of what already they have receaved from him at his command He is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world Both these divine oracles and manifestations of Gods will law and Gospel were made knowne to Adam in Paradise the one typed out in the tree of the knowledg of good and evil fitly resembling the first created liberty and fredom of will man was left to the exercise of under the law the other by the tree of life placed in the midst of the Paradise of God lively figuring out the better fredom and lasting holines which the Son himself makes us partakers of in the Gospel as he is the end of the law to al that beleeve and can be perswaded to trust him as the Gospel requires In both these respects it is that John sayes I write no new Commandement to you but an old commandement which was from the beginning As it first came forth in law and Gospel before the fal it was the law written in Adams heart and the Gospel set before the eyes of his mind by the ministry of angels in lively types and figures This we are to understand by the law of nature by which all natural men shal be judged who never have atteined or lived under the hearing of the written law or word of God given afterwards in the holy Scriptures 2dly The self-same old commandement of God that is both law and Gospel came forth since the fall by divine inspiration in the bookes of the old and new Testament The law was under this dispensation engraven on tables of stone conteining the ten commandements The Gospel was represented in the ceremonial law of Moses ministry under the old Testament Then againe the law is written in the fleshly tables of Christs heart as he was born of a woman and made under the law and the Gospel was represented in the two Sacraments of baptism and the Lords supper instituted during the dayes of Christs flesh the witnesse whereof is left us upon record in the New Testament as that manifestation of Gods wil which the Son himself in and by his first appearance hath brought to light This we are to understand by the law of the Scriptures which are not of private interpretation nor a prophesy that is come to us by the will of man but that which holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost for a sure ground of truth to be relied upon 3dly and lastly the same commandement or word of God which hath bin from the beginning is to come forth once more in and by the son's second and personal appearance in Spirit a fiery and living law call'd in Scripture the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus which by faith is espied and seen as the Land of promise into which all true beleevers must enter and where they must inherit the immutability and eternal life promised a life from the dead which those that possesse whether in the glory of the first or second Resurrection though as yet but in the seed shal never die more The second death shal not have power over them but all tears shal be wiped away from their eyes and all cause of sorrow or fear This is the Son's Kingdom in Spirit which he receaves and enters upon by the appointement of the father He is pleased to begin it in weaknes and subject it a while to great sufferings but will shortly enter upon and continue the exercise of it in power during the space of a thousand years wherein he is to judg the world in righteousnes effectually causing his wil to be done on earth as it is in heaven The law under this dispensation is found as the tables of the Testimony laid up in the heavenly tabernacle of Christ the Son of Man a fiery law of indignation and vengeance in severity without mercy upon all wilful disobedient sinners The Gospel under this dispensation is as the throne or heaven itself together with the earth that is made Gods footstool or the natural man subjected and brought through faith to Gods foot in a way exclusive to al boasting This is the new heavens and new earth of which the new Jerusalem consists that comes downe from God written in and upon the heart of Christs manhood glorified and made immutably holy shining forth as the living Image of God in a twofold forme to wit in the form of a servant not only made a Son which is the first but exalted to a name above every name and anointed with the oyle of gladnes above his fellows that 's the second Thus Christ is the WORD as is above sayd that is commanded to a thousand generations He that was he that is and he that is to come the Almighty He was both law and Gospel in the day or under the dispensation of the law of nature is the same in the day and under the dispensation of the law of the Scriptures and is to come and wil shew himself to be the same also in the day and under the proper and immediate dispensation of the law of the Spirit of life that is in him This is the spiritual day of the Lord the thousand years Jubilee and Sabbath This third dispensation hastens apace draw's very neer and the faithfull and upright in heart beleeve expect and wait for the comming of the Lord therein both as an Eliah in and by his messengers and Servants elect angels and beleeving men that shal restore all things root up every thing that offends by a swift execution of vengeance on evil doers in the morning of this day and after that in his owne person wherein the man Christ by whom God hath ordeined to judg the world in righteousnes wil shew himself as the great King and bridegroom that hath the bride whose mariage he wil gloriously solemnize on earth in order to cary her up with him into heaven upon the expiration of his thousand years reigne and the Resigning up of his Kingdom into the hands of this father that God may be all in all That the matter of Gods command and mans duty is the same as wel under the law as under the Gospel and in them both under all the three dispensations before mentioned is sufficiently cleered and demonstrated nor is the difference lesse perspicuous wherein each of them vary one from another 1. The law of nature writes the matter of the law and duty commanded upon the nature and in the very heart of man teaching and instructing him also in the nature of the Gospel the new nature by the ministry of angels in most apt significant types and figures suited to his natural understanding 2dly The law of the Scripture first writes the law in tables of stone and teaches the Gospel by the types conteined in the ceremonial law or a sort of ordinances that are worldly rudiments being but the shadow of the good things to come whereof the body is Christ Afterwards therefore Christ coming
