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A70099 An exact enqviry after ancient truths, both in scripture and fathers touching the subsistence of the Church of God, digested into three parts : viz. I. True worship. II. Dominion, or divine jurisdiction. III. Discipline, reduced from our father Adams time, through all ages, to these present times ... / by W. Fenwick ... Fenwick, William, 1616 or 17-ca. 1682. 1643 (1643) Wing F724; ESTC R21240 51,760 74

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on earth by this ministeriall power Christ bindes in heaven by his absolute power By this there is no power of coaction given to the Church over the body nor purse nor life but onely over the soule and conscience and to rule by instruction admonition and correction That makes men civill and sociable and restraineth vice for feare of punishment this other makes men spirituall and divine meeke and lowly and full of loving kindnesse and rooteth out sinne in the heart making men refraine and shun sinne and wickednesse for the love of God and goodnesse it selfe Herein the kingdome of Providence and Grace doe both agree to make man happy and blessed in this life and in the life to come For this cause it was said to Abraham In thy seed all nations shall bee blessed And David saith Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord For no Kingdome nor Common-wealth can be blessed which doth not entertaine the true Church of God in her bosome or in which the Church is not involved For this cause God doth make good Kings a blessing to his people and commands his Saints to pray for Kings Princes and Governours that they may lead a peaceable and happy life under them and that there his Gospell may have a free passage And so Kings and Princes become nursing fathers and nursing mothers And in this combination betwixt Church and Common-wealth righteousnesse and peace doe kisse each other But if they be wicked Princes then they are sent for a punishment and scourge of God to the the people and when God hath whipped his people then he burnes his roddes with judgements Therefore bee wise yee Kings be learned ye Judges of the earth serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce in trembling kisse the Son lest he be angry and ye perish in the way when his wrath shall suddenly burne blessed are all they that trust in him The glasse of Kings The glasse wherein Kings are to see themselves by reflexion and the pattern whereby they are to distribute judgement justice and equity is the Divine nature and holy Trinity of God himselfe For as the nature of God is strong and mighty full of pitty and compassion slow to anger and abundant in goodnesse and truth whose purity of nature expelleth and consumeth every impure and imperfect thing even so doth God require his King should be like unto him on earth as he is in heaven for he hath set none above him on earth Therefore as God is in purity of essence a law unto himselfe and a consuming fire of evill so ought a King in his politique capacity to be a law unto himselfe by conforming himselfe in a spirituall assimilation to the nature of God in purity of justice punishing the evill and cherishing the good Also as the person of the Father in its essence is the fountain of his eternall law which he hath begotten and ordained with himselfe for himselfe to doe all things by so is the King in his politique capacity the fountaine of politique lawes which hee hath as it were begotten in his body politique to rule and governe his people by And as the eternall law of God is the begotten Counsell of the Trinity in the Deity so are the lawes politique the begoten Counsell of a politique Trinity which is the Soveraign the Nobles and Magistrates and the Councell of Commons resembling the Divine Trinity in Unity the indivisible subsistence of a Kingdome So that Kings are by this pattern and rule bound to keepe the lawes of their Kingdomes inviolate and to doe all things by their lawes as God doth all things by his word And this is the greatest prerogative of a King that he keepe his owne lawes freely without compulsion like God himselfe And likewise as the holy Ghost is the universall Minister and Divine Dispensator of all divine powers gifts and graces of God proceeding from the Father and the Sonne even so are the Peeres Princes Judges Magistrates and Ministers of Justice in a Common-wealth proceeding from the King and his lawes The universall Ministers of the Royall powers and lawes of the Kingdome For though they be many as members in diversity of Dispensation of Justice Judgement and equity of the lawes yet are they all but as one spirit of the body politique as the spirit of God being one is by reason of the diversity of Administrations properly called the seaven spirits before the throne of God Revel. 1. And as the individuall unity of this distinct Trinitie is the subsistence of the God-head Even so is the unity of the King with his Lawes and his Princes and Magistrates the subsistence of a body politique or Common-wealth Therefore Solomon saith Judgement and Justice is the establishment of the Throne For this similitudes sake Kings Princes and Magistrates are called Gods I have said saith the Lord yee are Gods but yee shall die like men for they are in all things to bee in their Common-wealth as God himselfe Therefore wee are taught to pray Thy will O God be done on earth as it is in heaven that Kings may rule by thee and Princes decree Justice on earth as thou dost in heaven This is that orbe wherein Kings are to walke as the Sunne in his spheare but if Kings make their owne will and lust their law and rule of Justice Judgement and equitie then they are exorbitant and then God in whose hands are the hearts of Kings causeth their Counsellers to goe as spoyled and makes their Judges as fooles and he looseth the collar of Kings and girdeth their loynes as with a girdle and leadeth away Princes as a prey and overthroweth the mighty or Pwreth contempt upon Princes and maketh the strength of the mighty weake Job 12. 