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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	body_n	bread_n	figure_n	1,915	5	9.0793	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49801	Theo-politica, or, A body of divinity containing the rules of the special government of God, according to which, he orders the immortal and intellectual creatures, angels, and men, to their final and eternal estate : being a method of those saving truths, which are contained in the Canon of the Holy Scripture, and abridged in those words of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which were the ground and foundation of those apostolical creeds and forms of confessions, related by the ancients, and, in particular, by Irenæus, and Tertullian / by George Lawson ...	Lawson, George, d. 1678.	1659 (1659)	Wing L712; ESTC R17886	441,775	362

second thing that follows is the confirmation of the continuance of this Covenant and that is in these words This is my Body c. This is the New Covenant or Testament in my Blood c. The thing confirmed is the continuance of the Covenant of Grace in the Bloud of Christ. The Confirmation and so the Solemn Engagement is two-fold 1. On God's part 2. On Man's part 1. On God's part by giving the Blessed Bread and Cup to be eaten and drunken 2. On Man's part by taking and eating the Blessed Bread and drinking the Blessed Cup. By Giving God doth testifie and assure man that He continues the same firm in the Covenant and is ready to give a further increase of Graces and a greater measure of Mercy for the merit of Christ dying and upon the same tearms the Covenant was made and confirmed at first For the Condition then was not onely to begin but continue Faith and Obedience and God by this Sacrament doth renew His Promise that man may renew his Faith Man presupposed to continue in this Covenant doth solemnly by receiving and eating this Bread in remembrance of the Body of Christ broken and offered and by receiving and drinking the Cup in remembrance of the bloud of Christ testifie and engage himself to continue in thta Covenant expecting Remission and Eternal Life upon no other tearms but Faith in Christ dying for him Yet because a Mist is cast upon these words This is my Body This is my Blood I must clear them that this Confirmation may be the more evident To this end I must shew 1. What is meant by THIS 2. How THIS Whatsoever it be may be said to be the Body of Christ And how the second THIS may be affirmed to be the Bloud of Christ. By THIS in the former place is meant Bread the blessed and consecrated Bread For 1. It was Bread that Christ took 2. It was Bread Christ blessed 3. It was Bread Christ broke 4. It was Bread Christ gave 5. It was Bread which Christ cmomanded them to take and eat 6. The Apostle calls this Bread three several times 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28. But How is this Bread Christ's Body It 's not the Body of Christ by Transsub●antiation nor Consubstantiation For both these are contrary to Reason to Sense to the Nature of all Religious Rites and Sacraments to all Miracles For there never was Miracle that did delude the Senses For the Water turned miraculously into Wine appeared to be Wine and tasted as Wine and was Wine indeed as it appeared That many of the Fathers seem to affirm it to be the Body of Christ is nothing for as many call it Bread and a Sign and Figure of Christ's Body To this purpose you may read the Learned Dr. Crakenthorpe against Spalatensis in the Controversie of Transubstantiation where ye shall find a multitude of Councels and Fathers exactly quoted to this purpose The word Transubstantiation was not known till latter times The thing signified by it cannot be certainly defined For the greatest School-men and subtilest Wits differ amongst themselves both in the Definitions and the Explication of their Definitions Besides there is some reason to think many of them do not believe it For some of them amongst us have refused to take it upon their Salvation that after a due Consecration according to their Rules any such change of the Elements is made But suppose the change and that it 's certain to what end doth it serve For it 's confessed that wicked men may receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist and yet be damned neither doth it profit any man who receives it without Faith THIS therefore that is said to be Christ's Body is Bread and at the first Institution it must needs be so for then Christ's Body was not broken neither did Christ then give it The second Question therefore is How Bread may be said to be Christ's Body if not really and by Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation or some such way The Answer is That it 's His Body 1. By Representation because it 's a Sign and Figure of his Body as many of the Ancients expresly affirm and if any of these say it 's Christ's Body in proper sense as they of the Church of Rome would make us believe they do then they must needs contradict themselves And this is proper to all Religious Rites to signifie something invisible and many times the name of the thing signifyed is given to the Sign it self As Circumcision is said to be a token of the Covenant Gen. 17. 