peace having all our reckoning made even and all scores cancelled The Third Proposition is this As there must be some time for Gods immediate Service and there must be every day some set time at least morning and evening so likewise every whole day all the dayes of our lives should be in some manner a Sabbath day to the Lord we should be holy every day The Apostle finds fault Gal. 4. 10 That they observed times and seasons and dayes and months and years we must not be earthly-minded one day and heavenly-minded another but we must be every day holy to the Lord. The First Reason is The Covenant which God hath made with us doth require it that is the end why God saves a man from his sins and brings him into the kingom of Christ he takes a solemn Oath from him That being delivered from the hands of his enemies he shall serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of his life Every day must be a Sabbath day whensoever a man gives himself up to God there is an Oath hangs upon him and he breaks this Oath if he set not upon it with all his might that every day may be a Sabbath day he is to be careful to live godly and religiously in all places and at all times and in every action he puts his hand unto a man is not only to make conscience on the seventh day but every day of his life The Second Reason is Because not to make every day an holy day is the brand of an Hypocrite it is hypocrisie Job 27. 10. Will he alwayes call upon God To be holy sometimes and not at another time is the trick of an hypocrite will he alwayes call upon God will that man alwayes obey God and worship him will he alwayes set himself to keep close with God No an hypocrite will not do so You may know an hypocrite he hath his fits and his pangs and his moods but a godly man a sincere hearted man is one that doth compose himself to keep a constant course in Gods worship as Act. 24. 16. There saith Paul Herein do I exercise my self to keep a good conscience alwayes both towards God and towards man And as it was the practise of Paul so of all the Elect people of God of all sincere Christians in the world Act. 26. 7. all the Elect of God all the beloved of God they did instantly serve God day and night Thirdly Because blessednesse doth consist in this In keeping every day in some kind as a Sabbath day as the Holy Ghost doth pronounce him blessed that feareth the Lord alwayes Prov. 28. 14. and that doth righteousness at all times Psa 106. 3. It is true the Servants of God are sometimes out of the way they have their swervings and failings but their resolution is to keep a constant course in Gods Worship and they do strive to humble themselves under the hand of God for their failings and to be the more wary because of them Lastly This is the Sum and Scope of all the Law of Righteousness it is the very drift and end of all the Ten Commandements the Lord hath set down in the Decalogue his whole Will and Pleasure what we are to do all the dayes of our lives this day and that day as long as we live and there is no set time but that we should alwayes obey it and this is the practise of the godly alwayes to keep his Commandments as David Psal 16. 8. He set the Lord alwayes before him that is every day he did make it an holy day that he might walk as in Gods presence and live as in Gods Courts that he might do all his worldly businesse as in the presence of God The Fourth Proposition is this As there must be a set time every day and we are to keep every day as a Sabbath day in some sense so there must be a particular special day set apart for Gods immediate Worship and Service This is the next Proposition I will prove unto you for though every day is to be a Sabbath day yet we have particular callings and we have businesse in the world to employ our selves about so that we cannot be every day hearing of the Word and employing our selves in Prayer and spiritual exercises though every day we are to keep it holy yet we cannot be vacant wholly and totally every day Now therefore I say That there is a set day that the Lord hath called for to be devoted unto him the very School-men themselves do acknowledge this and the very Heathen have found it out They have set a day apart for the Service of their Gods which they call their holy day wherein they lay aside all other businesse and set themselves a part to honor and worship their Images and Idols according to their manner Now I will make this good by many Arguments that God will have a set day besides the every day Sabbath he will have a set particular Sabbath for his Worship and Service The First Reason is Because he will have a little emblem and picture of the kingdom of heaven among his Saints and Children in this life in the kingdom of heaven there is no buying and selling no eating and drinking no worldly businesse there is nothing but praysing and glorifying of God and speaking of God and singing of Halelujah unto his holy Name there is nothing but enjoying communion with the Lord and feeding upon him continually there is nothing but this in the kingdom of heaven Now God will have a little picture of this among his Saints here upon earth You know there remains a rest for the people of God Heb. 4. 