3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall break thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel This censure hath likewise a literall and mysticall sense and doth divide it self into three branches The first is I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed The second is It shall break thy head The third is Thou shalt bruise his heel In the three branches of this censure as the censure doth concern the woman and her seed doth consist the foundation of all Christian faith from the first promise of the blessed seed made to Adam For in the second branch of this censure the second covenant is made by God with man in the promise of the blessed seed The Declaration therefore of this censure as it doth concern the Serpent and the woman shall be discharged in these two points First the literall and mysticall sense of the three branches of the censure shall be declared Secondly the second covenant in the promise of the blessed seed shall be set down After the declaration of which two points the censure of God upon the two last parties delinquents shall be followed according to the order set down by Moses First therefore of the literall sense of the thee branches of the censure and next of the mystall sense By the literall sense of the first branch of the censure a naturall enmity and hatred is put between the Serpent the woman who were formerly so loving and conversant one with another which enmity and hatred is put likewise between the seed of both By reason of this enmity and hatred mortall bloody irreconcileable wars are stirred up between the parties This was a miserable censure inflicted upon the Serpent not only to be cast down by the curse from the former estate to craul so despicably and loathsomely upon the belly and to eat the dust of the earth but likewise to be so necessitate by the curse to such a base condition as neither man or woman can abide the Serpent who were formerly so loving and familiar one with another which hatred according to the eternall Decree of God must continue till the worlds end This hatred is not only a simple privation of the former love between this sensitive creature and man but it is a positive enmity accompanied with such a necessitate fear of man in the Serpent as if the fire stand in the way while man doth pursue the Serpent the Serpent to flie the presence of man will craul thorow the fire it self Though this enmity be inflicted upon the Serpent and its seed as a curse yet it is no wayes inflicted as a curse upon the woman or upon her seed but doth naturally proceed from both to the Serpent for the Serpents betraying of man to fall under the eternall curse of the Law for whose redemption the sacred blood of Christ Jesus as he is man was so truly and necessarily shed though it be no small cut to man while man at whose frown the most cruell Lion did most submissively stoop must now be afraid of the sting of such a base crauling creature as the Serpent The second branch of the censuâ—e is It shall break thine head whereby the word it is to be understood man the seed of the woman as shall appear by the mysticall sense of the censure By the eternall Decree of God therefore the seed of the woman must break the head of the Serpent which is the most miserable curse of all to the Serpent For the head implying the brain which is the originall of the sensitive powers of the sensitive creature being broke and bruised as it were in pieces both the sensitive and vegetative life of the Serpent is extinguished in the originall and consequently the venemous power of the sting of the Serpent bruised and broken And by whom By man the seed of the woman and why because thou hast done this The victory therefore of this irreconcileable wars is by the eternall Decree of God decreed to man the seed of the woman But though the victory of this bloody irreconcileable wars be decreed to the seed of the woman yet the conquest is not without some fear and danger to wit Thou shalt bruise his heel that is the heel of man the seed of the woman By the heel the lowest part of man as he is sensitive is to be understood for neither the Serpent or Satan or any created power must enter the soul of man to sting man as he is a spirituall man The Serpent therefore by its sting must bruise the naturall man as he is sensitive and not as the man is intellectuall and a spirituall man By this power given to the Serpent to bruise the heel of man Numb 21.8 Eccl. 10 11. the Serpent is said to bite or sting man the seed of the woman And though by the sting of the Serpent being venemous the wound by the inflamation of the sensitive powers without speedy remedy doth many times prove mortall yet such mortality by naturall death is an advantage to the faithfull while thereby all the afflictions of this life by the old great Serpents sting are determined And though the Serpent many times having mortally stung man by subtilty nimblenesse doth scape the deadly wound yet die the Serpent must if not by man naturally descended of Adam yet by man spiritually begot of the seed of the woman by whose sacred blood the dead by the Serpents sting was redeemed and by whose câ—mmand the blood of man killed must be revenged For by whom mans blood is shed the blood of the shedder whether by man or any sensitive creature must be shed according to the Law of God And so much for the literall sense of the three branches of the censure inflicted upon the sensitive Serpent and its seed as the censure doth concern the woman and her seed Next of the mysticall sense of the three branches of the censure CHAP. XX. The mysticall sense of the first branch of the censure BY the mysticall sense of the first branch of this censure the enmity put between the sensitive Serpent and the woman is mystically put between the old murdering Serpent and the Church of God which is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ the head of the Church mystically signified by the woman For this mysticall woman is the blessed Virgine By the seed of the Serpent is mystically signified those whom Satan by the sowing of his seed of enmity even in a manner from the cradle doth beget to be haters of the truth of the word and persecutors of the Professors of the Word are called the children and seed of Satan By this mysticall woman therefore to wit the blessed Virgine the redeemed militant Church of God upon earth is mystically to be understood By the seed of the woman first Christ Jesus the Word secondly the children begot of the Word brought forth by the
and consequently originall sin is the corruption of nature I answer If the wrath of God must be for originall sin then Gods wrath must be upon his own immediate act for originall sin is the immediate act of God proceeding from the Spirituall darknesse and unbelief wherein all redeemed men are concluded by God that he might have mercy upon all and not that his wrath should be upon all But it is plain that in this whole Chapter the Apostle speaks of actuall and not of originall sin For the Apostle doth acknowledge that he had his conversation in times past amongst the children of disobedience which disobedience is by the multiplied acts of sin and actuall sin from the false deceiving light of Satan and his instruments in a manner from the cradle by the continued acts whereof sin becomes so habituall and connaturall as it seemeth to be naturall to man and this is the sin and not originall sin which doth draw down the wrath of God upon man temporally in this life and without repentance and amendment eternall wrath in the life to come and therefore because Paul before his conversion had his conversation amongst the children of disobedience from his youth Paul calls himself the child of wrath by nature for the children of disobedience are the begotten children of Satan for such is Satans vigilancy and early care to breed up his children by the sowing of his cursed envious seed sweetned with his false naturall deceiving light as he begins to sow his seed in the ears and hearts of all children before the children can sin actually or know any kinde of evill To this end Satan hath his young instruments that by their conversement with children they may be taught to lie curse and swear in a manner so soon as they are able to speak By this means little children do begin to be acquainted with the terms of evill though the envious poison of the evill do not burst out untill children come to actuall morall understanding and action and then by the poyson of Satans envious seed children do begin to practise childish evill and to be averse and with a childish obstinacy to resist any controler of their childish evill actions for the more they are checkt such is the power of Satans seed that they will bend their power to do evill the rather by this means unlesse they be sanctified from the womb the act of the childs will by degrees becomes to be morally corrupted with sin and evill and as the child groweth up in yeers sin and evill groweth up with the childe and becomes so habituall and connaturall to man as without the great mercy of God by his concursive grace and the great care of the parents it is as easie to take away his nature as to win him from the pleasure of sin such is the corrupted multiplied act of his will morally to all evill and mischief by his continuall conversement with Satans instruments the torch-bearers of Satans false deceiving naturall light For by the power of Satans envious deceiving naturall light the heart of man is so incensed to every foul object of sensitive pleasure as the naturall pleasure of man is extended to the pride of naturall pleasure And this is the reason that actuall sin is called the corruption of nature For it is the formall naturall act of the will of man which is so abused by Satans false deceiving naturall light as it is extended to such a height as the formall naturall act of the will becomes formally morall and morally sin and evill And these are the children of disobedience Ephes 2.3 which are called the children of wrath by nature and these are the children of disobedients amongst whom Paul doth acknowledge himself to have had his conversation in times past This corruption of the naturall act of the will of man by the multiplied acts of sin is called the rebellious will of the flesh because the will of the naturall man before he be regenerate rebels against the spirituall command of the Law and cannot be subject to the Law It is called the old man First because this corruption of the naturall act of the will of man by Satan and his instruments is from his childhood Secondly it is called the old man in respect of the regenerate man who is called the new man It is called the body of sin because the naturall man before he be regenerate is dead in actuall sin and therefore Rom. 6.23 it is likewise called the body of death because death is the wages of sin It is called concupiscence because by the multiplied acts of sin all the parts and powers of the naturall man are corrupted By the long continuance of man in actuall sin whereby the long patience of God leading man to repentance is contemned with such an high hand as God in his justice doth give wretched man over to a reprobate minde He is called by the Apostle the compacted vessell of Gods wrath For the wretched obstinate sinner is compacted of actuall spirituall sin and of actuall morall evill and therefore the body of sin and death By my answer to this objection I hope the judicious Reader is fully satisfied that originall sin is not the corruption of nature And that it is plain blasphemy to be so called for so God must be the inevitable author of actuall sin yet the objection is further prest CHAP. XXXV Though David was conceived and born in originall sin yet there was neither any naturall morall or spirituall corruption in that sin SEventhly it is objected Psal 51 5. David doth affirm himself to be conceived and born of his mother in sin and iniquity which sin and iniquity must be by the corruption of the naturall morall and spirituall act of his will Though David therefore was not conceived and born in any essentiall corruption of his nature yet David was conceived and born of his mother in the naturall morall and spirituall corrupted act of his will I answer In Davids first conception by his mother which is the seminall and sensitive conception of man there is neither any naturall morall or spirituâ—ll corruption in the act for it was the good naturall act of Davids mother as she was the good redeemed creature of God And as for his mothers second conception while as David was conceived man and the son of Adam in the womb by the essentiall union of his intellectuall and sensitive nature this was the immediate act of the Father of spirits by which immediate act of God as David was redeemed in Adam the redeemed head of man according to his eternall decree So David by the immediate act of God in the womb was shut up in temporall spirituall darknesse and so brought forth by his mother shut up in that spirituall darknesse which is called unbelief and originall sin But there was neither any spirituall or morall corruption in that spirituall darknesse For though David by his concluding in spirituall darknesse
love and man by faith in the love of God which is the only means whereby a man knoweth himself to stand in the state of Grace whereof no man can be ever assured till he find his love such to the truth of the Lords love by his merit implying the truth of the whole Evangell and Law of God as neither all the hopefull preferments of this life nor all the threatned dangers of naturall death it self can move him to deny the truth of that merit and this is that faith which our Saviour saith is able to remove the greatest mountain of temptation By the reall affirmed unity therefore of these two sacrifices all Christian faith is rased from the foundation And so much for answer to the objection And for the declaration of our Saviours sacrifice by his death of the crosse we are next to return to the place where the Lord was laid But because the main point doth consist in the Declaration of the new covenant immediatly depending upon the Lords resurrection from the grave which we must no wayes interrupt We will therefore first briefly in a word set down the discharge of our Saviours kingly office upon earth prefigurate by Melchisedeck and then come to the declaration of the place where the Lord was laid Melchisedeck was the figure of Christ as he was Priest Prophet and King And though we reade not of any Prophesie of Melchisedeck yet Melchisedeck as he was Priest in discharging of the Priestly office did necessarily prophesie For by the Priests ceremoniall execution of the sacrifice of the altar and of the rites of the propheticall Sabbath the Priest did necessarily prophesie And this is the reason that Christ saith Luke 11.50 51. that the Law and the Prophets did prophesie from Abel which is chiefly meant by the Priestly office And therefore it is said that Caiphas did prophesie the death of our blessed Saviour as high Priest that yeer saying Joh. 11.49 50 51 52. Ye perceive nothing neither do ye consider that it is expedient that one man die then the whole nation should perish Though Caiphas did prophesie out of his fear of the overthrow of the Priestly preferment yet his prophesie was no other indeed then the prophesie of the propheticall Sabbath As Melchisedeck therefore did prefigurate our Saviour as he was Priest and Prophet so Melchisedeck did prefigurate Christ Jesus as he was King For Melchisedeck was king of peace and righteousnesse and so he was the true type and figure of our Saviour Exod. 25.11 whose regall authority was signified by the golden crown placed above the ark of the Covenant compassing the cherubims overshadowing with their wings the Mercy-seat The discharge of our Saviours Kingly authority upon earth was chiefly in these three respects First Christ Jesus by the infinite act of his own immediate power by his resurrection from the grave in his resting from the work of the redemption did as a royall King redeem his subjects to wit Adam and all men naturally descended and to descend of Adam from the captivity of sin Satan eternall death and darknesse from the curse of the Law to which all men were condemned for the sin of Adam Secondly our Saviour as he is King of Peace did reconcile all men to the love and favour of God by removing of the wrath of God from all men for the sin of Adam Thirdly Christ Jesus as he is King of Righteousnesse out of his Kingly authority did command all his subjects of the world thus redeemed to the obedience of his Law of righteousnesse of faith upon the twofold reward of his Law by his new covenant And so much briefly for the discharge of our Saviours Kingly office upon earth We do therefore now return to the Declaration of the second part of the sacrifice of our blessed Saviour the high Priest after the order of Melchisedeck and to the Declaration of the place where the Lord was laid after his cruell bloody death prefigurate by the ashes of the sacrifice and the clean place where the ashes were laid apart from the Altar CHAP. V. The mystery of the last Sabbath which was no wayes propheticall VVE are come to the Declaration of the most sorrowfull mournfull and most lamentable estate of the Church of God from the foundation of the world And likewise to the declaration of the most joyfull comfortable and Evangelicall estate that ever came to all the nations of the world arising from that sorrow For there could never come a sorer cut and temptation to the Church and children of God then to see the rock of their hopes thus troden under foot massacred despised and cast down to the ground Though for fear of the Priests Scribes and Pharisees they durst not shew their sorrow and passion And though by this tragicall bloody persecution of the Shepherd the sheep were scattered yet Joseph of Arimathea one of Christs Disciples and a man of note and worth with honest Nicodemus and others of that religious company out of the loyalty of their love to our Saviour did gracefully intomb his gracious body in a new tomb hewn out of a rock wherein no man was formerly laid And though for their great care and gracefull neatnesse in intombing of the body of our blessed Saviour they be only named yet out of all doubt there must be more at the carryiâ—g of the blessed body of our Saviour from the crosse to the place where the Lord was laid though the place was not far distant from the crosse But to the point of our purpose in hand In our Saviours rest in the grave and in his resurrection from the grave doth consist the very period of the mystery of all mysteries hid from the beginning of the world to wit the mystery of the Lords Day Aâ—d though the mysterie be plainly revealed yet because some men will have it a mysterie still we must use the help of our Theologicall Key to open this mysterie by the concealing of the truth whereof the glory of the Lords Day implying the command of the whole Evangelicall Law hath received for too long a time such great prejudice The declaration of the truth of this fundamentall point of faith doth consist in the twofold rest of the eternall Word The first was his bloody rest as he is man made flesh oâ— the seed of the woman by his resting in his sacred grave after his bloody cruâ—ll dâ—â—â—h for the full space and time of the last Sabbath from end to end Thâ— sâ—cond was his Evangelicall joyfull rest as he is the infinite eternall Word by the day of his resurrection from the grave whereby he did rest from the fulfilling of the promise of the blessed seed both which rests were mysticall The mysterie of his bloody rest is twofold The first mysterie is in the propheticall covenant and in the last Sabbath obliged by the covenant For as the eternall Word did oblige Adam and all men naturally to descend of Adam to