mouth These two powers in him are reteined in most absolute agrement and usefulnes each unto the other Answerable to this patern in great is man made in little as to his Spirit and soule with this only difference that the work of mans mind in reference to Gods law and his word and outward action in reference to his mind have not immutability in them but may disagree and chāge from their first harmony and primitive patern set them in God The powerfull impression of this patern on the spirit and soule of man was such as in respect thereof it is said God made man upright or perfect formed his mind in perfect agrement and likenes of operation with his owne mind and in full consent and liking of his law as that which is holy righteous Spiritual and good given for man to obey as his duty He disposed him also by a natural bent and inclination of mind to doe good resist evil love righteousnes and hate iniquity This was the state of mans Spirit or soule as yet seperate from his body and not partaker of that flesh and blood which was afterwards formed out of the dust of the earth The second thing therefore noted concerning mans building or creation is that he also became a living sensual or animalish soule actually clothed with bodily organs that God formed for him out of the dust of the ground Gen. 2.7 And he breathed into his nostrills the breath of life or sent mans soule that was before created in Gods image into that body so appointed and given to it by God as the earth wherein the seed of mans Spirit was planted and the feild in which it was made to grow by reason whereof man became a living soule that is to say by the most intimate union and inhabitation thus wrought by God between the spirit and body of man there was an awakening and bringing into actual exercise the sensual and bodily nature of his mind by sitting to it these meet organs Neverthelesse that which was before in the state of a soule separate an equal and associate to angels comes by this means to be abased and made of little reputation being brought to a kind of equality with the beasts that perish And in like manner as thus the spirit of man was after its first creation embodied and made flesh as a dark shadow of what is done to him t is said to have bin so with the heavens and earth when created yea even every plant of the feild had a state of being before it was put in the earth and every herb of the feild before it grew Gen. 2.4 5 Now through the intimate union and conjunction that mans body is taken into with his soule it is made a living acting speaking creature participant with his rational and intellectual spirit and in fellowship there with meet to have and exercise dominion as God appointed over every living creature that moves upon the face of the earth Thus the bodily life of man became in itself as an Eden the garden of God and the feild that he had blessed and made fruitful unto every good word and work in subserviency and subjection of desire to mans intellectual and angelical part which by the very order and law of nature as having not only priority but eminency of being was given to it both as Lord and husband a superiour and yet a kind of equal joyned with it in such a harmonious consistency that the actings of both natures made up but the compleat and entire Act of mans judgement and will Thus was man created male and female in the spirit and person of Adam before Eve was created as Gen. 1.27 and 2.28.25 do shew And he receaved a charg from God to keep this body in subjection to the dictates of his mind and not suffer it to usurp authority over that part in him which is most the man to wit the angelical or intellectual part When God had thus planted the garden of Eden or pleasure and delight in this spirituall sense as wel as in an outward and literall he puts mans spirit into it giving him the keeping dressing and Rule of it with this expresse command saying of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat but of the tree of knowledg of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die For out of the ground the Lord God had made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledg of good and evil Thus was there a paradise without man and within him a garden of pleasant fruit which he might take delight and pleasure in and which he was appointed to dresse and keep in the order wherein God had delivered it over to him and to improve it to the end for which he was brought into it by God And for his instruction herein he was commanded and allowed the use of the outward as wel as the inward senses of his mind with this only caution and Restriction that he should by no means nor upon any pretēce whatsoever hearkē to or obey the voice of his sensual and bruitish nature how rational so ever the judgment of it which is but flesh might seeme to be considered as in its owne single operation tempting and drawing off the cōsent and love of the intellectual part from the streight rule of its duty required in Gods law For the spirit of the mind which is the stronger and better part in man as that which is immortall remains under the morall and perpetuall convictiō of as wel as obligation to the righteousnes required in the law of God the light of which although it may be smoothered for a time cā never be wholly extinguished but is that work of the law in the heart that is and wil be unalterably either excusing and encouraging or accusing and tormēting the mind as cause is give by every mās works It is therefore called the conscience that servs in stead of a thousand witnesses and whē it is awake does alwayes consent to the goodnes and righteousnes that is in the law By this rule therefore sin could not make its approaches but warning would be given and to know evil barely in the abstract without consenting to it or becomming one with it in approbation and delight was not the thing which God forbade him but the feeding on it with consent and delight upon the beholding of its desireablenes in the judgment of the outward senses and as it gratified the bruitish lust and desire of the flesh so as thereupon to be drawn into a compliance and induced to make it the Act of the whole man suffering sin thereby not only to conceave but to be perfected Hence is it said 1 Tim. 2.13 14. that Adam was first formed then eve And Adam or the intellectual and superiour part in man
