are conferred upon the place as glory holinesse c. These titles did indeed in some measure and for a certain time befit the Temple at Jerusalem because this sole place God had assigned for his solemn Worship But the Vaile being rent any place of service so it were in truth and spirit was agreeable unto him John 4. which hath of late made a just distinction between a meeting Templum quod teneat populum people and house But to the thing There being several opinions concerning a Church both ancient and modern I will endeavour what may be to build upon such general concessa drawn from Sacred page or reason as whereby the truth may be most manifest That God had a Church that is a selected company out of the World from Cain's time shall have unto the end is undeniable among all professing Christianity First in Families as in Noah Melchizedeck Abraham afterward in the Nation of the Iews and now under the Gospel dispersed throughout the face of the earth This Church as it is taken for an Universall Congregatum or Collective are all the believers past present and in some sense to come The Jews Gods elder daughter did not disdain to call the Church of the Gentiles their younger Sister though without breasts i. e. the sincere milk of the Word yea yet unborn Cant. 8. 8. This may be called as vulgarly it is the Universall or Catholick Church out of For which who prayeth prayeth for the dead which there is no salvation And of this many have been and are amongst the Pagaus Turks and remotest Hereticks saved by a way unknown to us as little Children are said to believe Math. 18. 6. i. e. onely passively having the root though not the form These hidden things are beyond the reach of any Ecclesiastical Consistory But that there are particular Churches and joyned into bodyes is past all controversie Now that the way of gathering of them as well as ruling is in a determinate manner unalterably set down either in the heart of man which none can averre or in the holy word by God himself let them especially look to this who urge an uniforme discipline upon all Churches might be gathered thus A Prince demanding obedience of his Subjects must needs set down positive Laws unalterable but by himself and not leave it to their prudentiall change Where When and How to obey This is a clear dictate of reason which God doth not ordinarily contradict Thus did Adam Noah Abraham before the written-written-Scripture teach their Families by the primmer of divine Traditions Not that every one by Enthusiasm was immediately inspired the teaching of their Children else had been frustraneous which God and Nature abhorreth Afterward God himself gave Moses a perfect pattern of every particular thing in the Tabernacle even unto the smallest bagatello's from the which he might not warp an Inch which did bind the Children of Israel immutably unto the time of Salomon who likewise did not in the least deviate from the expresse command of God in the meanest punctillo Hereunto were the Iews obliged untill Christ's time And what the Pharisees did in the worship of God either omit adde or alter was listed among the traditions of men and so rejected as spurious And is it reason that after Christs comming it should be left to prudence of man either Prince or Church to vary any way of worship of God according to the mutability of their own discretion The whole stream of both Testaments run irresistably this way God menaceth judgments to the Iews because their fear towards him was taught by the precepts of men Isa 29. 13. And the Temple speaking of Christian Churches is exactly measured by John Revel 11. which is far wide from any prudentiall way or which prudence importeth any alteration upon occurrences Moreover the Author to the Hebrews doth expresly teach the faithfulnesse of Christ as a Son above Moses as a Servant in setting down every particular concerning the ordering of his House which is the Church which no earthly power can or ought to change or silence the publishing of it but every one is bound faithfully to submit unto and in his place to divulge He is bound I mean in foro divino That God did at any time change the externall garbe of his Church was no mark of unadvisednesse in the Guardian but of weaknesse in his Ward He would in the twi-light and morning of the Gospel have his orphane put on her night-attire that the Sun being risen she might wear her Nuptiall Garment untill it with all outward services do set for ever What Politicians distinguish between Law and Counsell is granted between man and man but the introduction of this distinction into divinity doth look with the face of an encroachment For to despise either of these is sin and that is the breach of the Law The reason is clear because all his Commandements aime at our good and all his counsels are unquestionably profitable for us none of which quadrateth with those of men That Christ Mark 10. doth bid the young man sell all must not be taken in an absolute sense for a positive command or standing rule to him or any others but by way of probation If these things be true give a Testimony the selling of all thy goods To wade a little further the causes of a Church as being known I do but mention The Efficient God out of his love through the word and spirit perswading mens hearts to believe in his Son The Materiall are all the Saints and members of his mysticall body The Pormal Union with him and one with another The Final his own honour their revesting themselves into the formet or rather better image of Himself the edifying one another and their mutuall eternall blisse Now