produceth an infinite and Eternal Knowledge of himself as most perfect and most excellent Thus he cannot know himself and be known of himself But he must love himself and be infinitely and eternally enamoured with his own Beauty which is sufficient sully and perpetually to satiate and content himself within himself And hence ariseth his full happiness For he is fully happy to all Eternity without any Man Angel without Heaven Earth the World or any Creature by acting thus upon himself Therefore perfect and full happiness is accounted one of the Attributes of God And if he were not happy he could not make the intellectual Beings for ever happy by a more full communion with him and enjoyment of him From these immanent acts of the Deity upon himself some conceive arise the Relations of Father Son and Holy Ghost and that stupendious and profound mystery of the glorious Trinity The Doctrine whereof is so far above Natural Reason improved to the highest pitch that the greatest Wits in the World have been confounded in the search thereof and many have denied and are offended with the Terms of Trinity and Persons as not found in the Holy Scriptures But first let us hear what the Scripture saith of this great mystery The Apostles Commission and Charge from Christ was To teach or Disciple all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost Math. 28. 18. And there are Three which bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 5. 7. In the former place we may observe § II 1. One Name of three the Father Son and Holy Ghost And whether we take the Name for the Eternal Deity as the word in the Hebrew sometimes signifies or for Worship or for Power yet there is but one Name one Worship one Power of the Father Son and Holy Ghost 2. The Father Son and Holy Ghost are three 3. That the Father is the first the Son the second the Holy Ghost the third in order 4. That the Father as the Father is not the Son nor the Holy Ghost nor the Son as Son either the Father or the Holy Ghost nor the Holy Ghost as the Holy Ghost either of them 5. The Father hath relation to the Son as the Father of the Son the Son as the Son of the Father to the Father and the Holy Ghost being the Breath and Spirit of the Father and the Son hath relation to both and both to Him 6. Here are three distinct Relatives and three distinct Relative Properties 7. The Father as God hath no relation to the Son but as the Father noâ— the Son as God to the Father but as the Son And so the Holy Ghost not as God but as the Holy Ghost to them boâ—h as breathed by and proceeding from both In the latter place 1 Joh. 5. 7. we may observe 1. That there be three the Father Son and Holy Ghost 2. That the Father is first the Son is second the Holy Ghost is third in order as before 3. He that in the former place was called the Son is here called the Word 4. That the Word was in the beginning was with God was God and by it all things were made And by the Son it 's said All things were created and all things consist by him Col. 1. 15 16. From whence it follows That the Father and the Son are but one Creatour and so but one God together with the Holy Ghost to whom the incommunicable Perfections and Works of the Deity are attributed For as the Spirit of Man is the same Substance and Being with man and knows the things of man so the Spirit which searcheth and knoweth the deep things of God must needs be one and the same Substance and Being with God The Father was the Father before he created the World or sent his Son The Word and Son of God was the Word and Son beâ—ore the Word was made Flesh And the Holy Spirit was the Spirit before he sanctified either Man or Angel Yet the Father was more clearly manifested to be the Father by sending his Son into the World and the Son to be the Son by the incarnation and work of Redemption And the Holy Ghost to be the Holy Ghost by the Work of Sanctification The Word which was made flesh was coeternal and coequal with the Father though the Humane Nature assumed by the Word was neither coequal nor co-eternal These Three are called Persons § III by some of the Greek Fathers and most of the later Latine Christian Writers A Person was defined long ago by Occam to be Suppositum intellectuale an individual intellectual Substance subsisting by it self And in this strict Sense three Persons as three Angels three men are three distinct individual Substances But thus the Father Son and Holy Ghost are not Three Persons for then there should be three Gods whereas they are but one God and one Divine Substance though they be considered as they are represented according to these three distinct Relations and Relative Properties These three are so intimately united that they are but one individual substance And this Unity of three is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latines Circumincession So that there can be no inequality amongst them in respect of Time Power Dignity or any other ways One may be considered before another in respect of order or origination as some of the School-men speak The Generation of the Son and the Spiration of the Holy Ghost which are wonderful and to us unsearchable had no beginning of Time nor can have end of Duration for they are Eternal In these high and glorious Productions the Essence cannot properly be said to be communicated Some of the Ancients § IV and many of the Modern Writers have denyed the Trinity of Persons and the Deity of the Son and Holy Ghost The Socinians argue against both 1. Against the Trinity of Persons alleaging that three Persons are three individual distinct Substances and thence they infer that if there be three distinct Persons in the Deity then there are three distinct Gods In this Argument they take for granted that in this great mystery the word Person is taken properly and strictly which no understanding Christian ever thought And this is gross and intolerable especially in men otherwise learned and judicious 2. Against the second they argue That because the Father in some places is said to be the onely true God therefore neither the Son nor Spirit can be properly Summus ille Deus that Supream God For example Crellius one of the most learned and judicious of them from those words of our Saviour This is life Eternal to know thee the onely true God argues to this purpose That if the Father be the onely true God then the Son and the Holy Ghost cannot be God This is so unworthy that it deserves no answer In that place the Son is considered as Man and flesh
Word and Son of God for his Natures God and Man for his Offices Prophet Priest and King His Work of Redemption hath two Parts 1. His Humiliation 2. His Exaltation in his Resurrection Ascension Session at his Father's right-hand and investiture with all power in Heaven and Earth whereby he is made Lord and Judge of the World The Application whereby we are made partakers of the Benefits of Christ's Redemption is made by the Spirit and Word working Faith whereby sinful men are made Members of Christ and of the Universal Church which is the society of Saints The benefits of this Redemption applyed and whereof the Church is partaker are Remission of sins Resurrection and Life Everlasting Amongst many other Forms of Confessions § V and Creeds delivered by the Ancients I thought good to pitch upon one in Tertullian especially that in his Prescriptions against Hereticks where we read thus REgula est autem Fidei ut jam hinc quod credamus profiteamur illa seilicet qua Credimus Vnum omnino Deum esse nec Alium prater Mundi Conditorem qui universa de Nihilo produxerit per Verbum Suum primo Omnium â—missum Id verbum Filium ejus appellatum in Nomine Dei variè visum Patriarchis in Prophetis semper auditum Postremo delatum ex Spiritu Dei Patris et virtute in Virginem Mariam Carnem factam in utero ejus et ex eâ natum Hominem et esse Jesum Christum exinde Praedicasse Novam Legem et Novam Promissionem Regni Coelorum virtutes fecisse Fixum cruci Tertiâ Die Resurrexisse In Coelos ereptum Sedere ad Dextram Patris Misisse Vicariam Vim Spiritus Sancti qui Credentes agat Venturus cum Claritate ad Sumendos Sanctos in Vitae aeternae et Promissorum Coelestium Fructum et ad Prophanos judicandos igni perpetuo facta utriusque Partis Resusâ—itatio ne cum Carnis Resurrectione Haec Regula à Christo ut probabitur instituta The reason why I propose this § VI is because its the most full and perfect form of Confession both in Irenaeus and Tertullian Concerning which several things are observable 1. That it agrees with all the rest for Matter and Method 2. It 's most exactly Consentaneous to plain and clear Scripture 3 The Method is grounded upon our Saviours Creed 4. It more fully and perfectly out of the Scriptures informs us of the Person and Natures of Christ and so of his Incarnation For that Word by which the World and so man was created was made flesh 5. As in it we have God the Father creating the World by his Word and the same Word by the Spirit assuming flesh redeeming man so we have the same God by his Spirit sanctifying man more expresly delivered then in any of the rest 6. We may observe that that Word which was first uttered and spoken in the Creation before any thing could be created was uttered and produced from everlasting as a lively Representation of God himself to himself 7. That as the Spirit so the Word was in the Prophets as Prophets as without neither of which they could have been Prophets 8. The Government of God Redeemer is therein more expresly declared then in most of the other Forms For the Government of Creation being presupposed 1. The manner of acquiring a New Power by the Humiliation of the Word made flesh 2. His Investiture with this Power in his Exaltation 3. The Exercise of it 1. In giving the New Law with a Promise of Heaven's Kingdom 2. In adjudging men either Prophane to everlasting fire or Holy unto the enjoyment of Life everlasting upon the Resurrection of both in the last and Universal Judgment are in these few Words delivered plainly and clearly 9. This Form was received by the Church from the Apostles and by the Apostles from Christ. 10. That not any but Hereticks did question any thing in this Creed 11. Seeing these Hereticks professed themselves Christians and did acknowledge Christ and this had continued from Christ and the Apostles Universally and without controversie before these Hereticks did arise therefore it did sufficiently prescribe against all Heresies which different from it did arise afterwards The Analysis of these Creeds § VII and Confessions according to the ensuing Discourse intended takes in the matter and method in general of the former yet is delivered in other expressions To understand it the better you must observe 1. That it presupposeth the principal Subject of the Holy Scriptures to be the Kingdom of God and that the Doctrine thereof is contracted in the Ancient Creeds and Forms of Confession 2. That in a Kingdom or Government there must be a King or Governour invested with Power which is 1. Acquired 2. Exercised It 's exercised 1. In constituting a Common-Wealth 2. In the Administration of the same The Common-wealth is administred by Laws and Judgments Laws determine the Duties and Dues of men Judgment renders the Dues of Rewards or Punishments according to the observation or violation of the Laws These things observed We have in this Kingdom 1. The KING 2. His Government The King is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost who alone is worthy of all honour glory power and dominion for evermore His Government presupposeth his Power which is 1. Acquired 2. Exercised It 's acquired by Creation as it is continued by Preservation For immediatly upon the Creation he became the Supream Universal and Absolute Lord and continues so for evermore by his perpetual Preservation For seeing he made all things even Men and Angels of nothing and they do always for ever wholly depend upon him therefore he must needs have an absolute full and perpetual Propriety in and Dominion over them and they must needs be his Servants and Vassals This Power thus acquired began to be exercised immediatly upon the Creation 1. In the general Government of all things 1. By a constitution of an Order amongst them 2. By a Direction of them according to that Order to their ends 2. In the special Government of the immortal and intellectual Creatures who alone were capable of Laws Rewards and Punishments These speciall Creatures were Angels and Men. Amongst the Angels he 1. Established an Order 2. According to that Order he doth govern them and exercise his Power 1. In giving them Laws 2. In judging them according to those Laws Some of the Angels continued loyal and obedient and were confirmed in perpetual estate of Holiness and Happiness which was their Reward The disloyal and Apostate Angels were cast down from Heaven and reserved in everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the Judgment of the great day Jude v. 6. This was their Doom and the judgment of God upon the Angels The Government of Men is two-fold The first of Justice The second of Mercy Of Justice in the first Adam of Mercy in the second In the first after God became his Lord and Man his Subject in a special manner he
shall not ever be totally in Act. For he doth not effect all things which he can but those things which he will He is said to be pure Act in respect of his Essence and eternall acting upon himself And this power as an Attribute is pure act and in that respect is properly actual strength not power physically taken It extends to all things possible and is able to produce them But we must not think that they are possible or producible in themselves but in respect of this power And it 's to be conceived first as able to effect before it actually effect any thing as it actually effecteth all things that are effected It 's the root and originall of all created active Power and all Created causes are effects of it and act as acted and moved by him How it acts and concurrs with free Agents when they sin the Wit of Man cannot clearly understand and satisfie it self But this is certain that as the Decree so the Power is alwayes regulated by the Wisdom and Juctice of God It 's great and irresistible For though men and Angels may disobey his Lawes yet they cannot resist or hinder his power For he is in the Heavens and hath done whatsoever he pleased Psal. 115. 3. And whatsoever the Lord pleased that did He in Heaven and in Earth in the Seas and all deep places Psal. 135. 6. Therefore if God promise great things and such as to man may seem impossible we may safely rely upon Him What is said shall certainly be done Thus â—art the Works of God have been considered in respect of the Essence § VIII It remaines that we observe them with respect unto the Father Son and Holy Ghost In this later respect the Authours of Theologicall Systems inform us of two things Their Co-operation Distinct manner of Working The Co-operation is that whereby the Father Son and Holy Ghost concur as one Individual efficient cause of every Work and effect out of themselves In this respect that 's true that Opera Trinitatis ad Extra sunt indivisa What one is said to do all are to be understood to do The Father doth not create without the Word nor was the Word made flesh nor did redeem without the Father nor the Holy Ghost sanctifie without the Father and the Word neither do the Father and the Son any thing without the Holy Ghost For all the Works of God ad extra do necessarily presuppose the immanent necessary acts of the Deity upon it self Yet we must not conceive them as any wayes unequal either in themselves or in their working nor as three distinct agents uniting their forces joyntly to produce one and the same effect For one Individuall Essence must needs if it act be one Individuall Agent in the production of all Creatures and effecting all his works Therefore we find the Creation and other Works of God ascribed as well unto the Word and Spirit as to the Father and for the most part to them all as to one God The manner of their concurrence is that § IX whereby the Father worketh by the Word and Spirit the Son from the Father by the Spirit and the Spirit from them both This doth imply that the manner of their Work is distinct yet it 's very difficult to conceive the distinction or difference We read that the Father doth many things by the Word and Spirit but never that the Word or Spirit did any thing by the Father All things were made by the Word and without him was not any thing made that was made John 1. 3 And by him were all things created and by him all things consist Col. 1. 16 17. And God the Father is said to have made the Worlds by him Heb. 1 2. The Father will quicken our bodyes by his Spirit dwelling in us Rom. 8. 11. And he revealed the deep things of his Gospel by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 10. And God elected the Thessalonian Christians to Salvation through the Sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes. 2. 13. We have some resemblance hereof in the soul of man which being one individuall essence is one individuall agent It conâ—riveth all its works by the counsell of the understanding determines them by his will and is ready to effect them by his active power When it actually produceth any thing the Will commands the understanding directs and the power executeth The Will is first and begins the understanding is the second and goes on the power is the last and finisheth the Work And these three inseparably and individually concur efficiently to produce the effect as one efficient And the Will directs by the understanding and executes by understanding directing the power and by the Power Acting according to the Understanding How Redemption is appropriated to the â—on and Sanctification to the Holy Ghost must be considered hereafter In these things We must be sober and not Curious We must neither confidently affirm any thing as a Divine Truth which is not evident unto us out of the Scripture nor Peremptorily deny any thing because We do not clearly see it in the Scriptures For so the Sadduces deny'd the Resurrection because they could not see it in the Book of God Though it was in that book as our Saviour made it evident These things premised concerning the Works of God in general § X I will proceed to say something of them in particular Though they be many yet may they all be reduced to three heads For they all are either works of Creation of Preservation or of Ordination Some bring these under two heads the first of Creation the second of Providence And by Providence they understand both Preservation and Government But this is but difference in Words The first work whereby the Eternall King did first acquire his power is Creation Which is a Work of God whereby in the beginning he created Heaven and Earth and all things therein This work must be considered Absolutely in it self Respectively as aground of absolute power And in it self Generally Specially in respect of man In it self generally it 's A Work or Act of God yet this Act is not immanent but emanant and transient yet farr different from the Acts of any Creature and from many other Acts of God It had an objâ—ct logically considered no subject existent For the Creature as existent was an effect and not the subject of it As Cameracensis doth distinguish of Predestination That Praedestinatio Activa est Deus Praedestinans Passiva est Res Praedestinata So Creatio activa est Dâ—uâ— creans Passiva Res creata So that in Creation we have God and his Creativity as Occam and Bacon expresse it and the thing created It is a proper Act of God and can be truly affirmed of nothing else if it were not so God by this work could not be distinguished from all other things as by this act we read in Scripture he is The first part of the Creation presupposed no matter
