wherein the Sonne of God hath given himselfe unto an eternal death to deliver his chosen ones into that eternal life proper and peculiar to the lord alone His dying unto the flesh in his Saints is the life and resurrection of it in the men of the world and his dying unto the spirit in the wicked is the life and resurrection of it in the Saints of God for neither of them must be annihilated but as man at the first was made in the Image of God and the word was made dust that is in that work of God both the wisdome proper to a creature was to be found and that wisdome also proper to the Creator these twain must remaine extant for ever that is the wisedome of God extended to the uttermost in that curious workmanship of the mysticall and glorious body of Christ And also the wisdome of the creature must be extended to the uttermost in that composure of the body of sin and death which is only the curiosity of that confusion in the building of Babell there is a heaping up then and an absolute fulnesse of corruptable treasures and riches in the wealth of the world But For what is it heaped together that is for the last dayes by dayes here is to be understood times and seasons and the word last signifies the least or basest dayes and times as often it doth in the Scriptures so that this treasure rightly reckoned and justly summed and cast up amounts to the worst and basest of days a time wherein the Sonne of God exists not nor is he therein found a day not of salvation but of destruction a season of death and not of life days of sorrow and not of joy base times of famine not of plenty of pestilence not of health of war and not of peace times of murther and cruelty and not of love and freindship days of enmity pride and diabolicall policy and not dayes of that meeknesse of wisedome that is in the Sonne of God In a word the heaping together of the fruits of the flesh as our only treasure is to the bringing forth of such times and seasons wherein the policy and power of Satan ruleth and not the simplicity that is in the wisdome and virtue of the Sonne of God unto which season the oath of the Angel hath respect that stands with one foot on the sea and the other upon the earth and swears by him that lives for ever that time shall be no more that is with respect unto that foot that stands upon the troublesome and tumultuous estate and condition of that sea of evils of the world he swares that no jot nor tittle time nor moment of the life or day of Christ shall ever be found there he ceaseth in them for ever and a baser time can never be then to be voyd of him even as that time is most precious and glorious and those onely are halcyon dayes wherein he appears and Satan or ought of him is not found in them no not for a moment He shews in one particular wherein the basenesse of these dayes consists and that is in the fraudulent detaining and keeping back the hire of the labourer Vers 4. Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth and the cryes of them which have reaped are entred into the eares of the Lord of Sabboth Wherein observe 1. The note of aspect and looking up Behold 2. Who the labourers are that reap down the fields 3. What the labour and reaping is 4. What the hire of the labourer is 5. What the cryes thereof is that cryeth 6. Into what the cryes enter that is into the eares of the Lord. 7. The title or tearm of honour given unto him that is the Lord of Sabboth ANd first of the note of aspect Behold which signifies to look up in the observation of a signe or wonder which is now to appear and it is of like nature of that of the Prophet Jonah given unto the Jews that crucified Christ which was a signe of their destruction in that the Sonne of man was to lye buried three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth that is to be perfectly and perpetually dead and buried in their earthly and carnal hearts never to exercise his life and spirit in them which is a signe and wonder that the Son of the living God should be mortallized in them it is a like signe and wonder here that the Sonne of God should become a hireling defrauded of his hire For it is a like miraculous thing that the Son of sorry man who is sayd to be a worm an object a vapour a vanity to be made Lord of Heaven and Earth Judge of quick and dead as that he that is Lord ruler and possessor of all things to become a hireling So that the mystery of iniquity is not without signe and wonder no more then the mistery of God is and both reall though the one be a lying wonder and the other a true wonder the one confirms the faith of God the other the faith of Devils The one promiseth salvation for the confirmation of Pharaoh in the hardning of his heart unto destruction which is a thing contrary and therefore a lying wonder as it appears in Pharaoh and his host drowned in the sea the other promiseth salvation and deliverance unto Israel in Moses and Aaron which brings forth the thing promised and therefore a true and not a lying wonder as appeared in Israels marching triumphantly out of Aegypt Now there must be in a miracle or wonder that which goeth beyond the power of any nature else it is not a wonder and that is both in the one and the other of these miraculous signes for in point of salvation by Christ no simple nature can bring forth salvation for there must be in salvation both a Saviour and a saved else it is not full and compleat which neither the nature of man no nor the nature of God simply and disjunctively considered can be or bring forth Behold then a wonder in that which transcends and surpasseth any nature to be or to bring forth therefore it is said that we have a Mediator is made higher then the heavens that is the office of his mediatorship is of that super-eminent dignity that no simple nature can be or attaine unto therefore of twain he makes one new man in himselfe and so creates peace which otherwise could not be 2. Againe there is a wonder in destruction which goes beyond any simple and single nature also For the nature of God simply considered cannot be involved with the confines of destruction who is almighty and supream Lord over all neither can mans nature simply and disjunctively considered be in a capacity of an eternal destruction being a creature subject to the limits and precincts of time therefore God man are to be joyntly considered in that wonder and
Jacob and Esau and the like as teaching higher and more transcendant things thereby Therefore to rest in these as being the intent and scope of the Scriptures without seeing and acknowledging the life and death of Christ in them both according to the flesh and also according to the spirit we may by as good skill of interpretation center and terminate the minde of God in making any or all those visible creatures in heaven and in earth in that proper work without having any respect at all unto man therein and make them the utmost and extreamest point of Gods thoughts and intent which were no better then to disinherit the Son of God making a bastard and no Son of him being they were all made to do service unto him and to stand up and jointly and skilfully point as with the finger to direct either to his perpetuall life or death as being the reality and substantiality of them all the forme of a Church therefore as constituted into particulers now in the world is of no more weight or worth in a Christian minde then any other order wherein men are conversant in wayes of civillity so called for if once we finde the substance by the light of that day that springs from on high the darknesse of night and shadow flye away So as nothing looks amiable upon us but onely glory in the highest and peace in the earth to that man of good will who dwels in the bush It is the spirit of Prophesie therefore or of true interpretation that cals in the Eldership w ch sees this sicknes or death to be that renovation of the health life of man-kinde in Christ from that carnall life which the world lives from living unto earthly and transitory things to live unto heavenly and everlasting things such as abide for ever therefore it is said that fifteen years are added unto the life of Hezekiah which number consists of ten and five ten hath in it the mystery of eternity as hath been declared and five hath in it the mystery of multiplication signifying that variety and uncountable wayes of health and life which in all respects and ways of relation are multiplied and exercised in that mysticall body and state of Christ Therefore no speech of the multiplication of any of Gods works till the fifth day to shew the mystery of this number therefore it is that Joseph brings five of his brethren before Pharoah to signifie the multiplication of blessings upon the land by all the family seeing so manny had come upon it by his being there as one the like is in Benjamins messe sent in by Joseph five times so much as any of the rest to shew the multiplication of his love to that his brother who only came of the beloved Rachel together with himselfe In the recovery out of this sicknesse or renewing of life from the dead we are to consider what Christ saith viz. Except the wheat corne dye it multiplies not that is except Christ the seed of God dye he multiplies not in which we are to know that divine nature simply considered in it selfe is not the seed of God no more then the seed of mankinde is simply in the male but respectively in male and female else it produceth not to multiply its kinde and every tree hath seed in it selfe therefore the man is not without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord. They are but one tree that is one estate and condition even so the seed of God is whole Christ God and man made one and this wheat corne or seed must dye or else it brings not forth the true kinde and off-spring of the Son of God that is it must be sick and dye to all carnall and corruptible things or else it never brings forth that multiplyed fruit of the spirit which is in Jesus Christ To conclude this point to call in this place for the Elders is not meant the mendicimonium of a man without magnanimity and courage as one crouching unto a course and carnall Elder made with hands that is set up and created by men who can come unto the assembly and a private person but before it be dissolved is a pulick person a reverend Elder But this call is an anthetique and princely summons of a royall Prophet for this sicknesse hath in it the virtue and voyce of a summons to convent the true physitian multiplyed into an holy and honourable Eldership the consultation and practice of whom is the cure of the soule even as the life and frolick presumption of the arme of flesh hath in it a sufficient summons to bring in the works of unrighteousnesse to that appearance of Antichrist who is that poysonfull dragon and destroyer of the soule Yea this call is the voyce of the spouse being dead to her first husband and having forgotten her fathers house in the forsaking of all her kindred through which her speech becomes sweet and her countenance comely for ever 2. The second point is who these Elders are They are not the Elders of particular Congregations composed and ordered by man under that deceivable terme of reformed Churches as in these days which are but like to the sheards of a potters vessell which cannot be set together or sodred no more then they can ever bring themselves into unity for the spirit of that kingdome is divided in it selfe and therefore can never stand in the way of that resurrection by Christ but are in the way of that apostacy and fall of man from his Creator endeavouring still to become as Gods by the wisdome of the flesh We must observe then for the clearing of this point who they are which our Apostle writes unto in this Epistle and that is to the twelve Tribes in their dispertion and scattering from Israel as carnally considered for otherwise the Saints are never dispersed from the house and temple of God And this scattering is not into any particuler country or kingdome as into Assyria Babylon Caldea or the like but over the whole earth even upon the breadth of the land of Emanuel therefore they are said to be scattered abroad as having no confines set Neither doth he write to people as of one age or tract of time but as unto such as shall live in all ages of the world for as the word of God in the beginning went not out as to create the Sun for one age of the world but for all ages even so the word of the kingdome the Gospel of God goeth not forth to the dispersed and outcasts of Israel that is from the wisdome power and policy of the arme of flesh in one place or one age but so as every word of God in its true intent concerns and fiâ—s all places and ages of the world both in respect of the word of the curse and of the blessing so that to expound the word of God as fitting for one time place age or person and not for
implying a wonder note thus much in the distinction of it from the former expression for the word of God in every phrase hath its peculiar and distinct lustre In the former Christ is brought in as an hireling in his death in the spirit here as the Husbandman or Lord of the harvest in his dying unto the flesh Whence we observe That it is a like wonder and miraculous act and deed for the sonne of God to be made an hireling in the world or kingdome of men as it is for the sonne of man Enoch sorry and base man made of the earth to be made Lord of the harvest ruler of heaven and earth Let this be the only use of it to carry newes to all men that he that knows not the mystery of the one cannot unfold the Chidah that hidden matter or riddle of the other for the spirit of Joseph can interpret the dream of Pharaoh's Baker as well as that of his Butlers 2. The husbandman waites The word implyes a wayting as an over-seer to give things their due and to keep from harm hee tarries and abides by his field to see that nothing be wanting nor that any tare be pluckt up to the hurt or disadvantage of the corne but will have them grow together till harvest Whence we observe That there can be no true and acceptable division made betwixt wheat and tares just and unjust but by the perfect growth and ripenesse of them both the man of God must be brought forth unto perfection so also must the man of sinne Yea the seed of God sown in that great field of the world not in one age but in all ages thereof as also the seed of the Serpent or tares sown by that evill one must be opened unto the full measure of sin and righteousnesse in the one and in the other or else no man can rightly divide between the precious and the vile He cannot pluck up a tare otherwise but he hurts the wheat for no man can scant a wicked man of the fulnesse of sin but he besmears the Just one that holy one of God with what hee keepes back from the wicked for if it be not brought unto the wicked as to its proper seate in its perfection it is left unto the Son of God as he yet abiding under it This Lord of the Harvest therefore waits as a carefull and diligent over-seer that no such great inconvenience and evill befall his field or hinder the right and joyfull in gathering of his harvest They therefore that go about to gather in the wheat or binde up the tares before they be waiters and over-seers unto fulnesse and perfection of both that they can truly say the harvest is come which is the end of the world namely of all worldly excellencies of the Saints these are those unskilfull servants which know not the mind of the Lord nor is their enterprize acceptable unto him 3. He waits for the precious fruits of the earth and tarries and abides to preserve all things in order and place to the appearing of them which are the abundant and fruitfull exercises of mercy and justice which spring up in the just and unjust These are they which the Psalmist speakes of when he saith Mercy and truth are met together justice and peace have kissed each other For these are both alike innocent and guiltlesse precious and of like difficulty to be found out as they are gathered together and exercised by the wisdome and power of God who thrusts in the sickle of his wrath and displeasure as well as of his love and good will when the regions are white unto the harvest in the one respect and in the other For it is alike precious thing in God to redeem and deliver the elect by man and yet to free man in point of his own proper nature and ability from being any cause or furtherance in the work thereof as it is to condemn and destroy the wicked by the Son of God and yet to free God in point of his own native properties and operations from being any furtherance of the work thereof and without both the one and the other of these brought to light the words of wisdome are not justified In the one he that glorieth or as the word is praiseth himselfe it must be in the Lord for the boasting of all flesh is excluded In the other he that is shamefully dishonoured and blasphemed it is only in man for the Son of God is most glorious and excellent for ever and most precious fruits of justice and mercy ariseth from each of them In the one the Lord alone is our salvation and our strength and in the other Oh Israel thy destruction is of thy selfe The fourth point is the time of waiting and that is with long patience The length of this patience is answerable to the long suffering of God in the dayes of Noah who suffered himselfe to be mortified in respect of all spirituall and holy things in Cain even as Abel was by him slaine and put to death for in Cain the life of righteousnesse never appeared for he was destroyed in his seed in the deluge in that respect never to live onely none is to put him to death nor diminish him in his living unto the flesh in which respect he lives to this day in those that wander in the way of Cain as the Apostle teacheth and so Abels blood speaks wrath in him untill now And Abel is never to live after the flesh nor bring forth an off-spring in that way and yet speaks in that voyce of faith and life of Christ in Seth that set one in his stead of whom Christ came as an offering acceptable and of sweet smelling savour before God for ever This patience then hath the length of eternity in it for he that cannot expect the reception and rising up of these fruits at an eternall distance as fresh and new in exercise and execution as though they had never taken being before both in mercy to the godly and in terrour to the wicked he can never perceive nor rightfully enjoy the present being of the one nor the other For if we look upon them according to the dimentions which God gives unto them then are they to come unto eternity both the destruction of the wicked in our ransome as the salvation of the just in their purchased possession and they are both of them really present in that act of expectation even as the Son of God is one that is and is to come So that in patient waiting we possesse and in present possession we patiently waite else things are not looked upon as having God in unity but only as Creature in relation to Creature but the Apostle testifies that Abraham in wayting for the Promise had the present enjoyment of it and that as the father of all the faithful who only inherit accordingly and in no other way and thence he brings in the next point Which is
he backs it with this argument Lest you fall into condemnation The word translated Lest is not spoken as a supposition but as an absolute affirmation You are fallen into condemnation As in the Prophesie of Isaiah the words of Rabshekah are Lest Hezekiah deceive you For which in the book of Kings is written Hezekiah deceiveth you So also where one Evangelist saith Lest the people faint in the way Another rehearsing the same story saith The people will faint in the way as a certain conclusion thereof and so it is here If your yea be not yea and your nay nay you are not fallen into condemnation therefore Christ affirms that whatsoever is more of the very same point is of that evill one that is of the Devill We are to know then that such Doctrine as teacheth that it was yea that certain Angels and also man were made in happy estate and condition but afterwards it was nay for the same state and condition became evill It was yea that Christ dyed and afterwarde it was nay he lived again in the same respect that hee is sayd to be dead according to the scope of the Scriptures Also that it is yea the Saints of God are sinners but hereafter it shall be nay for they shall have nay sin in the same respect considered further it is or was yea that the worship of God is or was tyed to such a form according to the intent of Scripture but it is or shall be nay it either is not now or hereafter shall not be tyed to such a form as it hath been or now is according to the intent of Scripture Doctrine of this nature is more then to let yea be yea and nay be nay for it makes the same thing to be both yea and nay which the Apostle affirms to be the word of God not but it is yea and Amen the same for ever in the word of Blessing as also in the word of the Curse This doctrine then is that way of the fall and defection from God brings men under the state of death and condemnation as here our Apostle affirms and hath not salvation and life by Christ contained in it We are not ignorant of the manifold objections which may arise in mens hearts backed by carnall Ministry in way of mans wisdome drawn from the letter of the Scripture which we have not ceased to speake unto as the Scriptures have given us occasion Wee shall here propound two and speak a word to each of them First the fall of man which as it is carnallized seems to interpose sin between God and the elect for a time Secondly the confessions of the Saints of God of a miserable condition for present To the first we answer that there is a miserable defection from God and also a happy gathering up into unity with God both with respect unto man-kind and no other creature whatsoever in heaven or in earth And as for that Doctrine of Angels in that acceptation the world takes them it is a meer fiction brought forth by humane wisdome brooding upon the letter of the Scriptures for there is no elect Angell which consists not of the same nature which the Angell of the Covenant doth which is Christ Jesus God and man in one subsistance and being And again if there was a sin in the fall of Angels before the sin and fall of man how could the Apostle confesse himselfe in that faithfull saying worthy of all acceptation or to be embraced of all the Saints so as to acknowledg the same That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chiefe or as the word is I am the first So that if there be a sin before the sin of man how can man be sayd to be the first sinner this doctrine therfore makes voyd the truth of the Scriptures in every foundation thereof We grant then that there is an absolute and reall change both in the Son of God and the son of perdition but what change is from that first act of the manner of the being of each of them once and for ever without other mutation or change otherwise That is to say in the Son of God the wisdome proper unto a creature is in the first act and manner of his being changed and transformed into the wisdome and principles peculiar to God himselfe and this estate is and abides the same for ever which is Christ the seed of the woman Again in the son of perdition the wisdome of God is changed and transformed into the wisdome and principles peculiar to a creature and that in the very first act and manner of his being and this estate is and abides for ever the same and is Antichrist that seed of the Serpent yea that very Serpent the Devill himselfe Even as Christ is not only that seed of the woman but also that spirit which over-shadoweth her even God himselfe Furthermore the word of God never expressed it selfe but as a word of wisdome therefore it is said by the Psalmist O Lord how manifold are thy workes in wisdome hast thou made them all So sayth Solomon The Lord by wisdome layd the foundation of the earth And the Apostle sayth Christ is the wisdome of God and the power of God Therefore out of him there is no wisdome so that there is no expression of the word of God or any existance of the work of God but with respect unto Christ therefore the first words and workes manifested by God in the Scriptures is the preaching of Christ which is the glad tydings of salvation the Gospel of God which was never known nor ever shall be but in the death and resurrection of Christ and that through the tender of him in whom the day springs from on high to visue us So that in the framing of neaven and earth in the beginning this mercy-seate is erected whereon those two Cherubims do stand the death and resurrection of the Son of God and from this mercy-seate and from between these two Cherubims the word of God is ever uttered and did never in any other way expresse it selfe in the world Therefore the life and resurrection of the Son of God in his Saints and his death and descention in men of the world do face each other as holding proportion and being of like capacicity even those two Cherubs of mercy and Juistice distributed in Kingly authority where ever the mercy-seate is ser up in the publication of the Gospel and this life and death holds proportion in poynt of time so as never life nor death were ever before or shall be after them The doctrine therefore of Angels and man in a state of innocency and yet out of Christ being changed from that which they were from the beginning is no doctrine savouring of Christ in the Gospel nor word of life and salvation But only as those sayings of old of the Scribes Pharisees which our Lord Christ so carefully correcteth as such as
