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A28229
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The dominion of the seed of God throughout all generations, or, The heighth and breadth and length and depth of the love of God which passeth knowledge in the sending of his Son Christ Jesus into the world, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have life everlasting / by Geo. Bishope.
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Bishop, George, d. 1668.
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1667
(1667)
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Wing B2991; ESTC R25632
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4,759
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8
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THE DOMINION OF THE Seed of God Throughout all GENERATIONS OR The heighth and breadth and length and depth of the Love of GOD which passeth knowledge in the sending of his Son CHRIST JESUS into the VVorld that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have Life Everlasting By GEO. BISHOPE For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting-life For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved Joh. 3. 16 17. London Printed in the Year 1667. The Dominion of the Seed c. I Am to treat of a thing of the greatest weight therefore set all flesh be silent and whilst I am treating of things of this nature let the Witness of God be heeded and observed which only can give to understand the things of God which are spiritually discerned There is a great ado in the World concerning Christ and Redemption and Sanctification and Salvation and many would die the death of the Righteous and do wish that their latter end might be like his as it was the case of Balaam when his eyes were opened bâ—t few do know or understand what Christ is or Sanctification or Redemption much less do live the life of the Righteous and so attain unto Salvation Therefore am I moved of the Lord to open this Mystery and to write of the things relating thereunto in plain and legible characters that the Eye that sees not may see and the Ear that hears not may understand and that those who do neither may be concluded and shut up now that the Gospel is opened and be left unto the day that is near wherein every one will be rewarded as his work shall be The Gospel of Salvation is Christ Jesus the Wisdom of God and the Power of God and the Word that sanctifies is the same that saves and there is no Salvation but as Christ Jesus the Word the Gospel of Salvation redeems and sanctifies And this is Truth Therefore all ye who stand in a state expecting Salvation and are not redeemed or sanctified your Expectation is vain and you will die in your sins For he became the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Even to them that believe in his Name Joh. 1. 12. And whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8. 30. And If I wash thee not thou hast no part in me John 13. 8. And the Soul that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 8. 4. Therefore deceive not your selves with any vain hope in things of this nature which are of the highest consequence For it will be too late for you these things to consider when you come to be rewarded as your work shall be Then there are many who receive the Truth and hold it in unrighteousness and though they know the Way of Peace yet they turn from the holy Commandment and the latter end of these men will be worse than their beginning and they will receive according to their deeds Moreover there be who having turned ftom the Way of Righteousness and the holy Commandment are yet notwithstanding righteous in their own eyes whose End shall be as is their Work Finally there are who having known the Lord or rather are known of him do follow on to know him whose goings forth are from Everlasting in the knowledge of whom is Everlasting Life and these are they who are the Seed of the Lord the Plants of his planting that He may be glorified and for these he will give Nations and People for their Ransome and they shall be called the Blessed of the Lord and his Off-spring with him And of these I am to speak and concerning these is what I have to say to be terminated and the Revelation of God in me at this time is terminated to these and concerning these this Question comes to be determined Viz. â—hether the Decree or Determination of God concerning these only was lodged with him for their Eternal Salvation before the foundation of the World Or Whether the Salvation of these only was that which in the design of the Lord was before him from all eternity and none other And here I have many things to say and of very great weight which I should not enter upon nor undertake to determine or treat of but that the Revelation of God is with me as to this particular and a Necessity from him thus to speak which I thought fit to premise lest any should think that I was either prying into things that are not revealed or medling with that which such may think it were better to let alone and kept in the Womb and never see the Sun But to these I say as before and further That the Revelation of God stands not in times or persons but where and as he will he reveals himself and who shall say unto him What doest Thou And when he will shew his Secret it must be revealed and so I come to give an Answer to the Question Ans Thus then The Docree or Determination of God in reference to the Salvation or Reprobation of any rests not nor is terminated in the Persons of any but the Seeds Jacob and Esau the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman of which Jacob and Esau were the figures As any are found in the Seeds aforesaid so are they concluded with the one and with the other either to Salvation or Death as is the state of each For the Lord accepts of no man for his Goodness nor rejects he any for their Evil quatenus or as they are Men the Creatures that he hath made but as the spirit of either of the Seeds worketh or is the root of either so he rejects so he accepts And here is the mistake of Men and the great puzzle in which they are who determine of these things without or not knowing the Counsel of the Lord. They conclude according to themselves and the Darkness in which they are That the persons or the bare cleaving unto that which is good or choosing or being guided by that which is evil is that which is the ground or bottom of Election or Reprobation and there place the Decree and Determination of God as if so be he had determined some to the one and some to the other from all Eternity and that they cleaving unto the one and choosing the other are there foreseen and determined And so as on the one hand they would hitch the Foundation of God and his Purpose as to Man on the feeble twig of Mans freewill so on the other they would lay the ground and root of both on the Decree of God that there hath put Men or in the state of each which they cannot passe And so have placed these things which are of unfathomable depth and certainty upon the reeling foundation of their own mind For if the Lord had so
