cruel and painful torment They might as well deny the Sun-light at noon-day who deny this Truth To turn plain Scripture into Allegories is to turn substance into a shadow It cost Origen a self-mutilation for mutilating divine writings thus He was called Centaur for monstrous Opinions flowing from Allegorical strainings of Scripture Christs Manhood should be so precious to us as not to endure affronts put on it Therein God and man do most sweetly meet which will help weak faith in every time of need 3 Against both the parts of his humane nature his soul and Body many also fight Apollinarius denying him a human soul as if the Godhead had supplied the want thereof Eutyches destroyed both by his pretended swallowing of them up into the Divine Nature The Manichees and Valentinians allowed him but an aery phantastical Body running through the womb of Mary as through a Pipe Mahometans fain it to have passed through Maries Paps and by the smell of a Rose Divers Novelists are daily broaching strange conceits about it The Vbiquitarians give him a monstrous Body immense and filling all places the Papists as monstrously would have his Body to be distinctly in many places at once to be without quantity without extension without sensible accidents to be made a new daily at the Priests will to be broken and not broken by himself and by all their Priests c. Many such contradictions against Scripture and sence Reason and all Sciences they are forced to for their fictitious Transubstantiation sake All such Malignant vapours which infest many will be effectually dispelled by the right use of your spiritual confection Christ was and abides ever a perfect man consisting of Soul and Body both subsisting in his divine Person being united to the divine Nature therein It will shew you that his soul was sorrowful to death and was made sensible of all humane affections though without sin as clear Chrystal water moved without any mud It will teach you that his Body had flesh and bones after his Resurrection as before which a spirit hath not That the same Body did visibly ascend into Heaven before the Disciples eyes and shal return thence in the same manner That the Heavens must hold him till the Restauration of all things That the glorifying of his Body hath not could not have annihilated it or changed the substance though it hath bettered the qualities thereof It will help you to know the flesh of Christ spiritually though you learn to know him no more after the slesh carnally It will teach you that his bare flesh and the fleshly sence thereof profits nothing a Capernaitish soul being destitute of his Spirit but that it s his Spirit that quickens us giving Life to his flesh and to his Word that both may be Spirit and Life to us in a spiritual and lively improvement Christs manhood is that precious Golden Ring that sets forth the Jewel of his Godhead to us It s a curious Vail of his contriving that his glorious face may through it be beheld It s a Chrystal Glass of the Lords framing to reflect thereby his Image upon us Out of Christ God is a consuming fire but thereby he becomes a Reconciled Father If Christ were not man still there were no hopes for man if we know him not thus we know him not at all It s not a figment of our own divising but the man Christ Jesus that must be our Saviour He cannot be ours unless wholly ours 4. Against his Person appear Nestorius dividing it into two Persons Sabellius Arius all Antitrinarians denying his distinctly eternal Personality from the Father The Socinians and Notionists that fancy the distiction of persons in God to be but nominal according to various dispensations witness Hob's Leviathan among many other poisonous books so commonly scattered abroad TO queneh the force of these pernicious Errors your Counter poison will season your soul with the scriptural description of Emmanuel our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God with us It will prove him to be God-man having both Natures divine and humane subsisting in his person the Son of God the second Person of the divine Trinity by Hypostatical Union it will clear him to be the Brightness of his glorious Father and the express Image of his Person being that one Mediator between God and Man and therefore God-man that he might conquer by suffering and make his suffering infinite for vertue and value for satisfaction and acquisition It will shew you that there are three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and that those three are one That this Mystery is not against Reason though above it in its common shallow apprehension that the Son sends the Spirit Comforter from the Father and is therefore distinct from them both yet that he and the Father are one in Essence though distinct in person That Gods Reason is the Rule of ours being revealed to us in his divine monuments that we may assent to his Assertion though we cannot fathom the Explicitness thereof no more then Bruits can fathom our rational expressions That the Person of Christ coming out of the water must needs be distinct from that Person of the Spirit who came in the likeness of a Dove lighting on him at his Baptism and from the person of the Father whose voice from Heaven said This is my Beloved Son hear him Thus the Grace and Knowledge of Christ will teach you that he who thought it no Robbery to be equal wtth God being in the form of God substantially made himself of no Reputation that as God-man he might restore man to God in the gloryfiing of all divine Attributes Our Faith is not true if we do not own the true God truly as he holds forth himself in three distinct persons Those divine persons are not meer modes or manners of Attribution or Manifestation but real subsistences The Father is not the Son the Son is not the Spirit personally though