Christendom Or the Nature of CHRIST's KINGDOM OPENED And the chiefest Difficulties in DIVINITY CLEARED In order to ending the Controversies among Christian PHILOSOPHERS SCOOL-MEN and DIVINES of all Parties London Printed for the Author 1687. The PREFACE 1. THE Kingdom of Christ is not twofold one as he is God the Son and the other as he is Mediator but it is simply one as Christ is one admitting of just conception but no division Because Christ is not Mediator between God and Men strictly as between two Parties in a worldly and human Sense common to us and Heathens but in a heavenly divine and transcendent Sense through Christian Faith which Heathens have not The Manhood of Christ doth neither add to nor diminish from God But it is the Organ or Instrument by which God the Son as equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost doth in the fulness of Time according to his own eternal Purpose purchase the Church with his own Blood is the Saviour of all Men specially of those that believe and doth reign and rule over the whole intellectual World for ever without all change in God and without all merit in Angels and Men antecedently to the eternal Purpose of God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 2. Angels Princes Pastors and Parents are instrumental in the work of Redemption but not so as is the Manhood of Christ This is principally and specially instrumental as being the Manhood of him who is by nature very God. Christ considered as God is by Nature not by Grace the only begotten Son of God the Father Christ considered as Man was by Grace not by Nature the Son of Himself as God equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost in a special and wenderful Sense neither by Creation as Adam and the Angels nor by Adoption as the Saints nor by natural Generation but by miraculous Conception in the Womb of a Virgin And yet he is but one Son of God rightly conceived as he is but one Christ Considered as Man his God is our God his Father is our Father elect Angels and Men are his Brethren and Fellows but so that he as Man exalted at God's right Hand in all things hath the preeminence is anointed with the Oyl of Gladness above his Fellows he is the First-born among his Brethren and of every Creature that is of all created Beings the most excellent and next unto God in heavenly Majesty and Glory Col. 1.15 Rom. 8.29 Heb. 1.8 11. Joh. 20.17 3. The Man Christ and the Manhood of Christ is God Omniscient Omnipatent Omnipresent Independent Infinite Adorable yet not as it is Man and Manhood but as it is by unsearchable Vnion that Person who is in different respects both God and Man. To adore Christ as Man is Idolatry to adere Christ as God the Son incarnate equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost is Christian Piety In adoring God the Son incarnate the Word made Flesh we do indeed adore the Flesh and Manhood of Christ and yet not as it is Flesh and Manhood but as it is in a wonderful Sense that Person who is God the Son incarnate As I write with a white Pen yet not as it is white but as it is a Pen He that is a Husband baptizeth yet not as he is a Husband but as he is a Minister The good God doth damn the Wicked yet not as good to them but severe yet just So we rightly adore the Flesh and Manhood of Christ yet not as it is Flesh and Manhood but as it is God the Son Incarnate That holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Luk. 1.35 Heb. 1.6 Mat. 2.11 Rev. 5.9 to 14. Joh. 14.1 4. Divine Nature as Divine can in no instant be Human Human Nature as Human can in no instant be Divine But the Divine Nature as it is in God the Son became in a wonderful Sense Human The Word was made Flesh Joh. 1.14 All the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily in Christ Col. 2.9 And the Human Nature as it is in Christ became in a wonderful sense Divine that Man who is Equal and Fellow with God Zech. 13.7 Phil. 2.6 Therefore by St. Augustine lib. de Ovib. it is called Divine Humanity and Human Divinity Which Saying learned Sadeel doth highly approve De verit Human. nat Christi c. 5. Jesus increased in Wisdom and Stature and in Favour with God and Man Luk. 2.52 And was made perfect through Sufferings Heb. 2.10 Had he not so increased be must always have been an Infant And yet the Manhood of Christ was in no instant imperfect and defective When New-born his Manhood had all the Perfection it mas capable of in that instant but not all the Perfection designed for it at twelve years of Age. When twelve years old he had all the Perfection he mas capable of in that instant and so in every Successive instant unto the time of his Passion Which being reserved for the last he did patiently undergo and so by Death fulfilled and finished all the Humiliation-work which God gave him to do on Earth Joh. 17.4 and 19.30 5. All true Science is by reducing things to some First beyond which there is no further proceeding Now Christ is the First and the Last in Religion Rev. 1.8 11. All the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg are hid in him Col. 2.3 He is the Truth Joh. 14.6 He who holds this one Truth doth inclusively hold all saving Truth in this one But he who denyes and resists any one Truth plain and evident to his Conscience hath no saving Truth in him Every Errour is not Sin but every Errour touching Religion is very Sin against God and so it must needs be against the Foundation of Faith and Piety either directly and immediately or remotely and consequentially He that is an Heretick doth against his Conscience love Errour and rely on it for Life Eternal and so his Errour is his Idol And yet the love of it doth blind his Conscience and extinguish the Light of Christ so that he cannot savingly discern his Errour and the Turpitude of it he is therefore self condemned CHAP. I. Of Divine Predestination 1. WHOM God did foreknow would by his Grace and free Gift in Christ sincerely believe them he did predestinate and fore-ordain to Life Eternal and whom he did fore-know would through themselves be ungodly and so continue them he did predestinate and fore-ordain to Damnation Eternal The Divine Fore-knowledg and Purpose according to which God doth predestinate Men to Life Eternal is from everlasting but the Divine Predestination according to that Fore-knowledg and Purpose is not from everlasting but in the instant when God creates and forms us in our Mothers Womb. Which Predestination lies hid as a secret in God's Bosom until it shew it self in Heavenly Calling and Election And then doth God elect Men to Salvation when he gives them Faith in Christ and thereby pardons their
means to God's Glory for that is no means which destroys the End and is repugnant to it Indeed the damned in Hell do will and desire their own Annihilation but not as a means to God's Glory for that is a holy and regular Will and Desire but no holy and regular Will can be in the damned Moses and Paul could not without Sin wish to themselves eternal Pain and more than barely Temporal For eternal Pain consists in implacably hating and being hated of God eternal Self-tormenting Anguish for Sin and the never-dying Worm This no Man in his right Wits can wish to himself 4. Man's chief End is not to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever This indeed is Man's Duty but Duty as such is not the chief End but eternal Felicity as the Reward of Duty Christ as Man when on Earth did perfectly glorify God and had Fruition of him in perfect Love and yet he was not in Joy and Felicity when in his Agony and upon the Cross but in the way to it and for the Joy and Felicity set before him as his supream End he endured the Shame and Sorrow of the Cross Heb. 12.2 Now what is not the supream End in one instant can in no instant be it because it is the same for ever Those in Hell do against their Will for ever glorify God by bearing his just Vengeance for Sin. We glorifying God through Faith by sincere Obedience on Earth God's Promise is to reward and crown us with eternal Blessedness in Heaven And it is this and this only which is the chief End and supream Good of Man as comprizing all Good in one beyond which nothing is desirable 5. God is not loved at all unless he be loved incomparably Tho he be good better and best yet not in a way of strict Comparison but in a transcendent Sense wherein words are to serve things and not things words Indeed ungodly Men are said to love Pleasures more than God. But the meaning thereof is not that they love God a little and Pleasures more but they love Pleasures with all their Heart and God but as subservient Now God as subservient to Lust and Pleasure is not God but an Idol and Idolatry is not Love but ungodly Lust As Happiness means Ease Pleasure and freedom from Pain Misery and troublesom Want so all Men naturally desire to be happy But as Happiness means beholding God's Face in Righteousness and being satisfied with his Likeness Psal 17.15 So it is wholly supernatural known and desired of none in this World save only the Regenerate through Faith in Christ Men ungodly neglect so great Salvation and say unto God Depart from us Heb. 2.3 Job 21.14 The Heaven and Happiness desired by them is a sensual Paradise and perpetual Epicurism this really is not Heaven and Happiness but a Lust or Idol clothed with the name of Heaven and Happiness The sincere desire of Grace as such is not the Grace desired but it is an infallible proof of a gracious and godly Man as being accompanied with sincere Performance and Endeavour and is indeed it self holy Reformance before God. There is in God delight to Love Deut. 10.15 and in all blessed Saints and Angels and there is in all true Saints on Earth sincere desire to love God perfectly but no such thing as love to love this is not true Love but adulterous Lust He that loves to love doth not love God but himself No godly Man dare Sin For he that dare Sin is presumptuous and treads Conscience under Foot. The least degree of true Godliness and holy Love to God doth sincerely yet not perfectly mortify hate