the Trinity in the first and abstract consideration of God their opinion were in that not to be faulted by their opponents any more then the applying of divine personality unto them in the second consideration of God as he is God the Mediator is to be blamed in them that acknowledge three individual persons in the same Godhead Having thus occasionally opened in what sense the Trinity are three persons coming forth in distinct similitudes in which they are to be known as it were by name we also affirm that thus for them personally to appear and minister a distinct three-fold similitude of God is absolutely necessary in God the Mediator in order to the sitting him for that his Office and to render him the sutable object of converse with the creature either in the life that now is or in that which is to come If therefore the intent of the Antitrinitarians be to assert that God comes forth but in one manner of operation and personality ministring but one single image of himself they do thereby either exclude the creature from any converse with him at all as leaving no other way of converse but such as is improper and impossible for any in the capacity of a creature to obtain and which to enjoy is the only incommunicable priviledge of the Mediator and that only as he is God or else they do so far debase the Majesty of God as to rank him in an equality with the creature confining his similitude to what bears proportion only to the creatures understanding and converse as upon its first natural root thus changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of a corruptible man Hence then we conclude the necessity of three persons in unity of essence The first ministring that similitude and operation which is commensurate to Gods own infinite comprehension The second that which is proportioned to the creatures finite natural discerning springing up in the Mediator as he is the first-born of every creature the root and measure to all inferiour natural beings The third that which is adaequate to the new creatures capacity formed also in the Mediator through the offering up of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in which he is the beginning and first-begotten from the dead the root and measure unto the whole spiritual seed or general Assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven In all these three similitudes of God or personal appearances of the Trinity considered in themselves the Mediator is truly and perfectly God able to give them forth in himself who therein is the image of the invisible God in which sense he is frequently called in the Scriptures the WORD the WORD of Life the WORD of God Now since the effects of this three-fold operation at least in what concerns the Mediators being made thereby a meet object of converse unto the Creature in its creature-capacity in any sort must needs he owned by the Antitrinitarians themselves why should they be unwilling to be led by these to the acknowledgement of the springs whence they flow which are the three essential properties in God that in the sense we have shewed do very well agree and consist with the unity and simplicity of his essence But as these are short-sighted in this great mysterie so is it but too evident that their opposers also are in other respects overseen who by confounding these two together which ought to be kept distinct do little less then deny Gods essential image under pretence of asserting the three persons or at least entertain very mistaken notions thereof wholly praetermitting the proper witness which the second and third persons bear in the essential image in order to cause their own reception in Christ as he is the first-born of every creature and first begotten from the dead And having thus singled out the Fathers witness from the other two they rank it under the notion of a person between the first and the third looking upon the second person only as Gods essential image making it his proper distinguishing character from the Father and the Holy Ghost excluding him thereby out of the number of the three that bear witness and confining the essential image to the Fathers operation only as that which is peculiar unto him They may be supposed to have been led into this mistake by that common description of the Trinity in these expressions the Father begets the Son is begotten the Holy Ghost proceeds understood by them in an improper and differing sense from what the Scrpiture holds forth 1 Joh. 5. 7. where it is said that there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one So that here we find the three that are their own self-evidencers or the head cause of their own manifestation or witness each of whom in this sense do beget are begotten each hidden property producing its own image so come forth in their distinct personal appearances peculiarity of witness w ch all three bear in the face of the Mediator which argues that those who deny the Trinity in these their distinct operations similitudes wherein only they are to be beheld as in a glass by the creature and yet pretend to own their persons hidden vertues and properties do seem rather to please themselves in an implicit faith and formal confession of this high mysterie then to have a due regard to the teachings and witness which the Trinity themselves give as laying open the inward reason and nature of their three-fold operation The first of which bears the name of Father because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him unto the increated and unbegotten understanding of God alone is the first and the original glory The second bears the name of Son because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him is proportioned to the natutural mind of the creature and as such is begotten as a secondary and figurative representation of the first The third bears the name of the Holy Ghost because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him is the union and proceed of the other two retaining themselves in perfect harmony and love as the sutable object to the new creatures understanding In this sense we say the witness of the Father is unbegotten The witness of the Son is begotten The witness of the Holy Ghost is proceeding as the record which the three in heaven are said to bear which three are one and their witness one as well as three CHAP. II. Concerning the Holy Scriptures their Authority and Vse with the Harmony and Analogie which they hold with the Living WORD WEE have already shewed how by the WORD is not only meant the second person in the Trinity in his distinction from the Father and the Holy Ghost who bears witness as well as they but that the witness it self which is given by them all
