because man who is now called and sufficiently prepared doth not resist God that calleth him nor set any Bar against the divine Grace which otherwise he might set against the same There is indeed another that is sufficient but yet withal ineffectual to wit which on man's part is without any saving effect and through the alone voluntary and vincible or avoidable fault of man becomes unfruitful or obtains not its wished and due event and end 4. The former which is accompanied with its saving effect or is already in its exercit act is sometimes called in Scripture Conversion Regeneration a Spiritual raising from the dead and a new Creation to wit because by it we are effectually turned from a corrupt course of living to live soberly justly and piously and are raised of God from a death of sin or a deadly custom of sinning unto a Spiritual life or Holy way of living Lastly being reformed according unto the similitude or likeness both of the doctrine and of the life of Christ we are as it were begotten again and so by repentance and faith are in him made new Creatures 5. Man therefore hath not saving Faith of or from himself nor is he born again or converted by the power of his own free will seeing in the State of sin he cannot so much as think much less will or do any good which is indeed savingly good such is in special manner Conversion and saving Faith of or from himself but it is necessary that he be regenerated and wholly renewed of God in Christ by the word of the Gospel and by the virtue of the Holy Spirit in conjunction therewith to wit in understanding affections will and all his powers and faculties that he may be able rightly to understand meditate on will and perform these things that are savingly good 6. We conclude therefore that the grace of God is the beginning progress and complement of all good so that not so much as a regenerate man himself can without this preceding or preventing exciting following and co-operating Grace think will or perform any thing that is savingly good much less resist any temptations that do draw and entice unto evil Insomuch that Faith Conversion and all good works and all pious saving actions which any one can think of are wholly to be ascribed to the Grace of God in Christ as their principal and primary cause 7. Yet may man despise and reject the Grace of God and resist the operation of it so that when he is called of God unto Faith and Obedience he may render himself unfit to believe and obey the divine Will and that by his own proper fault and that too true and vincible either through secure inadvertency or through blind prejudice or through inconsiderate zeal or through an inordinate love of the World or of himself or other irritating or provoking causes of that kind For such an irresistible Grace or force which as to its efficacy is neither more nor less than Creation not Generation properly so called nor raising from the dead and which doth effect the very act of Faith and Obedience in such manner that it being afforded or granted a Man cannot but believe and obey cannot certainly but altogether ineptly and unwisely be there made use of and applied where free Obedience is seriously commanded and that under the promise of an exceeding great reward in case it be performed and under the threatning of the forest punishment if it be neglected For in vain and without cause doth he command this Obedience and require it of another and promise to reward the Obedience who himself both ought and will work the very act of Obedience by such a force as cannot be resisted and ineptly against reason is he rewarded as one truly and really Obedient in whom this very Obedience is effected by such a kind of force of another's Lastly punishment especially eternal is unjustly and cruelly inflicted on him by whom this Obedience is not performed through the sole and alone defect of that irresistible Grace which is indeed necessary as one disobedient who really and indeed is not disobedient That we may not now say that it is every where in the Scriptures affirmed of some that they have resisted the Holy Ghost that they judged or rather made themselves unworthy of eternal Life that they made void the Counsel of God against themselves that they would not hear come obey that they have closed their ears and hardened their hearts c. And of others that they heard the Word readily and willingly that they obeyed the Truth and the Faith that they shewed themselves attentive and teachable that they attended unto the Truth of the Gospel that they received the Word with chearfulness and that they were therein more generous then those who rejected the same lastly that they obeyed the Truth or the Gospel from the Heart c. All which things certainly to attribute to those who either can no ways believe or obey or cannot but believe and obey when they are called is doubtless too inept or weak and plainly ridiculous 8. And though there be a very great disparity of Grace according indeed to the most free dispensation of the Divine Will yet doth the Holy Spirit bestow and confer so much Grace upon all Men both in general and in particular to whom the Work of Faith is ordinarily preached as is sufficient to beget Faith in them and to carry on their saving conversion gradually unto the end And therefore not only those who do actually believe and are converted but also those who do not actually believe and are not really converted have sufficient grace vouchsafed to them to believe and to be converted For whomsoever God doth call unto Faith and Salvation he calleth them seriously that is to say he doth not call them only in outward shew or only by his vocal Word to wit as therein his serious Precepts and Promises are held forth to those that are called in general but also with a sincere and every way unfeigned intention of saving them will of converting them So that he never intended any decree of absolute Reprobation or immerited or undeserved blinding or hardening to precede or pass before concerning them CHAP. XVIII Of the promises of God that are performed in this life to those that are already converted and are Believers that is of Election unto Glory of Adoption Justification Sanctification and of Obsignanation or Sealing 1. COncerning Men that are sinners but yet are already effectually called and converted by the Grace of God unto the Faith of Jesus Christ and who do by the help of the same Grace by true Faith order their life according to the Commandments of Jesus Christ God is pleased and useth to