expel and war against all Sin and desires to be by Grace sinless and impeccable A Person may sincerely love God and yet through errour and mistake say he doth not and may have godly Assurance and yet complain as if he had none Psal 77.10 Psal 22.10 1 Cor. 12.15 16. CHAP. X. Of the Image of God. 1. CHrist considered as God is the essential substantial and increated Image and Form of God the Father by Nature not by Grace Christ considered as Man exalted at God's right Hand is by Grace not by Nature the Image of Himself as God Equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost in a special and peculiar Sense above all both Angels and Men and yet he is but one Image of God rightly conceived as he is but one Christ Phil. 2.6 Col. 1.15 Heb. 1.3 9 13. The Divine Essence as it is in God the Father begetteth the Divine Essence as it is in God the Son Yet will it not hence follow that there are two Divine Essences but only that the Divine Essence as it is in God the Father unbegotten is not the Divine Essence as it is in God the Son begotten Which is certainly true For Unbegotten and Begotten are eternally divers and distinct This eternal Generation of God the Son is not a Work of God but it is the Nature of God the Father and had been if there had never been Work of God. God the Father is not Autotheos of and from Himself and therefore God the Son is not God simply is and cannot but be and simply to be is to be God. Exod. 3.14 The Creature simply is not but the Creature as such is dependent on God and as compared with him it is as Nothing yea less than Nothing and Vanity Isa 40.17 18. Sin indeed is absolutely simply and eternally of it self exceeding sinful Joh. 8.44 Rom. 7.13 But God is not Sin. He is simply First and simply First is from none 2. As to Life Temporal ungodly Men as Men are the Image of God no less than godly Men. Thence Murder is so great a Sin because thereby contrary to the Law and Light of Nature the Image of God in Man as to this present Life is extinct a living Man is turned into a dead Corpse and no 〈…〉 dead can be the Image of the living God Gen. 9.6 As to Life 〈…〉 eavenly Conversation by Faith only godly Men and Women 〈…〉 Image of God and ungodly Persons are the Image of the Devil As to Conjugal Society the Husband is the Image and Glory of God and not the Wife he being her Head 1 Cor. 11.3 7. In respect of natural Generation Parents are the Image of God and not Children In respect of domestical Rule and Government Masters are the Image of God and not Servants In respect of earthly Soveraignty Kings and supream Civil Rulers are the Image of God and not Subjects Saints Triumphant as Triumphant and by Grace impeccable are the Image of God so as Saints Militant are not Damned Men as Men and intellectual Beings are against their Will the Image of God for ever because they do against their will fulfil God's Law by bearing the eternal Penalty thereof due for their Sin. 3. The Soul is truly a Spiritual Substance and yet truly material not to our bodily Senses outwardly
Principal is that by Faith in the Hearts of all the Regenerate in various Degrees and there is no other Special and Principal Divine Revelation since Adam's Fall. Eph. 1.17 and 4.5 2 Cor. 4.13 2 Pet. 1.1 4. Fundamental Truth is not by way of Number but by way of holy Likeness to God who is simply one and simply one is above Number and not reducible to it The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are three truly divers and distinct yet not three by way of Number Order and Dependence common to us and Heathens but by way of unsearchable Diversity not to be understood savingly without Christian Faithâ— which Heathens have not They who hold that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son do not mean that he proceedeth from them as from two Firsts for there cannot possibly be two Firsts in God Rev. 22.13 And they who hold that he proceedeth only from the Father do yet hold that he is by Nature very and eternal God and the Spirit of the Son and that the Son doth from the Father send the Holy Ghost the Comforter This supposed the Difference seems to be but in Word and not in Substance of Matter 5. It is evident from Job 13.7 Heb. 1.1 2 3. and from the Nature of the thing that there is the Person of God. For God is an intelligent Being though infinitely intelligent and increated and every intelligent Being must needs be a Person Gen. 14.21 Jon. 4.11 Numb 31.28 Now they who hold that the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are three distinct Persons do yet hold that they are but one God. And if they who hold that as they are but one God so they are but one Person do yet hold that the Person of God the Father unbegotten and not incarnate as such is not the Person of God the Son begotten and incarnate in my opinion they both hold the same fundamental and necessary Truth and do but differ in Word The common School-Doctrine that in the Trinity there is alius alius but not aliud aliud And in Christ aliud aliud but not alius