Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	eat_v	flesh_n	meat_n	7,845	5	9.0841	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30895	An apology for the true Christian divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached by the people, called, in scorn, Quakers being a full explanation and vindication of their principles and doctrines, by many arguments, deduced from Scripture and right reason, and the testimony of famous authors, both ancient and modern, with a full answer to the strongest objections usually made against them, presented to the King / written and published in Latine, for the information of strangers, by Robert Barclay ; and now put into our own language, for the benefit of his country-men.; Theologiae verè Christianae apologia. English	Barclay, Robert, 1648-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing B721; ESTC R1740	415,337	436

participation of the Body Flesh and Blood of Christ than any of them all For Christ in this Chapter perceiving that the Jews did follow him for Love of the Loaves desires them ver 27. to labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth for ever but forasmuch as they being carnal in their apprehensions and not understanding the Spiritual Language and Doctrine of Christ did judg the Manna which Moses gave their Fathers to be the most excellent Bread as coming from Heaven Christ to rectifie that mistake and better inform them affirmeth first that is not Moses but his Father that giveth the true Bread from Heaven ver 32 48. Secondly This Bread he calls himself ver 35. I am the Bread of Life and ver 51. I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven Thirdly he declares that this Bread is his Flesh ver 51. This Bread that I will give is my Flesh And ver 55. For my Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink indeed Fourthly the necessity of partaking thereof ver 53. Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you And lastly ver 33. the blessed fruits and necessary effects of this communion of the Body and Blood of Christ This Bread giveth life to the world ver 50. He that eateth thereof dieth not ver 58. he that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever ver 51. who so eateth this Flesh and drinketh this Blood shall live for ever ver 54. and he dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him ver 56. and shall live by Christ ver 57. From this large description of the origin nature and effects of this Body Flesh and Blood of Christ it is apparent that it is Spiritual and to be understood of a Spiritual Body and not of that Body or Temple of Jesus Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary and in which he walked lived and suffered in the land of Judea because that it is sa●d both that it came down from Heaven yea that it is he that came down from Heaven Now all Christians at present generally acknowledg that the outward Body of Christ came not down from Heaven neither was it that part of Christ which came down from Heaven And to put the matter out of doubt when the carnal Jews would have been so understanding it he tells them plainly ver 63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth but the Flesh profiteth nothing This is also founded upon most sound and solid reason because that it is the Soul not the Body that is to be nourished by this Flesh and Blood Now outward Flesh cannot nourish nor feed the Soul there is no proportion nor analogy betwixt them neither is the communion of the Saints with God by a conjunction and mutual participation of Flesh but of the Spirit He that is joyned to the Lord is One Spirit not by Flesh I mean outward Flesh even such as was that wherein Christ lived and walked when upon Earth and not Flesh when transported by a metaphor to be understood Spiritually can only partake of Flesh as Spirit of Spirit as the Body cannot feed upon Spirit neither can the Spirit feed upon Flesh and that the Flesh here spoken of is spiritually understood appears further in that that which feedeth upon it shall never die but the Bodies of all men once die yea it behoved the Body of Christ himself to die that this Body and Spiritual Flesh and Blood of Christ is to be understood of that Divine and Heavenly Seed before spoken of by us appears both by the nature and fruits of it First it 's said it is that which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world now this answers to that Light and Seed which is testified of Joh. 1. to be the Light of the World and the Life of Men. For that Spiritual Light and Seed as it receives place in mens hearts and room to spring up there is as Bread to the hungry and fainting Soul that is as it were buried and dead in the lusts of the World which receives life again and revives as it tasteth and partaketh of this heavenly bread and they that partake of it are said to come to Christ neither can any have it but by coming to him and believing in the appearance of his Light in their hearts by receiving which and believing in it the participation of this body and bread is known And that Christ understands the same thing here by his Body Flesh and Blood which is understood John 1. by the Light inlightening every man and the Life c. appears for the Light and Life spoken of John 1. is said to be Christ he is the true Light and the Bread and Flesh c. spoken of in this 6 of John is called Christ I am the Bread of Life saith he Again they that received that Light and Life John 1.12 obtained power to become the Sons of God by believing in his Name so also here John 6.35 He that cometh unto this bread of Life shall not hunger and he that believes in him who is this bread shall never thirst So then as there was the outward visible Body and Temple of Jesus Christ which took its origen from the Virgin Mary so there is also the Spiritual Body of Christ by and through which he that was the Word in the beginning with God and was and is GOD did reveal himself to the Sons of Men in all ages and whereby men in all ages come to be made partakers of Eternal Life and to have communion and fellowship with God and Christ. Of which body of Christ and flesh and blood if both Adam and Seth and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Moses and David and all the Prophets and Holy men of God had not eaten they had not had life in them nor could their inward man have nourished Now as the outward Body and Temple was called Christ so was also his Spiritual Body no less properly and that long before that outward Body was in being Hence the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 10.3 4. that the Fathers did all eat the same Spiritual meat and did all drink the same Spiritual drink for they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. This cannot be understood otherwise than of this Spiritual body of Christ which Spiritual body of Christ though it was the saving food of the Righteous both before the Law and under the Law yet under the Law it was vailed and shaddowed and covered under divers types ceremonies and observations yea and not so but it was vailed and hid in some respect under the outward Temple and Body of Christ or during the continuance of it so that the Jews could not understand Christ's Preaching about it while on Earth And not the Jews only but many of his Disciples judged it an hard saying murmured at it and many from that

time went back from him and walked no more with him I doubt not but that there are many also at this day professing to be the Disciples of Christ that do as little understand this matter as those did and are as apt to be offended and stumble at it while they are gazing and following after the outward Body and look not to that by which the Saints are daily fed and nourished For as Jesus Christ in obedience to the will of the Father did by the eternal Spirit offer up that body for a propitiation for the remission of sins and finished his testimony upon earth thereby in a most perfect example of patience resignation and holyness that all might be made partakers of the feuit of that Sacaifice So hath he likewise poured forth into the hearts of all men a measure of that Divine Light and Seed wherewith he is cloathed that thereby reaching unto the Consciences of all he may raise them up out of death and darkness by his Life and Light and thereby may be made partakers of his body and therethrough come to have fellowship with the Father and with the Son § III. If it be asked how Quest. and after what manner man comes to partake of it and to be sed by it I answer in the plain and express words of Christ I am the Bread of Life saith he he that cometh to me shall never hunger Answ. he that believeth in me shall never thirst and again for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed So whosoever thou art that askest this question or readest these lines whether thou accountest thy self a Believer or really feelest by a certain and sad experience that thou art yet in the unbelief and findest that the outward body and flesh of Christ is so far from thee that thou canst not reach it nor feed upon it yea though thou hast often swallowed down and taken in that which the Papists have perswaded thee to be the real Flesh and Blood of Christ and hast believed it to be so though all thy senses told thee the contrary or being a Luthenan hast taken that bread in and with and under which the Lutherans have assured thee that the flesh and blood of Christ is or being a Calvinist hast partaken of that which the Calvinists say though a figure only of the Body gives them that take it a real Participation of the Body Flesh and Blood of Christ though they neither know how nor what way I say if for all this thou findest thy Soul yet barren yea hungry and ready to starve for want of something thou longest for Know that that Light that discovers thy Iniquity to thee that shews thee thy barrenness thy nakedness thy emptyness is that body that thou must partake of and feed upon but that till by forsaking iniquity thou turnest to it comest unto it receivest it though thou mayst hunger after it thou canst not be satisfied with it for it hath no communion with darkness nor canst thou drink of the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of devils and be partaker of the Lord's Table and the Table of Devils 1 Cor. 10.21 But as thou sufferest that small Seed of Righteousness to arise in thee and to be formed into a birth that new substantial birth that 's brought forth in the Soul naturally feeds upon and is nourished by this spiritual body yea at this outward birthlives not but as it sucks in breath by the outward elementary air so this new birth lives not in the Soul but as it draws in and breaths by that spiritual air or vehicle and as the outward birth cannot subsist without some outward body to feed upon some outward flesh and some outward drink so neither can this inward birth without it be fed by this inward flesh and blood of Christ which answers to it after the same manner by way of analogy And this is most agreeable to the Doctrine of Christ concerning this matter for as without outward food the natural body hath not life so also saith Christ Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you And as the outward body eating outward food lives thereby so Christ saith that he that eateth him shall live by him So it is this inward participation of this inward man of this inward and Spiritual body by which man is united to God and has fellowship and communion with him