17 18 19 20 21. How divine and supernaturall power is derived unto man from the Father by the Word through the Spirit A civill ministeriall power of Justice is derived of Kings Princes and Magistrates from Christ as he is the Son of God and first begotten of every creature and therefore most worthy to have preheminence above all in whom all things consist for the temporall blisse and happinesse of man on earth So is divine and supernaturall power derived from Christ not onely as he is the first begotten Son of God but also as he is the light and life of man without whom man cannot be a living soule and as he is the eternall Mediatour betwixt God and man that promised seed the Redeemer of the Elect of God the predestinated Lambe slaine from before the foundation of the world for the remission of sinnes their ordained King Priest and Prophet of God the Father in a spirituall and more peculiar manner and measure of mysticall union and communion then either can be or ever was or ever shall be in all the ordinances of God in nature For this cause that all men might know that he was and is the spirituall King of Glory and that
the glory This kingdome is one entire kingdome of distinct gradations yet individuall like the wheeles in the vision of Exechiel one within another as the kingdome of Providence the Church of Christ militant with the Soules triumphant and the dominions powers and principalities of Angels ministring before him The dominion given unto Christ as he is the Sonne of man * Christ God and Man is the personall power of the Fathers eternall begotten Word by individuall union of Divine nature with the humanity communicated to Gods elect whereby hee is the ingraven forme of the Fathers owne person unto the world holding up all things by his mighty Word This Word by the ministeriall proceeding of the holy Ghost is that Scepter of righteousnesse whereby he guideth and ruleth his kingdomes as David saith thy Throne O God is for ever the Scepter of thy kingdome is a Scepter of righteousnesse This is that Scepter of righteousnesse by the precepts and power whereof Kings raign and Princes decree Justice For this cause Christ is called the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the onely ruler of Princes Of the first gradation For the first gradation of Gods great kingdome God by Divine ordination in nature in the Creation gave a blessing and dominion unto Adam to fill the earth with his seed and to subdue it under his obedience For this cause it is said the heaven of heavens is the Lords the earth he hath given to the Children of men from hence God claimes the first borne to be his substitutes on earth which honour in the beginning was due to them as the dignity of their birth-right by Gods ordination which continued in the Family of Adam till Cain lost it by killing his brother Abell Cham lost it by scoffing his father Noah Esau sold it for a messe of Pottage and Reuben lost it by defiling of his fathers bed Then by the law of that ordinance the dignitie of Birth-right was of divine right conferred upon the Tribe of Judah and reserved in the line of Iudah for the Lyon of Judah who is the image of the invisible God the first begotten of every creature and for that all things were created by him and for him and that he is before all things and in him all things consist And also being the ordained Lambe of God before the foundation of the world he is therefore made the head of the body of the Church King of Israel that in all things bee might have dominion and preheminence both of things in earth and things in heaven For it was the Fathers pleasure that in him all fulnesse should dwell from this fountaine all soveraigntie is derived How Christ doth constitute his Vice-royes on earth Kings Princes and Potentates c. The first ordination of Soveraignty being thus as I have shewed of Divine right conferred upon the naturall Sonne of God sitting upon his highest Throne of glory farre above all powers and principalities he doth by his divine and all foreseeing providence constitute whom it pleaseth him to sit upon his earthly Thrones over any Nation people or language induing them with proper gifts of his owne spirit for rule and government Thus doth God constitute Kings and Princes and Rulers after what manner soever it bee done on earth whether by lineall descent or Nationall choise or by the sword howsoever the hand of Providence doth direct appoint and establish 1 Sam. 2. 