alius I conceive to be an Errour For aliud aliud must needs mean either Contrariety or Diversity If it mean Contrariety then it is false that there is Contrariety in Christ If it mean Diversity then it is false that there is not Diversicy in the Trinity So the common distinction of the Works of God within God and without God ad intra adextra is certainly an Errour For every Work of God is an effect simply dependent upon his free Pleasure Eph. 1.11 But no dependence can be in God all in God is simply independent And as there cannot be a Creature without a Creator so there cannot possibly be a Work of God without God Joh. 1.3 And look as it is said of his own Will God begat us Jam. 1.18 So equally it may be said of his own Will he made all Things and themfore not of Nothing For God's Will is not nothing but it is the prime Cause and the prime Cause is superlatively material to our Faith. CHAP. XX. Of Sin and particularly of the Sin against the Holy Ghost 1. SIN is the Transgression of the Law the Wages whereof according to legal Justice is eternal Damnation or it is the Undoing of Body and Soul for ever in Hell if God's Grace in Christ prevent not by giving Repentance and Pardon Look as all in God is God so all in Sin is Sin. With respect to human Judicature Sin is an Effect and Man's Will is the true Cause of it With respect to Divine Judicature it is no Esfect and therefore it can have no Cause but all that sin transgress without Cause Psal 25.3 Joh. 15.25 As to human Judicature Sin is an Accident a thing that comes to pass in time and is distinct from Man's natural Substance and is truly evitable As to Divine Judicature it is no Accident For from Eternity it was future it hath Dominion over the Ungodly and as never repented of it abides in the Conscience for ever and breeds the never-dying Worm This cannot be affirmed of an Accident quod subjecto inest quod potest adesse vel abesse absque subjecti Interitu For nothing eternal can be accidental It is one and the same thing which is both Sin and Guilt but not in the same respects Sin as pleasant ungodly Men do naturally love but as Guâ—lt doth intrinsecally go along with Sin and gripe their Conscience and fill them with legal Terrour so they do naturally hate and flee from it They love Sin but not Hell. 2. The Holy Ghost in Scripture is taken two ways either for God the Holy Ghost and so we are baptized in his Name Or for an Effect produced by him Hereof there are two Kinds principal and subservient principal is that Divine and Holy Nature which God doth plant in the Hearts of all the Regenerate in the instant of their Pardon and Justification by Faith. Eph. 1.13 14. The Holy Ghost in this Sense none of those now in Hell did at any time partake of Considered as a subservient Effect so it was eminently poured forth on the Apostles upon the day of Pentecost and was common in that first Age of the Christian Church It consisted in the Gift of Tongues of Healing of casting out of Devils and other miraculous Distributions The Holy Ghost in this Sense many never Regenerate might partake of and afterward totally fall away perish eternally And this for ought I know is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in that much controverted Scripture Heb. 6.4 5 6. compared with Mat. 7.22 23. and 12.24 to 32. Act. 2. and 8.17 and 10.44 45 46. and 19. 2 3 4 5 6. Luk. 10.20 Joh. 7.39 3. The Sin against the Holy Ghost is therefore simply unpardonable because the Person guilty of it is justly forsaken of God given up to a reprobate Sense to final Obduration in Sin and to strong Delusion to believe a Lie and so he cannot but be finally impenitent and incurably graceless It seems to be a Degree of that kind of implacable Enmity against God and his holy Image which is in the Devil himself The Devils believe and tremble they cannot but have an inward Sense and Conviction that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World and the Judg of all both quick and dead and that the Religion contained in the Bible and sincerely professed by Abel Moses Peter Paul and the rest of the Elect in all Ages is the only true Religion And yet being eternally forsaken of God and left to themselves they have no power evangelically to repent they cannot but implacably hate God and his holy Image blaspheme his Truth and pure Religion and endeavour the utter Extinction of it and the eternal Ruin of every Man. 4. I was before a Blasphemer and a Persocuter and Injurious But I obtained Mercy because I did it ignorantly in Vnbelief 1 Tim. 1.13 This implies that had he done it wilfully and knowingly against the inward Belief and Conviction of his Conscience his Case had been very perilous In my Opinion the safest and easiest way to understand what is the Sin against the Holy Ghost is to make the Devil himself the Standard of it Though all ungodly Persons be the Children of the Devil yet as they are not all Atheists Murderers Adulterers Sodomites Perjured Traitors so they are not all guilty of the Sin against the Holy