another is the wisdome of man that perisheth and comes to nought and not the wisdome of God which abides the same for ever and is that light which guides unto the Elders who are the onely governours and rulers of this universall Church called into communion and fellowship with this sick party and they are the first borne of every tribe having upon them the office of King Preist and Prophet in every family and inferiour to that dignity doth not this sicknesse call for any to come to visite it knowing all others to be Physitians of no value for this kinde of sicknesse summons none but the first borne of God into communion and fellowship with it that call which Cornelius gave to Peter that Elder of the Church was like unto this that when he spake of that unction of Christ the spirit of God descended upon those that heard it insomuch that Peter challengeth all men whether they can forbid water that those should not be baptized who had received the holy spirit as well as themselves as if he should say can any deny the signe of unity between Jew and Gentile which is communion and fellowship seeing they have the ground and substance thereof namely are partakers of the spirit of God that holy anoynting which is the truth and substance of all community whether we be present or absent in body we are one in that spirit of the Lord. The word of Prophesie therfore which is ever accompanied with prayer as in Cornelius or that word of true interpretation of the word of God knows how to give summons unto and call in the life and spirit of kingdome and Preisthood into fellowship with it selfe which is that healthfull spirit or unction that is by Jesus Christ Add further this sicknesse is the very foot of the throne upon which that great Elder even the ancient of dayes sits for when Daniel beholds through this spirit of interpretation he sees thrones set up or as the word will bear thrones cast down at you may see how the translators give it in both phrases signifying thereby that the power and glory of the world is cast down wheresoever this great Eldership is set up which is of no lesse antiquity then is the eternall that gives Judgement into the hands of the Saints of the most high and possesseth them with the kingdome for none but the eternall can give an eternall inheritance and he gives it not but as he sits on this throne namely the glory of man cast down and the gravity of this ancient of days set up whose garments are white as snow and the haire of his head like pure wooll and such is the royalty and authority of the Eldership here intended who are not brought in by any other call but by the Prophesie or interpretation of the minde of God therefore it is that the vision speaks so punctually and particularly where and with whom Peter is to be found Note here that even as the life of the flesh through the crucification of the spirit admits none into unity nor invests any into its proper condition but onely such as are of its own kinde so the life of the spirit which is in Christ Jesus through the crucification of the flesh admits none into fellowship nor invests any into its proper state and condition but its owne kinde For what is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit and therefore none but the first-born of God are of this Eldership or callers of them into the exercise of their proper virtue and authority even as it was with the Apostles when they pronounce peace if the son of peace be not there their peace returns upon themselves and their abode is not in that house of family 3. By these Elders then in the third place we see what we are to understand by the Church they are of that is that unity and fellowship which the selected and chosen people of God are of and have in that fellowship and faith of Jesus Christ as they are considered not in one age much lesse in one Parish or company of people gathered together but as they are universally considered in all ages and times of the world For such as is the extent of the spirit by which every Saint lives and of those offices of Christ by vertue whereof the exercise of such extent is the true Church ever to be held and taken otherwise the Church is carnallized and cast into the mould of the letter that kills and not into the mould of the spirit that gives life So that to thrust up Christ as into a corner as in one age of the world or to monopolize him amongst a handfull of people is all one as to put him in the grave though with Nicodemus a Ruler among the Jews and that rich man Joseph of Arimethea both night Disciples for fear of the Jews they may seem to differ from Herod in that they perfume the dead body and wrap it in clean linnen being affected therewith but it is but according to the custome of the Jewish Sinagogue for they put it in the grave and roll a great stone thereupon as men without hope or desire of the resurrection having that common spirit that now lives in the world to beg leave of the Pilates and great men thereof before they dare adventure to trim up the dead body of Jesus and fit it for the Sepulchre But this universall Church of which these Elders are is called by the Apostle mount Zion the City of the living God the new Jerusalem the generall assembly and Church of the first-born which are enrolled in heaven And such as constitute and set up a Church not of this nature and comprehension they build it up upon mount Sinai under the terrors of the law and sprinckle the instruments and officers there of as with the blood of Abel speaking from the ground or earthly heart of Cain and not on mount Zion in that blood of sprinkling which speaks better things in that peaceable agreement and reconcilement of God and man in Jesus Christ Note here that where two or three are gathered together in any part of the world or at any time we deny it not to be the true Church of Christ but what is it which gives it its capacity to be that Church of Christ is it not he who is in the midst or in the heart of them as the word is who is no lesse then that everlasting father or that ancient of dayes what bounds then can be set unto it lesse then that which gives it its capacity to be such a thing who extends himselfe to the whole family of heaven for unto him all faces looke and every knee bowes and if once it be so in our selves we see it in the whole family and flock of God in all the elect So that the true sum volume of all their doctrine and prayers is of no lesse extent then the
unto thee arise take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house So that to preach the Gospel to the restauration of the soule from the policy that is from the fear terrors and tremblings of the law as at Mount Sinai to bring it unto Zion giving strength to take up that and carry it unto its proper place as that man carried his bed into the proper place which is his house which before had carried him extravagantly and diseasedly abroad wheresoever the Gospel exerciseth its power to raise up any to walk in the way of God before others in prayer or prophesie or any appointment of God according to the nature and season of it as that man is said to walk before them all to their admiration wheresoever the Gosplel is ministred to that effect there is also in that ministration power to forgive sin for the one is of like case and of like difficulty as the other is yea they are both in one act for he that can preach the Gospel to carry sin into its proper place which must be done or else the Gospel is not truly preached he must of necessity remove it from the chosen of God which is the true remitting and passing of it over unto another He that hath power therefore to preach the Gospel to the healing of the Conscience of the palsie sicknesse or tremblings of the law in the dead works thereof or works of death that man hath power to forgive sins on earth for they are inseperable and Christ in that place alluded unto makes them one for first he saith son thy sins be forgiven thee and in the rehearsall of it he saith his speech was arise take up thy bed and walk go thy way into thy house And we know that Christ saith to his Disciples whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retaine they are retained And again what ye binde on earth is bound in heaven and what ye loose on earth is loosed in heaven to walk and work therefore in the things of God according to the power intended by the word of God are of greater concernment then they would think for to preach the Gospel in the revelation of the minde and will of God as to an onely Son or to present our supplications to God as a father from the minde and disposition of an onely son are of no lesse authority and power then to to give sins for to pray with the spirit and to pray with the understanding also that is to pray according to the mystery of Christs meditation and yet with that wisdome and skill of expression as to unfold and explaine it in the minds of others that they may ascend up unto God together therewith as Manoa's Angel in the flame of the sacrifices this and to pardon sin are of like power skill and authority and a like weight lies upon both to whomsoever communicates in them For to pardon sin is not to change or alter the minde of God toward that party but to explaine and interpret the minde of God concerning that party which minde and will of God is the same in that one faith of the Son of God to all the chosen of God and wheresoever it is rightly unfolded and made manifest in the proclamation of peace and reconciliation of God and man in one if the Son of peace be there he accepteth and receivet the same as the right of his inheritance If the Elders pray or prophecy unto health therefore they pray or prophesie to the remission of sins in whomsoeve commucates in the same his sins are forgiven him To conclude this point it concerns us then to know what sin is that we may rightly conceive of it as it is pardonable and also as it not pardonable for there is a sin saith the Apostle John which is not unto death or which is not in death that is it is not in that way of death and there is a sin that is in death I do not say that you shall pray for it that is you shall not pray for the pardon of it because it is not to be pardoned for where Christ is once crucified in the spirit he never is to live in that heart according to the spirit no more then where he is once crucified in the flesh he never lives in that heart according to the flesh Therefore in the next place he exhorts us unto the confession of our faults in the true acknowledgement of them one to another Vers 16. Confesse your faults one unto another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much In these observe 1. An