that posture in which they might receive the said gift of eternal life wherefore saith the Apostle The Scriptures fore-seeing that God would justifie the Heathen through faith Preach the Gospel before unto Abraham saying In thee shall all the Nations be blessed Hence observe Observe that in the said taking hold of this Nation in Abrahams loyns or seed God not only elected that Nation to be as a part of the whole nature of man but as such to be Christs visible Church and Spouse I say the nature of man as such but not Angels nature as such nor elected he this Nation upon his fore-sight of their faith or believing operations Esa 44.1 Psal 147.20 but to be put in the said posture in which they might believe and in believing operations receive the said gift of eternal life Rom. 3.2 Hos 2.19.20 For unto them was committed the Oracles of God when denyed to all Nations wherefore saith God to this Nation I will marry thee unto me for ever and so forth Rom. 11.29.30 in pursuance of my final end for that 's imply'd and in this sense the gifts and calling of God are without repentance From this ground God did call the Gentiles to the said posture and so will the Iews that now lay in their apostacy and I say in this sense the gifts and callings of God are without repentance to mankind with respect to his said final end Observe Again observe this Election conferred upon that Nation the greatest honour that ever any Nation had Nationally considered First that of them concerning the flesh Christ came who is God over all blessed for ever The second was the aforesaid Election of humane nature as such in them to be Christs Spouse elect Rom. 9.5 The third was this as saith our Lord Salvation is of the Iews John 4.22 because the Oracles that were committed to them was from them derived being the light of eternal peace to all Nations that then sate in darkness or shades of death Observe Again observ that this election confer'd not their being nor their being so honor'd for their own sakes no more then any other people who had none of these honorsbut only for Gods own namesake in pursuance of his said final end Esa 43.25 Esa 48 9.11 Ezek. 36.29 30.31 Not for your sakes do I these things saith the Lord God be it known unto you O House of Israel So Samuel tels them saying The Lord will not forsake his people for his great names sake 1 Sam. 12. c. 22. because it hath pleased him to make you his people Again Observe Observe that the visibility of Christs Church is in the flesh or bodily part of man or in bodily operations which as saith our Lord profiteth little therefore let all men within the visible Churches of Christ Tim. 1.4.8 take heed they perish not in making the visibility of their profession their religion but to be sure to make eternal life as obtained by Christ and so Christ their Religion in their Intellectual spirit and in truth according to the Scriptures for the quintescence of true Religion is invisible because as God and Christ the object is invisible so the intellectual acts of mans belief or credit he gives to God and acts of love are invisible Rom. 2.28.29 whose praise is of God and not of men that cannot see invisibly or invisible things CHAP. VI. In which is opened the second Branch propounded That as Adams unrighteousnesse in its guilt and punishment by God imputatively in the falne Mass was extended unto all mankind even so in that falne Mass the righteousness of the seed of the woman was by God imputatively extended to all mankind to justification of life that is to put them in a posture in which they may receive his said gift of life eternal or to be either as is said FOr proof of this Point the Scripture saith Ioh 1.29 Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.18 Heb. 2.9 1 Ion 2.2 2 Cor. 5.14 1 Cor. 15.22 even so the free gift of the righteousness of one came upon all men to justification of life Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world Again men from their believing operations in Scripture speaks the same for say they We see Jesus who was made a little lower then the Angels for suffering of death crowned with glory and honour that he by the grace of God should taste of death for every man and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world and we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead And as in Adam all died even so in Christ shall all be made alive that is to the said posture in which they might receive life as well as to receive judgement according to their works good or evil Again the same men say also that all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself in Iesus Christ and hath given unto us that is Us Apostles and those that succeed us in the Ministry of Reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and not imputing their trespasses unto them And then the Apostle demonstrates a reason of this reconciliation of all mankind into the said posture namely because God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him But sin inherently was not in him nor actually committed by him for the Text saith He knew no sin and himself saith Sathan has nothing in me therefore he was only imputatively made sin for us and contrarily we were imputatively only made the righteousness of God in him to justification and acceptation into the said posture to a right reception of the said gift of eternal life in pursuance of Gods said final end Therefore as by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they namely believers which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reigne in life by one Iesus Christ Thus all mankind were put into the said posture by the imputation of Christs righteousness Again if the whole frame of nature was put into a posture by Christs righteousness imputed in opposition to the unrighteousness imputed of Adam as is proved and so travelleth untill now from the bondage of corruption to be partakers of the glorious liberty of the Sons of God then much more did the force of the imputation of that righteousness put the principal part of the frame of Nature namely man into the said posture of reception of eternal life Hence observe that the imputed guilt and punishment of Adams one offence and the imputed gift of Christs one righteousness were both of one universal extent to the whole Creation and so to all mankind the principal part thereof for even as