and approbation looking upon all things in Christ as through a propitiatory head covering and true mercy-seat wherein he is ever rejoyceing over them and well-pleased with them Through this knowledge of Christ we are furnished with a true measure of knowing God and no other way for who hath been Gods counsellour And when we see things in God as Christ sees them things in Christ as God beholds them we then come to know him that is true by the rule of all true knowledge and that we are in him that is true this is the true God and eternal life 1 Joh 5. 20. little children keep your selves from Idols This order of things thus shining forth in the face of Christ the very image it self who in these last daies hath spoken to us by himself we may find witnessed by Moses and typed out under the Law Exod. 25. 19. 21 22. Compared with Numb 7. 89. Where we find that God had his Oracle or speaking place provided for him above the Mercy-seat and at the two ends thereof were appointed the two Cherubims to be made between whom God told Moses there wil I meet with thee commune with thee from above the mercy-seat from between the two Cherubims which are upon the Ark of the Testimony of all things which I will give thee in command unto the children of Israel and Numb 7. 89. when Moses was gone into the Tabernacle of the congregation to speak with the Lord then he heard the voice of one speaking to him from off the mercy seat that was upon the Ark of the Testimony from between the two Cherubims Where first we may take notice of the Lord as God and the Mediator are one speaking from above the mercy-seat then by the mercy seat we may discern Christ considered in his creature-nature as the beginning and ending of the creation of God the head and root to both creations through whom as a propitiatory-covering which he is to all those that are admitted into communion and converse with God either by the first or second covenant God doth behold and look down upon all the works of his hands Thirdly at the two ends of the mercy seat as between two Cherubims the word of God comes forth in converse with Moses or with men by the means of Christs man-hood considered in his natural and spiritual perfection in his first and second appearance as he is the son of man figured out by the two Cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy-seat Thus we see that to receive the full vision and similitude of God in his own form abstractedly and simply considered is only the priviledge and incommunicable property of Christ the Mediator as he and God are one and that God can only be known in and by his WORD the WORD that first is the writing of the blessed Trinity in Gods own nature The WORD that secondly shines forth in Christs first and second appearance as he is the first-born of every creature and first begotten from the dead The WORD that thirdly in the fulness of time was made flesh These things are testified by the holy Scriptures which are ample in the witness they bear hereunto as we shall shew in the following Chapter And if it would please God by affording still fuller and clearer light in this great mysterie to enable his witnesses to be declaring and testifying the same it would suddenly put an end to those disputes and mistakes which the world is full of between those that call themselves Orthodox on the one hand and the Socinian Antitrinitarian c. on the other neither of them giving a full witness herein but maintaining one part with denial of the other so that by joyning together what they unwarrantably put asunder taking all that is affirmed and owned on both sides the two-fold witness of the Son and Holy Ghost granted by the one and their Godhead or the divinity of their persons asserted by the other we have a compleat testimony in the present truth For the one acknowledges them in the supreme exercise of a two-fold ministry of Gods appearance in an eminency exalted above all creaturely perfection as to their persons assigning them the next place to the Father their business being to communicate his name and render it a sutable intelligible object to creature-understanding but denies them to be God The other asserts their Godhead but in effect denies those their operations in which they come forth and minister the two-fold witness and appearance of God to the creature The reconciling of this difference doth give occasion of further enquiry into this great mysterie By the Trinity then we are to understand the essential properties whereby one and the same divine being eternally puts forth its operation each carrying their own self-evidence in the witness which they bear And though all the three as well in the evidence that they give as in their manner of subsisting be eternal yet to speak as men they are in order of nature to be considered in a priority to the evidence and witness which they give of themselves though both are in one pure act the same simple absolute and incomprehensible God whence it appears that the Trinity are their own self-evidencers and must needs be so for who hath been their counsellour or hath first given to them and the witness and evidence which they give the Scripture cals Col. 1. The image of the invisible God even his essential image in which the Trinity come forth as by name declaring their hidden distinguishing vertues in the peculiarity of each of their operations This essential image singly considered is not properly the Trinity but rather the personal appearance which all the three make in the WORD by the witness which they bear of themselves For the Trinity considered abstractedly from their image are as truly and distinctly three as when they personally appear in and by their own image and witness which they set up of themselves but their personality strictly taken consists in the exhibition which each make of themselves as by name in and by the image of the invisible God where coming forth as with a voice and in the similitude of God peculiar to each of them they shew themselves in the distinction of their persons and names of Father Son and Holy Ghost Nor are they in this any more then one Trinity who as abstract from their own image are God simply and absolutely considered and as shining forth by their own image are God the Mediator as the Mediator and God are one so as in the face of the Mediator as he is God the Trinity in a proper sense shew themselves personally in their proper similitudes which they do not in the first consideration of the Godhead where nevertheless they are as truly and distinctly three but in an absolute invisibility or as we may say impersonality If this then be all that the Antitrinitarians intend or mean that personality is not properly applyed to