exhortation consisting of two parts 1. To confesse faults one to another 2. To pray one for another 2. The end wherefore That ye may be healed 3. A reason ground or cause drawn from the nature of prayer which is two-fold 1. It is effectuall 2. It is fervent 4. The qualitie of the person praying that is A righteous man 5. The issue or event of such prayer It avayleth much 1. ANd first for confession of faults sins or oberations from a law For where no law is there is no transgression for sinne is the transgression of a law or as the word is the withoutnesse of a rule Now there is the law of the flesh or carnall commandement which is the law of sinne and death and there is the law of the spirit or power of faith which is the perfect rule of righteousnesse or law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Now the carnall commandement or perfunctory and fading ordinances may be broken yea abrogated and nayled to the crosse as that which is against us and yet forgiven for every breach or piercing through of the sonne of man that is mans institutions and appoyntments composed by that carnall law shall be forgiven or are forgiven for the disannulling of mans wisdome and in that respect to become a foole is the establishment of Gods wisdome in the removall of all guilt and condemnation from the soule And there is the law of the spirit or of that holy Ghost which if a man speake a word against intentionally or blaspheme and pierce through that is abrogate or make a nullity of it It shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come that is neither in the present mind and conscience of him that so doth nor in that holy mind and judgment of Christ from passing sentence against it being so remote and at such a distance from it and contrary unto it for the abrogation of the law of the spirit is no lesse then to disannull that wisdome of God in Christ by which device only the sin and guilt of the sons of men is taken away and no other way for else-where the redemption of the soule ceaseth for ever Confession of sins then one to another This phrase one to another is of like nature as
SALTMARSH Returned from the Dead In Amico Philalethe OR The RESURRECTION of JAMES The Apostle Out of the Grave of Carnall Glosses for the Correction of the universall Apostacy which cruelly buryed him who yet liveth Appearing in the comely Ornaments of his Fifth Chapter in an Exercise June 4. 1654. Having laid by his grave Clothes in a despised Village remote from ENGLAND but wishing well and heartily desiring the true prosperity thereof John 11. 25. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert and are to be sold at the black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1655. To my honoured and beloved friends in London who in a solitary season in that populous Citie were so great refreshment unto me by their undeserved society WHereas of late I received letters from som of you wherein I read that name which is as an oyntment poured out causing the parties to whom it appeares to fall in love therewith carrying in it a spirit which can produce a reall presence where there is an absence in bodily respects and that not only in respect of divine nature simply considered but also in point of Christian relations and respects which is never destitute of humane considered therein and conversant therewith otherwise the goings forth of the spirits of the Saints could not be peculiar and distinct from that of the wicked which the divine and omnipotent power reachethalso Therefore the Saints communicate in prayers intercessions supplication giving of thanks so as a stranger cannot intermeddle therewith nor with their joy arising there-from And whereas some of you requested mee to write unto you concerning the opening of a portion of the word of God which some years agoe urged my spirit and put me into travell to bring forth but Satan hindered Your letters visited me immediately upon the employment of my spirit in another portion of the word of God which was then the proper strength I walked by which made me to think it might be a refreshment unto you which I could not lay aside till God opened another into which I might enter Neither could wee depart from that place till the cloud removed in-so-much that I was forcibly constrained to employ my selfe about the instruments and services of the Tabernacle to bring the sight thereof unto your selves in the first place And so made bold to set upon the writing of it yea when others slept beeause of my daily occasions and when it was writ I was much urged to endeavour the printing of it that so it might come to more view and being it was written in hast and so would be tedious to read I consented thereto although there is nothing which I have spoken in publique since I saw your faces but I could as freely commend it unto you The occasion of the Ark pitching upon this place which me-thinks looks like Elim in this wildernes where there are twelve fountains of water and 70. Palm-trees Numb 33. 9. For our Apostle writes to the twelve Tribes out of which we may draw plenty of the water of life and there is perfection and fulness of palm trees from which you may gather plenty of branches to carry as signes of victory not only of the abatement of that deluge of wrath but also of overcoming by faith this present world for Faith is the victory whereby we do it I say the occasion of the Arke pitching on this place was this We being met together to exercise our selves in the word of God and prayer there was one who occasionally named this Chap and read some part of it in which action the scope of it seemed to open it self unto me and to deale plainly and faithfully with you my thoughts had never been formerly upon any part of it so as intending to expresse my selfe from it but only as I have read it as other histories and writings of the word of God Whereupon my spirit was moved presently to speak from it what I did receive and immediately uttered to the same effect which I have in the following lines commended unto you out of my love unto you and engagements beyond my expression moved hereunto by your loving christian-like letters joyning themselves unto me like Philip to the Chariot of the Eunuch upon the delivery of it encouraging my heart hereunto which otherwise I had not takenupon me lest it should have been thought a worke not worthy your acceptance But if you please to take the payns carefully to peruse it I doubt not but it may give occasion of further thoughts unto you then can be expressed in so small a volume it may point as with a finger unto such things as to write them the world would not contayn the books the matter being of an infinite and an eternall nature holding proportion with Melchisedech who is without beginning of dayes or end of life Therfore the world cannot contain it unto whom this Scripture as under the motion of the cloud hath brought us where we now abide Heb. 7. For other place of our abode I may not signifie unto you for some of our Neighbours have professed before the state of England that the place of our bodily aboad is a non ens that it hath no being and others have affirmed that we are no people not affording us so much as God gives to the Conies which he calls a people though a small people yet they make their abode in the Rocks and it is that rock of Ages in whom only we desire to be found to take these courtesie a patiently as we do other kindnesses under which we yet abide as in that point of banishment only for such matters as in the following speech we tender unto you Whereas you make mention of a Sermon preached from the Prophesie of Isaiah speaking of the new heavens and the new earth in the restauration of the Church from which it was concluded that such an excellent estate of Religion was to come hereafter as never yet appeared which some could not be satisfied in such Exposition or Conclusion we see it to be not onely the common doctrine but deceipt also of the world not to give Christ a present being but hold men in expectation as in the ancient Jews who when he appears seek his ruine and that is the top of that spirit By new heavens and new earth in that place we understand the state of Christ or of that holy unction or Christianity that as the visible heavens earth to which he alludes make a compleat and fruitfull world even so do God man in Christ make one durable and fruitfull condition wherein righteousness dwells as our Apostle witnesseth which according to that law of the spirit is adorned with infinitely more relations operations and vertues then all the Creations in Heaven and Earth can set forth which hee calls new not with respect unto these visible but with
the things of this present life and are not these carnall and vanishing then as held and practised by the Doctors of our dayes together with their followers and Pupils where then shall we find the men that take not their delight and place their pleasure in earthly and vanishing things whose religion is not vaporous Whereas the truth is there is nothing of Christ which hath not the nature divine in it or else it is not an ordinance act exercise or vertue becoming the Son of God who in all things is holy and pure and there is no holinesse without the spirit of God therefore they may as well hold and teach that the spirit of God vanisheth and comes to an end in the Saints as that any Ordinance Office Act Exercise or Vertue of Christ vanisheth and comes to an end in any of his mysticall body For if the unity of the Spirit cease in them in any respect then the wisdome and power of the Spirit ceaseth and then that new Commandement or law of the Spirit is abrogated and made voyd which the Apostle saith is true in him and in us because the darknesse is past and the true light shineth which is the substance of the Law in every point and particular of it And where the light of God once shineth to expell darkenesse in us it ever abideth yea in that imputed righteousnssse or righteousnesse reckoned together with us in faith prayer or whatsoever it abides firme and stable as the Son of God is firm and stable And as for eating drinking marrying and giving in marriage with all things of like nature transient having an end they are no proper parts of the Kingdom of God nor any thing whereof it doth consist but are useful in their time and season to the Saints of God and may be exercised with a holy respect unto the Kingdome for the promoting of it therefore it is said Whether yee eate or drinke or whatsoever yee doe let all be done to the glory of God Therefore when they asked Christ that question whose wife she should be in the resurrection who had had seven husbands