2. and afterwards it is called the Covenant My Covenant shall be in your flesh ver 13. whereas it was the token of the Covenant that was in their flesh The reason of this expression is the similitude and agreement between the sign and the thing signifyed In this respect Christ calleth His Flesh Bread not that it was Bread but because it was like to Bread And that place of John the 6th where He calls Himself and His Flesh Bread is alleadged to prove●t is change yet if the Expression and Predication were proper that place might prove that Christ's Body was changed into Bread and not Bread into His Body as will easily appear to any Intelligent and impartial Reader Yet to be a bare Sign is not all but to be a Sign so by Divine Institution as to confirm the Promise of the Covenant and assure the worthy Receiver that as certainly as He gives him that Bread so certainly will God give him the benefits merited by the Death of Christ. By this time we may understand what is signifyed by these words This is my Body But what is meant by the latter words This is the Covenant in my Blood and This is my Blood of the Covenant For the sense of these there can be no doubt but by THIS is meant 1. The Cup For 1. Christ took the Cup. 2. Said This Cup is the New Testament or Covenant 3. It 's called three times by St. Paul the Cup. 2. By cup is meant the Wine in the Cup. 3. This Wine blessed and consecrated according to Christs institution This Cup is said to be the new testament that is the sign whereby it 's confirmed in this Sacrament and as it were a pledge given by God and received by man of remission of sin merited by the blood of Christ and for his sake promised to us Whereas Mathew and Mark relate that Christ said This is my blood it 's meant that the Wine in the Cup was a token and sign of his blood given and received to confirm the new Testament or Covenant Thus Circumcision was a Sign and Seal of the Righteousnesse of faith to Abraham as this Cup is a sign to signify and a Seal to confirm the righteousnesse of faith and remission of sins in the blood of Christ. As for the real presence of Christ in this Sacrament it 's certain that his glorifyed body is in Heaven Yet he

usurpation and an inc●oachment upon the Soveraign power of God who alone hath right to determine and institute these things As he hath prohibited religious Worship to be given to any but himself so he hath said that we must not do unto him the true God as the Heathen did to their Gods What he commands that they must do and must not add nor diminish Deut. 12. 31. 32. The Heathens made Images to represent their gods instituted rites some ridiculous some vain some abominable and did Worship the Images and their Gods in them by them before them and sacrificed their innocent Children unto them Men out of devotion or some other reason may add unto the rules of worship given by God or they may neglect them and omit them and institute something of their own but both are against this Law In this Commandement therefore § XI are forbidden all the foolish vain abominable superstitious rites and ceremonyes used by the Heathen both before and after the time of Moses all of all the revolting Jewes of all Mahumetans since the time of Mahomet and of Christians after that superstition entred into the Church as it entred betimes For some of the Jewes being made Christians and disper●ed into severa●l Countryes retained some of their Pharisaical traditi●ns and many of the Levitical Ceremonyes as being zealous of the Law and many of the Heathens converted could not at first be weaned from their heathenish customes and rites And of this some of the ancients complained in their times Some relicks both of Levitical rites and Heathenish Ceremonyes we find in many places at this day I will not in this brief exposition ●pend time in the examination of the Ceremonyes of the Masse which are very many in such a short piece of Service It 's matter o● Lamentation to consider how soon Superstition and Idolatry entred into the Church and being diffused through many places and having continued for a long time they put on the face o● Vniversality and Antiquity though neither of these be a sufficient ground to warrant any thing not instituted from Heaven Both these entred secretly and by degrees For Commemoration con●inued for a time and received gave occasion unto and ended in the invocation of Saints and Angels Images and Monuments of God Saints and Angels secretly crept in and were tolerated and allowed for Instruction and at length abused to Adoration And in the end the worship of Images was defended commanded used established by civil Lawes and Ecclesiasticall Canons though it was much opposed from the beginning But that which made up and brought unto perfection both Superstition and Idolatry amongst Christians was a Doctrine which did peremptorily affirm and many did and do believe it that