himself hath declared this in the second Psalm That he has anointed his King upon Zion the Mountain of his Holiness doth and will tell the Decree Jehovah said to me Thou my Son I this day begat thee Ask of me I will give the heathens thine inheritance and the ends of the earth thy firm hereditary possession Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron as the vessel of a potter thou shalt scatter them in pieces Of this Jesus doth Peter understand this Psalm and from hence doth the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews prove Christ's Call to his Office of Priesthood This Christ was the first anointed with the Spirit and with the Oyl of Gladness above his Fellows in the forty and fifth Psalm This Name Mashiach or Messias as applyed to this Son of God was well known in Israel as appears by Andrews acknowledging him to be so to his Brother Simon and by the Testimony of the Woman of Samaria who confessed this Name And hence it is that those Disciples of his who believe on his Name have this Honour from him to be called Christans both in the Old and New Testament He charged other men not to touch his Christians his Christs his Anointed Ones in the one hundred and fifth Psalm those who were thus consecrated to him and set apart to high and honourable Offices and Imployments under him by the Anointing of his Spirit which they had from him that is holy as writes John in his first Epistle Which Name was revived and received at Antioch where the Name was renewed in the Apostles times and they were again called Christians For there are the Fellows of Christ being taken into Consortship and Partnership with him in the Anointing whereby they are also made Kings and Priests as John speaks in the Revelation There oyly pourings out of the Spirits were in a fulness upon Christ not in lesser measures Jehovah possessed me saith Christ in the Book of Proverbs in the beginning of his way before his Works before them before the World was I Anointed before the beginning before the first things of the Earth when yet there was no deeps was I brought forth when there was non Fountains heavy with Water when yet Mountains were not fastned before the Hills was I brought forth yet he had not made the Earth nor Streets no not the beginning nor dust of the inhabited World When he fitted the Heavens there was I when he appointed the Circuit upon the Faces of the deep when he fortified the Clouds above when he strengthened the Fountains of the deep when he laid his Decree upon the Sea that the Waters should not pass the commandment of his mouth when he appointed the Foundation of the Earth Thus speaks the Father by the Prophet Isaiah concerning his Son Behold my Servant whom I uphold mine Elect my Soul delighteth I have given my Spirit upon him he shall bring forth Judgement upon the Nations The LORD Christ was warrantably lawfully called to this Office God the father sealed him thereunto As Christ speaks of himself in what John doth write of him and elsewhere in his Prophet Isaiah The Spirit of the LORD Jehovah is upon me therefore Jehovah hath Anointed me to preach No man taketh this Honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron So also Christ did not take this Honour to himself to become an high Priest but he that spake unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee gave it him As also in another place he saith Thou art a Priest for ever upon my word O Malchi-tzedek Hence it is that Christ is called by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews the Apostle and high Priest of our profession and by Malachi The Angel of the Covenant So that Christ had a Testimony from his Father for his being appointed unto this Office not often after he had taken Flesh of the Virgin Mary when a Voice came from Heaven saying This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and when the holy Spirit descended as a Dove out of Heaven and abode remaining on him but long before under the Old Testament Dispensation And before that also even before the World was he the anointed This LORD Jesus Christ was Administrator under both Testament Dispensations of Grace He chief in Office and all others that were lawfully called and rightfully sent forth were such as did minister and serve under and for him He was the LORD God of the holy Prophets as John calls him in the Revelation and as the Father sent him so did this Christ send his Apostles It was this Christ who so often appeared to Moses as has been shewn Christ was Faithful to his Father who constituted him in Office and who was Heir of his own House In which House he imployed Moses to be his Servant who was also faithful to and under Christ It was the Spirit of Christ who did witness in the Prophets of Old as Peter mentioned in his first Epistle He was the chief one in Sion as Isaiah calleth him who did declare the things that were to come to pass and this is the same Son of God in whom the Father hath spoken to us in the last days Him hath God made LORD and Christ and to him was given Dominion Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Tongues should serve him The Father hath given unto him dignity to execute Judgement he hath given all Judgement to the Son All must obey and stoop at the command of this ever Blessed LORD