9. It is an express place the word in the Original is There remains a Sabbath for the people of God As who should say There is a glorious Sabbath that all the Elect of God shall have and they are preserved for it and that is reserved for them and they shall enter into it when this body of death is laid down and they shall enjoy God face to face to all eternity they shall behold him as he is and have communion with him now the Lord will have a little picture of this here in this life we cannot have it altogether in this life for we have mortal bodies that must be fed and cloathed and stand in need of the creature for mans sin is not yet purged away but there is a great deal of rubbish still left therefore this cannot be complete here but yet God will have a little picture ot this even in this life and that is the Sabbath day wherein they are to lay aside all the works of their ordinary callings and rest from all servil labours this is Gods day and we must now call upon him and hear what he saith and wholly employ and occupy our selves about him as neer as we possibly can but now this
Two-fold First Because God rested upon that day And Secondly Because we are to rest upon that day The Seventh Proposition is this That all that is in the fourth Commandment is not essential to the Commandment the fourth Commandment delivers only these Two things First That God will have a seventh day Secondly That this seventh day is to be the day of Gods rest This is the whole meaning of the fourth Commandment now all other particulars in the fourth Commandment are not essential to the fourth Commandment as that God made Heaven and Earth in six dayes and rested the seventh day c. It is not essential to the fourth Commandment but because at that time when God delivered the Decalogue there was no greater work then the Creation and the rest from that work was the rest from the greatest work in the world therefore it was kept upon the last day of the week upon which God rested from the Creation Now the meaning of the fourth Commandment is in the eighth Verse all the other particulars are but Commentaries to open it to the Jewes Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy this is the fourth Commandment The Sabbath that is the day that God rested on and the day that we are to rest upon this is the holy day that is devoted to the Lord now it was kept upon the last day of the week because God created heaven and earth and rested upon that day and the Creation of heaven and earth was the greatest work that God then had done But then you will say Why doth the Commandment say That in six dayes God created Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day I Answer It is no strange thing to see some things in the Commandments which are not essential to them because the Commandments were delivered to the Jewes though they concern the whole world yet the persons that actually stood before God when the Decalogue was delivered were only the Jewes Deut. 5. 22. God spake to the Jewes now no wonder God speaking to the Jewes did speak divers particulars according to them and in their phrase which if we had been alive and they to succeed us God would have spoken according to us as he did according to them 2. Secondly We see plainly there are some things in the Commandments which do not concern the whole world but only the Nation of the Jewes as in the first Commandment I have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of Bondage Thou shalt have no other gods but me That is the Commandment but though they together with the other were put into the Tables of Stone yet it concerns only the Jewes 'T is true indeed it is a type of our deliverance that we are delivered from Hell and Sin and Satan as they were delivered out of Egypt and the house of Bondage but literally these words belong only to the Jews and the Commandment is this Thou shalt have no other gods but me So it is for the fourth Commandment Again There is something in the Fifth Commandment that doth not concern us but only them Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. That thy dayes may be long in the Land which the thy God giveth thee that belongs only to the Jews it is meant particularly of the Land of Canaan This then is the effect of the Commandment Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy dayes may be long in the Land of Canaan So that the first words are the Commandment and the latter part belongs only to the Jewes So Deut. 5. 14. the Fourth Commandment it was put into the Tables of Stone thus Remember the seventh day to keep it holy for the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter c. that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou that belongs to us as well as to them but then it follows Remember thou wert a servant in the Land of Egypt Here you see the Jewes have another Argument besides the Arguments that we have but though we have not that Argument yet the Commandment stands still and the Commandment is only thus much namely That there must be a Seventh day and that seventh day God rested upon now whereas the Jewes kept the last day of the week that was only by a temporary Commandment because the making of heaven and earth was the greatest thing that God had then done and God rested from that upon that day but now if God work a greater work then the Creating of heaven and earth and rest from that then by vertue of the fourth Commandment we are to keep that day holy upon which he rested from that work Now I come to the Eighth Proposition That this Fourth Commandment concerning a Sabbath day concerning the keeping of a Seventh day holy it is a continual Commandment alwayes to abide in the Church of God I will prove it by divers Arguments that it was not to continue only in the time of the Jewes but it is to abide alwayes in the Church to the coming of the Son of man there is not a jot of Ceremony in the fourth Commandment The First Reason is Because God did institute the Sabbath before there was any room for Ceremonies it was commanded to Adam in his Innocency Now all Ceremonies did prefigure Christ and before Adam fell there was no Promise of the Seed of the Woman nor no need of it and so no need of a Figure to represent it but before Adam fell the Sabbath was prescribed Gen. 2. 