slain for us he is become the Righteousness of God to and for men and so is set forth in the Gospel of God as he is therein declared to be the forgiver of sins and justifier of them that believe in him upon the account of the Righteousness wrought and compleated in and by him And so he is or in him is held forth to us men the Righteousness of Faith or the Righteousness which is of God by Faith as it 's diversly tearmed that is to say through and by vertue of Christ and the Righteousness performed by him whosoever gives credit to his Testimony and believeth looketh to and stayeth upon him are accepted for righteous in the presence of God though in themselves and with respect to the Righteousness given them in Adam they be sinful and defiled creatures and shall be dealt with as righteous persons in abiding in him and shall have the grace and spirit of God administred to them also both to justifie them in their Consciences and effect in them righteous frames and affections conforming them to God and fitting them for his Kingdom All which also depend upon the Righteousness of Christ to be performed to and in them But this Righteousness comes not to and upon men as the righteousness of the first man should have done had he stood for that should have been by Propagation Rom. 5.17 but this by Spiritual Regeneration free Gift and Imputation and is received by men in coming in to him and being born to and of him of the faith and knowledge of him and of God as manifested in and by him The Righteousness wrought by Christ â—om 3.22 23 24 25. 5.17 18 19 20 21. and that is in Christ is indeed for and to all men to justification of life both so as to justifie exempt or free them from being held under the first judgement or condemnation so as to perish therein and so as to give them life and righteousness in Christ as a thing prepared for them and ready to be in their closing with him imparted to them But it come upon cloaths and makes righteous so as to gracious acceptation and title to the Kingdom and Inheritance promised only those who receive and believe in him SECT 4. Of two kinds of Sin 4. THere is also a twofold consideration of Sin with reference to these two men and the Covenants made with men in and by them The one is natural to us the root and original of which was voluntary to Adam and this stood in the breaking the Law he was under and it is transmitted to us as his righteousness had he stood should have been by propagation so as we come sinners into the world and under the sentence of Death Rom. 5.13 14 Rom. 3.9 10 19 23. as is evident in Children that sin not after the similitude of Adams transgression and so not by imitation and yet do dye And this sin also brings forth and necessitates men naturally to innumerable sins actual sins that stand in the breach of Gods law according to which all have sinned and as they grow up do sin continually till and further then by grace they be prevented and inabled to do better The second kind of sin was not found in the second man the Lord Jesus 1 Pet. 2.22 2 Cor. 5.21 for he had no sin in him nor on him but other mens he never did sin nor was guile found in his mouth but it is found in particular men against the second man and against God in him and the law of grace held forth by him not in him against the law given to him and imposed upon him for making attonement for and ransoming men from under the judgment of the former kind of sin which law he fulfilled to perfection And it is a sinning after the similitude of Adams transgression Rom. 5.14 Hos 6.7 though not simply against the first Covenant but against the second too viz. that in Christ for men hating the light when it comes John 3.19 20. 5.40 8.44 Prov. 1.24 25. Psal 81.11 12. and loving darkness rather not coming to Christ for life when called in a word the rejecting Christ and putting him away that 's the original and bottom of it preferring Satan sin and the world before him and refusing to be healed and saved by him And this is the condemning kind of sin the retaining natural corruption against the light and grace of Christ coming to save men from it and the chusing to do Satans will rather than Christs And though this kind of sin comes not to men from any publick root of mankind as the first doth but is received from Satan and committed by men in their particular persons to which through original corruption may apt yet in the seasons of Gods grace it necessitates not yea and though Christ did not primarily and directly in his first stepping in to ransome us come to take away this kind of sin as the former it being consequential to his coming to ransom us and to his bringing grace and salvation to us yet from this sin also he hath by the superabundancy of his Merit Rom. 5.16 and the worth of his Obedience and righteousness received power and authority to justifie and save us and doth forgive it to men and save them from it if upon convincement of it during the day of Gods grace they be prevailed with to own or confess it and repent of it turning in to him with whom there is plenteousness of Redemption for that purpose as was before shewed SECT 5. Of two General Judgements besides Particular ones 5. NOw answerable to those two kinds of sin we find mentioned too in the Gospel Doctrine two General Judgements passing upon all men the first passing upon all men in one man before any man was born to him of which the Apostle saith Rom. 5.16 18. the judgement was of one offence to condemnation and was upon all men to condemnation And this was for sin of the first kind Adams sin and the sin of all men as in him and as made sinners and so necessitated to sin by him and this was the judgement threatned before his sin separation and banishment from the presence of God and there through death in soul and body though after the fall pronounced mitigatedly through the interposure of the second man and it was upon all men the same not to some one way to some another way but to all alike and to condemnation as in the Scriptures above quoted Now the weight of this judgement was executed upon Christ John 12.31 the judgement of this world was upon him when he was sorrowful unto death What is through Christ ordered to men 〈◊〉 is for testimony of Gods displeasure against sin indeed but in such a way as none shall perish everlastingly therein being for nurturing men to look to Christ and God in Christ and so to lay hold of the everlasting life
in his Second Appearing according to that of our Saviour Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give 〈◊〉 rest And there remaineth yet a Rest for the People of God and so Christ is called too the Rest wherewith the weary should be made to Rest And by the Apostle Christ is said to be the substance or body of the Sabbaths Col. 2.16 But more particularly The Seventh-days Sabbath was appointed to be a Sign between the Lord and the Children of Israel for ever That it is the Lord that doth Sanctifie them as Exod. 31 13 14 17. And so it might signifie and be a Sign that in and by ceasing from all our Workings and Labours to get Life and Righteousness Rom. 4.5 Act. 26.18 1 Cor. 1.30 to and by our selves and in attending to Christ and God in Christ so God would sanctify us according to that To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the Ungodly 〈◊〉 Faith is imputed to him for Righteousness And Sanctified says Christ by faith that is in me And Christ is made 〈◊〉 us of God Sanctification as if he should say The Sabbath I injoyn you as a perpernal Covenant to signifie to you and instruct you That you are not you own Sanctifyers or Sanctified by your own Works and Labours but by me in Christ your resting place in a quiet ceasing from your own Thoughts and Words and Works and resting in and upon Christ I shall ye be holy to me Isa 58.13 2. The Anoual or Yearly Sabbath I â—all that day of Expiation 1 Levit. 16.31 23.27 28 31 32. the tenth Day of the seventh Month in which besides their resting from their labours they were all of them to afflict their Souls and Fast and the High Priest was by Sacrifice and by entning into the Holy of Holios with the bloud of the Sacrifice to make an atonement for himself and for all the People and to lay their Sins upon a Scape-Goat to be carried by him into a desert place The most lively and clear â—ype of Christ the great High Priest and the Atonement made by him for all men by his own bloud and sufferings first endured by him and then in the vertues of them presented before the Father in Heaven for the taking away our Sins there that so mercy might be extended by him to us Both the Bullock for a Sin-offering for Aaron and the Goats for the People signified Christ bearing and suffering for the sins of those that are Priests to God the Israel of God our Sins and for the Sins of the People even of the whole World 1 Joh. 2.2 the Goat that was slain a Type of him dying for all mâ— and bearing their Sins in his own Bâ— on the Tree and the Scape Goat 〈◊〉 was sent away having the Sins of 〈◊〉 Congregation confessed upon him another Type of Christ removing and carrying away our Sins by the vertues of his Sacrifice and remitting them to the World so as not to impute to them or charge them upon them Yet so as if any man rested not on that day 2 Cor. 5.19 21. and afflicted 〈◊〉 his Soul he was cut off from his People deprived of the benefit of that geners Atonement or Expiation Lev. 23.29 30. as signifying that the way for men to enjoy the beneâ—t of the general Atonement or Purgation of Sins made by Christ Act. 10.43 13.38 39 40. 1. Joh. 1.8 9 10. is to own and confess their Sins and be afflicted for them in the sense and acknowledgment 〈◊〉 them and to rest upon and believe in him otherwise they must perish Indeed there was in this as in all other Types many differences between the Type and the Truth by reason of the imperfection of the Types and perfectionâ— the Truth not to be reached fully by them here the day the Priest the Sacrifice weâ— different things but all pointed out Chriâ— here the High Priest first offered for 〈◊〉 own sins and then for the Sins of 〈◊〉 People But Christ had no Sins properâ— his own none as a Priest for he knâ— or did no sin Heb. 7.26 27. neither was guile foundâ— his mouth He was holy harmless undedefiled separated from sinners made 〈◊〉 â—han the Heavens Who needed not to do 〈◊〉 those Priests did daily to offer first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people But this the hithermost the offering for the Sins of the People he did at once or what sins might in any sence be called his as imputed to him and owned by him and so undertaken to be satisfied for and removed as the sin of Adam and all as in him and what naturally and necessarily springs up therefrom for which he in the first place and most properly undertook to ransom men from the judgment due to them or also the sins of his Members as such that are owned by him as parts of himself the sins of Believers for these and for sins of the People sins of another nature committed willingly by Men in their own persons against the Grace and goodness of God extended to them through him Rom. 5.14 sins after the similitude of Adam's transgression that he might obtain power to forgive them also Rom. 5.18 for all these he did offer up himself once so as that by that one Offering he hath both obtained a â—ease of that first Judgment in which all stood condemned so as no man shall perish therein and he hath obtained power to forgive those other offences after the similitude of Adam's transgression upon their confession of and turning from them Yea Heb. 10.14 he hath for ever perâ—ed the sanctified ones provided them 〈◊〉 a perfect purgation so as there needs no more Sacrifice for sin to their perfeâ— saving Yea so perfect was that his one Offering that there-through he haâ— obtained eternal redemption power of forgiving sins and setting free from Sâ— and Death for ever and therefore stand not to offer any more but is gone into Heaven it self there to appear in the presence of God for us and having as it were sprinkled his Bloud upon the Mercy-seat appearing in Heaven as a Lamb that was slain he is set down on the Right hand of God Rev. 5.6 expecting till all his Foes be made his footstool Heb. 9.10 11 12 25 26. and 10.10 11 12 13 14. Indeed if any man refuse now in the day of Grace and Atonement to own himself the Sinner and fall down before God to seek and accept his pardon in Christ he goes without its benefit and is cut off from the Congregation for which yet the Atonement was made This indeed belongs to the Ordinance of Sacrificing yet as appropriated to such a peculiar day and joyned with this appointment of rest I think it falls fitly to be spoken to amongst the Sabbaths enjoyned them 3. Their Seventh year Sabbath was appointed for rest to the Land
be taught if he teach he is to be heard but he that praises if he Erre confirms the Errour if he flatter he allures into Errour Let the Righteous smite me it shall be a favour if he reprove me it shall be an excellent oyl it shall not break my head Yet as I would not have my Reader Lib. 3. de Tim. proemio as he says stifly addicted to me So neither would I have my Corrector a Correptory Corrector so addicted to himself let him not love me more then the Faith let him not love himself more than the Truth as I say to him equalise not my Writings with the holy Scriptures but when thou findest in them what thou didst not believe believe without delay or doubting but in these Writings what thou art not sure of be not stiff in till thou understandest the certain so I say to him do not Correct my Writings either by thine own Opinion or out of contention but by the holy Scriptures and most Solid Reason In a Word what I intend thee for thy good and profit do not thou by thy curiosity or pertinancy turn to thine own hurt accept my service in what I have been able and have to my ability done rightly and let me have thy Prayers for further grace and ability to him that is the God of all grace in whom I bid thee Farewel remaining Lin Sept. 28th 1659. Thine to serve thee in the Truth of Christ to his ability John Horne THE CONTENTS This Treatise lays down and explicates a Distinction between the Object of Faith or Doctrine to be Preached to men And the Purposes of God about Dispensing the Knowledge thereof to men and his Dispensations of it accordingly to men and Operations with it in men in 12 Chapters Chapter I. THe Distinction propounded and something of the First Branch or Member considered in Three Sections p. 1 Sect. 1. The usefulness and needfulness of rightly distinguishing things that differ and particularly of the Distinction here propounded Ibid. Sect. 2. Of the Doctrine to be Preached to men its independency upon mens knowledge and faith of it its Vnity in its self and Truth to all men p. 4 Sect. 3. Two Conclusions drawn from the foresaid Considerations touching the Heathens and men dead and in Hell before Christ's Passion p. 6 Chap. II. Of the Doctrine or Faith of the Gospel both more implicitly and Generally and more explicitely and particularly in six sections Sect. 1. Of the faith of the Gospel more implicitely p. 9 Sect. 2. Of the Truths supposed and implyed in the Gospel yet not properly and by themselves Gospel p. 12 Sect. 3. Of Gospel-truths properly such touching God's affection to and provision of a Saviour for fallen Mankind his person suffering and exaltation p. 18 Sect. 4. Of God's love to fallen Man in glorifying his Son for him and of the compleatness and fitness of Christ for us as now in Heaven c. p. 23 Sect. 5. How Christ hath broken and is the breaker of the Head of the Serpent in what he hath done is become and is further to do for and to men p. 32 Sect. 6. How Christ is set forth in the Gospel as the fulfilling and fulfiller of the Promises and Prophecies that fore-went of him and of all the types and shadows p. 37 Chap. III. Of things further contained in the Gospel-Faith and thence observable as therein implyed and signifyed in four sections p. 44 Sect. 1. Of the hope of the Gospel Ibid. Sect. 2. Of the obedience and of the faith of the Gospel p. 53 Sect. 3. Of the Terrors of the Gospel p. 57 Sect. 4. A digression about the endlesness of the Punishment mentioned in the Gospel-Terrors p. 62 Chap. IV. Of some Distinctions signifyed and contained in the Doctrine of the Gospel in eight sections p. 79 Sect. 1. Of the two Adams the first and the last the first and the second Man p. 80 Sect. 2. Of two Covenants with respect to the two Adams p 85 Sect. 3. Of two kinds of Righteousness p. 88 Sect. 4. Of two kinds of Sins p. 90 Sect. 5. Of two General Judgments besides particular ones p. 93 Sect. 6. Of two Worlds the World that now is and the World to come p. 97 Sect. 7. Of two kinds of Life and two Deaths p. 100 Sect. 8. Of a twofold appearance of Christ and the proper Works of them and therein also of his comings and of his saving men p. 104 Chap. V. Enters upon the other Member of the Distinction and speaks of the Purposes of God in seven sections p. 111 Sect. 1. Of God's more General Purposes coincident with the Gospel-Doctrine and therein occasionally of God's permission p. 112 Sect. 2. That the Purposes of God concerning Mens Ends in particular as to their Salvation and Damnation are included in and result from the General Purposes p. 116 Sect. 3. That the great difference between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants spring from their different apprehensions of God's Purposes of Salvation and Damnation to particular persons and what the said apprehensions be p. 120 Sect. 4. 1 Sam. 2.25 and 2 Chron. 25.16 About Eli 's Sons and Amaziah considered as also about Act. 13.48 p. 126 Sect. 5. Of the distinction of God's Purposes into Respective and Irrespective p. 132 Sect. 6. Of the Reversibility or Irreversibility of God's Purposes p. 139 Sect. 7. Of God's Purposes as they respect the Dispensation of the means of Grace or truth of God to men that they might know and believe it p. 143 Chap. VI. Of God's Dispensations of the knowledge of himself and of his Truth to men in Nine sections p. 154 Sect. 1. Of the means or mediums made use of by God and vouchsafed to men for making known his Truth to them and leading them to Repentance viz. his Works and Words p. 155 Sect. 2. That the Dispensation of the Word or Revelation of his Mind by words though vouchsafed in all ages yet was neither so universal as that by his works nor was in all ageâ— the same but different to diverse persons p. 165 Sect. 3. Of the Dispensation of the knowledg of God and Christ by his words in Paradise and from thence to the Flood p. 171 Sect. 4. Of the Ages after the Flood till Moses p. 179 Sect. 5. Of the times of Moses and after to David p 187 Sect. 6. Of David 's time and the Ages that followed till Israels Captivity p. 190 Sect. 7. Of the times of the Prophets to the Restauration of the Temple and so on till the Coming of Christ in the Flesh p. 193 Sect. 8. Of the times of Christ his Incarnation and being made manifest to men and so to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and so on p. 199 Sect. 9. That in the former Ages and so in all the Four Monarchies there was something of the Knowledge of God by his people and words vouchsafed to the Gentiles p. 207 Chap. VII Of the variety of
made rich being thereby made capable of acting and Suffering for us so as to procure our Salvation being God and Man in one person 5. That in pursuance of our Redemption he was also made under the Law Gal. 4.4 3.13 Rom. 3.19 both as it was upon and against all men and as given to be observed by the Jews that He might Redeem us from the Law that is that being in Bond as it were with us as a clear man that enters Bond for a grear Debtor he might be liable to be called forth to the Payment of our Debt and procure our discharge from it 6. And accordingly God called him forth to the Judgment Joh. 12.31 Heb. 10.5 6 7 8 9 10. 1 Pet. 2.24 as the onely responsible Person and caused the Judgment of the World to pass upon him to which also he willingly and desirously yielded himself bearing our sins in his own body on the Tree and so gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 Rom. 5.12 14 15 16 17 18 19. 1 Cor. 15.17 18 21 22. Joh. 1.29 Phil. 2.6 7 8. with Gen. 3.5 6. Psal 69.4 Gal. 3.10 13. Phil. 2.8 9. Matth. 26.38 39. 27.46 and by the grace of God tasted Death for every man the Second Adam satisfying for the sins of the First and all in and of him as fallen in him both for root and Branch the first Revolt from God in our First Parents and all that Naturally and necessarily spring up from it giving or laying down to that purpose as much as the First Adam usurped or aspired to even the Form of God and enduring all that thereby that the First Adam incurred by way of penalty to himself and all his Posterity equivolently even the Curse of the Law to Death the Death of the Cross in which he sustained and endured not onely great Pains and Torments in his Body but also unspeakable Agonies and Afflictions in his Soul pouring it out to Death John 12.27 Isa 53.8 9 10 11 12. Psal 22.1 2 8 9 10-16 c. 7. That in this his abasement and Death His obedience and sufferings were so well-pleasing Isa 53.10 11 12. Rom. 4.25 1.3 4. Act. 2.24 Rom. 14.9 1 Cor. 15.3 4 5. Matth. 12.40 and satisfactory to God that He in Testimony thereof raised him up from the Dead the third day taking him therein from Prison and Judgment Yea he himself was God-man and so a person not to be swallowed up of Death though to manifest that he was indeed Dead and to sanctifie the Grave to us and Redeem us from it he was pleased to abide in it part of Three Days and Three Nights rose again by his Divine Power and after he had shewed himself by divers infallible proofs to his Disciples Act. 1.1 2 3 4 10. 10.39 40 41. Luk. 24.9.10 50.51 Heb. 9.14 Act. 2.33.36 Heb. 1.3 12.2 Act. 2. 3 4 5. by the space of forty Days after his Resurrection for a manifestation of the Truth of it and confirmation of their Faith in it He in their sight Ascended up visibly into Heaven and there presented his own Crucified and raised Body a spotless Sacrifice to God being taken up thither and there received of God his Father and set down at his Right hand even upon the Throne of Majesty in the Heavens as his after sending forth his Spirit upon his Disciples according to his fore-promise to them and Working many notable Miracles by them also did evidently declare SECT 4. Of the Love of God to fallen Man in glorifying his Son for him and of the compleatness and fitness of Christ as now in Heaven to be the Saviour of all Men and especially of such as Believe SO that now the same Jesus Eph. 4.8 9 10. with Psal 68.18 1 Pet. 3.18 19. Gal. 3.13 Heb. 2.14 2 Tim. 1.10 the Son of God who in love to us was abased and Suffered for us in the weakness of the Flesh and Descended into the lower parts of the Earth to Ransom us from the Sin and Misery fore-come upon us lives also being ascended up on high and having led captivity captive even Sin Death Law Devil who led us Captive at Gods Right hand in the Glory and Power of God thence to succour and Save us in all our Danger Act. 2.33 5 30 31. Matth. 28.18 19 20. Col. 1.19 2.9.10 and from all our Enemies being made in the Name and Authority of the Father the Saviour of all Men and especially of those that Believe unto which also He is compleatly and fully furnished of the Father in that He hath there given gifts in the man for man even for the Rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell amongst them for he hath there made him 1. Lord Act. 2.36 10.36 Phil. 2.10 11. 1 Pet. 13.21 Eph. 1.20 21. Isa 9.6 Joh. 5.22 23. Lord of all giving him all power and all authority in Heaven and in Earth a Name above every Name That at his Name every knee should bow both of things in heaven and in earth and under the earth Angels Men Devils and all Creatures being given into his hand and dispose the whole Government laid upon his shoulders and all Judgment committed into his hand To inable and furnish him in which in the Nature of Man he is also made 2. Christ Act. 2 36. Isa 42.1 61.1.2 11.1 2 3. Act. 10.38 the Anointed one of God filled with the Spirit of God without measure which Spirit is an infinite wise powerful and gracious Spirit inabling and strengthning him to all such Offices and the Works of them as he is anointed and designed to and are needful for our further saving That is to say 1. To be the Great Prophet Act. 3.21 22. the Light of the World to give forth the Light Truth and Knowledge of God and what may concern us to know for our peace and welfare as in his Wisdom he sees fit that whosoever believes in Joh. 1.9 8.12 12.46 Isa 42.1 2 3 4. 49.6 7. 1 Cor. 15.45 John 5.22.23 25. Isa 55.2 3 5. Psal 25.8 9 12 14. Matth. 13.11 1 Pet. 2.25 Joh. 10.2 11. and follows his Light might not abide in Darkness but might see the Light of Life And being a quickning Spirit he is in the Spirit fitted and able so to speak in and through the means he affords to the spirit of Men as to cause the Dead in Spirit to hear and so as that they who in hearing hear or listen to him may live for ever He being more peculiarly ordain'd a further Teacher and Leader to them to shew them the Mysteries of the Kingdom the Secrets of the Lord and as a Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls to feed them with Knowledge and Understanding unto Eternal Life 2. To be the Great Psal 2.1 6.7 8 9. Jer. 10.7 with Rev. 15.4 Isa 33.22 Matth. 28.18 19 20. Psal 149.2 Rev.