whole mysticall body of Jesus Christ otherwise it is not the word or Gospel of the kingdome nor the spirit of intercession which is by Jesus Christ Object But it will be sayd that these things crncern the invisible Church and not the visible for the true visible Church is otherwise to be considered Answ To which we answer that it is a work of as great curiosity to frame a visible Church of Christ as to frame and compose a visible body of Christ therefore the Apostle comparing the true Church to a body sayth For as the body being one hath many members and all the members of that body being many are but one body so also Christ And agayn hear what the spirit sayth by the Apostle John viz. As he is so are we even in this world where he speaks of the Son of God So that to frame and compose a visible Church and to frame and compose a visible Christ are of the same nature and of like ease and difficulty and are alike strange unto the world and of the same acceptation to bring into manifestation and appearance Yet we know that Christ in both respects for otherwise we know him not is truly apparent and visible as also secret and unseen For Moses by faith saw him meaning Christ who is invisible that is he saw him who is unseeable and both are really true in a diverse respect And they who frame a Christ visible in one age of the world and not in another they do by the same argument conclude the visible Church to appear and to be manifest only within the same confines and precincts of time wherein Christ appeared For the Church was never known to appeare but in the reall form of Gods righteousnesse and wisdome which is Christ for he is the wisdome of God and the righteousnesse of God by saith which is the reality of the Church and as for all imaginary Churches we skill not for they will vanish and come to nought together with the professors of them as they have done in all ages Again such as form a Christ unto themselves to appear visibly unto a carnall eye so as to accept and approve of that his way of appearance at the carnall and perfunctory worshippers of the Jewes did Know this that whensoever the true Christ appeareth he will receive at the hands of such the same measure which was measured out unto Jesus born of the Virgin by Herod Pontius Pilate Scribes Pharisees with the cry of all the people saying Crucifie him crucifie him away with him crucifie him Even so they that frame unto themselves a visible Church so as to appeare unto a carnall eye or understanding as being in a capacity to approve and like well of it at the least for a certaine season Whensoever the true Church makes it selfe visible it shall receive like measure at the hands of such persons to the utmost of their power and ability as Christ did when he appeared unto the Jewes For in such persons and in that spirit is the zeale of persecution properly founded in the visible and apparant exercise thereof Moreover they that form a visible Church as not having the invisible vertue alike efficatious in every part and member thereof they also form unto themselves a visible Christ to appear without aving the compleat vertue of the wisdome and power of God in all respects in him either in point of his being or in the order and manner of his being and this is that great Image of Nebuchadnezzar which hath beeen so long erected and set up in the world where the Scriptures are traditionally acknowledged and read w ch all must bow down unto at the noise of their instruments and institutions or else the fiery tryall must passe upon them that obey not Only this is our comfort that the Son of God will so appear with them or in them that so much as a smell of that zeal or fiery fume and wrath of the world shall not appeare upon them but serve only to the destruction of such as are zealous actors in such matters of the worlds melody The next point is the exercise of the Elders and the first is they pray over him or for him or without any wrong to the Text with him that is in communion and fellowship with him for there was never prayer of faith made unto God out of which any elect or chosen vessel was excluded the reason is because every acceptable prayer hath in it the vertue of the intercession of Christ otherwise it is not in his name and authority and the spirit of Christ neglects not any one that appertayns to his mysticall body for if it should that soule could never be inspired with the spirit of prayer without which there is no participation in the mediation of the Son of God and then no acceptation with the Father therefore prayer is communicative to all the Saints if it be as the prayer of faith it is as the life-blood running into all the veyns of the whole body for none can enter into the holy place but he that carries all the Tribes upon his heart it is not our temporary and private wants which can bring forth a faithfull prayer to God for as prophesie is not of any private spirit or interpretation but holy men speake as they are moved by the holy Ghost of like publique spirit is true prayer So that this sick party is in unity with the prayer here spoken of for the eldership of this Church or that eternized fellowship in the ancient of dayes never appears unto any in that miraculous vertue of healing but in way of unity with the party healed Therefore it is that Christ will have the stone rouled away from the Sepulchre that nothing interpose betwixt Lazarus and himselfe when he restores him from death to life Also Elisha will be shut up in the same roome with the widows sonne when hee rayseth him up from the dead and Paul the Apostle falls upon Eutichus and embraceth him when he brings his spirit into him agayn Furthermore where this true Eldership appears it ever communicates a like vertue to every individuall of the body for the spirit is not received by measure for that which in it selfe is emence cannot be received by measure they that go about to perswade men that some have a greater portion of the spirit and some have a lesse measure thereof they may upon as good grounds perswade men that some shall be saved and be happy and blessed a long time and some a shorter time for if the spirit of God in any poynt of our salvation be subject to measure in latitude it is as truly subject to be measured and bounded in longitude and then salvation is voyd which is the doctrine of the most of our Elders in these dayes but the spirit of glory and of God that rests upon the Saints through this sicknesse and suffering is neither given out nor received by measure
dust that it cannot yeeld fruit his ascending up into heaven in a fiery Chariot The spirit of God is pleased to commend all his honourable deeds unto the world in this one act of prayer to stand and to be as his memoriall for ever Prayer therefore is garnished with all the ornaments of a Prophet oâ— God and cannot be lesse then a most honcurable monument and memorizing of the Saints where-ever it is found extant 2. Prayer hath all the vertues and ornaments of Priest-hood in it Never was Aaron fitted and adorned with greater variety of vestments and vertues to minister before God in the holy place and according to the variety and change of the multitude of sacrifices and offerings then the spirit of prayer contayns in it and according to occasion puts on and brings forth when the vertue power of our great high Priest after the order of Melchisedech is brought in it is all summed up in the spirit of prayer as he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech who in the dayes of his flesh when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares unto him or in him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that which be feared That is he was heard in all things or for the accomplishment and bringing to passe all things that concern life and salvation Now that all things that concern the Kingdome of God is involved in this prayer is thus proved The word translated feared is in the Greek dispaired about which men have much contended how it may be said of Christ But the thing is really and substantially to be considered though men do wrest and bend mince and strayn the word to suit it to humane reason For it is as true that the Son of God in and by the spirit of the world and principles proper to humane wisdome doth dispair and relir quish all hope and expectation of being delivered or set at liberty from that infinite wrath and displeasure of Almighty God as it is true that the son of sorry man is in and by the spirit of God and principles proper to the wisdome of God established and confirmed in the love power truth righteousnesse and glory of God and of his Kingdome everlastingly If men be ignorant hereof how Christ is said to feare or dispayr in all things they may talk of eternall life but they know not how a creature can live eternally and be possessor of all things Want of this knowledg breeds your Mortallists that know not by vertue of what the soule becomes eternall either in life or death as also your Generallists that say God will save all whereas there may be as reall and undenyable arguments used upon like ground that God will destroy all and so they must be left to the height of their doctrine which will amount to no more then the condition of a beast yet doth it make them such men as it had been good for them they had never been born For the rest that have gotten a tract of salvation and damnation by tradition from schools books naturall phylosophy and observation not having the knowledg of the nature of this Priest-hood comprized in the spirit of intercession They believe such things but they must not be curiously searcht into that is we cannot know them of these we say as the mind without knowis not good so these mens faith is dead For wilt thou know oh empty man that faith without works is dead For the spirit of God never works in way of life but in its own light therefore ignorance in any point must be voyd of the work of faith and so of the saving vertue that is in the life of Christ But prayer comprehending the whole Priest-hood of Christ is a work of that honour and power as to memorize the name of a Saint for ever and to set him up as a monument of the wisdome and mercy of God 3. Prayer is a work that comprehends the Kingly authority of Christ for when the Apostle Paul had shaken off the traditions and rudiments of the carnall Jew the power of the high Priest in that prosecuting spirit of binding and imprisoning all that were of the way of Jesus calling on the name of the Lord and when the Lord would proclaim him and make it manifest that he was a chosen vessell fitted to beare his name or carry his authority before the Gentiles Kings and the children of Israel Yea when he would put all that honour upon him which the Psalmist foretells saying There is little Benjamine their ruler the head of the Tribe a Prince of God he comprehends and concludes all in this act of prayer to give satisfaction to Annanias behold he prayeth As if he should say it is enough to know that miraculous change from Saul unto Paul from the service of the Synagogue of the Jewes to be a ruler over Kings the Gentiles and children of Israel for the name of God is by his word advanced over all which he was to beare this is sufficient to give satisfation to all Behold he prayeth So that none can deny a Princely spirit of power and authority where the spirit of prayer bears sway and a princely excellency is of honour sufficient to eternize the record of a Christians name 4. There is in prayer the power of victor or a victorious renown consisting of the noblest conquest that ever was Jacob by prayer overcame the man that wrestled or combated with him which man is said to be an Angell but it is the Angell that blest him in the way and therefore is declared to be God for Jacob said I have seen God face to face in which act of prayer his name is changed from Jacob to Israel to declare a prince-like promise in prevailing with God as the Prophet explayns his name and act saying And by his strength he had power with God yea he had power over the Angell and prevailed he wept and made supplication hee found him in Bethel and there spake with us or in us for if the spirit of God had not spoke in our father Jacob and so in all of his race he had never prevailed Was ever the like Conquest made as to overcome omnipotency which could never be but through the requests of his owne spirit which he cannot deny but must yeeld himself over thereunto Prayer therefore consists of a combate which ever hath conquest therefore of sufficient honour and renown to memorize a Saint who-ever he be that exerciseth the design and skill thereof 5. Prayer hath salvation contained in it nay it is salvation For whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved or in the present tense as the word will admit is saved for he that thinks he knows Christ any otherwise then in the vertue of an office exercised in such a subsistance or by such a manner or subsisistance exercised in
to be best of all and yet prefers his traffique in some other things before his attaynment of that yea causing the things of God to stand aside and give way to his vaine and lofty lusts of what nature or kind soever to satisfie them That man doth not the good which he acknowledgeth or as the word will beare he is it not that is he is not of the faith of Jesus he is not stated in the condition of the Son of God who seeks only to do the will of the Father and prefers and glories in that above all things and he that doth not that he is of that evill one and doth the things that are proper unto him being under the state and power of sinne which is as a transition into the fifth Chapter Wherein observe two things First The generall scope Secondly The particular parts of it 1. For the scope or end to which the purpose of the Spirit is directed and that is the death or crucification of the Son of God that Just one as he is intitled vers 6. And he that shall take the scope and drist to be otherwise he misseth of that mark which the Spirit of God directs unto and shoots his shafts in vaine and this death is layd down unto us and for us in a double respect 2. For the parts of this Chapter and they are properly four 1. The first sets down unto us the death of Christ as he is crucified in the world by wicked hands or corrupt administrations through the lusts of men unto the decay and death of that law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord in and by the men of the world as once the body of Jesus was crucified and killed doctrinally by those wicked Jews and all sorts of people then united in one and this is contained from the first verse to the seventh 2. It containes the depth of the Lord Jesus as he is crucified to the world in respect of the flesh that is to all carnall and corrupt things contained in the law of the carnall commandement and hand writing of humane Ordinancs which is against us and therefore nailed unto his Crosse And thus he is slaine in the Saints even in all the Subjects that appertaine and belong to his Kingdome which consists not of the matters and affaires of this present world and this is expressed from vers 7. to the 12. 3. It gives out an eminent and universall Prohibition backed with an exhortation together with the danger ensuing the not observing thereof and that is contained in verse 12. 4. It sets beforre us or rather romidgeth our hearts to finde out in us and to bring forth by us those excellent and admirable fruits which spring up in the godly from the death of Christ and observation of the prohibition abovesaid The Irradian beames whereof are shed forth from verse 12. to the end of the Epistle And first of the death of Christ as he is crucified in the world in respect of his proper spirit and vertue that by wicked hands and administrations both of Jewes and Gentiles that is such as are strict in Religion according to the literall command and historicall notion being engaged thereto by that spirit of bondage and of fear and others loose and licentious not having the bond of the spirit of God upon them But using the liberty of the Gospell as an occasion to the flesh surreptitiously encouraging themselves thereby to all excesse of ryot in the inordinate use of carnal and vanishing things that perish in the use and this is done by men of all ranks and qualities that are not become one in that chiefe and principal goodnes reckoning themselves as nothing in account but as themselves their place authority and dignity takes its being and is summed up in that State office and dignity of the Sonne of God otherwise they are such as glory and boast in themselves which rejoycing is evil namely of that wicked one wherefore he saith vers 1. Vers 1. Go too now yee rich men weepe and howle for your miseries that shall come upon you OUr Apostle here expresseth himselfe to the wealthy of the world as rich men or collectively Rich man as of all in one that is man of Sin or men of Belial who greed and gripe after all manner of good falsely so called in the neglect of that one and alone goodnesse in Christ that one thing necessary that better or best part which can never be taken from him who chooseth it as his chiefe and only treasure But to make choise of and to rejoyce and glory in as an only and rich trade and treasure besides that is to stiflle in themselves and suffocate the life and spirit of the Lord Jesus which is thereby extinct and in them breaths not He bids them therefore Go too now or come on as if he would encourage them in their course A like phrase is used Gen. 11. at the building of Babell Go too now or come on give a word of exhortation and encouragement one to another for the furtherance of your worke As if he should say Take your liberty use your accustomed trade and traffique to get and gather in abundance of your corruptible riches that moth and rust can seize upon and spare no pains misse of no opportunity to make your selves excellent and glory in it only with this proviso namely that you will assure your selves of the income and proper return together with your adventure and this your practice upon that condition take your best advantage and full swinge in your course for the just resists you not as is expressed verse 6. For the Gospel of God is not a hinderer of wickednesse in the men of Belial no more then the sop which Christ gave to Judas together with his speech thereupon What thou dost do it quickly hindered him not in the execution of so trayterous an office for it is a savour of death unto death unto the unbelievers and of no lesse power to accomplish it through that spirit which is in the world then it is of vertue to be a favour of life unto life in the Saints through that spirit which is in them And it is as unpossible that one member of that body of sinne should come to the knowledg of the truth as it is that any one of the chosen of God should be deceived with errour and wiles of Sathan which Christ affirms it is unpossible they should be deceived For as Christ keeps his family intire and compleat So that none of them is lost but that sonne of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled in point of wrath proportionable to grace and mercy which sonne of perdition comprehending all the children of destruction was lost once and for ever Even so doth Antichrist mayntaine his interest in all the seed of the Serpent and parteth with none only that lost sheep of the house of Israel as a brand is
plucked out of the fire being found to be one of the flock of God once and for ever No marvell then though our Apostle saith Go too now unto the wicked and wealthy in point of Pharisaical excellencies for as the state of death and darknesse discovered by the Gospel doth sharpen and provoke the godly unto joy thankfulness for their deliverance and escape therefrom Even so doth the state of life and peace discovered in the Saints by the same Gospel sharpen provoke the wicked to enmity and despair which is the expelling of the spirit of God quenching the same in themselves Therefore he bids them weep howl for the misery that cometh upon them hereby and by weeping he signifies unto them the departure and loss of all good even that life of the Lord Jesus whom they crucifie afresh unto themselves and make a mock of him in whose life all goodnesse is treasured up and comprehended which unto them is vanished as a vapour therefore he bids them weepe for the losse of good causeth tears and by howling he minds them of that present wrath and torture which abides upon them and possesseth them which however it may lye as Dormant for a time yet this sin of killing Chrst in the Spirit is the same with that of Caines killing his brother and lies at the door as the proper and only in-let of the deluge of Gods wrath into the soule and indeed into the world For it cuts off the Sonne of God from being propagated and brought forth in the world according to the spirit and power proper to himselfe as that wicked act of Cain cut him off from being brought forth in his geneologie after the flesh in the way of Abel and so makes a nullity of Schin that makes all things and therefore must have all guilt in it which is the doore and in-let for execution of vengeance Therefore he adds for the misery that shall come upon you or as the word may be read in the present tense is come upon you For in these twain that is to say in the losse of all good and the possession of all evill perfect misery and wretchednesse doth consist The word translated Howle in the Hebrew is Shadad and signifies to destroy of which Zadai is derived a title given unto God signifying power or Almighty and here is an elegant allusion unto the etymologie of the originall phrase used by the Prophets signifying unto us that no less then Gods Almighty power is exercised and put forth to the utmost in the scattering and destruction of all such as stifle the Son of God in the breathings of his holy Spirit in themselves by preferring glorying in other things before it or as it is in others by vilifying contemning and persecuting it whereupon the next phrase is brought in viz. Vers 2. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are motheaten THat is all the substance they enjoy boast of and glory in is putrified and changed from that which otherwise and else-where it is for they adulterate the holy word of God unto themselves by subjecting and prostrating the same unto their owne lusts of pride cruelty and vain-glory as though such things were the naturall fruits of it they bring them forth and also nourish and foster them by it as a Harlot doth a child in an adulterous way that is after the way of the letter that kills and not in the way of the Spirit that gives out the life of the Lord Jesus Therefore it is that above he calls them adulterers and adulteresses telling them that the love of the world is enmity with God that is that which the world counts love in the height and top of affection is the proper malice and enmity of Caine whereby he kills and crucifies him who is not ashamed to call his Saints brethren being flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone And we must know that there is a unity in the Harlot as well as in the true Espousall For hee that is joyned unto an harlot is one flesh for two saith he shall be one flesh By twaine there is not meant creature and creature joyned together but God and the Creature are become one in that way of the harlot that is they are become one carnall corrupt and sinfull estate for there is as neere a unity between God and man in that man of Sin unto all unrighteousnesse in prophaning all the holy things of God unto destruction in which the holy one is cleare from being a proper actor or agent in any of them all as there is in Christ that man of God unto all righteousnesse and holinesse by setting sinfull man apart to all honour in salvation whereby being joyned unto the Lord is made one spirit with him that is they twayn are but one holy happy and righteous estate and condition wherein man is excluded from being any proper agent or actor as in any thing proper and naturall to the Creature So that man putrifies and corrupts the Son of God in himselfe through principles and aptitudes of mind proper to a Creature but not unto God subjecting the things of God to the law of the carnall Commandement naturally ingraffed and written in mans spirit which is the law of sin and death And God sanctifies and makes holy man in himselfe through principles and aptitudes proper to the Creator himselfe and not unto the Creature by subjecting it to the will of God according to his wisdome which is that state of righteousnesse and law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The proper riches and excellencies of the world then are corrupted and are become the proper mammon of iniquitie for however they may count upon truth to come within the compasse of their estates and reckonings to advance their excellencies thereby yet it is corrupted unto them for they have changed the truth of God into a lye Indeed they lay claime to Jesus as a Saviour on whom they hang all their vanishing carnall and Spider-web like hopes But he is corrupted and as a moth in them being become Shadad or Shedim a waster and destroyer They monopolize Churches and Congregations of God unto themselves but they are corrupted and are become Synagogues of Satan and an assembly of evill doers For they are no true Church of Christ or congregation of the first born of God whose names are recorded in heaven that so expound the word of God as they can but apply some one part thereof as their present ornament and furniture for they may as well as indeed they do lay aside some part of Christ for the present and so divide him and make a nullity of him as to lay aside some part of the word of God as not in present use in their dayes being a garment not holding proportion with their composed body But the true Church knowes that the end of the Law is Christ and can tell how to adorn it selfe in
