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when the heart is busied another way and not intentive to minde what thou beholdest with thine eye and where the eye is withdrawn from Gods wayes and espyes beauty in some other things the heart will be soon corrupted also therefore God calls for both for the heart first as the principal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
according to some other more mystical way that the Scriptures had not declared if the testimony of Paul be valid as they seem to make it in the other place which they wrest to their harm then listen to him explaining himself in that place and the rather because he tels us in holding those things fast not according to some more spiritual understanding as is pretended but according to his preaching and declaration of them we shall be saved to wit from running into erroneous conceptions such as that of the denial of the Resurrection there by him faulted and by consequence from loose and evil practises and which is the issue of both from eternally perishing for indeed it is an undeniable truth that according to the judgement men make of Christ so is their judgement of other things they that believe not the first fruits of our nature really to have died and to be raised again and glorified in the person of Christ they deny the resurrection of the rest of the lump or body of Christ and of mankind in general and they that deny that must needs deny the judgement with its rewards and punishments following then what will hinder that piece of Epicurism Let us eat and â—rink for to morrow we shall die for take away the Resurrection and the judgement as we have said before and you take away the life of all Religion If then thou shouldest ever be so far corrupted as under pretence of not knowing Christ after the flesh to make nothing of and to be waved from the Doctrine of Christ as in the flesh dying for us and by the power of the Spirit raised again in that his body from the dead thou art in the way to fall from all Christian Religion and into all profaneness and Atheism there being so great a connexion between the foundation Doctrines as those concerning the person of Christ and the things suffered by and done to him of God are and the superstructures as the things that are to be done to and in us are and so great a dependency of these latter upon the former that if the former the fundamental be shaken the latter will soon fall but if the former stand firm the latter will be upheld by them or we rather in the faith and practise of them his Death being the foundation of all our hope his Resurrection a certain pledge of ours and an argument of the judgement in which all shall be judged by him and his glory the forerunner and pledge of that that shall be manifested on all that love and waite for his appearing Acts 17.31 Chap. 6. Concluding with exhortation for the Saints walking worthy of their calling Sect. 1. That exhortations are usefull and needfull to Believers TO all this that 's before said I shall add onely some exhortations and directions to you to walk as becometh Saints that you may glorifie God who hat hitherto called you preserve your selves in his Love and be useful unto others which I beseech you to suffer and think not that in exhorting you hereunto I put a burthen upon you that you are not fit to bear or that I put you under the Law Christianity consists not onely in Speculation but also and that rather too in divine vertue and action wherein God deals not with his Saints with Herbs and Plants that have no sense nor â—ason as they are intelligent reasonable creaâ—res so he governs them by his Word and Spiâ—…t and puts them upon an exercise of those faâ—…lties given them that they might not appear to â—eidle and to no purpose in them He doth not â—… take all upon himself to do in them that they â—re thereby left without all action nor doth he â—act them by force and violence transporting â—…em beyond themselves that they need no adâ—ce counsel or exhortation It s true they are â—ot under the Law of Moses either the types â—ad shadows to be instructed to wait for Christ 〈◊〉 come nor under the precepts and injunctiâ—ns as ministred by Moses to be shut up under 〈◊〉 and curse much less to be left to seek to obâ—…in righteousness by endeavouring after them â—ot yet neither are they without Law to God â—…ey have a royal thoughtâ— not a rigid Law a Law â—f Liberty and Freedom of spirit to serve God â—hough not a Law of bondage under sin and death 〈◊〉 law of grace they have in them and the soveâ—…gnty and government of God over them they have the Spirit to guide them and the Law of the Spirit which is to be obeyed by them that which the Grace of God received by them requires again of them and leads them to both towards God and man Grace and Love from God as well teaching and obliging to duty as Mosaical precepts and indeed the believer hath no other Law but such as springs from Grace and leads to answer Grace The Law of Christ which is a Law of Love even of Gods Love in him and that 's a Royal Law indeed for it giveth first what it requires again of us It gives power and spirit for acting as well as puts an obligation and ingagement upon us so and so to act The Spirit writes it and prompts to walk as we receive to work out as he works in us and to yield up our members and powers to him that he may write in us and act forth by us his whole pleasure and confirm us to his minde and yet we are not to put a fancy upon his writing the Law in us as some do that strain their wits to shew how God writes all the Bible over in man the Books of Genesis Exodus Leviticus and so on the Creation of the world of heaven earth light firmament herbs plants fishes fowls beasts and man himself and so of the Paradise woman tempter c. which yet they cannot strain cleaverly to their purpose in all matters but are fain to catch at here there a picce as their wits serve them and let the rest alone This is to turn the Truth of God into a fancy and secretly to withdraw the heart from giving glory to God in the belief of the Truth of the sacred story But this writing the Law in man is his framing the heart unto his own Heart and Will putting into it heavenly principles and dispositions of love and holiness and whatsoever the Law requireth That denying ungodliness and wordly lusts we may live godly soberly and righteously in this present world Tit. 2.11,12 nor yet because God writes thus in man do they put too much upon man that exhort to these things for we may the better exhort to them because men have principles to act them no man would exhort a dead man to walk because he wants a principle to inable him but to living men such an exhortation is agrecable though it be God that makes themwalk or that hath printipled or inabled them thereunto no man would blow upon wood without fire put to
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
God made to rule day is but one and its the Sun and yet that light is after one manner in the body of the Sun and after another in the glorious ray and beam the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or shining forth of the Sun in another manner yet in the air illuminated by the beam from the body of the Sun and yet all these but one light not three lights yet that one light hath a threefold manner of subsisting the Sun is not one light and the ray or beam of the Sun another and the clearness or bright shining in the air illuminated through the beam a third but one day light or light of the Sun The Sun is the fountain and generateth or begetteth its â—ray or beam and worketh by it whatever it doth by way of illumination heating quickning c. yet is not the body of the Sun its ray or beam Again the ray is begotten and generated in a sort by the Sun and yet its cotemporary with it It evidences the Sun lives by its dependence on the Sun is in the Sun and the Sun in it after a sort so as that it doth nothing of it self without the Sun nor the Sun without it which comes down from the Sun and is not the body of the Sun nor subsists of it self without the Sun Again the clearness or light difâ—used into the air proceeds from the Sun the fountain of light by with in and through the ray or beam yet is it neither the body of the Sun nor its ray for it is and may be where the ray is not but is intercepted as to the proper substance of it as in a cloudy day or in a room where the Sun beam comes not and yet these cannot be divided one from the other for this clearness cannot be but from and by vertue of the ray and of the Sun So that if either of them were taken away and removed from the Horizon the luster or illumination in the air ceaseth and they cannot be but this is and follows too Here is an unity of light in a threefold way of subsistence by which we may darkly see into the glorious mysterie of Trinity in Unity which no similitude can fully illuminate the Father is as the fountain of the Deity and to the Son or Word as the body of the Sun to its beam not to be seperated from each other or divided so as the one can be without the other though the Father is first in order of nature he of whom are all things and doth all by and nothing without the Son or Word as the Sun doth nothing without its beam The Word or Son in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.2 