perfect temper again Propension in Nature to its proper state 3. Because there is a great propension in Nature to return to its proper estate by casting of what is heterogeneal thereunto So Medicaments are subservient to Nature by removing obstructions but Nature it self and the inward Archeus being released and set at liberty works the Cure The whole Creation groaneth and longeth to be delivered Ro. 8.21 Bodies bent out of their natural place and violently forced from their proper position of their parts have a spring of their own and an inward strong tendency to return to their posture again This is Motus Restitutionis as if the Air be driven into a narrow compass it hath a spring or Conatus to come back to its proper state So a stone thrown upwards hastens to fall to its Center Sin is a violent and preternatural Estate Returning to God and Righteousness is Motus Restitutionis Liberationis a motion of Restitution and Liberation The Elater and spring in the Soul being quickned and enlivened by God's Grace hath a natural Conatus to return to its proper Estate I delight in the Law of God after the inward man but I see another Law in my Members Ro. 7.21 warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members This is called Spirit the Mind of the Spirit Inward Man Law of Mind an Innate propension of the Soul awakened to return to its genuine condition as it is intellectual and free to its ancient Nature When the Spirit of God promised to Believers acts from the Spirit or Soul of the Faithful there is 1. An Assent to yield unto God 2. An Acceptation to receive his Promises 3. A Concurrence to work with him Here is no external force or violence offered to the Soul to free it from a state which it would alwaies continue under but a sweet and gentle Call to return to its proper state which the Soul it self longs for Where the Spirit of the Lord is 2 Cor. 3.17 there is Liberty The Freedom of the Spirit is the Soul 's acting from an inward principle and spring of its own Intellectual Nature Longing to be restored and endeavouring with God's Grace to return So that there is not a mere outward Impulse of the Spirit of God but an inward Concurrence of the Spirit of Man The Soul is not like a Boat tugged or driven by Oars or Winds but it goes on Secundo flumine according to the genuine Current of its own intellectual Nature with the help of the gentle gale of the Divine Spirit Genuine nature of the Spirit 4. Because it is the genuine Nature of the Spirit to do that which is agreeable to the Spirit and pleasing to God of whose Nature the Spirit doth partake Vertue and Honesty are homogeneous Vice and Wickedness are heterogeneous There is in the Spirit Cognatio quaedam cum Deo A certain kindred with God 5. Because it is natural to the superior Faculties to be predominate Superior Faculties predominate They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Lordly nature and made to rule and the inferior Faculties are of a Servile disposition and made to obey It is then but Jus Postliminii for Equity Light and Reason to be re-inthroned in my Soul there to command and suppress the Exorbitant affections that rise up against it This is the design of God in the Gospel to restore us to the rectitude and perfection of our own Beings Wherefore he calls us off from the perishing vanities of this World so infinitely below us not to debase or pollute our Spirits by them not to gratifie our lower Faculties the Brute that is in us but the sublimer Angel above The outward objects are but Baits to the outward relishes and sensations of the Body The outward World is like an enchanted Palace seemingly ravishing but a mere Spectrum or shadow that which pleases is the Vital energies of our own Spirits to Vertue and Goodness 6. Because we are not merely Passive Active Cooperation but an active Co-operation is required in us The Spirit of God in Nature that Spiritus intus alens produceth Vegetables and Minerals beyond Art and Industry yet it doth not work absolutely unconditionally omnipotently and irresistibly but requireth certain preparations and dispositions of Plowing Sowing c So the Spirit of God requireth some preparations and dispositions in our Spirits forasmuch as it may be stirred up or excited in us or resisted and quenched by us Unless the Husbandman stirrs up and plows the ground the Spirit of God in Nature will not give any increase So we are bidden to plow up the Fallow-ground of our hearts that is to do our earnest endeavours to work out our own salvation to fight the good fight of Faith to run the Race and to enter in at the strait-Gate Be not therefore merely Passive but move and co-operate with God Fac quod in te est do what is in thy power to do and God that gave thee that power if thou use it will give thee more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do but breath a desire and long to come to God and God will meet thy desires and draw thee after him with the Cords of his Grace and Love It is a never-failing Rule He that hath shall have more full measure pressing down and running over shall God give into his bosom But he that hath not from him shall be taken away that which he seemeth to have For all Motions unto Sin and from God are unnatural retrograde excentrick unkindly forced cross unprofitable dishonourable SECTION III. Of Christ's Victory over Law Hitherto I have spoken of the Inward Victory over Sin by the Resurrection and Spirit of Christ Now in the second place of the Victory attainable by the same Power over the Law by Christ his Victory over the Law Where Sin is there is alwaies a Law and where there is no Law there is no Transgression The Law is considered two waies Outward Covenant of Works 1. As an outward Covenant of Works by which Death is to all that break it in Morals or Ceremonials And all men are naturally under the Law and are convinced thereby of Sin and Death and are therefore in bondage and fear of death all their life long without mercy This outward Letter or Covenant of Works is conquered by Christ's Death on the outward Cross Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 being made a Curse for us as it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through Faith That we might be free from the Obligation to the Commandements which were not good Exod. 20.25 Christ having broke down the middle-wall of Partition Eph. 2.14 15. that was between the Jew
That therefore the Law is spiritual Ro. 7.14 and a Grace Joh. 1.16 17. of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace for the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ the Grace of the Gospel instead of the grace of the Law 1 Cor. 2.13 The Gospel is in words not taught by mans wisdom but by the Holy Ghost comparing spiritual things with spiritual i. e. the Spiritual things of the Gospel as signified by the Law to the same spiritual things as revealed by Christ So the Righteousness of God in the Gospel from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 i. e. from the faith under the Law to the faith under the Gospel Most true it is as hath been observed that this Spirit of the Law was not discovered in the Law but by revelation of Gods Spirit that made it and that chiefly to Princes and Prophets the Priests had little knowledg besides the Letter The Prophets therefore called up the People higher than the Carnal Ordinance to the spiritual Service of Law Noah is called the Preacher of Righteousness not of the Law of Rites which then was not and they that resisted are charged for resisting the Spirit of God that called them to it 2 Pet. 2.5 St. Stephen taxeth the Jews all along for resisting Gods Spirit under the administration of the Law and now for resisting Christ himself As the Israelites would not understand the power of Gods Spirit in Moses by that act of killing the Egyptian that did the wrong and offering to make peace between the two Israelites that he was sent to be a Judge among them And as the People were rebellious to Moses in the Wilderness so they were to the Great Prophet whom Moses had foretold he concludes thus Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost Act. 7. as your Fathers so you also Which of the Prophets did not your Fathers persecute killing those that foretold of the coming of that Righteous One of whom you are now become the Traitours and Murtherers And all that we read in the Old Testament of the grace of God to that People and of their ungraciousness to him in resisting his grace tends to the same purpose 41. That it is truly said indeed In rendring two kinds of Reason the true Reason being unknown why Christ came not till towards the latter end of the World That God meant first to shew the World that other means which he thought fit to use to reclaim the World by the Fathers and by the Law and by his Judgments and Favours were not efficacious that the necessity of Christs coming might appear 42. That this is not to be understood as if God meant to render them inexcusable by using insufficient means that could not take effect But that dispensing to those times such means of Grace as the reasons of his secret Counsels did require proportionable to the obedience and service which he expected at their hands he reserves the full measure of them to the coming of his Son proportionable to the difficulty of bearing the Cross which he purposed for the condition of those Promises which he brought And the same is to be said of the Fathers under the Law of Nature who by walking by that Rule did please God and were advanced farther by his Spirit to nearer Communion with him as appears in the Book of Job presenting large Instances both of Gods correspondence with the godly of the Gentiles and of the Piety of their conversation with him And if God gave his Creatures so much understanding and liberty as he was pleased to allow and as he knew to be sufficient for them if they shall put forth these their abilities to the utmost of the power that God hath given them shall that which he gave for sufficient when used be counted insufficient and they be condemned for doing according as God did enable them Or shall he give them no means at all sufficient and reject them for the insufficiency which he set them in or will God require more than he gives and be so hard a man as to reap where he did not sow and gather where he had not strawed and require Bricks without Straw These are hard thoughts far be it from us to speak or think after this fashion Shall not the Judge of all the World do right 43. That it cannot be supposed that God should employ his Creatures in his service and not reward them for it much less that he should create them with a decree that they should never have power to serve him and be condemned for it 44. That we may not safely think that because Christ came late into the World therefore the benefit of his coming was the less and that all or most of the Nations besides the Jews or most of the Jews did perish for want of Christ No by no means Christ is the same to day yesterday and for ever and the merit of his Mediation extends to all before at and after his coming in the flesh unto the Worlds end 45. That to close up this long Title I conclude with submission not magisterially That seeing the Holy Ghost hath distinguished between the Law and the Gospel none ought to presume to mingle them together as one and the same in their Nature or as one and the same in effect and operation or that one is contained in the other the New Testament in the Old 46. That to let pass therefore the oratorical and hyperbolical expressions of the Fathers in this and other points who were most of them bred in the Schools of Rhetoricians as also the School Terms and other strained expressions of Modern Systematicks let us choose rather to adhere to the form of sound words delivered in the Scriptures which are the Pandects or body of Divinity that we must trust unto and for explication of our conceptions upon them make use of those Jural words that are most homogeneal unto them And to be sure this is the safest way because all Heterogeneous and Exotick terms must needs puzzle the understanding more than such as are genuine and nearer related to the Subject These are connatural and familiar and obvious the other remote difficult and forced Take this Cause and hold it and it may bid fair for the Peace of Christendom Amen Thus Man at first did not like to keep Covenant with God Adam and Eve had a desire to be greater than God thought fit to make them and would fain have been as Gods to themselves without such dependance of God as was by a Covenant to do Gods will for they had a mind to do only their own will and to know Good and Evil and to be Immortal for so was God and so would they have been When therefore out of an aspiring mind they had tasted of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil in hopes to be made
was come to convince the World that this was the great meaning and intent of the Law Thus the Precepts of inward Obedience were translated out of Natures Law into that of Moses which the Prophets did often inculcate because the People were gross of Understanding readily supposing at first sight as all idle and carnal People are apt to do that an external Obedience would answer the Letter of the Law well enough teaching them to regulate the inward Obedience of the heart which even the Law it self did tacitely require and their Fathers expresly taught before the Law was given in Writing Outward Obedience It is plain then to considering men That they must not trust to the outward Observations of the bare negative Precepts of the Moral Law nor to the Ceremonials or Judicials that Moses had enjoyned so as from thence to promise to themselves the Favour of God and the Reward of the World to come as by not having any other Gods not worshipping Images not swearing falsly not doing Murther not committing Adultery c. or by paying of Tithes Sacrifices Washings Sabbaths c. For which conceipts Christ reproved the Jews as the Prophets had done before as if the offended Deity were to be bribed with Sacrifices Feasts or Fasts or any other Performances Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites Matt. 23.23 c. for ye pay Tithes of Mint and Annise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone c. Luk. 11.42 Mar. 7.48 Mat. 12.1.12 Psa 40.7.12 Ps 50.8.13 Ps 51.18 Isa 1.1.20 Isa 58.3.10 God requires no Sacrifices so much as Obedience Jer. 7.21 22 23. Patience and Hope in Afflictions Lam. 3.25.33 The Calves of the Lips Hos 14.2 Mich. 6.6 7 8. Zach. 8.16.19 In all which Instructions and Exhortations to the inward Obedience and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth they have shewed themselves the true fore-runners of Christ and his Apostles Sufficient means under the Law So that still they had sufficient means before and under the Law unwritten and written considering whose Law it was and by the teaching of the Fathers and Prophets to make them understand the Spiritual Duties and Rewards that were so far hinted and to oblige them to expect the coming of the greatest Law-giver who should teach them all things more clearly Love of God The Sense therefore of that great Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy strength though so far as it depends upon the bare Covenant of the Law it is limited to the Observation of those Precepts which God should confine their Civil life unto in the Service of him alone for a temporal Reward yet in the full latitude it may contain all that Christianity requireth Love of Neighbour And as for that Precept of loving their Neighbour as themselves it meant no more at first sight than of loving the Israelites their Brethren and friends but hating the Moabites c. which were Strangers and Enemies But really and truly according to the Law of Nature it meant all Mankind Matt. 5.43 be they never such Strangers or Enemies In like manner the Commandments Lev. 18.5 Ez. 20.11.21 Life which if a man keep he shall live in them they are first meant of this life but their last meaning extends to the life to come for they are large Commandments and fit to contain both internal and external obedience and large Subjects for the Prophets to preach upon as they did and for Christ to expound as he did in the highest sense they ought to bear Christ expounded the Law Lev. 18.18 according as it was foretold to Moses I will raise thee up a Prophet from among thy Brethren like unto thee and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto thee in all that I have commanded him Which was fulfilled answerably for God approved of him by a voice from heaven saying This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him This is the secret and spirit of God's Law and Covenant which he sufficiently manifested to those that severely kept the outward and civil part according to the Letter v. Ps 25.13 15. and 19.9 10. and 119.18 The CONTENTS Eternal life Rites troublesome and chargeable Permission Things not originally good Sacrifices Sacrifices first from Men. Imperfection Rigour TITLE III. Of the weakness of the Law AS to the main Body of the Law Of the weakness of the Law it was weak and imperfect in the Letter thereof in many respects There was no Command in all the Law for spiritual Prayer Instance 1 i. e. for spiritual and eternal Blessings as for Remission of sins Sanctification of the Spirit Mortification a new Creature Resurrection and Life eternal We read of few that made publick Prayers but Kings or Priests or Prophets whereas the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication is poured upon all People in the Gospel The Sadducees denied the Resurrection Angels and Spirits yet were Instance 2 they learned in the Law Teachers and great for Rule and Power which argues that there was no clear demonstration of these things in the Law Some glimmering of these things they had in their Sufferings especially in and after the Captivity towards the dawning of the day of the Gospel when they had lost the glory of their Land and were subjected to forreign Powers to shew that these Temporal felicities were forfeited for their disobedience and that they must look for a higher Covenant and Felicities more durable by embracing a purer Worship and Conversation they having failed in the Law and Services first given them for which neglect they were all taken away and their Temple and Country afterward laid waste and became a Curse These Spiritual things they could not discern to be meant because not expressed in the Law but Christ proves the Resurrection by the Law saying Matth. 82.30 c. Ex. 3 6. Have you not heard that which was spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living V. Mar. 12.18 Luc. 20.27 But had it been plainly covenanted for in the Law none durst openly to have denied it yet he bids them search the Scriptures for it for in them ye think to have eternal life Joh. 5.39 and they are they which testifie of me And the word Think is a term of abatement Insinuations and Intimations they had but no plain Demonstrations thereof As Is 26.19 Ezek. 33. 1 Mac. 12.1 2. Job 19.25 Ps 73.2 20. Jer. 12.1 2. Mal. 3.13 18. Hab. 2.3 24. Ps 16.1 Is 37.10 21. Ps 17.15 and 126.5 6. Heb. 7.19 10.19 8.6 9.15 7.19 and 9.14 2 Tim 1.9 10. Aug. Ep. 122. St. Austin saith Mihi in
are more false Reasons than true True Knowledge We have no True knowledge it is reserved for another World where we shall understand things exactly as they are and know as we are known Things are in their own nature alwaies the very same Things are here known according to the capacities of our Conceptions which are as various as Temperaments and Faces What another conceives I cannot though upon the same evidence and there is no great hold to what my self conceives for what I believ'd yesterday I may doubt of to day and to morrow be quite deceived The means to discern Truth from Error are but two Means to discern Truth Reason and Experience both these are Cheaters and shew each others cheats An hundred Reasons for one subject may be all false The Rules to â—oderate my Reason and Experience Rules are Principles or Axioms And they are the great Instruments of Deceit for they are so large pliable and stretching that they may be fitted for all Biasses squared and shaped to all forms All Principles are Quodlibets I may hold them which way I will Principles Weather-cocks that may turn to any wind Glasses that represent all faces Almanacks calculated indifferently for divers Climates The contrary Principles to what we now maintain have been in credit with our Fore-fathers as much as ours are now with us and as we have reversed theirs so may an After-age reverse ours What a case then are poor Mortals in Principles are like Common-wealths they have their Revolutions and Periods are altered as Plants removed to different soyls The best warrant for Principles and the surest Quietus est for Deceit Authority is the authority of some Supreme Power and this in the case of Laws is the surest course that can be taken to avoid Contention For some body must determine what is best to be said or done and although their Arrests and Decrees be not always the best yet they are the best that they can make and therefore they are for our practice for Uniformity and Peace but if we add conformity of Judgment because of their Authority we may quickly be deceived And so for the authority and esteem that we have of the Ancients singly or in counsel with others of great Piety and Learning if without enquiry I resolve to think speak or do as they would have me to live and die and all upon their score I am fairly deceived upon good authority But of all Authorities that of Infallibility deceives me most of all Infallibility As to believe that the Pope in nothing can erre that Luther or Calvin in nothing were or that I in my private Spirit in nothing am deceived This even this doth deceive the greatest part of Christendom Christ told his Disciples of the Leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees Matt. 16.6 and they reasoned strongly from their Snap-sacks And when he spake of Meat that he had to eat which they knew not of they little thought Joh. 4 32. that his Meat and Drink was to do the Will of his Father which sent him All their hopes were of a Temporal kingdom and of their Honours under him and after his death all their hopes were dead and buried with him We thought this had been he that should have restored the Kingdom to Israel It was given out that John should not die but he did die Peter halts between Jew and Gentile Who is it that is not deceived In most things we offend all Will. If then the Understanding be so erroneons how can the Will chuse but err Sins of Ignorance reach not the Will they are Sins of Infirmity as Sins are by Passion But Sins of Stubbornness and Malice are grounded on the Will My Lust The direct efficient Cause of Deceit is Lust I complain not of the Truth that there is none nor of the Means of coming to the Truth that they deceive me but I do justly complain where there is cause of my self The Essence of a Mistake is a firm Assent to some falshood under colour of some Truth The Modus is freely or confidently without fear or wit Understanding I trust my Understanding and she cheats me with Appearances for Truths Imagination for Judgment a Dream for Revelation Example for Law Illustration for Proof Probability for Demonstration it may be for it must be Quaintness for strength a Clinch a Crotchet must resolve me I set sail by the Wind of my Lusts I will and I will not at last I know not what I will Sometimes I am ready to curse God and dye will not give a Penny to a Disciple but offer half my Kingdom to my young Mistress From single Thefts I am led to Sacriledg from malice to revenge and murder Magnum est pati Ludibrium à suis my Lust in my bosome mocks me my Enemies are those of my own house Physical Agents and Moral Physical Agents have no Deceits if violent they force if necessary I assent not Moral Agents are but perswasive and dispositive Sensible Objects contain but God's bounty they are Baits but that I bite it is my inordinate Appetite Rational Agents as Satan and Men are remote and partial Causes must first win my Lust to be their Agent and Factor before they can overcome me unless these Philistins plough with my heifer they cannot work upon me They tempt and invite but my Lust deceives me like an Ignis fatuus they disturb my Phantasms and so my Intellect but not my Will no external created Agent can determine that I am principal in the Sin they are accessory in the Deceit Will The least Resistance of my Will would foil a moral Thrust from Man or Devils Christ is tempted as the Son of God Satan is repelled as from the Son of Man he had no Sin in him to second Satan's Assault no Conspirator to betray the Fort beleaguered from without The first Adam might have done as much as the second if he would and so might I still did not my Sin deceive me But God neither deceiveth nor is deceived God is all Truth therefore cannot deceive God is Omnipotent and needs not by means to deceive Deceit argues Impotency the Divel was never so Devilish as to change God with Deceit Say what I will still I am deceived If I say I have no Sin Jam. 1.14 I deceive my self If I confess it my Sin deceives me Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and entised My Lust deceives me Four ways 1. By my apprehensive Faculty my outward and inward Senses 2. By a Real Alteration by Passion of Mind or Distemper of Body 3. By vain and vulgar opinions as that the Sun dances on Easter-day that Cocks crow most against Christmas c. By Poets and Legends and Romances 4. By the Law it self A Casual Cause of Sin Law Casual Cause of Sin Law Sin 's work is to deceive it must
were in Egypt the house of Bondage their service was hereditary arbitrary and unprofitable at pleasure of their Task-masters and no wages but a charge to find straw and be beaten for not performing their daily tasks The CONTENTS The Soul Spirit 's free TITLE IX Of the Seat of Slavery THE seat of Slavery is the Spirit The Soul A bondage on the Soul and her faculties The bondage of the Body is a grievous burthen but it is not the true slavery For a man's Body may be moved to and fro and set on work to dig or draw or tug at an Oar or any other beastly works according to the will and command of a Tyrant but the Will all this while is free to act according to the mind and reason of a Man So a vertuous ingenuous Man is spiritually and truly free inwardly in his mind to know and do better things though outwardly in his Body he be a slave at the will of another as if he had no will of his own because he cannot use it to the guidance of his Corporal actions but he hath a will free to the actions of his Soul Thus Joseph was a bodily Bondslave to his Mistress to do her lawful commands but was spiritually free and refused to be subdued to her Lust He was more free than she He only a slave Corporal to her bodily power she a slave spiritual to her own base and filthy desires Joseph endures not so base a bondage chuses rather to lye fast bound in the dungeon and let the Iron enter into his Soul Thus the Israelites were slaves in Egypt under the Iron yoke of Pharaoh but free in the service of God to wait for his Promises So in the Babylonish Captivity they were slaves in body yet free to serve the Lord and would not sing the songs of Sion in a strange Land Give me any slavery but the slavery of the Soul I had rather they should bind me in Chains and load me with bolts and fetters of Iron make me tug at an Oar dig in a Mine or draw in a Wagon than take away the free use of that little Understanding which God hath given me I value the liberty of my Body to go when and whither I please and to do what and how I have a mind to but I value the liberty of my Soul at a far higher rate to judge and resolve according to the best of my skill and understanding As Mammon is the false Riches of Unrighteousness not the true and right riches but Wisdom is the true riches of the Spirit so bondage or Corporeal slavery is the false slavery of Unrighteousness but the true slavery is of the Soul and Spirit If therefore the Spirit be enthralled as it should not be how great is that thraldom and if the Spirit be free as it should be how great is that freedom Reason Because all Spirits are naturally free for they properly do force but are not forced they lead and are not led they bind and are not bound Spirit 's free The Spirit of God is absolutely free The will of his Spirit is supremely free to himself for he doth whatsoever he will The presence of his Spirit who is the Father of Spirits brings freedom to others Spirits 2 Cor. 3.17 For where the Spirit of God is there is liberty The conduct of the Spirit of freedom is the great freedom of the spirit The Leader makes the Follower free As many as are led by the Spirit of God Ro. 8.14 they are the Sons of God Gods Free-men The Will is naturally free by its first creation but now it comes to be supernaturally free by its New creation So the Will draws nearer and nearer to God in Liberty till it comes to the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ till it comes to will nothing but good and can do no otherwise Thus the Spirits of Just men are made perfectly free Necessary willing of Good without haesitancy from within or coaction from without is the greatest freedom Gods necessary doing of all good and impossibility of doing of any evil is his perfection Necessary willing of Evil without haesitancy from within or coaction from without is the greatest slavery Satans necessity of all evil and impossibility of doing any good is his imperfection Gods Spirit is perfect and absolute Freedom that makes the spirits of Just men and Angels perfectly and absolutely free Satans spirit is perfect and absolute bondage that makes the spirits of Unjust men and Angels perfectly and absolutely slavish For The Spirits of Angels and Men though naturally they be free yet accidentally they may be bound as in divers cases Satan himself and his Crue are all Spirit yet every Wizard pretends to bind them Jud. 6. But God doth indeed bind him and them reserving them in chains of Darkness unto the Judgment of the great day The Spirit of Man is free yet may it be religiously bound by a Vow or Oath Numb 30.2 and is shamefully bound by lust of Flesh the pride of World and the Temptations of the Devil and too often led captive by him according to his will Now the bondage of the Spirit is the true right and perfect slavery because the Spirit is naturally free and the more free a thing is naturally the more slavish is the bondage thereof for therein is the greater violence and the greater violence makes the greater slavery The CONTENTS Restraint from proper End Restraint from proper Guide Restraint from proper Act. Restraint from proper Rule Restraint from proper State Restraint from proper Right Constraint to base Actions TITLE X. Of the Cases of Slavery The Cases of true Slavery TRue Slavery is a thing so large and indefinite as that it cannot well be defined therefore it will be best by shewing the Cases thereof to design it As because Felony and Treason are Crimes indefinite therefore wise Lawyers do not define them but shew the Cases to design them Cases designing true Slavery I. A Restraint of Man from his proper End is slavery Restraint from proper end The proper End of Man is Happiness which consists in the knowledge and fruition of God For this is life eternal to know God c. other Ends are improper alien and forreign as Honour Wealth c. for these are neither his proper end nor yet the proper means to it they are neither happiness nor holiness For a man then to be restrained from true happiness that he cannot or may not be happy that he cannot or may not know or enjoy God this is true slavery For the disability to true happiness to be made uncapable of it is true misery and true misery is true slavery Hence Bastardy is a misery which bars the Child from all Inheritance and makes him uncapable of succession to his natural Father's Estate And Infamy is a misery which bars a man from all Offices and makes him uncapable of all Honour
