minded you of the state both as men and as Saints in the head and in your selves consider yet a little further with me that as in your selves you are yet imperfect and subject to weakness so it would be minded that in respect of some others you are in a state of enmity hatred too though beloved of God Christ yet hated and rejected of men and Angels that love not God and Christ and so you are in a state of warfare here you have enemies to incounter with and that will be sure to incounter with you within and without and they will set upon you because ye are Saints though ye be called to glory and vertue ye must not think to have that glory or walk out in that vertue but with some sufferings you must fight for what is given you or else you cannot enjoy it you shall meete with Canaanites that will incounter you before you can sit down in rest in the good land promised you and if you yeeld to them or be overcome of them as indeed you shall not be overcome but by yeelding they will dispossess you here is the faith and patience of the Saints and of them that keep the commandments of Jesus Revel 14.12 Here you are as a Lily among Thorns as a ship in the midst of the swelling waves as a partridge hunted by the ravenous birds hence the difficulty of obtaining what is given you the straitness of the gate and narrowness of the way to life herein consisteth ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake saith the Lord your head Mat. 10.22 other men may hate one another but all will hate you Manasseh against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh but both against Judah Isa 9.21 one sect against another prophane against zealous and zealous against prophane Edomites against the Ishmaelites and Ishmaelites against the Edomites but both against Israel all against you that are Saints indeed and that not for injury done by you but because of his name that is in and upon you because of the holy unction and because of the sincerity of your profession some because ye will not do as they in all excesse of riot some because ye condemn their works of Religion and evidences for heaven and tell them they must not inherit upon those terms with you 1 Pet. 4.4 Gal. 4.2 some because their works are evil and yours good and you reprove their evil by your good 1 John 3.12 John 7.7 All that will live godly in Christ must suffer persecution 2. Tim. 3.12 yea the wise and zealous potent and chief Commanders will set against you yea under pretence of the law and Temple even out of misguided zeal for God they will brand you and speak all manner of evil against you for his names sake that is beleeved in and confessed by you for your good-will they will reward you evil and hatred for your love while you seek to save them they will seek to destroy you and roote you out of the land of the living the Herodians that seek to establish their greatness and usurpe the power of the Kingdom of Israel to themselves will seek to slay you the Scribes and Pharisees that arrogate to themselves the chaire of Moses and to be the only Rabbies in Religion and pillars of the Church will seek to crucifie you they that deny your Lord and master wil go about to undermine and pervert you many will fight against your Liberties and outward welfare because of your faith many against your faith it self seeking to poison you there by corrupting you from the simplicity of the truth beleeved by you So that you are in no small danger in your journey toward Sion to be beaten off before you there appear in its glory especially seeing also you have an enemy within you strong and subtle and that so much the more dangerous because so near you and as it were a part of you mortifie your Members that are on the earth Col. 3 5. They are as the very members of your body lust in your hearts the flesh with its wisdom will affections appeties these will be often solliciting you to close with present earthly objects and neglect the better things to which God hath called you many strong men have fallen by her and many though not quite deprived yet have been so maimed by her counsels that they have gone halting to their inheritance ever after this kept back many of the old Church in the wilderness from the earthly Canaan this keeps back many of the Church in the wilderness now from the everlasting Kingdom this is an enemy within ready to open the gates of the soul to any that shall conspire against it from without and it mindes nothing else but to betray the Saints to them its life is in the world and in self and it s as death to it that the soul be pulled from the world and from it self therefore it loves and prompts the soul to go back to the flesh-pots and provisions of the world or to confidence in its self If the world and its authority frown and threaten it bids yeeld and by no means hold up arms against so potent an adversary whispering in our bosoms master save thy self let not these sad things befall thee it suggests weakness in us power in it the harshness of persecution the inability of the flesh to indure under them not at all regarding God or savouring the things of him If the the world smile it counsels by all means to listen to it and embrace friendship with it and thi◠proves no small disadvantage to the Saints in their spiritual travel that they have such a clog to retard them such a spy to betray them such 〈◊〉 bosom-Traytor to conspire with the world against them O ye that