masters God and Mammon We cannot take that delight and pleasure in any creature or seeming present good whatsoever which is due from us to God in Christ only but it breaks off our spirits from the God of life To delight in and prefer the way of worshipping God and working righteousnes in the mutable fading humane creaturely principles of our first creation when restored before the performing all in the unchangable divine and never fading principles of the new creation where God comes to work all our works in us and for us this is a very high provocation of God the highest and most deeply delusive and unperceaved idolatry in preferring the creature before the creatour who is God blessed for ever Mans disobedience and failing then with God as to the performance of the condition of the first Covenant renewed and brought into force againe by the blood of the redeemer is that which since the fall does cause a new breach between God and man when it is willfull working that wrath which the Sacrifice of Christ cannot appease And man is not free nor safe from the danger of such wilfull unexpiable sinning and so of that judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries whilst he is under the dominion and jurisdiction of the law And under it he is so long as he is alive to God but upon the condition required in the first Covenant which makes him a debtour to the whole law qualifying him with that naturall ability and exercise of free-will unto which when he trusts as he is too apt to do takes up his rest and engages in the single strength thereof to performe what the law requires then he falls and provokes God to wrath This will he never be able finally to prevent or avoid whilst he cleaves to and takes up his rest in the life and activity of his owne free-will for the enabling him to keep Covenant with God how rich in stock soever he may at present seem to be therein His only way therefore is to passe or rather suffer himself to be translated out of these his mutable principles into that love and stedfastnes of heart in Covenant with God which is the end of the commandement and proceeds from a pure heart good conscience and faith unfeigned Now of those that are alive unto God in the awaken'd principles and renewed life of the first Covenant by repentance from dead works and faith in God the Redeemer and saviour of all men and this by the voice of Christ through the hearing of the outward and written word there are severall sorts the cheif of which only we shall mention 1. Those who are diligent hearers willing and zealous obeyers of what they learn receave and drink in from the holy Scriptures which they are convinced is the mind and will of God written for their direction and instruction in righteousnes either by their owne private reading or by the outward ministry thereof Upon this they make their boast of God and of the chang wrought in their hearts through repentance and faith of their walking with God in the purity of his worship and towards their neighbour righteously according to the commandment delivered unto them Hereby they do indeed come to be quickly and deservedly distinguished from the prophane world having the forme of knowledg and of the truth in the law and written word into the mould whereof the whole man is by them endeavour'd to be cast But all this is but of little availe to them that stay here and rest in the letter of the Scriptures which are not he but testify of him that is come himself in his owne personal appearance God manifested in flesh And he afterwards died and rose againe according to the Scriptures and revealed himself in spirit the better comforter and anointing which teaches all things All this the voice of the Scriptures points at and sends those unto that desire to be made partakers of the life that is eternall But those that hear or obey not this voice do provoke So that though a promise be left unto them of entring into the true rest they fall short of it through unbeleif and pleasing themselvs with a false rest and satisfactiō in this first degree of restoration-work and lively change which is and may be wrought by the ministry of the outward word to the bringing of men into a mutable state of righteousnes which they are upon all occasions in danger of losing and falling from how sure soever they esteem themselvs to be 2. A second sort of hearers there are obeyers of the holy commandment delivered unto them not only by the testimony and preaching of the written word but by the knowledg of the Son himself Christ in spirit which is a degree farther then the first goe who manifests himself to them in a likenes and glory that is bread and sutable food to give life to the world or to man in his first nature Such practicall knowledge and sight of Christ is able to heal and restore man from the leprosy of sin causing him to escape the pollutions of the world and to be washed from his old sins Concerning such is it said that it is impossible for them having bin thus enlightn'd having tasted the heavenly gift bin made partakers of the holy Ghost or Christ in spirit and tasted the good word of God and Powers of the world to come so far as the natural man can be heightned and rais'd to the capacity of on this side true Regeneration if or when they fall away to renew them againe unto repentance The reason is because they do eminently crucify the Son of God afresh in themselvs and put him to open shame yea they trample him under foot accounting the blood of the Covenant whereby they were sanctified an unholy thing and doe despite to the Spirit of grace These before their personal fall or apostasy are not properly under the spirit of bondage as meer servants but are rather children of that kingdom out of which they may be cast who strivingly may seek to enter in at the streight gate after an undue manner and so shall not be able to enter When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door and they standing without knock at the door desiring admission and alledging for themselvs that they have eaten and drunk in Christs presence and that he hath taught in their streets his answer to them wil be I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of iniquity to the place where shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth You shall se Abraham Isaac Jacob and all my true prophets in the kingdom of God and yourselvs that have in one sence bin the children of the kingdom thrust out Luk. 13 24 28. Mat. 7 21 23. and Math. 8 12. These are branches in Christ the true vine and good olive tree partaking of his sap and fatnes for a season But