bring all Men even those that are in their Graves by Land or Sea before him and to render to every man according to their Works perfectly to free those that here believe on him and seek after God by him from all sin and sorrow from the malice of Satan and all his Instruments and from the Power and Dominion of Death and Grave and to give them a Glorious Kingdom and Inheritance with himself and to execute Vengeance upon the Devil and his Angels Eternally plaguing and destroying them and with them all that have here taken part with them against him and persisted therein till Reprobated by him these to go into everlasting Torments and the Righteous into everlasting happiness Matth. 25.31 to the End 9. That all this Infinite Power Isa 53.11 12. Phil. 2.9 10 11. Rom. 5.16 Heb. 9.14 15. 1 John 2.1.2 as Lord and Christ Prophet King Priest and Judge which dignity and power of Judge may also be referred to his Lordship or Kingship though I have here distinctly mentioned it by it self as Isa 33.22 And more observeably his Power to Forgive Sins and Rebellions against the goodness and grace of God extended by and through him both to the World and to his own Servants He hath obtained and acquired through the superabundancy of the vertues and merits of his Obedience Sufferings and Sacrifice above and beyond the demerit of Adam's Sin and of our Sin and Sinfulness as in and from him and the infinite acceptableness of them unto God For he being such and so glorious a Person his so loving and ready Obedience Psa 130.4 5 6 7. Isa 55.7 Acts 5.31 Rev. 5.11 12. and his so great Sufferings were infinitely well-pleasing unto God so as to obtain Plenteousness of Redemption even Forgiveness of Sins the grace going beyond the Offence which was but of one to Condemnation but the grace of many Offences to Justification yea and so as that both God and all his Angels and Holy Ones judge him worthy to receive All Power and Wisdom and Riches and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing as but a due Reward for his foresaid Obedience and Humiliation and the shame sorrow and Sufferings sustained therein To which add 10. That this Jesus Christ our Saviour Heb. 2.17 18. 3.1 2. 4.15 16. Isa 42.1 2 3. with Matth. 12.18 19. is also a most Merciful Compassionate and Faithful High Priest and Saviour one that can be touched with our Infirmities and succour those that are Tempted in their temptations and will not fail either his Father or us in any of all those things committed to him and required of him but will performe all the Counsel and Pleasure of his Will in what ever may concern us or our Salvation And all these also are true in themselves and of concernment to all whether they do know them or not believe them or not the Truth of them not depending upon Mens Knowledge and Faith of them but therefore they are worthy to be known and believed of Men because true for them and much good and benefit is to be met with in the hearty knowledge and belief of them SECT 5. How Christ hath broken and is the Breaker of the Head of the Serpent in what he hath done is become and is further to do for and to men BY what hath been hitherto said it may appear How Christ hath in himself Fundamentally broken the Head overturned the Plot and overthrown the Principality of Satan the Old Serpent over Man and how he is fitted further to break his Designes and destroy his Power against us For 1. Gen. 3.1 2. c. Whereas it was Satans design his Head and Plot to work an Everlasting Seperation between God and Man whom God hath made as an habitable part of his Earth for Wisdom Prov. 8.30 31. Jude 6.2 2 Pet. 2.4 Gen. 2.17 with 3.1 or his Son to delight in and to that purpose incited and drew Man to Sin against God by which He knew both by what he had proved from God for his own sin and by what he heard and knew was pronounced by God against Man in case of his sinning he should incur his displeasure to Death and so he thought he must have been for ever thrust out from God and seperated to Curse and Misery as himself is through what Christ hath done in his Death Sufferings and Sacrifice for Man in the Nature of Man Man on the contrary is more Exalted Honoured and brought nearer to God than before Gen. 3.21 Matth. 28.18 19.20 1 Cor. 15.45 Gen. 2.15 1 Pet. 3.21 Gen. 2 8 9 16 18. Col. 1.19 2.9 Psa 16.11 Gen. 1.26 27. Psal 8.3 4 5 6. Heb. 1.3 12.2 Ephes 1.20 21. Matth. 28.18 Phil. 2.10.11 Gen. 2.25 Rom. 3.23 John 17.4 5. Heb. 2.5 6 9. Phil. 3.21 Acts 26.13 Gen. 2.7 1 Cor. 15 45 47. John 5.21 25 28. Gen. 2.18 21 22 23. Eph. 5.25 26 27 30 31 32. for now he is become one with God as one of the persons of the glorious Trinity in the Person of Christ glorifyed and made a quickning Spirit for us Man had before a Paradise Man is now in Heaven on the Throne of God Man had all necessaries and delights in that Paradise and fellowship with God Man hath now all the delights and satisfactions of God being the habitation of the fulness of the glory of God all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily Man had dominion over all the Visible Creatures Beasts of the Field Fowls of the Air and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the Sea Man is now upon God's Throne of Majesty and hath all power in Heaven and Earth given to him Angels Principallities and Powers even the Devils too put under and made subject to him Man had great glory and comliness in his Body and needed not to have been ashamed though Naked Man hath the glory of God upon him yea is the brightness of his glory and the express character of his Person is clothed with Majesty and Honour his brightness greater than that of the Sun Man was made a living Soul but Man is now a quickning Spirit able to transfuse Life into others even into the Dead Man had a Meet-help made him there Man had a Church and Spouse given him here of his Flesh and of his Bones for the Propogation of Children to him an holy Seed for him a people Espoused and brought to him Rom. 7.4 Gen. 1.26 Col. 1.14 Heb. 2.5 6 7 8 9 15. Rev. 20.1 2 3 10. who is raised from the Dead that they might bring forth Fruit unto God Man was made in the Image of God there Man is the Image of the Invisible God here So that herein the Head and Plot of the Old Serpent is perfectly broken in Christ He is so far from having Dominion over Man that now Man hath it over him for ever so as he can never more be able to rise up
against him Yea 2. His Design is broken for us men 1 Tim. 2.5 and 2 Tim. 1.10 even for Adam and all his Posterity inasmuch as through what Christ hath done and Suffered for us He hath so abolished Death the Death that by that Sin came upon us that it notwithstanding we may or might any man in his proper time during the Day of Grace Isa 55.5 6 7. Ezek. 33.11 2 Sam. 14.14 2 Pet. 3.9 1 Cor. 15.20 21. Rom. 5.18 John 5.28 29 25 11.25 26. 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 be Saved and be brought back again to God in that Judgment and Death no man shall Everlastingly Perish but in a Second they that do Christ is the Resurrection and the Life out 〈◊〉 the First so speaking to the Dead in Spirit as to cause them to hear so as they may in hearing and listening to him Live And he will so speak to the Bodily Dead as that out of that Death All shall Live so as to be brought before him as their Soveraign Lord and Judge to be judged by him according as in their life-times they have accepted or rejected him So that notwithstanding their Sin Committed in Adam or their sinfulness thence contracted or the Death therefore ordered to them Prov. 1.22 23. Psal 95.7 8. Isa 45.22 55. 1 2 3 6 7. Rev. 22.17 Eccles 7.1 2 3 4 5. Psal 90.11 39. 4 5 6. John 5.24 Prov. 1.23 Rev. 22.17 2 Pet. 3.13 Rev. 22.3 4. any man in hearing the Voice of Christ as while it is called to day any man may Maugre all that Plot of Satan may be brought back to an happy Estate through Jesus Christ Yea this Death as now ordered through Jesus Christ affords exceeding great Motive and is of singular use to awaken men and provoke them to seek the Lord that they may live and being Justified by Christ as that is certainly to be met with in obeying his Voice any man may come to the injoyment of Fellowship with him in the restauration and glory of our Nature in him so as to have a better Paradise and Tree of Life a better Sabbath a better World even new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness with freedom from temptation and from danger of falling from it then ever Adam had or we in him 3. Yea 1 Pet. 5.8 Ephes 2.2 3. Rev. 20.3 Joh. 8.44 with ver 32 33 34 36. Rom. 10.11 12 c. Whereas Satan is yet busily Plotting though his Head be so broken in Christ as to his First Plot and the Jurisdiction got thereby seeking to draw particular persons into new Snares and to bring them to a new Condemnation by their personal voluntary and unnecessitated slightings and refusings of the Light and Truth or Voice of the Son of God even then when he is calling them and therein setting them free and moving them to listen and adhere to him and men are generally being weak in themselves and through the sweetness they feel Jam. 3.2 Joh. 3.19 20. 1 Tim. 2.5 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Rom. 5.16 Isa 53.12 Luk. 13.7 8 9. Isa 55.7 or fancy in their selfish sinful ways apt to listen to him and in many things we sin all Christ is herein Preached and represented as the Mediator of God and Men the Propitiation for the Sins of the World in the Superabundancy of the vertues of his Death and Sacrifice in which He infinitely out-did the Sin of Adam and its demerit by his Intercession pleading for and obtaining patience and forbearance for men and forgivness ready to be given them for such Sins also upon their letting them go and parting with them whence it s said Let the wicked forsake his ways Ezek. 33.16 and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turn to the Lord for he is gratious and to our God for he will multiply to pardon And in the day that a man turneth all his Iniquities shall be forgiven him none of them shall be mentioned unto him Psal 103. 3 4 6. And with the Lord is plenteousness of Redemption More then meerly to free from the old Score of Sin that came in upon our First account of our sinning in Adam So that he is represented by vertue of that his Mediation the Forgiver of other Sins also Joh. 3.18 5.24 1 Thess 1.9 10. 1 John 1.9 10. the Saviour and Deliverer from the Second Death the Wrath to come Having also Authority and Power and Commission to cleanse us from our unrighteousness we confessing our Sins before him and turning to him so that Iniquity shall not prevail upon us to bring us into Bondage again and so to pull upon on us the second Death Luke 13.8.9 25. Matt. 25.31.35 41. Rev. 20.10 c. which yet he also hath power to leave men to and for their Rebellions against his Grace to Sentence them to and execute upon them and therein to Destroy them for ever with the Devil and his Angels In which his Head shall be forever broken too both in himself and all his Seed as Plotting together against Christ the Seed of the Woman in himself and his Members so as never more to be able to rise up against them SECT 6. How Christ is set forth in the Gospel as the Fulfilling and Fulfiller of the Promises and Prophecies that fore-went of him and of all the Types and Shadows YET further to shew what a compleat Saviour Christ is and how compleat we are in him We may note That he is as the Gospel sets him forth The Accomplishment and the Accomplisher in their due time and way of all the other Prophecies and Promises concerning our Salvation Acts 13.32 33. 1 Cor. 1.20 Col. 2.16 Heb. 10.1 and the body and truth of all Types Figures and Representations of him mentioned in the Scriptures As He is 1. That Seed of Abraham Gen. 18.18 26. Matth. 1.1 2. and of Isaac and of Jacob in whom God Promised That all the families and nations of the earth should be blessed which is accomplished in him Acts 3.25.26 Gal. 3.8 1 Tim. 4.10 1 John 5.11 12. Matth. 22.4 5 8. Luk. 24.19 23 24. Dead and Risen for them and become the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe for God hath in him given us eternal life even to us men so as in having submitting to and receiving Christ in his Light and Truth we may have it Now in Eternal Life is included Remission of Sins Righteousness and all things And these are made ready for all so as any in turning at his Reproofs may and shall certainly receive them none excluded by him till they exclude themselves nor but for so doing Prov. 1.22 23 24. and 9.1 2 3 4 5 12. 2. He is the Shiloh or Peace-maker Gen. 49.10 Eph. 2.13 14 15 16 17. Isa 11.10 11. Rom. 15.6 10 11. Matth. 25.31 32. who hath made Peace by the Blood of his Cross and hath Preached Peace to
