preparation of the whole man with a desire and resolution to observe it 3. An actual application of that time to a performance of Religious Duties and whatsoever Works tend most to the glory of God those do most sanctifie the Day This is the reason why Christ's miraculous Cures did not prophane this day and that Works of Mercy are so suitable to this time Though publick and Congregational Duties are principally intended yet Family and Closet-Duties are required and though other days may be sanctified and observed as times of Humiliation or Thanksgiving yet this is done upon a more general ground and not by vertue of this Commandement which is confined to the Seventh Day What the particular services of the Sabbath be I need not mention For they are such as God hath instituted and the principal are Word and Prayer as you heard in the Explication of the second Precept The sins here forbidden are 1. All prophane and sinful thoughts § XIV words and deeds which unhallow all times and especially this These are sins in the six days but more heynous sins on the seventh 2. All secular thoughts words deeds which are contrary unto and non-consistent with the Rest and sanctification of this time and with Diviner Employments These are lawful at other times unlawful in this 3. The neglect of Holy Duties in this time of Rest. For though we should rest this day not onely from all secular labours and works but also from worldly thoughts and motions of the mind if it were possible and not apply our selves to Religious Worship yet the Day remains to us unsanctified 4. All prophane Sports yea and all Recreations which hinder and distract us in the service of our God 5. All Hypocritical all irreverent yea all imperfect performance of Holy Duties Men may be strict zealous devout in the outward parts of Religion and yet stand at a great distance from their God For God requires not any kind of Sanctification of this day but that which is hearty and sincere And because our best service is imperfect therefore we can keep no perfect Sabbath on Earth that is reserved for Heaven Let us therefore endeavour the best aim at perfection desire pardon of defects and long after the estate of glory wherein we shall perfectly hallow an Eternal Sabbath before the Eternal King There he many causes of the prophanation § XV and impediments of the Sanctification of this holy time and we should take notice of them 1. Some are Atheists who are devoid of Faith and the fear of God These believe not that there is a God who will judge the World and render to every one according to their Works They fear not His Divine Power and Majesty They have no care to worship Him They perswade themselves that all Religious Service is vain and that the Worship of a Deity hath no better reason and ground then the fancy and conceit of some precise superstitious Fools They think that the Rest and Sanctification of every 7th day is a needless expence and loss of time to the hinderance and neglect of many considerable businesses 2. Some though not so prophane do not consider how much the Preservation and continuance of Religion depends upon the observation of Holy Sabbaths Take these away you shall by Experience find that Religion will decay and that in a short time We by the Light of Nature may easily understand that there is a time necessarily required for the dispatch of all business and if so then the Religious Service of our God and the Salvation of our Souls are the greatest and most weighty businesse we have to do in this World and therefore do of necessity require and may justly challenge not onely some time but a competent and due proportion of time Yet we find that men of great understanding and very prudent in these Earthly things are very inconsiderate and imprudent in this particular 3. Some take no notice of those Characters God hath imprinted upon some days and by some glorious work done on them honoured them and made them more excellent then other days They do not consider that the Jews being the people of God from whom Salvation was observed and that according to God's Command and Example one day in seven and that Christians from the Apostles days have consecrated the 7th part of their time unto God and that by sufficient Warrant from Heaven And this forgetfulness and want of consideration is one cause of their neglect and dis-esteem of the Sabbath 4. Some do know believe and profess these things yet are Worldly-minded negâ—igent in matters of Religion and at all times and so on the Sabbath are indisposed to Heavenly Duties so that they hallow no time and unhallow this sacred time which God doth arrogate to himself And such as being Earthly minded are most active in secular business are most careless and negligent in the observation of God's Sabbath 5. The want of preparation before we enter upon the Sabbath and Divine Service our careless carriage in the performance of Holy Duties and our intermixing of secular business prophane thoughâ—s and discourses must needs abate and that very much of the sanctification of the Day 6. Some are perswaded that all days since the abolition of the Jewish Polity are alike and therefore it is Jewish or Superstitious to observe any determinate time and to prefer one day above another 7. Some out of a Spiritual Pride and high conceit of themselves as above all Ordinances neglect Sacraments and Sabbaths as far below their high attainments The Reasons to perswade us to sanctifie the Sabbath are many § XVI and in general the same with those which bound the Jews and therefore must be sought in the Old Testament in Moses and the Prophets 1. God commands us to sanctifie His Sabbath and repeats this Command many times And though their Weekly Sabbath was not the same with ours for the particular Day yet the end and many particular Duties of Sanctification are the same 2. As the Jewish Religion so the Christian depends much upon the Sabbath and as theirs was necessary for the continuance of their Religion so ours is for the continuance of ours 3. God did severely and many times prohibit the Prophanation of this sacred time 4. When and where it 's neglected and prophaned wholly or in part there Religion decays accordingly and that in a short time 5. He hath promised to such as shall observe his Sabbath many and great Blessings both Temporal and Spiritual publick and private to particular Persons Nations and Common-wealths And in these Promises he did not so much regard this or that 7th day as the continuance of Religion by the Sactification of such Times as he himself should determine 6. He hath threatned most fearful Judgments to be inflicted upon them who shall by neglect of Holy Duties or by Worldly and Bodily Labours and Employments or any other way prophane the same 7. According to these
them also into 3 sorts in another manner For some say they shew what he is Some how great Some how good he is I desire to have the Liberty that these and others have taken Before I come to the Particular handling of these Attributes wherein I shall not differ much from some of the former it is to be observed 1. That some of the Names given to God in Scripture are Attributes some not 2. That God cannot be defined according to the rules of Logick 3. That which we call a definition of God doth comprehend all the Attributes So that by good consequence all of them may be deduced from it 4. The Definitions I intend to speak of are two The first is that of Doctor Amyes out of Mr. Richardson That God is a Spirit living of himself In this it is supposed 1. That Spiritual Substances are more excellent then bodily 2. That Living Spirits are more excellent then such as have not Life 3. That Such as have intellectual and moral Life are most excellent of all Created beings These are Men and Angels Yet these do not Live in themselves independently For they depend on God From all these presupposed it follows that God being a Spirit Living with the most excellent Life and in himself independently must needs be every way the most Excellent Substance and far above all others The second definition is § V That God is a being absolutely perfect Some if not all understanding Heathens did conceive that God was Ens praestantissimum the most Excellent Being Whereby they did acknowledge 1. That God was because a Being and 2. That He was an Excellent Being 3. That of all others he was most Excellent And this was to be a most perfect Being God is a Being and not any kind of Being but a Substance which is the Foundation of other Beings And not only a Substance but perperfect Yet many Beings are perfect in their kind and in a certain measure of Perfection yet limited and finite But God is absolutely fully and every way infinitely perfect And therefore above Spirits living Spirits above Angels who are perfect comparatively and in an high measure But their Perfection is infinitely short of God's perfection This absolute Perfection includes all the Attributes even the most excellent It excludes all Dependency being after not being Composition Corruption Mortality Contingency Ignorance Unrighteousness Weakness Misery and all Imperfections whatsoever It includes necessity of Being Independency perfect Unity Simplicity Immensity Eternity Immortality the most perfect Life Knowledge Wisdom Integrity Power Glory Bliss and all these in the highest degree and the Abstract And though by these we may know much of God in this Life yet all our knowledge here on Earth is nothing to that we expect in Heaven And the knowledge of Angels is nothing to the knowledge wherewith God knows himself For he being infinite knows himself as infinite infinitely We may know that he is infinite but as infinite we know him not We see but if we may so speak onely the Out-side nay but the Back parts of God We cannot pierce into the secrets of this Eternal Being Our Reason comprehends some little of him and when it can proceed no further Faith comes in and we believe far more then we can understand And this our Belief is not contrary to Reason but Reason it Self dictates unto us that we must believe far more of God then it can inform us of CHAP. V. Of the Divine Attributes in Particular THese Divine Attributes § I included in this absolute perfection are reducible to two 1. The Greatness of GOD. 2. The Goodness of GOD. The Heathens did give unto their great God whom they conceived to be King of their Petty Deities the Titles of Optimus Maximus and so made him the Best and the Greatest Whence they had this Light I know not Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that many of their greatest Schollers were Thieves and did steal out of the Scripture and from the Jews whom they would never acknowledge their Masters the choifest Truths in their Writings Howsoever this is very certain That to be great and good is to be like unto God and the greatest and the best are the most like unto him and to be absolutely the greatest and the best is to be God The Scripture speaks very much of the greatness and goodness of God And by these two God is sufficiently differenced from all other Beings and is manifested by them to be far above and infinitely more excellent then all God's greatness is that § II whereby he is one infinite Being By greatness I do not mean greatness of Power and Dominion For that is Political and agrees unto him as King in relation to his Subjects and is founded in the great Works of Creation and Providence and as such it can be no Attribute Neither is it greatness of strength for that is Physical and manifested in all his Works ad extra and is the same with Potentia which is an Attribute indeed but in another sense Neither is it the greatness of Quantitative extension for that is Mathematical and agreeing onely to Bodies and Bodily Substances Yet 1. If He were not great Essentially he could not be so great in Dominion and Strength 2. This greatness is manifested in the greatness of Dominion of Strength and of great and vast extensive Bodies especially the vast Pile of the World His Greatness is either Vnity § III or infiniteness of Being The Unity of his Being is that Whereby He is one onely God so that there cannot be another Philosophers tell us that Quantity follows the Essence of things quantitative immediatly and is so near unto it as that some conceive that Quantitas is nothing else but Substantia quanta and adds no entity to the substance This Quantity makes a thing measurable two ways 1. By Number 2. By Magnitude And though the greatness of the Divine Essence be neither Physical nor Mathematical yet for the Explication thereof we use the terms of both yet abstracting all imperfection God for number is one for measure infinite and he is infinite that he may be onely one and the greatest That He is One we often read in Scripture yet so that his Unity sometimes signifies his Constanâ—y sometimes his Immutability sometimes his Monarchical Dominion But so it is not here taken Though this Unity be a general Affection agreeing to every Being so that it cannot be a Being except one yet this Unity of God is proper to himself and agrees to nothing else as it agrees to him Some things are so one as that they are many because compounded and have parts but God is a pure Act and hath no parts neither is compounded but is a Pure simple Being And that which some make a distinct Attribute and call Simplicity belongs unto this Unity Some things are so one as that their Being admits of many Individuals of the same kind as Men Angels and other
Roof and highest part of the Lower-World These were made not onely for Beauty and Ornament but also for the benefit of the Lower Globe upon which by light and motion they have great power And as the order wherein they were placed and their motion in a certain Line according to a certain Rule which they always observe is excellent so the use and benefit of them is manifold and wonderful Between these and the Earth we have the Meteors which sometimes are Natural sometimes Supernatural and Prodigious The Heaven thus adorned the Glorious Creatour descends into the Water and thence produceth Fish to live spawn and swim in the Water and the Fowl to fly in the Firmament of Heaven and build and multiply upon the Earth Amongst the Watry-Creatures the Whales and Sea-Dragons are most eminent and terrible After all these finished He concludes his Creation with Beasts Cattle creeping things although animate yer irrational And last of all with Man a rational and noble Creature whose Creation requires a more particular and distinct consideration And this is the Genuine Order of Physicks or Natural Philosophie which should inform us not onely of Bodies but Spirits which have Nature and Being and Original of Being as well as other Creatures The Creation of Man § XIII is that whereby God according to his Image and likeness made Man of the Dust of the Earth breathing into his Nostrils the breath of life whereby he became a living soul and Woman of a Rib that they might have Dominion over the Sensitive Creatures and the Earth Gen. 1. 26 27 2. 7 22. Or more briefly It is that whereby he made man Male and Female according to his Image To know the Creation of man doth nearly and very much concern us not onely because we are men and also excellent Creatures but also because this knowledge gives much light unto the knowledge of this Kingdom and tends much to the glory of God and our eternal happiness He is the Abridgment of Heaven and Earth and is virtually the whole World and therefore styled the Micro-cosme or Little World His Body hath affinity with the Earth his Soul with Heaven and Angels Like those pretious stones which though Earth yet participate of Heaven He is the Horizon of Time and Eternity and dwells in the Confines of both as being contiguous both to the one and other He was stamped with the Image of God and was made capable of Heaven and Beatifical Communion with this Eternal King To understand his excellency the better we must consider his Parts and Perfections The Parts are two the Body and the Soul The Body was made of Dust and Dust of nothing at the first As there was a great distance betwixt Dust and nothing so there is between Dust and the Body if we look upon it but as a Carkass much more if we consider it as animated by the presence union and power of the Soul and most of all as glorified This distance between Dust and a Body is so great that nothing but the Hand of Heaven and the Art of the Almighty could make it so excellent a piece The Matter was base the Workmanship was excellent and will more gloriously appear when God who made it out of the Dust at first a Natural Body shall raise it again out of the Dust to make it a Spiritual Body The Perfections of the Body are these The Organs the orderly Composure of them and the Faculties For though it be but a Body and far inferiour to the Soul yet of all other Bodies it is most excellent as being a fit Habitation for the Immortal Soul as no other Body can be The Organs and Members are many their order composure and dependance one upon another excellent and curious the Faculties and Motions are wonderful They who know it best admire it most and know that the very Conception much more the Creation is a kind of Miracle It is not onely a fit Tabernacle for the Soul which was breath'd into it from Heaven but also a fit Instrument and Servant to perform the Works of Righteousness and Holiness jointly with the Soul as directed by it And as it concurs with the Soul to do good or evil so it shall partake with the Soul in rewards and punishments And no Body but this of man can be the Temple of the Holy Ghost and though it be corruptible and may die and by reason of sin is condemned to the Dust from whence it was taken yet this punishment lies upon it but for a time and as it is capable of Immortality so it shall be immortal and glorious upon the Resurrection Yet that which doth more ennoble § XIV and advance man is his reasonable and immortal Soul which is a Spiritual Substance and as a Spirit doth animate act and guide it being concreated and made with it and may and doth live when separated from it The Union of them is wonderful yet dissoluble and for Sin is dissolved It 's said God breathed in his Nostrils or his face the breath of life and man became a Living Soul What Expositors say upon the place I will not now report but onely observe 1. That these words speak of the Creation of the Soul yet especially as it did animate the Body 2. That it was not created first out of the Body and then put into it but created in it as it always is For God creates the Spirit in the midst of Man 3. That though God breathed it into Man yet it was no part nor particle of God's Essence but an effect of his power 4. That his Soul was reasonable and far more excellent then that of Beasts and therefore tearmed by the Chaldy-Paraphrast A speaking Soul for to speak is a proper effect of Reason 5. This Soul was created immediately and invisibly from God in an unspeakable manner as is signified by those words And God breathed in his face And in the face it doth most appear and manifest it self according to that saying Vultus est index Animi 6. By the Breathing it was united to the Body of which it might have kept possession for ever if Sin had not been a Cause of Dispossession Yet the second Union by the Resurrection when God shall breathe upon the Dust again shall be so firm as that it never shall be dissolved What this Soul of man is we do not perfectly know And it was well observed of Learned Vives that God gives us these Souls not so much to know their Essence as to use them Something vve know of them by Reason and Discourse something by Experience but most of all by the Holy Scriptures The Excellency thereof is clearly known by the Acts and Effects thereof it understands and freely wills The Understanding reacheth all things and in some manner and measure knoweth God and reacheth Eternity In this respect it 's said to be all things because it hath some affinity and cognation with all Objectes and a
that we shall rise again to glory For if the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in us He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortall bodyes by his Spirit that dwelleth in us Rom. 8. 11. The manifestation was full and clear § VI and for this end he stayed 40. dayes on earth after his resurrection His body was now become spirituall and could appear when and to whom he pleased And he appeares 1. To Mary Magdalene 2. To two Disciples going to Emaus 3. To Cephas 4. To the twelve 5. To 500 Brethren together 6. to James 7. To all the Apostles and that severall times Thomas must not onely see him but with his hands and fingers feel the print of the nailes and the scars of his wounds They eat and drink with him receive instructions and commissions from him and see him taken up into Heaven Steeven Paul and John the Divine see him after he was ascended into Heaven The Souldiers who were set to guard the Sepulcher are forced to be witnesses as of death so of his resurrection The comming down of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles the miracles done the gifts of the Spirit received in his name the Faith of the world in him do testifie the same So that there can be no reason in the world to doubt of this Resurrection The persons to whom he most of all appeared were the Apostles to whom he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them 40. dayes and speaking of the things pertayning to the Kingdome of God Act. 1. 3. And the reason hereof was this that they might be witnesses to him both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth verse 8. And its remarkable that he severall times appeared on the first day of the week as though he intended not onely by his Resurrection but his several apparations to consecrate and honour that day After that Christ was risen § VII and had continued fourty dayes on earth he takes with him to Mount Olivet his Disciples gives them commission to go to all Nations promiseth the Spirit blesseth them and in their sight from that place ascends into Heaven in a cloud For the Angels which appeared unto them in the likenesse of two men in white apparell told them that he was taken up into Heaven Act. 1. 10 11. This Ascension added nothing to his power though it might be a part of his Glory and Honour The place from whence he ascended was the Mount of Olivet at the foot whereof he suffered so much in his bitter Agony where he was betrayed apprehended deserted The place to which he did ascend was Heaven the highest and most glorious place in the world For he ascended far above all Heavens to fulfill all things Eph. 4. 19. The manner of this Ascension was glorious and by way of Triumph For accompanied with Angells he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men Psal. 68. 18. And no doubt hee made open shew of the Principalityes and Powers of Hell which he had conquered It was the greatest and most stately Triumph that ever was in the World Great was the joy of Angells and the Honour of that day wherein the Son of God mounted in his triumphant charior a bright and glorious cloud ascended into that glorious place where in his Fathers presence he after his biter sufferings hath fullnesse of joy and pleasures for ever more Where he hath taken possession of those blessed mansions of eternall rest not onely for himself but in our behalf And Oh that our minds were lifted up above the world and our affections so placed that we might seek those things above where he sitteth at his Fathers right hand that we might have a certain hope that one day he would descend from that holy place and take us with him that we might be where he is and so behold his Glory and be eternally freed from all sin and sorrow And surely if we believe him it was expedient he should depart and leave this Earth not onely for his own Glory but for our comfort that he might send down his Spirit to sanctify comfort and guide us into all truth Daniel saw in his Night-Vision behold one like the Son of man came in the clouds of Heaven and approached to the ancient of dayes and the Angells brought him neer before him This Vision was fulfilled in this Ascension Dan. 7. 13. The Heaven of Heavens was the fittest place not onely for his enjoyment of eternall pleasures but it was a stately Pallace from whence he might exercise his universall Power and administer his eternall Kingdom and be ettended and guarded by the heavenly powers For the Chariots of God are twenty thousands even many thousands and he is in the midst of them as in Sinai even in the holy place Psal. 68. 17. There he as a Priest for ever liveth to make intercession for us and continues our Advocate to plead our cause and make it good before his Fathers Tribunal After that Christ ascended into Heaven § VIII God set him at his right hand For God said unto him Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine Enemies thy Foot-stool To sit at God's right Hand is to reign as King So the Apostle expounds it 1 Cor. 15. 25. Therefore by those words we understand that the highest degree of Honour and Power next unto God was solemnly conferred upon him and he was instantly to begin to exercise the same The Angells and all things were subjected unto and put under his power and he became Administrator-Generall of this spirituall and everlasting Kingdom This Power was given him before For he said that All Power in Heaven Earth was given him whilst he was on Earth Yet now in Heaven he receivs full Possession and was solemnly crowned and enthroned before all the Angells and the Host of Heaven by vertue of these Words Sit thou at my right Hand He was made Law-giver and Judge and could bind men to obedience or punishment and judge them accordingly and determine of their final and eternal estates so as to give them eternal rewards or afflict them with eternal punishments This was part of Daniel's Vision For when one like the Son of Man was brought neer before the ancient of days there was given Him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve Him His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and His Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed The success and issue of His Administration was a final Victory over all Enemies and a total subduing of all opposite and contrary Powers and also the Eternal Peace and Felicity of His loyal and obedient Subjects As upon His Entrance into the glorious place of Heaven His everlasting Kingdom was established in His hands so His Priest-hood was made
