whole mysticall body of Jesus Christ otherwise it is not the word or Gospel of the kingdome nor the spirit of intercession which is by Jesus Christ Object But it will be sayd that these things crncern the invisible Church and not the visible for the true visible Church is otherwise to be considered Answ To which we answer that it is a work of as great curiosity to frame a visible Church of Christ as to frame and compose a visible body of Christ therefore the Apostle comparing the true Church to a body sayth For as the body being one hath many members and all the members of that body being many are but one body so also Christ And agayn hear what the spirit sayth by the Apostle John viz. As he is so are we even in this world where he speaks of the Son of God So that to frame and compose a visible Church and to frame and compose a visible Christ are of the same nature and of like ease and difficulty and are alike strange unto the world and of the same acceptation to bring into manifestation and appearance Yet we know that Christ in both respects for otherwise we know him not is truly apparent and visible as also secret and unseen For Moses by faith saw him meaning Christ who is invisible that is he saw him who is unseeable and both are really true in a diverse respect And they who frame a Christ visible in one age of the world and not in another they do by the same argument conclude the visible Church to appear and to be manifest only within the same confines and precincts of time wherein Christ appeared For the Church was never known to appeare but in the reall form of Gods righteousnesse and wisdome which is Christ for he is the wisdome of God and the righteousnesse of God by saith which is the reality of the Church and as for all imaginary Churches we skill not for they will vanish and come to nought together with the professors of them as they have done in all ages Again such as form a Christ unto themselves to appear visibly unto a carnall eye so as to accept and approve of that his way of appearance at the carnall and perfunctory worshippers of the Jewes did Know this that whensoever the true Christ appeareth he will receive at the hands of such the same measure which was measured out unto Jesus born of the Virgin by Herod Pontius Pilate Scribes Pharisees with the cry of all the people saying Crucifie him crucifie him away with him crucifie him Even so they that frame unto themselves a visible Church so as to appeare unto a carnall eye or understanding as being in a capacity to approve and like well of it at the least for a certaine season Whensoever the true Church makes it selfe visible it shall receive like measure at the hands of such persons to the utmost of their power and ability as Christ did when he appeared unto the Jewes For in such persons and in that spirit is the zeale of persecution properly founded in the visible and apparant exercise thereof Moreover they that form a visible Church as not having the invisible vertue alike efficatious in every part and member thereof they also form unto themselves a visible Christ to appear without aving the compleat vertue of the wisdome and power of God in all respects in him either in point of his being or in the order and manner of his being and this is that great Image of Nebuchadnezzar which hath beeen so long erected and set up in the world where the Scriptures are traditionally acknowledged and read w ch all must bow down unto at the noise of their instruments and institutions or else the fiery tryall must passe upon them that obey not Only this is our comfort that the Son of God will so appear with them or in them that so much as a smell of that zeal or fiery fume and wrath of the world shall not appeare upon them but serve only to the destruction of such as are zealous actors in such matters of the worlds melody The next point is the exercise of the Elders and the first is they pray over him or for him or without any wrong to the Text with him that is in communion and fellowship with him for there was never prayer of faith made unto God out of which any elect or chosen vessel was excluded the reason is because every acceptable prayer hath in it the vertue of the intercession of Christ otherwise it is not in his name and authority and the spirit of Christ neglects not any one that appertayns to his mysticall body for if it should that soule could never be inspired with the spirit of prayer without which there is no participation in the mediation of the Son of God and then no acceptation with the Father therefore prayer is communicative to all the Saints if it be as the prayer of faith it is as the life-blood running into all the veyns of the whole body for none can enter into the holy place but he that carries all the Tribes upon his heart it is not our temporary and private wants which can bring forth a faithfull prayer to God for as prophesie is not of any private spirit or interpretation but holy men speake as they are moved by the holy Ghost of like publique spirit is true prayer So that this sick party is in unity with the prayer here spoken of for the eldership of this Church or that eternized fellowship in the ancient of dayes never appears unto any in that miraculous vertue of healing but in way of unity with the party healed Therefore it is that Christ will have the stone rouled away from the Sepulchre that nothing interpose betwixt Lazarus and himselfe when he restores him from death to life Also Elisha will be shut up in the same roome with the widows sonne when hee rayseth him up from the dead and Paul the Apostle falls upon Eutichus and embraceth him when he brings his spirit into him agayn Furthermore where this true Eldership appears it ever communicates a like vertue to every individuall of the body for the spirit is not received by measure for that which in it selfe is emence cannot be received by measure they that go about to perswade men that some have a greater portion of the spirit and some have a lesse measure thereof they may upon as good grounds perswade men that some shall be saved and be happy and blessed a long time and some a shorter time for if the spirit of God in any poynt of our salvation be subject to measure in latitude it is as truly subject to be measured and bounded in longitude and then salvation is voyd which is the doctrine of the most of our Elders in these dayes but the spirit of glory and of God that rests upon the Saints through this sicknesse and suffering is neither given out nor received by measure
SALTMARSH Returned from the Dead In Amico Philalethe OR The RESURRECTION of JAMES The Apostle Out of the Grave of Carnall Glosses for the Correction of the universall Apostacy which cruelly buryed him who yet liveth Appearing in the comely Ornaments of his Fifth Chapter in an Exercise June 4. 1654. Having laid by his grave Clothes in a despised Village remote from ENGLAND but wishing well and heartily desiring the true prosperity thereof John 11. 25. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert and are to be sold at the black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1655. To my honoured and beloved friends in London who in a solitary season in that populous Citie were so great refreshment unto me by their undeserved society WHereas of late I received letters from som of you wherein I read that name which is as an oyntment poured out causing the parties to whom it appeares to fall in love therewith carrying in it a spirit which can produce a reall presence where there is an absence in bodily respects and that not only in respect of divine nature simply considered but also in point of Christian relations and respects which is never destitute of humane considered therein and conversant therewith otherwise the goings forth of the spirits of the Saints could not be peculiar and distinct from that of the wicked which the divine and omnipotent power reachethalso Therefore the Saints communicate in prayers intercessions supplication giving of thanks so as a stranger cannot intermeddle therewith nor with their joy arising there-from And whereas some of you requested mee to write unto you concerning the opening of a portion of the word of God which some years agoe urged my spirit and put me into travell to bring forth but Satan hindered Your letters visited me immediately upon the employment of my spirit in another portion of the word of God which was then the proper strength I walked by which made me to think it might be a refreshment unto you which I could not lay aside till God opened another into which I might enter Neither could wee depart from that place till the cloud removed in-so-much that I was forcibly constrained to employ my selfe about the instruments and services of the Tabernacle to bring the sight thereof unto your selves in the first place And so made bold to set upon the writing of it yea when others slept beeause of my daily occasions and when it was writ I was much urged to endeavour the printing of it that so it might come to more view and being it was written in hast and so would be tedious to read I consented thereto although there is nothing which I have spoken in publique since I saw your faces but I could as freely commend it unto you The occasion of the Ark pitching upon this place which me-thinks looks like Elim in this wildernes where there are twelve fountains of water and 70. Palm-trees Numb 33. 9. For our Apostle writes to the twelve Tribes out of which we may draw plenty of the water of life and there is perfection and fulness of palm trees from which you may gather plenty of branches to carry as signes of victory not only of the abatement of that deluge of wrath but also of overcoming by faith this present world for Faith is the victory whereby we do it I say the occasion of the Arke pitching on this place was this We being met together to exercise our selves in the word of God and prayer there was one who occasionally named this Chap and read some part of it in which action the scope of it seemed to open it self unto me and to deale plainly and faithfully with you my thoughts had never been formerly upon any part of it so as intending to expresse my selfe from it but only as I have read it as other histories and writings of the word of God Whereupon my spirit was moved presently to speak from it what I did receive and immediately uttered to the same effect which I have in the following lines commended unto you out of my love unto you and engagements beyond my expression moved hereunto by your loving christian-like letters joyning themselves unto me like Philip to the Chariot of the Eunuch upon the delivery of it encouraging my heart hereunto which otherwise I had not takenupon me lest it should have been thought a worke not worthy your acceptance But if you please to take the payns carefully to peruse it I doubt not but it may give occasion of further thoughts unto you then can be expressed in so small a volume it may point as with a finger unto such things as to write them the world would not contayn the books the matter being of an infinite and an eternall nature holding proportion with Melchisedech who is without beginning of dayes or end of life Therfore the world cannot contain it unto whom this Scripture as under the motion of the cloud hath brought us where we now abide Heb. 7. For other place of our abode I may not signifie unto you for some of our Neighbours have professed before the state of England that the place of our bodily aboad is a non ens that it hath no being and others have affirmed that we are no people not affording us so much as God gives to the Conies which he calls a people though a small people yet they make their abode in the Rocks and it is that rock of Ages in whom only we desire to be found to take these courtesie a patiently as we do other kindnesses under which we yet abide as in that point of banishment only for such matters as in the following speech we tender unto you Whereas you make mention of a Sermon preached from the Prophesie of Isaiah speaking of the new heavens and the new earth in the restauration of the Church from which it was concluded that such an excellent estate of Religion was to come hereafter as never yet appeared which some could not be satisfied in such Exposition or Conclusion we see it to be not onely the common doctrine but deceipt also of the world not to give Christ a present being but hold men in expectation as in the ancient Jews who when he appears seek his ruine and that is the top of that spirit By new heavens and new earth in that place we understand the state of Christ or of that holy unction or Christianity that as the visible heavens earth to which he alludes make a compleat and fruitfull world even so do God man in Christ make one durable and fruitfull condition wherein righteousness dwells as our Apostle witnesseth which according to that law of the spirit is adorned with infinitely more relations operations and vertues then all the Creations in Heaven and Earth can set forth which hee calls new not with respect unto these visible but with
this sick party if they be Elders having it by right of inheritance of whom it may be said Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee For the day wherein Christ is begotten or the day of salvation or of the Saviour as the word will beare is like the seventh day in the Creation whereunto neither evening nor morning are annexed as to the rest of the dayes for it is ever the same where in the Son is begotten even an eternall light or day Therefore this Eldership knowing it to be the birth-day of the Son of God in that resurrection of the dead they cannot with-hold the whole Kingdome nor any priviledg prerogative or royalty thereof from any one that appertayns or belongs thereunto The use and benefit of the holy unction therefore is not yet ceased for then the kingdome of God should cease for all things in it that ever were are or shall be in it taken and understood according to the mind of God are of the same duration that the kingdome it selfe is which must be as ancient as the King himselfe But the carnallizing of the word of God in that and all things is ceased unto us according to the Leviticall services the Kingdom Priest-hood thereof holding no proportion with the Kingdom Priest-hood of our Melchisedech For men may as well go about to divide the Red Sea with a materiall rod or wand as to poure oyle upon a sick body to give him health and forgivenesse of sins Let us know therefore that such as trade in materiall oyle water bread wine gestures and vestments they are such as serve in the oldnesse of the letter that kills its subjects and not in the newnesse of the spirit which gives life to them that are exercised therein And to make a difference between the histories of Christ and his Apostles as being more cleer and to be practised in the letter then the histories of Moses and the Prophets it is a meer trick and device to deceive the world for the one hath as great a vaile upon it as the other and needs the same spirit of interpretation to open it For Christ himselfe uttered his minde in parables and without a parable saith the Text spake be nothing We conclude then that every Saint of God having received that spirit of antiquity which only makes an Elder or Governour in the kingdom of God without which no true Saintship or holinesse being a spirit of Princely rule dominion undaunted courage and fortitude in the things of God whatsoever he may appeare to be in the eyes of the world and judgment of men yet he is one that sheds forth the holy oyle having the materials of which is consists and skill to compose the ingredients according to the device of wisdome or that word of God which he pours out in prayer and prophesie to the healing of the sick strengthening of the weak quickning of the dead and acquitting of the soul from the guilt of sinne in all such who finde themselves dead unto all such things as men naturally live unto as they are the proper off-spring of the earthly man and these Elders do ever acknowledg as great an excellency and no lesse miraculous act in him that receives the unction as in him that pours it out for none but the first-born of God whose right it only is can receive it nor can any of lesse authority or more inferiour off-spring shed it forth Object But some will say That this doctrine denies that order set in the society of man-kinde consisting of superiour and inferiour Answ To this we answer that the order set in nature in poynt of sexe age gifts place c. they are all as significant intelligencers of higher and more noble and durable things for as it was in the creation of all things in the beginning so it is now in this poynt there being respect had unto man-kind in every particular work of Gods hand for whose use and service they were all created and he the last as being the end and scope of them all who was indeed that Microco sinus in himselfe as the very sum and Epitomy of them all Even so man in himself considered or with respect unto any creature act or thing unto w ch he may stand in any relation whatsoever to things in heaven or in earth he hath therein a proper respect unto the Son of God Jesus Christ poynting at and leading unto him even as all other creatures had a proper aspect upon man-kind for whom they were made and whensoever the thing taught by which is the Son of God appeareth who is the truth and substance of them all then the shadows fly away and are of no more validity nor value to a knowing and inlightned mind which carries some resemblance of the body and substance but holds no weight value or considerable worth with the same therefore when ever Christ appears who is the end and substance of the law then doth the letter betake it selfe to its respitillian wings and is no more in point of any account or reckoning with the sonnes of God who weigh and measure all things according to that law of the spirit of life which is in Jesus Christ For the unity and conjunction of God and man simply considered is that reall and substantiall Chaos or unformed thing taught unto us by that in the beginning which no mind or heart of man can so light up it selfe as to give a comely form unto the same or deck it with ornaments pleasing unto a meer Creature that is that God should be made man and become a creature who is the Creator of all things or that man being a creature should be made the Son of God he that creates all things without whom nothing is made Now the wisdome of the spirit of God brooding upon this deep as in the beginning brings forth all the ornaments of Christ in his unity offices vertues relations and operations whatsoever who indeed is that Microcosmus furnished and adorned with all those super-eminent excellencies and glory of the son of God being that world whereof his kingdome doth consist which is the world to come or else it could not be happinesse unto the inhabitants thereof if it were not to come as really as now it is For as he was before the earliest time that can be reckoned or retreated and fallen back unto even so he will be or is to come beyond the latest houre that ever can be marched unto hereafter And in this Chaos drawn out unto these ornaments and beautified with these honourabe and eternall vertues in Christ the order of God or the God like order doth consist who is that God of order and not of confusion and the most eminent and strictest order in the worlds account besides this is reall confusion Yea that Babylon the great the mother of harlots which the Scriptures forewarns us of and this order ariseth and is drawn out of the Chaos of