which I refer the Reader to my former Treatise of Free Grace Pag. 36. to 39 and 44. John 6.39 Rev. 10.6 printed 1642. to the pages in the Margent But as concerning mankind so to be made to honour and dishonour as is affirmed the Scripture affirms its last execution and final consummation shall be at the last day Rev. 20.12 13 that is after that day when time shall be no more as now it is in which day the Text affirms all the dead shall be raised and judged every man according to his works 2 Cor. 5.10 for saith another Text We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every man may receive the things which are done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or evil and that this shall be executed last it further appears by the words of our Saviour who saith of himself When the Son of Man shall come and all his holy Angels with him then he shall sit upon the Throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all Nations Mat. 25.31 32. to 46. and he shall sever them as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the Goats And he having instanced in one particular of works good and bad as comprehending the nature and kinde of all their works concludes all namely That the wicked shall goe into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life everlasting So much for the second thing premis'd namely what Gods final end is for which he made or created all things namely both men and Angels and all his works subservient unto them and their use the further inlargement of this point will fall in the following Chapters in its full proof and what Gods suitable rule to man is Hence observe that the moving cause why God created all his works was this final end it being the ultimate end of all his glories centuring in himself for which he made all things yea the wicked for the day of evil because they all attempt to assume his glory not to him but to themselves which he will not give unto another as will appear more in its due place CHAP. II. In which is made known a sevenfold means to Gods foresaid final end whereof six are handled in this Chapter THe which End in order of Nature in Gods intention was first and in execution last and the means in Gods intention in order of nature last but in execution first Therefore the first thing that God did he gave being to means for his final end and they primarily were seven some more remote and general and some more near and more particular The first means more remote and general was this inferior world as included in its remotest matter which God did make out of no pre-existent matter as Heb. 11.3 and saith another Text The earth was without form and void Heb. 11.3 and darkness was upon the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters and yet the first verse names it by the name of heaven and earth and the ground of it is this because that confused lump was the preexistent matter of heaven and earth and all things else and the ground of that is this because the spirit of God by its moving fil'd it with an intrinsical vigorous disposedness to be whatsoever God by his Creative Will and Word would command it to be Rev. 4.11 Wherefore when he commanded light out of that darkness Gen. 1 2 3. it presently was then saith the Text God said Let there be light and it was so Then God commanded a Firmament to be in the midst of the waters and the waters to be separated from the waters that is the water under the Firmament from the waters that were above the Firmament and God called the Firmament Heaven verse 6 7 8. Then he commanded the waters to one place and so the earth to be for use as now it is verse 9 10. Then he commanded the life and being of all vegitable creatures and it was so verse 11 12. Then he commanded to be the Sun Moon and Stars in their orderly course and warbling influence to fall on the earth and for signes and seasons and succession of daies and nights and it was so verse 14. to 19. Then he commanded the innumerable number of all sensative creatures to live and move and have their being from verse 20. to 25. Thus God gave being to the first means more remote and general to his final end Then God gave being to a second means more near and more particular the principal part of the Creation Namely man whose personal existency was in a twofold nature the one sensible the other an intellectual spirit or rational soul The first was his elementary body of earth for a time a lifeless trunk but God staid not there for saith the Text And breathed in his nostrils the breath of life Gen. 2.7 and man became a living soul And because he was a principal part the whole did terminate in his nutrimental support some to feed some to cloth the aire to imbreath and the earth to bear and the sweet influence and aspects of the heavenly bodies to his delight Again because the chief part therein God put the whole to depend on his operations not for his being but for its wel or woe and therefore the whole creation together with himself fell into the aforesaid vanity bondage and corruption and man thus made was Gods second means for man must first be and so supported to be before he could be to honour or dishonour to Gods foresaid final end Again mans reasonable soul being of an immortal nature and so of an everlasting duration was therefore a third means suitable to Gods final end that is to be to honour or dishonour to eternity which could not be if he were not of an everlasting duration From this ground it is that mans dead body shall be raised and spirituallized therefore when some men denyed the immortality of their souls and consequently the everlasting duration thereof our Lord proved to them the truth thereof Have you not read what was spoken unto you of God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Affirmatively inferring to them that those three men then were and now are living though their bodies are dead and turned to dust Mat. 22.31 32. Again God having indued mans reasonable soul with two natural faculties his understanding and will the understanding its natural property to look to truth as really such or as it appears so to be and to judge and accordingly so to operate the whole man and to the will Two things are natural to it the one is that it doth follow a good as the eye doth follow the light that is the true good or as it appears so to be the other is to nil and will that
