signes of his comming 1. The preaching of the Gospel through the whole World Mat. 24. 13. 2. The revealing of Antichrist 2. Thes. 2. 3. 3. A general departing of men from the faith 2. Thes. 2. 3 4. Corruption of manners Men shall be lovers of themselves Covetous boasters proud Blasphemers c. 2. Tim. 3. 2. 5. Great calamities Mat. 24. 6. 6. Deadness of heart Luke 21. 26. 7. The calling of the Jews Rom. 11. 25 26. 8. The sign of the Son of Man Mat. 24. 30. The manner of his comming with power and great glory Mat. 24. 30. with all his holy Angels Mat. 25. 31. With the voice of the Arch-angel and the Trumpet 1. Thes. 4. 16. Mat. 25. 31. He shews what he shall do He shall separate the Sheep from the Goats c. He shall say come yee blessed go ye cursed c. Then the consequent The Sheep shall go into everlasting life and the Goates into everlasting Torment Besides he commanded his Disciples to preach this doctrine Acts 10. 40 41 42. Now what can be set down more plain more punctually so that we may say boldly with the Apostles Now speakest thou plainly and speakest no Parable Iohn 16. 29. Let not therefore the scoffing Athiest say Where is the promise of his comming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation Nor let any Apostata ask in derision what his Throne is made of or seek to know the particular time of his comming For our God shall come and will not keep silence devouring fire shall go before his face and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him Then shall be execute judgement apon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Jude 15. Psal. 50. The next thing observable that I meet with is your quoting that in the 3. of the Colossians Verse 1. If you be risen with Christ seek the things which are above c. Of which words the sense may be first considered and then what force the consequence may be to the purpose The things above are primarily the joyes of Heaven 1 Cor. 2. 9. secondarily the gifts and graces of Gods spirit as faith love sanctitie according to that of Iames 1. 17. every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and commeth down from the father of lights c. which gifts do far exceed the things below and are the way to bring us to the Kingdome of Heaven Non est via ad Regnum sine primitiis Regni The Apostle gives several reasons to move us thus to seek The first is because we are risen with Christ sacramentally in Baptisme Col. 2. 13. being buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him and really by the inward working of the spirit of God which had raised them up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness Titus 3. 5. Secondly because Christ sits at the right hand of God And therefore where our treasure is there should our hearts be also Mat. 6. 21. Thirdly because Christ should come to judgement When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. by life here is understood eternal life 1. Iohn 5. 11. also according to that in Heb. 5. 9. he is called our life because he is the Author of our everlasting life Fourthly because he bestows this life Luke 12. 32. But when may it be asked doth he bestow all this At his appearance Christ appears three wayes First corporally God was manifest in the flesh 1. Tim. 3. 16. Secondly spiritually when he makes himself manifest to the eyes of our souls by the preaching of his word Gal. 3. 1. Lastly when he manifesteth himself in glory and commeth to judge the World Phil. 3. 20 21. Let our conversation be in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Iesus Christ Rom. 2. 16. Not that we shall have other bodies but the same Iob sayes in my flesh shall I see God I shall see him for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another Iob 19. 26 27. But they shall have new qualities 1. Cor. 15. 52 53 54. And now how doth that text of Col. 3. 1. serve for your purpose The truth is you could not have brought any place that did more strongly confute your Heresie It seems plainly you do not understand the Scriptures I shall adde something before I proceed concerning the Allegories which indeed are not Allegories but fancies by which you overthrow as much as in you lies the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures the Articles of sound faith and the foundation of true Religion You say The Scriptures are an Allegorie and to prove it you quote Gal. 3. 24. meaning the 4. 24. Which words are These things are an Allegory that is Abraham having two sons one by a bond maid the other by a free-woman it pleased God to signifie by these two the two Covenants Now these being an Allegorie doth it prove that all the Scriptures are an Allegorie What is the History of the creation of the World The History of the Kings The History of the Acts of the Apostles And of our Redemption by Christ If you make such Allegories you will leave nothing sound in the Word of God The Holy Ghost doth not set down the principles of our Religion such as are Christs ascension and his comming to judgement Allegorically but plainly so that he that runs may read them and he that reads may understand them And I doubt not but that it will appear to all that are not wilfully blind that your Book is not truth