Doctrine Gal. 5. 16 17. This I say then walke in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh He doth not say ye shall not be opposed or assaulted by the lusts of the flesh for as in the next words is included the flesh will still attempt the Execution or Exercise of its Motion For the Flesh saith the Apostle Lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other So that ye cannot do things that ye would That is The Flesh can neither do the things that it intendeth to do nor the Spirit produce those Effects which it wisheth and much desireth no more then Heat can produce its proper Effects when it is overmatched in the same Subject with Cold or then Cold is able to produce the proper effects thereof whilest it is attempered or Counterswayed by Heat Now the Spirit whereof our Apostle speakes in this place is the Spirit of man at least the Spirit which is in man though in part renewed by the Spirit of God For as the Apostle speakes the Flesh and the Spirit here meant are Contrarie And it is the nature of Contraries to be in one and the same Subject And it is the true propertie of Contrarie Inclinations to move and sway upon one and the same Centre or Point of Rest or Dependence Otherwise how strong soever the one Contrary be it could not Countersway nor Counterpoyse the other The Point or Centre whereupon the inclinations of the Flesh and Spirit doe move or sway is the Soule which sometimes inclines more unto the Spirit sometimes more unto the Flesh or Carnall Affections The whole worke of Mortification is but a Putting off the Old man and Putting on the New The more the inclinations of the Flesh are weakened the more apt is the Spirit of Man to be moved impelled or strengthened by the spirit of God And the more apt it is to be moved by the Spirit of God the more easily and Readily will the inclination of the Flesh or Old man be weakened by it So that there is a Continuall Reciprocation betwixt the weakening of the Flesh and the strengthening or renewing of the Spirit In every severall Act or motion of Gods Spirit by which the Spirit in man is renewed or quickened the Spirit of man thus assisted by the Spirit of God gets a Double Advantage of the flesh First it directly weakens the inclinations of the Flesh or old man and by weakening them gains further possession or interest in the Affections wherein the lusts or desires of the flesh were seated Secondly The Spirit of man being revived and quickned by the Spirit of God doth not only Countersway or curbe the Flesh but withall doth Purifie the Soul or the Fountain of the Affections in the next Conflicts useth the Service of the Soule and inferiour Affections to Conquer and expell the Remainder of Carnal desires or Concupiscence or at least doth keep them under that they cannot make head or open rebellion as it were to depose the Spirit of its Soveraigntie after once it hath gotten it Specially if men which have proceeded thus farre in this Conflict be warie and vigilant alwayes remembring that their Greatest strength consists in imploring the assistance of the Spirit of God in waiting His Approach and attending His Motions But let no man think he hath got the victorie over the Flesh or hath performed this Dutie of Mortification as he ought until the Desires or Inclinations of the Flesh be Mortified by the vivification or quickening of the Affections wherein they were seated or until the Spirit Soul of man renevved as hath been said by the Spirit of God have vvon the Soul and Affections unto their side or part CHAP. XXXV Wherein the Accomplishment of Mortification or of Conversion unto God doth properly Consist 1. AFter this Preparative to Mortification thus begun by the Spirit of God or by his Peculiar Providence the whole Cure consists in the Assimilation or Transformation of our Spirit into the similitude or Likenesse of the Spirit of God Some Reliques of the Image of God in man which are not in Divells and this is wrought by the Renewing of Gods Image in us Some Reliques there be of Gods Image in the natural man the like whereof are not in Divells and these are seated in The Spirit or Synteresis Howbeit these in themselves are no better then dead stocks or rootes untill they be revived by the Spirit of God and secret Influence of his Graces but so renewed they naturally diffuse the influence of life into the stemmes or branches The soul and body of the whole man are so quickened by them as the branches or stemmes in the spring time revive by the return of sap from the root Both are quickned and revived by the Spirit of God and by the sweet disposition of his Providence as trees as herbs grasse and other Vegetables are by the Sun by the sweet influence of Heaven and by the moystned Earth whereby the rootes are immediatly cherished 2. This Vivification or renewing of the Spirit in man is immediatly wrought Per Simile As our Animal or Vital Spirits in Swounds are revived by the Spirit of wine or other comfortable water First The Reliques of Gods Image or implanted Rules of Conscience have more immediate Similitude with the Spirit of God or of Christ than the inferior Faculties of the Soul or body have And yet these Reliques of Gods Image or Rules of Conscience being true parts or native branches of the Spirit of man symbolize better with the soul and body of man then this Spirit of God which worketh this Mortification doth So that albeit the Spirit of God or his preventing Grace doth alwayes begin this Mortification without any operation or Co-Agencie of the Spirit of man And albeit the Spirit of man be a Meer Passive in all the Motions by which it self is renewed and quicken'd Yet after it be not only moved but thus touched and quickened by the Spirit of God Actus agit it works not only by Countersway or Renitencie but it diffuseth the influence of Life and Grace which it self receiveth entirely from the Spirit of God throughout the inferiour Faculties of the Soul It takes the place or room of so much of the Lusts of the flesh as it Expells And as well in the Expulsion of the Lusts of the Flesh as in taking possession of the Body wherein they were seated it useth the Soul as the Medium deferens as the Mean at least for communicating life to the Flesh or Body And by this Diffusion of the Spirit of Life or influence of Grace throughout the Faculties or Affections of the Soul the second part or Accomplishment of Mortification is wrought which as was said before consisteth in the Rescuing or winning of the natural Affections from the Flesh unto the Spirit 3. For better understanding the manner how this Accomplishment of
Quarto's in this Volume we must tell the Reader before hand that the sixt Book of Divine Essence Attributes Providence will not administer to him either the delight or the profit we intended unless God move the hearts of them that have the MS. Copie of the Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Forewarnings betokening Blood which certainly was perfected by the Authour lent or lost in his life time to produce it that it may be annexed to the sixt Book to which of due it appertaines The 4. Particular will give the Reader notice what Subject Matters he is to expect handled in the 11. Book But before we name them he must be reminded that the Authour had in the 9. Book come as farre as the Article of Christs Ascension reckoning Inclusivé in the 39. Chapter of that Book had tackt That Article to the next of His Session at the Right-Hand of God Now the respective Ends or Effects of Christs Ascension into heaven and of His Session at the Right-Hand of Majestie were some of them of Immediate and if I may so say of a Transient dispatch And such I take it were His prepareing a place for his Elect Ones His Consecrating the heavenly Sanctuarie and setting open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers His sending the Holy Ghost in the Grace of comfort Gifts of tongues c. Some are of constant Vse and continue in Esse unto this day so shall unto the worlds end as the Providential Government of His Church and the rest of the world in order to the affaires of his Church which He administers as Lord the Exercise of His Sacerdotal Office which he executes as Christ some shall be manifested at the end of time of this sinfull world when He shall come in great power and Glory to Judge both quick dead What this Authour hath said upon any of these Heads in his Books already printed the Reader if he will take the paines to search may find Of the following Generals with their incident subordinate particulars doth the Eleventh Book treat Of Christs Session at the Right-Hand of God the Grammatical Sense of the words the Real Dignitie answering to them viz. The Exaltation of Christ And whether He was exalted as the Son of God or as the Son of David An excellent state of the question about Ubiquitie Of Christs Lordship or Dominion Of His Coming to Judgement Of the Final Sentence to be awarded by Him to All. Of the Resurrection of the Dead From thence He shall come to Judge the quick and the Dead Of Life Everlasting not the merit of man but the Gift of God and Death the wages of sin So that it is plain the Eleventh Book reflects upon The Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting or resumes the Article of Christs Sitting at the Right-Hand of God and withall proceeds to the Next and to the Two last 16. I Expect the Intelligent Reader will Ask where He may find handld the Articles concerning God the Holie Spirit the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of Sins I must referr the proposer of this rational question which deserves a better answer then I can give it to the Authors owne words Which he may find in the first page of His Treatise Of The Holy Catholick Faith and Church which in the Catalogues of his Works for orders sake is reckon'd the 12. Book of his Commentaries and whereof the first part of three intended was published 1627. In my Comments on the Creed Saith Hee I did Sequester Four points from the Body of the Work The First was the Doctrin Of the most Holie and most Blessed Trinitie So he did intend to Handle the Commandements by way of Catechism to be set down by way of Prayer Soliloquie not of Schoole-Dispute The Second The Holie Catholick Church The Third The Communion of Saints The Fourth The Remission of Sins Points which I cannot Handle in that order they be propounded in the Creed without Interruption of my Method intended So that I have out of Choice reserved these for peculiar Treatises THE AUTHORS Book then of the Holie Catholick Faith Church 't is more then plain The Holie Catholick Church referres to the Article of And for the rest of his Books or Tracts hereafter to be published when they come abroad they must bear some Tessera or Recognizance to signifie their Retainance or to which of the 12. Christian Predicaments they are to be reduced 17. I have yet Two things to recommend unto the Reader The One I humbly present to the Consideration of the Nobilitie Gentrie of the Land who have the Honour Blessing Longo Sanguine Censeri This Author as his manner all-a-long is to open the Earth shew the Out-Burst of the spring leave the Well to be digged by him that meanes to dwell upon the Plat hath page 19. 31. moved a Querie well worth their most exquisite indagation and pursuit 'T is This whether Parents of both sexes may not by frequent voluntarie Commission of some sinnes improve the Corruption of nature in their Children to an Height above the ordinarie Taint descending from Adam or coming from Sin meerely Original not intended by unnecessary affected actual or habitual Transgressing Would any of Them now in this their privacie or vacation please Philosophari to think upon it and Commend their meditations to the world they would be more acceptable and more imperative of practise Coming from themselves consequently be more Contributive to the Revival of virtue unto an Heroical Degree 18. The other is to those of the Clergie who teach the people Knowledge for that end do seek acceptable words out of writings upright and True as for the pretended Favorites of the Spirit it is in vain to speak to them He that has Compassion on the poor ignorant multitude even destroyed for lack of Knowledge of Principles contained in their Creed Catechism c. And a mind to tread in the Good Old way for Aedification of the poor of the Flock may find in this Authors Works matter proper for every Dominical Festival through the year especially for the special ones that is those that Commemorate the Great Benefits received by Christ As also for occasions of Administring Both Sacraments marriages Funerals Fasts c. But let me tell him The Gold he is to find beat out doth somtimes lie in so smal a Compass that unless he observe well he may over-run it For an Experiment he may see 1 grain taken by me beaten out into divers Leaves And for expounding Texts of Scripture this Author seems to have a felicitie not ordinary Oft-times when he pretends but to take One verse he illuminates the Reader in the Epicycle of the Context nay in the next Orbe I mean the Parallel be it in the old or new Testament But the Magisterium of his excellencie
have for the most part a more exquisite Literall and Concludent sense then the same words or speeches have in common Language or in ordinary faculties or vulgar Arts And such a Metaphysicall sublime Concludent sense His words that spake as never man spake alwaies have when his speeches are Doctrinall and Assertive as his words are Joh. 8. 34. most Vniversal most Peremptory and Dogmatical Verily Verily I say unto you c. 2. Now as it cannot be denied that this name of Servitude is as wee say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Terme that may be properly attributed in different measure to many subjects of diverse natures or Conditions So the prime and principall subject of it unto which it agrees in most exquisite and ample manner is not the Legall or Civill Servitude whereof we have hitherto treated but the Servitude of Sin Whereof our Saviour here speakes Whence although we stand bound to believe the truth of this Conclusion from his Authority alone yet this no way barres us from Searching other reasons or Arguments whether from Art or Nature for illustration of this truth or for confirmation of our Belief or knowledge of it Or rather His Emphaticall manner of averring it ought to incite us to sound the meaning of it a little deeper and to discover the reason of it to the bottome And thus doing we shall but follow the stepps of two of our Sauiours Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul in this very particular Both of them having occasion to use the same Assertion that our Saviour here doth give us the reason of the truth or property of this Assertion So saith S. Paul to the Romans Cap. 6. 16. Know ye not as if it were matter of gross ignorance or imputation not to know that to whom Ye yield your selves servants to obey his Servants ye are to whom ye obey Whether it be of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse So that there is a proper Servitude in yielding unto Sin And whosoever yields his consent or obedience unto Sin doth thereby make himself the true and proper Servant of Sin 3. And S. Peter 2. Epistle 2. Chap. having sharply taxed such Carnall Gospellers as had forsaken the right way and followed the way of Balaam which Loved the wayes of unrighteousnesse brands them with this note or Character That whilest they promise Liberty unto others they themselves are the Servants of Corruption And this Assertion he ratifies by this reason or Doctrinall Principle Of whom a man is overcome Of the same he is brought into Bondage This reason toucheth the very root of Bondage or Servitude properly so called which had no other Title to its First Being or introduction into the World besides the right or title of victorie or Conquest Now to be subdued or vanquished against their Wills though in a doubtfull or bad Cause is not so meritorious of slavery or bondage as to suffer our selves through our sloath through our Cowardize our supine negligence or treachery to be overcome in a true a just a necessary especially in a religious Cause He to whom men yield themselves Servants by betraying or not defending such Causes though he love the Treason whereby he gaines the victory will use the Traytor or Partie vanquished by him but as a slave or Bondman 4. The First and Radicall Point of difference betwixt a Servant and a Freeman in matters civill was before set down and it was this A man that is Civilly Free hath not only Voluntatem propriam a reasonable will to desire his own good or a Freedome of consultation to contrive the meanes how this good may be attained but withall a Right or power to dispose of himself of his time of his bodily Actions or imployments for executing his intentions or Consultations The Servant hath the like Reasonable Will to desire his own good a Naturall Power or Faculty to deliberate or consult by what meanes the good which he requires may be attained but no Right or power to dispose of himself of his time of his bodily Labours of his actions or imployments for executing his desires or deliberations for in all these he is at his Masters disposall Now the want of this power or liberty to proseute their own contrivances makes Servants for the most part more slow and more dull in their desires and more unapt to contrive the meanes for compassing what they desire 5. From this Difference between Servitude and Freedome or Servants and Freemen in matters Civill and Politick The measure of transgression of the Law of God the only true measure of Servitude it is but a short Cut and easie pasage to discover the right Difference betwixt Servitude and Freedome in matters morall and sacred Sin as the Apostle speaks is the transgression of the Law And every Transgressor of the Law to wit of the morall Law of God that is Every such Transgressor as we call Malefactor or Offender Every one that delights in transgression or hath no power to resist temptations to transgresse is truely and properly the Servant of sin Rectum saith the Philosopher est mensura sui obliqui Aright Line is the measure of that which is crooked as well as of that which is straight Now the right Line or Rule by which as well our desires as our Actions must be framed by which the Obliquities of both must be discovered or censured is the Morall Law of God This is the only Rule by which the height or degrees as well of our Freedome as our Servitude Wherein the best of the Heathens did erre as well in their Definitions of Libertie as of Happines must be measured For want of this Rule to direct them the wisest among the Heathens have either much erred in the Definition of Liberty or Freedome or at least come farr short of the truth in defining it Quid est Libertas nis ipotestas vivendiut velis what is liberty or freedome saith In Paradoxis Tully but a Power or Facultie of living as we would But this Definition or description of Liberty or Freedome is very defective and Lame like a Sentence without the Principall Verbe or a Body without a Soule Mans Will in the state of corruption or since Adams Fall is no competent Rule for Humane Actions It self must be regulated by the Law of God whether positive or Eternall The very life and spirit of perfect Liberty in whomsoever ☜ is Potestas volendi quod lex divina jubet that is a Power or Faculty of willing that which by Gods Law we ought to will And this power or faculty being supposed as the Soul Potestas vivendi aut agendi quod volumus that other power which Tully only mentions of Living or doing as we will or desire is but the Bodie of true Freedome or Liberty So that he only is a true and perfect Freeman that hath both the Body and Soul of perfect Freedome that is tampotestatem volendi quod
