land which is here alluded unto to set forth that abundant supply and furniture to be found in this our appeale which yeeldeth unto us through Gods appointment without humane help all those liberties priviledges riches and rest which anciently have appertained unto the Sonne of the eternall God So that however we may go forth of the things of this life as weeping in the eyes of the world like men in the time of sowing parting with all their store and provissions of temporary things even as the people parted with the glory of the carnall temple when they went down into Babylon yet we know that those which bear the precious seed or as the word imports used by the Psalmist the purchased seed such shall returne with shouting joyfulnesse bringing their sheaves with them They then that have their lap filled with Ruth in the parting from their native country to follow that motherly Naomy being increased with the increasings of God in the diminutions of all humane and Moabitish preferments and excellencies who have found the harvest and more of the full years of corne in Canaan to exceed all the thin ears in the land of Aegypt And how that vintage which rejoyceth the heart of God and man excels and surpasseth the Vines of Sod me and the grapes of Gomorah such as make merry in the Lord being joyfull and triumphant in his salvation as Israel was in his coming out of the red Sea or as the word imports the Sea of Edom adversary to Israel though near unto him in their first originall When Moses and the men of Israel sung so triumphantly with Mirriam and the damsels answering thereunto with sollem pompe in that happy returne of the Captaine of Israel from the victory and slaughter in breaking the head of that Leviathan and giving him to be meat for the people in the wildernesse such as are merry with this kinde of mirth and in such causes they onely are the parties unto whom this direction belongs Let him sing The word let is of like force as is before explained giving virtue and existance to the mellody of a song in the soule of him in whom this mirth is found and by the word sing is comprehended also playing on instruments dancing or any joyfull activity or acclamation So that all such as have made their lawfull appeal as congruous to that law of the spirit from the judgment and determination of the wisdom of man unto that which only consists in the wisdome and device of God in Christ They receive such plenty thereby and skill for the use and exercise thereof that they become expert in handling all those organs iustruments and exercises of joy and triumph which appertaine and belong to that spiritual Tabernacle and Temple which God builds and not man so as to proclaime and set forth that harmony and melodious consort and agreement unto the world which is between God and man in that faith of Jesus Christ Which is the song of old Simeon Mary and Elizabeth Deborah and Barack and of all the Saints of God from the beginning untill now For there is none that can appeal unto God in prayer removing the cause from carnall reason into his wisdome holding a holy plea in opening the necessities of mankinde unto God carrying up and giving true intelligence of the same unto him but that man whatever he be can also bring down and distribute unto the world the true state and condition of the Son of God who is the subject matter of the Gospel and give undoubted intelligence of that peace and plenty which is in the kingdome of God uttering and declaring how good the Lord is in Jesus Christ Note then from this point as a conclusion thereof That the true spirit of prayer and supplication and the spirit of Prophesie and interpretation are never seperated never were nor never shall be but are of an eternall unity and conjunction in the faith of Christ and hence it is that the Elders and instructors of the Church are brought in as having the spirit of prayer to pray for the Church in the next Verse following Vers 14. Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him annointing him with oyle in the name of the Lord. Wherein we have to consider first a proposition and secondly the answer thereunto in the proposition observe 1. A disease Is any among you sick 2. The practice of the party diseased as part of the answer and that is to call for the Elders of the Church Then consider in the rest of the answer or direction the practice of the Elders that is threefold 1. To pray over him 2. To annoint him with oyle 3. The manner how that is in the name of the Lord. 1. FOr the first namely the proposition If any be sick among you This is not spoken in way of supposition but in way of certainty and as taken for granted and by sicknesse we are not to understand onely a distemper of the body no nor yet some certaine sorrow greif or disquiet of the minde which the word may seem to import but we are to take it as large as Joseph did when he heard that his father was sick he presently takes his two sons unto him as giving him up for dead to be blessed in his death and departure for it is in this case as it was with Hezekiah when he was sick unto death which if he had not been his life had never been renewed as it was and as his life was restored through the spirit of prophesie in Isajah so here the life of the sick is restored by the spirit of prayer in the Elders and as the spirit of prayer was in Hezekiah else had not the prophesie taken place For he turned his face to the wall and prayed Even so is the spirit of prophesie conversant in this sick party or else the prayer of the Elders cannot be effectuall which spirit of prophesie appears in his calling for the Elders as foreseeing health to arise out of that speciall appointment and ordination of the wisdome of God And as a miraculous signe was given at the recovery of Hezekiah namely the Sun going back ten degrees in the dyall of Ahaz that wicked King to declare that the light and wisdome of the world by which the men thereof rule and reigne over their brethren goeth directly backward and contrary to that sun of righteousnesse light and wisdome proper unto the Saints and that it is for ever so to be considered is signified by those ten degrees which number hath the mystery of eternity taught in it for so Moses doth expound it saying a bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord unto the tenth generation which in the next verse he concludes to be for ever Even so here is the signe of the holy unction given to this sick party to signifie his reception from the dead even as Abraham
power of the resurrection from the dead as it is said the Lord shall raise him up there is in prayer a Lord-like authority to rise out of that grave of sin and sorrow of death and destruction so as none shall have dominion over it to keep it under for it cannot be held of death but it will remove the stone from the Sepulchre and deface and break open the seal of Herod himselfe though set upon it by the cheif Preists and Pharisees making it as sure as they can it will make the house of the carnall Jews to shake when the Apostles of Christ are gathered together or brought into unity and harmony by that reconciling spirit of interpretation It will make the foundations of the Prison to shake where the spirit of our great Apostle is infringed casting open the doors and laying wast such power to the astonishment of the Jaylors themselves whoever they may be yea it will raise Peter up out of the dungeon and cause his chains to fall off from his hands to his own admiration and wonder In a word prayer hath in it the power and vertue of the resurrection because it is the breathing of the Son of God returned from death to life this word behold he prayeth was an argument sufficient to prove Paul change from a Saul and to be risen up out of that grave and puddle of the Jewish litteral and carnall worships and from that deadly spirit of persecution which ever accompanies such maner of services Thirdly prayer hath in it the power of pardon and forgivenesse of sins for if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him or in the present tence as the word will bear they are forgiven him that is to every one that partakes in this prayer of faith To commit sin here is to be understood in a two-fold respect that is negatively and affirmatively of which the breach of law being sin doth consist now to sin and prove a delinquent in omitting and not doing that which is required is to neglect and leave undone that which the carnal commandement according to the strict spirit of a Pharisee calls for such sin or missing of the rule of the carnall commandement standing in outward ordinances is here to be understood which is the onely sin condemned by a carnall Jew and this law the prayer of faith doth rout ravell undo and abrogate with respect unto the obligation thereof in the true intent of a Pharasaical Jew And against this law doth true prayer sin in all its supplications intercessions and requests for the prayer of faith observes not in the least in any point that law of the spirit of bondage which onely obligeth to the law of the flesh nor can it keep and perform that spirit of enmity which Christ Jesus nailes to his Crosse and slays in himselfe and therefore a sinne in a Saint in way of negation against the affirmative part of the law of the flesh Againe there is a sin committed affirmatively and that is by reall acting and doing according to the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord which the wisdome of man in that carnall law forbids and that under the penalty of errour schism heresie pride blasphemy and death it self For every point of the law of the spirit rightly composed according to the prin ciples and grounds of faith is most heinous wicked detestable sinfull and abominable in the eyes of a carnal man Now the breach disannulling and abrogating of the carnall command for which the Jewes so hated Christ is the truth of the matter the reality and ever carries in it the remission pardon and forgivenes of sins in the Saints as surely as the breach of the law of the spirit and that everlasting Covenant of God carries in it guilt crime and is the condemnation of the world For every sin and blasphemy against the Son of man that is against the wisdome will power and authority of the arme of flesh shall be forgiven or it is forgiven for it hath the acquittance general discharge and release in it self but he that speaks aagainst the holy spirit that is against that law of the spirit or spirituall estate of that holy one of God it shall never be forgiven that is he that breaks the law of the spirit in any word or thing as the phrase imports it hath in it that guilt which can never be wiped out neither in this world that is in time present nor in the world or time that is to come or not in this world that is in the conscience of the party so made guilty nor in the world to come that is in that sentence of the righteous Judge which doth for ever adjudg and condemn it so that as the breach of the spiritual law hath in it an eternall guilt unseperably and enevitably fastned unto it and accompaning the same even so hath the breach or abrogation of the carnall law an everlasting pardon and acquittance before God fastned unto and ever accompaning the same Note in this point that the Levitical law which the Apostle apposeth to the law of an endlesse life doth not condemn because men fall short in some particulars of the fulfilment of the same but it condemns and is death unto him that walks according to the same or lives thereafter Therefore our Apostle saith If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that is if yee live according to the law of the carnall commandement for by it no flesh can be justified or if yee minde the things of the flesh that is as the word signifies if ye frame form or fashon things unto your selfe according to the carnall command art or reason of man concerning the affairs of God it is death but to live after the spirit that is the law of the spirit or spirituall law is life and peace or to minde the things of the spirit that is to form frame and fashion things spiritually that is life and peace and as the one of these is sin according to mans wisdome and his accounts even so is the other sin according to Gods wisdome and his reckoning and account judgement and doom passed upon it by an eternall and unchangeable sentence There is pardon then and power of forgivenesse in prayer because it is God that sitteth upon that throne of grace judging unto justification who then shall condemn for it the spirit of grace and supplication whereof prayer doth consist yea it is the Son of God who is justified who then shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen that holy one of God For wherever the spirit and vertue of Christ is there is power to forgive sins therefore he saith to stop the mouth of those legall Pharisees whether is it easier to say thy sins are forgiven or to say take up thy bed and walke but that you may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive sins on earth therefore I said
