walke in them They therefore which truly and savingly beleeve in God will be alwayes carefull to maintein good works Oh the great mystery of Godlines that reconciles absolute empire and soveraigne command in one great king He makes his absolute dominion to consist with the truest best and most absolute liberty of all his good subjects as shewing that in his service is the most perfect fredom To be left therefore by him in such a state of fredom which may either be lost by us and given up to the will of another or pluck'd out of our hands by the force of avenging justice justly condemning those to perpetuall servitude that despise and reject their owne truest fredom when offered to them proves in conclusion the certain way to the greatest servitude and most miserable bondage we can bring ourselvs into His way is in the sea his path in the deep waters his footsteps are not knowne For it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Yet all are set in a capacity to will their owne good or evil to run their race and shape their course by free choice But the one seed only that is Christ and his fellow-heirs according to promise are the winners and overcommers that reach the mark get the prize and attaine the crowne of eternal life All others fall short of the glory of God and by their owne consent and choice are most justly debarred from the prize and for ever excluded from the recompence of reward But can the Leopard chang his spots can those that are in a fallen state and accustomed to do evil ever learn to do good after the manner Adam did it in his primitive rectitude or in that newnes of Spirit and life which those that are made free with a better fredom then Adam's was are created and enabled in Christ Jesus to worke and come forth in the exercise of Let us hear what the Scripture in this case sayth Esay 1.16 20. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do wel seek judgment or knowledg releive the oppressed judg the fatherles plead for the widow Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shal be white as snow though they be red like crimson they shal be as wool If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land But if ye refuse and rebel ye shal be devoured with the sword So Esay 55.1 5. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters c. Is this only spoken to the jews a people then in covenant or to all mankind Se what Peter himself was taught to confesse and acknowledg in this matter Act. 10.28 The Lord hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean not conceave him to be so rejected and laid aside by God as not to be in a capacity to have the means afforded him of being brought to repentance and unto the knowledg of the truth Consider also the witnesse given by the Apostle Paul Act. 17. where he preaches the knowledg of God as of him that made the world and who gives to all life breath and all things Yea he made of one blood all nations of men who were at first his offspring created in his image and caused them to dwell on all the face of the earth He was bountiful unto them even in those times wherein he suffered all nations to walk in their owne wayes doing them good and giving them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons that he might not leave himself without a witnesse and that they by such teachings might seek the Lord if haply they might feel after and find him who is not far from every one of us And although he winked at the former times of ignorance yet now since the manifestation of Christ the promised seed in the flesh and in the form and fashion of a man like unto us in all things sin only excepted he commands all men every where to repent If they refuse and prove disobedient he will take an account of it in that day wherein he hath appointed the world to be judged in righteousnes by that man which he hath ordeined Iesus Christ who will have no respect of persons but as many as he shall find to have sinned without law shall perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shal be judged by the law in that day when God shall judg the secrets of men by Iesus Christ according to the Gospel We se then very evidently what Gods command is to all men universally after the fall It is no new commandement but that which hath bin from the beginning which is that all men every where do repent and use the means provided for them in the promised seed to be washed from their old sins and to come to the knowledg of the truth or the way wherein to be assuredly saved and inherit eternal life This commandement is in effect the same it was before sin entered into the world save only as it now relates to the use of the means of being cleansed from the filth and thraldom of sin in order to come to the knowledg of the truth by hearing the voice of the Gospel or words by which we may be saved from eternal wrath Thus was it with the centurion This testimony was given of him Act. 10.2 that he was a devout man one that feared God gave much alms to the people and prayed to God alway All this he did before he had those words preached to him whereby he and all his house should be saved Actor 11 14. It is the beginning of wisdom to be addicted to the feare of the lord to have a strong bent and affection of heart to keep his commandement and pray alwayes This comes by the voice and operation of the law as repeated and renewed in the blood of Christ to us and ministred either inwardly to our hearts by the voice of angels or in the powerful ministry of the written word to our outward ears The former of these ministries the gentiles were alwayes capable of and indeed directly under who were or are without the written law or knowledg of the Scriptures the other the jews or inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem among Jews or gentiles are under who rest in the law or written word making their boast of God therein having the form of the knowledg and of the truth in the law Both these notwithstanding the chang that may be brought upon them thereby are but under the dominion of the law liable stil to the curse and to a final and total relapse back againe under sin and wrath if they take not very good heed and so may come to be trees twice dead and be pluckd up by the roots For such enlightned and restored ones as these may prove to be as
