yet when I say he did not do it voluntarily I don't mean that he did it unwillingly For as he did it with all frankness and generosity of his Will I lay down my Life of my self so he did it with the highest affection of Love to Mankind Greater Love than this hath no Man that he lay down his Life for his Friend But I mean he did not do it purely voluntarily without a necessity of doing it and a Consideration for it First then There was a Necessity upon God himself God told Adam that if he did eat he should die The Devil told Eve that they might eat and not die And these were the first words spoken to Man by God or the Devil upon the truth or falshood whereof the very Beings of them both were to depend for ever For which ever of them could maintain the Truth of his Word against the other he must have been God and the other the Devil And therefore God having turned the Lie upon the Devil he is from thence called a Liar from the beginning and the Father of it and will never be believed again for ever God could not have dispensed with his Word without complementing the Devil with his Godhead in taking the Lie upon himself and this he could not do For God cannot lie without undeifying himself and this he can't do because all his Qualities being of his Essence he can't change them That God cannot change is not a deficiency in his Nature but the perfection of his Essence which can be nothing but himself For as it is the happiness of imperfect Beings to be capable of change in order to be made better so it is the happiness of perfect Beings to be incapable of change whereby to be made worse Man can lie because he can't speak Truth there 's nothing that a Man can say but what he can unsay and falsify by the change of his mind which he can change only because he can't fix it as a Man that hath a broken Arm can turn it every way because he can fix it no way Nothing but an absolute Power can be absolute in any thing therefore Man having no absolute Power can't absolutely determine his own Will every change of which subjects him to a Lie either by falsifying his former Resolutions or his present Inclinations But God having an absolute Power to determine his own Will he could not change it after he had so determined it for what is fix'd can't be changed Wherefore God could not dispense with the Breach of his Law to pardon it Which was not for want of Mercy in God for he hath and doth daily pardon ten thousand times the Sins committed by Man against the moral Law which seem as great Offences as this Because the moral Law hath in it self a defeazance or condition annexed to it at the time of the first delivering of it Except ye repent ye shall perish By which this Law may be fulfilled without a performance of it in specie by doing another thing which is admitted to be done instead of it A defeazance is not the same thing with the thing to be defeated but something collateral to it And thus Repentance which is not a performance of the Moral Law is nevertheless accepted instead of it But in this Law delivered to Adam there was no such condition annexed to it at the first delivery The words are absolute In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die which leaves no room for Repentance Adam did repent but he found no place for it he could not find any words of the Law to which he could apply his Repentance to do him any good And when a Deed hath no defeazance or condition annexed to it at the time of the first delivery it can't be added to it afterwards And hence tho this Law delivered to Adam was at the time of the first delivery a Law of Life and Death yet the Law of Life being ended by breach of the Condition there was then nothing left but the Law of Death which became absolute without any condition And this put God upon a necessity of executing the Sentence of the Law upon Man in specie or making himself a Liar which he could not do and therefore the necessity upon him was absolute Which necessity was all the while a contradiction to his Nature which is Love to Man God is Love And this divided him against himself and laid him under a necessity of finding out an Invention to reconcile his Truth to his Love and his Love to his Truth And this Necessity upon God draw'd a Necessity upon Christ to come and execute this Invention because none could do it but himself Now there being such a Necessity for Christ's assuming the Humane Nature and dying under it there was a Covenant made between him and the Father previous to his coming in the Flesh which is called the Covenant of Eternal Life and is the History of the Scriptures altho it be not set down altogether in any one place Rich Metals and precious Stones don't lie together in heaps above ground but being so valuable when found Men think it worth their while to dig down for them in all places where they have any probability of finding them Then if the way and manner of attaining Eternal Life doth lie in so narrow a Volume as the Bible Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life shall we not think it worth our while to search it through for that precious Stone with a new Name which none can read but they that have it And this is a more pleasant Labour than the search for other Jewels for there we meet with nothing of pleasure or profit till we find the very thing we seek for But in making this enquiry we divert our selves with knowledg all the way we go Nor did God think any one Man or any one Age of the World worthy to have the whole of this Covenant revealed to them all at once He was 4000 Years from Adam to Christ delivering it in Types and Shadows to 62 Generations of Men who passed their Age in that time But having thus prefaced it at sundry times and in divers manners to our Fathers by the Prophets he at last spoke it to us by his Son In which these parts do appear 1. The Date 2. The Parties 3. The Contents and Consideration 4. The Sealing and Execution 5. The Witnesses 6. The Ceremony required of Man whereby to execute it on his part and take the advantage of it 1. The Date This was before the Foundation of the World I was set up from everlasting Before Abraham was I am God who created all things by Jesus Christ the Lamb slain before the Foundation of the World The priority of which Date prevents any preincumbrance that could be made of Eternal Life which is more than can be said of any Titles amongst Men. 2. The Parties It was between him
