some Hundreds of Years all this Western World was Popish Italy Spain France England Germany and no Religion visible in all these Countries but Popery The Name of Protestant not owned the Protestant Religion not to be seen And where was then your Religion say the Papists to us To whom to give a full Answer let us compound these three or four things together We must tell them or else we speak not as the Truth is that the Popish Religion was far from being the true Religion and the Popish Church from being the true Church all that time or from ever being so I shall not insist upon many Arguments to prove this I shall only give you one Argument from a Scriptural Reason and one Consideration of a Scriptural Expression The Argument from a Scriptural Reason is this That Church that is built more on Traditions and Doctrines of Men than on the Word of God is no true Church nor Religion But the Church of Rome is built more upon Traditions and Doctrines of Men than on the VVord of God Ergo. The Foundation of the true Church of God is Scripture Eph. ii 20 And are built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets But if you look upon what the whole Frame of Popery is built you will find it upon a Sand of Humane Tradition That the Pope is Head of the Church that he pardons Sin rules over Princes where find you this in Scripture They are but Points of the cursed Inventions of Men. That Priests can sing Souls out of Purgatory that the Service of God should be in an unknown Tongue that the Priests can change the Bread into a God and generally the whole Rabble of their Romish Religion hath not so much as any one underpinning of Scripture Warrant but all founded upon the rotten Trash of Humane Invention and Self-ends The Scriptural Expression to be considered is that Title of Rome Rev. xvii 5 MYSTERY Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth For that it speaks of Rome is plain ver 18. The Woman which thou sawest is the great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth And described even as the Roman Writers themselves do describe her ver 9. The Seven Heads are Seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth She is stiled Mystery Babylon She was a Mystery of Iniquity Babylon while she takes upon her Sion Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth when she takes upon her to be Mother of all Churches and the only Spouse of Christ in the World A Jezabel as Rev. ii 20 that takes on her to be a Prophetess but is a Seducer And Mysterious is the Providence of God in permitting such a Deceiver that should seduce all the Western World with a general Seduction It is observed that Popery and Mahometism rose together one overwhelmed all the East the other the West Where had been Glorious Churches there this Smoke of the Bottomless Pit clouded and darkened all And it is observable that wheresoever the Gospel had been these two came and spoiled all And Popery the more abominable than the other because under the Name of Christ and the Gospel it led Men from Christ and the Gospel We may say upon Thoughts of both as it is Rev. xvi 5 Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus Because they received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved it was just with thee Righteous God to send them strong Delusions that they might believe a Lie That they all might be damned that believed not the Truth but had Pleasure in Unrighteousness 2 Thess. ii 10 11 12. So that to question where was the Church of God before Luther we must answer 1. That the Roman Church was not it for that was but Babylon the Mystery of Iniquity the Plague of God upon the World for not receiving the Love of Divine Truth 2. Wheresoever there were any in that time that kept to the Truth of God they were the Church of God Ubi Imperator ibi Roma So wheresoever the true Profession of the Truth was there the Church was Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them The Seven Thousand that worshipped not Baal were the true Church I shall not insist to shew that even in the thickest and darkest Times of Popery there were other Churches in the World that were not infected with that Plague as the Grecians Abyssines c. But even Stories do shew that even within the Compass of the Popish Church there were some in all Ages that held to the Truth of God and Abominated the Wickedness and Delusions of the Church But if any such could not be named yet God never left himself without Witness and it hath ever been the Glorious Providence of God to preserve a Noah in a wicked old World a Lot in Sodom an Abraham in an Idolatrous Chaldea a Job in Heathen Arabia and a Jeremy in a most wicked Jerusalem a Church to himself in the worst Times But observe that the Church of God is the least part of the World and so the least part of the visible Church We must distinguish the Church in Opposition to the World and in Opposition to Hypocrites and carnal Gospellers So the Scripture nameth Saints in Opposition to the Heathen and in Opposition to unholy Christians Now take the Word in this latter Sense which is the most proper and the true Church of God is the least part of the Church I deny not that the Church of England Scotland and Ireland is a true Church of God in regard of outward Profession But there are Multitudes in these that are not the true Church in regard of sincere Profession but profane