deceive by some Instrument and that Instrument must be Good For Sin is ugly and therefore naturally to be abhorred It must therefore put on the fairest Visage and Shape of Good that is naturally desirable the better to deceive us 1. Sin deceives of it self without a Law 2. Sin deceives by another much more with a Law The CONTENTS Law of Nature Law Positive TITLE V. Of Deceit without a Law SIN deceives of it self without a Law Law of Nature Properly Man is not without a Law for the Law of Nature is in all Mankind And there are Laws Positive Divine or Humane given to all Nations upon several occasions at sundry times But though there be in my heart a Law of Nature written with visible Characters to the eye of the Mind yet except I see a Positive Law written with Characters visibly to the eye of my Body I think my self safe As for the eye of my mind I care not to open it nor whether there be such an eye at all and if it be open whether I will or no I do all I can to shut it and labour to forget what I know But so long as Sense knows no Law I sin the more boldly and comfortably 1. Because there is no plain outward Contradiction to what I do as for the inward I pass that by and no body knows it but my self 2. Because there is no punishment against what I do as for the inward pain of my Conscience I pass that by and no body can read it in my face and no body feels it but my self I owe a debt in Conscience Instance but because there is no express Law to force me to pay it by reason there are no Specialties nor Witnesses in the Case therefore I will not pay it I am bound in Conscience but not in Law for there is no Law to take hold of me By this an honest man is known from an Hypocrite For an honest man will do Righteous things whether there be a Law or no Law but an Hypocrite will do nothing without Law 1 Tim. 1.9 Therefore the Law is not made for a Righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for ungodly and for Sinners Gal. 3.19 for unholy and profane for murtherers c. And Laws are added because of Transgressions Or if there be a Law yet if it watches not me or cannot find me out or the Officers of Justice be blinded and will not lay hold of me I am well enough I can do a thing in secret that it shall never be known or if it be I have a Trick in Law to come off or I can bribe and buy it out Any way to deceive my self Rom. 2.14 The Scriptures say They that have no Law are a Law unto themselves But this they can evade well enough My Conscience checks me and bids me hold Rom. 2.15 when my Lust urges me to do what my Spirit forbids This shews the work of the Law written in mens Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 5.13 For until the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no Law Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile but glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first also to the Gentile Rom. 2.9 c. For as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law When the Commandment came Rom. 7.9.5 sin revived and I died The Motions of sin which were by the Law did work in my members to bring forth fruit unto death and by the Law came the knowledg of Sin Law positive So the Law of Nature is in all and the Law Positive is given to all But Lust broke all these Laws and the long habits of sin and frequent and constant examples of evil Practicers obliterated the Law Natural in good part and caused an oblivion willful for the most part of all Positive Statutes The Law of Nature consists of general Principles and Common Notions So that the Collections and Consequences of Reason from them to be applied to particular cases and occurrences are difficult and the remembrance of those generals very faint Wherefore God renewed this General Law 1. By his own Revelation to the Patriarchs 2. By his own Writing to the Israelites 3. By the Writings of Lawgivers as of Solon Lycurgus Romulus c. to the Gentiles In the mean time before this extraordinary Revelation and Writing Sin was in the world sufficiently even until the Law was written by God and Moses but sin was not so strongly imputed by the bare writing in the heart as it was when over and above to make them without all excuse it was written upon Tables that he that runs may read it for then it confuted them with a witness of a high contempt of Natural and Positive Law both written Rom. 2.9 So all were concluded under sin and are without all excuse and shall be judged for sin as well those that are without Law as with Law Rom. 3.20 But by the Law written came the greater Knowledg of sin and the greater Conviction of sin and the greater Punishment for sin so that the Sinner that before went on rashly in pleasing his lust without much conviction or fear was by the coming of the Law in writing more strongly convinced and frighted and smarted too for it though all this while it raged and broke out more than before to the working of all manner of Concupiscence The CONTENTS By all good Law Lust a Law Law a restraint Law an equivocal Word Law of Mind Law of Flesh Law of God Law of Sin Grace a sole Remedy By all Bad law By one Law in the same law Words and Sense of Law Letter and Spirit By one Law in another By the Law of God in the law of Man By the law of Man in the Law of God By one Moral law in another By the law of Nature in a Positive law By a Pretended Law of God in a certain law of Man By a Private law in a Publick law By the Moral law in the Ceremonial law By the Ceremonial law in the Moral law By one law in all other Laws TITLE VI. Of Deceit with a Law SIN decieves with and by a Law Sin is a transgression of a Law Of deceit with a Law whether it be written or not written but especially written because of the express Precept and Penalty therein contained And by how much the more the Law is good by so much the more I set my self in opposition against it 1. Because it is a grievous contradiction of my will which I would fain fulfil 2. Because it is a sore punishment to my Soul and Body or
infinitely unlike him and disagreeable to his Spirit And only the pure Spiritual offices do remain which are in their own nature acceptable unto God very like him and agreeable to his Spirit This is the dispensation of the Grace of God Eph. 3.2 5. The Mystery which in other Ages was not made known to the Sons of men as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit The CONTENTS Writing in Tables Law lost Law found Law lost again Law restored Septuagints Translation Law burnt Maccabes Sects of Jews Christ's coming Law on Mount Sinai the same with that of Adam in Paradise The Renewal of the Covenant of Works The equivocal word Law TITLE XVI Of the History of the Law THE History of the Law is this 1. Besides the universal Writing in the hearts of all men much obscured by evil Practice and Examples 2. It was written by God briefly in two Tables Moral Writing in Tables It was farther written by Moses in a Book Ceremonial that it might be read by the King and published by the Priest to all the People in the solemnity of the Feast of Tabernacles Deut. 17.9 3. After that by Malice or Negligence this Book was lost Law lost Then by chance found by Hilkiah the Priest Law found 2 Chr. 34.12 2 Kings 22.8 and brought to Josiah the King and by him published 4. Few years after at the Captivity of Babylon it was lost Law lost again Neh 8.1 Dan. 9.13 or at least corrupted At the Return from seventy years Captivity Esdras Law restored the Scribe and Priest either restored it or amended it as it is now who also expounded it And hence came the Scribes and Doctours of the Law 5. Septuagints Translation This Book by Ptolomeus Philadelphus was translated by the Septuagint into Greek which Original was burnt in the Temple of Serapis by the Souldiers of Julius Caesar while he was dallying with Cleopatra the Egyptian Queen brought to him in Culcitro but by the Providence of God there had been Copies thereof in several places whereby it is preserved to this day Law burnt 1 Mac. 1.42 6. Some years after Antiochus Epiphanes King of Syria compelled the Jews to forsake and burn their Law Maccabes 7. Little more than five years this mischief continued then came Judas Maccabaeus and relieved the Jews Sects of Jews 8. The Assanonaei his Race coming to reign the Law was retrieved but many Heresies and Sects arose as Scribes Pharises Sadduces Essens the Schools of Shanai and Hillel c. who falsly interpreting the Law led the People into Errours by vain Traditions Teaching for Doctrines of God the Commandments of Men. Christ's coming 9. Then came Christ in a corrupt Age and restored the Truth and confuted their vain Doctrines and Manners And abolished the Ceremonial or Ecclesiastical Law of the Priesthood and brought in a New Law and a New Priesthood of his own after the order of Melchisedeck And by this his New Law Gospel Covenant and Testament he fulfilled the Old of Types and perfected the Moral Law of Nature The Law on Mount Sinai the same with that of Adam in Paradise The Law delivered by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and written by him in two Tables of Stone was the same Covenant of works with the Children of Israel which he had made before with Adam in Paradise before his Fall writing it in his heart Do this and live and renewed to Noah Gen. 8.21 Heb. 9.9 to Melchisedeck Gen. 14.18 To Abraham David and all the Prophets And that this was the Covenant of Works appears by that of Moses The Lord made not this Covenant with our Fathers Deut. 5.3 but with us These Fathers were the Patriarchs unto Adam with whom he made the Covenant of Grace after his Fall The Renewal of the Covenant of Works The reason of the Repetition and renewal of this Covenant of Works by writing it upon Tables of Stone was because that Law which was written by God in Adams heart was obliterated and defaced by customes of Idolatry and all sorts of wickedness which the Sons of men gave themselves unto while the Sons of God by keeping the Old Traditions and the help of divine Revelations retrieved the Impressions of God's Law And yet the Posterity of Abraham Isaac and Jacob by conversation and example in Egypt had much forgotten the Old Rules of Nature's Law and the Instructions and Examples of their godly Parents and imputed not their own sin unto themselves because they saw no Law written against their Actions and could not see the Law in their own hearts Ro. 5.13 20. neither heard of any punishment denounced against them for their wickedness and would not hear the checks of their own Consciences And therefore because Sin was in them and increased and death reigned over them for their sin yet they being without a written Law to evidence this sin and death unto their Consciences God saw it necessary that there should be a New Edition and publication of the Law or Covenant of Works to bring them to the knowledge of Sin and Punishment and thereby to stop them in their career of Wickedness by the fear of a Curse and a Fleshly hope of a fruitful Land to dwell in if they would observe his Laws Reserving a greater Blessing if they would trust in his Promises which was the Covenant of Grace by which they were to be justified upon their Faith in those Promises and not by the Works of the Law So the Law was added because of Transgressions till Justification should ome by the Promise of Grace For the Law was weak and unprofitable to the purpose of Salvation but helpful to the discovery and stopping of Sin and the Curse that they might see the need they had of the Grace of God by which they might be saved and not by Works For as the Covenant of Grace made with Adam and renewed to Abraham had been needless if the Covenant of Works could have given Life So after the Promise or Covenant of Grace was once made it had been needless to renew the Covenant of Works to the end that Righteousness and Life should be had thereby Gal. 3.19 It was meerly added because of Transgressions that is not set up as a solid thing in gross sufficient of it self but added or put to the former Law given to Adam which was most forgotten Furthermore this Law given on Mount Sinai was added by way of subserviency and attendance the better to advance and make effectual the Covenant of Grace so that although the same Covenant which was made with Adam was renewed on Mount Sinai yet I say still it was not for the same purpose but it was given to Adam as a Rule of Salvation by it self if he had kept it but it was renewed only to help forward and to introduce another and better Covenant and so to be
still very shy to be kept they can hardly be lookt upon or handled they are desultorious and slippery and long to be gone from us But God sticks by us and delights to dwell with us A Servant abideth not in the house Joh. 8.35 but the Son abideth for ever Wisdom invites and courts all to her embraces O ye simple how long will ye love simplicity and ye fools delight in scorning Get wisdom get understanding wisdom shall preserve you understanding shall keep you Put her on as a Robe as a Crown as ornaments of gold and pretious stones and keep her as thy life God is not lapt up in the Ephod for the Priest alone nor wrapped up in the Diadem for the Prince alone All are equally concerned to enjoy God as well he that groveleth on the dunghil as he that sits on the Throne as well the dweller in the smoky Cottage as the Lord of stately Palaces The Gospel is preached to every Creature his Messengers are equally sent to the Captains and Scribes as to the common Souldiers that sit on the Wall God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Christ disdained not the society of Publicans and Sinners and the Kingdom of Heaven is pressed into by all sorts and the violent take it by force SECT XIII Good lovely 3. Because Good is lovely and amiable to all and praised by the worst because Nature teacheth all Men to reverence Virtue though they choose the contrary It striketh an awe into those that scorn it A Man of God a Magistrate carries such gravity in his Countenance and habit and Majesty in his life and Calling that his presence will daunt the stoutest Atheists and Ranters and stop their oathes and lewdness till Cato be gone they start at him and beg of him to depart out of their coast and pray him not to come among them to torment them The preaching of Paul of Justice and Judgment made Felix tremble Bonum tunc vincit cum laeditur tunc intelligitur cum arguitur When good is most opposed she conquers most and is then understood when she is reproved so hard a thing it is to loose the Instinct of Nature which when put by will come on with the greater force to our greater conviction and shame in refusing that good which is so obvious and easie to be practised and hunt after that evil which is more remote and painful to be performed Herod was troubled to cut of John Baptist's head because it was unjust and dishonorable yet for his Oath 's sake and those that were with him and to please a wanton Damsel in Point of Honour falsely so called he commanded it to be done contrary to his conscience and was troubled after he had done it when hearing of the famous works of Christ he cryed out it was John the Baptist that was risen from the dead Christ's innocency evicted Pilate's heart while his tongue condemned him saying to the People Be it as you require And yet he could not but say I find no fault in this Man The malice of Tyrants raged against the Martyrs to kill them while their innocency acquitted them even in the Judgments of their murtherers fain would they have spar'd their lives if they would but conform to their idolatrous courses so contrary to nature for an Idol is nothing there is no reason in Nature for it nor in many other things which unreasonable and unnatural Men presume to do Wicked Men are glad when they can get companions in their sins and glory most when for fear of torments they can bring godly Men over to their ungodly courses thinking thereby to strengthen themselves in their sin and to salve their own sores and lull the loud cries of their conscience condemning them for what they do What Traitor ever praised Rebellion and what Devil will not commend a Saint Let me die the death of the Righteous saith the most profane and let my last end be like unto his yet they will not give themselves leave to do that which in reason they allow to be good and just so strongly are Men confuted by themselves and so powerful is the Law of Nature in all Men. Besides what satisfaction ever had any wicked Man in his wicked courses Eat drink and be merry take thine ease let loose the reins to all licentiousness beat at every bush crown thy head with Rose-buds before they be withered taste of all the delights of the Sons of Men will this do in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowful Vanity of vanities saith even Nature it self all is vanity and vexation of Spirit Nothing can fill the heart but God nothing can comfort but a good conscience Lastly to make all sure remember that undeniable principle of Reason mentioned in the first Book and first Title of the first Volume to be written with Letters of Gold and to be engraven in the Rock with the point of a Diamond for ever which is this That every Action that is in our Power to do or not to do is imputable to us and may justly be imputed to us by God or Man But on the contrary every Action that is not in our power to do or not to do is not imputable unto us nor can be justly imputed to us by God or Man That is not of debt to the hurt of any but of Grace it may be imputed for their good For favours may be imputed where they are not due But sins and plagues can never be imputed but only where they are due The Rule is unquestionable It is impossible rightly to lay the guilt of sin upon any Man unless he by his own individual Act of will hath made himself guilty of the transgression of a known Law If this be true then consider what rightly follows Vide l. 7. T. 3. of Christ's feudal Kingdom Sect. A publick person c. SECT XIV Argumenta Laciniata Aculeata 1. God pardoned Adam's sin upon his repentance Ergo he suffered not for it any more than a temporal death which was threatned him how then shall his Children be unpardoned and suffer any more than a temporal death threatned in Adam to all his posterity 2. Our Birth is involuntary and without our knowledg how then born in sin involuntary and unknown except God by decree included our knowledg and wills by interpretation How can these things be No being no life no Action no Understanding no Will. Then we must charge God who makes us consent before we were or could consent 3. Our will was fast asleep in its causes The cause of our will is God's will not Adam's will The Soul is immediately created and infused by God Ergo was not in Adam's Soul 4. God did not punish the Devils but for their own most perfect choice why are Men punished for no choice 5. If Adam had notice of the Law what notice had we
kind Mother and Mistress This Ishmael was born after the flesh of Hagar a young Woman and Abraham able to beget by her Isaak born after the Spirit of Sarah an old Woman and Abraham an old Man not able to beget but Abraham was supernaturally enabled Heb. 11.12 especially Sarah who was both old and barren 1. Ishmael typifies those that seek Justification by the Law or works 2. Isaak typifies those that seeks Justification by Grace or Faith They that seek Justification by works depend upon themselves and their own natural goodness or strength or the works of Law They who seek Justification by Faith depend upon God's Grace and free Promise ☞ Note here by the way that Isaak was a Type not of personal Election from all Eternity but of such as shall be justified by Faith in the Promise For the scope of the Epistle is in opposition to the Jewish confidence to prove that Justification is not by the Law So that the conceit of Election and Reprobation from this place is quite and clear Eccentrical from the scope and business which the Apostle aims at in this place 1. From whence I observe That the Mysteries of Salvation are declared not by words only but by Providences and Dispensations 2. That God without acceptation of persons may advance one above another in temporal benefits Acceptation of Persons hath place only in Judiciary rewards not in Dispensations of Grace and Mercy to eternal Rewards SECT XXXII Gen. 25.3 Jacob and Esau Besides that Allegory of Jacob and Esau denotes two Nations for the Text saith Two Nations are in thy womb and is by the Apostle applied to the Freedom of God preferring the younger Brother the Gentiles before the Elder the Jews Ro. 9.11 c. not upon any account of works For the children being yet unborn neither having done good or evil that the purpose of God according to Election might stand not of works but of him that calleth it was said unto her The elder shall serve the younger As it is written Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated But the Preferring of the Gentiles before the Jews was only upon the account of Faith by the which they were justified and the Jews could not be justified because they stood upon their works So Jacob and Esau were not Types of a Personal Election and Reprobation but of a specifical National Election and Reprobation whosoever how many or how few soever not to an Eternal but to a Temporal Inheritance 2 Sam. 8.14 For the Elder shall serve the Younger and so the Edomite did serve the Israelite v. 2 Sam. 8.14 Je. 60. 1 Chron. 18.11 13. And the Idumaeans revolted Psal 137.7 Ez. 35.5 10. yet were they subjects 1660 years Jacob signifies the People of the New Testament by Faith Esau signifies the People of the Old Testament by Works Object Gal. 3.17 The Covenant that was confirmed of God before in Christ the Law that was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disannull that it should make the promise of God of no effect Solut. These words prove not that the Gospel or Covenant of Grace was before the Law or Covenant of works but before that solemn repetition or new Delivery thereof upon Mount Sinai When there was a Brief Transcript of it written and delivered unto Moses in Tables of Stone by God Rom. 5.20 Gal. 3 19 c. The Law entred that the offence might abound The Law was added because of transgressions till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made c. And that the Law or Covenant of Works was in being yea in force in the World before the publication of it from Mount Sion appears For untill Law sin was in the world Rom. 5.13 that is from the beginning of the World until the giving of the Law in words and writing from Mount Sinai And Consequently a necessity of the Law because where no Law is there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 but sin is not imputed where there is no Law that is Ro. 5.13 sin is not charged upon Men or punished nevertheless death reigned from Adam inclusivè unto Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression and consequently there must needs have been a Law without the breach whereof Men had not been obnoxious unto death Yea not only the Moral Law properly so called was extant in Men's hearts and delivered by Tradition but some particulars of the Ritual Law practised in the World before the delivery of the same Law much disused and forgotten to Moses in Writing upon Tables of Stone upon Mount Sinai As appears by the offering of Sacrifices of old and of the Sabbath and of Circumcision commanded to Abraham and his Seed and by the Marriage of the Widow of a Kinsman dying without Issue before the Law Yea the Law or Covenant of Works was as ancient as Adam and by transgression thereof he and all his Posterity incurred the guilt and punishment of Death Therefore the Law or Covenant of Works was the first born Testament or Covenant of Works made by God with Mankind And upon this account they who are of the Law i. e. who seek for Justification by the Law of works are resembled by Esau the Elder Son and they who expect Justification by the New Testament or Law of Grace i. e. by Faith are properly typified by Jacob the Younger Brother When God said to Rebecca Two Nations are in thy Womb ☜ and the Elder shall serve the Younger he mystically signified that his absolute will and purpose was never to own for Sons and Heirs of Heaven the People of the Elder Covenent i. e. those that should seek for Justification by the Law but to assign over those for Servants or Bondmen to his Children i. e. those of the later or younger Covenant who should seek the Adoption of Sons or Justification by Faith Thus God was pleased to declare to the World that his purpose according to Election might stand firme and unchanged and that he meant not to elect or make choice of those whom he should or would adopt by the rule of Works or by any rule that Men should commend to him or desire to impose or obtrude upon him but only by the Rule of his own most free gracious and wise pleasure which he hath declared to be the Rule of Faith Inasmuch as in equitable Right the making his own choice in this kind accrueth unto him as he is the sole Magnificent Founder of this Blessed Feast of Justification calling and inviting the World from all Quarters to come unto it For a Clench to keep this Interpretation from stirring The Prophet Malachi brings in God thus Saying Was not Esau Jacob's Brother Mal. 1.2 c. yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau and laid his Mountains and Heritage waste for the Dragons of the wilderness He gave Esau a lesser portion of an earthly