A pilgrimage into the land of promise By the light of the vision OF Jacobs ladder and faith OR A serious search and prospect into life eternal pointing out the way and discovering the passage out of mans mutable state of life into a state of immutable righteousnes and glory through the knowledg of Christ in Spirit Written in the year 1662 by HENRY VANE Knight towards the latter end of his prison-state by himself fully reviewed and perfected some few dayes before his suffering and left as his last Testimony and service to this present generation according to the wil of God before he fell asleep HOSEA 12.3.4 and 6. verses He took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength behaved himself princely with God Yea he had power over the angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication unto him he found him in Beth-El and there he spake with us Therefore turn thou to thy God keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually Printed in the yeare 1664. A TREATISE CONCERNING ETERNAL LIFE THe purposes and counsells of Gods mind are first taken within himself before they are or can be knowne to any other They are therefore called the deepe and hidden things of God For God is his owne counsellour There is none that can instruct him His mind is not only comprehensive of all that can be knowne and consulted upon but hath those eternall springs of light and power by which he is the supreame cause and orderer of all things And these as to their manner and kind of operation are three These first and great powers are they who in their name and manifestation are the Father Son and Holy Ghost by whom the same God doth forme and take all his counsells within himself and put them in execution according to the purpose of his owne mind These are the severall distinct powers of discerning and will in the same divine essence With the first of them God minds things after his owne incomprehensibile manner of being knowing and willing them as God Of this patern there is no imitation I am says God and there is none besides me With the second God minds things on earth or in the world condescending to proportion himself in his knowledg and will to the creature in order to be found in the likenes and fashion of created nature and so to act over the law first in himself that the creature may be capable to imitate and fulfill it after him With the third he does so admirably joyne and put both these minds into one and fix them in such most perfect harmony and love that they are not to be divided yet keeps and upholds in each their proper and distinct operations By this threefold operation God sets up the eternall law and causes the manifestation of that which is the very wisedome and reason of God himself the head of Christ the person of the blessed mediatour For he who thus is three in counsell wherein he decrees and orders all things giving the law in one and the same eternall mind does not execute by himselfe immediatly but by the Mediatour his representative or image the Angel of his presēce in whom his name or likenes is placed in order to beare it and bring it forth into the sight and participation of others By the immediate operation of the Trinity he is made and constituted the Lords Christ and true Messiah the secondary and executing power ordeined by God as the breath and voyce of his mouth to fulfill all his wills and all the counsells of his heart This is he who was from the beginning the breath of God the inspiration of the Almighty the face and image of the invisible God First by eternall generation within the mind of God 2. By everlasting emanation as the outshining light and express character of he divine essence 3. By temporall incarnation and inseparable personal union whith the seed of David According to his eternal generation he is without Father without Mother without descent coeternally and coessentially God with the Father or first cause of all no lesse truly and properly God then God himselfe But that which he is by everlasting emanation is the first born of every creature he that was before all things and by whom all things consist And according to his temporall incarnation he was made man like unto us in all things sin only excepted He is the inward writing of the eternal law that is written and lies within the bosome of the father None can read or unloose the seales on the backside of this writing but the lion of the tribe of Judah he that from eternity hath knowne Gods mind and bin his counsellour as the almighty breath of his month inspiring and giving life and being to all things which when put forth doth execute most exactly all that the dictates of Gods mind require to be done Without him is not any thing made that is made Nay admit the creature could receave being without him which it cannot yet the eternal law and will of God could never be knowne to angels or men unlesse revealed to them by this lively oracle and voyce of his month