Truth of Religion be defined by the number of Professors then the Mahometan is safer than the Christian and the Romish than the Protestant The majority of Votes in Civil Affairs may conclude our right but it don't thereby convince our Judgment Nor are our Rights thereby concluded further than for that Turn only And thus it is in the whole Scheme of Government In the Power Elective The majority of Electors conclude the minority for that Turn only In the Power Legislative The majority of the Legislators make a Law but their Successors are not by this precluded from repealing that Law by another majority In the Power Judicial The opinion of the Majority make a Rule in Law but their Successors may alter those Rules by the like Majority Which hath made much difference between Opinions Antient and Modern And tho these seem and indeed are incertainties in the Law yet the policy of Man can't form a better Because those Laws or Judgments which are good at the time of the making may come to be otherwise by things that may happen in revolution of time And therefore none but God himself who alone foreknows Times and Seasons can establish an Eternal Law When the vastness of Empire in the Persian Monarchy had raised a Pride in their Kings to arrogate to themselves this Power it proved but a Fallacy And thus when Hadassah the Queen had prevailed upon Ahasuerus to reverse his Decree for the Massacre of the Jews the Scribes who were the Lawyers in those days soon found out an Evasion of the Law to sute the change of the King's Mind They let the former Proclamation for the Massacre go as it was And issued out another granting the Jews liberty to stand for their Lives with force of Arms. And thus both these Decrees were executed with the loss of about 75000 Men slain on one side And yet forsooth these two Proclamations so contrary to one another and issued within less than three months one of the other must bear the Sacred Name of Eternal Laws for the Honour of the King that made them This I instance to shew that the Policy of Man can't constitute an Eternal Law And from hence I say I am not so much concerned for the present Opinion of the World against me because being but the Opinion of Men it is subject to a change And I know the time when the whole World were of another Opinion Adam and Eve had no fear of Death till they fell under the Law of Death And could their Posterity who are fallen under this Law with them apprehend their deliverance from it into the Law of Life they would all be converted in a day I was under this Law of Death once and while I lay under it I felt the terror of it till I had delivered my self from it by those thoughts that must convince them that have them And in this thing only I wish for their sakes that all Men were as I am Nor do I yet think my self obliged in this Argument to dispute all the rest of the World by Unites For in Matters of Faith Men aggregate into Churches and Classes where we may argue with a whole Clan of them at once Now for Children and Madmen and all the Nations that know not God nor call upon his Name I am no more capable of discussing this Point with them than with Creatures wholly deprived of Speech But for the whole Christian World professing their Religion from Revelation I 'll venture to encounter them all at once and that in their own Creed which I know they can run over as fast as a Mariner doth the Points of the Compass But if after that we would but catechise our selves a little in it we shall find that when we come to the main Point our Faith will be like the Athenians Worship We believe we know not what You believe in God and in Jesus Christ his Son our Lord born of the Virgin suffered under Pontius Pilate crucified dead buried rose again the third day ascended into Heaven sitting at the right Hand of God and from thence he shall come to judg the living and the dead Very well this is a full description of the Person in whom you place your Faith But what is it that you do or would believe of him or in him Why we believe him for our Saviour Save you from what Why from our Sins Why what hurt will Sin do you Why it will kill us How do you know Why the Law of God saith so In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Why but then will not this Saviour save you from this Law and from this Death No no he 'l save us from Sin Why then it seems you have got a Pardon for Horse-stealing with a non obstante to be hang'd Do but see now what a Jest you have made of your Faith And yet I defy the Order of Priesthood to form a better Creed than this without admitting the Truth of my Argument Or to make sense of their own Faith without adding mine to it It is much easier to make a Creed than to believe it after it is made Nor can any Man really believe any part of the Gospel that doth not believe it all For it is a Doctrine so dependant upon it self that unless we know the whole of it from the beginning to the end we can't know the use or reason of any part of it Wherefore notwithstanding this Inundation of Death in the World and the infection of fear contracted upon Man from hence I am not afrighted from reassuming my Assertions at the Beginning That this long possession of Death over Man is a possession against Right That the length of this Possession is no foreclosure of the Right of Man to Life And that he that dares prosecute his Claim with effect may recover this Right and avoid that possession And that he that is got through the Death and Resurrection of Christ hath had Judgment against Death and execution of Eternal Life Christ by the instant of his Resurrection stood dissolved from all his former Relations to the World neither could he die any more being become a Child of the Resurrection For tho he did arise with the same Body with which he died yet that risen Body was not the Son of the Virgin Mary because he had assumed it by a new Power and in another manner than that by which he was first born The Body with which he lay down in the Grave was of no more use to him in his Resurrection than so much other common Matter for he was put to add Life to it by his own Power which he could have done to any other matter as well as that The present Bodies of Men laid down in the Grave are of no use to God in the Resurrection Therefore he permits them to be dissolved into any other Forms knowing that he can give the old Forms again to any other Matter by those
