not then the Infant will outlive the State of Infancy and will live and die ungodly and perish in which Case his Baptism will be an everlasting Witness against him it being supposed that his Conscience was privy to it Baptism is a Seal of the Covenant of Grace which Covenant importeth God's Purpose to give Perseverance and Salvation to all the Regenerate and to Regenerate such and so many as he from Eternity foresees will by his Grace and free-Free-gift sincerely believe And yet while Unregenerate they are in a State of Damnation As to Life Temporal and Humane Society on Earth ungodly Men have Power over their own Will and Liberty to act or not to act as themselves list and they can if they will refrain from all Sin outwardly and do all Good outwardly and be blameless before Men. But as to Life Eternal and Heavenly Conversation they have no Power they are dead in Sin under the Power of Satan their Power is Impotency Sin hath Dominion over them they are not Lords but Slaves and lorded over by their Lusts and if God shall not prevent them with his Heavenly Grace it is certain that they will never deserve it Therefore the first step to Salvation is holy Despair thereof by all that we of our selves can do without God's eternal Grace in Christ And look what is First in Divinity that same is Last even All in All. CHAP. XIII Of the Lord's Supper 1. LOok as all in God is God without Parts and Composition So all in the Lord's Supper is the Lord's Supper Considered as a Supper so the whole is visible Food for the Belly eaten and drunk with the Mouth outwardly Considered as the Lord's Supper so the whole is invisible Food for the Soul eaten and drunk with the Heart inwardly There may be the Lord's Supper without saving Belief but not without Belief For he that believeth not makes God a Liar and by Consequence the Sacrament a Lie also 1 Joh. 5.10 2. There is no Change at all of the Elements by Consecration but only Religious Use If the Religious Use of Things do necessarily infer a Change in the Things used then God must needs be changed and then he is not God. We use God's Name religiously and God's Name is God Himself as named by this or that Name Jehovah Lord God. I am the Lord that is my Name Isa 42.8 What Change is by Consecration is in the Communicants not at all in the Elements Consecration importeth in all Godly Communicants a real Heavenly Change as to Conversation Conversion from Sin to God they are new Creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 This heavenly Change they evidence exercise and shew forth at the Lord's Table in religious partaking of the Elements in Remembrance of Christ crucified All Change in the Elements by Consecration is simply repugnant to intellectual Sense in all Men and is therefore simply incredible 3. These Words This is my Body as understood without Christian Faith are false and absurd But as understood through Christian Faith they are indeed mysterious yet Superlatively plain true apt and proper The Lord's Supper is truly a Figure as is Baptism 1 Pet. 3.21 yet not a Verbal and Rhetorical Figure common to Us and Heathens but a Divine Celestial and Mysterious Figure instituted by Christ and not understood without Christian Belief which Heathens have not In Points that concern us as Men in common with all the World Christ spake with the Vulgar and so as to be understood of very Heathens But in Points mysterious and Supernatural as is the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper he spake above the Vulgar and so as not to be understood aright without Faith which Heathens have not Ungodly Communicants considered as Ungodly do not eat Christ's Body but inwardly contemn and shut their Hearts against it And thus their partaking doth differ in kind from the inward partaking of the Godly But Ungodly Communicants considered as Communicants do with their Mouth outwardly eat the Bread which is really and not chimerically yet sacramentally and symbolically the Body of Christ no less than do Godly Communicants outwardly And thus their partaking is the same for kind with the partaking of the Godly 1 Cor. 10.1 2 3 4 5. 