redeemed word of the Law written in the heart of man is the Image of God in his Son Christ Iesus in the truth of his fulfilled promise of the blessed seed enabling all men by morall saith to beleeve the Lords fulfilled promise of the blessed seed And the Lords day the seventh day of the Evangelicall Law of faith blessed and sanctified by the truth of the merit of the Lords Evangelicall rest is now objected to the externall senses obliging all the Nations of the World to believe the truth of the Lords merit by his rest from the fulfilling oâ— the promise of the blessed seed To whose faith the blessing of the Lords eternall rest is due by the Evangelicall Law of faith As for the formall difference of the word of every severall seventh daies rest of the Law from the beginning it doth consist in these two pointes First the formall difference of the seventh day of the Law implying the command of the whole Law doth arise from the formall manner of Gods revealing of himselfe by the word of his severall seventh daies rest by the formallity of which severall rest the formall worship of the seventh day is commanded The second difference is that by the least transgression of the Law of righteousnes in the state of perfection the sinne was without all hope of any revealed mercy or time of repentance But the transgression of the Law of righteousnes of faith is withall hope of mercy and time of repentance while there is day in this life Of this declaration of the Evangelicall word as it is the redeemed word of truth written in the heart of man And as it is the Evangelicall word of the Lords day the seventh day of the Evangelicall Law of faith implying the perfection of the redepmtion of man from the curse of the Law for the sinne of Adam I infer these subsequent necessary demonstrative conclusions CHAP. IX Conclusion 1. IT is by the redeemed word of the Law as the Law is spirituall immediatly written in the soule of man necessarily implying the power of intelectuall life and light that the soule doth live and hath its intellectuall moving and being which is the first act of the soule of man as he is intelectuall and a true humane spirit in potency to his second intelectuall act And it is by the word of the Law literally written in the heart of man necessarily implying the power of naturall life and light that man as he is man doth live move and hath his redeemed being which is the first act of man as he is man and a rationall creature in potency to his second naturall and morall act by the species of the externall sensitive object and this is the reason that Iohn saith Iohn 1.4 in it was life and that life was the light of man Conclusion 2. It is by the litterall light of the word of the Lords day the seventh day of the Evangelicall Law of faith objected to the externall senses which is one reall light with the literall light of the redeemed word of the Law in the heart that the understanding and will of the naturall man is formally and morally produced in act necessarily implying the naturall light without which the species of the externall object can neither be morally or naturally apprehended by the act of the understanding of man Conclusion 3. Though man as he is a spirituall man shut up in spirituall darknesse till he be regenerate be said to be dead as he is a spirituall man because he is deprived of the spirituall light of the holy Spirit for the time yet by the word of the Law immediately and spiritually written in the soule necessarily implying the intelectuall life and light the soule of man humane spirit doth live and move intelectually which intelectuall life and light the spirituall light of the holy Spirit doth necessarily presuppose for the formall action of holines doth as necessarily presuppose the intelectuall act of the soule as the formall morall action the naturall action of man which are both by one reall light though the intelectuall be a pure unmixed light and the naturall a mixed light by the essentiall union of the intelectuall and sensitive nature of man without which light man were neither an intelectuall or rationall creature as hath bin formerly demonstrate Conclusion 4. As by the internall word of the Law which is eternally spiritually and immediatly written in the soule the soule of man humane spirit is spiritually immediatly and eternally obliged to the Law as the Law is â—pirituall So by the eternall word of the Law literally written in the h art of man man as he is man is eternally and morally obliged to the Law of God and consequently the sensitive body being resolved from the soule must remaine in its principle to be reunited to the soule in the great day Conclusion 5. The Lords day blessed and sanctified by the Lords blessed resurrection and rest from the fulfilling of the promise of the blessed seed in time was in the eternall purpose and councell of God before all time the decâ—eed seventh day of the Evangelicall Law of righteousnes of faith Conclusion 6. The literall light of the Lords day the seventh day of the Lords Evangelicall rest doth farre surmount the light of all the severall seventh dayes rest of the eternall word from the foundation of the world for by the literall light of the Lords day the naturall man is fundamentally and literally led to all the former seventh daies rest of the eternall word from the beginning all proceding from the love of God to man Conclusion 7. The literall light of the word of the Lords day doth emply the literall light of all the Scripture of God and consequently the whole excercite act of the sacred decree of predestination so farre as is revealed to man in this life Conclusion 8. By the Lords daies Evangelicall rest from the fulfilling of his promise of the blessed seed arising from his bloody rest the Lord did manifest himselfe truth and in that truth love and mercy to man Conclusion 9. As our Saviour by his birth life death and by his rest in the grave did manifest himselfe true man and by his wonders and miracles did manifest himselfe the Son of God begot of the seed of the woman by the immediate unction of the holy Spirit So by the infinit power of his Evangelicall rest in his triumphant victory over the power of Satan sinne eternall death and darknesse of Hell over the power of the curse of the Law and over the power of the grave his last enemy the Lord did manifest himselfe Lord God and man in the three coessentiall distinct Persons of the glorious Trinity the maner whereof is clearly set downe in the Chapter following Conclusion 10. As by the Lords Evangelicall rest from the fulfilling of the promise of the blessed seed arising from his bloody rest was by his infinit power So his merit by his rest
from the redemption of man from the curse of the Law and from his fulfilling of the Law for man by his bloody rest was likewise infinit By the power of whose infinit merit by the Lords daies Evangelicall rest as it is the word of the eternall life and rest of man the formall worship of the Lords day is commanded in spirit and truth And therefore the Lord told the Samaritan woman The houre commeth and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father and consequently the Son and holy Spirit in Spirit and truth For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth By which words the formall Evangelicall worship of the Lords day is both set downe and commanded by the Lord of the Lords day For first the Lord told the Samaritan woman commanding her to beleeve that the houre should come which is the houre of the Lords day which was then to come Secondly the Lord commanded the Samaritan woman to beleeve that God is a Spirit and must be worshipped in Spirit and truth that is in the Spirit of faith in the truth of his Evangelicall rest fâ—om the fulfilling of his promise of the blessed seed Which is the formall Evangelicall commanded worship of the Lords day which must be sanctified by man after that formall manner in the Spirit of faith in the truth of the Lords merit by his Evangelicall rest as he hath manifested himselfe to man by the day of his resurrection to wit Lord God and man in the three coessentiall distinct Persons of the glorious Trinity Thirdly whereas the Lord told the Samaritan woman that God must be worshipped in Spirit and truth and that the Father requireth such worship The formall Evangelicall worship of the Lords day is immediatly commanded by the Lord of the Lords day for Gods will and requiring of man by his word is the Lords immediate command to man Fourthly whereas the Lord said to the Samaritan woman the houre is in these words the Lords last will testament to be executed after the testators death is fully implied for in the commanded worship of the Lords day the whole Evangelicall morall Law of God which is the whole Evangelicall word is necessarily implied Fiftly while as the Lord saith to the Samaritan woman the houre cometh when ye shall neither worship the Father in this Mountaine or at Jerusalem By these words the formall ceremoniall worship of the propheticall Sabbath implying the whole propheticall ceremoniall Law is actually determined by the actuall immediate commanded Evangelicall worship of the Lords day to the great comfort of both Jewes and Gentiles in tâ—eir freedome from the sore yoake of the ceremoniall Law Conclusion 11. All propheticall ceremoniall worship is barred from the truth of the Lords commanded worship for by such ceremoniall worship the truth of the Lords fulfilling of his promise of the blessed seed is belied and necessarily denied by the will worship of man Conclusion 12. All ceremoniall pretended worship of God by any maner of carved or painted Image objectively representing to the eyes of man the Son of God as he is man is contradictory to the truth of the Lords commanded worship by his Evangelicall rest from the fulfilling of his promise of the blessed seed as he is God and man For first by this ceremoniall pretended worship God is immediatly worshipped as he is man Secondly by the intervening of the sensitive object between the Lord and his worship the Lords worship is necessarily interrupted and consequently the worship a false faithles idolatrous worship necessarily denying the truth of the Lords commanded worship Conclusion 13. All mediate pretended worship of God by invocation of Angels or Saints departed this life is repugnant to the Lords infinit merit by the truth of his Evangelicall rest For first by the immediate object of such worship intervening between the worshipper and the Lord as by his infinit merit he is eternall life rest the infinitnes of his merit is confined Secondly prayer being a most essentiall part of Gods immediate worship by such invocation of the object to which the prayer is directed the worship of God is necessarily interrupted while as man by the Lords owne immediate command is commanded to call upon the Lord himselfe immediatly in the day of trouble and neither upon Saint or Angel And consequently such mediate pretended worship of God equall idolatry with the former Conclusion 14. As all men for their first sinne in Adam as head were condemned to the curse of eternall death and darknes So by the infinit powâ—â— of the Lords merit all men were redeemed in Adam as head from the curse of eternall death and from eternall naturall and spirituall darknes shuâ— up its â—â—mâ—orall spirituall darknes called unbeleefe and originall sinne for â—he infinit good of man Conclusion 15. As by the perfection of the redemption of man by the power of the Lords infinit free merit all men are freed from the curse of eternall naturall morall and spirituall death and from the eternall curse of naturall morall and spirituall darknesse though shut up in temporall spirituall darknes So all men by the redeemed free power of the word in the heart as they are naturall men are restored to the free grace of naturall and morall life and light without any manner of necessitating the act of the understanding will or senses either naturally or morally Conclusion 16. All men redeemed from the curse of the Law by the eternall decree of predestination being concluded in spirituall darknes called unbeleefe and originall sinne all naturall men comming to actual morall understanding and action before they be regenerate are necessarily dead in actuall sinne by their transgression of the Law of faith Conclusion 17. By the redeemed word of the Law in the heart of man man is the Image of God in his Son Christ Jesus as he hath revealed himselfe by the light of the word of the Lords day truth love and mercy First therefore the naturall man by the power of the redeemed word of the Law written in his heart is enabled to produce the workes of truth love and mercy morally though not spiritually which are the workes of morall faith Secondly and consequently by the reall unity of the power of light and command of the word of the Law in his heart with the light and command of the Lords day the naturall mans heart is morally moved to assent and to beleeve the truth of the Lords day and to give morall obedience to the command of the Law implied in the Lords day Thirdly and consequently by the power of the redeemed word in the heart man is enabled to morall repentance which doth necessarily proceed the act of morall faith Conclusion 18. All tenents and assertions denying the universall grace of the redemption of all men from the curse of the Law for their sinne in Adam shut up in spirituall darknes called unbeleefe and sinne
