us and we have seen his Glory So the beloved Apostle witnesses of him He took on him not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Thus the Son of God became the son of man being miraculously conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of Mary the Virgin over-shadowed by Gods Spirit and born of her in the humane nature like to us in all things except sin Thus was God the Son made manifest in the flesh by assuming the Nature not the person for then had he been two sons and two persons of man to himself This Man Christ Jesus hath body and soul the two substantial parts of Man even as we have as appear'd in his whole progress both which he hath Glorified not nullified This Fatherless man is as Wonderful as the same motherless God for who can declare his Generation as to the manner of it Thus Infiniteness confined himself God eternal was born of a finite poor Virgin Here is an Object indeed for the best knowledge of the best man God become man 3. Christ is God-man Emmanuel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God with us The true Ithiel God with me the very Vcal who is All. In him by hypostatical Union the humane nature with the Divine do both subsist in God the Son the second person of the divine Trinity Here is indeed a complication of ineffable wonders As there one Divine Nature subsists distinctly in three divine Persons So here two Natures the divine and humane subsist both in one person each of them acting and remaining distinctly conjunctly and inseparably incommutably and unconfusedly as the Fathers expressed it to avoid Errors on both hands Here is no mixtion nor composition no confusion nor conversion but a mysterious and transcendant Union from whence flow the various expressions of Scripture 1. When that is attributed to each Nature which properly belongs thereto as suffering to humane Nature and also when that is attributed to the person which therein belongs to both natures as to be Mediatour this is most proper Secondly When that which is common to the whole Person as to be Mediator is attributed only to one of the Natures suppose to the humane this is more improper Thirdly When that which is proper to one Nature is attributed to the other Nature in concreto by a name denoting the whole Person In that sense its true that God purchased his Church by his Blood and that the King of Glory was crucified by communication of Properties Yet this acception is the most improper of the three being Metonymical as the second is Synecdochical In man two imperfect Natures Soul and Body are coadunated with reservation of Proprieties to the constituting of one Suppositum and Person by the vertue of God Christs Person in the divine Nature being most perfect took the humane nature into the unity of one person by his own Vertue So that its one and the same Christ visible according to the humane invisible according to the divine Nature This hypostatical Union was the work of the Trinity mediately of the Holy Ghost immediately and of the Son terminatively The Fathers compare this Mysterie to the joint work of three Sisters making up one vesture and putting it all conjunctly upon the second of them It was necessary that Christ should be God 1. To impart an infinite value and vertue to his compleat Obedience 2. To overcome all sufferings and enemies 3. To communicate all effectually by his Spirit to his people It was as needful that he should be man 1. Because the Godhead could not suffer Secondly because the same Nature that had offended was to satisfie 3. That our Nature corrupted by the first Adam might be restored by the second Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus is Christs Person the Amiable Object of our Knowledge Secondly CHrist considered in his Office is a precious Object his chief business as Mediator being to procure effectual Reconciliation to the saving of his people by his perfect Oblation presented to God for them and applied to them by Gods Spirit He assumed the Name and function of Jesus the Saviour He was anointed as the Christ of God with all suitable qualifications and made Lord of all but especially made our Lord and Saviour by personal appropriation and effectual application Thus was Christ voluntarily made of a woman under the Law subjecting himself in that wonderful dispensation of his Mediation to receive from the Father his Call to that redeeming Function There was no defect in God but in us only who wanted skil power and will utterly to the curing and saving of our selves Christ therefore was divinely anointed to be our Soveraign Prophet Priest and Prince to effect all for us and in us needful to salvation As a Prophet he Reveals the whole Council of God As a Priest he makes full expiation to God and Intercession for us As a Kingly Prince he subdues all spiritual Enemies and makes all things serviceable to the guidance and protection of his people under his Soveraign Rule and Government All this he did and doth by his Eternal Spirit as the Scripture Records freely fully surely and singularly being therein a glorious Object of Christian knowledge Thirdly Christ in his Progress is considerable under a double state of Humiliation and Exaltation 1. HIs Humiliation appeared in all the steps of his Conception and Birth of his Life and Passion of his death and Burial most wonderfully This God head was then covered with the dark vail of his humane Nature mourning as it were in the sad habit of his infirmities for his peoples Enormities He willingly then eclipsed his divine light within the dark Lanthorn of this submissive state he humbled himselfe to exalt us he emptied himself that he might fill us He parted with all that he might give us all He shewed himself to be the Son of man to the lowest degree that he might bring all his into the state of Children Had there not been an absolute necessity thereof he had never done it Had not our case been so desperate could any other way have expiated and destroyed his peoples sins Christ had not come down from the height of Glory to the bottom of ignominy Here is an object of admiration indeed God humbled to a childs state growing up by degrees in Stature and Grace doing and suffering every moment for his enemies in rebellious arms Behold the Son of man wrastling with earth and hell yea with heaven it self conflicting with mans rage the devils fury and the wrath of God! What think you of sin the murtherer of this Christ and of that Love which gave him to the death Thus made he his soul a sacrifice for sin that he might see his seed and the good will of the Lord prospering in his hands He laid in the grave to confirm his
tread in his steps hearkening to Satan rather then to God They are still Learning to know good and evil by sad experience This Tree of Life is little observed and less improved mens palats are so far degenerated Most are still scrambling about that Tree for fruit which can yield nothing but sin and sorrow The best of its fruit like to Sodoms Apples look very fair but by the least touch turned into Ashes Most men break their necks in clammering about and climing of that Tree whose fruit brings death If that fruit seem hard it s but a shell if it appear soft it s through rottenness In every condition men study something but most mind least this choice Tree of Life Christ is Divine Wisdom Essentially and Personally In him are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge He keeps open school and sends his Spirit to be his Usher He teaches within by motions of Conscience and without us in his Word and Providence The Volumes of his Truth and of all his works he gives us to read that the former may explain the latter He is the best Master for skil and sweetness Yet few do learn to any purpose because they slight the knowledge of him Men study pleasures profit honor in the world below which are to be had only from him Arts and Sciences others would attain but they miss their aim imâ—missing of him Some gaze at the stars and stumble in the dark like the blind Philosopher for want of Christs Light Many study words to tickle mens ears neglecting Christs Word that would teach the heart Some mind the Law of men so disorderly that they attend not to the Law of Christ The bodies of men are studied by many whilst their own poor souls are wholly neglected The care of souls is professed by some who yet little mind this saving knowledge Divers Parrot-like do speak of Christs knowledge not by experience but only by Roat Too many are found studying how to sin without trouble and sence without stop and Remorse Not a few tempt Satan to tempt them and study how to act a Satanical part of tempting of others Til Christ be the Rule of all our studies they will be fruitless being without Rule Till he be our End they will be sure still to prove endless Til he be the ground and the strength thereof they will prove groundless and supportless still If we learn him well he will teach us all that we need to know If we know him not we shall learn nothing that 's worth the knowing Knowledge is excellent when it s orderly learned and improved but it proves mischievous when it s once corrupted and abused Such men like Toads carry a stone of worth in their heads being full of poyson in their heart and Life Like monstrous Syrens they have a fair face but a shameful Tail The tinkling Cymbal and the sounding Brass is the fit Emblem of too many now The Lord teach us to study Christ stil in all above all that we may know all in him and for him Second Vse is for reprehension both to the Graceless and to Gracious souls 1. IT justly reproves the Graceless and unregenerate that still many wayes stand against this Truth as 1. All ignorant ones that do not know and will not learn Christ Such live in the dark as Moles under ground and Owls or Bats in the open ayr They are born blind and will continue so not looking for cure It was so of old and it s so stil my people parish for lack of knowledge was the Lords complaint A people of no understanding shall find no mercy from him that made them Consider it well Gross wilful ignorance will aggravate not lessen your sins Under Gospel-Light such Ignorance is very dreadful This is a sad condemnation indeed that seals up the full measure of all other sins Men think they see and therefore remain blind None are such fools as the conceited wise My people is foolish saith the Lord again they have not known me They are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Men pretend business they have not leisure like the Duke of Alva who had so much to look after on earth that he had no time to look after Heaven But is not this egregious folly to slight the Jewel and mind only the cask If you have not so much time as others why do not you Redeem what you have should not you rather spare it from your sleep work or Recreation then from this Jewel so much concerning both Gods honour and mans good Is Christ so little worth knowing and owning Will not you rue it to eternity Is not sinful darkness the beginning of Hell and utter darkness Is it not the womb and Nurse of all sin If Papists be content with picture-Teachers and blind obedience slighting and slandering the Word of God should their folly be followed among us Is the Light of Christ so to be disowned If the servant that knows not his Masters will shall be beaten though with fewer stripes what will become of him that would not learn to understand his will 2. All negligent ones that will not take pains to attain unto this gracious knowledge Such may possibly enjoy special helps they may have pregnant parts profess fair and seem to desire good but they are sluggish they improve not all means and prove lazy in their enquiries after Christs wisdom This is a sad and common evil Many such shall seek to enter in and shall not be able He that asks lazily teaches denyal The lazy servant that hoarded up his Talent smarted sore for it None can be excused for such a neglect Is not Christ well worth the taking pains for Who looks for a conquest without trouble Who expects a crop without care cost Who can drive a Trade without pain and venture Is not this the best Trade and Husbandry the best warfare and surest Venture Who gets acquaintance with the Lords wisdom without crying waiting and searching Why art thou content with a Velleity and a woulding will without endeavour like the sluggards wish Why art thou pleased with barren desires and fruitless Resolves If thy seeming longing make thee not active and inquisitive impatient of delay and unsatisfied it s a false longing If thou be not better then the stony ground lasting but a while and soon blasted what will thy end be Dost thou not hereby reproach Christ sadly by preferring creatures before him Thou wilt Repent when it s too late if Ephesus warning do not rouz thee up Be convinced then of thy laziness be ashamed and weary of it It concerns thee to see thy folly and thy misery 3. This Truth looks wishly upon Formalists that have indeed a form of Godliness but deny the Power thereof
