Subjects and God was King and so continues to this day and shall be King to everlasting But before I shew how the Subjection of the Creature and the Dominion of the Creatour did arise from the Work of Creation something must be said of the Works of God in general and in particular of Creation The Works of God in general § II are the Acts of God whereby he produceth some Effects out of himself wherein he manifests his Perfections These are ascribed to his Active Power in respect whereof he is said to be Almighty These Works and this working whereby God in some sort issues out of himself presuppose the Essence and the Immanent Acts of the Deity upon it self and are the effects of God the Father Son and Holy Spirit and so may be considered In Respect of the Essence Father Son and Holy Ghost This working in respect of the Essence by some is called his efficiency and is well described to be That whereby God worketh all things according to the Counsel of his Will Ephes. 1. 11. This text observed before with reference to the Essence may be resumed and handled with respect unto Gods Works which may be considered 1. As prepared in himself 2. As produced out of him and standing in their own proper Being Before their actuall existence they were virtually in the understanding will and working-Power of God The Counsel of his understanding had contrived and disposed them his will had decreed them his power was ready to produce and effect them according to the Counsel of his understanding and the determination of his Will This informs us that every work of God Presupposeth his Vnderstanding Will. Power The Understanding § III or Counsel of God is that whereby he contrived the manner how and the order according to which all things were to be done and effected This Counsel presupposeth his absolute and perfect knowledge not onely of himself but of all things virtually in his Almighty power And it is often called in Scripture his Wisdom and is conceived by us as an act of Practicall Knowledge It is not Counsel as Counsel implies any defect or imperfection as in man it doth That Counsel of man which most clearly sees the end and the meanes and order of them conducing effectually to the end doth most resemble it though it come far short of it The object of this Counsel is not properly God but the Works of God and these not as done but to be done or in doing It appears and manifests it self in all the works of God and especially in those of the Government of Men and Angels in which it is so profound and wonderfull that though we knew something of it yet the bottome we can never sound So that exclamation of the Apostle implies Oh the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11. 33. That God by wisdom made the World and orders all his works the Scripture teacheth in many places The Psalmist after his serious meditation and contemplation both of the Works of Creation and Providence breaks out into these words Oh Lord How manifold are thy works In wisdom thou hast made them all Psal 104. 25. And it is so far above the Wisdom of man as his Works are above the works of Man This is the reason why when he beheld his works of Creation he saw that they were very good and beautifull He saw no defect or imperfection in them because they were made and effected in perfect wisdom And this is true of all his works and as then so now he may look upon his works and keep his Sabbath when he hath finished them which sinfull man cannot do And here is the proper place to say something of the Idea of all things For there are no first Samplars and Patterns of all things but in the counsel of God For the World and all Creatures were distinctly contrived by the wisdom of God before they did exist The whole frame and System of the World thus considered is called by some Mundus Idealis And the severall Creatures and things thus conceived are said to be Rationes rerum in Menâ—â— Cognitione Dei the Creatures and things contrived and known before they were effected or produced which were not properly God but things and Creatures modl'd and known of God Therefore said Occam that Ideae were Creaturae a Deo cognitae And these may be conceived either Antecedently or Consequently to the decree of his will There is a famous question held affirmatively by some An dantur in Deo rationes boni mali aeternae indispensabiles And as it is affirmed it 's opposed to another question maintained affirmatively by others Whether things be good only because God wills them and not because good in themselves This controversy Bradwardine toucheth upon and seemes to determine it by a distinction For he informs us that some things are morally good or evil antecedently to the will of God Some consequently Some partly antecedently partly consequently Yet this doth not satisfie because the Will of God may be considered either as an attribute with the perfection and integrity thereof or as a decree or as a Law Now 1. No quality disposition habit or act of Man or Angel can be morally good or evil antecedently to the will of God and the perfection thereof as it is an Attribute 2. Nothing can be morally good or evil antecedently to the decretive and legislative will of God except it have some intrinsecal conformity to the Rectitude to the will of God as an attribute neither can it rationally be conceived so to be 3. Nothing can be morally good or evil so as to be immediately Praemiable or Punishable antecedently to the Legislative will of God For the obligation to punishment and right to reward â—ollow immediately upon the Will of God consiâ—ered as observed or violated and expressed in the promises or threats of the Law By this the judicious reader will be able to judge of the controversy But â—intend not to trouble him with these Speculations Let this suffice us firmely to believe that God is necessarily just and though he freely determins commands and effects all things yet all his Decrees Commands and Works are necessarily just and there is no iniquity in him The will of God is that § IV whereby he determins all things according to his Counsel By will in this place is meant an act of Gods will in respect to things out of himself yet so that it presupposeth the will of God as an Attribute And this act is called a Decree And here is the proper place to speak of Decrees in generall which in the Scriptures are called the thoughts and also the purposes of God That there are Decrees is evident out of the word but how they are made of God we know not the manner is unsearchable This is certain They are all
Jew was much mistaken when he conceived that it made voyde the Promise For the Covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was 430. yeares after could not disannull that it should make the promise of none effect Gal. 3. 17. If it had been given for to give life it certainly had made voyd the promise But that was not God's intention in giving the Law And the regenerate Saints of God who lived under the Law were sanctified justified and saved not by vertue of the Law but of the promise confirmed of God in Christ. The law was proper to the Jew and Proselytes incorporated into that state and Church and bound them and no others unto the Ceremonialls to be performed by them in the land of Canaan And though the moral law doth alwayes bind all men to obedience upon certain terms yet it was given in Mount Sinai to them alone and in special relation unto them as appeares by that preface to the decalogue I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of Egypt out of the house of Bondage The law is called the law of workes and the first Covenant in respect unto the Gospel preached first unto the Jew and to be renned unto them in the latter dayes From all this § III it is apparent that from the times of Adam after that God had said The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's head the fundamentall lawes of God-Redeemer were the same After that John Baptist appeared in the Wildernesse God began to administer this Kingdome in a different manner For all the Prophets and the law prophesied unto John Math. 11. 14. He was the Horizon as some expresse it between the Old and New Testament Moses and the Prophets foretold Christ more darkly and at a great distance But Hee 1. Signifies that he was neer at hand and that a farr more glorious administration of this Spiritual Kingdome would shortly follow 2. God by him institutes a new rite of admission that was Baptism 3. He Baptizeth Christ the Messias 4. By his Baptism and Doctrin he made way for him 5. Upon the Baptism of our Saviour he discovers him to the people and perswades his disciples to believe in him and gives an excellent testimony of him Yet these things neither tooke away the law nor brought in the Gospel but were a preparative for the same After that Christ was initiated by Baptism § IV and entred into his Office he began to act publickly He baptiseth teacheth the Doctrin of the Kingdom more clearly reveales the mysteryes of Heaven gathereth Disciples ordaines Apostles adds 70 Assistants to them layes the foundation of the Church Christian and by his miracles manifests himself to be the Son of God and Saviour of the world Yet all this was done in the Land of Canaan and amongst his own People For he was sent first to gather the lost sheep of Israel Thus he continued to administer the Kingdom in his own person till his death After and immediately upon his Resurrection he receives universall power manifests himself to his Apostles and many of his Disciples gives commission to his Apostles to go and preach to all Nations after that he had given them instructions and commanded them to stay at Jerusalem till he should send down the Holy-Ghost and begins to exercise his universall power And so that administration which shall continue to the end of the World without alteration did commence But before I speak of this more particularly § V order requires that I say something of his Exaltation which as the Scripture informs us was a reward of his humiliation For because he taking upon him the forme of a Servant became obedient unto death the death of the Crosse therefore God exalted him and gave him a name above every name c. Philip. 2. 8 9 10. This exaltation was properly in respect of his humane nature For as he that exalted him was God so the nature exalted was Man The Power of the Godhead was infinite and eternall and could neither be increased nor communicated The Resurrection of Christ is made by many to be the first degree of his exaltation Yet this considered in it self did give him no power but it freed him from mortality and all kind of sufferings and by it he was made immortall Yet instantly upon his resurrection he was made an everlasting Priest and King and ready and fit as a Priest to Minister and as a King to reign in Heaven This Resurrection for the manner was glorious and wonderfull and for the manifestation of it full and 〈◊〉 That 〈◊〉 the manner it was wonderfull and glorious God made it appear because at the time there was an Earthquake the stone that shut the entrance of his grave was tumbled away an Angel descends with a glorious light the guard that kept the Sepulcher was terrified and fled the bodyes of the dead aroâ—e out of their graves and divers of the Saints raised up together with Christ did appear in the Holy City Thus did God manifest the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Ephes. 1. 19 20. This manner of Resurrection became him who was the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15. 20. and the head of all those which rise again to glory and his rising is a pattern of the universall Resurrection God is said in many places to have raised him from the dead yet so that his own immortall soul might have some hand in that work For he had power to lay down his life and power to take it up again Joh. 10. 18. He did not rise to dy again as Lazarus did but to be immortall For being raised from the dead he dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6. 9. The time of his Resurrection was no sooner that he might appear to be dead and no later lest his Disciples Faith already shaken should have â—ayled This day was a day of greater blisse and glory then any since the Creation It was the beginning of the new World and the foundation of the Christian Sabbath celebrated in all times since by the universall Church in memory of this blessed and glorious work This was his justification the confirmation of his satisfaction and merit and Gods acception of that great sacrifice and an absolute Conquest of death which is the last enemy to be subdued in the bodyes of the Saints who are his Church By this also sin and Satan received a fatall wound and Regeneration and the hope of eternall glory depend upon the same They depend upon it not onely in respect of divine institution but because as he had merited so he received a power to regenerate all such as should believe in him and to raise them up to eternall Life For to whomsoever he gives his Regenerating Spirit in this Life that very Spirit once dwelling in us is an evidence and assurance
do Christians though the seventh day of the Jewes was the last as Christians is the first of the week as our weeks are now reckoned And if any people in the world then surely Jewes and Christians had their warrant for the observation of holy times from Heaven What the Patriarchs from Adam to Moses did in this particular we cannot so clearly determin because the Scripture in this point is silent That God set a special Character upon the seventh day of creation is evident Gen. 2. 2. 3. Because having finished his glorious works in six dayes he rested the 7th and blessed and hallowed that day and so he did none of the rest Some take it for certain that God even then insâ—ituted the Sabbath and others do think it probable that God from the beginning required of man the 7th part of his time and the 10th part of his goods for his service and reserved both as a chief rent to be paid to him as chief Lord in acknowledgment of his supreme dominion If reason were consulted it could not deny but that these are due to God especially if he require them by a command If Scripture which is a rule above humane reason some think it might be demonstrated that God did command Man to gave both in all times Yet to give both is not moral but positive That is properly Moral which is intrinsecally good just necessary and such as directly and immediately makes a man better and that which is good in this manner cannot any wayes be performed by a wicked man or an hypocrite Yet the tenth of a mans goods and the 7th of his time may be given to God by a Cain by an hypocritical Pharisee tho with an heart rightly qualified they cannot be offered to God by such kind of persons whose very hearts are corrupt and depraved That which is just and holy in it self and renders a man acceptable to God is of universal and perpetual obligation from the beginning If any particular duty afterwards become such by vertue of Gods command though the matter of the duty and the thing commanded in it self be not intrinsecally just then that duty is not moral but positive and receives its morality ab extrinseco from Gods Command not from the nature of the thing In respect of this Morality not onely the Sabbath but the Sacraments and the precept concerning the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil may be said to be moral and so moral and ceremoniall Lawes which are really difâ—erent should be consounded Yet if any will call such commands Positively moral I will not wrangle about words Yet I must say that term Positively moral is not proper nor accurate As in Grammer there be words which derive their signification and in Logick arguments which receive the force of arguing from Primitive so even in this decalogue which we call the moral law there be Commandements which derive their morality from others and all from the first Yet this is the diâ—ference between such Commandements and others which are purely positive or ceremonial That these derivatives have a nearer connexion with pure morals and conduce more effectually to pure justice and holinesse then these positives do whose matter in it self is indifferent and no better The end of this Commandement § III in the third place is to preserve Religion and the Worship of God which without the observation of set and determinate times would soon decay and determine And we find that they who usually neglect Sabbaths and Sanctified Times are prophane and irreligious Wretches God knew this better then we do and therefore so strictly required the Sanctification of the Sabbath Persons who take liberty in their own Families to neglect the constant times of Prayer and serving their God in private and are left to their liberty â—or publick Worship in a short time prove little better then Heathens The end of the Sabbath to the Jew was constantly to worship God in remembrance of Creation and deliverance out of Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. and to distinguish them from the Heathen who had forsaken that God who created Heaven and Earth and worshipped Idols and their Sabbath tended and did conduce to these ends The Christian observes his Sabbath in remembrance of Christ's Resurrection and his Deliverance from Eternal Death thereby and consecrates himself in that day the more solemnly unto that God who hath not onely created but redeemed him And take away their Sabbath-Christian their Religion is not likely to continue long To enter upon the Commandment It 's Affirmative and includes a Negative § IV and in the same we have 1. The Commandement it self 2. The Explication of it The Commandement it self is brief and delivered in few words The Explication is large The words are these Remember the Sabbath-Day to keep it holy Exod. 20. 8. Keep the Sabbath-Day to sanctifie it Deut. 5. 12. Remember in the former place is explained in the latter by the word Keep which word according to the Hebrew Chaldee and the Versâ—on of the Septuagint sometimes signifies to have a special care to keep or observe a thing and the Arabick word Natar is of the same signification And the meaning of it is Have a care and take special heed to sanctifie the Sabbath For when we are forgetful of a thing we neglect it To remember a thing is sometimes to do it if it be a thing to be done as when God saith He will remember His Covenant it 's meant he will be careful to keep and perform it Gen. 9. 15. God had a special reason to prefix this word which signifies or imports special care and heed 1. Because Religion did so much depend upon the Sanctification of the Sabbath and man's Salvation upon Religion 2. I believe the Israelites in Aegypt had much neglected the Sabbath and Holy Times neither if they had been careful could they so well observe them because of their cruel Bondage 3. Some of these Israelites contrary to God's Command went out upon the Sabbath to gather Manna as though that had been an ordinary 〈◊〉 and God did signifie himself much herewith displeased Exod. 16. 26 27. 〈◊〉 hence no man can conclude an higher degree of Morality in this 〈◊〉 then in others For of the four first it 's least Moral Thus far it is 1. As it 's commanded by God 2. As requiring a special and more solemn performance of Moral Duties 3. As necessary for preservation of Religion amongst men The Sabbath-Day The word § V Remember take care and heeâ— is but general though a special Item yet here it 's specified by the Object The Sabbath-Day and the end the Sanctification of it For the thing to be remembred and so carefully observed was the Sanctification of that time The word Sabbath taken from the Hebrew Language and used in many Languages of the World signifies 1. By it self Rest. 2. Joyned with the word Day a time of Rest. 3. A certain determinate time
