land which is here alluded unto to set forth that abundant supply and furniture to be found in this our appeale which yeeldeth unto us through Gods appointment without humane help all those liberties priviledges riches and rest which anciently have appertained unto the Sonne of the eternall God So that however we may go forth of the things of this life as weeping in the eyes of the world like men in the time of sowing parting with all their store and provissions of temporary things even as the people parted with the glory of the carnall temple when they went down into Babylon yet we know that those which bear the precious seed or as the word imports used by the Psalmist the purchased seed such shall returne with shouting joyfulnesse bringing their sheaves with them They then that have their lap filled with Ruth in the parting from their native country to follow that motherly Naomy being increased with the increasings of God in the diminutions of all humane and Moabitish preferments and excellencies who have found the harvest and more of the full years of corne in Canaan to exceed all the thin ears in the land of Aegypt And how that vintage which rejoyceth the heart of God and man excels and surpasseth the Vines of Sod me and the grapes of Gomorah such as make merry in the Lord being joyfull and triumphant in his salvation as Israel was in his coming out of the red Sea or as the word imports the Sea of Edom adversary to Israel though near unto him in their first originall When Moses and the men of Israel sung so triumphantly with Mirriam and the damsels answering thereunto with sollem pompe in that happy returne of the Captaine of Israel from the victory and slaughter in breaking the head of that Leviathan and giving him to be meat for the people in the wildernesse such as are merry with this kinde of mirth and in such causes they onely are the parties unto whom this direction belongs Let him sing The word let is of like force as is before explained giving virtue and existance to the mellody of a song in the soule of him in whom this mirth is found and by the word sing is comprehended also playing on instruments dancing or any joyfull activity or acclamation So that all such as have made their lawfull appeal as congruous to that law of the spirit from the judgment and determination of the wisdom of man unto that which only consists in the wisdome and device of God in Christ They receive such plenty thereby and skill for the use and exercise thereof that they become expert in handling all those organs iustruments and exercises of joy and triumph which appertaine and belong to that spiritual Tabernacle and Temple which God builds and not man so as to proclaime and set forth that harmony and melodious consort and agreement unto the world which is between God and man in that faith of Jesus Christ Which is the song of old Simeon Mary and Elizabeth Deborah and Barack and of all the Saints of God from the beginning untill now For there is none that can appeal unto God in prayer removing the cause from carnall reason into his wisdome holding a holy plea in opening the necessities of mankinde unto God carrying up and giving true intelligence of the same unto him but that man whatever he be can also bring down and distribute unto the world the true state and condition of the Son of God who is the subject matter of the Gospel and give undoubted intelligence of that peace and plenty which is in the kingdome of God uttering and declaring how good the Lord is in Jesus Christ Note then from this point as a conclusion thereof That the true spirit of prayer and supplication and the spirit of Prophesie and interpretation are never seperated never were nor never shall be but are of an eternall unity and conjunction in the faith of Christ and hence it is that the Elders and instructors of the Church are brought in as having the spirit of prayer to pray for the Church in the next Verse following Vers 14. Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him annointing him with oyle in the name of the Lord. Wherein we have to consider first a proposition and secondly the answer thereunto in the proposition observe 1. A disease Is any among you sick 2. The practice of the party diseased as part of the answer and that is to call for the Elders of the Church Then consider in the rest of the answer or direction the practice of the Elders that is threefold 1. To pray over him 2. To annoint him with oyle 3. The manner how that is in the name of the Lord. 1. FOr the first namely the proposition If any be sick among you This is not spoken in way of supposition but in way of certainty and as taken for granted and by sicknesse we are not to understand onely a distemper of the body no nor yet some certaine sorrow greif or disquiet of the minde which the word may seem to import but we are to take it as large as Joseph did when he heard that his father was sick he presently takes his two sons unto him as giving him up for dead to be blessed in his death and departure for it is in this case as it was with Hezekiah when he was sick unto death which if he had not been his life had never been renewed as it was and as his life was restored through the spirit of prophesie in Isajah so here the life of the sick is restored by the spirit of prayer in the Elders and as the spirit of prayer was in Hezekiah else had not the prophesie taken place For he turned his face to the wall and prayed Even so is the spirit of prophesie conversant in this sick party or else the prayer of the Elders cannot be effectuall which spirit of prophesie appears in his calling for the Elders as foreseeing health to arise out of that speciall appointment and ordination of the wisdome of God And as a miraculous signe was given at the recovery of Hezekiah namely the Sun going back ten degrees in the dyall of Ahaz that wicked King to declare that the light and wisdome of the world by which the men thereof rule and reigne over their brethren goeth directly backward and contrary to that sun of righteousnesse light and wisdome proper unto the Saints and that it is for ever so to be considered is signified by those ten degrees which number hath the mystery of eternity taught in it for so Moses doth expound it saying a bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord unto the tenth generation which in the next verse he concludes to be for ever Even so here is the signe of the holy unction given to this sick party to signifie his reception from the dead even as Abraham
whole mysticall body of Jesus Christ otherwise it is not the word or Gospel of the kingdome nor the spirit of intercession which is by Jesus Christ Object But it will be sayd that these things crncern the invisible Church and not the visible for the true visible Church is otherwise to be considered Answ To which we answer that it is a work of as great curiosity to frame a visible Church of Christ as to frame and compose a visible body of Christ therefore the Apostle comparing the true Church to a body sayth For as the body being one hath many members and all the members of that body being many are but one body so also Christ And agayn hear what the spirit sayth by the Apostle John viz. As he is so are we even in this world where he speaks of the Son of God So that to frame and compose a visible Church and to frame and compose a visible Christ are of the same nature and of like ease and difficulty and are alike strange unto the world and of the same acceptation to bring into manifestation and appearance Yet we know that Christ in both respects for otherwise we know him not is truly apparent and visible as also secret and unseen For Moses by faith saw him meaning Christ who is invisible that is he saw him who is unseeable and both are really true in a diverse respect And they who frame a Christ visible in one age of the world and not in another they do by the same argument conclude the visible Church to appear and to be manifest only within the same confines and precincts of time wherein Christ appeared For the Church was never known to appeare but in the reall form of Gods righteousnesse and wisdome which is Christ for he is the wisdome of God and the righteousnesse of God by saith which is the reality of the Church and as for all imaginary Churches we skill not for they will vanish and come to nought together with the professors of them as they have done in all ages Again such as form a Christ unto themselves to appear visibly unto a carnall eye so as to accept and approve of that his way of appearance at the carnall and perfunctory worshippers of the Jewes did Know this that whensoever the true Christ appeareth he will receive at the hands of such the same measure which was measured out unto Jesus born of the Virgin by Herod Pontius Pilate Scribes Pharisees with the cry of all the people saying Crucifie him crucifie him away with him crucifie him Even so they that frame unto themselves a visible Church so as to appeare unto a carnall eye or understanding as being in a capacity to approve and like well of it at the least for a certaine season Whensoever the true Church makes it selfe visible it shall receive like measure at the hands of such persons to the utmost of their power and ability as Christ did when he appeared unto the Jewes For in such persons and in that spirit is the zeale of persecution properly founded in the visible and apparant exercise thereof Moreover they that form a visible Church as not having the invisible vertue alike efficatious in every part and member thereof they also form unto themselves a visible Christ to appear without aving the compleat vertue of the wisdome and power of God in all respects in him either in point of his being or in the order and manner of his being and this is that great Image of Nebuchadnezzar which hath beeen so long erected and set up in the world where the Scriptures are traditionally acknowledged and read w ch all must bow down unto at the noise of their instruments and institutions or else the fiery tryall must passe upon them that obey not Only this is our comfort that the Son of God will so appear with them or in them that so much as a smell of that zeal or fiery fume and wrath of the world shall not appeare upon them but serve only to the destruction of such as are zealous actors in such matters of the worlds melody The next point is the exercise of the Elders and the first is they pray over him or for him or without any wrong to the Text with him that is in communion and fellowship with him for there was never prayer of faith made unto God out of which any elect or chosen vessel was excluded the reason is because every acceptable prayer hath in it the vertue of the intercession of Christ otherwise it is not in his name and authority and the spirit of Christ neglects not any one that appertayns to his mysticall body for if it should that soule could never be inspired with the spirit of prayer without which there is no participation in the mediation of the Son of God and then no acceptation with the Father therefore prayer is communicative to all the Saints if it be as the prayer of faith it is as the life-blood running into all the veyns of the whole body for none can enter into the holy place but he that carries all the Tribes upon his heart it is not our temporary and private wants which can bring forth a faithfull prayer to God for as prophesie is not of any private spirit or interpretation but holy men speake as they are moved by the holy Ghost of like publique spirit is true prayer So that this sick party is in unity with the prayer here spoken of for the eldership of this Church or that eternized fellowship in the ancient of dayes never appears unto any in that miraculous vertue of healing but in way of unity with the party healed Therefore it is that Christ will have the stone rouled away from the Sepulchre that nothing interpose betwixt Lazarus and himselfe when he restores him from death to life Also Elisha will be shut up in the same roome with the widows sonne when hee rayseth him up from the dead and Paul the Apostle falls upon Eutichus and embraceth him when he brings his spirit into him agayn Furthermore where this true Eldership appears it ever communicates a like vertue to every individuall of the body for the spirit is not received by measure for that which in it selfe is emence cannot be received by measure they that go about to perswade men that some have a greater portion of the spirit and some have a lesse measure thereof they may upon as good grounds perswade men that some shall be saved and be happy and blessed a long time and some a shorter time for if the spirit of God in any poynt of our salvation be subject to measure in latitude it is as truly subject to be measured and bounded in longitude and then salvation is voyd which is the doctrine of the most of our Elders in these dayes but the spirit of glory and of God that rests upon the Saints through this sicknesse and suffering is neither given out nor received by measure
supplicant humbly prostrates the cause in the necessity of and with respect unto supply which is the glory of its office so to doe And the suppleo yeelds relief and supplies the necessity and it is the glory of its office so to do and if either of these be wanting in a Christian spirit it subsists not because it is not the spirit of the Son of God in whom is power to forgive sins as well as to make supplication for pardon So that the glory of the speaker in prayer or pleader of the cause before the Judge of all the earth is one reall glory and the glory of the sentence passed thereupon is another real glory but both but one act of the law the glory of the speaker in prayer as Daniel calls it is to open the cause holding plea upon true principles unto the point of issue now Christ is the end and issue of the law in all points of relation and causes depending between God and man whatsoever Againe the glory of the Judge is to passe sentence according to the law in the point of issue so that the cause pleaded and Judgement given is but one act of the law which is Christ and in case either of these be wanting in a Christian he ceaseth to be that law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lordship and is become that law of sin and death So that the party praying and the party prayed unto are one in point of hypostacis and being and the party or office of prayer and the party or office of hearing or answering are twain in point of the variety in reallity of glory for God and man are compleatly in unity in them both else Christ is divided Even as it is said that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive which the Apostle affirms to be the saying of Christ though we finde no such place in Scripture in so many words so that it may seem that the whole Gospel or speech of Christ is summed up therein namely in giving and receiving as he saith to his Disciples in sending them out to preach freely you have received and freely do you give so that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive that is it is another thing a further glory a various vertue in the Sonne of God as if he should say it is a blessed thing to receive moreover or furthermore it is a blessed thing to give for the one is the blessing of giving and hath its reall and peculiar blessednesse really consisting therein and the other is the blessing of receiving and hath its reall and peculiar blessednesse really consisting therein and one of these cannot be without the other for no giver without a receiver and no receiver without a giver and each of them hath whole Christ exercised therein that only blessed one therefore as the hearingeare and the seing eye are both alike of the Lord so it is true of giving and receiving and the difference stands onely in the variety of glory even as in the three witnesses that bear record in heaven no other disproportion can be found For a naturall man can neither perceive so as to give nor effect so as to receive the things that are of God for they are spiritually to be discerned and apprehended and said hold of for none knows the things of God but the spirit of God no more then any other creature can know the spirit of a man but onely he that is of his own kinde And it is the Son of God onely that knows the father and it is the Son only that reveals him for no man knowes the father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveales him We conclude then that prayer consists of whole Christ and that both in point of petition as also in the answer otherwise it is not this prayer of faith and therefore it is that prayer is of that validity and force as to do such mighty things as are here attributed unto it As First saves the sick it hath the vertue and power of salvation annexed unto it which can be ascribed unto nothing but unto Christ alone who never was nor can be known but in the exercise of an office for it is the vertue and power of the spirit of God that makes manifest the Son of God and it is he alone that saves for he hath salvation Therefore it is said deliver my soul from the sword my darling or as the word signifies my alonely soule as having no copartner from the power of the dog and it is he that comes meek and lowly as the Prophet Zachariah saith saving himself and not another for as the father and the Son are one so is the Lord and the Disciple one the Saviour and the saved are one else Christ should not be God-man Salvation then is in prayer as the Scriptures testifie and the time is come that every one or whosoever call on the name of the Lord shall be saved many teach that salvation is only by faith that neither know what faith nor salvation is for faith hath salvation in it onely as it is that hypostacis and subsistance of the Son of God and so Paul teacheth faith without works that is without the works of the law which he calls dead works because the life and spirit of the Son of God is not in them but our Apostle James ascribes salvation unto works and declines faith as being the beliefe of devils that is such faith as hath not the powerful operations of God working in and together with it so that there is compleat salvation in any proper work or operation of the Son of God as well as in faith therefore Christ concludes that the great work and operation of God to be in faith for faith is not without the works of God nor the works of God without faith We are also said to be saved by hope as well as by either faith or work there is salvation also in love for it is the fulfilling of the law and where the law is compleat and full there can be no condemnation but perfect acquittance and salvation yea God is love and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him which canot be without salvation yea salvation is in patience for he that continues to the end shall be saved so that we are saved by it Furthermore we are saved by wisdome for the poor man by his wisdome saves the whole City of God though his wisdome be despised and his words not heard by the wise of the world And to conclude this point salvation is in prayer it saves the sick because it is the subsistance of the mediator-ship of the Son of God which is ever one and the same where when or in whom-soever it appears although it be so little in use and so lightly accounted of in these days wherein we live Secondly it hath in it the vertue and
