example of Justice in this Island were more likely to terrifie the inhabitants thereof and to prevent any further guilt in principle or in practice about this foul sin than ten other arguments in such an age of monstrous bodily uncleannesses of speculative unbelief and of practical Atheism Whatever success upon the hearts of Readers this paper Testimony has or shall have is with him in whose hands the hearts of men are In this I rejoyce that the LORD hath not left me to be ashamed of Christ nor of his Words in this Adulterous and sinful Generation They are the Scripture-Rules and Precepts of our LORD Christ which we must walk by and whom we must obey if we would have him to be the Author of eternal Salvation and who will judge Whoremongers and Adulterers all whosoever they be who are profane corrupters of Holy Marriage Whether thorowout the Scriptures where ever Adam is found in the Original it should not be so rendred in the Translation into other Languages leaving it to the expounder in the help and supplies of the holy Spirit to shew when it is meant properly of the The Adam and when collectively of more This I judge greatly useful to be far inquired into and seriously to be considered of It is scarce imaginable till proof be made of this what variety of choice discoveries would shine forth from hence That all the Old Testament thorow we can find Adam but twenty times or about that small number in our English Translation Whereas it is expressed in the Original many scores of times let the vulgar Reader think and consider whether much of this useful Learning about Man's Nature and State have not been hereby hidden from him And let the Judicious and experienced in the Hebrew words and phrases say whether many controversies in Religion about Adam and his fall and his conveying of guilt and corruption to his Posterity with much more of profitable practical Doctrines and Duties Graces and Privileges would not be evidently demonstrated hereby Adam was not created at the first Androg ynous with two distinct several Faces and with a double body afterwards to be divided and pulled asunder one from another to become two Aelohim created them in the plural Male and Female severed ones sundred Personages The Male and the Female Adam were both blessed together and therefore at that time they had both of them a created distinct being Aelohim's benediction which he gave to Adam the Male and the Female is more large and ample in expressions and in things than those words of blessing which before he uttered to other Creatures they had propagation as other living creatures made on the fifth day though not so numerous as the most of them and further they were endowed and enriched with many a good perfect gift of Spirit Soul and Body beyond them We must learn and know mind and consider That the Creation in the whole and in every part thereof together with all the Honour and Glory of that Power and Wisdom and other glorious Excellencies which did so manifest themselves therin is wholly and only to be ascribed and attributed to Aelohim whose name is so often as hath been observed used in this History Adam was bound actually to believe in Aelohim and in his Word as soon as he was created For he had a Word and a Promise from Christ in this History of the Creation Adam was to believe Aelohim's sanctifying of appointed Meats created for his Food to be received of them who being believing ones and acknowledging ones of the Truth to mention no more particulars now So that Faith in the creating Messias has a Foundation in created Nature Adam had a power in created Nature to believe in Christ and his Holiness and his Righteousness were a perfection suitable and con-natural to him Thus the sum of the Decalogue was imprinted in Adam's heart Faith in Jehovan Aelohim is the substance of the first word or command which was enjoyned to all the World of Mankind in Adam and so Faith in Father Son and Holy Spirit It was always a Truth from the very first creating and forming of Man and was actually a Law and command upon Man and Mankind that without Faith it is impossible to please God whom to please as well as to believe in was a plain duty accordingly Abraham believed in God who accounted it to him for righteousness and all the Children of Abraham must be of the same Faith and Practice For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him The eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews in several instances doth relate that the Saints and people of God under the Old Testament-administration did actually rely upon Christ by Faith for which Faith they are there commended This original concreated Holiness and Righteousness in Adam being such a Law of Nature as whereof the ten Words are a perfect Transcript and an exact Summary it were a matter well worth a further re-search and a deeper Inquiry whether the Doctrinal-part as well as the Duty-part of true pure Religion be not to be found in the Decalogue Thorah is one of the Names of this Law often used in the Old Testament The Native signification of which word is Doctrine It is a Doctrinal Law cast before the Disciples of the LORD teaching and instructing us concerning his will towards us and about our Office towards him and our Neighbour in what we are to believe as to the credends and to do as to the Agends of Religion informing us in the Truth of the premises as well as directing us in the practice of the conclusions Faith and obedience in their large comprehensive notation do take in the whole of Religion they are all Adam as to this For Adam was under a Law under this Law The Articles of our Belief are within the bounds of the Laws of the Decalogue He that would be regular in his obedience must also be found in the Faith These are the Essential constitutive parts of an entire perfect Holiness and Righteousness The LORD Jesus Christ confirmed the Truth of his Doctrine from the Authority of his own Law and in asserting the Doctrine of the Resurrection which is one great particular instance he fetcheth the force of his Argument from the first Word saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living To assent unto revealed Truth is as necessary a part of our Duty as to perform commanded service And if it be narrowly looked into and duly pondered it will be manifest that all the Acts of our obedience do as naturally result from some Act of Faith as all the Acts of Faith do naturally resolve into some Act of obedience as a general subjection of our whole Man to the will of
well set on by the Teachers in Assemblies who are to endeavour to fix their good Counsels in the memory of the Hearers and to hold the people close to their office and duty a wise faithful Magistrate fitted for the due administration of Justice in a Kingdom or Commonwealth is compared unto such a well-fixed Nail in its right place confirmed in his seat of Dignity the peace and other happiness of a Nation much depending upon his good Government and the Subjects being held and born up in their Duty by his Authority The Reader may here observe how the LORD doth in his Word spiritualize these earthly things and imployments whereby he would teach them to be holy and heavenly in their particular Functions that they may abide in their Callings with God and may know in experience how to have the Christian Religion to run into the whole of their day and work and may see it evidently reconcileable and reducible to practice for a man to be diligent industrious and laborious with his hand whilst all the while he is believing serious and pondering in his heart having sweet Meditations and being glad in Jehovah turning his ordinary work into special Worship and having fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus in the supplies of the holy Spirit even whilst he is conversant about the things of this world in his lawful employment O for more of such handy-crafts-men whatever they do it shall prosper As for Timber-pins it instructs the Carpenter to make them of strong firm word not of that which is weak and yielding as the wood of a Vine is a discreet Carpenter will not take of the wood thereof to make a piece of work with it he will not take a pin of it to hang any Vessel thereon a wooden-nail or peg of it is not fitted for the use of hanging up houshold-stuff or working-tools or any heavy matter upon it by which comparison and similitude the LORD gives hypocritical Israel and Judah to know that of all the people in the world carnal earthly hollow-hearted professors of Religion are some of the most unprofitable and useless The Carpenter may learn from this word what kind of Timber to chuse and to use even that which is of Trees that will not rot Cedars Oaks Ashes Elms Firt-trees are especially commended amongst others wise workmen will discern between what is sound and what is rotten I expect that skilful Carpenters will be in this on my side For the Scriptures do much commend those who were very skilful in this Mechanick Art such were the Sydonians the Tyrians and some others who had practical excellency of curious knowledge