aside all that Glory and Happiness expose himself to and bear upon himself for us all that shame and reproach and sorrow to Death and Curse that was due to us and needful for his Ransoming and Saving us without violation to God's Justice and impeachment of his Holiness and now is infinitely ready to save Men in their listening to and obeying him to which he is not wanting to call and impower them The Holy Spirit comes forth in the Name of God and Christ to reprove men for their Sins set before them God and Christ and in with and from them far greater and better things than they are pursuing after and labouring for and therewith strives and wrestles with them for their Repentance and turning to God to seek him and live to him Yea God Father Son and Spirit are exerciseing wonderful forbearance patience and long-suffering toward Sinners here and lading them with variety of benefits to lead them to Repentance and corrects them in Mercy to break them off from their purposes and bring them to accept of Eternal Life and Happiness and all this love and goodness Men do obstinately and impenitently Sin and Rebel against hateing and opposing themselves against God his Son and Spirit Government Grace Truth c. hardning themselves in their Sins refusing their own Mercies for lying Vanities c. and oh What short of Eternal and Infinite Punishment can answer the Deserts of such Ingratitude and Wickedness against so great love and goodness If they that sin'd against the despised Moses's Law Dyed without Mercy how much sorer Punishment doth the rejecting and despising such a love and lover and neglecting such or so great a Salvation expose us to Psal 90.11 According to his fear both his Greatness and Dreadfulness and his Goodness and Mercy leading and ingageing us now to fear him so will be his Terrour and his Wrath in that day 3. That the hainousness of Mens sins against a God so Great so Good Isa 1.3 4 5. c. Heb. 1.12 Psal 5.4 5. Deutr. 32.5 6.15.16 Jon. 2.8 Jer. 2.13 Isa 55.2 3. Heb. 12.15 16 17. 10.26 Prov. 1.24 25 29.1 Rom. 2.5 Psal 58.2 3 4. Act. 28.27 Matth. 13.14 15. so Gratious together with his infinite Purity and perfect hatred of the least Iniquity they are foolish and ingrateful in neglecting and slighting him despising his love favour and friendship and preferring base unworthy Lusts and Objects of Lust before him a very morsel of Meat before his love and favour who hath done so much for us and tenders such infinite love and favour further to us and therein such unspeakable and infinite happiness They are willful in Sinning when no necessity in so doing Yea hold fast Sin with stubbornness obstinacy and impenitency against all light and warning though often told and convinced of the emptiness vanity and unworthiness of them and though such sweet charming allurements of Grace be afforded them as would they but listen to them would draw them off from their Sins and make them willing to part with them bringing such power with them as would Converâ— and heal them and these wilfully stopt kept out and shun'd lest by the power of God in them they should be Converted and be healed by him and this persisted in Jer. 6.15 16 17 28 29 30. 8.5 6 7. Act. 7.51 13.40 41. with resolution to hold their Idols and Vain ways and not to listen to any counsel that should tend to win them off from them rising up in all their strength as it were to withstand their own Salvation when so forcibly tendred to and urged upon them that they had much to do to beat it off even the power of Gods words reproofs and Counsels and the stretchings out of his Hand therein for their Salvation Dent. 32.21 22. Matth. 3.12 Heb. 10.29 30. This this is that that is infinitely offensive to such an infinitely holy pure and perfect Majesty whose Eyes cannot look upon Iniquity and kindles such a fire of wrath in his Breast against the Sinners as shall burn for ever upon them and shall not be quenched It 's Mens trampling under foot the Son of God and therein all God's love and counting the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they are Sanctifyed and have all their liberty to God an unholy common thing and therein slighting all Christ's Love and Sufferings for them and doing despight to the Spirit of Grace that spake graciously to them and let Gods infinite favour before them 't is this lays them open to the Vengeance of the Almighty and it s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God without the Mediator to interpose being rejected by them Indeed those Men that believe not but deny That Christ died for any but his Elect and those that shall be saved and That he gives any sufficient grace for their Conversion to him And so put the stress of their Sining and Suffering upon Adam's Sin and that also necessitated by God's Decree rendring them inthral'd to Sin so as that with that help afforded of God without any intention of their Salvation they cannot but Sin and Rebel and yet Assert an Eternal and Infinite Torment to be their Portion in their Persons though in their persons never so favoured of God or indued with any such Grace as that they were really ingaged to live to him or had any power or capacity so to do those men I say render God exceeding harsh and such as no Christian heart may indure to think him Clothing him rather with the Titles and Colours of Satan the Abâ—ddon and Man-slayer things not fit to be mentioned then with those Titles of Love and Loveliness that belong to him The unreasonableness of their Doctrine and its contrariety to the Scriptures overthrows the Equity and Justness of such Torments or Gospel-Terrours and its likely puts men upon seeking Evasions to avoid the Belief of such a Doctrine as renders God so unlovely to them But upon the Considerations we have mentioned there appears so much Equity as may silence and vanquish Reason it self into subjection and both provoke to Gospel-Obedience and perswade to believe and judge equitable and so make Men endeavour to avoid and flee from the Gospel-Terrours forementioned And such things also are held forth in the Gospel as true in themselves and fit and meet to be propounded to all and to be believed by them CHAP. IV. Of some Distinctions signified and contained in the Doctrine of the Gospel as before declared THere are also divers Distinctions with reference to Things and Persons signified and contained in the Gospel-Doctrin which we may briefly touch upon before we pass it as to say About Two Adams or Men mentioned in the Scripture as opposed one to the other Two kinds of Covenants Righteousness Sins Judgments Worlds Lives and Deaths A Two-fold appearance of the Person of Christ with the distinct Works of them A Two-fold Personal Coming
and Appearing in the World besides his Spiritual and Providential Comings all spoken to in the Doctrine of the Gospel of which I shall hint something briefly and seveâ—ally in order as follows SECT 1. Of the Two Adams the First and Laâ— The First and Second Man FIrst 1 Cor. 15.45 47. we have therein partly in what it supposes and takes for granted and partly in what it more directly declareth the mention and consideration of Two Adams The First Adam and the Last Adam Gen. 1.26 27. The First Man and the Second Man set over against and opposed the one to the other because none so answering one the other for Publikeneâ— of Concernment to all Men as they The First Adam was the First Man the first and Natural Root of all Men in whom God Made us and Honoured us as 〈◊〉 said before Eccles 7.29 Psalm 49.12 Rom. 3.23 5.12 18. The First Man both in order of Being as a Man and in Dignity and Glory as to his Appearance State and Condition in the World that He was Made and Manifested in He had 〈◊〉 All and our Priviledges in his Hand and keeping but he Sin'd and lost himself and us all with all the Honour and Priviledges given us in him Jer. 31.22 Gen. 3.15 Gal. 4.4 5. Heb. 2.14 Rom. 5.18 Heb. 3.1 2. Therefore God was pleased to Make and bring forth another a Second Adam to recâ—ver us who is also the Last Adam eveâ— Jesus Christ Called Adam both because a Man that pertook with us in Flesh anâ— Blood and was of the First Adam as to his Flesh and because a Publick Man in whom were and are the Concernments of all Men put again And He is Faithful and hath not nor will fail or loose Himself or any Man None shall Perish by any defect or default found in him 1 Joh. 5.11 12. Col. 1.29 2.9 10. Matth. 22.4 2 Cor. 5.14 Rom. 14.9 Eph. 4.8 9. Psal 68.18 Mar. 16.15 16. Isa 45.22 In him Man even all Men not after a Natural but in a Spiritual way and manner are Made as it were and Provided for again as fully as in the First Adam and more surely as to him inasmuch as having Dyed for All He hath Redeemed All into his own dispose and recovered into himself in the Man for men what Adam forfeited or lost or rather greater and better things so as for All. Free for All and to be had by any in coming in to him in his preventings and drawings or begettings of them And he is called the Last Adam because never was there any other since the First Adam besides him nor shall be after him of such publick capacity and concernment to Men as also because He was Abased Phil. 2.7 8. and made lower than that First Adam in his Innocent Condition that I say not then All Men in their present State Gen. 1.26 27. 2.7 For though the First Man was Originally of a far Inferiour and Viler Matter than the Being of the Second Adam was Originally yet the First Man was Made and set in the World in a far more honourable and glorious Form than the Second The First Man was something before he was a Man but what was He Dust of the Earth Whence he is Called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dusty or earthly man but he was made by Exaltation and Advancement into a better Form even in the Image and likeness of God God therein shewing forth his great Power Bounty and Goodness to him and to us in him in making so base a matter of it self uncapable of knowing Prov. 8.29 30. magnifying God to be so glorious and honourable capable of knowing praising and having fellowship with his Maker and to be an Habitable part of Earth for his word and wisdom to dwell and delight in The Last Adam too Joh. 1.1 2. Phil. 2.6 7. 1 Cor. 15.47 Coll. 1.15 16 17. Heb. 1.2 3. 2.7 8 9. Rom. 8.3 Heb. 4.16 was before he was made Man but far better than Man God with God in the Form of God The Lord in Heaven by whom the Father made man and all things the brightness of God's glory and the express Character of his Person and He was made a Man by way of Diminution made lower than the Angels yea in a Form far below that of the First Adam in his Innocent Condition for He was made in the Image of Man of fallen Man in the likeness of sinful Flesh in all points Tempted like us except Sin that so he that was Originally and in himself as incapable of Suffering and Dying at the Dust was in it self of knowing and praising God might in the Form of Man Suffer and Dye for us Through which also He the Last and lowest Adam is now again Exalted to the Glory He had in his own proper Being before with God Joh. 17.4 Psal 68 18. Ephes 4.8 9. Phil. 2.10 11. 1 Cor. 15.45 even the Man and is become far more Excellent Honourable and Glorious than the First Adam ever was Gen. 2.7 Joh. 5.21 25 28 29. and the Nature of Man is more Exalted and richly accommodated in him then ever in the First Adam 〈◊〉 we have above shewed For the First Adam was but a Living Soul that had Life in himself but could not quicken the Dead But this last Adam is Made now at God's Right Hand a quickning Spirit He is called also The Second Man Gen. 3.15 both because He was the Second and Last so immediately Made of God and in such a publick concernment for man as also as I conceive because he was provided promised stept in and became as to his â—gagement and undertaking the Man for us before any Second to Adam John 8.58 Psal 75.2.3 any Son or Child was born to him And so even in that respect He was as to Revelation and usefulness to the World before â—ain or any Man was Born of the First Adam as a new Basis or Foundation to â—he World that was meritoriously Destroy'd by the Sin of Adam The Earth was Dissolved and the Inhabitants thereof but he stepping in bore up the Pillars thereof So as in him ever since Col. 1.17 Heb. 1.3 as the Son of Man or Second Man all things consist and stand together For he was promised in Paradise to be the Seed of the Woman and so to bruise the Head of the Serpent before any doom passed upon either Man or Woman much more before the Execution of the Sentences after â—assed So as all the Providences Merâ—es Judgments of God towards and upon Men are ordered to us by and through him and with respect to him Whence Adam before he was put out of Paradise called his Wife Eve Gen. 3.20 the Mother of all Living when as she otherwise might deservedly have been Named The Mither of all Dying Yea and God not Ironically as most understand that but seriously and according to Truth as
