in his Second Appearing according to that of our Saviour Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give 〈◊〉 rest And there remaineth yet a Rest for the People of God and so Christ is called too the Rest wherewith the weary should be made to Rest And by the Apostle Christ is said to be the substance or body of the Sabbaths Col. 2.16 But more particularly The seventh-Seventh-days Sabbath was appointed to be a Sign between the Lord and the Children of Israel for ever That it is the Lord that doth Sanctifie them as Exod. 31 13 14 17. And so it might signifie and be a Sign that in and by ceasing from all our Workings and Labours to get Life and Righteousness Rom. 4.5 Act. 26.18 1 Cor. 1.30 to and by our selves and in attending to Christ and God in Christ so God would sanctify us according to that To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the Ungodly 〈◊〉 Faith is imputed to him for Righteousness And Sanctified says Christ by faith that is in me And Christ is made 〈◊〉 us of God Sanctification as if he should say The Sabbath I injoyn you as a perpernal Covenant to signifie to you and instruct you That you are not you own Sanctifyers or Sanctified by your own Works and Labours but by me in Christ your resting place in a quiet ceasing from your own Thoughts and Words and Works and resting in and upon Christ I shall ye be holy to me Isa 58.13 2. The Anoual or Yearly Sabbath I â—all that day of Expiation 1 Levit. 16.31 23.27 28 31 32. the tenth Day of the seventh Month in which besides their resting from their labours they were all of them to afflict their Souls and Fast and the High Priest was by Sacrifice and by entning into the Holy of Holios with the bloud of the Sacrifice to make an atonement for himself and for all the People and to lay their Sins upon a Scape-Goat to be carried by him into a desert place The most lively and clear â—ype of Christ the great High Priest and the Atonement made by him for all men by his own bloud and sufferings first endured by him and then in the vertues of them presented before the Father in Heaven for the taking away our Sins there that so mercy might be extended by him to us Both the Bullock for a Sin-offering for Aaron and the Goats for the People signified Christ bearing and suffering for the sins of those that are Priests to God the Israel of God our Sins and for the Sins of the People even of the whole World 1 Joh. 2.2 the Goat that was slain a Type of him dying for all mâ— and bearing their Sins in his own Bâ— on the Tree and the Scape Goat 〈◊〉 was sent away having the Sins of 〈◊〉 Congregation confessed upon him another Type of Christ removing and carrying away our Sins by the vertues of his Sacrifice and remitting them to the World so as not to impute to them or charge them upon them Yet so as if any man rested not on that day 2 Cor. 5.19 21. and afflicted 〈◊〉 his Soul he was cut off from his People deprived of the benefit of that geners Atonement or Expiation Lev. 23.29 30. as signifying that the way for men to enjoy the beneâ—t of the general Atonement or Purgation of Sins made by Christ Act. 10.43 13.38 39 40. 1. Joh. 1.8 9 10. is to own and confess their Sins and be afflicted for them in the sense and acknowledgment 〈◊〉 them and to rest upon and believe in him otherwise they must perish Indeed there was in this as in all other Types many differences between the Type and the Truth by reason of the imperfection of the Types and perfectionâ— the Truth not to be reached fully by them here the day the Priest the Sacrifice weâ— different things but all pointed out Chriâ— here the High Priest first offered for 〈◊〉 own sins and then for the Sins of 〈◊〉 People But Christ had no Sins properâ— his own none as a Priest for he knâ— or did no sin Heb. 7.26 27. neither was guile foundâ— his mouth He was holy harmless undedefiled separated from sinners made 〈◊〉 â—han the Heavens Who needed not to do 〈◊〉 those Priests did daily to offer first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people But this the hithermost the offering for the Sins of the People he did at once or what sins might in any sence be called his as imputed to him and owned by him and so undertaken to be satisfied for and removed as the sin of Adam and all as in him and what naturally and necessarily springs up therefrom for which he in the first place and most properly undertook to ransom men from the judgment due to them or also the sins of his Members as such that are owned by him as parts of himself the sins of Believers for these and for sins of the People sins of another nature committed willingly by Men in their own persons against the Grace and goodness of God extended to them through him Rom. 5.14 sins after the similitude of Adam's transgression that he might obtain power to forgive them also Rom. 5.18 for all these he