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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96661	Mount Ebal levell'd or Redemption from the curse. Wherein are discovered, 1. The wofull condition of sinners under the curse of the law. 2. The nature of the curse, what it is, with the symptomes of it, in its properties, and effects. 3. That wonderful dispensation of Christs becoming a curse for us. 4. The grace of redemption, wherein it stands, in opposition to some gross errors of the times, which darken the truth of it. 5. The excellent benefits, priviledges, comforts, and engagements to duty, which flow from it. By Elkanah Wales, M.A. preacher of the Gospel at Pudsey in York-shire.	Wales, Elkanah, 1588-1669.	1658 (1658)	Wing W294; Thomason E1923_1; ESTC R209971	189,248	382

accursed through sinne it 's a wonder that the first and second death have not fallen pel-mel upon them all and devoured them at once it s a wonder that the curse hath not dashed us all to peices and brought the whole world into a Chaos long agoe This is from the wise and good providence of God who for the preservation of the whole frame and for the comfort of his owne people doth snub restraine and moderate the curse and keepes it within certaine bounders as the Sea within its banks that it cannot overflow and destroy the earth We see that the horse the Ox and other such like creatures have not quite renounced mans service but are easily brought into subjection Yea the most savage creatures are not invincibly rebellions but God affords to man both skill and power to tame them Jam. 3.7 And 2. What a mercifull dispensation is this that such swarmes of curses should flie abroad in the world and yet so very few of them in comparison should touch us That so few are born blind deafe maimed idiots That nature is sustained in health strength vigour yea that we live upon the earth and enjoy the influence of heaven That the heaven over our head is not brasse and the earth under our feet iron yea that we are in any estate short of hel who might justly have been stript of all at once and made the common Butt of all his curses And further Isa 3. What a sweet providence is it that when the Lord inflicteth evils or judgments which are properly and in themselves the bitter fruits of the curse he doth not alwayes inflict them meerly as curses in reference to the sinnes of the persons but sometimes onely praeventions of sinne and the miseries which follow it as 1. Cor. 11.32 Or as exercises of patience as in the famous example of Job or as meanes which his divine wisdome is pleased to use for the manifestation of his owne glorie in some way or other Whereof we have a notable instance in the man which was blind from his birth Jo. 9.1.2.3 The disciples ask our Saviour whose sinne was the cause of that judgment his owne or his parents He answers neither of both but that the works of God should be made manifest in him his meaning is this you think this man is thus marked out for some notorious sinne either of his owne Or his Parents but you are mistaken for although sinne be an universal cause of all judgments ⸫ See Piscator and Gualter on the place yet in this case the Lord did not look upon the sinnes of either of them as the adaequate or next mooving cause of inflicting this blindness but he intended hereby the manifestation of his works the work of justice and severitie in afflicting him so sadly and so long the work of goodnes and mercie in bestowing the blessing of sight upon him and cheifly that this miracle wrought by me saith Chirst may be a cleare and undeniable demonstration that I am the Son of God seeing it could not possibly be done by any other hand ⸫ ab v. 32. To shut up this use let us not reckon our selves the lesse miserable because of these and the like providences but rather ascribe them to the indulgence of mercie and adore the glorie of his dispensations who suffereth us not to be so accursed as we deserve 4ly Hence I inferre that there is no justification to be had no nor any possibilitie thereof by the works of the Law It is a vaine thing once to expect it The Law curseth sinners how then doth it bless them but if it justifie them it blesseth them All men are under the curse of the Law therefore no man is under the acquittance and absolution of the Law This is one of the Apostles arguments in the verses before to look for justification and blessing from the Law is not onely to lose our labour but also to bring upon our selves more mischeif It s the way to inwrappe us more in the folds of the curse to implunge us into a deeper Sea of guilt yea to seale up the curse against our owne soules and to make it sure to our selves Observe what is the conclusion which the Apostle would prove from the text alledged out of Deuteronomie vers 10. before It is that those which are of the works of the Law are under the curse that is not onely those which break the Law or doe not keep it perfectly but those that depend upon it and reckon of justification by the works of it even these also are accursed so Rom. 3.19.20 The Law