Luk. 20.35 36. the Saints shall judge and reign therein receiving double for all their sufferings here yea everlasting rost joy and glory The Children of the Resurrection who shall arise at Christs appearing even the just and they that surviving shall then be changed shall be counted worthy of it and shall be equal to the Angels of God Psal 49.14 15. Isa 66.22 23 24. Rev. 20.6 7. being manifested both in souls and bodies to be his Children and they shall have dominion over the wicked beholding their torments who here had tormented them and shall judge the world even the Nations of the saved or preserved being Kings and Priests unto God beholding his face for evermore and dwelling in his presence impassible immortal Rev. 21.3 4 5 6 7. 22.1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. satisfied with joy and glory for ever where also they shall have their Paradise their Tree of Life their River of pure Water clear as Chrystal in a Spiritual and Heavenly manner without any Serpent to tempt them or curse to afflict and exercise them being fully and perfectly freed from all sin sorrow pain crying and Death their rais'd and changed bodies being made spiritual powerful nimble agile glorious yea they shall shine as Stars in the Kingdom of God ruling with Christ the Nations in righteousness which Nations probably shall consist firstly of the preserved Jews and then of some remnant of the Gentiles miraculously preserved in that great day of perdition of ungodly men Isa 65.17 18 19 20 24 25. Psal 67 4 5 6 7. 96.10 11 12 13. 98.7 8 9. and those as so◠conceive shall under the Governmen 〈◊〉 the raised and changed Saints Till th◠Earth build Houses plant Vineyards beget Children though the Children 〈◊〉 the Resurrection shall neither marry no◠be given in marriage nor dye any more and the earth shall yeild its increase i◠abundance as it would have done before the curse came upon it Discourse on the New Heavens and New Earth But because many things therein are hard to be understood and I have otherwhere more fully delivered my thoughts thereabout 〈◊〉 shall say no more here about them SECT 7. Of two kinds of Lives and Deaths THe Gospel-Doctrine also mentions two Lives 1 Tim. 4.8 and two Deaths the one in this world and the other in the world to come The Life that now is that which we derive from the first Adam Gen. 3.6 4.1 or which God gives us as propagated from him who was made a living soul and begat in his own likeness and because it was not propagated till after the fall Jam. 4.13 14. Job 14.1 Psal 75.3 68.19 20. therefore it is a corrupt and sinful life a vapour a bubble uncertain short and full of misery yet as this old world is upheld by Christ and his mediation that there might be space and opportunity to be born live seek after God and glorifie him in it so is this life given and preserved through him too in a great mixture of mercies and manifold good things to the same purposes But the life that is to come is an Heavenly Spiritual and Eternal Life and it 's said to be to come because as to the whole man it 's not yet come Joh. 5.24 1.13 There is a seed of it here infused and put into the heart and spirit of the Believer by which he is begotten to God and made a spiritual man in some first fruits 2 Cor. 5.16 17. Eph. 2.10 a Son and Heir of God a new creature created in Christ Jesus to good works c. Rom. 8.10 But in as much as this is but the beginning of this life and that only in part in the Spirit the body yet must dye and the soul be loosed from it till the resurrection of the just in which the soul and body shall be reunited and the body be made a living spiritual body and both live in the favour of and in fellowship with God Rev. 21.4 5. and that is yet wholy to come therefore it is called the life to come an everlasting life in which shall be no affliction sorrow decay or death but everlasting uninterrupted health welfare prosperity and happiness 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the life which Christ hath purchased for us and which in him is given us to be enjoyed through the faith of him Col. 3.3 4. Act. 17.26 27 28. 1 Joh. 5.12 and in personal injoyment of and fellowship with him The first life is common to all men as born into the world the second though given in Christ to all yet is had and injoyed only by them that have Christ the rest that rejecting him have him not have not it neither but incur the sentence of death the Death opposed to this Eternal Life the sedond Death For There is also a twofold Death answerable to this twofold Life Rev. 20.13 14. Rom. 5.12 14 18. Heb. 9.27 2 Tim. 1.10 2 Cor. 5.14 Gal. 3.13 Psal 23.4 90.12 2 Cor. 5.8 9. 1 Tim. 6.18 19. Eccles 7.1 Prov. 27.1 Jam. 4.13 14 15. 2 Cor. 12.7 8 9. Isa 57.1 Job 3.12 13 14 15 16. Mat. 25 41 46. Rev. 2.11 〈◊〉 .6.14 with 〈◊〉 Cor. 5.10 11. The first is that which came in by the first Adam and is common to all in their several times but is broken and evacuated by Christ as is before noted the punishment of our sins in Adam being sustained by Christ as to its weight and curse though some shadow and carcase of it is ordered to us to be passed through by us that we might by the consideration of it be stirred up to apply our hearts to wisdom and seek and lay hold of that Eternal Life given us in Christ and be kept humble and low in our selves and always watchful the time and way of it being secret and kept from our foreknowledge so as that we cannot boast our selves of the morrow not knowing what a day may bring forth as also that we might experiment the power and grace of Christ in supporting in it and raising us up out of it and be taken from sorrow and oppression by it and that the wicked might be cut of from doing wickedly and from vexing and oppressing the poor and righteous The second Death is that fearful punishment prepared for the Devil and his Angels forementioned not prepared properly and in Gods first intention for men yet shall be the punishment too of these men that persist in their sins 2 Thes 1.7 8. Heb. 9.27 28. Luke 14.14 1 Cor. 15.23 24. 1 Thes 4.16 17. Rev. 20.6 7 11 12. for their personal rejections of God and Christ and persisting therein to prefer their sins before him But it is not common to all men as the first Death is It is appointed for all men once to dye and out of that all shall be raised and brought to judgement though not all
