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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04269	A seasonable discourse of spirituall stedfastnesse wherein, 1. it, and a relapse, with the heads, members. and degrees of both, are exactly defined. 2. The subiects, causes, and symptomes of the fearfull sinne of apostasie cleerely expressed. As also directions, incentiues, to recouer, re-inkindle the old-cold-declining zelot. Together with arguments, motiues, that the young, or strong standing convert may be in grace firmely established. By I.B. preacher of the word.	Barlow, John, b. 1580 or 81.	1627 (1627)	STC 1439.5; ESTC S120873	89,672	290

made And by him For the father worketh hither to and he worketh And for him Thou art worthie O Lord Rev. 4.11 to receiue honor and glorie and power For thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are Eccle. 12.1 and were created Haue we not a command to remember him who formed vs Psal 147.9 Doe not the Ravens looke vp vnto him The windes and Sea obey him And shall we Christians then be ignorant of him Certainely Mar. 4.41 this were a sinne Iob. 31.12 would eate vp all our increase a fire would devoure to destruction Reas 3 And what to be desired effects will this knowledge worke 1 Pet. 1.8 For who ever knew Christ but was infl●med with the loue of him Acts 9.6 Stood in great awe of him Psal 116.7 Humbled himselfe before him Put his confidence in him And said Soule returne vnto thy rest The Oxe Isa 1.3 knoweth his owner the Asse his masters cribbe and shall not man be acquainted with his Lord Is it not eternall life Io. 17.3 to know Christ Iesus Everlasting death to be ignorant of him Tell me What was the Gentiles mis●ry but that they were strangers from him Eph 4.18 The Athenians sinne but that all their devotion was do e to an vnknowne God Acts. 17.23 The Lepers ingratefulnesse Luk. 17.17 except that they returned not thankes vnto him And what sets foorth Pauls praise more Phil. 3.9 than his earnest desire to know the Lord Iesus and to be found in him Reas 4 To conclude haue we not time and meanes to illighten our eyes that we might see Christ in open vision For doth not the Spirit thorow the whole Bible set him foorth in pl●ine phrases Shining prophecies In tipes ●arables And similitudes What are the Scriptures but the subiect matter of him In each storie page verse may we not haue some hint some glympse of him Beloved all the lines in the holy letters meete in Christ as their proper Center And such as come short of that point are profitable for nothing He is the Alpha and Omega α. ω. Rev. 1.18 the beginning and end of all famous h stories noble acts and renowned persons the which are good before God Shall we then with the want root in the earth And haue no care to know Christ Iesus What if we know him a little Will that serue our turnes No no our eye spirituall is like his corporall who was borne blinde Mar. 8.24.25 but opened by degrees This obiect is profound deepe And the better we vnderstand it the more powerfully profitably will it produce the forenamed gracious eff cts Therefore as get so grow we must in the knowledge of Christ Iesus The knowledge of Christ distributed And here it is to be obserued that the knowledge of Christ is either intellectuall or experimentall When we doe with the act of our vnderstanding apprehend a thing be it what you will it is intellectuall knowledge But we purpose not to exceed our bounds We will confine our selues within the limits of our present Obiect Christ Iesus Now this intellectuall knowledge of Christ is of his person or offices For the former we are to consider these foure following particulars 1. In Christ we are to note his two natures the Divine and Humane both which concur and are hypostatically vnited to make one individuall Person Ioh. 1.14 Heb. 2.16 The word was made flesh he tooke not on him Mat. 1.23 the nature of Angels but he tooke on him the seed of Abraham Whence it is that he is called Emanuel Heb. 10.5 which being interpreted is God with vs. So that in the Person of Christ 1 Ioh. 5.20 was perfect manhood a body thou hast fitted me And perfect God-head this is the very God and eternall life 2. And in the manhood of Christ obserue a soule a body Luk. 23.46 A soule Father into thine hands I commend my Spirit And a body Behold my hands and my feet Luk. 24.39 that it is I my selfe handle me and see For a spirit hath not flesh bones as you see me haue Where note by the way Mat. 26.39 that Christ had a twofold will one from his Deitie another flowing from his Humanitie Therefore praying he sayd O my Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me neverthelesse not as I will but as thou wilt As he was God the will of the father and his were the same 3. Thirdly He was borne of a Virgin his mother knew not man Luk. 2.35 for the Holy-ghost came vpon her the power of the most high over-shadowed her And thus it must be For if he had proceeded by naturall pro●agation Psal 51.5 