Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	wonder_n	word_n	write_v	27	3	4.8310	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85461	Saltmarsh returned from the dead, in Amico Philalethe. Or, The resurrection of James the apostle, out of the grave of carnall glosses, for the correction of the universall apostacy, which cruelly buryed him who yet liveth. Appearing in the comely ornaments of his fifth chapter, in an exercise, June 4. 1654. Having laid by his grave clothes, in a despised village remote from England, but wishing well, and heartily desiring the true prosperity thereof.	Gorton, Samuel, 1592 or 3-1677.	1655 (1655)	Wing G1307; Thomason E836_1; ESTC R207426	178,733	220

brother-hood which is in Christ who is not ashamed to call us brethren whereby he declares their disjunction and separation from the men formerly spoken of as not being naturalized or having any part or portion in that manner of death formerly expressed nor any allyance thereunto 2. Whence he infers the exhortation Be patient therefore that is as the Son of God suffers himselfe to be deprived and laid wast of all spirituall glory vertue and operations of his spirit in the world to rescue you and deliver you there-from even so do you suffer your selves without any resistance to be routed and dispoiled of all humane transitory and fading excellencies of the world that as he fully suffereth in the wicked in point of the spirit as being layd waste of all the things thereof for there is a fulfilling or fulnesse of the Scripture in Judas and the Jewes in putting Christ to death in regard of the letter of it So do you patiently endure to be dispoyled and layd waste of all that carnall and temporall glory of the world in whatsoever it may seem to consist for there is a fulfilling or fulnesse of the Scripture in the man of God also even in that Emanuel God with us or in us in regard of the true spirit and life of the word of God therefore the flesh must be abolished that so the fulness of the spirit may appear which otherwise it cannot do The word translated patience is the same where the Apostle John saith I John even your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ or in the Kingdome and under-abiding of Jesus Christ as the word is truly rendered that is a suffering of the losse of all things carnall and transitory through that Princely power of the spirit that reigns in the kingdome of God that so Christ his suffering in the flesh may be as full and compleat as that in the spirit that so the form of the Cherubims on each end of the Mercy-seate may answer one to another from between which the Oracle of God ever utteteth it selfe and else-where expresseth not it selfe in the Sanctuary and hence is Christ said to come or spring up in this place and that is the third point unto what this suffering tends and whereunto it serves and that is to the coming of the Lord. 3. The word translated coming signifies to spring grow up or ascend teaching us hereby that this is the way of the resurrection of Christ and his ascention into all spirituall and heavenly glory for he gives himselfe unto death in respect of any life of the spirit being or existing in the world or any glory of his presence in point of his divine grace ever to appeare there that is in the wicked and this is as a compleat and unvaluable ransome whereby he purchaseth unto himselfe miserable and fraile flesh in that way of his Saints to be possessed for ever in the power of his spirit in all the fruits of righteousnesse being cloathed thereupon with the glory of the sons of God and heyrs of his Kingdom this patience therefore is to the coming of the Lord into unity and brother-hood with fraile man The argument then stands thus If Christ suffer death in the spirit in the men of the world freely giving up himselfe thereunto without resistance to an eternall separation of his spirit and glory of his power from that which he himselfe is namely man Do you in like manner suffer your selves to be deprived of all the excellency glory of this world and freely lay down your life in respect of any living thereunto without resistance for it is not unto separation or departure but to the springing up and coming of the Lord that you may ascend into that which he is in himselfe namely into the state and condition of an only son Let the world take notice that if the Son of God give it its full scope without resistance to set up and exalt it selfe in riches power policy and all wantonnesse and lasciviousnesse what a shame is it to the world to deny him liberty and freedome in his Saints to exercise himselfe in all his vertues offices and operations of his spirit in his house and kingdome but they must be judging him to be factious seditious pernicious erroneous and blasphemous and that by such as are most properly sealed up unto carnall and humane principles in Schools of humane learning so as they dare not give an Exposition upon the word of God but so as it may be consonant to the rules of humane Art unlesse they receive it at second hand by some approved Author that passeth for currant in the state where they live While the world walks and works in this sphear we shall see nothing among the sons of the mighty but meerly Babels confusion For the most curious Artist destitute of the spirit of God exercising in the word of God brings forth the greatest confusion for he is bound to preserve and maintayn the flesh which in all poynts lusteth against the spirit and is contrary thereunto So that it is the division of language for his tongue is divided from God in all expressions if hee be understood according to his true intent 4. The amplification follows