produceth an infinite and Eternal Knowledge of himself as most perfect and most excellent Thus he cannot know himself and be known of himself But he must love himself and be infinitely and eternally enamoured with his own Beauty which is sufficient sully and perpetually to satiate and content himself within himself And hence ariseth his full happiness For he is fully happy to all Eternity without any Man Angel without Heaven Earth the World or any Creature by acting thus upon himself Therefore perfect and full happiness is accounted one of the Attributes of God And if he were not happy he could not make the intellectual Beings for ever happy by a more full communion with him and enjoyment of him From these immanent acts of the Deity upon himself some conceive arise the Relations of Father Son and Holy Ghost and that stupendious and profound mystery of the glorious Trinity The Doctrine whereof is so far above Natural Reason improved to the highest pitch that the greatest Wits in the World have been confounded in the search thereof and many have denied and are offended with the Terms of Trinity and Persons as not found in the Holy Scriptures But first let us hear what the Scripture saith of this great mystery The Apostles Commission and Charge from Christ was To teach or Disciple all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost Math. 28. 18. And there are Three which bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 5. 7. In the former place we may observe § II 1. One Name of three the Father Son and Holy Ghost And whether we take the Name for the Eternal Deity as the word in the Hebrew sometimes signifies or for Worship or for Power yet there is but one Name one Worship one Power of the Father Son and Holy Ghost 2. The Father Son and Holy Ghost are three 3. That the Father is the first the Son the second the Holy Ghost the third in order 4. That the Father as the Father is not the Son nor the Holy Ghost nor the Son as Son either the Father or the Holy Ghost nor the Holy Ghost as the Holy Ghost either of them 5. The Father hath relation to the Son as the Father of the Son the Son as the Son of the Father to the Father and the Holy Ghost being the Breath and Spirit of the Father and the Son hath relation to both and both to Him 6. Here are three distinct Relatives and three distinct Relative Properties 7. The Father as God hath no relation to the Son but as the Father noâ— the Son as God to the Father but as the Son And so the Holy Ghost not as God but as the Holy Ghost to them boâ—h as breathed by and proceeding from both In the latter place 1 Joh. 5. 7. we may observe 1. That there be three the Father Son and Holy Ghost 2. That the Father is first the Son is second the Holy Ghost is third in order as before 3. He that in the former place was called the Son is here called the Word 4. That the Word was in the beginning was with God was God and by it all things were made And by the Son it 's said All things were created and all things consist by him Col. 1. 15 16. From whence it follows That the Father and the Son are but one Creatour and so but one God together with the Holy Ghost to whom the incommunicable Perfections and Works of the Deity are attributed For as the Spirit of Man is the same Substance and Being with man and knows the things of man so the Spirit which searcheth and knoweth the deep things of God must needs be one and the same Substance and Being with God The Father was the Father before he created the World or sent his Son The Word and Son of God was the Word and Son beâ—ore the Word was made Flesh And the Holy Spirit was the Spirit before he sanctified either Man or Angel Yet the Father was more clearly manifested to be the Father by sending his Son into the World and the Son to be the Son by the incarnation and work of Redemption And the Holy Ghost to be the Holy Ghost by the Work of Sanctification The Word which was made flesh was coeternal and coequal with the Father though the Humane Nature assumed by the Word was neither coequal nor co-eternal These Three are called Persons § III by some of the Greek Fathers and most of the later Latine Christian Writers A Person was defined long ago by Occam to be Suppositum intellectuale an individual intellectual Substance subsisting by it self And in this strict Sense three Persons as three Angels three men are three distinct individual Substances But thus the Father Son and Holy Ghost are not Three Persons for then there should be three Gods whereas they are but one God and one Divine Substance though they be considered as they are represented according to these three distinct Relations and Relative Properties These three are so intimately united that they are but one individual substance And this Unity of three is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latines Circumincession So that there can be no inequality amongst them in respect of Time Power Dignity or any other ways One may be considered before another in respect of order or origination as some of the School-men speak The Generation of the Son and the Spiration of the Holy Ghost which are wonderful and to us unsearchable had no beginning of Time nor can have end of Duration for they are Eternal In these high and glorious Productions the Essence cannot properly be said to be communicated Some of the Ancients § IV and many of the Modern Writers have denyed the Trinity of Persons and the Deity of the Son and Holy Ghost The Socinians argue against both 1. Against the Trinity of Persons alleaging that three Persons are three individual distinct Substances and thence they infer that if there be three distinct Persons in the Deity then there are three distinct Gods In this Argument they take for granted that in this great mystery the word Person is taken properly and strictly which no understanding Christian ever thought And this is gross and intolerable especially in men otherwise learned and judicious 2. Against the second they argue That because the Father in some places is said to be the onely true God therefore neither the Son nor Spirit can be properly Summus ille Deus that Supream God For example Crellius one of the most learned and judicious of them from those words of our Saviour This is life Eternal to know thee the onely true God argues to this purpose That if the Father be the onely true God then the Son and the Holy Ghost cannot be God This is so unworthy that it deserves no answer In that place the Son is considered as Man and flesh
World to come According to it he must be judged and sent to Heaven or Hell and made eternally happy or miserable All errours and false notions contrary unto it must be rased out of the mind All inordinate affections and unruly passions must be subdued For we must lay apart all filthinesse and Superfluity of naughtinesse and receive with meeknesse the pure and genuine word of God which is able to save our souls Jam. 1. 24. And we must lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings and as New-born babes desire the Sincere milk of the Word c. 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. We must make our minds like blank Paper and in our hearts we must be like little Children otherwise the Heavenly Doctrine cannot make so liâ—ely impressions upon us 2. When the heart is thus prepared we must hear and read attentively consider what is heard or read that we may understand it We must apply it and lay it close unto our own hearts and pray for the Spirit to make it powerful and effectual within us As it is Wisdom first to teach so it is first to learn the Principles and to understand them well and being once in these well grounded they will not be so subject either to be seduced or waveâ—ing in their judgment and it will be a great advantage to improve their knowledge And when once they understand the truth it will discover their woful condition to humble them and their Saviour to raise them up again It 's a part of the duty of every one that is a Scholler in this School not onely to understand the truth but also to endeavour the practise thereof out of an earnest desire of Salvation And if a man neglect the means use not the power that God hath given him and seriously intend the principal end it will be just with God to desert him and deny his grace unto him Practice must be the principal design and Knowledge so far as conducing thereunto If the man being taught § XVI be diligent and willing for to learn both to know and do that which is known and that with a prepared heart and desire of God's Blessed Spirit to teach him inwardly and effectually then God will remember his Promise and will give him a new Heart and a new Spirit he will put in him and will take the stoney heart out of his flesh and give him an heart of flesh He will put his Spirit within him and cause him to walk in his Statutes and keep his Judgments to do them Ezek. 36. 