contrary without being bound up to any necessary dependance upon or holding conformity and agrement in its actions either with the right dictates of the intellectual part or with the righteous rule of Gods law This once obtein'd Satan had his end For he well knew that this being granted all the rest of the evil he desired to bring into man and by him into the world would easily and quickly follow And this was so pleasing and gratifying a baite to the flesh the assuming a power to direct its owne steps take its owne course and way that it was quickly swallowed downe by man without any due deliberation or pause upon the matter suspecting no hurt as yet till the lust that thus was conceaved came to be finished and to take along with it the spirit of the mind corrupting and seducing that also from the simplicity that is in Christ and thereby turning the soule from the truth of God declared in his law to the lie and deceit of Satan conceaved in his crafty suggestion Thus by degrees was man brought to worship and serve the creature that is the devil more then the creator under whose law he was first made and who is the only true God blessed for ever Unto this the Scripture witnesseth Rom. 1 22 23. Professing themselvs to bewise they became fools and changed the glory WORD or Image of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and unto birds four-footed beasts and creeping things This man came to by preferring the counsell of a fallen angel that was gratifying and desireable food in the eye of flesh before the holy law and commandement of the living and eternal God which by the eye of his spirit or superiour part of his mind he saw and knew himself obliged to the observation of For this cause God gives men up to the course and full sway of their owne wills and vile affections leaving them as bondslaves to sin and Sathan children of wrath and disobedience in whom the Prince of the aire seats himself as in his throne carrying them captive to his will Mans continuance in honour and in Gods image wherein he was created was but a very little while He quickly found out and followed many inventions contrary to Gods expresse command written in his mind as also signified by the sundry peeces of the creation and sounded out by an audible voice to him from God himself Sin being after this manner the voluntary and free act of our first parents not only conceaved but finished in the disobedience by them wrought and persected the wages of it which is death they immediatly receaved For being presently alienated from the life of God or the righteousnes performable by them in that image of God wherein they were created they became dead in trespasses and sins The image of God in man was defaced changed into an image in some sort of the devil All pronesse and inclination of the will to good was forthwith worn off and lost upon the fall and not only so but contrary qualities thereunto possessed the mind Thus mans primitive freedom and alacrity to righteousnes was turn'd into vile subjection and service to the devil and to all manner of uncleane affections and unrighteous actions Neverthelesse this sudden and unexpected chang in man brought about by the subtilty and influencing power of the Serpent by reason of the weaknes of the flesh that discovers itself in mans mutable state is not such but that this deadly wound is capable of healing and man capable of being thereby restored yea to be made not only as good but better then he was at first through the vertue and efficacious power of Christs sacrifice and death which was not only a generall propitiation and atonement of sins past but also for the sanctifying and purifying mans nature for time to come after a more excellent manner through regeneration then it was by creation Unto this regenerate state our first parents were called by the voice and doctrine of the Gospel speaking to them in and on the seaventh day as the only way and means to have prevented the fall and kept out sins entrance upon the nature of man For when God committed to the keeping of Adam his owne soule in the good estate wherein he had set it by making man in his image and after his owne likenes it was not without a most speciall charg to keep this choise jewel safe and vncorrupted at the peril of his very life till chang'd into a better state This God required him to do in the use of the best wayes and means that should be afforded him even by taking fast hold of instruction not letting her goe but keeping her as his life yea keeping his heart above all keepings as that from whence are the issues of life To this end was the tree of life placed in the midst of paradise open to his sight that he might have the view of it And by what was figured and signified to him in this tree was it declared how the keeping of his soule might be by another even by the Son of God or by the Holy Ghost the spirit of truth dwelling in the heart by faith which the worldly or fleshly mind does not cannot receave but by such an act of absolute resignation of itself in obedience to the wil of the Son of God as is more hatefull to it then the worst of evils Yet is there no other way possible for man to keep his soule safe for any long continuance and in the houre of trial when assaulted by the power of darknesse The counsel and instruction given by the word of the Gospel in the tree of life was that if man found upon full debate and consideration within himself that he was not like to continue long safe in his owne hands neither could with certainty keep himself pure and incorrupt as the law required that then he would be content to accept for his guardian and keeper the Son of God himself in whose person the judgmēt and will of man is fixed so as to be the corner stone to al the rest of the heavenly and spirituall building even the effectual means to fix and make immutable in righteousnes both men and angels that wil be prevailed with to let him take the charge of ruling and keeping their hearts in such manner as pleases him This is the only way for man to become free indeed with a better freedom then that of nature abovemention'd even with the freedom wherewith Christ himself is first made free as he is the son of man in heaven who came downe from heaven before he ascended up againe thither John 3.13 This good will and gracious offer of the Son of God figured out in the tree of life our first parents either neglected and slighted or the way of his keeping them did not please them but the suggestions of Satan were rather hearkned unto that they might safely leane to their