in this Artificious Affabrous Science Aelohim himself doth set himself out as an Architect Thus is Christ the Builder of his Church and Paul was under Christ a wise Architect The Saw is here spoken of the use of which Instrument with Capenters is to cut Timber and Boards asunder to make men thus to pass under the Saw and to cut them asunder is one of the most grievous kinds of tormenting punishments which some inraged Conquerors have exercised their subdued Captives with it is an Instrument meerly passive which doth act no further than it is acted having all its force and receiving all its efficacy from that Agent or from these Agents that do move it to and fro up and down backward and forward in cutting and therefore the Saw cannot magnifie it self against the Agitator the Mover of it it was then a wicked thing in that proud King of Assyria to exalt himself when the LORD used him as a Saw in his hand for the humbling and subduing the correcting and chastising of a sinful hypocritical people he ascribed his great Victories which he obtained not unto Jehovah as the Author of them but unto himself to his own Wisdom and Valour he carried on an ambitious plot of his own to inlarge his Territories and to spread his own Dominions but thought not upon intended not that which was the LORD's wise just design and holy good end Thus you see how God in his Word doth furnish even Sawers with profitable matter of holy Meditation How large is the Scripture about the right structure of an House in the whole and in the several parts of it when and how to build is taught of Aelohim wise men do not use to build what before they had destroyed he that would build an House should compt the cost the charge lest he leave imperfect that work which he began and so expose himself to the mocks of all Carpenters are such Artificers to whom the Scriptures give the appellation of Edificators or Builders or Makers of Houses because one of the choice parts of building usually is the Timber-work which must be laid level upon some solid Basis that it may stand upright and firm and moved as upon a sustaining Fulture and an upholding Stabiliment Timber-pillars must be well founded or grounded set with Art on their Sockets that they may be staid up and fastned Pillars in Hebrew have their name from standing firm immoved upright standing under and sustaining of the House the Sockets were as Feet or Grounds to sustain what Timber or Boards or Planks were laid upon them or were put into them having hollow Mortaises for the Tenons of the Boards to be fastned in that there might be an equal perfect joyning a work to be performed with skill and care here the Carver of wood is directed to go to Jehovah to be fitted with the Spirit of Aelohim in Wisdom and in Understanding and in Knowledge and in all workmanship to devise cunning Works to work in all this kind of Timber-workmanship with studious and artificial Ingraving or cutting or ploughing in Wood the most ingenious handy-crafts-man in this Mechanick Art may here try his skill here the Carpenter is wised about Beams and Rafters what Timber to make them of how to lay them how to fasten them in the Walls they have one of their names in Hebrew from running to meet because in the manner of their fitting and laying on in an extructed edifice they should be so exactly fitted as that they and what they are put upon and into may as it were run to meet and to receive one another by mutual coaptation and contignation there is one part of them which is Ligament or Band to receive the junctures of the Building and another of their names they have from their density or thickness the Commissures or Coupling or Couples are here spoken of as the Junctures or Consociations in an House those Timber-pieces that do make a conjunction in the Edifice the Pavement or Floor of Boards is here mentioned which is the lower Expanse or Firmament of an House here you have the Timber-side-pieces which are as the Ribs of an House you have the Cieling the Roof or the Covering this is the upper higher part of
and rejected by this Generation the springing Race in after-times will rejoyce when they shall reap and gather in use and injoy the good fruit of these honest labours Wordly advancement and a flattered name is the consulted project and the fore-casted contrivement of a low debased mind unbecoming that princely spirit in a Believer which has nobler designs and higher aims If this tractate be not exact yet the subject matter is excelling the Scripture-cause of word-learning is such that he who objecteth against it doth quarrel with the Author of it who wil have a time to make such to know whose word shall stand whether this of him or that of them when it will be manifest in the hearts of such that this design is not the product of a discontented mind or of humoursome censoriosness or of a grave affection or of a splenetick windiness Vulgar Prizers are no just valuers for Scripture-Truth though all be sold for it is never bought too dear and though all the World could be had for it yet would be sold too cheap it is well worth thy dealing for whatever it cost thee Scripture-Learning has an operative influence to correct and rectifie to change and renew to reform and refine hearts and lives to affect the Soul with a due sense of its own noble excellencies and widened capacities that it may be holy and happy wise and prudent for ever to make the conscience feel the weight of present Duty and of future felicity with the kindliest tyes and strongest obligations O how excellent are the Virtues how efficacious the Powers that do flow from hence The Patrons of this Book are Christ and his Word Truth and Good Reason and Religion Scripture and Nature Spreading untruths have gotten a name of Antiquity and Reputation and popular Opinion has kept up their credit and still it doth them reverence but they are all falling before the Scriptures of Truth for rather than fail the Christian verities and the rare knowledges contained in them shall be yet further confirmed by such Miracles as are beyond the Powers of Nature and the Arts of Man The seeming impossibility of all profitable Learning in one Book will in time be removed out of the way and off from the thoughts by a sound belief of the infinite wisdom of the Author of it The true uniform voice of holy Scripture and of created Nature is with me and for me though the common votes of the mistaking world cry me down although such ill habits have been acquired through the power and energie and effascination of Philosophy as no ability or skill of man can remove yet Almightiness and All-wisdom can work Students off from it If I publish my own imperfections and proclaim my own ignorances and bewray my own follies yet let not the Reader forget that I am a pleader for the most righteous cause in the judgement of the best Law the evidence is clear for it and the sentence of approbation is already pronounced that the holy Scriptures of Truth are the best the perfect Platform of all useful Scientificks Christ is the Head-Captain of created Hosts and he will triumphingly Conquer his Truth is strong and it shall prevailingly overcome Scripture-knowledge especially in the savingness of its Science and in the Sanctifyingness of its Art doth speak enough for it self within the breast of every spiritual discerner as having an incomparable excellency in it above and beyond all other Skills and Wisdoms in the World I need not urge many arguments to convince those Readers of this great useful Truth who have felt the living power of it upon their renewed hearts for when it came there it brought in its own self evidence and left a sensible demonstration and wrote a sealed Testimonial under its own hand there I have though this also much in my aim to praise it more unto such and to press them to make some higher advance in this best Learning as being a nearer approach unto intuitive perfection in visional Glory and that which raiseth the spiritual Reason and the inlightned Faith of the Saints here below in this Intellectual World into a resemblance of Angelical Wisdom yet I say I have somewhat further in my present design which is to win upon those who are under impetuous temptations and violent assaults to be Atheists and Infidels both speculative and practical by a prevailing insinuating of this astertion if the LORD will say so too that word-Science and Scripture-Art is the Science of Sciences and the Art of Arts every way most and best corresponding to the capacities suited to the cases fitted to the necessities and promoting the felicities of rational Beings so that this discovery has its great usefulness to all even the most knowing and the most holy as for others who may be far gon in this spiritual distemper of scorning of and of scoffing at the asserted sufficiencie and fulness of the Scriptures that which they so much slight and so storm against must be the means of their cure unless they be such as will neither hear their disease nor endure a remedy but are obstinate to all healing prescriptions I take the causes of