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A85461 Saltmarsh returned from the dead, in Amico Philalethe. Or, The resurrection of James the apostle, out of the grave of carnall glosses, for the correction of the universall apostacy, which cruelly buryed him who yet liveth. Appearing in the comely ornaments of his fifth chapter, in an exercise, June 4. 1654. Having laid by his grave clothes, in a despised village remote from England, but wishing well, and heartily desiring the true prosperity thereof. Gorton, Samuel, 1592 or 3-1677. 1655 (1655) Wing G1307; Thomason E836_1; ESTC R207426 178,733 220

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or a Saviour any where but as lockt up in a humane body in heaven that men may stand here in his room till he return from thence to suck up all the glory of the earth It was not so in ages past and men spirituall for Joshuah Moses Minister was called Jesus a Saviour as the Apostle interprets his name and the Lord acknowledgeth in raising up Judges in Israell that he raised up Saviours unto them And Paul was not affraid to tell Timmothie that in taking heed to himselfe that is how God hath composed salvation in his consisting in Christ and unto learning or doctrine that is how it ought to be layd out and distributed to others that in so doing he should be a Saviour of himselfe and them that heare him 2. A second point is what he saves that is a soule or a life this is not meant of the life of a meer creature but it is the life of the Son of God as our Apostle affirms Now I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live is by or in the faith of the sonne of God So that a Christians life is the life of Christ and there is no life of man-kind but either the life of the Saviour or else the life of Sathan that destroyer for heaven and earth conspire together in the making of man Let us speaking with respect to that plurality in our image that is in our image earthly as well as heavenly for there is a heavenly body and there is an earthly body and God is as just and righteous in the making of the one as of the other and every way as honourable the one in mercy and the other in severity And man cannot be known in a simple act of creation for that multiplies him not but propagation or generation must be brought in also else the son of God nor the seed of the Serpent can be known so both are brought forth in that first act of generation in Cain and Abel wherein the seed of the Serpent appears in the same act as in Jacob and Esau together with Christ in Abel dead by Caine in the spirit and in Seth that sett one in life for evermore who is set in the room of Abel crucified in the world So that the life of Christ and of Antichrist are both from one act even from as early dayes the one as the other and without the true knowledg of that we know neither of them and for other life in man-kind we know none worthy the name of life beyond other creatures but as it serves to the setting forth of the one or of the other of these and so they transcend the life of all other creatures as far as the image of God did the frame of any other creature or that earthly image descends below them all even to a bottomlesse pit which no other creature is subjected unto but only man 3. There is a third point what he saves from that is death namely a death that holds correspondency with that infinite and eternall life of the Son of God in way of Parathesis in all points for Christ is saved from whatsoever Sathan is hath or undergoes and Sathan is destroyed from whatsoever Christ is hath or is advanced unto therefore that conceit that Sathan was an Angell that is a meere creature at the first and in acceptation with God is a meer humane tradition and philosophicall fiction and is a point of greater concernment then men are aware of for it is as safe to say that the son of God was for a time out of the Fathers favour as to hold that the Devill at any time was in acceptation with God for whatsoever is out of Gods favour can never return into againe and what is accepted of him for a moment ca● never be rejected 2. A second royalty or act of fame that is to be acknowledged by him who turns the sinner from the errour of his way changing him into truth it selfe that is the covering or hiding of a multitude of sins This is taken from the speech of Solomon Hatred stirreth up strife but love covereth all sins which our Apostle calls a multitude of sins the word signifies the deep of the troubled ocean intimating that huge multitude of torturing and troubling trespasses proper to that great gulfe of the bottomlesse pit Now to turn from the error of a mans way is to turn to truth and no man can turn to truth but by that unity that is in Christ none turns to truth but hee that becomes truth for there is no terme or title given in Scripture but being rightly interpretted and rightly applyed the truth substance and being of the thing is there for God useth no expression but he intends under that the truth and substance of the thing expressed To turn to truth is not only truth in word but truth in act also yea to be that very thing as Christ saith I am the way the truth and the life Now that unity that is in Christ is the fulfilment and compleating of the law