He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood saith Christ dwelleth in me and I in him This cannot be understood of outward eating of outward Bread and as by this the Soul must have fellowship with God so also in so far as all the Saints are partakers of this one body and one blood they come also to have a joynt Communion Hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.17 in this respect saith that they being many are one bread and one body and to the wise among the Corinthians he saith the bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ. This is the True and Spiritual Supper of the Lord which men come to partake of by hearing the voice of Christ and opening the door of their hearts and so letting him in in the manner abovesaid according to the plain words of the Scripture Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him and will Sup with him and he with me So that the Supper of the Lord and the Supping with the Lord and partaking of his Flesh and Blood is no ways limited to the Ceremony of breaking Bread and drinking Wine at particular times but is truly and really enjoyed as often as the Soul retires into the Light of the Lord and feels and partakes of that Heavenly Life by which the inward Man is nourished which may be and is often witnessed by the Faithful at all times though more particularly when they are Assembled together to wait upon the Lord. § IV. But what confusion the professors of Christianity have run into concerning this matter is more than obvious who as in most other things they have done for want of a true Spiritual understanding have sought to tie this Supper of the Lord to that ceremony used by Christ before his Death of breaking Bread and drinking Wine with his Disciples And though they for most part agree in this general yet how do they contend and debate one against another How strangely are they pinched pained and straitned to make this Spiritual mystery agree to that Ceremony And what monstruous and wild opinions and conceivings have they invented to inclose or affix the Body of Christ to their Bread and Wine From which opinion not only the greatest and fiercest and most hurtful contests both among the Professors of Christianity in general and among Protestants in particular have arisen but also such absurdities irrational and blasphemous

Pelagians for saying that Infants dying unbaptized may be saved And the Manichees were condemned for denying that Grace is universally given by Baptism and Julian the Pelagian by Augustin for denying exorcism and insufflation in the use of Baptism all which things Protestants deny also So that Protestants do but foolishly to upbraid us as if we could not shew any among the Antients that denyed Water-baptism seeing they cannot shew any whom they acknowledg not to have been heretical in several things to have used it nor yet who using it did not use also the sign of the Cross and other things with it which they deny There were some nevertheless in the darkest times of Popery who testified against Water-baptism For one Alanus pag. 103 104 107. speaks of some in his time that were burnt for the denying of it for they said that Baptism had no efficacy either in Children or adult Persons and therefore men were not obliged to take Baptism Particularly Ten Canonicks so called were burnt for that crime by the order of King Robert of France And P. Pithaeus tells in his Fragments of the History of Guienne which is also confirmed by one Johannes Floracensis a Monk who was famous at that time in his Epistle to Oliva Abbot of the Ausonian Church I will saith he give you to understand concerning the Heresie that was in the City of Orleans on Childe●-mass-day foy it was true if ye have heard any thing that King Robert caused to be burnt alive nigh fourteen of that City of the chief of their Clergy and the more noble of their Laicks who were hateful to God and abominable to Heaven and Earth for they did stiffly deny the Grace of Holy Baptism and also the Consecration of our Lord's Body and Blood The time of this deed is noted in these words by Papir Masson in his Annals of France lib. 3. in Hugh and Robert actum Aureliae publice anno incarnationis Domini 1022 regni Roberti Regis 28. indictione 5. quando Stephanus haeresiarcha complices ejus damnati sunt exusti Aureliae Now for their calling them Hereticks and Maniches we have nothing but the testimony of their accusers which will no more invalidate their testimony for this Truth against the use of Water-baptism or give more ground to charge us as being one with Maniches than because some called by them Maniches do agree with Protestants in some things that therefore Protestants are Maniches or Hereticks which Protestants can no waies shun For the question is whether in what they did they walked according to the Truth testified of by the Spirit in the Holy Scripture so that the controversie is brought back again to the Scriptures according to which I suppose I have formerly discussed it As for the latter part of the Thesis denying the use of Infant Baptism it necessarily follows from what is above said for if Water-baptism be ceased then surely Baptizing of Infants is not warrantable But those that take upon them to oppose us in this matter will have more to do as to this latter part for after they have done what they can to prove Water-baptism it remains for them to prove that Infants ought to be baptized For he that proves Water-baptism ceased proves that Infant Baptism is vain But he that should prove that Water-baptism continues has not thence proved that Infant Baptism is necessary That needs something further and therefore it was a pitiful subterfuge of Nic. Arnoldus against this to say that the denying of Infant-baptism belonged to