love the Lord hate thi◠flesh Psal 97.10 shake it off and all its subtile inticements Abstain from fleshly lusts after profits honors pleasures promotions c. which war against the soul 1 Pet. 2.11 He that sows t◠the flesh shall of it reap corruption but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6.7,8 But yet neither is here all you have to war against there are other enemies still of another nature that in and with these improve all their subtilty and skill of which they have no want with all their force and power to supplant you For we fight not only with flesh and bloud but also with principalities and powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this world and against Spiritual wickednesses in heavenly things Eph 6.12 There are invisible essences which are more subtile and forcible then those that are visible such as are Angels and Spirits which by how much they are the purer in essence then any bodily being by so much the more forcible are they and able to penetrate having not that earthly grossness in them that dulls and abates the force of other creatures besides
or to be understood in a quite other sense then as if we should live by faith in any such person as the Scripture seems to speak of in such expressions and then for indeed if Satan get a man once to question the Word of God hath God in saying said thus he will soon bring him to believe contrary to what is said Ye shall not surely die then I say 4. They come to this that there is no such person glorified nor to be expected to come personally to judge the world as the Scripture literally speakes of and that its a poor low thing if not a piece of Idolatry too to worship God in a Mediator 5. Then they grow with that to deny the Resurrection of the body and tell us the Resurrection is already past all that 's to be met with 6. Then to this that there never was any such man or person as Jesus Christ but that all is an Allegory and it signifies nothing but light and love and such good frames born in men and there crucified by corruption and then again reviving and prevailing 7. Then they go a step higher some of them and know no difference between good and evil those actions that they did before and judged evil according to the Scripture are now no sin in them what ever they be and now they are as high they think as Adam in his first state if ever there was such a one they know neither good nor evil though they do much evil and no good and then they can ascend little higher but 8. To think God is all things and all things God and then they are high enough above all Religion and can step no higher or no lower rather then to Atheisme And thus by many steps they go or tumble rather down into the chambers of Death from whence there is no returning But this they see not at first nor do all that turn from the truth go down alike Some stay longer in one step and some in another some get to the lowest step more suddenly some more leasurely c. But all of them are in great danger to go down to ruine These and such like oh ye Saints are you dangers in this state of imperfection to be encountred and set upon with such deceits as unless your election be firm and the Word of God well rooted in you will vilely shake you and pâ—… you to some grief and trouble to crowd through them To say nothing of the hot persecution that these are likely to raise that the ancient prophecies may be fulfilled of slaying the witnesses even all that will faithfully bear witness to Christ Jesus making them as contemptible as dead carkases and rejoycing over them if God shall permit them power and authority especially if also they come to that as is foretold to work lying signs and wonders which will make such a shaking in the Churches of God as will indeed hasten Christ to his coming but pervert so many too and so dead the hearts of others that when he comes he shall scarce find faith in the earth as himself hath foretold us Sect. 9. Of other Temptations THere are also besides these forementioned many other temptations that ye have to encounter with which I shall not insist upon least I grow voluminous as Temptations to distrust and desperation To distrust and sadness because of outward trials wants and chastisements which out of a fatherly care God will exercise you with in this life some in one way some in another that ye might not settle upon the world and forget your resting place and that he might purifie and purge you from your corruptions that ye might be made partakers of his holiness concerning which the Holy Ghost instructs us in the Epistle to the Hebrews that God speaks to us as to children saying My son despise not the chastisement of the Lord neither faint thou when thou art corrected of him for whom he loves he corrects and chasteneth every son that he receives so that if any be without chastisement or nurture whereof all are partakers he is a bastard and not a son Heb. 12.6,7 c. Those corrections then are fatherly nurturements for our good and salvation and so to be accepted by us But whatever they be as from God yet Satan having a foolish sensuall heart or principles in the heart to work upon will be playing the part of an evil slave and suggest hard thoughts into our hearts as if they proceeded from Gods hatred of us And so from sense of corruption yet remaining in us he often assaulteth to cast away the confidence we have in Gods goodness and perswades us that He loves