power of the resurrection from the dead as it is said the Lord shall raise him up there is in prayer a Lord-like authority to rise out of that grave of sin and sorrow of death and destruction so as none shall have dominion over it to keep it under for it cannot be held of death but it will remove the stone from the Sepulchre and deface and break open the seal of Herod himselfe though set upon it by the cheif Preists and Pharisees making it as sure as they can it will make the house of the carnall Jews to shake when the Apostles of Christ are gathered together or brought into unity and harmony by that reconciling spirit of interpretation It will make the foundations of the Prison to shake where the spirit of our great Apostle is infringed casting open the doors and laying wast such power to the astonishment of the Jaylors themselves whoever they may be yea it will raise Peter up out of the dungeon and cause his chains to fall off from his hands to his own admiration and wonder In a word prayer hath in it the power and vertue of the resurrection because it is the breathing of the Son of God returned from death to life this word behold he prayeth was an argument sufficient to prove Paul change from a Saul and to be risen up out of that grave and puddle of the Jewish litteral and carnall worships and from that deadly spirit of persecution which ever accompanies such maner of services Thirdly prayer hath in it the power of pardon and forgivenesse of sins for if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him or in the present tence as the word will bear they are forgiven him that is to every one that partakes in this prayer of faith To commit sin here is to be understood in a two-fold respect that is negatively and affirmatively of which the breach of law being sin doth consist now to sin and prove a delinquent in omitting and not doing that which is required is to neglect and leave undone that which the carnal commandement according to the strict spirit of a Pharisee calls for such sin or missing of the rule of the carnall commandement standing in outward ordinances is here to be understood which is the onely sin condemned by a carnall Jew and this law the prayer of faith doth rout ravell undo and abrogate with respect unto the obligation thereof in the true intent of a Pharasaical Jew And against this law doth true prayer sin in all its supplications intercessions and requests for the prayer of faith observes not in the least in any point that law of the spirit of bondage which onely obligeth to the law of the flesh nor can it keep and perform that spirit of enmity which Christ Jesus nailes to his Crosse and slays in himselfe and therefore a sinne in a Saint in way of negation against the affirmative part of the law of the flesh Againe there is a sin committed affirmatively and that is by reall acting and doing according to the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord which the wisdome of man in that carnall law forbids and that under the penalty of errour schism heresie pride blasphemy and death it self For every point of the law of the spirit rightly composed according to the prin ciples and grounds of faith is most heinous wicked detestable sinfull and abominable in the eyes of a carnal man Now the breach disannulling and abrogating of the carnall command for which the Jewes so hated Christ is the truth of the matter the reality and ever carries in it the remission pardon and forgivenes of sins in the Saints as surely as the breach of the law of the spirit and that everlasting Covenant of God carries in it guilt crime and is the condemnation of the world For every sin and blasphemy against the Son of man that is against the wisdome will power and authority of the arme of flesh shall be forgiven or it is forgiven for it hath the acquittance general discharge and release in it self but he that speaks aagainst the holy spirit that is against that law of the spirit or spirituall estate of that holy one of God it shall never be forgiven that is he that breaks the law of the spirit in any word or thing as the phrase imports it hath in it that guilt which can never be wiped out neither in this world that is in time present nor in the world or time that is to come or not in this world that is in the conscience of the party so made guilty nor in the world to come that is in that sentence of the righteous Judge which doth for ever adjudg and condemn it so that as the breach of the spiritual law hath in it an eternall guilt unseperably and enevitably fastned unto it and accompaning the same even so hath the breach or abrogation of the carnall law an everlasting pardon and acquittance before God fastned unto and ever accompaning the same Note in this point that the Levitical law which the Apostle apposeth to the law of an endlesse life doth not condemn because men fall short in some particulars of the fulfilment of the same but it condemns and is death unto him that walks according to the same or lives thereafter Therefore our Apostle saith If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that is if yee live according to the law of the carnall commandement for by it no flesh can be justified or if yee minde the things of the flesh that is as the word signifies if ye frame form or fashon things unto your selfe according to the carnall command art or reason of man concerning the affairs of God it is death but to live after the spirit that is the law of the spirit or spirituall law is life and peace or to minde the things of the spirit that is to form frame and fashion things spiritually that is life and peace and as the one of these is sin according to mans wisdome and his accounts even so is the other sin according to Gods wisdome and his reckoning and account judgement and doom passed upon it by an eternall and unchangeable sentence There is pardon then and power of forgivenesse in prayer because it is God that sitteth upon that throne of grace judging unto justification who then shall condemn for it the spirit of grace and supplication whereof prayer doth consist yea it is the Son of God who is justified who then shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen that holy one of God For wherever the spirit and vertue of Christ is there is power to forgive sins therefore he saith to stop the mouth of those legall Pharisees whether is it easier to say thy sins are forgiven or to say take up thy bed and walke but that you may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive sins on earth therefore I said
the seale of the Doctrine of the Gospel and any particular or all outward forms which Religion is represented unto us in to be the Religion of God as well as any or all of those former miracles wrought to be the seale of God 3. Furthermore to conclude the historicall act of wonders wrought to be the sign of confirmation is to darken yea to annihilate the vertue and power of the Gospel for in this wonder of Eliah to make the heavens as brasse and the earth as iron is here a fit allusion in the judgement of the spirit and we are to heare what the spirit saith unto the Churches in the teaching of the death of Christ and the operations thereof considered in the world and also in the house of God whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end And thus the allusion is unto a three yeares and sixe moneths forbearance of raine and afterwards to raynein great plenty This allusion is also used not in the terme of yeares but of two and forty moneths which is the same length of time but in a farre differing respect and differing doctrine in regard of the severall beames and lustre of the Gospel For there he teacheth that in measuring of the Temple the Court-yard is to be left out and not to be measured because it is given unto the Gentiles And the holy Citie shall they tread under foot two and forty moneths which is this three years and six moneths It is also alluded unto in poynt of dayes and so the same mystery is called a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes which are not properly yeares of famine but rather of fruit for it is the time of the prophesie of the two witnesses of the Gospel it is alluded unto likewise as consisting of three dayes and a halfe which is the time of the witnesses dead bodies lying in the streets of the great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Aegypt where also our Lord was crucified not suffered to be put in graves This wonder wrought by Eliah is alluded unto also as points or monuments of time in which the time of the womans being in the wildernesse is taught a doctrine farre differing from any of the former and that is for a time times and halfe a time on the division of time Now if the three yeares and sixe moneths drought and afterwards rayne were the substance and intent of the miracle and in that the wonder to lye for the confirmation of the Gospel how fiâ—ly could the spirit of God bring it in as an elegant allusion in all these severall respects Those therefore that would have the Gospel confirmed by miracles of like outward form as have been done in ages past they annihilate the Gospel by denying the truth substance and reality of the signe to be extant only in Christ Like friends to the Gospel are they who look to see Christ coming from heaven confined in one individuall man as the Disciples saw him go up to reign on the earth as an only Monarch for the space of a thousand yeares and then and not till then we shall see good dayes as those Doctors affirm The fourth poynt is the effect of his prayer And it rayned not Concerning the historicall form of this wonder all men know what it is to rayne and not to rayn But few know the mystery thereof which is substantiated in the Son of God and consists in that death of his reallized in the men of the world and in the men of God The spirit therefore and office of the intercession of Christ centring in and gathering it selfe into that one holy and mysticall body in the utterance and manifestation of it selfe affords not any of the raine of Gods liberality and bounty nor of that dew which causeth Israel to grow as a lilly unto that body of sinne that state of Ahab Jezebel and apostatized Israel but leaves it fruitlesse and barren like those mountains of Gilboa where Saul slaw himself c. to declare that his unction according to the works of the Law of the carnall command with all the glory arising there-from and the terrours of God are never separated nor upon that height and dignity doth ever rayn nor dew according to the intent of our Apostle in this place fall or descend to bring forth any fruit unto God but are like the heath in the parched wildernesse and as the dry dust which the winde of Gods fury driveth away 2. The spirit of intercession comprized and exercising it selfe in that Elijah the strength of our being or existance dryeth up that mysticall body of Christ that no rayne nor dew nor any moysture producing fruits according to the flesh falleth upon it or descendeth thereon And this is declared and signified unto us in Eliah who goes to the brook Cherith or the brook of slaying and mortification of the flesh with all the lusts and affections thereof intimated unto us in the drying up of the brook by that drought and he is fed by no earthly thing but only by the fowls of heaven Also when he sits under the Mulbery trees as one bereaved of his life as his fathers before him also were To the things of this world there also an Angel or Messenger heavenly only makes provision for him in his ascention to Horeb the Mount of God in the strength of which food once received though in a two-fold respect he travels forty days and forty nights the like time that Moses and our Lord fasted where he complayns to God that he only is left alone destitute of all help of man as an out-cast from all claym or title to the Kingdome of Ahab and backsliden Israel to idolatry For there is no rayn nor dew which makes that earthly condition fruitfull that falls upon him for the Famine is as great unto him in poynt of the wisdome of the flesh yeelding any food to Eliah as it is in respect of the wisdome of the spirit in yeelding any refreshment to Ahab the one being the heaven of God of Israel and the other the heaven or god of the world To conclude this point let us insert that word Selah which hath the signification of lifting up do but exalt the word of God as it is in Jesus and behold it is extant and lives in both these respects at this day and thence comes in the time of this restraynt of rayne And this is the fifth poynt which is for the space of three yeares and sixe moneths For the opening of this point we know that the number three as it hath the mystery of a true and reall distinction in it in the same individuall as in the three that beare record in heaven the father the word and the spirit and these three are one So also the mystery of fulnesse and perfection as the number seven hath for three witnesses are as a thousand they answer the Law compleatly
writing unto you being at such a distance is any abatement of my love and respect No it hath rather kindled my heart and filled it with employments otherwise towards you which hath not ceased continually to passe over the great Ocean to converse with you in spirit with God Almighty on your behalfe whom I love in the truth and it would be the joy of my soule to heare of your prosperity therein which I may not doubt of or call it into question And it would not a little revive me if the Lord pleased to cut out a way thereto to see your faces before I fall asleep and cease to converse with these terrene things I cannot in the meane season but commend these few following lines unto your Christian consideration which if they were the last words I were to breath out in this world I could as a legacy freely commit and bequeath them unto you You may please to see in the former Epistle what occasioned them to come so farre abroad and not to seem to abide within the confines of a few despised people as the rest of our poore endeavours seem to take up and make it their aboad Vouchsafe your payns to read them I beseech you as a token of my unfeigned love and listen unto God for interpretation who wil not faile to be a light unto you and in them You shall see what manner of food my soule lives by in this remote wildernesse which I doubt not but will be relished by you though in a populous Town or Citie Now the God of peace fill you with all peace and joy in believing Amen So prayeth he who is ever yours S. G. AN EXPOSITION UPON The Fifth CHAPTER of JAMES FIRST Observe the Coherence and connexion of this Chapter with that which goeth immediately before wherein our Apostle tells us what is the proper spirit and practice of the men of this world who are described unto us by their seeking after carnal and corruptible riches in the neglect of the durable and unfading treasury Therefore they resolve in the latter end of the former Chapter to goe out into such a City and to buy and sell and get gaine that is to cast themselves into such a forme and order wherein through their exchange and traffique in the things proper to a creeature they may get an advantage to advance themselves as such as are more excellent and eminent then others and yet in the meane time are ignorant of the event and successe of things for they know not what will be to morrow that is what issue is inevitably annexed to their works and endeavours For he declares unto them that they are as uncertain of the issue as they are of their life which is but as a vapour or as a breath as the word signifies that vanisheth in the ayre and comes to nought So uncertayne is every carnall man of his owne spirit what it is or what will become of it though it grows up with him and is of him and he cannot be separated from it yet knows he not what it is nor the thing whereby he maintains it being the very vanishing of the life and spirit of the Son of God through the insinuations and wiles of that Serpent and evill one of whose constitution spirit and practice he himself is preferring things subject to carnall sence of greatest excellency and most to be desired Whereas they ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that that is the thing to be sought after is the will or law of God even that law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord whereby we live and receceive ability to do every good and acceptable thing But contrarily they glory in their boastings that is they glory rejoyce and make it their only treasure to praise themselves as the word boast signifies that is they count the things proper to the creature to be their chief treasure and excellency and not the things of the Creator All such rejoycing or glorying saith he is evill that is to say is of that evill one namely the Devill Whence he infers That he that knows to do good and doth it not to him it is sinne that is he that cannot but acknowledg that the things that are of God which fade not nor vanish away are the chiefe and principall good to be desired and sought after and preserved above the things of the Creature and accordingly to be rejoyced and gloryed in in the possession of them and yet notwithstanding he chiefly prefers and glories in the things of the Creature more then they this is the sin of the world that idolizing of the Creature and setting it in the place of the Creator which is not to do or not to be that goodnesse that is of God but is properly the evill of that wicked one For who knowes not that it is good to seek after and to have erected the best Citie order to be possessed of the richest treasure to be encamped in the strongest Host to be invested with the wisest Councell and to be honoured with the most Princely dignity And yet who is it that prefers and principally endeavours after in all his travells and negotiations that order composed of God in Christ Jesus that Citie of the living God the chiefest and most eminent order that ever was who is it that trades for those treasures consisting of those divine and supereminent excellencies compiled and topped up in that inexhaustible Store-house of the Sonne of God and who is he that imbodyeth himselfe in that Army consisting of that hundred forty and foure thousand following the Lamb on mount Zion bearing the flagge of their Fathers power and authority written in their fore-heads openly proclaiming their courage and magnanimity to be of God and not of man and where is he that prefers and is found in that generall Assembly of the first born of God as the choisest counsell and most grave advice extant having an equall Royalty and interest in all things that concern the government of the Kingdome and of that Citie having a foundation whose builder and maker is God In a word put all these things together and whatsoever is really and eternally good in that one Christ of God who is the fountaine and also the Center to which all things tend and stand on tip-toe to stretch themselves unto him that are of God And who is he that knows not that Christ Jesus who is God blessed for ever is the chiefe and most desirable good to be gloryed in and yet do it not such are concluded under sinne by the verdict of the spirit of God in our Apostle that is such as know the best thing is to be preferred and sought for though with the neglect and losse of all other things as he that found the pearl in the field sold all that hee had to purchase that field even so he that cannot but confesse God