of Rest. 4. An Holy Rest not a rest from all Works but such as are secular 5. The word Day doth distinguish it from Years and Moneths and Weeks as greater and longer times and from an hour as a shorter measure of time And because it may signifie either a natural day of 24 hours or as it is an artificial day so far as it is a time of work and is opposed to a Night which is a time appointed by God for man to rest in For here it 's differenced from those six days wherein man may labour and do his secular works which also had their several nights and times of rest from the Creation And as our secularâ—secularâ—work on other days is not confined merely to the time of Light natural from the Sun approaching unto or appearing in our Horizon no more is this sabbath-Sabbath-Day Yet God did not take from it nor deny man in it a Night as a time of Rest. And men in these things should not be more precise than God would have them to be It 's not material whether we turn it The Sabbath or A Sabbath though The Sabbath is more emphatical and more agreeable to the Hebrew Chaldee Septuagim all which put a double Particle One upon the day another upon Sabbath Remember The Day of The Sabbath This word Sabbath-day doth not determine whether it should be one day in a Year or in a Moneth or in a Week Whether it should be the first or last of a Week or any of the intervenient Days neither doth it inform us when the Week begins or ends Yet that People of the Jews might easily understand that he meant that particular Sabbath-Day wherein they were prohibited to gather Manna which God denyed to give them that time And if they had been ignorant of this they might easily know that it signified such a time as God should determine and judge sufficient for preservation of Religion and His Worship and yet leave a competent portion of time for man's necessities This appears by the Explication following For all this I do not think that God did ever make such account of this or that seventh day as that one and the same should be of necessity and of universal and perpetual Obligation to Jews and Gentiles Neither is there any Morality in the number of seven or any necessary dependence of the continuance of Religion upon this or that seventh day The light of Natural Reason seems unable of it self to know this time yet if it be once revealed by God it cannot but acknowledge the Equity of it It may dictate unto us that if God once determine the time that time is the fittest The Heathens might have some Astronomical knowledge of the seventh day but Theological they could have none except by Tradition To sanctifie it This is the principall part of this Commandement § VI and of mans duty To sanctifie this day But it s one thing for God another thing for man to sanctifie it God may hallow it by his practise as he did the first 7th day of the World or by his institution and command For his command institution designation of the day makes it relatively holy distinguisheth it from and advanceth it above other dayes and binds man to honour it in his practice Man sactifies it for that is the sanctification here intended yet presupposing the former 1. When he esâ—eemes and accounts that day such as God hath made it 2. When not onely he rests from secular works but applyes that time to the due performance of those heavenly services which God requires of him especially and principally on this day It 's a time wherein the soul must be more imployed then the Body it 's a time wherein we must converse more with God than men with Heaven than with earth it 's a time ordained not for the temporal so much as the spiritual and eternal good of man it 's a time wherein we must not onely cease from our worldly labours businesse imployment which take up and toyl the body but sequesâ—er our hearts from worldly thoughts cares aâ—fections which distract our minds and diviner facultyes Thus instituted of God and thus hallowed of man it s the best and most excellent and noble part of our time and resembles in some degree that eternal Sabbath which we hope to hallow more perfectly in heaven When we shall be free from all sin and sorrow and Rest our selves with unspeakable content and joy in our God! This will be that glorious Festival and Holy-day the Sun whereof shall never set but ever shine For it shall have no end But this Blessed and Eternal Sabbath is not prepared for prophane wretches who neglect to serve their God on earth but for such as shall be most careâ—ull to sanctifie God Sabbaths in this life For the more carefull we are of the one the more sure we may be of the other The summe of the Commandement is this That whatsoever time God shall determine and design to man for a Sabbath man must remember it and be very carefull not onely to rest in it and forbear his secular imployments therein but he must be carefull to sanctifie it in the holy performance of Heavenly services without distraction After the words of the Commandement followes the explication § VII Wherein God 1. Explaines the word Sabbath Day and determins in particular what day he meant and singles it out from amongst the rest 2. Teacheth him how to sanctifie it 3. Gives the reason why he did determin upon that day for Rest and sanctification rather then upon any other So that in the words following we have 1. The determination of the day 2. The sanctification of the day 3. The reason of both 1. The determination of the day is in these words Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy Works but the 7th Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God Herein He 1. Takes out of mans time Six dayes and assignes them for secular imployments 2. He pitcheth upon the 7th which he appropriates to himself and designes for the Sabbath The former words Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy works are neither a Command nor a Permission nor a Toleration nor indulgence in strict sense whatsoever they may imply But the proper intention of them is to single out six dayes that God may let us know that none of them is the Sabbath but the 7th following They first presuppose that measure of time we call a week according to the number of the first seven dayes of the World which God created in six dayes and ceased from Creation the 7th 2. They imply that the Sabbath is weekly 3. That it 's none of the Six dayes In these six dayes man may labour and do his Work and all his Work By Mans Work may be meant 1. The work of sin in opposition to the Works of God and of the Spirit which are contrary and as God never gave any liberty
so he never granted any time for sin From sin we must keep a Perpetual Sabbath 2. Mans work is his labour and imployment in the affaires of this world which are lawfull and in themselves no way unlawfull They are not onely lawfull but in the time allotted by God necessary and he that neglects them shall offend And by this work is not meant onely the toyle of the body but the thoughts cares and consultations of the soul which both are unlawfull on the Sabbath not onely because God hath exempted all that time from them but also because they will distract and hinder us in the work of Sanctification As these words are no command so they are no prohibition of serving God and sequestring some part of the Six days for performance of heavenly dutyes For as man upon the Sabbath may eat and drink and do works of necessity mercy and charity so upon these Six dayes he may and must serve and Worship his God and single out some parts of them for that purpose Every day we should present our selves before our God and converse with him and make some part of it a Sabbath And if by Gods gracious providence our condition be such as that we enjoy a larger measure of this secular time then ordinary so that we have leasure to sanctifie the same our sin is great if we neglect the opportunity and spend our precious time in idlenesse vanity and sin or needlesse businesse of the world We must not neglect the dutyes of our calling and our necessary imployments or spend our spare time onely in contemptations and devotions so as to omit the opportunityes that God hath given us to do good to others But we must take heed leâ—â— we turn our Religion and continued devotion into formality And whereas it 's said Thou shalt do all thy Work By the Particle all may be signified all kinds of secular works though they be many and various according to the multitude and variety of employments which are honest and beneficial or any wayes convenient for man God excepts not any he gives full liberty and latitude as mans condition shall require Yet man should be so provident and so diligent especially if he have multitude of Businesseâ—s as to finish all his works in the Six dayes so as not to entangle or distract or hinder himself in religious services and the sanctification of the 7th day Neither must he cast himself so into straits as to impose upon himself necessityes upon that day wherein both body and mind should be free and prepared to Worship his God For though works of necessity may be done that day yet no man that shall create necessityes unto himself can be excused The next words § VIII But the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God inform us of three things 1. That the Sabbath is one day in seven 2. The Seventh 3. That this Sabbath is the Lords not onely because he rested in it and did blesse and sanctifie it but because though he be Lord of all time yet he hath separated it from other dayes and challengeth a special propriety in it so that man must not have so much as the use of that time for his work but must consecrate it to Gods work And to engrosse this day to our selves for wordly employments must needs be Sacriledge That which is the Lords must be given unto to the Lord. Yet here it may be a question When the Sabbath did commence and which was the first day from whence we must begin to number till we come unto the 7th To say that this day which God Commanded Israel to observe was the 7th day of Creation wherein God rested it 's hard to prove That it was the 7th weekly from the first falling of Manna is certain and so no doubt they understood it But whether that fell out to be the 7th of the Creation who can tell It might be so and it might be otherwise Yet herein we have no need to perplex our selves As they knew their Sabbath so we do ours Time in it self is neither holy nor unholy It s holy ab extrinseco from Gods command and mans observation of iâ— Let us be carefull to do our duty which is sincerely to sanctifie our 7th day which is the next thing in the explication 2. In it thou shalt do no Manner of Work § IX or thou shalt not do any work In the former Six dayes all work any work except the work of sin might be done in this not any work And in these words with those which immediately follow we may observe and consider 1. What it is to sanctifie 2. Who the persons be that are commanded to sanctifie this day 1. The sanctification is understood by the cessation and rest The rest is we must not do any work where by work is meant secular work such as may be done lawfully in the six dayes These are not onely such works as toyle the body but also such as distract and take up the Soul Therefore here is forbidden Travayling and passing from place to place either on foot or horse-back or any other wayes all labours of husbandry of trades and manufactures all secular studyes and exercises in humane learning all consultations debates and resolutions about State-affaires all judicial proceedings in secular Courts all playes sports recreations which either toyl the body or distract the soul and take up so much of this holy time as secular businesses do all thoughts and cares about worldly things all words and conferences so farr as they are inconsistent with the holy observation of the time For mans works imply all these Yet this clause doth not prohibit such works as are no wayes prophane but rather tend unto the sanctification of the day The Jewes might circumcise upon that day The Priests might kill their Sacrifices and make their fires to burn them The Disciples must pluck ears of Corn and eat them Our Saviour might heal the sick Any man might Water and fodder his Cattle or lift up a beast fallen into a ditch or deliver man or beast out of danger All which inform us 1. That necessary works and such as tend to the preservation of man or beast are lawfull to be done this day 2. That all such works as tend to the sanctification may be done likewise People may travail to the place of assembling to hear the Word of God to pray to perform holy dutyes The Minister may study to prepare himself may preach and teach and do other ministerial works even unto wearinesse We may eat and drink refresh our selves visit the sick heal them administer Physick relieve the poor and not prophane the time This was the Rest Yet what was the end of this Rest For this was but to prepare and make way to a far more noble work to which this rest was subordinate For surely 't was not Gods intention to command man to cease from his secular works to do
and clearly inform man that the World was not from everlasting but had beginning and that God did create it and so became the universal and supream Lord of Heaven and Earth by the Work of six days The seventh day wherein he rested from his work was a fit time for man's rest that on that day man might contemplate the glorious Works of God acknowledge God to be the Creatour and every Sabbath say Thou art worthy Oh Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4. 11. Besides the example of God's labour rest and Sanctification He knew that six days in the week was a fit proportion of time for man's secular works and one in seven for Diviner Employments And this is given the reason why God sanctified the seventh day and blessed it because that after in six days He had created Heaven and Earth He rested the 7th day And howsoever this great Work of Creation is never to be forgotten by Man yet because to sinful man the Work of Redemption is a greater blessing Therefore the first day of the Week being the day of Christ's Resurrection and the Restauration of Mankind is more to be observed and remembred The Lord said unto Judah Behold the days come when it shall be no more said The Lord liveth which brought up the Children of Israel out of the Land of Aegypt But the Lord liveth that brought the Children of Israel from the Land of the North c. Jer. 16. 14 15. So it may be said to us Christians since the time of Christ's glorification That it shall be no more said the Lord liveth that in six days made Heaven and Earth and rested the 7th day But the Lord liveth who after His Death and cruel Passion is risen again and hath redeemed sinful man from Hell and Eternal Death For if two great Blessings be received one after the other the latter and the greater is more to be remembred and the time thereof rather to be observed Therefore we do not observe the 7th day wherein God rested from the Work of Creation but the first day wherin Christ rose again and rested from His Work of Humiliation And though therein we do not forget the Work of Creation yet we rather remember the Work of Redemption and glorifie our God for the same From this Explication of the Words of God we may understand § XII what is here commanded and what is here forbidden The things commanded are two 1. Rest For we must remember a Sabbath and in the same we must do no manner of work 2. Sanctification For we must remember the sabbath-Sabbath-day to sanctifie it Rest is two-fold 1. Of the Body 2. Of the Mind and in both these we must rest 1. The Body must rest from secular works which hinder and disturb us in the service of our God 2. The Soul must cease from such Thoughts Cares Meditations and Affections which as much distract us in the Worship of our God as labours of the Body do Again bodily works of man as man endued with understanding cannot be done without the Soul attending directing and moving it much less can Heavenly Duties be performed without the Soul which in the time of these Services must be drawn off from the World and sixed upon far more excellent Objects And because many Games and Sports which are accounted Recreations do as much toyl the Body and distract and take up the Soul as secular Works do therefore we must needs judge them to be contrary to the Rest here commanded And our very words of Conference and Discourse upon this time may be such as are neither consistent with the Rest nor the Sanctification required in this Precept Yet this Rest is not to be so strictly taken as though all kind of Work and Bodily Labour were unlawful on this day Therefore 1. Works of Necessity may be done this day and which those are the Light of Reason is sufficient to determine as to save Man or Beast in danger to receive harm or pâ—rish if not that day relieved Therefore the very Pharisees who were so precise in the observation of the outward Rest could not deny unto our Saviour but that upon the Sabbath it was lawful to lift a Beast out of a Pit or Ditch into which it was then fallen And upon the same ground it cannot be unlawful on that day to fight and defend our selves against an Enemy 2. Works which tend to the refreshment and ordinary preservation of Man and Beast cannot be unlawful Therefore on this day we cloath our selves and take our ordinary food and repast and a Beast may be watered and fed this day as well as others 3. Works which tend unto the Sanctification of the Day are not prohibited For we may travail unto and return from the places of publick Assemblies for Prayer Reading Preaching and other Divine Services The Priests under the Law did kill their Sacrifices and so prophaned the Sabbath and were blameless Math. 12. 5. And it was thought no prophanation to circumcise an Infant upon that day Joh. 7. 23. Of this nature is the toyl and labour of the Ministers in their several Congregations 4. Neither is any work of mercy as visiting the Sick administring Physick relieving the Poor and such like contrary to this Rest. And the reason of all this is because the Sabbath is for man and not man for the Sabbath and therein God intended our good not our hurt The principal thing required is the sincere Worship of God from an heart seriously bent and inclined thereunto nor the performance of some outward piece of service in such a precise nick of time Yet we must take care always to have a sanctified heart and a desire to sanctifie the same and what we lose one time we must endeavour to recompence at another The second Duty here commanded § XIII is Sanctification of the Day and this is the principal Duty â—o which Rest is subordinate For as there can be no Sanctification without Rest so there can be no Rest acceptable to God but that which tends to Sanctification An Holy Rest is the thing here commanded It must be the Rest of a Man and not of a Beast and the Rest of an Holy Man as Holy Therefore this Commandement presupposeth Man to be habitually sanctified For an unsanctified man cannot sanctifie a Sabbath as God requires it to be sanctified This Sanctification consists in the performance of Holy Duties in the Worship of God The Object of this Worship must be God alone The parts of the Worship must be such as He hath instituted and the acts of Worship must be performed by persons who are sanctified and in an holy manner And to consecrate this 7th Day to these Holy Services is the very thing here prescribed Therefore to this Sanctification is required 1. A knowledge of the day that it 's determined by God 2. A