infinite but know him infinitely we cannot so we may know that this Reward is great but how great we cannot know as yet We believe it because God hath revealed it we hope for it because Christ hath merited it and God hath promised it We seek it because we hope for it and we shall attain it because the Spirit doth sanctifie us and prepare us for it Our Conceits and Notions of it in this Life are poor and very imperfect for we see but darkly as through a glass And if God had manifested it fully as it is so narrow is our capacity we could not have understood it The more we know it in this life the more effectually we are moved stirred up unto obedience For it 's a mighty motive thereunto For what would not an understanding and considerate man do or suffer to gain so glorious an estatâ— It 's an unspeakable mercy of God that he will give us some glimpses now and then even in this life of this Eternal Light and some taste of these sweetest pleasures For these refresh and revive us much in this Wilderness of our weary Pilgrimage and stir up in us a longing and vehement desire of a full fruition and cause us with greater diligence to press towards the enjoyment of this excellent Reward And though we may think the time long yet certainly he that shall come will come and will not tarry Surely says Christ I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus For till thy coming our hearts will never be at rest The punishment of the Unrighteous shall be contrary to this Blessed Reward § IV The very sight and presence of this Judge will appale them much the Summons appearance more the Sentence and Execution most of all For the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on all them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes. 1. 7 8. They shall not onely lose the comforts of this life but the Eternal joy and glory of Heaven which was promised in the Gospel and shall suffer the contrary evils and that for evermore Their bodies indeed shall be raised again and shall be immortal and they shall ever live that they may ever die and ever suffer Their Souls shall be stripped of all holiness and comfort and both Body and Soul shall be cast into utter Darkness and everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels where their Worm shall never die and their Torment shall be extream without any intermission without any abatement without any end The dismal place and cursed Company will add no little to their misery and there is nothing which man fears abhors and detests but they shall suffer there God § V by his Word and other ways hath made known these things to mortal men hath promised these glorious Rewards and threatned these horrid and external Punishments Yet though his Ministers and Messengers by Command from him â—et Eternal Life and Death before mens eyes yet these seem but Dreams Fancies unto Profane and Atheistical Wretches and are not seriously considered by many who profess the Truth Few do really believe these things fewer do effectually desire or seek the great Reward or fear the dreadful Punishment God's Blessed Word makes no lively Impression upon their Hearts Promise Heaven they are not much affected with it Threaten Hell they are not much afraid of it The Jews had Moses and the Prophets Christians have them with Christ and his Apostles yet men will hearken unto none of thâ—se and so sink into the place of Torment and are undone for ever God hath done much to save us but we do all to damn our selves and our destruction is of our selves God need not have promised Heaven but that He would stir us up to seek it neither need He have threatned Hell but with this intention that men might escape it Oh cursed Wretches who for a little Vanity lose the Eternity of Bliss Oh! that men would hearken unto God betimes and not delay their Repentance till it be too late when no Tears nor Prayers nor any other means that Men or Angels can use can do him any good And this will not be the least of the Torments of the Damned to remember that once they had an opportunity to have escaped these Eternal Punishments and yet they let it pass and must needs acknowledge they suffer justly who contemned the expence of Christ's most precious Blood the greatest love of God and would not obey the Precepts nor trust in the Promises of the Gospel Thus have I § VI according to my Talent declared out of the Scriptures that Special and Eternal Kingdom of God according to the Laws and Judgments whereof Man is ordered unto his final and Eternal estate The Rule of this Doctrine is the Word of God revealed from Heaven The King is God who is most perfect and glorious in Himself and by the Work of Creation acquired an absolute Dominion over all Creatures especially over Men and Angels and continued it by Preservation This Power acquired He did exercise in the Constitution of His Government over Men and Angels and in the Administration of the same by Laws and Judgments Many of the Angels obeyed and were confirmed Many of them disobeyed and were condemned to Eternal Punishments All men in the first man sinned and so became liable to Death Yet the Supream Judge in passing Judgment upon the Tempter promised Deliverance by a Redeemer This Redeemer is the Word made Flesh by whose Humiliation unto Death a new power over man is acquired and the same exercised first in the Constitution and New-Modelling of His Kingdom of Grace and Mercy and in the Administration by Laws and Judgments The Laws command Obedience forbid Impenitency and Unbelief promise Temporal and Eternal Rewards threaten Temporal and Eternal Punishments and as Men shall obey or disobey so they shall be rewarded or punished And these things are declared not onely that men may know them but do God's Commandements that so they may live for ever and not howl and curse and gnash their Teeth in Hell but serve their God in the Temple of Heaven and there sing an Eternal Hallelujah to Him who sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb To whom be Praise and Glory and Thanks for ever And let all Saints and Angels say AMEN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS †As quoreâ— Camer acensis †But the devils can make no application to themselves because they were not made to them but to Men. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— VI. â— IX a lib. 4. c. 41. b Conceptui humano â— X. †So some call it though it was neither a general or a lawful Councel â— XV. §. 〈…〉 b This word is used by the Syriack Translator
Creatures Yet God is so One that there are no other Gods though there be other Beings Some things are so one as that there are not actually any other of that kind So there is one Sun one Moon one World one Heaven one Earth yet there may be and might have been more if it had pleased God to make them But God is so one as that there is not there cannot be another God Therefore he is onely one and takes up the Deity so fully as that he can admit no fellow That God is onely One the Scriptures testifie Is there any God besides me Yea there is no God I know not any Isa. 44. 8. Thou art God alone is the confession of the Psalmist Psal. 86. 10. and of Christ himself This is Life Eternal to know thee the onely true God These and many other places represent Him not onely as One but as the onely One so that there cannot be another He was alone and the onely One without Superiour Inferiour equal God Nay without any Being but his own Eternal Being before the World was This Unity was manifested in the Creation and Government of the World For as He was the onely one Being in Himself from Everlasting so He is the onely one Creatour the onely one Governour Vniversal and Supream and shall be so to Everlasting He is the onely one Redeemer and Sanctifier from whom the streams of everlasting Bliss do and shall for ever issue This Truth concerning God's Unity was so imprinted in the very hearts of the Heathen that though they did acknowledge and worship many gods yet they believed that there was onely one Supream God who was King and Lord of all the rest The infiniteness of God § IV is that whereby He is without all Bounds of Being in respect of extent or duration Hence arise two Attributes Immensity Eternity All Creatures have their Bounds within the compass whereof their Being is confined Neither Angels nor the Heaven of Heavens are infinite or boundless But great is our Lord and great is his Power his understanding is infinite Psal. 147. 5. The Power and Understanding of God are God They are not accidents and extrinsecal to his Being but they are his Being And if his Power be great and his Understanding infinite so that there is no number of it then his Being is infinite There is no searching of his Understanding saith the Prophet Isa. 40. 28. In which Chapter from ver 22. to 26. is described and that in most stately terms and expressions the greatness of God The terms indeed are suitable to our capacity and may inform us That he is far greater then we can possibly conceive And this Being is in some measure manifested to be infinite and unmeasurable by the great abundance and unsearchable depth of his Wisdom in his Judgments and his ways of special Providence Rom. 11. 33. The Creatures even all and every one of them yea the World it self have their utmost Circumference of space and the periods and terms of their Duration The space which they take up is finite so is the Duration of their Being though drawn out in greatest length Space of place and length of time with their Periods do measure all Yet this Being is beyond the Circumference of the World and the Periods of Time Neither Time nor Place can circumscribe or measure him that is Absolutely every way infinite For he is Immense Eternal His Immensity is that § V whereby he is beyond all measure of space or place Bodies have their Dimensions of length breadth thickness or depth And the Being of Spirits is confined The World and the Heaven of Heavens have their utmost Bounds and therefore are measurable But this glorious Lord and King hath no Dimensions and therefore is immense or unmeasurable The understanding of the Angels perhaps knows the measure and utmost bounâ—s of all things created even of the Heaven of Heavens yet never knew or can know any out-most circumference of the Divine Being God alone doth comprehend himself and is comprehended of himself Because this God is immense therefore he is incomprehensible and omnipresent Hence his Incomprehensibility Ubiquity or Omnipresence His Incomprehensibility is that whereby he cannot be contained of any thing but containeth all things God saith Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Foot-stool Isa. 66. 3. And again by another Prophet Do not I fill Heaven and Earth Jer 23. 24. And Solomon confesseth unto God 1 King 8. 27. That the Heavens of Heavens do not contain him The first place informs us that God is so in Heaven that He is on Earth so on Earth that He is in Heaven and in both at the same time Yet Because one may be in some part of Heaven and some part of the Earth at one and the same time yet not in every part of both The second Scripture tells us that He filleth Heaven and Earth and takes up both wholly Yet Lest we should think the outmost circumference of Heaven to be the outmost bounds of his Being and Presence The third place signifies plainly that He is not confined within those Bounds so that He must needs be beyond all place and imaginary space This Incomprehensibility of God's Being though not in it self absolute yet is represented unto us by the largest extent of things created yet so as that his Presence extends beyond the World which cannot contain him but He contains it and therefore is called Hamakom the Place From his Immensity follows also his Ubiquity § VI which is called also his Omnipresence whereby he is in every place This is described also in respect of place and signifies the presence of God and the extent thereof which is so vast that there can be no place where God is not yet no place where God is in it as containing him The words of the Prophet I fill Heaven and Earth do prove this For by Heaven and Earth is signified the whole World beyond which there is no place And to fill the World is not onely to be in some or many parts thereof but to be in all and every part so that no part can be empty of God who is where anything is He takes up the whole vast space of the great Body yet he can neither be in any part or in the whole so as to be contained or concluded in it The Scripture â—ets forth this Attribute by an enumeration of places affirming God's presence in every onâ— Whither shall I go saith the Psalmist from thy Spirit Whither shall I fly from thy presence c. That is If I go into Heaven into Hell into the utmost parts of the Sea into darkness or the most secret places of the World there shall I find thee and meet with thee The Philosophers tell us that everything is in some place either circumscriptively as Bodies or definitively as Spirits so that both are limited yet God is so in all places at all times
and the other parts no matter immediately capable of a â—orm to be either introduced into it or educed out of it by any agent but by God So that God supplyed wholly all the causes And when we say that God Created all things either mediately or immediately of nothing the word Nothing doth neither signifie the matter nor properly the term of that act but is a Negative and denyes all pre-existent matter in the first part of Creation Neither doth the word Create in Ancient authors signifie to make a thing of nothing as some think it doth Therefore we must learn what Creation is from the Scripture not from this or that word God by this Act did so clearly manifest his eternall power and God-head that it 's evident that he alone is the efficient cause and Maker of the World and that without the advice or assistance of any others and also without any tool or instrument It was a frâ—e act of God For he was no wayes necessitated to make the World or to make it before or after or at that time when he did make it or to produce it in this or that order or manner rather then another For he Created all things and for his pleasure they are and were Created Rev. 4. 11. He Created Heaven and Earth in the beginning The word may signifie the Beginning of time as its the measure of things existing and standing out of their causes in their proper entity Or it may referr to the first part of the Creation teaching us That in the beginning and first of all God created Heaven and Earth which was voyd and without form and afterwards he made Light the Firmament and other things or it may referr unto the whole Creation and signifyes unto us that the first Work of God was the Creation of the World in six dayes And in this sense Creation was the first issuing-forth of his Almighty Power to make and do some things out of Himself This was the Act of Creation § XI and the Effects were all things Created All things joyntly taken together are the World and the principall parts thereof are Heaven and Earth And because Heaven and Earth are not Vacant places as it is written that the Heavens and the Earth were finished with all the Host of them Gen. 2. â— Where the word Host signifies all things in Heaven and Earth And these are called The Host of them 1. Because they are Many 2. Because they were all Created in an excellent order So Paraeus on the place 3. Because they were the Ornament and beauty of Heaven and Earth Thus the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uâ—ed by the Sepruaguit doth signifie By Heaven and Earth some understand by a Metonymie and Synechdoche all things Created as though these first words of the Scripture were an abridgement of the first Chapter of Genesis Others and upon better grounds do interpret Heaven to be the Heaven of Heavens and the Host thereof which is the innumerable multitude of Angells And Earth to be the Masse which was voyd and without form and the first rudiment and Seminary of all things Created-afterwards The first works of Creation therefore were Heaven and Angels The Scriptures tells us that there is an Heaven of Heavens which is sometimes called the Throne and Temple of God the third Heaven the place into which Christ ascended and where he will keep his residence till he come to judge the World No doubt its a Stately Glorious piece a place of Beauty and incomparable delight and therfore called Paradise In it are many Mansions where the Saints of God shall ever rest and enjoy their most excellent Inheritance Yet this highest place which is the Circumference of the World was not Created without the Host thereof which is the innumerable company of Angels These were concreated with the Heavens and are called the Angells of Heaven and by Creation as the Heavens so they are incorruptible and immortall Spirits which once began but shall never cease to live They are endued with a most piercing understanding free-Will and an admirable executive and active Power They were all at first righteous and holy like unto their God and had been for ever blessed as now the Holy Angels he if they had continued subject and obedient to the everlasting King who made them They were made and that in the Beginning as appeares from Psal. 104. 4. They were made before the foundation and Corner-stone of the earth was â—ay'd Job 38. 7. That they were Created long before the World was Jeroms groundlesse conceit And it was Austins fancy to think God made them when he said Let there be Light The Heaven of Heavens with their Host § XII was Created in the Beginning and with them the earth as co-aeval and concreated By Earth as appeares from the Text Gen. 1 2. was not meant this lowest part and Basis of the World as now it is for that was Created the third day but if we may so speak that first draught and imperfect Beeing which was as it were the rudiment and Seminary of this Lower world as distinct from the Heaven of Heavens and all things therein And if any thing may be called the first matter this surely is it which was so imperfect that only the skill and power of God could inform it And he did inform it and out of it made first the Elements and out of them all Mixt bodyes The first Elements was light which may be called the fire which is the purest the most subtil and active of all the rest and soared aloft into the highest place and the nature of it such that it hath great affinity with a Spirit and is next unto it The next was the Firmament which we call the Ayr And it was spread like a Curtain round about the Globe of the Earth and Water and takes up the space between them an the Aethereal light or fire a fit receptacle or subject to receive the Beames of light and being transparent to transmit them to the earth The third was the Water which first covered the earth and stood above the Mountaines but afterwards by the mighty power of God was reduced to the fluid substance which now we see it to be and gathered together into deep and Vast Channels of the earth whence the main Ocean and the narrow Seas and it s diffused into every part of the Earth through secret subterraneal Passages as through so many veines And hence our Springs Rivers Lakes The last the lowest and the dullest Element was the Earth And with it were created Minerals and Vegetables as Grasse Hearbs Plants and all Manner of Trees And with these he first furnished and beautified the earth the third day The Fourth he returns unto the Aetherial Part and creates the Sun Moon and Stars The two first as greater Lights the one for the Day the other for the Night together with the Stars These are the Lights and Lamps placed under the
some make a part of Providence as in some sense it may be For by whatsoever his Propriety and the dependency and subjection of the Creature is continued by the same his Power is continued And as by Creation all things were made so by Preservation which is a continued Creation all things continue his There is indeed some difference between Creation and Preservation not only in this that Preservation presupposeth and necessarily requireth the Creation and all things existent in their Actual Being But Creation presupposed nothing but his Almighty Power but also in this that in Creation he made no use of the secondary Causes and means as in Providence he doth yet these means and secondary causes are not used out of necessity For what he doth effect by them he can easily do without them Therefore the use of them is merely voluntary and to let us understand so much he many times omits them Some things are preserved by Food which is like Fuel to the fire which continually seeds upon it and when it 's wholly consumed or with-drawn it 's presently quenched Thus the life of man is preserved by Bread yet God makes this Bread gives it to whom he will and denies it when he will and his Blessings gives it Vertue to preserve that Life which it cannot restore once lost or give where it is not Yet man lives not by Bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of God's mouth Where it 's had and used God is the principal cause and when life is preserved without it He is the sole Preserver The continuance of the Creature 's Being doth so necessarily always depend on God as well as his Powers and Operations that he need not let loose one contrary against another for their mutuall Destruction but if he once with-hold his hand the most excellent and incorruptible Creatures return to nothing and lose their entity they obtained by Creation For as 't is said of sensitive Creatures Thou takest away their breath they dye and return to their Dust Psal. 104. 29. So it 's true of all other things both severally and joyntly Thou deniest thy preserving Power wholly they cease to be and return to their former nothing Therefore God in the Holy Scriptures is so often said to uphold all things by the Word of his Power and it 's said that by him all things consist CHAP. IX Concerning the Exercise of God's Power in general GOD having thus acquired this transcendent Power § I he presently began to exercise the same in the Government of the World and as the power is continued perpetually by Preservation so it is continually exercised Government is an Act of Power as Power is a Right to govern and order those that are subject and it requires a Superiour Understanding a Superiour Will a Superiour Strength and the more excellent the Wisdom the more just the Will the more irresiâ—â—ible the strength of the Governour the more excellent the Government will be Seeing therefore all these concur most eminently in God His Government must needs be most perfect as no doubt it is This Government may be considered as General of all things Special of some special Creatures And in both we may observe the Constitution Administration For God first constituted an exact Order and after that administred and disposed of all things according to that Order This Order was ready immediatly upon the Creation For he did not first make the Creatures without any Order but in an excellent way For all and every one of them were made Ordinable to some certain end and to this they were inclined and set in direct Positure towards their Perfection Yet because Inclination was vain without Motion he gave them power to move But yet Motion without a Rule might wander and come short of the end he therefore gave every thing a Rule that the motion might be Regular tend directly to and so reach it's end and the Rule was imprinted in the Creature as the Pure Morals in Men and Angels As there were several and distinct Ranks and Degrees of Creatures so there were several ends And these ends were not separated at a distance nor contrary one unto another but were disposed in an excellent order and united like so many Links in one Chain Some were Superiour some Inferiour and one last and supream to which all the rest were subordinate yet like so many lines did tend unto and end in that highest as in one Center And that end was not the particular end of some particular Creature or Creatures but the universal end of all which some means did reach immediately others at a distance In the Administration the Rules were as Laws prefixed by God and the Events of every Motion were as Judgments and Determinations And there are some generals in Men and Angels which come within the compass of this general Administration And though the Supream Lord bound all Creatures by certain Rules and limited them yet be reserved a Power to himself to act above and besides these Rules at Will and Pleasure and if his Wisdom should think good to new-model the whole Frame of his Government Hence the Distinctions of mediate and immediate ordinary and extraordinary Providence under which last Head comes in that of Miracles which are works of transcendent Power above the activity of the Creature wherin God doth not observe the Order established in Creation whereunto he bound the Creature but not Himself They serve as they are fit for these ends to let men know that there is a great difference between his Works and those of inferiour Agents though he may use their petty efficiency in doing of them They rouz and quicken the dull and drowsie minds of Men who are not so much moved with ordinary Works though excellent The Sun it self that glorious Light of Heaven is no strange thing unto us because it gives us light every day whereas if it were newly made and we had never seen it before we should be amazed and wonder at the excellent beauty and brightness of so goodly a Creature They let men know that they have no need of â—econdary causes He can do as much and far more without them as with them They confirm the Doctrine of his Messengers and make those high and mysterious truths which are strange and above the Rules of Reason to be credible They are not frequent least they should prove ordinary and not so effectual to moâ—e the hearts of men And they are either Works of Mercy as those of our Saviour were or Works of Judgment and so they manifest not onely his wondrous Wisdom and transcendent Power but also his Justice and his Mercy They supply the deâ—ects of inferiour causes and manifest that God is not tyed to the Order prescribed to the Creatures in the Creation In this Providence § II which though excellent is inferiour to that which directs the most excellent Creatures to their eternal estate we might observe the