the gangrene of the Anabaptists without adding any further probation The Thirteenth Proposition Concerning the Communion or participation of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is inward and Spiritual which is the participation of his Flesh and Blood by which the inward man is daily nourished in the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells of which things the breaking of Bread by Christ with his Disciples was a figure which they even used in the Church for a time who had received the Substance for the sake of the weak even as abstaining from things strangled and from Blood the washing of one anothers Feet and the anointing of the Sick with Oyl all which are commanded with no less authority and solemnity than the former yet seeing they are but the shaddows of better things they cease in such as have obtained the Substance § I. THe Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is a mystery hid from all natural men in their first faln and degenerate state which they cannot understand reach to nor comprehend as they there abide neither as they there are can they be partakers of it nor yet are they able to discern the Lord's Body And forasmuch as the Christian World so called for the most part hath been still labouring working conceiving and imagining in their own natural and unrenewed understandings about the things of God and Religion therefore hath this mystery much been hid and sealed up from them while they have been contending quarrelling and fighting one with another about the meer shaddow outside and form but strangers to the Substance Life and Vertue § II. The Body then of Christ which believers partake of is Spiritual and not Carnal and his Blood which they drink of is pure and heavenly and not humane or elementary as Augustin also affirms of the Body of Christ which is eaten in his Tractat. Psal. 98. Except a man eat my Flesh he hath not in him Life Eternal and he saith the words which I spake unto you are Spirit and Life understand spiritually what I have spoken Ye shall not eat of this Body which ye see and drink this Blood which they shall spill that crucifie me I am the living Bread who have descended from Heaven he calls himself the Bread who descended from Heaven exhorting that we might believe in him c. If it be asked then what that Body what that Flesh and Blood is I answer it is that Heavenly Seed that Divine Spiritual Coelestial Substance Answ. of which we spake before in the fifth and sixth Propositions This is that vehiculum Dei or Spiritual Body of Christ whereby and wherethrough he communicateth Life to men and Salvation to as many as believe in him and receive him and whereby also man comes to have fellowship and communion with God This is proved from the 6 of John from verse 32 to the end where Christ speaks more at large of this matter than in any other place and indeed this Evangelist and beloved Disciple who lay in the bosom of our Lord gives us a more full account of the Spiritual sayings and Doctrine of Christ and it 's observable that though he speaks nothing of the ceremony used by Christ of breaking Bread with his Disciples neither in his Evangelical account of Christ's life and sufferings nor in his Epistles yet he is more large in this account of the

carnal ordinances no wonder if by their carnal apprehensions they run into heaps and confusion But because it hath been generally supposed that the communion of the body and blood of Christ had some special relation to the ceremony of breaking bread I first refute that opinion and then proceed to consider the nature and use of that ceremony and whether it be now necessary to continue answering the reasons and objections of such as plead its continuance as a necessary and standing ordinance of Jesus Christ. § V. First it must be understood that I speak of a necessary and peculiar relation otherwise than in a general respect for forasmuch as our communion with Christ is and ought to be our greatest and chiefest work we ought to do all other things with a respect to God and our fellowship with him but a special and necessary respect or relation is such as where the two things are so tied and united together either of their own nature or by the command of God that the one cannot be enjoyed or at lest is not except very extraordinarily without the other Thus Salvation hath a necessary respect to Holyness because without Holyness no man shall see God And the eating of the flesh and blood of Christ hath a necessary respect to our having life because if we eat not his flesh and drink not his blood we cannot have life our feeling of God's presence hath a necessary respect to our being found meeting in his name by Divine Precept because he has promised where two or three are met together in his Name he will be in the midst of them in like manner our receiving benefits and blessings from God has a necessary respect to our Praying because if we ask he hath promised we shall receive Now the communion or participation of the flesh and blood of Christ hath no such necessary relation to the breaking of bread and drinking of Wine For if it had any such necessary relation it would either be from the Nature of the thing or from some Divine Precept But we shall shew it is from neither Therefore c. First it is not from the nature of it because to partake of the flesh and blood of Christ is a Spiritual exercise and all confess that it is by the Soul and Spirit that we become real partakers of it as it is the Soul and not the Body that is nourished by it but to eat Bread and drink Wine is a natural act which in it self adds nothing to the Soul neither has any thing that is Spiritual in it because the most carnal man that is can as fully as perfectly and as