by an elegant allusion to a Husbandman with respect to his seed-time and harvest We all know of what nature the patient waiting of a husband-man is with respect to his seed-time and harvest Let us therefore take out the meaning of the allusion wherein is contayned a mystery implyed in this word Behold noting unto us the appearance of a signe or wonder as was formerly sayd of the same phrase Now the Husband-man is the Son of God who sowes good seed in his field But the enemy in this his sleep of death unto the spirit in the men of the world or man of sin sowes tares for it is the word of God that is sown in the world but being received and formed by the would composed of the principle and dictates of humane wisdome which hath in it the very characters of the letter of the Scriptures which is the compleat form of the law of sin and death even as the wisdome of the spirit hath in is the compleat form of the law of the spirit of life and being received and formed in that mould it becomes a pernicious and unfruitfull tare In like manner as the spirit of the creature being cast into that mould of wholsome Doctrine doth through that wisdom of God become in it the true seed of immortality to increase with the increasings of God In the allusion or metaphor we have to consider 1. A wonder noted in the word Behold 2. A patient waiting or abiding The husband-man waiteth 3. For what that is for the precious fruits of the earth 4. The time is with long patience 5. The meanes of receiving them and that is The former and latter raine FIrst for the word Behold

implying a wonder note thus much in the distinction of it from the former expression for the word of God in every phrase hath its peculiar and distinct lustre In the former Christ is brought in as an hireling in his death in the spirit here as the Husbandman or Lord of the harvest in his dying unto the flesh Whence we observe That it is a like wonder and miraculous act and deed for the sonne of God to be made an hireling in the world or kingdome of men as it is for the sonne of man Enoch sorry and base man made of the earth to be made Lord of the harvest ruler of heaven and earth Let this be the only use of it to carry newes to all men that he that knows not the mystery of the one cannot unfold the Chidah that hidden matter or riddle of the other for the spirit of Joseph can interpret the dream of Pharaoh's Baker as well as that of his Butlers 2. The husbandman waites The word implyes a wayting as an over-seer to give things their due and to keep from harm hee tarries and abides by his field to see that nothing be wanting nor that any tare be pluckt up to the hurt or disadvantage of the corne but will have them grow together till harvest Whence we observe That there can be no true and acceptable division made betwixt wheat and tares just and unjust but by the perfect growth and ripenesse of them both the man of God must be brought forth unto perfection so also must the man of sinne Yea the seed of God sown in that great field of the world not in one age but in all ages thereof as also the seed of the Serpent or tares sown by that evill one must be opened unto the full measure of sin and righteousnesse in the one and in the other or else no man can rightly divide between the precious and the vile He cannot pluck up a tare otherwise but he hurts the wheat for no man can scant a wicked man of the fulnesse of sin but he besmears the Just one that holy one of God with what hee keepes back from the wicked for if it be not brought unto the wicked as to its proper seate in its perfection it is left unto the Son of God as he yet abiding under it This Lord of the Harvest therefore waits as a carefull and diligent over-seer that no such great inconvenience and evill befall his field or hinder the right and joyfull in gathering of his harvest They therefore that go about to gather in the wheat or binde up the tares before they be waiters and over-seers unto fulnesse and perfection of both that they can truly say the harvest is come which is the end of the world namely of all worldly excellencies of the Saints these are those unskilfull servants which know not the mind of the Lord nor is their enterprize acceptable unto him 3. He waits for the precious fruits of the earth and tarries and abides to preserve all things in order and place to the appearing of them which are the abundant and fruitfull exercises of mercy and justice which spring up in the just and unjust These are they which the Psalmist speakes of when he saith Mercy and truth are met together justice and peace have kissed each other For these are both alike innocent and guiltlesse precious and of like difficulty to be found out as they are gathered together and exercised by the wisdome and power of God who thrusts in the sickle of his wrath and displeasure as well as of his love and good will when the regions are white unto the harvest in the one respect and in the other For it is alike precious thing in God to redeem and deliver the elect by man and yet to free man in point of his own proper nature and ability from being any cause or furtherance in the work thereof as it is to condemn and destroy the wicked by the Son of God and yet to free God in point of his own native properties and operations from being any furtherance of the work thereof and without both the one and the other of these brought to light the words of wisdome are not justified In the one he that glorieth or as the word is praiseth himselfe it must be in the Lord for the boasting of all flesh is excluded In the other he that is shamefully dishonoured and blasphemed it is only in man for the Son of God is most glorious