they be one God essentially The person of the Son alone was incarnate not that of the Father he could not be Son not that of the Spirit there had been two Sons then The Word became flesh not the Father nor Spirit Divers Emblems are used to set forth this glorious Mysterie but Scripture-Language describes it best to a sober faith The Word Person is a Scripture Word very proper and significant They that deny this right use thereof make way for further denyal of Truth The Person of Christ is then to be owned by all that intend to be owned of him 5. Against Christs Spirit stirs first Macedonius denying him to be a divine Person distinct from the Father and Son Secondly All Antitrinitarians who oppose the distinction of divine Persons Thirdly The Greeke who deny the Procession of the Spirit from the Father through the Son Fourthly The several Blasphemers that vaunted
A Soveraign Antidote AGAINST Sinful Errors the Epidemical plague of these latter dayes Extracted out of Divine Records the Dispensatory of Christianity FOR The Prevention and Cure of our Spiritual Distempers By Claudius Gilbert B. D. and Minister of the Gospel at Limrick in Ireland Luke 21. 8. See that ye be not deceived 2 Thes 2. 8 9 10 11 12. Whose coming is after the working of Satan in all Power c. and in all deceivableness c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecan Axioma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehova Medicus tuus Exod. 15. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui seipsum habet prosapiente habent eum Deus homines pro Ignaro London Printed by R. W for Francis Titon and are to be sold at the sign of the three Daggers in Fleetsheet 1658. To the Honourable Colonell Henry Ingoldesby Governour of the Precinct of Limrick and Clare and to the Inhabitants of the City of Limrick Honoured and Beloved in the Lord. THe substance of this Tract was through the Lords help preached lately in your ears and is of right now presented to your eyes that through his Grace it may the better reach your hearts The subject thereof is as seasonable as its excellent The Lord make it yours as profitably as it s made yours affectionately The choice usefulness of its provisions will make full Amends for the plainness of its Order and Dress It s not my work to tickle and flatter you but to reach healing and food to your souls A Signal hand of Heaven brought me over and fixed me here near five years ago by the same good hand have I been kept here in the Lords charge ever since We have had much cause still to mind and improve the wonderful dealings of our God towards us from that very day as in former seasons Variety of Dispensations hath he carried us through both publiquely and personally Visits of Iudgement and then of Mercy we have had from him again and again No wayes hath he left unattempted that might do us good though our Returns have not been answerable The Sword Famine and Plague ranged in these parts upon Gods Errand at my first coming and continued a considerable time I was thereby occasioned to contribute my utmost by the Lords Aid to the relief and cure of mens souls and bodies It was then my cordial delight and desire to spend and be spent for the good of Limrick as the same is still my design and labour through the assistance of Heaven The Voyce of Gods Rod cryed loud to this City then that the man of Wisdom might observe his Name who had appointed it in hearing his Rod. Our Heavenly Physitian saw it best then to diet and physick us suiting his Prescripts to our distempers Few in this place did miss of a Touch the deeper smartings of many among us warned all the rest Our sins deserved much worse from his hand yet he afflicted us very favourably In the midst of wrath he remembred mercy and stayed his rough wind in the day of his East wind After Purgations he gave us Cordials and turned in due time our mourning into joy Thanksgivings followed our humiliations and our bitter waters were turned into sweet Wine The Springs of Elim followed our Marah and they reaped in joy that had sown in Tears If the peaceable fruit of that Rod may in Righteousness appear among us the Glory will be his and the Comfort ours If our ill humours have been kindly removed it will best appear in the right use of our health If any grow wanton after Recovery shame and sorrow will be their portion It glads my heart that Gods Word and Works have not been quite fruitless in the midst of us yet I cannot but lament with a bleeding soul the sad improvements of his renewed Kindness What could more be done for us then he hath done Why then is our fruit so wild and so empty That it proves better with any of us it s of his Grace that divers others seem to grow still worse it s through their fault The Lord hath bestowed much cost upon us but like the cursed Ground we bear still many weeds He hath not spared for dressing or dunging it will much aggravate their sin and judgement if any of us remain still barren The good Husbandman hath cast in good seed in this Ground of his but the enemy hath crept in in the dark to scatter his Tares Multiplicious Errors still spread among us as in other parts which grow much faster then Christs spiritual Plants Too many are found to play with their Light and abuse it to do the Devils work by That good Word which proves savour of Life to some proves too often savour of Death to others The Spirits of divers are grown so childish that neither Barnabas nor Boanerges will please their Palate God hath restored us to health and plenty but many souls are still diseased and starved Sinful Infection troubles all Relations yet is little felt because spiritual Much malignity attends those ill humours which work so strangely and perniciously Some are Brain-sick with giddy Notions and others heart-sick with feavourish