…ion and makes it worth nothing therefore I shall yet add something further for thy help against the cunning sleights of those instruments of the wicked One which are now as busie as ever to pervert thee herein That the dead shall rise the Scriptures are so full and plain and particularly the confutation of the Sadduces by our Saviour himself and the Apostle Pauls discourse about it to the Corinthians that there seems to be no possibility of denying it by any that pretend credit to the Scriptures and yet some such do it by eluding and perverting those Scriptures to other senses or other Scriptures that they conceive make against it as others do it upon grounds of Reason as they conceive against the Scripture I shall say something to either of them The Scriptures they pervert are such as that of Solomon The body goes to the dust and the spirit to God that gave it Eccles 12.7 which is nothing it all so much as in appearance or shew against the Resurrection of the body all those that plead for and believe the Resurrection of the body manimously affirming that the body must go to the dust the spirit or breath be gathered up again to God which is all that the Text says but we believe too that they that sleep in the dust of the earth even the dead bodies shall arise again out of the dust and both bodies and spirits united be presented before the Judgement Seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body whether good or evil Joh. 5.29 Isai 26.19 2 Cor. 5.10 which that Scripture hath no shew of a denial of nor that that one thing befalleth a man and a beast as the one dyeth so dyeth the other c. Eccless 3.19 for besides that Solomon there doth but tell us what he said in his heart not what God said to him we deny not that as to the bodily death men and beasts are both subject thereto but we say that they are not alike as to Resurrection nor doth Solomon either speak of or deny the Resurrection in that saying he onely speaking of what befalls men in the flesh here not of what their state shall be for ever hereafter That which they most insist on is
that in 1 Cor. 15.50 That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven neither doth corruption inherit incorruption which they indeavour to wrest and abuse to the denial and overthrowing the whole business of his discourse in that Chapter professedly to prove the Resurrection of the body not considering that 1. The Apostle says not thus Neither flesh nor blood shall inherit the Kingdom of God but flesh and blood copulatively together now flesh and blood is used in Scripture to signifie a natural man in his corruptible unrenewed estate and sometimes a body subjected to weakness and infirmity Heb. 2.14 whose natural life is in the blood and so nourished by a constant supply of blood from food received from without and indeed men shall not be such in the Resurrection to have their life in their blood as now and so corruptible and weak But this we expresly finde that the Body of Christ after the Resurrection by his own affirmation was flesh bones though spiritualized Luke 24.39 his blood was before shed for remission of our sins as the blood of expiation and surely to a raised body and immortalized blood is no more essential then our hairs are of the essence of a body mortal I would say rather that as the corruptible body in this state of corruption may be and subsist without hair or the like excrements so is it very conceivable that a spiritualized body shall subsist without blood its life not being then therein nor to be maintained by a continual supply and course thereof but immediately by the divine Spirit and Power of God Therefore it s a very inconsequent Argument to say because flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God therefore the body of Christ had no flesh in it upon its Resurrection directly contrary to his own assertion Luke 24.39 or that his body in which was flesh and bones was not assumed up into heaven or that mens bodies which now are flesh and blood shall not be raised and in their raised state be glorified or thus A natural body while such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God therefore this natural body shall not be raised and in its rising made spiritual and so be a subject of his Kingdom That speech then doth but point to the condition of the body when raised that it shall not be such as now it is a body of infirmity flesh and blood but it denies not that the body shall rise even as the foregoing similitude of the grain of Corn doth demonstrate that he meant for there he says Thou sowest not that body that shall be and yet we know its the same in another form or rather that that springs up namely the blade and ear and corn in it springs from that very body or bare grain that was sown or that bare grain that is sown by dying revives again in another and better form so also is the Resurrection the same dead body that was sown rises yet not the same in regard of its form and manner of being It s sown in corruption it s raised in incorruption the same it that was sown rises again though in a better manner more glorious powerful spiritual then when it was sown 2. The Apostle plainly expounds himself ver 51 52 53. when he says we shall not all sleep that is rest or lye in death but we shall be all changed Now there is a great difference between a being changed in our bodies and having them annihilated or for ever lost for that the change shall be in the body is plain in Phil. 3.31 He shall change our vile body and make it like to his own most glorious body and that this change shall not be the creating a new body that is totally distinct another from this in which we now live and die is also plain in this that if the Resurrection was the living again of the Spirit in another body then this body that dies should or might yet lye in the grave notwithstanding that resurrection in another body and so the body of Christ in which he died should have been sound in the grave still when the Disciples went to the sepulchre to imbalm him but the Scripture plainly tells us that they found it not there and of that the Angels said He is risen he it not here Matth 28.6 He might have been risen and his body there too if what was put off â—nd laid down in the grave was never reassumed 〈◊〉 raised again out of it but some other body given in stead thereof Nay indeed that conception is inconsistent with the tearm of Resurrection for Resurrection is not a creation of a â—ew or another body but the rising again of â—…at that was dead or faln as all know that understand the force of the word Resurrection Yea that also would be point-blank cross to what the Apostle yet adds further the dead shall â—e raised incorruptible and this mortal shall prit 〈◊〉 immortality and this corruptible must put on incorruption he said not that the spirit that lives and goes to God shall appear again in a new body that never was in being before an incorruptible body made of nothing or of some other materials but the dead shall rise incorruptible yea this mortal this that now is subject to death this very body shall put on immortality and this corruptible not another that never was corruptible or corrupted but this body that 's now corruptible that now hath its life in its blood and dyes corrupts shall put on immortality and so shall triumph over the grave O grave where is thy victory which they could never have ground for if the conquest of the grave should be perpetual and never restore the dead bodies that it had swallowed So that its clear by the Apostles own words and by what we read of Christ raised to which ours are to be conformed that this Scripture also is abused As for the liftings up of their understandings otherwise they are partly conceptions of impossibilities of such a thing as if the bodies were so torn and corrupted and the ashes or reliques of them dispersed that its impossible it should be raised which is an impious conception for it chargeth God with weakness and impotency as if any word was impossible to him well therefore did our Lord tax the Sadduces with erring upon these principles that they knew not the Scripture nor the power of God Vain Earth-worms who are we that we will undertake to measure and put bounds to his omnipotency and make that an impossibility with him that we cannot fathom in our narrow apprehensions Of the like nature is that foolish conception that the world will not afford room enough for so many millions of men that should be raised up as if he that made all things by his Power when as there was yet nothing could not either reduce all the dispersed parcels of his dead creatures into one body again or finde room
hath manifested himself and is to be believed in in each of these as that this one God by his Word and Spirit having made and created all things for man and man in his own Image deserved and required to be obeyed and honoured by man but man sinning and therefore falling under his displeasure and making himself thereby unable to please him and unfit for fellowship with him by reason of that unspeakable pollution that hath overspread him God was yet pleased in the greatness of his mercy and freeness of his love to find out a way to recover us again and a way by which we might return back again unto him So as that both his justice and displeasure against sin might clearly be demonstrated and yet his goodness and love too toward sinful mankind be magnified which was by appointing and sending forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law so being found in shape as a man a reall man to bear in his body the punishment of our sin the sin of the world and so to give himself a ransome for all That this his Son the Word made flesh as was long before even from the beginning of the world fore-prophecied of him is now come already and hath taken upon him in the body that was prepared for him the burthen and cause of man and as a publike man given himself a ransome for All induring the Death and undergoing that sentence of curse and condemnation that by the offence of one came upon All men and that for All and hath in grapling with that death and sin overcome them so that God hath raised and justified him in the behalf of all so as he may also see the justificatian of all that do and shall believe on him To which purpose also viz. that men might in believing on him have him for their justification the Father hath glorified him in the nature and behalf of mankind making him Lord of all and his salvation to the end of the earth giving him all fulness of Authority and Power and filling him with all the fulness of the Godhead bodily even the fulness of Divine Spirit Power and Vertue yea also appointing and ordaining him as Mediator to stand in the Vertue of his Death and Sacrifice between God and men as the propitiation for them even for our sins that believe and not ours onely but also of the whole world 1 John 2.1,2 So as that with respect to him and what he hath done and suffered for sin he is good and patient and bountiful to the whole world not withstanding they sin yea and hath sent out his Gospel to be published to them all without limitation or restriction viz. that though