4. Psal. 123. Hee raiseth the poore out of the dust and lifteth the beggar out of the dung to set them among Princes and to make them inherit the seat of glory Also hee pulleth downe and setteth up at his pleasure It is profitable for us to observe that Adam by his transgression lost neither the natural faculties of his soule nor the honour and dignity of his birth-right and dominion though at the first by losing that breath of life which was the light and life of his soule and that made him the perfect Image of God they were weakened and blemished in capacitie For if he had lost his naturall faculties hee had lost the forme of his being and if his birth-right and dignity of dominion had beene abolished before it had beene conferred upon another then should nature have been deprived of the ministration of judgement Justice and equity which would have brought forth an utter dissolution of the whole generation of man But after the sonnes of Adam as it were forfeited their dignity and birth-right of dominion by multiplying transgression then God the Father conferred the preheminence thereof upon the Sonne of Man even Christ that he might consecrate and appoint whom it seemed good unto him to sit upon his temporall Throne so that birth-right and preheminence might be his in whom all fulnesse dwelt And that by him Judgement Justice and equity might reigne with men Thus the Regall power of Princes is derived from Christ by the rule of divine ordination in nature for he that is the Author of nature is the observerr and preserver of all the ordinances in nature so that this royall office is restored to man by ordination in Christ But the priestly and propheticall office man hath from God by union and communion with Christ and by inspiration and supernaturall donation through the holy Ghost For this cause a Tyrant may bee a lawfull King by ordination of God yet no Christian member of Christ Difference betwixt Regall ordination and Divine power From hence we may extract an evident difference betwixt the power of royall ordination in nature and the supernaturall power of God which is given to his Church on earth That is a ministeriall power to distribute Judgement Justice and equity amongst men with absolute power of coaction to punish actuall offences with corporall or pecuniary punishment upon body lands and goods This other is a supernaturall power and divine efficacy properly given to the elect of God by inspiration whereby they have union and communion with Christ and one with another for every ones owne particular prerogative of son ship and for the edification one of another and to some men it is given in a peculiar manner and a greater measure of divine power and gifts for the ministration writing teaching and preaching of the Word and Sacraments of God which is that which was revealed by God to the antient Prophets and that which was taught by Christ and after written by the Spirit of God from the pen and mouth of the Apostles And this power is a ministeriall power mighty in operation to bind and loose the conscience to open and shut heaven and hell by declaring the judgement of God against unpentient sinners and his mercy in Christ to the penitent man as he hath taught and revealed for this power doth not follow the judgement and will of man nor succession of profession but is tyed and limited to the power of the Word and will of God Therefore what they bind
but they are placed about their bodyes as it were for furtherance and assistance in their proper place and not to flye withall from place to place These wings therefore signifie Governours and assistants or helpers by whom the ministers are ayded in their function and doe more swiftly and readily afford succour to every part of the Church These wings are full of eyes within These signifie the inward gifts of knowledge which are not placed in so neere a measure to the Throne as the eyes in the body but they are of the same nature of knowledge in divine things to this end they stand as in a watch tower to behold and discerne every ones manners and conversation and to reprove and exhort privately and to helpe the ministers in Censure and Discipline of the Church therefore Paul saith obey your overseers and leaders and yeeld submission unto them for they watch for your soules as those that shall give account These gifts are limited within and under the wings as to meddle onely with that which is committed unto their power 1 Pet. 5. 2. they are not to be strikers or busie-bodies and they are to watch over Christian people onely for what have wee to doe to judge them that are without ● 1 Cor. 5. 12. 13. They that desire to behold the patterne of Gods Church as she is on earth in Christ consider well this vision and reade it seriously as it is more fully expressed by Master Brightmans Exposition upon the fourth chapter of the Revelation This patterne is the perfection of the Church militant as she is in Christ and in the judgement of God the Father who onely knoweth who are his The beauty and glory thereof is not seene with mortall eyes for she is not composed of mortall but immortall seed even begotten of the immortall seed of the word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. for it is the ministration of God the holy Ghost communicating the knowledge of the Word unto the hearts of the elect which doth beget them anew or regenerate and unite them unto Christ and those are the supernaturall powers the word of God cōmunicated unto man and gathereth them into one head Christ and by a well compact union makes them one Church all communicating of one spirit one faith and in one Lord and Father of all who is above all and in all and through us all blessed for ever Amen How the Word is the divine power of God and the authority committed to the Church WHen wee speake of the word of God consider that the word in essence and property of being is God with God in eternity eternitie it selfe as it is described in the first of Iohns Gospell and though it cannot bee divided in it selfe yet it is to bee distinguished after the personall order of the Trinitie Therefore we may say the Word in the person of the Father is the unbegotten Word in the person of the Sonne it is the begotten Word and in the person of the holy Ghost it is the proceeding Word So that by the proceeding Word all things flow from the Father and the Sonne By the order of this proceeding power the world was made by the word of God As the Psalmist saith Psal. 