triumphing against the enemies and aspersers thereof but falshood aspersing truth and the defenders of it which by Gods assistance I have wiped away and howsoever truth may for a time be clouded yet it will break through the thick mists of errour and Heresie for The truth is great and will prevail The end of the first two disputations CHAP. VII In this Chapter you go about to overthrow the Resurrection of the body Although you say I do grant the Resurrection of the body and do not denie it though you say I do And again you say there were some then as well as now that think the Apostle meant carnally the rising again of the same body of flesh and bones Also you say speaking of the Resurrection of the dead Page 34. line 21. this Resurrection is to be within you and you are to know it while you
work of Regeneration is wrought in them they do not appear to be of God but of the Divel To the first part of this assertion I shall only oppose that of Rom. 9. 6 7 8. for they are not all Israel which are of Israel neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called that is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God c. To the latter part wherein you do most falsely affirm that all shall be regenerated I shall only ask when Cain Judas or Julian were regenerated or when those that are in prison 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. which contemned the preaching of Noah were regenerated I did think to end concerning this Chapter but that looking back to the middle of this Chapter I finde such a kinde of judgement that was never heard of before You say I do not denie the comming of Christ to render vengeance to whom it belongs for vengeance is mine faith the Lord and I will repay therefore some hath it now and he is come and doth come and will come to take vengeance on all that know him not and is of the Divel in me you and every man else By which if you mean the conversion of a sinner as it seems you do by your instance of the example of St. Paul Acts 9. that cannot be rightly called a judgement but is indeed a great mercy that the Lord should convert such a sinner that was going to Antioch to persecute the church If you mean the judgement of an evil conscience which accuses men for sin I do confess it is a very great judgement a very Hell upon earth and though it be begun here in this life it doth not follow that it shall not continue hereafter for our Saviour tells us Their Worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched Mark 9. 46. which shall be fulfilled after the great and general day of judgment then they shall be cast into Heâ—l fire If you mean a temporal judgement such as was inflicted on Egypt Sodome or on the old world it makes not for you but against you for from those judgements St. Peter proves the great and general day of judgement as you may read 2 Pet. 2. Verse 4 5 6 7 8. But pray what shall we make of this expression and is of the Divel if we leave out the Parenthesis that Paragraph is abominable non-sense if it be taken in we must desire your own exposition for we can expound it no otherwise then literally as it lies that the Divel is in you and hath set you to work as all that read your Book may safely judge CHAP. XI in this Chapter you maintain that all both Jews and Gentiles shall be saved Contrary to the very words of Christ Luke 13. 23 24. Then said one unto him Lord are there few that shall be saved and he said unto them strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able c. to the 31. Verse wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat and strait is the Gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that finde it Mat. 7. 13 14. The number of fools is infinite but those that are truly wise are but a few a little flock Luke 12. 32. Christendome is the least part of the World and those that truly profess Christ are the least part of Christendome and of those many are called few chosen You may remember you are told in Scripture of the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Woman and of the continual enmitie between them from whence proceeds that war that is between the Dragon and his Angels and Michael and his Angels Rev. 12. 7. but for this you have invented a weak and contemptible shift saying or at least insinuating that by the seed of the Serpent is meant sin When it is as apparent as the sight at Noon-day that by the seed of the Serpent is meant Satan and the wicked for in what sense the seed of the Woman is understood in the same sence is understood the seed of the Serpent but the seed of the Woman is understood literally first and principally for Christ the head of the Church and then for all that are his * members and therefore the seed of the Serpent is understood literally First for the * Dragon and also for his Angels and Instruments as Persecutors Hereticks and all profane and ungodly persons that live in sin without Repentance who are therefore called the seed of the Divel Iohn 8. 44. You are of your father the Divel and the works of your father you will do Further to confirm this your errour as you would have your followers believe you alledge several places of Scripture to prove that the benefit of Christs death belongs to all as in your former Chapter the places are Rom. 11 32. 