of what already they have receaved from him at his command He is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world Both these divine oracles and manifestations of Gods will law and Gospel were made knowne to Adam in Paradise the one typed out in the tree of the knowledg of good and evil fitly resembling the first created liberty and fredom of will man was left to the exercise of under the law the other by the tree of life placed in the midst of the Paradise of God lively figuring out the better fredom and lasting holines which the Son himself makes us partakers of in the Gospel as he is the end of the law to al that beleeve and can be perswaded to trust him as the Gospel requires In both these respects it is that John sayes I write no new Commandement to you but an old commandement which was from the beginning As it first came forth in law and Gospel before the fal it was the law written in Adams heart and the Gospel set before the eyes of his mind by the ministry of angels in lively types and figures This we are to understand by the law of nature by which all natural men shal be judged who never have atteined or lived under the hearing of the written law or word of God given afterwards in the holy Scriptures 2dly The self-same old commandement of God that is both law and Gospel came forth since the fall by divine inspiration in the bookes of the old and new Testament The law was under this dispensation engraven on tables of stone conteining the ten commandements The Gospel was represented in the ceremonial law of Moses ministry under the old Testament Then againe the law is written in the fleshly tables of Christs heart as he was born of a woman and made under the law and the Gospel was represented in the two Sacraments of baptism and the Lords supper instituted during the dayes of Christs flesh the witnesse whereof is left us upon record in the New Testament as that manifestation of Gods wil which the Son himself in and by his first appearance hath brought to light This we are to understand by the law of the Scriptures which are not of private interpretation nor a prophesy that is come to us by the will of man but that which holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost for a sure ground of truth to be relied upon 3dly and lastly the same commandement or word of God which hath bin from the beginning is to come forth once more in and by the son's second and personal appearance in Spirit a fiery and living law call'd in Scripture the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus which by faith is espied and seen as the Land of promise into which all true beleevers must enter and where they must inherit the immutability and eternal life promised a life from the dead which those that possesse whether in the glory of the first or second Resurrection though as yet but in the seed shal never die more The second death shal not have power over them but all tears shal be wiped away from their eyes and all cause of sorrow or fear This is the Son's Kingdom in Spirit which he receaves and enters upon by the appointement of the father He is pleased to begin it in weaknes and subject it a while to great sufferings but will shortly enter upon and continue the exercise of it in power during the space of a thousand years wherein he is to judg the world in righteousnes effectually causing his wil to be done on earth as it is in heaven The law under this dispensation is found as the tables of the Testimony laid up in the heavenly tabernacle of Christ the Son of Man a fiery law of indignation and vengeance in severity without mercy upon all wilful disobedient sinners The Gospel under this dispensation is as the throne or heaven itself together with the earth that is made Gods footstool or the natural man subjected and brought through faith to Gods foot in a way exclusive to al boasting This is the new heavens and new earth of which the new Jerusalem consists that comes downe from God written in and upon the heart of Christs manhood glorified and made immutably holy shining forth as the living Image of God in a twofold forme to wit in the form of a servant not only made a Son which is the first but exalted to a name above every name and anointed with the oyle of gladnes above his fellows that 's the second Thus Christ is the WORD as is above sayd that is commanded to a thousand generations He that was he that is and he that is to come the Almighty He was both law and Gospel in the day or under the dispensation of the law of nature is the same in the day and under the dispensation of the law of the Scriptures and is to come and wil shew himself to be the same also in the day and under the proper and immediate dispensation of the law of the Spirit of life that is in him This is the spiritual day of the Lord the thousand years Jubilee and Sabbath This third dispensation hastens apace draw's very neer and the faithfull and upright in heart beleeve expect and wait for the comming of the Lord therein both as an Eliah in and by his messengers and Servants elect angels and beleeving men that shal restore all things root up every thing that offends by a swift execution of vengeance on evil doers in the morning of this day and after that in his owne person wherein the man Christ by whom God hath ordeined to judg the world in righteousnes wil shew himself as the great King and bridegroom that hath the bride whose mariage he wil gloriously solemnize on earth in order to cary her up with him into heaven upon the expiration of his thousand years reigne and the Resigning up of his Kingdom into the hands of this father that God may be all in all That the matter of Gods command and mans duty is the same as wel under the law as under the Gospel and in them both under all the three dispensations before mentioned is sufficiently cleered and demonstrated nor is the difference lesse perspicuous wherein each of them vary one from another 1. The law of nature writes the matter of the law and duty commanded upon the nature and in the very heart of man teaching and instructing him also in the nature of the Gospel the new nature by the ministry of angels in most apt significant types and figures suited to his natural understanding 2dly The law of the Scripture first writes the law in tables of stone and teaches the Gospel by the types conteined in the ceremonial law or a sort of ordinances that are worldly rudiments being but the shadow of the good things to come whereof the body is Christ Afterwards therefore Christ coming
perfect or he is the rock that is Gods perfect work the wisedome which God possessed in the beginning of his way in which he was pleased to condescend and set forward toward the creation of the world Prov 8. and 9. chapters which compared with John 1.1 2 doe evidently shew him to be the WORD that was by God as one brought up with him who was with God and was God Gods love and delight in whom he was ever rejoycing He also had his love delight or choice in conformity to the eternal will and purpose of God among the sons of men that he makes the habitable part of his earth of whom David was the type and figure Psal 89. where God says v. 20. c. I have found David my Servant with my holy oyle have Ianointed him With him shall my hand be established mine arme also shall strengthen him I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him I will set his hand also in the sea his right hand in the rivers He shall cry unto me thou art my Father my God and the rock of my salvation Also I will make him my first borne higher then the kings of the earth I have sworn by my holines that I will not lie unto him His seed shall endure for ever his throne as the sun before me Againe Psal 78 70 c. He chose David also his Servant and took him from the sheepfolds from following the ews great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skilfulnes of his hands Most of this is accomplished in Christ the antitype and Truth as he is the Son of Man of the seed of David according to the flesh called Gods Servant the BRANCH and the Lord our righteousnes the WORD of life that is the rock of ages whence all things are hewen He is the platform and exemplary patern of both worlds in idea as wel as