Promises and Threats he hath dealt not onely with private Persons but Kingdoms and States For he hath blessed such as did observe the Sabbath and cursed such as did prophane it This is evident not onely from the History of the Scriptures but from his Judgments in all Times We might easily by observation understand it in our Times It 's somewhat remarkable and not altogether to be neglected that even in this Nation upon the publike allowance of Sports and Recreations upon the Lords Day which is our Christian Sabbath Civil and Bloody Wars and ruine of the Royal Family should so shortly follow and that the hand of God should be most against those who by Writing Words or Practise had maintained the lawfulness of that Doctrine I forbear to cite the particular places of Scripture whence these Reasons are taken and the Examples of God's Judgments because this is done already by many others who have written of the Sabbath Before I conclude this Doctrine of the Sabbath § XVII it will be expedient to say something of the Lords Day which we Christians observe and as Christians are bound to sanctifie These things I suppose will be granted by rational and impartial men 1. That we under the Gospel are as much bound to serve and worship God as the Jews were under the Law 2. That the Lords-Day is as necessary for the preservation and continuance of Religion as the Jewish Sabbath was 3. It 's as fit and as due proportion of time as theirs was For our condition in respect of the business and necessities of this life did not differ from theirs but is the same 4. It 's as useful and conducing to our Spiritual good and the attaining of our Eternal Sabbath as theirs 5. It 's the 7th part of our time and a 7th day in order as theirs also was and so consecrates no less time to God but so much as the Commandement requires 6. The morality of the Commandement and the principal thing therein aimed at is not this or that 7th day but this or that 7th day which God shall determine for Sanctification 7. As God set a Character upon their Day so He hath upon ours Upon the 7th Day He rested from the great Work of Creation and therefore sanctified and blessed it and honoured it above other days and in remembrance of the great and glorious Work of Creation He commanded the Day to be observed So upon the first Day of the Week when Christ had finished His great Work of Redemption He began His Everlasting Sabbath For upon this Day He rose again upon this Day He sent down the Holy Ghost and by these two glorious Works He honoured this Day above all others even above their Sabbath The Creation was a glorious Work the Redemption is more glorious The Creation is a great benefit the Redemption is greater And if we must remember the former we must much more remember the latter If the Day whereon He rested from the former be fit to be observed much more is the Day wherein He rested from the latter The Resurrection of the Son of God made Man and the sending down of the Holy Ghost are never to be forgotten but eternally to be remembred by Christians For upon them depend our Eternal Salvation and without them we cannot attain unto or enter into our Everlasting Rest. And he is unworthy the Name much more the Priviledges of a Christian that will not remember these things And we can hardly find any to have dis-esteemed or neglected this Day but they were either prophane Wretches or giddy Sectaries and Hereticks For the alteration of the Day to be sanctified § XVIII there was great reason For 1. Seeing Christ did not rise again nor send down the Holy Ghost upon the Iewish Sabbath but upon the first day of the Week there was more reason to observe this our first then that their last Day of the Week And surely seeing Christ could have risen upon their Sabbath and sent down the Holy Ghost upon that Day and yet did not either of them upon the same nor any other Day of the Week there was some reason in it And by singling out this time for those Blessed Works He did intimate that this should be His Day wherein all Christians should honour Him to the end of the World and that the former Sabbath was to be laid aside 2. The former Sabbath did several ways respect the Jews in particular 1. As having the Ceremonial Law annexed unto it the Services and Rites whereof were to be observed in the Tabernacle and Temple upon this Day 2. It was a Sign between God and them that they might know that it was the Lord which did sanctifie them Exod. 31. 13 17. Ezek. 20. 12. So that it was part of that Partition-Wall whereby they were separated from the Gentiles Therefore after that Christ was risen the Holy Ghost given from Heaven upon this Day the Apostles received Commission to preach unto all Nations and God taking away the Partition-Wall made of both one Body-Politick in Religion it was though altogether convenient to surrogate the Lords-Day in the place of the former Sabbath and upon these grounds the first day of the week began to be observed in the days of the Apostles and had the name of the Lords-Day and both the observation and the name have universally amongst Christians continued since that time By laying aside the former Day was signified that the Covenant with the Fathers which had this Sabbath annexed was now with that Day expired and abolished by a more excellent time which succeeded it which being sanctified by us doth distinguish us from the unbelieving Jew in all Nations For by it we profess our Belief of Christ's Resurrection and our Sanctification by the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven Many remain to this day unsatisfied § XIX and doubt of the Morality of the fourth Commandement and if it were Moral by what Authority the Sabbath of the Jews determined in that Commandement of the Moral-Law given unto them could be altered For the Morality of it we must observe as before 1. That some Commandements were primitively some derivatively moral so that there were degrees of morality in that Law which is called Moral and in that respect though they were all moral yet there is a great inequality in their morality 2. This Commandement as some others have something positive in it 3. This Commandement was positive in respect of the time For neither time in general nor this or that particular time nor this or that portion of time as a day one day in seven this or that 7th day are moral They are not intrinsecally good nor have any connexion inseparable with the last end and felicity of man 4. This Commandement derives its morality ab extrinseco from the Divine Determination of the time and the Rest for Sanctification commanded in that time The Sanctification of one 7th determinate day every week
Power of God that he put the fear of man upon them and such was the Majesty of Man continuing in his Integrity that his Countenance and Presence did strike an awe into the greatest stronget and most comely Creatures Some make this Dominion a part of God's Image and it 's true that man in this resembled God as Lord and King and as God's Vice-gerent was a Petty God and Lord of the Lower-World The Second thing common to man with the Sensitive and generative Creature which propagate and perpetuate their kind by a successive generation is God's blessing of them whereby he gave them a generative power to multiply and replenish the Earth and the Waters This power of Generation is a wonderful and strange Vertue which God alone can give and take away at pleasure and if he take it away or deny it then it 's above the power of Nature to generate The Third thing is That general quality of all Creatures as they came from God For God saw every thing that he had made and it was very good Genes 1. 31. 1. Every thing was good beautiful and perfect in it's kind there was no defect or blemish in the Being and Constitution of it 2. Every thing was good and perfect for the end and use he had created them 3. Every thing was good in it's order by which all things were united and one subordinate to another and did compleat the Beauty of the whole and made up the great and glorious Frame which we call the World The reason of this goodness was because they were made by a perfect Rule and every thing severally and all things jointly did fully answer and were exactly conformable to that most excellent Model and Idea contrived by his Wisdom So that there was no need that God should continue this Work of Creation any longer but might rest and keep his Sabbath and take content in his Works If God § XVII in the Beginning thus created Heaven and Earth then it follows 1. That the World had a Beginning it was not from Everlasting For there was a moment a first point and period when it began and before which it did not exist and before which God onely had his Being from Everlasting fully perfect and happy in himself and could have no need of the World for it could add nothing to his happiness 2. That the World in this respect was a Work and an effect which must needs have a cause and depend upon it for its very first Being without which it had never been 3. The efficient cause and Work-man which did contrive and make this curious and excellent piece was God For nothing but God had any Being or Existence before this Work of Creation Neither could there be any Power of Wisdom but his sufficient to produce the least thing from nothing into Being 4. This great Work once made must needs manifest the glorious Power Wisdom and Perfections of thâ— Maker For The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work Psal. 19. 1. 5. By this Work God is sufficiently differenced from all other Things as of far more excellent and of a far more admirable power So that by this it 's evident there can be no other God but He For whatsoever cannot make a World is not God as he is 6. Therefore He and He alone must needs be God there neither is nor can be any other For He is great and doth wondrous things and is God alone Psal. 86. 10. And before Among the gods there is none like to thee O Lord neither are there any Works like unto thy Works 7. It 's the duty of Men and Angels to behold these glorious Works and seriously therein to observe his wonderful Power and Wisdom that so they may admire his glorious Excellency and with all Humility adore his Eternal Majesty who alone is worthy of all honour glory and power for evermore even for this Work of Creation 6. If he created all things and that first of nothing then all things are wholly his He hath an absolute Propriety in them and full power to order them and dispose of them at Will and Pleasure And by this we understand how he did acquire his Supream and Vniversal Power Hitherto Creation hath been considered § XVIII briefly in it self and as it is a Work and the first Work of God and now Order requires that we return unto the principal and intended consideration thereof according to tâ—e Method of my Discourse as it is the Foundation and first ground of that Regal Power whereby the World is governed This Consideration is expressed in the last conclusion concerning the Power acquired by Creation For the World was made that it might be governed and none was fit to govern it but he that made it and none can govern without Power acquired one way or other This Power was acquired by Creation because by it God obtained an absolute and perfect Propriety in the whole World and every part thereof Amongst men whosoever makes any thing by his own proper Art and Labour and that of his own stuff he must needs have a full right unto it and a full power to dispose of it yet no Workman ever made any Work without some matter yet God made all things without any matter Pre-existent And in this is far above all other Work-men who never made their stust or matter In this respect He is the sole and total cause of the whole world and every thing receiveth its whole Entity and every Particle of it from the Creatour From hence it follows that seeing the whole Entity is Gods therefore his Propriety is entire and absolute And if it be such he must needs have an absolute Power to dispose of all things and to order them as he thought good And because of this absolute Propriety it is that they wholly depend upon him for Being and all things else and are wholly subject unto him Therefore he may give them what Rules he pleaseth order them to what ends he thinks good and he hath made them capable of and also by these regulate all their inclinations and motions and bind them to observe his Order upon what terms he will This Power acquired by these means and grounded upon this Propriety is original absolute supream universal Monarchical everlasting It 's originally and primarily in him as in the Fountain it 's not in the least measure derived from any other It 's absolute and no ways limited It 's supream and no ways subordinate or dependent upon any higher and above it It 's univeral and extended to the whole World as his Territory It 's Monarchical because the Power wholly resides in one It's everlasting and after it 's once begun it continues and shall for ever abide In these respects it 's not only different from but most excellent and far above all other Power And as it 's acquired by Creation so it 's continued by Preservation which
worse or to do nothing For if the thing commanded had been onely rest then a Beast might keep the Sabbath as well as Man and receive as much benefit from it Therefore this time was subordinate to an higher end then rest and rest was ordayned for a diviner imployment as the service of our God and the sanctification of our souls For we must Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it But it cannot be a Sabbath except we rest it cannot be sanctified except we apply and consecrate that time of rest to God and the service of his glorious Majesty The Jewes were directed by the Prophet how to observe a Sabbath in these words If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on mine holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words then thou shalt delight thy self in the Lord Esay 58. 13. 14. In which words we have 1. A Precâ—pt 2. A promise of Reward The matter of the precept is the sanctification of the Sabbath by which Synechdochically is understood mans duty unto God For to sanctifie the Sabbath sincerely includes all the dutyes of the first table which have God for their immediate object In this sactification we may observe 1. The quality of the day 2. The observation of it 1. The qualityes are these 1. It 's a Sabbath and day of rest 2. It 's Gods day 3. It 's holy Gods holy day 4. It 's honourable and more excellent then other days 2. The observation requires 1. That we rest and that 1. From our sin and our vain pleasures 2. From our own Labours Works Words and all secular acts 2. That we consecrate it unto God with joy and delight so that our observation may answer the quality of the day and tend to the glory of God The persons charged with this Duty § VI are 1. Every one who is sui juris and can dispose of himself for labour and rest 2. Those persons are either Superiours or Inferiours Superiours are either private as Parents and Masters of Families or publick as Magistrates and Governours And these must 1. In their own persons rest and sanctifie this day 2. They must cause others subject to their power so far as in them is to do the like For as they are charged so they must have care of the persons subject unto them and use all means to cause them to serve their God and obey Him as well as themselves In this respect it 's true that Magistratus est custos utriusque tabulae and so is every Superiour invested with power The Inferiours are either rational or irrational Rational are either members of the Family or of the State or Church or Strangers Members of the Family are either Children as Sons and Daughters or Servants as Man-servants Maid-servants Strangers are either strangers in a Family or in a City and they may be Native or Aliens and Aliens may be Proselytes and incorporate or not incorporate Irrational as Ox or Ass or any Beast that is used for travel or labour in carrying or other Works of Husbandry This last of Brutes is not so to be understood as though the Law were given to Brutes and irrational Creatures For they are not capable of Laws The Law is not given to them but of them It 's given to Man who is the Owner and Master of the Beast 1. That he might be merciful unto his Beast For God will not have man to be cruel unto his labouring and harmless Beast For he that is cruel to these will be cruel to his Servants and such as are under his power 2. Because his Beast could not be used for Travail Carriage Draught Plowing treading out the corn or other service except some man as the Master or his children or his Servants direct them and make that use of them And from hence it 's evident That one end of this Commandement was the refreshment of Man and Beast and God in this had respect unto poor Servants who might by cruel and covetous Masters be abused and oppressed and also debarred from the service of their God to the hazard of their poor souls Poor Servants had Souls as well as the best were bound to serve their God and had as much need of Spiritual comfort as free men or their Masters And in those days if any Servants were under cruel and prophane Masters their case was lamentable For being either taken in War or sold or born Servants their Masters might force them to labour that day or to suffer cruelly if the Magistrate did not relieve them These words signifie that no man in power should suffer any Subject unto them to prophane the Sabbath so far as they could hinder it Neither did this charge unto Superiours excuse Inferiours who had liberty to sanctifie this day if they did neglect or prophane it And such as were restrained were bound to use all means to obtain this liberty to serve their God To say that this Commandement was given of Servants not unto Servants is not true For then it would follow that if they had good and Religious Masters or such as would permit them to observe the day yet they were not bound unto that duty neither did they offend if they did prophane it So far indeed as they were merely passive and subject to the absolute power of their Superiours who would in no wise suffer them to rest and sanctifie this day when they desired it and they should every way endeavour to enjoy this liberty and after all this could not then the sin must lye upon their Masters and Superiours upon whom God would charge it and that heavily too And let all Inferiours who enjoy this liberty be thankful to their God who hath shewed such great mercy to them The reason of the Institution of the Sabbath follows § IX And it 's from the end which in general is the remembrance of some great and glorious work of God for which he ought to be praised and glorified One Reason why the Israelites must rest and also give liberty to their Servants to rest is because they themselves were Servants in the Land of Aegypt and had little intermission granted them either for to refresh their Bodies or sanctifie Holy Times And this very rest and liberty might put them in mind of their great deliverance and stir them up to thankfulness upon their Sabbath-days Deut. 5. 15. Another Reason and the same more general was from the great work of Creation worthy of eternal remembrance And herein God is a Pattern and proposeth his own example unto man for imitation that as he in six days created Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day and so sanctified and honoured it above other days so man might labour six days and rest the seventh and sanctifie it to the Lord. This example doth more distinctly