us not or is not faithfull c. Which thoughts listened to surely oppress some in their way and makes their Spirits utterly faint within them Yea to desperation he often hence endeavoureth to thrust some from the consideration of their sinfull failings and backslidings the hidings of Gods face want of visits from him want of fruitfulness in themselves c. And might he have his will He would here surely devour and undo many some he setteth on more violently this way and some in the other wayes but all in one way or other must expect temptation and therefore had need girt up their loines prepare themselves for the encounter and therein quit themselves like men that they may overcome and the crown of righteousness be given them And indeed the promises of enjoying the glory of that state to which they are called in the eternall Kingdom are pronounced by Christ upon such as shall endure temptation and overcome and not be overcome of them Now that Saints may as well stand fast in the day of their oppositions and wilderness walkings as be minded of their condition and dangers thereunto belonging I shall proceed in the next place to lay down the helps afforded of God for their overcoming and oh that God may so overcome all our hearts thorowly to close with them and faithfully to make use of them and walk in them that we may be able to withstand and put to flight the wicked one working out though not working for finishing though not by our own strength fetching in our own salvation CHAP. IIII. Shewing the Remedies against Temptations Sect. I. That God hath provided us Remedies THe consideration of your present weaknesses with the sharp warfare in which your state standeth here in the flesh if looked upon alone might breed discouragement in your hearts and make you say as sometime the unbelieving Israelites though the Land that 's given the state we are called to of grace be never so good in it self yet it s too difficult to be attained by us the Cities are walled up to Heaven the enemies Gyants in power number and subtilty too many for us Therefore my Brethren I must intreat you to come on a little further with me or rather to look back to what I minded you of in the
stories as that a cock scratching up a dunghill found a Jewel and finding it wisht rather that he had found a kernel of Barley in which he intended not to tell a real story of any Dunghill Cock but under that devised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fable to set forth the folly of vain men who if they light of some pretious Truth or meanes of understanding prize it not but prefer some small worldly commodities or pleasures before it as better suiting their principles and dispositions and so under a Tale of a Frog and a Mouse fighting till the Kite catch them both up and devoured them he sets forth the way and issue of civil dissentions in which while both parties fight against each other they both become a prey to some third common and more potent enemy And under the Tale of a Dog passing over the water with a piece of meat in his mouth catching at the shadow of it and loosing the substance he declares how foolish vain men having some substantial Truth and catching at some vain shadow of Truth as if it were another or a more substantial truth loose and fall from that substantial Truth that before they were possest of Such is the nature of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a devised Fable Now the Apostle Peter tells us that they did not so declare the coming of Christ as if what they declared of Christ as born of a Virgin the Word made flesh and as opposed by Herod and other enemies working Miracles dying rising and ascending was but a witty representation of something done within them as of Truth born in an honest and innocent heart and there opposed by Corruption and Lust yet after some strength attained teaching many good Lessons to the soul and doing great works in it curing its blindness healing its lameness inlivening it from its deadness sometimes again stifled as it were by corruption and darkness but yet after a while getting the upper hand again and obtaining a more glorious conquest ravishing the soul and carrying it up into heavenly joyes and consolations Verily if this had been the thing the Apostles meant in speaking of Christ his Incarnation Sufferings Teachings c. and all the History of Christ but deviled to set this forth they have declared as plain and manifest and yet as wisely a devised Fable as ever Aesop devised to represent his moral instructions But the Apostle tells us lest we should be beguiled and led into such a fancy that they did not follow any such thing when they preached Christ but told us a true History and that that was the true Grace into which they have instructed us 1 Pet. 5.12 .. It s a truth indeed and that plainly asserted too in the Scriptures that while w◠behold the glory of the Lord with open face as in a Glass we are transformed into the same image c. that there is a great resemblance between the word of essence or Word that is God made flesh in the person of Christ and the Word or revelation of the grace of God in Christ united to our hearts by faith this conforms us unto Christ in Death and Resurrection It is opposed by corruption and growing up getting roote or dwelling richly in us teaches and admonishes us and keeps us safe in the midst of corruption from being overcome of it yea inasmuch