the way of gathering and rule of governing is the same namely the preaching of Ex quibus constamus iisdem nutrimur the word of God But because the manner of divulging the Gospel is by some of our age controverted and they would have nothing to be the word of God but the very text of the Old and New Testament because say they a concionatory way is not wholly intrinsecally undoubtedly and meerly true driving rather to content themselves with a private conclave worship by reading of the sole Scripture as it is and layeth than to be present at an assembly publickly serving God In a body Politick it is no wise to be tollerated much lesse in any Ecclesiasticall corporation that without mutuall help whilst every one sets up for himself the externall invasion of publick adversaries or the domestick pruning of rotten branches should be neglected Of these I desire first to ask one questiou Whether the Word in its original not being understood be able to convert souls Or Whether all to be converted must be masters of the Hebrew and Greek Languages Which both seem absurdities Or which necessarily must follow they must be
with Scripture that Moses and thence all Magistrates are the preservers of both tables will hardly go down with me By keepers they must understand impertinency attends others interpretations overseers to look to the outward execution of the Ten commandements which if it were granted unto Moses it would prove but a lame argumentation to derive it unto Princes under the Gospel because their Church and Common-weale were the same subjects We are to pray and endeavour for the conversion of the Jews which can hardly be conceived without conversation But upon their co-habitation with us to compell them against conscience to a positive Celebration of our Lords day were Duci non trahi volunt a preposterous way to gain them to the true faith The interdiction of publick labour for the not disturbance of the rest is sufficient Neh. 13. 19. The Sabbath being a lesson of grace cannot be read by the letters of reason as was mentioned before But as the injunction of all Divine worship upon an unbeliever hath little equity in it so neither is it possible for the Supreme Power to take cognizance of the breach of every Commandement For the last precept Thou shalt not covet c. the new conceived motions and infant-affections of the desire of our Neighbour's goods are forbidden which because not apparent they are as if they were not I speak ad hominem according to that Maxim Non entis non apparentis eadem est ratio When these concupiscences break forth into actions they are to be ranked under the heads of Adultery or Theft And the Dealogue doth not admit of Tautology This concupisence if it be hidden to ones own self Rom. 7. 7. How shall it be manifest unto others Thus God securerh both tables with a lock which no key of reason can open That place Esa 65. I will create new Heavens and new Earth with the like consonant places are meant of new-moulding the State both in Church and Common-wealth under the Gospel when they shall be more remarkably distinguished But these men labour for a monstrous prothusteron that the Heavens should be ruled by the Earth the Higher governed Gen verkeerde weerld by the Lower and the greater by the lesser orbes Let every Sphere enjoy its proper Intelligence Neither can I so readily assent to those who affirme that two or three gathered together into a society rise up to an Organicall Church For that Mat. 18. speaking of such a Church presupposeth more persons For if thy brother offend thee there are two persons and after reproof will not hear thee take one or two with thee there are four perfons and those males whereas experience daily teacheth the contrary Acts 16. 13. besides the Church yet how small the embryo of a particular Congregation may be is hard to depose definitively As in all sensitive bodies these three faculties are required to attract to nourish and to expell the same may be said of every Congregationall body It must have power within it self to admit and receive in to nourish and foster those received and to expell or decline that which is noxious But the grand Quere will be Whence this Power is derived Doubt They of the See of Rome lay claim of inheritance to it by succession from Christ and Exam. his Apostles and so exclude as Hereticks all those that usurpe the title of a true Church or Ministry without succession or ordination from them Others even of our brethren in the Reformed Churches do deny this to belong to a Church without some succession or dependency on other Churches Of whom I dedesire the solution of these two Questions Whether a company of godly people being by Quest 1. shipwrack cast into the a barbarous or empty Iland where they are like to live out their dayes may not joyn into a spiritual body and so raise up unto themselves the exercises of all Ordinances revealed in Gods word If any one think that by stating the godly Sol. out of the Church it is a begging of the question he must have recourse unto the former distinction that they are indeed dispersed parts of the Vniversall Church but not organized by union unto Ecclesiasticall duties A multitude but no people Paul when he assayed to joyn himself unto the Church of Jerusalem Acts 9. 