and anon and trouble their Writings Ib. p. 34. Did God generally under the weak and worldly state of the Jewish Church send forth those Prophets whose learning education holy lives great works admirable gifts commanded even prophane men to a reverence of their Persons and Message And doth he now make use of Monsters Comets Meteors or the Apparitions of unclean Spirits as his Praecones Publici Id. ib. p 47. Signa Moralia signs of a Moral nature such as were the gradual lessening of the lustre and glory of the Jewish Polity and Pedagogy Oeconomy of Moses decaying by the ceasing of Prophecy the absence of Heavenly fire the Ark of the Covenant the Schechinah the Oracles by Urim and Thummim From the Second Temple the lapsing of the government from Kings to Dukes from Dukes to the Sanhedrim from them to the Romans there having been no Kings types of Christ after David and Solomon except Hezekiah be admitted a Candidate for that hand this vanishing splendour of the face of Moses that Oeconomy whereof he was the Minister was a sign that the Sun of Righteousness was now arising under whom a state of more Spiritual and Inward glory was shortly to obtain Ib. p. 48. All the Shadows and Rites of the Law were to expire and conclude like the Phoenix in a Nest of Spices in the Graces and Truths and Glories of the Gospel state that the wall of Partition was now to be taken away and all Nations to own themselves Brethren under one Common-Father The Times there intended were times rather present than future Times wherein the Mosaical Oeconomy brought on with mighty Signs and Wonders was to determine Times wherein the Church was to be put under an immutable and excellent form of Administration and therefore the last time in Scripture Signs The Jews were a people so used to Signs that the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 1.22 The Jews require a Sign And it was the vulgar opinion amongst them That as all extraordinary Prophets were to seal their Commission with a Miracle so all events extraordinary were to be foreshewn by a Sign Hence the Jews came to our Saviour with that bold demand What Sign shewest thou unto us Mar. 8.11 seeing thou dost all these things Jo. 2.18 God perhaps gave them Signs to assure them that the evils which befell them arose not out of the dust but came upon them from the fore-appointing Counsels of heaven and to awaken their dull and worldly minds into a lively sense of his Justice and Providence But now in the broad day light of the Gospel 't is expected that we should not need awakening by any such Monitors into a sense and awe of the Divine Majesty We must now believe without a Sign and derive our Repentance not from mighty Earthquakes and Prodigies but an ingenious and understanding sense of sin Id. ib. p. 74. We are to discard all sowr Jealousies concerning God Sowr jealous conceits of God Synesius hath observed that however the Nations were distanced from each other like the lines in the Circumference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by very different opinions and sentiments in reference to God and Religion in other matters yet still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all center'd and met in this great Doctrine both wise and unwise That God was a good bountiful and benign Being The greater wonder to me it is that so many Doctrines among the Heathens and Christians too which I am not here to take notice of should be received with a Non obstante to this native and easie sense of the Divine goodness and Philanthropy lodged in their minds the Leaven of a Sowr conceit which cannot dwell with a belief of Gods goodness Plutarch justly challengeth in Herodotus That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Deity is of an envious and troublesom disposition That God is only ingeniosus in malis that his Counsels are especially taken up with the contrivances of new plagues and miseries for the hated World than which did never a more pestilential Air breath from the bottomless pit crazing the very vitals of Religion and corrupting the first and earliest notions rising up in the Soul when conceiving of a God Whereas if men did not measure the Nature of God by that froward and envious Spirit which commands themselves they might easily understand all the Evils sometimes sent down upon the World to be in the language of the Moralist only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Divine Testimony given in against sin and intended but to discipline the mad World into some sober and wise thoughts and they would believe the fairer reports which Scripture makes of God which tells us He doth not willingly grieve the Children of men that fury dwells not with him that Judgment is his strange work Ib. p. 77. A generous indifferency as to the good and evil things of this world Indifferency to the world The more the heart of a man outgrows the joys and fears of this world the more will all things therein appear to him much too little for the solemnity of a Prodigy The more will he think nothing here of value enough to have its fall come with pomp and observation and the less will he concern himself to know the future condition of such a vanity as this world is 'T is only when mens hopes and fortunes are much embarked in this world that they are impressive to any great fears in reference to its future state The Gentiles of old that could never lift up their heavy and drossie minds above the dull flats of things sensible and worldly were the greatest Professors of all the Arts of Divination by all manner of strange and unusual Accidents And the Jews to whom God had promised a heaven on this side thereof in the literal enjoyment of this Worlds blessings were very solicitous about the meaning of strange Prophecies the signs of the times the issue of things And God was pleased by many Oracles Signs and Prophecies to accommodate himself to this low and worldly temper of theirs But since the introduction of a Better hope the Tenders of such Spiritual promises we have scarce any intimations and notices given us of things future unless some very dark Prophecies in the Revelation which some Learned men conceive already accomplish't God hereby supposing our eyes now to be fixt so upon the more clearly revealed felicities of another world as not much to look down to the futurities of this P. 80. Shall we value our Faith at so cheap a rate as to trust it with the oracles of the Father of lies Can the Devil be presumed able to give us true Resolutions to any Questions de Futuro Did God ever make him of his Counsel or deliver times and seasons into his power or willing if able to do it with any fair and single purposes and intentions Have the beams of the Sun of Righteousness put out all the fires on his Altars the glory and power of the Divine Oracles and Miracles
and saving Faith as shall be shewn hereafter Contrary unto this is our Covenanting with the Devil and the World To give our Souls to the Devil and the Flesh in giving away our Souls and Bodies for propriety and our Faculties and Estates for usufruct to these Enemies of God and our selves to our destruction and this is Infidelity and renouncing all Covenant or Communion with God So I give me and mine to God and God receives what I give and I am his So God gives Himself to me and I receive what he gives and He is mine And this is a perfect Covenant betwixt God and me and holds all the while I keep my Faith and true Allegiance unto him During the continuance of which Faith that maintains this League and Covenant betwixt God and my Soul Claim by Covenant I may claim all Gods Promises as my due with a holy boldness and he may challenge all mine and that we may first make and afterwards maintain and keep this our Covenant with God unto the end we have alwaies free access unto the Throne of his Grace for Grace sufficient to help us in the time of all our needs The CONTENTS First Covenant with Adam Second Covenant with Adam Resemblance of Covenants First Covenant inculcated from the Creation Second Covenant inculcated from the Creation Law written Spirit more plentiful in the Gospel Predestination of Rewards in Christ Men would be Gods to themselves Natural to have a God Natural to be in Covenant with God TITLE III. Of the distinction of Covenants Of the distinction of Covenants TO speak clearly and properly according to the Analogy of Faith concerning Gods two most eminent Covenants with Mankind Thus First Covenant with Adam I. The first Covenant that God made was with the first Man Adam in which was one Negative Commandment The Condition was to abstain from tasting of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil The Promise was to eat of the Tree of Life in the earthly Paradise and by the help thereof to live for ever The Threatning was if he did break this Law he should pass his time in labour and sorrow be shut out of Paradise and at last die the death This is not the same Covenant with that of Moses Law 1. Because the Condition was diverse To obey all the Commandments which God then gave Ten whereof he wrote with his own Finger the rest he dictated to Moses and commanded him to write them in a Book 2. Because the Promises were diverse To enjoy long life honour Friends plenty peace and victory in the Land of Canaan 3. Because the Threatning was diverse Stoning scourging hanging c. Second Covenant with Adam II. The second Covenant that God made was with the first Man Adam The Condition was Love to the Seed of the Woman Enmity to the Seed of the Serpent The Promise was That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head Thou shalt break his head The Threatning was That the seed of the Serpent should bruise the Womans heel And he shall bruise thy heel This may not be the same Covenant with that of God in Christ 1. Because the Condition was diverse viz. Faith and Love 2. Because the Promise was diverse viz. Eternal life and in order thereunto Remission of sins the Holy Spirit Resurrection and Ascension 3. Because the Threatning was diverse viz. Eternal death The first Covenant Resemblance of Covenants may in part resemble the Covenant of Works by the Law of Moses because of a prohibition from one thing and a permission of all the rest because of a promise of one Earthly Paradise because of the threatning of a Bodily Death The second Covenant may in part resemble the Covenant of Grace by the Gospel of Christ Because of the condition of Love to the true Seed of the Woman which is Christ and of Hatred to the true seed of the Serpent which is the Devil because of the true breaking of the true Serpents head which is the Devil by the true promised Seed of the Woman which is Christ And because of the true bruising of the true seed of the Woman by the true seed of the Serpent But though there were Promises many and Covenants many yet in the Scriptures it is evident that there are but two Covenants of God eminently and properly so called which are I. The Law of Moses which is the Old Covenant of Works The Condition was Obedience to the whole Law The Promise was the Land of Canaan and Rest therein The Threatning was Temporal punishments and Death without mercy The Mediatour was Moses The Duration was till Christ should come in the flesh II. The Gospel of Christ which is the New Covenant of Grace The Condition was Faith The Promise was Life eternal in Heaven The Threatning was Death eternal in Hell The Mediatour was Christ The Duration was till Christs second coming in Glory Yet no body can deny First Covenant inculcated from the Creation but that the first Covenant of the Old Testament was hinted from the Creation for the Precepts in the Law of Nature written in the heart and for the Promises and Rewards due to the obedience of a happy life on Earth never to have end and for the Threatnings of Calamities and Death never to end And so also the second Covenant of the New Testament was hinted from the Creation in the revelation in part of a Spiritual Law Second Covenant inculcated from the Creation to those that did obey the Law of Nature and in the obscure revelation of spiritual and eternal Promises to those that embraced the carnal and temporal ones But still there was no Law written in Tables till Moses and still there was no full Revelation of the spiritual Law and of spiritual and eternal Promises till Christ came and wrote them perfectly by his Spirit in the heart Law written Therefore when the writing of the Law of Nature upon the heart was almost quite worn out by habits and practices of unnatural Evils and the universal Examples of Wicked men turning from God to Idols and walking after the imaginations of their own hearts continually God made a Covenant with the Children of Abraham by Moses for the performance of Carnal duties and fruition of Carnal rewards to lead them on farther and prepare them to the practice of spiritual Services and enjoyment of eternal Rewards which to them as to Children were represented and shadowed out by several Rites and Ceremonies and temporal Prosperities These lesser and weaker Commands and Promises God gave unto them for that time of their Minority and reserved the manifestation of his higher and stronger Commands and Promises till the fullness of time when all things should be made perfect Spirit more plentiful in the Gospel Therefore God sprinckled a lesser portion of his Spirit upon some before and under the Law according to their present capacities But afterward when
as it was at first spoken or written Letter was understood by all as Laws ought to be the Doubts were only in the use and practice and to be resolved by the Priest In this sense the Promises of the Law were terrene as long life health power victory c. V. Lev. 26. and Deut. 28. And such in the Letter were the original Promises made to Abraham viz. Canaan In this sense the Precepts of the Law were terrene proportionable to the Promises sitted also to the rudeness and childishness of the Jews called therefore Rude and beggarly elements of the World Gal. 4 3.9 For the Moralities were the least and lowest Precepts of the Law of Nature or restraints from acts unnatural The two Tables are barrs from Impiety and bridles from Inhumanity not made for righteous but for wicked men The Ceremonies were chargeable and troublesome and numerous A yoke which the Jews were not able to bear 1 Tim. 1.9 as Circumcision a painful mark or brand upon their flesh to distinguish them from other people as Sacrifices Washings c. The works were servile external for eye-service and fear of death under the Spirit of bondage In this sense the Judgments of the Law were terrene as violent death by burning stoning c. and other corporal punishments ordinary and Wars Famines and Plagues extraordinary when the Rulers hand was slack to punish according to Law Spirit II. The Spirit of the Law was not understood generally but by extraordinary Revelation to some of better Spirits but never publickly and perfectly revealed to all till preached by Christ who did away the Veil and brought in life and immortality by the Gospel For Promises 1. The Promises thereof are Heavenly as eternal Holiness Life Rest Glory and Joy with God Saints and Angels Precepts 2. The Precepts are masculine sprightly and most refinedly pure and spiritual as poorness of Spirit pureness of heart mercifulness mourning peaceableness meekness hungring and thirsting after Righteousness patience c. unto all which the general and capital Commandment is Love refined beyond legal and natural love as to love our Enemies and to pray for them that hate us c. to bless and not curse c. Judgments 3. The Judgments are eternal death pain and anguish with the Devil and his Angels Works 4. The Works of the Gospel are Cordial as Circumcision of the heart Sacrifice of the Spirit c. Liberal in the free and noble way of Love answerable in some measure to Gods Love who is a Father to us Sons a giver of an Inheritance to us Heirs They are also perfect for universal and perpetual Obedience full and blameless for the reward of Eternal Salvation by Christ Contract The Law of Moses expresly contracted nothing of Eternal Life yet God meant them more than in words he declared And then under that Law there was a sufficient ground for the perswasion thereof God inviting their Obedience by Temporal Blessings they might well believe he would not rest there for such a reward was not suitable to his Greatness to give nor for his own peculiar people to receive So he promised Abraham that he would be his exceeding great Reward yet in terms he expressed nothing but the Land of Canaan nor had he that in possession nor his posterity after him for many Generations but were Pilgrims and strangers yet these all dyed in Faith waiting for that good Land Heb. 11.16 and looking for a better Country that is an Heavenly for which Cause they were content to endure all sorts of Afflictions God having provided some better thing for them being assured that he would provide a recompence for his Servants Sufferings more than this Earth could afford but how or which way or what they did not could not distinctly know Heb. 11.13 14. but seeing them afar off they were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on earth For they that do such things declare plainly that they seek a Country So the Kingdom of Heaven was mystically intimated but not openly propounded as a Condition of Gods Contract in the Law under which there wanted not a sufficient means to attain unto it but this was not the Works of the Law it self but Faith in the Promises And that the wiser and purer sort of Jews had such thoughts as these is plain by the question of the Rich man to our Saviour Master what shall I do that I may have Eternal life To which the Answer is Matt. 19.21 keep the Commandements to which he replyed that he had kept them from his youth up But this would not do being an outward Observation without the inward Love of the heart to God above all things so as to part with them all to gain the Treasure in Heaven The Souls Immortality and the Reward of good or bad after death was revealed though darkly before the Law And accordingly their Conversation was then and under the Law as Strangers not yet arrived to their Country For Adam Enoch Noah Abraham and all those Fathers obtained a good report through Faith not having received here on earth the full Promises of God God having provided some better thing for them Heb. 11.39 40. that they without us should not be made perfect Yea in all their Sufferings their noble Souls were content because they had an eye still to the Recompense of the Reward of the World to come of whom this World was not worthy But that the Law should condition this Eternal Life expresly to be believed there was no need at that time Revelation of Eternal life reserved because it was reserved till the Fulness of time in which the Fulness of all Gods promises and the exactness of all his precepts should be universally proclaimed by his own Son Jesus Christ In the mean time this Law of Moses was tendred as the Civil Law to the Jews and so it was not strange that God should not covenant farther with them than to acknowledg him only to be their God and to serve him as he then should appoint and to depend upon him for their Reward which was the Land of Canaan immediately set before their Eyes for the present to raise them up to outward Obedience at least by that Encouragement but God left them not without witness of higher things giving them to understand by his Prophets that he looked for the inward Obedience of the heart and that they might expect a greater recompense then the Princes of the World were able to bestow These carnal Commandements and Temporal Promises made way Temporals prepare for Eternals as God would have it for the Spiritual Precepts and Eternal Rewards of the Gospel which Moses did not but Christ did covenant for else there had been no need of Christ his coming to make a Covenant which was made before nor of so many and great Miracles when he