did offer up himself once so as that by that one Offering he hath both obtained a â—ease of that first Judgment in which all stood condemned so as no man shall perish therein and he hath obtained power to forgive those other offences after the similitude of Adam's transgression upon their confession of and turning from them Yea Heb. 10.14 he hath for ever perâ—ed the sanctified ones provided them 〈◊〉 a perfect purgation so as there needs no more Sacrifice for sin to their perfeâ— saving Yea so perfect was that his one Offering that there-through he haâ— obtained eternal redemption power of forgiving sins and setting free from Sâ— and Death for ever and therefore stand not to offer any more but is gone into Heaven it self there to appear in the presence of God for us and having as it were sprinkled his Bloud upon the Mercy-seat appearing in Heaven as a Lamb that was slain he is set down on the Right hand of God Rev. 5.6 expecting till all his Foes be made his footstool Heb. 9.10 11 12 25 26. and 10.10 11 12 13 14. Indeed if any man refuse now in the day of Grace and Atonement to own himself the Sinner and fall down before God to seek and accept his pardon in Christ he goes without its benefit and is cut off from the Congregation for which yet the Atonement was made This indeed belongs to the Ordinance of Sacrificing yet as appropriated to such a peculiar day and joyned with this appointment of rest I think it falls fitly to be spoken to amongst the Sabbaths enjoyned them 3. Their Seventh year Sabbath was appointed for rest to the Land
against him Yea 2. His Design is broken for us men 1 Tim. 2.5 and 2 Tim. 1.10 even for Adam and all his Posterity inasmuch as through what Christ hath done and Suffered for us He hath so abolished Death the Death that by that Sin came upon us that it notwithstanding we may or might any man in his proper time during the Day of Grace Isa 55.5 6 7. Ezek. 33.11 2 Sam. 14.14 2 Pet. 3.9 1 Cor. 15.20 21. Rom. 5.18 John 5.28 29 25 11.25 26. 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 be Saved and be brought back again to God in that Judgment and Death no man shall Everlastingly Perish but in a Second they that do Christ is the Resurrection and the Life out 〈◊〉 the First so speaking to the Dead in Spirit as to cause them to hear so as they may in hearing and listening to him Live And he will so speak to the Bodily Dead as that out of that Death All shall Live so as to be brought before him as their Soveraign Lord and Judge to be judged by him according as in their life-times they have accepted or rejected him So that notwithstanding their Sin Committed in Adam or their sinfulness thence contracted or the Death therefore ordered to them Prov. 1.22 23. Psal 95.7 8. Isa 45.22 55. 1 2 3 6 7. Rev. 22.17 Eccles 7.1 2 3 4 5. Psal 90.11 39. 4 5 6. John 5.24 Prov. 1.23 Rev. 22.17 2 Pet. 3.13 Rev. 22.3 4. any man in hearing the Voice of Christ as while it is called to day any man may Maugre all that Plot of Satan may be brought back to an happy Estate through Jesus Christ Yea this Death as now ordered through Jesus Christ affords exceeding great Motive and is of singular use to awaken men and provoke them to seek the Lord that they may live and being Justified by Christ as that is certainly to be met with in obeying his Voice any man may come to the injoyment of Fellowship with him in the restauration and glory of our Nature in him so as to have a better Paradise and Tree of Life a better Sabbath a better World even new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness with freedom from temptation and from danger of falling from it then ever Adam had or we in him 3. Yea 1 Pet. 5.8 Ephes 2.2 3. Rev. 20.3 Joh. 8.44 with ver 32 33 34 36. Rom. 10.11 12 c. Whereas Satan is yet busily Plotting though his Head be so broken in Christ as to his First Plot and the Jurisdiction got thereby seeking to draw particular persons into new Snares and to bring them to a new Condemnation by their personal voluntary and unnecessitated slightings and refusings of the Light and Truth or Voice of the Son of God even then when he is calling them and therein setting them free and moving them to listen and adhere to him and men are generally being weak in themselves and through the sweetness they feel Jam. 3.2 Joh. 3.19 20. 1 Tim. 2.5 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Rom. 5.16 Isa 53.12 Luk. 13.7 8 9. Isa 55.7 or fancy in their selfish sinful ways apt to listen to him and in many things we sin all Christ is herein Preached and represented as the Mediator of God and Men the Propitiation for the Sins of the World in the Superabundancy of the vertues of his Death and Sacrifice in which He infinitely out-did the Sin of Adam and its demerit by his Intercession pleading for and obtaining patience and forbearance for men and forgivness ready to be given them for such Sins also upon their letting them go and parting with them whence it s said Let the wicked forsake his ways Ezek. 33.16 and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turn to the Lord for he is gratious and to our God for he will multiply to pardon And in the day that a man turneth all his Iniquities shall be forgiven him none of them shall be mentioned unto him Psal 103. 