Ghost They who make Conscience of their ways and fear to sin against God may be sure they have not committed this unpardonable Sin. They who have been convinced and perswaded of God's true Religion and have solemnly covenanted and engaged their Souls to God in Christ Jesus and have professed the way of Truth if afterward they shall renounce the true Religion and blaspheme it and persecute the sincere Professourâ— of it and shall suffer themselves to be deluded so as to believe Lies contrary to the true Religion I think the Case of such is very perilous 5. We are to pray for all Men now living and that shall live hereafter but not for those whom we know to have committed the Sin against the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 5.16 For the Rule of Prayer is not God's unsearchable Prescience what will be but God's Law obliging us to love our Neighbour as our selves and in Token thereof to pray for him while there is any Hope Now of all Ungodly Men while in the World there is humaâ— Hope which is a kind of middle State between the Godly in whom is Divine Hope of Salvation and the Damned in Hell and Persons guilty of the Sin against the Holy Ghost of whom there can be no Hope at all As for such as teach that we must pray for all sorts of Men but not for all of every sort pro generibus singulorum sed non pro singulis generûm it seems to be vain deceit Col. 2.8 For bare Generals as distinct from all the Individuals and Particulars is a meer Chimera Christ as Man prayed for all and in this he is our Patern Christ as God the Son incarnate did not pray for all but did omnipotently intercede for those only whose Salvation was future and for none else so as for them In this he is not our Paternbut infinitely above us Joh. 17.9 20. Luk. 23.34 FINIS ERRATA Pag. 6. line 39. read Counterprice P. 22. l. 27. r. Exigencies P. 25. l. 21. r. these P. 27. l. 39. f. Decree r. Graece P. 28. l. 8. r. to P. 29. l. 2. r. indelibly P. 32. l. 2 1. Index P. 34. l. 17. r. principal and. P. 37. l. 26. r. which makes
Men specially of them that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 3. Christ considered as God hath no Office but is above Office yet not contrary to it Christ considered as Man hath indeed an Office and but one From his Conception to his Birth thence to his Death Burial and Resurrection thence to his Ascension and Sitting at God's right Hand in Glory thence to his coming to judg the World all this is but one entire office of Christ as Man admitting of just Conception but no Division His Office as Man is to be subservient to himself as God in the work of Redemption this one comprizeth all 4. Christ as Man obedient unto Death is our Pattern and Example a real Martyr and the Prince of Martyrs he discharged his own Debt and Duty and not ours and evangelically merited for himself not for us all that Glory and Reward which as Man he hath for ever at God's right Hand Christ considered as God incarnate is not our Pattern nor a Martyr but infinitely above us he is our Lord and our God our Saviour and Redeemer our Ransom and Atonement for Sin through Faith our All in all he merited nothing for himself but all for us Without shedding of Blood is no Remission And therefore Christ as Man died for Sins yet not his own but ours not as deserving his Death but as deserving our Death and he as Man in obedience to God and out of love to us died for us one Man for all Men as fallen in Adam and so became a Propitiation and Counterprize for the Sin of the whole World yet not without Faith For he that believeth not makes God a Lyar is condemned already and God's Wrath abideth on him 1 Joh. 5.10 Joh. 3.18 36. The obedience of Christ was not two active and passive but simply one as Christ is one As to Eternity the opposition is not between active and passive but between active and idle passive and being at ease Christ as Man nailed to the Cross and pierced with a Spear was invisibly active for God and our eternal Good and not idle And yet in the fame instant he was visibly passive in great pain and not at ease His Death was indeed the most eminent proof of his obedience to God and love to us But still it was obedience and therefore pleasing to God and truly meritorious because it was so For no suffering of Man as distinct from obedience can please God and profit the Soul and merit heavenly Reward 5. Had God not saved fallen Man at all he had done him no wrong but then he had been conscious to himself of going contrary to his own eternal Purpose For from Eternity God the Son was purposed to permit the Fall of Man to be incamate and as Man to dye for Sin and so to enter into Glory and thus to save fallen Man by Christ through Faith and not otherwise This supposed God could not but save fallen Man this only way and yet he thus saved him most freely and willingly and not as constrained and under Law to a Superior And the true reason why the Incarnation doth not change and compound God is because it is the exact fulfilling of his own eternal Purpose Which