was come to convince the World that this was the great meaning and intent of the Law Thus the Precepts of inward Obedience were translated out of Natures Law into that of Moses which the Prophets did often inculcate because the People were gross of Understanding readily supposing at first sight as all idle and carnal People are apt to do that an external Obedience would answer the Letter of the Law well enough teaching them to regulate the inward Obedience of the heart which even the Law it self did tacitely require and their Fathers expresly taught before the Law was given in Writing Outward Obedience It is plain then to considering men That they must not trust to the outward Observations of the bare negative Precepts of the Moral Law nor to the Ceremonials or Judicials that Moses had enjoyned so as from thence to promise to themselves the Favour of God and the Reward of the World to come as by not having any other Gods not worshipping Images not swearing falsly not doing Murther not committing Adultery c. or by paying of Tithes Sacrifices Washings Sabbaths c. For which conceipts Christ reproved the Jews as the Prophets had done before as if the offended Deity were to be bribed with Sacrifices Feasts or Fasts or any other Performances Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites Matt. 23.23 c. for ye pay Tithes of Mint and Annise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone c. Luk. 11.42 Mar. 7.48 Mat. 12.1.12 Psa 40.7.12 Ps 50.8.13 Ps 51.18 Isa 1.1.20 Isa 58.3.10 God requires no Sacrifices so much as Obedience Jer. 7.21 22 23. Patience and Hope in Afflictions Lam. 3.25.33 The Calves of the Lips Hos 14.2 Mich. 6.6 7 8. Zach. 8.16.19 In all which Instructions and Exhortations to the inward Obedience and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth they have shewed themselves the true fore-runners of Christ and his Apostles Sufficient means under the Law So that still they had sufficient means before and under the Law unwritten and written considering whose Law it was and by the teaching of the Fathers and Prophets to make them understand the Spiritual Duties and Rewards that were so far hinted and to oblige them to expect the coming of the greatest Law-giver who should teach them all things more clearly Love of God The Sense therefore of that great Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy strength though so far as it depends upon the bare Covenant of the Law it is limited to the Observation of those Precepts which God should confine their Civil life unto in the Service of him alone for a temporal Reward yet in the full latitude it may contain all that Christianity requireth Love of Neighbour And as for that Precept of loving their Neighbour as themselves it meant no more at first sight than of loving the Israelites their Brethren and friends but hating the Moabites c. which were Strangers and Enemies But really and truly according to the Law of Nature it meant all Mankind Matt. 5.43 be they never such Strangers or Enemies In like manner the Commandments Lev. 18.5 Ez. 20.11.21 Life which if a man keep he shall live in them they are first meant of this life but their last meaning extends to the life to come for they are large Commandments and fit to contain both internal and external obedience and large Subjects for the Prophets to preach upon as they did and for Christ to expound as he did in the highest sense they ought to bear Christ expounded the Law Lev. 18.18 according as it was foretold to Moses I will raise thee up a Prophet from among thy Brethren like unto thee and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto thee in all that I have commanded him Which was fulfilled answerably for God approved of him by a voice from heaven saying This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him This is the secret and spirit of God's Law and Covenant which he sufficiently manifested to those that severely kept the outward and civil part according to the Letter v. Ps 25.13 15. and 19.9 10. and 119.18 The CONTENTS Eternal life Rites troublesome and chargeable Permission Things not originally good Sacrifices Sacrifices first from Men. Imperfection Rigour TITLE III. Of the weakness of the Law AS to the main Body of the Law Of the weakness of the Law it was weak and imperfect in the Letter thereof in many respects There was no Command in all the Law for spiritual Prayer Instance 1 i. e. for spiritual and eternal Blessings as for Remission of sins Sanctification of the Spirit Mortification a new Creature Resurrection and Life eternal We read of few that made publick Prayers but Kings or Priests or Prophets whereas the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication is poured upon all People in the Gospel The Sadducees denied the Resurrection Angels and Spirits yet were Instance 2 they learned in the Law Teachers and great for Rule and Power which argues that there was no clear demonstration of these things in the Law Some glimmering of these things they had in their Sufferings especially in and after the Captivity towards the dawning of the day of the Gospel when they had lost the glory of their Land and were subjected to forreign Powers to shew that these Temporal felicities were forfeited for their disobedience and that they must look for a higher Covenant and Felicities more durable by embracing a purer Worship and Conversation they having failed in the Law and Services first given them for which neglect they were all taken away and their Temple and Country afterward laid waste and became a Curse These Spiritual things they could not discern to be meant because not expressed in the Law but Christ proves the Resurrection by the Law saying Matth. 82.30 c. Ex. 3 6. Have you not heard that which was spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living V. Mar. 12.18 Luc. 20.27 But had it been plainly covenanted for in the Law none durst openly to have denied it yet he bids them search the Scriptures for it for in them ye think to have eternal life Joh. 5.39 and they are they which testifie of me And the word Think is a term of abatement Insinuations and Intimations they had but no plain Demonstrations thereof As Is 26.19 Ezek. 33. 1 Mac. 12.1 2. Job 19.25 Ps 73.2 20. Jer. 12.1 2. Mal. 3.13 18. Hab. 2.3 24. Ps 16.1 Is 37.10 21. Ps 17.15 and 126.5 6. Heb. 7.19 10.19 8.6 9.15 7.19 and 9.14 2 Tim 1.9 10. Aug. Ep. 122. St. Austin saith Mihi in
Rebellion by providing for my Family I am deceived in Covetousness Extortion because I am a Gentleman I must not starve therefore I will take a Purse upon the High-way because I have a Wife and many Children and poor Kinred to maintain therefore I will gripe and grind the faces of the Poor and take all the unjust courses I can by a Community I am deceived in levelling and denying all Propriety and Superiority 5. By a pretended Law of God in a certain Law of Man Instances 5. By a pretended Law of God I am deceived in a certain Law of Man As by the Jewish Ceremonial and Judicial Laws now abolished which were once established by God I would have Adultery to be death and Theft punished only by Restitution a Tooth for a Tooth c. By Dominion pretended to be founded upon Grace I would deny all legal Propriety and none but the Babes of Grace should have right to any of the Creatures By imagination of Christ's reigning a Thousand years upon Earth I would destroy all the wicked in the World by Community of all things I deny the Propriety in any thing by God's seeing no sin in his Children I affirm they sin not at all or most of all and yet shall never be punished by the work of Grace irresistibly and absolute Assurances of salvation I presume to run on in wickedness till God call me and to be free from all doubts and fears 6. By a private Law in a publick Law Instances 6. By a private Law I am deceived in a publick Law I will be true to my Neighbour but false to the State I will sell cheaper than others on purpose to engross all the trade to my self and cheat so much the more those that I employ to work under me I will tithe Mint and Cummin and devour Kings Priests Widows and Orphans houses I will be quiet at home and factious and tumultuous in the Church and State an Angel in the Church and a Devil in my House I will use private Prayers by the Spirit and Fast and Preach in close Conventicles and despise publick Set-forms of Prayer and Fastings and Sermons in the open Church 7. By the Moral Law in the Ceremonial Law Instance 7. By the Moral Law I am deceived in the Ceremonial Law Because of Spiritual worship I will endure no Bodily worship because I may worship God in every place I will not worship him in a Set-place commanded because I must serve God every day I will observe no Holydaies 8. By the Ceremonial Law in the Moral Law Instance 8. By the Ceremonial Law I am deceived in the Moral Law Because I worship God in External forms I will not be careful of the sincere worship of my heart If I am baptized and receive the Sacrament and pray and fast and give Alms I will trust to the opus operatum the work done I will draw near to God with my lips when my heart is after my Covetousness SECTION V. 5. By one Law in all other Laws Instances V. By one Law in all other Laws By the Law of Zeal I would be quite lawless I would be as Elias Phinehas the Maccabees the Jewish Zealots the Stoicks the Roman Tribunes the Lacedemonian Ephori like Tully Demosthenes the factious Oratours and Poets the Oracles and Soothsayers kill steal lie flatter or do any thing as if by divine impulse break through all Laws for the glory of God and the good of the Commonwealth I would as Jehu drive furiously kill and slay and rob a Kingdom and say Come see my zeal for the Lord. I would like Brutus Cassius Cateline Sylla Marius Mauritius Phocas Ravilliac Massenello Cromwell Bradshaw c. banish proscribe murder massacre assassinate Kings Nobles Priests or People for God's Cause or my Countrie 's good I would preach Christ and persecute his Members I would propagate Religion by the Sword as the Turks do and say the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon and write upon my Sword Holiness to the Lord and cry cursed is he that witholdeth his hand from blood and doth the Work of the Lord negligently And curse ye Meroz curse ye bitterly those that come not to the help of the Lord against the Mighty This is the Zeal that sets the World on fire these are the daring men that have their Fates written in their Foreheads that are canonized for Saints and dye the Martyrs of Jesus or Mahomet and are called of God to be his Executioners to destroy all the wicked of the World to ride up to the Horse bridles in blood to carry all clear before them possess and rule all the Earth and after all mount up to rights into Celestial Mansions Cavete Principes Sacerdotes Nobiles c. My Zeal to Rome makes me cross the Law Temporal my Zeal to Geneva the Law Ecclesiastical and make them Ropes of Sand. This is the Hercules that clears the Augaean stable the St. George and Amadis de Gall that rids the World of Monsters and relieves all distressed Souls These sight the Lords Battels these are the Favourites and Darlings of Heaven and the Jewels of the Earth these are taught of God by the Impulse of the Spirit seeking God and finding Kingdoms these have signal Victoies and are as signally destroyed as ever that Egyptian Theudos the Gaulonite Moses Barchochebas David George John of Leyden Knipperdolling and Cromwell were By this Law I will outlaw the Law maintain and make the King a Subject My care of the Clergy and consistory would subordinate the Prince to the Priest and my love to the Lay-Presbytery would make Princes truckle under the People Iterum atque iterum cavetè Principes By this Law I walk alone in the pride and loftiness of my spirit By virtue of my zeal for the Lord of Hosts I am above all Laws I tread upon the necks of Kings and trample Lions under my feet Nay I sore aloft in the Clouds and disdain the poor Ants crawling upon this Mole-hill and fly swifter than the Wind upon the wings of the Spirit Alas poor vile Souls I have some pity in my holy anger I could tell them of higher and statelier conducts but they are not able to bear the ravishments and raptures of the Spirit Thus much inspired Learning makes me mad and Madmen will be subject to no Laws So with and without a Law I am deceived and will be deceived any way I care not God help me The CONTENTS Deliberation by halves Judgment by likelyhood Ampliations and limitations of Law Weighing my action by one Law Suspense between two Laws Sin hath the casting voice Reason of Law TITLE VII Of the Reasons of Deceit THE Reasons in general why one Law deceives me in another may be these Deliberation by halves I. To resolve upon my Action I deliberate to halves I grant the conclusion upon demi-Principles I lay an Action in the balance stript from those
a Manuduction unto Christ Observe it then that all this while there was no other way of life given either in whole or in part beside the Covenant of Grace And therefore there was no inconstancy either in God's Will or in his Acts only such was his Mercy that he subordinated the Covenant of Works and made it subservient to the Covenant of Grace and so to tend to Evangelical Perfection And he that truly understands and considers what the Covenant of Works requires and how unable he is to perform it it being though ordained for righteousness and life an occasion of sin and death must needs see just cause to flie from Mount Sinai unto Mount Sion or from the Covenant of Works made with Adam to the Covenant of Grace made with Christ and to admire the unspeakable Wisdom and Mercy of God in suffering the Law to enter in Rom. 5.20 21. that the offence might abound that where Sin aboundeth Grace might much more abound That as sin hath raigned unto death even so might Grace raign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Law then which was good was not made Death unto me God forbid But Sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good Rom. 7.13 that sin by the Commandment might become exceeding sinful Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 c. that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe But before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith But after that Faith is come we are no longer under a School-master For ye are the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus The obscurity of this Great Point of Theology which I am forced to be so long upon new Notions arising continually is chiefly occasioned as Origen imagineth by the indistinct Aequivocation of the Word Law in the Epistle to the Romans let that place be viewed where it is said The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 6.2 3. The Aequivocal Word Law for what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit May we not modestly say that the Word Law ascribed to the Concupiscence of the Flesh is not properly but abusively given As it is also in another Place Rom. 7.21 23. where he saith I find a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the Law of God after the Inward Man But I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of sin which is in my Members For if Lust be a Law and do bind it hath no Right so to do because Lust is not of force by God's Prime Institution from whence Law hath its virtue but by the occasion of his Justice in punishing the Fall of our first Parents thereby And hence is this Original way of sinning from our Lusts which we are led away with and deceived by though in themselves they are not naturally sinful but became exorbitant against reason and peccant upon forbidden objects by our own consent of Will and God's just Punishment therefore But when the Law of the Spirit of life is clearly meant to be the Gospel preached and alone having the Promise of the Spirit The Law that is weak because of the Flesh that is condemned by the flesh of Christ must needs be understood to be a carnal Law from whence Salvation can never be hoped But that Law by which Justification is had by them which walk after the Spirit and not after the Flesh is Spiritual whether it be the same for the Law of Nature perfected by Christ for the Covenant of Grace or diverse as commanded by Moses for the Covenant of Works When these things are rightly distinguished the difficulty whereof St. Peter as well as Origen complains is taken off for when the Apostle saith Rom. 2.14 That the Gentiles which have not a Law are a Law unto themselves doing by Nature the things contained in the Law shew the Work of the Law written in their hearts It is manifest that although we usurp the Appellation of the Law of Nature indifferently St. Paul doth abstain from giving the Name of a Law to that Light that is in us when he says the Gentiles had no Law but were a Law to themselves because the usurping of the Name Law belongs to the solemn Imposition of that name in the Law of Moses and to the Law of Nature and of sin but by Trope and Figure The Law of Moses is carnal in all men the Covenant of Works The Law of Christ is Spiritual in the Faithful before under and after the Law the Covenant of Grace Therefore the Institutions of Nature in Moses's Law are Scriptures and the Word of God no less than the Gospel but not binding as delivered by Moses but by Christ by whom they were made perfect Neither doth a Believer receive the Moral Law at the hands of Moses but altogether at the hands of Christ Though it be the same Law for Matter and Substance yet in the lowest grounds that was delivered by Moses yet Believers are not to receive it as the Law of Moses but of Christ in the highest perfections thereof For when Christ the Son of God comes and speaks himself Moses the Servant of God must hold his peace as Moses himself foretold A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me Act. 3.22 Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And therefore in the Mount Tabor when Moses and Elias were departed and had given place the voice from Heaven came and said Math. 17.5 This is my Well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye Him And though heretofore God hath spoken divers wayes and in sundry fashions to the World by his Servants the Prophets Heb. 1.2 yet now in these last dayes he hath spoken to us by his Son and this is he that we must trust to And they that believed in Moses must believe in Christ and they that believed before Moses did believe in Christ and they that believe after Moses must believe in Christ and so to the World's end For there never was nor will be
any other name by which the World can be saved but only by the name of Christ who is the same yesterday to day and for ever in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen There have been different Dispensations but the same Grace Yet still I say Believers were never under the Law as it was the Covenant of Works were allways under the Law as it was the Covenant of Grace St. Chrysostom expounds the History of the two Twins Hom. 42. in Gen. Gen. 38.30 which Thamar brought forth by her Father in Law Judah by the Mystery of Christians and Jews By God's appointment he that first put forth his hand was last born that thereby might be signified the entrance of the Law which yielded unto Faith For Abel Enoch Noah Melchisedec and Abraham before the Law pleased God as Christians do after the Law But that there might be some suppression of the over-flowings of sins in the world the Law was given which though it did not quite extinguish Sin yet it restrained it much by Terrible Punishments which in the last Place Faith utterly took away by most comfortable Mercies Come on therefore thou Covenant of Grace and we shall be saved by thee that could not be saved by the Covenant of the Law We have an holy boldness to appeal from the Throne of Justice unto the Mercy-Seat from Works to Faith from Law to Gospel from Bondage to Liberty from Death to Life This is the height of all perfection Behold I shew unto you the most excellent way God demonstrating his great kindness to the Sons of men he gave grace before more sparingly but now most largely and generally full measure pressed down and running over Grace for Grace This is the Standard of the Lord set up upon a hill Flie to it all ye Nations that are heavy laden with the burden of your sins and ye shall find rest for your Souls in the Dispensations of Righteousness Grace and Glory Why will ye groan under bondage and never look out for freedom Why will ye die O ye Sons of Men Come on let us leave Moses behind us and follow Christ Come O come to my Soul thou that art highly beloved of the Father full of Grace and Truth and of thy fullness we shall all receive grace for grace Come Thou Fairest of ten thousand to the Jew labouring under the costly Ceremonies and deadly Injunctions and relieve him into a spiritual Worship and a lively Commandment To the Gentile groping under darkness and stooping under Satan's load and give light and put thy easie burden upon his shoulders Trust not Thou Jew in thy Flesh and in thy Law for the Righteousness thereof but trust to the Spirit and to the Gospel for the Righteousness thereof Trust not Thou Gentile to thy Arts or Arms but trust to the saving knowledg and power of Christ and to the lively Oracles of God Let both Jew and Gentile come up to a better Rule approach to a higher Sun Ye were in Plato's care before and saw nothing but shadows Come forth now into the open Light and see the Beauties of the Substances themselves See what a Dispensation the Gospel is Heretofore a little Grace and a great deal of wrath Now all Grace and no Wrath Heretofore a little Rule a Law Form a Temporal Law of Wrath Now a vast Direction a high Tribunal an Eternal Law of Grace Heretofore Cursing now Blessing Heretofore Threatnings and Fears now Promises and Hopes Heretofore a Law that could wound now a Law that can cure A Law that could kill now a Law that can make alive Never such a Dispensation as this Nothing done by judgments and Fears but all by Mercies and Love that casteth out Fears Transition This is the Reformation that is so welcome to the World that for so many Ages was longed for The Consolation so long waited for The Hope of all the Ends of the Earth and of them that remain in the Broad Sea The Fourth BOOK OF THE GOSPEL OR New Testament The CONTENTS Law changed Priesthood changed Sacrifices Gospel a Covenant of Faith God may change the Law Law advanced to Spirit Types Secret of Christ understood by degrees Divine Dispensations Creation Fall Promise Faithful Vnfaithful Gentiles feared God Law written Rites why commanded Civil Law Rule Outward Service trusted in Prophets sent Christ sent Jews Idolaters before Christ time Jews destroyed Gentiles called Old Religion antiquated Aaron's Priesthood Christ's Priesthood Typical Redemption from typical sins Real Redemption from real sins Salvation of all Men. No more Changes TITLE I. Of the Reformation AND it was high time for a Reformation and it brought mighty Changes with it and all for the better 1. Because the Priesthood was changed Heb. 7.12 Law changed Priesthood changed there was a necessity of a change also of the Law for the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better Covenant did Of this the Prophets foretold Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was a Husband unto them saith the Lord But this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those daies saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my People For they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices Ps 50.8 c. or for thy burnt Offerings I will take no Bullock out of thine house Sacrifices nor Hee-goat out of thy fold c. Offer thy God thanksgiving and pay thy vows to the most High c. For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it Ps 51.16 c. thou delightest not in burnt Offerings The Sacrifices of God are a troubled Spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Sacrifice and Burnt offering thou didst not desire but mine eyes hast thou opened Ps 40.6 Burnt offering and Sin offering hast thou not required Then said I Loe I come in the volume of the Book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me Is 1.11 c. I am full of the Burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of Hee-goats When ye