A Commandment carnal and temporal Heb. 7.16 Christ's Priesthood II. In Christ's Priesthood all things were strong and perfect As 1. A Priest strong An immortal God free from sin without succession Gen. 24.19 20. without Father without Mother having the power of the eternal Spirit and of an endless life 2. A Tabernacle strong made without hands eternal in the heavens for all the Elements shall melt with fervent heat but the Holy of Holies the Heaven of Heavens higher than the highest are Eternal 3. Sacrifices strong that did purifie the Conscience and take away sin and were never iterated 4. Aaron stood in the midst of his Sacrifices of Lambs and Bulls and Calves c. before an Altar of Stone or Wood but Christ is the Sacrifice himself and the Priest and Altar Heb. 9.12 20. Not with the blood of Bulls c. but by his own Blood he entred into the Holy place Through the eternal Spirit he offered up himself to God without spot Heb. 9.14 purging our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God One for all 1. No other hands could offer Christ's Blood but his own they were too profane No Priest in the Masse can or ought to offer up Christ he is only worthy to offer up himself 2. No Marble or Golden Altar pure or rich enough to offer Christ upon He offers up himself upon the Altar of his eternal Spirit Through the eternal Spirit he offered up himself to God 3. No Temple stately enough to offer Christ in The whole World is God's Temple The lower World is the outward Court and the higher is the Holy of Holies Christ is the Minister there Heb. 8.2 that sacrifices in that true Tabernacle which the Lord hath pitched and not man and offers himself the True Sacrifice the Lamb slain from the beginning of the VVorld He offered up himself once by his own Blood he entred through the Veil that is to say his Flesh into the true Holy place Heb. 7.27 the Throne and Mercy-Seat of God there to appear in the presence of God for us for ever 4. A Covenant strong and everlasting made upon better Promises I. Typical Redemption from Typical Sins Aaron's Order tends to a Legal Typical Redemption from Legal and Typical Sins as To touch a dead Body to eat Flesh unclean to touch a Leper c. Touch not taste not handle not c. These were no Real sins because these Touchings and Tasting c. did not defile the Soul Not that which goeth into the mouth doth defile the man but that which goeth out of the mouth c. Whether we eat or drink we are not the better or if we eat not we are not the worse The Kingdom of God consisteth not in Meats and Drinks Call nothing Common or Unclean To the Pure all things are pure in their own nature These uncleannesses were in the Flesh only not there really but because of the Prohibition Now the Blood of Bulls and of Goats was sufficient to wash away such sins But as for Real sins in their own nature sinful that defile the Soul such as Murther Adultery Theft Rebellion c. There were no Sacrifices for these at all they were not pardoned the punishment was Death Temporal without Mercy or Restitution or VVhipping c. Now a VVeak Priest was sufficient to offer for such Typical Sins And a weak Tabernacle of Skins or a Temple of Stones was good enough for such Sacrifices as never pleased God in themselves and for such sins as never offended God in themselves but only as forbidden for a time to preserve the greater reverence in an irreverent People and to keep them from Idolatry which they were so prone unto Real Redemption from Real Sins II. Melchisedec's order it works a Real and Eternal Redemption from Real and Eternal Sins and Punishments Sins of thought word and deed that pollute the Conscience as Carelessness VVilfulness Presumption Rebellion Infidelity Malice c. Punishments of a blind mind a hard heart a seared Conscience For these there is provided 1. A Priest of Infinite Dignity 2. A Sacrifice of Infinite Value 3. A Tabernacle of Infinite Holiness 4. A Law of Infinite Perfection 5. An Oath of the Most high God to consecrate an Eternal King Priest and Prophet and to settle Eternity upon that Salvation which was for all men Salvation for all Men. 1. For all men I say whosoever will offer and give themselves up to this Great High Priest and Bishop of our Souls that gave himself up for all 2. For all that will partake of this Sacrifice and Altar by eating the Flesh of Christ and by drinking his Blood For they that offer the Sacrifices are partakers of the Sacrifices 3. For all that wait for the coming forth of this great High Priest out of his Tabernacle the Holy of Holies at the last day For without the People waited for the High Priest while he prayed for them within So we look for Christ's coming out again to bring us into that Holy place which he is gone before into to prepare a place for us Now this offering up of our Selves in and through Christ unto Christ is really by mortifying and crucifying our Corruptions and Lusts This is to be crucified with Christ to die with him to be baptized with him to be buried and rise again with him And this is the great Reformation that Christ made Old things are done away and all things are become New I. Old things are 1. Imperfect Light of Nature Carnal Righteousness 2. Sin 3. Punishment 4. Sacrifices 5. Old Testament 6. Vain Philosophy 7. Temporal Promises 8. Old Man Old Creation Old Birth Flesh 9. Carnal VVorship VVorks c. II. New things are 1. Perfect Light of Grace Spiritual Righteousness 2. Justification 3. Reward 4. Christ's Sacrifice 5. New Testament 6. Christian VVisdom 7. Eternal Salvation 8. New Man New Creature New Birth Spirit 9. Spiritual VVorship Grace SECTION II. From henceforth no New Changes to be made No more Changes 1. In Doctrines as to return to Judaism or Heathenism again 2. In Worships as to return to Sacrifices or set up a systeme of Ceremonies in defiance after God hath pulled down his own Rites From henceforth new Laws call for new Manners Greater obedience due from Christians than from Jews or Heathens and greater thankfulness to God for his wonderful wisdom and mercy in bringing us into this state of Grace and Salvation and for the assistance of his Spirit in all these dispensations of Grace unto glory But stay before we leave speaking of this wonderful Reformation let us consider this great and eternal Change a little better What is all gone say you and nothing at all left no not a hoof of all the Sacrifices and Services that were before No Priest no Law no Sacrifice no Temple no Altar Yes CHRIST is the Priest Sacrifice Temple Altar and his Gospel is the
is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the Testatour liveth Whereupon neither the first Testament was dedicated without Blood for when Moses had spoken every Precept to all the People according to the Law he took the Blood of Calves and Goats with Water and Scarlet-wool and Hysop and sprinkled both the Book and the People saying This is the Blood of the Testament which God hath enjoyned unto you Moreover he sprinkled with Blood both the Tabernacle and all the Vessels of the Ministery And almost all things are by the Law purged with Blood v. Gen. 15.9 and without shedding of Blood there is no Remission c. Where note that here in this place and in Math. 26.28 1 Cor. 11.25 and 2 Cor. 3.6 the Translatours use the word Testament altogether but in the other places where the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is they translate it Covenant As for instance But now he hath obtained a more excellent Ministery Heb. 8.6 by how much also he is the Mediatour of a better Covenant which was established upon better Promises Brethren I speak after the manner of men If it be but a Man's Covenant yet if it be confirmed Gal. 3.15 no man disanulleth or addeth thereto Zech. 9.11 By the Blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy Prisoners out of the Pit wherein is no Water v. Gen. 15.9 We are Ministers of the New Testament and not of the Old c. 2 Cor. 3.6 In all which places and many more of the Old Testament the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is constantly vsed by the Septuagint and as constantly by Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament which properly amongst all Authors signifies a Testament Disposition Law Institution but most properly a Testament and most improperly a Covenant Yet I have used and shall do all along the name of Covenant Testamentary Covenant because often so translated in our Bibles and because the New Testament or Gospel doth manifestly contain in it a Covenant as all Conditional Testaments do So that I contend not about words nor do I easily differ in substantial things but readily take in every Truth that the Analogy of Truth is able to bear giving every thing its due and fulfilling all Righteousness for Truth and Peace sake So the Gospel is confessed to be a Testament and a Covenant both that is a Testamentary Covenant and all is well The CONTENTS Evidences Promises Earnest Oath Security Donation Testament a single Will A Last Will. In force alone Confirmed by Death Testament the noblest Deed. Solemn Nuncupative Declarative Witnesses Plainness Heir Finishing by Hand and Seal In giving all In dying Testament most solemn Most liberal Marriage A near Vnion Acquisition of Goods Love of God Love of Saints Communion Adoption Heir the most Beloved Definition of the Gospel Definition of a Testament Testatour Appellative name of Believers Consent Testament of Father to Children Testamentum ad pias Causas No Praeterition No inofficious Testament TITLE IV. Of a Testament the best Deed. BUT still a Testament is the best Deed rather than a Covenant for these Reasons Because a Testament is the greatest Settlement and the strongest Deed for the Conveyance or Assurance of any Estate that can be made by God or Man Evidences Other Evidences and Assurances there are and may be As Promises 1. By Promise Thus the Inheritance is said to be by Promise unto which they have a true Right that believe or accept it as it is in all Promises till which acceptation they have no effect to the Offered neither is there any obligation upon the Offerer or Promiser 2. By Earnest Earnest Thus God gives the Earnest of his Holy Spirit for the future Inheritance In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise which is the Earnest of our Inheritance Eph. 1.13.14 until the Redemption of the purchased Possession unto the praise of his Glory Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God Eph 4.30 whereby ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption 3. By Oath When God made a Promise to Abraham Oath Heb. 6.13 c. because he could not swear by a Greater he sware by himself And men verily swear by the Greater and an Oath for confirmation is the end of all Strife God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong Consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us which hope we have as an Anchor of the Soul both sure and stedfast c. 1 Cor. 1.20 All the Promises of God in Christ are Yea and Amen 4. By Covenant or Convention between two Parties a League or Pact by mutual agreement upon terms 5. By Security or Satisdation Security by Pledge or Power to engage for the performance of Covenant 6. By Donation or Gift for Death's sake or otherwise Donation But still a Testament is the strongest Deed and in particular of more force than any Covenant can be SECTION I. 1. Because a Testament is the single will and pleasure of one Person Testament a single Will who is Dominus in solidum totius Patrimonii absolute Lord of the whole Patrimony who hath full right to convey without any leave or confirmation from another he being full Proprietary and having Jus Allodii dependent upon none But a Covenant is a double Will of two at the least whether Persons or Bodies Politick that have Partial or Concurrent Rights to convey to each other SECTION II. 2. Because a Testament is a Last Will A Last Will. and therefore presumed to be the best and to be of most force Non quod ultimo placuit illud amplius displicere non potest The Last Will is the true will and never to be altered So are not Covenants for they are not Last Wills but preceding Wills and are changeable every day and are as daily broken by them that made them which a Testatour cannot possibly do because being once dead he cannot disanul his Last Will which he hath confirmed by his Death Gal. 3.15 3. In force alone Because a Testament of all other Wills which were ambulatory doth only stand in force and all others repugnant thereunto do vanish and come to nothing Whereas Covenants though they be many yet all may remain in full force together SECTION III. Confirmed by Death 4. Because a Testament is confirmed by death only of the Testatour and no other way whereas Covenants are ratified by signing and sealing only before Witnesses and if Personal merely are voided by death SECTION IV. 2. Reas Testament the noblest Deed. Solemn The Scriptures are a Testament rather than a Covenant because
a Testament is the most Noble of all Deeds or Conveyances And that Because it is most Solemn Nuncupative 1. For Nuncupation if by word of mouth Declarative 2. For Declaration if it be written Witnesses 3. For Witnesses seven of old amongst the Romans at least and those all rightly qualified Citizens honest and of good report Plainness 4. For clear expression of mind For if at any time a Wise man will declare his meaning more than ordinary it must be in his last Will before his death because after that he can never interpret if he have left any doubts or flaws therein Heir 5. For Institution of an Heir to succeed the Testatour in all his Rights and to fulfil all his Will as if he himself were alive to do it Finishing by Hand and Seal 6. For exact finishing signing and sealing of his Will at the time of the Declaration thereof to be his true last Will and Testament Death 7. For Death sadly ensuing upon it to ratifie all that was Willed Testament most Gracious Because it is most Gracious In giving all 1. In giving all universitatem bonorum For the Heir succeeds into all the Rights and Priviledges of the Testator all is the Heirs originally as it was the Testator's though some Legacies be taken out of the Inheritance and sprinkled upon the Legataries by the hand of the heir as the Testator might have done while he was alive This is delibatio Hereditatis but a Taste of the Inheritance the main body is the Heirs In dying 2. In leaving all by dying Goods and Life together greater Love than this can no Man shew than to lay down his life to give all to his Heir And there can be no Person more dear than he whom a Man doth make his sole Heir and Successor to live as it were in his stead and to enjoy use and act for him to all intents and purposes as if he were still alive The Form of old expressed this Love quando ego ex rebus humanis excessero tunc tu charissime Haeres meus esto Loe here I dye and leave thee my most beloved Heir to represent my person still and to possess immediately after my decease my Honour and Estate and to do every thing therein which I would or should have done and especially what I have enjoyned to be done according to my quality and degree as if I were alive my self to do it And moreover in particular it is the most noble and gracious Deed above a Covenant SECTION V. Because a Covenant is not so solemn an Act as a Testament is Reason 1 Testament most solemn For Covenants may be made and are made in Mirth and Jollity at a Market or a Tavern without any sad Consideration of Death ensuing But a Testament is alwaies upon most serious Consideration either in a Closet or on a Man's Death-bed or upon any dangerous Adventure or Travel or in acie or when a man is at the point to dye and then is no dallying when Death is before our face Thus Christ a little before his Death declares his last Will to his Disciples and took the solemn Symbols of Bread and Wine that by them they might remember the last Will of their dying Saviour viz. What gifts he gave unto them My Peace I leave with you my Peace I give unto you c. And what Duty he required at their hands to do or suffer for the Gospel's sake saying Take eat this is my Body which was given for you do this in remembrance of me and this is my Blood of the new Testament which was shed for you drink you all of this and by this they were to shew the Lords Death until his second coming for the full Performance of the Will of God which then he dyed to confirm when he shall give actual possession of the Inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers SECTION VI. Because a Covenant is not so liberal as a Testament is Reason 2 Most Liberal it is more penurious strict and covetous tying men up oftentimes to hard Conditions and is without pure Love the Parties covenanting not daring to trust one another without Bonds and Securities double and treble and desperate Forfeitures and Penalties But a Testament is a bountiful Donation of all to the Heir in whom he puts full trust and confidence and whom he most dearly loves above all the World besides And if he do require Conditions they are sutable to the Love of him that dyes to give him all and to the condition of him to whom all is given that he would no more hurt or dishonour him by these Conditions than he would hurt or dishonour himself if he were to live to perform them SECTION VII I know Marriage there are other Contracts and Covenants of great excellency and vertue as between Man and Wife Friend and Friend of rare Endearments to each other but nothing like this of a Testament In Marriages there are gifts mutual the Wife brings her Dowry to her Husband and he gives his gifts ad sustinenda onera Matrimonii and settles a Joynture upon her there is one for the other yea there is a Communion of all things divine and humane between them yea they give their own Bodies to each other for life and when the Husband dies he leaves her part of his honour and third Part of the Estate and by the Imperial Law she goes away with her Dowry that she brought him SECTION VIII A near Union It is a very near and intimate Union I do confess both in Law making but one Person and by Copulation but one Flesh and a Man and Woman must forsake Father and Mother and they two must cohabit and become one Flesh And besides the resignation of Bodies to each other so that they are not their own but have power over each other they may and ought to give their minds and affections mutually and thereby they are not only one Flesh which may be with Harlots but one Spirit also All which things agree most rarely well with the spiritual Mariage which is between Christ and his Church But this Notion is not shut out of the Testament of God but comes in very well under it For we that are by Faith the Sons and Heirs of God are also his Allies and Friends yea his Spouse and Wife and all the intimate Relations that can be imagined Matrimonial Love is of great concernment as to Procreation being the Fountain of all Societies and the enlargement of Mankind but still it makes but one Flesh as it may be with Harlots but the main thing is a harmony of Humours and Conditions and this makes them more one Soul and one Spirit as friends are and they may not be Conjugal Benefits are great to Wives for Honour and Estate but Paternal Benefits are greater to Sons and Heirs for Honour and Estate And for Law
no Comparison A man's Heir is himself in all Successions and with himself still represented goes along the Possession of all his Honours and Goods for ever A man's Wife is part of himself and carrieth part of his Estate and Honour with her as a Wife should do But his Heir hath all himself and his Estate and Honour too as an Heir should have SECTION IX Acquisition of Goods Other ways of acquiring Goods there are but only in part as first Ocupation Invention Accretion Donation c. But this is in full to go away with all by right of Testamental Inheritance Let every comfortable and benefical Relation therefore be taken in especially that of a Father which is Christ's own Relation by Nature and ours by Grace and Adoption in Christ the principal Son of God and Heir of all things this hinders not but includes the Love-respects of Wife Spouse Sister Brother Friend or Allies Love of God All Love in God is great towards all his Creatures but chiefly to Mankind and more especially to his Church Love of Souls This Love of God to the Soul passeth all knowledge to express the height and length and depth and breadth thereof And again the Love of the Soul to God is unexpressible Stay me with flagons and comfort me with apples for I am sick of Love It is the Soul's ravishment and admiration to an Extasie to see it self thus beloved of God and not know how nor why and to feel what she is not able to conceive or express The blessed Cherubims and Seraphims burn with this Love But for the description of God's Love that kindles all other Love we must draw a Curtain Silence best expresses what we are not able to understand The Communion and fellowship with God Communion proceeding from the mutual love between God and the Soul and the influences of the Spirit is the great mystery of Christ and his Church Behold what manner of Love this is Adoption that we should be called the Sons of God! And we know that we are now the Sons of God but we know not hereafter what we shall be but this we know that when he appeareth we shall appear with him in glory and of Carnal be made Spiritual of Corruptible Incorruptible of Mortal Immortal A man may have many Friends very near and dear unto him Heir the most Beloved and which may bestow upon him many and great gifts and to whom he may give many and great gifts also but the Son and Heir of his Body lawfully begotten or the Son and Heir of his Love lawfully adopted receives most favour and profit by him because he is himself represented and his Off-spring forever So Christ is the beloved Son and Heir of God in whom he is well pleased and in whom we are the beloved Sons and Heirs and Coheirs with Christ The rest go away with their several gifts and honours from him and set up several houses and families of their own but the Son and Heir is full and continual Successor to his Father in all his Honour and Estate as Lord Earl or King with all the Lands and Revenues for ever entailed upon him by his Father who thus never dies But a Wife after her Husband's departure is a Widow free for another man loses a great part of her Lustre and Priviledges and enjoys only her Dowry which she had before from her Father or her Joynture which she received from her Husband so that her Widowhood by her Husbands death is a diminution to her head But it is the augmentation of an Heir by his Father's decease And thus God would have it be in the manner of the conveyance of his Estate to us by way of Testament that we should be his Heirs Thus Love is contained in God's Promises Laws Constitutions Decrees and Testaments at large wherein is the Royal Charter of God's great Donation to his Church and faithful People instituted to be his Heirs and Co-heirs with Christ in toto solido every one of them without any diminution of happiness though there be degrees thereof And under this Grant they claim their Right by their Faith or Promise or Covenant with God to accept of his Love and to obey his Laws An high honour to be the Friends and Allies of God but a far higher to be his Sons and Heirs in all Honours and Inheritances entailed and never to be cut off by God but only by their own Refusal or Apostacy else the Promise of God standeth sure and they remain spiritual Prophets Priests and Kings for evermore This is the only difference between earthly and heavenly Heirs that the Earthly succeed in Flesh and Blood Honour and Estate and in all things but only Vertues and great Parts but the Heirs of God succeed not only to the Inheritance of Glory but to the Vertues Gifts and Graces and Likeness of God To conclude in a word there are many and great acts of Grace in the World but none of them nor all together are so gracious as that of a Testament And such is the Gospel the New Testament of God's Grace SECTION X. Definition of the Gospel This is a Definition of the Gospel so large in extent that we can reach nothing beyond it to prove it by Not because it is no true Definition but because it is so highly true that there is no cause or reason above it wherewith to prove it A prime Verity an Axiom a Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Causa Postulatum ut Triangulum est rectilinium Trilaterum A Demonstration so of reason so true that no body in his right wits can deny A Nominal or Grammatical Cause may be given for the words Gospel Testament or Covenant but no Rational or Real Cause because it is a Definition Nevertheless though it cannot so properly be proved because granted and a Principle yet it may well be illustrated or declared more to the understanding thereof Definition of a Testament And so a Testament is a just Decree of things to be had or done after the Testators death according to that of Justinian Testamentum est voluntatis justa Sententia de eo quod quis post mortem suam fieri velit Called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Disposition or Decree of the Will and by the Latins Testamentum or solemn Testation of witnessing of the Testator's mind declared to fit persons And in this the Wisdom and Goodness of God to us appears in condescending to our shallow Capacities by setling the Inheritance of Eternal life upon mortal Men by an Immutable Testament after the manner of Men more impossible after the Death of Christ to be revoked than all the Laws by the Medes and Persians that by this way and means all Believers might be assured that they are Instituted the Sons and Heirs of God by Jesus Christ in his last Will and Testament because it is so ratified by the Death
me free from the Law of Sin and Death Ro. 8.1 2. Ro. 8.5 6. And they that are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit The Gospel times therefore were prophesied to be searching times Consequences Mal. 3.1 2 c. The Lord shall suddenly come into his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in Behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a Refiner's fire and like Fuller's sope And he shall sit as a Refiner and Purifier of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an Offering in Righteousness Then shall the Offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the daies of old and as in former years Thus the thoughts of many hearts will be discovered and it shall be known who will follow the World and who will follow Christ who will live after the Flesh and who will live after the Spirit Who will enter into Covenant with God and who with the Devil Thus the Letter of the Law killeth 1. Because it only discovers sin 2. Because it only condemneth sin 3. Because it stirreth up sin the more 4. Because it punisheth sin without mercy Thus the Spirit giveth life 1. Because it offereth Life freely 2. Because it justifieth them that accept it 3. Because it saves them from Sin Death and Hell 4. Because it giveth them Eternal Life and Glory SECTION III. Digression Cautions Mistake not these words Take heed well what you hear and read He that hath ears to hear let him hear and he that hath a heart to understand let him understand 1. Some will not read the Scriptures nor hear them read or preached by any study or pains by any Art or Eloquence 2. Some will not pray by any forms at sett times or places nor submit to any Discipline nor preach by Meditation or helps of any Comments or Writing nor hearken to any Counsels Exhortations or Conferences nor be ruled by any Laws or Orders of men These trust they say to the Light that is in them and to the motions of the Spirit in their own Consciences which is rather their humor fancy and obstinacy These are above all Ordinances in the letter of the Law of God or Man and walk aloft by the revelations of the Spirit which if it were the true Spirit would never be contrary to the true sense and Spirit of the Gospel written and preached The Spirit teacheth us to pray preach and live Spiritually by the Means of the Word of God and wholesom Discipline of Men. Therefore what is written in the Book and preached by the Voice and commanded by lawful Power is the same with that which is the Mind of God first predestinated and secret then revealed and published to and by the Fathers at last to and by Christ and his Apostles and written in the heart by the Holy Ghost Therefore deceive not your selves 1. With vain Fancies and new Revelations for the Truth is old 2. With feigned Words and canting Expressions for the Truth is plain 3. With framing a Law to your selves as if infallible contrary to Nature's Law to the Laws of Nations and to Christ his Law This must needs be a Spiritual cheat tending to all mischief and confusion Take heed therefore 1. Of Law-Preachers of Curses Hell and Damnation 2. Of Spirit-Preachers of Evidences and Rapture walking without and against all Law and Rule These sort of men are Rigid Surly Morose Self-conceited Opiniators Malicious Proud Scoffers Straitners of God's love to Mankind therefore not of God and having not the Spirit SECTION IV. Leave of vain Disputes and learn 1. To hold all necessary and confessed Truths Instructionâ— and contend only for the Faith and a good Conscience 2. To submit to all Orders and Decencies and to fulfil all Righteousness which is the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price 3. To reverence and adore the Manifold Wisdom of God admiring and praising but not prying and searching into the Reasons of his Workings whose waies are alwaies Just but often hid from our eyes because his paths are in the great Waters and his foot-steps past our finding out 4. To embrace the Promises of Forgiveness of sins Adoption Heaven and Happiness This will engage the Soul to live by the Spirit of the Gospel and not merely by the Letter much less by the Law or by Sense This will sublimate the Soul to the spiritual acts of Faith Hope Love Prayer Self-denial against the Carnal acts of Sense Lust Drunkenness c. Forbear ignorant and proud boasting of the Spirit to be above Ordinances and contrary to what is Revealed it is most dangerous Let us not be Fools or Cross 1. In being too superstitiously Formal and trusting to Outward worship 2. In being too Profane and Licentious in neglecting all Conscience and Inward worship 3. In being too superstitiously precise in Inward worship only without any regard to Decency and Order calling it Jewish Heathenish and Popish 4. In being actually Rebellious thereupon by separation from publick Assemblies and rising up in Arms openly and destroying the Powers of the Church and State There is a right way if we could hit upon it as we may without prejudice against any man's Person to take in all the Truths held by them though we like not other things which they are mistaken in The way of Charity is excellent To suffer long and to be kind not to envy or vaunt not to be puffed up not to behave our selves unseemly 1 Cor. 13.4 c. nor to seek our own not to be easily provoked to think no evil not to rejoyce in iniquity but to rejoyce in the Truth to learn all things to believe all things hope all things endure all things There are that hold the Truth in Unrighteousness which ceaseth not to be the Truth because they hold it with other Errors There are that hold the Foundation of Gold Silver and Precious stones though they unhappily build Wood Hay and Stubble and such unworthy matter thereupon There are that sit in Moses's Chair and teach according to the Law and their Disciples are bound to believe and do according as they say though they say and do not There are that preach Christ out of Envy and for Gain and yet Christ is preached and thereat they may rejoyce and should rejoyce If I find a Jewel upon a Dung-hill I will stoop to take it up I will reverence Wisdom in the poor or blind or lame or otherwise
deformed In a word Phil. 4.3 Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise we are bound to think on these things SECTION V. Exhortations Have not the Word of God in respect of Persons have no man's person in too much admiration Aim directly at the plain Truth with a single eye in simplicity of heart not inventing objections or making knots nor yet willing to be cheated or captivated in your Judgments by being magisterially imposed upon Take no part nor side resolutely to pin your Faith upon all that they say or do Count no man or Society of men infallible Be not biassed for favour or affection gain or preferment to any Sect nor from them for malice or hatred or fear of loss or punishment but strive to be of an universal Spirit free to embrace or shun without bondage or base love or fear Let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath because the wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God Thus it becometh us to fulfil all Righteousness strive to take in all truth walk humbly honestly and warily working out our Salvation with fear and trembling and making our Calling and Election sure Look alwaies well to the end walk circumspectly as wise men stand fast in your Christian liberty quit your selves like men pressing on still to the mark of the High calling which is laid up for you in Christ Jesus The Gospel promiseth great things to all Eternity and having such a hope in you so full of a glorious and blessed Immortality be alwaies aspiring to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord that ye may obtain an Inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith which is in Christ Jesus Let no Profane or Unclean Wretches expect any good Be not deceived God is not mocked No Whoremonger nor Adulterer nor Fornicator nor Covetous person which is an Idolater shall ever enter into the Kingdom of God or of Christ They can have no part or share of the Inheritance with the Saints in Light that walk on here in darkness The hopes of Hypocrites must needs perish as the Spider's web Let the Faithful hope and pray for the Kingdom of heaven let them be glad and rejoyce for great is their Reward in heaven yea let them lift up their heads with joy for their Redemption draweth nigh and now is nearer than they are aware of Let them remember that their Saviour is their Judge and most favourable to all that have honest hearts he knows how to relieve the ignorant and weak and such as are out of the way He will resolve them in all their doubts comfort them in all their sorrows direct them in all their wandrings heal them in all their maladies strengthen them in all their weaknesses and do for them abundantly above all that they are able to ask or think He will reject none that come unto him he will admit all to the Legacies contained in his Father's Will and Testament that shall be found capable to receive them cum favore Believe Love Work Hope Desire Persevere no matter what Men judge Trust to the Word of Life follow that blessed Rule and be happy Live and die in Faith and lie down in Hope to rise again to everlasting Life and Salvation Be thankful that ye are under the conduct of the Spirit of Life and Grace plentiful and strong Helps brought home to the door of your hearts waiting to be let in These are within us If we will receive them there they be ready for us Nothing of God wanting to us if we be not wanting to our selves There is a Voice behind us saying This is the Way walk in it turn from the waies of Wickedness pass by them come not near unto them for fear Iniquity procure your ruine The Spirit invites perswades by all means if our Spirits will hear incline or desire God will move and incline our desires to good If honestly Uprightness and Meekness be in us God will love us and we shall love him and Love shall cover a multitude of sins Having such pretious Promises and such gracious Encouragements be bold with a holy boldness to challenge them from God by the Mediation of Jesus Christ in whom they are made sure Claim therefore as your dues The Word and Sacraments The Liberty from the Law Access to the Throne of Grace Forgiveness of Sins The Gift of the Spirit The Resurrection of the Body The Life Everlasting For these things are fit for God to give and for God's Children to receive because Great is he that hath promised and Great is he in whose Name and for whose sake he hath promised such great things and therefore in and by and through him we have freedom of Access to the Throne of Grace for Grace sufficient to help us in the times of all our need The CONTENTS Nature of Liberty Form Loosness from all Incumbrances Largeness TITLE VIII Of Liberty BEsides the two forementioned Properties of the two Testaments viz. The New Spiritual and Lively The Old Literal and Deadly There may be added two more to distinguish them from each other viz. The New Testament begeteth the Spirit of Freedom The Old Testament engendreth the Spirit of Bondage Between a Son and a Servant is great difference chiefly in their state The Son is free of his Father's house and hath a Right of perpetuity to abide therein for ever but the Servant is at the will of his Lord and hath no liberty to abide in the house for ever The Son is Herus minor quasi Dominus rerum paternarum The Church is God's Family Christ is God's Son therefore is free of the Church for his self and hath power to make others free not in word or shew Joh. 8.36 but in deed and truth If the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed Nature of Liberty Of Liberty there are two parts the Nature the Subjects The Nature of Liberty consists in four Points the Form the Seat the Terms and the Cases of it Form The Form is a Loosness and clearness from all Impediments Entanglements and Incumbrances Loosness from all Incumbrances The more Loose we be the more free if fully loose then fully free termed Inalligation opposit to obligation an Independency Therefore whatsoever is unbound not hanging upon any thing is properly loose as Psal 2.20 He looseth them that are appointed to die that are fast bound in misery and Iron The shaking off of Shackles and Fetters So the Woman whose Husband is dead is loosed from the Law of her Husband Ro. 7.2 I. The first Reason is from the Contrariety of Slavery which Reas 1 is 1. Perpetual an Inheritance to the Lord and his Heirs for ever So Liberty is perpetual to himself and his