life even as the world was in darknesse without the creation of light or as the body that breaths not is dead so is the soule without prayer Concerning praying therefore being so necessary unto the life of the Son of God consider 1. The signification of the word 2. How it is to be taken in this place as an answer to the interrogation or effectuall and forcible sentence To pray is to make an appeale it is an appellation or intercession for the originall word in the Hebrew tongue which the Prophets use for prayer is Hithpallel which signifies to appeale or present a mans selfe or cause to the Judg and it comes of pillel which signifies to judg or determine causes for which appeals are made 1. To pray therefore is to make our appeale from one Judgement-seate unto another that is from the judgment and determination of mans wisdome opinion and sentence to that wisdome and device of the Son of God who judgeth not as man judgeth For as farre as the heavens are higher then the arth so is the way of the judgment of God higher than all the Thrones and Judgement-seats of the sons of men therefore the Apostle tells the Corinthians that were carnall That it seemes a small thing to him to be judged of them or of mans judgment or of mans day as the word is that is by the light understanding or wisdome humane only he stands to the judgment and wisdome of God so as he judgeth not himselfe that is by his own wisdome as a man but by the wisdome and light of the spirit of God Therefore the Psalmist complayns saying Many there be that say of my soule there is no hope for him in God Selah but he appeals unto God as to his shield and the lifter up of his head but thou O Lord art a shield about me that is a defence from all adverse power set forth and signified in Absoloms conspiracy and the lifter up of my head or head-ship in setting me to be head of the people and not Absolom and that only through thy wisdome where the wisdome counsell and craft of Achitophel cannot take place prayer therefore is an appeal from one judgment-seate to another 2. Prayer is to speake or plead a cause so saith the Prophet Daniel Whilst I was speaking in prayer presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountaine of my God even while I was yet speaking the man Gabriel or the strength of God came flying vehemently and touched me It is a word or speech by which the strength of God hasts it selfe and makes speed to lay hold upon the soule So David cals it a speech saying My heart was hot within me whilst I was musing the fire burned and I spake with my tongue Lrrd make me to know mine end c. 3. Prayer is to supplicate and intreat so saith the Psalmist Return we beseech thee O God of hosts And again I beseech thee deliver my soule And again Save now I beseech thee O Lord O Lord I beseech thee send now prosperity So sayth Moses I beseech thee shew me thy glory Prayer is the office and property of a supplicant 4. Prayer is to judg and determine a cause as the word signifies therefore David saith Heare me when I call O God of my righteousnesse or justice that is of my just and righteous cause and agayn Judge me O Lord for I have walked in mine integrity I have trusted in the Lord I shall not stagger And againe Heare me when I call and answer my prayer Now for God to judg the cause of his Saints to heare prayer and to answer when they cry unto him is to give right sentence and to determine the matter which thing is not done in another state and condition but in that individuall being and state of a Christian in that Saint of Israel or holy one the judgment is not passed and sentence given of the cause and matter by or from another subsistence or being but in that subsistance and consistance of the Son of God the hearing answering judging determining and passing sentence of or upon any cause or matter presented by prayer is no further off nor at any other distance from the state and being of a Christian then the cause or matter is which is presented for they both flow from and are acts of the same spirit as man ascending in the word of God for supply and the word of God discending in man to declare its fulnesse So that there is in prayer a just appeale from the wisdome and practice of the world unto God and there is in it also an humble sute and reall act of a supplicant and intreater for favour yea and the pleading and laying open of a righteous cause before the Judge of all the earth together with the hearing answering judging determining and passing Sentence thereupon And every one of these are as really intrinsicall and of the same nearnesse to a Christian making all for his proper being and subsistance as well one of them as another neither shall he for ever be without any one of them but they shall be as an harmonious mellody in the soule or life of a Christian for ever which if we deny we hold not the unity of faith according to that compleat and mysticall body of Jesus Christ but make a fraction therein to the deviding of that holy one of God which is that state of unbeleif on which wrath abides So that when a Christian ceaseth to judge between sinne and righteousnesse between Christ and Belial when he ceaseth to discerne the difference between light and darknesse between God and the Devill then prayer shall have an end and cease in the spirit of a Christian and not till then for it is the very breath of the Sonne of God whereby he lives the life of God eternally Note from this point as it hath been often declared unto us how the prayers of the world not onely in set forms but in the more refined Preisthood fall short of the nature of the intercession of Christ who ever lives to make intercession not onely for but in us without straining of the word so that they deny the nature of the prayer and intercession of Christ in this great point of its continuation And so in like manner their doctrine must needs fall short of that message of life and salvation and so much for the signification of the word prayer 2. The second point is in what acceptation it is to be taken here and that is for an appeal implying hereby thus much as if in more words he should say have you lost all your own humane and fading excellencies in the proper life and spirit of all your earthly and momentany relations for the most honourable losse of them is when we are cut off from them in our hearts in the present injoyment of them as in covenants contracts and combinations with the creature that carnall
another is the wisdome of man that perisheth and comes to nought and not the wisdome of God which abides the same for ever and is that light which guides unto the Elders who are the onely governours and rulers of this universall Church called into communion and fellowship with this sick party and they are the first borne of every tribe having upon them the office of King Preist and Prophet in every family and inferiour to that dignity doth not this sicknesse call for any to come to visite it knowing all others to be Physitians of no value for this kinde of sicknesse summons none but the first borne of God into communion and fellowship with it that call which Cornelius gave to Peter that Elder of the Church was like unto this that when he spake of that unction of Christ the spirit of God descended upon those that heard it insomuch that Peter challengeth all men whether they can forbid water that those should not be baptized who had received the holy spirit as well as themselves as if he should say can any deny the signe of unity between Jew and Gentile which is communion and fellowship seeing they have the ground and substance thereof namely are partakers of the spirit of God that holy anoynting which is the truth and substance of all community whether we be present or absent in body we are one in that spirit of the Lord. The word of Prophesie therfore which is ever accompanied with prayer as in Cornelius or that word of true interpretation of the word of God knows how to give summons unto and call in the life and spirit of kingdome and Preisthood into fellowship with it selfe which is that healthfull spirit or unction that is by Jesus Christ Add further this sicknesse is the very foot of the throne upon which that great Elder even the ancient of dayes sits for when Daniel beholds through this spirit of interpretation he sees thrones set up or as the word will bear thrones cast down at you may see how the translators give it in both phrases signifying thereby that the power and glory of the world is cast down wheresoever this great Eldership is set up which is of no lesse antiquity then is the eternall that gives Judgement into the hands of the Saints of the most high and possesseth them with the kingdome for none but the eternall can give an eternall inheritance and he gives it not but as he sits on this throne namely the glory of man cast down and the gravity of this ancient of days set up whose garments are white as snow and the haire of his head like pure wooll and such is the royalty and authority of the Eldership here intended who are not brought in by any other call but by the Prophesie or interpretation of the minde of God therefore it is that the vision speaks so punctually and particularly where and with whom Peter is to be found Note here that even as the life of the flesh through the crucification of the spirit admits none into unity nor invests any into its proper condition but onely such as are of its own kinde so the life of the spirit which is in Christ Jesus through the crucification of the flesh admits none into fellowship nor invests any into its proper state and condition but its owne kinde For what is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit and therefore none but the first-born of God are of this Eldership or callers of them into the exercise of their proper virtue and authority even as it was with the Apostles when they pronounce peace if the son of peace be not there their peace returns upon themselves and their abode is not in that house of family 3. By these Elders then in the third place we see what we are to understand by the Church they are of that is that unity and fellowship which the selected and chosen people of God are of and have in that fellowship and faith of Jesus Christ as they are considered not in one age much lesse in one Parish or company of people gathered together but as they are universally considered in all ages and times of the world For such as is the extent of the spirit by which every Saint lives and of those offices of Christ by vertue whereof the exercise of such extent is the true Church ever to be held and taken otherwise the Church is carnallized and cast into the mould of the letter that kills and not into the mould of the spirit that gives life So that to thrust up Christ as into a corner as in one age of the world or to monopolize him amongst a handfull of people is all one as to put him in the grave though with Nicodemus a Ruler among the Jews and that rich man Joseph of Arimethea both night Disciples for fear of the Jews they may seem to differ from Herod in that they perfume the dead body and wrap it in clean linnen being affected therewith but it is but according to the custome of the Jewish Sinagogue for they put it in the grave and roll a great stone thereupon as men without hope or desire of the resurrection having that common spirit that now lives in the world to beg leave of the Pilates and great men thereof before they dare adventure to trim up the dead body of Jesus and fit it for the Sepulchre But this universall Church of which these Elders are is called by the Apostle mount Zion the City of the living God the new Jerusalem the generall assembly and Church of the first-born which are enrolled in heaven And such as constitute and set up a Church not of this nature and comprehension they build it up upon mount Sinai under the terrors of the law and sprinckle the instruments and officers there of as with the blood of Abel speaking from the ground or earthly heart of Cain and not on mount Zion in that blood of sprinkling which speaks better things in that peaceable agreement and reconcilement of God and man in Jesus Christ Note here that where two or three are gathered together in any part of the world or at any time we deny it not to be the true Church of Christ but what is it which gives it its capacity to be that Church of Christ is it not he who is in the midst or in the heart of them as the word is who is no lesse then that everlasting father or that ancient of dayes what bounds then can be set unto it lesse then that which gives it its capacity to be such a thing who extends himselfe to the whole family of heaven for unto him all faces looke and every knee bowes and if once it be so in our selves we see it in the whole family and flock of God in all the elect So that the true sum volume of all their doctrine and prayers is of no lesse extent then the
and terrour thereof So as the King of fear changing his countenance in point of wrath may give the greater onset and breed a fresh and unexpected trouble and terrour in the soule that it shall never be inured or acquainted with any particular terrour so as to abate the present sence of a heavy and infinite displeasure which nothing but Gods power and authority in that way of the Curse can possibly bring to passe therefore this unction invests into the effect of Gods power and authority in that way of his Sonne Christ Jesus our Lord and therefore he brings in the royall effect and power of prayer in the next place Vers 15. And the prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if hee have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him Wherein observe for order 1. What manner of prayer this is and that is the prayer of faith 2. The act or power of it what it doth and that is three-fold 1. It saves the sicke it hath the power of salvation in it 2. It raiseth up as from the dead And the Lord shall raise him up 3. It hath in it the power of pardon If he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him FIrst for the manner of prayer here used and that is The prayer of faith for that only is this healing prayer it hath the vertue of health in it By Faith then we are not to understand a notional perfection as having Christ only as the object of it as the common opinion is but we are to understand it as the Apostle defines it namely that iâ— is the Hypostacis or subsistance not only of things unseen and hoped for but also in present being demonstration for so much our Apostle affirms of it that it is the subsistance of things hoped for and the demonstration of things not seene that is it is the present being of things that are also to come for they are unto eternity and it is a demonstrative argument as the word there signifies which makes things to be in present appearance that yet are not seen for the depth of Gods counsels can never be sounded but are infinitely as a treasury to be brought forth which things are not made good but only in the Son of God who only can say Before Abraham was I am and yet am to come So that prayer consists not of a request made by a meere creature unto the invisible God But it is an appeale made by the Son of God who consists of humane nature and divine as the common phrase is God and man as one simple act undissolvable and eternall creation Therefore it is sayd that we know not how to pray as we ought but the spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us Now there is no spirit of God considerable disjoyned from the spirit of man no more then there can be a Christ destitute of humane nature therefore it is sayd That he that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit For God and man in Christ are never separated no more then the Father and the Son can be divided for they are but one estate and condition in which the wisdome of God together with all his proper and native excellencies do consist So that there is no Christ or Annoynted considerable but as consisting of divine and humane nature or aptitudes to do Therefore the spirit of God maketh request but it is with groanings or sighes which are proper unto man and they are sayd to be sighes not utterable because there is in prayer a sighing or breathing out of life as the last breath never to be resumed or taken in againe in regard of that spirit living to any carnall or corruptible thing and this is a thing can never be uttered by any unbeliever for they never sigh as sending out their last breath in regard of ever living agayn to the law of the flesh therefore not utterable by any that is destitute of the spirit of God Again there is a sigh in prayer as being the last breath and utter cessation of life in the men of the world which is never resumed or taken in again and that is the breathing out of the life of the spirit in the wicked never to live unto God in any spirituall or heavenly vertue proper to the Sonne of God of which there is an utter dissolution and cessation in the men of the world and this is unutterable also for it can never be uttered or expressed in the state of Christianity where the spirit of Christ resides and dwels and the prayer of faith cannot be expressed but with respect unto these twayn the one is life lost in the Saints that is the life of the flesh but it is extant in the men of the world which is no lesse then that spirit of Sathan or that dying life of the Devill and this gives demention unto that from which we are ransomed and delivered and the other is life lost in the men of the world but extant in the Saints of God which is no lesse then the life of the Son of God that holy one or Saint of Israel and this gives demention unto that whereunto we are delivered and whereunto we are brought It is not a part therefore but whole Christ that makes an appeale in prayer namely from that which the Son of perdition is unto that which the Son of God is and of such extention and comprehension is true prayer or else it is not that prayer of faith which is effectuall nor can it be said otherwise to be that spirit of intercession which interposeth it selfe and comes between that depth of death and that height of life as in the participation of them both as being freed from the one and set in the other that is Death as God is considered what he is through that wisdome of the creature in that man of sin and life as man is considered in the wisdome of God in that man of God the Lord our Righteousnesse the Saints therefore can truly say Out of the deeps have I cryed unto thee O Lord and in that acknowledgment confesse themselves to be set upon the mountaine of Gods holinesse though it be paradoxicall unto the world Quest But if whole Christ be the supplicant God and man to whom then doth he appeal to himselfe or to another Answ Not to another as in point of reallity of subsistance and being for it is one that pleads and also gives Judgement and determins the cause But he prayeth unto another with respect unto the reallity of the distinction of glory for supplication and answer are truly twaine in the same hypostasis for the glory of the supplicant is one and the glory of the suppleo is another and these give being each to other else they are not nor can subsist for either of them cease to be without its relative so that prayer must consist of them both else it ceaseth to be prayer for the
