capital the Sinner became a Sacrifice for his own sin Numb 15.32 As he that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath-day This Servility to the Command must be understood to the Literal sense according to which many were blameless For Zechariah and Elizabeth were both righteous before God Luk. 1.6 walking in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless And the Apostle saith he was touching the Righteousness which was in the Law blameless Phil. 3.6 For if we construe Moses his Law so amply as some do 1. VVe make the Law and the Gospel all one 2. The Church of the Jews must have died in their Minority For the Murtherer and Adulterer was to be put to death If then wilful Anger and Lust had been so punished what Jew could have escaped with his life VVhen therefore this VVardship ceased then the Law expired as Tutors went off from Children when they were free Tutores qui dantur ad certum tempus finito Tempore deponunt Tutelam saith the Law J. Quibus modis c. § praeterea SECTION III. Time of Minority The time of this Minority was from the publishing of the Law by Moses till the publishing of the Gospel by Jesus Christ one thousand five hundred and thirty years Gal. 4.4 5. Then did God send his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons I. Made of a Woman ie a Mortal Man an Hebraism born Truly though singularly of a Virgin 1. To shew his great Compassion For Naturally men are Compassionate but especially Sufferers and such was he Is 53.3 Despised and rejected of men a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief c. It behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful High Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 2.17 to make Reconciliation for the sins of the People Redemption 2. To Redeem Mortals 1. Jews from the Law 2. Gentiles from Satan II. Made under the Law i. e. Born under the Jurisdiction of the Law Circumcised and being obedient to the Law III. To Redeem them that were under the Law i. e. To put an end to the Law During Christ's Privacy the Law was of force and Christ was under the Law but when he shewed himself a publick Person and entred upon his Ministry by Preaching then the Law began to expire and Men pressed into the Gospel to live by its rules For the Law and the Prophets were till John and since that time the Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence Luc. 16.16 and every man presseth into it Gal. 3.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eximere signifies to Exempt he hath redeemed us i. e. exempted us from the Curse of the Law Exemption is a genus to Redemption Emancipation and Manumission Exemption is from God's Statute Law or Positive Law contained in Judgments and Ceremonies not from the Laws of Nature which were in force before Moses and shall be in force for ever for not the least tittle of the Law shall ever fail because Christ came not to destroy this Law but to fulfil it Adoption IV. That we might receive the Adoption of Sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Emancipation really not Grammatically Because the Jews were the Adopted Sons of God before but not Emancipated because not of full Age therefore not free but in a middle estate betwixt two Extremes 1. Children compared to Servants are free 2. But compared to Free-men they are Servants even to their Servants as Tutors are though Lords of all SECTION IV. But when they are Adult and of Plenage they understand their Estate Plenage know their Father's Will and learn to manage his Affairs and are capable to enter upon the Inheritance and to be Sui Juris The Adult have a Right of Impunity from Servile fear 1. Of Correction for Ignorance or Neglect as Servants 2. Of Disinherison unless for Grand Crimes so are not Servants who have no Right to abide in the house for ever but Sons may abide for ever As in a Son adult it is an unworthy and shameful thing to commit a Malicious and Wilful offence against his Father so it is unseemly in the Father not to remit that sin to the Son humbling himself and repenting as the Prodigal did By the Laws of Nature Heirs adult are free from Tutors and Curators at man's Estate Toga donati The Jews though Sons and Heirs yet could not be emancipated till they had served an hard Apprenticeship under the Law as God would have it but the Gentiles immediately after their Faith are adopted and exempted without this Service who never were under the Law nor were to be under it as God would have it And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby ye cry Abba Father SECTION V. The Gentiles were wholly excused and exempted from Bondage at the End of the Jews Childhood Their Law ended to them Gentiles exempted from Minority and to the Gentiles their state of Childhood is remitted and they presently upon their Conversion enjoy their Liberty As in a Society he that is elected Fellow is the same day admitted to the full Fellowship and the years of his Probation are remitted to him so the Gentiles being Elected were at the same time admitted to the full Priviledges of the Jews and the time of their Servitude was remitted unto them Thus the Believing Gentiles who all the time of the day stood idle in the Market and laboured not in the Vineyard till towards the Evening were made equal with the Believing Jews who bore the burthen and heat of the day And what is that to the Jews If God's eye be good why should their eye be evil He may do what he will with his own and he will give unto these last even as unto them The Jews had the Spirit of Servitude under the Law because they were Minors and after their Majority had the Spirit of Freedom but the Gentiles were delivered from a worse servitude under Satan and translated by Faith from the Power of Satan into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God To the Jews pertained the Adoption Ro. 9.4 and the Glory of the Ark and Temple and the Covenant and the giving of the Law and the the Service of God and the Promises But unto Christians belong better Promises better Precepts a greater Spirit a greater Liberty and a more glorious Worship and by degrees they aspire towards perfection till they come to a perfect Man Eph. 4. â—3 to the measure of the stature of the Fulness of Christ SECTION VI. This last and best Dispensation of the Gospel in the last times and Adult age of the Church being so highly Spiritual as it is flies in the face of all Superstition and Idolatry and laies them all dead at her foot with one blow Popery
let us go on to perfection not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptisms and of laying on of Hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment and this we will do if God permit Gal. 3.23 Before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed Wherefore the Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith But after that Faith is come we are no longer under a School-master For ye are all the children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 4.1 c. Now I say that the Heir as long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutours and Governours until the time appointed of the Father Even so we when we were Children were in bondage under the Elements of the world But when the Fulness of the Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Wherefore thou art no more a Servant but a Son and if a Son then an Heir of God through Christ Howbeit then when ye knew not God ye did service unto them which by Nature are no Gods But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly Elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage Ye observe days and months and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain Gal. 3.3 Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the Flesh Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of Bondage As free 1 Pet. 2 1â— and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God Honour all men Love the brethren Fear God Honour the King Be subject to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake and for Conscience sake For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of Adoption whereby ye crie Abba Father All things are lawful 1 Cor. 2.6 12. but I will not be brought under the power of any Time was when there was no greater light of Knowledg to be given than was given nor hearts of apprehension greater than to receive such knowledg But now there are greater lights and greater capacity of Minds and greater helps of the Spirit to comprehend greater wisdom and if they do not comprehend them it must needs be their own fault The Prophets had a glimmering of this Light but especially he that was called the Prophet of the Highest Luk. 1.78 c. that went before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways to give knowledg of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the Day-spring from on high hath visited us To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of Peace This Great man stood and peeped in at the door of the Gospel and saw more of this light than any that went before him but less than any that came after him For since that God hath poured out of his spirit upon all Flesh and their Sons and Daughters have prophecied their old men have dreamed dreams and the young men have seen visions and the people are all taught of God the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by violence and all men rush into it The Standard of the Gospel is set up upon the top of Mount Sion displayed and seen of all and all Nations are invited to flow into it 4. Besides all this teaching we have the learning of our own Experience what the world is and how we have found it to our selves which in our greatest Necessities hath ever left us in the lurch and is allways flux and wavering and we may presume it ever will be so and therefore if we will still leave the wisdom of God and cleave to the wisdom of the world trusting to that which was never to be trusted it is our own fault and we must take that that comes of it Obj. Who can be perfectly spiritual Ans We may aspire to perfection and be spiritual though not perfectly spiritual Eph. 4.11 c. Wherefore God hath given some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastours and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the Faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the Measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ We may be spiritual at the first though not perfectly spiritual till the last Phil. 3.12 c. Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the price of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded And if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule 1 Cor. 4.4 let us mind the same things For I know nothing by my self yet am I not thereby justified Be ye therefore perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect Obj. Outward Service at this rate will be slighted 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Ans No we are taught that our Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us which we have of God and we are not our own for we are bought with a price therefore we must glorifie God in our Body and in our Spirit which are the Lord 's I beseech you therefore Brethren by the Mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God Rom. 12.1 2. which is your reasonable Service And be ye not conformed to this World but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God And therefore we are taught to yield freely to a few harmless easie significant Bodily Rites for order and decency and for uniformity and peace sake and for Conscience sake of our duty which we owe to
see that such as are in necessity have right Help all them to right that suffer wrong and punish the wrong doer Do right to the poor use no force nor fraud against him to deprive him of his right but by a right Sentence give him his right The Italian renders it Faitte drito the French Faites justice it is the act of justice to give every one his right 1. Thus to justifie is to acquite or discharge one that is guilty by Favour and Grace 2. To justifie is to declare a Man free from guilt of which he was wrongfully charged and pronounced guilty by wrong Sentence of Law 3. To justifie is to create a right to a Man that had none before 4. To justifie is to restore a right to a Man that had lost it 5. To justifie is to make a Man a proprietary or an owner of something that had nothing or at least not that which he is now justified unto 6. To justifie is to assert and prove any thing to be true or any Person to be honest in word or deed SECT I. Accounting Thus to account any right to any Person is to justifie that Person or to impute righteousness unto him Rom. 4.6 Gal. 2.16 So to be accounted righteous or for righteousness to be accounted to us or for Faith to be accounted for Righteousness or to be justified by Faith are all one and the same thing And truly all Rights consist in imputing accounting or reckoning which is their force or essence As that the Usefruit or propriety of any thing is imputed or reckoned to appertain and belong to such a Person this is his right by some title or other And all accounting or reckoning is either 1. Of sayings or Propositions as in Logick 2. Of numbers as in Logistick 3. Of Rights or Dues as in Justice or Mercy So to be justified is to be imputed reckoned accounted declared pronounced or created righteous i. e. to have a present right to a future inheritance by the means of Faith and Title of Grace and Mercy in Jesus Christ Thus our justification makes no moral alteration in us that is makes us not just or righteous in doing moral righteousness much less does moral righteousness justifie but justification produceth in us a civil capacity to possess something investing us in an Estate and gives us a new right to have and hold something as our own The poor oppressed are justified not by making them morally righteous but by giving them right that is either declaring their right by a right Sentence or by hindring of that force and fraud which would deprive them of their right Thus Justification is opposed to Condemnation Rom. 8 33 34 It is God that justifies who shall condemn To justifie is to invest a Man with a right to condemn is to devest or deprive a Man of right If through the offence of one many be dead Rom. 5.15 16 c. much more the Grace of God and the Gift by Grace which is by one Man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many The judgment is of one to condemnation but the free-gift is of many offences unto justification Therefore as by the offence of one Man judgment came upon all to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free-gift came upon all Men unto justification of life For as by one Man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous He that is dead is freed from sin the Original is justified from sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is contrary to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SECT II. The Synonyma or Parallel names are these Synonyma Eph. 1.11 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. To obtain an inheritance 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To gather together in one all things in Christ which is properly our Incorporation or imbodying into Christ our Head 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be reconciled unto God for Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5.10 2 Cor. 5.19 20. When we were his enemies we were reconciled to God God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation that he might reconcile both unto God in one Body by the Cross Eph. 2.16 Col. 1.12 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be sufficiented or made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 1.13 To be translated into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God from darkness to light i. e. to be justified 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be accepted to the Beloved i. e. to be justified Eph. 1.6 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be engraffed being a wild Olive Rom. 11.24 and to partake of the fatness thereof c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be enfranchised If the Son shall make you free John 8.36 Eph. 2.19 then are ye free indeed i. e. justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 1 Pet. 5.1 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Access or coming unto God 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adoption As many as received him John 1.12 Rom. 8. to them gave he power i. e. right to be called the Sons of God We have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alliance to God Eph. 2.13 Ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pardoning and forgiving Col. 2.13 And you being dead in your sin and the uncircumcisien of your flesh hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ransoming or redeeming Rev. 5.9 Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood By all these and the like expressions is declared a permanent state and stable condition wherein a person standeth as to Freedom and is the Base or standard of all Rights accounted to him SECT III. Bondage There are two Spiritual States the one of bondage the other of freedom 1. Spiritual Bondage which is a Restraint Pressure Closeness or Fastness of the Spirit whereby a man is tyed from good to evil is a drudge to sin and a slave to lust a captive to the Devil This is a State of wrath low base terrene and miserable a condition below the nature and quality of a man having no Right nor capacity of Right to any Spiritual Benefit a very death SECT IV. Freedom 2. Spiritual Freedome which is a gallantry fluency clearness or loosness of the Spirit an enlargement from
are in the Corporation but not of it As the Bastard is in the Family not of it he is disabled from inheriting because he is a Person unlawful and unright He is not right himself and therefore he can have no right he is not born as he should be therefore not born to what he should be As the Slave is in the Family but not of the Family he is uncapable of possessing any thing because he himself is possessed he can be no Master of any goods because he is his Master's goods All his acts are nothing because he is dead in Law As the Alien is in the City but not of the City he hath no right there he is not Homo legalis because he is not born there as he should be As an unbeliever is in the Church but not of the Church he hath no right he is not Homo fidelis because he is not born again as he should be Contrarily some Persons have right they are in the Corporation and of it they have title to claim the benefit and power to sue for it As a Son hath right in the Family to succeed his Father if he dies intestate As a Wife hath right of Dower for her joynture or her Thirds As a native Subject in a Kingdom is free to enjoy and dispose and hath a suffrage in Elections and other Priviledges to which he is born As a Believer is in the Church and of the Church he hath right to Christ and to the ordinances of Christ the Word and Sacraments because he is Homo fidelis and born again as he should be Now when he that had no right is made to have a right he is said to be justified to it or he that is absolved and released from some burden is justified from it All Legitimation is a justifying for therein a Child is released from the burden of Bastardy All Absolution is justifying for the party is released from the burden of some Bond. All Purifying and cleansing under the Law was justifying for therein the party was released from the burden of uncleanness And so Men were justified in the Law of Moses in some things but not in all Acts 13.39 But Faith justifies from all things from which the Law of Moses could not justifie All Pardoning is justifying for therein a Sinner is released from the burden of punishment The Romish Writers quarrel with our Divines when they place Justification partly in the Remission of sins for indeed that is a part or branch of it for all pardoning or remitting of sin is justifying but all justifying is not pardoning He whose right is declared is justified the Judg justifies the party whose right was controverted and doubtful The Matter of right the Judg creates not but only declares what was concealed He whose right is restored is justified All restitution is justifying for thereby the party hath his right again and repossesseth that which was his own before All In-lawing is justifying for thereby the party out-lawed is restored to his former right So as Legitimation is to a Bastard as Manumission is to a Slave as Naturalization and Enfranchisement is to an Alien so is Justification to a Sinner The Reasons are these 1. From the Names that are given to Persons justified before justification We are Bastards not born right but born in sin And God was our Natural Father not our Legitimate not our Spiritual Father For except a Man be born again he can never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.3 Bastards are not born as they should be We are Aliens and Forreigners we should be born in Paradise where our first Parents dwelt in Innocency and Immortality but we are born in the World a place of banishment to them and us where God is our Ruler only Eph. 2.12 not our King Without Christ we are Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers to the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the World That is having no right in Christ nor hope of Inheritance in Glory but dead Men as Slaves are in Law i. e. morally dead in trespasses and sins and therefore jurally dead as to the capacity to any right For the dead loose all other rights save only that of Burial we are not born where we should be 2. From the Names that are given to the acts of justification As Joh. 17.20 1. Uniting or making us one with God and Christ That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Ro. 12.17 2. Grafting Christ is the true Olive stock the Jews the natural branches the Gentiles wild branches till ingrafted into Christ 3. Marrying while we were in the Flesh we were married to the Law but when justified by the Spirit we are dead unto the Law and married unto Christ Ro. 7.4 4. Adopting Redeemed from being under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons Gal. 4.4 5. The Spirit of the Son sent forth into our hearts crying Rom. 8. Abba Father We have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear but the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father As many as have received him i. e. have believed on him to them gave he power i. e. a right Joh. 1.12 as in the Margin to be called the Sons of God which is their justification by Faith For we are all the Sons of God by Faith in Christ Jesus 5. From the Names given to our state in Christ after justification as 1. Our being in Christ As the Wife is in the Husband the Child in the Parents Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus Our Fellowship with Christ the first born and heir So we are born again die with him rise with him Co-heirs with him shall co-rule with him Reign together with him in Heavenly places God hath called us to the Fellowship of his Son 1 Cor. 1.9 And we have fellowship with the Father and the Son 3. Our Corporation with Christ Our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Heaven Our Bodies are the Members of Christ Phil. 3.10 1 Cor. 6.15 Eph. 5.3 we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones not naturally but jurally The matter of our Justification being our right of Incorporation into God and Christ in general from thence may follow these three principal rights in particular 1. A right to things present 2. A right to things in future 3. The degrees of our Right to both these things in present and in future SECT II. 1. A right to things in present As 1. A right of Impunity or Pardon of sins Impunity That all his sins whatsoever he hath committed or shall commit hereafter are forgiven God may correct his Children in this Life otherwise they should not be his true Children but Bastards but he will not punish them in the Life to
us and them at the last day 3. We may not think of our selves or others that when we or they have honestly and constantly endeavoured after goodness and come short of what is indeed perfection therefore we shall be all rejected and left under woful disappointments God is not so hard a Master 4. We may not think that every one that in heat of passion despairs or makes away himself is lost for ever or every Mad-man or Fool is damned These have no Will and therefore no sin for the time and therefore cannot suffer justly for such actions but for what they did while they were themselves if ever they were so If never they are sufferers not Sinners no shame to them but for God's Glory 5. We may not think that every one that boasts of his Assurance is sure and of his Perfection is perfect There is cause to suspect such most who least suspect themselves 6. The Cares and Loves of God are not altogether without some fears and jealousies Pietas etiam tuta aliquindo pertimescit Piety though in a safe condition is now and then fearful The liberal Man mistrusteth his Bounty The Believer his Unbelief Lord I believe help thou my unbelief If this be a fault it is a safe one Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Be not high minded but fear Every Man hath not a Mansion in Heaven that pretendeth to it nor is every Man shut out who doubteth of his evidence for Heaven Diffidence is a character of a good Man who would fain be better Though he hath built up his Assurance as strong as he can yet he thinketh himself not sure enough but seeketh farther for Assurance and fortifieth it with his fear and assiduous diligence to make it stand fast for ever The case of every one that uses desperate words is not desperate if they proceed from distempers of Body or ignorance of Mind and not from corrupt consciences We may be bold to say If real despair hath killed her thousands Presumption hath slain her ten thousands Despair is the Daughter of Sin and Darkness but Presumption is the ludibrium of Hope But holy confidence is the Genuine Off-spring of a pure conscience 7. Neglect not the Grace of God nor receive it in vain nor turn it unto wantonness nor sin that Grace may abound But be vigilant and careful and wisely fearful Fortis saepè victus cautus rarissime A strong Man over confident oft falls but a wary Man seldom SECT VI. Proofs For a Close to leave my own Conceptions I will lay most of the Scriptures together concerning this point and let the Reader try what I have said from them or what he himself can gather out of them And they are these Eph. 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by which ye are sealed unto the day of your Redemption And not only they that is the Creation but our selves Ro. 8.23 which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our Bodies Eph. 1.14 The Spirit which is the earnest of our Inheritance untill the Redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Ro. 8.15 Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 4.5 6. To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons and because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father Joh. 1.12 As many as have received him to them gave he power to be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 John 5.16 If any Man sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death There is a sin unto death I do not say ye shall pray for it Ro. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Joh. 16.22 I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no Man taketh from you 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoicing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our conversation in the World 1 Joh. 3.21 Beloved if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God 1 Joh. 16 17. We have known and believed the love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 5.15 And if we know that he hears us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the Petitions that we desired of him Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name he will give it you 2 Pet. 1.10 The rather Brethren give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure For if ye do these things ye shall never fall Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect Ro. 8.33 c. it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the Right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Being perswaded that he that had promised was able also to perform Ro. 4.21 Ye know that all things shall work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 even to them who are the called according to his purpose We know that we have passed from death unto Life 1 Joh. 3.14 16. because we love the Brethren he that loveth not his Brother abideth in death Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren Verily verily I say unto you he that knoweth my Word Joh. 5.23 and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from Death unto Life The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want Ps 23 1 c. he maketh me to lie down in green pastures c. In thee O Lord do I put my trust let me never be ashamed c. Ps 31. i. He that