wholly eat Bread and drink Wine as the most Spiritual Secondly their relation is not by nature else they would infer one another but all acknowledg that many eat of the bread and drink of the wine even that which they say is consecrate and transubstantiate into the very body of Christ who notwithstanding have not life eternal have not Christ dwelling them nor do live by him as all do who truly partake of the flesh and blood of Christ without the use of this ceremony as all the Patriarchs and Prophets did before this ordinance as they account it was instituted neither was there any thing under the Law that had any direct or necessary relation hereunto though to partake of the flesh and blood of Christ in all ages was indispensibly necessary to Salvation For as for the Paschal Lamb the whole end of it is signified particularly Exod. 13.8 9. to wit that the Jews might thereby be kept in remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt Secondly it has no relation by Divine Precept for if it had it would be mentioned in that which our Adversaries account the institution of it or else in the practise of it by the Saints recorded in Scripture but so it is not For as to the institution or rather narration of Christ's practice in this matter we have it recorded by the Evangelist Matthew Mark and Luke In the first two there is only an account of the matter of fact to wit that Christ brake bread and gave it his Disciples to eat saying this is my Body and blessing the cup he gave it them to drink saying this is my blood but nothing of any desire to them to do it In the last after the bread but before the blessing or giving them the wine he bids them do it in remembrance of him what we are to think of this practice of Christ shall be spoken ofhereafter But what necessary relation hath all this to the believers partaking of the flesh and blood of Christ The end of this for which they were to do it if at all is to remember Christ which the Apostle yet more particularly expresses 1 Cor. 11.26 to shew forth the Lord's death But to remember the Lord or declare his death which are the special and particular ends annexed to the use of this ceremony is not at all to partake of the flesh and blood of Christ neither have they any more necessary relation to it than any other two different Spiritual duties For though they that partake of the flesh and blood of Christ cannot but remember him yet the Lord and his death may be remembred as none can deny where his flesh and blood is not truly partaken of So that since the very particular and express end of this ceremony may be witnessed to wit the remembrance of the Lord's Death and yet the flesh and blood of Christ not partaken of it cannot have had any necessary relation to it else the partaking thereof would have been the end of it and could not have been attained without this participation But on the contrary we may well infer hence that since the positive end of this ceremony is not the partaking of the flesh and blood of Christ and that whoever partakes of the flesh and blood of Christ cannot but remember him that therefore such need not this ceremony to put them in remembrance of him But if it be said that Jesus Christ calls the bread here his body and the wine his blood Obj. therefore he seems to have had a special relation to his Disciples partaking of his flesh and blood in the use of this thing I answer his calling the bread his body and the wine his blood Answ. would yet infer no such thing though it is not denyed but that Jesus Christ in all things he did yea and from the use of all natural things took occasion to raise the minds of his Disciples and hearers to Spirituals Hence from the Woman of Samaria her drawing water he took occasion to tell her of that living Water which whoso drinketh of shall never thirst which indeed is all one with his blood here spoken of Yet it will not follow that that Well or Water had any necessary relation to the Living Water or the Living Water to it c. So Christ takes occasion from

though we should extend that of the Revelation beyond the particular Prophecy of that book it cannot be understood but of a new Gospel or new Doctrines or of restraining man's Spirit that he mix not his humane words with the Divine and not of a new revelation of the old as we have said before The Fourth Proposition Concerning the Condition of Man in the fall All Adam's posterity or mankind both Jews and Gentiles as to the first Adam or earthly man is faln degenerated and dead deprived of the sensation or feeling of this inward Testimony or Seed of God and is subject unto the Power Nature and Seed of the Serpent which he soweth in mens hearts while they abide in this natural and corrupted estate from whence it comes that not only their words and deeds but all their imaginations are evil perpetually in the sight of God as proceeding from this depraved and wicked Seed Man therefore as he is in this state can know nothing aright yea his Thoughts and Coneptions concerning God and things Spiritual until he be disjoyned from this evil Seed and united to the Divine Light are unprofitable both to himself and others Hence are rejected the Socinian and Pelagian errors in exalting a Natural Light as also the Papists and most of Protestants who affirm that man without the true Grace of God may be a true Minister of the Gospel Nevertheless this Seed is not imputed to Infants until by Transgression they actually joyn themselves therewith for they are by Nature the Children of Wrath. Who walk according to the Power of the Prince of the Air and the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of disobedience having their conversation in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind Eph. 2. § I. HItherto