Spiritual as opposed to Temporal For otherwise Bodily punishments which we call Temporal may by continuance be Eternal To pass by therefore these Temporal Penalties one Spiritual Punishment and the greatest is the want and loss of the Holy Spirit to be a continual and constant Principle and cause of Sanctification This Spirit was given Man in the day of his Creation and was taken away from Adam and in him from all his Posterity by the judgment of God and a Sentence yet in power and force and to continue to the end of the World The Law indeed of Works is abâ—ogated but it was in force at that very time when the Sentence was passed and upon the Promise of Christ the Law was abrogated as a Law of Works but the Sentence remained in force still Concerning the sanctifying Spirit we may observe and consider 1 That the loss and so the want of it is a punishment 2 This punishment lying upon every Man before this Spirit be restored presupposeth a guilt 3 This punishment and guilt is never taken away till this Spirit be restored 4 This Spirit may be testored for preparation of a sinner for justification or in and after to continue as a constant cause of Sanctification Or as others express it for perpetual Habitation to prevent the Dominion of Sin and Damnation for time to come It doth not prevent all sin and so the contracting of new guilt nor is given in that measure to us and this is the reason why your estate of Justification is not perfect at the first 5 God never justifies any man with that justification whereof Paul speaks in the Epistle to the Romans and Galatians and elsewhere but in justifying them He gave them instantly this Spirit as the Spirit of Christ to be in them a constant cause of Regeneration and Sanctification and therefore that Justification is not without some Execution 6 Consider this restoring of the Spirit as the removal of a Punishment and the loss and want of the Spirit as a Punishment it must needs be essentially included in Justification and Remission of Sin For that which 1 Takes away the Punishment of sin And 2 The Guilt and Obligation unto Punishment is properly remission of sin If the Punishment as a Punishment should remain so far as it doth remain it doth invincibly prove that the guilt is not taken away so far and in that respect If any distinguish of the Sentence and Execution and make the one the cause the other the effect I will not quarrel about words Onely I will demand Whether it 's not better to say in this particular judgment of God that the Sentence and Execution are really the same and differ onely in respect or at most in degree 7 The active sanctification of this Spirit taken in it self either habitually or actually and as inherent in us can in no wise be Justification or any Branch of Justification as Justification is a remission of sins For God gave this Spirit to Angels He gave it to Adam in the day of Creation and this Spirit did sanctifie and now doth sanctifie the blessed Angels yet this Sanctification is not reâ—mission But consider remission of sin as a removal of punishment as punishment whether of sense or loss deserved by sin and the loss of the Spirit and the blindness perversness and slavery under the power of Sathan following necessarily upon the taking away and denying the Spirit by a just Judgment as a Penalty then this restoring of the Spirit must needs put on another Notion as it hath another Nature This restoring of the Spirit is so necessary that a bare Sentence without it can give a man no comfort nay Heaven without it is no Heaven or place of Bliss and abode But lest I may be thought to agree with the Doctrine of the Councel of Trent or at least come too near it Let us consider what they say Their Doctrine Sess. 6. Cap. 7. is this That Justification is not onely remission of sins but also the sanctification and renovation of the Inner-Man by the susception of Grace and Gifts whereby or whereupon a man of unjust is made just and of an Enemy a Friend that he may be an Heir according to the hope of Eternal Life And afterwards The onely formal cause of Justification is the Righteousness of God not whereby he is just but whereby He makes us just They mean inherently just Thus far they Now let 's examine Whether there be any Agreement between the former Doctrine and this And 1 I grant with all our Divines that Justification and Sanctification go always inseparably together and this they of Rome know well enough to have been always the constant Doctrine of the Reformed Churches 2 They say that Justification is not onely remission of sins but Sanctification I say it 's onely remission 3 They assert that this Sanctification and Renovation is by voluntary Susception and so understand this Sanctification passively as formally inherent I make neither Sanctification active nor much less passive as considered in themselves to be justification nor any part of justification 4 They make the formal cause of Justification to be this Sanctification I utterly disclaim this I had said before that Sanctification in it self is no remission and is in Angels without any such thing and do affirm that this Sanctification as they understand it is no part of that justification which the Gospel speaks of and that the restoring of the sanctifying Spirit for Renovation as an act of God as Judge for to remove a punishment as a punishment and the obligation thereunto is properly remission And here I cannot but much wonder what these Tridentine Divines did understand by Remission For if the formal cause of Justification be Sanctification and inherent Righteousness as they make it so to be I find no place nor need of any place for remission Yet first they make it a part of Justification distinct from Sanctification It 's neither final nor efficient nor meritorious nor material neither by their own words can it enter the formal That this Sanctification considered in it self especially Passive and inherent cannot be Justification is evident For 1 Sanctification thus understood is not properly any act of God as a Judge much less a Sentence passed upon a guilty Wretch 2 That justification of Believers in this life whereof the Scripture speaks doth leave the party chargeable with no sin is perfect and bears out the severity of God's Justice before His Throne This our inherent Righteousness in this life can never do both because we are guilty before and also it 's imperfect 3 A man may be sanctifyed and that perfectly so as to prevent all sin for time to come and yet the party may remain guilty and liable to Eternal Death for the guilt of former sins committed before this Sanctification and not remitted by it Some make remission two-fold Remissio Culpae Remissio Poenae 1. Of Sin 2. Of
differs in many things from all other Books especially in respect of the Authority thereof which is primarily Divine in the Original Copies secundarily in the Transcripts and Translations These sacred Writings are learned and known several ways and by several means of men that are not infallibly directed further then they follow the Scriptures rightly understood And by these especially Ministers by whom God speaks to men another way they are taught several ways in a certain order How these must be heard understood applyed so as the Hearer may attain to a Divine Faith and a Saving Knowledge Where something of the Tradition of the Church CHAP. III. The Doctrine of this Kingdom is contracted by Christ and His Apostles as such is the ground of all the Apostolical Creeds and Confessions all agreeing in method and matter The manner of the handling of the subject in this Treatise is different from that of ordinary Systems Catechisms and common places where something is said of Faith in general and of Divine Faith A Confession taken out of Tertullian CHAP. IV. Of the Divine Essence and Attributes How God's Essence is intelligible and how represented to us by certain Attributes What Attributes are and certain Rules concerning them The imperfect definition of God including all the Attributes CHAP. V. The Attributes in particular The distribution of them into Greatness Goodness In the Greatness unity infiniteness Infiniteness in Immensity from which ariseth His Incomprehensibility Vbiquity and in Eternity CHAP. VI. God's goodness being one and infinite is known by his excellent and most eminent Acts and Vertues of his Vnderstanding Will Power as His most excellent Knowledge and Wisdom the integrity of his Will and the perfection of his power CHAP. VII The Father Son and Holy Ghost their unity order distinction They are not Three Persons in that sense as Men or Angels are called persons The vanity of the Socinian Argument against the Trinity grounded upon the word person strictly taken How the Soul may be said to be an Image and imperfect resemblance of the Father Son and Holy Ghost CHAP. VIII God considered in his Regal Capacity in respect of his power acquired by Creation and continued by preservation How God is a cause of all things by his Counsel contriving Will decreeing Power actually producing The knowledge of GOD in respect of things out of Himself His Decrees free wise unchangeable The cooperation of the Persons their distinct manner of working The Creation in general the special Creation of Man The Conclusions deducible from this Principle God created Heaven and Earth and all things therein By this Work God hath a propriety in all things and may dispose of them and order them to the ends whereunto He hath made them ordinable Hence his supream universal absolute power How all things created are preserved and ordered Ordination in general the first act of God's Power acquired and continued CHAP. IX The Exercise of God's Power in general CHAP. X. The special Ordination and Government of the Intellectual and Immortall Creatures Angels Men. The government of Angels constituted administred according to certain Laws Judgment whereby some being obedient were confirmed rewarded Others disobeying rebelling and forsaking their station were punished and cast out of God's presence reserved for greater punishments in the end of the World CHAP. XI The special Government of Man which is two-fold 1. Of Justice without Christ. 2. Of Mercy in Christ. The constitution of the first Model The administrations Laws Moral Positive considered as a rule of Man's obedience God's Judgment CHAP. XII The Judgment of God-Creatour passed upon Man according to the Laws of Creation and strict Justice The Object of this Judgment 1. Man obedient rewarded with the continuance of a comfortable condition in Paradise 2. Sinning Sin in general is a disobedience to God's Laws The degrees and the consequents thereof The first sin of our first Parents in particular The causes of it The effects thereof before Judgment CHAP. XIII God's judicial proceeding against Adam Eve the Serpent Satan Their Convention Conviction Sentence Execution More particularly God's Sentence passed upon the old Serpent the Devil In which God new models his Kingdom of mercy in Christ promised and gives Man hope of Pardon and everlasting comfort CHAP. XIV The Penalties more particular both Bodily and Spiritual publike private Temporal Eternal all signified by Death to which Sin made man liable yet all by Christ removable CHAP. XV. Original sin what it is Whether it be properly so Whether Concupiscence in persons baptized be such in proper sense The derivation of Original sin Whether it be derived by Propagation or the just Judgment of God or both CHAP. XVI The principal Attributes of God manifested in this Judgment as Holinesse Justice especially Mercy in the manifestation whereof he exercised his transcendent power above the former Constitution and Laws LIB II. CHAP. I. THe Coherence of this Book with the former The difference of the two Models both the former and latter The acquisition of a New Power by the Word made Flesh and annointed taking upon him the form of a servant and being obedient to the Death of the Cross. A Description of the Redeemer His Person Nature Offices The union and distinction of the two Natures His particular Offices CHAP. II. The Humiliation of the Son of God 1. In taking upon Him the Form of a servant 2. In suffering Death A brief Historical Narration of His Sufferings 1. Before Judgment 2. His Judgment The Preparations of His Tryal His Tryal 1. Before the Ecclesiastical 2. The Civil Judge His Condemnation Execution with the Prodigies which hapned about that time CHAP. III. A more large Discourse concerning the Suffering and Death of Christ. It was an Act of Obedience to His Heavenly Father commanding Him to suffer for the sins of Man whereby He was offended To this Death He became obnoxious not onely by His Fathers Command but His own voluntary submission to be an Hostage and Surety for Man as guilty It was a Sacrifice offered freely to God as Law-giver offended and as supream Judge The effects of this sacrifice accepted are immediate mediate Immediate Satisfaction of Divine Justice and Merit What He merited for Himself what for Man How the benefit of this Sacrifiâ—â— became communicate from Christ as a Representator General and the Will of God the great Soveraign Of the extent of this benefit Whether Propitiation is to be ascribed to His active or passive Obedience severally or to both joyntly Whether this Death prevents all punishments or onely the Eternal And if not what punishments it removes The Attributes manifested in this great Work of Humiliation of the Word made Flesh by which a new Power was acquired CHAP. IV. The exercise of the new Power of God-Redeemer in the Constitution of His New Monarchy The Soveraign and Monarch The Subjects the Officers the Administrator-General the Enemies The manner of reducing Man to subjection the nature
them also into 3 sorts in another manner For some say they shew what he is Some how great Some how good he is I desire to have the Liberty that these and others have taken Before I come to the Particular handling of these Attributes wherein I shall not differ much from some of the former it is to be observed 1. That some of the Names given to God in Scripture are Attributes some not 2. That God cannot be defined according to the rules of Logick 3. That which we call a definition of God doth comprehend all the Attributes So that by good consequence all of them may be deduced from it 4. The Definitions I intend to speak of are two The first is that of Doctor Amyes out of Mr. Richardson That God is a Spirit living of himself In this it is supposed 1. That Spiritual Substances are more excellent then bodily 2. That Living Spirits are more excellent then such as have not Life 3. That Such as have intellectual and moral Life are most excellent of all Created beings These are Men and Angels Yet these do not Live in themselves independently For they depend on God From all these presupposed it follows that God being a Spirit Living with the most excellent Life and in himself independently must needs be every way the most Excellent Substance and far above all others The second definition is § V That God is a being absolutely perfect Some if not all understanding Heathens did conceive that God was Ens praestantissimum the most Excellent Being Whereby they did acknowledge 1. That God was because a Being and 2. That He was an Excellent Being 3. That of all others he was most Excellent And this was to be a most perfect Being God is a Being and not any kind of Being but a Substance which is the Foundation of other Beings And not only a Substance but perperfect Yet many Beings are perfect in their kind and in a certain measure of Perfection yet limited and finite But God is absolutely fully and every way infinitely perfect And therefore above Spirits living Spirits above Angels who are perfect comparatively and in an high measure But their Perfection is infinitely short of God's perfection This absolute Perfection includes all the Attributes even the most excellent It excludes all Dependency being after not being Composition Corruption Mortality Contingency Ignorance Unrighteousness Weakness Misery and all Imperfections whatsoever It includes necessity of Being Independency perfect Unity Simplicity Immensity Eternity Immortality the most perfect Life Knowledge Wisdom Integrity Power Glory Bliss and all these in the highest degree and the Abstract And though by these we may know much of God in this Life yet all our knowledge here on Earth is nothing to that we expect in Heaven And the knowledge of Angels is nothing to the knowledge wherewith God knows himself For he being infinite knows himself as infinite infinitely We may know that he is infinite but as infinite we know him not We see but if we may so speak onely the Out-side nay but the Back parts of God We cannot pierce into the secrets of this Eternal Being Our Reason comprehends some little of him and