The brightness or offâ— shining of the Fathers glory Lumen de lumine light shining for discovering and leading up to the fountain of light always with the Father and yet came down from the Father and doth all from him and yet is not the Father but the Son yea and forther as the beam of the Sun may be contracted and as it were so incorporated in a burning glass or the like so as the glass by vertue of the beam and the beam by the glass worketh otherwise then either glass or beam by themselves could have done and yet neither the light nor the body of the Sun is to be so contracted but only the beam so was it with the Son or Word he was imbodied or incarnate in the nature of man and the man Christ Jesus by vertue of the Word so contracted as it were or incorporated in him did such glorious things and got such a glorious conquest over sin death and hell as man of himself â—ould never otherwise have done or gotten nor was the Word in and by it self perfected for and yet neither the Father nor the holy Spirit was so incarnate or made man and yet further the Son had all his vertue in himself from the Father and in the Spirit without which he â—ould do nothing as the ray contracted derives all its vertue that it shews forth in and through the glass from the body of the Sun without which it could neither be nor do any thing The holy Spirit is the power vigor and divine verâ—…e proceeding from the Father that fountain of divine glory from and through the Word by which we have and enjoy the benefit of the Sun and its beam when both of them are otherwise interpreted and clouded out of our sight I mean the Father and the Son even in a day of temptation and spiritual hiding of himself in his more glorious shinings But these things I bring onely to shew that there may be such a thing evidenced even to reason and sense as a three-fold way of subsistence of the same created being that so we might not stumble at that which the Scripture hints to us so abundantly about the Trinity in the Unity of the divine Being Concerning which I needed not to have multiplyed so many words were it not that the old Serpent not abiding in the truth is so prevalent in blinding men and corrupting them from the unerring Oracles of Divine truth to listen rather to the shallowness of their own purblind reason For the Saints are not without experience in themselves did they well mind it of this distinction in the glorious workings and operations of God in and upon themselves in their believing they prove the Father calling them to himself by the Son in the power of his Spirit they have believed the love of the Father in sending forth his Son and in the word of his Gospel they have felt his power and Spirit drawing and inabling them to believe in Christ and to approach by and through him unto the Father according to that Eph. 2.18 We both that is Jew and Gentile have access through him to wit Christ by one Spirit unto the Father namely to call upon him trust in him and have fellowship with him Indeed they that depart from the Son they both lose the operations of his divine Spirit and fall from the right worship of the Father into Heathenism or such philosophical speculations of God and of his Being as were found with the ancient Heathens that had not the light of the Gospel to instruct them and no marvel then if they fall from or deny the mysterie of the Trinity as in the Apostolical doctrine is held forth with those divine operations that should evidence the truth thereof unto them But now to return again to the matter whereto I was exhorting viz. the doctrine of the Gospel to be held forth to men as it supposes the Being of God and he but one though thus distinguished so is it not only the bare affirming him to be but one or in that Unity so as before to be distinguished that 's to be delared but his Name according to that Unity and distinction the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost viz. how God
A CAVEAT TO All True Christians Against the spreadings of the Spirit of Antichrist and his subtile endeavours to draw men from JESUS CHRIST Propounded to them by J. Horn one of the unworthiest of Christs servants in his Gospel a Preacher thereof in South Lin Norfolk Together with some brief Directions for their orderly waâ—…ings Prov. 19.27 Cease my son to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge Prov 7.25,26,27 Let not thine heart decline to her ways go not astray in her paths For she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men have been slain by her Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death 1 John 2.24,25 Let that therefore which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you if that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you ye shall continue in the Father and in the Son And this is the promise which he promised us even eternal life London Printed by R.W. for T. Brewster and G. Moule and are to be sold at the three Bibles at the West-end of Pauls 1651. TO The Vertuous and Religious Gentlewomen M rs Jane Desborow wife to the Honorable Major General John Desborow M rs Alice Toll wife to the Right Worshipful Mr. Thomas Toll Esquire and M rs Judith Cook wife to the Right Worshipful Col. Thomas Cook of Bebmarsh in Essex Esquire Grace Mercy and Peace in Jesus Christ Much beloved in the Lord IT is the Councel of the Apostle John not to believe every spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God And sure there is now as much need of this counsel as ever because there are diversity of Spirits and Prophets gone out into the world and all pretend to God but all confess not that is magnifie not or lead not to exalt Jesus Christ come in the flesh but divers of them deny or undervalue that by which it is manifest that they are not of God to those that duly try them but that they are of that spirit of Antichrist of which we have heard that it should come into the world And truly though it be an heavy judgement of God to order such a spirit of error to enter into and amongst men and men to be possessed and acted by him yet if the matter be well and duly considered it will appear a just and righteous judgement and may afford us much matter of warning For wherein hath or could God have testified or commended his love more to the world then in giving forth his only begotten Son to be believed on and to that end to be delivered to death for our offences and become the propitiation for our sins and being raised again and glorified to hold forth in and through him unto us an immeasurable fulness of glory and salvation And what might God look for and challenge at our hands for so great goodness less then all possible thankfulness and most chearful ready receit of and submission to him but alas how contrary are the returns that he findeth from men What is there that is so little regarded and so much neglected as this his Son what so little received and fed upon by men Is not the preaching of the Cross of Christ become foolishness again not onely to the rude and prophane or to the Pharasaical that establish to themselves a righteousness of their own but which iâ— the most to be lamented to such as have tasted of his goodness and had him livelily set â—orth to them even many such have crucified â—im to themselves afresh and have not obeyed the truth so far as to cleave with stedfast purpose of heart unto him Many that have received the â—tdings of Christs Death and Resurrection for them as sometimes the Israelites the Manna with joy and admiration have with them also after a while grown weary thereof as if it was a light bread and their souls have loathed him and lusted after some other thing to feed upon that might more puff them up in themselves and give more sensual satisfaction And alas how few are there who are not more or less tainted with this infection as if there was not an enoughness in Christ his Death Sacrifice and Mediation for them to feed upon Now what more just with God then that his so great love being so abrogated and so nothing set by should turn to jealousie and that he revenge the injury done unto his Son and to himself with the heat of indignation by sending to them as to the Israelites for their offence fiery Serpents Numb 21. spirits of error and of delusion that because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved but had pleasure in their unrighteousness in disesteeming so great a witness of love and not in the truth therefore the efficacie of error should infatuate them and carry them headlong into destruction the abuse and contempt of greatest love deserving to be revenged with the severest condemnation But alas where the spirit of Error hath gotten rooting how many are there so strongly giddified therewith that they make but a mock of these things and think there is no other hell but what here befals them throwing up the whole Christian Faith by the very foundation A piteous and much to be bewailed mischief which cals for not onely our best endeavours by Prayers and Supplications and faithful Instruction to prevent its spreading but might also challenge in many the Magistrates inspection that as of late they have worthily made an Act to prevent and punish Blasphemy against God so they might endeavour to stop the over-free spreading of Blasphemy against Christ by the like provision But for that it s our business to pray God rightly to direct them and that none of them that should discountenance such evil be either tainted therewith themselves or so far destitute of that spiritual Eye-salve as not to have thereof a right discerning As for your parts Worthy Friends I hope you have received so much of that holy Unction as hath helped you to understand the wiles of Satan so that I may say to you as the Apostle in 1 Joh. 2.21 I write not to you because ye know not the Truth but because ye know it and that no lie is of the Truth both blessing God that he doth keep you in so evil a day and praying for you that yet ye may be filled with the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding and so more abundantly anointed with that spiritual Eye-salve that ye may be further able to discern things that differ and so be kept for even And indeed I know no better thing that I can wish for you then that for where that is not I know not what else can preserve men For Satan coming not in his own colours but disguised as an Angel of Light not as an enemy but as of old the Serpent as a friend that will shew the way to a more happy and glorious