Heirs for ever 2. Arbitrary Pro libitu Domini so is Liberty Pro libitu sui ipsius A man is lord of himself 3. Unprofitable no Reward of slavery but pain all Profits redound to the Lord. Whatsoever Slaves acquire they accrue to their Lord because they themselves and their Wives and Children are their Lord's Goods and Possessions therefore whatsoever they get by their Labours is their Lord's for they have no Rights at all but are dead in Law to all intents and purposes But Liberty redounds to a Man 's own self Thus contrary things have contrary forms as Gluttony is a vice Temperance a vertue II. The second Reason is from the affinity which Liberty hath with Reas 2 Largeness A Prisoner when free is set at large Largeness being before confined to a narrow space Thou hast enlarged me when I was in trouble Psal 4.1 Thou hast set my feet in a large room When a man is free he may walk abroad at large whither he pleaseth Psal 18.19 otherwise he is confined to the Will of another The CONTENTS Soul TITLE IX Of the Seat of Liberty THE Seat of Liberty is the Spirit The Soul and her Faculties That of the Body is a counterfeit and bastard Liberty Soul this of the Soul is Liberty indeed David though a King wanted this liberty while he was under Murther and Adultery therefore he prays that God would bring his Soul out of Prison and stablish him with a free Spirit As Mammon is not the true Riches so the Liberty of the Body is not a true Liberty What greater bondage than that of the Mind when the Judgment is captivated to believe the Magisterial dictates of the Pope or perhaps an ignorant Confessor It is to be wondered that brave men otherwise Wise and of great Perfections should suffer themselves to be such slaves and fools as to be imposed upon in their Judgments and not suffered nor suffer themselves to use their own Reasons nor question any thing but do like fools all manner of absurd and intollerable Commands to the macerating and hurting of their Bodies by Whippings Pilgrimages Sackcloths and other Ridiculous fopperies Reas 1 1. The first Reason is from the Contrariety of slavery Slavery is in the Spirit therefore Liberty is in the Spirit Because things contrary reside in the same seat not concurrently but successively As because the Eye is the seat of Blindness therefore it is also the seat of Seeing The Ear is the seat of Deafness therefore of Hearing So because the Spirit is the seat of Slavery it must needs be the seat of Liberty Reas 2 2. The second Reason is from the Nature of the Spirir which is naturally Free GOD the Father of Spirits is supremely Free therefore Angels and spirits of Men must be free under him The Soul is not properly united to the Body but the Body to the Soul Death is a separation but the Body departs not from the Soul but the Soul from the Body There is no man hath power over the Spirit Eccles 8.8 to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of death The CONTENTS Recess from Evil. Access to Good TITLE X. Of the Terms of Liberty THE Terms of Liberty are Good and Evil. Liberty is a loosness from Evil to Good held by no Evil and withheld from no Good I. Recess from Evil i. e. from the World the Flesh and the Devil Recess from Evil. which three are Evils Remission of sins is true Liberty from the bonds of Death Hell and Satan II. Access to Good Access to Good Good is the proper and principal object of Liberty the end and scope it aims at When we are hindred from no good but capable of all then are we free indeed As when all Egypt lay open to Joseph when all Canaan lay open to the Israelites When the Throne of Grace stands wide open for all that have need to fly thereunto for Grace sufficient to help them in the time of all their need The first is a Vulgar Liberty such as the Poor and Strangers have the second is a Royal Liberty for Children and free Denizens The Reason is from the affinity it hath with Repentance Reason Liberty is a preparative to Repentance Till the Soul be loose from Evil it cannot turn unto God As Repentance is a turning from sin to God so Liberty is a turning from Evil to Good As in Repentance the Right turning is from Evil to Good or else it is Apostacy so in Liberty the Right turning is from Evil to Good or else it is Licentiousness So loosness from the Law is slavery To be free from Righteousness is to be the Servant of sin The CONTENTS Loosness to proper End Loosness to proper Guide Loosness to proper Act. Loosness to proper Rule Loosness to proper State Loosness to proper Right TITLE XI Of the Cases of Liberty The Cases of Liberty Loosness to proper End I. A Loosness of Man to his proper End is Liberty The proper End of Man is Happiness Restraint from that makes slavery or true Misery When we are free from Worldly ends of Honour c. and clearly loose to heaven and heavenly things then are we free indeed As Bastardy bars from a temporal Inheritance As Infamy bars from temporal Honour so Liberty admits to Eternal Felicity As Capacity of Temporal Honours makes a Freeman so much more Capacity to Eternal Honours Loosness to proper Guide II. A Loosness of Man to his Proper Guide is Liberty A Man 's Proper Guide is a Right Spirit As a Restraint from that is slavery so a Loosness to that is Liberty All other Guides as Satan World Passions of flesh are Troublers rather than Leaders but when we are free from all these then are we free indeed Philo. 2 Cor. 3. pen. Revera liber est qui solum Deum sequitur He is free indeed that follows God only Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Hence that great Question ☞ how Free-will can consist with God's Grace is easily decided for where God's Grace works upon the Will the more it works upon the Will to draw it and the more the Will conforms to God's Grace to follow it the more Free the Will is Grace then doth not destroy nor abolish Liberty but beget and nourish it for the more God's Grace doth loose the Will from evil and lead it on to good the more it frees the Will And as till then the Will is not free so then it is most free III. A Loosness of Man to his Proper Act is Liberty Loosness to proper Act. The Proper Act of Man is his Will And as a Restraint from that is Slavery so a Loosness to that is Liberty The Stoicks say Liber est qui vivit ut vult which thou may'st not construe as a School-boy but as a Christian He is free that can act his own Will i. e. after Resolution
Gospel are chiefly for Eternals The Children of the Law know darkly and understand Spiritual and Eternal things afar off The Children of the Gospel know clearly and understand Spiritual and Eternal things as near at hand Faith being the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen The Children of the Law are in their Minority not only in their Father's Gal. 4.1 c. but in their Servants power under Tutors and Governours as Servants though they be Lords of all But the Children of the Gospel are in their Majority Adult and Manumitted They that are under the Law are as a Wife under the Dominion and Power of her Husband But they that are under the Gospel are as a Wife whose Husband is dead Ro. 7.1 c. and therefore loose from the hard Law of a severe Husband and is now married to another more gentle and generous Husband under whom she enjoys a noble Freedom The Law is the Mother of the Jewish Nation and all that observe that Rule but the Gospel is the Mother of all Nations for Grace Mercy and Peace to them and to the Israel of God Isaac's Posterity was double to Ismael's The first Covenant of the Law lasted but for a time but the second Covenant of the Gospel endures for ever Ismael Persecuted Isaac He that was born after the Flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit The Jew Persecuted and still the Carnal Jewish Christian persecutes the Spiritual Christian indeed But as the Son of the Bond-woman was cast out with his Mother because he should not inherit with the Son of the Free-woman so the Son of the freedom is kept in and abides in the house of God for ever with his Mother to inherit the Kingdom of the Father unto which they of the Law cannot be justified by their works but they of the Law by Faith only So then we that are of Faith are not the Children of the Bond-woman but of the Free and consequently are not under the Law but under Grace SECTION IV. By all this we are taught the Excellent state of Christian Liberty State of Christian Liberty by which 1. The Jews are redeemed from the Ordinances of Policy and Ceremony which was a bondage such as neither they nor their Fore-fathers were able to bear 2. The Gentiles are redeemed from Idolatry under the kingdom of Satan to Christ's Kingdom The Jews were Children and Servants in their Minority The Gentiles were Aliens and Strangers from God Both are made the Sons of God adoptive by Grace Great Mistakes there are in the World about this Liberty 1. Papists have quite lost it They have no liberty to use their own Judgments but are captivated in all things By the Infallibility and Supremacy of the Pope By an absolute Dictatorship of every Casuist or Confessor though never so ignorant to impose upon them that have more Learning and Judgment than themselves if they would dare to use it The slavery of the Soul is the greatest of all others I do not wonder at the Ignorant People because they never knew better things but I wonder at wise men that might know better and doubtless do 2. Papists have no Liberty of Practice No Liberty to read the Scriptures No Liberty to understand their own Prayers No Liberty to eat or drink Clergy Monks and Nuns no Liberty to marry Laity no Liberty to the Cup. No Liberty to go to God directly but must go first to Saints and Angels No Liberty for Time of Feasts and Fasts No Liberty of Estates Church must have all No Liberty of Speaking scarce of Thinking I had rather be chained at an Oar and tug in a Gally or dig in a Mine or draw in a Wagon like a Horse and be free in my Soul than to be a Lord and a slave in my Will to the wills of others more ignorant and wicked than my self A Pope or Councel or perhaps an Ignorant Frier shall domineer over my Conscience and impose upon my Faith or make me go bare-foot or bare-leg or Whip my self or kiss a rotten Relique of a dead man's Bone or an Old-shoe Kings have been trod upon or made to hold Stirrups or kiss the feet of Popes 2. Fanaticks have quite lost it and turn Licentious Are allowed all due Christian Liberty but abuse it to Licentiousness Are allowed Liberty of Judgments and Liberty of Practice in safe things They have the Scriptures to use They have Prayers in a known Tongue They have Liberty to eat and drink The Clergy may marry All have Liberty to go to God directly not to Saints or Angels at all They have Liberty of the Sacrament They have Liberty for Time They have Liberty of Estate They have Liberty to speak and confer and ask counsel O happy we of the Reformation if we did but know our happiness and make good use of it 1. We are therefore justly to be rebuked for the Ignorance of our condition under the Gospel 1. For the Purity of Doctrine teaching to be pure in heart poor in spirit to hunger and thirst after Righteousness to mourn to be peace-makers to suffer for Righteousness sake to love our Enemies c. 2. For the Purity of Discipline and Spiritual worship in decency and order 3. For the Pretious Promises of Grace and of the Spirit of Resurrection and Eternal Life 4. For the greatest assistances and Assurances 5. For Christian Liberty 2. We deserve rebuke for our Ignorance of the Dignity of Christian Churches and Gospel Dispensations therein A Purer Priesthood than Aaron's was A Purer Altar A Purer Sacrifice A more honourable Maintenance A Purer Law O that we were wise that we would consider these things and remember our Latter end that we might not do amiss The CONTENTS Fulness of Time Jews a childish People Time of Minority Redemption Adoption Plenage Gentiles exempted from Minority Popery Administration of both Testaments Idolatry Remedy against Idolatry TITLE XIV Of the Minority and Majority of the Church BY the Bondage and Slavery under the Law and the Liberty and Freedom under the Gospel is understood the Minority of the Church under the same Law and the Majority thereof under the Gospel SECTION I. This is called the Fulness of time Fulness of Time But when the Fulness of Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons 1. There is a Time of Pupillage in Persons till twelve and fourteen and of Tutorage till twenty one and twenty five Princes are priviledged sooner as Josiah 2 Chr. 34.3 who in the twelfth year of his Age began to act as King And others for the pregnancy of their Wit have the pardon of their years by favour allowed them 2. There is a Time of Minority in States Kingdoms and Common-wealths for Wealth Arms and Laws And also a Time of Majority for
capital the Sinner became a Sacrifice for his own sin Numb 15.32 As he that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath-day This Servility to the Command must be understood to the Literal sense according to which many were blameless For Zechariah and Elizabeth were both righteous before God Luk. 1.6 walking in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless And the Apostle saith he was touching the Righteousness which was in the Law blameless Phil. 3.6 For if we construe Moses his Law so amply as some do 1. VVe make the Law and the Gospel all one 2. The Church of the Jews must have died in their Minority For the Murtherer and Adulterer was to be put to death If then wilful Anger and Lust had been so punished what Jew could have escaped with his life VVhen therefore this VVardship ceased then the Law expired as Tutors went off from Children when they were free Tutores qui dantur ad certum tempus finito Tempore deponunt Tutelam saith the Law J. Quibus modis c. § praeterea SECTION III. Time of Minority The time of this Minority was from the publishing of the Law by Moses till the publishing of the Gospel by Jesus Christ one thousand five hundred and thirty years Gal. 4.4 5. Then did God send his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons I. Made of a Woman ie a Mortal Man an Hebraism born Truly though singularly of a Virgin 1. To shew his great Compassion For Naturally men are Compassionate but especially Sufferers and such was he Is 53.3 Despised and rejected of men a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief c. It behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful High Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 2.17 to make Reconciliation for the sins of the People Redemption 2. To Redeem Mortals 1. Jews from the Law 2. Gentiles from Satan II. Made under the Law i. e. Born under the Jurisdiction of the Law Circumcised and being obedient to the Law III. To Redeem them that were under the Law i. e. To put an end to the Law During Christ's Privacy the Law was of force and Christ was under the Law but when he shewed himself a publick Person and entred upon his Ministry by Preaching then the Law began to expire and Men pressed into the Gospel to live by its rules For the Law and the Prophets were till John and since that time the Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence Luc. 16.16 and every man presseth into it Gal. 3.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eximere signifies to Exempt he hath redeemed us i. e. exempted us from the Curse of the Law Exemption is a genus to Redemption Emancipation and Manumission Exemption is from God's Statute Law or Positive Law contained in Judgments and Ceremonies not from the Laws of Nature which were in force before Moses and shall be in force for ever for not the least tittle of the Law shall ever fail because Christ came not to destroy this Law but to fulfil it Adoption IV. That we might receive the Adoption of Sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Emancipation really not Grammatically Because the Jews were the Adopted Sons of God before but not Emancipated because not of full Age therefore not free but in a middle estate betwixt two Extremes 1. Children compared to Servants are free 2. But compared to Free-men they are Servants even to their Servants as Tutors are though Lords of all SECTION IV. But when they are Adult and of Plenage they understand their Estate Plenage know their Father's Will and learn to manage his Affairs and are capable to enter upon the Inheritance and to be Sui Juris The Adult have a Right of Impunity from Servile fear 1. Of Correction for Ignorance or Neglect as Servants 2. Of Disinherison unless for Grand Crimes so are not Servants who have no Right to abide in the house for ever but Sons may abide for ever As in a Son adult it is an unworthy and shameful thing to commit a Malicious and Wilful offence against his Father so it is unseemly in the Father not to remit that sin to the Son humbling himself and repenting as the Prodigal did By the Laws of Nature Heirs adult are free from Tutors and Curators at man's Estate Toga donati The Jews though Sons and Heirs yet could not be emancipated till they had served an hard Apprenticeship under the Law as God would have it but the Gentiles immediately after their Faith are adopted and exempted without this Service who never were under the Law nor were to be under it as God would have it And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby ye cry Abba Father SECTION V. The Gentiles were wholly excused and exempted from Bondage at the End of the Jews Childhood Their Law ended to them Gentiles exempted from Minority and to the Gentiles their state of Childhood is remitted and they presently upon their Conversion enjoy their Liberty As in a Society he that is elected Fellow is the same day admitted to the full Fellowship and the years of his Probation are remitted to him so the Gentiles being Elected were at the same time admitted to the full Priviledges of the Jews and the time of their Servitude was remitted unto them Thus the Believing Gentiles who all the time of the day stood idle in the Market and laboured not in the Vineyard till towards the Evening were made equal with the Believing Jews who bore the burthen and heat of the day And what is that to the Jews If God's eye be good why should their eye be evil He may do what he will with his own and he will give unto these last even as unto them The Jews had the Spirit of Servitude under the Law because they were Minors and after their Majority had the Spirit of Freedom but the Gentiles were delivered from a worse servitude under Satan and translated by Faith from the Power of Satan into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God To the Jews pertained the Adoption Ro. 9.4 and the Glory of the Ark and Temple and the Covenant and the giving of the Law and the the Service of God and the Promises But unto Christians belong better Promises better Precepts a greater Spirit a greater Liberty and a more glorious Worship and by degrees they aspire towards perfection till they come to a perfect Man Eph. 4. â—3 to the measure of the stature of the Fulness of Christ SECTION VI. This last and best Dispensation of the Gospel in the last times and Adult age of the Church being so highly Spiritual as it is flies in the face of all Superstition and Idolatry and laies them all dead at her foot with one blow Popery
as for the People so also for himself to offer for Sins And no Man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an High-Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Son to day have I begotten thee Christ the Great and True High-Priest Reason Heb. 5.1 Christ therefore is the Great and True High-Priest in all Respects 1. Because he is Man in all things like unto Man Sin only excepted and therefore ordained and separated from other men and most holy that we might be made holy and therefore Compassionate of the Infirmities of Men as of their Ignorances and Errors not only in respect of Fact but of Law also because of weak capacities and slippery memories and weak performances having respect to their Wills which if earnest and honest to do what they can shall be accepted according to what abilities of knowledge and remembrance and doing they have and not according to what they have not As Man also he is compassed with Infirmity The Infirmity of the Legal High-Priest as of all men was Sin and therefore might and did fall into Ignorances and Errors frail Actions like other men But Christ's Infirmity is his Sufferings and not his Sin for he knew not sin He was subject to Afflictions and Trials as other men The Legal High-Priest therefore was fain to offer often for his own Infirmities in falling into Ignorance and Error and frail Actions often as also for the frequent failings of the People much more Lev. 16.6 c. So Christ in the daies of his Flesh Heb. 5.7 which is the subject of his Infirmity and Sufferings offered up for himself Prayers and Supplications unto him that was able to save him from death This Christ in his Agony chiefly requested to have that bitter Cup removed from him And when he was upon the Cross he lamentably complained saying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He prayed therefore that because he must die he might be delivered from death and therefore in dying commended his Spirit to God to receive it into his hands and keep it for him and restore it to him who would not leave his Soul in Hell nor suffer his Holy One to see Corruption And these were strong Cries accompanied with many Tears in so great extremities Seeing then that Christ was exercised with the experience of unexpressible Pains he cannot but be moved at the Miseries and Pains of his Servants and must needs readily bow down his ear to hear their doleful Cries and stretch out his hand to save them before the Pit of ruine shut her mouth upon them Thus did Christ offer his Prayers for himself while he was on Earth Christ offered Self that he might save himself from death for when he was restored to life and had so overcome Death as to die no more He then being in heaven offered himself immaculate and immortal as he was not for himself as before when he bore our Sins and carried our Sorrows for he hath no need to offer for himself there Christ therefore offered up his Prayers on Earth for himself but he offered up himself in Heaven for us For himself he offered when he was mortal in the daies of his Flesh for us he offered when he was an immortal and eternal Spirit And in all his Prayers our great High-Priest is heard first for himself on Earth that he might be saved from the Death which he feared that is out of Death unto Eternal life and secondly for us in Heaven that we might be saved from the power of Death and brought to Eternal life as he was In the daies of his Flesh Christ was not yet perfect had not finished his work was not gone to his Father but when he had overcome Death and Ascended into Heaven and sat on the Throne of the Majesty on high he being made perfect through Sufferings became the Author and Minister of Eternal Salvation Then was he fully invested and installed into his Royal Priesthood there he presented himself to God for us in the Temple of God eternal in the Heavens 2. Because CHRIST is the Great and True High-Priest Reason 2 because he is called to that Office by God after the order of Melchisedec Heb. 5.10 Gen. 14.18 Psal 110.4 Who was King of Salem and Priest of the most High God The Lord hath sworn and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec That is a King and a Priest both for so were Kings of old as springing from the Princes of Families who were all Priests who afterwards being called to Rule many Families or a City were the Priests as well as the Princes of that City or Commonwealth Praying and Sacrificing for the People as well as Ruling them The most honourable Person was fittest to minister in the most honourable Service The CONTENTS A Priest A Singular Priest A Perpetual Priest Greater than Abraham Abraham paid Tithes to Melchisedec Melchisedec not of Aaron's Tribe Abraham blessed of Melchisedec Sacerdotal Blessing Levi paid Tithes to Melchisedec Actions of Fathers transmitted to Children Levi Blessed of Melchisedec Melchisedec Immortal TITLE V. Of the Dignity of Melchisedec MELCHISEDEC was a Priest of greatest Dignity 1. Because he Blessed men Sacerdotally as he did Abraham saying Gen. 14.11 Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God Possessour of Heaven and Earth A Priest 2. Because he received Tithes of Abraham i. e. A Tenth part of the Spoils Melchisedec was a Singular Priest A singular Priest 1. Because there were no more Priests of his Order no Predecessor nor Successor in the Priesthood as other Priests had who must be of the Family of Aaron and of the Tribe of Levi to whom the Priesthood was designed A perpetual Priest 2. Because he was a perpetual High-Priest having neither beginning nor end of life remaining a Priest as Christ doth so long as there is need of any Priest And there shall be no need of a Priest when the People of God have their sins throughly expiated and are translated to Heaven SECTION I. Melchisedec was greater than Abraham Greater than Abraham 1. Because Abraham gave him Tithes a Token of subjection as Tribute is from Subjects to Princes 2. Because Abraham was blessed by him a Token of subjection also for the Inferior praies a Blessing of the Superior not of the Equal or Inferior for he is not able to do it 3. Because he was in a manner an Eternal Person so was not Abraham SECTION II. The Dignity therefore of Melchisedec appears in that 1. Even Abraham so great a Patriarch as he was was his Subject and acknowledged himself so to be By paying him a Tenth which was no Vulgar Present Abraham paid Tithes to Melchisedec but a Present for a Priest a solemn and sacred Portion not to be enjoyed but by the Priest alone as God's
it self is the Mercy-Seat in Heaven and everlasting Grace and Glory with God The Way thereunto is Christ Jesus who first preached it and made his Personal Sacerdotal entrance into the highest Heavens Therefore the Veil of the Temple was rent in twain at the Death of Christ to shew the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers The Temple-Service went on constantly by Law for its own time but after Christ's Death Resurrection Ascension and the Mission of the Holy Ghost there was a New Dispensation and a Cessation and Nullity in Law as to God of all the Jewish Worship For the Time was come after Christ offered in his Holy Temple of Heaven and from thence bestowed gifts of Doctrine and Government upon his Church that Men should no longer worship God at Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim in either of the Temples there after the manner as formerly but in a way of Reformation all Men are called to worship God in all Places after one pure spiritual and perfect manner For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth which is highly acceptable to God through the most efficacious Ministry of our Great High-Priest before his Father in Heaven This shews the infelicity of those Times of the Law comparatively to these of the Gospel in which they were ignorant of that Grace and Glory that is now revealed and the poorness and baseness of the Service as of rude and beggarly Elements after the manner of the World in comparison of the rich and magnificent Ministration of the Gospel of Grace unspeakable and full of Glory performed by Christ himself in the immediate presence of his Father and of those that are Christ's by his Mediation offering their Spiritual Services in his Name and by him acceptable to the Father By all this Spiritual Discourse we learn to understand the great Offices of Christ's Mediation as Prophet Priest and King by which he shews himself the Author and Finisher of our Salvation and how and where and when they were performed in those two Estates so vastly different from each other viz. his Humiliation on earth and his Exaltation in heaven His obedience to Death Shame and a Curse his Rules to Life Glory and Bliss The CONTENTS Extent of Christ's Obedience To all Law Above all Law Against all Law Extremity of Christ's Obedience Rarity Shame Curse Reasons of Christ's Obedience To confirm Testament To expiate Sin and Misery TITLE VII Of Christ's Humiliation ALL aim at Happiness or at least to that which is Pleasant and gets a Name but we mistake the way know not the Lets neglect the Furtherances viz. chiefly Pride they are the Lets they carry us in a smooth way tending to Death but the Furtherances and Means are chiefly two to wit Humility and Obedience they carry us in a rough way that brings us to Life These St. Paul shews us by the Example of Christ He attained to the height of happiness God gave him a Name above every name All Power both in Heaven and Earth Phil. 2.8 9. How By Humility and Obedience I. Humility in stooping from the Majesty of God to the Meanness of Man 1. The Majesty of God equal with God and yet robbed him of no glory but sate him down at the Right hand of the Majesty on high 2. The Meanness of Man He made himself of no reputation but took upon him the form of a Servant and was found in fashion as a Man II. Obedience in yielding from the life of a Man to the death of a Malefactor SECTION I. I. The Extent of his Obedience In CHRIST are two Natures of God and Man Extent of Christ's Obedience and therefore two Carriages or Deportments 1. As God to Rule and Command all 2. As Man to Obey and Submit to all By Birth he is the Son of God by Obedience the Son of Man below Man A Worm and no Man For though he was the Son of God yet learned he Obedience by the things which he suffered 1. Obedient to the Will of God by fulfilling it and suffering it God's Will was done by him and done upon him Joh. 4 24. Joh. 6.38 It was his Meat and Drink to do the Will of his Father He came down from Heaven not to do his own Will but the Will of him that sent him I delight to do thy Will O God yea it is within my heart 2. Obedient to the Will of Man Obedient to Pilate to the Souldiers to the Jews As a Lamb that is dumb before the Shearers so he opened not his mouth When he was reviled he reviled not again he turned his Cheek to the Smiters and suffered the Plowers to plow upon his back and made long surrows This was the vast compass of his Obedience from doing of all Right to the suffering of all Wrong 1. Obedient to all Law never committed Sin To all Law neither was Guile found in his mouth 2. Obedient above all Law payed Tribute Above all Law Math. 17.24 though free and priviledged because he would give no offence 3. Obedient against all Law suffered all wrong Against all Law suffered his own Disciple that eat of his bread to betray him endured Bonds Stripes Buffetings Spitting Mocking Crucifying The Obedience of the Rechabites was something to drink no Wine The Obedience of Hosea more to Marry a Whore Yet all this was but a Living Obedience for Wine Houses Wife c. But Christ's Obedience was beyond Life to Death Abraham's Obedience was great to offer Isaac his only Son miraculously born to him by Promise This Obedience came near unto death but not to death yet had he slain him he had but been obedient to the death of another his son but Christ was obedient to the death of himself Isaac was obedient to the death of himself but was rescued and did not die so was not Christ for he died the death indeed Christ his death was for no fault of his at all Pilate cleared him Luk. 23.22 so did the Thief and the Centurion Christ his death came from no force of others as he took his life when and how and of whom he pleased so he laid down his life when and how and by whom he pleased no man could take it from him he bowed freely and yielded up the Ghost SECTION II. Extremity of Christ's Obedience II. The extremity of his Obedience to the death even of the Cross an Ignominy beyond death To suffer death and to be put to death is common some have offered themselves to death and dared to die But this is the worst kind of death As there are several kinds of life so of death some are better than others As a life with ease pleasure honour and riches is better than another so a death with shame and a curse is worse than a plain simple death Christ then did worse than die for he hanged upon the Cross and was Cursed In