they should be left to sin and suffer for their sin so considering them in massa corrupta this Act of his purpose is called Praedamnation being an Act of his Justice whereas the former is properly an Act of Soveraignty As Soveraign he passed by them absolutely but as a just God foreseeing their sin he fore-appointed them to Wrath. These various expressions denote one intire continued perfect Act of the divine Essence set out after our apprehension diversly and having distinct Denominations but externally from its several Objects being still immanent in God from Eternity non-transient They all set forth his Grace in the freeness and fulness in the singularity and sureness thereof Thus Christs knowledge improved will vindicate his Truth from all aspersions of injustice unmercifulness and unfaithfulness In all this he is just wronging none being bound to none He is mercifull in chusing and predestinating some He is faithfull and true observing his word exactly Blind eyes cannot sore eyes will not see this clear Truth with delight but fret at it as Cavillers in Pauls time with heavy charges But the Wisdom of Christ must be justified of her Children now as she was by himself and by his Apostles then It must needs wrong the Grace of Christ much to make it depend upon the foresight of faith or any thing else in the Creature and giving the Creature a priority at least so far God first appoints what shall be and so foresees that it shall be else he were not the first and last As God is eternal and certain so is his purpose eternal and certain The figments of mens brains are loathsom Idols that would bring God down to mans shallow reach and fall as Dagon before the Ark. 20. Christs redeeming Grace is much wronged First By the former mistakes Secondly By Pelagians Papists and Arminians First In extending it to all and every man individually alike so that Judas was as much redeemed as Peter in their sense Secondly In restraining it to a meer salvability or putting mankind into a Power of being saved and acquiring to God a new Power of saving men Thirdly in unsetling it and making it an uncertain Meteor wandring up and down among men waiting on their free Will to embrace or refuse it at their List Fourthly In enfeebling it so as that it hath with them no Power or Efficacy to save those so redeemed but that a person whom God in Christ did so redeem may perish nevertheless utterly Fifthly By divers of late who appear much more sober and godly yet incline too much to those dangerous Errors Sixthly By the Socinians Familists Behmenists Quakers who either wholly deny it or pass it in silence as needless and useless AGainst this Poison Christs Antidote improved will give singular help it will shew the Al-sufficiency and Efficacy of Christs oblation to all the Elect for whom he did fore-know those he did predestinate he called justified and glorified The necessity and operation thereof it clears also None but God man could save lost man Nothing but the full Obedience of him could satisfie infinite Justice and procure infinite Mercy Christ had not died had it not been of absolute necessity Without the blood of God there was no Remission That blood must needs be efficacious and saving to all redeemed by him For if whilst we were enemies we were reconciled to God by his death much more being reconciled shall we be saved from wrath by his life There is indeed First An external and professed Redemption which is mentioned in Scripture that proves ineffectual to eternal salvation Thus Apostates deny the Lord that bought them generally professedly Thus he is said to redeem the whole Creation It mentions in that sense a temporal Salvation generally for thus he saves both man and beast All Apostates professed to be redeemed by him and they were outwardly redeemed from much gross evil Secondly There is an eternal Redemption of Grace to Glory peculiar to Gods elect This differs from that as far as Heaven from Earth Christ the Redeemer is indeed Lord of all and makes use of all for the good of his redeemed ones The devils themselves and brutes are thus generally under his dominion as all Reprobates Yet it follows not that he died for them Gods Elect are the proper Objects of redeeming Grace All things else below come in accidentally secundarily subserviently and comprehensively under consideration in Christs Redemption which makes them all to advance Gods honor and his peoples good There is a dubious Homonymy in this word Grace which occasions much mistake Many take it generally for any favour shew'd by God to man But Scripture limits the sense thereof in most if not in all places to his peculiar favour shew'd to his Elect in Christ reaching their Redemption and Salvation efficaciously and infallibly Other Creatures enjoy many gifts as Abrahams secundary offspring but his Elect as Isaac alone his Inheritance This advances the Glory of Christs Grace in every consideration To make his blood impotent and uncertain cannot but much eclipse it His freeness and fulness his sureness and choiceness appear orientally in this redeeming Grace Neither may any Creature complain of any wrong herein Is not he free to do with his own what he pleases Was he ever bound to any Creature Doth any suffer but for their sins Doth not God make good every Word of his Christ was never a half-Saviour He came not barely to make men salvable but to save effectually and to the utmost His Redemption is as absolute as the Fathers Election though the offers of Grace be conditional indefinitly tendred to all sorts Christ came not to purchase any new Power to God but to fulfill his purpose in his effectual procuring of Salvation for all his He came for his lost sheep whom the Father Gave him to fetch them home efficaciously The Sons Redemption must needs keep parallel with the Fathers election Had salvation been intended to each man what could have hindred the effecting thereof If Christ died for Judas as for Peter then is Peter little more then Judas beholding to Christs Redemption It s not Christ it seems that makes the difference but some thing else If he died for them both but not alike then was his death therein peculiar to Peter which makes the difference Then was it impossible that Judas could be saved without that special thing and it was as impossible that he should have it seeing it was not intended to him To what purpose then did Christ die for him He was not salvable it seems by the grant supposed What else he had was common to him with other Creatures good in it self but abused by man That Christ came not to restore whole mankind appears in that every one is never effectually restored to primitive state Where the
A Soveraign Antidote AGAINST Sinful Errors the Epidemical plague of these latter dayes Extracted out of Divine Records the Dispensatory of Christianity FOR The Prevention and Cure of our Spiritual Distempers By Claudius Gilbert B. D. and Minister of the Gospel at Limrick in Ireland Luke 21. 8. See that ye be not deceived 2 Thes 2. 8 9 10 11 12. Whose coming is after the working of Satan in all Power c. and in all deceivableness c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecan Axioma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehova Medicus tuus Exod. 15. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui seipsum habet prosapiente habent eum Deus homines pro Ignaro London Printed by R. W for Francis Titon and are to be sold at the sign of the three Daggers in Fleetsheet 1658. To the Honourable Colonell Henry Ingoldesby Governour of the Precinct of Limrick and Clare and to the Inhabitants of the City of Limrick Honoured and Beloved in the Lord. THe substance of this Tract was through the Lords help preached lately in your ears and is of right now presented to your eyes that through his Grace it may the better reach your hearts The subject thereof is as seasonable as its excellent The Lord make it yours as profitably as it s made yours affectionately The choice usefulness of its provisions will make full Amends for the plainness of its Order and Dress It s not my work to tickle and flatter you but to reach healing and food to your souls A Signal hand of Heaven brought me over and fixed me here near five years ago by the same good hand have I been kept here in the Lords charge ever since We have had much cause still to mind and improve the wonderful dealings of our God towards us from that very day as in former seasons Variety of Dispensations hath he carried us through both publiquely and personally Visits of Iudgement and then of Mercy we have had from him again and again No wayes hath he left unattempted that might do us good though our Returns have not been answerable The Sword Famine and Plague ranged in these parts upon Gods Errand at my first coming and continued a considerable time I was thereby occasioned to contribute my utmost by the Lords Aid to the relief and cure of mens souls and bodies It was then my cordial delight and desire to spend and be spent for the good of Limrick as the same is still my design and labour through the assistance of Heaven The Voyce of Gods Rod cryed loud to this City then that the man of Wisdom might observe his Name who had appointed it in hearing his Rod. Our Heavenly Physitian saw it best then to diet and physick us suiting his Prescripts to our distempers Few in this place did miss of a Touch the deeper smartings of many among us warned all the rest Our sins deserved much worse from his hand yet he afflicted us very favourably In the midst of wrath he remembred mercy and stayed his rough wind in the day of his East wind After Purgations he gave us Cordials and turned in due time our mourning into joy Thanksgivings followed our humiliations and our bitter waters were turned into sweet Wine The Springs of Elim followed our Marah and they reaped in joy that had sown in Tears If the peaceable fruit of that Rod may in Righteousness appear among us the Glory will be his and the Comfort ours If our ill humours have been kindly removed it will best appear in the right use of our health If any grow wanton after Recovery shame and sorrow will be their portion It glads my heart that Gods Word and Works have not been quite fruitless in the midst