Affections The Heads of some labour with Convulsions the Vitals of others suffer defections Spiritual Lethargies benumb some into sleep and mortal dreams raging Phrenzies do inflame some others Some are merrily mad with pleasing Conceits others melancholy through a sullen spirit Lethal Apoplexies take some few suddenly and spiritual Palsies seiz upon others more gradually Some have lost Appetite to the dainties of Heaven others seem to hunger but digest not well Spiritual Rickets do possess divers and sinful Gouts trouble not a few Various obstructions disorder mens souls whence the disfiguring of their Life and Acts. Internal stoppages often discolour the external man the falling-sickness and the swounding fits do also take turns in souls and Societies Consumptions and Dropsies appear so visibly that they prognosticate but Ominous things Sad Symptoms are seen in mens faces and speech their tongues and breathings concurring therewith If you feel their pulse and Beatings of heart you may soon descrie Syncopal Tokens Schirrhus ' s and hardness are easily felt swellings and sores manifest themselves Thus this world appears a sinful Hospital for the God of mercy to give visits to What comes away from men proves a Semeiotick that points at the Cure by sad Characters The Causes of such dangerous Affects must needs be various and multiplicious Diseases complicate and inveterate bespeak a difficult and a dubious Cure Secresie and strength add much to that evil besides senslesness and unruliness Disorder in food and in exercise with sloth and slumber aggravate the same Strains and Ruptures with Dislocations Tumors and Wounds manifest more evil Humours and spirits being distempered do soon disorder the substantial parts Excess in Repletion and vacuity in number and extent still do make it
us and we have seen his Glory So the beloved Apostle witnesses of him He took on him not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Thus the Son of God became the son of man being miraculously conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of Mary the Virgin over-shadowed by Gods Spirit and born of her in the humane nature like to us in all things except sin Thus was God the Son made manifest in the flesh by assuming the Nature not the person for then had he been two sons and two persons of man to himself This Man Christ Jesus hath body and soul the two substantial parts of Man even as we have as appear'd in his whole progress both which he hath Glorified not nullified This Fatherless man is as Wonderful as the same motherless God for who can declare his Generation as to the manner of it Thus Infiniteness confined himself God eternal was born of a finite poor Virgin Here is an Object indeed for the best knowledge of the best man God become man 3. Christ is God-man Emmanuel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God with us The true Ithiel God with me the very Vcal who is All. In him by hypostatical Union the humane nature with the Divine do both subsist in God the Son the second person of the divine Trinity Here is indeed a complication of ineffable wonders As there one Divine Nature subsists distinctly in three divine Persons So here two Natures the divine and humane subsist both in one person each of them acting and remaining distinctly conjunctly and inseparably incommutably and unconfusedly as the Fathers expressed it to avoid Errors on both hands Here is no mixtion nor composition no confusion nor conversion but a mysterious and transcendant Union from whence flow the various expressions of Scripture 1. When that is attributed to each Nature which properly belongs thereto as suffering to humane Nature and also when that is attributed to the person which therein belongs to both natures as to be Mediatour this is most proper Secondly When that which is common to the whole Person as to be Mediator is attributed only to one of the Natures suppose to the humane this is more improper Thirdly When that which is proper to one Nature is attributed to the other Nature in concreto by a name denoting the whole Person In that sense its true that God purchased his Church by his Blood and that the King of Glory was crucified by communication of Properties Yet this acception is the most improper of the three being Metonymical as the second is Synecdochical In man two imperfect Natures Soul and Body are coadunated with reservation of Proprieties to the constituting of one Suppositum and Person by the vertue of God Christs Person in the divine Nature being most perfect took the humane nature into the unity of one person by his own Vertue So that its one and the same Christ visible according to the humane invisible according to the divine Nature This hypostatical Union was the work of the Trinity mediately of the Holy Ghost immediately and of the Son terminatively The Fathers compare this Mysterie to the joint work of three Sisters making up one vesture and putting it all conjunctly upon the second of them It was necessary that Christ should be God 1. To impart an infinite value and vertue to his compleat Obedience 2. To overcome all sufferings and enemies 3. To communicate all effectually by his Spirit to his people It was as needful that he should be man 1. Because the Godhead could not suffer Secondly because the same Nature that had offended was to satisfie 3. That our Nature corrupted by the first Adam might be restored by the second Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus is Christs Person the Amiable Object of our Knowledge Secondly CHrist considered in his Office is a precious Object his chief business as Mediator being to procure effectual Reconciliation to the saving of his people by his perfect Oblation presented to God for them and applied to them by Gods Spirit He assumed the Name