of Glory who has proclaimed this of himself that all Authoritative Power is given him in Heaven and upon the Earth God hath committed all into his hands He shall reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet This is he that is appointed of God the Judge both of the Living and of the Dead In this was the Love of God manifested towards those whom he chose in Christ and gave to Christ that he hath sent his only begotten Son into the World that they should live by him so loved he the World that he thus gave Christ that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life O how much hath he commended his Love to such He was first in the Love him hath God set up for a Prepitiatory-covering an expiatory reconciliation Thou LORD art worthy to receive the Glory and the Honour and the Power for thou hast created all things and through thy will they are and were created This Jehovah Christ was the Creator of all things as the Father is Creator and as the holy Spirit is Creator They the Creators Jehovah was the Creator of all things This Aelohim was he who gave his Creatures their Being as Moses hath delivered to us the History thereof To this do others bear witness in the Scriptures Praised be Johovah Aelohim that made the
first Promise of his and believers should enjoy it as a Covenant Mercy when ever our eyes do behold the Light we may see there are more substances and fewer accidents as they name them than Ethnick Philosophers do own What was the first created Light according to their own descriptions Was it not an Entity of Nature Did it not truly subsist Doth not the Scripture affirm this Did it not subsist in it self VVhat substance did this Light naturally flow from or originally subsist in Did it spring from Heaven or from Earth or from VVaters Or from the gulphy space or doleful place The Expanse was not created till the Seventh-day As for the Air neither was that extended expanded or made so diaphanous or created on the one day And as for the Heavenly Luminaries they had not a Being till the fourth day If you imagine it to be inherent in the highest Heavens and transmitted thence why then is not the Light always sent forth to make it continual day What substance was the Light adventitious to in its first being created Was not the specificial Essence thereof in it self What other substance did the Light affect or perfect Was not the Light an actual Entity specifically differing from all other created Beings in the Time and Nature of it This Light is a stated solid substantial Entity always actual since its first Creation without continual sensible variations The Light has corporeal quantity of extension and corporeal Motion in coming and in going What was that pretended lucid Body in which this Light is supposed to be inherent to which to adhere and in which as in a Subject to be It is an essential and substantial Creature in its own Nature and Being which Aelohim gave unto it The Light was not gathered into the Sun not placed in the body of the Sun not affixed unto the Sun not sent into and inserted in it after its Being diffused and shed abroad not bound to any certain body the Light doth cast no shadow because it doth surround Bodies whereas the Sun doth cast shadows because its shining is in direct Beams It is a real thing and not only a notion all and every of the created Beings are truly subsisting Entities This created Light was not Christ though in another sense Christ is called Light For somewhat was created before the Light as the Heavens the Earth the Waters the empty space the doleful place and darkness whereas Christ is the beginning of the Works of Aelohim he was before all created Beings For a close of this fifth days VVork I apprehend the creating of the Beasts and VVorms to appertain to the fifth day for several weighty Reasons agreeing with the VVord All those Creature are here put together Such as have a sensitive Soul and Life So nobly formed a Creatures as Man who was to have the Royal Dominion over these sensitive Creatures and was endued with a Religious Rational Soul and Life he had the honour of a distinct day the sixth day for his Creation apart from other Creatures The cause why it is said twice that Aelohim will foreseeingly look on because good what he created on the fifth day may be this there doth appear some need of such a subdivision because there were two such divers kinds of Creatures made on that day Some in the place of the Waters the other in the place of the red Earth the goodness of both and of each of which doth the more clearly shine forth and is the better understood by this Spiritual Narration of doubling the Testimony There is a special Blessing given to Religious Rational Adam distinct from Bruit Animals Observe well also this further Reason here is a distinct Creature from tame Animals and wild Beasts particularly mentioned the creeping one the Reptil a word which was mentioned before in the Participle concerning the Fishes and therefore this kind of Creature must be created on the same day of the week on which the Fishes its Fellow-creepers were and so also the other mentioned here as the tame Animal and the wild Beast Thus also I judge that the gathering together of the lower Waters from other places with expecting desire into the