he in his conception had bin polluted with orriginall corruption And then he cou●d not haue bin a meet mediator and holy sacrificer to haue made an ato●ement for the sinnes of the people For such an high Priest it behoved vs to haue Heb. 7.26 as was holy harmelesse vndefiled separat from sinners and made higher than the heavens in truth Christs originall puritie is to equall Adams at his Crea●ion that the roote being holy all the bra●ches may in like maner Heb. 7.3 Christ as man had no Father as God no mother And ther●fore the true Melchizedek without father with●ut mother 4. The last thing is that in the very instant of Christ● conception the two natures were inseparably knit together and in substance and actions ever remained distinct either from other conserving their proper qualities from all mixture or confusion And as the soule and body being vnited make one intire man so the two natures conioyned constitute but one individuall person For marke this Christ did not assume to his Deitie the person but the nature of man neither did the humani●ie for a moment subsist by it selfe but in the very act of its conception was vnited to the Godhead so alwaies continued for ever after yea when Christs soule and body at his death were separated yet neither of them from the Deitie This vnion as it is wonderfull so is it eternally indissoluble Thus much of the intelectual knowledge of Christs person his Offices are now to be handled in order 1. And we will begin with his Priesthood Heb. 7.11 Levit. 10 2.3 Heb. 5.1.2 that Christ was a Priest the Scripture in many places speaketh evidently And who was shadowed out by Aaron and his succ●ssors but the high Priest of our soules Christ Iesus For he was to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sinnes to haue compassion vpon the ignorant and to make a reconciliation for them who were out of the way And here we may note the differences betwixt the Priest-hood of Christ and that of others 1. He was of the tribe of Iudah they were all of Levi. 2. He was God-man but they meere men 3. He was without sin

a Father in that he begate many by the word of truth 1. Cor. 4.15 and in that sence Paul tells the Corinths that he was their Father 3. In regard that he is the vine and we as branches vnited to him When a graft is set into the stocke Ioh. 15.1 c. Ioh. 1.12.13 1. Cor. 15.22.45.49 the Hebrew manner is to call it a Sonne of that tree 4. But chiefly as the first Adam is our Father because we are all his sonnes by naturall propagation so is Christ our Father in as much as through him we are children by regeneration and adoption He who maketh Sonnes is a father Christ maketh Sonnes Ergo a Father Obiect Col. 1.15 Secondly the Arrians their heresie was that Christ was God by Office not by Nature how he was first created then all things by him For he is sayd to be the beginning of every creature Rev. 3.14 Resol 1. And it is also written In the beginning was the word and the word was with God Ioh. 1.1 And the word was God 2. He is the beginning of every creature Because he gaue them their first being And after mans fall their well being 3. But did he giue the creatures a being Then is he God For to Creat requires an infinite power the which can be found in no Creature but in God onely Thirdly this meets with Samosetanus hereticall opinion who held that Christ was not before he tooke vpon him mans nature as though his Deitie began with his Humanitie But what more absurd For God hath neither beginning nor end if he had he were not God Fourthly And that of Apollinaris falleth to the ground who thought that Christ assumed a body onely And the God-head was insteed of a soule But he assumed the whole nature of man Therefore a soule Againe the soule of Adam was the beginner of his Act in sinning a soule therefore is to suffer And did not Christ cry my soule is heavie to the death Luk. 23.46 And commit it into the hands of his Father at his giving vp of the Ghost Fiftly Marcian and Valentinus are here confuted these taught how Christ tooke his body from the ayre or from heaven And that it passed through the wombe of the Virgin as water floweth through a conduit Eph. 5.30 or pipe But this is evidently false for then he had not bin bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh Neither had that nature satisfied which sinned Sixtly Hebion and Cerinthus these defended that Christ was conceiued by ordinarie generation Luk. 1.34.35 as other men which is a flat contradiction of the Angels speech and would bring the humane nature of Christ within the compasse of originall pollution Ioh. 3.6 For whatsoever is borne of the flesh is flesh and how can the streame be pure when as the fountaine is defiled Seventhly And that of Nestorius may not be admitted who devided the persons one God the other man To hold this opinion would breed confusion Eightly Acts 3.22 We may not omit the errour of the Monothelits these say Christ had but one will 1. Cor. 11.26 as if his soule had