it is exprest in Ver. 6. For as the use and exercise of the law of the spirit in the declaration of the virtue of Christ Jesus the contraction and Emitto whereof is the splendant brightnesse of Christianity testifying unto all men that therein consists the crucification of the flesh in all the affections and lusts of it Even so the exercise of the law of the flesh in the contraction and sending forth of the desires and affections thereof testifies unto all men that therein consists the crucification and death of Christ Jesus according to the spirit testifying an eternal guilt upon an act of such nature as that is which is of no lesse concernment then the kissing of the Son of the eternal God Secondly It eates their flesh as fire now we know that as rust eateth and consumeth the mettals in which it breeds so doth fire consume and destroy the fuel in which it fastneth it selfe and taketh hold and without fuell the fire ceaseth for take away fuel and the fire goeth out Now the proper fuel wherein the wrath of God kindleth it selfe is the wisdome of the flesh so that take away that and the fire thereof goeth out it is not without that no more then fire is without fuel and therefore no creature in the world is capable of the eternal wrath of God but onely mankinde no more then any can be in a capacity of the consolation of God but such as are indued with his wisedome For as the consolations of God kindle themselves and become extant through that wisdome of God which hath given it selfe so glorious and an eternal forme in all the virtue relations and respects that are between God and man in Christ without which the consolations could not be no more then the eye can see without light or a house stand without the pillars and joynts of it even so the jealousie and wrath of Almighty God kindles it selfe becomes extant and in exercise through the wisdome of the flesh setting such a forme on the operations relations and respects as are conversant in the state of Antichrist between God and man For the wisdome of the creature or carnal law is wrath unto execution against such as use cruelty to the innocent especially in the highest degree and when the proper operations of the word according to the carnal law are made manifest it shall appear that they have exercised cruelty against the innocent Son of God that then in the highest degree in putting him to death in all that livelyhood and operation of his holy spirit which is not permitted to exercise it selfe or breath in them whereupon they must of necessity by that their wisdome judge condemn and execute wrath upon themselves which could not hold proportion with this their fact but as the power of God kindles it selfe therein yet so as the proper power and spirit of God is not any cause or original thereof that is of their torment but man himselfe is the proper cause and fountaine thereof out of which it for ever floweth For as the soule of man is kindled and inflamed through the wisdome of God with the love and consolations of God yet the soule of the creature is no proper original or fountaine thereof for they are the love and comforts of the Creator and not of a creature yet is the creature conversant and active in them even so the power and spirit of God kindles it selfe through the wisedome of the flesh the literall voice of the Scriptures written in all mens hearts in wrath and displeasure and is conversant and infinitely active therein yet is the spirit and power of God no proper original or fountaine of wrath but the wisedome and spirit of the creature is the proper cause and fountaine of it therefore it is sayd of the Lord fury is not in me We must remember then that when the Scriptures ascribe unto man love joy peace grace mercy glory power and virtue proper unto the Saints they are such as God is the fountaine and cause of and not the creature yet are they the excellency of the Sonne of God who is not without the creature though he be God blessed for ever So likewise when we see the Scriptures ascribe unto God anger wrath fury displeasure and vengence which are proper unto the wicked they are such as the creature is the proper fountaine and original of and not God yet are they not without God but are the proper exercise of that man of sinne and sonne of perdition yea of that Shadad or Shedim that destroyer of man kinde who is the God of this world the Prince that ruleth in darknesse which is accursed for ever And as for such devils as are composed through that conjuration of academicall Nations from literall expressions of the Scriptures as connexions of the dictates of their own hearts we skill not but give glory to God both in mercy and severity in the exercises of them and so the rest is an infallible testimony and witnesse of the nature and practice of Satan himselfe the God of this wicked world therefore the Apostle saith We know that we are of God and the world is of that wicked one as the word is that is of the Devill the off-spring and seed of the Serpent accursed from the beginning 3. He addes therefore in the third place Ye have he aped treasure together for the last day To heap treasure together is to augment increase inlarge and so to fill up as nothing more can be added which is impossible unlesse it be an infinite Treasury and then he who onely is infinite must be in the store so that almighty and eternal God is in the wrath hoarded up against the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgement of God for there is a fulnesse of sin without vacuity either in respect of time place or action for the sinne of the Amorites must be full when Abrahams seed possesse the land or else the fulnesse of our deliverance in Christ appears not for there is a fulnesse in or fulfilment of the letter of the Scripture in that way of Judas in his betraying of Christ unto death as there is a fulnesse in that law of the spirit or fulfilment of the Scripture in bringing forth unto light and of that Emanuel God with us For as Christ being true man naturally mortall is filled with eternal life in the excellency and purity of the Son of God so Antichrist being true God in the unity of his creation immortal becomes filled with eternal death through the lusts and corruption of man for it is whole Christ that dyes and not a part of him he dyes in the Saints unto sinne Satan and all corruptable things So that when the Prince of this world cometh he findes not in him to joyne himselfe with or lay claym unto and he dyes in the unbeleife unto all things of the spirit acceptable unto God and in this doth that ransome consist
mistery of iniquity also which properly makes and gives being unto the God of this world which is no lesse then Satan himselfe who attempts through his arrogating insatiable spirit to tender unto Christ all the kingdoms of the Earth and the glory of them the one of these is a wonder but a lying one because it brings not forth what it promiseth as the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises is a righteousnesse but not that which enters into the kingdome and the other is a wonder and a true miracle because it brings to passe the things it promiseth even as the righteousnesse of Christ enters into the kingdom and sitteth in safety and honour at the right hand of God And they that preach not the Gospel as accompanied with these signes in the ministry of it according to the variety of the work proposed the speaking and creating word of his signes is not sent unto that people for their release and deliverance out of the house of bondage and yet it is true that tongues are for a sign not to them that beleive but to them that beleive not that is an unbeleiver ever expects that a signe should speak in the same form which formerly it hath done or else he takes it not for a wonder wrought by God but then there should need no interpretatiin the Church at all without which tongues are not of use unto edefying The worlds expectation of signes to accompany the preaching of the Gospel for the confirmation of it in the same forme as formerly is the expectation of Infidels such as follow Christ to be fed with carnal things bread that perisheth in the use like them that after they had been fed miraculously with the loaves and the fishes they persue and follow him to have a signe that he is a man of God and conclude that Moses was a man of God that could give bread from heaven but this not coming in like for me but from the Earth though in that wonderfull multiplication and increase is as nothing unto them But the signs wonders and mighty works accompanying the grace of the Gospel never appear twice in the same forme so that a man may as well expect the water that now bubleth up in a living and swift running fountaine to tarry and abide for him till his return to it againe as to fit down by a wonder wrought by God till it appear in the very same forme againe it coming out of that inexhaustible fountaine and swift running current of that infinite variety of his wisdome and power Moses miraculously fasted forty dayes and forty nights and is in the mount with God and hath in that fast the law the perfect pattern of all truth and holiness presented and shewed unto him and againe Christ fasted forty dayes and forty nights but was in the wildernesse among wilde beasts and therein had the temptations of Satan the proper platforme of the power of darknesse represented unto him which differs much from the pattern of salvation and kingdome of light Eliah also fasted forty dayes and forty nights but was miraculously fed before in the strength of which food he went into a cave by the mount of God and there had apparitions voices manifested unto him wherein God made himselfe manifest and also such wherein God appeared not at all one forty dayes fast not but in variety of wonder one death of Christ but a diverse signe in it he is slaine at Jerusalem and our Lord is also crucified in Sodome and in Aegypt true in both with respect to flesh and spirit And so much for the word Behold implying a wonder wherein observe the deceitfull sleights and cunning devices of the Magissians the Jannes and Jambres of our dayes who have erected for the confirmation of Princes great signes of honour and Godlike prosperity Kings Chappels and pulpits of State State-prayers and state-like officers in the Church for forming of them that they may carry their virtue by whomsoever uttered state-religion and state-like pompe in the exercise of it as though the Kings of the earth should be thereby declared to be not onely the off-spring of the almighty but the deputed Gods In what doth the successe and issue of these Doctors indeavors end in differing from those Magissians in Aegypt in the confirmation and incouragement of their King first born and his alies 2. The second point is who the Labourers are or the Labourer for the word may be read either singular or plurally as it usuall in Scripture to use words of active and passive signification as also such as may be read either in the masculine or feminine gender without wrong to the Text so also such as will beare either the singular or plurall number and so it is in this place To take the word therefore in the singular acceptation it is Christ collectively considered in that one intire and mysticall body of his comprehending all the Saints in all ages of the world Againe take it plurally Labourers and it is Christ distinctly distributed and given out in all the parts and members of that body for he is that Labourer or Husband-man that sowes good seed in his field though the evill one sow tares in the time of his sleep or when and where he is dead to all things of the spirit which is in that evill one only upon whom they grow He sowes with his owne hand as he is that one fountaine and giver out of the seed in all ages yesterday and to day and for ever the same And his seeds-men sow also as he is a participator and the receiver thereof for he receiveth the spirit though not by measure for it is immence 3. The third point is what the labour is in reaping down the fields By reaping here is not meant cutting downe but in gathering also as the word-imports Christs reaping therefore is the cutting downe of all those riches and ripened fruits of the flesh those superfluous branches from the true Vine that they be not found in the field or upon that hand of Emanuel which else-where is said to be the crueifying of the flesh in the affections and lusts and the slaying of the enmity in himselfe which are the proper in gatherings of the worke and that whereof their harvest and Vintage doth consist whereby their regions become white unto the harvest that is it sets them in a capacity to be cut downe by an eternall destruction and in these the labourer is defrauded who hath spent his strength in them in vaine or unto emptinesse and laboured for nought as he complains by his Prophet or in the Prophet Isaiah In them he hath lost his time as a labourer hath who is deprived of his hire for his time and age is not extant in them the time of grace is expended the day of salvation is not found in them his generation is ceased in them and is no more even as a labourer hath lost his time so spent as no
fruit nor profit ariseth For he is cut off from the land of the living in the world and hath made his grave in the wicked and in the rich of this world is his death For the Son of God hath expended his life in Antichrist unto no fruit or profit of the Spirit but unto corruption as the Son of man hath expended his life in Christ unto no utility or fruit of the flesh but unto purity and holinesse 4. Therefore in the fourth place they are said to keep back his hyre the hyre of a labourer is to return unto him a reward proportionable to his worke The word hire signifies to gather together as a Master gathers to himselfe a servant to be answerable one to another by contract which the world in that unity of the harlot denyes unto Christ for he that is holinesse gives and unites himselfe unto them but they return no such thing unto him but only corruption He who is love in himselfe is united unto them but they return nothing but enmity He who is truth gives himselfe to them but they return a lye unto him He who is eternall life gives himselfe to them but they return eternall death unto him and so hold no proportion with him unto whom they are contracted nor bring they forth any thing for his supply sutable in the least to his nature and quality Whereas the Saints make return to God with things which are of God holding proportion with him with whom they are in contract For they are increased with the increasings of God for of his fulnesse we all receive and grace for grace It is the love of God shed abroad in their hearts which is the love by which they make over themselves in contract unto him and become Espousals together with him and can say with David that beloved one All things are thine and of thine own we have given thee Which the world falls infinitely short of yea is in direct Antithesis unto the same therefore they are said to keep back by fraud deceit or guile because they give that unto themselves and things of the creature which belongs unto the Lord and things that are of him they give unto themselves wisdome power and glory which is the prerogative Royall of the Son of God defrauding him of his right for they give their sons unto Moloch or unto the King that is unto the Kingdome and glory of the world wherein there is as absolute a change of the word of God from its proper nature and operation to become sinfull and diabolicall in them in that way of Antichrist as there is of sinfull man from his naturall properties to become that holy Son of God in the way of Christ therefore they that gave their sonnes unto Moloch that is to the reign dominion and counsell of the flesh they are said to sacrifice unto Devils and not unto God no greater fraud then to give that to the Devill which is pretended to be given unto God and it is the proper work of Sathan to bow the heart to the glory of the creature whereby hee keeps back and retains to himselfe that honour which is proper to the Creature These persons defraud the Son of God of his livelihood who only lives by his labour for where there is no operation and work of Christ there is no life of Christ no work of faith no labour of love no patience of hope no breathings of Christ he is dead in that heart for the Religion of God is not notionall but efficatious The Lord Jesus lives by his labour the world defrauds him of it detaining it in their own sinfull and selfish operations whereby they with-hold the truth in unrighteousnesse the titles given unto Christ as of a person King Lord Prince c. As of an office as Mediator Advocate Intercessor Or of relations as Father Husband friend or the like are carefully to be taken up and assumed by the Creature as they do concern the honour office and relation of this life yet they may be assumed in that respect as we may eate and drinke marry and give in marriage which all perish in the use provided that they be assumed as we are to buy or as we are to marry that is as though we possest them not and as though we assumed them not for the fashion of this world passeth away that is that which men may form unto themselves to be excellent and praise-worthy may at another time or in another place become odious and abominable as we have seen in the name King Bishop Priest having many wives and keeping only to one have been But to assume them or teach men so to do as things appertaining to the dignity office or relation of a creature not considered in Christ but as it concerns creature and creature to be the ultimate end scope and drift of the Scripture in any Title Office or Relation whatsoever is satanicall and wicked for the end of the law is Christ therefore the scope of them all and every particular is God and man in Jesus Christ and thither it is to be brought and there centred or else we defraud the labourer by detayning his due unto our selves or rather giving it unto Satan himselfe In which the cry of the defrauded one doth consist which is the fifth point propounded in order 5. And this cry is the cry of the blood of Abel for the exercise of wrath in wrong done unto the innocent whose life as it is taken away by force and cruelty of Cain that man-slayer from the beginning so is it taken away by guile and subtilty defrauding by the Serpent him of the proper meanes of his living which is his owne operations the fruits of that tree of life by giving the glory and vertue to make wise unto the tree of knowledg of good and evill which is a preferring the law of the flesh above the law of the spirit the wisdome of man above the wisdome of God For as the wisdome of God in that law of the spirit through its curious device of the joynting of God and man to be one estate and condition carries in it a sufficient and prevalent argument to move the tender compassions and bowels of mercy therein as in an only beloved son even so the wisdome of man in that law of the flesh craftily insinuating the glory and power of the arm of flesh to be the glory and power of God giving unto it what is only proper to God hath in it a sufficient acclamation and argument to move the exercise of Gods wrath in the soule as in one that is guilty of an infinite deceipt of Serpents subtilty Yea as that life-blood of sprinkling of the Lamb slain according to the flesh in that house of the Israelite struck upon the door-posts and Lintels thereof that is upon all the wayes of egresse and regress into and out of the same hath in it a sufficient testimony and cry of restraint