26 27. For this is a Promise of the Gospel and the New Covenant I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. And as man teacheth outwardly God teacheth inwardly yet he never writes his Word in an unprepared heart neither doth he write any thing within but that which is taught outwardly out of the Scriptures And as the Minister must teach so the People must hear and heed otherwise God will deny his Spirit Man cannot speak unto the Soul immediatly but by the outward and inward Senses God speaks immediatly unto the Soul pierceth deeply into it writes clear and lively Characters upon the mind and makes strong impressions upon the heart When the Ministers Doctrine is thus accompanied with the Power of God and brought home not onely unto but also into the Soul then the Teacher is a Minister not onely of the Letter but also of the Spirit and the Word is the Word of God indeed formally and properly when God thus speaks it immediatly himself and it will manifest it self by the Heavenly Light Power of Sanctification and Consolation following thereupon And then man knows the Word read or heard preached out of the Scripture to be from Heaven and God's Voyce and that upon better grounds then any Tradition possibly can be By the same Word we are begotten and born anew By the same we must grow and tend unto perfection the Spirit concurring with it And the Spirit by Divine Institution and God's Promise goes along with it except man by his neglect of the means or some other demeâ—it give caâ—â—e to God to deny it The sum of all this is § XVII 1. That the Doctrine of the Scriptures is the Rule whereby we are directed in the knowledge of God's Kingdome 2. This Doctrine was in the mind of God and known onely to himself before he communicated it to Men and Angels 3. He did make this known by immediate Inspiration to the Holy Prophets and Apostles 4. By them he communicated it to others both by Word and Writing in both which they were directed by him infallibly 5. The Originals therefore were immediatly of Divine Authority and most worthy to be believed and the Transcripts and Translations so far as they agreed with the Originals 6. The Tradition or Testimony of the Church may declare this yet as a Testimony it can satisfie no man fully 7. God communicates this Doctrine unto men by ordinary Teachers not immediatly inspired 8. The Scripture is the standing Rule to direct these ordinary Teachers And so far as they follow this Rule so far their Doctrine is good and no further 9. The people taught are bound to hear those Teachers with prepared hearts and in that manner as God requireth 10. If they hear in this manner God according to his Promise will make it effectual to convert justifie and comfort them 11. This Spirit testifying by real effects the matter of the Scripture to be Divine is not a private Spirit but the publique Spirit of Christ in the Universal Church and the thing testified by this Spirit is the Publique Doctrine believed and professed by the Vniversal Church It 's true that it 's testified to a private Man and in that respect it is not Publique 12 By this manner of ordinary teaching with the concurrence of the sanctifying Spirit God works ordinarily a Divine Faith in the hearts of men and not by the Vniversal Tradition of the Church 13. The Tradition of the Church so far as it may be known concerning the Divine Authority of the whole Canon is a ground of a probable Faith against which No rational man as rational can except CHAP. III. Concerning the ancient Creeds and Confessions and of Faith in general HItherto § I of the Original the Nature and Qualities of the Holy Scriptures which must be the Rule of the ensuing Discourse concerning God's Kingdom But before I proceed to the particular Explication of this excellent Subject it will not be amiss to enquire Whether the principal subject of the Scripture may not be reduced to a method or Whether some parts or passages of Scripture will not give a sufficient light and direction to this method if there be any such thing Many School-men and some Modern Authors of Theological Systems following the Rules of the great Philosopher have attempted to reduce the Doctrine contained in God's Book into
Word and Son of God for his Natures God and Man for his Offices Prophet Priest and King His Work of Redemption hath two Parts 1. His Humiliation 2. His Exaltation in his Resurrection Ascension Session at his Father's right-hand and investiture with all power in Heaven and Earth whereby he is made Lord and Judge of the World The Application whereby we are made partakers of the Benefits of Christ's Redemption is made by the Spirit and Word working Faith whereby sinful men are made Members of Christ and of the Universal Church which is the society of Saints The benefits of this Redemption applyed and whereof the Church is partaker are Remission of sins Resurrection and Life Everlasting Amongst many other Forms of Confessions § V and Creeds delivered by the Ancients I thought good to pitch upon one in Tertullian especially that in his Prescriptions against Hereticks where we read thus REgula est autem Fidei ut jam hinc quod credamus profiteamur illa seilicet qua Credimus Vnum omnino Deum esse nec Alium prater Mundi Conditorem qui universa de Nihilo produxerit per Verbum Suum primo Omnium â—missum Id verbum Filium ejus appellatum in Nomine Dei variè visum Patriarchis in Prophetis semper auditum Postremo delatum ex Spiritu Dei Patris et virtute in Virginem Mariam Carnem factam in utero ejus et ex eâ natum Hominem et esse Jesum Christum exinde Praedicasse Novam Legem et Novam Promissionem Regni Coelorum virtutes fecisse Fixum cruci Tertiâ Die Resurrexisse In Coelos ereptum Sedere ad Dextram Patris Misisse Vicariam Vim Spiritus Sancti qui Credentes agat Venturus cum Claritate ad Sumendos Sanctos in Vitae aeternae et Promissorum Coelestium Fructum et ad Prophanos judicandos igni perpetuo facta utriusque Partis Resusâ—itatio ne cum Carnis Resurrectione Haec Regula à Christo ut probabitur instituta The reason why I propose this § VI is because its the most full and perfect form of Confession both in Irenaeus and Tertullian Concerning which several things are observable 1. That it agrees with all the rest for Matter and Method 2. It 's most exactly Consentaneous to plain and clear Scripture 3 The Method is grounded upon our Saviours Creed 4. It more fully and perfectly out of the Scriptures informs us of the Person and Natures of Christ and so of his Incarnation For that Word by which the World and so man was created was made flesh 5. As in it we have God the Father creating the World by his Word and the same Word by the Spirit assuming flesh redeeming man so we have the same God by his Spirit sanctifying man more expresly delivered then in any of the rest 6. We may observe that that Word which was first uttered and spoken in the Creation before any thing could be created was uttered and produced from everlasting as a lively Representation of God himself to himself 7. That as the Spirit so the Word was in the Prophets as Prophets as without neither of which they could have been Prophets 8. The Government of God Redeemer is therein more expresly declared then in most of the other Forms For the Government of Creation being presupposed 1. The manner of acquiring a New Power by the Humiliation of the Word made flesh 2. His Investiture with this Power in his Exaltation 3. The Exercise of it 1. In giving the New Law with a Promise of Heaven's Kingdom 2. In adjudging men either Prophane to everlasting fire or Holy unto the enjoyment of Life everlasting upon the Resurrection of both in the last and Universal Judgment are in these few Words delivered plainly and clearly 9. This Form was received by the Church from the Apostles and by the Apostles from Christ. 