his bodily life were many For his body became mortal subject to weariness infirmities languishing hunger thirst diseases grievous pangs and torments and monstrous deformities and of it self by little and little mouldred into dust Besides He was exposed to nakednesse cold heat lightening thunderbolts stings of Serpents rage of wild beast unmercifull and cruel murderers treacheries assassinations exquisite tortures and many other accidents destructive of his life which was every moment and in every place in danger to be cut off from without Besides the principles of mortality were alwayes within his body And the danger was the greater because he had lost the Ministery Guardiance and direction of Angels and was deprived of the speciall care and providence of his Lord and maker the Heavens above him were made like iron or brasse and either denied their light and influence or powred down stormes and terrified him with fiery Meteors and strange prodigious Comets or apparitions The earth was cursed barâ—en or fruitfull in proâ—â—cing unprofitable Weeds ingendring Toads Serpents and Pestilent Vermine and other creatures to consume fruites And the best soyl refused to give him bread without sweat labour care and both Heaven and Earth did often threaten him with hunger thirst and so with famine If the Earth and Heaven too did favour him so that through Gods Blessing and his industry they both promised a plentiful harvest and return yet it was subject to many casualties before it could be reaped and inned as to blasting mildew peâ—iâ—ential ayr inundatious fire Locusts Caterpillars and several sorts of worms and devouring Creatures which threaten death to man and beast If the fruits of the earth were layd up in his barnes and store-houses yet they were in danger If his house was furnished and his treasuries stored with rich and precious goods yet he was in peril of thieves Oppressours plunderers by Land and his Merchandise by Sea of Pirats and merciles enemies Neither could the Liberty of his Person be secure because of imprisonment banishment captivity His credit and reputation could not be safe but he might suffer in this particular and be stayned by reproaches slanders his own imprudent or base carriage His publique peace and safety might be disturbed by seditions rebellions civil Wars and forreign invasions and his houses Lands goods possessed by Strangers or made desolate And he might suffer from enemies desertion of Friends treachery ill neighbours bad servants his parents bretheren sisters near kinred nay from his own children issuing out of his own Bowels He might be cursed in his Cattle in his Children in his Lands in all his designs By his sinâ—â—e provoked God armed Heaven Earth Ayr Sea and all Creatures againâ—â— him His spirituall Condition was much prejudiced by evil education bad example pernicious counsail ungodly company and many other wayes These penalties and many more are recorded in the Scriptures and in the great Volum of divine Providence and stored up in the treasures of Gods Almighty and severe Justice To make a more full enumeration of the miseries whereunto Man by his first sin and Gods just judgments is exposed and reduce them into a Method would take up a great Volum Of the Penalties to be endured after this life I will not now say any thing These Penalties 1. Are spiritual § V bodily temporal private publick personal social and all may be reduced to Privative which we call punishments of losse or Positive which we call punishments of Sense 2. There be many degrees of these punishments and the continuance of them might be for ever so far as man is capable for ever to suffer them 3. Though every son of Adam be subject to these yet God doth not inflict them all upon any son of Adam 4. These Punishments may be deserved by other sins Against the Law of nature which the Gentiles violated Against the Law of Moses which the Jews transgressed Against the Gospel which Christians violate And many of Gods own Children may justly suffer For all actuall sins are not merely from Originall Corruption though it be a cursed root of all kind of iniquity 5. These Penalties become unremoveable either by Negative or Positive Impenitency and Unbelief or by Apostacy 6. All these Punishments in Scripture are signified by one word DEATH For the Wages of Sin is DEATH CHAP. XV. Of Original Sin and the Derivation of it from Adam to his Posterity IT s to be known § I 1. What the Authors who write or speak of it mean by Original Sin 2. Whether it be properly a Sin 3. How it is derived from Adam to his Posterity 1. Some distinguish of Original Sin and inform us that its Originans aut Originatum By the first they understand the first sin of Adam and this onely Pighius defines to be Original Sin By the second they understand the want of Original Righteousness and the depravation of our Nature following thereupon And thus it is commonly taken So that in it we may consider two things 1. Not onely the want or absence but the privation of the Righteousness which God gave Adam in the day of his Creation So that it is a want of it in the subject where it should be and was at first Yet this privation may be understood actively or passively Actively and so it 's a taking away from one that had it or denying it to one who never actually received it In the first sense God took it from Adam In the latter sense he denies it to all his Posterity In what manner God is in this Act to be considered or what was the reason why he did thus I do not here inquire Passively considered it respects the Subject from whom it 's taken or to whom iâ—'â— denied Upon this deprivation follows a depravation in the Moral and Spiritual Qualities and of the Acts of the Party deprived And this Depravation is either Negative or Positive Negative as Ignorance Positive as Errour in the Understanding Negative as no affection to good Positive as inclination to evil in the Will This Depravation doth not destroy the Essence of man nor his qualities nor his Acts but the perfection and excellency of them all and doth necessarily presuppose the Being Qualities Acts as the Subject All this doth imply that this Rightâ—ousness being an excellent Quality doth much ennoble and perfect man and did depend both in fieri in facto as they speak upon a superiour and intelligent-supernatural-tree Agent who could give it continue it as also upon cause take it away And if once the Soul lost it upon demerit or any other ways it was made imperfect defective and base and the inclinations and motions were unworthy so noble a Creature and so much the more because a Superiour Spirit had power to delude and deceive the mind and incline the heart to evil This is the reason why so many are said to walk after the Prince of the power of Darkness that now worketh in the
Circumincession the nearest Union that can be with any distinction in the World In the Natures § VI we must consider 1. The number 2. The union 3. The distinction of them The Natures are two 1. Divine 2. Humane The Divine is He was the Word The Humane as He was Flesh. For if He was that Word which was in the beginning with God and was God so that all things were created and upholden by Him He must needs be God as the Father is God yet not the Father yet one God with the Father If He be Flesh He must needs be Man As God and the Word He is Eternal as Flesh and Man He is not Eternal That Jesus Christ was Man and that such a man there was both Jews and Mahumetans confess Yet Orthodox Christians onely acknowledge him to be God and that according to the Scriptures which in these great Mysteries are the onely infallible Rule And in them we do not read that ever the Word assumed the Nature of any irrational Creature nor of any of the Intellectual but the Nature of Man For he took not on him the Angels or the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16 For the Children being partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil For 1. He redeemed not Angels 2. He redeemed Men. 3. He redeemed them Onely 4. He redeemed them by Death 5. Because the Word as the Word could not dye therefore the Word was made Flesh that he might dye This seemed good unto the Divine Wisdom and this was determined in the secret Counsel of the Eternal Deity The Union of these two Natures is personal § VII The Person and one Nature was Divine The other Nature was Humane This Union was by assumption the Person assuming was the Word the Nature assumed was that of Man This Assumption was begun in Conception consummate in Birth As His Birth was both mean on Earth and glorious from Heaven so his Conception was wonderful For He was so conceived that He had a Mother and the same a Virgin in her Conception yet he had no immediate Father who begot him and because his Mother was descended from David and Abraham therefore in respect of his Humane Nature he was the Son of David the Son of Abraham according to Divine Prediction and Promise and the Seed of the Woman in a special manner Concerning this Conception we are informed That the Virgin Mary after she was espoused and before she and Joseph came together was found with child of the Holy Ghost and to satisfie him an Angel was sent from Heaven to signifie unto him that that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost and that according to a Prophesie Behold a Virgin shall conceive Math. 1. 18 20 22. And we read in another Evangelist that an Angel answered to this Blessed Virgin demanding how she should conceive such a Son seeing she was a Virgin and knew no man That the Holy Ghost should come upon her and the power of the Highest should over-shadow her therefore that Holy Thing which should be born other should be called the Son of God Luke 1. 34 35. So that this Conception was singular extraordinary and supernatural and no ways to be paralleâ—d And there was a two-fold end why it pleased God to have him thus conceived 1. That he should be holy 2. That he should be called the Son of God And certainly these two things followed upon it 1. He was holy and so free from Original Corruption either as considered in it self or as a punishment for the first sin For this Originall Sin was prevented 1. By the Sanctification of the Spirit 2. By this extraordinary Propagation For two things concur to this Native Corruption 1. That the man be in Adam as sinning and so sentenced for sin 2. And also descend from him by naturall propagation But neither of these did agree to him For though he was the Son of Adam and the seed of the Woman yet he was not in Adam sinning nor the Son of Adam in that manner as all other men were 2. He was called the Son of God not onely because he was conceived in a divine manner by the Holy Ghost but also as the Word was the Son of God and had that relation to his Father so this Nature assumed being personally one with this Word must have the same relation to the father too This incarnation of the Word and Son of God is a great mystery That Jesus Christ is the Word and not only flesh and not onely the Word but the Word made flesh is plain and expresse Scripture But the manner of this union is unsearchable And we must simply believe what is plain that it is so not curiously enquire how it is for that 's above our capacity Aquinas contra Gentes endeavours to exemplify this by the union of the Soul and body As the body is the instrument of the Soul and supposeth an universall reason or intellect which assumes and unites it self to the nature of man so as to use it as a Proper instrument as the hand is to the body and by the same worketh divine works proper to God and that not sometimes transiently but after the manner of a constant and permanent Act. This is the Sum of his exemplification which as he confesseth is very imperfect and farr too short This assumption was an act ad extra and therefore both Father Word and Spirit must concur in it yet so that the Word did in a special manner assume and was the proper terme of this Act. And that word in which was life which life was the light of men in the Creation did assume possesse dwell in and act by the Soul and body of man so as to be a Fountaine of Life and Spiritual light to man for ever This Word § VIII so became and was made flesh as that he assumed not onely the body but the Soul of man even whole man and the same at first subject to frailtyes and infirmityes to violence and death yet without sin And this union was indissoluble for ever And many were the consequents of this union as 1. The communication of Idioms in predication So that because the Word which was God was flesh and word and flesh are one therefore what is true of the word may be affirmed of that flesh and that which was properly true of that flâ—sh might be truly affirmed of that Word which was God So that it may be truly said That the flesh and man did that which God did and God might be said to suffer that which the flesh did suffer and that by a Metonymy and such as no Rhetorick ever taught us 2. A neare relation between the Word and that flesh and such as is not to be found in all the world 3.
mortifie corruption the very root of sin in us The death of Christ should be the death of sin in us and the remembrance of his sufferings should break our hearts humble us and separate us from sin That Christ should die and we should live and his death should be our life was often signified by the ancient Sacrifices wherein the bloud and death of the thing sacrificed was a kind of expiation of the sin of man Man sins and Beasts suffer to signifie that there must be a far better Sacrifice to purge away the sin of Man and purifie his Conscience Therefore Order requires that we consider the death of the Cross so willingly suffered as a Sacrifice And if it was a Sacrifice as no doubt it was we must observe 1. The Priest 2. The thing offered 3. The Party in whom it was offered 4. The Parties to be sanctified by this Offering The Priest is CHRIST The Sacrifice HIMSELF The Party to whom it was offered GOD. The Parties to be sanctified SINFVL MEN for whom He suffered That Christ was a Priest the Apostle proves Heb. 5. 6. For there he first describes a Priest to be a Mediatour between God and Man in matters of Religion and in his Offerings and Prayers represents the People In blessing of the People He represents God though of this He saith nothing in that Chapter yet in the 7th in Melchizedeck blessing and tithing Abraham he implies that in both these Acts a Priest represents God And because a Priesthood is an Office and a Priest and Officer in Religion and things pertaining to God he informs us that very one cannot be a Priest but one taken from amongst men and ordained for men And as an Officer is made by the Will and Commission of the Supream Power and must not presume upon and usurp the Office therefore Christ did not glorifie himself but was chosen called ordained a Priest and that immediatly by God And his Commission he finds in Psal. 2. 7. 110. 4. And his Priesthood was powerful most excellent personal immutable made so by Oath and Eternal and he himself holy without sin He must minister in the Heavenly Tabernacle and his Ministery must be Spiritual and himself the Mediatour of the New Testament to procure and dispose of the Spiritual and Eternal Blessings promised in the same Amongst many other Services to be performed by a Priest one and a principal was Sacrifice and in the Levitical Service that of Expiation yearly offered on the 10th day of the 7th Month was most eminent and this the Apostle singles out as the most excellent Sacrifice to typifie the death of Christ as far more excellent then that Sacrifice of the Levitical High-Priest Chap. 9. Therefore the death of Christ was a Sacrifice Ilastical and Propitiatory His willing-suffering of death was the Offering the Thing offered was Himself For he offered himself without spot The Party to whom he offered himself was God considered 1. As Law-giver offended 2. As Judge who had power to refuse or accept the Offering and upon the same accepted to pardon sin and give Eternal Life The Parties to be sanctified by this Offering were sinful and guilty Persons acknowledging Christ alone to be the Priest and this Death the full and onely expiation of sin and resting in the same alone So that this Sacrifice so was offered unto God and this Offering was an Act of Christ as a Priest and in particular it was an Act of Obedience to that great and transcendent Command of His Heavenly Father that He should suffer death for the sin of Man and the intention of it was to take away and expiate the sin of Man and in this respect it 's said that by His own blood He entred in once into the Holy Place and obtained Eternal Redemption or Remission Christ entred two several times into Heaven 1. Immediately upon His Death when His Soul separated from His Body was received into Paradise 2. When He was risen He ascended both Soul and Body as immortal into the Heaven of Heavens where He doth and shall continue until the time of the Restitution of all things The first entrance seems to be that which obtained Eternal Redemption For as the High-Priest presently upon the slaying of the Sacrifice takes the blood and enters into the Holy Place and appears before the Mâ—rcy-Seat and when that was done the expiation of the sins of the People was finished So Christ being slain and dying upon the Cross His Soul enters the Holy Place of Heaven as separated from the Body and so presented himself before the Throne of the Eternal Judge as having suffered death as God commanded humbly demands that which God had promised and so speeds For He obtained Eternal Redemption And lest this Death of Christ should seem to be an ordinary thing The Sun was darkened the Earth did tremble the Rocks were torn asunder the Veil of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottome and all this to signifie that the Great High-Priest was entered by His Death and blood into the Holy Place of Heaven and had obtained Eternal Remission the great Encounter between the Son of God and the Prince of Darkness was past and Christ obtained the Victory and the sin of Man was now punished in the Surety and Hostage of Mankind and the greatest Execution in the World was ended and by the same an entrance was made into the place of Glory After that it hath been made evident § IV that this Suffering of Christ was an Act of Obediâ—nce unto the Death of the Cross and a Sacriâ—ice â—he next thing in the second place to be inquired is what the effects of this Sacrifice were And they are of two sorts 1. Immediate 2. Mediate Immediate are reduced to two The First is called satisfaction The Second Merit And both these in respect of man are called Propitiation yet the immediate effect in respect of Christ is Merit and onely Merit In respect of man it 's written That God set forth Christ the Propitiation for our sins by Faith through His Blood Rom. 3. 25. And He is the Propitiation for our sins and the sins of the whole World 1 Joh. 2. 2. And that God did manifest His love in sending His Son to be the Propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 4. 10. To be a Propitiation is to make God offended propitious unto guilty Man This Propitiation therefore in respect of sin which is also called Redemption may be truly said to be Satisfaction made to the Supream Judge offended so as to free the party guilty from the obligation unto punishment Neither need we scruple the word Satisfaction as not found in Scripture for it 's expresly used by our Translators Numb 35. 31. Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a Murtherer that is guilty of death c. The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned by the Septuagâ—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
his sin confess it be sensible of it hate it resolv against it return unto his God rely upon his Saviour who must plead his cause with his own blood and the sinner must be washed in that blood and sanctified by his Spirit before he can be admitted to the Throne of Grace and have accesse unto and acceptation with his God And he must be cleansed fully from all sin before he can enter into Glory and no man must expect eternall life upon other Terms The Mercy § XI Love and free Grace of God appears in that he was willing to save man though a grievous offender that he would transfer the punishment due to us and deserved by us upon another and he must be his onely begotten that must bear it that he doth all this freely when there was nothing out of himself to move him of merit it for us That he should do thus for unworthy Wretches enemies ungodly miserable base polluted deserving to be cast out of his presence and condemned to eternall death Upon the very foresight of our sin and misery he out of love decrees to send his Son and give him unto death and in him elects us and predestinates us unto eternall Glory When man was created had sinned he promiseth Christ renews this promise often in fulnesse of time he sends him and severely punisheth our sins in him accepts his suffering and sacrifice as a sufficient satisfaction for all our sins and meritorious of Remission and eternall life He reveales him in the Gospell offers him unto us calls us gives his Spirit and with patience and long-suffering waits for our Repentance abrogates the law of works and promiseth eternall life anew upon fairest terms constitutes him an High-Priest in Heaven and ever hears his Intercession which he ever lives to make for us Nay upon this suffering of Christ foreseen and fore-accepted he gives his Spirit who justifies and saves all Believers of the World who lived before his Incarnation and the finishing the work of Redemption When we cry to him with penitent and believing hearts and come unto our Saviour our sins though many and grâ—evous are pardoned and Christ hath a charge given him to receive us have a care of us protect us guide us raise us up at the last day and give us everlasting life Angells must be ministring Spirits to guard us all things must work together for our good And this is strange The Son of God must be punished that we might be spared must be condemned that we may be justified dy that we may live be humbled very low that we may be exalted very high endure most bitter pains that we may enjoy eternall pleasures and be miserable that we may be for ever happy But what Tongue of Men or Angells is able to expresse the exceeding greatnesse of his Love to us which was the greatest that ever God did manifest Who is able to number and reckon up the particular mercyes and benefits which Christ did merit and we receive by him This Mercy in Christ is to be remembred not onely on earth but to be matter of eternall praise and thanksgiving in Heaven The subject of this discourse is the Acquisition of a new Power § XII and by all this dâ—th appear not onely that another power is acquired and added to that of Creation and preservation but also that it was acquired by the humiliation of the Son of God made Man And now man in respect of his spirituall capacity and eternall estate is wholly Gods and subjected to him anew and now are we not our own for we are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. And Christ hath given himself a Ransome for us 1 Timothy cap. 2 ver 6. And we are redeemed by his pretious Blood as of a Lamb without blemish and immaculate 1 Pet. 1. 19. And as God acquired a new right unto us by Redemption so likewise by Regeneration which is a new creation so that our spirituall being is wholly his and he hath acquired a new power to dispose of us and give us laws and bind us to obedience and his service upon another account For wee are delivered out of the hands of our enemies to serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life This power being acquired we must consider to whom it was acquired and to whom it was communicated God acquired this power unto himself and he communicates it to Christ as man so farr as he is capable That God did acquire it 't is evident for he sent Christ he gave him he transferred the punishment of our sins upon him he accepted his death and sacrifice as a full propitiation He regenerates and renews us by his spirit and gives us our new being And if althese be his works then the Power as also the Glory is his and he hath a new propâ—iety inus For the Word made flesh was his son The work of Redemption and Humiliation of this son was his work Therefore we are said to be purchased by his Blood his own Blood Act. 20. 28. We are said to be his workmanship created anew in Christ Jesus Ephes. 2. 10. All that we are in respect of our spirituall estate we are wholly wholly his and al things that we have as New-creatures are from him who quickned us raised us up set us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Though it be said that Christ is our Lord § XIII our Head our Saviour who hath washed us in his blood redeemed us out of all Nations made us Kings and Priests to God for ever and reconciled us to the Father so that whether we live or dy we are the Lords because to this end Christ both died and revived and rose again that he might be Lord both of the living and the dead Rom. 14. 8 9. Yet God did all this likewise and put him to death and raised him up again and made him Lord and King This power therefore is Christs but so as that it is derived and communicated unto him from his heavenly Father For he gave him power as he himself confesseth over all flesh he exalted him and gave him a name above all names he by his mighty power raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places farr above all principality power and might and Dominion And though he had all power in heaven earth yet he acknowledgeth it as given him The son hath an universal jurisdiction yet all judgment was committed unto him Joh. 5. 22. so that he hath it by commission From all this it 's evident that God acquired this power and Christ acquired it God hath it Christ hath it God hath it originally and primitively Christ hath it derivatively as man and by commission God is the principall cause of the work of Redemption Christ as man united to the Word is the ministeriall agent And as God by Christ did