3 4 6. And with the Lord is plenteousness of Redemption More then meerly to free from the old Score of Sin that came in upon our First account of our sinning in Adam So that he is represented by vertue of that his Mediation the Forgiver of other Sins also Joh. 3.18 5.24 1 Thess 1.9 10. 1 John 1.9 10. the Saviour and Deliverer from the Second Death the Wrath to come Having also Authority and Power and Commission to cleanse us from our unrighteousness we confessing our Sins before him and turning to him so that Iniquity shall not prevail upon us to bring us into Bondage again and so to pull upon on us the second Death Luke 13.8.9 25. Matt. 25.31.35 41. Rev. 20.10 c. which yet he also hath power to leave men to and for their Rebellions against his Grace to Sentence them to and execute upon them and therein to Destroy them for ever with the Devil and his Angels In which his Head shall be forever broken too both in himself and all his Seed as Plotting together against Christ the Seed of the Woman in himself and his Members so as never more to be able to rise up against them SECT 6. How Christ is set forth in the Gospel as the Fulfilling and Fulfiller of the Promises and Prophecies that fore-went of him and of all the Types and Shadows YET further to shew what a compleat Saviour Christ is and how compleat we are in him We may note That he is as the Gospel sets him forth The Accomplishment and the Accomplisher in their due time and way of all the other Prophecies and Promises concerning our Salvation Acts 13.32 33. 1 Cor. 1.20 Col. 2.16 Heb. 10.1 and the body and truth of all Types Figures and Representations of him mentioned in the Scriptures As He is 1. That Seed of Abraham Gen. 18.18 26. Matth. 1.1 2. and of Isaac and of Jacob in whom God Promised That all the families and nations of the earth should be blessed which is accomplished in him Acts 3.25.26 Gal. 3.8 1 Tim. 4.10 1 John 5.11 12. Matth. 22.4 5 8. Luk. 24.19 23 24. Dead and Risen for them and become the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe for God hath in him given us eternal life even to us men so as in having submitting to and receiving Christ in his Light and Truth we may have it Now in Eternal Life is included Remission of Sins Righteousness and all things And these are made ready for all so as any in turning at his Reproofs may and shall certainly receive them none excluded by him till they exclude themselves nor but for so doing Prov. 1.22 23 24. and 9.1 2 3 4 5 12. 2. He is the Shiloh or Peace-maker Gen. 49.10 Eph. 2.13 14 15 16 17. Isa 11.10 11. Rom. 15.6 10 11. Matth. 25.31 32. who hath made Peace by the Blood of his Cross and hath Preached Peace to
Men and not to think there would be a Sacrifice propitiatory needful to take away Mens Sins which Abels Bloody Sacrifice or Sacrifice of Living Creatures seemed to have signified his Faith of by vertue of which his Sacrifice was respected and accepted when as Cain coming in himself Gen. 4.7 without such respect to Faith in the Mediator was not accepted though to him God declared himself gracious ready to Pardon and accept him too upon his Repentance and doing better If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted namely with God who is no respecter of persons and if thou dost ill Sin or as some read or understand is a Sin-offering lyeth at the door Gen. 4.10 11 12 14. through which namely thou mayst obtain pardon and grace to do better but Cain persisting in his Sin and adding Murder to his Envy was banished from the presence of the Lord surely from the society and fellowship of those who walked with God and unto whom God was shewing forth his Face and gracious Presence implying that to men then and to the rest of men besides Cain God was manifesting his kindness and Truth and Revealing himself graciously to Ver. 26. and amongst them Yea and after that when Enos was born to Seth it s said Then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. Which may imply that then they began to gather together to more publick and solemn Worshiping of him according to the Revelation of himself to and amongst them signified by his Name Some render it Then began the Name of the Lord to be Prophaned by Men and if so then it signifies That men did not generally turn aside from the Name of God Though Cain had walked unworthily of it to Idolatries and Prophaness till Enos was born which was in the Year of the World Two