condition it s an easie thing to be circumvented by him such high expressions such glorious speeches such enticing and swelling words though full of vanity to a spiritual discerning because they have not the bread of Life the foundation of our hope in them with whom are they not taking The consideration of which having pressed me forward to the writing and publishing of this small Treatise in which though I be but weak I have endeavoured according as by Covenant I am bound for the rooting out of Error and heresie in my place and calling though not primely upon that consideration to prevent the spreading of this grand infection that though I have little hopes of reducing those that are corrupted yet I might be a means to stablish some that are wavering and prevent their falling I have chosen as to the Saints in general so to you in particular to Dedicate and present it out of that respect I bear to you and the good that 's in you and sense of obligation upon me toward you Desirng God ever to guide and preserve you And you yet to account me Ladies Your Servant in the Gospel JOHN HORN Lin Novemb. 2. 1650. To the Congregation of the first born yet warring on earth whose names are written in heaven and particularly to those of them that I minister unto at Lin c. grace mercy and peace from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Lord. Brethren YOu cannot but know that the Church of God is in Scripture resembled to a natural body wherein are many members united to each other and to one head and by one Spirit growing up in exact unity now as in the natural body there may be many infirmities and many things are liable to offend and hurt it so also is it in this mystical sometimes it may be subject to distempers by nauseous crude undigested humours the want of thorow closing with and drinking in divine truths or the drinking in untruths may occasion a surfeit and aversation from truth sometimes flatuous and windy humours of pride high-mindedness and lying spirits getting into some of its members may distemper it sometimes feavourish heats of violent headiness instead of wel-tempered zeal for God and godliness may inflame it and sometimes the cold aguish or palsie humours of deadness in benummedness to Spiritual motions in its tendency to its spiritual and supream end may so seize upon it as much to impair its strength and to appearance bring it nigh to death But God whose Temple it is hath provided for it against such distempers and dangers both meat and medicine to feed and cure it As Christ himself is the prime and great tree of life in whom the word is so united to the humanity that the humanity was ever in all times of Winter blasts and Sommer droughts refreshed and upheld thereby and made glorious fruitful and his fruits are good and prosperous fit to feed and his Leaves full of vertue to heal the Nations So is every one that through grace is brought to believe in Christ and gathered up into unity with Christ and lives upon the word of Christ Psal 1.3 as a tree planted by the waters side Jer. 17.7,8 Even one of those trees of life that grow upon the banks of that great river of the knowledge of God in Christ that proceeds from out his sanctuary and runs from beside the Altar or sacrifice of Christ and under the threshold the Gospel and its Ordinances holding forth Christ Ezek. 47.1.2.12 whose fruit is for meat and its leaf for medicine The lips of the righteous feed many and their fruit is as a tree of life Prov. 10,21 and 11.30 the doctrine they receive from Christ is a wholsome doctrine 1 Tim. 6 3.4 and full of healing by which they are more and more rooted into and united with Christ till they all grow up into such a close and full union with him that the many trees on the banks of that river Rev. 22.2 be made perfectly but one on both sides of that river Eph. 4.13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith and acknowledgement of the Son of God unto a perfect man Now I knowing that in this body there are at present as at other times not only many inward weaknesses but also many things from without indangering it yea that many parts of it are sorely laid open to infections from divers that seem to be of it or converse with it though I be less then the least of all Saints yet according to the measure of the gift of Christ given me I have endeavoured to administer that that I have from the head which may make for its strength and nourishment yea and to hold forth such of his Leaves supplied to me by his good hand as may either prevent or cure the infections feared desiring that we may all so press after further knowledge of and growth in Christ as that yet we may be kept from imbracing false Christs and from being snared by the poison of those false Prophets who instead of hastening mens growth up into Christ which they pretend do secretly and subtilely corrupt men from the simplicity that is in Christ as if a man by stretching of a twig to make it grow longer should pull and sever it from the body of the tree upon which it groweth As for the mind to be without knowledge is not good so he that hasteth with his feet sinneth Prov 19.2 I desire that what I present to you in love and for your good may be taken in good part and soberly considered by you and that what you see to suit with and proceed from that good spirit of God that is but one and the same in all ages and gives unity to the body in all its memberly differences may be received and held fast by you and if in any thing you see either further or better then I impart of your measure also to me that we may grow up together by that which every joynt supplieth all holding fast and not letting go the head from whence we receive the right and true spirit that will give us to increase So shall our feet abide within the gates of Jerusalem and the Lord himself shall dwell amongst us shall judge rule and teach us and in his teaching we shall not be vainly puft up with a carnal mind like those bodies that are puft up with unwholsome humours but grow solidly fat and well-liking and shew that he is gratious and that there is no deceit or unrighteousness in him To him and the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance I commit you with my self being The meanest of your Brethren and companions in the way of Salvation J. HORN The Contents Chap. 1. A Description of real Saints Pag. 1 Sect. 1. Who are not such ibid. 2. Who are p. 7 Chap. 2. Of the estate of Saints p. 11 Sect. 1. More generally their
profess them Rom. 1.18 2 Cor. 6.1 Some hold the truth in unrighteousness and receive good doctrines in vain because not deep enough into the heart or because not singly so as to be acted by them Not every one that saith unto Christ Lord Lord shall inherit the Kingdom c. Matth. 