power of the resurrection from the dead as it is said the Lord shall raise him up there is in prayer a Lord-like authority to rise out of that grave of sin and sorrow of death and destruction so as none shall have dominion over it to keep it under for it cannot be held of death but it will remove the stone from the Sepulchre and deface and break open the seal of Herod himselfe though set upon it by the cheif Preists and Pharisees making it as sure as they can it will make the house of the carnall Jews to shake when the Apostles of Christ are gathered together or brought into unity and harmony by that reconciling spirit of interpretation It will make the foundations of the Prison to shake where the spirit of our great Apostle is infringed casting open the doors and laying wast such power to the astonishment of the Jaylors themselves whoever they may be yea it will raise Peter up out of the dungeon and cause his chains to fall off from his hands to his own admiration and wonder In a word prayer hath in it the power and vertue of the resurrection because it is the breathing of the Son of God returned from death to life this word behold he prayeth was an argument sufficient to prove Paul change from a Saul and to be risen up out of that grave and puddle of the Jewish litteral and carnall worships and from that deadly spirit of persecution which ever accompanies such maner of services Thirdly prayer hath in it the power of pardon and forgivenesse of sins for if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him or in the present tence as the word will bear they are forgiven him that is to every one that partakes in this prayer of faith To commit sin here is to be understood in a two-fold respect that is negatively and affirmatively of which the breach of law being sin doth consist now to sin and prove a delinquent in omitting and not doing that which is required is to neglect and leave undone that which the carnal commandement according to the strict spirit of a Pharisee calls for such sin or missing of the rule of the carnall commandement standing in outward ordinances is here to be understood which is the onely sin condemned by a carnall Jew and this law the prayer of faith doth rout ravell undo and abrogate with respect unto the obligation thereof in the true intent of a Pharasaical Jew And against this law doth true prayer sin in all its supplications intercessions and requests for the prayer of faith observes not in the least in any point that law of the spirit of bondage which onely obligeth to the law of the flesh nor can it keep and perform that spirit of enmity which Christ Jesus nailes to his Crosse and slays in himselfe and therefore a sinne in a Saint in way of negation against the affirmative part of the law of the flesh Againe there is a sin committed affirmatively and that is by reall acting and doing according to the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord which the wisdome of man in that carnall law forbids and that under the penalty of errour schism heresie pride blasphemy and death it self For every point of the law of the spirit rightly composed according to the prin ciples and grounds of faith is most heinous wicked detestable sinfull and abominable in the eyes of a carnal man Now the breach disannulling and abrogating of the carnall command for which the Jewes so hated Christ is the truth of the matter the reality and ever carries in it the remission pardon and forgivenes of sins in the Saints as surely as the breach of the law of the spirit and that everlasting Covenant of God carries in it guilt crime and is the condemnation of the world For every sin and blasphemy against the Son of man that is against the wisdome will power and authority of the arme of flesh shall be forgiven or it is forgiven for it hath the acquittance general discharge and release in it self but he that speaks aagainst the holy spirit that is against that law of the spirit or spirituall estate of that holy one of God it shall never be forgiven that is he that breaks the law of the spirit in any word or thing as the phrase imports it hath in it that guilt which can never be wiped out neither in this world that is in time present nor in the world or time that is to come or not in this world that is in the conscience of the party so made guilty nor in the world to come that is in that sentence of the righteous Judge which doth for ever adjudg and condemn it so that as the breach of the spiritual law hath in it an eternall guilt unseperably and enevitably fastned unto it and accompaning the same even so hath the breach or abrogation of the carnall law an everlasting pardon and acquittance before God fastned unto and ever accompaning the same Note in this point that the Levitical law which the Apostle apposeth to the law of an endlesse life doth not condemn because men fall short in some particulars of the fulfilment of the same but it condemns and is death unto him that walks according to the same or lives thereafter Therefore our Apostle saith If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that is if yee live according to the law of the carnall commandement for by it no flesh can be justified or if yee minde the things of the flesh that is as the word signifies if ye frame form or fashon things unto your selfe according to the carnall command art or reason of man concerning the affairs of God it is death but to live after the spirit that is the law of the spirit or spirituall law is life and peace or to minde the things of the spirit that is to form frame and fashion things spiritually that is life and peace and as the one of these is sin according to mans wisdome and his accounts even so is the other sin according to Gods wisdome and his reckoning and account judgement and doom passed upon it by an eternall and unchangeable sentence There is pardon then and power of forgivenesse in prayer because it is God that sitteth upon that throne of grace judging unto justification who then shall condemn for it the spirit of grace and supplication whereof prayer doth consist yea it is the Son of God who is justified who then shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen that holy one of God For wherever the spirit and vertue of Christ is there is power to forgive sins therefore he saith to stop the mouth of those legall Pharisees whether is it easier to say thy sins are forgiven or to say take up thy bed and walke but that you may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive sins on earth therefore I said
all the Sains of God that ever lived or shall viz. For thy sake are we killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter There is none of those severall afflictions which the Saints of God have undergone but rightly understood one of them is as extensive as another and it must needs be so for the sufferings of the Saints is the Crosse of Christ and not the crosse of any particular creature but of the son of God therefore he saith In all their afflictions he was afflicted and therefore he saith also in the behalf of the believers and prayers in Damascus Saul Saul why persecutest thou mee Therefore it is when the Corinthians seemed to cleave one to one man and another unto another though all sound men and good one is of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas and another of Christ that he calls them carnall because they take not every way or manner of the administration of the grace of the Gospel to be the same universally through the whole body what saith he Is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized into the name of Paul I thanke God that I performed no such particular act but to such as understood the mystery of it for that is the effect of his speech and cause of thanksgiving The ground of these particular and nominall Religions as Independent Presbyterian Anabaptist Papist Generallist for they all stand on one root is because they limit and infringe the grace of the Gospel both in way of the sentence of absolution and condemnation mincing and fashioning things according to the judgment or discerning of man and not according to the light and revelation of the Son of God Hence they are affected with manlike expressions and so cleave unto man and not unto the Son of God and if the mind of God be expressed unto them they hammer it into their own shape as the Corinthians did and so make rents and schismes Now the grace of the Gospel in whatsoever it expressed it self as King or Priest Prophet or Victor father or son Master or servant Lord or Disciple Apostle or follower is as that leaven which the woman hid in three pecks of meal whereby the whole lump was leavened or like that unction poured on Aarons head which run down unto the coller or hem of his garment for the oyle contayned in that honourable vessell of the Gospel filleth compleatly all vessels that are brought into unity or love with it Of such nature and extent are all things appertaining unto the Gospel and so the afflictions of the Saints the Crosse of Christ takes not its latitude nor longitude from the dimentions of a creature but holds correspondency with the son of God for the crosse of Christ is of the same extent and continuation that his Crown and kingdome is By this we may take notice of what nature the Crosse of Christ is that it stands not in or consists of any temporary relation or operation of the creature active or passive but is the proper suffering of the son of God in the wicked as deprived of all livelihood and proper operations of the spirit in all wayes of motion and relation and in the Saints in being deprived of all livelihood and proper operations of the flesh in all the wayes of its motion and relation It would seem a great cross to a man if the world were vacant of a rationall spirit and none but beasts to converse with of no lesse but infinitely greater is the disproportion of the wisdome of God in a Christian and the wisdome of this world in the wicked yea if they be as crafty as Achitophel or as subtill as the Serpent the wisest beast of the field Yea in the world we have lost our proper life spirit and power and all vertue proper to a Christian in poynt of heavenly things Further it would seem a great affliction and suffering unto us to see the world take all our strength our wisdome honour riches peace friendship c. and leave us nothing but that wee should depart from and forsake father mother wife children c. and thus it is with a Christian The world ingrosseth power authority wisdome riches c. and leaves us as the scum and out-sweepings of all things Nay we forsake our nearest relations in all respects as the law of the flesh in its true sense calls for and go to a place we know not whether by any wisdome or understanding of the creature which can never be done but by the instinct and operation of the spirit of God opening unto us the power wisdome riches and all relations that are reall substantiall and eternall And if the spirit of God be there it never appears but in the faith and unity of Christ therefore they are the proper sufferings of Christ and not of any particular creature And when we know and judge of the sufferings of the Saints wee shall not lament if the world take all temporary things from us nor rejoyce in what it can cast upon us for God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ whereby the world is kill'd and crucified in me and I in the world If once we know how to loose our lives in the world in all things of the spirit and how to loose our lives in our selves and body mysticall in all things pertayning to the flesh we shall then take is lightly in whatsoever the world can give or take away from us By the nature of these sufferings we know of what spirit and power of what nature vertue and comprehension this act of Eliah is which is the third point And hee prayed Whence we note That the act or spirit of prayer hath in it sufficient honour power and authority to memorize and register the name of a christian for ever that it shall never be put out but continue in the records of the house of God For 1. Prayer hath in it the vertue and power of prophesie for in the history treating of the act of Eliah he prophesies unto Ahab saying As the Lord liveth there shall be no raine nor dew for these years but according to my word So that this prayer comprehends the whole Prophesie of Eliah and Eliah is brought in as comprehending all the Prophets as Moses comprehending the whole law in the transfiguration of Christs appearing in the same form and glory that Christ doth so that all prophesie and noble acts of the Prophets are involved in the spirit of prayer By the spirit of God in this place his reproof of Ahabs wickednesse his slaying of all the false prophets of Baal his bringing fire from heaven to slay Captayns with their fifties his dividing of the waters with his mantle his giving of his spirit to Elisha his binding up and flopping the bottles of heaven and loosing of them at his pleasure his rebuking the earth and drying it up to
dust that it cannot yeeld fruit his ascending up into heaven in a fiery Chariot The spirit of God is pleased to commend all his honourable deeds unto the world in this one act of prayer to stand and to be as his memoriall for ever Prayer therefore is garnished with all the ornaments of a Prophet oâ— God and cannot be lesse then a most honcurable monument and memorizing of the Saints where-ever it is found extant 2. Prayer hath all the vertues and ornaments of Priest-hood in it Never was Aaron fitted and adorned with greater variety of vestments and vertues to minister before God in the holy place and according to the variety and change of the multitude of sacrifices and offerings then the spirit of prayer contayns in it and according to occasion puts on and brings forth when the vertue power of our great high Priest after the order of Melchisedech is brought in it is all summed up in the spirit of prayer as he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech who in the dayes of his flesh when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares unto him or in him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that which be feared That is he was heard in all things or for the accomplishment and bringing to passe all things that concern life and salvation Now that all things that concern the Kingdome of God is involved in this prayer is thus proved The word translated feared is in the Greek dispaired about which men have much contended how it may be said of Christ But the thing is really and substantially to be considered though men do wrest and bend mince and strayn the word to suit it to humane reason For it is as true that the Son of God in and by the spirit of the world and principles proper to humane wisdome doth dispair and relir quish all hope and expectation of being delivered or set at liberty from that infinite wrath and displeasure of Almighty God as it is true that the son of sorry man is in and by the spirit of God and principles proper to the wisdome of God established and confirmed in the love power truth righteousnesse and glory of God and of his Kingdome everlastingly If men be ignorant hereof how Christ is said to feare or dispayr in all things they may talk of eternall life but they know not how a creature can live eternally and be possessor of all things Want of this knowledg breeds your Mortallists that know not by vertue of what the soule becomes eternall either in life or death as also your Generallists that say God will save all whereas there may be as reall and undenyable arguments used upon like ground that God will destroy all and so they must be left to the height of their doctrine which will amount to no more then the condition of a beast yet doth it make them such men as it had been good for them they had never been born For the rest that have gotten a tract of salvation and damnation by tradition from schools books naturall phylosophy and observation not having the knowledg of the nature of this Priest-hood comprized in the spirit of intercession They believe such things but they must not be curiously searcht into that is we cannot know them of these we say as the mind without knowis not good so these mens faith is dead For wilt thou know oh empty man that faith without works is dead For the spirit of God never works in way of life but in its own light therefore ignorance in any point must be voyd of the work of faith and so of the saving vertue that is in the life of Christ But prayer comprehending the whole Priest-hood of Christ is a work of that honour and power as to memorize the name of a Saint for ever and to set him up as a monument of the wisdome and mercy of God 3. Prayer is a work that comprehends the Kingly authority of Christ for when the Apostle Paul had shaken off the traditions and rudiments of the carnall Jew the power of the high Priest in that prosecuting spirit of binding and imprisoning all that were of the way of Jesus calling on the name of the Lord and when the Lord would proclaim him and make it manifest that he was a chosen vessell fitted to beare his name or carry his authority before the Gentiles Kings and the children of Israel Yea when he would put all that honour upon him which the Psalmist foretells saying There is little Benjamine their ruler the head of the Tribe a Prince of God he comprehends and concludes all in this act of prayer to give satisfaction to Annanias behold he prayeth As if he should say it is enough to know that miraculous change from Saul unto Paul from the service of the Synagogue of the Jewes to be a ruler over Kings the Gentiles and children of Israel for the name of God is by his word advanced over all which he was to beare this is sufficient to give satisfation to all Behold he prayeth So that none can deny a Princely spirit of power and authority where the spirit of prayer bears sway and a princely excellency is of honour sufficient to eternize the record of a Christians name 4. There is in prayer the power of victor or a victorious renown consisting of the noblest conquest that ever was Jacob by prayer overcame the man that wrestled or combated with him which man is said to be an Angell but it is the Angell that blest him in the way and therefore is declared to be God for Jacob said I have seen God face to face in which act of prayer his name is changed from Jacob to Israel to declare a prince-like promise in prevailing with God as the Prophet explayns his name and act saying And by his strength he had power with God yea he had power over the Angell and prevailed he wept and made supplication hee found him in Bethel and there spake with us or in us for if the spirit of God had not spoke in our father Jacob and so in all of his race he had never prevailed Was ever the like Conquest made as to overcome omnipotency which could never be but through the requests of his owne spirit which he cannot deny but must yeeld himself over thereunto Prayer therefore consists of a combate which ever hath conquest therefore of sufficient honour and renown to memorize a Saint who-ever he be that exerciseth the design and skill thereof 5. Prayer hath salvation contained in it nay it is salvation For whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved or in the present tense as the word will admit is saved for he that thinks he knows Christ any otherwise then in the vertue of an office exercised in such a subsistance or by such a manner or subsisistance exercised in