rest which is the blessing of the Lords day is the immediate object of faith and therefore the Evangelicall law is called the law of righteousnesse of faith though the works of faith which are the works of truth love and mercy are equally commanded in the command of faith which is the necessary sole immediate efficient cause of the works of faith and therefore necessarily commanded in the command of faith while the Apostle therefore doth affirm that man is justified by faith without the works of the law we must understand that the works meaned by the Apostle are the ceremoniall works of the Propheticall law and not the Evangelicall works of faith to which works the Apostle doth exhort both the Jews and Gentiles and therefore the Apostle James saith shew me thy faith by thy works Now the Lords merit of eternall life which is the blessing of the Lords day being really one the word of promise and new covenant and the word of the seventh day of the Evangelicall law are really one and so much for the reall unity of both next of the formall difference The formall difference of both doth consist in this that by the new covenant God and man are mutually obliged in the Evangelicall word of the Lords day For as God by his new covenant doth formally oblige man to believe the truth of his fulfilled promise of the blessed seed by his Evangelicall rest So the Lord doth mutually oblige himself by the truth of his merit by his Evangelicall rest to save the believer from the curse of the second death obliging likewise the unbeliever and finall contemner of his free gracious offer to the mercilesse curse of the law of faith But by the Evangelicall word of the Lords day the seventh day of the Evangelicall law the Lord doth formally command man to testifie his beliefe to the word of eternall life as the Lords Word is his law to man The chief precept of whose law is the commanded worship of the Lords day in which commanded worship the whole Evangelicall law of righteousnesse of faith as formally and necessarily commanded commanding the faith of man in the originall which is the love of the heart where the redeemed word of the law is written really one with the Evangelicall word of the seventh day of the law the Lords day by the power of which redeemed word in the heart which is the Image of God in his Son Christ Jesus truth love and mercy it self all men are morally enabled by the works of truth love and mercy to give morall obedience to the command of the Evangelicall law which are the works of faith the chief work whereof is the truth of the commanded worship of the Lords day whereby the Lord by his Evangelicall rest hath manifested himself truth love and mercy to man The judicious Reader therefore may plainly perceive that though there be a formall difference between the word of the seventh day of the Evangelicall law and of the word of promise and the new covenant yet they are really one and the one necessarily implyed in the other For as hath been formerly declared God cannot morally command man to his new covenant but by the immediate command of the word of the seventh day of the law implying the command of the whole Evangelicall law which is the Evangelicall word of the Lords day For there is neither life light or the power of command in any precept of the Evangelicall law of righteousnesse of faith but by the only immediate commanded worship of the Lords day in that commanded worship implying the command of the whole law And therefore the blessing of the Lords merit by the Lords dayes Evangelicall rest is only and immediatly due by the law to the faithfull worship of the Lords day for the fulfilling of the whole law which is fulfilled by faith in the Lords infinite merit by whose infinite sanctified merit by his Evangelicall resurrection and rest from the fulfilling of his promise the Lords day is the word of eternall life and the immediate object of Christian faith without the command therefore of the Lord day as it is his law to man there is neither life or light for man or any law or new covenant or any object for the faith of man dead in actuall sin as all men freed from the curse of the law for the sin of Adam are before they be regenerate by their transgression of the law of faith And therfore as our Saviour by his bloody rest in the grave by his fulfilling of the command of the seventh day did fulfill the whole law as our Saviour was oblieged to the law for man to whose merit the eternall life and rest lost by Adam is due by the law so the Lord Iesus Christ eternall life and rest by his resurrection and rest from the fulfilling of his promise of the blessed seed upon the day of his resurrection did obliege all men again to his new Covenant by the immediate command of the Lords dayes commanded worship blessed and sanctified by his merit to believe in his fulfilled promise of the blessed seed to whose faith the blessing of his merit of eternall life is due by the law which is commanded in the cōmanded worship of the Lords day as may appear by the word of promise new covenant Go and teach preach the Evangel to all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit Mar. 16.15 16. he that shal believe shall be saved but he that wil not believe shall be condemned The sense of the word of the covenant is this Go and preach the Evangel that is go and preach proclaim the glad tidings of my resurrection and rest this day from the fulfilling of my promise of the blessed seed which is the summe of the whole Evangel implied in the Lords day by the Lords Evangelicall rest go therefore preach the Evangel to all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit as my my resurrection and rest this day from the power of sin Satan hell eternall death the curse of the law and the power of the grave I have manifested my self by mine own infinit immediate power Truth to man by the fulfilling of my promise and in that truth love and mercy to man and in that truth love and mercy God and man in the three coessentiall distinct persons of the Trinity whosoever shall believe in me to wit eternall life and rest by the power of my infinit merit by my Evangelicall rest shall be saved from the curse of the second death for the transgression of the law of faith as by my bloody rest in the grave from the cursed death of the crosse all men are saved from the curse of the law for their transgression of the law in Adam which is the first death he that will not believe in me shall be condemned to
his spirituall understanding did perfectly apprehend God to bee the Creator of Heaven of earth of man of the creatures and that by the immediate eternall blessing of the first seventh dayes rest of God the world man and the creatures were continued and preserved in the perfection of their created estate And upon the immediate command of the word of the first seventh dayes rest implying the command of the whole law of righteousnesse the first Covenant was made with man afterward to be declared As Adam by the spirituall light of his understanding really one with the spirituall light of the word of the seventh dayes rest did perfectly understand God as God revealed himselfe to Adam by the word of his first seventh dayes rest wherein the perfection of Adams understanding of God did consist so Adam by the created perfection of his spirituall action of holinesse did adequate the perfection of the command of the Law as Adam was first obliged to the Law of God for if Adams spitituall action of holinesse had not been of equall power with the perfection of the command of the Law which is in the spirituall command and the first Covenant being established upon the immediate command of the word of the first seven dayes rest of the Law both upon the eternall blessing of the first seven dayes rest and upon the curse of eternall death Adam could never have fulfilled the perfection of the command of the Law but must have necessarily fallen under the curse of eternall death which had been most high injustice in God in binding and obliging his intellectuall creature man to a law upon the curse of eternall death above the power of his obedience by his spirituall action of holinesse for it was only by Adams spirituall action of holinesse that the law was to be fulfilled for though Adam was created with the power of morall action yet while Adam stood in his state of perfection Adams morall action was not actuall neither could his spirituall action of holinesse be called formally and properly morall which denomination is extended both to the obedience and transgression of the Law as hath been formerly declared Adams morall action therefore was not actuall till the Law of righteousnesse was transgressed by Adam and then Adams morall action was actuall and formally morall and morally evill and the greatest evill that ever was or can be committed by man Now as Adam by the perfection of his spirituall understanding of the word of the first seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousnesse did perfectly understand God as God revealed himselfe to be honoured and worshipped by his rest from the works of the Creation So Adam by the perfection of his naturall understanding must needs apprehend the being power perfection goodnesse life light knowledge understanding wisdome in himselfe and the creatures to flow from the infinite perfection of the Creator whereby Adam was led in the understanding of the essentiall Attributes of God which essentiall understanding of God in Adam must be imperfect God as he is essentiall being infinite and incomprehensible Adams perfect understanding of God therefore was perfected by the perfection of his spirituall understanding of the word of the first seventh dayes rest as God did manifest himselfe to man to be understood and worshipped by man for God can no otherwise be comprehended by the act of the understanding of man or Angel but after that formall manner that God doth minifest himselfe to be understood and worshipped by either And so much briefly of the created naturall and spirituall perfection of man with whom the first Covenant was made by God which is the contents of the first part of the first Book Before we come to the second part an objection must be removed CHAP. V. Of a threefold comparison between the created naturall and spirituall perfection of the first Adam with the naturall and spirituall perfection of the second Adam IT is said That the first Adam was made a living soule a naturall man and from the earth earthly 1 Cor. 15.45 46 47. Adam therefore was not created in the state of naturall and spirituall perfection neither could he be created the image of righteousnesse and holinesse or a true spirituall man I answer briefly to the Objection The Apostle in these three verses of this chapter doth make a threefold comparison between the first and second Adam The first is in the 45. verse the sense whereof is this The first Adam was made a living soule to wit to live the perfect life of righteousnesse necessarily implying the perfection of his naturall life but the second Adam was not only made a living soule but likewise a quickning spirit where the power of the naturall and spirituall life of the first Adam is compared with the power of the naturall and spirituall life of the second Adam The first Adam by the power of his naturall and spirituall life was not able to quicken himselfe or any man else being dead but the second Adam by the power of his naturall life in sustaining the cursed death of the Crosse did redeem the first Adam and all men condemned and dead under the curse of the Law by eternall death in Adam their head for the transgression of the Law by Adam and by the infinite power of his Resurrection from the dead did raise up Adam and all men condemned and dead in Adam their head quickning and reconciling all men by the price of his blood to the love and favour of God for that first sinne The first Adam therefore notwithstanding of his naturall and spirituall perfection in respect of the second Adam may be truly said to be but a living soule and not a quickning spirit The second comparison is in the 46. verse where the spirituall perfection of the first Adam is compared with the spirituall perfection of the second Adam the sense of the words is this Though the first Adam was created in such spirituall perfection yet his spirituall perfection was not essentiall but habituall and conditionall But the spirituall perfection of the second Adam the Lord Jesus Christ is Essentiall and therefore the first Adams spirituall perfection in respect of the second Adams essentiall perfection was but the perfection of a naturall man as the spirituall perfection of the second Adam was the essentiall perfection of an essentiall spirituall man the eternall Sonne of God begot of the seed of the woman in time The third comparison is in the 47. verse where the humane sensitive nature of the first Adam is compared with the humane sensitive nature of the second Adam The sense of the words is this The first Adam as he is man sensitively was created of earthly principles immediately and therefore from the earth earthly But the second Adam as he is man sensitively Christ Jesus the naturall Son of God was begot of the sanctified seed of the woman immediately and every way from the heaven heavenly in respect of whose humane
to his eternall Decree intending the Creation of man said Let us make man Gen. 1.26 and not let us make Adam to wit as a private person Adam therefore was created in such admirable state of naturall and spirituall perfection as he was the head of the river of men naturally to descend and flow from Adam the head The first Covenant therefore was made with Adam as the created head of all men naturally to descend of Adam who were all really created in the same naturall and spirituall perfection that Adam their head was created in whō all men were as truly really bound obliged in Adam head to the first Covenant and to the command of the word of the first seventh daies rest of the law of righteousnesse in every respect as Adam their head though not actually descended of Adam for as all men sinned in Adam their head to wit really so all men were as really and necessarily bound and obliged to the command of the word of the first seventh dayes rest of the Law in Adam their head as Adam was as all men found by experience and consequently the naturall and spirituall perfection of Adam the head of all men whereby he was enabled to merit eternall life upon earth was as really truly and necessarily due by Covenant established upon the immediate command of the Law to Adams posterity as they should actually descend of Adam as to Adam himselfe for as all men were bound to the same reall Law in Adam their head so in the justice of God all men as they should naturally descend of Adam must be enabled with the like power of obedience with Adam their head The first Covenant made by God with man is set downe by Moses Gen. 2.16 17. The word of promise of eternall life whereby God doth binde and oblige himselfe and man to his first Covenant is in the 16. verse the words are Eating thou shalt freely eate of every Tree of the Garden and consequently Adam was to eate of the Tree of life by eating whereof Adam as he was created a naturall man intellectuall and sensitive was to live eternally upon earth for by the doubling of the word eating thou shalt eate is signified an eternall eating and by an eternall eating an eternall living in the state and felicity wherein Adam was created God therefore in these words doth promise to Adam and to all men created in Adam naturally to descend of Adam that his created estate and condition shall be continued eternally upon earth which promise was to be fulfilled by God and enjoyed by Adam by the eternall blessing of the word of the first seventh dayes rest for by the onely immediate eternall blessing of the word of the first seventh dayes rest Adam the world and the creatures created for man were to rest eternally upon earth in the state and condition wherein they were created for which cause God blessed the first seventh day for Adam and God sanctified the first seventh day for his perfect worship of the first seventh day by Adam If Adam therefore will have the actuall enjoying of the word of promise of eternall life Adam must have it by his perfect worship of God upon the first seventh day of the Law according to that formall manner that God did manifest himselfe to Adam by the word of his first seventh dayes rest which is the condition of the Covenant As God therefore in his word of promise of eternall life doth binde and oblige himselfe to Adam by his Covenant so God doth mutually binde and oblige Adam to the formall perfect worship of the first seventh day that by the eternall blessing of the word of the first seventh daies rest of the Law Adam might enjoy the promise As God doth binde and oblige Adam by his Covenant to obedience the promise of eternall life by his perfect worship of God upon the first seventh day of the Law so God by his first Covenant in the command of the seventh dayes worship as it is the great command of the Law doth likewise binde and oblige Adams obedience to the command of the whole Law of righteousnesse upon a dying death which is eternall death ever dying without all end of dying contained in the 17. verse in these words But of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill thou shalt not eate of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt dye Gen. 2.17 In which words God doth binde and oblige Adams obedience to the command of the whole Law upon a dying death for by the transgression of the command of God of the Law of righteousnesse by his word commanding Adam to abstaine from eating of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge the whole Law of righteousnesse is necessarily transgressed for he that doth offend in one doth offend in all Jam. 2.10 By this negative command therefore necessarily implying the affirmative command of the Law Adams obedience is bound and obliged to the command of the whole Law of righteousnesse upon a dying death which is eternall death Now as the promise of eternall life whereby God doth oblige himselfe and Adam mutually by his Covenant was to be enjoyed by the eternall blessing of the word of the first seventh dayes rest of the Law the Covenant doth bind and oblige Adam to the immediate command of the Law and the Law doth formally command Adam by the immediate power of the word of the first seventh dayes rest implying the command of the whole law both upon the eternall blessing of the first seventh dayes rest and upon the curse of a dying death which is eternall death and therefore the curse of eternall death is called the curse of the Law The first Covenant being thus established upon the immediate command of the word of the first seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousnesse implying the command of the whole Law between God and Adam the created head of all men naturally to descend of Adam to the end of the world the first Covenant was ratified by the Tree of life and by the Tree of knowledge of good and evill placed in the midst of the Garden of Paradise as the Sacraments of the first Covenant made between God and Adam the created head of all men that Adam as he was man intellectuall and sensitive created in the state of naturall and spirituall perfection advanced to such felicity by the Tree of life might rest secured of the promise of God by eternall life upon his perfect obedience to the command of the Law commanding him by the power of the word of the first seventh dayes rest so Adam by the Tree of knowledge of good and evill might rest as assuredly in the promise of eternall death upon his transgression of the command of God by his word commanding Adam which was the necessary command of the word of the first seventh dayes rest of his Law of righteousnesse for God cannot command man by his word as