concluded Man from all Eternity there could be no Alteration but Man must be determined according as He had concluded him For the Decree and Determination of the Lord who can resist for it is like himself unchangeable and abiding for ever And so the Lord would have complained as a man may speak after the manner of men against himself when he found fault with man and all that which is spoken of Redemption and Christ Iesus had signified little for by an unalterable Decree Man was if this should be so before-hand concluded Or if it stood upon the Acceptance of Man or his choice or will that he is saved or a Vessel of Mercy the foundation of God must lie tottering as man is himself But these things have another depth and the man of Wisdom sees it wherein the Lord is certain of his Determination and yet not at all concluding man to the one or the other as aforsaid Which that it may be plain unto the Sons of Men and that they may see how it is and be convinced or left without excuse the Revelation of God hath been with me as hath been said And so I come to open the Matter a little further and to give demonstration in the thing which may reasonably convince Men that it is so as I have shewen and not according to what Vain Man hath thought upon and concluded First If the Lord by a Decree unalterable hath fixed Man to the one or to the other then Man stands but as a Passive Creature suffering the exercise onely of Divine Pleasure upon him as to his condition not at all having to do in the determination upon him of the Pleasure that is Divine which is gross to imagine For this would take away the activity of the Creature and his choice as to either and make him like a lump of Lead solidly determined to what place he is cast without alteration or choice as to his Center from which of himself he can never remove These things would be strange to assert yet this Position asserts the thing which places Man out of his activity or choice into a heavy dead lumpish condition out of which he can never be removed Secondly In the next place if the determination of God stands upon the choice of Man and the Vessels of Wrath and the Vessels of Mercy depend upon the mutability of Man then hath the Determination of God no foundation for Man being the Bottom or Center and his turning and winding the Achme or determination of his state Another thing cannot be said to be the determination of Man Forasmuch as two Determinations or Centers in one and the same being cannot subsist Thirdly If the determination of Mans eternal State stands in a resolution which was had from all Eternity then Man was before he was made which is absurd to imagine For Resolution and things relative as to Consistances are conterminate in the same being that is to say God and his resolâ—tion concerning Man and the being of Man are contemporate viz. When he made Man he determined concerning Man and not before For the determination of God and the being of things are Relatives that is as to their beings they have relation one to another God said Let there be Light and there was Light So that to affirm that the determination of God from all Eternity concerning Man was so and so as aforesaid is to affirm that Man was from all eternity and so that Man was before his being which as I have said is absurd to think Fourthly Man and his being are Correlatives that is to say Man was not before his being and so to say that the purpose of God was before Man was concerning Man is to say That the Being of Man and Man is distinct For as I have said Man and the purpose of God concerning Man or his Being are contemporary though the one hath the priority before the other that is to say the purpose of making or putting a Creature so and so before the Creature 's being made so and so and so put which is incongruous to reason Fifthly The Gifts and Calling of God are without Repentance as the Apostle testifies Rom. 11. 29. Now if God called Man to Damnation and if he called him to Life and gave him Gifts accordingly For what hath Man that he hath not received Then Man is determined to a state of Destruction or Life and he must needs be subject to either as he is unto Life or Destruction determined which is Blasphemy to speak Sixthly And to add no more No Man is concluded to Life or Death but as he hath to doing in the things that appertain to Death or Life 〈◊〉 Principles and their ends are connatural A Man cannot come to the end of a thing but he must first be in the beginning He that is Damned must come in the way of Destruction and he that is Saved into the Path of Life for the things are consistent I am in the Way if I come to Life and I am in the Path if I arrive at Death these things are obvious But if I am determined to Death or Life before I am made and if from all Eternity I am so determined I am determined so before I am made then I am determined to the End before I am come to the Beginning and so I am that in Decree which I am not in Being nor possibly can be according to the nature of things that are made which have their Order Relations Consistencies Duration End and Beginning according to the Law and Order of him who hath given its being to every thing who observes his own Order and requires not the Creature against his own Law and Order These things I write to draw off people from their unreasonable apprehensions of God and themselves and to put things into their due Place and Order and there to understand them where the Lord hath placed them and not to rove in their Fancies and Imaginations in things of this weight and depth And I have the rather entred upon this for this cause that Man may come into an even and due poize in things of this nature which concern their everlasting happiness And so I have opened this Mystery so far as the Spirit of the Lord hath ordered me to speak Bristol the 13th of the 11th month 1666. Geo. Bishope THE END