a Wafer or a piece of Bread by a few words of a Priest was changed into the Body of Christ and Wine into his blood contrary to Scripture reason sense And it was and is commanded that upon this supposed imaginary change this Wafer and this Wine should be worshipped as God with divine and religious worship And it 's stupendious and a matter of amazement that Christians who professe the Scriptures to be the word of God that the God who made Heaven and Earth is onely one and our Lord Je●us Christ one onely Lord shoul● believe A morsel of bread not only to be a sign of Gods presence but to be the onely true God and so be worshipped with the highest degree of Worship Yet the Eternal Glorious and most Just God looks down from Heaven sees all this and in due time will certainly judge it I need not here insist upon particulars and enumerate the superstitious rites and ceremonyes invented and used either by Heathens Jewes Christians or Mahumetans Many of them are expresly named and particularly delivered in Scripture Many others both in Christian and prophane Historyes What is here commanded may be easily understood § XII not onely from the Prohibition but also from the end and scope of this commandement For it was added to be a Fense unto the former Commandement and to prevent the violation thereof For how can we worship God as God and the onely God except we know what manner or kind of worship is most suitable to his Majesty acceptable to him and conducing to his glory and this in all times Yet these things he alone doth know and hath power to institute and his institutions are the onely rule of Worship and tend most effectually to preserve it pure and undefiled It 's true that many rites and Ceremonyes invented by man may have a fair face of devotion and Reverence but they never proved to do any good but much hurt For they did beget false notions and apprehensions of the Deity who is to be conceived of by us according as he is represented in the holy Scriptures For if our apprehensions be false our affections and worship will be base and adulterate Therefore the general duty here presented is to worship God with that Worship which he hath instituted in his word without addition or diminution As for circumstances of time place and order to be observed in the Worship of God either publick or private they ought to be regulated by the general rules of Scripture particular examples of such as are related in the Scripture to have performed the service and worship of God according to those general rules and the prudential dictates of right reason no wayes different from but agreeable to the Word of God For these are not any parts of Worship but accidentall to the Worship of God yet not to it precisely as worship but as a serious act which requires in the performance thereof due circumstances order and decency As for significant ceremonyes annexed to the service of God no wayes conducing to the better performance thereof I think they are better spared and omitted then used and observed For though consi●ered in themselves without any reference to Gods worship they be indifferent and so in generall may be lawfull yet if we examine their original the first occasion of their use and institution the persons who use or rather abuse them and understand withall how needlesse and unprofitable they be and how offensive unto some weak B●ethren and also besides these may be instituted many more of that kind and may be imposed upon the same ground and that in the Church of Rome they have been an occasion of superstition it must needs be concluded by impartial and ju●icious men that they are not expedient To say and publickly declare that they have no sanctifying power that they are neither holy nor unholy will not serve the turn For the same may be said of Images at first when they began to be used and do what we can many of the people do account them to be holy make them parts of Gods worship and are more carefull in the observation of them then they are of the more weighty dutyes of Religion To understand the more

Judgment Execution tends no further He is subject to God and accountable and his power is perpetuated by Succession and in the end shall totally determine and be dissolved In this government God is the Governour the souls and consciences of men the Subjects the wisdom justice and power thereof perfect the end is Spirituall Righteousnesse and eternal peace to which the Laws and judgments do effectually tend it continues for ever and the estate which it orders men unto is everlasting and it hath the Civill goverment subordinate unto it and in some respect a part of it That there is a first § IV and second government I take it for graunted and shall afterwards prove it The description of the first is this It 's Gods ordination of man whereby he bound all mankind in one man made holy and righteous and subjected to Him unto Perfect and perpetuall Obedience or death and according to his Obedience or Disobedience passed judgment upon him That there was such a government may be proved from many places in Gods book I will instance in that one As by one man sin entered into the World and by sin death As death passed over all men c. Rom. 5. 