Atheism amongst many others to be as an afraidness of the convincingness and of the condemningness of the holy Precepts and righteous Judgements declared in the Scriptures and an unbelief of its glorious rewards so also this in particular ignorance of the excellency of Scripture-knowledge and although those who do fall below Religion will also sink beneath Reason too yet I am not altogether without hope but that when Jehovah Aelohim shall make his Word-light to shine forth more in its beautious glory it will allure the eyes and draw the heart inform the judgements and incline the wills of men of intellect to see and to acknowledge to adore and to admire that only wise God who has put so much into so little and has given us a pocket-Book of such absolute fulness The Antichristian party by their paper plots would blow up all belief of the sufficiency and perfection of the Scriptures as hoping that if they can once prevail with a people to be of no Religion they will then be of their Religion and the Anti-scripturarians have but too many followers in this day who if they be so bold as to assert this imperfection of the Word in the necessary matters of Salvation no marvel if they deny its conprehensiveness as to the other knowable things Arise Jehovah plead thou thine own plea and magnifie thou above All thy Name thy Word all the Kings of the Earth shall confess Thee Jehovah when they hear the words of thy mouth and they shall sing in the ways of Jehovah for great is the Glory of Jehovah In Thee Aelohim thy Saints will praise thy Word and a second and a third time they will praise thy Word this they know that thou and thy word for them Thus have I given thee Reader some accompt of
to them that trust in him when those who have either added to or taken from his words shall be reproved and be found to have been lying ones And I do hope there will be a pure every way uncorrupt Autograph or Apograph of the Scriptures of Truth Neither am I without some Words of the LORD upon which to bottom Faith Expectation and Prayer concerning this matter a great and a glorious Work highly and fully worth the most serious and diligent search after by Christian Princes by Learned Men and by Eminent Believers Spiritual Discerners should know how to take and to improve this hint which I had rather they themselves would industriously pursue than at present put me upon any further opening of my thoughts with the grounds of those my apprehensions in such an Age of quarrelsome jangling of endless contentiousness and of lips of folly In the mean time till there be this glorious appearing of Christ and of his Book according to Prophetical Revelations I bless his Name for himself and for his Word and for any gracious Work of his Word upon my heart having felt a day of his Power there whereby he has made me willing to stand in some holy awe of him and of his Word and to dispense it in some growing measures as I have received it in uprightness as of God in the presence of God so speaking it in Christ If any will so sell this Word of God as to falâ—â—e it by corrupting it any ways by dealing deceitfully with it by playing the Hucksters with it adulterating and sophisticating of it by mingling of Philosophick Errors and Humane Inventions and Unwritten Traditions with it Thus to make the market of their own private gain upon some ignorant deluded soul by their crafty handling and covetous dispensing of it by false glosses and counterfeit garnishes giving forth wrong senses and making undue applications of it raising false Doctrines and inferring ill uses from thence let such consider in the fear of Jehovah how they will answer it at that last Great Day when they shall be judged to their Eternal Estate by that Word which they have so much wrested and wronged O how great cause have they to inlarge in Jehovah's praises who having in their younger years taken in much of the Philosophick taint were afterwards by his Spirit and Grace cured of its gross mistakes and dangerous errors that a Moses escaped from out of Egyptian Astrology Sorcery and such other superstitious diabolical Arts That a Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah got so well off from Chaldaick Books so full of vain Arts and of Idolatrous Sciences that Aelohim gave them Knowledge and Understanding to discern Truth from Falshood whereby to convince and to confute Ethnick Errors and Paganish Tenets and that they were so kept from prohibitell Magick and such black Arts That the new converted Christians were preserved and antidored by the Principles and Laws of their true pure Religion from and against the poysonous disputes of Epicureans Stoicks Libertines Gnosticks and such other Philosophers That a Paul so 〈◊〉 up in several corrupt 〈◊〉 was afterwards so savingly inlightned so sound in Scripture Learning so skilful so useful so successful a Preacher O what special matter of great thankfulness was there here Vain man would be wise above and besides and against what is written although Wo be threatried against those who are wise in then own eyes The wisdom of such shall perish There is a knowledge that is vain which a wise a man should not utter The worldly wise ones of Philosophers do irride the Christian Religion and of Polititians do hate it O the blessedness the happy goings on with a straight foot of them who are made Wise to Salvation It has been in all Ages of the Church the device and the attempts of Saran and of his Disciples to abuse men by paralogisms by such false reasonings as by a shew and colour of Truth do circumvent the unskilful and unexperienced in the Word of Righteousness And their assaults have been mainly made against the Churches and People of God under specious shews of Reason and of Religion to introduce somewhat that is quite contrary to the Nature Purity and Simplicity of the Christian undefiled Doctrine Hence have they endeavoured to thrust in the worshiping of Angels and of Saints departed by invocating of them by dedicating of Temples and of Altars to them by making vows to them with many other uninstituted Observations of humanely-invented Ceremonies and divers Philosophical trifles which are no authorized warranty nor legitimate argumentation from the Word of God nor from sound Reason judiciously informed thereby Oh how daring bold is humane curiosity that will adventure to be wise beyond due bounds of sober knowledge when men will presume to be Doctors not understanding what they speak nor of what they affirm The Schoolmen with the Papists and others who have trod in the steps of those Scholastick Doctors have generally greatly erred herein by obtruding upon others many Forgeries and falshoods for Articles of Christian Faith which were taught themselves only by the dark discoursings of their own blind minds such as are their Scientia media their free-will their inherent Righteousness their meritorious Works their creature-idolizings with such like dogmatical decrees and received opinions of proud men which they fetched out of the Metaphysicks of Philosophers and out of the Ethicks of Pagans from whose corrupt Principles they would deduce the great Truths and the saving Mystesteries of the Christian Religion bottoming their unsound conclusions upon their own sandy opinions thus subjecting Theology to Philosophy and Christianity to Sophistry Those Books which are commonly called Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy or the Book of Moses and of his Writings there have the approving Testimony of those true faithful Prophets that did follow after him as also of the LORD Jesus Christ himself and of his Apostles and the History of the Creation and of the Works thereof in the Beginning of the Bible is true in the literal sense and was intended and recorded so to be understood and all those Philosophical Allegorical and Mystical Senses which any do give thereof that are contrary unto this are to be avoided and rejected THis is the first revealed and written Word the most Ancient Book by which all Humane Treatises where they err must be corrected I exclude not any other part of Holy Scriptures but do own all through as a perfect Summary of all useful Learning and do bring them in for the confirmation of Truths only the Reader is to remember and consider that one great part of my present Design is to propound some such particular inquiries concerning the Works of Creation in the several Days of the first Week of the World and to give such a Scripture Judgement upon some special Cases as may restaur and advance true profitable Knowledges and Arts. Christ in his Word hath put his