dust that it cannot yeeld fruit his ascending up into heaven in a fiery Chariot The spirit of God is pleased to commend all his honourable deeds unto the world in this one act of prayer to stand and to be as his memoriall for ever Prayer therefore is garnished with all the ornaments of a Prophet oâ— God and cannot be lesse then a most honcurable monument and memorizing of the Saints where-ever it is found extant 2. Prayer hath all the vertues and ornaments of Priest-hood in it Never was Aaron fitted and adorned with greater variety of vestments and vertues to minister before God in the holy place and according to the variety and change of the multitude of sacrifices and offerings then the spirit of prayer contayns in it and according to occasion puts on and brings forth when the vertue power of our great high Priest after the order of Melchisedech is brought in it is all summed up in the spirit of prayer as he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech who in the dayes of his flesh when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares unto him or in him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that which be feared That is he was heard in all things or for the accomplishment and bringing to passe all things that concern life and salvation Now that all things that concern the Kingdome of God is involved in this prayer is thus proved The word translated feared is in the Greek dispaired about which men have much contended how it may be said of Christ But the thing is really and substantially to be considered though men do wrest and bend mince and strayn the word to suit it to humane reason For it is as true that the Son of God in and by the spirit of the world and principles proper to humane wisdome doth dispair and relir quish all hope and expectation of being delivered or set at liberty from that infinite wrath and displeasure of Almighty God as it is true that the son of sorry man is in and by the spirit of God and principles proper to the wisdome of God established and confirmed in the love power truth righteousnesse and glory of God and of his Kingdome everlastingly If men be ignorant hereof how Christ is said to feare or dispayr in all things they may talk of eternall life but they know not how a creature can live eternally and be possessor of all things Want of this knowledg breeds your Mortallists that know not by vertue of what the soule becomes eternall either in life or death as also your Generallists that say God will save all whereas there may be as reall and undenyable arguments used upon like ground that God will destroy all and so they must be left to the height of their doctrine which will amount to no more then the condition of a beast yet doth it make them such men as it had been good for them they had never been born For the rest that have gotten a tract of salvation and damnation by tradition from schools books naturall phylosophy and observation not having the knowledg of the nature of this Priest-hood comprized in the spirit of intercession They believe such things but they must not be curiously searcht into that is we cannot know them of these we say as the mind without knowis not good so these mens faith is dead For wilt thou know oh empty man that faith without works is dead For the spirit of God never works in way of life but in its own light therefore ignorance in any point must be voyd of the work of faith and so of the saving vertue that is in the life of Christ But prayer comprehending the whole Priest-hood of Christ is a work of that honour and power as to memorize the name of a Saint for ever and to set him up as a monument of the wisdome and mercy of God 3. Prayer is a work that comprehends the Kingly authority of Christ for when the Apostle Paul had shaken off the traditions and rudiments of the carnall Jew the power of the high Priest in that prosecuting spirit of binding and imprisoning all that were of the way of Jesus calling on the name of the Lord and when the Lord would proclaim him and make it manifest that he was a chosen vessell fitted to beare his name or carry his authority before the Gentiles Kings and the children of Israel Yea when he would put all that honour upon him which the Psalmist foretells saying There is little Benjamine their ruler the head of the Tribe a Prince of God he comprehends and concludes all in this act of prayer to give satisfaction to Annanias behold he prayeth As if he should say it is enough to know that miraculous change from Saul unto Paul from the service of the Synagogue of the Jewes to be a ruler over Kings the Gentiles and children of Israel for the name of God is by his word advanced over all which he was to beare this is sufficient to give satisfation to all Behold he prayeth So that none can deny a Princely spirit of power and authority where the spirit of prayer bears sway and a princely excellency is of honour sufficient to eternize the record of a Christians name 4. There is in prayer the power of victor or a victorious renown consisting of the noblest conquest that ever was Jacob by prayer overcame the man that wrestled or combated with him which man is said to be an Angell but it is the Angell that blest him in the way and therefore is declared to be God for Jacob said I have seen God face to face in which act of prayer his name is changed from Jacob to Israel to declare a prince-like promise in prevailing with God as the Prophet explayns his name and act saying And by his strength he had power with God yea he had power over the Angell and prevailed he wept and made supplication hee found him in Bethel and there spake with us or in us for if the spirit of God had not spoke in our father Jacob and so in all of his race he had never prevailed Was ever the like Conquest made as to overcome omnipotency which could never be but through the requests of his owne spirit which he cannot deny but must yeeld himself over thereunto Prayer therefore consists of a combate which ever hath conquest therefore of sufficient honour and renown to memorize a Saint who-ever he be that exerciseth the design and skill thereof 5. Prayer hath salvation contained in it nay it is salvation For whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved or in the present tense as the word will admit is saved for he that thinks he knows Christ any otherwise then in the vertue of an office exercised in such a subsistance or by such a manner or subsisistance exercised in
SALTMARSH Returned from the Dead In Amico Philalethe OR The RESURRECTION of JAMES The Apostle Out of the Grave of Carnall Glosses for the Correction of the universall Apostacy which cruelly buryed him who yet liveth Appearing in the comely Ornaments of his Fifth Chapter in an Exercise June 4. 1654. Having laid by his grave Clothes in a despised Village remote from ENGLAND but wishing well and heartily desiring the true prosperity thereof John 11. 25. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert and are to be sold at the black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1655. To my honoured and beloved friends in London who in a solitary season in that populous Citie were so great refreshment unto me by their undeserved society WHereas of late I received letters from som of you wherein I read that name which is as an oyntment poured out causing the parties to whom it appeares to fall in love therewith carrying in it a spirit which can produce a reall presence where there is an absence in bodily respects and that not only in respect of divine nature simply considered but also in point of Christian relations and respects which is never destitute of humane considered therein and conversant therewith otherwise the goings forth of the spirits of the Saints could not be peculiar and distinct from that of the wicked which the divine and omnipotent power reachethalso Therefore the Saints communicate in prayers intercessions supplication giving of thanks so as a stranger cannot intermeddle therewith nor with their joy arising there-from And whereas some of you requested mee to write unto you concerning the opening of a portion of the word of God which some years agoe urged my spirit and put me into travell to bring forth but Satan hindered Your letters visited me immediately upon the employment of my spirit in another portion of the word of God which was then the proper strength I walked by which made me to think it might be a refreshment unto you which I could not lay aside till God opened another into which I might enter Neither could wee depart from that place till the cloud removed in-so-much that I was forcibly constrained to employ my selfe about the instruments and services of the Tabernacle to bring the sight thereof unto your selves in the first place And so made bold to set upon the writing of it yea when others slept beeause of my daily occasions and when it was writ I was much urged to endeavour the printing of it that so it might come to more view and being it was written in hast and so would be tedious to read I consented thereto although there is nothing which I have spoken in publique since I saw your faces but I could as freely commend it unto you The occasion of the Ark pitching upon this place which me-thinks looks like Elim in this wildernes where there are twelve fountains of water and 70. Palm-trees Numb 33. 9. For our Apostle writes to the twelve Tribes out of which we may draw plenty of the water of life and there is perfection and fulness of palm trees from which you may gather plenty of branches to carry as signes of victory not only of the abatement of that deluge of wrath but also of overcoming by faith this present world for Faith is the victory whereby we do it I say the occasion of the Arke pitching on this place was this We being met together to exercise our selves in the word of God and prayer there was one who occasionally named this Chap and read some part of it in which action the scope of it seemed to open it self unto me and to deale plainly and faithfully with you my thoughts had never been formerly upon any part of it so as intending to expresse my selfe from it but only as I have read it as other histories and writings of the word of God Whereupon my spirit was moved presently to speak from it what I did receive and immediately uttered to the same effect which I have in the following lines commended unto you out of my love unto you and engagements beyond my expression moved hereunto by your loving christian-like letters joyning themselves unto me like Philip to the Chariot of the Eunuch upon the delivery of it encouraging my heart hereunto which otherwise I had not takenupon me lest it should have been thought a worke not worthy your acceptance But if you please to take the payns carefully to peruse it I doubt not but it may give occasion of further thoughts unto you then can be expressed in so small a volume it may point as with a finger unto such things as to write them the world would not contayn the books the matter being of an infinite and an eternall nature holding proportion with Melchisedech who is without beginning of dayes or end of life Therfore the world cannot contain it unto whom this Scripture as under the motion of the cloud hath brought us where we now abide Heb. 7. For other place of our abode I may not signifie unto you for some of our Neighbours have professed before the state of England that the place of our bodily aboad is a non ens that it hath no being and others have affirmed that we are no people not affording us so much as God gives to the Conies which he calls a people though a small people yet they make their abode in the Rocks and it is that rock of Ages in whom only we desire to be found to take these courtesie a patiently as we do other kindnesses under which we yet abide as in that point of banishment only for such matters as in the following speech we tender unto you Whereas you make mention of a Sermon preached from the Prophesie of Isaiah speaking of the new heavens and the new earth in the restauration of the Church from which it was concluded that such an excellent estate of Religion was to come hereafter as never yet appeared which some could not be satisfied in such Exposition or Conclusion we see it to be not onely the common doctrine but deceipt also of the world not to give Christ a present being but hold men in expectation as in the ancient Jews who when he appears seek his ruine and that is the top of that spirit By new heavens and new earth in that place we understand the state of Christ or of that holy unction or Christianity that as the visible heavens earth to which he alludes make a compleat and fruitfull world even so do God man in Christ make one durable and fruitfull condition wherein righteousness dwells as our Apostle witnesseth which according to that law of the spirit is adorned with infinitely more relations operations and vertues then all the Creations in Heaven and Earth can set forth which hee calls new not with respect unto these visible but with
