this was in stead of all other Righteousness to him and that he was reputed as righteous all over now although he were not so at all in any other things 7. Now for Iustification we shall best understand the meaning of the word from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First therefore besides the forensal acception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be just Gen. 38.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thamar is more righteous then I. So Eccles. 31.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that loves gold will not be just Secondly it signifies to appear just Psa. 51.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is that thou maist plainly appear or approve thy self to be just And Psal. 143. â— For in thy sight no man living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall appear just Thirdly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to make just and pure to free from vice and sinfulness Psalm 73. v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore have I cleansed my heart in vain And Eccles. 18.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec tuam probitatem usque ad mortem differas saies the Translation And Rom. 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is dead is freed from sin Also Act. 13.39 And by him all they that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses i. e. Ye are more throughly cleansed and purged from sin and wickedness then you could be ever under the Law of Moses Which is consonant to other passages in Scripture as That the Law makes nothing perfect and again If there had been a Law that could have given life then verily righteousness might have been of the Law And now we have found out a warrantable sense of these words we shall be able more expeditely to discover the sense of the foregoing places of Scripture alledged for this pernicious conceit of a Christians being righteous without any real Righteousness in him 8. Wherefore to that in the 4. to the Romans whose force will be the greater if we adde that also which is written a little before in the 3 chap. v. 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and what he inferrs also vers 9. That Iews and Gentiles and all are under sin Wherein the meaning of the Apostle is to magnifie as was most fit the ministration of the Gospel and so he signifies to the world that whatsoever is discovered hitherto is imperfect lapsed and ruinous all but weak and sinful before the coming in of Christ even the works of the Law themselves and that smooth external Righteousness of mere Morality and Ceremony So that all the world are found guilty before God and by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight For by the Law is but the knowledge of sin vers 20. it gives no strength to perform Wherefore now reckoning nothing upon all these things we are as it were to begin the world again and to endeavour after such a Righteousness as is by Faith in Christ Jesus and not to rest in any thing that may be done by the ordinary power of the flesh but to aspire after that Righteousness which is communicable to us by that Spirit which raised Jesus Christ from the dead But neither Abraham nor any one else can be justified by any carnal righteousness of their own but that highly-spiritual act of Abraham reaching beyond the common rode of Nature who against hope believed in hope that was that which commended Abraham so much to God And thus from the Example of Abraham would the Apostle commend the Christian faith to the world and in particular to the Jews the Offspring of Abraham For at the end of the fourth chapter he makes this use of Abraham's faith being imputed to him for Righteousness that is reputed by God as a very excellent good act as it indeed was that we might also be brought off to believe on him that raised up â—esus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification In which verse are contained the two grand priviledges of the Gospel that is the forgiveness of sins upon the satisfaction of Christs death and the justifying of us that is the making of us just and holy through a sound faith in him that raised Jesus from the dead Which interpretation the 11 verse of the 8 Chapter doth sufficiently countenance But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you viz. to Righteousness as is plain out of the foregoing verse And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse that is The body of death which we desire to be delivered from as the Apostle speaks appears by the presence of Christ in us to be thus deadly a body by reason of sin we feeling for the present nothing but an heavy indisposition to all holinesse and goodnesse in the body and its affections and all sinfulnesse and unclean Atheisticall suggestions from the flesh which is death to the Soul For to be carnally-minded is death So that by reason of the sinfulnesse of our body and the sad heavinesse thereof it appears as deadly and ghastly a thing to us as Mezentius his tying the living and the dead together when once Christ is in us but our Life is then that Righteousnesse which is of the Spirit we finding a comfortable warmth and pleasure in the gratefull arrivals of that holy and Divine sensation But he that raised Christ from the dead will in due time even quicken these our mortall bodies or these dead bodies of ours and make them conspire and come along with ease and chearfulnesse and be ready and active complying Instruments in all things with the Spirit of Righteousness Which belief is a chief Point in the Christian Faith and most of all parallel to that of Abraham's who believing in the Goodness and Power and Faithfulness of God had when both himself and his wife Sara were dry and dead as to natural generation and so hopeless of ever seeing any fruit of her womb who had I say Isaac born to him who bears Ioy and Laughter in the very Name of him and was undoubtedly a Type of Christ according to the Spirit For Isaac is the Wisedom Power and Righteousness of God flowing out and effectually branching it self so through all the Faculties both of mans Soul and Body that the whole man is carried away with joy and triumph to the acting all whatsoever is really and substantially good even with as much satisfaction and pleasure as he eats when he is hungry and drinks when he is dry And thus by our entrance and progress in so holy a