owne understanding as the best and surest way to keep their soules safe This understanding how subject it was to be wrought upon and to turn from the truth though fully convinc'd of it by the inticing power of the flesh or the sensual and inferiour faculties of mans mind hath bin already shewed Adams sin then was not only and meerly the transgression of the law but was mixed with somewhat an ignorant rejecting and contemning of the offer of the Gospel which was the only sure means to have translated him without sin at all intervening out of his righteous mutable state into an immutability in righteousnes But such is and was from the beginning the tender mercy and long-suffering of God our mediatour and Redeemer to Adam's posterity even in their fallen state that he not only renews and repeats to man his former gracious offer of Salvation through faith and the knowledg of himself in the Gospel but reveales over and besides this the means and way how through faith in his blood all mankind may be againe restored and obteine remission of sins All that will may returne againe by vertue of Christs death into that mutable state of righteousnes and holines lost in Adam as the common salvation and a forerunning dispensation to the gift of the son himself according to the promise And may it not reasonably be expected that from the experience of the general love and good will which Christ hath thus shewed in common towards all men that they should be easily prevailed with to give up their soules absolutely into his hands through that faith that is more precious then gold unchangable and never failing through the power whereof we are made more then conquerours over all enemies even through him that hath thus loved us with an unchangable and everlasting love For surely in this God hath greatly commended his love unto all mankind that when they were without strength Christ died for the ungodly or for all sinners whilst yet in their sins Much more then will the current of his love run towards us being once justified by his blood that through him we may be saved to the uttermost from the wrath to come For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life This was in effect the voice and doctrine of the Gospel which God himself preached to our first parents immediatly after their disobedience and at the very same time that he passed his righteous sentence against them for their sin Gen. 3.15 In this Scripture God promises the sending of his owne Son in the likenes of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh and make atonement by the sacrifice of it that the righteousnes of the law might be fulfilled in all those who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit And most expressly and particularly is the Gospel as wel as the law preached by God to Cain Gen. 4.7 and in him to all mankind whether ever they reap the saving benefit by it or no as to life everlasting any more then he did To him it is that God sayes If thou doest wel shalt thou not be accepted Is there not a meanes sufficient and able to bring thee even thee back againe into reconciliation and acceptance with God through the ransom that is paid in Christs blood But if thou doest not wel sin lieth at the door that is to say the wages and punishment of sin And this yet is not all For if thou objectest what will it advantage me to have sins past remitted and the breach made up if there be yet no effectual remedy provided and afforded to prevent a relapse into sin more fatal and irrecoverable then the first fal and a provoking of God afresh by reason of the unsubjectednes that the flesh or sensual part of the soule is apt to fly out into and that prevailingly and finally against the restored and anew enlightned spirit of the mind as it fell out with man at first To this God answers it shall be subject to thee and thou shalt rule over it It shal be given againe into thy hand and power to subdue and bring under if the fault be not in thy self Why therefore art thou wrath and why is thy countenance fallen as if I were partiall in my dealing and that my wayes were not equall Q. But what is it does or can enable cain or any other man since the fall to doe the good God speaks to him of and avoid the evil he forbids as also to suffer according to the will of God and that patiently though for doing wel Answ Surely there are means provided in and by the Redeemer and the work of redemption given to him the promised seed to finish which hath a vertue and sufficiency to free and save all men from the evil danger and curse that is come upon them by Adams transgression and to restore them againe to their primitive state of purity and freedom if the fault be not in themselvs And when they are brought so far on their way againe towards the end for which they were at first created and since redeemed that is to say the inheritance of life eternal then is renewed unto them by Christ the offer of saving them to the uttermost past all danger of a relapse and of giving them that better fredom wherewith the son is willing to make them free indeed unchangably subjecting them to the leading and Rule of his spirit cohabiting in and with the heart that is regenerated making it thereby fit to receave and entertein him and bringing into it that state of life over which the second death hath no power Hence is it Christ is said to be the saviour of all men but especially of those that beleeve And his will is that prayer and giving of thanks be made for all men of all sorts and degrees from the highest to the lowest This is good and acceptable in his sight who is the God and saviour that gave himself a ransom for all men and who therefore will have all men to be saved as least so far as to come to the knowledg of the truth and have the offer of it in a state of free exercise of their will and arbitrary choice that according as they are prevailed with either to receave it in the love thereof or to reject it as a stone of stumbling and rock of offence hateful to them they may obtein eternal salvation or incur the pains of eternal damnation And yet those that are saved are to acknowledg and experience that it is of meer grace and not of themselvs nor of works least any man should boast But it is wrought by the faith that excludes boasting setting up such a workmanship or building in the heart of every true beleever whereby he is created in Christ Jesus unto good works that are before prepared and ordeined of God that they should