of the Spirit for if the love of Christ be in us and constrayn us to all acknowledgments of him we know that love is the fulfilling of the Law and where the Law is fulfilled there sin utters not its voyce nor hath it a face to appear it is altogether hid and covered for ever Christ is the e●d and scope of the law for righteousnesse and more it aymes not at nor more it cannot require for it is the sonne of God that is justified who then shall condemn him The law is fully satisfied from what ground then shall any accuse yea our Apostle saith that the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us that walke not after the flesh but after the spirit No hiding of sin therefore but by fulfilling of the law but what law not the law of the carnall commandement generally taught in the world by which no flesh can be justified but it is the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus or which consists in that unction office or spirit of the Saviour Againe how do the wicked hide righteousnesse that none appears in them but only the spirit of the wicked one namely by walking according to the law of the flesh For he that walks after the law of the flesh he cannot please God so that all righteousnesse is hid and covered in them yea even by fulfilling the law of the flesh for the more they conform themselves thereunto the more their condemnation doth appear for it is not because men cannot perform all the works of the law in that respect that they cannot be justified thereby but because they do any of them for it is against the nature of that law of the carnall Commandement and every part thereof to justifie for it is its proper nature and office to condemn for we may as well say that the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus is a law of sin and death as to say the law of the carnall command can give life or peace no not in the compleat performance of it For every part thereof is a breach of the law of the spirit And whatsoever is a breach of the law of the spirit is a crucifying of the Son of God afresh and putting of him to open shame so that every performance of the law of the flesh according to the intent thereof is a breach of the same law of the spirit and he that breaks one breaks all therefore all righteousness is hid and covered in the wicked even so the true keeping of the law of the spirit of faith in any part of it is a nullifying of the whole law of the carnall Command therefore no law of sin and death is found in them all sins and sorrows are hid and covered therefore the man is blessed whose trespass is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man and he only unto whom the Lord imputeth accounteth or reckoneth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Amen By Sam Gorton Professor of Christ FINIS
in the destroying Angel to cause him to passe over as not having any employment there Even so the blood of Abel shed by the cruelty of Cain as a Lamb slain from the beginning according to the spirit or by the subtilty of Judas betraying him with a kisse hath in it a sufficient cry in the destroying Angel to move the exercise of wrath upon the first born of Aegypt the beginning top of all that strength wherein they trust who cruelly and fraudulently keep back Israel from his advance unto the land of Canaan The one hath in it the voyce and language of peace reconciliation and agreement with God as his first-born and onely beloved The other hath in it breach of brother-hood and fellowship the voyce of a vagabond flying from Gods presence and the glory of his power as in Caine and wrath unto self-murther and destruction as in Judas Iscariot that Confessor or Preacher for hire as his name signifies in whom the word of God in it selfe Lord over all is changed and transformed into an hireling 6. This cry enters into the eares of the Lord for as there is a certaine propencity in the eare of a man to take in any sound that moves the ayre and to give it a true and proper form his heart ecchoing the same thing whether it be matter of joy or matter of terrour Even so there is nothing that moves either in the proper sphere of Gods displeasure or of his acceptation and love but there is a proper and immediate aptitude in his wisdome and power to receive and give a true form thereunto according to the nature thereof ecchoing the same thing in returning an answerable and proportionable measure of wrath or mercy into that heart in which it moves where he hath place of a boad either in way of mercy as man by unity is become the Son of God in Christ or else in wrath as God is by unity also become the sonne of perdition in that way of Antichrist 7. And therefore that terme and title of honour is given him namely the Lord of Sabboth or Sabboths plurally for that which the Prophet Isaiah writes the Lord of Hosts plurally the Apostle to the Romans writes the Lord of Sabboth that is the Lord of Rest or plurally Rests and this declares unto us that wonder of Gods rest or cessation from his work and labour in the beginning and and how he worketh also even untill now For God rests and there is an absolute cessation of all works and operations proper to the Son of God in that way of the fall eating of the forbidden fruit or exercise of the carnall