and function of Jesus the Saviour He was anointed as the Christ of God with all suitable qualifications and made Lord of all but especially made our Lord and Saviour by personal appropriation and effectual application Thus was Christ voluntarily made of a woman under the Law subjecting himself in that wonderful dispensation of his Mediation to receive from the Father his Call to that redeeming Function There was no defect in God but in us only who wanted skil power and will utterly to the curing and saving of our selves Christ therefore was divinely anointed to be our Soveraign Prophet Priest and Prince to effect all for us and in us needful to salvation As a Prophet he Reveals the whole Council of God As a Priest he makes full expiation to God and Intercession for us As a Kingly Prince he subdues all spiritual Enemies and makes all things serviceable to the guidance and protection of his people under his Soveraign Rule and Government All this he did and doth by his Eternal Spirit as the Scripture Records freely fully surely and singularly being therein a glorious Object of Christian knowledge Thirdly Christ in his Progress is considerable under a double state of Humiliation and Exaltation 1. HIs Humiliation appeared in all the steps of his Conception and Birth of his Life and Passion of his death and Burial most wonderfully This God head was then covered with the dark vail of his humane Nature mourning as it were in the sad habit of his infirmities for his peoples Enormities He willingly then eclipsed his divine light within the dark Lanthorn of this submissive state he humbled himselfe to exalt us he emptied himself that he might fill us He parted with all that he might give us all He shewed himself to be the Son of man to the lowest degree that he might bring all his into the state of Children Had there not been an absolute necessity thereof he had never done it Had not our case been so desperate could any other way have expiated and destroyed his peoples sins Christ had not come down from the height of Glory to the bottom of ignominy Here is an object of admiration indeed God humbled to a childs state growing up by degrees in Stature and Grace doing and suffering every moment for his enemies in rebellious arms Behold the Son of man wrastling with earth and hell yea with heaven it self conflicting with mans rage the devils fury and the wrath of God! What think you of sin the murtherer of this Christ and of that Love which gave him to the death Thus made he his soul a sacrifice for sin that he might see his seed and the good will of the Lord prospering in his hands He laid in the grave to confirm his
death and to air that Bed for our Repose His God head held his soul and body asunder from each other yet still inseparably united to himself Thus may you see a man drawing out his sword holding in his hands still both sword and scabret till it be put up again Thus it was needfull that Christ should suffer and so make entrance into his Kingdom Secondly Christs Exaltation is further worthy the best observation Therein his glorious person unvailed himself of all humane weakness though he still retained the nature of man and its properties He laid down his sable weeds to put on the roabes of Immortality His God-head did then raise up his Man-hood in his Resurrection and the Son of man declared himself by his divine Power to be the Son of God The Price paid for his people in his humiliation he applies by power through his exaltation to them orderly and effectually He is God-Man still and therefore tearmed the Man Christ Jesus Thus his office was to be compleated by the compleating of his saving Progress He conversed then among his Disciples the space of forty days to confirm their faith and to instruct them in the affairs of his Kingdom Thence his Ascention was solemnly performed followed with his Session at the Fathers right hand and Intercession for his people These are the four main steps of his exaltation to be singularly improved He rose that we might rise from death to Life he ascended that we might ascend he sits at Gods right hand that we may sit with him on his Throne and he still intercedes to make all our Intercessions effectual Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It s Christ that died yea rather that rose and ascended siting now at the right hand of the Majesty on high and ever lives to make Intercession Thus is Christs progress of chief worth and consideration 4. Christ is most considerable in his purchase also made for all his People which hath both value and vertue in it 1. THE value of his whole Obedience was of infinite worth being the merits of God-man giving full satisfaction to Gods Justice for all the sins of all his elect and making a full acquisition of all the good they were should be capable of This price of Christs perfect Righteousness active and passive was put into Gods Coffers to be seasonably and effectually applied to all his people orderly and actually from their conversion to their utmost salvation by his Spirit according to his eternal Purpose By the same value were all Gods elect from Adam to Christs death delivered from the guilt wages of sin upon Christs engagement of seasonable performance For he is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world intentionally in the divine purpose and promise 2. The Vertue of Christs perfect Obedience extends to the effectual application thereof to all Gods people So the Fathers purpose in electing and the Sons Intention in redeeming do run parallel That value which Christs merits presented to God cannot but be attended with answerable vertue for the making good thereof to the utmost The Son of man came to seek save that which was lost and that to the utmost seeing he ever lives to perform all Whilst therefore