many of us as were baptized into the Lord Iesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newnesse of life For if we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death we shall be also in the likenesse of his Resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroied that henceforth we might not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin 3. You see how the most urgent Exhortations of the Apostles to kill and overcome our Lusts are back'd and edged if you will with a reflexion upon the Crucifixion of our Saviour Which allusion if it were no more then that odde perverse Sect which I have so often named would make it who desire to allegorize away the whole History of Christ to a mere Fable as if it were nothing but a mere fictitious Representation of things to be morally transacted in us truly the Argument were nothing For the death of a Ram or a Goat would serve to represent the sacrificing of our sensual Lusts rather better then the death of Christ who was so innocent a person But the stress of the Argument lyes in this That a person not onely so immaculate and innocent but so holy and sacred so honourable and Divine that the Son of the living God declared so from Heaven foretold evidently by the mouths of the most infallible Prophets and that at the distance of so many Ages and undeniably demonstrated to be such by his own Miracles and by that Miracle of Miracles his Resurrection from the dead and his visible Ascension into Heaven in the eyes of his Disciples that this so noble and Divine a Person that this Son of God should in dear Compassion and Love to Mankinde give himself up not onely to a poor despicable beggarly life but be contented to be whipped and scourged and put to a death both painful and shameful with Thieves and Malefactors and this merely to atone the wrath of God and open the gates of Heaven to bewildred mankind that were wandring further and further from their primeval Happiness This is such an Argument as would melt the hardest Heart and awake the dullest Understanding into a quick and chearful apprehension of that duty that so nearly concerns him viz. to be if it were possible more resolvedly willing to die to all his sins and worldly vanities then Christ was to lay down his life to redeem him from them 4. This mighty Power of the Death of Christ is of such invincible efficacy to them that will but seriously dwell upon the Meditation thereof that no strong hold of Sin will be able to resist it no evil and inordinate affection but the consideration of this Passion will calm keep under and utterly subdue The very counting the circumstances of his Sufferings will put us out of conceit even with those Vices that we have most familiarly entertained and still all those Perturbations and Disquietnesses of Minde that the crossest accidents of the World and our own Weakness can expose us to Art thou a lover of money how canst thou abstain from blushing whilst thou remembrest that Covetousnesse betraied and sold thy Saviour for thirty pieces of Silver or refrain from communicating thy goods to the poor when Christ has been so prodigal of his bloud for thee Art thou proud how canst thou but be ashamed to exalt thy self when the onely-begotten Son of God took upon him the form of a Man yea of the lowest sort of men and humbled himself and became obedient to death even the reproachful death of the Crosse that he might teach us Humility that the same minde might be in us that was in him as the Apostle speaks Art thou neglected scorned or reviled Thy Saviour was buffetted mocked and spit upon Are thy Inferiours preferred before thee Barabbas was held a more worthy person then Iesus Are thy friends false to thee Christ was betraied by Iudas with a kisse Dost thou fall from or fall short of thy expected honours Iesus wore no earthly Crown but that of Thorns nor Scepter but a Reed nor any Robe but such as the abusive Souldiers put on him to make legs to him and mock him Art thou traduced for one as not sound in thy Religion Thy Saviour was accused as a Blasphemer What motion therefore or disturbance of Pride shall be able to disquiet thy minde if thou do but reflect on thy Saviours Sufferings 5. And for Envy Hatred and Revenge how canst thou harbour the least touch or sense of them while thou lookest upon him who out of love laid down his life for us even then when we were Enemies to him yea for those very persons that crucified him praying unto God for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do And if thou be transportable into vain Mirth what can better calm that giddy temper then the remembrance of his Sadnesse whose Soul was sorrowful even unto death And if the highest and most searching Afflictions attempt thee what can more strongly arm thy Patience then if thou ruminate on that bitter cup the consideration whereof put thy Saviour into such an Agony that he sweat drops of bloud that fell down to the ground And lastly if Lust and Wantonness do assault thy Soul the most present Remedy is the contemplation of thy dying Lord and Master who with his out-stretched arms on the Crosse to embrace thee presents himself a Corrival in thy strongest Affections Look upon his inclined Head not crowned with roses but wounded with thorns view his half-closed Eyes heretofore filled and beautified with lucid Spirits whose milde motions were the perpetual Interpreters of his Kindness and Compassion to the Sons of men but now overcast with the heavy cloud of Death Kisse his cold and pale Lips and receive his last breath and tell me if thou didst not hear this whisper in it Canst thou love any thing better then me who out of love do undergo this painfull and reproachfull death for thee 6. But what I have appropriated to this foolish Passion of Wantonnesse may equally take place in any inordinate affection and our Saviour may justly expostulate how unkindly how ungrateful he is dealt with when his pretended Disciples refuse to mortifie any lust whatsoever for him who gave up himself to death for them This consideration is so urgent and convictive that none that have the least spark of Ingenuity can be able to resist it And therefore whatever conceited high-flown Fools may imagine of the Cross of Christ and the meditation of his Crucifixion as a thing that may rather fit Children in Christianity then grown men I say it is the great Power of God to Salvation and so long as a man findes any sin in him he is to have recourse
which condition is to be freely and naturally righteous and good that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Divine nature which when we have attained to we may be properly said naturally and without straining to do that which is good and righteous we discover here a very eminent Object of our Faith viz. this Divine power by the help whereof we are to be wrought up into this happy condition of a living inward Righteousnesse that is as near to us as our own Souls and is the life and spirit of our Soul as our Soul is of our Body And thus are we made just by Faith as I have elsewhere intimated viz. by Faith in the power of God whereby he is able to raise Jesus Christ from the dead in us or what is all one whereby he is able to make the Spiritual Isaac grow in our withered and barren wombs and to bring to passe in us that by his assisting Grace which would never have come to passe by the mere strength of Nature This I say is a very eminent and highly-considerable Object of our Christian Faith And the want of this Faith the Prophet may