plucked out of the fire being found to be one of the flock of God once and for ever No marvell then though our Apostle saith Go too now unto the wicked and wealthy in point of Pharisaical excellencies for as the state of death and darknesse discovered by the Gospel doth sharpen and provoke the godly unto joy thankfulness for their deliverance and escape therefrom Even so doth the state of life and peace discovered in the Saints by the same Gospel sharpen provoke the wicked to enmity and despair which is the expelling of the spirit of God quenching the same in themselves Therefore he bids them weep howl for the misery that cometh upon them hereby and by weeping he signifies unto them the departure and loss of all good even that life of the Lord Jesus whom they crucifie afresh unto themselves and make a mock of him in whose life all goodnesse is treasured up and comprehended which unto them is vanished as a vapour therefore he bids them weepe for the losse of good causeth tears and by howling he minds them of that present wrath and torture which abides upon them and possesseth them which however it may lye as Dormant for a time yet this sin of killing Chrst in the Spirit is the same with that of Caines killing his brother and lies at the door as the proper and only in-let of the deluge of Gods wrath into the soule and indeed into the world For it cuts off the Sonne of God from being propagated and brought forth in the world according to the spirit and power proper to himselfe as that wicked act of Cain cut him off from being brought forth in his geneologie after the flesh in the way of Abel and so makes a nullity of Schin that makes all things and therefore must have all guilt in it which is the doore and in-let for execution of vengeance Therefore he adds for the misery that shall come upon you or as the word may be read in the present tense is come upon you For in these twain that is to say in the losse of all good and the possession of all evill perfect misery and wretchednesse doth consist The word translated Howle in the Hebrew is Shadad and signifies to destroy of which Zadai is derived a title given unto God signifying power or Almighty and here is an elegant allusion unto the etymologie of the originall phrase used by the Prophets signifying unto us that no less then Gods Almighty power is exercised and put forth to the utmost in the scattering and destruction of all such as stifle the Son of God in the breathings of his holy Spirit in themselves by preferring glorying in other things before it or as it is in others by vilifying contemning and persecuting it whereupon the next phrase is brought in viz. Vers 2. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are motheaten THat is all the substance they enjoy boast of and glory in is putrified and changed from that which otherwise and else-where it is for they adulterate the holy word of God unto themselves by subjecting and prostrating the same unto their owne lusts of pride cruelty and vain-glory as though such things were the naturall fruits of it they bring them forth and also nourish and foster them by it as a Harlot doth a child in an adulterous way that is after the way of the letter that kills and not in the way of the Spirit that gives out the life of the Lord Jesus Therefore it is that above he calls them adulterers and adulteresses telling them that the love of the world is enmity with God that is that which the world counts love in the height and top of affection is the proper malice and enmity of Caine whereby he kills and crucifies him who is not ashamed to call his Saints brethren being flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone And we must know that there is a unity in the Harlot as well as in the true Espousall For hee that is joyned unto an harlot is one flesh for two saith he shall be one flesh By twaine there is not meant creature and creature joyned together but God and the Creature are become one in that way of the harlot that is they are become one carnall corrupt and sinfull estate for there is as neere a unity between God and man in that man of Sin unto all unrighteousnesse in prophaning all the holy things of God unto destruction in which the holy one is cleare from being a proper actor or agent in any of them all as there is in Christ that man of God unto all righteousnesse and holinesse by setting sinfull man apart to all honour in salvation whereby being joyned unto the Lord is made one spirit with him that is they twayn are but one holy happy and righteous estate and condition wherein man is excluded from being any proper agent or actor as in any thing proper and naturall to the Creature So that man putrifies and corrupts the Son of God in himselfe through principles and aptitudes of mind proper to a Creature but not unto God subjecting the things of God to the law of the carnall Commandement naturally ingraffed and written in mans spirit which is the law of sin and death And God sanctifies and makes holy man in himselfe through principles and aptitudes proper to the Creator himselfe and not unto the Creature by subjecting it to the will of God according to his wisdome which is that state of righteousnesse and law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The proper riches and excellencies of the world then are corrupted and are become the proper mammon of iniquitie for however they may count upon truth to come within the compasse of their estates and reckonings to advance their excellencies thereby yet it is corrupted unto them for they have changed the truth of God into a lye Indeed they lay claime to Jesus as a Saviour on whom they hang all their vanishing carnall and Spider-web like hopes But he is corrupted and as a moth in them being become Shadad or Shedim a waster and destroyer They monopolize Churches and Congregations of God unto themselves but they are corrupted and are become Synagogues of Satan and an assembly of evill doers For they are no true Church of Christ or congregation of the first born of God whose names are recorded in heaven that so expound the word of God as they can but apply some one part thereof as their present ornament and furniture for they may as well as indeed they do lay aside some part of Christ for the present and so divide him and make a nullity of him as to lay aside some part of the word of God as not in present use in their dayes being a garment not holding proportion with their composed body But the true Church knowes that the end of the Law is Christ and can tell how to adorn it selfe in
to pray or to believe or the grace of remission of his sins expressed and declared in those glad tidings For the grace of Christ is as truly collective in the subsistance of it as distributive whosoever therefore receives freely that party hath a like vertue also freely to give Moreover the world who by wisdome know not God teach by that wisdome that a Christian may be possessed with and have the enjoyment of the spirit of Christ that holy spirit of the Son of God and yet the humane nature of Christ not present but wholy absent and remote in another place these men may aswel upon like ground professe themselves to be members of Christ but not of his body for of his Saints he saith Ye are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone not of another So that the two natures in Christ according to the mystery of salvation in the Gospel are of the same extent that his mysticall body is and are co-apparent to the wisdome of God in whomsoever it is For the spirit of Christ never uttered or manifested it selfe but as the son of sorry man utters and manifests himselfe in and by such principles and abtitudes as are proper and peculiar to the living and eternall God taking their being and form from the wisdome and power of God and not from the policie and power of a creature for without the Coagulation of these twayn there is no spirit of Christ made manifest nor is it in its operation Therefore to separate the spirit of Christ from the humane nature of Christ in any of its operations is to make a nullity of Christ the faith of such persons is vaine their holy garments of the Ministry are moth-eaten their righteousnesse is the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees which enter not into the kingdome and their proper holinesse is the purification of the flesh purging themselves of all the operations of the spirit of life that no ray or beame thereof be found upon them which a wicked man is as careful of as the Saints of God are of being stained and spotted with the flesh For if we gather not up and take in true man into all the operations proper to the spirit of God wee dis-unite and separate that which the wisdome of God hath so curiously embroydered and wrought up together for the spirit of Christ and of God quickneth only to that blessed estate and condition of the Son of God and not to any other even as a rationall spirit filled with artificiall principles to find out the nature and cause of things quickneth only unto that state and condition of man-kind and not unto the condition of any other creature upon the earth Vers 3. Your gold and your silver is canckered and the rust of them shall be a witnesse against you and shall eate your flesh as fire yee have heaped treasure together for the last dayes AS Gold and Silver are the most precious and durable mettals in the account and use of man so righteousnesse and holinesse are the diadem and duration of the Gospel of the Kingdom the son of God and they are reckoned here as their Silver and Gold who crucifie the love of life and glory no otherwise but as sinne is reckoned upon Christ where it is said that he was made sin for us who knew no sinne even so these are made righteous that know no righteousnesse of God in Christ For the just and unjust are made of like yea of the very same matter for God and man are really to be considered both in the one and in the other and otherwise the true state of life and death canot be rightly composed neither is the gospel and faith of the Son of God preached For in what tone sence or respect man may be said to be in that worke of salvation wrought by Christ and participate in the power and glory thereof In like sence may the Sonne of God be said to be and is in that work of destruction and participates in the defect and shame thereof For as the wisdome of God in that way of Christ purifies and cleanseth that earthly and corruptible nature of man in its taking of it into unity from all sin and uncleanesse unto a state and condition becoming the Sonne of the holy and eternal God even so doth the wisdome of man or of the flesh in taking hold of and searching into the things of God corrupt and defile unto or in it selfe that holinesse and puritie which is in the word or Sonne of God unto a state and condition proper and peculiar to that man of sinne and son of perdition for the world by widome knows not God that is through its proper wisdome and Serpentine policie is blinded and become ignorant of him So that there is a true and reall proportion between the mistery of God in Christ and the mistery of iniquity in Antichrist else the state of the wicked could not have in it an Almighty power of wrath and displeasure as the state of the Saints hath in it an allsufficiency of mercy and love for the proper Original and fountaine of each is in themselves and not in another that is to say the proper fountaine of love and mercy is in Christ and not else-where to be found and the proper fountaine of wrath and displeasure is in Antichrist and not founded else-where So that righteousnesse and holinesse of the word of God or Sonne of God for it is not the word but in its creating virtue as it frames it selfe in Christ and this word is canckered in the world for God and man in a mistery are become a corrupt estate and condition in that way of Antichrist directly contrary unto that oriental Gold and seven times purified silver that is in Jesus Christ and that party who is ignorant of the mistery of iniquity in the corrupting and adultrating of the word of God may talk of the unity that is in Christ Jesus purifying making chast mans nature in that word of God but it is onely as he hath received it by tradition from Libraries Councels and Accademical courses but the revelation of the spirit he knows not the onely means of the conveyance of the knowledge thereof The purest mettal thus changed becoms rust and that is first witnesse against them secondly It eates their flesh as fire Rust we know is the putrifaction and filthinesse of mettals contracting it selfe and arising from the not using thereof even so the not exercising and putting into use the righteousnesse and holinesse of the word of God that royal law of the spirit is the contraction raising up of the vision and corrupt desires of the flesh which is the very cancker spot and staine of the soule that it becoms reprobate Silver thereby not to passe for currant to any in the kingdome of God First and this rust by this means contracted is a witnesse against them that they have put the just one to death as
in the destroying Angel to cause him to passe over as not having any employment there Even so the blood of Abel shed by the cruelty of Cain as a Lamb slain from the beginning according to the spirit or by the subtilty of Judas betraying him with a kisse hath in it a sufficient cry in the destroying Angel to move the exercise of wrath upon the first born of Aegypt the beginning top of all that strength wherein they trust who cruelly and fraudulently keep back Israel from his advance unto the land of Canaan The one hath in it the voyce and language of peace reconciliation and agreement with God as his first-born and onely beloved The other hath in it breach of brother-hood and fellowship the voyce of a vagabond flying from Gods presence and the glory of his power as in Caine and wrath unto self-murther and destruction as in Judas Iscariot that Confessor or Preacher for hire as his name signifies in whom the word of God in it selfe Lord over all is changed and transformed into an hireling 6. This cry enters into the eares of the Lord for as there is a certaine propencity in the eare of a man to take in any sound that moves the ayre and to give it a true and proper form his heart ecchoing the same thing whether it be matter of joy or matter of terrour Even so there is nothing that moves either in the proper sphere of Gods displeasure or of his acceptation and love but there is a proper and immediate aptitude in his wisdome and power to receive and give a true form thereunto according to the nature thereof ecchoing the same thing in returning an answerable and proportionable measure of wrath or mercy into that heart in which it moves where he hath place of a boad either in way of mercy as man by unity is become the Son of God in Christ or else in wrath as God is by unity also become the sonne of perdition in that way of Antichrist 7. And therefore that terme and title of honour is given him namely the Lord of Sabboth or Sabboths plurally for that which the Prophet Isaiah writes the Lord of Hosts plurally the Apostle to the Romans writes the Lord of Sabboth that is the Lord of Rest or plurally Rests and this declares unto us that wonder of Gods rest or cessation from his work and labour in the beginning and and how he worketh also even untill now For God rests and there is an absolute cessation of all works and operations proper to the Son of God in that way of the fall eating of the forbidden fruit or exercise of the carnall commandement in which no vertue motion or operation of the spirit is found but an utter and absolute cessation from them all and so the earth is sayd to enjoy its Sabboths by Gods laying of it wast from its inhabitants and in this condition the operations of the flesh and power of Satan are found and frequently in exercise Againe God resteth and ceaseth from labour for we never understand the name God in a good and proper sence but with respect unto God in Christ by whom the worlds were made and in him God rests and there is an utter and totall cessation from all the works of sin and death fruits of the flesh and operations of Satan which mans nature is subject unto there is a perpetuall rest cessation and sabbatizing in the Son of God from them all but there is a most glorious operation of the spirit and powerfull work of the Son of God in that estate and condition of Jesus Christ who is that rest that yet remayns in the people of God therefore it is said hitherto the father worketh and I worke and therefore the word Saba in the Hebrew tongue signifies either Sabboth a Rest or an Host or Armie and sometimes the Apostles in Greeke translates it Lord God Almighty to declare that there is an Almighty power of conquest in whomsoever the rest is found for there is an Almighty power of the whole host of Satans enmity in conquering and subduing the spirit and vertues of Christ in themselves resting from them all And there is an Almighty power of the spirit of grace in that Army of Heaven and order of the Son of God in vanquishing and subduing of all the power of sin and Satan unto that perfect rest which ever remayns in that only and beloved Son of God And truly the world may as well preach the temporall sword to be the Rescue Reformer and Conservation of the Church as the best and greatest Councell Synods Synodrians and Assemblies that ever were or can be gathered together only in the strength and power of humane learning wisdome experience and policy for in such the Lord is in array as an host and in rest and cessation but it is to do that work that strong worke of wrath not proper to the Son of the blessed whereby he rests from all his owne operations as the ensuing words do declare Vers 5. Yee have lived in pleasures on the earth and been wanton yee have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter YOu have lived in pleasure on the earth as Dives or that rich man did that is you have taken delight and made it your very living to exercise your selves in earthly and temporary things all your dealings and commerce is in such things as your selves cannot but confesse must have an end and cease to be and therefore earthly as your bodily fasts and humiliations your bodily feasts and verbal thanksgivings for vanishing things your Sabboths only in cessation from bodily labour your earthly victories and honourable achievements these are the food you feed on the things wherein your delight and pleasure is set and must they not have an end If so then are they earthly because they fade and vanish as the flower of grasse Nay the order of your Churches and Elderships the ordination and institutions of your Oracles and Orators will these stand with the Assembly and Church of the first-born of God whose names are enrolled in heaven where every one hath a like share and equall right to all the offices orders and priviledges of the kingdome if not they are earthly composed by the ministery of the letter that kills and not by the law of the spirit of life Add further what is your faith your prayers and righteousnesse are not these earthly and carnall as held and practised by you Can you tell what use to put them unto in your professed world to come I tro not for for any thing that ever I could learn from the common Priesthood of these dayes they have no use of the imputed righteousnesse of the Son of God when once their sanctification is compleated nor of their faith when they have attayned the end of it which they say is at their coming to heaven nor of prayer when they shall need no more to converse with or have supply of