For all things are delivered to him of the father and none 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 No man hath seen God at any time The only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him even he that was in the beginning was found in the forme of God and thought it not robbery to be equall with God the WORD in whom is life and that life the light of men By him comes all hearing understanding and obedience to be wrought in the creature The first creature in which it is wrought is the building not made with hands eternal in the heavens made part of himself who as Mediatour is a mixed seed of both natures in one person and Spirit In this Spirit he comes in the dispensation of the fulnes of time to be made flesh and so hath in him the voice of God the voice of the head and cheif of angels and of the head and cheife of men by meanes whereof he speakes and converses with all created understandings in their owne likenes and language Thus comes he to be that spirituall ladder and way of graduall entercourse by means whereof the angels that are ascending and descending upon him doe keepe the doore open betweene heaven and earth and he fils al things This is Gods first best and most perfect worke finished from the beginning the works that are so much the object of Gods knowledg and delight that he therein rests subjecting them no more to change This is the building not made with hands eternal in the heavens the invisible and exemplary paterne unto both creations the rock whence they flow Deut. 32.4 He is the rock his work is
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
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
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
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
had its use and service in subordination and as a Schoolmaster pointing to him that was to follow the seed that was to come It was as the baptism of repentance preached by John which in respect of transgressions was to cleanse and prepare the way of the Lord in the hearts of the Sons of men dead by nature in trespasses and sins The Lord that afterward was to be revealed through faith would have their soules purged and kept as wel fenced as might be in the mean time against all impurity of evill doing by this law of written words which was also a witnes afterwards of Christs birth death and resurrection This is a second law that after the fall was given to man as a light or lamp to his feet and lanthorn to his paths a light but under a cover and in a dark place sealed and bound up as amongst Christs owne disciples who are taught and learned in the wisdom that is from above Otherwise as it may be used receaving a sense and meaning from the wisdom of the earthly and sensual man or from the subtil skill of the Serpent it does become the fortresse and strong hold of sin a ministry of the letter and of death a most dark and uncertain guide to any that pretend and profess them selvs to be the followers of it and of the commands in it For the vision of all is unto them as of a book or letter that is sealed which when delivered to one that is learned after the manner of men and not illuminated with the Spirit of TRUTH saying read this I pray thee he sayes or at least should say I cannot for it is sealed and I need one to open it And when it is delivered to him that is not learned in any kind he answers if he deale ingennously I am not learned I have not that skill which is required for the reading of it nor can I se any more into the true meaning of it them one that cannot read at all or tell how to spell words and put letters together The voice and sound of this law is not of that extent as the first which is published by the tongue and speech of angels and other peeces of the creation but is more peculiar to one sort of men who formerly were they of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh unto whom God more especially committed these his oracles expecting answerable fruit from all those that having sinned under this law were reserved by God to be judged and at last to stand or fall by it The rest of mankind amongst the gentiles that lived without this law were not to be judged by it but by their owne law the law of nature unto which they are perpetually still obliged This generation of the fleshly seed of Abraham is neither literally nor figuratively as yet passed away For there are too many that since the light of the Gospel hath sinned forth upon them doe yet desire to be under the law preferring their station and lot in the earthly Jerusalem Mount Sinai that is stil in bondage with her children and choose so to remaine rather then to ascend into the Jerusalem that is above and is free These are the branches Spoken of Rom. 11. taken out from among the Gentiles upon the rejection of Abrahams natural seed who contrary to nature are graffed into the good olive tree surrogated and taken by God as a nation or people to himself in stead of the other in the same relation under the same Covenant and law being made to partake of the root and fatnes of the same olive tree These are notwithstanding all their priviledges in this estate to take heed of boasting or taking up their rest under the dominion and in the inward principles of that law which excludes not boasting If they doe they are fairly warned that their standing and aboad in and with the root is not so sure nor their righteous principles and operations in conformiry to the law so fixed but that they may fall and be rejected as their predecessours the Iews were before them to wit all such of them whose standing was but by that Covenant and not by the law of faith for want whereof God complains against them Heb. 3. as children of his wrath and provocation a perverse crooked