hundred thirty five as appears Gen. 5.3 6. Nor did their so doing then if then hinder but that God was vouchsafing the knowledge of his Name to them nay else they could not have Prophaned it as not called upon it if they had had to knowledge of it vouchsafed of God to them but it 's clear without exception That God did Dispense the Knowledge of Himself and goodness to them all those Ages before the Flood however many then as now also many do did not receive it or walk therein For though I am not convinced that all those Patriarks from Adam to Noah mentioned Gen. 5. were Prophets and Teachers as some probably conceive and as may possibly have been true yet it s clear Gen. 5.21 22 24. that Enoch that lived many Years before Adam dyed was a Holy Man and a Prophet for we find not onely that he walked with God but also That he Prophecyed of the Coming of Christ in the last Judgment Jude 14. Enoch the Seventh from Adam Prohecyed of these Sayings Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints c. And Enoch lived above an Hundred years after Lamech's Birth who seems to have been an Holy Man and a Prophet and to have lived in the Faith of the Messiah or Promised Seed as appears in the reason he gave of his calling his Son Noah Gen. 5.29 Saying This shall comfort us concerning our work and the toyl of our hands because of the ground which the Lord had cursed Which though some conceive he spake by way of mistake as being over-hasty in expecting the Messiah or in Calculating the time of its performance hoping Noah was the Man as many good Men have been mistaken in their over-short Calculating the time of Christs Second Appearing Yet I rather think he spake it by way of Prophecy as fore-knowing that in his Noahs Loyns that Comforter of Mankind concerning their works and toyl lay as it were hid and that of him he was to descend and spring forth in his Season Which Noah also was a Preacher of Righteousnes both before and after the Flood and ceased not to Testifie against the World and its Wickedness and to Reprove and Condemn it both by his Preaching and upright Living And though it 's true That in his time the whole Earth had corrupted its way before God to the provoking him to sweep them all away with a Deluge Gen. 6.1 2 3 4 5 6 11 12 13. yet both then its evident there were Sons of God amongst them holding forth and professing the Name of God though by turning aside to Idolatrous Daughters they also corrupted themselves by degrees and also that even in the worst of the Worlds Apostacy both Noah Preached to them and God and Christ by his Spirit Preached to their Spirits and strove in and with them Reproving and Judging them and God was waiting for them with much long-suffering all the time that the Ark was preparing Gen. 6.3 1 Pet. 3.19 Luk. 17.26 27. Heb. 11.7 even till the day that Noah entred into it and the Flood came upon them which Ark also was a signification and Type of Christ and while Noah was preparing it he was according to the manifestation of Christ then vouchsafed preaching Christ too and as well entring into him by Faith and bringing his Family what he could in to him as entring and bringing them bodily into the Ark But the World rejected them both together till the Floud came and then it was too late to seck help in either when the Decree brought forth and the Destruction came upon them Thus to those first Ages was God dealing with and dispensing the knowledge of himself and his Truth to the World which Ages contained the space of 1656 years SECT 4. Of the Ages after the Floud till Moses AFter the Floud Noah lived as a Prophet to Gen. 9.29 and among his Children by the space of three hundred and fifty years even untill within two years of the birth of Abraham and Shem his Son lived among them five hundred years till Isaac was fifty years of age and both he and Japheth appear to have been good men as might also Arphaxad Salah Gen. 10.25 Eber and the rest of them It appears that Eber was a Prophet by the name he gave his Son Peleg signifying Division because in his dayes the Earth was divided and he lived nine and twenty years after Shem even till Isaac was seventy and nine years old and by consequence till Jacob and Esau was nineteen True it is that in those times notwithstanding these good Men living then in that little World men quickly degenerated again And sometime within the space of three hundred years or less possibly two hundred in Peleg's days they forgetting God and his Judgments and Mercies both fell to build a Tower to get themselves a Name and probably to secure themselves against an after Deluge not believing the word of God nor walking perfectly with him Yea Josh 24.1 2. and before Abraham's removing out of Haran if not before he came into it Superstition and Idolatry began to overspread the