God condemning such as justifie the words of wisdome which only sets forth the folly of the world or else it appears not And they only love the works of darknesse and dare not come to the light least their deeds should be discovered 2. They do not only condemn but they kill the Just one and that in a two-fold respect First consider that a thing is said to be killed when it is expelled the proper place of its aboad so it is slain in way of negation and denying it its right and due Deny a fish the water and it is killed take a plant out of the earth and it withereth take water out of the Sea and it moves not in ebbing and flowing and deny any thing the benefit of the ayre and it cannot live no not the water nor the fire it selfe Now man-kind is the proper place of Gods residency and abode in the exercise and manifestation of his wisdome delighting himselfe in the habitable parts of his earth even in the sons of men But where the wisdome of the flesh beares sway and makes its abode there the wisdome of God is denyed any place of residency therefore Christ who is the wisdome of God and the power of God lives not there in any of his operations and vertues for as Jacob said of Joseph he is not that is he is not living in that heart 2. He is killed actually by laying violent hands or administrations upon him to the quenching of his spirit whereby he becomes life-lesse in the world haling him to the places of execution for Christ never appeared or was known in the world but by vertue of an office and institution For how can a King appeare but by vertue of his inauguration or a Prophet but by or in the spirit of a Prophet Or what is a Priest if he have not somewhat to offer for he cannot be a Priest without Christ appears not but by vertue of institution and commission to execute perform and do the will of the Father therefore he saith I come not to do my owne will but the will of him that sent me Now to institute temporary Ordinances and offices vanishing and fading not holding correspondency with the nature and constitution of Christ it is to destroy and thrust out the proper spirit and authority of Christ as it not having a being in the world For to frame an Office or Ordinance of Christ and not to have the spirit of Christ is to destroy and abolish unto themselves that mysticall body of Christ even as a naturall body deprived of the soule that gives it life is thereby abolished and turned to putrifaction Let us consider then how to form Ordinances and establish offices and Officers of Christ for if they have not in them the spirit of Christ they will prove no better then those legall and Jewish services taken up from Moses as representing the letter of the Scripture and accordingly practiced in the dayes of Christ by Herod Pontius Pilate Scribes Pharisees Lawyers and Souldiers and the whole body of the people who cryed out crucifie him crucifie him away with him When water in the River or Pond hath the spirit of life from God in it then we shall count it as an Ordinance of Christ when bread and wine on the Table have the spirit of mortification of the flesh and quickning power of the resurrection of Christ in them then will they prove spirituall Ordinances of Christ beseeming the son of the living God For there is no office exercise or ordinance proper to the kingdome of God that is voyd and destitute of the holy spirit of the Son of God who is that great ordinance of God in whom every particular is wrapped up and infolded and not one of them barren or destitute of the same spirit of life from God otherwise all Ordinances and offices taken up from Christ and his Apostles are of the same nature of those taken up from Moses in Christs days and shall prove of the same effect when ever Christ appears for the one stands upon the proper letter of the Scripture as well as the other and Satan can alledg the Scripture to back his temptation as well as Christ doth for the confounding of him Now if the spirit and life of such Ordinances depend upon the Priests and Elders the Instituters and Conservators of them why should they then contend with those which they call Papists but joyne hand in hand as being one with them Let us remember therefore that If we bereave the body of the proper soule and spirit of Christ we abolish and destroy the Just one and turn him to corruption unto our selves 3. The next poynt is the demeanor of the just And he resisteth you not that is he doth not stay or hinder your project violence from execution he doth not detain nor keep back himself from you but patiently suffers himself to be dispoiled of all his vertues and excellencies in you which are the native and proper operations of the Son of God ceasing from his own work in you that you may take your full swinge in that which is proper and naturall unto you as to exercise your pride and policy your principalities powers of darknesse your spirituall wickednesses in high places according to the Prince of the power of the ayre That wheresoever any heart is empty and destitute of she spirit of God hee insinuates himselfe to be the fulnesse of it that according to that plenty of wickednesse the wrath of God may finde fuell to kindle it selfe upon and so he freely without resistance layes downe his life in the wicked as a ransome that he may take it againe in his Saints and in them live for ever And so much for the death of Christ according to the spirit in the men of the world who crucifie afresh unto themselves the sonne of God and make a mocke of him And from this our Apostle infers an exhortation consisting of divers particulars which do concern the death of Christ according to the flesh as he is considered in the Saints and that is the second generall head in the Chapter which is contained to the 12. verse And with respect unto death in both these respects the Apostle Paul saith God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified in me and I am crucified in the world Vers 7. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord behold the husbandman waiteth for the precifruit of the earth and hath long patience for it untill he receive the early and latter raine Wherein observe 1. The terme or kinde appellation Brethren 2. An exhortation in these words Be patient 3. How long or to what end To the coming of Christ 4. An allusion to a husbandman with respect to his seed-time and harvest 1. ANd first for the term given unto them Brethren which is with respect unto that
well as that of the Sonne of God who is the Lord our righteousnesse the very kingdome it selfe and the inlet thereinto also Yea there is a faith of Devils as well as the faith of the Sonne of God as the Apostle declares Thou beleives there is one God thou dost well the Devil also beleives and trembles The phrase of Scripture therefore without the scope and intent thereof is the common deceipt of all the world where the Scriptures are read and the rest have the substance thereof written in their hearts So that no humane learning which is but the Dilucidation or Lucifer of those principles can possibly give light to lead to the true knowledge of the Scriptures The mis-apprehending of this point running away with the phrase as men by their Concordance heap up phrases of Scripture to confirm their doctrine whereas every one is of severall interpretation never minding the intent but onely the sound of words is the very cause of all the principalities powers the rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesse or wicked spirits as the word is in high places which are so elevated consecrated and judged of such necessity in the world for from hence ariseth the unction of the King as being set in that office and roome of that King of Salem Prince of peace and from this is the Bishop consecrated and installed as bearing the office and place of that great Bishop and feeder of our soules and out of this mistake ariseth all those offices and officers respectively standing in relation to the one and to the other whereby the pure word of eternity comes to be prostrated and adulterated by bringing it into copulation with vanishing things which perish in the use Submitting it unto the glory of the creature and not the creature to the glory of him who is God blessed for ever Amen Note here that the laws and orders of men in the world standing upon the letter of the Scripture in sound of word and not in the sence in the history which alters in form and not in the mystery that abides for ever hence it is that they are built upon the sands as Christ reports And when any people comes to see into the defects of the foundation which another people stand upon they encourage themselves to pull down the building of another to make their own more firme so that which the world takes to be the strength and safety of it selfe comes in few years to be the depopulating and ruine thereof For it is as possible to give as good ground and argument for one way and order set up upon the sayd principles as for another as for water in baptisme and men of ripe years as wine in the supper and infants counted the seed of the Church debarred and for the cutting off the fore-skin of the flesh as wel as either of them both and upon this ground comes in that continued work and great imployment of reformation in the world and shall never be accomplished by the change of titles of officers and formes of institutions so long as they are placed upon the same foundation namely the bare letter of the Scripture but the best perfection it will be brought unto is to persecute Joseph for interpretting the dream In this point of the letter or phrase of the Scripture and the true intent and scope thereof consists that threefold temptation brought in by Satan against Christ and Christ his effectuall answer thereunto in the one stands the subtilty of the Devill and in the other the wisdome and minde of the Son of God 2. And hence he brings in the direction leading us to the Prophets as to a pattern how to come to the true knowledge of the minde of God that is to the true interpreters of the Scriptures for the Hebrew word Nabi and the Greek Prophetes signifies speaking interpretting and uttering words and Oracles that come immediately from God So that we have no true example copy extract draught or pattern of the law of God the order and composure of the kingdome of God but by having recourse to the true interpretation of the word of God And there is no true Prophesie of any private interpretation but holy men of God speak as they are moved by the spirit of God that is there is no true interpretation given of any part of the word of God when it is bounded to any particular time or age or confined to any particular time or age or confined to one particular person alone but as the spirit of God remains the same in its motion so doth the word of God in its expression and creating virtue accompanying the same in Christ and it is a thing too sublime to be congealed into inke too secret and hidden to be printed upon paper too precious to be piled up in Libraries and of too prince-like a spirit to enter into contract with or be subservant unto any school of humane learning For it is the spirit of the Sonne onely that knows the minde of the father and it is he and not another that must reveale it unto us So that if ever we receive that fiery law of the spirit we must ascend into the mount of God namely into the height of the condition of him who sits at the right hand of God being that whereby he manifests his wisdome and skill power and glory even as a man manifests his art and skill by his right hand which no art power nor policy of man can ever reach or attaine unto This pattern is set before us in the Prophets onely or in that one great Prophet in the interpretation and unfolding of the word of God or in the translation of the originall language that is in declaring how the things of God are transformed through the carnall conceptions of men into the principles and rudiments of the creature and so is in them become a profane Grecian which makes the Son of God so complaine that his vissage is marred more then any man and his forme more then the sons of men And this is a language will speak in Cain and all his posterity when inke and paper shall vanish as smoke There is also a skil to translate the spirit of man into the principles and excellencies of the Sonne of God as being thereby become that holy Hebrew of Heber yea the seed of Abraham and Sonne of God to speak according to that voyce of the blood of sprinkling which hath in it power to passe over the destroying Angell for ever if these were as truly translated or interpretted in the world as the letters and sillables of the Bible are into our native tongue wee should see more eminent and excellent Schollars appeare then now we do 1. And here the Prophets are described to be such as speak in the name of the Lord that is in the power and authority of the Sonne of God for to speak in the name of God is to speak in
Satan sets in the state of death cruelty and wrath in the seperation from God therefore of greater weight and concernment then all things besides 3. Consider the terme he gives them my brethren as if he should say in more words except yee be of my fraternity that is of the proper off spring and brotherhood of the Son of God flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone ye will never yeeld over your selves unto this inhibition nor observe this charge given by God for none but the off-spring of God wil disingage themselves from the language of this world framed and contrived according to the reasonings thereof in the wisdome of man no more then there is any to be found but the seed of the Serpent that will disingage disjoynt and dislocate themselves from the language and oracle of God contrived and uttered by that wisdome of God in Christ prove your selves therefore by this whether you be the brethren of Christ belonging to one and the same Father possessors of the same inheritance for otherwise no heirship of heaven no share in the tender compassions of a father no virtue nor grace of the spirit no crown of life laid up onely for them that waite for and love the reality of Christs appearing in the vanishing and not appearing of all corruptible things at the brightnesse of his glory alone in what thing relation or act soever they may seem to stand in unto us so as not to be engaged unto any of them for explanation whereof he gives an instance what we are not to sweare by first particularly and then universally 1. And first we are not to swear by heaven By Heaven or height as the word imports in this place is meant Principalities powers dominions the rulers of the darknesse of this world which the Apostle stiles spirituall wickednesse or wicked spirits in high or in heavenly places such as are eminent and glorious in the eyes of men according to the judgement of humane wisdome now the Saines of God are not to swear by any of these for however the oath of man swears by the greater yet the oath of God which is onely upon the Saints of Israel cannot be by a greater then himselfe so that he is not engaged to any of these but all are subservant unto him and he is above them all for he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords as it is written upon his vesture and upon his thigh or joines as in his strength and ornaments of his power and authority it doth appear therefore Christ gives the reason why we are not to swear by Heaven because saith he it is the throne of God Now the throne is at the service of him who fits thereon and not he to be engaged to the throne so that the Principallities and powers of worldly Governments are the very thrones or chariots wherein the Son of God sits for the excecution of his wrath on the world and they all stand ingaged to be at his service as that proper matter and instrument wherein the wrath of the Son is kindled and executed For there is a throne whereon Christ sits to rule with a rod or scepter of Iron wherewith he breaks to peeces as the sheards of a potters vessel as well as there is a great white throne that from the presence of him that sits thereon this heaven and earth which are not to be sworne by do fly away and no place for them in that dominion is to be found For Ashur is the rod or scepter of his anger and the staff in their hand is his indignation unto these high places the Saint of Israel is not to be ingaged for they are