5. Some mens Religion is nothing but a Faculty of Rhetoricating in Preaching and Praying by Inspiration as they call it of the Spirit whereas in truth it is a mere Natural Faculty often helped by Art and Learning in persons grosly hypocritical and debauched There is a mere Natural Enthusiasm of Poetry and Oratory Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus ipso Sedibus Aetheriis Spiritus ille venit And when such Eloquent and fiery men are imployed in Religious Exercises they are fluent to admiration and become extremely popular to lead Multitudes like Pitchers by the Ears into Fanatick Distempers against Church and State in Peace or Warr especially if they be bred in the Schools of Learning or set in Publick Imployments It is farr from my meaning to undervalue or declare against the sincere and ardent affections of Devout Souls naturally and freely breathing out their earnest Ejaculations to God in private But to caution the Simple well-meaning People from mistaking the Natural and Enthusiastick fervour of mens Spirits and the ebulliency of their Fancies and Expressions for a supernatural Inspiration especially if they meddle with Religion or Polity for which they have no warrant from God or Man Let the World know what wise men judge That the Evidence and Demonstration of God's Spirit consisteth not in words and talk as if God were to be heard for their much speaking or glorified by their loud noises and long harangues For that is chiefly to be discerned in Life and Action though the words be few And therefore when some Corinthians were puffed up by reason of a rich Fancy they had expressed by the sweetness of Attick Eloquence in which they were bred so that the Unlearned had their Persons in great Veneration above St. Paul who had not that strain nor could use the entising words of man's wisdom in the business of the Gospel he tells these deceived Souls having the Word of God in respect of persons and their boasting Teachers the Gnosticks That he would come amongst them for he had the Spirit of Discerning and know not the speech of them that were puffed up but the power For the Kingdom of God saith he consisteth not in Word but in Power and Life Wherefore laying aside all these deceitful Fancies let us really set our selves to mortifie all our Lusts and Affections That being Born Crucified Dead Buried and Risen with Christ here we may live Eternally with him in Glory hereafter Amen SECTION I. From all these Premises we derive these Corollaries or Conclusions Of the Consequences of Christ's Death and Resurrection Material Cross 1. There is a Material Cross of Wood. There are Whips Nails a Crown of Thorns Agony and Death at Jerusalem outward visible matter of Fact a History 2. There is a Spirttual Cross The spirit virtue of Death Spiritual Cross Fellowship of Sufferings Death of Sin in the Heart inward invisible matter of Right a Mystery 3. Material Resurrection There is a Material Resurrection from Death and Grave at Jerusalem outward matter of Fact History 4. There is a Spiritual Resurrection virtue Spiritual Resurrection power of Resurrection from Death in Sin to the Life of Righteousness in the heart inward matter of Right Mystery The Historical Faith is only of matter of Fact for Knowledge only as the Devils and Turks c. believe The Justifying Faith is for matter of Right for Merit Virtue Power Comfort of Christ's Death and Resurrection by the Spirit of Christ So are all the Promises of God accepted by us and sealed confirmed to us So we promise and covenant to and with God So we partake of all the Benefits of his Death and Resurrection 5. Material Ascension There is a Material Ascension of Christ into the holy place of Heaven offering up his Blood to consecrate that place for us sitting at the Right Hand of God and making intercession There he rules over all things from thence he sends down his holy Spirit Matter of Fact History 6. There is a Spiritual Ascension Entring into the Hearts Spiritual Ascension Ruling in our Souls by his Spirit Crying Abba Father Matter of Right Mystery So in Christ's Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension there is a History and a Mystery a Letter and a Spirit 1. Christ is born in our Flesh Christ is born in our Spirit We are born in the Flesh we are born again in the Spirit Christ is formed in the Womb of his Mother We are formed in the Womb of Christ We are born in Christ and with Christ and Christ is born in us and with us 2. Christ died in the Flesh we are dead in the Flesh we are dead to the Flesh We are dead in the World we are dead to the World We are dead with Christ and buried with Christ 3. Christ rose in the Flesh Christ riseth in the Spirit We shall rise in the Flesh we shall rise in the Spirit Thus there is a Birth in Sin there is a Birth to and from Sin and there is a Birth for Sin Thus there is a Birth in Sin there is a Birth from Sin and there is a Birth to Sin Thus there is a Life in Sin there is a Life from Sin and there is a Life for Sin So Christ's Death conquers our Sins for us And Christ's Spirit conquers our Sins in us So Christ's Resurrection raiseth us from Sin unto Righteousness Christ's Resurrection justifies his Death to be true and Christ's Resurrection justifies the pardon of our Sins and his Spirit doth actually assure the pardon to our Souls So Christ is in us and with us and we are in Christ and with Christ So Christ lives in us and with us and we live in Christ and with Christ So Christ is crucified in us and with us so we are crucified in Christ and with Christ So Christ dies in us and with us and we die in Christ and with Christ So Christ rises in us and with us so we rise in Christ and with Christ So Christ is glorified in us and with us and we are glorified in Christ and with Christ This is to eat Christ's Flesh and drink his Blood spiritually This is to put off the Old Man and to put on the New Man This is our Regeneration and a New Creature This is our Communion with Christ and Christ's Communion with us This is to dwell in Christ and Christ in us This is to be one with Christ and Christ with us I am my Well-beloved's and my Well-beloved is mine This is to believe all and do all in the Spirit in the Lord and for the Lord. All is our Faith all is his Spirit The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and Life If ye fast or weep for Christ's Death if ye feast or rejoyce for Christ's Resurrection do all in the Spirit Pray Praise Hear Read Sing Meditate Communicate Live in the Spirit Obj. The Language is hard and high Sol. It is
by Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory now and for evermore Amen APPENDIX OR APPLICATION TO THE CLERGY and LAITY The CONTENTS Word Sacraments Gospel-Spirit TITLE I. Of the Clergie's Calling SAint Paul saith 2 Cor. 3.6 God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Old not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life We must therefore consider our Calling Heb. 7.12 the Priesthood is changed therefore there must of necessity be a change also of the Law The Gospel is the Royal Law the Law of Faith the Law of liberty and of perfection that nulls the servile Law of bondage and works The Word therefore of this New Testament we must preach Word the newness of the Spirit not the oldness of the Letter and that in season and out of season and that carefully for wo be unto us if we preach not the Gospel and cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently and having put our hands to this plow we must not look back Sacraments 2. The Sacraments of this New Testament we must administer as 1. Baptism which is not by Water only but by Water and Blood for without blood there is no Remission of sins and Baptism is for the remission of sins therefore we are baptized into Christ's death in which is blood that our sins might be buried in Christ's grave and we buried with him in Baptism and rise again with him in newness of Life 2. The Lord's Supper containing 1. The Body of Christ which is given for us Sacrifice and Burnt-offering thou wouldest not have but a body hast thou prepared me This is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for you This is the New Testament in my Blood and no Testament can be confirmed without Blood And hereby we shew the Lord's death until he come again Gospel-spirit Let us aim therefore at a Gospel-Spirit for behold I shew unto you a more excellent way both in your Doctrine and in your Persons I do not take upon me to be a Magisterial Dictator to the Clergy but as having received some helps from the Lord I hope I may become an humble and modest Adviser and Director The CONTENTS Precepts Promises Conditions TITLE II. Of the Clergie's Doctrine I. IN Your Doctrine therefore consider what high Preceps and what high Promises you are to publish to the world For surely we are no Old-Testament-Divines but Ministers of a better Testament than that was and established upon far better Promises Precepts The Precepts you are to teach are very pure no less than Spiritual and perfect Holiness which is the condition for the obtaining of God's Promises For Godliness hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come and without Holiness no man shall ever see the face of God The Promises you are to teach are no less than Spiritual and Eternal Happiness and the graces that tend thereto as Forgiveness of sins Promises Adoption Liberty Protection Priviledges the Earnest and Comfort of the Spirit Resurrection and Life Everlasting Fear not little Flock for it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom Come ye Blessed children of my Father inherit the kingdom of God prepared for you from the beginning of the world Greater Precepts cannot be enjoyned and greater promises cannot be made and surer cannot be performed For they are the Gifts and Legacies of God devised by him in his last Will and Testament conveyed and administred by Christ the Executor The conditions upon which these high things are given are as noble Conditions so as easie and favourable written upon the Tables of our hearts by the finger of God's Spirit Thy Law is within my heart therefore easie to be known and as easie to be done by the help of the same Spirit which shall lead us into all truth and help all our Infirmities and do our work for us and in us I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me My Grace is sufficient for thee Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easie and my burden is light Embrace wisdom for her ways are always pure and pleasant and all her paths are peace Every Wise man will make his Last Will and Testament his best Will and Testament most plain and easie to be understood that the Heir and Legataries may know their several Duties and Dues how to perform them and how to claim by them And every good man will make his last Will and Testament his most favourable and bountiful Will and Testament bestowing the best things and commanding the easiest and less irksome Conditions Much more will the great and wise God who is wisdom and goodness it self make his last will most clear and most gracious For if we that are evil know how to give good gifts to our children how much more will our Heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to those that ask him Hit therefore this Basilick vein find out the pretious Pearl pour in this Balm of Gilead open this Phoenix Nest this bed of Spices this pretious Box of odoriferous Ointments Let your Speech be seasoned with Salt and let such gracious words proceed out of your mouths as may administer Grace unto the Hearers Be not sons of Thunder as if you came from Mount Sinai but rather sons of consolation as coming from Mount Sion Be sure ye utter no Principles against the Justice and Mercy of God nor Dogmata Reipublicae noxia nor Doctrines hurtful or disgraceful to Princes or Common-Wealths Remember that Religion is first pure and then peaceable not reflecting upon the Dishonour of God nor injurious to any man Be not as the Seditious Zealots among the Jews before and at the destruction of Jerusalem nor like the factious and rebellious Philosophers Orators and Poets among the Gentiles especially in Greece and Rome Beware of all Judaizing or Heathenizing by Cabbalistical Sophistical vain Philosophy insinuating deceivable Rhetorick Flourishes Gingles and Querks of Flashy Wit Preach the plain good will and mind of God plainly and kindly Hide your Art and that will be your chiefest Art Tell poor Souls what a large Portion they have in God's Will and Testament how their Namss are written in that book of Life Tell them the mark of the price of the high Calling which is laid up for them in Christ Jesus the crown of Righteousness the exceeding great Recompence of the Reward for all such as diligently seek him Freely you have received this treasure into your Earthen Vessels freely give it to them to whom it belongs distribute the favours of your bountiful Lord and Master with a courteous hand let not your eye be evil because God's is good be you willing as God is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth be not rigid austere morose sullen saturnine ghostly
Correction Work Payment Church Elders Bishops Priests Deacons High Priest Altar Sacrifice Tithes Oblations First fruits Dedication Consecration Expiation Propitiation Excommunication Idol Faith Vow Covenant Contract Promise Oath Stipulation Sacrament Seal Intercession Hand-writing Mediator Obligation Assurance Evidence Conveyance Alliance Affinity Consanguinity Tribe Stock Familie Degrees Line Birthright Succession Dominion Lordship These and other learned Titles of the Law with the profound judgments of renowned Antecessors upon each of them serve more to the enrichment of the treasury of wisdom for the furnishing of apt Interpretations and Glosses upon the Laws divine than all the Arts or Learning of the World Besides the aptitude of resolving cases and doing business with prudence honesty and gallantry is created by them after the rellish of those equitable and brave Souls that made them The CONTENTS Of the Laitie's Calling AND as to the Laity I say consider your Calling we may not speak the mind of God in learned and unknown Tongues to the high ones only that Pearch on the Towers but in Vulgar language to the meanest that sit on the wall Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet That which concerns all ought to be understood by all We will not hoodwink you to make your Ignorance the Mother of your as blind devotion we will not captivate your minds by Magisterial dictates of us men and hide from you the Royal Commandments of your God TITLE VI. Of the Laitie's Doctrine I. I Say then boldly Consider your Calling For Doctrine 1. From beyond the lowest Law of Nature 2. From beyond any Laws written upon Tables 1. To the Law of the Spirit and of Grace 2. To the Law written upon the Heart To the best of Precepts of Evangelical perfection taught by Christ in his famous Sermon upon the Mount and other occasional Discourses and by the Apostles and other holy Men of God that had the same treasure in earthen vessels To the best of Promises Viz. Forgiveness of sins Liberty Adoption Spirit Resurrection eternal life These are the Laws that are so high and yet so easie few favourable and pleasant for the wayes of Wisdom are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace I exhort them therefore to a high belief and full assurance of Heaven by the seal and earnest of the Spirit to be partakers of the holy Unction of Wisdom and Perfection to be a Royal Priesthood and a peculiar people by vertue of the promises that belong to you and to your Children of high exemptions and priviledges of great honour and estate TITLE VII Of the Laitie's Persons II. FOR your Persons Look therefore to your selves that ye walk worthy of so great Salvation and having such an hope in you so full of a glorious and blessed Immortality see that ye purifie your selves even as God is pure and become a people altogether zealous of good Works perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord that at last you may obtain an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith which is in Christ Jesus Fear not therefore little Flock for it is your Father's good Will and pleasure to give you a kingdom Your hope is laid up for you in heaven And neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath laid up for those that fear him When Christ the favourable Mediatour and Executor of God's Testament shall put the Faithful into actual possession of Eternal Glory saying Come ye Blessed Children of my Father receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World Aim therefore at a gospel-Gospel-Spirit 1. Care not for unnecessary Disputes God's Testament is a plain Testament of Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ As Men's Testaments are to be seen and read by all that are concerned so is God's Will to be seen and read by all Col. 2.6 c. As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ 2 Tim. 2.23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes also Genealogies and contentions and strivings about the Law for they are unprofitable and vain 1 Tim. 1.4 Neither give heed to Fables and endless Genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in Faith If any man teach otherwise 1 Tim 6.3 c. and consent not to wholsome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doating about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness Jude 27 c. from such turn away Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly Lusts these be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit But ye Beloved building up your selves in your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal Life and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garments spotted by the flesh Let the Clergy exhort and teach these things and whatsoever else belongeth unto sound doctrine with all long suffering and patience as the stout Soldiers of Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 6.20 And let them be sure to keep that which is committed to their Trust avoiding profane and vain bablings and oppositions of Sciences falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the Faith Tit. 1.14 Let them not give heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth nor yet to endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edification 1 Cor. 2.4 Let not your speech nor your preaching be with the entising words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power Speak Wisdom among them that are perfect the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our Glory For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid 1 Cor. 3.11 c which is Jesus Christ Now if any man build upon this foundation Gold Silver Pretious stones Wood Hay Stubble every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall trie every man's work whatsoever it is If any
Heavenly Father notwithstanding his great Grace and though I would be glad of his Inheritance yet am unwilling to do him service for it but wilfully choose to serve my own lusts and follow the World and am led captive by the Devil according to his will then I deserve to be rejected and shall be rejected unless I repent For those that honour God God will honour but those that dishonour him shall be lightly esteem'd God's Grace is so far from being a licence for me to sin that it is a restraint from it to make me fear to offend The more kind a Father is the more should the Son fear to offend him because the greater is his trespass if he do offend him who hath been so loving to him And as a kind Father is grieved to disinherit his incorrigible Son so when my transgressions become presumptuous malicious and incorrigible my Heavenly Father is grieved to reprobate me and cast me off and decrees it not but in his wrath when there is no help for it As he did with the Israelites Ps 95.10 Fourty years long was I grieved with this Generation and said It is a People that do erre in their hearts and they have not known my waies unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my Rest SECT IV. Kingdom of God 1. The Kingdom of God is the Estate of final Blessedness which God will impart to the Saints in the Kingdom of Heaven For the Kingdom of Heaven as by Matthew only it is called and the Kingdom of God are all one and the same thing though diversly denominated for both signifie that Blessedness whereof God is the cause and Heaven the place where it is enjoy'd Yet in diverse places of the Scripture the Kingdom of God is put for the means whereby we are convey'd to that State Natural Man The Natural Man neither hath nor ever had any right at all to this Inheritance of Blessedness because this right comes by God's promise which he for want of Faith accepts not and therefore is not in Covenant with God for it Spiritual Man But the Spiritual Man hath a right unto it for his Faith whereby he accepts the promise of it gives him a Title to it and the Spirit which by reason of his Faith is infused into his heart makes him an assurance of it for the Spirit is the Seal the Witness and the Earnest of that Heavenly Inheritance yea farther the Spirit is his Guide and Comforter for light and strength to enlighten lead and enable him to the performance of those Offices and Services which make up the Tenure whereby he holds that right and perseveres in it For as Faith doth infiliate and make him jurally the Son of God by way of Adoption to have a right in the Estate of God so the Spirit doth in a degree farther super-infiliate him by making him jurally the Son of God by way of sanctification to be Holy as God is Holy Because as Faith so also Holiness is a mean unto the state of Blessedness whereto he shall certainly attain who follows and perseveres in that Holiness whereto the Spirit leads and enables him For by his Title of Faith and by his assurance from the Spirit he hath a present right to the future possession of it as every Heir hath to his Father's Estate But if the Spiritual Man whose regeneration is in fieri Forfeiture will not follow and walk after the Spirit whom God hath given him for his leader but upon the conflict between the Spirit and the Flesh will side with the Flesh to walk after the Flesh and do the works of the Flesh he cannot hold his right to Blessedness but must needs forfeit it because he performs not the Services and Works which are his tenure whereby he should hold it and at last enjoy it but doth work so contrary to his tenure that they extinguish and destroy his right of entrance whereby he should enjoy his future possession For what Father will not disinherit that Heir who grows disobedient and rebellious unto him by committing acts contrary to the duty of a Son Seeing that our Filiation or Christian liberty whereby we are the Sons of God is not a state of licentiousness which leaves us loose from Holiness unto sinfulness but contrarily makes us loose from sinfulness unto Holiness and consequently unto Blessedness And seeing the Grace of the Gospel which grants us that Blessedness grants us not the least indulgence to the Flesh or releaseth the bonds of Holiness and virtue or promiseth any pardon to him that sins in hope of pardon yet it is very indulgent and merciful to the sins of infirmity and human frailty and leaveth God to the prerogative of his mercy for a sin of presumption in case it be timely washed by a subsequent humiliation and repentance in forsaking that sin and returning to the course of Holiness And the inheritance of Blessedness in the Kingdom of God is reserved for those Sons of God who through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the Body and are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.13 14. For such are genuinely and properly the Sons of God because both jurally they have a right and also morally are righteous to persevere in that righteousness whereby they hold their right and whereby they are regenerated reformed and sanctified after the Image or likeness of their Heavenly Father which Image he that practiseth the works of the Flesh doth deface in himself and thereby defeats himself of his Heavenly Inheritance For although the righteous have a right yet if he forsake that righteousness whereby he should hold the right he hath and commit wickedness all his right that he had and all his righteousness that he hath done shall neither be mentioned nor remembred but in his trespass that he hath trespassed he shall die See Ezec. 18.24 and Ezec. 33.23 God hath bestow'd upon us the Sacred Gift of his Spirit to dwell in us and to quicken our mortal Bodies and we for this Gift are debtors not to the Flesh to live after the Flesh For if we live after the Flesh Ro. 8.11 c. we shall die c. If in Christianity we know any thing we must needs know this That no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous Man which is an idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience St. Paul tells the Ephesians that they knew this Ephes 5.5 6. and therefore chargeth them that no Man should deceive them with vain words Example of Israelites And hereof we have both a notable example and a figure in the Israelites who during their pilgrimage through the Wilderness had a right and title to inherit the Kingdom of Canaan for God had made a solemn promise for their inheritance of it and had confirmed his
drowning himself under the water a sign of dying unto sin being buried with Christ and rising again out of the water a sign of rising with Christ unto newness of Life So that if thy Faith oblige thee to the duty of a Son it will oblige God to the Blessings of a Father and he will not only by Nature and Grace adopt thee to be his Son but by Covenant and Pact institute thee to be his Heir and if thy faith oblige thee not to the duty of a Son it will disoblige God from the Blessings of a Father and he may disinherit thee having broken the Covenant for thy treachery and rebellion The Faithful have a promise I will be to thee a Father 2 Cor. 6.18 and thou shalt be to me a Son So they believing and accepting God for their Father he accounts their Faith to them for their right to be his Sons and gives them the Spirit of his Son to cry Abba Father imputing a present right to a future inheritance of Sons and Heirs and Joynt-heirs with Christ Ro. 8.17 Gal. 3.29 Gal. 4.7 Hebr. 1.14 Heb. 6.17 James 1.5 Heirs of God according to the promise Heirs of God through Christ Heirs of salvation Heirs of promise Heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised to those that love him Now an Heir is a Person justified to a future Estate so that to be justified by Faith and to be made an Heir of God are things either all one in effect or the later is but the property or consequent of the former as the Apostle saith That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the hope of Eternal Life SECT III. The Faith we have hitherto described to be Faith in God or of God Faith in Christ Mar. 11.22 Acts 3.16 John 14.1 is also Faith in Christ or of Christ Have Faith in God or of God through Faith in his Name or of his Name i. e. Christ Ye believe in God believe also in me Ye have been taught to believe in God as the Creator and Conservator of the World Psal 78.7 so do ye also believe in me the Son of God the Author and preserver of the Church 29. Joh. 6.27 the Prince of Life whom God the Father hath sealed This is the work of God that we believe in him whom he hath sent 1. Faith in God is an high esteem of God's Existence Goodness and Greatness and an acceptation of his will and kindness So 2. Faith in Christ is an high esteem of Christ's Person the Son of God and the Son of Man the Mediator between God and Man and an acceptation of his promises Hebr. 9.15 For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that they which are called might receive the promise of his eternal inheritance The Devils have an Estimatory Faith Thou art the Holy one of God Mar. 3.11 Mar. 1.20 22. A Preceptory Faith also to obey Christ as when he cast them out of the herd of Swine and at other times A Judicatory Faith Math. 8.29 that Christ is their Judg Art thou come to torment us before the time Luc. 8.28 But they have no Promissary Faith in God or in Christ Not that they want a will but they have no Promises but altogether threatnings and instead of being justified to a present right to a future Blessing they are condemned to a present right to a future curse which is everlasting fire Math. 25.14 prepared for the Devil and his angels Reserved in everlasting chains of darkness Jude 6. unto the judgment of the great day For to Mankind only are the promises made by God in Christ by the Will of God to be justified by Faith because Christ only took upon him our Nature and not the Nature of Angels Faith in the Patriarks was immediate in God Faith in the Jews was mediate by Moses Faith in Christians is mediate by Christ called therefore the Faith of Jesus Christ SECT IV. Christ the conveyer of Faith 1. Because Christ is the Conveyer of it through whom we believe in God For that our Faith may meet with God aright it must pass unto him the same way whereby his promises are conveyed unto us Now his promises are conveyed unto us 1. immediately and so our Faith passes immediatly unto God 2. mediately in Christ therefore our Faith must pass by Christ unto God Thus God did immediatly declare his promises to Noah for the saving of himself and others in the Ark. Gen. 6.18 Gen. 15.4 And to Abraham for a Son and Heir of his own Body Thus God did mediatly declare his promises to the Israelites by Moses for their deliverance out of Egypt Exod. 3.16 2 Sam. 7.4 Jer. 29.10 As also to David by Nathan for the everlasting establishment of his Kingdom to his Seed As to the Jews by Jeremiah for their return out of Captivity As to Zacharias by Gabriel That his Wife Elizabeth should have a Son Luc. 1.13 And as all God's promises in the Gospel are by Jesus Christ whose Ministery is most excellent therefore by him our Faith must pass unto God Hebr. 1.1 Heb. 8.6 Who in these last daies hath spoken unto us by his Son who is the Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises Therefore as God's promises arrive at us immediatly or mediatly so our Faith arriveth at God immediatly or mediatly Joh. 13.20 For Faith in God's Messenger is Faith in God who sent him He that receiveth whosoever I send receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me i. e. believeth And on the contrary He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me i. e. diffideth So God punished the Jews for not believing by the means of a Messenger with the Sword and Famine because they did not hearken to his words Jer. 29.18 which he spake unto them by his Servants the Prophets rising up early and sending them but they would not hear So Zacharias was stricken dumb for not believing the Angel Gabriel that came to him from God Such a mediate Faith had the Israelites who believed in Moses but their faith terminated in God Loe I come to thee in a thick cloud that the People may hear when I speak unto them Ex. 19.9 and believe thee for ever In the Original it is Believe in thee Christ said the Israelites trusted in Moses yet God was the ultimate end where their Faith rested and Moses the means through whom it passed Faith mediates in Christ Joh. 5.45 but terminates in God The trust we have to God-ward is through Christ 2 Cor. 3.4 Through him both Jews and Gentiles have an access by one Spirit unto the Father By Christ we do believe in God Eph. 2.18 1 Pet. 1.21 that our Faith and Hope in Christ might be Faith and Hope in God Christ saith He that believeth