2 3. On the seventh day God rested from all that he had made so that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it So that you see God having rested upon this day he sanctified it and put holiness upon it therefore we are not to name that Common which he hath named Holy now though we do not read of Adams keeping this day nor Abels nor Enochs nor Noahs nor Abrahams nor Isaacs nor Jacobs yet it doth not follow it was not kept for Moses doth not take in hand to set down the actions of the Fathers but only generally for you see what a short story we have of Methushelah a good man though he lived a thousand years almost yet we have scarce Three Syllables concerning him Now sith Moses did not undertake to set down all that they did therefore they might keep the Sabbath though he did not set it down neither afterwards doth he set it down for 319. years and 111. years which 430. years to the time of the Judges we have nothing spoken of concerning the Sabbath therefore seeing God did Institute it to Adam in his Innocency that is enough but what though the Fathers had not kept it holy doth it therefore follow that we must not keep it holy They had many wives doth it therefore follow that we must have
if it had been a cold Countrey in Adams time and Abrahams time and in all times it was lawful to kindle a Fire Againe another Argument is this The very Heathen themselves have ever kept a Sabbath day though they could not tell which the day was some kept the Eighth day and some the Ninth yet they ever kept a Sabbath day Yea it is certain many of the Heathen themselves kept the Sabbath after their manner Alexandrinus a godly Father that lived but a little after Christ saith That the Heathen did count the Seventh day an Holy day And it is related of Alexander Severus Emperour of Rome though he were a Pagan and Infidel yet every Sabbath day he retired from his Warlike affaires and went up into the Capitol to worship his gods And it is reported againe in Heathen Histories our boyes go not to School upon the Sabbath day neither are Humane Arts taught on that day but we have a Rest upon that day Nay some of the Heathens tell us That they keep it from the Creation therefore Philo tells us That the Sabbath day is the Creation day and divers other poor people that never had Scripture or Prophet or Minister among them but went meerly by the light of Nature and what they had learned from their Ancestors and Fathers they did keep the Sabbath day Nay one of them saith That on the Seventh day all the Host of Heaven and Earth was finished Therefore seeing the very Heathen have learned to keep this day Holy it is an Evident Argument that this is a Moral Commandement I conclude the Proof of this Point with the saying of our Saviour Christ Mat. 5. 18. Heaven and Earth shall passe away but not one jot or title of the Law shall passe away Marke our Saviour saith there that there shall not one jot or title of the Decalogue passe away As for the Ceremonial and Judicial law they stand not still but the whole compasse of them is removed the Ceremonial Law is quite and clean abolished and the Judicial Law in many particulars therefore our Saviour meant it not of those two Laws but he speaks of the Decalogue and he saith Heaven and Earth shall passe away before one jot of it shall passe away much lesse an whole branch be rooted out And Gal. 3. 10. the Apostle saith Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in this Law to do them not only he that continueth not in the first or second or third Commandment but he that continueth not in the fourth and fifth and all the rest And Jam. 2. 10. the Apostle there saith If a man should keep the whole Law of God and be guilty only in one point he is guilty of all Suppose thou didst keep the Three first Commandments and all the Six last if thou keepest not the Fourth Commandment thou art guilty of the breach of all the Commandments I let this passe and come now to the last Proposition which is this That though the last day of the week were kept for the Sabbath till the coming of Christ yet the first day of the week that seventh day is now the Lords Day and is so to continue to the end of the World I frame it thus The change of the seventh day to the first day of the week is not by Ecclesiastical Law or by the Law of man or Apostolical Tradition but it is by the Institution and express Commandment of God The first Argument to prove it is taken out of Psal 118. 