to his alone pleasure yet the natural contingency of things and the innate liberty of Mans will once long since given it in Creation he doth never take away thereby but leaveth ordinarily the natures of things safe and entire and in such sort concurreth with the will of Man in acting that he suffers it also to act acording to its own nature and freely perform its part and therefore doth not at any time lay upon it a necessity of doing well much less of doing ill 7. There is therefore nothing that comes to pass any where in the whole World rashly or by chance that is God either not knowing of it or not regarding it or only idly looking on much less he altogether withstanding it or being wholly against it and not in the least willing to permit it And there is nothing also done by Man whether good or evil altogether fatally and incontingently or precisely necessarily that is God violently forcing their Wills to this or that or at least offering any irresistible force to any Men by any absolute and evermore efficacious decree whether you will call it effective or permissive as some are pleased fondly to speak to do so or otherwise 8. Therefore by reason of the true Providence of God to wit wisely holily and righteously moderating or ruling all things there is no place left at any time in the World either for the blind fortune and brute temerity of the Epicureans or for the Iron and fatal necessity of the Stoicks Manichaeans or Predestinarians Which two rocks as being indeed extremely prejudicial and dangerous are chiefly in this point or matter to be taken heed of and avoided From whence furthermore those who are truly pious being rightly inâ—ormed of aâ— these things in Adversity become always patient and in prospetity aâ— was thankful towards God and more over for the future also do repose willingly or freely and constantly theiâ— chiefest confidence in God as their moâ—â— faithful and trusty Father CHAP. VII Of the Sin and Misery of Man 1. BOth these Works of the Divine Goodness of which we have spoken to wit Creation and Providence are seconded or followed by a singular Work of Grace and Mercy but such as unto which sin it self hath ministred a certain occasion and which is the consequent of sin the just punishment or penal or miserable Estate of Man from which they that believe are freely delivered by Christ of which things we are hereafter in order to treat 2. Sin was at first in this manner brought into the World Man being created with such Faculties as we have said God gave him a Law of not eating of the Fruit of the Tree of the knowledg of Good and Evil standing in the midst of the Garden under the pain of Eternal Death and divers Miseries besides That Law Adam brake together with Eve his Wife being beguiled by Satan and deceived by his false perswasions He brake it I say not only by a Spontaneous Will or a Will no forced but by a Will altogether free because he was not forc't either by any outward violent impulse or any secret and hidden determination or necessitation proceeding either from God or the Devil to will to pluck or eat of the Forbidden Fruit nor did he fall into the sin through any withdrawing or denying which some ignorantly call permission oâ— the efficacious permissive Decree of any Divine Virtue or action necessary for thâ— avoiding of sin nor lastly was he impelled or moved by any Power Command or Instinct althoughn ever so secret or hidden to transgress of or from God to wit that God might have an opportunity to exercise his sparing or pardoning Mercy and punitive Justice as some perversly teach For by this means God would truly properly and chiefly nay solely be the Author of Sin yea by this means that transgression would not be truly properly sin at all nor could Man by reason thereof have become truly guilty or justly miserable thereby furthermore neither had God therefrom gotten an opportunity of shewing Mercy and exercising Justice as truly and properly such But Man by the meer pure liberty of his Will altogether free both from all inward and outward necessity only the permission of God intervening and the alone swasion and motion of the Devil the which Man might easily have resisted and not listened unto preceding and the Beauty and Gracefulness of the Fruit in the case outwardly enticing he committed this sin 3. By this transgression Man by Vertue of the Divine Threatning became Guilty of Eternal Death and manifold Misery and was stript of that primaeve Happiness which he received in his Creation and therefore cast out of that most delightful Garden a Type of the Coelestial Paradise in which otherwise he did happily converse with God and was for ever debarr'd from the Tree of Life which was the Symbol or token or pledg of a Blessed Immortality 4. And because Adaâ— was the Stock and Root of all Mankind therefore he involved and intangled not only himself but also all his posterrity who were as it were shut up in his loyns and were by Natural Generation to proceed from him