made rich being thereby made capable of acting and Suffering for us so as to procure our Salvation being God and Man in one person 5. That in pursuance of our Redemption he was also made under the Law Gal. 4.4 3.13 Rom. 3.19 both as it was upon and against all men and as given to be observed by the Jews that He might Redeem us from the Law that is that being in Bond as it were with us as a clear man that enters Bond for a grear Debtor he might be liable to be called forth to the Payment of our Debt and procure our discharge from it 6. And accordingly God called him forth to the Judgment Joh. 12.31 Heb. 10.5 6 7 8 9 10. 1 Pet. 2.24 as the onely responsible Person and caused the Judgment of the World to pass upon him to which also he willingly and desirously yielded himself bearing our sins in his own body on the Tree and so gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 Rom. 5.12 14 15 16 17 18 19. 1 Cor. 15.17 18 21 22. Joh. 1.29 Phil. 2.6 7 8. with Gen. 3.5 6. Psal 69.4 Gal. 3.10 13. Phil. 2.8 9. Matth. 26.38 39. 27.46 and by the grace of God tasted Death for every man the Second Adam satisfying for the sins of the First and all in and of him as fallen in him both for root and Branch the first Revolt from God in our First Parents and all that Naturally and necessarily spring up from it giving or laying down to that purpose as much as the First Adam usurped or aspired to even the Form of God and enduring all that thereby that the First Adam incurred by way of penalty to himself and all his Posterity equivolently even the Curse of the Law to Death the Death of the Cross in which he sustained and endured not onely great Pains and Torments in his Body but also unspeakable Agonies and Afflictions in his Soul pouring it out to Death John 12.27 Isa 53.8 9 10 11 12. Psal 22.1 2 8 9 10-16 c. 7. That in this his abasement and Death His obedience and sufferings were so well-pleasing Isa 53.10 11 12. Rom. 4.25 1.3 4. Act. 2.24 Rom. 14.9 1 Cor. 15.3 4 5. Matth. 12.40 and satisfactory to God that He in Testimony thereof raised him up from the Dead the third day taking him therein from Prison and Judgment Yea he himself was God-man and so a person not to be swallowed up of Death though to manifest that he was indeed Dead and to sanctifie the Grave to us and Redeem us from it he was pleased to abide in it part of Three Days and Three Nights rose again by his Divine Power and after he had shewed himself by divers infallible proofs to his Disciples Act. 1.1 2 3 4 10. 10.39 40 41. Luk. 24.9.10 50.51 Heb. 9.14 Act. 2.33.36 Heb. 1.3 12.2 Act. 2. 3 4 5. by the space of forty Days after his Resurrection for a manifestation of the Truth of it and confirmation of their Faith in it He in their sight Ascended up visibly into Heaven and there presented his own Crucified and raised Body a spotless Sacrifice to God being taken up thither and there received of God his Father and set down at his Right hand even upon the Throne of Majesty in the Heavens as his after sending forth his Spirit upon his Disciples according to his fore-promise to them and Working many notable Miracles by them also did evidently declare SECT 4. Of the Love of God to fallen Man in glorifying his Son for him and of the compleatness and fitness of Christ as now in Heaven to be the Saviour of all Men and especially of such as Believe SO that now the same Jesus Eph. 4.8 9 10. with Psal 68.18 1 Pet. 3.18 19. Gal. 3.13 Heb. 2.14 2 Tim. 1.10 the Son of God who in love to us was abased and Suffered for us in the weakness of the Flesh and Descended into the lower parts of the Earth to Ransom us from the Sin and Misery fore-come upon us lives also being ascended up on high and having led captivity captive even Sin Death Law Devil who led us Captive at Gods Right hand in the Glory and Power of God thence to succour and Save us in all our Danger Act. 2.33 5 30 31. Matth. 28.18 19 20. Col. 1.19 2.9.10 and from all our Enemies being made in the Name and Authority of the Father the Saviour of all Men and especially of those that Believe unto which also He is compleatly and fully furnished of the Father in that He hath there given gifts in the man for man even for the Rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell amongst them for he hath there made him 1. Lord Act. 2.36 10.36 Phil. 2.10 11. 1 Pet. 13.21 Eph. 1.20 21. Isa 9.6 Joh. 5.22 23. Lord of all giving him all power and all authority in Heaven and in Earth a Name above every Name That at his Name every knee should bow both of things in heaven and in earth and under the earth Angels Men Devils and all Creatures being given into his hand and dispose the whole Government laid upon his shoulders and all Judgment committed into his hand To inable and furnish him in which in the Nature of Man he is also made 2. Christ Act. 2 36. Isa 42.1 61.1.2 11.1 2 3. Act. 10.38 the Anointed one of God filled with the Spirit of God without measure which Spirit is an infinite wise powerful and gracious Spirit inabling and strengthning him to all such Offices and the Works of them as he is anointed and designed to and are needful for our further saving That is to say 1. To be the Great Prophet Act. 3.21 22. the Light of the World to give forth the Light Truth and Knowledge of God and what may concern us to know for our peace and welfare as in his Wisdom he sees fit that whosoever believes in Joh. 1.9 8.12 12.46 Isa 42.1 2 3 4. 49.6 7. 1 Cor. 15.45 John 5.22.23 25. Isa 55.2 3 5. Psal 25.8 9 12 14. Matth. 13.11 1 Pet. 2.25 Joh. 10.2 11. and follows his Light might not abide in Darkness but might see the Light of Life And being a quickning Spirit he is in the Spirit fitted and able so to speak in and through the means he affords to the spirit of Men as to cause the Dead in Spirit to hear and so as that they who in hearing hear or listen to him may live for ever He being more peculiarly ordain'd a further Teacher and Leader to them to shew them the Mysteries of the Kingdom the Secrets of the Lord and as a Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls to feed them with Knowledge and Understanding unto Eternal Life 2. To be the Great Psal 2.1 6.7 8 9. Jer. 10.7 with Rev. 15.4 Isa 33.22 Matth. 28.18 19 20. Psal 149.2 Rev.
