freeing not onely the spirits of the Saints from thraldome in a first fruits but their bodies also from death and corruption which is called the redemption of our bodies Rom 8.23 When every eye shall see him c. Rev. 1.7 When all that are in their graves shall come forth some to the resurrection of life others to the resurrection of condemnation c. Joh. 5.29 When all the Saints together shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and be for ever with him 1 Thes 4.16,17 Now as these men deny this his glorious personal coming turning all so well as their wits will serve them and their Father help them into an Allegory so in these two things they grossly err 1. In thinking that persons to whom Christ hath come by his Spirit and whom he hath raised and quickned up to a lively hope as in the first sense are thereby above Ordinances and not bound to attend them for indeed then are they fittest to use them and will be most profitable or profited in attending on God in them Besides we finde the Apostles and other Primitive Believers of another way and judgement when the Spirit was poured upon Cornelins and his houshold that exempted them not from the outward Baptism Acts 10.48 nor were the Apostles themselves exempted from solemn prayers and fasting breaking of bread Preaching the VVord c. even after the holy Ghost was poured upon them and Christ by his Spirit dwelt with them as is plain in Acts 4.24,31 and 6.4,6 and 13.1,3 and 14.23 yea Wo to me saith Paul even after the holy Ghost was shed abundantly upon him Tit. 3 6. if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 and the Bread saith he that we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ and the Cup that we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 yea in 1 Cor. 12.13 We are all baptized saith he by or in one spirit into one body and have been made to drink into one Spirit and Chap. 6.11 they were washed justified sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God but what were they all above Ordinances therefore no matter for observing them No such matter but they are yet ordered about their eating the Lords Supper yea and such as whose election in the sanctification of the Spirit is affirmed are exhorted by the Apostles to Prayer to attend on Prophesying to stand fast hold the traditionâ— such as the Supper of the Lord is called 1 Cor. 11.25 received from them either by word or writing 2 Thes 2.13,14,15 Many other like passages thou mayst finde in the Apostles Writings which they writ to preserve the Churches from sin and error which may discover the falseness of that conception Yet 2. They err much worse in that confounding the coming of Christ in Spirit to the spirits 〈◊〉 men in particular with the great Day of the Lord when he shall come to the destruction of ungodly men and the utmost salvation of all that have believed on him the Kingdom of God in the hearts of men in this Day of which Christ spake to the Pharisees Luke 17.20,21 that it comes not with observation and that it is in men yea in the Pharisees working and tendring it self to their hearts though rejected by them but filling those that receive it with righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost with the glorious Kingdom of Christ which he â—s gone to receive and which shall be set up or made manifest in the world at his great coming when he shall judge the quick and dead 2 Tim. â— 1 of which he spake to his Disciples Luke 17.21,22,23 they apply to themselves as already â—…ne in and upon them those things that are proper to that great Day of his destroying the â—…eat hope and expectation of the Saints which 〈◊〉 that great and glorious appearing Tit. 2.13 denying and mocking at that his visible and glorious coming yea and where their principle 〈◊〉 somewhat throughly improved denying the Resurrection or Redemption of the body and â—…ying the Resurrection all thats to be hoped â—or or met with is here accomplished which we â—…all speak more fully to in the proper place and â—…casion Onely now I would have thee minde that they are strongly deluded herein and that they are of those that our Saviour there doth warn us of that say Lo here lo there see here in us and to us Christ is come and the day of the Lord is revealed with us or with such and such persons the Judgement is over the mystery is fulfilled the world is at an end and we are iâ— possession of our glory though others yet are not Believe them not saith our Saviour neither go after them for that coming of the Soâ— of man shall be as visible and evident in a moment as the lightning that shines from one enâ— of the heavens unto the other end thereof iâ— shall be open and manifest to all Luke 17.22 23. Every eye shall see him even those that havâ— pierced him and all the families of the eartâ— shall wail over him Rev. 1.7 As the bringing in and alteration of former dispensations or administrations of his Kingdom have been witnessed and evidenced by notorious Demonstrations oâ— Gods Authority and presence so shal this last alâ— teration be more visible and notorious then thâ— rest When God gave the Law of Moses he did iâ— in a solemn manner with the voyces of thunderings and lightnings the shaking of the earth c. by which he owned and confirmed it as of him and when he took away that administration and brought in his onely Son and the Ordinance of the Kingdom in its present external administration he owned and attested his altering the former and bringing this in by the gift of tongues and by many wonders and signs and divers powerful works and distributions of the Holy Ghost Heb. 2.3 And when the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken of by the mouth of his Prophets shall come and when he shall send his Son Jesus Christ again Acts 7.21,22 whom the heavens till then must contain to take an account of all men how they have submitted to him in the former administrations of his Truth and Grace amongst them and to render to every man according to his works shall that be hidden and done now to this man and then to that no man sees how without any poblike evidence to the world No no that shall be most powerfully and to the world with greatest solemnity declared so as none shall be thereof ignorant but all flesh shall see his salvation unto is people together and those that have rebelled shall be with wondrous terror delivered over to their eternal destruction The heavens shall be on a flame or the elements melt with fervent heat 2 Pet. 3.7,10,12 even these heavens and elements and the host of them that
against him endeavouring to draw off others from the faith and knowledge of him pretending it to be but a fleshly carnal thing These indeed are the great destroyers of the faith and though so evidently pointed at by the Apostles that almost any that runs may read them to be the persons forespoken of by them yet being strongly deluded they do not see it for how then should the Scripture be fulfilled these threaten the falling away that is to precede the great day of the Lord and of his glorious coming and to make way for the revelation of the man of sin One might think there is no need to decipher them and warn you of them but their coming being in all deceivableness of unrighteousness and they transformed into ministers of Christ and righteousness creeping in so subtilly as to deceive if possible the elect there is great need to warn you of them and to exhort you to contend for the faith against them that it be not wholly subverted by means of them for these indeed subvert and pull it up by the very root and foundation promising men liberty and freedom from temptation they become their greatest temptation and lead them into bondage with themselves who also are the servants of corruption yea some there are that being yet further bewitched think and say that God is all things and all things God and so themselves are at least a part of him that sin is nothing but only a conceit or imagination that that is evil and to be avoided which indeed is not evil all things being alike pleasing unto God He the very being in all things that doth all things the soul and will of man are nothing distinct from him c. Doctrine so destructive to the very being of Saints that I hope none that are Saints indeed will indure to hear them And but that I see those that have attained much gone very far yet shaken inclined to and perverted by such as maintain them and so at least dangerously exposed to them I should have judged it needless once to have mentioned them Of these and of whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine be ye warned that ye be not snared by them knowing there were such foretold of marvail not that such there are but remember his admonition that hath said Go not ye after them Luke 15.27 to which end I shall further minde you of the way by which they draw in souls to them and what principles lay open people to be deluded by them Sect. 6 Of their way and subtilty in tempting THe Spirit of Error is in the Proverbs compared to a whorish foolish woman as the Spirit of truth is compared to a wise woman and called wisdom and the way of those that are possessed with it and that walk out in it is there set forth to the life Her lips drop like an hony comb they come with fair and enticing speeches to beguile simple souls She catches the simple man and kisses him and speaks pleasant language to him Pro. 7. They pretend much love and friendship to them they meet with whom they finde in a staggering unsetled condition through an itching ear straying towards them and going neer the corner of her house such as have some light and have met with some spiritual tasts and shines of goodness and seek after spirituall things but yet have not attained to be setled and grounded in it they meddle not so much with meer worldly carnall men because they savour not such temptations nor yet will they much trouble themselves with such as they finde setled and able to descry their way and decline it resolutely but such as are in the twilight between both that are double-minded and unstable in their wayes and are ready as they find to halt and stagger upon their onsets these they come with kisses to as desiring to be familiar with them and to help them to understand choice mysteries they tell them stoln waters are sweetâ— and bread eaten in secret is pleasant in diverting from the right way in which they are walking and in which the Saints generally have walked and relinguishing or despising the things of Jesus Christ the dainties in the house or Church builded by him the consolations openly in the woâ—… held forth to men they shall meet with other more mysterious and secret things which have more sweetness and pleasantness in them she tels of her bed prepared and adorned with Tapestry the sacrifices of peace offered and her bed perfumed with most precious Spices they tell them what peace and joy they have in their way what a pleasant resting place they have found what precious operations they meet withall that they have attained to a more full and perfect condition and are better fitted to entertain them with their gifts and experiences then while they had their hope springing from the knowledge and belief of Christ Jesus as one that without them died rose and ascended to mediate in behalf of them and while as thus known he was the hope of glory in them that then they could not meet with that peace and joy and those satisfactions that now they meet with that he was but a fleshly Christ and he is gone but now they have a spiritual Christ always with them yea that they are He that they speak to them out of love and desire that they may solace themselves together with them in their liberty and rejoycing take their fill of love on the bed or in the state and way that they have found rest in in a word they do as Satan at the first in the Serpent to Eve he came and told her of a higher and a better condition then what God made them in ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil and as those deceivers in 2 Pet. 2.19 They promise them liberty and greater glory come say they you think to have life in another and that by the death Resurrection and mediation of Christ without you ye beleeving on him shall be saved you trust in a person that was born of a woman a man c. You think to live by faith in him but alas you live low and carnally that was but a fleshly Christ that you think of and lean on he is dead long since if such a one there ever was and the faith of his disciples in him died with him so some have not shamed to write but we have Christ in the Spirit and mystery you know him but after the flesh we after the Spirit yea the Christ are we for Christ is nothing else but God with us that is the divine nature in us we are the humanity and other body or humanity we know or beleeve not you also look for your happiness and glory hereafter that Christ shall visibly come again and then ye shall inherit glory with him your bodies being raised by him But we have our glory here already we are already risen and have heaven within