in the same Death and Misery with himself so that all Men without any difference our Lord Jesus Christ only excepted are by this one only Sin of Adam deprived of that primaeve Happiness and destitute of that true Righteousness which is necessary for the obtaining of Eternal Life and consequently are now born lyable to that Eternal Death and likewise manifold Misery that we spake of And this is usually and vulgarly called Original Sin Concerning which notwithstanding we are to hold that the most bountiful God in and by his beloved Son Jesus Christ as in and by another and new Adam hath provided or prepared a free Remedy for al against that Evil or Malady which was derived unto us from Adam So that even from hence the mischievous errour of those who use to lay the ground of the Decree of absolute Reprobation being a thing forged in their own Brains and Fancy in this sin may sufficiently appear 5. Besides this sin there are also other which are every Man 's own proper Sins or actual Sins the which also do really multiply our Guilt before God and do in things Spiritual darken our Minds nay and by degrees blind them and lastly by custome in sinning do more and more deprave or pervert our Wills 6. Of this sort of Sins there are divers kinds and several degrees as may be understood by their several Objects Subjects Causes Manners Effects and Circumstances to wit there is one of commission another of omission one of the Flesh another of the Spirit one proceeding from ignorance another from sudden passion or infirmity another from set Malice one against Conscience another not against Conscience one reigning another not
darkly known of Men to wit the Work of Redemption or of a New Creation whereby he might of his meer Grace and Mercy deliver Man who by reason of sin was become lyable to Eternal Death and Condemnation and lay in miserable sort under the bondage of sin from the said Guilt and restore him unto the Hope of an eternal and immortal Life and minister to him sufficient yea and superabundant Power and Ability to cast off the Dominion of Sin and to obey the Will of God with his whole Heart 2. This Work God hath accomplished by his one only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ whom indeed he therefore sent into the World not only that he might by him most openly declare and divers ways confirm his most Merciful Will concerning his bestowing Eternal Life freely upon Sinners that do seriously and truly repent and believe but also in very deed that he might through his most holy Obedience and the effectual working of his Holy Spirit in us as far as in him lyeth by degrees bring us to the said wished and desired end 3. Furthermore the whole Knowledg of this Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ as far indeed as is savingly necessary consists chiefly of two parts For it respecteth partly his Person and partly his Office In respect of his Person Jesus Christ is true and Eternal God and withal true and perfectly just Man in one and the same person for that he is the natural only begotten and proper Son of God in the fulness of time by the Operation of the Holy Ghost made true and entire Man and born of the Virgin Mary without any Spot or Stain of Sin 4. And he was not only true or entire and perfect Man as to his substance to wit consisting of a true humane body and a reasonable Soul but also truly obnoxious or subject to the same Infirmities Passions Miseries Afflictions Troubles Griefs Sorrows Ignominy Reproaches and consequently the most sharp or bitter Death as we are and that for this very end that being in all things made like unto his Brethren yet without Sin he might be our merciful and Faithful high Priest in things pertaining unto God to expiate the Sins of the People And this is meant by that Article of the Apostles Creed concerning Christ Jesus I believe in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary 5. The Office of Jesus Christ is threefold Prophetical Priestly and Kingly all which he did partly now long since in this World in his State of Humiliation and abasement or emptying of himself faithfully administer and now also partly doth gloriously administer or discharge in Heaven in his State of Glory and Exaltation Unto the former State pertain these Articles following He suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into Hell By which as it were by certain Steps or Degrees the whole Humiliation of Jesus Christ to wit such as became him as our Prophet and Priest was leisurely consummated and finished Unto the latter are to be referred these The third day he rose again from the dead he ascended up into Heaven he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead By which things is excellently described partly a certain preparation unto both the Kingly and Pontificial Dignity of Jesus Christ partly this very Dignity it self and the magnificent exertion or shewing forth of the same 6. His Prophetical Office he hath now long since fully performed and finished not only when he openly revealed unto us by his Gospel the Will of God concerning the communicating of Salvation truly such or of Eternal life to all that only believe and obey after death but hath also by manifest Signs and Miracles too great to be questioned or excepted against and also by the example of his own proper Obedience both in his life and death most evidently confirmed it and withall yet further after his death he hath most substantially by divers arguments for fourty days together asserted and proved the same 7. His Priestly Office he partly performed long since when at his Father's command whom †submissively obeying he underwent on our behalf the cursed death of the Cross and offered up himself to God his Father as