bring all Men even those that are in their Graves by Land or Sea before him and to render to every man according to their Works perfectly to free those that here believe on him and seek after God by him from all sin and sorrow from the malice of Satan and all his Instruments and from the Power and Dominion of Death and Grave and to give them a Glorious Kingdom and Inheritance with himself and to execute Vengeance upon the Devil and his Angels Eternally plaguing and destroying them and with them all that have here taken part with them against him and persisted therein till Reprobated by him these to go into everlasting Torments and the Righteous into everlasting happiness Matth. 25.31 to the End 9. That all this Infinite Power Isa 53.11 12. Phil. 2.9 10 11. Rom. 5.16 Heb. 9.14 15. 1 John 2.1.2 as Lord and Christ Prophet King Priest and Judge which dignity and power of Judge may also be referred to his Lordship or Kingship though I have here distinctly mentioned it by it self as Isa 33.22 And more observeably his Power to Forgive Sins and Rebellions against the goodness and grace of God extended by and through him both to the World and to his own Servants He hath obtained and acquired through the superabundancy of the vertues and merits of his Obedience Sufferings and Sacrifice above and beyond the demerit of Adam's Sin and of our Sin and Sinfulness as in and from him and the infinite acceptableness of them unto God For he being such and so glorious a Person his so loving and ready Obedience Psa 130.4 5 6 7. Isa 55.7 Acts 5.31 Rev. 5.11 12. and his so great Sufferings were infinitely well-pleasing unto God so as to obtain Plenteousness of Redemption even Forgiveness of Sins the grace going beyond the Offence which was but of one to Condemnation but the grace of many Offences to Justification yea and so as that both God and all his Angels and Holy Ones judge him worthy to receive All Power and Wisdom and Riches and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing as but a due Reward for his foresaid Obedience and Humiliation and the shame sorrow and Sufferings sustained therein To which add 10. That this Jesus Christ our Saviour Heb. 2.17 18. 3.1 2. 4.15 16. Isa 42.1 2 3. with Matth. 12.18 19. is also a most Merciful Compassionate and Faithful High Priest and Saviour one that can be touched with our Infirmities and succour those that are Tempted in their temptations and will not fail either his Father or us in any of all those things committed to him and required of him but will performe all the Counsel and Pleasure of his Will in what ever may concern us or our Salvation And all these also are true in themselves and of concernment to all whether they do know them or not believe them or not the Truth of them not depending upon Mens Knowledge and Faith of them but therefore they are worthy to be known and believed of Men because true for them and much good and benefit is to be met with in the hearty knowledge and belief of them SECT 5. How Christ hath broken and is the Breaker of the Head of the Serpent in what he hath done is become and is further to do for and to men BY what hath been hitherto said it may appear How Christ hath in himself Fundamentally broken the Head overturned the Plot and overthrown the Principality of Satan the Old Serpent over Man and how he is fitted further to break his Designes and destroy his Power against us For 1. Gen. 3.1 2. c. Whereas it was Satans design his Head and Plot to work an Everlasting Seperation between God and Man whom God hath made as an habitable part of his Earth for Wisdom Prov. 8.30 31. Jude 6.2 2 Pet. 2.4 Gen. 2.17 with 3.1 or his Son to delight in and to that purpose incited and drew Man to Sin against God by which He knew both by what he had proved from God for his own sin and by what he heard and knew was pronounced by God against Man in case of his sinning he should incur his displeasure to Death and so he thought he must have been for ever thrust out from God and seperated to Curse and Misery as himself is through what Christ hath done in his Death Sufferings and Sacrifice for Man in the Nature of Man Man on the contrary is more Exalted Honoured and brought nearer to God than before Gen. 3.21 Matth. 28.18 19.20 1 Cor. 15.45 Gen. 2.15 1 Pet. 3.21 Gen. 2 8 9 16 18. Col. 1.19 2.9 Psa 16.11 Gen. 1.26 27. Psal 8.3 4 5 6. Heb. 1.3 12.2 Ephes 1.20 21. Matth. 28.18 Phil. 2.10.11 Gen. 2.25 Rom. 3.23 John 17.4 5. Heb. 2.5 6 9. Phil. 3.21 Acts 26.13 Gen. 2.7 1 Cor. 15 45 47. John 5.21 25 28. Gen. 2.18 21 22 23. Eph. 5.25 26 27 30 31 32. for now he is become one with God as one of the persons of the glorious Trinity in the Person of Christ glorifyed and made a quickning Spirit for us Man had before a Paradise Man is now in Heaven on the Throne of God Man had all necessaries and delights in that Paradise and fellowship with God Man hath now all the delights and satisfactions of God being the habitation of the fulness of the glory of God all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily Man had dominion over all the Visible Creatures Beasts of the Field Fowls of the Air and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the Sea Man is now upon God's Throne of Majesty and hath all power in Heaven and Earth given to him Angels Principallities and Powers even the Devils too put under and made subject to him Man had great glory and comliness in his Body and needed not to have been ashamed though Naked Man hath the glory of God upon him yea is the brightness of his glory and the express character of his Person is clothed with Majesty and Honour his brightness greater than that of the Sun Man was made a living Soul but Man is now a quickning Spirit able to transfuse Life into others even into the Dead Man had a Meet-help made him there Man had a Church and Spouse given him here of his Flesh and of his Bones for the Propogation of Children to him an holy Seed for him a people Espoused and brought to him Rom. 7.4 Gen. 1.26 Col. 1.14 Heb. 2.5 6 7 8 9 15. Rev. 20.1 2 3 10. who is raised from the Dead that they might bring forth Fruit unto God Man was made in the Image of God there Man is the Image of the Invisible God here So that herein the Head and Plot of the Old Serpent is perfectly broken in Christ He is so far from having Dominion over Man that now Man hath it over him for ever so as he can never more be able to rise up
in their raised and immortalised bodies they shall appear Matth. 13.40 41 42 49 50. 16.26 27. 25.41 46. 3.12 when he shall appear in flaming fire to render vengeance even armed with the power and wrath of God in unspeakable unconceivable terror with an innumerable company of mighty Angels attending on him ready to execute his commands against them and then shall he utterly destroy the Rebels sentence them to be everlastingly companions with the Devil and his Angels that seduced them Rev. 20.10 12 13 14. Isa 30.33 Mark 9.44 45 46 47 48. and whom they chose to adhere and cleave to rather than to folfollow the Lamb in his Light and Grace wherewith he prevented and followed them And then he shall execute the Doom also upon them Rev. 14.9 10 11 12. Isa 66.24 thrusting them down with the Devil and his Angels into an ever-burning Lake of Fire and Brimstone into the Rivers of the wrath of God to be perpetually kindled upon them by the power of that Spirit that came to them and convinced them and being obeyed would have saved them which Spirit being infinite and eternally wise and powerful Oh! how infinite eternal and unbearably great must needs be the wrath executed upon them by him when their bodies being immortal and insepaâ—able from their souls again they shall be capable of enduring it endlesly and being separated from God and all his Creature-comforts too they shall have pure wrath without mixture no dram of good or ease or comfort afforded with it The fire of his wrath shall torment them perpetually and the Conscience of their own willing sinnings against him and despising their Saviour and his salvation when freely offered them and made attainable to them shall perpetually grieve and confound them and as a Worm that dyes not for ever gnaw them All the good they had from God Luk. 16.23 24 25. and might have had for ever had they hearkned to him being evermore before them on the one side and the remembrance of it infinitely dolorous to them and on the other side the several wickednesses committed contrived thought and acted by them in word and deed Jonas 2.8 with the aggravations of them as for what foolish trivial sorry and vile things and against what checks warnings faithfull means of preventing them they have made the forfeiture and sustain the loss of that eternal glory that others have and they might have had in their obeying Christ in the light and truth offered them shall add unconceivably to their everlasting woe and horror and lamentation Rev. 14.8 10 11 12. and yet no ease after inconceivable times or duration nor no way or possibility of Redemption such the terror of the Lord in that day even such as his goodness abused by men in this day and the good the grace the glory trampled under foot by them the worth of the person and sufferings of Christ sin'd against and the greatness of the glory and majesty of God contemned and 〈◊〉 at nought 2 Pet. 2.1 2. Tit. 1.2 2.13 Matth. 11.29 30. 1 Joh. 5.3 2 Cor. 5.11 and that for vile things inâ—nitely below them deserves to be reveâ—ged with The faith exceeding true and precious The hope firm and infinitely glorious The obedience required exceeding reasonable and not grievous because he is ready at hand to effect it in us and therefore also the Terror and Torment upon the refusers exceedingly and incomprehensibly Dolorous SECT 4. A Digression about the Endlesness of the punishments mentioned in the Gospel-Terrors AGainst this Doctrine of the Terrors of the Gospel and endlesness of the torments or punishment to which Christ will at the Great Day adjudge his enemies Some may object that sure it cannot be consistent with his love mercy and goodness to adjudge his Creatures for any cause whatsoever to such endless misery Probably Mr. Hobbs Yea there is an Anonymous Author that hath put out a Discourse on purpose to prove the the Doctrine of Hell torments false and fabulous Therefore I shall add some Considerations here briefly for confirmation of the truth already said thereabout Yet not by way of particular Answer to that Book which I have also otherwise answered to some Friends for indeed it is so monstrous in its assertion and so self-contradictory that I hope none that give credit to God and are able in any measure to judge of things will be snared by it for it saith Sin is only punisht in this life no greater punishment of it than death quite contrary to the words of Christ that tell us John 5.29 That some shall be raised out of their Graves at the last day to condemnation and Dan. 12.2 That some shall rise to shame and everlasting contempt yea that after the Resurrection some shall be adjudged to a second death a lake that burns with fire and brimstone Rev. 20.13 14 15. True the said Author also confesses a second death but he makes it but the same with the first save only as it is judicially executed for he asserts that Adam and all men should have died had they not sinned but now the death that should have been otherwise natural is now judicially executed and so a man that is hanged for murther or the like he makes to dye there in the second death But how cross this is to the Scripture who is so blind as not to see Seeing the Scriptures plainly make the second death to be a death adjudged to some men after their Resurrection from the first as in Rev. 20. before quoted yea the same nameless Author would perswade men that God works in them their sins wills their sins and falls before they will them that Gods will is the womb in which all the actings of men at first conceived that he was never displeased or unsatisfied with the Being oâ—sin and