1 Tim. 2. 4. Io. 3. 17. But all this as I said before is under a condition of faith that men do believe and applie it unto themselves by the hand of a true and a lively faith to this purpose is that of Rom. 1. 16. Gal. 3. 22. Iohn 3. 16. Acts 10. 43 and surely there is a generalitie of them that believe as there is of the whole world and if they believe not they have not the benefit of Christs death He that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. and Iohn 3. 16. as those that were stung with the brazen Serpent and afterwards looked upon it were healed so those that looked not upon it died of their wounds Among those places of Scripture which you name to prove this errour you alledge Rom. 8. 33. but the words are falsified and the sense perverted by you You write the words thus And it is God that justifies sinners the words are Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifies Here you leave out Gods elect whom the words only concern and put in sinners a word that is not in the place and whereas the Apostle speaks of Gods elect you extend it to sinners to all and so pervert the meaning of the spirit of God By what hath been already said it appeareth plainly that all shall not be saved but from generals we will come to particulars and first not all the Jews neither shall all the Gentiles Not all the Jews Though the number of Israel be as the sand of the Sea yet a Remnant shall be saved Rom. 9. 27. which words are taken out of Isa. 10. 20 21. they were spoken of the destruction of Israel by Senacherib when Ierusalem only escaped of all the land or else of the destruction of the people by Nebuchadnezzar when most of the people were destroyed and a remnant carried away
veritie of the general judgement at the last day which is written with a beam of the Sun and with the very finger of God if you be not past all shame be ashamed of your damnable doctrine whereby you endeavour to overthrow as you are truly told by Mr. Head the very fundamentals of Christian Religion CHAP. XIII The practise of Magistrates and Ministers discovered how they one uphold another to serve not the Lord but themselves The Magistrates and Ministers do not denie that they defend one the other and in so doing they fulfil their dutie serve the Lord and discharge a good conscience For they are the two hands by which the Lord doth govern his people and as one hand ought to help and assist the other so ought the Magistrate and Minister to strengthen and defend one another Thou leadest thy people like Sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron Psal. 77. 20. who was it that led his people God wherewith By the hands of whom Of Moses and Aaron what were they The Prince and the Priest the Magistrate and the Minister That these were ordained by God to assist each other you may read Exod. 4. 14 15 16. and how they did assist each other you may finde in Exod. 7. and Numb. 16. when Jannes and Iambres withstood Moses Aaron lends him his Rod and when Corah Dathan and Abiram that cursed crue rose against Aaron crying out as such as you do by us ye take too much upon you ye sons of Levi all the Lords people are holy Moses lends him his hand as you may read in Numb. 16. Both Magistrates and Ministers are the Lords Shepherds under Christ the great Shepherd of our souls and both must joyn together in defending the flock from the teeth of the Wolf and from the Claws of other ravenous beasts that seek to devour them the Ministers with the sword of the spirit and the Magistrate with the sword of Justice for the first read Tit. 3. 10. Ephe. 4. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. for the second read Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. and Deut. 13. It is a great curse to have evil Magistrates or evil Ministers and yet it is a far greater to have none at all for then every man teacheth what he will 2 Chron. 15. 3 4 5. every man doth what he will Micah sets up Idolatry and consecrates a Priest Iudges 17. the poor Levite hath his Concubin ravished and Dan goes a robbing Iudg. 18. Those that under colour of Christian libertie go about to take away Ecclesiastical and Civil Government abuse the Scriptures and as much as in them lies endeavour to destroy both Church and state for the libertie which the Scripture speaks of in Gal. 5. 1. is a liberty from the Ceremonial Law from the power and dominion of sin from the rigor and curse of the Law and a liberty in good things not an Exemption from Ecclesiastical and civil Government as is apparent in Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Heb. 13. 17. Those therefore that resist the powers resist the ordinance of God and shall receive to themselves Damnation Also they endeavour to overthrow the Christian State ubi nullus Gubernator corruit Populus Prov. 11. 14. as a ship without a Pilot so a people without a Governour and Counsel must and will fall and excellent is that prayer of Moses Num. 27. 16 Let the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation which may go out and in before them that the Congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd You say let the people judge who thy are that cause divisions we also say the like and that the Apostle in that place of Rom. 16. 