leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife See Gen. 2. 18 21-25 with Matth. 19. 4 5. and Mal. 2. 14 15. Thus did God dignifie it and make it honourable for all mankinde in the first Adam But 2. That it now becomes honourable to us sinful and polluted mankinde and that such enjoyment and use of it as aforesaid is laudable and comely in all is onely by means of the socrifice and mediation of the man Christ Jesus the second Adam by whom it is sanctified and made clean for our use from that shame confusion and pollution that we had procured to our selves in it and in all conditions relations and enjoyments For notwithstanding God had dignified it and made it honourable in the first man and woman as in their first constitution and that was for all in that first publike man male and female yet sin being once entred and death by sin it could not have been honourable in them nor in any of their posterity unless God had devised a means for his banished that they might not be utterly expelled both from his presence and mercy unless God had provided a remedy in a second Adam for sin is a shame and reproach to any people and doth make a separation between God and them and hide good things from them Pro. 14. 34. Jer. 5. 25. Now the first Adam both male and female presently after their creation and excellent constitution sinned against their Creator and therein the whole Nature sinned and departed from God and became polluted with all uncleanness and enmity to him and so came short of that glory of God in and unto which they were created And brought shame and dishonour upon themselves and upon their state and relation of marriage and on the fruit of the body and of the Womb so that all mankind became cursed in all relations conditions and injoyments and in all that they had and did as in and from the first man Adam See Gen. 3. 16 17. Deut. 28. 15. c. with Rom. 3. 9-19-23 Ch. 5. 12. But God hath found out a Ransom a Redeemer and Healer for all mankinde without respect of persons 2 Sam. 14. 14. Rom. 3. 21 22 23. c. and 5. 12-18 God hath crowned his son Jesus with glory and honour above men and Angels that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man And he that onely one in a body prepared him to that purpose dyed for all as the second Adam a surety and publick person in the room and stead of all he dyed their death and therein suffered all the shame reproach and wrath that was their due for the sins and trespasses of the world that came in by the disobedience of one and occasioned the breach between God and man at the first And therein God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them For he hath made him that knew no sin to be sin for us And this for our behoof and commodity that men condemned and dead at Law might live to a comfortable injoyment of his mercies in marriage and the fruits thereof and in a comfortable use of the Creature to the end that they that thus live in their several ages should not benceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again that so through the grace of God bringing salvation to all men in due time they might be made the righteousness of God in him Heb. 2. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15 19 21. with 1 Tim. 2. 6. Tit. 2. 11 12. Wherefore also he is by means of the same death the Mediator between God and man making intercession for the transgressors for the daily taking away those sins of the people in which when light comes they chuse darkness rather that judgement may not speedily be executed but mercies yet continued to rebellious ones 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. Psal 68. 18 19 20. Isa 53. 12. Luk. 13. 6-9 And by means of these two the sacrifice and intercession of the Man Christ Jesus in whom the nature of man is married to God and who is that one Mediator between God and man marriage is sanctified and become honourable in all and so every creature of God sanctified that is made clean for our use that it may be received with thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth For it is sanctified saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 5. by the word of God and prayer that is by the word that was made flesh for us and by his intercession for us By his being made flesh and so by the sacrifice of his own Body once for all made perfect through sufferings he hath made peace for the sins of the world imputed to him abolished death taken the sting out of it redeemed us to himself from the curse of the law And so far taken the evil of the curse and shame out of marriage and creature-injoyments that we may have a laudable and comfortable injoyment of them though still some fruits and remembrances of our sin is left upon them for gratious ends and therefore in the hand of the Mediator who orders them for our good And by his prayer or continued intercession for us he still sanctifies those injoyments of the creature and makes them clean for our use against the provocation of our daily iniquities of a new sort which otherwise would render them unclean and polluted to us full of shame misery and curse which now are filled with gladness refreshing and mercy to men even in all and this that they may be received with thanksgiving as aforesaid of them that believe and know the truth Behold in all this the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world for because He by the grace of God tasted death for every man and gave himself a ransome for all and is our peace the propitiation for the sins of the whole world Therefore Marriage is honourable in all and the bed undefiled We come in the last place to consider some usefulness of this Instruction 1. It aggravates the sin of Fornication if God had prohibited Marriage to any man or to any sort or order of men or rendred it dishonourable or uncomely for any to marry fornication in such had been more excuseable But when at such a rate as through the sacrifice and mediation of his Son and to such a gracious end that men might be accommodated with the more chearfulness to live to him and serve him God hath made marriage honourable in all and the bed undefiled for any to walk in and serve the lusts of uncleanness in whoredom and adultery or seeking content and satisfying to the natural concupiscences in any way forbidden of God must needs be out of measure sinful because without necessity there was a sanctified means to avoid it which either they had or might have had for seeking it of God according to his Will who knows