him Melchisedec a Type of Christ 1. Because he blessed so Great a Man as Abraham was the Prince of God the Father of the Faithful one to whom the Promises were made 2. Because he tithed Abraham and Levi himself that tithed others paid Tithes to Melchisedec in Abraham's Loyns 3. Because he was a Singular Priest neither was there any more of that Order nor shall be for ever 4. Because he was a perpetual High-priest 5. Because he was of the Tribe of Judah Heb. 7.14 of which Moses spake nothing concerning the Priesthood 6. Because he was made by an Oath Heb. 7.20 And inasmuch as not without an Oath he was made Priest For those Priests were made without an Oath but this with an Oath by him that said unto him The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec 7. Because he is a Royal Priest as was Melchisedec King of Salem Heb. 7.1 and having offered his Blood as a Priest he sits at the Right hand of God as King ruling over his Church 1 Cor. 15.24 till he have put all his Enemies under his feet and shall deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power SECTION V. Christ offereth Himself he offered himself without spot to God Of the Offering of Christ Heb. 9.14 Heb. 7.27 Heb. 9.26 1 Tim. 2.6 Gal. 1.4 Gal. 2.20 for this he did once when he offered up himself he hath appeared to put away Sins by the Sacrifice of himself he gave himself a Ransom for all who gave himself for our Sins who loved me and gave himself for me 1. Because he only was worthy to give and to be given to God Reason 1 2. Because in him only God was well-pleased for so God testified Reason 2 from Heaven This is my Well-beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased Christ offered through the Spirit Through the Spirit Heb. 9.14 1 Pet. 3.18 Ro. 1.3 4. who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself unto God being put to death in the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit Who was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the dead The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 Heb. 10.20 Heb. 7.15 16. By a New and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Veil that is to say his Flesh After the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another Priest who is made not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life Christ therefore is a Living Sacrifice and so are they that are Christ's that present their Bodies a living Sacrifice Rom. 12.1 holy and acceptable to God which is their reasonable Sacrifice So Christ is the Living bread which came down from heaven Joh. 6 51. Heb. 7.8 25. and went up to heaven here men that die receive Tithes but here he receiveth them of whom it is testified that he liveth Wherefore he is able to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Reason 1 1. Because the Flesh was weak and died and no dead thing can offer it self or any thing else Reason 2 2. Because the Spirit is strong and liveth to offer the Flesh quickned thereby and to be offered in the Person of God and Man to be a Living Sacrifice Such a Sacrifice was Christ first slain and then quickned by the Spirit and offered by the Spirit unto God the Father of the Spirits Without Spot Heb. 9.14 1 Pet. 1.19 Christ offered without Spot he offered himself to God without Spot i. e. of all sin or infirmity when immortal redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot so we are found in him without spot and blameless so is the Spouse of Christ cleansed and adorned 2 Pet. 3.14 without spot or wrinkle or any such thing holy and blameless Reason 1 1. Because Christ was so conceived by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary therefore that Holy Thing which was born of her was called the Son of God Thou art the Holy One of God Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption Reason 2 2. Because he purged away all our Sins that were laid upon him which though they were as Scarlet yet shall be as white as Snow and though they be red like Crimson Is 1.18 yet they shall be as Wool Once Heb. 9.25 c. Christ offered Once only Not that he should offer himself often as the High-Priest entreth into the Holy Place every year with Blood of others for then he must often have suffered since the foundation of the World but now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed unto all men once to die ond after death cometh Judgment So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without spot unto Salvation Heb. 10.1 2 c. For the Law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the Things can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the Comers thereunto perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered i. e. they would have ceased to be offered because that the Worshipers once purged should have had no more Conscience of sin But in those Sacrifices there is a Remembrance again made of sins every year For it is impossible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away sins Wherefore when he cometh into the World he saith Sacrifice and Offering and Burnt-offering and Offering for Sin thou wouldst not but a Body hast thou prepared me In burnt-offerings and Sacrifices for Sins thou hast had no pleasure Then said I lo I come in the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy Will O God By the which Will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all And every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering the same Sacrifices which can never take away Sins But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his Enemies be made his Footstool For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness This is the Covenant that I will make with them in those days I will put my Laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their Sins and their Iniquities will I remember no more Now where Remission of these is there is no more offering
confirm Testament 1. To confirm a Deed of Testament made by the Eternal God 2. To expiate all Sin and Misery But it must be offered first I and so it will very shortly it must not lie long here you may be sure This Blood must quickly be carried to Heaven never to be spilt more but offered up for an Attonement before the Mercy-Seat of God for ever 'T will be but three daies and this Flesh and Blood shall live again and after fourty daies it will ascend into the Temple of God This Blood will consecrate and dedicate that place for our flesh and blood to enter into This Blood will be a new and living way to the Mercy-Seat of God for us to have free recourse unto at all times in this life for Grace sufficient to help us in the time of all our need This Blood will cry aloud for Mercy and speak better things than the Blood of Abel which was for Revenge But it must be offered first and it will be accepted No Sacrifice can be complete till it be offered First slain then laid on the Altar then offered up in part or in whole so was Christ first slain then offered up to God Well then I will be as good as my word I will mourn and fast and pray a while but I must not think that this will do my business Sackcloth Ashes Hard lodging and fare Whippings Pilgrimages Reliques Watching Fasting Alms and Oblations c. make a great shew and pomp of Devotion and some of them are good as they may be used But I must have a settled eye upon the Power of Godliness and not upon the Form only I must take heed what I do in the Service of my God lest I offer the Sacrifice of Fools In a word I must look to my heart in all my outward actions It will not serve my turn to read hear or see the history of my Saviour's Passion or Resurrection written preached and acted or represented in Books Sermons and Scenes and for me thereupon to hang down my head like a Bull-rush and grow sad upon it for a day or two I must think of an every daies duty of dying daily and of mortifying and crucifying my self all my life long not by Whipping c. but by Self-denial and cutting off my Right hand or my Right eye or whatsoever is near or dear unto me Self-examination Reformation Zeal Faith Love Hope and such Spiritual duties must be my work all the daies of my life For Bodily exercise profiteth little or nothing but Godliness and a New Creature What a fool was Simon Stylites that lived so long standing between two Walls and Dominius Loricatus that gave himself 540000 stripes in one Lent I look upon my Saviour's Crucifixion as do the Literalists and formal Devotionists but Sursum corda is a good hint to me I must look higher The History I believe but the Mystery and Power of his Death I look after It satisfies not me at all if I had been born and laid in a Manger and crucified and slain with Christ if I had been his Brother and suckt the breasts of his Mother it would not have profited me at all except I did believe the Word of God and keep it for then I should be his Brother Sister and Mother indeed If I had been so happy as to have known him in and after the flesh so as to eat and drink with him and see his Miracles and hear his Doctrine and cast out Devils and heal Diseases as he did in his Name yet from henceforth I will know him no more after that but after a better fashion His Sufferings and Death are past and gone from hence now I know him as he liveth in the power of an endless life All the scandal of the Cross is taken away though he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God Break my heart no more with grief and hardships of the outward Cross but let me love and love again and delight my self in the inward Cross whereby the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World Then stay me with Flagons comfort me with Apples when I am sick of Love I look upon the Love of God in making and confirming his Promises to me in Christ I make my Covenant with my God to forsake the World the Flesh and the Devil This is the state of Grace this is to be in Christ and a New Creature I have looked down to Christ's Sufferings on Earth but now I will look up more to his glorious Actings in Heaven viz. His Sacerdotal entrance his solemn oblation of Himself his Session at the Right hand of God his Intercession his Kingdom over all in protecting his Church and bringing all his Enemies under his feet his spiritual Scepter and Kingdom in our Hearts beating down all the strong holds of Sin and Satan No need therefore of Crosses Pictures Whips Thorns Nails Reliques c. These may work for a while being in sight upon the outward Man to move admiration and sorrow but no constant Faith and fixed Hope and Love as do the virtue of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings which is the true Power of Godliness that brings comfort to the end and in the end and to all Eternity The Flesh I bear it record takes a kind of pleasure in grieving pitying and beholding the shadows of these things but the Spirit of Faith goes higher and rejoyceth in the evidence and demonstrations of the Substances themselves The Letter and Form alone profiteth little it is the Spirit and Faith that must give the true Life Christ saith Except we eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of God we have no Life abiding in us because his Flesh is meat indeed and his Blood is drink indeed but withal he tells us That these words which he speaketh are Spirit and Life Call we therefore in the last place and hold there to the True work of a Christian To crucifie a Lust to kill a Sin to die to sin to rise from Sin and live to Righteousness I whine not at the Passion I weep not for him but I weep for my self and mortifie my Members which are upon the Earth I remember Christ's death and take the Sacrament upon it as the only Memorial that Christ hath ordained I believe and bear in mind the history of the Passion but my main care is to conform thereunto The Mystery is more to me than the History the Spirit than the Letter The Letter is low the Spirit is high Carnal Devotion is in Images and Reliques but Spiritual Devotion is in Mortification and Self-denial The one is the form the other is the power of Godliness We preach and live too low in the bare History in verbal Masses in superstitious Rites These are some of them very good when contained within their own spheres but alwaies very low and mean and never come up to the height
a Pledge of our following after him Christ after his Resurrection receiving this Power sits not on his Royal Pavilion as an idle Spectator of his Subjects from heaven but gave at first a sensible demonstration of his invisible Power by sending down the Holy Ghost in the likeness of Fiery tongues upon the Apostles inspiring them with Tongues and revealing to them the Mysteries of God's Kingdom This JESUS hath God raised up Act. 2.32 and being by the Right hand of God exalted he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear Else at first if it had only been an invisible Kingdom above it might have seemed a dream to them which were yet but Novices But since he hath continued and will continue to send down his Holy Spirit into the hearts of all his Servants not miraculously with Signs and Wonders as before but ordinarily and yet sufficiently for the good of their Souls and the edification of his Church till we all come in the Unity of the same Spirit to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ And this he will do according to his Promise Lo I am with you alwaies even unto the end of the World SECTION I. Now the chief Effects of the Holy Ghost the Promise of the Father sent from Christ are Victory over Sin Victory over the Law and Victory over Death by Christ's Victory over all these Victory over Sin Victory over Sin was 1. Not External only by Christ on the Cross for the Remission of Sins and for Exemption from Punishments Col. 2.15 Where he spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly and where he Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 being made a Curse for us Then did Christ put a Period to all ineffectual Sacrifices and demonstrate his displeasure against Sin afterwards publish free Pardon through his Blood which was effectually obtained by the offering of himself to God for all that repent and believe the Gospel 2. Not external by moral Righteousness of outward Works by our own natural Power according to the Letter of the Law nor yet ceremonial or ritual Observations conducing nothing to the subduing of corruptions and Lusts This is that Pharisaical Righteousness by which St. Paul professeth that he could not be thereby justified Phil. 3.6 9. although he walked according to the Law blameless and wisheth to be found in Christ not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ 1 Cor. 4.4 the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Yea more though he knew nothing by himself yet was he not thereby justified Exiguum est quiddam ad legem esse bonum Seneca It is no great matter to be good according to the Rule of the Law called the Law of Works and the Righteousness of Works The Sin of the heart was by the corrupt Gloss of the Scribes and Pharisees called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Sin that came not within the Scope and Compass of the Law Because the Law enjoyned no punishment for it And if thoughts and desires were Sins they fancied that the Sacrifices would do them all away St. Paul searched into the Law as far as another man and yet he could not discern Lust to be a Sin by the ordinary Precepts till he found one more large than the rest that told him he should not lust Thereupon Tryphon the Jew noting the extraordinary high Commandements of the Gospel reaching even unto poorness of Spirit pureness of Heart mourning hungring and thirsting after Righteousness Peace-making Love of Enemies Adultery of the heart murder in heart c. wondred and declared that it was impossible to perform them Joseph Josephus therefore blames the famous Historian Polibius for ascribing the death of Antiochus to be a just Vengeance of God upon him for his thoughts of Sacriledg which he never acted saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides the Scribes and Pharisees set up their own Traditions above the Law of God and were errant Hypocrites For which cause Christ declareth so many woes against them and that the very Publicans and Harlots should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before them and that not every one that said Lord Lord should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that did the Will of his Father which was in Heaven and that their long Prayers and Fasting was to devour Widow's Houses Matth. 5.20 And that except the Righteousness of the Jews did exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.3 And that except a man be born again he shall never see the Kingdom of God 3. Imputation of Righteousness Not External Imputation of an external or internal Righteousness of another as is fancied of the Righteousness of Christ and the Righteousness of the Saints both ex abundanti works of Supererogation serving over and above their own turns to the necessities of others to all intents and purposes as if they were their own A Cloathing up another Man's back to keep me warm upon a mere Imagination reckoned to be mine though I have not a Rag to cover my nakedness A kind of Dream of a Shadow in a shew of Modesty and Humility to colour inward Hypocrisy and Carnality A Title of the Holiness of another man to justifie me to the Estate of happiness without any of my own as much as if I had it really and indeed Jam. 2.14 As if a sick man could be cured by anothers health and a Blackmore cleansed by another's whiteness as if a naked or hungry Soul could be clothed or fed with words without giving them any raiment or sustenance An uncouth Notion irreconcilable with many Scriptures That God will nor justifie the ungodly but reward every one according to his works making Sin and Righteousness both phantastical without any real Evil or Good at all Of these it may be most truly said as Tully said of the Epicureans opinione tantum justi opinione tantum beati they are holy in opinion and happy in opinion only But what say the Scriptures He that doth righteousness is righteous 1 Joh 3.7 He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandements is a Lyar 1 Joh 2.4 and the Truth is not in him If we say we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the Truth But if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all Sin Ye have overcome the wicked one and the world by Faith He that overcometh shall eat of the tree of Life and he shall not be hurt of the Second Death He shall have the hidden Manna and a white stone and a new Name that none knoweth but he that hath it Apoc. 2.7 That I may know him and the
the Magistrate Thus it becometh us to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and not to quarrel about such matters but to fulfil all Righteousness I have said all this to satisfie if it might be all Parties concerning the spiritual service and perfection of the Gospel and especially to convince the Fanaticks that the Church of England is neither Jewish nor Heathenish nor Popish but the purest Reformed Church in the world for the Antiquity of its Doctrine and Discipline for the paucity easiness significancy and decency of its Ceremonies avoiding all Superstition as much as possibly she can as you have an account given in the Prefaces before the last book of Common Prayer to the intent that all Separatists might be perswaded to conform having no just cause of scandal given them to crie out against us as they do for Carnal Preaching and Worship We call Heaven and Earth to witness we have done all we can but still they are not pleased If we pipe unto them they will not dance and if we mourn unto them they will not weep We must leave them till they be of a better mind As for us and our Churches we will strive to worship God with our Spirits and with our Bodies also We will pray with the Spirit and we will pray with a Form also we will sing with the lifting up of the Spirit and we will sing with the lifting up of our voices also Eph. 5.19 Speaking to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. We desire to be filled with the knowledg of his Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding Col. 1.9 that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and encreasing in the knowledg of God That our hearts might be comforted Col. 2.2 3. being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg The last Reason for spiritual Service Prayer and other duties are Relativi Juris which I shall conclude withal to Reas V rivet all the rest is this Prayer Praise Hearing Fasting Meditating Alms are no Ceremonies but are clothed with them as Offices But yet even these Holy Duties are but Relativi Juris much more are their Rites that is Duties not to conclude upon but to use for a farther end But Self-denial Crucifying the Flesh Putting on the New Man Cutting of the Right Arm Plucking out the Right Eye Sincerity Love Dying to Sin Rising to Righteousness these are done for themselves and have no other end So that when we are come thus far we have no farther to go in the way of Holiness I mean These Duties have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks of Sapience they have their end in themselves And other Duties together with their Rites attending them are Means Spiritual for the Spiritual Ends of Sanctification to the Heavenly Ends of Eternal Glory Amen The End of the First Volume The NATURE of the Two Testaments OR The DISPOSITION of the WILL and ESTATE Of God to Mankind For HOLINESS and HAPPINESS By JESUS CHRIST Concerning things to be done by Men AND Concerning things to be had of God Contained in his two great Testaments The LAW and the GOSPEL Demonstrating the high Spirit and State of the GOSPEL above the LAW The Second Volume Of the ESTATE of GOD Concerning things to be had of God By ROBERT DIXON D. D. Prebendary of Rochester LONDON Printed by T. R. for the Author MDCLXXVI TO THE READER I Have travelled through the large Field of the Disposition of God's Will by way of Testament and Covenant in the Law and Gospel dispensed by the Mediation of Moses and Christ concerning his Laws and Commandments I am now coming to treat of the Disposition of the Estate and Inheritance of God by way of Testament and Covenant in the Law and the Gospel dispensed by the same Mediation of Moses and Christ concerning Blessedness and the Rights Titles and Tenures thereof This will be the ground of Future Enlargements upon Faith and Justification Liberty and Assurance of this Divine Estate thereby In which if as before I use many Jural Notions according to the State of Law I hope the Learned will not take offence I am sure the best learned in the Laws will not I may not of right be denied my liberty of expressing my self as well as others and if they like not my Notions I may be even with them and not like theirs But some body may like them and if the wiser sort do it sufficeth But let not the Newness prejudice the Trueness of my Rational Sentiments Discovery Here is no New Truth but a new way of Discovery of the Old Truth and it may be hereafter found to be a better way for peace and quietness than hitherto hath been used no disparagement to the improvements of our Learned Antecessors Enlargements there are in all Arts and Sciences in Ages far remote from the first which is no disrespect at all to the first Inventors and Founders of them It is pleaded by some that nothing can be said but what hath been said already I would gladly understand upon what sober and rational account such a saying can proceed from any wise considering man or who can say unto the Almighty with reverence to the unsearchable riches either of his Wisdom or Grace hitherto thou hast glorified thy self in giving wisdom and understanding unto the Sons of Men but farther thou canst not or wilt not go thy Treasures are exhausted or thou wilt not open them any further God's wisdom is inexhaustible and his Grace is not sparing to communicate it more and more It may be that some New Veins of Golden Oar are found out which ancient and learned Indagators could not come at and our new men being too confident that all was done to their hand and lazy withal never looked after And this is the cause why so many excellent men have raised the Line of Evangelical knowledg among us so little above what was delivered unto us by our first Reformers Such are become guilty of doing little else with that talent of Gospel-light which God gave them at first as a stock to set up and trade withal for him but only to put it in a Napkin not adding a hair's breadth to their Stature in the knowledg of Christ Hereby falling into that ignoble Principle to believe as the Church believes and take all upon Trust Is there any greater Slavery than that of the Mind Slavery to be imposed upon to believe and do all that is magisterially dictated Must I have no Judgment nor Will left for my self but another perhaps more ignorant and wicked must understand and choose for me