and therefore to conclude this Point As it had beene highest presumption in Adam in his state of perfection by his contemning of the revealed light of the word of the first seventh dayes rest to have attempted by any false light to search into the secret Councell of God to know what God had decreed concerning man So it is a most presumptuous attempt in men of this age by transcending and contemning the very foundation of the light of the whole Scripture of God which is the light of the word of the first seventh dayes rest and of the first Covenant established thereon and to obtrude the fearefull light of such a miserable absolute decree to the conscience of man as to affirme that God of the Law of Righteousnesse contrary to all righteousnesse out of his alone meere pleasure without all subordinate respect did decree to condemne all the world to the eternall torments of hell except a certaine number of men whom hee decreed to elect and save and that for the execution of this miserable decree God did decree from all eternity to necessitate Adams will by the irresistable power of this decree to fall under the eternall curse of the Law and that without any respect to his Covenant made with Adam without any respect to his Law or to Adams merit by Adams transgression of the Law Thus having removed from the perfection of mans creation the obtruded internall causes of the fall of man I come next to the declaration of the true efficient cause of the fall of man as it is set downe in the sacred Word CHAP. IV. The Angels bound and obliged to the Law of God AS Eve the woman man female was first in the transgression wee are to begin with the declaration of the efficient cause of Eves transgression of the Law of God which was meerly externall The externall efficient cause of Eves fall was principall and instrumentall The principall externall efficient cause as it will appeare by the subsequent declaration was Satan The instrumentall efficient cause of Eves transgression was first the Serpent secondly the objective fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill thirdly the words of the first Covenant Gen. 2.17 dying thou shalt dye though the two last were but causes by accident The causes inducing Adams fall were these three and Eve her selfe which was the fourth cause Satan therefore that old crooked Serpent enemy to God and man was the principall efficient externall cause of the fall of man the rest Satan did use or rather abuse for his instruments The cause of Satans betraying of man was Satans malice against God and his envy to man advanced to such high honour of dominion over the earth and over the creatures of the earth in such high love and favour of God from whose love and glorious presence Satan was disgracefully cast downe from the Heavens for Satan by the infinite word being created a most glorious Angelicall spirit in the heighth of angelicall perfection by the power of the word of the law actually and spiritually enlightned as all Angels were created for by the immediate power of the word the Angels do live move intellectually and spiritually and have their intellectuall and spirituall being The Angels therefore according to the internall power of the word were obliged to the command of the Law of God as well as man and therefore it is affirmed by the Apostle 2 Pet. 2.4 that the Angels sinned and sinne being the transgression of the Law the Angels must be obliged to the command of the angelicall word of the Law and consequently and necessarily the Angels by the power of the word in the justice of God must be enabled with equall power to fulfill the command of the Law for as it may appeare by Satans fall the Angels are obliged to the command of the Law upon the curse of eternall death for there is but one reall word of the Law of God obliging all the intellectuall creatures created by the word though formally differing according to the differing sphere of the intellectuall creature man in the humane sphere is formally and humanely obliged to the Law of God the Angels in the angelicall sphere formally and angelically and both eternally obliged Now Satan by his proud contempt of God by his transgression of the Law having falne from the heighth of his angelicall perfection and felicity wherein hee was created under the eternall angelicall curse of the Law Satan was cast down like lightning from heaven to eternall darknesse Luk. 10.18 Eph. 6.12 without all hope of redemption eternally banished from the glorious presence of God and from the society of the numberlesse number of the blessed Angels who according to the eternall Decree of God do stand in the grace of their created perfection by the power of the Resurrection of the word made flesh of the seed of the woman as they were created by the power of the word for the Lords infinite merit by his rest from the fulfilling of his promise of the blessed Seed doth descend to the Angels by whose infinite merit the Angels are conserved in their created estate as ministring spirits for the safety of the Elect. By reason of this shamefull and ignominious disgrace of Satan by such a high fall by the angelicall curse of the Law Satan became malitiously desperate against God for though Satan by the angelicall curse of the Law was deprived of all spirituall understanding and action yet the angelicall intellectuall power of his understanding and action which is so admirable did remaine for by this power Satan works all his mischiefe against God and man Satan therefore being puft up maliciously against God and knowing man to be the most beloved creature of God and seeing that man should hold such high soveraignty and such high favour and esteeme with God from whose favour Satan had so disgracefully fallen This did so aggravate Satans infelicity as that his malicious impatiency did carry him as it were headlong in contempt of God to work his malice upon innocent man and to induce man by the transgression of the Law of God by the word of his Law commanding man to fall into the like condemnation with himselfe for Satan no doubt did apprehend that it was as impossible for man to be redeemed from the eternall curse of the humane obligement of the Law as for himselfe to be redeemed from the angelicall curse of the Law By this meanes Satan thought to be revenged on God in the destruction of his darling man and to make the whole works of the Creation suffer in the destruction of man who was created the ornament and perfection of the works of the Creation Satan therefore knowing man to be created in such an admirable estate of naturall and spirituall perfection Satan did excogitate such a mighty temptation as was able to shake the perfection of the most perfect intellectuall creature of God as it is an intellectuall creature which may
cursed Altar of the cross the only Son of his love Christ Jesus begot man of the seed of the woman in time as he is man the eternall Son of God before all time to redeem man from the eternall curse of the Law for the sin of Adam by his cursed death of the cross that as Satan in the Serpent did first so maliciously betray the woman to procure the fall of man So by the resurrection of the blessed seed from the dead the head of the old Serpent Satan and his cursed seed for his malicious betraying of the woman should be broke in the great day to his eternall confusion For which cause first God decreed from all eternity to enter his second covenant with man in the promise of the blessed seed that the blessed seed should rest from the redemption of man from the curse of the Law for the sin of Adam upon the seventh day of the last Sabbath from end to end that by his fulfilling of the whole Law in the seventh day the whole Law might be fulfilled as he did bind and oblige himself to man by covenant by fulfilling whereof the first seventh dayes eternall rest lost by Adams transgression of the Law might be due to his merit by the Law that the eternall blessing of the next seventh dayes rest the redemeed state of man might be continued Secondly God by his eternall decree did decree to bind and oblige himself to man to fulfill the promise of the blessed seed by his resurrection from the grave and to enter his new covenant with all the nations of the world As God did decree from all eternity to bind and oblige himself to man in the promise of the blessed seed by the second covenant So God decreed from all eternity to bind and oblige man mutually by his second covenant to believe in his promise of the blessed seed both upon the eternall blessing of the word of the second seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousness of faith and likewise upon the eternall merciless curse of the law of faith The promised redemption of man therefore in the promise of the blessed seed by the second covenant was as effectuall and actuall to Adam and to all men naturally to descend of Adam the head untill the promise was fulfilled as it was effectuall and actuall in the fulfilled promise by the new covenant to all the nations of the world Adam therefore and all men naturally to descend of Adam by the redeemed word of the Law literally written in the the heart of man were necessarily inabled with the power of naturall life and light and with the power of the life and light of righteousness of faith to believe morally in the promise of the blessed seed as they were oblieged by covenant though by the eternall Decree of God Adam and all men redeemed in Adam the head from the curse of eternall death and darkness were shut up and concluded in temporall darkness called unbelief and sin till they be regenerate afterwards to be declared from this enabling of man with the life of righteousness of faith to believe the promise of the blessed seed the Law of righteousnes was first called the Law of righteousnes of faith for by the formall obliegement of the Law by the second covenant the formall simple obliegement of the Law of righteousness was actually determined by the command of the word of the seventh day of the Law of righteousness of faith in the promise of the blessed seed By this decreed work of the redemption of man by predestinating the Lamb of God to the cursed altar of the cross for the sin of man the sacred Decree of God doth principally take the name to be called The eternall decree of Predestination as from the more noble and excellent part so far surmounting the works of the creation as the sacred blood of the Son of God doth surmount the excellency of all the creatures created by God And so much for the eternall Decree of Predestination for the present Next the perfection of the redemption of man is to be declared CHAP. XIII Of the perfection of the redemption of man from the curse of the Law for the sin of Adam by the cursed death of the Son of God Christ Jesus as he is man AS God by his decree from all eternity did decree by the cursed death of the promised blessed seed made flesh of the seed of the woman to redeem all men from the curse of eternall death and darkness to which all men were eternally condemned in Adam the head So God from all eternity did decree to shut up and conclude all men redeemed in Adam the head in temporall spirituall darkness till they be regenerate which is called unbelief and sin and therefore it is said Rom. 11.32 that God did conclude all men in unbelief which is spirituall unbelief proceeding from that spirituall darkness that he might have mercy upon all men to wit by enlightning of that spirituall darkness by the grace of spirituall faith in the act of regeneration In which two points the perfection of the redemption of man doth consist First therefore of the perfection of the redemption of man from the curse of eternall death and darkness And secondly of the shutting up and concluding of all men redeemed from the curse of eternall death and darkness in temporall spirituall darkness called unbelief and sin according to the eternall Decree of God The perfection of the redemption of man condemned to eternall death and darknes is by the intervention of the cursed death of the Word made flesh of the seed of the woman between man condemned to the curse of the Law and the actuall inflicting of the curse by God upon the word of the Law and life of righteousness written in the heart of man whereby man was inabled with the power of naturall life and light and with the power of the life and light of righteousness before his fall By which intervention of our Saviour by his sustaining of the actuall curse of the Law due to man condemned by the Law the word of the naturall life of man and of the life of righteousness writen in the heart of man and consequently man is redeemed from the curse of eternall death and darkness and by the power of the redeemed word in the heart of the redeemed man The naturall man is naturally and morally inabled again to live the naturall life of man and the life of righteousness of faith to believe first in the gracious promise of the blessed seed by the old covenant and now to believe in the fulfilled promise by the new Covenant As Adam therefore and the Fathers by the literall light of the Word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousness of faith then by the name of the Sabbath of the Lord which was really one with the literall light of the redeemed word of the Law and life of righteousness of faith in the heart
of man were morally enabled to believe the promised rest of the blessed seed from the redemption of man from the curse of the Law for the sin of Adam upon the Sabbath and by the power of the word of righteousness of faith in their heart were inabled to bring forth the morall and ceremoniall works of faith according to the formall command of the Law of faith So now by the power of the redeemed word of the law of Faith written in the heart of man really one with the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Evangelicall Law of righteousness of faith the redeemed naturall man is morally inabled to believe the fulfilled promise of the blessed seed and to bring forth the morall works of faith according to the command of the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Evangelicall Law of righteousness of faith And therefore though the redeemed naturall man from the curse of eternall death and darkness be shut up and concluded in temporall spirituall darknes till he be regenerate and dead as he is a spirituall man without any manner of spirituall understanding or action and necessitate to spirituall unbelief yet the redeemed naturall man is not shut up and concluded in naturall and morall darkness and dead as he is a naturall man necessitate to morall unbelief but by the power of the redeemed word written in the heart of man The naturall man is alive with freedome of naturall and morall grace by the act of his understanding will and senses to believe the promise of the blessed seed by the old covenant and the fulfilled promise by the new covenant for the word of the Law of righteousness of faith obliged both by the old and new covenant is first and immediately morally commanded though necessarily implying the spirituall command and that as well upon the merciless curse of the Law of Faith as upon the eternall blessing of the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousness of faith If the redeemed naturall man therefore were concluded and necessitate to morall unbelief as by his concluding in spirituall darkness he is necessitate to spirituall unbelief First it were impossible for the redeemed naturall man to give morall obedience to the command of the Law of faith obliged either by the old or new covenant But more impossible for God in this case to make his old or new covenant with man For it were high injustice in God to oblige man redeemed from the curse of the Law for the sin of Adam to believe his promise upon the merciless curse of the Law of faith while the redeemed naturall man in the mean time was necessitate both to morall and spirituall unbelief Secondly in the free naturall and morall act of the understanding will and senses of the redeemed naturall man which naturall and morall act is really one though formally differing the perfection of the redemption of the naturall man as he is man intellectuall and sensitive doth consist which being necessitate man is no man Thirdly such morall necessitating of the redeemed will of man and consequently of his externall senses doth inferre a necessary contradiction in the act of the redemption of the naturall man for by the literall light of the redeemed word of the Law