we have discoursed how the True knowledg of God is attained and preserved also of what use and service the Holy Scripture is to the Saints We come now to examine the state and condition of Man as he stands in the fall what his capacity and power is and how far he is able as of himself to advance in relation to the things of God Of this we touch'd a little in the beginning of the second Proposition but the full right and through understanding of it is of great use and service because from the ignorance and altercations that have been about it there have arisen great and dangerous errors both on the one hand and the other While some do so far exalt the light of Nature or the faculty of the natural man as capable of himself by virtue of the inward will faculty light and power that pertains to his Nature to follow that which is good and make real progress towards Heaven And of these are the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians of old and of late the Socinians and divers others among the Papists Others again will needs run into another extream to whom Augustin among the Antients first made way in his declining age through the heat of his Zeal against Pelagius not only confessing men uncapable of themselves to do good and prone to evil but that in his very Mothers-womb and before he commits any actual Transgression he is contaminate with a real guilt whereby he deserves eternal Death in which respect they are not afraid to affirm that many poor Infants are eternally damned and for ever endure the Torments of Hell Therefore the God of Truth having now again revealed his Truth that good and even Way by his own Spirit hath taught us to avoid both these extreams That then which our proposition leads us to treat of is First What the condition of man is in the Fall and how far uncapable to meddle in the things of God And Secondly that God doth not impute this evil to Infants until they actually joyn with it that so by establishing the Truth we may overturn the errors on both parts And as for that Third thing included in the proposition it self concerning these Teachers which want the Grace of God we shall refer that to the Tenth Proposition where that matter is more particularly handled § II. As to the First not to dive into the many curious Notions which many have concerning the Condition of Adam before the fall all agree in this that thereby he came to a very great loss not only in the things which related to the outward man but in regard of that true Fellowship and Communion he had with God This loss was signified to him in the Command For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2.17 This death could not be an outward death or the dissolution of the outward man for as to that he did not dye yet many Hundred Years after so that it must needs respect his Spiritual Life and Communion with God The consequence of this fall besides that which relates to the fruits of the Earth is also expressed Gen. 3.24 So he drove out the man and he placed at the East of the Garden of Eden Cherubims and a Flaming Sword which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life Now whatsoever literal signification this may have we may safely ascribe to this Paradise a mystical signification and truly account it that Spiritual Communion and Fellowship which the Saints obtain with God by Jesus Christ to whom only these Cherubims give way and unto as many as enter by him who calls himself the door So that though we do not ascribe any whit of Adam's guilt to men until they make it theirs by the like acts of Disobedience yet we cannot suppose that men who are come of Adam naturally can have any good thing in their Nature as belonging to it which he from whom they derive their Nature had not himself to communicate unto them If then we may affirm that Adam did not retain in his Nature as belonging thereunto any will or light capable to give him knowledg in Spiritual things then neither can his posterity For whatsoever real good any man doth it proceedeth not from his nature as he is a man or the Son of Adam but from the Seed of God in him as a new visitation of Life in order to bring him out of this natural condition So that though it be in him yet it is not of him and this the Lord himself witnessed Gen. 6.5 where it is said he saw that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually which words as they are very positive so are they very comprehensive Observe the emphasis of them First there is every imagination of the thoughts of his heart so that this admits of no exception of any Imagination of the thoughts of his heart Secondly is only evil continually it is neither in some part evil continually nor yet only evil at sometimes but both only evil and always and continally evil which certainly excludes any good as a proper effect of mans heart naturally For that

greatly contribute to the commendation of Christianity and to the increase of the life and vertue of Christ if all superfluous titles of honour profuseness and prodigality in meat and apparel excess of gaming sporting and playing were laid aside and forborn And whether such as lay them aside in so doing walk not more like the Disciples of Christ and his Apostles and are therein nearer their example than such as use them Whether the laying them aside would hinder any from being good Christians or if Christians might not be better without them than with them Certainly the sober and serious among all sorts will say yea Then surely such as lay them aside as reckoning them unsutable for Christians are not to be blamed but rather commended for so doing because that both in principle and practise they effectually advance that which others acknowledg were desirable but can never make effectual