such an office that man may come to be deceived as the Jewes of old were and Jewish Gentiles are at this day and so persecute Christ in stead of receiving him when or in whomsoever he appeareth Let those of that carnall opinion that Christ shall come and reign upon the earth as a great Monarch for a thousand yeares look into this point for Christ was never known but in an office as aforesayd and every office of the spirit in its proper way and manner of working comprehends whole Christ Now the office of intercession is a work of the spirit for we know not how to pray as we ought but the spirit maketh intercession for us or in us therefore it comprehends whole Christ for he cannot be divided and it being the spirit of the Saviour must have yea be salvation for where Christ the Son of God is there is salvation In what grace vertue or office soever he appears in or by that tradition of tying salvation to believing alone is ridiculous for can there be more in faith then in love which is the fulfilling of the whole law yea of that law of the spirit of life in Christ and are not we saved by hope Doth not Timothy save himselfe and them that hear him by preaching sound doctrine Now to take faith according to that dismition the Apostle gives saying It is the subsistance of things hoped for So faith is in every vertue office and exercise of Christ for the subsistance is the being of God and man in one and that is to be held and had of Christians in all things that can be sayd of Christ therefore we acknowledg nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified There is both the unction and crucification in every thing a Christian knows but there is no unction but in the nature divine nor slaying in a Christan but of the flesh which twayn are never separated neither in love nor hope gentlenesse mercy kindnesse wisdome truth patience and whatsoever can be named of Christ it is the subsistance of twayn made one new man that compleats it and therefore salvation is in all Christs excellencies and they are all as things hoped for because they are ever to come that is not only in present being and exercise but shall for ever spring up unto a Christian out of that living and everlasting fountain All things of salvation therefore are in prayer for prayer consists of necessity and supply but all necessities and all supplies are in prayer therefore prayer contayns whole Christ which is compleat salvation therefore a work of honour to eternize the memory of a Saint This point may fence a Christian from discouraging drooping thoughts apt to sieze upon all all flesh thinking himselfe of no use in his age nor of any performance befitting such a name or calling as to be entitled a Son of God being destitute of any power or authority wisdome or policy device or invention art or science such as the sons of men have gathered and encroached unto themselves in all ages By sword stratagems by Schools and Seminaries by money and friendship by travell and humane experiments and observations Poor heart that thou art with respect unto the world canst thou pray be of good comfort it countervayls all it is the renownedst act that ever was wrought in the world Get thee to thy Closet viz. shut up thy selfe from the common courses and customs of this world and pray unto thy father in secret or according unto or in that secret and hidden mystery of Christ which is as secret and hidden from the world as thy selfe is hid from the wayes of the world in this thy closet or chamber of presence And thy father which seeth in seecret that is which beholds and approves of this mystery of God in thee will reward thee openly that is will make it manifest that the reward or end of thine estate and practice is to be made manifest to the Son of God and that the Heyr-ship and inheritance of the Kingdome of God appertayns and belongs unto thee 2. Again let such weigh this point that hold themselves free from believing any doctrine in the world till they see it accompanyed with miraculous works viz. works in like manner and form as they have beene done formerly as to heale the sicke restore the lame open the eyes of the blind and raise up the dead all these are taken in a bodily and corporeall respect These men do not consider that the famous and miraculous works that Elia did all of them are included in his prayer and that is as miraculous as any of them the miracles that Christ did they are all included in his prayers supplications and teares with strong cryes which is no lesse miraculous then any of the rest The wonders of Paul in doing and suffering are all comprized in this Behold he prayes Now the miraculous vertue and power of prayer consists not in words or any outward expression or bodily exercise in a form of words but in humble petition a lawfull suing out of right a just and legall appeale and judgement given according to the nature of the case propounded in which all accord and agree together to compleat the mystery and miracle of prayer having all these things in it whereby according to the law of the spirit our right of inheritance is faithfully sued out Note further that it is no more the form visible of any miracle that ever was wrought that is the proper seal to confirm the Gospel no more then the Ministry of the Letter that kills is the proper path of the spirit that gives life But it is the scope drift ayme and end of the miracle in what it poynts unto in that great and miraculous workmanship of Christ the son of the living God which is the true and proper seale of the Gospel and wheresoever that is effectually wrought there it is felt and approved and there only the Gospel or glad tidings of salvation is really and miraculously confirmed by a signe and wonder passing infinitely all momentany and corporeall respects But these men think they honour the Gospel and lift it up to its proper height and ancient dignity In thus concluding their opinion is no lesse honourable then that of those that have resolved and decreed that the pattering over the words of that prayer which Christ taught his Disciples as a spell is an effectuall ordinance in the house of God never looking at the life spirit and proper power of prayer only the form of words So these look at the form of the miracle wrought as it appears to a naturall eye as the other appears to the ear and never look at the true wonder and signe only sound in the son of man and else-where centred is no better then the magick of Aegypt for they may as well gape after the outward forms of words to be the prayer of the Gospel as the outward form of the work to be
as things of old from eternity and new as in present use fitting and beseeming the present oration and opportunity This phrase therefore is like that where the Apostle saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe till Christ be formed in you not as though they had now defaced Christ who before was formed in them but he declares hereby the effect of his doctrine from which some were turned aside unto the rudiments of the Law as unto another Gospel which he saith is not another but the same Gospel perverted by false Teachers telling them that some are entangled with the yoke of bondage thereby for he that is bound to any particular of the carnall commandement as to be circumcised or any outward form of bodily action He is bound to keepe the whole law and shews that such have abolished Christ and are faln from grace such effect he shews his Doctrine had of some as a savour of death unto death but there were others unto whom hee there speaks on whom his doctrine had a more noble effect as being a savour of life Therefore he saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe or I have brought you forth not in a second act but in another manner and way namely to the forming of Christ in you or framing you into the similitude of the Son of God once and for ever Even so it is here He prayed againe that is the spirit of intercession hath a secondary or other manner of effect then that which is before specified not another prayer but another manner of wonder accomplished by the same prayer for now the heavens gave raine and the earth brings forth her fruit We are to know then that as the Gospel opens the treasuries of the Kingdome of God unto an abundant freedome liberty and plenty of the going forth and exercise of the spirit of grace in the Saints even as water poured upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground through that office of intercession peculiar unto our Eliah without any hinderance or engagement of any bond of the flesh when through the spirit of prayer that cloud of witnesse or rayn of liberality ariseth as a hand or administration thereof even as the word of the Lord is sayd to come by the hand of Haggie and by the hand of Malachie and by the hand of all the Prophets which so covereth the heavens as no parching sun of the beams of mans wisdome and device taketh place no more then they doe in those over-shadowings of the Virgin by that holy spirit of God in the production of Christ Even so doth Prayer set at liberty the works of the flesh in the men of the world by opening the sluces and flood-gates thereof unto condemnation and destruction for the waters of the great deep mystery or bottomlesse pit are opened for the destruction of the world as well as the flood-gates of heaven for the safety of Noah and his houshold in bearing up the Ark fifteen cubits above the great mountayns of the States of this earth or of the world And this prayer doth not simply accidentally but ministerially and effectually in the same sence That the Gospell is a savour of death unto death Not only by gleaning of all the fruits of righteousnesse out of the wisdome of the Serpent or men of the world which centred in the Saints are the proper cause of the transcendencies of their estate above all humane excellencies so doth it also gleane all the vicious desires of the flesh out of that state and condition of Christ centring them in that state of unbeliefe whereby man descends infinitely beneath a state of simple humane or properties of a meer creature and by fashioning and corrupting the holy things of God becomes satanicall and diabolicall and such as seek to finde an excellent or commendable betwixt these twayn it cannot be better described or diciphered for the solidity of it then by that partition that divides Purgatory and Hell in those of that mercinary conceipt The abundance of spirit therefore in the Saints and that plenty of the spirit of the Prince of the power of the ayre which now works in the children of disobedience hold proportion in way of Antithesis otherwise an infinite and an eternall wrath could not take place in the wicked as an infinite and eternall glory doth in the Saints For he made but one speaking of that state of Christ with an elegant allusion unto the high Priest and wherefore but one seeing he had abundance of spirit namely that there might be a holy seed that whatsoever the fruits are that are by one Lord Jesus Christ of the same nature and dignity are all the fruits of happinesse produced and brought forth by that one mystical and spirituall body and so in a diameter respect are all the fruits of sin in the wicked This plenty in this two-fold respect is signified by warning given to Ahab to betake himselfe to his Chariot for I heare a noyse of much raine which Ahab flyes from as a terrible thing as it contayns the spirit of Eliah betaking himselfe to Chariot and horse in the furnitures of this world and Eliah flyes from it as it hath the spirit of Ahab and Jezebel as that which brings destruction upon them only hee betakes himselfe to the strength of Gods spirit to take the gates of Iesreel The plenty of Eliah's spirit is seen and taught in that duration and plenty in the cruse of oyle and barrell of meale raising up the womans sonne from death to life and annoynting Hazael and Jehu for the ruine of Ahabs house Elisha to be a Prophet in his stead and in the destruction of all those false Prophets of Baal And the plenty of the rayn of that spirit of wickednesse appears in Ahab and Jezebel their cruelty towards the Prophet of God their miserable and horrible overthrow and in their desire and endeavour to nourish and maintayn such plenty of a false spirit of prophesie upon the face of the earth and in this plenty of rain seed-time and harvest are continued for the world sow unto the flesh and the flesh they reap and inherit corruption and the Saints sow unto the spirit and inherit everlasting life And from this power of prayer he assumes the power and vertue of doctrine in which he concludes the Epistle to shew that where the power and vertue of the one resides there is the power and vertue of the other The prayer of Faith is never without the spirit of Prophesie and prophesie according to the spirit is never without the life and power of prayer and where one of these is wanting they are both absent from that party in the true exercise of them for a formall prayer is never accompanyed with the life and power of sound doctrine but as they have composed a prayer by mans invention gathering up expressions sutable in the understanding of a man so do they compose a
doctrine from Libraries School-distinctions and from a serious observation of the carriage and demeanour of one creature towards another only bringing God into the account by turning the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man and of birds four-footed beasts and of creeping things It is not Universities books and Libraries that can transfer the spirit of the Scriptures no nor the skill in those Languages wherein they were originally written without the same spirit comment upon them in our hearts by which they were first indited It is the spirit that indited them that gives the meaning of them and not the hand that writes or translates no more then paper and inke can doe it Without which spirit let us use all meanes and industry that possible we can it is but to pick at the bark and rinde of truths and cracking of a shell voyd and destitute of any kernell better then a gale of bitterness to be found in it and such as compose their Sermons of such stuffe their prayers are no better however they may shew the zeale of Baals Priests in the uttering of them But true prayer carries the force of the Doctrine of the Gospel in it by judging of the want and supply according unto God and true doctrine hath the power of prayer going forth in it for the effectuall performance of the things that are taught and neither the one nor the other consist of any form or statue that any book or Library can possibly bring and represent unto us for the visions and operations of God are never found in the same form and time as at another all circumstances duely weighed and considered Yet may we not deny but the same words may be used often and again in prayer or doctrine but with a various respect as this wonder of Eliah is brought in with respect to years months dayes and poynts of time so Christ prayed in the same words thrice but with variety and eternity of respect for the cup for ever passeth by him and toucheth him not as man is eternally saved in that blessed condition of the Son of God and it takes effect at the Sonne of God is transformed by the world into the cursed state and condition For if we make the death of Christ according to the true mystery of it wherein salvation doth consist to be of lesse continuance then eternity wee shall annihilate Christ and make salvation it selfe of no longer continuance for if Christ once dye unto the flesh in the godly he never lives unto it any more And if he once be dead in the wicked in respect of his proper spirit and life it is never repaired in them agayn for then there were not eteranll perdition which the word of God hath commended unto us upon like grounds of certainty that it hath done everlasting life That word translated was dead and is alive is read is dead and is alive as the same word I am an Apostle is used in the present tence Doctrine and prayer are inseparable companions even as Kingdome and Priest hood are as here in the way of Christ even so in the world in the way of Antichrist and thus the connexion of the next point is brought in Vers 19 20. Brethren if any of you have erred from the truth and one hath converted him c. In which words observe 1. A proposition consisting of two points As 1. Errour from the truth 2. A restauration 2. Observe an injunction and that hath two parts also 1. To acknowledge or make a confession of an estate or act 2. The party that is so to do and that is He that hath turned from errour 3. The state and condition or act done and that consists of two things 1. Death 2. The hiding of a multitude of sins BUt first observe the terme or appellation he gives as before he hath done Brethren By brethren here is meant a like brother-hood as in Esau and Jacob which are often so called Was not or is not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I have loved Jacob and hated Esau and layd his mountaine wast for ever So the Apostle hath respect to the wicked as brethren in a true sence to the godly because they consist of the same matter and substance that is God and man made one in the wisdome of the flesh as the Saints consist of God and man made one but according to the wisdome of the spirit If one of you or if any of you If one of you that is as a Nation considered collectively in Esau as the Oracle said to Rebecka Two nations are in thy womb or any of you that is distributively or distinctly and so it comprehends all the Apostates and Revolters from God or all vertues or excellencies in the Saints from which they are fallen and have erred and gone astray If any that is man and man one or other or thing and thing one and other whatsoever is in the Son of God Erred from the trueth that is gone astray and wandred from that which is the reality and substance of all things which is Christ the Son of God And to erre in this place is not simply for a meer creature to declyne and go away from his Creator but to pervert mis-apply and wrongfully to interpret the very things of God themselves turning his glory into shame his truth into a lye therefore they erre from truth as having been in it for that which was is and ever shall be righteousnesse and holinesse of truth they have perverted unto prophanesse and wickednesse by interpreting the things of God to be such as the proper spirit of a creature naturally brings forth so that it is a diabolicall spirit which this errour is formed into The particle if is not here to be taken as making questions or doubt whether there be such a swerving from truth but as a certaine affirmation that such there are as the Apostle explayns the Prophets meaning where it is sayd Vnto whom I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest which the Apostle expounds They shall not enter into his rest as an absolute certainty And so there is of one converting or turning from errour into truth in that wonderfull change that the Sonne of God makes in our nature for it is impossile that he should be held of death but as certainly as he layes down his life in the wicked so must he take it agayn in the godly otherwise there were an annihilation of him who is the Author and strength of all things which is impossible And in this change or turning we are not to take it as the simple and single spirit of a creature turned but the compleat spirit of him who is the Son of God for as the Apostle speaks of prayer We know not how to pray as we ought but the spirit maketh intercession for us It is not the spirit of God without the spirit of the creature for