Hatred The Subject and Persons who shall suffer are not onely Superstitious and Idolatrous Parents but their Children The extent is to the third and fourth Generation This punishment threatned is expressed in the word Visit I will visit God doth visit sometimes in mercy sometimes in justice and displeasure Here it 's Visitation in justice rendred by the Septuagint in this place by a word signifying to render and in many other places by a word signifying to Revenge Both these together teach us that here to visit is to render vengeance and justly to punish And when God saith He will do it it informs us of His determination that it is such that upon the Commission of the Sin the Punishment shall certainly be due and the Delinquent liable unto it and shall unavoidably suffer it if it be not prevented by timely repentance and God's Pardon This punishment is either Temporal or Eternal private or publique Sword or Famine or Pestilence and sometimes the Captivity sometimes the ruine of Families Cities States Nations besides the Eternal Poenalty This Commination was effectual and Israel found this Judgment certain and felt it often lye heavy upon them This as other sins against other Commandements bring the like Judgments upon Christians under the Gospel Yet so that as it was pardonable unto them upon repentance by vertue of the Promise So upon the like tearms it is to us by vertue of Repentance and Faith in Christ already come The Sin which makes liable to this Punishment is hatred of God Of those that hate me The Sin of such as hate Him in this place is the making and worshipping of Images To hate in Hebrew is many times not to love or not to love so much as 〈◊〉 due we should And as a Woman who affects another man besides her Husband though she may love her husband yet doth not love him so much as she should do Her love is not the love of a Wife as a Wife to her Husband as her Husband for that should be singular and exclude all Corrivality and So 〈◊〉 So whosoever is inclined and affâ—cted to Image-worship cannot love God as God who is jealous and can endure no Competitour To serve God and Baal is impossible according to His Rules The subject of this Punishment and Visitation is the Fathers that is the Idolatrous Fathers And these are principally in the sin and so principal in the punishment These are the Authors and first beginners of this sin and by their example instruction and direction cause their Posterity to sin and that long after they are dead So Jeroboam made Israel to sin and his institution and example began that sin I which once begun continued till the time of that Kingdoms ruine many years after The extent of this Penalty is such that it doâ—h not stay in the Parents but proceeds and reacheth the Children and not onely the immediate Children but Posterity to the third and fourth Generation This is not so to be understood as though the period wherein the penalty expires were the fourth Generation But in Scripture three and four Generations are many Generations and God doth not precisely limit Himself to this or that determinate number It 's true that in the time of four Generations the Posterity of some Idolaters may be either cut off or reformed Yet it seems unreasonable that Children should bear and suffer the Punishments of their Fathers sins And therefore some restrain the Visitation to Temporal Punishments and determine the Children to be onely such as continue in their Fathers sins And it 's true that the Children by repentance many times escape the Punishments deserved both by their own and their Fathers Crimes and no person truly pâ—nitent shall suffer Eternal Penalties for the sins of their Fathers no not of their Father Adam Yet this is certain that not onely penitent Children but such as were never guilty of their Parents Idolatry may suffer for the sins of their Fathers at least Temporally So Daniel with his three Associates and Fellow-Captives Ezra Nehemiah Zorobabel Joshuah the High-Priest lay unâ—er the guilt of their Fathers Idolatry as one person in God's own account with them Yea God doth inflict not only temporal but spiritual Judgments for the sins of Ancestours So the cursed Posterity of Ham must be Servants many years for his sin The Posterity of the first Apostate Gentiles lay under God's displeasure destitute of the means of Conversion for 2000 years at least And the Children of the unbelieving Jews who crucified the Lord Jesus and refused to believe the Gospel abide in Bâ—indness and under the Curse for these 1600 years and upward The Countries and the Eastern Empire where Image-Worship was establisht in * a General Councel is over-run and lyes now under the power of the Turk that great Oppressour of Christians and Enemy to Christ and the greatest part of them are deprived of the Gospel And all the Western-Nations and other Countries and People who received at the hands of the great Whore the Cup of Fornication are delivered up to strange Doctrines and God hath sent them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye and many false Miracles and other things contrary not onely to Scripture but Reason and Sense and this for many years The pretence of the Worship of the true and living God and Jesus Christ His Blessed Son and the subtile Distinction devised to mâ—intain their Image Worship will not justifie them but prove that the great City built upon seven Hills which in the time of the Divine Apocalyptist reigned over the Nations even whilest She professeth her Self Christian is Babylon in a Mystery Histories tell us that the Old Babylon which once was an Imperial Seat and now a ruinous Heap was the first and most Idolatrous Ciâ—y in the World and that Image Worship and Idolatry was there first established by a Law But her Whoredoms were open and manifest and she profest her self to be what she was Yet Babylon in a Mystery professeth to believe in one onely true God and to renounce all false gods yet in practice is fearfully Idolatrous The last Reason is § VIII from the Promise of mercy to a thousand Generations of them that love God and keep His Commandements By Mercy understand such Blessings as God promised in the Law to Israel which are often mentioned in the Books of Moses especially Levit. 26. Deut. 28. The Subject of these Mercies are the Israelites 1. As loving God 2. Keeping His Commandements 1. The love of God in this place is opposed to the former Hatred and is that pure and chaste affection of the Soul towards God whereby it abhors all Image-Worship and even the appearance of it in toying with Images or the use of any thing in Religious Service invented by Man Therefore as Superstition Idolatry and all Worship of Images is called Fornication and Adultery contrary to the Contract and Covenant made with God as our God
is here Virtually and Really present by his Spirit in this Sacrament as in all other his Ordinances and in a speciall manner and the same powerfull and comfortable to the worthy receiver The Papists have put a difference between the Sacrifice of the Masse § XVII and the Sacrament of the Eucharist and for the former Service they have their direction from the Missal for the Later from the Rituall Yet Christ did but institute a Sacrament and not a Sacrifice and in the same the bread and wine is commanded to be used in blessing the giving and receiving of both and not the offering of the body and blood of Christ for that offering was once made never to be made again And whereas they do affirm that the Sacrifice of the Masse is properly a Sacrifice Propitiatory for the Sins of the living and the dead and the same with that Sacrifice which Christ offered upon the Crosse it cannot be true neither can it be credible to any rationall unprejudiced person For a Sacrifice properly so taken especially ilasticall or propitiatory is essentially bloody as wherein the thing Sacrificed is first slain then offered But the Sacrifice of the Crosse as they themselves confesse is INCRUENTUM unbloody and therein is no death of the thing Sacrificed Neither can it be the same with that which Christ offered upon the Crosse For to that it was essential that Christ's body should be broken and the blood shed and offered unto God without spot by the eternall Spirit and without this Death and offering it could not have bin this Sacrifice at all and this Sacrifice was but offered once and once offered was never to be offered again For once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 10. 14. So that we have here but one Sacrifice and the same once offered yet of eternall vertue If this Sacrifice of the Masse were the same which they affirm with the Sacrifice upon the Crosse it must needs be granted that it is propitiatory But they confesse 1. That it is incruentum 2. That it is not Expiatorium Redemptorium 3. That it 's only Commemoratorium Applicatorium By the First they grant that it 's not essentially the same By the Second that it 's not effectively the same By the Third that it 's only a Commemoration and a meanes of the Application of the same And if they would lay aside the Sacrifice of the Masse and acknowledge the Sacrifice of the Crosse and celebrate the Sacrament as it was instituted by Christ We should easily grant that therein there is a Commemoration of Christ's death and Sacrifice once offered and that this Sacrament is a meanes whereby that Sacrifice is applied Before I conclude this Doctrine of the Sacraments § XVIII I will examine 1. Who have power and right to administer them 2. To whom they may lawfully be administred 3. Whether they are to be administred according to humane judgment which is fallible or divine judgment which is infallible For the first of these Who have power to administer That 's easily and briefly determined For they who are trusted with the word and have Commmission to preach the Gospel they have power to administer these Sacraments This in respect of Baptism appears in the mission of the Apostles into all Nations For by that Commission they who must teach must baptize And we never read of any Commission given to any others either to baptize or administer the Lords supper And the constant practice of the universall Church so far as known to us hath bin conformable to this Commission What may be done in case of necessity which God not man hath brought us unto is another thing For in such cases God dispenseth with many things required in his own Institution As for the second question § XIX To whom may they be administred The answer in generall is 1. They may be administred to such as have a right unto them who are Christ's disciples and may be judged fit to be members of the Church visible and in the number of Christians 2. We must distinguish between the subjects who have a right to the actuall participation of Baptism and such as have aright to the actual participation of the Lords supper 3. Of such as may be subjects capable of Baptism some are Adulti and these if they be disciples and manifest themselves to be such they no doubt may be baptized But all the controversy in our unhappy dayes is Whether Infants of Christians and believing Parents may be baptized or no In this controversy I shall deliver my knowledge and judgment as briefly as may be 1. Infants as Infants and Children of Turks Pagans unbelieving Jews are not capable of Baptism neither as Infants nor Infants of such Parents 2. Infants as Infants and considered Physically as distinct persons from their Parents are not capable of or have any right to Baptism 3. The Infants of Christian Parents so considered as distinct persons from their Christian Parents as Christians have no right unto it 4. The Infants of Christian and believâ—ng Parents considered as one person with them as Christians and believers have right to Baptism For if they be one person with them as Christians they must needs have some kind of right to Baptism as their Parents have 5. They have not this right from them by Nature nor humane Laws for so they only receive their humane nature from them as their Parents have humane nature and this naturally and if their Parents be free or noble by humane Laws they derive freedom or nobility 6. That they derive this right from their Parents as Christians it 's from Gods free mercy and gracious ordination which includes the Children in Covenant with the Parents 7. Children are one person with their parents both by the Law of God and the Laws of Men and that in many things and especially in Obligations in Priviledges in rewards and punishments By the Laws of men in civill matters we know that SUI HEREDES as the Civilians call them derive a right unto their Parents estate though there be no Testament or if a Testament and the same they be excluded because the Law grounded upon nature considers them as one person with their Parents or next kindred deceased If the Father be a subject of a free State and so bound to subjection unto the Laws the Son born of him as a subject of that State is bound to the Lawes and derives that obligation from his Father as one person with him neiâ—her is it materiall whether the Father was a subject naturall or naturaliz'd If the Father dye indebted and the Heir enter upon the estate by vertue of that Will He by the civill Law falls under the same obligation as one with the Father and is bound to discharge the debts Paul was born a Roman Act. 22. 28. and all the Priviledges of a Roman he had by birth
from his Father because his Father was a Roman If a man for his merits be invested with a Fee or estate of honour and juridiction adherent and the same investiture include him and his Heires then his Heir after his decease from that first investiture of his Father or his father first invested the estate with the honour and jurisdiction is one person with him If a Peer be convicted and condemned for high treason his estate is confiscate and the blood tainted and the Children and Family suffer as one with the person guilty These instances though others more clear and fit may be given may suffice to manifest in things civil and by humane Laws the Father or the Parents and Children to be one person I might further shew that in many cases Prince and People and also the whole State may be considered as one person and are so taken both by God and Men. Let 's inquire whether it be so in matters of Religion and by the Laws of Gods Kingdome That it is so I have made it evident out of the second Commandement of the Law morall both in punishments and blessings For not onely temporall but spirituall judgments lye upon the Children for their Fathers sins which could not be just except they be some ways one person with their Parents And all true believers derive their right unto spirituall and eternall rewards as one person with Christ and in some sort from Abraham since his time as the Father of Believers But the principal thing to be cleared is that Parents and Children are one person in religious obligations spiritual priviledges favours For obligation unto obedience to Gods Laws all Orthodox and understanding Christians will grant that Adam and all mankind were one person as Father and Children insomuch that in Adam sinning we all sinned and in him dying we all dye This could never have bin so if God both in his Laws and Judgments had not considered and accounted that in Adam bound all his were bound But this was under the government of God Creator not Redeemer Yet Abraham was under the government of Redemption and the Kingdom of grace And in him God binds his seed and Posterity yea his bought and born-servants male For thus it is written And God said unto Abraham Thou shalt keep my Covenant Thou and thy seed after thee in their generations Gen. 17. 9. Where we must note 1. That this was the first institution of Circumcision 2. That this was immediately and personally given as a Law at this time only to Abraham 3. That it did not onely bind Abraham himself but his posterity to many generations 4. That the obligation in respect of the Children was so strict that the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his fore-kin was not Circumcised that soul should be cut off from his people He had broken the Covenant ibid. vers 14. 5. That this Sacrament was a Sign and Seal of the righteousnesse by faith Rom. 4. 2. And was to continue till the time of the Gospel when the Sign of the Covenant was to be changed into that of washing with water and the faith confirmed then was in Christ to come and by that Abraham was justified but after that time the Gospel-justification was by faith in Christ already come From all this it 's evident that the obligation of the Father was the obligation of the Child And it 's further remarkable that 1. That Covenant did expresly include the Children with the Parents 2. That it was the Covenant of Righteousnesse by faith in Christ. 3. That there is no exception or exclusion nor clause to that purpose in all the Gospel as that God should contract his mercy and not extend it so far even to Christian Children in the times of the Gospel as he did in the times of the Old Testament No man that shall seriously consider this matter but will confesse that Parents are bound not onely for themselves but also for their Children too And therefore they are so oft not onely under the Law but under the Gospel to teach their Children so soon as they are capable and the Children are bound to receive their instruction and to observe the condition of the Covenant into which their Parents entred for them and theirs Therefore God saith that Abraham would command his Children and houshold after him Gen. 18. 19. Which command of Abraham had been of little force except his Children and houshold had been bound by that command which was given to him and in him to them God considering both as one person God hath so far subjected Children to their Parents Servants to their Masters and the houshold or family to the Master or Mistris of a family that neither Servants nor Children are Sui juris or in their own power but in the power of Parents and Masters so that they may command them and not onely in matters of this life but especially in religion And if they were not so much in their power and bound in them it was strange that when the Centution believed his whole houshold became believers John 4. 53. and that Lydia and her houshold the Jaylour and all his or all his house should be baptized at one time Acts 16. 15. 33 34. And surely the Child of Christian Parents is bound in his Christian Parents unto the conditions of the Covenant so as no Child of any Mahumetan Pagan or unbelieving Jew is But the principal point to be cleared in this particular is § XX How Parents and Children are one person by the Laws of God in spiritual favours and priviledges so that what the right of the Parents is the same may be the right of the Children And what these rites and priviledges are which are communicable from the Parents to the Children And here this is a certain rule that so far as God binds Children in their parents to duty so far he binds himself to Children in their Parents by his promise The Apostle saith That if the root be holy so are the branches Rom. 11. 16. Where we may observe 1. That the root are the Parents and the branches are the Children 2. That the root and branches make but one tree So parents and Children make but one body one person Politick 3. That if the root be holy the branches are holy and to be holy is a Spirituall priviledge 4. That as the branches derive their naturall Being from the root so the Children derive their spiritual priviledges to be holy from their holy Parents Yet this holinesse is not either justification or inherent righteousnesse and immediate sanctification of the Spirit For when the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the believing Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband it cannot be meant of any such sanctification neither is the holinesse of the Children of such sanctified parents any such thing It 's something whereby they are nearer the Kingdome of God then the Children of Apostate heathens Mahumetans