But turbulent minds will raise Sedition upon any occasion whether of errour or truth but most commonly upon occasion of truth and then charge the truth as the cause of the Sedition which themselves caused For was not Sedition raised about and against that truth which Christ and his Apostles preached and yet charged upon him and his Apostles The CONTENTS Transition Calling Election Faithful are Elect. Faith Walking by Faith Worthies of Old Election need not to be concealed Election an easie Point Diligence to make Election sure TITLE VII Of Election CHRIST's Kingdom is an Elective Kingdom Transition Christ is an Elective King chosen of God Christians are Elective Subjects to Christ their King Elective Souldiers to Christ their General chosen by Christ and choosing Christ Listing themselves under him and fighting under his Banner SECT I. I. This is a Christian 's Calling where 1. The Caller is God Calling predestinating and purposing them according to the good pleasure of his will choosing and electing them according to his purpose justifying them and adopting them to be his Children sanctifying them and glorifying them by his Spirit 2. The Called is Man Hearing the Call and therefore so far alive and in his senses given him by God not a stock or a stone or else all Calling had been in vain Able therefore to say Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth Here I am Lord what wouldst thou have me to do I will do any thing What shall I do that I might be saved Understanding the Call of God or else all calling should be in vain and therefore endued from God with wit and memory consenting to his Call which is understood by him and therefore endued with will desire and affection free to choose or to refuse or else all hearing and understanding should be as sounding brass or like a tinkling Cymbal and all calling upon us to hear understand and choose should be all one as to call upon the blind to see the lame and fast bound in iron to run and walk which is to mock us which is to punish us for what we cannot help which is unjust which God forbid So Man is a Subject capable to receive the Heavenly calling which is conveyed into him after the capacity of the Receiver SECT II. Election II. This is a Christians Election where 1. The Elector is God choosing Man a fit subject for God to work upon A rational Agent upon a rational Patient A free Agent upon a free Patient 2. The Elected is Man suffering himself to be chosen of God by consenting to his choice coming from the first free Grace of God acted by which he acts 3. The Elector is Man actively choosing God as God hath chosen him Freely covenanting with God as God hath covenanted with him uniting himself with God as God hath united himself with him One with God as God is one with him having communion with God as God hath communion with him The Soul taketh God as God takes the Soul The Soul and God say mutually one to another as friends I am thine and thou art mine As the Spoused plight their Troths enfolding them one in another each to other saying I am my well-beloved and my well-beloved is mine As those that are in a mutual League together Do fidem accipio fidem Near and dear to one another as friends that are of one Soul So God and Man are of one Spirit So God dwells with us and we with him So we have fellowship with the Father and with the Son So we love God because he loveth us And because we cannot reach to the height of his love we strain till we cry out Stay us with Flagons and comfort us with Apples for we are sick of love and this is without cavilling closing with God and twisting our love in his love as far as the poor Creatures capacity will bear This is our high and precious Calling this is the Covenant and state of Grace and Salvation This Calling and Election of God is sure on God's part and we are to give diligence to make it sure on our part By continuing to hear and bowing down our ear to receive more instruction By frequenting the doors of Wisdom and wearing the threshold of Understanding that we may know more and be wise to salvation By consenting yet more and choosing still that good part that shall never be taken away from us By re-punishing and re-covenanting with God renewing our Vow working together with God and watching over our own hearts and labouring in the work of love so to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 and striving to make our calling and election sure So to fight out the good fight of Faith 2 Tim. 4.7 to finish our course and to lay hold upon the Crown of Righteousness For he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved Be thou faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and I will give thee a Crown of life SECT III. Thus they that have given their Faith to God Faithful are Elect. as God hath given his Faith to them and they that have kept their Faith to God as God hath kept his Faith to them they are the called and chosen of God God is their God and they are Gods People they are faithful in their Promise as God is faithful in his Promise 1. Because the cause of Blessedness is Gods Promise Reason and ex naturâ rei there is not nor can be any other Cor-relative or Cor-respondent to a a Promise but Faith and without Faith a Promise is of no effect The persons therefore Called nominated or elected to Blessedness are all and only the Faithful and the very nature of a Promise so accepted and taken doth nominate and elect them For if the Acception of a Promise be Faith as it is then the Acceptants are the Faithful and thereby must needs be nominated or elected to the thing promised And if they so continue must needs be partakers of the thing promised For this I take for an infallible Principle and Demonstration undeniable That If the things to be done are done then the things to be had are had but if the things to be done are not done then the things to be had are not had So if Faith and Obedience which are the things to be done on our part are done then Grace and Glory which are to be had are had on Gods part but if the things to be done which are Faith and Obedience are not done on our part then the things to be had which are Grace and Glory are not to be had on Gods part Therefore the Faithful and Elect are all one or rather two terms for one and the same subject And consequently no person not faithful of any Nation shall be blessed but all persons that are faithful of all Nations shall be blessed If therefore the Question concerning Universal Grace were fitted to the proper
Nothing can be altered Eccles 1.15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbred Consider the waies of God for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked Eccles 7.13 Let no man say Wherefore is this or wherefore is that For all things are fitted with their due shapes and qualities and though some things ugly in comparison of others yet all things make up the compleat beauty and loveliness of the Universe Reas A fortuitous convolation of blind Atoms could not do this Because all Beautiful composures require Labour and Art which is only in Spirit and Intellect not in Matter or Deadness Works of God harmonious III. Harmonious Works Agreement amongst disagreeing qualities and unlike quantities Reas 1. Because Chance links not one thing into another in contrived harmony 2. Because established Order amongst things void of understanding must be the work of an Infinite understanding that knows their natures and uses 3. Because not only Brutes but Inanimate Creatures sagaciously operate for ends which they understand not As the Regular course of a Ship argues a wise Pilot at the Helm so the Regular course of the World argues a wise Creatour Upon these Notions mankind acknowledged a Deity and because they could not see it chose to worship any thing for a God which they could see rather than to be without one which they could not see And when they found any benefit by any thing they made it a God as by Ceres Bacchus c. the good Corn and Wine that gladded their hearts Is not this a God And because they could not see the Deity being a Spirit they adored Idols and other Creatures which were material because they could see them Obj. Some have denied a Deity Sol. This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bely Nature In some Individuals Nature and Reason may be perverted by Education and Customes Institutions and Examples destroying natural Notions but this cannot invalidate Universal perswasions and the consent of all Nations The Will in some particulars doth often change as often as the Will changes which is very changable but the true Notion is fixt from the understanding natural which never changeth This must come either 1. From the Oracle of God or 2. From the Tradition of Parents If from God it must be true If from Parents it cannot be false Ob. Soul is invisible and all Spirits Ergo there are none Ergo no God Sol. Air invisible and Wind Ergo none Ob. We cannot comprehend God Ergo no God Sol. Inferiours cannot comprehend Superiours Beasts cannot comprehend Men nor their Actions Art or Government As Man is above Beasts so God is above Man There are higher than the highest and there are higher than they Arist Top. 6. That is universally known not which every one acknowledgeth but that which every one who doth not debauch his Faculties doth or may discern for it is enough evident that Gods Being lies eaven to all Understandings The Atheist eradicates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—para To deny God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Profaness of this Age has tinctured it with Atheisme Men sunk into Sensualities their Reason complies with their Carnal appetite contrary to its self and fain would they have none to see them or call them to an account Quod valdè volumus facilè credimus And so what they earnestly desire they do readily believe Therefore 1. Let the Soul know its own Imperfection and acknowledge all Perfection to be in God 2. Let the Soul know that Right and Wrong Good and Evil imply a Law which is Gods Ergo to be guided thereby 3. Let the Soul know she is a Judge of her own Actions but God is a Judge above her 4. Let the Soul know that her vast unsatiated desires may be satiated in God 5. Let the Soul know that she can frame no other Idea of God but that he is the first and best and therefore Independent and Munificent Being Therefore 1. Look on the Magnificent works of the VVorld Were they eternal in Atoms VVho made them 1. How could Dead matter move it self without Life and Spirit 2. How could Unreasonable matter produce Reason which it hath not Nihil dat quod non habet 3. How could blind Chance fall into such a World as it is and into no other and to no more what wit had it 4. How could various Atoms hang so handsomely together as they do and not flie unhappily asunder what Power had they 2. Look on the Beautiful works of the World How could ugly lumpish Matter make it self so fair as Nothing can be more 3. Look upon the Harmonious works of the World How can a curious Instrument be tuned without a skilful hand Why do not Contraries fall together by the ears sight and destroy all Who curbs them and keeps the Peace Who sets bounds to the proud Waves and keeps the Ocean with the bounds of the Sands 1. And now Who can look within himself into his own Soul and Body but he must see a God In his Understanding which because Imperfect must be derived from what is most Perfect which is God which in part sees good and evil Ergo God much more Which reflects upon and Judges good and evil Ergo God much more Which hath vast inexplicable desires Ergo God only can satisfie them 2. Who can look round about him upon the Creatures but he must see a God 1. In the Magnificence of his Works 2. In the Beauty of his Works 3. In the Harmony of his Works in which all agree And when we do see a God both from within us and from without us Who can choose but love obey trust and hope in him How then this Profaness this Cruelty this Hypocrisie c. Stay therefore and consider your own Souls your Bodies how wonderful they are how came you by them You made not your selves the Creatures made not themselves All must be judged Ergo there is a God Upon these Notions Mankind acknowledged a Deity And because they could not see Idolatry nor hear nor feel him being a Spirit and because they would not take so much pains as to elevate their Spirits to the contemplation of the Father of Spirits that they might worship him in Spirit they chose to acknowledge and worship any thing which they saw and felt any good from instead of the Most high God rather than be without one So when they found any extraordinary benefit from any thing they made it a God to them especially the Sun Moon and Stars whose kind influences they perceived to enrich the lower World with life and growth of all good things which did refresh their hearts with food and gladness And even those Men that had ruled them and saved them from their Enemies or taught them to sow Corn or plant Vineyards after their death they adored them for Petty-Gods as Mars and Ceres and Bacchus
as it was at first spoken or written Letter was understood by all as Laws ought to be the Doubts were only in the use and practice and to be resolved by the Priest In this sense the Promises of the Law were terrene as long life health power victory c. V. Lev. 26. and Deut. 28. And such in the Letter were the original Promises made to Abraham viz. Canaan In this sense the Precepts of the Law were terrene proportionable to the Promises sitted also to the rudeness and childishness of the Jews called therefore Rude and beggarly elements of the World Gal. 4 3.9 For the Moralities were the least and lowest Precepts of the Law of Nature or restraints from acts unnatural The two Tables are barrs from Impiety and bridles from Inhumanity not made for righteous but for wicked men The Ceremonies were chargeable and troublesome and numerous A yoke which the Jews were not able to bear 1 Tim. 1.9 as Circumcision a painful mark or brand upon their flesh to distinguish them from other people as Sacrifices Washings c. The works were servile external for eye-service and fear of death under the Spirit of bondage In this sense the Judgments of the Law were terrene as violent death by burning stoning c. and other corporal punishments ordinary and Wars Famines and Plagues extraordinary when the Rulers hand was slack to punish according to Law Spirit II. The Spirit of the Law was not understood generally but by extraordinary Revelation to some of better Spirits but never publickly and perfectly revealed to all till preached by Christ who did away the Veil and brought in life and immortality by the Gospel For Promises 1. The Promises thereof are Heavenly as eternal Holiness Life Rest Glory and Joy with God Saints and Angels Precepts 2. The Precepts are masculine sprightly and most refinedly pure and spiritual as poorness of Spirit pureness of heart mercifulness mourning peaceableness meekness hungring and thirsting after Righteousness patience c. unto all which the general and capital Commandment is Love refined beyond legal and natural love as to love our Enemies and to pray for them that hate us c. to bless and not curse c. Judgments 3. The Judgments are eternal death pain and anguish with the Devil and his Angels Works 4. The Works of the Gospel are Cordial as Circumcision of the heart Sacrifice of the Spirit c. Liberal in the free and noble way of Love answerable in some measure to Gods Love who is a Father to us Sons a giver of an Inheritance to us Heirs They are also perfect for universal and perpetual Obedience full and blameless for the reward of Eternal Salvation by Christ Contract The Law of Moses expresly contracted nothing of Eternal Life yet God meant them more than in words he declared And then under that Law there was a sufficient ground for the perswasion thereof God inviting their Obedience by Temporal Blessings they might well believe he would not rest there for such a reward was not suitable to his Greatness to give nor for his own peculiar people to receive So he promised Abraham that he would be his exceeding great Reward yet in terms he expressed nothing but the Land of Canaan nor had he that in possession nor his posterity after him for many Generations but were Pilgrims and strangers yet these all dyed in Faith waiting for that good Land Heb. 11.16 and looking for a better Country that is an Heavenly for which Cause they were content to endure all sorts of Afflictions God having provided some better thing for them being assured that he would provide a recompence for his Servants Sufferings more than this Earth could afford but how or which way or what they did not could not distinctly know Heb. 11.13 14. but seeing them afar off they were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on earth For they that do such things declare plainly that they seek a Country So the Kingdom of Heaven was mystically intimated but not openly propounded as a Condition of Gods Contract in the Law under which there wanted not a sufficient means to attain unto it but this was not the Works of the Law it self but Faith in the Promises And that the wiser and purer sort of Jews had such thoughts as these is plain by the question of the Rich man to our Saviour Master what shall I do that I may have Eternal life To which the Answer is Matt. 19.21 keep the Commandements to which he replyed that he had kept them from his youth up But this would not do being an outward Observation without the inward Love of the heart to God above all things so as to part with them all to gain the Treasure in Heaven The Souls Immortality and the Reward of good or bad after death was revealed though darkly before the Law And accordingly their Conversation was then and under the Law as Strangers not yet arrived to their Country For Adam Enoch Noah Abraham and all those Fathers obtained a good report through Faith not having received here on earth the full Promises of God God having provided some better thing for them Heb. 11.39 40. that they without us should not be made perfect Yea in all their Sufferings their noble Souls were content because they had an eye still to the Recompense of the Reward of the World to come of whom this World was not worthy But that the Law should condition this Eternal Life expresly to be believed there was no need at that time Revelation of Eternal life reserved because it was reserved till the Fulness of time in which the Fulness of all Gods promises and the exactness of all his precepts should be universally proclaimed by his own Son Jesus Christ In the mean time this Law of Moses was tendred as the Civil Law to the Jews and so it was not strange that God should not covenant farther with them than to acknowledg him only to be their God and to serve him as he then should appoint and to depend upon him for their Reward which was the Land of Canaan immediately set before their Eyes for the present to raise them up to outward Obedience at least by that Encouragement but God left them not without witness of higher things giving them to understand by his Prophets that he looked for the inward Obedience of the heart and that they might expect a greater recompense then the Princes of the World were able to bestow These carnal Commandements and Temporal Promises made way Temporals prepare for Eternals as God would have it for the Spiritual Precepts and Eternal Rewards of the Gospel which Moses did not but Christ did covenant for else there had been no need of Christ his coming to make a Covenant which was made before nor of so many and great Miracles when he
was come to convince the World that this was the great meaning and intent of the Law Thus the Precepts of inward Obedience were translated out of Natures Law into that of Moses which the Prophets did often inculcate because the People were gross of Understanding readily supposing at first sight as all idle and carnal People are apt to do that an external Obedience would answer the Letter of the Law well enough teaching them to regulate the inward Obedience of the heart which even the Law it self did tacitely require and their Fathers expresly taught before the Law was given in Writing Outward Obedience It is plain then to considering men That they must not trust to the outward Observations of the bare negative Precepts of the Moral Law nor to the Ceremonials or Judicials that Moses had enjoyned so as from thence to promise to themselves the Favour of God and the Reward of the World to come as by not having any other Gods not worshipping Images not swearing falsly not doing Murther not committing Adultery c. or by paying of Tithes Sacrifices Washings Sabbaths c. For which conceipts Christ reproved the Jews as the Prophets had done before as if the offended Deity were to be bribed with Sacrifices Feasts or Fasts or any other Performances Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites Matt. 23.23 c. for ye pay Tithes of Mint and Annise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone c. Luk. 11.42 Mar. 7.48 Mat. 12.1.12 Psa 40.7.12 Ps 50.8.13 Ps 51.18 Isa 1.1.20 Isa 58.3.10 God requires no Sacrifices so much as Obedience Jer. 7.21 22 23. Patience and Hope in Afflictions Lam. 3.25.33 The Calves of the Lips Hos 14.2 Mich. 6.6 7 8. Zach. 8.16.19 In all which Instructions and Exhortations to the inward Obedience and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth they have shewed themselves the true fore-runners of Christ and his Apostles Sufficient means under the Law So that still they had sufficient means before and under the Law unwritten and written considering whose Law it was and by the teaching of the Fathers and Prophets to make them understand the Spiritual Duties and Rewards that were so far hinted and to oblige them to expect the coming of the greatest Law-giver who should teach them all things more clearly Love of God The Sense therefore of that great Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy strength though so far as it depends upon the bare Covenant of the Law it is limited to the Observation of those Precepts which God should confine their Civil life unto in the Service of him alone for a temporal Reward yet in the full latitude it may contain all that Christianity requireth Love of Neighbour And as for that Precept of loving their Neighbour as themselves it meant no more at first sight than of loving the Israelites their Brethren and friends but hating the Moabites c. which were Strangers and Enemies But really and truly according to the Law of Nature it meant all Mankind Matt. 5.43 be they never such Strangers or Enemies In like manner the Commandments Lev. 18.5 Ez. 20.11.21 Life which if a man keep he shall live in them they are first meant of this life but their last meaning extends to the life to come for they are large Commandments and fit to contain both internal and external obedience and large Subjects for the Prophets to preach upon as they did and for Christ to expound as he did in the highest sense they ought to bear Christ expounded the Law Lev. 18.18 according as it was foretold to Moses I will raise thee up a Prophet from among thy Brethren like unto thee and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto thee in all that I have commanded him Which was fulfilled answerably for God approved of him by a voice from heaven saying This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him This is the secret and spirit of God's Law and Covenant which he sufficiently manifested to those that severely kept the outward and civil part according to the Letter v. Ps 25.13 15. and 19.9 10. and 119.18 The CONTENTS Eternal life Rites troublesome and chargeable Permission Things not originally good Sacrifices Sacrifices first from Men. Imperfection Rigour TITLE III. Of the weakness of the Law AS to the main Body of the Law Of the weakness of the Law it was weak and imperfect in the Letter thereof in many respects There was no Command in all the Law for spiritual Prayer Instance 1 i. e. for spiritual and eternal Blessings as for Remission of sins Sanctification of the Spirit Mortification a new Creature Resurrection and Life eternal We read of few that made publick Prayers but Kings or Priests or Prophets whereas the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication is poured upon all People in the Gospel The Sadducees denied the Resurrection Angels and Spirits yet were Instance 2 they learned in the Law Teachers and great for Rule and Power which argues that there was no clear demonstration of these things in the Law Some glimmering of these things they had in their Sufferings especially in and after the Captivity towards the dawning of the day of the Gospel when they had lost the glory of their Land and were subjected to forreign Powers to shew that these Temporal felicities were forfeited for their disobedience and that they must look for a higher Covenant and Felicities more durable by embracing a purer Worship and Conversation they having failed in the Law and Services first given them for which neglect they were all taken away and their Temple and Country afterward laid waste and became a Curse These Spiritual things they could not discern to be meant because not expressed in the Law but Christ proves the Resurrection by the Law saying Matth. 82.30 c. Ex. 3 6. Have you not heard that which was spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living V. Mar. 12.18 Luc. 20.27 But had it been plainly covenanted for in the Law none durst openly to have denied it yet he bids them search the Scriptures for it for in them ye think to have eternal life Joh. 5.39 and they are they which testifie of me And the word Think is a term of abatement Insinuations and Intimations they had but no plain Demonstrations thereof As Is 26.19 Ezek. 33. 1 Mac. 12.1 2. Job 19.25 Ps 73.2 20. Jer. 12.1 2. Mal. 3.13 18. Hab. 2.3 24. Ps 16.1 Is 37.10 21. Ps 17.15 and 126.5 6. Heb. 7.19 10.19 8.6 9.15 7.19 and 9.14 2 Tim 1.9 10. Aug. Ep. 122. St. Austin saith Mihi in