7.21 of the same judgement or opinion many times some may be Saints in light others devils and walk in darkness Joh. 6.70 Christ hath Chaff and Wheate in the same floore of profession a Judas that was a Professor and Teacher of the same Doctrine with the other Apostles 4. They are not the sons of Hagar born of the bond woman Gal. 4.22,23,24 c. not every one that hath a zeal of God for some have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge Rom. 10.2 are zealously affected in a wrong way and think themselves to be knowing people too as the Pharisees that took it in great scorn that they should be accounted blind and unknowing Joh. 9.40 It s not every one then in whom much knowledge in their own and others apprehensions with much zeal and strictness for Ordinances Worship Religions Actions and Practises meet together that is a Saint of God The old Pharisees had all this according to the Church State then openly owned and judged true and right and yet not Saints but Hypocrites whited walls and painted Sepulchres There are that have been trained up in religious duties from their youth or that having been prophane and loose and meeting with the Doctrine of the Law consisting of Precepts Promises Prohibitions and Threatnings have been convinced of their wayes that they were sinful and tended to destruction and so for fear of hell and out of a desire to be saved have reformed their courses and conversations let go evil company and practises and set upon zealous and religious performances yea and perhaps espying some defects in the way of worship they have walked in have left society in such a way and put themselves into a purer as they have perceived and attaining to something in these ways do from their betterness of way walking from others judge themselves alive to God and call themselves the Saints and holy ones apply to themselves all the promises in Christ who yet are deceived herein the bottom of all this being not Grace or Love from God apprehended by them and springing up life in them but their own convictions sorrows changes reformations and alterations from the Law of God or the Precepts and promises of the Gospel in a Law way understood and minded is the ground of their hope though yet they will as also did the Pharisee Luke 18.10,11 put all these their convictions and conversion upon the grace of God and thank God for it Now these in as much as their Conversion and Religion is the product of a Doctrine of Works the Covenant given in Sinai answering to the bond maid Hagar and inasmuch as from their changes so wrought their hope is sprung up and their conclusion of Saintship is made they must indure the sentence that the Scripture gave upon the son of the Bondwoman Cast out the Bond-woman and her son for the son of the Bond-woman shall not inherit with the Free-woman and her son Gal. 4.30 As Hagar was to have been a servant to Abraham and Sarah but not for the generation of children so also did God appoint the Law for convincement of sin till the Seed came but not to beget sons to God or such Changes and Reformations as should be the ground for their judging themselves Saints and confident expectation of the Kingdom They then that are of the works of the Law Gal. 3.10 that hold by the title and lay claim upon that ground to Saintship be their knowledge never so much their zeal never great their profession never so accurate according to the Rule as pertaining to the appearance of their works yea be they of what name or profession so ever they are all under the curse and are to be separated from this Saintship and those to whom it is to be applied Saints they may perhaps judge themselves and be judged by others but none of Gods Saints they are according to the prime sense of the Word nor shall they be owned by him for such but judged theeves and robbers that have climbed over the wall and stokâ— the priviledges and pasture of Christs sheep unto themselves which shall therefore be taken from them Joh. 10. To all such of what society or profession soever is that to be applied to that was spoken to Nicodemus Joh. 3.3.5 They must be boâ—… of water and Spirit or else they cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God but have their portion with unbelievers 5. It s not every one that hath been in Trance or seen Visions and Apparitions of Glory and excellent things though from God himself for such was Balaam and yet no Saint 〈◊〉 God but a false Prophet Numb 24.4 Or thâ—… hath power to work some miracles or cast oâ— a devil Matth. 10.1.4 for so had Judas anâ— those in Matth. 7.22 Some such also may henâ— be discharged and yet it s to be feared that many of those that in these times call themselves Saints have no better foundation then one or other or at most all of these last forementioned false grounds in whom is fulfilled what in former times the true Churches of Christ met with they are such as say they are Jews men interested in the Covenant of God and of Christ but are not but do lye and are many of them of the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 2. Take heed my friends that none of you that read these things lean upon so weak foundations as that you are of such or such an opinion either really or in your apprehension right that you are are zealous reformed of such a Church or Congregation having all Christs Ordinances purely have had such visions of glorious things concerning Gods Church and people c. thence concluding your selves to be Saints But I shall come to the Discription of a Saint affirmatively Sect. 2. Who are Saints A Saint hath his name from Sanctification Now to sanctifie is to separate or set apart from common and prophane to holy use from being a mans own and for himself to be Gods and for God which in reall Saints is done by God and according to his Will Heb. 10.10 And God doth it by his Spirit and in the Name of his Son who hath fore-offered up himself to God for men 1 Cor. 6.9.11 The Spirit of God in the Word or Name of Christ preached or unfoulded to them discovering the Grace or good will of God towards men in the Gift Death and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ and thereby killing and crucifying them to the flesh all fleshly birth parts wisdom righteousness goodness affections and lusts of their own and in drawing them to Christ to believe in him and his bloud and so to communicate with
his Sacrifice sanctifieth men and makes them Saints or holy unto God it being the anointed one Christ himself that is their sanctification by being in him they become separared from the world and are made Gods lot part and portion a people holy to him Saints then are a people created in Christ Jesus or begotten and born to God in the Knowledge and faith of his Son by the power of the Spirit a people born of the Promise of God or word of Promise that is the Gospel concerning Christ raised from the dead and the salvation that is in him Gal. 4.24,25 Acts 13.32.33.1 Pet. 1.3 and 3.31 The manifestation of God his Mind Love Grace and Goodness therein being that water in the Word flowing from beside the Altar of God of which it behooves that men be born through the power of the Spirit working therein or else they cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Ezeck 4.7 That 's the Free-woman the Jerusalem that is above the mother of us all by this a man drawn to Christ quickened up and devoted to God in him is made a Saint of God So that in this Saintship there are these two things to be minded 1. That God in the word of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ and his Death Resurrection and Mediation hath shined in his love to the soul and thereby hath begot and in some measure quickned up a man to a lively hope a hope in God and that founded upon nothing of his own nor any fruit of the Law in him whether sorrow humiliation reformation legall conversion work indeavour frame or vertue found in him but only the grace and love of God as manifested in Christ Christ dead for him and risen for him and glorified of God for and to him received into his heart by faith is there become the hope of glory to him the sight or belief of Christ crucified for him drew him in to beleeve not his conceited act or fruits of beleeving made him judge Christ crucified for him 2. That the love and grace in Christ thus apprehended by him and giving him hope changes him into the likeness of Christ principles him God-ward puts a law of love into his heart and carries him after God and so devotes him unto God to Christ to be his and for his praise So that in a Saint of God there is neither a hope bottomed upon his changing and endeavors nor yet a dead hope without a change but a change and renovation springing from his hope and that hope from grace discovered in God by Jesus Christ in the power of the spirit he hath his life in love and lives to the God of Love And every such soul as from the grace of God in Christ is quickened up to hope in God and in that hope given up to be God's Christ's whatever difference may be found otherwise in the flesh or in some opinions not essentiall to the faith is a Saint of God whether for the Scripture makes this difference 1. Children weak and as it were but embrio's Christ not yet formed in them Gal. 4.19 their apprehensions of Gods love in his Son but weak and small and so their hope and faith but little and weak wavering staggering not as yet setled and confirmed and made strong in Christ who therefore are to be tendred and more warily walked toward and as it were nursed up with wholesome words like milk and not roughly dealt with lest they be broken and lest by any abuse of our liberties or any other way they be scandalized and offended or 2. Young men such as are strong and have overcome the wicked one have endured temptations and have the word of God somewhat setled and abiding in them and therefore ablet to bear and not so soon stumbled nor in so great danger of miscarrying or 3. Farhers men well grown and long experienced and so more usefull for begetting and training up others in the knowledge of Christ 1 Joh. 2.14.15 And to all such as thus by the word of the Gospel and the grace or love of God therein discovered to them in the Death and resurrection of Christ have been emptied of themselves and their filthy confidences and rejoycings and are begot to hope in God and framed to the love and likeness of God in some beginnings or in further growth do I bend my following words with the severall counsels and instructions therein given CHAP. II. Sect. 1. Of the estate of the Saints ANd first of all I desire you to minde the state in which you are which admits of diverse distinct considerations For a Saint is in a measure proportioned