condemned as Children of wrath that is after the Hebrew phrase such as have deserved punishment as Sons of deat hare such as have deserved death Vide 2 Sam. 12.5 John 15.12 2 Thess 2.3 1 Câ—r 11.13 14. So the Apostle disputeth Judg in your selves i. e. according to your natural Reason is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered Doth not even Nature it self teach you that if a Man have long hair it is a shame unto him c. That is not plain Nature but Customs far and neer in all Ages observed which are the Laws of Nations which are secondary Laws Rom. 1.18 c. springing from the original Laws of Nature For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men who hold the Truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shew'd it unto them But they when they knew God glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves wise they became fools For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections for even their Women did change the natural use into that which is against Nature And likewise also the Men leaving the natural use of the Woman burned in their lusts one toward another Men with Men working that which is unseemly and receiving to themselves that recompense of their error which was meet And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledg God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do those things who are not convenient without natural affection Col. 4.8 c. doing service to them which by nature are no Gods Others of the Gentiles which had not the Law writen on Tables did by nature the things contained in the Law these having no Law were a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another SECT XI Thus it appears that Nature teaches good and by her Dictates they that walk contrary to the course of Nature are condemned as guilty of the wrath of God and are therefore called Sons of wrath But to call these unnatural courses of Adult persons by the name of Original Sin Actual in which we are conceiv'd and born and for which we are liable to eternal death is so strange and so heterogeneal a consequence as by no considering unbiast way of reasoning can justly be deduced from such premises That Nature is good and teaches good appears in that all Men naturally desire good enquiring what is good what is Truth and who will shew us any good as 1. To do good to our selves and to others not to hurt our selves nor others 2. To keep our promises to all 3. To give every one their due This is God's Image It is as natural for Man to be good Quintil. as for Birds to flie and Fishes to swim 1. Because the Soul is a Spirit Reason and it is the nature of a Spirit to desire God and Goodness Soul a Spirit I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man Spirits delight not in corporeal things the Soul draws near to his proper object God and Goodness The breath of God breathes after God The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Receptacle of God as mattter is of form As there is a sympathy between the Seed and the Womb to conceive thereby so there is a sympathy between God and the Soul God the Seed the Soul the Matrix Man is a kind of Mortal god Tertul. In homine quid optimum Ratio hâc antecedit animalia Deos sequitur saies Brave Seneca Senec. what is the best thing in Man It is Reason by this he excels all other living creatures here below and follows God himself The Soul hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain formative quality from the kindly aspect and incumbency of God's Grace hovering and brooding over it Ephes 4.24 which makes the New Man which after God is created in Righteousnes and true Holiness SECT XII 2. Because Good is the most common and communicative thing that is Good most common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith Hope and Love are the Common Laws and Notions tending to the common salvation God dispenses not Good sparingly he shuts it not up as Gold and Metals in the bowels of the Earth or Pearls and Jewels in the bottom of the Sea Say not therefore who will shew us any good or ascend into Heaven to fetch it down from thence that we may hear it and do it or who will go down to Hell if it were there to fetch it up from thence that we might hear it and do it for it is nigh even in thy heart it is the light that is in us which if it be darkned how great is that darkness The most excellent things of God are the most common and offered to all when other things are rare and present themselves to few God is every Man 's good that will Aquinas his Sister ask'd him how she might be saved he answer'd her If you will The Predestinarian makes a cross consequence from this Object That Salvation depends upon Man's will If the King pardon and the Malefactor sues it out and takes it Answ does the King's Grace therefore depend upon the Malefactor's will should he be forc'd to take it whether he will or not Is this reasonable If Men reject the Grace of God their destruction is from themselves but their Salvation is from God The goods thing of God arrive certainly at the persons that desire them So is it not in the things of this world Every covetous person is not rich though he rise up early and goes to bed late and eats the bread of carefulness yet all will not do Every Ambitious Man is not the highest though he aspire and labour never so much to climbe up to the top of Honour yet he is forc'd to stay below and move in an inferior Orbe Every Student that sits in the Vatican is not a great Clark and there are few good in any one Trade But in Divine things it is far otherwise for every one that asketh hath and every one that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh the gates of Wisdom are opened Every one that hungreth and thirsteth after Righteousness shall be satisfied Fastidiosior est scientia quà m virtus Learning Riches Honours c. are more nice and coy than Virtue is though Virtue be most lovely yet she is not so delicate and scornful as they that have far less beauty and worth in them Paucorum est ut literati seu Divites c. omnium ut Boni Very few can attain to great Learning Honor c. But all may be good and besides Honours Wisdom Power c. when they are gotten are
and formality And these only are the works that are the Tenure of my Justification by Faith These supernatural and superlegal works of the Gospel that flow from a pure heart and make a Christian perfect and conformable to his Redeemer will find acceptation at the last day when the Sentence shall be pronounced saving Come ye Blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World for I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a Stranger Mat. 25.34 and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me And in as much as ye did it to one of these least of my Brethren ye have done it unto me And for default of these Evangelical Works the Sentence will be pronounced accordingly Depart from me ye workers of iniquity for I know ye not The CONTENTS Faith Notions of Faith Credence Trust Promise given Promise taken Re-promise Courage Hope Covenant Faith in Christ Christ the Conveyer of Faith Christ the Author of Faith Declaring God's Will Proving God's Will Testament ad pias causas Physical operation Moral operation Saving Faith Means of Faith A new Heart TITLE VII Of the Instrument of Justification FAith is a thing indefinite so high and universal Faith as that it hath no genus above it to define it by And Faith is a thing so notable and so well known that there are not words more known whereby to express and teach the Nature of it Such are the transcendent words Deus Ens Unum Verum Bonum which every body knows but no body is able to define SECT I. Certain * Notions of Faith Notions or Cases may be layd down as signs or marks to breed a competent understanding thereof 1. An †High esteem of God high esteem of God's Existence Greatness and Goodness is Faith in God for Faith is opposed to despising or having a low and base esteem of weakness and badness of any Person 2. An ‖ Acceptance of promises V. Ro. 10.9 1 Joh. 15.10 Mat. 9.28 Math. 21.32 Mat. 9.23 24. Joh. 5.24 Joh. 20.31 Acts 8.37 Rom. 4.3 Heb. 11.2 Jam. 1.6 7. Mat. 11.23 24. Joh. 1.12 Hebr. 11.13 Heb. 12.25 Joh. 12.48 Luc. 7.30 Substance of things hoped c. Evidence of things not seen acceptance of God's Promise is Faith as obedience to God's Precepts is works God by his promise willeth unto us two distinct things 1. A present Right to the Blessing promised 2. A future possession And then answerable to both these God requires 1. an Acceptance or taking of the present right to the Blessing promised 2. an expectance or trusting to the future possession of it The acceptance is Faith the expectance Hope the refusal unbelief The Non-expectance despair God's promise is Faith given our acceptance is Faith taken 3. The substance of things hoped for is faith i. e. where things hoped for that really do subsist in their own Natures do spiritually subsist as to us and where things truly to come as to us though in present being as to themselves are made as present virtually to us there is Faith 4. The evidence of things not seen is Faith i. e. where there is a sight in spirit of things not yet to be seen as they are in themselves there is Faith Credence 1. Faith is vulgarly taken for Credence Credulity or Belief upon the credit or report of one that is worthy to be believed An assent to a truth in point of Law or fact opposed to unbelief Trust 2. Faith is taken for trust or confidence hope assurance or reliance upon the honesty authority and power of another opposed to distrust Promise given 3. Faith is taken for a promise made Do fidem an engagement to do such or such a thing An obligation or tye opposed to disengagement or Liberty Promise taken 4. Faith is taken for a promise taken or embraced Accipio fidem an acceptance an obligation to take the thing offered opposed to rejection or refusal Re-promise 5. Faith is taken for a re-promise or responsion a League Covenant Alliance or Fief Homage Allegiance Loyalty Performance opposed to disloyalty and treachery a keeping of Faith fidelity faithfulness God is faithful Men faithful Courage 6. Faith is taken for Courage Heart valour opposed to fear Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Hope 7. Faith is taken for a Hope or looking for things to come as those worthies Hebr. 11. who lived by Faith and died in Faith having not received the promises but afar off believing that they should presentially receive them SECT II. Covenant But the principal acception of Faith I humbly conceive as to our purpose is a Covenanting with God A mutual making and keeping promise by both parties giving taking and keeping Covenant with each other By our faith or stipulation with God comes our justification or right to the things covenanted for for God to give and us to receive By our fidelity or faithfulness to God comes our sanctification or maintaining of the right to the things covenanted for by good works Faith actually given is crediting or trusting with the things bestow'd Faith passively received is to be credited or trusted with the things taken Faith performed or kept is the discharge of the credit or trust imposed by the giver to the receiver and of the giver himself each is faithful to promise give receive and keep 1. God's promise is his sponsion or faith given a single act of his will to devise to us a present right to a future inheritance 2. The Access of our acceptation of God's promise is our responsion or faith taken A single act of our will to embrace this present right to a future inheritance and to repromise to keep what is given to take and commanded to do 3. This consent of wills of giving and receiving makes a perfect Covenant whereby God and Man are sure to each other and mutually obliged as in all Contracts to each other For faith is that that binds both God and Man Law binds not God but Man only Because God is above his Law and may change it but God is not above his faith and promises he cannot change them Search then and see if there be any evidence or conveyance that can create a better right or settlement for any Estate in Heaven or Earth between God or Man than Faith can do 1. God binds himself by promise and oath as he is the Creator and Lord promising of and for himself and swearing by and for himself and more than all this takes his death by substitution of Christ upon it 2. Man binds himself by promise and oath to God as he is his Creature and Vassal then he binds himself over again in his Baptism as he is his Creature and Heir and takes his death upon it by
to the slaughter like a Lamb dumb before the shearer Acts 8.32 so opened he not his mouth When he was reviled he reviled not again Who will not believe a Holy Person will such a one forge a Will or falsifie a deed or betray his trust or take his death upon an untruth Therefore was he sent that he might bear witness of the truth 4. By his death Christ took his death upon it Mat. 26.63 Joh. 19.7 that his Message was from God For for his saying that he was the Son of God and came to bear witness of the truth he was condemned to death Yet he persisted to the last to call God Father commended his Spirit into his hands and so gave up the Ghost Luc. 23.46 ratifying this truth with his Bloud That saying caused his death and his death caused the faith of that saying Now the greatest proof that can be made is to take ones death upon it Besides the death of Christ was seconded with many Miracles of the Eclipse of the Sun the shaking of the Earth c. which bred the faith of this truth in many and in some of his Executioners Mat. 27.54 and in the Centurion saying Truly this Man was the Son of God 5. By Resurrection This was so strong a proof that it confirmed all the rest not but that the rest were sufficient but this took away the scandal of the Cross being accused to die as a malefactor and for saying Destroy this Temple and in three daies I will raise it up again And when he fore-told his Passion he comforted his Disciples with his Resurrection and if Christ's Resurrection had not follow'd then his Doctrine and Miracles had been discredited But his Resurrection declared him to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness Rom. 1.4 His Resurrection proved him to be the Judg of the World because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judg the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead This giving assurance is making Faith for so is the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Italian Translation and the English in the Margin offered Faith The Resurrection was of such force to make faith that the Apostles made it the form of their Ordination and Matthias was ordained to be a witness with the rest of the Apostles of the Resurrection Acts 1.22 They made it the summe of all their preaching proving that Jesus was the Christ because God had raised him from the dead Vid. Acts 2 and 3. and 5. and 13. This is the very life of Faith for if Christ be not raised then our faith is vain and we are yet in our sins and the Apostles would have been found lyars and contrivers of cunningly devised Fables 1 Cor. 15.17 For which they would never have suffered as they did to the death Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is the Lord and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Shall we not believe one risen from the dead Dives in Hell supposed Luc. 16.20 that if one should rise from the dead his unbelieving Brethren would believe and repent Can the unbelieving Jew believe other things which he hath not seen as that Abraham was his Father by whom he had all his right to the Land of Canaan and not believe that Jesus is the Christ whom he hath seen by whom he hath right to the Kingdom of Heaven Can he believe that Moses was the Man of God by whom God gave his Law and not that Jesus is the Son of God by whom God gave his Grace For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ Besides the former proofs of his own Christ hath the testimonies of Moses and the Prophets who spake of him since the World began and the very indication of John the Baptist the greatest of them all John 1.45 The Jews boast of Moses and his Writings Joh. 5.46 but Christ saies Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me and therefore he in whom ye trust condemneth you Reason 1. The Reason why Christ thus proves this Last Will of his Father to make faith of it to the World is because he is the Executor or Mediator of it to whom of right it belongeth to prove that Will whereof he is instituted the Heir and by so being the Will receives his very essence and form and without it is null and void Christ therefore came down from Heaven Joh. 6.38 not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him And this is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him may have everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the last day Hebr. 7.22 2. Because Christ is the Surety of God's Testament Every Surety is not an Executor but every Executor is a Surety that stands bound for the Testator to pay all his Debts and Gifts as a Surety is bound to the Creditor for the principal Debtor 3. It is called Faith in Christ because Faith in Christ is the Title or Appellation whereby we are nominated to the Legacies in God's Testament The Executor cannot duly perform the Will of the Testator to pay his Debts and Legacies except the Creditors and Debtors and Legatees be nominated and that they also may know when and how and of whom to claim their just due Now in God's Testament Men are truly and certainly nominated not by their proper names but by appellative and common names as of Faithful Joh. 3.16 and Believers in Christ and Receivers of Christ Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life Verily verily I say unto you Joh. 5.24 He that Heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto Life Acts 16.31 Joh. 6.47 Ro. 3.26 Rom. 10.9 1 Joh. 5.13 Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved thou and thy house He that believeth in me hath everlasting life To declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus If thou shalt confess with thy mouth and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved I have written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal Life Acts 26.18 He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned To receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith which is in Christ Jesus He that believeth not is condemned already Joh. 3.18 because he
or condemneth for the approving or rejecting of truth or falshood is called the Conscience For the Mind Will and Conscience are faculties of that substance which is the Spirit Hidden Man This Spirit is the very Being and Person of a Man called in the Scripture the Hidden Man and the Inward Man because it is a fine secret substance which is both unseen and invisible and because it dwelleth inward within the Body as in a moving Tent or House which in Scripture is called the Outward Man i. e. a poor weak cottage framed of a few slender bones Outward Man clouted together with rags of Flesh plaistered over with a skin of Parchment and thatched over head with a shag of Hair which after a few years is half blown off and after a few more the whole hovel is quite blown down to the ground for it is but a sorry composure of Flesh and Bloud mire and clay God knows Natural Man And while this Native Spirit or inmate or inward Man to the Body acteth no otherwise than according to that native force and strength which he hath by Nature so long is he called the Natural Man and the Carnal Man Supernatural Inspiration But moreover when any supernatural influence or ability is inspired into the Native Spirit of Man it is also called the Spirit For such an ability inspired is as it were a Super-spirit or Spirit upon Spirit or an After-spirit whereby the Spirit of man is changed altered and moved to act otherwise than by the course of Nature it could or easily would And this Supernatural inspiration is differenced by the effects which it operateth upon the Native Spirit Penal and grievous For when the Justification is penal and grievous to depress deject and vex the Native Spirit then it is called in Scripture an Evil Spirit Such an evil Spirit was upon the Native Spirit of Saul after his disobedience Such were the evil Spirits 1 Sam. 16.14 Luc. 7.21 Luc. 8.2 whereof Christ cured many And such was that evil Spirit mentioned Acts 19.15 16. Beneficial and gracious And when the Inspiration is beneficial and gracious to elevate and exalt and sublimate the native Spirit of man refining re-enforcing and strengthening the native fineness force and strength thereof then it is called a Good Spirit Which Good Spirit is again diversified according to the diverse effects which it worketh upon the native Spirit Hence we read The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him Is 11.2 the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and might the Spirit of Knowledg and of the fear of the Lord. And again 2 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of power of Love and of a sound mind But when this good Inspiration is beneficial in a peculiar manner Holy Spirit for pious uses and holy purposes exalting the native Spirit of man to such a degree that thereby he disrelisheth despiseth and forsaketh vanity worldly and earthly things relisheth affecteth and aspireth after Divine and Heavenly things performeth or is enabled to perform the true Service of God in the duties and works of true holiness according to the precepts of the New Testament then this good Inspiration is called the Holy Spirit and many times singularly The Spirit in an Eminent and excellent sense And the man whose native Spirit is inspired with this Holy Spirit Spiritual Man is called the Spiritual man the New man and a new Creature because by this Holy Spirit his native Spirit is sanctified regenerated or re-nated i. e. begotten again born again new formed or new created The Spirit then is a supernatural ability of man's native Spirit to form the works of true Holiness And the words Mortification Sanctification Regeneration and Renovation and the like signifie either that thing or the effects of that thing whereof the name is the Spirit For the works of true Holiness are Love Joy Peace long suffering Gal. 5.21 gentleness Good Fidelity Meekness Temperance and such like all which are called the Fruits of the Spirit This Spirit which sanctifieth the knowing faculty of the mind of Man to discern between good and evil as also the moving faculty of the Will to choose good from evil doth also farther sanctifie the judging faults of the conscience to accuse or excuse acquit or condemn rightly and truly as it ought to do keeping a conscience in all things void of offence both towards God and towards Men. The CONTENTS Definition Seat Vnderstanding Will. Memory Reflection TITLE II. Of Conscience Definition COnscience is the judging faculty of the Soul of a Man regulated by a Law for the practise of life and conversation Seat There needs no dispute about the Seat of Conscience whether it be in the Understanding Will or Memory for it is in them all even in the whole Soul Understanding The Understanding speculative considereth Universals Principles Axioms that is Notions or Rules natural or revealed for contemplation of wisdom so the conscience intends the truth of things The Understanding practical considereth particulars consequences and conclusions that flow from those natural Axioms in order to action So the conscience intends the goodness of things and both these are one and the same faculty Will. The Will is created with liberty to follow the dictates of the understanding for the exerting of internal and external actions in the practise of life and conversation Memory Reflection The Memory is the Treasury of all that is done in the whole Man And when the conscience in all these faculties hath speculated considered directed and willed it doth also reflect upon all these internal acts and glances shrewdly upon all the external acts that flow from them judging exactly and impartially upon every one of them and passing sentence accordingly For which cause it may be fitly described Judicium hominis de semetipso The judgment of a Man upon himself A Watchman an Intelligencer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Porter of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Houshold God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Overseer upon the place an Universal Spye to all our practises or if you will God's Vice-gerent in our own breasts The CONTENTS To direct To urge To register To testifie To accuse Before the Action In the Action After the Action TITLE III. Of the Disposition of Conscience THe Disposition of the conscience is rightly to perform these several Offices 1. To direct 2. to urge 3. to record 4. to testifie 5. to accuse or excuse for grief or comfort SECT I. 1. To direct as a Law This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law of the mind To direct the Spirit that delights in the Law of God Ro. 7.23 James 1.21 Rom. 1.19 Arist That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common notions in all nature the work of the Law written in the heart