brother-hood which is in Christ who is not ashamed to call us brethren whereby he declares their disjunction and separation from the men formerly spoken of as not being naturalized or having any part or portion in that manner of death formerly expressed nor any allyance thereunto 2. Whence he infers the exhortation Be patient therefore that is as the Son of God suffers himselfe to be deprived and laid wast of all spirituall glory vertue and operations of his spirit in the world to rescue you and deliver you there-from even so do you suffer your selves without any resistance to be routed and dispoiled of all humane transitory and fading excellencies of the world that as he fully suffereth in the wicked in point of the spirit as being layd waste of all the things thereof for there is a fulfilling or fulnesse of the Scripture in Judas and the Jewes in putting Christ to death in regard of the letter of it So do you patiently endure to be dispoyled and layd waste of all that carnall and temporall glory of the world in whatsoever it may seem to consist for there is a fulfilling or fulnesse of the Scripture in the man of God also even in that Emanuel God with us or in us in regard of the true spirit and life of the word of God therefore the flesh must be abolished that so the fulness of the spirit may appear which otherwise it cannot do The word translated patience is the same where the Apostle John saith I John even your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ or in the Kingdome and under-abiding of Jesus Christ as the word is truly rendered that is a suffering of the losse of all things carnall and transitory through that Princely power of the spirit that reigns in the kingdome of God that so Christ his suffering in the flesh may be as full and compleat as that in the spirit that so the form of the Cherubims on each end of the Mercy-seate may answer one to another from between which the Oracle of God ever utteteth it selfe and else-where expresseth not it selfe in the Sanctuary and hence is Christ said to come or spring up in this place and that is the third point unto what this suffering tends and whereunto it serves and that is to the coming of the Lord. 3. The word translated coming signifies to spring grow up or ascend teaching us hereby that this is the way of the resurrection of Christ and his ascention into all spirituall and heavenly glory for he gives himselfe unto death in respect of any life of the spirit being or existing in the world or any glory of his presence in point of his divine grace ever to appeare there that is in the wicked and this is as a compleat and unvaluable ransome whereby he purchaseth unto himselfe miserable and fraile flesh in that way of his Saints to be possessed for ever in the power of his spirit in all the fruits of righteousnesse being cloathed thereupon with the glory of the sons of God and heyrs of his Kingdom this patience therefore is to the coming of the Lord into unity and brother-hood with fraile man The argument then stands thus If Christ suffer death in the spirit in the men of the world freely giving up himselfe thereunto without resistance to an eternall separation of his spirit and glory of his power from that which he himselfe is namely man Do you in like manner suffer your selves to be deprived of all the excellency glory of this world and freely lay down your life in respect of any living thereunto without resistance for it is not unto separation or departure but to the springing up and coming of the Lord that you may ascend into that which he is in himselfe namely into the state and condition of an only son Let the world take notice that if the Son of God give it its full scope without resistance to set up and exalt it selfe in riches power policy and all wantonnesse and lasciviousnesse what a shame is it to the world to deny him liberty and freedome in his Saints to exercise himselfe in all his vertues offices and operations of his spirit in his house and kingdome but they must be judging him to be factious seditious pernicious erroneous and blasphemous and that by such as are most properly sealed up unto carnall and humane principles in Schools of humane learning so as they dare not give an Exposition upon the word of God but so as it may be consonant to the rules of humane Art unlesse they receive it at second hand by some approved Author that passeth for currant in the state where they live While the world walks and works in this sphear we shall see nothing among the sons of the mighty but meerly Babels confusion For the most curious Artist destitute of the spirit of God exercising in the word of God brings forth the greatest confusion for he is bound to preserve and maintayn the flesh which in all poynts lusteth against the spirit and is contrary thereunto So that it is the division of language for his tongue is divided from God in all expressions if hee be understood according to his true intent 4. The amplification follows by an elegant allusion to a Husbandman with respect to his seed-time and harvest We all know of what nature the patient waiting of a husband-man is with respect to his seed-time and harvest Let us therefore take out the meaning of the allusion wherein is contayned a mystery implyed in this word Behold noting unto us the appearance of a signe or wonder as was formerly sayd of the same phrase Now the Husband-man is the Son of God who sowes good seed in his field But the enemy in this his sleep of death unto the spirit in the men of the world or man of sin sowes tares for it is the word of God that is sown in the world but being received and formed by the would composed of the principle and dictates of humane wisdome which hath in it the very characters of the letter of the Scriptures which is the compleat form of the law of sin and death even as the wisdome of the spirit hath in is the compleat form of the law of the spirit of life and being received and formed in that mould it becomes a pernicious and unfruitfull tare In like manner as the spirit of the creature being cast into that mould of wholsome Doctrine doth through that wisdom of God become in it the true seed of immortality to increase with the increasings of God In the allusion or metaphor we have to consider 1. A wonder noted in the word Behold 2. A patient waiting or abiding The husband-man waiteth 3. For what that is for the precious fruits of the earth 4. The time is with long patience 5. The meanes of receiving them and that is The former and latter raine FIrst for the word Behold
of the Father of the faithfull who staggered not Therefore the end of this Crosse is manifested to be son-ship unto God as it is sayd My sonne my sonne despise not that is honour and embrace the chastning of the Lord in the cutting off of all superfluity of naughtinesse which mans nature is subject unto for the end thereof is that child-like disposition being naturalized unto the Lord. Yea Gods end herein is to receive and embrace us as his peculiar ones For whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every sonne whom he receiveth This is that through which we participate in his holiness and are possessors of that integrity which is in none but himself For hee correcteth in cutting off all superfluous branches to this end that we may be made partakers of his holinesse Yea the end of the Crosse is to invest us in our filiall portion for if you endure chastning God dealeth with you as sonnes for what sonne is he whom the father correcteth not and that for this very end namely to fit him thereby to exercise and bear up his own spirit nature office and authority Such is the Lords end and intent in our undergoing of the Crosse to bestow a double portion on us as he did to Job which is the proper right of the first borne of God appointed by the Law in Israel For where it is said the Lord gave Job twice as much the word is Added double The same phrase is used by Elisha where he desires to receive a double portion of the spirit of Eliah or that spirit of partition whereby to divide Jordan aright as his Master had done before him the word properly signifies the mouth exercising the part of two which is the spirit of Prophesie considered in a double or two-fold respect that is as it contayns the spirit of intercession in laying open and interpretting the state and condition of man-kind before God from which the Saints are freed and delivered as also the laying open before the sons of men the state and condition of the Son of God opening and interpretting that to which we are delivered both these were in Job the one signified in his praying for his friends that they might be delivered from unrighteousnesse and the other in the names given to his daughters declaring his present joyous and delightfull condition Likewise the spirit of Prophesie is signified unto us in that he seeth his seed unto the fourth generation which number foure hath in it the mystery of the extension of things as in the gathering of the elect from the four winds or foure corners of the earth so also in that four times ten or forty dayes fast of Christ his continued act of obstinance from the wayes of sin and death is signified as in that four times ten or forty yeares travell of Israel in the wildernesse declares the Saints sight and acknowledgment of the works and wayes of the Nations in all their performances to be unto them as a barren dry wild and way lesse wildernesse for ever Likewise Gods visiting of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him is for ever for whom he hates once he hates for ever which visitation the holy man Job seeth his seed freed from by the spirit of Prophesie in this estate and condition of his restauration and eternall enriching by God in way of this double portion For as the office of Kingdome and Priest-hood are the inheritance of the first-born in the family so also is this double portion in Prophesie or mouth performing the part of twaine that is he hath the mouth to perform the part of the sonne of Man namely in exercise of the spirit of God in interpretting and laying open the state and condition of all flesh and by the vertue and authority of the high Priest of God which is done not unto terrour griefe or controversie but unto peace joy and reconciliation with God as one that is entered within the vale And thus the mouth and breath of prayer is opened and drawn out with boldnesse before the Lord at the throne of grace as coming in that name and authority of Jesus Christ who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Againe in this double portion is the mouth of the Sonne of of God exercised as from heaven opening and interpreting unto the world the mind of the Father in that state and condition of Jesus Christ freely offering and making tender of the love bounty good will and mercy of God unto the Saints and this is done in that Princely spirit and bounteous riches and liberality consisting in the power and authority of a King which things are comprehended in the right of the first born and are the portion of Job in this his restauration wherein we see the end of the Lord and in whom the state of all the Saints is personate and involved and no other end is aymed at or effected by God in all the sufferings of the Saints but to give in exchange for transitory and vaine things an inheritance mortall and undefiled which fadeth not reserved for us in heaven or in the height of of that estate and condition of the Son of God For the confirmation whereof he brings in that argument propounded in the next place which is the fourth point For the Lord is very pittifull and of tender mercy To pitty spare or to be indulgent is to refraine from imposing any penalty or burthen it is to forbeare to vex in the least even as not in pittying or sparing a person or a people is to execute destruction to the uttermost This pity is exercised in the spirit of Christianity and of Christ as when the sonne of sorry man is acknowledged to be such as there needs no other weight but his own proper propensity to cast himselfe down unto death for ever nor any other subtilty but his own to intrap and ensnare him unto the will of Satan for ever then only do the compassions and pitty of a father move upon that heart so as to adde no sorrow thereunto Againe to pitty or commiserate is to redeem release and deliver from whatsoever might annoy or disquiet the party which is subject to distresse therefore it is sayd that in his love and pitty he redeemed them and bare them as out of the reach of any harm all the dayes of old So that when the heart declineth the help of all creatures as insufficient to lend a hand from any of their proper abilities to help or rescue out of trouble and that wretchednesse whereunto all flesh is by nature subject then doth the pitty and compassion of a father as being author of all tendernesse and compassion move upon that soule effecting Gods end by suffering of the loss of the abilitie and power of the creature For when Job abhorred himselfe as being but dust and ashes then the Lord stirs up himselfe to release him not only
from the bitternes of his friends but repayrs all his losses with the right and priviledges of the first-born of God Such is the tendernesse and pitty of the spirit of our good Shepheard gathering the Lambs into his arms and carrying them in his bosome and gently leads such as are with young yea layes downe his life for his flocke And this is the state and condition of all such as find themselves fatherlesse in respect of any love pitty or compassion exercised towards them by the spirit of the world of whom it is sayd Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the works of our hands yee are our gods for in thee the fathers find mercy For he is not only pittifull but of tender mercy whereby the day that springs from on high hath visited us Or that morning Sunne which is the light and glory of the world is risen up upon us to give light to such as otherwise fit in darknesse and in the shadow of death even that light of prosperity joy and gladnesse peace and plenty which ariseth out of the light and inheritance of the first-born unto whom the full inheritance belongs with whatsoever the Father was is or shall be in all his enterprizes and operations For the nature office and operation of the Son of God is ours through these tender mercies bowels and compassions of a Father which cannot with-hold from an only Son not only freeing us as a mercifull high Priest from all evill and sin but as a most bountifull and liberall King supplying and furnishing us with all good for if we see the end of the Lord in our suffering the losse of corruptible things we are sure to feel the tender mercies of a compassionate Father communicating himselfe with us in all the things incorruptible and eternall without which he is not and therefore is ceased to be mercy and tender pity in the world that so as a Father is in his Son he may be what he is only in us Whereupon he brings in an eminent and universall prohibition backed with an exhortation together with the danger of not observing the same contained in the next verse Vers 12. But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth neither by any other oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest you fall into condemnation Wherein observe these particulars 1. The necessity and weight of the charge in these words But above all things 2. A loving insinuation to move unto observation My brethren 3. The charge it selfe or inhibition Swear not 4. An instance in particulars not to be sworn by that is 1. Not by heaven 2. Not by the earth 3. A universall comprehending of all things contained in them both Neither by any other oath 5. An exhortation consisting of affirmation and negation But let your yea be yea and your nay nay 6. The danger ensuing the not observing hereof Lest you fall into condemnation AND first of the charge Sweare not By swearing in this place is meant any Covenant Contrract or betrothing unto a thing as to be engaged as subservant thereunto that is when we are obliged and bound over as being under the authority or command of any thing further then it is found in or serving unto the compleating and setting forth the mysticall body of Christ that son of eternity Now a man is under the command and power of a thing when he waites thereupon so as to observe and answer to the time and opportunity thereof In the rejection or neglect of any other thing which might take up the opportunity and hinder or obstruct the time whereby that his Commander might be defrauded of its interest in him whether it be office dignity allyance relation slothfulnesse or operation And first for office and dignity throughout the confines and government of a Kingdome they ought not to captivate a Christian but must be subservant to the kingdome and call of Christ whose kingdome is not of this world or things therof When did Abraham that high father of the world Isaac and Jacob who were heyrs with him of the same promise settle and establish their Scepter in any part of the earth as tyed by place and office there and were not as pilgrims and strangers standing in readinesse as that righteous one of the East to answer Gods calls and to follow the Lord at his foot who made the nations as stubble unto his sword and as driven stubble unto his bow Or where did Moses King in Jeshurunn pitch his Tent to make his abode longer then it pleased that cloud of witnesse to exercise its abode upon the Tent being ever ready to depart with the motion thereof Which bore witnesse in its two and forty removals in the wildernesse to those two and forty generations or resurrections of Christ from Abraham to the womb of the Virgin as also to the over-shadowing of the Virgin by the spirit of God in that conception of the Son of God from all the scorching reys and sun-shine of mans glory and subtlety in that day-time of our salvation as also unto that fiery light of the spirit breaking forth in Israel through that Crosse of Christ as in a night so dark and obscure unto the nations And to what people or places were any of the Prophets of God or Apostles of Jesus Christ tyed or engaged by any temporary or terrene band except imprisonment by the adversary that so the vertue of the Crosse in its courage constancy and Princely resolutions might appear and make it self evident Or were the Judges and Law givers in Israel tyed to dayes times seates and circuits as men making merchandizes of mens estates credits and lives that in case an Oath be bidden and given in exchange delivery must be made without controversie and many times the cause is as currant as when the strongest caries away the purse on the high way though a possibilty may be to finde out the falshood of the oath afterwards when there is left no hope of redemption And as for that mercinary and belly-god-like bond to be engaged to places and people under the names of Pastor and Teacher to evade the troubles and travels of Prophets and Apostles Let that suffice which hath already been sayd only let such look themselves as in a glasse in that young man of the house of Judah and yet a Levite joyned unto their congregations as he to the family of Mica Read Judg. 17. and let them read the effect of their Ministry in that strange kind of Levite who is of mount Ephraim joyned unto his Concubine of Bethlehem Juda according to what it brings forth between Benjamine and Israel set forth unto us Judges the 19. and 20. Chap. Againe in point of family as in kindred and relations the words of Christ holds firm and are to be valued at the same rate we set upon him and he
nature which the Apostle calls the oath of interposition because that in this state of Christ he comes between the blessing and the curse in such sort that nothing of true happinesse can possibly passe by or transfuse it selfe into the cursed condition for the vertue and excellencies springing out of divine nature being the glory of the engagement all things tending to happinesse repayr thither and gather themselves into one there even as all light is gathered into the body of the Sun and is all the seale and signet of God to confirm all true happinesse to take its beginning and make its abode there for ever being an immutable thing or word abundantly declared in all the heyrs of the promise Again the wisdome of man is that counsell held and advice taken with the excellency of God arguing from cause to effect and from effect unto cause ever concluding a distance in the one from the other the result properly springing out out of mans nature and aptitude which mouldeth things in the precincts of time and concluding God to be concerned in the thing as being the cause of all cause and so argues a distance between the cause and the effect God being before as the cause and his word afterwards as an effect the divine nature in Christ before from eternity the humane after in time but the Gospel is a mystery and such argument is naturall and humane to make God eternall and man in time but the Gospel eternizeth man in God and makes God in time in the son of man 2. This wisdome argues a distance in place of cause and effect as the vertue of our salvation is in Christ as a cause being only such a person as lived in such an age of the world only but the effect is in a Christian being another which is a meer humane speculation and no mystery of the Gospel 3. Again it argues a distance in point of eminency and principality as the cause being more principall and the effect lesse principall as though the birth and bringing forth of the Son of God in the royalty of his operations were not a thing of like worth and dignity that the conception and framing of him is according to that pattern of the law of the spirit seen only in the Mount So that this wisdome ariseth from and carryeth in it principles undenyable to keep a distance and loof between God and man and therein the point of unbelief consists which is the state of death in which the son of God is made a curse in the men of the world as man is made a blessing in the Son of God in Christ and this also is an oath of interposition for hereby the Son of God being made a curse for us interposeth himselfe between the curse and the blessed state So as nothing bearing the nature of a curse sin death or any unhappinesse can passe by or defuse it self into that happy state and condition of Christ but all attracts it selfe unto that which hath so vilified and made a nullity of the Son of God and this is an immutable word or thing even the word and state of the curse which abides for ever which God explains and makes manifestly to appear unto the heyrs of Promise which stand upon this ground of the impossibility of God to lye or faile to remayn and be for ever that which once he is without alteration or change therefore in these two immutable words of blessing and cursing or immutable things of the state of death and the state of life God hath founded our salvation that wee might have strong consolation as the Apostle testifies And this wisdome or reason of man is as a seale to confirm the soule in its separation and deverse from Christ being that signet the high Priests and Pharisees set upon the stone which covers the Sepulchre of Christ and keeps him in the state of death in the men of unbelief that his glorious resurrection is not found in the men of the world from the beginning thereof unto this day and is a principall product of the Schools of humane Learning for the more refined reason is voyd of the spirit of God and the closer tyed to Grammar-rule in constructing the word of God the more are such sealed up in the word of the Curse so that you shall seldome see a great Artist embrace the simplicity of the Gospel in that Crosse of Christ And with respect to the oath of man Christ saith in a word for ever to be observed Sweare not at all which our Apostle accords with in this place saying Above all things my brethren sweare not Note from hence that he which holds himselfe under a greater bond to utter truth having taken the oath of men then he is without the same who never knew what the power and vertue of the oath of God is And if the weightinesse of a cause require an oath and not required in a thing of lesse moment then men hold the preaching of the word of God either to be but a triviall thing or else why do they not tender an oath to the Minister when he goeth about to speak thereof Note again that as men hold themselves under a greater bond have taken the oath of man then they are without it even so when they are invested into offices and places thereby they account and reckon of themselves as being better and of greater account and esteem then others of their brethren the sonnes of men To conclude this point wide is the difference between the oath of God and the oath of man the one forms and sets in place and office the Son of God the other forms and officiates the son of perdition The one swears the Lord liveth in him in truth in judgement and in righteousnesse and onely glories therein and the other swears the Lord to be another thing state and condition besides himselfe the one swears with Jacob by the feare of his Father Isaac reverencing the state of Isaac to be one with God as Abraham was and the other swears by the God of his Father Nahor the idolater who ever worships that which is acknowledged to beanother and not himselfe The Saints are ever to swear in the name authority of God but never to swear by the oath of men the world ever swears in the name and authority of men but never in that name and authority of the Son of God 2. The weight of the charge therefore is to be considered in the next place in these words above all things swear not We conclude then that it is a thing of greatest worth and weight in Heaven or in earth never to swear by the oath of men but to receive our authority and confirmation in all things by the wisdome of God and not by the wisdome of the world for the one invests as a sonne into the Preisthood and way of reconciliation of God and man and the other as a slave and vassal of