13. where he is said to be clothed with a vesture dipt in blood whose name is called the WORD of God having on his vesture and on his thigh a name written KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS v. 16. In the same sense is this WORD presented to the view of Ezekiel Chap. 2. v. 9. 10. under the description of the roll of a book which was written within and without and Rev. 5. 1 2. 3. A book written within and on the backside sealed with seven seals which none whatsoever amongst the Creatures was able to open or loose the seven seals thereof In this book of God David was seen Psal 139. 15 16. by the eye of God in his creature substance yet being imperfect and therein all his members were written which in continuance were fashioned whilst as yet there were none of them The nature and use of this book considered in the several volumes of it is declared Rev. 20. 12. The books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and that we may know what book of life is here meant there is mention made Rev. 13. 8. of the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world having the names of all the Elect written in it which are never to be blotted out And Rev. 3. 5. we find another book of life belonging to Christ from whence he threatens the hypocritical and corrupted members of the Church of Sardis to be blotted out a like threatning unto which we find Rev. 22. 19. which compared with Psal 69. 28. makes it yet plainer Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous or come into thy righteousness to wit which is by faith Thus we see the unwritten and living WORD of God testified by the Scriptures to be Gods writing and Gods book as well as they themselves are so that when we call this living WORD unwritten it is but by way of distinction from the Holy Scriptures in the outward body of them as they are written with Pen and Ink for the WORD that is the Image of the invisible God the brightness of his glory and the express character of his substance may truly and properly be said to be the writing and engraving of the Trinity the Living book and roll of God that is all written within and without consisting of three volumes answering to the threefold power that is in the mind of Christ to read and look thereon We are therefore in both these respects to acknowledge Christ to be the living WORD first as he is he that speaks or the person whose mind and discerning is formed and prepared to look upon this Heavenly writing in all the volumes of it in order to communicate and give forth unto others the reading thereof And secondly as he is the writing itself and doth contain the lively ORACLES OF GOD or witness of the blessed Trinity representing God as to and by himself he is seen as also to and by both Creations according to the two Covenants unto which they relate In which latter sense this book is to be understood Rev. 5. 1. c. where it is said that no man in heaven nor in earth neither under the earth was able to open the book neither to look thereon but it is the priviledge only of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah to prevail to the opening thereof and to make the right use that is intended thereby The WORD in both these respects considered by us is a most lively description of the fulness and perfection whcih dwels in Christs person as he was set up in the office of his Mediatorship by the immediate operation of the Trinity before the world began wherein he is the only begotten Son in whom God is well pleased as he that is in himself both Priest and sacrifice abiding a High-Priest for ever at the right hand of God after the order of Melchisedech which is no way proper to him as the second Person in the Trinity simply considered where he is purely and simply God without the least mixture or composition of creature-nature and without shadow of change But now as Christ is the WORD in the person of the Mediator he hath the root of all creature-nature in him being the root as well as the offspring of David and hath this given to him for sacrifice therewith to prepare him to become a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world As thus he is the person of the Mediator he exerciseth a threefold power of mind and discerning by reason whereof this living WORD is said Heb. 4. to be the discerner of the thoughts intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto him with whom we have to do of whom we are now treating First all things are naked and opened unto him by reason of the pure all-seeing eye and discerning of God that is in him through which light of his he knows how to read the inward writing of the book or the book as it is all written within in a character that is the form of God himself in the very height of his glory and therefore proper only for the divine eye itself to contemplate and be conversant in requiring the same mind that is in God himself to conceive and understand it as simply and fingly exhibited The Mediator in the exercise of this power of mind is eternally seeing all that God sees perfectly knowing Gods mind and is his Wonderful Counsellor in all the decrees and purposes of his that concern the creatures converse with him from beginning to ending Secondly All things are naked and opened unto Christ this living WORD by reason of the highest and purest natural creature-eye and discerning that is in him as he is the first-born of every creature and is the discerner of the thoughts of the natural heart and mind of all creatures so as Psal 139. 2 4. there is not a thought in the heart nor word in the tongue but this WORD knows it altogether and afar off even before the World began Through this second seeing power of Christs mind he knows how to read the second Volume of Gods book as it is all written without in a manifestation and appearance of God which is commensurate and proportioned to the creatures judgement and discerning as it is natural and of the first building and is the same form of God abasing it self and requiring no higher an eye then what is in the natural mind of the creature to behold it and look thereon This writing is called outward or the book all written without comparatively and in reference to the inwardness of the first whose eminency and height is such as is exclusive to the creatures natural discerning not but that in its own nature it is inward and spiritual being the witness that is given by the