chap. 1. 3-7 John 17. 8. As a little further to explain even as the man and wife in marriage are become one in the flâ—sh and in things pertaining to the flesh and outward man So Christ and the soul in this marriage is become one in the Spirit and in things pertaining to the spirit and inward man even in all things pertaining to life and godliness His sufferings his resurrection and glory his Father Spirit Angels children servants all become theirs by Faith not onely prepared given and treasured up in him as in a surety and treasury for them so they were before and are for others that are not joyned to the Lord for by the grace of God he tasted death for every man and gave himself a ransome for all yea he dyed for their sins and rose for their justification according to the Scriptures and is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world and by means thereof hath received gifts in the man for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them God hath prepared eternal life in Christ for all and with him in giving him a testimony to men gives eternal life in the gratious discoveries and tenders of it to them in due time but onely he that hath the Son hath life and he hath it in having him with whom God gives all things pertaining to life and godliness and they are received in receiving him even now spiritually and by Faith as he is received They are by the same spirit of Faith by which they are baptized into Christ baptized into his death even into union and fellowship with him in his personal sufferings and resurrection so that by Faith they dyed and were buried with him and are risen with him through the same faith of the operation of God who bath raised him from the dead and are therein taught and strengthned to reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin to its charges and condemning power by the Law in that he dyed to sin once and alive unto God made capable of receiving mercy from him and of being admitted into fellowship with him through the Mediator by his resurrection from the dead by which they are quickned to a lively hope and have consolation and rejoycing in his sufferings and glory as their own it being theirs by Faith And so his Father Spirit promises all theirs by Faith in him yea his Angels servants creatures even Paul Apollo Cephas the world life and death saith the Apostle all is yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 John 5. 11 12. Rom. 6. 3-9 c. Col. 2. 12. 1 Cor. 3. 21-23 And on the other hand their weaknesses pollutions wants and imperfections are become his in some answerable sence as the wives are the husbands not now to bear in his own personal body as once he did the imputation of our sins the sence and feeling of all our sicknesses and infirmities so knows how to succour us in ours that still remain upon us But he being raised from the dead dyeth no more nor hath death any more dominion over him nor is sin any more imputed to him But he makes intercession for transgressors and hath compassion even on the ignorant and them that are out of the way and so he is the Saviour of all men the upholder of all that fall that they might know him and believe in him but especially the Saviour of them that believe they being joyned to the Lord their weaknesses and wants are his to heal cleanse and make up for he gave himself for his Church that he might wash and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word and sanctifie it to and for himself and so their works that are theirs as his Spouse are his to perfect what concerns them their sufferings for him his by interpretation and he ingaged on their side as the Apostle and high priest of their profession their special surety or advocate for good to manage their matters for them in heaven and earth to work their works in them and for them to plead their cause and fight their battels and they are taught and strengthned by faith to cast their care on him and wait through the spirit for the hope of his righteousness by faith in perfecting what concerns them Psal 103. 119. 121 122. 138. 8. 145. 18 19. Gal. 5. 5. Heb. 3. 1. 10. 19-23 3. As in the earthly marriage or in the union of it there is but one man and one woman as before is shewed and the woman is originally of the nam yet so as both of God and the man the head of the woman So here 1. The Spouse and Church of Christ is but one the onely one of her mother Cant. 6. 9. Begotten and made by the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with or through the word of truth the Gospel of Christ Jam. 1. 18. And so Jerusalem that is above whence that glorious Gospel is come forth unto us is said to be the mother of all the members here on earth speaking of those under the plain Revelation of the mystery and now since God hath spoken to us in these last days by his Son they all as Isaac are the children of promise and such onely are counted for the Seed even they that are of faith in all ages the children of the Bondwoman have no part here See Gal. 3. with chap. 4. 21-31 Rom. 4. 9. 8. They are such as are made out of Christ's personal body spiritually and so of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5. 30. as was resembled by the woman's being made at first of the man in which she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh Now the Apostle saith not that we are flesh of his flesh c. But with allusion to that resemblance we are of his flesh and of his bones or members of his body even of his personal body that is to say what we are spiritually as the Spouse and Church of Christ and members thereof in particular we are of and by the vertues of his personal body that was broken for us and in which being raised from the dead he liveth and continueth ever and through the discoveries thereof and therein of the pretiousness of his blood unto us and likewise we are therein united to and made members of that his body as the woman in marriage is of her husband so that his things become ours and our weaknesses and wants his to supply and what concerns us his to perfect as before is shewed They are all by one Spirit baptized into one body c. 1 Cor. 12. 13. And what forms of godliness soever any have if they be not born of that Spirit that testifies of Jesus and commends God's love in him they are not of the beloved not of the chosen Generation There are threescore Queens and fourscore Concubines many daughters of the Whore or Synagogue of Satan yea