Hypocrites Castaways Imagine a great Parish or Congregation that meet together and in the Church hear and wait on the Ordinances and have the Word and Ordinances truly administred They attend upon them in outward Attendance but out of the Church are Profane and Ungodly We cannot but say here is a Church in Opposition to the Heathen a true Church in Opposition to a false where the Ordinances are not rightly administred Yet we cannot say this is a true and sincere Church of God because they do but outwardly profess and not at all Practice So Israel professed went to the Temple Es. i. had Ordinances rightly administred This was a true Church so far But they lied sware falsely committed Adultery oppressed the Innocent and such like Can we then say they were a true Church of God See that Eph. v. 25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word That he might present it to himself a Glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be Holy and without Blemish Let us take up all these
Bondage of Corruption in-the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God AMong the Children of Men there are some Children of God These Words speak something concerning them and their Condition The Prophets speak much of Multitudes to be brought in to be Sons of God Esay xliii 6 I will say to the North give up and to the South keep not back Bring my SONS from far and my DAUGHTERS from the ends of the Earth And Ch xlv 11 Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his Maker ask me of things to come concerning my SONS Hos. i. 10 And it shall come to pass that in the Place where it was said unto them Ye are not my People there it shall be said unto them Ye are the SONS of the living God And Caiaâ—has that prophesied but once John xi 51 Propâ—â—sied that Jesus should die for that Nation And not for that Nation only but that also he should gather together iâ—to one the CHILDREN of God that were scattered abroad Therefore the Holy Ghost in the New Testament sets himself to speak to this thing and to shew who these Sons of God are John i. 12 13. shews who are and who are not But as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God As many as received him those were Sons of what Nation Quality or Rank whatsoever Not born of Blood nor of the Will of Man The Holy Ghost sets the Regeneration in Opposition to natural Generation In natural Generation Men are born of Blood and of the Will of Man but 't is not so in this Or else he sets the true Begetting and Birth of the Sons of God in Opposition to those fancied Ways the Jews thought Men were made Children of the Godly They concluded none were Children but of Israel And if they came to be of Israel then undoubtedly Children So Christ speaks according to their Sense It is not meet to take the Children 's Bread and cast it before Dogs And the Apostle confutes this Arrogant and Erroneous Opinion Rom ix 7 Neither because they are the Seed of Abraham are they all Children but in Isaac shall thy Seed be called that is they which are the Children of the Flesh these are not the Children of God Now they thought they became the Sons of God or Israelites these Ways I. By being born of Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bloods that is long Descent of Blood of Ancestors even to Abraham or by Bloods of Sacrifice and Circumcision II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Will of the Flesh As they took many Wives and desired many Children accounting all Children of Promise III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Will of Man as the Consessus or Sanhedrin did bring in Proselites and make them Israelites Not this nor that nor that makes a Son but he that is born of God and he is so that receives Christ and believes on his Name The Apostle is speaking of the same Subject in this Chapter ver 14 15 17. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God For ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father And if Children then Heirs c. And then he comes on to shew whence these Sons especially should come ver 19. The earnest Expectation of the Creature waiteth for the Manifestation of the Sons of God c. By Creature here and whole Creation ver 22. is meant nothing but the Gentiles or Heathen World A Phrase among the Jews ordinarily put so to signifie Mark xvi 15 Col. i. 23 Now this whole Passage is to this Purpose God had prophesied of Sons to come from the Heathen and the earnest Expectation of the Creature that is of the Heathen waited for this Manifestation of the Sons of God Two or three things there were that might awaken the Heathen World a little to consider of their wretched Case 1. It may be they had the Greek Bible 2. Howsoever the Jews scattered abroad among them might something convince them of their Condition 3. We may conceive that against their Call God had stirred up their Hearts by way of Preparative to be weary of Idolatry and groping in Darkness As against the Reformation by Luther all Christendom desired some Reformation and as against the Coming of Christ the People were in Expectation of the Messias Observe that John iv 35 Lift up your Eyes and look on the Fields for they are white already to Harvest By which Words he hinteth at that Multitude of Samaritans and under them of Heathen that were ready to be reaped by the Gospel So the Earnest Expectation of the Heathen World waited now for the Manifestation of the Sons of God Ver. 20. For the Creature was made subject to Vanity c. Not a few understand this of the Frame of the World made subject to Vanity by Sin But the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vanity means Vanity of Mind So Rom. i. 