present themselves Even he that hath no power to resist the least temptation that offers it self nor Freedom of Will to refuse the greatest Evil and chuse the least when both are actually proffered may in the Cessation of Actual Temptations Reflect upon his former Acts and take a survey of his life past especially if he be thereto occasioned or perswaded by a discreet Admonitor one that will not affright him with the Marks of Reprobation The first Branch of Freedom or rather the very root of Free-Will in every Reasonable Creature is seated in this Power of Reflexion upon its own Acts. This is the First Point or Property wherein Reason doth exceed Sense Now he that hath but this Branch of Freedom to Calculate his former Acts hath with it a Power to Charge his Soul with the heavy burthen of his sins The Conscience will alwayes be ready in quiet thoughts to accuse the Flesh and urge the Soul to bear Testimony against it And the soul or Conscience once brought to loath or dislike some special sins is thereby made more Free apt to bewail all other sins whatsoever whether Actual or Original Unlesse David had been throughly stung with the Conscience of murther or Adultery that sweet Confession had never found such perfect vent as it did Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Psal 51. 5. Every Creature on whom the Creator hath bestowed any sense or feeling of pain or pleasure hath Power to imploy some motive Faculty for avoiding things grievous or hurtful or for attaining things pleasant and useful for bettering their present Estate And if man have any sense or feeling of his heavy burthen he cannot but in some sort or other desire to be released from it Upon this Principle is that Exhortation of our Saviour Grounded Come unto me all ye that Labour and are heavy Laden and I will ease you Mat. 11. 28. 16. So then albeit there be a true Freedom of Will in all the sons of Adam which are not utterly or finally forsaken of God yet is not this Freedom the same in all neither in respect of its Objects or Acts nor in respect of its Degrees or Strength Some have a Competent Measure of Liberty to avoid Occasions or external Motives to known sins but either no portion of like Liberty or a very Little One to resist such temptations to foul sins as come upon them unexpectedly Others have a Competent Measure of like Freedom to resist Temptations or Opportunities to grosse sins but little or none at all to bewaile their natural misery or to beat down their inbred Pride by Contemplation of Sin Original or by Reflecting upon sins of Omission or Positive Acts of ordinary Transgression Others again which had deprived themselves of all Freedom for avoiding Occasions or resisting Temptations to certain sins have a Larger measure of Freedom then others have to be humbled under Gods Mighty Hand which is in Order the First and by disposition of the Divine Providence the most Available means for attaining Mortification which must be the Subject of the next Discourse wherein I must follow my Method proposed to wit To discusse the true meaning of those Scriptures wherein the Difficulties or Questions Concerning this Duty are properly seated To begin with that of our Apostle Rom 8. 12. SECT V. Of the Great Duty of Mortification And of the Vse of Free-Will for performing it CHAP. XXVIII Of the General Contents which concern the Duty of Mortification And which be the Special Works of the Flesh we are to Mortifie ROM Chap. 8. Vers 11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you Vers 12. Therefore Brethren we are Debters not to the Flesh to live after the Flesh Vers 13. For if ye Live after the Flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the spirit do Mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 1. A brief Paraphrase upon Rom. 8. 12 c. THis Portion of Scripture is more fit to ground the Connexion of what goeth before or cometh after it from the beginning of this 8 th Chapter unto the end then to receive any Bounds or Limitation which it is capable of from any Reference to other Passages either for the plain and full Grammatical or for the Moral and Theological Sense The Grammatical Construction of the 12 th verse though for so much as some of our Modern Translations suggest unto us it afford but One Proposition and that a Negative We are debters not to the flesh yet according to the Original Character or full Construction it contains Two Emphatical Propositions the One Affirmative the Other Negative The Affirmative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Debters we are and Debters for a greater Sum then all Mankinds either Real or Personal Estates in this world are able to discharge The Negative Debters we are in no wise either in whole or part unto the Flesh unto which we owe nothing besides Revenge or Mortification of It that is by delivering it up Captive to the Spirit unto whom we owe more then our temporal Estate here on Earth our very Souls The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full Declaration of both Propositions follows vers 13. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die this is the unsupportable debt which the flesh hath brought and seeks to bring upon us But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall Live for ever This is a greater Boon then we can deserve as much as we can desire more then we can make any part of requital for it 2. For stating Cases of Conscience not for dealing betwixt man and man but but betwixt the Judge of Quick and Dead and our own Souls I know no portion of Scripture whether in the Old or New Testament of better or more frequent Use then This 13 th verse Let such as are so minded maintain Tenents already set on Foot or multiply Questions to the worlds End about the Certainty of their Personal Estate in Grace or Final Salvation or bestow their Marks and Tokens whether of Absolute Election or Reprobation as they please yet unto honest hearted Christians or such as desire so to be there can be no Sign or token of Salvation either Firmer in its self or more Certain to them then the right Computation of their constant Progresse in the Mortifying of the Flesh by the Spirit The First Question or Examination of our Progresse in this Duty is to know What be the deeds of the Flesh or Body which we are to Mortifie And How far we are to mortifie them The Second How the flesh is Mortified by us How by the Spirit The Third which happily will intermingle it self here and there with the first and second Quaeries is The Limitation of these Two Propositions
earth tanquam ex Termino positivo as of the Terme or Object unto which his Creation of them had Reference that is He did not decree to make them untill the earth was made Or he did not determine to make them but out of the Earth not of the Water or other Element as he made the Fishes of the water not of the earth So that grass was made of the earth and fishes of the Sea not as of any Cause concurrent to their making or production but tanquam ex Termino aut Objecto praeviso The Whales and great fishes which God created on the fift day were not from the time of their Creation so much as a material Cause of the Fry or Spawn which proceeded from them untill God bestowed his Blessing upon them saying Be fruitfull and multiply and fill the waters in the seas The Effect of this Blessing was a true and proper Creation For hereby they became in their kinds Efficient and material Causes And from this Blessing they received the first Possibilitie of Propagation or continuance of their kind by succession or generation of the like Admitt then our Mortification as well as our Vivification is a work of Creation God Createth life in Baptized Infants And this production of life spiritual in them is like unto the Creation of the heaven and Earth or of the First Masse that is not ex praevisis operibus neither by their works nor from Gods Foresight of their works Thus much the Romish Church confesseth in the prayer used at the Burial of Infants Baptized Omnipotens mitissime Deus qui omnibus parvulis Renatis fonte Baptismatis dum migrant à saeculo sine ullis Eorum meritis vitam illico largiris aeternam sicut animae hujus Parvuli hodiè credimus to fecisse Ex Rituali Romano Pauli quinti impresso Antuerpiae 1635. in 8. Ex Offic Plantiniana Moreti in Officio Defunctorum De Exequijs Parvulorum Pag. 244. In this Creation there is no * Quaere if it be not otherwise in a Pagan â—f yeares Coming to Christianitie Without Baptisme either Obteined or Desired He cannot be saved And Baptisme he may not have without Qualifications preparative professed to the Church that he may be admitted to it And Reall in his Soul that he may have Rem Sacramenti that is become partaker of the Inward and Spiritual Grace Qualification or disposition praecedent either by way of Title or by way of Term or Object Or if we grant any Term or Object of this creation it must be the Entitie of the Infant or its Capacitie of Baptisme or the Baptisme it self 3. How it is said All things were created of Nothing But as it was the Almightie Creators pleasure not to make herbs untill he had made the earth nor fishes untill he had made the Sea out of which he made them tanquam ex termino as of a positive Term or Object praeexistent though not positively concurring to their Creation or Co-working with him So as we suppose it was his pleasure not to work Mortification or to Create Life in such as are capable of Reason untill some works which he requires be done by them albeit the best works which any can do be as little Conducent by way of Causalitie or Title to the production of Life or Mortification Spiritual as the Red Earth was to the Creating of Adam or Adam in a dead sleep was to the Creation of Eve Adam was the sole work of God and so was Eve though made of Adam aswell as the heaven and the earth were the sole works of God And so is our Election so is our New Life so is our Mortification spiritiual as truely and intirely the work of God though not wrought without some works of ours praeexistent as the Creation of Life in Infants is Gods Work although they have no workes praeexistent And as Adam though Eve was made of him had no more share with God in her Creation than Nothing had with Him in the Creation of the heavens and the Earth So neither have we after we have done the works required to Mortification any greater share or Title of Causalitie in the production of Life or Mortification Spiritual than Infants have in their Regeneration 4. It may be Objected That the works prerequired by us to Mortification spiritual are more truely Ours than any Action that can be imagined as requisite in the heavens for Creation of the Sun Moon or Starres Or in the Earth for the Creation of herbes and trees T is true Some Actions are required in us * See the 2. note at the end of this Sect chapt 36. that Grace may be created in us yet not to make us more Capable naturally of Grace but to make us Meere Passives not uncapable of it or not Positively Contradictorie to his Majestie or eternal aequitie Man from the beginning had a Freedome of Will to deprive himself of such Blessings as God in his Bounty had provided for him Our first Parents by the Abuse of their Free Will betwixt Good and Evill made themselues uncapable of any Blessing or Reward from Gods Justice or meer Bountie yet were they not hereby made uncapable of his Infinite Mercy Nor are his Posteritie made uncapable of it by Sin meerely Original but by Abuse of that Free-Will which is left them as the proper Fruit of Sin Original that is a Free-Will to do Evill We have a Power or Freedome left us to make our selves more Uncapable of Gods Mercy than we were in Adam no Power at all to make our selves more Capable of it it is God alone which increaseth this Capacitie in us That of St. Austin is notwithstanding most true in respect of All that are come to years of discretion Deus qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te God which made thee without any endeavours of thine own will not save thee without thine own endeavours And yet the best of our endeavours are but to keep our selves in the same state wherein we were when we had no works no endeavours that is when we were Infants And happie is he that doth not by lewd endeavours or ill works ☜ evacuate the Fruits of Baptisme in himself For him that doth finally so Cassate or Voyd them it had been better if he had never been baptized if he had never been born For by frustrating the hopes which he had in Baptisme he makes himself more uncapable of Gods mercy for having the Spirit of Life created in him than the Earth was of Gods Power to have Man created of it CHAP. XXXIII By what Spirit we are said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Bodie 1. Of the difference betwixt the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man IF the deeds of the Body or the Flesh must be mortified by the Spirit of man then man hath not only Freedome of Will but Liberum Arbitrium an Abilitie to Mortifie his own
that he may instruct him But we have the mind of Christ When He saith WEE have the mind of Christ he includeth ALL such as He was that is All Men truely Regenerated by the Spirit whom God hath instructed to discern the things of God By The Mind of Christ the Apostle meaneth the self same thing that he did by the Spirit of God Between the mind of Christ communicated unto us and the Spirit of God communicated unto Us and received by Us there is no difference or distinction The importance of both Speeches is the same Our mind being Changed from Evill to Good or from minding of Carnal things to the minding of Spiritual things is called The mind of Christ by Participation so likewise The Spirit of God by Participation But the Spirit of God which communicates this Mind or Spirit unto us or by which we are said to receive it hath not alwayes the same Importance Between the Importances there is no Dissention yet a Distinction Sometimes by the Spirit of God God the Spirit or God the Holy Ghost is meant who in a peculiar manner is said to sanctifie Us to Regenerate Us to Quicken Us to work Mortification in Us. Sometimes again by the Spirit of God is meant The Spirit which is in Christ which is the Fountain from whence all gifts of the Spirit are immediatly derived unto us though the derivation be immediately wrought by the Holy Ghost And when the Apostle saith that we have the mind of Christ this Mind of Christ which we have received supposeth a Mind or Spirit in Christ which participates it unto us or from which we receive it by Participation We may not imagine a Transmigration or Transmission of the Spirit which is in Christ from Him to Us but a Participation only God hath anoynted him with the Oyle of gladnesse above his Fellowes God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him From the fulnesse of this Spirit in him we receive Grace for Grace Albeit this Grace be distributed or Portioned out unto Us by the Holy Ghost Christ sends the Spirit of Mortification or Regeneration into our hearts as the Fountain or Conduit head doth the water into a Citie The Holy Ghost prepares our hearts to receive this Spirit of Christ and brings it unto Us after such a manner as He that makes the Aquaeducts or Conduit pipes doth convey water into a Town or Citie otherwise destitute of good water 6. But what doth the Apostle mean by the Spirit of man as it is Contradistinct or opposite to the Spirit of God the whole Reasonable Soul or Form of man by which he is distinguished from other Creatures Or some principal part which hath least commixture with the Flesh or Body that which we commonly call the Conscience This part of the Soul even in the unregenerate man oft times disallowes such things as are entertained by the Reasonable Soul and condemnes such Actions as are undertaken by Reason and mannaged with Extraordinary understanding When the Gentiles saith our Apostle do by Nature the things contained in the Law they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their CONSCIENCE also bearing witness and their thoughts accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2. 14. 15. In this Accusation or Processe in the very Heathen there is a Combate or Conflict between the Spirit and the Flesh or between the Mind and the Affections 7. But may not the same part or Facultie of the Reasonable Soul disallow or Condemn at one Time the self same things which at another time it well approves If it may there is no Necessitie of Distinction between the Soul and the Spirit But if there be any Conflict between Reason it self and the Spirit at one and the same time there must needs be a Distinction betwixt them Now it seemes that even whilst the Reasonable Soul doth contrive mischief or give her Consent to things unjust or unexpedient whilst it Hatcheth Haeresie the Conscience doth secretly check it and endeavour to restrain it And this Conscience could not do unlesse it were in some sort distinct from that Reasonable part or Facultie of the Soul which is indued with Freedome of Will For there can be no Conflict but between two different Parties or Capacities 8. This is most Consequent to Plato's Philosophie and to true Theologie For as the Platonicks distinguish between the Soul and the Mind So our Apostle distinguisheth between the Soul of man and the Spirit of Man 1. Thess The Spirit of man is not said to be mortified but Quickened by the Spirit of God 5. 23. And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Our Sanctification is not entire or universal in respect of the Parts universal it cannot be in respect of all Degrees untill the Soul as well as the Spirit untill the Body as well as the Soul be thus Sanctified as our Apostle wisheth Every part of man must be in Part or in some good measure Sanctified But before this entire or whole Sanctification can be wrought there must be a Mortification of the Body or of the Flesh and under The Flesh as hath been observed before The Reasonable Soul with its best Faculties is usually comprehended by our Apostle Howbeit we do not read of any Mortification of the Spirit but of Renovation Vivification or Quickening of it 9. What shall we say then That the Spirit or conscience of man is altogether free from the Contagion of the Flesh that it stands in no need of Mortification 1. Cor. 8. 7. St. Paul tells us of some men whose Conscience being Weak is defiled But the Conscience in his Language perhaps is not altogether the same with the Spirit But the Synteresis in all likelyhood is And again He tells us that there be men of Corrupt minds and destitute of the truth which suppose that Gain is Godliness 1. Tim 6. 5. And we read of a Soundnesse of mind 2. Tim. 1. 7. But that defilement or corruption of the Spirit or mind Seemes by our Apostle not to be Ordinary However the mind or Conscience may be polluted by the Contagion of the Flesh yet are they not so radically polluted as the Flesh is The Flesh is the seat of the disease The Idiopathy as Physitians speak is in The Soul the Sympathy only in the Spirit or Conscience So that if the deeds of the Flesh be mortified there needs no peculiar Cure or Mortification of the Spirit So it falls out in diseases of the Bodie If the Protopathie be cured the Sympathy will fall of it self As many are vexed oft times with great Aches or pains in the Head Some with Fitts of the Epilepsie or Falling-Sicknesse when as the root of the disease is in the Stomack In these Cases there needs no peculiar Physick for the Head But cure the Stomack and the Head