and excellent for ever and most precious fruits of justice and mercy ariseth from each of them In the one the Lord alone is our salvation and our strength and in the other Oh Israel thy destruction is of thy selfe The fourth point is the time of waiting and that is with long patience The length of this patience is answerable to the long suffering of God in the dayes of Noah who suffered himselfe to be mortified in respect of all spirituall and holy things in Cain even as Abel was by him slaine and put to death for in Cain the life of righteousnesse never appeared for he was destroyed in his seed in the deluge in that respect never to live onely none is to put him to death nor diminish him in his living unto the flesh in which respect he lives to this day in those that wander in the way of Cain as the Apostle teacheth and so Abels blood speaks wrath in him untill now And Abel is never to live after the flesh nor bring forth an off-spring in that way and yet speaks in that voyce of faith and life of Christ in Seth that set one in his stead of whom Christ came as an offering acceptable and of sweet smelling savour before God for ever This patience then hath the length of eternity in it for he that cannot expect the reception and rising up of these fruits at an eternall distance as fresh and new in exercise and execution as though they had never taken being before both in mercy to the godly and in terrour to the wicked he can never perceive nor rightfully enjoy the present being of the one nor the other For if we look upon them according to the dimentions which God gives unto them then are they to come unto eternity both the destruction of the wicked in our ransome as the salvation of the just in their purchased possession and they are both of them really present in that act of expectation even as the Son of God is one that is and is to come So that in patient waiting we possesse and in present possession we patiently waite else things are not looked upon as having God in unity but only as Creature in relation to Creature but the Apostle testifies that Abraham in wayting for the Promise had the present enjoyment of it and that as the father of all the faithful who only inherit accordingly and in no other way and thence he brings in the next point Which is

power of the resurrection from the dead as it is said the Lord shall raise him up there is in prayer a Lord-like authority to rise out of that grave of sin and sorrow of death and destruction so as none shall have dominion over it to keep it under for it cannot be held of death but it will remove the stone from the Sepulchre and deface and break open the seal of Herod himselfe though set upon it by the cheif Preists and Pharisees making it as sure as they can it will make the house of the carnall Jews to shake when the Apostles of Christ are gathered together or brought into unity and harmony by that reconciling spirit of interpretation It will make the foundations of the Prison to shake where the spirit of our great Apostle is infringed casting open the doors and laying wast such power to the astonishment of the Jaylors themselves whoever they may be yea it will raise Peter up out of the dungeon and cause his chains to fall off from his hands to his own admiration and wonder In a word prayer hath in it the power and vertue of the resurrection because it is the breathing of the Son of God returned from death to life this word behold he prayeth was an argument sufficient to prove Paul change from a Saul and to be risen up out of that grave and puddle of the Jewish litteral and carnall worships and from that deadly spirit of persecution which ever accompanies such maner of services Thirdly prayer hath in it the power of pardon and forgivenesse of sins for if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him or in the present tence as the word will bear they are forgiven him that is to every one that partakes in this prayer of faith To commit sin here is to be understood in a two-fold respect that is negatively and affirmatively of which the breach of law being sin doth consist now to sin and prove a delinquent in omitting and not doing that which is required is to neglect and leave undone that which the carnal commandement according to the strict spirit of a Pharisee calls for such sin or missing of the rule of the carnall commandement standing in outward ordinances is here to be understood which is the onely sin condemned by a carnall Jew and this law the prayer of faith doth rout ravell undo and abrogate with respect unto the obligation thereof in the true intent of a Pharasaical Jew And against this law doth true prayer sin in all its supplications intercessions and requests for the prayer of faith observes not in the least in any point that law of the spirit of bondage which onely obligeth to the law of the flesh nor can it keep and perform that spirit of enmity which Christ Jesus nailes to his Crosse and slays in himselfe and therefore a sinne in a Saint in way of negation against the affirmative part of the law of the flesh Againe there is a sin committed affirmatively and that is by reall acting and doing according to the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord which the wisdome of man in that carnall law forbids and that under the penalty of errour schism heresie pride blasphemy and death it self For every point of the law of the spirit rightly composed according to the prin ciples and grounds of faith is most heinous wicked detestable sinfull and abominable in the eyes of a carnal man Now the breach disannulling and abrogating of the carnall command for which the Jewes so hated Christ is the truth of