Seas as its appointed place did belong to the Creation-work of the second day because to every one of the six days of this one week of the Creation this is expresly ascribed that Aelohim will foreseeingly look on because good whereas if this be carried on to the third day then the second day will be left without this approving Testimony from its Creator Further they are much a part of the same subject-matter spoken of in the second days Work which was that these Waters below might have a distinct place from those Waters above by an out-spread partition between them They were both of them Waters This Work about the severing of the Waters was begun upon the second day and there finished on the second day For as a wise good Worker Aelohim reserves the approbation till he had perfected that Work and put it in its proper place so discharged as it were his hands of it as to what concerned the Creation of it though as to its continued preservation it be still in his manutenancy How large and complete an History of the Fishes of Fowls of Beasts and of VVorms might there be composed and compiled for the perfecting of this Art and the polishing of the Science of Sensitive Souliness if all those VVords and Phrases were orderly put together that do treat of this subject matter in the Scriptures of Truth The Sixth Day towards the true Advance of useful Learning doth give us the hint of this profitable Inquiry Q. Whether Anthropology or the Doctrine of Created Adam or knowledge of Man or the Science of the Humane Nature be sufficiently taught in the Schools and Lectures of Ethnick Philosophers Or is it only contained in and augmentable and restaurable by the Word of Truth and the holy Spirits teaching of serious Inquirers this Art according to these Holy Scriptures Answ IT is not by Ethnick Philosophy and the Readers or VVriters of it but by the Scriptures of Truth and the holy Spirits instructing in and by these Man what is this man that the Creator has so crowned him with so signal an Honour Man how noble is his make Man is the Articulate Trumpeter of the Creators Praises the lingual Glory of the VVorld sounding forth the shining excellencies of Jehovah Aelohim in his glorious self in his good VVord and in his great VVorks How useful a Knowledge is this the true Knowledge of our selves VVhat profit would it be to me and to the Reader though we understood all other Mysteries and all other Knowledges if thou and I were ignorant of our selves How Royal Prerogatives hath the LORD dignified Man withal Unto how high a pitch hath he raised the ultim summities of the Humane Nature in all its created Perfections of Spirit of
example of Justice in this Island were more likely to terrifie the inhabitants thereof and to prevent any further guilt in principle or in practice about this foul sin than ten other arguments in such an age of monstrous bodily uncleannesses of speculative unbelief and of practical Atheism Whatever success upon the hearts of Readers this paper Testimony has or shall have is with him in whose hands the hearts of men are In this I rejoyce that the LORD hath not left me to be ashamed of Christ nor of his Words in this Adulterous and sinful Generation They are the Scripture-Rules and Precepts of our LORD Christ which we must walk by and whom we must obey if we would have him to be the Author of eternal Salvation and who will judge Whoremongers and Adulterers all whosoever they be who are profane corrupters of Holy Marriage Whether thorowout the Scriptures where ever Adam is found in the Original it should not be so rendred in the Translation into other Languages leaving it to the expounder in the help and supplies of the holy Spirit to shew when it is meant properly of the The Adam and when collectively of more This I judge greatly useful to be far inquired into and seriously to be considered of It is scarce imaginable till proof be made of this what variety of choice discoveries would shine forth from hence That all the Old Testament thorow we can find Adam but twenty times or about that small number in our English Translation Whereas it is expressed in the Original many scores of times let the vulgar Reader think and consider whether much of this useful Learning about Man's Nature and State have not been hereby hidden from him And let the Judicious and experienced in the Hebrew words and phrases say whether many controversies in Religion about Adam and his fall and his conveying of guilt and corruption to his Posterity with much more of profitable practical Doctrines and Duties Graces and Privileges would not be evidently demonstrated hereby Adam was not created at the first Androg ynous with two distinct several Faces and with a double body afterwards to be divided and pulled asunder one from another to become two Aelohim created them in the plural Male and Female severed ones sundred Personages The Male and the Female Adam were both blessed together and therefore at that time they had both of them a created distinct being Aelohim's benediction which he gave to Adam the Male and the Female is more large and ample in expressions and in things than those words of blessing which before he uttered to other Creatures they had propagation as other living creatures made on the fifth day though not so