mind as often as he findes himself prone to the works of the Flesh that he may fall into Reprobation before he be aware if he continue secure in that Course of life which formerly be hath taken let him withall remember that Praeterita non nocent si praesentia non placent On the Otherside is there any man whose Conscience can truly inform him that he hath sincerely laboured to mortifie the deeds of the Body his Faith upon this Information will assure him that he is in the way of Life and that in patâ—eni Continuance in Well-doing he shall be a Vessel unto honour and make his election sure But let not any man hence Conclude that he is already in the Immutable state of Grace For our Apostle doth not say if ye have mortified the deeds of the body by the spirit ye are in the Immutable state of Life but he saith if ye mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live that is if ye Continue to mortifie the deeds of the Body God will Continue the blessings and means of life unto you yea Confirm you in the Immutable State of Life and saving Grace 25. If any man list to examine himself whether he be in the state of Election or Reprobation let him measure or moderate his perswasions of the one or other Estate by his proficiency or negligence in this duty of Mortification Otherwise to be prepossest with strong perswasions of being in the Immutable State of Grace or Election before we have given all diligence to make our election sure by performing this Duty of Mortification is the readiest or most compendious way that Satan yet hath found out to cast men into a Reprobate Sense that is to make them without sense or feeling of their sinnes or which is worse to misperswade them that those very Deeds whilest done by Them are no sins or sins of Infirmity only which being done by Others are even in their Judgements grosse and Capital sins The Method by which Sathan works this misperswasion in men strongly perswaded of their own Immutable state of Grace before their due time is Immutable and Infallible For it is an Infallible Rule in Logick and Nature That An Vniversal Negative may be Simply converted If no rich man whilst a rich man can be a begger then no begger whilst he is a begger can be a rich man If no convetous no proud no envious no seditious or uncharitable man no doer of any of those works of the Flesh mentioned by S. Paul Gal. 5. can enter into the Kingdome of heaven Then no man whose entrance into it is Immutably determined can be a covetous an evious seditious or uncharitable man Whence if a man be once perswaded that his entrance into the Kingdome of heaven or his estate in Grace is unchangable he cannot possibly perswade himself or be perswaded by others that he is a covetous proud envious seditious or an uncharitable man albeit he do all the works that a covetous proud envious seditious or uncharitable man doth 26. Lastly although it be the safest way to examine our Estate in Grace by our diligence in this duty of Mortification yet I must admonish men not to examine their proficiency or progress in performance of this Duty by Meer Abstinence from the works of the Flesh which they sincerely dislike or condemn in others I know we condemn the blind obedience of the Roman Catholicks that are ready to do and believe as the Church commands them without examination as a work of the Flesh of which we are Freed yet this doth not argue that we have mortified this work of the Flesh this Blind Obedience unlesse our Consciences can truly inform us that we are ready to obey the Church our Mother in things lawfull or in things which upon diligent examination are not Evill but Indifferent We likewise condemn as wel the affected Ignorance of the Romish Catholick in that though he may yet he regards not to hear the Word preached in a Language that he knows as his blind Devotion in that he can be content to make his Prayers or to hear publick Prayers in a Language that he understands not for works of the Flesh In both these we do well yet are neither of these works truly mortified in us by the Spirit unlesse we be as ready and zealous to joyne with the Congregation in publick Prayers of the Church celebrated in a known Tongue as we are to hear or read Sermons The Ministers must preach that the people may know how to pray aright in private And the people must joyn with them in Publick Prayers appointed by the Church that both may practise according to the Rules of Life delivered whether by the word read or preached The Communion of Saints or that part of it which can be had betvvixt Saints here on earth doth specially consist in the Unity of Faith and of Prayers publikely celebrated according to the Common Rule of Faith FINIS Cap. 37. A Note Referring to Fol. 3159. Line 3. and to Marg. Note 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil 1. Tom. Paris 1638. Graeco-Lat Fol. 113. Comment in Psal 1. CHAPTER XXXVIII A Sermon Preached on St. SIMON and JVDE'S Day 1629. Jude Verse 4. For there are Certain men crept in unawares which were before of old ordained to this Condemnation ungodly men turning the Grace of our God into Lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. THE End and Scope of this Epistle you have set down in the 3. The Scope of the Epistle Verse And it is in Brief to exhort these his Flock or Charge To contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints The Word ONCE is Emphatical and imports Thus much That the Rule of Faith had been Once for all delivered unto them so full and so compleat that if they vvould hold close to it and use it as the Rule of Life they should need no other additions The occasion of writing it or increase of new points to be believed or practised The speciall occasion vvhich he had to vvrite unto them for this end and purpose was because there were Certain ungodly men crept in to their Society vvhich did overthrovv or contaminate that Rule of Faith vvhich had been delivered unto the Saints But hovv they did overthrovv it is not exprest in particular Most certain it is for St. Jude expresly affirms it that they did deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Novv to deny God or Christ Two ways of denying God there be but Two ways possible either by Opinion and Doctrine or by Matter of Fact and Practise And these men it seems did both ways deny God and his Christ though not directly and expresly yet by necessary and unavoidable Consequence But vvherein they did deny God and Christ shall be toucht in the Use and Application The Doctrinal Points to be discussed are Two Two points of
Freedom in respect of divers Objects and degrees in Natural men 3090 SECT V. Of the great Duty of Mortification and of the use of Free-will for Performing it 3096 CHAP. 28. Of the General Contents which concern the Duty of Mortification and which be the especial works of the flesh we are to Mortifie 3096 29. How farr the duty of Mortification is Universal how farre Indefinite 3099 30. Containing the true Rule for examining our Perswasions concerning our Estate in Grace 3103 31 How the Flesh is Mortifyed by Vs How by the Spirit 3106 32. Whether Mortification and Conversion may be said to be ex pr visis operibus though God alone do properly Mortifie and convert us 3112 33. By what Spirit we are said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Body 3115 34. Containing the Manner and Order of the Spirits working or of our working by the Spirit 3120 35. Wherein the accomplishment of Mortification or of Conversion unto God doth properly consist 3124 36. Contâ—ining the Scope or Summe of what hath been said concerning Free-will and the service of it in the duty of Mortification 3129 Sect. VI. Concerning Election and Reprobation and That the Decrees of God be not terminated to the Abstract Entities or Substances of men 37. Concerning the Limitation of these Two Propositions Rom. 8. 13. 1. If ye live after the slesh ye shall dye 2. If through the spirit ye do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live 3146 38. A Sermon on St. Iude's Epistle verse the fourth enquiring who those men were which were of Old ordained to the Condemnation there spoken of and what manner of Ordination is there meant 3164 39. A serious Answer to Mr. Henry Burton who took exception at a Passage in this Authors Treatise Of the Divine Essence and Attributes about Objective Goodnesse c. 3175 40. A Paraphrase upon the Eleven first Chapters of Exodus with useful Observations and parallels 3190 41. Salvation only from Gods Grace or An Exposition of Romans 9. 16. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth But of God that sheweth mercy 3210 42. An Exposition on Romans 9. verses 18 19 20 21 22 c. or a Treatise of God his just Hardening Pharaoh c. 3222 SECT VII Of the Acts or Exercises of Christs Everlasting Priesthood CHAP. 43. Concerning the Manner or meanes by which the Son of God doth now de Facto through the continual Exercise of his Everlasting Priesthood in his heavenly Sanctuary set Free indeed all such as seek for the working out of their own Salvation with fear and trembling pag. 3252. 44. The Coherence of the eighth Chapter to the Hebrews with the seven precedent and two following The exact Proportions or Parallels betwixt the mundane Tabernacle with the two Sanctuaries therein and the Caelestial with those in it betwixt the Manner or Rites in the Consecration of the One and the Other Betwixt the High-Priests of the Old Testament and Christ our onely High-Priest of the New intimated in this explicated in the following Chapters 3253. 45. That the soules of Righteous men Abraham c. Were in a Blissefull heavenly Mansion before But after The Kingdom of Heaven was perfectly set up and open to all Beleevers By Christs Placing As man at the Right Hand of God Their Condition was bettered 3255. 46. A Parallel betwixt the Rites of Dedicating The Tabernacle the vessels c. with Blood of Beasts And of Consecrating The Heavenly Places with the most Pretious Blood of Jesus Christ 3257. 47. Before the fuller draught of that Parallel If the Blood of Bulls and the Ashes of an Heifer much more the Blood of Christ treated on in the Two next Chapters The Apostles Translating the Hebrew word Berith by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is shewed to be not a meere Allusion but of strict Proprietie 3259. 48. The Parallel between the most Solemn Services of the Law and the One Sacrifice of Christ and The high Praeeminence and Efficacie of This in comparison of Those The Romanists Doctrine That in the Masse Christs Body is identically Carnally present and that there is a proper Sacrifice Propitiatorie offered derogates from the Absolute Perfection of Christs offering himself Once for all 3261. 49. That the Forraign mainteiners of the more then Fatal Irrespective Rigid Decree make Christ Jesus rather a meere Sacrifice Then a True Everlasting Priest acting for us and dayly working out our Reconciliation to God So do such as teach That the sinnes of some were Remitted before they were Committed Of the Superexcellency of Christs Priest-Hood and One Sacrifice in Comparison of the Aaronicall Pr. and the Many Servâ—ces thereof 3266. 50. The Raritie of That Rite of Consecrating the Water of Sprinkling by the Ashes of the Red Heyfer an Emblem of Baptism and the Singularitie thereof Our Churches meaning in some Expressions at the Administration of That Sacrament 3270. 51. Inordinate Libertie of Prophesying brought Errors into the Church and hindred the Reformation 3273. 52. That Justification Consists not in One Single Act. In what sense Fides est Fiducia is True 3276. 53. Christs Parable Math. 12. 43. c. applyed Two degrees of Reconciliation the First Active or but meer Grammatically Passive The Other Reall-Passive So Correspondently Two Branches of Justification The One from Christs Death the Other from the benefit of His Priesthood daily participated to us 3277. SECT VIII Of Errors disparaging Christs Priesthood CHAP. 54. Three Errors disparaging Christs Priesthood 1. The Novatian denying the Reception of some sort of sinners 2. Alate Contrary Error affirming That Every sin which some sort of Men Committ is pardoned before it be committed 3. The Romish Doctrine of the Masse giving Scandal to the Jew All of them respectively derogating from the infinite Value or Continual Efficacie of Christs Everlasting Priesthood 3280. 55. From the Text Hebr. 10. 1 2 16 17. and from this Maxim That Christs One Sacrifice of himself was of Value absolutely infinite it follows not That such as worship God in spirit or such as are received into the Covenant of Grace have their sinnes remitted before they commit them That Doctrin makes Christs Resurrection Useless in respect of us and our Baptism needless Legal worshipers Conscious and their sinnes remembred in such sort as Evangelical worshippers are not The Vast odds betwixt Christs One Sacrifice and the Many legal We must distinguish betwixt the Infinite Value and Infinite Vertue of Christs Sacrifice The precious Effects of H. Baptism and the Eucharist flowing from the Efficacie of Christs Sacrifice and Priesthood How Legal Sacrifices c. prefigured Christs 3292. 56. The Efficacie of Christs Sacrifice and the Vse of His Priesthood two distinct several things Wherein the Exercise of his Priesthood doth Consist How it was foreshadowed Ordinances Effectual by Vertue of Christs Presence Vertual Presence is a Real Presence 3301. A Table of the Texts of Holy Scripture Expounded or Illustrated in this BOOK Genesis Chap. Verse
command him to do and such an eager pronenesse or appetite to do those things which the Law of Reason or of Nature forbids him to do and those things with greatest Eagernesse which the same Law of Reason or other positive Laws derived from it most peremptorily and upon severest penalties forbid him to do It hath been observed by many Authors that the Unnatural sin of Parricide wilful Murther of Father or Mother or of Superiour Kindred did not become rife or frequent amongst the Romans until they had upon particular sad accidents enacted a publick Law and ordained a special kind of torment for transgressors in this kind Lucius Ostius was the first amongst the Romans that did commit this Unnatural sin And He lived almost six hundred years after the City was founded a little after the second Punick War Some good ‖ See Plutarch in the Life of Romulus Laertius in the Life of Solon and Tully in His second Oration Pro Roscio Amerino who gives the true Character or Expression of that speech of Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untowardly rendred by the Latin Interpreter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. in Rom. pag. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diog. Lacrt. l. 1. in Solone Is Solon cùm interrogaretur Cur Nullum supplicium constituisset in Eum qui Parentem necâsset respondit se id neminem facturum putasse Sapienter fecisse dicitur cùm de eo nihil sanxerit quod antea commissum non erat ne non tam Prohibere quà m admonere videretur Tull. Orat. 2. Pro Sext. Roscio Amerino Writers ascribe the long abstinence from this unnatural sin unto the wisdom of Romulus their Founder who enacted no Law against much lesse appointed any peculiar kind of death unto this Crime which He expected should never be committed by His Posterity Certain it is that Solon for the like reason did not so much as mention this Crime in His otherwise most severe Laws But this observation was taken from the Heathen Romans in times ancient and far more remote and doth not as happily will be objected hold in these times or places wherein we live Yet the Ingenuous and Learned French †Thuanus Historian who meddles with the History of his own times only tels us that the like unnatural sin towards Children or Infants did never come to so high and far-spreading a Flow in the great City of that Kingdom until the State or Parliament had erected a peculiar Court to be held for examination or trial of such Cruel Mothers as sought to salve the breach of one Commandment by the violation of another to cover the shame of their own wantonnesse by murthering the tender fruits of their folly as if the Damme which the Law had set for repressing or stopping the Course of this bloudy sin had but provoked the stream or Current to swell higher and greater to overburst all obstacles or inhibitions which the Laws of God the Laws of Nature and of the Kingdom had set against it 2. Again why Pulpit-pride why Clergie-cunning insolency or malice should grow into a Proverb throughout most Christian Kingdoms or Provinces as if these or like transgressions in our profession were of such a scantling as could hardly be matched by the Laitie I cannot give a more probable reason if the imputation be true or the occasion of the Proverbe just then this That Men of our profession who are Gods peculiar Inheritance are bound by the Lawes of God to more strict observance of our Saviours praecepts concerning Humility Meeknesse Brotherly-love and Charity or peaceable disposicion towards all then ordinary Men or men of other Callings or professions are And we know whose saying it is That if we do not continue as we are by the place wherein he hath set us the Salt of the Earth and Light of the World We shall become the most degenerate unprofitable members of the Land and Church wherein we Live And if the whole Tribe were to beare peculiar Armes as some other ingenuous Professions doe No Device could so well befit us as Jeremiah's two Baskets of Figges Then saia the Lord unto me What seest thou Jeremiah and I said Figgs the good Figgs very good and the evill very evill that cannot be eaten they are so evill Jer. 24. 3. The bad Figs were the Emblem of the disobedient refractory as the good Figs were of the obedient and beleeving Jewes in the Prophets time Both parts of the Embleme are as applyable to the Sons of Levi in our dayes Such of this Tribe as suffer sin to raigne in their Mortall bodies are generally the worst of sinners Such as mortifie the workes of the flesh by the spirit by prayer and other good services of God and seeke their Freedome or manumission by the Son of God Working out their Salvation with feare and trembling are the Best of all Gods Saints on Earth 3. The proper effects or Symptomes of Sinâ— Original described by S. Paul But the greatest part of the Induction hitherto made for finding out the properties or Symptomes of Sin original will be excepted against especially by such as are meer strangers to their own Breasts or dispositions of their hearts because the particular observations or Experiments whereof the Induction consists have been made by the Heathen or related by Authors not Canonicall But the Exception will voyd it self if we shall make it cleer to men altogether unexperienced of themselves that the like Experiments or observations have been made and more fully expressed by one whose Authority is Canonical whose Testimony of Experiments made in himself and taken by himself is most Authentick it is St. Paul That sin Originall was in the world before the Law was given is cleer from this Apostle Rom. 5. 13. For untill the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no Law So our English and most other Modern translations render the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None of them altogether so well as it might be rendred Better thus There is not there cannot be any true estimate or full reckoning made of sin where there is no Law to give the * The Syriack reades it Usque enim ad Legem peccatii quum esset in mundo non reputabatur peccatum propterea quòd nâ—n erat Lex That is Sin though it were in the world untill the Law yet was it not reputed or reckoned for sin untill the law was given But if it be true which the Appostle Saith that sin raigned unto death untill the Law I hope it was imputed with a Witnesse Charge And againe Ver. 20. Moreover the Law entred that the offence might abound This abounding of the offence whereof he speakes was the issue or effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the End or Finall Cause why the Law was given For so the Law-giver might be suspected to have been the Author of sin