to Christ and there is a great deal of likenes between them though also mixed with much unlikeness Christ had a twofold nature and discent each of which had its distinct properties of God and of man the Son of God and the Son of man according to the flesh and according to the Spirit according to the flesh of the seed of David according to the Spirit the Son of God and so declared to be with power in the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.2.3 According to the flesh the Jews knew whence he was and stumbled at him according to the Spirit they knew him not whence he was nor did acknowledge him according to the flesh he was put to Death and died according to the Spirit or in the power thereof he was raised again He was a man a man anointed of God with the holy Ghost and power So is every reall Saint or Christian he is to be considered as a man and as a Saint as of Adam as in Christ of God according to the humane nature that he hath by generation in the flesh and according to the divine nature which he partakes of in the Spirit He is neither all flesh nor all Spirit but hath something of both though yet neither in the same way had Christ his flesh as he hath neither hath he the Spirit in the same immeasurable fulness as Christ had so that in that regard there is also disproportion between them the very flesh or body of Christ was so of God that it was not by immeditate humane generation and he was so the Son of God in the Spirit that he also was and is God and all the fulness of gifts and grace was and is in him not so the Saint he hath his flesh by humane generation as other men and he hath a measure of the gift of Christ in one way or other but no one hath all nor can communicate to others as Christ can The man Jesus Christ was the Son of God by union with the word so are the Saints but not in the same manner there the word was made flesh and the person so made is yet called the word here the word is united to the soul by faith yet so as it s not made to be flesh or man nor the person in whom it is is made the word there he was the
the same spirit and inward principle with them yea they depart that they might be manifest that they were not of them Yea some of understanding may fall too to try the rest and to purge them yea of the Princes of the Congregation and renowned of the Assembly some are sometimes perverted not having had the Word mixed in their heartâ— with Faith nor living upon the Word but upon sensible feelings and experiments as many such the Rebels of the Israelites had had Such are in likelihood then to be discovered that they being purged out by some way or other they that live by Faith and are sound in the Word might be approved the more and the less by such indangered Besides That all is not gold that glisters in the Saints even they whose hearts are right and bottomed on the VVord have flesh mixing it self with Spirit and polluting the things of their spirits even their faith hope confidence love c. all in which that proceeds from and is generated by the flesh is but flesh all that that springeth not from the VVord and Spirit and is not of the infusion and operation of the Spirit is but flesh and amongst a great heap of Oat there is many times much dross in a great deal of joy and peace and faith appearing there is much flesh Now God orders temptations to his that the fire thereof might purifie them that that which is flesh might be purged out and that that is good and spiritual might be the more approved and shine the brighter be made the more solid and compacted and better able to endure after-encounters Yea herein also he gives them the larger experiences of his power and faithfulness and makes them instruments of his greater glory and fitter for the receit of their inheritance Thence that of James Chap. 1. Vers 2 3. My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience and let patience have its perfect work that ye may be entire and wanting in no good thing And that in 1 Pet. 1.7,8 That the trial of your faith much more pretious then that of gold may be found to praise honor and glory at the appearance of Christ Jesus Let us not therefore beloved think strange of any fiery tryal whether of fiery persecutions from men or of fiery darts of temptations from Satan that comes to try us as if some strange thing had hapned to us 1 Pet. 4.12 It s Gods way with all his pretious mettals with all his Saints he brings them not into his Treasury before he have tried them and purified them he gathers not his Corn into his Granary till he hath fanned it Indeed the proper Son of God Christ Jesus had noâ— dross in him but he was tryed and tempted for our incouragement while we know that wâ— have a merciful high Priest for us that hath broken the power of the adversary in his personal incounters and was in all things tempted as we except that he had no sin and so is meet to succour us in our temptations for him and to give us victory over them Heb. 2.17,18 and 4.15.16 Yea he was tempted that it might be manifest that there was no dross in him and that he might shew us the way of overcomming but if He was tempted that needed not any trial or purgation as pertaining to himself and if all the Saints have used to pass through temptation and God hath good ends in it sure then it behoves us to be circumspect and expect it prepare and arm our selves against it watching and praying that we not fall into it Matt. 26.41 The rather considering what an adversary we have to incounter with Satan that is full of diligence and malicious vigâ—lancy to harm us of whom and whose subtilty and wily industry I shall shall say a little to you Sect. 2. Of Satan and his subtilty SAtan is the more perilous adversary to us because of his extream subtilty force and vigilancy the two former from the nobleness of his first created being which by how much the more high spirituall it was by so much the wiâ—keder it is become being fallen for wickedness is never so dangerous as when it meets with power and knowledge to improve it his vigilancy to harm us proceeds from his degeneration and inward wickedness and hatred against God and us His subtilty is noted in his name of Serpent and by those phrases that tell us of his wiles and methods as his malice in that he is called the old red Dragon full of wrathfull poyson his strength by the name of Lion and his diligence to improve all these against us in that he is said to go about like a roaring Lyon as if he should say like as a Lyon hungry and roaring after his prey useth all diligence to catch it so this grand adversary of the Saints goes about compassing the earth and prying into all occasions dispositions and wayes for opportunities to do them mischief He seekes and he walkes about seeking whom he may devour making it his business and trying all one by one as it were sifting men as wheat is sifted in a seive if he cannot catch this man he will try another and if not this way then another there is his eager and violent diligence in this his mischievous way and of his subtilty to try all wayes and conclusions and to winde us in and ensnare us there is no room to doubt seeing as we said before he is a Spirit and so hath the more insight into us bodies can discern but bodies with their animal senses but Spirits especially when not impeded with bodies can pierce deeper and see something far into dispositions and Spirits Men of a subtile Spirit can discern much into others tempers and dispositions how much more Satan that is a Spirit and can come nearer to our Spirits he can discern very much of mens dispositions and suit his temptations unto them He is an Artist in his way and can lay a long train of temptations so deeply and politickly that none can espy him scarcely If he see men not wholly taken off of the world but that the flesh with its affections and appetites after carnall objects are somewhat stirring in them he can find out wayes enough to enslave them if God permit him yea and so he catcheth many in his snares inveigling them to give themselves to seek after the promotions ease liberty applause and pleasures of the world and so by degrees he deads them to or withdraws them from the mark of the price of the high calling of God and he can tell how to put on notable visions and pretences as of necessity betterness and more fitness to serve and glorifie God more advantage to the word and way of God many such fine devices to circumvent men so as they suspect little harm in what he leads their Spirits out to till they see themselves in
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