chargeth all men with sinne and thereby stoppes every ones mouth and makes all the world subject to the vengeance of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence it followes unavoydably that no flesh shall be justified by the deeds of the Law Therefore the Apostle professeth that he would by no meanes be found having his owne righteousnes which is of the Law Phil. 3.9 As if he should say If I should appeare before Gods judgment-seat clothed in that habit he would abhorre me and I were utterly undone So then there is no justification to be had by the Law No man can possibly reach that conformitie to the Law of God either inward or outward in the frame of the heart or cariage of the life which will be able to plead his justification in the sight of God It is not any good qualitie within us or any goodwork that comes from us or both joyned together though never so excellent for kind or degree that can set us right in the court of heaven There is nothing at all which a man hath nothing at all which he doth or can doe for which God will pronounce him righteous but when he hath done all and is got up to the highest pitch the Law will tell him to his face that he is still Accursed This is needfull to be urged for not onely the world but the churches of Christ are full of justitiaries which carve unto themselvs an imaginary self-righteousness according to the Law Oh that these persons would open their eares to this truth and take it down Of these I observe 4 sorts I meane such as seek a Blessedness by the Law which they shall never find 1. Professed Papists which submit unto and hold fast the establish'd doctrine of the Church of Rome especially as it is set forth in the councell of Trent where they determine thus The alone formal cause of the Justification of a sinner before God or that which gives being to it is Righteousness implanted or a new qualitie of grace or frame of holines wrought in the soule which what is it else but personall and inhaerent conformitie to the Law of God They tell us further of a first justification whereby of unrighteous a man is made righteous and secondly whereby of unrighteous he is made more righteous The former if I mistake not they hold incompleat

strappadoes to gibbets and gallows to fire and faggot to boyling oil and scalding lead boring out your eyes plucking off your skins pulling the members of your bodies asunder by piece-meale and many the like barbarous usages devised by brutish men skilfull to destroy which Christians have been put to suffer in ages past and who can secure you from them in times to come Poor soule if thou canst not with patience bear the curse of a man whose breath is in his nostrils bethink thy selfe how thou wilt bear that grievous curse which will surely overtake thee if thou be ashamed of Jesus Christ Sect. 6. Use 3. Lamentation that sinners put him to it still THirdly and lastly from this conclusion thus presented to us we may take just occasion to enter upon a sad lamentation while we look upon the great wickedness of too many who not thinking it enough that Christ hath taken the curse off from them and laid it upon himself do heap upon him still more cursing and lay a greater weight thereof on his back every day If we should see a brute beast as an horse so laden with one pack upon another or with one fardell added to another that he is even falling down under it and much more if we should see a poor servant having a burthen heavie enough lying on him already to have still more heaped upon his shoulders till his back be ready to break under the load we would all pity the oppressed creatures and cry out of the oppressors as most unmercifull and unreasonable men Oh then what bowels of tender compassion should be in us towards the Lord Jesus who hath still new loads of curses laid upon him from day to day and how should our hearts rise in an holy indignation against them which deal so basely with him But methinks I hear some say What are there any such monsters in the world or at least in the Church we can hardly believe it Yes verily both in the world and in the Church and those very many and of sundry sorts as 1. All those which deny or do not acknowledge Christ Jesus to be that which indeed he is in regard of the incomparable excellency of his person in both his Natures Divine and Humane and his Offices of Prophet Priest and King c. as those Hereticks which began to spring up in the days of the Apostles which denied that Jesus was the Christ 1 John 2.22 and did not confess that Jesus Christ was comed in the flesh Ioh. 4.2 3. 