in to mediate especially since the disobedience of Man has set God and Man at variance When Paul had once understood and found the benefit having felt the necessity and enjoyed the Good and Blessing of this Mediation and had the Word and the Ministery of Reconciliation committed to him he took much holy delight in opening of this great Mystery in his Epistles to the Churches discovering how God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their sins unto them Paul and such others as were called into that Office were Ambassadors for Christ as if God did beseech sinners by them and they prayed in Christ's Name that such would be reconciled to God For him who knew no sin hath he made sin for his people that they might become the Righteousness of God in him It pleased God to reconcile through Christ all things unto himself both the Things upon the Earth and the Things in Heaven This was much the end of Christ's coming upon the Fathers sending of him to preach Peace unto us He is our Peace and his Gospel is the Gospel of Peace Christ was Man that as Man had offended so Christ by becoming Flesh by taking the Manhood to his Godhead might pacifie God in Man in the Nature of Man and that Christ might be such a One as did suffer together with us in our infirmities and was tempted in all things like unto us yet without sin As the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews doth declare And Christ was God in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily as Paul speaks that there might be virtue and merit enough in him fully both to satisfie and please his Father and that he might be a fit Interceder for his people to his Father and that now Believers might in Christ see and enjoy the Father Christ being the Image of the Invisible God the brightness and resplendence of Glory and the Ingraven Form or Impression of his Person or subsistence so that he who seeth the Son seeth the Father also This shines in the face of Jesus Christ who as Mediator was also known to acknowledged by Believers under the Old Testament Dispensation whose Jehovahship has been already proved from thence whereby his Godhead is evidenced and as for his Humanity it was revealed to them That the seed of the woman should break the head of the serpent and that of the fruit of Davids body should Christ be raised up concerning the flesh as Peter in his Sermon hath expounded that prophesie in the one hundred thirty and second Psalm and Christ did several times appear under the Old Testament Administration as a man whereby he did visibly foreshew that Great Mystery of his being God manifested in the Flesh in time Thus particularly doth the Word speak that when Jacob was left alone a man wrestled with him till the morning whom Jacob did call the Mighty God whence Jacob named that place where this wrestling was Peniel that is to say the place where he saw the Faces of the Almighty One even of him who is Jehovah For thus the Prophet Hosea doth speak that Jehovah saith At Bethel God found him meaning this Jacob whom he met and to whom he appeared and there he spake with us he who has Jehovah for his Name of remembrance which also is another proof of Christ's being Jehovah It was made known unto them that Christ was both God and Man in one Hence in Isaiah Christ hath the name of Gnimmanu-el God with us which 〈◊〉 more eminently and evidently fulfilled when he was born of the Virgin 〈◊〉 as is declared in the Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the LORD by that Prophet saying Behold the Virgin shall he with child and shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel which is being interpreted God with us And the Prophet Zeehariah doth call Christ such a Man as was withal a Fellow-companion with the Father There were several Types of this of old Such a one was Moses when he stood between Jehosnuah and his people to shew unto them the Word of Jehovah Such was Aaron and his Sons the high Priests who were anointed to this Office to appear before the LORD for his people to offer Sacrifice for them to pray unto Jehovah for them and to bless them from Jehovah Thus did the people humbly supplicate to the Judge of all by a Mediator for Grace They of them that were believing appealed unto the Father for right presenting themselves and referring their Cause to his Righteous Judgement in a way of interpellation intreating his favour and praying against condemnation in regard that all his just demands were fully answered in the Virtue and Merit of his Son in whom his Soul was well pleased who was represented by the High Priest that did bear the Names of the people upon his Heart when he went in into the holy place for a Memorial before Jehovah continually and who did bear the iniquity of their holy Things for favourable acceptation of them to the Faces of Jehovah which was a significant Figure of the Mediation of Christ who by the Author of the Epistle of the Hebrews is called The high Priest of our profession and the high Priest of good things to come in which respect he is the Mediator of a better Testament as he is commended in that Epistle The Figures and Types which did shadow out his Mediatorship under the Old Testament dispensation having received under the New their full accomplishment and perfection in him It was Christ's Person and Office and Place that Jehovah the high Priest in the Prophesie of Zechariah did represent when he stood before Jehovah It was Christ whom Malachi doth call the Angel or the deputed commissioned Messenger of the Covenant he in whom all the promises of God even to Believers under the Old Testament were yea and Amen What was promised unto Abraham that in him in his seed all Families of the Earth should be blessed the same doth Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians apply to Christ as accomplished in him who was that promised Seed Hence Christ is called the Surety of this better Testament or Covenant he who by giving the hand did promise to the Father on the behalf of those whom the Father gave unto him for whom he did undertake and who did work their peace by making of a Covenant between God and them for who else could have set his hand to go through with so great a Work Who is he that can promise in his heart to draw near unto me saith Jehovah in the Prophet Jeremiah None else was throughly fitted and fully furnished for this but only Jehovah Christ Christ is the One Mediator Of this the Apostle Paul speaketh in express words There is one Mediator between God and men
of whom Micab foretold that he should come out of Judah for to be a Ruler and whose goings forth are of old from the days of Eternity which in the Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ is spoken of this Gâ—immanu el God with us Thus the Prophet Zachariah describes him at the least in the Type He shall sit and bear sway upon his Throne and he shall be Priest upon his Throne This was the voice of the Angel to Mary concerning Christ The LORD God shall give unto him the throne he shall be King for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end This is to be known for certain that God hath made him for a LORD him hath God by his Right Hand exalted for a Prince and Saviour Thus did Peter openly confess him before men This Jehovah Christ hath reigned he is reigning and will reign How high is that Majesty with which he is clothed He hath girded himself with strength Stable is his Throne from then from the Time that he has been from before any created Time as we now measure it he from Eternity He by the Authority of his Mediatoral Office has Royal Prerogatives to pass Acts of Grace to grant Pardons to particular returning sinners to speak the Peace of this into the conscience to give the joy and comfort of this into the heart Christ had a Glory with his Father before this World was and a love from his Father before the Foundation of this World as the LORD Christ himself doth acknowledge in his holy heavenly Prayer to his Father as John has recorded it He is high above all the people let the earth be glad let the many isles rejoyce Come let us shout joyfully to this Jehovah let us shout triumphantly to the rock of our Salvation For Jehovah a great God and a great King above all gods He is the King of Righteousness and the Prince of Peace All kings shall bow down unto him and all nations shall serve him Christ is the only LORD him only must we serve So doth Christ interpret Moses and so did the Prophet Samuel teach Let us hear the LORD Jesus himself speaking thus in the Book of his Generation One is your leader even Christ One is your Father which is in heaven One is your Master even Christ Paul doth write in the Epistle to the same purpose we have One LORD Jesus Christ And again There is one LORD And in another place He is the blessed and only mighty LORD the King of kings and LORD of lords He is the Head of the Church His Office is so appropriate unto him as that his Priesthood cannot pass unto any other but remaineth in himself for ever There is no other Name given us under Heaven whereby we may be saved Thus calls him The only LORD God and our Lord Jesus Christ speaking of that peculiar propriety that the called ones who are sanctified have in him He trode the Press alone and there was none of the Nations with him Thus did Isaiah hold forth Christ's Kingly Power and his Princely Government in redeeming and saving of his Elect and in subduing and destroying of his Enemies as saith the same Prophet in another passage of his Book The Father hath given him the Nations for his Inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his Possession His Dominion shall be from Sea to Sea His Scepter is a Righteous Scepter he hath loved Righteousness and hated iniquity He shall judge the people with Righteousness and the poor meek ones with judgement and equity He is the Rulling One by his Power from ever Jehovah hath firmly prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth ouer all His Kingdom is a Kingdom of all Eternities and his Dominion in every Generation and Generation Behold the Arm of this LORD Jehovah shall Rule His Enemies shall be made his Foot-stool and in the mean time he shall Rule though in the midst of them How great and wonderful are thy Works LORD thou Almighty God Just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who should not fear thee LORD and Glorifie thy Name For thou art alone Holy For all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy Judgements are made manifest All Nations shall can thee blessed Blessed be Jehovah God the God of Israel who dost marvellous things thy self alone And blessed be the Name of thy Glory for ever And let all the Earth be filled with thy Glory Amen and Amen! This Christ is the Lawgiver Thus was it spoken by Isaias the Prophet a Jehovah is our Judge Jehovah is our Law-giver or Statute-maker Thus was it prophesied by Jacob concerning Christ at the least in Type that the Scepter should not depart from Judah and the Law-giver from between his Feet until Shiloh come The Saviour the Safe-maker the Author of Prosperity of Tranquillity and unto him the obedience or the gathering of peoples Christ was to spring from Judah as an after birth which as is implyed should be of the Flesh of a Woman according to which Prophesie and promise Jehudah is said to be the Law-giver in the sixtieth and in one hundred and eighth Psalms He it was who formed Decrees and who made Laws He was at the least figured by that Law-giver who was with the Princes and Nobles of the People when with their Staves they digged and delved the Well at Beer and of the same did Moses speak concerning the Tribe of Gad when he declared the Blessing and the Portion the Provision and the Protection to be from this Law-giver Christ himself calleth the Law his Law in the seventy eight Psalm wherein he himself speaketh unto his people for so the holy Spirit doth expound it in the Book of Christ's Generation when he opened the parable of the Sower and of the Seed One of the Laws of loving one another in bearing one anothers burdens is in express words said to be the Law of Christ by Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians It was Jehovah Christ who spake and gave the Law of the Ten Words at Mount Sinai when God's Chariot the twice ten thousand thousands of Angels were there This Lord was with them He it was the same who ascended on high who led captive a Captivity who had taken gifts in Adam among or unto men For of this LORD Jesus Christ doth Paul teach us to understand this place in his Epistle of the Ephesians where speaking of this One LORD he saith when he ascended into the height he took Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men Now this he ascended what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the Earth he that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the Heavens that he might fill all things This was that Angel of the LORD who appeared to Moses in the Wilderness of the Mount Sinai in a flame of
Captain General or Head-Captain how quickly can he arm his creatures against any that presumptuously dare to rebel against him and his holy Wills and Laws All the creatures are this Host The Angels the Stars particularly are some of Christian Hosts The Scriptures do acknowledge him to be the Head-Captain and Leader though he be chiefly and in a more peculiar and especial manner This with respect to his own Covenant-people This Prince of Jehovah's Hosts was he who was the valiant Warriour with his under-officer Joshuâ— in that great martial expedition against the enemies of his Church and people This is the Prince of Princes who can easily break the strongest opposers The Head is the anointed part And thus was Christ anointed to this high and honourable Office of being Head-Captain or King and Commander in chief How often in Scripture is Christ called Jehovah of Hosts The Head is crowned So was Christ's head as the victorious triumphing conquerour over all his Enemies The 〈◊〉 useth a word which doth somewhat open this mystery It being used in military affairs for the contracting or putting to gether of scattered Soildiers into one Troop under one Head-Captain As in Arithmetic many several Numbers are gathered or put together into and under one heâ—d-sum And as in Rhetorick all the particulars of a discourse or Oration are repeated and gathered under one general head If Itb at the end of Reaâ—â—b be the Chaldet and Syriack 〈…〉 being turned into the Hebrew Thou frotht Jesh he is then the word signifies in him who is the Head-Captain Let the ingenious and studious 〈◊〉 further into this mystery How great a promoter of Learning as well as of Religion this would be all found Believers of Christian Doctrine will soon admit For there is no knowledge comparable to this of the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and of him crucified Though Paul abounded in other sorts of Learning yet it was a case determinedly judged aright by him that all their knowledge was as no knowledge at all without this and in competition with this this being the ground-work of all I shall to this end cull some useful passages out of the nine first Chapters of the Proverbs of Solomon relating to this matter In which one Book so small a part of the Scriptures there is more of sound learning in profitable Arts and Sciences than in all the Pagan Philosophical Books that are Extant O how much then is there in the whole Scriptures Here you may find a Directory and Rules for Theology for Physicks Logicks Rhetoricks Medicine Politicks Ethicks Oeconomicks what not that is useful Learning How many several significant words are there whereby to set out the excellency and preheminence of Scripture-knowledge and of the Science of useful Arts in a Scripture-way Such as sapience or savoury wisdom Science Understanding Intellect Erudition Knowledge Prudence Skill Subtilness and the like with many choice commendations of it both in words and phrases as that this doth deliver Authoritative sayings that it teacheth Rectitudes gives apt Counsels speaks essences according as the truth of things is with much more Here the Wise will find and addition of Doctrine the more he doth learn still the more he may Thus making continued proficiency Here are the best principles of Sciences This doth best deliver the beginnings and progress of Arts The true holy Fear and the Right Worship of the adored Almighties is the Head the Crown-Top the Captain-ship of knowledge the summity of Wisdom This is the chief Science and it hath the principality of Arts. The first in time the honourablest in Dignity and this is the leadingâ— sentence Axiom or Apophthegm that carries the Inquirer into profitable Learning of any kind This puts a gracious ornament a golden chain upon and about other knowledges Christ is Wisdoms all Wisdoms in one the Pluralnâ—ss of the Number is an Indication of his comprehensiveness and full-treasuredness of all true good Wisdom He is the chief Wisdom the Wisdom of Wisdoms the Wisdom of God He is made of God wisdom to Believers This is one of the prime of all Good that he is made to such All treasures of Wisdom and of knowledge are in him and in his Word He is the Authour of all sound Wisdom And that is a Man's Wisdom to learn Christ's words to learn the Truth as it is in Jesus to have the mind of Christ and to have such conceptions and apprehensions of Truths and of things as are in the mind of Christ We should make our ear to attend to these eloquent speeches these pleasant oracles of Wisdom These must be hid as a treasure in our inmost recesses Our Hearts shall be enclined to this intelligibleness of understanding We should cry giving our voice to it to call in this Heavenly Instructer to teach us it And we should call it to us to be familiarly conversant with it We should with diligent Intenseness seek it as Silver and enquiringly search after it as for hid Treasures The knowledge of the fear of Jehovah and the finding of this knowledge is the great Promise This Wisdom is a gift from him knowledge and understanding comes from his mouth from Christ and his Word His Blessing must be upon Man's endeavour It â—s he that lays up to right ones Essence Essential knowledge sound and true real knowledge of things substantial understanding Philosophical notions are but a shew and shaddow All the humane invented unscriptural Arts and Sciences are but colours and appearances This Word-knowledge doth influence upon practice Who was ever thoroughly converted and made Holy by Ethnick Philosophizings In the Scriptures are rightnesses or straitnesses conform to the Rule of the Law of Christ and it hath a preserving efficacy upon the heart that receives it How pleasantly delightful is this knowledge and Wisdom when once it enters into the heart Otherwise if 〈◊〉 be only without in the Book it has not such a pleasingly holy operation and sweet sanctifying effect That is the praise worthy knowledge that gives one to find Grace and good understanding in the eyes of Jehovah and of Adam such as Adam was in his Primitive Uprightness and first Integrity of concreated Knowledge If we know Jehovah in all our ways he will direct our paths As for others who lean to their own understanding and who are wise in their own eyes their confidence is vain Adam had happy goings on with a straight foot whilst he found and held and acted this Wisdom and drew forth this Intelligence And the wisest among the sons of Adam should still be making out after this precious Treasure and then fetch from thence to make it their own and other mens How good is its Traffick and Income How good is the Fruit that is to be gathered from this Tree of saving Knowledge