a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of all Mankind and suffered himself being innocent to beslain upon the Altar of the Cross partly he doth yet still daily perform the same whilst being alive again he continually appeareth in Heaven before the Face of God for the sake of Men and doth in effectual and glorious wise intercede for those that believe shewing himself indeed at all times and in all places a most faithful Advocate and Patron to them 8. His Kingly Office he doth even now continually exercise since being once raised from Death by the Father and advanced to the Throne of Supreme Majesty in Heaven and set down at the right hand of God on high and having obtained all power in Heaven and Earth he rules every where in magnificent manner and indeed he doth so dispose of and govern all things according to his own Will and Pleasure that he does chiefly and in the first place consult the Safety and Salvation of his faithful ones to wit since he hath not only now long since instituted the Ministry of the Gospel for our good but doth also continually in powerful-wise preserve it against all sorts of Obstacles or Hinderances and therein still admirably doth exert his own spiritual Efficacy and whil the doth by his Spirits and Angels his Ministers and Attendants powerfully guard protect and defend even in this Life his faithful Subjects against the Devices Wiles Snares Force and Power of Satan Tyrants and all other their Enemies until he shall in the last Judgment utterly destroy the one and take up the other into his heavenly and immortal Glory and make them everlastingly happy and blessed And indeed upon these Offices is built both the Knowledg and Worship proper and peculiar to Jesus Christ as he is Mediator of which hereafter in their order and place 9. But from hence it appeareth that Jesus Christ is not our Saviour in one way or upon one account only and alone to wit not only by his Preaching Example Martyrdom or Suffering or that he is not so only therefore because he hath declared unto us the way of Eternal Life and confirmed it by Miracles also by the examplariness of his Life and by his Death and by this means hath purchased to himself a Supreme power and virtue to save us But withall indeed by virtue of Merit with or towards God and Efficacy arising or proceeding therefrom and immediatly respecting us By virtue of Merit
doubtless or Desert because he hath merited eternal Salvation for us by his Obedience or because by the Mediation hereof especially of his violent and bloody Death as by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Price of Redemption and propitiatory Sacrifice God hath thus far reconciled all Sinners unto himself that for the sake of this Price of Redemption and Sacrifice he was pleased to be at one with them again and to open the door of eternal Salvation and way of Immortality to them even as it was prefigured many ages before under divers Types Figures and Shadows of the Old Testament and especially under the Type of that solemn Sacrifice which the High-Priest once every year performed in the Holy of Holies And he is our Saviour indeed by way of Efficacy in as much as he doth effectually apply the Spirituall virtue and fruit of the said Merit of his to his faithful Followers and really affords it to them to enjoy and makes them through Faith really partakers of all those Benefits which he by his Obedience hath purchased for them of which more afterwards 10. But those Men who hold that there was both an absolute Election and an absolute Reprobation of certain Persons whether considered before the Fall or only under or after the Fall without Faith in Christ on the one hand or Disobedience on the other hand was in order first made and past before Jesus Christ was designed of the Father as a Mediator for them they enervate nay do wholly and utterly overthrow the universal force and vertue of this same Merit and the truth and reality of its Efficacy Neither indeed was it necessary that there should be made any true or real Expiation of Sins by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Redemption of Christ for them nay nor indeed was it so much as possible if Truth may be freely spoken who were now long before by name peremptorily and absolutely destinated or appointed part unto Life part unto Death For the Elect as they call them or those who are predestinated unto Life have no need of any such Expiation and Reconciliation because upon the very account of their being precisely or absolutely elected unto Salvation they are likewise upon the same account in actual Favour with God and already necessarily beloved of him with the highest and immutable Love and such as is peculiar to those that are Sons and Heirs of God And as for the Reprobate as they call them they themselves deny that there was or is any Atonement truly made for them and besides the thing is absurd of it self as that which implyes a contradiction For upon their being reprobated according to these Mens Opinion they are thereupon wholly and altogether excluded from the Atonement made by Christ. Because those whom God hath by an immutable Decree once reprobated or excluded from Salvation or devoted to to eternal Destruction he doth not seriously will nor can will that any thing savingly good should really be conferred upon them much less that the said Atonement should be common to them with the Elect. And thus far in general of the chief Works of God hitherto CHAP. IX Of the Knowledg of the Will of God revealed in the New Covenant 1. FUrthermore the Will of God comprehended in the Covenant of Grace which our most high Prophet the only begotten Son of God hath clearly and fully revealed unto us in his Gospel contains two chief heads First those things which