because they are but parts of a whole Hence it followeth that the hamane Nature was not before it was assumed The second person in the Trinity in assuming it created it and in creating it assumed it he did not create it without but within his person Obj. If the humane nature of Christ hath not a created personally then Christ as man is wore imperfect then other men who are persons Deest personalius non propter defectum sed propter perfectionem Daver in Col. 2.9 Of the personal union Deitas sustentat humanitatem tanquaÌ„ suaÌ„ et propriam et iâ—â—i dat subsistentiam Daven in Col. Ans The humane Nature of Christ is without a created personality not for the defect of any thing requisite unto its perfection but for the addition of the personal union which far excelleth all created excellency it is without a created personality that it may be made partaker of an increated personality The assumption of the humane Nature into the increated subsntence of the second person of the Trinity is the personal union The Word was made flesh and remaining what he was began to be what he was not The Incarnation is the miracle of miracles a document to beleevers a testimony against unbeleevers Isai 7.14 None can declare Christs generation Isai 53.8 Neither can any declare his Incarnation his Name is secret Judg. 13.18 Wonderful Isai 9.6 A name that no man knoweth viz. perfectly but he himself Rev. 19.12 The Trinity is the greatest the Incarnation is the next mysterie And without controversie great is the Mysterie of godliness God was manif st in the flesh c. 1 Tim. 3.16 Concerning God and Christ we may fitly use those words though there spoken in another sence Prov. 30.4 What is his Name and what is his Sons Name if thou canst tell The divine Nature Parkins on the Creed i. e. the increated person supplyed and always supplyeth the place of created personality giving subsistence to the manhood in Christ Mr Perkins yet acknowledging that amongst all the Works of God there cannot be found another example hereof in the world illustrates the subsistence of the humane Nature in the divine by the plant Missel or Misselto which having no root of its own both lives and grows in the stock or body of the Oak or some other tree In that the person of Christ is increated but one and that one person subsisteth in both Natures hence it followeth 1. That Christ though he assumed the nature of man yet the manhood assumed was not a person otherwise there would be two persons in Christ 2. That the Body of Christ the matter whereof was the sanctified Seed of the Virgin Mary was compleatly Organized and inspired with a reasonable Soul from the instant of its conception besides the ordinary course of nature otherwise the divine Nature should have assumed an Embrio not the nature of a man 3. That though Christ be the Son of God by Eternal generation Christus est unus in utraque natura non duo unus et idem sive tempore natus de patre Filius dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et in tempore natus de Virgine Filius hominis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trelcat Jun. lib. 2. loc 4. in respect of the increated proceeding of the second Person from of the first Mat. 16.16 Ioh. 8.42 And the Son of man being born of the Virgin Mary in the fulness of time in respect of his humane Nature Mat. 1.1.18 21 23. yet the person being but one there is but one Son not two Sons 4. That the Virgin Mary is by Elizabeth truly called the Mother of our Lord Luk. 1.43 and by the Ancients Maria a veteribus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dei para appe atur Synop. pur Theol. disp 25. Nata est humana natura ex Maria Virgine ergo et tota persona nata est sc SecunduÌ„ illuÌ„ sui parti Keck Th. lib. 3. c. 2. the bringer forth of God for the humane Nature never subsisting but in the divine in that the humane Nature was born of the Virgin Mary therefore the whole person was born of the Virgin Mary Because that which is true of the part is true of the whole in respect of that part by the communication of Idioms or properties therefore also that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Luk. 1.35 The personal union in respect of the manner of it The Manner of the Personal Union 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub slantialae Tho. p. 3. q 6. Pa. 2. vid. Gâ— Har. cap. 17. Of the Office was without any change of either nature one into another without confusion of one nature with another they remain distinct in themselves and in their properties without division Neither soul nor body did ever subsist in themselves but from the first instant of their Creation they subsisted in the second Person of the Trinity without separation of one nature from another There was no cessation of the Personal Union during the time of Christs death no not whilest his body lay in the grave Lastly It was substantial the substance of the Manhood was united to the substance of the Divine Nature subsisting in the second Person Jesus Christ God-man is as we saw before the greatest of the Essential Works of God that Miracle of miracles such as God never made before nor ever will make the like again Unto this Person God-man Man that in our nature he might suffer for us and God that his sufferings might become effectual unto us thus fitted for the greatest service by the union of both created and increated excellency in him The Father committed the work of Mediation which was readily and freely accepted by the Son thereby undertaking by Bond of Covenant and Virtue of Office the absolute meriting for and application unto the Elect the freedom from all the evil of the curse and the fruition of all the good of the promise Satisfaction and Merit are contained in the Office of Christ formally and Efficacy is contained therein virtually Christ is Mediatour not as man alone nor as God alone but as God-man As God-man he is a Middle-person and consequently a fit Mediatour between God and man Isai 7.14 Matth. 1.23 As God-man he became of no reputation Philp. 2.7 8 9. As God-man he was a Prophet Deut. 18.15 Matth. 11.27 A Priest John 10.17 18. Heb. 4.14 Heb. 7. A King Acts 2.36 Luke 1.33 As God-man he overcame death for us Heb. 2.14 Reconciled us Rom. 5.10 11. Col. 1.21 22. Entered into Heaven for us Heb. 4.14 6.20 c. Therefore he is Mediatour as God-man not as man alone nor as God alone The Lord Jesus took not this honour upon himself but was called thereunto by the Father hence he is said to be preodained 1 Pet. 1.20 fore-appointed Rom. 3.25 Elect of God Isai 42.1 Sanctified of the Father that is set apart to the Office
sand which is by the Sea shore 1 King 4.29 yet Solomons heart compared with Adams innocency or his own Soul now in glory was but a narrow heart Between Pauls Soul in the body and in glory there is as great a disproportion as between a childe and Solomon 1 Cor. 13.11 Prop. 2. The Soul separated dependeth not upon the Body in respect of its operations It dependeth not upon the body for the knowledge either of immaterial or material objects both being present to the Soul either by the essence of things themselves or by their intelligible species or by the Divine essence supplying all species Three things are required to the operation of the understanding 1. An intelligent faculty 2. Light to illustrate the understanding 3 The presence of the object with the understanding whatsoever is understood must be united with and touch the understanding which is done either by the eminent presence of things in the Divine Essence Zanch. de operibus Dei part 3. l. 2. c. 2 so the soul understands in glory or by the formal presence of the very things so the Angels understand themselves and so we as some conceive see the Light or by the similitude or image of the thing commonly called a Species so we understand intelligible objects in this Life The soul whilst it is in the body dependeth not upon any corporcal organ phantasie inward or outward sense as an instrument whereby it understands but as an instrument to represent the object to be understood which representative faculty of the phantasie being performed and that in a more eminent manner either by the Divine Essence it self supplying those Species or by way of infusion of them at or immediately upon the instant of its separation after the manner of the concreated Species of things in Angels or by occasional abstraction of them from objects The soul separated remaineth free to its operations without the use of the body Angels understand material and immaterial objects Angeli cognoscunt materialia per hoc quod sunt in iis per suas spocies intelligibiles The par 1. q. 57. art 1. Piscat praesatin Ezech. by the SPECIES or that which answereth the species of such objects without Corporeal organs In an extasie rapture or trance of which some reckon about five thirty in the Scripture which are spiritual Visions of the soul during that space retiring as it were out of the body or at the least not making any use of the body therein so far is the soul from not understanding at all or from not understanding so well as that it then understandeth best in this life Paul is taken into the third Heaven heareth unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter all which we must needs grant might be done without corporeal organs he himself telling us once and again That whether it was in the body or out of the body he could not tell 2 Cor. 12.2 3. Conimb de de anima l. 3. c. 8. q. 8. art 2. Tollet q. 21. Immaterial Objects may be understood by the soul in the body without corporeal organs or sensible species The soul in its separation from the body undergoeth a privative not a positive change It suffereth a change in respect of its information of the body and operations by the instruments of the body It informed the body before but not now It exerciseth the same operations now that it exercised before though not in the same manner then with but now without the body In the state of glory Tho. 2.2 qu. 175. art 4. Conim de anima l. 3. c. 8. qu. 8 art 3. the soul is free to contemplate materiall objects either in themselves by intelligible and sensible species according to the use of corporeal organs glorified or according to their representation in the Divine Essence As grace doth not destroy but help so glory doth not destroy but perfect nature The soul glorified and reunited to the body at its pleasure useth but dependeth not upon the phantasie for the understanding of material objects Prop. 3. The condition of the body in the state of death prejudiceth not the blessednesse of the soul The soul may be blessed though the body be dead We look too much upon the dead carkass and too little upon the living soul Christs body in the grave interrupts not the happinesse of his soul in Paradise As the body in the grave doth neither good nor evil so it feeleth neither good nor evil It is as if it were not Joseph is not Ger. 42.36 The bodies of the Saints at death cease for ever from sin and from all suffering that is felt there is neither sin nor tear in the grave And from suffering it self at the Resurrection The body is neither sensible of the want of the soul nor doth the soul feel any misse of the body The body is neither sensible of good or evill concerning it self nor concerning the soul the soul though it be not touched with any evill yet it is affected with good concerning the body whilst it looks at it as sown 1 Cor. 15.43 As at rest Isa 57.2 As fallen a sleep 1 Cor. 15.6 As in Covenant with Christ Matth. 22.32 all which phrases are proper to the bodies of the Saints The soul hath no grievance for the absence of the body yet it hath contentation in its Rest and a glad expectation of its future meeting Such is the condition of the body in the grave which yet we must so mind as not forgetting the soul in glory The body is at rest the soul is in blessednesse that the one is at rest hindreth not the blessednesse of the other the body is asleep but the soul putteth forth its perfect operations The body is asleep in the custody of Jesus 1 Cor. 15.18 The soul beholds the face of Jesus Jacobs sleeping body troubleth not his communion with Christ and his Angels Gen. 28. Pauls soul in the third heavens misseth not his body though as may be supposed for the time soul-lesse upon earth 2 Cor. 12.2 The condition of the soul dissolved in the Lord is as it were a blessed rapture lasting from our dissolution to our resurrection though the grave be a land of darkness as darkness it self and of the shadow of death without any order where the Light is as darkness Job 10.22 yet is not that long-home of the body so dark and disorderly as the everlasting home of the soul is light and beautiful The godly soul prepared should be no more afraid of death in regard of the body than of its fall into a kindly sleep after weary labour and as glad of dissolution in respect of it self as of going to be with Christ which is far better Phil. 1.23 Prop. 4. The soul from the instant of its dissolution is freed from all imperfections of sin sorrow and infirmity God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes Rev. 7.17 The spirits of just men
that which none denyeth namely that a Beleever is dead to sin before Marriage-union between Christ and the Soul that is before the act of faith for Marriage-union is not without the act of faith on our part which also is acknowledged by them with whoÌ„ this discours argueth But it doth in no case affirm which must be carefully attended to that we are dead to sin before the grace of faith The death of sin is in order after the grace of faith in Vocation The infusion of faith and grace infers the death of sin the immediate effect thereof as the income of life expelled death in the Shunamites child 2 King 4. The Sum is That before our Marriage union with Christ I mean before in order of nature not in time there is first The grace of faith 1. The death of sin 3. The act of faith and this last according to your own grant before the act of faith is both the grace of faith and the death of sin Before the death of sin is the grace of faith Before the grace of faith nothing that is saving Obj. 2. Matth. 13.44 Selling all is placed before buying But by selling we are to understand parting with sin By buying believing Therefore there is a saving Qualification viz. Selling of all or parting with sin before faith Ans In answer to this Objection it will be convenient First to distinguish the terms viz. selling of all or parting from sin which may be applicable and useful for the resolving of sundry other occasional objections and afterwards speak to the Text. The souls selling of all or parting from sin is either before faith viz. Preparatory or Legal so called not always from the means namely the Law by which such a parting with sin is wrought but also from the state of the soul still continuing under the Law notwithstanding any Gospel-work And it is nothing else but such a measurable conviction of the impotency and unprofitableness of all lusts and carnal confidences which the soul before counted gain as that novv it letteth them all go as loss so far as it ceaseth to live upon them any longer Rom. 11.24 Philip. 3.8 Matth. 18.25 Luke 15.14 17. It is the same in effect with a lost estate This preparatory parting from sin is either external consisting in the conforming of the outward man unto the practise of known duties and the restraint of the outward man from knovvn sin Philip. 