walke in them They therefore which truly and savingly beleeve in God will be alwayes carefull to maintein good works Oh the great mystery of Godlines that reconciles absolute empire and soveraigne command in one great king He makes his absolute dominion to consist with the truest best and most absolute liberty of all his good subjects as shewing that in his service is the most perfect fredom To be left therefore by him in such a state of fredom which may either be lost by us and given up to the will of another or pluck'd out of our hands by the force of avenging justice justly condemning those to perpetuall servitude that despise and reject their owne truest fredom when offered to them proves in conclusion the certain way to the greatest servitude and most miserable bondage we can bring ourselvs into His way is in the sea his path in the deep waters his footsteps are not knowne For it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Yet all are set in a capacity to will their owne good or evil to run their race and shape their course by free choice But the one seed only that is Christ and his fellow-heirs according to promise are the winners and overcommers that reach the mark get the prize and attaine the crowne of eternal life All others fall short of the glory of God and by their owne consent and choice are most justly debarred from the prize and for ever excluded from the recompence of reward But can the Leopard chang his spots can those that are in a fallen state and accustomed to do evil ever learn to do good after the manner Adam did it in his primitive rectitude or in that newnes of Spirit and life which those that are made free with a better fredom then Adam's was are created and enabled in Christ Jesus to worke and come forth in the exercise of Let us hear what the Scripture in this case sayth Esay 1.16 20. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do wel seek judgment or knowledg releive the oppressed judg the fatherles plead for the widow Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shal be white as snow though they be red like crimson they shal be as wool If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land But if ye refuse and rebel ye shal be devoured with the sword So Esay 55.1 5. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters c. Is this only spoken to the jews a people then in covenant or to all mankind Se what Peter himself was taught to confesse and acknowledg in this matter Act. 10.28 The Lord hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean not conceave him to be so rejected and laid aside by God as not to be in a capacity to have the means afforded him of being brought to repentance and unto the knowledg of the truth Consider also the witnesse given by the Apostle Paul Act. 17. where he preaches the knowledg of God as of him that made the world and who gives to all life breath and all things Yea he made of one blood all nations of men who were at first his offspring created in his image and caused them to dwell on all the face of the earth He was bountiful unto them even in those times wherein he suffered all nations to walk in their owne wayes doing them good and giving them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons that he might not leave himself without a witnesse and that they by such teachings might seek the Lord if haply they might feel after and find him who is not far from every one of us And although he winked at the former times of ignorance yet now since the manifestation of Christ the promised seed in the flesh and in the form and fashion of a man like unto us in all things sin only excepted he commands all men every where to repent If they refuse and prove disobedient he will take an account of it in that day wherein he hath appointed the world to be judged in righteousnes by that man which he hath ordeined Iesus Christ who will have no respect of persons but as many as he shall find to have sinned without law shall perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shal be judged by the law in that day when God shall judg the secrets of men by Iesus Christ according to the Gospel We se then very evidently what Gods command is to all men universally after the fall It is no new commandement but that which hath bin from the beginning which is that all men every where do repent and use the means provided for them in the promised seed to be washed from their old sins and to come to the knowledg of the truth or the way wherein to be assuredly saved and inherit eternal life This commandement is in effect the same it was before sin entered into the world save only as it now relates to the use of the means of being cleansed from the filth and thraldom of sin in order to come to the knowledg of the truth by hearing the voice of the Gospel or words by which we may be saved from eternal wrath Thus was it with the centurion This testimony was given of him Act. 10.2 that he was a devout man one that feared God gave much alms to the people and prayed to God alway All this he did before he had those words preached to him whereby he and all his house should be saved Actor 11 14. It is the beginning of wisdom to be addicted to the feare of the lord to have a strong bent and affection of heart to keep his commandement and pray alwayes This comes by the voice and operation of the law as repeated and renewed in the blood of Christ to us and ministred either inwardly to our hearts by the voice of angels or in the powerful ministry of the written word to our outward ears The former of these ministries the gentiles were alwayes capable of and indeed directly under who were or are without the written law or knowledg of the Scriptures the other the jews or inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem among Jews or gentiles are under who rest in the law or written word making their boast of God therein having the form of the knowledg and of the truth in the law Both these notwithstanding the chang that may be brought upon them thereby are but under the dominion of the law liable stil to the curse and to a final and total relapse back againe under sin and wrath if they take not very good heed and so may come to be trees twice dead and be pluckd up by the roots For such enlightned and restored ones as these may prove to be as