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gentiles become vain in their Imaginations Eph. iv 17 The Gentiles walk in the Vanity of their Mind So the meaning is that the Heathen were given up to the Vanity and Folly of their own Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Made subject put under such a Condition by the just Judgment of God as the Apostle handles it Chap. i. But they are put under in Hope that in time it should be better with them For the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption c. By Corruption is signified here as generally in Scripture sinful Corruption not natural Corruptibility or fading away 2 Pet. i. 4 Having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust. And Ch. ii 19 Servants of Corruption And elsewhere evil Men are stiled Men of corrupt Minds and corrupt Communication Meaning that the Gentiles shall be delivered from their sadly sinful Condition into the Evangelical and Spiritual Liberty from Sin that the Sons of God partake of Some understand it of the Change of the Frame of the World at the end of the VVorld and think Peter speaks of the same thing 2 Pet. iii. 13 He does indeed in some Sense but far from theirs viz. A new State of Affairs in the Church when the Gentiles shall be called This is the new Heaven and the new Earth that they looked for of their Calling the Text speaks which was now in Agitation And of that let us first speak a little partly for the observing of Providence in so great a VVork and partly for the understanding of some Passages in Scripture I. The casting off of the Gentiles was at Babel Gen. xi where there were four Punishments inflicted on them 1. Destroying their Building
Wilfulness to have their own Will contrary to the Will of God 2. Now in what particulars this their Wilfulness centered and what it was in which they would have their own Minds contrary to the Mind of God may be the better conjectured by tracing them a little from their Creation to their Fall They were Created as is most probable at the very first bâ—ginning of the Works of God when he laid the Foundation of the Earth the very first instant of the Creation Moses indeed does not mention their Creation at all because he would treat only of things Visible The Great Book of Nature and the Letters of that Book which Men see and from them read the Invisible things of God His Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. i. 20 Upon their first Creation they break into Singing and Praising God upon the Sight of the Glory of him that Created them upon the Sense of the Gloriousness in which themselves were created and upon Observation of the Infinite Power of the the Creator From that first instant they were Spectators of God's proceeding in the Six Days Creation They see him make the Firmament and the Sun Moon and Stars of Heaven They see him command the Waters that covered the Earth into their Bounds and Channels and they Obey him They see him lay the Earth dry and plant it with all manner of Trees and Vegetables and Beasts They see the whole Progress of the Creation and Sing and Praise and Shout for Joy all along For no cause why they should rebel hitherto can be imagined But at last and the last of his Creation God makes Man in his own Image in as Happy a Condition as an Earthly Creature could be capable of He makes him Lord of all the Creatures Nay he chargeth the Angels themselves to attend upon him and to be Ministring Spirits to him for his good As the Apostle tells us their Charge and Employment Heb. i. ult This some of them embraced with all willingness of Mind partly out of most ready Obedience to God for whom they saw they could never do too much who had done so much for them and partly out of pure love to Man whom they saw God had made their Brother having stamped him with his own Image as well as themselves Now as to the others that fell what can we imagine to have been the reason of their Fall more probably and properly than that they envied this Honour and Dignity of Adam and scorned to obey the Command and Charge that God had laid upon them to attend upon him What Must a Piece of Clay be so Honoured as to be Lord of the whole Creation Must a lump of Earth be waited on by Angels And he that is but Dust and Ashes must he be attended on by such Morning Stars the Attendents of Heaven No they scorn this Service They account themselves too good to do it It is a business below their Dignity And so for this Malice against Man and his Honour and their Pride against God and his Command from Angels they become Devils and from Heaven they are cast into Hell and Reserved there in Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the last Day For a more proper Reason and Means of their Fall I suppose can hardly be given And their continual Malice and Hate to Mankind doth very much confirm it And I believe Eliphaz Job v. 2 doth speak something home to it He had said Ch. iv 18 That God put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with Folly Much less might he put trust in poor Man that dwelleth in a House of Clay c. And then he