and purity of an Evangelical spirit We dwell too much upon outward and carnal things which are lawful as of Water in Baptism Bread and Wine in the Communion Fasts and Feasts Rites and Ceremonies Penances Judgments Prosperities and stretch them too far or lay too hard a stress upon them The two Sacraments ordained by Christ and the other decent Orders of the Church for edification and the Dispensations of outward Punishments and Blessings are reverently to be observed and practised but not in the outside and Gaiety only to move humiliation and fear but in the intrinsecal and essential virtue to create spiritual Communion Love Joy and hope of Glory To use Rites is comely and for Edification but to multiply them to distraction is Jewish and Paganish and of it self a dead way without any spirit or life at all Covet therefore after the best of Gifts and behold I shew unto you a more excellent way to make it our meat and drink to do the will of God to fulfil all Righteousness outward but not to rest there but to taste the good Word of God and the Powers of the VVorld to come and to have our Spirits throughly exercised to discern the Truth in all Shadows I will not slight but reverence every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake and for Conscience sake I will read and hear and see the description of Christ in a Book or Sermon or Picture but I will come nearer to Christ and close in my Soul with his Spirit I will be ravished with his Love that died for me and rose again and admire and draw a Curtain and be silent when I cannot describe nor imagine the infiniteness of his Shames and Glories Call me to Joy and Gladness after I have tried all other waies and to a constant walking with God and full Assurance of Heaven 1. Because Christ hath entred into his Temple and opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers 2. Because Christ hath offered and presented himself to God for all his Saints 3. Because Christ sits and rules in Heaven and by his Spirit in all Saints and over all his and their Enemies 4. Because Christ as a Prophet teacheth us and leads us into all Truth 5. Because Christ makes Intercession for us 6. Because Christ will come again in great glory to raise from the Dead to Judge and to call to the full possession of Glory And this practice is truly and solidly comfortable unmixt with Carnal VVorship or VVorldly Policy Nothing but honesty and love in all this no scandal of the Cross because of the ample recompence of Reward No true and proper Priest Prophet or King but Christ All Priests and Prophets and Kings in Christ who is all in all God blessed for evermore The Second Use therefore is to conform to his Exaltation and Glory The CONTENTS Victory over Sin Imputation of Righteousness Jural Righteousness Reasons of Victory over Sin Light conquers Darkness Sin no Native Propension in Nature to its proper state Genuine Nature of the Spirit Superior Faculties predominate Active Co-operation Christ's Victory over Law Outward Covenant of Works Inward state of Mind Alive to Sin Dead to Law Carnal Liberty to Sin Legal Perfection Our Victory over Law Grace stronger than Law Spirit of Grace stronger than Spirit of Law God delights more in Mercy than Vengeance Man object of God's Love Christ's Pleading undeniable to God Christ's Victory over Death Victory procured meritoriously by Christ's Death Victory obtained by the Spirit of Faith Our Victory over Death Sin conquered Law conquered Devil conquered Christ entred into the Holy of Holies TITLE VIII Of Christ's Exaltation CHRIST's Resurrection manifested his Death to be effectual against Sin 1 Cor. 15.57 Law and Death else our Faith had been in vain and we yet in our sins For he was delivered to death for our sins and rose again for our Justification Ro. 4. If Death had held him then neither Sin nor Law nor Death nor Satan that hath the power of Death had been conquered and then Sin and Law and Death and Hell must have held us for ever This therefore is the greatest of all Christ's Miracles for the World to believe him to be a perfect Saviour which without it could never have been believed This takes away all scandal of the Cross for we worship not one was as the Jews call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Crucified or Staked-God But when the Lord was Risen then Faith revived The Disciples thought this had been he which should have restored the Kingdom to Israel but he was dead and buried and therefore all their hopes of that ever coming to pass were dead and buried with him But now he is Risen from the Dead both theirs and ours is risen up again with him who though he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God Christ's Resurrection assures us of Life after death of which the World was never assured before 'T is he that hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 Who after he had overcome the sharpness of Death did open the Kingdom of heaven to all Believers The Reasons of Philosophy to prove the Soul's Immortality and the Bodie 's Resurrection though demonstrative enough yet are so thin and subtil that they glide and slip away quickly from Vulgar Apprehensions But Christ his Soul being in Paradise during the Body's abode in the Grave and his Resurrection Appearances and Conversations and Visible Ascension into heaven do put the matter out of question and more strongly affect Vulgar minds By and after Christ's Resurrection he was made Lord and Christ King and Saviour Christ's Oeconomical Kingdom is calculated from the Epocha of his Resurrection and Ascension and sitting at the Right hand of his Father in heaven Let all the house of Israel know assuredly Act 2.36 that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree him hath God exalted on his Right hand Act. 5.31 to be a Prince and a Saviour He humbled himself to the Death Phil. 2.9 even to the death of the Cross wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name above every name that at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow c. All Power is given to me both in Heaven and Earth Matth. ult 1 Cor. 15.27 God hath put all things in subjection under Christ's feet the Vicegerent of God a Mediatorious King till he hath put down all Rule and all Authority and Power and hath delivered up the Kingdom to God the Father that God may be all and in all A great Comfort that one of our Flesh and tempted as we and therefore knows the better how to pity us and succour us when we are tempted A great Comfort that our Flesh is in Heaven already as
the Language of the Scripture and the Sense thereof and therefore may be understood and they that give their minds to it are found able to express themselves in it very well to the great comfort of themselves and others Obj. But how shall I partake of Christ and the Benefits of his Death Passion and Resurrection Sol. By the easie and only way of Credence Acceptation Covenanting and keeping Faith with God agreeable to the mind of the Spirit and renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil Care must be taken for the Soul more than for the Body If God had asked some great thing must thou not have done it How much more when he saith Believe only and thou shalt be saved Ask and you shall have seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you If there be first a willing mind it is accepted of God according to what a man hath and not according to what a man hath not If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature And God giveth his holy Spirit to those that ask him So Christ by his Death and Resurrection hath externally conquered Sin Law and Death for all men So Christ by his Spirit doth internally conquer Sin Law and Death in every believing Soul and creates inherent holiness therein So by Faith the Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us to be the Righteous Sons and Heirs of God by Grace and Adoption as Christ is by Nature and Generation So by the Spirit of Faith we are inherently sanctified in Love and Good Works which maintains and upholds our Justification by Faith So Imputed Righteousness by Faith is our external Righteousness of the Spirit of Righteousness or Justification to Eternal Life So our Inherent Righteousness by Works is the inward Sanctification of the Spirit of Holiness In all this Book I have laboured to demonstrate Christ's Mediation between God and us especially as he is an High Priest I. In the outward Temple on Earth preparing himself for a Sacrifice by the sufferings and death of his Flesh II. In the inward Temple of Heaven by finishing the Sacrifice in the oblation of his blood to God He entred into the out ward Temple by his Birth and there he suffered and died He went out of the outward Temple by his Resurrection He entred into the Inward Temple by his Ascension and there he ministers as a Priest 1. By offering or presenting himself unto God by his Eternal Spirit 2 By Intercession at the Right hand of God 3. By Teaching and instructing of his Church 4. By Protecting and ruling by his Spirit He shall come out of the Inward Temple at the last day 1. To Judg of all that are capable of the Inheritance devised by God in his last Will. 2. To Admit and give Possession as an Executor of God's Testament 3. To give up the Kingdom to God the Father that God may be all in all The Head being thus entred into Heaven gives assurance for the Members to follow after In the mean time 1. They have a Right to enter 2. They do enter by Faith 3. They wait by Hope for a full entrance The Soul waits after death in Paradise Abraham's Bosome The Body waits in Corruption No Oblation ever pleased God but this of Christ No Oblation pleased God but Christ's Because Pure and Holy High and Heavenly and prepared by God himself For 1. The Person is heavenly that offers 2. The Sacrifice is heavenly that is offered 3. The Spirit is heavenly by which it is offered 4. God is heavenly to whom it is offered 5. The Place is heavenly wherein it is offered 6. The Blessings are heavenly for which it is offered Dead Sacrifices were fit for the Dead Law Living Sacrifices fit for the Living Law Earthly Sacrifices were fit for the Earthly Law Heavenly Sacrifices fit for the Heavenly Gospel No True Priest Altar Sacrifice or Temple but Christ We are Priests have Altars Sacrifices and Temples but all in Christ and in his stead do all offer all in his Name All was Earthly Typical and Carnal under the Law All is Heavenly Mystical and Spiritual under the Gospel 1. Baptism is the sprinkling of the Soul with the blood of Christ and the washing of the Holy Ghost 2. Communion is the Spiritual eating of the Flesh and drinking of the blood of Christ by Faith 3. Prayer is the Act of the Soul towards God 4. Conversation is in Heaven 5. The Kingdom of God is within us ruling and subduing our Lusts 6. The Kingdom of God is above us Triumphing 7. The Temple of God is within us in our Souls and Bodies offered a Living Sacrifice to God 8. Temple of God is above us in Heaven with Christ Every one that comes to God must offer Every one that comes to God must offer 1. Christ comes to God and offers Himself 2. Christians come to God and offer Themselves Religion is an Offering to God of our selves our Goods and Actions Atheism makes no acknowledgment by offering to God either our Selves our Goods or Actions Atheists live and die to themselves without God in the World All that offer in Christ are accepted of God for Christ's sake All that offer to God and all that is offered to God must be pure as God is pure Offering is an Acknowledgment of Subjection of Thankfulness of Liberality To God to Princes to Priests that are in God's stead Christian Religion most Spiritual and Glorious The Christian Religion is most spiritual and glorious 1. Christ the Author of it is God and Man Humbled in Sufferings and Death Exalted in Resurrection Ascention and Session at the Right Hand of God 2. The Gospel of Christ is the full Revelation of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and the most perfect Rule of Holiness 3. Christ's kingdom is over all inwardly in our hearts outwardly over our bodies and over all creatures 4. By Christ a new Creation new Heavens and a new Earth and new creatures 5. Christians are sons and heirs of God abstracted from Jewish and Heathenish Rites and from all carnal and profane conversation pilgrims strangers on earth wise to salvation pious to God righteous to men perfect as God is perfect Christianity is quite another thing than the World takes it to be 1. No carnal worship therein Altars Masses Idols Pilgrimages Reliques Sackcloth Ashes Whippings Crosses c. Exotick Paganish 2. No worldly Policy therein Infallibility Supremacy Miracles Pomps c. Cheats Spirituality Innocency Heavenly-mindedness Simplicity Obedience Love Quietness Chastity Temperance Patience Prudence Meekness Faith Hope c. are the Laws and Customs of the Church The scandal and shame of the Cross offends the World but was endured and despised by Christ and is endured and despised by Christians having an eye as Christ had to the recompense of the Reward and to the price of the High Calling
by Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory now and for evermore Amen APPENDIX OR APPLICATION TO THE CLERGY and LAITY The CONTENTS Word Sacraments Gospel-Spirit TITLE I. Of the Clergie's Calling SAint Paul saith 2 Cor. 3.6 God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Old not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life We must therefore consider our Calling Heb. 7.12 the Priesthood is changed therefore there must of necessity be a change also of the Law The Gospel is the Royal Law the Law of Faith the Law of liberty and of perfection that nulls the servile Law of bondage and works The Word therefore of this New Testament we must preach Word the newness of the Spirit not the oldness of the Letter and that in season and out of season and that carefully for wo be unto us if we preach not the Gospel and cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently and having put our hands to this plow we must not look back Sacraments 2. The Sacraments of this New Testament we must administer as 1. Baptism which is not by Water only but by Water and Blood for without blood there is no Remission of sins and Baptism is for the remission of sins therefore we are baptized into Christ's death in which is blood that our sins might be buried in Christ's grave and we buried with him in Baptism and rise again with him in newness of Life 2. The Lord's Supper containing 1. The Body of Christ which is given for us Sacrifice and Burnt-offering thou wouldest not have but a body hast thou prepared me This is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for you This is the New Testament in my Blood and no Testament can be confirmed without Blood And hereby we shew the Lord's death until he come again Gospel-spirit Let us aim therefore at a Gospel-Spirit for behold I shew unto you a more excellent way both in your Doctrine and in your Persons I do not take upon me to be a Magisterial Dictator to the Clergy but as having received some helps from the Lord I hope I may become an humble and modest Adviser and Director The CONTENTS Precepts Promises Conditions TITLE II. Of the Clergie's Doctrine I. IN Your Doctrine therefore consider what high Preceps and what high Promises you are to publish to the world For surely we are no Old-Testament-Divines but Ministers of a better Testament than that was and established upon far better Promises Precepts The Precepts you are to teach are very pure no less than Spiritual and perfect Holiness which is the condition for the obtaining of God's Promises For Godliness hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come and without Holiness no man shall ever see the face of God The Promises you are to teach are no less than Spiritual and Eternal Happiness and the graces that tend thereto as Forgiveness of sins Promises Adoption Liberty Protection Priviledges the Earnest and Comfort of the Spirit Resurrection and Life Everlasting Fear not little Flock for it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom Come ye Blessed children of my Father inherit the kingdom of God prepared for you from the beginning of the world Greater Precepts cannot be enjoyned and greater promises cannot be made and surer cannot be performed For they are the Gifts and Legacies of God devised by him in his last Will and Testament conveyed and administred by Christ the Executor The conditions upon which these high things are given are as noble Conditions so as easie and favourable written upon the Tables of our hearts by the finger of God's Spirit Thy Law is within my heart therefore easie to be known and as easie to be done by the help of the same Spirit which shall lead us into all truth and help all our Infirmities and do our work for us and in us I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me My Grace is sufficient for thee Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easie and my burden is light Embrace wisdom for her ways are always pure and pleasant and all her paths are peace Every Wise man will make his Last Will and Testament his best Will and Testament most plain and easie to be understood that the Heir and Legataries may know their several Duties and Dues how to perform them and how to claim by them And every good man will make his last Will and Testament his most favourable and bountiful Will and Testament bestowing the best things and commanding the easiest and less irksome Conditions Much more will the great and wise God who is wisdom and goodness it self make his last will most clear and most gracious For if we that are evil know how to give good gifts to our children how much more will our Heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to those that ask him Hit therefore this Basilick vein find out the pretious Pearl pour in this Balm of Gilead open this Phoenix Nest this bed of Spices this pretious Box of odoriferous Ointments Let your Speech be seasoned with Salt and let such gracious words proceed out of your mouths as may administer Grace unto the Hearers Be not sons of Thunder as if you came from Mount Sinai but rather sons of consolation as coming from Mount Sion Be sure ye utter no Principles against the Justice and Mercy of God nor Dogmata Reipublicae noxia nor Doctrines hurtful or disgraceful to Princes or Common-Wealths Remember that Religion is first pure and then peaceable not reflecting upon the Dishonour of God nor injurious to any man Be not as the Seditious Zealots among the Jews before and at the destruction of Jerusalem nor like the factious and rebellious Philosophers Orators and Poets among the Gentiles especially in Greece and Rome Beware of all Judaizing or Heathenizing by Cabbalistical Sophistical vain Philosophy insinuating deceivable Rhetorick Flourishes Gingles and Querks of Flashy Wit Preach the plain good will and mind of God plainly and kindly Hide your Art and that will be your chiefest Art Tell poor Souls what a large Portion they have in God's Will and Testament how their Namss are written in that book of Life Tell them the mark of the price of the high Calling which is laid up for them in Christ Jesus the crown of Righteousness the exceeding great Recompence of the Reward for all such as diligently seek him Freely you have received this treasure into your Earthen Vessels freely give it to them to whom it belongs distribute the favours of your bountiful Lord and Master with a courteous hand let not your eye be evil because God's is good be you willing as God is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth be not rigid austere morose sullen saturnine ghostly
frightful nor of Catonian or Cynical Spirits But rather as becometh you gentle and merciful as your Heavenly Fais merciful who is free to all and rejects none that come unto him Observe your Saviour's temper upon earth fair free easie of access compassionate and liberal to all TITLE III. Of the Clergie's Persons II. IN your Persons Look to your selves as well as to your Doctrines be ye no Market or Fair-Divines nor Haunters of Plays Taverns Ale-houses or Schools of Debauchery In your conversation shew the spirit of men of Scholars and Gentlemen of Divines of Christians sober studious grave and regular 'T is a great while before a Divine can throughly understand himself and his profession if he studies never so hard and live never so warily But if he do neither of these or both but slightly he shall never throughly understand himself or his profession To be a Scribe throughly furnished for the kingdom of Heaven a good housholder producing out of his Treasury things new and old A Skilful workman that needs not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of Truth shewing both in his life and in his doctrine uncorruptness gravity and sincerity The CONTENTS Laws Law-Terms TITLE IV. Of the Clergie's Study AS a means therefore to make you every way compleat study Logick Philosophy History and all the Liberal Sciences but above all these study Law which is the most noble Faculty next to Theology and most Homogeneal to God's Law Remember the famous and illustrious testimony of Cicero Cic. lib. de Orat. speaking in the person of Crassus concerning the Laws of the twelve Tables Fremant omnes licet dicam quod sentio Bibliothecas meherculè omnium Philosophorum unus mihi videtur duodecem Tabularum Libellus si quis Legum fontes capita viderit Authoritatis pondere utilitatis ubertate superare i. e. Let all that hear me be never so much offended I will speak boldly what I think That this one little Book of the laws of the twelve Tables if it be rightly considered as containing the fountains and heads of all Laws doth excel the Libraries of all the Philosophers both for the weight of Authority that it carrieth along with it and the plentiful profit that is contained therein The same Author also affirms Cic. lib. 2. de Leg. That Children were wont to learn the Laws of the twelve Tables as their Primar the better to lay a foundation for knowledg and practice all their life after The Science of the Civil Lawes that flowed from this fountain of the twelve Tables the most and best of learned men have ever professed Quintus Mutius Servio Sulpitio cum de jure respondentem parum intellexisset turpe est inquit Patritio Nobili causas oranti jus in quo versatur ignorare i. e. Quintus Mutius replyed to Servius Sulpitius when he perceived that he answered not as if he understood Law saying It is a shame for a Senator a Noble Man and an Advocate to be ignorant in the Law which he professeth I always looked upon true Church men as to be the greatest Lawyers and such as therefore beside being versed in the holy Scriptures which are the Laws of God ought also to be skilful in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws of Men as being the most connate and genuine helps for Divinity creating better Notions by far as is found by experience than can be raised from inferior Arts which are all subservient in several ways but much less as being more heterogeneal and remote from Divinity than Laws are And this you will find to be true to your comfort and satisfaction if you will but give your minds to understand the method rules cases and terms of the Laws which next to the Scriptures do comprehend in them purest Wisdom Justice and Equity that is any where else to be found Take therefore by the way a short view of the most principal and useful Terms of Law which I have promiscuously set down for an Essay Viz. Law-terms Testator Testament Will. Codicil Heir Co-heir Inheritance Executor Administrator Dis-inheridation Preterition Institution Substitution Fidei Commissum Adoption Possession Right Title Claim Interest Propriety Usufruct Use Emphytensis Tenure Fee Allodium Allegiance Vassalage Homage Investiture Infeudation Fidelity Refutatio feudi Apertura feudi Rebellio Vacancy Administration Accompt Justice Mercy Sin Grace Virtue Vice Faith Repentance Recidivation Relapse Apostasy Predestination Election Justification Sanctification Reprobation Redemption Emancipation Exemption Jus Postliminii Curse Blessing Majesty Supremacy Emperour King Prince Duke Lord. Magistrate Judge Jurisdiction Legislator Arbitrator Policy Law Dispensation Ordinance Statute Custome Sentence Inhibition Decree Act. Interdict Appeal Priviledg Barr. Tribunal Trial. Court Advocate Witness Adversary Register Scribe Record Testimony Proclamation Petition Summons Accuser Appearance Accusation Arrest Publication Answer Defence Exception Replication Confirmation Convention Intervention Dilation Litis Contestatio Articles Probation Presumption Conclusion Absolution Condemnation Imputation Pardon Grace Glory Triumph Victory Confession Procurator Tables Action Complaint Suspension Equity Rigor Dammage Charges Recovery Restitution in integrum Jaylor Jaol Tormentor Executioner Reprieve Sergeant Sanctuary Refuge Protection Usury Wages Extortion False Weights and Measures Bribery Stellionates Sacriledg Tribute Tax Toll Custome Sedition Rebellion Poysoning Treason Crimen laesae Majestatis Parricide Murder Man-slaughter Ambitus Repetundae Annona Residuum Fiscus Falsifying Witchcraft Plagiary Sorcery Witches Curious Arts. Conniving Subornation Conjuring Conjurer Familiar Spirits Wisards Exorcists Demoniacks Lunaticks Southsayers Astrologers Pythonists Wise men City Common wealth Kingdom Citizens Free-men Exchequer Communion Sacrament Division Senate School Church Hospital Colledg Physician Chirurgeon Medicine Tumult People Poor Banishment Honour Degrading Diminutio Capitis Augmentatio Capitis Tuition Pupil Guardian Curator Orphan Minor Major Adult Minority Majority Puberty Master Servant Lord. Slave Patron Liberty Bondage Captivity Ingenuous Libertine Manumission Imprisonment Redemption Redeemer Ransome Saviour Exchange Satisfaction Satisdation Fiduciary General Captain Souldier Siege Army Camp Arms. Provision Bulwark Castle Strong hold Magazine Arsenal Ships War Peace League Truce Battel Victory Triumph Allies Confederates Conditions Heraulds Messenger Spoils Hostage Lot Chance Buying Selling. Letting Hiring Redhibition Lending Borrowing Paying Pawn Pledg Interest Recompense Restoring Surety Suretyship Security Earnest Debt Wages Debitor Creditor Market Fair. Merchandise Partnership Trade Manufacture Division Fraud Negotiation Acceptilation Theft Infamy Gift Loan Alms. Gain Loss Melioration Deterioration Use Depositing Usucapio Prescription Donation Alienation Acquisition Sequestration Fidejussor Transaction Compromise Compensation Society Mandate Familiae erciscendae Indebiti solutio Delegation Injury Violence Vindication Rescinding Peculiar Communi dividendo Finium regendorum Bona Fides Justus Metus Cession Espousals Marriage Matrimony Patrimony Divorce Saparation Nullity Fornication Adultery Rape Ravishing Incest Concubine Connubium Harlot Virgin Spouse Husband Wife Dowry Joincture Paraphernalia Parents Children Bastards Legitimate Portion Gift Promise Houshold Family Housholder Treasury Steward Widow Talent Fame Overseer
Correction Work Payment Church Elders Bishops Priests Deacons High Priest Altar Sacrifice Tithes Oblations First fruits Dedication Consecration Expiation Propitiation Excommunication Idol Faith Vow Covenant Contract Promise Oath Stipulation Sacrament Seal Intercession Hand-writing Mediator Obligation Assurance Evidence Conveyance Alliance Affinity Consanguinity Tribe Stock Familie Degrees Line Birthright Succession Dominion Lordship These and other learned Titles of the Law with the profound judgments of renowned Antecessors upon each of them serve more to the enrichment of the treasury of wisdom for the furnishing of apt Interpretations and Glosses upon the Laws divine than all the Arts or Learning of the World Besides the aptitude of resolving cases and doing business with prudence honesty and gallantry is created by them after the rellish of those equitable and brave Souls that made them The CONTENTS Of the Laitie's Calling AND as to the Laity I say consider your Calling we may not speak the mind of God in learned and unknown Tongues to the high ones only that Pearch on the Towers but in Vulgar language to the meanest that sit on the wall Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet That which concerns all ought to be understood by all We will not hoodwink you to make your Ignorance the Mother of your as blind devotion we will not captivate your minds by Magisterial dictates of us men and hide from you the Royal Commandments of your God TITLE VI. Of the Laitie's Doctrine I. I Say then boldly Consider your Calling For Doctrine 1. From beyond the lowest Law of Nature 2. From beyond any Laws written upon Tables 1. To the Law of the Spirit and of Grace 2. To the Law written upon the Heart To the best of Precepts of Evangelical perfection taught by Christ in his famous Sermon upon the Mount and other occasional Discourses and by the Apostles and other holy Men of God that had the same treasure in earthen vessels To the best of Promises Viz. Forgiveness of sins Liberty Adoption Spirit Resurrection eternal life These are the Laws that are so high and yet so easie few favourable and pleasant for the wayes of Wisdom are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace I exhort them therefore to a high belief and full assurance of Heaven by the seal and earnest of the Spirit to be partakers of the holy Unction of Wisdom and Perfection to be a Royal Priesthood and a peculiar people by vertue of the promises that belong to you and to your Children of high exemptions and priviledges of great honour and estate TITLE VII Of the Laitie's Persons II. FOR your Persons Look therefore to your selves that ye walk worthy of so great Salvation and having such an hope in you so full of a glorious and blessed Immortality see that ye purifie your selves even as God is pure and become a people altogether zealous of good Works perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord that at last you may obtain an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith which is in Christ Jesus Fear not therefore little Flock for it is your Father's good Will and pleasure to give you a kingdom Your hope is laid up for you in heaven And neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath laid up for those that fear him When Christ the favourable Mediatour and Executor of God's Testament shall put the Faithful into actual possession of Eternal Glory saying Come ye Blessed Children of my Father receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World Aim therefore at a Gospel-Spirit 1. Care not for unnecessary Disputes God's Testament is a plain Testament of Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ As Men's Testaments are to be seen and read by all that are concerned so is God's Will to be seen and read by all Col. 2.6 c. As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ 2 Tim. 2.23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes also Genealogies and contentions and strivings about the Law for they are unprofitable and vain 1 Tim. 1.4 Neither give heed to Fables and endless Genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in Faith If any man teach otherwise 1 Tim 6.3 c. and consent not to wholsome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doating about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness Jude 27 c. from such turn away Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly Lusts these be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit But ye Beloved building up your selves in your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal Life and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garments spotted by the flesh Let the Clergy exhort and teach these things and whatsoever else belongeth unto sound doctrine with all long suffering and patience as the stout Soldiers of Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 6.20 And let them be sure to keep that which is committed to their Trust avoiding profane and vain bablings and oppositions of Sciences falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the Faith Tit. 1.14 Let them not give heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth nor yet to endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edification 1 Cor. 2.4 Let not your speech nor your preaching be with the entising words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power Speak Wisdom among them that are perfect the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our Glory For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid 1 Cor. 3.11 c which is Jesus Christ Now if any man build upon this foundation Gold Silver Pretious stones Wood Hay Stubble every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall trie every man's work whatsoever it is If any
