The Ancient Fathers as Cyrill Chrysostome Theophylact and Euthymius are of opinion that our Saviour in these words The Servant abideth not in the house for ever did intend either to Prevent or Answer the Secret Objection or Reply which the Jews did or might have made unto his Former Conclusion vers 34. Whosoever committeth Sin or whosoever is a worker of sin is the Servant of Sin Unto this Assertion the Jews as these good Authors think might have answered thus Admit we daily incur some degree or other of Servitude unto Sin yet we have usual and daily means to blot out the stain of sin and to Free us from thraldom and Final Servitude unto sin and Satan There is no Question but the Jews did account the Sacrifices which Moses did institute fully sufficient and Effectual for both these Purposes Yet that they did herein erre that these sacrifices instituted by Moses could not Free them from this Servitude of sin our Saviour as the forecited Good Authors think proves from this Reason Moses was but a Servant in the house of God and no Servant hath power to Free himself much lesse to set others Free from the yoke of Servitude or to secure his Estate in his Masters house Maldonat's Censure of Their Opinion But Maldonate the Jesuit thinks that place Heb. 3. ver 3. 4. 5. 6. did deceive these Good Fathers or at least that they miss-applied Saint Pauls Comparison betwixt Christ and Moses unto this present Argument For our Saviour saith this Learned Jesuit speaks of another kinde of Servitude in this place then Saint Paul speaks of in the third to the Hebrews and of a Servitude unto which Moses was not Subject For Moses in the third to the Hebrews and else where is Termed The Man of God not a Servant to Sin or Satan 2. Not to Question the Solidity or Pertinency of this Jesuits Exceptions against the Interpretation of the Ancients I must confesse his Opinion is very Probable and their Interpretation somwhat farr fetched if not forced and supposeth That for its Ground which hath not much Probability in it self to wit That these Jews either would confesse or by way of supposition admit that they were such Servants to Sin or Transgressors of the Law as to become thereby the Servants or sons of Satan For they presume in the words following that by being the children of Abraham and by their Observance of Moses Law they were the Sons of God He preferrs One Leontius before the Fathers This learned Jesuite prefers the Interpretation of Leontius a man otherwise of mean Note in comparison before the joynt interpretation of the fore-cited Famous Fathers Our Saviour saith Leontius intended only to Prove what is Inferred here in this 36. verse That none besides The Son can have power to set men Free because The Son only remains in the house for ever Unto this Interpretation Maldonate adds his own that every Servant had need to be set Free by Authority because no Servant hath any Right or Title to continue for ever in the house wherein he lives or to be the owner or possessor of any other it being still in his Masters Power either to sell him or to turne him on t of his house or to dispose of him at his Pleasure If some Servant continue in his Masters house for ever or to his dying day yet this fals out seldome or by chance whereas our Saviour frames his Argument from that which usually happens or for the most part All agree that by The House in this place the Church of God is principally meant in which the Son of God remaines for ever in which no Servant unlesse he become a Son can remain but for a short time For though sinners and Servants to Sin may remaine in the true visible and Militant Church during this life so mingled with the sons of God as they cannot by men be discerned from them yet after death as St. Cyrill saith they are cast out into utter darknes unlesse during this life they be set Free from the Servitude of sin from which none but the Son of God can Free them because He only is the Heir and Lord of Gods House He only hath power to grant or deny Freedome unto what Servants he pleaseth 3. The Words relate unto the Story of Agar and Ishmael This is the Summ of that Connexion which the best Interpreters Ancient or Modern make of the former verse and of these words of my Text. Unto this I may add That These as most other Speeches of our Saviour have Reference unto some Historicall Relation or matter of Fact contained in the Old Testament And that This speech or passage hath Speciall Reference unto the Story of Agar and Ishmael And so the Antecedent The servant abideth not in the house for ever though grounded but upon One Particular Instance yet that Instance or Example being related in the Sacred Story as a Type or Picture of what was to come will inferr our Saviours intended Conclusion much bettter and more forcibly then a full Induction of other Instances and Examples not related in Scripture not framed nor intended by the spirit of God for Types and shadowes of things which were to come This Universall Negative No servant abideth in the house for ever will not so forcibly inferr this Particular Conclusion Ergo No Servant of sin can abide in Gods house for ever as this Particular Instance Ishmael did not abide in Abrahams house for ever Inferrs This Conclusion Therefore the Iewes which thus contested with our Saviour were not to abide in the house of God for ever So that if it be lawfull to Paraphrase upon our Saviours words their Full Meaning is as if he had said thus Do you think your selves Free from the servitude and wages of sin The Sense of The Text. because yee are the seed of Abraham So was Ishmael whom Abraham once intended for his Heire who lived a long time in Abrahams house but being the Son of a Bondwoman he was by Legal Condition but a Servant and therefore not to live in it for ever but to be cast out by Gods appointment as it is written Gen. 21. 10. Cast out this Bond woman and her Son for the Son of this Bond-woman shall not be heir with my son even with Isaac These were the words of Sarah for a while displeasing unto Abraham until God did ratifie them by Interposition of his Authority And thus is your Case 4. For albeit these Jews with whom our Saviour here Disputes were the sons of Abraham by Sarah and so The Progeny of Isaac yet so long as they mockt and persecuted the true seed of Abraham whose coming into the world Isaac did prefigure cleaving unto the Testament given upon Mount Sinai or Agar in Opposition to the Testament given upon Mount Sion they became sons of the Bond-woman as the Apostle infers Gal. 4. 24. to the end of the chapter
Difference of Servitude or Distinction of Servants is set down and allowed by God himself 1. THis Difference of Servitudes or Distinction of Servants is expresly delivered in Holy Scripture allowed and approved of by God himself Levit. A Paraphrase upon Levit. 25 39 c. 25. 39 c. If thy Brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor and be sold unto thee thou shalt not compel him to serve as a Bond-servant But as an hired servant and as a Sojourner he shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubilee And then shall he depart from thee both he and his Children with him and shall return unto his own Family and unto the possession of his Fathers shall he return For they are my Servants which I brought forth out of the Land of Egypt they shall not be sold as Bond-men From this place these two points are clear First That if an Israelite were waxen poor or in debt he might Lawfully sell or alienate the use of his own or of his Childrens bodily imployments unto his Brother for the maintenance of his and his Childrens lives or for the discharge of his debt until the year of Jubilee but no Longer But to sell the bodies or persons of himself or of his Children was not permitted by the Law of God Nor might any Son of Abraham or Jacob buy or sell any of their Brethren though willing to sell themselves or their Children But on the contrary If through necessity that knows no Law any Son of Jacob sold himself unto the Heathen or in case he and his Children had been seized upon for debt his Kinsmen or Brethren were to redeem him or at least not to suffer him to serve any longer then the year of Jubilee And during that terme he was to serve only as a hired Servant and not as a Bond-man From this Law if they had no other Reason the Jews here spoken of might safely plead That in asmuch as they were Abrahams seed they neither were nor could be in bondage unto any man de jure .. The reason why the Lord would not have them to be in bondage unto any man is in the Law expressed Because they were His Servants by a peculiar Title because he had redeemed them from the bondage and thraldome unto which the Egyptians had de Facto not de Jure most unjustly brought them 2. Secondly from this Law it is clear That God did both allow and authorize the Israelites and seed of Abraham to have Bond-men of the Nations round about them or of the strangers that sojourned amongst them that they might bequeath the very bodies and persons of them and their Children as an inheritance and possession unto their Sons and posterity forever ver 45 46. That is They had the same Title or interest in them the same absolute power or Dominion over them as they had over their Lands their Goods or Cattle that is power to alienate or sell them or their Children for their best commodity at their pleasure Of this second sort of Servants or Bondmen which were in Bonis alterius the goods or possessions of their Masters are our Saviours speeches in most Parables to be understood wherein mention is made of Servants without distinction So we read Mat. 18. 