seem to complain of in a mystical sense when he saies Who has believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed that is Men are very slow to believe that the power of God in Christ is so efficacious as it is to cast down every strong hold of Satan and to kill and slay the body of Sin in us that the spirit of Righteousnesse may be revived and restored in us And thus much briefly of the First point wherein the Second Covenant differs from the First The Second point is this That the state of the Second Covenant is a state of Liberty as that under the First of Bondage 8. And this Liberty consists in these three things especially First In that we are freed from the tedious and voluminous luggage of Ceremonies nor are any longer superstitiously hoppled in the toiles and nets of superfluous Opinions which tend not at all of their own nature to the advancement of the Divine life and the Kingdome of Christ in the world And verily it cannot sink into my minde how Zeal about unnecessary knowledge can be any better then the boiling of the natural heat in the behalf of that which is alike dear nay more dear to Devils and Natural men then to the true Children of God in whom the curious desire of Speculative knowledge is very much extinguished through their ardent thirst after Divine life and sense which will most vividly possesse them upon a due measure of Regeneration or the Resurrection from the dead when we have risen with Christ as well as died with him In the mean time while we are passing through the painful Agony of Mortification all fine Opinions and Curiosities of Religion will lie scattered and neglected about us as toies and gew-gawes by a child that is deadly sick 9. Secondly the Second part of our Liberty consists in this that we are free from Sin They are the very words of the Apostle For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroied that henceforth we should not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin And hence I think it is very plain that a man that has had his due progress under the Second Covenant I mean the Gospel of Christ is freed from the rebellion and tumult of the body of sin And that we may not shuffle off so general a notion and elude the force thereof I will particularize He is freed from Pride from Envy from Hatred from Wrath from Grief from Covetousness and from sensual Lust. And some of these are so incompetible with the nature of a Christian as Pride and Envy that they are like the rankest poison not in the least degree consistent with the condition we speak of And though something in reason may be said for Hatred yet I believe it will lie very crosly and unevenly in the heart of a good Christian and I see no need of it whenas Anger and Sorrow that is Pity will supply the place of it And we may observe our Saviour Christ surprized with Anger and melted in Grief and Pity but there is not the least intimation of Hatred in any passage of our Saviours life So that it is the safest and most warrantable to be angry at or pity wicked men not to hate them lest we become in some measure hateful our selves by putting on that so deformed vizard As for sensual Lust and all Voluptuousness it is so conspicuous an Object of mortification that he that does not hit the mark there and strike dead kills nothing at all For it is the most crass and gross enormity of them all and the most scandalous and the most importunate disturber of men that make towards God and the greatest extinguisher of true Faith and Sense in Divine things and so besmears the wings of the Soul as it were with bird-lime that she cannot move upward nor at all release her self from the impediments of the Body nor have any phansy nor conceit of what is Heavenly and Divine But now Pride and Voluptuousness being exterminated it is plain that Covetousness will be set packing for it is ordinarily onely a purveior for those two Vices And those that are the most sordidly covetous are well aware that Mony being able to do all things let men talk what they will they really are not nor can be despicable 10. The Third and last is his Freedome to Righteousness And that this is true is very plain from what has been said before For he being free from that load of unnecessary Ceremonies and from the intanglements of fruitless and superstitious Opinions and from the body of Sin what can now hinder that Divine principle of Regeneration from acting chearfully freely and comfortably For every mountain is cast down and every valley is exalted and all is made plain and even before him that with pleasure ease and joy he may walk in the wayes of that Everlasting Righteousness that Christ brings into the world For the Eternal seed of the Word that is engrafted in him or that living law of Righteousnesse planted in his heart does as naturally guide and actuate him as the Soul does move an unshackled Body and it is no more constraint or bondage in him to do what is truly good and holy then it is to the unregenerate to do that which is natural or vitious And thus have I plainly and truly set before you the Idea of a well-grown Christian that has made his due proficiency under the mighty advantages of the New Covenant the Gospel of Christ that we may know what to aspire to and breath after and that we may never be quiet till we be possessed
Reprobationers have defined it namely That God has irresistibly decreed from all Eternity to bring into Being innumerable Myriads of Souls of men exceeding far the number of them that shall be saved who as without their own consent they were thus thrust into the World so let them doe what they will are certainly determined to unspeakable torment so soon as they go out of it and at the last day shall be adjudged to an higher degree of misery so great and so exceeding that all the racks and tortures that the Wit or Cruelty of the most enraged Tyrants could ever invent or execute would be ease and pleasure in Comparison of it and that these Pangs and Torments shall remain fresh upon them for ever and ever 8. This is the Representation of that sour Dogma Which to Reason is as contradictious as if one should name a square Circle or black Light and as harsh and horrid to the eares of the truly-Regenerate into the nature of God who is Love it self as the highest blasphemie that can be uttered Nor is the nature of those that are irreligious enough so much estranged from the Knowledge of God but that they think if there be any at all he cannot be such a one that laid such dark plots from all eternity for the everlasting misery of his poor impotent and unresisting Creature that never did any thing but what the Divine Decrees determined he should doe and therefore was alwaies the Almighties obedient servant For which at last he must be condemned to eternall punishment by him whom he did ever obey The serious and imperious obtrusion of such a dismal Conceit as this for one of the greatest Arcanums of Religion will make the free Spirit