God on his part by his Son Jesus Christ hath decreed to do or work in us or about us that we may be made partakers of that eternal Salvation that is offered to us by him Secondly those things which he altogether wills by the mediation or means of his own Grace to be done by us if we will really obtain eternal Salvation 2. Those things which God hath decreed to do on his part in order to our Salvation are chiefly two 1. He hath decreed for the honour of his beloved Son by him to choose unto himself for Sons unto Salvation and Life eternal to adopt justifie seal with his Holy Spirit and at last to glorifie all those and those only who truly believe in his Name or obey his Gospel and persevere in the said Faith and Obedience even unto death and on the contrary to reprobate or reject from Life and Salvation Unbelievers and Impenitent Persons and everlastingly to condemn them 2. He hath decreed through or by his same Son to confer or bestow upon all that are called although wretched Sinners such effectual Grace as by which they may be truly and really enabled to believe on Christ their Saviour obey his Gospel and be delivered from the Dominion and Guilt of Sin yea also by which they may actually believe obey and be delivered unless by a new Contumacy and Rebellion they reject the Grace of God that is offered unto them 3. The first Decree is the Decree of Predestination unto Salvation or of Election unto Glory whereby is established as well the real necessity as profitableness of our Faith and Obedience in reference to our obtaining Salvation and Glory before which dogmatically to assign or assent another Decree first or before it in order whereby some certain particular Persons by name were elected and that indeed peremptorily unto Glory and that all other were reprobated unto eternal Torments is indeed to deny the true nature of this Decree to invert its right order to take away the Merit of Christ to darken the Glory both of the Goodness and Righteousness and Wisdom of God yea utterly to subvert the true Force and Efficacy of the whole Sacred Ministry and so of all Religion 4. The other Decree is the Decree of Vocation unto Faith or of Election unto Grace whereby is established the necessity together with the profit or advantage of Divine Grace or of means necessary for us unto our yeilding Faith and Obedience unto Jesus Christ on our part according to the Will of God revealed in his Gospel But because we ought to be first certain of or clear in that Will of God that he will have to be performed by us before we be certain of the Grace that is necessary for our performance of the said Will and before we be certain of the Glory that is promised to and undoubtedly hereafter to be conferred upon those that do the Will of God hence is it that we shall treat of them all henceforth in the same order wherein they have been propounded or laid down CHAP. X. Of the Precepts or Commandments of Jesus Christ in general and of Faith and Repentance or Conversion unto God 1. THe Will of God which he would have performed or done by us that we might obtain eternal Salvation by Christ is fully contained in the Precepts or Commands of Jesus Christ all which although they be many and divers yet may be comprehended under
what we mere purely suffer from God and what things are produced in us by God's irresistible Omnipotency without us those fall not under any Precept properly so called nor can they of right come under the name of Obedience and therefore cannot any ways justly be rewarded or recompensed or judged worthy of any Praise or Commendation 4. And that this assent may commodiously be drawn from us there are two things chiefly necessary 1. Such Arguments or Reasons on God's part unto which nothing can probably or with any shew of reason be opposed why those things should not be credible or deserve our belâ—ef which are proposed to us 2. A pious docility or teachableness or honesty of Mind in him of whom this belief is required For all Men have not Faith And he that will do the Will of God he shall know or understand whether the Doctrine of Christ be from God or no. But he that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh he to the Light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doth the Truth he cometh to the Light that his deeds may be made manifest for that they are wrought in God Also he that is of God heareth Godâ—s words therefore ye being wicked hear not because ye are not of God Also ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep 5. Such a fiducial assent therefore or this obediential trust or relyance is at length that true and living Faith which necessarily draws along with it a keeping of the Commandments of Jesus Christ or good works For he that truly believes and is certainly perswaded that Jesus Christ is ordained oâ— God to be an Author of Salvation to all that obey him and that live piously and holily and to them or such only and that it is impossible that Men should any other way attain to eternal Salvation or escape eternal Death but in or by way of true Obedience or good Works he doubtless being filled with good Hope will both willingly and chearfully engage or enter into this way and by true Repentance or a change of his Mind Will and all his Actions for the better earnestly make towards eternal Glory especially if he shall have rightly and duely considered with himself both what eternal Salvation and eternal Death are and mean 6. Howbeit because those who are newly converted to the Faith do for the most part usually labour under some Custom of sinning from hence it comes to pass most usually that this Assent though deliberate and strong doth not immediately altogether excuse or shake off that sinful Habit especially having now