being his Souldiers It is The Spirit of God which works in us The Will and the Deed yet this doth not Licence us to be Idle Fight we must not with our own shadows but Every man with his own Body not with a Body already dead or Mortified but a living Active Body that may be Mortified And this disadvantage we have that our Adversaries are got within us before we are aware of them so that we cannot fetch such fierce blows at them as may kill them at once or as we say out of hand Sometimes our Adversarie lies so close that we can hardly hurt him without danger of hurting our selves As some by offering too much violence to their bodies have ensnared their own souls But this is no Vsual Fault of this Age or of this Nation 7. Howbeit for the Reasons specified and the like It is not so in this Combate which Every man must entertain between himself and his own Flesh or between his Spirit and his Body as it is in Duels or single Combates In quibus aut cita mors venit aut victoria laeta in which one half hour brings forth either certain death or certain victory to the Combatant Nor as it is in pitch'd Battels in which one day is the making or marring of whole Nations or mighty Kingdoms which have been many years in growing This our Warfare is like unto a strait and Lingring Siege in which Patience and perpetual Vigilancy are no lesse requisite then present Valour or strength of Arms especially on the behalf of the party besieged Animus uniuscujusque est unusquisque Every mans Soul is Himself And every mans Soul is more strictly begirt and environed by his Body then any City can be by any Army The Gates of his Senses are alwayes open to let in such Objects or Temptations as take part with the Flesh Herein This warr with our souls is unlike unto Ordinary Sieges in that the party besieged may sooner starve or bring under the Party besieging then be starved or brought under by him so the besieged will be watchful Let us take into our Consideration what One of the most Expert Souldiers in this kind which ever fought under Christs Banner one that had a long time served in both Camps first fighting stoutly for the Body or Flesh and afterwards more victoriously for the Spirit hath left registred for our Instruction So fight I not as one that beateth the air But I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have Preached to others I my self should be a Cast-away 1 Cor. 9. 26. If so stout a Champion after so many years Service in the Camp of Christ was not secure of the Adversary which he carried about with him how dare some Fresh-water-souldiers say or what truth is there in their sayings That they have made full Conquest of their Adversarie It will be useful for the Reader to Know that if he please he may read more about This Subject of Mortification either now immediately before he proceed to the 30 Chapter or after the reading of the 35 Chapter or of this whole 5 Section in the Appendix at the end of this Book In which The Third General Enquirie Proposed Chap. 28. § 2. Touching the Limitation of the Two Propositions If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die If ye mortifie ye shall live And promised Chap. 35. § 10. is handled and are most most certain of their own Salvation before they know what Certainty means Or which be the Several Branches of it But of this Point if God permit elsewhere CHAP. XXX Containing the true Rule for examining our Perswasions concerning our Estate in Grace 1. Our Progresse in Mortifying Our Selves the best Rule for knowing our Estate IN the mean time it will not be amisse for every man to Examin himself by This Rule of our Apostle concerning the First Branch of Certainty that is a Moral Certainty or strong Probability that he is in the State of Grace or Regeneration If ye live after the flesh ye shall die This is the Rule Doth any man amongst us Spend most of his time in revelling or drinking in strife or variance or in jest or merriment If such a man have any seeds of Faith though Moral it will assure him for the Present that he cannot be so much as Morally Certain of his Regeneration The best Advice which for the time being can be given him is so to mingle his Hope with Fear as that Fear be Predominant If otherwise his Hope in this case shall bear down Fear or be not born down by it there is no other likely hood but that his Hope will grow into stiff Presumption and stiff Presumption will exclude Repentance on which Hope if it be sure must alwayes be grounded 2. But most mens Consciences perhaps can truly tell themselves that they do Mortifie the Deeds of the Body Here is Just ground of Hope and Moral Certainty if this Testimony of the Conscience be sincere Howbeit even here again is place for Advice And the best Advice that I can give to any in this Case is that he do not seek to Buy with one Weight and Sell with another but plant his Hopes and displant his Fear by One and the same Rule or Line The Rule for the planting Hope and preventing Despair is this When our Apostle saith Gal. 5. 21. He that doth such things any works of the Flesh by him there mentioned shall not inherit the Kingdom of God we are to take the Value or weight of This Word DOTH not by the present Acts or Operations but from the Vsuall Practise Habit or Custome of doing them Continual approved Practise of the least sins there named by him excludes from Grace This is the Weight or Scale by which men are willing to sell or to put off Fear or Despair But they must remember withall to be as ready to Buy with the same Weight that is as ready to measure their Hopes or entertain the Certainty of their Estate in Grace by the same Scale The Apostle saith If ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live From This General Proposition Most Hearers of the Word will be ready to Assume But I God be thanked do mortifie the Deeds of the Body by diligent hearing the word Preached by frequent receiving of the Sacrament Ergo I shall live But here we are to consider that as other words implying Action so this word I do Mortifie in the Language of the Holy Ghost specially in those places whereto Gods promises are annexed is not to be restrained to the Interposed Acts or interrupted Operations of the Spirit but directly imports the Habit the Custome or assiduous Practise of Mortification If in This Sense we Do mortifie the Deeds of the Body that is if we make This Work the Chief of our Doings if most of our Care and Industry be addressed to the perfecting of this
Work then our Assumption or minor Proposition is Good and the Conclusion will follow if not Certitudine Fidei by the Certainty or Full Assurance of Faith yet by Certainâ—y more then Moral by an Assurance of Hope But if we Mortifie the Deeds of the Body only Now and Then or by Fits Or if we intend this work but slightly or as it were upon the By Then our former Assumption I do mortifie the deeds of the Body is Impertinent and will sooner bring forth Presumption then any Assurance of Hope or Moral Certainty of our Estate in Grace For Conclusion of this Point Let every one of us take heed not to measure our Hopes of Regeneration or Degrees of Mortification by our readinesse or desire to hear the Word Preached until we have examined our selves Whether This Desire in us be a Desire of the Spirit or of the Flesh Or Whether it proceed from True Religion or from Humour or Fashion of the place Certainly if this desire in many were from the spirit or from true Religion it would be more Uniform and like it self in the Practise They would be as ready at least in some good Measure or Proportion to frequent Publick Prayers as to go often unto Publick Sermons For the Faith of Christ can be had no more With Respect of Christian Duties than With Respect or Persons And the same Authoritie whether Divine or Humane or Ecclesiastick from it derived which injoynes us to hear The Word Preached doth more strictly injoyn us to frequent Publick Prayers specially in seasons wherein we are specially required by Authoritie to thank God for our manifold deliverances from the Messengers of his wrath But from what cause soever our desire of hearing the word Preached proceedeth Our backwardness in frequenting publick Prayers without all doubt ariseth from some workes of the Flesh or Reliques of the Old man which must be Crucified 3. They that are Christs saith our Apostle Gal. 5. 2â— have crucified the flesh with the affections and Lusts Take we heed that none of us argue thus I am Christs therefore I have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts The Apostles meaning is that the safest way for us to know whether we be Christs or no is from this Experiment within our selves if We have crucified the flesh with the affections and Lusts But what doth he mean when he saith The Affections and lusts must be Crucified Doth he require an vtter Extinction or Total Mortification or absolute death of all carnal Affections and Passions before we can be assured that we are Christs No. Such a Total Mortification cannot be hoped for in this Life We are said to be Crucified to the world or to have the Flesh with the Affections Crucified in us First By Profession or Consecration So all that are Baptized into Christ Jesus are said to be Dead to Sin yea to be Buried with him by Baptisme Rom 6. 2. 4. Secondly we are said to be Crucified unto the world or to be Mortified to the Flesh not by Profession only or Resolution but by Practice and this Crucifying or Mortification admits of many Degrees 4. Mortification and Crucifying Termes not â—â—divisible but of Large Extent Crucifying taken in its proper Sense was a most Lingring kind of Death or Torture And men were said to be crucified from the very First Moment of their nayling to the Cross albeit the conflicts betwixt life and death were many and strong for divers houres after Now it is not to be expected that any of us will be as eager or violent in Crucifying our own Flesh as the Jewes were in crucifying our Saviour Seing the Partie to be crucifyed in us is Part of Our Selves we cannot but use it more mildly and gently then the Romans did such as they crucified for Malefactors whom they would not so violently have handled unlesse they had first adjudged them for no members or but for rotten and putrified members of their Body Civil The lesse violent the conflict is between the Spirit and the Flesh or between the Old Man and the New the longer will the Old man live in us the more frequent and sensible his motions will be And finally as he was born with us so he will die with us hardly before us Yet may we be truely said to have Crucified the Old-Man with the Affections and lusts from the verie First Time wherein we begun to nayl them to the Cross of Christ if so we still watch them and seek to quell their Motions by the Spirit They are dayly crucified by Gods Children and yet are daily reviving 5. As often as we receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist with due Preparation Every remembrance or Meditation of Christs Death upon the Cross if it be wrought or managed by the spirit will be as the fastning of A New Nayl into the Old Man or Body of Sin which we carry about with us We cannot think of Christs Death or of the Causes of his Crucifying aright but every thought will be a degree of weakening or enfeebling the Old-Man whom we must by this and the like meanes dayly weaken otherwise he will be our Destruction CHAP. XXXI How the Flesh is Mortified by Vs How by the Spirit This was the Second General Propounded Chapt. 28. And the parts of This Inquiry be Three First In what Sense WE whom this Duty concerns can be said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Body The Second By what Spirit we are to Mortifie them By the Spirit of God by our own Spirit or by Both The Third The Manner and Order of The Spirits Working or of our Working by the Spirit 1. Seeing to Mortifie implies an Action How Man can Mortifie his Flesh THe First Point is most Material and of most use in respect of Modern Controversors If Mortification be as I think none upon better Consideration will deny a True Part of our Conversion How can We be said to Mortifie the Body or Flesh unlesse we may be said to Convert Our Selves which is a Doctrine that Few will like of as being prejudiced by Contrary Tenents much imbraced by men deservedly well approved of by all or most Reformed Churches For Resolution of this Doubt we are in the First place to consider That Regeneration Conversion or Mortification are Termes in their proper Nature Indefinite and so used by the Holy Ghost The Actions or Qualifications comprehended especially under Conversion and Mortification are not of one Rank There is a Conversion Spiritual and a †Conversion or Mortification Spiritual and Moral See the Note at the end of this Section or of Chap. 36. Conversion only Moral There is a Mortification likewise either meerly †Conversion or Mortification Spiritual and Moral See the Note at the end of this Section or of Chap. 36. Moral or truly Spiritual The matter signified or imported by these words Mortification and Conversion whether Moral or Spiritual is not Indivisible Whence it is that we often
Salvation as God is readie to work in them and for them And because God never failes to work salvation in them and for them that are diligent in seeking it or affraid to neglect it therefore they are said to Work out their own Salvation not properly or Formally but Consecutivè that is Salvation is the Necessary Consequent of their working or doth necessarily follow upon their work Not by any force or Efficacie of their Work or by any natural Connexion but meerely by Gods Appointment or Decree The very same phrase in the Original our Saviour useth unto the people John 6. 27. Which words can beare no other Construction then that which we have made of St. Pauls words Philip. 2. 12. no other Interpretation then our English hath already made Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life And so the Vulgar Latin doth not render them verbatim Operamini Cibum but Operamini Cibo Not Work that meat but work for that meat For if That Meat which endureth to eternal Life must be given them by the Son of God if This Meat be the very Bodie and Blood of the Son of God it cannot be the proper Effect of any mans work or any Merit of man but the End or consequent of our Labours or endeavours and yet we are said to work This Meat in the same sense that we are said to work our Salvation viz. Consecutivè because God doth infallibly make us partakers of it if we diligently seek after it or labour for it 7. By the right Use of this Distinction we may reconcile many places of Holy Scripture which seem repugnant one to another as Likewise qualifie many Speeches whether of the Fathers or some Good Modern Writers which otherwise would seem harsh and offensive Who can say saith Solomon Prov. 20. 9. I have made my heart clean This Interrogation is in all mens judgement Equivalent to this Universal Negative No man can say I have made my heart clean Howbeit the Psalmist Psal 73. 13. saith Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain There is no Contradiction between this Psalmists Particular Affirmative I have cleansed my heart and Solomons Universal Negative No man can say I have cleansed my heart Solomon speakes of the Internal Purification which is the proper Effect and sole work of Gods Spirit The Psalmist speakes of his own Labours or Endeavours that his heart might be thus purified by the spirit of God He then did cleanse his heart Consecutivè non Formaliter Every one Saith St. John that hath this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure 1. Joh. 3. 3. This place perhaps Some will say is meant of men Regenerate only seeing they only have that hope whereof the Apostle here speakes Many other such places of scripture there be in which we are said and sometime Commanded to Purifie our Selves as Jam. 4. 8. Cleanse your hands ye Sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded This place cannot be meant of men truely regenerate For even Sinners and double minded men such as men regenerate are not are commanded to cleanse their hands and to purifie their hearts Many other places likewise there be wherein this purifying of the heart is wholly ascribed unto God God saith St. Paul Act. 15. 9. put no difference betwixt us and them purifying their hearts by Faith Not this Purification only But all other Good Works are said to be wrought by God as Esay 26. 12. Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our workes in us or for us And our Saviour saith John 15. ver 5. Without me ye can do nothing Both parts of our former Distinction are included in that of St. Paul 2. Tim. 2. 21. If any man purge himself from these he shall be a Vessel unto honour Sanctified and meet for the Masters Vse and prepared unto every good work His speech is if we mark it He shall be made a Vessell unto honour if he purge himself He doth not say He shall be enabled to make himself a Vessell of Honour Nor doth he in proprietie of speech or as we say Formally or Efficiently purge himself But in that he doth those things whereupon this Purification by Gods Spirit doth immediately follow Man is said to purge himself And so are we in this place of St. Paul Rom 8. said to mortifie the deeds of the bodie by the Spirit when we do those things whereupon this Mortification doth immediately insue not by any Merit or Causalitie of our works but by Gods meere Grace by the Councel of his Holy irresistible Will by the Determination of his Eternal Decree by which it hath pleased him to apoint The One as a Necessarie Consequent of The Other to witt Spiritual Mortification or life it self as the Issue of our endeavours to Mortifie the Flesh This kind of Speech is usual not in Scripture only but in other Good Writers and in our Common Dialect So Tully tells us of a Romane Orator who for want of skill in Civill Law Petijt revera ut causa caderet made a Motion that he might Loose his Cause This Motion he did not make directly or Formally His meaning is that if his Motion had been granted he must by Necessary Consequent have lost his Cause Thus when we see a man Look Old whom we know to be much younger then our selves we usually say You make me an Old Man Not hereby meaning that he hath brought Old-Age or Gray Haires upon us by any trouble or vexation but that he who is much younger then we being apparently Old we must by Consequence be Old So that he makes us Old not Efficiently but only by Consequent truely argues us to be Old According to this Analogie of Speech by which He is said to make us Old whose Age doth truely argue us to be Old is that Prophesie litterally mean◠of Jeremiah which was punctually or formally fulfilled in God or his Christ Jer. 1. 10. See I have this day set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdomes to root out and to Pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant Jeremiah did never Levie an Armie or incite any people to take Armes for the Deposition of their present Governour or for the Alteration of any state yet in as much as He foretold the Extirpation of Some Kingdomes and the Erection or Plantation of Others And in as much as what he foretold did certainly come to passe he is said to have Done that which did Follow upon his Predictions though many yeares after his death And in the same Sense we are said to Mortifie the Flesh to cleanse our Hearts to work out our Salvation yea to make our Election sure when we do those things whereupon our Purification or Mortification shall be wrought though many yeares hence and alwaies wrought by the Omnipotent Power of that Decree by which those Kingdomes