10. That not any but Hereticks did question any thing in this Creed 11. Seeing these Hereticks professed themselves Christians and did acknowledge Christ and this had continued from Christ and the Apostles Universally and without controversie before these Hereticks did arise therefore it did sufficiently prescribe against all Heresies which different from it did arise afterwards The Analysis of these Creeds § VII and Confessions according to the ensuing Discourse intended takes in the matter and method in general of the former yet is delivered in other expressions To understand it the better you must observe 1. That it presupposeth the principal Subject of the Holy Scriptures to be the Kingdom of God and that the Doctrine thereof is contracted in the Ancient Creeds and Forms of Confession 2. That in a Kingdom or Government there must be a King or Governour invested with Power which is 1. Acquired 2. Exercised It 's exercised 1. In constituting a Common-Wealth 2. In the Administration of the same The Common-wealth is administred by Laws and Judgments Laws determine the Duties and Dues of men Judgment renders the Dues of Rewards or Punishments according to the observation or violation of the Laws These things observed We have in this Kingdom 1. The KING 2. His Government The King is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost who alone is worthy of all honour glory power and dominion for evermore His Government presupposeth his Power which is 1. Acquired 2. Exercised It 's acquired by Creation as it is continued by Preservation For immediatly upon the Creation he became the Supream Universal and Absolute Lord and continues so for evermore by his perpetual Preservation For seeing he made all things even Men and Angels of nothing and they do always for ever wholly depend upon him therefore he must needs have an absolute full and perpetual Propriety in and Dominion over them and they must needs be his Servants and Vassals This Power thus acquired began to be exercised immediatly upon the Creation 1. In the general Government of all things 1. By a constitution of an Order amongst them 2. By a Direction of them according to that Order to their ends 2. In the special Government of the immortal and intellectual Creatures who alone were capable of Laws Rewards and Punishments These speciall Creatures were Angels and Men. Amongst the Angels he 1. Established an Order 2. According to that Order he doth govern them and exercise his Power 1. In giving them Laws 2. In judging them according to those Laws Some of the Angels continued loyal and obedient and were confirmed in perpetual estate of Holiness and Happiness which was their Reward The disloyal and Apostate Angels were cast down from Heaven and reserved in everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the Judgment of the great day Jude v. 6. This was their Doom and the judgment of God upon the Angels The Government of Men is two-fold The first of Justice The second of Mercy Of Justice in the first Adam of Mercy in the second In the first after God became his Lord and Man his Subject in a special manner he
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 made a shew of them openâ—y triumphing over them Col. 2. 17. For by his Death and Resurrection he brake in pieces the Power of Sathan acquired a right to all flesh and received strength to rescue man out of his hands and to give eternall liâ—e to as many as his Father had given him By him the Prince of the World was cast out Joh. 12. 31. For this end he was partaker of flesh and blood with his Brethren that he might destroy him that had the Power of death that is the Devil Heb 2. 14. And for this end the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 8. And so profound was the Wisdom of God that he turned the power and policy of Sathan to his own ruine For whilst he did bruise Christs heel and put him to death he overthrew his own Kingdome and gave Christ a glorious Victory And by him having foyled the Devil in his Power all the Saints overcome the Devil and obtayne a final Victory yea are more then Conquerours Other Places of Scripture give us so much light as to understand these Words in this manner which certainly Adam and Eve understood better then we can do Yet this enmity and glorious Conquest was expressed in few Words and some what darkely because the full Knowledge of this great Victory was reserved till the Son of God was glorified and the Gospel revealed This was that dreadfull sentence passed upon the Devil all his Angells and his wicked brood which began to be executed then and shall be Consummate when the Devil Death and Hell shall be cast into the Lake of fire where they shall be tormented for ever The Sentence § V passed upon Woman followes And her proper punishments besides those that are Common to Man and Woman are two 1. God determines to multiply her sorrow in conception In sorrow she must bring forth her Children 2. Her desire must be to her Husband and he must rule over her Both these are cruel punishments For many times the birth and life of the child is the death of the Mother after that she hath suffered many paines in conceiving and bearing and most cruel pangs in her Travaile Sometimes the safety of the Mother is the death of the Child The latter is the more grievous because of the Proud cruel and domineering Spirits of crooked and unfaithfull Husbands and by the wickednesse of both partyes that society which should have been most comfortable proves most miserable If woman had never sinned she must have brought forth Children yet without paine and bin subject to her Husband but without any discomfort Women should remember this sentence acknowledge Gods great displeasure against sin and humble themselves Yet they must not despair but hope for eternallâ—life by Jesus Christ their Saviour and be thankfull to God who mitigates the rigour of his justice and in these two things many times shewes great mercy The sentence passed upon Adam is the last And his Poenalties are many The ground was cursed for his sake in sorrow He must eat of it all the dayes of his life Thorns and Thistles it must bring forth unto him He must eat of the Herb of the field In the sweat of his face he must eat bread till he return to the ground For out of it he was taken and being Dust unto Dust he must return The sum of all is Misery and Mortality He must be in misery and suffer many afflictions in this Life and soul and body must part at death and death will turn his body in the end to dust These penalties are fearfully inflicted upon many yet with many God deales mercifully and removes or prevents many of them and in the end by the Resurrection gives a full and finall deliverance from all After Sentence follows Execution § VII at least in order though many times they go together so that the Sentence and execution are all one though the execution is not finished at the first but continues afterwards This execution began instantly with the Sentence Gods word was his deed For the Serpent instantly was accursed and began to suffer all the penalties denounced So likewise the Devils did The punishment of Woman began to be executed in her first conception bearing bringing forth of Children man became instantly miserable and mortal as the earth was presently accursed for his sake and he found a great alteration and a 〈◊〉 change in his Body his Soul the Earth and others Creatures which were subject unto him and made for his good The execution done upon the Serpent shall continue whilst there shall be any Serpents upon the earth The Punishment of the Devil continued until the Incarnation of Christ and upon his Death and resurrection his head was broken but it shall be Consummate at the Last Judgment The Punishment of the Woman shall not determine till the last child be born And The Punishment of Man and Woman shall not be totally removed till the Resurrection and finall Glorification of all the Children of God And Here severall Particulars are considerable 1. That this was A Generall Assizes wherein passed Judgment upon Beasts Millions of Angels and