comfort And God knowing this doth alwayes in this particular declare the Sentence by the Execution and never did justify and person and left him unsanctified And by this Sactification doth plainly testify unto the party justified that he hath freed him from the guilt and obligation to the greatest Punishment of all Yet this Regeneration is not perfect at the first neither shall be fully perfect in Body and Soul untill the Resurrection This must needs be the first part of branch because all that follow depend upon it and without it we are uncapable of them For as God for order so far as our shallow capacity will reach is first conceived to be holy before he be conceived as happy so man must needs be The greatest and first penalty for Sin was to take away the sanctifying Spirit and the greatest mercy is to restore it again And this as all the rest is derived immediatly from Christ believed upon For by faith we first have Union then Communion with him and derive both Grace and Peace from God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and are blessed in him with all spirituall Blessings It 's called Regeneration because we are by it delivered from that most fearfull death we call the death of Sin and receive a new and spirituall life being created anew according to his Image in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse It may be said to be begun though at some distance in Vocation when ouâ— Hearts are first prepared for then informed with Faith and so we are ingrafted into Christ and made one with him Yet all this was but a preparation for it and tending unto it to complete our union with our Saviour And when we are once united that Spirit which did onely prepare us is given to abide in us constantly and first as a Spirit of Sanctification In this the foundation of eternall Joy and Glory is laid and now we begin to move directly towards our full happinesse This not onely takes away former guilt but the very Root of former guilt of Sin The second Branch is our Reconciliation § XI for being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have accesse into the Grace wherein we stand This is said to be an effect of Justification strictly taken In the words of the Apostle Rom. 5. 1 2. we must consider 1. The Condition of the party to be reconciled before he be reconciled 2. What this Peace with God is 3. Who they are that are thus reconciled and have this Peace 4. How they have it through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1. Because Reconciliation presupposeth Emnity therefore the condition of the party to be reconciled must be that he is at Emnity with God and God at Emnity with him There is Emnity between them and this is a very sad condition to be at Emnity with that God in whom all our comfort is and upon whose favour depends our spirituall and eternall happinesse The cause of this Emnity is Sin considered either in the habit or in the act or guilt By the habit and the act we are contrary to God as just and holy and God must needs abhorr us Therefore the Scripture represents Sin as base and filthy polluting the Sinner and God as pure and holy hating detesting abominating sin For nothing is so contrary to God and so odious in his sight as sinne Therefore is it said Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in Wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight Thou hatest the Workers of Iniquity â— Psal. 5. 4 5. And thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil and canst not look upon Iniquity Hab. 1. 13. And there shall in no wise enter into the new and holy Jerusalem any thing that defileth Rev. 21. 27. And without as in no wise admitted to enter are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murderers and Idolaters and who so maketh a Lye Rev. 22. 15. That is men polluted and defiled with sin are uncapable of this Society and communion with the most holy God and his most holy people Nay we are commanded to be holy as He is holy and if we be not so He will not admit us into his presence hear our Prayers accept our Persons or our Service nay He will cast us out of His Presence And though He may love us as Men yet He cannot love us as polluted with sin As sin so the Emnity begins on our part for we first sin and so are alienated and Enemies in or by our mind by wicked Works Col. 1. 21. Where the Learned Bishop of Salisbury observes 1 The miserable estate of those Colossians before they were reconciled it was an estate of Emnity and Hostility And 2 The cause and that was the mind in sin set on sin so he with Beza understands it The first Emnity therefore is from sin as sin But this is not all for sin as a transgression of the Law of God threatning punishment offends God and provokes him to anger as it makes man liable to punishment So as that God who as merciful is inclined to reward as just is bent to punish and so not onely take away his mercies but inflict Positive Penalties to take vengeance upon the sinner for the Transgression and Contempt of His Law And he that continueth in his sin without repentance must needs be an Enemy and the subject of His Wrath. God is an enemy to him not as a man but as a sinful man continuing in sin and as he is unclean he can have no fellowship with God who is Light and in whom there is no Darkness because he walks in Darknessâ— and he is deprived of his special favour and love and lies under His heavy displeasure This is the condition of the party before He be reconciled The 2d Thing to be considered is What this peace with God should be And 1 It 's peace after Emnity Therefore called Reconciliation 2 It 's a removal and taking away the emnity by taking away the cause thereof as you shall hear hereafter 3 This Emnity is so taken away that the state of the Person reconciled is not a bare Neutrality between God and him but a state of special love and favour whereupon follows an acceptation of the person and an admittance into God's presence to come with boldness and confidence unto the Throne of Grace a delight in his Prayers and Service and a Peace and quiet calm of Conscience which cannot be without great joy God before did hate hide his face cast out of his presence and man once sensible of his sin doth fear and fly from God's preâ—ence as from a conâ—uming Fire As Adam hearing the voice of God was afraid and hid himself and Israel trembled before Mount Sinai burning with fire up to the midst of Heaven Now God loves and man is bold and confident This is a special favour God bears unto his
differs in many things from all other Books especially in respect of the Authority thereof which is primarily Divine in the Original Copies secundarily in the Transcripts and Translations These sacred Writings are learned and known several ways and by several means of men that are not infallibly directed further then they follow the Scriptures rightly understood And by these especially Ministers by whom God speaks to men another way they are taught several ways in a certain order How these must be heard understood applyed so as the Hearer may attain to a Divine Faith and a Saving Knowledge Where something of the Tradition of the Church CHAP. III. The Doctrine of this Kingdom is contracted by Christ and His Apostles as such is the ground of all the Apostolical Creeds and Confessions all agreeing in method and matter The manner of the handling of the subject in this Treatise is different from that of ordinary Systems Catechisms and common places where something is said of Faith in general and of Divine Faith A Confession taken out of Tertullian CHAP. IV. Of the Divine Essence and Attributes How God's Essence is intelligible and how represented to us by certain Attributes What Attributes are and certain Rules concerning them The imperfect definition of God including all the Attributes CHAP. V. The Attributes in particular The distribution of them into Greatness Goodness In the Greatness unity infiniteness Infiniteness in Immensity from which ariseth His Incomprehensibility Vbiquity and in Eternity CHAP. VI. God's goodness being one and infinite is known by his excellent and most eminent Acts and Vertues of his Vnderstanding Will Power as His most excellent Knowledge and Wisdom the integrity of his Will and the perfection of his power CHAP. VII The Father Son and Holy Ghost their unity order distinction They are not Three Persons in that sense as Men or Angels are called persons The vanity of the Socinian Argument against the Trinity grounded upon the word person strictly taken How the Soul may be said to be an Image and imperfect resemblance of the Father Son and Holy Ghost CHAP. VIII God considered in his Regal Capacity in respect of his power acquired by Creation and continued by preservation How God is a cause of all things by his Counsel contriving Will decreeing Power actually producing The knowledge of GOD in respect of things out of Himself His Decrees free wise unchangeable The cooperation of the Persons their distinct manner of working The Creation in general the special Creation of Man The Conclusions deducible from this Principle God created Heaven and Earth and all things therein By this Work God hath a propriety in all things and may dispose of them and order them to the ends whereunto He hath made them ordinable Hence his supream universal absolute power How all things created are preserved and ordered Ordination in general the first act of God's Power acquired and continued CHAP. IX The Exercise of God's Power in general CHAP. X. The special Ordination and Government of the Intellectual and Immortall Creatures Angels Men. The government of Angels constituted administred according to certain Laws Judgment whereby some being obedient were confirmed rewarded Others disobeying rebelling and forsaking their station were punished and cast out of God's presence reserved for greater punishments in the end of the World CHAP. XI The special Government of Man which is two-fold 1. Of Justice without Christ. 2. Of Mercy in Christ. The constitution of the first Model The administrations Laws Moral Positive considered as a rule of Man's obedience God's Judgment CHAP. XII The Judgment of God-Creatour passed upon Man according to the Laws of Creation and strict Justice The Object of this Judgment 1. Man obedient rewarded with the continuance of a comfortable condition in Paradise 2. Sinning Sin in general is a disobedience to God's Laws The degrees and the consequents thereof The first sin of our first Parents in particular The causes of it The effects thereof before Judgment CHAP. XIII God's judicial proceeding against Adam Eve the Serpent Satan Their Convention Conviction Sentence Execution More particularly God's Sentence passed upon the old Serpent the Devil In which God new models his Kingdom of mercy in Christ promised and gives Man hope of Pardon and everlasting comfort CHAP. XIV The Penalties more particular both Bodily and Spiritual publike private Temporal Eternal all signified by Death to which Sin made man liable yet all by Christ removable CHAP. XV. Original sin what it is Whether it be properly so Whether Concupiscence in persons baptized be such in proper sense The derivation of Original sin Whether it be derived by Propagation or the just Judgment of God or both CHAP. XVI The principal Attributes of God manifested in this Judgment as Holinesse Justice especially Mercy in the manifestation whereof he exercised his transcendent power above the former Constitution and Laws LIB II. CHAP. I. THe Coherence of this Book with the former The difference of the two Models both the former and latter The acquisition of a New Power by the Word made Flesh and annointed taking upon him the form of a servant and being obedient to the Death of the Cross. A Description of the Redeemer His Person Nature Offices The union and distinction of the two Natures His particular Offices CHAP. II. The Humiliation of the Son of God 1. In taking upon Him the Form of a servant 2. In suffering Death A brief Historical Narration of His Sufferings 1. Before Judgment 2. His Judgment The Preparations of His Tryal His Tryal 1. Before the Ecclesiastical 2. The Civil Judge His Condemnation Execution with the Prodigies which hapned about that time CHAP. III. A more large Discourse concerning the Suffering and Death of Christ. It was an Act of Obedience to His Heavenly Father commanding Him to suffer for the sins of Man whereby He was offended To this Death He became obnoxious not onely by His Fathers Command but His own voluntary submission to be an Hostage and Surety for Man as guilty It was a Sacrifice offered freely to God as Law-giver offended and as supream Judge The effects of this sacrifice accepted are immediate mediate Immediate Satisfaction of Divine Justice and Merit What He merited for Himself what for Man How the benefit of this Sacrifiâ—â— became communicate from Christ as a Representator General and the Will of God the great Soveraign Of the extent of this benefit Whether Propitiation is to be ascribed to His active or passive Obedience severally or to both joyntly Whether this Death prevents all punishments or onely the Eternal And if not what punishments it removes The Attributes manifested in this great Work of Humiliation of the Word made Flesh by which a new Power was acquired CHAP. IV. The exercise of the new Power of God-Redeemer in the Constitution of His New Monarchy The Soveraign and Monarch The Subjects the Officers the Administrator-General the Enemies The manner of reducing Man to subjection the nature
defects of man 's Vnderstanding Memory Vtterance by immediate inspiration and direction as he did at first and will do in Heaven yet he thought good to make use of Writing which was a more certain and ordinary permanent way of continuing and propagating his Truth to many Generations for Writing is a lasting Monument and Record Whether the Word was written or any part of it upon Record before the time of Israels deliverance out of Aegypt we do not certainly know Yet this is certain that God spake unto man from the Beginning For Abel offered a better Sacrifice then Cain by Faith Heb. 11. 4. But where there is no Word there is no Faith And Enoch by Faith pleased God but this could not have been if he had not believed that God is and that he is a Rewarder of such as diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. yet this he could not believe without the Word of God If any should say that he knew all this by the Light of Nature The answer is 1. The Light of Nature is the Light of God 2. That God should reward sinful guilty man with eternal glory could not be known by Reason looking upon the Works of Creation but by Revelation from God himself or the instruction of man according to that Revelation The first Books and Writings of God's Kingdom now extant are those of Moses as the last is the Revelation of John the Divine And this Canon of the Scripture was finished within the space of Two Thousand Years or thereabout and the Authors and Pen-men of them were all the Posterity of Jacob if Luke the Evangelist be not excepted The several parts thereof were written as they were revealed at several times They are the most ancient Writings in the World known unto us They are either Historical or Doctrinal or Prophetical The Historical reacheth the Creation The Prophetical the dissolution of the World and toucheth upon Eternity to succeed They were written in Hebrew and Greek two Languages used in the midst and Center of the then known World That Moses and Malachy and all the rest of the Books should be written in the same Hebrew seems strange For that any Nation should continue their Language the same without alteration at least in the Dialect for so many Generations is not probable though possible Yet it may be God did so order it that it should be published in the Learned not the Vulgar Language of that People For the Learned Greek which is now in use amongst Schollers is the same which was used near Two Thousand Years ago Or it may be that Ezra or some inspired Prophet after the Captivity might gather them into one Body and Volum and turn them into the same Hebrew wherein we enjoy them The Old Testament which is the former part of this Canon was translated into Greek before the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour and made way for the New Testament the second part and for the Gospel to be preached in all Nations The Original Copies are properly and primarily authentical Divines and infallible Transcripts and Translations secondarily and so far as they agree with the Originals and no further That is true of the whole body of the Scripture § 7 which the Divine Apostle affirmed of his Doctrine 1 John 1. 2 3 4. That it was most excellent 1. For the Subject 2. For the certain truth 3. For the end thereof and the great good it tended unto 1. For the subject it was most excellent even the Word of Life and that Eternal Life which was with the Father which was the life and light of men which was made flesh and now is glorified at the right-hand of the Father 2. The truth of it was certain and infallible For 1. It was manifested and manifested unto them the Apostles of that Eternal Word 2. Their apprehension was clear and certain For they had heard that which was manifested They had seen it with their eyes looked upon it and handled it with their hands 3. Their Declaration of it was agreeable to the Manifestation and their knowledge of it For that which they had seen and heard they did declare 〈◊〉 write and nothing else 3. The end was Fellowship with the Apostles themselves and their Fellowship was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And they wrote these things that the joy of their Disciples might be full In like manner The subject of the Scriptures is the Kingdom of God and that Eternal Word which was with the Father The truth thereof is most certain and infallible in respect of God's Revelation the knowledge of the Prophets and Apostles and their Declaration of it in Word and Writing The end and ultimate effect thereof believed and obeyed is Full Communion with God and Jesus Christ and thereupon Full joy and everlasting glory These Scriptures are sufficient for all ends and purposes God intended them § 8 have their Divine Characters though no man should know or acknowledge them of Divine Authority and unquestionable perspicuous and intelligible in themselves as they came from God and were delivered by men inspired especially in all things generally necessary to salvation For their sufficiency in their times as a Rule of Faith and Life it cannot be doubted of by such as are intelligent and impartial For the Scriptures of the Old Testament in their time were able to save such as believed and obeyed them And aâ—ter the Canon of the New Testament was finished it was able to make men of those times Wise unto Salvation through Faith in Jesus Christ. Yet after the Gospel was revealed the Doctrine of the Old Testament was insufficient to this end The whole body is not onely sufficient but super-abundant For some part or parts of the New Testament though all the other were lost will sufficiently direct us to Eternal Glory For the Divine Character thereof something shall be said hereafter For the Authority and Credit of them that is true of all the whole which the Apostle affirmeth of one principal part concerning the coming of Christ into the World to save sinners That it was a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation For the perspicuity the entrance of his worâ—s give light and giveth understanding to the simple Psal 119. 130. And Timothy of a Child learned them In this extraordinary Communication of God's mind to Man by man § 10 I will pass by his manner of expression at sundry times and in divers manners by the Prophets to the Fathers and take special notice of his speaking to man by man in the fulness of time and in the latter days And I will consider 1. The persons by whom he spake 2. The matter spoken as it was strange and new 3. The confirmation of the Doctrine taught so far as it was new 1. The principal persons were Christ and his Apostles For in these last days saith the Apostle he hath spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath made Heir of all