prepared and promised from the beginning of the world in him and this is executed upon men in their natural infirmities weakness and death and out of this judgement all shall be raised and brought to a second which second is that that shall be pronounced and executed Heb. 9.27 28. John 5.22 â— Câ— 5.10 after all are dead in the resurrection of the dead and that not by God immediately as the former was but by the Son of man Jesus Christ Noâ— shall it be upon all in one man but upon all in their several persons Nor shall it be upon all one and the same but differently as men have been found in the day of grace Some doing good in accepting and submitting to Christ John 5.28 29. 2 Pet. 2.1 and so are found in him who shall be adjudged to life and happiness And others doing evil in rejecting Christ and sinning against him denying him that bought them and preferring sin and Satan before him and they shall be adjudged to everlasting condemnation There are indeed several judgements in this life and world upon particular men but clearly distinct from these two before mentioned because not general they differ also from the first in this that that was in one and one upon all but these are divers upon divers persons as upon Pharoah and his Host destruction in the Red Sea after divers judgements too before that Upon Sodom and Gomorrha fire and brimstone from Heaven Upon David Isa 27.9 Heb. 12.10 11. that the sword departed not from his House and that only to testifie displeasure against him for his sin but also to humble him and cleanse him from sin as all the judgements executed upon Gods House or People be yea Job 33.28 29. and those upon the world too are to occasion their repentance and seeking after God and to prevent their ruine and destruction unless those that after the Decree brings forth and the day of grace is at an end cuts any off and seals them up to the eternal judgement These judgements also differ from the first in this that that was for the sin of one man and of us all in him but these are for mens personal sins against the goodness and grace of God and the sins of our Fathers as involving us in them or as owned and continued by us And yet from the last judgement they differ too as in time and other respects so chiefly in this that they are reversible both the judgements of his mouth that is the condemnations to death and the justifications to life as sententially pronounced upon men by God in his word as the condemned are led to repentance by their condemnations or otherwise Jer. 18.7 8 9 10 11. or the justified abuse their absolutions and presume to turn Gods grace into wantonness as is clear in Ezek. 33.12 13. as also the judgements of his hand or executions of judgement here are but for a time usually and such as men turning from their evil ways God may and is ready to turn from them But that last judgement is eternal and irreversible Heb. 6.2 Matth. 25.46 Yea and whereas these judgements are mixed with mercy through the mediation of Christ who is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and prays for sparing and forbearance during the day of Gods grace and patience Psal 75.7 8. whence also they are said to be ordered or poured out of a Cup in Gods hand whose Wine is red but full of mixture to signifie that they are distributed in measure and with much mixture of mercy That last judgment as to the wrath then to be executed shall be without mixture of mercy or abatement of what is deserved even as the mercy and good awarded to the good shall be without mixture of sorrow and therefore is said to be poured out of the Cup of Gods indignation which is of an incomprehensible capacity without mixture Rev. 14.9 10 11. SECT 6. Of two Worlds the World that now is and the World to come 6. MMention also is made of two worlds the one made for the first Adam and his posterity to live in and was given to him and them in him and that world was and is very large great and glorious and Adam was made as it were the Lord-deputy of it and this world we find too mentioned as under a double condition 1. In its created state while not subjected to bondage and before any sin in it or curse came upon the earth and upon mankind and this was its case in mans innocensie and so should have continued hadnot man sinned a case of excellencie and freedom from curse and corruption 2. The second is its present state Rom. 8.21 Gen. 3.17 18. as subjected to vanity for mans sin and filled with occasions of vexation of spirit to him being filled with much curse and appointed as to its present state at least to be destroyed and perish as once already as to the generality of its Inhabitants both men and beasts it hath and shall again more fully with respect to which it's destructions it is as to its corrupt state also spoken of as twofold 1. The old world or the world that was 2 Pet. 2.5 3.6 namely that was before the flood and was for its wickedness destroyed by the flood except eighâ— persons left to repeople it And 2. The world that now is which is reserved unto fire against the judgement of the great day 2 Pet. 3.7 8 10 13. when the Heavens also that arâ— now shall be wrapt up as a Scrol be disolved and pass away with a great noise the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth with the works that arâ— therein shall be burnt up Though then also some probably conceive a Remnant shall be left to People the New Earth and that of them is meant that in Rev. 21.24 The Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of the New Jerusalem Gal. 1.4 2 Cor. 4.4 1 Cor. 11.32 Now this present world is an evil and wicked world having Satan as to the people of it and his power with them the God of it and thence it is that all that abide in its state and fellowship and in confederacy with Satan shall be destroyed But then there is 2. A world to come 2 Pet. 3.13 Act. 3.21 22. Rom. 8.19 22. Heb. 2.5 Matth. 12.32 A new Heaven and new Earth in which shall dwell righteousness when all things spoken of by the Prophets shall be restored and the Creature it self shall be freed from its bondage to corruption into the liberty of the Sons of God to share of their good according to its capacity Heb. 2.5 1 Cor. 6.2 Rev. 1.5 6. Isa 61.7 and be only subject and serviceable to them And this world shall be more immediately put into subjection to Christ and he and his people 1 Thes 4.16 17. 1 Cor. 15.23 24. Rom. 8.20 21 22.
Luk. 20.35 36. the Saints shall judge and reign therein receiving double for all their sufferings here yea everlasting rost joy and glory The Children of the Resurrection who shall arise at Christs appearing even the just and they that surviving shall then be changed shall be counted worthy of it and shall be equal to the Angels of God Psal 49.14 15. Isa 66.22 23 24. Rev. 20.6 7. being manifested both in souls and bodies to be his Children and they shall have dominion over the wicked beholding their torments who here had tormented them and shall judge the world even the Nations of the saved or preserved being Kings and Priests unto God beholding his face for evermore and dwelling in his presence impassible immortal Rev. 21.3 4 5 6 7. 22.1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. satisfied with joy and glory for ever where also they shall have their Paradise their Tree of Life their River of pure Water clear as Chrystal in a Spiritual and Heavenly manner without any Serpent to tempt them or curse to afflict and exercise them being fully and perfectly freed from all sin sorrow pain crying and Death their rais'd and changed bodies being made spiritual powerful nimble agile glorious yea they shall shine as Stars in the Kingdom of God ruling with Christ the Nations in righteousness which Nations probably shall consist firstly of the preserved Jews and then of some remnant of the Gentiles miraculously preserved in that great day of perdition of ungodly men Isa 65.17 18 19 20 24 25. Psal 67 4 5 6 7. 96.10 11 12 13. 98.7 8 9. and those as so◠conceive shall under the Governmen 〈◊〉 the raised and changed Saints Till th◠Earth build Houses plant Vineyards beget Children though the Children 〈◊〉 the Resurrection shall neither marry no◠be given in marriage nor dye any more and the earth shall yeild its increase i◠abundance as it would have done before the curse came upon it Discourse on the New Heavens and New Earth But because many things therein are hard to be understood and I have otherwhere more fully delivered my thoughts thereabout 〈◊〉 shall say no more here about them SECT 7. Of two kinds of Lives and Deaths THe Gospel-Doctrine also mentions two Lives 1 Tim. 4.8 and two Deaths the one in this world and the other in the world to come The Life that now is that which we derive from the first Adam Gen. 3.6 4.1 or which God gives us as propagated from him who was made a living soul and begat in his own likeness and because it was not propagated till after the fall Jam. 4.13 14. Job 14.1 Psal 75.3 68.19 20. therefore it is a corrupt and sinful life a vapour a bubble uncertain short and full of misery yet as this old world is upheld by Christ and his mediation that there might be space and opportunity to be born live seek after God and glorifie him in it so is this life given and preserved through him too in a great mixture of mercies and manifold good things to the same purposes But the life that is to come is an Heavenly Spiritual and Eternal Life and it 's said to be to come because as to the whole man it 's not yet come Joh. 5.24 1.13 There is a seed of it here infused and put into the heart and spirit of the Believer by which he is begotten to God and made a spiritual man in some first fruits 2 Cor. 5.16 17. Eph. 2.10 a Son and Heir of God a new creature created in Christ Jesus to good works c. Rom. 8.10 But in as much as this is but the beginning of this life and that only in part in the Spirit the body yet must dye and the soul be loosed from it till the resurrection of the just in which the soul and body shall be reunited and the body be made a living spiritual body and both live in the favour of and in fellowship with God Rev. 21.4 5. and that is yet wholy to come therefore it is called the life to come an everlasting life in which shall be no affliction sorrow decay or death but everlasting uninterrupted health welfare prosperity and happiness 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the life which Christ hath purchased for us and which in him is given us to be enjoyed through the faith of him Col. 3.3 4. Act. 17.26 27 28. 1 Joh. 5.12 and in personal injoyment of and fellowship with him The first life is common to all men as born into the world the second though given in Christ to all yet is had and injoyed only by them that have Christ the rest that rejecting him have him not have not it neither but incur the sentence of death the Death opposed to this Eternal Life the sedond Death For There is also a twofold Death answerable to this twofold Life Rev. 20.13 14. Rom. 5.12 14 18. Heb. 9.27 2 Tim. 1.10 2 Cor. 5.14 Gal. 3.13 Psal 23.4 90.12 2 Cor. 5.8 9. 1 Tim. 6.18 19. Eccles 7.1 Prov. 27.1 Jam. 4.13 14 15. 2 Cor. 12.7 8 9. Isa 57.1 Job 3.12 13 14 15 16. Mat. 25 41 46. Rev. 2.11 〈◊〉 .6.14 with 〈◊〉 Cor. 5.10 11. The first is that which came in by the first Adam and is common to all in their several times but is broken and evacuated by Christ as is before noted the punishment of our sins in Adam being sustained by Christ as to its weight and curse though some shadow and carcase of it is ordered to us to be passed through by us that we might by the consideration of it be stirred up to apply our hearts to wisdom and seek and lay hold of that Eternal Life given us in Christ and be kept humble and low in our selves and always watchful the time and way of it being secret and kept from our foreknowledge so as that we cannot boast our selves of the morrow not knowing what a day may bring forth as also that we might experiment the power and grace of Christ in supporting in it and raising us up out of it and be taken from sorrow and oppression by it and that the wicked might be cut of from doing wickedly and from vexing and oppressing the poor and righteous The second Death is that fearful punishment prepared for the Devil and his Angels forementioned not prepared properly and in Gods first intention for men yet shall be the punishment too of these men that persist in their sins 2 Thes 1.7 8. Heb. 9.27 28. Luke 14.14 1 Cor. 15.23 24. 1 Thes 4.16 17. Rev. 20.6 7 11 12. for their personal rejections of God and Christ and persisting therein to prefer their sins before him But it is not common to all men as the first Death is It is appointed for all men once to dye and out of that all shall be raised and brought to judgement though not all