way to Damascus So that we may not give these execrable things any being or time or abode in the Apostle of Christ no more then we can give unto him to be a servant of sin at that time when he saith So then in my mind I my selfe serve the law of God but in my flesh the law of sinne which things are inconsistant in one individuall subject For the word of God is an eternall word and expresseth not it selfe but with respect unto an eternall act it is not a transient and momentany thing when it saith of Christ I am a worm and no man an object a scorn a bubble a vapour a vanity a nothing to be in the belly of hell and in the heart of the earth to be shut up and cannot get out These things are not momentany expressions and transient acts for the word and work of God is no such thing according to the true and reall intent and operation thereof But they are reall manifestations and declarations of what the world hath really made of the word and wisdome of God in themselves And so are these expressions of Paul true manifestations what the condition of a carnall Jew is and how they deal with Christ the wisdome of God and ever will do in whomsoever he appears from which spirit that glorious change wrought once and for ever in Christ hath freed all the Saints and set them in the liberty of the Son of God which otherwise are no better but by nature the same with others So that it is not creation of man in being made one with God wherein blessednesse doth properly consist but it is that generative vertue of the immortall seed bringing forth unto God together with that act of conjunction whereunto true blessednesse is annexed therefore Christ is truly sayd to be made and also to be begotten For out of that act of Creation in the unity of God and man not only the wisdome of God makes it selfe manifest in giving form unto Christ the seed of the woman but also that wisdome of the creature namely of man which gives form to the Serpent who was more wise then any beast of the field which the Lord God had made And that is the seed of the Serpent so brought forth that is in consulting with the wisdome of God from humane principles This is a faithfull saying then of Paul and worthy to be embraced of all men so as to utter the same language That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chiefe For he that cannot acknowledge himselfe to be the first or chiefe of sinners that is to say in his grand Ancestor being made one in that act of Creation as he comes of the earth and so in that way of the unbeliever is the first perverter of the word of God to destruction though in himselfe in his proper subsistance in the way of the generation of the Son of God hee is once and for ever freed therefrom in that deliverance made by Christ so that it is none of his inheritance or portion otherwise no man can ever acknowledg himselfe to be blest and possessed with the first and chief righteousnesse that ever was namely that righteousnesse of God in Jesus Christ nor know himselfe to be a first-born of God an heyr of the promise and an inheritance of life that lasts for ever And so we come to the fourth part of the Chapter contayning that fruitfull and wholsome benefit which spring from the death of Christ in all true Christians the first whereof is layd downe in the next verse Vers 13. Is any among you afflicted let him pray is any merry let him sing VVHerein we are to observe a two-fold proposition layd down interrogatively together with a two-fold answer given thereunto The first whereof is this Is any among you afflicted let him pray By affliction in this place is meant diminishing or weakning as the word imports and so Pharaoh afflicted Israel in Aegypt to weaken and diminish them lest they should grow in multitude and so wax too strong for him and his people but God makes use of that his dealing with them to increase and multiply them exceedingly for that which weakens men in the worlds account proves through Gods device to be the strength and power of the Saints of God Therefore our Apostle puts us upon this question Is any among you afflicted Being that he had told them of what nature the death of the Son of God is in the godly namely to bereave and dispoil them of all the strength glory excellency and goodlinesse of man so as it becomes as the withered grosse or decayed flower of the field when the spirit of the Lord breaths upon it yea though they be weakned and diminished in all such respects so as they have nothing of that nature to trust or betake themselves unto which can stand them in any stead As if hee should say hath the Gospel and word of the Kingdome made spoyl and prize of all things among you or in you hath it routed and layd you wast of all such transitory wayes and perfunctory worships as the carnall and litterall Jewes do commonly boast themselves of and comfort and content themselves in of which Paul sayth If any man might boast of he much more circumcised the eighth day of the stocke of Israel of the tribe of Benjamine an Hebrew of Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee concerning zeale persecuting the Church and touching that righteousness which is in the law blamelesse And where shall we find a Church extant in these dayes which speaks by any other spirit then this which runs in the sincke and channell of such externall and extrinsicall institutions ordinances genealogies pharisaical righteousnesse persecuting zeale and tribe-like division of rule and government But what saith our Apostle of all these things But what things were gaine to me that is as the very wealth and riches of a carnall Jew those I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I counted all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and count them but dung that I may winne Christ And for this losse diminution or affliction our Apostle prescribes the cure and remedy in whomsoever it is suffered in this his answer given Let him pray The word Let hath a like Emphasis as that of the Creation at the beginning Let there be light and it was so and hath in it the very force and vertue of creating the spirit of prayer and intercession in that heart in which this losse diminution or affliction is found for it signifies as much as Amen so be it or so it is or so it shall be so that it fits the soule with the spirit of prayer as the world was furnished with light by the same phrase in the beginning without which spirit or breath of prayer the soule is without
life even as the world was in darknesse without the creation of light or as the body that breaths not is dead so is the soule without prayer Concerning praying therefore being so necessary unto the life of the Son of God consider 1. The signification of the word 2. How it is to be taken in this place as an answer to the interrogation or effectuall and forcible sentence To pray is to make an appeale it is an appellation or intercession for the originall word in the Hebrew tongue which the Prophets use for prayer is Hithpallel which signifies to appeale or present a mans selfe or cause to the Judg and it comes of pillel which signifies to judg or determine causes for which appeals are made 1. To pray therefore is to make our appeale from one Judgement-seate unto another that is from the judgment and determination of mans wisdome opinion and sentence to that wisdome and device of the Son of God who judgeth not as man judgeth For as farre as the heavens are higher then the arth so is the way of the judgment of God higher than all the Thrones and Judgement-seats of the sons of men therefore the Apostle tells the Corinthians that were carnall That it seemes a small thing to him to be judged of them or of mans judgment or of mans day as the word is that is by the light understanding or wisdome humane only he stands to the judgment and wisdome of God so as he judgeth not himselfe that is by his own wisdome as a man but by the wisdome and light of the spirit of God Therefore the Psalmist complayns saying Many there be that say of my soule there is no hope for him in God Selah but he appeals unto God as to his shield and the lifter up of his head but thou O Lord art a shield about me that is a defence from all adverse power set forth and signified in Absoloms conspiracy and the lifter up of my head or head-ship in setting me to be head of the people and not Absolom and that only through thy wisdome where the wisdome counsell and craft of Achitophel cannot take place prayer therefore is an appeal from one judgment-seate to another 2. Prayer is to speake or plead a cause so saith the Prophet Daniel Whilst I was speaking in prayer presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountaine of my God even while I was yet speaking the man Gabriel or the strength of God came flying vehemently and touched me It is a word or speech by which the strength of God hasts it selfe and makes speed to lay hold upon the soule So David cals it a speech saying My heart was hot within me whilst I was musing the fire burned and I spake with my tongue Lrrd make me to know mine end c. 3. Prayer is to supplicate and intreat so saith the Psalmist Return we beseech thee O God of hosts And again I beseech thee deliver my soule And again Save now I beseech thee O Lord O Lord I beseech thee send now prosperity So sayth Moses I beseech thee shew me thy glory Prayer is the office and property of a supplicant 4. Prayer is to judg and determine a cause as the word signifies therefore David saith Heare me when I call O God of my righteousnesse or justice that is of my just and righteous cause and agayn Judge me O Lord for I have walked in mine integrity I have trusted in the Lord I shall not stagger And againe Heare me when I call and answer my prayer Now for God to judg the cause of his Saints to heare prayer and to answer when they cry unto him is to give right sentence and to determine the matter which thing is not done in another state and condition but in that individuall being and state of a Christian in that Saint of Israel or holy one the judgment is not passed and sentence given of the cause and matter by or from another subsistence or being but in that subsistance and consistance of the Son of God the hearing answering judging determining and passing sentence of or upon any cause or matter presented by prayer is no further off nor at any other distance from the state and being of a Christian then the cause or matter is which is presented for