and over-inclinable to Prophaneness confidently to conclude That the whole frame of Religion is nothing but a mere Scar-crow to affright Fools and that there is no Hell at all since such Innocent Persons and constant Obeyers of the Divine Decrees must be the Inhabiters ot it CHAP. III. 1. The true Measure of Opinions to be taken from the designe of the Gospel which in general is The setting out the exceeding great Mercy and Goodness of God towards mankinde 2. And then Secondly The Triumph of the Divine Life in the Person of Christ in the warrantableness of doing Divine Honour to him 3. Thirdly The advancement of the Divine Life in his members upon Earth 4. The Fourth and last Rule to try Opinions by The Recommendableness of our Religion to Strangers or those those that are without 1. I Might adde several other Opinions in several parts of Christendome that tend very much to the defeating and eluding the serious End and purpose of Religion but before I go any further I shall set down the main designes of the Gospel of Christ that we may have a more plain and sure Rule and Measure to try all Opinions by The designe therefore of the Gospel in general is the magnifying of the Goodness and Loving-kindness of God that he has afforded mankinde so glorious a light to walk by so effectual means to redeem them from the love of the perishing vanities of this present world and to recall them back again to himself and to the participation of the ineffable joyes pleasures of his celestial Kingdom For God so loved the World that he gave his only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him should be saved And Titus 3. For we our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another But after that the Kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour To which sense also the Apostle speaks Ephes. chap. 2. And you who were dead in trespasses and sins Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the Aire the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of our fleshly minde and were by nature the children of wrath even as others But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Iesus That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Iesus Christ. To which lastly you may adde Tit. 2.11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world c. These Scriptures give plain testimony of this more general designe of the Gospel 2. The next designe is an external exaltation of the Divine Life that did so mightily and conspicuously appear in the Person of our Saviour Christ as I have already abundantly declared How the mystery of Christianity comprehends in it chiefly this designe of exalting into Triumph the Divine Life above the Animal and Natural and that either externally in the religious worship we do our Saviour and is done even by Hypocrites and wicked Persons or else internally in the advancing of true Faith and Holiness in his living members and sincere followers of his doctrine Philip. 2. Let the same minde be in you which was in Christ Iesus Who being in the forme of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But emptied himself and took upon him the forme of a servant and was made in likeness of men And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the death of the Cross. Wherefore hath God also exalted him and given him a name above every name That at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father And Hebr. 1. Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the Scepter of righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oile of gladness above thy fellows that is to say hath exalted thee to this due honour and rule having put all things under his feet Angels themselves not excepted as S. Peter tells us 1 Epist. 3.22 Who is gâ—ne into Heaven
be better For this Article of Infidelity among the rest keeps the Witnesses still dead in all the senses above-named Wherefore let every man reform himself and exhort and encourage his neighbour and witness the good witness of the power of God to the conquering and subduing of all manner of Sin For these times come not on by Rapine and Violence but by the increase of Righteousness upon Earth For the real and speedy advancement whereof there is nothing more effectual then the belief That God will now in these last times of all give more then ordinary assistance to them that will be faithfull in his Covenant and that the work of Righteousness will goe on with much more ease then heretofore and with infinitely better success Wherefore it is good striking while the Iron is hot and making use of this Day of Salvation lest such Prophecies of grace being conditionall it may fare with us as it did with the Israelites whose carkasses fell in the wilderness in a tedious delay and a long leading them about who otherwise had in their own persons entred the promised Land So I do not see that it is impossible or improbable but this Prophecie of the Churches change into so excellent a state may be foreslacked by the ill management and faithlesness of them from whom God more peculiarly expects that they should be industrious Labourers in this white Harvest of Apostolick Purity and Sanctity they having now for some time separated from the great Babylon to build those that are lesser and more tolerable but yet not to be tolerated for ever it being more then high time they should clear up into an holy City of God Otherwise I do not see but the success is likely to answer the endeavours of them that are chiefly concerned And the variety of numbring the period of time by Daies Months and Semi-Times seems to threaten some such matter And therefore according to that laxer computation by Months and Semi-Times there may lie hid a reserve of delay for thirty nay an hundred or two hundred years longer then God otherwise intended to commence this glorious Dispensation But the certainty of the Events of other Prophecies that precede in order if this Promise be not conditional to both Jew and Christian is a Demonstration that it will not fail to take effect This is the faithfullest Account that I can give of the affairs of Christendome from the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles till Christ's coming again in the Spirit to renew his lapsed Church into true Holiness and Righteousness in the rising of the Witnesses and the reigning of the Saints upon Earth a thousand years The close of which will be The Day of Iudgment properly so called which after this long but not impertinent Digression if it be a Digression we shall now take into consideration BOOK VI. CHAP. I. 1. Three chief things considerable in Christ's Return to Iudgment viz. The Visibility of his Person The Resurrection of the Dead and the Conflagration of the World 2. Places of Scripture to prove the Visibility of his Person 3. That there will be then a Resurrection of the dead not in a Moral but a Natural sense demonstrated from undeniable places of Scripture 4. Proofs out