he was gone into Heaven to act his part there he was carefull to send his Proxie even his own Spirit that should make a through application of all his Purchase by the conveyance of his saving Grace to all his Chosen His Oblation is living and lively still even as Christ himself who abides for ever The ceremonial Oblations had him shadow'd out to represent the efficaciousness of Christs Oblation A wise man paying a Ransom or Debt as surety for another will be sure to know for whom and to see his purpose fulfilled to his power The agreement or Covenant made between God and Christ distinct from the gracious Covenant made conditionally with the visible Church in Christ imports as much As the Father required that he should offer his soul a Sacrifice for sin which the Son willingly undertook so was it engaged to him that he should see of his seed and the good pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand So that the vertue of his blood is still included in the value of it both being directed by divine intention which terminates in the proper subjects thereof Therein concurs his threefold office he being still a Prophet and prince as far as he is a Priest unto any The vertue of Christs Merits is indeed intrinsecally infinite like himself and only limited with the value thereof by the divine pleasure This purchase of his may be said occasionally and secundarily to comprehend the whole Creation in subserviency to divine Intentions but directly and primarily the Scripture limits it to Gods Elect for whom he came and lived prayed and died rose and intercedes still It extends to the removal of all evil both of sin and sorrow inchoatively progressively and consummatively It reaches also the Import of all sutable good spiritual temporal and eternal All things are ours and for our sake that are truly his and so far as we are his Is not this a choice Jewel to be duly viewed Doth not such a purchase challenge our best knowledge The possessive Our gives rellish to all It doth us little good to hear of Indian Treasures that are not our own Fifthly Christ is most precious in his Relation multipliciously expressed to his people by Allusion to all choice relations in things natural civil and artificial The perfection of all creatures is radically in him originally from him and reductively leads to him again None of them can sufficiently set out his wonderfull Relation wherein he stands towards his chosen Ones he therefore borrows the cream and quintessence of them all to shadow out to our shallow capacity the marvels of his glorious Grace Thus he speaks to his Babes in their known Dialect that he may gradually and familiarly be understood of them He calls himself their root giving sap and life to every branch of his He is the Head that conveyes all motion and sense to all his members He is the Fountain-Spring from whom all living waters flow into the streams by his proper conduits He is that Sun who carries Light and Life by his access unto all Creatures He is the Father that tenders his Children He is the husband that cherishes his Spouse the elder brother that looks to his adopted Brethren the Master that hath the best care of Servants That Foundation is he on whom the Fabrick stands that garment that must cover us that food that must sustain us that Portion that must maintain us to saving purpose Look into the whole compass of creatures what ever good you can find therein is
warfare against spiritual evils Doth your profiting in this Knowledge of Christ appear unto all in all occasions Vse 4. Be we stirred up to obey this divine Charge of growing in Grace and in the Knowledge of Christ Are not we all nearly concern'd therein Doth not our profit delight and credit challenge this from us Is not Gods Interest of greater moment to prevail with us Should not our Relations to others put as upon it Are not Christians spiritual Merchants Shall we not improve then such a precious Jewel Should not we still be trading with Christ in the great Commodities of Heaven Strong encouragements we have from all parts thereof if but duly weighed The Trade the Factor the Commodity the Venture and Gain are beyond compare Men improve their grounds and manage their state to the best advantage that they may live well Should not we then improve this stock and husband this portion upon better ground It is a field that will never fail the more we till it the more it will yield As Christ himself so the knowledg of him are richest Mines still full of Treasure springs of all good still inexhaustible The more you draw the more will follow it like the womans Oil that will never stop but for want of Vessels This improvement will improve all things else and without it nothing will do well This speak to dead and living 1. Death Christians should be excited that they may get Life else they cannot grow You must get the stock before you can trade Your heart must be renewed that it may be bettered Former directions will stand you in stead if duly minded and observed You must be convinced of your spiritual death to feel the need of the Prince of Life Seek then to him as blinde Bartimeus cry hard after him let him have no rest til he give you Life and Light at once He never yet rejected any soul that unfeignedly did attend on him If you wait long at Bethesdas pool it s for your good and he will be found in the best season if he put you off as he did that famous woman of Canaan it is but for trial and to quicken you If you cannot go send your heart and friends your Prayers and Tears to give him a call Be sure to observe what he saith to you in his Word and Providence as by his Spirit As you desire Life neglect no Means helping thereto Looking stil to him for his Blessing in all Retain no sin and slight no Duty Voluntarily give him your bad heart to