heaven and those Ordinances are but as dishes in which that food is presented or the way in which we are to seek and look for it for men to live upon their acts about and attendence to them then is to idolize them or lift them into an higher place then God hath appointed them and to make a Christ of them neglecting and missing Christ himself the life and fulness of them And such an abuse of them or of our selves in them is as far from pleasing God as the setting up devices of our own as is to be seen Iai. 66.3,4 from resting in the form of godliness without or with denial of the power of it men are to be taken and did these men say no more they were to be commended therein but when they take advantage from this truth under pretence of taking men off from resting in Forms to withdraw them from the Ordinances themselves as if they are to look after a power without a form therein they do foolishly being deceived and deceiving therein they set themselves against the Lord Jesus who commanded them yea exalt themselves above him and above God in him Even as they that throw by the Acts and Ordinances of Parliament though never so lawfully convened and pretend themselves to be above them do therein throw by their Authority and set themselves above it and sure they that do so with Christ do deny the Lord that bought them and exalt themselves with the man of Sin above all that 's called God or that is worshipped as if God and Christ had no authority or power to bind them Perhaps they will tell thee that as some persons may not be concerned in some Acts of Parliament and so they may be above it because it doth not reach them and all Laws or Acts though of that authority yet when repealed men are not under them and yet no lifting up mens selves against or above the power that made them so there are some persons who are above those Ordinances of Christ because he did not intend them for them or to be of any binding force to them or that though they have been in force yet now their date is expited he hath disannulled them To the former part of this objection agree those sayings of some that they are under a higher administration time was when they were under them and found use of them but now they are so no longer they are useful for Novices but when Christ hath given his Spirit unto men and so they have him they have no more need or use of them To the former agrees that conceit that as the Laws of Moses were in force some time till the coming of Christ in the flesh but after that gave place to him and God then changed his administration so the Ordinances of Christ were in force so long as Christ was in the flesh but when the Spirit of Christ was given or Christ laid aside his flesh and came in Spirit then no more use or need of them The latter of which contains notable deceits and falsehoods for neither did the Law of Moses cease to be of force when Christ came in the flesh but was in force till after his Resurrection untill the pouring out of the Spirit or his coming in Spirit as they call it though the Ordinances of Christ were instituted before that time also nor did Christ put off or lay away his flesh but raised it again that the word of Prophesie might be fulfilled that said Thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption which the Apostle Petrr tells us was fulfilled in that That the flesh of Christ saw no corruption Acts 2.31 Though he laid aside his weakness and form of a servant yet not the substance of his body which he shewed to his Disciples to have flesh and bones in it after his Resurrection and in which he ascended filling it with the glory of God as before it had the experience of mans low condition Besides Christ poured out his Spirit upon his Disciples to that end that they might teach and subject the Nations to his Institutions and they were so far from expiring then that then was the beginning of their impouring Plain it is that our Saviours Commission in which he injoyns and authorises his Disciples to disciple the Gentiles or Nations Baptising them and teaching them to observe all things that he had commanded them Matth. 28.19 did both begin then to take place when the flesh or body of Christ being taking up from them the Spirit was poured out upon them for till then they were to and did tarry at Jerusalem in expectation of the promise of the Spirit to fit them for the works of their Commission Acts 1.4 and the Ordinances therein spoken of were ordered to be in force to the worlds end for so long as he expresly tels them they should have his assistance and spiritual presence in the work of their Commission And so I am with you saith he to the end of the world And the Supper of the Lord is said to be for shewing forth of the Lords Death till be come 1 Cor. 11.29 for which coming the Church prayeth and therefore surely is so to pray till â—e come But here some have another glorious but deceitful evasion for granting that they are of force till the end of the world till the coming of Christ they reply To us he is come and with us the world is at an end we are already in possession of him raised judged and in heaven And here seems to be the heighth and strength of delusion and this is that with which they strengthen the former part of the above-mentioned objection namely That they are attained to a heigher administration then to be under them To discover their delusion in which let this first be premised that these expressions are capable of a double understanding the one more inward and spiritual and as a first fruits of or earnest of the other a coming of Christ in the power of the Spirit to the soul raising it up in the knowledge of himself and God in him from its spiritual death in sin to a spiritual life the life of God justifying of it and giving it an escape from condemnation taking it out of the state of the world and deading it in its principles and affections to the world and the world to it And here Christ is to and in the soul its life and hope of glory and sets it in heavenly state with himself in regard of hope and some experience of the powers of heaven And this is a thing that comes now to one soul now to another as men are brought in to depend on him But now there is another sense of those phrases and that most usual in Scripture namely to denote the great Day of the Lord the coming of Christ in glory and power bringing all his Saints with him executing vengeance upon all that have done ungodlily and fully
our defects and failings in Faith that the convents of the new Covenant may notwithstanding be performed to us his Law be writ in our hearts and his Fear put within us his holy Spirit given to us to sanctifie teach lead strengthen and comfort us and in a word that we may be carried up to the enjoyment of the eternal inheritance Consider him then it s Christ that died for us yea rather that is risen again and is at the right hand of God making intercession for us the Captain of salvation the Author yea and the Finisher too of our Faith Consider his Love Faithfulness Office Goodness that we faint not nor be weary through any temptation Fear not but he that conquered all our enemies by himself for us will also in our following after him give us the victory over them and the reward that he hath abundantly promised It s his Word of incouragement who hath gone before us and is in the head of the battle To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of Life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God and that he shall not be hurt of the second death yea the white stone and new name the hidden Manna and in a word his everlasting Kingdom Rev. 2. and 3. 3 Yea and thirdly hath not God also given us of his holy Spirit his Power and strength to to be in us and to fight our battels for us to lead teach uphold and comfort us and he is a spirit of Wisdom and Knowledge a spirit of strength and courage and of the fear of the Lord. The holy Unction that gives discerning witnessing of Christ and glorifying him and more powerful then any thing that comes to withstand him according to that Greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 Joh. 4.4 Abide but in him and follow after his lustings and instructions in the wayes that our Lord hath prescribed to us and he will work all our works in us and our works shall be wrought in him we need not any other teaching or spirit but as and according to that which that holy Vnction teacheth us what swerves from his testimony is not to be heeded by us and that that swerves is to be discerned by this that it maketh little or no account of Christ come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4.1,2,3 of the things done and suffered by him therein it skips over or le ts go that and makes but a light matter or nullity of it whereas the holy Unction or Spirit of Truth confesseth holdeth forth and glorifieth Christ come in the flesh he saith not in our flesh for many deceivers talk of that who would lead us to exalt themselves though they be Antichrists as also the holy Spirit is the same that was in the Prophets and Apostles and leads us to hear them and to abide in unity of Faith with them Ephes 1.4,5 1 Joh. 4.5,6 whereas the false spirits slight them and lead not to hear or matter Unity of faith and confession with them If we have received this earnest why should we fear that God will fail us of the inheritance in this might and power of the Lord if we be strong nothing shall overcome us Sect. 7. Of Knowing Christ after the flesh and after the Spirit I Know they that lie in waite to deceive you will suggest that this that I have said of Christ his Death Resurrection and mediation is at best but a carnal knowledge of him according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit and that the Spirit in evidencing him will witness a more divine and spiritual knowledge and draw off the heart from this fleshly consideration or looking upon him as he was made flesh and therein suffered and died for us To perswade you to which they quote that in 2 Cor. 5.16 Henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth we know him so no more as if the Apostle meant that he minded him no more as one that was born of a woman and died in the flesh and was raised again and in that very body glorified they had sometimes such carnal apprehensions of him and looked at him as the Saviour in and by that his death and suffering indeed but now they have a more spiritual allegorical knowledge of him Against which interpretation of the Apostles words though that might suffice to preserve us that I have newly before noted from the Apostle John that every spirit that confesseth not that is glorifies not nor sets not forth Jesus Christ come in the flesh is not of God yet I shall for further satisfaction look more fully into that place And first it may hence appear evidently that that is not the Apostles meaning in that passage because such an interpretation of him is cross to himself and his fellow brethren and Apostles in other places for its evident that both Paul and the rest preached him as of the seed of David according to the flesh the Son of God made of a woman made under the Law made sin and a curse for us crucified and raised again and now mediating for us with God the Advocate High-priest and Prince of the Congregation and to this Doctrine and this Christ thus preached and set forth they frequently exhort believers to take heed to cleave adhere and listen and by no means under what pretext or pretence soever to depart therefrom Heb. 3.1 6.14 Acts 11.23,24 1 Joh 2.28 Gal. 1.8,9 yea to hold as execrable and accursed all that would perswade them thereto or that preach my other Gospel then that of Christ so preached by them Col. 1.22,23 in holding fast to whom and to the Gospel of him they promise safety an abiding happy condition but in the letting him and that go by any means they pronounce certain danger and unavoydable destruction Heb. 2.3 10.25,29 yea Christ as so in the flesh abased for us and now risen ascended and advocating for us at the right hand of God they themselves and in especial that very Apostle Paul rejoyces in and places the foundation of all his hope and confidence in as is plain in that of Rom. 8.32 as the very thing which being known apprehended and received by him was the great manifestation of Gods Love to him and the great argument of his further favor and good will yea the spring of his hope of glory confidence boldness access to God and renovation into his likeness yea Christ as thus he was abased and is risen and mediates for us being known believed and entertained into the heart is in the believer the very hope or that which springs up and nourishes in him an expectation of future glory as is evident from the fore-quoted place and that in Rom. 5.10 where from the consideration of Christ as delivered to death for us while sinners and of our being reconciled to him thereby he infers an