26. was as a private man no actuall member of any determinate Church but as an Apostle vertually of all confined to no particular place rather a Father then a Nurse to most of the Churches of the Gentiles Lest any should deny this Demand these things are tendred to their consideration Whatsoever is Spiritually a living body is Spiritually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfecting it self An Axiom grounded upon Reason Aristotle applyeth it to the Soul of Man But all Believers are Spiritually living Bodies and have an inward principle to build up themselves and others in their holy faith So 1 Thes 5. they are commanded to edifie one another and 1 Pet. 2. the Faithful are called living stones Now presuppose that a company of living stones it is lawful to dispute upon a false Hypothesis meet and joyn together who will doubt but they may and ought to rear up from themselves a perfect Edifice Ephes 2. 21. From this ground arise all Politick Corporations Common-Weals and Kingdoms since a man for his well-being hath need of several things and one alone is not laid in with all kind of Handicraft or Art for a mutual good there is a coalescency So in the Church every one is nor an eye or hand some must act the ear others the foot Semblable is that of Solomon Eccles 4. Wo to him that is alone for if he fall who shall raise him up Again I ask In time of Reformation from Quest 2. Idolatry or profaneness to an Orthodox Holiness Whether there be not the same necessity which there was in the case stated before How shall they be reduced where there is Exam. no Church will be the question The Examples of the Disciples that were sent out by Couples will teach that These Hewers of Stone and Timber did by converting many fit and square them for a Spiritual Edifice If it be answered affirmatively then they may unite together into a Church without succession or dependency on other Churches If not either they must procure some Superltious or profane Minister to receive-in Members to ordain Officers in a true Church which is absurd or else they must stay till they meet with another true Church or Ministry which besides the difficulty favoureth of a Prelatical Jurisdiction of one Church over another of which something in the subsequent Chapter where the difference of Authority and benefit of one Church towards another is more copiously examined Some that meekly yet earnestly contend against this way object two main Arguments The first is It is unlawful to withdraw or separate from a true Church The second is concerning readd Prayer A word to
each First Cases might be stated in which it is lawful to forsake a true Church and so the Proposition shaketh But I deny the assumption that there is or hath been since the divorce of the Jews their Church and State being the same any National Ministerial Church in which none might abide alien from their Religion as far as concerneth the Moral Law Proselytus aut domūs aut Justitiae though some were exempted from the Ceremonial Obedience As were the Gideonites and Nethinims and so it is the begging of the question To the second I answer That there is a great difference of reading of a Prayer and committing Heads thereof to memory the case is the same in Preaching the latter being a means sanctified and a gift required in every Minister The former there being no Example or Rule for it nor any Pastoral gift eminent in it The Ministers Prayer is a stinting of the Spirit and so of my Prayer Ob. The Ministers Prayer is not my particular Sol. prayer nor properly his but the Churches and he therein the mouth onely of the Church unto God And if his Prayer be by the Spirit as it ought mine as a member is no other neither is mine more stinted then his In Preaching the case is inverted for there he is the mouth of God unto the People The Blessing is a mixt action as he doth apprecate unto us God's favours is his Vicegerent Unto which Amen following is the Peoples assent No man properly can bless himself but the lesser is blessed of the greater Heb. 7. 7. To conclude this point It seemeth more then probable that a company of faithful the heart no man knoweth uniting into a body become a true Oeconomical Church and having Christ for their sole Head may with a pleniporent Octroy or Concession claim priviledge to all the Ordinances instituted in the Gospel as by a Charter belonging to them by virtue of their Pact and Covenant with the Lord their King without any dependency upon any Forrein Authority either Secular or Ecclesiastical The same case is of a Church released from Babylonish Bondage who by Writ of Recovery may challenge her Pristine Inheritance I must clear up one Objection There are Ob. Hypocrites in the Church and Christ communicated with Judas For Hypocrites there is no Law against Sol. them Not Divine because they are the worst of Atheists Nor Humane because they have the face or vizard of devout Penitents The Church therefore taketh no cognizance of them and what an encased or discovered Hypocrite is I could never apprehend Christ indeed by His Theanthropy searching the Inwards knew Judas to be one but because he himself was beyond reach of Contagion and Judas's dissimulation in secret was not yet broken out into open profaneness every one of the Disciples questioning Who should be the Devil their Master spake of Christ did not refuse him which is the mistake of many Learned men in our days making his secure Example a pattern of their perilous practise Appositely do others observe that Christ would not be both Witness and Judge which no Court of Equity doth admit of CHAP. II. Of Ministers THere is a vulgar errour even among the best concerning the Name which if they mean as they speak is an open door unto Anarchy They call their Pastors as also their Magistrates yea Angels Their or the Churches Ministers which is false especially those whom they furnish with things necessary for this present life Whereas it is grounded upon a triple Foundation Natural Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the corn Levitical By the Law of Decimation Evangelical 1 Cor. 9. If we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things Paying a Debt doth induce no obligation They are indeed God's Ministers and to they are styled 2 Cor. 6. 