as the Spirit of Christ is in it it gives the soul understanding and fills it with life power and salvation or rather Christ doth all this by it through his Spirit 's working effectually in it possibly to corruption at some time may cloud and dead its operations in some hour of temptation and day of desertion and it may break forth again and shine more gloriously in the soul after such a condition by the power of the Spirit quickning it in us and it may then raise us up in our spirits more gloriously and lead us up to heavenly consolations and all these things may be found attested in the Scriptures but yet this is not that coming of Christ in the flesh the Death and Resurrection of him declared in the Gospel but in some things the fruit of our sinnings against God or of his hiding his face by way of trial of our faith and in other things the fruit and operation of the Spirit of God sent unto us in Christ Name who suffered and rose for us We are to distinguish between the sufferings of the Humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth with its Resurrection and Glory his being made Lord and Christ c. and the conformity of the Humanity to him in his members by the working of his divine Spirit in them through the faith of him and not make the things affirmed of the head meet devised things to set forth Truth in the members nay deny the head and make him but a fained type of the members as they that hold not the head Col. 2.19 or ascribe not to the Humanity that suffered rose and ascended or to Christ as in it the true nature of a head I am the larger in this because it having a shew of wisdom beguiles many from the head of all principality and power the Lord Jesus Col. 2.8.10 and as was foretold by the Apostle causes them to turn asideto Fables or rather to turn the Gospel into a Fable This turning all into an Allegory is as notable a baite as any Satan can fish with for if a man be once brought to that that he thinks the Scriptures hold not forth the mind of the Spirit in and according to its expressions but speak of other things then it will follow that the literal expressions will not be much heeded but some spiritual pretended mystery looked for to resemble the things spoken of and then Satan himself transforming himself into an Angel of light may pretend to declare or suggest that true spiritual meaning and the soul hath nothing in the Word left certain by taking heed to which it may dicover him the Scriptures being now made to it like to the Philosophers first matter Omnium formarum capax fit to be interpreted by any new devise or figment that hath a shew of wit and subtilty in it as the spiritual sense of it yea the devil will lead men inevitably by this to deny the plainest affirmations of God in the Scripture as he was bold to tell Eve that in dying she should not dye the dying spoke of was not what she thought of it should be but a dying to her present dark state of faith and she should be as God and live a more divine life of Knowledge and sense so will he nay he doth lead men upon this principle to deny Christ the Lord that bought them suggesting to them that though the Scripture speak of one Jesus born of a woman at Bethlehem and dying neer Jerusalem for our sins and that we ought to believe in him yet the truth is that is but a Fable a
us to have our senses more exercised that we may descry their deceits and discover their pervertings of the Scriptures of which thing also I desire you to be careful that they may not seem to beat you with your own weapons for even they that make no account of the Scriptures will catch at here and there a saying and wrest it against the truth delivered in Scripture so I have met with some to give thee some instances hereof and indeavour thy help herein who against that in 1 Tim. 2.6 that Christ gave himself a ransome for All have alledged that in Isai 51.10.11 That the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion with singing and thence argued that Christ gave not himself a ransome for All because all shall not do so insinuating a conclusion directly contradictory to the Apostles Doctrine now in such cases thou art to hold fast the Divine Testimony for truth and though thou art not able to detect the way of their sophistical arguing no more then the way of a Serpent upon a rock Prov. 30 19 yet thou art certainly to hold fast that its a fallacious way of reasoning that men use in such conclusions drawing as in which they set Scriptures together by the ears that are not cross to each other in their plain sayings as its evident there is no more opposition between those two Scriptures before mentioned then between these two God is the Saviour of all men 1 Tim. 4.10 and that The Nations of the saved shall walk in the light of the new Jerusalem Rev. 21.24 Or that Happy â—…t thou O Israel a people saved by the Lord or then is between these two All that are in their graves shall come forth some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of condemnation Joh. 5.29 and that Luke 20.35 They that are accounted worthy to obtain the Resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more but are equal to the Angels and are the children of God c. And such places are to be cleared to be both true by distinguishing betwixt the things spoken of in them for they speak not ad idem or to the same thing though they use the same kinde of word in either of them as for