regard but know that his goodness in his patience and bounty yet exercised is to melt thy heart and move thee to repentance But God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goes on still in his trespasses Destruction is to the wicked even at their portion from God and a strange punishment to the workes of iniquity Job 31. 3. Psal 68. 21. And infinitely better it is to be judged yea to have our judgement in this world then in the world to come Seeing therefore Gods judging us here is by a Mediator and that he may not judge us in the world to come but that we may escape the damnation of Hell Learn at least when so judged by him timely to humble our selves under his mighty hand and to judge our selves that we fail not of his grace that is yet bringing salvation in the way of his judgements nor be further judged by him Be not mockers lest your bands be made strong for if under all these judgements in this life and notwithstanding them the Whoremonger and Adulterer and so the Murtherer and Covetous person who is an Idolater remain still such until the day pass that is to say If either they continue in the evil way and course of acting serving or following and making provision for it for there is no such dispensation from heaven that a man may continue in the act of sin or in the course and way of sinning and yet be free from the guilt of it The liberty to which we are called by the Gospel is not liberty to the flesh Or if they have left some particular way and course of sinning in which they have before walked or it have left them if yet they remain under the guilt of it not being washed in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God as aforesaid And so their iniquity not being purged from them till they dye which it cannot be but by the blood of Christ and if they be not purged till death they can never be purged after for there is no wisdom knowledge work or device in the grave or in the disappearing state of death to which we are going Eccles 9. 10. no Purgatory there nor any returning again to perfect any thing left undone under the Sun For though all men shall return again from the grave and from the disappearing state of death yet not to perfect any thing left undone under the Sun but to appear before the Judgement-seat of Jesus Christ to receive every one according to the deeds done in the body in this life whether they be good or bad according to the Gospel-rule of judging if therefore they still remain such in Gods account they still remain under the decree For Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge And so dying in their sins 3. They fall under the eternal judgement of the wrath of God the full and proper wages of their sin and cannot escape the damnation of Hell-fire where their worm dyeth not and their fire is not quenched For from the very time of death there is a great gulf fixed between them and those that have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour and are not again intangled therein but dye in the Lord yea between them and those that are yet among the living to whom there is hope so that he that would pass from the one to the other cannot From thenceforth they are sealed up and reserved in prison to the judgement of the great day and their spirits have no rest day nor night but are in continual horrour in remembrance of what infinite mercy they have slighted abused and sinned against and in the sence and apprehension of the dreadful wrath of the Lamb that is now become their portion for ever Luk. 16. 19-26 Rev. 14. 11. with Prov. 14. 32. And in that imprisoned state of darkness and horrour they shall remain till they shall have their dead bodies raised up by the voice of the Son of man the Lord Jesus Christ that dyed for them and re-united with their spirits And that resurrection of them shall be to everlasting shame and confusion world without end For then they shall be brought before his Judgement-seat and there shall be particularly and fully brought to light and manifested all the grace they have sinned against all the warnings and reproofs they have despised and every secret thing and hidden work of darkness they have done It shall be made manifest before God Angels and men to evidence the equity and righteousness of his Judgement which themselves also shall then upon clear conviction acknowledge just for from their own mouths he shall judge them and so proceed to that righteous and dreadful sentence which from thence in the execution shall for ever seize on soul and body Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels which is to them the second death and the smoke of their torment aseendeth up for ever and ever And God and his holy Angels and sanctified ones shall rejoyce when they see the vengeance for there shall be no more mercy bowels or pity in God Angels or men towards them for ever as in this day there was God himself shall laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh and they shall be tormented for ever from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power I say for ever in soul and body together for there is no darkness or shadow of death left in which the workers of iniquity may then hide themselves no pains or torments shall ever be able to put an end to their sensible being or make a dissolution of soul and body again but when an hundred a thousand ten thousand yea ten thousand times ten thousand years have passed yet is not the time at all shortned it is still for ever and for ever Nor is there any intermission their worm dyeth not and their fire is not quenched and it is infinitely sorer punishment then any merciless torments that can be suffered in this life yea the pains and miseries of this first death and the Hell pertaining thereto will be cast into that lake to boot all aggravating the terrour of it yet there will be degrees of torment by the worm and by the fire and they will be most dreadful and in the highest degrees upon those that have sinned against most mercy who knoweth the greatness and power of his wrath it will be even according to his infinite greatness and power to execute it and according to the grace abused for then there shall be no Mediator to plead for any abatement as now there is nor any to deliver Oh consider it in time ye that forget God lest he come and tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver surely then it will appear no small mercy to have been now delivered from the wrath to come