SALTMARSH Returned from the Dead In Amico Philalethe OR The RESURRECTION of JAMES The Apostle Out of the Grave of Carnall Glosses for the Correction of the universall Apostacy which cruelly buryed him who yet liveth Appearing in the comely Ornaments of his Fifth Chapter in an Exercise June 4. 1654. Having laid by his grave Clothes in a despised Village remote from ENGLAND but wishing well and heartily desiring the true prosperity thereof John 11. 25. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert and are to be sold at the black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1655. To my honoured and beloved friends in London who in a solitary season in that populous Citie were so great refreshment unto me by their undeserved society WHereas of late I received letters from som of you wherein I read that name which is as an oyntment poured out causing the parties to whom it appeares to fall in love therewith carrying in it a spirit which can produce a reall presence where there is an absence in bodily respects and that not only in respect of divine nature simply considered but also in point of Christian relations and respects which is never destitute of humane considered therein and conversant therewith otherwise the goings forth of the spirits of the Saints could not be peculiar and distinct from that of the wicked which the divine and omnipotent power reachethalso Therefore the Saints communicate in prayers intercessions supplication giving of thanks so as a stranger cannot intermeddle therewith nor with their joy arising there-from And whereas some of you requested mee to write unto you concerning the opening of a portion of the word of God which some years agoe urged my spirit and put me into travell to bring forth but Satan hindered Your letters visited me immediately upon the employment of my spirit in another portion of the word of God which was then the proper strength I walked by which made me to think it might be a refreshment unto you which I could not lay aside till God opened another into which I might enter Neither could wee depart from that place till the cloud removed in-so-much that I was forcibly constrained to employ my selfe about the instruments and services of the Tabernacle to bring the sight thereof unto your selves in the first place And so made bold to set upon the writing of it yea when others slept beeause of my daily occasions and when it was writ I was much urged to endeavour the printing of it that so it might come to more view and being it was written in hast and so would be tedious to read I consented thereto although there is nothing which I have spoken in publique since I saw your faces but I could as freely commend it unto you The occasion of the Ark pitching upon this place which me-thinks looks like Elim in this wildernes where there are twelve fountains of water and 70. Palm-trees Numb 33. 9. For our Apostle writes to the twelve Tribes out of which we may draw plenty of the water of life and there is perfection and fulness of palm trees from which you may gather plenty of branches to carry as signes of victory not only of the abatement of that deluge of wrath but also of overcoming by faith this present world for Faith is the victory whereby we do it I say the occasion of the Arke pitching on this place was this We being met together to exercise our selves in the word of God and prayer there was one who occasionally named this Chap and read some part of it in which action the scope of it seemed to open it self unto me and to deale plainly and faithfully with you my thoughts had never been formerly upon any part of it so as intending to expresse my selfe from it but only as I have read it as other histories and writings of the word of God Whereupon my spirit was moved presently to speak from it what I did receive and immediately uttered to the same effect which I have in the following lines commended unto you out of my love unto you and engagements beyond my expression moved hereunto by your loving christian-like letters joyning themselves unto me like Philip to the Chariot of the Eunuch upon the delivery of it encouraging my heart hereunto which otherwise I had not takenupon me lest it should have been thought a worke not worthy your acceptance But if you please to take the payns carefully to peruse it I doubt not but it may give occasion of further thoughts unto you then can be expressed in so small a volume it may point as with a finger unto such things as to write them the world would not contayn the books the matter being of an infinite and an eternall nature holding proportion with Melchisedech who is without beginning of dayes or end of life Therfore the world cannot contain it unto whom this Scripture as under the motion of the cloud hath brought us where we now abide Heb. 7. For other place of our abode I may not signifie unto you for some of our Neighbours have professed before the state of England that the place of our bodily aboad is a non ens that it hath no being and others have affirmed that we are no people not affording us so much as God gives to the Conies which he calls a people though a small people yet they make their abode in the Rocks and it is that rock of Ages in whom only we desire to be found to take these courtesie a patiently as we do other kindnesses under which we yet abide as in that point of banishment only for such matters as in the following speech we tender unto you Whereas you make mention of a Sermon preached from the Prophesie of Isaiah speaking of the new heavens and the new earth in the restauration of the Church from which it was concluded that such an excellent estate of Religion was to come hereafter as never yet appeared which some could not be satisfied in such Exposition or Conclusion we see it to be not onely the common doctrine but deceipt also of the world not to give Christ a present being but hold men in expectation as in the ancient Jews who when he appears seek his ruine and that is the top of that spirit By new heavens and new earth in that place we understand the state of Christ or of that holy unction or Christianity that as the visible heavens earth to which he alludes make a compleat and fruitfull world even so do God man in Christ make one durable and fruitfull condition wherein righteousness dwells as our Apostle witnesseth which according to that law of the spirit is adorned with infinitely more relations operations and vertues then all the Creations in Heaven and Earth can set forth which hee calls new not with respect unto these visible but with
respect unto that oldnesse of the letter and administrations according to the carnall Command wch the Apostle calls old because it is weak fading and ready to vanish away and so is called the olde heavens the old earth that passe away and that Ministry which exerciseth according to that being ever conscientious of the present want of the glory and power of God in it is constrained to form a time to come which will attayn thereunto or else it could gayn no acceptation in the world but through Conception of hopes which are like the spiders web But the Ministry of the spirit according to that word of life gives present being to the thing it expresseth or else it carries not in it that power of God the nature of whose word was ever so to do and ever will be and they are sayd to be new First because of the ground thereof for they renew themselves only by meanes of that which is antiquity it selfe for in the unity of God and man in the faith of Christ the spirit of God being an infinite fountaine must ever give out it selfe by new operations and not as one in want to gather up againe the same thing in all respects considered in which he hath been formerly exercised no more then a living fountaine gathers up the same water already vented to distribute it againe and by reason of this infinite and eternity of spirit and life the soule of a Christian or this spirituall state and condition in Christ is in an eternall act of newnesse like that new commandement that the Apostle writes of and that old commandement which is from the beginning Secondly they are new according their manner of being for in what point of the Gospel soever Christ is made it stands of as firm grounds of aboad and as impossible to remove as heaven and earth and we know that the very nature of the earth establisheth it selfe in its repayring unto the Center in such sort hath God established the state of his sons daughters and yet when another point of the Gospel is made manifest it is upon like ground but to be taken in as differing a respect and variety of furniture and glory as though it were another world and so in every appearance of Christ it hath his whole and compleat condition comprehended and comprized in the same as the whole world is in the heavens and the earth for Christ or christianity is never piece-meal'd As for example If he be revealed as Father with respect to a Son it hath the whole furniture of heaven and earth the whole estate of Christ as Husband with respect to a Spouse there is the furniture of the whole world for it is Christ who is all in all if as King with respect to subjects there is whole Christ all christianity is to be found there imbodyed and so in all points whatsoever else Christ is not preached as all in every thing no office or operation of Christ but it hath in it whole Christ and so ought to be revealed else we preach a humane Christ and not divine a carnall Christ and not a spirituall And where it is sayd the new heavens and the new earth which I will make the word may as truly be read which I do make or which I have made For it is Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever So that as the state of Christ which is the eternall Son must needs remayn so shall the fruitfull condition of this estate therefore their name and their seed must remayn like heaven in name or authority for operation or power and as the earth to conceive bring forth the fruits of righteousness as that which is ever in motion for the renewing of the glory and fame thereof but I doubt not but something in the speech following will give farther light to this point then now we have time to manifest Only note thus much that such Doctrine as sets forth a time to come of more worth and glory then either is or hath been such Doctrine keeps the Manna till to morrow to the breeding of wormes in it Yea it hath in it that worm that dyes not for if Christ our Pass-over be eaten according to the law of the spirit there is nothing to be left till the morning And if it be the bread that comes downe from heaven it must be compleatly eaten at present and there wil be no want to morrow for it fals anew afresh otherwise the word of God that food of heaven is corrupted by reserving that for to morrow which belongs to this present day and in the sixe dayes labour in the operations of God we have plenty to feed on In the seventh as a cessation from all our own works keeping a perfect Sabboth unto God so that the kingdome of Christ is to be declared and whole possession and present enjoyment given and yet it is a Kingdome to come So that wee have it in expectation as to come as well as we fetch it up from that eternall estate of the Son to give it a present being for if wee have it not as from the first and to the last we give it not its present being and then uo Kingdome of Christ for no man can make him the first and the last that is eternize the Son but he must give him a present being without intermission of a moment of time Dear friends let me intreat you to read and consider and lend mee your help in the way of interpretation for there is no lesse need of that in him that hears then in him that speaks in him that reads then in him that writes for the light must shine in him that heares or reads as well as in him that speaks or writes or else it is not fruitfull unto him For we see by that light set up in our selves which God hath made our owne and not as the same light is in another Therefore if you gather any comfortable fruit from what is sayd let it be as your owne worke by the spirit of Christ and not as mine I have only endeavoured to put the Manna into the Arke and there only you shall find it compleatly in the pot like the oyle in the cruse and meale in the barrell lasting to preserve life and incorrupted unto this day Which if any thing that is sayd may seem to direct you unto then I have my reward and so I humbly take my leave and ever remayne yours in all services of love in our only beloved S. G To my much respected and honoured friends in and about Lynne in Norfolke in whom I have perceived grave and joyfull Acclamations at the publication of the Gospel Deare and loving friends YOur carriage towards me or rather towards the truth of God was such when I was for a short time among you that it is a sufficient engagement to bind me over for ever to be yours Doe not thinke that my not
to pray or to believe or the grace of remission of his sins expressed and declared in those glad tidings For the grace of Christ is as truly collective in the subsistance of it as distributive whosoever therefore receives freely that party hath a like vertue also freely to give Moreover the world who by wisdome know not God teach by that wisdome that a Christian may be possessed with and have the enjoyment of the spirit of Christ that holy spirit of the Son of God and yet the humane nature of Christ not present but wholy absent and remote in another place these men may aswel upon like ground professe themselves to be members of Christ but not of his body for of his Saints he saith Ye are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone not of another So that the two natures in Christ according to the mystery of salvation in the Gospel are of the same extent that his mysticall body is and are co-apparent to the wisdome of God in whomsoever it is For the spirit of Christ never uttered or manifested it selfe but as the son of sorry man utters and manifests himselfe in and by such principles and abtitudes as are proper and peculiar to the living and eternall God taking their being and form from the wisdome and power of God and not from the policie and power of a creature for without the Coagulation of these twayn there is no spirit of Christ made manifest nor is it in its operation Therefore to separate the spirit of Christ from the humane nature of Christ in any of its operations is to make a nullity of Christ the faith of such persons is vaine their holy garments of the Ministry are moth-eaten their righteousnesse is the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees which enter not into the kingdome and their proper holinesse is the purification of the flesh purging themselves of all the operations of the spirit of life that no ray or beame thereof be found upon them which a wicked man is as careful of as the Saints of God are of being stained and spotted with the flesh For if we gather not up and take in true man into all the operations proper to the spirit of God wee dis-unite and separate that which the wisdome of God hath so curiously embroydered and wrought up together for the spirit of Christ and of God quickneth only to that blessed estate and condition of the Son of God and not to any other even as a rationall spirit filled with artificiall principles to find out the nature and cause of things quickneth only unto that state and condition of man-kind and not unto the condition of any other creature upon the earth Vers 3. Your gold and your silver is canckered and the rust of them shall be a witnesse against you and shall eate your flesh as fire yee have heaped treasure together for the last dayes AS Gold and Silver are the most precious and durable mettals in the account and use of man so righteousnesse and holinesse are the diadem and duration of the Gospel of the Kingdom the son of God and they are reckoned here as their Silver and Gold who crucifie the love of life and glory no otherwise but as sinne is reckoned upon Christ where it is said that he was made sin for us who knew no sinne even so these are made righteous that know no righteousnesse of God in Christ For the just and unjust are made of like yea of the very same matter for God and man are really to be considered both in the one and in the other and otherwise the true state of life and death canot be rightly composed neither is the gospel and faith of the Son of God preached For in what tone sence or respect man may be said to be in that worke of salvation wrought by Christ and participate in the power and glory thereof In like sence may the Sonne of God be said to be and is in that work of destruction and participates in the defect and shame thereof For as the wisdome of God in that way of Christ purifies and cleanseth that earthly and corruptible nature of man in its taking of it into unity from all sin and uncleanesse unto a state and condition becoming the Sonne of the holy and eternal God even so doth the wisdome of man or of the flesh in taking hold of and searching into the things of God corrupt and defile unto or in it selfe that holinesse and puritie which is in the word or Sonne of God unto a state and condition proper and peculiar to that man of sinne and son of perdition for the world by widome knows not God that is through its proper wisdome and Serpentine policie is blinded and become ignorant of him So that there is a true and reall proportion between the mistery of God in Christ and the mistery of iniquity in Antichrist else the state of the wicked could not have in it an Almighty power of wrath and displeasure as the state of the Saints hath in it an allsufficiency of mercy and love for the proper Original and fountaine of each is in themselves and not in another that is to say the proper fountaine of love and mercy is in Christ and not else-where to be found and the proper fountaine of wrath and displeasure is in Antichrist and not founded else-where So that righteousnesse and holinesse of the word of God or Sonne of God for it is not the word but in its creating virtue as it frames it selfe in Christ and this word is canckered in the world for God and man in a mistery are become a corrupt estate and condition in that way of Antichrist directly contrary unto that oriental Gold and seven times purified silver that is in Jesus Christ and that party who is ignorant of the mistery of iniquity in the corrupting and adultrating of the word of God may talk of the unity that is in Christ Jesus purifying making chast mans nature in that word of God but it is onely as he hath received it by tradition from Libraries Councels and Accademical courses but the revelation of the spirit he knows not the onely means of the conveyance of the knowledge thereof The purest mettal thus changed becoms rust and that is first witnesse against them secondly It eates their flesh as fire Rust we know is the putrifaction and filthinesse of mettals contracting it selfe and arising from the not using thereof even so the not exercising and putting into use the righteousnesse and holinesse of the word of God that royal law of the spirit is the contraction raising up of the vision and corrupt desires of the flesh which is the very cancker spot and staine of the soule that it becoms reprobate Silver thereby not to passe for currant to any in the kingdome of God First and this rust by this means contracted is a witnesse against them that they have put the just one to death as