union with God the Father and Jesus Christ and the Saints they are become the Temples of the Holy Ghost and being washed in their Saviours bloud are the adopted Sons of God the Heirs of Glory come under the Divine Protection and have a general right to all those Mercies and Blessings which Christ hath purchased and God hath promised as shall more particularly be shewed hereafter For as this Subjection is virtually all obedience so it receives a right to all Blessings limited to the performance of several Duties And before I conclude this great Duty you must observe this one thing that this Subjection is that whereby we submit our selves to Christ and so to God not onely as King as some conceive but to Him as our onely Priest for expiation and intercession and also to Him as our onely Prophet to teach us not onely outwardly by the Word written but inwardly by the Spirit From this Subjection § XIV we understand what the nature of the Church as visible and of the Church mystical as consisting of real Saints is The Church in general is a Society or community of all such as subject themselves to God-Redeemer by Jesus Christ. The Church-mystical is the community of such as subject themselves sincerely unto GOD-REDEEMER So that this Subjection is the very essence of the Church To believe and subject to Christ to come and to Christ already come is accidental So to be National or Universal is To be under a Form of Discipline or to be without any setled outward Government is not essential nor to be militant or triumphant though it as such and such differs much is of the Essence To be Pilgrims and Strangers on this Earth seeking an abiding City in Heaven and to be militant fighting against the Devil the World and the Flesh is the condition of this Society in this life To obtain a final and full Victory over Sin and be secure of Eternal Bliss is in some measure an estate of triumph But to rise again be immortal and fully glorified in one full body after that all Enemies are totally and eternally subdued is the most perfect triumph And this is the Order that God hath decreed and established that first we must be militant obey and suffer in an estate of Humiliation till we prove finally victorious and after that we must except a reward and a Crown of Glory which in due time we shall certainly receive So Christ our Head was first humbled afterwards exalted and passed by the Cross to the Crown so must we His members do In this life we must be consecrated and in the life to come we shall be compleat Kings and Priests and reign with our Saviour and serve in the glorious Temple of Heaven These two conditions differ much and very much yet the difference is not essential but accidental Thus far the constitution of this Kingdom in the Soveraignty of God-Redeemer and subjection of sinful Man redeemed and called CHAP. V. Concerning the exercise of the Power of God Redeemer in the Administration of the Kingdome of Grace in general THis administration is the exercise of the power of God acquired by the humiliation of the Word § I made flesh in making new lawes and judging according to them This administration is to be considered 1. In generall and in respect of the generall affections accidentall to it 2. In the parts thereof which are 1. Legislation and 2. Jurisdiction This administration for the substance was the same alwayes and it began betimes even in the dayes of Adam after that promise of the seed of the Woman which should break the Serpents head Yet there was a great difference in the same in many things after that Christ was exhibited and glorified from that which was before Yet in all times God as Redeemer was the supreme Lord and King man sinfull the subject Faith and subjection to Christ the Law and the judgment was according to that Law And though the humiliation of the Son of God to be made man was yet to come and Christ onely present and represented in the promise yet as this humiliation was accepted from the beginning for the benefit of man so that power which was alwayes virtually in God was exercised by the word not incarnate and by the Spirit as though it had been acquired already That this administration began so early might be made evident from severall texts of Scripture rightly understood Neither was the promise of Christ made first to Abraham for this promise was passed in the sentence of the Devill The Sacrifices and offerings of Cain and Abel taught them and used before by their Father and instituted by God did witnesse the same That they were instituted by God the acceptation of Abel's Sacrifice doth prove For no service is accepted of God which is not instituted by God The Faith of Enoch whereby he pleased God was Faith in Christ otherwise he could not have sought God so as to have found him nor expected or received so glorious a reward but by the merit of his Saviour believed upon Without this faith Noah could not have been the heir of the righteousnesse which is by faith and partaker of that eternall deliverance which was typifyed by his deliverance from the flood This administration after the time of Abraham was more clear Yet God had his Kingdome and his Church long before yet he did administer the same without any Vice-gerent or President generall except some emineâ—t and principall Angel was his universal deputy as was hinted formerly Yet in the Church on earth God by his Word eternal and the Spirit in the Patriarchs and extraordinary Prophets did supply Christs propheticall office and by them at certain times made known the lawes and judgements of his Kingdom but ordinarily he used for this purpose ordinary teachers Yet besides these he gave the Spirit of Prophecy to the Angels and by them he instructed Patriarchs and other Prophets His Sacerdotall office was executed by the Patriarches the first born of the familyes and at length by the Leviticall Priests and they were typicall mediators between God and man The most eminent Priest lively Type of Christ both as King and especially as Priest was Melchizedeck who lived at Salem in the dayâ—s of Abraham He was a righteous King who by the just administration of his Kingdome procured the peace and prosperity of his subjects when the neighbour-Countryes were invalded and spoiled by War In this respect he did represent this King of perfect righteousnesse and eternal peace And as a Priest he had no predecessour from whom nor successour to whom he might derive his Sacerdotal power For he was not a Priest by birth nor did he transmit his Priesthood by death unto another as the Leviticall Priests did And in this respect he might be truly said to be without Father and Mother and descent so as to receive his Priesthood that way and without end of dayes and so was the
Heavens and in them the Sun declares the glory of God in an eminent manner and measure And the Souls of men and the Angels those glorious and immortall Spirits resemble him most of all his works Yet these stand at an infinite distanâ—e below his Majesty and God did never command man to Worship him in or by these more lively Images and resemblances of â—is infinit excellency Surely iâ— we have not farr higher apprehensions and more excellent notions of him we cannot possibly worship him aright How therefore should the Image or visible likenesse of any bodily and visible being molded and fashioned by the hand or art of man represent him so glorious The stock is a Doctrin of vanityes Jer. 10 8 In this respect the Molten Image is a teacher of lyes Hab. 2. 19. It 's falshood Ier. 10. 14. 2. As an Image must not be made to represent God lest our conceits and worship oâ— him be base and corrupt so we must not think that there is any Divine power in an Image made and consecrated by man or at the appointment of man For the power of things made by Gods own hand must needs be farr more excellent then the power and vertue of any thing made by Man For the works made and consecrated by God are as far more excellent as the Heaven is above the Earth Yet there is no Divinity nor divine power in them no not in the Angels of Heaven Images may indeed be conceived by some to have some strange power when the Devil 's in them or by them or near unto them work some strange effect But these are but the Delusions of the Vnclean Spirits and the cheats of his damned Flamins and Priests The Image it self can do nothing neither could the Brazen Serpent for it was God that healed such as being stung with fiery Serpents looked upon it 3. We must not think that any Image or any other thing made by man without warrant direction command and promise from God can be a sign of his special presence as the Ark the Tabernacle the Temple were God may voluntarily bind himself to be present in a speciall manner in some special place to his people worshipping him in that place according to his commandement But it 's not in the power of any Man or Angel either to tye God's special presence to any Image or to any place The Devil if God permitted it might by compact with the cursed Conjuring Priests bind himself to be in an hollow Image to speak out of it or appear or do some strange thing near unto it Thus the Heathen no doubt were deluded and confirmed in their Image-worship And its lamentable that Christians should be thus inchanted and bewitched by their jugling Priests 4. We must not make an Image or similitude in Belief that it wil help or further our religious Worship or make it more acceptable to God neither must we use them or rather abuse them to that end To worship the true God in or by an Image is a Corruption of his Service as any rational impartial man may easily understand Therefore Moses said to Israel Take heed therefore unto your selves for you saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the mid'st of the fire lest you corrupt your selves and make you an Image c Deut 4. 15 16. 5. We must not think either that an Image consecrated or the use of it in religious Worship hath any sanctifying power For nothing can be effectual in this kind or conducing to mans spiritual good which is not instituted by God with a promise of his concurrence thereunto The second act or acts prohibited are § V Bowing down unto an Image or serving it These imply that the former act of making these Images and resemblances is here forbidden as relating to religious worship 1. To bow down is an act of Worship and Adoration wherein by some outward gesture or carriage of the body before the thing to be worshipped we testifie the inward acknowledgment of the excellency of that thing and our submission to it These outward reverentiall acts are testifications of the inward deportment of our Soules and they are specified not meer from the object but the inward recognition of the Soul Some of these are common so that the same outward acts may be performed to God or man the inward cannot For they must of necessity be either Civil or Religious One and the same cannot be both If it be the custome of any people or nation or persons to make some of these outward acts and testifications proper unto a Diety and to be performed thereunto then to use them to any thing else is Idolatry These are many â—s bowing the head kissing the hand kneeling prostrating the body and such like all signified here by the word Bowing 2. The other act here mentioned is so serve or worship and so sometimes may be the same with the former But it 's here understood as distinct to signifie Sacrificing Burning Incense Praying and the like Both these acts are usually tendred to and before Images and that several way 1. To the Images as gods endued with a Divine Power able to hear Man's Prayer bless him and deliver him and this is directly to terminate the Worship upon it as a god against the former Commandement 2. Some direct this Worship to the Image as representing some other thing besides and the same more excellent then it self The thing represented may be either the true God or some Saint or Angel or Soul of Man departed or the Devil yet not conceived to be the Devil or some other thing 1. To perform any Worship any ways unto the Devil is abominable 2. To direct Divine and Religious Worship to and terminate it upon any thing but the true God is Idolatry 3. To terminate Worship any ways upon an Image is not onely unlawful but irrational and absurd for an Image is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing made by the Art and Device of Man and there is no excellency in it to make it a fit Object of Worship 4. To terminate Worship partly upon the Image as a partial Object and partly upon the thing represented is impossible if the act of Worship be one and the same individual Act. 5. If any perform the Worship onely before the Image without any thoughts of the Image and terminate it onely and merely upon the thing represented it is to make no use at all of the Image as altogether needless and vain to that act Yet thus to do hath a colour of Superstition if not of Idolatry and can no ways be excused because that Image was no sign of God's special presence by Institution or Promise from God 6. To worship God in or by an Image made by the hand and art of man must of necessity be a corruption of that divine performance and there is no Warrant or Command from God to make or
judgement mercy and Faith Math. 23. 23. Where he intimates 1. That there be lesse and greater dutyes 2. That to pay Tyth of our goods and fruites is a duty of the first Table and judgement mercy and Faith of the second 3. That payment of Tythes though a duty of the first Table is inferiour to Judgement Mercy and Faith duties of the second Table In the time of the Law Sacrifice New-Moones Sabbath Solemn-Feasts and prayers were duties of the first rank and form to be performed to God yet then God required justice and mercy to Man before them as appeares Esay 1. from verse 11. to the 18. And he desires Mercy more then Sacrifice Hos. 6. 6. And if any except and say that Sacrifices and Sabbaths were part of the Ceremonial not the moral Law I answer that the Weekly Sabbath and so prayer were dutyes required in the moral Law and all the Ceremonies of worship were branches thereof in those times After the difference § II and inequality the order is to be considered and that is either general of the whole in respect of the former part of the Law or of the parts amongst themselves The order of the whole is either of dignity or nature The former precepts and dutyes considered comparatively with the later are more excellent and terminated upon a more noble object and the performance of them conduced more immediately to the supreme end and communion with our God and so deserve the first place which God hath given them As for the order of nature its evident that we have relation first to God our Creatour Redeemer Lord and King before we have relation unto man our fellow-subject and the love of our God is before the love of our Neighbour because we cannot love our Neighbour aright except we first love our God The latter depends upon and issues from the former which doth regulate and rightly qualifie the later and besides the morality of the later is derived from the morality of the former as you heard before As the object of the dutyes required in the former precept was God so the object of these latter are Men with whom we do converse We must love and honour Saints departed and the blessed Angels yet the Persons here principally understood are men living upon earth with whom we have ordinary Communion For these Commandements do refer unto this life and respect men living in this vale of teares and therefore much of this Law shall cease to bind in Heaven To do as we would be done unto and to love our Neighbours as our selves do virtually containe all the particulars of this part and are the brief abridgement of the whole To leave every man unto his liberty in the distribution and digesting of these later Commandements unto a method and to unfold the excellency of that order which God hath observed I will at this time deliver mine own apprehensions of the same Upon consideration I find that these six last precepts may be distinguished into two sorts 1. Such as receive or 2. Such as give morality § III Such as receive their morality are the V. VI. VII VIII IX the five first of the second Table That which gives morality is the Last which is the measure and foundation of the five former For you must note that in the former Table God did begin with the greatest and the principall and so proceeded to the lesse and inferiour but in this part he proceeds in another order and reserves the greatest to the last Of the five which derive their morality from the last some prescribe the rule of justice to be observed Some a rule oâ— judgement Those which prescribe a rule of justice do determine Jus Personarum aut Rerum the right of persons or things belonging to perâ—ons The fifth determins the right of persons the rest the right of things which are life wise goods or estate The 6th is concerning life The 7th concerning our Neighbours Wife The 8th concerning mens goods In the 9th we have the rule of judgement Gods order and method if we can observe it is most accurate and excellent The last which gives morality to the former five commands the love of our Neighbours as of our selves as you shall heare hereafter And this is the root and rule of all the rest For as our Saviour comprized all the foure first Commandements in the love of God so he collected and included all the latter precepts in the love of our Neighbour These things first observed § IIII let us enter upon the explication of the 5th Commandement which as Philo saith had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was placed in the confines of both the two Tables and joynes them together Whether it was the last in the first Table as some conceive or the first in the second or part of it in the former and part in the latter I will not dispute This is certain they were all written in two Tables this of necessity is next to those which concern our duty to God Parents and superiours represent God and yet are men and so that Commandement hath some affinity with the former though more agreement with the latter This Commandement determins the right of persons who are superiours inferiours equals To Equals the offices of love and humanity are due but no honour for its the â—ight which inferiours must give to superiours as superiours and of them it is principally intended For God did so order it that though all men as men are subjects fellow-subjects amongst themselves and under the power of God as their Lord and Soveraign yet there should be an imparity not onely of excellency and dignity but of power amongst them for without imparity there can be no order The first imparity is naturall wherein Parents are superiour to their Children and that in po-wer And I will consider and understand the Commandement first of natural Parents and their Children and afterwards proceed to the imparity which is by institution and which may be reduced Analogically to this Commandement Wherein we have 1. The duty Commanded 2. The reward promised In the duty we may observe 1. The persons who are bound to perform it 2. The persons to whom it s to be performed 3. The duty it self The persons bound to perform it are not expressed but easily understood 1. To be inferiours 2. To be Children who onely have relation to Father and Mother as such for Children are such as have Father and Mother and Father and Mother are such as have Children who receive their life and being from God by them For they are both begotten and preserved by them Parents are in Gods place and his deputies and instruments and the benefit which we receive by them except they be unnaturall is such as cannot be requited It was Gods will to bring us into the world in this manner and to make us so much depend upon our Parents that we might see what great reason we have to
ungodly wicked and to give them bad example and be patterns of impiety and iniquity unto them 6. To be found indulgent remisse in Discipline and correction and to bring them up idlely or delicately 7. To neglect their education in Religion and take no care of their poor Souls The sins of Tutours Guardians and such as are trusted with Orphans are carelessenesse or unfaithfulnesse And these must know that though these desolate and poor Creatures cannot or may not question them yet God will right them and will certainly call these unjust Stewards to account and severely punish them for their negligence and injustice And as he will blesse godly faithfull carefull parents and such as supply their place and comfort them in their Children or some other way So he will punish the negligent ungodly unfaithfull in their own Children and many other wayes and will require the blood of their Souls at their hands and their last reckoning will be sad and heavy Few Fathers endeavour the Regeneration of their Children Few Mothers travayl again of them that Christ may be formed and born in their hearts And one great cause of the corruption not onely of familyes but Church and state is the neglect of education When Parents do not use the power God hath put into their hands nor take the opportunity he hath given them to instil the principles of religion and piety into them in their tender yeares when they are so ready to receive the first impressions It 's a matter of sorrow and lamentation to consider how much Parents do neglect their duty and to see the sad events thereof For many of them transmit their sin and guilt and derive it to posterity who inherit their iniquity and misery Hitherto of this Commandement § X taken in the plain immediate sense Let 's proceed to those things which are reducible unto it by Analogie or deduction from it by more remote consequence Father and Mother are tearms of relation expresly named in the Text and these imply another Relation Husband and Wife who are the Foundation of a Family and were the beginning and first root of Mankind And after that Woman was once created and man had a fellow the relation of Husband and Wife followed and was the first relation according to God's Institution which requires that man and woman should be Husband and Wife before there be Father and Mother They are 1. Man and Woman of different Sex by Creation 2. Husband and Wife by God's Institution 3. Father and Mother by God's Blessing Yet there be many who violate this Institution and propagate the World with an illegitimate and spurious or incestuous Brood though by Repentance and Faith in Christ this sin may be pardoned and God's Judgment averted both from Parents and Children In this first Society there is an imparity though not so great as that of Parents and Children and the Duties thereof are two Subjection and Love For the Wife must be subject to her Husband and the Husband must love his Wife This is the Command of God by the Apostle Wives submit your selves unto your Husbands as unto the Lord For the Husband is the Head of the Wife c. This is the imparity of Superiour and Inferiour And Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it Ephes. 5. 22 25. This subjection was due from the first Wife to the first Husband even in the estate of Innocency For even then Marriage was instituted and by it was constituted one of the nearest Societies in the World and the same indissoluble except by Death or Adultery and that not onely by Covenant but especially by God's Institution whose Will it was that they should be one flesh and that man should forsake Father and Mother that dear relation and cleave to his Wife This Subjection before the Fall was so a Duty as that it was not a punishment For then Man was the Head a Superiour because made first and Woman was made after Man of Man for Man and man was of the more noble Sex and it was God's Will he should be Superiour in the first Contract according to his Institution But after the Fall it was not onely a Duty to be performed willingly but a Penalty to be suffered patiently And a grievous Penalty it is when a Woman is married to a proud insolent imperious Fool and to such Women who are of the like temper and violently bent to have their own Will though never so unreasonable As the imparity between Man and Wife is less then that between Parents and Children so the subjection of the Wife to the husband is not so great as that which is due from Children to Parents much less then of Servants to their Masters The place of the Wife though inferiour to the Husband is honourable She is Partner with him and shares in the government of the Family and may command both Children and Servants He is the Master she is the Mistress though subordinate to him as her Head as the Body is to the Head The duty of the Husband is to love his Wife and that not with any kind or degree of love but with a dear tender special love He must love her as his Wife as one flesh with him his own body part of himself nearer to him then Father or Mother Yet as obedience of Children so both love of Husband and subjection of Wife is limited and must be in the Lord that is subordinate unto that love and subjection which is due to Christ and agreeable to the Will of His Command and not contrary unto it And both the Duties presuppose other Vertâ—es in both Parties or else they will be not onely imperfect and deficient but unlawful and not in the Lord but against the Will of the Lord. And this subjection of the one and love of the other Evangelically understood are more perfect and noble Vertues in true Christians then in others as the Bond of Marriage doth represent the Union of Christ and His Church who are contracted on Earth and the Marriage it self shall be solemnized in Heaven with great glory and full joy that shall never end The want of this subjection in the one and love in the other much more the contrary sins are forbidden in this Commandement and are the causes of many other sins confusions discomforts miseries ruines of Families And by these two and the contrary may be understood all other Duties here commanded and sins forbidden and all such as depend upon them or are necessarily joyned with them After the Relations and Societies of Husband and Wife § XI Parents and Children follows that of Masters and Servants For after that Mankind was multiplyed in a Family and their Estates and Goods increased their work was the greater and required more hands and the first that did the Work of Servants though they were not Servants were Children and after that besides irrational Servants as the Ox and the Ass there were