25. That the Lord of that ungratious Servant which would not forgive his Fellow an hundred pence commanded him to be sold and his Wife and Children and all that he had and paiment to be made Our Saviours speech though it be a Parable rather then an History is grounded upon an Historical or positive truth He speaks according to the common Custome of those times and places by which not only the Servants themselves and their Children but whatsoever they had gathered together were wholly at their Lords or Masters disposing For as we say Superficies sequitur Solum He that is Lord or owner of the soyl or ground becomes thereby Lord and owner of the House which another man builds upon it So in like case He that is Lord of another mans person or body doth thereby become Lord of all his goods or whatsoever he may be thought to possesse But so it is not with hired servants amongst us for in as much as their bodies or persons are Free and are no part of their Masters goods or possession they may be true Owners Lords or Possessers of whatsoever they got either by their own industry or what otherwise may fall unto them by deed of Gift by death of friends or the like 3. Wherein Bond-men and Hired Servants do in divers points agree But though Bond-men and hired Servants do in other points differ yet in many they agree Most Maxims whether Legal or Moral which are true of the one are true likewise though in different manner or proportion of the other As for Example When our Saviour saith No man can serve two Masters but he shall either love the one or hate the other or lean to the one and despise the other This saying in many cases may be specially and more remarkably true of Slaves or Bond-men yet very true of hired Servants For every man is so far truly and properly a Servant as he is at another mans disposal And every man is so far truly and properly a Lord or Master over another man as he hath right or power to dispose either of his body or of his actions or Labours Now in as much as the Master of an hired Servant or Apprentise hath as absolute right or interest in his Actions his Labours or imployments as the Master of a Slave or Bond-man hath in the actions or imployments of his Bond-man it is as impossible for the One as for the other to execute the will and pleasure of two men that differ in their particular imployments or designs It is the duty of a faithful Servant to execute not his own will but the will and pleasure of his Master But if so it happen that two Men or more may concur or consent to imploy One and the same Man in the self same businesse and service then as we say Many stones make but one Load and many things of several weight but one burden So in this case two or three or more Men thus concurring in the same designs make but one Master But faithfully to execute the wils of men that differ in their Designes or fully to satisfie two or more men that have several and ful Interests in one mans actions and Labours is as impossible as for a body to move two contrary wayes at once 4. The most General and most Essential property wherein both sorts of Servants do univocally agree How Bondmen or Hâ—red Servants are differenced from Freemen by which they formally differ from a man absolutely Free is thus gathered by Tully Liber est qui vivit ut vult He is Civilly Free for that was the chief Freedom that he knew and the Freedom whereof we now
heirs not therefore in the estate of absolute election because they are in the estate of the sons of God or heirs with Christ by Baptism For many whom God hath graciously accepted for his sons many who during the time of their Infancy have enjoyed the estate or Priviledge of the sons of God may in riper years turn Prodigal sons and disinherit themselves and none can be disinherited but he that hath been in the estate or Condition of an Heire or untill with Esau he have sold his birth-right Both parts of this Assertion That all that are Baptized in their Infancy become the Sons of God and during their Infancy do live to God 2. That Sin even in such may revive and wound some grievously others mortally are included in our Apostles dispute Rom. 7. 9. I was once alive saith the Apostle without the Law but when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed Doth he speak this of himself only or of all men without exception or restraint that were without the Law Not Absolutely of all Men that were without the Law for so the Gentiles which were not under the Law which knew not God nor his Lawes should have been so alive as the Apostle there saith he sometimes was because they were more without the Law then he at any time was Nor doth he speake this of himself alone but of all such as he was That is of all such and only such as were the Seed of Abraham and had been circumcised the 8 th day and by Circumcision became under the Law though for the present without the Law So that as Baptism now so circumcision then did free the Children of Abraham from the curse of the Law did Translate them from the estate or Condition of the Sons of wrath to the Condition or Priviledge of the Sons of God But did the Apostle or his brethren which were made alive by Circumcision in their Infancy continue in the same estate of Life untill their mortal Lives end No The Apostle expresly adds But when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed So that sin before the Commandement came was dead and revived when the Law came And the Apostle before the same point of time was alive but then dyed When then did the commandement come which by its coming did bring life to sin and death to this our Apostle and such as he was It is an Observation of very good Vse which S. Basil hath to this purpose in his Comment upon the first Psalm See S. Basil's words at the End of this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When our Reason comes once to ripeness or perfection That is fulfilled which is written Adveniente mandato revixit Peccatum when the Commandement comes Sin revives For when such as have submitted themselves to the Law of God come to the use of Reason or to take their Estate into Consideration they begin to examine their Consciences by the Law of God and sin which was before Inherent though quiet being called in Question grows desperate and rebellious against the Law by which it is examined against the Judge which condemns it against the Party which calls it in Question The Extract as well of our Apostles speech as of S. Basils Observation upon it confirms the Truth Chap. 29. n. 5. which was before delivered in the Treatise of Mortification That the same measure of Regeneration which sufficeth during the time of Infancy or Childhood sufficeth not to save the same Parties when they come to Use of Reason or Consideration for then the Commandement comes upon us a Commandement to Mortifie the deeds of the Flesh by the Spirit to enter the Lists or Combate with sin reviving in us which will certainly kill us unless we mortifie it as it reviveth in us or quell it as it rebells against us So that the estate or Condition of such as have been baptized after once they come to the use of Reason is an estate different from their estate in their Infancy or Childhood an estate likewise different ordinarily from the Absolute estate of Election But of this estate and of our Christian demeanour in it I shall now only say thus much in Generall This Mortification of the Flesh which our Apostle injoynes Rom. 8. 13. is that Reasonaâ—le Service which the same Apostle requires Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your Reasonable Service But why a Reasonable Service In opposition to the Service of the Law which did consist in the Sacrifice of Buls and Goats and other Reasonless Creatures which yet were offered by the holy men of God in Testification of their Faith or Expectation of the promised Messias This Reasonable Service or Mortification of the Flesh must be performed by us in Testification of our Beliefe that he hath accomplished the Sacrifices of the Law by the Sacrifice of himself Again this sacrifice or offering of Our selves that is of Mortifying our Brutish or unreasonable affections by the Spirit Aurum Thus Myrrham Regique Hominique Deoque says Juvencus an old Poet and Father that lived An. xii 330. is a great deal more acceptable to God then the offerings which the three Kings or Wise men offered unto our Saviour Jesus Christ They offered Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense in testimony or acknowledgement that the child then born was the King of the Jews But in as much as we know that we are not redeemed with silver and gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish we cannot either Symbolize with the Sacrifice of our High Priest or attain to that live Sympathie with him by the offering of silver gold or any other kind of offering besides the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit If as He offred himself by the eternall Spirit to God the Father for us So we again offer up our selves to him by Mortifying our earthly man by the Spirit then his Bloud as the Apostle speaks Heb. 9. 14. shall throughly purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God and finally cleanse us from all our sins Unto this Reasonable service or offering up of our selves We were consecrated by Baptism This was a Sermon preacht upon the Epiphanie as I take it and bound by solemn vow then made and if we continue constant in performing this Vow after we come to riper years we shall continue in the state or Condition of the Sons of God which we had by Baptism and by continuance or Progress in this estate we shall arrive at the Immutable state of grace or absolute election For the end of the Son of Gods appearance or manifestation was that he might thus lead us on from strength to strength untill we appear before our God in Sion The Doctrine of Mortification and the consequences thereof were it thus Taught and Laid to the
by his Law allot the First-born a double Portion and give him in every respect the Preeminence of his brethren If this Law were just and right were it not unrighteousnesse in God to bereave Esau of his Birth-right or other Prerogative before he had offended the Law or the Lawgiver before he had done good or evil No He bestowed a greater Inheritance upon Esau then either his Father Isaac or his brother Jacob lived possessed of greater then by any customary Lawes of Nations he could lay claim unto And the First-born among the sons of Jacob were bound to blesse him for his Goodnesse in allowing them a double Portion in blessings temporal But he had forewarned them as well by his own practise in Jacobs Case as by his Instructions given to Moses not to seek his special Goodness by Plea of Law or by custom of Nations not to urge his own Law concerning Blessings temporal to Over-rule his Will in bestowing Blessings Spiritual All then which our Apostle meant in his Reply to this Objection Is there unrighteousnesse with God is no more in effect then This God hath reserved it as an Eternal Prerogative to himself To have mercy on whom he will have mercy and to have compassion on whom he will have compassion not on them whom the present sons of Jacob think worthyest of mercy and compassion because they are Abrahams seed or because they being Gentiles love their Nation and build them Synagogues Cerah and Dathan with their Complices because some of these men descended from Levi as Moses and Aaron did others from Reuben Jacobs eldest son thought themselves men as holy and just at least as capable of Gods Favour and Graces as Moses was But Gods judgment of them was farre otherwise And when man hath done what he list or what he can God will use his own judgment and not his in the disposing of mercy and judgment for he worketh all things according to the counsel of his Will Whatsoever the devices of mans heart be That must stand So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy 10. What is not of him that willeth what is not of him that runneth Neither Election nor Salvation nor any Spiritual Grace thereto tending The Proposition is Vniversally Negative neither First Plantation nor Increase neither the Beginning Middle or Ending nor any other part of any Spiritual blessing is in the Power of Man All and every Parts is from God alone that sheweth mercy And so I come to the second Inquirie The second Enquirie To what end or purpose this universal Assertion is referred The discussion whereof will justifie my interpretation of former Passages For surely our Apostle intended no more in the Premisses then is contained in the main Conclusion Non est volentis c. Is it then to no purpose what End the man as yet unregenerate Propose to his Will whether good or bad Or after the End proposed skils it nothing what choise he make of Meanes Or after choise of meanes no matter how he prosecute them whether carelesly and slothfully or with diligence and alacritie See Chap. 32. and Fol. 3143. 