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truth_n	age_n	church_n	time_n	2,142	5	3.6322	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29689	A golden key to open hidden treasures, or, Several great points that refer to the saints present blessedness and their future happiness, with the resolution of several important questions here you have also the active and passive obedience of Christ vindicated and improved ... : you have farther eleven serious singular pleas, that all sincere Christians may safely and groundedly make to those ten Scriptures in the Old and New Testament, that speak of the general judgment, and of that particular judgment, that must certainly pass upon them all immediately after death ... / by Tho. Brooks ...	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.; Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680. Golden key to open hidden treasures. Part 2.	1675 (1675)	Wing B4942; ESTC R20167	340,648	428

O Lord of hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem the Angel here is that Jesus who is our Advocate 1 John 2. 1 2. with the father he speaks as one intimately affected with the state and condition of poor Jerusalem Christ plays the Advocate for his suffering people and feelingly pleads for them he being afflicted in all their afflictions it moved him to observe that God's enemies were in a better case than his people and this put him upon that passionate expostulation O Lord of hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem Alexander the great applied his Crown to the souldiers forehead that had received a wound for him and Constantine the great kissed the hollow of Paphnutius eye that he had lost for Christ what an honour was it to the souldier and to Paphnutius that these great men should have fellow-feeling of their sufferings and sympathize with them in their sorrows but oh then what an honour is it to such poor worms as we are that Jesus Christ who is Godman who is the Prince of the Kings of the earth that he should have a fellow-feeling Rev. 1. 5. of all our miseries and sympathize with us in all our troubles But Tenthly Is Jesus Christ God-man is he very God and very man then from hence you may see the excellency of Christ above man above all other men yea above Adam in innocency Christ as man was perfect in all graces Isa 11. 1 2. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledg and of the fear of the Lord. God gave the spirit of wisdom to him not by measure and Joh. 3. 34. Luk. 2. 46 47. therefore at twelve years of age you find him in the Sanedrim disputing with the Doctors and asking them questions 1 John 16. and of his fulness have all we received grace for grace Col. 1. 19. for it pleased the father that in him should all fulness dwell cap. 2. 3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg The state of innocency was an excellent estate it was an estate of Gen. 1. 27. Eph. 4. 22 23 24. perfect holiness and righteousness by his holiness he was carried out to know the Lord to love the Lord to delight in the Lord to fear the Lord and to take him as his chiefest good A legal holiness consists in an exact perfect and compleat conformity in heart and life to the whole reveiled will of God and this was the holiness that Adam had in his innocency and this holiness was immediately derived from God and was perfect Adam's holiness was as co-natural to him as unholiness is now to us Adam's holiness was as natural and as pleasing and as delightful to him as any way of unholiness can be natural pleasing and delightful to us The estate of innocency was an estate of perfect wisdom knowledg and understanding witness the names that Adam gave to Gen. 2. 20. all the creatures suitable and apposite to their natures The estate of innocency was an estate of great honour and dignity David brings in Adam in his innocent estate with a Crown upon his head and that Crown was a Crown of glory and honour thou hast crowned him with glory and Psal 8. 5. honour his place was little lower than the Angels but far above all other creatures The estate of innocency it was an estate of great Dominion and Authority man being made the Soveraign Lord of the whole Creation Psal 8. 6 7 8. we need not stand to enlarge upon one parcel of his demesns namely that which they call Paradise sith the Gen. 1. 26. whole both of Sea and Land and all the creatures in both were his Possession his Paradise certainly man's first estate was a state of perfect and compleat happiness there being nothing within him but what was desirable nothing without him but what was amiable and nothing about him but what was serviceable and comfortable and yet Jesus Christ who is God-man is infinitely more glorious and excellent than ever Adam was for Adam was set in a mutable condition but Christ is the Rock of Ages he is stedfast and abiding for ever he is yesterday Heb. 13. 