things By whom he made the Worlds who was the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. 1. 2 3. He was more excellent then the Angels then Moses then all the Prophets He was the great Prophet acquainted with his Fathers secrets taught the Doctrine of Eternal Life confirmed the same by his Holy Life his glorious Miracles and sealed it with his bloud Besides God spake by the Apostles and especially after they had received the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven by Christ glorified according to his Promise These made up the Canon of the New Testament 2. They taught Doctrine that for the matter was new For besides the Morals formerly known and other Points revealed in the Old Testament they did declare and write by the infallible direction of the Holy Ghost That Jesus of Nazareth born at Bethlem crucified at Jerusalem was the Son of God was risen again from the dead ascended into Heaven made Universal King and an everlasting Priest makes intercession in Heaven That remission of sinnes and eternal life upon condition of Faith in him as glorified was promised and to be preached to all Nation 〈◊〉 the Jew first and then unto the Gentiles 3. Because these things though not contrary to Reason yet far above Reason were New and tended to the alteration of the former administration of God's Kingdom and many former Laws given by God unto the Fathers and the abolition of Religion that was then established in all Nations therefore it was confirmed by the new and excellent gifts of the Apostles the great and glorious miracles done in the Name of Christ the gifts of the Holy Ghost from Heaven upon such as heard and received this Doctrine by the conversion of Jews and Gentiles and this by mean and contemptible men These were special Works of the Supream and Eternal Providence and such as the like had not been done since the Creation nor ever since the times of those Apostles who could speak in the Languages of all Nations to whom God sent them so as the unlearned might understand them These taught first by word of mouth and then by Writing till the Canon of the New Testament was finished and the Originals of their Writings were kept in the Churches they planted and after composed in one body Thus far God spake to man § 10 by man infallibly inspired both by word of mouth and by Writing He speaks also to man by ordinary men who are not immediatly infallible but onely so far as their Doctrine shall agree with the former Inspirations and Revelations For the Word of God was always in the Church and his Divine Revelations were always the Rule of ordinary Teachers And in matter of Religion they had no Warrant to teach any thing but according to that Rule These ordinary Teachers were Fathers Masters of Families every Neighbour and Brother which had ability and opportunity Amongst the Jews the ordinary Prophets Scribes Lawyers who were learned in the Law of God Priests and Levites But the principal amongst these are the Learned who have taken that charge upon them according to a Lawful Call make it their chief business to whom maintenance by God's institution is due These in the New Testament are called Pastours Teachers Bishops Elders Ministers who take charge of mens souls This distinction of Teachers in the times of the Gospel may be grounded on that Text When Christ ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts to men And he gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastours and Teachers Ephes. 4. 8 11. The extraordinary were Apostles Prophets Evangelists The ordinary were Pastours and Teachers And these later as well as the former were given for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ ver 12. These also may teach the mysteries of God's Kingdom by word and by writing Yet neither their words nor writings were of equal authority with the words and writings of the Prophets and Apostles For the Authority of their Doctrine presupposeth that it is contained in the Holy Scriptures and that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God and that those which they affirm to be the Holy Scriptures are so indeed This gives occasion to examine what force may be in the Tradition of the Church to prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God This cannot be done to purpose except we know 1. What Tradition is 2. What the Church 3. What the Holy Scriptures be as most understand them in this point 1. Tradition in this particular is nothing but a Testimony which as such hath no force in it to prove any thing but that which is borrowed from the party testifying or the thing testified or from some other thing Therefore it is called Argumentum artificiale assumptum because it assumeth force from some other Reason or Argument A Testimony is either Divine or Humane For here I will say nothing of the Testimony of Angels The Divine Testimony is infallibly and necessarily true yet not as a Testimony but as the Testimony of God whose Veracity is such that he cannot dâ—â—ive or be deceived He is true and Truth it self The testimony of man may be and is many times false for he is subject unto Errour and may be deceived because his knowledge is imperfect He may also deceive for want of fidelity and integrity There is no necessary and inseparable Connexion between his testimony and the truth because he himself as testifying and truth are separable This is the reason why testimonies in judgment are confirmed by Oath And for this cause the Doctrine of the Apostles so far as it was new was attested from Heaven 2. The party testifying in this particular is the Church as a Collective Body By Church may be understood either a particular Church or Churches or the Universal made up of all the Particulars This Universal Church is either the present Universal Church or the same considered as successively continued since the time of the Apostles or as including John the Baptist Christ and his Apostles or the Church of all times since the Beginning Again the present Universal Church of any time may be considered either as properly Universal or as representatively such in a general Council 3. The thing testified is that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God And by Holy Scriptures we may understand the whole Body of the Canon and the several Books of the Old and New Testament and the same in such a certain number as to exclude or include the Books called Apocrypha And these may be considered either in the Original Copies or in Transcripts or in Translations or else we may understand the principal matters of the Scripture concerning Faith in Jesus Christ and obedience unto his Commands After this explication given some things are to be observed 1. Concerning the thing testified and to be believed 2. Concerning the
assumed and so sent how elâ—e could he pray and make intercession For God cannot pray or desire any thing of a Superiour And his Prayer is directed to his Father as God and the supream Cause and Fountain of all those mercies desired in that Prayer and as such he canot be personally considered And it cannot any ways follow that because he to whom flesh assumed did pray was the onely true God that therefore the Word assuming flesh which was in the Beginning before there was any flesh to be assumed and the same with God so that he was God is not God The Text Joh. 1. 1. expresly saith He was God and that God by whom all things were made But he that makes the Holy Ghost to be a Quality and Vertue residing in God and issuing from God upon man as Crellius doth can hardly be reckoned amongst sober Christians The Master of the Sentences and the School-men following him out of Austin § V make the Soul of man an Image of the Trinity And Bacon is resolute according to his Title Doctor Resolutus and saith that the Trinity is Deus intellectus et amatus à Seipso God understood and beloved of himself Yet they agree not in what respect the Soul is this Image Whether in respect of the Substance or the Faculties or the Substance and two Acts as Cameracensis and others do determine which is most probably the sense of St. Austin If the Soul understand and love it Self understood it 's the same one individual Substance which understandeth which is understoood which is loved Yet the Soul as Understanding differs from it Self as understood and as understanding and understood from it self as loving and loved yet this Image and Representation is very imperfect not so much for Peter Lombard's Reasons But 1. Because we do not understand how the Eternal and infinite Deity doth act upon it self 2. The Soul hath no perfect Knowledge of it self as God hath of himself 3. Man's Soul as the Object of it self known and loved is but the Soul intentionally and so the Productions are not real but imperfect but the Divine Productions are perfect But it 's our Duty to be wise and sober and restrain our inclination and propension to curious Speculations in these great Mysteries And we must know that the Predications and Expressions used in the Scripture concerning God the Father Son and Holy Ghost transcend the Rules of Humane Logick Grammar Rhetorick And I am verily perswaded that the mystery of the Trinity is more fully and clearly delivered in Scripture then we understand it By all this § VI we may clearly understand that there is a vast yea an infinite distance between God and all other Beings and he is infinitely more glorious and excellent then the best For 1. He is absolutely and every way most perfect so that there is no imperfection nor possibility of imperfection in him 2. That he knowing and enjoying himself fully and for ever must needs be infinitely and eternally delighted with himself and fully for ever content in himself 3. That he is the most noble Object of the Vnderstanding and Will of Men and Angels 4. His Beauty is such that if we could see but some little of it it would enamour and ravish our hearts and wrap us into such an Admiration that all other things even the most excellent would appear to be base and vile in comparison of him He is that Fountain whence the streams of everlasting joy perpetually issue His Majesty is so excellent as that he is worthy to be adored with the greatest humility and reverence But oh How little of his Excellency do we know How seldome do our choicest Contemplations fix upon him How frozen and congealed are our hearts and affections towards Him Oh! Let us improve our knowledge of him that our love may be more ardent our desires of him more quick and lively our Longings after him more vehement our Hearts more purified that we may hasten to the full enjoyment of him in Eternal Glory The great business in this life we have to do is to be cleansed in the blood of Christ that in the end we may be fully consecrated and so fit to enter the Temple of Heaven and see the brightness of his glory that so we may be fully and for ever happy in the presence of this Great and everlasting King All his Perfections do inform us § VII how worthy He alone is to be an Universal Supream Eternal Lord and King For his most perfect Being tends to make him a most Perfect King His absolute Unity is such that there can be no Competitour to lay claim unto the Soveraignty and so it 's a Foundation of perpetual Peace His Immensity is such that he can be and is personally present in all places of his Dominion His Eternity makes him King in all times as his Immensity makes him Lord in all places His Knowledge and Wisdom are such as that he alone can contrive and model the best Government and administer it in the best manner His Integrity and Rectitude is absolute so that his Laws and Judgments must need be just and he cannot possibly do any wrong This is his proper Prerogative His Power is Almighty and irresistible and always regulated most exactly by his Wisdom and Justice So that he alone is able to give absolute and perpetual Protection and render unto his loyal and obedient Subjects Eternal glory and afflict his Enemies and the Wicked with Eternal Punishments So that He and He alone is worthy to reign as He and He alone is able to make us for ever Blessed CHAP. VIII Concerning the Regal Power of God and how it is acquired AFter the Declaration of the absolute Perfection of the glorious and Eternal God in himself § I whereof we know but little Order requires that we next consider him in his Regal Capacity as he is a King That which essentially constitutes a King or Govenour is his Power And Supream and Absolute Power inherent in one Person makes a Supream and Absolute Monarch and such God is and moreâ— Therefore he must needs have not onely an absolute and Supream but an Vniversal and Eternal Power Seeing he must rule and reign universally and Eternally the Nature and Qualities of this Power will be more easily understood after that we know how he doth acquire and exercise it Therefore we must examine How it is Acquired Exercised It 's Acquired by Creation Continued by Preservation Power must be had and possessed before it can be exercised and therefore God first acquired his Power It was indeed virtually in him from everlasting and he was from everlasting worthy of all Power Honour and Dominion yet â—overning power actually he had not before he had Subjects For Power is a Relative Subjects he had not before the Creation And the beginning of his Creation was the beginning of his Actual Power For the Creatures were no sooner made but they were
in the Sin the Tryall the Sentence is observeable In the sin the Devill is first the Woman the second the man third and last In the Tryall Man is first Woman the second the Devill the third In the sentence the Devill is first Woman second Man last 3. The partyes sentenced are not one Devill one Serpent one Woman one Man but the whole body and society of Devills all Serpents all Mankind 4. Yet some kind of Serpents was accused above all the rest the Prince of Devills was principally judged and so Adam and Eve were sentenced as the beginning root head of all mankind And though the seed of the Woman did comprehend a vast multitude yet they had one Head and one principall amongst them which must break the Serpents head 5. The subject of this judgement being guilty persons doth inform us that the sentence did not determine any reward to be rendered but onely punishment to be inflicted by God and suffered by offenders It was a sentence of condemnation not of justification 6. As there was difference in the partyes sinning so there was in the punishments For the punishment of the Serpent was one of the Woman another of the Man another though there might be some punishment generall to them all 7. The punâ—shment of Man was great of Woman greater of the Devill the greatest For the degrees of punishment were equally proportioned to the degrees of Sin These things premised in generall § III I proceed to discourse of and unfold the sentence passed upon the Devill and the Serpent and its certain that as the naturall Serpent is here expressed so he is accursed and most part of the words agree directly to that kind of Creature which is cursed above all the beasts of the field goes crawling on his belly and licks the dust And there is emnity and Antipathy between Woman the Serpent between all kind of Serpents the Posterity and seed of the Woman and Man doth often break his head to take away his Life and he stings man in the Heel and foot and by his poyson sometimes endangers sometimes takes away his Life This by constant and universall experience is sound true and yet the curse was not at the first Creation For then God blessed the Creatures and every thing was good Nor was this enmity from the Creation For man was Lord over these Creatures and they subject unto him so as there was neither harme nor feare from any of these Creatures And though this Beast was irrationall merely an instrument and abused yet to signifie his detestation of sin God did thus accurse him Thus the earth is curâ—ed for mans sake and for the sins of Israel the Land must mourn the inhabitants with the Beasts of the field and the fowles shall languish and the fishes shall he take away Hos. 4. 3. So Christ cursed the Figgâ—ree because fruitlesse Yet § IV this must needs be understood of the Spirituall Serpent the Devill too and that more principally yet in a spirituall sense The Devill was accursed before but much more now Therefore some think that after this their condition became desperate and unalterable And surely As to their former sin they had added Lying and Murder So God in this sentence did add unto their punishment and their condition became very bad and miserable This is signified more plainly in the latter part of the sentence verse 15. Wherein with some learned Commentatours we may observe 1. A perpetuall emnity and thereupon a perpetuall War and the issue of this War The emnity is 1. Between the Serpent the Devill and the Woman 2. Between the Serpents seed and the Womans seed 3. Between the Prince of Devills and some speciall seed of the Woman which was Christ. The issue of this emnity and opposition was the ruine of the Serpent and the hurt of the Womans seed More plainly the ruine of Sathans Kingdome the suffering of Christ and the persecutions of his Church The first emnity is between the Devill and the Woman both present at Gods tribunall and this emnity was by a divine decree made irreconcileable for though they could agree and converse together in sin to the transgression of Gods Law yet now it was Gods will that they should for ever stand at a distance hereafter And it 's very likely that Eve being a true Penitent did for ever hate as much as any other did the Devill who had deceived her as she did abhor the Serpent and detest him as most abominable because he had been an instrument in that damned and dangerous designe against her And the more penitent and pious she was alwayes expecting when God should give her a Child who should take eternal vengeance upon him so the Devill did the more hate her and seek her ruine Yet notwithstanding this decree of eternall emnity how many Cursed Witches have familiarity with the Devill The second emnity is between the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Woman And by his seed is meant not onely all the rest of the Devills and Powers of Darknesse but also all Wicked Persons especially enemyes and Persecutours of the Power of Godlinesse in the Saints These are called A generation of Vipers that is Serpents the Brood of the Devill Math. 3. 7. To be of their Father the Devill 1 Ioh. 3. 8. So Cain was of that Wicked one the Devill verse 12. By the seed of the Woman is not understood her mere naturall Posterity for many of them as Cain were of the Devill But her posterity according to the Spirit the Regenerate Penitent Pious and Beleevers as she was Yet these are her seed as under Their Head and Generall Jesus Christ. And here as the hatred is bitter so the opposition is cruel and bloody and the contrariety so great that they seek the mutuall destruction one of another The more of God and Heaven is in the seed of the Woman the more they Hate sin and â—eek to break the Power of Sathan both in themselves and others Yet all their strength is in God and Jesus Christ. These the Devill and his brood hate with a dearly hatred and if they cannot overcome their souls they Persecute their Bodyes And hence so many â—earfull dissentions Wars and Bloody Persecutions But the highest degree of this emnity is between the Prince of Devills and the Son of God made Man and so the Seed of the Woman that he was not immediately the seed of any Man He suffered more from the Devill and his Angells and Agents then ever any did and the more holy he was the more he was hated And the more wicked the Devill was the more Christ did oppose him and prevayled against him according to his excellent divine transcendent Power and holy Policy more then all men and Angells could do The issue of the great Battail especially upon the Crosse was a fiâ—all and Fatall Victory For in it and by it he spoyled Principalityes and Powers