this his Son there is forgiveness for them and he would have them saved and to that purpose come to the acknowledgement of the truth yea He to wit Christ is He in whom all the world or any of them may find favor and come into favor with God again so as to be at one with him namely by acknowledging his Truth and believing on him who also is appointed by his teaching them as a Prophet by his ruling them in righteousness and writing his Law in them and subduing their enemies as a King and Lawgiver and Judge over them and by mediating the new Covenant or Advocating and making intercession as the great High-Priest to the utmost to save all them of the sons of men that see and believe on him and so judge his and their enemies that that hate his Light and reject his â—endred mercy to condemnation to which end he shall at the time appointed of the Father come again and raise and judge both the one and the other as they have here behaved themselves towards him That as the Father hath put his Spirit upon Christ so they are to submit unto Christ in his Word and Ordinances and look unto and wait therein for this his Spirit upon him as he that is Power of God that is to bring down or effect in man that salvation that is in Christ Jesus set forth to them the Renewer Sanctifier Teacher Comforter and therefore to be heard sought after received and obeyed by men in the power of which they are to worship the Father through the Son and in the receit and indwelling of whom they shall finde and experiment the streams of that Fountain of Life that flows from the Father or rather that the Father is in and through the Son yea God himself by his Spirit to dwell in them and to set up his Kingdom in them in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost to the full possession and revelation of which in and upon them this Divine Spirit in such their listning to following after and obeying him will not fail to bring them Sect. 7. A Caveat against some mens preposterous mistakes about the Doctrines of Election and Reprobation THis then is the brief summ of the Doctrine to be held forth to the world in which we may hopefully expect and look for the assistance and operation of the Spirit to convince them of the good will of God toward them and therein of their sin for not believing on him Joh. 6.11 that hath done so much for them and is so appointed and fitted of God for saving them And of Righteousness both that all the righteousness they have of their own is empty and will not avail them otherwise no need for Christ to have died for them and also that in him is everlasting righteousness worthy to be looked after and certain in that their looking to him for it to be met with by them And of Judgement that their own self-justifications will not serve them nor their own self-condemnations so valid as remedilesly to cast them but to his doom they must stand by whom the Prince of the world is judged and they must receive their final sentence from him who is able in case of their believing on him to absolve them from all self-condemnings and in case of their disobedience against him and the Will of his Father to destroy them however their own thoughts and other men have hitherto justified them Yea in this Doctrine we may hopefully expect the holy Spirit to draw in and allure the convinced to hope in him and believe on him and therefore this hold ye forth to them and to the furtherance of this let all your conversations and walkings be directed as becoms the children of such a Father the members of such a Head as the Lord Jesus and as the Temples of the holy Ghost that they that are apt to slight the Word may yet be woon to glorifie it by the goodness of your conversation And beware I pray of that preposterous way that some run into who through mistake or unbelief of the Gospel delivered to us by the holy Apostles according to the commandment of the everlasting God and through the exercise of their own reason with the mistaking of some
A CAVEAT TO All True Christians Against the spreadings of the Spirit of Antichrist and his subtile endeavours to draw men from JESUS CHRIST Propounded to them by J. Horn one of the unworthiest of Christs servants in his Gospel a Preacher thereof in South Lin Norfolk Together with some brief Directions for their orderly waâ—…ings Prov. 19.27 Cease my son to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge Prov 7.25,26,27 Let not thine heart decline to her ways go not astray in her paths For she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men have been slain by her Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death 1 John 2.24,25 Let that therefore which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you if that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you ye shall continue in the Father and in the Son And this is the promise which he promised us even eternal life London Printed by R.W. for T. Brewster and G. Moule and are to be sold at the three Bibles at the West-end of Pauls 1651. TO The Vertuous and Religious Gentlewomen M rs Jane Desborow wife to the Honorable Major General John Desborow M rs Alice Toll wife to the Right Worshipful Mr. Thomas Toll Esquire and M rs Judith Cook wife to the Right Worshipful Col. Thomas Cook of Bebmarsh in Essex Esquire Grace Mercy and Peace in Jesus Christ Much beloved in the Lord IT is the Councel of the Apostle John not to believe every spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God And sure there is now as much need of this counsel as ever because there are diversity of Spirits and Prophets gone out into the world and all pretend to God but all confess not that is magnifie not or lead not to exalt Jesus Christ come in the flesh but divers of them deny or undervalue that by which it is manifest that they are not of God to those that duly try them but that they are of that spirit of Antichrist of which we have heard that it should come into the world And truly though it be an heavy judgement of God to order such a spirit of error to enter into and amongst men and men to be possessed and acted by him yet if the matter be well and duly considered it will appear a just and righteous judgement and may afford us much matter of warning For wherein hath or could God have testified or commended his love more to the world then in giving forth his only begotten Son to be believed on and to that end to be delivered to death for our offences and become the propitiation for our sins and being raised again and glorified to hold forth in and through him unto us an immeasurable fulness of glory and salvation And what might God look for and challenge at our hands for so great goodness less then all possible thankfulness and most chearful ready receit of and submission to him but alas how contrary are the returns that he findeth from men What is there that is so little regarded and so much neglected as this his Son what so little received and fed upon by men Is not the preaching of the Cross of Christ become foolishness again not onely to the rude and prophane or to the Pharasaical that establish to themselves a righteousness of their own but which iâ— the most to be lamented to such as have tasted of his goodness and had him livelily set â—orth to them even many such have crucified â—im to themselves afresh and have not obeyed the truth so far as to cleave with stedfast purpose of heart unto him Many that have received the â—tdings of Christs Death and Resurrection for them as sometimes the Israelites the Manna with joy and admiration have with them also after a while grown weary thereof as if it was a light bread and their souls have loathed him and lusted after some other thing to feed upon that might more puff them up in themselves and give more sensual satisfaction And alas how few are there who are not more or less tainted with this infection as if there was not an enoughness in Christ his Death Sacrifice and Mediation for them to feed upon Now what more just with God then that his so great love being so abrogated and so nothing set by should turn to jealousie and that he revenge the injury done unto his Son and to himself with the heat of indignation by sending to them as to the Israelites for their offence fiery Serpents Numb 21. spirits of error and of delusion that because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved but had pleasure in their unrighteousness in disesteeming so great a witness of love and not in the truth therefore the efficacie of error should infatuate them and carry them headlong into destruction the abuse and contempt of greatest love deserving to be revenged with the severest condemnation But alas where the spirit of Error hath gotten rooting how many are there so strongly giddified therewith that they make but a mock of these things and think there is no other hell but what here befals them throwing up the whole Christian Faith by the very foundation A piteous and much to be bewailed mischief which cals for not onely our best endeavours by Prayers and Supplications and faithful Instruction to prevent its spreading but might also challenge in many the Magistrates inspection that as of late they have worthily made an Act to prevent and punish Blasphemy against God so they might endeavour to stop the over-free spreading of Blasphemy against Christ by the like provision But for that it s our business to pray God rightly to direct them and that none of them that should discountenance such evil be either tainted therewith themselves or so far destitute of that spiritual Eye-salve as not to have thereof a right discerning As for your parts Worthy Friends I hope you have received so much of that holy Unction as hath helped you to understand the wiles of Satan so that I may say to you as the Apostle in 1 Joh. 2.21 I write not to you because ye know not the Truth but because ye know it and that no lie is of the Truth both blessing God that he doth keep you in so evil a day and praying for you that yet ye may be filled with the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding and so more abundantly anointed with that spiritual Eye-salve that ye may be further able to discern things that differ and so be kept for even And indeed I know no better thing that I can wish for you then that for where that is not I know not what else can preserve men For Satan coming not in his own colours but disguised as an Angel of Light not as an enemy but as of old the Serpent as a friend that will shew the way to a more happy and glorious