numerous as the most of them and further they were endowed and enriched with many a good perfect gift of Spirit Soul and Body beyond them We must learn and know mind and consider That the Creation in the whole and in every part thereof together with all the Honour and Glory of that Power and Wisdom and other glorious Excellencies which did so manifest themselves therin is wholly and only to be ascribed and attributed to Aelohim whose name is so often as hath been observed used in this History Adam was bound actually to believe in Aelohim and in his Word as soon as he was created For he had a Word and a Promise from Christ in this History of the Creation Adam was to believe Aelohim's sanctifying of appointed Meats created for his Food to be received of them who being believing ones and acknowledging ones of the Truth to mention no more particulars now So that Faith in the creating Messias has a Foundation in created Nature Adam had a power in created Nature to believe in Christ and his Holiness and his Righteousness were a perfection suitable and con-natural to him Thus the sum of the Decalogue was imprinted in Adam's heart Faith in Jehovan Aelohim is the substance of the first word or command which was enjoyned to all the World of Mankind in Adam and so Faith in Father Son and Holy Spirit It was always a Truth from the very first creating and forming of Man and was actually a Law and command upon Man and Mankind that without Faith it is impossible to please God whom to please as well as to believe in was a plain duty accordingly Abraham believed in God who accounted it to him for righteousness and all the Children of Abraham must be of the same Faith and Practice For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him The eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews in several instances doth relate that the Saints and people of God under the Old Testament-administration did actually rely upon Christ by Faith for which Faith they are there commended This original concreated Holiness and Righteousness in Adam being such a Law of Nature as whereof the ten Words are a perfect Transcript and an exact Summary it were a matter well worth a further re-search and a deeper Inquiry whether the Doctrinal-part as well as the Duty-part of true pure Religion be not to be found in the Decalogue Thorah is one of the Names of this Law often used in the Old Testament The Native signification of which word is Doctrine It is a Doctrinal Law cast before the Disciples of the LORD teaching and instructing us concerning his will towards us and about our Office towards him and our Neighbour in what we are to believe as to the credends and to do as to the Agends of Religion informing us in the Truth of the premises as well as directing us in the practice of the conclusions Faith and obedience in their large comprehensive notation do take in the whole of Religion they are all Adam as to this For Adam was under a Law under this Law The Articles of our Belief are within the bounds of the Laws of the Decalogue He that would be regular in his obedience must also be found in the Faith These are the Essential constitutive parts of an entire perfect Holiness and Righteousness The LORD Jesus Christ confirmed the Truth of his Doctrine from the Authority of his own Law and in asserting the Doctrine of the Resurrection which is one great particular instance he fetcheth the force of his Argument from the first Word saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living To assent unto revealed Truth is as necessary a part of our Duty as to perform commanded service And if it be narrowly looked into and duly pondered it will be manifest that all the Acts of our obedience do as naturally result from some Act of Faith as all the Acts of Faith do naturally resolve into some Act of obedience as a general subjection of our whole Man to the will of
according to those Scriptures Let the principle be admitted and pursued and then much more would be discovered As for the conservation of health the Learned in the Medicinal Art should search the Scriptures about the use of some and about the forbearing of other creatures for Food about the kinds of bodily exercises about the choice of Aromaticks of Spices of Olys of Wines and many more about the Regiment of passions and of affections with more directions that might be given Such as the actings of suitable graces the enjoying of proper comforts the improving of Holy Fellowship with Jehovah in Father Son and Holy Spirit and more might be added if advice from so mean a one be received in the Colledge of Physitians There is a further part of the Medicinal Art which doth respect the prolongation of days and the lengthning along of Life of which there is much in the Scriptures both by way of direction and of promise He that will industriously seek out where and how often in the Word that expression of length of days or prolongation of days or long of days and such like phrases that do set out this is used and will wisely observe to whom and in what way this is covenanted may find much to this purpose and end Then how should we be under Christ beholden unto such wise and faithful Physicians as would direct their patients for a cure to word prescriptions where we might pursue and