example That phrase The Redeemed of the Lord in Isai 51.11 is not so general as that in 1 Tim. 2 6. nor doth it reach to all that at any time or in any way are redeemed by him for he redeemed Israel out of Egypt and yet all thence redeemed or ransomed went not to Sion nor shall have everlasting joy and gladness for many of them were unbelievers The ransomed of the Lord in Isai 51. are the stock of Abraham and Sarah ver 2. that are gone into great bondage and shall be brought out again by the hand of the Lord awakned and putting forth its strength and power as in the dayes of old when he brought them out of Egypt it speaks of a redeeming by power and strong hand and a setting free from the yoke of oppression that lay upon them from men and it may be applied further to those that by the like putting forth of glorious power and spirit are brought out from under thraldom to corruption and Satan and from Antichristian slavery as in Rev. 14.1.4 That are redeemed from the earth freed by the efficacy of the Blood and Spirit of Christ in their consciences from earthly affections and from men that is from their tyrannizing over them or they being tied and bound up to men for something in them as men to admire serve and take up their faith and worship by the wills of them such shall go to Sion and sing the song of the Lamb too but that in 1 Tim. 2.6 where it s said Christ gave himself a ransom for all is spoken of as a thing done in Christ and not upon or in men a thing to be declared to men even to the Declaration of which to all Nations to the utmost of his power Paul was ordained that in hearing and believing the goodness of God in Christ so declared to them they might submit to God and Christ and receive that further opening of his Love and Truth to them in and by which he might set them free and in that fore mentioned way of power redeem them This speaks of a ransoming by price and bringing them into such a freedom from the sentence of condemnation fore-past upon all in Adam that Christ that notwithstanding may shew what favor he sees good to them afford his bounty patience and Gospel to them as he pleaseth to lead them to repentance and upon their turning further love them In like manner others deal with the precedent verse of 1 Tim. 2. viz. There is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus for endeavouring to disprove that we are to look to God by Christ as a Mediator or that the Man Christ is Mediator of God and men they produce and oppose to it that in Gal. 3.20 That a Mediator is not of one but God is one therefore say they Christ is not a Mediator of God as is affirmed 1 Tim. 2.5 and if not of God then not of God and man as is there affirmed also But in the same manner as before art thou to defend thy self against this arguing also viz. hold fast the Divine testimony though thou knowest not how to answer them and know that they deal fallaciously with thee though thou canst not perhaps so plainly tell wherein the fallacy lies with which he would ensnare thee that they oppose as contradictory those things that are not so but very consistent for whereas the Apostle in the Galathians saith That a Mediator is not of one but God is one that is of one mind in both administrations of Law and Gospel and needs none to reconcile himself to himself in his giving of them That of the same Apostle in Timothy rather confirms it then denies it for there is a mediation propounded not of one alone as is the force of the Word One in Gal. 3. but of two distinct parties not as yet fully and compleatly reconciled to each other God and man in which the Man Christ Jesus is affirmed to be imployed as Meditor of them so that these two are both true in their very express sayings and neither of them contradicent to other Again Others to prove that Christ was never otherwise born crucified dead or raised then he is now dayly in the hearts of men and as he was ever from the beginning as also that there shall be no other Resurrection or coming of Christ then is now in and to men in their spirits and always hath been they bring that of Solomon Eccles 1.9 That which hath been that also shall be and what hath been done that shall be done and there is not any new thing under the Sun And that in Chap. 3. What
that in 1 Cor. 15.50 That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven neither doth corruption inherit incorruption which they indeavour to wrest and abuse to the denial and overthrowing the whole business of his discourse in that Chapter professedly to prove the Resurrection of the body not considering that 1. The Apostle says not thus Neither flesh nor blood shall inherit the Kingdom of God but flesh and blood copulatively together now flesh and blood is used in Scripture to signifie a natural man in his corruptible unrenewed estate and sometimes a body subjected to weakness and infirmity Heb. 2.14 whose natural life is in the blood and so nourished by a constant supply of blood from food received from without and indeed men shall not be such in the Resurrection to have their life in their blood as now and so corruptible and weak But this we expresly finde that the Body of Christ after the Resurrection by his own affirmation was flesh bones though spiritualized Luke 24.39 his blood was before shed for remission of our sins as the blood of expiation and surely to a raised body and immortalized blood is no more essential then our hairs