12 13 14. In which words we may observe 1. That there was sin entering into the world 2. That sin presupposeth a Law a Law the power of the Law-giver and the subjection of the party sinning 3. We have the sin of one man and the sin of all men 4. That this sin entered by one man and was from him derived unto all 5. There was death which is Punishment and the death of one man and the Death of all and that for sin and the sin of all 6. This death presupposeth Judgment and the execution of the same because death passed and reigned 7. This sin and judgment began with one man and that was Adam 8. As there can be no judgment or punishment but of sin so there could be no sin without a Law 9. This Law was given to Adam and it was the Law of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil annexed to the morall Lawes All this may be clearly understood by the History of Moses Gen. the 2d and the 3d. Chapters In this description We may observe § V 1. The constitution of the government in the Soveraignty of God and the Subjection of man 2. The administration in the Laws Judgment of God For the subjection of man unto God his Soveraign we must consider that it may be threefold according to a threefold ground For it may arise 1. From his totall and absolute dependence upon God both in his Creation and Preservation 2. From his Voluntary submission 3. From Gods Command The two latter add nothing to Gods Power which by his absolute Propriety is absolute and so great that it cannot be greater yet it may add unto the obligation and bind man more strongly both to subjection and obedience There is some resemblance of these degrees of subjection in the Israelites who though they were subject unto God by Creation and Preservation as all other men were yet as they were free men they received a new and better kind of Being by that great deliverance from Egypt and the Egyptian bondage and so 1. Became Subject to God in the first degree 2. They voluntarily submit and receive him for their Lord and God and engage themselves to serve him and obey him Exod. 19. 8. Deut. 5. 27. And they avouched the Lord their God Deut. 26. 17. This was their allegiance and fealty whereby they became his Servants and Vassals 3. God commanded and said They must have no other Gods This Voluntary submission and Promise of obedience on mans part and the Promise of Protection and reward on Gods side seemes to be a kind of contract and together with the condition a Covenant That there was any foederall contract between God stipulating and man restipulating at the first is not so expresse in Scripture But that in the constitution and fundamentall Law of Gods Soveraignty and mans subjection unto God at first there was something Positive wherein God limited his absolute Power is certain And this is evident from the tree of Life and the Law concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the threatning of Death and that God made Adam the head of mankind and as such did stipulate with him and bound both him and his by the same Law And the Contract seems to have bin confirmed by solemnities For the two Trees in the midst of the Garden imply so much And whereas some make the Promise and the threat to be a Sanction to confirm the Law it 's certain that the Command of God did bind with full power without any such Sanction onely the Promise did bind God upon mans performance of his Duty and the threatning made man liable to Punishment upon Disobedience After the Constitution follows the administration of this first Government § VI For constitution must necessarily go before or else there can be no Regular administration and administration must follow or else the constitution will be in vain The body of man must first be made up of all his members united unto the Head and amongst themselves and then the head must give lie sense motion and direction So these bodies politick must first be moulded and made up of Soveraign and Subject and after that it 's once animated and hath received Being and life Political it begins to Act The Soveraign begins to Protect and Direct and order by Laws and judgments and the People continue their subjection loyalty and obedience and acco●ding to their regular or irregular motions they are judged And this I call Administration whereof There are two Parts Lawes Judgements The first Work of God after the constitution was Legislation or giving of Lawes For so God dealt with Israel 1. They avouch him to be their God and submitt unto him and promise obedience And after that 2 He gives them Lawes which are not onely rules to direct but have a binding force so as to give the obedient a right to rewards and make the disobedient liable to punishment So Jethro's advice to Moses as Governour of the People as subjects directs him 1. To teach them Lawes then 2. To appoint officers and judges and so to proced to judgment This Legislation was the first part of the administration whereby God bound man holy and righteous to perfect and perpetuall obedience with a promise of Life upon that condition or unto death if he once disobeyed The party to whom God gave these Lawes was Adam and in him all Mankind and he being made in the Image of God righteous and holy had power to understand and perfectly obey these Lawes and continue in subjection and obedience The obligation was strict and required perfect obedience without any promise of Pardon if he once offended and by constant obedience he might obtayne Life These Lawes are Morall § VII