3.6 2 Pet. 2.20 Or Internal consisting in the legal restraint of the invvard man from sin for this Restraint being understood savingly and properly is in appearance only but not in truth whether to our selves or others together with such spiritual gifts and enlargements as are wrought by the common Gospel-work of the Spirit Or else the souls parting with sin is after faith viz. saving which is threefold 1. Habitual namely the death of sin or destroying of the body of death Rom. 6.6 Chap. 7.14 which is wrought by the infusion of the Spirit of life in Vocation herein the soul is passive it being the immediate effect thereof as the in-come of life was the expelling of death in the Shunamites child Or as the cessation of darkness is the effect of light coming into the air Here is the cessation of the reign of sin 2. Repentance viz. Evangelical part of which consists in sorrow for sin as sin and aversness from sin as sin in which the soul is active 3. Mortification which is a part of Sanctification wherein the soul is also active The Distinction premised the Text remains to be spoken to vvhich being a parable it is seasonable in the interpretation thereof to make use of that generally received and commanded Rule viz. That the principal Scope is to be attended the Metaphors not to be urged above what is consonant to other Scriptures where the same truth is taught in proper and simple terms Calvin Cartwright Junius Chemnitius Piscator Pareus in their Commentaries upon the place seem not to understand conversion to be the Scope of this Parable but rather that it intends the constancy of such who are already converted in the profession of the truth of the Gospel though they should be called to suffer the loss of all yea of life it self in testimony thereunto But be it supposed That Conversion is the Scope of this Parable and so the main intent thereof to be that the soul must part with all that maketh it preparatorily uncapable of believing before it can believe yet selling of all is to be understood of a preparatory not of a saving selling of all 1. Because Selling preparatorily fully answereth the Scope of the place 2. Because Selling savingly is the act of a living spiritual man vvhich none can be vvithout faith as selling civilly is the act of a natural living man Adde hereunto That it being supposed that by buying vve are to understand the first act of faith wherein the soul is active and by selling all a saving parting with sin which yet with due submission to better Judgements appeareth not to be the true meaning of the place yet even this interpretation concludes only a saving selling of all or parting with sin before the act of faith according to the sence of the distinction and as you may please to see therein which is not the matter here controverted but it doth not conclude any saving selling of all or parting with sin before the grace of faith which is the question The Sum of this Ansvver is The Text in that it is a Parable through our infirmity is the more apt to suffer by a mis-interpretation If it be taken in the first sence according to the Commentators above-mentioned it concerns not the question If taken in the latter sence whether selling of all be interpreted preparatorily or savingly it doth not conclude the question that is It doth in no sence hold forth a saving parting with sin before the grace of faith Obj. 3. Salvation is promised unto hungering thirsting poverty of spirit seeking repentance c. which are qualifications preceding faith therefore salvation may be promised to some qualification before faith Ans All Objections raised from these and the like promises vvhereof there are many in the Scriptures may receive a full answer by the right application of the distinction of qualifications into Preparatory or Legal vvhich go before faith And Saving or Evangelical vvhich follow faith intimated before in the beginning of the Answer to the second Objection Accordingly there is a Poverty Luke 4.18 Revel 3.17 A Hunger Luke 15.14 Isai 65.13 A Thirst Isai 65.13 A Seeking Luke 13.24 A Repentance Mark 1.15 Matth. 27.3 All without faith and in judgement of charity before faith viz preparatory poverty Poenitentia Legalis Poenitentia Evangelica Bucan loc 30. Poenitentia Interna salutaris Poenitentia Externa disciplinaris Spanh Exc. de grâ—â—â— Sect. 32. Sitis totalis indigentiae fruitionis complacentiae partialis Ames Coron Art 5. Recipiscentia
the passive voyce as being received by Christ before he makes mention of himselfe in the active voyce as having actively received Christ Receptie respeciu hominis est vel passiva vel activa Medulla l. 1. c. 26. Upon this Text Doctor Ames grounds that Spiritual and profitable distinction of a double receiving of Christ Passive and Active Passive whereby the Spiritual principle of grace is ingenerated Active proceeding from that ingenerated habit of grace and the operation of God fore-going and exciting thereunto we are received of Christ before we doe receive Christ Christ in working the grace of faith receiveth us by the act of faith we receive him Christ taketh the Soul before the Soul taketh him A third place to the same purpose is Ephes 2.1.5 And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins even when we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ The infusion of the habit of Faith or Grace into the Soul is the quickning of the Soul until then the Soul is dead as a dead body so a dead Soul is passive in respect of its quickning or being made alive That the infusion of saving faith or saving grace is the infusion of Life appeares thus The Spirit of the Command and Promise viz. that infused grace which inclineth us to obey the Command and receive the Promise is Life the Image of God in Adam which consisted in a conformity to the Command was his spiritual life the spirit of Faith is the spirit of the Command 1 Joh. 3.23 this is his Commandement That we should beleeve on the name of his Son Jesus Christ that it is the spirit of the Promise is out of doubt Joh. 3.33 As the Image of God in Adam which consisted in conformity to the command was his Spiritual life so the Image of God created anew in the Soul is life either this is life or what can be life As the spirit of sinne is the spirit of death so by the rule of contraries the spirit of effectual saving grace is Spiritual life He that hath the Sonne hath life 1 Joh. 5.12 But every Beleever hath the Sonne From the nature of the grace of faith receiving of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour being of the essence and form thereof as a natural principle of natural sense motion and action is natural life so a supernatural principle of supernatural sense motion and action is supernatural life But such a Principle is saving faith and each other saving grace No Life-lesse principle can enable the Soul to a Life-act it cannot be reasonably conceived how a Beleever as a Beleever should not be alive The summe is this text holds forth an Active-quickning Christ enlivening a dead passive Soul So from Scripture the Arguments follow First from the supernatural nature of the Habit of saving faith or of the habitual frame of the New Creature In receiving a supernatural Habit Theologi vocant habirum infusum per se quiaper se sua natusra postulat ita non alitèr fieri suarez Meraph Tom. post disp 44. sect 13 n. 6. or Principle the Soul is passive saving faith or the habitual frame of the New Creature is a supernatural Habit or Principle therefore in receiving saving faith or the habitual frame of the New Creature the Soul is passive Supernatural is that which exceeds the power of Nature and is received of the Soul by way of inspiration only as the gift of Prophecy or both by inspiration and infusion as the habits of grace such habits the Schools call Habits infused of themselves their very nature denying them to be otherwise attained either by acts or any created cause whereby they are distinguished from Habits infused by accident such as are the gifts of Tongues and the gifts of healing which though they are ordinarily acquired and gotten by acts of study and practise yet have sometime been infused as in the Apostles time In receiving that supernatural saving habit or principle before which the soul hath received no supernatural saving habit or principle the soul is passive But the grace of saving faith is such a supernatural saving habit or principle received before which the soul hath received no supernatural saving habit or principle Therefore in receiving the supernatural saving habit or principle of faith the soul is passive From the nature of the subject of saving faith which is wholly unable to confer any causative power towards the producing of such an effect In receiving a miraculous impression the soule is passive but the infusion of the habit of faith or principle of life in Vocation or Conversion is a miraculous impression Vocation is a miracle it being no lesse a miracle to raise a soul from spiritual than a body from natural death therefore in receiving the infused habit of faith the soul is passive notwithstanding God oft-times makes such use as he pleaseth of men in working a miraculous effect in them yet because in such works the whole efficiency alwayes flows from God and none from man Men are passive in receiving such miraculous effects or impressions Moses putting his hand into and plucking it out of his bosome Exod. 4.7 Naamans dipping himself seven times in Jordan 2 King 5.14 conferred no more power to the curing of their Leprosie nor the womans touching the hem of Christs garment Mark 5.28 29. to the healing of her issue of blood than if they had done nothing In receiving that saving power to do before which there is no such active saving power the soul is passive we cannot do any thing whilst we are but yet receiving power to do but in receiving the habit of faith we receive that saving power to do before which there is no such active saving-power Therefore in receiving the habit of faith the soul is passive Vocation is compared to Circumcision of the heart Deut. 30.6 to Creation to powring out of the Spirit so is the habit of faith there called Tit. 3.6 to quickning or making alive As therefore the person circumcised was passive in Circumcision the creature in its creation the subject quickned in its vivification and the subject into which precious water is powred is passive in respect of the water powred thereinto So the soul in Vocation which is all these spiritually as being that work wherein the heart is circumcised quickned hath inherent saving grace created in it and powred out into it by the Spirit must needs be passive The contrary tenet makes us in the creation of faith to be our own creators in part An assertion as full of pride as empty of reason it makes us in part authors of our faith a high degree of spiritual facrilege against the glory of Christ and grace of the Gospel Obj. 1. The Soul before and in receiving of grace is active in respect of the use of means therefore not meerly passive Sol. Passive is taken either absolutely for that which is simply passive and
17.2 Luk. 9.31.33 Mar. 9.6 The power of the Body containeth vigor activity strength Dos Agilitatis and aptnesse for the Soul to act by Their vigor shal always last in the flower height and excellence of it always in its most absolute and perfect efficacy that which we read of Moses Deut. 34.7 and which Joshua speaks of himself Chap. 14.11 shal be verified concerning glorified Bodies in a more excellent manner Eliah is as lively and fit for action now as at the first moment of his entring into glory Their activity and aptness to action exceeds what we can wel conceive all the Saints in Heaven are such as Pharaoh enquired after Gen. 47.6 persons of activity Much is the activeness which at times God hath been and is pleased to give to Mortal bodies Eliah the hand of God being upon him runneth and out-runneth Ahabs Charriot making haste as is likely that the rain stopt him not 1 King 18.46 Asael was as light of foot as a wild Roe 2 Sam. 2.18 They in their immortal estate shal be like the Sun in respect of its brightness why not in respect of its motion which the Learned allow to move a Million and one hundred sixty thousand miles in an hour if so swift may be the motion of Natural Bodies how swift the motion of Glorious Bodies shal be we shal know when we come to make use of it Vbivolet Spiritus ibi protinus erit corpus August Haec igitur Dos erit facultatis quod potuerunt facere se movere momento quodcunque quocunque volunt Paraeus in 1 Cor. 15 43. out of the Scripture it appears that Angels in their assumed Bodies have moved very swiftly Elias when departing out of the Disciples sight toward Heaven not by assumption that is by extrinsecal help as in fiery Chariot but by the ascension according to the inherent Principle and vertue of his glorified Body Luke 9. goeth up to the cloud easily and quickly and Christ is quickly out of their sight Act. 1.9 As is their condition so also is their strength Sampson yet in a Mortal body makes no more of Cords about his arms than of Flax burnt with fire takes the doors of the Gate of the City and the two Posts Barre and all and put them upon his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the hil Judg. 16.3 breaks the Wit hs as a thread of Towe is broken when it toucheth the fire ver 9. goeth away with the pin of the Beam and with the Web c. May we not wel conclude that the weakest in glory shal be stronger than Sampson in his great strength the Bodies subjection to the Soul is its exquisite aptness and readiness as an instrument for the Soul to operate by with all dexterity and promptness without all retarding and hinderance The distribution of the Body into Natural Dos Subtilitatis Animal and Spiritual is a distribution of the subject in respect of the Adjuncts concerning the manner of the living of the Body before and after the Resurrection and is as if you should say Here it liveth an Animal life after the manner of Sensitive Creatures maintained by Meat Drink Sleep and the like in the necessary observation whereof a great part of our little time if not neer the one half is spent and from the use whereof Adams body in innocency was not exempt but hereafter the Body shal live after the manner of Spirits having no need or use of these things Jesus said unto them You doe erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God for in the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are as the Angels of God in heaven Mat. 22.29 30. Moses though in a corruptible body liveth without bread whilst he is with God in the Mount Que. Consider 6. Whether the blessedness of the Soul shal be greater after the Resurrection than it was before Ans The blessedness of the Soul is considered either Extensively in regard of the extent thereof reaching unto the Body the glory of the Body being an addition of joy unto the Soul in which sense the Soul may be said to be more blessed after the Resurrection than before Or intensively consisting in the Vision of God Valentia To. 2. p. 1. q. 4. punct 2. which is the Essence of Blessednesse it self In this respect the blessedness of the soul is the same both before and after the Resurrection there being the same principle namely the glorified understanding with the concurrence of the light of glory The same subject viz. The blessed soul the same object viz. God and Christ Blessednesse is either essential which consists in the Beatifical Vision it self or accidental comprehending together with Essenital blessednesse those adjuncts of blessednesse which are both antecedent and consequent to the Resurrection in the latter sense the soul may be said to be more blessed after the Resurrection than before The Essential blessednesse of the soul is the same after the Resurrection with that which was before the Resurrection but the joy of the soul after the Re-union of the body and those Adjuncts of blessednesse which are consequent thereunto will be greater than it was formerly We may distinguish between the blessednesse of the person and the blessednesse of the soul the blessedness of the person which consists both of soul and body shall be greater though the Essential blessedness of the soul be the same The frequent consideration of the state of the blessed is useful many wayes Amongst others 1 To provoke us to labour to be such as may be made meet for this inheritance of the Saints that is in light 2 To endeavour to attain and retain the earnest of the Spirit whence we may alwayes be able to say We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 3 To fill the soul with strong consolation against the sufferings of life and the fear of death 4 To work an answerable conversation That whether absent or present we may so walk as we may be accepted of him 5 To dispose us to a patient waiting for and longing expectation of our change which draweth on apace Here it may not be unworthy the labour to reminde the strong impression which the contemplation of immortality hath left upon the hearts of Heathen Good Authors report of some Indians so affectionately moved with the immortality of the soul separated from the body as that impatient of staying for their dissolution by a natural death they with their own hands built those piles of wood wherein their bodies were to be burned and then behold them set on fire accounting them wisest that dyed soonest The hearers of one Hegesias of Cyrene reading of his Oration touching the state of the soul after death were so taken with it that they looked at death as a thing to be desired Socrates at the point of suffering death