so long as they allow the use of them as lawful And God hath made it manifest in this age that by discovering the evil of such things and leading his Witnesses out of them and to testifie against them he hath produced effectually in many that mortification and abstraction from the love and cares of this world who daily are conversing in the world but inwardly redeemed out of it both in Wedlock and in their lawful imployments which was judged could only be obtained by such as were shut up in Cloysters and Monasteries This much in general § III. As to the first we affirm positively that it is not lawful for Christians either to give or receive these titles of honour as your Holiness your Majesty your Excellency your Eminency c. First because these titles are no part of that obedience which is due to Magistrates or Superiors neither doth the giving them add to nor diminish from that subjection we owe to them which consists in obeying their just and lawful commands not in titles and designations Secondly We find not that in the Scripture any such titles are used either under the Law or the Gospel but that in the speaking to Kings Princes or Nobles they used only a simple compellation as O King and that without any further designation save perhaps the name of the person as O King Agrippa c. Thirdly It laies a necessity upon Christians most frequently to lie because the persons obtaining these titles either by Election or Hereditarily may frequently be found to have nothing really in them deserving them or answering them as some to whom it is said Your Excellency having nothing of Excellency in them and who is called Your Grace appear to be an enemy to Grace and he who is called Your Honour is known to be base and ignoble I wonder what law of man or what patent ought to oblige me to make a lie in calling good evil and evil good I wonder what Law of man can secure me in so doing from the just Judgment of God that will make me count for every idle word and to lye is something more Surely Christians should be ashamed that such Laws manifestly crossing the Law of God should be among them If it be said We ought in Charity to suppose that they have these vertues because the King has bestowed those titles upon them or that they are descended of such as deserved them I answer Charity destroys not knowledg I am not obliged Answ. by charity either to believe or speak a lie Now it is apparent and cannot be denied by any but that those vertues are not in many of the persons expressed by the titles they bear neither will they allow to speak so to such in whom these vertues are unless they be so dignified by outward Princes So that such as are truly vertuous must not be stiled by their vertues because not priviledged by the Princes of this World and such as have them not must be so called because they have obtained a patent so to be and all this is done by those who pretend to be his followers that commanded his Disciples not to call any man Master and told them such could not believe as received honour one from another and sought not the honour which cometh from God only This is so plain to such as will indeed be Christians that it needs no consequence Fourthly as to those titles of Holiness Eminency and Excellency used among the Papists to the Pope and Cardinal c. and Grace Lordship and Worship used to the Clergy among the Protestants it is a most blasphemous usurpation For if they use Holiness and Grace because these things ought to be in a Pope or in a Bishop how come they to usurp that peculiarly to themselves Ought not Holiness and Grace to be in every Christian And so every Christian should say Your Holiness and Your Grace one to another Next how can they in reason claim any more titles than were practised and received by the Apostles and primitive Christians whose successors they pretend they are and as whole successors and no otherwise themselves I judge will confess any honour they seek is due to them Now if they neither sought received nor admitted such honour nor titles how came these by them If they say they did let them prove it if they can we find no such thing in the Scripture The Christians speak to the Apostles without any such denominations neither saying If it please your Grace Your Holiness Your Lordship nor your Worship they are neither called My Lord Peter nor My Lord Paul nor yet Master Peter nor Master Paul nor Doctor Peter nor Doctor Paul but singly Peter and Paul and that not only in the Scripture but for some hundreds of years after So that this appears to be a manifest fruit of the Apostasie for if these titles arise either from the office or worth of the persons it will not be denied but the Apostles deserved them better than any now that call for them But the case is plain the Apostles had the Holiness the Excellency the Grace and because they were Holy Excellent and Gracious they neither used nor admitted of such titles but these having neither Holiness Excellency nor Grace will needs be so called to satisfie their ambitious and ostentive minds which is a manifest token of their Hypocrisie Fifthly as to that title of Majesty usually ascribed to Princes we do not find it given to any such in the Holy Scripture But that it is specially and peculiarly ascribed unto God as 1 Chron. 29.11 Job 37.22 Psal. 21.5.29.4.43.3.63.1.96.6 Isa. 2.10.24.14.26.10 Heb. 1.3 2 Pet. 1.16 and many more places Hence saith Jude ver 25. To the only Wise God our Saviour be Glory and Majesty c. not to men We find in Scripture the proud King Nebuchadnezzar assuming this title to himself Dan. 4.30 who at that time received a sufficient reproof by a sudden Judgment which came upon him Therefore in all the compellations used to Princes in the Old Testament is not to be