and life of righteousness of faith written in his heart really one with the literall light of the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousness of faith the naturall man is morally inabled to believe the word preached for the literall light of the word is in the sound of the word and therefore it is said Rom. 10.17 that Faith which is morall faith is by the hearing of the Word And by the necessitating of the morall act of the understanding will and consequently of the senses of the naturall man he is necessitate to morall unbelief which is a manifest contradiction Hence I inferre these seven Theologicall necessary conclusions First the redeemed naturall man by the redeemed word of the Law and life of righteousness of Faith written in his heart which is of one reall light and command with the eternall light and command of the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousness of Faith the redeemed naturall man is morally inabled with the grace of morall faith to believe the word of promise which is really one with the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousness of Faith First in the promise of the blessed seed by the old covenant and now by faith in the fulfilled promise by the new covenant made with all the nations of the world Secondly and consequently by the power of the redeemed word of the Law and life of righteousnes of Faith written in the heart of the redeemed naturall man the naturall man is morally inabled to bring forth the works of morall faith according to the formall command of the Law of Faith without any manner of necessitating of his will to morall disobedience by the temptation of Satan or his instruments for if either Satan or any created power of God could necessitate the will of the redeemed man to morall disobedience God in his justice could never oblige man to the command of his Law upon the curse of eternall death either by the old or new covenant Though Satan therefore be necessitate to tempt man as shall be declared hereafter yet Satan with all his power must either induce the redeemed naturall man freely and willingly to disobedience or no way Thirdly the redeemed naturall man by the power of the light of the word of the Law and life of righteousness of faith in his heart really one with the literall light of the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousness of Faith is morally inabled to know when he doth transgresse the Law of faith by bringing forth the works of unbelief and unrighteousness by his actuall sins and to repent him of his actuall sins for fear of the curse of the Law For the grace of morall faith doth necessarily presuppose the grace of morall repentance And this is the reason that from the promise of the blessed seed throughout the old and new Testament all men are continually called upon to forsake their actuall sins and unrighteousness and by repentance to turn and reconcile themselves to God for all naturall men by the perfection of their redemption are inabled with the morall grace of repentance without any manner of necessitating of their impenitency by the power of Satan or his instruments For the grace of morall repentance being necessitate the grace of morall faith is likewise inevitably necessitate Fourthly the redeemed naturall man being morally inabled with the grace of morall faith and repentance without any manner of necessitating of his will to morall unbelief and impenitency The grace of spirituall faith is promised by the old and new covenant in God prefixed time to the continuation of his morall obedience by the morall works of faith
For Mark 13.13 Whosoever shall continue to the end shall be saved This end to the naturall redeemed man is the prefixed time of Gods spirituall calling by spirituall faith For by spirituall faith the naturall redeemed man is saved from the second death which is the curse of the Law of righteousness of faith as by the cursed death of Christ Jesus the Son of God as he is man naturall man is saved from the first death which is the curse of the Law of righteousness for the first sin of Adam Fifthly though Satan and his wicked instruments cannot necessitate the will of the redeemed man morally to disobedience yet Satan by his false deceiving light can induce and betray man without Gods speciall concursive grace to transgresse the Law of righteousness of faith by his works of unbelief and unrighteousness and to draw down the evill reward of the Law by sore afflictions proceeding from the wrath of God upon the naturall man for his transgression of the Law The redeemed naturall man therefore by the power of the redeemed word of the Law and life of righteousness of faith in his heart is inabled with the morall grace and gift of morall prayer to call upon the Lord in the day of affliction and trouble who hath promised to hear the prayer of the redeemed naturall man And therefore the Lord saith Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee for prayer is one of the principall works of worship and a chief work of faith Sixthly the naturall and morall blessing of the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousness of Faith is morally due by the Law to the redeemed naturall mans morall faith by the immediate power of which blessing the naturall mans power to produce his morall good works of faith is continued Though the good morall action therefore of the redemed naturall man be necessary spirituall sin by reason of his concluding in spirituall darknesâ— which is spirituall unbelief for whatsoever is not of spirituall faith is necessarily spirituall sin yet the good morall action of the naturall man is not actuall spirituall sin for so God must be the first author of actuall spirituall sin since the fall which is blasphemy to affirm For this spirituall sin is not by the positive act of the will of man but from the will of God according to his eternall Decree by concluding man in spirituall unbelief which is called sin for the reasons set down in the Chapter following But this spirituall unbelief proceeding of the spirituall darkness wherein all redeemed men are concluded is not actuall sin For actuall sin is the transgression of the Law which is the only sin that condemnes man For as the Law of righteousness of Faith doth command the works of Faith So the Law doth condemn the works of unbelief whereby the Law is transgressed by man we must therefore distinguish between the good morall action of the naturall man as it is spirituall sin for want of spirituall faith and the morall evill action of the naturall man which is both actuall morall and actuall spirituall sin for there is but one Law of God as God is one literally and spiriritually commanding man and consequently the morall transgression is a necessary spirituall transgression of the Law The good morall action therefore of the naturall man according to the literall command of the Law cannot be actuall spirituall sin for the naturall man being shut up in spirituall darkness is dead as he is a spirituall man and therefore the naturall man as he is a spirituall man being dead is freed from the Law of actuall sin And his morall good action proceeding from his morall faith being without either morall or spirituall actuall sin The morall blessing of the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousness of Faith is as due by the Law to his morall faith as the spirituall blessing is due by the Law to the spirituall faith of the regenerate man For as the Law is first and immediately literally commanded so the blessing of the word of the seventh dayes rest is first immediately due by the Law to morall faith which must necessarily precede spirituall Faith in the ordinary calling of God Seventhly though the naturall man do too often stumble and fall by the temptation of Satan and his instruments yet he hath all the dayes of this life to repent him of his actuall sins for the arms of Gods mercy are out-stretched all the dayes of his life to imbrace the repenting sinner And therefore is said Ezek. 18.21 22. At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sins from the bottome of his heart I will put away all his sins out of my remembrance As the naturall man therefore must not despair of Gods mercy in his Son Christ Jesus which is the greatest sin that can be committed by man proceeding from unbelief for by desparing in the mercy of God wretched man doth detract from the infiniteness of the Lords merit So it is one of the most fearfull sins for wretched man by continuing in actuall sins and wickeness to presume on the mercy of God while by his contemning of the long patience of God leading him so graciously to repentance God in his justice doth most justly give him over to a reprobate minde that though he hath all the dayes of this life to repent yet he cannot repent And this is the reason that it is said Matth. 12.13 from him that hath not that which he hath shall be taken from him that is the grace of morall repentance which he hath by the power of the redeemed word of the Law and life of righteousness of faith written in his heart And now to conclude the perfection of the redemption of the naturall man by the cursed death of the Son of God Christ Jesus as he is man Though the redeemed naturall man according to the eternall decree of God Rom. 11.31 be shut up and concluded in spirituall darkness till he be regenerate called unbelief and sin yet the redeemed naturall man by the immediate power of the word of the Law life and light of righteousness of Faith necessarily implying the power of naturall life and light written in the heart of the redeemed naturall man the naturall man is inabled to live the naturall life of man and the life of righteousness of faith morally without any manner of any necessitating of the act of his understanding will or senses either naturally or morally Whosoever therefore doth presume to deny the freedome of the will of the redeemed naturall man either naturally or morally doth necessarily deny the perfection of the redemption of man by the cursed death of the eternall Son of God Christ Jesus as he is man The eternall death and darkness to which all men in Adam the head were condemned was prefigurate by the darkness of the first Tabernacle called the Holy place which was made
shift by sewing of figtree leaves together with strawes or some such like thing to cover their deformity Here by the way another Question may be moved What was the reason that our first parents were so carefull to cover their privie parts more then any other part of their bodies I answer briefly because under the name of Adam as Adam is the head of all men to descend of Adam by naturall generation man male and female is comprehended For of Adam as he is man male simply no man can naturally descend of Adam by naturall generation And therefore it is said that God made man male and female Our first parents therefore by this act in covering of the instrumentall parts of generation do most lively expresse the shame and overthrow of their posterity by their first sin which is a main fundamentall point of faith I return to Adams answer Notwithstanding of Adams ungracious and unthankfull answer to God yet God will not thus leave Adam God therefore doth presse Adam in these words Gen. 3.12 Who told thee that thou wast naked And to the end that God might move Adam to the confession of the fact God still presseth Adam in these words Hast thou eaten of the fruit which I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat By which words God much like a temporall Judge who intending to save a delinquent guilty of death by the Law doth teach the guilty what to say for himself For the Question taken affirmatively is the confession of the fact By this Question Adam was so prest by God that Adam in a manner doth confesse the fact but it was like the confession of a naturall man by adding sin to sin for by his confession most shamefully and unthankfully first Adam doth charge God as the cause of his foul transgression to wit because God had given him Eve to wife Secondly Adam for all his love to Eve doth charge Eve likewise with the cause of his transgression hoping by this means to excuse himself and to make Eve suffer a dying death for his own foul ambition where we may observe that when God by his Word doth threaten the natural man by his judgements for sin all the dearest pleasures which hath induced him to sin are blamed as the cause of his sin hoping thereby to free himself from wrath though all in vain yet God mercy and patience it self doth patiently bear with Adams impenitent obstinacy and next calleth Eve CHAP. XVI Eves arraignment by God for her transgression of the Law GOd doth in like manner call Eve graciously by his Word to repentance in these words Gen. 3.13 And the Lord said to the woman Wby hast thou done this as if the words had been set down after this manner by Moses Eve what hast thou done Did not I create thee with such power and perfection as that thou shouldest have been a mutuall help and comfort to thy husband and thou most ungraciously art the instrument and means of the ruine of you both and of your posterity Eve fearing the curse of the Law by a dying death to be inflicted both upon her self and Adam according to the covenant doth post over the cause of her transgression upon the Serpent in hope thereby to have freed her self and Adam from the curse notwithstanding of Adams unkinde charging of Eve for being the cause of his own wilfull disobedience and to have had the curse inflicted upon the Serpent who had so maliciously betrayed both her and Adam where it may plainly appear that as yet there was no remorse in either of both for their horrible sin notwithstanding of Gods so gracious calling of both by his immediate Word but God mercy and patience it self doth bear patiently with both For God in his eternall purpose did decree to move both to repentance by another means afterwards to be declared when we come to the entring of the second covenant In the mean time the judicious Reader may manifestly observe that though our first parents by their answers to God upon their arraignment did shew themselves like naturall men without any manner of spirituall understanding or action being shut up in spirituall darknesse according to the eâ—ernall Decree of God yet by their free answers to God it doth plainly appear that though they were condemned to the curse of eternall death and darknesse yet the curse of the Law was not actually inflicted upon either of both for the necessary reasons formerly declared For it was for fear of the curse of a dying death to be actually inflicted upon them to which they were so necessarily obliged by the first covenant that they did so shift and post over the cause of the horrible fact from one to another And so much briefly for the arraignment of our first parents for their transgression of the Law of righteousnesse as they were simply obliged to the Law by the first covenant Next therefore of the censure of God for the transgression of the Law CHAP. XVII The sensitive creature called the Serpent before the curse did walk upon legs as other sensitive cattle and beasts of the field GOd doth pronounce his censure for the transgression of the Law upon all the parties accessary to the transgression beginning at the first party where the cause of the transgression doth begin and so in order to the last party delinquent The first party delinquent which was the first and immediâ—te cause of the transgression of the Law was the sensitive Serpent The second was the old murthering Serpent Satan The third party was the woman man female which was betrayed by the Serpent The fourth and last party delinquent was Adam man male First therefore of the censure of God upon the Serpent The censure of the Serpent is set down by Moses after a twofold manner First the censure is set down as it concerns the Serpent in particular Secondly the censure is set down as the censure inflicted upon the Serpent doth likewise concern the woman but after a farre differing manner The censure as it doth concern the Serpent in particular is set down in these words Gen. 3.13 Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field Vpon thy belly thou shalt go and dust shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life The censure upon the Serpent hath a literall and mysticall sense First of the literall sense By the literall sense of the censure the sensitive Serpent is cursed above all the cattle and beasts of the field and first the cause of the curse is set down and secondly the curse is pronounced by God by his Word The cause of the curse is because thou hast done this that is because by thy false suggestion thou hast betrayed man to fall under the curse of the Law The curse of the Law is pronounced by God upon the sensitive creature called the Serpent without all calling or examination which of all judgements is the most