there may be Dissolution Dissolution is the way to not-being It much helps us in the contemplation of the Simplicity of God to look upon it as opposed to Composition all the ways whereof the Learned have referred to these seven Heads Composition is either of 1. Parts which are bounded by quantity as a body having one part upon another 2. Matter and Form as a man of body and soul these two compositions are only found in corporeal things 3. General and special Nature as every species whose common nature is to be found in some other thing where the special nature is not as a living creature and a man 4. Dicimus deum esse bonum justum veracem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creaturam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alsted Metap Part. 1. cap. 23. A Subject and an Accident as every created substance There are no accidents in God he is wise holy just essentially there is not a substance and a quality in him When God is said only to have Immortality 1 Tim. 6.16 it is to be understood by way of Eminency he so hath it as none hath besides him he hath it originally not derivatively and by participation 5. An Act and a Possibility objective that is to be if the thing looked at as yet is not in being or passive that is not to be though that not-being never shall be if the thing be looked at as in actual being this composition holds concerning Angels 6. A Person and Nature as Christ compounded of the divine Person and humane nature which yet is not properly composition of parts but of number 7. Being and Individuation that is that by which we have such a particular Being as humanity and Peter Obj. Where there is a Plurality there is not Simplicity But in the divine Nature there is a Plurality therefore Ans The Objection holds where there is a plurality of Essences Beings or things but not where there is only a plurality of Subsistences In the divine Nature though there be a Trinity therefore a plurality of Subsistences or Persons yet there is but one Essence In the Trinity there is distinction but not composition Obj. 2. The Attribute of Simplicity concludes that all the Attributes are God himself and consequently that there is no inequality amongst them yet we read that his tender mercies are over all his works so as it may seem Mercy exceeds the other Attributes Ans The meaning is that his mercy is over that is upon all his works not that Gods Mercy exceeds all his other Attributes as if one Attribute were greater then another for all the Attributes of God are equal not one higher or greater then another because they are all God himself From the Simplicity of God it followeth 1. That whatsoever is in God is God 2. Whatsoever God willeth he willed from Eternity and always willeth 3. Whatsoever God willeth he willeth simply absolutely and independently 4. God is Justice Wisdom Love c. essentially although he be said to have them eminently yet he hath them not derivatively Eternity is God without beginning without end and without all manner of succession there is nothing past nor to come It was well said of him who unto the question Quid autem sit aeternitas quaerat aliquis Hîc si respondeam per verbum modestiae nescio recta ingenia per se intelligent a byssum esse What was Eternity answered by that word of modesty I know not It is the measure without measure of the duration of God according to our apprehension Three things are requisite thereunto viz. to be without Beginning without End and without all Change An unalterable and independing Duration It is all at once where there is nothing past nor to come A remaining NOW Duration is either increated viz. Eternity proper to God or created viz. Eviternity the duration of the blessed in Glory or Time which is the duration of the corruptible creature Eternity is a Duration consisting of an eternal NOW without beginning and without ending there is nothing past nor to come Eviternity is a Duration having a continuing NOW with a beginning but without ending The duration of Angels and of the Blessed in respect of their persons and substances admit of no instant concerning which it can be said that it is past but in regard of their operations and other accidents their duration admits of succession Time is a successive Duration having a beginning and ending without any remaining NOW Immensity is God present every where neither included in Deus est sphaera cujus centrum est ubique circumferentia nusquam Enter proesenter Deus â—ic â—bique potenter nor excluded from any place or thing Psal 139.7 Isai 60.1 God is a Sphere whose Center is every where the Circumference no where God is no where and God is every where he is no where in that he is not contained any where he is every where in that he containeth all Hence God in respect of his Omnipresence is compared to an infinite Point God is in every place by his Essence as the universal Cause of the Being and operation of all things by his Presence beholding all things and by his Power upholding all things Besides that Omnipresence of God whereby he is always present with all creatures there are certain peculiar ways of his presence with divers creatures In Christ he dwelleth bodily that is personally Col. 2.9 and filleth the Manhood with the Spirit out of measure Iohn 3.34 In the Saints he dwelleth as in his Temple by the presence of his indwelling Spirit the effect of his special grace 1 Cor. 3.16 He is said to dwell in Heaven because it is the place wherein he is pleased to manifest his glory immediately and in most excellent manner unto the blessed God is said to come to us and depart from us not in respect of his universal Presence or change of place but in respect of the degrees of his in-dwelling Spirit assisting grace and other special effects of his favour towards his people The same also holds true in respect of the common effects of the Spirit in regard of others Bodies are in places circumscriptively bounded by their dimensions without penitration Angels are in places definitively that is though they are not bounded by dimensions of height bredth and depth as bodies yet they are not in two places at once whilest they are in this place they are not in another God is in every place always Immutability is God without any alteration in respect of Being Will or any Accidents Psal 102.27 28. Mal. 3.6 Jam. 1.17 With whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning Obj. God might have willed or not willed the being of the creature else he were not free He that may both will and not will is mutable The sum is the liberty and immutability of God seem not to consist together Ans That immutability and liberty consist together Vide Smisin Tr. 2. disp
knoweth all things that can be known by the concreated abilities of Angels or men of it Isai 11.2 It s Principle is a habit infused of God its Medium the light of grace 3. Experimental whereby he knew all things that could be known by practise and rational observation of Events of it Luke 2.52 It s Principle the faculty of Reason it s Medium personal experience Heb. 5.6 And observation of reiterated Events by the light of reason Christ's beatificial knowledge neither admits increase in respect of the habit or act His infused knowledge admitted not increase in respect of Habit though it might in respect of the Act. His experimental knowledge seemeth to have admitted increase both in respect of the Habit and Act. Christ's growth in wisdom is compared to his growth in stature Luke 2.40.52 5. The Right of Divine Adoration Heb. 1.6 Revel 5.8 Yet we are to know that we worship not with divine Worship the Manhood as considered in it self but as being personally united to the Godhead that is We worship the Lord Jesus as God-man 6. Communication of Properties which is a manner of speech whence that that is proper to either nature is not only verbally but really predicated of the Person consisting of or subsisting in both natures The Composition which is of the divine and humane Nature is rather a Composition of Number then of Parts because notwithstanding the real change in the humane nature thereby it is without any change of the divine Nature adding only a relation thereunto Like as it is in the Relative Attributes of God which infer a change in the creature Quod est partis quâ pars id etiam est totius secundam illam partem Keck Log. l. 1. ss 1. c. 25. Tho. p. 3. q. 35 a. 5. Beza in Heb. 2.11 Keck Theol. lib. 3. cap. 2. Keck Log. lib. 2. ss 2. Porro ista praedicatio Homo est Deus Est praedicatio per unionem The. part 3. qu. 16. art 2. Estius lib. 3. dist ◠ss 1. but none in him the divine Nature remaining what it was assumed that which it was not The divine and humane Nature are as it were Parts of the whole Person for the divine Nature is not a part properly that would argue imperfection Now that which is true of a part absolutely is true of the whole in a limited sence i. e. in respect of thar part Thus that which is true of the soul or body must needs be granted to be true of the whole man So we say such a man studieth when it is his soul not his body that studieth such a man eateth when it is his body not his soul that eateth The Communication of Idiomes or Properties taketh place when Christ is spoken of in the Concrete not in the Abstract that is when not one Nature only is intended but the Person with both or either Nature For example sake The Lord of Glory is crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 though it was only the humane not the divine Nature that was crucified God purchased the Church with his own blood Acts 20.28 Here God is taken in a concrete sence signifying the Person together with the divine and humane Nature The Man Christ Jesus is Mediatour 1 Tim. 2.5 The Son of man hath power to forgive sin Matth. 9.6 This Man is God c. The word Man is taken in a concrete sence signifying the person with the humane nature These spreches then proceeding in the Concrete the Communication of Properties is to be attended both which considerations are of great use to help us to understand these and the like Propositions 7. Capableness of the Office of a Mediatour The State wherein the Lord Jesus executed his Office of Mediatourship is either of Humiliation or Exaltation Of the two States wherein Christ performed and still performeth the Office of a Mediatour The State of Humiliation continued from the time of his Incarnation until the time of his Resurrection The State of Exaltation began at his Resurrection and continueth for ever The Degrees of his Exaltation were His Resurrection opposite to his Death His Ascension into Heaven opposite to his Descent into the Grave His sitting at the right hand of the Majesty of God that is in a State of Glory next to the Glory of God himself opposite to his continuing in the grave The Lord Jesus Christ as God-man now sitting at the right hand of God is still fulfilling his Mediatourly Office not in a condition of humiliation as sometimes upon earth but in a manner sutable unto his present State of Glory He exerciseth the Prophetical Part of his Office by sending forth the Ministry of his Word by giving gifts and making the improvement thereof effectual for the calling home and building up of his Elect Matth. 28.18 19 20. Ephes 4.11 12 13. He exerciseth the Priestly Part. 1. By appearing in the Presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 2. By continual presenting unto the Father the Satisfaction and Merit of his perfect obedience performed by him in his state of humiliation for us Rom. 8.34 Heb. 7.25 3. By manifesting his constant will and desire that this his satisfactory and meritorious obedience should be accepted of the Father for us 1 John 2.1 4. By declaring it to be his constant will and desire that the benefit thereof should be effectually applyed unto us Heb. 7.25 Heb. 10.10 He exerciseth the Kingly Part by applying unto his Elect by his Spirit what he revealeth as a Prophet and purchased as a Priest by ruling in his Elect with his Word and Spirit together with defending of them from his and their enemies At the end of the World all enemies being subdued and the Elect perfectly blessed the present temporary manner of the Administration of the Mediatorly Office of Christ by external means whether sacred or civil divine or humane Ordinances and Powers shall cease 1 Cor. 15.24.28 Which notwithstanding Christ shall continue King and Head of the triumphant Church for ever The Lamb is the Light thereof Revel 21.23 Thou art a Priest for ever Psal 110.34 Of his Kingdom shall be no end Luke 1.33 Though the present Form of Christ's Government shall end with the world yet his Government shall not end but together with and subordinately unto the Father he shall govern them by the immediate efficacy of his Spirit without all use of external means Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15.28 CHAP. IV. Of the Decree FOr our better proceeding in the Consideration of this Subject it may be helpful to our understanding that we observe this Method 1. To consider what the Decree is 2. What is the Object of the Decree 3. The Liberty of the Decree i. e. of God decreeing 4. The chief Objections made against it to remove them 5. The Order of propounding it 6. The usefulness of this Doctrine The Decree is