the matter the reality and ever carries in it the remission pardon and forgivenes of sins in the Saints as surely as the breach of the law of the spirit and that everlasting Covenant of God carries in it guilt crime and is the condemnation of the world For every sin and blasphemy against the Son of man that is against the wisdome will power and authority of the arme of flesh shall be forgiven or it is forgiven for it hath the acquittance general discharge and release in it self but he that speaks aagainst the holy spirit that is against that law of the spirit or spirituall estate of that holy one of God it shall never be forgiven that is he that breaks the law of the spirit in any word or thing as the phrase imports it hath in it that guilt which can never be wiped out neither in this world that is in time present nor in the world or time that is to come or not in this world that is in the conscience of the party so made guilty nor in the world to come that is in that sentence of the righteous Judge which doth for ever adjudg and condemn it so that as the breach of the spiritual law hath in it an eternall guilt unseperably and enevitably fastned unto it and accompaning the same even so hath the breach or abrogation of the carnall law an everlasting pardon and acquittance before God fastned unto and ever accompaning the same Note in this point that the Levitical law which the Apostle apposeth to the law of an endlesse life doth not condemn because men fall short in some particulars of the fulfilment of the same but it condemns and is death unto him that walks according to the same or lives thereafter Therefore our Apostle saith If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that is if yee live according to the law of the carnall commandement for by it no flesh can be justified or if yee minde the things of the flesh that is as the word signifies if ye frame form or fashon things unto your selfe according to the carnall command art or reason of man concerning the affairs of God it is death but to live after the spirit that is the law of the spirit or spirituall law is life and peace or to minde the things of the spirit that is to form frame and fashion things spiritually that is life and peace and as the one of these is sin according to mans wisdome and his accounts even so is the other sin according to Gods wisdome and his reckoning and account judgement and doom passed upon it by an eternall and unchangeable sentence There is pardon then and power of forgivenesse in prayer because it is God that sitteth upon that throne of grace judging unto justification who then shall condemn for it the spirit of grace and supplication whereof prayer doth consist yea it is the Son of God who is justified who then shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen that holy one of God For wherever the spirit and vertue of Christ is there is power to forgive sins therefore he saith to stop the mouth of those legall Pharisees whether is it easier to say thy sins are forgiven or to say take up thy bed and walke but that you may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive sins on earth therefore I said

mistery of iniquity also which properly makes and gives being unto the God of this world which is no lesse then Satan himselfe who attempts through his arrogating insatiable spirit to tender unto Christ all the kingdoms of the Earth and the glory of them the one of these is a wonder but a lying one because it brings not forth what it promiseth as the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises is a righteousnesse but not that which enters into the kingdome and the other is a wonder and a true miracle because it brings to passe the things it promiseth even as the righteousnesse of Christ enters into the kingdom and sitteth in safety and honour at the right hand of God And they that preach not the Gospel as accompanied with these signes in the ministry of it according to the variety of the work proposed the speaking and creating word of his signes is not sent unto that people for their release and deliverance out of the house of bondage and yet it is true that tongues are for a sign not to them that beleive but to them that beleive not that is an unbeleiver ever expects that a signe should speak in the same form which formerly it hath done or else he takes it not for a wonder wrought by God but then there should need no interpretatiin the Church at all without which tongues are not of use unto edefying The worlds expectation of signes to accompany the preaching of the Gospel for the confirmation of it in the same forme as formerly is the expectation of Infidels such as follow Christ to be fed with carnal things bread that perisheth in the use like them that after they had been fed miraculously with the loaves and the fishes they persue and follow him to have a signe that he is a man of God and conclude that Moses was a man of God that could give bread from heaven but this not coming in like for me but from the Earth though in that wonderfull multiplication and increase is as nothing unto them But the signs wonders and mighty works accompanying the grace of the Gospel never appear twice in the same forme so that a man may as well expect the water that now bubleth up in a living and swift running fountaine to tarry and abide for him till his return to it againe as to fit down by a wonder wrought by God till it appear in the very same forme againe it coming out of that inexhaustible fountaine and swift running current of that infinite variety of his wisdome and power Moses miraculously fasted forty dayes and forty nights and is in the mount with God and hath in that