2 Jo. 7. the old and new Arrians which deny the Godhead of Christ and hold him to be but a creature and the Jews as in the days of his flesh they looked on him as a meer man John 10.33 so they have still from that time persisted in the same errour calling him the son of Mary denying him to be the Lord and Christ The Manichees also of old denied him to be true man and the Papists by their fiction of transubstantiation by consequence deny the same It would be needless expence of time and paper to bring in a list of all which might be instanced under this head These heretical and erroneous conceits of Christ are in Gods interpretation no better than blasphemies yea curses pronounced against Christ Observe those expressions 1 Cor. 12.3 where to say that Jesus is the Lord and to call Jesus accursed are set down as opposites whence it followeth that to deny him to be the Lord is to call him accursed S●e Beza Morton 2. Those which abhor contemn despise at least in their hearts the word of the Gospel the doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ All Atheists newters sensual wretches which reject the counsel of God against themselves and trample that pearl of truth which is held forth and freely offered unto them under their feet preferring their pottage before their birth-right as Esau What profit will this birth-right be to me saith he being at the point to die Gen. 25.22 so say the profane unsavoury people of these times when righteousness and blessedness are tendered to them in the Gospel through the cross and curse of Christ Jesus they are resolved to look to their bodies and estates in this world whatsoever become of their souls They choose rather to forfeit their interest in that glorious priviledge of the Lords first-born than to forgo their part in the base pleasures of the flesh and profits of the world As the Gadarens would rather have Jesus Christ depart out of their coasts than lose their hogs Mat. 8.34 so these persons prize the vilest things of the earth before grace and the things of eternal life Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 is a stumbling-block to the Jews and to the Greeks he is foolishness Oh what a mean estimation have our people generally of those spiritual riches for the purchasing whereof Jesus Christ was made a curse where shall we finde the door at which this damnable sin doth not lie yea I fear it lies at the doors of some which account themselves the choicest friends of the Lord Jesus and think the truth is with them onely even those that sleight the Ministery Ordinances and appointments of Christ in his Church and in effect say unto him We have no need of thee 3. Those which make an Apostasie from the doctrine which they have received who having once entertained the truth and made a profession of Christ according to the Gospel do shrink away from the truth fall off from Christ cast away their profession and undo that which they have done turning from the holy commandment delivered unto them and imbracing this present world Christ was once looked upon as precious now he is a reproach once they accounted him a blessing now they flie from him as from a curse Oh poor miserable creature hath not Christ abased himselfe to beare on his owne shoulders the heavie curse of thine enmity thy rebellion thy disobedience against the Almighty and all thy treacheries and abominations whereby thou hast provoked the eyes of his glory and hast not thou once escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and wilt thou now tarry back with the dog to lick up thine old lothsome vomit wilt thou betake thy self again to that state and trade of sin which put him to grapple with the curse of the Law and whereof thou wast once ashamed Truly in doing thus thou even rollest the curse back upon him as it were with both thy hands But he will have it no more the curse will fall upon thine own head thy latter end will be worse than thy beginning 2 Pet. 2.20 c. especially those which revolt so far as to sin against the Holy Ghost in their judgments professedly contradicting in their hearts maliciously opposing and in their words and works with all their power persecuting Christ his Gospel and the professors of it these crucifie to themselves the

Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame as if he should say they lay the curse upon him again Heb. 6.6 The apostasie of Julian recorded in the History of the Church reached even to blaspheming and cursing Christ and the doctrine of the Gospel and his end was lamentable for in this case there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearfull looking for of judgment and fiery indignation c. Heb. 10.26 27. c. 4. Those profane and graceless persons which have taught and accustomed their tongues to outragious and grizly swearing such as even rends the body of Jesus Christ in pieces and plucks it from his soul again makes more wounds in it tears away its flesh and squeezes his blood out of the veins We are commanded when we take an oath to swear by his name Deut. 6.13 this must be both very rarely and with great solemnity The bounders of it are truth righteousness and judgment Jer. 4.2 An oath thus taken is an act of religion and so a kind of blessing of God but if it swerve from these rules it is a fearfull sin straitly forbidden by Christ himself Matth. 