of our transgressing of this holy Law Sin is considered in respect of its nature the kinds of it and the dominion of it Sin is the transgression of the Law 1 John 3.4 The kinds of Sin are three Adams sin Our first Fathers sin Isai 43.27 Original sin 3. Actual sin and that by way of Omission or Commission The Actual Sin of Adam was that transgression of Adam yet standing as a publick person in eating the forbidden fruit This actual sin of Adam is made ours by participation and imputation By Participation Adam being a publick person his Posterity in a seminal respect was contained in his loyns and so sinned in him sinning Liberi sunt purs parentū Adam was not only the Progenitor but the root of mankind Rom. 5.12 as Levi is said to have paid tythes in Abraham Heb. 7.9 By imputation God imputes the legal guilt thereof unto his whole posterity descending from him by way of ordinary generation Rom. 5.18 19. 1 Cor. 15.22 Original Sin which is the hereditary and habitual contrariety and enmity of the Nature of man against the whole Will of God is propagated to the soul by reason of the sin of Adam the meritorious cause thereof and floweth from thence in an unknown manner as a punishment from the offence by the Seed of our next parents as the instrumental cause Sin is derived in the Seed dispositively not effectually Peccatum in semine traducitur dispositivè Tho. 1.2 ae qu. 83. art 1 2 3. Whitak de peccato cri inali l. 1. c. 8. non effectivè Nothing is more known to be preached nothing more secret to be understood then Original Sin that is then the propagation of it Nihil Peccato Originali scil Propagatione ejus ad praedicandum notius nihil ad intelligendum secretius The soul by its contradiction to the body contracts vice as when one falls into the dirt he is defiled and besmeared Anima ex contractione ejus ad corpus contrahit vitium sicut quando quis cadit in lutum faedatur commaculatur God whilest he creates souls doth together therewith justly deprive them of Original righteousness Deus animas dum creat simul justè privat origin li rectitudine Sin passeth from the parents unto posterity neither by the body nor by the soul but by the fault of our parents i. e. our first parents for which God whilest he creates souls doth together therewith justly deprive them of oginal righteousness It was just for God to punish the sin of Adam with such punishment Idem Peccatum transit a parentibus in posteros neque per corpus neque per animam sed per culpam parentum Propter quam Deus animas dum creat simul justè privat originali justiria Justū fuit Deum peccatū Adami tali poe na punire The Offence of the chiefest Good deserved the greatest punishment Vrsin Explic Catech. Part 1. qu. 7. Let justice be done and let the World perish Idem Summi boni Offensio meruit summam poenam Fiat justitia pereat Mundus Actual Sin is the swerving of the act of man either in thought word or deed from the Law of God either by Omission or Commission The Dominion of Sin is that reigning power of concupiscence whence we sin freely necessarily continually and together with its malignity doth notably appear in the irritation of concupiscence by occasion of the Doctrine of the Law But sin taking occasion by the Commandement wrought in me all manner of concupiscence Rom. 7.8 Hence the Law is said to be the strength of sin 1 Cor. 15.56 Because sin by occasion of the restraining command breaketh out the more fiercely From the not-being of this accidental irritating power of the Law in the soul the Apostle denyes the dominion of sin Rom. 6.12 as on the contrary from the being thereof in the soul he implicitely infers the dominion of sin and compares the dominion of the Law in respect of its occasional irritation or provocation of concupiscence unto an hard Husband Rom. 7. beg In this irritation of sin by occasion of the Law the command is only the occasion sin dwelling in us is the cause As the shining of the Sun is the occasion why the dunghil sendeth forth its filthy savour the corruption thereof or putrifaction therein is the cause The prohibition of the Physician is the occasion only the feaver is the cause why the Patient desires drink 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denocat eum qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habetur tenetur stringitur aliqua re ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The higher the dam is the higher the water swelleth yet the dam is only the occasion the abundance and fierceness of the water is the cause of the swelling of the waves 3. The Conviction of Guilt is such a conviction of sin as doth not only argue the sinner to have offended but also bindeth over the offender to punishment according to the Law Guilt is the debt of the offender Suffering punishment in way of satisfaction is the payment of that debt Obligatiopeccatoris ad poenam dicitur relatus Kek. Theol. lib. 2. cap. 7. The curse of the Law-giver is the bonds of the offender keeping the sinner unto judgement as the prisoner is kept until the Assizes Thus the Angels guilty of sin are delivered into everlasting chains of darkness to be reserved unto the judgement of the great Day 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. The truth justice and power of God do not only reserve the sinner in safe custody unto punishment in due time but also execute that punishment in the season thereof 4. The concluding the soul under sin is a judicial dispensation whereby God by the accusation conviction and condemnation of the Law shuts up the soul in the prison of the power and guilt of sin From whence without the mercy of God in Christ there is no escape For God hath concluded or shut them up all in the prison of unbelief that he might have mercy upon all Rom. 11.32 Concluded under sin kept under the Law shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed Gal. 3.22 23. To which prisoners no Law nor man only he whom God hath given as a Covenant unto his people can say Come forth Isai 49.9 The Law could not do it Rom. 8.3 and 3.20 Man is without strength Rom. 5.6 To this purpose you may frequently observe in the Scripture the soul in this condition compared to a prisoner sin unto a prison God unto a Judge See Isai 42.7 and 49.8 9. and 61.1 Luke 4.18 Rom. 11.32 Gal. 3.22 25. To justifie God is to acknowledge 1. God just in case he should punish man for sin That God in the Execution of the Curse doth the sinner no wrong 2. That he doth that which is right he should do wrong unto himself and with reverence so to speak be unjust if he should not execute justice upon
Father so it is impossible there should be faith without an actuall I say not active receiving of Christ As it is a truth That he that hath the Son that is the Person of the Son hath Life so it is a truth That he that hath Life hath the Son because he that hath not the Son hath not Life Joh. 5.12 But every Believer as a Beleever hath Life for it were a strange thing even in notion to suppose a dead Beleever Therefore every Beleever hath the Son He that hath Christ for his Head hath the Person of Christ But every beleever hath Christ for his Head because every beleever is a member of Christ now a member cannot be without a Head therefore every beleever hath the Person of Christ As when God actually makes us his people he actually makes himselfe our God so when the Lord Christ actually makes us his people he makes himself our Lord and Head But in vocation he makes us his people It is a confessed truth that beleevers are not made partakers onely of the gifts of Christ but also of the Person of Christ It holds forth a sweet correspondence with that truth Col. 1.18 That in all things he Christ might have the preheminence that we should not be made partakers of any of his saving gifts before we are made partakers of his Person How shall not he with him give us all things Rom. 8.32 Not any saving thing given from him without the gift of him The soule rests not in saying Vocation is mine Justification is mine Sanctification is mine but in saying Christ is mine Ruth had refreshing in Boaz his kindnesse Ruth 2.14 but not Rest chap. 3.1 untill she had Boaz himself It is a Harlots practice first to have conjugal communion and then to be united and married to the Person But we first must be married to the Person and then have conjugal communion In Vocation we receive Christ in union we are joyned with Christ in the same spiritual third Being by communion we receive from Christ and returne unto Christ now being ours and united unto us By Vocation Christ is in us by union Christ dwelleth in us by communion he communicates the benefits of a Head unto us As we receive the Person of Christ objectively so we receive the Spirit of Christ formally What it is to receive the Spirit of Christ For the soul to receive the Spirit of Christ is for the soul so to be made partaker thereof as to become the formal subject of that universal habitual created frame of inherent saving grace or whole body of renewed saving qualities of which before in the second Particular whereby we are made Evangelically conformable to the revealed will of God This body of renewed saving qualities is infused by the Spirit of grace in receiving whereof the soul is passive as a vessel is a passive receiver of oyl powred thereinto The Arguments concluding the Proposition The habit of faith due Reverence premised to any godly learned that may herein dissent seemeth not to be infused alone before the other habits of saving grace The universal frame of saving grace or of the new creature is infused into the soul at once as one general habit To affirme the presence of faith though but notionally in signo rationis i.e. for a moment of reason though not for a moment of time with the totall absence of all other graces implyeth these improbabilities if not impossibilities 1 It affirmes the Soule under that conception to be dead in part where Christ is for where faith is Christ is as was shewed before but where there is a totall absence of all other graces there the Soule is wholly dead in respect of all the members of the Old man unbelief excepted 2 It affirmes Sin to reigne where Christ is since where faith is Christ is and where many graces are not there the many contrary sins reigne except we should suppose a middle estate of the Soule wherein neither sin nor grace reignes 3 It affirmes the Soule to be both dead and alive at the same instant in eodem momento rationis for this also necessarily followeth in that it is alive in respect of faith and dead in respect of the absence of the life of all other graces and presence of the contrary reigning sins 4 It affirmes also the Old man to be both alive and dead at the same instant dead in respect of unbelief alive in respect of his other members 5 It affirmeth that the Soule is both converted and not converted in the same instant or moment converted because it beleeves not converted because all sinne reignes in it except unbelief Now all contraties being repugnants in Nature are uncapable of meeting together in the same subject in their strength for a moment of reason as well as for a moment of time 6 It affirmes either that the habitual alteration of the Soule in all respects that of its change from unbelief to faith excepted is not conversion which is against reason or else that the Soule is active in respect of this alteration and consequently in respect of so great a part of its conversion which is so farre contrary to the generally received Doctrine of the passiveness of the Soule in conversion The Image of God in Adam a part whereof was his faith in God according to the nature of that Covenan was infused to him at once Faith in Christ was not formally though vertually in the Angels till after the habit of universal obedience but we no where read that justifying faith was in any sense infused into any before the habitual frame of obedience The universal habit as it were of corruption seized upon the Soule at once not first unbeleefe then the principle of universall disobedience why may we not in like manner think the whole frame of inherent saving grace is insused into the Soule at once Grace comes into the Soule as Life into Lazarus dead body infused into and giving life unto every part at once or as Light into the Aire before Dark which is illuminated all at once Obj. 1. If the universall frame of inherent saving Grace the New Creature or whole body of renewed saving qualities be infused into the Soule at once it would thence follow that Sanctification should precede Justification but not so therefore Ans Sanctification may be taken largely or habitually for the universal habitual frame of inherent saving grace or strictly and practically for the exercise of this grace in the latter sense Sanctification followeth Justification because our actions cannot be accepted until our persons be accepted But in the former sense what hinders why Sanctification may not goe before Justification since by Sanctification is understood only the habitual saving grace insused into the Soule together with faith in vocation which the Reasons before argue Vocation precedes Justification Rom. 8.30 't is manifest that this infused grace is sanctifying grace Faith by the Learned and godly Orthodox
is generally affirmed to be a part of Sanctification Sanctification in Scripture is sometimes placed before Justification 1 Pet. 1.2 through sanctification of the Spirit and sprinkling of the blood of Christ i. e. Justification and sometimes before the act of faith 2 Thes 2.13 Obj. 2. Acts 26.18 Wee are said to bee sanctified by faith therefore Sanctification followes faith if so neither can faith be a part of Sanctification nor can Sanctification be together in order of Nature with faith nor can it be before Justification Ans Though Sanctification taken strictly followes Faith we cannot therefore conclude the same of Sanctification taken largely The reason of the mistake of this Text is the omission of the Comma or note of distinction at the word Sanctified which saith Beza seemeth to have deceived Erasmus the putting of the Comma in that place according to the example of the Latine Translators joyns those words by faith to the Verb received and not to the participle sanctified which being done you have the sense as if you read the Verse thus That they may receive by faith in me remission of sins and an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified Vide Calvin Beza in loc This sense is not only agreeable to the analagie of faith but also to the antient Greek Copies which as Beza testifieth are thus pointed Likewise with the sense of the like phrase of Luke the Pen-man hereof And to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified Act. 20.32 This text then rightly understood sheweth the quality of those persons that shal obtaine the inheritance viz. that they are such who are sanctified and the manner how such qualified persons heretofore received remission of sins and hereafter shal receive the inheritance viz. by faith not by workes but of the manner how they came to be sanctified it speakes not at all Calvin doth not obscurely insinuate Sanctification sometimes to be used more generally oft-times more specially and in reference to the more general use thereof hee speakes thus God sanctifieth us by effectual calling of us Quod si istae sunt partes vel effectus Sanctificationis Calvin in 1 Pet. 1.2 aliter hic sanctificatio capitur quam saepe apud Paulum hoc est magis generaliter Sanctificat ergo nos Deus efficaciter nos vocando Chamier maketh Faith a part of Sanctification Faith it selfe saith the same Author elsewhere is by it selfe a part of Sanctification Agamus de Sanctificatione