withdrawn from Christ so he and his Death and Mediation be but as a dead thing to them he greatly cares not how speciously they walk and talk they are the fitâ—… instruments for him I would to God there wâ—… not too many yea and Teachers of others toâ— to whom he hath made Christ come in the fleâ—… as worth nothing to whom a piece of Plaâ—… Philosophy or some dream of their own is 〈◊〉 more worth and use then the Apostles Dâ—ctrine Sect. 5. Of the Messengers of Satan NOw though I have hitherto spoken of Satan and his subtilty yet think not that I conceive that he alwayes cometh alone or in his own person immediatly to tempt but know this that as Gods Spirit hath built himself an House in man even his people Christ and his members by whom he speaks and works to the drawing in others to God and edifying themselves in whom he dwels imploying them to be his mouth in the opening of his counsel and truths to those purposes So also Satan insinuating himself into men hath his dwelling in them and becomes a lying evil spirit in them that he prevails over and makes use of them to be his mouth to deceive one another and to draw in others into unity with them making them his messengers and these imitate him in transforming themselvs into Ministers of righteousness 2 Cor. 11.13.15 These are the Dragons Tail with which he draws down the stars of heaven having seduced these out of the way he makes them instruments to seduce others after him as having seduced Eve he used her as an instrument to lead Adam also into the transgression So some of the Spies of Canaan bringing an evil report upon that good Land caused many to mutiny and so in Numb 16. Corah Dathan and Abiram men of renown and famous in the Congregation falling off from the Word of God and rebelling against Moses and Aaron the types of Jesus Christ the Son of God the Prince and high Priest of the Congregation occasioned many to rebel for company with them Concerning such its needfull as the Apostle Jude saith to warn you and wish you to contend earnestly against them foâ— the faith once delivered to the Saints for theâ—… are now as was then foretold false Teachers ungodly men forewritten to this judgment to be for exercise unto the Saints of God men thâ—… have departed from Christ denying the Lorâ— that bought them even the only Lord God anâ— our Saviour Jesus Christ and turning his Graâ—… into wantonness who by their pernicious doctrines and practises draw many souls into perdition And though there be others too that 〈◊〉 from the faith and do great disservice to Chrâ—… in limiting the tenor of the Gospel and puttinâ— in their Buts and Onelies like the believers 〈◊〉 the Sect of the Pharisees that would not havâ— the Gospel preached but to Proselytes and mâ—… of the Circumcision that they had some ground to think were of the Elect people yet my puâ—pose is now rather to warn you of that otheâ— sort of people because you that are Saints iâ— Christ and live upon his grace are in more danger as I conceive of these then of those Of these I say that have forsaken the pathes of uprightness to walk in the wayes of darkness men that have let go the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles to walk in their own speculations making the Apostles to have been devisers of Apologues and fables in which there was no truth or verity but only a shadow and parable of another thing people that indeed deny the Lord Jesus Christ some that there was never such a one others that he was no more then a bare man a patern an example not the Saviour of the world indeed but only a type and figure of the true Saviour so evacuating him and denying him to be their Lord Ruler and Commander or Mediator between God and men turning all into an Allegory or vain fancy undermining and subverting the faith of Christ as if he were but a fleshly Christ and the faith in him though begotten by Gods Spirit but a carnall faith which must die and be crucified in us before we come indeed to that that saves us and so they teach men to cast away their confidence in him and trample upon him and count his blood and sacrifice a common carnall fleshly thing though it hath formerly sanctified them and to say of him whom God hath sanctified and sent into the world yea in whom it hath pleased him that all fulness should dwell as the sons of Belial sometimes of Saul how can this man save us crâ—cifying the Son of God to themselves blotting out as much as in them lieth his remembrance from amongst men putting in the place of him some frame or fancy that they conceive they have in themselves and investing themselves or it with his name these are indeed the Antichrists thâ—… deny directly that Jesus is the Christ for who 〈◊〉 a lyar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ 〈◊〉 that say of themselves I am Christ we are the holy one of God and Christ is nothing else with them but themselves and who ever are of their temper in union as they conceive with Godâ— deriding the man Jesus Christ the Lord and heaâ— of all and so making the faith of Christ a very scorn and derision with all that beleeve it these are of those very persons in whom while they slight the Scriptures the Scriptures are verified the mockers that should say in the last dayes where is the promise of his coming for what was is and there is no new thing under the Sun all things continue in like state ever since the Fathers fell asleep as He came then so now and so shall do but no other coming is to be expected yea these are of them that say the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is now done or is already past they have it or expect to have in this life even on this side their bodily Death all they shall have denying the Resurrection of the personal body of Christ the same that was crucified such of them as confess there was such a man or at least that it was taken up into heaven and glorified or shall ever come again to be made manifest in glory with them that have beleeved on him and suffered for him the resurrection of whose bodies is denied by them also These are the Antitypes to those Rebels in the wilderness that pleading that all the Lords people were holy denyed the superiority of Moses and Aaron for these also being seduced from the head and not holding it fast plead that all that are of them are holy and anointed and so the Christ and deny superiority over them to the Lord Christ and refuse to have him exalted above them yea though they have been baptized into him both in the doctrine of him and otherwise and have tasted of his sweetness yet they rebell
beginning concerning your estate as in Christ and therein minde what incouragements there are prepared and given us to keep on still our way not letting our hands hang down or our hearts fail us It s true the warfare is sharp the enemies many cruell powerfull subtile and we in our selves but as grashoppers in compare of them yet Rebel not we against the Lord our God who hath out of Egypt the darkness of this world called us hath led us through a Sea of wrath and tryals and hitherto conducted us and given to some of us of the first fruits of the Land to taste on look unto Jesus the Author or leader in and finisher of our faith and then behold there are yet more with us in this our pilgrimage then there are aguinst us the shout of a King is amongst us and Greater is he that is in and among us then He that is in the world against us There we have the Lord God for a Sun and shield and He will give grace and favour to support strengthen and guide us and glory to reward and crown us and no good thing if we walk uprightly before him will he withhold from us Psal 84.11 He hath said He will stand by us and be shield and buckler to us he will watch his vineyard to defend and keep it by day and by night Isa 27.2,3 Therefore fear we not only follow after him and he will order all well for us and shew us his goodness and salvation Only Rebell not we against the Lord nor willingly withdraw our selves from him and he will secure us Be strong in his might and power which he gives unto us in Christ and we shall not need to fear what flesh can do unto us or what principallities and powers can do against us For if God be for us as he is who shall be against us Rom. 8.31 Provoke we not him against us by departing from him through an unbelieving heart and then his alone presence with us will drive out our adversaries before us and bring us to the possession of our heavenly inheritance even of all the blessing to which he hath called us we have in Christ as well provision for our way as possession at our journeys end It is God that justifies us in him and owns us as his Saints who is it then that shall lay any thing against us Rom. 8.33 Who is he that condemneth us in comparison of him that takes part with us to clear us what are our own corruptions within us and Satan and all the world against us to oppose us so long as God is on our side to uphold us There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 and 7.20,21,23 Though Sin dwell in them and often carry them captive to what they would not and impede and hinder them in the good they would so long as they sow not to that Sin yield not up themselves to the flesh to walk after it but after the Spirit Christ that hath died and rose again is at the right hand of God and maketh intercession for them for help and succour yea he is mediating the new Testament for them that they might not fail of the promised inheritance Heb. 9.15 In the strength of God then and of his Love in Christ Jesus already testified to us let us go on in his way putting his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his whole Armor upon us so shall we be able to stand against the brunt of these temptations and get victory over all that do encounter us God hath not called us to this warfare at our own charges he will maintain us nor sends he us naked against so potent powers or leaves us to our weakness to provide our selves weapons to defend us His Name shall be Protection to us In Christ he hath therein also compleated us only put we on what he hath prepared for us and in his preparation we shall find sure strength and victory and none shall harm us It was a great evil in Ephraim that being harnassed they turned their backs in the day of battel Psal 78. having Gods Promises to them and Presence with them for their safety yet not to cloath themselves with such salvation not to go on in so good harness to the portion given them O let it not be any of our follies as it would be so much the greater in us by how