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spirit_n body_n sin_n soul_n 13,963 5 5.3517 4 true
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B02147 Christendom; or, The nature of Christ's kingdom opened, and the chiefest difficulties in divinity cleared in order to ending the controversies among Christian philosophers, scool-men [sic], and divines of all parties. 1687 (1687) Wing C3933; ESTC R171319 44,677 48

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without all new Act Motion Change and Transition in God unsearchably 3. God is and was and is to come Rev. 1.4 8. He is truly past truly present and truly to come and yet the same God but not in the same respects God as past is neither present nor to come God as present is neither past nor to come God as to come is neither past nor present God is essentially and yet freely related to all both Angels and Men as their Creator Upholder and Governour for ever this Relation was from Eternity future and it remains to Eternity by the free Pleasure of God. Between God and damned Men as Men there is eternal Relation as between Cause and Effect Between God and damned Men as damned there is no Relation at all but perfect and eternal Contrariety he is for ever blessed they are for ever cursed they do implacably hate him and he doth implacably hate them But he doth not hate them as they are Men For as Men they are eternally against their will the Work and Image of God who can in no instant hate his own Work and Image as such Against their will God doth lord and rule over them by Conscience his Agent in their Bosom and in them the Glory of his just Vengeance and Severity for Sin doth eternally shine forth and against their will they fulfil the divine Law by bearing its utmost Penalty 4. God as our Creator is the way to himself as our Redeemer our Sanctifier our Blessedness and End our All in all For unless we were by Creation Men we could not be redeemed holy and blessed Men. Yet is God no way the Author of Sin. We must not deny things plain because we cannot find out to Perfection things unsearchable and too wonderful for us Joh. 6.44 Rom. 11.33 Christ as Mediator is the way to himself as God our Maker and our End our All in all For we being by Sin alienated from God and Enemies in our Minds by wicked Works unless Christ as Mediator Advocate and Intercessor shall by his Grace reconcile us to himself as God we shall die in our Sins and perish for ever Rev. 22.13 Col. 3.11 2 Cor. 5.19 The Holy Ghost as Sanctifier is the way to himself as God our Maker and our End our All in all For we being by Nature dead in Sin and full of Ungodliness and Unrighteousness unless the Holy Ghost as Sanctifier shall quicken our Souls with Spiritual Life and by heavenly Regeneration make us like to himself as God in Righteousness and true Holiness we can never enter into his Kingdom Joh. 3.3 5. 5. The true God is God the Father not Incarnate God the Son Incarnate God the Holy Ghost not Incarnate one God blessed for ever the Reward and Rewarder of all Elect Angels and Men for ever their Blessedness and the Author of their Blessedness their All in all And under God the exalted Manhood of Christ is Sole Supream over all both Angels and Men the First-born of every Creature Col. 1.15 God as God is simply invisible But God as manifest in the Flesh and the Fountain-cause of all Good to Elect Angels and Men for ever is perfectly seen of all in Heaven Face to face and truly by Faith yet not perfectly of all the Saints on Earth God cannot be seen and known save by his own Light and gracious Manifestation of Himself Now God's first Discovery of Himself is in and by Creation acco●●●●● to his own Eternal Purpose in Christ Jesus Antecedently to this he is not knowable by Angels by Men by Christ Himself as Man. Eph. 3.9 10 11. Joh. 1.18 1 Cor. 13.12 1 Tim. 3.16 1 Tim. 6.16 CHAP. V. Of Adam in Innocency and the entrance of Sin into the World. 1. GOD created Adam in his own Image truly holy and like unto himself in heavenly Rectitude This heavenly Rectitude he lost by his Fall and it was renewed in him in part by heavenly Regeneration after his Fail but not perfectly while on Earth The state of Adam in Innocency was Supernatural and not Natural For God created all Things and consequently Adam by Jesus Christ according to the eternal Purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph. 3.9 10 11. This is clea●●● matter of Faith and wholly Supernatural For of God's eternal purpose in Christ Jesus the light of Nature saith nothing at all God only is holy by Nature that is essentially holy like as he only is by Nature God Gal. 4.8 Adam was holy not by Nature but by Grace and heavenly dependence o● God. Which-Grace continued with him 'till he dissiking the Condition in which God made him and affecting to be independent Lord of his own Will chose rather to be ruled by himself than by the holy just and good Will of God. And so God did not necessitate his Fall nor deny him Grace to stand nor take his Grace from him But Adam by wilful eating of the forbidden Fruit did expel and put God's Grace from him and became the Author of his own Ruine 2. Adam needed heavenly Grace to keep him from inward lusting after the forbidden Fruit but not from outward eating of it Bare Lust as in it self is not Sin but all Lust in Man against the Spirit and after what the holy just and good God hath forbidden is very Sin before God tho not before Men Rom. 7.7 In such inordinate Lust the Soul is Principal and the Body is Instrumental The Body by it self cannot lust at all the Soul as to its natural substance is the Image of God and in that respect it must needs be innocent But if the Soul be destitute of inward heavenly Grace it is then full of ungodly and worldly Lusts invisibly in respect whereof it is enmity against God and the Image of the Devil Joh. 8.44 Jude 18. Tit. 2.11 12. Rom. 8.7 3. The divine Law is holy just and good Rom. 7.12 The sum of it is Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and thy Neighbour as thy Self or A Conscience void of Offance both tomard God and toward Man. The divine Law considered outwardly as of old written in Tables of Stone and now in the Bible is man fold But considered inwardly as written in the Heart so it is only one as God is one because it consisteth by Conscience in each ones Bosom and Conscience in each Man can be but one Take away Conscience and Man is not Man but a Brute The nature of Conscience is to be under God and over Man as such it is a Law to it self Rom. 2.14 15. and the great Engine by which God doth govern the whole intellectual World. Adam while innocent was not under the Law and Covenant of Works For the Law of Works as distinct from the Law of Faith doth not exclude sinful Boasting Rom. 3.27 But there could be no sinful boasting in Adam while innocent The Covenant of Works gendreth to Bondage Gal. 4.24 But Bondage was not