of God have been thoughts of love and kindness in him all along from the beginning of the world but especially in the days of the Gospel And that God's love was always to mankind though not so clearly demonstrated as it is now by Christ How therefore this frowning face of terrors and amazements in his dealings here giving mortals no rest for the little space he hath afforded them to stay in this world and plunging them into eternal torments in the world to come can consist with the gentleness and justice of his nature I can in no wise be satisfied I am not able to conceive of a good Prince but that he will be always careful to preserve the lives and fortunes of his good Subjects and use all possible means to reduce the rebellions and still to be sparing of the blood of his People even where his Justice calls for it Nay every petty King of a Town or Family will do the same within the circuit of his power How much more then shall the Great and Gracious not only Potentate but Creator and Redeemer of the World hover over his poor creatures and servants for good and be infinitely and therefore inexpressibly tender of their Temporal and Eternal Wellfare But I am told that God reprobates the far greatest part of the world to shew the Glory of his Justice and absolute Soveraignty over his creatures And here I must cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the Depth and if I be one of these Cast-aways must be as the rest contented and for ever silent 'T is true I must if so and there can be no help for it nor must Mortals complain for who art thou O Man that thou shouldest dispute against God But how these men more than others of equal judgments should come to this pitch of Knowledg to determine this thing thus I cannot imagine nor whence they had this revelation And how this agrees with God's declaration of himself to be willing that all men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the Truth and not to delight in the death of any Sinner will put them to a stand Well however it is I am sure that God is good and if God hath given men reason to understand what is Justice and Mercy how the wisdom of God though infinitely above should be as infinitely contrary to this our humane understanding will be very hard to conceive Still Justice is Justice and Mercy is Mercy in God or Man though in vast differences of degrees We shall never know how but we may always know that God is Just and can and will do us no wrong I take the safest side therefore I hope if I interpret humbly all his dispensations though seemingly never so harsh to be cum favore that if he do as certainly he does severely punish yet he will as graciously reward those that fear him for all their miseries in this life And if God inflicts as he doth the same Calamnities now under the Gospel as he did before under the Law yet it is in a different manner in the Church's Majority from what it was in her Minority And that though the former Dispensation was in wrath yet now it is in Grace and was always just Well let the Inhabitants of the earth work righteousness as well as they can and trust God for his Mercies and through the tender mercies of God they shall be sure never to miscarry I am certain Grace is Grace and above Wrath though I suffer never so much And that God does not dodgenor lie upon the catch with mankind to destroy them but rather waits for their conversion to save them I will trust in God therefore though I am never able to understand the reasons of his workings From henceforth I will never go about to measure the depths of God's Providences by the shallowness of my comprehensions I will be meditating and doing good and leave all to God But it is high time to leave this dreadful Subject of mis-representing God in his Counsels so fatal to mankind Gospel-Dispensations Let us see what other mis-understandings there are of God's Dispensations God was pleased suitably to the non-age of the Church to address himself very much to the lower faculties of the Soul and the outward senses that were nearest to them and did most affect them Therefore he ordained splendid Types solemn services and many miracles as the pillar of a Cloud and of Fire the walls of water in the Red Sea the burning Mount Sinai the tabernacle and rays of Glory visible therein the Temple c. But they which look for any such apparent Expressions of Divinity now mistake the Genius of a Gospel-Dispensation to a Church Adult and capable of higher Administrations All things since Christ's coming are managed in a sedate smooth and serene temper The mysteries of the Gospel came forth in plain and intelligible forms of Speech from Mount Sion without drawing the Soul into Raptures and Extasies of amazements God doth not fright men into heaven by visible Terrours God expects now a reasonable Service a Judicious Religion acted by the Spirit of Love and of a sound mind under the Graces Truths and Glories of a Gospel-state for ever to endure This Spirit of the Gospel arriving to our Spirits in this aimable and winning manner creates a generous Spirit above the Evils or Goods in this world resolved to go through them and overcome them and settle upon absolute Eternal Goodness When men's hopes and fortunes are most embarqued in the Ship of this World without Faith They are in continual fears of Shipwrack because then all is lost that is before their sense But when men's hopes and fortunes are all embarqued in one bottom of Divine Faith they are in continual Hopes and Assurances of arrival in the Haven of Glory because then all is found that was before their Spirit in the Eye of Faith This Hope so full of glorious and blessed Immortality hath supported the spirits of such as live by their Faith better than all the Fatality of the Stoicks or the Jollity of the Epicureans These can look Sin and Death in the face by the Spirit and not be daunted by the Flesh The high Religion of the Gospel teacheth higher things than ever that of Moses or the Law of Nature or Nations or Philosophy could do Reformation This great Reformation of Religion in the World Christ declared plainly to the woman of Samaria requiring of him as a Prophet to tell her the place of worship whether it was not to be upon Mount Gerizim in Samaria where the Fathers had worshiped and not in Jerusalem as the Jews believed Upon this occasion he told her that neither she nor the Samaritans her Country-men nor the Jews nor yet the Gentiles of the World should from that time ever trouble themselves about the place or manner of Divine worship For it should be neither confined to Samaria nor Judea but should
be enlarged to all places in the World and that not after this nor that manner of outward and carnal worship but after the only manner of inward and spiritual Service John 4.24 for God was a Spirit and therefore the true worshippers of God should always worship him in Spirit and in Truth From hence therefore the world is given to understand the two great Doctrines First That the true worship of God is onely Spiritual Secondly That there is greater perfection in Christianity than in Judaism or Heathenism Worship Spiritual 1. That the True Worship of God is only Spiritual Religion is a Spiritual service that is Prayers Praisings Eucharists Acts of Love Acts of Faith Acts of Hope Acts of Humility Fasting Alms c. Excepting the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper whose effects are Spiritual Sense mysterious Rites easie and number smallest I dare in meekness and charity challenge all perswasions to shew me if they can in the whole Digest of the Christian Law any other external Rite or Ceremony enjoyned or that is necessary that it should be enjoyned Reason Because as the Christian Religion intends wholly an exclusion of all Mosaick Ceremonies made by God so it will not admit of a Body of new and superinduced Rites made by men for they are or may be as much against the Analogy of the spiritual Worship of Jesus Christ as the body of Rites made by Moses and more because they were made by the Will of God but these meerly by the Wills of men Ceremonies The Ceremonies of the Christian Services may be Practised but must be no part of Religion it self but either the Circumstances thereof or the imperate acts of some moral Virtue As thus The Christian must be in some place when he prays and that place may and it is fit it should be determined by Authority for the publick prayers and thither he must go and yet for his private prayers he may go any where else And so for preaching And because the Religious actions of a Christian are finite therefore they must be done as in a place so at a time and that time may and it is fit it should be determined by Authority and then he must do his Devotions in publick at that time only but for his private devotions he may do them at any time else The Religious Actions of a Christian must be in some posture of his Body and that posture may be appointed and it is fit it should be appointed by Authority for the publick worship as to kneel or stand or bow c. and then he must do it in that posture that he is commanded in that publick place and yet he may use what postures he pleases at any other time or place for his private devotions And when the Christian comes to the publick place at the time appointed for Publick Prayer his prayers though in the Spirit must be of some form or manner of expressions by words and that form and manner of expressions by words may and it is fit it should be ordained by Authority for the whole Congregation openly and yet he may be and is at liberty to use what other form he pleases in his private addresses to God And this is enough to satisfie all those that have the true spirit of Christ who though he had no need of the Circumcision of the Law nor yet of the Baptism of the Gospel because there was no superfluity of evil to him to be cut off nor any stain of sin to be washed away yet he suffered himself to be circumcised and baptized and did obey that Law which he came to abolish and was subject to those Powers that were then over him in the world and quarrelled at nothing but was willing to fulfill all Righteousness And if our Fanaticks had the true spirit of Christ they would do as he did and be obedient to his Laws and to the Laws of the Powers that God hath set over them The Differences betwixt the Mosaick Rites under the Law and the Christian Rites Difference of Mosaick and of Christian Rites besides what Christ himself hath ordained under the Gospel are these 1. The Mosaick Rites were only appointed by God but these Christian Rites are appointed by men 2. They were necessary parts of that Religion that then was so far as it was discerned but these are not 3. The Mosaick Ceremonies did oblige every where but the Christian only in publick 4. They were integral parts of the Jewish Religion but these are but circumstances and investitures of our Religious Actions 5. They were done all of them in the spirit of Bondage and great fear but ours are done in the Spirit of Liberty and great Love They were lasting as long as that Religion was to last but ours are alterable though our Religion be everlasting 7. They were many and burdensome and very costly for they were at greater charges to buy Cattel c. for the Sacrifices and the Priests and Levites were as Butchers and Porters and Cooks to knock down Oxen or cut the throats of Calves c. and slay them c. but ours are few and easie and cheap but neither theirs nor ours did or ever will please God The sum is the Ceremonies of Christians they may be the accidents of their worship they must be no more but a just investiture of Time Place Form Habit and Posture He that would have his body decently vested must not wear five and twenty Cloaks a Stole and a Tunick will suffice some thing for warmth and something for ornament does well But as the tender and delicate Woman that will scarcely vouchsafe to set her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness and thinks no ornaments curious enough for her head and the rest of her body makes it the work of half a day to dress and deck her self is a slave to her fine trinkets and thinks neither her Soul nor Body but her habiliments to be the principal part of her care So they that are superstitious and over much righteous in Will-worship and count no formalities nor bodily exercises enough to set out their Devotions are servants to their Beads and trumperies and think not of the substance of Religion but make the out sides thereof the principal part of their care Church of Rome Thus the Church of Rome whose Ceremonies are described in a great Book in folio Quem mea vix totum Bibliotheca capit and my purse strings will not stretch to buy it And although by such means Religion is made pompous and apâ—â—o allure them that admire their gay nothing yet then it also spends their Religious passions and wonderments in that which effects nothing upon the Soul The Priest must be intent upon his Rubrick that he miss nothing of his Bowings Crosses Anointings Sprinklings Perfumes c. and the people are taken up with staring upon the dumbe Images the Larges and the Priests
Actions with hearkening to the unknown Service and the loud Singings and melody of Instruments all which noises and starings conjure up their joys dolours and amazements to the dazling of the understanding and confounding of the Memory and Will of the Inward man during the hurry that is upon the Senses of the Outward man Thus the Heathens made their Religion a Systeme of pitiful Rites sneaking and beggarly Entertainments Hay and Stubble fit enough for such Deities as they served but most nasty and unbecoming and odious to the Most High God Whatever is grave decent and orderly in the Outward Worship of a Christian is not to be rejected but if it be not these it is not to be imposed and when even these become numerous or grievous they are to be removed by the same lawful hand that brought them in Now although the Spirituality of the Gospel excludes all shadows of Ceremonies and all bodily Rites from being of the substance of Religion yet this Spirituality does not exclude the Ministry and Service of the Body For the Worship of the Body may also be Spiritual it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.1 and therefore Spiritual Thus the Body Bowing Kneeling Standing Eyes and Hands lifted up to Heaven in Prayer and Praise in Hearing and Communicating in bowels of Yerning Compassion and giving of Alms are all acceptable upon the account of the Spirit because the Body serves the Spirit and the Spirit serves God and all is made a Spiritual worship Reason The Virtues of a Christian are acts and habits of a sanctified Soul whose faculties have each a proper organ of the Body that as the Graces and Endowments of the Soul are commencements and dispositions unto glory So the Spiritual Ministeries of the Body may dispose it to its perfect Spirituality in the Resurrection of the Just But then these Ministeries of the Body are then only to be judged Spiritual service when the Soul and the Body make but one entire agent the act of the soul and body being but one and the same product of Religion whereof the soul is the principal agent and from thence the Actions of the Body are denominated spiritual Whatsoever act of the body is an elicite or imperate act of Virtue or the proper and specifick act of Grace in the Soul is a part of Religion otherwise it is the instrument of vice or vanity and not of the Soul As to give all our goods to the Poor to give our bodies to be burned to have all faith to the removal of mountains c. are but the outsides of Religion and good for nothing unless they proceed from Charity a willing and loving spirit a heart true and right to God for then such a faith justifies such giving to the poor is true Alms and such giving the body to be burned is true Martyrdome 2. Perfection of Christianity That there is a greater Perfection in Christianity than in Judaism or Heathenism Because the Old Testament made nothing perfect therefore the New Testament made all things perfect being established upon better Promises 1. Endeared to us by new instances of Infinite Love and 2. We enabled by many more excellent Graces of the Holy Spirit 1. The Christians under the New Instances and the Jews under the Old Covenant do both of us pray but we are commanded to pray more frequently fervently and continually 2. They and we must be both charitable but they were tied only to their friends and neighbours but we to our enemies and strangers We have more brethren and more neighbours and therefore more is our duty than theirs They were to do their brethren and neighbours no hurt but we must do them and our enemies all good They were to forgive upon submission and repentance but we must invite them to repentance and offer pardon if they will not repent They were to give bread to their needy brethren but we are in some cases to give our lives for the brethren 3. They were to love God with all their Souls and with all their strength and though we cannot do more than this yet we can do more than they did For our Strengths are more our understandings are better instructed Eph. 6.10 c. our Wills more raised our helps far greater our shield stronger our breast-plate broader our armour of Righteousness more of proof than theirs was Dares and Entellus did both contend with all their strength but because Entellus had much more strength than Dares therefore he was the better champion of the two A Child and a Giant do both put forth all the strength they have but because the Giant is stronger than the Child therefore he is the more perfect A Scholar and a Master do both teach the best they can but because the Master hath the greater knowledg therefore he must needs teach far better 1. In the internal acts of virtue a Christian is to be more zealous and operative aiming at excellencies and perfections 2. In the external acts of virtue a Christian must out-do a Jew in prudent zeal They adorned their Temple gave gifts loved all of their perswasion laboured to get proselytes but were uncivil to all others They were bound to pay tithes we are commanded to allow an honourable Maintenance not more work but more love In those Graces which are proper to the Gospel literally and plainly exacted of us and but obscurely insinuated or collaterally required of them we are to adorn the Gospel and advance to an higher and brisker duty Because we have a more spritely Law a clearer revelation greater threatnings better promises and mightier aids 1. Every man must observe the new sanctions or new interpretations of the Old super-added by Christ in his Sermon upon the Mount 2. Every man must do in proportion to all the aids of the Spirit ministred in the Gospel all that he can do which will amount to more than the usual rate of Moses's Law 3. Every Christian must be infinitely removed from Jewish sins such as were Idolatry Obstinacy Hypocrisie Oppression of Strangers sensual and low Appetites of Honour Peace Plenty c. 4. Every Christian must do all their works in Faith and Love In faith to make them accepted because without faith 't is impossible to please God though they be imperfect In love to make them as perfect as they can be Reason Because every Christian hath clearer hopes of a glorious and blessed Immortality The State of our Religion is high for 1. The purity of Commandments 2. Gracious Aids and Endearments 3. The great Example of Jesus 1 John 3.2 3. We are the Sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be but this we know that when Christ shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and appear with him in Glory And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as God is pure That is 1. We are the
Adopted Sons of God by Grace 2. We are sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise 3. We are renewed by Regeneration 4. We are Justified by his Grace through Faith 5. We are invited by his glorious Promises greater than we can understand Now he that considereth this state of things and hopes for the state of blessings will proceed in duty and love towards the perfection of God never giving out till he partake of the purities of God and his utmost Glories perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord till he obtain an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus In the practice of these spiritual duties there is no difficulty but what is made by the careless lives and actions of outward Christians and by their lazy and unholy Principles So that after the rate such Christians live now it is hard to know how and in what instances and in what degrees our duty ought to excell that of Moses's disciples though a Greater than Moses is here But they that love will do the thing that is good and so understand the Rule of perfection Obedite intelligetis Obey and ye shall know all that is necessary to be known for God shall lead you into all truth and love is the fulfilling of the whole Law We cannot be too careful for ignorant and weak and carnal persons especially for hypocrites because both pretend the one sort really as knowing no better but the other falsely and basely to the shame of Christianity that 1. This so high and spiritual worship inclines the minds of men to scruples and dislikes of all orders and rules in the Church and so because Christians must have but few Rites therefore they will endure none at all or such only as are of their own making We protest utterly against this spirit of men that it is an abuse of Christian Liberty and a cloak of maliciousness in hypocrites and a grievous cheat to all weak and well-meaning Christians 2. That this leads into rebellion against the religious Powers that according to their bounden duties do establish order and decency in all things belonging to the Service of God It is the principal care of the Magistrate to see that God be honourably served in Publick with decency at set times and places with set forms and postures to avoid confusion Now these pretenders to spirituality only do strongly set themselves against the face of Authority under the shew of Conscience This is a very wicked thing most contrary to the meaning of the Spirit and Power of Godliness For God hath ordained Princes to rule and Subjects to obey But these unruly Spirits under a feigned zeal for God's Cause set up their own Cause and set the whole world on fire by their ungodly Rebellions Take heed therefore of this one thing The True Gospel-Spirit minds most of all a True Spiritual Service But if Lawful and Religious Power commands a few innocent Forms to be observed in publick only to avoid Distraction they submit peaceably and still continue to worship God in the Spirit in publick In the Time Appointed by Law In the Place Appointed by Law In the Posture Appointed by Law In the Form Appointed by Law And in private too at any time place and in any form or posture as they themselves shall please What can be done more If men were not unreasonable they would be contented and come in to the Publick Worship and not proudly separate themselves as they do This did not the Jews though they had different opinions otherwise and this do not the Papists though they have several Orders and Perswasions amongst them For all Jews came to the same Temple and all Papists to the same Mass But our Sects are more unfortunately cross and more unhandsomely disobedient to Ecclesiastical and Temporal Authority than all the world besides the more is our misery Learn to be wiser and make it a matter of Conscience to fulfil all Righteousness to take your liberty in God's name in private no body desires to hinder you in the least Have ye not houses to pray in Mat. 3.13 Why despise ye the House of Prayer Shall I praise you for this I praise you not Do not forbear the assembling of your selves together as the custome of too many is to do It is spiritual Pride it is not only rebellious but uncivil and very rude to flock together to unlawful meetings or to stay at home or walk in the fields or streets or be at Ale-houses or Taverns as people unconcerned when better men than you are gathered together in the fear of God and Obedience to the Laws to Pray and Praise God and to hear his Word and to give Alms to the Poor O how decent a thing it is for Brethren to meet together in Unity And how prudent is that Devotion that places all the substance of Religion in the heart and yet uses the circumstances of order to avoid the confusion of wild Extravagancies Certain it is that if every one were left to serve God in his own way there would be no Face of a Church One would be Working or Playing while another was Preaching or Praying ignorant men and women would take upon them to teach and the blind would lead the blind till they both fall into the ditch We have greater cause therefore to bless God for establishing Powers over us without which we should be as herds of Wild Beasts rather than sober men and fall foul of one anothers persons and estates But God is the God of Order not of Confusion and we have no such unmannerly Custome nor ever had the true Churches of God Abhor therefore if you be wise all Fanatick Expressions That all Time all Places are alike so they are but not for publick Offices and that any Postures Gestures or Habits may be used so they may but not in Publick Service God and Man have given us our Liberty in Private only for the Publick we are restrained This is enough to give content to all Parties if Reason would do it for this is decent and comely in the sight of God and Man And thus it becometh us to dispute no more about such matters but to fulfil all Righteousness Spiritual Perfection From what hath been delivered at large I collect these Reasons for Spiritual Worship and Gospel-Perfection Reas I Because the Ritual Worship induced by God is abolished Believe me Ritual Worship abolished John 4.23 the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father But the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit Col. 2.16 c. and in truth Let no man deceive you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbath
days which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world Why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances touch not taste not handle not which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in Will-worship and humility and neglecting of the Body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh ib. v. 13. Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross There are many proofs more to this purpose too long to set down here Because all other Ritual worship superinduced by Men must needs be Reas II as much contrary to the Analogy of Christ's worship No other rites to be superinduced and more than that of the Law was Because no Rites in themselves ever did or will please God Witness Reas III God's declaration that of old he never imposed Sacrifices upon them No rites ever pleased God and when he did he preferred Mercy and Obedience before them and says he never delighted in them and the Prophets all along called for this kind of Sacrifice in comparison whereof all others were an abomination unto him and he was weary of them Because greater perfection is required in the Christian than was in the Reas IV Jewish Religion Greater Perfection in the Christian Religion But against this kind of doctrine flie forth a swarm of Objections from the Wasps of the world This spiritual worship and perfection you speak of Obj. is hard to understand and harder to practise A hard saying who can hear it And if so who then can be saved You may understand and practise both by the Spirit Answ if you will learn and obey with your Reason and your Will The Mind and Will of the Flesh is dull to know and stout to do such spiritual things and indeed she neither can nor will act any thing towards it till it yield to the Spirit For the Carnal man understandeth not the things of God neither indeed can he because they are spiritually discerned The Spirit only understandeth the things of the Spirit and the Flesh only understandeth the things of the Flesh The Gospel is a light to our Spirit to understand it by and the Spirit of God is a light to the Gospel and Christ is the person in whom is this Spirit of whose fullness we all receive who is the light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world John 1.9 This Light is come into the World but the Darkness comprehendeth it not because the world loveth darkness rather than light because her deeds are evil Ceremonies are a great help to Devotion Obj. But Devotion brought them forth the Daughter destroys the Mother Answ They be few easie and significant and used with liberty of spirit yet God hath no where in the Gospel commanded them but forbidden such as are Jewish and Heathenish the rest that make for decency and order being enjoyned by the Church are freely to be used trusting in all things to the aids of the Spirit which helpeth all our Infirmities Use therefore all honest helps but trust to the Spirit have recourse to that Fountain and covet after the best gifts Behold I shew unto you a more excellent way The world is not able to bear these high Dispensations Obj. Why then hath God introduced them If they were impossible Answ there could no obligation be upon us to bear them nor could God be Just in imposing them The World is in its Majority now God saw it to be the time of Love the Fullness of Time The World is Older and might be Wiser than it is O that Men were Wise to learn to know in this their day of Visitation the things that do belong to their Peace 1. We have or might have heard of all God's dispensations before and under the Law and of this last and best under the Gospel what revelations providences and administrations of justice mercy and power by miracles God hath wrought 2. We have the great example of Jesus and the Saints a cloud of Witnesses before us 3. We have the New Testament read and preached with the inward teaching of the Spirit If we will not learn by all these more than they could that had not these assistances Is it not our own faults And shall we not be without excuse Wo unto us if we now bring not forth more fruits worthy of Repentance than they did who came short of the Means we have The times of the former ignorance that was not willful God winked at and forgave them because they knew not what they did for had they known better things they would have done them as many as had honest hearts Mat. 13.14 Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear For verily I say unto you that many Prophets and Righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear John 8.56 and have not heard them Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad All the old Worthies died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth Heb. 11.23 39 40. All these having obtained a good report through faith received not the Promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect What went ye out for to see A Prophet yea I say unto you and more than a Prophet Verily I say unto you among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he Mat 11.9 c. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffered violence and the violent take it by force for all the Prophets and the Law prophecied until John He that hath ears to hear let him hear When I was a Child I thought as a Child I spake as a Child I did as a Child but when I became a Man I put away childish things The childhood of the World is past Heb. 5.12 c. For our time we might have been teachers and not have need to be taught again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God we are dull of hearing Every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of Righteousness for he is a Babe But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ
let us go on to perfection not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptisms and of laying on of Hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment and this we will do if God permit Gal. 3.23 Before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed Wherefore the Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith But after that Faith is come we are no longer under a School-master For ye are all the children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 4.1 c. Now I say that the Heir as long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutours and Governours until the time appointed of the Father Even so we when we were Children were in bondage under the Elements of the world But when the Fulness of the Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Wherefore thou art no more a Servant but a Son and if a Son then an Heir of God through Christ Howbeit then when ye knew not God ye did service unto them which by Nature are no Gods But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly Elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage Ye observe days and months and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain Gal. 3.3 Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the Flesh Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of Bondage As free 1 Pet. 2 1â— and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God Honour all men Love the brethren Fear God Honour the King Be subject to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake and for Conscience sake For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of Adoption whereby ye crie Abba Father All things are lawful 1 Cor. 2.6 12. but I will not be brought under the power of any Time was when there was no greater light of Knowledg to be given than was given nor hearts of apprehension greater than to receive such knowledg But now there are greater lights and greater capacity of Minds and greater helps of the Spirit to comprehend greater wisdom and if they do not comprehend them it must needs be their own fault The Prophets had a glimmering of this Light but especially he that was called the Prophet of the Highest Luk. 1.78 c. that went before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways to give knowledg of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the Day-spring from on high hath visited us To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of Peace This Great man stood and peeped in at the door of the Gospel and saw more of this light than any that went before him but less than any that came after him For since that God hath poured out of his spirit upon all Flesh and their Sons and Daughters have prophecied their old men have dreamed dreams and the young men have seen visions and the people are all taught of God the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by violence and all men rush into it The Standard of the Gospel is set up upon the top of Mount Sion displayed and seen of all and all Nations are invited to flow into it 4. Besides all this teaching we have the learning of our own Experience what the world is and how we have found it to our selves which in our greatest Necessities hath ever left us in the lurch and is allways flux and wavering and we may presume it ever will be so and therefore if we will still leave the wisdom of God and cleave to the wisdom of the world trusting to that which was never to be trusted it is our own fault and we must take that that comes of it Obj. Who can be perfectly spiritual Ans We may aspire to perfection and be spiritual though not perfectly spiritual Eph. 4.11 c. Wherefore God hath given some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastours and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the Faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the Measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ We may be spiritual at the first though not perfectly spiritual till the last Phil. 3.12 c. Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the price of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded And if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule 1 Cor. 4.4 let us mind the same things For I know nothing by my self yet am I not thereby justified Be ye therefore perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect Obj. Outward Service at this rate will be slighted 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Ans No we are taught that our Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us which we have of God and we are not our own for we are bought with a price therefore we must glorifie God in our Body and in our Spirit which are the Lord 's I beseech you therefore Brethren by the Mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God Rom. 12.1 2. which is your reasonable Service And be ye not conformed to this World but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God And therefore we are taught to yield freely to a few harmless easie significant Bodily Rites for order and decency and for uniformity and peace sake and for Conscience sake of our duty which we owe to
'T is very hard But Noble Spirits cannot brook it their Tongues and Pens and their whole Bodies may be captivated against their Wills but in their Souls they will be free Is there any greater Idleness Idleness than to stay and rest on that which men have formerly done said or written to attribute all to the Ancients without leaving any thing to be mended by those that come after them Surely all the Mysteries of God and Nature are not yet discovered the greatest things are difficult and long in coming and Truth is the Daughter of Time Many things which were hidden are come to light and more will come to light and our Successors will wonder that we were ignorant of them We do not build now adaies after the fashion of Vitruvius Improvements nor Till the ground or plant according to Varro or Columella we use not food or physick after the rules of Galen or Hypocrates we judg not exactly after the Civil Law of the Romans or the Feudal Customs of the Lombards neither plead we as Demosthenes and Cicero nor govern as Solon or Lycurgus did we war not fail not sing not c. as did the Ancients but much better And therefore the World is beholding to those brave Souls that have adventured by long Study care charges and bodily Labours to excel their Predecessors in finding out such rare secrets as serve more for the benefit of Mankind The Antipodes the Sailing by the Compass the Circulation of the Blood the Chymistry of Plants and Minerals Guns Printing c. were strange things to be believed before the truth of them was seen by Experience The Wisest men may not scorn better helps though offered by far meaner hands It must be pride that rejects teaching though from an Ant or Sow And let them be choaked that refuse to be drawn out of a Dungeon by Ropes and rotten Clouts Let the infection of Leprosie stick close to their Skin that scorn to wash it off in a narrow or shallow Stream Knowledg does very ill to puff up so as to scorn Ignorance much more to despise greater knowledg A Sickness a Disease of the Mind in men of high parts is hard to be cured but if their Bodies be in danger they will not disdain Album Graecum or the Receipt of a poor Beggar While they ail little or nothing they will resolve to die by the Book but if all the Great Doctors give not ease to the Gout or Stone Strangury or Flaming Feaver an Emperick a Quack an Old Woman any body that can be gotten for God's sake at any rate and thank you too a thousand times Obj. It is not safe to leave the old Road. Sol. What if it be rugged What if it be about c. What is he that will read in no bodies book but his own or that shuts his good book is wise enough and will read no further that begins to build and leaves off in the first story that goes half his journey and then comes back If Columbus had not discovered another World and Americus Vespucius conquered the same it had been no world still to us We must have wanted our Plantations of Virginia New-England c. and the King of Spain his Gold and Silver Mines Is there no progress to be made Must we stand at a stay Look into all Mechanick Trades Mysteries and Professions they grow more ingenious every day to their great Commendation Observe Lawyers Philosophers and Physicians Oratours Poets c. improving daily God's Blessing on their hearts for so doing Obj. But Divines must not stir a foot others may Sol. No Why so Stay let us consider more of this matter It is for certain that no other Foundation can be laid than what is already laid of Gold and Silver and pretious Stones But we may build upon this foundation suitable matter which will endure the Fire Christ Jesus delivered the full perfection of all truth the most pure precepts and highest promises in the Gospel The Apostles but it was a long time first understood it and preached it to the world The chiefest things which Christ did suffered and spake are written in the Gospels as also the Sermons Miracles and Acts of the Apostles in the Epistles also are occasionally taught the pure Doctrine of Christ unmixed with Moses and Vain Philosophy The Apostles by Inspiration understood the whole Will of God and preached infallibly and from their Light we all receive Light But Inspiration and Infallibility dying with them the Disciples of the Apostles and their Disciples were good men and kept the Faith which was delivered to them and so it hath been kept and would have been kept by constant tradition of Preaching if so much had not been written as is written In a word the Will of God was plainly revealed Corruption and as plainly understood but some after the Apostles days grievous Wolves entred into the Flock of Christ even Jewish and Gentile Christians who wrested the Scriptures both Old and New to their own destruction and too much trusting to art and subtilty corrupted the simplicity of the Gospel Then as mens Pride with their wealth and worldly polities encreased came in the Doctrines of Infallibility Supremacy Transubstantiation Purgatory Masses worshipping of Saints and Angels innumerable Superstitions of Will-worship and carnal services And though in all these ages good men saw the clearness of Gospel truths through these mists of vulgar errors yet could not swim against the Stream and the common sort relying upon men of mighty names grew careless to search any further believing all that was told them by their Leaders The rest contented themselves and sate still under those Tyrannies wishing for Reformation but they were poor and weak and the violence of the Powers and Multitudes was too strong against them Such was the humour of those dark and ignorant ages when the modest Disciple would not presume to know more than his admired Master though he were fit to be a Master himself to others And so the world lay in a trance for a long time and fetcht a sound sleep and was almost dead especially in and about the Eleventh Century that unhappy age overspread with Ignorance and Barbarity Reformation Till by degrees some more Heroick Spirits appeared and boldly told the world those glorious truths which they had discovered as Luther Melancthon Cassander Calvin c. who weeded out many Tares that the Enemy had sown while good men were fast asleep And since that greater men than these have more and more illustrated the Spiritual Dispensation of the Gospel to all mankind far different from that which was before the Law and under the Law And still we go on to perfection not for a new Faith or Religion but for the understanding of the old way of God more perfectly The Reformation grows higher and higher every day and the Faithful grow more and more spiritual and fitted for glory walking more sublimely and
freely in the spirit above the slavery of Carnal Ordinances a higher Genius hovers over this Age. The first Reformers did well and cleared much rubbish out of the way and by their help others have come on to do more good And now the great points delivered by St. Paul and other inspired Writers concerning Faith Justification Sanctification Grace Law Works Adoption Priesthood Kingdom Mediation of Christ c. are better understood and more clearly expressed than ever they were before The world hath as good Wits as ever it had and nothing hinders yet the farther advancement of all knowledg divine and humane but the slavish tying our selves to the sole authority of the Antients without examinination of Scriptures and Reason making it religious to go no further than they for fear of being wiser than our Fathers Besides the shameful idleness of men of excellent parts for fear Forsooth of dangerous Innovations I do not mean that we should find out a new Religion but labour to understand the old better Enquire for the old ways that have been untrodden and by ways invented not for new Lights but for old better discerned But what have I done that talk so much of improvement A little I do God knows And thanks be to God if it be a little I hope others more able will be perswaded to do more I have only shewn a good heart and there is no hurt I hope to wish well to the peace of Christendome Well be it how it may be 't is agreeable to a Gospel-Spirit to pray for and aspire towards perfection to strive to be no longer children but in understanding to be men to covet after the best gifts and to find out the most excellent ways and all this while to keep liberty and peace And however men fail out of meekness and ignorance yet I condemn none that have honest hearts and strive to know and do better things But those that swell and look big upon all but their own party let them alone till their stomacks come down or if they will be wilful let them be wilful still only I am sorry in the mean time that the blind should lead the blind but the obstinate only shall fall into the ditch But they may say worse of me and therefore I had best to hold my peace for fear of bringing an old house over my head for fear of bringing swarms of Wasps about my ears Obj. In the Church nothing must be changed Sol. No truths may be changed but all errors must as Transubstantiation Purgatory Image and Saint-worship c. Alterations for the better do well at any time never for the worse Obj. Many things are different from the Articles of the Church of England Sol. It is well known to wise men that the chiefest of the first Reformers and Compilers of those Articles had a special eye to the Augustan confession and yet respected the Geneva Church too so that both parties have subscribed so could they not do to the Synod of Dort It was therefore prudently and charitably done of our Church not to fright any from her Communion but to open her breasts freely to all that would suck in her Doctrine Nor does our Church forbid her Sons to see farther if they can into her truths or to build upon her foundations This were to set bounds to all industry and ingenuity as God hath set bounds to the Sea saying Hitherto shalt thou go and no further The Scriptures are everlasting Mines new veins discovered to men that take pains to dig or else all is lost vast Treasures hid in them require searching to the world's end Who can hinder invention and industry with moderation And why may not the old foundation be enlarged and strengthned and new superstructures raised thereupon Is it good to be straitned or confined under penalties to a certain number of Articles in Religion besides or beyond the letter of which none ought to speak or write May not succession see farther into the same truths and more clearly The Tabernacle must have room to spread her curtains and enlarge her cords that she may receive the more company and stand the surer But if any thing be brought in contrary to the sound doctrine of the faith always received though it should be preached by an Angel from heaven let him be Anathema Maranatha The heat of the angry Reformation may be well near out by this time it is high time it should Did we not take many things upon trust And did we not flie from one extremity to another And may we not in all this time see our mistakes and honourably reform them Lay aside therefore all heats and interests and the business will be far better and sooner done and when it is done we will be glad and rejoyce and wish it had been done sooner Besides is it not good encouragement to searching and free spirits to look out farther and find out higher Truths which if they be stopt by reproach and persecution will perhaps lie undiscovered Who will take pains if they be disgraced and cried out upon for Hereticks and dangerous Innovators and kept under the hatches to please the humours of formal men What sense or reason is there that the Doctrine or Worship of Christian Religion should not be reformed in every Age from any error or superstition which shall creep into them by any evil custome because of antiquity Or that we should not stir a foot from those by-paths because of antiquity we know they were good men but they did not see all things as the Latin Service the half Communion c. merely out of a wilful formality and pretence of Constancy though we be convinced of such false ways It is no shame for any man or society of men to recant a manifest mistake Do not all wise Law-makers the same when manifest inconveniences do arise for the peace and wellfare of the Common-wealth And why not the same for the Church also Is it not the bane of Christianity to be stubborn in maintaining old errors merely out of pretended inconstancy and dangerous change and questioning of old truths also May not a change be safely and honourably made from worse to better in any Church or State Think again and is it not piety wisdom and charity so to do I humbly leave it to the wise to judg of these things Obj. But my Discourse is too high for ordinary capacities and therefore cannot edifie Sol. I confess it as to the lowest capacities of the most illiterate and yet not of all those neither but they and others not much learned in arts yet of good natural parts may with care quickly apprehend the meaning of the matter especially when it is before them in writing But the learned Preacher may so order his business as to hide his art and condescend sweetly to the apprehensions of the vulgar and make zealous applications upon these principles for practice of life and conversation as well and
to the slaughter like a Lamb dumb before the shearer Acts 8.32 so opened he not his mouth When he was reviled he reviled not again Who will not believe a Holy Person will such a one forge a Will or falsifie a deed or betray his trust or take his death upon an untruth Therefore was he sent that he might bear witness of the truth 4. By his death Christ took his death upon it Mat. 26.63 Joh. 19.7 that his Message was from God For for his saying that he was the Son of God and came to bear witness of the truth he was condemned to death Yet he persisted to the last to call God Father commended his Spirit into his hands and so gave up the Ghost Luc. 23.46 ratifying this truth with his Bloud That saying caused his death and his death caused the faith of that saying Now the greatest proof that can be made is to take ones death upon it Besides the death of Christ was seconded with many Miracles of the Eclipse of the Sun the shaking of the Earth c. which bred the faith of this truth in many and in some of his Executioners Mat. 27.54 and in the Centurion saying Truly this Man was the Son of God 5. By Resurrection This was so strong a proof that it confirmed all the rest not but that the rest were sufficient but this took away the scandal of the Cross being accused to die as a malefactor and for saying Destroy this Temple and in three daies I will raise it up again And when he fore-told his Passion he comforted his Disciples with his Resurrection and if Christ's Resurrection had not follow'd then his Doctrine and Miracles had been discredited But his Resurrection declared him to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness Rom. 1.4 His Resurrection proved him to be the Judg of the World because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judg the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead This giving assurance is making Faith for so is the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Italian Translation and the English in the Margin offered Faith The Resurrection was of such force to make faith that the Apostles made it the form of their Ordination and Matthias was ordained to be a witness with the rest of the Apostles of the Resurrection Acts 1.22 They made it the summe of all their preaching proving that Jesus was the Christ because God had raised him from the dead Vid. Acts 2 and 3. and 5. and 13. This is the very life of Faith for if Christ be not raised then our faith is vain and we are yet in our sins and the Apostles would have been found lyars and contrivers of cunningly devised Fables 1 Cor. 15.17 For which they would never have suffered as they did to the death Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is the Lord and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Shall we not believe one risen from the dead Dives in Hell supposed Luc. 16.20 that if one should rise from the dead his unbelieving Brethren would believe and repent Can the unbelieving Jew believe other things which he hath not seen as that Abraham was his Father by whom he had all his right to the Land of Canaan and not believe that Jesus is the Christ whom he hath seen by whom he hath right to the Kingdom of Heaven Can he believe that Moses was the Man of God by whom God gave his Law and not that Jesus is the Son of God by whom God gave his Grace For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ Besides the former proofs of his own Christ hath the testimonies of Moses and the Prophets who spake of him since the World began and the very indication of John the Baptist the greatest of them all John 1.45 The Jews boast of Moses and his Writings Joh. 5.46 but Christ saies Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me and therefore he in whom ye trust condemneth you Reason 1. The Reason why Christ thus proves this Last Will of his Father to make faith of it to the World is because he is the Executor or Mediator of it to whom of right it belongeth to prove that Will whereof he is instituted the Heir and by so being the Will receives his very essence and form and without it is null and void Christ therefore came down from Heaven Joh. 6.38 not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him And this is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him may have everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the last day Hebr. 7.22 2. Because Christ is the Surety of God's Testament Every Surety is not an Executor but every Executor is a Surety that stands bound for the Testator to pay all his Debts and Gifts as a Surety is bound to the Creditor for the principal Debtor 3. It is called Faith in Christ because Faith in Christ is the Title or Appellation whereby we are nominated to the Legacies in God's Testament The Executor cannot duly perform the Will of the Testator to pay his Debts and Legacies except the Creditors and Debtors and Legatees be nominated and that they also may know when and how and of whom to claim their just due Now in God's Testament Men are truly and certainly nominated not by their proper names but by appellative and common names as of Faithful Joh. 3.16 and Believers in Christ and Receivers of Christ Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life Verily verily I say unto you Joh. 5.24 He that Heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto Life Acts 16.31 Joh. 6.47 Ro. 3.26 Rom. 10.9 1 Joh. 5.13 Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved thou and thy house He that believeth in me hath everlasting life To declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus If thou shalt confess with thy mouth and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved I have written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal Life Acts 26.18 He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned To receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith which is in Christ Jesus He that believeth not is condemned already Joh. 3.18 because he
hath not believed in the name of the only Son of God Joh. 3.36 He that believeth not the Son shall not see Life Joh. 8.24 but the wrath of God abideth in him If ye believe not that I am he Ro. 8.13 Gal. 5.19 Ephes 5.5 ye shall die in your sins if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die The works of the Flesh are manifest c. They which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God For this we know that no whoremonger nor unclean Person nor covetous Man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God or of Christ When therefore any Man can truly be called a Believer in Christ then the Gifts of God are sure unto him as if he had been nominated in God's Book by his special and single Name So Men are reprobated or disinherited not by their proper Names or Surnames but by the Appellative or common names of Unbelievers Unfaithful Rejecters of Christ Carnal Worldly c. And therefore in God's Last Will there is no preterition of any Man or Men personally by name or number but all Men are either Believers or Unbelievers And seeing all Believers are by that common name instituted and all Unbelievers are by that common name disinherited therefore none are instituted or pretermitted by any proper name The Reasons are SECT VI. 1. Because God's Will is a Testament ad pias causas of meer Grace Testament ad pias causas Love and Pity to miserable Persons And in such Wills the Legacies are so numerous that they cannot be personally nominated for if so no Will would hold them and they are not yet all in being to be capable of them by common names as thus I give and bequeath so much to the Poor of such a Parish Town or City to the Prisoners of such a Goal or to the Diseased in such an Hospital So every Poor in such a Parish Town City every Prisoner in such a Goal and every Diseased in such an Hospital are qualified for such a Legacy and may justly claim by Right and Title of their Poverty Imprisonment Disease or any other condition expressed in the Will and the Executor is bound to perform it And so every Christian hath a Right to Eternal Life by the Title of his Faith 2. Men are thus nominated in common because Christ is the Hypotype by whose right all have right For Christ hath the original right of alliance to be the Son of God The only begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1.114 Whom God hath appointed Heir of all things Not an heir of expectance Hebr. 1.1 but actually seized on his Inheritance Eph. 1.20 For God hath set him at his own right hand in Heavenly places from him we have the same right Joh 1.12 To them gave he power to be called the Sons of God even to as many as believed on his Name Behold what manner of love is this 1 Joh. 3.1 that we should be called the Sons of God so then thou art no more a Servant but a Son and if a Son then an Heir of God through Christ That being justified by his Grace Gal. 4.7 we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal Life If Children Tit. 3.7 Ro. 8.17 then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint heirs with Christ Now Joint-heirs have the same right alike As the Seed of Abraham had all right alike to the Kingdom of Canaan So Believers in Christ Christ and the Children which God hath given him have all right alike to the Kingdom of Heaven The Seed of Abraham by Abraham the Seed of Christ by Christ because the Kingdom of Heaven was originally given to Christ as the Kingdom of Canaan was given to Abraham The Israelite claimed by his Birth the Believer claims by his Faith Gal. 3.26 For ye are all Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus And if ye be Christ 's then are you Abraham 's Seed and Heirs according to the Promise SECT VII Of Physical Operation This great Instrument of Man's Salvation called Faith is an easie Of Physical Operation gentle and noble thing in it self but hath been represented difficult and obscure and great quarrels have been made about it and little hopes of reconciliation concerning it unless second and third thoughts be framed by unbiassed and considering Men so to undeceive themselves and others For hitherto the World hath been imposed upon and amused to conceive that Faith and other Graces of God are habits infused by God into Mens Souls quickning their dead Faculties which neither know nor feel any thing that is done unto them till they see themselves in a new condition and frame of Spirit which they call the Work of Grace irresistible as is the fashioning of a lump of clay into a new mold or the raising of a Man that is dead and rotten or the turning of a wheel by meer strength and keeping it in motion by the spring and weights that are put upon it Hereupon the poor People lye still and endeavour nothing but believe that if they be elected after the Covenant of Grace to the end they are elected in time to the means whether they will or no and that they have no will at all to any Good not so much as to accept it when offered but rather an aversion from it and a proneness to all evil to draw it to them and hatefully to turn all goodness from them This Physical operation which they dream to be upon their Spirits is the same with earthly bodies which are moved by natural or artificial causes of force or virtue the greater strength violently prevailing over the less as we move logs and stones by the power of horses or Men or curiously turning of vast bodies by Engines and Wheels of Art Operation Moral Whereas in deed and in truth the operations upon the Soul are moral rather than physical with no other violence or force than that which is not properly so but intellectual and rational or persuasive and inviting unless you will call that a physical way of the working of Spirits upon Spirits but still it is free and fair without force or battery but rational by information of the judgment and persuasion of the Will For quicquid operatur operatur ad modum operantis quicquid patitur patitur ad modum patientis Whatsoever acts acts according to the quality of the Agent and whatsoever suffer suffers according to the condition of the patient Here is therefore nothing of a real touch of the Agent upon the Patient to create necessarily a real change and alteration of the Patient thereby from what it was before but a virtual motion of instruction and insinuation upon an understanding and free subject to convince and invite the same faculties and call them off to new objects freely from their former mistakes So the vulgar are made to believe of
truths there is no peace to the wicked and what peace can there be so long as their whoredoms and witchcrafts are so many 2. Because they are not justified by Faith therefore they are not at peace with God nor with their own Souls because they are not of the Truth neither is Truth in them 3. Because health and ease in the Body and outward flourishing and tranquillity may be in the Estate though the Soul have no union or communion with God at all Nor is it any sign of God's favour or disfavour to thrive and prosper or to suffer in this World but all things happen alike to all Men in this World and no Man knoweth what is good or bad by any thing that is before him 4. Because their natural tempers and constitution of bodies may tend to mirth joy and rejoycing in the lower faculties while the higher powers of the Mind and Conscience are defiled and have no hope nor comfort in them 5. Because Sense in the Flesh is below Faith in the Heart and they live by Sense and not by Faith and therefore they believe Sense and not Faith because there is no Faith in them to believe And so they live by Sense which is no life but death For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace 1. They have no reason therefore at all to believe their own Consciences falsly so called for the Conscience speaks bitter things unto them and that they may believe and if the Offices of Consciences be suspended in them it is because the habits and customs of sin have taken away the sense thereof and created a hardness darkness stupefaction and numness in them 2. They are to hearken to good counsel without for there is none within or very rare but when it is they are not to neglect it at any hand 3. They are carefully to observe calamities ordinary and extraordinary that happen to themselves or others which are sent of God on purpose to awaken them from their sins 4. They are to cease from the hurry and noise of pleasures and profits of this World and to make a stand sometimes and to retire into their own thoughts and look up to God and remember their later end and put a stop to their nots and excesses and try to shake them off by degrees and strive to enter into a course of honesty sobriety and temperance and see how it may work in them by little and little till they come to their wits again and live like Men by Reason and so farther as Christians by Faith and not meerly as Beasts by Sense And this they may do if they will and recover and come to by breaking off their sins by repentance and their iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor To this end all Men are exhorted Self-Examination 1. To self-examination The Scholar must leave poring alwaies upon his Book and turn over the Book of his own Conscience and learn the state of his own Soul The Statesman and wise politician must leave plodding and contriving publique State affairs and learn to manage the Government of himself The worldly voluptuous and luxurious Persons that mind all things that are without them must learn to come home and dwell with themselves and know the things that are within them by acquainting themselves with themselves more and more and being strangers to others 2. To keep no private sin unforsaken Forsake sin the sin that sticks so close within them the plague of their own heart the Idol of abomination which they have set up in their own Spirit the cursed thing which troubles all things So long as any such thing lurks in the Will the Will is not turned There is a lye in my right hand I hide iniquity under my tongue I mock God and my Soul If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer 3. To confess every sin I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord Confession and so thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin I thought on my waies and turned my heart unto thy testimonies To this end the Conscience must be set a work and made to do its offices by discoursing with our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 4.4 Sym. Aug. Ventilabam Roman Psalt scopabam vulg To commune with our own hearts in our Chambers and be still to dig and delve into our Spirits to hunt there to winnow the chaff from the Corn to sweep and search diligently in every corner of the heart This is the great neglect of the Sons of Men that they do not exercise their faculties nor use the Reason that is in them that they might know themselves Nemo in sese tentat descendere Nemo The Conscience is the light and face of the Soul there they might see and know themselves if they would bethink themselves and think their thoughts over again considering and setting their heart on their waies This is the dilatation or expansion of the Soul spreading the bloudy colours that are ruffled and furled up together the anatomizing of the smallest fibra's of the heart the reflection of the mind upon it self A word spoken to the heart a reckoning and casting up of our accompt a retiring to our own Soul a putting our sins upon our Soul bringing them back to the place from whence they came a retractation a recognition a scrutiny of all circumstances Quis quid ubi quibus auxiliis Cur quomodo quando Who what where by what means why how when Reminiscentia animi dilatatio Reflexio mentis dictio cum corde Reputatio viarum Reditio ad cor Positio super cor c. SECT I. I shall drive in these wedges to keep this Cause from stirring 1. Conscientia obnubilari potest quia non est Deus extingui non potest Collections quia est à Deo The Conscience may be clouded and obscured because it is not God but it cannot be extinguished because it is from God 2. Conscientia non habet potestatem legislativam sed jurisdictionem tantùm non est Frinceps sed Judex non Jus facit sed dicit The Conscience hath no Supreme legislative power but jurisdiction only because she is not a Prince but a Judg she doth not make Right but declares what Right is 3. Conscientia est in omnibus rationalibus Angelis hominibus The Conscience is in all rational Creatures Angels and Men. 4. Conscientia non extinguitur in damnatis The Conscience is not extinguished in the damned but most of all awakened 5. Nemo semper fuit Atheus No Man hath been an Atheist at all times 6. Peccatum semper ambulat cum capite Sin ever accompanies the person of a Sinner 7. Maxima violatio Conscientiae est maximum peccatum The greatest violation of the Conscience is the greatest sin 8. Maximus angor Conscientiae est maxima poena The greatest torment of the Conscience is the greatest