and froward generation that alwayes erre in their hearts and have not known his wayes At last they come to nothing never enter into Gods rest though they thinke themselves and in some sort are a nation that works righteousnes in strict observance of the letter of all Gods Ordinances and commands This is the same law that was by God written in the heart of Adam at the creation being renewed and published after the fall first by the ministry of angels in the hand of a Mediatour on Mount Sinai which word spoken by angels remained stedfast in its revenging property against all that contemned and disobeyed it Hence is it said in another place the law works wrath and is sure in inflicting the penalties and curse threatned It was committed to writing by Moses the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles Even in the Gospel the law is fulfilled and made honorable By the doctrine of it man is taught what he ought to doe and what not to doe He is bound up to perfect and exact obedience to it and by reward and punishment is either encouraged to obedience or restrained from disobedience being left to his owne dispose and choise as to any thing of prevailing influence which this law dispenses Yet is there that in the doctrin of it which sends all under it to Christ as the only way and means of their salvation shewing who this Christ is and that they must beleeve in him or perish in their sins and that by beleeving in him they may attein the remission of their sins and life eternal This distinct knowledg of Christ the Redemer Adam had not nor properly could have before the fall Neverthelesse by the things rhat were made and from the voices and significations of Gods mind ministred by the tongue of Angels which Adam in Paradise was capable of hearing and vnderstanding and out of the book of the creature more especially the tree of life he was and might have bin more then he was instructed in the maine point as to who and what Christ was and how the comming to him and feeding upon him was the only way and means to make man immutable in righteousnes by obtaining an inseperable union with the cheif good without ever falling into sin yea as the only sure means to have prevented the fall In the third and last place there is the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus the immediate writing and engraving of Gods owne mind true in it self and true in the receaver of it the heart of Jesus the Son of man the living tables upon which the living WORD by way of self-impression and personal union does
in the flesh abolishes and abrogates that dispensation of the mosaical ministry and in stead thereof makes the heart and conscience of man in himself and followers the fleshly tables whereon the law is written by the Spirit of the living God Hereby a conformity of holy flesh is wrought in man like unto the flesh of Christ through the hearing of the word This is the washing of our body or natural man with the pure water of the living WORD and Spirit of Christ through the ministry of the outward preaching thereof to the purging and clensing us from all filthines of flesh And this is obteined through the vertue and price of Christs blood together with the atonement and remission of sins past Under this dispensation it is that by the doctrin of the cross signified in the Sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper and thereby lively represented to the eyes of the very natural man he is taught the Gospel a second time under the Scripture dispensation of law and Gospel Neverthelesse this teaching yet is short of the glory of God to be revealed in and by Christs personal appearance in Spirit which as it is the 3. Third and last dispensation of law and Gospel so does it differ in excellency and glory very much from the other two For it is the fruit of the vine which Christ reservs to drink with his owne brethren and faithful Servants in the Kingdom of his father or which his father hath given unto him that those that have continued with the Son in his temptations and followed him fully in the regeneration may eat and drink at his table in this his Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel or the natural and fleshly holy seed jew or gentile who at that day shal be found to be but in their mutable state of righteousnes and life This is the best wine far exceeding any before receaved in types figures and Sacraments being that which Christ keeps till the last as that fruit of himself the heavenly and true vine which will refresh the heart of God and of man or of the divine and heavenly man as wel as of the earthly and natural man brought forth in the exercise of an immutable righteousnes and made after the power of an endlesse life The former of these is to sit at Christs right hand the latter at his left in this his Kingdom and glory unto which both of them are fitted and prepared by the father through the lively conformity they are taken into and made to beare with Christ in his death and resurrection So much be spoken in way of resolution to the first general query of the 4 above propounded to insist on in this Treatise to wit concerning the subject matter of the law or command of God delivered to man by the divine WORD and oracles of God under the threefold dispensation thereof together with the difference of these dispensations under the law of nature Scripture Spirit The time of the latter branch of the 2d dispensation beginning with John the Baptists and Christs owne personal ministry in the flesh is now far spent and the yet more glorious day of Christs 2d appearance and dispensation in Spirit is at hand The second General query to be insisted on is concerning the mutable state man was created in at first and remains in even after the fall out of which he is