17 18. tells them who they are They that teach Doctrine contrary to that which they had been taught Now I pray who do so you that overthrow the Articles of our faith in that sense they are delivered received and beleeved by all the Christian Churches in the World or we that defend them you that by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 18. or we who tell them the truth that if they live and die in their sins in following after unrighteousnesse and disobeying the truth The Lord in flaming fire shall take vengeance on them for they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord c. read 2 Thes. 1. 8 9. Rom. 2. 9 10. You that speak evill of Dignities and despise Dominions Iud. 8. or we that defend them T is you build up Babel with blood and raise the foundation of Sion you cannot be said to build up Sion in that you cause the people to err by crying peace when there is no peace that all mankinde Iew and Gentile shall be saved contrary to the very words of Christ Matth. 25. 46. 2. That a Regenerate man cannot sin contrary to St. Paul Rom. 7. 23 24 25. Who shall deliver me from this body of death Me he speaks of himself 3. That there is redemption out of hell and that hell paines shall have an end contrary to the words of Christ Mark 9. 44. Their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched 4. That good works are not needfull to salvation When the Scripture saith without holinesse no man shall see God Heb. Heb. 12. 14. You charge us with preaching for hire saying You the Priests divine for mony c. which page is full of such reproaches and slanders For we preach to convert souls to God to build up the Church of Christ and as for our Tithes which you call uor hire we take them as our inheritance setled upon us by the Laws of God and the Laws of the land Who have thought fit that he that serves at the altar should live by the altar according to that 1 Cor. 9. from the first to the 15. verse It is your self and such as you are that preach for Reward that live by gifts and bribes wherfore you devise false Doctrines such as will please foolish corrupt Mens fancies that put hony in the Sacrifice instead of salt and sow Pillows under mens Elbows that they may sleep at ease in sin that tell the wicked they shall live though God hath said they shall surely die except they repent that strengthen the hands of evil doers that they should not return You I say run without sending Ier. 23. 21. I have not sent these Prophets yet they ran that bring in damnable Heresies and preach aliud Evangelium another Gospel Gal. 1. 6 7. not that there was another Gospel then that which Paul taught but because there was like yours an invention of their own braines Good reason therefore have the ministers to warn the peopel to beware of you and the Magistrates to shut you up that you sow not your damnable doctrines among the people that they follow not your pernicious wayes by
which you blasphemously and impudently stand to deny Your words are Therefore the Words of Christ are not to be understood carnally but spiritually And again you say concerning his comming to judgement I do believe he is come and comming daily and doth set up his Throne in the hearts of his people c. And thus by your foolish figures and spiritual as you pretend senceless sences you pervert the Scriptures meaning and to your power overthrow two Articles of our faith both necessarie to Salvation First therefore I will shew the veritie of Christs Ascension and that it is to be understood literally and not figuratively and then confute your cavils First for the truth of his Ascension we have the Testimonies of the Evangelists Mark 16. 19. So then after the Lord had spoken to them he was received up into Heaven and sat on the right hand of God Luke 24. 51. And it came to pass while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into Heaven The Testimony of Angels Acts 1. 9. St. Luke sets downs the circumstances and the manner of his Ascension The time 40. dayes after his Resurrection Acts 1. 3. The place from whence Mount Olivet near Bethany Luke 24. 50. Acts 1. 12. The manner first He led them out as far as to Bethany and blessed them Luke 24. 50. He went apart from them Verse 51. Thirdly a cloud did over-shadow him Acts 1. 9. The Testimony of the whole Church of God who make it an Article of their faith And this was not another body but the same body which he had before as the Angels testifie Acts 1. 19. This same Jesus whom you have seen go into Heaven c. this same Jesus not another not a Phantastical body but his true body Iohn 20. 27. Then said he to Thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing Revelation 1. 7. They shall see him whom they have pierced Here you see is a whole cloud of witnesses the Testimony of the Apostles of Angels and the spirit of God How is your forehead steel'd that you dare out-face a truth as apparent as the Sun at Noon-day But you except against the Testimony of the Apostles and say they had not received the holy Ghost but were carnal before you Blasphemed Christ now the Apostles for there is a Blasphemie against man also Naboth was falsely charged to have blasphemed God and the King Did not our Saviour breath upon them saying unto them receive the Holy Ghost Iohn 20. 