when it can proceed no further Faith comes in and we believe far more then we can understand And this our Belief is not contrary to Reason but Reason it Self dictates unto us that we must believe far more of God then it can inform us of CHAP. V. Of the Divine Attributes in Particular THese Divine Attributes § I included in this absolute perfection are reducible to two 1. The Greatness of GOD. 2. The Goodness of GOD. The Heathens did give unto their great God whom they conceived to be King of their Petty Deities the Titles of Optimus Maximus and so made him the Best and the Greatest Whence they had this Light I know not Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that many of their greatest Schollers were Thieves and did steal out of the Scripture and from the Jews whom they would never acknowledge their Masters the choifest Truths in their Writings Howsoever this is very certain That to be great and good is to be like unto God and the greatest and the best are the most like unto him and to be absolutely the greatest and the best is to be God The Scripture speaks very much of the greatness and goodness of God And by these two God is sufficiently differenced from all other Beings and is manifested by them to be far above and infinitely more excellent then all God's greatness is that § II whereby he is one infinite Being By greatness I do not mean greatness of Power and Dominion For that is Political and agrees unto him as King in relation to his Subjects and is founded in the great Works of Creation and Providence and as such it can be no Attribute Neither is it greatness of strength for that is Physical and manifested in all his Works ad extra and is the same with Potentia which is an Attribute indeed but in another sense Neither is it the greatness of Quantitative extension for that is Mathematical and agreeing onely to Bodies and Bodily Substances Yet 1. If He were not great Essentially he could not be so great in Dominion and Strength 2. This greatness is manifested in the greatness of Dominion of Strength and of great and vast extensive Bodies especially the vast Pile of the World His Greatness is either Vnity § III or infiniteness of Being The Unity of his Being is that Whereby He is one onely God so that there cannot be another Philosophers tell us that Quantity follows the Essence of things quantitative immediatly and is so near unto it as that some conceive that Quantitas is nothing else but Substantia quanta and adds no entity to the substance This Quantity makes a thing measurable two ways 1. By Number 2. By Magnitude And though the greatness of the Divine Essence be neither Physical nor Mathematical yet for the Explication thereof we use the terms of both yet abstracting all imperfection God for number is one for measure infinite and he is infinite that he may be onely one and the greatest That He is One we often read in Scripture yet so that his Unity sometimes signifies his Constanâ—y sometimes his Immutability sometimes his Monarchical Dominion But so it is not here taken Though this Unity be a general Affection agreeing to every Being so that it cannot be a Being except one yet this Unity of God is proper to himself and agrees to nothing else as it agrees to him Some things are so one as that they are many because compounded and have parts but God is a pure Act and hath no parts neither is compounded but is a Pure simple Being And that which some make a distinct Attribute and call Simplicity belongs unto this Unity Some things are so one as that their Being admits of many Individuals of the same kind as Men Angels and other
shall not ever be totally in Act. For he doth not effect all things which he can but those things which he will He is said to be pure Act in respect of his Essence and eternall acting upon himself And this power as an Attribute is pure act and in that respect is properly actual strength not power physically taken It extends to all things possible and is able to produce them But we must not think that they are possible or producible in themselves but in respect of this power And it 's to be conceived first as able to effect before it actually effect any thing as it actually effecteth all things that are effected It 's the root and originall of all created active Power and all Created causes are effects of it and act as acted and moved by him How it acts and concurrs with free Agents when they sin the Wit of Man cannot clearly understand and satisfie it self But this is certain that as the Decree so the Power is alwayes regulated by the Wisdom and Juctice of God It 's great and irresistible For though men and Angels may disobey his Lawes yet they cannot resist or hinder his power For he is in the Heavens and hath done whatsoever he pleased Psal. 115. 3. And whatsoever the Lord pleased that did He in Heaven and in Earth in the Seas and all deep places Psal. 135. 6. Therefore if God promise great things and such as to man may seem impossible we may safely rely upon Him What is said shall certainly be done Thus â—art the Works of God have been considered in respect of the Essence § VIII It remaines that we observe them with respect unto the Father Son and Holy Ghost In this later respect the Authours of Theologicall Systems inform us of two things Their Co-operation Distinct manner of Working The Co-operation is that whereby the Father Son and Holy Ghost concur as one Individual efficient cause of every Work and effect out of themselves In this respect that 's true that Opera Trinitatis ad Extra sunt indivisa What one is said to do all are to be understood to do The Father doth not create without the Word nor was the Word made flesh nor did redeem without the Father nor the Holy Ghost sanctifie without the Father and the Word neither do the Father and the Son any thing without the Holy Ghost For all the Works of God ad extra do necessarily presuppose the immanent necessary acts of the Deity upon it self Yet we must not conceive them as any wayes unequal either in themselves or in their working nor as three distinct agents uniting their forces joyntly to produce one and the same effect For one Individuall Essence must needs if it act be one Individuall Agent in the production of all Creatures and effecting all his works Therefore we find the Creation and other Works of God ascribed as well unto the Word and Spirit as to the Father and for the most part to them all as to one God The manner of their concurrence is that § IX whereby the Father worketh by the Word and Spirit the Son from the Father by the Spirit and the Spirit from them both This doth imply that the manner of their Work is distinct yet it 's very difficult to conceive the distinction or difference We read that the Father doth many things by the Word and Spirit but never that the Word or Spirit did any thing by the Father All things were made by the Word and without him was not any thing made that was made John 1. 3 And by him were all things created and by him all things consist Col. 1. 16 17. And God the Father is said to have made the Worlds by him Heb. 1 2. The Father will quicken our bodyes by his Spirit dwelling in us Rom. 8. 11. And he revealed the deep things of his Gospel by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 10. And God elected the Thessalonian Christians to Salvation through the Sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes. 2. 13. We have some resemblance hereof in the soul of man which being one individuall essence is one individuall agent It conâ—riveth all its works by the counsell of the understanding determines them by his will and is ready to effect them by his active power When it actually produceth any thing the Will commands the understanding directs and the power executeth The Will is first and begins the understanding is the second and goes on the power is the last and finisheth the Work And these three inseparably and individually concur efficiently to produce the effect as one efficient And the Will directs by the understanding and executes by understanding directing the power and by the Power Acting according to the Understanding How Redemption is appropriated to the â—on and Sanctification to the Holy Ghost must be considered hereafter In these things We must be sober and not Curious We must neither confidently affirm any thing as a Divine Truth which is not evident unto us out of the Scripture nor Peremptorily deny any thing because We do not clearly see it in the Scriptures For so the Sadduces deny'd the Resurrection because they could not see it in the Book of God Though it was in that book as our Saviour made it evident These things premised concerning the Works of God in general § X I will proceed to say something of them in particular Though they be many yet may they all be reduced to three heads For they all are either works of Creation of Preservation or of Ordination Some bring these under two heads the first of Creation the second of Providence And by Providence they understand both Preservation and Government But this is but difference in Words The first work whereby the Eternall King did first acquire his power is Creation Which is a Work of God whereby in the beginning he created Heaven and Earth and all things therein This work must be considered Absolutely in it self Respectively as aground of absolute power And in it self Generally Specially in respect of man In it self generally it 's A Work or Act of God yet this Act is not immanent but emanant and transient yet farr different from the Acts of any Creature and from many other Acts of God It had an objâ—ct logically considered no subject existent For the Creature as existent was an effect and not the subject of it As Cameracensis doth distinguish of Predestination That Praedestinatio Activa est Deus Praedestinans Passiva est Res Praedestinata So Creatio activa est Dâ—uâ— creans Passiva Res creata So that in Creation we have God and his Creativity as Occam and Bacon expresse it and the thing created It is a proper Act of God and can be truly affirmed of nothing else if it were not so God by this work could not be distinguished from all other things as by this act we read in Scripture he is The first part of the Creation presupposed no matter
and the other parts no matter immediately capable of a â—orm to be either introduced into it or educed out of it by any agent but by God So that God supplyed wholly all the causes And when we say that God Created all things either mediately or immediately of nothing the word Nothing doth neither signifie the matter nor properly the term of that act but is a Negative and denyes all pre-existent matter in the first part of Creation Neither doth the word Create in Ancient authors signifie to make a thing of nothing as some think it doth Therefore we must learn what Creation is from the Scripture not from this or that word God by this Act did so clearly manifest his eternall power and God-head that it 's evident that he alone is the efficient cause and Maker of the World and that without the advice or assistance of any others and also without any tool or instrument It was a frâ—e act of God For he was no wayes necessitated to make the World or to make it before or after or at that time when he did make it or to produce it in this or that order or manner rather then another For he Created all things and for his pleasure they are and were Created Rev. 4. 11. He Created Heaven and Earth in the beginning The word may signifie the Beginning of time as its the measure of things existing and standing out of their causes in their proper entity Or it may referr to the first part of the Creation teaching us That in the beginning and first of all God created Heaven and Earth which was voyd and without form and afterwards he made Light the Firmament and other things or it may referr unto the whole Creation and signifyes unto us that the first Work of God was the Creation of the World in six dayes And in this sense Creation was the first issuing-forth of his Almighty Power to make and do some things out of Himself This was the Act of Creation § XI and the Effects were all things Created All things joyntly taken together are the World and the principall parts thereof are Heaven and Earth And because Heaven and Earth are not Vacant places as it is written that the Heavens and the Earth were finished with all the Host of them Gen. 2. â— Where the word Host signifies all things in Heaven and Earth And these are called The Host of them 1. Because they are Many 2. Because they were all Created in an excellent order So Paraeus on the place 3. Because they were the Ornament and beauty of Heaven and Earth Thus the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uâ—ed by the Sepruaguit doth signifie By Heaven and Earth some understand by a Metonymie and Synechdoche all things Created as though these first words of the Scripture were an abridgement of the first Chapter of Genesis Others and upon better grounds do interpret Heaven to be the Heaven of Heavens and the Host thereof which is the innumerable multitude of Angells And Earth to be the Masse which was voyd and without form and the first rudiment and Seminary of all things Created-afterwards The first works of Creation therefore were Heaven and Angels The Scriptures tells us that there is an Heaven of Heavens which is sometimes called the Throne and Temple of God the third Heaven the place into which Christ ascended and where he will keep his residence till he come to judge the World No doubt its a Stately Glorious piece a place of Beauty and incomparable delight and therfore called Paradise In it are many Mansions where the Saints of God shall ever rest and enjoy their most excellent Inheritance Yet this highest place which is the Circumference of the World was not Created without the Host thereof which is the innumerable company of Angels These were concreated with the Heavens and are called the Angells of Heaven and by Creation as the Heavens so they are incorruptible and immortall Spirits which once began but shall never cease to live They are endued with a most piercing understanding free-Will and an admirable executive and active Power They were all at first righteous and holy like unto their God and had been for ever blessed as now the Holy Angels he if they had continued subject and obedient to the everlasting King who made them They were made and that in the Beginning as appeares from Psal. 104. 4. They were made before the foundation and Corner-stone of the earth was â—ay'd Job 38. 7. That they were Created long before the World was Jeroms groundlesse conceit And it was Austins fancy to think God made them when he said Let there be Light The Heaven of Heavens with their Host § XII was Created in the Beginning and with them the earth as co-aeval and concreated By Earth as appeares from the Text Gen. 1 2. was not meant this lowest part and Basis of the World as now it is for that was Created the third day but if we may so speak that first draught and imperfect Beeing which was as it were the rudiment and Seminary of this Lower world as distinct from the Heaven of Heavens and all things therein And if any thing may be called the first matter this surely is it which was so imperfect that only the skill and power of God could inform it And he did inform it and out of it made first the Elements and out of them all Mixt bodyes The first Elements was light which may be called the fire which is the purest the most subtil and active of all the rest and soared aloft into the highest place and the nature of it such that it hath great affinity with a Spirit and is next unto it The next was the Firmament which we call the Ayr And it was spread like a Curtain round about the Globe of the Earth and Water and takes up the space between them an the Aethereal light or fire a fit receptacle or subject to receive the Beames of light and being transparent to transmit them to the earth The third was the Water which first covered the earth and stood above the Mountaines but afterwards by the mighty power of God was reduced to the fluid substance which now we see it to be and gathered together into deep and Vast Channels of the earth whence the main Ocean and the narrow Seas and it s diffused into every part of the Earth through secret subterraneal Passages as through so many veines And hence our Springs Rivers Lakes The last the lowest and the dullest Element was the Earth And with it were created Minerals and Vegetables as Grasse Hearbs Plants and all Manner of Trees And with these he first furnished and beautified the earth the third day The Fourth he returns unto the Aetherial Part and creates the Sun Moon and Stars The two first as greater Lights the one for the Day the other for the Night together with the Stars These are the Lights and Lamps placed under the