2. Note Suppose we were to preach to a Congregation of which the most part were not for ought discreet Charitie could presume in the State of Grace nor assured of their salvation and yet desirous to use the Meanes for attaining this Assurance should we from this Doctrine tell them all were one in respect of their Conversion or Regeneration whether they confessed one God or no whether they sware by His Name in Truth and judgement or use it rashly and vainly whether they prophane the Sabbaths or religiously observe them whether they run to suspicious houses or repaire to the Temple whether they be willing to hear a lascivious song or a Sermon Common talk or Common Prayers upon Festival or solemn dayes Or doth the undoubted truth of this Doctrine to witt Jacob was elected before he had done good or evill sufficiently warrant us to make this Vse of it to an unregenerate Audience Seek ye neither to do good nor evil till ye be elected for do ye what ye can if Gods Will be to convert you ye shall be converted at the time appointed if it be not his Will to have you converted do what you can ye shall never be converted No Minister of God that understands himself but would be more affraid of these Consequences then Moses was of his Rod when it was turned into a serpent And yet unlesse these Inferences be true Every Will every Purpose and endeavour of man is not Excluded by the former Vniversal Negative from being availeable as Meanes ordinarily necessary but only from being Meritorious Causes of Regeneration or Legall Titles to Election Some Will and some kind of endeavours are in their kind as effectual as others are idle and impertinent or demeritorious of Gods Grace to convert us 11. If we consider in heart that the principal and last End of our Apostles endless Pilgrimages and indefatigable labours in the Gospel was to gain multitudes of soules unto Christ that the meanes subordinate to this End was to encourage all without exception to come and to shew them the way as he doth in this Epistle by which they must come to wit not by Workes but by Faith We shall much wrong St. Paul and our own soules more if we apply these words It is not of him that willeth c. to any other purpose or stretch them further then thus Every man must sincerely and truely renounce his own will that he may unfeignedly submit himself to Gods will Every man must utterly revoke his own waies and abandon those courses wherein flesh and blood most delight that he may run as we say with Might and Maine to Gods mercies and freely denying himself wholly betake himself unto them Or taking the whole Proposition It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy It s all one as if he had said It is to no purpose what ye will or whither ye run unlesse ye run unto Gods promses made in Christ By proving most excellent in any other course of life though in the excellent knowledge of the Law unlesse withall ye bend your course unto this mark which I set before you you may make your selves such as God hath decreed to harden for as he sheweth mercy on whom he will shew mercy So whom he will he hardeneth 12. But doth this Conclusion of the Apostle's any way import that God should deny mercy to any that unfainedly seek it It rather implies that he shewes mercy to all such in abundance The Principal and most Pertinent Sense of Gods Words urged by our Apostle as they respect Mose's Petition concerning himself is this Where I shew mercy I will shew mercy to the purpose For when He had told Moses that he would proclaim His Name
Gods then other people were objects little lesse unto them then as they apprehend our Saviour in this place doth to wit that they were in Bondage to the Romanes or at least if they were not in Bondage they were more beholding to the Clemencie of the Romanes that did not make them Servants having lately conquer'd them then unto the Favour of their God or Gods which had suffered them to be Conquered For it was an unquestionable Prerogative of the Conquerors in those daies to bring all such as wilfully or desperately resolved to trie their Câ—â—se in battell with them into Civil Servitud or Bondage if so they pleased They held it no sin but rather a matter of Curtesie or kindnesse to exchange death which by title of warr was due unto the Conquered for Servitude or Civill Bondage 3. The Jewes in our Saviours time were no slaves unto the Romanes either de â—ure or de Facto But to do these Jewes no wrong Their Answer unto our Saviour was not altogether so false as Captious seeing it consists of two parts Both Negative The one de Facto That they were not Servants That they never had been in Bondage unto any man And this part of their Answer may well seem False if they extend the meaning of it unto the time of Abraham or Jacob. For Jacobs Seed or Posterity was in bondage unto the Egyptians The Condition of the whole Nation under the Babylonians or Chaldaeans was little better But it may be That they intended their Answer only in respect of themselves or their own times And so it is True that they were not de Facto in Bondage to the Romans or to any Man For the Romanes suffered them to enjoy the Priviledges of Free Men to use the Liberty of their own Lawes though with subjection or subordination in many points unto the Lawes of the Romanes 4. The other part of their Answer was de Jure and this was most true That being the Seed of Abraham they could not justly especially so long as they continued in their native Country be made Servants or Bondslaves by the Romans in that they had a more Just Title unto the Land of Promise by being the Seed of Abraham and Sons of Jacob then the Romanes themselves had unto the Kingdome or Empire of Italie or unto Rome it self The mighty God and Supreme Lord and Sole Possessor of Heaven and Earth had given the Land of Canâ—an unto Abraham and to his seed by more expresse Covenant and peculiar Title then the Kings of Nations had to their Crownes or Scepters All which notwithstanding they hold immediately from the same God The attempts or practises of other Nations against this people were alwaies frustrate and voyd in Law even by the Law of God save only in Case that he were displeased with them and suffered such as hated them to be Lords over them In which cases they were to be no Longer in Civill Subjection unto others then till they returned to him by Repentance confessing their Sins and the Sins of their Forefathers Thus doing their Charter for free enjoying the Land of Canaan was so Absolute so durable and strong that no authorized customes of Men or Nations could prevaile or praescribe against it So that the matter of their Answer in respect of Civil Servitude or Bondage was absolutely True de Jure and de Facto too if they meant it or we restraine it unto the time wherein they were under the Government of the Romans 5. The forementioned Jewes were true Slaves unto Sin But how true soever both wayes it were It was altogether impertinent nothing at all to the purpose or Point in question For our Saviour no way intended to object nor doth His speech any way imply any Civill Servitude or that they were or ought to be or had been at any time Servants unto Men but only that they were Servants unto Sin which indeed was the worst Master that they or any man could serve Thus much his Reply unto their impertinent Allegation expressely and Emphatically averres Verily verily I say unto you whosoever committeth Sin is the servant of Sin And though by Title of Law as well Divine as Humane hee be whosoever it is a King or Lord over others in respect of Civill Servitude or Dominion Yet till he be Freed from the dominion of Sin he hath the Condition or propertie of a Servant What is that Our Saviour tells us in the next words The servant abideth not in the house for ever that is He hath no Right nor Interest in the House wherein for the present his abode or continuance is but only durante Domini bene-placito so long as it shall seem good unto his master and no Longer But the Son saith our Saviour abideth in the house for ever because the Inheritance belongs to him This Saying or Maxime of our Saviour is grounded upon the Civill Customes or Law of Nations concerning the Right or Priviledge of the Son or First-borne in respect of Servants but is most remarkably true of the Son of God He is the Only Son the Only Heire not Apparent only but the Only Heir Possible of that House whose Builder and maker is God In that Hee is Gods Only Son He is the Only Lord the Only Heir of All things that were builded that were created by Him Not Free only in his Person but induced with full Power and Authority to make all others Free that seeke unto him And this his Power is so absolute and plenarie that without him none can be truely and indeed sett Free For so he himself concludes If the Son therefore shall make you Free ye shall be Free indeed CHAP. XV. Containing the Generall Heades of this whole Treatise And of the Distinction betwixt Slaves and those which we call Hired Servants or Apprentices or Free-borne Persons in their nonage 1. THat we may understand our own Estate by Nature and the inheritance whereunto we are intitled by Grace better then the Jewes did we are to discusse these Three Points First Wherein Civill Bondage or Servitude doth consist Or What be the Properties wherein Servants differ from Free-men Secondly What Proportion or Analogie Servitude to Sin hath unto Civill Servitude And whether such as our Saviour saith are truely Servants unto Sin be more truely and properly Servants then such as are Legal and Civil Servants Thirdly the manner How the Son of God doth sett us Free from the Bondage or Servitude of Sin 2. Of the Condition of slaves and Hired Servants Servitude is opposed to Freedome And we cannot well know what it is to be a Servant unlesse we first know what it is to be a Free-man We do not meane a Free-man of this or that Corporation but a Free-man simply or one that is Free by Birth or condition of Life Every one in this sense is said to be Free that hath Right or power to dispose of himself of his Children of his