been deeply rooted by long custom but gets greater strength by steps and degres viz. for the shaking off of the same From whence this Faith is usually distinguished into certain degrees according to which furthermore there arise three Classes Ranks or Orders even of those that believe and repent or are regenerate that is of those who by Faith do good Works The first order or classis is of Incipients or Beginners which indeed truly assent unto the Gospel but by reason of an inveterate custom of sin some strong grown Habit thereof do with great labour trouble and strugling of the flesh ever and a non still breaking out and kicking against the Spirit or their Mind enlightned by the Spirit of God through or by the Gospel come and subdue the assaults and moâ—ions of the same 2. The second is of Proficients that is of such as have made some progress who by the help or benefit of Faith having now for some time used themselves to some more severe and orderly or correct way and course of Life and having exercised themselves somewhat more in the study and exeâ—cise of Piety do more easily and with less resistance refrain themselves from a custome of sinning albeit sometimes they still feel no light struglings thereof with in themselves 3. The third is of the Adult that is of those that are full grown or of those who are in some respects perfect that is of thâ—se who having been now already 〈◊〉 in Piety do by the help of the◠〈…〉 with Pleasure Joy and a certain delight exercise and addict themselves to Holiness and love Righteousness and Truth with all their Hearts with all their Soul and with all their strength So that the Scripture doth chiefly affirm of them that they sin not yea that they cannot sin c. Not that they never can commit or never really or actually do commit no not so much as through ignorance or some suddain passion or other like infirmity especially under some great temptation any offence or miscarriage no not the least for there is no Man upon Earth that sinneth not but that they have now altogether put off all vicious habits and do abstain from a custome or course of sinning and therefore if by chance they fall into any sin which yet falls out very seldom so long indeed as they are and remain truly regenerate it happens only through errour or mistake or through some surprizal or some over clouding and darkening of their Minds Of all therefore and every of those we judg that they are truly born again through the Grace and Spirit of God or that they are such as truly believe and repent So that they do most diligently do their endeavour to be freed from the said vicious custome of sinning wholly and altogether and continually study more and more to amend those infirmities unto which for the most part all according to the diverse or different respect of their age temperature places of abode state condition and of other circumstances are more or less obnoxious or lyable to Both which indeed we do religiously believe are through the Grace of God possible nay and withall necessary 7. But although such as have once gotten the very habit of Faith and Holiness can very hardly relapse or return unto their former profaneness and dissoluteness of Life yet we believe that it is altogether possible yea and that it doth not seldom come to pass that they do by degrees relapse thereunto and at last wholly fall from their first Faith and Love and having forsaken the way of Righteousness return unto their worldly pollutions which they had quite or really once left like Swine unto their Wallowing in the Mire and Dogs unto their Vomit are again entangled with those lusts of the Flesh which they had formerly truly escaped and so fall totally and at length also sinally unless through the Grace of God they timously and seriously repent And yet in the mean time we do not absolutely deny but that it is possible that they who have once truly believed when they do relapse unto their former profaneness of life may by the benefit and help of the Grace of God be renewned again and repent or become good Men although we
of God pertaining to the life to cone or of the raising again of the dead and eternal Life 1. THe acts of God pertaining to the life to come are the raising again from death or instead thereof a sudden change of our mortal nature and Glorification or the bestowing of Heavenly Glory and Life eternal according to those two last Articles of the Apostles Creed I believe the Resurrection of the Flesh and the Life everlasting 2. This raising will be at the second and glorious coming of Jesus Christ unto the general Judgment to wit when he shall raise unto life again all the dead both the just and unjust and judg both them and those that shall then remain alive at the Judgment-seat of his Father and assign or award unto them all just rewards or condign punishments according to the quality and quantity of their Works which they have done in the body whether good or evil For then he shall raise up his faithful ones and Saints which were indeed dead out of the dust of the Earth unto a Life eternal and blessed and shall endow them alone with a glorious and incorruptible body And those which he shall then find alive and surviving of them those he shall on a sudden and as it were in a moment change and make them immortally blessed with the other 3. This-like raising and in part a change shall be immediately succeeded by that blessed Glorification which is the complement of all the other acts whereby the Lord Jesus after he shall have descended from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God to the now said Judgment shall take them being raised by the Angels of his power with himself into the Air and most powerfully deliver or translate them from the universal