24. It is an Argument used by the Church of God in all Ages ever since twelve hundred years agoe Saint Austin did use it in his time the Psalmist Prophecieth of the Resurrection of Christ the Stone which the builders refused is become the Head-stone of the Corner this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Our Saviour Christ Mat. 21. doth expound it of his Crucifying and Resurrection This is the day that the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce in it The Psalmist speaks here of the Resurrection of Christ now speaking of this very day saith he This is The day that the Lord hath made And we for our part that are godly and desire to be built upon this Corner Stone we will be glad and rejoyce in it we will keep it as a glorious day a day of Thanksgiving and Rejoycing in God The thing is plain see Isa 56. 1 2 the Prophet Prophecyeth of the Day of Christ and saith They are blessed that keep the Sabbath thus saith the Lord Keep Judgement and Justice for my Salvation is at hand to come and my Righteousness is to be revealed Blessed is the man that doth this and keepeth my Sabbaths This is a Prophecie of the day of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and he pronounceth a blessing upon those that keep the Sabbath in those dayes Again Isa 11. 10. it was Prophecied of old that the first day of the week should be the Sabbath day the Lords day In that day there shall be a Root of Jesse which shall stand up for an Ensigne to the people and the Nations shall flie unto it and his Rest shall be Glorious Not only the Fathers Rest shall be glorious when he had Created Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day but Christs Rest also shall be glorious for all Divines agree that the Prophet speaks of the Rest of Christ from the work of Redemption now his Rest shall be glorious As God the Father Rested from his work and his Rest was glorious for four thousand years together so Christs Rest from his work shall be glorious there shall be glory and honour put upon it as well as upon the Rest of the Father when he Rested from makeing of Heaven and Earth Secondly Another Argument to prove this is out of Rev. 1. 10. there Saint John speaking of the first day of the week the Spirit of the Lord calls it the Lords Day I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day so that it is not by Apostolical Tradition only but by the Institution of God himself he doth call it the Lords Day I was in the Spirit upon the Lords Day he calls the first day of the week the Lords Day by the same reason that the Sacrament is called the Lords Supper Now the Sacrament is so called because the Lord Instituted it and therefore it must be Holy so the Lords Day is called so because the Lord Instituted it and therefore it must be kept Holy Another Argument is this Our Saviour Christ himself doth Intitle himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath and therefore able to alter it and change it and appoint what businesse is to be done and what not to be done upon that day he doth openly profess that he is Lord of the Sabbath Mark 2. 28. and John 5. 23. he saith They shall Honour the Son as they Honour the
Life in them We may see it Acts 13. 50. there it is said that the Jews stirred up certain devout and honourable women and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their Coasts Though they hated Paul and Barnabas yet they are said to be devout and honourable women They imagined they were very Devout they conceived they were Religious How many men and women are there that think they are righteous and they will do many duties and take many good courses in so much that it would pity a man to think they should goe to hell they will be very Zealous they will be very Earnest against Drunkennesse and cry out against the abominations of the times they are marvellous devout and godly and yet a man that is Devout and godly in truth and in deed they cannot abide him but hate him Now if the Law should come home unto them and discover how indeed it is with them it would humble their souls and pull down their spirits and make them dead so that this presumptuous hope that men are in good terms with God and that God will be merciful to them and forgive them their sins this makes them to be alive 2. We come now to the Second thing and that is the Effect of this livelynesse what Effects it works in the heart and the Effects of this Livelynesse are Four 1. First It makes them sound and heart-whole like a boyl unlaunched it is yet sound The true sight of sin and wrath of God in the soul is able to break the heart of any man it is able to dead his spirit and kill all the livelynesse that is in him and make him have little life to go on as he doth But so long as the Law of God is not come home to a man though he have no title to heaven though hell be the portion of his cup yet he is as sound as can be as heart-whole as may be let carnal comfort come he can take it let pleasures come he is able to delight himself therewith and go on in his course as if he ailed nothing Prov. 18. 