seed of evil doers children that were corrupters that had forsaken the Lord provoked the holy one of Israel to anger and had gone backward A people of whom he says Why should ye be smitten any more ye will revolt more and more whose Rulers were as the Rulers of Sodom and their people people of Gomorrah Yea of whom he says What could have been done more then I have done in my vineyard Chap. 5.1 4 5 6. Wherefore then when I looked for grapes brought it forth wild grapes And concerning whom therefore he resolved to take away the hedge that it might be eaten up and to break down the fence that it might be troden down and to lay it waste c. And such a people also were they of whom he says in Jer. 6.30 Reprobate Silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them They were such as would not hear the Word nor obey the will of the Lord but said We will not hear we will not walk in thy ways They were all grievous revolters walking with slanders brass and iron all corrupters Such as with whom all means had been used and pains taken to no purpose the bellows were burnt the lead consumed in the fire the founder meâ—ed in vain the wicked were not pluckt away Jer. 6.16 17 28 29. And the like may be seen in Psal 81.10 11 14. Prov. 1.22 23 24 25 c. Thess 2.9.10 11 12. by anâ— that will read them SECT 3. What that saying of the Apostle That God har lens whom he will imports and how it is to be understood by us EXceeding clear it is then That God Exerciseth those his hardning Operations onely by way of Judgment and Punishment for former goodness abused and sinned against yet some reading â—hat God said to Pharaoh That for this cause He raised him up to shew in him his Power and that his Name might be declared in all the Earth and that the Apostle thereupon adds So then he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens Thence conceive That God Created Pharaoh and made him King on purpose to harden and destroy him And so that he purposed to harden some whom he pleased meerly because he pleased and without respect to any thing good or evil in them and so accordingly in time hardens them irrespectively meerly because he will and to shew his power and wrath in their Destruction But they that thence thus conceive and conclude do greatly mistake and wrest the Apostles sayings and inferr more from them than they afford any colourable ground for For 1. Neither doth the Apostle say That God created or made Pharaoh King with a purpose to harden and destroy him nor speaks of his creating him or making him King but speaks of his raising him up which compared with the Hebrew Text that uses the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to make to stand Or with the Greek Septuagint that says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have preserved thee clearly speaks but of Gods upholding him in and raising him up out of former Judgments so as he was not Destroyed by them nor says he That he might harden and destroy him but that he might show in him his Power and make his Name known in all the Earth which he might and could have done had Pharaoh humbled himself before him as he required of him in shewing mercy upon him and making him an instance of the efficacy of his grace but he not so doing he did it in hardning and judging him 2. Nor are the following words inferred and concluded by the Apostle thereupon Either 1. Whom he willed he hardneth as speaking of Gods eternal purpose to harden some as signifyed by the word Will. Or 2. He hardens any man meerly because he will without respect to any foreprovocation on their part indeed his shewing mercy may be and is without any respect to any fore-going goodness to deserve it and so his distribution of Talents Places Prerogatives and so his comparative hating in that respect some over others as in the case of Jacob and Esau nationally considered forementioned by the Apostle may be so irrespective is we shewed before and might be so determined by him before the objects of such determination were born or had done good or evil but we never find any such thing asserted about his hardning men much less doth the Apostle here say such a thing but 3. He says he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens thereby signifying 1. That God is not ordered or directed by any of his Creatures askes or receives counsel from none of them what to act or do in any of his dispensations of mercy or judgement but is the sole soveraign orderer of his own actions according to that in Isai 40.13 14. Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellor hath taught him with whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgement or taught him knowledge or shewed him the way of understanding Behold the Nations are as the drop of a Rucket c. or as the Apostle with allusion to the Prophet who hath known the mind of God or who hath been his Counsellor Or who hath first even to him and it shall be recompensed to him again For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Shall any teach God knowledge seeing he judgeth them that 〈◊〉 on high as Job saith No He doth aâ— things not according to others pleasures 〈◊〉 thoughts but according to the counsel of 〈◊〉 own will Rom. 11.34 35 36. Job 21.22 Ephes 1.11 2. That he hath and exercises an absolute soveraignty over his Creatures in judging them in mercy or wrath so aâ— that his hands are not tied from doing good to whom he pleases be they never so vile or unworthy of mercy nor is he by any birth heigth works priviledges conferred upon them so ingaged to them that in case of their sinning presumptuously and abusing his goodness he may not harden and destroy them as he is not ruled or ordered by his creatures they can give no law to him so such is his power over them Gen. 18.25 Zeph. 3.5 Tit. 1.2 he can do what he pleases to and with them only he cannot lye or do iniquity whosoever hath sinned against him be they what they will King or Peasant Jew or Gentile yea Exod. 32.33 or a Prophet Apostle or an Angel he can and may blot them out of his Book nothing conferred upon them by him or done formerly by them to or for him can abridge his power of so dealing with them As again no vileness of birth or condition sinfulness of life and conversation or punishment fore-inflicted on them can take away his power over for shewing mercy and compassion to them if he pleases especially to the penient and humbled
is pleased to order for even in those his works his punishing Pharaoh for his Cruelty Suppose And Judas for his Covetousness And approving Cornelius his Sincerity And David's Zeal for his House He wrought according as the counsel of his will ordered and not otherwise And we may say that according to that most perfect Counsel of his most holy will he may and doth work differently in divers or in the same man at divers times as he pleases Psal 14.5 17. though always holily and graciously both in his preventing and following operations as well as in his dispensations of means there may be divers measures afforded and what he doth afford he may afford it diversly as God may prevent some sooner than others as John Baptist in the Womb or presently after as Timothy from a Child c. Some he may call into his Vineyard at the Third hour when others may stand idle till the Ninth or Eleventh Yea and some more strongly than others using more and more powerful means to inforce them as the Lord is said to have instructed Isaiah with a strong hand and he hedged up the way of swerving Israel as with Thornes so as not to let her find her Lovers and so in a manner forced them by afflictions and convincements to return to him again though some even so forced as it were Isa 8.11 Hos 2.6 7. Isa 1.4 5. Hos 5.15 with 6.1 2 3 4. yet revolt or soon recoile Yea and Christ implies that where God afforded more glorious means he also put forth more power in and with them Matth. 11.20 21 22 23 24. 12.40.41 42 c. so as had others had those means they would by the power put forth in them have done better than they did with what they had or then others did that had those greater means in which his operations as well as in his dispensations we ascribe to him his own glorious liberty and acknowledge That he will have mercy on whom he will have mery and whom he will he hardens as we shewed in the foregoing Chapter Let me add 1. That he is not prescribed by man or any other Creature but by the counsels of his own will hath ordered both whom to prevent with his mercy and grace and that we have seen is generally all men in their seasons and according to capacities given them moved thereto by no mans merit but by his own mere good will and pleasure and whom he will he after such grace afforded striving with them and softning them abused by them hardens no man hath prescribed that to him and upon whom to order it as we have noted but as himself pleaseth 2. After men having abused grace are in some measure hardned by him it 's meerly in his good pleasure on whom to shew such mercy as to prevent them again and follow them longer that he may overcome their Evils with more goodness and on whom he will and when for such abuses give up and cease striving with them 3. With reference to following Grace He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy even to justifie accent and receive them as his chosen ones No man hath prescribed him his way or set him a Law in this nor will he be letted from shewing mercy on them whom he pleaseth thus to shew it to namely those that hearing and learning of him come to Christ c. And again whom he will what manner of persons he pleaseth and not whom men prescribe to him he hardneth and rejecteth even those that rebel and are disobedient 50 his Son whether