Flesh or to Free himself from the Servitude of the Flesh These and the like Inconveniences have perswaded some to attribute this whole work unto the Spirit of God which is able to do all things without the Coagencie or Consort of the Spirit of Man But thus to avoyd the former Inconveniences is but as if a man having found a Way out of a thicket of Thornes should instantly intangle himself in the Bryars For it is not so Great a Solaecisme to say That the Spirit of Man or man himself should be an Agent in this businesse As to Affirme That whence it would follow that The Spirit of God should in this work of Mortification be mans Instrument For that which Man worketh by the Spirit Man is more properly said to work it then the Spirit Now our Apostle saith that we must mortifie the deedes of the Body And he that Mortifieth is the Agent That by which we work this Mortification is but our Instrument And better it were to say That the Spirit of Man should be mans Instrument in this work rather than the Spirit of God 2. It were according to our Former Principles easily answered that Wee by Our spirit Mortifie the Deedes of our Bodies Consecutivè non Formaliter aut Efficienter that is not by any Efficacie in us or Influence derivable from us The Spirit of God must directly work or Effect it But though this be True yet is it not Punctual to the point proposed For by this Answer the Spirit here meant should only be the Spirit of man For by this Spirit only we work our Mortification Consecutivè That which the Spirit of God doth work in us it works Directly Immediatly and Entirely and in produceing its proper Effects it hath no Partner or Co-Agent It may notwithstanding be yet further replyed that we must Mortifie the Flesh by the spirit of God not as by any Instrumental Cause subordinate to us but in such a sense as we say Inferiour Magistrates do the Acts of the Magistracie by the Kings or Supreme Magistrates Authoritie unto which they and their Magistracie are Subordinate Thus some good * Pasqualius Interpreters upon this place say that we must Mortifie the Flesh by our own Spirit but by our own Spirit as it is Subordinate to the Spirit of God and Consequently to this Assertion it must be granted that this Subordination of our Spirit to the Spirit of God is in this place necessarily included or persupposed though not expressed by our Apostle All this for ought I know may be most True and Orthodoxal but withall too General For Inferiour or subordinate Magistrates are more properly said to be the Agents Even in those things which they do by the Authoritie and warrant of the Superiours whereas the Spirit of God is not only the Author or sole Authorizer but the Principal Actor or Agent in this work of mortification For a more particular and punctual Resolution of the Question proposed we are to unfold the divers acceptions of these Words or Termes to wit THE SPIRIT and MORTIFICATION 3. There is the Spirit of God and there is the Spirit of man Both of them have their several and divers Importances in scripture The Spirit of man may be considered as it is in the Natural Man or in the man altogether unregenerate and This Spirit is at Enmitie with God or in the Man as yet unregenerate yet in the way to Regeneration And the Spirit of this man is privatively opposite to the Spirit of God so as Darknesse is to Light Blindnesse to Sight or Death to Life There is a Spirit likewise in the man Regenerate the same for Substance with the Spirit of the Natural Man the same for Substance that it was in himself before Regeneration but altered in Qualitie And This Spirit though it cease not to be in man yet is it not usually called The Spirit of Man as being no way opposite unto the Spirit of God but Subordinate unto it so Subordinate unto it that it is called The Spirit that is of God and sometimes The Spirit of God 4. These diverse Acceptions of the word SPIRIT as likewise the Distinction or Opposition between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of man are set down by our Apostle 1. Cor. 2. from the ninth verse unto the end of the Chapter What Man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God ver 11. He doth not say the spirit of God which is in God or with God And when He saith What man knoweth the things of man save the Spirit of Man he supposeth there is even in the Natural and unregenerate Man a Spirit able to discerne the secret thoughts and imaginations of his heart though blind and ignorant in the things concerning God Againe when he saith the things of God knoweth no man he excludeth the Natural man only or the man to whom God hath not imparted the Gifts of the Spirit For so he hath said ver 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Into What Mans heart have they not entred Or unto What Man doth this Negative belong Only to the Natural or unregenerate Man For so he adds verse 10. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 5. What Spirit is this which searcheth all things Even the deep things of God the Spirit of God which is without Vs or which communicateth knowledge and reveales things hidden unto us If this Spirit were here meant How should those deep things of God be revealed unto us Revealed to us they cannot be unlesse they be known by us and known by Us they cannot be but by the Spirit which is in us So he adds more expressly Ver. 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world that is the Spirit which is of man but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to Vs of God If by the Spirit which we have received we know the things which are freely given to us of God This Spirit must be made Ours it must be One with Our Spirit it is not the Spirit of God which is Without Vs or which works our Regeneration but the Spirit by which we become formally Regenerate and Spiritual And Punctually to this purpose the Apostle haveing said ver 14. The Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him Neither can he know them so long as he remaines a Natural Man because they are Spiritually discerned he adds by way of opposition ver 15. 16. But he that is Spiritual judgeth or discerneth all things Yet He himself is judged of no man For who hath known the mind of the Lord
will recover without further medicine From this Analogie or proportion betwixt the diseases of the Soul and of the body it is I take it that we are not injoyned to mortifie the Spirit For the Apostle supposeth that the Flesh being mortified the Cure is wrought without any peculiar Mortification of the Spirit distinct from it Or rather He supposed and knew that the mortification of the Flesh could not be wrought without Renovation or Quickening of the Spirit For though it be true which some Moralists say Mens deprecatur ad optima that The Spirit or Conscience doth as it were intreat and counsel Malefactors themselves unto that which is Good Yet the Spirit and Conscience of the best men before they be renewed by the Spirit of God doth perform this work but Weakly Sleightly or Cowardly And the Reason why the Spirit or Conscience of men of good men in respect of others is so defective in this performance of its proper Function is only because it is overborn or kept under or in part corrupted by Carnal Affections or contrary inclinations of the Body or flesh which for this Reason must be mortified Therefore the Apostle when He exhorts to put off the Old Man which is corrupt through the deceitfull Lusts injoynes them to be renewed in the Spirit of their Mind Ephe. 4. 22. 23. 10. There is a Twofold Mortification The One consists in the weakening deading or benumming of Carnal Affections or Desires The Other is alwayes wrought and perfected by a Positive Purification of the Heart or Fountain whence the Affections flow A man may cease to be unchast or Lascivious by age or other Casual Impotencie So may a man cease to be drunk by some disease or distast Another may cease to be Ambitious or have his Ambitious desires benummed or weakened as being either bereaved of opportunities to raise his Fortunes or disenabled to follow his Suites or hopes of Preferment Mortification is then perfect when the Affection it self is as it were rescued from the Carnal Desires or Delights wherein it was involved and is won or trayned to the Service of the Spirit CHAP. XXXIV Containing the Manner and Order of The Spirits Working or of Our Working by The Spirit 1. THe Question remaines How these Two sorts of mortification are wrought by The Spirit or by Vs To this Disquisition concerning the Cure of the Soul there is a Question very Pertinent amongst the Physitians of the Body Whether the Cure of mens Souls be wrought by Contraries or Symbolicals One sort sayes Omne Remedium fit per Contrarium The Others say Omne Remedium fit per Simile The Difference betwixt them may be easily reconciled with the Distinction of the Infirmities and Diseases which are to be cured or of the Subject whereunto the said Medicine may be said to be Like Dislike or Contrarie 2. The Medicine may be sometimes Contrarie to the Matter of the Disease but Like unto the Nature opposed Sometimes again the Medicine may be Contrary to the Nature but Agreeable with the matter of the Disease wherewith Nature is opposed Some Diseases properly consist in meer weaknesse of Nature or Languishment of Spirit and these must be cured per Simile by administration of such Diet or Receipts as may immediatly comfort the Fountain of Life which consists in Calido Humido in moderate heat and moysture As for this reason Hot-waters to men in Swounds are fittest and warm Brothes or Cordials to men otherwise Feeble or deprived of heat and moisture Other Diseases consist either in Excessive Heat or abundance of Blood and these must be cured by the Contrarie as by opening a Veine or by cooling Diet or medicines Too much fulnesse of Body cannot be holpen but by abstinence or Evacuation However both sorts of Physitians agree that when all is done Nature is the best Physitian and that is the best Physick which setts Nature Free to exercise her own strength or Strengthens her to expell noysom humours which cloy or molest her But oft times it so falls out that Nature cannot be thus freed of bad Humors which are setled in the Body without administration of some thing that is Contrary unto Nature but Consorteth so well with the Humors which oppresse her that Nature being inforced to expell this In-mate or New-Comer doth with the same force expell a secret or domestick Enemie which had associated himself unto it As sometimes the Law cannot proceed against secret Enemies of the state untill they be drawn to associate or joyn themselves to other apparent forrain Enemies with whom they perish or are expelled their Native Countrey together with them Again although the Conflict be alwaies most eager and keen between Natures most Contrarie yet that which every Contrarie Agent doth in the first place aym at is not utterly to destroy its Oppoâ—ite but to make it like it self albeit the one often come to destroy the other by seeking to make it grow like it self The heat of the fire doth not directly aym or strike at the cold in the water but seekes to communicate its own heat unto it and the heat produced in the water doth immediatly and directly expell the cold and at length consume the substance of water 3. For better explicating the Manner how both kinds of Mortification are wrought by the Spirit Or how they are wrought by the Spirit of God how by the spirit of man or by the spirit which is in Man Or how by Contraries How by Similitude we are in the First place to consider Three Estates or Conditions of Men How the Cure of the Soul is wrought in severall sorts or Conditions of men The First of the Natural Man that is of him which as yet is in no sort partaker of the spirit of God which hath had no touch or feeling of its Operation in him or upon him The Second is of men which have been partakers of the Spirit but as we say in Fieri not in Facto Such as feele the motions of Gods Spirit whilest it moves them that is they are partakers of its Motions or touches but not of its Residence in them or of any Permanent Impression made upon them The Third Sort is of men made partakers of the Spirit in Habit that is as the Apostle speakes they have the Spirit dwelling in them and are enlivened and enquickened by it The manner how Mortification is wrought in these Three severall sorts or Conditions of men by the Spirit is not the same In the First sort the Cure is Commonly Begun by the Contrary but alwaies Finished by Assimilation God sometimes weakens the inclinations of the natural man against his wil without Consent of his own Spirit Some men are prone to offend or to surfet of the flesh unto death by the abundance of health or too Lively plight of Body and these God in mercie sometimes visits with grievous sicknesses for preventing the diseases which would otherwise grow upon them
Mortification is wrought We are to consider that albeit the Lusts of the Flesh are simply evill yet the Affections wherein they are alwayes seated are in their nature neither simply Good nor simply Evill but of an Indefinite or Indifferent Temper between Moral Goodnesse and that which is Morally Evill They become Good or Evill or at leastwise more or lesse evill according to the several marks at which they aym or the diversitie of the Objects on which they bestow themselves or of the Issues which they find True it is that the Fountain of our Affections is so tainted by Original corruption that no Affections or desires as they issue from the heart of the Natural collapsed man are pure or free from stain or sin yet they become more or Lesse filthy or criminous according to the Course or Current which they take The Fountain of the First Mans Affections was clear and pure yet were his desires polluted by the Vent or Issue which they took as a stream or Rivulet which takes its Original from a pure Rock doth instantly lose its Original Puritie by falling into a muddy Channel or running through a filthy sink especially if the Current by stoppage or other external cause do Reciprocate upon the Fountain or spring On the Contrarie the water which springeth out of a mosse or quagg becomes purer and clearer by taking its course through a Rock or Gravel It being granted then that the verie Fountain of our Affections or desires is polluted and unclean the Mortification whereof we speak is then truely wrought when the natural Affections wherein the Lusts of the flesh are seated are recovered or diverted from the Course of the Flesh and won unto the Conduit of the Spirit The Flesh or deeds of the Body must be Mortified But this mortification must be wrought not by mortifying or destroying but first by purifying then by quickening or reviving the natural Affection wherewith the Lusts of the flesh do mingle as mire or filth doth with water which falls into it or as bad humours do with the blood 4. Lasciviousnesse is reckoned by St. Paul amongst the works of the flesh And Mary Magdalen who had been Notoriously Wanton and Lascivious had this member of the Old man truely Mortified in her without enfeebling or benumming the Affection of Love it self which was as strong in her as ever it had been but set upon its right mark and imployed in the Service of the Spirit She stood saith the Text at our Saviours Feet behind him weeping and began to Wash his Feet with teares and did wipe them with the haires of her head and kissed his feet and annointed them with the oyntment Luk. 7. 38. Thus she did because she Loved much And she Loved much because many sins were forgiven her Her Wanton Love or rather the wantonnesse of her love was truely Mortified by the vivification or Quickening of Spiritual Love in her For the Love of the flesh was mortified by the Love of the Spirit 5. The accomplishment of Mortification consists not in deading but in winning the Affections unto the Spirit Amongst other Deeds of the Body amongst all the Lusts of the Flesh Pride or Ambition is the most dangerous and must be Mortified by the Spirit But wherein doth the true Mortification of it consist Not in Negatives not in an Absolute disesteem of all Honour or disclaiming all desire of praise or reputation For this may stand with Stoical stupiditie or Cynical sloth or nasty proud contempt of the world which kind of temper hath least affinity with that Mortification which becomes a Christian For This requires that the Affection it self remain entire for the service of the Spirit Rom. 6. 19. The Affection out of which Pride or Ambition groweth as a Wen out of a comely Body is a Desire of Praise or Honour Neither is all Desire of any Honour nor the Excessive desire of some Honour a work or lust oâ— the Flesh or any branch of Pride or Ambition which properly consists in the immoderate Desire of that Honour which is from men This indeed is a Lust of the Flesh or Carnal Concupiscence which must be Mortified And the best Method for the Mortification of this Desire is by raising the esteem or price of that Honour which cometh from God This Desire must have the predominant sway in our heart before we can be true Beleevers So our Saviour teacheth us Iohn 5. 44. How can ye beleeve which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God Only Now without true Belief there can be no true Mortification The same Spirit which worketh Faith or Belief in us doth with it and by it give us the true esteem of that Honour which cometh From God Alone The true esteem of this Honour being imprinted upon our soul and spirit doth increase the Desire of it And as the Desire of it is increased Pride and ambition which is but a desire of that Honour which is from Men or from the world must needes decrease and by thus decreasing be truely Mortified 6. Another most dangerous work of the Flesh is Covetousness The mortification of this work or member of the old man doth not consist in a Retchless Temper or neglective Content in Living from hand to mouth without any provident care for Times Future for this is Sottishness The desire of riches is not a sin but a natural Affection which must not be Mortified that is not destroyed but revived and quickened Wherein then doth Covetousness consist Not simply in the Desire of riches but in the Excessive desire of such riches as perish or of such other meanes or of necessaries of Life as are less worth then Life it self The Affection or Desire of riches is not to be quelled but to be diverted from its muddie Channel by the Spirit of Mortification This spirit of Life doth draw or conduct our desires that way which the Lord of Life commands them to take that is to seek after Riches but after Riches of another kinde Lay not up for your selves treasure upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where theeves break through and steal But Lay up for your selves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where theeves do not break through and steal Mat. 6. 19. 20. By the Parable Likewise of the unjust Steward and that other of the Talents we are commanded to imitate or rather to out-strip the Usurer or cunning Bargainer for worldly Commodities in diligent care and watchfull observance for increasing this Heavenly Treasure in being as wise and careful in doing good to others as Worldlings are in doing good unto themselves No man offends in being vigilant and careful but in imploying his witts and care for gaining Transitory Wealth which is less worth then his Life or soul whereas this bodily Life it self is well Lost or Laid to pawn for gaining Treasure in Heaven 7. Drunkenness is a work