execution which the divine wisedom contrived and wrought in God from all eternity as its great masterpeice by which the worlds were made Heb. 1.2 Eph. 3.9 God made all things by Jesus Christ whether visible or invisible He was the first patern of all his works Consequently according to this first and perfect patern was man made and to it in some degree and measure restored since his deformation by the fall In uprightnes was he made according to Gods image God is righteous originally in his owne nature and both originally and communicatively righteous in Christ who made man upright Eccl 7.29 The house which wisdom first builds for her self with seven pillars is in the person of Christ Gods only begotten son For he that built all things is God and this as the Son over his owne house a house not made with hands that eternal house of the Father wherein are many mansions The same WISEDOME after she had built her house killed her killing slew her sacrifice the lamb was slaine from the beginning of the world mingled her wine and also furnished her table All things being thus made ready for her guests whom she purposed to invite she sends forth her servants She crieth upon the highest places of the city who so is simple let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth understanding she saith to him come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mingled Jt shal be to your soules as a tree of life a wel springing up into everlasting life in every one of you But as we shal shew more fully afterwards man in his perfect innocent state professing himself wise when he should have seen himself simple or at most wise only in part wanting yet that which should make him fully and immutably so became a fool And because when he knew God he glorified him not as God neither was thankful he became vain in his imagination changing the glory or likenes of the incorruptible God manifested in Christ into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds four-footed beasts and creeping things to the darkning his foolish heart that changed the TRUTH of God into a lie the original and first sin worshipping and serving the creature more then the Creatour God blessed for ever Conformity to Christ the first and most perfect patern and Rule of all obedience unto Gods word and declared will is the TRUTH of God which the first Adam changed into a lie endeavouring as much as in him lay to make it void and set up some other thing even himself in the place thereof as the law and Rule of his action which he was forbidden In departing from and disobeying of Christ who was the law of Gods mouth from the beginning the word that was commanded to a thousand generations he tasted the bitter fruit of his own doings and was ensnared by the work of his owne hands He was enticed by his owne lust sin conceaved which being perfected brought forth death And if it be objected 't was impossible the first Adam should sin against Christ or the TRUTH of God as it is in Jesus because where there is no law there can be no transgression when as yet nothing was declared of Christ there could be no offence against him The Answer is easy and plain There was both knowledge and need of Christ before the fall as well to prevent and keep out sin from entring into the world as to expiate and deliver from it by his death after it was entered and secure against its return againe This the Apostle Paul asserts with great cleernes in his Epistle to the Romans shewing that Adam was but the Image and figure of him that was to come Christ made from the beginning the power of God unto Salvation and the righteousnes of God that was to be revealed from faith to faith This man at his creation and before his fall could not be ignorant of For that which might be known of God in Christ by the book of the creature was shewed to him and made manifest in him For the invisible things of him even of Christ who is the invisible image of God and hidden mystery ordeined for our glory before the world and kept secret in God were cleerly seen and to be known by the things that are made the creatures he produced to the making manifest his eternal power and Godhead thereby rendring them without excuse that would otherwise be apt to make the forementioned objection and on that presumption thinke themselvs at liberty to change Gods truth into a lie But hereby every mouth comes to be stopped and al the guilty world are subjected to the righteous judgment of God Christ who is the law of Gods mouth required of man obedience as soon as he was created He called upon him to be a hearer of the will of God which he was intrusted to reveale and teach the most acceptable manner of
performing This did Christ require and teach as answering the end for which man was at all made by him at first or redeemed since even this that he should not be his owne or at his owne dispose but yeild subjection to the will of another set over him by God who was to be flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone and to be therfore trusted and beleeved on as appointed to feed and guide him to life eternall and who required that he should glorify God in his soule and in his body that were Gods upon the account of al rights and obligations whatsoever Thus was Christ typified to Adam by the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God as also by the living water that watered the garden of Eden a river cleer as crystall the streams whereof refresh and make glad the city of God the Holy place of the tabernacle of the most high Mount Zion that cannot be moved in the midst of whom God dwells as the place of his rest promising to help them with his morning appearance or the brightnes and glory of his second comming and fuller communication of himself then Adam receaved in his first creation God was willing Adam should know he was a fountain without botom so deep as not to be drawn dry and would have him open his mouth wide that he might fill it He would have him become a vessel yet more larg capacious and fit for his use then at first he was made For he gives not his gifts all at once but by degrees and after a manner most suitable to his inexhaustible fulnes and infinit wisdom God therefore comes forth in Christ as a light and law to mans knowledg and discerning instructing him to be the hearer and doer of his will in and under a threefold law and rule of righteousnes 1. The law of nature or booke of the creature visible and invisible 2. The law of the Scriptures or written book of the revealed will of God 3. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus written by the living WORD himself in the tables of the heart of the Son of Man taken into hypostatical union with him to be his mouth and spokesman at whose hand angels and men are to receave the lively divine oracles of Gods counsel appointed to be made known unto them This threefold law is as it were so many transcribed duplicates and copies of what is to be found in the living eternall WORD of God the Original In conjunction with this they are lights and good guides They are as a first second and third stream of one and the same river of pure and cleer water that gradually leade into that great Ocean of knowledg light and love that is to be found in the original They are prepared and fitted as the sutable adaequate means to be mans guide and Rule according to his state and measure of growth up into his head in and upon whom he may be borne and made to grow as on his root that may either receave and retein him in an eternal aboad with him or else leave reject and finally cast him off after proof and triall as an unprofitable branch that hath taken Gods name and born his likenes in vain and that shal therfore not be held guiltles but first or last meet with his due reward This is seen and found by the experience of angels and men from the beginning to this present day Of these three laws then we shal treate in their order very breifly 1. First as to the law of nature or book of the creature it is no other then the right fashion and make which is given by the creatour to the works of his owne hands as the creature comes fresh and pure out of the mould into which he cast it in its first creation bearing his image superscription or impression In a more peculiar manner he created man in his owne image Through the power of the enlivening breath from the mouth of the Lord all things live move and have their being such a being and such a manner and measure of operation as God sees fit for them and pronounces to be good though not immutably or perpetually so but subject to spending wearing out and waxing old as also to other changes These are the many things which God creates which being animated with life from him doe speak forth the prayse and excellency of their maker and are as so many kinds of voices and sounds in the world none of which are without their signification and teaching to those that have eyes to se and eares to heare with skil to spel and put together Gods mind out of them as a law and rule for their instruction The reason and discerning given to angels and men does qualify and enable them for this even to spel out the mind of God partly by looking forth into the outward and visible frame of the creation but more especially by consulting the light within them the work or impression of the law in their owne hearts and upon their owne beings which makes them a law and rule to them selves and to one another For by the tongue of man God speaks to angels in the person of Christ By the tongue of angels he speaks in and to men This is the law that was given to Adam in Paradise 2. As to the law of the Scriptures or written word of God it is a second dispensation a voice of words and that by men the Servants and Prophets of the Lord who being inspired with ye breath of Gods living WORD are taught to think and speak as the Holy Ghost moves them or gives them utterance Under these words there is an inward Testimony and writing which is not of private interpretation These words and divine oracles committed to writing are kept by the special influence of Gods providence and recorded for the succeeding ages and posterity of the Church These oracles with the help of the same Spirit that indighted them and alone is able to shew the right meaning and sound understanding of them are able to make men wise unto Salvation by sending them to their Saviour the son and living WORD him self in and with whom alone they may have life eternal All that is thus written and recorded is that which is given for this very end by inspiration from God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction and for instruction in righteousnes that the man of God may be perfect and perfected unto all good works Under this dispensation by a voice of words the seed of faith lies hid It was not given till four hundred and thirty years after the promise and the making known of the law of faith unto Abraham without and before the writtē word And it was not added to make the promise void or as a law that in and by itself could give life especially life immutable not subject againe to wrath and the curse But it
the lawyer and answer him according to his owne heart and principles What is written in the law sayes he how readest thou The lawyer replies Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all they soule with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self This Christ agrees to be the sum of the things conteined in the commandements of God which man is to doe and in the doing and obeying whereof as he ought and God requires will make him heir and sure of eternall life Therefore all that Christ adds is Thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live But although these few words contein mans whole duty to God and to his neighbour yet as by the following verses does appeare in the parable of the wayfairing man that fell amongst theeves there is more in it then at first we are aware of to perform this duty to God and to our neighbour rightly and after such manner as is acceptable to God For so do to it requires faith that faith which works by love or which makes us new creatures giving us the sight of that man in the person of the Mediatour that hath seen God by whose testimony we also are taught to so him and know that he is and what he is even the rewarder of all those with eternall life who diligently seek him No man knows who the Son is but the Father nor who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the son will reveale him He that beleeveth on the Son of God hath this witnes in himself by the sons comming into his heart and bringing this knowledg along with him giving us to know him that is true and that we are in him that is true even in him that is the true God and eternall life By such knowledg are we preserved from idols and setting up some other thing in our hearts for the true God or from ignorantly bestowing our worship love and service upon him He that beleevs not God hath made him a liar because he beleeves not the Record which God gives of his Son when it is plainly represented and set before his eyes in such legible characters that he is able to understand and perceave the Record even that God hath given unto us eternall life and that this life is in his Son and is to be had only in the gift of the Son made to us in a most intimate and inseperable union which he that hath hath life he that hath it not hath not life Whatsoever comes short of this let it make never so faire a shew for the present it wil be sure to end in death Hence is it that without faith it is impossible to please God because otherwise we cannot know him as we ought with such certainty as not to mistake him for some other thing or some other thing for him And so also will it be with us as to our neibour or brother we shall take him to be our neibour and brother that is not he and he that is not we shall account to be him For not knowing the very Image and first patern set up in Christ our elder brother and the lowly meek spirit in him which with God is of great price how can we know the children and many brethren that are to be conformed to him therein Unlesse we know and love him that begets how can we know and love them that are begotten of him For both he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren those who if we be are love unto we thereby know that we are passed from death to life And if we love not but hate them sitting and speaking against these our brethren slandering our owne Mothers Sons we are in