4. Rom. 13. 8. Psal 104. 4. not mans That 2 Cor. 4. 5. is a strain of holy courtesie Not to speak here of four things requisite to the constitution of a Pastor 1. A faculty of administring the Sacraments and Keyes which is called Mandate II. The applying of this Mandat to a certain person named Ordination Grotius 3. The adjoyning of the person to a certain company and that is Election 4. When the same exerciseth his Ministry by publick Authority which is with them Confirmation The discussing the truth whereof would take up time and swell the Bulk beyond my intention Let the first question be Whether a Minister may celebrate the Sacraments Quest out of his own Church There may be considered in a Minister's Exam. Office two things his Power over his own and his Duty of Benefit towards others Now no act of power can he exercise out of his Church but any grace of benefit he may provided always that by feeding of others his own be not pinched But because his duty of benefit doth extend to all whether of the same Profession or not that therefore his power should do the like is no necessary consequence This Key well turned will unlock most of our Dissenters Arguments The Sacraments therefore being no act of power seem to may be by him administred out of his own Church these considerations being ballanced 1. The Levites this way were tyed though to a Nation yet not to any particular Tribe Jud. 17. 9. 2. If he may not administer the Sacraments out of his own Church then none upon a just absence from their own might either themselves or their children be partakers of the Sister-Churches Sacraments which is against the practise of the Apostles and now best Reformed Churches The reason of the consequence is this If he admit a stranger either by that act he becometh one of them or no If not then he administreth to some out of his Church and why not then unto most or unto all Who shall set a certain bound or number If he become one of that Society then may he be a member of two or more Churches at once which though in Civil Corporations it may be admitted is inconsisting with Ecclesiastical Constitutions 3. Deacons might and ought sometime to administer out of their own Church 2 Corinth 8. 4. It would redound unto the greater comfort to the Neighbour-Churches in their building up and Spiritual Hospitality without any fear of ataxy The Administration of the Sacraments is an Object act of Power and Authority I confess it is an act of Place or Office not Answ common to every one So was the carrying out of the Ashes under the Altar yet without any power yea all the Sacrifices which went onely through the Levites hands ushered in no Authority with them But if the giving of the Sacraments be an act of power then by the Rule of Relates is the receiving of them an act of subjection But none will say that by receiving the Sacrament they become subject to that Church
or Power or have the priviledge of chusing Officers or a suffrage in censures The Mayor is not to exercise any power of his Instance Office neither set the City Seal to any person or thing out of his Jurisdiction So neither c. The Argumentation is from a Similitude Answ 1. therefore not Apodictick or of evident Demonstration He may give advice yea as a Deputy be 2. helpful out of his own Corporation for some neighbour or publick good The Simile differeth in the main because every Corporation hath its several Seal But 3. all the Churches throughout the World do make use of the same which pleadeth not weakly for the question in hand and withall resolveth by a just Analogy that Controversie perplexing many Whether Baptism be an obligation to a particular Church Those in Jordan were not Baptized into an individual Society Math. 3. Neither the Goaler Act. 16. Nor the Eunuch Act. 8. I know it was the Office of Apostle-ship to continue till Churches were established but that doth not enervate altogether our Argument Neither doth it presently follow that Sacraments may be administred out of the Church either by wandring Itineraries or fixed Fathers of Families to their Houshold which controversie being handled by others I pass over Whether if a Popish Priest reforming unto Quest 2. Protestantism by vertue of his former Order remain a Minister in a Reformed Church The Negative is most likely these Reasons considered Answ He must be chosen from among the Godly yea among his own Flock Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. after the conveighing of gifts by Miracles which like the Therapeutick Chrism died with or soon after the Apostles is but the Denominatio visibilis demonstration or confirmation of his choice the word being attributed to God Himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 10. 4. This hath been proved by others * Grotiusde Imp circa sacra Lib. 10. Selden de Synod Lib. 1. Cap. 14. See Num. 8. 9. The Imposition of Names in Baptism is of the like nature without which some think that lavacre defective but unadvisedly It is not probable that John did superadde any new names to his Disciples neither was there an imposition of names in the long differred Circumcision Jos 5. Of old all Women should have been nameless Personal forgotten Patricious if married swallowed Neither did conferring of gifts accompany always the laying on of Apostolical hands Act. 6. 