Attribute which God did exercise § III and manifest in this Judgment passed upon man was his Mercy which is his free love of man who had made himself unworthy For after that he had sinned and made himself miserable though his misery were an object of compassion yet his sin did provoke to anger and deserved vengeance God looking upon man in this condition was more willing to pitty him then to punish him to remove the sin then to destroy the sinner He was unwilling all Mankind should perish as they must needs have done if he had proceeded in strict justice against them The sin in it self was no fit subject of mercy yet seeing that Woman was deceived by the subtilty of the Devil and Man by Woman his dearest Wife brought into transgression God took occasion to pitty them yet there could be no mercy for them except it issue out of the abundant goodness of God who is slow to anger and so much inclined to compassion and willing in this particular rather to manifest the glory of his mercy then of his justice Man had made himself unworthy and liable to eternal misery and God might have eternally punisht him and that justly too yet mercy kept justice back mitigated the rigour of it and confined it in a narrow compass to inlarge her self more abundantly This mercy was the Fountain from which issued the Promise of Christ the ruine of Sathan's Kingdom the Redemption of Mankind the Relicks of God's Image the means of Conversion the patience long-suffering bounty and clemency of God the gifts of the Spirit the remission of sin and eternal life And that God might be placable Sin pardonable Man saveable he accepts Christ's propitiation reverseth the Law of Works as requiring and that strictly perfect and perpetual obedience as the condition of life and makes a new Law and Covenant which determines Faith to be the condition of life and that condition to be performed by the power of the Spirit merited by and restored for Christ's sake This mercy did appear in this great Judgment many ways § IV 1. God sentenced the Devils in the first place and that without any mercy and for this very cause even because they had attempted the eternal ruine of man which upon the success of their damned Design had proved unavoidable and the recovery of man impossible if God should not have done some extraordinary work to prevent it Upon this fiery indignation of God against these Liars and Murderers of Mankind expressed in this Sentence it did appear 1. That the punishment to be suffered by these cursed Fiends was grievous unavoidable and unremovable for ever 2. That God was highly displeased at their malice shewed against and the mischief done to Mankind in that he takes so fearful vengeance upon them 3. That there was some pitty in God towards poor man trembling at the Bar of God for though their folly was inexcusable yet their condition considering the temptation was lamentable 2. This mercy was manifest in an high and extraordinary degree and measure in that in this Sentence he promiseth or at least implies a most certain promise of Jesus Christ a Saviour and Redeemer It 's true that this great promise was folded and wrapt up in a few words and the same very mysterious as we read them in Moses Gen. 3. 15. But those very words inform us 1. That the Redeemer should be the Seed of the Woman that Woman whom the Serpent had so deluded and who now stood guilty before God's Tribunal 2. That this Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head and so be the ruine of his Kingdom and Dominion over Man 3. That he should not obtain this Victory without Blood for his Head must be bruised and he put to death And there is not onely an Emphasis but a Mystery in those words The Seed of the Woman The Emphasis is in this That God doth not say an Angel or Spirit or some man more excellent then Adam whom he should create instantly but the Seed a Child a Mortal Man born of that sinful Woman though now contemptible and miserable should encounter the Devil with that power and policy as to foil him The Mystery seems to be this That it 's not said the Seed of Man nor the Seed of Man and Woman but the Seed of the Woman signifying though darkly that Christ should be the Seed and Child immediate of a Woman but of no Man For as he was Man he had an immediate Mother who conceived bare him brought him forth but no immediate Father Upon these words as the condition of Man and Woman became more comfortable so the Kingdom and Government of Mankind began instantly to be