Gods account no better then Cain wicked munderers whatever righteous works we are conversant in according to the letter of the law Be we as zealous and forward as we will in offering our sacrifices and bringing our gifts before the altar till we be first reconciled to our brother we are directed to leave our gift before the altar as better not to offer it at all with a heart which is without that love by which faith works In this sence are we to understand 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. If we have al other gifts and good things from God that are possible to be had and not this love with them we are nothing we are but as sounding brasse and tinckling cymballs The saying therefore of Christ do this and thou shalt live according to his owne reading and understanding of the law is do this at present by the light thou art under but give not off be not satisfied til thou come to do it by faith as a new creature with the knowledge and love which faith teaches and workes and thou art a true heir of eternall life and shalt most certainly enter into it and possesse it for ever Leave thy sacrifice and thy guift before the altar in humility and brokenes of Spirit and in lowlines of heart rather then take upon thee to offer it untill thou have the Son given to thee and art regenerated For it is better for thee that thou shouldst not vow then that thou shouldst vow and not pay Keep thy foot therefore when thou goest into the house of God or doest enter upon the performance of his worship and Service in thy natural mutable frame of Spirit and be more ready to heare then to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evill even in their very prayers and duties of divine worship By faith it is that the right and stedfast Spirit is formed the whole and entire heart which God requires We may then take notice that there is a twofold reading preaching hearing receaving and obeying of the Word of God and doctrine of his law the one after a lesse the other after a more excellent way the one proportiond to the sight hearing and heart of the natural and earthly man in his mutable state properly called the law the other proportioned to the sight hearing and heart of the heavenly and spiritual man properly called the Gospel How readest thou says Christ to the learned lawyer when he would point out the law in the former sence and as to the latter himself is the reader preacher and worker of it as he is the Son himself and word of faith which through our being in him in whose manhood it is as in our mouth and in our heart is made bread to us and not only possible but most desireable and prevailingly attractive unto us to do and fulfil after him In this sence it is that Christ is the end of the law to all that beleeve and the law in its first kind of teaching or reading is the Schoolmaster or teacher that sends us to Christ and is appointed to keep us under its rule and discipline
till it put us into the hands of a better and surer guide which is the Son himself who by the voice of his Servant or messenger that he sends before him gives notice of his comming But when he comes himself he teaches the way of God more perfectly the way of knowing and loving God of fearing him and keeping his commandements which is the whole duty of man According to this gradual discovery and revelation of the mind and will of God in his law there are several degrees of growth and age that man is or may be acquainted with in the conformity and obedience that he is to yeild to Gods holy law and commandement 1. First that of childhood signifying the state of mans mutability and unstable righteousnes wherein he is wavering liable to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine apt to be deceaved 2. The state of youth or years of discerning and settled judgment in those that by faith are strong and have overcom the wicked one in whom the Word of God is abiding and hath taken fast hold and root importing the life of the first resurrection in them at least in the principles thereof over whom the second death is never to have power 3. The state of fatherhood and most ripe years in those that have known him that is from the beginning and are one with him one with the father as Christ and the father are one the church that are in God the father the Bride the Lambs wife by whom is made known the manifold wisdom of God and unsearchable riches of Christ unto the Principalities and Powers in heavenly places the very holy and Elect Angels This importeth the life of the second resurrection in them and the highest ascent into union and communion with God To all these several kinds of growth ages or statures of humane perfection the word and law of God is a Rule suiting itself and commanding the same Duties to be performed as to the knowledg and love which we are to have and bear towards God and towards our neighbour accordingly as the heart is principled and qualified for the performance thereof with a first second or third measure and degree of light and power from God enabling thereunto For that which God requires of man in the obedience he is to yeild unto him is according to what he first gives and causes him to have and not according to what he hath not The commandement therefore of God or the law of his mouth which conteins in it and requires from man his whole duty both towards his God and towards his neighbour is as to the matter of it the same for the rule of mans walking in communion with God either in the first or second Covenant being that which in Scripture is called the law as wel as that which is called the Gospel 1. It is called the law as it is the divine oracle and righteous command of the supreme lawgiver strictly enjoyning exact and compleat obedience and severely punishing the least tittle of disobedience being dispensed in such manner as leaves it to mans liberty and fredom of wil to hear and obey or to refuse and disobey at his owne peril upon the penalties and curse declared in it 2. T is called the Gospel or good tydings as it is the free and gracious condescention or good wil of God appearing towards man which God the Mediatour exercises upon the foresight of what man would doe as left to his owne freewil in and under the law For this in pursuance of his fathers decree does he cleave unto and lay hold of mans nature or the seed of David according to the flesh resolving to bring upon the natural frame of mans Spirit as left to his owne arbitrary choice and freewil a most beneficial and necessary change through which man is prevailed with to give up and resigne back againe that first liberty of his into the hands of his faithful creatour who first gave it and to trust him for the restoring it in such manner and measure back againe as may be best for him and may most certainly and infallibly attein the end for which it was first given which was to fulfil the righteousnes of Gods law Accordingly does he receave it in a new a more excellent and certain manner of hold and exercise wherein it is made impossible for him to transgresse the law of God by sinning and most possible and free for him to run the race of Gods commandements Through this new enlargment and fredom of heart given him by the influencing power of that love which is stronger then death