were corrupters of the Law walking according to the oldnesse of the letter and not in the newnesse of the spirit for arguments of that nature are not consistant with the doctrine of the Gospel and faith of Christ Jesus For to affirm that man is sometimes in Christ and sometimes out of Christ in the same individuall is all one to affirm that the Sonne of God is sometimes in favour with the Father and sometimes out of favour with him which is no lesse then to say that sometimes Christ the Saviour of the World is true God and sometimes he is no God and then no Saviour at that time at all And note here for the conclusion of this point that the doctrine of the Gospel is not yea and nay but yea and Amen once and for ever That the Son of God never was nor is considerable knowable or speakable but in the compleatnesse of his mystcall body in the contriving and device whereof the wisdome of God doth properly yea solely consist for all other things point as with the finger thereunto So that to deprive Christ of that work-manship at any time first or last is to deprive God only and infinitely wise of that his wisdome then the which greater Sacriledge cannot be What change therefore may be concluded to appertain and belong unto the Son of God the same also belongs unto the Saints of God and that is once for ever For as there is but one death of Christ so there is but one change as one eternall act and as death is considerable in a two-fold respect so is the change and are of the same rise in point of time past and of the same race or duration for time to come No marvaile therefore though men cannot calculate the time when Angels according to their Doctrine were created or when the Devill as they form him took his beginning and rise But a word of the next point objected against this eternall Gospel which that Angell that flyes through the midst of heaven preacheth being at a like distance from every part of it all things being beyond comprehension and he is a like neare unto all for the midst of heaveen is the center of the world where all points of the heavens meet and unite themselves in one And this second Objection consists in the Confessions of the Saints of God and is a confirmation of the poynt for which we will instance in one for all and that is the Apostle Paul who is said to be first a Saul and afterwards a Paul who first breathed out slaughters against the Saints and afterwards payers Behold he prays once sayd to be the chiefe of sinners and againe not inferiour to the chiefest Apostle of Christ once a persecuter of the Church and afterwards a Preacher of righteousnesse in the constitution of the Church once a blasphemer and afterwards utters the high prayses of God once engaged to the high Priest of that carnall and degenerate Synagogue of the Jewes by letters received to execute their enmity on all that call on the name of Jesus and afâ—terwards so engaged to the Saints of God as to be sacrificed or poured out as a drinke-offering upon the service of their faith To which we answer That whatsoever is said of this holy Apostle in point of evill with respect unto that vitious and depraved nature of man it is spoken of him only as personated in that corrupt course and condition of the carnall Jew so as to declare and set out unto all the world that stock and race of which by nature he comes even as all men spring out of the dust which is the proper meate of the Serpent wherewith he is nourished and kept alive according to the flesh and according to the proper bent and propencity thereof brings forth nothing but enmity corruption and subtilty For it is dust and Gods image which are the materials of mans being in his Creation for there is the seed of mans wisdome as a creature as well as the seed of Gods wisdome as a Creator which twayn are mayntained for ever or else Gods workman-ship should faile and come to nought but it is to abide in both respects and that in the height and eminency of each of them which could never be in one and the same subject undivided for they are inconsistant therefore man-kind cannot be known but with respect unto seed and generation and so these are both found in their height in Caine and Seath who is set in Abels stead and in them the whole work is brought to light which before lay but as in the Chaos or Embryon in the man and the woman so that neither is to be annihilated No man shall kill Caine a mark is set on him by God as a seale to confirm his life to the flesh the very prints and characters of humane wisdome turning it selfe as seale to the wax to the word or wisdome of God So that as the Sun which hath dominion of the day and the Moon having dominion of the night shall never faile but are those faithfull witnesses of heaven so the sight of Gods wisdome hearing rule in the day of salvation and the wisdome of man as that other great light ruling in darknesse over all those Lucubrations of the men of the world are those faithfull witnesses of Gods mercy and severity for ever Paul therefore sets forth himselfe that is what he and all men are with respect unto that wisdome exercised in that legall and literall worship of such as put Christ to death namely the carnal Jew thereby declaring unto all men from whence and from what the word of life hath rescued and delivered him in whom the state of all the Saints is personated and involved for the word of God is not of that narrow scantling and capacity as to center it selfe only in one particular man but it takes in all men that belongs unto that proper inheritance which it intends in its expressions The scope of the Scripture then in Paul as in all other of the Saints is to preach Christ and centers not in any particular man otherwise and so declares from what he is changed as he is man to be made the holy one of God for ever Not that Paul was in any time of his life of that corrupt and carnal spirit of the wicked Jew for blasphemy against the spirit of God shall never be forgiven Also he saith of himselfe that he was called and sanctified from the womb and that hee saw Christ as one borne out of due time or as an abortive that is he reckons himselfe in the wisdome of God which gives him his being and makes him to be that which he is as one born out of time that is before all time for no time can comprehend that and as one that never saw the Sun that is the glory of the Creature to place an excellency therein but only in that light which shined round about him in the
land which is here alluded unto to set forth that abundant supply and furniture to be found in this our appeale which yeeldeth unto us through Gods appointment without humane help all those liberties priviledges riches and rest which anciently have appertained unto the Sonne of the eternall God So that however we may go forth of the things of this life as weeping in the eyes of the world like men in the time of sowing parting with all their store and provissions of temporary things even as the people parted with the glory of the carnall temple when they went down into Babylon yet we know that those which bear the precious seed or as the word imports used by the Psalmist the purchased seed such shall returne with shouting joyfulnesse bringing their sheaves with them They then that have their lap filled with Ruth in the parting from their native country to follow that motherly Naomy being increased with the increasings of God in the diminutions of all humane and Moabitish preferments and excellencies who have found the harvest and more of the full years of corne in Canaan to exceed all the thin ears in the land of Aegypt And how that vintage which rejoyceth the heart of God and man excels and surpasseth the Vines of Sod me and the grapes of Gomorah such as make merry in the Lord being joyfull and triumphant in his salvation as Israel was in his coming out of the red Sea or as the word imports the Sea of Edom adversary to Israel though near unto him in their first originall When Moses and the men of Israel sung so triumphantly with Mirriam and the damsels answering thereunto with sollem pompe in that happy returne of the Captaine of Israel from the victory and slaughter in breaking the head of that Leviathan and giving him to be meat for the people in the wildernesse such as are merry with this kinde of mirth and in such causes they onely are the parties unto whom this direction belongs Let him sing The word let is of like force as is before explained giving virtue and existance to the mellody of a song in the soule of him in whom this mirth is found and by the word sing is comprehended also playing on instruments dancing or any joyfull activity or acclamation So that all such as have made their lawfull appeal as congruous to that law of the spirit from the judgment and determination of the wisdom of man unto that which only consists in the wisdome and device of God in Christ They receive such plenty thereby and skill for the use and exercise thereof that they become expert in handling all those organs iustruments and exercises of joy and triumph which appertaine and belong to that spiritual Tabernacle and Temple which God builds and not man so as to proclaime and set forth that harmony and melodious consort and agreement unto the world which is between God and man in that faith of Jesus Christ Which is the song of old Simeon Mary and Elizabeth Deborah and Barack and of all the Saints of God from the beginning untill now For there is none that can appeal unto God in prayer removing the cause from carnall reason into his wisdome holding a holy plea in opening the necessities of mankinde unto God carrying up and giving true intelligence of the same unto him but that man whatever he be can also bring down and distribute unto the world the true state and condition of the Son of God who is the subject matter of the Gospel and give undoubted intelligence of that peace and plenty which is in the kingdome of God uttering and declaring how good the Lord is in Jesus Christ Note then from this point as a conclusion thereof That the true spirit of prayer and supplication and the spirit of Prophesie and interpretation are never seperated never were nor never shall be but are of an eternall unity and conjunction in the faith of Christ and hence it is that the Elders and instructors of the Church are brought in as having the spirit of prayer to pray for the Church in the next Verse following Vers 14. Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him annointing him with oyle in the name of the Lord. Wherein we have to consider first a proposition and secondly the answer thereunto in the proposition observe 1. A disease Is any among you sick 2. The practice of the party diseased as part of the answer and that is to call for the Elders of the Church Then consider in the rest of the answer or direction the practice of the Elders that is threefold 1. To pray over him 2. To annoint him with oyle 3. The manner how that is in the name of the Lord. 1. FOr the first namely the proposition If any be sick among you This is not spoken in way of supposition but in way of certainty and as taken for granted and by sicknesse we are not to understand onely a distemper of the body no nor yet some certaine sorrow greif or disquiet of the minde which the word may seem to import but we are to take it as large as Joseph did when he heard that his father was sick he presently takes his two sons unto him as giving him up for dead to be blessed in his death and departure for it is in this case as it was with Hezekiah when he was sick unto death which if he had not been his life had never been renewed as it was and as his life was restored through the spirit of prophesie in Isajah so here the life of the sick is restored by the spirit of prayer in the Elders and as the spirit of prayer was in Hezekiah else had not the prophesie taken place For he turned his face to the wall and prayed Even so is the spirit of prophesie conversant in this sick party or else the prayer of the Elders cannot be effectuall which spirit of prophesie appears in his calling for the Elders as foreseeing health to arise out of that speciall appointment and ordination of the wisdome of God And as a miraculous signe was given at the recovery of Hezekiah namely the Sun going back ten degrees in the dyall of Ahaz that wicked King to declare that the light and wisdome of the world by which the men thereof rule and reigne over their brethren goeth directly backward and contrary to that sun of righteousnesse light and wisdome proper unto the Saints and that it is for ever so to be considered is signified by those ten degrees which number hath the mystery of eternity taught in it for so Moses doth expound it saying a bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord unto the tenth generation which in the next verse he concludes to be for ever Even so here is the signe of the holy unction given to this sick party to signifie his reception from the dead even as Abraham
received his Sonne as from the dead in his exercise of the Preists office in sacrificing and offering him up unto God This sicknesse therefore is as that of Lazarus whom Jesus loved for when his sister told Jesus that he was sick it is plaine by the record in computation of the time that he was then dead which Christ affirmes is not death but that way of the operation and manifestation of the glory of God which onely and for ever shineth and setteth forth it selfe through the death of the flesh that is the death of all humane and carnal reasonings resolutions and conclusions in point of the knowledge of Jesus Christ which sicknesse or death to all the legall and litteral services according to the carnall law is truly said to be not unto death because it is unto that eternall life of the Son of God and a sicknesse of this nature we are to understand in this place or else we carnallize the sicknesse as surely as Rome doth at this day the Eldership as also New-England more zealously then they and the reason is because the one is Hehetated with worldly pomp and the other is Persequentissimus but hath not yet attained thereunto And whereas it is said Is any sick among you or as the word may be read is any sick in you as speaking either of person or thing as the Psalmist hath a phrase help Lord for the fathfull faile that word faithfull is used in Scripture sometimes for a true or faithfull person and sometimes for a true thing as if he should say help Lord for trueths faile or fidelities faile So this word any may be taken for any person or any thing as if he had said is any thing in you sick or are you dead to any particular thing whatsoever which worldly men make their life and trade so that you cannot relish nor tast it no more then a sick or dead man can relish any food to quicken or enliven him be sure then to use the remedy prescribed unto you for your health and restoration and your dayes shall be renewed with Hezekiah and your life recovered with Lazarus and you shall be raised out of the grave of all sin and sorrow and that is to call for the Elders of the Church for they are the resurrection and the life in this point in which observe 1. What it is to call 2. Who these Elders be 3. What is the Church of which they are 1. Concerning the Call the same word is prefixed as before let him call it is of like Emphesis that is to say that through this sicknesse or death here spoken of it creates and gives being in that soule unto the life of the Son of God and that life is the light of men by vertue of which light he becomes a Seer for it hath the spirit of Prophesie in it whereby he discerns wherein true health doth consist and knows what the Eldership is and where to finde the true Church which is so controverted throughout the earth in all ages of this present world so that if this sick party had not perfect vision he might wander from mountaine to hill and from the flood to the worlds end before he could attaine the true knowledge thereof For some say lo here is Christ and some say lo there which we are not to beleive neither the one nor the other some say he is in the desert and some say he is in the mountain and some in the secret Chamber but as the lightning shineth from one end of heaven unto the other so is the coming of the Sonne of man that is to say all things that ever were or shall be proclaime his present abode in man-kinde either in point of his life or death in mercy or else in his severity and such are the confines of the Church it is not bounded within the circuit of time place or person no more then the Son of God is for his Spouse holds proportion with himselfe in all points therefore is she admired as one that looks forth as the morning faire as the moon clear as the Sun terrible as an Army with banners nay it is said to be his body the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all So that to form and fashion a Church of lesse comprehension then Christ will prove rather a Sinagogue of Satan or cage of unclean birds then the spouse of Christ so that our Chronologers deceive the world in framing a Christ onely by genealogie not knowing what the Prophet meaneth when he saith he was taken from prison from judgment and who shall declare his generation he was war cut off from the land of the living and made his grave with or in the wicked and in the rich in his death it seems Philip that man of war is not joyned to their Chariot as his name signifies And so they frame a Church not onely by seperation of themselves from others by some carnall and temporary ceremonies that they may say Stand by thy selfe I am holier then thou If these be their defences from the wicked they had need carry them along with them through death or else the fence being down they will go near to come over and feed with them in the same pasture But this is not all the seperation they make for they divide the word of God seperate it to form their Church saying that such portions of the word of God were for the form of the Church in such an age of the world for such people but now another portion of it gives the forme in our dayes as though the word of God were dead or falne asleep unto the world in some injunctions and promises but alive and awake in others whereas they may as wel change and alter the form and manner of the being of the Son of God as to change and alter the form and manner of being of the Church of God for the word of God in whatsoever it hath expressed is the will or law of God and the will of God cannot change and Christ is the end of the law so that if we fall short of him in any portion of the word of God as though he had been in it but now is passed over it or as though it intended him but yet hath not brought him forth we make it the word of man and not the word of God for mans reason is the proper word of man even as the wisdome of God in that wonderfull contriving of his Son is the word of God and therefore man is said to be made a living or a speaking soule or life of speech or reason whereby he transcends all other creatures excepting none for no Angel that is messenger or message was ever sent from God unto the world out of man-kinde It is true indeed that the word of God hath expressed it selfe as in divers Nations Jew and Gentile in differing generations or genealogies as Cain and Seth Abraham and Nahor
God and man being made one through that wisdome or spirit of the creature brooding upon the same deep of the said Chaos drawing it out into the lines and lineaments proper to the principles and capacities of a creature wherein the letter of the word doth consist adorning it selfe with the excellencies and abilities of the creature and not of God the Creator in which respect it is sayd to be a house of mans building and not of Gods And this is the proper order and reformation of the world stood for and maintained to this day by Schools Libraries and Records by Art study and Law by policy experiments and force of arms unto which the most eminent and sublime order and institution of the wisdome and spirit of God are as a formlesse Chaos and most dangerous gulfe and this wisdome or device of man hath arguments according to its proper sphear it works in as punctuall and proper for the conservation and binding over of it selfe unto destruction as the wisdome of God hath in that way of Christ for the laying down of his life unto salvation We thwart not then the order and instinct of any creature but give it its proper due for which it was made which is either to give intelligence by breathing out its proper life in the souls of the Saints in directing unto another in whom the order of heaven and earth which abides for ever is established or else to retayn its own proper life which is earthly in the expiration of the life of the spirit of God whereby it becomes a builder of the tower of Babylon the one receives instruction from the world in the expiration of the life of it in himselfe it becoming as a crucified and dead carkasse unto him whereby he is made alive unto God and the other receives instruction from the kingdome of God in the expiration of the life of all the things thereof in himselfe so as it is made by his wisdome as a crucified and dead thing unto him whereby he is made alive unto the world and the things thereof adorning and supplying of himselfe with the arm of flesh and so becomes as truly Satanicall as the Saints become holy and godly It is no more wrong therefore to look upon the glory and goodlinesse of man as the flower of grasse or thing of nought when Christ was made manifest then it was wrong to the rest of the creatures when man was made as Lord of them all which before that the bruit beaste of the field might seem to have dominion of the earth Those therefore that would have the shadows of the night to retayn some excellency in their place and not to flye away when that Sun of righteousnesse ariseth and sheweth forth himselfe Let such make their opinion good unto the world by retayning of like delight in and having like esteem of such rattles and baubles in the time of their Seniority as they delighted themselves with in the dayes of their minority and so much in answer to the objection 3. The third poynt is the practice of the Elders and that is the manner how they annoynt the sick party and that is in the name of the Lord or into the power and authority of the Lord Christ for by this unction we are gathered up and are all drunke into one spirit of Jesus Christ So that men may as fittingly preach the wisdome of man to be no better then the understanding of a bruit beast as to teach that the spirit of a Christian is inferiour to the wisdome of God in Christ for they are one as the wisdome of man is one Therefore the actions of a Christian spring from the proper Edicts and Institutions of God according to the law of faith with respect unto those relations and operations established between God and man in Christ or in the unction and not from those relations and respects which naturall instincts and humane wisdom hath founded and set up between creature and creature which the beasts of the field and fowles of the ayre are for the most part inclinable unto as well as man-kind So that there is something that is proper unto God only that is a relative in all the actions of a Christian or else it is not done by the law of faith which stands in all terms of relation between God and man and not between creature and creature and thereby is every Christian made Lord of all which otherwise they could not be for by this means no creature can lay claym unto them but they are only the Lords the obligatious standing only between God and man in that law of faith or subsistance of God and man in one by the unction which is Christ Secondly the actions and demeanors of a Christian have in them the effect of Gods power and authority as well as spring from such a root so that they prove fruitful either to be a savour of life unto life or of death unto death The doctrine wayes and counsell of a Christian have a certain vertue of God in them to produce life unto life unto them that are saved or to work life in life as the word may be read in others for they bring forth in the chosen of God a life which hath all manner of livelinesse infolded and wrapped up therein for as the wisdome of God is sayd to be a manifold wisdome so is the life of God a manifold life which can never be unfolded and made manifest unto the uttermost for then it were not infinite and eternall So that if the Gospel bring forth and produce the life of Faith it hath the life of hope in it and in all things that can be hoped for which as they are obtained every one is as a tree of life If it produce love there is wrapped up therein the life of the love of all lovely relations as Father Son Husband Wife love of all kinds of friendship and the like If it bring forth the life of joy there is wrapt up therein the life of all joyfull things in the life of prosperity there is the life of all prosperous ways so that whatsoever the Gospel works in the soul there is involved therein all of that kind that ever can come into use and exercise so that it is a bundle of life which none but the wisdome of God and the power of God can ever bind up together or bring forth Againe if a Christian or the Gospel for they are co-apparent and were never one without another produce and bring forth death in any it is death unto death or death in death there is one death involved and wrapped up in another unto eternity which can never be found out to the uttermost and yet no particular way of death doth ever asswage from the height and extreamest terrour of it nor stand aside as to permit an intermission but only so as to give way or being in another to exercise its vertue in the full force