all mankind 2. In the Sentence passed upon the Devil CHRIST was promised and by that promise The Government of mankind was altered And God did new-model his Kingdom For thereupon followed A New Constitution New Laws and Judgment did proceed afterwards in a New Manner 3. By this promise the Covenant of Works was made voyd and the Law as promising life onely upon condition of Perfect Personall and Perpetuall obedience without any Promise of Pardon of any the least sin was repealed And the Positive Law of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil did cease 4. Though the Law of works was repealed yet the Sentence passed upon man for the sin he Committed against that Law of works as unrepealed stands in force and shall in part continue unto the Resurrection 6. Though the Law of Works as a Condition and only condition of life be repealed yet the pure Morals continue in force to bind man to obedience or punishment in generall but not to obedience perfect as the condition of life or to punishment as no wayes removeable To argue that because the matter of the morall Laws continues in Precepts and Prohibitions therefore the Law continues is vain For it may continue yet in another manner and to an other end and both the manner and the end far different To say that man is under the Law of works as Adam was at the first until he be in Christ is very false It 's true that he is under the execution of that sentence which passed upon man for his sin against that Law both morall and positive given to Adam and he cannot passe from death to life from the State of Damnation to the State of Salvation till he be in Christ by a true and lively faith And
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
fittest of all others to represent that Priest Jesus Christ who had no Predecessour from whom he might derive his right nor successour because he live in Heaâ—ven a Priest for ever who alone hath right to receive tithes and homage 〈◊〉 his people and blesse them with spiritual and eternall blessings And the Throne and Scepter of David and his successours in his Kingdome did shadow him whose Throne is for ever and ever and his Scepter a right Scepter Faith and obedience to pure morals to be performed to God Redeemer by the power of the renewing Spirit were alwayes required by the Lawes of this Kingdom for the Lawes of Faith and obedience to pure Morals were alwayes the same Yet to these Lawes of Faith and obedience in pure morals were added from the beginning divers positive and ceremoniall precepts especially that of sacrifice And when the promise of the Messias to descend of 〈◊〉 was renewed of Abraham circumcision was instituted as a Seal of the righteousnesse of faith and a solemn right of engagement unto their Saviour and of his admiâ—sion of them into the Church upon their submission And this was by his command to be administred to Infants born in the Church When Israel came out of Aegypt the Passeover was ordained in remembrance of that great deliverance and did continue till that great Paâ—chal Lamb was slain by whose blood we are redeemed from the wrath of God Hell and everlasting death But after that the posterity of Abraham Isacc Jacob being multiplyed into a nation were reduced by God into a Common-Wealth both civil and Ecclesiasticall and presented before God appearing in a glorioâ—s and retrible manner upon Mount Sinai they entred into a solemn Covenant with their God He promiseth to be their God to protect and blesse them and they engage themselves solemnly to be his loyall subjects Upon this Foundation of a Kingdom once layd God proceeds as their Lord and Soverenig to give them morall judiciall ceremoniall Lawes In the morall he reduceth all morall dutyes to certain heads in a brief exact and excellent method in the Ceremonials he reduceth all former rites and ceremonials Instituted by himself into order and adds many more as he saw convenient for that people in that time In the judicials he dilivered them a perfect body of the civill Law These judicials were for direction in judgment and the adminstration of their civil state The moralls and ceremonials were for the Church and looked far higher The moralls tended to give them a more perfect knowledge of morall dutyes to be a rule of moral obedience to let them see their inability to keep it their impossibility to be justified by it to make them sensible of their sin and seek a Saviour who should deliver them from the curse and paenaltyes threatned by the Law and deserved by their disobedience The ceremonial was more mysticall 〈◊〉 therein God did prescribe a Tabernacle a Priest and a solemn 〈◊〉 of service The Tabernacle was a type of the Heavenly Temple the High Priest of the great eternal Universall High Priest and the Services especially that 〈◊〉 Sacrifice and most of all that yearly Sacrifice of expiation to be offered onely by the High Priest the 10th day of the 7th moneth with the blood whereof he ente 〈◊〉 into the most holy place was a type of that sacrifice of Christ by which he obtayned eternal Redemption Besides that these did signifie heavenly things they were given to this people to keep and preserve them pure from Heathenisâ— Idolatry and superstition to continue them seperate especially in Religion and Divine Worship from all other nations of the world Tâ—ey were for the multitude and charge of them a burthen and heavy yoke to keep them undeâ—â— and cause them to long for their Messias who should free them from those dark and mysterious shadows give them a clearer and more glorious light and a perfect liberty and ease from this servitude This time was the time of the infancy and minority of the Church for as the Heyr so long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutours and governours untill the time appointed of the Father So they when they were Children that is under age were in bondage under the elements of the world But when the fullnesse of that time that was appointed by God their Father was come God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law c. Wherefore after that they were no more Servants but sons Gal. 4. 1 2 3 4. 7. The time of the Gospel therefore is a time of emancipation and liberty not onely from the Ceremonials but from the curse and servitude of the law of works which that law of Moses did threaten and could no wayes free them from it For in that law there was no promise of the Spirit to enable them for to obey the morall law nor of pardon though they did transgresse it Neither was there any Sacrifice Priest or Service that could expiate sin and purge the conscience from dead Works For though their expiations lustrations and purifying ceremonyes might free them from legall pollutions yet from sin they could not This covenant was not the same with that of the seed of the Woman § II which should break the Serpents head nor with the same renued more explicitly unto Abraham That in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed much lesse was it the same with the promises of the Gospel made in Christ exhibited And by the way we may take notice that the Apostle Gal. 3. puts a difference between the Promise the Law Faith The promise looks at Christ to come and was made more particularly to Abraham The Faith is the same with the Gospel and looks at Christ already come This law comes in between along time after the promise and a longer time before the Gospel And one end why it entred in between both was that sin might abound Rom. 5. 20. and it was added because of transgression till the seed that is Christ should come and before Faith that is Christ and the Gospel came they were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed So that the Law was their School-Master or Tutour unto Christ Gal. 3. 19. 23. 24. By all this we may easily understand that this Law and Covenant made onely with the Jew of whom Christ was to come considered as God intended it was neither against the Promise nor the Gospel but subordinate to both And though it was not the same with the Law of works given to Adam innocent yet it had much affinity with it For it 's said Do this and live and Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written and contained in it yet it promised no power to observe it nor pardon if not observed as was said before And the