4. Unto worthy Communicants the Lord's Supper is the Communion of the Lord's Body and Blood the holy Memorial of his Death heavenly Nourishment for the Soul a sure Pledge Seal Sign and Token of Pardon of Sin Perseverance and Life eternal and a Divine Engagement to Watchfulness and holy Fear of Apostacy No Godly Man doth partake unworthily he may partake not so worthily as some do but the least degree of true Godliness doth produce a degree of worthy communicating differing but in measure and degree from the most Godly Communicants Unto unworthy Communicants the Lord's Supper through their own Sin is a Seal of their Damnation if they die without sound Repentance And in the mean time it layeth a Divine Bond and Engagement upon them instantly to repent If their Repentance by God's eternal Decree be future then the Lord's Supper is a Divine Sign and Seal that it is future If their Repentance be not future then they will die in their Sins and perish and will remember with eternal Self-tormenting Anguish in Hell their partaking without Godly Sincerity Those who contend that Men Unregenerate sin less in not coming than in coming to the Lord's Table do yet expresly grant But yet they that do come unworthily and unwarrantably do find that there which tendeth to their Conversion and frequently effecteth it Mr. B. in his Disputations of Right to Sacraments pag. 31 32. And they who contend that the Unregenerate sin less in coming than in not coming do yet hold and contend that the Persons so come must be adult baptized orthodox and not heretical free from enormous Crimes and Scandals before Men. The bare Elements as distinct from the Word can neither convert nor confirm But the Word as distinct from the Elements and giving being to the whole Sacramental Service may through God's Grace prove effectual for sound Conversion of the Unconverted and certainly will be effectual for building up of the Converted 5. The Flesh and Manhood of Christ is under God the prime instrumental Cause of Life eternal to the Godly in all Ages through Faith As such his Flesh is heavenly Meat and his Blood is heavenly Drink and we through Faith do really and not chimerically spiritually and not corporally eat and drink it What is eaten in that it is eaten must be really present For no Man can eat a thing that is absent There is Relation between the Manhood of Christ and the whole intellectual World as between sole Supream under God and Subjects This Relation is real and not imaginary eternal and not temporal From Eternity it was future and it remains to Eternity by the free Pleasure of God. What is eternal is truly infinite above all Predicaments and consequently above Time and Place
Faith without Works according to St. Paul. Considered as a Reward so it is bestowed upon none but the truly penitent obedient regenerate merciful lovers of God and his Saints and such as by godly Sincerity and heavenly Righteousness through Grace difference themselves from the ungodly and impenitent World and all such do evangelically merit Justification before God for Christ's sake And thus from first to last we are justified before God by Works and not by Faith only according to St. James According to legal merit God deals with all the Devils and Damned he renders to them according to their Deeds exacts from them the last Mite and shews them no Mercy According to Evangelical Merit he deals with the Mâ—â—hood of Christ and with all elect Angels and Men. This kind of Merit is the Image of that transcendent Worth and Merit which is in God the more we have of it we are the more like to God and abound in loving serving and praising God saying Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be all the Glory The more we do for thee the more we are beholden to thee for of thine own it is that we give thee God rewards his own Grace and Righteousness in his Saints and renders to them according to their Deeds CHAP. VII Of Satisfaction for Sin. 1. LEgal Satisfaction for Sin is that of the Devils and Damned who suffer eternally of due desert and thereby make legal compleat Satisfaction and Amends to God for all their own Sins to the last mite God considered as Lawgiver hath no pleasure in the death of the wiched but that he turn from his way and live But if he shall in no instant turn then God considered as the Righteous Judg of all the World hath perfect pleasure in his eternal Damnation as adequate legal Compensation and Amends for his Wickedness in no instant truly turned from Evangelical Satisfaction for Sin is that of all the Elect in Christ by Faith they through his Grace with godly Sorrow unsin and undo all their Sins give Glory to God by a face confession of them with grief hatred and shame execute holy Revenge upon themselves humbly beg pardon freely forgive others renounce all legal Merit lay hold upon the Promise of Eternal Mercy in Christ become new Men sincerely obedient to God and his Glory in the World. Thus doing they please and satisfy God evangelically and render themselves truly worthy in a Gospel-sense of pardon of Sin Justification and Life eternal as promised by God and parchased by Christ and prepared for them before the Foundation of the World. 