14. the Wise man saith the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear When the Lord comes to wound a mans heart with the sight of his sins and the fearful condition he is in what a cursed creature he is having no mercy and being out of Christ having no pardon no grace no holinesse but lyeth under the curse of God If the Law thus come home and wounds his Conscience he is not able to bear it this man let carnal comforts come he is not able to take them it kills the heart Look as it is with the Stomack if it can take meat and digest it it must needs be alive for if the Stomack be dead it can digest nothing So for the tast if a mans palat and all the instruments of the tast be dead he takes no delight in any meats so there is a kind of soundnesse in the Soul that is the reason why a man can delight in carnal pleasures in Drinking and Sporting and in Profit and Gain There is a kind of soundnesse and livelinesse in the heart the heart is not yet broken If the Law come and take the hearts life away this wil pull down the heart it will make a mans heart even break it will pull down his spirit But a man whom the Law hath not yet humbled and shewed him his damned estate his heart is yet whole and sound When the Law of God had but a little killed Ahabs heart you might see it in his very gate he went softly he could not tread so confidently upon the ground as he was wont to do it tamed his very steps it is wonderful how his heart was broken it appeared in his very going up and down When the Law comes home to a man it is able to kill his heart and makes him Soul-sick and makes him cry out O the wretchednesse of my heart it makes a man sick at the heart it lyes like a heavy Plague upon the heart and conscience it will make a man sick of his sins it will make him even at deaths door with his sins it will make him say with Paul when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed But another man though he hath evident demonstration that he is a dead man yet the Law of God hath not pulled down his heart sicknesse will pull down a mans Stomack so when the Law of God comes home to a mans Conscience and makes him sick it makes him yield and pulls down his Stomack Many men are crazy and sickly and yet they lye not by it but walk up and down and go abroad but if they were heart sick it would pull them down and make them lye by it So many a carnal man may have some qualms of sin but yet their hearts can go abroad after profits and pleasures after vanities and delights they can goe abroad for all this But when the Law comes home it will pull down a mans spirit and make him heart-sick This is the meaning of that place The whole need not a Physician but the sick Mat. 9. 12. Every carnal man so long as he is not humbled and broken under the sight of his sins his heart is yet whole his spirit is yet sound he is not yet wounded as the Prophet Isaiah speaks Isa 1. 6. from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is nothing but wounds and swellings and sores full of corruption there is no soundnesse in him He is indeed full of wounds but the skin is yet sound it is not broken he feels it not the Law hath not yet discovered his estate unto him This is the first effect of this livelynesse it makes men to be sound and heart-whole 2. The Second effect of this livelynesse when a man is alive in the non-appearance of his dead and damned estate alive in performance alive in presumption and self-justifying and self-hopes The effect of it is that he is fearless the more lively the more fearless First the Object must dead the heart before it can make the heart fear so long as the heart is stout the livelynesse that is in the heart is able to keep out fear So the livelinesse of a sinner makes the heart fearlesse and secure A man would wonder how any creature durst provoke God it is almost beyond the reach of true reason how any creature should dare to provoke God to consider what infinite danger he is in to have the wrath of the God of heaven and earth to hang over his head to be under the hand of revenging Justice to pull down all the Woes and Plagues and Comminations of God upon the Soul that a man should do this and yet be secure it would make a man wonder at it But a man that hath this livelynesse he can provoke God and yet be
in him will serve it is not a little melting will serve the turn it is not a little plaistering or patching or piecing will do the deed though there be a thousand changes in a man yet if a man be not another man if he be not a new creature it is to no effect it will never bring a man into the kingdom of God what saith Christ Joh. 3. 3. Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of God As who should say Verily verily I say unto thee a man is all to shatters all to pieces all rotten and unlesse he be born again and made a new creature it is impossible he should enter into the kingdom of God though a man be never so much altered he is not in the estate of Grace till he be a new man till the Lord hath given him a new frame and a new inclination except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God he cannot see the kingdom of Grace that is the first dowry of the kingdom of Grace to give a man a new Being that he never had before a natural man is just like an old rotten house that hath not one piece that will serve the turn but a man that will make it an habitable house must take it all down to the ground and build it up from the ground so it is here there is not one piece will serve the turn though ye see admirable things in men though they seem excellent in the eyes of men yet they will not serve the turn they are rotten and stark naught there is an absence of all Good Rom. 7. 