divers the like monstrous assertions that I suppose none but Atheisâ— or Ranters can easily digest and which indeed could they be proved true would render it unreasonable to conceive that God can or will inflict any punishment upon men for sin at all either in this life or after it much less endless Though indeed it might as reasonably be thought that God will punish his creature with endless torments Psal 5.4 5. Habbak 1.12 though their sins deserve them not as that he can or will be the Author Willer and Worker of their sin seeing sin is more directly contrary to his purity and holiness then the inflicting of Pain or Torments upon his Creature is or can be But not to trouble our selves with the several reasonings of the said Author in the said Book which also broadly enough contradicts it self while sometime it represents God as a punisher of sin in this life only sometimes tell us the wicked shall be burnt up with the earth and that shall be their punishment and sometimes that God was never unsatisfied with the being of Sin and so
in reason should not punish men for it any where at all let us see what may be briefly noted for confirmation of what we have before delivered about the said Doctrine And first let that be noted Matth. 11.27 1 Cor. 2.9 10 11 12. That God is not to be known of and by us and by consequence nor his will concerning us or purposes for rewarding or punishing us but by his own discoveries of himself to us For as no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of man that is in him even so the things of God his nature love goodness and the things consistent therewith his rewards and punishments that he will adjudge men to knows no man but the Spirit of God and they to whom by his Spirit they are revealed whence it follows that it is not safe for us waving his revelations of them to us by his Spirit to conjecture and rest in our conjectures concerning them and measure his love hatred rewards or punishments by our narrow shallow finite and corrupt apprehensions about them Jer. 10.14 especially we being all since our fall by our own knowledge bruitish and our understandings not fit to be leaned upon and trusted to Now God having by his Spirit revealed himself and mind as to these things most fully and plainly in the Scriptures it behoves us there to seek and receive our knowledge of and accordingly to believe and judge concerning them The foresaid Author to take off men from this would perswade his Reader that the Scriptures are so corrupted and uncertain we having not the very Original Copies written at first by their holy Penmen and because some Copies in some things by the caâ—lesness and oversight of some Transcrâ—bers have some misreading in them that there is no credit in this point to be given them But in that as in all things else almost he shews his unreasonableness and Atheism for by the same argument we should not believe the Scriptures in any thing they say as that there was such a person as Jesus Christ that he dyed rose ascended shall come again c. seeing all Copies may as rationally be conceived to be corrupted in all those matters too as in this in hand Nay we should not believe that in any Printed Books 〈◊〉 read their Authors minds for as much as they be not their original Hand-writings Matth 10.29 30. 5.17 18. But who that believes Gods providence and his care over the good and salvation of men or that considers how many Copies there are of the Scriptures amongst the Churches of Christ in all parts of the world and how dearly both Jews and Christians many of them in all ages have loved and carefully kept their Scriptures so that even those that disobey them John 5.39 have sought life in their respect to and reverence of the Books of them 〈◊〉 who I say that considers these things can believe either that God would permit such an universal corruption of all Copies or that it could possibly or at least probably be effected that so many persons in all parts of the world should conspire together to alter the Copies of the Scriptures especially seeing the things about this point as about many others are unanimously by all Copies that I have either ever read or heard of delivered to us Luk. 10.25 26. John 5.39 Matth. 22.29 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. 2 Pet. 3.2 3. Heb. 3.3 4. To wave that conceit therefore as openly Atheistical and Impious let it be held fast by us that it 's out safest way to believe and hold for true in this â—nd in all points of faith what the words and sayings of God delivered in the Scriptures and formerly confirmed by many Miracles Signs and Wonders wrought by him to be his propounds unto us which being premised let us nextly see 1. What God in the Scriptures plainly asserts and implies touching this point and 2. By and upon what grounds and reasons there also delivered And so we find 1. That the Scriptures mention in Heâ—ew a Sheol in Greek Hades which â—metimes we translate Hell though someâ—mes the Grave because in its largest use comprehends the whole disappearing â—ace of the dead good and bad and the â—aces of their receptacles as Bishop Vsher â—d others also have well noted but â—ough the Scripture uses those words ofâ— of the Grave or Common State of 〈◊〉 Dead yet sometimes they attribute it sorrows pains and torments and those too most exquisite and bitter aboâ—â— all others Job 3.12 13 14 15 16 c. which cannot agree to 〈◊〉 Grave and the State of the Body there which then and there is at rest beiâ— void of sense and therefore must need betoken some worse state and place 〈◊〉 the wicked deceased as to their foul That the Scriptures do speak of sorrow and torments in Sheol Hades or Hell 〈◊〉 clear in those passages Psalm 18.5 and 116.3 where David either in his owâ— person or with respect to Christ doth 〈◊〉 express the greatness bitterness and dâ—stressingness of his sorrows even urginâ— him in some measure to a kind of despair as in Psalm 116.10 11. call them thâ— pangs and sorrows of Sheol or Hell