nor ever be sure of keeping the condition of that Covenant upon which God promises to be his God and to be and abide in loue and communion with him for ever And it is most unquestionable that the Lord will faithfully performe his promise and his oath the two immutable things wherein he cannot lie The only doubt is whether man in this first make and frame of mind be able to performe the duty required of him Every benefit requires answerable duty Gods bounty then to man in giving him his being creating him in his owne image and likenes must needs lay a strong obligation upon him to loue God with the love that he requires And if this love be made by God a necessary condition of mans obteining eternall life it is certainly possible for man to performe this condition even to loue the Lord his God with all his heart soule mind and strength either in the power of what he hath or of what by the same gracious and liberall hand of God he may be made to have For an impossible condition is all one with a negative as if God should say that eternall life and blessednes is utterly impossible and altogether vnatteinable for man The nature of man is most drawne and commanded by love This is that which swayes and carries it in its motions after the object which it pursues Now the appearance which God gives of himself in his Son the image of the invisible God the brightnes of his glory and expresse character of his person is the most beautifull and desireable object that can come into the mind of man for his fruition and inheritance And he is not only lovely in himself but full of love to man He hath such love in him to mans nature as he hath not to any besides no not to the angels For he took not on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham which thereby came to be knit in personall union with the only begotten Son of God And yet farther the love of God in Christ towards men is most largly and liberally diffusive to the filling all those that doe become willing receavers and enterteiners of it with its owne fulnes and unsearchable riches of divine treasure shewing itself not in word only but in deed and in truth to all those that are taken into cohabitation with it as the habitable part of its earth The cords of this love are the cords of a man attracting by arguments exceedingly adaequate and suited to the reason and understanding of man Where lies then this great mystery that it should be impossible for man to continue in the love which God commands and declares as the law he is to observe and performe upon the severest penalties of his displeasure Is it not rather indeed a grosse mistake for any to thinke or say so And are we not rather to conclude and affirme that it was not only possible for man to have performed this great and comprehensive duty of continuing in the love of God which is the fulfilling of all law before his fall but is so still by such restoration of strength and ability as men doe receave by the vertue of Christs death and resurrection Man in his first creation was furnished with an ability to be his owne keeper in that righteous and good frame wherein he came fresh and lively out of Gods hands with which he girds himself and goes whithersoever he will He was created unto good workes that he should walke in them he had the enlightning and quickning influence of Gods spirit to assist and direct him therein Yea he was so intimately ioyn'd with the Lord the spirit in love likenes and agreement that it may truly be sayd his soule was as it were a part of his joyned and continued to him as the habitable part of his earth the temple which he built for himselfe to dwell in And must it not needs be very irksome and painfull to depart be cut of disioynted and separated by our iniquity from him that is our life But as man hath thus a righteous and reasonable soule which ought to be guided by the mind and law of his God so hath he also a power of girding and turning himself according to the free motion of his owne will He hath in his soule a changable principle which can move and conclude either way to good or evil according to the differing report and representation that is made to him by the one or other part of his mind that is his intellectuall or sensuall nature of both which he is composed as hath bin shewed So then according to the arguments given by these different parts of his composition on the one hand or on the other being furnished with a competent measure of divine light to discerne and conclude aright as to the way he should goe God leavs him so far forth in the hand of his owne counsell as to be at liberty to chuse and determine within himself as it shall seem best to him In this vnconstant and moveable estate of man this dividednes and wavering of mind inclinable to good and also to evill under the shew of good man being left free and without constraint what is it possible for him to doe can he love the Lord his God with all his heart soule mind and strength and his neighbour as himself and can he continue so to doe unchangably and perpetually The answer very breifly may be 1. That it is possible for man to be perpetually moved in and by that love to God which is required by the law 2. It is possible for man considered either as before or since the fall to move himselfe in the performance of this his duty for a much longer continuance then he shews himself willing and inclinable to do it in his mutable state 3. It must reasonably be supposed that while man reteins such a changable principle and fountaine of action in him as the freedom of his owne will and to be in his owne keeping and at his owne dispose his obedience to Gods law and his walking with him must needs be as God him self complains at an all-adventures and without any stedfastnes in his Covenant But he that as single and at his owne dispose in the freedom of his owne will cannot keep himself firme and stedfast in the performance of his duty may so yeild himselfe to be bound up in the will and motion of another who is unchangable that he may be kept in the power thereof unmoveable and free from all danger of departing or turning aside to the right hand or to the left from the holy and streight way of Gods Commandements And this seeming bondage to the will of another is the truest greatest and most absolute freedome being that which falls to mans share as he comes to be actually united with Christ in the band of the choicest and most excellent marriage union We may then safely conclude that it was possible