of every Man within any Country doth subject him to the Laws of that Country is the Law of all Nations And without these Concessions there could be no Laws because else every Man must have a particular Law delivered him for himself which being a publick Inconvenience cannot be admitted in the nature of Laws And thus this Law of Death fell upon Christ himself as a Descendant from the same common Ancestors Christ had two descents in his Birth One was his natural descent from the Virgin Mary his real Mother The other his legal descent from Joseph his supposed Father But in his Genealogy set down by two Evangelists this legal descent by Joseph is only counted upon without taking any notice of his descent by his Mother's side Because this descent by Joseph was his legitimate descent according to that Law which makes all the Issue of the Woman born during the Coverture to be the Issue of the Husband although it be notoriously known that in Fact it were begotten by another And this is our Law at this day altho the Issue be born but one day after the Espousals And the Canon Law is much stronger for that makes the Issue born of the Woman before Marriage let them be begotten by whom she will unless by a former Husband in Wedlock to be the Issue of the Husband to whom she is afterward married And therefore Christ having such a Father-in-Law as this his descent must be accounted from his Father-in-Law and not from his Mother because all legal descents are accounted from the Father and not from the Mother When the eleven Tribes were polled in the Wilderness of Sinai they gave account of their Pedigrees after their Families by the House of their Fathers without taking any notice of their descent by their Mothers side And so did they of the Tribe of Levi who were numbered after them Wherefore I say the business of the Evangelists being to shew such a descent in Christ by which the Curse of the Law might fall upon him in his Birth they must shew a descent upon which the Law might operate For as this is a Law all Proceedings thereupon are according to Law And hence it is observable that his being born of a Virgin espoused and not of a single Virgin was not accidental but designed For as it was necessary that he should be born of a pure Virgin to preserve his Nature from the defilements of the Humanity so it was necessary that he should be born of a Virgin espoused to derive upon himself the Curse of the Law by a legal Father For which purpose it was necessary that the Birth of Christ should in the terms of the Evangelist be on this wise and no otherwise And as this peculiar Genealogy of Christ was not accidental but designed the quality of his descent was so too There are mutual courtesies and civilities used amongst Equals but he that accepteth Riches or Honour from another doth thereby acknowledg him to be his Superior for the lesser is blessed of the greater Wherefore when Abraham had rescued the Plunder taken from the Sodomites he permitted the young Men that fought with him to eat and drink of the Provisions and his three Confederates that assisted him to take their Portion of the Goods but for his own part taking himself to be as good a Man as the then King of Sodom he scorned to accept from him the value of a Shoe Latchet lest it should be said he made Abraham rich So tho Christ in the days of his flesh behaved himself with all the freedom of Conversation The Son of Man came eating and drinking and when little Zacheus climb'd up a Tree to see him he frankly invited himself to dine with him Yet knowing himself to be the Son of God he neither could nor would receive any Dignity from Man I receive not Honour from Man And thus knowing his real descent to be from Above I am from Above it was equal to him to be reputed the Son of a King or a Carpenter But he rather chose the latter because being himself a King I am a King he would not accept his immediate descent from another King lest it should be said that that made him King David often vaunted of him as his descendant to come twice fourteen Generations before he was born And Abraham rejoiced to see his day But he was so far from valuing himself upon these great Ancestors one a King and the other a King's Fellow that he rather seemed to disown them Before Abraham was I am If David called me Lord how am I his Son He made no other use of his Royal Pedigree but to convey by them a corrupted descent from Adam who standing attainted of Treason against Heaven Christ himself under this Attainder was baptized in his own Blood to restore the rest of Mankind into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God For Christ himself thus falling under the Law became as guilty of the breach of it as any common Man notwithstanding his personal Holiness For we are none of us guilty of this Sin in Fact but only by construction of Law in the Article of our Birth which falls upon us before we know Good or Evil and so it did upon the Humanity of Christ And this Law thus falling upon him was as just a cause of his Death as it is of ours Nor can his Death be assigned to any other cause but this This Death of Christ was the most unlikely thing that ever happen'd in the World His Disciples could not believe it till they saw it He did not die of Age being about thirty three at his Death He did not die of natural Infirmity having the power of Health by which he preserved his own and restored others He did not die in Battel For his Kingdom was not of this World else would his Servants have fought that he should not have been delivered unto the Jews He did not die by any sudden Accident the Angels having charge over him lest he should dash his foot against a stone He did not murder himself but made all his Efforts to escape the greatest of which was his asking his Life of God Nor was he murdered by others because there was a form of Law in doing it And yet he was not executed by Law because there was no Law then in being by which he could be executed for the Crime of which he stood accused The time that Christ lived in the World was after the destruction of the Jewish Monarchy and during the continuance of the Roman Conquest under which the Jewish Nation being then Subjects were permitted the exercise of their Religion and Priesthood but not of the Civil Power which they had while their Monarchy was in being So that if a Jew had committed any Offence against the Jewish Law which was not an Offence against the Roman Law he was liable to no other Punishment than the Censure of the Jewish Church