mend it for you Feel your deadness that he may quicken you Know the worst of your self by inspection in his Glass that you may learn to know the best of Christ Beware especially of your darling Lusts your Dalilah corruptions whether sinful pleasure profit or Pride Know your wretchedness and emptiness your insufficiency and unworthiness that Christ may be your all for Wisdom and Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 2. Living Christians must stir up themselves encrease this Life Rouz up the Grace of God that is within you Blow up those sparks and make it your work to grow stil in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Food and Exercise Physick and Diet Temperance and Vigilance will be found special Helps as for bodily so for spiritual improvement of Life There is an Instinct in every creature for self-preservation and increase which moves stil towards proper Objects in all due means 1. Look well to your food then of a spiritual Nature to shun what is evil and improve what is good You must therein mind the quantity and quality the order and season of Receving it for due concoction The Scripture Word will afford you still the living Bread and the living Water the flesh and Blood of Christ to feed on by Faith Its milk for Babes and strong meat for adult Christians Let it not be mixed nor adulterated by humane additions or detractions Hunger and thirst stil after the Word and Righteousness of Christ Take what suits your case and observe what Rules himself gives you Plain dressing thereof will be still best for your profiting Feel the need of it and long after it cry and seek hard for it make good use of it You must feed well that you may thrive well 2. See to your exercise that it may be moderate suitable and seasonable so will it be of singular help to discuss ill humours and to augment your native heat by fit distribution of food and Spirits In all the waies of God exercise your self unto Godliness as the Apostle did for himself directing Timothy and all others to the same Such an exercise hath the Promises of this Life and of that to come being still profitable for all things Beware of straying into the devils paths and training in his military Yard You must wrastle against sin and self against spiritual enemies of all sorts Your sinful body must be kept under that you may be nimble and swift in your Race The whole Armour of God is furbished to your hands that you may put it on and use it with success Be thus strong in his strength and in the power of his might that you may prevail in all your conflicts 3. Mind seasonable Physick which you will often find the need of to purge out your peccant humors that are increasing and putrifying still Your Growth will be stopt if these sinfull stoppages and putrid matters be not duly removed Advise therefore with the best Physician for Prescripts and Medicines sorted to your case Deal very freely and fully with him without dissembling and reservation Give him exact account of what you do know that you may be dealt throughly with for good observe his directions with puncutual care in receiving good and eschewing evil His Skill Power and Will are incomparable and unquestionable His blood and Grace by his Holy Spirit he mingles in his Word to destroy your sins and to save your soul If his Pils appear bitter to your taste they are the fitter to kill your corruptions Your eure is certain if you be but ruled under his preparing purging and dressing No disease ever proved shame to him trust him obey him and your case is safe 4. Keep a due Diet as he doth instruct who orders all things to his peoples good To abstain from evil is still as needfull as to be doing and receiving good Observe then what things are most offensive to your constitution that you may avoid the first beginnings and appearance thereof Some are more bent to pride others to Passion some to vanity others to wordliness some are more lazie others more wanton some grow more secure others more foolish Error will tempt you under various shapes putting on often the Garment of Light Ignorance and Pride
the Beast by this usurped Supremacy When all that is dispatched we shall have more work for them to clear their Antichristianism in ruling by their own not by Christs Scepter by their will not by his which they have taught their mongrel Brood quaking among us to spread under disguises their chymical sublimations of old rotten Errors As for the fifth Monarchy it s a point needing much sobriety in the sence and use thereof Christ indeed hath a kingdom in this world though not of this world and his work is to Reform Rulers and people not to confound his own Ordinances 10. Christs humiliation state is opposed much as 1. by the former so 2 by many Novelists who make light of it accounting it but a type and figure of what was to be done within them Christs Incarnation Life and Passion are with them but stories and shadows the Life and substance is all within them There say they lies Christ very deep in every mans heart covered with earth to be born and raised up to live and die to do and suffer As for the Christ that died at Jerusalem many do slight him and many that seem to own him verbally yet renounce him effectively 3. By our late Quakers who have revived those rotten drugs from the Familists dunghil adding a new dress and access thereto as Paracelsus and David George Swenkfield and Battenburg Manno and Jacob Behmen with their German followers So do our Modern Enthusiasts rake up the kennels of old fanatick Dreamers with disguises and additions of their own Against this Venom spiritual Growth will help that we may know Christ as the great Apostle did labour for in the fellowship of his sufferings It will inform us of his wonderful abasing of himself in every step from his first conception