8. and to day and the same for ever he is the same afore time in time and after time he is the same that is unchangeable in his Essence Promises and Doctrine Christ is the same in respect of vertue and the faith of believers even his Manhood before it was in being was cloathed with perfection of grace and so continueth for ever And again Adam was a mere man and alone by himself but in Christ the humane nature was hypostatically united unto the divine and hence it comes to pass that Christ even as man had a greater measure of knowledg and revelation of Grace and heavenly gifts than ever Adam had The Apostle tells us that in Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily that is essentially that is not by a naked and bare communicating of vertue as God is said to dwell in his Saints but by a substantial union of the two natures divine and humane the eternal word and the man consisting of soul and body whereby they become one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one person one subsistence Now from this admirable and wonderful union of the two natures in Christ there flows to the Manhood of Christ a plenitude and fulness of all spiritual Wisdom and Grace such as was never found in any mere man no not in Adam whilest he stood in his integrity and uprightness But Eleventhly Is Jesus Christ God man is he very God and very man then this truth looks very sowrly and frowningly upon all such as deny the Godhead of Christ as Arrians Turks Jews how many be there in this City in this Nation who stiffly deny the Divinity of Christ and dispute against it and write against it and blaspheme that great truth without which I think a man may safely say there is no possibility of salvation In ancient times near unto the Age of the Apostles this Doctrine of Christ's Godhead and Eternal Generation from the father was greatly opposed by sundry wicked and blasphemous Hereticks as Ebion Cerinthus Arrius c who stirred up great troubles and bloody Persecutions against the Church for maintaining this great truth of Christ's Godhead they asserted that Christ had no true slesh 't was only the likeness of flesh which he appeared in and that his body was only a phantastick imaginary body but had the body of Christ been only such a body then his conception nativity death resurrection are all too but imaginary things and then his sufferings and crucifiction are but mere fancies too

vex them and a Table to be a snare Psal 78. 24. 32. unto them when the Israelites had eaten of their dainty dishes Justice sent in a sad reckoning which spoiled all Ah friends there is no reason why we should envy the prosperity of wicked men Suppose saith one that a man Chrysostom one night should have a pleasant dream that for the time might much delight him and for the pleasure of such a dream should be tormented a thousand years together with exquisite torments would any man desire to have such a dream upon such conditions All the contentments of this life are not so much to Eternity as a dream is to a thousand years And oh how little is that man's condition to be envied who for these short pleasures of sin must endure an Eternity of torments Oh sirs do wicked men purchase their present pleasures at so dear a rate as eternal torments and do we envy their enjoyment of them so short a time would any envy a man going to execution because he saw him in prison nobly feasted and nobly attended and bravely courted or because he saw him go up the ladder with a Gold chain about his neck and a scarlet Gown upon his back or because he saw him walk to execution through pleasant fields or delightsome gardens or because there went before him Drums beating Colours flying and Trumpets ●ounding c. surely no Oh no more should we envy the grandure of the men of the day for every step they take is but a step to an eternal execution the sinner is curst and Isa 65. 20. Ma● 2. 2. all his blessings are curst and who in their wits would envy a man under a curse oh how much more worthy of our pity than envy is that man's condition who hath all his happiness confin'd to the narrow compass of this life but his misery extended to the uttermost bounds of an everlasting duration But Fifthly and lastly if there be a Hell then Christians spend your days in admiring in being greatly affected with the transcendant love of Christ in undergoing hellish punishments in our steads Oh pray pray hard that you may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the bredth length Eph. 3. 18 19. and depth and height of that love of Christ which passeth knowledg of that love of Christ that put him upon these corporeal and spiritual sufferings which were so exceeding great acute extreme universal and continual and all to save us from wrath to come Christ's outward and inward miseries 1 Thes 1. 1● sorrows and sufferings are not to be parralell'd and therefore Christians have the more cause to love themselves in the contemplation of his matchless love Oh bless Christ oh kiss Christ oh embrace Christ oh welcome Christ Psal 1●3 1 2. Psal 2 12. Can● 3 4. Rev. 14. 4 5. Psal 63. 8. Gen. 6. 9. Cant. 8. ult oh cleave to Christ oh follow Christ oh walk with Christ oh long for Christ who for your sakes hath undergone insupportable wrath and most hellish torments as I have evidenced at large before and therefore a touch here may suffice Oh look up to dear Jesus and say oh blessed Gal. 3. 13. Jesus thou wast accursed that I might be blessed thou wast condemned that I might be justified thou didst Isa 53. Rom. 8. 30 34. Psal 16. 