extravagant humour in God to distinguish Men to be saved or damned only for believing or not believing in Christ But may we not think it as extravagant in us to distinguish our selves to have or not have a thousand pounds a Year only for sealing or not sealing a Deed Should we not call our selves Fools for refusing to put forth our hands to a piece of Parchment and take it off again to get an Estate by And yet we think our selves wise in refusing Eternal Life because we may have it upon such easy Terms For tho from the positive words of this Prescription the sealing and executing this Covenant of Eternal Life by Man without more saying or doing gives him as perfect a Title to Eternal Life as the sealing of a Deed among Men can make to the Lands contained in it Yet from the negative words of the Prescription there can be no Title to this Eternal Life without the complyance with this Ceremony For if Man can have any other Title to Eternal Life than according to this Covenant this Covenant don't give him a Title to it No Deed gives Man a Title that leaves any part of the Title at large out of the Deed. If the Grantor reserves any of the Title to himself then the Grantee hath no perfect Title But God hath excepted nothing out of this Covenant but his own Personal Life For when it is said That he hath put all things under him it is manifest that he is excepted who hath put all things under him Wherefore all the other parts of Eternal Life are subject to this way of Life by Jesus Christ And hence all other attempts for Heaven are accounted Sin He that entereth not in by the Door but climbeth up some other way is a Thief and a Robber and comes for to steal And having thus opened this Covenant First I put it upon the Profession of Divinity to deny one word of the Fact as I have repeated it Next I challenge the Science of the Law to shew such another Title as this And then I defy the Logicians to deny my Argument Of which this is the Abstract That the Law delivered to Adam before the Fall is the Original Cause of Death in the World That this Law is taken away by the Death of Christ That therefore the Legal Power of Death is gone And I am so far from thinking this Covenant of Eternal Life to be an Allusion to the forms of Title amongst Men that I rather adore it as the Precedent for them all from which our imperfect Forms are taken Believing with that great Apostle That the things on Earth are but the Patterns of things in the Heavens where the Originals are kept BVT why then doth Death remain in the World Why because Man knows not the way of Life The way of Life they have not known Or as I said at the beginning that Death maintains its dominion over us by our fear of it Having no other right to remain with us but because our Faith is not yet come to us When the Son of Man comes shall he find Faith upon the Earth Man is a Beast of Burden that knows not his own strength in the virtue of the Death and the Power of the Resurrection of Christ Which Ignorance doth not proceed from want of Revelation of the Truth but from our neglect to study and inaptitude to believe it O Fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Unbelief don't go by reason or dint of Argument but is a sort of Melancholy-madness by which if we once fancy our selves bound it hath the same effect upon us as if we really were so It is like the noise of War heard in the Camp of the Syrians which made them fly when no one pursued Or like that possession of fear which still kept the besieged within the Garison tho the Enemy had left the Field Death is like Satan who appears to none but them that are afraid of him Resist the Devil and he will fly from you Or like Tyrants and saucy Pedagogues whose former Cruelties render them terrible to those who have been under their lash after they are freed from it Because Death had once dominion over us we think it hath and must have it still And this I find within my self that tho I can't deny one Word I have said in Fact or Argument yet I can't maintain my belief of it without making it more familiar to my understanding by turning it up and down in my thoughts and ruminating upon some proceedings already made upon it in the World Some Specimens whereof I 'll present to the Reader The Motto of the Religion of the World is as I have said Mors janua Vitae Death is the Gate of Life Now I say if we do by this mean the Death of Christ then we are in the right But if by this we mean our own Death then we are in the wrong The Death of Christ was necessary for him and us both because the Covenant of Life would not take effect but by his Death which in the Covenant hath two Capacities 1st As it was the consideration upon which the Covenant was made 2dly As it was the Ceremony by which it was executed But all this being over and done the Death of Man is wholly useless and serves to no intent or purpose in order to Eternal Life nor ever did And could we distinguish between the change of our State and the change of our Persons and Places this Doctrine would be more plain to us By State I always mean Title so that when I say a Man is in the State of Life I mean he is by Law intituled to live and when I say he is in the state of Death I mean he is by Law appointed to die Now a Man may change his State without change of his Person or Place Christ by his Death and Resurrection did pass under an invisible change of his State by being discharged from that Law of Death to which he stood before subjected by his Birth and being translated into that Law of Life which he gained by his Resurrection Which tho it were only a legal or invisible Translation he was thereby as safe from Death as he is now being ascended and sitting at the right Hand of God And yet his Person remained here unchanged Behold my Hands and my Feet that it is I my self These were Marks of Honour that could not be counterfeit And that some did not know him is said to be from their Unbelief or that their Eyes were holden that they should not know him But tho this change of his State in an instant did not work so sudden an alteration in his Person yet it did intitle his Person to a change for the better which Title he had not before his Death Christ was as perfect in his Nature and his Principles before Death as he was afterwards and yet he could not then