5.34 c. and by the Apostle James chap. 5.12 and is no better than a cursing of God especially that hellish kind of swearing which is attended with such outragious blasphemies against the Lord Jesus If because of swearing Ier. 23.10 the Land mourneth then much more for those desperate and bloody oaths which reach to the cursing of Christ our Saviour The word there used signifieth both swearing and cursing which shews the near affinity betwixt these two and implies to us that every irregular taking up of the Name of God or Christ in an oath is in effect a cursing of them Alas my brethren the heavie curse of the Law of God which is due to us all for sin and might have crushed us for ever is fallen upon him and hath torn and mangled him pitifully and shall wretched creatures be so barbarous as to toss his holy Name up and down in their unhallowed mouths and to tear and mangle him anew by their horrible and villanous oaths Is not this to lay more curses upon him and even to oppress him with curses 5. Those who making a general profession of Christ and expecting salvation by him do yet walk on in their sins and take occasion by the abounding of grace in the Gospel to be more licentious and to adde sin to sin as drunkenness to thirst making the pretence and profession of Religion an emboldener to looseness to the abuse of lawfull liberties and to unwarrantable practises The Apostle Jude gives us the character of these calling them ungodly men which turn the grace of God into lasciviousness and deny the onely Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Jude 4. And S. Paul gives us an hint of them Rom. 6.1 the abounding grace of God manifested in Christ is both the Motive and End of their continuing in sin they sin both because grace doth abound and that it may abound But oh little do these persons consider that this grace could not have been feasable but by Christs bearing the curse for our sins And if it cost so dear a price shall we cause him to pay it again shall we be so bold as sin still and thereby put him to bear the curse over and over again as often as we sin far be it from us to do so wickedly The loose and carelesse Christian which makes account that Christ became a curse for him and yet followeth his old trade still doth as it were give Christ this malapert language Lord Christ I know thou art richly able to bear the curse were it a thousand times heavier than it is therefore I will put thee to it I will sin still and thou must bear the curse still I will not restrain my self from any of those courses which some men call sinfull but I will walk in the waies of mine own heart and fill my selfe with the delights of the flesh It s pity thou shouldst not have load enough that art so good at bearing the curse Oh abominable ranting that terrible denunciation Deut. 29.19 20. c. may be applied to this case by an argument from the less to the greater thus He that heareth that Christ is made a curse for him and yet blesseth himself in his heart and encourageth himself in sin the Lord will not spare him but all the curses of Gods book shall lie upon him c. Yea lastly every miscarriage in the profession of Religion willingly allowed or continued in through negligence or remisseness is in some degree a cursing of God which I gather from that speech of Job concerning his sons Job 1.5 It seems the sin which he suspected they were guilty of was the neglect of their watch that they willingly suffered looseness and vanity to seize upon their spirits See the English Annot. Caryl in loc which might bring forth some unsavoury fruits without A malady to which even good men are subject especially in times of feasting And this he calls cursing God in their hearts Unto these and all the rest of their brethren in evil I must speak a word or two taking up a lamentation and pleading against them on the behalf of Christ Oh ye sons of men what abominable thing is this that ye do why do ye offer such hard measures to him who hath put himself upon such perilous adventures yea extremities that he might save you from utter destruction Give ear and hear the Lord Jesus pleading his own cause against you thus what iniquity have you found in me that you deal thus basely with me that you handle me so cruelly you can find none in me but that which lay first at your own doors and is charged vpon me on your account or as Jerusalem in the day of her sore affliction bemoaning her condition Lam. 1.12 Jer. 2.15 Is it nothing to you all you that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow or as Job earnestly begging the compassion of his friends who persecuted him with great violence by their mis-grounded accusations and thereby heaped more misery upon him Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends c. Job 19.21 22. Is it not enough that I have born such sorrow as never man bare such a curse as would have pressed you all down to hell but I must have more burthens laid upon me still and that by my friends too new curses every day I beseech you have pity on me and hold off hands I have had enough of the curse already oh do not put me to it again And if for all this thou wilt shut up thy bowels from him and walk contrary to him thou shalt finde it true at length to thy cost Jam. 2.13 that there shall be judgement without mercy to him that hath shewed no mercy CHAP. IV.