they both flow from and are acts of the same spirit as man ascending in the word of God for supply and the word of God discending in man to declare its fulnesse So that there is in prayer a just appeale from the wisdome and practice of the world unto God and there is in it also an humble sute and reall act of a supplicant and intreater for favour yea and the pleading and laying open of a righteous cause before the Judge of all the earth together with the hearing answering judging determining and passing Sentence thereupon And every one of these are as really intrinsicall and of the same nearnesse to a Christian making all for his proper being and subsistance as well one of them as another neither shall he for ever be without any one of them but they shall be as an harmonious mellody in the soule or life of a Christian for ever which if we deny we hold not the unity of faith according to that compleat and mysticall body of Jesus Christ but make a fraction therein to the deviding of that holy one of God which is that state of unbeleif on which wrath abides So that when a Christian ceaseth to judge between sinne and righteousnesse between Christ and Belial when he ceaseth to discerne the difference between light and darknesse between God and the Devill then prayer shall have an end and cease in the spirit of a Christian and not till then for it is the very breath of the Sonne of God whereby he lives the life of God eternally Note from this point as it hath been often declared unto us how the prayers of the world not onely in set forms but in the more refined Preisthood fall short of the nature of the intercession of Christ who ever lives to make intercession not onely for but in us without straining of the word so that they deny the nature of the prayer and intercession of Christ in this great point of its continuation And so in like manner their doctrine must needs fall short of that message of life and salvation and so much for the signification of the word prayer 2. The second point is in what acceptation it is to be taken here and that is for an appeal implying hereby thus much as if in more words he should say have you lost all your own humane and fading excellencies in the proper life and spirit of all your earthly and momentany relations for the most honourable losse of them is when we are cut off from them in our hearts in the present injoyment of them as in covenants contracts and combinations with the creature that carnall
but is unmeasurable in all its operations whether in prayer or in prophesie for they are so neare in allyance that that which is the spirit of Prophesie in Eliah in the history in his shutting up of the heavens and restraining them from raine and also in the opening of them to give rayn in abundance is sayd here by our Apostle in this Chapter to be prayer Prayer therefore and Prophesie are of like nature and of like fame in the the house of God so that to prefer one before the other or to contayne the one harder to be attayned then the other or that one is of more use in the Church then the other is not according to the judgment of God but only in humane wisdome and the Serpents subtilty and policy that things are so carryed in the world to lead men along in blindnesse by speaking of the word of God in such unknown languages which are not to be heard in the house of God for there is no office of Christ whatsoever or exercise of his spirit that one ought to be preferred before another only the call of God makes every one chief and principall in its time and season If men would well consider this they might as well lay out money upon their children in the Schools to learn them to pray as to teach them to preach in case the Spirit of God might be bought for money But the poynt is that true Prayer and Prophesie do give and proclaym a like honour vertue and power to Christ in whomsoever he appears and they are so near a kin that the Apostle appoynts one and the same law in the exercise of them both that is in prayer and prophesie the man is to be uncovered and in prayer and prophesie the woman is to be covered And it is â—suall in Scripture to use one phrase that signifies both as in the Psalms Let God arise prayer-wise or as the word may be as truly read God will arise or God shall arise and his enemies shall be scattered prophetically The reason is because none but a Seer can be a supplicant if he behold not the thing by the spirit of interpretation or prophesie to give a true form unto it he can never sue for it because he knows not what it is To conclude this point this act of the Elders may either be taken to pray with him or prophesie with him for we see the spirit of God useth them indifferently the one for the other as in that instance of Eliah which he brings in in teaching this doctrine for the one is as healthfull and necessary for the recovery and well-being of the soule as the other and of as wonderfull and miraculous effect for remission and confirmation and cannot be in exercise by any either the one or the other but as it is accompanyed with the holy oyle even that annoynting which teacheth all things and hath no need to be taught of man that is it hath no need of humane skill which fals infinitely short of that which it brings the soule unto and instructs and teacheth it in and that leads us to the second poynt in the exercise of the Elders They annoynt him with oyle 3. This sick party therefore or all such as are dead to the law of the letter or carnall command that is to the word of God as it is formed and fashioned through the wisdome art and skill of humane principles which the Schools of Learning among the sons of men in the world are only exercised in and conversant about or else they should undermine their owne foundations and so let fall their building for Gods wisdome once layd in the descention of the Son of God overthrows it all as it comes of the Serpent and so is Satanicall folly But we must know that the Eldership of Israel consists of the first-born of God and no other unto whom the Scriptures look in the first-born of every Tribe or family of Israel to instruct us in that family which the Apostle speaks of that the whole every part thereof is named or hath its renown and authority only of and from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as Paul affirms to the Ephesians as being of no other but of his true and proper off-spring so as to make a difference of the sons of God none excepted as one being of greater eminency birth breeding or excellency then another is to cast reproach upon that one only father of whom every one is named that appertayns to that family as though he were not of like power and glory with respect unto them all or as though he changed his act in producing of his only son which tends to nothing else but to make the seed of the bond-wman heire with the seed of the promise and guil efully to give the wicked interest in the promise whereas the word of the curse is only their inheritance But the children of this off-spring having the name of this one Father called upon them or they called by his name holy and blessed for ever every one as a first-born of God bearing his name and authority is King Priest and Prophet by vertue thereof in the family and there cannot be any inferiour among such as to whom God communicates himselfe in the whole off-spring nor can one be in account and reckoning before another For of his owne will begate he us by the word of truth that we should be the first fruits of him who is no lesse then the eternall father So that it is impossible that this Eldership should appear and not be annoynted with the holy oyle for it is their proper patrimony and birth-right and therefore they ever appeare invested therewith which ever carries in it the same vertue of healing this sick party in all ages and times of the world and a like miraculous recovery and restauration where-ever they are called for by the spirit of true interpretation or prophesie for they cannot with-hold but must impart to every one in the family that which themselves are blessed withall For none can know what is the right of the first-born of God and be possessed therewith but he must freely impart it to every one in the family For the Spirit of Christ is ever like it selfe in all ages only men deceive themselves by mistake of the variety of figures wherein God in one Christ or holy annoynting commends himselfe unto us doting upon the shadow wherein the substance is wrapped up as under Moses vale and they see it not nor can endure the glory and shine thereof But to whomsoever Christ unveyles himselfe hee imparts whole and compleat salvation to every one else it cannot be the salvation of God for he or it cannot be divided and therefore the holy unction is alike shed forth to every one in this Kingdome and they that have it must of necessity annoynt every one into whose fellowship they are called according to the nature of the call of
supplicant humbly prostrates the cause in the necessity of and with respect unto supply which is the glory of its office so to doe And the suppleo yeelds relief and supplies the necessity and it is the glory of its office so to do and if either of these be wanting in a Christian spirit it subsists not because it is not the spirit of the Son of God in whom is power to forgive sins as well as to make supplication for pardon So that the glory of the speaker in prayer or pleader of the cause before the Judge of all the earth is one reall glory and the glory of the sentence passed thereupon is another real glory but both but one act of the law the glory of the speaker in prayer as Daniel calls it is to open the cause holding plea upon true principles unto the point of issue now Christ is the end and issue of the law in all points of relation and causes depending between God and man whatsoever Againe the glory of the Judge is to passe sentence according to the law in the point of issue so that the cause pleaded and Judgement given is but one act of the law which is Christ and in case either of these be wanting in a Christian he ceaseth to be that law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lordship and is become that law of sin and death So that the party praying and the party prayed unto are one in point of hypostacis and being and the party or office of prayer and the party or office of hearing or answering are twain in point of the variety in reallity of glory for God and man are compleatly in unity in them both else Christ is divided Even as it is said that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive which the Apostle affirms to be the saying of Christ though we finde no such place in Scripture in so many words so that it may seem that the whole Gospel or speech of Christ is summed up therein namely in giving and receiving as he saith to his Disciples in sending them out to preach freely you have received and freely do you give so that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive that is it is another thing a further glory a various vertue in the Sonne of God as if he should say it is a blessed thing to receive moreover or furthermore it is a blessed thing to give for the one is the blessing of giving and hath its reall and peculiar blessednesse really consisting therein and the other is the blessing of receiving and hath its reall and peculiar blessednesse really consisting therein and one of these cannot be without the other for no giver without a receiver and no receiver without a giver and each of them hath whole Christ exercised therein that only blessed one therefore as the hearingeare and the seing eye are both alike of the Lord so it is true of giving and receiving and the difference stands onely in the variety of glory even as in the three witnesses that bear record in heaven no other disproportion can be found For a naturall man can neither perceive so as to give nor effect so as to receive the things that are of God for they are spiritually to be discerned and apprehended and said hold of for none knows the things of God but the spirit of God no more then any other creature can know the spirit of a man but onely he that is of