with them and sit at meat in the house v. 30. so that this seeing him again and especially because he should go away must needs be meant of that sight they had on Pentecost day Act. 2.11 17. of the comforting Spirit that shewed them plainly of the Father John 16.25 and of him therefore ch 14.9 and that except Christs body went away was not to come ch 16.7 Then the other Comforter that dwelt at that time with them being to abide and stay with them for ever after ch 14.16 this seeing of Christ again ought not to be understood of the short transitory abode which he made with them between his resurrection and his ascension to God specially he being not yet another Comforter for he was not glorified with the glory which he had when he vivified all things John 17.5 Heb. 1.2 until some days afterwards which it was necessary a Comforter that is one that gives life strength and virtue and refreshment to all things note Christ is the living bread see John 6.51 should have John 16.7 and so he was still but the same that dwelt with them before he was crucified Moreover I will give to him that overcometh saith he that is alive for ever Rev. 2.28 the morning Star or the light of the Spirit arising in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 and he is the morning Star himself ch 22.16 20. and cometh quickly to his Bride the Soul of man which was void of her own form to wit the Image of God to impregnate or inform and make her conceive and breed and bring forth the Son of man who is the Image of God Heb. 1.3 and is formed within us Gal. 4.19 being by the Holy Ghost conceived then born of the Virgin a pure and chast Soul thus Christ being himself and effecting now himself what was at the creation of man done by the Holy Spirit breathed into man Gen. 1.27 2.7 whence Christ calls the works and fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 his own works Rev. 2.26 and thereby making himself the same with the Holy Ghost What Peter confirms saying Act. 3.19 20. when the times of refreshing shall come from the Lords presence and he sends you Jesus Christ understand to refresh them or to be their comforter In fine if we do allow that it is no robbery in the only Son of God to make himself equal with God Philip. 2.6 who is a Spirit John 4.24 we cannot without robbing him of his Divinity Coloss 1.19 2.9 and his Spiritual nature John 3.34 say that he is not the same and have a different notion and knowledge of him than of the Holy Spirit specially since he sits now on the right hand of power in the Majesty on high or is glorified again with the glory which he had with God before the World was John 17.5 and before he took the Seed of Abraham upon him As the Father hath sent me and in the same manner as I live by the Father which is done spritually so he that will live by me must eat me and receive me Heaven the heavenly Souls and not the material Heavens that shall pass away and that cannot contain him 1 Kings 8.27 is that which must receive him and where he dwels like the Sun in and through the Vegetables and the Soul in and through all the members of the body until the time that all things shall be restored again into the glorious freedom that they had before they fell under the bondage and the curse of corruption Act. 3.21 Rom. 8.21 How absurd it is to think that the Son of any man or any thing born of flesh and bloud as Christs body was John 1.14 can sit in that Majesty which belongs to God alone as Christ doth Heb. 1.3 when flesh and bloud doth not so much as come in that glory 1 Cor. 15.50 far from sitting therein in the highest place And to know after the flesh him that saves us from the flesh obtaining us eternal redemption from the body Heb. 9.12 Rom. 8.23 7.24 when we must not henceforth know him so 2 Cor. 5.16 And to worship the Image of the Father of all Spirits in the flesh John 4.24 when he is no more to be by us dealt with in the flesh John 20.17 and saith that the flesh of man otherwise his humane flesh profiteth nothing to man John 6.63 but his own true flesh and bloud which he had ab aeterno and came down in tempore from his stillness and rest his Heaven to be the bread of life unto all the World v. 51. and which is the Holy Ghost whereby he that eats the same shall live how even as Christ himself lives by the Father v. 57. which cannot be by eating and drinking of flesh and bloud and much less by transmuting his flesh in bread to eat it for bread is eaten only by the flesh and quickneth but the fleshly body alone v. 63. By transmuting I say of flesh and bloud into bread and not of bread into flesh as some who heaping non-sence upon their deep ignorance of God do by the excess of blind zeal which usually men have for idolatry most blasphemously and ridiculously hold Rom. 1.22 23 25 28. for as long as we neither see smell nor taste any flesh but