his answer is that they erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the Angells of God in heaven Therefore it follows And beene wanton That is they joyne with these earthly pleasures wantonnesse they are become effeminate womanish having estranged themselves from that heroicall and masculine spirit which the Apostle exhorts unto Stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong that is behave your selves as men of God going forth in his strength and not in the strength of the arm of flesh which is true weaknesse and womanish But these are become wanton and lascivious doting upon transitory and vanishing things letting the substantiall passe being subdued and overcome with pictures shadows and semblances of things that have no substance nor validity in them and not with the things themselves being taken by the sight of a wandering eye and the hearing of a sensuall eare as the woman was by the words of the Serpent and shew of the fruit in the beginning These Siberificall persons being widdows in respect of any espousall with Christ for they are such as wax wanton against Christ and wil marry in making contracts with forms of earthly Governments forms of Churches forms of ordinances and exercises wantonizing in their carnall copulations with bread wine and water oyle spittle and cream so devoutly that none must intermeddle with their minnions but such as do it by contract according to their law of Carnulentia and if any conceive by any other seed then by their pulse and lentiles which onely serves to make red earthly or Edoms broth that profane fornicatour such persons are presently counted breakers of covenant pernicious persons Hereticks Schismaticks and blasphemers of their gods These have forgotten that ancient and masculine spirit of wisdome and gravity so skilful in geneology and chronology that it can reckon it selfe up together with eternity see Prov. 8. from v. 22. to 31. Which takes its delight and solace only in the compasse or circuit of his earth or of his land which the Prophet stiles the Lords land therefore he presently interprets it and saith his delight is with the children of men where he dwels and in whom he makes his proper abode This spirit threfore in whomsoever it is takes delight in nothing as to place its pleasure in it but in eternal things which God in the Messiah onely is and all other creatures relations and operations are but as so many letters or figures to lead unto and point out what man is in Christ in whom the delight and pleasure proper unto godlinesse is onely set Because nothing else as delightful can be eternal for eternal truth we know none but onely in Christ for he is that way that truth and that life of eternity besides whom nothing can hold correspondency with God so as to be the object or subject matter of his delight and pleasure And howsoever there is in the godly man that which is a creature made within the bounds and precincts of time yet that unity is eternal because in whatsoever the unity doth consist is properly of God who is eternity and not of the creature which is in time if it be love it is the love of God and not of a creature if wisdome it is of God and not of man if it consist in power it is infinite and not finite so that that state and condition of God and man in one is eternall and not temporary it lives the life of God it walks and works by the wisdome of God and not of the creature We know the body of man hath life and wisdome as well as the soul while it is in conjunction with it not another but the same that is in the soule much more hath the soule of a christian life and wisdome in and of God and not another so long as it is in conjunction with God which is for ever or else his Sonne his proper off-spring should not inherit and be posessed with the nature of the father If the mortallists of our dayes knew the way of salvation by Christ they could never conclude like beasts that the soule of man dyes with the body like a beast for God is not onely in unity with the soule as a worker and Creator but hee is also one in the workmanship which is made for the Son of God is as truly said to be made of woman and made under the law as he is said to be the Lord and maker of all things And it is the Image or wisdome of God that gives being and forme unto that glorious workmanship of God in man so that if the soule dye there is not a nullity of the work but also of the Creator the maker of it who gives the proper being and form to the
and originally of God and not of the creature as his Sonship is of God and not of the proper off-spring of man being begotten not of mortall but of immortall seed so are all the lineaments of God and man in Christ if wisdome joyne the Tabernacle that God builds and not man it is the wisdome of God if love make the contract it is the love of God shed abroad in the heart and not the love of man which is enmity with God if faith establish the heart that it wavour not it is the faith of God which is the power of God to salvation wherein consists the great work of God which is in beleiving as Christ tels him that asked what shall I do to work the work of God beleiue saith he for therein it consists for it was by the work of faith that Abraham was justified and not by that vaine or empty faith without works that is without the present power and operation of God for such faith the Devil may attaine unto who beleives there is one God and trembles but doth not consist in his power as made one of twaine in Christ So that whatsoever is in this unity is properly and originally of God and that from a principle or law of his bounty and goodnesse whereby he communicates himselfe unto another in all things which that law or goodnesse of his nature is apt and prompt to be and to do whereby he forms himselfe in his Son without whom or out of whom he never had being took form in any will or law nor put forth himselfe in any operation therefore it is said speaking of Christ God and man all things were made by him and without him was nothing made For if ever God had had being or motion so much as of minde and will out of man it had ever been so and then salvation had not been the Saviour had never appeared for salvation canot be compleat but in him that saves and is also saved and the Almighty never was but as he is a God of salvation yea in the plurality thereof as the expression of the Psalmist is the beginning of Christ therefore canot be fathomed nor spanned out no more then the beginning of the Almighty and eternall can though there be that in Christ which is in time yet he takes not his proper being from that no more then man takes his proper being from his body but from his rational soul and spirit which inliveneth acteth and moveth the same And in the one and the other doth the glory of the Sonne of God exist for God working in and by the faculties or aptitudes to do in the soule or spirit of the creature thereby his vertues and operations come to be distinct and so full of variety of glory being the spirit and life of the creature consists in change of motion or operation also here the works of God have their proper times seasons and opportunities which in the proper and simple eternal could never be Furthermore as man works not by the principles and properties of the creature but by those that are proper to God denying himselfe being resigned over unto God and so all his operations become of an eternal race and virtue and are in the true and reall account and reckoning of eternity of such nature is the condition of the Sonne of God therefore the Prophet saith who can declare his age he is the first and the last if he never end in being last he never had beginning as he is the first but is from eternity to eternity though that be in him which is temporary in it selfe even as mans body lives and understands though of it selfe it hath nor doth either as appears when the soule is departed Secondly concerning the unity of Harlots for he that is joyned unto an harlot is one flesh that is one carnall and corrupt estate in which all the ligaments thereof are such as properly the creature is the originall and fountaine of and not the Creator how then can this unity be eternall when the proper bond is of that which is mortall and temporary To this we answer that there are certain faculties or aptitudes to do or to be in the soule of a man as also a law or principle by which it is or doth such things and for the aptitudes to do or to be We may safely say that whatsoever the Almighty is prompt unto that through the sublimity and excellency that God hath made the spirit of a man to be of he is prompt unto the variety of operations and excellencies that are in the Son of God yea even to compasse the earth and comprehend all things and find out the causes relations and operations of them yea even to eternize himselfe on the earth by calling his lands by his name by living in his posterity by some great work wrought or monument set up to memorize him unto posterity and ages to come yea doubtlesse some States-men and Politicians of the world are apt to lay plots and platforms how to bring about accomplish and achieve things which they know can never be done in their dayes that their wisdome and policy may live and be in use when they are gone and of such use and from such aptitudes come humane Chronicles writing of bookes or the like to reach to eternity which God only wise is So that man works in and by the aptitudes of God but not from that law and principle proper to the Son of God For whereas God out of that law of bounty and goodnesse of his nature communicates himselfe in whatsoever he is apt to do and be whereby he doth it and is it in the creature The creature exercising it selfe in the way of mans wisdome in things which God himselfe is prompt to be and to do not by giving himselfe up unto God to be his and not his owne but by that principle of self-love and law of exalting the arm of flesh he arrogates unto himselfe and monopolizeth the things proper to God unto himselfe ascribing them unto the things of man to beautifie and to set up the things of the creature thereby attributing and giving unto the flesh that which is proper only unto the Son of God which is a turning of the truth of God into a lye a changing the glory of God into the image of a corruptible man and a worshipping and serving of the creature instead of the Creator who is blessed for ever Amen We conclude then that as God by that law of grace exerciseth himselfe in all his excellencies in the aptitudes of mans soul filling them with himselfe so as the things of eternity come to be distinct to have their proper season time place yea and person so as the Saints are truly distinct and the operation of their faith as the Apostle amply declares in that to the Hebrews Chap. 11. So also that man of sinn through that carnall law exerciseth himselfe in the aptitudes of God