but to our Faith inwardly For the Opposition is not between Spiritual and Material but between Spiritual and Carnal 1 Cor. 3.1 and 9.11 Rom. 15.27 Spiritual Invisible and Eternal Things are incomparably and transcendently Material they are the Matters of God and of greatest Consequence and Importance to our Souls through Faith. The Soul is not the Form of Man but the Body is the Form of Man and the Soul is the quickening Life and Spirit In beholding a Corpse and dead Man we behold the Form and Appearance of Man but we do not behold the Soul. The Soul is the Image of God and therefore it cannot consist in a dead Form. Rom. 2.20 2 Tim. 3.5 4. Soul and Body are truly distinct as Principal and Instrumental the inward and the outward Man but they are not two essential and compounding Parts of Man. For Man is the Image of God who being without Parts and Composition so must needs be his Image As all in God is God so all in the Image of God is the Image of God. Every Man as to his natural Substance is simply a Man and not a Brute and therefore he must needs be uncompounded For to be simply a Man and yet compounded is a Contradiction Indeed the Body by it self consists of many Parts It will not therefore follow that it is onely one Part of Man. For if it be one only it is not many Gal. 3.16 As to Life Eternal the Soul is the Man not as excluding the Body but the Welfare of the Body is bound up in the Eternal Welfare of the Soul. If the Soul be safe all is safe If that be lost all is lost and the Man is undone for ever As to Life Temporal the Body is the Man not as excluding the Soul but as it is in and by the Body that Man doth visibly live and converse on Earth as a Man and not a Brute and the Body being dead the Man is dead as to this present Life And therefore not one Part of Christ but Christ Himself in respect of his Body was crucified dead buried and lay in the Grave Come see the place where the Lord lay Mat. 28.6 5. Every Artificial Image of Christ as God is an Idol and every Artificial Image of Christ as Man is Superstition and if adored then it is Idolatry Christ as Man is holy and Holiness may not be set forth by a dead Image or Picture Only holy Men and Women in this World as holy are the Image of Christ as he is Man. Rom. 8.29 Any other Image of Christ as Man is a lie and not the Image of Christ Christ is truly a Man but withal a special Man differing in kind from all other Men because he only is by miraculous Conception in the Womb of a Virgin He only is the Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World He only as Man is exalted at God's right Hand above all both Angels and Men They may be set forth by an Artificial Image or Picture but so may not Christ as Man. The only true setting forth of Christ as Man is by the Word and Sacraments through Faith because as Man he differs in specie in kind from all other Men. CHAP. XI Of the Church and Commonwealth 1. THE Holy Catholick Church which we believe as distinct from the elect Angels consists of the whole number of God's Elect in all Ages not as exclusive of what is good and commendable in Hypocrites Hereticks Apostates and Heathens but as liking and loving all that is good and lovely in whomsoever This Church began in penitent Adam and Eve they two were the first Church of the redeemed Upon the increase and multiplication of new Converts and Souls regenerate more were added to the Church successively like as when an Infant is born into the World there is one more added to the Society of Mankind Acts 2.47 The Apostles Commission was not to make a new Church differing in substance from what had been before and was in being at the time of Christ's Ascension but to preserve that Church which he left on Earth and by Apostolical Preaching and Endeavours to enlarge and add to it and so to make Jew and Gentile one in Christ Jesus Outward Variations suited to the Exegencies of the Church in its Militant State do not alter the intrinsecal Nature Essence and Unity of the Church which is the same for substance in all Ages But because Abel is the first who died in Faith and of whose Righteousness there is express mention therefore the Holy Catholick Church is fitly reckoned from him 2. The Church and Commonwealth are not two independent Societies but the Church as such is a holy Commonwealth simply dependent upon God through Christian Faith as to Life eternal And upon the Prince as sole Supream under God over all in his Dominions as to Life Temporal and Coercive rule by the Sword. Look as Homo being a Man includes Animal being a Living Creature So the Church includes human Society as being nothing but Mankind sanctified by Faith in Christ The Power and Authority of Christ as Man exalted at God's right Hand over all is simply dependent upon God And therefore all the Power and Authority of the Church must needs be simply dependent ministerial and subordinate and whatsoever Church claims to it self Power simply independent by that very claim it is proved to be Anti-christian that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition who exalts himself above God and above the Prince his Vice-gerent on Earth 2 Thess 2.3 4. 3. The Church is not two Universal and Particular Invisible and Visible but the Church is simply one as God is one admitting of just Conception but no Division It is one Whole or Universal as comprizing all the Parts But one Whole or Universal as distinct from all the Parts is only Notion and Conceit as a Man in the Moon or Castle in the Air a meer Chimera We see those Men and Women who are the Church Militant but that which makes them the Church Militant we do not see but believe The Church is plain and manifest to those who believe as the Sun at Noon-day is to seeing Men But he who believeth not makes God a Lyar 1 Joh. 5.10 and God being made a Lyar the Church must needs be made a Lyar too 4. It will not stand with Christian Faith Hope and Love to live divided in Heart and Conversation from any the least Member of Christ and true Christian who is evidently and apparently so so far as Man can judg We cannot be more holy than God more pure then Christ Whom he receives we are to receive or we cannot expect to be received by him The Communion of Saints is an Article of Faith unalterably fixed by God as to the substance of it and it consists in Christian Faith Hope and Love These are to the Church and every Member thereof what the Soul is to the Body But saving Christian Faith Hope and