of us yet I cannot but lament with a bleeding soul the sad improvements of his renewed Kindness What could more be done for us then he hath done Why then is our fruit so wild and so empty That it proves better with any of us it s of his Grace that divers others seem to grow still worse it s through their fault The Lord hath bestowed much cost upon us but like the cursed Ground we bear still many weeds He hath not spared for dressing or dunging it will much aggravate their sin and judgement if any of us remain still barren The good Husbandman hath cast in good seed in this Ground of his but the enemy hath crept in in the dark to scatter his Tares Multiplicious Errors still spread among us as in other parts which grow much faster then Christs spiritual Plants Too many are found to play with their Light and abuse it to do the Devils work by That good Word which proves savour of Life to some proves too often savour of Death to others The Spirits of divers are grown so childish that neither Barnabas nor Boanerges will please their Palate God hath restored us to health and plenty but many souls are still diseased and starved Sinful Infection troubles all Relations yet is little felt because spiritual Much malignity attends those ill humours which work so strangely and perniciously Some are Brain-sick with giddy Notions and others heart-sick with feavourish Affections The Heads of some labour with Convulsions the Vitals of others suffer defections Spiritual Lethargies benumb some into sleep and mortal dreams raging Phrenzies do inflame some others Some are merrily mad with pleasing Conceits others melancholy through a sullen spirit Lethal Apoplexies take some few suddenly and spiritual Palsies seiz upon others more gradually Some have lost Appetite to the dainties of Heaven others seem to hunger but digest not well Spiritual Rickets do possess divers and sinful Gouts trouble not a few Various obstructions disorder mens souls whence the disfiguring of their Life and Acts. Internal stoppages often discolour the external man the falling-sickness and the swounding fits do also take turns in souls and Societies Consumptions and Dropsies appear so visibly that they prognosticate but Ominous things Sad Symptoms are seen in mens faces and speech their tongues and breathings concurring therewith If you feel their pulse and Beatings of heart you may soon descrie Syncopal Tokens Schirrhus ' s and hardness are easily felt swellings and sores manifest themselves Thus this world appears a sinful Hospital for the God of mercy to give visits to What comes away from men proves a Semeiotick that points at the Cure by sad Characters The Causes of such dangerous Affects must needs be various and multiplicious Diseases complicate and inveterate bespeak a difficult and a dubious Cure Secresie and strength add much to that evil besides senslesness and unruliness Disorder in food and in exercise with sloth and slumber aggravate the same Strains and Ruptures with Dislocations Tumors and Wounds manifest more evil Humours and spirits being distempered do soon disorder the substantial parts Excess in Repletion and vacuity in number and extent still do make it
not admit of conviction or cure 16. As ignorant sots fitter for the Asses scourge Balaam-like then for rational course and company 17. As empty vain Boasters speaking great swelling words of vanity 18. As subtile Deceivers alluring through the Lusts of the flesh and much wantoness of spirit in fair promises of Liberty such as had clean escaped from them that live in Error 19. As relapsing Apostates like the dog turning to his vomit and the sow washed to her wallowing in the mire Thirdly He sets forth Prophetically a ranting Crue of scornful mockers that should pester the latter dayes whom he doth accurately paint out in this third Chapter that we might be effectually provided against such a storm Scoffers saith he shall arise walking after their own lusts deriding the promise of Christs coming wilfully ignorant of the Angels fall the worlds drowning Sodoms firing and all such Preludes of divine vengancee upon all impenitent Infidels Thence he hastens towards his close by sure demonstrations of that grand Truth which they mainly opposed Christs last coming he lively represents and assures of which would be sudden seasonable and successfuls That Christ of Gods so much slighted by men shall come upon them saith he as a thief in the Night to fulfill that divine Word which hath reserved heavens and earth to be burnt up with fire then shall the heavens pass away with a great Noise the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth and works therein shall be burnt up Thereby moving all Christians to have a singular care of holiness and Godliness in Heart and Life But least the friends of Christ should be troubled at the terribleness of his Approach he promiseth to them a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Thereby he Revives their hearts and presses them to improve savingly what others abuse desperately The patience of God bearing so wonderfully with all gives his Elect time of returning home and renders the rest inexcusable This he uses as a strong Incentive to Re-inforce on them his former Exhortation whereto also his fellow-Labourer Paul had in his Epistle cogently pressed them His writings so divine as all other Scriptures could not escape the abuse of wicked minds and Reprobate Consciences They were then as still they are shamefully wrested by unlearned and unstable souls to their own and others destruction He therefore with the more vigour charges Gods people to study and observe them with more diligence and sobriety with more prudence and circumspection with more sincerity and self-denial Therefore ye Beloved saith he seeing ye know these things beware lest ye be led away by the Errour of the wicked and so fall from your own stedfastness but grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Thus you see the ushering in of our Text to give us an excellent Counter-poison against all sin and Errour suted to the Complexion of these latter dayes in a peculiar manner and that by way of Epilogue and Conclusion III. This Epilogue or close sums up all in an Emphatical Exhortation by a pressing Disuasive from evil v. 17. and a pregnant persuasive to good ver 18. 1. THe Dissuasive expresses three main particulars 1. The proper subject of damnable Errors viz. wicked Lawless persons 2. The contagious danger thereof good men themselves being too ready to be led away thereby and so to fall from their own stedfastness 3. The singular method of self-preservation from it by improving of all divine Warnings to the faithful keeping of our selves in our stedfastness 2. The Persuasive in ver 18. Exposes also three choyce things to our consideration 1. The chief Ingredients of our spiritual Antidote Viz. the Grace and Knowledge of Christ 2. The gradual compleating and fitting therereof by growing therein 3. The due Application of the same in Opposition to that infectious Venom by a proportionable Improvement or this Antidote implyed in the particle But but grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ These several Points are to be more distinctly viewed to our present purpose 1. From that special Attribution of Errour to wicked men which our Apostle pathetically expresses by the double demonstrative particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby he Emphatically denotes their property and Interest in such a way of Error We may observe to good purpose that Doctrine 1. Lawless wicked Persons are exceeding subject to be carried away with destructive Errours The Godly may accidentally fall into them but the ungodly are peculiarly totally and finally carried away therewith 1. WIcked Ones are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Lawless or boundless ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Privative adversative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex Law They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opposite to Gods Law as well as destitute of it They love not they know not they own not Gods law they observe it not whereas the regenerate delight in Gods Law as Paul though they look not to be justified by the works of it Gods Law is the Revelation of his Will concerning mans duty fully Registred now in the Scriptures of Truth the perfect Rule of Faith and obedience summed up in Gods Statute-books of the old and New Testament Errour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wandring from the Truth either Natural Moral or Spiritual either in foundation or superstructure According to the Import of the Truth opposed so is every error more or less dangerous Those Errours are damnable in the Apostles phrase which deny or destroy Fundamental Truths as about the Natures Person and Office of Christ Mediator the misery of man his Recovery by Grace the need of Regeneration resting on Christ alone c. To be led away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be carried by the force of a torrent and stream or in a croud and hurry Thus Lawless men are hurried away by the fraud and force of Error into evil thence ver 12 13. they are compared to natural bruit Beasts fiercely running to their destruction It hath been too sadly confirmed in all Ages specially in our dayes Those grand Seducers and their prime followers which did so much pester the Apostolical Churches are thus described and we are told at large what monsters of wickedness should follow their steps Paul and Peter John and Jude set them forth in lively portraictures as Christ himself had done before Scripture and Ecclesiastical History do fully demonstrate it In this very Chapter and the foregoing the direful characters given by our Apostle of those Impostors that would successively disturb Christianity demonstrate it ex abundanti Such were Simon and Menander Ebion and Cerinthus Basilides and Priscillian of old Paracelsus and David George Muncer and John of Leydon with many more of later date Reason 1 The Reigning corruption of such Lawless ones must needs incline them