11. for a time undergo the very torments of Hell that I might for ever enjoy the pleasures of Heaven and therefore I cannot but dearly love thee and highly esteem thee and greatly honour thee and earnestly long after thee and this is all I shall say by way of Inference But for a close you will say ubi sit where is hell where is this place of torment where is that very place that is so frequently called Hell in the Scripture That there is a Hell you have sufficiently proved but pray where is it where is it Now to this I answer First That it becomes all sober serious Christians to rest satisfied and contented with those Scriptural Arguments that do undeniably prove that there is a Hell a place appointed where the wicked the damned shall be tormented for ever and ever though they do not know nor for the present cannot understand where this Hell is But Secondly I answer curiosity is one of the most dangerous 2. Curious enquirers have always layen under the lash of Christ as you may see by comparing these Scriptues together Joh. 21. 22. Act. 1. 6 7. Luk. 13. 22 24. Engines that the Devil uses to undo souls withal When Satan observes that men do in good earnest set themselves to the obtaining of knowledg then he strives to turn them to vain enquiries and curious speculations that so if they will be knowing he may keep them busied about unprofitable curiosities The way to make us mere fools is to affect to know more than God would have us Adam's tree of knowledg made him and his posterity fools Curiosity wa the bait whereby the Devil caught our first Gen. 3. 5 6. parents and undid us all Curiosity is the spiritual Adultery of the soul Curiosity is spiritual drunkenness so August Epist 77. that look as the Drunkard be the cup never so deep he is not satisfied unless he see the bottom of i so the curious searcher into the depths of God he is unsatisfied till he comes to the bottom of them and by this means they come to be mere fools as the Apostle saith Adam Rom. 1. 22. had a mind to know as much of God as God himself and by this means he came to know nothing Curiosity is that Green sickness of the soul whereby it longs for novelties and loaths sound and wholesome truths 't is Basil saith divers questions may be made about a very Fly which no Philosopher is ever able to answer how much rather about heaven hell or the work of Grace the Epidemical distemper of this Age Ah how many are there who spend their precious time in nice and curious questions As what did Christ dispute of among the Doctors where did Paradise stand in what part of the world is Local Hell what fruit was it that Adam eat and ruined us all what became of Moses his body how many orders and degrees of elect Angels are there c. O! that we could learn contentedly to be ignorant where God would not have us knowing and let 's nor account it any disparagement to acknowledge some depths in Gods Counsels Purposes Decrees and Judgments Rom. 11. 33. which our shallow reason cannot fathom 'T is sad when men will be wise above what is written and Rom. 12. 3. 1 Cor. 4. 6. love to pry into Gods secrets and scan the mysteries of Religion by carnal reason God often plagues such pride and curiosity by leaving that sort of men to strange and fearful falls When a curious Inquisitor asked Austin what God did before

3. 13. 15. He 's called the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 21. Since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead God's justice would be satisfied in the same nature that had sinned 16. God's son made of a woman Gal. 4. 4. 17 Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. The man Christ Jesus 18. The son of David Mat. 1. 1. Mar. 12. 35. How say the Scribes that Christ is the son of David In that the Scribes and Pharisees knew and acknowledged according to the Scripture that Christ should be the son of David that is should be born and descend of the stock and posterity of David according to the flesh Hence we may easily gather the truth of Christ's humane nature that he was ordained of God to be true man as well as God in one and the same person for else he could not be the son of David Now that he must be the son of David even the Scribes and the Pharisees knew and acknowledged as we see here and this was a truth which they had learned out of the Scriptures and not only they but even the common sort of Jews in our Saviour's time John 7. 42. some of the common people spake thus Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and the Messiah was then commonly called the son Rom. 1. 3. of David so then Christ being of the seed of David after the flesh he must needs be true man as well as God for which cause he was incarnate in the due time appointed of God that is to say he being the son of God from everlasting did in time become man taking our nature upon him together with the infirmities of our nature sin only excepted John 1. 