my Heart's desire But when that is done I know no Business I have with the Dead and therefore do as much depend that I shall not go hence by returning unto the Dust which is the Sentence of that Law from which I claim a Discharge But that I shall make my Exit by way of Translation which I claim as a dignity belonging to that Degree in the Science of Eternal Life of which I profess my self a Graduat according to the true intent and meaning of the Covenant of Eternal Life revealed in the Scriptures And if after this I die like other Men I declare my self to die of no Religion And in this let no one be concerned for me as a Desperade For I am not going to renounce the other parts of our Religion but to add another Article of Faith to it without which I can't understand the rest And if I lose this additional Article by failing in this Attempt I have as much Religion left still as they that pity me Nor have I in all this spoken presumptuously or from fancy having said nothing but what he that made me said before me And if it be possible to believe too much in God I desire to be guilty of that Sin I dread no Hell but the Sentence prepared against them that despise the Gospel Behold ye Despisers and wonder and perish Behold what Behold Men coming from the East and from the West to sit down in the Kingdom of God and you your selves shut out Shut out from what To be shut out from Virtue and Holiness Justice and Truth perhaps would be no uneasiness to us all but to be shut out from an eternal Draught of an eternal Stream of Love from the Marriage Feast of the King's Son from the view of his Bride adorn'd in her Glory and from all the Joys of Nuptials for ever this will be a Torment created by Man to himself through Unbelief beyond the Exquisition of Tyrants or the Execution of Devils It seems conceivable that Man by his change into the other World will not lose any species of his present Affections or have any new ones added to them But that all those Passions which are now begun in him will there increase upon him for ever He that is holy let him be holy still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still And then tho Man cannot now conceive by what Objects his Passions or Affections will be thus augmented yet by his present feeling of them he may conceive the nature tho not the perfection of his future Joys or Torments Did you ever feel a fit of Envy Multiply that by thousands till you want a Name of Number and then call that the thousandth thousandth part of one of the Torments of Hell Did you ever feel a Pang of Love Spend your days in Algebra and carry on the Account of it to Heaven and there add to that for ever till your Desire fail and you 'll ne'er begin to sum the Total All Life is Motion and therefore cannot be eternal without an eternal Motion For whenever it comes to stagnate the Patient rots and stinks and dies The most pleasant Enjoyments being kept long in our hands pall our Appetites to them And hence the smallest addition to what we had before seems greater Riches to us than all our former Possessions And every new Thought that falls into our Studies proves a greater Diversion to us than all our former Knowledg Now in all Inventions of Men towards Perpetuity of Motion they never attempt any thing beyond a Circle which moving it self by Rotation comes to the same place again But the Motion calculated for the maintenance of Eternal Life is made to move in a direct Ascent for ever in every reach of which we see and taste and seel what we never did before The Water that I shall give him shall be a Spring of living Water rising up to Everlasting Life But behold ye Despisers and wonder Wonder at what Wonder to see Paradise lost with the Tree of Life in the midst of it Wonder and curse at Adam for an original Fact who in the length of one day never so much as thought to put forth his hand for him and us and pull and eat and live for ever Wonder at and damn our selves for Fools of the last Impression that in the space of seventeen hundred years never so much as thought to put forth our hands every one for himself and seal and execute the Covenant of Eternal Life and live for ever But behold ye Despisers and wonder and perish Perish how Why perish under the same Malice against the Son of God for ever They blasphemed God and yet repented not to give him Glory being concluded under Unbelief from the day of Adjournment of Time into Eternity proclaimed by the last of the seven Heralds of Angels who setting his right foot upon the Sea and his left foot upon the Earth lifted up his hand to Heaven and swore by him that lives for ever That Time should be no longer AND now bear with me a little while I prepare my self for being shown as a Monster 'T is no news for Believers and Unbelievers to be the Admiration of one another They wondered at his Works and he marvelled at their Unbelief And this is a marvellous thing that ye know not whence he is who hath opened the Eyes of one born blind Therefore to be even with the World at once he that wonders at my Faith I wonder at his Vnbelief And stare at me as long as you will I am sure that neither my Physiognomy Sins nor Misfortunes can make me look so unlikely to be translated as my Redeemer was to be hang'd And tho perhaps I may be the sport of some yet I can't but think and say again that whoever is designed for Happiness will meet with some of that Pleasure in reading which I have had in writing and whoever are not so appointed no one can lament them more than I do Nor can I think how any Man that is right in his Religion can be wrong in his Morals which are all set to right in him as an incident to his Faith The Blood of Christ hath an incident quality which cleanseth from Sin But this quality is subsequent and accidental to that legal Sanction and first Appointment of it to take away the Law of Death And he that understands this aright never makes any use of his own personal Virtues as an Argument for his own Salvation lest God should overbalance against him with his Sins Nor doth God ever object a Mans own personal Sins to him in the day of his Faith because Christ had no Credit given him for his personal Holiness in the day of his Death And therefore till I am more sinful than he was holy my Sins are no Objection against my Faith And because in him is all my hope I care not almost what I am my self This I know from