comes on and says Call now if there be any that will answer thee And to which of the Saints wilt thou look For Wrath Killeth the Foolish and Envy Slayeth the Silly one The Papists would fain wrest this passage to prove the Invocation of Saints Departed because there is mention made of Calling and Looking to the Saints But the meaning of the Holy Man looks clean another way viz. to this Tenour Call and look about to all the Saints and Holy Ones whatsoever And where can you find any that God may put trust in For Wrath killeth the Foolish and Envy slayeth the Silly One. Wrath against God and Envy against Man Killed the Foolish and Silly Angels So that God did justly charge them with Folly And very justly indeed take Folly in its most common acceptation And let this that we have mentioned be their Sin and Fall or be it something else as some other Reasons are given they were Fools to purpose to forsake Heaven when they might have kept there To leave their own Habitation saith the Apostle Jude and might have inhabited there still To be in so Blessed Company God and Holy Angels and would forsake it In so Blessed Employment as Praising and Singing and would leave it off In the Blessed Presence of God in his Favour in his Enjoyment and weary of these things Have I been a Wilderness to Israel saith God and a Land of Darkness Is Heaven become a Wilderness a Land of Weariness and Tyring that they that are there should be weary of it What could be in these Creatures Minds to make them so Mad and Desperate so Foolish and Besotted The Raze-brain'd Prodigal to forsake his Father's House where it was so well with him and to go to wander he knew not whither Had he been asked a Reason why he would do so he could have given no better than this Because I will do so And these could be moved by no other Reason than this unreasonable one they were desperately bent to have their own Will though to the defiance of the Will of God Be that their Sin that we have spoken of or be it what else it will it was without all doubting their crossing of the Will of God to have their own Wills and violating some of his Commands upon some wilful bent to have their own Mind It was not Ignorance of what he would have them to do For they knew his Will as well as those Angels that stood in Obedience but they would not do what he would have them It was not of Weakness or Disability to do what he would have them for there is no Reason to think otherwise but that they had the same ability of Obedience that the other had But it was a desperate Wilfulness and a sturdy Resolvedness to have their own Wills let the Will of God be what it will Had one been there to have questioned these Rebels when they first set upon their Rebellion what do you think to do Do you think to better your Estates by crossing him that set you in your happy Estate Or do you think to cross God that made you and he not to meet with you Or do you think your Malice to Adam will any whit abate God's Favour to him Well be it what it will in event we will take
our own Course and have our own Will And this desperate Wilfulness was the Cursed Stumbling-Block that they laid in their own Heart at which they stumbled and fell and were ruined and must never rise more II. Hitherto we have seen these Angels Sinning and Rebelling against God Now let us see them Punished and Rewarded as they deserved God spared them not but cast them down into Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment It is Related in the Story of the Witch of Endor that when she saw Samuel appear in his Mantle she cried out for fear And her reason was Because I see saith she Gods Ascending out of the Earth Are Gods arising out of the Earth such a terror to Her What terror may Devils falling from Heaven be to Men Satan like Lightning falling thence and his Angels with him Thousands and Ten Thousands a Number numberless Such another passage is Rev. xii 9 and forwards The Dragon the Old Serpent the Devil is cast ouâ— of Heaven to the Earth and his Angels with him and this Voice follows them Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth because the Devil is come down among you having great Wrath. And it hath been VVo to the Earth ever since he came down upon it Their Punishment you see is expressed in several Particulars and all Dreadful The first Word God spared them not is the General which includes all the rest of the Particulars and which may give a reason of all the rest VVhy did God cast them into Hell Because he would not Spare them VVhy did he deliver them into Chains of Darkness Because he would not Spare them And upon the same reason he reserves them to Judgment because he will not Spare them The Expression he spared them not is like the Trumpet and Voices of Sinai from lower and milder growing louder and louder and becomes as a Thunder-clap out of which came all the Thunder-Bolts following viz. That they were cast into Hell into Chains because God spared them not 1. It signifies in its mildest and lowest Sense and Degree that he let them not go unpunished tho' they were what they were Though Angels though in Heaven though Attendants upon him and so nearly related to him yet he suffered them not to escape Scot-free He spared them not from Punishment when they Sinned But 2. The signification of the Expression riseth higher and it means not only that he would not let them go unpunished