18. Nay besides there is an universal indisposition in a man like to a thing that is all rotten and marred and can never be made up again except it be made spick and span new and so it is with a man he is altogether corrupt as the Prophet speaks Isa 1. from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head nothing but bruises and putrified soars take a man that is never so civil and of fair carriage so long as he is not a new creature this is nothing for the entring into the kingdom of God and being amiable in his sight Nay Gen. 6. 5. the Text saith The thoughts of the heart of man are only evil continually there is nothing sound in a man though he daily think of Grace and think of God his thoughts cannot be said to be good for the mind whereby he thinks of these things is rotten and unsavory though he speaks of never so good things the same things the Saints of God speak of though he doth the same actions the people of God do though he hears the same VVord and receive the same Sacraments he cannot do them aright they are abomination in Gods sight therefore when God regenerates a man he must make him another man then he was before This speaks natures corruption Secondly Because the things of Regeneration are admirably set out by way of this similitude Natural Generation is generally sweetly answered in this VVork of Regeneration First As a man cannot come into the World without Parents but he must have a Father to beget him so it is in this new Birth as in the other there was an earthly Father so here is an heavenly Father as the Author to the Hebrews speaks Heb. 12. 9. How much rather shall we be subjected to the Father of Spirits There are two Fathers an earthly Father the Father of the natural and corrupt man and God the Father of our spirits that is the Father of our spiritual Nature as many excellent Divines do expound it though it may be expounded the Father of our Souls yet this is more likely because here is an opposition between the Father of the Flesh and the Father of the Spirits God himself is the Father of this new work Secondly Here is a Mother too That Jerusalem which is from above is the Mother of them all they are all Zions Children here is the Womb that these new creatures lye in Christs Spouse the Lambs wife is their Mother though the world hate them and her too yet they love her nay though the woman be thrown out into the wilderness yet their hearts run after her the Regenerate only are the true born this is their Mother Thirdly As it is in the Natural Birth There is a shaping in the Womb before their is a coming into life so it is here as the Apostle saith there is a conceiving of a man in the womb before he is Gal. 4. 19. My little Children of whom I travel in Birth till Christ be formed in you There is the Conception 't is true wicked men have many Conceptions but they do not bring forth Christ is not formed in them they may have many stirrings that way but they perish in the Birth but Zion travels and brings forth Children Isa 66. 8. Fourthly Again As it is in the Natural Birth None is brought forth without the pains of travel So there be pains in this new Birth legal terrours which the Reprobate are killed with and die under but the godly come forth from under them safe and bettered Fifthly Again As it is in the first Birth the Child that is born and comes into the world he comes from no Being to a Being from no Existency to an Existency so it is hear in this new Birth those which were no people are now made the people of God those that had no being in Christ now have a being in him they are come into a new world into a new heaven and a new earth others live in this world but they live in a new world Sixthly Again As it is in the first Birth A mâ—n comes to have Children to have Brothers and Sisters so in this Birth a man comes to have new Kindred all the Godly in the world are of his Consanguinity though they be counted the Puritans of the Parish yet they are of his bloud and Christ himself is their Brother and Abraham is their Father under God and Sarah is their Mother there is a new Kindred Indeed here is the difference that the Children of the first Birth they are visible and their lives and courses are visible and their alliance and kindred is visible and all that they are and do is visible but the Children of the second Birth are not visible indeed their persons are visible as well as others but their life is an invisible thing their excellency their glory this new creature in them this is invisible it is like that River in Spain which runs fourteen miles under ground whence they have a Proverb That the Bridge over the River is fourteen miles long So there is a River in Surry that is just the like it runs under the ground invisible they cannot see it so these new creatures they cannot be seen their lives run
one part of it namely the Cup which is put for the whole and are made all to drink of the same Cup we are all of one and the self same Body as many as are in Christ are endued with the same Spirit not one endued with one Spirit and another endued with another Spirit but by one Spirit we are Baptized into one Body our Baptisme is one and our Food one it is altogether one though our condition in the world be never so different bond or free though our Countrey and Nation and Parish be never so various one to another one of one and another of another Jews and Gentiles we are all baptized into one Body and this is done by one and the self-same Spirit Now to speak of the putting of a man into the Body of Christ We will shew you these Five things First What this Body of Christ is Secondly What this putting of a man into it is Thirdly That this is done by the Spirit of God Fourthly How the Spirit of God doth it How a man is made part of the Body of Christ Fifthly The Application of the Point For the First What is this Body of Christ which the Spirit of God doth ingraft his people into In a word It is the invisible Church of God which is a peculiar company of men and women out of all Nations under heaven predestinated to eternal life gathered together by the Word and made all one in Christ This is the Body of Jesus Christ so that here are Five Things that are to be opened First It is the Church of God as the Apostle saith Col. 1. 