much we are the better accomplished after the same example to be foyled and baffled out from the promised Rest which yet remains for us and by believing shall be possessed by us Sect. 2. Of the Spiritual Armour Ephes 6. THat we might be induced not to desist but go on vigorously against our spiritual enemies I shall briefly propound the consideration of the Armor of Light and Righteousness that God hath made ready for us in Christ in putting on and resisting in which no evil shall reach us the Apostle hath laid down the several peices of it to our hands with an exhortation to make use of them Ephes 6.13 Put on therefore the whole armor of God the girdle of Truth thâ— Breast-plate of Righteousness c. 1. The girdle of Truth Let the Truth of God cleave close unto us as girdle about our loynâ— let not it or what it brings unto us to gird up the loyns of our minds and to make our hearâ— true sincere and upright be neglected by us Drink we in the love of it that we may delighâ— in it and it may strengthen and preserve us where the Truth of God is slighted and noâ— prized men will easily part with it and imbraâ—… error though they perish for it yea God aâ— hath been noted often punisheth the not receiveing in the lone of the Truth so as to be saved by is with giving them up to strong delusions that they might be damned 2 Thes 2.10,11 The Hypocritâ— in heart will surely be snared that very secreâ— evil that makes him not down-right for thâ— Truth will betray him to Satan and delusioâ— when he presents baits suitable to it Buy thâ— Truth therefore and sell it not Prov. 23.23 whâ—… we see once to be truth that keep fast and it will keep us Let it be in our inward parts and it will preserve us The Spirit of truth will insinuate it self into us and lead us into all Truth and Error and Delusion shall have no power over us He will present that in the truth even in Christ truly declared to us that will tie and binde us up unto God and set us free from the power of Satan and his seducements and that 's freedom indeed put we away guil and hypocrisy then that we may the more earnestly covet after and drink in the Word of Truth the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow therein The promise of defence is to the upright-hearted that inwardly and sincerely love the Truth yea the Truth it self shall be their defence we cannot defend
Apostle further adds as useful for our direction herein in that sixth of the Ephesians viz. 6. Take unto you also the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God To the Law and to the Testament that that speaks not according to that word hath no morning light in it Isai 8.20 there 's no divine Truth in it That will discover and drive back all assailants The VVord of God that 's the immortal seed that the Believer is born of and this is he still to covet after that he may grow by it This David his in his heart that he might not sin against God and indeed that 's the best preservative from sin and direction in Righteousness when it s so hidden This is the Truth and discovers the true Righteousness of God is preached in and declares the Gospel is the Mother and Nurse of right Faith the word of Faith and of Salvation yea this is a Lanthorn to our feet and a light unto our paths In this the Spirit worketh and in the belief thereof preserveth the soul unto eternal life yea this is Spirit and Life as its full of divine and living operations unto Faith But what is this VVord of God I Answer in one sense Christ himself is the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word or Reason that was in the beginning with God and by which all things were made of God the essential Word or Word of power and Wisdom of God which also was made flesh and dwelt amongst us And it s no doubt but with this Word the Spirit fights as he doth glorifie and lift him up but that 's not done but by the Word in another sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's the Word there in Ephes 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word spoken the declaration of the Mind and Truth of God that which God hath uttered by the mouth of Christ and of All his holy Prophets and Apostles this Word as it was originally from and by the Spirit so is that the Sword that he leads his to make use of and by which he driveth back the subtile and violent adversaries of our souls and defends us that believe and believingly make use of it in the Spirit Take to you selves then this Word of God this Sword of the Spirit believe it mind it meditate on it cleave to it bring all Motions Doctrines and Practises to the Light of it let it dwell richly in you in all wisdom it will teach and admonish you it will shew you the right way and how to behave your selves in every condition it will admonish you of the danger that is in by-wayes and in temptations so that it be I say hid in your hearts and dwell there so as that you know love believe understand and mind it in what it speaketh as it was in the heart of the Lord Jesus being so kept it will keep you instruct teach and guide you aright for his words do good to the upright-hearted Mic. 2.7 that believe and obey them in sincerity And indeed this as Cha. 3. Sect. 6. was before hinted is worthy to be minded that that 's the acceptable and right believing which purely and singly closeth with God and Christ not for or according to our sensible experiments and feelings so much as for and according to the Soveraign authority of God and his infallible and most pure sayings that believes the Word though it see not any probability as to Sense or Reason of the things there declared That Faith that 's built upon Sense as we have shewed alters and varies often according to the alterations in sense as we shewed in the Israelites who so long as some great work was in their eye and some satisfaction apprehended in their sense believed the VVord and sang his Praise but when those great things were withdrawn and danger and death surrounded them they distrusted murmured and rebelled the Word of God was of no account or force with them because it was not the bottom of their faith nor abode in them So fares it now also with many souls that receive the Word as the stony ground doth the Seed with joy for a time so long as there is no trial but all seems to go along with and demonstrate the thing that is spoken to and believed by them but when such sensible feelings or satisfactions to Reason fail and trials come then in a day of temptation they fall away they wither in a year of drought as it were not having moisture enough from the Word within to cause them to abide in a patient waiting upon God for his gratious returns to them the Gospel of Peace hath not prepared them for a long travel or trial because not heartily and throughly received and cleaved to by them in the love of it nor well digested in them therefore they have no patience but fall to murmuring repining and inordinate lusting after sensible feelings of comfort and God deferring them they either run back to the world again resolving to have its consolations rather then none or else if any Doctrine or Spirit under pretence of Gods come unto them and promise them feedom from such sad conditions and long waitings though it be from Satan and lead them quite from the faith of Jesus to some strong delusion they embrace and run after it to their own destruction preferring sensible feelings and flashes of joy and comfort and raptures c. though from false and failing delusions of Satan withdrawing them from the VVord before a patient hoping in a dark exercised condition in the VVord for its unspeakable and eternal consolations Surely from this sometimes souls are misled and given over to believe or rejoyce in a lye as if they were now at prefect freedom and as fully possessed of heaven as ever any shall be had attained the Resurrection already as much as any shall or can attain to yea were Godhead with God and made parts of his indivisible Essence Satan mounting them up aloft and causing them to speak great swelling words of vanity and shine as Comets to the admiration of others he transforming himself into an Angel of light and perswading them it is the true Light that they see and glory in though in the issue they go out in darkness and have the blackness of it reserved for them whereas on the other side where the Word of God is in the heart and the meditation thereon day and night and the hope in the Lord Jehovah there-through and according thereto it will preserve and perfect that man to the inheritance being the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes Acts 20.32 a pure infallible and sure Word that will not fail or deceive any Happy is he that though he see not or prove little or nothing in his own sense yet believeth according to what is said in that that will give comfort strength greenness growth fruitfulness and preserve the
now are and the earth shall be burnt up with the works thereon even the earth that now is and that answers to the earth drowned with the flood in the days of Noah the graves shall give up their dead and they that sleep in Christ in bodily death shall be together with such as live to that day caught up into the air to meet him and be ever with him whom now in this body they are though Saints absent from 1 Thes 4.15,16 with 2 Cor. 5.6 and one shall not prevent another in possessing that Kingdom or the Kingdom in that administration Abraham Isaac and Jacob are not made perfect without us nor shall any then living prevent those that have died in the faith long since and received not the promises at their dying Heb. 11.13,39,40 They are lyers and Antichrists then that tell thee they have those things already when as many of the Saints or such as shall be so are yet dead in their spirits yea dead in sin It s true at that great appearing of the Lord Gifts shall cease and Tongues and Prophesying nor shall any man need in that Kingdom to say to one another know the Lord for all the subjects of it shall then know him when we are all come together in the unity of the faith and in the acknowledgement of the Son of God unto a perfect man but till that time as we have clay tabernacles bodies of flesh for our spirits to inhabit in so shall we need outward mediums for our helpfulness suited to our condition and Christ being ascended hath also given gifts unto men and appointed the ministration of his holy Apostles and Prophets with the Evangelists Pastors and Teachers to teach his Saints by for the work of the Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the body of Christ and to preserve us from being blown away from Christ by every Winde and blast of Doctrine even untill that time that we all come together as is said before unto a perfect man Hold thou these things fast then and be not shaken in minde by any mans words or writing or by spirit as if that Day of the Lord was always to some or other come come in the Apostles time to them or in this time to these as it must be if there were any morning light in these mens doctrine It s to be feared rather that these are introducing a more notable Apostacy from Christ that must precede or go before that his coming See I pray thee 2 Thes 2.1,2,3,4 c. I might insist upon that saying here That the worlds at an end in and with them for such like expressions drop from some but I hope that 's so evidently false to any in their right minds in that they yet live in the world eat and drink marry and are given in marriage as other men yea follow the fashions of the world too in trimming up themselves and seeking the riches pleasures and fulness of the world so as that Religion rather seems at an end with some of them that little credit will be given them therein Sect. 10. Of Sobermindedness and Humility TAke heed also my Brethren of those evils before spoken of that lay open the soul to the power of Satan and especially of spiritual pride highmindedness and curiosity think not of your selves because of your parts strength wisdom visits attainments above that is meet nor lift up your selves by those things that are given you There is an insobriety and spiritual pride that many times men of parts yea believers are