old Serpent Rev. 20.2 from his stinging and killing of man from the beginning The poison of his sting is malice the bait whereby he doth bait his sting is his false pleasing deceitfull light called Satans darknesse for by the pleasing light of his miserable sting man doth greedily swallow the bait whereby man is stung to the heart From the great power of Satans sting whereby he did sting all men to eternall death from the beginning Satan Isa 27.1 is called a Dragon Satan Rev. 20.2 is called the great Leviathan which devoureth so many fishes at one mouthfull Satan from his stinging of all men from the beginning is called the Murderer of mankinde From his continuall stinging of man to make them fall by finall impenitency under the mercilesse curse of the Law of Faith Joh. 8.44 Satan is likewise called a Murderer Rev. 12.9 Satan is called the Devill because Satan having stung man by inducing man to commit sin upon sin Satan doth object to wretched man the severity of Gods justice continually accusing man for his sins against God and the impossibility of Gods mercy to the multitude of his sins whereby wretched man without Gods preventing mercy in his Son Christ Jesus is stung with the sting of despair Satan for his stinging of all men by his first blasphemous lie against God whereby he betrayed all men is called Joh. 8.44 the father of lies For lying is the first seed that he sowes amongst men even in a manner from the cradle From the great power of the false light wherewith he baits his sting to deceive man Satan is called the Prince of darknesse because by the power of his great false light the literall light of the word of the Law and life of righteousnesse written in the heart of man is obscured and darkned and in this sense Satan is likewise called 2 Cor. 4.4 God of the earth from the multitude of his followers As the cause of the curse is first set down and then the curse of the Law is literally pronounced upon the sensitive Serpent So the cause is first mystically set down to Satan and then the curse is pronounced upon the old Serpent Satan The cause is set down in these words because thou hast done this The mysticall sense of the words is this Satan because thou hast done this that is because thou hast been the first cause and author of this mischief to wit not only of the condemnation of Adam and of all men naturally to descend of Adam to eternall death and darknesse by the curse of the Law of righteousnesse but because thou art likewise the cause of the cursed death of Christ Jesus the eternall Son of God as he is man in redeeming of man from the eternall curse of the Law cursed therefore art thou above all the intellectuall creatures of God as thy instrument the Serpent is cursed above all the cattle and beasts of the field because thou hast done this According to the two branches of the curse literally inflicted upon the sensitive Serpent The two branches are mystically inflicted upon Satan in the Serpent The first is Vpon thy belly thou shalt goe Mystically Satan must go upon his belly the mysticall sense of the words is this Satan thou art cast down upon the belly of thy great power whereby thou didst so maliciously betray and deceive the first Adam and all men created in Adam the head so that thou shalt never rise again Rev. 20.10 with such a high hand of power to deceive and betray the second Adam to wit Christ Jesus and his mysticall members This mysticall sense of the first branch of the curse inflicted upon Satan is set down by the Apostle Jude chap. 6. to be the eternall chains of darknesse to which Satan ever since is chained like a Bear to the stake the compasse of which chain Satan must not passe over neither do within the compasse of that chain but what Satan is permitted by God For though Satan was cast down from the heavens like lightning Luke 10.18 by the curse of the Angelicall obligement of the Law which he did transgresse For Satan sinned Satan therefore transgressed the Law whereby he was Angelically obliged Yet Satans power was wonderfull untill he brought himself within the compasse of the curse of the humane obligement of the Law by his betraying of innocent man which is now pronounced by God upon Satan whereby Satans high power is curbed and himself confined and chained till the great day when Satan shal receive his final judgement and be cast down in the eternall burning lake Rev. 20.10 for his malicious betraying of man Who as he did first betray the woman man female so by man the seed of the woman he shall be condemned in the great day to wit by man Christ Jesus and his mysticall members who is the mysticall man which must break the head of the great Serpent in the great day to his eternall confusion And this is the reason that Satan did so saucily challenge our Saviour Mat. 8.29 for tormenting of him before his time Because our Saviour crossed Satan by dispossessing of the man possessed with Satans malicious spirit The second branch of the curse literally inflicted upon the sensitive Serpent as the literall curse doth concern the Serpent in particular is mystically inflicted upon the old Serpent Satan in these words Dust shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life By the mysticall sense of this branch of the curse Satan is necessitate to feed upon the dust of the earth By the dust of the earth the foul dusty stinking sins of man since the fall is mystically signified which Satan must lick up and feed upon Mich. 7.17 or Satan must starve himself with his malice Prov. 14.28 Satans hunger and thirst therefore to make wretched man sin is one of the chief causes that Satan goeth about continually like a roaring Lion 1 Pet. 5.8 seeking whom he may devoure for Satan is necessitate by the curse to feed upon the sins of man whose insatiable hunger and thirst by reason of the necessity of this curse is never satisfied Another cause of Satans continuall going about seeking whom he may devoure is Satans fear lest too many should be regenerate and become mysticall members of the mysticall man and become Satans heavie judges in the great day For the Lord Jesus Christ united to his mysticall members is the mysticall man by whom Satants head and the head of his cursed seed in the great day must be finally and eternally broke to their eternall confusion And so much of the censure of God as it doth concern the sensitive Serpent and mystically the old Serpent Satan Next of the censure inflicted upon the Serpent as the censure doth likewise concern the woman CHAP. XIX As the censure inflicted upon the Serpent doth concern the woman THe censure of God upon the Serpent as it doth concern the woman is set down by Moses in these words Gen.
God is mystically signified by the woman the reason whereof is the twofold naturall conception of the woman which is as it were the embleme of the twofold conception of the morall and mysticall members of the Lord Jesus Christ which are brought forth by the Church For as the morall conception of the naturall man by morall faith by the preaching and sowing of the seed of the Word doth resemble the seminall and first conception of the woman So doth the spirituall conception of the regenerate man by the Church resemble the second conception of woman For though the regenerate man be spiritually enlightned by the immediate light of the holy Spirit yet that spirituall light is the spirituall light of the Word which is the seed of the Church and the regenerate man is enlightned thereby as he is a member of the Church which is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ The third main fundamentall point to be observed in this gracious promise is the immediate cause of the Lords love to his militant Church For the immediate sole efficient cause of his love to the Church is the essentiall union of this divine and humane nature of the Word As the immediate cause of this essentiall union is the Lords infinite love to all men eternally condemned to the curse of eternall death for the sin of Adam Whence the infinit joy and gladnesse of the sacred Trinity did arise to rest eternally upon the essential union of which essentiall union and unction doth arise the Lords love to his Church by his sacred Word as his Word by his love is the Image of this essentiall union For as by the literall light of his Word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of righteousnesse of faith proceeding from his love which is of one reall light with the redeemed word in the heart of man the naturall man is morally led to the Lords merit So by the Spirituall light of the Word proceeding from his spirituall love which is the spirituall light of his holy Spirit the regenerate man is spiritually led to the Lords merit and spiritually mystically and indivisibly united to his mysticall head For by this spirituall love all the regenerate are coupled and united joynt to joynt one to another and all indivisibly to their mysticall head whence the spirituall joy and gladnesse of the regenerate doth arise which is called the joy of the Holy Ghost for this spirituall union and unction is really one in the head and members but it is essentiall in the head and spirituall in the members spiritually flowing from the essentiall union and unction of the head and this is the reason that it is said by the Prophet David prophecying of this union and unction Psal 45.7 Thou hast anointed him with the oil of gladnesse above his fellowes Whose fellows are his mysticall brethren begotten of the same Father for both the head and the members are the sons of God the head essentially and therefore the naturall Son of God the members spiritually and therefore the spirituall and adopted sons of God in their mysticall head who are therefore predestinate to be made like to his Image that he might be the first born Son amongst many brethren And in this sense our Saviour is called Luke 2.7 The fiâ—st born Son of the Virgine the woman in respect of his mysticall members who are begot of the woman the Church Though the spirituall joy therefore of the regenerate doth many times ebbe and flow yet the spirituall love whereby they are spiritually united to their mysticall head whence this spirituall joy doth arise is indivisible in the head and members It is as impossible therefore for the regenerate to fall totally and finally from the grace of their spirituall love whereby they are indivisibly united to their mysticall head As for the humane nature of the word to fall from the divine nature and alone For the essentiall union of the divine and humane nature of the Word is the sole immediate efficient cause of this indivisible union and must mutually stand together By this spirituall union and unction whereby the regenerate are indivisibly united to the truth of the Lords merit the regenerate man is so armed with the spirituall valour of patience as he is enabled to resist the strongest temptation of the Devill and of his powerfull instruments and to stand to the Lords truth even the losse of his naturall life by which spirituall valour the regenerate man doth overcome the power of Satan and of all his cruell crue in this life For this spirituall valour doth proceed from the decreed victory of this irreconcileable bloody war to the seed of the woman For the seed of the woman must break the head of the Serpent and the head of the Serpents seed though the victory be not without temporall danger and afflictions as may appear by the mysticall sense of the third branch of the censure next to be declared CHAP. XXII The mysticall sense of the third branch of the censure SAtan and his cursed bloody brood by the mysticall sense of the first branch of the censure being necessitate to hate the truth and the professors of the truth who are the Church of God and to induce all others to his power to hate and persecute the Church Satan first by the mysticall sense of this third branch of the censure is limited how far his power shall extend mystically signified by the word Heel which is the lowest part of man as he is man intellectuall and sensitive whereby the sensitive power of man as he is man is signified Satan therefore by his cursed sting of enmity hath the power to sting and bite man as he is a naturall man intellectuall and sensitive but no wayes as he is a spirituall man For Satan with all his power cannot sting the regenerate man not so much as to induce him to commit the least actuall sin For the regenerate man is born of God 1 John 3.9 and cannot sin as he is a spirituall man And therefore the Apostle Paul Rom. 7.17 18. doth disclaim his actuall sins to be his to wit as he is a spirituall and a regenerate man but doth attribute his actuall sins to his rebellious flesh as he is a naturall man and the old man corrupted by Satan and his wicked instruments even in a manner from the cradle Secondly by the mysticall sense of this word His Satan and his cursed brood according to the eternall Decree of God is permitted first to sting the Word the blessed seed made flesh of the seed of the woman whom that old murdering blood-hound and his cursed bloody brood did sting most cruelly to the cursed death of the crosse Secondly by the word His Satan and his seed is permitted to sting and bite the heel of the Lords mysticall members who are predestinate to be made like to the Image of their mysticall head that they may taste of the cup of his afflictions in this
husband which is in all mutuall love the subjected love and desire of the Church to the Lord Jesus Christ the head is mystically signified who out of his infinite love to his Church by fulfilling of his promise to man as he did subject the desire of his own naturall life to the cursed death of the crosse to manifest himself truth to man So his mysticall members are to subject all their love and desire to his will and to preferre the love of his truth to the love of their own naturall lives for he is unworthy of the crown of life so dearly purchased by the merit of his truth who for any worldly respect whatsoever doth unthankfully deny his truth before men in this life And so much for the literall and mysticall sense of the censure pronounced upon the woman as she is the body and wife of her husband Next of the censure of God pronounced upon man as he is the husband and head of his body the woman CHAP XXVII The literall and mysticall sense of the censure of God pronounced upon Adam as he is the head of the woman his body and wife by matrimoniall union THe last censure is pronounced by God upon Adam the last delinquent as he is the head and husband of the woman his body and wife by matrimoniall union For in this sense only Adam is the redeemed head of all men naturally to descend of Adam The censure is set down by Moses in these words Gen. 3.17 18 19 Because thou hast harkened unto the voyce of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying Thou shalt not eat of it Cursed is the earth for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life Thornes also and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return unto the earth For out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return First the cause of the censure is set down and next the censure is pronounced The sense and meaning of the cause of the censure is this because thou hast obeyed the voyce of thy wife and hast most unthankfully preferred her love to thy love to me thy gracious God and Creator and hast contemned my command which is the command of me God of the Law of Righteousnesse and hast eaten of the fruit whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat Next the censure is pronounced which hath a literall and mysticall sense The literall sense of the censure is set down from the eighteenth verse to the end of the chapter and hath four branches The first is cursed is the earth for thy sake By the second branch of the censure naturall death is inflicted upon Adam as he is the head of the woman his body and redeemed head of man Thirdly Adam is excluded Paradise to till the ground Fourthly the Cherubims and the flaming sword are placed at the East of the Garden of Eden to keep man from entring to the tree of Life growing in the earthly Paradise First therefore of this curse inflicted upon the earth This curse inflicted upon the earth is no wayes to be taken for the curse of the Law For first the earth did no wayes come within the compasse of the transgression of the Law Secondly the curse of the Law which is eternall is cleerly taken away from man and from the creatures created for man by the promised cursed death of the blessed seed except the only curse which was inflicted upon the sensitive Serpent And therefore this curse of the earth is only a privation of the former fertilnes and a positive barrennes inflicted upon the earth instead of that fertilnesse that by that means of that positive barrennesse the earth might bring forth Thistles Thorns for Adam was then by the censure to eat bread of the herbs of the field that is of the corn and grain which was to grow upon the barren earth and therefore Adam by his toil labour and pains was to bring some fertilnesse upon the earth or Adam must starve by means of which toil pains and labour Adam must eat his bread in sorrow and care in the sweat of his face by which forced sweat surfets and colds must arise weakning the sensitive spirits and powers of man inducing temporall naturall death in the end But though this barrennesse was inflicted upon the earth for man yet in the great mercy of God by the power of the redeemed word in the heart of man First man is naturally enabled by his labour pains and industry to procure some fertilnesse upon the earth And therefore it is said 2 Thes 3.10 that he that doth not work and labour is not to eat Secondly by the power of the redeemed word of the Law and life of righteousnesse of faith written in the heart of man man is morally enabled to pray for the blessing of God upon his labour and pains who hath promised to hear his prayers by whose only blessing the curse of barrennesse is taken from the earth Thirdly for the defending of man from the danger of his heats and colds God in his mercy did cloath our first parents with skins By the second branch of the censure inflicted upon Adam the redeemed head of man Adam and all men redeemed in Adam shall return to dust which is to be understood of temporall naturall death by the dissolution of the intellectuall and sensitive nature of man And therefore their sin is set down Because thou wast taken out of the dust of the earth to dust thou shalt return But Adams humane spirit with the word of the Law and life of Righteousnesse spiritually and indivisibly written therein was neither taken out of the dust of the earth neither can it return to dust For first humane spirit is necessarily coeviternall with the Word and Law of God Secondly humane spirit is of the same reall specificall sphere with the humane Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ as hath been formerly demonstrate which was never taken from the earth or can return to the dust of the earth Temporall naturall death therefore by this branch of the censure is iâ—flicted upon Adam as he is the head of his body the woman who is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone and therefore naturall temporall death being inflicted upon the head is necessarily likewise inflicted upon the body the woman and consequently and necessarily upon all men and women naturally to descend of both For in this sense only Adam is the redeemed head of all redeemed men naturally to descend of Adam By the third branch of the censure Adam the redeemed head of man and consequently the woman are excluded out of the earthly Paradise the reason is set down Lest they should eat of the tree of Life as they did formerly at their pleasure For there