mistery of iniquity also which properly makes and gives being unto the God of this world which is no lesse then Satan himselfe who attempts through his arrogating insatiable spirit to tender unto Christ all the kingdoms of the Earth and the glory of them the one of these is a wonder but a lying one because it brings not forth what it promiseth as the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises is a righteousnesse but not that which enters into the kingdome and the other is a wonder and a true miracle because it brings to passe the things it promiseth even as the righteousnesse of Christ enters into the kingdom and sitteth in safety and honour at the right hand of God And they that preach not the Gospel as accompanied with these signes in the ministry of it according to the variety of the work proposed the speaking and creating word of his signes is not sent unto that people for their release and deliverance out of the house of bondage and yet it is true that tongues are for a sign not to them that beleive but to them that beleive not that is an unbeleiver ever expects that a signe should speak in the same form which formerly it hath done or else he takes it not for a wonder wrought by God but then there should need no interpretatiin the Church at all without which tongues are not of use unto edefying The worlds expectation of signes to accompany the preaching of the Gospel for the confirmation of it in the same forme as formerly is the expectation of Infidels such as follow Christ to be fed with carnal things bread that perisheth in the use like them that after they had been fed miraculously with the loaves and the fishes they persue and follow him to have a signe that he is a man of God and conclude that Moses was a man of God that could give bread from heaven but this not coming in like for me but from the Earth though in that wonderfull multiplication and increase is as nothing unto them But the signs wonders and mighty works accompanying the grace of the Gospel never appear twice in the same forme so that a man may as well expect the water that now bubleth up in a living and swift running fountaine to tarry and abide for him till his return to it againe as to fit down by a wonder wrought by God till it appear in the very same forme againe it coming out of that inexhaustible fountaine and swift running current of that infinite variety of his wisdome and power Moses miraculously fasted forty dayes and forty nights and is in the mount with God and hath in that fast the law the perfect pattern of all truth and holiness presented and shewed unto him and againe Christ fasted forty dayes and forty nights but was in the wildernesse among wilde beasts and therein had the temptations of Satan the proper platforme of the power of darknesse represented unto him which differs much from the pattern of salvation and kingdome of light Eliah also fasted forty dayes and forty nights but was miraculously fed before in the strength of which food he went into a cave by the mount of God and there had apparitions voices manifested unto him wherein God made himselfe manifest and also such wherein God appeared not at all one forty dayes fast not but in variety of wonder one death of Christ but a diverse signe in it he is slaine at Jerusalem and our Lord is also crucified in Sodome and in Aegypt true in both with respect to flesh and spirit And so much for the word Behold implying a wonder wherein observe the deceitfull sleights and cunning devices of the Magissians the Jannes and Jambres of our dayes who have erected for the confirmation of Princes great signes of honour and Godlike prosperity Kings Chappels and pulpits of State state-State-prayers and state-like officers in the Church for forming of them that they may carry their virtue by whomsoever uttered state-religion and state-like pompe in the exercise of it as though the Kings of the earth should be thereby declared to be not onely the off-spring of the almighty but the deputed Gods In what doth the successe and issue of these Doctors indeavors end in differing from those Magissians in Aegypt in the confirmation and incouragement of their King first born and his alies 2. The second point is who the Labourers are or the Labourer for the word may be read either singular or plurally as it usuall in Scripture to use words of active and passive signification as also such as may be read either in the masculine or feminine gender without wrong to the Text so also such as will beare either the singular or plurall number and so it is in this place To take the word therefore in the singular acceptation it is Christ collectively considered in that one intire and mysticall body of his comprehending all the Saints in all ages of the world Againe take it plurally Labourers and it is Christ distinctly distributed and given out in all the parts and members of that body for he is that Labourer or Husband-man that sowes good seed in his field though the evill one sow tares in the time of his sleep or when and where he is dead to all things of the spirit which is in that evill one only upon whom they grow He sowes with his owne hand as he is that one fountaine and giver out of the seed in all ages yesterday and to day and for ever the same And his seeds-men sow also as he is a participator and the receiver thereof for he receiveth the spirit though not by measure for it is immence 3. The third point is what the labour is in reaping down the fields By reaping here is not meant cutting downe but in gathering also as the word-imports Christs reaping therefore is the cutting downe of all those riches and ripened fruits of the flesh those superfluous branches from the true Vine that they be not found in the field or upon that hand of Emanuel which else-where is said to be the crueifying of the flesh in the affections and lusts and the slaying of the enmity in himselfe which are the proper in gatherings of the worke and that whereof their harvest and Vintage doth consist whereby their regions become white unto the harvest that is it sets them in a capacity to be cut downe by an eternall destruction and in these the labourer is defrauded who hath spent his strength in them in vaine or unto emptinesse and laboured for nought as he complains by his Prophet or in the Prophet Isaiah In them he hath lost his time as a labourer hath who is deprived of his hire for his time and age is not extant in them the time of grace is expended the day of salvation is not found in them his generation is ceased in them and is no more even as a labourer hath lost his time so spent as no
in the destroying Angel to cause him to passe over as not having any employment there Even so the blood of Abel shed by the cruelty of Cain as a Lamb slain from the beginning according to the spirit or by the subtilty of Judas betraying him with a kisse hath in it a sufficient cry in the destroying Angel to move the exercise of wrath upon the first born of Aegypt the beginning top of all that strength wherein they trust who cruelly and fraudulently keep back Israel from his advance unto the land of Canaan The one hath in it the voyce and language of peace reconciliation and agreement with God as his first-born and onely beloved The other hath in it breach of brother-hood and fellowship the voyce of a vagabond flying from Gods presence and the glory of his power as in Caine and wrath unto self-murther and destruction as in Judas Iscariot that Confessor or Preacher for hire as his name signifies in whom the word of God in it selfe Lord over all is changed and transformed into an hireling 6. This cry enters into the eares of the Lord for as there is a certaine propencity in the eare of a man to take in any sound that moves the ayre and to give it a true and proper form his heart ecchoing the same thing whether it be matter of joy or matter of terrour Even so there is nothing that moves either in the proper sphere of Gods displeasure or of his acceptation and love but there is a proper and immediate aptitude in his wisdome and power to receive and give a true form thereunto according to the nature thereof ecchoing the same thing in returning an answerable and proportionable measure of wrath or mercy into that heart in which it moves where he hath place of a boad either in way of mercy as man by unity is become the Son of God in Christ or else in wrath as God is by unity also become the sonne of perdition in that way of Antichrist 7. And therefore that terme and title of honour is given him namely the Lord of Sabboth or Sabboths plurally for that which the Prophet Isaiah writes the Lord of Hosts plurally the Apostle to the Romans writes the Lord of Sabboth that is the Lord of Rest or plurally Rests and this declares unto us that wonder of Gods rest or cessation from his work and labour in the beginning and and how he worketh also even untill now For God rests and there is an absolute cessation of all works and operations proper to the Son of God in that way of the fall eating of the forbidden fruit or exercise of the carnall commandement in which no vertue motion or operation of the spirit is found but an utter and absolute cessation from them all and so the earth is sayd to enjoy its Sabboths by Gods laying of it wast from its inhabitants and in this condition the operations of the flesh and power of Satan are found and frequently in exercise Againe God resteth and ceaseth from labour for we never understand the name God in a good and proper sence but with respect unto God in Christ by whom the worlds were made and in him God rests and there is an utter and totall cessation from all the works of sin and death fruits of the flesh and operations of Satan which mans nature is subject unto there is a perpetuall rest cessation and sabbatizing in the Son of God from them all but there is a most glorious operation of the spirit and powerfull work of the Son of God in that estate and condition of Jesus Christ who is that rest that yet remayns in the people of God therefore it is said hitherto the father worketh and I worke and therefore the word Saba in the Hebrew tongue signifies either Sabboth a Rest or an Host or Armie and sometimes the Apostles in Greeke translates it Lord God Almighty to declare that there is an Almighty power of conquest in whomsoever the rest is found for there is an Almighty power of the whole host of Satans enmity in conquering and subduing the spirit and vertues of Christ in themselves resting from them all And there is an Almighty power of the spirit of grace in that Army of Heaven and order of the Son of God in vanquishing and subduing of all the power of sin and Satan unto that perfect rest which ever remayns in that only and beloved Son of God And truly the world may as well preach the temporall sword to be the Rescue Reformer and Conservation of the Church as the best and greatest Councell Synods Synodrians and Assemblies that ever were or can be gathered together only in the strength and power of humane learning wisdome experience and policy for in such the Lord is in array as an host and in rest and cessation but it is to do that work that strong worke of wrath not proper to the Son of the blessed whereby he rests from all his owne operations as the ensuing words do declare Vers 5. Yee have lived in pleasures on the earth and been wanton yee have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter YOu have lived in pleasure on the earth as Dives or that rich man did that is you have taken delight and made it your very living to exercise your selves in earthly and temporary things all your dealings and commerce is in such things as your selves cannot but confesse must have an end and cease to be and therefore earthly as your bodily fasts and humiliations your bodily feasts and verbal thanksgivings for vanishing things your Sabboths only in cessation from bodily labour your earthly victories and honourable achievements these are the food you feed on the things wherein your delight and pleasure is set and must they not have an end If so then are they earthly because they fade and vanish as the flower of grasse Nay the order of your Churches and Elderships the ordination and institutions of your Oracles and Orators will these stand with the Assembly and Church of the first-born of God whose names are enrolled in heaven where every one hath a like share and equall right to all the offices orders and priviledges of the kingdome if not they are earthly composed by the ministery of the letter that kills and not by the law of the spirit of life Add further what is your faith your prayers and righteousnesse are not these earthly and carnall as held and practised by you Can you tell what use to put them unto in your professed world to come I tro not for for any thing that ever I could learn from the common Priesthood of these dayes they have no use of the imputed righteousnesse of the Son of God when once their sanctification is compleated nor of their faith when they have attayned the end of it which they say is at their coming to heaven nor of prayer when they shall need no more to converse with or have supply of
the resurrection and so much for the argument drawn from the danger Lest ye be condemned The second follows which is the readinesse for execution and that in way of wonder Behold the Judge standeth before the doore Behold that is admire and wonder at the appearing of this signe also namely that the righteous Judge of all the earth that renders to every one according to his work hath no other door to come in at no other way of entrance whereby to passe sentence of absolution or condemnation no way to quit the just or condemn the wicked no way to exercise mercy or severity but only through this two-fold estate and condition of man-kind namely the crucifiers of Christ according to the flesh and the crucifiers of Christ according to the spirit Therefore he that finds a condition way or act wherein God is only as a bare spectator or else exerciseth some-what besides or out of the way either of mercy or wrath among the sonnes of men let such conclude of another estate in man-kind besides these twayn But let such know that they are not of the spirit of Abraham the friend of God for he acknowledged freely the Lord to be Judg of all the earth in that destruction of Sodome and deliverance of just Lot which these men deny if there be another way of the administration of the Creature whereinto the Lord enters not for he hath no way of entrance in the way of his administrations among the sons of men but only at this two fold door either of mercy or wrath Let such look to this point who makes a good and commendable way of administration in meer civill affayrs wherein the grace and favour of God is not properly exercised in that way of Christ neither is the wrath of God in exercise as in that way of Antichrist But such will find that he who is not of the faith and works of Abraham hee is of the law of the flesh and spirit of the world and he that hath the spirit of the world hath not the spirit of Christ And whosoever hath noth the spirit of Christ the same is none of his and they that do not the works of Abraham they are not the children of Abraham but of their father the Devill whose workes they do and will do For this two-fold door is the only way of entrance in all the wayes of administration belonging to him who is that righteous Judge of all the earth Therefore he is sayd to stand before the doore or as the word may be read with the doore that is hath setled and confirmed himself to be Judg of all with this way of entrance for administration for the word stand in this place signifies to minister as in the administration of the Priests and Levites in the house of the Lord It is said that Judah rejoyced that they stood before the Lord So the Prophets are sayd to stand before the Lord when they Minister with power and authority from him And the word translated Before may be read with by the allowance of the spirit of God for where one Prophet saith I am a stranger before thee as my fathers were Another reports the same thus I am a stranger with thee as all my fathers were And where it is translated to be the speech of the King to Haman he will force the Queen before me in the room Another translates he will force the Queen with me in the room and many the like for the Hebrew words ethpenei and liphenei are both one of the same signification and put one for another in the Scriptures To conclude this poynt the wonderfull and miraculous power of the Gospel in being a savour of life unto life and a savour of death unto death consists in this two leaved gate as the phrase of the Prophet is and here it is a door of a double or two-fold entrance of one eternal act in the distribution of mercy and justice For behold the Judg hath no other entrance but with respect of opening this two-fold work of the mystery of God and the mystery of iniquity for the performance of all the workes which have been are or shall be exercised and done among the children of men the truth whereof is ever repined at by such as are under the power of condemnation from whom he separates the Saints whereupon the next words are brought in as holding a consimilitude among themselves Vers 10. Take my brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience In which words observe 1. A reiteration with an addition of the terme Brethren My brethren 2. Adoration leading them to the Prophets for a pattern who are described unto us 1. By their speaking of the word of the Lord. 2. By their suffering affliction and patience therein 1. HE gives the terme brethren here as he did before but in another respect for he excludes that brotherhood as having respect to that of Esau therefore he speaks unto them conjunctively and assumptively my brethren So that it is not the phrase of Scripture that is onely to be minded in the understanding of the will of God but what it is that God intends in that place by using such a phrase so accompanied with its coherence otherwise we may take Antichrist for the true Christ and the true Christ for Antichrist and the God of this world for the true God For sometimes the word Gods in the plurall number intends Idols as the Apostle teacheth there are Gods many and Lords many that is Idols cut out unto places and offices in the world created and set up by men but unto us saith he there is but one God And sometimes the plural Gods Elohim signifies the true God the Creator and maker of all as it is sayd In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth c. And sometimes the same word is taken for the holy and godly Judges in Israel as when the servant after his seven years service would not depart from his master he was to be brought to the Gods the word is Elohim that is to the Judges to have his eare bored through to serve him for ever So also the Scriptures makes report of false Christs in the plural number and the true annoynted is given in the plurall phrase also where the Psalmist saith Touch not my Christs and do my Prophets no harme and so Antichrist stiles himselfe Christ in the singular phrase as well as the true Christ is so expressed as the Evangelist reports many shall come in my name and shall say I am Christ and shall deceive many there is joy in the stony ground where the corne withereth and never comes to good as well as in that harvest which is ripened in the kingdome of God where they return with joy bringing their sheaves with them there is a righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees which enters not into the kingdome as