2. God can in no instant pardon and save Persons in their Sins without Heavenly Repentance and he cannot but pardon and save all those who do in any instant by his Grace and free Gift in Christ though Faith sincerely turn from all their Sins to God and become new Men. And yet he faveth the Penitent and damneth the Impenitent freely and willingly and not against his Will. Like as God is necessarily holy just and good yet freely so 3. Evangelical Repentance considered as evangelical is not Punishment but Priviledg and the sweetest Mercy a Sinner can possibly partake of as being Rep 〈…〉 unto Salvation never to be repented of it is a divine and heavenly thing and the Image of God as he is the perfect hater of all Sin and the just and merciful Avenger of it by renewed Conscience his Aâ—ent in the Breast of Penitent Souls Evangelical Repentance considered as Repeatance is proper Punishment as consisting in penitential Remorse Shame Sorrow Contrition Self-loathing and a sort of Revenge 2 Cor. 7.11 None of this should have been if Sin had not been and all this is irksom and painful to Nature and all pain in a large sense is proper Punishment Therefore Repentance is fitly called Poenitentia importing pain smart and penance for Sin. 4. The Debt which we as Men owe to God is sinless Obedience The Debt which we as Sinners owe to God is Heavenly Repentance and in default thereof Eternal Damnation This Debt Christ neither did nor could pay for neither can a sinless Person repent nor can he suffer eternally All the Elect in Christ through Faith do in their own Persons pay the Debt of Gospel-Repentance and so evangelically punish themselves prevent eternall Punishment save God the labour and obtain perfect and free Remission for Christ's sake and evangelically fulfil the Divine Law Rom. 8.4 But the Impenitent by holding fast their Sins do render them unpardonable and their case incurable Where publick Confassion of Sin is necessary by Divine Law there no Law of Man can dispense with it Where it is not necessary by divine Law there it may not be exacted nor Money by way of Commutation the taking of Money in such case is unrighteous gain 5. Christ was made Sin and a Curse for us he bore our Sins in his own Body upon the Tree and God laid upon him the Iniquities of us all but so that he was altogether sinless God could not hate him nor be displeased with him nor repute him a Sinner nor impute Sin to him nor lay upon him more than Corporal and Temporal Punishment in order to his own eternal Exaltation and Glory at God's Right-hand The Pain endured by him did differ in kind from the Pain of damned Men in Hell and from the Pain of guilty Persons on Earth and was no degree thereof For both these do suffer deservedly for their own Sins but Christ being sinless could not deserve to suffer Indeed his Persecuters and Murderers did repute him a Sinner and imputed grievous Sin to him and God did unsearchably permit their Sin but he did no way will and approve it The Soul of Christ was full of sinless Sorrow and his Body was full of Pain and yet it was all but bodily Suffering his Body being dead his Suffering was at an end The Body by it self cannot suffer at all cannot feel Pain the Soul of Christ being sinless could not suffer spiritually but his Soul suffered in and by his Body in respect of his Body he was crucified and died More than Corporal and Temporal Punishment needed not for all the finally impenitent do against their will satisfy for all their own Sins legally and all the truly penitent do through Faith satisfy God evangelically and obtain perfect Pardon and Salvation as purchased for them through the Corporal and Temporal Suffering of God the Son incarnate crucified in respect of his Body CHAP. VIII Of Faith. 1. FAith as opposed to Sight is the way to Faith as opposed to Deceit As Faith is opposed to Sight so there is no Faith in Heaven there they see face to face As Faith is opposed to Deceit so there is no perfect Faith but in Heaven In Men ungodly is no degree of Heavenly Faith In all godly Men there is a degree of it in some more in some less but short of Perfection in all God