many rational Servants properly so called Of these be many kinds 1. Such as have little use of Reason and are onely fit to be governed and not to govern yet having health and strength are able to do good service by the direction of others 2. Some through want and penury or a competent Estate or Family of their own became mercenary hired servants who otherwise were free Such are most of our Servants 3 Some for Debt â—ell their Children and sometimes themselves for Servants and Bond-slaves These might be called Vendititii who sold their children and themselves 4. After that a greater multiplication of Mankind into greater Societies as Cities and Civil States They waged War one against another and by the Law and general consent of Nations the goods of the Conquered became a lawful spoyl and the persons captives and slaves to the Conquerours and so Servants were increased These were Servi Capti Servants taken in War who had their life for a prey and their maintainance for their service 5. And if these or any others were detained as servants in a Family and suffered to marry and had children these children were servants called in Latine Verâ—ae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Septuagint Gen. 17. 13. 6. If any were bought they were called in that respect EMPTITII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bought with money Yet these being Servants before by this Act became Servants to those who bought them 7. Many were brought into Servitude most unjustly by Men-stealers who are called Plagiarii 8. Amongst these may be reckoned Apprentices who in some Trade or Profession serve under their Masters till the time of manumission and liberty The Duty of all Servants § XII as such is to do service to their Masters willingly faithfully diligently as in the presence of God the great Master of Heaven Their aym must be to preserve and improve their Masters Estate whose work they do and they must know that they are not Sui juris either free or their own Masters and that their Masters Will must be their Will because they are under their Power and Command These two Duties of Faithfulness and Diligence are proper and though they be bound to Reverence Subjection Obedience yet these are common Duties which all Inferiours under the power of another are bound to perform Let all Servants hearken to the Doctrine of the Apostles and practise it They must be obedient to their own Masters in the flesh with fear and trembling in singlenesse of heart as unto Christ not with Eye-service as men pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good will doing service to the Lord and not to men Knowing that what good thing any man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Eph. 6. 5 6 7 8. Knowing that of the Lord yee shall receive the inheritance for ye serve the Lord. But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong he hath done and there is no respect of persons Col. 3. 24 25. They must not purloin but shew all fidelity Tit. 2. 10. And they must honour not onely their Christian but their unbelieving Masters 1 Tim. 6. 1. and not onely the gentle and good but the froward 1 Pet. 2. 18. In all which places we may observe the Dutyes the Sins the Rewards the Punishments of servants Their Dutyes are fidelity and diligence in their Service Their Sins murmuring purloining unfaithfulnesse negligence The Reward of good servants is not onely maintenance and wages on earth but God's blessing and a reward in heaven The Punishment of bad servants is not onely such as the severity of their Masters shall inflict but the curse of God here and hereafter Amongst servants may be reckoned Factours and such as undertake the businesse of others for wages and thereupon because they are trusted are bound to account Under this head may be reduced all such as are hired to do work for others Besides all these there are in a family such as neither be children nor servants but such as sojourn and dwell with the Master of the family and are in some sort under his power as strangers and sojourners in a forreign State may be said to be unperfectly subjects to the power of the State where they live for a time The Duty of Masters is to give unto their servants that which is just and equal knowing that they also have a Master in Heaven Col. 4. 1. They must not oppress them abuse them or deny unto them any thing which the Lawes of God the just Lawes of men and their own contract doth allow them If it be a sin to be unmercifull to a Beast much more is it to be unmercifull to a man And though servants cannot right themselves yet God will hear their cry and judge their cause Before I conclude this point of the Duty of Servants and Masters one thing is to be observed That christian Masters should be of all others most just unto their meanest servants because they professe their belief of that Master in heaven and as he is mercifull and just to them so they should be unto their servants Christian servants also should remember that they do service not onely unto man but God and to God not onely as Creator but to him as Redeemer and to Jesus Christ who is exalted at the right hand of God and though they be Servants to men yet if they truly believe they are Sons of God and may expect an inheritance in heaven And besides their other sins this is grievous if they run from their Masters as Onesimus did from Philemon A family is the seminary both of the Church § XIII and civil State And as a State or Church may be said to be a great family so a family well ordered may be called a little common-wealth civill or ecclesiastical Therefore I proceed from oeconomical to politick dutyes which by analogy are reducible to this 5th commandement A family which seems to be onely a private society may multiply into severall familyes and they into Vicinityes and greater multitudes And though every family hath an order of superiority and subjection yet the severall families and Vicinityes being distinct have no power one over another but in that respect are equall Yet these may associate and unite themselves into a community and become one body not onely by confederation for friendship and mutuall help commerce and defence but may enter into a stricter bond of Union and become politick and establish an order of superiority and subjection either for matters of this life or for Religion or for both as Israel set at liberty by God and brought out of Egypt was incorporate into one common-wealth civil and ecclesiastical For in the constitution of a common-wealth the community is the subject and matter the order of superiority and subjection is the form There must be a supreme power one universall Will and Power and the subject
help and comfort and upon the Fall Per accidens the avoiding of Fornication One effect and that a principal one is That the Wife hath not power of her own body but the Husband and likewise also the Husband hath not power of his own body but the Wife and this is the reason why Adultery is so grievous a sin and a just cause of dissolution because the party committing it doth give that body which is anothers and not their own unto a third party contrary to Gods institution the Covenant and the principal end of marriage Amongst Christians this Marriage doth resemble that spiritual and blessed union of Christ and the Church begun on Earth to be consuâ—mate in Heaven and should be entred upon and continued so and also observed in that holy manner as that it may be a furtherance not an hinderance to that more Heavenly bond and society We should first give our selves to be married to Christ before we give our selves to be married one unto another For Redemption did not abolish but perfect Marriage It 's not made necessary to eternal life for as we may be married and not saved so we may be unmarried and yet Married to Christ and Saved Yet all Christians should marry in the Lord Though the Marriage of Heathens as Marriage is lawfull and their children born in Marriage are legitimate By these things premised concerning Marriage § II we may easily understand what Adultery is It is the defiling of the Marriage-bed The Apostle saith Let Marriage be honourable in all and let the bed be undefiled Heb. 13. 4. That the words are a dehortation appeareth from the context The sin dehorted from is Adultery which is a dishonouring of Marriage and a defiling of the Marriage bed This Adultery is opposed to chastity and fidelity in married persons The sense is Let all that are married preserve the honour of Marriage and preserve the Marriage-bed pure This Adultery is committed three wayes 1. When the Adulterer is single and the Adulteresse Married 2. When the Woman is single and the Man or Adulterer Maâ—ried 3. When both the parties are Married When one party onely is Married and the other single one bed onely is defiled but when both the parties are Married two Marriage-beds are defiled by one act This Commandment followeth the former in order For the best and nearest thing is Mans life the next is his Wife who by Gods institution and solemn contract is one Person and one flesh with him And for an Husband or Wife to commit this sin is a wrong unto their bodies which is of more account then their goods can be And Adultery is a wrong more heynous than Theft and next to that of Murther Some have observed that the sixth and seventh Commandement are fitly joyned together because Adultery and Murther often go together And we must avoid Adultery the cause that we may avoid Murther which is often committed to conceal Adultery as in the example of David who having committed Adultery with Vriah's Wife caused him to be slain lest his Adultery should be discovered Others consent to murder that they may enjoy one another more freely Thus Adulterous Wives conspire with their Paramours to poyson or secretly murder their Husbands Adultery in either Party is a grievous sin but especially in the Wife because it may bring in a Bastard and a spurious brood to inherit her Husbands estate This sin appears to be heinous many wayes § III and therefore ought with the greater care to be avoided and abhorred It 's contrary to Gods institution to the sacred and solemn contract of the Married parties it 's a dishonour of the body For every one should know how to possesse his Vessell in Sanctification and honour 1. Thâ—ss 4. 4. This Vessel is the body the Sanctification and honour is chastity Which implies that Adultery as also fornication is the dishonour and slain of the body In this respect it may be said that he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own body It 's a disgrace to the Children a blot upon the Family the cause of wofull discord the dissolution of the sacred bond the ruine of Families and the â—ource of many miseries This is farther evident from the Penalty determined by God against this sin which was death The Man that committeth Adultery with another Mans wife even he that committeth Adultery with his Neighbours Wife both the Adulterer and Adulteresse shall surely be put to death Levit. 20. 10. Judah adjudgeth his daughter in Lâ—w Thamar to the fire for Adultâ—ry Many Heathen States made it Capital The King of Babylon condemned Ahab and Zedechiah to be burnt for this sin Jer. 29. 22 23. The Tribe of Benjamin was almost destroyed for the same Judg. 19 20. Chapters David commits Adultery in secret and his own Concubines are defiled by his own Son in the sight of the Sun and all Israel And for this sin God was so incensed with the Men of Judah that he saith Shall not I visit for these things Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 5. 8 9. Diseases and beggery with perpepual inâ—amy and sometimes death follow by Gods just Judgments upon the Parties guilty of this Crime Again this society of Marriage being ordained for propagation is the Seminary of Church and state and if it be stained by Adultery both are stained And to multiply a Bastard brood for the beginning of a Civil or Ecclesiasticall association is to be abhorred by all Wise and honest much more by Religious Persons It 's a curse and dishonour to any people to be derived from any such spurious spawn Therefore all well-ordered states have made strict Laws concerning Marriages and most civilized Nations have their Rites and Customs for the more solemn Celebration of the same Christians appointed the Publication of the Banns and the solemnization of the Marriage it self was to be performed in the open Congregation with holy instructions exhortations and Prayers All this was done to prevent Fornication uncleannesse and Clandestine Marriages Again this Crime amongst Christians is more hainous because our bodies are the members of Christ the Temples of the Holy Ghost and are bought with the price of Christ's blood 1 Cor. 6. 15 16 17 18 19 â—0 This is a sin that shuts out of Heavens Kingdome Chap. 16. verse 9. 10. For this sin as for others the wrath of God comes upon the Children of disobedience Ephes. 5. 6. And Whoremongers and Adulterers God will Judge Heb. 13. 4. And he will punish them not onely with temporall but if they repent not with eternall punishments Though Adultery § IV as most pernicious to humane Society be onely forbidden expresly yet implicitly many other sins come under this Prohibition And for the better understanding of this commandement as of some others we must take notice of some Rules given by Catechists Casuists and Expositors viz. That where one sin is forbidden all of that
Summons to Arrest Attach serve Writs make true returnes content themselves with such fees as are due by Law and execute the Commands of superiour Magistrates and the Judgements of the Judges and honestly and conscionably do all things the Law requires of them in their places But great is the iniquity of many of this kind of Officers To conclude all persons that have any thing to do in judgment should do their best endeavour to advance justice otherwise where innocent just persons should expect right and protection they will find iniquity and the greatest oppression And with the Wise-man of old we shall see under the Sâ—n the place of judgment that wickednesse is there and the place of righteousnesse that iniquity is there Eccles. 3. 16. And in many States we may observe such corruption in all Courts of judgement that the foundations of Laws and justice are overthrown and the righteous have no place of sanctuary on earth but must appeale to God who is in his holy Temple whose Throne is in Heaven Psal. 11. 3. 4. There be many Cases of Conscience reducible to this Commandement wherein such as desire to be satisfied must either consult with the Casuists or with such as are well studied in that kind of learning There be many and weighty reasons given in Scripture § XI to perswade and incline us to the obedience of this Commandement For it 's full and frequent in Prohibitions Reproofs Threatnings against this kind of injustice And we have many examples of Gods judgements severely executed upon Delinquents in this kind Paul condemns it as a sin in Christians to go to Law one with another especially before Heathen Judges and signifies that they should rather suffer themselves to be defrauded 1 Cor. 6. 7. By which words he implyes that Christians should give no cause and that if cause be given we should rather suffer them sin and contend in Law because it gives offence and opens the mouths of prophane persons against our profession of piety and purity in practise And because a false Witnesse perverts judgment leads the Judge aside and wrongs our Neighbour and disappoints him of that right he expected God commanded that a false witnesse should be punished with that punishment the party litigant if condemned should have suffered The Judges must make diligent inquisition and behold if the Witnesse be a false witnesse and hath testified falsly against his Brother then they must do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his Brother so they should put evill from amongst them And those which remaine should hear and feare and from henceforth commit no more any such evill amongst them And their eye shall not pitty but life must go for life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand and foot for foot Deut. 19. 18 19 20 21 For a false-witnesse forsweares himself and so dishonours God wrongs his innocent Neighbour blinds the Judge and so perverts judgement and there is a complication of sins in this one of false witnesse All pâ—rsons that concur any wayes especially willingly make themselves guilty either of dishonour of superiours or Murder or Adultery or Theft as the cause unjustly determined shall be To justifie the Wicked and condemn the innocent are most heynoâ—s crimes and most fearfull woes are denounced against such persons as shall either out of covetousnesse or fear or favour or hatred judge unjustly If either false witnesse or perverting of law or unjust judgement may be suffered no man can be safe or secure of his credit his life his Wife or estate When the administration of justice is neglected much more when Tribunals and Courts of judgement which should be sacred are corrupted with partiality bribery or any other way there must needs follow a liberty to sin impunity in wickednesse the ruine or oppression of the weak the poore the just and innocent and a great confusion thereupon This kind of injustice is contrary to Gods institution of all government and the commission whereby he hath derived jurisdiction unto men and trusted the sword of justice in their hand For it was given unto man to protect the innocent and take vengance on evill doers The effects of it are sad and the event through Gods just judgment is the ruine of many and great familyes the alienation and consumption of many goodly estates the desolation of whole Nations and Kingdomes By receiving false accusations and passing unjust sentence Jesus Christ the Son of God was put to death Steven stoned James slain with the sword and many thousand Saints cut off and others of Gods just ones cruelly persecuted This is reckoned amongst others as a crying sin which brought famin pestilence sword Captivity upon the Jews and the desolation of their goodly City Temple and Kingdome How heavy was the hand of God upon the Jews who so earnestly pressed Pilate to condemn Christ unjustly Neither did Pilate who hearkened unto them escape the hand of God for he murdered himself Rash and unjust censures and judgment extrajudiciall shall not go unpunished All these things briefly mentioned may be sufficient to cause any man to hate this sin and detest to be a false witnesse or an unjust Judge or any wayes concur to pervert judgment If the fear of Gods judgments § XII the love of God and the detestation of unjust judgment cannot disswade us from this and restrain us yet let the commands of God his commendation and approbation of this justice the promises of rewards and the blessed consequents of this virtue move all men to have a speciall care of keeping the affirmative part of this precept As God hath commanded and commended it so hath he promised many mercyes to such as do their duty in this particular desiring endeavouring thirsting after distributive and judiciall righteousnesse Hearken what he saith to the Jews Learn to dowell seek judgment relieve the oppressed Judge the Fatherlesse plead for the Widdow Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow though they be red as Crimson they shall be as Wool If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land But if ye refuse and rebell the sword shall devour you For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Esa. 1. 17 18 19 20 Where we may observe that this justice in judgment prevents or averts judgments and renders men capable of mercy peace and plenty It 's a protection to innocency and piety the scourge of sin the purity and honour of a Nation the love and joy of all good people a meanes to preserve peace and safety the terrour of wicked men the support and pillar of Thrones and Kingdomes CHAP. XVI The Tenth Commandment THis is the last § I though not the least Commandement of this Eternal Law It 's the greateâ—â— of the Second Table as the first is the greatest of the First Table So our Blessed Saviour informed us