the Trees he first put forth his hand And it is yet more strange that Man having Life and Death set before him at the same time and place and both to be had upon the same condition that he should single out his own Death and leave the Tree of Life untouch'd And what is further strange even after his election of Death he had an interval of time before his expulsion out of Paradise to have retrieved his Fate by putting forth his hand to the Tree of Life and that yet he omitted this too But by all this it is manifest That as the Form or Person of Man in his first Creation was capable of Eternal Life without dying so the fall of Man which happen'd to him after his Creation hath not disabled his Person from that capacity of Eternal Life And therefore durst Man even then have broken through the Cherubim and flaming Sword or could he now any way come at the Tree of Life he must yet live for ever notwithstanding his Sin committed in Paradise and his expulsion out of it But this Tree of Life now seems lost to Man And so he remains under the Curse of that other Tree In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Which Sentence of the Law is the cause of the death of Man and was the Commencement of the Custom of Death in the World as the Original of it And by the Force of this Law Death hath kept the possession before admitted to this day For tho this Law was delivered to Adam before Eve was made and in it there are no express words to bind her or the Issue begotten between them yet it did not only bind him and her and all their Descendants but even the whole Creation under them for tho this Law was delivered to Adam in his single Person yet it was so delivered to him in his Politick Capacity as Head of the whole Creation and the great Trustee for them all And thus Adam understood it for he had told it Eve as a thing that concerned her as well as himself of which she took notice and repeated it to the Serpent in the Dialogue between them And as Adam thus understood it so God declared it immediately after the Fall To the Woman he said I will greatly multiply thy Sorrow c. To the Man he said Cursed be the Ground for thy sake c. And God having thus explained himself he immediately commanded Nature to turn upon Man to execute the Sentence of this Curse upon them And under this Command Nature hath acted ever since which is an Inversion of it from its original Institution Nature was formed by a Law superior to it which is called the Law of the Creation Let there be Light and there was Light And being thus made by a Law God immediately gave it another Law to act by by which the Earth watered it self and brought forth Fruit without the labour of Man or Beast But upon Man's delinquency God superseded this course of Nature and put it under another Law whereby the whole Creation stands inverted at this day So that all these common Events which now happen in the World tho they are become natural according to Nature thus inverted yet from the beginning they were not so Death was a strange word to Adam for tho he did understand it to be a determination of his Being yet he did not apprehend in what manner his Being should be so determined nor how he should make his Exit out of the World having never seen one Example of it And this made the Sentence of Death more terrible to them because they did not know what God was going to pronounce against them But God finding the Man and his Wife hid among the Trees of the Garden for fear of him he hinted to them their Redemption by the Seed of the Woman in the close of the Curse against the Serpent before ever he came to denounce their own Sentence against them which supported them under the terror of it and without which they had sunk down dead in the place And thus Christ as he saith is the Life of the World tho they don't know it For had it not been for this God had executed Man in the Fact Adam by this very act of Delinquency and the Sentence upon it stood attainted and became a dead Man in Law tho he was not executed till about nine hundred years afterwards and during that Interval he begat Sons and Daughters and performed all other Acts of Life From which it is observable that the change of a Man's State tho it doth at one instant ascertain his Fate one way or other yet it doth not work so sudden a change in his Person or Affections Eve after her eating and Adam before his eating of the Forbidden Tree were in two different States from one another she in the State of Death and he in the State of Life and yet this did not presently change their Affections one to another Which put the Case much harder upon him than it was before upon her For she by her very Creation was made so much a part of himself from his passion of Love to her that he could not be happy while she was miserable and hence perhaps we read of no other Argument she used to him for breach of the Command than that she had done it before him The violation of her Happiness did so much affect him by a sympathy with her that all his other Enjoyments could do him no good And therefore since he thought it impossible for her to return into the same State with him rather than be parted from her he chose to hazard himself in the same State with her The Philosophers say Man and Woman are one Creature in two pieces And as such God gave them one common Name before he made them Let us make Man and let Them have dominion c. And this is still retained as a common Name to them both in all Languages But their Offence was at last joint and several Now the Articles of the Curse denounced against those our common Ancestors for this their Offence is the Law of Death and is the State under which the World stands at this day and from which we can never be redeemed but by being discharged from this Law The falling of which Curse upon Mankind as descendants from those our common Ancestors is the Foundation of all the Laws of Man in the like case For that Parents have power by their own Acts to bind their Issue before they are born is the Law of all the World because every Man hath his Heirs in him And thus Levi is said to have been in the Loyns of his great Grandfather and to have paid Tithes in him four Generations before he was born And thus all the Descendants of Esau and Jacob are said to be in their Mother's Womb while they were Two Nations strugled in her Womb. And that the Birth