prone to fall into to over-wean their own abilities Did not Peter err that wayes when he was confident that though all denied Christ yet he would not and we see what became of that thought it made him presume to put himself into the temptation more then the rest and when he was tried he proved as weak or weaker then the rest A haughty minde often goes before a fall Pro. 16.18 Men proud of their abilities and puft up as if they were some body in their attainments are nigh to falling for he that lifteth up himself shall be abased but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted Luke 14.11 God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5.5 And yet how prone men of parts or such as attain to much favour with God are to be puft up we may note in this that when God had rapt up Paul into the third heavens he presently after sent him a prick in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet him that he might not swell in a fleshly doting upon himself for the abundance of visions and revelations given him 2 Cor. 12.7 Flesh hath an inclination in it to swell even by occasion of those things that God priviledges a man in by his Spirit therefore it needs to be sometime taken down Paul was not without some feeling of it and therefore could the better warn others of it Not to be highminded but to fear Rom. 11.20 especially seeing our standing is by faith and faith receives all from and lives upon another and not upon astock in a mans self It s a vertue carrying the soul to lean wholly upon God in Christ his Wisdom Strength Mercy Truth Faithfulness and not upon its own sufficiency parts attainments in it self c. Now as he that lives upon God must needs live surely so he that lives upon his own fulness though he think it is God in himself he lives upon must needs live dangerously because upon an empty broken Cistern there are no persons in greater danger to fall into the temptations of Satan then such for they that live on high in themselves are like the drunkard on the top of a mast being drunken with a conceit of their own sufficiency they reel and stagger too and fro and fall down into the gulf of error and wickedness for by how much the more the heart exalteth and prides it self in its fulness so much the less it mattereth to lean upon Gods Word and mind his Directions and the less it mindeth Gods Word the more empty it is of the Strength and Wisdom of the Spirit that therein worketh and so the more apt it is to close with delusions especially with such swelling words of vanity and deceit as best suit with and nourish such conceits of self-fulness pride and high thoughts of self putting men upon bold presumptuous adventures as if they could fly up into the heavens and as if they had now no further need of Churches or Gods spiritual weapons no further need of Praying Hearing Scriptures Conference any thing they are ready to dare the devil to tempt them and sit loose from Christ as able to go on alone without his mediation but alas this is their folly for leaving him they are soon over-reacht by Satan who can easily hold them fast especially when he hath perswaded them there is no such thing as a Devil or Satan Take heed
therefore of this and of that other branch of insobriety that usually accompanies it viz. curiosity in our searchings and inquisitions after knowledge an over-reaching of our selves to see into secrets a peeping into the Ark a prying into things not seen being vainly puft up with a fleshly mind Col. 2.18 a thing that hath ever proved very dangerous and hurtful to them that have been addicted thereto what caught Eve at the first but a desire to be as God knowing good and evil and what makes men more to turn out from Christ then a not being content with his simplicity but affecting vain Philosophy or a desire to know and by reason to dive into things that are above our comprehensions whence else proceed those questions about the secret purposes thoughts and hidden counsels of God the curious inquisitions into his Essence and about heaven hell the state of souls departed and many other curiosities beyond what the VVord declareth of them questions which we may comprehend under those that the Apostle says tend not to profit but to pervert men and undo them he that walketh humbly as knowing nothing but infirmity and evil in himself and contents himself with things revealed receiving such Truths so as to walk in them and keep close unto them avoiding nice and hidden speculations he walks surely and shall be preserved from falling when others that climb aloft tumble down again Take we therefore the counsel of the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 5.8 Be sober be vigilant for your adversary the devil goeth about like a roaring lyon seeking daily Whom to devour Whom resist stedfast in the faith Keep close to the Faith and so to the Word of God the proper object of mans Faith but take heed of an insober prying into things besides it Be not drunk as not with pleasures cares fears sorrows from things below so neither with conceits of our selves desires of God-likeness beyond what is held forth in the faith nor with desires to know things that God hath reserved to himself neither yet be secure and careless through conceit of thine own strength and standing nor rash in closing with every hint doctrine or spirit that is presented to thee but be sober and vigilant sober in not out-running Gods VVord and Spirit vigilant in watching and examining every doctrine and spirit by comparing it with the holy Spirit and his Testimony and Law in his written VVord and the holy Unction already through the Gospel of Christ received lest Satan over-reach thee and finding thee out of the bounds of Gods way in which he hath ingaged his protection devour thee Verily in these last times its sad to see how men stagger to and fro and reel up and down wavering between this and that opinion like drunken men their hearts being surfeited and their heads made giddy with conceits of their own excellencies and abilities so that they think themselves able to swallow up all the most secret knowledge of God himself into their fancies but alas with the Dog in the Fable while they catch at shadows under desire of having all knowledge in stead of attaining their desires they let go and lose all that hath substance in it not comprehending things they deny them not comprehending heaven and hell the glory of Christs Humanity c. they grow into Antichristianism and Atheism and lose themselves in vanity Of these things therefore be thou warned to avoid them that they snare thee not and thou perish in them Take heed also of slothfulness in seeking after and unto God formality in contenting thy self with speculations of Truth without the power of it renewing the heart and so of presumpcion earthly-mindedness and the rest of the evils hinted at before that lay men open to temptations cleave thou close to God and to the VVord and Spirit of Grace and fight the good fight of Faith quitting thy self with courage in all encounters and thou shalt prove it a good fight indeed both for that its lawful honest and warranted by God and also for that thou shalt therein finde help from God to inable thee to it and carry thee through it yea and lastly thou shalt in striving lawfully be crowned after thou hast overcome thou shalt receive a large reward even a Crown of Righteousness concerning which promised reward and Gods faithfulness to give it in his season I shall nextly hint something to thee for thy further encouragement Chap. 5. Of the Reward of the Saints overcoming Sect. 1. That there is a Reward promised AS the faith of the Saints leans upon the VVord of God in general and so upon God himself as the original of that VVord and the things declared therein so their hope leans on and hath for its object the promises of God which hold forth the marrow and fatness of the feast of good things made in Christ and the consideration of them is very requisite for their patient encountering with temptations and enduring to the issue they being partly the things fought for and partly helps in fighting for they are of two sorts things to be given to and enjoyed by us in the combate and things to be met with in the issue of it according to that Fear not Abraham I will be thy shield to protect and defend thee in the way and thy exceeding great Reward Gen. 15.1 when thou hast overcome Under the first head are comprehended the promises of this life in the outward man and for the life of the Spirit in the inner man the promises of provision and maintenance such as this Fear the Lord ye Saints or holy ones for they that fear the Lord shall want no good thing Psal 34.9 And that Seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things shall be added to you Mat. 6.33 Whence that Let your conversation be without covetousness Heb. 13,5,6 Be not reaching in your desires after the world either in provision for sustenance or safety as if you were left to shift for your selves therein or as if your happiness consisted partly in having much thereof or as if God would not provide for necessaries or conveniences herein for your warfare here but be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may be bold and say the Lord is on my side I will not fear what flesh can do unto me Heb. 13.5,6 And for protection from enemies so as that they shall not harm or devour us such as that All the hairs of your head are numbred and the Lord will save them from the wicked and he will help them because they trust in him Matth. 10. Psal 37.41 the promises for their helpfulness in Spirit are such as these That he will sanctifie and cleanse them 1 Thes 5.23,24 VVrite his Laws and put his fear in them Ezek. 36.25,26 Fer. 31.32 c. that he will send the Spirit of Truth and put it into them as a Comforter
and to lead them into all truth Heb. 8.9,10,11 That he will pardon their sins accept them watch over them gather them in his arms lead and feed them c. Isai 27.2,3 and 40.11,12 Of the other sort are the full and finall deliverances of them from all adversity temptation opposition and evil giving them full firm and free peace and the possessing them of all the fulness of his glory in Jesus Christ the full and open knowledge of God in everlasting life to see as they are seen and be like to Jesus Christ in the enjoyment of fellowship with God and the consolations and satisfactions of God c. Concerning which consider a little first who are the proper heires of them to whom they are made and secondly what the time of their fulfilling Sect. 2. Of the Heirs or Object to whom the Promises are made THe heirs of the Promises of God even as the subjects of the Election to the injoyment of them is primarily Christ and then secondarily in and through him Saints by calling or Believers in him That Christ is firstly the Heir of the Promise is clear from Gal. 3.16,17 The Promise was to Abraham and his seed to Abraham by vertue of his seed he saith not unto seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ And again the Promise was fore-confirmed of God unto Christ He is the heir of all things and principally of the Promises of God especially those of eternal Life as he is the Elect of God chosen to be his holy One without blame before him for ever and the Son of his Love the receptacle of the fulness of his Blessing Secondly As any are of God called and by the grace discovered and working in the Call brought unto and into Christ so they become to be heirs in and with Christ reckoned after Christ as in Gal. 3.27,28,29 So many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ and if ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams seed and â—…irs according to Promise Abrahams seed not another but one seed still as in unity with Christ for ye saith he are all one in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female bond nor free c. The sons of the flesh either of Adam or of Abraham are not as such the sons of God nor inheritors of the Promises but they that are born of the Spirit and are in Christ Jesus they and they onely not the Law neither and its seed are the chosen of God to this great dignity to be heirs of