way to Damascus So that we may not give these execrable things any being or time or abode in the Apostle of Christ no more then we can give unto him to be a servant of sin at that time when he saith So then in my mind I my selfe serve the law of God but in my flesh the law of sinne which things are inconsistant in one individuall subject For the word of God is an eternall word and expresseth not it selfe but with respect unto an eternall act it is not a transient and momentany thing when it saith of Christ I am a worm and no man an object a scorn a bubble a vapour a vanity a nothing to be in the belly of hell and in the heart of the earth to be shut up and cannot get out These things are not momentany expressions and transient acts for the word and work of God is no such thing according to the true and reall intent and operation thereof But they are reall manifestations and declarations of what the world hath really made of the word and wisdome of God in themselves And so are these expressions of Paul true manifestations what the condition of a carnall Jew is and how they deal with Christ the wisdome of God and ever will do in whomsoever he appears from which spirit that glorious change wrought once and for ever in Christ hath freed all the Saints and set them in the liberty of the Son of God which otherwise are no better but by nature the same with others So that it is not creation of man in being made one with God wherein blessednesse doth properly consist but it is that generative vertue of the immortall seed bringing forth unto God together with that act of conjunction whereunto true blessednesse is annexed therefore Christ is truly sayd to be made and also to be begotten For out of that act of Creation in the unity of God and man not only the wisdome of God makes it selfe manifest in giving form unto Christ the seed of the woman but also that wisdome of the creature namely of man which gives form to the Serpent who was more wise then any beast of the field which the Lord God had made And that is the seed of the Serpent so brought forth that is in consulting with the wisdome of God from humane principles This is a faithfull saying then of Paul and worthy to be embraced of all men so as to utter the same language That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chiefe For he that cannot acknowledge himselfe to be the first or chiefe of sinners that is to say in his grand Ancestor being made one in that act of Creation as he comes of the earth and so in that way of the unbeliever is the first perverter of the word of God to destruction though in himselfe in his proper subsistance in the way of the generation of the Son of God hee is once and for ever freed therefrom in that deliverance made by Christ so that it is none of his inheritance or portion otherwise no man can ever acknowledg himselfe to be blest and possessed with the first and chief righteousnesse that ever was namely that righteousnesse of God in Jesus Christ nor know himselfe to be a first-born of God an heyr of the promise and an inheritance of life that lasts for ever And so we come to the fourth part of the Chapter contayning that fruitfull and wholsome benefit which spring from the death of Christ in all true Christians the first whereof is layd downe in the next verse Vers 13. Is any among you afflicted let him pray is any merry let him sing VVHerein we are to observe a two-fold proposition layd down interrogatively together with a two-fold answer given thereunto The first whereof is this Is any among you afflicted let him pray By affliction in this place is meant diminishing or weakning as the word imports and so Pharaoh afflicted Israel in Aegypt to weaken and diminish them lest they should grow in multitude and so wax too strong for him and his people but God makes use of that his dealing with them to increase and multiply them exceedingly for that which weakens men in the worlds account proves through Gods device to be the strength and power of the Saints of God Therefore our Apostle puts us upon this question Is any among you afflicted Being that he had told them of what nature the death of the Son of God is in the godly namely to bereave and dispoil them of all the strength glory excellency and goodlinesse of man so as it becomes as the withered grosse or decayed flower of the field when the spirit of the Lord breaths upon it yea though they be weakned and diminished in all such respects so as they have nothing of that nature to trust or betake themselves unto which can stand them in any stead As if hee should say hath the Gospel and word of the Kingdome made spoyl and prize of all things among you or in you hath it routed and layd you wast of all such transitory wayes and perfunctory worships as the carnall and litterall Jewes do commonly boast themselves of and comfort and content themselves in of which Paul sayth If any man might boast of he much more circumcised the eighth day of the stocke of Israel of the tribe of Benjamine an Hebrew of Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee concerning zeale persecuting the Church and touching that righteousness which is in the law blamelesse And where shall we find a Church extant in these dayes which speaks by any other spirit then this which runs in the sincke and channell of such externall and extrinsicall institutions ordinances genealogies pharisaical righteousnesse persecuting zeale and tribe-like division of rule and government But what saith our Apostle of all these things But what things were gaine to me that is as the very wealth and riches of a carnall Jew those I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I counted all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and count them but dung that I may winne Christ And for this losse diminution or affliction our Apostle prescribes the cure and remedy in whomsoever it is suffered in this his answer given Let him pray The word Let hath a like Emphasis as that of the Creation at the beginning Let there be light and it was so and hath in it the very force and vertue of creating the spirit of prayer and intercession in that heart in which this losse diminution or affliction is found for it signifies as much as Amen so be it or so it is or so it shall be so that it fits the soule with the spirit of prayer as the world was furnished with light by the same phrase in the beginning without which spirit or breath of prayer the soule is without
but is unmeasurable in all its operations whether in prayer or in prophesie for they are so neare in allyance that that which is the spirit of Prophesie in Eliah in the history in his shutting up of the heavens and restraining them from raine and also in the opening of them to give rayn in abundance is sayd here by our Apostle in this Chapter to be prayer Prayer therefore and Prophesie are of like nature and of like fame in the the house of God so that to prefer one before the other or to contayne the one harder to be attayned then the other or that one is of more use in the Church then the other is not according to the judgment of God but only in humane wisdome and the Serpents subtilty and policy that things are so carryed in the world to lead men along in blindnesse by speaking of the word of God in such unknown languages which are not to be heard in the house of God for there is no office of Christ whatsoever or exercise of his spirit that one ought to be preferred before another only the call of God makes every one chief and principall in its time and season If men would well consider this they might as well lay out money upon their children in the Schools to learn them to pray as to teach them to preach in case the Spirit of God might be bought for money But the poynt is that true Prayer and Prophesie do give and proclaym a like honour vertue and power to Christ in whomsoever he appears and they are so near a kin that the Apostle appoynts one and the same law in the exercise of them both that is in prayer and prophesie the man is to be uncovered and in prayer and prophesie the woman is to be covered And it is â—suall in Scripture to use one phrase that signifies both as in the Psalms Let God arise prayer-wise or as the word may be as truly read God will arise or God shall arise and his enemies shall be scattered prophetically The reason is because none but a Seer can be a supplicant if he behold not the thing by the spirit of interpretation or prophesie to give a true form unto it he can never sue for it because he knows not what it is To conclude this point this act of the Elders may either be taken to pray with him or prophesie with him for we see the spirit of God useth them indifferently the one for the other as in that instance of Eliah which he brings in in teaching this doctrine for the one is as healthfull and necessary for the recovery and well-being of the soule as the other and of as wonderfull and miraculous effect for remission and confirmation and cannot be in exercise by any either the one or the other but as it is accompanyed with the holy oyle even that annoynting which teacheth all things and hath no need to be taught of man that is it hath no need of humane skill which fals infinitely short of that which it brings the soule unto and instructs and teacheth it in and that leads us to the second poynt in the exercise of the Elders They annoynt him with oyle 3. This sick party therefore or all such as are dead to the law of the letter or carnall command that is to the word of God as it is formed and fashioned through the wisdome art and skill of humane principles which the Schools of Learning among the sons of men in the world are only exercised in and conversant about or else they should undermine their owne foundations and so let fall their building for Gods wisdome once layd in the descention of the Son of God overthrows it all as it comes of the Serpent and so is Satanicall folly But we must know that the Eldership of Israel consists of the first-born of God and no other unto whom the Scriptures look in the first-born of every Tribe or family of Israel to instruct us in that family which the Apostle speaks of that the whole every part thereof is named or hath its renown and authority only of and from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as Paul affirms to the Ephesians as being of no other but of his true and proper off-spring so as to make a difference of the sons of God none excepted as one being of greater eminency birth breeding or excellency then another is to cast reproach upon that one only father of whom every one is named that appertayns to that family as though he were not of like power and glory with respect unto them all or as though he changed his act in producing of his only son which tends to nothing else but to make the seed of the bond-wman heire with the seed of the promise and guil efully to give the wicked interest in the promise whereas the word of the curse is only their inheritance But the children of this off-spring having the name of this one Father called upon them or they called by his name holy and blessed for ever every one as a first-born of God bearing his name and authority is King Priest and Prophet by vertue thereof in the family and there cannot be any inferiour among such as to whom God communicates himselfe in the whole off-spring nor can one be in account and reckoning before another For of his owne will begate he us by the word of truth that we should be the first fruits of him who is no lesse then the eternall father So that it is impossible that this Eldership should appear and not be annoynted with the holy oyle for it is their proper patrimony and birth-right and therefore they ever appeare invested therewith which ever carries in it the same vertue of healing this sick party in all ages and times of the world and a like miraculous recovery and restauration where-ever they are called for by the spirit of true interpretation or prophesie for they cannot with-hold but must impart to every one in the family that which themselves are blessed withall For none can know what is the right of the first-born of God and be possessed therewith but he must freely impart it to every one in the family For the Spirit of Christ is ever like it selfe in all ages only men deceive themselves by mistake of the variety of figures wherein God in one Christ or holy annoynting commends himselfe unto us doting upon the shadow wherein the substance is wrapped up as under Moses vale and they see it not nor can endure the glory and shine thereof But to whomsoever Christ unveyles himselfe hee imparts whole and compleat salvation to every one else it cannot be the salvation of God for he or it cannot be divided and therefore the holy unction is alike shed forth to every one in this Kingdome and they that have it must of necessity annoynt every one into whose fellowship they are called according to the nature of the call of
unto thee arise take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house So that to preach the Gospel to the restauration of the soule from the policy that is from the fear terrors and tremblings of the law as at Mount Sinai to bring it unto Zion giving strength to take up that and carry it unto its proper place as that man carried his bed into the proper place which is his house which before had carried him extravagantly and diseasedly abroad wheresoever the Gospel exerciseth its power to raise up any to walk in the way of God before others in prayer or prophesie or any appointment of God according to the nature and season of it as that man is said to walk before them all to their admiration wheresoever the Gosplel is ministred to that effect there is also in that ministration power to forgive sin for the one is of like case and of like difficulty as the other is yea they are both in one act for he that can preach the Gospel to carry sin into its proper place which must be done or else the Gospel is not truly preached he must of necessity remove it from the chosen of God which is the true remitting and passing of it over unto another He that hath power therefore to preach the Gospel to the healing of the Conscience of the palsie sicknesse or tremblings of the law in the dead works thereof or works of death that man hath power to forgive sins on earth for they are inseperable and Christ in that place alluded unto makes them one for first he saith son thy sins be forgiven thee and in the rehearsall of it he saith his speech was arise take up thy bed and walk go thy way into thy house And we know that Christ saith to his Disciples whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retaine they are retained And again what ye binde on earth is bound in heaven and what ye loose on earth is loosed in heaven to walk and work therefore in the things of God according to the power intended by the word of God are of greater concernment then they would think for to preach the Gospel in the revelation of the minde and will of God as to an onely Son or to present our supplications to God as a father from the minde and disposition of an onely son are of no lesse authority and power then to to give sins for to pray with the spirit and to pray with the understanding also that is to pray according to the mystery of Christs meditation and yet with that wisdome and skill of expression as to unfold and explaine it in the minds of others that they may ascend up unto God together therewith as Manoa's Angel in the flame of the sacrifices this and to pardon sin are of like power skill and authority and a like weight lies upon both to whomsoever communicates in them For to pardon sin is not to change or alter the minde of God toward that party but to explaine and interpret the minde of God concerning that party which minde and will of God is the same in that one faith of the Son of God to all the chosen of God and wheresoever it is rightly unfolded and made manifest in the proclamation of peace and reconciliation of God and man in one if the Son of peace be there he accepteth and receivet the same as the right of his inheritance If the Elders pray or prophecy unto health therefore they pray or prophesie to the remission of sins in whomsoeve commucates in the same his sins are forgiven him To conclude this point it concerns us then to know what sin is that we may rightly conceive of it as it is pardonable and also as it not pardonable for there is a sin saith the Apostle John which is not unto death or which is not in death that is it is not in that way of death and there is a sin that is in death I do not say that you shall pray for it that is you shall not pray for the pardon of it because it is not to be pardoned for where Christ is once crucified in the spirit he never is to live in that heart according to the spirit no more then where he is once crucified in the flesh he never lives in that heart according to the flesh Therefore in the next place he exhorts us unto the confession of our faults in the true acknowledgement of them one to another Vers 16. Confesse your faults one unto another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much In these observe 1. An exhortation consisting of two parts 1. To confesse faults one to another 2. To pray one for another 2. The end wherefore That ye may be healed 3. A reason ground or cause drawn from the nature of prayer which is two-fold 1. It is effectuall 2. It is fervent 4. The qualitie of the person praying that is A righteous man 5. The issue or event of such prayer It avayleth much 1. ANd first for confession of faults sins or oberations from a law For where no law is there is no transgression for sinne is the transgression of a law or as the word is the withoutnesse of a rule Now there is the law of the flesh or carnall commandement which is the law of sinne and death and there is the law of the spirit or power of faith which is the perfect rule of righteousnesse or law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Now the carnall commandement or perfunctory and fading ordinances may be broken yea abrogated and nayled to the crosse as that which is against us and yet forgiven for every breach or piercing through of the sonne of man that is mans institutions and appoyntments composed by that carnall law shall be forgiven or are forgiven for the disannulling of mans wisdome and in that respect to become a foole is the establishment of Gods wisdome in the removall of all guilt and condemnation from the soule And there is the law of the spirit or of that holy Ghost which if a man speake a word against intentionally or blaspheme and pierce through that is abrogate or make a nullity of it It shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come that is neither in the present mind and conscience of him that so doth nor in that holy mind and judgment of Christ from passing sentence against it being so remote and at such a distance from it and contrary unto it for the abrogation of the law of the spirit is no lesse then to disannull that wisdome of God in Christ by which device only the sin and guilt of the sons of men is taken away and no other way for else-where the redemption of the soule ceaseth for ever Confession of sins then one to another This phrase one to another is of like nature as