yet it was so real and influencing that the BRANCH may truly be said to have lived in this his root the Father of Spirits as properly as the seed of the first Adam may be said to have lived in the loyns of him their common parent who was the Father of the flesh Christ the BRANCH considered as thus living in his root is said and accounted in Scripture phrase to act live and perform all that which was the action life and performance of the WORD For by Jesus God is said to create all things and to make both worlds who is said also to be before all things and in all things to have the preheminence And in this heavenly place of residence and abode which Christ the BRANCH hath in his root the whole spiritual seed Eph. 1. 3. are blessed with all spiritual blessings from the foundation of the world and received grace before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9 10. forasmuch as Christ had the same union then contracted between his humane nature and the WORD of life vertually and radically which afterwards by the incarnation flowed forth actually to the making of him not only a living soul after the pure image of the first Adam but a quickning spirit as the original pattern unto the heavenly and spiritual seed of himself the second Adam This praeexistent union between Jesus and the WORD before the WORD actually was made flesh Christ asserts upon several occasions as John 3. 13. where he saies No man ascended up into heaven but he that descended even the Son of man which is in heaven that is in his head and root where as a mysterie he lay hid in God before the world began interpreted thus by himself in effect John 6. 62. when he saies What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before likewise Phil. 2. it is said that he that was found in the form or WORD of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation and was found in fashion and habit as a man as if to come forth as the servant the BRANCH were rather a diminution then advance to him simply considered who was before in that exalted state where he though it no robbery to be equal with God And John 8. 58. he asserts this ancientness of his daies unto the Jews saying unto them before Abraham was I am and Mat. 22. 42 43 44 45. he unriddles this mysterie to them where he affirms that he was as well Davids root and Lord as Davids son and off-spring saying that so he was acknowledged by David himself when he was seen unto him in spirit as the Mediator called Lord unto whom God the Father spake Psal 110. 1. where t is said The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot stool which expression can no way suite or agree with the second person in the Trinity simply considered but must necessarily be understood of the Lord the Mediator the WORD of life as he is the first born of every creature and first begotten from the dead the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to whom as risen from the dead the right hand of God is most fitly to be assigned This witness is also given by John Baptist John 1. 30. when he saith After me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world both as he is the root and the BRANCH in the former capacity as the root he became the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. In the other capacity as the BRANCH he was carried as the Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep dumb before the Shearers Isa 53. 7. in the dayes of his flesh For though what is said Heb. 9. 27 28. As it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgement so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many may seem strongly to confine the death of Christ to his offering up in the dayes of his flesh so as to exclude the other yet if this be compared with v. 26. it will appear to be so far from excluding that it rather asserts it by shewing how both these do well stand and consist together For saith the text he must then often have suffered since the foundation of the world taking that for granted which was performed before or from the foundation of the world in his mystical and heavenly state as he was Davids root But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That which he did after an invisible manner in his heavenly and mystical state wherein he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world the same thing in the end of the world he doth in a visible manner in mans nature when he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself which sacrifice in his humane nature was but once offered nor could be forasmuch as it is appointed for man but once to die therefore Christ also in offering up this sacrifice as man could offer it up but once as Heb. 10. 12. It is said But this man Christ considered as the BRANCH or off-spring of David after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God In which action he that is the BRANCH and off-spring ascends up into the glory wherein he was before as the ROOT the first born of every creature and first begotten or beginning from the dead Indeed Christ by being the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world did but lay the needful foundation and preparation to the one sacrifice to be once made by him as man in the end of the world for the putting away of sin So as in effect both are but one and the same sacrifice in its compleat consideration and full extent and the obedience also to the will of the Father but one performed now in earth as from the beginning it had been done in heaven Without such a glorious and blessed counsel and contrivance of God preceding the very creation it self and the entrance of sin upon it how can God be said to have finished his works in the person of the Mediator from the foundation of the world and to be entred into his Rest Heb. 4. 3 4. if sin by entring in upon the creation or works of God after they were made should be able to disturb them and bring a desolation upon the whole Fabrick as it ought to have been dealt with in way of Justice if this Lamb slain had not born up the pillars of it who by standing up in the office of Mediator and High-Priest by whose sacrifice the atonement was actually made and remedy provided before the evil and danger did happen did immediately set all things straight again between God