anâ— our Saviour implies the same more expresly and significantly of Hades or Hell in Luke 16.22 23. where he says thâ— wicked rich man after his death was iâ— Hell in torments where he though some what parabolically informs us that meâ— that live wickedly here in prosperity shalâ— after death go to torments of which hâ— implies that Moses and the Prophets havâ— admonished us in their writings that wâ— might take heed of them and surely such an Hell was signified and meant bâ— David Psalm â— 17 when he saith That the wickeâ— shall be turned into Hell end all the naâ—ons that forget God For if there he shoulâ— mean but the Grave that were to threâ— ten them with nothing worse than is alsâ— the portion of the righteous The like meant when David blesses God for delivering him from the lower Hell Psalm 86.13 Yet it is to be minded that the word Hell as signified by those words Sheol and Hades is not used in the New Testament to signifie the state of the wicked and place of their punishment after the Resurrection but of that which is between their Death and Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.55 Act. 2.27 31. Rev. 20.14 1.18 2. The Scriptures do evidently speak of a punishment of the wicked both in bodies and souls after the resurrection and sets it forth in divers terms signifying the severity and endlesness thereof As 1. It is called Gehenna and Gehenna ignis translated also Hell and Hell-fire or a Hell of Fire The word Gehenna is given it by way of allusion to the Vally of the Son of Hinnom a place near to the earthly Jerusalem where they used to cast out their unburied Carkases Rubbish and Raggs and burn them in a fire continually burning But that
it cannot signifie in our Saviours use of it that very place and fire or any such external punishment in this life as the above-mentioned Author would insinuate but a perpetual and everlasting punishment of the damned is evident 1. By our Saviours implying that God only can cast men into it and that after men have killed the body whereas if it were that very punishment or such like men might as well cast the body into it Matth. 10.28 Luke 12.5 Matth. 18.8 9. Mark 9.44 45. or the whole man while alive as kill the body 2. And by his saying God is able to cast the soul also after the body is killed into it as well as the body As also 3. By warning his Disciples and Hearers in general to pluck out the right eye where it offends c. rather than to be cast into that fire but to be cast into that Valley of Hinnom litterally or into any such like external punishment in this life we are not in any great danger of by retaining our lusts and corruptions Psa 73.3 4 5 6 Job 21.8 9 12 13. seeing we be very far remote from that place and many that live in their lusts live and dye in prosperity No nor yet doth it signifie any internal punishment here both because it 's a punishment after the body is killed and because it 's perpetual and everlasting as appears by other expressions joyned with it by which also it 's called as 2. It 's called the fire that shall never be quenched so Mark 9.43 to 49. 3. A Lake burning with fire and brimstone which is the second Death Re◠20.15 4. Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 those expressions of the Worm not dying an◠Fire that is not quenched are borrowed from Isa 66.24 which speaks of the punishment of the wicked in the time 〈◊〉 the new Heavens and new Earth ver 22. which is the time after the Resurrection and the Judgement Rev. 20. and 21. and it 's to be minded that not only that fire is said to be quenchable which may be extinguished while the combustable matter lasteth but also that which goes out of it self for want of matter to feed it it being all consumed for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to be quenched and of the which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is translated unquenchable is derived is used of the lamps of the foolish Virgins which went out for want of Oyl to feed them Matth. 25.8 And therefore if the fire of Gods wrath in which the wicked shall be burned shall end and go out as wanting matter to work upon they being thereby annihilated and their being totally destroyed as the said Author evades those sayings then could it not be called unquenchable And if the wicked should be annihilated in that Judgement must not their Worm needs dye having no subject to subsist in Those expressions therefore joyned with Gehenna as the others also which we have mentioned both signifie the being of such severe torments and punishments after the Resurrections as the worst of punishments here imaginable are but shadows of and also their perpetuity and endless duration which is also expressed in other phrases As 5. Everlasting punishment Matth. 2.46 and everlasting destruction 2 The◠1.7 8. That in Matth. 25.41 is with a◠Emphesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the everlasting fire The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated everlasting is indeed used in the Old Testament to signifie of a long continuance and sometime of an age but that is not its usual if ever its signification in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles but everlasting or never ending Matth. 