6. for they were full of the Holy Ghost before ver 3. Sometime this Ceremony was repeated as may be demonstrated by comparing Act. 9. 17. with Act. 13. 3. He shall have an Office of Pastorship before 2. he have a Flock whereas the nature of Relates is to live and die together nay perhaps before he be a member of a true Oeconomical Church which is difficult to imagine Concerning the difference of reteining Baptism and not Ordination I remit you to the satisfactory Treatises of our worthy Predecessours Other things might be added and doubts cleared but because I study brevity and am loath to plume my self with other birds feathers or to surfet my Reader with twicewarmed cabbadge I proceed to another controverted subject CHAP. III. Of Sacraments SAcraments are so near allyed unto Ministers that they might well have lodged under one roof but for breathing sake they are severed Sacraments are visible words differing from the audible in that the latter serveth not only for food but also for seed the former only for nourishment To tender nutriment to not yet generated is preposterous But to the Problems Whether Baptism received unworthily that is Quest 1. either on the exhibents or receivers part so it be done to a religious use the element and word alwaies concurring may be reiterated It being on Gods part a Seal of a federal Covenant Exam. Rom. 4. 11. not of a civil one as many urge except justifying faith be reckoned among civil affairs It is truth-like that once administred I afterward by faith applying the sign to my self may have fruit and benefit thereby Though in order the Covenant be before the Seal annexed yet God in mercy doth often vary that course which man may not till he have proved the Sacraments to be a seed of faith But he finding his Seal truly set to a blanck though unworthily doth of grace susuperscribe his Covenant to it though not for it God alwaies knowing and owing his vessels though in Usurpers hands which Belshazar abusing did wofully rue Dan. 5. So if at any times alas too often we sin by rumination on the foregoing signs we may draw fresh solace without reiteration of the element We have for example several of our Saviour's Disciples recollecting the words after his death which in his life time they had negligently either overflipt or overslepr The Spirit ecchoing over former either Precepts or Promises Which practically applyed might turn to the great support of those who have misspent many ordinances fruitlesse so also in the Lords supper the strength and signatum thereof may upon necessity be oftner extracted by meditation and application then it is elementally exhibited This for fear of mistake I write somewhat to inform the dissenting Christians for rebaptizing themselves What if they be baptized under the hood of hypocrisie being unmasked shall they renew their mark As also for the reforming of those who without the Lords Supper in their death-bed a viaticum in their journey cannot die quietly bread and wine denying nourishment which is next to communicating without elements Whether is the immersion of the whole body necessary Quest 2. Where an opportunity is and no danger to Exam. the party by cold I should think it fitting But in severer weather or region as it was with the Jaylor in the night here taketh place that compassionate rule Hos 6. I had rather have mercy then sacrifice And I see not but the hand or other convenient part might stand synecdochically for the whole because by its immersion and emersion is better signified the burying and resurrection of Christ as indeed it ought See Rom. 6. 4. Col. 2. 12. which in the front-aspersion is more obscure They who preferre this part in regard of religious signification before any other are at least within the confines and suburbs of superstition In the Lords Supper the elements must somewhat be regulated in quantity according unto the measure of the appetite a morsel will suffice a weaker stomack when to the stronger a more liberal draught is agreeable although spirituall nourishment dependeth not upon the proportion of the sign but of faith CHAP. IIII. Of Adam I Am not purposed to digest this Treatise into common-places but rather trace polemick and eristick discourse and that in unbeaten paths How was Adam made after God's Image Quest 1. Gen. 1. 26. Every ens in opposition to privation is an Sol. image of the Deity every living thing is an expression of
15. 60. 1 Sam. 7. 2. Besides Abinadab was of the Tribe of Judah and dwelt there not in Benjamin It is not unusual in cognomination to turn a part of the Commons into a private Fee-Simple but the frequent peculation of Appellatives in the same place is a hastening unto a generical ataxy 2 King 2. 20. Bring me a new Cruse and put Salt therein GOD in working of Miracles as being a free Agent doth often vary and change the manner and dispensation of them Sometimes He useth uatural and proper causes extending the quantity as feeding many thousands with a Lads burden a few loaves and small fishes or intending the quality as the plaister of figs upon Hezekiah ' s sore Many times he worketh without secundary causes as in the Creation raising of the dead in raising of the Shunamite's son 2 King 4. there were some natural means which that invisible finger of the Lord did work by calming of the sea c. Now and then the Miracle was contrary to the means as in the Sacrifice of Eliah 1 King 18. where to make the wood burn water was three times poured on it So generally Expositors do paraphrase upon the clay laid on the blind mans eyes But that is very questionable for besides the nitre which is in the Earth and Spittle the Angularity of Sand is a regular Seif or methodical Collyrie not to extenuate the Miracle fot the wasting and lessening of the Scaly Films the cause of blindness The question will be concerning this place Some utterly condemn Salt as a cause of barrenness and so tropically expound Jud. 9. 