Lands or Goods or of his own Actions or Imployments Every one likewise is a Servant that being come to full yeares is deprived of this Right or power to dispose of himself of his Lands of his Goods of his Actions or imployments either in whole or in part As for Children or such as are under Yeares though borne to be Lords over others yet whilest they are under yeares they are properly neither Free-men nor Servants Although as the Apostle teacheth us Gal. 4. 1. 2. they participate more of the Nature of Servants then of Free-men Now I say that the Heire as long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant though he be Lord of All but is under Tutors and Governours untill the time appointed of the Father For this Reason one and the same word in the Original is promiseuously used for Children and for Servants because Neither of them are at their own disposals but at the disposals of their Guardians or masters 3. According to the severall Extents of this want of Power or Right to dispose of themselves of their Actions or Imployments Or rather According to the Extent of others Right or Power to dispose of them in all these there be severall Degrees of Servitude and divers sorts of servants Some as the great Philosopher in his Politicks would have it are Servi à Natura were framed by Nature only to serve or to be at other mens disposals as not being able to dispose of themselves Such as had strong Bodies but weake Braines were in his judgment more fit to be governed by Others then to govern themselves But this kind of servitude is improper For Omnis servus est alicujus Domini Servus Every Servant is the Servant of some particular Lord or Master whose Interest whether in his Person or imployments must be grounded upon some Speciall Title Such as by Nature are destitute of witt or Reason Qui ubique est nusquam est He that is every where is no where do not thereby become Servants unlesse we should say they were every mans Servants that are disposed to imploy them And this Priviledge they have of others That they are not capable of any Contract or Legall Title by which they may make themselves or be made This or That mans servants And being no mans servants they can be no servants 4. Though our English Servant be derived from the Latin Servus yet servants in our English tongue we call many which a good Latinist would rather call Famuli then Servi being indeed Servants that is at other mens disposals but in part only not in whole whom for Distinction sake we call Apprentices or Hired Servants Over whose Actions or Imployments their Masters during the time of their hire or Apprentiship have full right and Interest and Authority likewise over their Bodies or Persons to correct or punish them if they take upon them to dispose of their Actions or Imployments otherwise then for their Masters Behoof or as they shall appoint But over their Persons their Bodies their Goods or Children their Masters have no Right nor Interest They may not take upon them by our Laws to dispose of These as they do of their Day-Labours or bodily Imployments Yet are these properly called Servants as having made themselves such or are so made by their Parents or Guardians upon some Contract or by some Branch or Title of Commutative Justice in which there is alwayes Ratio dati accepti somewhat given and taken that binds both the Parties As in this particular case The Master gives and the Servant receives meat drink and wages And in Lieu of these Benefits received the Servant yields up and the Master receives a Right or interest in his bodily and daily Labours and a Power to dispose of these Yet are they Servants as we said only in part not meer servants 5. Meer Servants or servants absolutely or in whole were such as the Latines called Mancipia such as we call in English Slaves or Bondmen or such as sometimes out of a superfluity of speech or expressing our selves in our Native Dialect we term Bondslaves For a Slave is as much as a Bondman and no Bondman can be any more then a slave A Bondslave is a Name which hath no Reality answerable or fully commensurable unto it Unto this state or Condition of life that is of being a Slave or Bondman no man is bound or subject by Nature No Man will willingly or voluntarily subject himself Such as heretofore have been and in divers Countries yet are Servants in this sense were made such by others from a pretended right or Title of Conquest and were called Mancipia quasi manu Capti because they had been taken in War and might by rigour of Justice at least by rigour of Hostile Law be put to Death as men convicted of Rebellion by taking Armes Now the price of their Redemption from death was losse of Civil Liberty as well for themselves as their posterity These were truly and properly called Servi according to the native Etymologie of this name in Latin Servi quasi Servati They were again wholly and meerly Servants according to the utmost extent of the Nature and of the Real Conditions or properties of Civil Servitude that is Their Lords or Masters had an absolute Right or Interest not only in their Bodily Actions or Imployments but over their very Persons their Bodies their Children and whatsoever by any Title did belong unto them The Interest Power or Dominion which Masters by the Civil Law or Law of Nations had over their Servi or Mancipia their Slaves or Bondmen was altogether such and as absolute as a Free-holder hath over his own Inheritance or Fee simple that is a power or Right not only to reap or take the Annual Fruits or Commodities of it but full Right to Let or Sett for Term of years or to alienate or sell the Propertie For so were Bondmen and their Children bought and sold as Lands and Goods or Cattle are with us All the Right Dominion or Interest which Masters with us have over their Servants or Apprentices is only such as a Tenant or Lease-holder for some limited time or Terme of years hath over the ground or soyl which he payeth Rent for that is a Right or Property in the Herbage a right or power to reap the Fruits or increase of it during the time of his Covenant but no right to alienate or sell so much as the Earth or Gravel much lesse to alienate or make away the Fee-Simple or Inheritance which is still reserved unto the Owner Thus the Bodies or persons of hired Servants are their own Their mindes and Consciences are Free even during the time of their service But the Use or imployment of their Bodies in services Lawful and Ingenuous is their Masters So are the Services of their wit for accomplishing with care and diligence what by duty they are bound to perform CHAP. XVI That the former
this Resolution or Determination in the Point proposed was intimated before the whole strength of it relyes upon those places of Scripture wherein it is said He that continues unto the End shall be saved or We are partakers of Christ and his promises if we Continue the Beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the End But though it be True that no man which falls off from the Spirit unto the Flesh before the End of his bodily Life can be partaker of the promises yet is it never said That no man is or can be so confirmed in Grace before the End of his life that he cannot Totally or finally fall As for that Speech frequent in Scripture He that continues unto the End c. it doth not so punctually point out the End of Life as it doth the End or just Measure of this Duty here enjoyned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Language of the Holy Ghost oftimes signifies as much as ad victoriam and denotes that point of time wherein we get the Victory or Conquest over the Flesh or other enemies of the Spirit And the Apostles words Hebr. 3. 14. may well beare this Interpretation if we hold the beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the End That is unto the End or full Measure of our Confidence And all the glorious promises which are made unto such as continue unto the End are as often made and conceived in this Tenour To him that overcomes So it is Revel 3. 5. He that overcometh the same shall be cloathed in white raiment and I will not blot out his Name out of the Book of Life but I will confesse his Name before my Father and before his Angels And again ver 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the Name of my God and the Name of the City of my God which is New Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from my God And the writing of this Name of Jerusalem which cometh down from heaven upon men imports it shall be thus written whilest they live here on earth or whilest it comes down to them not when they ascend in soul unto it And when S. Paul saith that the Names of Clement and other his Fellow-Labourers were written in the Book of Life Phil. 4. 3. Questionlesse his meaning is that they were so written in it that they should never be blotted out and yet were they so written long before they dyed I saw saith S. John the dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Books according to their works Rev. 20. 