when Moses cast down his rod on the earth of Aegypt it became or as the word is it was to a Serpent when it was on the ground it was a Serpent a quite contrary thing then when it is in his hand or Ministry the one declaring the Dragons fury in that government of Pharaoh in Aegypt and the other that rod or scepter in the rule of Christ as that Shepheard and feeder of Israel as the word rod signifies a Scepter So that when we confes sin that is the breach of the law of the spirit in the world through the observation of the carnall command where Christ is bereaved of all his proper vertues operations of his spirit it is unto another that is that state is become another thing as Moses rod was then the son of God for it is that son of perdition even Sathan himselfe though under the figure of an Angell of light in the eye of the men of the world Again when we confesse sin that is the breach or abrogation of the law or carnall command that Christ is bereaved and dispoyled of all glory power and vertue of the arm of flesh so that his own arm saves and gets the victory not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts We confesse this sinne against the carnall command unto the unity of the spirit and the fulfilling of the law of Christ or of that rule of righteousnesse that is by faith in him which is to another that is to another thing state and condition then that of the letter that stands in outward observations temporary engagements and performances and this is that one and alone good thing desirable that Christ of God that carrieth and abideth for ever To confesse sin therefore or to make profession of any thing that is to praise or acknowledge it is to give the thing its nature and properties unto the utmost extent and so it must be here to an utter contrariety vast and perpetuated distance of the law of the flesh and that of the spirit otherwise we contradict the command of God by plowing with an oxe an asse together by wearing a garment of linnen and woollen and by sowing our field with two kinds of seed Quest Here ariseth a necessary question Whether in the acknowledgment of the nullity of the law of the carnall commandement unto that unity that is in Christ a Christian doth not thereby reckon and accâ—unt all the vertue of the Son of God to be his own proper portion and patrimony as also whether in acknowledgement of the nullity of that law of the spirit unto the unity of the harlot he doth not as necessarily reckon unto himself as his due and proper right and inheritance all those vicious abominations that rest and abide in the bosome of that man of sinne which is Antichrist Answ To which we answer that there is a like truth and reality in the acknowledgment of the one as there is in the other taken in a due respect as the mind of God commends the same unto us where he saith So then with my minde I my selfe serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin For a Christian must be plain down-right and reall in his acknowledgments before God whether of sin or of the fruits of righteousnesse yea in the root and originall both of the one and of the other Object But a Christian by faith professing the fruits of righteousness and fountaine out of which they flow is endewed with the life and spirit of them according to their native property in that blessed subject of Christianity else his confession of them is but as a fire paynted upon a wall or the picture of a man carved out of wood or stone that wants soule and spirit the ground of motion and operation For what is it to professe or acknowledge the love of God unlesse it be kindled in our hearts to a flame that many waters cannot quench neither the world drown or to confesse the power of Christ unlesse through him we be able to do all things or to praise the Kingdome Priesthood and propheticall office of Christ unlesse we have the power of rule reconciliation and interpretation in us Will it not then also follow that if he deale faithfully and sensibly in the confession of sin as that he hath not the understanding of a man that he persecuted the Church of God that he is the chiefe of sinners that the terrours of the Almighty are upon him that out of the belly of Hell he cries unto God that he is shut up and cannot come out If he deale playnly in that and be reall will it not follow that he hath in him the vicious desire of the flesh the state of the Devill if he be the chiefe of sinners and partaker of the terrors of Sathan sensibly if he cry out of the womb of hell that if the creature man participate of joyes celestiall and eternall in confession and acknowledgment of them So the creature or man must partake of all abominations of sinne and state and condition of the Devill if he be reall also therein in his acknowledgments Answ We answer in the name of God that no such consequence follows upon a reall confession of sin But through the wisdome and device of God it proves an eternall separation of the spirit of a Christian from all such sins and sorrows justly and really acknowledged in and upon man-kind or that matter whereof a Saint doth consist and this is proved by a true and reall distribution of man or of the creature according to the word of the Lord gone out in the disposing of it as a reall subject of mercy and severity of love and wrath We are to take a man in a two fold respect according to the intention and expression of the word of God which rightly judgeth and determineth all things 1. As it speaketh on this wise All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth because he is the son of man Againe whether is it easier to say Arise take up thy bed and walke or to say thy sins are forgiven but that ye might know that the sonne of man hath power to forgive sins So also blessed is the man or oh how happy it is and well for us that man going right forward not turning aside to the right hand nor to the left The Hebrew word Ashrei imports that simple and immixt condition of man which is only found in that man of God Christ Jesus who is God blessed for ever being that beginning head or fountaine of the creation of God that new creature and in this sence is man or the Creature considerable in the answer of this objection 2. We are to take man also in another sence infinitely remote from this where it is said man being in honour abideth not but is like the beast that perisheth and wo unto that man by whom the Son of man
is betrayed it were good for that man if he had never been born also if an enemy had done it I could have born it but it was thou Oh man my familiar I speaking of the trechary of Achitophel and Prophecying of Judas into whom Satan entred which is that man of sin that Antichrist and deceiver of which spirit and power there were many in the Apostles time but the Preisthood of our times have collected them into one man only and crowded him up only in that corner of the world called Rome that so notice may not be taken of their opposing and rejecting of Christ to the deceiving of the people as that spirit ever doth into him or into them Satan enters or takes his beginning in them for as the Son of God hath no beginning but in man so Satan or the Devil hath no beginning but in man even in that man of sin and son of perdition for as the Scriptures give the word of truth a being from the beginning for in the beginning was the word even so it gives Satan to be a lyer from the beginning and one that abides not in the truth and this two-fold estaâ—e man to be taken in else know we not how to acknowledge sin nor how to praise God for our deliverance into those fruits and happy estate of righteousnesse by Christ We answer then that when a Christian confesseth acknowledgeth or praiseth the excellencies of God in Christ giving them their proper and full vertue and extent as love joy mercy gentlenesse kindenesse bounty power and eternall goodnesse man participates thereof the creature really and sensibly possesseth and enjoys them in the unfeigned and just confession of them that is the man of God the new creature which is that work-manship of God in Christ Jesus and man-like Son of God standing in that one alone sonship of God not found extant but in Christ that annointed one But man or the creature that is that man of sin made to be taken and destroyed ungodlike men that man of Beliall that vaine and empty man of faith without works of which beleife the Devill is yea that Antichristian spirit wherever it is that molds the worship of God into a form tying him to appear in the same figure and posture Againe we say that man or that creature hath no fellowship with the things proper to the Son of God as peace joy love nor any of the fruits of the spirit which are by Christ he is a stranger unto them all and therfore intermeddles not with the joy of the saints though they be reall forceable and effectuall in the man of God or saint by calling when ever they are uttred or expressed Even so there are the terrors of death vexations of spirit guilt of sin condemnatory sentence of conscience that ever accompanies the sins confessed by a Saint really beyond any shadow or semblance and that not bounded by time but are eternall and yet the man or the creature that is the man of God or the new creature participates not in the least in any of their distresse guilt or fear no more then the wicked partake in the joys of salvation in Christ he hath no taint or tincture of the enmity of the Serpent nor sence unto pangs and vexation of the guilt of corrupt and defiled conscience and yet saith truly and unfeignedly this is my sin this is my death and this abomination is in me that is in my flesh or in that carnall estate out of which I am taken where dwels no good thing but is a cage of all unclean and abominable filthinesse and wickednesse So that in a true confession of sin according to faith not onely it but all its appurtenances are carried forth and set upon their proper base that is in that land of Shiner which is Babylon that confusion gone over all the earth which is that strict composure of things by mans wisdome according to times places persons and temporary respects whatsoever which makes a nullity of Gods order who is a God composed thereof and all things therein are illimitted not any thing tyed to time place person or any temporary or fading bond whatsoever otherwise it is not the order of the Son of God but a device and inventions of man unto confusion whether the Epha of wickednesse is carried and is the house built for it where for ever it shall remaine and abide Thither all sin and sorrow in true confession is carried as fully as all righteousnesse and peace is carried onely into that happy estate and incomprehensible order that is of God by Jesus Christ the carnall minde or man therefore is onely sensible of sin in the way os Gods displeasure but not of that vertue of reconciliation and the spirituall minde or man is onely senfible of all righteousnesse in way of the peace of God but not of that horror which comes through that breach of the everlasting Covenant And yet is neither the one nor the other voyd of sence with respect unto the others condition For the wicked from the sight of the Saints being lifted up in that holy unction and taken into an everlasting reigne and authority by unity with an omnipotent and all-sufficient power are filled with fear and terror at the fight and apprehension thereof as having the glory of a righteous Judge also the Saints of God beholding themselves lifted up and taken out of that fearful and abominable state and condition of the wicked rejoice thereat with joy unspeakable and full of glory even as Noah when he saw the waters over-whelm and destroy the world was by the same waters lifted up to heaven as sase from all rocks mountaines or hills that might annoy him so the Saints seeing how the Son of God hath given himselfe unto death in the world never to live the life of the Son of God in them as a ransome whereby he is lifted up unto the throne of Gods glory in the Saints everlastingly which carries with it a holy shout harmonious and melodious singing and rejoycing for ever to see the terrors of death captivated under eternall darknesse which can never seize nor intrench upon that Sun of righteousnesse which shineth in the saved of the Lord. The second part of the exhortation is to pray one for another or appeal one to another the word for and to are indifferently taken as you may see by the difference of translations One saith a Psalm for the sons of Corah and another saith a Psalme to the sons of Corah so that here it is taken for one to another that is in your confessions of the nullity and breach of the law of the spirit by that wicked one do you appeal to the law of the carnall command which is of sin and death which is thereby established and confirmed in the world whereby the men thereof are effectually bound over under that spirit of bondage to walk and work according to the letter that kills and
spirit and know that it is established and confirmed for ever thereby This is the Medicamentosus without which no prayer can be made acceptable unto God for if prayer confirme not the law of the spirit it bindes not over the Lord to be our supply if it comprize not his mercy within the bounds of its proper place which is Christ our boundlesse and common salvation This appeal or prayer must also confirme the law of the flesh or else it carrieth not all sin and sorrow into its proper place of aboad which is Antichrist or Satan that slayer of the Sonne of man from the beginning even as Caine slew his brother because his own works are evill and the works of the Sonne of man good and in these twain stands the health of our souls and is by them preserved for ever viz. a place of the reception of all wickednesse where it abides exercised in the curse for the acquitting of the Saints for ever And a place of reception into righteousnesse and residence of that blessed estate of the Sonne of God in the love and delight of the father for ever in the just condemnation of all enmity The third point is the ground of this sound and healthfull condition by this appeal or prayer and first it is effectuall or forceable without let or hinderance the appeal is made upon such grounds as nothing can stop the bringing of the cause thither either for the stating of sin or of righteousnesse of the curse in the confirmation of the law of the flesh or of the blessing in the law of the spirit of Christ in the one and Antichrist in the other No Supersedias can be sued out no counter-command can be given no obstruction can be made to stop or recall the stating of all abominations in the exercise and practice of the carnall command and all the vertues excellencies and dignities of God in Christ in that law of the spirit for Satan the God of this world which is the wisdome of the world the subtilty of the serpent as he is a murther our from the beginning in slaying and putting to death the Lord of life and glory so is he a lyar and abode not in the truth so is he sacrelegious robing God of his glory making himselfe to be God adulterating the word of God turning the glory of God into shame and is the sole and proper opposer of God in all his excellencies therefore nothing can hinder no law or evidence gain-say but that state is the proper sinck and center of all wickednesse and so of all wrath Also in its appeal to the law of the spirit which is the proper order and composure of the Son of God what can obstruct but that in him are all those dementions of height depth length and breadth of the goodnesse mercy truth life power spirit and love of God for ever therefore this prayer or appeal is most forceable and effectuall it passeth through without let or hinderance for the performance of its work in rendring to each his right in the perfecting of the cause of its appeal 2. It is fervent hot without any intermixture of cold the word signifies to boyle which admits of no cooling thing to come there such is the nature of true prayer it admits no chilly or cold thing to be cast into the love and zeal of God in Christ but findes the coles thereof to be fiery coles yea to have a vehement flame Neither can the spirit of prayer admit of any cooling mixtures in the fume and heat of Gods wrath in the wealthy of the world named above for a fire is kindled in mine anger which shall burn down to the nethermost hell But the Academists of our age they know how to moderate the love of Christ in those whom they call Saints by some cold and decaying humor of the spirit of the world yet tradition is of that strength in them that they dare not impute such to him that was borne of the Virgin but for any sound knowledg they have of him they might as soon do it to him as any of that mysticall body and would for advantage if they had been brought up in Schools of such principles for they have nothing but what they receive from man Likewise they can cool Gods infinite displeasure against sin with graduall distinctions of it as good part in nature some good works wraught some remainders of Gods image in the wicked such sleights of Satan we skill not but are confident the path of fervent prayer never lay in that way nor shall ever be beaten out or found in it by all those carnall and superstitious cuttings and fleshly launsings of the Priests of Baall to uphold Ahabs Throne in all the Statues of his Ancestor Omry The fourth point is the qualification of the person praying and that is a righteous man Now a righteous or just man is he who gives every thing its proper right and due which appertains and belongs unto it if we speak of any thing of God give unto it arise arraign and scope appertaining to God if we speak of any of the ordinances of God give them the vertue property duration and continuance of the Son of God who abides for ever else we give not the Son of God that great ordinance and fountaine of all holy ordinances his right and due who is holy spirituall just and good otherwise they are human and perishing things and we are found unjust in not giving Christ his due the spirit of prayer and this effectuall appeal resides not there Againe if we speak of any thing as not having the Sonne of God in it then give it the spirit and power of the Prince of the aire the spirit that now works in the children of unbeleif or disobedience for the scope and end of all things is Christ in the exercise of mercy in the faith of the Gospel or in the exercise of wrath in that way of Antichrist for we know that we are of God and the world is of that wicked one namely the Devil therefore if we speak of sin give it its due the guilt of making a nullity and falcification of him that made all things in truth If we speak of sinners give them the state and condition of their father the Devill whose works they do and will doe Either clear the innocent whom God in Christ justifies once and for ever and so give them their due belonging unto them and condemn the guilty who reject the manner and way of his acquitting of his Saints or else no person quallified for prayer if you speak of death bring it unto the scope either death unto all transitory and carnall things in Christ or else death unto all spirituall and durable things in Antichrist or else we give not right unto it and so are not that righteous man whose prayer availeth and is the event and issue of this prayer which is the fifth point that is it availeth