purpose to work and do as to faâ— He purposed to make the World in suâ— Space and Form as he did make it 〈◊〉 purposed to make Man Upright and 〈◊〉 his own Image and give to him as 〈◊〉 did and do to him as he did and peâ—mit and suffer him to do as he did pemit and suffer him Yet by the way wâ— may distinguish of Permisson There 〈◊〉 a Legal Permission Gen. 2.16 17. 1. Cor. 9.5 6. a giving leave by thâ— Law to do things or not do them Sâ— God permitted Adam to eat of everâ— Tree of the Garden that of the Knowledge of Good and Evil excepted anâ— to the Apostles to Eat and Drink at otheâ— mens cost and to forbear Working anâ— nothing so permitted is Sin and Evil in 〈◊〉 Thus God never purposed to perâ—t nor did he permit Adam To eat of â—e fruit of the tree of knowledge of good â—d evil for then had he not therein Sinâ—ed But there is a Providential Permissiâ— a letting Men go at Liberty free from 〈◊〉 violent Coaction or Restraint to or â—om what is Commanded or Forbidden â—s a Magistrate that gives no leave by â—is Law to any to Steal or commit Adultry yet leaves Men at liberty not tying â—em up in Bonds or Chains or setting â—uards upon them to forde them to be â—onest so as they may have freedom of â—ction and be capable of obeying or â—obeying those Laws in which such â—ings are forbidden and accordingly of â—ceiving Reward or Punishment for â—beying ordisobeying In this sense God â—urposed to give and did accordingly give 〈◊〉 Adam liberty of chusing or refusing â—ting well or ill And this distinction â—f Permission is useful and to be minded â—oth in respect of Adams Sinning and â—ther Mens Yea and the Permission as â—od's Act and the Sinning as Man's Act â—e to be distinguished too And so to return to our Discourse about â—od's Purposes as they respected Manâ—ind Fallen We may say He purposed â—o do for us whatsoever the Gospel saith â—e hath done and will do for us accorâ—ing as therein is declared 2 Sam. 14.14 Job 33.23 And so he purposed to shew us Mercy and not to â—eal with us and leave us helpless as the Devil and his Angels but to save mâ— from the Death he would plunge himâ— into and call him back to himself agaiâ— and that not according to Works of Rigâ—teousness to be done by us but accordiâ— to the good pleasure of his Grace whiâ— purpose as the Apostle tells us 2 Tim. 1.9 10. is manifeâ—ed what it was by the appearance 〈◊〉 Christ Abolishing Death and bringinâ— Life and Immortality to light by thâ— Gospel that is to say He purposed 〈◊〉 Save us by the free and undeserved senâ—ing forth of his Son and making hiâ— Flesh the Seed of the Woman and â—der the Law and by delivering him 〈◊〉 to Death for us all to make an Attonâ—ment for our Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so to evacuate aâ— take away the Destructive power 〈◊〉 Death and by raising him up again 〈◊〉 our Justification and giving us Eternâ— Life in him And so he purposed to 〈◊〉 Sinners by his Free-Grace to the Life anâ— Immortality obtained by Christ for them upon the account Tit. 3.3 4 5. Prov. 1.20.21 22 23. Isa 61.1 42.1 Joh. 5.25 not of any good Workfore-wrought by them but of his Soâ— undertakings and performances for themâ— and by preventing them as with the lighâ— and power of his Spirit which to thaâ— end he purposed to put upon his Soâ— while yet Dead in Sins and Trespasses so as there-through they might hear and obey him Isa 49.12 53.10 11. 55.5 And he purposed so to accompany and bless his Son in his Callinâ— Men and so to glorifie him that many of them should actually and eventually â—in after him and obey him And that â—hey whosoever that listen to and obey â—im in the grace and power in his Calls â—fforded them should be Justified and â—aved by him but those that then stop their Ears against him and reject him and so persist against all means and grace â—or their Repenting afforded them should â—e left and given up to themselves to stumble at him and fall against him to Destruction He purposed also 1 Pet. 2.7.8 That he would not onely Glorifie his Son to call Sinners and impower and authorise him â—o Save the Believers and to exercise Paâ—ience and Mercy mixt with Judgment â—ere toward the disobedient but also to â—end him again to Raise the Dead and â—o Judge all Men Believers and Unbeâ—ievers according to their Works according as in the Gospel-Doctrine is declaâ—ed And so the Gospel Eph. 3.11 is a Revelation of the Eternal purposes of God purposed in Christ Jesus from before the Foundations of the World and the Preaching of it is called the Preaching of the Decree and his purposes as so Revealed and Preached are all sure and certain and meet Psal 2.6 7. and good to be known of Men. Yea and are so far known as the Gospel is known and believed by us there being onely this difference between those his purposes and the Gospel-Doctrine as to the matter of them That the Gospel-Doctrine declares partly as acted and accomplished and partly as certain to be accomplished due time What as onely purposed and with God was neither accomplishâ— nor made known but hid and secreâ— SECT 2. That the purposes of God concerning Meâ— Ends in particular as to their Salvatâ— or Damnation are included in and 〈◊〉 sult from God's General purposes for mentioned NOW as to God's purposes of deâ—ing with particular Persons as 〈◊〉 his final dispose of them they are cleaâ— included in and result from his foreâ— General purposes concerning Mankind Christ Jesus and are in them onely to sought after and discerned As God â—posing to heal by the Brazen Serpent 〈◊〉 that being Stung would look up towâ— it it followed that it was his purpose thâ— this or that particular looking to it shoâ— be healed and it being his purpose not heal any of them otherwise it followâ— that it was not his purpose to heal this 〈◊〉 that person that neglected it So it beâ— the purpose of God in General so to gâ— his Son in love to the World that whâ—soever should Believe in him should haâ— Eternal Life it follows as a thing includâ— in it and resulting from it That Petâ— James John Paul c. through God giving his Son to and lifting him up 〈◊〉 the Salvation of the World being prevailed with to Believe on him shall have Everlasting Life And God having purposed That those who when Christ is lifted up and Light and Grace are brought to them by and through him shall be disobedient and reject him his Words and Counsels should be left to stumble at him and persisting therein to fall to Perdision It was therein included That Judas being then Disobedient should in and for so doing be
God over and toward these persons no ways clasht with his general purposes of mens ends according to their believing and obeying or disobedience to God in Christ before mentioned The two former being particular purposes perhaps only of temporal destructions for their persâ— wickednesses or at the highest judiâ— purposes of their final estates upon 〈◊〉 foresight or consideration of and with â—â—spect unto their abuses of Gods grace aâ— goodness which yet he purposed accoâ—â—ing to the counsel of his Will to theâ— because it was in his Power and Choâ— whether to make them examples anâ— instances of his severity in resolving theâ— destruction upon the account of their forepast sins or to have purposed further patience and grace to them for the rescuing them from the ways of sin unto salvation as the latter may speak of it intimately it being not so much a purpose of their end peremptorily and absolutely decreed to those persons I suppose as a purpose or rather a dispensation oâ— grace to dispose and order them to oâ— for such an end as he hath purposed to those that believe SECT 5. Of the distinction of Gods Purposes into Respective and Irrespective GOds purposes of mens ends then appear to be not irrespective and previous to the consideration of their way and works but respective to them as rewards for of Gods purposes some aâ—â— Irrespective and some Respective Respective I say not only to men as their object nor only to Christ in whom Gen. 3.15 16 17 c. and with respect to whose undertakings some things yea all that follow thereupon are purposed but with respect also to something veiwed or foreseen in men to Isa 48.3 4 5 6 7 8. and concerning whom they are purposed foreseen I say and so respected either as occasions of or apt dispositions to or meritorious causes of the things purposed with respect to them According to this distinction God did absolutely and irrespectively purpose the Creation of the World and all things therein The Creation of man in a good condition the leaving him to his liberty to obey or disobey his Law purposed also to be given him So the giving forth of Christ and preparing him to be a meet Saviour for us and the preventing men with his grace more or less clearly through him according to his good pleasure were purposed in some consideration irrespectively for though they had respect to the sin and fall and misery of man thereby as occasioning a need of those things yet as to any works of righteousness found in men or to be found in men as deserving them or as preparing and disposing men to such salvation to be wrought in and by Christ for them and for grace to call them they were irrespective But then Gods purposes of hardning rejecting and condemning this or that man were respective and lookt upon them as sinning against his grace and truth rejecting his Son and refusing him as deseâ—ving and rendring them worthy suâ— hardning rejecting and condemning And his purposes of giving more specâ— favour and salvation to such and such men believing as are properly consequent to or rewards of faith respected Christ not only as obtaining such grace but also a received and believed in by those men and so rendring them worthy in a Gospeâ— sense of such grace to be dispensed to them Unto this branch of respective purposes clearly appertain purposes of punishing and rewarding as such though most clearly it is seen in purposes of punishing either by giving up to sin or inflicting destructive vengeance upon menâ— such doubtless was his purpose of casting Adam out of Paradise it had respect to his sin sure he did not absolutely purpose to cast him out whither he sinned or not or to necessitate his sin that he might cast him out The like may be said of his purpose of drowning the World destroying Sodom establishing the Kingdom to Saul or taking it from him and so that such or such a man shall dye of such a death as their wilfull sinnings bring upon them in which though t is true that their days are determined yet its true also that they dye before their times namely before the times they should have lived to had they not ran into such sins Eccles 7.17 As Ahitophel Haman Judas Pharaoh though they must have dyed had they not sinned in such wicked ways as they did yet they should not have dyed such deaths been given up to and destroyed in such a way of judgement had they not been wicked or had they timely thereof repented Such was the purpose of God for hardning Pharaohs heart it had respect to his stubbornness and wickedness foreseen He see he would oppress his people and not let them go Exod. 3.19 20. 4.21 and with respect thereto purposed to harden him that he should not no not by many mighty Signs and Judgements be willing to let them go Such also the purpose of God concerning the believers sufferings of which it 's said 1 Thes 3.3 That we were thereunto appointed surely not as this or that man simply considered but as Believers in and confessors of Christ and so all such as such were appointed to sufferings especially in those times Such surely was Gods purpose and determination concerning Herod Pontius Pilate with the Jews and Gentiles opposing Acts 4.27 28. with 2.23 persecuting and crucifying or rather of his delivering him up to them and determining and fore-bounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what they should do to him his determining counsel therein was joyned with his foreknowledge and with respect to what he foreknew they would be he determined to yeild them up to them and what they should do to him God did not purpose to make them wicked and stir them up or impel them to crucifie him as some over-rashly speak making God the Cauâ— Contriver and Author of their sin bâ— foreseeing what they would be and do if permitted he determined to permit them to do what he pleased to permit what should be done Suffering their malice so far to break forth as might be to his praise and restraining the remainder thereof as Psal 76.10 Not that he needed their crucifying him or Judas betraying him to work mans redemption by nor was it his dying as the effect of their wickedness that did properly ransome us nor did their betraying and crucifying him necessarily bring forth his death No man took his life from him but he laid it down of himself Acts 2.23 3.15 5.30 7.52 John 10.18 though yet they are truly and properly chargeable with killing and slaying him and putting him to death both as to their desire and intention and as to the consequent of what they did to him but he yeilded his life voluntarily to his Father who made his soul an offering for sin And his Death as needful for and effectual to our ransoming and redemption was that which the Fathers wrath or curse of the Law