were in Egypt the house of Bondage their service was hereditary arbitrary and unprofitable at pleasure of their Task-masters and no wages but a charge to find straw and be beaten for not performing their daily tasks The CONTENTS The Soul Spirit 's free TITLE IX Of the Seat of Slavery THE seat of Slavery is the Spirit The Soul A bondage on the Soul and her faculties The bondage of the Body is a grievous burthen but it is not the true slavery For a man's Body may be moved to and fro and set on work to dig or draw or tug at an Oar or any other beastly works according to the will and command of a Tyrant but the Will all this while is free to act according to the mind and reason of a Man So a vertuous ingenuous Man is spiritually and truly free inwardly in his mind to know and do better things though outwardly in his Body he be a slave at the will of another as if he had no will of his own because he cannot use it to the guidance of his Corporal actions but he hath a will free to the actions of his Soul Thus Joseph was a bodily Bondslave to his Mistress to do her lawful commands but was spiritually free and refused to be subdued to her Lust He was more free than she He only a slave Corporal to her bodily power she a slave spiritual to her own base and filthy desires Joseph endures not so base a bondage chuses rather to lye fast bound in the dungeon and let the Iron enter into his Soul Thus the Israelites were slaves in Egypt under the Iron yoke of Pharaoh but free in the service of God to wait for his Promises So in the Babylonish Captivity they were slaves in body yet free to serve the Lord and would not sing the songs of Sion in a strange Land Give me any slavery but the slavery of the Soul I had rather they should bind me in Chains and load me with bolts and fetters of Iron make me tug at an Oar dig in a Mine or draw in a Wagon than take away the free use of that little Understanding which God hath given me I value the liberty of my Body to go when and whither I please and to do what and how I have a mind to but I value the liberty of my Soul at a far higher rate to judge and resolve according to the best of my skill and understanding As Mammon is the false Riches of Unrighteousness not the true and right riches but Wisdom is the true riches of the Spirit so bondage or Corporeal slavery is the false slavery of Unrighteousness but the true slavery is of the Soul and Spirit If therefore the Spirit be enthralled as it should not be how great is that thraldom and if the Spirit be free as it should be how great is that freedom Reason Because all Spirits are naturally free for they properly do force but are not forced they lead and are not led they bind and are not bound Spirit 's free The Spirit of God is absolutely free The will of his Spirit is supremely free to himself for he doth whatsoever he will The presence of his Spirit who is the Father of Spirits brings freedom to others Spirits 2 Cor. 3.17 For where the Spirit of God is there is liberty The conduct of the Spirit of freedom is the great freedom of the spirit The Leader makes the Follower free As many as are led by the Spirit of God Ro. 8.14 they are the Sons of God Gods Free-men The Will is naturally free by its first creation but now it comes to be supernaturally free by its New creation So the Will draws nearer and nearer to God in Liberty till it comes to the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ till it comes to will nothing but good and can do no otherwise Thus the Spirits of Just men are made perfectly free Necessary willing of Good without haesitancy from within or coaction from without is the greatest freedom Gods necessary doing of all good and impossibility of doing of any evil is his perfection Necessary willing of Evil without haesitancy from within or coaction from without is the greatest slavery Satans necessity of all evil and impossibility of doing any good is his imperfection Gods Spirit is perfect and absolute Freedom that makes the spirits of Just men and Angels perfectly and absolutely free Satans spirit is perfect and absolute bondage that makes the spirits of Unjust men and Angels perfectly and absolutely slavish For The Spirits of Angels and Men though naturally they be free yet accidentally they may be bound as in divers cases Satan himself and his Crue are all Spirit yet every Wizard pretends to bind them Jud. 6. But God doth indeed bind him and them reserving them in chains of Darkness unto the Judgment of the great day The Spirit of Man is free yet may it be religiously bound by a Vow or Oath Numb 30.2 and is shamefully bound by lust of Flesh the pride of World and the Temptations of the Devil and too often led captive by him according to his will Now the bondage of the Spirit is the true right and perfect slavery because the Spirit is naturally free and the more free a thing is naturally the more slavish is the bondage thereof for therein is the greater violence and the greater violence makes the greater slavery The CONTENTS Restraint from proper End Restraint from proper Guide Restraint from proper Act. Restraint from proper Rule Restraint from proper State Restraint from proper Right Constraint to base Actions TITLE X. Of the Cases of Slavery The Cases of true Slavery TRue Slavery is a thing so large and indefinite as that it cannot well be defined therefore it will be best by shewing the Cases thereof to design it As because Felony and Treason are Crimes indefinite therefore wise Lawyers do not define them but shew the Cases to design them Cases designing true Slavery I. A Restraint of Man from his proper End is slavery Restraint from proper end The proper End of Man is Happiness which consists in the knowledge and fruition of God For this is life eternal to know God c. other Ends are improper alien and forreign as Honour Wealth c. for these are neither his proper end nor yet the proper means to it they are neither happiness nor holiness For a man then to be restrained from true happiness that he cannot or may not be happy that he cannot or may not know or enjoy God this is true slavery For the disability to true happiness to be made uncapable of it is true misery and true misery is true slavery Hence Bastardy is a misery which bars the Child from all Inheritance and makes him uncapable of succession to his natural Father's Estate And Infamy is a misery which bars a man from all Offices and makes him uncapable of all Honour
by Law but Abel Noah Enoch c. the Sons of God before and after the Flood lived all by Faith Mystical Providences In all which Dispensations not only the Rites and Ceremonies of Worship the words of the Law and Prophets but the actions of God's Providence were Mystical to represent the things of Faith as Paradise and the Trees of Life and of Knowledge the marriage of Adam and Eve Eph. 5.32 the Calling of Abraham the Ark the Bondage of Egypt and deliverance through the Red Sea the Wilderness the Land of Canaan the Captivity of Babylon c. The interpreters that stick in Literal sense of the Old Testament cleave close only to the outside and bark but never come near the pith and marrow therein contained The History and Letter is not to be neglected but the truth of Faith covered and veiled in the Law and the Prophets and in the Transactions of God is to be searched diligently As the Fathers themselves and Prophets enquired after this Salvation and Grace which was to come unto them 1 Pet. 1.10 which things the Angels themselves desired to look into This is testified in the Scriptures 2 Cor. 3.6 c. God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit of the ministration of the Spirit and Life and of Righteousness much more glorious than that of the Flesh and of Death and Sin The Fathers were under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea 1 Cor. 10.1 c. and were all baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ c. Now what is it to be baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea but to pass through the Sea under the covering of a Cloud submitting themselves to the conduct of Moses as the Faithful do under the banner of Christ in Baptism And what are the Meat and Drink and the spiritual Rock but types of the spiritual Meat and Drink and Rock of Christ which the Apostle hints saying Now all these things happened to them for our examples and are written for our admonition verse 11. upon whom the ends of the World are come And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 But most clearly speaks the Apostle in these words Now we have received not the spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God 1 Cor. 2.12 c. that we might know the things that are freely given us of God which things also we speak not in the words which Man's wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual What are these Spiritual things but the Spiritual sense of Moses Law and of the Prophets compared with the more Spiritual things of the Gospel and of Christ In this sense the Law is Spiritual Ro. 7.14 Acts 7.38 and Moses is said to have received the living Oracles of God And the Jew and Circumcision openly in the Flesh and Letter is distinguished from the Circumcision of the heart and the Judaism of the Spirit This is the Righteousness of God Ro. 2.28 29. Ro. 1.17 revealed from Faith to Faith from the Law to the Gospel Grace for Grace the Grace of the Gospel revealed for that which was concealed in the Law For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.16 17. Luc. 24.45 And they erre that know not the Scriptures of the Old Testament in these senses for in them there is Salvation contained through Faith not the works of the Law as appears by the whole Catalogue of Saints in the eleventh of the Hebrews Indeed the kingdom of Heaven is not expressed in the Letter but in the Spirit of the Law which all did not perceive else how should the Sadduces part of the most Learned and many among the Priests and of the Sanhedrin not discern it Vide Act. 4.1 6. and 5.17 and 23.6 The Promises of the Law are plainly extant Exod. 16.27 28. and 19.5 6. and 23.25 Deut. 26.16 and 27.28 29 30. Lev. 25. per totum Heb. 7.19 and 8.6 and 9.15 and 7.16 and 9.9 14. 2 Tim. 1.9 10. Math. 22.36 Now these Carnal Rewards were not proportionable to a Spiritual Law therefore the Law was Carnal as the Promises were For the Moral Precepts that are of perpetual right are in their office Carnal if they be exerted no farther than the measures of a Carnal life As the Precept of loving our Neighbour respected only the duty of a Civil life among the Jews because the same offices of Civility were forbidden to be exercised by them towards the Ammonites Moabites Idumaeans and Egyptians Deut. 23.3 6 8. and 25.17 18 19. Upon this account Mordecai is supposed to deny to give honour to Haman Esth 2.3 These Precepts were given upon the account of hindering the infection of Idolatry by too much familiarity of Consanguinity Affinity or intimacy of Conversation And these very Enemies of God's People were figures of the Enemies of all Christians And this sense of the Law in this case Christ himself does declare in the Parable of him that fell among Thieves Luk. 19.29 By this way and method if due care were taken the Scriptures might be understood and the Word of Truth rightly divided and things new and old exactly distinguished and the difference between Judaism and Christianity exactly stated By this one distinction of a Mystical and Literal sense the Law of Works might be discerned from the Law of Grace the Righteousness of the Law from the Righteousness of the Gospel ☞ By this we should understand that all that was brought in by Moses is vanished and gone and nothing is of force or virtue to remain but that which was introduced by God of Christ from the beginning to be promulgated instaurated and fully reformed in the fullness of the Gospel times by Jesus Christ in the flesh Only we must take heed That although the reason of God's divine Counsel for the restauration of Man fallen in Adam is more clearly revealed by the Gospel than it was before or under the Law yet nevertheless it is not to be expected that out of the Scriptures we should define the same bounds of offices set by the preaching of the Gospel which were known and received to them that understood the Spiritual Law under Moses which was a Law that vailed a better Law For what should hinder but that while the same Reason of Salvation stands in force at all times there should be some offices proper only for some of those times according to the different manner of God's divine Revelation And therefore now all Carnal offices do cease which never were in their own nature acceptable unto God for they are
me free from the Law of Sin and Death Ro. 8.1 2. Ro. 8.5 6. And they that are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit The Gospel times therefore were prophesied to be searching times Consequences Mal. 3.1 2 c. The Lord shall suddenly come into his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in Behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a Refiner's fire and like Fuller's sope And he shall sit as a Refiner and Purifier of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an Offering in Righteousness Then shall the Offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the daies of old and as in former years Thus the thoughts of many hearts will be discovered and it shall be known who will follow the World and who will follow Christ who will live after the Flesh and who will live after the Spirit Who will enter into Covenant with God and who with the Devil Thus the Letter of the Law killeth 1. Because it only discovers sin 2. Because it only condemneth sin 3. Because it stirreth up sin the more 4. Because it punisheth sin without mercy Thus the Spirit giveth life 1. Because it offereth Life freely 2. Because it justifieth them that accept it 3. Because it saves them from Sin Death and Hell 4. Because it giveth them Eternal Life and Glory SECTION III. Digression Cautions Mistake not these words Take heed well what you hear and read He that hath ears to hear let him hear and he that hath a heart to understand let him understand 1. Some will not read the Scriptures nor hear them read or preached by any study or pains by any Art or Eloquence 2. Some will not pray by any forms at sett times or places nor submit to any Discipline nor preach by Meditation or helps of any Comments or Writing nor hearken to any Counsels Exhortations or Conferences nor be ruled by any Laws or Orders of men These trust they say to the Light that is in them and to the motions of the Spirit in their own Consciences which is rather their humor fancy and obstinacy These are above all Ordinances in the letter of the Law of God or Man and walk aloft by the revelations of the Spirit which if it were the true Spirit would never be contrary to the true sense and Spirit of the Gospel written and preached The Spirit teacheth us to pray preach and live Spiritually by the Means of the Word of God and wholesom Discipline of Men. Therefore what is written in the Book and preached by the Voice and commanded by lawful Power is the same with that which is the Mind of God first predestinated and secret then revealed and published to and by the Fathers at last to and by Christ and his Apostles and written in the heart by the Holy Ghost Therefore deceive not your selves 1. With vain Fancies and new Revelations for the Truth is old 2. With feigned Words and canting Expressions for the Truth is plain 3. With framing a Law to your selves as if infallible contrary to Nature's Law to the Laws of Nations and to Christ his Law This must needs be a Spiritual cheat tending to all mischief and confusion Take heed therefore 1. Of Law-Preachers of Curses Hell and Damnation 2. Of Spirit-Preachers of Evidences and Rapture walking without and against all Law and Rule These sort of men are Rigid Surly Morose Self-conceited Opiniators Malicious Proud Scoffers Straitners of God's love to Mankind therefore not of God and having not the Spirit SECTION IV. Leave of vain Disputes and learn 1. To hold all necessary and confessed Truths Instructionâ— and contend only for the Faith and a good Conscience 2. To submit to all Orders and Decencies and to fulfil all Righteousness which is the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price 3. To reverence and adore the Manifold Wisdom of God admiring and praising but not prying and searching into the Reasons of his Workings whose waies are alwaies Just but often hid from our eyes because his paths are in the great Waters and his foot-steps past our finding out 4. To embrace the Promises of Forgiveness of sins Adoption Heaven and Happiness This will engage the Soul to live by the Spirit of the Gospel and not merely by the Letter much less by the Law or by Sense This will sublimate the Soul to the spiritual acts of Faith Hope Love Prayer Self-denial against the Carnal acts of Sense Lust Drunkenness c. Forbear ignorant and proud boasting of the Spirit to be above Ordinances and contrary to what is Revealed it is most dangerous Let us not be Fools or Cross 1. In being too superstitiously Formal and trusting to Outward worship 2. In being too Profane and Licentious in neglecting all Conscience and Inward worship 3. In being too superstitiously precise in Inward worship only without any regard to Decency and Order calling it Jewish Heathenish and Popish 4. In being actually Rebellious thereupon by separation from publick Assemblies and rising up in Arms openly and destroying the Powers of the Church and State There is a right way if we could hit upon it as we may without prejudice against any man's Person to take in all the Truths held by them though we like not other things which they are mistaken in The way of Charity is excellent To suffer long and to be kind not to envy or vaunt not to be puffed up not to behave our selves unseemly 1 Cor. 13.4 c. nor to seek our own not to be easily provoked to think no evil not to rejoyce in iniquity but to rejoyce in the Truth to learn all things to believe all things hope all things endure all things There are that hold the Truth in Unrighteousness which ceaseth not to be the Truth because they hold it with other Errors There are that hold the Foundation of Gold Silver and Precious stones though they unhappily build Wood Hay and Stubble and such unworthy matter thereupon There are that sit in Moses's Chair and teach according to the Law and their Disciples are bound to believe and do according as they say though they say and do not There are that preach Christ out of Envy and for Gain and yet Christ is preached and thereat they may rejoyce and should rejoyce If I find a Jewel upon a Dung-hill I will stoop to take it up I will reverence Wisdom in the poor or blind or lame or otherwise
deformed In a word Phil. 4.3 Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise we are bound to think on these things SECTION V. Exhortations Have not the Word of God in respect of Persons have no man's person in too much admiration Aim directly at the plain Truth with a single eye in simplicity of heart not inventing objections or making knots nor yet willing to be cheated or captivated in your Judgments by being magisterially imposed upon Take no part nor side resolutely to pin your Faith upon all that they say or do Count no man or Society of men infallible Be not biassed for favour or affection gain or preferment to any Sect nor from them for malice or hatred or fear of loss or punishment but strive to be of an universal Spirit free to embrace or shun without bondage or base love or fear Let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath because the wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God Thus it becometh us to fulfil all Righteousness strive to take in all truth walk humbly honestly and warily working out our Salvation with fear and trembling and making our Calling and Election sure Look alwaies well to the end walk circumspectly as wise men stand fast in your Christian liberty quit your selves like men pressing on still to the mark of the High calling which is laid up for you in Christ Jesus The Gospel promiseth great things to all Eternity and having such a hope in you so full of a glorious and blessed Immortality be alwaies aspiring to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord that ye may obtain an Inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith which is in Christ Jesus Let no Profane or Unclean Wretches expect any good Be not deceived God is not mocked No Whoremonger nor Adulterer nor Fornicator nor Covetous person which is an Idolater shall ever enter into the Kingdom of God or of Christ They can have no part or share of the Inheritance with the Saints in Light that walk on here in darkness The hopes of Hypocrites must needs perish as the Spider's web Let the Faithful hope and pray for the Kingdom of heaven let them be glad and rejoyce for great is their Reward in heaven yea let them lift up their heads with joy for their Redemption draweth nigh and now is nearer than they are aware of Let them remember that their Saviour is their Judge and most favourable to all that have honest hearts he knows how to relieve the ignorant and weak and such as are out of the way He will resolve them in all their doubts comfort them in all their sorrows direct them in all their wandrings heal them in all their maladies strengthen them in all their weaknesses and do for them abundantly above all that they are able to ask or think He will reject none that come unto him he will admit all to the Legacies contained in his Father's Will and Testament that shall be found capable to receive them cum favore Believe Love Work Hope Desire Persevere no matter what Men judge Trust to the Word of Life follow that blessed Rule and be happy Live and die in Faith and lie down in Hope to rise again to everlasting Life and Salvation Be thankful that ye are under the conduct of the Spirit of Life and Grace plentiful and strong Helps brought home to the door of your hearts waiting to be let in These are within us If we will receive them there they be ready for us Nothing of God wanting to us if we be not wanting to our selves There is a Voice behind us saying This is the Way walk in it turn from the waies of Wickedness pass by them come not near unto them for fear Iniquity procure your ruine The Spirit invites perswades by all means if our Spirits will hear incline or desire God will move and incline our desires to good If honestly Uprightness and Meekness be in us God will love us and we shall love him and Love shall cover a multitude of sins Having such pretious Promises and such gracious Encouragements be bold with a holy boldness to challenge them from God by the Mediation of Jesus Christ in whom they are made sure Claim therefore as your dues The Word and Sacraments The Liberty from the Law Access to the Throne of Grace Forgiveness of Sins The Gift of the Spirit The Resurrection of the Body The Life Everlasting For these things are fit for God to give and for God's Children to receive because Great is he that hath promised and Great is he in whose Name and for whose sake he hath promised such great things and therefore in and by and through him we have freedom of Access to the Throne of Grace for Grace sufficient to help us in the times of all our need The CONTENTS Nature of Liberty Form Loosness from all Incumbrances Largeness TITLE VIII Of Liberty BEsides the two forementioned Properties of the two Testaments viz. The New Spiritual and Lively The Old Literal and Deadly There may be added two more to distinguish them from each other viz. The New Testament begeteth the Spirit of Freedom The Old Testament engendreth the Spirit of Bondage Between a Son and a Servant is great difference chiefly in their state The Son is free of his Father's house and hath a Right of perpetuity to abide therein for ever but the Servant is at the will of his Lord and hath no liberty to abide in the house for ever The Son is Herus minor quasi Dominus rerum paternarum The Church is God's Family Christ is God's Son therefore is free of the Church for his self and hath power to make others free not in word or shew Joh. 8.36 but in deed and truth If the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed Nature of Liberty Of Liberty there are two parts the Nature the Subjects The Nature of Liberty consists in four Points the Form the Seat the Terms and the Cases of it Form The Form is a Loosness and clearness from all Impediments Entanglements and Incumbrances Loosness from all Incumbrances The more Loose we be the more free if fully loose then fully free termed Inalligation opposit to obligation an Independency Therefore whatsoever is unbound not hanging upon any thing is properly loose as Psal 2.20 He looseth them that are appointed to die that are fast bound in misery and Iron The shaking off of Shackles and Fetters So the Woman whose Husband is dead is loosed from the Law of her Husband Ro. 7.2 I. The first Reason is from the Contrariety of Slavery which Reas 1 is 1. Perpetual an Inheritance to the Lord and his Heirs for ever So Liberty is perpetual to himself and his
Heirs for ever 2. Arbitrary Pro libitu Domini so is Liberty Pro libitu sui ipsius A man is lord of himself 3. Unprofitable no Reward of slavery but pain all Profits redound to the Lord. Whatsoever Slaves acquire they accrue to their Lord because they themselves and their Wives and Children are their Lord's Goods and Possessions therefore whatsoever they get by their Labours is their Lord's for they have no Rights at all but are dead in Law to all intents and purposes But Liberty redounds to a Man 's own self Thus contrary things have contrary forms as Gluttony is a vice Temperance a vertue II. The second Reason is from the affinity which Liberty hath with Reas 2 Largeness A Prisoner when free is set at large Largeness being before confined to a narrow space Thou hast enlarged me when I was in trouble Psal 4.1 Thou hast set my feet in a large room When a man is free he may walk abroad at large whither he pleaseth Psal 18.19 otherwise he is confined to the Will of another The CONTENTS Soul TITLE IX Of the Seat of Liberty THE Seat of Liberty is the Spirit The Soul and her Faculties That of the Body is a counterfeit and bastard Liberty Soul this of the Soul is Liberty indeed David though a King wanted this liberty while he was under Murther and Adultery therefore he prays that God would bring his Soul out of Prison and stablish him with a free Spirit As Mammon is not the true Riches so the Liberty of the Body is not a true Liberty What greater bondage than that of the Mind when the Judgment is captivated to believe the Magisterial dictates of the Pope or perhaps an ignorant Confessor It is to be wondered that brave men otherwise Wise and of great Perfections should suffer themselves to be such slaves and fools as to be imposed upon in their Judgments and not suffered nor suffer themselves to use their own Reasons nor question any thing but do like fools all manner of absurd and intollerable Commands to the macerating and hurting of their Bodies by Whippings Pilgrimages Sackcloths and other Ridiculous fopperies Reas 1 1. The first Reason is from the Contrariety of slavery Slavery is in the Spirit therefore Liberty is in the Spirit Because things contrary reside in the same seat not concurrently but successively As because the Eye is the seat of Blindness therefore it is also the seat of Seeing The Ear is the seat of Deafness therefore of Hearing So because the Spirit is the seat of Slavery it must needs be the seat of Liberty Reas 2 2. The second Reason is from the Nature of the Spirir which is naturally Free GOD the Father of Spirits is supremely Free therefore Angels and spirits of Men must be free under him The Soul is not properly united to the Body but the Body to the Soul Death is a separation but the Body departs not from the Soul but the Soul from the Body There is no man hath power over the Spirit Eccles 8.8 to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of death The CONTENTS Recess from Evil. Access to Good TITLE X. Of the Terms of Liberty THE Terms of Liberty are Good and Evil. Liberty is a loosness from Evil to Good held by no Evil and withheld from no Good I. Recess from Evil i. e. from the World the Flesh and the Devil Recess from Evil. which three are Evils Remission of sins is true Liberty from the bonds of Death Hell and Satan II. Access to Good Access to Good Good is the proper and principal object of Liberty the end and scope it aims at When we are hindred from no good but capable of all then are we free indeed As when all Egypt lay open to Joseph when all Canaan lay open to the Israelites When the Throne of Grace stands wide open for all that have need to fly thereunto for Grace sufficient to help them in the time of all their need The first is a Vulgar Liberty such as the Poor and Strangers have the second is a Royal Liberty for Children and free Denizens The Reason is from the affinity it hath with Repentance Reason Liberty is a preparative to Repentance Till the Soul be loose from Evil it cannot turn unto God As Repentance is a turning from sin to God so Liberty is a turning from Evil to Good As in Repentance the Right turning is from Evil to Good or else it is Apostacy so in Liberty the Right turning is from Evil to Good or else it is Licentiousness So loosness from the Law is slavery To be free from Righteousness is to be the Servant of sin The CONTENTS Loosness to proper End Loosness to proper Guide Loosness to proper Act. Loosness to proper Rule Loosness to proper State Loosness to proper Right TITLE XI Of the Cases of Liberty The Cases of Liberty Loosness to proper End I. A Loosness of Man to his proper End is Liberty The proper End of Man is Happiness Restraint from that makes slavery or true Misery When we are free from Worldly ends of Honour c. and clearly loose to heaven and heavenly things then are we free indeed As Bastardy bars from a temporal Inheritance As Infamy bars from temporal Honour so Liberty admits to Eternal Felicity As Capacity of Temporal Honours makes a Freeman so much more Capacity to Eternal Honours Loosness to proper Guide II. A Loosness of Man to his Proper Guide is Liberty A Man 's Proper Guide is a Right Spirit As a Restraint from that is slavery so a Loosness to that is Liberty All other Guides as Satan World Passions of flesh are Troublers rather than Leaders but when we are free from all these then are we free indeed Philo. 2 Cor. 3. pen. Revera liber est qui solum Deum sequitur He is free indeed that follows God only Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Hence that great Question ☞ how Free-will can consist with God's Grace is easily decided for where God's Grace works upon the Will the more it works upon the Will to draw it and the more the Will conforms to God's Grace to follow it the more Free the Will is Grace then doth not destroy nor abolish Liberty but beget and nourish it for the more God's Grace doth loose the Will from evil and lead it on to good the more it frees the Will And as till then the Will is not free so then it is most free III. A Loosness of Man to his Proper Act is Liberty Loosness to proper Act. The Proper Act of Man is his Will And as a Restraint from that is Slavery so a Loosness to that is Liberty The Stoicks say Liber est qui vivit ut vult which thou may'st not construe as a School-boy but as a Christian He is free that can act his own Will i. e. after Resolution