and terrour thereof So as the King of fear changing his countenance in point of wrath may give the greater onset and breed a fresh and unexpected trouble and terrour in the soule that it shall never be inured or acquainted with any particular terrour so as to abate the present sence of a heavy and infinite displeasure which nothing but Gods power and authority in that way of the Curse can possibly bring to passe therefore this unction invests into the effect of Gods power and authority in that way of his Sonne Christ Jesus our Lord and therefore he brings in the royall effect and power of prayer in the next place Vers 15. And the prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if hee have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him Wherein observe for order 1. What manner of prayer this is and that is the prayer of faith 2. The act or power of it what it doth and that is three-fold 1. It saves the sicke it hath the power of salvation in it 2. It raiseth up as from the dead And the Lord shall raise him up 3. It hath in it the power of pardon If he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him FIrst for the manner of prayer here used and that is The prayer of faith for that only is this healing prayer it hath the vertue of health in it By Faith then we are not to understand a notional perfection as having Christ only as the object of it as the common opinion is but we are to understand it as the Apostle defines it namely that iâ— is the Hypostacis or subsistance not only of things unseen and hoped for but also in present being demonstration for so much our Apostle affirms of it that it is the subsistance of things hoped for and the demonstration of things not seene that is it is the present being of things that are also to come for they are unto eternity and it is a demonstrative argument as the word there signifies which makes things to be in present appearance that yet are not seen for the depth of Gods counsels can never be sounded but are infinitely as a treasury to be brought forth which things are not made good but only in the Son of God who only can say Before Abraham was I am and yet am to come So that prayer consists not of a request made by a meere creature unto the invisible God But it is an appeale made by the Son of God who consists of humane nature and divine as the common phrase is God and man as one simple act undissolvable and eternall creation Therefore it is sayd that we know not how to pray as we ought but the spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us Now there is no spirit of God considerable disjoyned from the spirit of man no more then there can be a Christ destitute of humane nature therefore it is sayd That he that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit For God and man in Christ are never separated no more then the Father and the Son can be divided for they are but one estate and condition in which the wisdome of God together with all his proper and native excellencies do consist So that there is no Christ or Annoynted considerable but as consisting of divine and humane nature or aptitudes to do Therefore the spirit of God maketh request but it is with groanings or sighes which are proper unto man and they are sayd to be sighes not utterable because there is in prayer a sighing or breathing out of life as the last breath never to be resumed or taken in againe in regard of that spirit living to any carnall or corruptible thing and this is a thing can never be uttered by any unbeliever for they never sigh as sending out their last breath in regard of ever living agayn to the law of the flesh therefore not utterable by any that is destitute of the spirit of God Again there is a sigh in prayer as being the last breath and utter cessation of life in the men of the world which is never resumed or taken in again and that is the breathing out of the life of the spirit in the wicked never to live unto God in any spirituall or heavenly vertue proper to the Sonne of God of which there is an utter dissolution and cessation in the men of the world and this is unutterable also for it can never be uttered or expressed in the state of Christianity where the spirit of Christ resides and dwels and the prayer of faith cannot be expressed but with respect unto these twayn the one is life lost in the Saints that is the life of the flesh but it is extant in the men of the world which is no lesse then that spirit of Sathan or that dying life of the Devill and this gives demention unto that from which we are ransomed and delivered and the other is life lost in the men of the world but extant in the Saints of God which is no lesse then the life of the Son of God that holy one or Saint of Israel and this gives demention unto that whereunto we are delivered and whereunto we are brought It is not a part therefore but whole Christ that makes an appeale in prayer namely from that which the Son of perdition is unto that which the Son of God is and of such extention and comprehension is true prayer or else it is not that prayer of faith which is effectuall nor can it be said otherwise to be that spirit of intercession which interposeth it selfe and comes between that depth of death and that height of life as in the participation of them both as being freed from the one and set in the other that is Death as God is considered what he is through that wisdome of the creature in that man of sin and life as man is considered in the wisdome of God in that man of God the Lord our Righteousnesse the Saints therefore can truly say Out of the deeps have I cryed unto thee O Lord and in that acknowledgment confesse themselves to be set upon the mountaine of Gods holinesse though it be paradoxicall unto the world Quest But if whole Christ be the supplicant God and man to whom then doth he appeal to himselfe or to another Answ Not to another as in point of reallity of subsistance and being for it is one that pleads and also gives Judgement and determins the cause But he prayeth unto another with respect unto the reallity of the distinction of glory for supplication and answer are truly twaine in the same hypostasis for the glory of the supplicant is one and the glory of the suppleo is another and these give being each to other else they are not nor can subsist for either of them cease to be without its relative so that prayer must consist of them both else it ceaseth to be prayer for the
power of the resurrection from the dead as it is said the Lord shall raise him up there is in prayer a Lord-like authority to rise out of that grave of sin and sorrow of death and destruction so as none shall have dominion over it to keep it under for it cannot be held of death but it will remove the stone from the Sepulchre and deface and break open the seal of Herod himselfe though set upon it by the cheif Preists and Pharisees making it as sure as they can it will make the house of the carnall Jews to shake when the Apostles of Christ are gathered together or brought into unity and harmony by that reconciling spirit of interpretation It will make the foundations of the Prison to shake where the spirit of our great Apostle is infringed casting open the doors and laying wast such power to the astonishment of the Jaylors themselves whoever they may be yea it will raise Peter up out of the dungeon and cause his chains to fall off from his hands to his own admiration and wonder In a word prayer hath in it the power and vertue of the resurrection because it is the breathing of the Son of God returned from death to life this word behold he prayeth was an argument sufficient to prove Paul change from a Saul and to be risen up out of that grave and puddle of the Jewish litteral and carnall worships and from that deadly spirit of persecution which ever accompanies such maner of services Thirdly prayer hath in it the power of pardon and forgivenesse of sins for if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him or in the present tence as the word will bear they are forgiven him that is to every one that partakes in this prayer of faith To commit sin here is to be understood in a two-fold respect that is negatively and affirmatively of which the breach of law being sin doth consist now to sin and prove a delinquent in omitting and not doing that which is required is to neglect and leave undone that which the carnal commandement according to the strict spirit of a Pharisee calls for such sin or missing of the rule of the carnall commandement standing in outward ordinances is here to be understood which is the onely sin condemned by a carnall Jew and this law the prayer of faith doth rout ravell undo and abrogate with respect unto the obligation thereof in the true intent of a Pharasaical Jew And against this law doth true prayer sin in all its supplications intercessions and requests for the prayer of faith observes not in the least in any point that law of the spirit of bondage which onely obligeth to the law of the flesh nor can it keep and perform that spirit of enmity which Christ Jesus nailes to his Crosse and slays in himselfe and therefore a sinne in a Saint in way of negation against the affirmative part of the law of the flesh Againe there is a sin committed affirmatively and that is by reall acting and doing according to the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord which the wisdome of man in that carnall law forbids and that under the penalty of errour schism heresie pride blasphemy and death it self For every point of the law of the spirit rightly composed according to the prin ciples and grounds of faith is most heinous wicked detestable sinfull and abominable in the eyes of a carnal man Now the breach disannulling and abrogating of the carnall command for which the Jewes so hated Christ is the truth of the matter the reality and ever carries in it the remission pardon and forgivenes of sins in the Saints as surely as the breach of the law of the spirit and that everlasting Covenant of God carries in it guilt crime and is the condemnation of the world For every sin and blasphemy against the Son of man that is against the wisdome will power and authority of the arme of flesh shall be forgiven or it is forgiven for it hath the acquittance general discharge and release in it self but he that speaks aagainst the holy spirit that is against that law of the spirit or spirituall estate of that holy one of God it shall never be forgiven that is he that breaks the law of the spirit in any word or thing as the phrase imports it hath in it that guilt which can never be wiped out neither in this world that is in time present nor in the world or time that is to come or not in this world that is in the conscience of the party so made guilty nor in the world to come that is in that sentence of the righteous Judge which doth for ever adjudg and condemn it so that as the breach of the spiritual law hath in it an eternall guilt unseperably and enevitably fastned unto it and accompaning the same even so hath the breach or abrogation of the carnall law an everlasting pardon and acquittance before God fastned unto and ever accompaning the same Note in this point that the Levitical law which the Apostle apposeth to the law of an endlesse life doth not condemn because men fall short in some particulars of the fulfilment of the same but it condemns and is death unto him that walks according to the same or lives thereafter Therefore our Apostle saith If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that is if yee live according to the law of the carnall commandement for by it no flesh can be justified or if yee minde the things of the flesh that is as the word signifies if ye frame form or fashon things unto your selfe according to the carnall command art or reason of man concerning the affairs of God it is death but to live after the spirit that is the law of the spirit or spirituall law is life and peace or to minde the things of the spirit that is to form frame and fashion things spiritually that is life and peace and as the one of these is sin according to mans wisdome and his accounts even so is the other sin according to Gods wisdome and his reckoning and account judgement and doom passed upon it by an eternall and unchangeable sentence There is pardon then and power of forgivenesse in prayer because it is God that sitteth upon that throne of grace judging unto justification who then shall condemn for it the spirit of grace and supplication whereof prayer doth consist yea it is the Son of God who is justified who then shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen that holy one of God For wherever the spirit and vertue of Christ is there is power to forgive sins therefore he saith to stop the mouth of those legall Pharisees whether is it easier to say thy sins are forgiven or to say take up thy bed and walke but that you may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive sins on earth therefore I said
unto thee arise take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house So that to preach the Gospel to the restauration of the soule from the policy that is from the fear terrors and tremblings of the law as at Mount Sinai to bring it unto Zion giving strength to take up that and carry it unto its proper place as that man carried his bed into the proper place which is his house which before had carried him extravagantly and diseasedly abroad wheresoever the Gospel exerciseth its power to raise up any to walk in the way of God before others in prayer or prophesie or any appointment of God according to the nature and season of it as that man is said to walk before them all to their admiration wheresoever the Gosplel is ministred to that effect there is also in that ministration power to forgive sin for the one is of like case and of like difficulty as the other is yea they are both in one act for he that can preach the Gospel to carry sin into its proper place which must be done or else the Gospel is not truly preached he must of necessity remove it from the chosen of God which is the true remitting and passing of it over unto another He that hath power therefore to preach the Gospel to the healing of the Conscience of the palsie sicknesse or tremblings of the law in the dead works thereof or works of death that man hath power to forgive sins on earth for they are inseperable and Christ in that place alluded unto makes them one for first he saith son thy sins be forgiven thee and in the rehearsall of it he saith his speech was arise take up thy bed and walk go thy way into thy house And we know that Christ saith to his Disciples whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retaine they are retained And again what ye binde on earth is bound in heaven and what ye loose on earth is loosed in heaven to walk and work therefore in the things of God according to the power intended by the word of God are of greater concernment then they would think for to preach the Gospel in the revelation of the minde and will of God as to an onely Son or to present our supplications to God as a father from the minde and disposition of an onely son are of no lesse authority and power then to to give sins for to pray with the spirit and to pray with the understanding also that is to pray according to the mystery of Christs meditation and yet with that wisdome and skill of expression as to unfold and explaine it in the minds of others that they may ascend up unto God together therewith as Manoa's Angel in the flame of the sacrifices this and to pardon sin are of like power skill and authority and a like weight lies upon both to whomsoever communicates in them For to pardon sin is not to change or alter the minde of God toward that party but to explaine and interpret the minde of God concerning that party which minde and will of God is the same in that one faith of the Son of God to all the chosen of God and wheresoever it is rightly unfolded and made manifest in the proclamation of peace and reconciliation of God and man in one if the Son of peace be there he accepteth and receivet the same as the right of his inheritance If the Elders pray or prophecy unto health therefore they pray or prophesie to the remission of sins in whomsoeve commucates in the same his sins are forgiven him To conclude this point it concerns us then to know what sin is that we may rightly conceive of it as it is pardonable and also as it not pardonable for there is a sin saith the Apostle John which is not unto death or which is not in death that is it is not in that way of death and there is a sin that is in death I do not say that you shall pray for it that is you shall not pray for the pardon of it because it is not to be pardoned for where Christ is once crucified in the spirit he never is to live in that heart according to the spirit no more then where he is once crucified in the flesh he never lives in that heart according to the flesh Therefore in the next place he exhorts us unto the confession of our faults in the true acknowledgement of them one to another Vers 16. Confesse your faults one unto another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much In these observe 1. An exhortation consisting of two parts 1. To confesse faults one to another 2. To pray one for another 2. The end wherefore That ye may be healed 3. A reason ground or cause drawn from the nature of prayer which is two-fold 1. It is effectuall 2. It is fervent 4. The qualitie of the person praying that is A righteous man 5. The issue or event of such prayer It avayleth much 1. ANd first for confession of faults sins or oberations from a law For where no law is there is no transgression for sinne is the transgression of a law or as the word is the withoutnesse of a rule Now there is the law of the flesh or carnall commandement which is the law of sinne and death and there is the law of the spirit or power of faith which is the perfect rule of righteousnesse or law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Now the carnall commandement or perfunctory and fading ordinances may be broken yea abrogated and nayled to the crosse as that which is against us and yet forgiven for every breach or piercing through of the sonne of man that is mans institutions and appoyntments composed by that carnall law shall be forgiven or are forgiven for the disannulling of mans wisdome and in that respect to become a foole is the establishment of Gods wisdome in the removall of all guilt and condemnation from the soule And there is the law of the spirit or of that holy Ghost which if a man speake a word against intentionally or blaspheme and pierce through that is abrogate or make a nullity of it It shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come that is neither in the present mind and conscience of him that so doth nor in that holy mind and judgment of Christ from passing sentence against it being so remote and at such a distance from it and contrary unto it for the abrogation of the law of the spirit is no lesse then to disannull that wisdome of God in Christ by which device only the sin and guilt of the sons of men is taken away and no other way for else-where the redemption of the soule ceaseth for ever Confession of sins then one to another This phrase one to another is of like nature as
is betrayed it were good for that man if he had never been born also if an enemy had done it I could have born it but it was thou Oh man my familiar I speaking of the trechary of Achitophel and Prophecying of Judas into whom Satan entred which is that man of sin that Antichrist and deceiver of which spirit and power there were many in the Apostles time but the Preisthood of our times have collected them into one man only and crowded him up only in that corner of the world called Rome that so notice may not be taken of their opposing and rejecting of Christ to the deceiving of the people as that spirit ever doth into him or into them Satan enters or takes his beginning in them for as the Son of God hath no beginning but in man so Satan or the Devil hath no beginning but in man even in that man of sin and son of perdition for as the Scriptures give the word of truth a being from the beginning for in the beginning was the word even so it gives Satan to be a lyer from the beginning and one that abides not in the truth and this two-fold estaâ—e man to be taken in else know we not how to acknowledge sin nor how to praise God for our deliverance into those fruits and happy estate of righteousnesse by Christ We answer then that when a Christian confesseth acknowledgeth or praiseth the excellencies of God in Christ giving them their proper and full vertue and extent as love joy mercy gentlenesse kindenesse bounty power and eternall goodnesse man participates thereof the creature really and sensibly possesseth and enjoys them in the unfeigned and just confession of them that is the man of God the new creature which is that work-manship of God in Christ Jesus and man-like Son of God standing in that one alone sonship of God not found extant but in Christ that annointed one But man or the creature that is that man of sin made to be taken and destroyed ungodlike men that man of Beliall that vaine and empty man of faith without works of which beleife the Devill is yea that Antichristian spirit wherever it is that molds the worship of God into a form tying him to appear in the same figure and posture Againe we say that man or that creature hath no fellowship with the things proper to the Son of God as peace joy love nor any of the fruits of the spirit which are by Christ he is a stranger unto them all and therfore intermeddles not with the joy of the saints though they be reall forceable and effectuall in the man of God or saint by calling when ever they are uttred or expressed Even so there are the terrors of death vexations of spirit guilt of sin condemnatory sentence of conscience that ever accompanies the sins confessed by a Saint really beyond any shadow or semblance and that not bounded by time but are eternall and yet the man or the creature that is the man of God or the new creature participates not in the least in any of their distresse guilt or fear no more then the wicked partake in the joys of salvation in Christ he hath no taint or tincture of the enmity of the Serpent nor sence unto pangs and vexation of the guilt of corrupt and defiled conscience and yet saith truly and unfeignedly this is my sin this is my death and this abomination is in me that is in my flesh or in that carnall estate out of which I am taken where dwels no good thing but is a cage of all unclean and abominable filthinesse and wickednesse So that in a true confession of sin according to faith not onely it but all its appurtenances are carried forth and set upon their proper base that is in that land of Shiner which is Babylon that confusion gone over all the earth which is that strict composure of things by mans wisdome according to times places persons and temporary respects whatsoever which makes a nullity of Gods order who is a God composed thereof and all things therein are illimitted not any thing tyed to time place person or any temporary or fading bond whatsoever otherwise it is not the order of the Son of God but a device and inventions of man unto confusion whether the Epha of wickednesse is carried and is the house built for it where for ever it shall remaine and abide Thither all sin and sorrow in true confession is carried as fully as all righteousnesse and peace is carried onely into that happy estate and incomprehensible order that is of God by Jesus Christ the carnall minde or man therefore is onely sensible of sin in the way os Gods displeasure but not of that vertue of reconciliation and the spirituall minde or man is onely senfible of all righteousnesse in way of the peace of God but not of that horror which comes through that breach of the everlasting Covenant And yet is neither the one nor the other voyd of sence with respect unto the others condition For the wicked from the sight of the Saints being lifted up in that holy unction and taken into an everlasting reigne and authority by unity with an omnipotent and all-sufficient power are filled with fear and terror at the fight and apprehension thereof as having the glory of a righteous Judge also the Saints of God beholding themselves lifted up and taken out of that fearful and abominable state and condition of the wicked rejoice thereat with joy unspeakable and full of glory even as Noah when he saw the waters over-whelm and destroy the world was by the same waters lifted up to heaven as sase from all rocks mountaines or hills that might annoy him so the Saints seeing how the Son of God hath given himselfe unto death in the world never to live the life of the Son of God in them as a ransome whereby he is lifted up unto the throne of Gods glory in the Saints everlastingly which carries with it a holy shout harmonious and melodious singing and rejoycing for ever to see the terrors of death captivated under eternall darknesse which can never seize nor intrench upon that Sun of righteousnesse which shineth in the saved of the Lord. The second part of the exhortation is to pray one for another or appeal one to another the word for and to are indifferently taken as you may see by the difference of translations One saith a Psalm for the sons of Corah and another saith a Psalme to the sons of Corah so that here it is taken for one to another that is in your confessions of the nullity and breach of the law of the spirit by that wicked one do you appeal to the law of the carnall command which is of sin and death which is thereby established and confirmed in the world whereby the men thereof are effectually bound over under that spirit of bondage to walk and work according to the letter that kills and