14. Now thus you see that the 18 denominations that are given to Christ in the blessed Scriptures do abundantly demonstrate the certainty of Christ's humane nature But Thirdly Christ took the whole humane nature he was truly and compleatly man consisting of flesh and spirit body and soul yea that he assumed the entire humane nature with whatever is proper to it Christ took to himself the whole humane nature in both the essential parts of man soul and body the two essential and constitutive parts of man are soul and body where these two are there 's the true man now Christ had both and therefore he was true man First Christ had a true humane and reasonable soul the reasonable soul is the highest and noblest part of man this is that which principally makes the man and hath the greatest influence into his being and essence if therefore Jesus Christ had only a humane body without a humane soul he had wanted that part which is most essential to man and so he could not have been looked upon as true and perfect man O Sirs Christ redeemed and saved nothing but what he assumed the redemption and salvation reach no farther than the assumption our soul then would have been never the better for Christ had he not taken that as well as our body Hence said Augustine Aug de civ Dei lib. 10. c. 27. p. 586 Therefore he took the whole man without sin that he might heal the whole of which man consists of the plague of sin And Fulgentius to the same purpose As Fulgent ad Thrasymund lib. 1. p. 251. the Devil smote by deceiving the whole man so God saves by assuming the whole man If he will save the whole man from sin he will assume the whole man without sin saith Nazianzen The Scriptures do clearly evidence that Christ had a real humane soul Mat. 26. 38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death every word is emphatical my soul his sorrows pierced his soul Psal 22. 16. and sorrowful round about even to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is heavy round about Look as the soul was the first Agent in transgression so it is here the first Patient in affliction to death that is this sorrow will never be finished or intermitted but by death My soul is exceeding sorrowful then Christ had a true humane soul neither was his Deity to him for a soul as of old men of corrupt minds have fancied for then our bodies only had been redeemed by him and not our souls if he had not suffered in soul as well as in body The sufferings of his body were but the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his soul which was now beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold John 12. 27. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say The Greek word signifies a vehement commotion and perturbation as Herod's mind was troubled when he Mat. 2. 3. heard that a new King was born or as the Disciples were Mat. 14. 26. troubled when they thought they saw a spirit walking on the sea and cryed out for fear or as Zachary was troubled Luk. 1. 12. at the sudden sight of the Angel The rise and cause of Christ's soul-trouble was this the Godhead hiding it self from the humanitie's sense and the father letting out not only an apprehension of his sufferings to come but a present taste of the horrour of his wrath due to man for sin he is amazed overwhelmed and perplexed with it in his humanity and no wonder since he had the sins of all the Elect laid upon him by imputation to suffer for And so this wrath is not let out against his person but against their sins which were laid on him Now though Christ was here troubled or jumbled and puzzled as the word imports yet we are not to conceive that there was any sin in this exercise of his for he was like clean water in a clean vessel which being never so often stirred and shaken yet still keeps clean and clear neither are we to think it strange that the son of God should be put to such perplexities in this trouble as not to know what to say for considering him as man encompassed with our sinless infirmities and that this heavy weight of wrath did light upon him on a sudden it is no wonder that it did confound all his thoughts as man O Sirs look that as sin hath infected both the souls and bodies of the Elect and chiefly their souls where it hath its chief seat so Christ to expiate this sin did suffer unspeakable sorrows and trouble in his soul as well as torture in his body for my soul is troubled saith he Though some sufferings of the body be very exquisite and painful and Christ's in particular were such yet sad trouble of mind is far more grievous than any bodily distress as Christ also found who silently bare all his outward troubles but yet could not but cry out of his inward trouble Now is my soul troubled Isa 53. 10. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin when Christ suffered for us our sins were laid upon

and if so then what would become of us what would become of our salvation then our faith would be in vain and our hope would be in vain and our hearing preaching praying and receiving would all be in vain yea then all our Religion would vanish into a m●re fancy also when a man's conscience is awakened to see his sin and misery and he shall find guilt to lay like a load upon his soul and when he shall see that divine justice is to be satisfied and divine wrath to be pacified and the curse to be born and the Law to be fulfilled and his nature to be renewed his heart to be changed and his sins to be pardoned or ●ls● his soul can never be saved how can such a person venture his soul his all upon one that is but a m●re crcature certainly a mere man is no Rock no City of refuge and no sure foundation for a man to build his faith and hope upon woe to that man that ever he was born that has no Jesus but a Socinian's Jesus to rest upon oh 't is sad trusting to one who is man but not God flesh but not spirit as you love the eternal safety of your precious