12. But although men in this Life may attain unto an Immutable estate of Grace yet many finally misse of this Estate because they know not where to find themselves or in what Estate or Condition they should for the Present rank or esteem themselves 11 Some there be which either Expresly or by Inevitable Consequence of what they expresly affirme divide Mankind as formally into Reprobates and Elect The division of all mankind into Elect and Reprobates not right as Philosophers do Substances into Corporeal and Incorporeal By this kind of Division were it sound and Orthodoxal every man from his birth unto his death should be either a Reprobate or One Elect. Now were this Doctrine true We that are Christs Messengers should be at a Non-plus either for administring Comfort to our hearers in trouble of Conscience or for preventing and asswaging Presumption in such as are not conscious of any grosser Sin or not dejected by the Thundring Threats of Gods Law The Truth is There be Three Estates or Conditions of Men not only in Generall but of every man in particular which finally attains unto Salvation First The Estate or Condition of Man as he is the son of Adam For every man as he is the son of Adam is the son of wrath Second The Estate or Condition of Man as he is reconciled to God and admitted into the Priviledge of his Son by Baptisme or ingraftment into his Mystical Body the Church Third The Estate or Condition of Compleat Regeneration or of Election The First estate or condition is the Terminus à quo Eternal Salvation or admission into the Everlasting State of Bliss is the Terminus ad quem of every True Christians Progresse The Two Estates Intermediate that is the Estate of the Sons of God in General by Baptism and the Estate of Election which we have in this Life are the Two several Degrees or steps of our Progress in Christianity But in as much as all men be not at all times either in the Estate of Election or Reprobation and yet all in the end become either Sheep or Goats we must observe Foure Estates of men in General Four Estates of men in general The First The Estate of the Sons of Wrath. The Second The Estate of Reprobates The Third the estate of the Sons of God by Adoption or Baptism The Fourth The estate of the elect or compleatly Regenerate 12. That there is a Difference between the estate or Condition of the Sons of Wrath and the estate of absolute Reprobation A difference likewise between the Estate or Condition of the Sons of God the Estate of Condition of the Elect may be Demonstrated form the several Estates or Conditions of the First Man Adam in his First estate was the Son of God yet not then in the estate of election for so he could not have fallen so foully as he did After his Fall he was in the Sate or Condition of a Son of Wrath Yet not in the estate or condition of absolute Reprobation for so he could not have attained unto the estate of election or Salvation So then every Reprobate is the Son of Wrath but every Son of Wrath is not a Reprobate Every elect Person or every man after election is the Son of God but every Son of God is not in the number of the elect The Award allotted to every one of these estates is either an Act of Mercy or of Iustice Divine But unto the individual Nature or Persons of men no effect of Justice or Mercy can be awarded And therefore the Individual entity or Nature of Man cannot be the Immediate Object of the Divine Decree No part of misery can be determined upon any man or Decreed against him before he be the Son of wrath or a Reprobate For God doth never punish where he is not displeased and displeased he cannot be with our meer Natures Now to be the Son of Wrath in the lowest degree supposeth some work of Satan wrought in the party which is the Son of Wrath That only makes him the Son of Wrath. Adam could not have become the Son of Wrath unlesse he
because it was thus peremptorily willed commanded or required by God not Objectively Good from eternity the observance of the same thing commanded is now as dangerous and displeasing to God as the neglect or Non-Observance of it in Abrahams in Mosess in the Prophets times had been Hence is that wish of our Apostle Gal. 5. 12. I would they were even out off that trouble you that is I would that they which presse Circumcision upon you and upon your children might be sentenced according to Gods Law enacted against such as during the First Covenant did omit or neglect it 10 Partly from ignorance of this Distinction between the nature of things commanded and forbidden by the Moral and Ceremonial Law partly from ignorance why obedience to the Law of Ceremonies was so strictly enjoyned and the neglect of it so severely punished oft times by Gods immediate hand the Jews were drawn to place as great Sanctity in the observance of Rites and Ceremonies as in sincere obedience to the Moral Precepts This was one main root of their Hypocrisie a sin from which it is scarce possible any hearer of the Word should be free unlesse he be taught to put some difference between the Nature of things Good and Evil of things commanded and forbidden besides the Will or authority of the Commander If the Acts or Injunctions of Gods Will were the onely Rule of Goodnesse and had not eternal Goodness rather for their Rule it would be hard to avoid the Stoical error that all sins are equal besides a kinde of Fatality in humane affairs worse then Stoical The Turks acknowledge Gods Will to be a Rule of Goodnesse as soveraign as the author of the forementioned Epistle doth to be such a Cause of Causes as he would have it But being ignorant or not considering that there is an Immutable goodnesse precedent to the Act or exercise of Gods Wil a Goodness whereof his Wil however considered is no Cause For it is Coeternal to his Wil to his Wisdom and Essence they fall into grosly absurd errours And consequently unto this their ignorance or to the common error that all things are Good onely because God willeth them they sometimes highly commend and sometimes deeply discommend the self same practises for quality and circumstances with as great vehemency of zeal and spirit and with as fair Protestations of obedience in all things to Gods Will as any other men do For Selimus to attempt the deposition of his Father was in their Divinitie a good and godly Act. For Bajazet to take arms against his Brother vvas an abominable impietie What vvas the reason Injects sortè Bajazetis mentione coepit Chiaussus in eum inclementiùs invehi quod arma sumpsisset contra fratrem Ego contrà dicebam videri mihi miseratione dignum cui inevitabilis necessitas imposita esset aut capiendorum armorum aut certae pestis subeundae Sed cum Chiaussus nihilominùs exeerari pergeret Vos inquam immanis facinoris reum facitis Bajazetem At Selimum hujus Imperatoris patrem qui non modò contra patris voluntatem verùâ—s etiam salutem arma tulit nullius criminis arguitis Rectè inquit Chiaussus nam rerum exitus satis docuit illum quod fecit divino fecisse instinctu coelitùs fuisse praedestinatum Tum ego si hoe more agetur quicquid quamvis pessimo Consilio susceptum si benè cedat rectè factum interpretabimini Dei voluntati adscribetis Deum facietis authotem mali nec quicquam benè aut sequiùs factum nisi ex eventu pendetis Sumus aliquandiu in hoe sermone commorati cum uterque non sine animorum vocis contentione quod proposuisset defenderet Collecta utrinque plura sacrae scripturae loca Nunquid potest vas dicere figulo Cur me ita finxâ—sti Indurabo cor Pharaonis Jacob dilexi Esaâ— odio habui atque alia ut veniebant in mentem Auger Busbequ Epist 4. Selimus his attempt found good successe for he prevailed against his Father and this vvas an Argument that it vvas Gods Wil that he should so do But Bajazet miscarries in his attempt against his brother and his disaster vvas a proof sufficient that God vvas displeased vvith his attempt it vvas not his Will that he should prosper And seeing his Will is the only Rule of Goodnesse seeing he did predestinate these tvvo Princes as he did Jacob and Esau the one to a good end the other to an Evil the self same Fact or Attempt vvas good in the one but vvicked in the other We all condemn it as an error in the Turk for measuring the difference betvveen good and evil by the Event But even this errour hath an Original which is worse They therefore measure all good and evill by the Event because they ascribe all Events without exception to the Irresistible Will of God Ex quo satis constitit non Avi misericordin eó usque Nepoti parcitum sed ex opinione quae Turcis insedit ut res quocunque consilio institutas si benè cadunt ad Deum auctorem refarant Proptoreà quamdio incertum suit quem exitum Bajazetis conatus sortirentur abstinendas ab insantis injuria manus Suleimannus statuit nesi postmodùmres meliùs vertisser obniti voluntati Dei voluisse videretur Sed nunc illo extincto ac veluti divina sententia damnato causam esse non putabat cur filio diutiùs parceretur Ne malum ovum ex malo corvo relinqueretur Ibidem and think that nothing can fall out otherwise then it doth because every thing is irresistibly appointed by Gods Will which in their Divinitie is such a necessarie Cause of Causes and by Consequence of all Effects as the Author of the said Epistle would have it to be Whosoever he be whether Jew Turk or Christian which thinks that all Events are so irresistibly decreed by God that none can fall out otherwise then they do must of necessity grant either that there is no moral evil under the Sunne or that Gods will which is the Cause of Causes is the only Cause of such evil 11 But is the like sin or errour expresly to be found in Israel Do any make the same Fact for nature qualitie and substance to be no sin in one man and yet a sin in another or to be a little sin in one man and a grievous outcrying sin in another Though they do not avouch this of rebellious attempts against Prince and State or of other like publick Facts Cognoscible by humane Law yet the Principles of Praedestination commonly held by them and the Turk draw them to the like Inconveniences in transforming the immutable Rule of Goodnesse into the similitude of their partial affections in other Cases The Adulterie and murther which David committed had been grievous sins in any other man but in David being predestinated they were but sins of infirmitie sins by which the outward man was defiled not the inward man Such