to him and delight in him thy design for him and endeavour after him If so thy fear is the fruit of his Spirit so far as it drives thee not from him but draws thee to him Answ 3. What makes thee complain of thy Ignorance Is it not thy esteem of the Knowledge of Christ Art thou weary and ashamed of thy Ignorance Art thou still wrastling against it for attaining of Knowledge Ar thou diligent in all the means he affords thee to dispel darkness and get light from him Dost thou bewail thy deadness and dulness thy sloth and selfishness thy formality and hypocrisie thy worldliness and unfaithfulness Is it thy greatest trouble and grief thy shame and sorrow Dost thou act the more humbly and self-denyingly the more watchfully and industriously in thy general and particular calling If so the comfort is thine and thou wilt know it in the best time Answ 4. There are divers degrees in the school of Christ and divers manners of his dealing with his Disciples Thou must not measure thy condition by others so much as by his Rule The least degree of his Grace deserves thanks though we must not rest there There are many little weaklings in his house which must not be slighted nor mis-judged of because they are not so strong and healthy as others The smoaking flax and the bruised Reed are neither to be quenched nor broken in his House till he bring forth Judgement into victory according to Truth Vse 5. This point should be improved in a pressing Exhortation to all Nominal and real Christians Doth it not concern every sort of men to look after such a singular Jewel Doth any need Incentives to move thereto Is there not matter enough already expressed to inflame all our hearts after it Is not this knowledge the most profitable the most pleasurable the most honourable that can be conceived Is it not still of absolute need and singular use Is any good to be had any evil to be avoided without it Is not this the Field that holds the Treasure and the Pearl of Price Doth it not bewray an ignoble spirit to neglect and slight it Is not this Jewel the Quintessence of Good that will sanctifie all conditions to any of us Be we all pressed then to make it our business to look after it as the wise Merchant after the Pearl of Price he seeks and finds it he sels all for Joy and buys it out right Do you so likewise that you may be enriched thereby Two sorts are specially invited hereto the Nominal and real Christian 1. THe Nominal Christian that hath but the Name without the Grace of Christ Sinners of all sorts still unregenerate are comprized here Such of all Ranks are called to Christ though they will hardly give him the hearing We speak to all indefinitely Christs Spirit will speak to his peculiarly We offer to you a singular Jewel to be obtained upon Christs own terms Come and view it well turn it every way there is no blemish in any part thereof Doth any of you see the worth thereof Be then willing also to part with all for it Thy natural sinful and Religious self thou must deny that Christ may be thine The destruction of thy sinful self is the only way to thy salvation Thy sin is thy disease thy poison and plague art thou unwilling to be rid of it Thy natural self will be bettered by putting of it into his keeping who will be sure to mend it for thee Thy Religious self in thy best duties cannot be useful but by being put into Christs own hand But where is the Price to buy it withal It s in Christs Treasury not thine own Thy souls empty hand must be reached forth to receive at once the Price and the Pearl Come to Christ then that thou maist get Christ and through his Spirit maist close with his Father The worst of thy sins shall not keep thee off when thou once comest on conjugal Terms Wilt thou be moved thereto cordially Hear the Embassy sent to thee from Heaven We are Embassadors for the King of Saints to beseech sinners to be reconciled Consider how much is laid up in this to draw home thy soul most effectually Mind then 1. The Person offering the Lord of Glory thy Soveraign the Almighty God All-sufficient Saviour provoked by thee to the utmost that needs thee not and can in a moment crush thee to nothing It s the God of all Grace full of mercy and Truth the Fountain of all good most precious most sweet a most suitable match wilt thou refuse him 2 The matter offered is the only Jewel the sum of all Good God himself to be thy portion fulness of Grace to pardon and purge to quicken and save Treasures of mercy most free and full most singular and sure it s a match with Heaven an extract of Blessings suiting thy state most exactly Here is Wisdom to teach Righteousness to absolve Holiness to renew Redemption to save thee what can thy heart wish that is not laid up here Wilt thou refuse it yet 3. Mind his manner of offering with intreaties and Invitations He waits he knocks he expostulates again and again Mercy kneels to thee beseeching pleading tendring all with open arms bearing with thee forbearing of thee attempting all means of doing thee good Should not this prevail 4. Consider the Person offered to thy wretched self a forlorn sinner a Rebel in Arms a desperate enemy full of Venom and deadly poison a miserable worm sinful dust a Traitor at the Bar under condemnation an abuser of every favor unworthy of the least good a vile Bankrupt a riotous Prodigal utterly undone a starving beggar a drowning wretch a servant of sin a slave of Hell Satans prisoner empty of all good full of all evil Is not this thy picture thy name and state and ten thousand times worse What madness keeps thee from coming to him that would help all this Quest What if I come not Answ Then will thy case prove despenate indeed Justice will speedily send thee to thy place Infinite wrath shall be thy portion thou shalt fare worse then Sodom and Gomorrah in endless easeless remediless Torments All thy mercies shal prove thy Judgements thy own conscience shall be thy witness Recorder Judge and Executioner This very Word shal rise against thee and stop thy mouth to eternity Thou wast fair offered once and wilt know it when the time is past Quest What if I come Answ Then thy case is happy all good is thine thou shalt be as welcom as the lost Son to thy Fathers arms meeting thee half way with Tears with joy with a feast with a royal Robe Thou shalt be married to the Kings own son and Heaven shall rejoyce at the Repentance of such a sinful wretch Object But I doubt I am not elected and then all is in
retain some ill humors that will augment too much Putrefaction if not timely removed Thence the cause of so many Diseases that hinder the growth of the inward and outward man But how dreadful is their condition that stil feed their disease and love nothing but what increases distempers Corrupt nature stil will bring like to like and undo it self by pampering self God provides us very wholsom food in his Ordinances but like foolish children we frowardly dislike it and prefer any trash rather We feed on crude and corrupt matter which breeds choler phlegm and worms a pace Thence an increase of putrefaction which spoils our appetite and taints our palate Want of exercise and orderly care in the wayes of Christ makes us such weaklings and such punies in his Grace and Knowledge How doth it trouble us to see our children wasting with Rickets worms and Feavers through their own folly Is not our case much worse under our many spiritual consumptions stil contracted by our negligence Let is humble us and make us ashamed that we grow so little in that which is good and so fast in that which is evil is it not our folly and our misery Should not it be our shame and sorrow Vse 3. Examination Doth your spiritual Life appear to your self and others by your growth Is it universal proportional and continual Living things do grow in every part stil with proportion and continuance Do you thus spiritually grow in the gracious Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Observe it in the particulars 1. Is it an universal growth both internally and externally 1. Internally do you grow in every faculty and power of the inward man Doth your mind and Judgement your reason and conscience your will and Affections your memory and Sense grow more spiritual solid and substantial Are you better acquainted with his Person and Office Progress and Purchase Relation and Influence Do you feel thereby more vigor and strength flowing into your soul out of his fulness Do you find his Spirit quickning your spirit by every Ordinance and Providence of his to an higher Degree of Grace and Knowledge Are you more sensible of your need thereof as of your own insufficiency to support and supply you in every Relation Do you long for it and delight in it grieving for the want striving after it restless without it refreshed with it Is Christ sweeter and sin bitterer to your soul more and more 2. Externally do your leaves buds and fruit encrease in Loveliness towards God and man Do you grow as Christ did in Grace and Favour Is it your study design and labour to perfect holiness in the fear of God by putting away every filthiness of flesh and spirit through the improvement of his precious Promises Is your growth uniform in its universal augment Do you abhor sins of Omission as much as you do sins of Commission Have you an eye still to the second Table in minding the first and to the first in minding the second Do you make conscience of the least Precept in improving every Promise Doth not your Interest encroach upon Christ or your Neighbours various concernments Are you more sincere and self-denying more couragious and zealous for Truth and for Peace Do you grow in Patience and Prudence also as in diligence and Dependency Are formality and hypocrifie more loathsome stil to you as to God Doth your hand grow stronger and steadier in all offices of Justice and Charity as of Piety and true Devotion Is your speech active and lively is your life speaking 2. Is your growth proportional Doth it answer the measure of every part It s a Monster that grows not aright in Nature and Grace for quantity order and quality Observe how Plants spread with fit proportions and sensitives in every member mind the very growth of your own others Bodies to compare your spiritual case therewith Do you grow downward in self-denial and humility as well as upward in knowledge and comfort Is there no disproportion between your profession and Conversation your parts and practice Are not you sick of spiritual Rickets that puff up the head and waste other limbs Do your sence and motion grow spiritually orderly and fitly Are you not like Mushroms of a sudden monstrous disproportionable growth Hath every faculty its proper increase for the service of all other parts Do you digest well spiritual Nourishment which every part must assimilate into its proper substance and use Doth your increase of Gifts and Knowledge make you to grow in all Judgement of Christian helpfulness towards every Relation above you about you under you Do all the parts of the New creature keep an harmonious symmetry and orderly motion within you Is there no excrescence or exuberance no dislocation or disruption there willingly suffered Are not you like Hydropical Bodies puffed up with wind water and humours Is your Judgement sound and affections warm your will supple and conscience tender your tongue seasoned and your whole man strengthened daily by this gracious Knowledge Doth your Growth answer Christ provisions 3. Is it continual Is it stil your desire and delight design and labour to be found ripening towards Gods Harvest Is your way stil as the morning Light which shines more and more to the perfect day Do you hold on in that gracious course waxing stronger and stronger as he that hath pure hands Do you abhor sinful Remissions and intermissions in your self and others Observe the growth of all living things how they hasten stil after their proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection Is it so with you on a spiritual score Have you learned with Paul to forget things behind and stil press forward Do you therefore labour to cast off every weight that doth hinder you and the sin that so easily besets you The Lord is continually dropping down fatness from Heaven upon you Do you Return thither answer your Receipts thence Are you like a Plant in the Lords Garden spiritual and civil in Church and State ripening still towards a better state Do you mark and bewail your failings neglects Do your fals and slips quicken your pace and your watchfulness Doth others folly teach you more wisdom to walk more steadily in this slippery age whilst the Seducers do wax worse and worse both in deceiving and being deceived Are you stil striving to grow better and better Are you not like the high way stony or thorny ground which are but for a time but like the good ground fruitful to perfection Do you Resemble those true Believers who through faith patience inherited the Promises rather then Judas and Alexander Anannias and Saphira with thousands more that failed half-way Do Hymeneus Philetas and Demas awaken your care and quicken your diligence that you may not prove like to them in forsaking Christ Do you give your Lusts neither Peace nor Truce in your