Resurrection and last Judgment when God shall be all in all and Reign perfectly without any enemy without any opposition This we pray for here as that special and spiritual Kingdom which is distinguished from the civil government of temporall States opposed to the Kingdom of darknesse of Sin Sathan Death It 's called in Scriptures the Kingdome of God the Kingdome of Heaven the Kingdom of Light the Kingdom of Christ the Kingdom of Grace the Vniversal and Eternall Kingdom The King is God § VIII not merely as Creatour and Preserver of the World but as Redeemer who since Christs Exaltation Reigns by him in Heaven and Earth as by his Administratour-generall Heaven is the place of his speciall residence his glorious pallace and his Royal throne His Territory is the World His speciall subjects men Redeemed by the blood of Christ His Lawes the Rules of the Gospel to direct mans obedience with promises and threats which are the standard of his judgments The eternall holy Spirit is his power His Judgments are spirituall and eternall rewards and punishments with temporall and bodily thereunto subordinate And because men are found in the Kingdom of darknesse and under the power of Sathan they are reduced by the word and spirit unto subjection Which is a work of great and most free mercy The word and Laws must be made known outwardly by man and then written in the heart by the Spirit In this government he doth exercise his severe justice his greatest power his choisest wisdome and his sweetest mercy in the highest degree This Kingdom comes unto a people when God graciously vouchsafeth to give them the word Sacraments Ministers and all the meanes of conversion with a promise in the word of his Spirit to make this used effectual He continues it with them whilst he continues these meanes and doth not take away his spirit and deliver them up to a reprobate mind so that the things that concern their everlasting peace are not eternally hid from their eyes It comes close and effectually when God by these meanes made efficacious by his spirit destroyes the dominion of sin and dispossesseth Sathan It 's then consummate when sin is wholly destroyed and the person made fully subject and perfectly obedient to his eternall Sovereign It 's consummate to the Universall Church upon the execution of the final judgment It 's principally with in us and established in our hearts by God when he there to Reigns as first to take away the Dominion then in the end the very existence as I may so call it of sin For it proceeds by degrees and sin doth first cease to Reign then to Be in us This government therefore is an act of God Redeemer in Christ giving all things doing all things necessary sufficient effectuall for our Conversion confirmation perseverance and consummation as he hath promised and by promise bound himself to us So that in this Petition we pray for and humbly seek of God his Word his Sacraments the Ministery of the Gospel Christian Sabbaths Discipline pious Magistrates the gifts and graces of the spirit the continuance and good successe of these the ordering of all things for the good of the Church the conversion of the Jews the reducement of all Nations to subjection unto Christ justification the continuance and perfection of sanctication the first fruits of the spirit of joy and comfort the destruction of the Kingdom of Sathan and Antichrist and all enemies of his truth and our salvation for the comming of Christ the Resurrection of the last judgment the execution of it in the eternall glorification of his Saints and perdition of their enemies That God by Christ hath thus far reigned in the World in this Nation in our hearts is a matter of thanksgiving and a benefit never to be forgotten The next Petition for spirituall blessings § IX is Thy will be done on Earth as it 's done in Heaven Wherein we have 1. Our Heavenly Father's Will 2. The doing of it 3. The manner and degrees of doing it By Will is not meant the essence of God nor his Decrees but the Lawes of his spirituall kingdom wherein he requires Subjection and Obedience Repentance Faith good works and these to be performed to him as Lord Redeemer by Christ Jesus To do this will is to be really and sincerely subject and obedient in avoyding all sins prohibited and doing all good Commanded by the Laws of his Kingdome having a speciall eye to the rewards promised and the punishments threatned The manner how this duty is to be performed is set down by prescribing a Pattern in Heaven It 's true that the Starrs of Heaven do continually and constantly in their motion observe their order fixed unto them in Creation Yet this is far short though something it be and they continually accuse us of disobedience and exorbitancy seeing they have followed strictly and precisely the rule of Creation from the first time of their Being but we are exorbitant and continually wander The will of God is done in an higher degree and more excellently by the Angels those blessed and immortall spirits who never sinned and are so confirmed that they shall never sin For they do his commandements Hearkening to the voyce of his Word Psal. 103. 20. They subject themselves wholly unto him Whose throne is in Heaven and his Kingdome ruleth over all vers 19. They acknowledge Jesus Christ at Gods right hand to be their Lord. They performe an universall obedience to all his Laws and that 1. Most freely 2. Perpetually 3. In a degree of Perfection It must be our design desire endeavour to follow their example till we reach and attain their perfection And because we have no power to do this will in this manner we therefore in these words pray for Gods sanctifying assisting and confirming power accompanying his Word and that we may wholly subject our selves unto his power and be effectually and continaully inclined and enabled to do his Will in all things at all times with all our hearts The reason why this petition followes the former and is immediately subjoyned is manifest For except we subject our selves unto the power of this King and thus observe the Lawes of this Heavenly Kingdome we cannot be capable of have any right unto or enjoy the honour joy peace and happinesse of the same It hath very near connexion with the former petition and therefore we may desire of God some mercies which in both are the same but in different respects In the former we desire them so as they are such as without which he cannot Reign and give us everlasting peace We desire here the same things as necessary and without which we cannot performe our duty in observing his Laws which is the condition of the rewards promised By them we acknowledge our fall depravation inability the want of Gods divine Spirit to re-instamp his Image upon us and we earnestly desire his sanctifying grace to be given and continued unto
or obligation to punishment and this it is properly and in strict sense and the word remit doth inform us and teach us that it is so and so far as the obligation is remitted so far sin is pardoned and no further If it be wholly remitted the party guilty is wholly freed but if the remission of the obligation be but in part as it may be the pardon is not full and consummate And it 's not to be doubted but if the obligation may be remitted in part and by degrees and is so many times and not wholly at an instant Simul Semel And so far as a guilty person is freed by the supreme Judge from the guilt so far he is freed from the punishment either present and lying upon him by removall or future by prevention And a judge or a party offended may pardon either ex nuda voluntate without requiring any satisfaction or upon satisfaction given and accepted And the satisfaction may be made either by the party offending or some other substituted and accepted The forgivenesse or pardon we here pray for is granted upon satisfaction made unto divine justice not by the sinner but by Jesus Christ substituted and accepted by God Yet this satisfaction must be acknowledged and pleaded in the Court of Heaven by the sinner confessing repenting believing in Christ not onely making satisfaction on earth by his blood but pleading his blood as a Propiâ—iation in Heaven And here forgivenesse Pardon Remission sparing not imputing justifying are all one By this discourse we understand what Forgivenesse is The Party that forgives sin is our Heavenly Father And it is an act of God not as Law-giver but as Judge yet not of him as Judge according to the law of works given to man at his Creation but according to the law of Redemption Whereas some think that pardon is not the act of a Judge as a Judge they surely meane it of an inferiour Judge bound to passe judgment according to the Law in force Otherwise a Judge Supream and above Law may pardon and as a Judge for Pardon actively considered is a Sentence The reason why a subordinate Judge by Commission cannot pardon is not because he is a Judge but because he is a Judge limited by his Commission which is not essential but accidental to a Judge Yet Absolution which declares a man to be innocent upon Proof may be an Act of an inferiour Jurisdiction But howsoever it be in Humane Courts yet it 's certain that Justification by Faith in Christ opposed in the Scripture to Condemnation is a Sentence according to the Law of Redemption in force Yet in many things it differs from all Humane Judgments and is called Pardon because the party pardoned is guilty and unjust in himself and it 's called Justification because the party pardoned is just in Christ. God onely being the Supream Law-giver and Judge can forgive sin in proper sense yet He may use the Ministery of others in doing this according to that measure of Jurisdiction He shall derive unto them Yet as He never gave either Men or Angels infallible Knowledge to know the secrets of men's hearts not power to inflict or remove Spiritual Judgments so He never gave them Authority abâ—olutely to forgive sin or pronounce Sentence in their own name For it 's onely valid and irrevocable so far as He shall by His own Name make it such Yet this Forgiveness is an Act of God as merciful yet just and as sitting in the Throne of Grace pâ—opitiated by the Bâ—oud of Christ upon a person penitent and believing in Christ and pleading his satisfaction or propitiation in â—is Prayers The Party pardoned is 1. Sinful Man § XII 2. Man confessing his guilt and desert of punishment 3. Hating sin and willing to forsake it 4. Believing 5. Pleading the propitiation of Christ as the onely meritorious cause and the Promise of God in Christ. 6. Ready to forgive others who have offended and wronged him This forgiving others is an act of private Jurisdiction for so the power of a private man to pass by offences done unto himself may be truly called Yet this Pardon cannot free him from the punishment due unto him either by the Law of God or Men if God or Man proceed to Judgment against him By this Petition when we say Forgive us our sins we acknowledge our selves and others for whom we pray to be guilty and by this Confession we accuse our selves as guilty justifie God if He should condemn us magnifie His Mercy if He pardon us It must be made with a bleeding heart and godly sorrow that we have offended so just so holy so good and merciful a Father with great humility and importunity not onely for our selves but others and because we daily sin we must daily pray Lord forgive us our trespasses We must not mention our own merits righteousness good works for all righteousness and merit in our selves must be renounced otherwise we lose the cause And if we from our hearts do not forgive others we plead against our selves and cannot obtain pardon This is the reason why our Saviour so much mentioneth and urgeth the Duty of forgiving others though 77 times a day And if we pray in this due manner Christ will plead and God will pardon and we shall depart justified For the most merciful God propitiated and pressed by Christ's Intercession cannot hide his face long from penitent and believing sinners His Promises to tâ—is purpose are many and firm and He is faithful and just and all of them in Christ are Yea and Amen The second Deprecation § XIII is of sin not yet committed yet so possible that it may be easily committed and there is great danger of it The words are Lead us not into Temptation For because it 's to little purpose to be pardoned and freed from the guilt of sin past if we continually return to sin again and so contract a new guilt therefore our Saviour taught us daily to tender this Petition to our Heavenly Father For if we were in Heaven all former sins pardoned yet if we were not fully freed from the danger of sinning again we could not be fully happy because we could not be fully secur'd in that estate of holiness and bliss God in his abundant mercy in Christ doth not pardon sin-past with any intention to give us liberty to sin again that Grace may abound and that we may make new Work for Mercy When He hath once healed and restored us He saith unto us as Christ did to the impotent man whom He had healed at the Pool of Bethesda Behold thou art made whole Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Joh. 5. 14. For we are delivered out of the hands of all our Enemies to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days Luke 1. 74 75. For as we have engaged our selves so it must be our special care to observe and not
wofull estate it highly concerns all and every one of us whilst it is said to day if we will hearken to his voice not to harden our hearts lest God swear in his wrath that we shall never enter into his Rest. We that live in the last dayes and enjoy the Ministery of the Gospell have not onely many a fair Warning but many a fearfull Example represented before our very eyes These are the Punishments of the unregenerate § VIII which they suffer before the Resurrection There are also Punishments which God's own Children after their Regeneration and beginning of the estate of Justification suffer in this life For as they have their Negligencies Ignorances Failings and sometimes their grievous Sins So they have their Punishments accordingly For the most just God who is most holy and of purest Eyes will in no wise allow of Sin in his own dearest Children For though his greatest design is to save the sinner yet he will punish and destroy the sin As the greater their diligence care and zeal shall be the greater their peace joy and comfort shall prove So if they offend be negligent carelesse cold the lesse Communion they shall have with their God and the greater their doubts feares troubles griefs shall be And these spirituall Desertions of their God and the withdrawings of the Spirit are sad and heavy Judgments How great must their discomfort needs be when God doth hide his face Christ standeth at a distance and the Spirit doth not appear This is evident from the many dolefull complaints and lamentations of God's Servants and dearest Children They suffer many temporall Afflictions in their Persons Goods Families Children near Relations besides For they are many times chastened of the Lord that they should not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11. 35. The Sword departs not from David's house and his Children wrong and murther one another for his crimes of Adultery and Murther Yet these though grievous were not his most grievous and greatest Punishments The sting of sin and guilt thereof doth deeply pierce and torment his Soul the sanctifying and sealing Spirit was abated and in a great measure withdrawn as his divine Vertues so his blessed Comforts were almost reduced to a spark raked up in the ashes and if God had not in due time out of depth of Mercy revived it What had become of him What his case was we may easily understand by Psal. 51. at large especially by that earnest Petition Create in me a clean Heart and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit that is Comfort me with the Spirit of Adoption Psal. 51. 10 11 12. This Punishment Peter felt tormenting his Soul when he reflected upon his Sin in denying his Saviour And surely to find the Power of Sanctification and spirituall Consolation to abate in our Hearts and the Vigour of it for present extinct is an unvaluable losse and an intolerable Punishment to God's Saints Therefore we are advised not to grieve or offend the Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. and exhorted to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. For the more diligent waâ—chfull zealous constant we are in the Practise of holy Duties the more our sanctifying power shall be increased the â—â—ronger our Hope the greater our Assurance and the more abundantly our Consolations will â—low Otherwise God being light will not communicate himselfe to men that live in darknesse nor to his own Children but as walking in the Light It 's strange that Saints and Martyrs in the midst of flaming fire and whilst under most cruell and most exquisite Torments should rejoyce with unspeakeable joy and in these Desertions should be so fearfully dejected Yet the cause is God will not abate the least Jot of his Justice when he shews the greatest Mercies After the Punishments inflicted by this most just Lord § IX and King upon single Persons declared briefly something must be said of the Punishments rendred to Persons associated as such These are considered either in a civill Capacity making up the body of a civill State or in an Ecclesiasticall and spirituall Capacity constituting a Church The Punishments of civill States and Kingdoms we may read and understand in sacred and humane Stories And so great are the Motions Shakings made in these great Bodies throughout the World in all times that we may easily understand that there is an universall and supreme Lord and that there is one most high whose Throne is in Heaven that ordereth the Kingdoms of men and disposeth all things in it according to certain Rules of Justice and Wisdome It 's a great Mercy of God to affoord us civill Government and to preserve the same And though the benefit thereof be generall and extends to all Mankind yet in the ordering and establishing Common-weales God hath a speciall care of the Church and the Society of Pilgrims and Strangers here on earth who seek eternall peace in Heaven as Subjects and Citizens of an eternall State This he continues protects and ordereth aright by his almighty hand and profoundest wisdom in the midst of all the Tumults Confusions Ruines Dâ—solations of the Kingdoms of the World These have their Beginning Increase Corruptions Alterations Ruines and fatal Periods not according to any certain Numbers or revolution of times nor the motion and influence of heavenly bodies and Aethereal lights nor from the power or weaknesse the imprudence or policy of man but from God according to the eternall rules of Justice and Wisdom determined and observed by him Yet he doth all things in number weight and measure most exactly and in the execution of his Judgments â—â—th the ministery of Angels Men and other Creatures When States that professe not the Gospel shall govern negligently imprudently unjusâ—ly and shall be corrupted and Corrupters and especially Persecutors of the Church and when States professing knowledge of the true God and the faith of Jesus Christ shall not onely violate the Lawes of Nature but neglect to protect the Church persecute the power of Godlinesse under what pretence â—oever become superstitious idolatrous prophane administer Injustice Cruelty be imprudent negligent unmercifull vitious and degenerate then the Punishments both of the one and other shall be Famine Pestilences Seditions civill Wars forreign Invasions Captivity Poverty Desolations many other Miseries and many times change of Government or the Translation of the Power Civill from one People to another and sometimes Anarchy and a totall dissolution of all order God useth the Governours to punish the People the People to punish their Princes and sometimes the Sword of a forreign Prince to punish or destroy both And when no Justice can be had from men on Earth he executes Vengeance in some extraordinary manner from Heaven Thus
it was in the beginning of civill States and it shall be so unto the end of the World God will have it to be so To all these Punishments must be added the losse of safety peace plenty and all other Blessings and Comforts which God doth usually give to men by good Government In the Execution of these Judgments the great Lord respects no Persons He punisheth many as well as few the mighty Monarchs of the World as well as the meanest Subjects The ruine of so many royall Families of so many large and potent Empires and Kingdomes might teach the Princes of the World to do Justice and to fear this everlasting Judge As there be civill § X so there are spirituall and ecclesiasticall Societies which as such have their proper Sins whereby they make themselves liable to those Punishments which God from Heaven inflicts upon them This Church which we call a spirituall Society began in a Family the first Family in the World of Adam and Eve being penitent and believing in that Seed of the Woman which should break the Serpent's head which was Christ. It encreased and was enlarged in that Family by their Children especially Abel first and then Seth and as mankind was multipled so it multiplied And at length there was a separation of the Sons of men from the Sons of God which Sons of God were in processe of time so degenerate mixed and polluted and the former Worthies and Sons of God translated into a better World that it was reduced again to that one Family of Noah Yet the greatest part of the Posterity of that Family who peopled the Earth did so apostate that a great part of Mankind was ejected and excommunicated out of this blessed Society And out of this great Body God calls Abraham and renews the Promise of Christ unto him more particularly and explicitly then formerly he had done He continues his Church in a more speciall manner in his Family and entailes the great Promise upon his posterity Isaac and Jacob and then in his Children who being multiplied into a Nation he brings out of Egypt and settles them in the Land of Canaan and encloseth them from all Mankind makes them his peculiar People continues the great Promise unto them trusts them with his Oracles and gives them Lawes and Statutes sends them Prophets and takes speciall charge of them till the Son of God was exhibited and incarnate Yet these with the Proselytes had their sins and according to their impenitency besides their temporall their spirituall Punishments But when Christ was once come into the World had finished the work of Humiliation was exalted to the right hand of Glory had powred down the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles God calls the Jewes first then the Gentiles and by them commissioned to go into all Nations he begins to gather a Church Christian For they preach the Jewes and Gentiles bear believe professe their faith and so are admitted as Subjects of God's spirituall Kingdom of Grace As Disciples and Professours were multiplied in any City or Country the Apostles or their Assistants and Commissioners appoint Elders and Ministers of the Word over them to take care of their Souls for to conform the converted and build them up and perfect them that were converted and convert others for to enlarge Christ's territories The Officers of Christ were extraordinary and ordinary and some did plant and some did water but God gave the increase And the Elders and ordinary Officers were trusted with the Word and Sacraments for to dispense the one and administer the other according unto their Commission After that not onely People but Ministers were encreased and severall Congregations setled under severall Ministers they begin to associate and combine for Discipline according to their Vicinities and other conveniences This was the beginning of outward Ecclesiasticalâ— Poâ—â—ties Christian The end of this discipline was to preserve the severall societies in unity and Purity of Doctrine an worship to promote Piety to prevent Errours Heresies Schâ—mâ—s Scandall 〈◊〉 erâ—â—â—tion and Idolatry and so preserve them pure according to the first plantation of the Apostles and institution of Christ. The power of this outward discipline was 〈◊〉 Virtually in the whole body of the Church whether greater or lesse associated into one body but delegated for the exercise thereof in an orderly way unto such persons as should be judged most fit and able for that businesse This power did extend to the making of Canons constituting Officers exercising Spirituall jurisdiction in binding and loosing on Earth which should be made good in Heaven All the particular Churches of the World on Earth at one time make up one body § XI and community Spirituall subject unto Jesus Christ their Monarch I say as one Universall body its subject onely to Christ. For as for outward discipline we cannot find that Christ Instituted any Vicar-generall or erected any Court supreme in any one City or place of the World As God never made an Universall King so He never made a Catholick or Vniversall Bishop Men may fancy such a thing But it 's only a fancy not a reall truth nor ever can be proved to be so In the Church of Christ there are some living members Reall Saints who haâ—e a reall communion with their head and derive Heavenly blessings and comforts from him and these make up that which we call the Mysticall Church of which no Prophane or Hypocriticall Wretch can be a member But in the Churches severall which we call Visible and Instituted there are good and bad sincere Believers and bare Professours and Hypocrites And of these visible societies I now intend to speak when I declare the judgments of God inflicted upon the Churches When Ministers and People begin to neglect the duties of worship are remisse in discipline as the Church of Ephesus Corinth Laodicea and many others were fall from their first Love Purity Piety abate in devotion and the fire of their zeal is quenched Tâ—heir punishments spirituall besides their temporall are Persecutions from without Schism and Heresy from within By the one the body is torn asunder and by the other the members are poysoned And as they abate in their duty God abates in the powerfull and comfortable Workings of the Spirit And if they continue in their sins God in the end will wholly take away his spirit and remove the Golden Candlestick as He once threatned the Church of Ephesus and in it all other Churches in the like case And He will send his Word and Messengers unto another People and will let out his Vineyard unto other Husbandmen which shall render him the fruits in their season Thus He dealt with the Jew Many times God brings in upon their Cities an their Countries where they professe the Gospel but not Practise it Cruel and Barbarous enemies Thus He gave the Northern and Western Churches and Nations to the Goths and Vandals who like a mighty deluge overflowed them and like an