hath been the same is now and what shall be now hath been and God will require that which is driven away Their mistake and abuse of which is easily discerned if we hold fast to the testimony of the holy Ghost in other places which contradict their inferences from it and if we also minde the scope of the Preacher whereabout he speaketh viz. that his speech is about the vanity and vexation of spirit that is in accrues to men from worldly natural things and actions things sub sole under the Sun or under the Government of it and then his meaning is plain that there is a constant tenor in the nature of natural things at all times the same species and properties in those species not the same individuals except they will affirm that they themselves have been men and women born nursed up and lived in the world in times past even in Solomons time or in the beginning of the world as well as now and if so I would they would call to mind what they saw done then and help to perfect the History of the world but that 's evidently false David and Solomon are not now living under the Sun but the same kinds of things there are men now as then and sin and vanity in them now as then trees and plants c. and the same common affections of creatures now as then the same weakness vanity wickedness and vexatiousness now as before and in that regard there is nothing new no alteration of the nature of things under the Sun in their natural actions and conditions But this is horribly besides the business of Solomons discourse to say the earth upon which the trees and plants now grow is as well void and without form now as it was in the first day of its creation and yet more to say Christ hath come no otherwise in the flesh then he did in Solomons time nor suffered otherwise then there he had done or that there shall be no other rising from the dead then was then or visible coming of Christ in Glory and to Judgement and indeed these are things super solem above the ordering of the Sun Beside neither says he there shall be no new thing but he speaks in the present time in which he lived there is no new thing The Prophet Jeremy that lived after him says The Lord will create a new thing in the earth a woman shall compass a man Jer. 31.22 and sure that was in its time a new thing that a Virgin conceived and brought forth without knowledge of any man yea God hath said that He will make all things new and therefore its evident that their enlarging of the Scripture beyond its scope and expression is very false and gross yea that they are of the number of those men that Peter speaks of The mockers that should say Where is the promise of his coming that is in effect He shall never come again for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue in like state Yea yet further we may retort this Scripture upon themselves as to their denial of the glorious coming of Christ and his raising up the dead bodies of men departed that being rather here affirmed for if that that is shall be and God requires that that is past or driven away then that body of theirs that is shall be and that Christ that was on the earth shall be again and though their bodies that are dead and are as it were driven away yet God will require them again and judge them for what is past and what men have violently thrust or driven away But this is a safe Rule for thee to go by that no Scripture is rightly interpreted when it s interpreted point blank contradictory to the sayings of other Scriptures about those things whereunto they are interpreted Like to their abuses of these and other places is that that they quote Col. 2.20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ to the rudiments of the world why then as living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances to shew that they are above the Ordinances of God and need not regard them whereas the Apostle after explains himself to speak of the Ordinances or Documents of the world for he adds according to the Commandments and Documents of men and that they have a shew of wisdom in wil-worship and not of the Ordinances of God which who so is not subject to is not subject unto God by whom and whose authority they are appointed yea the Apostle himself commends that very people for their Order as well as for their stedfastness in faith ver 5. and exhorts them to admonish one another and that in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and to continue in prayer and thanksgiving Chap. 3.16 and 4.2 c. which are Ordinances of God and therefore sure he cannot rightly be understood in the other place to tax them for being subject to them nay if that was a fault in them then should they not be subject to the Apostles teaching and admonition they being also Ordinances of Gods appointing 1 Tim. 2.7 And to give but one instance more They in like manner some of them abuse that saying in Col. 1.28 Christ in you the hope of glory the meaning whereof is this that Christ as he was made of a woman and made under the Law and as he died rose ascended is glorified and appears in the presence of God for us eyed minded believed on and understood is that that springs up in the believing soul hope of future glory whereas other men either have no hope of glory or have their hope in other things the believers hope is in and from Christ as he hath done such great things for him and is made of God such a Saviour to him that I say as it s known believed and minded begets and maintains that hope in him In which regard also viz. as he is in his Knowledge Faith Love c. he is said to be in him as also in regard of his Spirit or Divine Vertue and Power in and through that knowledge and faith working in him But this I say some abuse to this end to perswade men that Christ is no otherwise existent but in the hearts of men hath no real spiritual glorified body in the heavens which is a meer strained and erroneous collection for if that were so he should be rather the fruition of glory in them then the hope of it onely for the fruition of glory is in the believers having Christ really and personally existent with him 1 Thes 4.17 And surely when Christ shall descend from heaven and take up the dead Saints being first raised to be ever with him he shall not descend or come out of his peoples hearts and leave them in regard of his nhabitation of them nor needed Stephen so stedfastly to have looked up into heaven to have seen him in his heart Acts 7.55 nor would there have been any such
sufficient to contain all those bodies in These are the shallow objections of vain brains that think God can do nothing that they cannot reach to in their reasonings against which for your defence against them let me say but with Paul Why should it seem a thing incredible to you that God should raise the dead Acts 26.8 Another way in which they lift up their understandings to deny this truth is by inventing and devising how to turn all the Scriptures that speak of the Resurrection to a more spiritual sense namely to speak of the Resurrection of the Spirit with Christ or as they understand from some sad or corrupt frames to Joy and Love and Light and I know not what they please to talk of whence many of them say they have here attained the Resurrection it s now made in his life and they have experimented it all that is to be injoyed But this error as it cannot consist with many places treating of the Resurrection as when it s said There shall be a Resurrection both of just and unjust Acts 24.15 and those who are affirmed to be risen with Christ in their spirits are yet minded of a further Resurrection yea even those who are now dead while they were putting to death by their cruel persecutors and refused deliverance in expectation of a better Resurrection Heb. 11.45 so the Apostle Paul hath directly noted in Hymeneus and Philetus as an error destructive to the Faith of many 2 Tim. 2.17,18 So that we cannot without open and manifest discarding and revolting from the Doctrine of Christ delivered to us by him intertain or imbrace such an evil conception Press on therefore my Brethren in minding the Love of God in delivering of his Son to Death for our offences and raising him again for our Justification so to experiment his Divine Power and Spirit quickning up your spirits to him to hope in and depend on him and to live to him as that you may therein prove a conformity to him in Resurrection in Spirit here and be filled with a lively hope of the Redemption of your bodies too from the bondage of corruption in the Resurrection of them hereafter and let not the faith thereof go for then you wil also â—…corrupted from the hope of the reward that 's â—omised and is then to be received the time of â—…unerating the services of our faith and love â—…e towards God and his Name being at the â—…e of the justs Resurrection Luke 14.14 and 〈◊〉 ye be corrupted there you will also grow â—…less and negligent in those services yea and â—…ll into all licentiousness Know that what ever evil and mischief may â—…e befall you in your bodies for the Name of Christ and however you may and must yield up â—bodily death yet he that raised up Jesus our â—…nd will also raise us up and bring us with him 〈◊〉 Cor. 4.14 If we abide in the Faith of him â—oted and stablished and be not perverted â—…om the Gospel and the hope of it that hath â—een preached therein to us and if this Knowâ—dge abide in you and the hope thereof be â—inded by you it will make you that you shall â—ot be barren and unfruitful but to be stedfast â—nd to abound in the Work of the Lord knowâ—ng that your labour shall not be in vain in the â—ord Sect. 5. Of Heaven and Glory BUt now to say what that great Reward and Glory is and shall be is above my ability is not yet manifest what we shall be but a great reward in heaven it is an heavenly not 〈◊〉 earthly reward a reward of and from God noâ— of and by men not worldly The new Jerusalem or the glory of God coming down from heaven upon men and taking men up into heaven where now also they that are Saints indeed and walk as such have their conversation