thereunto that is temporal 10. The rewards of a Spiritual Life are adequate and homogeneal thereunto that is Eternal SECT I. Thus there are two Minds or Understandings Transition Mind and Will of Flesh and Spirit that I may so speak and two Wills or Appetites in Man The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind of the Flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Will of the Flesh the other is the Mind of the Spirit and the Will of the Spirit Or which is all one there is in every Man Sense and Reason and the Sensitive and Rational appetite a part Terrestrial and a part Celestial a Brute and an Angel According to these Principles and essential parts constituting the Persons of Men so they do and must live both the Life of sense and of reason But if the sensitive powers are predominate then the Rational faculties lye still and the life is just like the life of a Beast and no more purely sensual But if the Rational faculties prevail then the sensitive powers are kept in compass and the life is the true life of a Man and no more purely Rational But if the Spirit of Faith come upon the Soul it advanceth the Judgment and directs the Will to the greater mortification of the Flesh and suppression of the unjust desires thereof and the life is the true exact life of a Christian purely Spiritual So there is a threefold life in Man of sense of Reason and of Faith Life in Man threefold Natural Animal Spiritual 1. The Life of Sense is unregenerate for that which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and no more as it came from its principles So the Flesh acteth and satisfies it self in Hearing Seeing Tasting Feeling and Smelling as do the Brutes 2. The Life of Reason is the Embryo tending to Regeneration and almost Christian for that which is the off spring of Reason is Reason and no more as it came from its principles So the Soul acteth and satisfies it self in understanding willing and choosing and reflecting as do Angels and Men with themselves and with one another 3. The Life of the Spirit by Faith is the consummation of Regeneration and a new Creation and altogether Christian for that which is the off-spring of the Spirit is Spirit and all true Sense and Reason as it flow'd from its principles So the Soul acteth and satisfies it self in more sublime Judgment Love and Choice and rare Recognitions and Contemplations as do Saints and Blessed Spirits with God and their own Souls So there is the Life of Natural Sense the Life of Natural Reason the Life of Supernatural Faith and Reason 1. The Life of Nature is good quà Nature or Sense till it exceed the bounds of Natural Reason and positive Law for sin is only a transgression of Law 2. The Life of Reason is better till it opposes unreasonably the Reason of Grace and Faith 3. The Life of Grace is best of all which regulates the Sense and Reason and perfects both SECT II. The Soul hath her Spiritual Senses of Seing Hearing Tasting c. as well as the Body Spiritual Senses and Passions The Soul hath her Spiritual Food and Raiment as well as the Body meat and drink indeed and clothing indeed which the Body knows not of nourishing and cherishing and adorning her unto everlasting Life The Soul hath her Passions of Love Joy Hope c. which reason and Faith and the Spirit of God moderate and refine into perfect Holiness and Sanctification till it arrives unto Glory The Soul hath joy indeed when she rejoyces in the Lord and is ravished and sick of love labouring to know and feel the height and the length and the bredth and depth of the Love of God which passeth all knowledg to enjoy the Peace of God and a good Conscience which passeth all understanding to have fellowship and communion with God to relish Heaven and to taste of the powers of the World to come There are Riches for the Soul as well as for the Body which are the true Riches the treasure layd up in Heaven where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal There are Honours for the Soul as well as for the Body to be the Servant and Friend of God the Spouse of Christ the Son and Heir of God and Co-heir with Christ There is the Wisedom of the Soul as well as of the Body to be wise to Salvation to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent The fear of the Lord is true wisedom all other wisedom is but foolishness Scientia contristans scientia sine capite A sorrowful and imperfect knowledg and altogether unsatisfactory See a most lively description of a Carnal Life in the second chapter of Wisedom Life of Faith You have seen the Life of Sense and Reason but oh the life of Faith how sublime and lofty is the state thereof above them both 1. It is above all Prosperity whatsoever it knows how to use this World as though it used it not is treads the Moon under her feet and counts all things but loss and dung to gain Christ it is not ravished nor transported by letting out the stream of affections upon the World even the stupidity and madness but looks higher and hath an eye to the recompense of the Reward and to the price of the High Calling is the more humble and thankful and fruitful in good works in an advanced Estate abounding therein in all piety and love 2. It is above all Adversity whatsoever it knows how to want as well as to abound in the midst of apparent dangers it stands still to see the Salvation of God not knowing when nor how Believes above hope and contrary unto hope retains her integrity when tempted to curse God and die Though he kill that Soul yet will she put her trust in him though she stick fast in the deep mire and clay though she be gone down to the sides of the works and to the roots of the everlasting Mountains and the weeds of despair be wrapped about the dying head in the Judgment of weak Flesh and Bloud yet will she look up once more toward the Holy Temple of God and never leave hoping and trusting in him who she knows will never leave nor forsake her This Ship can tell how to live in all storms amongst all rocks and quick-sands this House can stand all the blustering winds and roaring waves because it is built upon a Rock In a word the Life that the Soul lives she lives by the Faith of the Son of God and her life is hid with Christ in God who is all in all unto her abundantly above all that she is ever able to ask or think and she can do and suffer any thing through Christ that strengtheneth her SECT III. 1. Thus the Life of the Flesh is a poor obscure Corollaries low and inconsiderable Life 2. The Life of
Publick Faith of the Most High God immortal faithful and Omnipotent and there we may rest secure and no where else Therefore by our Faith we have full Assurance of the hope of a glorious and Blessed immortality by which we may draw near unto God with a holy boldness in the Spirit Faith is taken for a Credence a Trust an Acceptance and a Covenant into and with God Gal. 3.2 Gal. 3.14 Eph. 1.13 Hebr. 11.6 The Spirit is a fruit of Faith which we receive not by works but by the hearing of Faith And the promise of the Spirit is through Faith And after we believed we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise And the works of the Spirit have their acceptance from Faith without which it is impossible to please God which shews the two main differences between the Gospel and the Law 1. Because the nature of Works under the Law is external carnal servile but under the Gospel they are internal spiritual and liberal 2. Because the motives to the Works under the Law are bondage fear and a curse but under the Gospel liberty hope and a Blessing SECT IV. The Spirit The Spirit is the Spirit of the hope of Righteousness i. e. the Reward of Righteousness or the Right of the inheritance to which we are justified and of which we are assured by Faith called Righteousness 1. In respect of it self because the substance of this Blessedness is Moral Righteousness which is the principal thing in the nature of Blessedness whereto the Accessaries are eternity of Life Joy and Glory 2. In respect of us because it is that inheritance whereto we are justified and wherewith we shall be qualified to be really and perfectly righteous in eternal Life Joy and Glory 3. In respect of God because our Justification thereto is not an act of God's Justice proceeding from his Law but an act of his Righteousness or kindness proceeding from his Grace and Gospel whereby he gives us a present Right to future Blessedness and an expectance or Assurance thereof that we should hope and patiently wait for it Called therefore the Hope laid up for us in Heaven Col. 1.5 1 Th. 5.8 Tit. 3.7 1 Pet. 2.3 4. The Hope of Glory and Salvation and Blessedness to which we are made heirs A begetting to a lively Hope to an inheritance incorruptible that fadeth not away of which the Spirit is the Earnest Seal and Witness The Reasons of Hope are 1. Because every Inheritance is an expectance The Institution of an Heir preceding the Induction 2. Because God hath commanded us to wait Now if God had never intented this inheritance for us and promised it unto us by his Son Jesus Christ he would never have bidden us to wait for it nor have given us his Spirit as an earnest thereof before hand 3. Because we have accepted it Now if it were never given nor accepted we would not be such fools as to look for that which either was never offered or refused by us when it was offered But now every Faithful Soul may justly look for that which is their due from God or good Men and they shall be sure to have it if they faint not For God and good Men will be sure never to fail of their promises Heaven and Earth may fail and shall fail but not the least title of the word of God shall ever fail God is faithful in promises and keeping Covenant for ever His word is a more sure word than the Laws of the Medes and Persians which are said not to alter though both their Laws and Kingdoms are long since altered and gone But God liveth ever to perform what he hath promised and sworn who is Truth it self and cannot lie Nothing therefore can hinder Assurance on God's part but breach of Faith on our part None therefore can fail of their hopes but hypocrites because they are unfaithful in not keeping the Covenant made with God therefore their hopes shall perish and their expectation shall be cut off as the spiders web before him They are fallen from Grace and have disinherited and destroy'd themselves but in God was and might have been their help SECT V. Having therefore such a Hope and full Assurance of Faith Waiting it is worth the while to wait for the end of our Faith and hope the Salvation of our Souls It is good to wait upon God and the patient expectation of the meek shall not perish for ever 1. To wait in life all the daies of my appointed time will I wait till my change come 1. In prosperity for higher comforts not to let out the stream of our desires to the ravishment of our Spirits with the enjoyments of carnal things So to be transformed and infatuated by them as to neglect cleaving to nobler objects 2. In adversity for the exceeding great Reward that will more than satisfie for all the sufferings of this life so as not to rage blaspheme or despair because of the sharpness or continuance of any divine scourge But to look beyond them all at the price of the High Calling laid up for us In our patience possessing our Souls that Patience may have its perfect work in us to endure to the end 2. To wait in death for strength of Spirit to bear the agonies and terrors of that dismal encounter and for victory to overcome that Ultimum supplicium that last and worst of woes 3. To wait after death 1. For the recovery of the Body from dishonour and corruption to Glory and Incorruption 2. For the consolation of the Soul in the state of solitude and separation by the society of other blessed Spirits and of Just Men made perfect and of the Visitations of Angels and the irradiations from the most excellent Glory 3. For the Re-union of Soul and Body never to be separated more 4. For fruition of Eternal Blessedness The CONTENTS Matter of Fact Matter of Right Matter of Witness Spirit of Assurance Ability Sealed Earnest TITLE II. Of the Grounds of Assurance 1. THe first Ground that all the Assurance that is possible and convenient to be had in this life concerning our Salvation is in matter of Fact procured for us is SECT I. Matter of Fact 1. That Christ was in this World actually in the Flesh and conversed openly with Men taught them wrought Miracles died among them and rose again and was seen of them after his Resurrection 2. That Christ was a Person sent from God to preach and publish his last Will and Testament to all Mankind and he began with the Jews and sent his Apostles to the Gentiles saying Go preach the Gospel to every Creature That this Christ was exactly fore-told by all the Prophets and was testified to be the Son of God by the voice of God from Heaven saying I am well pleased hear ye him And that he justified himself to be the Son of God and the Author and Finisher of our Salvation who was crucified
through weakness but lived by the power of God And after he had died for our sins rose again for our justification 3. That Christ as a Law-giver propounded the purest Rules of Holiness and the highest Rewards of happiness introduced the most Spiritual worship that ever was manifested unto Mankind that he put an everlasting period to Moses's Rites and confounded the Wisdom of the World by the foolishness and weakness of God which is wiser and stronger than the Wisdom and strength of the World That he brake the Devil's power and malice silenced the lying Oracles and lay'd flat the strong holds of Sin and Satan to the ground And set up his Kingdom against all Principalities and powers and Spiritual wickednesses in high places and the gates of Hell shall never be able to to prevail against it 4. That Christ's Apostles saw and heard all that he did spake and suffered and the Glory of his Resurrection and Ascension and testified to the World all these things which they had seen and heard without all hope of Reward in this Life against all discouragements of persecutions and deaths And that the Spirit of God was so powerful in these illiterate and obscure Men as to indue them with Wisedom and Understanding from on High and with courage and resolution to preach the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and the enduring of the Cross by mortification and self-denyal and renunciation of the World in order thereunto Things hard to be believed done or suffered by Flesh and Blood but mightily assured of performed and endured by themselves and their Disciples out-witting the Learning of Athens and Rome out-pleading the Orators and over-coming the powerful oppositions of both and of all others translated by their Gospel from the power of Darkness of Satan into the glorious Kingdom of the dear Son of God Thus the Ground of our Assurance sufficeth as to credence for matter of Fact SECT II. 2. The second Ground of all the Assurance Matter of Right that is possible and convenient to be had in this Life concerning our Salvation is in matter of Right to the Promises of that Salvation so procured for us is 1. Our consenting to the Promises delivered unto us 2. Our accepting and free embracing them as to our selves drawing the right of those Promises unto us 3. Our obedience or observation of them accordingly preserving those Rights unto us All which is our Faith whereby we are justified to all the Rights procured purchased and published by our Saviour Jesus Christ Thus living and dying and rising again and sending of his Spirit and ascending into Heaven and offering himself to God as a Priest and Sacrifice and sitting at the Right Hand of his Father to rule over all for us Men and for our Salvation That where he is thither he might bring us who is thus gone before us to prepare a place for us This is great Assurance and there can be no evidence nor conveyance or settlement greater or more secure than this The Word of God standing sure and our reliance thereupon We know we are the Sons of God What saith Christ Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word Joh. 5.13 and believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto Life And I will raise him up at the last day He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life Joh. 12.44 that is right unto it and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him We know that we have passed from Death unto Life because we love the Brethren He that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death 1 Joh. 3.14 Eph. 2.5 c. Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickened us together with Christ by Grace ye are all saved and hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in Heavenly places in Jesus Christ That in ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ For by Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of our selves it is the Gift of God The method of this our Assurance is 1. Hearing the Son 2. Believing in him and the Father that sent him 3. Justification 1. From Damnation and Death to Salvation and Life 2. From Sin to Grace 3. From Death in Sin to Life in Righteousness 4. From Death for Sin to Life for Grace 5. From Darkness to Light 6. From Bondage to Liberty SECT III. Matter of Witness 3. The third Ground for all the Assurance that is possible and convenient to be had in this Life concerning our Salvation is in matter of Witness or Earnest thereof which is the Spirit of God When Christ departed from his Disciples by leaving the World he bid them not be troubled at his corporal absence for he would send his Holy Spirit the Comforter to abide with them and so would be spiritually present with them all all that should succeed them in the Faith unto the end of the World Therefore accordingly when they were troubled exceedingly after his death and doubted that he was not the Messiah because he was dead and buried And after his Resurrection they were not fully satisfied but strange thoughts arose in their hearts He shew'd them his hands and his feet Luc. 24.38 c. that they might know that it was he himself and bid them handle him and feel him and look well upon him for a Spirit cannot be seen nor hath Flesh and Bones as he had And while they yet were not fully assured doubting for joy and wonder for their farther satisfaction he took meat and did eat before them And moreover for the greater Assurance he by his Spirit opened their Understandings that they might understand the Scriptures and gave them a Commission to preach the Gospel Joh. 20.22 And farther yet He breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost whosoevers sins ye remit they are remitted and whosoevers sins ye retain they are retained And last of all for the greatest assurance of all he said Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you Luc. 24.49 c. Vid. Act. 1.4 c. But tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem untill ye be endued with power from on High And he lift up his hands and blessed them and in their sight and of above five hundred Brethren together he was carried up to Heaven And then they were satisfied and worshipped and returned to Jerusalem as Christ had commanded them with great joy and waited there for the performance of the Promise Act. 2.1 c. Act. 1. which was performed upon the day of Pentecost by the Mission of the Holy Ghost upon them so as never was before When therefore all the Assurances and Confirmations that could be given to Christ's Disciples were given for their
his friends a Rod of Iron for his enemies Christ's most glorious rule is in Heaven therefore after his Resurrection his first work was to send his Ambassadours to preach his Kingdom to every Creature As my Father hath sent me so send I you Whos 's sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained Whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And after his Ascension he sent down the Holy Ghost with great power to work wisdom and Miracles When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men In Christs life time upon Earth the Holy Ghost was not given and the reason was because Christ was not yet glorified This Mission of the Spirit being the most glorious administration of his Kingdom when the great Wisdoms and Powers of the World were not able to resist the wisdom and power of his Spirit by which his Disciples spake When the foolishness of God was wiser than the wisdom of men and the weakness of God was stronger than the power of men SECT II. Corol. Thus Christ considered as a Mediator is the Conditional Heir of all things under God And so Christians as Christians are the Conditional Heirs of all things under Christ Thus God Covenanted with Christ to give him a Kingdom but he must get it by Conquest according to the nature of a Feudal kingdom So God Covenants with Christians to give them a kingdom with Christ and under Christ but they must get it by Conquest The kingdom of Heaven must be pressed into and the violent take it by force and no otherwise The good fight of Faith must be fought out before we can lay hold upon the Crown of Righteousness So the Children of Israel had the kingdom of Canaan given them but they must fight for it before they could be put in possession And this is the true nature of getting and of keeping a Feudal Kingdom SECT III. Christs New way of conquest Thus a New way had Christ of conquering by Obedience and Sufferings So do Christians conquer by Self denial Love of enemies Patient suffering for Righteousness sake outward force against force and learning against learning and policy against policy may clash together like rocks of equal force and come off from each other safe and as strong as ever but when Weakness is advanced against Power in the Name of God and Simplicity and Innocence against Learning and deep Policy then is the mighty Power of God discovered Who sees not as man sees nor judges according to outward appearance Whose wayes are not like mans waies but of another fashion Christ is the Heir of all things therefore God covenanted with Christ as the Testator covenants with his Heir to enjoy his Inheritance upon such terms as to convey part of his Estate to such or such Legates or Co-heirs So the Promise was made to Christ that it might be sure to all the Seed for in Christ the Promises of God are Yea and Amen And therefore if God covenanted with Christ he hath also covenanted with his Seed Behold I and the Children which God hath given me Of those whom thou hast given me have I lost none for they are mine and I am thine SECT IV. And this is all that can be made of the Covenant of Grace Covenant of Grace and this is conditional which some make absolute contrary to the nature of a Covenant If a Covenant therefore be conditional with Christ how can it be absolute with Christians Thus they confound and perplex all things A Donative may be absolute a Testament may be absolute a Law or Constitution may be absolute a Promise may be absolute but a Pact or Covenant is upon some condition and the non-performance of the Condition dissolves the Pact and brings in a penalty of forfeiture And such a Condition there is in Gods Testament namely Faith and Repentance which some make the Effect or Means or they know not what If so then the main point of the Scriptures must be quite laid aside or quite expunged Because the whole Tenour of the Scriptures runs along clear contrary If thou believest thou shalt be saved Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand c. This is to have and to hold of God in Fide So God gives his Estate first to Christ to have and to hold of him in Fee Secondly to Christians to have and to hold of Christ in Fee This is free Grace and the more free because of meer grace and upon such noble terms as 1. To have all good of God 2. To hold all good of God 3. To do all good of God and for God As for conceits of Merit in this case they are vain and idle speculations producing aery notions and words without knowledge which darken the counsel of the wisdom of God SECT V. Thus Christ shares all things with Christians Christ shares with Christians 1. Christ shares his Holiness with them For therefore he hath anointed himself that we might be anointed with him and by him of whose fullness we all receive and grace for grace 2. Christ shares his Sufferings with Christians We fill up that which is behind of the Sufferings of Christ for his Body's sake which is the Church Saul Saul why persecutest thou me He that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye In as much as ye did it unto them ye have done it unto me And Christ is crucified in his members 3. Christ shares his Victory with Christians In him and through him we are more than Conquerors I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. We shall bruise Satan under every one of our feet This is our victory whereby we overcome the World even our Faith Thus Christ could not have the benefit of Gods Promise on Gods part till he had performed the condition on his part And how then can Christians expect the benefit of the Promise on Gods part except they perform the condition on their part 1. Christs Condition was Obedience and Sufferings 2. Gods Reward was Resurrection Kingdom and Glory 3. Christians Condition is Faith Repentance and Sufferings 4. Gods Reward is Resurrection and Eternal life By Christs death though faith is our Justification 1. From sin to righteousness 2. From bondage to adoption By Christs Resurrection through faith is our Justification 1. From death to life 2. From Jus ad Rem to Jus in Re. 4. Christ shares his kingdom and Priesthood with Christians Christ the principal Heir Christ the chief Priest And Christians are all Kings and Priests with him by him and under him In my Fathers house are many Mansions I go before to prepare a place for you that where I am there ye might also be If I be lifted
and Piety and ought to be tolerated till they may be amended 5. Who separate for corruptions not directly impious contrary to the express word of God but only by way of consequence which consequence the party defendant doth not acknowledg but if they could perceive it would be ready to forsake them 6. Who separate for matters in themselves indifferent and no waies determined by any word or Law of God either for the affirmative or negative but either are orders instituted by the Church or Customs insinuated by tacit consent 7. Who in a Synod super-determine Doctrines of Faith by a major part and expel the minor for dissenting for though matters of Manners Order and Policy may and ought to be determined by a major part yet matters of Doctrine seem to require an universal concurrence and joint-consent of the whole Synod or else with more safety are left undetermined Now if they seem hereticks or Sectaries who desert or expect those whose opinions and manners are but somewhat corrupt much more they are so who desert or expel those who in their Tenets and manners are the sounder party for these of all sorts of Hereticks are the most carnal and sinful It may appear therefore from what been said upon Heresy and the Name and Thing That no error in fundamentals is or can be meant thereby but only a separation for some Grand corruptions real or pretended in Doctrine or Manners The Name of Heretick is now become odious and a Nick-name to all that differ in opinions styl'd fundamentals which whether they be so or no is yet undetermined and God knows but that they shall ever so remain And those that hold these contrary opinions each party being alike confident of the Truth on their side do persecute one another not only to Excommunication but to confiscation imprisonment banishment and death But what course ought to be taken indeed with such Men SECT IV. Concerning those turbulent Persons that were amongst the Galatians How Hereticks are to be dealt with Gal. 5.12 who would subvert their state of Christian Liberty The wish of St. Paul was that they might be cut off i. e. not castrated for that is barbarous nor excommunicated for then he might have commanded it but destroy'd by the immediate hand of God Yet in this wish of the Apostle this must necessarily be supposed that he wished not positively the execution of it unless those persons continued incorrigible For who can possibly doubt but that S. Paul's velle went with a malle to have them rather reform'd than destroy'd And again if they would not be reform'd who sees not but that St. Paul might lawfully wish that some few turbulent deceivers should rather be cut off by the hand of God than that by them the whole Church of the Galatians should be seduced and their state of Christian Liberty subverted This fact of St. Paul in wishing the death of these impostors must not by us be drawn into example as if to us it were therefore lawful to wish a curse upon those whom we account Hereticks and troublers of the Church For 1. Christ hath given us a precept to the contrary That we should bless and not curse yea bless them that curse us and pray for them that persecute us Matth. 5.44 And our Rule is to practise by precept and not by any example from Men or an Angel from heaven Unless the precept admit exceptions and the cases of those exceptions be as manifest to us as to those Divine Persons who made use of them against the generality of the Precept 2. Where among us shall we find the Man in whom there resides that measure of wisdom which was in Paul who by help of the Spirit wherewith he abounded was a true discerner of Spirits and could exactly know who was a spreader of Error who a troubler of the Church who was refractory herein and whose repentance was either to be expected or to be despair'd 3. Where among us is the Man whose Soul is qualified with the affection of Paul to be led to the like wish with the like mind For without all doubt all the motive Paul had was a sincere zeal to God's glory and a true love to Man's Salvation But we in the like case what ever words we may pretend can hardly say We have purged our Souls from the leven of malice and hatred 4. Paul as we have seen wished not their death simply and absolutely but with a potiority of their repentance that they might rather be reclaimed and therefore he referres the issue wholly to the pleasure of God leaving his wish to depend on God's will If it be therefore unlawful it be to wish the death of one whom we call Heretick in that meaning we put upon it much less is it lawful to put him to death Nay this latter is unlawful though the former were supposed lawful For he that wisheth another Man's death doth commit the act ot the will of God as it shall stand with the pleasure of God that he live or die but he that attempts another's death by Mans hand hath already determined what is to be done without any farther discuss of the matter And it is lawful to wish many a thing were done which notwithstanding to do we have no lawful Power Although then to Paul it were lawful to wish the death of Hereticks yet it follows not therefore that it is lawful for the Magistrate to put them to death For hath God granted to the Magistrate power over the conscience or given him the Sword with such a large commission that thereby he must needs be armed not only against offending Hereticks but also against all true and innocent Christians which equally lye open to the stroke of his sword seeing the less Christian any Man is the more prone he is to condemn another for an heretick and the more carnal he is the more violent he grows to maintain an humane tradition against a Divine Verity because this latter suiteth less with his carnal waies and many Men in Authority do not embrace the sincerity of Religion but use it rather as an instrument for their worldly policy Or hath God given to the Magistrate the Judgment of the conscience or the discerning of Spirits to determine truly between the true and the false Seeing Men of Rule and power whose entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven is a thing of great difficulty and who are commonly imploy'd in other affairs than the care of Religion are not alwaies competent Judges in these cases especially seeing many such Persons are not studied in the cases of Heresy neither are their cases laid out by any Law either of God or Man How then can the Magistrate judge of that wherein by his calling he hath no judgment And for him to commit a matter of that moment to the arbitrement of another is hard adventure seeing he can with no safety execute the sentence but alwaies with danger of