word before he was made flesh here the person neither was nor is the word There was Death according to the flesh so there is in the Saint but not so here as there for Christ died to take away Sin and was made an offering for sin but not so the Saint the Saint dies because of sin in him according to the flesh that being quickened in the Spirit he might more gloriously live to God but his Death in the flesh makes no expiation for sin nor is he the propitiation for any others therein He also rises again with Christ but not for such end as Christ he rose for our Justification but not we for any others but to enjoy the benefit of that that we have in him yea in this also there is another vast difference between Christ and the Saints that in the Saints are these three things 1. The substance of man consisting of body and soul 2. The flesh old man or sinfull disposition in them and 3. The Spirit or new man that lusts against that flesh but now in Christ though there was flesh of Adam and that subjected to infirmity because of our sins and Spirit or divine nature as the word of God yet in him there was no sinfull disposition no guile was found in his mouth nor was sin in that regard of inherency ever known to him in that he died it was for our sin the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him and through his stripes we are healed Isa 53.5 To say nothing that he is the Head also and the Saints his members and not the head He the Advocate for them the Great high-priest above them and over them they his house and people in which there is evident distinction between him and them and dissimilitude which as well as the similitude is to be minded diligently that we errâ— not But to return to the estate of the Saints according to that twofold consideration in which there is resemblance viz. as of Adam and as in Christ Sect. 2. Of the state of Saints as in the flesh COnsider my Brethren that though ye be Saints yet ye have still a relation in your persons to the first Adam you have yet a fleshly earthly substance made of the dust and that must go to the dust again an humane soul also breathed in of God to animate that earthly substance and this in your naturall and animal being which is neither of the essence of your Saintship nor yet annihilated by it you are Saints not by carnall earthly generation but by divine and heavenly Calling of God and by your insition into Christ the holy one who unto us is made of God wisdom righteousness holiness and redemption And you that are thus called and thus made Saints are yet according to your visible and natural substance and subsistence sons of Adam mortal men and women and according to this view and consideration acknowledge your selves in the flesh yet in a state of great weakness and imperfection both in regard of mortality and Death reigning in your members filling you with aches pains faintness weariness sicknesses till you be brought down to the dust of Death to which you also are appointed with other men it being the portion and lot of men as men and so of the Saints also as they are men as also in regard of sin the corrupt and cursed principle of flesh within you not wholly as yet outed by grace though conquered and put under and fastened to the crosse that it might be destroyed it hath yet such an existence in your flesh and nature that it much clouds the minde in seeing the things of the Spirit much dulls the heart in and withdraws the affections from the cleaving to and eager pursuit after them yea subjects you to uncomly unsaintly practises and behaviors in your walkings mingling your prayers with mistakes diffidence impatience dulness your minds with worldly earthly affections your walkings one to another with uncharitableness passions offences rashness c. though this flesh is in some more mortified in some less in some shews it self more one way in some another some are more covetous then others some more uncharitable some more passionate c. and this is found in Saints as they are sons of Adam they inherit from him by Nature their earthly substance with its infirmities weaknesses corruption and sinfulness Not to mention that according to this consideration there are among Saints many external differences as of male female young old rich poor Ruler Subject Master Servant Jew Gentile English Scotch Dutch French c. all which with many other like distinctions and differences in the flesh their grace or saintship doth not annihilate nor are they therewith to be confounded nor are they or their infirmities of sin or frailty to be wholly disregarded as if there were no such things in them or incident to themâ— Such their state after the flesh is a state of imperfection Sect. 3. Of their state after the Spirit BUt then according to their spiritual Being as born of God and as in Christ and so as Saints there their condition is far otherwise In Christ they are compleate Col. 2.10 He their Head and the root of their Saintship is altogether perfect and absolute in him no death no sorrow no crying no infirmity pain sickness mortality no sin corruption or corrupt weakness Old things are passed away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 He is altogether holy righteous wise spiritual divine immortal the Elect of God the Son and Heir of God in whom dwels all the fulness of God yea of the Godhead bodily So that there is no defect or want in him for them either of life wisdome righteousness holiness glory or of any thing good for them He is a place of broad Rivers and Streams in which they may swimm and their estate as in him is a state of great glory and perfection comming unto him ye are come to sonship to life to immortality to righteousness to redemption and whatever may conduce to or advance your happiness and being in him ye are all this A new creature partakers of Christ a chosen generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation Kings and Priests unto God members of Christ and in and with him called Christ because anointed with the same holy Unction and to the same glory and dignity only in subordination to him as the members to the head the younger brethren to the first-born among many brethren for in all things he is the first and hath the preheminence And as thus looked upon and considered in the Spirit ye are above sickness weakness sin c. they have no room oâ— place in this new state or condition Nor is theâ— herein any distinction of male female master servant bond free rich or poor but all in Chriâ—… are one new man according to this spiritual being righteousness sonship holiness with aâ— the priviledges of Christ are alike their portion
they are all one in him according to the Spirit however different according to the flesh yea aâ—cording to the Spirit they are Sion the belove City the Kingdom and Temple of God and bâ— and his glory appertaineth to them and is theâ—… portion O Israel happy thou a people saved 〈◊〉 the Lord Glorious things are spoken of thee thâ— City of God the most high in the midst of thee 〈◊〉 shall exalt and establish thee and delight in thâ— for ever for this is Sion whom no man regardeth the place and habitation that God hath chosen in which he will dwell and rest for ever because he hath loved and desired it Consider this O ye Saints and let your hearts rejoyce in his that made you in him that called you and made you in Christ Jesus and blessed you in him with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things according as in him he chose you before the worlds foundations and be joyful in your King in Jesus the King of Saints that dwels and rules amongst you and in whom ye are exalted to all this high condition This state of glory and perfection in Christ Jesus given you should be minded by you to out ballance and chear you up against the state of frailty and imperfection experimented in your selves for this like the stone cut out of the Mountains without hands shall dash in pieces and swallow up the other into victory When that state of weakness and mortality shall have overcome you in the flesh yet shall it again be overcome and abolished by this state of glory and shall never more return upon you Surely friends did we more minde this high state to which we are called and in which in Christ Jesus we are interessed it would make us bear chearfully the present sufferings of this life and love him heartily that hath hitherto advanced us It would lead us to contemn things seen and sensible neither to run out in affecting the good or fearing the evil that in the outwward state is met with by us So have the Saints in other times walked trampling upon Death through the hope of Life and the like of hope in them contemning the pleasures of sin for a season for the enjoyment of this eten happy condition and for the love they bear him that thereto called them But I fear weâ—… often so taken up with the view of what we 〈◊〉 according to the flesh that we forget what 〈◊〉 are in and according to Christ Jesus whiâ—… springs from what we come to view in the nâ—… Consideration Sect. 4. Of the state of Saints in a joynt consideration as sons of Adam in Christ FOr though such is the Christians state as Christ and as a Saint yet in a complex joynt consideration as he is a man in Christ theâ— appears yet a double imperfection beside what named 1. An imperfection of his Union with Chriâ—… or in the manner and measure of his being him in his rootedness into Christ in whom 〈◊〉 high estate is A branch of a wilde Olive thenâ— taken out and graffed into a true is by verâ— of that insition interessed in the juice sap aâ—… vertue of the true Olive yet the manner of Union with it may for some time be imperfecâ—… It is not at first so fast rooted and so firmly unâ—ted with it as afterward it may be Thence thâ— Apostle prayed for more rootedness of believâ—… into Christ and Christ himself for further Union of believers in him Ephes 3.17,18 Joh. 17.21 Saints perfect in Christ may not be perfectly in Christ their condition admits of growth in this matter they may come to see further into Christ and to attain to greater riches of assurance of understanding and so grow stronger in faith and love and have their roots deeplier struck into him cleave to him with fuller purpose and resolution The more they know his Name the more they trust in him and their calling to him and election in him made firmer and they further out of danger of falling from him 2 Pet. 1.5.10 Yea as they grow more one with him so they have a more wide and abundant entrance administred into his Kingdom his fulness flows more out into them and they become more comprehensive of him In this regard is that difference amongst Saints that was â—oted in the beginning Some babes in understanding and weak in faith easilier shaken and perverted from the simplicity in him more unstable being less united with the root and so not so much receiving in its sap and these as they are more tenderly to be dealt with and nursed up so they are also to be exhorted to diligence in attending to the Word of Grace and to let go such evil humors brought with and yet retained by them as might clog them and hinder their further growing in and faster uniting unto Jesus such as those things named 1 Pet 2.1 Malice Envy Guile Hypocrisie c. that so coveting after the sincere milk of the Word they may grow up thereby be more rooted and built up in Christ abound in his Work and be kept from falling Others are more firme grown more empty of themselves and fuller of faith and confidence in him and singleness of heart toward him for whom there is greater cause of rejoycing as being in the less danger of mâ—ssing the full injoyment of their spiritual estate to which they are called yet even they also may and are still to be growing up into Christ and to faster union with him for which cause also the Saints are compacted into a body that they by what every joynt supplies from the head may grow up more into the head they being not as yet so perfect as that they can grow no more In this regard it was partly that Paul judged himself not perfect nor to have attained but pressed on counting all things loss and dung that he might win Christ and be found in him Phil. 3 8,9,13,14 He had him not enough yet nor was yet so fast in him that nothing in that regard could be added to him as also â—n another sense which follows he with other Saints acknowledged their imperfection viz. 2. In regard of attainment to an injoyment of the fulness of Christ and their estate in Christ through union with him in regard of the possession or comprehension of it and the effects and fruits of it And there are two Branches in that 1. Their injoyment of the fulness into which they are estated their possession of it they have not yet all that joy and happiness that sight of God that vast possession of life in themselves to which they are called they have not yet attained the resurrection of the dead as it is to be injoyed the greatest part of the possession of this estate is reserved till their race be run their fight accomplished the prize obtained 2 Tim. 4.8 Here we have a time of suffering with Christ the glory is for the main of it reserved as to