1 Joh. 3. 6 8. Tit. 2. 11 12. And the heynousness and sinfulness of this kind of sin or sinning is evidenced and aggravated by the grace of God in and through Christ against which it is committed Yea III. That this sin and so all sins of this nature are still retained in heaven against men and they reputed as guilty before God whether they go on in the course of acting or serving them still or no while yet they are not washed in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God this likewise is to be seen and understood in the light of Gods testimony concerning Jesus Christ which declares it to be his peculiar work and office in the name of the Father and by the power of the eternal Spirit by and with the vertues of what he hath done and is become in himself for us to save and wash us from our sins It is to him that all the Prophets bear witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Act. 10. 43. 1. 3. 39. Neither is there any other name given under Heaven whereby we may be saved but the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth He hath deputed no man or Church as his Vicar or substitute to do this but himfelf by and through the knowledge of himself is the justifier and cleanser from all unrighteousness Isai 53. 11. 1 Joh. 1. 7 9. And so it is attributed to the Apostles and to them that believe through their word and have that word of reconciliation to minister I say it is attributed to them in their faithful ministration of that Word because of the promise of his spiritual presence with them therein alway to the end of the world that whose sins they remit namely in that ministration and by the power of their word they are remitted in heaven c. For it is Jesus Christ that makes them free through the knowledge of that word of truth it is Christ spiritually ministring and ministred by them he sent his word and healed them Joh. 20. 21 23. with Mark 16. 15 16. and Matth. 28. 19 20. Joh. 8. 32 36. Psal 107. 20. And truely if he wash them not men can have no part with him nor are they washed from their filthiness how clean or pure soever in their own or others eyes Whence it is said of the Corinthians Such were some of you namely fornicators covetous c. But ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God he saith not in the name of the Church or of some High Priest or Bishop on earth no not in the name of Paul or Peter Was Paul crucified for you says he to them 1 Cor. 1. 13. or were ye baptized into the name of Paul But in the name of the Lord Jesus c. 1 Cor. 6. 9 11. Implying that untill they were washed in that name they were not washed nor free indeed nor was their name changed with God but they are still reputed as such with him whatever other washings and cleansings they have had and in what other name soever But being washed in his name in that washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which is poured forth abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour they are no longer reputed by the Almighty as Whoremongers and Adulterers but are by him graciously owned and called by a new name Sons of God heirs with Christ elect beloved of the chosen generation Behold what manner of love is this that even such may have their sins so blotted out in heaven as to be called The sons of God who would not make haste to this fountain while it is yet held open for the washing us from our sin and uncleanness We knowing the terrour of the Lord against them that will not be made clean whose sins are still retained in heaven against them cannot but perswade men though they count us fools and mad-men for our pains for see the sentence and decree of the holy One Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge which leads us to the last consideration here propounded namely 3. How in what sence and after what manner God will judge them The opposition of Gods judging them in this saying But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge I say the opposition of it unto what is before affirmed of the honourableness of Marriage shews it to be such a correction punishment or judgement for it as is fitly opposed to the honourableness of Marriage and the bed undefiled that is he will put them to shame and wound them with reproach and dishonour And though this may be and is in the beginnings of it in mercy and for their healing and therefore with much mixture of mercy yet still persisting such he will more severely judge them as those that break Wedlock and shed blood are judged a wound and dishonour shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away and in the issue they still going on in their trespasses or not being washed in the blood of Christ he will judge them to everlasting shame and confusion as he will do all makers and worshippers of Idols who are spiritual adulterers and fornicators and all that are incensed against him See this distinctly in three branches or steps of Gods proceeding in his judging them according to a threefold sense of Gods judging spoken of in the Scripture Gods judging is sometimes taken for the judgements of his mouth as Psal 105. 5. and of them oft-times more particularly for his passing sentence for or against a man his approving or disapproving his justifying or condemning in respect of which it is said that that he judgeth even now in this present day without respect of persons according to every mans work 1 Pet. 1. 17. and 2. 23. with Joh. 8. 16 26 50. 12. 48. 5. 30. Yet because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil Likewise more oft and frequently his judgements are taken for the judgements of his hand his executing judgement according to the righteous sentence of his mouth and so sometimes for his judging in this life and world Gen. 15. 14. That nation whom they shall serve will I judge 1 Sam. 3. 13. God would judge the house of Eli for ever Ezek. 7. 3 27. He would judge them according to their ways and deserts Chap. 16. 38. I will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed bloud And sometimes for his eternal judgement in the world to come After death the judgement Heb. 9. 27. God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto