Roof and highest part of the Lower-World These were made not onely for Beauty and Ornament but also for the benefit of the Lower Globe upon which by light and motion they have great power And as the order wherein they were placed and their motion in a certain Line according to a certain Rule which they always observe is excellent so the use and benefit of them is manifold and wonderful Between these and the Earth we have the Meteors which sometimes are Natural sometimes Supernatural and Prodigious The Heaven thus adorned the Glorious Creatour descends into the Water and thence produceth Fish to live spawn and swim in the Water and the Fowl to fly in the Firmament of Heaven and build and multiply upon the Earth Amongst the Watry-Creatures the Whales and Sea-Dragons are most eminent and terrible After all these finished He concludes his Creation with Beasts Cattle creeping things although animate yer irrational And last of all with Man a rational and noble Creature whose Creation requires a more particular and distinct consideration And this is the Genuine Order of Physicks or Natural Philosophie which should inform us not onely of Bodies but Spirits which have Nature and Being and Original of Being as well as other Creatures The Creation of Man § XIII is that whereby God according to his Image and likeness made Man of the Dust of the Earth breathing into his Nostrils the breath of life whereby he became a living soul and Woman of a Rib that they might have Dominion over the Sensitive Creatures and the Earth Gen. 1. 26 27 2. 7 22. Or more briefly It is that whereby he made man Male and Female according to his Image To know the Creation of man doth nearly and very much concern us not onely because we are men and also excellent Creatures but also because this knowledge gives much light unto the knowledge of this Kingdom and tends much to the glory of God and our eternal happiness He is the Abridgment of Heaven and Earth and is virtually the whole World and therefore styled the Micro-cosme or Little World His Body hath affinity with the Earth his Soul with Heaven and Angels Like those pretious stones which though Earth yet participate of Heaven He is the Horizon of Time and Eternity and dwells in the Confines of both as being contiguous both to the one and other He was stamped with the Image of God and was made capable of Heaven and Beatifical Communion with this Eternal King To understand his excellency the better we must consider his Parts and Perfections The Parts are two the Body and the Soul The Body was made of Dust and Dust of nothing at the first As there was a great distance betwixt Dust and nothing so there is between Dust and the Body if we look upon it but as a Carkass much more if we consider it as animated by the presence union and power of the Soul and most of all as glorified This distance between Dust and a Body is so great that nothing but the Hand of Heaven and the Art of the Almighty could make it so excellent a piece The Matter was base the Workmanship was excellent and will more gloriously appear when God who made it out of the Dust at first a Natural Body shall raise it again out of the Dust to make it a Spiritual Body The Perfections of the Body are these The Organs the orderly Composure of them and the Faculties For though it be but a Body and far inferiour to the Soul yet of all other Bodies it is most excellent as being a fit Habitation for the Immortal Soul as no other Body can be The Organs and Members are many their order composure and dependance one upon another excellent and curious the Faculties and Motions are wonderful They who know it best admire it most and know that the very Conception much more the Creation is a kind of Miracle It is not onely a fit Tabernacle for the Soul which was breath'd into it from Heaven but also a fit Instrument and Servant to perform the Works of Righteousness and Holiness jointly with the Soul as directed by it And as it concurs with the Soul to do good or evil so it shall partake with the Soul in rewards and punishments And no Body but this of man can be the Temple of the Holy Ghost and though it be corruptible and may die and by reason of sin is condemned to the Dust from whence it was taken yet this punishment lies upon it but for a time and as it is capable of Immortality so it shall be immortal and glorious upon the Resurrection Yet that which doth more ennoble § XIV and advance man is his reasonable and immortal Soul which is a Spiritual Substance and as a Spirit doth animate act and guide it being concreated and made with it and may and doth live when separated from it The Union of them is wonderful yet dissoluble and for Sin is dissolved It 's said God breathed in his Nostrils or his face the breath of life and man became a Living Soul What Expositors say upon the place I will not now report but onely observe 1. That these words speak of the Creation of the Soul yet especially as it did animate the Body 2. That it was not created first out of the Body and then put into it but created in it as it always is For God creates the Spirit in the midst of Man 3. That though God breathed it into Man yet it was no part nor particle of God's Essence but an effect of his power 4. That his Soul was reasonable and far more excellent then that of Beasts and therefore tearmed by the Chaldy-Paraphrast A speaking Soul for to speak is a proper effect of Reason 5. This Soul was created immediately and invisibly from God in an unspeakable manner as is signified by those words And God breathed in his face And in the face it doth most appear and manifest it self according to that saying Vultus est index Animi 6. By the Breathing it was united to the Body of which it might have kept possession for ever if Sin had not been a Cause of Dispossession Yet the second Union by the Resurrection when God shall breathe upon the Dust again shall be so firm as that it never shall be dissolved What this Soul of man is we do not perfectly know And it was well observed of Learned Vives that God gives us these Souls not so much to know their Essence as to use them Something vve know of them by Reason and Discourse something by Experience but most of all by the Holy Scriptures The Excellency thereof is clearly known by the Acts and Effects thereof it understands and freely wills The Understanding reacheth all things and in some manner and measure knoweth God and reacheth Eternity In this respect it 's said to be all things because it hath some affinity and cognation with all Objectes and a
as one And so far as God judged him one and made Adam the Head and Representative of all so far in Adam all men might be bound to obedience or penalty and so far judgments or rewards might be transmitted from him to all and no further And if God had not considered Adam and all his posterity as one person By one man sin could not have entred into the World and by sin Death so as to pass upon all men That this derivation was an act of judgment is evident from the Apostle because Sin and Death which is punishment presupposed a Law To impute sin and punish for sin and that with Death are Acts of Judgment and that according to a Law which was in force when Adam sinned and long before Moses Otherwise how could sin have reigned even over Adam and that from Adam to Moses and this by a Sentence of Judgment in force to this day according to a Law in force when Adam transgressed it For upon that transgression God condemned Adam and in him all Mankind In this respect the doubt how the Soul being made by God becomes corrupted is vain and that conceit that it is polluted by entrance into the body or from the body is false For 1. God in the Creation of the Soul of every individual person is to be considered as a Creatour and a Judge As a Creatour he makes a Soul and gives it Essence and all things necessary flowing from the Essence and appertaining to it As a Judge he denies that person as one with Adam sinning his sanctifying Spirit which Adam received for him and his and in him sinning was lost to him and his 2. It is evident that the Soul is not so much polluted by the body as the body by it and it from it self For there are many Spiritual sins as Pride Envie Malice and such like which are purely from the Soul and in the Soul as they are in Angels who have no bodies but are spirits And those sins which have their Rise from the sensitive appetite could not pollute the Soul except it were depraved in it self And the first sin began in the Soul as may easily be understood from Gen. 3. and was there compleatly moulded before Eve looked upon the forbidden fruit to covet it and desire it as a bodily food Yet whilest we discourse of the Derivation of Original Sin as it is a Deprivation and a depravation following thereupon because man falls under the power of Death yet we must consider that Adam's Posterity derive not onely that original corruption from him but many other evils together with their Being All the evils are reduced to Sin and Death We participate with him in some manner in the first sin and in him sinning we sin and in him being guilty we are guilty in him dying we die And by Death all Punishments God sentenced us to in him are understood not onely that which we call Original Sin but all Actual Sins virtually included in it and issuing purely from it by vertue of the first Desertion And here we may wonder at the severity of God's Judgment yet we must in no wise question the Justice and Equity thereof CHAP. XVI Of the Attributes of God manifested in this Judgment of Men and Angels THE last thing to be considered in this Judgment and Execution is the manifestation of the Attributes § I and perfections of God and of his Supream Power judicial as well as Legislative The Attributes manifested are these His Wisdom his Holiness his Power his Knowledge but principally his Justice and Mercy His Wisdom was wonderful in this particular in that he laid the Foundation of man's Eternal Life to be recovered again in sentencing the Devil to Eternal Death and in a wonderful way so that the Devil himself should be powerfully active to the ruine of his own Kingdom whilest he â—eeks to confirm and enlarge it His Holiness was evident in this that he spared not sin in his most noble Creatures punishing the Devils without mercy as first in the sin not sparing man made in his own Image though tempted to sin and in accursing the Serpent though an irrational Creature and but onely an Instrument abused All this signifies that he detests and abominates sin and being holy Himself requires holiness in Men and Angels made holy and if by sin they pollute themselves he casts them out of his presence His Power appeared in that he so presently and so fully executed his Sentence and makes it good to this day and none can hinder him His Knowledge is as exact for he evidently knew the sin of Men and Angels with the measure and circumstances thereof and proportions his Judgment accordingly But principally his Justice and Mercy shined forth in this judicial Proceeding § II First his Justice must be considered The Justice of God is Legislative or judicial Legislative Justice determines man's duty and binds him unto the performance thereof and also defines the rewards and punishments which shall be due upon the Creatures obedience or disobedience His judicial Justice which is called distributive is that whereby he renders unto the intellectual Creatures according to their Works This is remunerative or vindictive For taking cognizance of their cause he rewards the obedient and punisheth the disobedient The justice manifested in this judgment was punitive and vindictive and it did appear in that 1. He spared not sinners much less rewarded them 2. He punished none but sinners and such as did concur in this sin 3. He punished onely for sin and not out of any absolute and arbitrary power Therefore God said to the Serpent Because thou hast done this therefore thus and thus shalt thou be punished The Woman suffered and is condemned because she hearkened and gave consent to the Serpents temptation The man is judged to death because he had hearkened to the voyce of his wiâ—e 4. The punishments determined and executed did not exceed the measure of their sin 5. The Devil sinned most and therefore his punishment is the greatest and no ways mitigated or allayed by mercy The Woman and Man sinned being tempted and their sin was less and it was allayed by mercy yet the womans sin was greater then Adam's though less then the Devils For she was first in the transgression and brought man into the snare being instrumental to the Devil and therefore she was adjudged to two punishments to which man was not liable This Justice is not an Attribute but the exercise and manifestation of an Attribute as here it 's taken It 's called Anger Wrath Fury Rage Jealousie Indignation as the sin is more or less heinous and he more or less displeased It 's called Revenge in that it renders the evil of punishment for the evil of sin It 's Judgment because he proceeds according to Law upon the evident knowledge of the violation of the same It 's punishment as God inflicts it and the Creatures suffer it The principal
Circumincession the nearest Union that can be with any distinction in the World In the Natures § VI we must consider 1. The number 2. The union 3. The distinction of them The Natures are two 1. Divine 2. Humane The Divine is He was the Word The Humane as He was Flesh. For if He was that Word which was in the beginning with God and was God so that all things were created and upholden by Him He must needs be God as the Father is God yet not the Father yet one God with the Father If He be Flesh He must needs be Man As God and the Word He is Eternal as Flesh and Man He is not Eternal That Jesus Christ was Man and that such a man there was both Jews and Mahumetans confess Yet Orthodox Christians onely acknowledge him to be God and that according to the Scriptures which in these great Mysteries are the onely infallible Rule And in them we do not read that ever the Word assumed the Nature of any irrational Creature nor of any of the Intellectual but the Nature of Man For he took not on him the Angels or the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16 For the Children being partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil For 1. He redeemed not Angels 2. He redeemed Men. 3. He redeemed them Onely 4. He redeemed them by Death 5. Because the Word as the Word could not dye therefore the Word was made Flesh that he might dye This seemed good unto the Divine Wisdom and this was determined in the secret Counsel of the Eternal Deity The Union of these two Natures is personal § VII The Person and one Nature was Divine The other Nature was Humane This Union was by assumption the Person assuming was the Word the Nature assumed was that of Man This Assumption was begun in Conception consummate in Birth As His Birth was both mean on Earth and glorious from Heaven so his Conception was wonderful For He was so conceived that He had a Mother and the same a Virgin in her Conception yet he had no immediate Father who begot him and because his Mother was descended from David and Abraham therefore in respect of his Humane Nature he was the Son of David the Son of Abraham according to Divine Prediction and Promise and the Seed of the Woman in a special manner Concerning this Conception we are informed That the Virgin Mary after she was espoused and before she and Joseph came together was found with child of the Holy Ghost and to satisfie him an Angel was sent from Heaven to signifie unto him that that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost and that according to a Prophesie Behold a Virgin shall conceive Math. 1. 18 20 22. And we read in another Evangelist that an Angel answered to this Blessed Virgin demanding how she should conceive such a Son seeing she was a Virgin and knew no man That the Holy Ghost should come upon her and the power of the Highest should over-shadow her therefore that Holy Thing which should be born other should be called the Son of God Luke 1. 34 35. So that this Conception was singular extraordinary and supernatural and no ways to be paralleâ—d And there was a two-fold end why it pleased God to have him thus conceived 1. That he should be holy 2. That he should be called the Son of God And certainly these two things followed upon it 1. He was holy and so free from Original Corruption either as considered in it self or as a punishment for the first sin For this Originall Sin was prevented 1. By the Sanctification of the Spirit 2. By this extraordinary Propagation For two things concur to this Native Corruption 1. That the man be in Adam as sinning and so sentenced for sin 2. And also descend from him by naturall propagation But neither of these did agree to him For though he was the Son of Adam and the seed of the Woman yet he was not in Adam sinning nor the Son of Adam in that manner as all other men were 2. He was called the Son of God not onely because he was conceived in a divine manner by the Holy Ghost but also as the Word was the Son of God and had that relation to his Father so this Nature assumed being personally one with this Word must have the same relation to the father too This incarnation of the Word and Son of God is a great mystery That Jesus Christ is the Word and not only flesh and not onely the Word but the Word made flesh is plain and expresse Scripture But the manner of this union is unsearchable And we must simply believe what is plain that it is so not curiously enquire how it is for that 's above our capacity Aquinas contra Gentes endeavours to exemplify this by the union of the Soul and body As the body is the instrument of the Soul and supposeth an universall reason or intellect which assumes and unites it self to the nature of man so as to use it as a Proper instrument as the hand is to the body and by the same worketh divine works proper to God and that not sometimes transiently but after the manner of a constant and permanent Act. This is the Sum of his exemplification which as he confesseth is very imperfect and farr too short This assumption was an act ad extra and therefore both Father Word and Spirit must concur in it yet so that the Word did in a special manner assume and was the proper terme of this Act. And that word in which was life which life was the light of men in the Creation did assume possesse dwell in and act by the Soul and body of man so as to be a Fountaine of Life and Spiritual light to man for ever This Word § VIII so became and was made flesh as that he assumed not onely the body but the Soul of man even whole man and the same at first subject to frailtyes and infirmityes to violence and death yet without sin And this union was indissoluble for ever And many were the consequents of this union as 1. The communication of Idioms in predication So that because the Word which was God was flesh and word and flesh are one therefore what is true of the word may be affirmed of that flesh and that which was properly true of that flâ—sh might be truly affirmed of that Word which was God So that it may be truly said That the flesh and man did that which God did and God might be said to suffer that which the flesh did suffer and that by a Metonymy and such as no Rhetorick ever taught us 2. A neare relation between the Word and that flesh and such as is not to be found in all the world 3.
for money or other things lent in which respect as Lucrum ex mutuo is noâ— unjust neither is Lucrum pactum ex mutuo For the Covenant or Contract added cannot make it unlawful Because there are divers Contracts for Gain of the same nature which are generally allowed as lawful But to covenant and bind the Borrower to Interest for the Use when he is poor and such as by the Laws of God we are bound to help freely or when we shall bind any to unreasonable or excessive Interest For this doth argue the Lender to be either covetous or unmerciful or both And indeed common Uâ—urers and such as make a constant trade of it are covetous cruel unjust unmerciful unchristian and cannot be excuâ—ed For their end is gain and they will stand upon hard and strict tearms even with those whom they should relieve Many of them are very cursed Wretches and not to be suffered in a well-ordered State much less in a Christian Church As for Justice Equity Mercy Charity they know them not The Israelites were forbidden to lend upon Usury to their poor Brother or to keep his pledge Exod. 22. 25 6. 7. Levit. 25. 36 37. When a Brother is poor not by his own default but the hand of God upon him and he willing to labour and some thing freely lent would help him he is an object of mercy As there is Injustice and Theâ—t in lending so there is in borrowing 1. When we borrow a thing onely to use and are bound to return the same again as good as we received or if we cannot yet give satisfaction For to delay too long or neglect or refuse altogether to restore it or deny it or if iâ— be made worse not to make satisfaction is Injustice 2. So it 's a Degree of Theft when we borrow to restore in the same kind so much and so good and yet either deny to return any thing at all or return less in quantity or worse in quality or both There is another kind of Contract in Selling and Buying § VI wherein we deal with others by way of exchange either of one kind of Commodity for another or of Money for all kind of Commodities And in this many and great sinnes are committed and no man can number the Deceits and Cheats used in this kind Many things are sold by Weight and Measure and not to give just and full Measure or to sell by unjust Weights is Theft and much spoken against and condemned in many places of the Word of God Monopolies engrossing of Commodities corrupting of vendible Wares and all other means used to enhaunse the price of things are here forbidden To sell and give no good Security to conceal Forfeitures former Sales Statutes Mortgages and to defraud the Buyers or to deny or delay to give possession can in no wise be just To set too high Rates upon Commodities and by Lying and sometimes Swearing and Equivocations to extort from the Buyer a greater price or cheat and defraud the simple and ignorant Chapman to sell that which is not our own without warrant from the true Owners can in no wise be just To buy under the value and so defraud the simple and plain man to oppress such as sell for need to buy by greater and sell by lesse Measures or Weights to buy things plundered stoln and known to be other mens all coâ—e in to the Catalogue of Theft So it is to buy when we have no need to raise the Market and enrich our selves There is Theft also in the Contract of setting and taking Houses or Lands when Landlords oppress their Tenants make not good their Bargain raise the Rents without cause In taking when the Taker observes not his Covenants delays payment or pays not at all but runs in arrear making no conscience of his dealing useth not the Lands and Houses as his own so that the Owners suffer dammage There is also a Theft in the hiring of Servants and Work-men when they pay them not their Wages at all or not their full Wages or not in due time The hired are guilty whâ—n they are lazie false unfaithful To these may be added as Thieves all such as remove Land-marks encroach upon others Right acquire Possession upon an unjust Title all such as deny just Usages and Services upon their Lands or Houses all Litigious Persons and so all Officers of State especially such as have to do with the Publique Revenue as you heard before all such as are employed in Judgment and deal not fairly and justly as negligent covetous or perfidious Lawyers Attorneys Sollicitors c. All Officers for Execution as Sheriffs Bayliffs c. whose Design is to enrich themselves all such as trespass upon their Neighbours and are unwilling to make satisfaction all such as refuse to restore Pledges or things deposited or deny to make restitution when they are bound thereunto If we should put in this Black Bill all Alienation of Tythes Impropriations Prescriptions Customs Compositions whereby they are impaired all Defraudations of Ministers or denying them their Due few would believe us Yet the sad Effects of these is the starving of the Ministers Bodies and the Peoples Souls and the taking away the Churches Right contrary to the pious intentions of the Donours These are the several Distinctions of Theft § VII whereby the Parties guilty of this sin are distinguished and known The degrees and causes of this sin here prohibited follow The Degrees are four 1. This Sin begins in the Heart 2. Goes on in Words 3. Proceeds further in Writing 4. Is consummate in Actions and Deeds 1. It 's conceived in the Heart For as out of it Murders and Adulteries sâ— Thefts proceed Math. 15. 19. For after Suggestion follow Consent Deliberations and Resolutions and all these within the Soul 2. The Tongue is abused to lye flatter swear equivocate accuse falsly partly to deceive partâ—y to make the Party whose Estate is coveted liable to Forfeiture or Confiscation So Naboth's Vineyard and Estate became confiscate to the Kâ—ng Swearing and forswearing sometimes tend to this end to defraud others of their goods 3. In Writing Evidences Deeds Obligations Covenants are antedated or post-dated forged falsified concealed embezelleâ— burnt made away or falsly and insufficiently drawn or unjustly interpreted or advantage taken from imperfâ—ct or inconvenient Expressions contrary to the true intention of the first Agreement There is in this particular great abuse of Wills and Inventories to defraud others 4. The Consummation is when we put in execution our Thievish and unjust Desires The Sins inclining § VIII disposing moving and causing Theft are 1. Idleness unnecessary Begging neglect of some honest Calling for such as are guilty of these are like Drones which live upon other mens labours 2. Imprudent and improvident managing of that Estate which God hath given us 3. Prodigality and unthriâ—tiness especially when we spend that we have in proud and sumptuous Apparel Building Furniture vain Arts Recreations
or disquiet us then our peace must needs be great This love of God is manifested to us many ways As 1 By Trials Chastisements Corrections which are bitter for the present sweet in the end so that we know God in these was not angry but did love us 2 By strange and wonderful Deliverances wherein his Power his Wisdom and special love unto us do evidently appear 3 By the return of our prayers which is many times such as that we certainly know that we were heard in Heaven and God did far more for us then we desired or could have desired 4 And most of all when we find our Faith strengthned our Graces increased our Power over Sin improved For by these things we know assuredly that God by the Spirit of Christ dwells in us and we are very sensible of his powerful presence in our Souls as in his Temple By these things when we look back we begin to discover God's everlasting love in Predestination and those stable and unchangeable Decrees made in Christ before the Foundation of the World And when we look forward we see Heaven open Christ our Saviour at his Fathers right hand making intercession for us our Eternal Mansions there by him prepared and an excellent estate of glory ready for us as reconciled and adopted to this estate And upon our Prayers our Eyes are enlightned so that we gain a further knowledge of the hope of his Calling and the Riches of the glory of his Inheritance in his Saints and of the exceeding greatness of his power towards us The more we do good and suffer ill for his sake the greater and more certain our hope of eternall glory is And though we live by hope and see somewhat dimly our heavenly Country afar off and have but some glimmerings of the eternal light that there doth ever shine yet for the present Faith is the substance of these things hoped for and the evidence of these things that are not seen nor enjoyed These imperfect Representations and apprehensions of this glorious estate do inflame our hearts with vehement desires of nearer approaches to our God cause us to presse with all our power towards our heavenly Prize and warmes our hearts with unspeakable joy because we know one day we shall have full Communion with our God and shall never be in danger to sin again Yet this joy § XIV and Peace may be interrupted much abated and sometimes seem to be extinct for a while For according to our neglect and abatement in the exercise of that Sanctifying Power God hath given us and the use of those meanes and our opportunities he hath afforded so our peace and joy abate And much more are they lessened and abated by our grievous sins As by word and prayer this heavenly fire was first kindled so by these it 's kept alive and increased Fervent and frequent prayers serious meditations upon Gods holy Precepts and his gracious Promises with constant practise are like fewel to this fire and like Bellows to stirr it up and cause it burn with a clearer and more ardent flame and so improve this joy unto an high degree But as when we either withdraw the fewel or powre water upon the fire it 's abated and ready to be quenched so by neglect of the former duties and especially by grievous sins we grieve and offend the blessed spirit of joy peace comfort and so he begins to withdraw himself Therefore let us not with Ephesus fall from our first love nor with Laodicea cool in our zeal nor with David contract the guilt of haynous Crimes For we must know that the most just God will judge his own people according to their Works and so reward or punish them If we neglect to walk with Him in the light of holinesse He will refuse to give us the light of joy and comfort When we either abate in our performances or fall into grievous sins our God either by afflictions or admonitioâ—s and reproofs or by the working of the blessed Spirit or by some or all these doth cause us to see our guilt and make us sensible of our sins and so bring us back again And upon our serious return our joyes are revived and our peace restored And great and wonderfull is his care over his Children in this kind for as he prevented them with his grace at first to convert them that he might make them his Children much more when they are his Children and do fall will he prevent them by his grace to raise them up again and revive the sparks of fire remayning He will not suffer them to dye He will punish them that He may Reward as He afflicted the offending Corinthians with sicknesse and some of them with death and so judged and chastened them that they should not be condemned with the World Lest this first Regeneration and title to the eternal inheritance should be in vain He will keep them by his power through faith unto salvation which is ready to be revealed in the last time 1 Pet. 1. 3 4 5. And if his power should not preserve their Faith as well as their Persons they must needs perish He hath signified that the Connexion between their Faith Love Patience and eternall glory is indissoluble For the patience and faith of the Thessalonians in all their persecutions and tribulations they endured were a manifest token of the Righteous judgment of God That they might be counted worthy of the Kingdome of God for which they did suffer 2 Thes. 1. 4 5. For if we suffer with Christ we shall be glorified with him Rom. 8. 17. 2 Tim. 2. 11 12. And this is a faithfull saying These things being so there was little reason why the Remonstrants in their Synodaâ— Acts and Writings should so mince the matter as though they were afraid to give any advantage to the Truth Upon the 5th Article of Perseverance they say that God 1 According to his absolute Power not according to the Law of Grace 2 In an extraordinary not an ordinary way 3 May reward not will reward 4 Not constantly but sometimes 5 Not all his Children but some long and much exercised in Piety and tried in Afflictions with the grace of not failing Perseverance 6 This they will not determine but leave indifferent How this can consist with the Scriptures I know not As there be Spiritual Rewards in this life § XV so there be after Death and before the Resurrection As for the Body because it hath been the Tabernacle of a Regenerate and sanctified Soul and with it a Temple of the Holy Ghost Therefore though it be separated from the Soul and turned into Dust yet it 's laid down in certain hope of the Resurrection For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in us then He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken our Mortal Bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in us Rom. 8. 12. Besides it 's freed
World to come According to it he must be judged and sent to Heaven or Hell and made eternally happy or miserable All errours and false notions contrary unto it must be rased out of the mind All inordinate affections and unruly passions must be subdued For we must lay apart all filthinesse and Superfluity of naughtinesse and receive with meeknesse the pure and genuine word of God which is able to save our souls Jam. 1. 24. And we must lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings and as New-born babes desire the Sincere milk of the Word c. 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. We must make our minds like blank Paper and in our hearts we must be like little Children otherwise the Heavenly Doctrine cannot make so liâ—ely impressions upon us 2. When the heart is thus prepared we must hear and read attentively consider what is heard or read that we may understand it We must apply it and lay it close unto our own hearts and pray for the Spirit to make it powerful and effectual within us As it is Wisdom first to teach so it is first to learn the Principles and to understand them well and being once in these well grounded they will not be so subject either to be seduced or waveâ—ing in their judgment and it will be a great advantage to improve their knowledge And when once they understand the truth it will discover their woful condition to humble them and their Saviour to raise them up again It 's a part of the duty of every one that is a Scholler in this School not onely to understand the truth but also to endeavour the practise thereof out of an earnest desire of Salvation And if a man neglect the means use not the power that God hath given him and seriously intend the principal end it will be just with God to desert him and deny his grace unto him Practice must be the principal design and Knowledge so far as conducing thereunto If the man being taught § XVI be diligent and willing for to learn both to know and do that which is known and that with a prepared heart and desire of God's Blessed Spirit to teach him inwardly and effectually then God will remember his Promise and will give him a new Heart and a new Spirit he will put in him and will take the stoney heart out of his flesh and give him an heart of flesh He will put his Spirit within him and cause him to walk in his Statutes and keep his Judgments to do them Ezek. 36. 26 27. For this is a Promise of the Gospel and the New Covenant I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. And as man teacheth outwardly God teacheth inwardly yet he never writes his Word in an unprepared heart neither doth he write any thing within but that which is taught outwardly out of the Scriptures And as the Minister must teach so the People must hear and heed otherwise God will deny his Spirit Man cannot speak unto the Soul immediatly but by the outward and inward Senses God speaks immediatly unto the Soul pierceth deeply into it writes clear and lively Characters upon the mind and makes strong impressions upon the heart When the Ministers Doctrine is thus accompanied with the Power of God and brought home not onely unto but also into the Soul then the Teacher is a Minister not onely of the Letter but also of the Spirit and the Word is the Word of God indeed formally and properly when God thus speaks it immediatly himself and it will manifest it self by the Heavenly Light Power of Sanctification and Consolation following thereupon And then man knows the Word read or heard preached out of the Scripture to be from Heaven and God's Voyce and that upon better grounds then any Tradition possibly can be By the same Word we are begotten and born anew By the same we must grow and tend unto perfection the Spirit concurring with it And the Spirit by Divine Institution and God's Promise goes along with it except man by his neglect of the means or some other demeâ—it give caâ—â—e to God to deny it The sum of all this is § XVII 1. That the Doctrine of the Scriptures is the Rule whereby we are directed in the knowledge of God's Kingdome 2. This Doctrine was in the mind of God and known onely to himself before he communicated it to Men and Angels 3. He did make this known by immediate Inspiration to the Holy Prophets and Apostles 4. By them he communicated it to others both by Word and Writing in both which they were directed by him infallibly 5. The Originals therefore were immediatly of Divine Authority and most worthy to be believed and the Transcripts and Translations so far as they agreed with the Originals 6. The Tradition or Testimony of the Church may declare this yet as a Testimony it can satisfie no man fully 7. God communicates this Doctrine unto men by ordinary Teachers not immediatly inspired 8. The Scripture is the standing Rule to direct these ordinary Teachers And so far as they follow this Rule so far their Doctrine is good and no further 9. The people taught are bound to hear those Teachers with prepared hearts and in that manner as God requireth 10. If they hear in this manner God according to his Promise will make it effectual to convert justifie and comfort them 11. This Spirit testifying by real effects the matter of the Scripture to be Divine is not a private Spirit but the publique Spirit of Christ in the Universal Church and the thing testified by this Spirit is the Publique Doctrine believed and professed by the Vniversal Church It 's true that it 's testified to a private Man and in that respect it is not Publique 12 By this manner of ordinary teaching with the concurrence of the sanctifying Spirit God works ordinarily a Divine Faith in the hearts of men and not by the Vniversal Tradition of the Church 13. The Tradition of the Church so far as it may be known concerning the Divine Authority of the whole Canon is a ground of a probable Faith against which No rational man as rational can except CHAP. III. Concerning the ancient Creeds and Confessions and of Faith in general HItherto § I of the Original the Nature and Qualities of the Holy Scriptures which must be the Rule of the ensuing Discourse concerning God's Kingdom But before I proceed to the particular Explication of this excellent Subject it will not be amiss to enquire Whether the principal subject of the Scripture may not be reduced to a method or Whether some parts or passages of Scripture will not give a sufficient light and direction to this method if there be any such thing Many School-men and some Modern Authors of Theological Systems following the Rules of the great Philosopher have attempted to reduce the Doctrine contained in God's Book into
when we are once in Christ we are not wholly freed from that Sentence because it continues partly in force untill the Resurrection But of these more fully hereafter CHAP. XIV Of the Penalties Executed on Mankind more Partiuclary As also to which the Sentence made it liable FOr the more full understanding of this Judgment § I it will be very convenient to declare 1. More particularly the punishments which were executed upon mankind and whereunto the Sentence made it liable 2. The extent of sin and death in respect of the subject and the Derivation of the same from Adam to his posterity Where something shall be said of Original sin 3. The Attributes of God chiefly manifested in this Judgment 1. For the punishments we must know they were lesse then the desert of this sin For in strict justice man had deserved far more and more grievous punishments then this Sentence did determine For as you shall hear hereafter God punished man Citra condignum far lesse then he deserved And he in great mercy ordained meanes whereby many of these Judgments might be prevented and all in the processe of time removed as he reserved a power to abate them or aggravate them at will and pleasure So that man hath cause to blesse God that though he might Yet he will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities Psal. 103. 9 10. Where we may observe the intermission interruption and mitigation of his Justice 1. The intermission of his chiding He sometimes chides but not alwayes as he might 2. The abruption of his anger He chides sometimes and is angry yet he breaks off and continues not his wrath as he might do for ever 3. The mitigation He punisheth and sometimes grievously yet not according to our sins and so much as we deserve And thus his Sentence is to be understood For his execution is the best intepretation of his own mind which he knew best himself when he passed this Judgment Besides the punishment formerly mention'd § II there be many others not there exepressed but either implied and that darkly in that Scripture or more fully expressed in others These are either spirituall and such as immediately affect the soul of man and tend to it's spirituall and eternall misery or such as referr unto his body and temporal estate in this life or such as afflict both body and soul for ever in the world to come if not prevented The first and great penalty spiritual was the losse of Original Righteousness and Holiness when God took away his sanctifying Spirit By this it came to passe that the active free power of man to do good and that which was pleasing to God was not onely weakned but wholly taken away For though the essence and faculties of man remained yet the Spirituall and divine vigour was lost A natural but not a spiritual free will he hath The Councel of Trent tells us that Liberum Arbitriâ—us fuit viribus attenuatum non penitus sublatum Free-will by the Fall was weakned but not wholly lost If they mean that it was so weakned that it lost all spiritual and supernaturall power clearly to understand and effectually to prosecute spirituall good or if any such strength doth remain yet it was given to man and left in his soul for the merit of Jesus Christ promised then they speak the truth otherwise they cannot be excused By this incomparable lâ—sse there followed in mans understanding ignorance and errour and in his wâ—ll perversnesse and a disorder in his faculties and a difference between the rational and sensitive appetite A pronesse or strong inclination to that God forbids and a disaffection to all Heavenly good The soul hath loâ—â— all rellish of heavenly things Besides this Man became subject and a slave to Sathan who thereupon could easily bâ—ind and delude his understanding and pervert his will so that nothing so heynous but he could perswade him unto it and work in his heart an hatred of the Power of Godlinesse That there was such a Penalty which passed upon Adam and Eve and all their Posterity may be made evident out of Gods word For 1. The nakednesse shame fear hiding from Gods presence false pretences of fear and slight and excuses of their sin in our first parents do imply this 2. What necessity is there of every son of Adam even the best to be born again and that of water and the spirit before he can enter into the kingdom of God if man by this fall had not lost the Sanctifying spirit How comes it to passe that except the spirit of Christ be in us we are carnally minded at enmity against God so that we are neither subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be 3. What necessity is there to turn men from the power of Satan to God Act. â—6 18. and to be deâ—â—â—ered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of Gods Dear Son Col. 1. 13 To this purpose I might multdiply other 〈◊〉 of Scripture to prove that this was one great penalty consequent to the sin of Adam Another penalty was § III the loss of Gods comforting spirit For where the spirit doth ceaâ—e to sanctifie it doth cease to comfort And hence the losse of boâ—dnesse confidence peace heavenly joy sweet communion with God testimony of a good conâ—cience right to the life and all Solace that might arise from the hope and assurance thereof Instead of these succeeded horror grief anguish perplexity an â— despair so that he conceived and found himself cast out of Gods presence and favour This seems to be signified by Gods casting him out of Paradise denying him accesse to the Tree of Life and that must needs torment his soul grievously and perpetually the passage into that Holy happy place was guarded by Angels with a fiery sword This was the Sentence of Excommunication executed upon him signifying that seeing man had sinned and polluted himself there was no possibility of Life by the Law of works And except Christ by his blood had quenched the fire of Gods wrath and made a new passage to Life we had perished for evermore and to draw near to God was to approach to a consuming fire to our eternall destruction We must needs think that Adam looked back towards the Tree of Liâ—e with weeping eyes and an heavy heart especially when he considered the distance and the impossibility of accesse How grievously did wicked cursed Cain complain of this that he was cast out of Gods sight How importunately doth David deprecate this punishment saying Lord cast me not out of thy presence and take not thine Holy spirit from me Besides this he became timerous and of a dejected spirit 〈◊〉 having lost that Majesty whereby he awed the inferiour creatures and his dominion over them was much impaired The penalties § IV which referred unto his body
his bodily life were many For his body became mortal subject to weariness infirmities languishing hunger thirst diseases grievous pangs and torments and monstrous deformities and of it self by little and little mouldred into dust Besides He was exposed to nakednesse cold heat lightening thunderbolts stings of Serpents rage of wild beast unmercifull and cruel murderers treacheries assassinations exquisite tortures and many other accidents destructive of his life which was every moment and in every place in danger to be cut off from without Besides the principles of mortality were alwayes within his body And the danger was the greater because he had lost the Ministery Guardiance and direction of Angels and was deprived of the speciall care and providence of his Lord and maker the Heavens above him were made like iron or brasse and either denied their light and influence or powred down stormes and terrified him with fiery Meteors and strange prodigious Comets or apparitions The earth was cursed barâ—en or fruitfull in proâ—â—cing unprofitable Weeds ingendring Toads Serpents and Pestilent Vermine and other creatures to consume fruites And the best soyl refused to give him bread without sweat labour care and both Heaven and Earth did often threaten him with hunger thirst and so with famine If the Earth and Heaven too did favour him so that through Gods Blessing and his industry they both promised a plentiful harvest and return yet it was subject to many casualties before it could be reaped and inned as to blasting mildew peâ—iâ—ential ayr inundatious fire Locusts Caterpillars and several sorts of worms and devouring Creatures which threaten death to man and beast If the fruits of the earth were layd up in his barnes and store-houses yet they were in danger If his house was furnished and his treasuries stored with rich and precious goods yet he was in peril of thieves Oppressours plunderers by Land and his Merchandise by Sea of Pirats and merciles enemies Neither could the Liberty of his Person be secure because of imprisonment banishment captivity His credit and reputation could not be safe but he might suffer in this particular and be stayned by reproaches slanders his own imprudent or base carriage His publique peace and safety might be disturbed by seditions rebellions civil Wars and forreign invasions and his houses Lands goods possessed by Strangers or made desolate And he might suffer from enemies desertion of Friends treachery ill neighbours bad servants his parents bretheren sisters near kinred nay from his own children issuing out of his own Bowels He might be cursed in his Cattle in his Children in his Lands in all his designs By his sinâ—â—e provoked God armed Heaven Earth Ayr Sea and all Creatures againâ—â— him His spirituall Condition was much prejudiced by evil education bad example pernicious counsail ungodly company and many other wayes These penalties and many more are recorded in the Scriptures and in the great Volum of divine Providence and stored up in the treasures of Gods Almighty and severe Justice To make a more full enumeration of the miseries whereunto Man by his first sin and Gods just judgments is exposed and reduce them into a Method would take up a great Volum Of the Penalties to be endured after this life I will not now say any thing These Penalties 1. Are spiritual § V bodily temporal private publick personal social and all may be reduced to Privative which we call punishments of losse or Positive which we call punishments of Sense 2. There be many degrees of these punishments and the continuance of them might be for ever so far as man is capable for ever to suffer them 3. Though every son of Adam be subject to these yet God doth not inflict them all upon any son of Adam 4. These Punishments may be deserved by other sins Against the Law of nature which the Gentiles violated Against the Law of Moses which the Jews transgressed Against the Gospel which Christians violate And many of Gods own Children may justly suffer For all actuall sins are not merely from Originall Corruption though it be a cursed root of all kind of iniquity 5. These Penalties become unremoveable either by Negative or Positive Impenitency and Unbelief or by Apostacy 6. All these Punishments in Scripture are signified by one word DEATH For the Wages of Sin is DEATH CHAP. XV. Of Original Sin and the Derivation of it from Adam to his Posterity IT s to be known § I 1. What the Authors who write or speak of it mean by Original Sin 2. Whether it be properly a Sin 3. How it is derived from Adam to his Posterity 1. Some distinguish of Original Sin and inform us that its Originans aut Originatum By the first they understand the first sin of Adam and this onely Pighius defines to be Original Sin By the second they understand the want of Original Righteousness and the depravation of our Nature following thereupon And thus it is commonly taken So that in it we may consider two things 1. Not onely the want or absence but the privation of the Righteousness which God gave Adam in the day of his Creation So that it is a want of it in the subject where it should be and was at first Yet this privation may be understood actively or passively Actively and so it 's a taking away from one that had it or denying it to one who never actually received it In the first sense God took it from Adam In the latter sense he denies it to all his Posterity In what manner God is in this Act to be considered or what was the reason why he did thus I do not here inquire Passively considered it respects the Subject from whom it 's taken or to whom iâ—'â— denied Upon this deprivation follows a depravation in the Moral and Spiritual Qualities and of the Acts of the Party deprived And this Depravation is either Negative or Positive Negative as Ignorance Positive as Errour in the Understanding Negative as no affection to good Positive as inclination to evil in the Will This Depravation doth not destroy the Essence of man nor his qualities nor his Acts but the perfection and excellency of them all and doth necessarily presuppose the Being Qualities Acts as the Subject All this doth imply that this Rightâ—ousness being an excellent Quality doth much ennoble and perfect man and did depend both in fieri in facto as they speak upon a superiour and intelligent-supernatural-tree Agent who could give it continue it as also upon cause take it away And if once the Soul lost it upon demerit or any other ways it was made imperfect defective and base and the inclinations and motions were unworthy so noble a Creature and so much the more because a Superiour Spirit had power to delude and deceive the mind and incline the heart to evil This is the reason why so many are said to walk after the Prince of the power of Darkness that now worketh in the
Attribute which God did exercise § III and manifest in this Judgment passed upon man was his Mercy which is his free love of man who had made himself unworthy For after that he had sinned and made himself miserable though his misery were an object of compassion yet his sin did provoke to anger and deserved vengeance God looking upon man in this condition was more willing to pitty him then to punish him to remove the sin then to destroy the sinner He was unwilling all Mankind should perish as they must needs have done if he had proceeded in strict justice against them The sin in it self was no fit subject of mercy yet seeing that Woman was deceived by the subtilty of the Devil and Man by Woman his dearest Wife brought into transgression God took occasion to pitty them yet there could be no mercy for them except it issue out of the abundant goodness of God who is slow to anger and so much inclined to compassion and willing in this particular rather to manifest the glory of his mercy then of his justice Man had made himself unworthy and liable to eternal misery and God might have eternally punisht him and that justly too yet mercy kept justice back mitigated the rigour of it and confined it in a narrow compass to inlarge her self more abundantly This mercy was the Fountain from which issued the Promise of Christ the ruine of Sathan's Kingdom the Redemption of Mankind the Relicks of God's Image the means of Conversion the patience long-suffering bounty and clemency of God the gifts of the Spirit the remission of sin and eternal life And that God might be placable Sin pardonable Man saveable he accepts Christ's propitiation reverseth the Law of Works as requiring and that strictly perfect and perpetual obedience as the condition of life and makes a new Law and Covenant which determines Faith to be the condition of life and that condition to be performed by the power of the Spirit merited by and restored for Christ's sake This mercy did appear in this great Judgment many ways § IV 1. God sentenced the Devils in the first place and that without any mercy and for this very cause even because they had attempted the eternal ruine of man which upon the success of their damned Design had proved unavoidable and the recovery of man impossible if God should not have done some extraordinary work to prevent it Upon this fiery indignation of God against these Liars and Murderers of Mankind expressed in this Sentence it did appear 1. That the punishment to be suffered by these cursed Fiends was grievous unavoidable and unremovable for ever 2. That God was highly displeased at their malice shewed against and the mischief done to Mankind in that he takes so fearful vengeance upon them 3. That there was some pitty in God towards poor man trembling at the Bar of God for though their folly was inexcusable yet their condition considering the temptation was lamentable 2. This mercy was manifest in an high and extraordinary degree and measure in that in this Sentence he promiseth or at least implies a most certain promise of Jesus Christ a Saviour and Redeemer It 's true that this great promise was folded and wrapt up in a few words and the same very mysterious as we read them in Moses Gen. 3. 15. But those very words inform us 1. That the Redeemer should be the Seed of the Woman that Woman whom the Serpent had so deluded and who now stood guilty before God's Tribunal 2. That this Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head and so be the ruine of his Kingdom and Dominion over Man 3. That he should not obtain this Victory without Blood for his Head must be bruised and he put to death And there is not onely an Emphasis but a Mystery in those words The Seed of the Woman The Emphasis is in this That God doth not say an Angel or Spirit or some man more excellent then Adam whom he should create instantly but the Seed a Child a Mortal Man born of that sinful Woman though now contemptible and miserable should encounter the Devil with that power and policy as to foil him The Mystery seems to be this That it 's not said the Seed of Man nor the Seed of Man and Woman but the Seed of the Woman signifying though darkly that Christ should be the Seed and Child immediate of a Woman but of no Man For as he was Man he had an immediate Mother who conceived bare him brought him forth but no immediate Father Upon these words as the condition of Man and Woman became more comfortable so the Kingdom and Government of Mankind began instantly to be altered and a second Adam was appointed their Head to redeem them as the first Adam had undone them We must needs think that our first Parents being sinful guilty and convicted before the Supream Judge of Heaven and Earth stood with sad and heavy hearts expecting their doom and condemnation to Eternal Death until they heard these words The Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents Head Then their Despair was turned into Hope and their sinking-dying-hearts began to revive For to them these were words far above all expectation of sweetest comfort Never better words spoken never better heard 3. This mercy was evident in that God did not send the Spirit of Despair nor of Slumber and Security upon them § V nor deliver them up to a reprobate mind as he might justly have done and so made their condition desperate and irrecoverable nor presently execute his judgment Eternal upon them either by taking away their lives in their sin or making their bodies immortal to punishment in body and soul for ever Neither did he take from them the Light of Nature and the sense and power of Conscience but gave them the saving-light of the Gospel and the means of Conversion with the promise of the Spirit All this is evident by the promise of Christ the ruine of Satan's Kingdom a final Victory after a Bloody War in this Sentence of the Devil and it doth further appear by the Education of Cain and Abel and especially in the Faith of Abel That the means of Conversion have been denied several persons whole Tribes many Nations and the greatest part of the World howsoever it might be deâ—erved by this sin of Adam yet usually it 's the punishment of Apostasie as of the generality of mankind before the â—lood of the Gentiles before Christ's incarnation and of the generality of the Jews and many of the Gentiles since the preaching of the Gospel to all Nations And the very Gentiles were not delivered up unto a Reprobate mind before they abused the Light of Nature Yet the very outward means of Conversion were a gift of Free grace for the merit of Christ who was promised of pure and abundant mercy The Sentence of Justice past upon them was allayed § VI and tempered with great mercy
presupposeth knowledge of the promise and a serious consideration 1. That it's God who promiseth 2. That the thing promised is everlasting life and all things necessarily conducing thereunto 3. The termes upon which it is to be obtayned and enjoyed And the principal is sincerely to submit under the Power and wholly rely upon the mercy of God Redeemer by Christ for remission of sin and eternall Salvation which Christ hath merited and God will give This Remission and eternall life are promised for Christs sake and the Promise it self is made for and in the consideration of his death and these things as promised are a mighty motive and powerfully work upon the heart of man to incline it to submission and if ever they prevayle this submission will follow The promise binds God gives hope moves mans heart and presents unto the soul the unspeakable benefit to follow upon the Performance of the duty and that certainly without any doubt This submission presupposeth certain dutyes antecedent and includes virtually all Particular dutyes following This word as written in a book § VIII or uttered outwardly by man or Angel may represent unto sinfull man both what he must do and what God upon his performance will give and by the senses be conveyed to the soul of man and cause him to understand and approve of the justice of the duty and excellency of the benefit promised and may incline man to some moral submission Yet such is the blindnesse of mans understanding in respect of these heavenly mysteryes and perversenesse and depravation of the will that without some power to pâ—riâ—ie and rectifie the soul this word of calling will prove insufficient Both this blindnesse and depravation are the greater to such as are at age by reason of false notions and errours and the habits of sin Therefore with the word is required the Spirit and divine power not onely to convey the word close unto the soul but also to prepare qualifie and fit it for the reception and entertainment of the Word This is evident by the experience of all times For the very words of our Saviour Christ who spake as never man spake and confirmed his Doctrin not only by his holy life but by such works as never man did or could do proved not effectuall upon the greatest part of his hearers Therefore said he No man can come unto me except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 44. To draw us is a work of power not a meere outward Word or Writing In the new Covenant God doth promise to put his lawes in our minds and write them in our hearts And this is said to be done by putting his Spirit within us and so causing us to walk in his Statutes and keep his judgments to do them Ezek. 36. 27. And before this can be effected he must take away our stony hearts and give us hearts of flesh One effect of this Spirit is generally granted to be illumination another to be sanctification of the heart This illumination may not be onely a restoring of a spirituall sight and viâ—ve power but also a more clear representation of the things spoken in the Word and the same more immediate and in an higher light This cannot be done except it free the soul from false notions and errours in matters of Religion This sanctification of the heart doth certainly subdue if not wholly take away predominant lusts and elevate and perfect the rationall appetite by giving and imparting a divine sense and Vigour whereby it more effectually doth relish heavenly things but reject and abhorr evil and sin I will not here dispute whether this Spirit be a distinct thing or power different from the Word of God as spoken immediately by himself to the soul of man or it be the very same No doubt the Word of God as the word of God is power For as it is said of Thunder naturally so its true of this Word spiritually The voyce of the Lord is powerfull the Voyce of the Lord is full of Majesty and it breaketh the Cedars and shaketh the Wildernesse So this word as his is powerfull and full of Majesty able to break the most stony and senslesse stubborn heart and shake it in pieces If it come close unto the soul it cleares the understanding dispels the mists and foggs of errour pierceth the inward parts and makes most lively and lasting impressions upon the same As I will not diâ—pute this point of difference between the word and this power so I will not perplex thâ— Reader nor amaze him with the controversie concerning the manner of conversion the resistibility or irresistibility of grace and the necessitation of the Will of man The manner of conversion is to us unsearchable both because we are ignorant of the nature of the immortall Soul and because much more are we ignorant of the manner of Gods working upon that immortall Spirit As for the resistibility or irresistibility of grace we know that the power of God is Almighty and cannot be resisted by any created strength if he please to exercise it to the full or in some high measure But if God give power to the creature or work by that created power given it may be resisted by a contrary created power And so grace or the power of conversion as a created thing in man may be so given as to be resisted by the Will of man And both the understanding of man will and doth either deny or doubt of divine truths represented to the soul and the Will will wrangle oppose and reject or not sincerely affect and submit unto the divine commands and promises And hence the many conflicts not onely in conversion but after we are converted As for necessitation of the will in this work of divine calling its certaine and granted of all that the illumination of the understanding may be necessary so farr as the soul in respect of the same is onely passive though in the apprehension and judgement concerning the truths represented by the Word it be active Besides God may give an active power to the Will and it may be passive in receiving of it and also necessitated to an act of complacency in generall so that it necessarily may approve by a generall approbation of the justice and equity of the command and the excellency of the good promised For even a wicked Medaea may truly say Video Meliora Proboque And a simple apprehension of a thing as good much morâ— an act of judgement may produce an act of approbation complacency and volition in generall and the good represented may be not onely approved as good in respect of the contrary evill but as better in respect of that good which is apprehended as lesse For it 's not possible to apprehend good as good and not approve it because as Bradwardine saith well in that respect it is not Objectum nolubile Yet notwithstanding this necessary and naturall act of complacency that act of the Will which Buridan
Heavens and in them the Sun declares the glory of God in an eminent manner and measure And the Souls of men and the Angels those glorious and immortall Spirits resemble him most of all his works Yet these stand at an infinite distanâ—e below his Majesty and God did never command man to Worship him in or by these more lively Images and resemblances of â—is infinit excellency Surely iâ— we have not farr higher apprehensions and more excellent notions of him we cannot possibly worship him aright How therefore should the Image or visible likenesse of any bodily and visible being molded and fashioned by the hand or art of man represent him so glorious The stock is a Doctrin of vanityes Jer. 10 8 In this respect the Molten Image is a teacher of lyes Hab. 2. 19. It 's falshood Ier. 10. 14. 2. As an Image must not be made to represent God lest our conceits and worship oâ— him be base and corrupt so we must not think that there is any Divine power in an Image made and consecrated by man or at the appointment of man For the power of things made by Gods own hand must needs be farr more excellent then the power and vertue of any thing made by Man For the works made and consecrated by God are as far more excellent as the Heaven is above the Earth Yet there is no Divinity nor divine power in them no not in the Angels of Heaven Images may indeed be conceived by some to have some strange power when the Devil 's in them or by them or near unto them work some strange effect But these are but the Delusions of the Vnclean Spirits and the cheats of his damned Flamins and Priests The Image it self can do nothing neither could the Brazen Serpent for it was God that healed such as being stung with fiery Serpents looked upon it 3. We must not think that any Image or any other thing made by man without warrant direction command and promise from God can be a sign of his special presence as the Ark the Tabernacle the Temple were God may voluntarily bind himself to be present in a speciall manner in some special place to his people worshipping him in that place according to his commandement But it 's not in the power of any Man or Angel either to tye God's special presence to any Image or to any place The Devil if God permitted it might by compact with the cursed Conjuring Priests bind himself to be in an hollow Image to speak out of it or appear or do some strange thing near unto it Thus the Heathen no doubt were deluded and confirmed in their Image-worship And its lamentable that Christians should be thus inchanted and bewitched by their jugling Priests 4. We must not make an Image or similitude in Belief that it wil help or further our religious Worship or make it more acceptable to God neither must we use them or rather abuse them to that end To worship the true God in or by an Image is a Corruption of his Service as any rational impartial man may easily understand Therefore Moses said to Israel Take heed therefore unto your selves for you saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the mid'st of the fire lest you corrupt your selves and make you an Image c Deut 4. 15 16. 5. We must not think either that an Image consecrated or the use of it in religious Worship hath any sanctifying power For nothing can be effectual in this kind or conducing to mans spiritual good which is not instituted by God with a promise of his concurrence thereunto The second act or acts prohibited are § V Bowing down unto an Image or serving it These imply that the former act of making these Images and resemblances is here forbidden as relating to religious worship 1. To bow down is an act of Worship and Adoration wherein by some outward gesture or carriage of the body before the thing to be worshipped we testifie the inward acknowledgment of the excellency of that thing and our submission to it These outward reverentiall acts are testifications of the inward deportment of our Soules and they are specified not meer from the object but the inward recognition of the Soul Some of these are common so that the same outward acts may be performed to God or man the inward cannot For they must of necessity be either Civil or Religious One and the same cannot be both If it be the custome of any people or nation or persons to make some of these outward acts and testifications proper unto a Diety and to be performed thereunto then to use them to any thing else is Idolatry These are many â—s bowing the head kissing the hand kneeling prostrating the body and such like all signified here by the word Bowing 2. The other act here mentioned is so serve or worship and so sometimes may be the same with the former But it 's here understood as distinct to signifie Sacrificing Burning Incense Praying and the like Both these acts are usually tendred to and before Images and that several way 1. To the Images as gods endued with a Divine Power able to hear Man's Prayer bless him and deliver him and this is directly to terminate the Worship upon it as a god against the former Commandement 2. Some direct this Worship to the Image as representing some other thing besides and the same more excellent then it self The thing represented may be either the true God or some Saint or Angel or Soul of Man departed or the Devil yet not conceived to be the Devil or some other thing 1. To perform any Worship any ways unto the Devil is abominable 2. To direct Divine and Religious Worship to and terminate it upon any thing but the true God is Idolatry 3. To terminate Worship any ways upon an Image is not onely unlawful but irrational and absurd for an Image is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing made by the Art and Device of Man and there is no excellency in it to make it a fit Object of Worship 4. To terminate Worship partly upon the Image as a partial Object and partly upon the thing represented is impossible if the act of Worship be one and the same individual Act. 5. If any perform the Worship onely before the Image without any thoughts of the Image and terminate it onely and merely upon the thing represented it is to make no use at all of the Image as altogether needless and vain to that act Yet thus to do hath a colour of Superstition if not of Idolatry and can no ways be excused because that Image was no sign of God's special presence by Institution or Promise from God 6. To worship God in or by an Image made by the hand and art of man must of necessity be a corruption of that divine performance and there is no Warrant or Command from God to make or
made some honest imployment to be used the Scripture and pious books to be read the reasons against this sin in Scripture to be remembered the motives unto chastity to be observed good examples of Chastity as that most excellent one of Joseph to be followed Yet we must know that in respect of persons its twofold 1. Of single persons 2. Of married persons Single persons are such as were never married or widows both these must be chast so as not onely to have pure and sanctified minds but also to forbear all kind of Carnall copulation Married persons may have the use of one anothers bodies without any sin but then they must be faithfull one unto another for onely they that have right unto their bodies must have the use of them And if they transgresse their sin is adultery and greater then that of simple fornication not only because it is an abuse of the body as simple fornication is but because it is against the marriage-contract and they have a remedy which single persons have not and many more mischiefs follow upon it In this condition of marriage many may think themselves safe yet no persons though married must neglect their watch presume upon their own strength contemne temptations for they may fail as well as others as wofull experience hath taught many Their secret carriage must be chast before God their outward behaviour must be modest before men the one that they may have a good conscience the other that they may give good example And single persons that have not the gift of continency must marry yet wisely and in the Lord lest that estate which was ordained for a comfort and help prove a discomfort and a snare They are happy in this respect and a great mercy of God it is who have their education in chast and modest families and fall not into familiarity with lewd persons For many who in chast Company would have been chast and would have abhorred this sin have bin defiled by lewd and ungodly persons Yet if we fear our God and trust in him he can preserve us pure in the most filthy societies as he did Lot in Sodom and deliver them in the strongest temptations as he did Joseph This Commandement certainly requires temperance § VII as an excellent preservation of Chastity And divers of the School-men and Casuists oppose it to Luxury which they make a generall under which they reduce and rank in a certain order 1. Simple fornication to which they referr whoredome and the use of Concubiâ—s 2. Incest 3. Adultery 4. Deflowring of Virgins in their parents power 5. Rapes 6. Uncleannesse against nature as Sodomy and Bestiality all which were mentioned formerly Yet this temperance more properly taken is opposed to luxury taken more strictly for excesse in diet and apparrel and such things as tend to the preservation of the body It 's contrary to drunkennesse and gluttony and all excesse in that kind and may include abstinence and fasting for we must keep the body under and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof The body must not be armed against the soul lest the flesh rebel against the spirit The pampering of it is like the warming a frozen Serpent in our bosome to sting us unto death We are commanded to abstain from fleshly lusts which fight against the Soul 1 Pet. 2. 11. Yet temperance is properly and strictly here commanded as tending unto Chastity yet it may come under another notion as it doth dispose us to Heavenly duties and prepare us for our last account There are intemperate persons who are lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God and surfetting and drunkennesse indispose us to divine performances and unprepare us for our latter end And in this respect intemperance is a sin against the first table Drunkennesse absolutely considered is not a sin against this commandement but as inclining and disposing to uncleannesse and in other severall respects against many other For there be divers sins and divers duties reducible to severall parts of this morall Law As there be many disswasives from the sins here forbidden § VIII so there be many Swasives and motives to the duties here Commanded Some are generall motives to Chastity in generall some to Chasity in single life some to Chastity in marriage in particular And every Disswasive in generall and in particular are Swasives either in generall or particular There are disswasives from 〈◊〉 fornication from incest from adultery from rapes and so from the rest whiâ—h are proper The reasons and motives to Chastity in generall especially to Christians are 1. Bâ—cause our bodies are the members of Christ 2. They are the temples of the Holy Ghost 3. We are bought with a price and cannot dispose of our selves as we please but must so use them as our Saviour hath Commanded and we must honour and glorifie him who hath bought them for his they are 4. We have consecrated both soul and body to his service 5. We are Regenerate and sanctified and as in soul so in body and have received a power to perform this duty of Chastity as well as other duties 6. We hope and expect that these bodies shall rise again unto eternall glory and how can we pollute them 7. One Reason in generall to all men Jews Christians Gentiles is that Chaâ—â—ity is the honour of these bodies of ours as uncleannesse is their dishonour For the bodies of all men being tabernacles of the immortall soul and created and redeemed to immortality are far more excellent then the bodies of beasts and therefore must not be abused and made like nay worse and more base then the bodies of brutes There are besides these common reasons others proper to incline married-parties to Conjugall Chastity and fidelity as the honour and Legitimation of our Children the mutuall content and comfort of man and wife the peace and welfare of our Families for the present and of posterity for time to come Gods institution the matrimoniall contract the conâ—inuance of the sacred bond and divers others which may be observed our or Scripture And both the parties must not only be chast and faithfull but wiâ—e in their carriage so as to give no occasion or just suspicion of jealously or be jealous when there is no sufficient cause We should know these things and learn out of Gods word how excellent a virtue Chastity is how pleasing to God how disposing to heavenly duties Out of this knowledge and love to God we should love this duty desire and endeavour to performe it and labour to be chast in our hearts not onely before men but God We must resist temptations and suppresse the first motions unto uncleannesse and with Job make a covenant with our eyes and not think upon a maid Job 31. 1 2 3. unto the 13th In this case if our right eye right hand right â—oot offend us we must cut it off and rather part with our choisest and rarest
weighty and substantiall that is the morall duties of the Law And to be zealous in Ceremonials and careless in moralls was alwayes either hypocrisy or impiety or both These positive Laws which alwayes received their binding force from the institution commanding not from the excellency or goodnesse of the thing commanded are a rule of obedience as well as the morall and the neglect of them is a contempt of the Lawgiver There is an Analogy and proportion between the outward sensible and the sacred part and in that respect they might by the outward senses help the memory informe the understanding stir up devotion and affection set forth Gods worship with greater Solemnity and are an outward testification of inward submission saith obedience unto God and the approbation of Religion which was professed And for these ends and such like they seem to be added to Morals and so much the rather because man hath a body as well as a Soul and is not all Spirit but in part flesh and must serve God in both These kind of Laws are either such as were enacted before the Fall of man § II whil'st he continued innocent or after Those before were the Laws of God concerning the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden of Eden Yet because these were not Laws of God as Redeemer by Christ they â—o not belong to this government whereof I now enâ—reat The positives which followed â—â—e fall of man and the first promise of Christ were either such as God instituted before or which he instituted after that Christ was exhibited Those before the Incarnation were either extraordinary or ordinary and the principall were either Sacrifices or Sacraments so called as now we understand them Again those which constantly continued from the times of Adam till the glorification of Christ were sacrifices and offerings For Adam taught his Children Cain and Abel to offer gifts and sacrifices and no doubt by Warrant Commission from God otherwise the offering of Abel had not bin accepted of God nor offered in faith Yet afterwards to these were added the Circumcision the Passover and many other Ceremonies mention'd in the books of Moses The waters of the flood bearing up the Ark and saving Noah and his family is made a kind of Baptism or baptismall Rite Whether the Rain-bow signifying a temporall blessing could be a Religious Rite may be doubted and so much the rather because the benefit promised was generall to all men and living Creatures Yet if the not destroying by the flood did â—ignifie a spiritual blessing then it had the full nature and essence of a Religious Rite The passing through the Red Sea and under the Cloud the Manna the water out of the Rock all these were extraordinary and rather Sacraments then any otherwise That they were Sacraments both Paul 1 Cor. 10. 1 2 3. and Peter 1 Pet. 3 20. 21. do teach us The ordinary Sacraments before the times of the Gospel were Circumcision and the Passover The rest of the Mosaicall Ceremonies except some few were Religious and Mysticall whether things persons actions times The Priests did serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things Heb. 8. 4. The Tabernacle was a figure for the time then present Chap. 9. 9. The services and purification shadows of things in Heaven Chap. 10. 1. The person and especially the high Priests were types of Christ Their great sacrifice of expiation and other sin-offerings of the Sacrifice of Christ. The tabernacle typified either heaven or the humanity of Christ wherein the Godhead dwelt bodily So that persons things and actions signified better persons things and actions All their Consecrations Expiations Dedications Purifications and Seperations had some reference to spirituall duties or promises or judgments And this was the sin the usual sin of that people that they neglected moral duties were zealous in Ceremonials expected justification and salvation by them made the redemption of Christ vain and needlesse forgate the promise made to Abraham and so looked not after the better Covenant established upon better promises Yet all these Ceremonies were Laws binding to obedience and it was their misery to want either tabernacle temple solemne services or holy times and their sin if when they enjoyed these they did not observe them They were laws of God Redeemer had speciall reference to Christ to come and the times of the Gospel and were enacted for severall ends as hath bin shewed in the Chapter of the administration of the Kingdom of God Redeemer and the Jews were bound by the Mosaicall Ceremonials in a Speciall manner But when Christ had finished the great work of Redemption and the more glorious light of the Gospel did begin to shine these shadows must vanish and fly away The standing Sacraments of former times must be changed not only because they did signifie some temporall mercy past and had some temporall promise annexed but also chiefly because they were Sacraments of Christ to come or did imply oâ— presuppose that he was not exhibited Because these are abolished § III have left their binding force and their time is expired I will proceed to speak more largely and distinctly of the Ceremonialls of the Gospel which do and shall continue in force till the end of the World But first before I can give any clear account of the Sacraments of the Gospel in particular I must say something of a Sacrament in generall 1. Sacraments are Ceremonies and holy Rites to be used in Gods worship and are parts of that worship and thus they differ from Ceremonialls in generall 2. These Sacraments presuppose the Redeemer the work of Redemption the Laws of God Redeemer as they require obedience and duty and as they promise mercies and benefits merited by the Redemption Others do expresse it thus That Sacraments presuppose the Redemption and the Covenant 3. The Spirituall and heavenly part of the Sacraments of the old and new testament were always for substance and the principall thing in them the same 4. That the Sacraments of former and these latter times agree in many things and differ and that much in some things 5. That Christ contracted all the principall Ceremonials of the old into a few these few are Sacraments for number two for signification clear for observation easie and for man if observed aright very beneficiall These things understood § IV the nature of a Sacrament may be the better understood It 's a Ceremony confirming the Covenant of grace in Christ. The Sacraments of former times required faith as well as these of the Gospel but with this difference that the former required faith in Christ to come the latter required faith in Christ already come To understand the definition we must observe the generall nature and specificall difference The generall nature is that they are Ceremonies and sacred Rites and so they agree with all the other Sacrifices offerings and other mysticall parts of
gracious disposition that he admits all his Subjects at any time even the meanest to come before him pour out their Supplications and reveal their Hearts unto him and as He is able so He is willing to accept their persons and their prayers take special notice of their desires yea of their cryes sighs groans and writes them in the Book of His Eternal Memory that in due time He may satisfie their Desires Things desired are the matter of our Desires and our Desires of our Prayers Yet Desires are not Prayers but when they are by us presented unto Him The first definition of Prayer is easie to be understood in all parts thereof excepting that of Praying In the Name of Christ. For the better understanding whereof we must have recourse unto our Saviour's words unto His Disciples a little before He dyed and offered Himself The words are these Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name He will give it you Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my Name Joh. 16. 23 24. Where 1. A new Direction is given them how they should pray They must not onely pray and pray unto His Father but pray unto Him In His Name 2. A Promise that if they pray thus they shall certainly be heard What they ask thus the Father will give them 3. Hitherunto they had not thus prayed in His Name though they had often prayed according to His Direction and Pattern given them The Fathers and Saints of old had prayed virtually and implicitly according to their implicit Faith in Christ to come in His Name but not in this manner Thus to pray presupposeth 1. Christ risen from the Dead ascended into Heaven confirmed the Universal and Eternal Priest Intercessour and Advocate 2. The Father sitting in the Throne of Grace atoned and propitiated in the Blood of Christ. 3. The party praying believing all this acknowledging His own unworthiness and desiring His Prayers Thanksgiving and Praise to be accepted for Christ's Merit and relying wholly upon the Intercession of Him who is our Righteous Advocate with the Father and the propitiation for our sins And whosoever shall now pray and not in this manner though he do it in His words yet not in His Name he doth not pray aright neither can he pray effectually so as to be heard To understand the Nature and Qualities of Prayer more distinctly § II we must consider the many Prayers of God's Saints upon Record in Scripture and especially that most excellent Form which our Saviour taught His Disciples as being the sum of all Prayers and a Rule for time to come till time shall be no more and our Petitions shall be turned into Thanksgiving and our Prayers into Praises This Prayer though followed and used by the Apostles they could not pray and offer in His Name in the foresaid manner before their Lord was glorifyed In this Form which is not a Prayer as taught His Disciples nor as related in the Scriptures nor as learned by us but as made and tendred unto God in the behalf of our selves and others we may with others observe 1. The Preface 2. The Body and matter of the Prayer 3. The conclusion and all of the Essence of Prayer In the Preface we are informed 1. Who must pray 2. For whom 3. To whom Prayer must be made 4. The qualities of Prayer implyed or more briefly By whom For whom To whom In what manner Prayer must be made 1. Who must pray The parties bound unto this Duty are all men living The Command of the Moral Law requiring it obligeth universally All men have need to pray because all men always in all things even for the continuance of Being do wholly depend upon the Supream Soveraign The very Heathens though they worshipped false Gods did acknowledge some Superiour Power did account Prayer one part of Worship and a means to propitiate their supposed Deities to obtain their favour protection and all their good success in their great Enterprises And if we may believe Tertullian these in their Souls in Extremities would invocate one Supream God He 's a cursed Atheist that will not pray a prophane Wretch who neglects to pray an Idolater that prays not to the true God no Christian that will not pray in the Name of Christ an Hypocrite who prays not sincerely with his heart a cold Christian that prays not fervently a miserable man that knows not how to pray and pray effectually The Partyes for whom we must pray § III are 1. Our selves for besides our own necessityes wants and miseries our total and perpetual dependence on God requires it And this will be our condition till the time of Glory Our whole life in the flesh is a time of Praying 2. We must pray for others so farr as they are capable of our prayers For we are taught to say not onely My Father but Our Father And because all men are our Neighbours and we must love our Neighbours as our selves we must pray for them whom we most love as we pray for our selves Our prayers must enlarge according to our charity and must take in all not onely Friends and Acquaintance but Strangers and Enemies So our Saviour taught us to pray for them who despightfully use us And because all Mankind are but one Body and we Members of the same so we can exclude no man as man and flesh and blood as we be This Neighbour is publick private ecclesiasticall civill In the first place we must pray for publick Neighbours whole Nations and States and especially for our own dear Country and the People subject to the same supreme power that we are Amongst these we must remember our Governours supreme and subordinate upon whom our safety and peace under God do much depend The spirituall publick Neighbour to be commended to God chiefly is the universall Church militant and more particularly that particular Church whereof we are a part and in the same above others the Ministers of the Gospel Our private Neighbours are not onely strangers and Enemies as before but such as are joyned unto us by Vicinity of place Family Kinred Alliance near Acquaintance Friends by intimate love These must be thought upon in our prayers But most of all must we put God in mind of his dearest Saints and especially such as are in greatest miseries persecutions trials for the Gospel's sake We must not forget to supplicate and petition for the Conversion of Pagans Mahumetans unbelieving Jewes Yet in all this we must observe that some are in that happy condition that they need not out prayers some in that desperate condition of sin and misery that our prayers can do them no good Neither are they capable of any benefit to be received by them The party to whom our Prayers must be presented § IV is to God And in this particular we consider how we ought to conceive of God and what Titles we should give him in our addresses to him
wofull estate it highly concerns all and every one of us whilst it is said to day if we will hearken to his voice not to harden our hearts lest God swear in his wrath that we shall never enter into his Rest. We that live in the last dayes and enjoy the Ministery of the Gospell have not onely many a fair Warning but many a fearfull Example represented before our very eyes These are the Punishments of the unregenerate § VIII which they suffer before the Resurrection There are also Punishments which God's own Children after their Regeneration and beginning of the estate of Justification suffer in this life For as they have their Negligencies Ignorances Failings and sometimes their grievous Sins So they have their Punishments accordingly For the most just God who is most holy and of purest Eyes will in no wise allow of Sin in his own dearest Children For though his greatest design is to save the sinner yet he will punish and destroy the sin As the greater their diligence care and zeal shall be the greater their peace joy and comfort shall prove So if they offend be negligent carelesse cold the lesse Communion they shall have with their God and the greater their doubts feares troubles griefs shall be And these spirituall Desertions of their God and the withdrawings of the Spirit are sad and heavy Judgments How great must their discomfort needs be when God doth hide his face Christ standeth at a distance and the Spirit doth not appear This is evident from the many dolefull complaints and lamentations of God's Servants and dearest Children They suffer many temporall Afflictions in their Persons Goods Families Children near Relations besides For they are many times chastened of the Lord that they should not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11. 35. The Sword departs not from David's house and his Children wrong and murther one another for his crimes of Adultery and Murther Yet these though grievous were not his most grievous and greatest Punishments The sting of sin and guilt thereof doth deeply pierce and torment his Soul the sanctifying and sealing Spirit was abated and in a great measure withdrawn as his divine Vertues so his blessed Comforts were almost reduced to a spark raked up in the ashes and if God had not in due time out of depth of Mercy revived it What had become of him What his case was we may easily understand by Psal. 51. at large especially by that earnest Petition Create in me a clean Heart and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit that is Comfort me with the Spirit of Adoption Psal. 51. 10 11 12. This Punishment Peter felt tormenting his Soul when he reflected upon his Sin in denying his Saviour And surely to find the Power of Sanctification and spirituall Consolation to abate in our Hearts and the Vigour of it for present extinct is an unvaluable losse and an intolerable Punishment to God's Saints Therefore we are advised not to grieve or offend the Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. and exhorted to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. For the more diligent waâ—chfull zealous constant we are in the Practise of holy Duties the more our sanctifying power shall be increased the â—â—ronger our Hope the greater our Assurance and the more abundantly our Consolations will â—low Otherwise God being light will not communicate himselfe to men that live in darknesse nor to his own Children but as walking in the Light It 's strange that Saints and Martyrs in the midst of flaming fire and whilst under most cruell and most exquisite Torments should rejoyce with unspeakeable joy and in these Desertions should be so fearfully dejected Yet the cause is God will not abate the least Jot of his Justice when he shews the greatest Mercies After the Punishments inflicted by this most just Lord § IX and King upon single Persons declared briefly something must be said of the Punishments rendred to Persons associated as such These are considered either in a civill Capacity making up the body of a civill State or in an Ecclesiasticall and spirituall Capacity constituting a Church The Punishments of civill States and Kingdoms we may read and understand in sacred and humane Stories And so great are the Motions Shakings made in these great Bodies throughout the World in all times that we may easily understand that there is an universall and supreme Lord and that there is one most high whose Throne is in Heaven that ordereth the Kingdoms of men and disposeth all things in it according to certain Rules of Justice and Wisdome It 's a great Mercy of God to affoord us civill Government and to preserve the same And though the benefit thereof be generall and extends to all Mankind yet in the ordering and establishing Common-weales God hath a speciall care of the Church and the Society of Pilgrims and Strangers here on earth who seek eternall peace in Heaven as Subjects and Citizens of an eternall State This he continues protects and ordereth aright by his almighty hand and profoundest wisdom in the midst of all the Tumults Confusions Ruines Dâ—solations of the Kingdoms of the World These have their Beginning Increase Corruptions Alterations Ruines and fatal Periods not according to any certain Numbers or revolution of times nor the motion and influence of heavenly bodies and Aethereal lights nor from the power or weaknesse the imprudence or policy of man but from God according to the eternall rules of Justice and Wisdom determined and observed by him Yet he doth all things in number weight and measure most exactly and in the execution of his Judgments â—â—th the ministery of Angels Men and other Creatures When States that professe not the Gospel shall govern negligently imprudently unjusâ—ly and shall be corrupted and Corrupters and especially Persecutors of the Church and when States professing knowledge of the true God and the faith of Jesus Christ shall not onely violate the Lawes of Nature but neglect to protect the Church persecute the power of Godlinesse under what pretence â—oever become superstitious idolatrous prophane administer Injustice Cruelty be imprudent negligent unmercifull vitious and degenerate then the Punishments both of the one and other shall be Famine Pestilences Seditions civill Wars forreign Invasions Captivity Poverty Desolations many other Miseries and many times change of Government or the Translation of the Power Civill from one People to another and sometimes Anarchy and a totall dissolution of all order God useth the Governours to punish the People the People to punish their Princes and sometimes the Sword of a forreign Prince to punish or destroy both And when no Justice can be had from men on Earth he executes Vengeance in some extraordinary manner from Heaven Thus
it was in the beginning of civill States and it shall be so unto the end of the World God will have it to be so To all these Punishments must be added the losse of safety peace plenty and all other Blessings and Comforts which God doth usually give to men by good Government In the Execution of these Judgments the great Lord respects no Persons He punisheth many as well as few the mighty Monarchs of the World as well as the meanest Subjects The ruine of so many royall Families of so many large and potent Empires and Kingdomes might teach the Princes of the World to do Justice and to fear this everlasting Judge As there be civill § X so there are spirituall and ecclesiasticall Societies which as such have their proper Sins whereby they make themselves liable to those Punishments which God from Heaven inflicts upon them This Church which we call a spirituall Society began in a Family the first Family in the World of Adam and Eve being penitent and believing in that Seed of the Woman which should break the Serpent's head which was Christ. It encreased and was enlarged in that Family by their Children especially Abel first and then Seth and as mankind was multipled so it multiplied And at length there was a separation of the Sons of men from the Sons of God which Sons of God were in processe of time so degenerate mixed and polluted and the former Worthies and Sons of God translated into a better World that it was reduced again to that one Family of Noah Yet the greatest part of the Posterity of that Family who peopled the Earth did so apostate that a great part of Mankind was ejected and excommunicated out of this blessed Society And out of this great Body God calls Abraham and renews the Promise of Christ unto him more particularly and explicitly then formerly he had done He continues his Church in a more speciall manner in his Family and entailes the great Promise upon his posterity Isaac and Jacob and then in his Children who being multiplied into a Nation he brings out of Egypt and settles them in the Land of Canaan and encloseth them from all Mankind makes them his peculiar People continues the great Promise unto them trusts them with his Oracles and gives them Lawes and Statutes sends them Prophets and takes speciall charge of them till the Son of God was exhibited and incarnate Yet these with the Proselytes had their sins and according to their impenitency besides their temporall their spirituall Punishments But when Christ was once come into the World had finished the work of Humiliation was exalted to the right hand of Glory had powred down the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles God calls the Jewes first then the Gentiles and by them commissioned to go into all Nations he begins to gather a Church Christian For they preach the Jewes and Gentiles bear believe professe their faith and so are admitted as Subjects of God's spirituall Kingdom of Grace As Disciples and Professours were multiplied in any City or Country the Apostles or their Assistants and Commissioners appoint Elders and Ministers of the Word over them to take care of their Souls for to conform the converted and build them up and perfect them that were converted and convert others for to enlarge Christ's territories The Officers of Christ were extraordinary and ordinary and some did plant and some did water but God gave the increase And the Elders and ordinary Officers were trusted with the Word and Sacraments for to dispense the one and administer the other according unto their Commission After that not onely People but Ministers were encreased and severall Congregations setled under severall Ministers they begin to associate and combine for Discipline according to their Vicinities and other conveniences This was the beginning of outward Ecclesiasticalâ— Poâ—â—ties Christian The end of this discipline was to preserve the severall societies in unity and Purity of Doctrine an worship to promote Piety to prevent Errours Heresies Schâ—mâ—s Scandall 〈◊〉 erâ—â—â—tion and Idolatry and so preserve them pure according to the first plantation of the Apostles and institution of Christ. The power of this outward discipline was 〈◊〉 Virtually in the whole body of the Church whether greater or lesse associated into one body but delegated for the exercise thereof in an orderly way unto such persons as should be judged most fit and able for that businesse This power did extend to the making of Canons constituting Officers exercising Spirituall jurisdiction in binding and loosing on Earth which should be made good in Heaven All the particular Churches of the World on Earth at one time make up one body § XI and community Spirituall subject unto Jesus Christ their Monarch I say as one Universall body its subject onely to Christ. For as for outward discipline we cannot find that Christ Instituted any Vicar-generall or erected any Court supreme in any one City or place of the World As God never made an Universall King so He never made a Catholick or Vniversall Bishop Men may fancy such a thing But it 's only a fancy not a reall truth nor ever can be proved to be so In the Church of Christ there are some living members Reall Saints who haâ—e a reall communion with their head and derive Heavenly blessings and comforts from him and these make up that which we call the Mysticall Church of which no Prophane or Hypocriticall Wretch can be a member But in the Churches severall which we call Visible and Instituted there are good and bad sincere Believers and bare Professours and Hypocrites And of these visible societies I now intend to speak when I declare the judgments of God inflicted upon the Churches When Ministers and People begin to neglect the duties of worship are remisse in discipline as the Church of Ephesus Corinth Laodicea and many others were fall from their first Love Purity Piety abate in devotion and the fire of their zeal is quenched Tâ—heir punishments spirituall besides their temporall are Persecutions from without Schism and Heresy from within By the one the body is torn asunder and by the other the members are poysoned And as they abate in their duty God abates in the powerfull and comfortable Workings of the Spirit And if they continue in their sins God in the end will wholly take away his spirit and remove the Golden Candlestick as He once threatned the Church of Ephesus and in it all other Churches in the like case And He will send his Word and Messengers unto another People and will let out his Vineyard unto other Husbandmen which shall render him the fruits in their season Thus He dealt with the Jew Many times God brings in upon their Cities an their Countries where they professe the Gospel but not Practise it Cruel and Barbarous enemies Thus He gave the Northern and Western Churches and Nations to the Goths and Vandals who like a mighty deluge overflowed them and like an
is justifiable by Law But whether this be all the justification the Scripture speaks of especially the Writings of the Apostles shall be considered hereafter 3. It cannot be the sentence only of the Church or Minister because they do not alwayes judge and absolve Clave non errante infallibly and so one may be absolved on Earth and not in Heaven or in Heaven and not on Earth either in foro interiori aut extâ—riori as many use to expresse themselves It 's true that when it is exactly agreeable to Gods rule then it 's ratified in Heaven that is by Christ and manifested so to be by the execution For Gods sentence is not a bare word or distinct sound in the Aire 4. It 's not the sentence of the conscience For conscience is neither the supreme judge nor infallible 5. That it 's not pronounced by inspiration or enthusiasm as the words are ordinarily taken will easily be granted 6. Whether it be signified to the soul in man by some real operation with some execution is more disputable That it is signified by some real operation of the spirit with execution seems very probable if not very certain But let others judge when they have considered these places following The justified by faith have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ by whom also they have accesse by faith into his grace wherein they stand and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God c. And the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the holy Ghost which is given them Rom. 5. 1. 2 5. Believers in Christ by the spirit mortifie the lusts of the flesh and are led moved acted by this spirit have received the spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father This spirit witnesseth to their spirit that they are the Sons of God having the first fruits of the spirit they groan within themselves waiting for the Adoption the Redemption of their body Rom. 8. 13 14 15 16 23. Now he that stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1. 21. 22. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren 1 Ioh. 3. 14. God will give him that overcommeth a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it Rev. 2. 17. 1. All these places with many more speak not onely of Believers but Believers justified and in this life 2. All these places either expresly or by consequence speak of the Spirit of God and of this Spirit in us and the effects of this Spirit in particular persons 3. The Effects are Divine and such as onely God can produce 4. These Effects are the shedding of the love of God that is the Manifestation the evident and abundant manifestation of God's special love accepting us to Eternal Life the Sanctification of the Spirit and enabling them to mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh and acting them to Obedience Adoption whereby call upon God as a Father their Father and giving them boldness and confidence to approach the Throne of Grace testifying inwardly testifying in them and to them that they in particular are the Sons of God and Heirs of Glory giving them assurance of Eternal Glory as giving the first-fruits thereof being a Seal and Earnest of the same making them know and certainly know that they are passed from Death to Life and that God is in them and they in God and that God abides in them and they abide in God 5. All these signifie and declare and that evidently that there is a great change wrought in them both for disposition and condition For disposition they are regenerate and sanctified For condition they are in the state of Life not of Death of Salvation not of Damnation and neither of these can be without Justification actual And this change is the more evident because the Spirit abides in them constantly as a constant Spring of Sanctification and unspeakable consolation and joy 6. Therefore God by this Spirit in them by these Effects and real operations speaks plainly with some execution that particular persons in this life are justifyed not merely by the Promise of the Law but the Sentence of the great Judge God's Word is not like man's word which is a bare sound but it 's a Word with power It 's like the Word of Creation saying Let there be Light and there was Light like the Word of Christ to the man of the Palsie Arise take up thy bed and walk and presently the thing is done Health and Strength is given He takes up his bed and walks and so his sins were forgiven and the remission was signified by a real operation and word of power And certainly there is no greater Evidence of sin past forgiven then power given to subdue sin for the time to come and after fear sorrow and trouble of men sweet peace joy and Heavenly Consolation 〈…〉 this Word which the Spirit speaks within is the very same Word with 〈…〉 Word which the Spirit speaks without us in the Scripture Yet with this difference that there it is a Promise made to all Believers in general here a Word with performance unto particular Believers The Word is not the Sentence of the Conscience The Witness of the Spirit is not the Witness of Conscience The Sentence of the Spirit is infallible the Sentence of the Conscience is fallible The Spirit is the Supream Judge by which God so justifies as no man can condemn the Conscience is an inferiour and subordinate Judge and the Sentence thereof may be revoked and made void The Spirit speaks with power and produceth Divine Effects and in the very Soul and such as neither Man nor Angels can produce These or like Effects the Conscience cannot reach If any say or ask How can God pass this Sentence but by the Conscience It 's answered That such men seem to be ignorant what the Conscience is and what the Sentence of it is what the different Sentences of the Conscience before and after Justification be The Sentence of the Spirit is a principle but that of the Conscience a conclusion And the Spirit must speak by these real Effects before Conscience can certainly conclude Justification to be past or the state of Justification to be present But this Point will receive some further Light § VIII after that we understand what this Judicial Act of Justification is Yet here ye must know that the act of Justification is one thing and the state of the party justified is another and they must be distinguished as cause and effect The general nature of it is that it is not the Promise of the Law nor the convention of the party to be judged nor the discussion of the cause but it 's a Sentence Yet because there 's a Sentence against a party and a Sentence for
from all weariness faintings diseases annoyances and pains so that the loss of Sense is turned to a benefit though in it self it be a punishment As for the Soul the reward thereof is excellent though not perfect It hath obtained a final Victory over sin Sathan the World and is out of all danger of Hell It 's freed from all trouble and inconvenience that did arise from the Body and is delivered up with great peace and joy into the hands of a gracious Redeemer who sends his Angels to receive it guard it and set it in the Heavenly Paradise where Satan can never come near it or tempt it any more either to sin or despair And now it 's free from all sin all fear and sorrow and temptations and washed in Christ's bloud shall be presented pure and blameless before God's Throne The place whatsoever it is is full of comfort the Society excellent it 's secure of the great reward of Eternal Glory And that which is the accomplishment of all comforts it is with Jesus Christ it's blessed Saviour who takes the charge and protection of it Paul desired to depart and be with his Saviour which was far better Phil. 1. 23. Which words inform us 1 That the Soul lives after it is separated from the Body 2 That Death is not a destruction but departure 3 It 's departure from a worse place and condition to the better 4 Though it's absent from the Body yet it 's present with the Lord. 5 Though it had many sweet and excellent joys and comforts in Christ in this life yet now it hath more and greater CHAP. XXIIII Of the Universall and finall Judgment and the Eternall Rewards and punishments of the World to come AFter all the judgments past § I and executed from the beginning of the world to the last period and moment of the same there will be another and it shall be the last for none shall follow It 's final As it shall be the last so it will be the greatest Court that ever God did keep both in respect of the persons to be judged which shall be all men and Angels and in respect of the retributions which shall be Punishments and Rewards in the highest degree and everlasting Many Signes and Prodigies both in Heaven and Earth shall go before and prognosticate the approach thereof The world shall be consum'd by fire the dead shall be raised the living shall be changed and both shall be immortall The Judg is God who hath given commission to Iesus Christ to judge both Angels and men both quick and dead He hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World in Righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Act. 17. 31. Yet of the day and hour when he shall come no man knoweth no not the Angels of Heaven He shall come in great glory all the holy Angels shall attend him a Cloud shall be his Chariot his Tribunal shall be high and dreadfull The Arch-Angel shall sound the Trumpet and make all the World to heare All shall be summond all shall appear All causes shall be evident The sentence shall be irrevocable the Punishments and Rewards great the execution certain and the estate of the partyes judged shall be unchangeable That such a day will come that it will be a great day that it will be dreadfull unto many and a day of unspeakable joy to true believers it 's certain For God hath said so and all his Saints believe him and long for that day and wait for their Saviours comming from Heaven That it will be a day of judgment and that Christ shall be the Universall judge we doubt not Yet the manner of his comming and the way of his proceeding we do not perfectly and distinctly for the particulars know Something of it God by his Son Jesus Christ hath signified unto us and informed us of as that an Eternall Kingdome upon a finall and totall absolution will be adjudged to some but others shall receive the doom of an eternall curse and excommunication to be cast out of Gods presence and condemned to suffer eternall Punishments with the Devill and his Angels All secrets shall then be brought to light and the judgment shall be exactly just according to mens works and the execution shall be answerable For the condemned shall go into everlasting Punishment but the righteous into life eternall Math. 25. 46. So that of this judgment and the execution thereof we have two parts 1. The Reward of the Righteous 2. The Punishment of the unrighteous according to their obedience or disobedience unto the Laws of God Redeemer The reward of the righteous shall be of the whole man § II both soul and body both united together and joyntly partakers in the reward as they were in obedience The body being raised shall be immortall free from all evils incident to a body free from all imperfections and defects and made glorious and perfect with all perfections a body can be capable of For from Heaven we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashion'd like unto his glorious body according to the Working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 21. The greatest perfection shall be this that it shall be united to a Soul fully sanctified from which it shall never any more be separated and both together shall be the Eternal Temple of the Holy Ghost The Soul it self shall be finally and totally justified fully sanctified and endued with all the graces of the Spirit requisite to happiness and then their Reconciliation and Adoption shall be consummate the whole man shall be firmly established in Righteousness and Holiness never to sin never to be in danger to sin again They shall be with their Saviour and behold his glory enjoy the clear Vision of God be ravished with his Beauty filled with Eternal Joy and Delights and be secure of their perpetual full Bliss All tears shall be wiped away from off all faces and they shall never sorrow any more No evil that can be feared shall come near them and all good that can be desired shall abound there As the Light of God's Eternal Favour shall ever shine upon them in full strength so the streams of Eternal goodness shall ever issue from the Throne of God and the Lamb so that they shall be fully satiated with all pleasures for evermore The place will be glorious the company excellent and no good thing that may add unto their happiness shall be wanting Then shall they know how much God loved them and how much Christ hath done for them They believe now that the Reward is great but then by the enjoyment they shall know it to be far greater then ever entred into the heart of Man As Camaracensts saith truly § III That we may know God to be