to do all things for the Truth attēded with a kind of powerfull impotency or impossibility of doing any thing against the Truth What other liberty thē this is left to the holy and elect āgels that are by a secōd work of Christs hāds made immutably good all possibility 〈…〉 in them to evill being removed and utterly and for ever taken away from them This likewise is all the freedom left to Jesus the Son of Man whereby when the evill one comes he finds nothing in him because he and the father are one in their willing power in exact likenes and agreement God himself also the most free agent of all never had the least possibility or fredom to evill He hath not the least ability that way To work evill is utterly impossible to him True fredom then is a power to will immutably that which is good to do it not only without any resistance or hindrance from within him that wills or does it but against all the tempting or attempting power of any other person or thing without him that might induce any chang of mind if it were possible Thus God is most free who tempts none nor can himself be tempted to or by evill And thus is he free who is fully born of God into a likenes and conformity with his divine fredom of will nor can he sin because he is born of God and so far as the immortall seed in him is his keeper the evill one cannot touch him or be able to get within him but at last is totally and finally overcome by him This is the love that with a holy and delightfull efficacy attractivenes and perswasivenes carries the regenerate soule captive to the obedience of faith constraining it with the greatest readines and delight to run the race of Gods commandement Christ is responsible for us also to his father that none of us shal be lost but he will rayse us up at the last day perfected in this love against which there is no law or penalties by the law that are in force because it is the very end for which the law was at first delivered unto man Through the power of this love the inward man of the heart is bound up as in a bundle of life in and with the active and quickning power of the holy and blessed will of Christs manhood And the will of the sensual and inferiour part of our soule which is as the door and mouth to the inward man is so conformed subjected and bound up in unity of operation and agreemēt with it as that where the heart so beleevs in Christ and loves him by the mouth belonging to that heart he is answerably confessed and glorified and comes at length by both in exact harmony to be immutably served and possessed world without end In this third sort of beleevers hearers and doers of the law and will of God under the teaching and outward ministry of the Scriptures this love is and dwells These are the truly regenerate heirs according to promise that are rooted grounded and made stedfast with God in his Covenant These are they that through the transforming and prevailing power of Christs love dwelling and working in them are drawne to that sight and knowledg of the father and of the Son and of the unity and agreement of will that is between thē which flesh and blood cannot reveale They are taught also to employ and make use of their naturall ability and strength in the restored fredom of their will so as to answer the end for which that liberty was first given which was not that they should therein be their owne keepers but suffer thēselvs to be kept and subjected under the Rule that God would send and give unto them for that purpose to lead them in the right way evidently trod by himself that is the way of the crosse and true selfdeniall which does infallibly guide and unmoveably keep the wayfairing man that walks in it from all possibility of erring or falling short of entring into the promised land and true Rest in which eternall blessednes consists And in this they are instructed by the sacraments of baptisme and the Lords supper So much by way of answer to the third particular enquiry in order to the clearing up what is sought after in the 3d generall querie in this discourse 4. The 4th particular enquiry under the same 3d generall head demands how man comes in a judiciall manner to be hardned by God made a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction with an impossibility to chang his mind from evill to good any more then those that are truly saved can change from good to evill These are in a state that can never be repented of nor is there need The other are in a sad estate even such as admits of no repentance neither no though with Esau they do seek it carefully and with tears The answer then to this query may be plain and short from what hath bin already shewen at large The steps and degrees by which men come into this deplorable condition take as followeth By the good will and patience which is shewed to them by the redeemer and by them abused do men come to this judiciall hardning and fixednes in evill Christ is content freely to begin anew with all mankind as he is that word of the beginning unto them which works their restoration more or lesse towards their primitive state as man was created in Covenant with God before any breach hapned And he does commit their soule so restored againe to their owne keeping and under the same law and condition as before save only that now if they be found wilfully to break off and depart from God a second time crucifying the Son of God a fresh and thereby putting him to opē shame there remains no more sacrifice for their sin no restoration out of it no chang of mind from it or aversnes to it but a perpetuall condemnation of them as they justly deserve to be made bondslaves to sin and Satan for ever whose counsell and will they have so inexcusably followed and preferred before Gods And the higher they have bin raised up in light and in the participatiō of heavenly gifts by them abused through the undue exercise of that free will to which they are left the deeper will they sink in everlasting torments and sorrow to all eternity through the sense they shall have of their slighting resisting and rejecting against their owne soules the operations of the spirit of love the yeilding whereunto had bin the only way to have made them inheritours of it as well as others They fondly preferred their conceited way of being saved in the single exercise of their owne freewill and choice before that way which the love and faithfulnes of God had chosen for them and chalked out to them by the rule of the crosse in the knowledg of Christ and him crucified evidently set before the eyes of their very naturall man