the Law to our selves whereby we do by nature the things contained in the Law This is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gatherer and Preserver of prime natural reasons of immediate or mediate Revelations of acquired wisdom by Arts and Sciences especially Laws of daily experience and observation from all which as from a Fountain should flow all the actions of life but that Passion Humour and Fancy under the name of Conscience and Reason hurry us into their actions quite contrary SECT II. 2. To urge or prompt to do according to the Law in the conscience To urge A vehement protrusion a binding of conscience to do good and an abhorrence or reluctancy from evil loathing as the stomach all that is contrary to it St. Paul was thus urged to his duty 1 Cor. 9.16 Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel Thus the Prophet Jeremiah though much disheartned in so much that he had thoughts of silence and speaking no more in His name for the which he was so derided yet he recollects himself and his conscience thrusts him forward to do his duty against all discouragement For the Word was in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones Jer. 20.9 and he was weary with forbearing and could not stay Job 32.18 c. Thus Elihu said of himself I am full of matter the Spirit within me constraineth me My belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles I will speak that I may be refreshed The Apostles that were witnesses of Christ could not but speak the things which they had seen and heard Acts 4.19 20. St. Paul was a debter to the Greeks and Barbarians to preach the Gospel in season and out of season to become all things to all Men that by all means he might gain some Acts 20.23 Ro. 13.5 1 Cor. 10.28 Ps 39.3 Gen. 39.9 He went bound in the spirit to Jerusalem not knowing what thing should befall him there We must obey for conscience sake Eat not for conscience sake My heart was hot within me at last I spake with my tongue Gen. 39.9 Joseph was restrained by his conscience when he said How shall I do this great wickedness and so sin against God Balaam had this conscience in him when tempted by Balak Num. 24.13 If Balak would give me his House full of silver and gold I cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord to do less or more If doubt be made of this Man there can be none made of St. Paul who when his Friends besought him not to go up to Jerusalem for fear of bonds answered Acts 21.13 What mean ye to weep and break mine heart for I am ready not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Was he a reprobate that said Si scirem Deos mihi condonaturos homines ignoraturos adhuc peccare erubescerem propter peccati turpitudinem What can a Christian say or do more if he be as he should be as good as his word If I were sure that God would forgive me and that no Man were privy to my sin yet I would blush to commit it for the filthiness thereof And surely the Mistresses of our vile affections are so ugly that we cannot kiss them if we did but view their deformity we should loath them And if we would observe the beauty of Virtue we would be ravished therewith for the waies of Wisdom are pure and pleasant The Conscience naturally suffers not to do otherwise than she suggests unto us and as naturally it doth loath a foul action although the carnal Will be fierce upon it as Hector said of Achilles in his violent passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O that my conscience would give me leave to do that I long for even to devour thy flesh chopt in pieces But I can get no leave from conscience to do so as my revenge would have me There is an unwillingness in the rational will to do the will of the Flesh she is more noble of her self than to serve base lusts which was born to serve the Queen of Reason She is free to do good as agreeable to the Spirit Rom. 7.22 23. I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man but I see another law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members SECT III. To register 3. To register or record the intrinsecal and extrinsecal actions of the whole Man 1 Cor. 4.4 St. Paul saith I know nothing by my self yet am I not thereby justified The Brethren of Joseph were not conscious to themselves of the Money put into their sacks if they had done it they must have known it but Non est in conscientiâ nostrâ it is not in all our consciences we cannot find that we have done any such thing Gen. 43.21 if it were in our hearts we should find it We know not who hath put our Money in our sacks 1 Cor. 2.11 Eccles 7.21 From hence the Conscience is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What Man knoweth the things of a Man save the Spirit of Man which is in him Thine own heart knoweth that thou thy self hast cursed others Here things are written with a Pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond and with a beam of the Sun Ps 51.3 1 Kings 2.44 that he that runs may read them My sin is ever before me As Solomon said to Shimei Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to Coarguit conscientia ipsos sibi ipsis ostendit The conscience of wicked Men shews themselves to themselves A Court of Record is kept in their own breasts by God's own Vicegerent SECT IV. 4. To testifie for us or against us To testifie The Conscience is a thousand witnesses Their Consciences bearing witness This is our rejoycing Ro. 2.15 2 Cor. 1.12 Ro. 9.1 Jâ—b 16.19 Prov. 14.15 Jer. 59.12 even the testimony of our consciences I lye not my conscience also bearing me witness My witness is in Heaven and my witness is in my own heart And a faithful witness will not lye Our sins testifie against us and as for our iniquities we know them For the iniquity which he knoweth At one time or other the Conscience will speak the truth the whole truth 1 Sam. 3.13 and nothing but the truth SECT V. 5. To accuse or excuse for grief or comfort To accuse Thus the accusers of the Woman taken in adultery were convicted by their own consciences When they cast up their accompt they shall come with fear Joh. 8.8 and their own iniquities shall convince them to their face Wisd 4.20 But the Righteous Man shall stand in great boldness and when they shall see it they shall be troubled with terrible
fear and shall repent and groan for anguish of Spirit Wisd 5.1 c. and shall say We fools counted his life madness We have erred from the waies of God and wearied our selves in very vanity This is our rejoycing even the testimony of our conscience Their worm dieth not 2 Cor. 7.12 Mar. 9 44. Prov. 15.15 and their fire is not quenched A merry heart is a continual feast Whether a Man be rich or poor if he have a good heart towards the Lord he shall rejoyce at all times with a cheerful countenance Pii sunt filii consolationis The Godly are Sons of consolation they shall lift up their heads with joy and rejoycing when their redemption draws nigh The wicked shall hang their heads and their countenance shall fall As Cain did who was afraid that every one that met him should kill him If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted Gen. 4.7 but if thou dost not well sin lyeth at the door My sin is greater than can be forgiven They shall rise up at the noise of a bird at the shaking of a leaf every bush shall be a wild beast and be afraid of every shadow fear where no fear is and flie when none pursues This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bitter sting a bile a sore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwaies pricking O semper timidum scelus O wickedness alwaies fearful No rest in my bones by reason of my sin I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart Dens mandibulae saepe cessat conscientiae nunquam The teeth often cease grinding but the Conscience never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semper in poenâ est Alwaies griping and tearing Pleasure is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tac. Quorum si corda rescindantur possunt aspici laniatus ictus Whose hearts if they were ript open there might be seen deep wounds and gashes As was the case of Tiberius who when he diverted himself at the pleasures of Baiae from the business of the State having occasion to write to the Senate in his distracted condition said Quid scribam quid non scribam nescio He knew not what to write or not to write nothing would settle his conscience Secreto vulnere pallet secreto verbere flagellat Secret wounds make the countenance pale secret lashes torment A wounded Spirit who can bear nothing will serve the turn Ut alios lateas tute tibi conscius eris Though thou be hid from all the World yet thou shalt be conscious of thine own guilt Though thou build Cities as Cain or flee as far as waters float or Land extends it self yet still thou art as near to thy self as ever Hic murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi nullâ pallescere culpâ This is the only security a Man can have to have a good conscience in him void of offence towards God and towards Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath made the Conscience a just judg to every Man in his own breast Every Man that is guilty may fear himself he needs fear no body else Etsi caeteris silentium est tamen conscientia non silebit Though all others be silent of thy guilt yet the Conscience will speak Non facile est placidam pacatam degere vitam Qui violat factis communia foedera pacis It is not easie for him to lead a pleasing and quiet life that violates his Faith and Promises Etsi fallit enim Divum genus Humanumque Perpetuò tamen id fore clam diffidere debet If it were possible to deceive God and Man yet it cannot be expected but at last they would find it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that doth any remarkable wickedness cannot alwaies be hid Quicum in tenebris With whom wast thou in the dark and what didst thou do in private places They that live unjustly live fearfully and miserably Etsi latent fiduciam non habent Though they lye hid they can have no confidence Anne magis Siculi gemuerunt aera Juvenci Pers Et magis auratis pendens laquearibus ensis Purpureos subter cervices terruit Imus Imus praecipites quam si sibi dicat intùs Palleat infoelix Quod proxima nesciat uxor No torments or fears like those of a guilty conscience This made Orestes mad after he had slain his Mother because he had mudered his Father to whom when his Uncle Menelaus came and asked him the cause of his distemper he reply'd It was no disease of Body but the plague of his Mind Eurip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non mihi si linguae centum Omnia paenarum percurrere nomina possem If I had a hundred Tongues I could not express the several pangs of the Spirit 1 Mac. 6.12 Antiochus when sick remembred the evils which he did in Jerusalem Quia invenerunt me mala ista At other times of health plenty and prosperity there is no speaking to prophane wretches they are as the wild Ass that snuffeth up the wind and gallops from Mountain to Mountain that no Man can come near her but in her Month Men shall find her tame enough At other times they will stop their Ears at the voice of the Charmer though he charm unto them never so often never so wisely but in their distress they may be glad of comfort Saul said Fall upon me and slay me 1 Sam. 22.18 Quoniam terrent me orae vestimenti Sacerdotalis because the fringes of the Priestly Garments trouble me Meaning the fourscore and five Priests which he slew by the hand of Doeg This is to be smitten with madness blindness Deut. 28.28 and astonishment of heart Every bush a Bear every shadow a Ghost to quake at the sound of an Aspen leaf Rise at midnight and cry out with Orestes O Mother O Mother I pray thee do not fright me with thy bloody furies With new fancying he saw his Mother whom he had murdered staring upon him pallidumque visa Matris lampade respicit Neronem With Theodorick the Gothick King who seeing a Fishes head on his Table conceited it was the head of the Senator Symmachus whom he slew Peccatum semper ambulat cum Capite The sin and the Sinner never part Perfecto demum scelere magnitudo ejus intellecta est After the deed is done in a hurry Men have leisure to view the heinousness thereof in every circumstance in the looking-glass of their Consciences As the Brethren of Joseph did when they cried out We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us Gen. 42. and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us This Mirrour of the Mind to discern our faults is more necessary than that which discovers the spots of our Faces Non oris causa modo homines aequum fuit Sibi habere Speculum ubi os contemplent suum Sed quî
be perplexed for those sins that are fully and freely pardoned or for those Judgments which are as fully and freely removed by the death of Christ But in this weak Flesh there will be fears and doubts and causeless complaints which will cease by degrees till all be removed when death comes They talk of a Conscience quiet but not good and good but not quiet and good and quiet and neither good nor quiet but such Rimes and Cadences and flashes will give no solid satisfaction to a piercing Spirit Men may run them over with their tongues in hast and they make a jingling noise but in the brain they will keep no time at all In evil Men. 2. In evil Men it is a Disease The customs and habits of sin stop the exercise of the Natural Conscience Pectus inustae Deformant maculae vitiisque inolevit imago This the Casuists not unfitly call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Stony heartedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ferity and barbarity in Men that act such things as the Monsters and Savage Creatures use not to do to their kind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a callousness contracted by long working in wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blindness of mind as was in the Gentiles who became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned Who walked in the vanity of their minds having the Understanding darkned Rom. 1.21 being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling Eph. 4.18 have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all manner of uncleanness with greediness Vitia inolita Vices in bred and increased in them Vitia encaustica Sins burnt in nealed branded stamped stained incorporated in them A stupefaction and dozing of mind a mopish and besotted condition as they that considered not the Miracle of the Loaves For their heart was hardned Make the heart of this People fat and their ears heavy Shut their eyes Mar. 6.52 lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts Is 6.10 and be converted and be healed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benummed Mar. 4.12 as those parts that are forsaken of the Vital Spirits withered and dried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hard heartedness stiffneckedness Iron-sinews inflexible gainsaying given over to a reprobate mind to every good work reprobate Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 Lev. 26.21 c. 1 Thes 5.10 Eph. 4.30 James 2.8 Prov. 1.7 Jer. 5.3 Acts 13.46 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Set your selves with all your might against the motions of the Spirit If ye walk contrary unto me I will walke contrary unto you and punish you seven times c. Quench not the Spirit Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God c. They that observe lying vanity forsake their own mercy despise Knowledg would none of my Counsel Refused to return Judg themselves unworthy of Eternal life Put the good away far from them Turn their faces from Heaven and their backs upon all goodness Will ye also go away Whither should we go for thou hast the words of Eternal Life Their destruction is from themselves In this their day they will not know the things that belong to their peace and therefore they shall be hid from their eyes In seeing they will not see and hearing they will not hear shutting their eyes against the Sun and stopping their ears at the voice of the Charmer though he charme unto them never so often never so wisely they chuse Death rather than Life How often would I have gathered thy Children together as a Hen gathereth her brood under her wings but ye would not Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and after thy hardness and impenitent heart Rom. 2.4 treasurest unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath When they knew God they glorified him not as God Ro. 1.21.28 they did not like to retain God in all their thoughts wherefore God gave them up to a reprobate mind c. Having their consciences seared with a hot iron Departing from the Faith giving heed to Doctrines of Devils SECT I. 1. How do Mens consciences suffer them to do as they do Qu. To lye and flatter to cheat and cousen to rob and steal to kill and destroy to commit all uncleanness with greediness to swear and forswear to extort and oppress and to do all injustice I answer It is the Will the willful Will Answ the domineering brazen-faced will without all fear or shame As for the Natural Conscience in the most wicked Men it is utterly against such doings with their Mind they would serve the Law of God but with their Flesh the Law of sin They delight in the Law of God after the inward Man but there is another law in their members warring against the Law of their Mind and leading them into captivity to the Law of sin But why so little remorse appears in them that do these horrid things Truly I cannot tell what to say in this case If there be no inward pangs I should wonder it must be a very hard heart that never relents and that 's a most desperate condition both of Sin and misery 2. In good Men. How do their consciences come to be so much troubled I answer Why indeed For I know no just cause There is a just cause of fear for the Body that may fall upon a constant and stout Man when sudden and imminent danger threatens death But for a just cause of fear for the Soul to fall upon a faithful justified and sanctified Man engrafted into Christ and adopted the Son and Heir of God I cannot apprehend Fearful they are and may be but it is their fancy their passion and humour that makes them so not their real Conscience There are that put too many causes of Conscience and make doubts which they can never resolve and tye knots which they can never unloose and raise devils which they are never able to lay again Confessors make a Trade of it and a good one too unlock the closets of Mens Hearts but more of their Purses Poor Souls are oppressed by Cases of Conscience as Mens Estates are by Cases of Law and as Mens Bodies are by Physick There are certain plain Rules that would resolve all doubts to a plain meaning Man better than all their subtil Distinctions A few necessary Doctrines of Faith and a good life will do the work and the Brethren ought to be troubled no farther As for those that pretend every thing to be against their Consciences it is a manifest cheat For it is their lust and that hath the casting voice with them in all that they do and whatsoever is contrary to their lusts is falsly affirm'd to be against their Consciences because they will suffer no rule of Law to come upon them