Roof and highest part of the Lower-World These were made not onely for Beauty and Ornament but also for the benefit of the Lower Globe upon which by light and motion they have great power And as the order wherein they were placed and their motion in a certain Line according to a certain Rule which they always observe is excellent so the use and benefit of them is manifold and wonderful Between these and the Earth we have the Meteors which sometimes are Natural sometimes Supernatural and Prodigious The Heaven thus adorned the Glorious Creatour descends into the Water and thence produceth Fish to live spawn and swim in the Water and the Fowl to fly in the Firmament of Heaven and build and multiply upon the Earth Amongst the Watry-Creatures the Whales and Sea-Dragons are most eminent and terrible After all these finished He concludes his Creation with Beasts Cattle creeping things although animate yer irrational And last of all with Man a rational and noble Creature whose Creation requires a more particular and distinct consideration And this is the Genuine Order of Physicks or Natural Philosophie which should inform us not onely of Bodies but Spirits which have Nature and Being and Original of Being as well as other Creatures The Creation of Man § XIII is that whereby God according to his Image and likeness made Man of the Dust of the Earth breathing into his Nostrils the breath of life whereby he became a living soul and Woman of a Rib that they might have Dominion over the Sensitive Creatures and the Earth Gen. 1. 26 27 2. 7 22. Or more briefly It is that whereby he made man Male and Female according to his Image To know the Creation of man doth nearly and very much concern us not onely because we are men and also excellent Creatures but also because this knowledge gives much light unto the knowledge of this Kingdom and tends much to the glory of God and our eternal happiness He is the Abridgment of Heaven and Earth and is virtually the whole World and therefore styled the Micro-cosme or Little World His Body hath affinity with the Earth his Soul with Heaven and Angels Like those pretious stones which though Earth yet participate of Heaven He is the Horizon of Time and Eternity and dwells in the Confines of both as being contiguous both to the one and other He was stamped with the Image of God and was made capable of Heaven and Beatifical Communion with this Eternal King To understand his excellency the better we must consider his Parts and Perfections The Parts are two the Body and the Soul The Body was made of Dust and Dust of nothing at the first As there was a great distance betwixt Dust and nothing so there is between Dust and the Body if we look upon it but as a Carkass much more if we consider it as animated by the presence union and power of the Soul and most of all as glorified This distance between Dust and a Body is so great that nothing but the Hand of Heaven and the Art of the Almighty could make it so excellent a piece The Matter was base the Workmanship was excellent and will more gloriously appear when God who made it out of the Dust at first a Natural Body shall raise it again out of the Dust to make it a Spiritual Body The Perfections of the Body are these The Organs the orderly Composure of them and the Faculties For though it be but a Body and far inferiour to the Soul yet of all other Bodies it is most excellent as being a fit Habitation for the Immortal Soul as no other Body can be The Organs and Members are many their order composure and dependance one upon another excellent and curious the Faculties and Motions are wonderful They who know it best admire it most and know that the very Conception much more the Creation is a kind of Miracle It is not onely a fit Tabernacle for the Soul which was breath'd into it from Heaven but also a fit Instrument and Servant to perform the Works of Righteousness and Holiness jointly with the Soul as directed by it And as it concurs with the Soul to do good or evil so it shall partake with the Soul in rewards and punishments And no Body but this of man can be the Temple of the Holy Ghost and though it be corruptible and may die and by reason of sin is condemned to the Dust from whence it was taken yet this punishment lies upon it but for a time and as it is capable of Immortality so it shall be immortal and glorious upon the Resurrection Yet that which doth more ennoble § XIV and advance man is his reasonable and immortal Soul which is a Spiritual Substance and as a Spirit doth animate act and guide it being concreated and made with it and may and doth live when separated from it The Union of them is wonderful yet dissoluble and for Sin is dissolved It 's said God breathed in his Nostrils or his face the breath of life and man became a Living Soul What Expositors say upon the place I will not now report but onely observe 1. That these words speak of the Creation of the Soul yet especially as it did animate the Body 2. That it was not created first out of the Body and then put into it but created in it as it always is For God creates the Spirit in the midst of Man 3. That though God breathed it into Man yet it was no part nor particle of God's Essence but an effect of his power 4. That his Soul was reasonable and far more excellent then that of Beasts and therefore tearmed by the Chaldy-Paraphrast A speaking Soul for to speak is a proper effect of Reason 5. This Soul was created immediately and invisibly from God in an unspeakable manner as is signified by those words And God breathed in his face And in the face it doth most appear and manifest it self according to that saying Vultus est index Animi 6. By the Breathing it was united to the Body of which it might have kept possession for ever if Sin had not been a Cause of Dispossession Yet the second Union by the Resurrection when God shall breathe upon the Dust again shall be so firm as that it never shall be dissolved What this Soul of man is we do not perfectly know And it was well observed of Learned Vives that God gives us these Souls not so much to know their Essence as to use them Something vve know of them by Reason and Discourse something by Experience but most of all by the Holy Scriptures The Excellency thereof is clearly known by the Acts and Effects thereof it understands and freely wills The Understanding reacheth all things and in some manner and measure knoweth God and reacheth Eternity In this respect it 's said to be all things because it hath some affinity and cognation with all Objectes and a
kind of magnetical and attractive Power By this we discern good and evil and according to the Representation made the Will is affected or disaffected For upon a simple Apprehension of a thing as good or bad follows naturally and necessarily a Complacency or Displicency though not a real and effectual prosecution It hath also an Executive and Productive Power to work according to the knowledge of the Understanding and Determination of the Will and can imitate the Works of God though at a great distance As it is ingenuous in the imitation of Nature so it models States and Kingdoms and resembles God who hath given it so rare an active power and a principle of its own Actions within it self without any necessary direction or determinatiâ—n from any Creature without This active vigour doth declare the curious and excellent frame thereof which if we understood well and truly we might from thence conclude that it is a Spiritual and Immortal Substance and in some sense a Ray of Eternal Light The Perfection of this Soul and Body § XV which both make up the Being of a man is this that he was made in the Image and Likeness of God For GOD created Man in his own Image in the Image of God created he him Gen. 1. 27. This Image was the Habit of Righteousness and Holiness arising from the Spirit of God sanctifying him The Perfection of his Understanding was this That he knew his God and many things else even all things needful for his Happiness without any Errour The Perfection of his Will was the integrity thereof whereby he was inclined to an Universal Obedience unto all God's Commands and to love that which was just and good and hate that which was evil as he had a power truly and certainly to know them The Perfection of both in respect of the Body was this that he had a perfect Dominion over it and the sensitive Appetite and there was no distemper and disorder in the body to incline it unto evil contrary to the direction and command of the Soul Neither was it apt to rebel against the Counsels thereof as now sometimes it is so that both Soul and Body stood in a direct posture looking and moving towards God as just and holy and was capable of Eternal Felicity Yet this Harmony and Integrity of Body and Soul at first were not such as that man was indeclinably fixt upon that which was truly good either by Nature or extrinsecal Confirmation as one day he shall be but there was a Possibility to sin and dye To be essentially and necessarily holy and happy is proper unto God To be confirmed in Righteousness upon Obedience by prevention of all sin is a priviledge of the Holy Angels and in the end shall be the happiness of true and sincere Believers This Integrity is that whereby Man is so like unto God who is essentially holy and just This is that Image which shall be restored and renewed upon the merit of Christ by the operation of the Spirit which Adam had in the day of Creation The Spirit wrote in his heart the Precepts of the Moral Law as purely Moral yet this Perfection was not Essential but Accidental because Man continued Man after he had lost it Besides the Parts and Perfections of man § XVI so noble a Creature a third thing is to be considered and that is the Sex which was neither the of Essence of nor proper to man but to all Sensitive Creatures The end of it was Multiplication by Generation For though all the Angels were created as so many Individuals at first and never shall increase or decrease yet it seemed good in the Divine Wisdom to make of one bloud all Nations of men for to dwell on the face of the Earth Act. 17. 26. And therefore he first makes onely one man and out of him and of one of his Ribs Woman and of them all Mankind Therefore is it said Male and Female created he them Gen. 1. 27. So that we have 1. The Creation of their Being 2. The Image of God stamped upon them 3. The Sex So that if we examine the Original of Man we find him 1. Nothing 2. Dust. 3. Man without any Woman 4. Woman of Man without any Mother 5. Man of man and Woman 6. Christ of Woman without any Man Woman was made after man of man for man Therefore man by Creation had the Excellency Priority and Superiority Yet Woman in respect of her body was of the same Dust and Mould though not immediately and of the same Model and had a reasonable Soul and the same immortal was stamped with the Image of God in the same Spiriâ—ual condition subject to the same Lord bound to same Laws capable of the same Felicity and if she sinned with him liable to the same punishments She differs onely in this that she is a Woman the Female and he the Male. He must beget she must conceive bear bring forth give suck and so both joyntly must propagate Mankind She was made of a Rib of man to signifie how near she is to man and how as they were one flesh at first so upon Marriage they were made one again And the Society of Man and Wife is the nearest in the World and requireth the dearest love and should be the sweetest comfort And this was the end why God created Woman not onely Generation but mutuall Society Help and Comfort For God saw that it was not good that man should be alone Gen. 2. 18. Man did no ways actually concur to the Creation of Woman he was merely Passive God took a Rib from man without doing the least harm yet of this Rib none but God could make so excellent a Creature which was animated by a reasonable and immortal Soul and beautified with his Image In this great Work of Creation finished we may observe three things The first proper to man The second to him and the Sensitive generative Creatures The third common to all The First Proper to Man was the Dominion over the Creatures of the Lower Part of the World For he was made Lord over them and the Earth Therefore God said Subdue the Earth and have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowls of the Ayr and ever every living thing that moveth upon the Earth Gen. 1. 28. And he made him little lower then the Angels and crowned him with glory and honour He made him to have Dominion over the Works of his hands He put all things under his feet c. Psal. 8. 5 6. And though this same be in a special manner applyed to the Humiliation and Glorification of Christ Heb. 2. 6. yet it did agree to man in the first Creation The reason of this Dominion was because man was a more noble and excellent Creature was endued with Wisdom and Power to subdue and order them They were made for his preservation service use God gave them into his hands And such was the
some make a part of Providence as in some sense it may be For by whatsoever his Propriety and the dependency and subjection of the Creature is continued by the same his Power is continued And as by Creation all things were made so by Preservation which is a continued Creation all things continue his There is indeed some difference between Creation and Preservation not only in this that Preservation presupposeth and necessarily requireth the Creation and all things existent in their Actual Being But Creation presupposed nothing but his Almighty Power but also in this that in Creation he made no use of the secondary Causes and means as in Providence he doth yet these means and secondary causes are not used out of necessity For what he doth effect by them he can easily do without them Therefore the use of them is merely voluntary and to let us understand so much he many times omits them Some things are preserved by Food which is like Fuel to the fire which continually seeds upon it and when it 's wholly consumed or with-drawn it 's presently quenched Thus the life of man is preserved by Bread yet God makes this Bread gives it to whom he will and denies it when he will and his Blessings gives it Vertue to preserve that Life which it cannot restore once lost or give where it is not Yet man lives not by Bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of God's mouth Where it 's had and used God is the principal cause and when life is preserved without it He is the sole Preserver The continuance of the Creature 's Being doth so necessarily always depend on God as well as his Powers and Operations that he need not let loose one contrary against another for their mutuall Destruction but if he once with-hold his hand the most excellent and incorruptible Creatures return to nothing and lose their entity they obtained by Creation For as 't is said of sensitive Creatures Thou takest away their breath they dye and return to their Dust Psal. 104. 29. So it 's true of all other things both severally and joyntly Thou deniest thy preserving Power wholly they cease to be and return to their former nothing Therefore God in the Holy Scriptures is so often said to uphold all things by the Word of his Power and it 's said that by him all things consist CHAP. IX Concerning the Exercise of God's Power in general GOD having thus acquired this transcendent Power § I he presently began to exercise the same in the Government of the World and as the power is continued perpetually by Preservation so it is continually exercised Government is an Act of Power as Power is a Right to govern and order those that are subject and it requires a Superiour Understanding a Superiour Will a Superiour Strength and the more excellent the Wisdom the more just the Will the more irresiâ—â—ible the strength of the Governour the more excellent the Government will be Seeing therefore all these concur most eminently in God His Government must needs be most perfect as no doubt it is This Government may be considered as General of all things Special of some special Creatures And in both we may observe the Constitution Administration For God first constituted an exact Order and after that administred and disposed of all things according to that Order This Order was ready immediatly upon the Creation For he did not first make the Creatures without any Order but in an excellent way For all and every one of them were made Ordinable to some certain end and to this they were inclined and set in direct Positure towards their Perfection Yet because Inclination was vain without Motion he gave them power to move But yet Motion without a Rule might wander and come short of the end he therefore gave every thing a Rule that the motion might be Regular tend directly to and so reach it's end and the Rule was imprinted in the Creature as the Pure Morals in Men and Angels As there were several and distinct Ranks and Degrees of Creatures so there were several ends And these ends were not separated at a distance nor contrary one unto another but were disposed in an excellent order and united like so many Links in one Chain Some were Superiour some Inferiour and one last and supream to which all the rest were subordinate yet like so many lines did tend unto and end in that highest as in one Center And that end was not the particular end of some particular Creature or Creatures but the universal end of all which some means did reach immediately others at a distance In the Administration the Rules were as Laws prefixed by God and the Events of every Motion were as Judgments and Determinations And there are some generals in Men and Angels which come within the compass of this general Administration And though the Supream Lord bound all Creatures by certain Rules and limited them yet be reserved a Power to himself to act above and besides these Rules at Will and Pleasure and if his Wisdom should think good to new-model the whole Frame of his Government Hence the Distinctions of mediate and immediate ordinary and extraordinary Providence under which last Head comes in that of Miracles which are works of transcendent Power above the activity of the Creature wherin God doth not observe the Order established in Creation whereunto he bound the Creature but not Himself They serve as they are fit for these ends to let men know that there is a great difference between his Works and those of inferiour Agents though he may use their petty efficiency in doing of them They rouz and quicken the dull and drowsie minds of Men who are not so much moved with ordinary Works though excellent The Sun it self that glorious Light of Heaven is no strange thing unto us because it gives us light every day whereas if it were newly made and we had never seen it before we should be amazed and wonder at the excellent beauty and brightness of so goodly a Creature They let men know that they have no need of â—econdary causes He can do as much and far more without them as with them They confirm the Doctrine of his Messengers and make those high and mysterious truths which are strange and above the Rules of Reason to be credible They are not frequent least they should prove ordinary and not so effectual to moâ—e the hearts of men And they are either Works of Mercy as those of our Saviour were or Works of Judgment and so they manifest not onely his wondrous Wisdom and transcendent Power but also his Justice and his Mercy They supply the deâ—ects of inferiour causes and manifest that God is not tyed to the Order prescribed to the Creatures in the Creation In this Providence § II which though excellent is inferiour to that which directs the most excellent Creatures to their eternal estate we might observe the