till his resurrection It will shew us the absolute need all his Elect had of his miraculous Incarnation and Birth Life and Death Burial and abode for three daies in the Grave It will make us feel the effects thereof in our very souls that his Transcendent Love in stooping so low and parting withal may direct and press Returns of the like to him and for him That experience will engage our hearts to that Christ above who died once for sin but can die no more living unto God that we may likewise reckon our selves to be dead to sin but alive to God through him That Knowledge of Christ will teach us aright how to distinguish of the Person of Christ that once suffered for us and of the Grace of Christ which is by his Spirit formed within us in Regeneration Christ Personal is the God of Heaven that eternal Creator But his Grace in us which seems sometimes to be called by Christs Name as the Church is also by a Metonymical Metaphor and Synecdochically is but a finite creature a spiritual quality not subsisting by it self but inhering in a subject humane Scripture saith indeed that Christ is within us dwelling in us by his holy Spirit But may not he work within our heart by gracious communications without a personal fixation there The Sun conveys Light and Life by his Beams to all parts yet his substance abides stil in Heaven There is indeed a spiritual Relative union between Christ and the Regenerate set forth in Scripture by divers Emblems The Natural union between the Head and Members the civil union between Husband and Wife the artificial union between Foundation and Building set it forth But we must not strain figurative speeches beyond their scope This union is Real yet mystical full of mysteries There is no confusion nor composition no Transmutation nor Annihilation here Our persons are stil distinct Christs Godhead is indeed a Circle whereof the center is everywhere the Circumference nowhere He fils all places comprised in none Hell it self feels him though with little comfort But his manhood is not Infinite being a creature though wonderfully glorified by assumption and hypostatical union unto the Godhead in the second Person Christ as Saviour must stil be considered in both his Natures Divine and Humane subsisting in his own Person Thus considered he dwells not in us personally The person of the Husband is one with the Wife Relatively not personally Christs manhood cannot be personally within us The Heavens must hold as they received him till the Restauration of all He dwels in our hearts by Faith and we in him mutually as the Root in the Branches and the Branches in the Root by Relation and communication His whole Humiliation was for us and his Spirit enables us gradually to conform thereto by a fiducial Improvement thereof Thence he is said to be formed within us to be in us or among us the hope of Glory to live and act in us c. Hence the sufferings of Paul are called Christs sufferings not personally but causally because they are for his sake through his Grace undergone It s a sad abuse put on Christ and his Word thus to slight and destroy Christs personal Humiliation whereon depends all our Salvation If Christ suffered not then he rose not again and then are we still in our sins and of all men most miserable But Christ is as effectually Risen as he effectually suffered That effected Redemption by price in Impetration this by Power in application Thus it became him to suffer and so to enter into his Kingdom How far the Justice of God absolutely considered may be thought to require such satisfaction in order to pardon we need not controvert It suffices that upon supposition of his purpose and Engagement this way is of absolute need By this all his Attributes harmoniously concur to the perfecting of his peoples Salvation 11. Christs Exaltation is also much abused as 1. By the former Errors so 2. By our Modern Sadduces denying the Resurrection of the Body as some did at Corinth 3. By the Quaking Rabble who own no Christ but what is within them 4. By our Novelists who deny his Ascension and his Session at the Fathers Right hand 5. In effect also by the Papists in their Impanation Transubstantiation and such monstrous Doctrines 6. The Vbiquitaries trespass too much thereon in divers fond conceits broached and encreased after Luthers death by Brentius Osiander c. 11. AGainst such Opposers the Knowledge of Christ is of Soveraign force Thence we learn to Believe according to Scripture the several steps of his Resurrection and Ascension of his Session and Intercession It teaches us to improve the many Arguments so cogently pressed by Paul on the Corinthians as on the Romanes Thence we learn to know Christ as the Apostle did more experimentally in the power of his Resurrection being made conformable to his death So it became Christ to suffer and enter into Glory As by Humiliation he wrought out our Salvation by Price in way
Scripture speaks of Christs Dying for all for the World for sinners c. the context still clears the restriction of those phrases to all the Elect both Jews and Gentiles that are of all sorts and in all places and ages It s a common phrase in every language thus to speak of all for many of all sorts indefinitely to be explained by the matter in hand Thus all Judea came to be baptised The Apostles preached to every creature under heaven yet still with limitation The word World in divers places cannot signifie whole man-kind but must be limited to the vessels of mercy alone Thus Christ takes away the sin of the world now blessed is he whose sin is taken away every man is not so Many are in Hell beyond possibility thereof he gives Life to the world not to them in Hell God was in Christ reconciling the world not imputing their sin unto them Is this every mans priviledge to have reconciliation