45. where Abimelech having destroyed Shechem did be sprinkle it with Salt Others commend it for the best enrichment of ground advancing fertility and that common Salt as this was doth by symbolization easily turn into nitre I think it will bear a double construction either as some small secondary cause of emelioration of the ground and water the extent was I am sure beyond the power and limits of Nature or as the Text intimateth for the continuation and perpetuity of the effect For Salt in Scripture-Language is a Metaphor of duration and so a Covenant of Salt Numb 18. 19. the Holy Ghost expoundeth it an Everlasting Covenant JOB 3. 3. SOme both ancient and modern have drawn this Book beginning from this Verse unto the sixt of the last Chapter into question denying it to be a History but rather a Discourse and Treatise concerning a Morall Question Why the Wicked of this world prosper and the godly are afflicted Their Reason is because all that Discourse is in the Original in Hexameter Verse which is no style of sadness the edge of which Argument is too dull to pierce my yieldinger apprehension for we find profane Authors in the same style which bemoan their Tragical misfortunes Ovid writes five Books de Tristibus the better half are in that Meter Virgil in the same strain singeth very sad lines But I rather encline to believe that it was a reall Discourse or interlocution between God out of the Whirlewinde Chap. 38. 1. Job and his friends First in Prose after by himself or some godly man run into Meter either for the help of Memory as all Poetry is or for the use of the Church in singing of them publickly which without a Harmony of numerical syllables will make a confused Discord By the same reason they may reject several of the Psalms of David denying them to be Prayers which without contradiction at first being powred out in Prose afterward for the forenamed Reasons were by himself or some other Master-Musitian measured into Verse Psal 25. 11. Thou wilt pardon my sinne because it is great THE pittiful mistake my Eares and Eyes have been Witness of and that in learned men of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I pass over they render it a causality for Whereas indeed it should be an adversative although or notwithstanding and so it cannot but be readd Hab. 3. 17. Although the Fig-tree should not blossome The same mistake is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 1. 17. For he was numbred with us instead of although If it might have the power of a cause yet the adversative ought as most proper to be taken in the first place Prov. 24. 16. The just man falleth seven times in a day is not in the Text. THE general Comment hereon is The just sinneth often yet he riseth again Whereas the word used here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never in this whole Book doth signifie to fall into sinne Enumeration of places will evince it Chap. 11. ver 5 14. 13. 17. 17. 20. 26. 27. 20. 10 14. 18. In all these places it can bear no other sense then of Affliction Now the safest way to attain the scope of an Author whether Divine or Humane is to trace the Age Place Dialect or Genius he writeth in And if between the weight of two equal Senses there be an undistinguishable Equipoise the number of consonant places must cast the Scales Esa 50. 8. He is near that justifieth me CAndace's Eunuch need no Interpreter for this place Every Line being a Graphical Pourtraict of Christ But how Christ was justified is not so evident Justification not being here taken for making one just in which sense it is but twice used by the Holy Ghost Dan. 12. 3. Rev. 22. 11. though that were true he being the express and eternal Image of his Father as a pure River derived from a pure Fountain but for a judicial acquittance in opposition to condemnation ver 9. And because Justification is by Faith its Nature in Christ is worth our disquisition None will say that Christ was justified by Faith but by Works He could not be both the Object and Subject I speak now of Evangelical not Legal Faith which latter is to believe that God is true wise keeping promise decisered Heb. 11. 6. For this Christ had and so had the Angels and Adam in innocency onely differing in mutability This kind of Faith will not cease in Heaven but there will be a full recumbency of the Soul upon the Divine Goodness for its perpetuation unto Eternity The Son did believe that the Father would perform his Eternal Pact with him to give him the utmost ends of the Earth as the fruit of his travel And because it became him to fulfill all Righteousness Math. 3. 15. he did submit to the Sacraments as they were good Works whereto he was bound by vertue of the second Commandement but not as they were Relative and Organicall Signs In a word Christ the Head did believe Legally that all his members should believe Evangelically The former is a mark of perfection the latter of defection Neither doth Justification as some will urge presuppose always guilt but sometime a Declaration of Innocency There was indeed a Debt and Bond which the Law did challenge against Christ but no Forfeiture for that He had discharged