will still cherish it self-conceit and folly will still be its Nurses Meddle not with pitch to avoid its filth Trie all things aright that you may suck no evil Advice from sure hands will preserve you much from the common Wo of this erring Age. Improve your own and others Experience confirmed to you by Scripture-Records 5. Forget not Temperance the Nurse of Vertue and the Ruin of vice Let your moderation appear to all men the Lord is an hand Sobriety in all things lawfull must attend abstinence from things unlawfull The supream Physician directs often to this both by his own mouth and his Servants Pen. Intemperance is the womb and breast of all sinfull evil that would weaken you You may soon surfeit with worldly Creatures if you be not singularly carefull that you may grow apace in the things of Christ be very moderate in all other things Nature is content with little and Grace with less where Inordinancy hath not burst the bounds Know well what becomes your Complexion and Condition that you may still cut your garment to your cloth and to your wearing He is rich indeed that hath learn't Contentment the choice Jewel which Christ alone gives Paul studied long and hard for the same being instructed in the School of Heaven Follow his steps to attain his End so shall you know how to want and abound Godliness with Content will be your great gain the Blessing of the Lord will make you so rich as to add no sorrow thereto Sixthly Be very watchfull this is Christs own Rule often inculcated to spur on our dulness We naturally are very drowzy much inclining to sloth and slumber In this sleepy age the wisest Virgins contract infection among the foolish They all slumber and sleep through their own default the Bridgroom tarrying for some longer space then some expected Watch and pray watch and be sober lest ye be surprized ere you be ware You are surrounded with mortal enemies very numerous cruel and cunning Look well to your Guards inward and outward your danger within is often greatest Redeem the time well walking circumspectly not as fools but as wise in these evil days Watch unto all good against every sin so shall you be ready for your Masters comming The lazy Servant shall see him with horror whom the diligent shall welcome with Joy The night of Ignorance Error and all sin is the season that requires this most Troubles of all sorts will attend the same if all due care be not rightly used Christ comes as a Thief unexpectedly both on the former and this latter world whilst robbing Spirits are catching abroad Blessed is he that watcheth and keeps his Garments If any of us be stripped by their Wiles we shall be found naked to our open shame Seducing Spirits do haunt every place with their cheating drugs and Mountebanck Tricks Look well to your selves and to all under you that ye be not poisoned by their Artifice They can cog the dice and shuffle their Cards with all nimbleness and secret methods The Prince of this world is still teaching them to abuse Scripture and corrupt its sense by wresting its words Watch therefore to improve the knowledge of Christ with more vigor zeal and diligence Be moved thereto by further viewing the following point as the Remedy against such Maladies Doctrine VI. Spiritual Growth is a Soveraign Antidote against Error and Apostacy This clearly appears from the respective Aspect of this Text upon the Context as is implyed in the particle But. ERror is a subtile and a strong Poison as doth appear from the former hints It blinds the Judgement and misleads the soul into Satans road of falshood and deceit Spiritual Errors are most dangerous in the great matters of our Salvation Scruples and doubts are more unsettled Error grows fixed and radicates it self In Circumstantials of Religion there is less danger among sober and humble Christians If this disease grow to greater height near the foundation and the noble parts t' will be worse still If once it strike at Fundamentals its intolerable not to be born with The venom thereof is set out in Scripture by the most poisonous Creatures that can be Minerals and Plants Vermin and Serpents do all come short in setting it forth The vilest Excrements and the worst disease cannot sufficiently express its deadliness It s the sad abstract of all kind of evil wherein sin and Sorrow do fully center All sorts even the best being subject thereto in different ways should be made carefull to provide against it As Countryes vary so do their poisons as bodies vary so do their diseases This poisonous disease doth likewise vary on divers accouts to be distinctly known towards a cure Apostacy and Revolt from God is a pernicious evil and the common Attendant of Error which still endangers a Christians stedfastness The word signifies a turning aside and setting mans back against the living God Every sin is Gods enemy and turning to sin is running from God In the first Adam we revolted all and corrupt nature is still bent to sin through the sinfull venom received from him Christ the second Adam came into the world to save his people from their sinfull death by a gracious Covenant published in the Gospel Some do embrace it but externally others cordially Satan is still attempting to turn every man from it by various Errors and Methods of his He prevails with-most to their undoing and gains too much credit with the best This Apostacy and turning from God is total or partial Total Apostacy raigns still in all the unregenerate that do shake off the good ways of Christ Partial Apostacy often distempers the Regenerate to a high degree though it never proves total nor final They turn as far from God as they turn aside into crooked ways being disturbed with the fumes of corruption and temptation They turn from one Truth and then from another by following Satan and his counterfeit Lights from one disease they contract another by the putrifying of their ill humors to more malignity These dreadfull evils need a Soveraign Antidote and a sutable Counterpoison that they may not turn all into confusion All Societies civil and spiritual are very much endangered thereby as well as mens souls Spiritual Growth is a choise Remedy fitted by the Lord for such a disease In every Country Providence affords some Preservative against all diseases and poisons that infest the same Wise Physitians know this very well though they make use of forraign drugs also ex abundanti God hath shewed no less care of the souls of men then of their bodies having sent his own Son to be the Saviour and Lord of his people He is held forth indefinitely to all that will hear and is peculiarly given to such whose heart is by special Grace renewed efficacioussy to the embracing of him
By his Spirit he draws home his Elect from among the rest to a conjugal acquaintance with himself This gracious knowledge is to be improved for a singular Antidote against sinfull Errors It hath appeared to be so in all ages and will still be so upon solid grounds which divine Reason suggests to us Reason 1. Because it removes and prevents the causes thereof External and Internal The cause removed the Effect will cease 1. THE External Causes called evident among Physicians are all such as from without endanger men as ill Company Disorders Infection Wounds c. from Sin and Satan thus spiritually many external causes do still assault us which the knowledge of Christ prevents and removes A well grown Christian hath his senses exercised to discern aright between good and evil The spiritual man judges of all things comparing of them spiritually He is not easily caught into the snare but wisely foresees it and escapes He believes not every Spirit but tries them all by the Lords Touch-stone He is forewarned and forearmed still against Infectious Temptations of all sorts 2. Internal Causes are either Antecedent and remote or continent and proxime which are bred within by congestion and defluxion of several ill humors putrifying gradually and variously to the distempering of the several parts and of the whole also Thus sinfull Corruption doth spiritually disorder mens souls Spiritual Growth affords Christs own help to the purging out of such ill Humors Vapors and Spirits It kils the worms takes away stoppages cleanses the parts by all convenient helps internal and external It purges the whole and then the parts in a due Method using revulsions and derivations with all sort of evacuations So far as Grace is grown up within by the knowledge of Christ so far is corruption purged out gradually He that knows him purifies himself even as he is pure Christs own Physick dispenced daily in his Word and Providence is through his Spirit improved that way He that is born of God doth not so sin as he did before neither can he so sin either totally or finally because the seed of God abides in him As he finds corruption breeding afresh within it s his desire and design his delight and labor to crush the Cockatrice in the shell and suppress the first beginnings He hath a tender heart sensible of the first stirs of the least vain thoughts and keeps himself that the evâ—l one touch him not as before Reason 2. Because it corroborates and fortifies the noble parts and thereby all the rest against all internal Corruptions and outward Temptations Thus health and strength are procured and improved against the malignity of all spiritual distempers Corroboration is a singular help as in the bodies so in the Souls of men against all diseases Ill Humors do leave in the parts affected an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Discomposure which enfeebles it and by a ferment and a sickly Spawn makes it prone to new disorders Error and Sin work in the like manner upon mens souls striking chiefly at the Vitals and Chief The knowledge of Christ duly improved doth orderly eradicate and extirpate it by Communication of his divine strength to vivification of every Grace and Mortification of the old man in all its Members The more a soul lives in him and by him the more of his renewed Supports and supplies come in which compose the Christian into spiritual health rectifying every part All the faculties are secured and fortified thereby against Relapses and struglings of sin Such can do all things through Christ strengthning them The sense of their own insufficiency drives them still to his Al-sufficiency that his Grace may be sufficient for them and his Vertue perfected in weakness Reason 3. Because it derives still a specifick Vertue out of Christ himself whose Soveraign Property mingled with all due means of his appointing affords still a sure Preservative Physicians observe the specifick Vertue of natural Medicines simple and compound which renders the whole effectual towards bodily cures Such a signally peculiar force is found in the Lords choice Antidote dispensed to his Patients The knowledge of Christ duly improved fetches out of him that wonderfull Grace which he mingles with all the Medicines appointed for their good His Blood is that Aurum potabile and Panpharmacum that Catholicon and Elixer of Life which sanctifies all things effectually to his Peoples good The more any soul grows up into acquaintance with him the more use is made of that Soveraign Balm of Gilead flowing from the Physicians very heart The Pelican is said to cure his little ones with his own blood Christ to be sure makes this good to his His Grace is the Basis of every Dose of every Topick of every means appointed by him The strongest poison is quelled thereby the stoutest humors are subdued the sorest obstructions are removed and the worst