also expresseth Psalm 34. 12 14 15 16. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many daies that he may see Good let him depart from evil and do good for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth and this without respect of persons for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2. 12. And on the contrary as many as have approved themselves faithful unto God without law in a dutiful and chaste observance of the judgements which by him are given to all nations Ezek. 5. 6 7. are alike accepted Acts 10. 35. as those that under the law have approved themselves righteous in walking in all those commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless Luke 1. 6. and are equally rewarded by God according to their answerableness to the light they live in who will punctually perform what lies on his part in giving to the righteous man the righteous mans reward according to the tenor of the promises covenant and light they live under For the Lord is a God of Gods and Lord of Lords a great God a mighty and a terrible one which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward but judgeth righteously the whole world and all the nations in it Deut. 10. 17. though he was pleased to delight so far in the fathers of the Jewish seed as to chuse their seed after them above all people of the world besides to take them neerer to him and make them a habitation more immediate for himself Yet as to the main which is the grace of being made new creatures the Scripture saith expresly neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any-thing or hinders at all either of them from being taken into the RIGHTEOUSNES OF FAITH and life of the new and everlasting covenant The nations then of the world considered as those that are without law comparatively with the Jews are not left by Christ without a witness of God kept up amongst them nor without Judgements Ordinances and Laws proper to them in that state ordained by God to bring them unto life and to the knowledge of the truth accompanied also with suitable and sufficient means to lead to that end And therefore immediately after the flood God declares himself as making a kind of stipulation and covenant with all nations in the person of Noah and his family giving them statutes and ordinances upon the observance whereof he promiseth his reward and blessing referring the sum of all to this that in the image of God did he make man which perfection he requires and expects still that man should be aiming at and endeavouring the attainment of in all his operations as intimating thereby the obligation under which all men are by nature especially considering the extent of Christs death to yield obedience to that law which was written out in mans nature at first the seeds and principles whereof are renewed freely by gift from Christ in that enlightning wherewith he enlightens every man that comes into the world making the spirit of man in a lesser or higher degree and measure the candle and lamp of the Lord that is fed with oil out of the holy candlestick from Christ through a work in their natural conscience by the ministry of Angels enabling them to a discerning of good and evil according to the light and principles of that natural righteousness wherein they were at first created and requiring them to exercise and improve this talent and ability of mind freely given unto them promising to have his eye for good upon them in their being faithful according to that little they have received and to accept them according to what they have and not according to what they have not and to keep his ears open unto their cry if they want wisdom or strength to go forward and improve what they have received causing them also to meet with protection and encouragement under the ministry of the good Angels in counter-ballance to the discouraging assaults of the wicked ones to the end that by being thus assisted and strengthned in willing and resolving on a holy and righteous course of life and operation and putting the same in practice they may the better bear up against the degenerated part of nature in them and all the power and influence of Satan joyning therewith until the fault manifestly appear to be in their own free-will and determination by rebelling against the Rule and government which Christ hath given them to walk by and detaining the manifestation of the truth communicated to them in unrighteousness And besides this inward strengthning and encouragement afforded by God unto them there is also a visible and outward Testimony of his acceptance accompanying them as in the case of Job where the devil takes notice that as a reward unto Iob in his faithful and upright walking with God in fearing God and eschewing evil God made a hedge about him and about his and about all that he had and blessed the works of his hands giving herein his Angels charge over him being as yet but under this first dispensation though withall he had a seed of immortal life underneath The sum then of what God requires by the Rule and judgements he gives unto all nations is that they depart from evil and do good in the exercise of the natural abilities of their mind rectified and enlightned through the benefit of Christs blood and so made improveable by the use of the means which he affords them in present and is yet further willing to reveal to them in future in order to their growing out of all natural filth and pollution of flesh in conformity to that primitive purity wherein man was at first created and to their being delivered out of the kingdom of Sathan and power of darkness in which the design of the devil is to fix and detain them for ever Now the good answer of this natural conscience unto this Rule and these judgements and ordinances of Christ consists first in the fear and aw of God which such have in them that keeps them from sinning against him or thwarting the dictates of their own enlightned judgement shewing itself in accusing them for evil doings and excusing them in good especially when strengthned herein by inward good motions and impressions that are the effects of the ministry of the good Angels to perswade and encourage hereunto Secondly in a vigilant care and industry to walk up faithfully to this light not slighting or neglecting any proper and suitable means conducing thereunto Thirdly in an experimental sense of the emptiness and insufficiency of the good works by them done to justifie and present them faultless before God before whom the Angels themselves are ashamed and hide their faces which made