still bread as well after as before the pretended miracle of transmutation it cannot be a change of bread into flesh but of flesh into that which remains bread if so be that a change of substances were effected as nothing but their bare word appears for the proof of it for the Scripture though this thing deserves better than many others to be observed takes not the least notice and makes no mention of it Secondly they cannot shew a necessity for it but rather contrariwise for what reason is there that our flesh which is death Rom. 8.6 and can never be saved 1 Cor. 15.50 and even must he destroyed 1 Cor. 6.13 and that maketh imperfect Gal. 3.3 and therefore cannot be made perfect John 17.23 1 Cor. 13.10 that is very good as man when first created Gen. 1.31 should be fed and nourished with what gives eternal life the flesh and the bloud of Christ and that this should be therefore turned into common bread for our flesh to feed on And thirdly no body yet having ever seen any flesh and bloud to become bread and that the Communion-bread was once flesh and bloud before this strange transubstantiation the miracle pretended to do it is invisible and if it be invisible it is therefore no miracle for all miracles are wrought to be seen that God may shew his power and that his name may be declared thereby among men throughout the Earth Exod. 9.16 John 9.3 and before the water was turned into bloud or wine Lots wife in Salt c. the water was by some tasted and seen and the flesh of the body of Lots wife was seen and felt Brother art thou not a fool to stand for that which is both
nonsensical and to no purpose contrived without reason or necessity nay repugnant to the end it was instituted for viz. the breaking of the flesh 1 Cor. 11.26 and the communicating to Christs spiritual body ch 10.16 which is done in becoming spiritual men our selves and a very wicked fool to persecute another because he will not be as great a fool as thy self I say that he who eats of this flesh shall live by it and shall by this flesh and bloud the power of our Christ and from on high Luk. 24.49 Act. 1.8 be quickned and so strengthned that he shall overcome the accuser or Tempter that tempted Eve Rev. 12.11 I mean shall bruise the head of the flesh that creeps and makes our Souls to creep with it Gen. 3.15 like Serpents v. 14. to cleave unto this vile Earth Psal 119.25 and to sink down from God into Hell it self Philip he that hath seen me hath seen the Father also John 14.7 9. for the Son is his express Image and represents him Heb. 1.3 John 1.18 And can therefore the Son of the invisible God who is a Spirit saith he that Son who dwells in the light no man can approach unto 1 Tim. 6.16 in the bosom in the throne of the most infinite God John 1.18 Rev. 3.21 be like unto flesh and bloud and sit there and come therence Rev. 3.20 to make us sit there also in the same bodily shape he lived with in the flesh what and if you shall see the Son of man ascend up saith he John 6.62 where he was before how can you then think he shall have flesh and bloud about him since when he was there before he had neither flesh and bloud nor humane shape and body John 5.37 Deut. 4.12 how can the flesh and bloud I had then about me which is not my flesh and bloud John 8.23 but the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 which I took upon Earth in the womb of one of his daughters that I might dye therein to deliver you from it v. 14 15. Rom. 8.6 be the true bread from heaven and the meat and drink indeed that makes you live for ever John 6.32 33 38 41 50 54 55 58. Truly if I had still a body of flesh and bloud I could not quicken you and the words that I speak being Spirit v. 63. how can you take them in a carnal sence but if you understood them and knew me saw my glory John 17.24 whereof that in Mat. 17.2 was but a very weak beam that body of flesh and bloud which you so much doat upon would vanish out of your sight Luk. 24.31 Heb. 10.20 2 Cor. 3.14 and then you would understand that I am risen indeed Luk. 24.34 from such body of death Rom. 7.24 and by rising from it or being no more in it made the fitter author of your eternal salvation Heb. 5.9 that is more able to help you and fitter to strengthen you John 16.7 both against the said body and him that tempts you by it 2 Cor. 5.1 4 6. by the power I have in rising unto glory obtain'd of an endless life Heb. 2.18 7.16 whereby you may rule over the tumultuous Nations the lusts that war in your flesh and come out of their bondage into the glorious freedom of the Sons of God v. 15. Rev. 2.26 27. which is rising from the dead and entring in the kingdom of God or your Salvation O you house of Israel both Jews and all Christian Sects come on now for the time past ought to have sufficed you open your eyes and at last walk in the light of the Lord Isa 2.5 Ephes 