What heaven is I shall not curiously inquire Its that place and state where Christ in his Humanity is for as its the subject of bodies I caâ—… and account it a place though as of the Spirit more properly its a State as when it s said Thâ— Christ is gone into heaven it s therein signified both that his body or humanity was taken up from the earth above the visible heavens where also he is contained and from whence also he shall again descend and be met by the Saints in the air as also that he is there in a glorious state of Soveraignty Power Majesty Fulness far above all creature earthy glories yea and faâ— above all heavenly creatures glory out of which glory he shall not descend at his coming for he shall come in it but from that place of his body he shall I know Mr. Collier makes heaven to be God onely and Glory but as in some other things so in that he slipt not a little into errors for in God he was while he was on the earth Knowest thou not that the Father is in me and I am in the Fatheâ—r saith he to Philip Joh. 14. while he was not yet ascended Neither had there needed any visible translocation or change of place for going up into heaven if it had been â—…ely to be in God nor doth that phrase far above all heavens signifie far above all gods but far above all these aery starry visible heavens To say nothing that Mr. Collier handsomly slips â—ver the speaking to the heaven that Christ aâ—…ended to and which is to contain him and â—…ys not one word to that Text in his Answer 〈◊〉 if he knew not how to elude it But to pass from that I grant that heaven doth not onely signifie place but also a state of glory or of diâ—…e spiritual influence operation government and advancement and this we are specially to â—…nd in it and look after and not spend our thoughts vainly or curiously about inquiring of 〈◊〉 as a place meerly as I might also say of hell â—…ough the bodies and substances of men condemned shall be in place yet the condition of â—o and torment is in that word rather pointed 〈◊〉 in which such shall be and as in a taste or first fruits as it were may now be But to return to what I was saying about heaven and the glory thereof while we are withdrawn in our hearts from base and earthy walkings designs affections c. and are in our hearts aâ—…ed by the Word that was revealed by and comes unto us from God and by the Spirit of God and of Christ the heavenly one and are minding and looking after the priviledges and excellencies thereby witnessed and led to we are said to converse in heaven and so we read of an army warring in heaven Rev. 19. which is nothing else but the Saints of God in the heavenly and divine Power and Spirit in which spiritually they live and breath making opposition against Satan and his instruments and so in like manner the high surpassing pure spiritual consolations streamings forth and abiding rivers of
it thinking by his blowing to make it burn because there wants a principle but when fire is put to it the blast of the Bellows is and may be profitable so is it here As the Apostle John in giving instructions says to the Churches I write not these things to you because ye know not the truth but because ye know it and that no lye is of the Truth 1 Joh. 2.21 So I may say I give the following with the foregoing exhortations to you not because ye have no ability to discern of them or principles to lead you to them but because ye have because the Spirit of God hath begun to write his Law within you Object But what need for man to exhort when God himself works and writes hiâ— mind Answ I answer man therefore exhorts because God works for he works in one to exhort another and he writes by Exhortations oâ— Declarations made by men to one another foâ— God is in his people of a truth 1 Cor. 14.25 Epheâ— 4.6 In all the Saints and through all thâ— Saints In every of them working inlightning supporting gifting them and through them all speaking and acting through his gifts given tâ—… one to and in another so as that the body make an increase to it self in love through the Spirit divine power and working of God that dwell therein though the Saints are Christs Epistlâ— written by the Spirit or Finger of God yet that Spirit is ministred by the Saints that is in the exercise of their divive gifts to one another Ministred by us written by God 2 Cor 3.2.3 Wâ— are as the Pens with which God writes upon the heart though the Spirit of God is the hand that guides us and his Word and divine gifts the inke that fills us and makes us capable of leaving Characters and Impressions upon one another in our Ministrations we can indeed minister thiâ— writing no further then that hand of the Spirit uses and impowers us and that divine Ink fills us but so far we may therefore let no man despisâ— Prophecying 1 Thes 5.20 or slight Exhortation presuming that God immediately without the ministrations of his gifts in and by others will do all in him God hath not dispenced all his fulness to any one member except the Head but to all together in union with the Head that through each he might supply other Therefore let no one member swell against and despise other much less God in his brother nor let him that is to administer as particularly that exhorteth be negligent therein as if his administration or exhortation could add nothing to his brother or as if his brother had no need thereof Rom. 12.8 for God is in and with his divine gifts and administrations and as God in me may make his operations through me profitable to my brother so doth my brother need that addition of helpfulness from God that be tendreth him by me both because he is not full of himself without me and therefore cannot say He hath no need of me 1 Cor. 12.21 and also because he hath a principle in him that resisteth and fighteth against that of God that worketh in himself and that principle so strong and subtile and he so apt to yield to it that he needs anaddition of watchfulness and helpfulness from God through others as though the fire be apt and fit to set the wood put to it on a flame yet if there be much moisture in the wood to damp the fire the fire will need help from the blast of the Bellows to strengthen and excite it against that moisture or an increase of fire to be put to it that the strength of it multiplied may operate more strongly Saints are not all Spirit though in a degree they be spiritual they have a law in their members as well as in their minds a law of sin opposing grace as well a law of grace opposing sin Now the law of sin is more natural to them and is much excited and stirred up by many outward occasions sollicitations provocations examples threats c. from without so that ostentimes the Saints listen to it rather then to the Law of Grace in them therefore also an addition of spiritual Grace by and through the communication of the gifts and measure of grace given to other Saints is needful that spirit in its forces uniting it self together in the Saints as well as the flesh unites its forces together that it may be able to resist and overcome it the charmings of the flesh backed with its outward objects motives and provocations are often ready to lull the soul asleep and make it deaf to the teachings of Grace and then the operations in and through a waking Brother may be of use by way of Doctrine Admonition Exhortation and Councel to awaken it and make it give better attention to the whisperings of Grace within it self though the Apostle told the Philippians that God wrought in them to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 yet he neither ceased to exhort them nor intimates that its needless for them to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling but indeed upon that ground exhorts them thereunto It s God that works in you to will and to do of his good pleasure O stand in aw then fear to smother those â—nward operations of grace within you fear to grieve and resist him yield you up your members â—n that strength of his that worketh in you to â—ffect finish or work out what he there workâ—th you to nor is it for any to say God is Almighty and if he works in us we will take no are we cannot fail to work out his workings â—re Almighty and cannot be resisted and frustrated for though in himself he be Almighty and can and often doth work so almightily that â—one can or shall resist him yet his way of working in the soul in the excitings and moveings of his Grace are neither always nor ordinaâ—ly in that Almighty way He is Almighty that works but he works not always so Almightily as that his workings may not be resisted He is Almighty in all his works it s his Almighty power that effecteth them the very growing of the corn or grass is the Product of his Almighty power but yet he doth not work so almightily therein but that man by substracting or removing some secondary cause or instrumental medium through which that power is put forth may usually hinder the growing of this or that particular grass or corn as by drying up and hindring the moisture from it or inclosing it from the Air and heat of the Sun c. and yet man is not therefore stronger then God for God could maugre all that man can do make it grow but he dispenses his Power usually according to the capacity of the medium through which and subject unto which he conveys it and he doth not usually alter the course of his ordinary way to shew