his Promises Whence also it follows that men come to partake of and to enjoy the Promises by Faith in Jesus Christ In him all the Promises of God are yea and amen to the praise and glory of God 2 Cor. 1.20 A man abiding and continuing in him and his Word shall meet with supply and provision here so far as God sees good and needful for this life support also and spirit from God to inable him to the incounter and to give him the victory and shall inherit eternal glory On the contrary If any draw back his soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 He deprives himself thereby of his own mercy if any man throw down his weapons and yield to Satan neglecting himself of or renouncing the Son of God to whom he was called and through whose bloud he was sanctified he puts himself out of the way of the Promises they are not to any Yea and Amen out of Christ but in him nor to nay simply as men but as men in Christ or as believing men In which believing we meet with the power of God to salvation 1 Pet 1.5 and not beside it The consideration of which is but a motive to draw us to eye Christ and to fight the good fight of Faith while we look upon it as the condition to which the Promises appertain and as men are therein the heirs of them and also a terror to drive or curb rather and bridle to keep in aw from listening to Flesh and Satan to depart from Christ and from the Faith seeing that is the way to deprive our selves of his Promises no room for diffidence here in this way of eying Christ nor yet for carelesness and presumption as if no need to eye him The promise of the Spirit runs thus If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth c. Sect. 3. Of the time of the full fulfilling of the Promises THe time of the performance of the Promises is various Some as we have noted are performed and to be met with here in our warfare viz. those of Provision and Protection c. but other promises are reserved till the victory be compleated till we have fought our fight and finished our course and even then also it may be and is as yet reserved or laid up for a further day Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4.8 That great Day the Day of his appearance with all his holy Ones that 's the day of the full reward In the mean time it is true and we may find it so that upon particular combats and victories there may be and sometimes are particular rewards visitations confirmations inlargements of the Spirit to men upon abiding and holding fast the Faith in particular exercises but these are but a first fruits and earnest of the inheritance in comparison of the whole reward that is promised to be injoyed after all incounters are over and past Now beware that ye confound not these days of the Lords spiritual appearance in some particular visit to the soul with the time of his ful personal and glorious appearance when every eye shall see him and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him when he shall descend from heaven with the sound of a Trump the Archangel of God and the dead in Christ shall be raised 1 Thes 4.16 as some unwarily do running themselves into much error taking the first fruits for the full income and cuting off the hope of the Harvest that should carry them on and keep them from by-turning to the troubling of the brethren also and subversion of many of them 2 Tim. 2.15,16,17 Neither entertain ye such a conceit as some have vented That there shall be no personal appearance of Christ any more but onely a spiritual manifestation of himself in his people for that also is a doctrine and opinion cross at least if not destructive to the Faith The Angels told the Disciples when they saw him taken up that as they see him taken up from them so they should see him even so coming again Acts 1.10,11 But they saw him going up personally as the Scripture makes it evident for as a distinct person from them and not as by spirit in them was
he then conversing with them and instructing them and as he was so doing he was taken up out of their sight into heaven and they stood gazing up after him Luke 24.51 Acts 1.9 which things are not applicable to Christ within them Again it s said He shall come not in but with his Saints Jude 14. accompanied with them and they shall be all caught up to meet him together in the air 1 Thes 4.16,17 But in the spiritual coming of Christ in the Saints there is no such being caught up into the air there to meet him besides that thought denieth and destroyeth the Humanity of Christ and all its unspeakable glory upon its â—nexpressible sufferings for it springeth from such a conceit that there is no spiritual glorified body of Christ for him to come in but onely the mystical his people and it leadeth to the denial of all that glory that the Saints shall have in their bodies by and after the resurrection of them yea then we destroy the faith which witnesseth that even that that is gone up to heaven from the earth and is no longer in the world with his Disciples but is contained in heaven shall at the time of the Restitution of all things descend from thence and come again even Christ in that his sometime dead but now raised and glorified body to judge the world in righteousness and that then they that have here suffered and been put to death for righteousness sake and for their testimony to Christ shall be raised up again out of all their death and be by his glorious and divine power presented alive set free from all their mortality and corruption that now cleaveth to them and receive the great and full reward of all that patient waiting upon God and warring against the Beast the World Satan and Sin which untill then is laid up and reserved in heaven for them Acts 3.13,14,21 Then shall it be that they shall have no more pain sorrow crying or death but shall be compleatly like him even to Christ whom they have honored and whom then they shall see as he is and not onely have glory but appear in glory to all with him but not till then as some wrongfully understand or apply the things so spoken Thence need of Patience and Faith throughout all the dayes of warfare and therein to follow the steps of the Fathers who all died in Faith not having received the Promises for indeed God hath so ordered for the full performance harvest and full possession of these great Promises that one Saint of Christ shall not prevent another Abraham and Isaac shall not be perfect without us nor we without them the then living shall not prevent or be before them that long since are faln asleep and as to their bodies are dead Heb. 11.40 1 Thes 4.15 Therefore also they are grosly erroneous and to be avoided as destroyers of the faith who say that the Resurrection is now made or is already past and the day of the Lord even of that his discent from and coming in the clouds of heaven so much spoken of in the Scriptures is already come to them 2 Tim. 2.17 and they are in glory and have already as much fulness of it as is ever to be had by any These are the mockers fore-spoken of that contradict the tenour of the Apostles Doctrine These are of them that say they are Apostles but are not but are found to be lyars Revel 2.2 And therefore thou who ever thou art that art called to and believâ—st in Christ fly thou from them and gird up the loyns of thy mind to waite with long-suffering and patience for the great Harvest the salvation to be revealed at the great appearance of the Lord Jesus and the resurrection of the just knowing that those that deny these things are of the same strain with the ancient Hereticks long since condemned by the Apostles and given over by them to Satan for blaspheming but mind thou the faithful and true sayings of God and wait for them offering up thy very body also a sacrifice to God holy and acceptable by Jesus Christ to do and suffer his Will knowing that thy labour shall not be vain in the Lord thou shalt receive it in a far better state then thou layst it down in for him and therein also the reward of all those things here wrought and suffered for his Name Sect. 4. Of the Resurrection BUt because it hath been the old trick of Satan and a master-piece of his subtilties to stagger and subvert men as much as he is able about the Resurrection And because it is so fundamental a point and so properly Christian that the denial thereof overthrows the whole Christian Faith and Relâ—…ion and makes it worth nothing therefore I shall yet add something further for thy help against the cunning sleights of those instruments of the wicked One which are now as busie as ever to pervert thee herein That the dead shall rise the Scriptures are so full and plain and particularly the confutation of the Sadduces by our Saviour himself and the Apostle Pauls discourse about it to the Corinthians that there seems to be no possibility of denying it by any that pretend credit to the Scriptures and yet some such do it by eluding and perverting those Scriptures to other senses or other Scriptures that they conceive make against it as others do it upon grounds of Reason as they conceive against the Scripture I shall say something to either of them The Scriptures they pervert are such as that of Solomon The body goes to the dust and the spirit to God that gave it Eccles 12.7 which is nothing it all so much as in appearance or shew against the Resurrection of the body all those that plead for and believe the Resurrection of the body manimously affirming that the body must go to the dust the spirit or breath be gathered up again to God which is all that the Text says but we believe too that they that sleep in the dust of the earth even the dead bodies shall arise again out of the dust and both bodies and spirits united be presented before the Judgement Seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body whether good or evil Joh. 5.29 Isai 26.19 2 Cor. 5.10 which that Scripture hath no shew of a denial of nor that that one thing befalleth a man and a beast as the one dyeth so dyeth the other c. Eccless 3.19 for besides that Solomon there doth but tell us what he said in his heart not what God said to him we deny not that as to the bodily death men and beasts are both subject thereto but we say that they are not alike as to Resurrection nor doth Solomon either speak of or deny the Resurrection in that saying he onely speaking of what befalls men in the flesh here not of what their state shall be for ever hereafter That which they most insist on is