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hoast of them by the breath of his mouth By this proceeding power of the Word man was made a living soule as Gen. 2. 7. And God breathed in his face the breath of life and the man was a living soule and Ioh. 1. 4. in it was life and that life was the light of man not naturall reason but supernaturall light which inlightened nature By this proceeding word Adam was restored after his fall by promising to make the Word the seed of the Woman and to breake the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. for God by the proceeding of the Word saying he will put enmity betwixt Satan whose nature is wicked and evill altogether and the humane generation or seed which Satan had made like himselfe he thereby promiseth that by his proceeding Word he would make his Word the feed of the Woman whereby it should be of a contrary nature to wickednesse of a heavenly pure and holy nature and condition powerfull against Satan Thus by the proceeding Word the word God is made the word of promise and the Promise is made life and thus it comes to passe that the Just shall live by faith By this proceeding word all the Elect of the Father are called are sanctified are washed are inspired and by inspiration are made sonnes of God Kings Priests and Prophets for by inspiration of the proceeding Word God the Word dwelleth in them for in the proceeding Word is both the begotten Word and the unbegotten Word the Father as Christ saith my Father and I are one and the proceeding Spirit is one with the Father and the Sonne so these three are one in themselves and beare record in heaven and they also agree in one by inspiration in the soules of the faithfull or the Church which makes three to beare record on earth as the water of Sanctification and the blood of justification and our spirit enlightned with the Spirit of God it beares witnesse with our spirits that we are the sonnes and servants of God For this cause the faithfull are called the Temple of the living God 2 Cor. 6. 16. as God hath said I will dwell among them and walke there and I will bee their God and they shall bee my people Also know yee not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost which is in you which yee have from God Ye are not your owne for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in body and in Spirit for they are Gods As the proceeding Word hath proceeded by inspiration to dwell in man which is his internall ministration so he proceedeth by externall ministration to divulge and write the same proceeding Word by the instrumentall pen and voyce of man for mans instruction at first written by his Prophet Moyses and after by the rest of Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists to feed and preserve their holy faith worship of God among the faithfull As Paul witnesseth 2 Tim. 3. 15. 16. Thou hast knowne the holy Scriptures of a child which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus For the whole Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable to teach to convince to correct to instruct in righteousnesse Thus the proceeding Word doth proportion it selfe to mans capacity first it becomes the word of promise in the seed of the woman then the inspirated word to dwell in the mind and also it is the ministeriall Word declared written taught and preached for mans instruction and all is one Word for this cause the Apostle Peter saith we have a most sure word of the Prophets to which yee doe well that yee take
he came not into the world to deprive Kings and Princes of their subordinate power and prerogative therefore he told them plainly that his kingdome was not of this world and he told his Apostles that among them there should bee no such government or dominion in his Church as the Princes have on earth among men but the chiefest among them should be he that tooke the most paines to serve the rest with food of life The Church is called a kingdome because as in earthly kingdomes Kings and Princes have power by their politique lawes over the bodies goods and lives of men for their wealefull being on earth to the glory of God so in this kingdome Christ onely and absolutely from the Father through the Spirit hath power by the divine Word and law of God over the soules of men for their eternall happinesse and salvation of his elect and to the just judgement and condemnation of the reprobate to shew forth the abundant riches of his grace in that and in this to shew forth his wrath and power suffering with long patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and in both the exceeding excellencie of his glory doth appeare and is effected Also it is called the kingdome of God because God the Father is the immediate fountaine from whence