but that he punisht them home sorely and severely And so you have the Expression signifying in several other Places Deut. xxix 19 20. The Man that saith I shall have Peace though I walk after the imagination of mine own Heart the Lord will not SPARE him VVhere the meaning is not only the Lord will not let him go free and unpunished but the punishment of the Lord shall light sore upon him as it follows in the next VVords But the Anger of the Lord and his Jealousie shall Smoke against that Man and all the Curses c. Job xvi 13 His Archers compass me round about he cleaveth my Reins in sunder and doth not SPARE His meaning is not only he lets me not be in quiet but he pays me home with sad Affliction Esa. xxx 14 He shall break it as the breaking of a Potter's Vessel which is broken all to pieces He shall not SPARE And so in our common Language when we incite any one to vex or beat another Oh! spare him not Which in our Meaning is not only Let him not go free but lay on Load and pay him home And so we may very well understand nay indeed we cannot but understand the Expression herâ— He spared not the Angels that sinned that is he let thâ—m not escape tho' they were Angels but paid them home with severe Indignation for he cast them down into Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness c. The first Lash that God's Severity whipt them with is not expressed in plain Terms but included in the Terms that follow There is no mention of his casting them out of Heaven and yet that is plainly enough intimated when 't is said He cast them into Hell And there is no mention how speedily this was done and yet the Quickness of the Words intimates and all reason confirms the Quickness of the thing They sinned and he spared not but instantly cast them out of Heaven into Hell For would God suffer such abominable ones to dwell any more with him They sinned in Heaven but Heaven was no Place to hold Sin and Sinners It is a Country where no Venemous thing can live and subsist and when they are Sinners they must be there no more The Case minds me of King Uzziah's Case when he was struck Leprous in the Temple the Text tells us that the Priests thrust him out yea that he himself hasted to go out For they knew and he knew very well that the Temple was too clean and holy a Place to hold Leprosie and a Lepeâ— Heaven cannot hold a Sinner no not a Moment But as soon as ever even the Angels are become Sinners away with them there is no staying for them there Nay could Heaven have been Heaven to them if it might be supposed they might have stayed there where they could see God only angry and frowning on them and the Angels that stood loathing them and abhorring their Company There they could see nothing that could be pleasing and contentive to them when God and the Holy Angels were become their Enemies and they had lost their Interest in them both and they had lost their own Purity and Glory It was time for them to pack out of Heaven even of themselves when now it was become another kind of thing than Heaven to them But God packs them out and when they had forfeited Heaven the Severity of the Lord takes the Forfeiture and away with them out of Heaven Israel in the Psalm despised the pleasant Land and therefore God excluded them for ever coming there These Rebels despised that which the pleasant Land signified and therefore they must be hurled thence that they be no longer there It is the Opinion of some that there were so many of these Angels that fell that their Number equalled the Number of all the Men Women and Children that must be saved And that God elected so many for Salvation to supply and fill up the room of these Angels that had lost Salvation Not to insist upon the just Number it is without all question that it was a vast Number of them that fell And do but imagine you saw such an infinite Company of Morning Stars not so much falling from Heaven as thrown from Heaven and not lighting upon Fountains and Rivers of Water as the Star Wormwood doth in the Revelations but lighting in Hell and Chains of Darkness And the very Imagination may reasonably read to you the dreadful Signification of the Expression God
WERE and cannot Now we are So in this Case God be thanked that ye were the Servants of Sin that it may be said Ye were but that now ye are not But II. Since there is mention of Servants take a Parallel viz. an Israelite saying thus God be thanked that ye were Bondmen in Egypt His meaning is especially to thank God for their Delivery out of Egypt and what accrued to them upon their being Bondmen there They had never seen so great Wonders never seen so great Deliverance had they not been Bondmen And he thanks not God barely for their Bondage but for the Good and Mercy that followed it So God be thanked that ye were the Servants of Sin Else ye had never known the Riches of the Grace of God else ye had never come to prize the Infiniteness of his Mercy in your Deliverance Ye had never been so careful to be Servants of Righteousness but that ye have known what Slavery it is to be Servants of Sin So that he gives not God Thanks barely for their Slavery to Sin but especially for what was come to pass with them upon their Sinfulness He would not say to any upon Earth God be thanked that ye ARE so sinful but he says God be thanked that ye VVERE and are not That God made your great Sinfulness his Opportunity