souls and would be happy for ever as you would escape Hell and get to Heaven lean on none rest on none but that Jesus who is God-man who is very God and very man Apollinaris held that Christ took not the whole nature of man but a humane body only without a soul and that the Godhead was instead of a soul to the Manhood Also Eutyches who confounded the two natures of Christ and their properties c. Also Apelles and the Manichees who denied the true humane body and held him to have an aerial or imaginary body Though the popular sort deified Alexander the great yet having Plutarch in vita got a clap with an Arrow he said ye stile me Jupiter's son as if immortal sed hoc vulnus clamat esse hominem this blood that issues from the wound proves me in the issue a man this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blood of man not of God and smelling the stench of his own flesh he asked his flatterers if the God's yielded such a scent so may it be said of Jesus Christ our Saviour though Myriads of Angels and Saints acclaim he is a God ergo immortal and a crew of Hereticks disclaim him to be man as the Marcionites averred that he had a phantastical body and Apelles who conceived that he had a sydereal substance yet the streams of blood following the arrow of death that struck him makes it good that he was perfect man of a reasonable soul and humane flesh subsisting And as this truth looks sowerly upon the above mentioned persons so it looks sowerly upon the Papists who by their Doctrine of the real presence of Christ's body in the Sacrament do overthrow one of the properties of his humane nature which is to be but in one place present at once This truth also looks sowerly upon the Lutherans or Ubiquitaries who teach that Christ's humane nature is in all places by vertue of the personal union c. I wonder that of all the old Errours swept down into this latter Age as into a sink of time this of the Socinians and Arrians should be held forth among the rest O sirs beware of their Doctrines shun their meetings and persons that come to you with the denial of the Divinity of Christ in their mouths this was John's Doctrine and Practise Irenaeus saith that after he was returned from his banishment and came to Ephesus he came to bathe himself and in the bath he found Cerinthus that said Christ had no being till he received it from the Virgin Mary upon the sight of whom John skipped out of the Bath and called his companions from thence saying let us go from this place lest the Bath should fall down upon us because Cerinthus is in it that is so great an enemy to God ye see his Doctrine see his words too 2 John 10 11. If any come to you having not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds What that Doctrine was if you cast your eye upon the Scripture you shall find it to be the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ shew no love where you owe nothing but hatred I hate every Psal 119. 113. false way saith David And I shall look upon Auxentius as upon a Devil so long as he is an Arrian said Hilarius We must shew no countenance nor give no encouragement to such as deny either ●ne divinity or humanity of Christ I have been the longer upon the Divinity and humanity of Christ 1. Because the times we live in require it 2. That poor weak staggering Christians may be strengthned established and setled in the truth as it is in Jesus 3. That I may give in my testimony and witness against all those who are poysoned and corrupted with Socinian and Arrian Principles which destroy the souls of men 4. That those in whose hands this book may fall may be the better furnished to make head against men of corrupt minds who by slight of hand and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. Sixthly As he that did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner was God-man so the punishments that Christ did sustain for us must be referred only to the substance and not unto the circumstances of punishment The punishment which Christ endured if it be considered in its substance kind or nature so 't was the same with what the sinner himself should have undergone Now the punishment due to the sinner was death the curse of the Law c. now this Christ underwent for he was made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. but if you consider the punishment which Christ endur'd with respect to certain circumstances adjuncts and accidents as the eternity of it desperation going along with it c. then I say it was not the same but equivalent Whether the work of man's redemption could have been wrought without the sufferings and humiliation of Christ is not determinable by men but that it was the most admirable way which wisdom justice and mercy could require cannot be denied And the reason is because though the enduring of the punishments as to the substance of them could and did agree with him as a surety yet the circumstances of those punishments could not have befallen him unless he had been a sinner and therefore every inordination in suffering was far from Christ and a perpetual duration of suffering could not befall him for the first of these had been contrary to the holiness and dignity of his person and the other had made void the end of his suretiship and Mediatorship which was so to suffer as yet to conquer and