Will and desire what thou wilt This doth by far excel any thing of Art every thing of Science else has no coequation with this This was the wise choice that Solomon made for which he who is Wisdom it self hath commended him There is no occasion of complaint here as in vain Philosophy that Art is long and Life is short For the more skilful thou dost grow in this holy Art the more will it be a lengthening to thy days and if thou do not waste time it will tell thee thou dost not want time Here the walk is all-pleasantnesses and the way is prosperous Peace No such hardship and difficulty as in intricate involved Philosophy in the Study of which confounding Vanity and stupifying of Obstruseness some have thrown their Books against the wall because they could not overcome its Notions in their Intellect In Scripture-Wisdom here the Tree Everlasting Lives and this Tree of saving Knowledges do grow together and growing Believers can nourishingly feed on both their Fruits together Those who apprehend it and hold it up and reach it out to others are made happy by it This is a participation of the Wisdom of God This Wisdom is seen in Jehovah's founding of the Earth and this Understanding is manifested in his establishing of the Heavens this Knowledge looked forth in the broken Abysses in the dividing of the Waters and in the Skies distilling Dew Yet vain mens affected wisdom can make nothing of their Studies about these nor ever will whilst they slight the Scripture discovery concerning these and other Works of the Creation but the eyes of Believers should not go off from the Word and Works of God Those who are thus well-minded shall have Jah to communicate his secrets and his counsels to them Here is good Doctrine good in its self good to those who do receive it from which receiving it hath its Name Our Heart should be upholders bearers up of these Oracles of Christ We should possessingly acquire this Wisdom and Understanding not forgetting not declining from the words of his mouth This Wisdom is the Leading-head-Commander of Knowledge This we are to begin with It is not as vain Philosophy is a withered fruitless Speculation but a sapid savoury Knowledge It is the best Inheritance O come to it as such all ye who are true Friends of real useful Learning It puts a Glory upon the Possessor of it and doth highly exalt him enobling the embracers of it These sayings we must take in not the Dictates or Placits of Men or of Devils In this way of Wisdom should young ones be instructed they should tread in these sound paths of Rightness going over the Scriptures again and gain How many young Students read over divers Philosophical Tractates before they read over the holy Scriptures once at least with an eye togather the best Arts and Sciences thence Other Books of Knowledges are no further useful than as they some way or other more or less do comment aright on the Scriptures or on Created Beings agreeably to the Scriptures In Humane Philosophical Writings the Student is often brought to perplexing straights and to offensive stumblings not so here in this word and way of Wisdom Here we should have and hold real profitable Notions of Truths and of Things it is our lives whereas vain speculations of carnal reason should be let go lest they prove deadly to the pertinâ—cious maintainer of them The further on that a Believer doth walk in this Scripture-path the more growing is his light to discern and to difference things by whilst Philosophical wanderers that go out of the word-way do and will whilst there walk in darkness but let our eyes be upon this Book of Books Keep we its revealed Knowledge in the midst of our Heart It will be liveliness and healing to us To this should we be attentive and upon this be intent It has acute wittinesses and subtile cogitations so shall our lips conserve Science For all kind of holy sagaciousness and discretion is in this Scripture-Wisdom and Intelligency From these words should not we recede and they should be our Doctors and Teachers that instruct us in this This Word is a Law and a Light whereas Philosophies are darknesses This Word should we bind over our heart always and tie it annect it over our throats that as soon as speeches are uttered by us out may come some Scripture Eloquies of Mysterious Art and Holy Science Waking and walking we should converse with it and it with us It will keep us when we are asleep and it will lead along in proficiency when we are in our particular Callings It would inlighten our mind and direct our way at the very door of it when we first step into it We should see Understanding shine forth upon us and into us These Words of Christ should be kept by us and hid with us as the black the little man of our eyes We should bind them over our Fingers to work by them and to wise us in and about our work as well as write them on the Table of our Heart to live under the Law of them and to love them and meditate upon them We should say to Wisdom my Sister thou and call Understanding a Kinswoman so near and so dear so intimate and familiar ought it to be to us and with us and our eyes should see by this all sensible experimental knowledges should be brought to this This Word it greatly useful for an Active as well as for a Contemplative Life Here is work for Fingers as well as thinkingness for Hearts A Believer doth wed this Wisdom This kind of Understanding and of Knowledge should be well known unto us as a Wife a Sister a Friend a very amicous Relation and of free Converse our conjoyned Counseller of the same blood with us and of close affinity to us All the sons of Adam may learn here Magistrate Minister and People Leaders and Led What is spoken here are Eximious Matters and Rectitudes that which is Truth all Just no depraved or oblique thing all preparedly right to the Intellect to those who finding Knowledge Whereas Humane Philosophies are obscure and crooked dark and wrie false and difficult In Word-knowledge there is that true Riches which is beyond Gold and Silver Wisdom is above Margarites All a mans wouldlings his wishings have no equation in her Whereas the Philosophical Arts of Elementary Learning are beggarly Rudiments So are the first Principles of Cosmical Men of Vain Affecters of Worldly Humane Wisdom poor and weak Vanities In Christ's Word is the Invention of Science and of subtil Arts. He that would deeply consult about Essences should come hither which Humane Philosophies can never so indigate With this Unstanding there is strength whereas Humane Wisdom doth weaken the Powers of a man's Spirit and Soul and
which affirmation is quite contrary to Sense Reason and Scripture as may be seen with the eye in the forementioned parallel Motion of the two Plumb-lines Thus the Seamen have their Perpendiculars which do move right down and do make perpendicular lines equidistant from each other every where in the Waters that are under this one Earth if it be well examined by the same natural Motion of Plumb lines equidistantly downwards it will be found that all Plants do naturally grow out of the Earth perpendicularly and so the Earth doth nourish them and thus all grounds do bear only according to the plain or level thereof and not according to any convex or concave Superficies A Garden though the Ground be rising and indented yet may be paled round with as few equilateral Pales as if it were plain and level because all the Pales do stand perpendicularly one of the most quick-sighted into and of the most experienced about Natural History has declared that as for the moving of Dense Bodies to a point or place which was the opinion of the Ancients it is a meer vanity I have not found though I have searched withcare and industry in this Inquiry any one word or phrase in the Old and New Testament which doth properly signifie a common Center of this visible World whereas there is express mention made of a Perpendicular of a Plumb-line That one place of the Sea into which the Waters were gathered at the first Creation is a distinct different place from this pretended Center in