or vain Collections they became fool-hardie and desperatly resolute to be avenged upon the children of Israel for all the miseries harms and losses which Moses and Aaron their chief leaders had brought upon them whereas The Lord God of the Hebrews had at this time purposed solemnly to declare to all the world That vengeance belonged unto him alone and that he would repay it upon those who had best deserved it that was upon the Egyptians who for a long time by many waies and in divers kindes had wronged the Israelites who at no time had wronged them As for the Egyptians loss of Cattel and of Grain or for their bodily annoiances by frogs by blains c. These were the just Awards of Gods Punitive Justice upon Pharaoh and his servants for part of the wrongs which they and their Predecessors had done by bringing them into undeserved Bondage But The Lord God of the Hebrews had not as yet called this present Pharaoh or the State of Egypt to an exact reckoning or full account for making away so many Infant-Males of the Hebrews by drowning them in the river or other like cruel practises against them Now that the Egyptians might become the chief Executioners of Gods vengeance upon themselves for the shedding of innocent blood he gave them over to their own proud Phansies to their own vain imaginations or presumptions of good success by pursuing the Israelites whom they had upon fair terms requested to depart out of their Land And of all the Hardenings or Infatuations which had possessed the heart of Pharaoh and his Councel of State this was the greatest and strangest That they should adventure to give the Israelites fierce Chase after they saw or might have perceived the Red sea to open her bosom to give the children of Israel Passage All this was the Lord God of the Hebrews his doing that the blood of the Hebrew Infants might be required of the Egyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Law of Retaliation or most exquisite Rule of Punitive Justice This present Pharaohs Predecessor whether his Father or no I know not with the advice of his Councel of State and Warre had designed the poor Hebrew infants as a Prey to the fishes or other ravenous water-creatures Now the righteous Lord God of the Hebrews makes this proud Pharaoh his Successor in the height of his strength and his mightie Army and States men a Prey not only to the fishes and Sea-monsters but a visible bootie to the promiscuous sorts of ravenous creatures which inhabit the wildernesse See the 9. Book of Comm. upon the Apostles Creed Chapt. 43. Numb 2. Psalm 74. 14. Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wildernesse 22 He that would in vacancie from other businesses diligently peruse the Historie of Exodus from the first Chapter to the twelfth may finde many fair and unto this day fresh maps of Gods patience and long-suffering toward sinners of his mercie and loving kindnesse towards his servants specially to the Oppressed and many live durable Pictures of his Justice punitive upon obstinate incorrigible Transgressors but no Type or shadow of Peremptory Absolute Reprobation Not one Clause is there in all this Long Relation which looks or can be wrested that way no not in the Construction or Paraphrase which the Author of the Book of Wisdom makes upon it A man I must ever acknowledge of an excellent Contemplative Spirit as full as the moon in points of high speculation of Gods general Providence in governing the world and yet a man when he comes to discusse the different manner of Gods dealing with the righteous these in his language are The Seed of Abraham and the wicked Heathen so farre from being Canonical that he is scarce Orthodoxal often by Fitts exhibiting certain Crises to the observant Reader that he was in some measure infected with that disease whose cure St. Paul did so earnestly wish unto his Country-men the Iews The radical Disease common to the whole Iewish Nation of that time and to this learned Author whom for this reason alone were no others alledged by the learned Rainolds Philo Judaeus Author of the Book of Wisd I should conjecture to be Philo Judaeus was This That because they were the The Seed of Abraham they were the only righteous seed and however the Lord God of their Fathers did often chastise and correct them yet all his corrections were Filial that he would not or could not at any time plague them as he had done the unrighteous Heathen or punish them with like blindnesse of mind or hardness of heart as he had done the Egyptians The Receipt or medicine given by our Apostle for curing this Disease in his Country-men then living and for preventing the like in after Ages whether in Jew or Gentile we have set down Rom. 9. 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth The Extract or Quintessence of which Aphorism is This That the Lord was not so tyed by Oath or Promise unto Abraham but that he might and would harden the hearts and blinde the eyes of his seed after the same manner he had done Pharaohs and the Egyptians if at any time they should become as obstinate as Pharaoh and his People had been or harden their own hearts by indulgence to their lewd affections or by neglect and contempt of Gods forewarnings specially these being seconded by signs and Wonders no lesse admirable then Moses had shewed in Egypt 23. To harden the seed of Abraham even by Sarah or to suffer them to harden their own hearts after a stranger manner and for a longer space then the Egyptians were hardened upon supposal or discovery of the like though lesse pride of heart obstinacy or contempt of Gods Embassadors could be no prejudice to Gods Oath to Abraham no impeachment of Promised Loving-kindnesse unto David but rather a Constat to all the World That the God of Abraham was no accepter of Persons but that in every nation who feareth him and loveth righteousnesse shall be accepted Acts 10. 34. And by the Authentick Rule of Contraries Every Nation all and every one of any Nation that despiseth him and worketh unrighteousnesse shall be rejected by him And they above others most obnoxious to grievous temptations and Induration who had better opportunities to know him and greater motives to fear and love him and out of love towards him to do that which is right and good both in his sight and in the sight of men This was the state or condition of the Seed of Abraham from time to time after their deliverance out of Egypt specially after the building of the second Temple and rebuilding it by Herod 24. The principal Point remaining only to be touched upon by me but which I would commend to the serious consideration and accurate sifting of other Students in Divinitie is
by his Blood were the Deliverance of mankind from the powers of darkness and the inheritance of the kingdom of Light 4. The Parallel between the Institution of the Passover and of the Lords Supper or of the two Inheritances bequeathed the one by Moses the other by Christ is so plain that it needs no Comment It only requires a diligent Reader or Hearer or what is wanting on the ordinary Hearers part may be supplied by every ordinary Catechist before the receiving of the Sacramental Pledges One point yet remaines more pertinent to the unfolding of our Apostles meaning Heb. 9. ver 15. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by meanes of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament they which are called might receive the promise of Eternal Inheritance For where a Testament is there must also of necessitie be the death of the Testator For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the Testator liveth And it is this As the Israelites did not enter upon the inheritance or take possession of the Land of Canaan till after Moses the Testator or Mediator of the old Testament was dead so neither was the Kingdom of Heaven our everlasting inheritance set open to all or any Beleivers until Christ Jesus the Testator or Mediator of the new Testament was crucified dead buried and raysed again to immortal Glorie Since which time as is the King so is the Kingdom or inheritance bequeathed so is the Testament it self being sealed by his bloody death All and every of them Truely Everlasting CHAP. XLVIII The Parallel between the most Solemn Services of the Law and The One Sacrifice of Christ And The high praeeminence and efficacie of This in comparison of Those The Romanists Doctrin that in the Masse Christs Body is Identically Carnally present and that there is a proper Sacrifice Propitiatorie offered derogates from the Absolute Perfection of Christs offering himself Once for all 1. THe principal Termes of proportion in this Parallel which serve as so many several Kens or Markes for the right survaying of it are The services of the Law or the Offices of Legal Priests and the Perpetual Function of our High Priest The services of the Law wherein our Apostle instanceth are the Principal and most Solemn Sacrifices which were injoyned to the Priests after the order of Aaron The One Sort whereof were Anniversaries as of Bullockes and Goates and to be offered every year upon the day of Attonement and so to be offered from the First Erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness so long as the Law of Ceremonies was de Jure to continue untill our Saviours death upon the Cross since which time all Bloody Sacrifice have lost their Legal Vse The Other service was That Sacrifice of the Red Heifer and the Consecration of water by the sprinkling or mingling her Ashes which perhaps was not Anniversarie nor often put in practice from the time of Moses his Death untill the Ascension of our Saviour into heaven Now our Apostle takes it as granted that if these choice Sacrifices of Attonment and of the Red Cow were altogether unsufficient to purifie the Hearts and Consciences or the Soules and Spirits of sinful men the Ordinary or meaner sacrifices of the Law were much more unsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifices of our high Priest was Alsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifice of our high Priest was Alsufficient and most Efficacious for The Eminency of Christs bloudie Sacrifice upon the Cross in respect of all Legal sacrifices of what rank soever consisteth First in the Efficacy which it had and hath for Remission of all sins committed against the Moral Law of God that is of all such sins as immediately pollute the reasonable Soul and Conscience The least degree of such Purification no Legal Sacrifices could immediatly effect reach or touch To what Use then did they directly serve or what was the proper Effect unto which they were immediately terminated That was the Purification of mens Bodyes from meere Legal uncleannesse that is from all such negligences Ignorances or Casual Occurrences as not being expiated by the Priest did exclude the parties so offending from the Tabernacle of the Congregation Or as our Apostle speakes to Purifie them from such uncleannesses of the flesh as did but foreshadow or picture the uncleanness of the soul or the dead works of sinne All which being not expiated by a more excellent Priest then any was after the order of Aaron will exclude all from entring into the heavenly Tabernacle 2. Such Legal uncleannesse as did exclude the Parties polluted with it from the Tabernacle of the Congregation was many waies contracted as by touching of the dead by eating of Meats forbidden by the Law or by not eating meates allowed of by the Law according to the Rule or Prescript for such Ceremonial Services or by the like Omissions or Practises which were not in their own nature or to all men sinful but sinful in the Seed of Jacob only to whom they were Evill only because forbidden not forbidden because they were evill in their own nature Even in regard of such shadows or Typical Offices for Purifying men Legally unclean the best and most solemn Sacrifices of the Law though offered once at least every year and otherwise as often as dayly Occasions or Occurrences did require were no way so efficacious or Effectual as the One Sacrifice of the Son of God offered by himself but Once for all is for the perpetual Purifying of our Soules from the Dead works of sin and for our Consecration to the everlasting service of the everliving God which is that Freedom indeed wherewith his only Son hath promised to set all such Free as Believe in his Name and Abide in his word John 8. 3. The Eminencie of Christs Priesthood and Sacrifice above the Priesthood and Services of the Law is deeply wronged by the Doctrine and Practise of Secular and Regular Roman-Catholick Priests as they do term themselves and so is our Apostles Doctrine in the ninth and tenth Chapters to the Hebrews more peremptorily contradicted by them then it was by the Incredulous or unbelieving Jews in his life time The Western Anti-Christ so the Lutherans distinguish them hath in this particular so farr out-bid the Antichrist of the East that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Law-opposer or man of sin were to be followed close with Howant-Cry or his Footsteps to be traced for these nine hundred years by the Christian Kingdoms or States the Chase and Cry would sooner fall into Rome or Trent then into Constantinople though That no question be now the seat of Gog and Magog or of the Eastern Antichrist That Contradiction of Sinners which our Saviour Christ did indure here on Earth Heb. 12. 3. improved by the Roman Church in later dayes against all such as