fast the law the perfect pattern of all truth and holiness presented and shewed unto him and againe Christ fasted forty dayes and forty nights but was in the wildernesse among wilde beasts and therein had the temptations of Satan the proper platforme of the power of darknesse represented unto him which differs much from the pattern of salvation and kingdome of light Eliah also fasted forty dayes and forty nights but was miraculously fed before in the strength of which food he went into a cave by the mount of God and there had apparitions voices manifested unto him wherein God made himselfe manifest and also such wherein God appeared not at all one forty dayes fast not but in variety of wonder one death of Christ but a diverse signe in it he is slaine at Jerusalem and our Lord is also crucified in Sodome and in Aegypt true in both with respect to flesh and spirit And so much for the word Behold implying a wonder wherein observe the deceitfull sleights and cunning devices of the Magissians the Jannes and Jambres of our dayes who have erected for the confirmation of Princes great signes of honour and Godlike prosperity Kings Chappels and pulpits of State State-prayers and state-like officers in the Church for forming of them that they may carry their virtue by whomsoever uttered state-religion and state-like pompe in the exercise of it as though the Kings of the earth should be thereby declared to be not onely the off-spring of the almighty but the deputed Gods In what doth the successe and issue of these Doctors indeavors end in differing from those Magissians in Aegypt in the confirmation and incouragement of their King first born and his alies 2. The second point is who the Labourers are or the Labourer for the word may be read either singular or plurally as it usuall in Scripture to use words of active and passive signification as also such as may be read either in the masculine or feminine gender without wrong to the Text so also such as will beare either the singular or plurall number and so it is in this place To take the word therefore in the singular acceptation it is Christ collectively considered in that one intire and mysticall body of his comprehending all the Saints in all ages of the world Againe take it plurally Labourers and it is Christ distinctly distributed and given out in all the parts and members of that body for he is that Labourer or Husband-man that sowes good seed in his field though the evill one sow tares in the time of his sleep or when and where he is dead to all things of the spirit which is in that evill one only upon whom they grow He sowes with his owne hand as he is that one fountaine and giver out of the seed in all ages yesterday and to day and for ever the same And his seeds-men sow also as he is a participator and the receiver thereof for he receiveth the spirit though not by measure for it is immence 3. The third point is what the labour is in reaping down the fields By reaping here is not meant cutting downe but in gathering also as the word-imports Christs reaping therefore is the cutting downe of all those riches and ripened fruits of the flesh those superfluous branches from the true Vine that they be not found in the field or upon that hand of Emanuel which else-where is said to be the crueifying of the flesh in the affections and lusts and the slaying of the enmity in himselfe which are the proper in gatherings of the worke and that whereof their harvest and Vintage doth consist whereby their regions become white unto the harvest that is it sets them in a capacity to be cut downe by an eternall destruction and in these the labourer is defrauded who hath spent his strength in them in vaine or unto emptinesse and laboured for nought as he complains by his Prophet or in the Prophet Isaiah In them he hath lost his time as a labourer hath who is deprived of his hire for his time and age is not extant in them the time of grace is expended the day of salvation is not found in them his generation is ceased in them and is no more even as a labourer hath lost his time so spent as no

into the state and condition of Christ or else it is not an acknowledgment and confession of faith And so sin is confessed upon the head of the Scape-goat to be carryed into the wildernesse which is desolate and way lesse unto the people of God neither is he nor it that is the goate nor the sin in that true respect found in Israel any more and so sin it set on its probase and place of its perpetuall aboad not only in time to come but past also that is in Babylon in the land of Shyner the place of confusion wherein note that the strictest order composed by the wisdome of man which is in truth and substance consonant to the letter of the Scripture men being tyed thereunto as a rule to walk by is that proper confusion of Babell unto a Christian unity because it makes man the fore-runner and not the Lord Christ who only enters within the vale where the true oracle is uttered even as it is true that when the will of God according to the law of the spirit is the most distinctly made manifest it appears to be the only confusion in a carnall mind because it layes wast those proper principles whereby it adorns it self with all its ornaments Note here how necessary it is for mans wisdome to moderate it selfe in the making of Lawes and binding men under penalties to take them as rules for all to walk by And here we propound a question whether one Law of God be not of like weight as another for that distinction of the first Table being more eminent then the second is meerly humane for doth not Christ center both in two commands and affirms them to be of like weight and the