impetuous stream did carry all before them This was the judgment of the Eastern and Southern Christians invaded by the Saracens and possessed by them from beyond Babylon and Arabia unto Barbary and Spain where they met the Northern Barbarians In these latter days How many Churches Christian are swallowed up by the Turkish Empire These were not meerly temporall judgments but spirituall Because the enemies did not onely invade and possesse their Countryes but in many places deprive them of their Teachers and the Gospel the glorious light whereof is mightily darkened as in â—ormer times so in these latter dayes by that Smoak and mist of Hell the doctrine of the Alcoran and that in many places of the World This is a just judgment of God which Christ avert from us because they walked not in the light of the Gospel when it so clearly shined upon them And its one of the most feafull punishments of Christians to be delivered up to believe lyes and false doctrine in matters of Salvation Yet Turks and other Mahumetans do not professe themselves Christians as we in this Western Corner of the World do But amongst us there be such as professe their faith in Christ who yet are in the just judgment of God delivered up to superstition Idolatry and most dangerous doctrines which have formerly been and now are dispersed into severall Nations We read That because men received not the Love of the truth that they might be saved for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a Lie 2 Thes. 2. 10 11. Where we may observe 1. The sin which is Not to receive the love of the truth that they might be saved 2. The Punishment God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye For when God doth take away his Spirit from such as enjoy the word of God which they will not believe and practise it 's an easy thing for the Devil to delude the wisest and most learned in matters of Religion and then there is no Doctrine so false and absurd which man so deluded will not believe This hath been confirmed by experience of former times especially in that Temple or Church wherein the Son of Perdition shall exalt himself above all Civil and Ecclesiasticall powers The seat of this Wicked one must be some eminent City so the Scripture tells us and this City shall be called Babylon in a mystery and stand built upon seven hills Some say that Constantinople which was called New-Rome is so Yet that cannot be it Because it must be that City which did Reign over the Kings of the Earth when John received the Revelation from Heaven and that was not Constantinople which was obscure at that time The Character of this Whore was 1. That She made the Nations of the Earth drunk with her cup of fornication And 2. She Her self was drunk with the blood of the Saints and the Martyrs of Jesus Fornication is Superstition Image-worship and Idolatry The drinking of the blood of the Saints is the persecution and murder of all such Christians as shall refuse to acknowledge Her power and to receive Her abominable and Idolatrous worship Lest any therefore should be ignorant what City this is The spirit informs us 1. That it 's a City which professeth Christ. 2. It 's the seat of the Son of Perdition arrogating Supreme power not only in temporals but spirituals 3. It 's Idolatrous and Superstitious worshiping of Images 4. It sheds the blood of such Christians as will not acknowledge Her power and drink of Her cup of fornication 5. It 's a City that was built and once stood upon seven hills 6. It Reigned over the Kings of the Earth in the times of John the Divine 7. It 's a City that boasts of many lying signs and wonders and believes lies receives false Doctrine That this City and the man of sin therein should continue so long have so great power delude so many Nations inâ—atuate them seem to be holy profess her self the Mother of all Christian Churches the Temple of God infallible and that society out of which there is no salvation is a spirituall judgment from Heaven and far greater then the Iâ—vasion of the Saracens and Barbarous Nations yea then the damned Doctrine of the Alcoran For that in many things is grosse ridiculous and absurd In this Mysticall Babylon the grossest errours put on the Vizard of saving and infallible truth the most abominable superstition of zealous devotion the greatest pride of deepest humility and he that beareth the title of Servant of Servants will be the Lord of Lords Besides all the transcended perogatives of this Church as of Supremacy Infallibility Authority above Scripture are maintainâ—d by the choisest wits of greatest Schollars And their Sophisms are so effectuall that not only the ignorant sort of people and silly women but persons of greatest power the Princes and Potentates of the Earth men of most excellent parts profoundest Learning and Policy are enchanted and bewitched by this great City This is one of the greatest trialls of Christians and the Church of God that ever came upon the World And if we Seriously consider we may easily understand that it 's God alone who preserves us in the truth And all such as love the truth and endeavour to practise it according to the plainnesse and simplicity of the Gospel may expect this blessing from Heaven even in the midst of these most dangerous times This is a fair warning to us all who enjoy the Scriptures and therein the word of God to take heed least we live unprofitably through our own neglect under the means of salvation For if we do not seriously attend unto the saving doctrine of the truth and give all diligence to practise it so far as we know it it will be just with God to suffer Sathan to delude us be a lying spirit in the mouths of our Prophets and to give us over to believe lyes errours heresies as we see it come to passe with many amongst us at this day By the former sins and neglect of our duty we do not only lose all the benefits and comforts which God hath promised and we might enjoy in a well constituted Church reformed in Doctrine Worship Discipline according to the word of God but also make our selves liable to the former punishments and all others which God hath threatned against us in his Book It 's the great and unspeakable mercy of God § XII which signifies his tender care oâ— our poor souls that he will make known unto us what glorious rewards we upon obedience to his Laws may expect from him and what fearfull punishments will follow upon our disobedience and impenitency The Law-givers and Rulers of the World think it sufficient to publish their Laws once enacted and to leave every man to take notice of them or neglect to do so at their perill But our gracious and most mercifull Lord sends his
Messengers continually time after time to teach us his Laws to call them to remembrance often and by them to reprove our sins exhort us to obedience and repentance and daily to set life and death before us So unwilling he is to punish so willing to reward And the use we are to make of all the punishments recorded in Scripture both as threatned and executed we may learn from the Apostle For what he saith of the judgments executed upon Israel is true not only of all the rest written in Scripture but of all those which we ourselves both hear of and see and of those we read of in other Histories They all happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come 1 Cor. 10. 11. God by them speaks unto us in this manner Avoyd such sins and you shall escape such punishments But if you will sin as they did ye shall suffer as they did And we upon whom the ends of the World are come should be more carefull to avoid sin because as we have more examples to warn us So if we sin our guilt will be the greater and our punishment the heavier And though these punishments be a reason yet they are not the principall why we should take heed of disobedience For a wicked man may fear to sin because he fears to suffer But such is the love of God of goodnesse justice virtue in the regenerate that they hate sin because it 's so base and unjust in it self and so offensive to their Heavenly Father CHAP. XXI Some Rewards tendred by God before the Vniversall Judgment as taking out Stony Hearts Writing his Laws in them c. THe Scriptures many times speak of rewards before Punishments § I especially in such places as describe the finall Doom yet here I have changed the order and that for severall reasons and have first declared the punishments and now proceed to the rewards And in this place I take Reward for any mercy and blessing of God which follows by Divine ordination according to promise upon the performance of any duty required by the Laws of God-Redeemer And as the proper and formall object of punishment is disobedience to the Law of Redemption So reward looks at obedience performed according to that Law and the subject immediately capable thereof is the penitent believer Yet no man by obedience faith repentance can merit any thing at God's hands For all rewards given to sinfull man are merited by Christ and onely upon his merit and Gods promise the obedient derive their right unto them God cannot be bound to reward either man or Angel though innocent and perfectly obedient except by promise he bind himself How then can he any other way be bound to sinfull man So that it 's hence Consequent that though man perform his duty yet the reward is free These rewards are either Temporall or Spirituall For as you heard before Godlinesse hath the promises that is the rewards promised of this life and that which is to come whether they be deliverances or blessings We may understand by the holy Scriptures that God did not onely promise but gave unto his obedient Children in all times even Temporall rewards and not onely blessed them with earthly blessings and upon their prayers delivered them out of afflictions and their enemyes hand but also upon their repentance either removed or diverted by way of prevention Temporal judgments And because these are many and may be easily understood by the promises I passe them by forbearing all further mention of them in this place either as they are proper to single persons or to Societies For so Cityes civil have their proper blessings if they be just and well ordered as safety peace plenty prosperity victory over their enemyes and help and comfort from their confederates and allyes Neither will I enlarge my discourse with a debate whether heathens and others out of the Church may not obtaine from God temporal rewards for their moral Virtues That God doth blesse them Temporally for their justice and other deeds virtuous in that low degree is evident Neither will I enquire how far Ahab and other unregenerate persons by their humiliations and repentance such as they are may prevail with God to avert or put off judgments It 's very certain he is mightily inclined to mercy and will encourage the lest degree of goodnesse in any Person He prevents us with many blessings and doth many things even to the great sinners which he was in no wise bound unto He is willing that sinfull man should love him and live for he takes no pâ—easurâ— in our ruine and misery for that 's his strange work and not so suitable to his gracious disposition Rewards spirituall are the principall § II and to these I proceed whether they be proper to single persons or societies and Churches There be some indeed which a society as such may enjoy for a society doth add unto our happinesse both on earth and in heaven If a Church as a Church shall be obedient her reward no doubt will be Gods speciall protection the continuance of the meanes of conversion and confirmation plenteous store of the gifts of the Spirit and other speciall favours To know these we must consider the promises God hath made to the Church as a Church and especially a Church obedient The principall whereof may be observed in his promises to the seven Churches of Asia For there is hardly any Church that is not fearfully degenerate but may be found in the same condition and case with some of them Yet because most of the rewards there promised are such as single persons regenerate may enjoy I therefore single out some of the principall of them Before I can enter upon particulars § III because it 's properly a reward that follows upon duty performed I must shew what is necessarily required and to be presupposed before the performance of any spirituall duty For there is some mercy wherein God must of necessity prevent us before we can serve and obey him so as to be capable of a spirituall reward God made men and so Angels at the first righteous and holy before they could do any acts of righteousnesse And when God at the first promised Christ and commanded men to repent and believe in him in that very promise was included a promise of the meanes of conversion without which man could never have believed so as to have benefit by Christ. It 's true that man by a demerit antecedent may lose these as the first Apostate Gentiles and afterwards the unbelieving Jew caused God to take these from them But no man by any duty prayer or such meanes can merit them no nor obtaine them For God in these mercyes must prevenâ— man because without them it 's not possible for any especially such as have wholly lost them to perform any spirituall duty in this case God must needs say I
much agitated and to speak distinctly and pertinently We may consider faith in Christ alone propitiating and interceding for sinful man as a duty and as a duty 1. In generall commanded by God Redeemer 2. As this particular duty receiving Christ as Priest in this matter But neither of these wayes considered is it a receiving Christ as Lord and King but presupposeth him as so received For so to receive him is the act of submission or subjection which is necessarily antecedent to the performance of any particular obedience to any particular command as this faith in Christ is Submission hath for object the power of the supreme Lord Duty looks at the command of the Lord acknowledged 2. Faith this faith may be considered as looking back upon the command or forward at the benefit In the former respect it 's a duty properly in the latter respect it 's a condition the performance whereof leads unto the receiving of the benefit 3. Faith may look at the command or at the promise both parts of the Law and it 's justifying as looking at the promise not as resting in the performance of the duty though without the performance it cannot be justifying For these things which God hath joyned together no man must put asunder 4. Faith may be considered as having connexion with the reward and benefit of justification or as having an aptitude for the connexion The connexion with the benefit is not Physicall that 's certain but it 's morall and divine and ariseth from Christs merit and Gods promise with respect unto the merit If Christ had not merited God had never promised If God had never promised justification had never followed upon this faith For let a man believe with the highest degree of â—aith in Christ and in the greatest sincerity yet justification had never followed thereupon nor could have been expected with any certainty except God for Christ's sake had promised that upon such a duty performed justification should have followed So that the indissoluble connexion of this faith and justification is from Gods institution whereby he had bound himself to give the benefit upon the performance of the duty to him that performeth it Yet there is an aptitude in this duty in this faith to be made a condition and have connexion and such an aptitude as can be in no other duty For no other duty commanded by God-Redeemer nor any other act of faith but this can receive Christ as Priest propitiating and pleading the propitiation and the promise of God for his sake as such to give the benefit As receiving Christ and the gracious promise in this manner it acknowledgeth mans guilt and so renounceth all righteousnesse in himself acknowledgeth God the Father and Christ the Son the onely Redeemer and so gives God the greatest glory of justice wisdome mercy and free grace and doth virtually acknowledge it self to be a gift and performed by the Spirit of God Redeemer and that as a duty a work an act of obedience it cannot challenge any right to justification This no other duty no other act of faith no good works can do Therefore God in his infinite Wisdome thought good to pitch upon this and make it the meanes the only meanes whereby justification both for the right unto it and the possession of it should be derived from Christ meriting and himself promising for Christs merit This aptitude is intrinsecall to the duty it self the connexion is extrinsecall for Christs merit and Gods promise This act of faith must look not only at the promise but at Christ not onely at Christ but the Promise too It must look at Christ as sufficiently and abundantly meriting and that without any Promise and at the Promise as grounded upon Christs merit not adding any Meritorious Vigour unto it but as added for mans sake that when the benefits were merited already man might know them have some hope of them and a remote conditional right unto them Christ is the speciall object of our faith and He is so not onely in respect of His Person Natures Acts but also of His Offices For He is King Priest and Prophet and faith receives Him in all His Offices But this act of saith as a duty presupposeth Him as you heard before received as King or else this act is no duty no obedience and as Prophet or else this act could not be a belief of the truth revealed and taught by him infallibly as a Prophet Yet if we consider the matter of this particular act believed formally and properly it 's Christ as a Priest Now let us abstract though not seperate the generall nature of this act as it is a duty and a belief according to both which though not without either because presupposed both must be it cannot be justifying faith then it will appear that it 's properly particularly justifying as receiving Christ as a Priest and as having formerly received Him as King and Prophet For there can be no justification of sinful man if we believe the whole tenour of the Gospell but as merited by Christ alone and promised as merited and procured by Him alone But it s no wayes merited and procured by Him but as a Priest And if it be so represented ex parte objecti it must be so received by this act of faith ex parte subjecti As the act must be conformable so it must be commensurable to the object represented it must neither exceed and be greater nor contract and be lesse If it be not conformable it 's irregular if not commensurable it 's either imperfect and defective or or else falls and fancy But the truth is it 's impossible for an act to exceed its object as its object To say that faith as a duty is justifying will bring in all other good works and duties to share with it in justification But this act of faith truly understood renounceth all good works even at the last judgment as giving any right unto justification and eternall life It annihilates all righteousnesse merit confidence in it self or any other thing but Christ It rests in Christ alone and pleads for pardon only in his name and urgeth Gods promise as made only for his sake It s the most glorifying and magnifying act that ever was performed by Man or Angel It glorifies Gods mercy and free grace in the highest degree It acknowledgeth on Earth as it will be perpetually acknowledged in Heaven that the whole Salvation of sinfull man from the very First beginning unto the Last degree thereof whereof there shall be no end is from God's freest love Christs merit and intercession his own free and gracious promise and the power of his own holy spirit And since the first sin and fall of man it could not be otherwise For man lost all power to save himself forsook the fountain of his happinesse made himself a slave to Sathan his deadly enemy and deserved eternall death This is the duty which qualifyes the
subject § VI and makes the subject capable of the reward according to the eternall and unchangeable Laws of God-Redeemer It doth not justify but makes us justifiable To justify must be an act of the Judge To believe is the duty of the Subject To the duty man is bound by the command to render the reward God is bound by his promise But faith doth not only make him capacable and a fit subject to receive justification but upon it by vertue of the promise made in the blood of Christ the party thus as thus believing hath a right unto it The foundation of this right or the title which is sometimes taken for the right sometimes for the foundation of this right is faith but not faith as a duty performed or such a duty in particular but as it is specified and made a condition in the grant and promise made for Christs sake For a donation essentially includes the Donour the Donee and the Consideration if there be any as if it be nudum pactum there is none In this Grant God is Donour sinfull man believing the Donee the Consideration is the blood of Christ. If Christ have made no purchase there is nothing to be granted If He have purchased and there be no grant there is no conveyance If Christ hath purchased and God hath granted and yet the Donee be not specifyed it 's no grant no donation But in this donation man is the Donee and is specifyed as a Believer Yet the party doth not only believe but in and by the power of this faith doth confesse pray vow and Christ an Advocate in Heaven doth plead The Devil accuseth chargeth the sinner desires justice to be done upon the guilty wretch For why should he himself be guilty being condemned and punished and man being guilty as he is go unpunished Here Christ comes in confesseth his client guilty in himself yet just another way and though he deserve to be punished yet by law he ought not to be punished He Pleads three things 1. His own propitiation made 2. Gods promise as part of his Law 3. His clients unfeigned faith By this plea the charge of the Devil is make void the cause of his client made good and the judge effectually moved to pardon This pleading and intercession of Christ is necessary not onely because God ordained and required it but also because our prayer and pleading is very imperfect and His perfect And happy is he that hath such a Counsellour and Advocate in Heaven who is ever ready day and night before his Fathers Throne taking care of the cause of all his Clients pleading GRATIS without any Fee and ever carrying the cause Yet a sinner may be justifiable and yet not instantly actually justifyed For the sentence may be delayed for a certain time But this is the comfort of a true believer that the sentence will certainly be passed in Gods due time which in his wisdome he knoweth to be best Thus you have heard 1. Who is the Judge § VII 2. Who is the party judged Now 3. It 's high time to say something of the judiciall act which is the principall thing But before I proceed to unfold the nature of it I must digresse a little and examine the different opinions of men in this point For some question whether it be a sentence properly or no and if it be a sentence properly when and where it 's passed and if it be passed whether it be a bare sentence without any execution or with some execution 1. That t is a sentence most will grant but some distinguish of Sententia Legis and Sententia judicis The one is not the other is properly a sentence and this no doubt is an act of judgment not of Legislation For if it be an act of Legislation it 's then onely promise and that looks at none in particular but all in generall to whom the promise is made and presupposeth a duty to be performed But justification presupposeth a particular person a particular cause a duty performed and the performance as already past is pleaded and the Judge sollicited to passe judgment accordingly But let it be a sentence and that properly and of the Judge as it is When and where is it passed For passed if properly a sentence it must be For it 's not a sentence as conceived in the breast of the Judge but as judicially pronounced It 's not Sententia mere concepta sed prolata some wayes declared Whether for the time is it passed in eternity before time or in time For the place whether is it passed in man or out of man If out of man whether in Heauen or in Earth If on Earth whether by God and Man If by God whether by the promise of the Law that whosoever believeth is not condemned or some other thing If by man whether by the Minister or the Church binding or loosing so on earth as to be bound and loosed in Heaven If it be whether it be an act of conscience or the blessed spirit If the spirit whether it be by inspiration and enthusiasm or by some real operation Thus the wit of man forsaking the rule of Gods word will wander and ignorance joyned with curiosity will start many doubts puzzle a clear truth infinitely multiply questions not so much for edification as destruction and distraction 1. The sentence was not passed in eternity and onely manifested in time for if it were passed then and onely manifested now it might from hence be argued that the world was created from eternity and so is eternall and the glorious work of creation in the beginning had only been a manifestation of that which was from everlasting And how absurd if not blasphemous must such a fancy be It is trâ—e that as God before the foundation of the World did decree all things to be done in time so he decreed to passe this sentence But the decree it self without the issuing out and exercise of an almighty executive power is no sentence In eternity before time no man was created no sin committed no Saviour promised no law published no duty of faith performed no person convenâ—ed no promise pleaded and therefore no sinner believing justified 2. For the place 1. It 's not passed in Heaven and only there for no Scripture saith so neither is there any meanes discovered how the poor guilty sinner should know whether it be past or no and if past when and so till it be known to be passed and that certainly the believer must alwayes be in doubt The cause indeed is pleaded in Heaven by the great High Priest and his plea is effectual But that the sentence is always passed presently upon the cause pleaded cannot be proved It 's true that if a man doth certainly know his faith and the sincerity thereof he may certainly know his right unto justification and so he knows his cause to be good in Law He is justified in law-title that is he