his own kinde And it is the Son of God onely that knows the father and it is the Son only that reveals him for no man knowes the father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveales him We conclude then that prayer consists of whole Christ and that both in point of petition as also in the answer otherwise it is not this prayer of faith and therefore it is that prayer is of that validity and force as to do such mighty things as are here attributed unto it As First saves the sick it hath the vertue and power of salvation annexed unto it which can be ascribed unto nothing but unto Christ alone who never was nor can be known but in the exercise of an office for it is the vertue and power of the spirit of God that makes manifest the Son of God and it is he alone that saves for he hath salvation Therefore it is said deliver my soul from the sword my darling or as the word signifies my alonely soule as having no copartner from the power of the dog and it is he that comes meek and lowly as the Prophet Zachariah saith saving himself and not another for as the father and the Son are one so is the Lord and the Disciple one the Saviour and the saved are one else Christ should not be God-man Salvation then is in prayer as the Scriptures testifie and the time is come that every one or whosoever call on the name of the Lord shall be saved many teach that salvation is only by faith that neither know what faith nor salvation is for faith hath salvation in it onely as it is that hypostacis and subsistance of the Son of God and so Paul teacheth faith without works that is without the works of the law which he calls dead works because the life and spirit of the Son of God is not in them but our Apostle James ascribes salvation unto works and declines faith as being the beliefe of devils that is such faith as hath not the powerful operations of God working in and together with it so that there is compleat salvation in any proper work or operation of the Son of God as well as in faith therefore Christ concludes that the great work and operation of God to be in faith for faith is not without the works of God nor the works of God without faith We are also said to be saved by hope as well as by either faith or work there is salvation also in love for it is the fulfilling of the law and where the law is compleat and full there can be no condemnation but perfect acquittance and salvation yea God is love and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him which canot be without salvation yea salvation is in patience for he that continues to the end shall be saved so that we are saved by it Furthermore we are saved by wisdome for the poor man by his wisdome saves the whole City of God though his wisdome be despised and his words not heard by the wise of the world And to conclude this point salvation is in prayer it saves the sick because it is the subsistance of the mediator-ship of the Son of God which is ever one and the same where when or in whom-soever it appears although it be so little in use and so lightly accounted of in these days wherein we live Secondly it hath in it the vertue and
all the Sains of God that ever lived or shall viz. For thy sake are we killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter There is none of those severall afflictions which the Saints of God have undergone but rightly understood one of them is as extensive as another and it must needs be so for the sufferings of the Saints is the Crosse of Christ and not the crosse of any particular creature but of the son of God therefore he saith In all their afflictions he was afflicted and therefore he saith also in the behalf of the believers and prayers in Damascus Saul Saul why persecutest thou mee Therefore it is when the Corinthians seemed to cleave one to one man and another unto another though all sound men and good one is of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas and another of Christ that he calls them carnall because they take not every way or manner of the administration of the grace of the Gospel to be the same universally through the whole body what saith he Is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized into the name of Paul I thanke God that I performed no such particular act but to such as understood the mystery of it for that is the effect of his speech and cause of thanksgiving The ground of these particular and nominall Religions as Independent Presbyterian Anabaptist Papist Generallist for they all stand on one root is because they limit and infringe the grace of the Gospel both in way of the sentence of absolution and condemnation mincing and fashioning things according to the judgment or discerning of man and not according to the light and revelation of the Son of God Hence they are affected with manlike expressions and so cleave unto man and not unto the Son of God and if the mind of God be expressed unto them they hammer it into their own shape as the Corinthians did and so make rents and schismes Now the grace of the Gospel in whatsoever it expressed it self as King or Priest Prophet or Victor father or son Master or servant Lord or Disciple Apostle or follower is as that leaven which the woman hid in three pecks of meal whereby the whole lump was leavened or like that unction poured on Aarons head which run down unto the coller or hem of his garment for the oyle contayned in that honourable vessell of the Gospel filleth compleatly all vessels that are brought into unity or love with it Of such nature and extent are all things appertaining unto the Gospel and so the afflictions of the Saints the Crosse of Christ takes not its latitude nor longitude from the dimentions of a creature but holds correspondency with the son of God for the crosse of Christ is of the same extent and continuation that his Crown and kingdome is By this we may take notice of what nature the Crosse of Christ is that it stands not in or consists of any temporary relation or operation of the creature active or passive but is the proper suffering of the son of God in the wicked as deprived of all livelihood and proper operations of the spirit in all wayes of motion and relation and in the Saints in being deprived of all livelihood and proper operations of the flesh in all the wayes of its motion and relation It would seem a great cross to a man if the world were vacant of a rationall spirit and none but beasts to converse with of no lesse but infinitely greater is the disproportion of the wisdome of God in a Christian and the wisdome of this world in the wicked yea if they be as crafty as Achitophel or as subtill as the Serpent the wisest beast of the field Yea in the world we have lost our proper life spirit and power and all vertue proper to a Christian in poynt of heavenly things Further it would seem a great affliction and suffering unto us to see the world take all our strength our wisdome honour riches peace friendship c. and leave us nothing but that wee should depart from and forsake father mother wife children c. and thus it is with a Christian The world ingrosseth power authority wisdome riches c. and leaves us as the scum and out-sweepings of all things Nay we forsake our nearest relations in all respects as the law of the flesh in its true sense calls for and go to a place we know not whether by any wisdome or understanding of the creature which can never be done but by the instinct and operation of the spirit of God opening unto us the power wisdome riches and all relations that are reall substantiall and eternall And if the spirit of God be there it never appears but in the faith and unity of Christ therefore they are the proper sufferings of Christ and not of any particular creature And when we know and judge of the sufferings of the Saints wee shall not lament if the world take all temporary things from us nor rejoyce in what it can cast upon us for God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ whereby the world is kill'd and crucified in me and I in the world If once we know how to loose our lives in the world in all things of the spirit and how to loose our lives in our selves and body mysticall in all things pertayning to the flesh we shall then take is lightly in whatsoever the world can give or take away from us By the nature of these sufferings we know of what spirit and power of what nature vertue and comprehension this act of Eliah is which is the third point And hee prayed Whence we note That the act or spirit of prayer hath in it sufficient honour power and authority to memorize and register the name of a christian for ever that it shall never be put out but continue in the records of the house of God For 1. Prayer hath in it the vertue and power of prophesie for in the history treating of the act of Eliah he prophesies unto Ahab saying As the Lord liveth there shall be no raine nor dew for these years but according to my word So that this prayer comprehends the whole Prophesie of Eliah and Eliah is brought in as comprehending all the Prophets as Moses comprehending the whole law in the transfiguration of Christs appearing in the same form and glory that Christ doth so that all prophesie and noble acts of the Prophets are involved in the spirit of prayer By the spirit of God in this place his reproof of Ahabs wickednesse his slaying of all the false prophets of Baal his bringing fire from heaven to slay Captayns with their fifties his dividing of the waters with his mantle his giving of his spirit to Elisha his binding up and flopping the bottles of heaven and loosing of them at his pleasure his rebuking the earth and drying it up to
such an office that man may come to be deceived as the Jewes of old were and Jewish Gentiles are at this day and so persecute Christ in stead of receiving him when or in whomsoever he appeareth Let those of that carnall opinion that Christ shall come and reign upon the earth as a great Monarch for a thousand yeares look into this point for Christ was never known but in an office as aforesayd and every office of the spirit in its proper way and manner of working comprehends whole Christ Now the office of intercession is a work of the spirit for we know not how to pray as we ought but the spirit maketh intercession for us or in us therefore it comprehends whole Christ for he cannot be divided and it being the spirit of the Saviour must have yea be salvation for where Christ the Son of God is there is salvation In what grace vertue or office soever he appears in or by that tradition of tying salvation to believing alone is ridiculous for can there be more in faith then in love which is the fulfilling of the whole law yea of that law of the spirit of life in Christ and are not we saved by hope Doth not Timothy save himselfe and them that hear him by preaching sound doctrine Now to take faith according to that dismition the Apostle gives saying It is the subsistance of things hoped for So faith is in every vertue office and exercise of Christ for the subsistance is the being of God and man in one and that is to be held and had of Christians in all things that can be sayd of Christ therefore we acknowledg nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified There is both the unction and crucification in every thing a Christian knows but there is no unction but in the nature divine nor slaying in a Christan but of the flesh which twayn are never separated neither in love nor hope gentlenesse mercy kindnesse wisdome truth patience and whatsoever can be named of Christ it is the subsistance of twayn made one new man that compleats it and therefore salvation is in all Christs excellencies and they are all as things hoped for because they are ever to come that is not only in present being and exercise but shall for ever spring up unto a Christian out of that living and everlasting fountain All things of salvation therefore are in prayer for prayer consists of necessity and supply but all necessities and all supplies are in prayer therefore prayer contayns whole Christ which is compleat salvation therefore a work of honour to eternize the memory of a Saint This point may fence a Christian from discouraging