from the bitternes of his friends but repayrs all his losses with the right and priviledges of the first-born of God Such is the tendernesse and pitty of the spirit of our good Shepheard gathering the Lambs into his arms and carrying them in his bosome and gently leads such as are with young yea layes downe his life for his flocke And this is the state and condition of all such as find themselves fatherlesse in respect of any love pitty or compassion exercised towards them by the spirit of the world of whom it is sayd Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the works of our hands yee are our gods for in thee the fathers find mercy For he is not only pittifull but of tender mercy whereby the day that springs from on high hath visited us Or that morning Sunne which is the light and glory of the world is risen up upon us to give light to such as otherwise fit in darknesse and in the shadow of death even that light of prosperity joy and gladnesse peace and plenty which ariseth out of the light and inheritance of the first-born unto whom the full inheritance belongs with whatsoever the Father was is or shall be in all his enterprizes and operations For the nature office and operation of the Son of God is ours through these tender mercies bowels and compassions of a Father which cannot with-hold from an only Son not only freeing us as a mercifull high Priest from all evill and sin but as a most bountifull and liberall King supplying and furnishing us with all good for if we see the end of the Lord in our suffering the losse of corruptible things we are sure to feel the tender mercies of a compassionate Father communicating himselfe with us in all the things incorruptible and eternall without which he is not and therefore is ceased to be mercy and tender pity in the world that so as a Father is in his Son he may be what he is only in us Whereupon he brings in an eminent and universall prohibition backed with an exhortation together with the danger of not observing the same contained in the next verse Vers 12. But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth neither by any other oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest you fall into condemnation Wherein observe these particulars 1. The necessity and weight of the charge in these words But above all things 2. A loving insinuation to move unto observation My brethren 3. The charge it selfe or inhibition Swear not 4. An instance in particulars not to be sworn by that is 1. Not by heaven 2. Not by the earth 3. A universall comprehending of all things contained in them both Neither by any other oath 5. An exhortation consisting of affirmation and negation But let your yea be yea and your nay nay 6. The danger ensuing the not observing hereof Lest you fall into condemnation AND first of the charge Sweare not By swearing in this place is meant any Covenant Contrract or betrothing unto a thing as to be engaged as subservant thereunto that is when we are obliged and bound over as being under the authority or command of any thing further then it is found in or serving unto the compleating and setting forth the mysticall body of Christ that son of eternity Now a man is under the command and power of a thing when he waites thereupon so as to observe and answer to the time and opportunity thereof In the rejection or neglect of any other thing which might take up the opportunity and hinder or obstruct the time whereby that his Commander might be defrauded of its interest in him whether it be office dignity allyance relation slothfulnesse or operation And first for office and dignity throughout the confines and government of a Kingdome they ought not to captivate a Christian but must be subservant to the kingdome and call of Christ whose kingdome is not of this world or things therof When did Abraham that high father of the world Isaac and Jacob who were heyrs with him of the same promise settle and establish their Scepter in any part of the earth as tyed by place and office there and were not as pilgrims and strangers standing in readinesse as that righteous one of the East to answer Gods calls and to follow the Lord at his foot who made the nations as stubble unto his sword and as driven stubble unto his bow Or where did Moses King in Jeshurunn pitch his Tent to make his abode longer then it pleased that cloud of witnesse to exercise its abode upon the Tent being ever ready to depart with the motion thereof Which bore witnesse in its two and forty removals in the wildernesse to those two and forty generations or resurrections of Christ from Abraham to the womb of the Virgin as also to the over-shadowing of the Virgin by the spirit of God in that conception of the Son of God from all the scorching reys and sun-shine of mans glory and subtlety in that day-time of our salvation as also unto that fiery light of the spirit breaking forth in Israel through that Crosse of Christ as in a night so dark and obscure unto the nations And to what people or places were any of the Prophets of God or Apostles of Jesus Christ tyed or engaged by any temporary or terrene band except imprisonment by the adversary that so the vertue of the Crosse in its courage constancy and Princely resolutions might appear and make it self evident Or were the Judges and Law givers in Israel tyed to dayes times seates and circuits as men making merchandizes of mens estates credits and lives that in case an Oath be bidden and given in exchange delivery must be made without controversie and many times the cause is as currant as when the strongest caries away the purse on the high way though a possibilty may be to finde out the falshood of the oath afterwards when there is left no hope of redemption And as for that mercinary and belly-god-like bond to be engaged to places and people under the names of Pastor and Teacher to evade the troubles and travels of Prophets and Apostles Let that suffice which hath already been sayd only let such look themselves as in a glasse in that young man of the house of Judah and yet a Levite joyned unto their congregations as he to the family of Mica Read Judg. 17. and let them read the effect of their Ministry in that strange kind of Levite who is of mount Ephraim joyned unto his Concubine of Bethlehem Juda according to what it brings forth between Benjamine and Israel set forth unto us Judges the 19. and 20. Chap. Againe in point of family as in kindred and relations the words of Christ holds firm and are to be valued at the same rate we set upon him and he
into the state and condition of Christ or else it is not an acknowledgment and confession of faith And so sin is confessed upon the head of the Scape-goat to be carryed into the wildernesse which is desolate and way lesse unto the people of God neither is he nor it that is the goate nor the sin in that true respect found in Israel any more and so sin it set on its probase and place of its perpetuall aboad not only in time to come but past also that is in Babylon in the land of Shyner the place of confusion wherein note that the strictest order composed by the wisdome of man which is in truth and substance consonant to the letter of the Scripture men being tyed thereunto as a rule to walk by is that proper confusion of Babell unto a Christian unity because it makes man the fore-runner and not the Lord Christ who only enters within the vale where the true oracle is uttered even as it is true that when the will of God according to the law of the spirit is the most distinctly made manifest it appears to be the only confusion in a carnall mind because it layes wast those proper principles whereby it adorns it self with all its ornaments Note here how necessary it is for mans wisdome to moderate it selfe in the making of Lawes and binding men under penalties to take them as rules for all to walk by And here we propound a question whether one Law of God be not of like weight as another for that distinction of the first Table being more eminent then the second is meerly humane for doth not Christ center both in two commands and affirms them to be of like weight and the Apostles bring all into one saying love fulfils the whole law So that the two Tables do teach unto us the unity of God and man and that both according to the letter of the Law and also of the spirit and therefore the Law is broken by Moses at the foot of the Mount as considered in the Leviticall Priest-hood exercised in the Rebels in the wildernesse and the Law is preserved and kept by Moses in the Arke unto this day as the Scripture affirms as it is exercised in that way of the Spirit in Joshuah or Jesus who leads into the land as that Captain of our salvation But however the question stands concerning strictnesse of Law in two commands of the second Table which are of the same weight and importance to every Christian the one as the other and that is the not killing but preservation of life and the not committing of adultery in the preservation of chastity Is there not then a like care to be had and provision made for the preservation of life in respect of its existance and being as there is to preserve chastity that so man may appear in honour and temperancy If there be a like care to be had in both then I demand how it comes to passe that men make a law to execute death upon that fact of adultery which reacheth unto the very Embryon and unformed substance of man in the womb that so they may prevent a Bastard-like brood and that impure and incontinent conversation of men in the world Why are they not alike carefull to ordaine and execute a law upon men in case man and wife know each other when there is no possibility of conception whereby the life of man seems to be destroyed and cut off as considered in the very same capacity and principles and so upon the like ground murder committed This case may seem to be the very point of Christs argument brought forth by his practice against the Scribes and Pharisees who stood so strictly upon the letter of Moses writing when they brought that woman taken in adultery unto him who in pretending the fulfilment of the Law out of a malicious spirit seeke to ensnare the Son of God to kill him and put him to death which murthering litterall spirit of theirs he convicts them of and acquits the woman in that double act of his in writing on the earth having respect unto the writing of the two Tables of stone signifying unto them that killing letter bearing