him not love in â—ord and tongue but heart love doth God require and where that is the eye will follow as â—he look thereof may be also both a mean to produce it and to nourish it and therefore he adds And let thine eye observe my wayes It s a vain thing to give thine eye without thine heart they see little or nothing when the heart is busied another way and not intentive to minde what thou beholdest with thine eye and where the eye is withdrawn from Gods wayes and espyes beauty in some other things the heart will be soon corrupted also therefore God calls for both for the heart first as the principal and then for the eye as the consequent of the hearts love and as a means to bring on nourish it in love He hath given thee his Son and in him received by thee thou hast his heart for the Father himself loves you because ye have loved me saith Christ and have believed that I came out from him Joh 16 27. thou art beloved by him in his beloved one and what a good exchange is this to have Gods heart for thineâ— to give him thy heart and receive his what a low requital is this for Gods heart that man give up to God his heart and yet this is the greatest man can give and the greatest that God requires And this is no other thing but what his love and heart discovered to us draws back again from us and leads us to return but because He sees that there are other suiters for it he is the more watchful over us and promps us in that his Grace requires by his written Word too and calls us to a more wist and earnest view and consideration or him in all his wayes towards us and of all his wayes prescribed by him for our walking before him Looking we say begets loving and love begets looking again and so there is a mutual intercourse of heart and eye give him thine heart and then thine eye will the readilier follow give him thine eye and let that observe his Paths and so shall thine heart be preserved chast with him too Consider and mind his love to thee in Christ in his gift of him and cost he was at there for thee the way he took to buy and sanctifie thee to himself and that will break thy heart and make thee willing that he should have it that gave so much of his to thee for it It s mens being taken with other beauties and so looking off from his that makes them slack in their love toward him Remember how thou hast heard and learnt and repent and do thy first works says he therfore to some who had lost their first love Rev. 2.3 that 's the way to recover their love again to call to mind how they have heard and learnt of him and if that be the way to recover love when lost then sure its the way too to preserve it before it be lost that it may not be lost Cleave then to him and his wayes with full purpose of heart and take heed that thou never deniest him that bought thee for that would be a most unloving and ungrateful part of thee Worship none but God in Christ in whom he hath loved thee and in the Spirit he hath given thee own no other name or object of confidence delight and satisfaction Follow not after other lovers and especially if thou wouldst have thine heart intire with him beware of two Corrivals especially that will sollicite thee 1. The world in its objects of profit honor pleasure c. let not thine eye look too wistly on its beauty lest thou lust after it for it will deceive thee And 2. The spirit of error presenting another name and doctrine then that once delivered to the Saints and promising greater liberties and advantages and spiritual glory to thee for as both of them so especially this latter may be and are in Scripture compared to a whorish woman James 4 4. Rev. 17.5 And a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman is as a narrow pit Prov. 23.27 If thou fallest into her she will surely drown thee They that will be rich and that make themselves friends to the world in its pleasures and satisfactions here ingage God against themselves 1 Tim 6 9. and plunge themselves into snares and temptations and so drown themselves in destruction and perdition and they that have itching ears after Fables and doctrines of devils take not heed to the Apostolical Doctrine lose themselves in them being so infatuated through the strength of them that they arrive at last too at damnation by denying the Lord that bought them 2 Thes 2.10,11,12 2 Pet. 2.1 For few or none that go into her return again neither take they hold of the paths of life Prov. 2.19 Take heed therefore to your selves and beware of this spiritual adultery let not thine heart desire to eat their dainties for though they may say stoln waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant yet know thou that the dead are there and their ghests in the depth of hell Prov. 9 17,18 Look thou then right forward to the things that God sets before thee in Christ and let not thine heart depart from him Desire more to know him and to enjoy his presence and fellowship with him and seek it not in thine own way but in his and when thou findest him â—old him fast and delight thy self in him and â—ever let his Truth depart from thee but let â—hy meditation â—t all times be sweet concerning â—im and thy desight day and night in his Law and Doctrine 3. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and â—…an not to thine own understanding Pro. 3 5. He â—s worthy to bedepended on and trusted in at â—ll times and in all things for this life and that â—o come for teaching strengthning directing â—…pporting supplying comforting saving For 〈◊〉 him the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength â—…i 26.4 So that there is nothing too hard or â—…fficult for him to do that may concern thy welfare nor is there any unrighteousness or unfaithfulness in him Psal 92.15 He hath so richly â—nd abundantly already prevented us with his â—ove and mercy and given us so to behold his righteousness displayed in his Gospel as may challenge our most stedfast confidence in him and dependance on him for the performance of â—ll that further favour and mercy that is needful â—nd good for us and is promised by him Hath â—e not given his Son for us according to his anâ—ient saying by the mouth of his holy Prophets ye a hath he not also called and brought us to his Son and given us him to be ours our lot our portion our Prince and Captain of salvation our High Priest and Advocate c. and shall we not trust in him then for other things shall he not with him give us all things else that he hath spoken of and provided in
him O hope we then in him at all times and in this hope pour out our hearts before him for he is a refuge for us and will not fail us He that hath made us Saints will not be wanting to give us a Saints portion But lean we not to our understandings for he that trusts his heart is a fool Prov. 28.26 for it s so deceitful and desperately wicked that it will deceive him Jer. 17.9 His Word is sure and worthy to be taken but our own wisdom with the conceptions thereof are foolishness and tend to ruine and who so trusts in any thing else below God a curse will befall him Jer. 17 5,6 4. In this love of him and trusting in him yield up thy self also unto him to be his to do his work mind his Name and Glory that he may be known loved and his Kingdom inlarged give up thy heart to him to be the habitation of his Holiness by his Spirit not the habitation of sin lust pride vanity Satan c. but the temple of the holy Ghost that he may dwell there and subdue and mortifie thy lusts and corruptions in and for thee and quicken thee up to God to â—alk before him holily and yield up all thy members also to be instruments of working righteousness unto his glory Whatsoever thou â—ost in word or in deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus with an eye to him and as thereto warranted by him and to the praise of the grace of God in him This is love that we keep â—is Commandments and his Commandments are â—ot grievous 1 Joh. 5.3 I might inlarge unto many particulars which for brevities sake I shall â—…ss over and leave thee for further direction to the word of Gods Grace and to the Apostles writings Sect. 3. The Saints worthy walking towards each other 2. IN regard of one another I have no other Commandment but that that ye have received viz. That ye love one another that ye love as brethren sons of the same Father even God and of the same Mother the new Jerusalem and Covenant of Grace and that he let brotherly love be exercised and in its exercise continue that ye love one another as members of the same body not every man minding his own things and aiming at his own particular good onely but each minding the good of other in that that may be for profit and edification communicating of the grace given and abilities afforded to each other in the Lord as may make for the edification add good of all watching over instructing exhorting reproving helping and comforting one another as need is and opportunity is afforded receiving owning and delighting in the fellowships and helpfulness of the mutual exercises of your graces and gifts in the Lord as receiving owning and delighting in the Lord who is in all his holy Ones and Saints and this without hypocrisie and simulation without partiality or faction not preferring one before another for outward worldly respects of riches honors places learning parts c. nor despising one another for poverty reproaches infamy in the world weakness in faith and spiritual gifts or for difference in judgement about doubtful questions Rom. 14.1 but each receiving other for the foundation sake held fast and for the grace discerned and professed cheerfully serving one another in love Indeed its meet that Saints put difference between themselver as such and such as have erred and departed from the foundation of Faith and deny the Lord that bought them as we shall see by and by but where men are all believers through grace and have the love of God in the gift of Christ and his mediation for their bottom and foundation their lesser difference in other things should not make them unsaint one another and fight against one another but such ought to own one another and with sobriety and singleness not for love of victory or factiously to upâ—old a party to discuss things in which they differ and so far as they can to agree and if in any â—hing any be otherwise minded then the rest there with patience to wait and forbear one another and yet in communion and communication of graces to own and walk as brethren one with another not judging and despising one another for what they differ in those things they â—…ffer in not being of that nature and weight as â—o disunite from fellowship with the same Lord. And this is further to be noted that the brotherly love that is to be exercised stands not in an â—…differency and neutrality to let every man be â—f what way he will and do what he will withâ—… reproving or shewing them the evil thereof no more then natural love amongst brethren 〈◊〉 the flesh consists in letting ones brethren sink 〈◊〉 swim be sick or well wounded or whole â—odigals or thrifty without looking after them 〈◊〉 taking any care of remedies reproofs or any â—ay of help for them that 's by God himself â—counted hatred to see our brethren sin not â—prove them Levit 9.17 it argues little love 〈◊〉 the souls of one another so to do It was not â—…om love in Cain to say Am I my brothers â—…per Gen. 4.9 Love leads to watchfulness oâ—… one another or in case of straying or of danger to stray to warn another which yet is to be done with wisdom so as it may best tend to prevent evil or withdraw therefrom for we are to put difference between those that sin of weakness and through temptation whom we are to handle gently and tenderly forbearing and waiting for them yea bearing their burthens and those that are more wilful and resolute in their strayings and evil walkings whom we are to save with fear and rebuke more sharply and openly yea in all things we ought so to order our selves as we see may best conduce to their good with whom we have to do having a special care of and regard to those that are weak in faith helping and furthering them and no wise if possible offending them so as to turn them aside through their weakness from the way of the Lord but indeavouring that they may be preserved in the faith and grow up therein till they with the rest of the body attain the inheritance promised in Christ Jesus Were this love more practised and walked out in and the exercise thereof accepted it would prove very advantageous to the Saints and Satan would not so much prevail upon them to weaken and divide them yea this waking together in love and wherein we have attained walking by the same rule and speaking the same thing would much conduce to the glorifying of God and we should therein meet with much blessing We are brethren why should we fall out by the way to our heavenly Canaan quarrelling and contending about place preheminence and diffeâ—ences in doubtful Disputations not clearly deâ—ermined in Scriptures is a good consideration for all agreeing in the same foundation And O that we all