5.8 sit no longer in darkness and in your shadow of death otherwise under the thick umbraculum which your flesh darkneth and deads your Souls with learn to know me in Spirit and in truth according to mine own essence and nature and look no more upon me as your Antecessors John 6.42 and as the Mahometans and even as you your selves have done and do to this hour John 14.7 for the Jews look for nothing but worldly and temporal blessings for their flesh from Christ to wit to live in plenty glory and prosperity in this life under his reign as when Solomon reigned 1 Kings 4.20 21 24 25. taking accordingly what the Prophets say of the Spiritual kingdom of the Messiah literally as Isa 55.10 and therefore they thought of a visible appearance of Gods kingdom in the days of Christ Luk. 17.20 19.11 And the Turks expect to have all fleshly lusts satisfied by the mediation of their Prophet Mahomet when he comes with God say they to save his true Musulmans or them that truly believe in him and to judge the World So that Christians believing that they shall be one day saved with their flesh and bloud 2 Cor. 5.6 that their Salvation was once performed and perfected in the flesh by Christ as man by his becoming a man and by dying in the flesh when by his incarnation and death without ascending and coming in the Spirit there is no body saved John 3.5 13. 16.7 and that the second coming of Christ will be seen of all appear with observation to the eyes of all the World Luk. 17.20 look on him with the same eyes and in the same manner as both the Jews and the Turks have no higher thoughts of his kingdom than the others have know him still as the man of sorrows humiliated not as sitting from the time of his humiliation on the right hand of power and coming with great glory though he tells them so himself Mat. 26.64 Mark 14.62 and concurring thus with them in a temporal worldly and carnal knowledge of him they do not only bring back his Spiritual knowledge and worship introduced by him and the Apostles to the old bodily and ceremonial worship of God in the Jewish Church but even to a creature worship Rom. 1.25 23. and like the Heathen changing the truth of their God into that which he is not the shape or Image of man they set up an Idol made like unto flesh and bloud the fleshly conceits of him in the holy place their heart thus instead of knowing God as a Spirit in Spirit destroying his Spiritual knowledge and establishing a knowledge after the flesh and also per consequent a worship accordingly a down-right idolatry for Lux intelligendi being in mankind the Lex volendi agendi man willeth and acteth but according to his knowledge worships God as he knows him quia ignoti boni nulla cupido lusts for no more than that which he conceives and knows of him to wit a bodily temporal and carnal good and so continues to be such as he was at his birth that is carnally minded and this carnal mind being enmity against his God Rom. 8.7 Jam. 4.4 man in revolting to it or siding with that party which is in war against God he commits adultery that is falshood against God Luk. 16.13 18. with the great whore worldly
death v. 5. And indeed it were better for false teachers to be hang'd or cast into the Sea with a stone tyed to their neck Luk. 17.1 than they should give such offence as that the Vicar's Sermon hath given to many men for when at the Judgment day one shall accuse the other that he hath caused him to erre and curse him for the evil doings he hath committed this shall then excuse himself upon his next Superiour and the Superiour upon the Supreme Authority and the Supreme Power upon his false Counsellors who having no other plea shall cast the fault of all these upon their wicked Teachers who have kept them in darkness and instead of reproving their courses to bring them to a righteous and godly life have for some Preferments sake soothed them up in their sins then shall the bloud of all these be required at their hands Ezek. 33.6 Deut. 27.18 and this great burthen shall lay so heavy on their shoulders that it were better for them to have been cut off betimes than to have lived to give the least of those that shall thus complain cause of offences And in further evidence that signs are not to convince the gainsayers of the Faith we do not find any where in Scripture that any man who was not before-hand prepared and enclined like the Proconsul Sergius Act. 13.7 was convinced thereupon for as for them which John saith 2.23 believed in the name of Christ seeing the miracle which he had done in Cana it appears from what he saith in the following verses 24,25 of Christ not thinking it fit to commit himself to them knowing what faith was in them that their faith was such as that of Simon who believed and wondred Act. 13.41 beholding the mirarles which were done ch 8.13 but believed not like