to emulate decline and reject in all things the spirit that giveth life And at that Judgment-seat behold the summoning in and the assembling of all sin in the fight of God by the crucisication of Christ together with the manner of Gods execution of wrath for your acquittance and escape For in that throne is all sin summed up as in that King of Tyrus for corrupting the wisdome and prophaning the holy things of God see Ezek. 28. Againe in the acknowledgement of the breach and nullity of the law of the flesh appeal to the law of the spirit for it is the perfection and fulfilment thereof for the disjunction from all carnal and diabolicall things is the conjunction of God and man in Christ the crucification of Christ by the ministry of the letter in the world is the raising of him up from that death in the ministry of the spirit in the Saints for it is impossible that the Sonne of God should be held of death so as not to live his proper and native life If we expect unity with all the excellencies and virtues of God we must be loosned and disunited from all carnall relations and bonds and we must either have unity with all the things proper unto God or none for he cannot be devided therefore we must admit of a totall seperation from all carnal things that is such as fade have an end however we know that all things are lawful with due respect unto Gods call in the use of them yet are we not to be brought under the power of any thing as by a bond subjected unto it but to use the world as though we used it not to marry as though we married not and to buy as though we possessed not for the Son of God never acknowledged conjugation or copulation by any carnall tie or bond therefore when his mother told him at the feast that they had no wine he saith unto her woman what have I to do with thee mine houre is not yet come as to have my works and times set and appointed unto me by vertue of any earthly or temporary relation therefore shee bids the servants look unto his time and his command saying what soever he commands you that doe Where the force of earthly relations takes place of the spirit of Christ that state or place of honour shall never succeed well Againe when one told Jesus that his mother and his brethren stood without to speak with him he answered and said to him that told him Who is my mother and who are my brethren and he streched forth his hand towards his Disciples and said behold my mother and my brethren for whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother all relations centred in one also when his mother found him in the Temple Questioning the Doctors saying why hast thou thus dealt with us behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing but he answers how is it that yee sought me wist you not that I must be about my fathers businesse as acknowledging none but that one father of eternity and in such relations stands the band of a Christian and therein is the acknowledgement of his ingagements But from this point it will be gathered by carnall spirits as of old then let us do evill that good may come thereby whose damnation is just if this be true then let us endeavour to undermine extirpate root out and bring to nought all naturall relations and consociations amongst the sons of men 1. To which we answer that no such consequence followes upon the spirit of Christianity for the abrogation of the law of the flesh is to repeal and abolish it compleatly and it confists of an affirmative and negative part the affirmative is to set up adorne and maintain all things honourable in the fight of man according to the nature manner and constitution of the place where it is exercised and to avoyd and abandon the contrary shame and this is but one administration or law for they are inseperably joyned together even as the honourable sentence of the Judge of a Size unto death and the shamesull office of the hang-man are but one administration So that from the office of the Judge you bring in the office of the Hang-man and from the act of the hang-man you include the office of the Judge or else the law is not compleated in that point right so in the abolishing and disannulling of the law of the flesh that it takes not hold as being any yoak or bond upon the Saints it is compleatly repealed and made voyd both in respect of all things that the world makes and accounts honourable and likewise of all things that are dishonourable and shamefull in the same account so that it becomes nothing else but a provocation unto them to guard and fortifie themselves against the one and the other for they are one intire and undivided law or administration The Saints therefore cannot go about to establish that which they abolish for the shamefull acts of the world are nulled unto them as well as the honourable no more then the wicked in making voyd unto themselves the law of the spirit can possibly go about to set up or advance the crosse of our Lord Jesus in the true vertue and power of it 2. We answer that to such a conclusion from our freedome from the carnall command or way of the letter of the Scripture is to lay a hard thought and deep censure upon the spirit and power of God for shall the wisdome and institutions of man that shall vanish and come to naught have power in them to provoke to dilligence to preserve in peace to keep in temporance chastity gravity and moderation in all things and shall not the spirit of God or law of that spirit be sufficiently wise and able to preserve men in modestety chastity gravity and moderation in all things with wisdome care and deligence to use the creature of what kinde soever according to time place and occasion as becomes the nature end and use thereof without lisentious and lascivious liberty surely those that so judge never found nor felt the virtue life liberty and power of the spirit of our only Lordship and salvation Jesus Therefore the reason of our thus appealing follows Namely that yee may be healed The spirit of God makes this manner of appeal the possession to purge out all superfluous humors the soveraign salve to cure all deseases the cordiall medicine against all crudities of soule and peccant humours of spirit this is health to thy navell and marrow unto thy bones If when we see the breach os the law of the spirit of Christ we carry it unto the law of the flesh and observe how that is onely established thereby and when we observe the repeal of the law of the flesh as made of none effect we carry it up into the law of the
spirit and know that it is established and confirmed for ever thereby This is the Medicamentosus without which no prayer can be made acceptable unto God for if prayer confirme not the law of the spirit it bindes not over the Lord to be our supply if it comprize not his mercy within the bounds of its proper place which is Christ our boundlesse and common salvation This appeal or prayer must also confirme the law of the flesh or else it carrieth not all sin and sorrow into its proper place of aboad which is Antichrist or Satan that slayer of the Sonne of man from the beginning even as Caine slew his brother because his own works are evill and the works of the Sonne of man good and in these twain stands the health of our souls and is by them preserved for ever viz. a place of the reception of all wickednesse where it abides exercised in the curse for the acquitting of the Saints for ever And a place of reception into righteousnesse and residence of that blessed estate of the Sonne of God in the love and delight of the father for ever in the just condemnation of all enmity The third point is the ground of this sound and healthfull condition by this appeal or prayer and first it is effectuall or forceable without let or hinderance the appeal is made upon such grounds as nothing can stop the bringing of the cause thither either for the stating of sin or of righteousnesse of the curse in the confirmation of the law of the flesh or of the blessing in the law of the spirit of Christ in the one and Antichrist in the other No Supersedias can be sued out no counter-command can be given no obstruction can be made to stop or recall the stating of all abominations in the exercise and practice of the carnall command and all the vertues excellencies and dignities of God in Christ in that law of the spirit for Satan the God of this world which is the wisdome of the world the subtilty of the serpent as he is a murther our from the beginning in slaying and putting to death the Lord of life and glory so is he a lyar and abode not in the truth so is he sacrelegious robing God of his glory making himselfe to be God adulterating the word of God turning the glory of God into shame and is the sole and proper opposer of God in all his excellencies therefore nothing can hinder no law or evidence gain-say but that state is the proper sinck and center of all wickednesse and so of all wrath Also in its appeal to the law of the spirit which is the proper order and composure of the Son of God what can obstruct but that in him are all those dementions of height depth length and breadth of the goodnesse mercy truth life power spirit and love of God for ever therefore this prayer or appeal is most forceable and effectuall it passeth through without let or hinderance for the performance of its work in rendring to each his right in the perfecting of the cause of its appeal 2. It is fervent hot without any intermixture of cold the word signifies to boyle which admits of no cooling thing to come there such is the nature of true prayer it admits no chilly or cold thing to be cast into the love and zeal of God in Christ but findes the coles thereof to be fiery coles yea to have a vehement flame Neither can the spirit of prayer admit of any cooling mixtures in the fume and heat of Gods wrath in the wealthy of the world named above for a fire is kindled in mine anger which shall burn down to the nethermost hell But the Academists of our age they know how to moderate the love of Christ in those whom they call Saints by some cold and decaying humor of the spirit of the world yet tradition is of that strength in them that they dare not impute such to him that was borne of the Virgin but for any sound knowledg they have of him they might as soon do it to him as any of that mysticall body and would for advantage if they had been brought up in Schools of such principles for they have nothing but what they receive from man Likewise they can cool Gods infinite displeasure against sin with graduall distinctions of it as good part in nature some good works wraught some remainders of Gods image in the wicked such sleights of Satan we skill not but are confident the path of fervent prayer never lay in that way nor shall ever be beaten out or found in it by all those carnall and superstitious cuttings and fleshly launsings of the Priests of Baall to uphold Ahabs Throne in all the Statues of his Ancestor Omry The fourth point is the qualification of the person praying and that is a righteous man Now a righteous or just man is he who gives every thing its proper right and due which appertains and belongs unto it if we speak of any thing of God give unto it arise arraign and scope appertaining to God if we speak of any of the ordinances of God give them the vertue property duration and continuance of the Son of God who abides for ever else we give not the Son of God that great ordinance and fountaine of all holy ordinances his right and due who is holy spirituall just and good otherwise they are human and perishing things and we are found unjust in not giving Christ his due the spirit of prayer and this effectuall appeal resides not there Againe if we speak of any thing as not having the Sonne of God in it then give it the spirit and power of the Prince of the aire the spirit that now works in the children of unbeleif or disobedience for the scope and end of all things is Christ in the exercise of mercy in the faith of the Gospel or in the exercise of wrath in that way of Antichrist for we know that we are of God and the world is of that wicked one namely the Devil therefore if we speak of sin give it its due the guilt of making a nullity and falcification of him that made all things in truth If we speak of sinners give them the state and condition of their father the Devill whose works they do and will doe Either clear the innocent whom God in Christ justifies once and for ever and so give them their due belonging unto them and condemn the guilty who reject the manner and way of his acquitting of his Saints or else no person quallified for prayer if you speak of death bring it unto the scope either death unto all transitory and carnall things in Christ or else death unto all spirituall and durable things in Antichrist or else we give not right unto it and so are not that righteous man whose prayer availeth and is the event and issue of this prayer which is the fifth point that is it availeth
as things of old from eternity and new as in present use fitting and beseeming the present oration and opportunity This phrase therefore is like that where the Apostle saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe till Christ be formed in you not as though they had now defaced Christ who before was formed in them but he declares hereby the effect of his doctrine from which some were turned aside unto the rudiments of the Law as unto another Gospel which he saith is not another but the same Gospel perverted by false Teachers telling them that some are entangled with the yoke of bondage thereby for he that is bound to any particular of the carnall commandement as to be circumcised or any outward form of bodily action He is bound to keepe the whole law and shews that such have abolished Christ and are faln from grace such effect he shews his Doctrine had of some as a savour of death unto death but there were others unto whom hee there speaks on whom his doctrine had a more noble effect as being a savour of life Therefore he saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe or I have brought you forth not in a second act but in another manner and way namely to the forming of Christ in you or framing you into the similitude of the Son of God once and for ever Even so it is here He prayed againe that is the spirit of intercession hath a secondary or other manner of effect then that which is before specified not another prayer but another manner of wonder accomplished by the same prayer for now the heavens gave raine and the earth brings forth her fruit We are to know then that as the Gospel opens the treasuries of the Kingdome of God unto an abundant freedome liberty and plenty of the going forth and exercise of the spirit of grace in the Saints even as water poured upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground through that office of intercession peculiar unto our Eliah without any hinderance or engagement of any bond of the flesh when through the spirit of prayer that cloud of witnesse or rayn of liberality ariseth as a hand or administration thereof even as the word of the Lord is sayd to come by the hand of Haggie and by the hand of Malachie and by the hand of all the Prophets which so covereth the heavens as no parching sun of the beams of mans wisdome and device taketh place no more then they doe in those over-shadowings of the Virgin by that holy spirit of God in the production of Christ Even so doth Prayer set at liberty the works of the flesh in the men of the world by opening the sluces and flood-gates thereof unto condemnation and destruction for the waters of the great deep mystery or bottomlesse pit are opened for the destruction of the world as well as the flood-gates of heaven for the safety of Noah and his houshold in bearing up the Ark fifteen cubits above the great mountayns of the States of this earth or of the world And this prayer doth not simply accidentally but ministerially and effectually in the same sence That the Gospell is a savour of death unto death Not only by gleaning of all the fruits of righteousnesse out of the wisdome of the Serpent or men of the world which centred in the Saints are the proper cause of the transcendencies of their estate above all humane excellencies so doth it also gleane all the vicious desires of the flesh out of that state and condition of Christ centring them in that state of unbeliefe whereby man descends infinitely beneath a state of simple humane or properties of a meer creature and by fashioning and corrupting the holy things of God becomes satanicall and diabolicall and such as seek to finde an excellent or commendable betwixt these twayn it cannot be better described or diciphered for the solidity of it then by that partition that divides Purgatory and Hell in those of that mercinary conceipt The abundance of spirit therefore in the Saints and that plenty of the spirit of the Prince of the power of the ayre which now works in the children of disobedience hold proportion in way of Antithesis otherwise an infinite and an eternall wrath could not take place in the wicked as an infinite and eternall glory doth in the Saints For he made but one speaking of that state of Christ with an elegant allusion unto the high Priest and wherefore but one seeing he had abundance of spirit namely that there might be a holy seed that whatsoever the fruits are that are by one Lord Jesus Christ of the same nature and dignity are all the fruits of happinesse produced and brought forth by that one mystical and spirituall body and so in a diameter respect are all the fruits of sin in the wicked This plenty in this two-fold respect is signified by warning given to Ahab to betake himselfe to his Chariot for I heare a noyse of much raine which Ahab flyes from as a terrible thing as it contayns the spirit of Eliah betaking himselfe to Chariot and horse in the furnitures of this world and Eliah flyes from it as it hath the spirit of Ahab and Jezebel as that which brings destruction upon them only hee betakes himselfe to the strength of Gods spirit to take the gates of Iesreel The plenty of Eliah's spirit is seen and taught in that duration and plenty in the cruse of oyle and barrell of meale raising up the womans sonne from death to life and annoynting Hazael and Jehu for the ruine of Ahabs house Elisha to be a Prophet in his stead and in the destruction of all those false Prophets of Baal And the plenty of the rayn of that spirit of wickednesse appears in Ahab and Jezebel their cruelty towards the Prophet of God their miserable and horrible overthrow and in their desire and endeavour to nourish and maintayn such plenty of a false spirit of prophesie upon the face of the earth and in this plenty of rain seed-time and harvest are continued for the world sow unto the flesh and the flesh they reap and inherit corruption and the Saints sow unto the spirit and inherit everlasting life And from this power of prayer he assumes the power and vertue of doctrine in which he concludes the Epistle to shew that where the power and vertue of the one resides there is the power and vertue of the other The prayer of Faith is never without the spirit of Prophesie and prophesie according to the spirit is never without the life and power of prayer and where one of these is wanting they are both absent from that party in the true exercise of them for a formall prayer is never accompanyed with the life and power of sound doctrine but as they have composed a prayer by mans invention gathering up expressions sutable in the understanding of a man so do they compose a