to such Rules as that he might attain Eternal Salvation For there was a Foundation of this new Government laid in that Judgment God passed upon the Devil and he began instantly to act according to the same Yet though he abolished the former Government yet he continued the memory of it and revealed the Doctrine thereof unto the Church and it remains in the same and it serves to let men see their misery and humble them that they may seek for remedy and vehemently desire it and follow the Directions God hath given And by this he may and ought to know that in strict Justice he can expect nothing but Eternal Death and that all hope of life depends upon the mere mercy of God and the merit of a Second Adam This Second Government did not abolish the power acquired by Creation § II for that continues still and will continue whilest man receives his Being from God by Creation and the continuance of his Being by preservation Yet God acquired a new power superadded unto the former and did exercise the same after a new manner In this respect there must needs be a great difference between the former and this latter Government For in the former the Governour was God-Creatour by the Word not incarnate or made flesh but in this he is not onely Creatour but Redeemer by the Word made Flesh. The subject of this latter is not man holy righteous innocent as he was created but sinful guilty miserable in Adam fallen The Laws thereof do not bind man as the former did to perfect and perpetual obedience as the condition of Life but to Faith in the Redeemer Neither in this New-Model doth God alone without a President-general as in the former◠govern Mankind but doth administer all things by his Son made Lord and King at his Right-hand after the Incarnation This Government is that Act of Divine Providence § III whereby he orders sinful man redeemed by Faith in Christ-Redeemer unto Salvation or upon his Unbelief unto Eternal Death unavoidable This is evident out of the sacred Writings both of the Old and New Testament For all the Holy Patriarchs from Adam were saved by their Faith in God Redeemer and the Seed of the Woman And after the exhibition of the Redeemer and his manifestation he himself faith That God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal Life And He that believeth on him is not condemned And he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the onely Begotten Son of God Joh. 3. 16 18. John the Baptist testifieth that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 36. And all power in Heaven and Earth was given to Christ Math. 28. 18. And from this Power the Apostles received Commission and Command to go to all the World and to preach the Gospel to every Creature And He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16. 15 16. In all which words we have a New Power a New Government New Laws both as a Rule of Man's Duty and God's Judgment differing much from the former This might be called the Government of Mercy as the former the Government of Justice Whereas many tell us that the former Government continues that the Laws are still the same that God as Rectour by Substitution transferred the punishment merited by transgressions of the Law upon Christ and for and in consideration of satisfaction made by him remits sin and this is nothing but a relaxation or interpretation of the former Law they are much mistaken and reach not the truth in this particular And this shall be made evident when we come to speak of the Administration of this Kingdom from the times of Adam till the preaching and baptizing of John the Baptist and the manifestation of Christ's entring upon his Publique Office As in the former Government § IV so in this we must consider 1. Who is the Governour invested with Power 2. How this Power was 1. Acquired 2. Exercised The Governour is God Creatour and Preserver of Mankind the same who was Lord and King by Creation Yet here he must be considered under another notion as God-Redeemer For as the Work of Creation and Redemption differ so the Power acquired by Redemption differs from that acquired by Creation This Power is Supream Universal Eternal Monarchical as the former In the Acquisition we must consider by 1. Whom 2. What it was acquired It was acquired 1. By the Word made Flesh. 2. By the Humiliation of this Word made Flesh. The Person by whom God acquired this new Power was the Word made Flesh for as by the Word he made the World and in particular Man and so acquired a Properiety in Man and a Dominion over Man as a rational free Creature So by this Word incarnate and made Flesh in a wonderful manner he acquired a new propriety in Man fallen and a dominion over him as capable of Spiritual and Eternal Felicity to be recovered by a new way The work whereby this Power was acquired was the Humiliation of this Son of God So that now Man is God's and subject unto God not onely as Creatour and Preserver in general but as Redeemer and Sanctifier For this new Dominion considers Man in his Spiritual Capacity For the better understanding of this acquisition of New-Power § V we must consider 1. Who the Redeemer is 2. What the Work of Humiliation is The Redeemer is Jesus Christ our Lord first promised then exhibited Jesus Christ our Lord who is blessed for ever In himself is the Word made Flesh Ioh. ◠14. As our Redeemer he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and power to be a Prophet Priest and King Universal Act. 10. 38. In Him as the Word made Flesh we may observe 1. His Person 2. His Natures For his Person in a large sense as here I take Person He is the Word which was in the beginning and was with God and was God and by whom all things were made Joh. 1. 1 2. The onely begotten Son of God Joh. 3. 16. The Image of the Invisible God the first-born of every Creature by whom all things were not onely created but do subsist Col. 1. 15 16 17. The brightness of his Father's glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. 1. 3. He was begotten of the Father from Everlasting and is the full expression and representation of Himself unto Himself By these places it evidently appears that the Word did exist before the World was and so exist that He was with God and God To be with God implies some distinction to be God an identity of substance and this is that which we call
The excellency and dignity of that Nature and flesh not onely above all men but all Angels 4. The concurrence of the Word and flesh in the acts of Redemption and the same singular and extraordinary But whether the gifts of the Spirits confirmation in holinesse universall power glory and happinesse which Christ attayned did necessarily and instantly follow upon this Union may justly be doubted That the redeemer should be the Word and so God and Flesh too One and the chief Reason was the Wisdome and Will of God And other reasons not clearly contayned in Scripture are better forborne then mentioned After the number and union follows the distinction of the two Natures § IX for although they were personally united which union is extrinsecall yet they remained really distinct The Word was not changed into flesh nor flesh into the Word but the Word is the Word still and flesh flesh still and that essentially It 's true the word before the conception of the humane nature was not flesh but then it was flesh yet so that it continues the Word Neither was there any mixture or composition of these two to make one substance different from both nor any such union of both that so a third thing should arise by way of resultancy except we may say and that according to the Scripture that the word and flesh were so united that thence did arise a third thing which we call Christ and some call God-Man Yet still he was so God that he was Man and so man that he was the Word and God and so shall continue blessed for evermore Jesus Christ our Lord is the word made flesh § X and this is the definition that the Scriptures give of him That which followes is his office as he is Redeemer An office is a derivative power and therefore cannot be supreme but subordinate and as an officer by commission with a Mandate receives his power so he is liable to account In this respect and for this cause it is that though Jesus Christ of Nazareth be the Word and so God yet as God he cannot be an officer as flesh and man he may be and was such This the Scripture teacheth plainly when it saith that he was sent received commandement from his Father was sealed annoynted with the Holy-Ghost and with power did not glorifie himself that his Father gave him power over all flesh and that all power in Heaven and earth was given him all these things are true of him only as man His office was the greatest and highest that ever was Because he was supreme and universall governour above the Angels and all other creatures next unto God Therefore his place upon his investitute and solemn inauguration was at the right hand of the eternal Throne of God And in this particular Joseph advanced by Pharoah was a lively type of him In him as an officer we may consider 1. His Ability 2. His power and Authority His Ability is expressed in that metaphor of being annoynted with the Holy Ghost for he was endued with all the gifts of the Holy Ghost and in the highest degree that any creature was capable of therefore it is said God giveth not the Spirit in measure unto him Joh. 3. 34. but in fullnesse So that of his fullnesse we all have received grace for grace Joh. 1. 16. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of Wisdome and understanding the spirit of counsail and might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord Isay. 11. And at his Baptism the Heavens were opened and the Holy-Ghost was seen in the likenesse of a Dove to descend and rest upon him These gifts and endowments he received with a power to communicate in a certain measure unto others The Spirit in this fullnesse was given him not only to sanctifie him but to enable him for the undertaking managing and accomplishing the great work of Redemption which was committed unto him Besides these Abilityes he received power and authority accordingly and so had plain right to do such things as neither men nor Angels had right to do He had power to command all the Angels of Heaven the Devils and all Creatures and they must obey him because they were subject unto him And because he must discharge this Office for that end was required an high degree of wisdom and the knowledge of the deep and secret Counsels of God especially concerning the Eternal Salvation of sinful man whose Nature he had taken upon him Therfore he must be a Prophet able fully infallibly and with Power and Majesty to declare the Mind and Will of God In which capacity and faculty he was more excellent then all the Prophets then Moses then the Angels who have the Spirit of Prophesie as being in the Bosome of the Father and more intimate then the Angels were And he could reach men not onely outwardly but inwardly and speak by the Spirit immediately unto the Souls of men and that not onely ordinarily by imprinting the Doctrines of the Scripture outwardly upon the Tables of the Heart but also extraordinarily by Inspiration and immediate Revelation of the Mysteries of Gods Kingdom Thus he taught Apostles Prophets Evangelists And he is the Head and Lord of all Prophets and all Angels Prophets Apostles Pastours Teachers are his Servants and subject unto him as a Prophet and his Doctrine must be heard believed obeyed and he that will not submit unto it must be cut off and everlastingly accursed Because Man is guilty § XI and God angry and Justice requires Eternal Punishments to be executed if not prevented therefore there must be some to interpose between the just God and unjust Man and make satisfaction unto justice procure his favour and plead the cause of penitent sinners before the Throne of God in the Heavenly Temple Therefore Christ if he will be a Redeemer must do all this and be a Priest and as a Priest offer a Sacrifice for the Eternall expiation of sin and as an Advocate plead his bloud and sacrifice before his Father for all such as come to God by him And he must not onely be a Priest but an Universal and Eternal Priest holy without any sin who may have free and immediate access to the Throne of God and such who is sensible of the Peoples misery and in that respect willing and ready to make reconciliation for their sin Such a Priest Christ and onely Christ Jesus of Nazareth is made so by God and now confirmed by Oath to minister in the Heavenly Tabernacle there to appear before God for us Therefore he is more excellent and above all other Priests even Aaron nay above Melchizedeck one of the greatest Priests on Earth and also above the Highest Priests of Angels if there be any Priest-hood amongst them Besides because he must have Subjects of all Nations in times successively unto the end of the World and He and His shall have many Enemies both Men and Devils
and of great power and policy therefore he must be a King invested with Universal and Eternal Power to make Laws and Officers to judge and to execute Judgment in rendring eternal rewards and punishments according to the Works of such as shall be judged that so he may subdue all Enemies even Death it self protect his people and give Eternal Peace and Felicity to such as shall unfeignedly submit unto his Power and continue loyal and obedient Subjects to the end As God hath decreed before the World upon the fore-sight of man's sin that the World should be made flesh so he likewise decreed that he should be invested with this three-fold power and to confer it upon him as Flesh united to the Word Upon the Fall of Adam this Office was promised in his Conception and Birth he was designed unto it in his Baptism he was declared to be the Son of God Upon his manifestation after his Baptism he began to act in this Three-fold Office Upon his Resurrection he was constituted a compleat Priest Prophet King and all power in Heaven and Earth given Him Upon his Ascension he was solemnly invested and confirmed in the place and began at the right hand of God to exercise his Power more gloriously CHAP. II. Concerning the Humiliation of Jesus Christ whereby this New Power was acquired And a brief Historical Narration of His Sufferings THis New Power as you heard before was acquired by the Word made flesh § I and now we know by whom In the next place we must enquire by what it was acquired It was acquired by the Humiliation of the Son of God This Humiliation of Jesus Christ is that whereby He in the form of a Servant was obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross. In this Humiliation we have two degrees 1. He took upon him the form of a Servant 2. In that form he suffered the Death of the Cross. 1. He was a Servant For being in the form of God he thought it not Robbery or Sacriledge to be equal with God yet he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men Phil. 2. 6 7. This state and condition of a Servant taken upon Him was the first part of his Humiliation But here it 's to be noted 1. That He was not a Slave taken in War nor sold nor born of Servile Parents or Parent 2. As He was the Word and equal with God He could not be a Servant but as He was flesh and made Man For as Man He was a reasonable Creature and so subject to God and bound to Obedience 3. Yet to be Man was not all For He was a Servant in respect of the mean condition of His Humane Nature For He was born of a Mother though of Royal Extraction from the house of King David at a great distance yet poor and mean as appears in that she was espoused and married to Joseph a Carpenter and so a Mechanick and of the lowest Rank of Subjects and also by his poor Birth in a Stable 4. He as Man for the time laid aside or did not assume the Robes of Glory the State and Dignity which did agree unto Him as He was the Son of God neither did He take upon Him any Civil Command or Jurisdiction much less that Universal and Supream Power wherewith He was invested afterward 5. He was born not onely a Man but a Jew under the Bondage and Servitude of the Law as was manifest by His Circumcision and Presentation in the Temple 6. He subjected himself unto the Ecclesiastical Power of His own Nation and the Civil Power of the Romanes so far as to be tried and condemned by both though He was innocent and was willing to be obedient not onely in doing the good commanded but to suffer the evil even Death the death of Servants nay of Slaves nay of Dogs which He no way deserved So that He wholly denied Himself renounced his own Will even in things lawful and was a Servant to his Father in one of the hardest and lowest services that ever was the service of Sin excepted This was a way which the unsearchable depth of Eternal Wisdom contrived to acquire a new transcendent Power It 's true that alter He appeared in publique He took upon him some power and acted accordingly He began to preach the Gospel with power and majesty not onely in private but publick He gathered Disciples and made Apostles and other Officers instituted Sacraments and gave Laws and Commissions and signified that He was the Son of God and should one day come in the Clouds of Heaven yet still He was a Servant The second degree of his Humiliation was § II that as a Servant he was obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross. He was always obedient both to God and Man in all things so far as He was bound He observed not onely the Moral but the Ceremonial Laws of the Jews and the Civil Laws of the Romans so far as they were just He many ways manifested himself to be the Word made flesh and the onely Begotten Son of God and that not onely by his eminent Vertues but by his Heavenly Doctrine and glorious Works So that never any gave better Example taught better Doctrine or did greater Works so beneficiall to Mankind and to destructive to Sathan's power Yet he manifested himself in this manner onely amongst his own people seeking earnestly not onely their Temporal Peace but their Eternal Salvation And all this may be called his Active Obedience which though so excellent and perfect yet could not free him from obedience in sufferings which were many and ended in the death of the Cross. The History hereof I will 1. Deliver briefly out of the Evangelists And 2. Discourse of the same more at large out of these and other places of Scripture Though he suffered by the Determinate Counsel and sore-knowledge of God and God had shewed before by the mouth of all his Prophets that he should suffer yet the Counsel of God and Predictions of the Prophets were fulfilled in the manner following 1. By his Sufferings before Judgment 2. By his Sufferings in Judgment 1. Before Judgment He by his Example Doctrine Works gathered many Disciples and the people followed him in great multitudes This was a provocation to the ambitious Rulers of the Jews many of whom were Pharisees a Sect in those times in great account and admiration with the people for eminent Piety and Learning wherein they seemed to excel And this did grieve them much that He did neither comply with them nor their Designs nor receive any Commission from them but did reprove their Hypocrisie and took off their Vizard of Sanctity and open before the people their Ambition Covetousness Cruelty Oppression and other enormous Sins confuted their false Doctrine and denounced most fearful Woes against them His eminency and respect with the People with the multitude of Disciples
they should see him sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven This answer they expected and from his own words condemn the Judge of Heaven and Earth to be guilty of Blasphemy After his most unjust condemnation He as one out of all Protection and unworthy of any benefit of Law is exposed to the abuses of the vilest Wretches who did hood wink him mock him spit upon him blaspheme him who was now already betrayed by Judas presently denied by Peter and forsaken of all his Disciples These miseries this ingratitude these indignities the glorious Son of God and Lord of Angels did endure This Trial in the Ecclesiastical Court § IV being finished He is brought before the Civil Judge and tried there again What the Reason hereof was is not so evident It may be the High-Priests still were afraid of the People lest they should rise against them if they shou'd proceed to publique and open execution or it might be because the Romanes denied them Jurisdiction in Capital Causes This seems to be implied in their words to the Procurator It 's not lawful for us to put any man to death Joh. 18. 31. He is brought before Pilate and sent by Pilate to Herod Herod finds in him no cause of death neither doth Pilate and therefore out of Justice and Natural Conscience and other Reasons justifies him as unworthy of death several times and several times seeks to release him And as he was unwilling to condemn him because there was no cause and for that He knew the Rulers out of Envy had delivered Him into His hands so He was afraid to do it is admonished by His Wife and that in some sort from Heaven to have nothing to do with that righteous man but especially when He heard He was the Son of God Yet they accuse Him vehemently of haynous crimes as Sedition and High-Treason against Caesar and importune him to do justice and seeing him unwilling to pass judgment against Him and willing and very earnest to release Him they perswade the people to desire Barabbas a cruel Murtheret to be delivered to them according to the Custom and to cry without ceasing Crucifie crucifie Jesus and that which was of greatest force they tell Pilate plainly that if He released Him He was not Caesars friend and in these words imply that they would accuse Him if he let Him go So in the end the cries of the tumultuous Rabble the fear of a Tumult and much more of his Masters displeasure prevail with him to condemn him to death against all Justice all Admonitions and his own Conscience though he had formerâ—y scourged him So vile a thing it is in any Judge especially to fear Man more than God and Temporal more than Eternal punishments Thus Barabbas is released the guilt of Christ's bloud charged upon the Jews who take it upon them and their children to their condemnation and confusion And Christ is delivered to the Souldiers 1. To be abused 2. To be executed As He was accused and so condemned for this cause alleadged that He said He was the King of the Jews so they accordingly abuse Him They divest Him of His outward garments crown Him with thorns array Him with a purple garment as signs of Royal Dignity put a Reed for a Scepter into his hands bow before him and salute him as King of the Jews and withall smite Him on the Head to make the Thorny-Crown pierce into His Temples And after they had made themselves sport with His miseries and satiated themselves they take off those Ornaments of derision and lead him to the place of Execution which followed immediately upon this unjust Judgment and so many indignities offered him He is led out of the City as a prophane unhallowed person unworthy to abide in that holy place and he must carry his cross which yet Simon of Cyrene was afterward compelled to do Being brought to the place of execution he is divested of his garments which are divided amongst the Souldiers who cast lots upon his seamless coat which done He is nailed to the Cross and suffers cruel torment Instead of ease and comfort they give him gall to eat and vinegar to drink they mock him give him vile and cutting words In midst of this condition He is deserted for a time the sweetest comforts of Heaven restrained from Him the Devils of Hell permitted to exercise their malice cruelty and power upon Him And that we might understand his sufferings to be far greater then we can imagine He cries out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and complains of such miseries as never any suffered Job's afflictions were many and grievous and came nearest unto these of Christ yet were far short He suffered thus upon the Cross from the 6th unto the 9th hour of the day and then died and commended his Soul into the hands of his Heavenly Father Thus the Consecration of the great High Priest was finished the things fore-told concerning his Suffering fulfilled and his bitter suffering had an end That day his body being dead pierced by a Souldier though no bone of this true Paschal Lamb was broken sent forth water and bloud and being taken down from the Cross yielded by consent of the Governour into the hands of Joseph of Arimathea was by him and Nicodemus decently and honourably interred in a new Sepulchre where never any man was buried continued separate from His Soul as His Soul from it unto the third day and saw no corruption And this was the deep Humiliation of the Son of God whereby this universal and eternal Power was acquired CHAP. III. A more large Discourse of Christ's Obedience unto the Death of the Cross. I Will not here take up time in shewing both how many § I and also how grievous the sufferings of Christ were For that hath been done by many others and it may be sufficiently understood by what hath been said nor onely that they were many and grievous but also far greater then we can understand But I will 1. Consider this Humiliation of Christ as it was an Obedience unto Death and a Sacrifice of Him as a Priest 2. I will declare the Effects thereof 3. I will endeavour to shew how far the benefit of this Humiliation was communicable or derivable unto sinful Man And 4. The Attributes God manifested in this Humiliation Many with great Eloquence and Art have methodically set forth the Passions of our Saviour and their intention was to affect the Hearts of their Auditors and stir up to sorrow and other passions Yet these four things are matter of greatest moment give a clearer light to understand the great mystery of Redemption and are effectual to melt our hearts with godly inccour for our sins to make us sensible of God's wonderful love to revive our hearts with heavenly comfort and to mortifie our corruptions 1. Therefore this Humiliation was an Act of Obedience unto God his Heavenly Father