Apostles bring all into one saying love fulfils the whole law So that the two Tables do teach unto us the unity of God and man and that both according to the letter of the Law and also of the spirit and therefore the Law is broken by Moses at the foot of the Mount as considered in the Leviticall Priest-hood exercised in the Rebels in the wildernesse and the Law is preserved and kept by Moses in the Arke unto this day as the Scripture affirms as it is exercised in that way of the Spirit in Joshuah or Jesus who leads into the land as that Captain of our salvation But however the question stands concerning strictnesse of Law in two commands of the second Table which are of the same weight and importance to every Christian the one as the other and that is the not killing but preservation of life and the not committing of adultery in the preservation of chastity Is there not then a like care to be had and provision made for the preservation of life in respect of its existance and being as there is to preserve chastity that so man may appear in honour and temperancy If there be a like care to be had in both then I demand how it comes to passe that men make a law to execute death upon that fact of adultery which reacheth unto the very Embryon and unformed substance of man in the womb that so they may prevent a Bastard-like brood and that impure and incontinent conversation of men in the world Why are they not alike carefull to ordaine and execute a law upon men in case man and wife know each other when there is no possibility of conception whereby the life of man seems to be destroyed and cut off as considered in the very same capacity and principles and so upon the like ground murder committed This case may seem to be the very point of Christs argument brought forth by his practice against the Scribes and Pharisees who stood so strictly upon the letter of Moses writing when they brought that woman taken in adultery unto him who in pretending the fulfilment of the Law out of a malicious spirit seeke to ensnare the Son of God to kill him and put him to death which murthering litterall spirit of theirs he convicts them of and acquits the woman in that double act of his in writing on the earth having respect unto the writing of the two Tables of stone signifying unto them that killing letter bearing sway in themselves whereby they sought to take away his life rather then the womans by putting the force and dignity of the Law to stand in carnall and fleshly observance and so convicted them in his first writing upon the earth as having broken the Law as Moses did the first Table and therein their consciences accuse them as guilty of murder and so they absent themselves from Christ And in his second writing on the earth hee signifies that law of the spirit which is for ever kept and preserved in himselfe wherein is found no condemnation but an acquittance from all sin and unrighteousnesse and therefore the woman escapes without condemnation when none but Christ according to that law appears with her A Commentary might be writ of this point but thus much only as closely as may be in way of caution to prevent men in their so confident prosecutions formed from the letter of the Scripture as they piece-meale it out of the wisdome of man left it prove no better in conclusion then the wisdome of the Serpent that whilst they entice to the eating of the fruit of one tree because of the fairnesse and benefit of it they do not corrupt and destroy another in themselves in so doing before they be well aware of it For if such mens wisdome and wills had taken place in the dayes of Juda and Thomas they would have made a breach in the Geneology of Christ And if they say they would have stopped execution till the children had been born then they would not have sto●d to the glory of the Law which after it be truly discerned stands in seleritas inexequendo Wee are then to attend the mind of the spirit of God in this namely that our yea be yea and our nay nay wherein the scope of the Scriptures do consist being the state of man-kind with respect unto God which is in one act and for ever and not in the relation of any one Creature or Creatures with respect unto others that is to any meer creature or creatures which may now be yea it is and immediately nay it is not but in Christ it is not so who is the end of all law the scope of all relations and the very end which all operations drive at presse unto as he is crucified according to the flesh or else according to the spirit in which respect yea remayns yea and nay remayns nay both in the way of Christ and in the way of Antichrist So that he that teacheth another thing to be the intent and meaning of the word of God what ever it is that may one time be and another time not be in the same state condition of man-kind considered that is a doctrine under the state of condemnation Therfore