though they have despised the simplicity of Gods Wayes appointed for their salvation But ye beloved beware of such conceits as such are led with and keep ye close to God in making known your requests dayly and as the Apostle exhorts in every season watching thereunto that ye may find the leadings of the Spirit and Grace of God with you therein and know what to ask of him and that ye may hear what answers God will again return to you not giving over your requests because ye are not presently supplied or helped in the things ye ask but herein exercise Faith and Patience and be strong and persevere till God hath blessed you Remember Jacob who wrestled with God weeping and making supplications unto him and prevailed Remember also that Christ our Lord hath left us many instructions to importunity in prayer with many incouragements thereunto that we might not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 18.1 be out-evilled made to faint by his seeming delays and denials of us though he may try us yet calling upon him in his way according to his Will he will not deceive us Indeed if we regard iniquity in our hearts if we set up an Idol in his Temple and pollute his Name he will not hear our prayers he will have us lift up â— uâ—e hands and clean single true hearts and then he will be found of us It s true in many things we sin all and he is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity and we are in our selves too unworthy to have audience by him and too unable to do any thing fit to be presented to him but in that he hath also provided incouragement too for us we have an Advocate and a high Priest with him who hath prevented us with his Love in offering up himself for us an offering of a sweet smelling savour unto God and it s his work to intercede to God for us for us I say in special that come to God by him to take away our sins and perfume our prayers with the odours of his Sacrifice and so make them acceptable unto God yea he mediateth the New Covenant for the called Ones that the holy Spirit may be given to them to work their works in them and that they may receive the inheritance promised them Having then such invitations faithful promises and every way great incouragements let us not put off this business to some pretended illuminate Elders but let us go with boldness true hearts and full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled with the blond of Jesus from an evil conscience and bodies or whole conversations washed with pure water the pure water of his Word and the grace held forth to us therein and call upon God in and by Christ for our selves and one another that he may help and save us Had we an al sufficiency in our selves we should not need to go for help to God but we are not God nor hath God put the disposal of himself and fulness into our hand but reserves it with himself in Christ ready to give it forth to us in submission and supplication to him for it so that we have need also as well as incouragement to call upon him Pray then for help for your selves and pray for one another and for all the Saints and in special that they may be enabled to stand and for me also the meanest of all Saints that I may so declare and walk on in the Mysteries of the Gospel as I ought God will not onely hear you for your selves but for one another and without his hearing and helping the other parts of his spiritual Armor will be too heavy for you you will be as unable to buckle them all on and go forth in them as David was to go forth in Sauls armor but call upon him and he will help you yea and be armor of proof to you Sect. 8. Of Brotherly Communion YEa yet further my brethren that we might yet be better enabled to resist Satan and his temptations and to go on with patience and chearfulness in the race set before us let us go on together in love and unity not forsaking the assembling of our selves as the manner of some yea of too many is God hath called us together unto Christ as to a head and in him hath compacted us together as a body giving us a common interest in the priviledges of Christ and useful gifts differing according to his goodness that we might both have need of and be useful one to another each supplying to other out of that measure given to it from the Head in the faithful loving exercise of themselves in which God giveth forth his blessing even as the body natural thrives while the members compacted together do minister to each other nourishment and spirits without stop or interruption but when the blood and spirits have not free access and recess to the several parts and members it decays grows diseased and ill-affected and often falleth into sickness and death so is it here while the unity of the Spirit is held fast in the bond of peace and brotherly love abides and each in love seeks the love and profit of other all grow up together to a perfect man yea and all together become as a City compacted and at unity within it self and so more strong and able for offence and defence against all that would annoy but being disunited either through Factions and Divisions or through a willing careless neglect of each other and the administrations of the Lord to all by every each one they become weak and feeble and Satan gets great advantage against them to infect them one by one and to devour them for in loose sitting one from another â—or divisions each member contents it self with that measure given to it self or to a few and deprives it self of that strength life nourishment and spirits that might be administred by many Now though God be al sufficient to preserve and strengthen one alone where he by his Providence necessitates it to be so or in a hidden day such as that of Elias when the Saints appear not to or know not one another yet where he hath given opportunities of communion and mutual edification and that through pride negligence envy or arrogance is despised and slighted there souls receive not that measure of his fulness and sufficiency that otherwise they might for he that so sleights and despises sleights and despises the way that God hath appointed and ordained for us to waite upon him in and he that despiseth his Way despiseth him that appointed it and out of his way in a mans own way will he will not meete with blessing nay out of Gods way and in their own seem it never so right to men in their own eyes they may and usually do meet with delusion it being a just judgement of God upon the pride and folly of men that seeing they refuse the simplicity of his they should
heaven and those Ordinances are but as dishes in which that food is presented or the way in which we are to seek and look for it for men to live upon their acts about and attendence to them then is to idolize them or lift them into an higher place then God hath appointed them and to make a Christ of them neglecting and missing Christ himself the life and fulness of them And such an abuse of them or of our selves in them is as far from pleasing God as the setting up devices of our own as is to be seen Iai. 66.3,4 from resting in the form of godliness without or with denial of the power of it men are to be taken and did these men say no more they were to be commended therein but when they take advantage from this truth under pretence of taking men off from resting in Forms to withdraw them from the Ordinances themselves as if they are to look after a power without a form therein they do foolishly being deceived and deceiving therein they set themselves against the Lord Jesus who commanded them yea exalt themselves above him and above God in him Even as they that throw by the Acts and Ordinances of Parliament though never so lawfully convened and pretend themselves to be above them do therein throw by their Authority and set themselves above it and sure they that do so with Christ do deny the Lord that bought them and exalt themselves with the man of Sin above all that 's called God or that is worshipped as if God and Christ had no authority or power to bind them Perhaps they will tell thee that as some persons may not be concerned in some Acts of Parliament and so they may be above it because it doth not reach them and all Laws or Acts though of that authority yet when repealed men are not under them and yet no lifting up mens selves against or above the power that made them so there are some persons who are above those Ordinances of Christ because he did not intend them for them or to be of any binding force to them or that though they have been in force yet now their date is expited he hath disannulled them To the former part of this objection agree those sayings of some that they are under a higher administration time was when they were under them and found use of them but now they are so no longer they are useful for Novices but when Christ hath given his Spirit unto men and so they have him they have no more need or use of them To the former agrees that conceit that as the Laws of Moses were in force some time till the coming of Christ in the flesh but after that gave place to him and God then changed his administration so the Ordinances of Christ were in force so long as Christ was in the flesh but when the Spirit of Christ was given or Christ laid aside his flesh and came in Spirit then no more use or need of them The latter of which contains notable deceits and falsehoods for neither did the Law of Moses cease to be of force when Christ came in the flesh but was in force till after his Resurrection untill the pouring out of the Spirit or his coming in Spirit as they call it though the Ordinances of Christ were instituted before that time also nor did Christ put off or lay away his flesh but raised it again that the word of Prophesie might be fulfilled that said Thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption which the Apostle Petrr tells us was fulfilled in that That the flesh of Christ saw no corruption Acts 2.31 Though he laid aside his weakness and form of a servant yet not the substance of his body which he shewed to his Disciples to have flesh and bones in it after his Resurrection and in which he ascended filling it with the glory of God as before it had the experience of mans low condition Besides Christ poured out his Spirit upon his Disciples to that end that they might teach and subject the Nations to his Institutions and they were so far from expiring then that then was the beginning of their impouring Plain it is that our Saviours Commission in which he injoyns and authorises his Disciples to disciple the Gentiles or Nations Baptising them and teaching them to observe all things that he had commanded them Matth. 