man is so bound up in the wil of God so absolutly subjected to what the law requires as makes him sure to inherit eternal life The living and primitive patern of this obedience is wrought out in mans owne nature in the person of the Mediatour and set before his eyes with an attractive and transforming power to draw man after him and transform him into the same image from glory to glory from the glory of his first creation in conformity to the law in Christs first appearance to the glory of the new creation in conformity to the Gospel in his second And thus Christ enables his beleeving followers to fulfil the law after him who came not to destroy but fulfil it in the Gospel And as some are thus changed by the attractive influence of Christs constreining love others with whom also his Spirit for a season strives by the same Gospel manifestation of him are upon their wilful refusal hardned and fixed in their disobedience To such he becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offence even to those who after this gracious offer made knowne unto them doe obstinately despise and reject it preferring their first and natural fredom of the Sons of men to this more excellent fredom and glorious liberty of the Sons of God In order to make triall of them herein since the fal Christ hath obteined of the father on their behalf the restoration of that lesser glory and inferiour liberty of nature that ought to be resigned for the greater that excels and is to remain by the price and ransome of his owne blood from whence flowes a conditional remission of al sinners as to sins past and a free and general restoration of them to the priviledg and benefit of their first natural fredom and primitive righteousnes in kind and in such degrees and measure as is requisit and sufficient for the making of such a trial and rendring them without all excuse nothing having bin wanting in him to bring them to repentance and to receave the truth in the love of it He hath given that former sort of gifts to the rebellious also that prove enemies and haters of him in the more excellent gifts and priviledges that he offers them also in a superiour dispensation which cannot be receaved by them without an obedient surrender and losse
wel of the one kind as of the other if they shal sin wilfully after that they are come to the knowledg of the truth there remains then to them no more Sacrifice for sin but a most certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries even all the dwellers in that earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it but in stead of bringing forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed doe bear thorns and briars which causes them to be rejected makes them nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned But if the same earth in stead of bringing forth thorns and briars does become ground prepared and made fit to receave the immortal and incorruptible seed by the word of God which abideth and liveth for ever and to bring forth the proper fruits thereof with patience meet for him by whom it is dressed it wil be sure to receave blessing from God even to be blessed with the having of those better things that are accompanied with salvation For he that is faithfull in that which is least by the same grace laying hold on him and keeping him from evil becomes also faithful in much And he that is uniust in the least even in the use of his least natural fredom wil be uniust also in much even in the highest atteinments which he can arrive unto in that his mutable state and whilst in his owne keeping Without blood there is no remission of sins But through the sprinckling of the blood of Jesus who is our passover whose blood speaks better things then that of Abel the wrath and severity that is by the law is either mitigated and all proceedings in the way of revenging justice for a time at least respited and the persons reprieved upon condition of repentance and amendment of life or else totally and finally remitted This latter is the case of al true beleevers that are in Christ Iesus by the new and everlasting Covenant Thus is that saying made good Iam 2 13. He shal have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy and mercy rejoyceth against judgment on behalf of al that are justified frely by grace through the eternal redemption which Christ hath obteined for them So then though al have sinned and come short of the glory of God he hath not so concluded and shut them up in their disobedience and unbeleif but in and through the blood of Christ he is ready to shew mercy of one kind or other unto all I. First such mercy as is intimated in that parable Matth. 18. v. 23. to the end where the lord at first upon the reckoning he made with his servant pronounced judgment upon him commanded him his wife children and al he had to be sold and payment forthwith to be made which in effect was executed in the case of our first parents but afterwards upon the servants repentance and humbling himself beseeching frō his Lord only patiēce and promising he would pay him all his Lord was moved with compassion shewed him mercy in loosing him and freely forgiving him the debt But this mercy as appears after was not that which is called Gods sure mercies such as David had because capable of revocation upon the servants abuse of it in shewing no mercy afterwards to his fellow servant which renewed his Lords wrath again towards him so that he delivered him over to the tormenters til he should pay all that was due unto him He also made it a ruled case for al in the like condition saying If ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother his trespasses so shal my heavenly father sayes Christ doe unto you that is not forgive you your trespasses And Luke 13.7 9. the same truth is confirmed in another parable where the Lord of the vineyard sayes to the dresser of it behold 3 years I come seeking fruit on this figtree and find none cut it down why cumbreth it the ground He answering said Lord let it alone this year also til I shal dig about it and dung it and if it bear fruit well if not after that cut it down This first sort of Gods mercies to sinners is conditional and universal common to the whole posterity of Adam He is moved with a general pity and tendernes towards them in the day of their nativity when no eye hath compassion on them Yea to some of them also he is pleased to shew more particular kindnes so that of his owne accord passing by and seing them in their blood he bids them live he spreads his skirt over them to cover their nakednes makes that the season of his love appearing to them teaching them to deny ungodlines and adorning them with his owne comelines Notwithstanding al this they trusting to their beauty and righteousnes in this dispensation wrote in and put upon them doe fal and make themselvs worse by their apostasy then Sodom or Gomorrha Then the Lord judges it equal that such righteous men as these when they turn from their righteousnes as they finally may and commit iniquity should die in it and also hereupō have all their sins committed before their conversion or change to that state of righteousnes afresh imputed to thē though before God had declared they should not be mētioned but buried in oblivion and