altered and a second Adam was appointed their Head to redeem them as the first Adam had undone them We must needs think that our first Parents being sinful guilty and convicted before the Supream Judge of Heaven and Earth stood with sad and heavy hearts expecting their doom and condemnation to Eternal Death until they heard these words The Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents Head Then their Despair was turned into Hope and their sinking-dying-hearts began to revive For to them these were words far above all expectation of sweetest comfort Never better words spoken never better heard 3. This mercy was evident in that God did not send the Spirit of Despair nor of Slumber and Security upon them § V nor deliver them up to a reprobate mind as he might justly have done and so made their condition desperate and irrecoverable nor presently execute his judgment Eternal upon them either by taking away their lives in their sin or making their bodies immortal to punishment in body and soul for ever Neither did he take from them the Light of Nature and the sense and power of Conscience but gave them the saving-light of the Gospel and the means of Conversion with the promise of the Spirit All this is evident by the promise of Christ the ruine of Satan's Kingdom a final Victory after a Bloody War in this Sentence of the Devil and it doth further appear by the Education of Cain and Abel and especially in the Faith of Abel That the means of Conversion have been denied several persons whole Tribes many Nations and the greatest part of the World howsoever it might be de●erved by this sin of Adam yet usually it 's the punishment of Apostasie as of the generality of mankind before the ●lood of the Gentiles before Christ's incarnation and of the generality of the Jews and many of the Gentiles since the preaching of the Gospel to all Nations And the very Gentiles were not delivered up unto a Reprobate mind before they abused the Light of Nature Yet the very outward means of Conversion were a gift of Free grace for the merit of Christ who was promised of pure and abundant mercy The Sentence of Justice past upon them was allayed § VI and tempered with great mercy

or disquiet us then our peace must needs be great This love of God is manifested to us many ways As 1 By Trials Chastisements Corrections which are bitter for the present sweet in the end so that we know God in these was not angry but did love us 2 By strange and wonderful Deliverances wherein his Power his Wisdom and special love unto us do evidently appear 3 By the return of our prayers which is many times such as that we certainly know that we were heard in Heaven and God did far more for us then we desired or could have desired 4 And most of all when we find our Faith strengthned our Graces increased our Power over Sin improved For by these things we know assuredly that God by the Spirit of Christ dwells in us and we are very sensible of his powerful presence in our Souls as in his Temple By these things when we look back we begin to discover God's everlasting love in Predestination and those stable and unchangeable Decrees made in Christ before the Foundation of the World And when we look forward we see Heaven open Christ our Saviour at his Fathers right hand making intercession for us our Eternal Mansions there by him prepared and an excellent estate of glory ready for us as reconciled and adopted to this estate And upon our Prayers our Eyes are enlightned so that we gain a further knowledge of the hope of his Calling and the Riches of the glory of his Inheritance in his Saints and of the exceeding greatness of his power towards us The more we do good and suffer ill for his sake the greater and more certain our hope of eternall glory is And though we live by hope and see somewhat dimly our heavenly Country afar off and have but some glimmerings of the eternal light that there doth ever shine yet for the present Faith is the substance of these things hoped for and the evidence of these things that are not seen nor enjoyed These imperfect Representations and apprehensions of this glorious estate do inflame our hearts with vehement desires of nearer approaches to our God cause us to presse with all our power towards our heavenly Prize and warmes our hearts with unspeakable joy because we know one day we shall have full Communion with our God and shall never be in danger to sin again Yet this joy § XIV and Peace may be interrupted much abated and sometimes seem to be extinct for a while For according to our neglect and abatement in the exercise of that Sanctifying Power God hath given us and the use of those meanes and our opportunities he hath afforded so our peace and joy abate And much more are they lessened and abated by our grievous sins As by word and prayer this heavenly fire was first kindled so by these it 's kept alive and increased Fervent and frequent prayers serious meditations upon Gods holy Precepts and his gracious Promises with constant practise are like fewel to this fire and like Bellows to stirr it