28.19 did both begin then to take place when the flesh or body of Christ being taking up from them the Spirit was poured out upon them for till then they were to and did tarry at Jerusalem in expectation of the promise of the Spirit to fit them for the works of their Commission Acts 1.4 and the Ordinances therein spoken of were ordered to be in force to the worlds end for so long as he expresly tels them they should have his assistance and spiritual presence in the work of their Commission And so I am with you saith he to the end of the world And the Supper of the Lord is said to be for shewing forth of the Lords Death till be come 1 Cor. 11.29 for which coming the Church prayeth and therefore surely is so to pray till â—e come But here some have another glorious but deceitful evasion for granting that they are of force till the end of the world till the coming of Christ they reply To us he is come and with us the world is at an end we are already in possession of him raised judged and in heaven And here seems to be the heighth and strength of delusion and this is that with which they strengthen the former part of the above-mentioned objection namely That they are attained to a heigher administration then to be under them To discover their delusion in which let this first be premised that these expressions are capable of a double understanding the one more inward and spiritual and as a first fruits of or earnest of the other a coming of Christ in the power of the Spirit to the soul raising it up in the knowledge of himself and God in him from its spiritual death in sin to a spiritual life the life of God justifying of it and giving it an escape from condemnation taking it out of the state of the world and deading it in its principles and affections to the world and the world to it And here Christ is to and in the soul its life and hope of glory and sets it in heavenly state with himself in regard of hope and some experience of the powers of heaven And this is a thing that comes now to one soul now to another as men are brought in to depend on him But now there is another sense of those phrases and that most usual in Scripture namely to denote the great Day of the Lord the coming of Christ in glory and power bringing all his Saints with him executing vengeance upon all that have done ungodlily and fully
freeing not onely the spirits of the Saints from thraldome in a first fruits but their bodies also from death and corruption which is called the redemption of our bodies Rom 8.23 When every eye shall see him c. Rev. 1.7 When all that are in their graves shall come forth some to the resurrection of life others to the resurrection of condemnation c. Joh. 5.29 When all the Saints together shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and be for ever with him 1 Thes 4.16,17 Now as these men deny this his glorious personal coming turning all so well as their wits will serve them and their Father help them into an Allegory so in these two things they grossly err 1. In thinking that persons to whom Christ hath come by his Spirit and whom he hath raised and quickned up to a lively hope as in the first sense are thereby above Ordinances and not bound to attend them for indeed then are they fittest to use them and will be most profitable or profited in attending on God in them Besides we finde the Apostles and other Primitive Believers of another way and judgement when the Spirit was poured upon Cornelins and his houshold that exempted them not from the outward Baptism Acts 10.48 nor were the Apostles themselves exempted from solemn prayers and fasting breaking of bread Preaching the VVord c. even after the holy Ghost was poured upon them and Christ by his Spirit dwelt with them as is plain in Acts 4.24,31 and 6.4,6 and 13.1,3 and 14.23 yea Wo to me saith Paul even after the holy Ghost was shed abundantly upon him Tit. 3 6. if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 and the Bread saith he that we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ and the Cup that we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 yea in 1 Cor. 12.13 We are all baptized saith he by or in one spirit into one body and have been made to drink into one Spirit and Chap. 6.11 they were washed justified sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God but what were they all above Ordinances therefore no matter for observing them No such matter but they are yet ordered about their eating the Lords Supper yea and such as whose election in the sanctification of the Spirit is affirmed are exhorted by the Apostles to Prayer to attend on Prophesying to stand fast hold the traditionâ— such as the Supper of the Lord is called 1 Cor. 11.25 received from them either by word or writing 2 Thes 2.13,14,15 Many other like passages thou mayst finde in the Apostles Writings which they writ to preserve the Churches from sin and error which may discover the falseness of that conception Yet 2. They err much worse in that confounding the coming of Christ in Spirit to the spirits 〈◊〉 men in particular with the great Day of the Lord when he shall come to the destruction of ungodly men and the utmost salvation of all that have believed on him the Kingdom of God in the hearts of men in this Day of which Christ spake to the Pharisees Luke 17.20,21 that it comes not with observation and that it is in men yea in the Pharisees working and tendring it self to their hearts though rejected by them but filling those that receive it with righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost with the glorious Kingdom of Christ which he â—s gone to receive and which shall be set up or made manifest in the world at his great coming when he shall judge the quick and dead 2 Tim. â— 1 of which he spake to his Disciples Luke 17.21,22,23 they apply to themselves as already â—…ne in and upon them those things that are proper to that great Day of his destroying the â—…eat hope and expectation of the Saints which 〈◊〉 that great and glorious appearing Tit. 2.13 denying and mocking at that his visible and glorious coming yea and where their principle 〈◊〉 somewhat throughly improved denying the Resurrection or Redemption of the body and â—…ying the Resurrection all thats to be hoped â—or or met with is here accomplished which we â—…all speak more fully to in the proper place and â—…casion Onely now I would have thee minde that they are strongly deluded herein and that they are of those that our Saviour there doth warn us of that say Lo here lo there see here in us and to us Christ is come and the day of the Lord is revealed with us or with such and such persons the Judgement is over the mystery is fulfilled the world is at an end and we are iâ— possession of our glory though others yet are not Believe them not saith our Saviour neither go after them for that coming of the Soâ— of man shall be as visible and evident in a moment as the lightning that shines from one enâ— of the heavens unto the other end thereof iâ— shall be open and manifest to all Luke 17.22 23. Every eye shall see him even those that havâ— pierced him and all the families of the eartâ— shall wail over him Rev. 1.7 As the bringing in and alteration of former dispensations or administrations of his Kingdom have been witnessed and evidenced by notorious Demonstrations oâ— Gods Authority and presence so shal this last alâ— teration be more visible and notorious then thâ— rest When God gave the Law of Moses he did iâ— in a solemn manner with the voyces of thunderings and lightnings the shaking of the earth c. by which he owned and confirmed it as of him and when he took away that administration and brought in his onely Son and the Ordinance of the Kingdom in its present external administration he owned and attested his altering the former and bringing this in by the gift of tongues and by many wonders and signs and divers powerful works and distributions of the Holy Ghost Heb. 2.3 And when the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken of by the mouth of his Prophets shall come and when he shall send his Son Jesus Christ again Acts 7.21,22 whom the heavens till then must contain to take an account of all men how they have submitted to him in the former administrations of his Truth and Grace amongst them and to render to every man according to his works shall that be hidden and done now to this man and then to that no man sees how without any poblike evidence to the world No no that shall be most powerfully and to the world with greatest solemnity declared so as none shall be thereof ignorant but all flesh shall see his salvation unto is people together and those that have rebelled shall be with wondrous terror delivered over to their eternal destruction The heavens shall be on a flame or the elements melt with fervent heat 2 Pet. 3.7,10,12 even these heavens and elements and the host of them that