Propitiation of Christ makes no man absolutely but upon certain terms pardonable and savable so it was never made either to prevent all sin or all punishments For it presupposeth man both sinful and miserable And we know that the guilt and punishment of Adams sin lyes heavy upon all his posterity to this day And not onely that but the guilt of actual and personal sins lyes wholly upon us whilst impenitent and unbelieving and so out of Christ and the regenerate themselves are not fully freed from all punishments till the finall resurrection and judgement So that his propitiation doth not altogether prevent but remove sin and punishment by degees Many sins may be said to be remissible by vertue of this sacrifice which never shall be remitted In this sense it may be understood that some deny that Lord that bought them 2 Pet. â— 1. For Christ by his death acquired a right unto and so a power over all flesh but so that he must give eternall life onely to such as his Father gave him For one immediate effect of Christs death was to make God placable and sin pardoned yet he never merited that any sin should be actually pardoned but upon such terms as his heavenly Father should prescribe It may also in a sense be said that Christ dyed onely for the elect That is that onely they shall obtayn actual pardon Yet they who thus affirm must give us out of the Scriptures the true notion of Election and of the Elect and not seek to obtrude upon us their own false Conceits For the Elect as the elect in decree are no subject capable of actual Remission as such for they are no subject at all because they have no actual existence though they may be and are an object or Logicall subject of Gods decree And after that they have actual being yet they are not immediately capable of actual pardon before they are called and actually believe And whereas some affirm that Christ dyed onely for the Elect in their sense it cannot be proved Because they presupposing an order in the decrees of God take it for granted that the decrees of Election and Reprobation are antecedent to the decâ—ee of Redemption and â—o by these very decrees formally exclude the greatest part of mankind and include the rest which cannot stand with the plain texts of Scripture which signifie that we are predessinated to be conformed to the image of Christ That we are elected in Christ and predestinated to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Câ—rist unto himself The 4th and last thing in this discourse of Christs death § IX is to consider the attribuâ—es and perfections which were principally manifested in this work of Redemption For bâ—sides his absolute power by which he acted in this work above the lâ—w of Creation many of his perfections did most gloriously appeare And first his Wiâ—dom For this was one of the highest designes of God and this work of redemption was contrived and ordered in the highest degree of Wisdome that God did ever exercise out of Himself The Apostle determined to know nothing amongst the Corinthians but Christ Jesus and him crucified And though this Doctrin of the Crosse seem'd foolishnesse to men devoyd of the Spirit yet when he preached it he spake Wisdome to them who were perfect the Wisdome of God in a mystery evâ—n the hidâ—en Wisdome which God ordayned before the world was to our glory 1 Cor. 2. 2. 6 7. And by the preaching of the Gospel was made known to Principalityes and powers in heavenly places the manifold Wisdome of God Ephes. 3. 10. And the Doctrin of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow thereupon was such and so excellent for Wisdome that the very Angels desired to pry or look in it 1 Peter 1. 12. That Wisdome must needs be wonderfull which contrived such glorious things For the seed of â—rayl Woman deceived by the Devil and now guilty before the tribunall of God must bruise and break the head and power of the Devil and shake his Kingdome over mankind in pieces The Word and eternal Son of God must be made flesh as though mortality and eternity had been united together Weaknesse must vanquish strength Mortality must be away to immortality Death to eternal life the most cruel paines to full and everlasting pleaâ—ures the moâ— bitter sorrowes to the sweetest joyes the lowest humility to the highest honour and the greatest shame to the most excellent glory And which is strange that the Devil himself must use his utmost strength and policy to overthrow himself And his deepest Counsels must be the cause of his own ruine These are the wonderfull wayes of Gods unsearchable Wisdome discovered in the humiliation of the Son of God The Holinesse § X and Justice of God appeares in this work many wayes For though he be slow to anger inclined to forgive abundant in mercy and delighting in kindnesse and doing good unto his unworthy creatures and resolved to give his Son to remit sin and to save sinners yet he will not free any man from the guilt of sin nor yield that any sin should be pardonable without expiation be made his divine justice satisfied and the honour of his law violated be vindicated He will admit of no reconciliation except propitiation be made by blood to declare his righteouâ—nesse that he might be just and the justifier of him that beleeveth on Jesus Christ Rom. 3. 25. And this propitiation must be made by the Word made flesh Therefore he sends his son his dearly beloved his onely begotten son whom he esteemed above all men and Angells He smites him wounds him and layes on him the iniquityes of us all He must not only suffer but suffer death the death of the Crosse and he must for a time be a servant and lay aside 〈◊〉 his shining Robes of Glory be content to want the joyes and pleasures of Heaven and be deprived of God's sweetest comforts be exposed to the malice of the Devill and his malicious enemies ly under the pressure of most bitter pains sorrows and anguish and suffer and that from basest wretches the basâ—â— indignityes that ever any suffered And thus though he were a son must he learn obedience by suffering and before all these things were endured his Soul seperated from his Body and his Body layd in the Grave he must not rise again to Glory And he makes an unchangeable decree that whosoever will not be willing to deny himself take up his Crosse be obedient not onely in doing good but also in suffering evill even death the most cruell and tormenting death and that with patience for his sake shall derive no benefit from his Saviour who did not only expiate sin seal the Truth with his blood but also give us an example of most eminent humility patience meeknes charity obedience all other heavenly virtues that we might follow him if we will be saved And sinful man must know
for the worship of the true and living God as it was a fit proportion of man's time and excellent means for the preservation and continuance of Religion had some connexion with the supream end and did conduce to the attaining of it The Divine Determination of that time for that end signified by a Command added did plainly make it moral For the alteration of the day it 's certain 1. That if God had in the beginning determined one and the same 7th Day to be of perpetual and universal obligation § XX then it could not be justly and by any sufficient Authority altered 2. It 's certain that the day prescribed to the Jew in time of the servitude and bondage of the Law was altered and another substituted and observed in the place thereof 3. This was altered after Christ's Incarnation and Glorification sending down of the Holy Ghost the Revelation of the Gospel preached to Jew and Gentile and in the Apostles days according to an Order given by them to the Churches planted by them 1 Cor. 16. 1 2 4. The day substituted was the first day of the week ibid. and the Lords Day and was so called and observed universally by Christians from that time to our days 4. In that one day in 7 as also this or that 7th day were positive and not moral therefore the 7th formerly observed by the Jew was alterable considered in it self 5. The 4th Commandement given to the Jew did not say that that 7th day determined then by Him should never be altered but be the Sabbath to Jew and Gentile to the end of the World 6. There were as you heard before great and weighty Reasons why the Apostles not onely might but should aâ—ter it For if the Character set upon it by the Work of Creation and the deliverance of Israel out of Aegypt the separation of them from all Nations till the exhibition of the Messias was a reason and ground to God for to institute and for them to observe them much more was the Character set upon the first day of the week by Christ's Resurrection the general manifestations and apparitions of him rise uon that day and the coming of the Holy Ghost as far greater blessings to sinful man then Creation and deliverance out of Aegypt was a sufficient ground and reason to lay aside the former day as joyned with the Ceremonial Law the Covenant with their Fathers in the Wilderness and the separation of the Jews from all other Nations and to institute and observe the first day unto God-Redeemer by Christ exhibited as the former was observed to God-Creatour and Deliverer of one Nation out of Aegypt Neither was there any need of a new express Precept seeing to the Apostles the Reasons for the alteration were so weighty clear and evincing For the former Sabbath being joyned with the Ceremonial Law given to the Jew did presuppose the Church confined to a Nation the Gentiles excluded the people of God in minority and servitude under a Tutor and Christ fo come therefore for the positive part it was to cease with the legal dispensation And as there followed a new manner of Worship and a new Administration so there must be a new day The Commandement it self requires one day in seven and if so then no day could be so fit as the day of Resurrection and the coming down of the Holy Ghost from Heaven By the observation of this we acknowledge the Levitical Priesthood and Service to be abolished Christ exhibited the Work of Redemption finished and that Jesus of Nazareth who was born at Bethlem brought up at Nazareth crucified at Jerusalem rose again the third day ascended into Heaven hath sent down the Holy Ghost is the Son of God and Saviour of the World CHAP. XI The Fifth Commandement BEfore I enter upon the words of this Commandement § I Something must be said in general 1. Concerning the difference 2. The order of these two parts of the Law For our Saviour reduceth the whole Law to two heads 1. Of the Love of God 2. Of our Neighbour And as God and our Neighbour differ and that very much so the dutyes of this latter part differ from those of the former for as the former have God for their object so these have Man The former respect our communion with God the latter our communion with our Neighbour The former presents the dutyes of men as subjects to be performed to their Soveraign the Great and everlasting the latter commands dutyes to be performed to man who is the fellow-Subject The former give morality to the latter The latter receive morality from the former and depend upon them and are so far good as they agree with the former The former have more connexion with as they conduced more immediately unto the last end Gods glory and Mans happinesse So that the difference between them is very great According to this difference there is an inequality It 's true that they are equall as they are commands and also commands of God and bind unto obedience unto God and the matter of both is just Yet their inequality is great because the dutyes of the former according to the object are far more excellent and if they come in competition with these of the second Table they must be preferred Yet we must make a distinction For in both parts of the Law there be some dutyes morall some positive and one and the same duty is in some respect moral in another positive This therefore is the certain rule that moralls of the first part or Table as some call it are to be performed beâ—ore the morals of the second Table and positives of the first before positives of the second Upon this account if the love of Father and Mother a moral duty of the latter part come in competition with the love of God required in the first part then its true our Saviour â—aith He that loveth Father or Mother more then God or hateth not Father and Mother for Christs sake is not worthy of Christ. In this respect obedience to our lawfull superiours inconsistent with our obedience to God is unlawfull for we must obey God rather then man the supreme Lord before the subordinate But if we compare positives of the first Table with morals of the second the morals of the second must be prefer'd before the positives of the first Therefore we may intermit the outward solemne worship of God upon the Sabbath day to save the life of a Beast or much more of a man though the work should take up the whole time of one Sabbath or more This lesson our Saviour taught us when he proved that it was lawfull to heale on the Sabbath This inequality is implyed in the words of our Saviour to the Scribes and Pharisees when he not onely reproves them but denounceth a judgement against them in that they pay'd tith of Mint and Annise and Cummin and omitted the weightyer matters of the Law
judgement mercy and Faith Math. 23. 23. Where he intimates 1. That there be lesse and greater dutyes 2. That to pay Tyth of our goods and fruites is a duty of the first Table and judgement mercy and Faith of the second 3. That payment of Tythes though a duty of the first Table is inferiour to Judgement Mercy and Faith duties of the second Table In the time of the Law Sacrifice New-Moones Sabbath Solemn-Feasts and prayers were duties of the first rank and form to be performed to God yet then God required justice and mercy to Man before them as appeares Esay 1. from verse 11. to the 18. And he desires Mercy more then Sacrifice Hos. 6. 6. And if any except and say that Sacrifices and Sabbaths were part of the Ceremonial not the moral Law I answer that the Weekly Sabbath and so prayer were dutyes required in the moral Law and all the Ceremonies of worship were branches thereof in those times After the difference § II and inequality the order is to be considered and that is either general of the whole in respect of the former part of the Law or of the parts amongst themselves The order of the whole is either of dignity or nature The former precepts and dutyes considered comparatively with the later are more excellent and terminated upon a more noble object and the performance of them conduced more immediately to the supreme end and communion with our God and so deserve the first place which God hath given them As for the order of nature its evident that we have relation first to God our Creatour Redeemer Lord and King before we have relation unto man our fellow-subject and the love of our God is before the love of our Neighbour because we cannot love our Neighbour aright except we first love our God The latter depends upon and issues from the former which doth regulate and rightly qualifie the later and besides the morality of the later is derived from the morality of the former as you heard before As the object of the dutyes required in the former precept was God so the object of these latter are Men with whom we do converse We must love and honour Saints departed and the blessed Angels yet the Persons here principally understood are men living upon earth with whom we have ordinary Communion For these Commandements do refer unto this life and respect men living in this vale of teares and therefore much of this Law shall cease to bind in Heaven To do as we would be done unto and to love our Neighbours as our selves do virtually containe all the particulars of this part and are the brief abridgement of the whole To leave every man unto his liberty in the distribution and digesting of these later Commandements unto a method and to unfold the excellency of that order which God hath observed I will at this time deliver mine own apprehensions of the same Upon consideration I find that these six last precepts may be distinguished into two sorts 1. Such as receive or 2. Such as give morality § III Such as receive their morality are the V. VI. VII VIII IX the five first of the second Table That which gives morality is the Last which is the measure and foundation of the five former For you must note that in the former Table God did begin with the greatest and the principall and so proceeded to the lesse and inferiour but in this part he proceeds in another order and reserves the greatest to the last Of the five which derive their morality from the last some prescribe the rule of justice to be observed Some a rule oâ— judgement Those which prescribe a rule of justice do determine Jus Personarum aut Rerum the right of persons or things belonging to perâ—ons The fifth determins the right of persons the rest the right of things which are life wise goods or estate The 6th is concerning life The 7th concerning our Neighbours Wife The 8th concerning mens goods In the 9th we have the rule of judgement Gods order and method if we can observe it is most accurate and excellent The last which gives morality to the former five commands the love of our Neighbours as of our selves as you shall heare hereafter And this is the root and rule of all the rest For as our Saviour comprized all the foure first Commandements in the love of God so he collected and included all the latter precepts in the love of our Neighbour These things first observed § IIII let us enter upon the explication of the 5th Commandement which as Philo saith had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was placed in the confines of both the two Tables and joynes them together Whether it was the last in the first Table as some conceive or the first in the second or part of it in the former and part in the latter I will not dispute This is certain they were all written in two Tables this of necessity is next to those which concern our duty to God Parents and superiours represent God and yet are men and so that Commandement hath some affinity with the former though more agreement with the latter This Commandement determins the right of persons who are superiours inferiours equals To Equals the offices of love and humanity are due but no honour for its the â—ight which inferiours must give to superiours as superiours and of them it is principally intended For God did so order it that though all men as men are subjects fellow-subjects amongst themselves and under the power of God as their Lord and Soveraign yet there should be an imparity not onely of excellency and dignity but of power amongst them for without imparity there can be no order The first imparity is naturall wherein Parents are superiour to their Children and that in po-wer And I will consider and understand the Commandement first of natural Parents and their Children and afterwards proceed to the imparity which is by institution and which may be reduced Analogically to this Commandement Wherein we have 1. The duty Commanded 2. The reward promised In the duty we may observe 1. The persons who are bound to perform it 2. The persons to whom it s to be performed 3. The duty it self The persons bound to perform it are not expressed but easily understood 1. To be inferiours 2. To be Children who onely have relation to Father and Mother as such for Children are such as have Father and Mother and Father and Mother are such as have Children who receive their life and being from God by them For they are both begotten and preserved by them Parents are in Gods place and his deputies and instruments and the benefit which we receive by them except they be unnaturall is such as cannot be requited It was Gods will to bring us into the world in this manner and to make us so much depend upon our Parents that we might see what great reason we have to