Christ in the Flesh and so on 6. From thence to these times In which too this will be evidenced that all the said Revelations of God as to the way of mens salvation have either expresly or implyedly spoken of Christ and of his appearance in the Flesh as may be seen in the following Sections of that Induction SECT 3. Of the Dispensation of the knowledge of God and Christ by his words in Paradise and from thence to the Flood NO sooner had our First Parents Tempted of the Serpent Fallen from God and was Convicted thereof by the Voice of God but God in the greatness of his Mercy in threatning Destruction to the Serpent and his Works Preached Grace and Redemption to Mankind and intimately made Promise of a Saviour to us in that expression Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between her seed and thy seed He that is her Seed shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel Indeed these Expressions were somewhat Mystical yet contained in a manner Isa 7.9 9.15 the whole Gospel for surely by the Serpent was primely signifyed That old Serpent the Devil and Satan Rev. 20.1 2. And by his Head his Plot Device and Project and the Principallity and Power he thereby got over Mankind His Plot was to separate between us and God to our utter ruine by inticeing us to Sin against him whom he knew to be so perfect a hater of Sin and to have so solemnly threatned Death to Man in case of his sinning as that he might rationally expect that in case he would draw him to Sin his Ruine would inevitably follow thereupon and that being cast off by God He should be left to his the Serpent Power and Malice to do what He pleas'd with him The bruising of his Head Heb. 2.14 Coll. 2.16 Luk. 11.22 2 Tim. 1.10 Luk. 1.74 75. 1 Pet. 3.18 then could signifie no less then the spoiling of his Plot and devesting him of his Power by destroying his Works and abolishing their Fruit taking away his Armour Sin and the sentence and curse of the Law upon Man for Sin and so evacuating Death the Wages of Sin and setting Man at liberty from Satan so as he may return to God again all which God intimately promised should be done not immediately by himself for he said I will break thy head no God would have Satan know he disdained to match himself with him as it were in the Combat he would do it by a Man one in that nature that he had got Victory over and which was spoiled by him even a Seed to be born to and to come forth of the Woman And so he signifyed both that Man should be Ransomed from that his Fall and from the jurisdiction of the Serpent the Devil thereby obtained And that the Saviour should be a Man nor Adam himself nor Eve but one to descend from them the Seed of the Woman with respect to which Adam hearing and believing it called his Wife by a new Name for whereas before he called her Ishah a Woman Gen. 2.23 with 3.20 or Manness because one with and taken out of Man now he calls her Chavah or Evah because by this gracious appointment of God she was made the Mother of all Living the bringer forth of a Seed remotely that should remedy dead and destroyed Man and remove the Curse come upon the Creation by Man's Sin and so bring in Life and Immortality to Man but for which She might rather have been called the Mother of all Dying This Promise God was pleased to put as a Foundation sure and firm Isa 28.16 under Man's Feet to support and bear him up in all his following Griefs and Sorrows Labours and Turmoyles even to Death that now were to come upon him because of his Sin that he might not despair and sink under them And this before God proceeded to denounce any of those things upon him or to take away Paradise and the Tree of Life from him that so yet the Woman might thenceforth conceive and bear in hope And the Man labour and eat his Bread though in the sweat of his brows yet in Hope and both Man and Woman both live and dye in Hope even in the hope of Eternal Life through this Faith of the Promised Seed or Messiah which is the Faith that the Just have had to live by and to dye in in all Ages So much was implyedly Revealed then to Man even to all Mankind then Being Yea sure and God further implyed That that Seed should be one with himself and so God-man when he after added ver 22. Behold Man is become as one of us to know good and evil not by way of Irony or Derision but by way of Prediction with respect to his former appointment That Man's Nature should be in the Promised Seed as one of the Persons in the Trinity taken up into Unity with God and to his glory and throne of Dignity to have indeed a knowledge of Good and Evil such as the Devil little thought of not such as Adam got by Sin to know the difference between his former good and his present bad Condition but both an Experimental Knowledge of the Depth of Man's Misery to be born by him and of the height of Good in the injoyment of God's Glory to be injoyed of him and such a knowledg of them as is with and is given forth by the Divine Majesty as also thereby may be implyed his Power and Authority over Men in the Person of Christ to Save and enliven Fallen Man and to help him against Satan and all adverse Power being as one of the Persons in the Trinity Isa 11.2 3. 42.1 the Spirit of Might Counsel Judgment upon him c. Thence also God took away that Tree of Life that might have preserved him Immortal in his Fall that he might be forced to look to the Promised Seed and live by the Faith of him in a Mortal Dying condition By the Faith of whom Preached and held forth doubtless by Adam and Eve to their Posterity as they came into the world Abel afterwards offer'd up to God a more acceptable Sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11.4 with Gen. 4.4 Yea doubtless the very Law and practise of Sacrificing mentioned all along after the Fall and propagated to all Nations and places of the world had its rise and spring from the Promise of Christ and was an outward Testimony of their acknowledging themselves Sinners and that they needed by some Ransome or shedding of Blood to have Attonement made for them and that there-through onely they might have access to and liberty to Worship God though all that offered understood not or believed so much and that seems rather the meaning of their Bloody Sacrifices such as Abel brought then of such dry ones as Cain Offered Cain by his Offering seemed onely to acknowledge God Lord of the World the giver of the Creatures to
and for release and liberty to Servants and Bondmen as it were a year of rest Levit. 25.3 4 5 6. Exod. 21.2 3 4 5 6. so it Typed out the Rest and release from Labour and Sorrow to be brought in by Christ as before But as it was a year of Release for Servants so it Typed out the Liberty to be brought in by Christ from Sin Satan and the Paedagogy of the Law procured by his Death and offered in the preaching of the Gospel and to be effected by the Spirit of God in the belief thereof But as there he that accepted of it had and enjoyed it but he that said Nay he loved his old Master better and so would not go out from him he was to be brought to the door and his Master was to bore his Ear through with an Awl and he was to serve him for ever So here he that embraces the Grace of God in Christ in the accepted time and day of Salvation he shall be set free but he that refusing it prefers the service of Sin Satan and Mosaical Law above it shall be given over to serve and perish in his corruptions and legal bondage 4. The like was Typified but more fully in the great Sabbatical Year or Year of Jubile when on the day of Atonement the Trumpet of the Jubile was to be sounded through all the Land and they were to proclaim liberty through all the land to all the Inhabitants thereof and every man was to return to his possession and every man to his Family Leâ— 25.8 9 10 11 c. for therein was prefigured 1. The general Release of Men from Thraldom to Curse and Wrath to which in Adam they were sold and by their own actual sins were further imbondaged many of them procured 〈◊〉 the Sacrifice of Christ and the Atoâ—ment thereby made and proclaimed 〈◊〉 the Gospel which like the Jubilee Trumpet Isa 61.1 2. being founded proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord the day of the vengeance of our God even the vengeance executed upon Christ or upon out enemies by Christ to comfort all that mourn Blessed are the people that know mind own and so take hold of and prove that joyfull sound they shall walk in the light of God's countenance c. Psal 89.15 16. 2. The general actual Release of all from under the first Death and Judgment to be presented before the Tribunal sear of Christ to be judged anew and the full and total release of all the Israel of God that have here believed in Christ from all their terrours sufferings and thraldoms to Sin and Death into the quiet and full possession of all the Kingdom and Glory promised and this to be effected at the great Day of the Lord When the Lord Jesus shall descend again from heaven with the voice of a Trumpet and of the the Arch-Angel of God when the seventh Angel sounding the mystery of God shall be fulfilled 1 Thess 4.16 Rev. 10.7 3. The general restitution of all things spoken of by the Prophets Acts 3.20 21. Rom. 8.19 20 21 22. when the Creature it self shall be delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the liberty of the Glory of the Sons of God at the â—d Great day of Christ's appearing all which are signified to be the effects of the Atoning Sacrifice of Christ in that that Jubilee Trumpet was to be sounded and the said Liberty Release and Restitution proclaimed on the day of Expiation or Atonement 2. They had also divers Feasts appointed them Monthly and Yearly as 1. They had Monthly New Moons which appear to have been Festivals 1 Sam. 20.5 times appointed for Sacrificing and gladness and for the blowing of Trumpets over their Sacrifices Numb 10.10 Psal 81.1 2 3. 2 Cor. 5.17 Typifying the renovation of the creature in and by Christ through his vertuous Sacrifice He that is in Christ is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new as also the Reformation and change of Worship to be brought in by him in the faith of which they were to blow their Trumpets and sing aloud to him with Thanksgiving thereby also figuring the joy and gladness the renovation made by Christ should bring in Psal 40.1 2 3 4. Rev. 14.1 2 3. Heb. 9 9 10 11 12. Yearly Festivals were their Feast of Passover First-fruits and Tabernacles in which besides the Rests required in them by vertue of which they were also Sabbaths some days beâ—nging to them and the abundance of â—crifices then to be offered which appertained to the Ordinance of Sacrificing they did solemnly appear and feast before the Lord rejoycing in the abundance of his goodness Prov. 9.12.3 4 5 6. Matth. 22.12 3 4. Isa 25.6 Joh. 4.14 6.35 48 51 55 c. and in the remembrance of the great things he had done for them providing for and feasting their poor Brethren also with them Neh. 8.10 11. Exod. 23.14 15 16. Levit. 23. which in general led them to behold by Faith the abundance of the Grace to be procured and brought in by Christ the Feast of Fat things full of Marrow to be made in Christ for all People For Christ is himself the Feast or matter of it the meat indeed and the drink indeed which whosoever eateth shall find satisfaction in so as not to hunger after other dainties and whoso drinks of shall not thirst for ever after other Waters Yea they might mind them of the great joy and delight to be brought in by his Incarnation or making his Tabernacle amongst us his sufferings for us and pouring down of his Spirit upon us but more fully at the harvest and full income of all the promises when the Tabernacle of God shall be with men for ever Rev. 21.4.5 so that these also had their foundation in Christ and poined at Christ to come 3. Besides which they had also other Ordinances yet under the Tabernacle and Temple and pertaining thereto pointing out Christ Levit. 12. 13. 14. 15. in which they were to exercise themselves till his actual appeâ—ting as diverse Washings and Puriâ—â—ons cleansings from uncleanness Heb. 9.12 13 14. as issues Leprosies c. all Typing out the cleansing away of our Sins by the Bloud and Spirit of Christ especially that Num. 10. of the ashes of the red Heifer is most significant For there God appointed that a red Heifer should be burnt and the ashes of it preserved and laid up in a clean place and then to be mixed with clean Water and by a clean Person with Hyssop to be sprinkled upon the unclean for the cleansing of him c. which Water and way of Purification was prepared for all the Congregation yet so as he that refused to be cleansed thereby was to remain in his unclearness and to be cut off from the Congregation vers 9.20 21. and evident Type and instruction that in and by Christ his sufferings and