are of the essence of a body mortal I would say rather that as the corruptible body in this state of corruption may be and subsist without hair or the like excrements so is it very conceivable that a spiritualized body shall subsist without blood its life not being then therein nor to be maintained by a continual supply and course thereof but immediately by the divine Spirit and Power of God Therefore it s a very inconsequent Argument to say because flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God therefore the body of Christ had no flesh in it upon its Resurrection directly contrary to his own assertion Luke 24.39 or that his body in which was flesh and bones was not assumed up into heaven or that mens bodies which now are flesh and blood shall not be raised and in their raised state be glorified or thus A natural body while such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God therefore this natural body shall not be raised and in its rising made spiritual and so be a subject of his Kingdom That speech then doth but point to the condition of the body when raised that it shall not be such as now it is a body of infirmity flesh and blood but it denies not that the body shall rise even as the foregoing similitude of the grain of Corn doth demonstrate that he meant for there he says Thou sowest not that body that shall be and yet we know its the same in another form or rather that that springs up namely the blade and ear and corn in it springs from that very body or bare grain that was sown or that bare grain that is sown by dying revives again in another and better form so also is the Resurrection the same dead body that was sown rises yet not the same in regard of its form and manner of being It s sown in corruption it s raised in incorruption the same it that was sown rises again though in a better manner more glorious powerful spiritual then when it was sown 2. The Apostle plainly expounds himself ver 51 52 53. when he says we shall not all sleep that is rest or lye in death but we shall be all changed Now there is a great difference between a being changed in our bodies and having them annihilated or for ever lost for that the change shall be in the body is plain in Phil. 3.31 He shall change our vile body and make it like to his own most glorious body and that this change shall not be the creating a new body that is totally distinct another from this in which we now live and die is also plain in this that if the Resurrection was the living again of the Spirit in another body then this body that dies should or might yet lye in the grave notwithstanding that resurrection in another body and so the body of Christ in which he died should have been sound in the grave still when the Disciples went to the sepulchre to imbalm him but the Scripture plainly tells us that they found it not there and of that the Angels said He is risen he it not here Matth 28.6 He might have been risen and his body there too if what was put off â—nd laid down in the grave was never reassumed 〈◊〉 raised again out of it but some other body given in stead thereof Nay indeed that conception is inconsistent with the tearm of Resurrection for Resurrection is not a creation of a â—ew or another body but the rising again of â—…at that was dead or faln as all know that understand the force of the word Resurrection Yea that also would be point-blank cross to what the Apostle yet adds further the dead shall â—e raised incorruptible and this mortal shall prit 〈◊〉 immortality and this corruptible must put on incorruption he said not that the spirit that lives and goes to God shall appear again in a new body that never was in being before an incorruptible body made of nothing or of some other materials but the dead shall rise incorruptible yea this mortal this that now is subject to death this very body shall put on immortality and this corruptible not another that never was corruptible or corrupted but this body that 's now corruptible that now hath its life in its blood and dyes corrupts shall put on immortality and so shall triumph over the grave O grave where is thy victory which they could never have ground for if the conquest of the grave should be perpetual and never restore the dead bodies that it had swallowed So that its clear by the Apostles own words and by what we read of Christ raised to which ours are to be conformed that this Scripture also is abused As for the liftings up of their understandings otherwise they are partly conceptions of impossibilities of such a thing as if the bodies were so torn and corrupted and the ashes or reliques of them dispersed that its impossible it should be raised which is an impious conception for it chargeth God with weakness and impotency as if any word was impossible to him well therefore did our Lord tax the Sadduces with erring upon these principles that they knew not the Scripture nor the power of God Vain Earth-worms who are we that we will undertake to measure and put bounds to his omnipotency and make that an impossibility with him that we cannot fathom in our narrow apprehensions Of the like nature is that foolish conception that the world will not afford room enough for so many millions of men that should be raised up as if he that made all things by his Power when as there was yet nothing could not either reduce all the dispersed parcels of his dead creatures into one body again or finde room