Cham. Tom. 3. lib. 10. c. 3 S 1. lib 22 c. 11. â— 5 primo quidem de perfectione deinde de partibus ejus nempâ— fide operibus Est enim sides ipsa per se pars Sanctificatienâ—s The habit of Faith is not before but a part of our Sanctification Pemble of the nature and properties of grace and faith p. 20. Ames Resp ad Grevinch de praedest c. 1. the habits of Grace are co-equal stemmes of one common root of inherent sanctity Pemble Faith saith Ames is a part of inherent sanctity of the Image of God according to which wee are renewed a member of the new Man Sanctitat is internae inhaerent is inchoatae vel naturae illius cujus participes sumus Divinae partem aliquam esse fidem liquidius est ex Natura imaginis Dei gratiae infusae gratiae gratum facientis virtutis denique Theol. spiritualis quam ut iis quidquam opponatur For there is no man but acknowledgeth Faith it selfe to be a part of our Sanctification Twiss de permiss l. 2. cr 4. Sect. 5. Spanhem exercit de grat universali Annot. in S. 13. Doct. Twisse Nam fidem ipsam Sanctificationis nostrae partem esse nemo non agnoscit Sanctification is taken strictly as it is distinguished from internal vocation or in its Latitude whereof that is of Sanctification in its Latitude Faith cannot be denied to bee an effect Spanhemius Quae verò à nobis de Sanctificatione dicta fuêre de Sanctificatione strictè ex usu Scholarum sie dicta prout à vocatione interna distinguitur intelligenda sunt sed de Sanctificatione sumpta in sua Latitudine cujus fidem effectum esse negari nequit c. Fides est primus acius primus fructus spiritus Sanctificantis The infused habit of Sanctification Rhetorf Survey of Antinomianisme c. 60. by order of Nature goeth before Justification Rhetorf As the affirmative is no way prejudicial to the analogy of faith tendeth to the exalting of Christ the abasing of man making the Soule not only passive in the receiving of faith but in the receiving the habits of all saving grace that is in respect of their whole conversion nor only of part thereof so there appeares no concluding reason for the contrary CHAP. XII The Soule is passive in Vocation FOr the clearing and confirming of this Proposition seven things are to be considered 1 What Vocation is 2 What it is for the Soule to be passive 3 What the Habit of Faith or any other Grace is 4 What the second act Life-operation or exercise of Faith or any other Grace commonly called the act is 5 The just distinction between the Habit and the second Act or exercise of Grace which is carefully to be observed 6 That the habit of Faith which also holds in any other Grace precedes the second Act or exercise thereof 7 That in receiving the habit the Soule is passive What Vocation is Vocation is the infusion of a principle of Life or as some speake of the solitary habit of Faith Vocation what in whose sense this Proposition also stands good and untouched by the Spirit into the lost Soule in measure sensible of its inability and enmity to beleeve repent or doe any good by the meanes of and together with the external call of the Gospel in which worke the Soule notwithstanding any preparatory worke is meerly passive i. e. a meere passive receiver This gracious and saving work of the Spirit infusing life into the Soule is called Vocation by a Metonymie i. e. a Figure naming the work it selfe by the name of the instrument and external meanes by which the Spirit works it What it is for the Soule to be passive What it is for the Soule to be passive Passivenesse or suffering is either Perfecting tending to the good and perfection of the subject so the Creature which before was nothing suffered in receiving its being the Life-lesse body of Adam when it was made alive the Soule of Nebuchadnezzar when his reason returned to him Or Corruptive Passio Perfectiva Corruptiva Keck Phys lib. 3. c. 16. tending to the hurt and destruction of the subject so the Creature suffers in being made subject to vanity the body of Adam putrifying in the grave and the Soul of Nebuchadnezzar when it was depriv'd of reason The passivenesse of the Soule is the obediential subjection of a Soule Ministerially prepared wherein being unable to act it
only receiveth the impression of the Agent The Will in respect of this first reception of Grace hath neither the nature of a free Agent nor of a natural Patient but of an obediential subjection Obediential subjection is that capacity in the subject to receive an impression from the agent whereby as it remaines without ability in itself to put forth any causal vertue in order to such an effect so neither hath it any such repugnancy or contradiction in its nature whereby it is rendred uncapable of being made partaker of such an impression or effect by the power of a supernatural cause Briefly Impossibile Naturâ Naturae there is in such a subject in order to such an effect an impossibility by Nature but not to Nature i. e. an impossibility in respect of its owne power but a possibility in respect to a supernatural power this was the condition of those bones Ezek. 37. in respect of Life though there was in them a simple impossibility to live of themselves yet there was no impossibility but that they might be made alive by the power of God Power to receive a new forme is either Natural or Obediential Natural is in the thing or matter that is changed as in the seed of an Herb there is power to become an Herb Obediential power of a subject to receive a new forme puts not any causal power in the thing or matter to be changed all such power is without it viz. in the efficient there is only a power of reception in the thing or matter all power of causality being without the thing in the efficient So stones are in an obediential power to become men that is there is in them a subjection to become Men but all causality whence they doe become men is without them and in the efficient thereof namely God Obediential subjection is a capacity in the Creature to receive the impression of the first cause For the Soule then to be passive in the work of Vocation is for the Soule to receive the first saving grace and supernatural effect of the Spirit of Christ so as the Soule it selfe in this work is no way active from any such principle of activity as is of any power to produce such an effect no more than there is in a dead man to produce life Tho. 1 â—ae qu. 111. Art 2. in this worke the will is only moved of God but moveth not it selfe The Soule in this passive reception acteth not only it receiveth the impression of the Agent as Adams body was a passive receiver of Life inspired by God thereinto Gen. 2.17 formed and organized but yet life-lesse and breathlesse so were those bones Ezek. 37.8.10 and the body of the Shunamites childe 2 King 4.34 Hence the infusing of life into the Soule is compared to quickning of the dead Ephes 2. As a vessel is a passive receiver of the liquor poured into it the Soule is compared unto a vessel Rom. 9.21.23 and 2 Tim. 2.20 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And not only in the application of justifying grace is the love of God said to be poured out abundantly in our hearts Rom. 5.5 but also the creating of inherent grace in the Soule by the Spirit is compared to the infusion or pouring out of precious liquor thereinto God in effectual Vocation makes us vessels of honour In Vocation notwithstanding all preparatory work life is wrought by the quickning active Spirit of Christ Vocare est facere vas in honorem August Epist 105. Twiss vind grat l. 1. par 1. digr 8. S. 4. What the habit of faith or any other grace is in a dead passive Soule What the habit of faith or of any other saving grace is The habit of saving grave in general is an inherent and permanent frame of saving qualities infused into the Soule The habit of faith in particular is an inherent and permanent quality whereby Christ is received infused into the Soule by the Spirit in respect of which the Soule is only a meer passive subject and not any way an efficient The same habitual grace in several respects hath divers names Being considered as a potent quality that is such a quality as is predominant in the subject where it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non est ad malum qua tale coron Artic. quart de conversione and enabling the Soule through the concurrence of assisting grace to all duties and above all oppositions it is called a power Being considered as a causative quality that is such a quality as is not only first but hath the nature of a cause unto the consequent second acts following from thence it is called a Principle Being considered as an infused inherent and permanent quality disposing the subject to the second acts it is called a Habit. What the second act What the second act Life-operation or c. Life-operation or exercise of faith or of any other grace commonly called the Act is The exercise of faith or of any other saving grace is a Life-operation flowing from the infused power principle or habit through the help of the antecedaneous concurrence of assisting grace in respect of which the beleever is not only a subject but also an efficient co-working cause The just distinction between the habit The just distinction between the habit c. and the second act or exercise of grace is carefully to be observed The supernatural power principle or habit for all those termes mean the same thing is the first act the Life-operation is the second act The habit is the grace it selfe Pemble of grace and faith p. 84 or the nature of grace the Life-operation or Life-act is the exercise of grace The habit is conversion in the first act the Life-operation or Life-act is conversion in the second act The habit is actually or an active principle existing without its causes the Life-act is action The habit is an immanent act i. e. such an act as is inward and abideth The Life-act is a transient act that is such an act as passeth away The habit is the will it self the Life-act is the volition The habit is the inclining of the soule to the object of its action the Life-act is the union of the soule with the object In the infusion of the habit the soule acteth not but is onely acted Haminis vero primtsm passio quòa trahitur à patre deinde act io quòu tractus venit ad Christum Jun. de nat grat collat 11. l. 57. In the Life-act the soule being acted acteth The habit God worketh without us the Life-act God worketh with us In the habit of faith is the being of faith it self the Life-act of saith is the working of this grace now wrought The infusion of the habit is effectuall vocation The Life-act of faith is our answer unto the call of God Effectual vocation is called the drawing of the Father Joh. 6.44 our being taught of God our
in no respect active so the soul is not passive God doth not work savingly upon us as upon stocks or senselesse creatures or it is taken respectively for that which notwithstanding in some sense it be active yet in some it is passive the soule is passive in this latter sense it is active in respect of the use of means it is passive in respect of any saving efficacie by the use of means Sarah was active in respect of the use of means yet passive in conceiving by the use of means Rom. 4.19 Heb. 11.11 12. the Shunamites childe notwithstanding any natural heat and radical humor yet remaining in its dead body was passive in regard of the re-infusion of the reasonable soule 2 King 4.34 notwithstanding the noyse of the bones there coming together bone to his bone the sinewes and flesh coming upon them and the skin covering them yet those breathleffe bodies remaine passive in respect of life Ezek. 37.7 8. Though there be difference between Gods manner of working upon them who are dead spiritually Quamvis igitur discrimen sit inter modum agendi cum spiritualiter corporaliter mortuos in via ad vivificationem nihil tamen in eo reperiri potest quod in illis quam in istis effectum à Deominus absolutè pendere facit Coron artic 4 c. 4. and upon those who are dead corporally yet there can nothing be found which makes the effect of life lesse absolutely to depend upon God in those than in these We on the one hand against the Enthusiasts affirm not onely the power to use but the duty of using the means and on the other hand against the Arminians deny that man before grace can do any thing having the power of a cause so far forth as cometh from them in order to Life because we are reasonable creatures God proceeds with us in the use of means because we are dead creatures in respect of the efficacy of the means we depend wholly and absolutely upon God Obj. 2. Where there is a Physical or Natural motion of the will there the soul is not meerly passive but In Vocation or receiving the habit of grace there is a Physical motion of the will because there is a gracious motion which necessarily presupposeth a Physical motion Therefore in Vocation the soul is not meerly passive Sol. In the motion or act of the will in Vocation we must distinguish between the Physical or pure natural act of the will and the graciousnesse of that Physical act the soul is active in respect of the Physicall act Velle nob is est bene vesse à Deo Willer Syn. cent 4. error 33. but in respect of the graciousnesse of that Physical act the soul is meerly passive To will is in our own power to will as we should is of God Obj. 3. Conversion the same with Vocation is a Life-act to affirm the soule to be meerly passive in a Life-act were a contradiction therefore the soule in Vocation is not meerly passive Answ Conversion is taken in a double sense either for the immediate work of God infusing a principle of life Suffrag Brit. Thes 1. 2. and so regenerating the soule this is properly Vocation and in it the soul is passive or for the Life-act of faith c. whereby man being now converted converteth himselfe unto God Conversion in this second notion according to which the objection onely holds is not the same with Vocation it selfe but the answer of the soule to its call or some other action of saving grace So by Arguments the Authorities follow The will of man in Conversion Luth. cent 16. l. 8. c. 8. p. 899 is purely passive Luther Voluntas hominis in convevsione habet se merè passivè For faìth in respect of justification is a meer passive thing Calv. instit lib. 3. c. 14. Calvin Fides enim quoad justificationem est res merè passiva Truly man is dead Zdnch. Epist l. 1.94 and wanteth all sense and motion wherefore he can do nothing towards the making of himself alive Zanchy Homo certè mortuus omni sensu motuque caret quare ad sui vivificationem nihil praestat nihil agit In Regeneration we do not work together with God Beza thes theol c. 15. but are meerly passive Beza In Regeneratione non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deo sed merè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habemus For we are all dead to sin Bucan loc 18 10. but he that is dead is no otherwise than passive to his being made alive Bucanus Sumus enim omnes mortui in peccatis mortuus autem ad vivifieationem non nisi passivè se habet In the beginning of Conversion Perkins of Gods Free Grace and mans free will p. 737. that is in the setting or imprinting of the new qualities and inclinations in the mind will and affections of the heart we are meerly passive not active Perkins Unto that work of Regeneration which noteth the immediate work of God regenerating man Suffrage Brit. art 3 4. man is passive Suffrage of the Britain Divines Ad hoc ipsum opus regenerationis quo denotat immediatum opus Dei hominem regenerantis habet se homo passivè Before Regeneration man is meerly passive Keck Theol. 8. cap. ult unto special good Kockerman Post Lapsum ante regenerationem ad speciale bonum merè passive home se habet In respect of goodnesse inspired into our minds Willet Synop. err 46. p. 958 idem n. 35. our wils are altogether passive the freedome then of the will is the work and the effect of Grace ergo it is passive Willet The Free-will of a naturall man in respect of Gods working upon him is in some fort after the maner of a subject passively Leiden Divines Liberum naturalis hominis arbitrium habet se respectu Dei agentis Synop. pur Theol. Disp 17. ad modum quadantenus naturae subjecti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 possivè In the application of the first grace man doth not act but suffers Ames In applicatione gratiae primae Ames de trapeccat ad vitam non agit homo sed patitur Our Churches conspire with Luther in that Article namely that in our first conversion we are meerly passive Dr. Twisse Nostrae Ecclesiae conspirant cum Luthero in isto articulo Twiss de errat 204. quod sc in prima nostri ad Deum conversione habeamus nos merè passivè In effectual calling man is altogether passive Assembly at Westminster being quickned and renewed by the holy Spirit he is thereby enabled to answer this call This Doctrine of the passivenesse of the soul in Vocation is a fundamental truth holding forth the Spirit of Christ in a way of special grace to be not onely the adequate but also the sole efficient cause of faith And therefore Free-will in a man yet without Christ partaker of what common grace soever can do