that in the righteousnes which they did they should live Thus is the Lord many a time ful of compassion to unworthy sinners whose hearts are not right with him so as to be stedfast in his Covenant Psal 78. He forbears howsoever to destroy them til he hath made proof of them to the utmost Therfore turns he his anger away from them again and again and stirs not up al his wrath He deales with them according to the multitude of his louing kindnesses and the variety of mercies that are in him There are no sort of sinners then who in a lesse or greater degree tast not of these riches of Gods mercies the more of which is shewed to them and abused and sinned against the more is their condemnation heightned For by such demeanour they do crucify to and in themselvs the son of God afresh and put him to open shame counting the very blood of the Covenant wherewith they have bin sanctified an unholy thing and doing despite to the spirit of grace With these kinds of mercies Christ is the saviour of al men a propitiation for the sins of the whole world And thus God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their sins and he not only commands but beseeches al men to be reconciled to him to lay hold on his strength and be at peace with him as not having receaved in vaine the grace he hath begun to bestow upon them But besides these his common mercies declaring his good wil to al men as not taking pleasure in the death of any sinner he hath also his choice and peculiar favour and loving kindnes
power and office by the sight givē to them of his star a star that made him known to thē and went before them to conduct them to a sight of him in his owne person which is al that this sort of messengers or preachers of Christ can do Thus the book of the creatures by Gods special Ordination and institution in the way of types ād figures through the ministry of angels does teach and preach the righteousnes of God which is in Christ in order to lead us to the personal sight of him that we may in the end hear himself speak After this manner the righteousnes of God in Christ is and may be manifested without the law or written word Secondly In the same Psalm he mentions another sort of preaching and teaching of the knowledg of Christ and that is out of his law the law of his written word the ministry whereof is for the converting of mens Soules and it is a sure Testimony that makes wise the simple more to be desired then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then hony and the hony-comb The righteous statutes and judgments of God signified in his written word reioyce the heart and are true and righteous altogether His commandement is pure enlightning the eyes Concerning the law or command of God thus manifested Christ sayes search the Scripturs whose true office is not only to revive and instruct you in that law that was written in your hearts at the creation and lost by the fal but to send you to me also that by obteyning a personal sight of me in spirit you might be farther instructed in the knowledge of me But ye wil not come unto me that ye may have life Thirdly and lastly Ps 8 2 David shews that there is another sort of preachers that God sends as labourers into his harvest saying out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou founded or ordeined strength because of thine enemies and that thou mightest stil the enemy and the avenger These babes and sucklings Christ himself interprets and expounds to us Luke 10.21 first of those his sent ones seventy in number which he immediatly authorized and qualified by commission from himself sending them two by two before his face as his harbingers and forerunners into every city and place whither he himself would come Secondly he expounds it of those babes and children of the fathers begetting to whom he reveals those things which he had hid from the wise and prudent One of these babes Peter is acknowledged by Christ to be Mat. 16.17 when he called him the rock Christ hereupon owned him as one of the blessed seed who had that sight and knowledg of Christ in spirit given to him which none but the father could reveale Flesh and blood could neither give nor receave it For such knowledg of Christ requires a spiritual eyesight and discerning peculiar to these children and babes of the fathers owne begetting the plantation of his owne right hand of whom Christ sayes Mat. 13.16 17. Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear Verily I say unto you many prophets and righteous men have desired to se those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them For all things are delivered to me of my father and no man knoweth the son but the father neither knoweth any man the father save the son and he to whomsoever the son wil reveal him This sight of the Father and Son in their mutual relations to and fruitions of each other gained by the personal sight of Christ in spirit is mentiond by Paul 1 Cor. 9.1 when he says Am not I an Apostle have not I seen Christ or am not I one of those that by the sight of Christ in spirit and the revelation of the Son in me have receaved grace and Apostleship to the obedience of faith among al nations for his name These are the pure in heart and poor in spirit that are taught after this most excellent manner to se God and have the knowledg of Jesus Christ in order thereby to be made ministers and witnesses as wel of the things at first seē by them as of those also wherein afterwards Christ yet reserus himself farther and more fully to appear unto them These speak the things which they know testify that which they have seē whether their witnesse be receaved or no having themselv first heard the record that God gives of his Son and set to their seal that God is trues This is the threefold cord the lines whereof are streched out over al the world and to the ends of the earth by the quickning power of the living WORD He rideth upon the heaven of heavens of old Loe he sends out his voice in each and in al these his dispensations and that a mighty voice sharper then any two-edged sword peircing even to the dividing asunder of soule and spirit and of the joynts and marrow a discoverer of the thoughts and intents of the heart Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight All things are naked and open to the eyes of this our great saviour and redeemer And as he speaks immediatly by himself by the voice of his owne mouth so does he also send out his voice by his hosts or armies of angels those ministers of his which doe his pleasure and signify his commands to others which they receave as always attending and hearkning to the voice of his word The word therefore as at first it is given in a fore-running and preparatory dispensation to the Sons appearance in his owne person is called Heb. 2.2 the word spoken by angels the command whereof is so stedfast that every transgression and disobedience thereof receaves a just recompence of reward By the Rule and autority of the holy and elect angels exercis'd according to his word and law was God the Mediatour Pleased to put and keep in subjection the whole first creation even man also who in his first and mutable state is the cheif and highest member thereof next under the angels themselvs By means of this angelical ministry and Rule under Christ or in the hand of the Mediatour the righteousnes of God wrought out in the person of the redeemer is made manifest without the law to the gentiles that are without law that is the knowledg of the Scriptures or written word as also by the law to the jews that are in and under the teaching of Gods written oracles and do or may there find the witness and manifestation thereof In and by these it doth appear that Jesus Christ died for our sins and is risen again for our justification By jews in this case we are not only to understand the seed of Abraham according to the flesh but those also among the gentiles who are planted into the same good olive tree Christ on the same tearms of mutability as they