all subservant unto him and thence it is that Nebuchadnezzar that great King performed that peece of service to Daniels friends for the destruction of such as were his immediate actors therein for the manifestation of a miraculous deliverance through the appearance of the Son of God in his powerfull presence with his people when as they would not swear or be ingaged to the authority and power of that high place or great King the like was in Pharaoh whose wrath Moses feared not because he saw him who is unseeable and in Hero d whom Christ looked upon as a Fox fitter to betake himselfe to the holes of the earth in his carnall power and policy then to hinder him in that worke the wisedome of the father of lights had prescribed him in the doing of which work he denies his mother to have any interest in him in that way of the earth saying Women what have I to do with thee my houre is not yet come that is my time is not to come under any carnall command or authority whatsoever Note in this point how contrary the practice of the common ministry of the world is in seeking to be ingaged unto earthly power as to sit under that shadow and protection as their onely defence having confidence therein as though there were no other safety so that if they can but stand with acceptation by the elbow of a great man and watch for a nod or a beck to signifie a permission to give thankes pray or to preach they count it their chief honour and hapinesse and take it for a proper inspiration of the spirit unto them and so it is of that spirit whereby they are led 2. The second particular by which we are not to swear is the earth Neither by the earth The word translated earth signifies a base degenerate stock such as in the judgement of man are as persons illegitimate not being borne or brought forth unto the excellency and desired priviledge of the Sons of men in and of the world These we are not to be ingaged unto or to swear by whether in respect of the state and condition of persons or of any thing base in the worlds account the Saint of Israel is not to be taken as bound over or ingaged unto these things as for their defence government supply reliefe release or redemption and deliverance in any respect so as to be required and laid claime unto by the world as their right due or as a debt from his hands no more then Satan can lay claym unto any thing that is in Christ for the Son is free from paying tribute unto the world in all the children of the kingdome onely as time place necessity occasion conveniency and expediency gives and frames a fitnesse and opportunity thereunto so do the Saints act or refraine from acting in all things which the spirit of the world ingageth it self unto as being bound and yet most free that is they are all firmly bound over in themselves for the liberty and propagating of the Gospel of God and they are free likewise from whatsoever is out of that state and condition of the Sonne of God from yeilding any tribute or being any way so ingaged as that it should make any true challenge or lay any claym or title
into the state and condition of Christ or else it is not an acknowledgment and confession of faith And so sin is confessed upon the head of the Scape-goat to be carryed into the wildernesse which is desolate and way lesse unto the people of God neither is he nor it that is the goate nor the sin in that true respect found in Israel any more and so sin it set on its probase and place of its perpetuall aboad not only in time to come but past also that is in Babylon in the land of Shyner the place of confusion wherein note that the strictest order composed by the wisdome of man which is in truth and substance consonant to the letter of the Scripture men being tyed thereunto as a rule to walk by is that proper confusion of Babell unto a Christian unity because it makes man the fore-runner and not the Lord Christ who only enters within the vale where the true oracle is uttered even as it is true that when the will of God according to the law of the spirit is the most distinctly made manifest it appears to be the only confusion in a carnall mind because it layes wast those proper principles whereby it adorns it self with all its ornaments Note here how necessary it is for mans wisdome to moderate it selfe in the making of Lawes and binding men under penalties to take them as rules for all to walk by And here we propound a question whether one Law of God be not of like weight as another for that distinction of the first Table being more eminent then the second is meerly humane for doth not Christ center both in two commands and affirms them to be of like weight and the Apostles bring all into one saying love fulfils the whole law So that the two Tables do teach unto us the unity of God and man and that both according to the letter of the Law and also of the spirit and therefore the Law is broken by Moses at the foot of the Mount as considered in the Leviticall Priest-hood exercised in the Rebels in the wildernesse and the Law is preserved and kept by Moses in the Arke unto this day as the Scripture affirms as it is exercised in that way of the Spirit in Joshuah or Jesus who leads into the land as that Captain of our salvation But however the question stands concerning strictnesse of Law in two commands of the second Table which are of the same weight and importance to every Christian the one as the other and that is the not killing but preservation of life and the not committing of adultery in the preservation of chastity Is there not then a like care to be had and provision made for the preservation of life in respect of its existance and being as there is to preserve chastity that so man may appear in honour and temperancy If there be a like care to be had in both then I demand how it comes to passe that men make a law to execute death upon that fact of adultery which reacheth unto the very Embryon and unformed substance of man in the womb that so they may prevent a Bastard-like brood and that impure and incontinent conversation of men in the world Why are they not alike carefull to ordaine and execute a law upon men in case man and wife know each other when there is no possibility of conception whereby the life of man seems to be destroyed and cut off as considered in the very same capacity and principles and so upon the like ground murder committed This case may seem to be the very point of Christs argument brought forth by his practice against the Scribes and Pharisees who stood so strictly upon the letter of Moses writing when they brought that woman taken in adultery unto him who in pretending the fulfilment of the Law out of a malicious spirit seeke to ensnare the Son of God to kill him and put him to death which murthering litterall spirit of theirs he convicts them of and acquits the woman in that double act of his in writing on the earth having respect unto the writing of the two Tables of stone signifying unto them that killing letter bearing sway in themselves whereby they sought to take away his life rather then the womans by putting the force and dignity of the Law to stand in carnall and fleshly observance and so convicted them in his first writing upon the earth as having broken the Law as Moses did the first Table and therein their consciences accuse them as guilty of murder and so they absent themselves from Christ And in his second writing on the earth hee signifies that law of the spirit which is for ever kept and preserved in himselfe wherein is found no condemnation but an acquittance from all sin and unrighteousnesse and therefore the woman escapes without condemnation when none but Christ according to that law appears with her A Commentary might be writ of this point but thus much only as closely as may be in way of caution to prevent men in their so confident prosecutions formed from the letter of the Scripture as they piece-meale it out of the wisdome of man left it prove no better in conclusion then the wisdome of the Serpent that whilst they entice to the eating of the fruit of one tree because of the fairnesse and benefit of it they do not corrupt and destroy another in themselves in so doing before they be well aware of it For if such mens wisdome and wills had taken place in the dayes of Juda and Thomas they would have made a breach in the Geneology of Christ And if they say they would have stopped execution till the children had been born then they would not have stoâ—d to the glory of the Law which after it be truly discerned stands in seleritas inexequendo Wee are then to attend the mind of the spirit of God in this namely that our yea be yea and our nay nay wherein the scope of the Scriptures do consist being the state of man-kind with respect unto God which is in one act and for ever and not in the relation of any one Creature or Creatures with respect unto others that is to any meer creature or creatures which may now be yea it is and immediately nay it is not but in Christ it is not so who is the end of all law the scope of all relations and the very end which all operations drive at presse unto as he is crucified according to the flesh or else according to the spirit in which respect yea remayns yea and nay remayns nay both in the way of Christ and in the way of Antichrist So that he that teacheth another thing to be the intent and meaning of the word of God what ever it is that may one time be and another time not be in the same state condition of man-kind considered that is a doctrine under the state of condemnation Therfore
another is the wisdome of man that perisheth and comes to nought and not the wisdome of God which abides the same for ever and is that light which guides unto the Elders who are the onely governours and rulers of this universall Church called into communion and fellowship with this sick party and they are the first borne of every tribe having upon them the office of King Preist and Prophet in every family and inferiour to that dignity doth not this sicknesse call for any to come to visite it knowing all others to be Physitians of no value for this kinde of sicknesse summons none but the first borne of God into communion and fellowship with it that call which Cornelius gave to Peter that Elder of the Church was like unto this that when he spake of that unction of Christ the spirit of God descended upon those that heard it insomuch that Peter challengeth all men whether they can forbid water that those should not be baptized who had received the holy spirit as well as themselves as if he should say can any deny the signe of unity between Jew and Gentile which is communion and fellowship seeing they have the ground and substance thereof namely are partakers of the spirit of God that holy anoynting which is the truth and substance of all community whether we be present or absent in body we are one in that spirit of the Lord. The word of Prophesie therfore which is ever accompanied with prayer as in Cornelius or that word of true interpretation of the word of God knows how to give summons unto and call in the life and spirit of kingdome and Preisthood into fellowship with it selfe which is that healthfull spirit or unction that is by Jesus Christ Add further this sicknesse is the very foot of the throne upon which that great Elder even the ancient of dayes sits for when Daniel beholds through this spirit of interpretation he sees thrones set up or as the word will bear thrones cast down at you may see how the translators give it in both phrases signifying thereby that the power and glory of the world is cast down wheresoever this great Eldership is set up which is of no lesse antiquity then is the eternall that gives Judgement into the hands of the Saints of the most high and possesseth them with the kingdome for none but the eternall can give an eternall inheritance and he gives it not but as he sits on this throne namely the glory of man cast down and the gravity of this ancient of days set up whose garments are white as snow and the haire of his head like pure wooll and such is the royalty and authority of the Eldership here intended who are not brought in by any other call but by the Prophesie or interpretation of the minde of God therefore it is that the vision speaks so punctually and particularly where and with whom Peter is to be found Note here that even as the life of the flesh through the crucification of the spirit admits none into unity nor invests any into its proper condition but onely such as are of its own kinde so the life of the spirit which is in Christ Jesus through the crucification of the flesh admits none into fellowship nor invests any into its proper state and condition but its owne kinde For what is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit and therefore none but the first-born of God are of this Eldership or callers of them into the exercise of their proper virtue and authority even as it was with the Apostles when they pronounce peace if the son of peace be not there their peace returns upon themselves and their abode is not in that house of family 3. By these Elders then in the third place we see what we are to understand by the Church they are of that is that unity and fellowship which the selected and chosen people of God are of and have in that fellowship and faith of Jesus Christ as they are considered not in one age much lesse in one Parish or company of people gathered together but as they are universally considered in all ages and times of the world For such as is the extent of the spirit by which every Saint lives and of those offices of Christ by vertue whereof the exercise of such extent is the true Church ever to be held and taken otherwise the Church is carnallized and cast into the mould of the letter that kills and not into the mould of the spirit that gives life So that to thrust up Christ as into a corner as in one age of the world or to monopolize him amongst a handfull of people is all one as to put him in the grave though with Nicodemus a Ruler among the Jews and that rich man Joseph of Arimethea both night Disciples for fear of the Jews they may seem to differ from Herod in that they perfume the dead body and wrap it in clean linnen being affected therewith but it is but according to the custome of the Jewish Sinagogue for they put it in the grave and roll a great stone thereupon as men without hope or desire of the resurrection having that common spirit that now lives in the world to beg leave of the Pilates and great men thereof before they dare adventure to trim up the dead body of Jesus and fit it for the Sepulchre But this universall Church of which these Elders are is called by the Apostle mount Zion the City of the living God the new Jerusalem the generall assembly and Church of the first-born which are enrolled in heaven And such as constitute and set up a Church not of this nature and comprehension they build it up upon mount Sinai under the terrors of the law and sprinckle the instruments and officers there of as with the blood of Abel speaking from the ground or earthly heart of Cain and not on mount Zion in that blood of sprinkling which speaks better things in that peaceable agreement and reconcilement of God and man in Jesus Christ Note here that where two or three are gathered together in any part of the world or at any time we deny it not to be the true Church of Christ but what is it which gives it its capacity to be that Church of Christ is it not he who is in the midst or in the heart of them as the word is who is no lesse then that everlasting father or that ancient of dayes what bounds then can be set unto it lesse then that which gives it its capacity to be such a thing who extends himselfe to the whole family of heaven for unto him all faces looke and every knee bowes and if once it be so in our selves we see it in the whole family and flock of God in all the elect So that the true sum volume of all their doctrine and prayers is of no lesse extent then the