of the Flesh which must be mortified The Affection whence this Loathsome stream doth spring is a desire of mirth or pleasure For no man directly desires to be Drunk All men naturally desire to be Merrie as having an internal spring of delight or mirth in themselves which naturally desires an issue or vent otherwise the Soul and Spirit becomes sodden in Melancholy Hence it is that many mens Affections detesting this Melancholy humour be drenched in this Filthy sink or puddle of Drunkenness which is but a Sinister or preposterous Issue of inbred Mirth The true Mortification of this monster is not to be sought by quelling or weakening the Affection whence it springs but rather by giving it another Issue or vent Thus much is implyed in our Apostles advice Eph. 5. 18. Be not Drunk with wine wherein is Excess but be filled with the spirit speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making Melody in your heart to the Lord. Our Apostle here supposeth that the spirit of God which alone worketh the mortification of this sin and other Lusts of the flesh although he detests all drunken ryotous mirth is not a dull spirit of melancholy It delighteth much in its own musick alwaies desirous to hear pleasant songs of its own setting And there is no meanes so Effectual for drowning drunken mirth as a full consort of the musick of this spirit Beatus populus quiscit Jubilationem hanc Blessed are the People That can rejoyce in Thee O Lord. 8. The perfect Cure of the Soul is wrought Per Simile Thus it is plain how this Cure must be wrought by Contraries and yet per simile by the Like too The Lusts of the Flesh must be Mortified by the Spirit and yet these are Contraries But if we descend unto Particulars Ambition or desire of honour must be mortified by desire of Honour Covetousness which is a desire of Riches must be mortified by the desire of Riches Drunkenness which is a Desire of Mirth must be mortified by a desire of Mirth Immoderate carnal Love must be mortified by excessive Love of Christ and of things Spiritual Between the Desires themselves there is as true Similitude as is between the several currents of water which issue from the same spring or fountain but as perfect a Contrarietie between the Objects and issues of the desires as there is between the several waters of the same fountain whilest the One runnes in a pure rock or conduit pipe and the other into a sink or puddle 9. To Conclude then The spirit of God doth first purifie the Fountain of our Desires that is the spirit or Conscience of man The spirit of man being thus quickened and purified doth by direction and assistance of the same Spirit of God divert the current of his Desires and give a new vent or issue to his Affections And the Desires or Affections by this diversion of their Current receive a further Degree of Purification from the Ocean or Sea into which they empty themselves that is from Heaven and the heavenly Lights on which they are sett Between the Current of our Desires or Affections thus purified by the spirit of God and the Coelestial Objects whereon they are sett there is such Reciprocation or mutual recourse as it were between a stream of pure water and a Sea of Nectar the stream or spring still falling into the sea and the sea still sweetning the stream by reflowing upon it The spirit of Christ which knowes no bounds or Limits which is more boundless then the Ocean delights in our Desires or Affections whilest they are sett upon heavenly things And the more his spirit is delighted in our Desires and Affections thus emptying and pouring out themselves the more he purifies and sweetens them by the influence of his Gratious Spirit Yet are not any mans Affections so throughly sweetned by the Spirit of Grace in this Life as not to retain some permanent Tincture or mixture of the Flesh Howbeit every man is Throughly mortified in whom the spirit of Christ hath gotten the Soveraigntie over the Flesh and won the better part of the natural Affections to its service But whether this Soveraigntie being Once gotten may not Finally or for a time at least be lost Heave it to the determination of the Schooles My application for the present shall be from the words of the Son of Syrach Ecclus. 38. 25 26. Though the book be Apocryphal yet his observation in this place is Canonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisdome of a Learned man cometh by opportunity of Leasure or as some read by right imployment of his vacant time And he that hath little businesse shall become wise How can he get wisdome that holdeth the Plough and that glorieth in the Goad that driveth Oxen and is occupied in their Labours and whose * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 talk is of Bullocks Or of the breed of bullocks His verdict concerning Handy-Crafts-Men is for the most part true of Men full of that which we call Book-Learning or imployed in matters of Government of Sate Would to God it were not too true of many that have little Business In respect of this private Learning Every one of us Especially in these times have Bookes enough of our own so we would sequester some competent times or vacant seasons for serious perusing them Every mans course of life and dayly Actions are the best Bookes for this Learning And no man can so well read them as his own Spirit and Conscience Herein then consists the Wisdom of him that is in part and desires to be A â—etter Christian First in careful Observing the Touches of Gods punishing or chastising Hand Secondly in Reflecting upon the motions of his Spirit Thirdly in duly Examining Every day What advantage the Flesh hath gotten against the Spirit or the Spirit against the Flesh All this being done the best imployment of all these Talents which God commits unto our trust must be in acknowledgeing our whole strength to be from God and in Consecrating our best endeavours by continual Prayer for the assistance of his Spirit In this Last Point we are Active yet Active only to the End that we may be Towardly Passive that we grieve not the Good Spirit of God by which our Sanctification must be wrought He will not forsake Vs unless we forsake Him first But as water which hath been heated by the fire congeales the soonest after it be taken off and removed from it So they ☜ which have felt the Motions of Gods Spirit and have been in some measure Mortified by it freez the soonest in the dregs and Lusts of the flesh and have their hearts extraordinarily hardened if once they forsake him or so grieve him that he cease to renew or continue his former Motions But he that will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him and will pray before the most High and will open his
Propositions are as we say Hypothetical or Conditional and if either should be denyed or questioned the only Course which the Schools which are the high Courts of Reason for Judging of Arguments afford would be to plead these Categorical or absolute Propositions Whosoever lives after the flesh shall die Whosoever mortifies the Deeds of the body through the Spirit shall live And our Apostle himself ver 6. had premised Two absolute Categoricall Propositions to inferre or prove these two Conditional Propositions in the Text. For so he saith To be Carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Now albeit he hath added no Quantitie to these Two Categorical Propositions yet in that he saith To be carnally minded is death and To be spiritually minded is life This Infers That Death is the Necessary Consequent of Carnal Living and Life likewise the Infallible Consequent of being spiritually minded All must mortifie though not totally And it is an Infallible Rule of Reason That Any Proposition betwixt whose Parts the Connexion is Necessary is Equivalent to an Universal although it be delivered in Terms Indefinite or without addition of any Quantity So that when our Apostle saith To be carnally minded is death To be spiritually minded is life his Speech is altogether as ful and more Emphatical then if he had said Whosoever lives after the flesh shall die Whosoever through the Spirit mortifies the deeds of the body shall live Howbeit These Two Propositions in the Text thus Reduced to Categoricals and Rendred Vniversal by a Note or Sign of such Quantitie are Vniversal only in Respect of the Persons whom this duty of Mortification concerns Vniversal they are not but Indefinite in Respect of the Duty enjoyned or Matter proposed 2. To find out some more distinct limit or Limitation of them in respect of the Matter proposed The Limitation set out in Three Negatives we are to begin as in the like Cases the Method requires from Negatives The First Negative is this Though all men after they come to years of discretion be necessarily tyed to Mortify the Flesh yet no man is tyed under pain of damnation to an absolute or Total Mortification of it This is Impossible in this life Though sin as the Apostle speaks be the Sting of death and Carnal Intentions be the Arrows or darts of Sathan yet is not every Carnal thought or every degree of minding the flesh so deadly in the issue unto the Soul as the Parthian Arrows were to mens Bodies for they carried death upon their points and gave it possession of every body whose skin they brake Fatumque in sanguine summo est They let Death in at the least breach whereat Bloud could come out But every moment of life led after the flesh doth not thus Necessarily bring forth the death here meant The second Negative is this It is not every Degree or Part of Mortification that will suffice to bring forth the Life here meant For he doth not say if ye have Mortified the deeds of the body but if ye do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live These Two Negatives are as the Two Tropicks betwixt which the Limitation of the former Proposition in respect of the Matter proposed or Duty enjoyned is wholly Situate It is a Positive Mean between them somewhat Lesse then any Absolute or Total Mortification Somewhat More then every Degree or Practise of Mortification yet all this is but Indefinite This Positive Mean betwixt the former Negatives must of necessitie be either some kind of Mortification for Quality more Precious then the Mortification which most men ordinarily affect or practise or some Greater Measure of the same Mortification whereof most men are partakers at some times 3. As Great mens quick Goods are presumed to be of a better kind or breed then the like goods of their poor neighbours for Noble-mens Geese as the Proverb is are Swans So there be some who will have all Qualifications whether of Life or Practise all Acts of Duty or Performances to be of a better kind or rank in the Elect then they are in Others And in these mens Dialect or Divinity the Answer to the proposed Querie were easy and would be This. They which Mortifie the deeds of the body in such sort as the Elect do they certainly shall Live for the Elect do truly mortifie them albeit not in so full a Measure And as Belief so Mortification in Them especially how Little soever it be Points of Election c. are not to determine but to be determined by more general points so it be True will suffice unto salvation But in the Divinity which I have learned the points of Election and Reprobation are to be determined of if at all they may be determined of by the Resolution of other more General and more facile Queries They are preposterously brought to the Determination of any other Difficulties Alwayes the Resolutions of the Generals must be Introductions to the Resolution or clearing of more Special Difficulties Special Difficulties can be no Introduction to the Resotion of General Queries Now this duty of Mortification and the Transgression of it to wit Living after the flesh are far more General then the estate of Election or Reprobation Seeing as I am often forced to repeat it is but a litle Point of mankind a small Portion of men which are partakers of the Word or Sacraments which are for the Present contained under either part of This Division All are not Elect or Reprobate But all live after the flesh or after the Spîrit either in the State of Election or Reprobation But under this Division of Living after the flesh or after the spirit all are comprehended Again in as much as we our selves are all imployed in this Work of Mortification we may have more certain Experiments of our Progress in this Duty then we can have of our estate of Election which is meerly the work of God we have no finger no imployment in it The truth is Only they who have mortified the deeds of the Body in such a measure as our Apostle here requires are in the State of Election Only they who have made up such a measure of sin or Living after the Flesh as induceth the Sentence of death here mentioned are in the absolute State of Reprobation So that the Positive Mean between the two former Negatives must be taken from the measure not from the Specifical Quality or nature of mortification The very Phrase or Character of our Apostle If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Necessarily includes a Perseverance in either kind A Perseverance there must be in this Duty of Mortification before we can have full and perfect Interest in this Promise Without Perseverance or Continuance in this life of the Flesh none are inevitably sentenced unto the death here denounced
And in this sense that of St. Ambrose with whose Expressions of this Mysterie many in our times have been altogether causelesly much offended when thou hadest overcome the sharpness of death thou didest open the kingdom of heaven to all Believers ought to be taken Nothing can be more plain or more Concludently proved from our Saviours own words and his Apostles Comments on them than this That The Kingdom of Heaven it self was not Erected was not established untill that Jesus whom the Jews had Crucifyed was made both Lord and Christ and placed as Man at the Right Hand of his Father 3. To dilate further upon this Point for this Present I dare not lest I should lose my way or forget to return to the other Parallel proposed to wit What heavenly Mansion or Sanctuary the first Part of the earthly Tabernacle or Court whereinto the ordinary Priests went every day did represent or foreshaddow I shall not trespass against any Article of Faith or Rule of interpreting Scriptures nor I hope offend any ingenuous Conscience by delivering my Opinion in a Point wherein the Scripture as I conceive is silent or which can neither be enforced upon Us as any part of Christian Belief nor be refuted by any Rule of Faith To my apprehension of our Apostles meaning Heb. 8. ver 5. That place or Mansion in the heavenly Tabernacle wherein Abraham Lazarus c. did rest before The Kingdom of heaven was set open to all Beleivers was That Place or Court which Atrium Sacerdotum the Court of the Priests in the first Tabernacle or in Salomons Temple did Picture out unto us Or if the soules of the Faithful were not admitted into That Place before Christs death we cannot allot a Lower or Outermer Mansion in heaven it self than that which Atrium Congregation is that is the Court of the Congregation in Salomons Temple whereinto the Congregation of Israel which were no Priests were admitted and taught by the Priests did represent However it be That heavenly Mansion or Sanctuary which in proportion truly answered to the Sanctuary or Court of Priests in the material Temple was no such happy Seat of Bliss before Christs Death as it was made by it For by his Bloud it was finally Consecrated or dedicated to be what now it is a True Temple which was the Second Parallel proposed CHAP. XLVI A Parallel betwixt the Rites of Dedicating the Tabernacle the Vessels c. with Bloud of Beasts And of Consecrating the Heavenly Places with the most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ 1. THe Place or Station for drawing this Parallel aright is Hebr. 9. Neither was the first Testament dedicated without Bloud For when Moses had spoken every Praecept to all the People according to the Law he took the bloud of Calves and of Goates with water and Scarlet wooll and Hyssop and sprinkled both the Book and all the people saying This is the bloud of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you Moreover he sprinkled with bloud both the Tabernacâ— and all the vessels of the Ministerie And almost all things are by the Law purged with Bloud and without shedding of bloud is no Remission Ver. 18 19 20 21 22. All this he speakes according to the plain Litteral Sense of the Law concerning the Purifying or Consecrating of the Earthly Tabernacle with its Vessels or Implements The Mystical Sense or meaning of the Matters of Fact or Practises performed by Moses and Aaron when they consecrated the first Tabernacle with the bloud of Bullocks and Goates c. is litterally explained unto us by this our Apostle in the verses following It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purifyed with these but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these ver 23. These words admit no Metaphors or Tropes but have their proper and Real Logical Sense The Argument is most punctually Concludent The Similitude or paterns of heavenly things were purified with bloud therefore the heavenly things themselves that is the Caelestial Tabernacles were to be purged and consecrated with the bloud of Christ our high Priest which is now entred into them for our Sanctification and final Redemption To inquire what should become of all our Saviours bloud whether shed in his Agonie or upon the Cross will seem I know A Curious Question specially to slothful Students in Divinitie On the otherside it would argue a drowsie Fancie either voluntarily to imagine or to be by others perswaded That his most Precious bloud being shed in such abundance should be like water spilt upon the ground either swallowed up by the dry earth or mingled with dust or dispersed by the heat of the Sun and resolved into vapours Seeing every drop of it was truly The bloud of God It can be no Sin to suppose nay to believe that All of it was by his death made as his Body now is Immortal that All of it was preserved entire and sincere and brought either by his own immediate power or by the Ministery of his holy Angels into those heavenly Sanctuaries which were to be CONSECRATED by it to be the Seats or Mansions of everlasting bliss unto all true Believers and thus brought in at the time of his Entrance into Paradise in soule though not in Body which was immediately after he had commended his Spirit unto his heavenly Father 2. If unto all that hath been said in this Argument I should further adde That the most precious bloud of the Son of God which was shed for the Ransom of our Sins in the Garden or upon the Cross and brought into the Celestial Tabernacle upon his death whether reunited to his Glorified Body or glorified in it self and preserved apart from his body doth still retain an everlasting Efficacy for the daily Purifying of our hearts and working Sanctification in us I presume the Intelligent or ingenuous Reader will interpret this Assertion rather for a Point of speculation not much thought upon by others than any Paradox or Heterodoxal Doctrine of my own Invention But of the true Vertual presence or Real Operation of the Body and Bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ upon our Soules in so great distance as is between the most high and most holy Celestial Sanctuary and these material Temples here on earth wherein we Celebrate and Solemnize the memorie of his Death and passion more punctually and more fully if God shall be pleased to give leave In the 11. Book hereafter All which I have here affirmed or intimated will uncontrollably follow from our Apostles Doctrine in this Epistle and from other Passages of his Fellow Apostles To begin with that of Heb. 9. 11 c. Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the bloud of Goates and Calves but by his own bloud he entred in once into the holy place