it floweth the person of the Sonne the head to which the whole body and every member really and in a mysticall manner is united and incorporated into him their head because God the Spirit is the immediate minister and dispensator of all divine gifts and spirituall blessings in heavenly things For this cause the Church in Scriptures is sometimes compared to a house or building compact together and built of living stones Christ being the corner stone or foundation and thus it is a spirituall house of Saints It is resembled to a naturall body composed of a head Christ and many members knit unto it and one unto another and sometimes it is described by the similitude of a throne set in heaven and he that sits thereon is assimilated to be one in Deitie but three in distinct subsistences like to three pretious Jewels The first appearing like a Jasper of a pleasant never fading flourishing greene the mother of all pearles The second a Sardine which is of a reddish flesh colour The third is in aspect as a Rain-bow that is of the Emerald colour as the eye can behold nothing more sweet or delightsome These colours represent the nature of the Trinitie of the God-head and round about the Throne were twenty foure Seats and upon the seats twenty foure Elders sitting cloathed in white rayment and on their heads crownes of gold This name of Elders is here given to all the members and congregation of Christ in his kingdome and their white rayment is to expresse the righteousnesse of Christ which is imputed and freely put upon them and making them Kings Priests and Prophets to God the Father Their Crownes are to declare their Royall dignitie which they have by Christ for it is to be noted that whatsoever Christ is in himselfe either personally naturally or officially all his members are partakers of the same in some measure according to the gift of Christ by union communion inspiration and through externall and instrumentall ministration of his Word This is the Church of God now those things which are individually belonging to the Church at first the protecting power of God which is alwayes ready to defend and revenge the cause of his Saints for God takes their cause into his owne hand saying Vengeance is mine and I will repay it And God hath said touch not mine annointed and doe my Prophets no harme For this cause in this signe of the Church there is said to proceed out of the Throne lightnings and thunders and voyces because God doth punish the wicked horribly for the Churches sake none can escape his hands that oppresse his Saints for the Lord will roare out of Sion and will put forth his voyce out of Jerusalem A second sort of gifts are inward graces of Sanctification expressed in this vision by seven Lampes of fire burning before the Throne which are the seven Spirits of God which is the internall sanctification of Gods Spirit filling every soule with gifts like oyle of grace and fire of zeale to burne with praises before the Throne Like to the lampes in the Temple Exod. 27 20. by seven signifying by a definite number manifold gifts indefinite Next are outward gifts which are allegorically called a sea of glasse before the Throne like Crystall which expresseth the spirituall pure and unspotted worship of God and the ministration of his Word as transparent to the eye of the inlightned mind as Crystall glasse is to the eye of the body through which the Saints may see the glory and majesty of God in the face of Christ Jesus As this worship is pure without any spot of mans invention and consists as in the first tract is said of prayer praise and thankes arising and alwayes nourished by the doctrine of the word of God which the sea doth signifie because it is an Ocean of living waters pure like Crystall This Sea therefore declares the whole worship of God And in respect that the Saints inlightned by the holy Ghost are called burning Lampes it is to them like a sea of oyle to enrich and encrease their lights Another outward gift is described to be foure Beasts And in the middest of the Throne and round about the Throne were foure beasts the first like a Lyon the second a Calfe the third a face like a man the fourth like a flying Eagle and their bodyes are full of eyes before and behind These are the ministers and servants of God who attend the ministration of the Word and Doctrine and are placed betwixt the Throne and the Elders as embassadours and messengers of God to his people their place is in a neerer station to the Throne then the Elders They are compared to beasts to expresse their qualities which is required for the conditions of the times and seasons as the strength and courage of a Lyon the patience of an Oxe the prudence and wisedome of a man the Eagle-like contempt of earthly things and sharper sight in spirituall and heavenly things The number is foure to double the number of the tribe of Levi under the law to answer the number of Elders which is double to the twelve Patriarkes Their bodyes are full of eyes behind and before which describes that sharpnesse of riches and understanding in divine things wherewith they are inducd by the gift of the Spirit to discerne things past things present and things to come These beasts each one of them hath sixe wings placed round about them and full of eyes within the wings these wings are not for that use that the wings are to the beasts in E●●●●●…el two to hide the face and two to flye and two to hide their feet