sway in themselves whereby they sought to take away his life rather then the womans by putting the force and dignity of the Law to stand in carnall and fleshly observance and so convicted them in his first writing upon the earth as having broken the Law as Moses did the first Table and therein their consciences accuse them as guilty of murder and so they absent themselves from Christ And in his second writing on the earth hee signifies that law of the spirit which is for ever kept and preserved in himselfe wherein is found no condemnation but an acquittance from all sin and unrighteousnesse and therefore the woman escapes without condemnation when none but Christ according to that law appears with her A Commentary might be writ of this point but thus much only as closely as may be in way of caution to prevent men in their so confident prosecutions formed from the letter of the Scripture as they piece-meale it out of the wisdome of man left it prove no better in conclusion then the wisdome of the Serpent that whilst they entice to the eating of the fruit of one tree because of the fairnesse and benefit of it they do not corrupt and destroy another in themselves in so doing before they be well aware of it For if such mens wisdome and wills had taken place in the dayes of Juda and Thomas they would have made a breach in the Geneology of Christ And if they say they would have stopped execution till the children had been born then they would not have stoâ—d to the glory of the Law which after it be truly discerned stands in seleritas inexequendo Wee are then to attend the mind of the spirit of God in this namely that our yea be yea and our nay nay wherein the scope of the Scriptures do consist being the state of man-kind with respect unto God which is in one act and for ever and not in the relation of any one Creature or Creatures with respect unto others that is to any meer creature or creatures which may now be yea it is and immediately nay it is not but in Christ it is not so who is the end of all law the scope of all relations and the very end which all operations drive at presse unto as he is crucified according to the flesh or else according to the spirit in which respect yea remayns yea and nay remayns nay both in the way of Christ and in the way of Antichrist So that he that teacheth another thing to be the intent and meaning of the word of God what ever it is that may one time be and another time not be in the same state condition of man-kind considered that is a doctrine under the state of condemnation Therfore
way to Damascus So that we may not give these execrable things any being or time or abode in the Apostle of Christ no more then we can give unto him to be a servant of sin at that time when he saith So then in my mind I my selfe serve the law of God but in my flesh the law of sinne which things are inconsistant in one individuall subject For the word of God is an eternall word and expresseth not it selfe but with respect unto an eternall act it is not a transient and momentany thing when it saith of Christ I am a worm and no man an object a scorn a bubble a vapour a vanity a nothing to be in the belly of hell and in the heart of the earth to be shut up and cannot get out These things are not momentany expressions and transient acts for the word and work of God is no such thing according to the true and reall intent and operation thereof But they are reall manifestations and declarations of what the world hath really made of the word and wisdome of God in themselves And so are these expressions of Paul true manifestations what the condition of a carnall Jew is and how they deal with Christ the wisdome of God and ever will do in whomsoever he appears from which spirit that glorious change wrought once and for ever in Christ hath freed all the Saints and set them in the liberty of the Son of God which otherwise are no better but by nature the same with others So that it is not creation of man in being made one with God wherein blessednesse doth properly consist but it is that generative vertue of the immortall seed bringing forth unto God together with that act of conjunction whereunto true blessednesse is annexed therefore Christ is truly sayd to be made and also to be begotten For out of that act of Creation in the unity of God and man not only the wisdome of God makes it selfe manifest in giving form unto Christ the seed of the woman but also that wisdome of the creature namely of man which gives form to the Serpent who was more wise then any beast of the field which the Lord God had made And that is the seed of the Serpent so brought forth that is in consulting with the wisdome of God from humane principles This is a faithfull saying then of Paul and worthy to be embraced of all men so as to utter the same language That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chiefe For he that cannot acknowledge himselfe to be the first or chiefe of sinners that is to say in his grand Ancestor being made one in that act of Creation as he comes of the earth and so in that way of the unbeliever is the first perverter of the word of God to destruction though in himselfe in his proper subsistance in the way of the generation of the Son of God hee is once and for ever freed therefrom in that deliverance made by Christ so that it is none of his inheritance or portion otherwise no man can ever acknowledg himselfe to be blest and possessed with the first and chief righteousnesse that ever was namely that righteousnesse of God in Jesus Christ nor know himselfe to be a first-born of God an heyr of the promise and an inheritance of life that lasts for ever And so we come to the fourth part of the Chapter contayning that fruitfull and wholsome benefit which spring from the death of Christ in all true Christians the first whereof is layd downe in the next verse Vers 13. Is any among you afflicted let him pray is any merry let him sing VVHerein we are to observe a two-fold proposition layd down interrogatively together with a two-fold answer given thereunto The first whereof is this Is any among you afflicted let him pray By affliction in this place is meant diminishing or weakning as the word imports and so Pharaoh afflicted Israel in Aegypt to weaken and diminish them lest they should grow in multitude and so wax too strong for him and his people but God makes use of that his dealing with them to increase and multiply them exceedingly for that which weakens men in the worlds account proves through Gods device to be the strength and power of the Saints of God Therefore our Apostle puts us upon this question Is any among you afflicted Being that he had told them of what nature the death of the Son of God is in the godly namely to bereave and dispoil them of all the strength glory excellency and goodlinesse of man so as it becomes as the withered grosse or decayed flower of the field when the spirit of the Lord breaths upon it yea though they be weakned and diminished in all such respects so as they have nothing of that nature to trust or betake themselves unto which can stand them in any stead As if hee should say hath the Gospel and word of the Kingdome made spoyl and prize of all things among you or in you hath it routed and layd you wast of all such transitory wayes and perfunctory worships as the carnall and litterall Jewes do commonly boast themselves of and comfort and content themselves in of which Paul sayth If any man might boast of he much more circumcised the eighth day of the stocke of Israel of the tribe of Benjamine an Hebrew of Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee concerning zeale persecuting the Church and touching that righteousness which is in the law blamelesse And where shall we find a Church extant in these dayes which speaks by any other spirit then this which runs in the sincke and channell of such externall and extrinsicall institutions ordinances genealogies pharisaical righteousnesse persecuting zeale and tribe-like division of rule and government But what saith our Apostle of all these things But what things were gaine to me that is as the very wealth and riches of a carnall Jew those I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I counted all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and count them but dung that I may winne Christ And for this losse diminution or affliction our Apostle prescribes the cure and remedy in whomsoever it is suffered in this his answer given Let him pray The word Let hath a like Emphasis as that of the Creation at the beginning Let there be light and it was so and hath in it the very force and vertue of creating the spirit of prayer and intercession in that heart in which this losse diminution or affliction is found for it signifies as much as Amen so be it or so it is or so it shall be so that it fits the soule with the spirit of prayer as the world was furnished with light by the same phrase in the beginning without which spirit or breath of prayer the soule is without
and topped up height of all your places of worldly dignities have you picked out that common stamp in all your relations and operations which the spirit of the serpent sets upon them making them appear beautifull and desirable and are you diminished and corrected as having all such superfluous branches lopt away from you as yeilding no shelter nor glory or safeguard unto you Take it for granted that it is so yet here is a sufficient supply and remedy make your addresses and appeal unto God in Christ in whom they are all full and that in an eternall compleat and perfect supply as things that are onely proper and peculiar to the glory and duration of that eternall Son of God and not to that mortall fading and shamefull race and pedegree of the sons of earthly men whose breath as a vapour is in their nostrils for in Christ you shall have and be both king and subject and so shall never fail nor betray himselfe which no earthly man can attaine for he is that ruler in submission as the Apostle to Titus calls him for there is the truth of rule and submission in Christ as one and both in the utmost excellency thereof though men translate the word as a charge to obey magistrates Tit. 3. 