Son Jesus Christ Acts 14.15 as the fountain of and the proper way to that life and salvation See the sum of it in 1 Tim. 2.5,6 That there is one God and one mediatour between God and man the man Christ Jesus Who hath given himself a ransome for All as an evidence of Gods good will to All that he would have all men to be saved and to come to know the truth This ye are to hold forth unto men that there is a God to be adored worshipped submitted tâ— trusted in and served the author of our life and breath and all things the fountain of bliss and happiness and that this God is one in Essence mind purpose faithfulness and so that All other powers that the Heathens have fancied and adored are Idols vanities and confusion all things empty and too weak to save or satisfie besides him that eternal life and happiness consists in the true knowledge and enjoyment of him And yet this unity of the Godhead is so to be held forth that the Trinity therein also may be acknowledged otherwise men shall not rightly apprehend or worship him according to the Christian Faith and Doctrine Concerning which let me a little declare my mind to you though it may seem a Digression because mens errour hereabout I find to be often an inlet to many other evil false conceptions I know some make that Trinity or threefoldness in the Divine being but only a threefold denomination of the same personal subsistence and that there is no other distinction between Father Word and Spirit but only in that diversity of denomination which appears to be an evident falshood in this that by the same rule that God the Father Word and Spirit is called three because they are three denominations He might be called seven or ten or more there being many other denominations in the Scripture given to him as Jehovah Lord of Hosts Jah Elohim Ehjeh Eloah Adonaâ— the Almighty and divers others but yet he is not said to be so many as he hath denominations given him in any part of Scripture Besides different denominations of the same person or personal subsistence may be convertibly predicated of one another as where the same man is Father and Son Husband and Master and Magistrate in divers respects there it may be said the Master is the Father and the Father is Governour c. but so it cannot be said of these three the Father the Son and the holy Ghost The Scripture never says the Father is the Son or the Father is the holy Ghost or the holy Ghost is the Father or the Word or Son is the Father though God is a Spirit and Christ an everlasting Father in regard of us yet not the Father of the only begotten Son nor is the Father the Spirit sent by the Father and yet these three are but one and the same God A great mysterie it is I confess and such as passes expression fully to declare and open yet a truth it is that the Scriptures many ways attest both in the Prophetical and Apostolical writings Moses hints it in speaking of God plurally and yet joyning that plural word with a singular verb as when he says Elohim Bara the Gods or the Mighties he created Heaven and Earth c. And again Nahashu let us make man in our Image plurally and yet by and by he changes the phrase and speaks in the singular number God or the Mighties made man in his Image with which agrees divers other phrases as that in Psal 149.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let Israel rejoyce in his makers and that in Eccles 12.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember thy Creators in the days of thy youth and the like in Job 35.10 and yet more fully in 2 Sam. 7.23 what one people in the earth is like to thy people Israel whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verbatim The Gods went to redeem to himself The words that we translate God and went being both of the plural number and yet the prâ—noun relative that is added is singular to himself not to themselves The two former words plainly intimating the plurality in way of subsistence and the singular pronoun the unity in Essence which also is held forth in Gods appearing unto Abraham in which he appeared as three men and Abraham sometimes speaks to him as one and sometime in the plural number as to more Gen. 18. Whence some Hebrew Doctors have also written thus upon the word Elohim which is usually translated God See Ainsw in Gen. 1. Come and see the mysterie of the word Elohim there are three degrees and every degree by it self alone and yet notwithstanding they are all one and joyned together in one and are not divided one from another These places with divers others as to instance one more that in Deut. 6.5 Hear O Israel the Lord thy Almighties is one Lord intimate a plurality in unity but other places express that plurality to be a Trinity or threefoldness in unity as that in Psalm 33.6 By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host thereof by the breath of his mouth or by the Spirit of his mouth for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both So that there we have mentioned the Lord Jehovah his Word and Spirit as the like we may see also in Isa 42.1,2 Behold my servant whom I uphold which is spoken of the word made Flesh Jesus Christ Mat. 12. who though he was in the form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal with him yet emptyed himself and came in the form of a servant Phil. 2.6,7 c. Mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have pat my spirit upon him c. there is the Father held forth under that word I my he whose servant Christ became and whose elected and delightful Son he is and there 's the Son as before was noted and the Spirit of the Father put upon him The like expressions of the Trinity sce again Isa 11.1,2 and 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me there is the Lord Jehovah the Father and Me that is the Word as incarnate and made flesh and the Spirit or holy Ghost put upon Christ which things are yet more clearly opened in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles as is to be seen in Mat. 3.17 where we have this Trinity distinctly named Christ baptized the holy Ghost descending upon him visibly in the appearance of a Dove and the Father speaking out of heaven and owning him for his beloved Son Here was more then a threefold denomination of one personal subsistence the Father and Son here are plainly distinguished for he says not of himself I am the beloved Son but of Christ this is my beloved Son c. In 2 John 3. he is distinguished plainly from him Grace and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father c. See the like in Col.
hath manifested himself and is to be believed in in each of these as that this one God by his Word and Spirit having made and created all things for man and man in his own Image deserved and required to be obeyed and honoured by man but man sinning and therefore falling under his displeasure and making himself thereby unable to please him and unfit for fellowship with him by reason of that unspeakable pollution that hath overspread him God was yet pleased in the greatness of his mercy and freeness of his love to find out a way to recover us again and a way by which we might return back again unto him So as that both his justice and displeasure against sin might clearly be demonstrated and yet his goodness and love too toward sinful mankind be magnified which was by appointing and sending forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law so being found in shape as a man a reall man to bear in his body the punishment of our sin the sin of the world and so to give himself a ransome for all That this his Son the Word made flesh as was long before even from the beginning of the world fore-prophecied of him is now come already and hath taken upon him in the body that was prepared for him the burthen and cause of man and as a publike man given himself a ransome for All induring the Death and undergoing that sentence of curse and condemnation that by the offence of one came upon All men and that for All and hath in grapling with that death and sin overcome them so that God hath raised and justified him in the behalf of all so as he may also see the justificatian of all that do and shall believe on him To which purpose also viz. that men might in believing on him have him for their justification the Father hath glorified him in the nature and behalf of mankind making him Lord of all and his salvation to the end of the earth giving him all fulness of Authority and Power and filling him with all the fulness of the Godhead bodily even the fulness of Divine Spirit Power and Vertue yea also appointing and ordaining him as Mediator to stand in the Vertue of his Death and Sacrifice between God and men as the propitiation for them even for our sins that believe and not ours onely but also of the whole world 1 John 2.1,2 So as that with respect to him and what he hath done and suffered for sin he is good and patient and bountiful to the whole world not withstanding they sin yea and hath sent out his Gospel to be published to them all without limitation or restriction viz. that though this his Son there is forgiveness for them and he would have them saved and to that purpose come to the acknowledgement of the truth yea He to wit Christ is He in whom all the world or any of them may find favor and come into favor with God again so as to be at one with him namely by acknowledging his Truth and believing on him who also is appointed by his teaching them as a Prophet by his ruling them in righteousness and writing his Law in them and subduing their enemies as a King and Lawgiver and Judge over them and by mediating the new Covenant or Advocating and making intercession as the great High-Priest to the utmost to save all them of the sons of men that see and believe on him and so judge his and their enemies that that hate his Light and reject his â—endred mercy to condemnation to which end he shall at the time appointed of the Father come again and raise and judge both the one and the other as they have here behaved themselves towards him That as the Father hath put his Spirit upon Christ so they are to submit unto Christ in his Word and Ordinances and look unto and wait therein for this his Spirit upon him as he that is Power of God that is to bring down or effect in man that salvation that is in Christ Jesus set forth to them the Renewer Sanctifier Teacher Comforter and therefore to be heard sought after received and obeyed by men in the power of which they are to worship the Father through the Son and in the receit and indwelling of whom they shall finde and experiment the streams of that Fountain of Life that flows from the Father or rather that the Father is in and through the Son yea God himself by his Spirit to dwell in them and to set up his Kingdom in them in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost to the full possession and revelation of which in and upon them this Divine Spirit in such their listning to following after and obeying him will not fail to bring them Sect. 7. A Caveat against some mens preposterous mistakes about the Doctrines of Election and Reprobation THis then is the brief summ of the Doctrine to be held forth to the world in which we may hopefully expect and look for the assistance and operation of the Spirit to convince them of the good will of God toward them and therein of their sin for not believing on him Joh. 6.11 that hath done so much for them and is so appointed and fitted of God for saving them And of Righteousness both that all the righteousness they have of their own is empty and will not avail them otherwise no need for Christ to have died for them and also that in him is everlasting righteousness worthy to be looked after and certain in that their looking to him for it to be met with by them And of Judgement that their own self-justifications will not serve them nor their own self-condemnations so valid as remedilesly to cast them but to his doom they must stand by whom the Prince of the world is judged and they must receive their final sentence from him who is able in case of their believing on him to absolve them from all self-condemnings and in case of their disobedience against him and the Will of his Father to destroy them however their own thoughts and other men have hitherto justified them Yea in this Doctrine we may hopefully expect the holy Spirit to draw in and allure the convinced to hope in him and believe on him and therefore this hold ye forth to them and to the furtherance of this let all your conversations and walkings be directed as becoms the children of such a Father the members of such a Head as the Lord Jesus and as the Temples of the holy Ghost that they that are apt to slight the Word may yet be woon to glorifie it by the goodness of your conversation And beware I pray of that preposterous way that some run into who through mistake or unbelief of the Gospel delivered to us by the holy Apostles according to the commandment of the everlasting God and through the exercise of their own reason with the mistaking of some