them v. 12. who it is said believed at the preaching of Philip v. 17. for his heart was saith Peter v. 21 23. not right in the sight of God and he was still in the dark austere and anxious source or the gall of bitterness far from a true faith in Christ that brings man off of that state And such as that of the people of Lystra and of Derbe who after they had seen the impotent man cured and taken Paul for a God on the account of this sign ch 14.11 13. stoned him nevertheless v. 19. what no man would do that hath the least grain of Faith in him so though the Barbarians of Maltha said that St. Paul was a God ch 28.6 honoured him and loaded him and the men with him with necessaries v. 10. yet there is not one word said of any that believed at the several great things which he did there before them v. 5 8 9. But without this it is sure that Christ coming to save man salva integra humana creatura as St. Peter witnesseth and as the words of Christ in Luk. 9.56 may be expounded and he saves by reforming and restoring men unto their first state of perfection for it being very good Gen. 1.31 he needs not add or change it he must use some other means than Miracles to convince them for though a man could believe the words of Christ to be true because he should have seen him do some wonders and Miracles yet not understanding the ground and reason thereof his faith were but implicite he were not yet convinced and should still be in the dark and an imperfect humane creature Coloss 3.10 which if saved such were not saved entire and therefore whilst man is such Christ doth not take him hoodwink into his kingdom of Light but first the humane creature consisting chiefly of these three Essential faculties Intellectus Voluntas Animus seu vires potestas agendi and the perfect state wisdom or summum bonum thereof of these three well rectified God works to make man perfect upon his understanding 1 John 5.20 enlightning his mind by his Spirit and prompting him with reasons fit to convince him and to make him know himself that is find out and perceive that it is as he teacheth and that he speaks true indeed John 4.42 Then when the understanding is perfectly reformed man mistakes no more bonum apparens for the true good but apprehends wherein his summum bonum doth consist and Lux intelligendi being the most perfect Law volendi agendi as soon as he perceives this he will naturally bend his will and desire towards the same and chuse it and that done with all the strength of his courage and virtue which without the help of the power from on high that doth enable him is quite helpless he will avoid and abstain from that which keeps him from it Act. 3.26 and follow embrace and use all the means to compass it and thus may become perfect and come to be saved whole or received entirely reformed to his first state whilst others see and wonder Act. 13.41 and are left Luk. 17.36 37. in a broken and imperfect condition though Christ should have wrought all his Miracles before them John 12.37 Truly if blessed are they that have not seen yet believe John 21.29 because intelligere being ipsum credere and there being no belief of what is not understood they that believe things without seeing them done before-hand shew that they understand the possibility thereof and have more understanding and therefore are more blessed than those that must see the same before they can believe them they that would see some Miracles wrought before they believe will remain under the curse of God and in unbelief And from these things I think it is clear and manifest that Miracles convince no man and that there is no need of visible and outward signs for the conversion of the gainsayers and unfaithful but of the sign of the Son of man the Light of his Star coming imperceptibly and shining like the Lightning Mat. 24.27 in those dark clouds of heaven v. 30. And certainly if Miracles were as the Vicar saith the reason of conviction and if there was great reason that such as were the instruments of so great an undertaking in the first Age of the Church before the Gospel was a National Religion and whilst many gainsayers were yet to be convinced should have a proportionable strength of faith to do it with there is now in its old Age as great a need of Miracles and of as great strength of Faith and Spirit as there was then First on the account of the gainsayers of all parties not only Turks and Papists who are fallen from the Faith and from the purity of Christ's Gospel and Doctrine and are by reason of the prejudice they have therefore against the true followers and teachers of a Doctrine which they have departed from harder to be convinced and to be brought back again to the obedience of it but Protestants who deny the same whilst they profess it Secondly on the account of the self-conceited blindness of all Christian Sects