up and cause it burn with a clearer and more ardent flame and so improve this joy unto an high degree But as when we either withdraw the fewel or powre water upon the fire it 's abated and ready to be quenched so by neglect of the former duties and especially by grievous sins we grieve and offend the blessed spirit of joy peace comfort and so he begins to withdraw himself Therefore let us not with Ephesus fall from our first love nor with Laodicea cool in our zeal nor with David contract the guilt of haynous Crimes For we must know that the most just God will judge his own people according to their Works and so reward or punish them If we neglect to walk with Him in the light of holinesse He will refuse to give us the light of joy and comfort When we either abate in our performances or fall into grievous sins our God either by afflictions or admonitio●s and reproofs or by the working of the blessed Spirit or by some or all these doth cause us to see our guilt and make us sensible of our sins and so bring us back again And upon our serious return our joyes are revived and our peace restored And great and wonderfull is his care over his Children in this kind for as he prevented them with his grace at first to convert them that he might make them his Children much more when they are his Children and do fall will he prevent them by his grace to raise them up again and revive the sparks of fire remayning He will not suffer them to dye He will punish them that He may Reward as He afflicted the offending Corinthians with sicknesse and some of them with death and so judged and chastened them that they should not be condemned with the World Lest this first Regeneration and title to the eternal inheritance should be in vain He will keep them by his power through faith unto salvation which is ready to be revealed in the last time 1 Pet. 1. 3 4 5. And if his power should not preserve their Faith as well as their Persons they must needs perish He hath signified that the Connexion between their Faith Love Patience and eternall glory is indissoluble For the patience and faith of the Thessalonians in all their persecutions and tribulations they endured were a manifest token of the Righteous judgment of God That they might be counted worthy of the Kingdome of God for which they did suffer 2 Thes. 1. 4 5. For if we suffer with Christ we shall be glorified with him Rom. 8. 17. 2 Tim. 2. 11 12. And this is a faithfull saying These things being so there was little reason why the Remonstrants in their Synoda● Acts and Writings should so mince the matter as though they were afraid to give any advantage to the Truth Upon the 5th Article of Perseverance they say that God 1 According to his absolute Power not according to the Law of Grace 2 In an extraordinary not an ordinary way 3 May reward not will reward 4 Not constantly but sometimes 5 Not all his Children but some long and much exercised in Piety and tried in Afflictions with the grace of not failing Perseverance 6 This they will not determine but leave indifferent How this can consist with the Scriptures I know not As there be Spiritual Rewards in this life § XV so there be after Death and before the Resurrection As for the Body because it hath been the Tabernacle of a Regenerate and sanctified Soul and with it a Temple of the Holy Ghost Therefore though it be separated from the Soul and turned into Dust yet it 's laid down in certain hope of the Resurrection For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in us then He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken our Mortal Bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in us Rom. 8. 12. Besides it 's freed

from all weariness faintings diseases annoyances and pains so that the loss of Sense is turned to a benefit though in it self it be a punishment As for the Soul the reward thereof is excellent though not perfect It hath obtained a final Victory over sin Sathan the World and is out of all danger of Hell It 's freed from all trouble and inconvenience that did arise from the Body and is delivered up with great peace and joy into the hands of a gracious Redeemer who sends his Angels to receive it guard it and set it in the Heavenly Paradise where Satan can never come near it or tempt it any more either to sin or despair And now it 's free from all sin all fear and sorrow and temptations and washed in Christ's bloud shall be presented pure and blameless before God's Throne The place whatsoever it is is full of comfort the Society excellent it 's secure of the great reward of Eternal Glory And that which is the accomplishment of all comforts it is with Jesus Christ it's blessed Saviour who takes the charge and protection of it Paul desired to depart and be with his Saviour which was far better Phil. 1. 