doctrine from Libraries School-distinctions and from a serious observation of the carriage and demeanour of one creature towards another only bringing God into the account by turning the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man and of birds four-footed beasts and of creeping things It is not Universities books and Libraries that can transfer the spirit of the Scriptures no nor the skill in those Languages wherein they were originally written without the same spirit comment upon them in our hearts by which they were first indited It is the spirit that indited them that gives the meaning of them and not the hand that writes or translates no more then paper and inke can doe it Without which spirit let us use all meanes and industry that possible we can it is but to pick at the bark and rinde of truths and cracking of a shell voyd and destitute of any kernell better then a gale of bitterness to be found in it and such as compose their Sermons of such stuffe their prayers are no better however they may shew the zeale of Baals Priests in the uttering of them But true prayer carries the force of the Doctrine of the Gospel in it by judging of the want and supply according unto God and true doctrine hath the power of prayer going forth in it for the effectuall performance of the things that are taught and neither the one nor the other consist of any form or statue that any book or Library can possibly bring and represent unto us for the visions and operations of God are never found in the same form and time as at another all circumstances duely weighed and considered Yet may we not deny but the same words may be used often and again in prayer or doctrine but with a various respect as this wonder of Eliah is brought in with respect to years months dayes and poynts of time so Christ prayed in the same words thrice but with variety and eternity of respect for the cup for ever passeth by him and toucheth him not as man is eternally saved in that blessed condition of the Son of God and it takes effect at the Sonne of God is transformed by the world into the cursed state and condition For if we make the death of Christ according to the true mystery of it wherein salvation doth consist to be of lesse continuance then eternity wee shall annihilate Christ and make salvation it selfe of no longer continuance for if Christ once dye unto the flesh in the godly he never lives unto it any more And if he once be dead in the wicked in respect of his proper spirit and life it is never repaired in them agayn for then there were not eteranll perdition which the word of God hath commended unto us upon like grounds of certainty that it hath done everlasting life That word translated was dead and is alive is read is dead and is alive as the same word I am an Apostle is used in the present tence Doctrine and prayer are inseparable companions even as Kingdome and Priest hood are as here in the way of Christ even so in the world in the way of Antichrist and thus the connexion of the next point is brought in Vers 19 20. Brethren if any of you have erred from the truth and one hath converted him c. In which words observe 1. A proposition consisting of two points As 1. Errour from the truth 2. A restauration 2. Observe an injunction and that hath two parts also 1. To acknowledge or make a confession of an estate or act 2. The party that is so to do and that is He that hath turned from errour 3. The state and condition or act done and that consists of two things 1. Death 2. The hiding of a multitude of sins BUt first observe the terme or appellation he gives as before he hath done Brethren By brethren here is meant a like brother-hood as in Esau and Jacob which are often so called Was not or is not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I have loved Jacob and hated Esau and layd his mountaine wast for ever So the Apostle hath respect to the wicked as brethren in a true sence to the godly because they consist of the same matter and substance that is God and man made one in the wisdome of the flesh as the Saints consist of God and man made one but according to the wisdome of the spirit If one of you or if any of you If one of you that is as a Nation considered collectively in Esau as the Oracle said to Rebecka Two nations are in thy womb or any of you that is distributively or distinctly and so it comprehends all the Apostates and Revolters from God or all vertues or excellencies in the Saints from which they are fallen and have erred and gone astray If any that is man and man one or other or thing and thing one and other whatsoever is in the Son of God Erred from the trueth that is gone astray and wandred from that which is the reality and substance of all things which is Christ the Son of God And to erre in this place is not simply for a meer creature to declyne and go away from his Creator but to pervert mis-apply and wrongfully to interpret the very things of God themselves turning his glory into shame his truth into a lye therefore they erre from truth as having been in it for that which was is and ever shall be righteousnesse and holinesse of truth they have perverted unto prophanesse and wickednesse by interpreting the things of God to be such as the proper spirit of a creature naturally brings forth so that it is a diabolicall spirit which this errour is formed into The particle if is not here to be taken as making questions or doubt whether there be such a swerving from truth but as a certaine affirmation that such there are as the Apostle explayns the Prophets meaning where it is sayd Vnto whom I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest which the Apostle expounds They shall not enter into his rest as an absolute certainty And so there is of one converting or turning from errour into truth in that wonderfull change that the Sonne of God makes in our nature for it is impossile that he should be held of death but as certainly as he layes down his life in the wicked so must he take it agayn in the godly otherwise there were an annihilation of him who is the Author and strength of all things which is impossible And in this change or turning we are not to take it as the simple and single spirit of a creature turned but the compleat spirit of him who is the Son of God for as the Apostle speaks of prayer We know not how to pray as we ought but the spirit maketh intercession for us It is not the spirit of God without the spirit of the creature for
then there could be no want to be supplyed so that the whole spirit of Christianity prayeth viz. God and man in unity so it is here the spirit that turns is God and man in unity and is as true a change from that which is and ever shall be Satanicall as the wicked erre from that which is and ever shall be holy and righteous and they are both of one and the same time in the rise of them For in the beginning was the word and that word is with God and is God And Satan is a lyar from the beginning and abode not in truth no more then Christs soule was left in hell or that holy one suffered to see corruption but was ever taught in the way of life and in that reall presence at whose right hand there is fullnesse of joy for evermore Therefore the Prophet saith that Christ comes meek and lowly saving himselfe that is compleatly and not apart only and therein the worth and dignity of salvation stands that it hath that weight substance of account and reckoning in it and upon this ground the Disciples are comforted against all feare whatsoever where it is said Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and yet one of them falls not to the ground without the good will of your heavenly father of how much more worth are ye then many sparrows Can you set a price and rate of so mean a thing and doth God take care for the preservation of it Of what esteem price and respect then is the state of a Christian in which not a part but the compleat spirit of the Son of God is involved and by a ransome given and payd in the world proportionable thereunto purchased This point contains a mystery which the common Priest-hood of the world so far as I have heard or seen in books is altogether ignorant of though life and death yea the spring and originall fountaine of all things is involved in it So much for the proposition the injunction followes Le him know or acknowledge c. The word let is of like signification here that it is in the beginning Let there be light let us make man c. having the power of a command and vertue of propagation to bring forth being of the nature of the word Amen so be it or so it shall be without all gainsaying or contradiction having in it a creating power and vertue to give being to the thing uttered That is that the party thus turning or turned for both are true and the word implies both one that turns and one turned for both are in that state of Christ and he that preacheth any thing but Christ and him crucified he goes beyond our Apostle as far as the common apostacy The word Let then establisheth in the heart of him and no other that turneth a sinner from the errour of his way a certaine power of acknowledgment of such a condition or royall and noble acts which here follows but first see here the nature of the confession or acknowledgment of sin it is his way that turneth naturally but it is confessed to the change or converting it unto the state of the Sonne of God even as truth may be sayd to be their way naturally who are in errour but they have perverted the same into falshood turning the truth of God into a lye and his grace into wantonnesse so that their way with respect to that which they have perverted is holinesse and is and ever shall be so in Christ but there remayns nothing but sin and wickednesse in the perverters thereof So also a Christian may confesse that the evill of sin and errour is his way with respect to that which is converted and is and ever shall be so in the wicked but in that state of the turned and converted there is no sin nor errour to be found at all there is then a reality of the Saints confession of their sin but it is to the removing of it to another where it abides for ever as there is a reall confession of a holy one in the wicked but it is ever in removing it unto another which they are not which is the proper spirit of Python that unperswaded or unfaithed one as the Apostle gives the wicked the title of Apeitheis unperswaded or disobedient so that their acknowledgment of holinesse in another subsistance is the unfaithing or unbetrothing of the soule from God it is its proper and perpetuall divorce So that he that knows not how to clear the state of Christianity from sin and fill the world with wickednesse he will come to make a bankrupt-like account when ever his estate comes to be discovered Therefore the wealthy estate noble acts and royall prerogatives following are only entailed and made over to him that turns the sinner from the errour of his way errour collectively as all considered in one otherwise Christ is not cleered and made the holy one of God and then not risen from the dead We are yet in our sins the substance of the common doctrine at this day in the world The first point or act of honour given to him that turns is that he saves a soule from death not as the world thinks by preaching the terrours of the Law and frighting men from some grosse and bruitish acts they have thereby converted and saved souls the most part of those that thus save did strive to pluck men out of the hands of the Bishops that the people might be instruments to lift them up into the like seat if not worse no such conversion coms in here it is abhominable but it is a true and faithfull distribution and opening of Gods righteous and holy manner of working in the absolution of his holy son made sin in being acquit from all sin and the just condemnation of that wicked one who in being made Lucifer the morning starre became the Prince and power of darknesse From such an originall we must fetch salvation and destruction or else all our doctrine of the decree of election and reprobation will prove no better then reprobate silver not passing for currant in the Kingdome of God 1. But the thing to be acknowledged by such a one as turns or is turned is he saves that is the power and spirit of the Saviour is there when once we know of what nature the spirit of the world is namely that wee are of God and the world is of that wicked one then wee shall learn to acknowledg that salvation never appears but there is the Saviour wee thinke to honour Christ by binding him up in one individuall man in point of the mystery of the Gospel it is a carnall and humane honour not beseeming the Son of God the common Priest-hood hath blinded and besotted the world in this point setting up an idoll in mens minds and not the mystery of life that is by Christ but it is taken for blasphemy in these dayes to talk of the Son of God
or a Saviour any where but as lockt up in a humane body in heaven that men may stand here in his room till he return from thence to suck up all the glory of the earth It was not so in ages past and men spirituall for Joshuah Moses Minister was called Jesus a Saviour as the Apostle interprets his name and the Lord acknowledgeth in raising up Judges in Israell that he raised up Saviours unto them And Paul was not affraid to tell Timmothie that in taking heed to himselfe that is how God hath composed salvation in his consisting in Christ and unto learning or doctrine that is how it ought to be layd out and distributed to others that in so doing he should be a Saviour of himselfe and them that heare him 2. A second point is what he saves that is a soule or a life this is not meant of the life of a meer creature but it is the life of the Son of God as our Apostle affirms Now I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live is by or in the faith of the sonne of God So that a Christians life is the life of Christ and there is no life of man-kind but either the life of the Saviour or else the life of Sathan that destroyer for heaven and earth conspire together in the making of man Let us speaking with respect to that plurality in our image that is in our image earthly as well as heavenly for there is a heavenly body and there is an earthly body and God is as just and righteous in the making of the one as of the other and every way as honourable the one in mercy and the other in severity And man cannot be known in a simple act of creation for that multiplies him not but propagation or generation must be brought in also else the son of God nor the seed of the Serpent can be known so both are brought forth in that first act of generation in Cain and Abel wherein the seed of the Serpent appears in the same act as in Jacob and Esau together with Christ in Abel dead by Caine in the spirit and in Seth that sett one in life for evermore who is set in the room of Abel crucified in the world So that the life of Christ and of Antichrist are both from one act even from as early dayes the one as the other and without the true knowledg of that we know neither of them and for other life in man-kind we know none worthy the name of life beyond other creatures but as it serves to the setting forth of the one or of the other of these and so they transcend the life of all other creatures as far as the image of God did the frame of any other creature or that earthly image descends below them all even to a bottomlesse pit which no other creature is subjected unto but only man 3. There is a third point what he saves from that is death namely a death that holds correspondency with that infinite and eternall life of the Son of God in way of Parathesis in all points for Christ is saved from whatsoever Sathan is hath or undergoes and Sathan is destroyed from whatsoever Christ is hath or is advanced unto therefore that conceit that Sathan was an Angell that is a meere creature at the first and in acceptation with God is a meer humane tradition and philosophicall fiction and is a point of greater concernment then men are aware of for it is as safe to say that the son of God was for a time out of the Fathers favour as to hold that the Devill at any time was in acceptation with God for whatsoever is out of Gods favour can never return into againe and what is accepted of him for a moment caâ— never be rejected 2. A second royalty or act of fame that is to be acknowledged by him who turns the sinner from the errour of his way changing him into truth it selfe that is the covering or hiding of a multitude of sins This is taken from the speech of Solomon Hatred stirreth up strife but love covereth all sins which our Apostle calls a multitude of sins the word signifies the deep of the troubled ocean intimating that huge multitude of torturing and troubling trespasses proper to that great gulfe of the bottomlesse pit Now to turn from the error of a mans way is to turn to truth and no man can turn to truth but by that unity that is in Christ none turns to truth but hee that becomes truth for there is no terme or title given in Scripture but being rightly interpretted and rightly applyed the truth substance and being of the thing is there for God useth no expression but he intends under that the truth and substance of the thing expressed To turn to truth is not only truth in word but truth in act also yea to be that very thing as Christ saith I am the way the truth and the life Now that unity that is in Christ is the fulfilment and compleating of the law of the Spirit for if the love of Christ be in us and constrayn us to all acknowledgments of him we know that love is the fulfilling of the Law and where the Law is fulfilled there sin utters not its voyce nor hath it a face to appear it is altogether hid and covered for ever Christ is the eâ—d and scope of the law for righteousnesse and more it aymes not at nor more it cannot require for it is the sonne of God that is justified who then shall condemn him The law is fully satisfied from what ground then shall any accuse yea our Apostle saith that the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us that walke not after the flesh but after the spirit No hiding of sin therefore but by fulfilling of the law but what law not the law of the carnall commandement generally taught in the world by which no flesh can be justified but it is the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus or which consists in that unction office or spirit of the Saviour Againe how do the wicked hide righteousnesse that none appears in them but only the spirit of the wicked one namely by walking according to the law of the flesh For he that walks after the law of the flesh he cannot please God so that all righteousnesse is hid and covered in them yea even by fulfilling the law of the flesh for the more they conform themselves thereunto the more their condemnation doth appear for it is not because men cannot perform all the works of the law in that respect that they cannot be justified thereby but because they do any of them for it is against the nature of that law of the carnall Commandement and every part thereof to justifie for it is its proper nature and office to condemn for we may as well say that the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus is a law of sin and death as to say the law of the carnall command can give life or peace no not in the compleat performance of it For every part thereof is a breach of the law of the spirit And whatsoever is a breach of the law of the spirit is a crucifying of the Son of God afresh and putting of him to open shame so that every performance of the law of the flesh according to the intent thereof is a breach of the same law of the spirit and he that breaks one breaks all therefore all righteousness is hid and covered in the wicked even so the true keeping of the law of the spirit of faith in any part of it is a nullifying of the whole law of the carnall Command therefore no law of sin and death is found in them all sins and sorrows are hid and covered therefore the man is blessed whose trespass is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man and he only unto whom the Lord imputeth accounteth or reckoneth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Amen By Sam Gorton Professor of Christ FINIS
supplicant humbly prostrates the cause in the necessity of and with respect unto supply which is the glory of its office so to doe And the suppleo yeelds relief and supplies the necessity and it is the glory of its office so to do and if either of these be wanting in a Christian spirit it subsists not because it is not the spirit of the Son of God in whom is power to forgive sins as well as to make supplication for pardon So that the glory of the speaker in prayer or pleader of the cause before the Judge of all the earth is one reall glory and the glory of the sentence passed thereupon is another real glory but both but one act of the law the glory of the speaker in prayer as Daniel calls it is to open the cause holding plea upon true principles unto the point of issue now Christ is the end and issue of the law in all points of relation and causes depending between God and man whatsoever Againe the glory of the Judge is to passe sentence according to the law in the point of issue so that the cause pleaded and Judgement given is but one act of the law which is Christ and in case either of these be wanting in a Christian he ceaseth to be that law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lordship and is become that law of sin and death So that the party praying and the party prayed unto are one in point of hypostacis and being and the party or office of prayer and the party or office of hearing or answering are twain in point of the variety in reallity of glory for God and man are compleatly in unity in them both else Christ is divided Even as it is said that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive which the Apostle affirms to be the saying of Christ though we finde no such place in Scripture in so many words so that it may seem that the whole Gospel or speech of Christ is summed up therein namely in giving and receiving as he saith to his Disciples in sending them out to preach freely you have received and freely do you give so that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive that is it is another thing a further glory a various vertue in the Sonne of God as if he should say it is a blessed thing to receive moreover or furthermore it is a blessed thing to give for the one is the blessing of giving and hath its reall and peculiar blessednesse really consisting therein and the other is the blessing of receiving and hath its reall and peculiar blessednesse really consisting therein and one of these cannot be without the other for no giver without a receiver and no receiver without a giver and each of them hath whole Christ exercised therein that only blessed one therefore as the hearingeare and the seing eye are both alike of the Lord so it is true of giving and receiving and the difference stands onely in the variety of glory even as in the three witnesses that bear record in heaven no other disproportion can be found For a naturall man can neither perceive so as to give nor effect so as to receive the things that are of God for they are spiritually to be discerned and apprehended and said hold of for none knows the things of God but the spirit of God no more then any other creature can know the spirit of a man but onely he that is of his own kinde And it is the Son of God onely that knows the father and it is the Son only that reveals him for no man knowes the father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveales him We conclude then that prayer consists of whole Christ and that both in point of petition as also in the answer otherwise it is not this prayer of faith and therefore it is that prayer is of that validity and force as to do such mighty things as are here attributed unto it As First saves the sick it hath the vertue and power of salvation annexed unto it which can be ascribed unto nothing but unto Christ alone who never was nor can be known but in the exercise of an office for it is the vertue and power of the spirit of God that makes manifest the Son of God and it is he alone that saves for he hath salvation Therefore it is said deliver my soul from the sword my darling or as the word signifies my alonely soule as having no copartner from the power of the dog and it is he that comes meek and lowly as the Prophet Zachariah saith saving himself and not another for as the father and the Son are one so is the Lord and the Disciple one the Saviour and the saved are one else Christ should not be God-man Salvation then is in prayer as the Scriptures testifie and the time is come that every one or whosoever call on the name of the Lord shall be saved many teach that salvation is only by faith that neither know what faith nor salvation is for faith hath salvation in it onely as it is that hypostacis and subsistance of the Son of God and so Paul teacheth faith without works that is without the works of the law which he calls dead works because the life and spirit of the Son of God is not in them but our Apostle James ascribes salvation unto works and declines faith as being the beliefe of devils that is such faith as hath not the powerful operations of God working in and together with it so that there is compleat salvation in any proper work or operation of the Son of God as well as in faith therefore Christ concludes that the great work and operation of God to be in faith for faith is not without the works of God nor the works of God without faith We are also said to be saved by hope as well as by either faith or work there is salvation also in love for it is the fulfilling of the law and where the law is compleat and full there can be no condemnation but perfect acquittance and salvation yea God is love and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him which canot be without salvation yea salvation is in patience for he that continues to the end shall be saved so that we are saved by it Furthermore we are saved by wisdome for the poor man by his wisdome saves the whole City of God though his wisdome be despised and his words not heard by the wise of the world And to conclude this point salvation is in prayer it saves the sick because it is the subsistance of the mediator-ship of the Son of God which is ever one and the same where when or in whom-soever it appears although it be so little in use and so lightly accounted of in these days wherein we live Secondly it hath in it the vertue and