Jews or Gentiles zealous and devout observers of the Law or prophane and loose livers Yea or what ever else they be or may have been as was before sâ—ewed SECT 2. That in this diversity of operation he observeth in some sense an uniformity and a likeness with men Generally Psal 33.12 to 16. Considered YEâ— it appeareth That the dealings of God with men are uniform too whether he give greater or lesser means to lead to know him and to Repentance yet in and with those means his preventing operations are alike afforded to them that have the lesser as the greater means alike I say not in measure as neither is the measure of what is required of them alike to whom more is given of them is more expected and required nor is the very matter of the operations formerly the same or alike for in that respect too there are diversity of operations though the same Lord but alike as to analogy or resemblance in God's dealings wherefore also his proceedings with them in Judgment is or will be alike onely to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Rom. 2.7 8 9 10 11. Both are reproved and faulted for putting God and his Truth from them and imprisoning it in unrighteousness c. As on the other side the obeyer of God's Voice the fearer of God and worker of Righteousness in every Nation I say not in the practise of every Religion for that stands not with the fear of God is accepted of him the uncircumcision of the uncircumcised And by way of Analogy the want of outward Baptisme in the outwardly unbaptised that have not opportunity thereunto shall not prejudice their acceptation with God they doing the Truth Rom. 2.25 26 27 28 29. revealed of God to them nor on the other side shall the outward Circumcision or Baptisme and Profession help the disobedient So that the Equity of Gods ways and uniformity of his dealings with men appears in his diversities of dispensations and operations that he walks in one way with men for approvement or disapprovement justification or condemnation And with respect to the equity and in that sense likeness of his dealings with men in his gracious operations as laying the foundation of it in his judging them is that excellent passage in the Psalmist very pregnant Psal 33.12 13 c. Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord who own and worship God in Christ and whose protection and defence he is the people he hath chosen for an inheritance to himself as in some sort and sense the Nation of Israel to have his Statutes Judgments and Oracles betrusted with them so more choicely the Worshipers of God in Truth in every Nation the Nation that own him for their God and cleave unto him Or as Psal 4.3 The man and so the people that is godly or gracious those that hearing and learning of the Father come to Christ and so are built upon him for they are the chosen generation the royal priesthood the holy Nation 1 Pet. 2.4 5 9. But then least we should think Gods goodness to be bound up to some few onely precisely chosen as most take the sense to be it follows The Lord looketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath looked down or with care and consideration looked from heaven He beholdeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath beheld or seen yea providingly seen and
him in the day of his power or armies that is of his being glorified at God's right hand and in the Gospel which is the power of God to the salvation of those that believe or credit it and to the making them free and willing to serve him Rom. 1.16 and so in the day of his armies and companies going forth to propagate his Name and fight the good fight of Faith his people those that stand on his side and for him offer themselves freely Nay further it 's granted that no man makes himself willing to serve Christ but they that come to him his people are made free by his power working in his Gospel published to them his truth set before them and abiding by them as in that of John 8.30 31 32. If ye continue in my words that is hearing and receiving or minding them then are ye my disciples that is his people indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free set you at liberty from the love of sin and the world c. to serve and walk with God in holiness and righteousness and so offer up your selves free-will offerings to God Which place fitly expounds the other and yet clearly shews that that is a consequent operation of God following upon mens receiving and continuing in the truth preventing them and so becoming his people in which they are more made his or given up to him and so is propounded conditionally to such as do but begin to credit the truth and listen to it agreeing with that in John 6.44 45. No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him As it is written in the Prophets And they that is Sion's children the waiters upon