drooping thoughts apt to sieze upon all all flesh thinking himselfe of no use in his age nor of any performance befitting such a name or calling as to be entitled a Son of God being destitute of any power or authority wisdome or policy device or invention art or science such as the sons of men have gathered and encroached unto themselves in all ages By sword stratagems by Schools and Seminaries by money and friendship by travell and humane experiments and observations Poor heart that thou art with respect unto the world canst thou pray be of good comfort it countervayls all it is the renownedst act that ever was wrought in the world Get thee to thy Closet viz. shut up thy selfe from the common courses and customs of this world and pray unto thy father in secret or according unto or in that secret and hidden mystery of Christ which is as secret and hidden from the world as thy selfe is hid from the wayes of the world in this thy closet or chamber of presence And thy father which seeth in seecret that is which beholds and approves of this mystery of God in thee will reward thee openly that is will make it manifest that the reward or end of thine estate and practice is to be made manifest to the Son of God and that the Heyr-ship and inheritance of the Kingdome of God appertayns and belongs unto thee 2. Again let such weigh this point that hold themselves free from believing any doctrine in the world till they see it accompanyed with miraculous works viz. works in like manner and form as they have beene done formerly as to heale the sicke restore the lame open the eyes of the blind and raise up the dead all these are taken in a bodily and corporeall respect These men do not consider that the famous and miraculous works that Elia did all of them are included in his prayer and that is as miraculous as any of them the miracles that Christ did they are all included in his prayers supplications and teares with strong cryes which is no lesse miraculous then any of the rest The wonders of Paul in doing and suffering are all comprized in this Behold he prayes Now the miraculous vertue and power of prayer consists not in words or any outward expression or bodily exercise in a form of words but in humble petition a lawfull suing out of right a just and legall appeale and judgement given according to the nature of the case propounded in which all accord and agree together to compleat the mystery and miracle of prayer having all these things in it whereby according to the law of the spirit our right of inheritance is faithfully sued out Note further that it is no more the form visible of any miracle that ever was wrought that is the proper seal to confirm the Gospel no more then the Ministry of the Letter that kills is the proper path of the spirit that gives life But it is the scope drift ayme and end of the miracle in what it poynts unto in that great and miraculous workmanship of Christ the son of the living God which is the true and proper seale of the Gospel and wheresoever that is effectually wrought there it is felt and approved and there only the Gospel or glad tidings of salvation is really and miraculously confirmed by a signe and wonder passing infinitely all momentany and corporeall respects But these men think they honour the Gospel and lift it up to its proper height and ancient dignity In thus concluding their opinion is no lesse honourable then that of those that have resolved and decreed that the pattering over the words of that prayer which Christ taught his Disciples as a spell is an effectuall ordinance in the house of God never looking at the life spirit and proper power of prayer only the form of words So these look at the form of the miracle wrought as it appears to a naturall eye as the other appears to the ear and never look at the true wonder and signe only sound in the son of man and else-where centred is no better then the magick of Aegypt for they may as well gape after the outward forms of words to be the prayer of the Gospel as the outward form of the work to be
as things of old from eternity and new as in present use fitting and beseeming the present oration and opportunity This phrase therefore is like that where the Apostle saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe till Christ be formed in you not as though they had now defaced Christ who before was formed in them but he declares hereby the effect of his doctrine from which some were turned aside unto the rudiments of the Law as unto another Gospel which he saith is not another but the same Gospel perverted by false Teachers telling them that some are entangled with the yoke of bondage thereby for he that is bound to any particular of the carnall commandement as to be circumcised or any outward form of bodily action He is bound to keepe the whole law and shews that such have abolished Christ and are faln from grace such effect he shews his Doctrine had of some as a savour of death unto death but there were others unto whom hee there speaks on whom his doctrine had a more noble effect as being a savour of life Therefore he saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe or I have brought you forth not in a second act but in another manner and way namely to the forming of Christ in you or framing you into the similitude of the Son of God once and for ever Even so it is here He prayed againe that is the spirit of intercession hath a secondary or other manner of effect then that which is before specified not another prayer but another manner of wonder accomplished by the same prayer for now the heavens gave raine and the earth brings forth her fruit We are to know then that as the Gospel opens the treasuries of the Kingdome of God unto an abundant freedome liberty and plenty of the going forth and exercise of the spirit of grace in the Saints even as water poured upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground through that office of intercession peculiar unto our Eliah without any hinderance or engagement of any bond of the flesh when through the spirit of prayer that cloud of witnesse or rayn of liberality ariseth as a hand or administration thereof even as the word of the Lord is sayd to come by the hand of Haggie and by the hand of Malachie and by the hand of all the Prophets which so covereth the heavens as no parching sun of the beams of mans wisdome and device taketh place no more then they doe in those over-shadowings of the Virgin by that holy spirit of God in the production of Christ Even so doth Prayer set at liberty the works of the flesh in the men of the world by opening the sluces and flood-gates thereof unto condemnation and destruction for the waters of the great deep mystery or bottomlesse pit are opened for the destruction of the world as well as the flood-gates of heaven for the safety of Noah and his houshold in bearing up the Ark fifteen cubits above the great mountayns of the States of this earth or of the world And this prayer doth not simply accidentally but ministerially and effectually in the same sence That the Gospell is a savour of death unto death Not only by gleaning of all the fruits of righteousnesse out of the wisdome of the Serpent or men of the world which centred in the Saints are the proper cause of the transcendencies of their estate above all humane excellencies so doth it also gleane all the vicious desires of the flesh out of that state and condition of Christ centring them in that state of unbeliefe whereby man descends infinitely beneath a state of simple humane or properties of a meer creature and by fashioning and corrupting the holy things of God becomes satanicall and diabolicall and such as seek to finde an excellent or commendable betwixt these twayn it cannot be better described or diciphered for the solidity of it then by that partition that divides Purgatory and Hell in those of that mercinary conceipt The abundance of spirit therefore in the Saints and that plenty of the spirit of the Prince of the power of the ayre which now works in the children of disobedience hold proportion in way of Antithesis otherwise an infinite and an eternall wrath could not take place in the wicked as an infinite and eternall glory doth in the Saints For he made but one speaking of that state of Christ with an elegant allusion unto the high Priest and wherefore but one seeing he had abundance of spirit namely that there might be a holy seed that whatsoever the fruits are that are by one Lord Jesus Christ of the same nature and dignity are all the fruits of happinesse produced and brought forth by that one mystical and spirituall body and so in a diameter respect are all the fruits of sin in the wicked This plenty in this two-fold respect is signified by warning given to Ahab to betake himselfe to his Chariot for I heare a noyse of much raine which Ahab flyes from as a terrible thing as it contayns the spirit of Eliah betaking himselfe to Chariot and horse in the furnitures of this world and Eliah flyes from it as it hath the spirit of Ahab and Jezebel as that which brings destruction upon them only hee betakes himselfe to the strength of Gods spirit to take the gates of Iesreel The plenty of Eliah's spirit is seen and taught in that duration and plenty in the cruse of oyle and barrell of meale raising up the womans sonne from death to life and annoynting Hazael and Jehu for the ruine of Ahabs house Elisha to be a Prophet in his stead and in the destruction of all those false Prophets of Baal And the plenty of the rayn of that spirit of wickednesse appears in Ahab and Jezebel their cruelty towards the Prophet of God their miserable and horrible overthrow and in their desire and endeavour to nourish and maintayn such plenty of a false spirit of prophesie upon the face of the earth and in this plenty of rain seed-time and harvest are continued for the world sow unto the flesh and the flesh they reap and inherit corruption and the Saints sow unto the spirit and inherit everlasting life And from this power of prayer he assumes the power and vertue of doctrine in which he concludes the Epistle to shew that where the power and vertue of the one resides there is the power and vertue of the other The prayer of Faith is never without the spirit of Prophesie and prophesie according to the spirit is never without the life and power of prayer and where one of these is wanting they are both absent from that party in the true exercise of them for a formall prayer is never accompanyed with the life and power of sound doctrine but as they have composed a prayer by mans invention gathering up expressions sutable in the understanding of a man so do they compose a