commandement in which no vertue motion or operation of the spirit is found but an utter and absolute cessation from them all and so the earth is sayd to enjoy its Sabboths by Gods laying of it wast from its inhabitants and in this condition the operations of the flesh and power of Satan are found and frequently in exercise Againe God resteth and ceaseth from labour for we never understand the name God in a good and proper sence but with respect unto God in Christ by whom the worlds were made and in him God rests and there is an utter and totall cessation from all the works of sin and death fruits of the flesh and operations of Satan which mans nature is subject unto there is a perpetuall rest cessation and sabbatizing in the Son of God from them all but there is a most glorious operation of the spirit and powerfull work of the Son of God in that estate and condition of Jesus Christ who is that rest that yet remayns in the people of God therefore it is said hitherto the father worketh and I worke and therefore the word Saba in the Hebrew tongue signifies either Sabboth a Rest or an Host or Armie and sometimes the Apostles in Greeke translates it Lord God Almighty to declare that there is an Almighty power of conquest in whomsoever the rest is found for there is an Almighty power of the whole host of Satans enmity in conquering and subduing the spirit and vertues of Christ in themselves resting from them all And there is an Almighty power of the spirit of grace in that Army of Heaven and order of the Son of God in vanquishing and subduing of all the power of sin and Satan unto that perfect rest which ever remayns in that only and beloved Son of God And truly the world may as well preach the temporall sword to be the Rescue Reformer and Conservation of the Church as the best and greatest Councell Synods Synodrians and Assemblies that ever were or can be gathered together only in the strength and power of humane learning wisdome experience and policy for in such the Lord is in array as an host and in rest and cessation but it is to do that work that strong worke of wrath not proper to the Son of the blessed whereby he rests from all his owne operations as the ensuing words do declare Vers 5. Yee have lived in pleasures on the earth and been wanton yee have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter YOu have lived in pleasure on the earth as Dives or that rich man did that is you have taken delight and made it your very living to exercise your selves in earthly and temporary things all your dealings and commerce is in such things as your selves cannot but confesse must have an end and cease to be and therefore earthly as your bodily fasts and humiliations your bodily feasts and verbal thanksgivings for vanishing things your Sabboths only in cessation from bodily labour your earthly victories and honourable achievements these are the food you feed on the things wherein your delight and pleasure is set and must they not have an end If so then are they earthly because they fade and vanish as the flower of grasse Nay the order of your Churches and Elderships the ordination and institutions of your Oracles and Orators will these stand with the Assembly and Church of the first-born of God whose names are enrolled in heaven where every one hath a like share and equall right to all the offices orders and priviledges of the kingdome if not they are earthly composed by the ministery of the letter that kills and not by the law of the spirit of life Add further what is your faith your prayers and righteousnesse are not these earthly and carnall as held and practised by you Can you tell what use to put them unto in your professed world to come I tro not for for any thing that ever I could learn from the common Priesthood of these dayes they have no use of the imputed righteousnesse of the Son of God when once their sanctification is compleated nor of their faith when they have attayned the end of it which they say is at their coming to heaven nor of prayer when they shall need no more to converse with or have supply of
God and man being made one through that wisdome or spirit of the creature brooding upon the same deep of the said Chaos drawing it out into the lines and lineaments proper to the principles and capacities of a creature wherein the letter of the word doth consist adorning it selfe with the excellencies and abilities of the creature and not of God the Creator in which respect it is sayd to be a house of mans building and not of Gods And this is the proper order and reformation of the world stood for and maintained to this day by Schools Libraries and Records by Art study and Law by policy experiments and force of arms unto which the most eminent and sublime order and institution of the wisdome and spirit of God are as a formlesse Chaos and most dangerous gulfe and this wisdome or device of man hath arguments according to its proper sphear it works in as punctuall and proper for the conservation and binding over of it selfe unto destruction as the wisdome of God hath in that way of Christ for the laying down of his life unto salvation We thwart not then the order and instinct of any creature but give it its proper due for which it was made which is either to give