that we shall rise again to glory For if the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in us He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortall bodyes by his Spirit that dwelleth in us Rom. 8. 11. The manifestation was full and clear § VI and for this end he stayed 40. dayes on earth after his resurrection His body was now become spirituall and could appear when and to whom he pleased And he appeares 1. To Mary Magdalene 2. To two Disciples going to Emaus 3. To Cephas 4. To the twelve 5. To 500 Brethren together 6. to James 7. To all the Apostles and that severall times Thomas must not onely see him but with his hands and fingers feel the print of the nailes and the scars of his wounds They eat and drink with him receive instructions and commissions from him and see him taken up into Heaven Steeven Paul and John the Divine see him after he was ascended into Heaven The Souldiers who were set to guard the Sepulcher are forced to be witnesses as of death so of his resurrection The comming down of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles the miracles done the gifts of the Spirit received in his name the Faith of the world in him do testifie the same So that there can be no reason in the world to doubt of this Resurrection The persons to whom he most of all appeared were the Apostles to whom he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them 40. dayes and speaking of the things pertayning to the Kingdome of God Act. 1. 3. And the reason hereof was this that they might be witnesses to him both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth verse 8. And its remarkable that he severall times appeared on the first day of the week as though he intended not onely by his Resurrection but his several apparations to consecrate and honour that day After that Christ was risen § VII and had continued fourty dayes on earth he takes with him to Mount Olivet his Disciples gives them commission to go to all Nations promiseth the Spirit blesseth them and in their sight from that place ascends into Heaven in a cloud For the Angels which appeared unto them in the likenesse of two men in white apparell told them that he was taken up into Heaven Act. 1. 10 11. This Ascension added nothing to his power though it might be a part of his Glory and Honour The place from whence he ascended was the Mount of Olivet at the foot whereof he suffered so much in his bitter Agony where he was betrayed apprehended deserted The place to which he did ascend was Heaven the highest and most glorious place in the world For he ascended far above all Heavens to fulfill all things Eph. 4. 19. The manner of this Ascension was glorious and by way of Triumph For accompanied with Angells he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men Psal. 68. 18. And no doubt hee made open shew of the Principalityes and Powers of Hell which he had conquered It was the greatest and most stately Triumph that ever was in the World Great was the joy of Angells and the Honour of that day wherein the Son of God mounted in his triumphant charior a bright and glorious cloud ascended into that glorious place where in his Fathers presence he after his biter sufferings hath fullnesse of joy and pleasures for ever more Where he hath taken possession of those blessed mansions of eternall rest not onely for himself but in our behalf And Oh that our minds were lifted up above the world and our affections so placed that we might seek those things above where he sitteth at his Fathers right hand that we might have a certain hope that one day he would descend from that holy place and take us with him that we might be where he is and so behold his Glory and be eternally freed from all sin and sorrow And surely if we believe him it was expedient he should depart and leave this Earth not onely for his own Glory but for our comfort that he might send down his Spirit to sanctify comfort and guide us into all truth Daniel saw in his Night-Vision behold one like the Son of man came in the clouds of Heaven and approached to the ancient of dayes and the Angells brought him neer before him This Vision was fulfilled in this Ascension Dan. 7. 13. The Heaven of Heavens was the fittest place not onely for his enjoyment of eternall pleasures but it was a stately Pallace from whence he might exercise his universall Power and administer his eternall Kingdom and be ettended and guarded by the heavenly powers For the Chariots of God are twenty thousands even many thousands and he is in the midst of them as in Sinai even in the holy place Psal. 68. 17. There he as a Priest for ever liveth to make intercession for us and continues our Advocate to plead our cause and make it good before his Fathers Tribunal After that Christ ascended into Heaven § VIII God set him at his right hand For God said unto him Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine Enemies thy Foot-stool To sit at God's right Hand is to reign as King So the Apostle expounds it 1 Cor. 15. 25. Therefore by those words we understand that the highest degree of Honour and Power next unto God was solemnly conferred upon him and he was instantly to begin to exercise the same The Angells and all things were subjected unto and put under his power and he became Administrator-Generall of this spirituall and everlasting Kingdom This Power was given him before For he said that All Power in Heaven Earth was given him whilst he was on Earth Yet now in Heaven he receivs full Possession and was solemnly crowned and enthroned before all the Angells and the Host of Heaven by vertue of these Words Sit thou at my right Hand He was made Law-giver and Judge and could bind men to obedience or punishment and judge them accordingly and determine of their final and eternal estates so as to give them eternal rewards or afflict them with eternal punishments This was part of Daniel's Vision For when one like the Son of Man was brought neer before the ancient of days there was given Him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve Him His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and His Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed The success and issue of His Administration was a final Victory over all Enemies and a total subduing of all opposite and contrary Powers and also the Eternal Peace and Felicity of His loyal and obedient Subjects As upon His Entrance into the glorious place of Heaven His everlasting Kingdom was established in His hands so His Priest-hood was made
receive power and dignity above others so as in that respect to represent God honour service and subjection may be due unto them from their fellow Servants In this sense higher powers are called Gods and as such are not fellow-Servants and subjects but Superiours and in honouring them we honour God whose persons they beare And as there may be an inequality and also a difference of this communicated power and dignity so there must be in the honour and â—ervice to be performed unto them For some have supreme and some sâ—bordinate power amongst men and this is the inequality Some have Spiritual some have civil and temporall power and this is the difference and according to the degree and quality of the power such must be the Worship and Subjection For according to the power and dignity must the service and honour be both for quantity and quality In matters Civil and temporall Civil and temporall honour is due either in a family or a City or a state In matters spiritual honour is due in a Church What honour and service may be due to Saints departed and to Angels we know not because we know not what Power and Commission God hath given them over us living upon the earth Neither do we converse with them nor do they ordinarily appear unto us so as ordinarily to converse with us Honour them we may in generall as participating an higher degree of spirituall excellency But to subject our selves unto them obey them in particular and present our petitions unto them we have no warrant neither do we know that they have any such place or power as to require it of us or we be bound unto it But this we certainly believe that Christ is at his Fathers right hand is Lord of Angels and men who hath received and doth