again capable to be changed and either restored and regenerated by the knowledg of Christ in the Gospel or else cast down for ever into eternal perdition The WORD that hath bin the old Commandement from the beginning that it may evidently appear to all understandings to be the word of Truth doth branch itself forth as hath bin declared into two Testimonies or witnesses which are both of them the law of Gods mouth The one conteins in it the doctrine of the law of works the rule of mans first communion with God in the first Covenant the other the doctrin of the law and righteousnes of faith the rule of that 2d communion which God thinkes fit to take man into in the spirit of his Son which can never be lost as the first may but endures to everlasting life Now two Testimonies according to the law are sufficient for the discovery and confirmation of all truth Answerable hereunto does he that is Truth itself shine and give forth the light of his glory whose two Testimonies may either be joyned in consortship harmony and subserviency with and to one another in the ministry and dispensing of them and so become a law of life to all that heare and obey them that new song mention'd Rev. 14.3 sung before the throne called chap. 15.3 the song of Moses and of the lamb sung together in perfect harmony and agremēt which no man can learne but the 144000 Virgins that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth being redeemed from among men as the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. But now these two laws or Testimonies of works and of faith as they may be taught and dispensed in difference disagreement inconsistency and opposition one unto the other may become a ministry of death either by setting up and exalting the letter above and against the spirit or disjoyning the spirit from the letter as that which may be without it and needs no consortship with it This is the work of the false deceitful Spirit the father of lies and is not of the Truth Now these being the Testimonies which from the beginning are commanded by God to be heard and obeyed no sooner was man created in Gods image and endued with an immortal intellectual rational and sensual soule made a free agent but God set them before him as a meet and capable subject to be made wise and happy in the practice of them The work of the one of them was immediatly written in his heart by the finger of God at his creation and the word of the other of them as soon as he was put into Paradise was sounding every wherein his eares and was exposed to the sight of his mind in the visible types and signes of the Sabbath the institution of marriage the tree of life and by the ministry of the holy angels Two things are recorded by Moses concerning the first make and constitution of being given unto man by God at his creation The first we find Gen. 1.26 27. where the counsel is taken by the blessed Trinity his creatours within themselvs saying Let us make man in our image after our likenes and let him have dominion over the visible creation and be fruitfull multiply and replenish the earth ruling over every living thing that moveth upon the earth So God created man in his owne image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them God is in his being the highest reason and the operation or work of his mind is discovered and made knowne by the word of his
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
to do all things for the Truth attēded with a kind of powerfull impotency or impossibility of doing any thing against the Truth What other liberty thē this is left to the holy and elect āgels that are by a secōd work of Christs hāds made immutably good all possibility 〈…〉 in them to evill being removed and utterly and for ever taken away from them This likewise is all the freedom left to Jesus the Son of Man whereby when the evill one comes he finds nothing in him because he and the father are one in their willing power in exact likenes and agreement God himself also the most free agent of all never had the least possibility or fredom to evill He hath not the least ability that way To work evill is utterly impossible to him True fredom then is a power to will immutably that which is good to do it not only without any resistance or hindrance from within him that wills or does it but against all the tempting or attempting power of any other person or thing without him that might induce any chang of mind if it were possible Thus God is most free who tempts none nor can himself be tempted to or by evill And thus is he free who is fully born of God into a likenes and conformity with his divine fredom of will nor can he sin because he is born of God and so far as the immortall seed in him is his keeper the evill one cannot touch him or be able to get within him but at last is totally and finally overcome by him This is the love that with a holy and delightfull efficacy attractivenes and perswasivenes carries the regenerate soule captive to the obedience of faith constraining it with the greatest readines and delight to run the race of Gods commandement Christ is responsible for us also to his father that none of us shal be lost but he will rayse us up at the last day perfected in this love against which there is no law or penalties by the law that are in force because it is the very end for which the law was at first delivered unto man Through the power of this love the inward man of the heart is bound up as in a bundle of life in and with the active and quickning power of the holy and blessed will of Christs manhood And the will of the sensual and inferiour part of our soule which is as the door and mouth to the inward man is so conformed subjected and bound up in unity of operation and agreemēt with it as that where the heart so beleevs in Christ and loves him by the mouth belonging to that heart he is answerably confessed and glorified and comes at length by both in exact harmony to be immutably served and possessed world without end In this third sort of beleevers hearers and doers of the law and will of God under the teaching and outward ministry of the Scriptures this love is and dwells These are the truly regenerate heirs according to promise that are rooted grounded and made stedfast with God in his Covenant These are they that through the transforming and prevailing power of Christs love dwelling and working in them are drawne to that sight and knowledg of the father and of the Son and of the unity and agreement of will that is between thē which flesh and blood cannot reveale They are taught also to employ and make use of their naturall ability and strength in the restored fredom of their will so as to answer the end for which that liberty was first given which was not that they should therein be their owne keepers but suffer thēselvs to be kept and subjected under the Rule that God would send and give unto them for that purpose to lead them in the right way evidently trod by himself that is the way of the crosse and true selfdeniall which does infallibly guide and unmoveably keep the wayfairing man that walks in it from all possibility of erring or falling short of entring into the promised land and true Rest in which eternall blessednes consists And in this they are instructed by the sacraments of baptisme and the Lords supper So much by way of answer to the third particular enquiry in order to the clearing up what is sought after in the 3d generall querie in this discourse 4. The 4th particular enquiry under the same 3d generall head demands how man comes in a judiciall manner to be hardned by God made a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction with an impossibility to chang his mind from evill to good any more then those that are truly saved can change from good to evill These are in a state that can never be repented of nor is there need The other are in a sad estate even such as admits of no repentance neither no though with Esau they do seek it carefully and with tears The answer then to this query may be plain and short from what hath bin already shewen at large The steps and degrees by which men come into this deplorable condition take as followeth By the good will and patience which is shewed to them by the redeemer and by them abused do men come to this judiciall hardning and fixednes in evill Christ is content freely to begin anew with all mankind as he is that word of the beginning unto them which works their restoration more or lesse towards their primitive state as man was created in Covenant with God before any breach hapned And he does commit their soule so restored againe to their owne keeping and under the same law and condition as before save only that now if they be found wilfully to break off and depart from God a second time crucifying the Son of God a fresh and thereby putting him to opē shame there remains no more sacrifice for their sin no restoration out of it no chang of mind from it or aversnes to it but a perpetuall condemnation of them as they justly deserve to be made bondslaves to sin and Satan for ever whose counsell and will they have so inexcusably followed and preferred before Gods And the higher they have bin raised up in light and in the participatiō of heavenly gifts by them abused through the undue exercise of that free will to which they are left the deeper will they sink in everlasting torments and sorrow to all eternity through the sense they shall have of their slighting resisting and rejecting against their owne soules the operations of the spirit of love the yeilding whereunto had bin the only way to have made them inheritours of it as well as others They fondly preferred their conceited way of being saved in the single exercise of their owne freewill and choice before that way which the love and faithfulnes of God had chosen for them and chalked out to them by the rule of the crosse in the knowledg of Christ and him crucified evidently set before the eyes of their very naturall man
the first Resurrection The Apostle does there speak of the time when this way of heavenly converse between the saincts that are on earth and the holy angels shal be frequent and usuall and no such wonder or strang thing as yet by most it is accounted This will be brought to passe by the opening of the door in heaven interpreted by Christ himself Jo. 1.51 in his answer to Nathaniel Because I said unto thee I saw thee under the fig-tree beleevest thou Thou shalt se greater things then these What greater things A door open in heaven as a means of easy and familiar entercourse between the inhabitants of heaven and dwellers on earth The angels are to be employed as messengers of intelligence between Christ and his Saincts before the time of his owne personall converse with them on earth For saith Christ verily verily I say unto you Hereafter you shall se heaven open or the gate and door that is made into it and kept open by me for the ascent and descent of my holy angels between me and my Saincts on earth At that day Christ wil be glorified in his Saincts and honour them in the sight of them that hate them God will answer them before they pray whilst they are yet speaking he will heare and speedily avenge them of their adversaries He will grant them the desire of their hearts But when will this day be that these great and wonderfull things shal be seen The text is plain and expresse Revel 11. T is evidently to begin at the rising of the witnesses who shall immediatly upon their rising be thus in the spirit as John was on the Lords day in the I le of Patmos This wil be the proper and usuall dispensation in that day of the Lord that is to begin at the sounding of the seventh trumpet The spirit of life from God shall then enter into the witnesses set them upon their feet and immediatly qualify them to be in the spirit or have their inward senses awakened and fitted to hear and receave messages from heaven and the knowledg of the mind of their Lord by the immediate impression and inspiration of angels employed by him for that purpose We know this was frequently the case with Daniel and most of the other dear servants and prophets of the Lord. Unto Jacob this great mystery and truth was most particularly and distinctly foretold in the ladder which he saw the feet whereof touched the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels ascending and descending upon it and the Lord himself standing above and speaking by that means unto Jacob acquainting him thereby with his mind and giving to him most rich and precious promises The interpretation of this ladder was not only made by our saviour to Nathaniel as we have opened but it was at the same time given to Iacob with the vision itself as appears by the Result that came into his mind thereupon when he sayd How dreadfull is this place It is the very house of God where his throne is It is the very gate of heaven through which by the ministry of angels in the hand of Christ as he is the son of man and hath the use and exercise of all kinds of humane sense in perfection in his glorified manhood the inward and outward man of the saincts shal be so affected changed and transformed as to give them a kind of entrance into and a being in heaven even whilst they are yet here in the body This Christ wrought and obteined the power of when he ascended up above all heavens and as man did come to have a more excellent name then the angels Now that he ascended what is it but that he who was in the forme of God and counted it not robbery to be equall with God did first descend lower then the angels into the fashion of an earthly man the lowermost part of his habitable earth Prov 8 31. even the animalish and sensuall nature of man using and exercising as well the bodily as spirituall senses appertaining to the very naturall man When he had done this by laying hold on the seed of Abraham and receaving it into personall union with himself he set up that ladder in his owne person the feet whereof stand on the earth whilst the top of it enters into the highest heaven For he that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens that he might fill and fulfill all things That therefore which Jacob pronounced in the spirituall interpretation of his vision is most undeniable This is none other sayes he then the house of God the building not made with hands whose builder and maker is God the fathers house wherein are many mansions built by the eternall WORD and wisdom of the father in the person of the mediatour considered as he is the first borne of every creature and the beginning or first begotten from the dead Col. 1. in whom is that life that is the light of men who was before all things and by whom all things consist The way for God that is the high and lofty one inhabiting eternity to descend and come to dwell in the humble broken and contrite spirit as the place of his rest and the way for the humble poor and broken spirit to ascend into the persence and sight of God all this was wrought out in our nature by the WORD that made himself flesh and in that body died rose again and ascended where he was before as in the volume of Gods book it is written of him This he told his owne disciples Jo. 14. In my fathers house are many mansions If it were not so I would have told you Behold I go to prepare a place for you to set the ladder by which the ascent and descent is contrived into my fathers house for such as you are And if I goe and prepare a place for you you may be sure I will come againe and gather you unto my self that where J am ye may be also At his comming again the same Apostle John finds the thing to be true that his Lord had promised For Revel 11.12 19. it appears that upon the rising of the witnesses and sounding of the seventh trumpet the temple of God wil be opened in heaven which is the same opening of the heavens before-mentioned Jo. 1.51 and there wil be seen in his temple the arke of his Testament the law of the two tables written in the heart of Christ the Son of Man from whose presence the fiery law is to be dispensed by the ministry of angels at which there wil be lightnings voices thunderings an earth quake and great haile The door into heaven being thus set open the risen witnesses are spoken to v. 12. saying come up hither or be with me in the spirit in a mind fitted to enterteine converse with me by the ministry of the holy angels And for such a blessing and benefit be not unwilling
multitude that he saves out of all people and nations kindreds and tongues that are upon the face of the earth who yet are not brought so neer to him as that peculiar nation of his which he makes a Kingdom of Preists But they have a portion that is full and sufficient comming from the hand of their everlasting father who like to Jacob in the type hath his specially beloved Josephs and Benjamins by Rachel the choice delight of his eyes and hath his ten sons besides that are also children of his blessing sons and not bastards or cast-awayes but such as he ownes for legitimate and makes heirs of his Kingdom They are provided with inheritances in the land of promise And as there is such an everlasting love and salvation spoken of in the scripture which is called common in the respect above mentioned so is there also a common faith and salvation that is but temporary begets but such a repentance unto life as the effect of it upon the minde from whence there is a turning away againe and a drawing back unto perdition This kind of beleevers in stead of holding fast faith and a good conscience do put away their good conscience and concerning faith do make shipwrack being not able to ride it out in the stormy weather of temptations They do therefore declare by the event that they never had faith of the right kind but that the chang of mind brought upon them by the preaching of the gospel and knowledg of the Lord Jesus Christ amounted but to such a repentance as might againe be repented of or turned from and but to such a faith as might faile though both were the fruits of the gospel or good tydings of the worke of redemption and reconciliation wrought in the person of the mediator as ministred but by the first and conditionall Covenant which obliges the children of it in a debt to the whole law upon the terms of renewing to them their primitive naturall activity and use of their freewill for the performance thereof Thus Christ gives himself to be the life and reconciliation of the whole world commanding all men every where to repent excluding none from this benefit of his death the atonement of sins past and after this manner to have faith and repentance wrought in them if the fault lie not in themselvs The same gospel then and blessed knowledg of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ is in the ministry and preaching of it the everlasting gospel as accompanied with fruits that end in salvation and are permanent and abiding and is also the gospel whose candle may be put out and candlestick removed out of its place as Christ not only threatned to the seven churches of Asia but actually executed upon their apostasy and unworthy walking under the light thereof And if the scope and intent of the Epistle of Jude be well weighed together with his expressions wherein he makes mention of the common salvation and faith once delivered unto the saints we shall find that he does very evidently set forth the division and contention which did arise in his time between these two ministries of the gospel and those that had these differing effects and operations produced thereby upon their hearts For the same common salvation and change wrought by the preaching of it upon the minds of the hearers which begot in them repentance from dead works and faith towards God if it were accompanied with the faith of the right kind once delivered to the saincts through the power of which we are kept unto salvation he shewes plainly v. 20 21. that being built up in this our most holy faith and praying in the holy Ghost we shal be kept from falling and shall keep ourselvs in the love of God waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternall life But if this faith be wanting whatever other effects enlightnings or quicknings the knowledg of Christ and preaching of the gospel may have upon us in the judgment of the Apostle Jude such are to be looked upon as having no more certainty of salvation nor probability of a good end then those of the children of Israel that the Lord saved out of Egypt and the house of bondage but destroyed before they entered into Canaan or then those angels that fell and kept not their first habitation or then Sodom and Gomorrah Yea or then the rejected nation of the jews by whose wicked hands our saviour was crucified They stumbled at the stumbling stone and though they sought after righteousnes yet was it as it were by the works of the law children they were in whom as it is written Deut. 32.20 there was no faith Upon this very ground the church of the gentiles that were taken into the place of the jews and had Gods name called upon them doe run the same hazard with the Jewish church that is of being cut off from the good olive tree when they shal be found to be but such as have not their standing by the faith that is triall proof They therefore shall in like manner be swallowed up into a universall and most signall apostasy from the truth and power of the gospel a little before Christs second comming It is no marvell then that the Apostle Jude is so earnest in exhorting to contend earnestly for the faith as it is of the right kind and primitive purity wherein it was once delivered to the saincts bringing forth those fruits in them that accompanied salvation and were not to be fallen from This contention warfare or battel was in heaven in the very church itself between those that had a stronger and firmer birth of grace and those of a weaker that was wavering uncertaine and capable to prove abortive as not comming of Sarah the free woman that is the mother of us all Nevertheles in this contest and warfare the woman that brings forth the manchild is necessitated to fly for it into the wildernes though a conquerour whilst the battel was fought out by spirituall weapons only in a church way For when once the secular powers came to exercise a ruling stroke and decisive jurisdiction in the Christian religion then she betook herself to the wildernes became solitary and neglected by men In that wildernes state the remnant of the womans seed that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus continue for a season trod under foot and oppressed by their opposite brethren that are countenanc'd and upheld against them by the power and strength of the Kingdom of the beast For having got possession of the outward court of the temple which is left out as no longer regarded by God they become a fit seat for Antichrists throne a great bulwarke and strong hold for the man of sin and Son of perdition whereby to maintein his war against those worshippers that are so in spirit and truth and not in word or forme only and whose place it is to officiate either in