and by the first Testament and conditionall Covenant that the spirit of the naturall man is enlightned quickned and wrought upon which is the very same that at first gave him his make and primitive being in Gods image and now by renewing it self and comming with healing and restoration in its wings mans flesh is made fresher then a childs and he returns to the dayes of his youth that is his first dayes of primitive purity This the naturall man receaves as the gift and effect of his bounty that is his Redeemer and Saviour who is so gracious as to say and that effectually deliver him from going downe to the pit I have found a ransome Job 33.24.25 But all this quickning and enlightning is but conditionall and may be lost againe though abundantly sufficient to make a full and compleat triall of him that receavs it in order to his finall salvation or damnation But for a second and fuller answer we are to know that this word of the beginning and voyce of Christs first appearance may and does come forth in a threefold light and workmanship upon the heart and spirit of the naturall man 1. In that which is a lampe and light in the mind a worke of the law or a conformity to Gods commandement conteined in his conditionall Covenant wrought in the heart and manifesting itself to the inward senses of the naturall mind by the ministry of angels with which Christ does enlighten more or lesse every one that comes into the world and in a more particular manner those that are without law or the knowledg of the Scriptures and written word of God This means of knowledge being by the providence of God with held from them so as that they are ignorant of what it speaks to other men that live under the sound thereof he is pleased to winke at and passe by the day of this ignorance neither will he proceed with them in judgment according to the things they know not but according to the things they know and have the tast and experience of within themselvs And these are the invisible things of God even his eternall power and Godhead the WORD by which all things were created and whose off-spring and likenes we are according to what we may feel in the inward man of our heart which was his workmanship created by him with a strong bent and living conformity unto righteousnes and true holines To this sort of men the WORD hath an inward voyce and way of teaching which speaks in them and makes them a rule unto themselvs in their hearing and obeying this inward operation of the word Their inward sight and hearing is truly and properly obeying which afterwards is perfected in outward action and practice Such hearers and doers of the law of God fulfilling the condition shal be justified and God will make good that word of his Covenant to them if thou doest well thou shalt be accepted and rewarded Concerning these though as to the outward man they be as yet in uncircumcision yet keeping the righteousnes of the law according to what they know it is said that their uncircumcision shal be counted for circumcision and the want of what they are ignorant of not imputed to them Rom. 2. These who by nature renewed by the Redeemer though yet unknowne to them according to the witnesse given of him in the written word approve themselvs faithfull to their light in exercising all good conscience to the fulfilling of the law shall condemne them who by the letter and forme of knowledg in the law are found transgressours of it when tried and judged by the rule they professe to live under The cheif thing that by way of caution and warning is to be sayd to this first sort of righteous men is this that they take heed to themselvs in this their slippery standing so as to continue under the hearing and teaching of this voyce of the Lord in that soft pliable and tender frame of heart in that humble meek and yeilding temper of spirit that does become the vessell of clay in the hand of the potter and the creature under the instructing word of the creatour the turning away and settled departure from which is eternall death For the Lord leaves it to the power will and choice of the naturall man when he comes to be thus renewed and enlightned by Christ whether he will hearken to what he has yet farther to say unto him or not according to those frequent expressions in the Scripture if ye be willing and obedient if ye refuse and rebell and againe whether they will hear or whether they will fobear So likewise John 7.17 If any man do his will he shall know the doctrine whether it be of God or he shall know more and more till at last he attein that knowledg wherein eternall life consists according to that of our saviour John 12. yet a little while is the light with you the light of his then personall appearance in the flesh walk while ye have the light lest darknes come upon you and you be as he that knows not whither he goes While ye have the light beleeve in the light that is be faithfull to it hear and obey it in the present voyce and teaching you are under and it will never leave leading you forward till it hath brought you to him or to that last and highest manifestation of the truth whereby ye shal be made children of the light or of the day even of that wisedome which is from above This sort of obedience is that of mans restored freewill by light from the inward word which is good and pleasing unto God till man be taught the way of hearing and obeying him more perfectly and after a more excellent manner in the way everlasting The disobedience also of man in this state is a free and voluntary act whereby he hardens his heart against the voice and calling of God and resists the holy Ghost in the worke of life and immortality which his office is to set up in every truly regenerate soule It is the whole duty of the naturall man to fear God and keep his commandements who will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill Unto this all promises and threatnings of God all temporall and Spirituall blessings do tend even to render man obedient to his God in hearing his voyce walking in his wayes and keeping his commandements This in effect is the maine scope both of the law and of the gospell And whatever we doe in way of obedience that falls short of walking unmoveably and universally in all the commandements of God with our whole heart how good or pleasing soever it may seeme to us it is not acceptable nor pleasing unto God Let no man therefore deceave his owne Soule or dissemble with God who searcheth and knoweth the hearts and the reins nor let any pretend inability or infirmity since he