sin as that God in his justice should consume all men off the earth again and Satan put fairly for it For after by his sting of enmity baited by his false deceiving light he had incensed Cain to murder his Innocent brother Abel Satan never left stirring up of Cains ungracious generation from time to time till be set the whole world in such a fire of sin cruelty and uncleannesse as neither the mercies of God by sparing them so long or the judgements of God threatned by his Prophets could reclaim from their sin and cruelty God therefore in end stirred up Noah the tenth from Seth a Preacher of Righteousnesse who was a Preacher of the Law of righteousnesse of faith in the promise of the blessed seed that by his preaching of the Word the miserable people might be reclaimed from their cruelty and uncleannesse to the works of faith by repentance that they might obtain mercy in the promise of the blessed seed and that by denouncing the mercilesse curse of the Law of faith Noah might terrifie the people from their wickenesse But though Noah did continue in the faithfull discharge of his Calling many yeeres yet all was to no purpose Satan had so incensed the miserable people to such obstinacy God therefore in end commanded Noah to build an Ark that by the ark Noah might denounce the utter subversion of the obstinate rebellious people by the flood of his incensed wrath against their sin and cruelty if they did not speedily turn to the Lord and leave their provoking of his long patience For which cause the Ark was so long a building that the wretched people notwithstanding of their continued contempt might have yet time to repent though all was to no purpose for such was the incensed obstinacy of the miserable people as they continued in their rebellious contempt both of the word of the Preacher and of the Ark till the very day that Noah and his family was commanded to enter in the Ark whereby the wrath of God was so incensed as by that fearfull inundation the whole earth was overflowne and eight persons only saved of whom the promised blessed seed was to descend As for the Covenant which is said to be made with Noah after his coming out of the Ark in the continuation of times and seasons and of the creatures created and redeemed for man it was the same reall covenant which was formerly made with Adam in the promise of the blessed seed which after this fearfull judgement was renewed to Noah for the strengthening and confirming of Noahs faith in the continuation of the promise first made to Adam For first after Noahs coming out of the Ark Noah did offer the like reall burnt sacrifices and offerings upon the Atar of such reall clean beasts and fowles as were first commanded to be offred by Adam and the Fathers before Noah which beasts and fowles were preserved in the Ark with Noah by which sacrifices offered by Noah the cruell death of the blessed seed was prefigurate Secondly the Ark it self did prefigurate both the promise and the fulfilling of the promise For first by the Ark the woman of whose seed the Word was to be made flesh was prefigurate Secondly by Noah and his sons daughters who was the eight from Seth the line wherof the promised blessed seed was to descend was prefigurate Thirdly by their receiving in the Ark the conception of the Word to be made flesh of the seed of the woman was cleerly prefigurate Fourthly by the safe delivery of Noah and his sons and daughters out of the Ark the safe delivery of the blessed seed by the woman to wit the blessed Virgine was prefigurate whereby it doth manifestly appear that the covenant and the formall propheticall ceremoniall obligement of the Law of Righteousnesse of faith in the promise of the blessed seed prophesied by the propheticall Sabbath and prefigurate by the ceremoniall worship of the Sabbath was really one and the same from Adam to Noah As by the preservation of Noah and his family of whom the blessed seed was to descend according to the flesh the great power of God by his preservation of his Church against the great power of Satan and his instruments doth manifestly appear to his great glory to the utter shame of Satan and to the confusion of his wicked instruments And so much briefly for the first age of the Church CHAP. XXX The continuation of the formall propheticall ceremoniall obligement of man in the promise of the blessed seed in the second age of the Church AS in the time of Noah the eighth from Seth God stirred up Noah to manifest his power in the preservation of his Church which did then consist in the preservation of the line of the blessed seed So in the second age of the Church God raised up Abraham the tenth from Noah that his glory might appear by his continuall care of the truth of his promise to his Church For God renewed his promise in a more cleer and particular manner to Abraham then he did first to Adam which was that in Abrahams seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed that is that the woman of whose seed the Word should be made man should descend of Abrahams seed by whose promised cursed death As all men were then actually redeemed from the curse of the Law for the sin of Adam though the promise was afterward to be fulfilled so all men by faith in this promise might be saved from the curse of the Law of faith for actuall sin In this promise therefore Gen. 22.18 that in Abrahams seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed God doth oblige himself to Abraham and to his seed by covenant and doth mutually oblige Abraham to believe his promise This covenant therefore made to Abraham was the same reall covenant and promise made to Adam though the blessed seed promised to Adam was by this promise to descend of Abrahams seed the only difference is that the woman of whom the Word was promised to be made man was to descend immediately of Abrahams seed though immediatly from Adams seed For Abraham did descend of the seed of Adam and consequently the promise made to Abraham must be performed before the promise made to Adam could be fulfilled For the promise made to Adam could not be fulfiled but by our Saviours birth death and resurrection from the dead By this promise made in this particular manner to Abraham the Church of God was now in the family of Abraham and his seed and posterity To the end therefore that Abrahams family might be distinguished from all the families of the earth God commanded Abraham and his family to be marked with the sacramentall seal of circumcision by shedding of the blood of man whereby it was prefigurate that the blood of the promised blessed seed to descend of Abraham according to the flesh should be shed by the cursed death of the crosse which
believe his promised rest of the blessed seed to rest upon the last Sabbath from the redemption of man from the curse of the Law prophesied by the propheticall Sabbath to whose beliefe the blessing of his promised rest was due by the Law So he graciously and freely obliged himself to man to redeem man from the curse of the Law for the sin of Adam and to redeem all which was lost by that sin and consequently to redeem the blessing of the first seventh dayes rest lost by Adam which was the blessing of his promised rest by the propheticall Sabbath all which he graciously performed by his bloody rest in the grave upon the last Sabbath For our Saviour upon the last Sabbath did rest from the redemption of man from the curse of the Law for the sin of Adam And by his resting in his sacred grave for the whole space of the last Sabbath our Saviour in the seventh day having fulfilled the whole Law as he was obliged to the fulfilling of the Law in the promise of the blessed seed the eternall rest of the first seventh day lost by Adam was due by the Law of God to the merit of his bloody seventh dayes rest where three main fundamentall points of faith are precisely to be observed by the juditious Reader The first point is that the last Sabbath whereon our Saviour did rest in his sacred grave after his death was no wayes propheticall For all the prophesies prophecying the birth and death of the blessed seed from the foundation of the world were all fulfilled and determined by our Saviours bloody rest upon this last Sabbath by whose bloody rest in his grave for the space of the whole last Sabbath from end to end the Law was fulfilled for man And this is the reason that our Saviour said Mat. 5.17 that he came to fulfill the Law The second point of faith is that no man naturally to descend of Adam was obliged to fulfill the command of the Law by this last Sabbath For Christ Jesus only the Son of God as he is man begot of the seed of the woman was only obliged to fulfill the command of the seventh day by the last Sabbath as he graciously obliged himself by the propheticall covenant The third point of faith is that Adam and all men naturally to descend of Adam were only obliged to fulfill the command of the seventh day of the propheticall Sabbath And therefore Christ Jesus being born under the propheticall Law obliged by the propheticall Sabbath was circumcised the eighth day and did observe other ceremonies of the Law as other men did For though our Saviour did not naturally descend of Adam yet he did descend of the seed of Adam according to the flesh The second mystery of his bloody rest was that by his bloody rest the promise renewed to Abraham was fulfilled which was the same reall promise first made to Adam though renewed to Abraham after a more cleere and particular manner which promise had two branches The first was that the blessed seed according to the flesh should descend of the seed of Abraham which promise was prefigurate first by the glorious light of the Golden Candlestick by the table of shew-bread signifying the life which was in that light wherby the blessed seed who is light and life to descend of Abrahams seed was prefigurate Secondly by the sweet insence burned upon the Golden Altar the appeasing of Gods wrath by the blessed seed to descend of Abraham was prefigurate all which were placed in the holy place of the Tabernacle The second branch of the promise made to Abraham was that in Abrahams seed all the nations of the earth should bee blessed which was likewise prefigurate by the sacrifice of the brazen Altar For at our Saviors giving up of his last spirit upon the cursed altar of the crosse the vaile of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottom within which vaile which was the holiest place was the Arke with the word therin and the Golden Crowne the Cherubint covering with their wings the mercy-seat prefigurating the conception of our Saviour of the seed of the woman wherby the first promise made to Adam was signified Now the vaile of the Temple being rent asunder by the power of our Saviours death the first promise made to Adam was laied open and made patent both to the Jewes and Gentiles who were mutually called the next day by the new covenant which was the day of Christs resurrection Now the new covenant being made with all the nations of the world the promise made to Abraham that all the nations of the earth should be blessed in his seed was fulfilled And so much for the twofold mystery of our Saviours bloody rest The mystery of his joyfull Evangellicall rest did consist in these two maine fundamentall points of faith The first was by his resurrection from the grave wherby our Saviour by his triumphant victory over sin Satan eternall darknes and death the curse of the Law and the grave by the infinit act of his owne immediate power did manifest himselfe Truth to man in his faithfull fulfilling of his promised rest of the blessed seed and in that Truth Lord Jesus Christ God and man in the three coessentiall distinct persons of the glorious Trinity God by the infinit act of his owne immediate power Man begotten of the father of the seed of the woman by the immediate act of the holy spirit in the essentiall union of his divine and humane nature implied in the word Lord which is the sacred name of the essentiall union of the divine and humane nature of the Lord of life comprehending both the names of Jesus and Christ afterwards to be declared For though Jesus Christ as he is the Son of God begotten man of the seed of the woman did performe his bloody rest Yet his Evangelicall rest by his resting from the fulfilling of the Law implying his rest from the redemption of man was performed by our Saviour as he is Lord Jesus Christ God equall with the Father and holy Spirit in whom the Godhead dwelleth bodily And therfore the day of his resurrection is called the Lords day In the second point of the mystery of the Lords Evangelicall rest doth stand the very period of the mystery of the Lords day for man naturally descended of Adā being only obliged to the cōmand of the seventh day of the Prophetical Sabbath and no waies to the seventh day of the last Sabbath to which man Christ Jesus only was obliged the day of our Saviours resurrection from the grave the Lords day doth fall out to be the just seventh day from the last formall propheticall Jewes Sabbath still obliging man to the seventh day of the Law Though by including the last formall propheticall Jewes Sabbath in the account the Lords day is the eight day as it was prefigurate by the eight day of the Sacrament of circumcision To the administration wherof