honour them And whosoever will not perform this duty must needs transgresse against the very light of nature and those principles which God hath imprinted in their Soules So that as Philo saith The offenders are guilty of impiety against God and inhumanity against man and stand liable before the Tribunal both of God and man and those that are undutifull to their Parents are usually prophane and irreligious towards God This duty in respect of Children is generall and binds them all and every one none can be exempted All and every one have Father and Mother too since Adam and Eve were created by God and not procreated by man Therefore Adam is called the Son of God Luke 3. 38. The conception of Jesus Christ and his birth were extraordinary for he had a Mother but no immediate Father therefore he may be excepted Yet it was said that he was subject unto them that is not onely to his Mother Mary but his Father by law Joseph to give example to all Children seeing he the Son of God subjected himself unto them This duty ariseth from the relation as the foundation thereof For by the manner of the receiving and continuing of their being they are inferiours depending upon Parents and under their power The partyes to whom the duty is to be performed are Father and Mother Father who begets them and Mother who conceives beares bring forth nurseth and taketh care of them in their helplesse age In this respect they have propriety superiority of power above them And lest Children should think it sufficient to be subject to their Father he adds and thy Mother For though the Mother be subject as a Wife to her Husband yet she is superiour to her Child as she is a Mother and may command and must in no wiâ—e be neglected or disobeyed The duty it self is expressed in the word Honour which is but single § V yet comprehends severall dutyes as Reverence to their persons in respect of their dignity subjection to their power obedience to their commands maintenance if they be in want and they able to relieve them and covering their infirmityes for maintenance is sometimes called honour and Shem and Japhet honoured their Father when in a modest manner they covered his nakednesse Reverence must be in the heart and expressed in their words their gestures and outward carriage towards them Subjection is a resigning of their own Wills and acknowledgement of their power and superiority and that they themselves are not Sui juris their own Masters but their duty till the time of emancipation is to serve Obedience is to do their just commands and must be regulated by their directions for they must hearken unto their instructions both for the matter to be done and the manner how it ought to be performed and they must execute it freely and with diligence for if it be not free and willing it s no obedience If Parents fall into want grow decrepit and faile not onely in strength but understanding and so cannot help themselves Reason it self much more the Word of God will dictate unto us that Children should not onely cover their infirmities and bear with their imperfections but also help succour relieve them and endeavour to recompence that tender love and kindnesse which their Parents shewed unto them when they were Children And this is to be done unto them with all due respects as unto Parents for in their lowest condition such they are and such they must be accounted And if all these dutyes be not performed how can Children be said to honour Father and Mother as here they are commanded to do And if Heathen Children be bound thus to honour their Parents and some of them by the light of nature have done it how much more are Christian Children of Christian Parents obliged to this duty which should be performed out of knowledge the love of God and Faith in Jesus Christ as a part of Christian obedience and thankfulnesse This is the duty commanded § VI The reward promised is That they may live long in the Land which the Lord their God had given them and that it might go well with them The reward is 1. An enjoyment of that good land God should give them 2. A long life 3. Prosperity and comfort This is said to be the first Commandement with promiâ—e It s the first Commandement and it hath a promise The second Table is called the Law Rom. 13. 8. 10. And all the Law Gal. 5. 14. That is all the Law which prescribes the duty of man to man It hath severall Commandemnents and this is the first of them and it hath a promise and so none of the rest following have It 's neither the first Commandement of the Decalogâ—e nor the first with promise But it 's the first of that Law which prescribeâ— our duty towards man and hath a promise annexed The end of this promâ—â—eâ— to encourage Children For though they are bound by the law of thankfulnesse unto it anâ— by the performance thereof cannot recompence the love and care of their Parâ—nts and they should be very unworthy if they should neglect it yet it was Gods superâ—bundant mercy to add the promise and the Apostle makes the use of it to move Children to obedience The land which the Lord their God should give them was the land of Canaan and therefore it had special reference to the Isralites yet so that all other dutifull Children of all nations have a right in it and especially Christians Why else should the Apostle take it up to move Christian Children to obedience Ephes. 6. 1 2 3. The enjoyment of our own native Country is opposed to captivity banishment dispossession disinheritance and a Vagabond life Long life to an unnatural or a violent death which takes away life even then when natural vigour continues and there be no internal causes of immediate dissolution A prosperous life is opposed to the cuâ—ses and miseryes which others suffer Yea all these mercyes are opposed to all those judgements as inflicted by God and suffered by wicked and undutifull Children for their neglect disobedience contempt and rebellion against their Parents These blessings promised are but temporall not spirituall and Eternal For those are acquired by Faith and derived from Christ and the promises in Christ in whom Christian Children receive not onely this temporal but a spiritual reward upon this obedience performed in Faith Neither doth this promise take effect in all dutifull Children so as that alwayes they enjoy this reward and be free from the like judâ—ements in generall which arâ— contrary to this reward For even dutifull Children many times suffer Captivity banishment untimely death and other miseryes but not for this sin of obedience whereof they are not guilty but for tryall and some other cause best known unto God who will recompence the want or losse of this reward with some far greater mercy There be extraordinary and reserved cases wherein good Children
unto our Neighbours as our selves or any degree thereof is here prohibited From all this it 's evident that the principal thing commanded and required in this Commandement is the love of our Neighbours as our selves So to do as we would be done unto For the more full understanding of this we must observe and consider some things concerning 1. Love in general 2. Our Neighbour as the Object of this Love here required 3. The measure and quality of it 4. The end whereat it aims 1. Love is of persons or of things This is a love of persons And it presupposeth a Knowledge antecedent to direct it The act of it is to wish well desire intend the good of the person beloved and therefore is called Amor Benevolentiae the love of good-will There is indeed a love of others for our own ends advantage interest but this is either Lust and not Love or love of our selves not of our Neighbours As this Love wisheth and desireth the good of another so the good is either Temporal or Spiritual and Eternal For the good desired by this Love here commanded is any kind of good whereof he is capable which may conduce unto his happiness Therefore the principal thing desired is Eternal Life as it is an Estate of perfect Holiness and Happiness And it 's such a love and so vigorous as it will stir us up effectually to use all means to procure this good 2. As the Object of the highest degree of our love is God § VI so the Object of this love required in this last Commandement is our Neighbour This our Neighbour is 1. All Mankind so far as capable of our love 2. Some part of Mankind and so our Neighbour is either publike or private Publike is either Civil or Ecclesiastical the State or Church whereof we are members and in both first the Superiours and publike and most eminent persons Our private Neighbours are not onely Father and Mother Wife Children Friends Servants Benefactors but also strangers yea and Enemies as God in his Divine Providence shall make them immediate Subjects in particular of our love 3. The quality and measure of our love § VII is implyed in these words As thy self It 's not said as God for that 's too high Nor before or more than our selves for that 's too much So that in these words we have both the quality and the quantity or measure of this love determined For the quality it must be real hearty and sincere for so we love our selves It must be real for in some Cases we must hazard yea lay down our lives and give our goods for to save relieve and help our Brethren in their miseries wants extremities We must lay down the lives of our Bodies for the Salvation of their Souls and with the Widow cast in all that we have into the Treasury This love must be without dissimulation Rom. 12. 9. And we must not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth 1 Joh. 3. 18. Yet this love of our selves cannot be a Rule of the love of our Neighbours except it be regular For it may be fond foolish vain irregular and inordinate Therefore it must be regulated by the Word of God issue from Faith in Christ and our love of God in Christ and we must love in obedience to his Commandement and aym at His Glory and seek the true especially the spirituall and eternall good of our brethren And if we thus love our selves then we may make this love of our selves the measure of our love to others The measure and quantity of this love is also here implied in the foresaid words For we must love God more then any thing more then any person more then our selves and the more wee love God the more we love our selves in God Therefore because we must love our selves lesse then God we must love our Neighbours lesse then him otherwise our love will prove inordinate In loving others we may love our selves first and in that respect more then our neighbours And in this love of our neighbours there be degrees to be observed For we must love our Country under what form of Government so ever it be before any particular person the Whole more then the Part the publick more then the private and because we our selves are but private Persons and a part therefore we must love the whole State in some cases more then our selves And in the State we must love and seek the good of such persons upon whom the safety and peace publique much depends more then others We must also love the Church more then the State and our brethren in Christ more then any particular persons in the world In the fourth place § VIII the End of this love is that we may do as we would be done unto For as we love or hate others so we do unto them so we deal with them well or ill If we love our selves aright and love others as our selves we will neither think nor devise nor intend nor endeavou◠to do him any evill but we will desire devise intend endeavour his reall good And as we would have others to do all things so as that they may tend unto our Temporall peace and spirituall Welfare so we must do all things so as to design their perfect happinesse so well as our own And as we desire that others may do nothing prejudiciall to our joy comfort happinesse so we must do nothing that may tend unto or end in our neighbours hurt so as to make them either sinfull or miserable All obedience without this love is but a carkeise Therefore though the heathens did the things conteined in this Law yet because they were devoid of the Love of God and this love of our Neighbours issuing from the love of God and faith in Christ their obedience was not sincere and such as this Law required To give all our goods unto the poor and our bodies to be burned and not out of love is nothing This love will think well wish well do well speak well It will be patient and long-suffering yea it will be kind unto enemies and such as hate us and if they thirst will give them drink if they hunger feed them and in their miseries relieve them It will blesse them that curse us and pray for them that hate us and despightfully abuse us It will return blessing for cursing do good for evill and seek to overcome evill with good It 's an evidence of a sincere faith a confirmation of our union with and interest in Christ it 's the character of a reall Christian and a proof that we are passed from death to life By it we resemble God who is love by it we imitate Christ by it we are cemented together amongst our selves by it we rejoyce with them that rejoyce and mourn with them that mourn it makes all men one and every man part of ourselves it 's the union of Souls the
subject § VI and makes the subject capable of the reward according to the eternall and unchangeable Laws of God-Redeemer It doth not justify but makes us justifiable To justify must be an act of the Judge To believe is the duty of the Subject To the duty man is bound by the command to render the reward God is bound by his promise But faith doth not only make him capacable and a fit subject to receive justification but upon it by vertue of the promise made in the blood of Christ the party thus as thus believing hath a right unto it The foundation of this right or the title which is sometimes taken for the right sometimes for the foundation of this right is faith but not faith as a duty performed or such a duty in particular but as it is specified and made a condition in the grant and promise made for Christs sake For a donation essentially includes the Donour the Donee and the Consideration if there be any as if it be nudum pactum there is none In this Grant God is Donour sinfull man believing the Donee the Consideration is the blood of Christ. If Christ have made no purchase there is nothing to be granted If He have purchased and there be no grant there is no conveyance If Christ hath purchased and God hath granted and yet the Donee be not specifyed it 's no grant no donation But in this donation man is the Donee and is specifyed as a Believer Yet the party doth not only believe but in and by the power of this faith doth confesse pray vow and Christ an Advocate in Heaven doth plead The Devil accuseth chargeth the sinner desires justice to be done upon the guilty wretch For why should he himself be guilty being condemned and punished and man being guilty as he is go unpunished Here Christ comes in confesseth his client guilty in himself yet just another way and though he deserve to be punished yet by law he ought not to be punished He Pleads three things 1. His own propitiation made 2. Gods promise as part of his Law 3. His clients unfeigned faith By this plea the charge of the Devil is make void the cause of his client made good and the judge effectually moved to pardon This pleading and intercession of Christ is necessary not onely because God ordained and required it but also because our prayer and pleading is very imperfect and His perfect And happy is he that hath such a Counsellour and Advocate in Heaven who is ever ready day and night before his Fathers Throne taking care of the cause of all his Clients pleading GRATIS without any Fee and ever carrying the cause Yet a sinner may be justifiable and yet not instantly actually justifyed For the sentence may be delayed for a certain time But this is the comfort of a true believer that the sentence will certainly be passed in Gods due time which in his wisdome he knoweth to be best Thus you have heard 1. Who is the Judge § VII 2. Who is the party judged Now 3. It 's high time to say something of the judiciall act which is the principall thing But before I proceed to unfold the nature of it I must digresse a little and examine the different opinions of men in this point For some question whether it be a sentence properly or no and if it be a sentence properly when and where it 's passed and if it be passed whether it be a bare sentence without any execution or with some execution 1. That t is a sentence most will grant but some distinguish of Sententia Legis and Sententia judicis The one is not the other is properly a sentence and this no doubt is an act of judgment not of Legislation For if it be an act of Legislation it 's then onely promise and that looks at none in particular but all in generall to whom the promise is made and presupposeth a duty to be performed But justification presupposeth a particular person a particular cause a duty performed and the performance as already past is pleaded and the Judge sollicited to passe judgment accordingly But let it be a sentence and that properly and of the Judge as it is When and where is it passed For passed if properly a sentence it must be For it 's not a sentence as conceived in the breast of the Judge but as judicially pronounced It 's not Sententia mere concepta sed prolata some wayes declared Whether for the time is it passed in eternity before time or in time For the place whether is it passed in man or out of man If out of man whether in Heauen or in Earth If on Earth whether by God and Man If by God whether by the promise of the Law that whosoever believeth is not condemned or some other thing If by man whether by the Minister or the Church binding or loosing so on earth as to be bound and loosed in Heaven If it be whether it be an act of conscience or the blessed spirit If the spirit whether it be by inspiration and enthusiasm or by some real operation Thus the wit of man forsaking the rule of Gods word will wander and ignorance joyned with curiosity will start many doubts puzzle a clear truth infinitely multiply questions not so much for edification as destruction and distraction 1. The sentence was not passed in eternity and onely manifested in time for if it were passed then and onely manifested now it might from hence be argued that the world was created from eternity and so is eternall and the glorious work of creation in the beginning had only been a manifestation of that which was from everlasting And how absurd if not blasphemous must such a fancy be It is trâ—e that as God before the foundation of the World did decree all things to be done in time so he decreed to passe this sentence But the decree it self without the issuing out and exercise of an almighty executive power is no sentence In eternity before time no man was created no sin committed no Saviour promised no law published no duty of faith performed no person convenâ—ed no promise pleaded and therefore no sinner believing justified 2. For the place 1. It 's not passed in Heaven and only there for no Scripture saith so neither is there any meanes discovered how the poor guilty sinner should know whether it be past or no and if past when and so till it be known to be passed and that certainly the believer must alwayes be in doubt The cause indeed is pleaded in Heaven by the great High Priest and his plea is effectual But that the sentence is always passed presently upon the cause pleaded cannot be proved It 's true that if a man doth certainly know his faith and the sincerity thereof he may certainly know his right unto justification and so he knows his cause to be good in Law He is justified in law-title that is he