of Scripture for the Conflagration of the world as out of Peter the 3 Chap. of his second Epistle 5. An Interpretation of the 12 and 13 verses 6. A Demonstration that the Apostle there describes the Conflagration of the World 7. A Confutation of their opinion that would interpret the Apostle's description of the burning of Jerusalem 8. That the coming of Christ so often mentioned in these two Epistles of Peter is to be understood of his Last coming to Iudgment 9 10. Further confirmation of the said Assertion 11. Other places pointed at for the proving of the Conflagration 1. IN the Return of Christ to Judgment these Three things are to be considered as very nearly annected and comprehended in it The Visibility of his Person and pomp of his coming The Resurrection of the Dead and Conflagration of the World But because all these things are doubted by some that do not profess themselves Anti-Scripturists I shall first produce such places of Scripture as do plainly assert these Points and then in the next place shew how Reasonable the Assertion is 2. The Visible or personal Return of Christ to Iudgment though it may be proved from many places yet I shall content my self with a few And I must confess I look upon the 24 of Matth. from the 30 to the 32 verse where the Son of Man is said to come in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory and to send out his Angels with a mighty sound of a Trumpet to be a pregnant Testimony thereof But the 29 verse to be a description of the state of the World especially of the Roman Empire till the appearance of the sign of the Son of Man But whether this sign of the Son of Man be the same with the Son of Man coming in the clouds or some sign in the Heavens to be given long before his coming for the Conversion of the Jews I take not upon me to decide But from the 32 to the 36 verse I think there our Saviour may reassume his first Subject the Destruction of Ierusalem and therefore being within the view of the Temple and of the City he uses the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these things in his prophecie of them But in the 36 verse pursuing his prediction of the end of the World he saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but concerning THAT day and so he gives wholesome precepts of watchfulness to his Church to the end of this Chapter Which sense is very agreeable to the following Chapter which most easily and naturally is wholy to be understood of the last Judgment But from the 31 verse of that Chapter to the end even they that would wind the former part of the Chapter to another sense acknowledg it to be understood of the last Day And there the Visible Pomp of Christ coming to judge the World is plainly set down viz. his sitting upon a throne with his holy Angels about him To these you may add the Testimonie of the two men clothed in white shining raiments that told the Disciples as they were gazing up into Heaven after Christ as he ascended that he should come down again in the same manner as they had seen him goe into Heaven As also that of S. Paul to the Thessalonians For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we be ever with the Lord. These places are so plain concerning the Visible Appearance of Christ's
Dispensation are we well approved of by God and being justified thus by faith we have peace with him through our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 5.1 So that this Iustification is not a mere belief that Christ died for us in particular or that he was raised from the dead whereby anothers Righteousness is imputed to us but a believing in God that he has accepted the bloud of Christ as a Sacrifice for sin and that he is able through the power of the Spirit to raise us up to newness of life whereby we are encouraged to breath and aspire after this more inward and perfect righteousnesse Which advantages God propounds to all the hearers of the Gospel without any respect of works or former demurenesse of life if so be they will but now come in and close with this high and rich dispensation and be carried on with couragious resolutions to fight against and pull down the man of sin within themselves that this living and new way of real Divine righteousnesse may be set up and rule in their hearts I say if they be encouraged to this holy enterprise by Faith in Christ for the remission of sins and for the power of his Spirit to utterly eradicate and extirpate all inward corruption and wickednesse this Faith is presently imputed to them for Righteousnesse that is they are and are approved by God as dear children of his and as good men and are of the seed of the Promise For they are born now not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but of the will of God and their will is wholly set upon righteousnesse and true holinesse which they hunger and thirst after as sincerely and eagerly as ever they did after their natural meat and drink and God who feeds the young Ravens is not so cruell as to deny them this celestial food which food they reach at and as it were wrest out of his hands by Faith in the power of his Spirit whereby they account themselves able to doe all things 9. And this is the only warrantable notion that I can finde of being justified by faith Nor do those places above recited prove any other then this For that which seems to make most of all for another viz. Rom. 4.5 But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness may very well be interpreted according to that tenour of sense I have already declared For that is the great and comfortable priviledge of the Gospel that without any respect of former works if so be we do but now believe remission of sins in Christ and believe in his power that justifies the ungodly i. e. that makes just the ungodly and purifies and purges them from all sin and iniquity from which by their own naturall power they could not purged and restores them to inward reall righteousnesse by the working of his Spirit this Faith is imputed for Righteousnesse For they that do thus believe are good and righteous men for matter of sincerity so that they have peace with God through the bloud of Christ and by the power of that Spirit that is now working in them are renewed daily more and more into that glorious image and desirable liberty which arises in the further conquest of the Divine life in them and makes them righteous even as Christ was righteous And now the hardest is satisfied the other places alledged will easily fall of themselves by the application of what has been said concerning this nature of Faith and Iustification 10. As for those places of Scripture that seem to attribute the Righteousness of Christ to us as where he is said to be made unto us wisedom righteousness sanctification and redemption the sense is only this that he works in us wisedom righteousness c. Otherwise it might be inferred that we shall have only an imputative Redemption and that we shall not be really