nothing of any causal vertue towards the working thereof Contrary to the Doctrine of the Arminians teaching that Christ and Free-will are partial causes of Conversion No otherwise than as a Boy drawing of the ship with his father is a cause of the motion thereof whence according unto them like as Free-will without the grace of Christ is insufficient so the grace of Christ without the co-working of Free-will sufficeth not to the working of the grace of faith in the soul A Teret empty of Reason and full of pride making us in part our own Creators in respect of saving grace the most excellent creature a Tenet repugnant to the grace of the Gospel making us sharers with Christ in the work of Vocation the glory of the alone working whereof by vertue of his special grace is one of the Crown-Jewels of the Lord Jesus a Tenet fundamentally perillous unto souls directly tending to make them rest in a false Conversion and so without a new work fall short for ever of falvation Vocation Peter Mart. in Rom. 7. v. 4 Regeneratio fit in instanti Ames coron art 4. c. 4. Polon Syntag. Conversion or Regeneration is wrought in an instant God in saying Live makes alive In this respect it is in the first as it shall be in the second Resurrection In a moment in the twinkling of an eye whilst God speaks the word the dead shall rise Because Vocation or the infusion of Life is the introduction of a form which is done in an instant The form consists in an indivisibility it is an indivisible thing t is not infused successively Et quemadmodum in Christum credere non est motus successivus sed instantaneus ita insitio nostra in Christum non est motus successivus sed mutatio instantanea Twiss vind grat l. 3. errat 8. Sect. 1. Spanhem de grat vin resp ad exot. 28. n. 4. or by parts as natural life so spiritual life consists in an indivisibility i. e. it hath its being all at once and is uncapable of division into parts Because Vocation inferreth an essential change in the subject There is a change in a subject or of a subject change in a subject is either of quantity or quality this is called an accidental change Change of a subject is an essential change which in natural things is called Generation in spiritual Regeneration Now that every essential change whether Physical i. e. natural or spiritual is in a moment is thus evident Generation is taken improperly for the way and preparation or previous alteration which tendeth to the essence i. e. the union of the form with the matter so we say the Infant in the womb is generating some certain months space this is an accidental change or properly for the essential change viz. the introduction of the form so the Infant is generated in a moment after that the matter is now sufficiently altered and prepared to receive the form An essential mutation that is the mutation or change of the subject both in Nature and Divinity is wrought in an instant because it is rather the determination of a motion than the motion it self As Generation properly taken is a passive mutation of a natural body whence from the union of the form with the matter the body beginneth to be that which it was not So Regeneration is a passive mutation of an elect soul whence by reason of the union of grace with the soul the person beginneth to be that which he was not In that Generation is the acquiring of a new and corruption is the laying down of an old form therefore generation and corruption cannot be effected divisibly and successively or gradually otherwise it would follow that in the same thing and in the same instant there were either no form or two forms i. e. that some one thing were nothing or two things In the moment of Conversion God works that blessed work which shall never be undone that is wrought in an instant which shall remain for ever CHAP. XIII Of the Vnion of the Belcever with Christ FOr the better proceeding herein let us 1 Shew out of the Scripture That there is an Union between Christ and the Beleever 2 Consider what this Union is 3 The order of Union 4 The necessity of Union in order to Communion 5 The order of the dependence of Communion upon Union 6 The excellency of this Communion Of all other Unions three are most eminent the Union of the three Persons in one Essence this is the Mystery of all mysteries The Union of the two Natures in one person in Christ this is a great mystery 1 Tim. 3.15 The Union of a Beleever with Christ and in him with God This is a Mystery Eph. 5.32 The Union of the Mediator with the Father who as God is one with him both in respect of Essence I and my Father are one Joh. 10.30 and in respect of will Whatsoever the Father doth that doth the Son likewise Joh. 5.19 And as man is one with him in respect of their agreement as concerning the thing willed Not as I will but as thou will Mat. 26.39 is the example and pattern of Beleevers Union with Christ and in him one with other Joh. 17.11 That they may be one as we are one and verse 21. that they may all be one as thou Father artin me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Of this mystical Union between Christ and beleevers we read often in the Scripture sometime in proper and plain termes That they may be one as we are Joh. 17.11 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 Sometimes in elegant and lively Metaphors first of a Vine and branches Joh. 15.1 2. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman Every branch c. 2 Of Implantation Rom. 6.5 For if we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death we shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection Christ here is represented under the similitude of a Plant for as a Plant that is set into the earth seemeth to lye dead and is unmoveable for a time but after springs up and flourisheth so as other Plants sprout forth grow up and are nourished thereby as we see in Ivie and Misselto So Christs body lay dead in the grave for a while but afterward sprung up and re-flourished in his Resurrection as that Plant of renown with whom we being planted together grow up by his grace 3 Of Ingrafting Rom. 11.17 19 23 24. where Christ is tacitly compared unto the Stock the beleever unto the Graft or Cyon for notwithstanding Abraham be the instrumental root good Olive tree and stock there expresly spoken of in whom his seed that is all beleevers for he is called the Father of all that beleeve Rom. 4.11.16 both the Nation of the Jewes first then the Gentiles and then the Jewes againe for the promise sake made unto him Gen.
Church For thy Maker is thy Husband the Lord of Hosts is his name and the Redeemer the holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shal he be called Isa 54.5 Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken neither shall thy Land any more be termed desolate but thou shalt bee called Hephzi-bah and thy Land Beulah for the Lord delighteth in thee and thy Land shall be married Isa 62.4 The fourth is the state of glory And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me Joh. 17.22 23. Touching the bands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Commissurae vocantur ea omnia quae nos Christo devinciunt ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tango per has commissuras Christus tangit nos nos Christum tangimus see Exod 12.22 Heb. or tyes which hold the Head and Body together so as Christ and the Beleever doe thereby in this union touch one another for so the word turned Bands Col. 2.19 implieth we are to know that according as the third beings or tertiums differ whereinto Christ and a Beleever are united so the bands differ whereby they are united thus If Sameness of spirit be the third being then God in Christ giving his Spirit in a word of grace on the one part and the Soul receiving passively that Spirit of grace as an empty vessel receiveth oyl on the other part are the bands of union When the body mysticall is looked at as that third being then Christ in the gift of the grace of faith giving himselfe as our God actually is the band on his part and either the Souls receiving of Christ actually in its passive receipt of faith or actively by the act of faith is respectively the band on our part When we look at this union Christus suum consensum nobis efficacitèr patefacit suum Spiritum in corda nostra infundendo per hunc enim efficit ut sentiamus eum revera velle idque ex patris etiam voluntate nostrum esse sponsum eòque caput 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrum Zanch. in Eph. cap. 5. Th. 3. in the third being of a Spiritual Marriage-estate the consent of Christ manifested by his infusion of his Spirit is the band on his part and the act of faith drawn forth by the power of assisting grace whereby we receive and take Christ as our Husband is the band on our part Lastly If we consider this union in the third being of a state of glory Christ giving glory is the band on his part our receiving whether passively or actively may respectively bee looked at as the band on our part The just observation of these several kinds of Union may haply be of use to reconcile that tenet which affirmeth Union to be by the habit of faith with that tenet ordinarily held forth in the writing of the Orthodox affirming Union to be by the Spirit and Faith understanding by faith the act of faith The first kinde of union is by the Habit not by the Act the second may be looked at as being by both either Habit or Act the third is by the Act not by the Habit. That proposition of frequent use among Divines sc Union is by the Spirit and faith that is by the Spirit on Christs part and Faith on our part Zauch in Eph. 5. de unione quaest 4. is to be understood of the third kind of union Touching the manner of this Union wherein Christ and the Beleever are united we may not unprofitably consider it First negatively Secondly positively Negatively it is not essential such as is the union of the three Persons in one essence in God Nor personal such as is the union of the Divine and Human nature in one and that an increated person in Christ Not natural whether essential as is the union of the form with the matter or by Local contact i. e. natural touching one of another as water is united to the vessel or by mixture as water is united to Hony or by the coupling together of a common and special nature as the Genus is united to the Species or by Cohesion as when one part of the body cohereth with another or by Adhesion as when Pitch cleaveth to our hands or by Inhesion as an accident inhereth in the subject or any other whatsoever 't is not civil as is the union of many persons into one body Politique Secondly Positively 't is a Spiritual and a Mystical union therefore the whole into which these Members are united is called a Mystical body This Spiritual union in respect of the verity thereof is real in respect of the things united 't is substantial in respect of its way or manner 't is supernatural and secret in respect of the neernesse of it 't is close and intimate 'T is a true not an imaginary union 't is sayed to be real or substantial in respect of the things that are united viz. the substance of Christ and the substance of the Beleever In this union we doe not receive the species or likenesse of Christ as the understanding receiveth the species of the Object but not the Object it selfe not are we thereby made partakers of the Spirit of Christ alone and not of himselfe but we are made partakers of both the very person of Christ and the person of the Beleever are as we saw before united together as the person of the Husband and the person of the Wife notwithstanding Local distance are united together From the neernesse of the union between Christ and his Members the body Mystical is called by the name of Christ Christ is considered either Personally in himselfe or Collectively together with the Church which is his Body so both Head and Members are required to make one Christ that is Christ not Personal but Mystical in which latter sense the Scripture calleth the Head and Body taken together by the name of Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so is Christ Gal. 3.16 And to thy seed which is Christ that is all his Mystical body Hence the sufferings of Paul and of other Beleevers which we must yet remember were edificatory not satisfactory in way of edification not in way of satisfaction are called the sufferings of Christ Col. 1.24 The end of union is an everlasting and satisfactory communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nempe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the order of Union 1 Cor. 1.9 to the glory of God in Christ the good of the whole Mystical body and our own happinesse Union in order of nature though not in order of time followeth Vocation which appeareth by the considering of a being or essence Oneness and Union distinctly A being or essence is the thing