that he would only forbear one Common Tree for it seems to be no more till it became otherwise by his eating of it Withal telling him that if he did eat of it his Life should go for it Not that God thought his Life satisfaction but it was all the Satisfaction God could have of him it was rather a Resentment of the Affront than any Satisfaction for it By which God shew'd that if Man had had more than his Life to give God would have had it of him And therefore to signify the height of this Resentment God raises Man from the Dead to demand further Satisfaction of him Death is a commitment to the Prison of the Grave till the Judgment of the great Day and then the grand Habeas Corpus will issue to the Earth and to the Sea to give up their Dead to remove the Bodies with the cause of their Commitment And as these Causes shall appear they shall either be released or else sentenced to the common Goal of Hell there to remain until Satisfaction Such was the Resentment of despised Love and yet this was a Resentment without Malice For as God maintained his Resentment under all his Love so he maintained his Love under all his Resentment For his Love being a Love of Kindness flowing from the generosity of his own Nature could not be diminished by any Art of Man And yet his Honour being concerned to maintain the Truth of his Word he could not falsify that to gratify his own Affection And thus he bore the Passion of his own Law till he had found out a Salvo for his Honour by that Son of Man who gave him Satisfaction all at once by the dignity of his Person Personal Satisfactions by the Laws of Honour are esteemed sufficient or not sufficient according to the equality or inequality between the Persons who give and take the Affront Therefore God to vindicate his Honour thus affronted was oblig'd to find out a Person for that purpose equal to himself who was affronted The invention of which is called the manifold Wisdom of God The Invention it self being the highest Expression of the deepest Love And the Execution of this Invention in the Death of Christ being the deepest Resentment of the highest Affront Which Death of Christ did nevertheless surmount all the Demands made upon him For as much as his Person was superiour in dignity to the Human Nature so much the Satisfaction by his Death surmounted the Offence of Man And thus I say this Law being fulfilled and over satisfied by Christ in his Death was and is taken away so that there was no such Law in being against him after his Resurrection He was made under the Law by his Birth but he did not arise under it having taken it away by his Death And having thus taken away the Law by his Death the Life regained by him in his Resurrection was by Conquest He met with no quarter from God nor Man God would not save him from Death tho he ask'd him and therefore he rescued himself from it He pray'd to be preserv'd from Death before it came upon him but he craved no Aid against the Power of it towards his Resurrection Destroy this Body and I will raise it in three days Die he knew he must but rise he knew he could And the reason of his Resurrection was because Death could hold him no longer For it was not possible that he should be held any longer of it And this he did not in contradiction to the Will of God For God having executed the Law upon him by his Death he did not oppose him in his Resurrection And therefore tho he could not come down from the Cross because the Will of God was then against him yet he could arise from the dead because the Will of God did not then oppose him And so God leaving him to himself he conquered Death By which according to all the Laws of Conquest the Law of Death is taken away For by the Laws of Conquest the Laws of the conquered are ipso facto taken away by the very Conquest and all Records and Writings that remain of them are of no more force than waste Paper The Law of Death as I have said remains in words and will remain for ever but it had no more force against Christ after his Resurrection than if it had never been made And from hence the Title of Christ to Eternal Life is become absolute By absolute I mean discharged from all Tenure or Condition and consequently from all Forfeiture And this is the Title of Conquerors who hold of none but themselves because they receive their Right from none but their Arms. And is in opposition to the first Title of Life delivered to Adam which was held by Tenure as being received from God and being so held it became forfeited to him of whom it was held according to the Laws of Tenure But Christ receiving his Life in his Resurrection from none but himself I lay down my Life of my self and I take it up again it is now his own without Tenure and therefore is absolute and cannot be forfeited And as his Title to Life is thus become absolute by Conquest So the duration of it is become Eternal by being annexed to the Person of the Godhead A Man may have an absolute Title and yet that Title may be but for a time Life is called Temporal or Eternal according to the Persons or Things to which it is annexed or united The Life of Vegetables and Animals is called a Temporal Life because it is annexed to things which have a Temporal Duration And thus according to our Laws whatever is annexed to the Person of a Man is adjudged to have continuance during his Life So that if Land be convey'd to a Man indefinitely without naming any time how long he shall hold it he has without more saying an Estate for Life because his Estate is annexed to his Person which is said to have continuance for his Life And hence the Life of Christ regained by the Conquest of his Resurrection being annexed to the Person of his Godhead which is eternal doth thereby become Eternal Life for the Life of God and Eternal Life are synonymous Terms And thus Christ ever since his Resurrection did and doth stand seized of an absolute and indefezible Estate of Eternal Life without any Tenure or Condition or other matter or thing to change or determine it for ever And I had reason thus to assert the Title of Christ at large Because this is the Title by and under which I am going to affirm my Argument and to claim Eternal Life for my self and all the World Had Christ thus become Man and died and rose again all voluntarily to try an Experiment he had only saved his own Life and left all the World to shift for themselves But this would have been Knight-Errantry in tempting God against which he hath sufficiently declared himself And