25 46. it 's the same word that 's used to signifie 1. The lastingness of the life glory and happiness of the righteous and everlasting punishment is opposed to everlasting life as signifying a like duration of the one as of the other even as the fire of the Valley of Hinnom probably burn◠perpetually so long as the old Jerusalem was standing so those torments shall be of equal duration with the new Jerusalem the joy and glory of the Righteous even for ever 2. The duration of the honour and power ascribed to God himself that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too everlasting 1 Tim. 6.16 Yea. 3. The everlastingness of the being o◠God and Christ Rom. 16 2◠Isa 9.6 than which what can be more significant of never ending And yet not only that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 everlasting is used to this purpose but 4. It 's said the smoak of their torment ascends up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ages o◠ages even for ever and over Rev. 14 9 10. an Expression used to in the Glory and Honour ascribed to God and Christ and to set forth the Eternity of God and of his Living Rev. 1.6 and 4.9 and 5.13 14. So that the Scriptures are very Pregnant in laying down this Assertion and therefore it 's to be believed and dreaded and diligence is to be given in looking and yielding up to Christ to be accounted worthy to be delivered therefrom 2. As for the Reasons and Grounds of God's so Punishing they are by the Scriptures signified to be such as these 1. The Greatness and Majesty of God sin'd against and despis'd Deut. 10.17 Matth. 10.28 Luk. 12.5 Isa 27.31 Men Punish Traytors against their Life and Majesty with Bodily Death but God both Body and Soul in a Death as much beyond that of the Body as He is greater than Man that is sin'd against and despis'd Such great Punishment is but answerable to his Greatness as his other Works be 2. The Greatness Unspeakableness Deut. 32.5 6 7 8 9 21 22. Isa 1.2 3 4 5 24. Gen. 1.26 27. Psal 8.3 4 3. 49.12 and Infiniteness of the Love and Goodness of God in and by Christ toward Men that Rebel against him it notwithstanding He not onely inconceivably honoured us in raising us up at the first out of the Dust of the Earth and making us in his own Image Lords of his Works and capable of knowing and having Fellowship with himself but also when we were utterly lost was pleased so to set his heart upon us Joh. 3.16 17. Gal. 4.4 5. 3.13 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom 4.25 1 Pet. 1.21 24. Philip. 2.6 7 8 9. 1 Tim. 2.6 Isa 45.22 Psal 81.9 10 50.1 2. Prov. 1.20 21 22 23. Joh. 16.7 8 9.10 12 13 14 15. Gen. 6.3 Rom. 2.4 5. Psal 68.18 19 20. Job 33.16 29 Psal 68.21 Rom. 2.5 Heb. 6.6 7. 10.26 29. Jonas 2.8 as not to spare his ow◠Son but give him up to the Death the Death of the Cross to Redeem us again and impowred him to Save us and bring us to endless and infinitely Glorious Happiness His Son that was in his Form infinitely Glorious with God his Father was pleased also in Love to abase himself and lay
Exod. 12.3 aptly signifying Joh. 1 2â— That Lamb of God which God as Abraham said Gen. 22.8 would find out for himself for a Burnt-offering and representing his innocency harmlesness meekness profitableness and fitness to be a Sacrifice for us as also the in him is Blessing for all the Families 〈◊〉 the Earth which each of them should accept and seek for 2. Their Lambs were to be perfect of 〈◊〉 First Year a Male without blemish Verâ— 5. 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 2.22 〈◊〉 spot scab or defect in him representing the acceptableness of the Person of Christ to God and fitness for the Work of our Redemption as being without fault or spot of Sin before him nothing defective in him for making satisfaction and attonement for us nothing superfluous or that might be spared of a Masculine Spirit fervent in the business undertook by him in our behalf and of excellent sweetness and nourishment Vers 3. for us 3. Psal 89.19 20. Heb. 4.15 Isa 53.9 They were to take it out of the Flock of the Sheep or of the Goats or Kids to signify That Christ should be one with us of the common Nature of Mankind that is found in good and bad one chosen out of the People and in all points made like unto us yea that he should be numbred with the Transgressors and make his Grave with the Wicked and with the Rich in his Death yet without Sin in him 4. They were to keep it up Vers 6. till the Fourth day after their taking it perhaps to signifie that not till the Four thousandth Year or fourth time of the World Heb. 9.25 26. Christ was to be Manifest and brought forth to his death and Sufferings though set apart thereto in the beginning thereof 5. They were to kill it to signifie Vers 6. Luk. 24.26 Heb. 9.22 26. That the Messias must dye for our Sins no Remission of Sins but by his Blood-shed 6. They were to Kill it in the Evening or between the two Evenings between the declining and setting of the Sun 〈◊〉 signify That in the End of the World or last Ages of it he should appear once to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heh 9.26 7. The whole Congregation was to kill it to signifie That we all had a hand in the Death of Christ It was the Iniquity of us All that God laid upon him and so in some sense he Dyed by that is by occasion of us all and for All Isa 53.5 6. 2 Cor. 5.14 15. 1 Tim. 2.6 8. Vers 9. They were to rost the Flesh of it to signifie As the great Sufferings they had endured in Aegypt so much more the great and fiery Afflictions that should befall Christ in his Soul and Body yea it might note That He not onely should be killed or put to Death in the Flesh but also That his Soul should be in Hell for a time though not left there That he might as well endure the Miseries which our Souls in their seperate State from their Bodies should have endured as what we must have endured before in the Body Math. 26.38 39. and 27.46 Luk. 22.44 Act. 2.31 9. Vers 7. They were to sprinkle its Blood upon the Posts of their Doors the upper Post and the two side Posts but not upon the Threshold Heb. 10.22 29. 12.24 To signifie That he should be the Propitiotory or Reconconciliation for us through Faith in his Blood 1 Pet. 1.1 2. 