is justifiable by Law But whether this be all the justification the Scripture speaks of especially the Writings of the Apostles shall be considered hereafter 3. It cannot be the sentence only of the Church or Minister because they do not alwayes judge and absolve Clave non errante infallibly and so one may be absolved on Earth and not in Heaven or in Heaven and not on Earth either in foro interiori aut extâ—riori as many use to expresse themselves It 's true that when it is exactly agreeable to Gods rule then it 's ratified in Heaven that is by Christ and manifested so to be by the execution For Gods sentence is not a bare word or distinct sound in the Aire 4. It 's not the sentence of the conscience For conscience is neither the supreme judge nor infallible 5. That it 's not pronounced by inspiration or enthusiasm as the words are ordinarily taken will easily be granted 6. Whether it be signified to the soul in man by some real operation with some execution is more disputable That it is signified by some real operation of the spirit with execution seems very probable if not very certain But let others judge when they have considered these places following The justified by faith have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ by whom also they have accesse by faith into his grace wherein they stand and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God c. And the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the holy Ghost which is given them Rom. 5. 1. 2 5. Believers in Christ by the spirit mortifie the lusts of the flesh and are led moved acted by this spirit have received the spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father This spirit witnesseth to their spirit that they are the Sons of God having the first fruits of the spirit they groan within themselves waiting for the Adoption the Redemption of their body Rom. 8. 13 14 15 16 23. Now he that stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1. 21. 22. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren 1 Ioh. 3. 14. God will give him that overcommeth a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it Rev. 2. 17. 1. All these places with many more speak not onely of Believers but Believers justified and in this life 2. All these places either expresly or by consequence speak of the Spirit of God and of this Spirit in us and the effects of this Spirit in particular persons 3. The Effects are Divine and such as onely God can produce 4. These Effects are the shedding of the love of God that is the Manifestation the evident and abundant manifestation of God's special love accepting us to Eternal Life the Sanctification of the Spirit and enabling them to mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh and acting them to Obedience Adoption whereby call upon God as a Father their Father and giving them boldness and confidence to approach the Throne of Grace testifying inwardly testifying in them and to them that they in particular are the Sons of God and Heirs of Glory giving them assurance of Eternal Glory as giving the first-fruits thereof being a Seal and Earnest of the same making them know and certainly know that they are passed from Death to Life and that God is in them and they in God and that God abides in them and they abide in God 5. All these signifie and declare and that evidently that there is a great change wrought in them both for disposition and condition For disposition they are regenerate and sanctified For condition they are in the state of Life not of Death of Salvation not of Damnation and neither of these can be without Justification actual And this change is the more evident because the Spirit abides in them constantly as a constant Spring of Sanctification and unspeakable consolation and joy 6. Therefore God by this Spirit in them by these Effects and real operations speaks plainly with some execution that particular persons in this life are justifyed not merely by the Promise of the Law but the Sentence of the great Judge God's Word is not like man's word which is a bare sound but it 's a Word with power It 's like the Word of Creation saying Let there be Light and there was Light like the Word of Christ to the man of the Palsie Arise take up thy bed and walk and presently the thing is done Health and Strength is given He takes up his bed and walks and so his sins were forgiven and the remission was signified by a real operation and word of power And certainly there is no greater Evidence of sin past forgiven then power given to subdue sin for the time to come and after fear sorrow and trouble of men sweet peace joy and Heavenly Consolation 〈…〉 this Word which the Spirit speaks within is the very same Word with 〈…〉 Word which the Spirit speaks without us in the Scripture Yet with this difference that there it is a Promise made to all Believers in general here a Word with performance unto particular Believers The Word is not the Sentence of the Conscience The Witness of the Spirit is not the Witness of Conscience The Sentence of the Spirit is infallible the Sentence of the Conscience is fallible The Spirit is the Supream Judge by which God so justifies as no man can condemn the Conscience is an inferiour and subordinate Judge and the Sentence thereof may be revoked and made void The Spirit speaks with power and produceth Divine Effects and in the very Soul and such as neither Man nor Angels can produce These or like Effects the Conscience cannot reach If any say or ask How can God pass this Sentence but by the Conscience It 's answered That such men seem to be ignorant what the Conscience is and what the Sentence of it is what the different Sentences of the Conscience before and after Justification be The Sentence of the Spirit is a principle but that of the Conscience a conclusion And the Spirit must speak by these real Effects before Conscience can certainly conclude Justification to be past or the state of Justification to be present But this Point will receive some further Light § VIII after that we understand what this Judicial Act of Justification is Yet here ye must know that the act of Justification is one thing and the state of the party justified is another and they must be distinguished as cause and effect The general nature of it is that it is not the Promise of the Law nor the convention of the party to be judged nor the discussion of the cause but it 's a Sentence Yet because there 's a Sentence against a party and a Sentence for
Spiritual as opposed to Temporal For otherwise Bodily punishments which we call Temporal may by continuance be Eternal To pass by therefore these Temporal Penalties one Spiritual Punishment and the greatest is the want and loss of the Holy Spirit to be a continual and constant Principle and cause of Sanctification This Spirit was given Man in the day of his Creation and was taken away from Adam and in him from all his Posterity by the judgment of God and a Sentence yet in power and force and to continue to the end of the World The Law indeed of Works is abâ—ogated but it was in force at that very time when the Sentence was passed and upon the Promise of Christ the Law was abrogated as a Law of Works but the Sentence remained in force still Concerning the sanctifying Spirit we may observe and consider 1 That the loss and so the want of it is a punishment 2 This punishment lying upon every Man before this Spirit be restored presupposeth a guilt 3 This punishment and guilt is never taken away till this Spirit be restored 4 This Spirit may be testored for preparation of a sinner for justification or in and after to continue as a constant cause of Sanctification Or as others express it for perpetual Habitation to prevent the Dominion of Sin and Damnation for time to come It doth not prevent all sin and so the contracting of new guilt nor is given in that measure to us and this is the reason why your estate of Justification is not perfect at the first 5 God never justifies any man with that justification whereof Paul speaks in the Epistle to the Romans and Galatians and elsewhere but in justifying them He gave them instantly this Spirit as the Spirit of Christ to be in them a constant cause of Regeneration and Sanctification and therefore that Justification is not without some Execution 6 Consider this restoring of the Spirit as the removal of a Punishment and the loss and want of the Spirit as a Punishment it must needs be essentially included in Justification and Remission of Sin For that which 1 Takes away the Punishment of sin And 2 The Guilt and Obligation unto Punishment is properly remission of sin If the Punishment as a Punishment should remain so far as it doth remain it doth invincibly prove that the guilt is not taken away so far and in that respect If any distinguish of the Sentence and Execution and make the one the cause the other the effect I will not quarrel about words Onely I will demand Whether it 's not better to say in this particular judgment of God that the Sentence and Execution are really the same and differ onely in respect or at most in degree 7 The active sanctification of this Spirit taken in it self either habitually or actually and as inherent in us can in no wise be Justification or any Branch of Justification as Justification is a remission of sins For God gave this Spirit to Angels He gave it to Adam in the day of Creation and this Spirit did sanctifie and now doth sanctifie the blessed Angels yet this Sanctification is not reâ—mission But consider remission of sin as a removal of punishment as punishment whether of sense or loss deserved by sin and the loss of the Spirit and the blindness perversness and slavery under the power of Sathan following necessarily upon the taking away and denying the Spirit by a just Judgment as a Penalty then this restoring of the Spirit must needs put on another Notion as it hath another Nature This restoring of the Spirit is so necessary that a bare Sentence without it can give a man no comfort nay Heaven without it is no Heaven or place of Bliss and abode But lest I may be thought to agree with the Doctrine of the Councel of Trent or at least come too near it Let us consider what they say Their Doctrine Sess. 6. Cap. 7. is this That Justification is not onely remission of sins but also the sanctification and renovation of the Inner-Man by the susception of Grace and Gifts whereby or whereupon a man of unjust is made just and of an Enemy a Friend that he may be an Heir according to the hope of Eternal Life And afterwards The onely formal cause of Justification is the Righteousness of God not whereby he is just but whereby He makes us just They mean inherently just Thus far they Now let 's examine Whether there be any Agreement between the former Doctrine and this And 1 I grant with all our Divines that Justification and Sanctification go always inseparably together and this they of Rome know well enough to have been always the constant Doctrine of the Reformed Churches 2 They say that Justification is not onely remission of sins but Sanctification I say it 's onely remission 3 They assert that this Sanctification and Renovation is by voluntary Susception and so understand this Sanctification passively as formally inherent I make neither Sanctification active nor much less passive as considered in themselves to be justification nor any part of justification 4 They make the formal cause of Justification to be this Sanctification I utterly disclaim this I had said before that Sanctification in it self is no remission and is in Angels without any such thing and do affirm that this Sanctification as they understand it is no part of that justification which the Gospel speaks of and that the restoring of the sanctifying Spirit for Renovation as an act of God as Judge for to remove a punishment as a punishment and the obligation thereunto is properly remission And here I cannot but much wonder what these Tridentine Divines did understand by Remission For if the formal cause of Justification be Sanctification and inherent Righteousness as they make it so to be I find no place nor need of any place for remission Yet first they make it a part of Justification distinct from Sanctification It 's neither final nor efficient nor meritorious nor material neither by their own words can it enter the formal That this Sanctification considered in it self especially Passive and inherent cannot be Justification is evident For 1 Sanctification thus understood is not properly any act of God as a Judge much less a Sentence passed upon a guilty Wretch 2 That justification of Believers in this life whereof the Scripture speaks doth leave the party chargeable with no sin is perfect and bears out the severity of God's Justice before His Throne This our inherent Righteousness in this life can never do both because we are guilty before and also it 's imperfect 3 A man may be sanctifyed and that perfectly so as to prevent all sin for time to come and yet the party may remain guilty and liable to Eternal Death for the guilt of former sins committed before this Sanctification and not remitted by it Some make remission two-fold Remissio Culpae Remissio Poenae 1. Of Sin 2. Of
absolute Power might have done so yet His Wisdom did not think good to do it neither do we read that he doth it The principal thing to be noted is that this is the principal if not the onely place that speaks of Imputation of Righteousness and this Imputation is Remission of Sinne by a Sentence of the Supream Judge 3 Remission and Justification and Eternal Life is ascribed to the Sacrifice of Christ's Death as the meritorious cause thereof in many other places especially Heb. 9. And Christ is said by one Offering to have perfected that is consecrated the Sanctified for ever Hebr. 10. 14. To be consecrated for ever is to be made compleat Priest to serve the Living God in the Temple of Heaven and to be eternally glorified And this is ascribed to the Death and Offering of Christ. QUESTION III. Whether Justification continued and finally consummate be by Works and not by faith alone as the first Justification is MIne Answer hereunto is negative § XII that neither Justification continued nor finally consummate is by Works but faith onely though that faith be not alone For the Scriptures inform us that there is but one way of Justification of a sinfull man and that is by faith in Christ. For seeing the Apostle determines but two wayes possible the one by Works the other by faith and proves that no man living by Works can be justified in God's sight because all are sinfull no man no not the best without sin no man performs perfect and perpetuall Obedience it seems strange to me that any man should affirm that Justification either continued or finall should be by Works If it be by Works then the reward of Righteousnesse is of debt according to the Law of Works and then it 's not of Grace If it be by works then works must be perfect and such as can endure the severity of God's Justice at our last triall If by works then the worker is so righteous in himself by reason of them that no one can lay any thing to his charge For Justification first and last must look upon man as chargeable with no sin otherwise he will not be justifiable by the most just God But no works of man are such If by works then by faith as a work we may be justified but that cannot be If by works then works may receive Chirst as our Propitiatour and Intercessour But that 's the proper act of faith If by works then we receive not the reward of righteousnesse and eternall Glory as merited by Christ and derived immediately from Christ to us as believing on him and renouncing all righteousnesse in our selves If by works then our finall Justification is not a Remission of sin If by good works then our good works may be pleaded in the title unto righteousnesse and eternal life before the Tribunal of God But the Promise it self and the Reward promised were merited by Christ and God promiseth this righteousnesse and reward for Christ's sake and for his sake alone and he promiseth it unto him and onely unto him that resteth upon Christ and Christ alone for it and pleads Christ's merit and onely Christ's merit upon the promise of God If by good works then good works can expiate our sins and satisfy for our evill works If by works then there is some promise made in the Gospel to justifie us by them and as righteous through them and so righteous that we need not plead Christ or remission upon Christ's propitiation But there is no such promise in the Gospel The Law indeed saith Do this and live But the Gospel saith Confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead and thou shalt be saved Rom. 10. 9. If by works then why doth the Apostle say By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works c. Why might he not as well have said By Grace ye are saved through faith and works It was as easy for him to say the one as the other The power to do good works and our doing of them is a reward derived from Christ by faith For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ephes. 2 8 9 10. After that we are once ingrafted into Christ Jesus we derive all the good from first to last whether for duty or reward from him All the vertues which we have all the good works which we do on earth or in heaven presuppose us in Christ and justified by and for his merits All good works of regenerate persons are virtually in faith receiving Christ and no such faith continuing can be without good works It is certain that as God in the Gospell commands good works commends such as do them promiseth rewards unto Well-doers â—o he will in his last Judgment justifie good Works and the doers of them so as Wisdom is justified of her Children But this Justification is onely Approbation whereby man may justify God as well as God justify man in this manner Therefore we must needs say that as good Works are commanded by God pleasing unto God so they are approved and rewarded of God They so farr as good prevent future guilt take away no former guilt do evidence our faith and Title unto everlasting Glory strengthen our union with Christ because they strengthen faith confirm our hope glorify God give good example unto men make us more capable of Communion with God tend towards the possession of Glory distinguish us from the prophane and hypocrites give some content to our Consciences and there is a kind of happinesse in the doing of them and in the remembrance of them done Blessed are they who alwayes abound in them For they know that their labour is not in vain in the Lord. Yet Bellarmin though a great advancer of Merit thought it not onely safe but the safest Way to put our whole and sole trust not in these our good Works but in Christ. But it is not onely the safest but the onely way so to do if we would be justified before God To say that good Works are a condition of the Covenant of Grace we shall be judged according to our works remission of Sin is promised to such as forgive others and that such as love God fear him serve him do his commandements shall be rewarded and have eternall life therefore We are not justified by faith alone but by good works also is no good arguing If the Sequel be denied as it must be no wit of man can prove it and make it good They may be a condition of the Covenant yet not such a condition as faith receiving Christ as Propitiatour and Advocate and resting upon God's Promise in him alone and such must of necessity be that condition whereby we are justified and stand blamelesse and without Spot before the Throne of God Though we shall be judged according to our works it
revive his Faith if Actual and Particular Faith and Repentance were necessary to actual Remission Though it 's certain that many great sins are remitted upon a General Repentance if sincere 5 That 51. Psalm wherein we have so full an expression of serious Repentance and a very lively faith was not made by a new faith upon a new Regeneration but by his former faith which for the time was Dormant and as it were dead 6 The divine Apostle saith unto his little Children The annoyntment which ye have received abideth in you 1 Iohn 2. 27. And the seed of God is not onely in him who is born of God but remaineth in him Chap. 3. 9. And hereby we know that God not onely is but abideth in us by his Spirit which he hath given us ver◠24. Upon what other ground could Paul be perswaded that nothing could separate true believers from the love of God Rom. 8. 38. And except there were some promise in the Covenant to this purpose why should he be so confident of this very thing that God who had begun a good work in the Philippians would perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1. 6. And lest he should terrifie the Hebrews by his doctrine of the peremptory rejection and perdition of Apostates as though he understood it of them personally He explaines himself saying But beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany Salvation though we thus speak For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed to his name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister Heb. 6. 9 10. Where reall love to Christ and his Saints is joyned with salvation as having an inseparable connexion with it by vertue of the divine ordination Yet he doth not cease in these places and others to presse duties and perseverance because the performance of their duty and endeavour of perseverance was a meanes of Perseverance And surely that God who never deserts man before man deserts him will never totally desert man before man totally deserts him Certainly there is a state of confirmation in this life wherein by vertue of the earnest of the Spirit the Sons of God may be certain of their present right unto and thier future Possession of eternall glory Though few attain to this till the end of thier lives But of this more fully upon another occasion in mine exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews For the present we may observe these particulars 1. That we may make our calling and election sure in this life For we are commanded even in this life to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure For if we do these things we shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. 2. That the highest degree of sanctification in any intellectuall subject Men or Angels may be lost 3. That the perpetual continuance thereof in a created subject depends upon an extrinsecal cause which is Gods perpetual conservation 4. The certainty of our perseverance in this life both for the thing it self and the certain knowledge of it depends upon a promise in the Covenant of grace in Christ. 5. The controversy in this point between the Contra-remonstrants and Remonstrants if both parties had dealt plainly had been near an end and so far more easily determinable For if God hath made a promise that he will put his fear into the hearts of his Children in this life so that they shall not depart from him though they may sin and fail in many Particulars grievously then if the question be rightly stated the quarrel is ended 6. The first proof of the Remonstrants out of Scripture which by some is held unanswerable out of Ezek. 18. it nothing at all to purpose Because it speaks of the judgment of God and his judicial proceedings with Israel according to the Law and Covenant made at Horeb which the Apostle saith expresly is a distinct Covenant from the Covenant of grace Heb. 8. 9. But for the present to lay aside the controversy let us every one endeavour and give all diligence to persevere and every day pray for perseverance for that will be better then to dispute because by this meanes we may attain to that which many do deny But this you must know that no promise can give us comfort upon and in the time of disobedience and neglect of duty Thus far § XIII the continuance of Regeneration The continuance of Reconciliation and Adoption follows which makes our condition to be a condition of peace and joy in this Vale of Death In this I shall be brief because I have spoken more at large of the nature of both formerly It 's God's Will that the continuance of these should depend upon the continuance of Sanctification For no man can be happy if he be not first holy Therefore he that hath the hope of glory and joy upon that hope doth purifie himself 1 Joh. 3. 3. The more God continues to sanctifie and assist us the more we improve our Heavenly Graces the more diligently we practise pray and watch the greater evidence we shall have of the continuance of our Reconciliation Adoption and the greater will be our assurance of God's special love unto us And the greater this Assurance of His love shall be the greater our peace and joy will be The more we love God and the more we keep His Commandements the more He will love us He loved us much before we loved Him and even then He gave His Son to be the Propitiation for our sins But when we receive His Son He loves us more and several ways discovers that His love to us loving Him is everlasting and far greater then the heart of man can imagine And nothing can more quiet and content the heart of miserable man then assurance that God loves him with a special love which He hath manifested already and will manifest it more on Earth and most of all in Heaven For when we are fully glorified we shall fully know how much He loved us And for the present what can disquiet our hearts within when the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us and continued within us Surely no tribulation without no muttering of the Conscience within can disturb our peace abate our joy diminish our comfort We joy in Tribulation and in the midst of greatest Afflictions we can quietly repose our minds in God and sweetly rest in His Fatherly Affection Yet this requires an heart above the Earth and such a measure of Faith as to overcome fears and desires of the World For if we love our God above the World desire Heaven as infinitely more excellent then the Earth scorn the menaces of the Devil and wicked men disdain to look upon the glory and prosperity of the World as not worth the seeking so that no Worldly Cross nor Crown can work upon us to affect