22. though they had not recived him in that manner and measure as they did upon the day of Pentecost yet it doth not follow they had not received him before You say moreover that they were carnal If you mean totally carnal 't is as false as the other for our Saviour gives this Testimony of them that they had followed him in the Kingdome of Regeneration and should sit upon 12. Thrones c. when he should sit upon his Throne of glory Luke 22. 29 30. what can be more plain to prove that they had the Holy Ghost and were regenerated You told us you were a light you are rather a dark Lanthorn or such a light as those Doctors were which St. Paul speaks of 1. Tim. 1. 7. they took upon them to teach the Law not knowing what they taught nor whereof they affirm'd Again you object out of Luke 1. 35. and Ephes. 4. 5 9 10. He that ascended is the same that descended and we do not read of a body of flesh and bones that descended But Sir we read that the second Person in the Trinity descended so low as to take upon him our nature Gal. 4. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman and Heb. 2. 14 16. for asmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood He also himself likewise took part of the same so he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Et quod semel assumsit nunquam amisit And he remains a Priest for ever Heb. 5. 6. Then when he had perfected the work of our Redemption he ascended up into Heaven sat down at the right hand of God to make intercession for us Now who doth this He that died or rather he that is risen from the dead and who was that Christ Christ is risen and what is Christ God and Man in one Person read Rom. 8. 34. Instance The second Person descended as he was God ascended God and Man therefore he that ascended was not the same that descended You erre not knowing the Scriptures For though the second Person descended and took our nature upon him yet it was without the confusion of natures or transfusion of essential properties though he was made that he was not God and Man in one Person yet he remained that he was before perfect God And therefore he that ascended was the same that descended The Apostle cryes out Great is the mysterie of godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World and received up into glory Next follows the Blasphemous Inference if Christ be at Gods right hand in a body of flesh and bones why then this is to make God to be a body of flesh and bones also and such a one as your self confin'd to a local place Which doth not follow for the Godhead was united unto the Humane Nature without any confusion of natures or transfusion of essential properties The Word was made flesh not by turning the Word into flesh but by taking the Humanitie into the Deitie Which the Antients thus exprest Sum quod eram neceram quod sum nunc dicar utrumque And therefore for a man to say in concreto that Christ hath a body of flesh and bones is true but to say that God hath a body of flesh and bones in abstracto or that God is confined to a place is horrible Blasphemy for which you were seasonably taken off by Captain Harrison The next thing to be considered is the comming of Christ to judgement which Pillar of our faith you endeavour to pull down by turning all into an Allegorie and so overthrow the true sense of the Scriptures You say but I do believe he is come and comming dayly and likewise you say in the foregoing Page all this I know and see to be now he is upon his Throne and hath all nations before him and ever had First I will prove the veritie of this Article and then confute your errours The veritie of Christs comming to judgement is confirmed by these places of Scripture Rev. 20. 10. I beheld a white Throne and him that sat thereon from whose face Heaven and earth fled away I saw the dead both great and small stand before God and the Books were opened The
But to help the matter you make it a thing of indifferency And say I deny it none whose tender conscience doth desire it using that of St. Paul spoken of things indifferent 1 Cor. 9. 22. When it is a thing so far from being indifferent and so necessary that the wilful neglect and contempt thereof is a damnable sin Iohn 15. 22. Gen. 17. 14. yet I doubt not upon deep repentance God will forgive it Read Bern. Epist. 77. The next thing to be taken notice of is that you return to your former Vomit which you cast up in the 14th Chapter and which you again lick up in the second Article towards the end of your Book You say God will destroy mans sins and iniquities but not man And to make people believe this you run through a great many passages of Scripture as if they made for you when in truth they and the whole current of the Word of God are against it I will recite a few amongst many Psal. 5. 6. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing and the Lord abhors both the bloody and deceitful man not the lies and deceits of men only but them that speak lies and work deceit such as your self without repentance which God of his mercy give you Psal. 11. 