turn preachers of the Law to them in stead of the Gospel to bring them to some such fruits as legal repentance sorrow reformation and upon such things found in them as what else but fruits of Law and a legal conscience can be produced by them before the grace and love of God be held forth to them as testified in Christ toward them they are bold to apply the Gospel to them as if they were the undoubted signs of Election for so much is intimately implyed by comparing this their practise with their other Assertions of the Grace of God and Death of Christ limited to the Election from which practise of their legal preaching it comes to pass that some working and striving for this and that frame and attaining to some legal qualifications or workings with the Pharisee presume that they are righteous and have part in Christ and bless God as if his Grace had wrought those frames in them when as his Grace that is his love and goodwill in Christ they never apprehended or believed nor was that the ground and rise of those frames and changes in them but onely is inferred and concluded to themselves upon those frames by them Others spend their dayes in sadness and in labouring as the Israelies under their Egyptian Task-masters to get to themselves those frames which onely the belief of Gods Grace would kindly effect in them falling short of what they seek in themselves to build their title to the Gospel Doctrine of the Death of Christ upon they pine away in a servile slavery and are alwayes neer unto desperation unless mercy otherwise breaking forth unto them seasonably relieve them Take heed therefore of this preposterous preaching of Election and Reprobation to the world and limiting the Gospel and death of Christ to the Election which no Scripture doth and declare that to the world that Christ hath instructed us that his servants are to declare to them viz. tell them of the feast prepared in Christ forgiveness with him his death for them all things ready for their entertainment God willing that they be saved and Christ perfected for their saving and thereupon invite all and call upon them to go to the wedding to believe and submit unto him And where it pleases God to work so powerfully as to prevaile with some so as that they are perswaded to let go all for him to receive him believe in him and cleave unto him we may comfortably mind them of the doctrine of Election as the Apostles have used to apply it to believers minding them it was Gods goodness and free mercy and grace to them that they are preserved or plucked out from the same unbelief wickedness that is found with others or not given over for their follies against him when as many others perhaps as little or less rebellious have been more severely dealt with by him and that in Christ in whom they believe they are made compleat being by Gods order from before the foundation of the world chosen in him to be holy that is a peculiar devoted portion for God and blameless in love before him and when we see men neglect and slight the goodness of God propounded we may tell them how God rejected such and such for their folly against him and warn them lest for the like follies the same should befall them as Jer. 6 30. and 7.4,5 yea when we see men resting in their birth works priviledges c. we may well mind men that God hath not chosen the flesh and seed thereof as such to inherit with him not Adam and his seed as such nor Abraham and his seed as in the flesh nor the Law and its seed but Christ and his seed or members to inherit glory with him the rest otherwise then as they may be born again and become the seed of God in Christ are rejected from part and portion in his kingdom not from Gods good will toward them and the death of Christ for them for that was for sinners ungodly enemies yea as considered in such an evil condition but from fellowship with God c inheriting with Christ which none shall partake of that abide but in that state of nature yea though advantaged by more honourable birth or more zealous frame in which Christ extended his pitty to them in dying for them that so they may be pressed to let all go for Christ in whom there is both sure and certain ground for their repenting and believing and out of whom there is nothing to be found but perishing Now if ye do thus walking answerably thereto not measuring the outward court Rev. 11.1,2 given to the Gentiles as if we appropriated it to our selves onely but worshiping God in his Temple in fellowship with Christ and his people that are in union with him and at his Altar or in the sacrifice and meditation of Christ labouring both by word and conversation to bring up the Gentiles from their Gentilism and resting in the outward Court of external profession to the circumcision of the Spirit and worship of God in the same in the inward man and in his Temple and Altar as before Then shall ye find his blessing upon you making you a blessing to them and filling you with his own spiritual blessings in grace and peace till he bring you safely to the full injoyment of the glorious promises Even so Amen FINIS Postscript ONe word more I would commend to you viz. That of our Saviour Iohn 6.56,57 He that eats my flesh drinks my bloud abides in me and I in him c. a most excellent and choice direction for our preservation from the errors here in the Treatise mentioned and from all other that may indanger our miscarrying Would we abide in Christ that is in his faith Spirit lowe Iohn 15.10 and so in the experiment and injoyment of the fruits and vertues of his mediation for us and would we have him abide in us as surely he will if we abide in him that is have his love Spirit and divine power abide in our spirits making us fruitful and filling us with divine and eternal life and by consequence would we be preserved from the errour of the wicked and from drawing unto perdition This is the choice and most sure and excellent way to eat the flesh of Christ the flesh given by him for the life of the world ver 51. and drink his bloud the bloud of the covenant shed for the remission of our sins that is to mind view diligently look upon consider meditate on and keep in believing remembrance the abasement of the Son of God for us his obedience and sufferings in the flesh to the death the death of the Cross for us the satisfaction given by him for our sins the victory obtained over death the pretiousness of the bloud and sacrifice of Christ the peace thereby made redemption obtained the prevalency of it with God for us the covenant and promises thereby sealed the performance whereof he mediates in the vertue of it to his called c. and verily we shall be preserved we shall prove it the power of God to save us Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 15.1,2,3 1 Iohn 2.24,25 Heb. 3.1.6.14 Gal. 2.20 Search these Scriptures and see how they fitly explicate the business live we then by the faith of Jesus and forget we not the stripes by which he heals us But alas as many taste not the sweetness of this heavenly Manna but abide ignorant of the Cross of Christ feeding and living upon their actings sorrows good desires confusions performances changes zeal self-acted and conceited believing as indeed I know not how many should do otherwise because the Testimony of God holding forth the Death of Christ for all which should let them see good and undeniable ground for minding it and feeding upon it forsaking all other things for it is by the guids generally denied and condemned as an error so as they durst not believe it and therefore they having no divine evidence in the Word of God that Christ died for them they are put upon it to reason it out by their acts and changes fore-mentioned and to make them the evidences to themselves of it so as they must needs be the bottom matter of their feeding and consolation so many do but taste it abide not there to eat of it Heb. 6.4,5 but after they have found some sweetness in it fall a lusting after evil things counting this heavenly food but a dry bread and so they either feed upon their past acts of believing their rejoycing the operations of it in them which are often soon dried up for want of supply from this Fountain Christ crucified or else they reach after some more seemingly glorious matter of their feeding as is before spoken to Chap. 3. Sect 4. and so forget that they were purged from their old sins or the means rather of their purging the true bread that should have nourished them and either turn to the world and their corruptions again or are carried away with some strong delusion to their ruine from which the eating or feeding upon the flesh and bloud of Christ those despised low things in the eyes of proud men would have preserved them Note also that when in some passages I fault men for hearing any whom they will my meaning is not that I would have men tied up to this or that man as if it were unlawful to go from any to another or to hear any for trial-sake or the like but my meaning is that men are faulty in having an itching ear that when they have found Truth yet they will be out of curiosity or self-confidence diving into and trying what good they can get in some other doctrines Such an hearing of them as our Saviour says his sheep will not afford to strangers from him Iohn 10. FINIS