is not hindred from acting it nor forced to act the contrary Thus God doth act his own VVill and the Angels and glorified Saints act their own VVills and this is Liberty IV. A Loosness of Man to his Proper Rule is Liberty Loosness to proper Rule The Proper Rule of Man is the Law As a Restraint from that is Slavery so a Loosness to it is Liberty All other Rules as the Wisdom of the Flesh and the World are strong and impediments When thou art clear from these and loose to live by the Law Jam. 1.15 then thou art free to walk according to the perfect Law of Liberty Not that the Law leaves us to our Liberty whether to keep it or no much less gives Liberty to transgress it but because the observing of it argues Liberty freely to run in the waies of God's Commandments The Law not Conscience is the Soveraign Rule of Man i. e. God's Law or Man's Law where no Law of God declares it unlawful for the Conscience must have a Guide i. e. a Law to rule it or else it is unruly For where there is no Law there is no Conscience seeing Conscience is but the dictate of the Law of Equity which is a Law prescribing to the Law of Justice and over-ruling it And Conscience pretended is but blindness of mind or hardness of heart unless it can see or feel it self in some Law Therefore for a Man to be restrained from his proper Rule that he cannot or may not live by the Law but forced to live without or contrary to Law only at the will and pleasure of another is slavery but the contrary is true Liberty V. A Loosness of Man to his Proper State is Liberty Loosness to proper State The Proper State of a Man is to be a person after God's own Image And as a Restraint from that makes Slavery so a Loosness to it is Liberty All other States as of Sin and Corruption are exotick and forreign heterogeneous and troublesom but when none of the Manacles restrain the Spirit there is Freedom Hence Natural Corruption is a state of Slavery because it deteriorates and depraves thy proper Person diminisheth thy head and defaces God's Image in thee But thy Spiritual Regeneration is a state of Liberty because it meliorates advances thy head and restores thee to the New Man after God and Christ in Righteousness and Holiness And that Spirit of God that doth Regenerate doth thereby adopt and therefore Enfranchise For if Children then free the Spirit of Adoption is contrary to the Spirit of Bondage and the Law of the Spirit of Life makes us free from the Law of Sin and Death The state of Servitude is Death for Slaves as Dead men have no Will no more than Beasts to act any thing in Law VI. A Loosness of Man to his Proper Right is Liberty Loosness to proper Right The Proper Right of a Man is the Propriety in himself and over himself And as a Restraint from that is Slavery so a Loosness from that is Liberty All other Rights as Lands Goods c. are forreign and extraneous When none of these are Clogs and Impediments to the Spirit then there is Liberty Hence Liberty is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a Power over ones self and such as have it are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free to Rule over themselves A Man that hath a Dominion of a thing doth dispose and use that thing to his own end so he that hath Dominion of himself doth dispose and use himself to his own end and is Lord of himself and therefore Free God's Dominion over Man doth not extinguish Man's Dominion over himself no more than the Power of a Prince or Father doth extinguish the Liberty of a Subject or Son but rather the more God is thy Lord the more free art thou his Servant The more God is thy Father the more free art thou his Son Because God's service and Sonship is the most perfect freedom for it laies thee open to all his Favours and Rewards Thus the Form Seat Terms and Cases of Liberty shew the true Nature of it which is a Loosness of the Spirit from all Evil unto all Good in all the Proprieties thereof The Use of all this is to confute the Vulgar opinion That Liberty is an Indifferency to do or not to do this or the contrary An Opinion which hath bred many intricate Questions and hard Speeches against God I have therefore laboured to overthrow it not expressly by confuting the Absurdities of it but tacitly and consequently by shewing what is the Truth and proving it so to be ☞ A way which though it be least practised yet is of most dispatch and fullest of Charity for when the Truth shines out clearly all Errors against it do quickly vanish and no ill words pass upon it for they are sooner cut off with one dead stroke at the Root than singly cropt each by it self in the Branches to grow again and increase much more For otherwise there is no end of Disputes and consequently of Sects and so of Animosities and so Pride and all Mischief as woful Experience doth demonstrate in all places But we have learned no such Custom nor the Churches of God VVe know better things and labour to do them And thou Beloved Christian learn thy Duty to perceive those Truths that are evident to them that will use their Reason humbly and to believe those that are not so evident The saying is good if well taken In Necessariis Unitas in Dubiis Libertas in Omnibus Charitas In Necessary Doctrines let there be an agreement of Unity in those that are more obscure a Mutual Liberty but in all things let there be Charity And this is for the Nature of True Freedom The CONTENTS God Christ Faithful Term of Recess Bondage Term of Access Sonship TITLE XII Of the Subjest of Liberty SEcondly The Subjects of Liberty are of three sorts viz. 1. God is the Father of True Liberty 2. Christ is the Son of it 3. The Faithful are the Members of it SECTION I. I. God is the Father of True Liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolutely Free GOD. holding from none the Author End and Pattern of all Liberty in the Creature As the Sun is the Fountain of Life so God is the Fountain of Liberty Liber Liberator Free and making all Free that are free As Liberty is the Priviledge of the King for where the King is there is Freedom to himself and others no Man may be affronted arrested or beaten in his presence 2 Cor. 3. pen. So where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty 1. Because God is naturally Infinite no Bounds upon him Reason Omniscient Omnipotent and Omnipresent Ergo Naturally Free 2. Because God is naturally Loose no Bonds upon him So Mighty that he cannot so Constant that he will not be let or hindred Who shall say unto him What dost
are as Isaac who was a True Son and had the State of the Person and the Right of a Son because he came from a Woman who had the state of a Woman and the Right of a Wife and was no Bond-woman nor Concubine So it is plain from this way of Argumentation used by the Apostle That the Sons of the Law that trust to the Law only shall be as little justified or have as little Right to the Inheritance of heaven as Ismael had to Abraham's Inheritance which was none at all because he was born of a Woman who had Works enough for she was a Bond-maid but those could create unto her no Right nor to her Son to inherit But the Sons of the Gospel that trust to the Gospel only shall be thereby as much justified and have as much right to the Inheritance of heaven as Isaac had to Abraham's Inheritance which mas a complete Right because he was born of a Woman who had Faith to conceive when past Child-bearing which did create to her a full Right to be a Mother and to her Son to be an Heir This was the first Difference between the two Mothers and the two Sons on the Mother's side The second Difference is between the two Sons only by the Father's side For though they had one and the same Father yet they were begotten from different principles and operations in Abraham enabling him to beget them Gen. 16.2 1. Ismael came from Abraham as from a natural Father born after the flesh by Abraham's natural power and strength of Generation as also from Agar's natural force of Conception For Abraham was not restrained by Nature from begetting being then but eighty five years old though Sarah was restrained from bearing though not by Nature as being the younger yet by God's will 2. Isaac came from Abraham as from a supernatural Father born after the Spirit by Abraham's supernatural power and strength of Generation from God as also from Sarah's supernatural virtue of Conception by God For Abraham was restrained by Nature from begetting Ro. 10.7 being then Ninety nine years old and Sarah had a double deadness for besides that she was barren she was Ninety years old yet conceived by virtue of God's Promise Ro. 9.8 9. or by the Spirit and power of God upon her Faith So they that will be under the Law which is a Bond-woman and engendring to Bondage though thereby they be the Children of God yet they are but his natural and carnal Children because born after a more natural and carnal way by Works under the Law Heb. 9.10 consisting in carnal and fleshly Ordinances But they that are under Grace or under the Gospel which is a Free-woman and engendring to Liberty they are the True Divine and Spiritual Sons of God because they are born after a more supernatural and Spiritual way by Faith under the Gospel consisting of Spiritual Precepts Thus that which is born of the Law or Flesh is flesh Joh. 3.3 according to the nature of the Law but that which is born of the Gospel or Spirit is Spirit according to the nature of the Gospel And the Sons of God by Faith are Sons by Adoption and Grace Heirs of God and Co-heirs with Christ Jesus Eph. 1.13 and are sealed with that Spirit of Promise which is the Earnest of their Inheritance SECTION III. Many more Covenants God made But two Eminent Covenants but these two of the Law and Gospel were the most eminent 1. Because they were National The Law was a Covenant with the Nation of the Jews and the Gospel was a Covenant with all Nations The rest of the Covenants of God were Personal God was one Party and the Counterparty to him was some single Person as Adam Noah Abraham David c. 2. Because these two were Mediatory Covenants made by the Intervention of two solemn Mediators Moses and Christ the rest were immediately proposed by God and had no Interlocutor or Mediator Yet though these two Covenants disagree from all the rest yet are they different and contrary the one to the other Hagar and Sarah and the Children of the Covenant as contrary the one to the other as Ismael and Isaac The Apostle addeth to the Nature of the two Covenants the adjuncts of Place and Effect 1. For the Law the Place it was from Mount Sinai in Arabia Gal. 4.25 the Country of Hagar's Posterity called Hagarens though they would be thought to be of Sarah and called Saracens Exod. 19. Gen. 2â— And Hagar her self was originally of Egypt the house of Bondage 2. The Effect of the Law was Bondage engendred thereby For according to the Nature of the Law so are the Spirits and Manners of men under it The Law of Moses burthensom for its Rites and contains only outward Precepts and Temporal Promises and Curses And therefore it self begets a Spirit or Genius correspondent to it of servile drudgery and slavish fear under a Curst Mistress II. For the Gospel 1. The Place it was from Mount Sion in Jerusalem the Country of Sarah and her Posterity which though free in comparison of Arabia yet is in bondage being compared with the heavenly Jerusalem which is absolutely and truly free Gal. 4.26 Heb. 11.10 Heb. 11.16 and is the Mother of us all A City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God in a better Country than Canaan that is the Heavenly Canaan where God hath prepared this City For we are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem Heb. 11.22 and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just men made perfect This is the holy City Apoc. 21.2 3. the New Jerusalem that comes down from God out of heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband The Tabernacle of God with Men. So the Seat of the Gospel is above whence it was delivered to Christ and from whence Christ brought it to the World below 2. The Effect of the Gospel is Liberty engendred thereby For according to the Nature of the Gospel so are the Spirits and Manners of Men under it The Gospel of Christ is easie and light for its Rites which are but two Baptism and the Lord's Supper and for its Precepts and Promises and Threatnings pure spiritual and eternal And therefore it begets a Spirit or Genius correspondent to it self of Son-like Diligence and filial Love under a kind and tender Mother The Mothers differ so do the Children The Children resemble their several Mothers The Children of their several Mothers resemble one another and are all in a like state of the same Spirit The Children of the Law are chiefly for the Letter The Children of the Gospel are chiefly for the Spirit The Children of the Law are chiefly for Temporals The Children of the
have already passed and had their Being SECTION I. I. When the First Person brought forth the Second the Second Person was God the Son He was of God because he proceeded from God the Father God of God Light of Light very God of very God He was the Son of God because he was begotten of the Father The Brightness of his Glory Heb. 1.2 Col. 1.15 and the Express Image of his Person The Image of the invisible God the first Born of every Creature SECTION II. II. When the whole Trinity brought forth Adam then Man was the Son of God Luk. 3. ult as Adam is called the Son of God Gen. 1.26 Gen. 5.1 1. Because God created him 2. Because he was after God's own likeness SECTION III. III. When Adam brought forth his Sons and they bring forth their Sons to this day and shall to the Worlds end then Man is the Son of Man 1. Because Man begets him Gen. 5.3 2. Because he is after Man 's own Likeness SECTION IV. IV. When the Blessed Virgin Mary brought forth our Blessed Saviour then God was the Son of Man 1. Because conceived and born of a Woman 2. Because he is after her own Likeness Phil. 2.7 He was made in the Likeness of Man God sent his own Son in the Likeness of Sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 In all things like unto Man Sin only excepted The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Thus it pleased God to interchange himself with Man and each to beget the other As the Plant first brings forth the Seed Sim. and then that Seed brings forth the Plant so God first brought forth Man and after Man brought forth God Thus God and Man are each others Father and Son Man the Son and Father of God and God the Father and Son of Man By two of these four Generations our Saviour was a Son viz. by the first and the last When God broughth forth God Christ was the Son of God And When Man brought forth God Christ was the Son of Man So Christ is the First and the Last the First Son of God Rev. 1.17 and the Last Son of Man The First by whom Man had his beginning and the Last in whom he hath his ending I am Alpha and Omega Rev. 1.8 the Beginning and the Ending But especially of his Church whose Beginning is Election and End Salvation For in him our Election begins and in him our Salvation ends Note that though our Saviour had these two Births and two Fathers yet he is not two Sons no more than he that hath two Sons is two Fathers A Curious Picture being first drawn out in Colours Sim. and after put into Frame hath two works done unto it yet it is but one Picture so the Son of God who was first the Picture of his Father's Image and the brightness of his Glory is after put into a Frame of Flesh hath thereby two Births yet is but one Son The Reason is because these two Births had but one Person to sustain them for the Person of the Godhead supported both The Fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily Therefore these two Births being after several Images Christ must needs have two several Natures The Nature of a God as he was the Son and of God and the Nature of a Man as he was the Son of Man 1. As God he was a Son only Begotten not made 2. As Man he was a Son only Made and not begotten The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory Joh. 1.14 the Glory as of the only Begotten Son of the Father full of Grace and Truth As he was the Son of Man no Man begat him but the Woman conceived him by the Power of the Holy Ghost overshadowing her a Virgin yet he was not the Son of the Holy Ghost Lord help me in this deep Mystery and save me from sin all this while Because he was not begotten from the substance of the Holy Ghost Reason as Natural Sons are generated from their Fathers substance but by the Power of the Holy Ghost And being born Man he had not the Image of the Holy Ghost therefore was not his Son seeing every Son must be like his Father in Nature and Essence But he was properly the Son of the Virgin therefore the True Son of Mankind with indifferency to either Sex In the Virgins Womb he was conceived and cherished essentiated with the Parts of a Man Body and Soul perfectly united Had Infirmities natural to all Mankind not Personal of this or that Man nor Poenal for this or that Sin but for all sins And these defects did Man him most A Passive Mortal Man Vir dolorum A Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Griefs Man in all things except Man's Sin Is 53.6 yet he bore the Punishment of that For the Lord laid upon him the Iniquity of us all But why the Son of God all this VVhy Christ became the Son of Man rather than the Father or the Holy Ghost A Mediator The Father or the Holy Ghost might either have been the Son of Man had they been so pleased but had either of them been the Son of Man then the name of Son would have belonged to two Persons of the Trinity Therefore it was most convenient for that Person that was the Son to become the Son of Man Reasons 1. In respect of the whole Trinity 2. On the Father's Part. 3. On the Son's Part. 4. On Man's Part. SECTION V. I. In respect of the whole Trinity VVhen things of a different Nature are united they are best combined by a Third Mean Sim. that is of a middle Complexion to them both so the Body and Soul are combined by the Spirits that are of a middle Nature between both VVhen Man and VVife are at odds the best way to reconcile them is their Son Because he is a Middle Party between both the one is his Father the other is his Mother From all Eternity God loved us in his Son He before our Fall was as the Spirits to maintain our Union with God But when we were fallen at odds and God would be reconciled God mediated between Himself and Us by his Son Because he being the Middle Person of the Trinity and being both God and Man was the fitter to make a Mediator between God and Man That having God to his Father and Man to his Mother he might make a full Reconciliation between God and his Spouse as the Son doth between Man and VVife 2 Cor. 5.18 God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given unto us the Ministery of Reconciliation to wit That God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them and hath cemmitted unto us the Word of
the Jews only Ro. 3.29 30. is he not also of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also Seeing he is one God which shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Uncircumcision through Faith There is one Body and one Spirit Eph. 4.4 5. even as ye are called in one Hope of your Calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. God will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men even the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all to be testified in due time Remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the Flesh who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the Flesh made by hands Eph. 2.11 c. That at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the World But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ for he is our Peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle Wall of Partition between us Having abolished in his flesh the Enmity even the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new Man so making Peace And that he might reconcile both unto God in one Body by the Cross having slain the Enmity thereby And came and preached Peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh for through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father Now therefore ye are no more Strangers and Forreigners but Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God And ye are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the Chief Corner-stone In whom all the Building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord in whom you also are builded together Gal. 3.8 for an habitation of God through the Spirit And the Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations be blessed and all the Families which are parts that constitute the Nations shall be blessed in Abraham i. e. in Christ whose Seed he is so the Faithful are said to be accepted in Christ in whom God is well pleased and beloved in God Gal. 3.14 who is God's well-beloved That the Blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles that we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith Gal. 3.28 Neither Jew all are one in Christ Jesus 2. Reason All Nations Sinners Gal. 3.22 2. Because all Nations have sinned The Scripture hath concluded all under Sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe For before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed For as ye in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief Even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they also might obtain mercy Ro. 11.30 c. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all 3. Reason Jews and Gentiles made one 3. Because Christ also is a Mediator between men and men i. e. between Jew and Gentile who are now united and made all one To worship one God in all places after one manner in Spirit and in Truth All are united by Christ into one among themselves and all unto God with whom they are one in Communion and God with them by the Spirit the unity whereof they keep together in one Body in the Bond of Peace Christ a Soveraign Mediator Heb. 9.15 But Christ is most eminently the Soveraign Mediator of the New Testament because he hath made it and sealed it with his Blood Testament includes a Covenant And here the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie a Testament and not a Covenant though elsewhere it may denote a Covenant For to speak accurately Testament and Covenant differ but alternly as Genus and Species For every Testament though it have no express Conditions for the Heir or Legataries to perform yet tacitly it implies a Covenant which is the consent of the Heir to receive the Inheritance And though the Heir doth not covenant with the Testator at the making of the Testament because that may be done altogether without his knowledg which is necessarily required in him that covenanteth Yet he covenants at the validity of the Testament for when the Covenant takes effect by his acceptance of and entring upon the Inheritance animo voluntate with mind and will then though before he were free he covenants or leagues to be his Heir and further to perform the Will of the Testator in what he hath required him to do So that every Testament at least when it is consummate and valid is a kind of Covenant And the best of Covenants 1. Because the Testator covenanteth with him whom he most of all loveth even so as to give and leave all to him and his own life that he may enjoy all that he hath given him 2. Because it is more solemnly testified than any other Covenant 3. Because it is most pretiously confirmed by the death of him that made it who establisheth his own Deed by his own Death 4. Because it proceeds with the greatest freedom in leaving the Heir to his Liberty whether he will accept of the Inheritance or no. Christ's Mediatorship consisted chiefly in these Acts. Wherein Christ's Mediatorship consists 1. In declaring and publishing the New Testament 2. In dying to confirm it 3. Interpreting electing and judging cum favore at the last day who are by right of Faith to receive the Inheritance and rejecting or reprobating those that have none 4. In putting the Elect into the full Possession of the Inheritance and condemning the Reprobate to have their Portion with the Devil and his Angels But how can Christ confirm that Testament by his Death who is but the Mediator or Heir and not the Testator himself Ob. I answer the solemn Act of any Person that hath right to make a Will Sol. testified by witnesses and confirmed by his Death is properly a Testament and he is the Testator of it amongst men For by the Civil Law Testament and Testator do commonly concur in one and the same Person yet not necessarily but accidentally Mediator and Testator how concurring For when a witness shall testifie upon his Death the verity and certainty of another man's Will and Testament such an one though he be not the Author yet he may be called the Testator to that Testament And by his Mediation to insinuate and
him Melchisedec a Type of Christ 1. Because he blessed so Great a Man as Abraham was the Prince of God the Father of the Faithful one to whom the Promises were made 2. Because he tithed Abraham and Levi himself that tithed others paid Tithes to Melchisedec in Abraham's Loyns 3. Because he was a Singular Priest neither was there any more of that Order nor shall be for ever 4. Because he was a perpetual High-priest 5. Because he was of the Tribe of Judah Heb. 7.14 of which Moses spake nothing concerning the Priesthood 6. Because he was made by an Oath Heb. 7.20 And inasmuch as not without an Oath he was made Priest For those Priests were made without an Oath but this with an Oath by him that said unto him The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec 7. Because he is a Royal Priest as was Melchisedec King of Salem Heb. 7.1 and having offered his Blood as a Priest he sits at the Right hand of God as King ruling over his Church 1 Cor. 15.24 till he have put all his Enemies under his feet and shall deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power SECTION V. Christ offereth Himself he offered himself without spot to God Of the Offering of Christ Heb. 9.14 Heb. 7.27 Heb. 9.26 1 Tim. 2.6 Gal. 1.4 Gal. 2.20 for this he did once when he offered up himself he hath appeared to put away Sins by the Sacrifice of himself he gave himself a Ransom for all who gave himself for our Sins who loved me and gave himself for me 1. Because he only was worthy to give and to be given to God Reason 1 2. Because in him only God was well-pleased for so God testified Reason 2 from Heaven This is my Well-beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased Christ offered through the Spirit Through the Spirit Heb. 9.14 1 Pet. 3.18 Ro. 1.3 4. who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself unto God being put to death in the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit Who was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the dead The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 Heb. 10.20 Heb. 7.15 16. By a New and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Veil that is to say his Flesh After the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another Priest who is made not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life Christ therefore is a Living Sacrifice and so are they that are Christ's that present their Bodies a living Sacrifice Rom. 12.1 holy and acceptable to God which is their reasonable Sacrifice So Christ is the Living bread which came down from heaven Joh. 6 51. Heb. 7.8 25. and went up to heaven here men that die receive Tithes but here he receiveth them of whom it is testified that he liveth Wherefore he is able to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Reason 1 1. Because the Flesh was weak and died and no dead thing can offer it self or any thing else Reason 2 2. Because the Spirit is strong and liveth to offer the Flesh quickned thereby and to be offered in the Person of God and Man to be a Living Sacrifice Such a Sacrifice was Christ first slain and then quickned by the Spirit and offered by the Spirit unto God the Father of the Spirits Without Spot Heb. 9.14 1 Pet. 1.19 Christ offered without Spot he offered himself to God without Spot i. e. of all sin or infirmity when immortal redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot so we are found in him without spot and blameless so is the Spouse of Christ cleansed and adorned 2 Pet. 3.14 without spot or wrinkle or any such thing holy and blameless Reason 1 1. Because Christ was so conceived by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary therefore that Holy Thing which was born of her was called the Son of God Thou art the Holy One of God Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption Reason 2 2. Because he purged away all our Sins that were laid upon him which though they were as Scarlet yet shall be as white as Snow and though they be red like Crimson Is 1.18 yet they shall be as Wool Once Heb. 9.25 c. Christ offered Once only Not that he should offer himself often as the High-Priest entreth into the Holy Place every year with Blood of others for then he must often have suffered since the foundation of the World but now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed unto all men once to die ond after death cometh Judgment So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without spot unto Salvation Heb. 10.1 2 c. For the Law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the Things can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the Comers thereunto perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered i. e. they would have ceased to be offered because that the Worshipers once purged should have had no more Conscience of sin But in those Sacrifices there is a Remembrance again made of sins every year For it is impossible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away sins Wherefore when he cometh into the World he saith Sacrifice and Offering and Burnt-offering and Offering for Sin thou wouldst not but a Body hast thou prepared me In burnt-offerings and Sacrifices for Sins thou hast had no pleasure Then said I lo I come in the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy Will O God By the which Will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all And every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering the same Sacrifices which can never take away Sins But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his Enemies be made his Footstool For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness This is the Covenant that I will make with them in those days I will put my Laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their Sins and their Iniquities will I remember no more Now where Remission of these is there is no more offering