corruption or total destruction of the whole World being then to be altogether on a flame into the everlasting and glorious mansions of the Heavens which in the Scriptures are called new Heavens a new Earth and the World to come and shall give them to enjoy unspeakable joy with himself and with God and with his holy Angels for ever and for ever CHAP. XX. Of the Divine threatnings and punishments of the Wicked pertaining both unto this Life and unto the Life to come to wit of Reprobation Hardening Blinding and of eternal Death and Damnation 1. TOwards the Wicked and Unbelievers or those who refractorily or obstinately refuse to believe and repent and who although they have been long and much called upon admonished reproved chastened c. do yet nevertheless persist to disobey the Gospel God is minded to exercise acts altogether contrary to the former and they no less severe than just and holy the which he hath threatned them with in his Word and do pertain partly to this life partly to that which is to come 2. The acts pertaining unto this Life are Reprobation or Desertion Also Blinding and Hardening and other temporal punishments of that or the like sort of which the first is the just casting of wicked men off to wit when God will no longer have or account them for his people and therefore doth righteously withdraw from them the Grace of his holy Spirit which hath been so often despised by them yea sometimes also he thinks not meet to bestow upon them those outward means which he is wont ordinarily to make use of for the Salvation of his people to wit by leaving them in their own darkness and sins without true Pastours Godly Teachers or Monitors and diligent Searchers out of Truth 3. Next followeth Blinding and Hardening to wit when these sinners being now left destitute of the light of Heavenly Truth are by Gods permission and just judgment deeply involved in gross ignorance and errours and in wonderful and divers manners seduced and when they are given up to their own unclean lusts or left to their vile or filthy affections or are on every side exposed to the temptations delusions and snares of Satan also when their wicked counsels endeavours and practises are suffered for a time to go on with some happy success and themselves for a while to sin scot-free lastly when manifold occasions of erring and sinning are presented to them and their Consciences in the mean while are not pricked or troubled with any sad remorse or serious sorrow for their sins committed c. All which things indeed and very many other more of like sort profane men are wont to turn to their own destruction From whence there groweth or encreaseth more and more a strange blindness of mind an obstinate hardness of heart and filthy greediness of sinning and finally a thick and gross darkness that is a certain brutish ignorance of God and secure profaneness of life doth wholly seize and possess them And sometimes indeed those acts are seconded and followed even with some exemplary also and publick punishment of these men in this life and such as is visible or obvious to the sight of all 4. The penal acts that pertain to the life to come are most usually contained under the words of the Wrath and Vengeance of God also of Judgment and Condemnation whereby God will not only by judgment irrevocably pass or give away from the wicked and unbelievers immortal glory but will also inflict upon them the torments of Hell and eternal punishments Which indeed shall be done openly at the last day when he shall throw them together with the Devil and his Angels into everlasting fire that there they may be punished with everlasting destruction being banished from the presence of God and his glorious power 5. And these things being thus finished there shall immediately arise that new World wherein dwelleth Righteousness and where Jesus Christ our Lord and King having wholly or utterly destroyed all his Enemies shall deliver up or restore the Kingdom to God and his Father that from thenceforward God may be all in all CHAP. XXI Of the Ministry of the Word of God and of the Orders of Ministers 1. ANd this indeed is the Will of God which is necessary for us to know for that it consists of such like most holy Precepts and so excellent Promises the which that it might become known unto miserable morrals and be continually set before their eyes it pleased that great Pitier or Compassioner of mankind that it should not only be tacitly insinuated or conveyed into them by private reading of the sacred Scripture but also that it should by open and publick preaching be every where proclaimed and daily and openly as it were implanted and inculcated or beaten in to them 2. And that it might be rightly or or duly performed there was first of all necessary a solemn and immediate both election or separation
praise his benefits and favours 2. And these like Rites if we must speak properly and accurately in the New Testament are only two to wit Baptism and the Sacred Supper Of which the one by a certain analogie i. e. proportion or likeness doth not unaptly answer unto the sign of Circumcision which under the Old Testament was a sign of sacred initation i. e. entrance or of a certain ingrassing into the people of God and the other to the eating of the Paschal Lamb which was a Rite of solemn Eucharistia i. e. blessing or publick Thanksgiving for to praise and celebrate God openly for the typical deliverance of the people of Israel that is for their deliverance out of Egypt Of Baptism 3. Baptism is the first publick and sacred Rite of the New Testament whereby all in Covenant without any difference of age or sex are by the solemn washing of water ingraffed into the Church and initiated into the worship of God or are therefore dipped