Maladies cured by the same He healed all manner of diseases and sicknesses among the people in their bodies and souls in his progress on earth and he doth so still by his Spirit from heaven His Word and Ordinances are the proper means used by him for application thereof He employes his servants of the Magistracy and Ministry to observe his will in the right use thereof by all fit helps Spiritual and Civil His Providence points out the case to be dealt with all spiritual skil Our Antidote improved affords every Christian to manage all aright His special Blessing he affords in all according to Promise The Reason is good make good use of it Vse 1. Corollar 1. Hence may we view the Ground and Cure of our spiritual Distempers in all Relations 1. THE Ground is much from want of spiritual Growth in the best as from want of Life in most Were Christ known to better purpose both Church and State would not be so sickly But the most are ignorant of him and the best much too blame Thence so many diseases and sores in all Relations and Societies Every Person every Family finds cause to complain because the Lord Christ is so much slighted No wonder if the sickness increase and the venom spreads when such a Physician with his Antidote are so basely used Wise men easily see whence this evil comes and is aggravated Gross wilfull unbelief is the forest disease that aggravates the case making it desperate This was the case of Gods people of old in the wilderness and Canaan again and again They slighted Christ and his Messengers till they were grown beyond all Remedy It may give us warning 2. The Cure and Method of Relief is hence observable the Lord hath not left us yet remediless There is Balm in Gilead and a Physician there with Soveraign Vertue to cure
themselves to be the Holy Ghost as Simon Magus Montanus David George c. Fifthly All Enthusiasts who father their lies on Gods Spirit c. TO quell this wofull poison your Preservative will set your Judgement right by the Grace and Knowledge of Christs Spirit Thereby you will surely understand that the holy Spirit hath in Scripture ascribed to him the same Titles and Attributes the same divine worship and works which are ascribed to the Father and to the Son and therefore must needs be God blessed from ever and for ever That the working of all Scripture Miracles the penning of all those divine writings the wonderfull quickning of dead souls and bodies and the daily experience of all spiritual Christians do fully demonstrate it That therefore the fanatick illusions and delusions of Revelationists being so opposite to Gods Truth and Holiness must needs proceed from that lying Spirit who perswaded so many of Ahabs Prophets and still possesses the false Prophets of our days to speak and act against the Dictates of Christs Spirit The malicious opposing of the Truth confirmed so undeniably by the miraculous Operations of the Lord The Spirit hath therefore the most desperate aggravations even unto death attending the same because God the Father and Son both are thereby also desperately opposed 6. Against his Office and Function of Al-sufficient and only Mediator for his peoples Salvation move First All the former Hereticks in denying his Deity or Humanity his Parts and Person Secondly All such who mangle the said Function as the Socinians who deny the need and use of his satisfaction for sin Thirdly All such who divide his Mediation work ascribing part thereof to Saints and Angles as the Papists with fond distinctions Fourthly All such as put the said Mediation into the Virgin Mary's hand calling her Queen of Heaven entitling the Psalter to her placing her name instead of the Lords name in the said Psalter giving her Authority over Christ her Son in Heaven promising and expecting more from her often then from Christ as much at least and telling doctorally that God hath divided his Mercy and Justice giving her the Throne of Mercy and reserving himself the Throne of Justice c. as the said Papists Fifthly All such who pretending to sinless perfection and selfish Righteousness do frustrate and nullifie so far his Mediation as the Quakers and such monkish Pharisees To suppress the violence of this poisonous stuff the Grace and Knowledge of Christ improved will shew us clearly still the necessity of Christs satisfaction and Al suffiency of his Mediation that without the shedding of this blood there can be no remission of sin That No Righteousness but that of God-man could satisfie divine Justice That without satisfaction there could be no Reconciliation of God to man that without Imputation thereof to many there could be no discharge of mans Debt That no purchase could be made of eternal Life and divine favour but by that infinite Price paid by Emmanuel That without such purchase orderly applycable there could be no salvation for lost man That Christs mediation alone is Al-sufficient to all those purposes and needs no partners in any share thereof either for Impetration or application That to give the least part thereof to any meer Creature whether in Heaven or Earth can be no better then Idolatry That no Palliation or shifts by distinctions of Dulia Hyperdulia and Latria can cover this Blasphemy no more then Adams figs leaves could cover his nakedness That there cannot be on earth in any meer man a sinless perfection and if it could be had yet it could not satisfie for the evil past in the least That the best are but unprofitable Servants That the payment of a farthing due cannot satisfie a thousand pound debt in Arrears To signifie emphatically the due application and Imputation of Christs Righteousness unto Believers the Scripture cals him Jehovah-Tsidkenu the Lord our Righteousness repeating that name again in the great Promise of Restauration to be afforded to his Israel by vertue of that Righteousness made theirs whence Christs name is Synecdochically and Metonymically ascribed to the new Jerusalem To that import the Lord Jesus incorporates his name with a Christians Propriety into one New name framed by his own Spirit which Paul expresses by his being made unto us of God Righteousness and Redemption and our being made the Righteousness of God in in him as he was made sin for us who knew no sin which must needs be understood by way of Imputation there being no sin inherent in Christ 7. His Priesthood is opposed first By all the formerly named Errors Secondly by the Papists in making new Priests daily and a new propitiatory Sacrifice called incruentum to be offered by them for the living and dead Secondly In joining mans merits to his and thereby patching up a mongrel Righteousness for themselves and others Thirdly In pretended Works of supererogation which are imputed to others by way of Indulgence out of their Churches imaginary Treasure Fourthly In denying the Imputation of Christs Righteousness for the pardon and Justification of his Members Fifthly In giving to mans Righteousness dip'd in Christs blood a meriting value and vertue to satisfie and pacifie Gods Justice and to procure his Mercy Sixthly In making Christs Merits to be but the remote and mediate cause but mans Merits to be the immediate Proxime cause of the pardon Thirdly By such who sever his habitual and his active Obedience from his meriting Oblation given to God for his people and imputed to Believers reckoning only his passive Obedience to be so meritorious and imputative for the reconciling of Man to God Fourthly By Quakers and others who find no need of and little regard an high Priest in Heaven Against such mortal wounds the Balm of our Christian Gilead will afford healing vertue from the due review of his Grace and Knowledge We shall find thereby that Christ Jesus by his personal Righteousness by that one Oblation hath for ever perfected those that are sanctified once for all That a new order of Priests brings a new Law and nuls the former That it was an imperfect Priest and Sacrifice typically ceremonial that needed renewing That to give to a meer Man suppose a Masse-Priest the power of making and renewing a propitiatory Oblation at his Will upon his intent of consecrating is to set him in Christs room yea above Christ and to deny Christ come in the flesh by unavoidable Consequence The Oblation of Christ had not been compleat if it had not been active as well as passive and habitual as well as actual Heart-Obedience being the root and life of all other Redemption is indeed frequently ascribed to his blood and death but it s by a Synecdoche including the rest of his whole Obedience whereof his
force of the Comand but ratifies it He only could do it that is the Lord thereof There is no change made in the quamdiu and continuance nor in the quoties and frequency of the same The whole Precept being moral in part naturally in part positively is perpetual therefore and not to be altered by any Creature That some special time should be observed for Gods solemn worship is moral natural That it should be such a proportion in such a Revolution is moral positive That the duty should be moved from the seventh to the first day of the week makes no substantial change therein but only directs to the season thereof upon pregnant ground Paul clears this by a large demonstration The first day Sabbath was eminently typified in the most notable Providences of the old Testament On the first day Light was created Noahs Ark rested Circumcision was first ordained Israel was redeemed from Aegyptian Bondage on the same day Christs Law was first given by himself to Israel on mount Sinai the cloud of his special presence first rested on them the Tabernacle with his pertinances was rear'd Aaron and his Children first executed their Priesthood On that day his fire from Heaven first came down to consume the Sacrifices to make them acceptable in Christ by his Spirit The Israelites were first solemly by the Lord himself blessed their Princes first publiquely offered to the Lord. So for the new Testament Christ thereon first shewed his Miracles in Cana he first rose and appeared to his Disciples the Saints that slept then rose out of their Graves the holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles solemnly met and thereon still they met for divine worship When the Jewish Sabbath ended by reason of its Typicalness expiring with Christs death then began the first day to be the Christian Sabbath Christ sanctifying it to that end by his resurrection honouring it in a special manner which is the ground given by God himself for the keeping of a Sabbath So carefull were Christ and Christians of it that he bids them pray that their flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath lest it should distract their bodies and souls Prophaning of the Sabbath hath ever been threatned and punished signally as the due observance of it hath been choicely encouraged and rewarded in all Superiors and Inferiors It s the Lords court-day wherein he expects due Homage and Rents from all his Tenants It s his Muster-day for all his Christian Souldiers It s his solemn Feast-day to welcome all his friends It s his weekly Market for the getting in of all heavenly provisions It s his Chancery-day for the sealing and grant of his deeds of Favour What enemies are they to his honor and mans good who slight and abuse that Heaven upon earth It s the beginning of an eternal Sabbath All Cavils against it have been fully dispelled by many choice pieces When Paul condemns the distinction of days his meaning is cleared by the Context to speak of Jewish Ceremonials not of Christian Morals The neglect and abuse of the Christian Sabbath hath been observed formerly and lately to be