saved and redeemed As for that other As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one man many shall be made righteous I say it is a place against themselves For by Adam we became really sinners and sinful contracting original corruption from his loins therefore by Christ we are to be made really righteous And this was the end of his obedience that was obedient even to the death of the crosse that we being buried with him by baptisme into death like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6. Wherefore there really being no ground in Scripture for this childish mistake and it being as unreasonable that one Soul should be righteous for another as that one Body should be in health for another if I shew that the Scripture it self does expresly require of us that we be righteous and holy in our own persons there is then nothing wanting to the full discovery of this childish and ungrounded conceit of being righteous without any Righteousness residing in us 11. And in my apprehension this very Text of S. Iohn is a clear eviction of this Truth it plainly declaring that they are mistaken who ever conceit themselves righteous without doing righteousnesse or without being righteous in such a sense as Christ himself was righteous There are also several other Testimonies of the Apostles to the same purpose some whereof I have noted already as where he saith That Christ was manifested to take away our sins and that he came to destroy the works of the Devil and that he that is born of God sinneth not because the seed of God abideth in him that is a permanent Principle of Divine life and sense whereby he seeth and abhorreth whatsoever is wicked and unholy And again 1 Ioh. â— Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandements He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him but whose keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected Hereby know we that we are in him He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked Like that 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity CHAP. VI. 1. Their alledgement of Gal. 2.16 as also of the whole drift of that Epistle 2. What the Righteousnesse of faith is according to the Apostle 3. In what sense those that are in Christ are said not to be under the Law 4. That the Righteousness of faith is no figment but a reality in us 5. That this Righteousnesse is the New Creature and what this new Creature is according to Scripture 6. That the new Creature consists in Wisedom Righteousness and true Holiness 7. The Righteousnesse of the new Creature 8. His Wisedom and Holinesse 9. That the Righteousness of faith excludes not good Works The wicked treachery of those
them reproach the person of Christ in his highest Agonies on the Crosse and impute that to a sinful weaknesse and imperfection that was but the due effect of the weight of his Sufferings who bore the Sins of the whole world and made an atonement with God for them Yet because he cryed out in the words of that Psalme which is a lively Prophecie of his Sufferings My God my God why hast thou forsaken me therefore must that Fanatick Fool of Amsterdam and his illuminate Elders that boast so much of Perfection be more perfect then the Son of God himself whose certain appearance in the World is so clearly demonstrated out of the ancient Prophecies of the Old Testament and so manifestly ratified by the Miracles recorded in the New 11. I appeal to all men if Satan himself could vent any thing more despightful and scornful against the endearing sufferings of our ever-blessed Saviour who out of tender love to Mankind underwent those dreadful agonies of Death and waded through the heavy wrath of God for sinners then these Wretches have that would recommend themselves to the VVorld under the false Flourish and Hypocritical Title of the Family of Love whereas by antiquating the use of the Passion of Christ and thus villainously reproaching Christ upon the Crosse they demonstrate to all the world that they have not the least sense or skill in so Divine a Mystery but are wicked Apostates from God who is that pure and Divine Love and Underminers of the Kingdome of his Son Jesus Christ In which neither such high-flown Enthusiasts nor any dry churlish Reasoners and Disputers shall have either part or portion till they lay down those Gigantick humours and become as our Saviour Christ who is the unerring Truth has prescribed like little Children for of such as these onely is the Kingdome of Heaven as the Prince of that Kingdome has declared These therefore he embraced and blessed when he was alive these he dying on the Crosse stretched out his armes to receive to these he wept drops of bloud that they might shed tears for these he was scourged that they might chastise the exorbitancy of their own lusts and evil concupiscences for these he shed his most precious bloud that they might die to Sin and live to Righteousnesse by that power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead This is the Foolishness of the Crosse a Scandal not onely for such as are Unbelievers but even to many of them also that would be accounted zealous and knowing Christians CHAP. XVI 1. The End of Christs Sufferings not onely to pacifie Conscience but to root out Sin witnessed out of the Scripture 2. Further Testimonies to the same purpose 3. The Faintnesse and Uselesnesse of the Allegory of Christs Passion in comparison of the Application of the History thereof 4. The Application of Christs Sufferings against Pride and Covetousnesse 5. As also against Envy Hatred Revenge vain Mirth the Pangs of Death and unwarrantable Love 6. A General Application of the Death of Christ to the mortifying of all Sin whatsoever 7. The celebrating the Lords Supper the use and meaning thereof 1. BUT that this is the meaning of Christs Sufferings that is That we should also suffer in the Flesh and mortifie our sinfull members besides what our Saviour himself has intimated in comparing himself to the Brazen Serpent in the VVildernesse the sight whereof did not onely asswage the pain of them that were bitten but take away the poison whence we may reasonably conclude that the looking on Christ on the Crosse is not onely to heal the Stings of Conscience upon sin committed but to destroy the Poison and corruption of Sin out of us that we may not sin any more is plain in that the Apostles themselves also do urge the Use of Christ Crucified to both those ends and purposes Saint Iohn 1 Epist. chap. 