sufficient to contain all those bodies in These are the shallow objections of vain brains that think God can do nothing that they cannot reach to in their reasonings against which for your defence against them let me say but with Paul Why should it seem a thing incredible to you that God should raise the dead Acts 26.8 Another way in which they lift up their understandings to deny this truth is by inventing and devising how to turn all the Scriptures that speak of the Resurrection to a more spiritual sense namely to speak of the Resurrection of the Spirit with Christ or as they understand from some sad or corrupt frames to Joy and Love and Light and I know not what they please to talk of whence many of them say they have here attained the Resurrection it s now made in his life and they have experimented it all that is to be injoyed But this error as it cannot consist with many places treating of the Resurrection as when it s said There shall be a Resurrection both of just and unjust Acts 24.15 and those who are affirmed to be risen with Christ in their spirits are yet minded of a further Resurrection yea even those who are now dead while they were putting to death by their cruel persecutors and refused deliverance in expectation of a better Resurrection Heb. 11.45 so the Apostle Paul hath directly noted in Hymeneus and Philetus as an error destructive to the Faith of many 2 Tim. 2.17,18 So that we cannot without open and manifest discarding and revolting from the Doctrine of Christ delivered to us by him intertain or imbrace such an evil conception Press on therefore my Brethren in minding the Love of God in delivering of his Son to Death for our offences and raising him again for our Justification so to experiment his Divine Power and Spirit quickning up your spirits to him to hope in and depend on him and to live to him as that you may therein prove a conformity to him in Resurrection in Spirit here and be filled with a lively hope of the Redemption of your bodies too from the bondage of corruption in the Resurrection of them hereafter and let not the faith thereof go for then you wil also â—…corrupted from the hope of the reward that 's â—omised and is then to be received the time of â—…unerating the services of our faith and love â—…e towards God and his Name being at the â—…e of the justs Resurrection Luke 14.14 and 〈◊〉 ye be corrupted there you will also grow â—…less and negligent in those services yea and â—…ll into all licentiousness Know that what ever evil and mischief may â—…e befall you in your bodies for the Name of Christ and however you may and must yield up â—bodily death yet he that raised up Jesus our â—…nd will also raise us up and bring us with him 〈◊〉 Cor. 4.14 If we abide in the Faith of him â—oted and stablished and be not perverted â—…om the Gospel and the hope of it that hath â—een preached therein to us and if this Knowâ—dge abide in you and the hope thereof be â—inded by you it will make you that you shall â—ot be barren and unfruitful but to be stedfast â—nd to abound in the Work of the Lord knowâ—ng that your labour shall not be in vain in the â—ord Sect. 5. Of Heaven and Glory BUt now to say what that great Reward and Glory is and shall be is above my ability is not yet manifest what we shall be but a great reward in heaven it is an heavenly not 〈◊〉 earthly reward a reward of and from God noâ— of and by men not worldly The new Jerusalem or the glory of God coming down from heaven upon men and taking men up into heaven where now also they that are Saints indeed and walk as such have their conversation What heaven is I shall not curiously inquire Its that place and state where Christ in his Humanity is for as its the subject of bodies I caâ—… and account it a place though as of the Spirit more properly its a State as when it s said Thâ— Christ is gone into heaven it s therein signified both that his body or humanity was taken up from the earth above the visible heavens where also he is contained and from whence also he shall again descend and be met by the Saints in the air as also that he is there in a glorious state of Soveraignty Power Majesty Fulness far above all creature earthy glories yea and faâ— above all heavenly creatures glory out of which glory he shall not descend at his coming for he shall come in it but from that place of his body he shall I know Mr. Collier makes heaven to be God onely and Glory but as in some other things so in that he slipt not a little into errors for in God he was while he was on the earth Knowest thou not that the Father is in me and I am in the Fatheâ—r saith he to Philip Joh. 14. while he was not yet ascended Neither had there needed any visible translocation or change of place for going up into heaven if it had been â—…ely to be in God nor doth that phrase far above all heavens signifie far above all gods but far above all these aery starry visible heavens To say nothing that Mr. Collier handsomly slips â—ver the speaking to the heaven that Christ aâ—…ended to and which is to contain him and â—…ys not one word to that Text in his Answer 〈◊〉 if he knew not how to elude it But to pass from that I grant that heaven doth not onely signifie place but also a state of glory or of diâ—…e spiritual influence operation government and advancement and this we are specially to â—…nd in it and look after and not spend our thoughts vainly or curiously about inquiring of 〈◊〉 as a place meerly as I might also say of hell â—…ough the bodies and substances of men condemned shall be in place yet the condition of â—o and torment is in that word rather pointed 〈◊〉 in which such shall be and as in a taste or first fruits as it were may now be But to return to what I was saying about heaven and the glory thereof while we are withdrawn in our hearts from base and earthy walkings designs affections c. and are in our hearts aâ—…ed by the Word that was revealed by and comes unto us from God and by the Spirit of God and of Christ the heavenly one and are minding and looking after the priviledges and excellencies thereby witnessed and led to we are said to converse in heaven and so we read of an army warring in heaven Rev. 19. which is nothing else but the Saints of God in the heavenly and divine Power and Spirit in which spiritually they live and breath making opposition against Satan and his instruments and so in like manner the high surpassing pure spiritual consolations streamings forth and abiding rivers of
satisfaction that the Spirit of God yea God himself in his Spirit shall poure out into men glorifie them with and possess them of hereafter fully is called heavenly glory and the reward in heaven as the latter it is also because it is yet in and with God and Christ and not in its fulness come forth into and manifested in men but a state it is of such fulness of peace joy power happiness satisfaction and glory in and through the presence of God and Christ with soul and body as neither eye can see nor ear hear nor can enter into the heart of man to conceive an immeasurable unfathomable inexpressible perfect immixt intire and eternal joy and glory so immense high deep broad large and full in it self that no words can reach it nor heart conceive or contain it but be wholly satisfied yea swallowed up into delight and joy with it and that that infinitely adds to it is its infinite duration Eternal life a mighty inexhaustible river of eternal satisfactions flowing from fed and maintained by the fountain of liâ— ing waters even God himself his Presence and fellowship for ever O infinite incomprchensible portion and inheritance yea God himself and his glory to be inherited by us But I shall â—ather press on towards it and to the experimental tasts and feelings of it in some earnest of 〈◊〉 in my spirit then strive by words to darken â—nowledge in indeavoring to express it what it 〈◊〉 is onely known in the injoyment till when it â—…sseth knowledge much more expression to declare it Sect. 6. Some incouragements for the Saints in expectation of this glory promised O Let our eyes be to that Prize that Glory that Paradise that Rest Safety Satisfaction Injoyment of God and Christ compleat freedom from evil compleat and eternal fruition of all happiness that we may run with patience the race set before us enduring the Cross despising the shame for this joy and recompence propounded to us withall considering what good grounds we have to expect the injoyment of so glorious and precious Promises As to Instance 1. It s God that hath promised and what cannot he do Is not his arm Almighty his Power invincible cannot he make us happy beyond expression when he himself is our Reward It s God is not he faithful hath he spoken it and shall not he do it is there any unrighteousness in him Faithful is he that promiseth who also will do it he will not leave thee nor forsake thee 1 Thes 5.24 Heb. 13.5 He hath never yet failed any that have cleaved to and depended on him and verily he will not now begin It s God that hath promised and he is Love and Goodness and hath testified such and so great love to us as may incourage us to judge well of him in what ever he further saith or doth unto us If thou thinkest his Promises are of too great gifts to be bestowed on thee or such as thou art consider what he hath bestowed on thee already hath he not given thee life and breath and all things yea he hath given his onely begotten Son to death for thee to ransom thee from thy thraldom to sin and misery and that too when thou wast ungodly and an enemy against him and neither soughtest it of him nor couldst thank him for it and he hath filled him with his fulness to that purpose that he might now sill thee yea hath he not also called thee to his Son looked upon thee when thou layedst in darkness and ignorance of him hath he not born with thy follies refusals and ill requitals and long waited that he might be gracious yea and at length begun to prevail with thee and brought thee to believe that of his fulness thou â—ightst receive grace for grace c. And is all â—…is nothing to thee to perswade thee of his faithfulness and further love Sure the consideration of this may lead us to be confident in â—im and rest upon him for performance of his Promises to us and to perswade our selves that â—e hath not gone about to deceive us he that â—ath performed his Word so punctually in the gift and abasement of his Son may challenge â—…edit of us in what he further says unto us If â—…n we were enemies he hath reconciled us or â—…de us friends to himself by the death of his â—on how much more when we are therethrough â—…conciled will he save us by his life Rom. 5.10 He that spared not his own Son but gave him to the death for us all how shall he not with him also â—ive us all things Rom. 8.32 Us that are now in Christ Jesus and walk after the Spirit his called justified ones 2. Again consider Jesus Christ the great high Priest and Apostle of our profession the great gift of God for and to us It s he that God â—ath appointed to give us this eternal life It s the Will of God his Father concerning him thâ—… every one that sees the Son and believes on him should not perish but have eternal life Joh. 6.40 and he is mighty to save being the onely proper Son of God his Word and Wisdom yea God over all blessed for ever according to the Spiritâ— he was in the beginning with God and was God and all things that are were made by him and without him was nothing made that iâ— made whether Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers all things were made by him and in him all things consist yea according to the humanity also he is exalted to the throne oâ— Majesty and all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in him God doing all by him and he all in and from God and in the might and power of God So that of his sufficiency we have no cause to doubt seeing also he hath done so great things for us as the spoiling of Principalities and Powers conquering the world taking away Sin abolishing Death and destroying the authority and power of the devil In which things also he hath given such undeniable proofs of his Love and Faithfulness in that being in the form of God thinking it no robbery to be equal with God yet he abased himself and came in the form of a servant being made flesh the son of man and therein subject to infirmities yea suffered and bare the burthen of our iniquities and the curse due to us for our sins to accomplish those things on our behalf so that 〈◊〉 exceeding unbelief and ingratitude to question his love and faithfulness for perfecting for us â—hat further concerns us especially seeing he also ever lives now to make intercession for us â—…t come to God by him and appears in the presence of God for us to present us in the invaluable vertue of his sacrifice holy and acceptable before him and to mediate for us the performance of the New Testament to us by continually removing our sins follies weaknesses and evils against God and his goodness to us