beene deprived of its proper faculty Ninthly And that of the Vbiquists who held that the body of Christ at one time might be in many places But is it not written that the heavens shall containe him vntill the restauration of all things And if it were so why are we commanded to waite till he come Or inioyned to receiue the Bread and Wine in remembrance of him By all this you may see what need we haue to grow in the knowledge of Christ Iesus our Lord. For all heresies in the dogmaticall points of faith are in and about him And may we not also from this ground confute and reiect the doctrine of the Romanists For doe they not extoll ignorance in the common people to the skies Trample the knowledge of Christ as mire vnder foot Esteeme it a matter of no moment Better lost than found See their notes on the Bible view their bookes consult with their Councels listen to their Decrees And tell me if this thing be not true But shall we thinke this Apostle to be in an errour Beside himselfe when he penned this Epistle Or may we safely imagine the Laitie were not to learne it Was that good for Paul I meane the knowledge of Christ Phil. 3 8. but naught for the people Were this their Tenent sound for what end did the Lord write the law Neh. 8.3 with his owne finger Command it to be read before men women children Was not all this labour in vaine if ignorance were not to be blowne away Acts 2.4 c. Why had the Apostles all tongues but that all nations might learne to vnderstand the Gospel 2. Tim. 4.2 For what purpose was the Evangelist charged to Preach in season out of season Or false Teachers checked 1 Cor. 14.6 for Prophecying in an vnknown strange language What praise can redound to good Iehoshaphat 2 Chro. 19.8 2 Tim. 3.15 who sent Levits through his land To Lois Eunice for training vp Timotheus in the holy letters of a child If knowledge were not necessarie in the vulgar sort Our adversaries will not for all this stick to affirme that ignorance is the mother of devotion among the common multitude But we may more truly say that shee is the step-damme of two cursed twinnes superstition prophanenesse For take but a strict view of the inhabitants of our Northren parts where the most know nothing as they ought to know 1. Cor. 8.2 And shall we not finde how they be like Elies Sonnes openly wicked Or as the Athenians wholly addicted to Idolatrie Acts. 17.16 Wherfore this wisdome of theirs is not from aboue Iam. 3.15.16.17 pure peaceable easie to be intreated and full of good workes But from below sensuall earthly and devilish Thus we leaue them to doe with their own what and as they will Vse 2 This in like sort layes a sharp and deepe reproofe on many amongst vs who though they professe themselues no Papists notwithstanding tread in their steps For haue they any knowledge of Christ Iesus Doe they discerne betwixt Law and Gospel Precept or promise The new way or the old Aske them who or what Christ is And can they tell Truly they vnderstand not whether he be Iew or Gentile Male or Female They hope he is a good man And why should they not These come short of Sathans confession he could say what haue I to doe with thee Mar. 5.7 thou Sonne of God Thou Iesus of Nazaret Mat. 20.30 The blind beggar might reade such a lecture who prayed O thou Sonne of David haue mercie vpon me So these mens back●s be clothed and their bellies filled their grounds stocked and their lusts satisfied they care no more for the knowledge of Christ as our proverbe hath it than a Swine

to know him Ioh. 6.35 Thy Bread and Wine do represent him thy apparell put thee in mind of Rom 13.14 him and thy lying downe resemble his lying downe of his life for thee Is not thy rising vp Rom. 13.14 a type of his resurrection Or by way of allusion might be When thou pe●pest into thy well-stored Chest it will call to remembrance the Arke of the Couenant for Christ Ioh. 10 7. Ioh. 15.10 Cant 2.1 as it kept the Law of righteousnesse for vs. I am the doore saith he that thy out-going and in-coming might be in his name with his leaue Let the trees of the forrest teach thee the Roses of the field tell thee the light instruct thee and the Rocks Ioh. 1.9 giue thee to vnderstand What obi●ct lyable to sence Christ assumes not to himselfe that he might gaine some Or leaue them without excuse who will not l●arne Princes and poore pers●nes point at him Hilles and Valleys are not without refer●nce to him Bulles and Heifers Rams Lambes Kine Calues when they low and bleate giue some glimpse of him call vnto him Doth God all this for no end No no he would haue vs to looke thorow the creatures as so many opticke glasses more clearely to apprehend the Lord Iesus Christ should be still in our hearts and hands words and actions all Christ nothing but Christ. He who desires to know or affect any person before him equall to him or without him is but carnall For in all relations of husbands Mat. 22 49 wiues children friends We should minde him And where he is formed we must fix