still the Inlet to all other errors Englands prosperity began in Queen Elizabeths time when the Sabbath began to be duly maintained by Authority The troubles of England began afterwards when the Sabbath was publiquely by Authority profaned and by the same party * The famous Kings and Witagen Mots among the Saxons still renew'd strict Laws for due observance of the Christian Sabbath 15. The Law of Christ is variously abused 1. By the the foresaid Errors 2. By Antinomians denying the Obligation of a Christian to the moral Law 3. By Papists in mangling of it and dispencing therewith at pleasure many ways 4. By Quakers and other Innovators joining too much with Papists 5. By Socinians that rest thereon teaching people the like and so making it their satisfaction to justice and their Salvation AGainst such evils Scripture-knowledge of Christ will help us to see the need and use of that Law of Christ As he printed it on mans heart at first so doth he by his Grace renew it there gradually He published it himself from Mount Sina to his people adding the Ceremonials and Judicials afterwards as fit accommodations of that moral Law suited to the Jewish Church and State The Decalogue then is the sum of that Law which obliges all men without exception The sevetal Explications and Applications thereof we find through the Old and New Testament Christ ratified the same from Mount Zion also in taking away the Pharisaical Rubbish which their false Glosses had cast about it The Apostles further clear and confirm it in their several Epistles and Writings Where the Scripture seems to speak against the Law the sense is cleared by viewing the Context 1. They speak against the justifying Power of the Law through mans weakness since the fall none being able to keep it without fault or to make amends for his breach thereof Thus by the Law can none be justified and the regenerate are not under it to get pardon and salvation by a Law of works The Pharisees thus pressed and owned it and were confuted by Christ and his Apostles Thus also do they sin that do rest upon any Gospel-duty making it to themselves thereby a Law of Works Secondly They speak against the condemning effect of the Law which the regenerate are freed from by Christs Righteousness imputed to them They are not under the curse of it having their sins pardoned by Christs satisfaction made theirs actually through faith in his blood though their sin deserves the Curse yet that reatus and guilt doth not redound upon their persons being taken off by Christ Thirdly They speak often of the ceremonial Law as not obliging any Christian since Christ though it was used indifferently for a while to bear with tender Converts then unsatisfied about the abrogation thereof Fourthly They still own the royal Law of Liberty that moral Law which is the Transcript of Gods holy Will for the Rule of mans Duty in conformity to Gods Image It s called therefore the Law of Christ the perfect Law and the Law of Truth which men do well when they observe and ill so far as they neglect it God indeed writes his Law on his peoples heart but gradually and variously that is to them an internal Principle of Obedience which is still attended by the Law of their Members in opposition thereto This Principle moves them still to observe that Law which God hath given to be their standing Rule perfect and unchangeable Men are as far from his Grace as they are from observing his Law God never leaves his Children without Rule He
Life a Turning of men from darkness to Light and from the power of Satan to God by opening of their eyes and renewing their Will It s expressed by taking away the heart of stone and giving a heart of flesh in putting his Spirit within us and giving a new heart and a new spirit in our special effectual Calling It s said to be our Regeneration and being born again absolutely needful to open an entrance into Gods Kingdom Though there be some Reliques of natural and moral Endowments left in men since the fall in their powers and parts as appears by the Heathens Improvements yet these only testifie the wofulness of mans desperate fall in ruining so glorious a Fabrick Thence the blindness and perversness of his mind and will are so aggravated the crooked distortions of his Affections the searedness and corruption of his Conscience with the disorder of every part are set forth so Emphatically to convince every man Thence men are said before Conversion to be Godless and hopeless because Christless Thence is the wonderful operation of Renewing Grace so extolled still in this new creation bringing forth Light out of darkness in making man partaker of the Divine Nature This supernatural Work is carried on rationally by the Spirit of Christ in a way suitable to mans rational Being He works strongly yet sweetly he opens their heart-springs with a special Key of his own framing This Renewing Grace runs parallel with the Fathers Electing and the Sons Redeeming Grace whom God did foreknow and predestinate those he calls effectually seasonably savingly Their corrupt nature doth much resist it till Grace prevails and conquers all its Forts The outworks of the Mind and Judgement Christs Spirit conquers first thence breaking through the Iron Gate of mans Will into the possession of all the powers and parts of the soul Many sins remain still in every part like so many Cananites and Tories to be gradually subdued These Rebels being broken in their Head and Reign Grace doth orderly dispatch by mortifying exercise The Spirit of Christ carries on his work in supporting and supplying still those gracious Beginnings which are weak at first By the Gospel Light he communicates his gracious Life Thus he perswades enables his people to embrace Jesus Christ upon Gospel terms by a Covenant of Marriage and Adoption Thus is mans dunghil heart by Renewing Grace broken up and dressed into a spiritual Garden sown and set with the fruits of his holy Spirit It differs exceedingly from common convictions and external Reformations as earth differs from Heaven That difference is still morally-specifical though it seems to be Physically but Numerical and gradual It s the same Spirit that works conviction on the Reprobate and on the Elect but not in the same manner He knocks at both and is resisted He leaves the Reprobate justly he opens the Elects heart mercifully and prevailingly The Reprobate may be externally and professedly sanctified in a partial superficial way Gods Elect are specially sanctified universally in every part and gradually through every part Mans free will by sin subjected to Satan is through this Renewing Grace set at liberty so far as Grace prevails The unregenerate is free only to spiritual evil being an enemy to spiritual good The Regenerate soul is so far free to spiritual good as it s renewed When Grace is compleated in Glory the soul like good Angels shall be free only to good The Nature of mans will is thus bettered by Grace which was made a slave by sin The Devils and damned do freely will sin so do unregenerate souls on earth yet necessarily Thus necessity man stand with freedom both to good and evil By this Renewing Grace the regenerate soul is made conformable to Gods Image and is so far called the new man and gradually learns to be holy as God is Holy That Seed and Root of Grace cast into it at first grows up by degrees as the grain of mustard seed as the corn as the Light as the living Child Thereby the soul is enabled to believe and Repent and further to actuate every sort of Grace being excited corroborated and directed still by the same Spirit Thence is the conflict so continuall between the spirit and flesh the Law in the members and the Law in the Mind Grace and sin which ends not till the death of sin in bodily death Thus acti agimus Implanted Grace then co-works still with the Lords gracious Spirit who works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure This Grace appears also most free and full most choice sure to the glorifying of all Divine Attributes Man could not be conceived to have any skil power or will to procure the same By Grace the Lord cals unto Grace and so to Glory By Grace are we saved through Faith and that not of our selves it s the gift of God not of works least any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works so that it s not in him that wills nor in him that runs but in God who shews mercy Of his own will begat he us by the Word of Truth that we might be to the praise of his Glory Object But why then is man commanded to believe and repent to change his heart c Answ Because as we hinted before God deals with men by men rationally orderly to convince all of their Duty and insufficiency to humble and awaken them to put them upon all due means to render the most inexcusable and moralize many to convey his Grace into his Elect through those very means peculiarly sanctified to the spiritualizing of their heart Object But is not God partial in so doing Answ No. For he is not bound to any further then he pleases neither is he led by any sinful respects which render men partial Object But why doth he yet complain of the Reprobates if he give them not sufficient Grace as to others how can they help it Ans God justly complains of the wicked for insolvency and squandring away his goods wilfully and rebelliously both in their first Father and by themselves They smart not but for their fault their being Bankrupts is no payment nor discharge of their debts to him He gives them more then they could expect or make right use of Though they cannot change their own heart yet they might use the means better then they do they are still wilfully negligent and selfish in all they do and suffer justly for their demerits Can the wicked say they sin not wilfully Will not their own conscience condemn them Are they not all corruptly estranged from the womb and speaking Lyes by time Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Can the