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that you sin not But if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins But this use of the Crosse namely Propitiation and the Peace of Conscience all men catch at There is more need of producing such places as shew the other use thereof for the Mortification of our sins That of Saint Peter 1 Epist. chap. 4. is very expresse For asmuch therefore as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same minde for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God For the time past of our lives may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lust excesse of wine revelling banquettings and abominable Idolatries To which sense he speaks at least as fully Chap. 2. ver 19. For this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the tree that we being dead to Sin should live unto Righteousnesse by whose stripes we are healed For ye were as Sheep going astray but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls What can warrant the use of the Crosse for the cure of sins more plainly then this 2. But we will hear also what Saint Paul saith 2 Tim. chap. 2. ver 11. This is a faithful saying If we be dead with Christ then shall we also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him if we deny him he will also deny us This is most certainly true as well of inward Mortification as of outward trouble and the mention of the death of Christ is to support our Spirits in the enduring of both And Philip. 3. ver 10. That I may know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death viz. That as Christ died upon the Crosse so he might be crucified to the world and all the vain Lusts thereof and those that walk otherwise he cannot but proclaim them enemies to the Crosse of Christ whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame who minde earthly things ver 18. And Galat. 6.14 But God forbid that I should glory save in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ by which the world is crucified to me and I unto the world that is The world is but a dead spectacle to me my affections being dead to it I will close all with that excellent place Rom. 6.3 Know ye not that as
Libertinism as you may see more at large in that Chapter 5. Wherefore it appears out of what already has been said That there are Terms to be performed on out part in this New Covenant as well as there are Promises on God's part and that Christianity is no such loose remiss and inert Religion as some Deceivers would make it which we shall make still more plain from several other testimonies of Scripture Matth. 11. The Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Whence is plainly intimated that no lazy or careless endeavours will carry us on to the enjoiment of the Promises of the Covenant As elsewhere He that laies his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdome of God And Luke 13.24 Strive to enter in at the streight gate For I say unto you many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Because streight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life but wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that goe in thereat As it is in the parallel place of S. Matthew Which plain places of Scripture one would think should awake those filthy dreamers out of their mischievous conceits opinions whereby they would make us believe the Evangelical dispensation is so soft and delicate a thing that there is no laying of the hand to the plough no crouding or striving but that we shall be carried to heaven on that easie featherbed of unactive Faith or fanatick Libertinism Whenas the Evangelical Oracles tell us that we are to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling that we are to run and to wrastle to fight and to resist even unto bloud 1 Cor. 9.24 Know ye not that they that run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize So run that ye may obtain And every one that strives for the victory is temperate in all things Now they doe it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest by any means when I have preached to others I my self should become a cast-away And yet S. Paul was as chosen a vessel as the choicest of these pieces that befool themselves so with self-flattery that they think they have found an easier way to Salvation then Paul himself knew that think they shall get the victory and the crown by not fighting against their own corruptions but by beating the Air with knackish forms of gracious speeches and vain grandiloquence that tends to nothing but the masking of their own Hypocrisie and unfaithfulness in the Covenant and to the seduction and ruine of others 6. But S. Paul however they would abuse some passages in him to the favouring of their ill cause is an utter disclaimer of such false doctrine and does yet more expresly tell us That the promises of the Gospel are conditional This is a faithfull saying saith he to Timothy 2 Epist. chap. 2. If we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him if we deny him he will also deny us If we deal unfaithfully in the Covenant yet he is faithful and cannot deny himself He will stand to his Covenant in all the intents and purposes thereof whether to punishment or reward And Rom. 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus but their qualification presently follows that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and ver 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you and if this Spirit be in you the body is dead unto sin And again If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live And ver 16. The Spirit it self bears witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God And if Children then Heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also glorified with him Which plainly implies that the Inheritance of Heaven or Kingdome of glory is a conditional Kingdome or Inheritance And not to speak of Kingdoms we shall not so much as have remission of sins but upon condition Matth. 6.14 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses What can be more evident then this CHAP. IX 1. What it is really to enter into this New Covenant 2. That the entring into this Covenant supposes actual Repentance 3. That this New Covenanter is born of water and the Spirit 4. The necessity of the skilfull usage of these new-born Babes in Christ. 5. That some Teachers are mere Witches and Childe-Suckers 1. WE have therefore undeniably demonstrated That this New Gospel-Covenant is a conditional Covenant and but that Hypocrisie and Impietie has made mens souls so degenerate that Sense and Non-sense is alike to them they would from the very sound and signification of the word perceive that there are mutual Terms and Conditions implied or else it could be no Covenant This therefore being premised we shall the better understand what is that due affection and qualification of mind that is required of him that would enter into this Covenant or what it is whereby he has really entred into it For it is not a mere Historical Faith or Belief of those things that are in the New Testament and an acknowledgment that they all tend to the peace and salvation of man and that he is obliged to live up to the utmost of his power to those holy Precepts that are there conteined but further there is a love and liking of the said Precepts as well as a desire of the enjoiment of the promise of Eternal life and a sincere resolution of endeavoring to live as near as he can according to those Evangelical Rules and a chearfull expectation of Divine assistance that God will enable him by the cooperation of his Holy Spirit to make such due progresses in life and Godliness as shall become an unfeigned professour of Faith in Christ Jesus 2. He that upon the perusal of the Records of the Gospel as they are found in the New Testament or by what other way soever the substance thereof is communicated to him and so upon information of his errours and mistakes whether in opinion or practice is thus affected as we have declared it is manifest that he has already repented him of his sins and errours and is in a real mislike of his former Conversation so far forth as it was unconformable to the mind of Christ. So that the state