exercise all Power in Heaven and earth and therefore to him as Man the highest degree of subjection honour service next unto that which is due to God as God is due to him and none else And it 's strange that the Socinian who denyes his Deity and believes him to be a meere man though exâ—ellent and â—ighly exalted should affirm that Divine Honour in proper sense which is due onely to the supreme God should be due unto him and ought to be exhibited Yet the Orthodox Christian who acknowledgeth him to be God should give unto him as man an inferiour honour as sitting at the right hand of the Throne of Majesty and not in that Throne it self For the Divine attributes and perfections cannot be communicated to any Creature and such as he as man is and no more And the Lutheran who asserts the Divine proprietyes to be not onely Communicable but communicated to Christ as man must needs place him higher then the right hand of the Throne and set him in the Throne it self And if they worship him as man with supreme Worship as invested with supreme power which is properly Divine they cannot be excused from Idolatry The power of an Officer is derivative and cannot as such be supreme But the Scripture makes it evident that Christ is but an Officer though the Universall and supreme Officer in the administration of Gods Kingdom and according to a Commission which one day He must deliver up unto the Father The reason of this Commandement is very clear § XI For the Kingdome and government of Gods is purely Monarchical and God himself is the absolute Lord and Monarch As he onely and alone made the World so he alone doth govern it and he alone hath power to do so For among the Gods saith the Psalmist there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are theâ—e any Works like thy Works All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy name For thou art great and dost wondrous things Thou art God alone Psal. 86. 8 9 10. Therefore to transgresse this Commandement and worship the Servant and creature above the Creator who is God blessed for ever must needs be Crimen laesae Majestatis High Treason and to deny him and refuse to submit unto him as Supream Lord must needs be Rebellion And as Subjection is virtually all obedience so Atheism and Idolatry are the root of all iniquity For the Fool hath said in his heart There is no God and then he became Corrupt and did abominable things And the Gentiles changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an image and his truth into a Lie and worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator were delivered up unto Vile affections and a reprobate mind and then they were filled with all Vnrighteousnesse Fornication Wickednesse c. Rom. 1. 23 25 26 28 29. That which is contrary to this Subjection is Pride whereby man contemns God and with Pharoah saith Who is the Lord that I should let Israel go with Rabshakeh blasphemes the living God and opens the mouth against Heaven with the King of Babel sacrificeth to his own Nets with Sennacherib attributeth the works of God to Man's power and wisdome makes men with Alexander the great and some of the Roman Caesars conceit that they are Gods and to require divine Honour to be given them CHAP. VIII The second Commandement THe second Commandement is negative § I And therein we have 1. A prohibition of a Sin 2. The Reasons and Disswasives The sin prohibited is 1. The making 2. The worshipping of Images The Disswasive is 1. From the jealousie and justice of God who will severely punish this Sin of Image-Worship 2. From his mercy rewarding such as have a care to keep this Commandement This is the brief analysis of the whole This hath so near connexion with and such a dependance upon the former Law that many have taken them for the same and no man can Violate this without violation of the former It had reference in Special to the Israelites as newly come out of Egypt where this Image-Worship was a custome and a law and to those times when it was generally practis'd in other Nations For men began betimes after the sâ—ood to degenerate and apostatize especially the cursed posterity of Ham and Canaan his son It was even then an universall practise And this may seem to be the reason why God so much enlargeth upon this particular and useth such powerful reasons to disswade the people from it who were so much inclin'd unto it that notwithstanding they had solemnly engaged themselves to obey the Lord in all his Commandements had heard God speaking these Words with great Majesty and terrour yet before Moses returned from the Mount they had set up a Molten calf and did worship it Several Authours have delivered several occasions of the first beginning of this Image-Worship § II and they may be all true in respect of divers places and perâ—ons For some might have one occasion some another and all agree in the thing Yet of a universal custome it 's probable there
ungodly wicked and to give them bad example and be patterns of impiety and iniquity unto them 6. To be found indulgent remisse in Discipline and correction and to bring them up idlely or delicately 7. To neglect their education in Religion and take no care of their poor Souls The sins of Tutours Guardians and such as are trusted with Orphans are carelessenesse or unfaithfulnesse And these must know that though these desolate and poor Creatures cannot or may not question them yet God will right them and will certainly call these unjust Stewards to account and severely punish them for their negligence and injustice And as he will blesse godly faithfull carefull parents and such as supply their place and comfort them in their Children or some other way So he will punish the negligent ungodly unfaithfull in their own Children and many other wayes and will require the blood of their Souls at their hands and their last reckoning will be sad and heavy Few Fathers endeavour the Regeneration of their Children Few Mothers travayl again of them that Christ may be formed and born in their hearts And one great cause of the corruption not onely of familyes but Church and state is the neglect of education When Parents do not use the power God hath put into their hands nor take the opportunity he hath given them to instil the principles of religion and piety into them in their tender yeares when they are so ready to receive the first impressions It 's a matter of sorrow and lamentation to consider how much Parents do neglect their duty and to see the sad events thereof For many of them transmit their sin and guilt and derive it to posterity who inherit their iniquity and misery Hitherto of this Commandement § X taken in the plain immediate sense Let 's proceed to those things which are reducible unto it by Analogie or deduction from it by more remote consequence Father and Mother are tearms of relation expresly named in the Text and these imply another Relation Husband and Wife who are the Foundation of a Family and were the beginning and first root of Mankind And after that Woman was once created and man had a fellow the relation of Husband and Wife followed and was the first relation according to God's Institution which requires that man and woman should be Husband and Wife before there be Father and Mother They are 1. Man and Woman of different Sex by Creation 2. Husband and Wife by God's Institution 3. Father and Mother by God's Blessing Yet there be many who violate this Institution and propagate the World with an illegitimate and spurious or incestuous Brood though by Repentance and Faith in Christ this sin may be pardoned and God's Judgment averted both from Parents and Children In this first Society there is an imparity though not so great as that of Parents and Children and the Duties thereof are two Subjection and Love For the Wife must be subject to her Husband and the Husband must love his Wife This is the Command of God by the Apostle Wives submit your selves unto your Husbands as unto the Lord For the Husband is the Head of the Wife c. This is the imparity of Superiour and Inferiour And Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it Ephes. 5. 