Principal is that by Faith in the Hearts of all the Regenerate in various Degrees and there is no other Special and Principal Divine Revelation since Adam's Fall. Eph. 1.17 and 4.5 2 Cor. 4.13 2 Pet. 1.1 4. Fundamental Truth is not by way of Number but by way of holy Likeness to God who is simply one and simply one is above Number and not reducible to it The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are three truly divers and distinct yet not three by way of Number Order and Dependence common to us and Heathens but by way of unsearchable Diversity not to be understood savingly without Christian Faithâ— which Heathens have not They who hold that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son do not mean that he proceedeth from them as from two Firsts for there cannot possibly be two Firsts in God Rev. 22.13 And they who hold that he proceedeth only from the Father do yet hold that he is by Nature very and eternal God and the Spirit of the Son and that the Son doth from the Father send the Holy Ghost the Comforter This supposed the Difference seems to be but in Word and not in Substance of Matter 5. It is evident from Job 13.7 Heb. 1.1 2 3. and from the Nature of the thing that there is the Person of God. For God is an intelligent Being though infinitely intelligent and increated and every intelligent Being must needs be a Person Gen. 14.21 Jon. 4.11 Numb 31.28 Now they who hold that the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are three distinct Persons do yet hold that they are but one God. And if they who hold that as they are but one God so they are but one Person do yet hold that the Person of God the Father unbegotten and not incarnate as such is not the Person of God the Son begotten and incarnate in my opinion they both hold the same fundamental and necessary Truth and do but differ in Word The common School-Doctrine that in the Trinity there is alius alius but not aliud aliud And in Christ aliud aliud but not alius alius I conceive to be an Errour For aliud aliud must needs mean either Contrariety or Diversity If it mean Contrariety then it is false that there is Contrariety in Christ If it mean Diversity then it is false that there is not Diversicy in the Trinity So the common distinction of the Works of God within God and without God ad intra adextra is certainly an Errour For every Work of God is an effect simply dependent upon his free Pleasure Eph. 1.11 But no dependence can be in God all in God is simply independent And as there cannot be a Creature without a Creator so there cannot possibly be a Work of God without God Joh. 1.3 And look as it is said of his own Will God begat us Jam. 1.18 So equally it may be said of his own Will he made all Things and themfore not of Nothing For God's Will is not nothing but it is the prime Cause and the prime Cause is superlatively material to our Faith. CHAP. XX. Of Sin and particularly of the Sin against the Holy Ghost 1. SIN is the Transgression of the Law the Wages whereof according to legal Justice is eternal Damnation or it is the Undoing of Body and Soul for ever in Hell if God's Grace in Christ prevent not by giving Repentance and Pardon Look as all in God is God so all in Sin is Sin. With respect to human Judicature Sin is an Effect and Man's Will is the true Cause of it With respect to Divine Judicature it is no Esfect and therefore it can have no Cause but all that sin transgress without Cause Psal 25.3 Joh. 15.25 As to human Judicature Sin is an Accident a thing that comes to pass in time and is distinct from Man's natural Substance and is truly evitable As to Divine Judicature it is no Accident For from Eternity it was future it hath Dominion over the Ungodly and as never repented of it abides in the Conscience for ever and breeds the never-dying Worm This cannot be affirmed of an Accident quod subjecto inest quod potest adesse vel abesse absque subjecti Interitu For nothing eternal can be accidental It is one and the same thing which is both Sin and Guilt but not in the same respects Sin as pleasant ungodly Men do naturally love but as Guâ—lt doth intrinsecally go along with Sin and gripe their Conscience and fill them with legal Terrour so they do naturally hate and flee from it They love Sin but not Hell. 2. The Holy Ghost in Scripture is taken two ways either for God the Holy Ghost and so we are baptized in his Name Or for an Effect produced by him Hereof there are two Kinds principal and subservient principal is that Divine and Holy Nature which God doth plant in