to such Rules as that he might attain Eternal Salvation For there was a Foundation of this new Government laid in that Judgment God passed upon the Devil and he began instantly to act according to the same Yet though he abolished the former Government yet he continued the memory of it and revealed the Doctrine thereof unto the Church and it remains in the same and it serves to let men see their misery and humble them that they may seek for remedy and vehemently desire it and follow the Directions God hath given And by this he may and ought to know that in strict Justice he can expect nothing but Eternal Death and that all hope of life depends upon the mere mercy of God and the merit of a Second Adam This Second Government did not abolish the power acquired by Creation § II for that continues still and will continue whilest man receives his Being from God by Creation and the continuance of his Being by preservation Yet God acquired a new power superadded unto the former and did exercise the same after a new manner In this respect there must needs be a great difference between the former and this latter Government For in the former the Governour was God-Creatour by the Word not incarnate or made flesh but in this he is not onely Creatour but Redeemer by the Word made Flesh. The subject of this latter is not man holy righteous innocent as he was created but sinful guilty miserable in Adam fallen The Laws thereof do not bind man as the former did to perfect and perpetual obedience as the condition of Life but to Faith in the Redeemer Neither in this New-Model doth God alone without a President-general as in the former◠govern Mankind but doth administer all things by his Son made Lord and King at his Right-hand after the Incarnation This Government is that Act of Divine Providence § III whereby he orders sinful man redeemed by Faith in Christ-Redeemer unto Salvation or upon his Unbelief unto Eternal Death unavoidable This is evident out of the sacred Writings both of the Old and New Testament For all the Holy Patriarchs from Adam were saved by their Faith in God Redeemer and the Seed of the Woman And after the exhibition of the Redeemer and his manifestation he himself faith That God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal Life And He that believeth on him is not condemned And he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the onely Begotten Son of God Joh. 3. 16 18. John the Baptist testifieth that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 36. And all power in Heaven and Earth was given to Christ Math. 28. 18. And from this Power the Apostles received Commission and Command to go to all the World and to preach the Gospel to every Creature And He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16. 15 16. In all which words we have a New Power a New Government New Laws both as a Rule of Man's Duty and God's Judgment differing much from the former This might be called the Government of Mercy as the former the Government of Justice Whereas many tell us that the former Government continues that the Laws are still the same that God as Rectour by Substitution transferred the punishment merited by transgressions of the Law upon Christ and for and in consideration of satisfaction made by him remits sin and this is nothing but a relaxation or interpretation of the former Law they are much mistaken and reach not the truth in this particular And this shall be made evident when we come to speak of the Administration of this Kingdom from the times of Adam till the preaching and baptizing of John the Baptist and the manifestation of Christ's entring upon his Publique Office As in the former Government § IV so in this we must consider 1. Who is the Governour invested with Power 2. How this Power was 1. Acquired 2. Exercised The Governour is God Creatour and Preserver of Mankind the same who was Lord and King by Creation Yet here he must be considered under another notion as God-Redeemer For as the Work of Creation and Redemption differ so the Power acquired by Redemption differs from that acquired by Creation This Power is Supream Universal Eternal Monarchical as the former In the Acquisition we must consider by 1. Whom 2. What it was acquired It was acquired 1. By the Word made Flesh. 2. By the Humiliation of this Word made Flesh. The Person by whom God acquired this new Power was the Word made Flesh for as by the Word he made the World and in particular Man and so acquired a Properiety in Man and a Dominion over Man as a rational free Creature So by this Word incarnate and made Flesh in a wonderful manner he acquired a new propriety in Man fallen and a dominion over him as capable of Spiritual and Eternal Felicity to be recovered by a new way The work whereby this Power was acquired was the Humiliation of this Son of God So that now Man is God's and subject unto God not onely as Creatour and Preserver in general but as Redeemer and Sanctifier For this new Dominion considers Man in his Spiritual Capacity For the better understanding of this acquisition of New-Power § V we must consider 1. Who the Redeemer is 2. What the Work of Humiliation is The Redeemer is Jesus Christ our Lord first promised then exhibited Jesus Christ our Lord who is blessed for ever In himself is the Word made Flesh Ioh. ◠14. As our Redeemer he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and power to be a Prophet Priest and King Universal Act. 10. 38. In Him as the Word made Flesh we may observe 1. His Person 2. His Natures For his Person in a large sense as here I take Person He is the Word which was in the beginning and was with God and was God and by whom all things were made Joh. 1. 1 2. The onely begotten Son of God Joh. 3. 16. The Image of the Invisible God the first-born of every Creature by whom all things were not onely created but do subsist Col. 1. 15 16 17. The brightness of his Father's glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. 1. 3. He was begotten of the Father from Everlasting and is the full expression and representation of Himself unto Himself By these places it evidently appears that the Word did exist before the World was and so exist that He was with God and God To be with God implies some distinction to be God an identity of substance and this is that which we call
Propitiation of Christ makes no man absolutely but upon certain terms pardonable and savable so it was never made either to prevent all sin or all punishments For it presupposeth man both sinful and miserable And we know that the guilt and punishment of Adams sin lyes heavy upon all his posterity to this day And not onely that but the guilt of actual and personal sins lyes wholly upon us whilst impenitent and unbelieving and so out of Christ and the regenerate themselves are not fully freed from all punishments till the finall resurrection and judgement So that his propitiation doth not altogether prevent but remove sin and punishment by degees Many sins may be said to be remissible by vertue of this sacrifice which never shall be remitted In this sense it may be understood that some deny that Lord that bought them 2 Pet. â— 1. For Christ by his death acquired a right unto and so a power over all flesh but so that he must give eternall life onely to such as his Father gave him For one immediate effect of Christs death was to make God placable and sin pardoned yet he never merited that any sin should be actually pardoned but upon such terms as his heavenly Father should prescribe It may also in a sense be said that Christ dyed onely for the elect That is that onely they shall obtayn actual pardon Yet they who thus affirm must give us out of the Scriptures the true notion of Election and of the Elect and not seek to obtrude upon us their own false Conceits For the Elect as the elect in decree are no subject capable of actual Remission as such for they are no subject at all because they have no actual existence though they may be and are an object or Logicall subject of Gods decree And after that they have actual being yet they are not immediately capable of actual pardon before they are called and actually believe And whereas some affirm that Christ dyed onely for the Elect in their sense it cannot be proved Because they presupposing an order in the decrees of God take it for granted that the decrees of Election and Reprobation are antecedent to the decâ—ee of Redemption and â—o by these very decrees formally exclude the greatest part of mankind and include the rest which cannot stand with the plain texts of Scripture which signifie that we are predessinated to be conformed to the image of Christ That we are elected in Christ and predestinated to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Câ—rist unto himself The 4th and last thing in this discourse of Christs death § IX is to consider the attribuâ—es and perfections which were principally manifested in this work of Redemption For bâ—sides his absolute power by which he acted in this work above the lâ—w of Creation many of his perfections did most gloriously appeare And first his Wiâ—dom For this was one of the highest designes of God and this work of redemption was contrived and ordered in the highest degree of Wisdome that God did ever exercise out of Himself The Apostle determined to know nothing amongst the Corinthians but Christ Jesus and him crucified And though this Doctrin of the Crosse seem'd foolishnesse to men devoyd of the Spirit yet when he preached it he spake Wisdome to them who were perfect the Wisdome of God in a mystery evâ—n the hidâ—en Wisdome which God ordayned before the world was to our glory 1 Cor. 2. 2. 6 7. And by the preaching of the Gospel was made known to Principalityes and powers in heavenly places the manifold Wisdome of God Ephes. 3. 10. And the Doctrin of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow thereupon was such and so excellent for Wisdome that the very Angels desired to pry or look in it 1 Peter 1. 12. That Wisdome must needs be wonderfull which contrived such glorious things For the seed of â—rayl Woman deceived by the Devil and now guilty before the tribunall of God must bruise and break the head and power of the Devil and shake his Kingdome over mankind in pieces The Word and eternal Son of God must be made flesh as though mortality and eternity had been united together Weaknesse must vanquish strength Mortality must be away to immortality Death to eternal life the most cruel paines to full and everlasting pleaâ—ures the moâ— bitter sorrowes to the sweetest joyes the lowest humility to the highest honour and the greatest shame to the most excellent glory And which is strange that the Devil himself must use his utmost strength and policy to overthrow himself And his deepest Counsels must be the cause of his own ruine These are the wonderfull wayes of Gods unsearchable Wisdome discovered in the humiliation of the Son of God The Holinesse § X and Justice of God appeares in this work many wayes For though he be slow to anger inclined to forgive abundant in mercy and delighting in kindnesse and doing good unto his unworthy creatures and resolved to give his Son to remit sin and to save sinners yet he will not free any man from the guilt of sin nor yield that any sin should be pardonable without expiation be made his divine justice satisfied and the honour of his law violated be vindicated He will admit of no reconciliation except propitiation be made by blood to declare his righteouâ—nesse that he might be just and the justifier of him that beleeveth on Jesus Christ Rom. 3. 25. And this propitiation must be made by the Word made flesh Therefore he sends his son his dearly beloved his onely begotten son whom he esteemed above all men and Angells He smites him wounds him and layes on him the iniquityes of us all He must not only suffer but suffer death the death of the Crosse and he must for a time be a servant and lay aside 〈◊〉 his shining Robes of Glory be content to want the joyes and pleasures of Heaven and be deprived of God's sweetest comforts be exposed to the malice of the Devill and his malicious enemies ly under the pressure of most bitter pains sorrows and anguish and suffer and that from basest wretches the basâ—â— indignityes that ever any suffered And thus though he were a son must he learn obedience by suffering and before all these things were endured his Soul seperated from his Body and his Body layd in the Grave he must not rise again to Glory And he makes an unchangeable decree that whosoever will not be willing to deny himself take up his Crosse be obedient not onely in doing good but also in suffering evill even death the most cruell and tormenting death and that with patience for his sake shall derive no benefit from his Saviour who did not only expiate sin seal the Truth with his blood but also give us an example of most eminent humility patience meeknes charity obedience all other heavenly virtues that we might follow him if we will be saved And sinful man must know
better way to do it than by an Oath Otherwise an Oath is needlesse and such as be too hasty to swear when there is no necessity are to be suspected as false or prophane wretches 4. The party swearing must aime at that end for which an Oath was ordayned and take it so as that it may end in the glory of God and the good of man Besides the conditions required in an assertory Oath § XIII as that the matter must be of importance and there must be some necessity of it there are some other qualifications necessary in a promissory Oath For 1. The thing promised must be just and lawfull If a man may not do much lesse may he promise and swear to do that which is unjust Neither if in this case we swear can the Oath bind us but becomes ipso facto voyd For the â—bâ—gation of Man cannot be in force when it 's contrary unto and inconsisâ—ent with â—â—peâ—iour obligation of Gods Commandement Henâ—e that Axiom Juramentum non ligat ad illicitum No Oath can bind us to do that which 〈…〉 or not do that which he hath commanded For it 's contrary to 〈…〉 end of an Oath to be Vinculum Iniquitatis to bind to offend the supreme Loâ—d Therefore it 's a fearfull abuse and prophanation of an Oath when men swear to conceal Treason and bind themselves to do mischief as those 〈◊〉 men did who conspired to murder Paul Act. 23. 21. It 's true that by the variation of cirumstances and other accidents and events of divine providence that which was lawfull in the time of swearing may become unlawfuâ— beâ—ore the time of performance and in this case God doth free a man from his obligation 2. The thing promised by Oath must be possible not onely in it self but to the party swearing and so that prudent men may judge it to be in his power Yet if by providence it become impossible to the party before the time of performance he is free But he must be willing and surely endeavour the performance for if through his own folly negligence or wilfullnesse it become such so that the cause is in himself who might have prevented it he must needs be guilty Otherwise Nemo tenetur ad Impossibile 3. The party swearing must have a sincere intention to perform his Oath and must carefully remember how deeply â—e hath engaged himself and use his utmost enâ—eavour to be faithfull lest God be dishonoured his conscience wounded his neighbour deceived and disappointed And because an Oath taken before man should expresse the mind of the party swearing to them whom it concernes to beleeve him § XIV therefore both in an assertory and also a promissory Oath the words must be plain and full so that they may be understood for otherwise if they conceale that which should be expressed or expresse their mind doubtfully the Oath will be â—o little purpose and if this be done of purpose to deceive it 's abominable Therefore all Aequivocations and mental reservations are to be abhorred as contrary to the very end of an Oath If these be used all Oaths are Vselesse For the party swearing speaks one thing but meanes another and whosoever depends upon any such must needs be deceived Neither is it safe for any man after that he hath solemnly bound himself by a Promissory Oath to seek evasions to disoblige himself by Curious and nice distinctions or strayning or wresting the words For we must consider that God will judge us As in swearing § XV so in other things especially in Divine Worship we take up the Name of God And as in Oaths so in other things especially in religious services we must not take his name in vain but perform them so as that God with whom we have to do may be glorified As fasting and prayer for vaine glory to gaine an opinion of our holinesse and to think to be heard of God for our many words and repetitions are here prohibited as also all formalityes in divine Worship so the contrary is commanded And God requires a due disposition of heart and a preparation before this disposition continued in the act of performance and an holy carriage after our devotions are ended For as God is holy so must we when we draw nigh unto him be holy And this precept discovers an abundance of prophaness hypocrisie formality in most and many imperfections in the best when they worship before God CHAP. X. The Fourth Commandement BEfore I enter upon the explication of this commandement § I it will be requiâ—ite to premise some generals concerning the order and relation of it to the former concerning the reason and cause of a Sabbath and concerning the end 1. The order is clear enough For after that God had required subjection to himself and secured his soveraign power in the First instituted and appointed the services which man must perform unto him prohibiting all superstitious inventions of men in the Second and prescribed the manner how his institutions must be performed in the Third he determins a certaine time wherein all other businesse set aside religious dutyes ought to be performed unto him in a more solemn manner and that time consecrated in a special manner to his Divine Majesty in this Fourth This is the order and connexion of this part of the Law with the rest whereby we understand that this Commandemeâ—t presupposeth the former necessarily so that without them it s nothing but a bare duration and part of time no wayes different in it self from other times And for this reason must of necessity derive its morality so far as it is moral from some thing antecedent 2. The reason § II and cause why God did determin a certain portion of time for rest and sanctification followes in the second place to be considered and it 's the condition of man in this life which is such as that it did in some sort necessarily require it For man in innocency had his secular employment if we may so call it For he was put in Paradise and in that Garden God had planted Eastward in Eden to dresse it and keep it Gen. 2. 15. And this work must take up some time But since his Fall he must eat his bread in the sweat of his face and as his necessities so his worldly employments are not few but so much of his time is taken up in these earthly works that he cannot keep a perpetual Sabbath to his God as we hope to do in Heaven For this cause God in his Wisdome thought it fit to measure out of his time a determinate portion wherein man must sequester himself from the businesse of the World and spend the same in his better and diviner imployments What portion was fittest and sufficient neither too much nor too little he onely knew as He onely had power to limit it and bind man to the Sanctification of it The Jewes observed one day in seaven in a certain order so likewise