God in the Doctrine given forth in Sion Isa 54.13 shall all be taught of God Every one therefore that heareth and learneth of the Father that is thy people shall come to me shall be a willing people Agreeable also to that is Hos 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know c. And Isa 55.5 6. Thou shalt call a Nation that thou knewest not and a Nation that knew not thee shall run after thee shall be willing or voluntaries because of the Lord thy God and for the holy one of Israel for he shall glorifie thee Seek ye the Lord while he maybe found and call upon him while he is nigh c. As if he should say The glory of Christ discovered in his calls by the Father's teaching being beheld shall make people willing and free to follow Christ they that know or take notice of his Name will trust in him seek therefore to know that Name or discern that Glory c. This may indeed shew what we have noted before that they that yield up to the counsels and calls of God afforded with his preventing operations and so look or listen to Christ and God in Christ shall find the creative power of God framing their hearts to the love of Christ and causing them to run freely after him yea that hinders not but that men to whom those preventing operations are afforded may resist and wind out from the counsels and teachings of God therewith given them and so frustrate themselves of the creative operations that follow upon mens not so resisting Isa 53.1 They that believe not the report prove not the arm of the Lord that is to be met with therein by men Naaman not washing in Jordan had not felt the power of God to heal him Some I know urge that of Luke 14.23 Compel them to come in But that being spoken to the servants as to be their act can signifie no more than a more earnest urgency with men on their parts and cannot inforce the signification of any compulsive irresistible working of God and therefore I shall not further insist upon it SECT 6. 1 Cor. 4.7 Considered and Mens Collections from it SOme from that saying of the Apostle Who maketh thee to differ 1 Cor. 4.7 or what hast thou that thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why dost thou then boast argue that it is and must be some more special irresistible grace of God afforded to some men more than to others that working irresistibly differences them in point of believing from others upon whom God doth not so irresistibly work and that they received from God their very doing better as to hearing and learning than others which if God had given to others as well as to them theâ— would have done yea must necessariâ— have done as well as they But here again Men mind not that they swerve from the Apostles scope and business and wrest or carry his words from the thing he treats about which is not of mens hearing the Word of God and giving heed to him in the means of Grace though that also is of God but of believers difference in their gifts and receipts of Gifts from God by occasion of which some were apt to be puffed up above others and some for one who had greater Gifts against another who had less as appears clearly in the former Verse To these he saith even to them who had more excellent Gifts Who made thee to differ or excel What hast thou What Gift or Excellency that thy Brother hath not which thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why dost thou then boast or pride thy self of it as attributing it to thy self and lifting up thy self above thy brother by it This is clearly and evidently the scope of the Apostle in that place which being kept to we cannot err by occasion of his words But if we will take his words and carry them from their scope we may perchance through our reason fall into mistakes as if we should thence argue that we have no cause or ground any of us to commend one mans diligence in the use of his talent and fault another mans slothfulness or that the slothful ought in like manner to be excused or not blamed as the other that hath less Gifts though diligent in them because as the one mans less Gifts proceed from God's good pleasure to give him less as but two talents when another hath five so the other mans slothfulness in like manner proceeded from God's good pleasure too that pleased not to give him such diligence as another hath Surely he that minds the Scriptures would see such an use of those words as so to argue from them to be but an abuse of them And so If we should thence conclude that God made Adam to differ from himself by falling from his created innocency or suppose there had been another man every way as perfect as Adam and no more free and able to stand than Adam and every way alike tempted and assisted as he must he needs have fallen as Adam did if so then how had Adam power to have stood and how was his fall meerly wilful and voluntary nay how can it