did believe that God is although remotely And secondly that he is a rewarder of them that seek him although they do it with much confusion and the like in the Ninivites but first in the Marriners they referr their cause by lot to God to determine a point of difficulty implying they did believe though remotely yet truely that God is and conceiving the second they prayed him not to lay innocent bloud to them implying they did believe he is a rewarder of those that seek him So likewise the King of Ninnive he did believe God as saith the Text that is That God is as well as his threatnings to be true by Jonah And as for the second That he is a rewarder of them that seek him is clear also because he did seek him upon this reason saying Who knows whether God will be intreated to turn away from his first wrath If thus much amity toward God be in such men as these certainly some remainders of enmity to Satan and amity to God is in all mankind Hence it follows without all contradiction that the precedent premisses are true That Christ is the true light which lighteth every man which cometh into the world Hence it is that our Lord said unto such men or that man which by custom in sin hath turned that light into darkness as we see here these men had done saying If the light which is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Again The force of this internal light and Law of Christ demonstrates it self to be his Law by this particular in all mankind that is as Christ himself is Gods only Seat of mercy or mercies seat to the world so all mankind in their distress invocate God to take off their misery under the notion of mercy so cannot the apostate Angels invocate God under the notion of mercy or pitty and the ground of it is this as they have no internal princple by Christ as here we see all mankind hath therefore they have no internal disposedness to seek relief from him under the notion of mercy and from this ground it is that their consciences cannot excuse them as mens can do Objection If the natural liberty of mans will consists in its chusing and refusing all objects as it likes or liks them not then man by nature may without this internal Law of Christs Spirit from the natural power of his will chuse Gods gift of eternal life Answer It is one thing to have power to chuse and refuse all objects as it likes or as it likes them not as have the Devils and good and bad men for this power cannot be lost but in the annihilation of the Creature and another thing rightly to chuse that which is good and rightly to refuse that which is evil This power man lost in the fall therefore no man can rightly chuse or rightly refuse any object good or evil since the fall according to Gods will in relation to Christ but by the Spirit of Christ which put the said enmity into all mankind and so from degree to degree they being faithfull in that little would give them more even to the gift of faith rightly to receive the said gift of life and thus if the Son make them free they are free indeed rightly to chuse good and to refuse evil for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Objection If the natural Liberty of Mans Will is to chuse and refuse all objects as it likes or as it likes them not How can the Will be disposed naturally to any one thing as naturally to Gods Law in a capacity to the said posture Answer The natural Liberty of the Will is one thing and the natural Property of the Will is another For as the natural property of the Understanding is to adhere to Truth as such or as it appears to be such so the natural property of the will of man is to adhere to God as such or as it appears to be such and in the fall man lost not this natural property no more then its natural liberty but the rectitude thereof was totally lost both in Will and understanding for he lost all righteousness and holyness wholly and so became totally evil as are the Devils themselves for there was no middle estate in the nature of Adams Covenant but good and evil Therefore in the depth of that darkness Christ enlightneth by his Spirit the intellectual spirits of all mankind so farr as attendency to adhere to truth and to the true good as such which includes a vertual tendency to love God above all and its neighbour as it self Therefore the Will by the assistance of Christs Spirit may be terminated to one thing to which it has thus a natural tendency as in the Saints when they in the third degree of belief are Fathers in the faith Rev. 3.10 11 12. Rom. 8. from 35 to 39. 1 Tim. 1.19 20 2 Tim 2.12 13 Acts 10.34 35 See my former Treatise p. 108 131 132 133. and from page 134 to 140. then God so terminates their wils to himself vertually at least that nothing shall be able to separate them from him nor he from them and the grounds why God will so terminate the Will to the Saints that improve their measure under manifold tryals is this He loves to glorifie his Justice in the distribution of his mercy by the Gospels Tenor so on the contrary to the Saints which totally backslide before they come to the third degree of Faith so farr as to make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience he by the justice of the same rule of mercy doth make that final which they have made total for God is no respecter of persons The ground why this internal disposedness is Christs Law is not only because it is infused by Christs Spirit as is proved but also the whole government of all mankind in relation to eternal life and death Acts 7.53 Gal. 3.19 is only and alone in his power since the fall and therefore he gives all Laws external or internal and he adjudges men for transgressing those Laws This was that which was figured at Mount Sinai when God gave all those Laws to that one Nation as a part of the whole of mankind he then gave all those Laws by an Angel into the hand of a Mediator the which Mediator was Christ in the truth but Moses in the Type who administred those Laws to the people Hence observe That all mankind in their native production and succeeding generations are not conceived and born dead in sins and in trespasses nor children of wrath for by reason of the said universal election and universal imputation of Christs own righteousness all mankind are conceived and born in the favour and mercy of God by Christ notwithstanding the bitter seed of original sin in their natural production for we see it is reduced to be but a seed by the said internal disposedness and so are in a