Purpose if he had not in time fulfilled then indeed he had been changed and compounded of Yea and Nay and had not been himself Yea and Amen the same for ever 2 Cor. 1.17 18 19 20. Eph. 3.9 10 11. The work of Christ as Mediator is to reconcile Sinners to God. When this is fully done and all Sin is for ever abolished and God and Men are no longer two divided by Sin but one in perfect Love then shall the Mediatorship of Christ cease and have an end as being fully accomplished As when the Wound is perfectly healed there is no further need of Plaisters The change is not in Christ but in us 1 Cor. 15.24 25 26 27 28. CHAP. IV. Of the Nature of God. 1. WE cannot rightly conceive of God without diversity and distinction and we may admit of no diversity and distinction repugnant to infinite Unity and Perfection Unity and Diversity are well consistent but not Unity and Division 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. God is for ever good to those in Heaven yet just but not severe And he is for ever severe to those in Hell yet just but not good For the opposition is not between Goodness and Justice nor between Severity and Justice but between Goodness and Severity Rom. 11.22 Therefore the divine Goodness as such is not the divine Severity Nor the divine Severity as such the divine Goodness They are most really and not chymerically truly and not feignedly eternally and not temporally divers and distinct and thus all in God is not God. But then what is Goodness to those in Heaven through God's abundant Grace in Christ the same is Severity to those in Hell through their own Sin And what is Severity to those in Hell through their own Sin the same is Goodness to those in Heaven through God's abundant Grace in Christ and thus all in God is God without accident parts and composition and he is truly all in all Not as excluding the Creature and subordinate Causes but the Creature and subordinate Causes as such consist by and depend on God and yet they add nothing to him they do not make him more wise holy just good powerful perfect blessed Of Him through Him and to Him are all things He is simply perfect and unto what is simply perfect there can be no addition God cannot be beholden to us 2. God is a pure Act eternally active and in no instant idle and God being one the divine Act must needs be one Creation Sustentation Gubernation of Angels and Men Incarnation Redemption Regeneration Justification and the like these are neither immanent nor translent Acts of God but Effects produced by God after the Counsel of his own Will which is the same for ever and can have no new Act. The things produced by God are numberless in them is Order Succession Priority and Posteriority dependence of one thing upon another But in God by whom they are unsearchably produced there is no Number no Order no successive Moments and Instants nothing before and after no dependence at all but unsearchable Unity Diversity Eternity Independency Truth Simplicity Goodness Perfection and Excellency above Number Order Time and all that we can conceive yet not repugnant thereto Angels and Men are dependent Beings and not having Blessedness in themselves they go out of themselves by heavenly Self-denial and seek it in God in whose good Will and Pleasure they rest and terminate as their beginning and end their all in all and so they are happy But God being simply independent true and Truth it self cannot deny and go out of himself for any thing that he hath a mind to effect It is but his Omnipotent Word let this or that be and it is when and how he would have it
but to our Faith inwardly For the Opposition is not between Spiritual and Material but between Spiritual and Carnal 1 Cor. 3.1 and 9.11 Rom. 15.27 Spiritual Invisible and Eternal Things are incomparably and transcendently Material they are the Matters of God and of greatest Consequence and Importance to our Souls through Faith. The Soul is not the Form of Man but the Body is the Form of Man and the Soul is the quickening Life and Spirit In beholding a Corpse and dead Man we behold the Form and Appearance of Man but we do not behold the Soul. The Soul is the Image of God and therefore it cannot consist in a dead Form. Rom. 2.20 2 Tim. 3.5 4. Soul and Body are truly distinct as Principal and Instrumental the inward and the outward Man but they are not two essential and compounding Parts of Man. For Man is the Image of God who being without Parts and Composition so must needs be his Image As all in God is God so all in the Image of God is the Image of God. Every Man as to his natural Substance is simply a Man and not a Brute and therefore he must needs be uncompounded For to be simply a Man and yet compounded is a Contradiction Indeed the Body by it self consists of many Parts It will not therefore follow that it is onely one Part of Man. For if it be one only it is not many Gal. 3.16 As to Life Eternal the Soul is the Man not as excluding the Body but the Welfare of the Body is bound up in the Eternal Welfare of the Soul. If