and the Father Lo I come to do thy Will O God In the Volume of the Book it is written of me I will give thee the Heathen for thy Possession and the utmost parts of the Earth for thine Inheritance The first Text tells us what he came to do and in pursuance of what Agreement The other what he was to have for doing it and who he was to have it from Now God being the undoubted Author of Eternal Life there can be no hazard in this Title for want of a right Person to make the Grant which is more than can be said of any Titles amongst Men. 3. The Contents and Consideration That if he became bound we should be made free He gave his Life a Ransom for many Christ well knew what Man stood bound to under the Law of Death And did as well know that if he himself ever came under that Law he must thereby become bound to the same And that if he should come under the Law before he made an agreement previous to it he should be concluded by the Law to suffer under it upon his account and thereby be incapacitated to capitulate with God about it For the Life of a Man attainted as Christ was the first moment of his Birth is forfeited to the Law and therefore after that he could not have been at liberty to treat with God concerning that Law And thereupon he would not become charged with this Law till he had made this Covenant That we that were before charged with it might thereby be discharged from it By which he was to be neither Surety nor Bail for Man For in both these the Principals still remain liable and the Sureties stand only hazarded with them and have a Remedy over against them Which had been a dishonourable Engagement for the Dignity of so great a Person And therefore he offered himself a Ransom or nothing to be delivered in exchange for the Captives whereby he alone stood bound And as such he was accepted I have trodden the Wine-press alone and none of all the People with me And therefore when he was taken there was not a Man taken with him I am Jesus of Nazareth whom ye seek let these therefore go their way And this was the highest Honour that God could put upon him to accept him a Ransom for the whole World And yet this was not an Honour above his Merit for as in Debts by Civil Contract 't is not the Multitude but the Solvency of the Debtors that makes the Payment so in the Laws of Ransom 't is not the Number but the Dignity of the Persons that is valued in the Exchange And hence this Son of Man being more worth than ten thousands of the people his Death was a greater Honour to the Law than if all the World besides had died under it And could Man from hence understand the force of the Covenant of Eternal Life he might see himself discharged from Death in the very moment the Law fell upon Christ which was the instant of his Birth Because Man was to be ipso facto released upon Christ's becoming bound And after that it was no matter to Man whether Christ had ever given Satisfaction to God or not we might have said to God Look thou to that For God by this Covenant having once accepted Christ for a Ransom Man could never after that have been retaken by any Law of Reprizal altho the Ransom had escaped As soon as the Ram was caught in the Thicket the Sacrifice that before lay bound upon the Altar was let loose Not that the coming of Christ in the Flesh was the Satisfaction but God was thereby sure of his Satisfaction For as certain as Christ by his Birth became a living Child in fact so certain did he that moment become a dead Man in Law But yet all that I have hitherto said doth not amount to instate Man into the same Title of Eternal Life which Christ had after his Resurrection Because a meer Ransom doth in it self amount to no more than to restore us to the same Liberty which we had before we were Captive And then this Ransom by Christ would only have reinstated Man into that Law of Life conditional in which Adam stood before the Fall But God having found out this Salvo for his Honour by that Man Christ Jesus he did at the same time find that this would not only do but over-do all that Man had misdone And that this superabundancy might not run in waste God did declare that for this Man should have eternal Life absolute as Christ himself had it And hence Eternal Life is called the Gift of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ over and above our Redemption So that now by this Covenant of Eternal Life we are not only ransomed from that Law under which we fell in Adam but are delivered over into a State and Title which we never had before the Fall viz. that absolute and indefeasible Estate of Eternal Life in which Christ was installed by his Resurrection from the dead And this Redemption from one Law and Deliverance over into another are both done at the same instant without any Interval of Time passing between them As in Conveyances amongst Men the Title vests and devests from one to another by one and the same Act. And hence this Covenant is not called the Covenant of Redemption but the Covenant of Eternal Life as the most worthy Title And therefore he that takes any thing by this Covenant must take Eternal Life or nothing A Believer is never spoken of with a less addition than Eternal Life He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting Life And thus it is in Conveyances among Men whatever is contain'd in the Deed can't be divided but must pass altogether by the Execution of that Deed which as to this now stands next in order 4. The Sealing and Execution for let the Contents of a Writing be what it will it is neither Deed nor Covenant till it is executed This Covenant of Eternal Life being thus formed in Heaven was afterwards sealed and executed by God himself according to all the Forms and Ceremonies of Titles among Men. For God having establish'd Eternal Life by a Law he hath used all the Ceremonies of Law to make a Title to it Every Law prescribes its own Ceremonies by which it is to be executed The Ceremony as I have said by which the Law of Death is executed upon Man is his Birth The Ceremony by which the Jews received the Law of Moses was Circumcision And the Ceremony by which the Covenant of Eternal Life was executed by God is the Blood of Christ And now I am come to that Point that hath puzled the whole World What! Eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of a Man and be saved That this Covenant should be sealed is agreeable to all other Titles amongst Men. But that it should be sealed with the Blood of