our defects and failings in Faith that the convents of the new Covenant may notwithstanding be performed to us his Law be writ in our hearts and his Fear put within us his holy Spirit given to us to sanctifie teach lead strengthen and comfort us and in a word that we may be carried up to the enjoyment of the eternal inheritance Consider him then it s Christ that died for us yea rather that is risen again and is at the right hand of God making intercession for us the Captain of salvation the Author yea and the Finisher too of our Faith Consider his Love Faithfulness Office Goodness that we faint not nor be weary through any temptation Fear not but he that conquered all our enemies by himself for us will also in our following after him give us the victory over them and the reward that he hath abundantly promised It s his Word of incouragement who hath gone before us and is in the head of the battle To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of Life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God and that he shall not be hurt of the second death yea the white stone and new name the hidden Manna and in a word his everlasting Kingdom Rev. 2. and 3. 3 Yea and thirdly hath not God also given us of his holy Spirit his Power and strength to to be in us and to fight our battels for us to lead teach uphold and comfort us and he is a spirit of Wisdom and Knowledge a spirit of strength and courage and of the fear of the Lord. The holy Unction that gives discerning witnessing of Christ and glorifying him and more powerful then any thing that comes to withstand him according to that Greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 Joh. 4.4 Abide but in him and follow after his lustings and instructions in the wayes that our Lord hath prescribed to us and he will work all our works in us and our works shall be wrought in him we need not any other teaching or spirit but as and according to that which that holy Vnction teacheth us what swerves from his testimony is not to be heeded by us and that that swerves is to be discerned by this that it maketh little or no account of Christ come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4.1,2,3 of the things done and suffered by him therein it skips over or le ts go that and makes but a light matter or nullity of it whereas the holy Unction or Spirit of Truth confesseth holdeth forth and glorifieth Christ come in the flesh he saith not in our flesh for many deceivers talk of that who would lead us to exalt themselves though they be Antichrists as also the holy Spirit is the same that was in the Prophets and Apostles and leads us to hear them and to abide in unity of Faith with them Ephes 1.4,5 1 Joh. 4.5,6 whereas the false spirits slight them and lead not to hear or matter Unity of faith and confession with them If we have received this earnest why should we fear that God will fail us of the inheritance in this might and power of the Lord if we be strong nothing shall overcome us Sect. 7. Of Knowing Christ after the flesh and after the Spirit I Know they that lie in waite to deceive you will suggest that this that I have said of Christ his Death Resurrection and mediation is at best but a carnal knowledge of him according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit and that the Spirit in evidencing him will witness a more divine and spiritual knowledge and draw off the heart from this fleshly consideration or looking upon him as he was made flesh and therein suffered and died for us To perswade you to which they quote that in 2 Cor. 5.16 Henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth we know him so no more as if the Apostle meant that he minded him no more as one that was born of a woman and died in the flesh and was raised again and in that very body glorified they had sometimes such carnal apprehensions of him and looked at him as the Saviour in and by that his death and suffering indeed but now they have a more spiritual allegorical knowledge of him Against which interpretation of the Apostles words though that might suffice to preserve us that I have newly before noted from the Apostle John that every spirit that confesseth not that is glorifies not nor sets not forth Jesus Christ come in the flesh is not of God yet I shall for further satisfaction look more fully into that place And first it may hence appear evidently that that is not the Apostles meaning in that passage because such an interpretation of him is cross to himself and his fellow brethren and Apostles in other places for its evident that both Paul and the rest preached him as of the seed of David according to the flesh the Son of God made of a woman made under the Law made sin and a curse for us crucified and raised again and now mediating for us with God the Advocate High-priest and Prince of the Congregation and to this Doctrine and this Christ thus preached and set forth they frequently exhort believers to take heed to cleave adhere and listen and by no means under what pretext or pretence soever to depart therefrom Heb. 3.1 6.14 Acts 11.23,24 1 Joh 2.28 Gal. 1.8,9 yea to hold as execrable and accursed all that would perswade them thereto or that preach my other Gospel then that of Christ so preached by them Col. 1.22,23 in holding fast to whom and to the Gospel of him they promise safety an abiding happy condition but in the letting him and that go by any means they pronounce certain danger and unavoydable destruction Heb. 2.3 10.25,29 yea Christ as so in the flesh abased for us and now risen ascended and advocating for us at the right hand of God they themselves and in especial that very Apostle Paul rejoyces in and places the foundation of all his hope and confidence in as is plain in that of Rom. 8.32 as the very thing which being known apprehended and received by him was the great manifestation of Gods Love to him and the great argument of his further favor and good will yea the spring of his hope of glory confidence boldness access to God and renovation into his likeness yea Christ as thus he was abased and is risen and mediates for us being known believed and entertained into the heart is in the believer the very hope or that which springs up and nourishes in him an expectation of future glory as is evident from the fore-quoted place and that in Rom. 5.10 where from the consideration of Christ as delivered to death for us while sinners and of our being reconciled to him thereby he infers an
to be very wary of rash and unadvised judging But what love is that that we are to walk in to them that we discern not so far gone is it to hear them blaspheme denie undervalue and trample upon the Lord Jesus the Mediator between God and men and yet own them as brethren is it to love them more then Jesus Christs Surely this is love that we keep Gods Commandments and this is his Commandment that as we have heard from the beginning so we should Walk in it 2 Joh. 6. This is not love in a man to see his neighbour drowning or hanging himself and not hinder him or killing and poysoning others and yet not reprove them or endeavour to preserve the lives of such as he is harming or to know of men committing Incest or Adultery and yet own them as brethren and not withdraw from them and reprove them much less to see or hear them deny or vilifie the Lord Jesus Christ and yet judge them precious people and Gods dear children That Rule what thou wouldst that men should do unto thee do thou also unto them Matt. 7 12. is not to be applied to men as vitiously affected or distempered but to men walking orderly and upon well-grounded principles and so in things that tend to mens good or else we shall abuse it A Drunkard or Adulterer would have others make him drunk or commit adultery with him shall we abuse that wholsom Scripture to warrant his doing such wicked acts to or with others as unreasonable is it to apply it thus We would not be let or hindred in our endeavouring to bring men to Christ and salvation therefore neither ought we to hinder others in drawing men from Christ to their destruction Object But they think to lead men to salvation as well as you Answ But we know they think amiss when we see them go contrary to the word of salvation we know their thought but a strong delusion when we see in our cleaving to and trying them by the Apostolical and Prophetical Doctrine that they go in the very steps of those that they have forewarned us of It s true a frantick man may be and often is as confident of his way as a sober discreet man but yet a sober man will not think himself as well bound to be ruled and led by him as the frantick man to be ordered by him both may be alike confident as to the heigth of perswasion but both have not the same well groundedness for nor ability to judge of their confidence This is no right judgement of things to say this is truth as well as that because I see this man as confident of this as that man is of that We are not to judge of truth by our own or others confidence of them but by the verdict of God in the Scriptures That Rule what I would that another do to me I should do the same to them is to be applied to men in things for their good I say and upon well grounded principles I would that men should endeavour to preserve my life I should therefore do the like to them I would in case I be destracted have others keep me from hurting my self or others I would so now in my sober mind therefore let me do so to others that are destracted so it will hold but not thus I in a fit of distraction suppose would have others that are sober let me run into the river and drown my self therefore I being in a sober mind ought to let another that is distracted do so and not hinder him Yet such is their application of that Rule that would have us not to judge them in an error that we know deny the Lord Jesus Christ nor reprove them for it and endeavour to preserve others from so doing because we would not have others judge the Truth to be Error and reprove us for it and endeavor to keep back others from receiving it Indeed as I would not have others in case I should fall into distraction to do me any real harm or to deal evilly with me to make me worse and keep me from returning to a sober mind yet if their witholding me from self-murder or mischief to others should vex and make me worse though they therein deal as well and fairly with me as my destraction would permit them therein they would not be faultworthy So we are to deal righteously and lovingly as their condition may permit to those that are deceived deceivers and not by any unjust accusations of them or violent carriages towards them to harden and strengthen them from returning especially seeing the zeal and wrath of men will not accomplish the righteousness of God onely so far we must use plainness and sharpness towards them as we see necessary and requisite either for detecting their evil and pulling them out of it or however for