intelligence by breathing out its proper life in the souls of the Saints in directing unto another in whom the order of heaven and earth which abides for ever is established or else to retayn its own proper life which is earthly in the expiration of the life of the spirit of God whereby it becomes a builder of the tower of Babylon the one receives instruction from the world in the expiration of the life of it in himselfe it becoming as a crucified and dead carkasse unto him whereby he is made alive unto God and the other receives instruction from the kingdome of God in the expiration of the life of all the things thereof in himselfe so as it is made by his wisdome as a crucified and dead thing unto him whereby he is made alive unto the world and the things thereof adorning and supplying of himselfe with the arm of flesh and so becomes as truly Satanicall as the Saints become holy and godly It is no more wrong therefore to look upon the glory and goodlinesse of man as the flower of grasse or thing of nought when Christ was made manifest then it was wrong to the rest of the creatures when man was made as Lord of them all which before that the bruit beaste of the field might seem to have dominion of the earth Those therefore that would have the shadows of the night to retayn some excellency in their place and not to flye away when that Sun of righteousnesse ariseth and sheweth forth himselfe Let such make their opinion good unto the world by retayning of like delight in and having like esteem of such rattles and baubles in the time of their Seniority as they delighted themselves with in the dayes of their minority and so much in answer to the objection 3. The third poynt is the practice of the Elders and that is the manner how they annoynt the sick party and that is in the name of the Lord or into the power and authority of the Lord Christ for by this unction we are gathered up and are all drunke into one spirit of Jesus Christ So that men may as fittingly preach the wisdome of man to be no better then the understanding of a bruit beast as to teach that the spirit of a Christian is inferiour to the wisdome of God in Christ for they are one as the wisdome of man is one Therefore the actions of a Christian spring from the proper Edicts and Institutions of God according to the law of faith with respect unto those relations and operations established between God and man in Christ or in the unction and not from those relations and respects which naturall instincts and humane wisdom hath founded and set up between creature and creature which the beasts of the field and fowles of the ayre are for the most part inclinable unto as well as man-kind So that there is something that is proper unto God only that is a relative in all the actions of a Christian or else it is not done by the law of faith which stands in all terms of relation between God and man and not between creature and creature and thereby is every Christian made Lord of all which otherwise they could not be for by this means no creature can lay claym unto them but they are only the Lords the obligatious standing only between God and man in that law of faith or subsistance of God and man in one by the unction which is Christ Secondly the actions and demeanors of a Christian have in them the effect of Gods power and authority as well as spring from such a root so that they prove fruitful either to be a savour of life unto life or of death unto death The doctrine wayes and counsell of a Christian have a certain vertue of God in them to produce life unto life unto them that are saved or to work life in life as the word may be read in others for they bring forth in the chosen of God a life which hath all manner of livelinesse infolded and wrapped up therein for as the wisdome of God is sayd to be a manifold wisdome so is the life of God a manifold life which can never be unfolded and made manifest unto the uttermost for then it were not infinite and eternall So that if the Gospel bring forth and produce the life of Faith it hath the life of hope in it and in all things that can be hoped for which as they are obtained every one is as a tree of life If it produce love there is wrapped up therein the life of the love of all lovely relations as Father Son Husband Wife love of all kinds of friendship and the like If it bring forth the life of joy there is wrapt up therein the life of all joyfull things in the life of prosperity there is the life of all prosperous ways so that whatsoever the Gospel works in the soul there is involved therein all of that kind that ever can come into use and exercise so that it is a bundle of life which none but the wisdome of God and the power of God can ever bind up together or bring forth Againe if a Christian or the Gospel for they are co-apparent and were never one without another produce and bring forth death in any it is death unto death or death in death there is one death involved and wrapped up in another unto eternity which can never be found out to the uttermost and yet no particular way of death doth ever asswage from the height and extreamest terrour of it nor stand aside as to permit an intermission but only so as to give way or being in another to exercise its vertue in the full force