for the worship of the true and living God as it was a fit proportion of man's time and excellent means for the preservation and continuance of Religion had some connexion with the supream end and did conduce to the attaining of it The Divine Determination of that time for that end signified by a Command added did plainly make it moral For the alteration of the day it 's certain 1. That if God had in the beginning determined one and the same 7th Day to be of perpetual and universal obligation § XX then it could not be justly and by any sufficient Authority altered 2. It 's certain that the day prescribed to the Jew in time of the servitude and bondage of the Law was altered and another substituted and observed in the place thereof 3. This was altered after Christ's Incarnation and Glorification sending down of the Holy Ghost the Revelation of the Gospel preached to Jew and Gentile and in the Apostles days according to an Order given by them to the Churches planted by them 1 Cor. 16. 1 2 4. The day substituted was the first day of the week ibid. and the Lords Day and was so called and observed universally by Christians from that time to our days 4. In that one day in 7 as also this or that 7th day were positive and not moral therefore the 7th formerly observed by the Jew was alterable considered in it self 5. The 4th Commandement given to the Jew did not say that that 7th day determined then by Him should never be altered but be the Sabbath to Jew and Gentile to the end of the World 6. There were as you heard before great and weighty Reasons why the Apostles not onely might but should aâ—ter it For if the Character set upon it by the Work of Creation and the deliverance of Israel out of Aegypt the separation of them from all Nations till the exhibition of the Messias was a reason and ground to God for to institute and for them to observe them much more was the Character set upon the first day of the week by Christ's Resurrection the general manifestations and apparitions of him rise uon that day and the coming of the Holy Ghost as far greater blessings to sinful man then Creation and deliverance out of Aegypt was a sufficient ground and reason to lay aside the former day as joyned with the Ceremonial Law the Covenant with their Fathers in the Wilderness and the separation of the Jews from all other Nations and to institute and observe the first day unto God-Redeemer by Christ exhibited as the former was observed to God-Creatour and Deliverer of one Nation out of Aegypt Neither was there any need of a new express Precept seeing to the Apostles the Reasons for the alteration were so weighty clear and evincing For the former Sabbath being joyned with the Ceremonial Law given to the Jew did presuppose the Church confined to a Nation the Gentiles excluded the people of God in minority and servitude under a Tutor and Christ fo come therefore for the positive part it was to cease with the legal dispensation And as there followed a new manner of Worship and a new Administration so there must be a new day The Commandement it self requires one day in seven and if so then no day could be so fit as the day of Resurrection and the coming down of the Holy Ghost from Heaven By the observation of this we acknowledge the Levitical Priesthood and Service to be abolished Christ exhibited the Work of Redemption finished and that Jesus of Nazareth who was born at Bethlem brought up at Nazareth crucified at Jerusalem rose again the third day ascended into Heaven hath sent down the Holy Ghost is the Son of God and Saviour of the World CHAP. XI The Fifth Commandement BEfore I enter upon the words of this Commandement § I Something must be said in general 1. Concerning the difference 2. The order of these two parts of the Law For our Saviour reduceth the whole Law to two heads 1. Of the Love of God 2. Of our Neighbour And as God and our Neighbour differ and that very much so the dutyes of this latter part differ from those of the former for as the former have God for their object so these have Man The former respect our communion with God the latter our communion with our Neighbour The former presents the dutyes of men as subjects to be performed to their Soveraign the Great and everlasting the latter commands dutyes to be performed to man who is the fellow-Subject The former give morality to the latter The latter receive morality from the former and depend upon them and are so far good as they agree with the former The former have more connexion with as they conduced more immediately unto the last end Gods glory and Mans happinesse So that the difference between them is very great According to this difference there is an inequality It 's true that they are equall as they are commands and also commands of God and bind unto obedience unto God and the matter of both is just Yet their inequality is great because the dutyes of the former according to the object are far more excellent and if they come in competition with these of the second Table they must be preferred Yet we must make a distinction For in both parts of the Law there be some dutyes morall some positive and one and the same duty is in some respect moral in another positive This therefore is the certain rule that moralls of the first part or Table as some call it are to be performed beâ—ore the morals of the second Table and positives of the first before positives of the second Upon this account if the love of Father and Mother a moral duty of the latter part come in competition with the love of God required in the first part then its true our Saviour â—aith He that loveth Father or Mother more then God or hateth not Father and Mother for Christs sake is not worthy of Christ. In this respect obedience to our lawfull superiours inconsistent with our obedience to God is unlawfull for we must obey God rather then man the supreme Lord before the subordinate But if we compare positives of the first Table with morals of the second the morals of the second must be prefer'd before the positives of the first Therefore we may intermit the outward solemne worship of God upon the Sabbath day to save the life of a Beast or much more of a man though the work should take up the whole time of one Sabbath or more This lesson our Saviour taught us when he proved that it was lawfull to heale on the Sabbath This inequality is implyed in the words of our Saviour to the Scribes and Pharisees when he not onely reproves them but denounceth a judgement against them in that they pay'd tith of Mint and Annise and Cummin and omitted the weightyer matters of the Law
sense as they are a Petition and so usually taken we must first consider the meaning of the words Wherein we have 1. The Name of our heavenly Father 2. The Hallowing of it 3. Our Petition that it may be Hallowed By Name is meant the Majesty and the supreame and universall and eternall power of God whereby he is King of Kings Lord of Lords and the onely God to whom alone all Glory Honour Praise and Worship are for ever due from all both Men and Angels and that in the highest degree For his Name is above all Names and there is an infinit distance between him so far above and all other things even the most excellent so far below This Name and this Power this Excellent Majesty and Supreme Dominion doth presuppose his glorious perfections and his eminent acts The Hallowing of this Name is not to make it more Holy or excellent then in it self it is For that cannot be done There is no degree above the highest no addition to that which is infinite To Hallow it therefore must be something else And it is to know and acknowledge it to be such as it is This cannot be done except it be manifested and it 's manifested in his glorious works and especially in his blessed word To know it thus manifested and to acknowledge him the onely supreme Lord with all humility and reverence and to subject our selves as nothing in our selves wholly unto him is to hallow glorify and magnify the same For all these words signify the same thing For to sanctify is to acknowledge Him to be excellent to glorify is to acknowledge him as glorious to magnify is to acknowledge him as great Yet it 's not sufficient to acknowledge him as excellent glorious great but he must be acknowledged as most excellent most glorious and the greatest and we must wholly submit our selves to him as such not onely as Creatour and Preserver but Redeemer To petition for this Hallowing of his Name is to request 1. That as he hath already so he would continue to manifest his name more and more not onely unto us but unto all others not onely by his word revealed from Heaven and by his former works but by new and glorious works so that his very enemies may acknowledge that he alone is God and that his name is most excellent and that he rules in Heaven and earth His name hath bin manifested to others it hath bin manifested to us and may be manifested to them that are unborn It hath bin manifested much it may be manifested more It hath bin Hallowed by others and much too We pray it may be Hallowed by us and by us more and more It 's manifest to all by the works of Creation and preservation and generall government of the World but not by his Gospell and the Work of Redemption as it is to us Yet many do not know his name though manifested many know it but imperfectly and not as they should and might do Many know it more then others yet do not acknowledge it as they should do and submit unto it And they who in this life know it most do not acknowledge it and submit unto it perfectly Therefore there is great need to pray continually that this Name may be Hallowed by us by all and that perfectly which duty will not fully be performed by us till we see him face to face in glory Yet in this vale of teares we may cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come and cast our selves and lye at his Throne giving all Glory Honour and Power to Father Son and Holy Ghost for evermore In this we pray for the confusion of Atheists Idolaters which either do not acknowledge him at all or not alone and of all Men and Devils which shall usurp this power and glory and arrogate it to themselves The second petition is § VII Thy Kingdome Come wherein that Gods Name might be the more Hallowed and Glorified we pray that he would exercise his supreme and universall power especially in the Spiritual government of mankind that all his enemies may be subdued and his Loyall and obedient subjects may obtain full and everlasting peace and safety For this is the principall end of the comming of his Kingdome and his Kingdome comes when he Reigns This Kingdome is not that generall providence of God whereby he orders all things to their ends nor the civil government of mankind in their severall Common-weales though both be subordinate unto this but the speciall government of God-Redeemer in Christ by which man is ordered to his finall and eternall estate This Kingdom and Reign of God began betimes even presently upon the fall of Adam and was still coming unto that very day when our Saviour did teach his disciples to pray Thy Kingdome Come It was come before and a great part of this Reign was past but for the most eminent and most excellent manner it was then to come John the Baptist Christ himself his Apostles and Disciples by his direction did preach that the Kingdome of God was at hand which did imply that the more eminent degree and glorious manner was not yet come though not far off And when he had finished his work of humiliation was risen again ascended into Heaven and set at the right hand of God invested with an Universall Regall power and confirmed in his everlasting Priesthood then this Kingdome was come and he began to Reign gloriously and God in and by him began to order and administer his spirituall and eternall kingdome so as he never did before Then the rod of his Scepter went out of Sion and he Reigned in the midst of his enemies he enlarged the borders of his Dominion and he made all nations his territory This is the Kingdom of the Messias so much spoken of by all the Prophets so much desired so much longed for so long expected by Kings and Prophets who lived not to see it This is the Kingdome in a Speciall and strict manner which they were then taught to pray for and in such a manner as that neither we now not they after Christ began to rule at his Father's right hand could pray for Yet because Christ did onely then begin to Reign and He must Reign till his enemies be made his foot-stool and all his adversaries even death the last be subdued and destroyed and this is not yet done therefore they might then after Christ's exaltation and we must now pray that he would continue to Rule by his word his spirit his speciall power till that which was promised be accomplished that so that great design of God which was the totall and perpetuall ruine of Sathans Kingdom and the full and finall deliverance of his Saints might take effect There be three degrees and Periods of this Reign The Frist Commenced upon the Fall of man The 2d Upon the exaltation of Christ. And the 3d. Shall follow upon the
God as our onely Lord and Redeemer by him and so we take him to be our God The 2. Is totall reliance upon God as our Redeemer in Christ Jesus dying and rising again for us 3. An engagement with the whole heart unto the obedience of his commands and to be his people his loyall and obedient subjects And because this duty is a return unto our God formerly forsaken by us therefore it 's called Repentance And because it 's not onely a belief of his truth but a reliance upon his promises it s called Faith By this we turn from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God The reward that follows upon this is that God will be to us a God and we shall be to Him a people Heb. 8. 10. This is our admission of us as subjects of his Kingdome wherein as we must perform dutyes so we shall enjoy priviledges This makes us one with Christ ingrafts us unto him so as we become his living members and derive from God by him all grace and peace and saving blessings But of this there are degrees 1. We have Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer 2. A right unto the mercyes merited by him and promised by God in him 3. Some degree of possession and enjoyment of them 4. In the end a full communion with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son so that our joy is made full Before I proceed to the next benefit or reward something must be observed both concerning this duty and this reward 1. The repentance faith and submission unto God Redeemer in Christ is in consistent with the habituall dominion of any sin 2. Though it be such and therefore sincere yet it 's not perfect but admits of degrees and must encrease untill we come to perfection 3. They do not look at any particular promise of God or office of Christ or benefit merited by Christ but at God Redeemer in generall as the fountain of eternall life and all benefits conducing thereunto and at all the offices of Christ and all the merits of Christ even at whole Christ as by whom God will give us this eternall full salvation 4. Yet they virtually include and are the root of all particular acts to be terminated upon particular promises offices merits Concerning the reward 1. The estate of such as have received it is inconsistent with the estate of such as are under the dominion of sin and liable to the condemnation unto eternall death 2. As the duty so the reward is imperfect at the first 3. It 's no particular reward as of justification or reconciliation or adoption or the rest formally actually and particularly considered but virtually all For we have God to be our God whole Christ to be our Saviour and be in Christ Christ is in us by his Spirit And whereas formerly the Spirit was in us to prepare us now he as the Spirit of Christ our head is in us to abide and constantly to sanctifie and comfort and seale us to the day of Redemption And the first reward upon this faith having received Christ and God received him as a member of Christ is Justification a reward The great reward CHAP. XXII Of Justification by Faith in Christ. Justification is a reward of God Redeemer whereby he justifieth a sinner believing in Christ § I as having by his blood satisfied Gods justice merited remission and making intercession in Heaven according to promise or as being the propitiation for sin by his blood and pleading this propitiation before his Father's Tribunall in Heaven In which words we must conder 1. The Judge 2. The party judged 3. The judicial Act or the reward actively considered 1. The Judge is God but 1. Not largely as Judge of men and Angels but as Judge of men 2. Not as Creatour and Judge by the Law of Creation and of works but by the Law of Redemption and grace 3. Not as merely just though just but as mercifull 4. Not as mercifull in generall and ex nuda voluntate without any respect had to satisfaction but as propitiated by the blood of Christ and having accepted the propiation made by his blood 5. Not meerely as propitiated by his blood but as moved by his intercession which he makes as our Advocate in Heaven not onely pleading the propitiation made and accepted but the repentance and faith of the sinner and the promise of him the Judge before whom he pleads 6. The Scripturâ—s in this judiciall processe consider God as a Judge and Christ as an Advocate as may appear Rom. 8. 33 34. Heb. 7. 25. 9. 24. 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. In which places Christ is made the propitiatour and intercessoâ—r or advocate 7. Though God by Christ as King may passe this judgment yet he must before that act be passed by Christ look upon Christ as propitiatour and intercessour as a priest and â—uch he must be before he can be a Judge and so looked upon not onely by God the Judge justifying but the sinner to be justified before this Judge proceed to passe and execute the judgment by his Son as King For man must first be justificable by Christ a Priest before he can be justifyed by Christ a King The generall nature of justification is a reward It 's a reward merited by Christ as Priest and Mediatour promised by God Redeemer as a Law-giver and rendred by him as Judge upon a duty performed by the Sinner to be justified and this doth difference it from the retributions of punishment according to the Laws of Redemption violated The party judged § II and justified is 1. Man 2. Man a Sinner 3. Man a Sinner believing 4. Believing in Christ as propitiatour and intercessour Propitiatour by his blood shed and offered unto God Intercessour by his blood being shed offered and accepted as pleaded 1. The subject of this act and the materiall immediate cause of this act is Man For it 's not a judgment passed upon Angels good or bad 2. Man is here considered not as innocent as he was first Created but as a Sinner and disobedient and so guilty For it is God that justifieth the ungodly that is sinners and guilty persons Rom. 4 5. Therefore the Apostle making way for his Doctrin of Justification proves Jew and Gentile that is all men under sin Rom. 3. 9. and that all the world was guilty before God that is Gods tribunal verse 19. and again affirms that all have sinned verse 23. For death passed over all men because all have sinned in one man Rom. 5. 12. For he that hath the least sin is guilty of the first sin of the first man and lyes under the penalty thereof till he be delivered For by the offence of one many were dead and by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation verse 15 16 17. For there can be but two wayes whereby men or Angels can be justifiable before God the universall and supreme most