the preserving others from being snared by them and so far as that will require it I am not to matter their offence-taking and enmity against me for the same love to particulars must give way to love to the general and love to evil men must give way to love to God and good men when they come in competition as love to a rotten member must give way to love to the found and to the whole body I shall do well if my leg or foot be wounded to apply healing medicines to it but if it putrifie I must apply things to it that will eat out the dead flesh though they will bring some smart and pain to it that will make it fell and angry yea and rather then my whole body should perish by its incorrigibleness I should do well to cut it off and sever it from the body before it be too far infected and I suppose no man would fault me for want of love and charity either to it or to my body in so doing The like is to be done to those that being corrupt themselves endanger the corrupting others too from the faith of Christ onely by cutting off I would not be understood to mean a banishing them the Country or putting them to death I would not have Saints in the way of their spiritual warfare and for their faith to make use of such weapons God having given them others to make use of viz. the Sword of the Spirit Prayers Warnings Admonitions Reproofs withdrawings from them casting them out of fellowship and looking upon them as accursed to them which are Christs spiritual weapons and to be used as the â—ase may require however some deceived or not rightly guided spirits boggle at it but as for them when without let God there judge them in the mean while Saints should by all means out of love to the sound members not cease to warn admonish and watch over them as opportunity is given them opening to them the evil of those false wayes in which others would snare them as we find to have been the frequent course of
turn preachers of the Law to them in stead of the Gospel to bring them to some such fruits as legal repentance sorrow reformation and upon such things found in them as what else but fruits of Law and a legal conscience can be produced by them before the grace and love of God be held forth to them as testified in Christ toward them they are bold to apply the Gospel to them as if they were the undoubted signs of Election for so much is intimately implyed by comparing this their practise with their other Assertions of the Grace of God and Death of Christ limited to the Election from which practise of their legal preaching it comes to pass that some working and striving for this and that frame and attaining to some legal qualifications or workings with the Pharisee presume that they are righteous and have part in Christ and bless God as if his Grace had wrought those frames in them when as his Grace that is his love and goodwill in Christ they never apprehended or believed nor was that the ground and rise of those frames and changes in them but onely is inferred and concluded to themselves upon those frames by them Others spend their dayes in sadness and in labouring as the Israelies under their Egyptian Task-masters to get to themselves those frames which onely the belief of Gods Grace would kindly effect in them falling short of what they seek in themselves to build their title to the Gospel Doctrine of the Death of Christ upon they pine away in a servile slavery and are alwayes neer unto desperation unless mercy otherwise breaking forth unto them seasonably relieve them Take heed therefore of this preposterous preaching of Election and Reprobation to the world and limiting the Gospel and death of Christ to the Election which no Scripture doth and declare that to the world that Christ hath instructed us that his servants are to declare to them viz. tell them of the feast prepared in Christ forgiveness with him his death for them all things ready for their entertainment God willing that they be saved and Christ perfected for their saving and thereupon invite all and call upon them to go to the wedding to believe and submit unto him And where it pleases God to work so powerfully as to prevaile with some so as that they are perswaded to let go all for him to receive him believe in him and cleave unto him we may comfortably mind them of the doctrine of Election as the Apostles have used to apply it to believers minding them it was Gods goodness and free mercy and grace to them that they are preserved or plucked out from the same unbelief wickedness that is found with others or not given over for their follies against him when as many others perhaps as little or less rebellious have been more severely dealt with by him and that in Christ in whom they believe they are made compleat being by Gods order from before the foundation of the world chosen in him to be holy that is a peculiar devoted portion for God and blameless in love before him and when we see men neglect and slight the goodness of God propounded we may tell them how God rejected such and such for their folly against him and warn them lest for the like follies the same should befall them as Jer. 6 30. and 7.4,5 yea when we see men resting in their birth works priviledges c. we may well mind men that God hath not chosen the flesh and seed thereof as such to inherit with him not Adam and his seed as such nor Abraham and his seed as in the flesh nor the Law and its seed but Christ and his seed or members to inherit glory with him the rest otherwise then as they may be born again and become the seed of God in Christ are rejected from part and portion in his kingdom not from Gods good will toward them and the death of Christ for them for that was for sinners ungodly enemies yea as considered in such an evil condition but from fellowship with God c inheriting with Christ which none shall partake of that abide but in that state of nature yea though advantaged by more honourable birth or more zealous frame in which Christ extended his pitty to them in dying for them that so they may be pressed to let all go for Christ in whom there is both sure and certain ground for their repenting and believing and out of whom there is nothing to be found but perishing Now if ye do thus walking answerably thereto not measuring the outward court Rev. 11.1,2 given to the Gentiles as if we appropriated it to our selves onely but worshiping God in his Temple in fellowship with Christ and his people that are in union with him and at his Altar or in the sacrifice and meditation of Christ labouring both by word and conversation to bring up the Gentiles from their Gentilism and resting in the outward Court of external profession to the circumcision of the Spirit and worship of God in the same in the inward man and in his Temple and Altar as before Then shall ye find his blessing upon you making you a blessing to them and filling you with his own spiritual blessings in grace and peace till he bring you safely to the full injoyment of the glorious promises Even so Amen FINIS Postscript ONe word more I would commend to you viz. That of our Saviour Iohn 6.56,57 He that eats my flesh drinks my bloud abides in me and I in him c. a most excellent and choice direction for our preservation from the errors here in the Treatise mentioned and from all other that may indanger our miscarrying Would we abide in Christ that is in his faith Spirit lowe Iohn 15.10 and so in the experiment and injoyment of the fruits and vertues of his mediation for us and would we have him abide in us as surely he will if we abide in him that is have his love Spirit and divine power abide in our spirits making us fruitful and filling us with divine and eternal life and by consequence would we be preserved from the errour of the wicked and from drawing unto perdition This is the choice and most sure and excellent way to eat the flesh of Christ the flesh given by him for the life of the world ver 51. and drink his bloud the bloud of the covenant shed for the remission of our sins that is to mind view diligently look upon consider meditate on and keep in believing remembrance the abasement of the Son of God for us his obedience and sufferings in the flesh to the death the death of the Cross for us the satisfaction given by him for our sins the victory obtained over death the pretiousness of the bloud and sacrifice of Christ the peace thereby made redemption obtained the prevalency of it with God for us the covenant and promises thereby sealed the performance whereof he mediates in the vertue of it to his called c. and verily we shall be preserved we shall prove it the power of God to save us Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 15.1,2,3 1 Iohn 2.24,25 Heb. 3.1.6.14 Gal. 2.20 Search these Scriptures and see how they fitly explicate the business live we then by the faith of Jesus and forget we not the stripes by which he heals us But alas as many taste not the sweetness of this heavenly Manna but abide ignorant of the Cross of Christ feeding and living upon their actings sorrows good desires confusions performances changes zeal self-acted and conceited believing as indeed I know not how many should do otherwise because the Testimony of God holding forth the Death of Christ for all which should let them see good and undeniable ground for minding it and feeding upon it forsaking all other things for it is by the guids generally denied and condemned as an error so as they durst not believe it and therefore they having no divine evidence in the Word of God that Christ died for them they are put upon it to reason it out by their acts and changes fore-mentioned and to make them the evidences to themselves of it so as they must needs be the bottom matter of their feeding and consolation so many do but taste it abide not there to eat of it Heb. 6.4,5 but after they have found some sweetness in it fall a lusting after evil things counting this heavenly food but a dry bread and so they either feed upon their past acts of believing their rejoycing the operations of it in them which are often soon dried up for want of supply from this Fountain Christ crucified or else they reach after some more seemingly glorious matter of their feeding as is before spoken to Chap. 3. Sect 4. and so forget that they were purged from their old sins or the means rather of their purging the true bread that should have nourished them and either turn to the world and their corruptions again or are carried away with some strong delusion to their ruine from which the eating or feeding upon the flesh and bloud of Christ those despised low things in the eyes of proud men would have preserved them Note also that when in some passages I fault men for hearing any whom they will my meaning is not that I would have men tied up to this or that man as if it were unlawful to go from any to another or to hear any for trial-sake or the like but my meaning is that men are faulty in having an itching ear that when they have found Truth yet they will be out of curiosity or self-confidence diving into and trying what good they can get in some other doctrines Such an hearing of them as our Saviour says his sheep will not afford to strangers from him Iohn 10. FINIS