several as they may without the seed of saving faith accompanying them how high and heavenly soever they may seeme to be they are but common grace and may be fallen from and so those may perish that have them But where such gifts are followed with that farther work in the soul which is the proper fruit and effect of the third Ministery containing in it things that accompany salvation then those very gifts hereby washed in the blood of the Lamb do change their fading and failing property and become saving and everlasting In the righteousnesse then of Faith both the former righteousnesses are fulfilled and established upon better principles and Promises then those of the first Covenant to the making the possessors thereof heirs of God co-heirs with Christ and so partakers of the Divine nature entering them into the glory that is within the veile and setting them downe with Christ on his Throne as he is set downe with the Father on his Throne in the fulnesse and perfection of both Creations having all power in Heaven and in Earth put into his hand This is the Mortification and Vivification the dying to sin and living to righteousness witnessed unto by the Scriptures and shining forth in the face of Christ as the Truth that is in Jesus unto which we are made conformable by being planted together with him in the likenesse of his death and resurrection comprehending in it all that righteousnesse and holinesse which is but in part and is upon right grounds pleaded for either by the Natural or Legal Conscience and holding forth over and above that which is higher and of a better and more durable kinde then theirs But however it be that the defect and miscarriage we are speaking to that is incident to Natural or Legal righteousnesse lie not in this that it is counterfeit or hypocritical but that it is that which is but in part and which therefore does unwarrantably exalt it self into a competition with or opposition to the whole as it comes to passe in those who make such ill use of Christs first appearance as thereby to resist and keep out his second yet we are neverthelesse to acknowledge that there is much counterfeit work to be found in the world as daily experience sheweth both as to light practice principles and converse amongst those that pretend fair to be great proficients in that righteousnesse and holinesse that makes up the answer of the Natural or Legal good conscience who do not truly live in the principles of either of these states but make a flourish with meere notion head-work and light without heat together with some overly performances as desirous of a share in the praise of men with those who truly live in such principles by a meere outward plausiblenesse in converse whilst their inward part is full of ravening and wickednesse Others also that are unsincere and faulty in their very principles we are to discover and lay open for the preventing of the deceit with which under these the Devil lies in wait to insnare and turne men aside from the TRVTH This sort of men in whom are found these corrupt principles whereby they become men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith speaking lies in hypocrisie the Scripture expressely takes notice and warnes us of above all the rest as the great engines the Devil makes use of for the instillation of his Doctrine by faire speeches to the deceiving of the hearts of the simple Since therefore there is such deceivable work kept on foot in men by that grand Impostor Satan and that under pretence of their dying to sin and living to righteousnesse in many feigned shews of mortification forbidding of marriage and commanding to abstain from meats which may be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth which things have indeed a shew of wisdome in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh all which is so far from being comprehended in the righteousnesse revealed by the Gospel as any part of it that under a counterfeit shadow and similitude thereof it stands in direct opposition thereunto begetting in the conscience such a dying unto Christ or the Spirit of TRUTH as imports and plainly speaks forth a living unto Antichrist or the spirit of lies and fashood prophesied of as that which with great confidence will be obtruded by the witnesse and practice of divers in the last times 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. and elsewhere since I say these things are so I have held it my duty in very faithfulnesse unto the TRUTH not to passe by the same in silence without giving my Testimony against all such deceitful workings in those who having departed from the faith give heed unto seducing spirits speaking lies in hypocrisie or in feigned resemblances unto TRUTH Of such the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 11. for whose sake he was exceeding jealous lest the Corinthians through their influence and subtilty should be corrupted from the simplicity and chastity of mind which they ought to bear as chast Spouses unto Christ their one Husband v. 2 3. Such saith Paul are false Apostles Prophets and professors of Christ transforming themselves into the appearance of Christs true witnesses and followers and no marvel For Satan himselfe is transformed into an Angel of light Therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers be transformed as the Ministers of righteousnesse taking upon them to personate true mortification or dying to sinne and true vivification or living to righteousnesse whose end shall be according to their Works ver 13 14 15. This sort of men as appeares in the examples of Hymeneus and Alexander have been once enlightned and through the receivings of grace and attainments under the first Covenant have had that which the Scripture calls Faith and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. who notwithstanding do put away their good conscience and concerning faith make shipwrack being the adversaries on the one hand which Paul exhorts Timothy to maintaine a good warfare against as well as against the Teachers of the Law on the other hand who being ignorant whilest they are under the Law how to pursue the true end of it run out into unprofitable heady disputes and endlesse questions having once turned aside unto vaine jangling understanding neither what they say nor wherefore they affirme v. 4 5 6 7. But stumbling at that stumbling stone in Sion and rock of offence to enemies Rom. 9. 33. but of defence and salvation to his chosen beloved ones Psal 95. 1. the same Christ becoming to these a sanctuary or place of refuge to them a stone of stumbling even to both the houses of Israel a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem Isa 8. 14 who going about to establish their own righteousnesse do not submit unto and so fall short of the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 3. Both these sorts of men on
that sacrifice Jer. 32. 35. which was expresly prohibited Lev. 18. 21. and they threatned with death that should be found practisers hereof Chap. 20. 2 3. yea if men be found conniving in such case as loth to discover the offender God farther declares that he himself wil come forth in his wrathful appearance or face to do execution as it is written v. 4 5. If the people of the Land do any wayes hide their eyes from the man when he giveth of his seed unto Molech and kill him not or cause not execution to be done upon him then will I set my face against that man and against his family and I will cut him off and all those that go thus a whoring after Molech This just judgement and severity of God in his proceeding against this sin as practised in that lowest and most literal sense under the Law will be found in the issue not to be lessened or mitigated but rather much heightned and raised to appear in a more flaming execution of vengeance upon all such in whom this sin finally takes place in a more sublimated and spiritual way to the offering up of their own living bodies and the sensual comforts thereof in a strange fire to the Devil which they ought by fire from heaven taken off the true Altar Christ to have offered up in sacrifice unto God Rom. 12. 1. Secondly the same Scripture 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. that intimates this way of mortification does also mention the proportionable vivification accompanying it called there the resurrection which such false guides do affirme to be already past in them looking for nothing as future or to come of hell or heaven to the quickning or raising them up into the utmost perfection of life and glory as their attainment whilst herein this life and before that redemption of the body mentioned Rom. 8. 23. which the Saints and the creature it self yet groane after and wait for This resurrection of theirs is called 2 Col. 18. a worshipping of Angels in a voluntary humility intruding into those things which they have not seene as taking it for granted they are hereby made the true spiritual seed and that they are enter'd within the veile as having passed through the STRAIT GATE and undergone the BAPTISME of the HOLY GHOST AND OF FIRE and so that they are also come to be intirely under the teachings of the Father as actual possessors and inheritors of his everlasting Kingdome and glory In all this they are seduced and made through strong delusion to beleeve a lie being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minde to the despising and undervaluing of Christ the Mediatour yea 2 Pet. 2. 1. to the bringing in of damnable heresies privily by cunning sleights and beguiling insinuations even to a denying of the Lord that bought them in the incommunicable properties of his Godhead by esteeming and at length in down-right termes asserting themselves to be God or at least to be as much the Sonnes of God in all respects as Christ himself in his own person who is God blessed for ever in consequence whereof we shall finde them at length owning an everlasting and general salvation of all men and Angels This is that posture of spirit into which that old Serpent called the Devill and Satan swells up those that are thus deceived by him in down-right opposition at length to Christ and God asserting himselfe in them and so causing them to assert and own themselves through his inspirations and indwelling presence in them to be both Christ and God Father and Sonne or another while to affirme that there is no God no Heaven no Hell no Angel or Spirit as the Sadduces for if he can perswade them either that he is God or else that there is no God at all he hath enough And in order to make this witness of theirs to stand and take place against all opposition from the true light when he has cried down the living WORD OF GOD into a meere equality on all accounts with the creature or advanced himselfe and his children into the room and place of God himselfe or partnership at least with the WORD in his incommunicable properties but then findes that the outward Word of God can very difficultly be made use of long to countenance either of these designes by degrees he labours to draw them into a state of alienation to that also rendring even the written Word nauseous and despicable to them and causing them to fall a slighting the Scriptures this outward Word of God which rightly represented gives forth the discovery and pleads for the true interest of the inward and living WORD and so professedly to disown all bodily or outward worship and service whatsoever as carnal and inconsistent with the spiritual service they performe Hereupon some of them also forbid marriage and other lawful creature-comforts as called to abstinence and a Virgin-life by which Rule the spirit they live and walk in judges marriage unlawful and commands to abstaine from meats two signal characters of this spirit held forth undeniably to our view 1 Tim. 4. 3. And in all this they carry a shew of wisdome in wilworship neglecting of the body and all things done in honour or satisfaction thereunto as hath been said To these also belong those characters in Jude and Peter where it is said of such that they count it pleasure to riot in the day-time or under pretence of highest light and spirituality to turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and so at last returne with the dog to the vomit and the washed sow to her wallowing in the mire yea and that avowedly in point of judgement now as a condition they can satisfie their owne consciences in and in which they undertake to justifie themselves against all contradiction These by Peter are called spots and blemishes sporting themselves with their own self-deceivings in their feastings with others having eyes full of adultery beguiling unstable souls and alluring through much wantonnesse them that were cleane escaped from those that live in error Yet all this while they will confidently own themselves as lovers and favorers of the Spirit of TRUTH notwithstanding that they live unto a spirit of falshood in the sight of God even in whoredome and defilement with the father of lies But because many of these may be so meerely deceived as verily to think themselves with a chaste and Spouse-like affection to be embracing of Christ their true Lord and husband and so may be doing what they do ignorantly and not wilfully the Scripture sayes in such case Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them with a holy severity out of the fire lest otherwise they finally perish for this is that kinde of sinning which is unto death and therefore unpardonable when it is done knowingly and wilfully This false seducing spirit is capable of putting forth it self in a greater or lesser degree in and under all