6 7. Vpon the ungodly he shall rain snares fire and Brimstone storms and tempests this shall be the portion of the wicked upon the ungodly the Psalmist sayes speaking of their persons not of sins Psal 9. 17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God wicked people and Nations not wickedness and national sins only And this is verified in the destruction of the old world 1 Pet. 3. 20. In Corah and his company Num. 16. 33. In Iudas the son of Perdition Iohn 17. 12. who is said to go to his place Acts 1. 25. whither all ungodly men shall go without repentance in the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men 2 Pet. 3. 7. he doth not say in the day of perdition of their sins but of themselves Read Iude Verse 15. 2 Thes. 1. 7 8 9. many more places I could adde to the same purpose but that you have done it to my hand as that in Psal. 21. 8 9. Thine hand shall finde out all thine enemies thy right hand shall finde out those that hate thee thou shalt make them as a fiery Oven in the time of thine anger the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devoure them Where it is manifest the Prophet speaks of Persons not of sins of substances not of accidents that do adhere to subjects as for your idle shift that he means the Bryars and thorns in them it is false God doth not consume the Bryars and Thorns as you call them in Impenitent sinners but punishes them and their Bryars and Thorns together and none shall quench them Isa. 1. 32. the soul that sinneth shall die Eze. 18. 20. The Lord will plead the cause of the poor and spoil the souls of those that spoiled them Pro. 22. 23. as for that place you alledge out of 1 Cor. 3. 15. it is expounded and fully answered before in my answer to your third Chapter Page 18. Again you object that of Iacob and Esau Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated a place so fully against you that were you not hardned it were sufficient to convert you They were the sons of Isaac by Rehecca Gen. 25. 26 27 28. where you may read the History at large of whom St. Paul says Rom. 9. 11 12. They being not yet born neither having done good or evil it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it is writtten Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated therefore he means not Esau's sins But here you fall to your old shift of Allegorizing the Scriptures but very unhandsomely that place of Obad. 17 18 21. quoted in your Margent Page 77. spoils your Allegory the words are these Vpen Mount Sion shall be deliverance and there shall be holiness and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions and the house of Iacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame and the house of Esau for Stubble and they shall kindle in them and devour them and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau for the Lord hath spoken it Here God threatens to destroy the house of Esau and to establish his Church the house of Jacob they should dwell in their possessions he would destroy Esau by the house of Iacob Iacob should be to them like a fire and they should be like stubble which was verify'd in Mac. 2. 10. You object Isa. 27. 4 9. Fury is not in me who would set the Briars and Thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together The sense of which words is this fury is not in me to destroy the Vineyard read the three Verses before but fury is in me to destroy the Adversaries of it though they set themselves in battel against me like Bryars and Thorns yet could I go through them and burn them together The purpose of the Prophet here is to foretel the destruction of Leviathan that crooked Serpent take it either for the Type or Antitype for the Assyrian or Satan and in that day shall the Church sing a song of Triumph Verse 2 3. Secondly verse 9. by this shall the iniquitie of Jacob be purged by what by their repentance whereof he sets down the fruits which should shew themselves in the reformation from Idolatrie when he should overthrow the Altars and Groves of their images Now what is all this to prove as you would have it the purging away of in iniquity form Esau from the wicked and reprobate 1. Here is a destruction of Satan and the wicked threatned 2 A song of Triumph for the execusion of Gods judgments 3. A promise to spare the house of Jacob because they repent And therefore your Allorizing is absurd and erroneous most repugnant to the meaning of the Prophet in this Chapter whose intention is to shew that God will destroy the wicked who are but as briers and thorns when they set themselves in battle against him he will break through them and consume them as fire doth wood Here that place in Isa. 6. 6 7. is also brought to garnish your errour and in this manner God caused a Seraphim with a coal from the Alter to touch the mouth of the Prophet to take his iniquity away whom he was about to send on his message and fit for his calling therefore God will purge lips and take away the iniquity of the reprobate and false Prophets A goodly conclusion is it not it seems plainly your lips have not been touched with such a coal that you utter such abominable falsities and so abuse the Scriptures You reach in Mal. 3.