the middle of the Earth which the vain affecters of Humane Wisdom would have the congenial parts of the Chaos immediately to apply themselves unto gathering round in about it as if this frame consisted by an equilibration of parts to the Center of Gravity There is not such an Elementary and Subcortical Earth as is below any the lowest Fundus of the Waters as if this were the Foundation and Basis of the World and the centrical Orb of it for the deep Waters the Gulphy space Sheol and the doleful place are below the Earth they are subterraneous as being under the whole body of the Earth and not only under the upper Superficies of the Earth and therefore these are called the out places O who will give that the Atheist and the Infidel would lay this more to Heart The holy Scriptures do set out these lower places with terrour to fright the Sons and Daughter of Adam from those by-paths of sin that would lead thither There are the Profundities of Sheol the evil Angels were thrust down there there is the black dark passage into the deep corrupting Pit to the sides whereof sinners are cast down This is the hid horrible place the going down there is in sorrow into a place tormentful a certain definit place remotest from Heaven a place of greatest sorrow and of deepest misery into which the damned do descend some are saved from out of Sheol others are cast down and left there How doleful a place is Hell Wo wo no oh is the Language there under the weight of unpardoned guilt under the sense of tormenting wrath Those that will not turn from sin unto Christ here shall be turned into Hell there A place of terrible confused darkness of outer darkness a foul and hideous prison the Gehenna of Fire is there Should I paraphrase upon the several scores of Scriptures that do express this how many pages would it take up This is the place of deadly shadow of weeping of gnashing of teeth of chaining of gnawing worms of burning wrath the wicked are thrust down and driven in there What will those who forget God never believe this till they feel it O how rich is that Grace how free is that Love which doth deliver a chosen number from this wrath to come which doth take them up into the Heavenly places the better Country the Holy Place the Holy of Holies the Eternal Tabernacles whither Christ is Ascended to prepare Mansions for his Disciples that he and they may be together ever together There is the place of the manifested Residence of Aelohim's Glory Q. Whether that Darkness which doth distinguish and separate between the Night and the Day in a large Day be but the want or privation of Light and so mere nothing And which was first the Darkness or the Light And what is the Scripture-Doctrine according to Created Nature and Order concerning Days Weeks Months Winter Summer and Years THe affecters of Humane Wisdom do thus wrongfully determine as if it were only the absence of Light or the shadow of the Earth coming between us and the Sun when the opacous or thick body of the Earth doth interpose between us and the Sun darkness followeth Whereas the Scriptures of Truth will inform us that darkness is a Creature darkness was it hath been that is it truly hath subsisted it doth and will subsist For so is the Nature of that Word to Be is to Exist to have Essence A creating Word was used with respect to darkness The Creaton made Light spake it out of Darkness It is called to the Night which is a real name and is a real thing It sets out real things It has a place a local seat The Darkness was over the Faces of the troublesome deep for this proposition doth note a term or place of Motion or Rest in the most opposite place to â—ight Light is in Heaven as in its proper place in which God doth dwell whereas these darknesses are in the lowest places in the Abyss in that nethermost Pit in the Gulphs Darkness was three Days before there was a Sun in the Expanse to go in go down or set the Sun being created on the fourth Day and therefore it was not caused by the Suns absence Darkness was one of Egypts plagues which had not been so much had it only been a want and no infliction it was Darkness felt which was a sensible thing The Air was thick of it the hand had sense of it It was palpable darkness of obscurity much obscure black and thick It sets out a spiritual Plague which is a real Judgement It is a thing sent and made It is a thing sometimes turned into its contrary It has an efficient Cause Jehovah Aelohim gave it a Being He puts it he makes it he puts a Term or Bound unto it He brings it into the Air as often as he will It has its Properties as sudden arising or diffusion or spreading abroad it has obscurity it doth produce real effect It is divided into several kinds thick black It is that which is unfit for Communion with its opposite Light It is a thing destroyable It is one of the miseries in Hell The Creator did divide between the Darkness and the Light as the Expanse did divide between the Waters and Waters The Heavenly Lights were made thus
but by death or Adultery and therefore also prohibited Digamy and Polygamy there is express mention made of two only and of no more in this Marriage-conjunction one man and two or more Wives cannot be one flesh for the flesh of one is not the flesh of another and the flesh of man is divided between two or more Wives neither can this closest Union be between more than two the man cannot give himself alike unto more than unto one in this case those two who before the Matrimonial Covenant were naturally two are now in the sense of God's Law morally one conjugally one no man therefore may separate them or unjoyn or unyoke or disunite them Man is without an Article neither the Husband nor the Wife neither their civil Judge nor pleading Counseller not Moses himself not Aaron by right in case of death the man is free and in case of Adultery the guilty person when known and convicted and legally sentenced for this crime ought to be put to death Antichristian infusions and popish mixtures have much corrupted the Laws in this case in the English Government for if the woman become an adulteress and be proved so to be all and the only and the utmost remedy the wronged Husband can come at is to sue out freely a Divorce in the Spiritual Court as is suited to a corrupt heart a Divorce from Bed and from Board allowing a lustful liberty to marry another whereas this word of our LORD is express that Whosoever shall put away his wife except for fornication in which case her life ought to go for it by the holy just good Law of Christ and shall marry another the former still alive through the sinful indulgence of Humane Laws committeth adultery and who so marrieth her which is put away her former Husband still living doth commit adultery it is adultery both in the one and in the other if whilst they are both alive they take another the man another woman or the woman another man to which other Scriptures do accord The woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth but if the husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband So then if while her husband liveth she be marryed to another man she shall be called an adulteress that is her proper right name in this case but if her husband be dead she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man she may marry to whom she will only in the LORD The Matrimonial Bond brought her under the Husband to which living Husband she is bound by the Law and she is not made empty of this obligation not set loose and free from this conjugal tye till his death for if before his death during his life time she yoke her self to another there is a Divine Oracle a direct answer given forth from the LORD himself which should be so received as from him and accordingly should Civil and Ecclesiastical Judges pronounce a sentence when such a one upon sufficient witness is accused to them and found guilty by them but whatever men do judge of it that Oracle or Answer which Christ doth return from the propitiatory covering or Mercy Seat for Christ's Judicial Laws and Sentences and Judgements according to those Laws have mercy in their design towards his Covenant People it is this her true right Name is she is an Adulteress and should be proceeded against as such The same is applicable unto the Husband if he on his part do marry another woman whilst his former Wife is still alive for the Husband is bound by the Law of Marriage as long as his Wife liveth but if his Wife be dead he is at liberty to be married to whom he will only in the LORD They are Christ's own sayings Whosoever there is no man excepted neither King nor Minister nor People shall foresakingly put away his Wife thereby seeking to unloose or to dissolve the Marriage Knot the Matrimonial Bond and marry another committeth adultery against her he doth adulterate or act adulterously in and upon her to whom he is new married and against her whom he first married whom he hath forsaken and if a woman let her be what she will Queen or any meaner woman subject shall put away her Husband hereby indeavouring to give her self a loose from the conjugal