but is unmeasurable in all its operations whether in prayer or in prophesie for they are so neare in allyance that that which is the spirit of Prophesie in Eliah in the history in his shutting up of the heavens and restraining them from raine and also in the opening of them to give rayn in abundance is sayd here by our Apostle in this Chapter to be prayer Prayer therefore and Prophesie are of like nature and of like fame in the the house of God so that to prefer one before the other or to contayne the one harder to be attayned then the other or that one is of more use in the Church then the other is not according to the judgment of God but only in humane wisdome and the Serpents subtilty and policy that things are so carryed in the world to lead men along in blindnesse by speaking of the word of God in such unknown languages which are not to be heard in the house of God for there is no office of Christ whatsoever or exercise of his spirit that one ought to be preferred before another only the call of God makes every one chief and principall in its time and season If men would well consider this they might as well lay out money upon their children in the Schools to learn them to pray as to teach them to preach in case the Spirit of God might be bought for money But the poynt is that true Prayer and Prophesie do give and proclaym a like honour vertue and power to Christ in whomsoever he appears and they are so near a kin that the Apostle appoynts one and the same law in the exercise of them both that is in prayer and prophesie the man is to be uncovered and in prayer and prophesie the woman is to be covered And it is â—suall in Scripture to use one phrase that signifies both as in the Psalms Let God arise prayer-wise or as the word may be as truly read God will arise or God shall arise and his enemies shall be scattered prophetically The reason is because none but a Seer can be a supplicant if he behold not the thing by the spirit of interpretation or prophesie to give a true form unto it he can never sue for it because he knows not what it is To conclude this point this act of the Elders may either be taken to pray with him or prophesie with him for we see the spirit of God useth them indifferently the one for the other as in that instance of Eliah which he brings in in teaching this doctrine for the one is as healthfull and necessary for the recovery and well-being of the soule as the other and of as wonderfull and miraculous effect for remission and confirmation and cannot be in exercise by any either the one or the other but as it is accompanyed with the holy oyle even that annoynting which teacheth all things and hath no need to be taught of man that is it hath no need of humane skill which fals infinitely short of that which it brings the soule unto and instructs and teacheth it in and that leads us to the second poynt in the exercise of the Elders They annoynt him with oyle 3. This sick party therefore or all such as are dead to the law of the letter or carnall command that is to the word of God as it is formed and fashioned through the wisdome art and skill of humane principles which the Schools of Learning among the sons of men in the world are only exercised in and conversant about or else they should undermine their owne foundations and so let fall their building for Gods wisdome once layd in the descention of the Son of God overthrows it all as it comes of the Serpent and so is Satanicall folly But we must know that the Eldership of Israel consists of the first-born of God and no other unto whom the Scriptures look in the first-born of every Tribe or family of Israel to instruct us in that family which the Apostle speaks of that the whole every part thereof is named or hath its renown and authority only of and from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as Paul affirms to the Ephesians as being of no other but of his true and proper off-spring so as to make a difference of the sons of God none excepted as one being of greater eminency birth breeding or excellency then another is to cast reproach upon that one only father of whom every one is named that appertayns to that family as though he were not of like power and glory with respect unto them all or as though he changed his act in producing of his only son which tends to nothing else but to make the seed of the bond-wman heire with the seed of the promise and guil efully to give the wicked interest in the promise whereas the word of the curse is only their inheritance But the children of this off-spring having the name of this one Father called upon them or they called by his name holy and blessed for ever every one as a first-born of God bearing his name and authority is King Priest and Prophet by vertue thereof in the family and there cannot be any inferiour among such as to whom God communicates himselfe in the whole off-spring nor can one be in account and reckoning before another For of his owne will begate he us by the word of truth that we should be the first fruits of him who is no lesse then the eternall father So that it is impossible that this Eldership should appear and not be annoynted with the holy oyle for it is their proper patrimony and birth-right and therefore they ever appeare invested therewith which ever carries in it the same vertue of healing this sick party in all ages and times of the world and a like miraculous recovery and restauration where-ever they are called for by the spirit of true interpretation or prophesie for they cannot with-hold but must impart to every one in the family that which themselves are blessed withall For none can know what is the right of the first-born of God and be possessed therewith but he must freely impart it to every one in the family For the Spirit of Christ is ever like it selfe in all ages only men deceive themselves by mistake of the variety of figures wherein God in one Christ or holy annoynting commends himselfe unto us doting upon the shadow wherein the substance is wrapped up as under Moses vale and they see it not nor can endure the glory and shine thereof But to whomsoever Christ unveyles himselfe hee imparts whole and compleat salvation to every one else it cannot be the salvation of God for he or it cannot be divided and therefore the holy unction is alike shed forth to every one in this Kingdome and they that have it must of necessity annoynt every one into whose fellowship they are called according to the nature of the call of
unto thee arise take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house So that to preach the Gospel to the restauration of the soule from the policy that is from the fear terrors and tremblings of the law as at Mount Sinai to bring it unto Zion giving strength to take up that and carry it unto its proper place as that man carried his bed into the proper place which is his house which before had carried him extravagantly and diseasedly abroad wheresoever the Gospel exerciseth its power to raise up any to walk in the way of God before others in prayer or prophesie or any appointment of God according to the nature and season of it as that man is said to walk before them all to their admiration wheresoever the Gosplel is ministred to that effect there is also in that ministration power to forgive sin for the one is of like case and of like difficulty as the other is yea they are both in one act for he that can preach the Gospel to carry sin into its proper place which must be done or else the Gospel is not truly preached he must of necessity remove it from the chosen of God which is the true remitting and passing of it over unto another He that hath power therefore to preach the Gospel to the healing of the Conscience of the palsie sicknesse or tremblings of the law in the dead works thereof or works of death that man hath power to forgive sins on earth for they are inseperable and Christ in that place alluded unto makes them one for first he saith son thy sins be forgiven thee and in the rehearsall of it he saith his speech was arise take up thy bed and walk go thy way into thy house And we know that Christ saith to his Disciples whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retaine they are retained And again what ye binde on earth is bound in heaven and what ye loose on earth is loosed in heaven to walk and work therefore in the things of God according to the power intended by the word of God are of greater concernment then they would think for to preach the Gospel in the revelation of the minde and will of God as to an onely Son or to present our supplications to God as a father from the minde and disposition of an onely son are of no lesse authority and power then to to give sins for to pray with the spirit and to pray with the understanding also that is to pray according to the mystery of Christs meditation and yet with that wisdome and skill of expression as to unfold and explaine it in the minds of others that they may ascend up unto God together therewith as Manoa's Angel in the flame of the sacrifices this and to pardon sin are of like power skill and authority and a like weight lies upon both to whomsoever communicates in them For to pardon sin is not to change or alter the minde of God toward that party but to explaine and interpret the minde of God concerning that party which minde and will of God is the same in that one faith of the Son of God to all the chosen of God and wheresoever it is rightly unfolded and made manifest in the proclamation of peace and reconciliation of God and man in one if the Son of peace be there he accepteth and receivet the same as the right of his inheritance If the Elders pray or prophecy unto health therefore they pray or prophesie to the remission of sins in whomsoeve commucates in the same his sins are forgiven him To conclude this point it concerns us then to know what sin is that we may rightly conceive of it as it is pardonable and also as it not pardonable for there is a sin saith the Apostle John which is not unto death or which is not in death that is it is not in that way of death and there is a sin that is in death I do not say that you shall pray for it that is you shall not pray for the pardon of it because it is not to be pardoned for where Christ is once crucified in the spirit he never is to live in that heart according to the spirit no more then where he is once crucified in the flesh he never lives in that heart according to the flesh Therefore in the next place he exhorts us unto the confession of our faults in the true acknowledgement of them one to another Vers 16. Confesse your faults one unto another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much In these observe 1. An exhortation consisting of two parts 1. To confesse faults one to another 2. To pray one for another 2. The end wherefore That ye may be healed 3. A reason ground or cause drawn from the nature of prayer which is two-fold 1. It is effectuall 2. It is fervent 4. The qualitie of the person praying that is A righteous man 5. The issue or event of such prayer It avayleth much 1. ANd first for confession of faults sins or oberations from a law For where no law is there is no transgression for sinne is the transgression of a law or as the word is the withoutnesse of a rule Now there is the law of the flesh or carnall commandement which is the law of sinne and death and there is the law of the spirit or power of faith which is the perfect rule of righteousnesse or law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Now the carnall commandement or perfunctory and fading ordinances may be broken yea abrogated and nayled to the crosse as that which is against us and yet forgiven for every breach or piercing through of the sonne of man that is mans institutions and appoyntments composed by that carnall law shall be forgiven or are forgiven for the disannulling of mans wisdome and in that respect to become a foole is the establishment of Gods wisdome in the removall of all guilt and condemnation from the soule And there is the law of the spirit or of that holy Ghost which if a man speake a word against intentionally or blaspheme and pierce through that is abrogate or make a nullity of it It shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come that is neither in the present mind and conscience of him that so doth nor in that holy mind and judgment of Christ from passing sentence against it being so remote and at such a distance from it and contrary unto it for the abrogation of the law of the spirit is no lesse then to disannull that wisdome of God in Christ by which device only the sin and guilt of the sons of men is taken away and no other way for else-where the redemption of the soule ceaseth for ever Confession of sins then one to another This phrase one to another is of like nature as
is betrayed it were good for that man if he had never been born also if an enemy had done it I could have born it but it was thou Oh man my familiar I speaking of the trechary of Achitophel and Prophecying of Judas into whom Satan entred which is that man of sin that Antichrist and deceiver of which spirit and power there were many in the Apostles time but the Preisthood of our times have collected them into one man only and crowded him up only in that corner of the world called Rome that so notice may not be taken of their opposing and rejecting of Christ to the deceiving of the people as that spirit ever doth into him or into them Satan enters or takes his beginning in them for as the Son of God hath no beginning but in man so Satan or the Devil hath no beginning but in man even in that man of sin and son of perdition for as the Scriptures give the word of truth a being from the beginning for in the beginning was the word even so it gives Satan to be a lyer from the beginning and one that abides not in the truth and this two-fold estaâ—e man to be taken in else know we not how to acknowledge sin nor how to praise God for our deliverance into those fruits and happy estate of righteousnesse by Christ We answer then that when a Christian confesseth acknowledgeth or praiseth the excellencies of God in Christ giving them their proper and full vertue and extent as love joy mercy gentlenesse kindenesse bounty power and eternall goodnesse man participates thereof the creature really and sensibly possesseth and enjoys them in the unfeigned and just confession of them that is the man of God the new creature which is that work-manship of God in Christ Jesus and man-like Son of God standing in that one alone sonship of God not found extant but in Christ that annointed one But man or the creature that is that man of sin made to be taken and destroyed ungodlike men that man of Beliall that vaine and empty man of faith without works of which beleife the Devill is yea that Antichristian spirit wherever it is that molds the worship of God into a form tying him to appear in the same figure and posture Againe we say that man or that creature hath no fellowship with the things proper to the Son of God as peace joy love nor any of the fruits of the spirit which are by Christ he is a stranger unto them all and therfore intermeddles not with the joy of the saints though they be reall forceable and effectuall in the man of God or saint by calling when ever they are uttred or expressed Even so there are the terrors of death vexations of spirit guilt of sin condemnatory sentence of conscience that ever accompanies the sins confessed by a Saint really beyond any shadow or semblance and that not bounded by time but are eternall and yet the man or the creature that is the man of God or the new creature participates not in the least in any of their distresse guilt or fear no more then the wicked partake in the joys of salvation in Christ he hath no taint or tincture of the enmity of the Serpent nor sence unto pangs and vexation of the guilt of corrupt and defiled conscience and yet saith truly and unfeignedly this is my sin this is my death and this abomination is in me that is in my flesh or in that carnall estate out of which I am taken where dwels no good thing but is a cage of all unclean and abominable filthinesse and wickednesse So that in a true confession of sin according to faith not onely it but all its appurtenances are carried forth and set upon their proper base that is in that land of Shiner which is Babylon that confusion gone over all the earth which is that strict composure of things by mans wisdome according to times places persons and temporary respects whatsoever which makes a nullity of Gods order who is a God composed thereof and all things therein are illimitted not any thing tyed to time place person or any temporary or fading bond whatsoever otherwise it is not the order of the Son of God but a device and inventions of man unto confusion whether the Epha of wickednesse is carried and is the house built for it where for ever it shall remaine and abide Thither all sin and sorrow in true confession is carried as fully as all righteousnesse and peace is carried onely into that happy estate and incomprehensible order that is of God by Jesus Christ the carnall minde or man therefore is onely sensible of sin in the way os Gods displeasure but not of that vertue of reconciliation and the spirituall minde or man is onely senfible of all righteousnesse in way of the peace of God but not of that horror which comes through that breach of the everlasting Covenant And yet is neither the one nor the other voyd of sence with respect unto the others condition For the wicked from the sight of the Saints being lifted up in that holy unction and taken into an everlasting reigne and authority by unity with an omnipotent and all-sufficient power are filled with fear and terror at the fight and apprehension thereof as having the glory of a righteous Judge also the Saints of God beholding themselves lifted up and taken out of that fearful and abominable state and condition of the wicked rejoice thereat with joy unspeakable and full of glory even as Noah when he saw the waters over-whelm and destroy the world was by the same waters lifted up to heaven as sase from all rocks mountaines or hills that might annoy him so the Saints seeing how the Son of God hath given himselfe unto death in the world never to live the life of the Son of God in them as a ransome whereby he is lifted up unto the throne of Gods glory in the Saints everlastingly which carries with it a holy shout harmonious and melodious singing and rejoycing for ever to see the terrors of death captivated under eternall darknesse which can never seize nor intrench upon that Sun of righteousnesse which shineth in the saved of the Lord. The second part of the exhortation is to pray one for another or appeal one to another the word for and to are indifferently taken as you may see by the difference of translations One saith a Psalm for the sons of Corah and another saith a Psalme to the sons of Corah so that here it is taken for one to another that is in your confessions of the nullity and breach of the law of the spirit by that wicked one do you appeal to the law of the carnall command which is of sin and death which is thereby established and confirmed in the world whereby the men thereof are effectually bound over under that spirit of bondage to walk and work according to the letter that kills and