Bramble bear figs or a sinful man beget a sinless child Is not the spawn and brood of venemous creatures venemous also Can a dead corpse raise it self to Life or a soul dead in sin contribute ought to its own quickning Yet is this no excuse for any sin because man is condemned for the abuse and neglect of that which is given him The best of them goes not so far as he might Though he be spiritually dead yet is he naturally alive and the abuse of natural parts is a sufficient condemnation to every sinner though variously appearing Thus is God stil just merciful and true though man prove unjust unworthy and false He is stil beforehand with every man though unfaithful servants who improve not the talent lent them charge him to be a hard master As he is free in disposing of his gifts so will every abuse and neglect of each of them be duly reckoned for 22. Christs saving Grace is also abused 1. By the former Errors 2. By the Pelagians and Socinians ascribing mans salvation to his own merits the fruits of his own power and will 3. By the Papists and Arminians sacrificing also to their nets some owning merits de congruo before Conversion others only merits de condigno after conversion either ex propria Natura with some or ex pacto with others very few of them are found more modest 4. By the Quakers Behmenists and Notionists variously treading in their steps and disguising those old Errors with the colours of new Light of a Christ within pretended Raptures Chymical dreams and Magical deceits Their monstrously abstruse expressions and Fictitious Raptures were much magnified in that German Tragedy acted in various Scenes for many years especially from 1522. til 1540. and are now revived out of Paracelsus Behmen Wigelius and the like by their followers very perniciously now AGainst such a Poyson the gracious Knowledge of Christ will fortifie you by Scripture discovery of the Nature and Cause the Method and Means the Subject and Effects of that saving Grace 1. The Nature thereof is Gods Application of his special Favour unto his Elect Redeemed by Christ saving them from all sin on earth Inchoatively in Heaven consummatively 2. The Fountain cause thereof is his own pleasure the final his Honour exalted in his Son by his own Spirit applying the same 3. The Method observed is gradually to shew this favour 1. Primitively in his Election and Redeeming Love 2. Communicatively in his Adopting and Justifying his supporting and supplying Love from the beginning of Grace through perseverance unto Glory in Eternity 4. The means appointed and employed therein are 1. Christ the Principal The Spirits Operation as efficient and every Ordinance and Providence his Word especially as Instrumentally blessed of him thereto 5. The Subjects thereof are Gods Elect Redeemed by the Son Renewed by his Spirit whom he Adopts for Children justifying their persons and keeping them through faith by his Power unto Salvation supporting and supplying them stil by the earnest and first fruits of his Spirit til the full possession of all 6. The Effects thereof are the gaining of their hearts by Divine Love to mutual Returns to chuse him in Christ by his Spirit for their chief good and soveraign Lord delighting in him depending on him closing with him following of him drawing all from him reducing all to him loving what he loves hating what he hates with an harmony of mind heart and hand And all for his sake and to his Glory by his strength according to his Will THis Light will easily dispel all Cavils darkning the truth There are no merits but in Gods Mercy He rewards indeed but it s of Grace He pardons sin and doth it freely Yet he requires Faith and Repentance not to merit but to receive it emptying the soul of self to fill it with himself letting out sin to let in Christ casting out Satan to bring in his Spirit Purging out corruption by giving his Grace preparing for Glory He therefore bids them take heed lest they fall to keep them standing in the right use of Means He appointed the End and blesses the Means He promises and assures their standing not by their own but by his Might Thus all that the Father gave Christ shall come to him and him that comes to him he will in no wise cast out because this is the will of the Father that sent him that of all he hath given him he should lose nothing The father that gave them to him is greater then all none shall pluck them out of his hand Ergo. Object But may they not slip away Answ Yea if left to themselves as Adam was in the Covenant of Works But he hath made a better Covenant with them in Christ engaging his Grace to preserve and save to the utmost all whom he chose in him Redeemed by him and sanctifyingly renews by his Spirit This is all their Hope and all their Salvation though in a Winter of temptation it seems not to flourish He therefore writes his Law in their heart and puts his Spirit within them to cause them to walk in his Statutes that they shall keep his Judgements and do them He will uphold them by his right hand till he bring them to Glory He will Crown his own Grace in them and magnifie his strength in their weakness Object But doth not this Doctrine lead to presumption and Libetinism Answ Not at all though it may be abused as the best things are It leads genuinely to all Christian diligence and Grace as the sure only way to Glory This Assurance he gives not to all alike nor to any alike at all times Though his weak children be sure in his hand yet he lets them often stumble that they may know him and themselves better The Riches of his Grace appear still herein freely and fully surely and choicely What 's freer then pardon to an unworthy Rebel That Christ satisfied and that Faith is given to receive pardon is not that free also What 's fuller then such a pardon that justifies from all guilt Inchoatively progressively consummatively whether you say the pardon is Renewed or continued or confirmed to the Regenerate is it not stil full Doth he not blot out all scores and remit all faults by application of his Justifying Grace His correcting of them is the fruit of that Adopting Love which pardons them Because they are children they must have Physick and the Rod also What 's surer then this Grace which engages the Trinunity in the clearest Bond with the surest Ties with Word and Writing with his Hand and Seal with Promise and Oath yea with his own Blood to final performance on his side and theirs They may break indeed but he cannot break Though they act faithlesly yet he acts
Garland and that signal work 24. Christ is opposed likewise in his Servants of the Ministry as First By the former Errors So secondly By the Socinians Seekers Behmenists Revelationists Quakers and Libertines who deny corrupt and oppose it Thirdly by the Papists who set up an Antichristian Head and Hierarchy mangling and perverting it wofully Fourthly By Innovators who exalt a Power therein above others unknown to Christ and others slighting what Christ hath set up AGainst these various Evils the Knowledge of Christ improved graciously will fence our Judgements and make us to see the excellency and perpetuity the necessity and utility of his Gospel-ministry It was his care of old to set it up in his Church for their common good that the Priests lips might preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth because he is the Messenger of the Lord. The first Insurrections against it which assaulted also the Magistracy by a strong levelling party under holy pretences were dreadfully rebuked and plagued by an extraordinary hand from Heaven The Lord made also Aarons Rod to blossom and fructifie miraculously that he might ratifie this great Ordinance of his to all Ages He appointed the Levites to be therefore settled in all the parts of Israel that every one might be provided with ministerial Help Himself promised in a peculiar way to be their best Portion and took a special care that among their Brethren they might never want a plentifull portion From time to time did he renew that charge and sharply visited for the neglect thereof He honor'd and prosper'd those Princes and people that did carefully observe his Will therein His Magistracy and his Ministry went still hand in hand both in doing good and suffering evil Moses and Aaron in all their Successors were still duly observed by God and good men The Jewish Church and State declined together by their sinfull neglects of Christs Institutions Christ therefore came at last himself personally that he might repair those wofull Ruins The vile abusing of his Ministry brought on them first a Babylonian yoak and afterwards a Roman slavery after many Persian and Grecian Oppressions The Revolts of Jason and of Onias with their Anti-temples in Aegypt and Samaria brought in many more confusions then both on Church and State Their corrupt opposings of Christs Ministry cost them very dear When Christ came in the flesh the many disorders of the ministerial Office and persons had disordered all His great care was then to rectifie things in the best method An end of all shadows he made in himself by his own Ministry and settled himself a substantial Ministry that should continue unto the worlds end His great business still was to purge his Temple and to commission his ministerial Servants for the successive building of his house His twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples were to that end succesfully employed by him When he ascended and triumph'd over all he bestowed then Coronation Gifts of a choice Nature Then gave he Apostles Prophets and Evangelists in extraordinary Pastors and Teachers in ordinary for Ambassados for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the building up of his body untill we all come to the full stature of the Son of God Thus Christ settled this ministerial function with spiritual Authority by setting apart in a regular Call persons by him duly qualified to the full employment of the Ministry The Circumstantials of the ceremonial Law he pared off thereby and settled the substance of his will therein in this solemn office for his special honor and his peoples good The Father and Spirit joined with God the Son in the Commission given from above to settle this Office and assure thereon a signal Blessing till the end of all As the Son gave these Residents of his to his Church below so did the Father set them in the Church and the holy Ghost still makes them overseers thereof In the renewing of their Commission he enlarged it unto all Nations gave them the keys of his Kingdom to act under him as Deputy-stewards Titles of Honor he gives them many fit Emblems also of their weighty work They are his Agents and the peoples Guides Shepherds and Rulers Angels and Leaders Elders they are and Overseers as Ambassadors acting in his name As he taught his Apostles the things of his Kingdom so were they carefull to instruct the rest Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus are a directory for all Church Affairs The Apostles needed extraordinary Gifts as did the Prophets and Evangelists in the first planting of Churches everywhere That work being done then ended with them their immediate infallible Call Extraordinaries are but for a time to make sure way to Ordinaries Snccessors they had in the substantials of the Ministry though not in all their Circumstantials Paul in his progress having shew'd the way of ordaining such gave Timothy and others further Rules still to prosecute that work Pastors and Teachers must abide in charge whilst there is one soul to be brought to Christ and built up in Christ These stars are kept in the Lords own hand being the Lights of his own setting up Many Ministers and Churches may perish for their Apostacy as they of Asia but the Ministry in the Church of Christ shall be sure to stand These witnesses of his may be much abused to the very Death but they shall rise again very speedily to the confusion of all enemies Lest they should grow proud and usurp Lorship Christ charged them timely to act as Servants in his name and work His word holds forth all Elders equal in ordinary since extraordinaries removed from men Some priority of order and age the Primitive Churches thought fit to admit Pride and Ambition corrupted the same adding Jurisdiction and Power thereto At first they did chuse a Moderator who might be Speaker in their regular meetings That was first elective and then became fixed and gradually did degenerate Under fair colors many did encroach and subjected Elders to Bishops Power Thence did Arch-Bishops and Patriarchs rise with other Limbs of that Hierarchy By Princes bounty too sadly abused this evil did rise and brought forth a Pope That Antichristian Beast with his double horn speaking like the Lamb acted Dragon-like He gradually subdued Christs Magistracy and Ministry by usurpations of the double sword That Pestilential Wen grew so fast on the Church that it did over-spread and consume it in its noblest parts Many Excrescences did rise under it as their Cardinals Archdeacons Chancellors Thence a further Rabble of Commissaries Porters Acolyths Subdeacons Exorcists Thence also their Monks Friers Eremits Nuns and Jesuits swarming everywhere Thus gradually did Abaddon prevail to waste Christs portion for a thousand two hundred sixty years The witnesses whilst