and pardon In other places the World can signifie none but Reprobates that shall never be saved that lie in wickedness that Christ prayed not for that die in their sins that cannot receive the Spirit of Grace c. Usually its signification is indefinite to be explained by the context But what must men blieve if Christ died not for every man They must believe that Christ alone is the full Saviour and Redeemer of his people that he that believes not shall be damned that Believers are saved through his Grace c. as the Scripture teaches Object Bnt why is Christ offered to all then Answ Because that he speaks to men by men after the manner of men His Elect are to be gathered from among all sorts The Gardiner waters the weeds secundarily but the good plants primarily The Sun shines on the blind that cannot make use thereof Object But is not Vnbelief the great damning sin Answ It is so though not the only damning sin Positive unbelief is worse then negative and admits of Degrees too All sin is Damnable a deadly disease But Unbelief is the refusing the rejecting of the only Remedy that shuts the soul under its deserved death Object But is not this Doctrine uncomfortable Answ It s indeed to all unbelieving Impâ—nitent sinners wilfully rejecting Christ but it s most comfortable to all humble self-denying souls those poor in spirit that hunger and thirst after Christs righteousness There is no comfort to the wicked from the Lord. But much encouragement to every soul that is made willing to turn from al sin to God through Christ Such shall duly know that Christ died for them when they find him killing sin in them that they may live to him A general Notion that Christ died for all and every One can give no more comfort to Peter then to Judas till his heart do feel the power of Christs death Is it not more comfort that Christ died to save his Elect certainly then that he died so indefinitely that its uncertain for all his death whether any shall be saved If you grant he died absolutely but for some then it s certain that only they shall be saved and his dying for the rest conditionally will not make them salvable nor afford any comfort to them If any Inconvenience attend our Doctrine it must needs attend that also Yea if Christ should have died for all alike yet seeing all are not in the event saved he must needs fore-know it or not be Omniscient and fore-ordain it or not be Omnipotent and that certainly or not be Soveraign The same difficulties will follow that way with many more Either God or the Creature must be Independent It disparages not Christs death that its limited to the Fathers purpose by his Intention and Execution All Divine Attributes are wonderfully magnified this way his Wisdom and Power Mercy and Truth Justice and Holiness c. The Parallel drawn by the Apostle between the first and second Adam proves a parity and proportion of Christs Redemption extended to all his spiritual seed as the corruption and condemnation of Adam extends to all his natural seed But all men individually considered are not Christs spiritual seed The Elect are such intentionally before Conversion and actually Become such in their Conversion All Adams children died by him and all Christs children were redeemed by him It s more to redeem one soul then to destroy all Christ excels incomparably 21. Christs renewing Grace is no less a Sufferer by First The former Oppositions Secondly By Pelagians old and new asserting mans nature to be so restored in every man that they are all born in Gods favour continuing so till they grosly abuse the Light given them either natural or Evangelical making Grace as common as Nature because its a gift though diversifyed Denying Original sin and Habitual corruption before years of discretion Thirdly The Socinians who following them deny that special Renewing Grace and pretend the New Birth mentioned so often to be but a moral change upon men which their nature by a common help from God doth attain unto in imitation of Christ whom they suppose to be a meer Patterne of Holiness not the Internal efficient thereof Fourthly By the Papists and Arminians who have learned of them to advance mans self-sufficiency free Will and Power by a common assistance of Gods Light indifferently afforded to all sorts according to their Improvements of the common Gifts received to accept or reject Christ at their pleasure and to cast away the best of his Gifts Received when they list In effect placing a mans strength and standing yea his chief All in his own mutable will making Faith but a common Assent given to Truth Fifthly By the Quakers Familists and Notionists who carry too much compliance with their Ghostly Fathers in these as in other things AGainst these Lethal Maladies the knowledge of Christ improved graciously will afford effectual Remedies Thereby we learn to see by Scripture Light the total corruption of mans sinful Nature the universality thereof reaching all places and persons its closeness and adherence its contagion and fruitfulness its temptations and Rebellions its policies and power its fierce and inconsiderate madness its indefatigable unsatisfiableness and its multiplicious propagation not admitting of remission or intermission This fully manifests the insufficiency and emptiness of man his unskilfulness and aptness to any spiritual good Thence the necessity of a special Renewing Grace from above to work an effectual change in all Gods Elect by an Almighty irresistible power such as quickned Lazarus and raised up Christ Jesus from the Grave This sanctifying Grace is considered in Scripture in the gradual Renovation of man from his first conversion from Nature to Grace unto his change from Grace into Glory The product of this Renewing Grace is called a new Creature and a Translation from death to