1. To that effect the Apostle speaks I John who am also your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ or as the word is rightly rendred in the kingdome and under-abiding of Jesus Christ So that he is a companion in kingdom that is in power and authority and also in under-abiding or in a perpetuated submission to the will of the father so that in the state of Christianity there is all the relations acts and waits of administration of the kingdome all relations and mutuall respects are there in act and are fulfilled as in a kingdome of eternall glory and power and that onely in the losse and villification of nothing else but an earthly fading and corruptible Crown which Paul counts as dung and losse as the shame and undoing of man that he may win the Diadem and glory of the other Againe in it you shall have that mutuall relation of husband and wife in that glorious and happy espousall of Christ for he that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit with him or one spirituall estate and condition in which is compleated and fulfilled all those mutuall and conjugal relations acts and operations of the married estate in the reality thereof in which the nuptiall day and joyful feastivity never ceaseth nor can time be found wherein it may not be said Behold this is the day of salvation behold now the accepted time yea this is the day which the Lore hath made let us be glad and rejoyce therein Moreover in the state of a Christian you shall finde the relation of father and son for the Father and I are one there is the language of the son of God and that in all the wayes and administrations oâ— Education donation resignation and inheritance of that purchased possession acted and done and ever in the act of doing betwixt the father of lights and that son of righteousnesse that great light that lightneth every one that cometh into the world so that in this appeal all losse of temporary condition is infinitely supplyed in eternall And further in it you have the state and relation of high Preist and people and that in all those severall respects of sacrifices services and oblations together with their respective virtues and operations in point of that reconciliation and agreement made between God and man in the multiplyed comfort thereof exercised in that house and temple not made with hands but is eternall in that heaven or height of happinesse in Christ who is that dwelling place of the most high But time would faile to speak of these things because they are infinitely uncountable and unmeasurable in all their relations offices respects and operations which are through that device of God in christ to be attained in this appeal because God himself who is infinite emence and eternall gives being unto and is the reallity of them all and yet man is really in the use comfort existance and exercise of them all even as it is true that the soul is properly the fountaine and cause of all the motions and operations of the body and yet the body is really in the exercise and hath the participation of them all For in this appeal is fulfilled that law of the spirit which Paul to the Romans saith is fulfilled in us so also speaks the Apostle John that the new Commandement is fulfilled in him and in us because the darknesse is past that is that which is proper and incident unto the creature and the true light shineth that is that which is proper unto God is broke forth and appeareth in us for a law cannot consist of one but must have respect unto twaine otherwise there is no bond therefore the law of the spirit is not contrived takes form or holds in any point thereof but as it consists of God and man in that faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in which or in whom stands all our Lordship and salvation for howsoever in the world there be Gods many and Lords many yet unto us there is but one Godhead who is Lord over all and one Lordship which abides and remains the same for ever Are we then at a losse in the world enjoying nothing that can abide by us as Abraham sojourned in Canaan as the land is carnally considered not injoying the bredth of a foot thereof as Stephen that faithful Martyr or witnesse makes report Let us make our appeal for in this off-spring and seed of God the whole inheritance in all its excellencies is perfected and compleated in us as the wole land was given to Abraham in his seed after the enduring of so great affliction So that in this appeal is contained a supply of every want a comfort against every affliction a restauration of every losse as being that year of Jubile or Jubel the time of carrying or leading along as the word imports into that ancient liberty rest and riches that are in the Son of God wherein wee finde an infinite augmentation and increase of all things wherein with respect to the world we are diminished And hence the second Query is added of purpose which naturally flows from this with the answer or direction annexed Is any merry let him sing By being merry pleasant or joyfull in this place is meant the joy of harvest or first fruits or that triumphant mirth and joyful feastivity and splendant liberty exercised in Israel in that year of Jubile when the land brought forth so plenteously of it selfe without the labour and toyle of the people or any means used by humane hands or administrations no not so much as to gather it in but feed upon the fruits where they were found naturally growing in the
but is unmeasurable in all its operations whether in prayer or in prophesie for they are so neare in allyance that that which is the spirit of Prophesie in Eliah in the history in his shutting up of the heavens and restraining them from raine and also in the opening of them to give rayn in abundance is sayd here by our Apostle in this Chapter to be prayer Prayer therefore and Prophesie are of like nature and of like fame in the the house of God so that to prefer one before the other or to contayne the one harder to be attayned then the other or that one is of more use in the Church then the other is not according to the judgment of God but only in humane wisdome and the Serpents subtilty and policy that things are so carryed in the world to lead men along in blindnesse by speaking of the word of God in such unknown languages which are not to be heard in the house of God for there is no office of Christ whatsoever or exercise of his spirit that one ought to be preferred before another only the call of God makes every one chief and principall in its time and season If men would well consider this they might as well lay out money upon their children in the Schools to learn them to pray as to teach them to preach in case the Spirit of God might be bought for money But the poynt is that true Prayer and Prophesie do give and proclaym a like honour vertue and power to Christ in whomsoever he appears and they are so near a kin that the Apostle appoynts one and the same law in the exercise of them both that is in prayer and prophesie the man is to be uncovered and in prayer and prophesie the woman is to be covered And it is â—suall in Scripture to use one phrase that signifies both as in the Psalms Let God arise prayer-wise or as the word may be as truly read God will arise or God shall arise and his enemies shall be scattered prophetically The reason is because none but a Seer can be a supplicant if he behold not the thing by the spirit of interpretation or prophesie to give a true form unto it he can never sue for it because he knows not what it is To conclude this point this act of the Elders may either be taken to pray with him or prophesie with him for we see the spirit of God useth them indifferently the one for the other as in that instance of Eliah which he brings in in teaching this doctrine for the one is as healthfull and necessary for the recovery and well-being of the soule as the other and of as wonderfull and miraculous effect for remission and confirmation and cannot be in exercise by any either the one or the other but as it is accompanyed with the holy oyle even that annoynting which teacheth all things and hath no need to be taught of man that is it hath no need of humane skill which fals infinitely short of that which it brings the soule unto and instructs and teacheth it in and that leads us to the second poynt in the exercise of the Elders They annoynt him with oyle 3. This sick party therefore or all such as are dead to the law of the letter or carnall command that is to the word of God as it is formed and fashioned through the wisdome art and skill of humane principles which the Schools of Learning among the sons of men in the world are only exercised in and conversant about or else they should undermine their owne foundations and so let fall their building for Gods wisdome once layd in the descention of the Son of God overthrows it all as it comes of the Serpent and so is Satanicall folly But we must know that the Eldership of Israel consists of the first-born of God and no other unto whom the Scriptures look in the first-born of every Tribe or family of Israel to instruct us in that family which the Apostle speaks of that the whole every part thereof is named or hath its renown and authority only of and from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as Paul affirms to the Ephesians as being of no other but of his true and proper off-spring so as to make a difference of the sons of God none excepted as one being of greater eminency birth breeding or excellency then another is to cast reproach upon that one only father of whom every one is named that appertayns to that family as though he were not of like power and glory with respect unto them all or as though he changed his act in producing of his only son which tends to nothing else but to make the seed of the bond-wman heire with the seed of the promise and guil efully to give the wicked interest in the promise whereas the word of the curse is only their inheritance But the children of this off-spring having the name of this one Father called upon them or they called by his name holy and blessed for ever every one as a first-born of God bearing his name and authority is King Priest and Prophet by vertue thereof in the family and there cannot be any inferiour among such as to whom God communicates himselfe in the whole off-spring nor can one be in account and reckoning before another For of his owne will begate he us by the word of truth that we should be the first fruits of him who is no lesse then the eternall father So that it is impossible that this Eldership should appear and not be annoynted with the holy oyle for it is their proper patrimony and birth-right and therefore they ever appeare invested therewith which ever carries in it the same vertue of healing this sick party in all ages and times of the world and a like miraculous recovery and restauration where-ever they are called for by the spirit of true interpretation or prophesie for they cannot with-hold but must impart to every one in the family that which themselves are blessed withall For none can know what is the right of the first-born of God and be possessed therewith but he must freely impart it to every one in the family For the Spirit of Christ is ever like it selfe in all ages only men deceive themselves by mistake of the variety of figures wherein God in one Christ or holy annoynting commends himselfe unto us doting upon the shadow wherein the substance is wrapped up as under Moses vale and they see it not nor can endure the glory and shine thereof But to whomsoever Christ unveyles himselfe hee imparts whole and compleat salvation to every one else it cannot be the salvation of God for he or it cannot be divided and therefore the holy unction is alike shed forth to every one in this Kingdome and they that have it must of necessity annoynt every one into whose fellowship they are called according to the nature of the call of