Wrath against sinne and sinners vvas not appeased nor could be appeased by this kind of bloudy sacrifices All this the yearly and daily offering of bloudy sacrifices did clearly testifie unto the consciences of such as offered them And that so often as God required these sacrifices he did call their sins unto remembrance and as it vvere by matter of Fact proclaim unto the World that as yet his Wrath against sin vvas not could not be appeased by these or the like kind of Sacrifices But inasmuch as the Law though in it-self imperfect and therefore could make nothing perfect vvas yet an Introduction to a better Hope the continual reiteration or repetition of these bloudy sacrifices did teach such as used them aright to expect a more sufficient bloudy sacrifice vvhich should fully appease the vvrath of God and Testifie unto mens consciences that he did remember their sins no more in such sort as during the time of the Law he had done that is there should be no more exchange or commutation of punishment no solemn remembrance of sinne by any sacrifice of what kind soever for sin but this one sacrifice should suffice for all 4. That we may ascend by degrees unto the infinite value and everlasting Effiâ—acie of the sacrifice of the sonne of God we are in the first place to consider the odds or difference between this only Sacrifice and the sacrifices of the Law The odds or differences between them may be reduced unto these Two Heads First To the Diversitie of their immediate Effects Secondly To their different Efficacie or proportion for effecting the several Ends to which they were especially destinated 1. The Immediate effect of the bloudy Sacrifices of the Law was to cleanse or purifie the offerers from sinnes committed against the Law of Ceremonies and this as the Apostle termes it was a Purification or Sanctification according to the flesh Howbeit this Sanctification was a shadow or picture of that purification of the Conscience or Sanctification of the Spirit which was to be effected by the bloody Sacrifice of the Son of God 2. The sacrifices of the Law were no way so Powerfull or sufficient for effecting the Sanctifying of the flesh as the Sacrifice of the Son of God is for effecting the Sanctification of the spirit and Conscience There was no one kind of Legal sacrifices which might make a full attonement for all sinnes or sinners against the Law of Ceremonies For every different sin or legal uncleanness they had for the most part a different kind of sacrifice or offering And if a man had been this day cleansed by sacrifice from some particular sin or legal uncleanness and had fallen again unto the like to morrow the blood of the former sacrifice could not stead him the second time Every particular relaps into the same sin was to have a particular offering or fresh Sacrifice though of the same kind with the former 5. The infinite value of the Bloody Sacrifice of the Son of God may from this imperfection of the legall sacrifices be distinctly apprehended if we consider that not the Jew onely but the Gentiles one and other were Enemies and rebells against God all by nature the sonnes of wrath and perdition and yet the favour of reconciliation for all that then were or afterwards should be albeit this world should continue a million of years was purchased by this one bloody Sacrifice as by a just and full price What sinnes soever any man had committed they did not prejudice his Interest in the pardon purchased it was universal in respect of al sinners and in respect of all sinnes The Almighty Father's wrath against mankind was by this Onely Sacrifice so well appeased so fully satisfied that he is ready to receive all into the favour and Privilege of sonnes which will with due reverence accept of the Pardon offered and sue it out by such meanes as he hath appointed Now this Vniversal Favour for all men to whom nothing but vengeance was in Justice due could not possibly be purchased by any Sacrifice which was not of Value absolutely infinite But to grant an absolute Pardon not onely for all sinnes past before the acceptance of the Pardon but for willfull obstinacie or continuance in sinne or rebellion after so Gratious a Proclamation of Pardon could be no Effect of Gods infinite Mercy no Fruits of Christs infinite Merits For infinite Merits cannot benefit men altogether unqualified or uncapable of them And Mercy infinite must retaine the nature of mercy it reacheth not beyond the proper Object of mercy And the proper Object of mercy is penitencie or sorrow for Misdemeanors past or present Willfull continuance or obstinacie in exorbitant courses or contempt of mercy offered is the Object of Justice or indignation 6. But besides the Infinite Value we are to acknowledge the infinite or Everlasting Efficacie or Operative Vertue of this bloody Sacrifice of the Son of God Want of distinguishing between these two hath occasioned many Errours or oversights in Divinitie That there is a Distinction to be put betwixt them we may thus conceive Suppose the Son of God immediately after he had payed the ransom for our sinnes or in that Instant in which he said Consummatum Est all is finished had deposed or layed aside the humane nature in which he was conceived and born to the end and purpose that he might dye in it or according to it his offering or Sacrifice had been of Value infinite in that it could purchase so Vniversal a Pardon at Gods hands for all sinners and for all sinnes Yet if he had laid aside the humane nature immediately after his suffering The Everlasting Efficacie of this infinite Sacrifice had been cut off Now besides the infinite price of our redemption which was then Payd when Christ said Consummatum Est another End of his assumption and retaining the humane nature was that we might be partakers of the Everlasting Vertue of his Sacrifice and Priesthood And herein doth this Sacrifice truely differ from the sacrifices of the Law from all sacrifices whatsoever in that we obtaine remission of sinnes by it and through it not onely as it was once offered but by the reall Communication of its Vertue unto our soules If there were any use or need of a second third or reiterated offering of it the Vertue and Efficacie of it could not be imagined to be perpetually everlasting or Uncessant but endlesse or uncessant onely by Vicissitude or Turn in such a sense as we say the Moone shall be Eclipsed to the worlds end Yet is it not eclipsed at all times but at some speciall times throughout all Ages of the world But if both the Value of the Sacrifice be truely infinite and the Vertue of it everlasting without interruption or discontinuation more Uncessant than the Motion of the heavens or the Rest of the earth The often offering of the Sacrifice after what manner soever is superfluous and blasphemous The true
Sacrifice and most perfect offering Of all the Legal Sacrifices which present themselves unto my former observation or present memory there is one kind only which can beare the true shaddow or serve as a Modell of the Everlasting Efficacie of his onely Sacrifice once offered for all And that was the sacrifice of the Red Heifer Numb 19. and the Legal Use which GODS People under the Law were to make of Her Ashes The correspondencie between the effects of the Ashes of this sacrifice and of the blood of Christ is gathered by our Apostle Heb. 9. ver 13 14. If the Ashes of an Heyfer sprinkling the unclean sanctifâ—eth to the purification of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself to God purge your consciences from dead workes to serve the living God But wherein did this sacrifice picture out the Everlasting Efficacie of the Blood of the Son of God in more peculiar manner than other Legal sacrifices did 14. First in that all such as were legally unclean by touching a Corps or Grave by comming into a Tent wherein a Corps lay unburied or suffering the vessels in such a Tent to be uncovered were to be purified by the Water of Sprinkling which was qualified or consecrated to this purpose by the Ashes of the Red Cow or Heyfer and as often to be purified by this water as they should incurre this Legal uncleanness And yet the sacrifice of this beast was not to be offered so often as this people did incurre these Kinds of legal uncleanness Thus much is Evident from the practice of the Jewish Church during the time of the Law For this water of purification was often every year oft-times Every month to be sprinkled upon some one or other of this people oft-times upon one and the same man within one and the same year even as often as he should by chance or negligence incurre any of the former branches of uncleannesse Yet was not this sacrifice whose ashes were still to be mingled with the water of purification to be offered once Every year in every Age or in many Ages The Sacrifice of the Red Heyfer as the Jewes confesse was but nine times offered during the time of the Law Once by Eleazar Aarons Son in the wilderness And this sacrifice was not reiterated untill the destruction of Salomons Temple that is not during the space of a thousand yeares and more It was the Second Time offered by Ezra after this peoples Return from Captivitie and but seven times after unto the destruction of the second Temple And this Foolish Nation since that time hath not presumed to offer it but expects the offering of it the tenth time by their King Messias Thus is the faithless Synagogue by Gods providence the Keeper not of the Sacred Oracles onely written by Moses and the prophets