the Soul be safe all is safe If that be lost all is lost and the Man is undone for ever As to Life Temporal the Body is the Man not as excluding the Soul but as it is in and by the Body that Man doth visibly live and converse on Earth as a Man and not a Brute and the Body being dead the Man is dead as to this present Life And therefore not one Part of Christ but Christ Himself in respect of his Body was crucified dead buried and lay in the Grave Come see the place where the Lord lay Mat. 28.6 5. Every Artificial Image of Christ as God is an Idol and every Artificial Image of Christ as Man is Superstition and if adored then it is Idolatry Christ as Man is holy and Holiness may not be set forth by a dead Image or Picture Only holy Men and Women in this World as holy are the Image of Christ as he is Man. Rom. 8.29 Any other Image of Christ as Man is a lie and not the Image of Christ Christ is truly a Man but withal a special Man differing in kind from all other Men because he only is by miraculous Conception in the Womb of a Virgin He only is the Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World He only as Man is exalted at God's right Hand above all both Angels and Men They may be set forth by an Artificial Image or Picture but so may not Christ as Man. The only true setting forth of Christ as Man is by the Word and Sacraments through Faith because as Man he differs in specie in kind from all other Men. CHAP. XI Of the Church and Commonwealth 1. THE Holy Catholick Church which we believe as distinct from the elect Angels consists of the whole number of God's Elect in all Ages not as exclusive of what is good and commendable in Hypocrites Hereticks Apostates and Heathens but as liking and loving all that is good and lovely in whomsoever This Church began in penitent Adam and Eve they two were the first Church of the redeemed Upon the increase and multiplication of new Converts and Souls regenerate more were added to the Church successively like as when an Infant is born into the World there is one more added to the Society of Mankind Acts 2.47 The Apostles Commission was not to make a new Church differing in substance from what had been before and was in being at the time of Christ's Ascension but to preserve that Church which he left on Earth and by Apostolical Preaching and Endeavours to enlarge and add to it and so to make Jew and Gentile one in Christ Jesus Outward Variations suited to the Exegencies of the Church in its Militant State do not alter the intrinsecal Nature Essence and Unity of the Church which is the same for substance in all Ages But because Abel is the first who died in Faith and of whose Righteousness there is express mention therefore the Holy Catholick Church is fitly reckoned from him 2. The Church and Commonwealth are not two independent Societies but the Church as such is a holy Commonwealth simply dependent upon God through Christian Faith as to Life eternal And upon the Prince as sole Supream under God over all in his Dominions as to Life Temporal and Coercive rule by the Sword. Look as Homo being a Man includes Animal being a Living Creature So the Church includes human Society as being nothing but Mankind sanctified by Faith in Christ The Power and Authority of Christ as Man exalted at God's right Hand over all is simply dependent upon God And therefore all the Power and Authority of the Church must needs be simply dependent ministerial and subordinate and whatsoever Church claims to it self Power simply independent by that very claim it is proved to be Anti-christian that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition who exalts himself above God and above the Prince his Vice-gerent on Earth 2 Thess 2.3 4. 3. The Church is not two Universal and Particular Invisible and Visible but the Church is simply one as God is one admitting of just Conception but no Division It is one Whole or Universal as comprizing all the Parts But one Whole or Universal as distinct from all the Parts is only Notion and Conceit as a Man in the Moon or Castle in the Air a meer Chimera We see those Men and Women who are the Church Militant but that which makes them the Church Militant we do not see but believe The Church is plain and manifest to those who believe as the Sun at Noon-day is to seeing Men But he who believeth not makes God a Lyar 1 Joh. 5.10 and God being made a Lyar the Church must needs be made a Lyar too 4. It will not stand with Christian Faith Hope and Love to live divided in Heart and Conversation from any the least Member of Christ and true Christian who is evidently and apparently so so far as Man can judg We cannot be more holy than God more pure then Christ Whom he receives we are to receive or we cannot expect to be received by him The Communion of Saints is an Article of Faith unalterably fixed by God as to the substance of it and it consists in Christian Faith Hope and Love These are to the Church and every Member thereof what the Soul is to the Body But saving Christian Faith Hope and