much Now for prayer to avail much is as much as if he said in more words it effecteth accomplisheth and brings to passe all things even as not to avayl is of none effect worth nor excellency So it is sayd Circumcision or uncircumcision avayls nothing but a new creature that is all in all for it hath the whole workman-ship of the Son of God in it Observe the speech of Haman when he is nvited to the feast the Queen makes for the King who calling his wife and his friends tells them of the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children and all the things wherein the King had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the Princes and servants of the King Haman said moreover yea Hester the Queen did let no man come in with the King unto the banquet shee had prepared but my selfe and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the King yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Iew sitting at the Kings gate A wicked States-man cannot endure Mordecai which according to the etymology of the word is pure myrrhe or myrrhe of freedome signifying the sweet liberty of the Gospel for it is the first of the chiefe spices in the annoynting oyle to shew the Princely dignity that is in the grace of the Gospel that bowes nor is subject to any carnall thing whatsoever for there is but one primatus or summus which moves Haman try Mastery with Mordecai which shall be lifted up the highest There is not the most civilized man in the world destitute of the spirit of God put in place of dignity that can admit of the Crosse of Christ to have supremacy for it is as a moth to carnall pomp declaring it to be enmity therefore carnall Kingdome must ever have carnall Priest-hood to uphold it by deifying of it and it rewards them with tythes and protection But Mordecai the Jew inward in heart will not be endured by Haman for the King represents a stranger wonne to the faith as that Aegyptian King which acknowledged Joseph So that nothing avayls if Mordecai live who is a worme unto all Hamans honour that nothing is had nor done unto him till Mordecai be taken out of the way but to avail much is to bring all things to passe to be and to have the fulnesse of the soules desired and impower'd with vertue and strength to perform and effect what heaven and earth can yeeld or deny to any and therefore an instance is brought of Eliah for the proof hereof Vers 17. Elias was a man subject to like passions as wee are c. In which instance or continued and persevering exemplary vertue observe for order these things 1. The party instanced in that is Eliah 2. His condition A man subject to passion together with the consimilitude that is as we are 3. His act that is He prayed 4. The issue or effect of his prayer It rained not 5. The time how long that is for the space of three yeares and sixe moneths 6. The renewing of his prayer and the effect thereof And hee prayed againe and the heavens gave raine and the earth brought forth her fruit 1. FRom the first the party instanced in is Eliah observe thus much That it pleaseth God to memorize the names of his Saints by acts of honour which he leads them through in the world This is evident throughout the holy letters written from heaven unto us see an epitomy hereof in that 11. Chap. to the Hebrews The ground of it is because the acts of the Saints are the operations of Christ Now I live yet not I but Christ lives in me which life is the root of all their motion and the memorizing of him is Gods ayme and end in all his wayes and operations hee it is whom he will make higher then Agag greater in power and authority then all the Kings of the earth His acts therefore must be as monuments in the world who ever is made marvellous in mercy only in them that believe Therefore God makes them as monuments thereof setting them as Cities upon a hill to whom all shall repayr for the richest merchandize and as beakens upon a high mountayn who only can give warning of the approach of the adversary And as the lights of the world without which no man can worke however the Prophets and Apostles were under persecution ignominy and disgrace in the time of their sojourning here yet now where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world but seeks to uphold and honour himselfe by them Yea that very spirit that slew them now builds their Sepulchres and saith If they had lived in their fathers dayes they would not have done as they did Nay God will register the names of his Saints in that book of life in whomsoever the life of Christ is there they shall be memorized and set up by God as Standard-bearers in their generations before whom if the enemy come in as a flood the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him and chase him away Wonderfull is it to consider of this point when we see so many have gone down to the dust by plague famine sword and not a name of them left upon record in the world but hee that once comes within the volume of that spirit of intercession shall remayn engraven as in a precious stone upon the breast-plate or heart-ornament of Christ Jesus as a record or inscription of blessed memory for ever Therefore the next words are brought in viz. Is a man or as the word will beare Is a thing as the Apostle affirms Henceforth we know no man after the flesh or as the word is nothing So here Eliah is a man or thing a matter cause condition or deed such as his name imports Elijah that is my God Jah or my strong being or the strength of my existance Now if it be such a one or such a matter or cause such a condition or deed brought in as congruous to us implying all the faithfull how can it be but that name or that authority shall be memorized for ever If a word of Samuel shall not fall to the ground a deed of our Eliah shall never be forgotten when or in whomsoever it appears The second point is the state and condition of the party instanced in together with the consimilitude that is subject to passions as we are By passions here is meant sufferings for so much the word imports and to be subject is to be under that is under like sufferings that we are that is the faithfull in all ages Whence observe That the Saints of God are subject to like sufferings they all alike endure affliction they all alike inherit the Crosse it is not sayd of any particular man or particular Church limmed out by the spirit of man from some few particular expressions or practices manifected in the Scriptures but of
dust that it cannot yeeld fruit his ascending up into heaven in a fiery Chariot The spirit of God is pleased to commend all his honourable deeds unto the world in this one act of prayer to stand and to be as his memoriall for ever Prayer therefore is garnished with all the ornaments of a Prophet oâ— God and cannot be lesse then a most honcurable monument and memorizing of the Saints where-ever it is found extant 2. Prayer hath all the vertues and ornaments of Priest-hood in it Never was Aaron fitted and adorned with greater variety of vestments and vertues to minister before God in the holy place and according to the variety and change of the multitude of sacrifices and offerings then the spirit of prayer contayns in it and according to occasion puts on and brings forth when the vertue power of our great high Priest after the order of Melchisedech is brought in it is all summed up in the spirit of prayer as he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech who in the dayes of his flesh when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares unto him or in him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that which be feared That is he was heard in all things or for the accomplishment and bringing to passe all things that concern life and salvation Now that all things that concern the Kingdome of God is involved in this prayer is thus proved The word translated feared is in the Greek dispaired about which men have much contended how it may be said of Christ But the thing is really and substantially to be considered though men do wrest and bend mince and strayn the word to suit it to humane reason For it is as true that the Son of God in and by the spirit of the world and principles proper to humane wisdome doth dispair and relir quish all hope and expectation of being delivered or set at liberty from that infinite wrath and displeasure of Almighty God as it is true that the son of sorry man is in and by the spirit of God and principles proper to the wisdome of God established and confirmed in the love power truth righteousnesse and glory of God and of his Kingdome everlastingly If men be ignorant hereof how Christ is said to feare or dispayr in all things they may talk of eternall life but they know not how a creature can live eternally and be possessor of all things Want of this knowledg breeds your Mortallists that know not by vertue of what the soule becomes eternall either in life or death as also your Generallists that say God will save all whereas there may be as reall and undenyable arguments used upon like ground that God will destroy all and so they must be left to the height of their doctrine which will amount to no more then the condition of a beast yet doth it make them such men as it had been good for them they had never been born For the rest that have gotten a tract of salvation and damnation by tradition from schools books naturall phylosophy and observation not having the knowledg of the nature of this Priest-hood comprized in the spirit of intercession They believe such things but they must not be curiously searcht into that is we cannot know them of these we say as the mind without knowis not good so these mens faith is dead For wilt thou know oh empty man that faith without works is dead For the spirit of God never works in way of life but in its own light therefore ignorance in any point must be voyd of the work of faith and so of the saving vertue that is in the life of Christ But prayer comprehending the whole Priest-hood of Christ is a work of that honour and power as to memorize the name of a Saint for ever and to set him up as a monument of the wisdome and mercy of God 3. Prayer is a work that comprehends the Kingly authority of Christ for when the Apostle Paul had shaken off the traditions and rudiments of the carnall Jew the power of the high Priest in that prosecuting spirit of binding and imprisoning all that were of the way of Jesus calling on the name of the Lord and when the Lord would proclaim him and make it manifest that he was a chosen vessell fitted to beare his name or carry his authority before the Gentiles Kings and the children of Israel Yea when he would put all that honour upon him which the Psalmist foretells saying There is little Benjamine their ruler the head of the Tribe a Prince of God he comprehends and concludes all in this act of prayer to give satisfaction to Annanias behold he prayeth As if he should say it is enough to know that miraculous change from Saul unto Paul from the service of the Synagogue of the Jewes to be a ruler over Kings the Gentiles and children of Israel for the name of God is by his word advanced over all which he was to beare this is sufficient to give satisfation to all Behold he prayeth So that none can deny a Princely spirit of power and authority where the spirit of prayer bears sway and a princely excellency is of honour sufficient to eternize the record of a Christians name 4. There is in prayer the power of victor or a victorious renown consisting of the noblest conquest that ever was Jacob by prayer overcame the man that wrestled or combated with him which man is said to be an Angell but it is the Angell that blest him in the way and therefore is declared to be God for Jacob said I have seen God face to face in which act of prayer his name is changed from Jacob to Israel to declare a prince-like promise in prevailing with God as the Prophet explayns his name and act saying And by his strength he had power with God yea he had power over the Angell and prevailed he wept and made supplication hee found him in Bethel and there spake with us or in us for if the spirit of God had not spoke in our father Jacob and so in all of his race he had never prevailed Was ever the like Conquest made as to overcome omnipotency which could never be but through the requests of his owne spirit which he cannot deny but must yeeld himself over thereunto Prayer therefore consists of a combate which ever hath conquest therefore of sufficient honour and renown to memorize a Saint who-ever he be that exerciseth the design and skill thereof 5. Prayer hath salvation contained in it nay it is salvation For whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved or in the present tense as the word will admit is saved for he that thinks he knows Christ any otherwise then in the vertue of an office exercised in such a subsistance or by such a manner or subsisistance exercised in
as things of old from eternity and new as in present use fitting and beseeming the present oration and opportunity This phrase therefore is like that where the Apostle saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe till Christ be formed in you not as though they had now defaced Christ who before was formed in them but he declares hereby the effect of his doctrine from which some were turned aside unto the rudiments of the Law as unto another Gospel which he saith is not another but the same Gospel perverted by false Teachers telling them that some are entangled with the yoke of bondage thereby for he that is bound to any particular of the carnall commandement as to be circumcised or any outward form of bodily action He is bound to keepe the whole law and shews that such have abolished Christ and are faln from grace such effect he shews his Doctrine had of some as a savour of death unto death but there were others unto whom hee there speaks on whom his doctrine had a more noble effect as being a savour of life Therefore he saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe or I have brought you forth not in a second act but in another manner and way namely to the forming of Christ in you or framing you into the similitude of the Son of God once and for ever Even so it is here He prayed againe that is the spirit of intercession hath a secondary or other manner of effect then that which is before specified not another prayer but another manner of wonder accomplished by the same prayer for now the heavens gave raine and the earth brings forth her fruit We are to know then that as the Gospel opens the treasuries of the Kingdome of God unto an abundant freedome liberty and plenty of the going forth and exercise of the spirit of grace in the Saints even as water poured upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground through that office of intercession peculiar unto our Eliah without any hinderance or engagement of any bond of the flesh when through the spirit of prayer that cloud of witnesse or rayn of liberality ariseth as a hand or administration thereof even as the word of the Lord is sayd to come by the hand of Haggie and by the hand of Malachie and by the hand of all the Prophets which so covereth the heavens as no parching sun of the beams of mans wisdome and device taketh place no more then they doe in those over-shadowings of the Virgin by that holy spirit of God in the production of Christ Even so doth Prayer set at liberty the works of the flesh in the men of the world by opening the sluces and flood-gates thereof unto condemnation and destruction for the waters of the great deep mystery or bottomlesse pit are opened for the destruction of the world as well as the flood-gates of heaven for the safety of Noah and his houshold in bearing up the Ark fifteen cubits above the great mountayns of the States of this earth or of the world And this prayer doth not simply accidentally but ministerially and effectually in the same sence That the Gospell is a savour of death unto death Not only by gleaning of all the fruits of righteousnesse out of the wisdome of the Serpent or men of the world which centred in the Saints are the proper cause of the transcendencies of their estate above all humane excellencies so doth it also gleane all the vicious desires of the flesh out of that state and condition of Christ centring them in that state of unbeliefe whereby man descends infinitely beneath a state of simple humane or properties of a meer creature and by fashioning and corrupting the holy things of God becomes satanicall and diabolicall and such as seek to finde an excellent or commendable betwixt these twayn it cannot be better described or diciphered for the solidity of it then by that partition that divides Purgatory and Hell in those of that mercinary conceipt The abundance of spirit therefore in the Saints and that plenty of the spirit of the Prince of the power of the ayre which now works in the children of disobedience hold proportion in way of Antithesis otherwise an infinite and an eternall wrath could not take place in the wicked as an infinite and eternall glory doth in the Saints For he made but one speaking of that state of Christ with an elegant allusion unto the high Priest and wherefore but one seeing he had abundance of spirit namely that there might be a holy seed that whatsoever the fruits are that are by one Lord Jesus Christ of the same nature and dignity are all the fruits of happinesse produced and brought forth by that one mystical and spirituall body and so in a diameter respect are all the fruits of sin in the wicked This plenty in this two-fold respect is signified by warning given to Ahab to betake himselfe to his Chariot for I heare a noyse of much raine which Ahab flyes from as a terrible thing as it contayns the spirit of Eliah betaking himselfe to Chariot and horse in the furnitures of this world and Eliah flyes from it as it hath the spirit of Ahab and Jezebel as that which brings destruction upon them only hee betakes himselfe to the strength of Gods spirit to take the gates of Iesreel The plenty of Eliah's spirit is seen and taught in that duration and plenty in the cruse of oyle and barrell of meale raising up the womans sonne from death to life and annoynting Hazael and Jehu for the ruine of Ahabs house Elisha to be a Prophet in his stead and in the destruction of all those false Prophets of Baal And the plenty of the rayn of that spirit of wickednesse appears in Ahab and Jezebel their cruelty towards the Prophet of God their miserable and horrible overthrow and in their desire and endeavour to nourish and maintayn such plenty of a false spirit of prophesie upon the face of the earth and in this plenty of rain seed-time and harvest are continued for the world sow unto the flesh and the flesh they reap and inherit corruption and the Saints sow unto the spirit and inherit everlasting life And from this power of prayer he assumes the power and vertue of doctrine in which he concludes the Epistle to shew that where the power and vertue of the one resides there is the power and vertue of the other The prayer of Faith is never without the spirit of Prophesie and prophesie according to the spirit is never without the life and power of prayer and where one of these is wanting they are both absent from that party in the true exercise of them for a formall prayer is never accompanyed with the life and power of sound doctrine but as they have composed a prayer by mans invention gathering up expressions sutable in the understanding of a man so do they compose a