it self is the Mercy-Seat in Heaven and everlasting Grace and Glory with God The Way thereunto is Christ Jesus who first preached it and made his Personal Sacerdotal entrance into the highest Heavens Therefore the Veil of the Temple was rent in twain at the Death of Christ to shew the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers The Temple-Service went on constantly by Law for its own time but after Christ's Death Resurrection Ascension and the Mission of the Holy Ghost there was a New Dispensation and a Cessation and Nullity in Law as to God of all the Jewish Worship For the Time was come after Christ offered in his Holy Temple of Heaven and from thence bestowed gifts of Doctrine and Government upon his Church that Men should no longer worship God at Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim in either of the Temples there after the manner as formerly but in a way of Reformation all Men are called to worship God in all Places after one pure spiritual and perfect manner For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth which is highly acceptable to God through the most efficacious Ministry of our Great High-Priest before his Father in Heaven This shews the infelicity of those Times of the Law comparatively to these of the Gospel in which they were ignorant of that Grace and Glory that is now revealed and the poorness and baseness of the Service as of rude and beggarly Elements after the manner of the World in comparison of the rich and magnificent Ministration of the Gospel of Grace unspeakable and full of Glory performed by Christ himself in the immediate presence of his Father and of those that are Christ's by his Mediation offering their Spiritual Services in his Name and by him acceptable to the Father By all this Spiritual Discourse we learn to understand the great Offices of Christ's Mediation as Prophet Priest and King by which he shews himself the Author and Finisher of our Salvation and how and where and when they were performed in those two Estates so vastly different from each other viz. his Humiliation on earth and his Exaltation in heaven His obedience to Death Shame and a Curse his Rules to Life Glory and Bliss The CONTENTS Extent of Christ's Obedience To all Law Above all Law Against all Law Extremity of Christ's Obedience Rarity Shame Curse Reasons of Christ's Obedience To confirm Testament To expiate Sin and Misery TITLE VII Of Christ's Humiliation ALL aim at Happiness or at least to that which is Pleasant and gets a Name but we mistake the way know not the Lets neglect the Furtherances viz. chiefly Pride they are the Lets they carry us in a smooth way tending to Death but the Furtherances and Means are chiefly two to wit Humility and Obedience they carry us in a rough way that brings us to Life These St. Paul shews us by the Example of Christ He attained to the height of happiness God gave him a Name above every name All Power both in Heaven and Earth Phil. 2.8 9. How By Humility and Obedience I. Humility in stooping from the Majesty of God to the Meanness of Man 1. The Majesty of God equal with God and yet robbed him of no glory but sate him down at the Right hand of the Majesty on high 2. The Meanness of Man He made himself of no reputation but took upon him the form of a Servant and was found in fashion as a Man II. Obedience in yielding from the life of a Man to the death of a Malefactor SECTION I. I. The Extent of his Obedience In CHRIST are two Natures of God and Man Extent of Christ's Obedience and therefore two Carriages or Deportments 1. As God to Rule and Command all 2. As Man to Obey and Submit to all By Birth he is the Son of God by Obedience the Son of Man below Man A Worm and no Man For though he was the Son of God yet learned he Obedience by the things which he suffered 1. Obedient to the Will of God by fulfilling it and suffering it God's Will was done by him and done upon him Joh. 4 24. Joh. 6.38 It was his Meat and Drink to do the Will of his Father He came down from Heaven not to do his own Will but the Will of him that sent him I delight to do thy Will O God yea it is within my heart 2. Obedient to the Will of Man Obedient to Pilate to the Souldiers to the Jews As a Lamb that is dumb before the Shearers so he opened not his mouth When he was reviled he reviled not again he turned his Cheek to the Smiters and suffered the Plowers to plow upon his back and made long surrows This was the vast compass of his Obedience from doing of all Right to the suffering of all Wrong 1. Obedient to all Law never committed Sin To all Law neither was Guile found in his mouth 2. Obedient above all Law payed Tribute Above all Law Math. 17.24 though free and priviledged because he would give no offence 3. Obedient against all Law suffered all wrong Against all Law suffered his own Disciple that eat of his bread to betray him endured Bonds Stripes Buffetings Spitting Mocking Crucifying The Obedience of the Rechabites was something to drink no Wine The Obedience of Hosea more to Marry a Whore Yet all this was but a Living Obedience for Wine Houses Wife c. But Christ's Obedience was beyond Life to Death Abraham's Obedience was great to offer Isaac his only Son miraculously born to him by Promise This Obedience came near unto death but not to death yet had he slain him he had but been obedient to the death of another his son but Christ was obedient to the death of himself Isaac was obedient to the death of himself but was rescued and did not die so was not Christ for he died the death indeed Christ his death was for no fault of his at all Pilate cleared him Luk. 23.22 so did the Thief and the Centurion Christ his death came from no force of others as he took his life when and how and of whom he pleased so he laid down his life when and how and by whom he pleased no man could take it from him he bowed freely and yielded up the Ghost SECTION II. Extremity of Christ's Obedience II. The extremity of his Obedience to the death even of the Cross an Ignominy beyond death To suffer death and to be put to death is common some have offered themselves to death and dared to die But this is the worst kind of death As there are several kinds of life so of death some are better than others As a life with ease pleasure honour and riches is better than another so a death with shame and a curse is worse than a plain simple death Christ then did worse than die for he hanged upon the Cross and was Cursed In
a Pledge of our following after him Christ after his Resurrection receiving this Power sits not on his Royal Pavilion as an idle Spectator of his Subjects from heaven but gave at first a sensible demonstration of his invisible Power by sending down the Holy Ghost in the likeness of Fiery tongues upon the Apostles inspiring them with Tongues and revealing to them the Mysteries of God's Kingdom This JESUS hath God raised up Act. 2.32 and being by the Right hand of God exalted he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear Else at first if it had only been an invisible Kingdom above it might have seemed a dream to them which were yet but Novices But since he hath continued and will continue to send down his Holy Spirit into the hearts of all his Servants not miraculously with Signs and Wonders as before but ordinarily and yet sufficiently for the good of their Souls and the edification of his Church till we all come in the Unity of the same Spirit to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ And this he will do according to his Promise Lo I am with you alwaies even unto the end of the World SECTION I. Now the chief Effects of the Holy Ghost the Promise of the Father sent from Christ are Victory over Sin Victory over the Law and Victory over Death by Christ's Victory over all these Victory over Sin Victory over Sin was 1. Not External only by Christ on the Cross for the Remission of Sins and for Exemption from Punishments Col. 2.15 Where he spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly and where he Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 being made a Curse for us Then did Christ put a Period to all ineffectual Sacrifices and demonstrate his displeasure against Sin afterwards publish free Pardon through his Blood which was effectually obtained by the offering of himself to God for all that repent and believe the Gospel 2. Not external by moral Righteousness of outward Works by our own natural Power according to the Letter of the Law nor yet ceremonial or ritual Observations conducing nothing to the subduing of corruptions and Lusts This is that Pharisaical Righteousness by which St. Paul professeth that he could not be thereby justified Phil. 3.6 9. although he walked according to the Law blameless and wisheth to be found in Christ not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ 1 Cor. 4.4 the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Yea more though he knew nothing by himself yet was he not thereby justified Exiguum est quiddam ad legem esse bonum Seneca It is no great matter to be good according to the Rule of the Law called the Law of Works and the Righteousness of Works The Sin of the heart was by the corrupt Gloss of the Scribes and Pharisees called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Sin that came not within the Scope and Compass of the Law Because the Law enjoyned no punishment for it And if thoughts and desires were Sins they fancied that the Sacrifices would do them all away St. Paul searched into the Law as far as another man and yet he could not discern Lust to be a Sin by the ordinary Precepts till he found one more large than the rest that told him he should not lust Thereupon Tryphon the Jew noting the extraordinary high Commandements of the Gospel reaching even unto poorness of Spirit pureness of Heart mourning hungring and thirsting after Righteousness Peace-making Love of Enemies Adultery of the heart murder in heart c. wondred and declared that it was impossible to perform them Joseph Josephus therefore blames the famous Historian Polibius for ascribing the death of Antiochus to be a just Vengeance of God upon him for his thoughts of Sacriledg which he never acted saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides the Scribes and Pharisees set up their own Traditions above the Law of God and were errant Hypocrites For which cause Christ declareth so many woes against them and that the very Publicans and Harlots should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before them and that not every one that said Lord Lord should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that did the Will of his Father which was in Heaven and that their long Prayers and Fasting was to devour Widow's Houses Matth. 5.20 And that except the Righteousness of the Jews did exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.3 And that except a man be born again he shall never see the Kingdom of God 3. Imputation of Righteousness Not External Imputation of an external or internal Righteousness of another as is fancied of the Righteousness of Christ and the Righteousness of the Saints both ex abundanti works of Supererogation serving over and above their own turns to the necessities of others to all intents and purposes as if they were their own A Cloathing up another Man's back to keep me warm upon a mere Imagination reckoned to be mine though I have not a Rag to cover my nakedness A kind of Dream of a Shadow in a shew of Modesty and Humility to colour inward Hypocrisy and Carnality A Title of the Holiness of another man to justifie me to the Estate of happiness without any of my own as much as if I had it really and indeed Jam. 2.14 As if a sick man could be cured by anothers health and a Blackmore cleansed by another's whiteness as if a naked or hungry Soul could be clothed or fed with words without giving them any raiment or sustenance An uncouth Notion irreconcilable with many Scriptures That God will nor justifie the ungodly but reward every one according to his works making Sin and Righteousness both phantastical without any real Evil or Good at all Of these it may be most truly said as Tully said of the Epicureans opinione tantum justi opinione tantum beati they are holy in opinion and happy in opinion only But what say the Scriptures He that doth righteousness is righteous 1 Joh 3.7 He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandements is a Lyar 1 Joh 2.4 and the Truth is not in him If we say we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the Truth But if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all Sin Ye have overcome the wicked one and the world by Faith He that overcometh shall eat of the tree of Life and he shall not be hurt of the Second Death He shall have the hidden Manna and a white stone and a new Name that none knoweth but he that hath it Apoc. 2.7 That I may know him and the
with Penances and Reliques and Indulgences and Outward performances never regarding the Inward killing of Lusts nor expecting a Living Law written in the heart This is to forsake our Husband Christ and cleave to the bondage of the Law which is dead to us by Christ's Cross and might be dead in us by his Spirit if we would believe And the ground of all this Error is from a Novel Interpretation of that Paragraph of the latter part of the seventh of the Romans contrary to all Antiquity Sense or Reason SECTION IV. The Reasons for this Victory over the Law are these Because Grace is stronger than the Law Grace stronger than Law Mercy rejoyces and prevails over Justice The absolving power of the Gospel is stronger than the condemning power of the Law The Mercies of God are above all his Works Prerogative is above Law Custome overcomes Law Mercy much more The Sword of Justice is strong and sharp but Mercy keeps off the blow and holds the hand of Justice from striking If the Law calls aloud for Justice Christ's blood calls louder and pleads for pardon If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father and the blood of Christ is the Propitiation for all sins God will have mercy because he will have mercy and what is that to the Law It is the will of God to pardon and pass by Iniquities Transgressions and Sins and to remember them no more When the strong man enters into the house he keeps it and all that is therein but when a stronger than he comes upon him he binds him hand and foot and casts him out So is the Gospel to the Law 2. Because the Spirit of Grace is stronger than the Spirit of the Law Spirit of Grace stronger than Spirit of Law The Spirit of Sin is strong in it self Lust hath a violent impulse and vehement motion The Spirit of Sin is stronger by the Law and rages and takes on much more for being opposed Like a Lion scorns to be kept in but breaks down all barrs and bounds to run abroad at randome But the Spirit of the Law is stronger for though it cannot curb sin from sinning yet it keeps it under the Curse that it cannot escape it But when the Spirit of Grace in Christ comes it preacheth deliverance to the Captives and recovery of sight to the blind and opens the prison doors to them that were fast bound in misery and iron and publishes the acceptable Year of the Lord. The Word of God is mighty in operation throegh the Spirit for the beating down of the strong holds of Sin and Satan As Light is stronger than Darkness to destroy sin so the Blessing of Grace is stronger than the Curse of the Law to take it quite away Though the Spirit of the Law be the Spirit of God's Justice yet the Spirit of the Gospel is the Spirit of God's Mercy which God will have to be more effectual than the other and Blesses whom the Law curses yea and they shall be Blessed 3. God delights more in Mercy than Vengeance Because God delights more in shewing Mercy than in executing Vengeance in sparing than in punishing As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn and live Judgment is his strange work Bowels of mercy tender pity and Compassion are his delightful properties 4. Because Man is made to be the object of God's Love not Wrath Man Object of God's Love his Blessing not a Curse Life not Death Heaven was prepared for Men and Angels till they sinned and then Hell was prepared for them and since that for all Hypocrites like unto them We cannot imagine in any reason that God made his poor Creatures for everlasting Destruction We may observe it in our selves though we be evil yet we are not so unnatural as to beget children to starve them or beat out their brains or leave them to the wide World or send them to the Hangman to be tormented to death And if we that are evil know well enough notwithstanding to give good things to our children not a Scorpion for a Fish nor a Stone for an Egg how much more then shall our Heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him and how infinitely more pitiful and compassionate is he than we can imagine or express Christs Pleading undeniable to God 5. Because the Pleading of Christ for Mercy purchased by his own Blood is undeniable to God above all the Pleading of the Law or the Devil that lays the Law against the Brethren whose malicious accuser he is God will not cannot deny his own Son and whatsoever we shall ask the Father in his Name he will deny us nothing SECTION V. Victory procured meritoriously by Christs death 1. This Victory is meritoriously procured for us by Christ's Death O Death I will be thy death O Grave I will be thy destruction And his Resurrection was the pledg to assure us thereof 2. This Victory is really effected and performed in us by the Spirit of Christ raising our Souls from the death of sin to the life of righteousness and our Bodies from the Grave to the life of glory If the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you Rom. 8.11 he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you As if he should have said If the Spirit of Christ dwell in you regenerating your Souls to a New Creature which is the first Resurrection from the first death then the very same Spirit shall also immortalize your Bodies which is the second resurrection from the second death that upon them the second death shall have no Power Thus abundantly hath God provided for us by Jesus Christ both in respect of our Souls and of our Bodies Our Souls raised from the death of sin and the curse of the Law Our Bodies raised from the Grave The Natural Body is raised a Spiritual Body the Corruptible puts on Incorruption Dishonour turn'd into Glory Weakness into Power a Change to be as the Angels in Heaven Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 5.2 We Groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven Victory obtained by the Spirit of Faith 2. But no obtaining this Victory over death purchased for us till by the Spirit of Faith we obtain a Victory over Sin which is also procured for us by Christ who hath received the Promise of the Spirit for all that believe This is that Crown of Life that Christ the first born of God and first begotten from the dead shall set upon the heads of all those that have fought the good fight of faith and have been more than Conquerours For as death proceeds only from Sin for sin is mortal so life
the Language of the Scripture and the Sense thereof and therefore may be understood and they that give their minds to it are found able to express themselves in it very well to the great comfort of themselves and others Obj. But how shall I partake of Christ and the Benefits of his Death Passion and Resurrection Sol. By the easie and only way of Credence Acceptation Covenanting and keeping Faith with God agreeable to the mind of the Spirit and renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil Care must be taken for the Soul more than for the Body If God had asked some great thing must thou not have done it How much more when he saith Believe only and thou shalt be saved Ask and you shall have seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you If there be first a willing mind it is accepted of God according to what a man hath and not according to what a man hath not If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature And God giveth his holy Spirit to those that ask him So Christ by his Death and Resurrection hath externally conquered Sin Law and Death for all men So Christ by his Spirit doth internally conquer Sin Law and Death in every believing Soul and creates inherent holiness therein So by Faith the Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us to be the Righteous Sons and Heirs of God by Grace and Adoption as Christ is by Nature and Generation So by the Spirit of Faith we are inherently sanctified in Love and Good Works which maintains and upholds our Justification by Faith So Imputed Righteousness by Faith is our external Righteousness of the Spirit of Righteousness or Justification to Eternal Life So our Inherent Righteousness by Works is the inward Sanctification of the Spirit of Holiness In all this Book I have laboured to demonstrate Christ's Mediation between God and us especially as he is an High Priest I. In the outward Temple on Earth preparing himself for a Sacrifice by the sufferings and death of his Flesh II. In the inward Temple of Heaven by finishing the Sacrifice in the oblation of his blood to God He entred into the out ward Temple by his Birth and there he suffered and died He went out of the outward Temple by his Resurrection He entred into the Inward Temple by his Ascension and there he ministers as a Priest 1. By offering or presenting himself unto God by his Eternal Spirit 2 By Intercession at the Right hand of God 3. By Teaching and instructing of his Church 4. By Protecting and ruling by his Spirit He shall come out of the Inward Temple at the last day 1. To Judg of all that are capable of the Inheritance devised by God in his last Will. 2. To Admit and give Possession as an Executor of God's Testament 3. To give up the Kingdom to God the Father that God may be all in all The Head being thus entred into Heaven gives assurance for the Members to follow after In the mean time 1. They have a Right to enter 2. They do enter by Faith 3. They wait by Hope for a full entrance The Soul waits after death in Paradise Abraham's Bosome The Body waits in Corruption No Oblation ever pleased God but this of Christ No Oblation pleased God but Christ's Because Pure and Holy High and Heavenly and prepared by God himself For 1. The Person is heavenly that offers 2. The Sacrifice is heavenly that is offered 3. The Spirit is heavenly by which it is offered 4. God is heavenly to whom it is offered 5. The Place is heavenly wherein it is offered 6. The Blessings are heavenly for which it is offered Dead Sacrifices were fit for the Dead Law Living Sacrifices fit for the Living Law Earthly Sacrifices were fit for the Earthly Law Heavenly Sacrifices fit for the Heavenly Gospel No True Priest Altar Sacrifice or Temple but Christ We are Priests have Altars Sacrifices and Temples but all in Christ and in his stead do all offer all in his Name All was Earthly Typical and Carnal under the Law All is Heavenly Mystical and Spiritual under the Gospel 1. Baptism is the sprinkling of the Soul with the blood of Christ and the washing of the Holy Ghost 2. Communion is the Spiritual eating of the Flesh and drinking of the blood of Christ by Faith 3. Prayer is the Act of the Soul towards God 4. Conversation is in Heaven 5. The Kingdom of God is within us ruling and subduing our Lusts 6. The Kingdom of God is above us Triumphing 7. The Temple of God is within us in our Souls and Bodies offered a Living Sacrifice to God 8. Temple of God is above us in Heaven with Christ Every one that comes to God must offer Every one that comes to God must offer 1. Christ comes to God and offers Himself 2. Christians come to God and offer Themselves Religion is an Offering to God of our selves our Goods and Actions Atheism makes no acknowledgment by offering to God either our Selves our Goods or Actions Atheists live and die to themselves without God in the World All that offer in Christ are accepted of God for Christ's sake All that offer to God and all that is offered to God must be pure as God is pure Offering is an Acknowledgment of Subjection of Thankfulness of Liberality To God to Princes to Priests that are in God's stead Christian Religion most Spiritual and Glorious The Christian Religion is most spiritual and glorious 1. Christ the Author of it is God and Man Humbled in Sufferings and Death Exalted in Resurrection Ascention and Session at the Right Hand of God 2. The Gospel of Christ is the full Revelation of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and the most perfect Rule of Holiness 3. Christ's kingdom is over all inwardly in our hearts outwardly over our bodies and over all creatures 4. By Christ a new Creation new Heavens and a new Earth and new creatures 5. Christians are sons and heirs of God abstracted from Jewish and Heathenish Rites and from all carnal and profane conversation pilgrims strangers on earth wise to salvation pious to God righteous to men perfect as God is perfect Christianity is quite another thing than the World takes it to be 1. No carnal worship therein Altars Masses Idols Pilgrimages Reliques Sackcloth Ashes Whippings Crosses c. Exotick Paganish 2. No worldly Policy therein Infallibility Supremacy Miracles Pomps c. Cheats Spirituality Innocency Heavenly-mindedness Simplicity Obedience Love Quietness Chastity Temperance Patience Prudence Meekness Faith Hope c. are the Laws and Customs of the Church The scandal and shame of the Cross offends the World but was endured and despised by Christ and is endured and despised by Christians having an eye as Christ had to the recompense of the Reward and to the price of the High Calling
Adopted Sons of God by Grace 2. We are sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise 3. We are renewed by Regeneration 4. We are Justified by his Grace through Faith 5. We are invited by his glorious Promises greater than we can understand Now he that considereth this state of things and hopes for the state of blessings will proceed in duty and love towards the perfection of God never giving out till he partake of the purities of God and his utmost Glories perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord till he obtain an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus In the practice of these spiritual duties there is no difficulty but what is made by the careless lives and actions of outward Christians and by their lazy and unholy Principles So that after the rate such Christians live now it is hard to know how and in what instances and in what degrees our duty ought to excell that of Moses's disciples though a Greater than Moses is here But they that love will do the thing that is good and so understand the Rule of perfection Obedite intelligetis Obey and ye shall know all that is necessary to be known for God shall lead you into all truth and love is the fulfilling of the whole Law We cannot be too careful for ignorant and weak and carnal persons especially for hypocrites because both pretend the one sort really as knowing no better but the other falsely and basely to the shame of Christianity that 1. This so high and spiritual worship inclines the minds of men to scruples and dislikes of all orders and rules in the Church and so because Christians must have but few Rites therefore they will endure none at all or such only as are of their own making We protest utterly against this spirit of men that it is an abuse of Christian Liberty and a cloak of maliciousness in hypocrites and a grievous cheat to all weak and well-meaning Christians 2. That this leads into rebellion against the religious Powers that according to their bounden duties do establish order and decency in all things belonging to the Service of God It is the principal care of the Magistrate to see that God be honourably served in Publick with decency at set times and places with set forms and postures to avoid confusion Now these pretenders to spirituality only do strongly set themselves against the face of Authority under the shew of Conscience This is a very wicked thing most contrary to the meaning of the Spirit and Power of Godliness For God hath ordained Princes to rule and Subjects to obey But these unruly Spirits under a feigned zeal for God's Cause set up their own Cause and set the whole world on fire by their ungodly Rebellions Take heed therefore of this one thing The True Gospel-Spirit minds most of all a True Spiritual Service But if Lawful and Religious Power commands a few innocent Forms to be observed in publick only to avoid Distraction they submit peaceably and still continue to worship God in the Spirit in publick In the Time Appointed by Law In the Place Appointed by Law In the Posture Appointed by Law In the Form Appointed by Law And in private too at any time place and in any form or posture as they themselves shall please What can be done more If men were not unreasonable they would be contented and come in to the Publick Worship and not proudly separate themselves as they do This did not the Jews though they had different opinions otherwise and this do not the Papists though they have several Orders and Perswasions amongst them For all Jews came to the same Temple and all Papists to the same Mass But our Sects are more unfortunately cross and more unhandsomely disobedient to Ecclesiastical and Temporal Authority than all the world besides the more is our misery Learn to be wiser and make it a matter of Conscience to fulfil all Righteousness to take your liberty in God's name in private no body desires to hinder you in the least Have ye not houses to pray in Mat. 3.13 Why despise ye the House of Prayer Shall I praise you for this I praise you not Do not forbear the assembling of your selves together as the custome of too many is to do It is spiritual Pride it is not only rebellious but uncivil and very rude to flock together to unlawful meetings or to stay at home or walk in the fields or streets or be at Ale-houses or Taverns as people unconcerned when better men than you are gathered together in the fear of God and Obedience to the Laws to Pray and Praise God and to hear his Word and to give Alms to the Poor O how decent a thing it is for Brethren to meet together in Unity And how prudent is that Devotion that places all the substance of Religion in the heart and yet uses the circumstances of order to avoid the confusion of wild Extravagancies Certain it is that if every one were left to serve God in his own way there would be no Face of a Church One would be Working or Playing while another was Preaching or Praying ignorant men and women would take upon them to teach and the blind would lead the blind till they both fall into the ditch We have greater cause therefore to bless God for establishing Powers over us without which we should be as herds of Wild Beasts rather than sober men and fall foul of one anothers persons and estates But God is the God of Order not of Confusion and we have no such unmannerly Custome nor ever had the true Churches of God Abhor therefore if you be wise all Fanatick Expressions That all Time all Places are alike so they are but not for publick Offices and that any Postures Gestures or Habits may be used so they may but not in Publick Service God and Man have given us our Liberty in Private only for the Publick we are restrained This is enough to give content to all Parties if Reason would do it for this is decent and comely in the sight of God and Man And thus it becometh us to dispute no more about such matters but to fulfil all Righteousness Spiritual Perfection From what hath been delivered at large I collect these Reasons for Spiritual Worship and Gospel-Perfection Reas I Because the Ritual Worship induced by God is abolished Believe me Ritual Worship abolished John 4.23 the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father But the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit Col. 2.16 c. and in truth Let no man deceive you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbath
in me I may challenge my Right in him and he may challenge his Right in me These are my greatest Rights to my God and to my self SECT XIX Next to these Rights I have Right to one Person especially from all the world beside Rights to Wife which God hath given me to my self and made my second self that is my Wife who is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone and are no longer two but one Flesh and by a higher Law she is Soul of my Soul and Spirit of my Spirit and we are no longer two but one Spirit By her I come to have Right to be a Husband and so a Father and so have Right to her as to a Wife and I have power over her as a Husband and she hath right to me as to a Husband and she hath power over me as a Wife And so I come to have Right to Children by her and she hath Right to Children by me and the Children have Right to us both So we have Right to Rule and they to Obey we have Right to instruct and they to be instructed Therefore next to my Right to God and to my self is my Right to my Second self which is my Wife SECT XX. And next to these is my Right to my Children Rights to Children that they are lawfully begotten of my Body and of my Wives Body and therefore they are mine and they are hers by right of Nature and of Law and none but God and we can claim any interest in them or title to them as Children But as Subjects and Servants to the King and his Ministers both Parents and Children may be claimed and used by their Superiours and all for God who hath given this power over them and made them as Gods unto us SECT XXI After my Right to my God to my self to my wife and children Rights to Estate and Honour I come to have right to my Estate or Office or Degree or what Honour and Benefit accrues to me by them and from them and these are the goods that God hath given me to feed and clothe and protect my self and my wife and children and servants c. With these I am invested and infeudated and they are mine under God of whom I hold and no body may invade my Bed where is the Honour and Estate of my wife and family nor my House or Land Cattel or other goods thereupon which is the Revenue and maintenance of my House or my Patrimony nor my Degree and Quality which is the augmentation of my Head and a badge of my Honour All these the most Rich and Bountiful God hath given me to use them rightly for his glory And he is a Traitor in my family if wife child or servant and a Robber out of my family that shall go about to ravish any of these my Just Rights from me and God that gave them me will defend them to me and cursed be those that shall estraye them from me but if they do by Divine leave I must submit and shall either have Restitutio in integrum in things of the same kind or ex gratia uberiori abundanti things of a better kind even Spiritual and Eternal shall be added to me and I will trust God with my self even with all that I am and all that I can do and with all that I have or possess and though I am not worthy to understand when or why or how yet I believe that God is my sheild and will be my exceeding great Reward and then I rest my self contented with his good will and pleasure Let me therefore look carefully to preserve my own Rights every way and to abstain from invasion or hurting any mans Rights any way SECT XXII Rights not to be violated Let me therefore first be so wise as to understand what Rights are both God's and mine and other mens both private and publick Let me next be so honest and just as to do Right to God and to my self and to all men For they are the wisest men that know best what is right and what is wrong and to whose persons they do belong And they are the honestest men that practice the right and avoid the wrong So shall there be no accusation from God nor regret from our own Consciences nor cries and clamours of men or other creatures spoiled or abused by me All is right and peace to a just and righteous God to a good Conscience in a wicked world I shall stand right in the sight of God I shall have right to Jesus Christ and in him to all things and shall be able to lift up my head at the day of Judgment when my redemption draweth near 1. Let me not violate my right to my God by unfaithfulness nor destroy his right to me of Adoption by my rebellion 2. Let me not violate my right to my self by sinning against my Conscience by sinning against my Body which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost 3. Let me not violate the right I have to my Wife by prostituting her and my self to base lusts 4. Let me not violate my right to my Children by suffering Adultery in her and my self 5. Let me not violate my right to my Honour by base actions and by neglect of their Education 6. Let me not violate my right to my Prince and Country by Rebellion and Murder c. The Rights that accrue to me are these 1. Birth-right or chiefly first Birth-right 2. Purchase-right 3. Labour or Work-right 4. Promise or Gift-right And because all these are sacred in themselves and the more when they are concerning Holy and Spiritual Things therefore it must needs be profane 1. When a man willfully parts with his own rights without just consideration or reason as Esau who is therefore called profane because he sold his Sacred Birth-right or Primogeniture by which he was to be both Prince and Priest so basely and rashly for a Mess of Pottage 2. When another wilfully and covetously ravishes the rights of others to whom they do belong and taketh them by extortion to himself or giveth them to strangers This is a horrid and crying sin causing sad cries and complaints in the ears of God and Man from Orphans Widows Strangers and miserable persons many a bitter curse is darted to Heaven for these things Heavy is the load that presseth down these guilty Souls unto the Nethermost Hell and is an everlasting clog upon their Consciences in the world to come Great are the Destructions and Devastations that are made in this World 1. In single persons 2. In Families 3. In Towns and Cities 4. In Provinces and Kingdoms Hinc illae Ruinae hinc illae Lachrymae Hence are Ruines hence are Complaints one draws another and takes away the Righteousness of the Righteous from him This sets the Gowned and the armed Militia on work and sets the world together by the ears And for this reason 1. Because men do
evil to good a license and ability to do a mans own Will or rather a better will even the Will and pleasure of God This is a State of Grace an high noble and blessed condition transcending the proper nature and quality of man SECT V. Burden 1. Now the State from which a man is justified is the base condition of Spiritual Bondage and the miseries consequent thereunto This is the Terme of recesse or Terminus à quo from whence Iustification commenceth a great Burden A Burden vulgarly signifies a heavy weight but legally it signifies some Charge Penalty Disability or Service Hence Isaiah calls Gods Iudgments Burdens as the Burden of Babylon Egypt Damascus c. In all kingdomes there are Burdens as Infamy is a Burden of Disgrace restraining a man from all Honours and Offices as Outlary is a Burden restraining a man from the benefit of Law hindring a man from being Plaintiff and having audience in a Court of Iustice to be a Stranger and Alien is a Burden hindring a man from purchasing or possessing Lands of Inheritance In all families there are Burdens as Bastardy is a Burden of Disinheritance laid upon a child unlawfully begotten Slavery is a Burden of Bondage laid upon some servant hindring him from getting possessing or suing for any thing Divorce is a Burden of Expulsion laid upon a Wife disloial hindring her from the Society of bed and board and marrying to another man Thus in Abraham's family Ishmael sustained the Burden of Bastardy and Hagar the Burden of Slavery hence Sarah required of Abraham that he would disinherit Ishmael Gen. 21.10 and be divorced from Hagar Cast out this Bondwoman and her son for the son of the Bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the Freewoman 2. The state to which a man is Justified is the stately condition of spiritual freedome and the miseries consequent thereunto This is the Access or Terminus ad quem to which we are advanced As Bondage was Capitis Diminutio the lessening of the head or Degrading of a man So Freedome is the Capitis Exaltatio or the raising or lifting up the head of a man or advancing of a man Gen. 40.20 2 King 25.27 As the heads of Pharaohs cheif Butler and Baker were lifted up and Jehojakin's head was lifted up out of Prison by Evilmerodach King of Babylon This state of Divine Freedome drawes into it Forgiveness of sins Resurrection from the dead and Life everlasting Thus the Term or bound of Recess from which we are justified is some Burden and the Term or bound of Access to which we are justified is some Right A Right vulgarly is a thing which is true and good and honest but legally it is a thing which is due to have and to hold some benefit and good which the Law owes us and settles upon us This is opposed to some burden Penalty or Charge which signifies to have and to hold some sufferance or grievance which the Law owes us and settles upon us SECT VI. There are in the world many Corporations where diverse persons are united into one body And in these Corporations there are diverse Rights Corporation some of them are Burdens and some Benefits as in a Kingdom there are Rights of Liberty to be a free-man born or to be made free to be a Member of some Corporation to have suffrage or vote in Elections to be heir in a Family to succeed to the Inheritance and Honour to be a Judg to give Judgment and to do Justice The burdens contrary to these are Slavery that deprives a man of Liberty Banishment that deprives of some Corporation Bastardy that deprives a man of his family Infamy that deprives a man of Honour and Preferment For the true rule is though not kept in the world Portae dignitatum non patent infamibus Personis The Gates of Honour are fast shut against scandalous Persons In a Family there are diverse Rights as Matrimony a state of Right whereby the Husband and the Wife have Right to each others bodies The Wife hath not power or Right over her own body but the Husband 1 Cor. 7.4 and the Husband hath not power or Right over his own body but the Wife For each have given to other a power or Right over their bodies respectively Primogeniture is the Right to succeed to the Inheritance of the Father under the Law Cleanness was a State of Right to enter into the Congregation and to partake of the Sacrifice Ministery is a Right to preach the Word and apply the Sacraments The Husband and Wife are no more two but one Flesh more united than the Father and Son For for the cause of a Wife the Son shall leave his Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh they are partakers of all Rights together The good and evil of the Husband is the good and evil of the Wife and the good and evil of the Wife is the good and evil of the Husband his Honour and Wealth is hers and her Honour and Wealth is his if he suffers she suffers if he prosper she rejoyceth The King and his Subjects are one Body The Honour and Welfare of the King is the Honour and Welfare of the Subjects and the Honour and Welfare of the Subjects is the Honour and Welfare of the King his wrong is theirs and their wrong is his The Church is a Corporation in which Christ and his Subjects or Members are one Body they are Members of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5. Christ and the Faithful are more united than Man and Wife for Man and Wife are but one Flesh but Christ and the Faithful are one Spirit A man for Christ his sake must forsake Father and Mother Wife and Children and he that doth so shall receive an hundred fold and in the end everlasting life The honour of Christ is the honour of the Faithful and the honour of the Faithful is the honour of Christ and the welfare of one is the welfare of the other and è contra Christ is a Party in all the conditions of his Subjects Saul Saul why persecutest thou me All charity that is done to them is done to Christ In as much as ye have done it to the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me and in as much as ye have not done it to one of these little ones ye have not done it to me Thus he whose Right is created that had none before is justified And he whose Right is restored that had Right but lost it is justified unto it again All restitution is justification all in-lawing is justification for thereby the Party outlawed is restored to the Benefit of the Law SECT VII Other Names There are other Names of the same thing or other Words whereby the nature of justification is farther illustrated 1. As by such words which do create or constitute a Right as
on me believeth not in me but on him that sent me Joh. 12.44 i. e. not on the ultimatly but beyond me to my Father SECT V. 2. Because Christ is the author beginner and finisher of our Faith Christ the Author of Faith 1. By being the publisher of our Faith who hath made Faith thereof to the World 1. Of his Person that he is the Son of God and the Son of Man 2. Of his Message that it is the Last Will and Testament of God and consequently doth on his part sufficiently work in us Faith to accept of the Legacies contained therein This Faith was originally taught by Christ secondarily propagated by the Apostles and their Successors which were witnesses to attest the truth which was first testified by Christ who made Faith of it 1. By declaring it to be God's Last Will and Testament Declaring God's Will decreed from the beginning of the World but during many Ages it was a Mystery or Will sealed up Therefore it is called God's Secret will the purpose and Counsel of his Will the Mystery hidden from Ages and from Generations but now is manifested unto his Saints Known it was in general that there was such a Will the being of it was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets yet the particular contents thereof were not known But in the last Age of the World God nuncupated his Will unto Christ and the particular counsels thereof And Christ by special Commission was sent from his Father into the World to publish this his Will and to work in us our faith of it Therefore First he made it known to the Apostles saying Joh. 15.15 All things that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you I have given unto them the Words which thou gavest me and they have received them Joh. 17.8 and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me He commanded the Apostles to make this Will known unto all Nations for the obedience of Faith Ro. 16.25 26. Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen Eph. 1.9 God hath made known to us the mystery of his Will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself 2. By proving the Will of his Father Publication was for the matter and contents thereof Proving God's Will Probation is for the verity of it that it is the true Last Will and Testament of God Never any Will of God or Man had such a probation For Christ hath made Faith thereof five waies 1. By Witnesses as John the Baptist sent from God who came to bear witness of the Light that all Men through him might believe That was the true Light Joh. 1.6 7. that enlightneth every one that cometh into the World He pointed him out saying Joh. 1.19 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the World An Eye witness who saw the Spirit of God descending from Heaven like a Dove Joh. 1.32 and lighting upon him And he saw and bare record that this is the Son of God Mat. 3.17 2. God the Father from Heaven at his Baptism said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him And at his Transfiguration But I have greater witness than that of John Mat. 17.5 for the works which my Father hath given me to finish the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me Joh. 5.36 Therefore if Man's witness be valid for the proof of humane Testaments much more is the witness of God valid for the proof of his Divine Testament And if at the mouth of two or three witnesses every truth shall be established much more when one of the witnesses or the sole witness is God 1 Joh. 5.10 He that believeth not God hath made him a lyar because he believed not the record that God gave of his Son 2. By his Miracles which are full proofs to make Faith He rebuked the Winds and the Seas and they obey'd him he cast out Devils and cured all manner of diseases Joh. 5.36 and raised the dead Go tell John what ye have seen and heard the blind see the lame and sick are healed and to the poor the Gospel is preached if ye will not believe me yet believe me for the works sake for they testifie of me If two or three Miracles of Moses made Faith of his Ambassage to the Children of Israel when he did them in the sight of the People and they believed much more shall the many and great Miracles of Christ make full faith of his Message to the World when he did them in the sight of the World and they believed For without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 God was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory These works suffice to produce Faith to the Worlds end Mat. 9.35 1. Because they are incomparable The like had never been seen in Israel Never Man did as he did nor spake as he spake Mat. 11.21 2. Because they were most powerful to beget Faith If the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Tyre and Sidon they had repented long since in sack-cloth and ashes Joh. 5.36 The works which the Father hath given me to finish these bear witness of me that he hath sent me If I do not the work of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him Miracles and signs are the strongest means to give credit to the Authority or Doctrine of God or Man Mar. 1.24 3. By his Holiness He is called the Holy one the Holy one of God Vid. Acts 2.17 Acts 3.14 John 2.20 Holy every way Luc. 7.35 1. His Birth holy The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee and therefore that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God 2 Cor. 5.21 Heb. 4.15 1 Pet. 2.22 2. His Life holy He knew no sin in all points tempted like as we are tempted yet without sin He did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth Which of you convinceth me of sin Like unto Man in all things sin only excepted 3. His Death holy He was led as a Sheep
the Flesh is a base fordid and slavish Life 3. The Life of the Flesh is a dull stupid and sottish Life 4. The Life of the Flesh is a vexatious toilsom and uncomfortable Life But on the contrary 1. The Life of the Spirit or of Faith is an high towring and Stately Life 2. The Life of the Spirit is a free generous and noble Life 3. The Life of the Spirit is a clear brisk and most ingenious Life 4. The Life of the Spirit is a pleasant and fully contented Life 5. The Life of the Spirit is an everlasting Life 6. The Mind and Will of Sense and the Mind and Will of Reason were the Gift of God by Creation passing to Mankind by the means of Generation without sin and before sin and Law that made sin to be known 7. The Mind and Will of the Spirit perfecting and sanctifying the Mind and Will of Sense and the Mind and Will of Reason were the Gift of God by Promise or Covenant and Faith of God and Man convey'd to Mankind by the means of Regeneration without sin and after sin and Law that made sin to be known by Grace and Pardon through Jesus Christ 1. Thus the Life of Sense is natural and good till it exceed in its operations the rules and limits of a law put upon it For sin is the transgression of a law and where there is no law there is no transgression but still the sense is unregenerate 2. The Life of Reason is natural and better in a tendency to Regeneration while it acts like it self by rules of right Reason and the Law of Nature till it be debauched by the carnal Mind and Will and drawn down to unreasonable notions and appetites 3. The Life of Faith is Supernatural good and best of all which is the state of Regeneration and a new Creation of a new and perfect Man in Christ Jesus SECT IV. 1. Therefore we are to do all in Faith Corollaries 1. Acts of Sense and Passions of love joy fear c. 2. Acts of Reason Arts Sciences and Mysteries Speculative and Practick So we live above all these 2. Therefore we are to suffer all in Faith 2. Sense pain sickness scorn shame c. 2. Reason ignorance errour and all failings So we live above all these 3. Therefore we keep integrity in all Conditions 1. Peace health honour wealth favour and all prosperity 2. War sickness shame poverty and all adversity 4. Thus we may try and judg of both estates the Old Man and the New the Flesh and the Spirit the Old Creature and the New the unregenerate and the Regenerate the Child of the Devil and the Child of God 1. Consider a Man that leads a Carnal Life He is very busie about what pleaseth his sense and carnal reason he takes care for his health and pleasure he hunts after gain honour and pride he studies for Learning Arts and Sciences Well what will all this do Ask him when he comes to die Where 's his pleasure profit Learning c. all is gone and he is going from all and what comfort have they left behind Now he must die and all 's left behind He enjoy'd his worldly wealth as long as he could and now some body will sing O be joyful and throw it away as fast as he raked it together and faster too 2. Consider a Man that leads a Spiritual Life He is very busie about what pleases his Soul he takes care for his Soul's health he searches for the true gain he studies for the true Wisdom Well what will all this do ask him when he comes to die Where 's his pleasure profit Learning c. all is present with him and go along with him his end is Peace and he enters into Peace He dies a wise and holy Man and he is happy and gone to God and his memory is precious 5. Thus by Faith I am justified to the promise By Faith I enter into the Promise by Faith I receive the Spirit of Promise the Adoption Sanctification Hope Comfort Love and Glory by Faith I labour in the works of Love and work out my Salvation with fear and trembling by Faith I hold out in prosperity from being translated ravished or overcome by peace wealth c. By Faith I hold out in adversity and live in all storms from being overwhelmed by pain grief c. into despair By Faith I resist and overcome the Devil by Faith I live by Faith I die and rest in hope to enjoy the end of my hope Everlasting Life Conclusion Therefore without Holiness there can be no happiness for to be carnally minded is Death but to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace for if we live after the Flesh we shall die but if we through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Flesh we shall live Ergo 1. In Feudation is Adoption Justification and engrafting into Christ By Faith 2. Homage is Regeneration Re-creation and Sanctification by works Quod erat demonstrandum The Fifth BOOK OF ASSURANCE The CONTENTS Transition Promises Publick Faith Spirit Waiting TITLE I. Of the Nature of Assurance OUR Justification doth create unto us a present right to the future possession of Heavenly Blessedness Transition The matter whereunto the Right claimeth is the Heavenly Blessedness it self the Title whereby this Right is acquired or had is Faith by the higher Title of Free-Grace the Tenure whereby it is continued or held is Sanctification or Works and the Services of Love and the Assurance whereby it is witnessed or proved is the Spirit by Faith For where a Right is imparted convey'd or settled upon me Reason it is good reason that besides my Title and my Tenure I should have some good Assurance from the Donor or Granter whereby the truth of such conveyance may be witnessed and proved in case the Donor or Granter should fail or deny or recal such conveyance But especially this Assurance is to be made where the Gift or Grant is imperfect as alwaies it is in all Promises For by force of a Promise there is convey'd unto me only a bare right or interest to a thing and not any possession of the thing it self but the actual delivery of it is suspended until some time future And therefore in the mean time some Assurance is most necessary for me that thereby I may know how to witness the Promise formerly passed unto me for my future possession of the thing promised when the time thereto assigned shall be expired 1. In the Old Testament God promised unto Abraham the inheritance of the Land of Canaan and Abraham believing God or accepting the Promise had by virtue of such his Faith a present right thereto But because he had not the present possession of it he requested some Assurance whereby he might know that he should inherit it Gen. 15.8 And he said Lord whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it And God gave him an Assurance by