tie and be married to another she committeth Adultery the same guilt on the mans part as on the womans and on the womans part as on the mans and they cause one another to commit Adultery by this unjust Divorce and he that doth marry such a divorced woman is thereby an adulterer and she who doth marry such a divorced man is thereby an adulteress So that if Polygamists and Divorcers will stand to this Scripture-judgement it is unlawful for the man to marry another woman his former Wife being alive and also for the woman to marry another man her former Husband being alive as also for either of them to divorce the other an Article were altogether required to be put to man if any certain individual were noted Man for the Humane kind let him be what man soever he will Moses or any man not any one of all mankind has rightful Authority to dissolve that Matrimonial Bond between Husband and Wife of which Bond God himself is the Author even the head Captain of Creation when at the beginning he conjoyned but one Male and one Female the man is to continue as inseparably with his Wife as with another part of the same flesh of his own flesh God united two into one this must not be altered it ought still to continue as it was established at the first it is utterly unlawful to do otherwise the prime Law at the Creation must obtain the Marriage Union may not be violated Husband and Wife are to cherish and sustain to assist and comfort one another as if they were members of one and the same flesh and body no man that is in his right wits and sober sences ever hated his own flesh but nourisheth it he will not rend and tear his own flesh from himself Let Paul's judgement upon the case be now weighed in the Scripture-balance he was written unto about it and he doth expresly declare concerning married ones that every man is to have his own proper Wife and every woman her own proper Husband and how could this be if Polygamy were allowable and warrantable for if every man must have her that is properly his own and no other mans and as exclusive of all other women who are not so properly his own and if every woman must have him who is properly her own and no other woman as shutting out all other men who are not so properly her own then Marriage must be between one man and one woman and between two such only If one man had
and discouraging sorrow with terrible fear of God's giving over of such to the obduration and obstinacy of their heart and of their being shut up under all this when such an Heart like a Buckler or Shield doth keep off any blow or stroke from the LORD's Word or hand shutting it self up as within a Fence so that no counsels or comforts from Men can come at it Whither can the diseased send to any so skilful in the Medicinal Art as to open the Nature Causes and Remedies of this one disease of the Heart What shall I more say if I can fill up so many Lines with such a long Induction and large enumeration of particular Heart maladies which are so common in experience and which no counsels and prescriptions but what are Scriptural wisely applyed and duly received and well improved and followed can either prevent or remedy Is is not high time for such as are serious in the Art Medicinal and are tender of the health and lives of their Patients and would lift up their Faces before a righteous Judge at the last when they must stand or fall for their Eternal Estate according as they have walked by the Rule of the Word or not I say is it not high time for them to study their Art and to practice it in a Word-way The Heart sick ones might be referred to apt pertinent proper Scriptures speaking directly to a multitude of such cases Shall I open a little of the maladies of the Soul in Man The Scriptures can inform us of the discouragement of the Soul the grief of the Soul its bitterness its outcryes through wounding it s pouring out its Anguish its sore vexings it s drawing nigh to the Gulphy empty space its afflictedness its weariness it s being torn its Consumptiveness it s being spoiled its need of healing it s being cast down it s making a tumultuous stir within a Man its sinking it s being bowed down it s having of overwhelming Waters to come into it it s refusing to be comforted it s being filled with troubles its being cast off its breaking it s cleaving to the Dust its melting for heaviness its faintings its Imprisonments It s being bereft of good its being removed far off from peace its exceeding sorrowfulness its troubledness and drying away its bowing down its being destroyed its being pierced thorow its being utterly cut off its being dispossest or turned out of possession its being devoured its being perverted with such like evil effects of the Soul this breathing part in Man And what can Philosophick Recipes do in these cases Whither can we go for a proper cure but to Christ in the Scriptures of Truth Shall we consider the spirit of Man a little That Candle or Lamp of Jehovah in Man searching all the Inner Chambers of the Belly Oh how many are its distempers In the Word we may read of the trouble or shortnedness of the Spirit the hardning of the Spirit its sadness its being drunk up by poison its unsteadfastness its hastiness its having a breach in it 〈◊〉 or its brokenness its haughtiness its unrulyness its sleepy distemper its grievedness its failing or fainting its deep sighingness its pressures its being bound its weaknesses its restless disquieting raging its jealousies its anguish its overwhelmedness its perversness its Pride its erringness its vexing and more such Whither now to what Apothecaries Shop to what Philosophical Doctor will you send for a cure of these you must come to the word and to him in and through the Word one of whose Names is the Healingâ—one of his people In his Word there are not only spiritual directions given about these inner distempers of Heart of Soul and of Spirit holy prescriptions and Heavenly counsels but also divers apt remedies are pointed to from the con-created vertues which the LORD hath put into several of his creatures when those who are reputed to be very learned in this Art are so far honoured and used by the LORD as to be made humble enough to be willing to be better taught and believers enough to judge God to be wiser then Man and Word-wisdom and Truth to excel Philosophick Follies and falsities the Medicinal Art will then advance and flourish There are many original words and phrases which do in a more general way direct unto health and to the recovery of it out of sicknesss besides a distinct particular enumeration of several diseases with their causes and curses and several proper useful directions about the choice of Meats and of Drinks relating to the Regiment of health That distinction and division of Animals of Fowls of Beasts of Fishes into clean and unclean although it had a further Typical shadowy figuring meaning under the Old Testament administration of grace leading them into an holy seperation from unclean peoples from Communion with such they were many ways to abstain yet withal a skilful Artist in the History of Animals may find out natural natural reasons and causes for such a discrimination When spiritual reason doth wisely exercise it self about this discovery by Scripture Nature and Experience it may discern clean Animals to have a proper nutritive vertue more wholesome and continuing and increasing of healthâ—ness whereas the unclean do more breed diseases at least they are not so healthful whereby the All-wise Physician the faithful Creator hath instructed his rational Creatures and graciously at once provided both for the health of Mens bodies and for the salvation of their Souls for Meats do dispositively operate upon the mind who may not see that hath any thing of a piercing eye that some Animals are more ravenous and rapacious others are more luxurious and wanton or more cruel and bloody or more gluttonous or more fearful or more filthy or more muddy or more cholerick and adust or more excessively moist with much more that might be added and do not these malignly influence upon those who make them their usual food How few are there of mankind who do study their own complexions constitutions temperaments or what that is which is suitable food for them Insomuch as that the most are even going into the other World before they know how to make one good meal but every thing is counted good with some that will fill their belly and any thing with others that will gratifie their distempered ungoverned appetite whereas he who hath not due regard to his dyet for kind measure and season will in time overturn his strength overthrow his health and disease himself and then the sick do feel the need of a Physician or Surgeon in which cases the Scriptures are not silent but would make them Medicinal Artists and teach them practical skill I have not abilities and accomplishments for it neither is it my profession to undertake to set before the Reader an exact Treatise of the Medicinal Art though I question not but that it may be found out in the Holy Scriptures and in created Works