doctrine from Libraries School-distinctions and from a serious observation of the carriage and demeanour of one creature towards another only bringing God into the account by turning the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man and of birds four-footed beasts and of creeping things It is not Universities books and Libraries that can transfer the spirit of the Scriptures no nor the skill in those Languages wherein they were originally written without the same spirit comment upon them in our hearts by which they were first indited It is the spirit that indited them that gives the meaning of them and not the hand that writes or translates no more then paper and inke can doe it Without which spirit let us use all meanes and industry that possible we can it is but to pick at the bark and rinde of truths and cracking of a shell voyd and destitute of any kernell better then a gale of bitterness to be found in it and such as compose their Sermons of such stuffe their prayers are no better however they may shew the zeale of Baals Priests in the uttering of them But true prayer carries the force of the Doctrine of the Gospel in it by judging of the want and supply according unto God and true doctrine hath the power of prayer going forth in it for the effectuall performance of the things that are taught and neither the one nor the other consist of any form or statue that any book or Library can possibly bring and represent unto us for the visions and operations of God are never found in the same form and time as at another all circumstances duely weighed and considered Yet may we not deny but the same words may be used often and again in prayer or doctrine but with a various respect as this wonder of Eliah is brought in with respect to years months dayes and poynts of time so Christ prayed in the same words thrice but with variety and eternity of respect for the cup for ever passeth by him and toucheth him not as man is eternally saved in that blessed condition of the Son of God and it takes effect at the Sonne of God is transformed by the world into the cursed state and condition For if we make the death of Christ according to the true mystery of it wherein salvation doth consist to be of lesse continuance then eternity wee shall annihilate Christ and make salvation it selfe of no longer continuance for if Christ once dye unto the flesh in the godly he never lives unto it any more And if he once be dead in the wicked in respect of his proper spirit and life it is never repaired in them agayn for then there were not eteranll perdition which the word of God hath commended unto us upon like grounds of certainty that it hath done everlasting life That word translated was dead and is alive is read is dead and is alive as the same word I am an Apostle is used in the present tence Doctrine and prayer are inseparable companions even as Kingdome and Priest hood are as here in the way of Christ even so in the world in the way of Antichrist and thus the connexion of the next point is brought in Vers 19 20. Brethren if any of you have erred from the truth and one hath converted him c. In which words observe 1. A proposition consisting of two points As 1. Errour from the truth 2. A restauration 2. Observe an injunction and that hath two parts also 1. To acknowledge or make a confession of an estate or act 2. The party that is so to do and that is He that hath turned from errour 3. The state and condition or act done and that consists of two things 1. Death 2. The hiding of a multitude of sins BUt first observe the terme or appellation he gives as before he hath done Brethren By brethren here is meant a like brother-hood as in Esau and Jacob which are often so called Was not or is not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I have loved Jacob and hated Esau and layd his mountaine wast for ever So the Apostle hath respect to the wicked as brethren in a true sence to the godly because they consist of the same matter and substance that is God and man made one in the wisdome of the flesh as the Saints consist of God and man made one but according to the wisdome of the spirit If one of you or if any of you If one of you that is as a Nation considered collectively in Esau as the Oracle said to Rebecka Two nations are in thy womb or any of you that is distributively or distinctly and so it comprehends all the Apostates and Revolters from God or all vertues or excellencies in the Saints from which they are fallen and have erred and gone astray If any that is man and man one or other or thing and thing one and other whatsoever is in the Son of God Erred from the trueth that is gone astray and wandred from that which is the reality and substance of all things which is Christ the Son of God And to erre in this place is not simply for a meer creature to declyne and go away from his Creator but to pervert mis-apply and wrongfully to interpret the very things of God themselves turning his glory into shame his truth into a lye therefore they erre from truth as having been in it for that which was is and ever shall be righteousnesse and holinesse of truth they have perverted unto prophanesse and wickednesse by interpreting the things of God to be such as the proper spirit of a creature naturally brings forth so that it is a diabolicall spirit which this errour is formed into The particle if is not here to be taken as making questions or doubt whether there be such a swerving from truth but as a certaine affirmation that such there are as the Apostle explayns the Prophets meaning where it is sayd Vnto whom I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest which the Apostle expounds They shall not enter into his rest as an absolute certainty And so there is of one converting or turning from errour into truth in that wonderfull change that the Sonne of God makes in our nature for it is impossile that he should be held of death but as certainly as he layes down his life in the wicked so must he take it agayn in the godly otherwise there were an annihilation of him who is the Author and strength of all things which is impossible And in this change or turning we are not to take it as the simple and single spirit of a creature turned but the compleat spirit of him who is the Son of God for as the Apostle speaks of prayer We know not how to pray as we ought but the spirit maketh intercession for us It is not the spirit of God without the spirit of the creature for
then there could be no want to be supplyed so that the whole spirit of Christianity prayeth viz. God and man in unity so it is here the spirit that turns is God and man in unity and is as true a change from that which is and ever shall be Satanicall as the wicked erre from that which is and ever shall be holy and righteous and they are both of one and the same time in the rise of them For in the beginning was the word and that word is with God and is God And Satan is a lyar from the beginning and abode not in truth no more then Christs soule was left in hell or that holy one suffered to see corruption but was ever taught in the way of life and in that reall presence at whose right hand there is fullnesse of joy for evermore Therefore the Prophet saith that Christ comes meek and lowly saving himselfe that is compleatly and not apart only and therein the worth and dignity of salvation stands that it hath that weight substance of account and reckoning in it and upon this ground the Disciples are comforted against all feare whatsoever where it is said Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and yet one of them falls not to the ground without the good will of your heavenly father of how much more worth are ye then many sparrows Can you set a price and rate of so mean a thing and doth God take care for the preservation of it Of what esteem price and respect then is the state of a Christian in which not a part but the compleat spirit of the Son of God is involved and by a ransome given and payd in the world proportionable thereunto purchased This point contains a mystery which the common Priest-hood of the world so far as I have heard or seen in books is altogether ignorant of though life and death yea the spring and originall fountaine of all things is involved in it So much for the proposition the injunction followes Le him know or acknowledge c. The word let is of like signification here that it is in the beginning Let there be light let us make man c. having the power of a command and vertue of propagation to bring forth being of the nature of the word Amen so be it or so it shall be without all gainsaying or contradiction having in it a creating power and vertue to give being to the thing uttered That is that the party thus turning or turned for both are true and the word implies both one that turns and one turned for both are in that state of Christ and he that preacheth any thing but Christ and him crucified he goes beyond our Apostle as far as the common apostacy The word Let then establisheth in the heart of him and no other that turneth a sinner from the errour of his way a certaine power of acknowledgment of such a condition or royall and noble acts which here follows but first see here the nature of the confession or acknowledgment of sin it is his way that turneth naturally but it is confessed to the change or converting it unto the state of the Sonne of God even as truth may be sayd to be their way naturally who are in errour but they have perverted the same into falshood turning the truth of God into a lye and his grace into wantonnesse so that their way with respect to that which they have perverted is holinesse and is and ever shall be so in Christ but there remayns nothing but sin and wickednesse in the perverters thereof So also a Christian may confesse that the evill of sin and errour is his way with respect to that which is converted and is and ever shall be so in the wicked but in that state of the turned and converted there is no sin nor errour to be found at all there is then a reality of the Saints confession of their sin but it is to the removing of it to another where it abides for ever as there is a reall confession of a holy one in the wicked but it is ever in removing it unto another which they are not which is the proper spirit of Python that unperswaded or unfaithed one as the Apostle gives the wicked the title of Apeitheis unperswaded or disobedient so that their acknowledgment of holinesse in another subsistance is the unfaithing or unbetrothing of the soule from God it is its proper and perpetuall divorce So that he that knows not how to clear the state of Christianity from sin and fill the world with wickednesse he will come to make a bankrupt-like account when ever his estate comes to be discovered Therefore the wealthy estate noble acts and royall prerogatives following are only entailed and made over to him that turns the sinner from the errour of his way errour collectively as all considered in one otherwise Christ is not cleered and made the holy one of God and then not risen from the dead We are yet in our sins the substance of the common doctrine at this day in the world The first point or act of honour given to him that turns is that he saves a soule from death not as the world thinks by preaching the terrours of the Law and frighting men from some grosse and bruitish acts they have thereby converted and saved souls the most part of those that thus save did strive to pluck men out of the hands of the Bishops that the people might be instruments to lift them up into the like seat if not worse no such conversion coms in here it is abhominable but it is a true and faithfull distribution and opening of Gods righteous and holy manner of working in the absolution of his holy son made sin in being acquit from all sin and the just condemnation of that wicked one who in being made Lucifer the morning starre became the Prince and power of darknesse From such an originall we must fetch salvation and destruction or else all our doctrine of the decree of election and reprobation will prove no better then reprobate silver not passing for currant in the Kingdome of God 1. But the thing to be acknowledged by such a one as turns or is turned is he saves that is the power and spirit of the Saviour is there when once we know of what nature the spirit of the world is namely that wee are of God and the world is of that wicked one then wee shall learn to acknowledg that salvation never appears but there is the Saviour wee thinke to honour Christ by binding him up in one individuall man in point of the mystery of the Gospel it is a carnall and humane honour not beseeming the Son of God the common Priest-hood hath blinded and besotted the world in this point setting up an idoll in mens minds and not the mystery of life that is by Christ but it is taken for blasphemy in these dayes to talk of the Son of God
or a Saviour any where but as lockt up in a humane body in heaven that men may stand here in his room till he return from thence to suck up all the glory of the earth It was not so in ages past and men spirituall for Joshuah Moses Minister was called Jesus a Saviour as the Apostle interprets his name and the Lord acknowledgeth in raising up Judges in Israell that he raised up Saviours unto them And Paul was not affraid to tell Timmothie that in taking heed to himselfe that is how God hath composed salvation in his consisting in Christ and unto learning or doctrine that is how it ought to be layd out and distributed to others that in so doing he should be a Saviour of himselfe and them that heare him 2. A second point is what he saves that is a soule or a life this is not meant of the life of a meer creature but it is the life of the Son of God as our Apostle affirms Now I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live is by or in the faith of the sonne of God So that a Christians life is the life of Christ and there is no life of man-kind but either the life of the Saviour or else the life of Sathan that destroyer for heaven and earth conspire together in the making of man Let us speaking with respect to that plurality in our image that is in our image earthly as well as heavenly for there is a heavenly body and there is an earthly body and God is as just and righteous in the making of the one as of the other and every way as honourable the one in mercy and the other in severity And man cannot be known in a simple act of creation for that multiplies him not but propagation or generation must be brought in also else the son of God nor the seed of the Serpent can be known so both are brought forth in that first act of generation in Cain and Abel wherein the seed of the Serpent appears in the same act as in Jacob and Esau together with Christ in Abel dead by Caine in the spirit and in Seth that sett one in life for evermore who is set in the room of Abel crucified in the world So that the life of Christ and of Antichrist are both from one act even from as early dayes the one as the other and without the true knowledg of that we know neither of them and for other life in man-kind we know none worthy the name of life beyond other creatures but as it serves to the setting forth of the one or of the other of these and so they transcend the life of all other creatures as far as the image of God did the frame of any other creature or that earthly image descends below them all even to a bottomlesse pit which no other creature is subjected unto but only man 3. There is a third point what he saves from that is death namely a death that holds correspondency with that infinite and eternall life of the Son of God in way of Parathesis in all points for Christ is saved from whatsoever Sathan is hath or undergoes and Sathan is destroyed from whatsoever Christ is hath or is advanced unto therefore that conceit that Sathan was an Angell that is a meere creature at the first and in acceptation with God is a meer humane tradition and philosophicall fiction and is a point of greater concernment then men are aware of for it is as safe to say that the son of God was for a time out of the Fathers favour as to hold that the Devill at any time was in acceptation with God for whatsoever is out of Gods favour can never return into againe and what is accepted of him for a moment caâ— never be rejected 2. A second royalty or act of fame that is to be acknowledged by him who turns the sinner from the errour of his way changing him into truth it selfe that is the covering or hiding of a multitude of sins This is taken from the speech of Solomon Hatred stirreth up strife but love covereth all sins which our Apostle calls a multitude of sins the word signifies the deep of the troubled ocean intimating that huge multitude of torturing and troubling trespasses proper to that great gulfe of the bottomlesse pit Now to turn from the error of a mans way is to turn to truth and no man can turn to truth but by that unity that is in Christ none turns to truth but hee that becomes truth for there is no terme or title given in Scripture but being rightly interpretted and rightly applyed the truth substance and being of the thing is there for God useth no expression but he intends under that the truth and substance of the thing expressed To turn to truth is not only truth in word but truth in act also yea to be that very thing as Christ saith I am the way the truth and the life Now that unity that is in Christ is the fulfilment and compleating of the law of the Spirit for if the love of Christ be in us and constrayn us to all acknowledgments of him we know that love is the fulfilling of the Law and where the Law is fulfilled there sin utters not its voyce nor hath it a face to appear it is altogether hid and covered for ever Christ is the eâ—d and scope of the law for righteousnesse and more it aymes not at nor more it cannot require for it is the sonne of God that is justified who then shall condemn him The law is fully satisfied from what ground then shall any accuse yea our Apostle saith that the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us that walke not after the flesh but after the spirit No hiding of sin therefore but by fulfilling of the law but what law not the law of the carnall commandement generally taught in the world by which no flesh can be justified but it is the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus or which consists in that unction office or spirit of the Saviour Againe how do the wicked hide righteousnesse that none appears in them but only the spirit of the wicked one namely by walking according to the law of the flesh For he that walks after the law of the flesh he cannot please God so that all righteousnesse is hid and covered in them yea even by fulfilling the law of the flesh for the more they conform themselves thereunto the more their condemnation doth appear for it is not because men cannot perform all the works of the law in that respect that they cannot be justified thereby but because they do any of them for it is against the nature of that law of the carnall Commandement and every part thereof to justifie for it is its proper nature and office to condemn for we may as well say that the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus is a law of sin and death as to say the law of the carnall command can give life or peace no not in the compleat performance of it For every part thereof is a breach of the law of the spirit And whatsoever is a breach of the law of the spirit is a crucifying of the Son of God afresh and putting of him to open shame so that every performance of the law of the flesh according to the intent thereof is a breach of the same law of the spirit and he that breaks one breaks all therefore all righteousness is hid and covered in the wicked even so the true keeping of the law of the spirit of faith in any part of it is a nullifying of the whole law of the carnall Command therefore no law of sin and death is found in them all sins and sorrows are hid and covered therefore the man is blessed whose trespass is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man and he only unto whom the Lord imputeth accounteth or reckoneth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Amen By Sam Gorton Professor of Christ FINIS