Word doth comprehend the twelve Articles of Christian faith all depending one upon another like as many links of a chain linked one into another all arising from the literall light of the Lords day by his rest and resurrection from the fulfilling of his promise of the blâ—ssed seed as the Lord did graciously oblige himself to man by the covenant First therefore of the Lords resurrection from the grave and next of his resurrection from the earth by his ascention to the heavens The Lords resurrection from the grave doth comprehend these ten fundamentall points of faith First by the literal light of the sound of the evangelicall Word of the Lords day really one with the literall light of the redeemed Word of the Law written in the heart of man whereby man doth live move and hath his redeemed state of being the naturall mans understanding is morally produced in act by the mediate sense of hearing to understand that the Lords resurrection from the grave was the last period of his rest from the redemption of man and all things lost by man from the curse of the Law for the first sin of Adam And that the Lords resurrection from the grave was from the bloody rest in the grave and his bloody rest in the grave from his sustâ—iâ—ing of the bloody cursed death of the crosse and his bloody cursed death of the crosse from his love and mercy to man Secondly as by our Saviâ—urs bloody death and rest in the grave necessarily presupposing his birth and life our Saviour did manifest himself true man so by our Saviours gracious words glorious wonders and miracles while he was personally upon earth as our Saviour was man the Son of God before all time so he did manifest himself man the Son of God in time begot of the seed of the woman by the overshadowing act of the Almighty Thirdly as our Saviour as he is the eternall Son of God by his sustaining of the eternall curse of the Law did merit the salvation of Adam and of all men naturally to descend of Adam from the first death which was the curse of the Law for the sin of Adam so our Saviour by his bloody rest in the grave for the full space of the seventh day of the last Sabbath whereby the Law was fulfilled as he was obliged to the Law for man as our Saviour is the eternall Son of God he did merit the eternall life and rest of the first seventh day lost by Adam due by the Law to his eternall merit which is the blessing of the Lords day offered to the faith of all the nations of the world by the new covenant whereby all the faithfull are saved from the second death which is the curse of the Law of faith Fourthly by the literall light of the sound of the word of the Lords day the naturall mans understanding is morally produced in act by the mediat sense of hearing to understand that the Lords resurrection from the grave was by his rest from the power of eternall death and darknesse of hell from the eternall curse of the Law the cause of eternall death from sin which he made himself for man the cause of the curse of the Law from the power of Satan the cause of sin and from the power of the grave his last enemy whereby the Lord by the immediate act of his own immediate infinite power did gloriously and triumphantly manifest himself truth to man by the fulfilling of his promise of the blessed seed and in that truth love and mercy to man and by that truth love and mercy Lord God and man in the essentiall union of the divine and humane nature Lord God and man equall with the Father and holy Spirit Lord God and man equall with the Father by the work of the redemption of man eternally lost by the eternall curse of the Law and by the redemption of the creatures which were cursed for the sin of man which are equall to the works of the creation and the Lord did manifest himself Lord God and man equall with the holy Spirit as by the continuall influence of his blessing the creatures which he hath redeemed are conserved in their redeemed estate which is the proper blessing of the holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son The name Lord therefore is the name of the essentiall union of the divine and humane nature necessarily implying the three coessentiall distinct persons of the glorious Trinity and consequently implying the name Jesus and Christ For as by the Lord God and man the lost creatures are râ—stored the Lord is the Father Lord and commander of the creatures And as he is the Saviour of man from eternall death he is Jesus the eternall Son of God aâ—d as by the continuall influence of his blessing the creatures are conserved he is Christ the anointed with the oile of gladnesse the holy Spirit and sanctifier and consequently as the redeemed word written in the heart of man by the power of which redeemed word the naturall man doth live move and hath his redeemed state and grace of naturall and morall being is the Image of God in his Son Christ Jesus so the redeemed word in the heart of man is the Image of the Lords truth love and mercy whereby the naturall man is morally enabled by the act of his understanding and will to produce the works of truth love and mercy Fifthly the Lords rest and resurrection from the fulfilling of his promise of the blessed seed being by his infinite immediate power his merit by his resurrection and rest is infinite and his love and mercy to man by his rest is infinite Sixthly as by the infinit power of the Lords merit by his resurrection and rest the day of the Lords resurrection is blessed and sanctified for his worship by man to whose faithfull worship the infinite blessing of the Lords merit of eternall life and rest is due by the Evangelicall law of faith so by the infinite power of his merit the Evangelicall worship of the Lords day is immediatly commanded and in that immediate worship as the Lords day is the Evangelicall seventh day of the Evangelicall law of faith implying the command of the whole law the whole Evangelicall law is commanded obliging all the nations of the world to believe the truth of the Lords fulfilled promise to whose faith the blessing of the Lords Evangelicall eternall rest is due by the law whereby the faithfull man is saved from the second death which is the curse of the law of faith and doth enjoy eternall life Seventhly the naturall man being commanded to believe that by faith in the Lords merit he is saved from the second death and Evangelicall faith being the act of the redeemed heart of man and the originall of all his naturall and morall actions to which all men are inabled by the power of the redeemed Word of truth love and mercy written in the heart of man faith
the world built thereon by which partition the Gentiles were barred from the judiciall service of God all are rased from the very foundation never to be reiterate in the Church of God Last of all Mary Magdalen did not know the Lord of life John 20.16 17 the eternall rest of his blessed day though Mary did see the Lord with her bodily eyes till she heard the sound of the word of the Evangelicall seventh dayes eternall rest calling Mary At the hearing of the sound of whose Evangelicall word while Mary knowing the Lord would have embraced him in her armes the Lord said Mary touch me not to wit but by thine arms of faith The Lord after his resurrection did first honour Mary to be the joyfull trumpeter to sound the news of the word of his mysticall Evangelicall birth-day to the Apostles themselves as the Lord of life the Son of God as he is man did honour Mary the blessed Virgin to be inclosed in her wombe and to be the first proclaimer of the joyfull day of his naturall birth Though woman therefore seduced by the false trechery of Satan was the instrument of the fall of man yet woman first and last was the most happy news-bringer of the most joyfull tidings that ever came to man or Angel Let a man therefore honour woman whom God the Lord hath so highly honoured For first woman was the happy instrument of the salvation of man and of the confirmed grace of the Angels Secondly woman was the happy instrument that man is crowned with the incorruptible crown of glory eternally in all heavenly happinesse whereas though man had stood in the state of perfection man must have enjoyed his perfection and felicity but eternally upon earth And so much for the declaration of the Evangelicall word as the word is the seventh day of the Evangelicall law of faith implying the command of the whole law which is the Lords day the blessed day of dayes We are next according to our method to declare the Evangelicall word as it is the word of the new covenant and promise of God But a question doth arise of the Lords day first necessarily to be answered CHAP. XIII The Evangelicall sense of the bowing of the knee at the name of Jesus THe Question here may be moved Since at the name of Jesus every knee must bow Phil. 2.10 11. of things in heaven of things upon earth and of things under the earth wherefore is not the seventh day of the Evangelicall law of faith called rather by the name of Jesus day then by the name of the Lords day I answer because it is by the light of the seventh day of the Evangelicall law of faith by the truth of the Lords Evangelicall rest and resurrection from the fulfilling of his promise of the blessed seed that Jesus is known to be the Saviour of man the eternall Son of God Lord God and man equall to the Father and holy Spirit as hath been formerly declared by the infinite sanctified power of whose blessed merit the Lords day is blessed and sanctified and the Evangelicall worship of the Lords day immediatly commanded Though Jesus therefore be the name of the Son of God as he is man begot of the seed of the woman and the Saviour of man by his cursed death and bloody rest in the grave without whose resurrection from the dead Jesus the Son of God Adam and all men created in Adam as head must have diâ—d eternally under the eternall curse of the law yet the name Lord is 〈◊〉 name by his infinit power he hath overcome the power of death and the grave necessarily implying the name Jesus and Christ as hath formerly been declared The Lords day therefore is the day of our Lord Jesus Christ immediatly and not immediatly the day of Jesus And consequently the bowing of the knee at the name of Jesus is the bowing of the knee at the name of the Lord Jesus by which bowing of the knee the Evangelicall commanded worship of the Lords day is implied as may plainly appear by the Apostles words saying that God hath given him a name above all names that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and that every tongue shall confesse that Jesus Christ is the Lord For as the religious bowing of the knee is from the believing heart implying the Spirit of the mind that Jesus the Saviour of man is the Lord wherâ—by the internall and externall worship of God is expressed So the confession of the tongue as likewise from the Spirit of faith in the heart that Jesus the Saviour of man is the Lord by the truth of his merit by his Evangelicall rest and resurrection from the fulfilling of his promise of the blessed seed upon the Lords day whereby the worship of the Lords day is commanded in spirit and truth In which commanded worship â—ll the internall and externall worship of God is necessarily implied In this sense thâ— Apostle saith Rom. 10.10 with the heart man doth believe to righteousnesse and with the mouth man doth confesse to salvation that is with the heart implying the Spirit of the mind enlightened by the light of the Lords day really one with the light of the redeemed word of the law in the heart man doth believe that the Lord hath fulfilled the law of righteousnesse by whose merit the believer is saved and with the mouth man doth confesse before God and man that he is saved by faith in the truth of the Lords only merit for as by his only merit all men are saved from the first death which is the curse of the law for the sin of Adam so all the faithfull are saved from the second death which is the curse of the law of faith The externall bowing of the knee therefore at the name of Jesus without adding or implying Lord proceeding from the believing of the heart is but a faithlesse and irreligious worship of God by man In these words of the Apostle concering the bowing of the knee which is a Prophesie and now fulfilled by the Lords dayes Evangelicall rest and resurrection three speciall things are to be observed First though the name Jesus signifying a Saviour be given to man as at the power of the Lords command â—â—n is saved by man from temporall danger yet the name Jesus as he is Lord God and man is incommuâ—icable to man or Angel and a name above all names propâ—rly and immediatly ascribed to the Son the second person of the Trinity And therefore we see that in the Apostles salutations by their Epistles they do pray for peace and grace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ For as the Lord is man the Son of God equall with the Father and holy Spirit before all time so he is man the Son of God in time of the seed of the woman in the essentiall union of the divine nature of the Father Son and holy Spirit with the humane nature
Scripture But yet the earth is not restored to the measure of the former fruitfulnesse The reason is that the redeemed man by his continuall labour and care might be put in minde of his thankfull obedience to his gracious Redeemer by his exercise in the commanded works of faith that his faith may be watered with the dew of the morall and spirituall blessing of the Word This blessing of the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of Righteousnesse of faith then to the Fathers in the promise of the blessed seed and now to us in the fulfilled promise is twofold The first is the naturall blessing of the word to the naturall life of man as he is man The second is the morall and spirituall blessing of the word to the morall and spirituall life of man by the morall and spirituall grace of faith For without the blessing of the nature of the redeemed man his morall and spirituall life must perish in this life This naturall blessing of the word is freely extended to all redeemed men without all respect to the merit of their obedience or disobedience to the command of the Word And therefore it is said Mat. 5.45 That his Sun doth shine and his rain doth fall upon the just and unjust And this is to the end that as God doth freely confer the blessings of the earth without respect to some in great plenty which he hath denyed to many of his redeemed poor members So the plentiful redeemed man may out of his plenty relieve the wants of his redeemed poor brethren without all respect to their merit who are the Lords redeemed members whereby the plentifull man doth testifie his thankfulnesse to his gracious Redeemer by the works of mercy and charity which are the commanded works of faith For what is freely given to the Lords poor redeemed members who are disabled of all means to supply their necessities it is freely given to the Lord himself as may appear by his own words Mat. 25.40 When I was hungry ye fed me not when I was thirstie ye gave me no drinke when I was naked ye clothed me not For want of means for the preservation of the life is a sore temptation which many times is prevented by the charity of the plentifull For by such means the poor indigent wretched man is diverted from attempting unlawfull courses to supply his necessity Though I must confesse that plenty without the speciall dew of the blessing of the Word be the greater and more dangerous temptation of the two The second blessing of the word of the seventh dayes rest of the Law of Righteousnesse of faith is the morall and spirituall blessing of the word necessarily implying the naturall blessing of the word And this morall and spirituall blessing is due by the Law of faith to the morall and spirituall faithfull worship of the seventh day of the Law of faith For by the morall faithfull worship of the seventh day by the naturall man and by the spirituall faithfull worship of the regenerate man by faith in the Lords merit the whole Law of faith is morally and spiritually fulfilled in the seventh day of the Law And therefore the morall and spirituall blessing of the word of the seventh dayes rest doth rest upon the naturall and regenerate man whereby the naturall man is enabled to bring forth the morall works of faith and to continue in his morall obedience till the time of Gods spirituall calling and the regenerate man is enabled to persevere and continue in his spirituall works of faith by his spirituall obedience to the spirituall command of the Law of faith And this is the first and second rain which is the dew of the Lords influence by the blessing of his Word to the grace of the morall and spirituall faith of man Thus have we briefly set down the literall and mysticall sense of the censure pronounced upon our first parents for the transgression of the Law of Righteousnesse and the second covenant established upon the immediate command of the word of the seventh dayes promised rest of the Law of Righteousnesse of faith then implyed in the propheticall Sabbath whereby Adam the redeemed head of man and all men naturally to descend of Adam were formally prophetically and ceremonially obliged to the command of the Law of Righteousnesse of faith in the promised rest of the blessed seed which is the last part of this second Book yet before we proceed a question is to be resolved which is this How long did this formall propheticall ceremoniall obligement of the Law of Righteousnesse of faith continue and how long were all redeemed men obliged by the propheticall ceremoniall Law of God CHAP. XXIX The continuation of the formall propheticall ceremoniall obligement of the Law of righteousnesse of faith in the promise of the blessed seed in the first age of the Church TO the question moved in the end of the former chapter I briefly answer The formall obligement of man by the propheticall ceremoniall Law of faith in the promise of the blessed seed did continue from the very period of the promise first made to Adam the redeemed head of man till the day of our Saviours resurrection from the grave whereby the promised rest of the blessed seed was totally and absolutely fulfilled The continuation whereof may be divided in these two points The first is the formall obligement of our Fathers by the promise before any part of the promise was fulfilled And this formall obligement did continue till our Saviours coming in the world by whom the promise was fulfilled by degrees which is to be declared in the third Book As for the continuation of the formall obligement of the Law obliging Adam and the Fathers in the promise it may be distinguished in the first three ages of the Church The first was from Adam to Noah the second from Noah to Abraham the third from Abraham to Moses which continued till our Saviours coming wherein my purpose is only to shew that the formall obligement of the propheticall ceremoniall Law by faith in the promise of the blessed seed and that the covenant was really one and the same in all the first three ages of the Church though the figures prefigurating the promise were more significant the more neer that the promise came to be fulfilled After the covenant in the promise of the blessed seed was entred with Adam the redeemed head of man and with all men naturally to descend of Adam Satan that old raging Lion fearing the breaking of his head by the promised blessed seed to be born of the woman did begin to roare afresh intending to devoure the line whereof the blessed seed was to descend as he had devoured all men formally by the betraying of our first parents to fall under the curse of the Law by eternall death For Satan knowing the severity of Gods justice whereof himself had such experience resolved to set the whole world in such a fire of