power of the resurrection from the dead as it is said the Lord shall raise him up there is in prayer a Lord-like authority to rise out of that grave of sin and sorrow of death and destruction so as none shall have dominion over it to keep it under for it cannot be held of death but it will remove the stone from the Sepulchre and deface and break open the seal of Herod himselfe though set upon it by the cheif Preists and Pharisees making it as sure as they can it will make the house of the carnall Jews to shake when the Apostles of Christ are gathered together or brought into unity and harmony by that reconciling spirit of interpretation It will make the foundations of the Prison to shake where the spirit of our great Apostle is infringed casting open the doors and laying wast such power to the astonishment of the Jaylors themselves whoever they may be yea it will raise Peter up out of the dungeon and cause his chains to fall off from his hands to his own admiration and wonder In a word prayer hath in it the power and vertue of the resurrection because it is the breathing of the Son of God returned from death to life this word behold he prayeth was an argument sufficient to prove Paul change from a Saul and to be risen up out of that grave and puddle of the Jewish litteral and carnall worships and from that deadly spirit of persecution which ever accompanies such maner of services Thirdly prayer hath in it the power of pardon and forgivenesse of sins for if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him or in the present tence as the word will bear they are forgiven him that is to every one that partakes in this prayer of faith To commit sin here is to be understood in a two-fold respect that is negatively and affirmatively of which the breach of law being sin doth consist now to sin and prove a delinquent in omitting and not doing that which is required is to neglect and leave undone that which the carnal commandement according to the strict spirit of a Pharisee calls for such sin or missing of the rule of the carnall commandement standing in outward ordinances is here to be understood which is the onely sin condemned by a carnall Jew and this law the prayer of faith doth rout ravell undo and abrogate with respect unto the obligation thereof in the true intent of a Pharasaical Jew And against this law doth true prayer sin in all its supplications intercessions and requests for the prayer of faith observes not in the least in any point that law of the spirit of bondage which onely obligeth to the law of the flesh nor can it keep and perform that spirit of enmity which Christ Jesus nailes to his Crosse and slays in himselfe and therefore a sinne in a Saint in way of negation against the affirmative part of the law of the flesh Againe there is a sin committed affirmatively and that is by reall acting and doing according to the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord which the wisdome of man in that carnall law forbids and that under the penalty of errour schism heresie pride blasphemy and death it self For every point of the law of the spirit rightly composed according to the prin ciples and grounds of faith is most heinous wicked detestable sinfull and abominable in the eyes of a carnal man Now the breach disannulling and abrogating of the carnall command for which the Jewes so hated Christ is the truth of the matter the reality and ever carries in it the remission pardon and forgivenes of sins in the Saints as surely as the breach of the law of the spirit and that everlasting Covenant of God carries in it guilt crime and is the condemnation of the world For every sin and blasphemy against the Son of man that is against the wisdome will power and authority of the arme of flesh shall be forgiven or it is forgiven for it hath the acquittance general discharge and release in it self but he that speaks aagainst the holy spirit that is against that law of the spirit or spirituall estate of that holy one of God it shall never be forgiven that is he that breaks the law of the spirit in any word or thing as the phrase imports it hath in it that guilt which can never be wiped out neither in this world that is in time present nor in the world or time that is to come or not in this world that is in the conscience of the party so made guilty nor in the world to come that is in that sentence of the righteous Judge which doth for ever adjudg and condemn it so that as the breach of the spiritual law hath in it an eternall guilt unseperably and enevitably fastned unto it and accompaning the same even so hath the breach or abrogation of the carnall law an everlasting pardon and acquittance before God fastned unto and ever accompaning the same Note in this point that the Levitical law which the Apostle apposeth to the law of an endlesse life doth not condemn because men fall short in some particulars of the fulfilment of the same but it condemns and is death unto him that walks according to the same or lives thereafter Therefore our Apostle saith If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that is if yee live according to the law of the carnall commandement for by it no flesh can be justified or if yee minde the things of the flesh that is as the word signifies if ye frame form or fashon things unto your selfe according to the carnall command art or reason of man concerning the affairs of God it is death but to live after the spirit that is the law of the spirit or spirituall law is life and peace or to minde the things of the spirit that is to form frame and fashion things spiritually that is life and peace and as the one of these is sin according to mans wisdome and his accounts even so is the other sin according to Gods wisdome and his reckoning and account judgement and doom passed upon it by an eternall and unchangeable sentence There is pardon then and power of forgivenesse in prayer because it is God that sitteth upon that throne of grace judging unto justification who then shall condemn for it the spirit of grace and supplication whereof prayer doth consist yea it is the Son of God who is justified who then shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen that holy one of God For wherever the spirit and vertue of Christ is there is power to forgive sins therefore he saith to stop the mouth of those legall Pharisees whether is it easier to say thy sins are forgiven or to say take up thy bed and walke but that you may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive sins on earth therefore I said
as things of old from eternity and new as in present use fitting and beseeming the present oration and opportunity This phrase therefore is like that where the Apostle saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe till Christ be formed in you not as though they had now defaced Christ who before was formed in them but he declares hereby the effect of his doctrine from which some were turned aside unto the rudiments of the Law as unto another Gospel which he saith is not another but the same Gospel perverted by false Teachers telling them that some are entangled with the yoke of bondage thereby for he that is bound to any particular of the carnall commandement as to be circumcised or any outward form of bodily action He is bound to keepe the whole law and shews that such have abolished Christ and are faln from grace such effect he shews his Doctrine had of some as a savour of death unto death but there were others unto whom hee there speaks on whom his doctrine had a more noble effect as being a savour of life Therefore he saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe or I have brought you forth not in a second act but in another manner and way namely to the forming of Christ in you or framing you into the similitude of the Son of God once and for ever Even so it is here He prayed againe that is the spirit of intercession hath a secondary or other manner of effect then that which is before specified not another prayer but another manner of wonder accomplished by the same prayer for now the heavens gave raine and the earth brings forth her fruit We are to know then that as the Gospel opens the treasuries of the Kingdome of God unto an abundant freedome liberty and plenty of the going forth and exercise of the spirit of grace in the Saints even as water poured upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground through that office of intercession peculiar unto our Eliah without any hinderance or engagement of any bond of the flesh when through the spirit of prayer that cloud of witnesse or rayn of liberality ariseth as a hand or administration thereof even as the word of the Lord is sayd to come by the hand of Haggie and by the hand of Malachie and by the hand of all the Prophets which so covereth the heavens as no parching sun of the beams of mans wisdome and device taketh place no more then they doe in those over-shadowings of the Virgin by that holy spirit of God in the production of Christ Even so doth Prayer set at liberty the works of the flesh in the men of the world by opening the sluces and flood-gates thereof unto condemnation and destruction for the waters of the great deep mystery or bottomlesse pit are opened for the destruction of the world as well as the flood-gates of heaven for the safety of Noah and his houshold in bearing up the Ark fifteen cubits above the great mountayns of the States of this earth or of the world And this prayer doth not simply accidentally but ministerially and effectually in the same sence That the Gospell is a savour of death unto death Not only by gleaning of all the fruits of righteousnesse out of the wisdome of the Serpent or men of the world which centred in the Saints are the proper cause of the transcendencies of their estate above all humane excellencies so doth it also gleane all the vicious desires of