the Hearts of all the Regenerate in the instant of their Pardon and Justification by Faith. Eph. 1.13 14. The Holy Ghost in this Sense none of those now in Hell did at any time partake of Considered as a subservient Effect so it was eminently poured forth on the Apostles upon the day of Pentecost and was common in that first Age of the Christian Church It consisted in the Gift of Tongues of Healing of casting out of Devils and other miraculous Distributions The Holy Ghost in this Sense many never Regenerate might partake of and afterward totally fall away perish eternally And this for ought I know is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in that much controverted Scripture Heb. 6.4 5 6. compared with Mat. 7.22 23. and 12.24 to 32. Act. 2. and 8.17 and 10.44 45 46. and 19. 2 3 4 5 6. Luk. 10.20 Joh. 7.39 3. The Sin against the Holy Ghost is therefore simply unpardonable because the Person guilty of it is justly forsaken of God given up to a reprobate Sense to final Obduration in Sin and to strong Delusion to believe a Lie and so he cannot but be finally impenitent and incurably graceless It seems to be a Degree of that kind of implacable Enmity against God and his holy Image which is in the Devil himself The Devils believe and tremble they cannot but have an inward Sense and Conviction that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World and the Judg of all both quick and dead and that the Religion contained in the Bible and sincerely professed by Abel Moses Peter Paul and the rest of the Elect in all Ages is the only true Religion And yet being eternally forsaken of God and left to themselves they have no power evangelically to repent they cannot but implacably hate God and his holy Image blaspheme his Truth and pure Religion and endeavour the utter Extinction of it and the eternal Ruin of every Man. 4. I was before a Blasphemer and a Persocuter and Injurious But I obtained Mercy because I did it ignorantly in Vnbelief 1 Tim. 1.13 This implies that had he done it wilfully and knowingly against the inward Belief and Conviction of his Conscience his Case had been very perilous In my Opinion the safest and easiest way to understand what is the Sin against the Holy Ghost is to make the Devil himself the Standard of it Though all ungodly Persons be the Children of the Devil yet as they are not all Atheists Murderers Adulterers Sodomites Perjured Traitors so they are not all guilty of the Sin against the Holy Ghost They who make Conscience of their ways and fear to sin against God may be sure they have not committed this unpardonable Sin. They who have been convinced and perswaded of God's true Religion and have solemnly covenanted and engaged their Souls to God in Christ Jesus and have professed the way of Truth if afterward they shall renounce the true Religion and blaspheme it and persecute the sincere Professourâ— of it and shall suffer themselves to be deluded so as to believe Lies contrary to the true Religion I think the Case of such is very perilous 5. We are to pray for all Men now living and that shall live hereafter but not for those whom we know to have committed the Sin against the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 5.16 For the Rule of Prayer is not God's unsearchable Prescience what will be but God's Law obliging us to love our Neighbour as our selves and in Token thereof to pray for him while there is any Hope Now of all Ungodly Men while in the World there is humaâ— Hope which is a kind of middle State between the Godly in whom is Divine Hope of Salvation and the Damned in Hell and Persons guilty of the Sin against the Holy Ghost of whom there can be no Hope at all As for such as teach that we must pray for all sorts of Men but not for all of every sort pro generibus singulorum sed non pro singulis generûm it seems to be vain deceit Col. 2.8 For bare Generals as distinct from all the Individuals and Particulars is a meer Chimera Christ as Man prayed for all and in this he is our Patern Christ as God the Son incarnate did not pray for all but did omnipotently intercede for those only whose Salvation was future and for none else so as for them In this he is not our Paternbut infinitely above us Joh. 17.9 20. Luk. 23.34 FINIS ERRATA Pag. 6. line 39. read Counterprice P. 22. l. 27. r. Exigencies P. 25. l. 21. r. these P. 27. l. 39. f. Decree r. Graece P. 28. l. 8. r. to P. 29. l. 2. r. indelibly P. 32. l. 2 1. Index P. 34. l. 17. r. principal and. P. 37. l. 26. r. which makes