follow their counsels in obedience and saith expecting Aelohim's blessing thereunto and therefore for the augment and advancement of this kind of Learning let it be yet farther inquired by men skilful in the Original and acquainted with the Giver of his Word how that knowledge may be perfected by a Scripture-discovery which doth respect the body of Man For hereby many other useful Arts would receive a great increase as the Art of Medicine for the prolongâ—ng of the days of man and for continuing on of his life in the conserving of his health and in the preventing or curing of Diseases the Art of Chirurgery the Art of the Apothecary and Compounder the Art of Opticks and Perspectives the Art of Sounds the Art of Gust the art of Odors the art of Tangibles to mention no more which a discerning eye may look somewhat deep into at the very naming of them Let a more narrow research also be made into the Soul of man Its Essence and Nature Its Substance and Operations Its Offices and Products How great its specifick difference from the Soul of Beasts Let the Spirit of Man be more studied in the Word of Truth What its proper Existence is what its specifick Difference what its Faculties what the Objects of those Faculties wherein differenced from the Soul whether separable from the Soul for some time yet so as the Body still lives what its work is what are the peculiat seats in Man for all the Faculties of the Soul and Spirit How many those Faculties are what their Original what their connaturalness what all the inward parts of Man are what their league of amity and friendly commerce is one with another and all together with the whole compositum and a multitude of other rare parts of this great Knowledge I wait if the LORD give me to live to see this glorious design to be received promoted and improved by others If so I expect that he will give men an heart willing to contribute what this way may be judged useful by such abler undertakers who would severally labour in a distinct handling of some particular Art and Science O how rare is the skill how choice the Priviledge so to improve this part of Experimental Christianity as even here to pass more into growing beginnings of that blessed State of the heavenly Glory by a more holy and healthful transforming likeness to the Humane Nature of Christ in Spirit in Soul and in Body In every one of these to feel a suitable conformity in Holiness unto Christ as our great Exempar It is a great thing to believe aright that the Humane Nature of Christ is then and not till then actually profiting when quickened by the Spirit making Christ's Words to be Spirit and Life How great an Honour hâ—th he put upon Man and how highly hath he advanced the Nature of Man who has laid hold on the Seed of Abraham and taken that to his Godhead He is one in Nature as to his Humanity with Believers he has had experience of all the Cases of Believers sin only excepted There is that in him that is suited to all the parts of Believers in his Spirit in his Soul in his Body in his Nature in his Life for their Regeneration Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption Acceptation Strength Joy Comfort and every other Good and his Humane Nature is a fitted Instrument of conveyance of this spiritual suitable good to Believers when so quickned by the Spirit There was a proper a peculiar Testimony given by the Creator to the Work of the sixth day a special owning and commendation of that excelling Master-piece Adam Therefore there is a significant word added to Good here whereby is set out the singular Good of this Part of the Creation If this particular approbation were given to all the Works of the Creation in common to all the six days put together then the formation of Man will want its distinguishing Honour and its signal Remark This special note of singular observation here doth affirm and confirm it as spoken of that which is well known and evidently manifest As in all the Creatures both singly and apart collected and put together there was an excellency of Perfection in them according to the capacity of their Natures and for the usefulness of their ends so more particularly and especially in man There is an emphatick Note of Demonstration prefix'd to this Sixth day pointing out the Work of that Sixth day to be somewhat more remarkable and that the adored Almighties had perfected all his Works which he propounded and purposed to create in the foregoing six days of this one Week of the created World It doth shew a thing known and signally illustrious and commendable and that that day only was the sixth day in the weekly Revolution and no other day of the Week And that the weekly Sabbath must be reckoned in order of created Time the immediately next succeeding day after that sixth which weekly Sabbath day was when created the seventh the last day of the week that and no other day of the same week which note of demonstration is remarkable in other Scriptures to point out the certian weekly Sabbath-day in all the following Weeks of the World in the successive courses of Weeks even the seventh which is the last for there is but only one seventh day in one Week progressively going on in the due order and according to the established Law of the Creation All the Creatures were not made