entring his Kingdom here in its Spiritual State is We cannot enter his Kingdom but by being born of God nor further enter into it to be under the Regiment Power and Priviledges of it then as we are born of God namely of God as objectively discovered to us and looked to or known by us they that know thy Name will trust in thee and as efficiently and efficaciously working by his Power and Spirit in us And so Regeneration contains in it Healing Confirming and Conforming too or they may in the place above quoted be referred to the words after it and denote the time when they should receive their Honour and Reward viz. In the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory that is In the time of the Resurrection and so it signifies That the Regeneration is not compleated till the Resurrection when the Body also shall be changed and be found in the Spirit and Glory of Christ But here I do as usually men do in speaking of Regeneration speak of its First Acts Of making a man in Christ The overcoming of the Heart to close with and believe in God and Christ and depend on him and so the infusing the Spirit and Principles of new and heavenly Life into him And so I distinguish it from healing conforming Operations and it 's sometime included in Conversion as the end or ultimate acts in it as Conversion is usually meant of the Souls first turning to God for otherwise Souls after Regeneration falling into actual Sins or sinful frames must be Converted from them but as I said before it properly follows upon the heart turned to behold or look upon God and Christ as presented in his Gospel and it stands in the framing strengthning and overcoming the heart to close with rest in and rely on God in Christ in and through which his Spirit and Power Framing and Creating it in Christ doth enter into it possess and act it for and towards Christ Ephes 2.10 Numb 21.9 2 King 5.14 And this is by a certain creative Power whence that Phrase We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works Somewhat like the healing of the Israelites in their looking to the Serpent of Brass or the healing of Naaman washing in the waters of Jordan and it hath in it 1. A Spiritual quickening or inlivening of the Soul Psal 36.8 in its listening and looking to Christ to living affection to and likement of him and so desire after him through the presentation of the excellency of him as made known to and apprehended by the Soul as Phil. 3.7 2. A Spiritual quickning and strengthening of the Soul through the same Seed of the knowledge or word of Christ cast into the heart to a fleeing or betaking it self for refuge and rest to him and so to close with and hope in him and in God through him Heb. 6 18 19. Psal 9.10 3. A certain Spiritual inlivening of the Soul in him and upon him his mercy Gal. 2.20 goodness power faithfulness love c. and so to an acting in that life infused and put into it both towards God and towards man which the grace seen and believed by it operates works and begets yea and preserves and carries on in it and it unto and in It is set forth in Ezekiel 36.25 26. By the making the Heart and Spirit new by his Spirit and then putting in his Spirit into the Spirit made new the begetting a new judgment bent and disposition in the Soul and a new heart desire love affection toward God and Christ a new will purpose and resolution for him and then a putting his Word Power and Spirit into that Heart and Spirit renewed to live in it feed act and animate it in and for God according to his mind 4. His healing operations are a kin to those Regenerating operations and may be co-incident with his comforting operations too in part they are spoken of as fruits and consequents to Conversion Matth. 13.15 Least they should be converted and I should heal them but by comparing that with Mark 4.12 It includes or stands in the Remission of Sins at least as the necessary mean to it or womb put of which it proceeds for there for healing it is and their sins should be forgiven them Which by way of Metonomy may signifie and take in the consequents of forgiveness also such as 1. The speaking peace to them c. so the quieting pacifying and comforting of the Heart and Conscience in the sight and view of his goodness and knowledge of his love and favour towards it and of the forgiveness of Sins and hope of Happiness in which the heart-broken and disquieted with convincements reproofs and fears is healed 2. A renewing and rectifying the whole man in mind judgment will and affections and conversation sanctifying of him throughout filling him with right wholsome apprehensions and thoughts of God and Christ and himself and all things with right affections to God healing those distempers before in his heart and affections in their out-running after yanities and doting upon Idols taking offence at God and his Truth hateing what should be loved and loving what should either absolutely or comparatively be hated and so healing the passions fears cares anxieties and griefs of mind c. 3. A removing and taking off Wrath and Judgments that might formerly be inflicted on them for their rebellions or stubbornness against him yea and by degrees and in due time taking off altogether the Disease and Judgment that came upon us in Adam and through his Fall the power of natural Corruption â—nd dominion of Sin and the bodily infirmities and Death too in the Resurrection 5. Comforting Operations are in and through his Word or Truth as it is in Christ and by his hand power and spirit working therein and therewith in shewing help and remedy in Christ and in God and causing the Soul to apprehend and see it even suitable helps to all its needs and Exercises and by begetting lively hope in God and Christ for the receipt of that help both under its afflictions and in due time out of them all and by shewing the gracious and good end of God in his afflicting denying crossing suffering or ordering evils to it the lifting up reviving and chearing of the heart and spirit and maintaining the chearfulness and comfort of it in God as in John 14. He comforted the hearts of his Disciples by and through presenting to them God and his goodness towards them as an object therefore worthy to be believed in by them and himself as a constant lover of them that as well went away from them for their good as came and staid with them even for their helpfulness and salvation that he would send them another Comforter who also and more fully should comfort them by leading them into the Truth causing them to understand the Truths he now spake to them and giving them to
general ordinary way or Medium in and with which the power of God is put forth and operates both for bringing in men to himself and keeping them with himself unto eternal life is the discovery or makiâ—â—own of his Name Power goodne◠〈◊〉 And this in the more clear mean◠〈◊〉 making known his Son distinctly 〈◊〉 love in him to mankind or to the wâ— and so to those souls that he works up◠〈◊〉 To which the Law convincing of sin 〈◊〉 â—ching the knowledg of it with all repâ—â—s and chastisements and judgments are but subordinate and superadded means to drive the Soul to take a more ready view of his foresaid Love Goodness Name c. And all the ordinances and commands of duties but either appointments of and injunctions to ways in which his Name and Son are to be sought and soon that being brought in to him he might justify us and be our righteousness or else to witness to and glorify his Name in word or conversation 1 John 4.19 Rom. 1.16 17. and 2.4 5. Psal 9 10. and 36.7 8 9. Rom. 10.17 and 15.9 10 11 12. John 3.3.5.14 15 16 17. and 1.12 13. Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. Philip 1.27 And therefore they that darken and render doubtfull to men the love pity and good will of God in Christ towards them and readiness to save them through him and put men to seek to find it out by their endeavours after works and frames serve not God therein nor do they profit men but are instruments rather in the hand of Sathan to hurt and hinder them Nor are such rightly begotten to or born of God who not believing but neglecting the name of God and his â—ve and good will in Christ to mankin◠〈◊〉 so towards themselves have their hâ—â—wards God begot and Sprung up and â—ed in them from the conceit and â—deration of any frames changes act◠〈◊〉 and endeavours of their own but are â—dren of the Bondwoman Acts 2 8. 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.8 Jam. 1.18 19. Gal. 4.22 23 24. c. Luke 18.10 11 12. Math. 23.13 Isa 28.12 13 14 15 16 17. and 29. 9 10 11 12 13. Psal 118.22 2 Cor. 4.4 1 Thes 2.16 with 2.4 5 6 7. Rom. 9.30 31. and 10.1 2 3. 12. That those who are begotten and born to God in and by the discoveries of himself his Name and goodness in Christ to mankind so as that through his love to them while sinners and ungodly their hearts are overcome to hope in him and love him and so to yield up themselves to him to be his and to live to him they are the Children of God and of the promise the called according to his purpose the Elect and fore known ones whom he hath praedestinated or fore-ordained in Christ and through him to be conformed to him and his image in sufferings and in glory And accordingly such he hath used to call forth to service and sufferings for him and in their faithfulness therein hath justifyed and approved them and afterwards glorifyed them and so he will yet do which may animate such lovers of him for his love to hold them fast by him in all their sufferings either from o◠〈◊〉 him as knowing they are ordained o◠〈◊〉 thereto for their conforming to him 〈◊〉 1.12 13. and 3.3.5.14 15 16. 〈◊〉 3.7 8.9.26 27 28 29. Rom. 9. 〈◊〉 8.28 29 30 31 32. c. 1 Thes 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.21 Isa 50.8.9 Jam. 5. 〈…〉 Heb. 11.39 40. and 12.1 2 〈◊〉 Thus for the positions SECT 3. Some brief hints of uses of the foregoing Treatise and first of the first branch thereof WHat we have hitherto say'd in this treatise may be diversly usefull And first that which we have noted â—bout the Gospel doctrine as to the faith hope obedience and terrours of it may serve Vse 1 1. First to inform us of and instruct us into 1. The great love mercy pity and good will of God to us and to all men both as men made by him and more abundantly as and notwithstanding fallen from him in Adam and so become in our selves miserable corrupt loathsom and the great grace of our Lord Jesus towards us in so abasing himself at the will and appointment of the Father for us the great price he hath set upon us and provision made for us for our Salvation and happiness In this was manifested the love of God to us that he sent his only begotten Son into the â—woâ— that we might live through him In 〈◊〉 do men waving this demonstration 〈◊〉 seek to know it some other way by â—ing into themselves and indeavour◠〈◊〉 to frame themselves to love him 〈◊〉 is love not that we loved him 〈◊〉 â—he loved us and sent his only begoâ— Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.9 10. And ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that he being rich became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich 2 Cor. 8.9 So that therein also is discovered to us good ground given us in him of looking to and hoping in him and of loving of and living to him that hath done prepared and set before us so greaâ— things as the word of truth speaks of having not spared his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 He dyed for all that they that live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5.15 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them we pray you in Christs stead therefore be ye reconciled unto God ver 19 20. See also Rom. 12.1 2. The wretchedness and misery of our condition by nature who needed such a remedy to be made and provided for us and so the odiousness of our sins both of that sin of Adam and of us all in him and the sinfulness thence contracted and much more yet of continuing in sin against him after and notwithstanding such mercy and kindness shewed us for our redemption and so also the deadness of us through sin both as to the sentence of the law pronouncing us dead and condemned men and the utter deadness of our selves in our powers to help and remedy our selves and one another yea such deadness as no creature power in our selves or in Heaven or Earth could raise us out of it which is clearly seen in the cross of Christ in that he dyed for us all to save and revive us The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead That we were all sentenced to death appears in this that he that came to succour us was fain to dye for us And that we were so wholly lost and dead in our selves as to our helping our selves from under that sentence is seen in this that such a one as Christ was fain to undertake it and perform the Redemption of us