be so for we see it prov'd he respects no mans person more then another in pursuance of this his final end be they men without the Church or be they men within the Church Saints by calling or Saints indeed and in truth such if they abide not so are by God judged impartially some to honor and some to dishonor as are all sorts of men for he made all for himself yea the wicked for the day of evil wherefore God is most righteous in all this not only because he wils it but also because he wils it thus to men and Angels by the said suitable rules and not according to the forementioned mistake of many reverend learned and godly men Object How can that be a just act in God to punish a finite creature for works that are but temporary done in a small time with a revokable punishment to eternity Answ I answer Punishments with us men respect not time but according to the nature and degree of the fact for we by our Laws take away this life which now men have for facts done in a short time and that life so taken away is lost to them as now it is to eternity and yet we judge this fact a just punishment if for theft or murder or the like then much more is the righteous administration of God to proceed thus with men and Angels but as for that fact of Angels it was most transcendent First because they voluntarily left their first estate as not liking it and the reason why they so did is in the Text that is They were puffed up that was to be above what God had made them althoughed the highest created nature and so next to the uncreate and unmeasurable essence of God therefore they being puffed up their sin was they would have been he because between him and them there was no middle thing therefore because they would have been eternity it self eternity in punishment is their just reward Again I answer If the case of men and Angels in the Point of Eternal Reprobation had been this Jer. 18. from v. 1. to 10. that not mans undeservings had been the cause of reprobation but only the will of God to reprobate without respect to their sins Pag. 65. to the last clause and from p. 71. to p. 77. there had been some ground for this objection but because God thus proceeds as is said only according to their works to the said suitable rules therefore it is most just and righteous But as for the aforesaid mistake of Reverend Divines being grounded principally upon the ninth to the Romans therefore I refer the Reader to the Exposition of the ninth to the Romans in my forementioned Treatise to the pages in the margent Object God made men and Angels in the natural liberty of their will purposly that they might be vessels of honour or dishonour for ever and did know before they were which of them and how many should be in misery to eternity therefore he then will'd it as now it is and was not this a most heavy destiny of God upon them and who hath resisted his will Answ I answer true it is in his said final end and all means to accomplish it as is proved he is unchangeable irrevocable and unresistable by men and Angels that is in those habilitles and indowments they received of him if they work to him according to the suitable rules to them they shall infallibly be vessels of honour to eternity and this he will never revoke and also to those men and Angels which in those endowments they have received from him and work contrary to him in his Rule made suitable to them as is described he will make them vessels of dishonour to eternity irrevocable and so none hath resisted his will Therefore let all men submit to his will if they will not perish by following their own will Answer Again I answer I answer There was a time and means in which and by which all men and Angels which are now under eternal misery might in that time and by that means have been vessels of honour for ever in which time and during which means God would rather had it been so as it respected them as is proved but now as it respects God himself he likes it well as now it is because they did as they did when they might have been otherwise as is proved therefore although in one respect they could not resist his will yet in the other respect they might have been otherwise then now they are and that with his will as now they are in torments according to his will and although it be true that God made men and Angels in the natural liberty of their will purposly that they might be either yet by him necessitated to neither therfore the destruction of men and Angels that perish is of themselves although he in his unmeasurable perfections did know the persons and number of them that would perish all things being naked unto him as is proved therefore a most just administration in God to men and Angels Answer Again I answer There is couched in this Objection the seed of the old Serpent that is that Gods will might be subordinate to our will and lusts and what 's that but he must forsooth make men and Angels not for his own sake and glory but for their sakes and glory and what is that but to be God 2 Tim. 3.13 Luk. 4.29 Mar. 4.39 Mar. 6.49 Job 38.12 13. 2 King 20.11 Mat. 15.13 which is the fancy of our Familists as well as their father the Devil being puft up his Will will they do by fancying a Deity in themselves calling themselves Christ and the like which if they be why do they not as he did When the Jews led him to the edg of the Hill on which the City was built to destroy him he passed away from them and could not be detained of them but so did not one of those Familists although he strived with them that carried him to prison for his fancy was of no force for to prison he was carried and if they be Christ why do they not walk upon the waters and command the seas and winds that they may obey them as did Christ or if they be God why doe they not cause the light to take hold of the corners of the earth every morning and cause the Sun to go back so many degrees as pleaseth them and if they be God why do they not shake the wicked out of the corners of the earth and then they shal shake out themselvs and so the world shal be well rid of them But however that which our Lord saith shal stand firm Let them alone every plant which my Father hath not planted shal be plucked up by the roots which will be soon enough to their eternal woe if they return not by those means which God hath put into their hands by the said assistance of Christs Spirit