22 25. This subjection was due from the first Wife to the first Husband even in the estate of Innocency For even then Marriage was instituted and by it was constituted one of the nearest Societies in the World and the same indissoluble except by Death or Adultery and that not onely by Covenant but especially by God's Institution whose Will it was that they should be one flesh and that man should forsake Father and Mother that dear relation and cleave to his Wife This Subjection before the Fall was so a Duty as that it was not a punishment For then Man was the Head a Superiour because made first and Woman was made after Man of Man for Man and man was of the more noble Sex and it was God's Will he should be Superiour in the first Contract according to his Institution But after the Fall it was not onely a Duty to be performed willingly but a Penalty to be suffered patiently And a grievous Penalty it is when a Woman is married to a proud insolent imperious Fool and to such Women who are of the like temper and violently bent to have their own Will though never so unreasonable As the imparity between Man and Wife is less then that between Parents and Children so the subjection of the Wife to the husband is not so great as that which is due from Children to Parents much less then of Servants to their Masters The place of the Wife though inferiour to the Husband is honourable She is Partner with him and shares in the government of the Family and may command both Children and Servants He is the Master she is the Mistress though subordinate to him as her Head as the Body is to the Head The duty of the Husband is to love his Wife and that not with any kind or degree of love but with a dear tender special love He must love her as his Wife as one flesh with him his own body part of himself nearer to him then Father or Mother Yet as obedience of Children so both love of Husband and subjection of Wife is limited and must be in the Lord that is subordinate unto that love and subjection which is due to Christ and agreeable to the Will of His Command and not contrary unto it And both the Duties presuppose other Vertâ—es in both Parties or else they will be not onely imperfect and deficient but unlawful and not in the Lord but against the Will of the Lord. And this subjection of the one and love of the other Evangelically understood are more perfect and noble Vertues in true Christians then in others as the Bond of Marriage doth represent the Union of Christ and His Church who are contracted on Earth and the Marriage it self shall be solemnized in Heaven with great glory and full joy that shall never end The want of this subjection in the one and love in the other much more the contrary sins are forbidden in this Commandement and are the causes of many other sins confusions discomforts miseries ruines of Families And by these two and the contrary may be understood all other Duties here commanded and sins forbidden and all such as depend upon them or are necessarily joyned with them After the Relations and Societies of Husband and Wife § XI Parents and Children follows that of Masters and Servants For after that Mankind was multiplyed in a Family and their Estates and Goods increased their work was the greater and required more hands and the first that did the Work of Servants though they were not Servants were Children and after that besides irrational Servants as the Ox and the Ass there were
be cleansed and purified before he could enter and be admitted into God's Kingdome Yet all the Water in the World had no power nor all the washing with Water could have any such effect as to cleanse from the guilt or stain of sin This power was merited by the Blood of Christ to be exercised by the Spirit Regeneration therefore iâ— signified by washing One end of washing is cleansing and washing may be by dipping diving powring on water The principall thing is washing whatsoever way it be done Therefore Baptism is said to be a washing of water Ephe. 5. 26. The putting away of the fiâ—th of the flesh 1 Pet. 3. 21. The washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. The washing of our bodyes with pure water Heb. 10. 22. It cannot be denyed but that the whole body descending into the water and plunged wholly and after that ascending out of the water again might resemble Christs Death and Resurrection more perfectly Yet neither was this the principal signification nor the immediate end of Baptism But how will it be proved that in Baptism the whole body with the head and all parts were plunged under the waters And suppose some were Baptized so it doth not follow that all ought to be so by vertue of any command All the washings lustrations purifications mysticall and sacred in the Law were contracted in this washing of Baptism The words added to washing with water do complete the Rite § X and make it very solemn The words are these I Baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost In which words we have 1. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost 2. The Baptizing into this name These words containe the Doctrin of One most Glorious God the Father the Son and Holy-Ghost with the great and stupendious works of creation redemption sanctification For that Great Almighty and ever Blessed God created the world by the Word made flesh dying and rising again redeemed mankind and by the Holy-Ghost sanctifies his people And by the Redemption of Christ and sanctification of the Spirit he is the Fountaine and cause of mans eternall happinesse and glorification This Doctrin must be preached heard received believed professed by the party to be baptized if at age by himself if not at age by some other representing him And he must further promise to renounce the Devill and all other Lords to subject himself unto this God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost to obey his Commandements By virtue of this profession and promise when nothing to the contrary is manifest the party is baptizable according to Christs commission But besides these words there must be baptizing in this Name which is understood severall wayes 1. With some in the Name is in and by the authority and power of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost With other it s in this name invocated and called upon And the truth is that Baptism ought to be administred by commission and command from God and with solemn invocation of and prayer unto God With others it is to be by baptizing devoted subjected to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost as their onely Lord and King in whom the party baptized must believe whom he must worship and obey as his onely supreme Lord and Saviour expecting eternall life from him and him alone With this sense agrees that of such as understand it of baptizing in or unto the Faith which was professed and unto the worship and service of the true God which was promised These words do contain both the duty of man and the promise of God The duty of man is to believe and obey God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and the promise of God is to accept him as such and admit him as a subject of his Kingdome to receive the benefits of protection regeneration and eternall life After the Rite consummate § XI follows the effect and the end or according to some the act and that is the confirmation of Regeneration Where we may consider 1. What is confirmed 2. How it is confirmed 1. The thing confirmed is Regeneration By regeneration is meant our first insâ—tiâ— into Christ dying and rising again for us and our first receiving of the remission and the Spirit for sanctification that we may dye unto sin and live unto God and of adoption whereby we are made Sons of God and heires of glory For we are saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we should be made heires according to the hope of eternall life Titus 3. 5 6 7. Where we have 1. Washing which is the baptismall rite 2. Regeneration the thing signified sealed or confirmed 3. This regeneration is by the renewing of the Holy-Ghost 4. We have justification by grace 5. Adoption whereby we are made heires of Glory It 's our first ingrafting into Christ for mortification of sin and newnesse of life Rom. 6. 4 5 6. Col. 2. 12. You must take notice that Regeneration Adoption and the state of Justification are onely begun upon our first faith and admission and not finished till the Resurrection And Johns Baptism was for remission upon Repentance and confession of sin Marke 1. 