is no peace We cannot benefit by a Preacher whom we do not love Object A Vulgar Errour Whose fault is it why do ye not love Answ at least for the Words sake If he give cause of disaffection yet you might set that aside and hear the Word which is able to save your Souls without respect of persons not having itching ears or heaping up to your selves teachers or having new persons in admiration This was the excuse of the King of Israel against Michaiah a good Prophet but he hated him because he prophecied not to his mind Object He lives not well Answ That 's something to him and a scandal to his Profession but the Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's Chair what therefore they say unto you that do but do not according to their works for they say and do not Therefore this is no just excuse before God Besides there is much of fancy and humour in the case and a luxurious kind of wantonness in the great variety of Preachers and affectation of humane Eloquence not knowing well who will please and never being long pleased with the best of Men. Here is a cheat in this for want of an honest humble heart God's Word is to be regarded though the Preacher be never so mean St. Paul was not liked for his plain though powerful preaching but the flourishing Attick Oratours had all the applause He was counted a babler and Christ himself was despised The good opinion of the People is to be desired if it may be had fairly but when it cannot as who is he that can please all and at all times The Person being approved by authority may do his Office and satisfie himself in his well informed conscience It is well said of Seneca Mala opinio benè parta delectat An evil Name may delight a good Liver Benè facere malè audire Regium est The best of Men have been abused Christ was slandered to do his Miracles by the Prince of Devils to have a Devil in him and to be a Friend of Publicans and Sinners Companions 1. Companions in sin especially the Clergy They strive to make a Priest drunk or otherwise debauched that they may spye his nakedness and glory in his fall and strengthen themselves in their own wickedness and stop the cry of their own Consciences The meanest Sot when rebuked for drunkenness will say Why our Parson is as often drunk as I And surely he knows the way to Heaven Others will scoff and say Surely these Priests know a nearer way to Heaven than other Men. These are blind Guides that lead the Blind and both fall into the ditch But the true rule is Follow not a multitude to do evil lest if we partake of their sins we share also in their judgments We must not live by examples but by Rules The safest way is to be holy God not regarding Gross nns 9. Conceit of God's not regarding Tush God regardeth not is there any knowledg in the Most High We shall scape in a croud 10. Gross sins Peccata conscientiam vastantia Sins that take away the sense of sinning Peccatis magnis etiam jura Naturae intereunt High sins destroy as it were the Law of Nature Success Ps 50.21 11. Success Prosperum scelus virtus vocatur Vice successful is called Virtue These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Joseph's Brethren prospered in peace and plenty in their Father's House for many years after their cruelty to their Brother at last being pinched with want and threatned with death they cryed out Gen. 42.21 We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Because sentence upon an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Children of Men is fully set in them to do evil So will they call evil good and good evil put light for darkness and darkness for light but bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Fret not thy self because of him who prospereth in his way because of the Man who bringeth wicked devices to pass For evil doers shall be cut off Ps 37.7 9. but those that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the Earth My feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked for there are no bands in their death but their strength is firm They are not in trouble as other Men Ps 73.2 c. neither are they plagued like other Men therefore pride compasseth them about violence covereth them as a Garment their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish Waters of a full cup are running out to them and they say How doth God know and Is there knowledg in the most High Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the World they increase in riches Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency for all the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning When I thought to know this it was too hard for me until I went unto the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a Beast before thee Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Jer. 12.1 2 c. yet let me talk of thy Judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are they all happy that deal very treacherously Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit thou art near in their mouth and far from their reins pull them out like sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the day of slaughter All things happen alike to all Men and no Man knoweth good or evil by all that is before him 12. Satisfaction A general cheat to Mens Souls when they fancy Satisfaction that after great sins if they pray read hear give alms pay for Masses Indulgences Penances c. they shall expiate their sins and bribe God As the Jews and Heathens thought they did which is a plain mocking of God and a derogation from his Justice and mercy and the full Mediation of Jesus Christ For what are Rivers of oyl and the Cattel upon ten thousand Hills the fruit of our Body for the sin of our Soul 13. Want of a Spiritual Clergy and Magistracy Want of a Spiritual Clergy Jude 2.19 2 Chr. 24.2 14. As the Children of Israel returned and corrupted themselves when the good Judg was dead And as Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the daies of Jehoiada the Priest but afterwards fell off again So great a matter is good teaching by precept upon precept and
truths there is no peace to the wicked and what peace can there be so long as their whoredoms and witchcrafts are so many 2. Because they are not justified by Faith therefore they are not at peace with God nor with their own Souls because they are not of the Truth neither is Truth in them 3. Because health and ease in the Body and outward flourishing and tranquillity may be in the Estate though the Soul have no union or communion with God at all Nor is it any sign of God's favour or disfavour to thrive and prosper or to suffer in this World but all things happen alike to all Men in this World and no Man knoweth what is good or bad by any thing that is before him 4. Because their natural tempers and constitution of bodies may tend to mirth joy and rejoycing in the lower faculties while the higher powers of the Mind and Conscience are defiled and have no hope nor comfort in them 5. Because Sense in the Flesh is below Faith in the Heart and they live by Sense and not by Faith and therefore they believe Sense and not Faith because there is no Faith in them to believe And so they live by Sense which is no life but death For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace 1. They have no reason therefore at all to believe their own Consciences falsly so called for the Conscience speaks bitter things unto them and that they may believe and if the Offices of Consciences be suspended in them it is because the habits and customs of sin have taken away the sense thereof and created a hardness darkness stupefaction and numness in them 2. They are to hearken to good counsel without for there is none within or very rare but when it is they are not to neglect it at any hand 3. They are carefully to observe calamities ordinary and extraordinary that happen to themselves or others which are sent of God on purpose to awaken them from their sins 4. They are to cease from the hurry and noise of pleasures and profits of this World and to make a stand sometimes and to retire into their own thoughts and look up to God and remember their later end and put a stop to their nots and excesses and try to shake them off by degrees and strive to enter into a course of honesty sobriety and temperance and see how it may work in them by little and little till they come to their wits again and live like Men by Reason and so farther as Christians by Faith and not meerly as Beasts by Sense And this they may do if they will and recover and come to by breaking off their sins by repentance and their iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor To this end all Men are exhorted Self-Examination 1. To self-examination The Scholar must leave poring alwaies upon his Book and turn over the Book of his own Conscience and learn the state of his own Soul The Statesman and wise politician must leave plodding and contriving publique State affairs and learn to manage the Government of himself The worldly voluptuous and luxurious Persons that mind all things that are without them must learn to come home and dwell with themselves and know the things that are within them by acquainting themselves with themselves more and more and being strangers to others 2. To keep no private sin unforsaken Forsake sin the sin that sticks so close within them the plague of their own heart the Idol of abomination which they have set up in their own Spirit the cursed thing which troubles all things So long as any such thing lurks in the Will the Will is not turned There is a lye in my right hand I hide iniquity under my tongue I mock God and my Soul If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer 3. To confess every sin I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord Confession and so thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin I thought on my waies and turned my heart unto thy testimonies To this end the Conscience must be set a work and made to do its offices by discoursing with our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 4.4 Sym. Aug. Ventilabam Roman Psalt scopabam vulg To commune with our own hearts in our Chambers and be still to dig and delve into our Spirits to hunt there to winnow the chaff from the Corn to sweep and search diligently in every corner of the heart This is the great neglect of the Sons of Men that they do not exercise their faculties nor use the Reason that is in them that they might know themselves Nemo in sese tentat descendere Nemo The Conscience is the light and face of the Soul there they might see and know themselves if they would bethink themselves and think their thoughts over again considering and setting their heart on their waies This is the dilatation or expansion of the Soul spreading the bloudy colours that are ruffled and furled up together the anatomizing of the smallest fibra's of the heart the reflection of the mind upon it self A word spoken to the heart a reckoning and casting up of our accompt a retiring to our own Soul a putting our sins upon our Soul bringing them back to the place from whence they came a retractation a recognition a scrutiny of all circumstances Quis quid ubi quibus auxiliis Cur quomodo quando Who what where by what means why how when Reminiscentia animi dilatatio Reflexio mentis dictio cum corde Reputatio viarum Reditio ad cor Positio super cor c. SECT I. I shall drive in these wedges to keep this Cause from stirring 1. Conscientia obnubilari potest quia non est Deus extingui non potest Collections quia est à Deo The Conscience may be clouded and obscured because it is not God but it cannot be extinguished because it is from God 2. Conscientia non habet potestatem legislativam sed jurisdictionem tantùm non est Frinceps sed Judex non Jus facit sed dicit The Conscience hath no Supreme legislative power but jurisdiction only because she is not a Prince but a Judg she doth not make Right but declares what Right is 3. Conscientia est in omnibus rationalibus Angelis hominibus The Conscience is in all rational Creatures Angels and Men. 4. Conscientia non extinguitur in damnatis The Conscience is not extinguished in the damned but most of all awakened 5. Nemo semper fuit Atheus No Man hath been an Atheist at all times 6. Peccatum semper ambulat cum capite Sin ever accompanies the person of a Sinner 7. Maxima violatio Conscientiae est maximum peccatum The greatest violation of the Conscience is the greatest sin 8. Maximus angor Conscientiae est maxima poena The greatest torment of the Conscience is the greatest
ordinari ut de posteriori nemo sibi polliceretur qui non de priori habet aliqualem certitudinem aliquoties That is He that hath the least security Title or evidence for Heaven here in this Life cannot fail of the enjoyment of his Hopes in the Life to come The certitude of the object and of the subject and of the promise still continuing the Faithful must needs be sure De se de Jure de Re of themselves of their Right and of the state of God And now let any Man tell me what confidence or assurance a Soul can have of Heaven and Happiness more than that which is here described Et erit mihi magnus Apollo Let there be therefore a holy Faith a holy Life a Holy doctrine a holy worship a holy Hope an holy patience a holy experience and there will be a holy confidence in Life and death and to all Eternity Wherefore give all diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 for if ye do these things ye shall never fall An old MS. reads more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin much after that sort saying that the Greek he used had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By these exceeding great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4.5 c. we are partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust Besides all this giving all diligence to add to our Faith Virtue and to Virtue Knowledg and to Knowledg Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity For if these things be in us they make us that we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ Deus facit quod suum est nos quoque quod nostrum est faciamus God hath done his part and we must do ours and then all is done This is to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 and to strive to enter in at the strait Gate Thus he that seeketh findeth he that asketh hath and to him that knocketh is the gate opened 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened c. If a Man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the Master's use and prepared unto every good work Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you 2 Tim. 2.21 James 4.8 cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded Put off concerning the former conversation the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be ye renew'd in the Spirit of your mind and that ye put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure The CONTENTS Doctrine of Masses Of no Salvation without the Pale of the Church Of lying still in sin Imputed Righteousness Collections Cautions Obstructions Rules Election TITLE IV. Of the abuse of Assurance THe Doctrine of Assurance is of great concernment but hath been strangely handled by the School-Men and Casuists so that we cannot by them know well what to make of it And therefore I have been forced to go quite another way to work as well as I could Mart. Siseng One saith Ex hoc uno Articulo quantumvis minutus à plerisque putari queat universus Papatus dependet From this one Article of Assurance although it may seem inconsiderable the whole Papacy takes his rise Mart. Luth. Another saith Etiamsi nihil praeterea peccatum fuisset in Doctrinâ Pontificiâ quà m quòd docuerunt nos debere vagari fluctuare ambigentes dubios de remissione peccatorum gratia Dei salute nostrâ justas tamen habemus causas cur ab Ecclesiâ infideli nos sejungeremus Although there had been no other cause of offence in the Church of Rome than that they have taught us to wander and toss to and fro in doubts and fears concerning Remission of sins the Grace of God and our own Salvation nevertheless we have just causes to separate from them Every one desires comfort content and happiness here and hereafter and if there be no assurance of any such thing how can a Soul enjoy it self quietly Varro is said to reckon up two hundred eighty and eight opinions concerning Summum Bonum But if it be so uncertain what it is or how to come at it where shall we fix Such scepticks are all out of the way they are become vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart is darkned Without this Assurance fluctuat Socrates Aconitum bibens trepidat Adrianus ad mortis pallorem alii aestuant alii stupent alii ululant sub calamitatibus mortis dolore Dum placide Stephanus c. obdormiunt sub tormentis ut Ignatius optat propera ad bestias ut sit frumentum Domini irridet Laurentius Tyrannum tortorem sub craticulâ Christiani tortoribus fortiores That is without this Assurance Socrates trembles while the Cup of Hellebore was at his mouth Adrian quakes at the ghastly countenance of Death others rage and take on like mad Men others are amazed and confounded others howl and roar under their calamities and pangs of death while Stephen and the Martyrs fall asleep peaceably under their tormentors hands As Ignatius who hasted and longed to be ground by the teeth of wild Beasts that he might be good Bread for God Laurence derides the Tyrant and hang-man upon the gridiron and undauntedly bids them turn him and rost t'other side So were the Christians more couragious than their Tormentors Most deplorable was the despair of John de Cunis the Florentine Physician Qui in extremis constitutus ita misere expiravit Mox sciam an Anima sit immortalis That is he being at the point of Death did thus breath out his last breath I shall shortly know whether my Soul be immortal Likewise he whosoever he was that uttered such words as these O Animula blandula tremula vagula In quas Regiones c. O poor Soul of mine whither art thou bound all alone naked and frighted c. Or he that said Dubius vixi dubius morior quò vadam nescio I have lived doubtfully and I die doubtful and I know not what shall become of me Bellarmine reports of an Advocate Bell. de Art Mor. who in his last hour being exhorted to repent and believe with a constant mind spake thus to God Ego Domine concupivi alloqui Te non pro me sed pro Conjuge meâ Liberis meis ego enim propero ad Inferos neque est ut aliquid pro me agas That is Lord I have a great desire to speak with thee at this time not for my self but for
which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Ro. 3.28 Therefore we conclude that a Man is justified by Faith without the works of the Law Hebr. 8.10 11 12. This is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will pour out my Laws in their mind and write them in their heart and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People all shall know me from the least unto the greatest for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their iniquities will I remember no more Act. 2.37 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise unto you and to your Children and to all that are afar off and to as many as the Lord our God shall call Ro. 8.3 4. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Num. 16.20 c. Unusne homo peccaverit adeò graviter in universum coetum irasceris S. Ignat. Ep. ad Trall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Aug. de Civ Dei l. 16. c. 18. Peccatum Originale Nascuntur non propriè sed originaliter peccatores Ulpianus ff l. 48. T. 19. de Poenis Praegnantis Mulieris consumendae damnatae poena differtur quoad pariat Deut. 24.16 Non occidentur Patres pro filiis nec filii pro patribus sed unusquisque pro peccato suo morietur Gen. 18.25 Absit à te ut hanc rem facias occidas Justum cum impio fiatque justus sicut impius Absit inquam à te nunquid Judex universae terrae non faciet Judicium Ignat. Ep. ad Magnes Peccatum Originale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in 5. Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. lib. 3. Strom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peccatrix concepit sed non peccatorem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mar. Q. 88. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Hieronym Ep. 3. ad Nepot Noxa caput sequitur neque virtutes neque vitia parentum liberis imputantur L. Sancimus C. De poenis Peccata igitur suos teneant auctores nec ulterius progrediatur metus quà m reperiatur delictum S. Cyrillus Catech. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys Hom. 42. in Gen. 38. Ubi gemellos quos Judas Patriarcha ex Thamar suscepit in figuram Christianorum Judaeorum exponit Ordinante enim Deo Lex Fides manum prior extendit qui posterior nasciturus erat Ut significaret subing ressuram Legem quae Fidei cessura erat Lex ad peccatum cohibendum Fides ad extinguendum S. Chrys ad Gal. 3.16 Deus ostendit Fidem antiquiorem esse Lege Hoc autem ab Abrahamo manifestum facit priusquam enim extitisset Lex ille justificatus est S. Theodor. ad Gal. 4.11 Cum Fidem Lege antiquiorem praestantiorem demonstrasset rursùs Legem promissione Abrahamo factâ aetate posteriorem demonstrat Cum gratiam Lege antiquiorem pronunciat S. Epiph. initio Magni operis Neque ulla erat in terris Secta aut sententiarum dissidium Tantùm hominum appellatione censebantur labio uno unâque linguâ praediti Pietas autem Impietas erat sola naturae Lege voluntatis cujusque secundum naturam electione definita necdum Error emerserat sive Disciplinâ sive Scriptorum monimentis introductus Neque Judaismus neque alia ulla Secta erat sed illa eadem ut ita dicam Fides vigebat Fides quae nunc in eâ quae Catholica appellatur Ecclesia quae cum ab initio extitisset posteà patefacta est Nam qui studio veritatis rem spectare voluerit inveniet primam extitisse Catholicam Ecclesiam ex ipso ejus scopo Adam enim primus à Deo formatus est non circumcisus sed praeputio praeditus Neque tamen Idololatra erat sed Deum Patrem cum Filio Spiritu Sancto agnovit Erat enim Propheta Itaque Circumcisionem non habens Judaeus non erat sculptile autem nullum adorans aut aliud id genus Idololatra non erat Propheta enim erat Adam noverat Patrem Filio dixisse Faciamus Hominem Quis igitur erat Neque circumcisus neque Idola colens sanè Christianismi formam indicabat Idem de Abele Setho Enos Enoch Mathusala Noe Ebero usque ad Abraham judicium Obtinebat autem pietas impietas Fides infidelitas illa quidem Christianismi imaginem exhibens haec autem infidelitatis faciem ac transgressionis usque ad illud tempus quod designatum est S. Aug. in Psal 73. Si enim discernimus duo Testamenta Vetus Novum non sunt eadem Sacramenta nec eadem promissa eadem tamen plerumque praecepta Nam Non occides Non moechaberis Non furaberis honora Patrem Matrem Non falsum testimonium dixeris Non concupisces res proximi tui Non concupisces uxorem proximi tui Duo Testamenta nobis praeceptum est Videamus quare praecepta eadem quia alia sunt Sacramenta dantia Salutem alia promittentia Salvatorem Sacramenta N. T. dant Salutem Sacramenta V. T. promiserunt Salvatorem Promissa quare non eadem Quia promissa est Terra Chanaan Terra copiosa fructuosa affluens Lacte Melle Promissum Regnum temporale promissa felicitas saeculi promissa faecunditas filiorum promissa subjectio inimicorum Haec omnia ad terrenam felicitatem pertinent sed quare ipsa primo promitti oportebat Quia non primò quod spirituale est Sed quod Animale postea inquit Spirituale Sed ne quisquam putaret ab alio fuisse factum hominem terrenum ab alio coelestem ideo Deus estendens se esse utriusque Creatorem etiam utriusque Testamenti se voluit esse Auctorem ut terrena promitteret in V. T. coelestia in Novo Testamento Idem de Bapt. contra Donat. l. 15. Ecclesia verò quae est populus Dei etiamsi in istius vitae peregrinatione antiqua res est in aliis hominibus habens animalem portionem in aliis autem Spiritualem Ad animalem pertinet V. T. ad Spiritualem Novum Sed primis temporibus utrumque occultum fuit ab Adam usque ad Mosem A Mose autem manifestatum est vetus in eo ipso occultabatur Novum quia occultè significabatur Postea verò quà m in carne Dominus venit revelatum est Novum Veteris autem Sacramenta cessarunt sed concupiscentiae tales non cessarunt In illis enim sunt quos Apostolus per Sacramentum N. T. natos adhuc tamen dicit animales non posse