Means much available for strengthening of Faith or for repairing those decayes or ruines which the subtiltie of Satan works in our soules yet the Reiteration of the Sacrament of Baptism is neither Necessary nor allowable much lesse Commendable for such purposes And the Raritie or rather Singularitie of It was to my apprehension Emblematically prefigured by the Sacrifice of the Red Heifer or the Water of sprinkling which was Legally sanctified or consecrated by her Ashes The Law concerning this kind of Purification is not to be found I take it in Leviticus at least not in that sixteenth Chapter wherein the Law of the Sacrifice of attonement is punctually set down However the forementioned Glossarie upon the Romish Canon for consecrating Holy Water either through negligence See Chapt. 48 Num. 6. or ignorance or both avouch that place for it If the sacrifice of the Red Heifer had belonged unto the Feast of attonement it must have been reiterated once every year whereas the Hebrew Antiquaries affirm that this solemnitie was not used above tea times during all the time of the Law of the Tabernacle or Temple And whether it were so often used may be questioned because there is no Law or Precept for the Continuation of it but only for the use of the water of sprinkling being once consecrated by it so often as the occasion specified in the Law did require 2. But unlesse the frequent use of the water so mingled with the ashes did wast or exhaust the ashes of that one sacrifice which Eleazar not Aaron was commanded to offer These might have been preserved without putrifaction for a longer time then the Law of Ceremonies was to endure For Ashes as good Naturalists tell us being well kept are immortal or an Emblem of Immortalitie But it may be that as soon or as often as the Ashes of any such sacrifice were by frequent use of the water of sprinkling exhausted or wasted the Legal Priests were bound by the Law mentioned to offer another for consecrating the water of sprinkling whose use was to continue as long as the reason mentioned in the Law did indure 3. The chief use or End of the water of sprinkling mingled with the Ashes of this sacrifice was to purifie such as had made themselves Legally unclean or had casually fallen into such uncleanness One branch of this uncleanness was the touching or being touched by any Dead Corps And unto this use of the water of sprinkling mentioned Numb 19. 11. that of our Apostle Heb. 9. 14. hath special Reference more then Allusion How much more shall the bloud of Christ purge our Consciences from DEAD works That this Legal Sacrifice for sinne was an Exquisite Type of Christs Bloudy Death and sufferings or an exact picture of his bloud wherewith the heavenly Sanctuary or Holy places were purified although the bloud of this Legal sacrifice were not brought into the Earthly Sanctuary no good Writers which I have read either deny or question That the Water of sprinkling consecrated by the aspersion of the Ashes of this Legal Sacrifice did truely resemble the water of Baptism by which we are washed from sin and consecrated unto God as clean persons that is made members of his Church here on earth is so evident in it self that it needs no Paraphrase or Laborious Comment upon the fore-cited Law Yet to this purpose the learned Reader may find much pertinent matter in Chytraeus his Comments upon the Book of Numbers and in many others It will be more needful or better suiting with my intentions in this place to prevent the captious exceptions which some Anti-Papists have heretofore taken and now resume against the expressions of our Publick Liturgie in that Part of it which concerns the Administration of Baptism Almighty and everlasting God which of thy great mercie diddest save Noah and his Familie in the Ark from perishing by water and also diddest safely lead the children of Israel through the red sea figuring thereby thy holy Baptism and by the Baptism of thy wel-beloved Son Iesus Christ diddest sanctifie the floud Iordan and all other waters to the mystical washing away of sin We beseech thee for thine infinite mercies that thou wilt mercifully look upon these Children Sanctifie them and wash them with the holy Ghost that they being delivered from thy wrath may be received into the Ark of Christs Church and being stedfast in faith joyful through hope and rooted in charity may so passe the waves of this troublesome world that finally they may come to the land of everlasting life there to reign with thee world Without end through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen Seeing now dearly beloved Brethren that these Children be regenerate and grafted into the body of Christs Congregation let us give thanks unto God for these Benefits and with one accord make our prayers unto Almightie God that they may lead the rest of their life according to this beginning We yeild thee heartie thanks most merciful Father that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant with thy holy Spirit to receive him for thine own Child by adoption and to incorporate him into thy holy Congregation and humbly we beseech thee to grant that he being dead unto sin and living unto righteousness and being buried with Christ in his death may crucifie the old man and utterly abolish the whole body of sin that as he is made partaker of the death of thy Son so he may be partaker of his resurrection so that finally with the residue of thy holy congregation he may be Inheritor of thine everlasting Kingdom through Christ our Lord. Amen 4. It is no part of our Churches Doctrin or meaning that the washing or sprinkling infants bodyes with Consecrated water should take away sinnes by it's own immediate Vertue To affirm thus much implies as I conceive a Contradiction to that Apostolical doctrin The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who is gone into heaven c. 1. Pet. 3. 21. The meaning of our Church intends no further then thus That if this Sacrament of Baptism be duely administred the blood or bloody Sacrifice of Christ or which is all one the Influence of his spirit doth alwaies accompany or is Concurrent to this solemn Act. But whether this Influence of his spirit or Vertual presence of his body and blood be either immediatly or only terminated to the soul and spirit of the party Baptized or have some vertual influence upon the water of Baptism as a mean to convey the Grace of Regeneration unto the soule of the partie Baptized whilest the water is poured upon him is Too Nice and curious a Question in this Age for sober Christians to debate or contend about It may suffice to beleive that this Sacramental pledge hath a Vertual Presence of Christs Blood or some Real
Influence from his Body Concomitant though not Consubstantiated to it which is prefigured or signified by the washing or sprinkling the body with water 5. But it will be or rather is Objected but only by privat or some sawcy spirits That if the Doctrin of our Church were true and sound then all that be rightly Baptized should be undoubtedly saved being once washed or cleansed from their sinnes The Objection were of some force if the Church of England did hold or maintain such Doctrin or Tenets as they do which make or favour it to wit That the sins of the Elect only are remitted by Baptism or by the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood or That sins once remitted cannot be remitted afresh or that the Partie which is once pardoned for his sins before commited cannot afterwards be condemned The Orthodoxal Truth is That albeit the Original Sin of Children truly Baptized in the name of Christ or the Actual sins of young or elder men so Baptized and the sins of their forefathers so far as it concernes men of riper yeares to repent them of both be so truly remitted in Baptism that neither young men nor old may be Baptized again Yet the Astipulation of a good Conscience wherein the internal Baptism as St. Peter tells doth consist may and ought by the Law of God and of Christs Church to be reiterated And this Astipulation of every Christian male or femal though baptized after they have passed their Nonage for Civil contracts Though Baptisme may not be reiterated yet The Astipulation of a good Conscience or the Enquireing to God may dayly and must often be renewed ought to be resumed or re-acknowledged so often as they intend to receive the Sacramental pledges of Christs body and blood either privately or in the publick congregation But for all such as have been baptized in their Infancie the Personal Resumption or Ratification of that VOW which their Fathers and Mothers in God did make for them at the Sacred Laver is to be exacted of them Ore tenus in some publick Congregation before they can be lawfully admitted to be Publick Communicants of Christs Body and Blood 6. There is then no default or defect in the Church of England Doctrin or Lawes concerning Baptism No child or Infant Baptized may or ought to be admitted unto the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood before he have in his own person ratified that VOW which his Sureties or spiritual Guardians did make for him at the Sacred Font where Chrîst is as â—ruly present as at the Sacrament of the Altar as some term it or Confirmation of such as have been babaptized in their infancie But I dare not avouch so much for justifying the men unto whom the Execution of these Lawes is especially commended whether they be of Lower of higher or of the highest Rank It hath not been my hap to peruse very many Presentments of Church-Wardens or Inferiour Priests in Visitations Yet of those few or any whereof I have had some Cognizance I have observed but a very few or scarce remember any tendred against the Parents or such as were Sureties for Infants at the sacred Font for not bringing them at convenient times to be Confirmed or blessed by the Bishop of the Diocese or against inferiour Ministers for not Preparing those the Cure of whose soules was immediatly committed to them to receive the Confirmation of their Faith by the Benediction of the Diocesane much lesse against Diocesanes themselves for not executing their office in this Great Service of the Church either in their own Persons or by their Suffraganes 7. Whether the solemn Baptizing of all Infants which are the children of presumed Christian Parents throughout this Kingdom without solemn Astipulation that they shall at years of discretion personally ratifie their Vow in baptism in publick in such manner as the Church requires be not rather more Lawful or more tolerable then Expedient I leave it with all submission to the consideration of Higher Powers In the mean time I shall every day blesse my Lord God as for all others so in particular for this Great Blessing bestowed upon me that I was in a Convenient Age in a happy time and place presented by my Sureties in Baptism to ratifie the VOW which they made for me and to receive the Benediction of the Bishop of the Diocese being first instructed in the Churches Catechism by the Curate of the Parish from whose Lips though but a meer Grammar Scholer and one that knew better how to read an Homilie or to understand Hemingius or other Latine Postills then to make a Sermon in English I learned more good Lessons then I did from many popular Sermons and to this day remember more then men at this time of greater years shall find in many late applauded Catechisms CHAP. LI. Inordinate Libertie of Prophesying brought Errours into the Church disgrac'd and hindred the Reformation 1. ALbeit the Reverend Fathers of our Church and their Suffraganes should use all possible care and diligence for performing of all that is on their parts required yet without some better conformitie of Catechismâ— and reformation of such as write them or preach Doctrines conformable to them there is small hope that in such plentie of Preachers as now there are this work of the Lord should prosper half so well as it did in those TIMES and in those Dioceses wherein there were scarce ten able Preachers besides the Prebendaries of the Cathedral Church under whose Tuition in a manner the rest of the Clergie were I well remember and I cannot but remember it with joy of heart that the Synods in that Diocesse wherein I was bred did constantly examine the Licenced Readers how they had profited in learning by their Exercises which they did as duly exhibit unto the Chancellor Archdeacon c as they did their Orders or their Fees Such as had profited well were Licenced to Preach once a moneth or once a quarter having certain Books appointed from whose doctrine they should not swarve but for the most part translate The Authors then in most esteem were Melancthon Bullinger Hemingius especially in Postâ—ls and other Opuscula of his or other Writers who were most conformable to the Book of Homilies which were weekly read upon severe penaltie 2. But since the Libertie of Prophesying was taken up which came but lately into the Northern Parts unlesse it were in the Towns of Newcastle and Barwick wherein Knox Mackbray and Vdal had sown their Tares all things have gone so cross backward in our Church that I cannot call the Historie for these fortie years or more to mind or express my observations upon it but with a bleeding heart The First Declination from the Ancient Church was Concerning the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ of which the forward Zelots or rigid Reformers of Popish merits did make more malitious and scandalous Vse upon Vse then the Papists themselves or other Hereticks did
still cleanse us from all our sinnes from which in this life we are cleansed or can hope to be cleansed If we then receive remission of sinnes or purification from our sinnes in the Sacrament of the Eucharist as we alwaies doe when we receive it worthily we receive it not immediately by the sole serious remembrance of his death but by the present Efficacie or operation of his body which was given for us and of his Bloud which was shed for us 10. The reason why the bloud of Bulls and of Goats had no longer force or efficacie to cleanse men though but from sinnes against the Law of Ceremonies then whilest they were offered was because their bloud was corruptible bloud and did perish with the using But we are not redeemed saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 1. 18. with corruptible things as silver and Gold but with the pretious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish or without spot One part of the pretiousness of his bloud is that it is farr more incorruptible then silver gold or other pretious metall and the less corruptible any metall is the more pretious it is and the more pretious it is the more uncorruptible Though Christ then was truly mortal when he dyed for us yet the bloud that he shed forth for us at his death did not become like water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered again it did not vanish or consume as the bloud of Legal Sacrifices did as his Body so his Bloud was not to see or feel corruption not a drop of Bloud which was shed for us whether in the Garden or upon the Crosse but was the bloud of the Son of God but was shed by him as willing at this price to become the everlasting High Priest of our soules and not a drop of Bloud which was so shed did cease or shall ever cease to be the bloud of the Son of God His soule and body we know were disunited by death yet were neither of them disunited from his Godhead or Divine Person His Body whilest laid in the grave was still the Body of the Son of God as still retaining Personal Vnion with his Godhead So was his soule so was his Bloud the soule and Bloud of the Son of God as being indissolubly united to his Divine Person Though his bloud whilest it was shed or powred out did lose its Physical or Local Union with his body though one portion of it were divided from another yet no drop of it was divided from his infinite Person And that which the Romish Church would transferre unto each several crum of bread or drop of Wine in the Eucharist is Originally and properly true of the several drops or divisibilities of Christs Bloud which was shed for us whole Christ was in every one of them indivisibly in every one of them God was the Godhead was and is personally united to all of them 11. Whether all and every portion of his bloud which was then shed were by the power of the Godhead recollected and re-united to his Body as his Body was to his Soule at the resurrection See Chap 46. Numb 2. we cannot tell God knowes But this we know and believe that the self same bloud which was then shed whether it were gathered together again or remained dispersed whether it were re-united to his Glorifyed Body or divided from it is still united to the Fountain of Life to the Godhead in the Person of the Son And being united to this Fountain of Life who dwelleth in it as light within the body of the Sun it is of Efficacie everlasting it hath an immortal power or force to dissolve the Works of Satan in us as well those which he worketh in us after Baptism as before The Vertue of it to cleanse and purge us from our sinnes of what kind soever is at this day as soveraign as if it had been sprinkled upon our soules whilest it issued out of his body It is impossible it should lose its Vertue in or upon our soules unless vve first lose our Interest in it vvhich vve cannot lose but by abandoning the vvaies of light and polluting our soules vvith the Works of darkness For so long as we walk in the light the bloud of Jesus Christ the Son of God doth cleanse us from all our sins 12. 1 John 1. 7. This present Efficacie of Christs body and Bloud upon our soules or reall Communication of both I find as a truth unquestionable amongst the Antient Fathers and as a Catholick Confession The Modern Lutheran and the modern Romanist have fallen into their several Errors concerning Christs presence in the Sacrament from a common ignorance neither of them conceive nor are they vvilling to conceive hovv Christs body and bloud should have any Real Operation upon our soules unlesse they were so Locally present as they might Agere per contactum that is either so purge our soules by Oral Manducation as Physical Medicines do our bodies vvhich is the pretended use of Transubstantiation or so quicken our souls as svveet odours do the Animal spirits which were the most probable use of the Lutheran Consubstantiation Both the Lutheran and Papists avouch the Authoritie of the Ancient Church for their opinions but most injuriously For more then we have said or more than Calvin doth stiffely maintain against Zuinglius and other Sacramentaries cannot be inferred from any speeches of the truely Orthodoxal or Ancient Fathers They all agree that we are immediately cleansed and purifyed from our sinnes by the bloud of Christ That his humane Nature by the inhabitation of the Deitie is made to us the inexhaustible Fountain of life But about the particular manner how life is derived to us from his humane Nature as whether it sends its sweet influence upon our soules only from the heavenly Sanctuary wherein it dwells as in its Sphere or vvhether his bloud vvhich vvas shed for us may have more immediate Local presence vvith us they no way disagree because they in this kind abhorred curiositie of dispute As for Vbiquitie and Transubstantiation they are the two Monsters of modern times brought forth by ignorance and maintained only by Faction And thus much of the infinite value and everlasting Vertue of Christs Sacrifiâ—e in comparison of Legal Sacrifices The next Querie is How the everlasting Efficacie of his Sacrifice or of his Priesthood was prefigured by Legal Sacrifices or purifications for sin 13. The Legal sacrifices as all agree did generally foreshaddow Christs Onely and All-sufficient Sacrifice But in as much as they were corruptible and their vertue transient and by reason of their corruption and transient vertue were often to be reiterated they could not be so much as true shaddowes either of his offering of Himself once for all or of the everlasting vertue of his Onely Sacrifice once offered Their imperfection corruption or transient vertue did serve as foyles to set forth the glorie and splendor of his everlasting
hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. He consecrated the Way it self by his Bloudy sacrifice upon the Cross from the very moment in which the Vail did rend asunder the door was opened and the Way prepared But we must be qualifyed for walking in this way and for entring into this heavenly Sanctuary by the present exercise of his everlasting Priesthood which is a Priesthood of blessing not of sacrifice And yet he blesseth us by communicating the vertue and efficacie of his Everlasting Sacrifice unto our soules This participation and this Blessing by it the full expiation of our sinnes we are to expect from his heavenly Sanctuary 3. See Book 9. Chapt 19. God saith the Apostle Hebrews 6. 17. willing more abundantly to shew unto the heires of promise the immutabilitie of his Counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interposed himself by an oath or word by word he mediated by an Oath The Tenor of this Oath as you have heard before was That he would requite Abraham as we say in kind * See Book 8. Chapt. 30. and Book 9. Chap. 17 That as Abraham was then willing to offer up his Son his only Son Isaac in bloudy sacrifice unto him So he would offer or give His Only Son for Abraham and for all such as should follow his Example of Faith and obedience It was in the same promise confirmed by oath implyed That This only Son of God should be the seed of Abraham that in this one seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth should be blessed That for the derivation of this Blessing upon all the Nations upon earth this seed of Abraham should be made a Priest after the order of Melchisedek The hope in this Promise thus confirmed by oath to Abraham is by the Apostle in the same 6. Chap. ver 19. termed an Anchor of the soule Both sure and stedfast But why an Anchor sure and stedfast Because it entreth into that within the vaile to wit into the Heavenly Sanctuary which was prefigured by the Most Holy Place within the material Tabernacle or earthly Sanctuary into which none might come besides the high priest nor he saveing once a year and then not without Blood For he was to purifie or sanctifie it by the blood of the sacrifices which were offered without the Camp or Congregation upon the day of the Attonement And thus The Son of God being crucified without the City of Jerusalem did by his blood then shed enter into the heavenly Sanctuary and even purifie it by his blood Heb. 19. 23 24. But what doth our hope apprehend within the vail The Apostle tells us Heb. 6. 20. Even Jesus made an high priest after the order of Melchisedek that is an high priest to blesse us in the Name of the Most High God to make us blessed even blessed as the Sonnes of God or such as he himself as man is that is Kings and Priests unto our God That this his Priesthood is a Priesthood of Blessing and offereth the Blessing promised unto Abraham to all the Nations of the Earth aswell unto the Gentile as unto the Jew though in the first place unto the Jew St. Peter witnesseth Acts. 3. 25 26. Te are the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers saying unto Abraham and in thy seed shall all the Kindreds of the Earth be Blessed Vnto you FIRST God having raysed up his Son Jesus sent him to blesse you in turning away every one of you from his Iniquities 4. Yet seeing he entred not into the heavenly Sanctuary without blood seeing he purified Even Heaven it self by his Blood We may not expect the Blessing promised unto Abraham otherwise than by the Vertue of his Blood nor may we expect that his Blood or Vertue of it should be communicated to us otherwise than by the Exercise or Office of his everlasting Priesthood unto which he was consecrated by his blood He now workes the like Cures in our soules by the Vertue of this Priesthood which he wrought in mens Bodies whilest he lived here on earth by the Vertue or presence of his Prophetical Function We may Baptize with water in his Name and with water sanctified by his blood yet unless he baptize with the spirit sent from his heavenly Sanctuary and say unto every one whome we Baptize as he did unto the Leper I will be thou clean our washing is but in vain our whole Action is but a Ceremonie We his Priests or ministers may upon Confession made unto us either in General or in Particular Absolve his people from their sinnes for this Authoritie he hath given us whose sinnes ye remitt they are remitted whose sinnes ye retaine they are retained Yet unless He by his spirit or sweet influence of Grace say unto the soule whom we Absolve as he some-times did unto the man sick of the Palsy Be of good chear thy sinnes be forgiven thee Our Absolution is but a Complement although without our Absolution he do not in this sort Absolve his people oftentimes from their sinnes We may Consecrate the Elements ofBread Wine and administer them so consecrated as Vndoubted Pledges of his Bodie and Blood by which the new Covenant was sealed and the General Pardon purchased Yet unless he grant some actual Influence of his spirit and suffer such Vertue to goe out from his Humane Nature now placed in his Sanctuarie as he once did unto the woman that was cured of her Issue of blood unless this Vertue do as immediately reach our Soules as it did her bodie we do not Really receive his Body and Blood with the Elements of Bread and Wine We do not so receive them as to have our sinnes remitted or dissolved by them we do not by receiving them become of his flesh and of his Bones We gain no degree of Real Vnion with him which is the Sole Use or fruit of his Real Presence Christ might be Locally Present as he was with many here on earth and yet not Really Present But with whomsoever he is Vertually Present that is to whomsoever he communicates the Influence of his Bodie and Blood by his spirit he is Really Present with them though Locally Absent from them Thus he was really present with the woman which was cured of her bloodie issue by touching the hemme of his garment But not so really present with the multitude that did throng and press upon him that were locally more present with him She did not desire so much as to touch his Bodie with her hand for she said in her self If I may but touch the Hemme of his garmennt I shall be whole And yet by our Saviours interpretation She did touch him more immediately than they which were neerer unto him which thrust or thronged him And the reason why she alone did more immediately touch him than any of the rest was because Vertue of healing did
c. 3303 c. See Presence Luther did not distinguish inter Liberam voluntatem Liberum Arbitrium 3130 Lutheran Catechisms and consequences 3188 Lutherans wrest the Antients in Point of Consubstantiation 3298 Lycurgus's Whelps 3085 3134 M. Great Magore weighs himself yearly in gold and gives it to the poor 3236 Malepert Courtier 3227 Manichees their Bruitish opinion 3080 c. Marie the B. Virgin free from sin in her consent Be in vnto me 3038 Mass Doctr. of it injurious to Christ 3262 c. wrongs his one sacrifice the value and efficacie of it 3289 c. scandalizes the Jew 3290 makes Legal Priests Types of Masse-Priests 3265 Melchizedeck by the Romanists made a Type of Mass-Priests rather then of Christ 3265 Melchizedek not read that he offerd any sacrifice his Priesthood was a Priesthood of Blessing Authoritative 3302 Ministers main work to sett men right in the way of Conversion 3219 Mercie of God maintained 3184 3210 c. 3217 He will have mercie on whom he will the sense and quintessence of that Aphorism 3205 it implies mercie in abundance mercie to the purpose to all that seek it 3217 God shewes mercie Isaac wills Esau runs 3215 He will have mercie on whom he will the extent of that Division 3242 c. To have mercie on whom he will is a reserved prerogative of God 3216 Rom. 9. 16. excludes not endeavours nor meanes but merits 3216 c Gods readiness to shew mercie 3221 He will have mercie he hardeneth to what points the Text reaches 3247 c. Merit of works The question useless as to Adams first Estate 3008 Meritorum Reviviscentia 3285 Men several sorts several workings of the Spirit 3121 Men not come to full growth in faith c. but Children in Christ 3247 Mens deprecaturad optima 3119 Not Metaphors but Mysteries in the 6 8 9 10 Chapt. to the Hebr. 3254 Moses hid by Revelation 3191 designed Heir of the Crown of Egypt 3192 His great Atchievements perhaps against Ethiopia an omen of his leading Israel out of Bondage ibid. Two points of his Embassie to Pharaoh 3193 Gods Viceroy carried the Treaties in accurate solemnitie 3194 instructed incouraged 3196 had miracles for Letters of Credence 3195 3197 Mortification 3096 c. Progress in mortificaton a firm sign of mans Estate in Grace 3097 3103 3245 By it measure our perswasions 3162 Dutie of mortification how universal how indefinite 3099 Universal in respect of Persons though not for the matter or degrees 3146 The very Elect must mortifie 3102 Mortification a Term divisible 3105 Mortification how wrought by the Spirit how by our selves 3106 How by Gods Spirit how by mans Spirit 3110 3115 3120 Flesh the seat of the disease and must be mortified Spirit quickned 3118 c. 3121 Mortification Moral and Spiritual 106 3132 c. Whether mortification be ex operibus praevisis 3112 Mortification consists in two things Deading our desires purifying the heart 3119 Accomplishment of mortification wherein it consists 3124 c. it consists not in negatives 3125 Men that have been mortified if they draw back like heated water they freez the soonest 3128 More about Mortification 3146 c. Each degree of mortification is an approach to the Final Ratification of the promise ye shall live 3152 Mortification our reasonable Service 3159 The use of the Doctrine of Mortification 3160 c. Murmuring what must quiet it 3229 Mutinie at Capua 3074 Maâ—hiavel's judgment upon it ib. N. NAaman had some degree of Free-will 3130 Natural grounds to deny our selves and flee to God Impotencie to doe good that Good he approves dulness it self a spur 3219 c. This natural Capacitie not used makes us inexcusable ibid. The Naturalist hunts Truth upon fresh Sents not foyled with second notions 3019 Negative Precepts Sin more provoked by them then by Affirmative the reason 3026 Negative See precepts See proposition This error That all things be necessary nothing Contingent in respect of God a cause of Errors c. 3164 3016 An ill necessitie freely Contracted 3052 3063 3055 Necessary ab aeterno that ungodly men perish but not necessarie that they should be ungodly men 3169 Necessitie See Adam See Decree See Free Nobilitie expires not in uno vitioso 3032 Non-age Persons under yeares neither servants nor freemen properly 3042 of the two rather Servants ibid A strange Note upon St. Jude 3164 3173 Novatian's Error or Heresie 3280 c. Novatian's quarel with Cornelius Bishop of Rome 3281 Novatus and Novatianus two several Persons 3291 Novatus his Character 3291 O. MAns Tye by oath tempts to unfaithfulness why 3026 Oath makes promise or threat irreversible 3148 Oath of God to Abraham to requite him in kind 3302 The great Objection why doth he yet find fault 3226 c. Answered 3228 3230 Obliquitie necessarily resulting from the Act is Caused by the Cause of the Act 3011 The Cause of any Action Essentially evil or inseparable from evill is the Cause of evill 3165 Obliquitie did necessarily result from the forbidden act exercised yet was not the Act necessarie 3012 The distinction of the Act and obliquitie has no place in the first sin of Man 3013 Act and obliquitie as Connex as Roundness and Sphere 3013 c. Oecolampadius his observation 3187 Often offering an argument of imperfection 3263 3290 Ex operibus praevisis whether mortification be so tanquam ex Titulo or tanquam ex Termino 3113 3218 Opera quae renunciamus opus quo renunciamus 3219 Object See Decree Ordained to Condemnation how ungodly men are 3164 God ordaines no man to trouble the Church 3165 Yet if God ordains all Actions so that they could not come to passe otherwise then they do That would follow 3164 c. What God ordains that he is Author of 3165 c. Every Ordination to Everlasting death is not Reprobation 3166 Ordination to life and predestination ordination to death and reprobation differ as Genus and Species 3166 Origen See Beza Original See sin P. PAcuvius See Calavius Parable that of our Saviour Matth. 12. 43. applyed 3277 Paraeus his Dispute with Becanus 3012 Parallels betwixt Jews and Modern Christians 3187 The Hardening of the Jews and the Egyptians 3206 c. Moses and Christ 3207 Passeover and the Lords Supper between the two Inheritances bequeathed by Moses and Christ 3261 The Mundane Tabernacle and Celelestial the Rites and Priests of that and Christ 3253 3257 3259 3261 The Red Heifer and Christ 3261 3267 3270 3299 3302 Pardon due to Learned Authors which their Followers cannot claim 3013 No Pardon Antedated by God 3283 Some Popes denyed to Antedate Pardons ib. Pardon See Sin remitted c. Parents may by Lewdness improve the venom of sin Original in their Children 3019 3031 Parricide not rife till forbidden by Law 3024 3145 Sin irritated by Precepts more by Negative Precepts 3025 c. It is easier to avoid the first occasions then the insuing opportunities of Sin against Negative Precepts 3094 Precepts
Christ Consecrated to be an Everlasting Priest 3301 Sacrifice See Priesthood Sanctum Sanctorum a Type of the heavenly Sanctuary into which Christ ascended c. 3255 Salvation only from Gods Grace 3210 c. Satans two great Conquests 3067 Satans noose See proposition negative universal Sensual Doctrine 3274 Sepulveda's storie of a Bear 3027 Severitie without instruction Tyranny 3275 Schoolmen faulty 3012 3266 Schoolmen lose the Truth in second Notions 3019 Scepter in Homer 3236 Scripture sole Rule of Faith and Manners 3010 Scripture Stories and Examples Transcendent 3190 Sententia Juris sententia Judicis 3167 c. Christs Session at Gods Right Hand St. Austins Answer to Dardanus about the manner of it 3252 c. Socinians ignorant of themselves 3002 Socinians more dissonant from truth in point of our natural corruption then the meere Naturalist 302◠then Pelagius 3023 Soules of Righteous men not so high in Bliss before as they were after Christs Ascension 3255 c. These soules probably before it were in a Place of Heaven answering to the Atrium Sacerdotum or Congregationis in the Temple 3257 Spirit Mind Soul their difference c. 3118 c. Soul in St. Paul is Flesh ibid. Spirit of God Spirit of man their several importances and opposition 3116 c. Spirit of man is not to be mortifyed but to be quickned and renewed 3118 3124 Spirit and Synteresis probably both one 3119 Spirits working our working by the spirit the order of them 3120 Gods Spirit Transformes our spirits into the likeness of Christ's Spirit 3122 Soules cured whether by Symbolicals or by contraries 3120 c. Soul the Centre of the motions both of Flesh and spirit 3123 Sin see Adam How sin got entrance into the world 3007 c. Sin the Author of it 3012 Diabolus seducens Homo Consentiens 3019 Aquinas Bellarmin and the Thomists as strait laced in the point about Author peccati as Zwinglius and Piscator ibid. Sin Original 3017 to 3039 Sin Original pollutes our persons 3019 Sin Original is not a meer privation 3006 3028 3035 Of sin Original Heathen Notions 3019 c. 3100 3145 These consort better with the Truth then the Socinian Tenets about sin Original do 3022 St. Austin not the first teacher of sinne original 3023 Parents may by sin Actual improve the venom of sin Original in their Posteritie 3019 3030 3031 Two Symptomes of sin Original Loathing to do commanded or known Good Longing after what is forbidden 3034 c. Sin provoked by negative precepts c. 3025 c. Sin Original defined 3028 Fl. Illyricus his definition discussed 3032 c St. Austins Melancthons Aquinass 3035 Mr. Calvin and P. Martyr consent with Illyricus in the definition of sin Original 3036 How farr the nature Faculties Actions of men good or bad be tainted with sinne Original or acquired 3037 c. Sin Original not utterly taken away by Baptism 3100 c. Sins must be weighed in the Scale of the Sanctuary 3097 Servitude and servants to sin and Satan 3039 c. Sin against the holy Ghost 3282 Jewes in part believers servants to sinne and corruption 3040 c. 3072 c. A Civill Servant 3042 Degrees of Servitude Ibid. English servants Famuli rather then Servi or servants but in part or mixt 3043 Meere servants or slaves mancipia or servi servati ibid. Jewes might have Heathen slaves but might not remain slaves 3044 Our Saviours Parables as that Matth. 18. speake of meere slaves 3045 Servants Hired and Bond wherein they agree 3045 wherein they differ 3046 Serve two Masters no man can ibid. A servant may have a will more free or less servile then his Master 3130 3144 Between servitude civil and servitude to sinne the Analogie 3047 Servitude to sin the prime Analogate 3048 Of Servitude to sin four Branches 3051 Servitude to sin Natural and acquired 3052 What Freedom of will compatible with servitude to sin 3129 Servitus est obedientia fracti animi Tullie 3054 Heathen Notions of Servitude to sinne right 3055 c. but fruitless 3059 Christian Professours may be as great servants to sin to Bacchus Venus and Pluto as heathens were 3060 To obey our Lusts is to serve sin to serve sin is to serve Satan service to Satan is Treason against Christ 3061 How Satan works men into Slavery to himself 3062 c. His main Wile to enlarge or enflame our desires of things not simply evill 3063 Romish slavery 3066 Heathen Romans slaves 3056 Two Errors 1. The same Fact sin in one no sin in another 3182. 2. That some mens sins be remitted before they commit them 3182 c. 3282 An opinion of no pious use 3268 Worse then Popery or Novatianism 3283 A Question about it stated 3292 c. This Tenet Sin remitted before committed makes Christs Resurrection needless in respect of us and Baptism needless 3295 Sponte Malus nemo Plato how it may be true 3062 Our reasonable service is mortification 3159 Stoicks their Bruitish opinion 3080 Antient Fathers their disputes with them 3081 Sympathie 3119 Synteresis the same with Spirit ibid. Synteresis in it be the Reliques of Gods Image 3124 Synods their good use 3274 T. TEstimonies of the Heathen and ill men the use of them 3053 Threates of God under Oath Irrevocable without oath not so 3149 Transubstantiation a Modern Monster 3298 The pretense and use of it ib. The Tree of knowledge of Good and evill poysonous 3029 c. Turkish Divinitie All things come to passe by fatal necessitie 3181 c. Tyrannie to punish and not instruct 3275 V. VAlentinus jumpt with the Stoicks and Manichees 3081 Vbiquitie a modern Monster 3298 The pretence for it ibid. Vertue and value of Christs Sacrifice disparaged by the Romanist 3289 Value vertue of Christs Sacrifice See Sacrifice Vessel and Potter the debate or Dialogue betwixt them 3228 Vnregenerate man what freedom such a man hath 3092 Vertues of the Heathen 3134 c. Visitations or Synods of former times 3274 Vngodly men how ordained to Damnation 3164 Vniversal see Proposition Vnjust God is not unrighteous the sense of it 3286 Vse of vows an Argument of Freedom 3094 Vse of Christs Priesthood 3301 Vow in Baptism the first thing that young ones are to consider and be reminded of 3100 W. WAter of sprinkling The Resemblance between it and Christs Bloud 3300 See Parallels See Heifer Holy water See Holy Will of God how Rule of Equitie and Justice 3229 Will of God One Immutable Free Causeth Pluralitie Mutabilitie Necessitie Contingencie 3223 Gods Will Resistible or Irresistible ibid. Irresistible Will of God Pharaoh hardened by it 3225 c. God Wills Mutabilitie Immutably c. 3245 Wee St. John saith if any We have an Advocate 3288 c. Why Weeds grow so fast 3083 Whelps trained by Lycurgus 3085 3134 The Book of Wisdom Philo Judaeus Author of it 3205 Wisdom Christian three Points of it 3128 Woman with the Issue of Bloud touched by Christ really and vertually though not Locally 3303 Merit of Works see Merit We work out our Salvation Consecutivè non formaliter 3109 No man can be said to renounce the Good Works which he never did 3132 3161 Romish Sophism about Works 3218 Works foreseen or ex praevisis operibus 3113 3218 Opus quo renunciamus opera quae renunciamus 3219 Good Works of the Elect and of men within the Covenant how God regards them 3284 Good VVorks of the Heathen 3141 X. XEnocrates cured Polemo 3138 Xenocrates his Chastitie Contempt of Gold 3139 Y. SAtans Yoke of slavery put upon mens necks by the Pope 3068 Z. ZAcharie prophesied of the Efficacious vertue of Christs Body and Bloud 3300 Zachaeus had some degree of Free-will 3131 Zelots English improved Forraign Errors 3275 FINIS