the law of God and hath given up itself to the rule of the declared enemy of God the spirit of darknes that rules in the children of disobedience but it is also that by which the outward man of the heart called Coll. 3. the members of the mind that are upon the earth withdraws itself from its due subjection and conformity to the dictates of right reason that are suggested to it from time to time by the enlightned spirit of the mind and gives up itself to vile sensuall lusts and affections that carry the whole man captive to sin and death to commit all iniquity with greedines and run into all manner of unrighteousnes The mind which in both these respects is dead is a downright servant of sin and is free from righteousnes or hath freed itself intirely from under its command and Rule as it is written know ye not that to whom ye yeild yourselvs Servants to obey his Servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousnes The freedom wherein man was at first created was such as whereby he might freely and voluntarily fix himself or rather be fixed in the service of righteousnes through beleeving or in the service of sin by unbeleif By the one he might have bin for ever free from all danger or possibility of serving sin or turning from the service of righteousnes By the other he might in such manner free and discharg himself from the service of righteousnes as never to be receaved into it againe but be for ever condemned to the unchangeable servitude of sin as his punishment The first use man made of this primitive freedom was to free and turn himself out of the service of righteousnes and yeild up himself in subjection to sin And the work of Christ the redeemer is to turn him back againe from the service of sin and power of Satan unto God setting him in as good a condition as at first yea farther to free him for ever from any possibility of becoming a servant to sin any more if the fault be not in himself This restoring renewing and regenerating of man by the power and workmanship of the redeemer in whom we are anew created unto good works is frequently tearmed in scripture a resurrection or quickning from the dead But now this renewing work flowing from the spirit of Christ into fallen man admits of severall measures and degrees which are accompanied with answerable operations and effects upon the mind 1. It turns man back againe from sin to righteousnes conferring upon him the use and exercise of his free will in Gods service upon the like tearms of mutability as he had it at the first creation thereof And to be thus anew created in and by Christ Jesus unto good works is in a degree and measure to be quickned with Christ and raised by him from the death of sin as sin is the transgression of the law They that are under this worke and chang wrought by Christ upon their hearts are yet but under the law or under the rule and command given by God in the first Covenant This ministry of the spirit of Christ doth in Scripture passe under the name of Moses John Baptist and Eliah as the voice of the messenger going before but not the voice of the Son of God himself in his owne person 2dly Therefore there is a farther and an additionall work to this which supposes this chang first to be wrought the operation whereof is to make this a repentance never to be repented of this chang unchangable by bringing the mind into that better state of fredom which is for ever exclusive of sin or of any possibility to chang and return to the service of sin againe This second work enlarges the first making it more entire within itself then ever it was in yeilding subjection to righteousnes as transform'd into the whole will of God with an impossibility to chang or turn in affection from it This is properly the workmanship of the Son himself called Regeneration which carries in it the fredom with which the Son makes all those free indeed whom he causes to receave him in this gift of himself to them likening them unto himself in that lowly meek and subjected frame of spirit wherein as the Son of man he is prepared to se God and to do alwayes that which is welpleasing in his sight Those that are under this second work are properly beleevers having faith of the right kind saving faith And they are therein created by Christ Jesus unto good works with another manner of will and spirit then those are of that are but restored only unto the service of righteousnes and chuse there to be left to work out their owne salvation in the single principles of their rectified nature and free will For in them that freewil offering Rom. 12.1 is made the life of that flesh is offered up in sacrifice which the law of faith commands as the only way to exclude boasting or a being puffed up in the service of righteousnes and indeed to exclude all possibility of finall relapse from God or returne to the service of sin This flesh that would live in us is the power we have to lust and desire move and act of ourselvs in the use and exercise of our primitive free will either to good or evill as likes us best This freedom may either be taken away from us by force or we may be brought through a principle of love begotten in us of our owne choice to resigne it up into the hands of another ordeined of God thereunto to keep and manage for us This is that Christ tells us John 6 37 40. All that the father giveth me shall come to me and it is his will that of all that he hath given me I should lose none but raise them up againe at the last day For I came downe from heaven not to do my owne will but the will of him that sent me And this is his will that he that seeth the Son as he lives not in his owne will but in the will of the father and beleeveth on him living in the will of the Son and not in his owne will should have everlasting life and be raised up at the last day To be taken off then by this gift and drawing of the father from all desire to live in our owne will or be at our owne arbitrary single choise and dispose and to be made willing and contented to live in the will of Christ to be built up in a conjunction of spirit a unity and simplicity in the motion of our will with his will enable us truly to say with the Apostle that now not we live but Christ liveth in us and the life that we now live in the flesh or as yet in the mortal body we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself up to death for us that he