satisfaction and merits and inabling them by his Spirit to perform the conditions of actual interest therein having no such purpose or resolution for all or any of the rest of mankinde So that Christ dyed for all in this sense that all and every one may obtain actual deliverance and salvation thereby in case they do beleeve but yet he dyed for the Elect onely in this sense that they through the merit of his death which was specially designed for them might be brought infallibly both to faith and to eternal life The difference of this from the first which limits even the paying of the price to the Elect is not so wide as to give just cause to either party to brand the Dissenters with heresie or schisme both of them having the letter of the Scriptures to warrant them The former we may finde Joh. 10.15 I lay down my life for the sheep Act. 20.28 He hath purchased the Church of God with his own blood Eph. 5.25 c. He gave himself for the Church to sanctifie and glorifie it The latter Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his Son Joh. 4.42 The Christ the Saviour of the world 1 Joh. 2.2 A propitiation for the sins of the whole world He gave himself a ransome for all 1 Tim. 2.6 He tasted death for every man Heb. 2.9 Neither am I so confident of the strength of mine own judgement as to determine whether of these is the naked truth of God For who am I that I should adventure professedly to side with either party against men of so great name and worth in the Churches of Christ Onely reserving to my self the liberty of mine own thoughts I shall crave leave to minde you of three things 1. I suppose that this latter opinion cannot justly be charged to wrong any fundamental Truth of Christian Religion or the Doctrine which is according to godliness 2 It seems the fairest way to a right reconciliation of those Texts before mentioned which speak different things 3. I am apt to think that if both were laid together and well weighed they would be found to come near to a friendly agreement and not to stand at so wide a distance as some imagine for both sides do readily grant 1. That the satisfaction given by Christ is abundantly sufficient for the redemption of the whole world yea of ten thousand worlds it being the blood of God Act. 20.28 2. That the offer of it is freely made to all the posterity of Adam by the appointment of God in the ministry of the Gospel and therefore the Ministers must both publish this grace to all and exhort them to imbrace it Mark 16.15 Col. 1.28 3. That it is onely from a special discriminating grace of God that some sinners are brought off to submit to Gods termes while others refuse Act. 18.27 2 Tim. 1.9 4. That onely the Elect are effectually wrought thus to submit and to accept of Christ offered and so are actually redeemed Act. 13.48 5. That all the rest of the world not having this effectual grace vouchsafed them but being left unto themselves do refuse redemption and salvation offered Ioh. 8.24 15.22 and so perish in their sins justly through their own default Matth. 23.37.38 2. But to dismiss this discourse I answer to the latter branch of the Objection thus Neither of the Opinions named will bear such a Conclusion It is but a weak kinde of Logick to argue thus Christ did not intend to pay a price for the ransoming of every sinner and therefore it may not be of me or thus he did not intend to apply this ransome to every one for his actual Redemption therefore perhaps he meant it not to me This is absurd and unreasonable reasoning For 1. Why mayest thou not as well say It may be he doth graciously intend it for me seeing thou canst not plead any unworthiness or uncapableness against thy self which may not bee as just a bar against all others 2. Thou hast an offer of this benefit made to thee every day and thou art invited to entertain it Wilt thou now stand off and say I cannot tell whether it be intended for me or no If a Creditor shall say to his imprisoned Debtor Come forth for thy debt is paid and I am satisfied what a folly were it to answer thus It may be my debt is not discharged I know not whether thou intendest my liberty No rather wave this intention and close with his offer 3. The onely way to put the matter out of doubt is this Apply thy self in the diligent use of Gods Ordinances to the serious and sincere performance of the condition and rest not till thy heart be drawn off from all other things to repose it self on him according to his command Mat. 11.28 4. Although I suppose we may safely conclude that every childe of Adam even continuing in his sinful estate may lawfully take it for granted that Christ became a curse to buy him out from the curse that is that he gave himself a ransome for all men and therefore for him also for ought he knows to the contrary and that he may and certainly shall be partaker of the fruit thereof if he submit to the Lords termes for otherwise what ground have I to make or he to take the offer of Christ yet for all that we may not say that any sinner continuing under the obedience of sin that is that he hath a present interest in Redemption or is actually partaker of it for this implies a contradiction Joh. 8.34 A servant of sin while such cannot be the Lords free man nay rather he ought to be perswaded of the contrary But as for thee poor sensible humbled soul thou mayest groundedly beleeve that thou art one of the Lords Redeemed this is thy priviledge and accordingly it is thy duty by the daily acting of faith on Christ and the constant exercise of all other graces to endeavour after a full assurance thereof in thy soul and in the mean time to stay thy self on the Lord and his sure word for the accomplishment Sect. 3. Answer to three Objections more Object 3. BUt if the actual enjoyment of this benefit be limited to the Elect then I am still where I was for I know not any thing concerning mine election If you can make it sure to me that God hath not cast me out by an eternal Decree but hath appointed me to salvation then I shall have some courage in the using of any means and taking any pains for attaining that end But if I be none of that number then I have nothing to do with Redemption and all my labour of beleeving and repenting and doing good will be lost and I shall runne in vain Answ 1. I grant it to be an undeniable truth that whatsoever we do whether we run or sit still we shall all in conclusion bee found such as to our everlasting estates as God hath decreed we