23. Which words inform us 1 That the Soul lives after it is separated from the Body 2 That Death is not a destruction but departure 3 It 's departure from a worse place and condition to the better 4 Though it's absent from the Body yet it 's present with the Lord. 5 Though it had many sweet and excellent joys and comforts in Christ in this life yet now it hath more and greater CHAP. XXIIII Of the Universall and finall Judgment and the Eternall Rewards and punishments of the World to come AFter all the judgments past § I and executed from the beginning of the world to the last period and moment of the same there will be another and it shall be the last for none shall follow It 's final As it shall be the last so it will be the greatest Court that ever God did keep both in respect of the persons to be judged which shall be all men and Angels and in respect of the retributions which shall be Punishments and Rewards in the highest degree and everlasting Many Signes and Prodigies both in Heaven and Earth shall go before and prognosticate the approach thereof The world shall be consum'd by fire the dead shall be raised the living shall be changed and both shall be immortall The Judg is God who hath given commission to Iesus Christ to judge both Angels and men both quick and dead He hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World in Righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Act. 17. 31. Yet of the day and hour when he shall come no man knoweth no not the Angels of Heaven He shall come in great glory all the holy Angels shall attend him a Cloud shall be his Chariot his Tribunal shall be high and dreadfull The Arch-Angel shall sound the Trumpet and make all the World to heare All shall be summond all shall appear All causes shall be evident The sentence shall be irrevocable the Punishments and Rewards great the execution certain and the estate of the partyes judged shall be unchangeable That such a day will come that it will be a great day that it will be dreadfull unto many and a day of unspeakable joy to true believers it 's certain For God hath said so and all his Saints believe him and long for that day and wait for their Saviours comming from Heaven That it will be a day of judgment and that Christ shall be the Universall judge we doubt not Yet the manner of his comming and the way of his proceeding we do not perfectly and distinctly for the particulars know Something of it God by his Son Jesus Christ hath signified unto us and informed us of as that an Eternall Kingdome upon a finall and totall absolution will be adjudged to some but others shall receive the doom of an eternall curse and excommunication to be cast out of Gods presence and condemned to suffer eternall Punishments with the Devill and his Angels All secrets shall then be brought to light and the judgment shall be exactly just according to mens works and the execution shall be answerable For the condemned shall go into everlasting Punishment but the righteous into life eternall Math. 25. 46. So that of this judgment and the execution thereof we have two parts 1. The Reward of the Righteous 2. The Punishment of the unrighteous according to their obedience or disobedience unto the Laws of God Redeemer The reward of the righteous shall be of the whole man § II both soul and body both united together and joyntly partakers in the reward as they were in obedience The body being raised shall be immortall free from all evils incident to a body free from all imperfections and defects and made glorious and perfect with all perfections a body can be capable of For from Heaven we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashion'd like unto his glorious body according to the Working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 21. The greatest perfection shall be this that it shall be united to a Soul fully sanctified from which it shall never any more be separated and both together shall be the Eternal Temple of the Holy Ghost The Soul it self shall be finally and totally justified fully sanctified and endued with all the graces of the Spirit requisite to happiness and then their Reconciliation and Adoption shall be consummate the whole man shall be firmly established in Righteousness and Holiness never to sin never to be in danger to sin again They shall be with their Saviour and behold his glory enjoy the clear Vision of God be ravished with his Beauty filled with Eternal Joy and Delights and be secure of their perpetual full Bliss All tears shall be wiped away from off all faces and they shall never sorrow any more No evil that can be feared shall come near them and all good that can be desired shall abound there As the Light of God's Eternal Favour shall ever shine upon them in full strength so the streams of Eternal goodness shall ever issue from the Throne of God and the Lamb so that they shall be fully satiated with all pleasures for evermore The place will be glorious the company excellent and no good thing that may add unto their happiness shall be wanting Then shall they know how much God loved them and how much Christ hath done for them They believe now that the Reward is great but then by the enjoyment they shall know it to be far greater then ever entred into the heart of Man As Camaracensts saith truly § III That we may know God to be