our affection on nothing ese no where else Let but a gracious man walke in the desart thus he saith to himselfe in the like place was my Lord tempted Mat 4.1 rest on the toppe of an h●l● he mindes the morn● from whence he ascended Acts. 1.10.11 throw vp his head behold how the winde driues away the darke clo●des then he thinkes these are the Chario●s which carried away my master And one of these daies he wi l r●turne ryd●●g on them They reioyce his soule as much as Iosephs waggon did his aged father Gen. 4 5.27 when he saw it came to fetch him his Spirit is stirred reviued in him What can I more say How should I mooue thee Induce thee No Satisf●ction but by Iesus going to the father without him or hope of heaven but in him Consider now what I haue said 2 Tim. 2.7 and the Lord g ue thee vnderstanding in these things Amen Of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Not to collect all we might from this two-fold relation we will only insist of this doctrine that Doct. 5 Christ Iesus is mans Saviour I say mans not the Ang●l● 1. For the good they are the elect of God kept their station 1 Tim 5.21 obeyed his command and so are confirmed in a condition of everlasting blessednesse 2. And for the bad they as some will fell from God without any tempter And therfore he left them without a mediator Or as others hold sinned vnto death And so are secluded from all grace mercie Iud. 6. reserued in the everlasting chaines of darkenes against the iudgement of the great day Heb. 2.16 Howeuer it be sure I am that Christ assumed not their nature and therfore he is none of their Saviour And Christ Iesus is mans saviour if we consider his Sufficiencie Efficiencie His Sufficiencie is that whereby he is able to saue the lapsed posteritie of Adam And it consisteth in his two natures the God-head Manhood God our Saviour must be for these following reasons 1 Tim. 2.6 1. That Adams sinne and his satisfaction might be proportionable an infinite iustice being ofended requireth an equall satisfaction Mans sinne was infin●te in regard of the obiect Person he offended Christs sufferings are infinite in respect of the dignitie of his Person who satisfied And as finite sinnes infinitly offended the infinite God So finite sufferings infinitly satisfied the infinite God 2. And had not our Saviour bin God how could he haue overcome Sathan Death Hell and all the Churches enemies Luk. 11.22 If a strong man possesse the house a stronger than he must dispossesse him take the spoyle from him This is he Isa 63.1.2 who came from Edom with Garments dyed from Bozrah travailing in his strength speaking in righteousnesse mightie to saue whose apparell was red like him who treadeth the wine fat 3. And what May a suretie vndertake a debt the discharge whereof would bring damage to himselfe were not this Eccle 7.16 to be iust overmuch To exceede and goe beyond our bounds Now of Christ had not bin God how should he haue layd downe his life which tooke was part of the payment and tooke it vp againe without detriment losse to his owne person But being God he might he did And gained glorie by so doing 4. This also was necessarie that the iustice of the Father might certainely be satisfied and mans salvation not contingent doubtfull For Christ the suretie being God it was impossible he should sinne be seduced or fayle in the performance of his promise keeking of his covenant had he bin as Adam was but a meere man he might haue bin overcome by temptation and then the Creditor had come short of his paymen● the debtor of his Salvation ●er 17.5 And is not a curse threatned to him who trusteth in man Iob. 15.15 Maketh flesh his arme And was there any stedfastnes found in the very Angels And man Christ must be else no sufficient saviour 1 Iob. 19.25 1. That being our kinsman according to the flesh he might haue a true title and proprietie to redeeme vs who by sinne like Esau haue sold our inheritance Lev. 25.24 And this the Law required for the redemption of a brothers land Ier. 32 7. recovering his possession And raising vp of seed vnto him Ruth 4.4 2. And in that he might be subiect to the Law lyable to passion Gal 4.4 for the God-head is not bound to obedience is impatible neither in any tollerable sence may be reputed accursed 3. It was the Humane nature Heb. 7.22 whereby God was offended that suffered and through the which his iustice was to be satisfied And is not this equall Rom. 3.26 4. Finally he must be man Heb. 2.27 and 4.15 else how could he haue a fellow-feeling of our infirmities Comfort vs in all our miseries And succour them who are tempted It remaineth therfore for an infallible truth that the sufficiencie of our Sav our consisteth in his two natures the man-hood made subiect to passiō passion And the God-head gaue dignitie to his sufferings Now we are to speak of Christs efficiencie what it is wherin it consisteth The efficiencie of Christ is that wherby he worketh all in all things necessar ly required for mans salvation And it