shun the breath of such a Seducer as of one that is infected with the pestilence and whose converse is death and the eternal ruin of our very Souls 2. The Second Principle that he is closely to keep to is That I had almost said Omnipotent Faith in God through Christ I mean the belief of the assistance of his holy Spirit to overcome all manner of sin in us For if we keep up duely to this nothing will be able to withstand us but by patience and perseverance we shall be able to beat out Satan out of his strongest holds According to thy faith so be it unto thee is true as well in Christs healing our Souls as in his curing the bodies of the sick when he was upon earth This is a prime branch of that saving Faith and the greatest strength and sustentation we have to keep us from sinking back into sin and from being drown'd and carried away with the flouds of ungodliness If we let this hold go all is gone For they that doe not believe that they have power to resist sin must of necessity give up themselves captives to it And this is that which makes S. Paul so affectionately devout in the behalf of the Ephesians that God would be pleased to give them this special gift of Faith for their strength and corroboration of the inward man chap. 3. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love c. according as I have elswhere rehearsed And in the Doxologie immediately following this prayer of what unconceivable efficacy the operations of the Spirit are in us the Apostle again does intimate in a very high strain Now unto him that is able to doe exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Which words plainly imply that such is the inexhaustible richness of Grace and Assistance from the Spirit of God that the effect of its inward workings in us is for the present not imaginable much less expressible Wherefore our Faith cannot be too great in this supernatural Principle and the greater it is the greater courage and the more speedy and more absolute victory 3. And yet there is still another Principle that will further actuate our Faith and make us still more lively resolute and invincible and that is The Love of Christ which every young Christian is to warme himself with and inflame his courage more and more which he will best do by frequent Meditations upon Christs Passion what shame what sorrow and pain he underwent to gain the love of Souls and so to try them to himself in those sweet and inviolable bands of sincere love and friendship that by this golden chain he may pull them up after him from Earth to Heaven Let therefore our new-Covenanter as often as he reflects upon the exceeding great love of his Saviour and finds his heart begin to grow hot being touch'd with a ray from that celestial Flame that bright Sun of righteousness that now shines at the right hand of God let him be sure to remember what compensation he requires for all that dear affection he has shewn to us The lesson is but short and therefore must not be forgotten If you love me keep my Commandements CHAP. XI 1. The diligent search this new-Covenanter ought to make to finde out whatsoever is corrupt and sinful 2. That the truly regenerate cannot be quiet till all corruption be wrought out 3. The most importunate devotions of a living Christian. 4. The difference betwixt a Son of the Second Covenant and a Slave under the First 5. The Mystical completion of a Prophecy of Esay touching this state 1. THE young Christian being thus armed with Faith and Love and an unwavering sense of his duty in becoming holy even as he that called him is holy he will be then both willing and ready to look his enemies in the face and to seek them out if he cannot at first sight finde them and to pull them out of every hiding-place of Hypocrisy and bring them into the open light and slay them And if after diligent search he can finde none yet he will be so modest as to distrust the measure of his skill and will be earnest in Prayer to God to discover what inward hidden wickedness there may lurk yet in him to the end that the old Leven may be utterly cast out and that there may be nothing left that is contrary to the Scepter of Christ and the Kingdome of God in his heart 2. For indeed it is impossible that one is truely regenerate and has the seed of God and the life of his Spirit actually in him should be quiet till all that which is unholy and corrupt be wrought out But the case is much-what as in the natural body that is sick either death or health will in a competent time possess the body If the morbifick matter be not carried away by sweating purging or some evacuation or other Life it self will be carried away but if that which is contrary to life be remov'd Health must certainly take place 3. And so it is in the Divine life it self when it has taken root and growth whatever is contrary to it is burdensome to it like that tyrannick project of tying the living and the dead together Wherefore the true Christian can never be at ease and rest till he has cast off that heavy load the body of sin the old man that stinks earthily and unsavourly if he be perceived at all and indeed so unsufferably that the divine life and sense in a man cannot endure it Nor can endure to be in a condition so sensless that there should be any of that â—our Leven left and yet there be no perception of it And therefore the most importunate address to the throne of Grace in a living Christian is that God would be pleased to discover whatever ugliness or deformity there is in him in either practise or principle Which God of his mercy does by degrees not all at once that there may not arise overmuch distraction and confusion But if we be not wanting to our selves the work will be accomplish'd in due time and the Kingdom of heaven as well within as without will be as a grain of Mustard-seed The Crisis of the disease will be in a competent time as I said before and our whole man re-enlivened with the Spirit of God and restored to the state of righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost 4. For verily to be quiet upon any other terms but these is not to be a Son of the Second Covenant but a careless