4. with Mat. 3. 6. The manner how this is confirmed is this 1. The party to be baptized by receiving Baptism doth solemnly testifie and as it were Seal and confirme that Faith which he had professed and that promise of submission and obedience he made 2. God by the party baptizing him doth solemnly testifie his admission of the party Baptized into his Kingdome as a Subject thereof to enjoy the priviledges thereof So that the administring on the one side and receiving of Baptism on the other is a deep and mutual engagement and makes the obligation strong on mans side to do his duty on Gods side to perform his promise This is an immediate confirmation of the covenant and promises as a covenant and promises and doth engage to mutual performance for time to come For if there be a performance on both sides there must needs be an actual possession which needs no confirmation If it be said that the performance on mans side is onely begun and so is the performance on Gods side but in part for it is onely full when we fully enjoy eternal glory It 's true that it is so and therefore it 's a confirmation of mans promise of faith and obedience to the end and of Gods promise that when mans performance is perfect His performance shall follow and in due time be full and perfect For the more full and clear understanding of the point we must observe 1. That the Covenant between God and man differs from other ordinary covenants In other covenants the partyes covenanting are equally free from any antecedent obligation in respect of the thing covenanted and the obligation of both partyes
before whose Throne of Grace we may approach without fear We are free Children of a free Mother We are not Servants born of Hagar the Bond-woman but free women of Jerusalem which is above and Mother of us all Gal. 4. 26. And as Jerusalem is our Mother so God is our Father who hath given us the Spirit of Adoption 3 We being adopted enjoy the Ministery of Angels those Blessed and Immortal Spirits who have a charge to keep us in all our ways guard us and pitch their Tents about us If we be in any place in any danger at any time they must be ready at hand If Jacob fear his Brother Esau two Armies of them shall meet him and secure him from danger When man by sin forsakes his God he 's out of God's special Protection and the Angels have no Commission to take care of him But if he return unto his God again they rejoyce upon his Conversion and upon God's Command do pitch their Tents about him And since Jesus Christ the Son of God was made Lord of Angels as soon as any do believe in him and are made the Sons of God he gives them special charge concerning his little Ones For they are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. 4 So soon as we are Sons we fall under God's special Providence and so He takes a far greater care of us than of others If we offend He in dearest love will chastise us not to destroy us but correct us because He will not suffer sinne to lye upon us He will try us not vex us but to exercise our Virtues and purifie our Faith that so we may come out of the Furnace of afflictions more pure then finest Gold If we fall He will raise us up again If we grow cold He will quicken us If we fall into danger He will deliver us if into want He will provide for us necessaries For our Heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of all these things 5 He in His excellent Wisdom out of greatest mercy so orders all events all conditions either of Prosperity or Adversity all his Works of Providence so that Heaven and Earth Men and Angels yea all Creatures and all things shall conspire and work together for our good and all shall unite Forces and full power which united as in one single cause shall further our Salvation 6 God loves them as his Children with a special love and pities them far more then any Father in the World pities his Child and nothing shall be able to separate from the love of that Father whom they love 7 He gives his Spirit of Adoption into their Hearts to anoint them seal them assure them of their present right unto and the full Possession in due time of their Heavenly Inheritance God their Father loves them and they must certainly know it Their estate therefore is an estate of unspeakable joy comfort Yet it requires that we should be obedient and dutiful Children and the love of God which is so great and advanceth them so high should deeply engage them to the love and obedience of their Heavenly Father This is the beginning of God's Judgment § VII in dispensing and disposing of his Spiritual Rewards of Conversion and Justification which include all the rest and bring them into an happy and blessed estate After this the continuance of this blessed estate is to be considered For God continues to judge and reward according to the continuance of their Faith and this in all parts of the World where any of his Saints shall be For all jointly and every one severally are the subjects of this Judgment which continually proceeds according to his Laws of Redemption As their Faith and Repentance are not made perfect at the first so their rewards joys and comforts are not consummate but by degrees And as their Faith may be sometimes greater sometimes less so this estate is better or worse or rather not so good Whilest Faith habitual remains rooted in 〈◊〉 heart they are virtually justified When it 's actual their Justification actual will follow When their Faith is lively and continues to act vigorously their estate is so much the more comfortable In this continuance of Rewards the same Rewards formerly given there is required a continuance of the grace of God's Spirit abiding in them to enable them to Duty and observance of his Laws and according to the continuance of this grace a continuance of performances without both which there can be no continuance of Rewards The grace of God is so continued that it doth not prevent all sin and disobedience and therefore we are not free from all punishments Yet as we contract new guilt every day so every day we should renew our Repentance and Faith and so present our selves before the Tribunal of this Heavenly Judge and sue for Pardon in the Name of Christ and suffer no guilt to lye long upon us And as this Court is continually open to dispense Rewards so it is to punish and chastise according as our deserts shall be If our sins shall be greater and our neglect of our renewing our Repentance and Faith longer the greater punishments both of loss and pain shall be as was evident in David This state of Conversion § VIII and Justification may be considered as continued in this Life or after Death until the Resurrection And it 's a continuance of it in the several Branches of Justification as in the continuance of Regeneration Reconciliation Adoption Regeneration which is commonly called Sanctification as continued is the first For that which they call Sanctification which follows Justification is the continuance of the first Regeneration which is a Bâ—anch of Juâ—â—ification and a removing of that great Penalty of loss of the sanctifying Spirit and the woful immediate consequent thereof as Blindness Perversness and the Dominion of Sin from which issue all Actual Transgressions which would multiply to a great number and rise to a higher degree of Malignancy if God by Reâ—â—raint or Renovation did not prevent both To understand this Sanctification continued the better we must distinguish of it as Active and Passive As Active it's an act of God sanctifying us Passive it 's those gifts and graces of the Spirit whereby we are enabled to avoid sin and obey God For though this be an active Power yet in respect of God giving it and us receiving it it may be called Passive though properly it be an effect of God the cause and a cause of an obedience following The active Sanctification is 1 The acting of the Spirit to prepare us convert us work Faith in us and by Faith unite us unto Christ. For all these may be called Acts of Sanctification in a large sense yet in Scripture they are called Vocation whereby God through the power of the Spirit accompanying the Word doth convert us and bring us to Christ. 2 This Sanctification active