it may be said that when we are fallen from God we are not able to rise again of our selves We willingly grant it that we have need therefore of new strength and of new power to be given which may raise us up we deny it not Grace And thirdly that not only the power but the very act of our recovery is from God Ingratitude it self cannot deny it But then that Man can no more withstand the power of the Grace which God is ready to supply us with than an infant can his birth or the Dead their resurrection that we are turned whither we will or no is a conclusion which those premisses will not yield This flint will yield no such fire though you strike never so oft We are indeed sometimes said to sleep and sometimes to be dead in sin but it is ill building conclusions upon no better basis than a figure and because we are said to be dead in sin infer a necessity of rising when we are called Nor is our obedience to God's inward call of the same nature with the obedience of the Creature to the voice and command of the Creator For the Creature hath neither Reason nor Will as Man hath Nor doth God's power work after the same manner in the one as in the other How many Fiats of God have been frustrate in this kind How often hath he smote our stony and rocky hearts and no water flow'd out How often hath he said Fiat lux Let there be light and we remained still in darkness We are free Agents and God hath made us so when he made us Men And our actions when his power is mighty in us are not necessary but voluntary nor doth his power work according to the working of our fancy nor lye within the level of our carnal imaginations to do what they appoint but is accompanied and directed by that wisdom which he is and he doth nothing can do nothing but what is agreeable to it c. Mr. Farring p. 403. c. per tot Cant. 21. If we must die why doth he yet complain why doth he expostulate For if the Decree be come forth if we be lost already why doth he yet call after us How can a desire or Command breath in those coasts which the power of an Absolute will hath lay'd already wast Absolute Decree If he hath decreed we should die he cannot desire we should live but rather the contrary that his Decree be not void and of none effect Otherwise to pass sentence an irrevocable sentence of death and then bid us live is eo look for liberty and freedom in necessity for a sufficient effect in an insufficient cause to command and desire that which himself had made impossible to ask a dead Man why he doth not live and to speak to a carcass and bid it walk Indeed by some this Why will ye die is made but Sancta simulatio a kind of Holy dissimulation So that God with them setteth up Man as a Mark and then sticketh his deadly arrows in his sides and after asketh him why he will die And why may he not saith one with the same liberty damn a Soul as a Hunter killeth a Deer A bloudy instance as if an immortal Soul which Christ set at a greater rate than the World it self nay than his own most precious Bloud were in his sight of no more value than a Beast and God were a mighty Nimrod and did destroy Mens Souls for delight and pleasure And though they dare not call God the Author of sin for who is so sinful that could hear that and not anathematize it yet others and those no Children in understanding think it a conclusion that will naturally and necessarily follow upon such bloudy principles And they are more encouraged by those ill-boading words which have dropt from their Quils For say some Vocat ut induret He calleth them to no other end but that he may harden them he hardneth them that he may destroy them he exhorteth them to turn that they may not turn he asketh them why they will die that they may run on in their evil waies even upon Death it self When they break his Command they fulfil his will and it is his pleasure they should sin it is his pleasure they should die And when he calleth upon them not to sin when he asketh them why they will die he doth but dissemble For they are dead already horribili decreto by that horrible antecedaneous Decree of reprobation Thou didst distroy us before we were And if we die even so good Lord for it is thy good pleasure Fato volvimur it is our Destiny or rather Est Deus in nobis not a Stoical fate but thy right hand and thy strong irresistible arm hath destroy'd us And so the expostulation is answer'd and the Quare moriemini is nothing else but Mortui estis Why will ye die is the Text the Gloss is Ye are dead already Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—pirituale Saâ—ificium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iamblichus In materialibus ultrà corporeas qualitates latent etiam rationes species mensuraeincorporeae atque divinae per quas quae adhibentur sunt congrua diis Profectò quicquid admovetur quandocunque consentaneum simile Diis mox Dii adsunt conjunguntur exhibentque munera precesque exaudiunt Qui verò purus est omnino talia supergreditur neque ad haec proportionem habet Sed quando Deos longè secretos in suà unitate collectos cupimus venerari honoribus a materiâ penitus absolutis eos venerari debemus Intellectualia enim his dona debentur incorporea vita virtus perfecta sapientia confirmata eorumque officia Arch. Parkerus de Antiq. Eccl. Brit. Et sane illa prima de Romanis ritibus inducendis per Augustinum tunc excitata contentio quae non nisi clade sanguine innocentium Britannorum poterat extingui ad nostra recentiora tempora cum simili pernicie caedeque Christianorum pervenit Cum enim illis gloriosis Caeremoniis à purâ Primitivae Ecclesiae simplicitate recesserunt non de vitae sanctitate de Euangelii praedicatione de Spiritûs Sancti vi consolatione multùm elaborabant sed novas indies altercationes de novis Ritibus per Papas singulos additis qui neminem tà m excelso gradu dignum qui aliquid caeremoniosi non dicam monstrosi mandati inusitati non adjecisset instituebant Suggestaque Scholas fabulis rixisque suis implebant Superstitio Nam prima Ecclesiae species simplicior integro interno Dei cultu ab ipso verbo prescripto nec vestibus splendidis nec magnificis structuris decorata nec auro argento gemmisque fulgens fuit Etsi liceat his exterioribus
a word they say and unsay sometimes bring in remission of sins and sometimes their own satisfaction and so set St. Paul and their Church at such a distance that neither St. Peter himself nor all the Angels and Saints she prayeth to will be able to reconcile them and make his Gratis and their Merits meet in one It is true every good act doth justifie a man so far as it is good and God so far esteemeth them holy and good and taketh notice of his graces in his Children he registreth the patience of Job the zeal of Phineas and the devotion of David not a cup of cold water not a mite flung into the treasury but shall have its reward But yet all the works of the Saints in the world cannot satisfie for the breach of the Law for let it once be granted what cannot be denied that we are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty and culpable before God that all have sinned and are come short of the glory of God then all that noise the Church of Rome hath filled the world with concerning Merits and Satisfaction and Inherent righteousness will vanish as a mist before the Sun and Justification and Remission of sins will appear in its brightness in that form and shape in which Christ first left it to his Church Bring in Abraham and Isaac and all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles and deck them with all those vertues which made them glorious but yet they sinned Bring in the noble Army of Martyrs who shed their blood for Christ but yet they sinned They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were slain with the sword but yet they sinned and he that sinneth is presently the servant of sin obnoxious to it for ever and cannot be redeemed by his own blood because he sinned but by the blood of him in whom there was no sin to be found Justificatio Impii this one form of speech of Justifying a sinner doth plainly exclude the Law and the Works of it and may serve as an Axe or Hammer to beat down all their carved work and those Anticks which are fastned to the building which may perhaps take a wandring or gadding fancy but will never enter the heart of a man of understanding We do not find that beauty in their artificial and forced inventions that we do in the simple and native truth Neither are those effects which are as irradiations and resultances from forgiveness of sin so visible in their Justification by faith and works as in the free remission which is by faith alone The urging of our Merits is of no force to make our peace with God They may indeed make us gracious in his eyes after remission but have as much power to remove our sins as our breath hath to remove a mountain or put out the fire of hell For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of that of Alexander in killing Callisthenes Crimen aeternum an Eternal crime which no vertue of our own can redeem Let me add my passions to my actions my Imprisonment to my Alms let me suffer for Christ let me die for Christ But yet I have sinned We may observe those Justitiaries how their complexion altereth how their colour goeth and cometh how they are not the same Men in their Controversies and Commentaries that they are in their Devotions and Meditations Nothing but Merit in their ruff and jollity and nothing but Mercy on their Death-Beds nothing but the Bloud of Martyrs then and nothing but Christ's now nothing but their own satisfaction all their lives and nothing but Christ's at their last gaspe Before Magis honorificum it was more honourable to bring in something of our own towards the forgiveness of our sins but none for the uncertainty of our own Righteousness Because there is no harbour here Christ's Righteousness is called in with a Tutissimum est as the best shelter And here they will abide till the storm be overpast Id. ib S. 24. p. 870 c. Imputed Righteousness Some stand much upon imputed Righteousness and it is true which they say if they understood themselves And upon Christ's Righteousness imputed to us which might be true also if they did not interpret what they say For this in a pleasing phrase they call To appear in our Elder Brother's Robes and apparel that as Jacob did we may steal away the Blessing Thus the Adulterer may say I am chast with Christ's Chastity and if he please every wicked Person may say That with Christ he is crucified dead and buried And that though he did nothing yet he did it though he did ill yet he did well because Christ did it This Righteousness if they have no other doth but ill become them because it had no Artificer but the Fancy to make it For that Christ's Righteousness is thus imputed to any we do not read no not so much as that it is imputed though in some sense the phrase may be admitted Jerm For what is done cannot be undone no not by Omnipotency it self for it implyeth a contradiction Deo qui omnia potest hoc impossibile God who can do all things cannot restore a lost Virginity He may forgive it blot it out bury it not impute it account of it as if it had never been but a sin it was We read indeed that Faith was imputed to Abraham for Righteousness Ro. 4.3 And the Apostle interpreteth himself out of the 32. Psal Blessed is the Man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without work Gal. 3.6 2 Cor. 5.21 That is as followeth whose sins are forgiven to whom the Lord imputeth no sin And Abraham believed in God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness And we are made the Righteousness of God in him That is we are counted righteous for his sake And it is more than evident that it is one thing to say That Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us another that Faith is imputed for Righteousness or which is the very same our sins are not imputed to us Which two imputations of Faith for Righteousness and not-imputation of sin make up that which we call the Justification of a Sinner For therefore are our sins blotted out by the hand of God because we believe in Christ and Christ in God That place where we are told that Christ of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification is not such a Pillar of Christ's imputed Righteousness in that sense which they take it as they fancy'd when they first set it up For the sense of the Apostle is plain and can be no more than this That Christ by the will of God was the only cause of our Righteousness and Justification and that for his sake God will justifie and absolve us from all our sins will reckon or account us holy and just and wise Not that he who loved the error of his life is wise or he that hath been unjust is righteous in that wherein he was unjust or
spoiled his great trade of oracles and lying Wonders and shall our easiness and vanity encourage him to drive this more secret and little trade of Prodigies and Prophecies Id. p. 96. It were heartily to be wish't that men had that largeness of heart as not to think heaven and earth concern'd in the standing or falling of their little interests and perswasions That they would leave off that worse kind of enclosure the entailing salvation solely upon their own Party and not go about to hedge in the holy Dove by appropriating the graces and influences thereof to themselves For then men could not be so prone to believe God's Judgments design no higher than the service of their little passions and ammosities and that he is as little able to forbear and make allowance for the mistakes and infirmities of men as themselves P. 98. All Gods Judgments upon others came forth upon purposes of Grace and are intended but as the cutting and lancing of one member to draw away the corrupt humours from the rest Pag. 99. Besides the unchurching or unpeopling of a Nation his greater Judgments are waies which under this Spiritual Oeconomy the Divine Justice seldom walks in Jewish Nation a Pattern for others God indeed heretofore when the World in the greener years thereof was under the conduct of its lower Faculties and most apt to be drawn or driven by rewards or punishments temporal singled out the Jewish Nation in whose outward state of prosperity or adversity to read visible lectures of Divinity and Obedience to the Nations round about And that the Nations might take the fairer view of their state God tells them Ez. 5.56 c. that he had placed Jerusalem in the midst of the Nations round about and that they might call the eyes of the world more upon them their plagues were such as scarce admitted their parallel instances But God chooseth now generally to punish the incorrigibleness under temporal by spiritual Judgments He sometimes delivers a people like Sampson to blindness and stupidity who having been often bound by the cords of their Delilah sins as Solomon speaks would never take warning A true Son of Wisdom doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heartily kiss and embrace all the issues of the Divine wisdom and goodness Votum pro Pace CHristian Religion is the purest Law that ever was made Christian Religion for the obtaining of the greatest Blessedness that ever was propounded The Precepts and Rewards whereof are most agreeable to the Nature of God to give and man to receive The Eternal Immanation of Gods Eternal Being within himself Immanation of God was from Eternity to beget a Son like himself God the Natural Son of God The first Emanation of Gods Eternal Being without himself Emanations of God was in the Beginning to create a Son like himself Man the Natural Son of God The second Emanation of Gods Eternal Being without himself was in the Fulness of time to incarnate a Son like himself God the Supernatural Son of Man The third Emanation of Gods Eternal Being without himself was to Adopt a Son like himself Man the Adopted Son of God The first Appetite of Man created Appetites of Man was to be as he was made like unto God Man the Son of God The second Appetite of Man created was to beget one like unto himself Man the Son of Man The third Appetite of Man created was to love his Neighbour like himself because he was like himself The fourth Appetite of Man was to be renewed in the likeness of God which was defaced by him Man Regenerate and born again the Son of God The End of all Gods Emanations was that Man should be happy Happiness and therefore fitted with sufficient means to attain to that End and so he might if he would for he was a free Agent to choose or to refuse There was the Justice of a great God Mans Regular Appetites led him to choose Happiness but his Irregular Appetites caused him to refuse Happiness So did some Angels There was the Injustice of a poor Creature Wherefore God designed by New Proposals of greater Rewards Recovery to confine his irregular appetites for the Recovery of his lost Happiness and to raise him to a more glorious Estate when he might have let him lye as he was utterly lost for evermore A Mercy unconceivable not to lose such a noble Creature newly made A Mystery which the Angels desired to look into but never could yet fathom why or how this should be Therefore God gave him a law of Grace to love him worship him and trust him in his Son After sin therefore and enmity with God this way was opened by the free grace of God to satisfie his Justice and glorifie his mercy above all by the Mediation of the Son of God and to take away Sin and the Curse and to bring in Righteousness and Salvation to all them that would freely choose the grace so purchased for them by Faith and true Repentance in walking after the Spiritual Rule of the Gospel This is all that God requires of us to accept and take this Grace Mercy and Peace proclaimed by Christ himself and his Ambassadours the Apostles and their Successors the Ministers of this Reconciliation This is the Second Covenant and Testament of God in which all the faithful people are instituted to be the Sons and Heirs of God and Coheirs with Jesus Christ Doctrines troubled This is the plain Way which God hath revealed in the Gospel which not only ignorant and perverse men but knowing and intelligent persons have wilfully puzled and perplexed by various and doubtful disputations concerning Faith Election Justification Free-will c. and thereby hindred many poor Souls from the comforts they might have received but not from the Grace it self provided they be honest and sincere in their desires and well meanings towards God The chief Troublers of this business have been Pelagius Socinus the Dominican Papists and Calvinian Protestants whose unhappy Glosses ought to be laid aside and the Scriptures of God and Writings of the Primitive Fathers adhered to in their general scope and tendency to the Justice and Mercy of God and not in their particular expressions warped and wrested to senses contrary to the main purpose and intention of the good will of God Vulgar Errors The Vulgar Errors therefore that have been long imbibed concerning absolute Election and Reprobation slavish Will Infused habits Personal Righteousness imputed Original sin as they state it Justification by works Over-confessions and unjust accusations of general guilt of all sins Complaints of a hard heart after the work of Regeneration and a New Creature fancies of a Direful and Revenging God fitting Judgments for every sin studying Plagues and preparing Thunderbolts against his poor Creatures and the like fictions of men stamped with the mind of God I say these and the like vulgar Errors so anciently and largely insinuated and propagated by the proud covetous and domineering Clergy
Justification but Faith with works doth conserve Justification And so Paul and James do full well agree and James's Doctrine will be a consequence from Paul's principles For because my Faith only without works doth create my Justification and because evil works do destroy the state of it and do build again my state of Sin therefore it followeth That good works do continue my state of Justification and keep it from ruin For in case I should fall my Faith alone cannot restore me but if I recover working my works of repentance must be the means of my recovery 1 Cor. 13.2 And because as Paul saith Though I have all Faith so that I could remove mountains and have not Charity I am nothing Therefore as James teacheth Faith without works is dead And lastly because as Paul teacheth In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith that worketh by Love Therefore as James teaches Faith working with works is by works made perfect For the farther clearing of this seeming contradiction of St. Paul and St. James note That as faith sworn by the Vassal to his Lord justifies the Vassal to his Fee or benefice to have right thereto so the Homage it self is the life of his faith and justifies him to the same benefice that he may hold his right so obtained by his Faith In like manner faith made to God justifies his Creature to the Estate of Blessedness to have right thereto and the Homage it self which is the life of his faith justifies him to the same Estate that he may hold his right so obtained by his faith For faith without homage or works doth not justifie fully nor homage or works without Faith So true it is that Faith though it doth justifie alone to have right yet works also do justifie to hold it so both Faith and Works do justifie compleatly and not one without the other And this distinction rightly weighed and compared may easily put an end to this Controversy SECT I. The works that are the Tenure of my Justification are works of Love Works of Love 1. The Right of Justification under the Law was Faith of the promise to Abraham and his carnal Seed for the Land of Canaan 2. The Tenure of Justification under the Law was by the works of the Law of Rites and Ceremonies Thou shalt walk in all the waies which the Lord your God hath commanded you Deut. 6.24 that ye may prolong your daies in the Land which ye shall possess i. e. you shall continue your possession in the Land whereto you have a right The Law it self speaketh thus Lev. 18.5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments which if a Man do he shall live in them i. e. shall prolong his life from violent death inflicted by the Law The Just shall live by his Faith He that hath walked in my Statutes to deal truly he is just he shall surely live The doers of the Law shall be justified i. e. continue to be justified For default of this Tenure of works the Ten Tribes forfeited their right to Canaan for ever and the other Two Tribes were sequestred for seventy years in Babylon 3. The right of Justification under the Gospel is Faith in the promise to Abraham and his Spiritual Seed for Heaven 4. The Tenure of Justification under the Gospel is by the works of Grace which are acts of Love exercising equity mercy and kindness above the works of the Law 1. Because the works of Love are super-legal above and beyond the Law of Moses as to feed the hungry and to cloth the naked to entertain Strangers visit the Sick relieve the Prisoners pray for Persecutors c. 2. The works of Love are supernatural above and beyond the Law of Nature as not to be angry and not to resist and revenge evil to suffer persecution gladly for Righteousness sake to rejoyce in temptations to lay down our life for the Brethren c. therefore much more for God To love our Enemies and comparatively to hate our Friends Luc. 14.26 as our Father and Mother Wife and Children Brothers and Sisters these and the like works of Love are not commanded in the Law but they are the commands of Grace Hence Christ calls Love a New Commandment Joh. 13.34 A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another And Christ calleth it his Commandment That ye love one another as I have loved you And this Love is the fulfilling of the Law He that loves his Brother abideth in the Light 1 Joh. 4.16 He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him These are the works of Love not of Law which St. James saith do justifie Was not Abraham our Father justified by works Jam. 2.21 when he had offered Isaak his Son upon the Altar That work was not a duty of the Law but a service of Love by God's immediat command to try Abraham's love for no Law did command a Father to sacrifice his Son His love therefore was superlegal beyond any Law of mercy And not only so but supernatural beyond any Law of Nature when his love to God to whom he had Alliance only by Faith surpassed his love to his only Son to whom he had Alliance only by Nature and in whose behalf he had received the promises Jam. 2.25 Likewise also Rahab the harlot was justified by works when she received the Messengers and had sent them out another way Those works were not duties of any Law Josh 2.12 but the Offices of Love or as she called it A shewing of kindness in entertaining lodging and protecting of Strangers Her love was therefore superlegal above and beyond the Law for no Law commanded to entertain Spies to the destruction of a City And her love was supernatural above and beyond the Law of Nature when she shew'd kindness to her Enemies in housing hiding and sending them away safely The Ceremonious works of the Ritual Law are carnal in themselves and could justifie to nothing but a carnal purity and a security from a carnal punishment of Death All these Rites of Sacrificing Washing Feasting Fasting Circumcising c. are extinct The Moralities of Moses Law as to be no idolater no forswearer no murderer adulterer thief lyar nor deceiver c. are the bare negative duties for the most part and according to the letter are themselves dead and I am dead to that dead Letter which killed those that are under it with a curse and it is a part of my Justification to be free from the Law for I am not under the Law but under Grace nor under the Letter but under the Spirit And therefore the works of the Gospel are works of the Spirit which gives life by faith and maintaineth it by Love the works whereof are purely Spiritual inward and lively free from all carnal and outward shew