18. He is the Head of the Body the Church So that the Church is the Body of Christ that same peculiar company of men and women as Saint Peter calls them You are a chosen generation a peculiar people a royal priesthood 1 Pet. 2. 9. The Author to the Hebrews calls them The Assembly of the first born Heb. 12. 23. And Christ himself calls them A little flock in regard of the multitude of other people that is in the world and are not of this brotherhood Now I call this invisible for though their persons and courses and manner of life be seen and known and they may be known who they are yet all of them were never known nor ever will be there may be more then we can tell and fewer then we think of The foundation of God is sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. The Lord had seven thousand in Israel that had not bent their knees to Baal when Eliah could see never a one So that this is the First Thing it is the invisible Church of God Secondly It 's such a company as is gathered out of all Nations under heaven As Saint John speaks Rev. 7. 9. After this behold and loe I saw a great multitude of all Nations Countryes and Tongues c. Though it be a little Flock in respect of the Reprobate yet it is a great multitude considered in it self and they stood before the throne before the Lambe with long white Robes and with Palms in their hands This white Robe is the Righteousnesse of Christ Jesus imputed which begets another Righteousnesse which is inherent in some measure and the Palms in their hands is the sign of Victory over Sin Death and Hell and this is a great multitude and it was out of all Cities Nations and Kindreds of the world and therefore our Saviour Christ speaking of his own taking of this company home unto himself at the last day see what he speaks Matth. 24. 31. He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather his Elect from the four Winds from the one end of the Earth to the other The Lord gathers here one and there another as a man would gather a Posie in a Garden here a flower and there a flower This is Another Thing in the Body of Christ it is a Company gathered out of all Nations and People and Places at one time or other Thirdly This same godly Company are a Company of Predestinated men unto Eternal life For there are none but the chosen of God that are the true Body of Christ this is a company only of Elect men and women and babes therefore they are called Elect Rom. 8. 33. They are such a company as are written in the Lamb's Book of life Rev. 21. 27. Therefore all those that seem to be of God and go a great way with the people of God and yet turn back as Orphah from Naomi Ruth 1. They were never of this number 1 Joh. 2. 19. They were not of us they went out from us if they had been of us they would have continued with us So that it is only the Elect of God that are of this Company that are the Members of this Body Fourthly It is such a godly Company as is gathered by the Word of God The Word of God gathers them together they as well as other people by nature are of another Body of another Corporation as vile and as wretched and as miserable in themselves if left to themselves but God found them when he passed by them and said to them Live they were defiled as well as others in their bloud but the Lord turned their hearts by the Word doth beget them again thereby This is that immortal seed whereby God doth beget them again unto eternal life Fifthly They are such a company as are made one knit and combined together in Christ though themselves are never so many and never so remote and distant from one another may be they never saw one another nor ever heard of one another one lives in one Country another in another one in one parish another in another and have little bodily communion and are not known one to another may be some of this company are in heaven already and some upon earth yet they are all one in Christ they all meet together in one heart and soul in Christ Jesus they are all of one minde in him as being all one body as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 12. 12. and they are all one seed Gal. 3. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made He saith not To seeds as if they were many but To thy seed as of one that is Christ that is which is Christ and all that are Christs they are one seed the seed of the woman indeed all men come forth of the womans loins the wicked as well as the godly only here is the difference The one is the seed of God the other of the Serpent Now Christ and all that are Christs are one and the self-same seed though they are different in Place different in Countrey different in estate and condition some Jews some Gentiles some Bond some Free some Noble some Mean yet they are all one in Christ Jesus as the Apostle