it selfe Oneness is an affection immediatly flowing from the meer being of a thing whereby it is individed in it selfe and divided from all other beings or things Union is the conjunction of two ones or more into a third being for example sake Ens unum unio take a man consisting of Body and Soul the Soul first hath a being then this singular being and not another then it is united unto the body in a third being namely the person of a man the like is true of the body In Vocation we receive our being in Union is the manner of our being In Vocation we are made Beleevers in Union is considered the order between Christ and Beleevers In Vocation is the foundation of our union in Union is the relation built upon that foundation Inter illa quae convertuntur secundum essendi consequentiam illud est prius quod habet rationem subjecti Alsted Metaph. par 1. cap. 25. In Vocation is the spirit of grace infused in Union this infused spirit is made an in-dwelling spirit Without Union there can be no Communion This necessarily pre-supposeth that things cannot act one upon another that doe not reach one the other they cannot give and take one from another that doe not some way meet together yet here we must know that the contact or mutual touch of things is not alwayes Local when their substances or Bodies doe immediatly touch one another but often-times vertual only when notwithstanding they doe not immediately touch one the other yet they reach one the other in their efficacy Instances whereof we have many in Natural causes as the Loadstone and Iron separated in place yet act one upon another that by attracting this by following In Political matters persons though distant in place one from another yet exercise civil communion in the affairs of this life In Spiritual things as namely in the Sacrament the Body and Blood of Christ is united to the Elements vertually that is by vertue of Divine institution and promise not Locally to deny that were to deny the Sacrament to be a Sacrament to say the last were to affirm Ubiquity whether Transubstantiation with the Papists or Consubstantiation with the Lutherans So here the Person of Christ who in respect of his Body is in Heaven and the persons of his Militant members who in respect both of Souls and Bodies are upon the earth are united to and doe Spiritually touch one another I am the Vine yee are the Branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me yee can doe nothing Joh. 15.5 For the better discerning the order of the dependence of Communion upon Union The order of the dependence of Communion upon Union from whence it floweth we may consider in Union as is also to be done in other relations these foure particulars First The subject of the Relation the person of Christ and the person of the Beleever Secondly The foundation of it on Christs part the Divine institution absolutely considered on our part faith considered only as an infused saving quality in the Soul Thirdly A mutual reference on Christs part superadding a respect to Divine institution whereby according to the appointment of God he looks at the Beleever as his Member superadding also on the Beleevers part a respect unto faith whereby faith which in it selfe is but a quality hath now adhering to it an order to its object whence it looks at Christ as its head In relatis spectanda Subjectum Fundamentum Mutuus ordo Efficacia This mutual order between Christ and the Beleever is the relation it selfe Fourthly The efficacie of the relation The efficacie of a Relation springeth from its foundation the foundation then of this being firstly the absolute grace of God in election and thence flowing downe in the Promise according to the merit of Christ by the effectual operation of the Spirit Needs must the River of life be full ever-flowing Tametsi relatis est ens debilis entitatis tamen est magnae efficaciae and quickning that ariseth from and is mantained by such fountains the influence of the Occan into water-springs of the Sun and Heaven into inferior bodies is not to be compared thereunto Next to the increated Communion of the Trinity in the Divine Essence and the communicated influence from the Divine nature to the Man-hood is the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ unto the members of his mystical body And thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of Life In thy light we shall see light Psal 36.8 9. As the union between Christ and the soul The excellency of this communion flowing from union so the communion flowing from this union is mystical a glimpse of whose excellency as it readily shineth forth in this place in respect of the subject object and nature thereof so cannot but be of precious and vigorous use to the serious and spiritual Reader as he passeth along The subject thereof is the Catholick Church or body of Christ The Mystical body of Christ is a spiritual Totum The my stical body of Christ what or Whole consisting of the Person of Christ and all the persons of the Elect effectually called both Angels and Men orderly united by the Spirit unto Christ as their Head and in him one unto another after the manner of the body of a man So as from him is supplied grace suitable to their seveveral relations therein for the effectual and perfect communion both of all the members with the Head and of themselves one with another unto the increasing it self with the increase of God The Militant part of the Mystical body of Christ consisting both of Jews and Gentiles make one new man Eph. 2.15 The Mystical body Triumphant is compared to one perfect man Eph. 4.13 Christus omnia ejus membra constituunt unam personam my sticam Tho. quaest disp de gr ch art 7. ad 11. Davenan Coloss 1.24 Christ and all his members are one Mystical Person This innumerable number as they are but one mystical body so they all have but one soul viz. The Spirit of Christ whence they are united in this life sincerely in the life to come perfectly In point of judgement Eph. 4.13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God c. In point of affection 1 Cor. 12.12 Of perfect communion Joh. 17.22 23. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Stay yet a little and look upon this spiritual and glorious body walk about Christ mystical go round about him tell the Members mark ye well the
then a sinner and before a Blasphemer a Persecutor and injurious wel knowing the sinfulnesse of sin and the terrour of the Lord Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Rom. 8.33 34. Obj. Few Beleevers seem to have this peace Ans All Beleevers have the same state of peace although many Beleevers have not the full perswasion and comfortable sense of it we must distinguish between justifying faith properly so called namely the direct act of faith receiving Christ and his righteousnesse or relying upon him for pardon according to the Promise whereby we are justified and have peace and assurance namely a reflex act of faith whereby we are fully perswaded and doe beleeve that we doe beleeve hereby we are not justified and made first partakers of peace but we rest perswaded that we are justified and have the sense of our peace the first is called the certainty of the Object the thing beleeved is certain i.e. infallible the second is called the certainty of the subject because the subject i.e. the person beleeving is certain that he doth beleeve This distinction is of great use unto many Beleevers who not sufficiently attending to the nature of justifying faith think they have no faith because they want assurance A great mistake saith Master Pemble and that which casteth many a Conscience upon the wrack Pemble of grace and faith toward the end of the treatise tormenting it with unsufferable fear where there is no cause CHAP. XV. Of the state of the blessed where Of the condition of their souls from the instant of their Dissolution and of their persons after the Resurrection Here consider 1 THe probability that the Saints in glory see the Divine Essence 2 What the Beatifical Vision is where of the Extent of the object of the Beatifical Vision Manner of the Beatifical Vision Effect of the Beatifical Vision 3 That the soul separated immediately upon its dissolution from the body enjoyeth this Blessednesse in the presence and sight of God and Christ 4 The Adjuncts of Blessednesse viz. The place of the Blessed Their Society The Duration of all 5 The condition of the Body after the Resurrection 6 Whether the Blessednesse of the soul be greater after the Resurrection than it was before The Saints in glory see the Divine Essence it self We shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 Consider 1. Visio facialis For now we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 The great object seen now and then is the same onely the manner of seeing it is not the same then we shall see it immediately now we see mediately but then shall I know even as also I am known ibid. And they shall see his face Rev. 22.4 I say unto you in Heaven the Angels do alwayes behold the face of my Father Mitth 18.10 The happinesse of heaven consisteth principally in seeing Gods face The Blessed see God with such a sight as is opposite to the sight of Faith We that are at home in the body walk by faith they who are absent from the body walk by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 Therefore the sight of God by faith being mediate what hinders but that the sight of him in the state of felicity opposed in that respect to that of faith shall be immediate Man naturally desireth the Vision of God himself whether he be considered as the first cause for effects once found Smising tr 2. Disput 6. n. 46.49 Intellect us non quiet at nr summe intelligibili nisi illud possideat perfectissimo genere cognitionis non implicante contradictionem ibid. n. 51. Synops disp 52. n. 16. we naturally desire to see their cause or as the objective cause of Blessednesse as the sight is not quieted except in the most excellent of visible objects So is it impossible for the understanding to acquiesce except it be in the highest being A created being cannot be our Summum Bonum i.e. our chiefest good onely God who is increated can fill and satisfie the soul of Man This Synops Vbi supra Junius cont 7. c. 1. n. 3. c. 3. n. 1. Festus Hominius disp 34. trac 2. Bucan Lec 36. q. 10. Annotat. upon Rev. 22.4 Daven 1. Col. 1.15 Cham. Tom. 3. l. 25. cap. 1. Zanch. De operibus Dei lib. 3. c. 6. Thes 1. Polan synt l. 1. c. 6. vide August Epist 111. 〈◊〉 112. as it is the judgement of the School-men and of the Papists so seemeth it to be the judgement of the Protestant Divines generally We saith Junius in the name of the Protestants confesse the Saints departed do enjoy the Vision of God properly Dr. Willet upon Exodus 33. denieth not that the souls of men in the next life shall see the Divine Essence apprehensively not comprehensively or fully which is all that is intended and as much as is taught by sober Writers either ours or others Obj. God is invisible 1 Col. 15. 1 Tim. 1.17 and 6.16 Ans The Divine Essence is not visible to bodily eyes either in this life or hereafter 1 Tim. 6.16 the Essence simply considered cannot be seen by the soul in this life Exod. 33.20 In the life to come though it be seen of the soul apprehensively i.e. so far as we are capable yet non comprehensively and fully Joh. 1.18 Obj. The visive power of the soul that is said to see the Divine Essence is created the Divine Essenee is increated and infinite between that which is finite and that which is infinite there is no proportion Therefore it seemeth the Divine Essence it self cannot be seen by the soul Ans Though there be no Geometrical proportion between the Divine Essence and the visive power of the soul in glory yet there may be between them the proportion of an act and its object The eye of the body of Christ glorified may be supposed to have a visive power not onely adequate to but far exceeding the light of the Sun and so could see the Sun comprehensively the eye of an ordinary mortall man though his visive power be far short of the lightsome visibility in the Sun yet he can and doth see the Sun apprehensively though not comprehensively That the distance between the Creator and the creature is not repugnant to the proportion of an act an object or that which terminates and that which is terminated is evident in the Incarnation where the Divine Essence Vide Smising tract 2. disp 6. n. 52. subsisting in the second Person which is increated terminates the humane nature of Christ which is a creature being united thereunto and the humane nature is terminated thereby If the distance between the Divine Essence and a creature is not such as inferreth an impossibility of personal union much lesse
there is no Blessednesse God is not God Heaven is not Heaven the Creature according to the best namely the Gospel-dispensation of God is capable of no more needs no more can have no more God in Christ doth no more for Man man needs no more from God Hereby the Soul enters into joy Mat. 25.21 23. which is the rest of the wil in its utmost and perfecting end In this Life joy enters into us the Soul here being larger than its joy in the Life to come we are said to enter into joy as into that whereby our Soul is exceeded and wherein as it were we are contained If in the state of faith the Soul is full of joy unspeakable and full of glory how much more shal it be full and running over in the state of fruition Faith is the best Rhetorick to walk so as whether present or absent we may be accepted of him is the best Elocution to admire is short of the cause a holy astonishment answereth not the object The Apostle telling us the good things laid up for the godly in this life exceed our thoughts 1 Cor. 2.9 we must needs grant that those much better things reserved for us in glory doe farre super-exceed our words The Soul separated Consid 3. The Soul separated upon the instant of its dissolution from the Body enjoyeth c. upon the instant of its dissolution from the Body enjoyeth Blessedness in the presence and sight of God and Christ before the eyes of the dead body are closed the Soul with open eyes beholds the face of Jesus Christ then viz. at death shal the dust return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shal return to God who gave it Eccles 12.7 When Christ giveth up the Ghost he commendeth his Spirit into his Fathers hand Luk. 23.46 When the body of Stephen falleth asleep the Lord Jesus receiveth his Spirit Act. 7.59 This Christ saith and that with an asseveration to the Thief upon the Crosse Luk. 23 43. Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise If our earthly house of this Body be dissolved the Soul enters into a house not made with hands No sooner is the cloathing of Mortality put off but the cloathing which is from Heaven is put on Paul dissolved is with Christ Phil. 1.23 the Souls of those Martyrs and Confessors departing during the persecution of Antichrist who came out of great tribulation and have washed their Robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb are before the Throne of God serving him in his Temple Rev. 7.14 15. that is in his immediate presence For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it Rev. 21.22 The Servants of God may rest assured should Antichrist prevail against them unto death their death should afford them an immediate passage unto happinesse And I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from hence-forth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works dâ—â— follow them Revel 14.13 Christ is in the presence of God Heb. 9.24 Sits upon the Throne with his Father Revel 3.21 The Souls of the Saints departed are with Christ Phil. 1.23 therefore the Souls of the Saints departed are in the presence of God The Angels behold the face of God Mat. 18.10 The Souls departed are with the Angels Revel 4.8 and 5.8 7.9 Heb. 12.22.23 and like the Angels Mat. 22.30 For if their Bodies at the Resurrection are expresly said to be as the Angels we may wel inferre the same concerning their spirits much more agreeing with the nature of Angels therefore the Saints departed see the face of God They that are in the third Heaven are in the presence of God the Saints departed are in the third Heaven they are in Paradise Luk 23.43 which is the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 4. therefore As the Souls of the wicked depart immediately to the place of Torment so the Souls of the Saints depart immediately to the place of Blessedness Lazarus Soul is as soon in Abrahams bosome Luk. 16.22 that is in the Kingdome of Heaven Mat. 18.11 as Dives his Soul is in Hel. Luk. 16.23 For the fuller understanding hereof Bellar. de Beat. Sanct. lib. 1. c. 2. consider these four following Propositions Prop. 1 The Soul considered in it self is a subject capable of happiness It is a subject capable either of Blessedness or Misery the Promise or the Curse Heaven or Hel. It was a good answer of him that upon the proposal of the Question What the Soul was replied I know not Man since the Fall being lesse than himself understands not himself nor wil he fully til he be fully restored to himself in glory yet as a help to our apprehension we may conceive of it after this or the like manner The Soul is a Spiritual substance created after the Image of God indued with the faculties of Understanding Wil Memory and Affections with a power of reflex acting upon it self whereby it knoweth that it knoweth according to the Latitude of the whole revealed Wil and Works of God infused into the body as the form thereof and being separated there-from subsists by it self to be re-united thereunto at the Resurrection to abide as the form thereof for ever More briefly The Soul of the Saints is a Spiritual and Immortal substance created after the Image of God and renewed after the immortal Image of God in Christ The Soul is a Spirit not a Body consisting of matter Luk. 24.39 It is a real and very being as the body is only of a higher kind the Body is of the Earth the Soul is immediately from God It should not prejudice the being of the Soul because it is not visible to our eyes we may as wel question the being of God himself or of the Angels who are invisible or our own selves to be Men for from the Soul it principally is that we are Men or Women It is a substance not depending in respect of its being upon any other Fellow-creature as accidents doe whose being is by having their in-being in another Fellow-creature as their subject It s subsistence exceeds that of the Body the Soul can subsist without the Body but the Body continueth not a Body without the Soul Hence we read of separated Souls but not of separated Bodies The Soul is compared to a large vessel Rom. 9.22 23. as high as Heaven as deep as the earth Prov. 25.3 more capacious than the world Eccles 3.11 As the capacity of a vessel may be learned by the quantity it is able to contain so the understanding of the word of command which considered alone is exceeding broad Psal 119.90 Promise and Curse together with the works of God helps us to conceive of the largeness of the Soul Solomon in respect of his exceeding much understanding is said to have largeness of heart even as the
same Mystical Body or the manner of their meeting together sweetned with more affecting ingredients and circumstances than the meeting of Jacob Joseph and Benjamin together with their ability unity complacency c. and all this mixed with the immediate presence of Christ If Peter but for a smal time seeing and hearing the faces and discourse of Christ Moses and Elias breaks out It is good for us to be here much more cause is there for them so to doe being not only Spectators and Auditors but also Interlocutors with them and the residue of this ful and blessed Society and that for ever As the communion of the Sanits in this life is a great part of our comfort on earth so the communion of the Saints in glory is no little part of the joys of Heaven The duration of this Blessednesse is for ever 3. The Duration of all Duration is Either increated viz. eternity properly so called this is the duration of God Or created viz. eviternity the duration of the Blessed in glory Or time the duration of the Creature in this world Between Eternity Eviternity and Time some who have more accurately considered the natures thereof distinguish thus Eternity is without beginning without end without succession Eviternity is without end but not without beginning and though without succession in respect of the duration of their Persons yet not without succession in respect of their operations and other accidents Time hath both a beginning succession and end In Eternity all is present nothing past nor to come In Eviternity in respect of the duration of their Persons there is nothing past but in other respects there is both past and to come that is the instant that was in some respect passeth not away but alwayes remaineth but in other respects there are instants to be which are not yet come In Time there is both past present and to come Eternity is a Duration consisting of an eternal Now without beginning or ending Eviternity is a Duration having a continuing Now with a beginning but without an ending Time is a successive Duration having a beginning and ending without any remaining Now. The Body is not so miserable under the Curse Consid 5. Of the condition of the Body after the Resurrection as it is blessed in the Promise as in the state of Corruption it is abased lower than all created Bodies so in the state of glory it is exalted higher than all other Bodies Christs excepted The excellency of the glorified Body consists especially in two things 1 In that we shal see Christ as he is Man with these eyes 2 In certain inherent Caelestial qualities That we shal see Christ as he is Man with these eyes Job manifestly testifieth For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold him and not another cap. 19.25 26 27. The sight of Christ as Man is the next object unto the Beatifical Vision it self as the created grace which the Man-hood received was out of measure Joh. 3.34 yet not simply for being a creature it is bounded but respectively in regard of us we being unable to measure it so the glory of the Manhood is out of measure The Humanity of Christ in respect of its personal union farre exceeds all the glory of Angels and glorified Souls The glory of the Man-hood is as much as the Creature is capable of the glory of the Body is derived both from the Divinity and the glory of his Soul The fulness of the God-head dwelling in him bodily doth as it were radiate through his body hence there must needs arise great joy unto the beholder both from the eminency of and our interest in this object Christ in glory and Christ in glory ours as much of the Creator as is possibly visible in the nature of man wil be to be seen in Christ as much contentation as the Creature can be made partaker of by the sight of any one visible object wil be the portion of the beholders of Christ as he is Man The inherent caelestial qualities of the Body at the Resurrection are principally four viz. 1 Impassibility called Incorruption Clari Subtiles Agiles Impassibilesque omnes quadruplici pollebunt dote Beati Estius Sent. lib. 4. dist 44. Vide Scot. Richard c. in lib. 4. d. 49. 1 Cor. 15.42 43. 2 Clarity called Glory 1 Cor. 15.42 43. 3 Agility called Power 1 Cor. 15.42 43. 4 Subtilty called A Spiritual body 1 Cor. 15.42 43. Impassibilitie doth not only exclude Corruption for the bodies of the Damned cannot dye but it freeth the body from all hurtful passions Dos Impassibilitatis either of grievance or infirmity Rev. 21.4 As it was in an extraordinary manner with the bodies of the three Children in the Babylonish Furnace for a time so shall it be with the bodies of the Saints for ever the Fire hath no power upon their bodies neither can the smel of fire passe upon them neither heat nor cold can trouble them nor the Sword pierce them Darts are not counted so much as stubble they laugh at the shaking of the Speare Dos Claritates Glory is a shining brightnesse a resplendent lightsomness or a Caelestial sparkling splendor of the Body whereby it may be thought to exceed all the beauty and splendor of Gems Pearls Heavens Sun Moon and Stars yea even of the Heaven of Heavens though all were put together The third Heavens though exceeding all inferiour Creatures as we saw before are but the place of these Bodies which shall be like unto his glorious Body Philip. 3.21 The joy of the Spirit shineth in the countenance no wonder if the faces of those shine whose spirits are filled with joy by beholding the face of God the Sun radiates and shews it self thorough the Window the Fire sends forth a bright lustre thorough Chrystal Stephens Face in this life was seen as it were the face of an Angel Act. 6.15 behold how Moses his face shone upon a little speech with God in the Mount what then may be concluded from the perpetual and perfect vision of him so as Aaron and all the Children of Israel were afraid to come nigh him Exod. 34.30 but Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father he that hath cars to hear let him hear Mat. 13.43 not that they shal not out-shine the Sun but because there is no more shining body visible to us therefore are the Bodies of the Saints in glory compared thereunto When Christ upon the Mount put on the apparition of that glory for a little time which now he wears for ever Peter and James and John were unable to bear the sight of that transfiguration and of Moses and Elias appearing with him in glory Mat.
in testimony that there was but one God comforts himself over his draught of poyson with the meditation of this very subject If I in this erre faith Cato majer that I beleeve the souls of men to be immortal I erre willingly neither will I ever suffer this errour in which I delight to be wrested from me as long as I live If heathens having a dark view and vain hope of the immortality of the soul were so remarkably though passionately affected what and how vigorous then should the effects be flowing from the strong and solid consolations of beleevers who infallibly though darkly see here what they shall hereafter both be and see cleerly Whom God hath wrought for the self-same end who also hath given us the earnest of his Spirit Those are they who are and ought to be in Gods time willing to dye We are confident I say and willing c. 2 Cor. 5.8 Desirous to depart Phil. 1.23 groaning earnestly to be cloathed upon with that house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 Rejoycing in the finishing of their course Act 20.24 Yea triumphing over death 1 Cor. 15.55 How would it sweeten the bitter waters of this Wilderness to live and dye in the Mount in the sight of this Canaan unto the comparative speediness of Christs coming at the Resurrection when we shall enjoy the blessedness of our persons which yet in it self considered admits long delay mentioned by the Apostle to the Hebrews Chap. 10.37 as an effectual cordial against the sorrows of this present life Adde this consideration of the blessednesse of our souls which immediately follows upon our dissolution from the body and admits no delay the soul is not sooner out of this earthly than it is in its heavenly house it goeth as fast into a better as it goeth out of this miserable world it is instantly with him in whom it findes all rest upon its ceasing to be with man of whom it shall there find no want In a moment in the twinkling of an eye before the eyes of the dead body are closed the eye of the living soul shall behold the face of Jesus Christ Amen Even so come Lord Jesus A Table of the Chapters contained in this Treatise OF the Divine Essence Chap. 1. Page 1 Of the Trinity c. 2. p. 21 Of Christ c. 3. p. 35 Of the Decree c. 4. p. 50 Of the Efficiency of God c. 5. 9. 101 There are certain preparatory works coming between the carnall rest of the soul in the state of Nature and effectuall Vocation c. 6. p. 129 What are the principal heads whereunto the substance of preparatory work in the full extent thereof may be referred c. 7. p. 141 Whether there be any saving qualifications before the grace of faith viz. any such qualifications whereupon salvation may be certainly promised unto the person so qualified c. 8. p. 163 Of the first object of saving faith c. 9. p. 194 Saving faith is the effect of free special grace that is of grace flowing from God according to Election and from Christ according to Redemption viz. as the Redeemer and designed head of his Elect. c. 10. p. 219 What is the first saving gift actually applyed unto an elect soul c. 11. p. 249 The soul is passive in Vocation c. 12. p. 257 Of the union of the beleever with Christ c. 13. p. 283 Of Justification by faith c. 14. p. 297 Of the state of the blessed where Of the condition of their souls from the instant of their dissolution and of their persons after the Resurrection c. 15. p. 327 An Alphabetical Table of the principal matters contained in this Book A. A Meer act what Ch. 1. Pag. 5 Acts of God of three sorts Essential personal mixt and what c. 2. p. 24 The same act both evitable and inevitable in a diverse sense c. 4. p. 64 The second act or exercise of grace what c. 12. p. 260 The act of faith not given before the habit in Vocation c. 12. p. 261 Adams sin how made ours c. 7. p. 142 143 Adjuncts of blessednesse c. 15. p. 342 We are inabled in Adam to beleave in Christ. c. 9. 202 203 204 Appellations of the three Persons in the Divine nature used in Scripture c. 2. p. 24 Ascertaining salvation before faith stands not with Christs Method in preaching the Gospel c. 8. p. 171 Attributes what c. 1. p. 3 Attributes how distinguished from the Divine Essence and one from another c. 1. p. 4 Attributes distributed c. 1. p. 4 Four Attributes of the beatifical object c. 15. p. 335 B. The Bands whereby Christ and the Beleevers are united c. 13. p. 288 289 The Beatifical Vision What. c. 15. p. 229 230. In it three things considered c. 15. p. 230 Qualified sinners onely invited immediately to Beleeve proved by Scripture and by Types c. 6. p. 133. seq to 139 Reasons c. 6. p. 133. seq to 139 Examples c. 6. p. 133. seq to 139 Arguments moving to Beleeve c. 7. p. 158 This Proposition Whosoever Beleeveth shall be saved containeth a command and a particular conditional promise c. 8. p. 172 Why God commandeth them to Beleeve concerning whom hee hath decreed that they shall not Beleeve c. 9. p. 199 How they have hope to Beleeve whom God hath decreed shall not Beleeve c. 9. p. 199 Of the difficulty of Beleeving c. 9. p. 206 207. seq to 212 Beleevers receive both the Person and the Spirit of Christ c. 11. p. 249 Benignity of God what c. 1. p. 12 The society of the Blessed and wherein the good thereof consisteth c. 15. p. 346 347 The Blessednesse of the soul before and after the Resurrection in what respect the same and in what not the same c. 15. p. 352 353 Frequent consideration of the state of the Blessed usefull many wayes c. 15. p. 268 C. Calling extraordinary or ordinary c. 6. p. 130 Ordinary Calling mediate or immediate c. 6. p. ib. The universal efficiencie of the first cause and the subordinate efficiencie of the second cause consist together c. 5. p. 111. 114 The causes of union efficient c. 13. p. 285 Instrumental p. 285 The matter p. 286 The form 287 The end 291 Nothing falleth out beside the purpose of the first cause c. 4. p. 93 A Caution concerning fixing conversion to such a time c. 7. p. 162 In what sense there is no chance c. 5. p. 123 Some things in Scripture ascribed to chance deny not that all things are ordered by God c. 5. p. 123 124 Christ dyed for his when they were sinners c. 9. p. 215 Christ the cause of the application of the good of election but not of election c. 10. p. 225 Without union no communion c. 13. p. 291 292 The excellency of Communion flowing from union c. 13. p. 225 296 The content of the Communion of the blessed c. 15. p. 347 348 Sores of Composition seven which and what c. 1. p. 6 The Concourse of the