are so by generation to their Parents The one must be rightly chosen the other rightly begotten The one may be disfranchized and lose their right of Tenure the other may be disinherited and lose their right of succession By Marriage is not only the generation of the World in the kingdoms of Men but the Regeneration of the Church in the kingdom of God By carnal Marriage there is a just off-spring to be the Sons of Men. By Spiritual Marriage there is a just off-spring to be the Sons of God Devil an Enemy to Marriage For this cause the Devil being a King of the kingdom of Darkness is the greatest promoter of the works of Darkness of which Incestuous and Adulterous lusts are not the least The Devil therefore is and ever hath been and ever will be a very great enemy to Marriage because that tends to a lawful generation towards a holy Seed to increase the kingdom of God but the contrary tends to an unlawful brood towards a prophane Seed to increase the kingdom of the Devil The Devil is the Father of ill begotten Children of Lies God is the Father of right begotten Children of Truth Great Commands under the Law against Uncleanness and promiscuous Conjunctions of the Body much more purity is required under the Gospel both of Soul and Body SECT II. Excellent Civil Laws for Marriage In Civil kingdoms great care hath been taken for the honour and preservation of Marriages and that for many rare ends and mighty reasons of State but more especially amongst the Romans who gave great encouragements thereunto and priviledges to fruitful procreations denying many honours and benefits to haters of or abstainers from lawful marriage To this end they made most excellent Laws in veneration of this honourable state and in detestation of all Incestuous and Spurious broods whereby they counted their noble Roman blood to be defiled and their old Heroick spirits debased That Sacred bond they generally kept inviolable and those that dared to break it by Divorce preventing death were counted infamous in the highest degree as Tully that great man who is upbraided and that deservedly for putting away the Companion of his youth his Wife with whom he had grown old and superinducing another into her place Such an Example of him and one or two more had not been seen in the Commonwealth of Rome for many Ages before or after To the great shame of such as make it a common practice and farther to vilifie the Sacred ordinance and Institution of God himself In order to just Marriage and as a Solemn preparation thereunto Espousals fair Espousals ought to precede which are no more than the mention and serious resolution of future Marriage 1. The original of Marriage in respect of the Institution thereof Originals of Marriage Gen. 2.22 c. Math. 19.5 is Jure divino 2. The original of Marriage in respect of the Instinct of Corporal conjunction is Jure Naturali L. 1. Sect. 3. ff de Inst Jure 3. The original of Marriage in respect of the Consent of Wills is as other Contracts are Ex Jure Civili L. 5. ff eod 4. The original of Marriage in respect of the Solemnities thereof and Prohibitions of degrees are Ex Jure Civili Inst de Nuptiis SECT III. Marriage as the Emperour Justinian defines it Definitions of Marriage Is the conjunction of a Man and a Woman containing an inseparable acquaintance and familiarity of the whole life of them both Sect. 1. Inst 12. Marriage as the Lawyer modestly defines it L. 1. ff de Eitu Nupt. Is the Conjunction of a Male and a Female The Company of the whole life the Communication of Divine and Human Rights In which are many things remarkable As 1. First Marriage is a Conjunction but for the honour of it of minds and affections rather than of Bodies Siquidem Nuptias non concubitus facit sed Consensus For says the Law modestly It is Consent not Copulation that makes Marriages 2. Secondly Marriage is of Male and Female because between more than two at one and the same time it cannot be Gen. 3. Math. 22. 3. Thirdly Marriage is a Consent because the Wife is the Companion of life and for life and Matrimony is the foundation of all Society and by the Civil Law admits no Separation of the Bed undefiled stante Matrimonio while the Marriage is in hope 4. Fourthly Marriage is the Communication of divine and humane Right because God is the Author of Marriage and both the married Couple ought to be of the same religion and devotion to the same God and partakers of the benefits of the same Laws Quia Mariti uxor fortunam Domicilium forum sequitur ejus hominibus decoratur ejus genere nobilitatur privilegiis personalibus gaudet nisi post mariti mortem viro inferioris conditionis nubat Because the Wife follows the fortune family and jurisdiction of her husband is adorned by his Honours ennobled by his Stock rejoyceth in his personal priviledges except after the death of her husband she marries with a husband of inferior quality Effects of Marriage So from just marriages proceed a just Father and Mother to distinguish from a natural Father and Mother So from just marriages proceed just Children to distinguish them from natural Children uncertain and vulgarly derived from the people they know not from whom So Inheritances of honours and estates descend lineally to a direct Issue of true Parents lawfully begotten and to their heirs for ever SECT IV. Who may lawfully marry 1. They that married by the Roman Law must be Citizens and Quirites of Rome not Slaves nor Latins nor Deportati nor Strangers as Cleopatra was to Mark Antony and Titus to Berenice both Egyptians matches very ill resented by the State Nor might the Nobles intermix with the Plebeians by the Law of the twelve Tables 2. They must be ripe of age and fit for Generation 3. They must be free to consent and in their right minds not fools nor mad men and a Matrimony caused by just fear or force was none at all 4. They must not marry without the consent of their Parents first had and obtained as long as they are under their power 5. Amongst Christians they must be promulgated and blessed by the Church 6. Lastly they must be confined within the limits of lawful Degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity to prevent incestuous and nefarious mixtures For this purpose the Jews and Romans and other civiliz'd Nations had respect to Tables of Consanguinity and Affinity for the regulation of wandring and the prohibition of too near approaching lusts Members of Christs Church Just generations of men All the Members of Christ's Church and Kingdom are sprung from Adam and Eve that were married by God The Generations of Men have broken and intangled their lives by excursions from lawful beds stopping the never to be interrupted courses of Blood and letting
dispensation of the Gospel God hath now in a great measure left frighting of men to heaven by visible terrors The Law of the Messias was delivered upon the Mount in the small and still voice and is set home upon the hearts of men by the terrour only of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 23.14 a more heavy vengeance in another world than what overtook the despisers of Moses Law God expects now that we should be judiciously religious and acted to his service by a spirit of love and of a sound mind to fear his threatning more than the burnings of Sinai to look upon a bad man since the appearance of Christ to take away sin as the greatest prodigy and to expect the signs of an approaching Judgment non in Erratis naturae sed Saeculi Id. ib. p. 18. Fanaticks Now we shall ever find that all Persons which take up Opinions from their own poetical genius and busie fancy are impregnable to all the assaults of reason The Rosicrucians acted so hugely by imagination in Philosophy Some kind of Chymists in Medicks The Cabalists in Scripture Expositions Enthusiasts in Religion Figure-casters in Astrology are so invincibly resolved upon their Hypotheses that like him in the story when their hands those little reasonings wherewith they hold them are cut off they will mordicùs defendere hold them with their teeth biting and reviling language thrown upon their opposers and neglecters They are entertained with pleasant and easie dreams and therefore angry with those that attempt to awaken them and discompose them Ib. p. 19. As the assistance of God the Spirit with our holy endeavours doth not take away the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weaknesses attendant on Christian practises because he acts us ad modum nostrum so neither doth the Co-assistance of God the Father with all natural Agents quite remove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Errours of Nature Ib. p. 23. Terrible Representations of God The opinion of Prodigies represents God before the Soul with a rod of Vengeance perpetually in his hand A Belief of a God is that Fort which the Devil could never storm force by any direct temptation and therefore he designs by such terrible and servile conceits wrought in the hearts of men to undermine it For perpetual jealousies and slavish fears of God like over-heated waters boyl over at last and extinguish that fire that faith and sense of God which first produc't them When the Notion of a Deity stands alway before the mind like a Gorgons head pregnant with nothing but horrours and dismaies it quickly works and turns it to a stony stupid neglect of him so to get rid of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that mighty Fear which was its continual Executioner Moreover the Devil no doubt loves to bring men off from a noble and generous temper And as it is the design of Religion to cast out fear and to introduce a spirit of true freedom and confidence toward God so it is the work of the Devil to call on a spirit of Bondage and Fear that so he see may in men the more lively and express images and pourtraictures of himself who believes and trembles He would have his Rites of Worship of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frightful and amazing mysteries the Idols wherein he was worshipped bear in their very Names and Titles a remembrance of that Baseness and Servility of spirit which attended his Votaries in the service of so absolute a Tyrant being styled sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 horrours Is 40 5. Jer. 50.38 Ps 106.36 as 't is rendred in the Margin 2 Chron. 15.16 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying trouble and terrour and the Devils are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming from a word which signifies horrour because usually tendring themselves to view in the most frightful forms Now this Superstitious perswasion of Prodigies doth hugely minister to bondage of Spirit and tends to seal men with the mark of Cain according to the Jews a perpetual Trembling and Astonishment P. 24. That which possibly assisted this Tradition was the succeeding of Rome Christian as into the place so into very many of the Rites and usages of Rome Pagan as might be easily made appear at large were that our business and into as large a power over the Faiths and Consciences of men as Rome Pagan had over their Bodies and so was enabled to mold them into what Opinions or Practises they might best serve themselves upon Ib. p. 29. As in Heresie Populus sequitur Doctiores ☜ Popular Errors the People follow the Learned as being in a matter more abstract and subtil more apt to believe than to judge so in Superstition Doctiores sequuntur Populum the Learned are not seldom observed to follow the People because early surprized into an opinion that can enter so valuable a plea for its self as common Consent This Notion of presages by Prodigies being so popular and Catholick Wise men in their first and unwary years when they are Discipuli Plebis may entertain conceits thereof which shall plead prescription against the strongest reasons to dispossess them As Iron in a greater and more massie body sequitur Naturam communem follows the Law of common Nature in all heavy bodies and moves to the earth but in smaller pieces sequitur Naturam privatam it follows its own private Nature and directs it self to the Load-stone Thus Learned men where they are prest by the force and weight of Education and a Common prejudice generally follow common Nature in men which inclines to embrace Society and therefore more in Judgment Secundum viam Terrae but in matters out of vulgar ken and where they cannot be tempted by a common Agreement they move Secundum viam Consilii and pursue the dictates of their private light and understanding Even wise men in many instances held Aras Focos their Faith and their Estates by the same Tenure Tradition from Ancestours and therefore we may receive their Judgments tanquam ex Cathedrâ as engagements to consider not alwaies tanquam ex Tripode as obligations to believe Ib. p. 39. They look upon their Gods as a kind of Fairies which would throw Firebrands and Furies about the house for the omission of some petty Criticisms in their Rites and that therefore they gave forth frequent intimations of those impotencies and distastes They thought they were lost with a Trifle and won again to a good opinion of them by paying them the homage of a little crouching and circumstantial Devotion ☞ Fathers not all pure To the Testimony of Fathers I answer in general That 't were no wonder to find them living so near the times of Gentilism speaking in favour sometimes for some of the Doctrines thereof The main trunk and body of the Gentile Superstition was indeed hewen down in their minds but still there were some small roots and fibres remaining which are observed to spring up ever
5. Some mens Religion is nothing but a Faculty of Rhetoricating in Preaching and Praying by Inspiration as they call it of the Spirit whereas in truth it is a mere Natural Faculty often helped by Art and Learning in persons grosly hypocritical and debauched There is a mere Natural Enthusiasm of Poetry and Oratory Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus ipso Sedibus Aetheriis Spiritus ille venit And when such Eloquent and fiery men are imployed in Religious Exercises they are fluent to admiration and become extremely popular to lead Multitudes like Pitchers by the Ears into Fanatick Distempers against Church and State in Peace or Warr especially if they be bred in the Schools of Learning or set in Publick Imployments It is farr from my meaning to undervalue or declare against the sincere and ardent affections of Devout Souls naturally and freely breathing out their earnest Ejaculations to God in private But to caution the Simple well-meaning People from mistaking the Natural and Enthusiastick fervour of mens Spirits and the ebulliency of their Fancies and Expressions for a supernatural Inspiration especially if they meddle with Religion or Polity for which they have no warrant from God or Man Let the World know what wise men judge That the Evidence and Demonstration of God's Spirit consisteth not in words and talk as if God were to be heard for their much speaking or glorified by their loud noises and long harangues For that is chiefly to be discerned in Life and Action though the words be few And therefore when some Corinthians were puffed up by reason of a rich Fancy they had expressed by the sweetness of Attick Eloquence in which they were bred so that the Unlearned had their Persons in great Veneration above St. Paul who had not that strain nor could use the entising words of man's wisdom in the business of the Gospel he tells these deceived Souls having the Word of God in respect of persons and their boasting Teachers the Gnosticks That he would come amongst them for he had the Spirit of Discerning and know not the speech of them that were puffed up but the power For the Kingdom of God saith he consisteth not in Word but in Power and Life Wherefore laying aside all these deceitful Fancies let us really set our selves to mortifie all our Lusts and Affections That being Born Crucified Dead Buried and Risen with Christ here we may live Eternally with him in Glory hereafter Amen SECTION I. From all these Premises we derive these Corollaries or Conclusions Of the Consequences of Christ's Death and Resurrection Material Cross 1. There is a Material Cross of Wood. There are Whips Nails a Crown of Thorns Agony and Death at Jerusalem outward visible matter of Fact a History 2. There is a Spirttual Cross The spirit virtue of Death Spiritual Cross Fellowship of Sufferings Death of Sin in the Heart inward invisible matter of Right a Mystery 3. Material Resurrection There is a Material Resurrection from Death and Grave at Jerusalem outward matter of Fact History 4. There is a Spiritual Resurrection virtue Spiritual Resurrection power of Resurrection from Death in Sin to the Life of Righteousness in the heart inward matter of Right Mystery The Historical Faith is only of matter of Fact for Knowledge only as the Devils and Turks c. believe The Justifying Faith is for matter of Right for Merit Virtue Power Comfort of Christ's Death and Resurrection by the Spirit of Christ So are all the Promises of God accepted by us and sealed confirmed to us So we promise and covenant to and with God So we partake of all the Benefits of his Death and Resurrection 5. Material Ascension There is a Material Ascension of Christ into the holy place of Heaven offering up his Blood to consecrate that place for us sitting at the Right Hand of God and making intercession There he rules over all things from thence he sends down his holy Spirit Matter of Fact History 6. There is a Spiritual Ascension Entring into the Hearts Spiritual Ascension Ruling in our Souls by his Spirit Crying Abba Father Matter of Right Mystery So in Christ's Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension there is a History and a Mystery a Letter and a Spirit 1. Christ is born in our Flesh Christ is born in our Spirit We are born in the Flesh we are born again in the Spirit Christ is formed in the Womb of his Mother We are formed in the Womb of Christ We are born in Christ and with Christ and Christ is born in us and with us 2. Christ died in the Flesh we are dead in the Flesh we are dead to the Flesh We are dead in the World we are dead to the World We are dead with Christ and buried with Christ 3. Christ rose in the Flesh Christ riseth in the Spirit We shall rise in the Flesh we shall rise in the Spirit Thus there is a Birth in Sin there is a Birth to and from Sin and there is a Birth for Sin Thus there is a Birth in Sin there is a Birth from Sin and there is a Birth to Sin Thus there is a Life in Sin there is a Life from Sin and there is a Life for Sin So Christ's Death conquers our Sins for us And Christ's Spirit conquers our Sins in us So Christ's Resurrection raiseth us from Sin unto Righteousness Christ's Resurrection justifies his Death to be true and Christ's Resurrection justifies the pardon of our Sins and his Spirit doth actually assure the pardon to our Souls So Christ is in us and with us and we are in Christ and with Christ So Christ lives in us and with us and we live in Christ and with Christ So Christ is crucified in us and with us so we are crucified in Christ and with Christ So Christ dies in us and with us and we die in Christ and with Christ So Christ rises in us and with us so we rise in Christ and with Christ So Christ is glorified in us and with us and we are glorified in Christ and with Christ This is to eat Christ's Flesh and drink his Blood spiritually This is to put off the Old Man and to put on the New Man This is our Regeneration and a New Creature This is our Communion with Christ and Christ's Communion with us This is to dwell in Christ and Christ in us This is to be one with Christ and Christ with us I am my Well-beloved's and my Well-beloved is mine This is to believe all and do all in the Spirit in the Lord and for the Lord. All is our Faith all is his Spirit The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and Life If ye fast or weep for Christ's Death if ye feast or rejoyce for Christ's Resurrection do all in the Spirit Pray Praise Hear Read Sing Meditate Communicate Live in the Spirit Obj. The Language is hard and high Sol. It is
them with safety to God's Honour and his own Reason God must needs mock us and be the Author of Sin and Misery to his poor Creatures which is the highest blasphemy 6. If God decreed Justification and Salvation from all eternity then what needs the dear purchase of Christ his precious Bloud Is not this Socinianism to take away the Satisfaction of Christ judg all Men 7. If the Covenant of Grace be not made with all Men then all Men are not bound to the Condition but all Men are bound to the Condition therefore the Covenant of Grace is made with all Men. If there be no ground to believe for some because they have no hope of help being shut out by inevitable Fate and none can tell who these be why should all Men be bound to believe when all Men cannot be assured because Christ died not for all Men. And though the Gospel be preached to all Men yet the Promises thereof belong to very few and God only knows who they be and woe be to the rest of the World whether they believe or no if it were possible for them to believe SECT XII Object Christ died sufficiently but not efficiently for all Men. Answ Then Christ's Bloud must be spilt in vain for the greatest part of it and so the Bloud of Christ might have been spared Object Not spilt in vain but for the farther condemnation of the Reprobates Answ Worse and worse What shifts are these As if God made the Sun for darkness or sent Christ for damnation Whither will they go that are lost what will they not say that will not yield after once they have undertook a bad cause But let the Scriptures speak Joh. 3.17 Joh. 12.47 Joh. 1.29 God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved I came not to judg the World but to save the World Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World Christ died sufficiently but not intentionally for all Men. Object Then God hath two Wills a Revealed and a Secret Answ the last contrary to the first Then God means one thing and speaks another Sancta quaedam simulatio then God mocks us Then there is no God no Religion then we are found lyars then Atheists have got the day Nabal was rich enough to relieve David and all his Men if he had intended it but understanding him to be such a miser such a churle such a Son of Belial as he was they had no sufficient grounds to believe it and though he had told them he would yet he never intended to do it they might have starv'd for all their hopes in him if they had any Do Men seek water from a flint is any bound to look for Grapes from thorns or Figgs from thistles Hope is for that which is to be had and may be had If God hath Salvation and never intendeth it for the most who can have any grounds of hope or comfort 8. Because denyal of Grace raises jealousies and fears and hatred too from the Creature to the Creator which cannot be avoided 9. Because it is greater Grace to provide for many than for few 10. Because it is a Rule to interpret all Favours most largely and to offer them with a courteous hand But to restrain odiums into as narrow compass as may be And this is when all is done the safest way How Noble a thing is it to plead for God yet he needs it not but it becomes us to think and speak reverently and magnificently of his Grace and Mercy How Noble a thing is it to accept of his Free Grace freely and upon such honourable terms It is the wisedom of God to make us labour for our Reward Is there or can there be any nobler way for God to give or for Man to receive than the way that God gave the Kingdom to Christ and he received it upon the condition of his obedience And if Christ could have it no other way how can we Should the Servants fare better than their Master Delicate membra non decent sub crucifixo capite Crucified members best become a crucified head It is an honour to be conformable to him in sufferings to fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ to bear his Cross and to wear his Crown SECT XIII COLLECTIONS It appears therefore by all circumstances and fair resemblances Collections That Christ's Kingdom is a Feudal Kingdom wherein both the King and Subjects are in perfect Covenant and Fee together And that this Kingdom is a Kingdom of the greatest Grace that can be imagined because it is constituted and maintained wholly by Grace and Love on both sides and therefore a Kingdom of the greatest unity and strength and safety for what is stronger than Love and Faith which overcome Death Many waters cannot quench Love neither can the Floods drown it SECT XIV 1. Christ hath and holds his Kingdom of his Father in Love 2. Christians have and hold their Kingdom of Christ in Love So God's covenant of Grace is with Christ and all his Seed his Subjects are all his children redeemed and saved by him so long as they be true to him and abide in his love The King loves all his Subjects The Subjects all love their King They all love one another They all communicate one with another They all obtain their Estate by Grace They all keep their Estate by Grace They all depend upon Grace They are all Fideles Homines Covenant-keepers a Traytor is cut off from amongst them Every Tenant is conditional a perfect covenant if no condition then no dependence Then all should be kings for Kings only are absolute and independent Such a kingdom is God's and those kingdoms are the best that are most like unto God's In all Feudal Kingdoms the Kings convey the exercise of their power in Fee to their chiefest Captains and Leaders under them So in Christ's Kingdom the exercise of his power is committed in Fee to Kings and Priests under him SECT XV. Power Sacred All power is a Sacred thing and very tenderly to be handled because it is God's I dare not think nor speak of it without great reverence It is a Godlike work to use power well To give all their due exactly to protect distressed and forlorn wretches cast out by the World to instruct the ignorant to confirm the weak hands and to strengthen the feeble knees to raise up them that are fallen to wait on the Altars of Religion and Justice and Mercy and to officiate as from God to Man and from Man to God in things pertaining unto God or Man Who is sufficient for these things These are gods under God and have a Godlike Spirit given them Cavete Principes cavete Sacerdotes The power of the Sword the power of the Keyes What are they how to be used This is Jus publicum the Art of Arts the Law
unwritten unrevealed to private Souls The hearts of such great ones are in the hands of God and he teaches them Worldly Policy Self-pleasing Self-interest Pride Revenge c. must have no place here O that they that wear Crowns and Miters were wise that they would consider their vast Charge and remember their later end that they might not do amiss SECT XVI And what shall we poor Subjects do but stand aloof off and admire and obey Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm Violate not the Persons nor the Rights nor the Estates of Princes or Priests God is in them he feels the hurts and revenges them The Powers that be are ordained of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Procul ô procul ite prophani Swell not O Rulers for God in Sacred or Civil matters Illustrious is your calling Mutuato splendetis lumine but your Glory borrow'd Ye are gods but ye must die like Men. Use both Swords as equally as gently as 't is possible O! how blessed shall ye be of God and Men for Justice Equity Mercy Piety to the Souls Bodies and Estates of the Dear Saints and Subjects of the King of Heaven and Earth And as on Earth so in Heaven your glory shall outshine all others SECT XVII 1. Thus Christ only as Mediator King Priest and Prophet Corollaries hath and holds his Office and Power of God immediately 2. The Church is a Corporation and Kingdom that hath and holds only of Christ their only Head and King and Prophet and High-Priest in Fee 3. The Keyes and Supreme Powers of the World have and hold immediately under Christ in Fee 4. The Priests and Ministers of Christ have and hold immediately from Christ in Fee 5. The Clergy and Laity owe subjection immediately to Kings and Supreme Powers under Christ 5. Ergo Kings only are Christ's Vicegerents and Vicars upon Earth to whom all Clergy and Laity are bound to be subject for Christ's sake and for Conscience sake and for the peace and welfare both of Church and State That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty My Kingdom saith Christ is not of this World And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the greatest Luc. 22.25 c. and he said unto them The Kings of the Gentiles Exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so but he that is the greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is Chief as he that doth serve Jesus called them unto him and said Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them But it shall not be so among you Matth. 20.25 c. but whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister And whosoever will be the chief among you let him be your servant Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his Life a Ransom for many Ergo The true right justifying to the Estate of Blessedness of God in Christ is Faith and the true Tenure to hold this Blessed Estate of God in Christ is Holiness Feudum is Grace Ergo Allodium is Glory Quod erat demonstrandum The CONTENTS Transition Catholick Church Scriptures Collections TITLE III. Of the Laws of Christ's Kingdom Transition CHRIST hath the sole power of Legislation and Jurisdiction in his Church and Kingdom the Ministers of Christ are Ambassadors under him to declare his will and pleasure not to exercise Lordship over God's Inheritance Est in universis servientibus non dominium sed ministerium He that is greatest amongst you sayes Christ let him be the least and servant unto all A Judicatory power is granted unto Regal Vassals as Lords in fee over their inferior Vassals to exercise not for themselves but for their Supreme Lords in peace or war For otherwise they are all Vassals and par in parem non habet imperium Still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Legislative power is reserved to Kings They may have a kind of delegated power to make By-Laws consonant to the High Law of Christ and some laudable Customs in the Church are Quasi-Laws or By-Laws as in other Societies but they must be significant charitable easie and few SECT I. Catholick Church The Catholick Church is a faithful witness of the Truth committed to her charge and a record of all those necessary Truths but properly makes no Laws that is a prerogative reserved to the King Besides the Spiritual Laws of Christ I know not what Laws of Faith can be added And besides the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper I know not what Rites can be added for Worship only for decency and order and those few ambulatory pro re nata tempore loco populo according to the occasion time place and People with great Wisedom Charity Moderation and Christian Liberty They talk highly of the Laws of the Church the Laws of Christ given to his Church I know other Laws I do not know properly so called Let me know what Church must be the Catholick and how can the Catholick Church meet and if they could what power to make Laws Hath not Christ made sufficient Laws already In a Feudal Kingdom there are Principum placita the Rescripts of Princes but not Senatusconsulta nor Plebiscita nor Responsa Prudentum All are Pragmatical Sanctions The Prince rules all neither hath Christ any Deputy or Vice-gerent Man or Men upon Earth to rule with him or for him in his Church whereof he is the only Head But Princes under him are bound to be nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his Church to defend the Faith they are to be wise and learn this knowledg to kiss the Son lest he be angry and so they perish if his wrath be kindled yea but a little And he hath sent his Ambassadors and Ministers under him to serve in his Gospel by the power of his own Spirit to be subject to Princes SECT II. The Scriptures only are God's Will and his Laws Scriptures in them are his Precepts and Promises and the rule of his Worship which are the true intrinsecal and acceptable Service of God If any thing else be commanded it is extrinsecal and only for decent order and so to be esteem'd and used cum favore The Laws of a Spiritual and Military Kingdom as Christs is are Spiritual The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but Spiritual and mighty for the casting down of the Spiritual and strong holds of Principalities and Powers and Spiritual wickedness in high places And all Christians or Souldiers take the Sacrament or Military Oath in Baptism to be true to their General to fight under the Banner of Christ against the World the Flesh and the Devil to their lives end This is the good