but even of those Traditions which testifie the summe and truth of these Oracles to wit that this legal sacrifice amongst the rest was to be accomplished in their Messias He was indeed to set the Period to this legal Rite and to all the rest not by offering them after a Legal Rite or manner but by offering up himself instead of them all once for all in bloodie sacrifice in whose infinite Value and Everlasting Efficacie all other sacrifices or offerings for sin were so terminated or swallowed up as Land-rivers or currents of waters are in the sea But what circumstance have we from the written Text that this sacrifice was not to be so often offered as this people had occasion to use the water of sprinkling or the Ashes of this sacrifice to cleanse them from their former Legal pollutions Numb 19. It is said ver 9. that the Ashes should be laid up without the Camp in a cleane place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reserved or kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of separation The Ashes were to be reserved not for this Generation onely present but for the use of Posteritie As Manna which was commanded in the same Character to be reserved in the Ark was the Type of Christ as he is the food of life or the bread which came down from heaven So were these Ashes as an Emblem of the Everlasting Efficacie or operative vertue of his sacrifice There is no Bodily substance under heaven which can be so true an Emblem or model of incorruption as Ashes are Being the Remainder of bodies perfectly dissolved or corrupted they are not capable of a second corruption And when it is said that the Ashes should be reserved for a water of separation the meaning is that one sacrifice might afford ashes enough to season or qualifie as many several vessels of water as this people for many generations should have occasion to use for Legal purification So it is said in the same ninth verse that the Reservation of these Ashes was a Purification for sin A purification not in Act onely or for one or two turnes but a Continual Purification or as a Treasurie or storehouse for making as many purifications or waters of sprinkling as this people had occasion to use And so Christ is said Heb. 1. 3. to have made a purification for our sinnes when he had by himself purged our sinnes saith our English he sate down on the right hand of the Majestie on high But the Translation under Correction comes somewhat short of the Original and the shorter it comes of it the more advantage it yeilds unto their opinion which think their sinnes were remitted and purged before they were actually committed The Apostles words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haveing made a Purification for sin he hath ascended into heaven The word Purification is not to be restrained to One Act or operation but includes or implies the Perpetual qualitie of himself or substance of his sacrifice being by this one Act consecrated to be a perpetual Fountain of purification As he did not onely make one propitiation for our sinnes So neither did he once actually purge us from our sinnes by offering up himself but still remaines the purification of our sinnes that is he doth still purifie and cleanse us from our sinnes as often as we seek by Faith and true repentance to be cleansed and purified by him 15. So then the Blood of the Legal Sacrifice or Heyfer did consecrate the Ashes to be as a Storehouse or treasury of legal purification and the Ashes thus consecrated by this sacrifice did hallow or consecrate the Water which was put into them to make actual purification as often as occasion required So did our High Priest by the One Sacrifice of Himself consecrate his Blood to be an inexhaustible Fountain of purification Evangelical And his Blood and Body thus consecrated once for all do consecrate or sanctifie the Water of Baptism to cleanse or wash Infants from sin Original and such as are of yeares when they are baptized from sinnes Actual
c. 3303 c. See Presence Luther did not distinguish inter Liberam voluntatem Liberum Arbitrium 3130 Lutheran Catechisms and consequences 3188 Lutherans wrest the Antients in Point of Consubstantiation 3298 Lycurgus's Whelps 3085 3134 M. Great Magore weighs himself yearly in gold and gives it to the poor 3236 Malepert Courtier 3227 Manichees their Bruitish opinion 3080 c. Marie the B. Virgin free from sin in her consent Be in vnto me 3038 Mass Doctr. of it injurious to Christ 3262 c. wrongs his one sacrifice the value and efficacie of it 3289 c. scandalizes the Jew 3290 makes Legal Priests Types of Masse-Priests 3265 Melchizedeck by the Romanists made a Type of Mass-Priests rather then of Christ 3265 Melchizedek not read that he offerd any sacrifice his Priesthood was a Priesthood of Blessing Authoritative 3302 Ministers main work to sett men right in the way of Conversion 3219 Mercie of God maintained 3184 3210 c. 3217 He will have mercie on whom he will the sense and quintessence of that Aphorism 3205 it implies mercie in abundance mercie to the purpose to all that seek it 3217 God shewes mercie Isaac wills Esau runs 3215 He will have mercie on whom he will the extent of that Division 3242 c. To have mercie on whom he will is a reserved prerogative of God 3216 Rom. 9. 16. excludes not endeavours nor meanes but merits 3216 c Gods readiness to shew mercie 3221 He will have mercie he hardeneth to what points the Text reaches 3247 c. Merit of works The question useless as to Adams first Estate 3008 Meritorum Reviviscentia 3285 Men several sorts several workings of the Spirit 3121 Men not come to full growth in faith c. but Children in Christ 3247 Mens deprecaturad optima 3119 Not Metaphors but Mysteries in the 6 8 9 10 Chapt. to the Hebr. 3254 Moses hid by Revelation 3191 designed Heir of the Crown of Egypt 3192 His great Atchievements perhaps against Ethiopia an omen of his leading Israel out of Bondage ibid. Two points of his Embassie to Pharaoh 3193 Gods Viceroy carried the Treaties in accurate solemnitie 3194 instructed incouraged 3196 had miracles for Letters of Credence 3195 3197 Mortification 3096 c. Progress in mortificaton a firm sign of mans Estate in Grace 3097 3103 3245 By it measure our perswasions 3162 Dutie of mortification how universal how indefinite 3099 Universal in respect of Persons though not for the matter or degrees 3146 The very Elect must mortifie 3102 Mortification a Term divisible 3105 Mortification how wrought by the Spirit how by our selves 3106 How by Gods Spirit how by mans Spirit 3110 3115 3120 Flesh the seat of the disease and must be mortified Spirit quickned 3118 c. 3121 Mortification Moral and Spiritual 106 3132 c. Whether mortification be ex operibus praevisis 3112 Mortification consists in two things Deading our desires purifying the heart 3119 Accomplishment of mortification wherein it consists 3124 c. it consists not in negatives 3125 Men that have been mortified if they draw back like heated water they freez the soonest 3128 More about Mortification 3146 c. Each degree of mortification is an approach to the Final Ratification of the promise ye shall live 3152 Mortification our reasonable Service 3159 The use of the Doctrine of Mortification 3160 c. Murmuring what must quiet it 3229 Mutinie at Capua 3074 Maâ—hiavel's judgment upon it ib. N. NAaman had some degree of Free-will 3130 Natural grounds to deny our selves and flee to God Impotencie to doe good that Good he approves dulness it self a spur 3219 c. This natural Capacitie not used makes us inexcusable ibid. The Naturalist hunts Truth upon fresh Sents not foyled with second notions 3019 Negative Precepts Sin more provoked by them then by Affirmative the reason 3026 Negative See precepts See proposition This error That all things be necessary nothing Contingent in respect of God a cause of Errors c. 3164 3016 An ill necessitie freely Contracted 3052 3063 3055 Necessary ab aeterno that ungodly men perish but not necessarie that they should be ungodly men 3169 Necessitie See Adam See Decree See Free Nobilitie expires not in uno vitioso 3032 Non-age Persons under yeares neither servants nor freemen properly 3042 of the two rather Servants ibid A strange Note upon St. Jude 3164 3173 Novatian's Error or Heresie 3280 c. Novatian's quarel with Cornelius Bishop of Rome 3281 Novatus and Novatianus two several Persons 3291 Novatus his Character 3291 O. MAns Tye by oath tempts to unfaithfulness why 3026 Oath makes promise or threat irreversible 3148 Oath of God to Abraham to requite him in kind 3302 The great Objection why doth he yet find fault 3226 c. Answered 3228 3230 Obliquitie necessarily resulting from the Act is Caused by the Cause of the Act 3011 The Cause of any Action Essentially evil or inseparable from evill is the Cause of evill 3165 Obliquitie did necessarily result from the forbidden act exercised yet was not the Act necessarie 3012 The distinction of the Act and obliquitie has no place in the first sin of Man 3013 Act and obliquitie as Connex as Roundness and Sphere 3013 c. Oecolampadius his observation 3187 Often offering an argument of imperfection 3263 3290 Ex operibus praevisis whether mortification be so tanquam ex Titulo or tanquam ex Termino 3113 3218 Opera quae renunciamus opus quo renunciamus 3219 Object See Decree Ordained to Condemnation how ungodly men are 3164 God ordaines no man to trouble the Church 3165 Yet if God ordains all Actions so that they could not come to passe otherwise then they do That would follow 3164 c. What God ordains that he is Author of 3165 c. Every Ordination to Everlasting death is not Reprobation 3166 Ordination to life and predestination ordination to death and reprobation differ as Genus and Species 3166 Origen See Beza Original See sin P. PAcuvius See Calavius Parable that of our Saviour Matth. 12. 43. applyed 3277 Paraeus his Dispute with Becanus 3012 Parallels betwixt Jews and Modern Christians 3187 The Hardening of the Jews and the Egyptians 3206 c. Moses and Christ 3207 Passeover and the Lords Supper between the two Inheritances bequeathed by Moses and Christ 3261 The Mundane Tabernacle and Celelestial the Rites and Priests of that and Christ 3253 3257 3259 3261 The Red Heifer and Christ 3261 3267 3270 3299 3302 Pardon due to Learned Authors which their Followers cannot claim 3013 No Pardon Antedated by God 3283 Some Popes denyed to Antedate Pardons ib. Pardon See Sin remitted c. Parents may by Lewdness improve the venom of sin Original in their Children 3019 3031 Parricide not rife till forbidden by Law 3024 3145 Sin irritated by Precepts more by Negative Precepts 3025 c. It is easier to avoid the first occasions then the insuing opportunities of Sin against Negative Precepts 3094 Precepts