into or washed with Water in or into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost that hereby as by a Symbolical sign and sacred signal they may be confirmed concerning the gracious Will of God towards them that as the filth of their bodies is washed away by Water so they themselves by the Blood and Spirit of Christ if they do not through their own default make void this gracious Covenant unto themselves are to be cleansed inwardly or most fully delivered from the guilt of all their sins and finally to be endowed with the glorious Immortality and eternal Happiness of the Sons of God and withal that they also on the other side may be obliged and to that end openly declare that they constantly expect all Salvation from God alone and the Lord Jesus Christ their only Mediatour Priest and King that they trust in him with their Heart and casting away the filth and defilements of all their sins are willing by the vertue or power of his Holy Spirit to obey him throughout the course of their whole Life Of the Sacred Supper of the Lord. 4. The other Sacred Rite of the New Testament is the Sacred Supper instituted by Jesus the night wherein he was betrayed to celebrate an encharistical and solemn commemoration of his Death wherein Believers after they have examined and truly proved themselves to be in the true Faith do eat the sacred Bread publickly broken in the Congregation and also drink the Wine publickly poured forth and that to declare or hold forth with solemn thanksgiving the Lord 's bloody and cruel Death undergone for us whereby as our bodies are sustained by meat and drink or by Bread and Wine so our hearts are nourished and fed unto the hope of eternal life and again likewise publickly to testify and declare before God and the Church their quickening and spiritual Communion with the body of Christ crucified and his blood shed or with Jesus Christ himself who was crucified and Died for us and consequently with all the benefits that were procured and purchased by his Death and with all also their mutual love one amongst another 5. Certainly from those things which every where in Scripture are read concerning this whole sacred Rite and concerning the things signified thereby and which the very Articles of Faith concerning Christ's true humane body and his true ascension into Heaven and exaltation c. do suggest unto us and lastly right reason it self dictates it easily appears 1. That here is no substantial change made of the Signs into the things signified to wit of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord. 2. And that there is not any local conjunction or corporeal including or any physical or natural tying or uniting of both together 3. So far is one of the signs to wit the use of the Chalice or sacred Cup from being justly or worthily to be taken away from Believers under this pretence And 4. that true and quickning or expiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ now long since once offered by Christ himself our only and alone high Priest for our sins from being to be believed to be reallly repeated and daily performed or done over again a new herein And 5. in the last place so far are the Symbols or the Signs themselves from being religiously to be adored and worshipped by us and for this very end from being either to be shewed publickly in Churches or from being inclosed in coffers or pixes or from being carryed about in processions c. Of other Sacred Rites but yet such as are indifferent 6. Besides these there are also other Sacred Rites generally so called which although they be not to be observed by Believers by vertue of any express command of Christ perpetually and necessarily yet for good orders sake and for outward discipline's sake have been now long since commonly observed by the Apostles and their Disciples and may without impiety at least and superstition be also even freely observed now and indeed profitably enough for example's sake imposition or laying on of hands and that upon divers accounts to wit in ordaining of Ministers in examining and confirming of new Converts or of those that are Catechized in the publick receiving again or reconciling of Penitents who had formerly grevously fallen also the solemn joyning of persons in Marriage and the blessing of the same in the Assembly of the Church c. So that there be no Superstition in the case or opinion of divine Worship also of absolute necessity c. and on the contrary there be only a regard had of order and decency and publick edification and finally a true liberty in such things and Christian Charity and consequently also a true moderation and mutual toleration between dissenters be always preserv'd inviolate and safe and the peace of the Church for the sake of such outward Rites and of themselves indifferent be not rashly disturbed 7. Hereunto also may be referred those Ecclesiastical or Liturgical observations being indeed indifferent in themselves but yet which notwithstanding the outward and publick Assemblies of Believers can hardly want or be without about the publick order and manner in Churches of reading praying singing prophesying gathering the alms also kneeling in time of Prayer c. also about publick Fasts and solemn days of Supplication or Prayers and other outward things of that kind merely of themselves ritual but yet pious exercises not indeed prescribed of God in particular much less meritorious of the Grace of God or of eternal Life but yet profitably serving for the outward good order or decent policie i. e. Government of the Church yea also in some respect either stirring up or cherishing pious devotion in our minds and therefore not lightly to be contemned of themselves nor where they are publickly received rashly and with the