whole mysticall body of Jesus Christ otherwise it is not the word or Gospel of the kingdome nor the spirit of intercession which is by Jesus Christ Object But it will be sayd that these things crncern the invisible Church and not the visible for the true visible Church is otherwise to be considered Answ To which we answer that it is a work of as great curiosity to frame a visible Church of Christ as to frame and compose a visible body of Christ therefore the Apostle comparing the true Church to a body sayth For as the body being one hath many members and all the members of that body being many are but one body so also Christ And agayn hear what the spirit sayth by the Apostle John viz. As he is so are we even in this world where he speaks of the Son of God So that to frame and compose a visible Church and to frame and compose a visible Christ are of the same nature and of like ease and difficulty and are alike strange unto the world and of the same acceptation to bring into manifestation and appearance Yet we know that Christ in both respects for otherwise we know him not is truly apparent and visible as also secret and unseen For Moses by faith saw him meaning Christ who is invisible that is he saw him who is unseeable and both are really true in a diverse respect And they who frame a Christ visible in one age of the world and not in another they do by the same argument conclude the visible Church to appear and to be manifest only within the same confines and precincts of time wherein Christ appeared For the Church was never known to appeare but in the reall form of Gods righteousnesse and wisdome which is Christ for he is the wisdome of God and the righteousnesse of God by saith which is the reality of the Church and as for all imaginary Churches we skill not for they will vanish and come to nought together with the professors of them as they have done in all ages Again such as form a Christ unto themselves to appear visibly unto a carnall eye so as to accept and approve of that his way of appearance at the carnall and perfunctory worshippers of the Jewes did Know this that whensoever the true Christ appeareth he will receive at the hands of such the same measure which was measured out unto Jesus born of the Virgin by Herod Pontius Pilate Scribes Pharisees with the cry of all the people saying Crucifie him crucifie him away with him crucifie him Even so they that frame unto themselves a visible Church so as to appeare unto a carnall eye or understanding as being in a capacity to approve and like well of it at the least for a certaine season Whensoever the true Church makes it selfe visible it shall receive like measure at the hands of such persons to the utmost of their power and ability as Christ did when he appeared unto the Jewes For in such persons and in that spirit is the zeale of persecution properly founded in the visible and apparant exercise thereof Moreover they that form a visible Church as not having the invisible vertue alike efficatious in every part and member thereof they also form unto themselves a visible Christ to appear without aving the compleat vertue of the wisdome and power of God in all respects in him either in point of his being or in the order and manner of his being and this is that great Image of Nebuchadnezzar which hath beeen so long erected and set up in the world where the Scriptures are traditionally acknowledged and read w ch all must bow down unto at the noise of their instruments and institutions or else the fiery tryall must passe upon them that obey not Only this is our comfort that the Son of God will so appear with them or in them that so much as a smell of that zeal or fiery fume and wrath of the world shall not appeare upon them but serve only to the destruction of such as are zealous actors in such matters of the worlds melody The next point is the exercise of the Elders and the first is they pray over him or for him or without any wrong to the Text with him that is in communion and fellowship with him for there was never prayer of faith made unto God out of which any elect or chosen vessel was excluded the reason is because every acceptable prayer hath in it the vertue of the intercession of Christ otherwise it is not in his name and authority and the spirit of Christ neglects not any one that appertayns to his mysticall body for if it should that soule could never be inspired with the spirit of prayer without which there is no participation in the mediation of the Son of God and then no acceptation with the Father therefore prayer is communicative to all the Saints if it be as the prayer of faith it is as the life-blood running into all the veyns of the whole body for none can enter into the holy place but he that carries all the Tribes upon his heart it is not our temporary and private wants which can bring forth a faithfull prayer to God for as prophesie is not of any private spirit or interpretation but holy men speake as they are moved by the holy Ghost of like publique spirit is true prayer So that this sick party is in unity with the prayer here spoken of for the eldership of this Church or that eternized fellowship in the ancient of dayes never appears unto any in that miraculous vertue of healing but in way of unity with the party healed Therefore it is that Christ will have the stone rouled away from the Sepulchre that nothing interpose betwixt Lazarus and himselfe when he restores him from death to life Also Elisha will be shut up in the same roome with the widows sonne when hee rayseth him up from the dead and Paul the Apostle falls upon Eutichus and embraceth him when he brings his spirit into him agayn Furthermore where this true Eldership appears it ever communicates a like vertue to every individuall of the body for the spirit is not received by measure for that which in it selfe is emence cannot be received by measure they that go about to perswade men that some have a greater portion of the spirit and some have a lesse measure thereof they may upon as good grounds perswade men that some shall be saved and be happy and blessed a long time and some a shorter time for if the spirit of God in any poynt of our salvation be subject to measure in latitude it is as truly subject to be measured and bounded in longitude and then salvation is voyd which is the doctrine of the most of our Elders in these dayes but the spirit of glory and of God that rests upon the Saints through this sicknesse and suffering is neither given out nor received by measure
unto thee arise take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house So that to preach the Gospel to the restauration of the soule from the policy that is from the fear terrors and tremblings of the law as at Mount Sinai to bring it unto Zion giving strength to take up that and carry it unto its proper place as that man carried his bed into the proper place which is his house which before had carried him extravagantly and diseasedly abroad wheresoever the Gospel exerciseth its power to raise up any to walk in the way of God before others in prayer or prophesie or any appointment of God according to the nature and season of it as that man is said to walk before them all to their admiration wheresoever the Gosplel is ministred to that effect there is also in that ministration power to forgive sin for the one is of like case and of like difficulty as the other is yea they are both in one act for he that can preach the Gospel to carry sin into its proper place which must be done or else the Gospel is not truly preached he must of necessity remove it from the chosen of God which is the true remitting and passing of it over unto another He that hath power therefore to preach the Gospel to the healing of the Conscience of the palsie sicknesse or tremblings of the law in the dead works thereof or works of death that man hath power to forgive sins on earth for they are inseperable and Christ in that place alluded unto makes them one for first he saith son thy sins be forgiven thee and in the rehearsall of it he saith his speech was arise take up thy bed and walk go thy way into thy house And we know that Christ saith to his Disciples whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retaine they are retained And again what ye binde on earth is bound in heaven and what ye loose on earth is loosed in heaven to walk and work therefore in the things of God according to the power intended by the word of God are of greater concernment then they would think for to preach the Gospel in the revelation of the minde and will of God as to an onely Son or to present our supplications to God as a father from the minde and disposition of an onely son are of no lesse authority and power then to to give sins for to pray with the spirit and to pray with the understanding also that is to pray according to the mystery of Christs meditation and yet with that wisdome and skill of expression as to unfold and explaine it in the minds of others that they may ascend up unto God together therewith as Manoa's Angel in the flame of the sacrifices this and to pardon sin are of like power skill and authority and a like weight lies upon both to whomsoever communicates in them For to pardon sin is not to change or alter the minde of God toward that party but to explaine and interpret the minde of God concerning that party which minde and will of God is the same in that one faith of the Son of God to all the chosen of God and wheresoever it is rightly unfolded and made manifest in the proclamation of peace and reconciliation of God and man in one if the Son of peace be there he accepteth and receivet the same as the right of his inheritance If the Elders pray or prophecy unto health therefore they pray or prophesie to the remission of sins in whomsoeve commucates in the same his sins are forgiven him To conclude this point it concerns us then to know what sin is that we may rightly conceive of it as it is pardonable and also as it not pardonable for there is a sin saith the Apostle John which is not unto death or which is not in death that is it is not in that way of death and there is a sin that is in death I do not say that you shall pray for it that is you shall not pray for the pardon of it because it is not to be pardoned for where Christ is once crucified in the spirit he never is to live in that heart according to the spirit no more then where he is once crucified in the flesh he never lives in that heart according to the flesh Therefore in the next place he exhorts us unto the confession of our faults in the true acknowledgement of them one to another Vers 16. Confesse your faults one unto another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much In these observe 1. An exhortation consisting of two parts 1. To confesse faults one to another 2. To pray one for another 2. The end wherefore That ye may be healed 3. A reason ground or cause drawn from the nature of prayer which is two-fold 1. It is effectuall 2. It is fervent 4. The qualitie of the person praying that is A righteous man 5. The issue or event of such prayer It avayleth much 1. ANd first for confession of faults sins or oberations from a law For where no law is there is no transgression for sinne is the transgression of a law or as the word is the withoutnesse of a rule Now there is the law of the flesh or carnall commandement which is the law of sinne and death and there is the law of the spirit or power of faith which is the perfect rule of righteousnesse or law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Now the carnall commandement or perfunctory and fading ordinances may be broken yea abrogated and nayled to the crosse as that which is against us and yet forgiven for every breach or piercing through of the sonne of man that is mans institutions and appoyntments composed by that carnall law shall be forgiven or are forgiven for the disannulling of mans wisdome and in that respect to become a foole is the establishment of Gods wisdome in the removall of all guilt and condemnation from the soule And there is the law of the spirit or of that holy Ghost which if a man speake a word against intentionally or blaspheme and pierce through that is abrogate or make a nullity of it It shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come that is neither in the present mind and conscience of him that so doth nor in that holy mind and judgment of Christ from passing sentence against it being so remote and at such a distance from it and contrary unto it for the abrogation of the law of the spirit is no lesse then to disannull that wisdome of God in Christ by which device only the sin and guilt of the sons of men is taken away and no other way for else-where the redemption of the soule ceaseth for ever Confession of sins then one to another This phrase one to another is of like nature as