the flesh out of that state and condition of Christ centring them in that state of unbeliefe whereby man descends infinitely beneath a state of simple humane or properties of a meer creature and by fashioning and corrupting the holy things of God becomes satanicall and diabolicall and such as seek to finde an excellent or commendable betwixt these twayn it cannot be better described or diciphered for the solidity of it then by that partition that divides Purgatory and Hell in those of that mercinary conceipt The abundance of spirit therefore in the Saints and that plenty of the spirit of the Prince of the power of the ayre which now works in the children of disobedience hold proportion in way of Antithesis otherwise an infinite and an eternall wrath could not take place in the wicked as an infinite and eternall glory doth in the Saints For he made but one speaking of that state of Christ with an elegant allusion unto the high Priest and wherefore but one seeing he had abundance of spirit namely that there might be a holy seed that whatsoever the fruits are that are by one Lord Jesus Christ of the same nature and dignity are all the fruits of happinesse produced and brought forth by that one mystical and spirituall body and so in a diameter respect are all the fruits of sin in the wicked This plenty in this two-fold respect is signified by warning given to Ahab to betake himselfe to his Chariot for I heare a noyse of much raine which Ahab flyes from as a terrible thing as it contayns the spirit of Eliah betaking himselfe to Chariot and horse in the furnitures of this world and Eliah flyes from it as it hath the spirit of Ahab and Jezebel as that which brings destruction upon them only hee betakes himselfe to the strength of Gods spirit to take the gates of Iesreel The plenty of Eliah's spirit is seen and taught in that duration and plenty in the cruse of oyle and barrell of meale raising up the womans sonne from death to life and annoynting Hazael and Jehu for the ruine of Ahabs house Elisha to be a Prophet in his stead and in the destruction of all those false Prophets of Baal And the plenty of the rayn of that spirit of wickednesse appears in Ahab and Jezebel their cruelty towards the Prophet of God their miserable and horrible overthrow and in their desire and endeavour to nourish and maintayn such plenty of a false spirit of prophesie upon the face of the earth and in this plenty of rain seed-time and harvest are continued for the world sow unto the flesh and the flesh they reap and inherit corruption and the Saints sow unto the spirit and inherit everlasting life And from this power of prayer he assumes the power and vertue of doctrine in which he concludes the Epistle to shew that where the power and vertue of the one resides there is the power and vertue of the other The prayer of Faith is never without the spirit of Prophesie and prophesie according to the spirit is never without the life and power of prayer and where one of these is wanting they are both absent from that party in the true exercise of them for a formall prayer is never accompanyed with the life and power of sound doctrine but as they have composed a prayer by mans invention gathering up expressions sutable in the understanding of a man so do they compose a
or a Saviour any where but as lockt up in a humane body in heaven that men may stand here in his room till he return from thence to suck up all the glory of the earth It was not so in ages past and men spirituall for Joshuah Moses Minister was called Jesus a Saviour as the Apostle interprets his name and the Lord acknowledgeth in raising up Judges in Israell that he raised up Saviours unto them And Paul was not affraid to tell Timmothie that in taking heed to himselfe that is how God hath composed salvation in his consisting in Christ and unto learning or doctrine that is how it ought to be layd out and distributed to others that in so doing he should be a Saviour of himselfe and them that heare him 2. A second point is what he saves that is a soule or a life this is not meant of the life of a meer creature but it is the life of the Son of God as our Apostle affirms Now I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live is by or in the faith of the sonne of God So that a Christians life is the life of Christ and there is no life of man-kind but either the life of the Saviour or else the life of Sathan that destroyer for heaven and earth conspire together in the making of man Let us speaking with respect to that plurality in our image that is in our image earthly as well as heavenly for there is a heavenly body and there is an earthly body and God is as just and righteous in the making of the one as of the other and every way as honourable the one in mercy and the other in severity And man cannot be known in a simple act of creation for that multiplies him not but propagation or generation must be brought in also else the son of God nor the seed of the Serpent can be known so both are brought forth in that first act of generation in Cain and Abel wherein the seed of the Serpent appears in the same act as in Jacob and Esau together with Christ in Abel dead by Caine in the spirit and in Seth that sett one in life for evermore who is set in the room of Abel crucified in the world So that the life of Christ and of Antichrist are both from one act even from as early dayes the one as the other and without the true knowledg of that we know neither of them and for other life in man-kind we know none worthy the name of life beyond other creatures but as it serves to the setting forth of the one or of the other of these and so they transcend the life of all other creatures as far as the image of God did the frame of any other creature or that earthly image descends below them all even to a bottomlesse pit which no other creature is subjected unto but only man 3. There is a third point what he saves from that is death namely a death that holds correspondency with that infinite and eternall life of the Son of God in way of Parathesis in all points for Christ is saved from whatsoever Sathan is hath or undergoes and Sathan is destroyed from whatsoever Christ is hath or is advanced unto therefore that conceit that Sathan was an Angell that is a meere creature at the first and in acceptation with God is a meer humane tradition and philosophicall fiction and is a point of greater concernment then men are aware of for it is as safe to say that the son of God was for a time out of the Fathers favour as to hold that the Devill at any time was in acceptation with God for whatsoever is out of Gods favour can never return into againe and what is accepted of him for a moment caâ— never be rejected 2. A second royalty or act of fame that is to be acknowledged by him who turns the sinner from the errour of his way changing him into truth it selfe that is the covering or hiding of a multitude of sins This is taken from the speech of Solomon Hatred stirreth up strife but love covereth all sins which our Apostle calls a multitude of sins the word signifies the deep of the troubled ocean intimating that huge multitude of torturing and troubling trespasses proper to that great gulfe of the bottomlesse pit Now to turn from the error of a mans way is to turn to truth and no man can turn to truth but by that unity that is in Christ none turns to truth but hee that becomes truth for there is no terme or title given in Scripture but being rightly interpretted and rightly applyed the truth substance and being of the thing is there for God useth no expression but he intends under that the truth and substance of the thing expressed To turn to truth is not only truth in word but truth in act also yea to be that very thing as Christ saith I am the way the truth and the life Now that unity that is in Christ is the fulfilment and compleating of the law of the Spirit for if the love of Christ be in us and constrayn us to all acknowledgments of him we know that love is the fulfilling of the Law and where the Law is fulfilled there sin utters not its voyce nor hath it a face to appear it is altogether hid and covered for ever Christ is the eâ—d and scope of the law for righteousnesse and more it aymes not at nor more it cannot require for it is the sonne of God that is justified who then shall condemn him The law is fully satisfied from what ground then shall any accuse yea our Apostle saith that the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us that walke not after the flesh but after the spirit No hiding of sin therefore but by fulfilling of the law but what law not the law of the carnall commandement generally taught in the world by which no flesh can be justified but it is the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus or which consists in that unction office or spirit of the Saviour Againe how do the wicked hide righteousnesse that none appears in them but only the spirit of the wicked one namely by walking according to the law of the flesh For he that walks after the law of the flesh he cannot please God so that all righteousnesse is hid and covered in them yea even by fulfilling the law of the flesh for the more they conform themselves thereunto the more their condemnation doth appear for it is not because men cannot perform all the works of the law in that respect that they cannot be justified thereby but because they do any of them for it is against the nature of that law of the carnall Commandement and every part thereof to justifie for it is its proper nature and office to condemn for we may as well say that the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus is a law of sin and death as to say the law of the carnall command can give life or peace no not in the compleat performance of it For every part thereof is a breach of the law of the spirit And whatsoever is a breach of the law of the spirit is a crucifying of the Son of God afresh and putting of him to open shame so that every performance of the law of the flesh according to the intent thereof is a breach of the same law of the spirit and he that breaks one breaks all therefore all righteousness is hid and covered in the wicked even so the true keeping of the law of the spirit of faith in any part of it is a nullifying of the whole law of the carnall Command therefore no law of sin and death is found in them all sins and sorrows are hid and covered therefore the man is blessed whose trespass is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man and he only unto whom the Lord imputeth accounteth or reckoneth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Amen By Sam Gorton Professor of Christ FINIS