the form of an Art or Science as some use to speak They determine the Subject of it to be Man Quatenus Beatificabilis as capable of Spiritual and Eternal Happiness The Object of it must be Deus quatenus Beatificans God as the Fountain and Cause of Eternal Bliss And the end is to direct the Spiritual Acts and Operations of the Immortal Soul so that by them well regulated and fixed upon their due Object man may tend unto and in the end attain the full fruition of that Eternal Being in whom he shall be for ever blessed According to this determination some reduce the Doctrine of the Scriptures to Truths Promises Duties yet this is imperfect Others make three Heads of this Doctrine 1. The first is the Being and Perfection of God in himself 2. The second the Works of God 3. The third His Commands Yet this as the former proves defective and no ways exact Others tell us that the Scriptures represent God to us 1. As to be known And 2. As to be worshipped And so make the Parts of this Divine Doctrine to be 1. Knowledge 2. The Worship of God And this hath much affinity with that Distribution of Theologie into Faith and Obedience that is the Rule of Faith and Obedience These conceive all things in the Scripture especially conducing to Salvation to be credenda or agenda The things to be believed the Object of Faith the things to be done and performed the Object of Obedience For this they think that they have a sufficient ground in the Mandate and Commission of our Blessed Saviour Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Math. 28. 19 20. And that of the Apostle seems to confirm this Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love 2 Tim. 1. 13. I will not examine these distinctions now but onely say this much That Faith and Obedience or Observancy as some call it according to the intended sense of these two places are onely Duties to be performed by sinful man Redeemed and Called according to the Commands of their God-Redeemer and so do not reach the utmost bounds of this Heavenly Doctrine And even in this respect they refer to Government and belong onely to that One Head and part thereof The Commands and Laws of God Redeemer requiring obedience And Faith it self is but one part of this obedience as it is a Duty So that these things may be some ways true but no ways accurate and perfect And if they may be allowed mine intended method I hope may pass without any harsh censure For I know no reason to the contrary seeing it's evident that the Principal if not the adaequat subject of the Holy Scriptures is the Kingdom and Government of God The Doctrine whereof is methodically contracted in ancient Creeds and Confessions which take in the Agenda or things to be practised as well as the Credenda things to be believed Of these ancient Confessions it may be observed that 1. Though they differ in words and expressions § II as may appear by the several forms thereof some more brief some more large especially in Irenaeus and Tertullian yet they agree in the matter and the principal method 2. That divers of the Ancients inform us that the first Planted Churches received the Forms of Confession though different in some words and expressions yet the same for matter and the general and principal method from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God Thus amongst others Tertullian 3. They were received from Christ 1. In that Mandate and Commission to the Apostles Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 2. By Inspiration of the Holy Ghost 4. In those Words we have 1. God the Father Almighty making Heaven and Earth by his Word 2. This Word and Son made flesh redeeming sinful man 3. The Holy Ghost by whom Christ was conceived and anointed the Prophets inspired the Church sanctified unto Eternal Glory For so the Ancients understood it being directed by the Apostles 5. This Form thus understood was 1. A Tradition unwritten and of Divine Authority as taught by Christ and his Apostles before it was written But 2. Being written and more fully explained in the Canon of the New Testament it can be no longer an unwritten Tradition And whosoever reading the New Testament doth not find and that in several places both the matter and method of the ancient Confessions understands little 6. No particular form of Confession considered as a Tradition of the Church since the time of the Apostles can be of equal authority with the Scriptures 7. That which we call the Apostles Creed which we find in the Works of Cyprian and Russinus with an Exposition is no more nor so much the Apostles Creed as some ancient Creeds in form differing from it 8. Those words of our Saviour and his Rule of Doctrine concerning the Father Son and Holy Ghost with the three glorious Works of Creation Redemption Sanctification is a divine and wonderful Abridgment of all the Doctrine of the Scripture especially of that which is necessary to Salvation The Confession and Creed of the Patriarchs § III in particular of Enoch was thus God is and he is a Rewarder of them who diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. For they believed That there was one God most glorious and blessed in Himself who by his Wisdome and Power made preserved and governed the World and especially Mankind For to Reward is an act of judgment Judgment presupposeth Laws Laws a Governour a Governour Subjects made and to be governed So that in their ancient Creed we have God considered 1. In Himself 2. As a Governour of the World made by him and especially of Men and Angels and that by Laws and Judgments The obedience to these Laws is to seek God diligently according to the direction of those Laws and the reward of this Obeâ—ience is Eternal Life as the punishment of Disobedience is Eternal Death And after the Fall of Man no man in himself was capable of this Eternal Liâ—â— because all were guilty Therefore they sought this glorious Reward by Châ—iâ—â— to come whom all their Ilastical Sacrifices did typifie as they sought their God by Him The ordinary Analysis of that which we call § IV The Apostles Creed as delivered by more understanding Catechists and Authors of Theological Systems is this God being the Subject of that Confession is considered 1. In himself as God the Father Son and Holy Ghost 2. As in his Works 1. Of Creation 2. Of Providence Providence preserves and governs all things created especially Man Man made righteous holy happy 1. Falls 2. Is restored He is restored by Redemption and the Application of it The Redeemer for Person is the
or unbelieving Jewes are The distance from God and Salvation of the one is not such or so great as the distance of the other The Apostle puts the Ephesians in mind That before their conversion they were Gentiles in the slesh who were called uncircumcision by that which was called circumcision in the slesh made by hands That at that time they were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope without God in the world Ephes. 2. 11 12. It 's not to be understood that they were without God as Creatour or Preserver but without God promising to save them For God did not promise to save them or their Children upon any terms They were excommunicate and banished out of his Kingdome and were denyed the very meanes of conversion Therefore they must needs be without Christ and without hope For where there is no Christ nor promise in Christ there could be no hope But after their conversion they were Subjects of Gods Kingdome fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and if the Parents being the root were holy then their Children the branches were holy and within the Verges of Gods spiritual Kingdom And as the promise in Christ to come was to the Jews and their Children so the promise in Christ already come is to Christians and their Children For the Covenant made to Abraham and his seed is essentially though not accidentally the same with the promise of the Gospel and must necessarily include the Children with the Parents as that did except any man can produce a clause of exclusion which no man to this day ever could When Peter said The promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God should call Acts 2. 3. He spake not to the Jews merely as Jews but as Christians believing in Christ already come and the promise was not personal to them alone excluding their Children but to them as such and their Children For their conversion did no wayes limit or straiten the promise made to Abraham but continued it in the same extent it was before And the words imply that if he called the Gentiles who were afar off both they and their Children as he did call them afterward even they should enjoy the promise in the same extent so as to include the Children with the Parents To understand it otherwise is to offer violence to the Text. For the Gentiles once called must enjoy the priviledges for them and theirs in as large and ample manner as the Jew did this onely was the proper and special priviledge of the Jew he must first be called Yet this we must know that Children are in the lowest form of Christs Kingdom whilst they are Children and after they are at age by their actual disobedience may loose the benefit and by Apostacy they may forfeit all their priviledges and their hope These priviledges which these Children enjoy are not ordinarily immediate conversion or justification and the Spirit of Adoption and regeneration and the actuall enjoyment of those blessings but that which they have immediate right unto is the meanes of conversion which he denyes to such as are not of the Church For this was the priviledge which the Jew enjoyed though he did not believe he was trusted with the Oracles of God wherein were precepts of duty promises for mercy and also of power to keep the precepts and the outward confirmation both of precepts and promises This was the Childrens bread which was not given to doggs of the Gentiles and such as were strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel These Children born in the Church and of believing Parents who are Christians are members of the Church subjects of Christs Kingdome and have a special relation to God to Christ to the Church and the same such as no Infants in the world born of Parents out of the Church have or as such can have The summe of this discourse is That as all Children are part of their parents make but one person by the Laws of God and men so Christian Infants are one person with their Christian parents and make but one body with them as the root and branches are but one Tree and this by divine ordination and especially in obligations to dutyes and right unto favours and priviledges spiritual so far as they are capable So that the question so much vexed in our dayes rightly stated is this Whether Christian infants as part of their parents and one person with them have right to Baptism or are subjects immediately capable of baptism according to Divine ordination To this thus stated the Antipaedo-baptists have said nothing to this hour And whereas they alleage that there is no example or precept in the Gospel for Infant-baptism it hath been answered that there is no expresse precept or example for women to receive the Lords Supper and yet they themselves administer it to women But this is but very little if not the least that may be said for infant-baptism For so many precepts and examples as they can find in the New-Testament for the Baptism of such as are at age so many precepts and examples they give us for Baptizing Infants For if the parents or one of the parents may be baptized then the Infant may be baptized For they are one person in respect of Baptism and therefore what right the one hath the other must have Neither can it be upon any sufficient ground alledged that Children are uncapable of Baptism either as it is a Sacrament or as a Sacrament of initiation or as a seale of the righteousnesse by faith For circumcision was 1. A Sacrament 2. A Sacrament of initiation 3. A Seal of the righteousnesse by faith Yet this was administred to Infants and that by Gods Institution which never would have been done by Divine Warrant if they had been uncapable The difference between Baptism and Circumcision was 1. That the signes are different 2. That there was a different modification in the object of faith required in both The signe of the former was the cutting off the foreskin of the â—lesh in the second washing with water in the name of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost The different modification of the object of faith was Christ to come and Christ already come The spirituall thing sealed and signified in both was the same that is righteousnesse by faith in Christ. And as there is no place of Scripture alleaged so I think there can be no reason sufficient given why the covenant being essentially the same the Children included then should be excluded now If the faith profession and promise of the Parents then was sufficient to obtain the sealing of the covenant by the initiating Sacrament why should they not be now For Children are as much one person now with their parents as they were then Neither should any wonder that the Faith of one may
benefit another if the Faith of a Father could obtain the deliverance of the Child Mark 9. 23. And the Faith of a Mother the freedome of the Daughter from the power of the Devil Mark 7. 29 30. and the faith of those that carryed the sick and Paralytical wretch obtained the remission of his sins and recovery Mark 2. 5. To shew § XXI 1. What it is morally or politically to be one person with another or Persona conjuncta as the Civilians speak 2. How many wayes severall persons physically distinct may be one 3. For how many ends or causes it may be so 4. To reduce the places of Scripture which teach us how God doth take not onely parents and Children but many others as one into order would take up a large discourse and it might be very usefull and profitable and give great light to many places But for the present I intend it not it would be too great a digression Onely in matters of religion Parents and Children Prince and People Husband and Wife Master and Servants and such relations in severall societies are onely so far one as God would have them to be and Children are so far one with their Parents as to derive by divine ordination something from them whereof they are capable Otherwise we might argue that because their Parents have actual faith immediate right to the actual participation of the Eucharist are justified and sanctified c therefore the Children are so have faith and a right unto the actual participation of the Lords Supper And this is the next thing to be considered who they are who may be admitted to the actual participation of the Lords Supper Infants baptized have a remote right unto that Sacrament and so also have Christians of age formerly baptized a nearer right But the question is not of a remote right but of an immediate right according to divine institution to the actual participation of this Sacrament Justine Martyr informs us of the practise of the Church and the rules observed in those times The summe and substance of his words is this That they baptized persons at age who professed the Christian faith and promised to live accordingly And the qualification of Communicants at the Lords Table was this 1. They must be baptized persons 2. Continue in the profession of the Christian faith for so he must be understood 3. Live according to the Commandements of Christ. Those that desire to know his mind in this particular may read his words in his second Apology And here it 's to be noted 1. That this very qualification is required in the words of the Institution of this Sacrament and the Apostles doctrin thereupon 1 Cor. 11. 23 24 25. unto the 33. verse For in that place the Apostle doth imply 1. That the communicant should have the use of reason which infants have not 2. That he must be a Disciple or Christian Baptized 3. That he have the knowledge of the mystery of Redemption and a belief of the same 4. That this knowledge must be and ought to be practicall How else can he celebrate and receive the Sacrament in remembrance of his Saviours death passion sacrifice so as not to be guilty of the body and blood of Christ And hence it follows 1. That an ignorant person who hath no competent knowledge of the mystery of Redemption and that Sacrament or professeth not the Christian saith or iâ— guilty of scandal certainly known can have no right unto the immediate receiving of the Eucharist if known to be such 2. That there is required more in a communicant at this blessed Table then in a person at age to be baptized For unto the one is required onely a profession of his faith and a promise of a new life but in the other not onely profession and a promise but baptism antecedent and a performance of the promise in living according to Christs Commandements And whereas some tell us that this Sacrament is a converting ordinance I must tell such that as it presupposeth Baptism which is the laver of regeneration so it presupposeth conversion if we will speak in the Dialect of the Spirit which is safest and not according to our own fancies which is no wayes tolerable The third § XXII and last question is whether this Sacrament is to be administred according to mens knowledge and judgment which is fallible or according to Gods knowledge which is infallible For satisfaction herein 1. It 's certain that both the Sacraments are to be administred and that by Gods command by man as by the Minister who is trusted with the dispensation of the word and Sacraments 2. That mans knowledge is but fallible and he cannot search the heart and reines 3. That though the Minister as in Baptism so in the administration of the Lords Supper must keep close to his commission yet by reason of the imperfection of his knowledge he may administer unto persons unworthy and in many cases is bound so to do 4. That though man may administer to the unworthy yet God doth alwayes either suspend or excommunicate them and denyes the spiritual benefit unto them and this perfect judgment he hath reserved to himself Yet this doth no wayes warrant man to give the Eucharist to any man whom he certainly knows to be unworthy And in denying it to such he need not plead jurisdiction in Foro exteriori or power of suspension and excommunication in himself as a Minister of the Gospel but onely alledg that by his commission from Christ he hath no power to give it to such a person and he must not do that which he hath no power to do Neither doth he in refusing to admit such a person whom he certainly knows unfit either for ignorance or scandall signify that the party hath no right at all any wayes unto the Sacrament but onely signifies that according to the rules of Christ for that time and whilst he is such he cannot have any actual possession or enjoyment of that right As the Leper had right unto his rent or house but could not possesse and enjoy it till he was cleanâ—ed Yet one thing seems strange that such as grant unto the Minister or Presbyter the power of absolution in Foro interiori as they call it yet should deny him the power of suspension of that party whom he certainly knows to be scandalous Why may he not positively declare him to be unworthy and according to his certain knowledge so judge him according to the laws of Christ Yet if he do thus this act is far different from the acts of judgment exercised in Foro exteriori where a Discipline is established We need not here debate what kind or degree of Faith in such as are at age do give them right to Baptism For it s not the Faith but the profession of the Faith and promise of New life we must look at in this particular For if they professe the true faith and promise a