a solemn Sacrifice of a Heifer a Goat and a Ram and a Turtle-Dove and a young Pigeon And before that when God made a general promise unto Abraham That he would be his exceeding great Reward Gen. 15.2 Abraham said Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go Childless and the Steward of my House is this Eliezer of Damascus As much as to say Who shall enjoy this thy Gift after me seeing I have none to succeed me Therefore give me an Assurance of an Heir of my Body lawfully begotten lest a Stranger a Servant enjoy it and that will be as no Gift at all to me Then God spake unto him and said This Servant shall not be thine Heir but one that shall come forth of thine own Bowels shall be thine Heir And for his assurance of that he brought him forth abroad and said Look up towards Heaven and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them And he said unto him so shall thy Seed be 2. In the New Testament God promised to Believers the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven and Believers by the virtue of their Faith of God have a present right thereto But because their possession of this inheritance is not present but future Therefore upon their request God also gives them the Holy Spirit Luc. 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good things to your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me In my Father's House are many mansions Joh. 14.1 c. if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there ye may be also And whither I go ye know and the way ye know I will pray unto the Father and he shall give you another comforter Joh. 16.7 c that may abide with you for ever Nevertheless I tell you the truth It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you And this Gift of the Spirit is our Assurance whereby we know that we shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven Because by this Spirit we know that God abideth in us 1 John 3.24 And he that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him And hereby we know that he abideth in us 1 Joh. 4.13 by the Spirit which he hath given us Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit Every Man ought to be satisfied and fully perswaded in his own mind and judgment concerning himself whence he is and what he is and what he hath and what he hopeth for and for what end and for how long But more especially in the business of his future Estate and Salvation with God And this is to be sought for here in this life as much as may be according to our utmost capacity in the revelations of God concerning this matter That Blessedness which we have right and title to have Transitionâ— and a tenure to hold it by we must needs also have assurance of to the end we may wait for the possession of it through the Spirit which is given us by Faith For we in or through the Spirit by Faith wait for the Hope of Righteousness Gal. 5.5 The Jews quite contrary in or through the Flesh waited by works for the hope of Righteousness That is they sought for Justification by the works of the Law which they could by no such means be assured of Because without Faith it is impossible to please God For when they went about to establish their own Righteousness they came short of the Righteousness of God That therefore which is our Right or Due from God by our Justification through Faith we may be assured of from God because it is his promise and all his promises are sure For SECT I. 1. The nature of a Promise is to give a present Right Promises to him that accepts it 2. The work of a Promise from a sure person is to beget an assured hope of possession God and good Men never fail of their promises to give every one their Dues We know what things by God's gracious promise we ought to have and hold by We know what things by God's holy Precepts we ought to do and continue in We know these things are promised and commanded and confirmed in God's Testament by God's Oath by Christ's death by God's Spirit and therefore they are settled upon us by the publick Faith of God and our publick Faith in God There is a Private Faith and there is a Publick Faith and therefore there is a Private Assurance and a Publick Assurance SECT II. 1. A private Faith in a private person is but a weak security Private Faith 1. Because of mortality private persons that promise though they intend to perform and be able to perform yet they may die before they perform their promise and must die at last and may be disabled before they die that they cannot perform it And though they do live and be able to perform and do perform yet they cannot live ever to maintain nor protect them to whom they have promised and performed 2. Because of unfaithfulness of private persons they are but weak at the best though never so faithful but few are true amongst them 3. Because of inability They may be honest and yet not able and so all hope and dependance upon them faints though they cannot help it But SECT III. 2. A Publick Faith in a publick persons or persons Publick Faith is strong Security 1. Because of immortality Princes States Kingdoms c are immortal Such Persons and Corporations never die That is they are not presumed to die or if they do not so soon as others 2. Because of Faithfulness Publick persons and Bodies Ecclesiastical and Civil are very sure and faithful Hence Fides Romana the Roman Faith was such a Rock and so Sacred an Asylum that other poor Nations having by League sheltred themselves under their protection counted themselves sure upon their Publick Faith which give them their due they did highly stand upon and would not violate 3. Because of Ability Publick Persons and States incorporated are the greatest strength in the World and most lasting To shew nothing is perfect in this World to secure our Faith in them the greatest and strongest and richest and wisest and justest Corporations of Kingdoms Empires and States As of the Egyptian Babylonian Persian Median Graecian Roman c. have breathed out their last and lye in rubbish and scarce the relique of their Glories are to be found Therefore we are taught to look up higher to the
through weakness but lived by the power of God And after he had died for our sins rose again for our justification 3. That Christ as a Law-giver propounded the purest Rules of Holiness and the highest Rewards of happiness introduced the most Spiritual worship that ever was manifested unto Mankind that he put an everlasting period to Moses's Rites and confounded the Wisdom of the World by the foolishness and weakness of God which is wiser and stronger than the Wisdom and strength of the World That he brake the Devil's power and malice silenced the lying Oracles and lay'd flat the strong holds of Sin and Satan to the ground And set up his Kingdom against all Principalities and powers and Spiritual wickednesses in high places and the gates of Hell shall never be able to to prevail against it 4. That Christ's Apostles saw and heard all that he did spake and suffered and the Glory of his Resurrection and Ascension and testified to the World all these things which they had seen and heard without all hope of Reward in this Life against all discouragements of persecutions and deaths And that the Spirit of God was so powerful in these illiterate and obscure Men as to indue them with Wisedom and Understanding from on High and with courage and resolution to preach the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and the enduring of the Cross by mortification and self-denyal and renunciation of the World in order thereunto Things hard to be believed done or suffered by Flesh and Blood but mightily assured of performed and endured by themselves and their Disciples out-witting the Learning of Athens and Rome out-pleading the Orators and over-coming the powerful oppositions of both and of all others translated by their Gospel from the power of Darkness of Satan into the glorious Kingdom of the dear Son of God Thus the Ground of our Assurance sufficeth as to credence for matter of Fact SECT II. 2. The second Ground of all the Assurance Matter of Right that is possible and convenient to be had in this Life concerning our Salvation is in matter of Right to the Promises of that Salvation so procured for us is 1. Our consenting to the Promises delivered unto us 2. Our accepting and free embracing them as to our selves drawing the right of those Promises unto us 3. Our obedience or observation of them accordingly preserving those Rights unto us All which is our Faith whereby we are justified to all the Rights procured purchased and published by our Saviour Jesus Christ Thus living and dying and rising again and sending of his Spirit and ascending into Heaven and offering himself to God as a Priest and Sacrifice and sitting at the Right Hand of his Father to rule over all for us Men and for our Salvation That where he is thither he might bring us who is thus gone before us to prepare a place for us This is great Assurance and there can be no evidence nor conveyance or settlement greater or more secure than this The Word of God standing sure and our reliance thereupon We know we are the Sons of God What saith Christ Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word Joh. 5.13 and believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto Life And I will raise him up at the last day He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life Joh. 12.44 that is right unto it and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him We know that we have passed from Death unto Life because we love the Brethren He that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death 1 Joh. 3.14 Eph. 2.5 c. Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickened us together with Christ by Grace ye are all saved and hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in Heavenly places in Jesus Christ That in ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ For by Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of our selves it is the Gift of God The method of this our Assurance is 1. Hearing the Son 2. Believing in him and the Father that sent him 3. Justification 1. From Damnation and Death to Salvation and Life 2. From Sin to Grace 3. From Death in Sin to Life in Righteousness 4. From Death for Sin to Life for Grace 5. From Darkness to Light 6. From Bondage to Liberty SECT III. Matter of Witness 3. The third Ground for all the Assurance that is possible and convenient to be had in this Life concerning our Salvation is in matter of Witness or Earnest thereof which is the Spirit of God When Christ departed from his Disciples by leaving the World he bid them not be troubled at his corporal absence for he would send his Holy Spirit the Comforter to abide with them and so would be spiritually present with them all all that should succeed them in the Faith unto the end of the World Therefore accordingly when they were troubled exceedingly after his death and doubted that he was not the Messiah because he was dead and buried And after his Resurrection they were not fully satisfied but strange thoughts arose in their hearts He shew'd them his hands and his feet Luc. 24.38 c. that they might know that it was he himself and bid them handle him and feel him and look well upon him for a Spirit cannot be seen nor hath Flesh and Bones as he had And while they yet were not fully assured doubting for joy and wonder for their farther satisfaction he took meat and did eat before them And moreover for the greater Assurance he by his Spirit opened their Understandings that they might understand the Scriptures and gave them a Commission to preach the Gospel Joh. 20.22 And farther yet He breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost whosoevers sins ye remit they are remitted and whosoevers sins ye retain they are retained And last of all for the greatest assurance of all he said Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you Luc. 24.49 c. Vid. Act. 1.4 c. But tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem untill ye be endued with power from on High And he lift up his hands and blessed them and in their sight and of above five hundred Brethren together he was carried up to Heaven And then they were satisfied and worshipped and returned to Jerusalem as Christ had commanded them with great joy and waited there for the performance of the Promise Act. 2.1 c. Act. 1. which was performed upon the day of Pentecost by the Mission of the Holy Ghost upon them so as never was before When therefore all the Assurances and Confirmations that could be given to Christ's Disciples were given for their
out the pure Channels that refresh the World into divers muddy streams that sterilize as well as bastardize the race of Mankind Virginity Not disparaging Virginity that sister of Angels and resemblance of the glorified Spirits who neither marry nor are given in marriage nor those that are innocently blemished by unlawful conceptions and births because they could not help it Why Marriage was ordained But still Marriage is what it ever was and ever will be a most honourable estate instituted of God in Paradise in the time of Man's innocency signifying the Mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church Which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence and first Miracle that he wrought in Cana of Galile and is commended of St. Paul to be honourable among all men and therefore is not to be enterprized or taken in hand unadvisedly lightly or wantonly to satisfie mens carnal lusts and appetites like brute beasts which have no understanding but reverently discreetly advisedly soberly and in the fear of God duly considering the causes for which Matrimony was ordained First it was ordained for the procreation of Children to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord. Secondly it was ordained a Remedy against sin and to avoid fornication that such persons as have not the gift of Continency might marry and keep themselves undefiled Members of Christ's Body Thirdly for the mutual Society help and comfort that the one ought to have of the other both in prosperity and adversity This so honourable Estate makes not only Flesh of our Flesh and bone of our bone but Spirit of our Spirit and that two are one Flesh and one Spirit So God and Man Christ and his Church Man and Wife Fathers and Children Fathers and Mothers Sons and Daughters Brothers and Sisters Husbands and Wives and all Relations are mutually each others Christ the King is the Betrothed and Husband as well as Father of his Church and Kingdom And Christ's Church is the Subje ct the Spouse and Wife of Christ her Husband Therefore SECT V. Were it but for a bare civil respect it stands the Kingdom of the World in very great stead carefully to look after the right ordering of Marriages And surely there are weighty reasons for it It keepeth the purity of the Bloud from commixtion of base Seed Benefits of Marriage It gives a right to the true Sons and Daughters to take comfort in them and receive help from them to honour and enrich our own and not anothers Issue It preserves from the greatest usurpation of Natural rights to each Man's Body to each Man's Wife to eat the Fruit of my own Tree and drink the Waters of mine own Cistern not to own and feed anothers Cattel in my proper Ground It prevents the greatest cheat in the World Abuses of Marriage to be cosened in my own Progeny and not be able to distinguish it from anothers What is more entirely mine own than the off-spring of my own loyns and she that is next to me and one Flesh with me It is the greatest dishonour imaginable to be thus chouced it is a wonder it is no more regarded nor stood upon I would gladly eat my own Bread and till my own Land I am nearest and dearest to my self and all the Love Honour and Estate I have I would willingly reserve to me and mine and my virtue wisdom and wit too if it were in my power Bastardy But contrary to Nature all that I have must flow from my genuine Breed to a spurious generation This misconveyes all Inheritances and breaks the bonds of Nature love and descent The Brood may be fair hopeful and wise for their parts of Body and Mind but they are none of mine and yet all that is mine must be theirs This distroies all the great Priviledges of Wills and Testaments so direct a part of the Law and so much useful to Mankind it jumbles together the Bloud of Mankind it befools the Labourers of Mankind Nobility is dasht and quite destroy'd by it Virtue and Honesty Religion and Laws are quite destroy'd by it It infatuates all the labours and studies of Mankind which should do good first to their own private Families and then to the publick state In a word it confounds all rihgts of Persons things and actions It lays all in common and wastes all and no body can express the mischief that redounds to the World by it To engraft wild plants into a natural stock To puddle pure Fountains to poyson wholsom waters to defile every nest and throw dung upon every clean place SECT VI. Rights by Marriage My chiefest right of Soul and Body and all that I have is to my God whose they are the next is to my self the next is to my second self or my Wife the next is to my Children and their Children Friends and Allies and mine for all these God hath given me Now all these are lost by my giving my right to the Devil and to harlots this is my own act and deed But some of these are lost by being torn from me by Extortioners and Adulterers this is their act and deed I must have a Father or else I could not be but he may be such a one as I never knew or never shall and this is not only a loss but a shame and misery to me but no sin because I could not help it I am in the condition of a Slave to possess nothing at all and Slaves usurp possession of all that is mine In Christ's Church and Kingdom there must be Chastity In Christ's Church and Kingdom there must be Fidelity in Families and Kingdoms Christ's Church consists of Families Therefore the solemn Covenant of Marriage must be kept inviolable in all Families because they are altogether married unto Christ their Husband Lord and King and not go a whoring from under their God Laws about Marriage For this purpose the good Laws of Men especially of the Romans are carefully to be observed who have taken a very strict course in every particular for the pure undertaking and performing of this great Business of Life that so much concernes the happy condition of Men in this World and in the World to come It is profitable therefore for Christians to take a survey of all those wholsom Constitutions set down in the Body of the Civil Law concerning Marriage Age of Persons 1. As first for the age of the Persons that are to marry The Law allowes of twelve in Females and fourteen in Males to be ripeness of years to contract for themselves Quality of Persons 2. The Persons condition that are to marry is considered that they be Liberi Cives Romani as hath been spoken of before Infamous 3. The Roman Law greatly abhorred Scenicos Lenones c. i. e. all ludicrous histrionical and mimical Persons that came upon the Stage as commonly most unchast and all pimps
Fathers Sister Cons Mothers Sister Cons Fathers Brothers Wife Aff. Mothers Brothers Wife Aff. Wives Fathers sister Aff. Wives Mothers Sisters Aff. Downward Neeces Brothers Daughter Cons Sisters Daughter Cons Brothers Sons Wife Aff. Sisters Sons Wife Aff. Wives brothers Daugh. Aff. Wives Sisters Daugh. Aff. A Man may not marry Upwards his Mothers Grandmothers Great Grandmothers In Nature In Law Forwards his Brothers Neeces In Nature In Law Sidewards his Aunts Great Aunts In Nature In Law Downwards his Daughters Grandaughters Great Grandaughters In Nature In Law A Woman may not Marry in the Right Line Upward in the First Degree Fathers Father Cons Stepfather Aff. Husbands Father Aff. Second Deg. Grandfathers Grandfather Cons Grandmothers Husb. Aff. Husbands Grandfather Aff. Downward in the First Degree Sons Son Cons Husbands Son Aff. Daughters Husb. Aff. Second Deg. Grandsons Sons Son Cons Daughters Son Cons Sons Daught. Husb. Aff. Daughters Daug. Husb. Aff. Husbands Sons Son Aff. Husbands Daugh. Son Aff. Side Line Forward Brothers Brother Cons Husbands Brother Aff. Sisters Husband Aff. Upward Uncles Fathers Brother Cons Mothers Brother Cons Fathers Sisters Husb. Aff. Mothers Sisters Husb. Aff. Husb. Fathers Brother Aff. Husb. Mothers Brother Aff. Downward Nephews Brothers Son Cons Sisters Son Cons Brothers Daugh. Husb. Aff. Sisters Daughters Husb. Aff. Husbands Brothers Son Aff. Husbands Sisters Son Aff. A Woman may not marry Upwards her Fathers Grandfathers Great Grandfathers In Nature In Law Forwards her Brothers Nephews In Nature In Law Sidewards her Aunts Great Aunts In Nature In Law Downwards her Sons Grandsons Great Grandsons In Nature In Law Prohibitions to the Third Degree inclusively A Man may not marry his 1. Mothers 2. Sisters 3. Aunts in Blood or Nature in Marriage or Law A Woman may not Marry her 1. Fathers 2. Brothers 3. Uncles in Blood or Nature in Marriage or Law Permissions of Cousins beyond the Third Degree Briefly A Man may not marry in the Right Line any of his Mothers Grandmothers Daughters Grandaughters Side Line any of her Sisters Aunts Neeces Persons forbidden in the Right Line 15 in all 30. Side Line 15 in all 30. Briefly A Woman may not marry in the Right Line any of her Fathers Grandfathers Sons Grandsons Side Line any of her Brothers Uncles Nephews Persons forbidden in the Right Line 15 in all 30. Side Line 15 in all 30. A Postscript THose that have had the patience hitherto let them favour me a little farther for their satisfaction to read the Testimonies of some Ancient and Modern Divines who have either said the same things with me or else very like them or have given me hints at least to enlarge upon them Authorities I know by custome sound high and prevail much to vulgar perswasion But solid reason is of much more force in it self and prevails much more with intelligent and unbiassed Souls Examine well the scope of all and without prejudice and let the Learned correct qualifie expunge or add as their wisdoms shall prompt them with all Candour Hear therefore next to the Holy Scriptures what these Learned men do say Testimonia Laciniata The CONTENTS Peccatum Originale Lex Fides Duo Testamenta Fides Scripturae Nature Grace Absolute Decree Spirituale Sacrificium Superstitio Promissa Adamo Praedestinatio Meritum Perseverantia Satisfactio Praedestinatio Peccatum Originale Imputatio Labes Originalis Controversies Ceremonies Definitions and Determinations Scoffing and Railing Atheism Gravity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two Covenants Testament New Covenant Correspondence of Covenants Sacrifices Decalogue Baptism Natural Law Law and Gospel Resurrectio Justitia Imputatio Fides Justificatio Remissio Imputatio Justification Imputed Righteousness Justification Original sin Weakness Generousness Elements Nonage of the Church Fanaticks Terrible representations of God Popular errors Fathers not all pure OEconomy of Moses decaying Signs Some jealous conceits of God's indifferency to the World Jewish Nation a Pattern for others Votum pro Pace Christian Religion Immanation of God Emanations of God Appetites of Man's Happiness Recovery Doctrines troubled Vulgar errours Discerning Party Primitive Terms Reformation A Postscript Old Covenant Gen. 2.17 IN that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are in the Law to do them Deot 27.26 If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his Commandments and his statutes then shall all these curses come upon thee and overtake thee Deut. 23. Lev. 26.23 c. And if you will not be reformed by these things but will walk contrary unto me then will I also walk contrary unto you and will punish you yet seven times for your sins New Covenant 2 Cor. 3.6 Who also hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life 1 Cor. 10.1 c. I will not have you to be ignorant how that all our Fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the Sea and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the Sea and did all eat the same Spiritual meat and did all drink the same Spiritual Drink for they drank of that Spiritual Rock that follow'd them and that Rock was Christ Job 8.17 Luc. 10.24 The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ For I tell you many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye have heard and have not heard them Matth. 11 1◠Verily I say unto you Among them that are born of Women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he Hebr. 7.19 For the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in a better hope did by the which we draw nigh unto God Hebr. 8.6 Now he hath obtain'd a more excellent Ministery by how much also he is the Mediator of a better Covenant which was established upon better Promises Hebr. 9.15 And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of Death for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first Covenant they which are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator c. 2 Tim. 1.9 10. Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel Act. 13.38 39. Be it known unto you therefore Men and Brethren that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from
dispensation of the Gospel God hath now in a great measure left frighting of men to heaven by visible terrors The Law of the Messias was delivered upon the Mount in the small and still voice and is set home upon the hearts of men by the terrour only of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 23.14 a more heavy vengeance in another world than what overtook the despisers of Moses Law God expects now that we should be judiciously religious and acted to his service by a spirit of love and of a sound mind to fear his threatning more than the burnings of Sinai to look upon a bad man since the appearance of Christ to take away sin as the greatest prodigy and to expect the signs of an approaching Judgment non in Erratis naturae sed Saeculi Id. ib. p. 18. Fanaticks Now we shall ever find that all Persons which take up Opinions from their own poetical genius and busie fancy are impregnable to all the assaults of reason The Rosicrucians acted so hugely by imagination in Philosophy Some kind of Chymists in Medicks The Cabalists in Scripture Expositions Enthusiasts in Religion Figure-casters in Astrology are so invincibly resolved upon their Hypotheses that like him in the story when their hands those little reasonings wherewith they hold them are cut off they will mordicùs defendere hold them with their teeth biting and reviling language thrown upon their opposers and neglecters They are entertained with pleasant and easie dreams and therefore angry with those that attempt to awaken them and discompose them Ib. p. 19. As the assistance of God the Spirit with our holy endeavours doth not take away the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weaknesses attendant on Christian practises because he acts us ad modum nostrum so neither doth the Co-assistance of God the Father with all natural Agents quite remove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Errours of Nature Ib. p. 23. Terrible Representations of God The opinion of Prodigies represents God before the Soul with a rod of Vengeance perpetually in his hand A Belief of a God is that Fort which the Devil could never storm force by any direct temptation and therefore he designs by such terrible and servile conceits wrought in the hearts of men to undermine it For perpetual jealousies and slavish fears of God like over-heated waters boyl over at last and extinguish that fire that faith and sense of God which first produc't them When the Notion of a Deity stands alway before the mind like a Gorgons head pregnant with nothing but horrours and dismaies it quickly works and turns it to a stony stupid neglect of him so to get rid of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that mighty Fear which was its continual Executioner Moreover the Devil no doubt loves to bring men off from a noble and generous temper And as it is the design of Religion to cast out fear and to introduce a spirit of true freedom and confidence toward God so it is the work of the Devil to call on a spirit of Bondage and Fear that so he see may in men the more lively and express images and pourtraictures of himself who believes and trembles He would have his Rites of Worship of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frightful and amazing mysteries the Idols wherein he was worshipped bear in their very Names and Titles a remembrance of that Baseness and Servility of spirit which attended his Votaries in the service of so absolute a Tyrant being styled sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 horrours Is 40 5. Jer. 50.38 Ps 106.36 as 't is rendred in the Margin 2 Chron. 15.16 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying trouble and terrour and the Devils are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming from a word which signifies horrour because usually tendring themselves to view in the most frightful forms Now this Superstitious perswasion of Prodigies doth hugely minister to bondage of Spirit and tends to seal men with the mark of Cain according to the Jews a perpetual Trembling and Astonishment P. 24. That which possibly assisted this Tradition was the succeeding of Rome Christian as into the place so into very many of the Rites and usages of Rome Pagan as might be easily made appear at large were that our business and into as large a power over the Faiths and Consciences of men as Rome Pagan had over their Bodies and so was enabled to mold them into what Opinions or Practises they might best serve themselves upon Ib. p. 29. As in Heresie Populus sequitur Doctiores ☜ Popular Errors the People follow the Learned as being in a matter more abstract and subtil more apt to believe than to judge so in Superstition Doctiores sequuntur Populum the Learned are not seldom observed to follow the People because early surprized into an opinion that can enter so valuable a plea for its self as common Consent This Notion of presages by Prodigies being so popular and Catholick Wise men in their first and unwary years when they are Discipuli Plebis may entertain conceits thereof which shall plead prescription against the strongest reasons to dispossess them As Iron in a greater and more massie body sequitur Naturam communem follows the Law of common Nature in all heavy bodies and moves to the earth but in smaller pieces sequitur Naturam privatam it follows its own private Nature and directs it self to the Load-stone Thus Learned men where they are prest by the force and weight of Education and a Common prejudice generally follow common Nature in men which inclines to embrace Society and therefore more in Judgment Secundum viam Terrae but in matters out of vulgar ken and where they cannot be tempted by a common Agreement they move Secundum viam Consilii and pursue the dictates of their private light and understanding Even wise men in many instances held Aras Focos their Faith and their Estates by the same Tenure Tradition from Ancestours and therefore we may receive their Judgments tanquam ex Cathedrâ as engagements to consider not alwaies tanquam ex Tripode as obligations to believe Ib. p. 39. They look upon their Gods as a kind of Fairies which would throw Firebrands and Furies about the house for the omission of some petty Criticisms in their Rites and that therefore they gave forth frequent intimations of those impotencies and distastes They thought they were lost with a Trifle and won again to a good opinion of them by paying them the homage of a little crouching and circumstantial Devotion ☞ Fathers not all pure To the Testimony of Fathers I answer in general That 't were no wonder to find them living so near the times of Gentilism speaking in favour sometimes for some of the Doctrines thereof The main trunk and body of the Gentile Superstition was indeed hewen down in their minds but still there were some small roots and fibres remaining which are observed to spring up ever