the seale of the Doctrine of the Gospel and any particular or all outward forms which Religion is represented unto us in to be the Religion of God as well as any or all of those former miracles wrought to be the seale of God 3. Furthermore to conclude the historicall act of wonders wrought to be the sign of confirmation is to darken yea to annihilate the vertue and power of the Gospel for in this wonder of Eliah to make the heavens as brasse and the earth as iron is here a fit allusion in the judgement of the spirit and we are to heare what the spirit saith unto the Churches in the teaching of the death of Christ and the operations thereof considered in the world and also in the house of God whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end And thus the allusion is unto a three yeares and sixe moneths forbearance of raine and afterwards to raynein great plenty This allusion is also used not in the terme of yeares but of two and forty moneths which is the same length of time but in a farre differing respect and differing doctrine in regard of the severall beames and lustre of the Gospel For there he teacheth that in measuring of the Temple the Court-yard is to be left out and not to be measured because it is given unto the Gentiles And the holy Citie shall they tread under foot two and forty moneths which is this three years and six moneths It is also alluded unto in poynt of dayes and so the same mystery is called a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes which are not properly yeares of famine but rather of fruit for it is the time of the prophesie of the two witnesses of the Gospel it is alluded unto likewise as consisting of three dayes and a halfe which is the time of the witnesses dead bodies lying in the streets of the great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Aegypt where also our Lord was crucified not suffered to be put in graves This wonder wrought by Eliah is alluded unto also as points or monuments of time in which the time of the womans being in the wildernesse is taught a doctrine farre differing from any of the former and that is for a time times and halfe a time on the division of time Now if the three yeares and sixe moneths drought and afterwards rayne were the substance and intent of the miracle and in that the wonder to lye for the confirmation of the Gospel how fi●ly could the spirit of God bring it in as an elegant allusion in all these severall respects Those therefore that would have the Gospel confirmed by miracles of like outward form as have been done in ages past they annihilate the Gospel by denying the truth substance and reality of the signe to be extant only in Christ Like friends to the Gospel are they who look to see Christ coming from heaven confined in one individuall man as the Disciples saw him go up to reign on the earth as an only Monarch for the space of a thousand yeares and then and not till then we shall see good dayes as those Doctors affirm The fourth poynt is the effect of his prayer And it rayned not Concerning the historicall form of this wonder all men know what it is to rayne and not to rayn But few know the mystery thereof which is substantiated in the Son of God and consists in that death of his reallized in the men of the world and in the men of God The spirit therefore and office of the intercession of Christ centring in and gathering it selfe into that one holy and mysticall body in the utterance and manifestation of it selfe affords not any of the raine of Gods liberality and bounty nor of that dew which causeth Israel to grow as a lilly unto that body of sinne that state of Ahab Jezebel and apostatized Israel but leaves it fruitlesse and barren like those mountains of Gilboa where Saul slaw himself c. to declare that his unction according to the works of the Law of the carnall command with all the glory arising there-from and the terrours of God are never separated nor upon that height and dignity doth ever rayn nor dew according to the intent of our Apostle in this place fall or descend to bring forth any fruit unto God but are like the heath in the parched wildernesse and as the dry dust which the winde of Gods fury driveth away 2. The spirit of intercession comprized and exercising it selfe in that Elijah the strength of our being or existance dryeth up that mysticall body of Christ that no rayne nor dew nor any moysture producing fruits according to the flesh falleth upon it or descendeth thereon And this is declared and signified unto us in Eliah who goes to the brook Cherith or the brook of slaying and mortification of the flesh with all the lusts and affections thereof intimated unto us in the drying up of the brook by that drought and he is fed by no earthly thing but only by the fowls of heaven Also when he sits under the Mulbery trees as one bereaved of his life as his fathers before him also were To the things of this world there also an Angel or Messenger heavenly only makes provision for him in his ascention to Horeb the Mount of God in the strength of which food once received though in a two-fold respect he travels forty days and forty nights the like time that Moses and our Lord fasted where he complayns to God that he only is left alone destitute of all help of man as an out-cast from all claym or title to the Kingdome of Ahab and backsliden Israel to idolatry For there is no rayn nor dew which makes that earthly condition fruitfull that falls upon him for the Famine is as great unto him in poynt of the wisdome of the flesh yeelding any food to Eliah as it is in respect of the wisdome of the spirit in yeelding any refreshment to Ahab the one being the heaven of God of Israel and the other the heaven or god of the world To conclude this point let us insert that word Selah which hath the signification of lifting up do but exalt the word of God as it is in Jesus and behold it is extant and lives in both these respects at this day and thence comes in the time of this restraynt of rayne And this is the fifth poynt which is for the space of three yeares and sixe moneths For the opening of this point we know that the number three as it hath the mystery of a true and reall distinction in it in the same individuall as in the three that beare record in heaven the father the word and the spirit and these three are one So also the mystery of fulnesse and perfection as the number seven hath for three witnesses are as a thousand they answer the Law compleatly