in a superiority in all things unto the Church or true spiritual seed which is his body the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all built up into a Heavenly conformity in all things as a Wife and Spouse unto this her Head and Husband This excellency of Christs exalted manhood was surely intimated unto Iaceb by that ladder Gen. 28. 12 which in his dream he beheld set upon the earth the top whereof reached to Heaven as also the Angels of God ascending and descending upon it For thus we find it interpreted by himself Iohn 1. 50 51. as that greater sight of his humane perfection then what could be seene in the dayes of his flesh Verily verily sayes he I say unto you hereafter you shall see Heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Sonne of man as if he should have said You shall see the Heavenly Temple of God opened Rev. 11. 19. that is to be found in the WORD OF LIFE and the heavenly discoveries flowing thence or sent forth from the same in their ascents and descents in and upon the manhood of Christ as the means chosen for the making manifest the riches of his glory to men and Angels in their particular beings and persons In these three respects shall the true SONNES AND HEIRS OF SALVATION fitted and adorned as a Bride and Heavenly body to this Husband and Head appeare bearing on them the image of the last Adam made like unto him to the seeing of him as he is and shining forth in this likenesse they will have accomplished upon them that manifestation of the sonnes of God which shall vastly difference them from the naturall or fleshly seed considered in their highest mutable perfection or in the incorruptible forme wherein they shall be raised up to everlasting contempt By vertue then of this conformity in image which the Saints shall be brought into with Christs heavenly manhood they shall come forth in the exercise of this threefold life in kind wherein the manhood of Christ hath beene conversant ever since the laying down of his earthly and natural body First of that life which all the true sonnes and heirs of salvation that have died in the faith have beene exercising ever since their change or falling asleep in the Lord that is to say the life of the spirits of just men made perfect a life like that of the Angels or perfect spirits that can live and act without dependance upon bodily life and motion described by Christ himself where he sayes that they who shall be accounted worthy to obteine that world and the resurrection from the dead as were Abraham Isaac and Jacob who then were and yet are in the possession of it neither marry nor are given in marriage for they are equal unto the Angels and are children of God and of the resurrection Luke 20. 35 36 that is to say are the children of God in their spirits made perfect and thereby are become equals and fit associates for the holy Angels themselves as the souls of wicked men departed this life become equals and fit associates for the evil Angels concerning which state also in the best sense Christ spake unto the thief upon the Crosse when he said This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The second exercise of life which the Saints as gathered unto Christ their Head at his second coming shall be brought forth in is that of a glorified incorruptible body in fashion made like unto his glorious body Phil. 3. Into the exercise of which life they are not yet entered but reserved for it by the MAN CHRIST IESUS the FIRST-FRUITS who will have the souls of those slaine under the Altar to rest yet for a little season in the single exercise of their Angelical life as spirits of just men made perfect untill the gathering of the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the first-borne together and setting them who have beene the slaine Witnesses of Christ upon their feet in the exercise of this immortal incorruptible bodily life here in this world wherein they are to continue and abide for a THOUSAND YEARS keeping the true Sabbath of Rest unto the Lord in that seventh part of the time of the worlds duration All worldly strength wisdome and power shall then as the walls of Iericho fall flat before Iesus the true Ioshua and these true Israelites as having beene by them compassed about six dayes and now on the seventh a thousand years being with the Lord as one day 2 Pet. 3. 8. making way for the end mentioned 1 Cor. 15. 24. to come and shew it self at which time the fleshly Rule and Kingdome of Christ in his first appearance till then kept up in the world as the first general Dominion is delivered up unto the Father the Sonnewillingly becoming subject herein with reference to the bringing himself forth in his second appearance to rule and reign in the place of the first that God may be all in all and that all other rule authority and power may hereby be put downe yea death it self as the last enemy may be destroyed and made unable to deteine any under its power that the quickning vertue shining forth in this presence and appearance of Christ shall call forth and give freedome unto The Saints in the exercise of this life with Christ upon earth during this THOUSAND YEARS shall be those in whom Christ will be admired and the Father glorified This state of theirs is the reward spoken of in Scripture where it is said The meek shall inherit the earth and Godlinesse hath not only the promise of the life to come but of this also 1 Tim. 4. 8. So Rom. 4. 13. The Promise to Abraham that he should be heir of the world is declared not to be by the Law or to have its accomplishment under the first Covenant-dispensation but through the righteousnesse of faith that it might be by grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who with other beleevers died and received not the making good thereof It therefore remains to be performed in its due time at this manifestation of the Sonnes of God which faith sees and acknowledges Heb. 11. 39. These all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise to wit this promise of being heirs of the world and of all Nations being blessed in and by the meanes of the spiritual seed which will certainly be fulfilled to them in the times of the NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH Isa 65. 17. c. God having foreseene and reserved some better thing for us saith the Author to the Hebrews that they without us should not be made perfect but that all of us may enjoy that better thing together at once in the keeping of a holy Sabbath unto the Lord at the coming of this day of God in which the Heavens that