much Now for prayer to avail much is as much as if he said in more words it effecteth accomplisheth and brings to passe all things even as not to avayl is of none effect worth nor excellency So it is sayd Circumcision or uncircumcision avayls nothing but a new creature that is all in all for it hath the whole workman-ship of the Son of God in it Observe the speech of Haman when he is nvited to the feast the Queen makes for the King who calling his wife and his friends tells them of the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children and all the things wherein the King had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the Princes and servants of the King Haman said moreover yea Hester the Queen did let no man come in with the King unto the banquet shee had prepared but my selfe and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the King yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Iew sitting at the Kings gate A wicked States-man cannot endure Mordecai which according to the etymology of the word is pure myrrhe or myrrhe of freedome signifying the sweet liberty of the Gospel for it is the first of the chiefe spices in the annoynting oyle to shew the Princely dignity that is in the grace of the Gospel that bowes nor is subject to any carnall thing whatsoever for there is but one primatus or summus which moves Haman try Mastery with Mordecai which shall be lifted up the highest There is not the most civilized man in the world destitute of the spirit of God put in place of dignity that can admit of the Crosse of Christ to have supremacy for it is as a moth to carnall pomp declaring it to be enmity therefore carnall Kingdome must ever have carnall Priest-hood to uphold it by deifying of it and it rewards them with tythes and protection But Mordecai the Jew inward in heart will not be endured by Haman for the King represents a stranger wonne to the faith as that Aegyptian King which acknowledged Joseph So that nothing avayls if Mordecai live who is a worme unto all Hamans honour that nothing is had nor done unto him till Mordecai be taken out of the way but to avail much is to bring all things to passe to be and to have the fulnesse of the soules desired and impower'd with vertue and strength to perform and effect what heaven and earth can yeeld or deny to any and therefore an instance is brought of Eliah for the proof hereof Vers 17. Elias was a man subject to like passions as wee are c. In which instance or continued and persevering exemplary vertue observe for order these things 1. The party instanced in that is Eliah 2. His condition A man subject to passion together with the consimilitude that is as we are 3. His act that is He prayed 4. The issue or effect of his prayer It rained not 5. The time how long that is for the space of three yeares and sixe moneths 6. The renewing of his prayer and the effect thereof And hee prayed againe and the heavens gave raine and the earth brought forth her fruit 1. FRom the first the party instanced in is Eliah observe thus much That it pleaseth God to memorize the names of his Saints by acts of honour which he leads them through in the world This is evident throughout the holy letters written from heaven unto us see an epitomy hereof in that 11. Chap. to the Hebrews The ground of it is because the acts of the Saints are the operations of Christ Now I live yet not I but Christ lives in me which life is the root of all their motion and the memorizing of him is Gods ayme and end in all his wayes and operations hee it is whom he will make higher then Agag greater in power and authority then all the Kings of the earth His acts therefore must be as monuments in the world who ever is made marvellous in mercy only in them that believe Therefore God makes them as monuments thereof setting them as Cities upon a hill to whom all shall repayr for the richest merchandize and as beakens upon a high mountayn who only can give warning of the approach of the adversary And as the lights of the world without which no man can worke however the Prophets and Apostles were under persecution ignominy and disgrace in the time of their sojourning here yet now where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world but seeks to uphold and honour himselfe by them Yea that very spirit that slew them now builds their Sepulchres and saith If they had lived in their fathers dayes they would not have done as they did Nay God will register the names of his Saints in that book of life in whomsoever the life of Christ is there they shall be memorized and set up by God as Standard-bearers in their generations before whom if the enemy come in as a flood the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him and chase him away Wonderfull is it to consider of this point when we see so many have gone down to the dust by plague famine sword and not a name of them left upon record in the world but hee that once comes within the volume of that spirit of intercession shall remayn engraven as in a precious stone upon the breast-plate or heart-ornament of Christ Jesus as a record or inscription of blessed memory for ever Therefore the next words are brought in viz. Is a man or as the word will beare Is a thing as the Apostle affirms Henceforth we know no man after the flesh or as the word is nothing So here Eliah is a man or thing a matter cause condition or deed such as his name imports Elijah that is my God Jah or my strong being or the strength of my existance Now if it be such a one or such a matter or cause such a condition or deed brought in as congruous to us implying all the faithfull how can it be but that name or that authority shall be memorized for ever If a word of Samuel shall not fall to the ground a deed of our Eliah shall never be forgotten when or in whomsoever it appears The second point is the state and condition of the party instanced in together with the consimilitude that is subject to passions as we are By passions here is meant sufferings for so much the word imports and to be subject is to be under that is under like sufferings that we are that is the faithfull in all ages Whence observe That the Saints of God are subject to like sufferings they all alike endure affliction they all alike inherit the Crosse it is not sayd of any particular man or particular Church limmed out by the spirit of man from some few particular expressions or practices manifected in the Scriptures but of
Likewise it hath the mystery of eternity in it for they are heavenly such as never fade away nor faile to bring in their testimony therefore it is that Israel must go three days journey into the wildernesse to worship the Lord that is there must be a totall and finall departure from Aegypt in regard of the ignorance or darknesse of it from their governments Hosts and Armies burdens tasks and cruelties Magicyan-like worships lying wonders and fauning flatteries in the erecting and setting up of the Tabernacle and worship of God at Mount horeb or Sinai This is also the reason why the Ark must go before them three days journey from Mount-Sinai to seek out a resting place namely to shew that there must be a totall and finall departure from the works of the Law in our entring into that rest that yet remaynes for the people of God Of like signification is Jonas being in the Whales belly and the Son of man in the heart of the earth Jonas is swallowed up of the Whales in carnall and backsliding Israel who observe lying vanities and decline the word of God but is cast up and made alive in the Ninivites beyond all reason expectation or thought of heart for the Publicans and Sinners enter before the strict Scribes and Pharisees into heaven Christ lyes three dayes and three nights in the grave as buryed eternally concerning any life of his spirit in Herod Pontius Pilate and that wicked Judas and the Jewes but he riseth the third day in his Disciples the Gentiles and all Nations never to dye any more but only those three dayes and three nights of eternity in the wicked of the world unto which his life in the Saints is proportionable Even so here is three years voyd of rayn or dew or any fruitfulnesse of the earth wherein both heaven and earth are in exercise and are comprehended So there is an eternall estate of the wicked that comprehends both God and man in that way of the Curse and unity of the Harlot wherein twayn are made one flesh for two saith he shall be one flesh in which estate there is no dew of heaven nor fruit yielded by the earth that is of those fruits of righteousnesse and vertues that are by Jesus Christ in those three years that is unto eternity There is also an eternall season of the Saints of God wherein no dew nor rayn from heaven or from that wisdome of the flesh falls on them to cause any fruits of the flesh or works of darknesse to be brought forth by them So that as in a yeare wee see a perfect revolution of things not only earthly but heavenly also at least in that great light and course of the Sun so that the number three signifies a totall and finall revolution of all things that concern God and man as two being joyned in way of flesh And all things also that concern God and man everlastingly in that way of being joyned unto the Lord and made one spirit with him Further we see that in a whole years space there is a like time of night as there is of day if we take the globe universally even so there is a like eternity of darknesse and the power thereof that there is of light in the Kingdome of Christ Moreover take the whole circumference of heaven and earth and there is a like time of Winter that there is of Sommer even so there is the same three-fold time of eternity in the kingdome of darknesse of blasting withering smiting with chilly coldnesse and all unfruitfulnesse as there is in the kingdome of life and light of the joy of harvest and pleasure of the tree of life which beares twelve manner of fruits as being furnished for every Tribe of Israel and every moneth of the yeare which tree is not afraid of drought nor knowes when the heate comes Concerning the sixe moneths added it is a rendring or consigning to each estate of eternity such a time for the Prophet in the history is illimited in his expression saying that it shall be neither raine nor dew for these yeares which may be applyed to time past present or to come for it is according to my word which is the word of the Lord the word of eternity so that we can give no other bounds to the time but such as hold correspondency with the word of eternity Our Apostle therefore brings it in by these expressions to declaring and distinguish his meaning namely the Prophets meaning This term of sixe moneths then is to be taken according to that distinction when he saith that sommer and winter cold and heate seed-time and harvest night and day shall not cease This sixe moneths properly sets forth unto us the time of seed-time and harvest which take it throughout the earth with respect to all grayn and it consists so long time Besides the number sixe hath in it the mystery of meanes of increase for increase multiplication and fruitfulnesse is not brought in in the creation but with the blessing which is the meanes of it So that six moneths in this place is the time and means of multiplication and increase which is here frustrate and hindered by the drought unto barrennesse and famine In the mystery of Christ the Saints of God sow unto the spirit but the seed of immortality is lost in the wicked they reap nothing unto eternall life Also the wicked they sow unto the flesh but their seed is lost in the Saints and comes to nought for they reap nothing of corruption So that in these three years of eternity there is a frustration of seed-time and harvest an absolute fruitlesnesse barrennesse and famine throughout the earth the one unto blessing in bringing forth nothing unto the flesh the other unto a curse in bringing forth nothing unto the spirit Yet men beare men in hand and vainly perswade themselves they can convert men and turn them by their preaching and make them other things then they are whereas the Gospel only declares and discovers men to appear to be that which they are no alteration of a work done once and for ever They may as well say they can make the righteous and just one a sinner as to say the wicked may become holy otherwise then as they are once and for ever for Gods work in man-kind is an eternall act not knowable but as himselfe considered one with it 6. It follows which is the renewing of his prayer and the effect thereof And he prayed againe and the heavens gave raine and the earth brought forth her fruit We are not here to take prayer as one being of a later production then the former for they are but one continued and eternall act as the doctrine of the Gospel is which is herein commended unto us for the things of God are comprehended and involved one in another and it is the skill of a Scribe taught unto the Kingdome of God to bring them out of the treasury