to shew you Mercy X. The Papists the Millenaries and the Traditionary Jews confuted from that Place Whom the Heavens must contain until the Times of Restitution of all things c. Act. iii. 21 HE shall send Jesus Christ to you Act. iii. 20 And yet the Heavens must contain him A Paradox unless Christ could be in many Places at once VVhich the Papists would fain justifie that they may have his Body in every Sacrament And yet there is a great Truth in this Paradox if we distinguish 'twixt the very Person of Christ and the Influence that proceeds from him As God dwelleth in the highest Heaven and yet dwelleth in an humble Heart As the Sun is in the Firmament and yet the Sun in his Influence is on the Earth also So Christ in his Body and Person is in Heaven and the Heaven must contain him till the Restitution of all things and yet Christ is among Men in the Vertue of his VVord and Influence of his Spirit As the Prince is on his Throne and yet the Diffusion of his Power Justice Clemency is thro' his whole Kingdom The Presence of Christ is everywhere as he is God and his VVord and Spirit everywhere where he pleaseth to send them But that the BODY of Christ should be everywhere is utterly against all Philosophy Divinity Scripture and the Nature of a Body And the Doctrine that Christ's very Body is received by every one that receiveth the Sacrament is clean against all these and against the very Nature of a Sacrament But the thing is not worth insisting on tho' an Argument is commonly taken hence to confute that Doctrine Restitution This is a VVord of Difficulty and requires some Resolution and which being resolved will help the better to understand the rest of the Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Restitution or Restoring of all things Times of Restoring of all things Restitution To what To their old Estate Or to a new and a better Estate This Expression breeds the main Difficulty in this Place And this encourages the Millenary to dream of Christ's reigning here on Earth a Thousand Years before the final End of the VVorld For then they conceive the Jews shall be restored to be a People again universal Peace to be restored to all the VVorld and Swords beaten into Plow-shares and Spears into Pruning hooks Then an universal Peace Concord and Tranquility to be restored to the Church and all the Glorious Things the Prophets have spoken of to come to pass and be settled I. The VVord indeed in Greek Authors commonly signifies Restoration to a former Estate Hence Circuitus Solis the Course of the Sun from the Vernal Equinox to that Point again is called the Restoration of the Year And so is that to be understood Acts i. 6 Lord wilt thou at this Time restore the Kingdom to Israel That is that Israel shall have a Kingdom as heretofore But how does this Sense agree here The restoring of all things in the Prophets to their former Estate What former Estate can here be meant to be the Pattern of another to come And the Millenary will not agree to this Interpretation who dreams not of restoring to any former Estate but to such an one as never was before II. Therefore there may be Restoration or Restitution to a better Estate As Mat. xvii 11 Elias truly shall first come and restore all things Now Elias in the Baptist restored not all things to the former Estate but to a new and better And it is said He restored all things Yet here all things are to be restored still and the Restoration not yet effected Therefore that Restoration cannot be the Restoration here meant neither Therefore III. The meaning is Making good Accomplishing all things So Elias Baptist made good all things written of him and that concerned his Office And the Times are coming when there shall be an accomplishing and making good all Things in the Prophets And so the Arabic reads Until the Times which shall confirm the fulfilling of all those things God hath spoken by the Prophets And the Syriac not much unlike But it will be demanded then When are those Times when all things spoken by the Prophets shall be fulfilled Truly Reason it self may answer At the end of the World For have not the Prophets spoke of the end of all things and of the Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust and of the Eternal Reward of both Till that time then the Heavens must contain Christ. And where should we look for Christ at any time in any Generation but in Heaven All things that God hath spoken by the Mouth of his Holy Prophets The Apostle in so saying seems to face the saying of the Jews Traditions in this Case To give you a brief Story of their Traditions 1. Before the Captivity they had Prophets Urim Visions of God Apparitions of Angels So that in Matters of Doubt they resorted to a Prophet as Saul and his Servant to Samuel In Matters of State to Urim as David did 2. After the Captivity these ceased viz. After the first Generation No Vision no Prophet more So that in how changed a Condition were they now How destitute of their great Priviledge 3. Then the Devil saw his Opportunity and stirred up some Instruments to foist Traditions upon them instead of Oracles And they taught that God gave a written Law but an unwritten Exposition of it And some Glosses that they had invented themselves they imposed as the very Words of God to Moses at Sinai So that every fond Invention of Men now went current as the Oracles of God And this is