2.5 9 1â— which being sprinkled upon our Consciences should be as a defence over and about us but must not be trod under foot or counted as a common thing by us and that in such obedience to and sprinkling of it being sanctifyed thereby God would spare us yea bring us out from the power of Sin and Satan and chuse us to be a People to himself to shew forth his praises 10. It was to be eaten by every Family Vers 4. â— To signifie That the way for us to be made partakers of the Death and Sacrifice of Christ and to live by him and be strengthned for our departure from Sin and Satan and walking after God in the Wilderness of this World is by a particular receipt and application of him to us or exercise of Faith in him as Cruciâ—yed for us as Gal. 2.20 Joh. 6.51.53 c. 11. It might not be eaten raw Vers 9. or sod in water but rosted To signifie perhaps that Christ not nakedly considered either as the Eternal Word or simply as made Flesh and giving himself as an Example to us in his Life or Suffering as an ordinary Man or any ways as the wisdom of the Flesh might represent him to us but as made an Offering for our Sins Christ as Crucified and therethrough prepared and made a meek Sacrifice for us yea and as lifted up and glorified by the Spirit of God to us is to be believed in and fed upon by us 1 Cor. 2.2 2 Cor. 5.14 15 16. Joh. 6.51 12. They were to Eat it whole Joh. 6.35 48 〈◊〉 53 54 55. its Heâ— with its Legs and the appurrenances thereof To signifie That whole Christ was given for us and is given to us and nothing of him is to be neglected by us His Deity his Humanity his Walking Words Actions Sufferings all good to be received meditated and fed upon by us all that appertained to him as Crucified for us He is altogether delectable Cant. 5.16 13. They were to Eat it that Night â—â—rs 10. not to leave of it till the Morning To signifie That in this World or dark time of this Life we are to live by the Faith of Christ and exercise Faith in his Death there will be no need of that in the Morning of the Resurrection Heb. 10.38 Gall. 3.25 as also it might signifie That the Ordinance and the rest of those shadows of the Law were but to continue till the day dawned till Christ appeared and was Dead and Raised and then no further need of those observations They were to Eat it with their Loyns Girt â—ers 12. their Shooes on their Feet their Staves in their Hands and in haste in a Posture ready to walk or travel out of Aegypt To imply That in minding and exercising Faith in Christ Crucifyed for us we are to gird up the Loyns of our Minds not to let them be seattered abroad upon vain things but to set them upon Christ and Heaven the true and heavenly Canaan and our Journey or March thither and to have the hope God's Salvation his Word as a Staff for our Support and so to have our Feet shod with the preparations of the Gospel of Peace ready in haste to follow after Christ out of this World from the Power and Dominion of Sin and Satan under Christ's Kingdom Government and Guidance unto the Glory to which He will carry us 15. vers 8. They were to Eat it with
entring his Kingdom here in its Spiritual State is We cannot enter his Kingdom but by being born of God nor further enter into it to be under the Regiment Power and Priviledges of it then as we are born of God namely of God as objectively discovered to us and looked to or known by us they that know thy Name will trust in thee and as efficiently and efficaciously working by his Power and Spirit in us And so Regeneration contains in it Healing Confirming and Conforming too or they may in the place above quoted be referred to the words after it and denote the time when they should receive their Honour and Reward viz. In the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory that is In the time of the Resurrection and so it signifies That the Regeneration is not compleated till the Resurrection when the Body also shall be changed and be found in the Spirit and Glory of Christ But here I do as usually men do in speaking of Regeneration speak of its First Acts Of making a man in Christ The overcoming of the Heart to close with and believe in God and Christ and depend on him and so the infusing the Spirit and Principles of new and heavenly Life into him And so I distinguish it from healing conforming Operations and it 's sometime included in Conversion as the end or ultimate acts in it as Conversion is usually meant of the Souls first turning to God for otherwise Souls after Regeneration falling into actual Sins or sinful frames must be Converted from them but as I said before it properly follows upon the heart turned to behold or look upon God and Christ as presented in his Gospel and it stands in the framing strengthning and overcoming the heart to close with rest in and rely on God in Christ in and through which his Spirit and Power Framing and Creating it in Christ doth enter into it possess and act it for and towards Christ Ephes 2.10 Numb 21.9 2 King 5.14 And this is by a certain creative Power whence that Phrase We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works Somewhat like the healing of the Israelites in their looking to the Serpent of Brass or the healing of Naaman washing in the waters of Jordan and it hath in it 1. A Spiritual quickening or inlivening of the Soul Psal 36.8 in its listening and looking to Christ to living affection to and likement of him and so desire after him through the presentation of the excellency of him as made known to and apprehended by the Soul as Phil. 3.7 2. A Spiritual quickning and strengthening of the Soul through the same Seed of the knowledge or word of Christ cast into the heart to a fleeing or betaking it self for refuge and rest to him and so to close with and hope in him and in God through him Heb. 6 18 19. Psal 9.10 3. A certain Spiritual inlivening of the Soul in him and upon him his mercy Gal. 2.20 goodness power faithfulness love c. and so to an acting in that life infused and put into it both towards God and towards man which the grace seen and believed by it operates works and begets yea and preserves and carries on in it and it unto and in It is set forth in Ezekiel 36.25 26. By the making the Heart and Spirit new by his Spirit and then putting in his Spirit into the Spirit made new the begetting a new judgment bent and disposition in the Soul and a new heart desire love affection toward God and Christ a new will purpose and resolution for him and then a putting his Word Power and Spirit into that Heart and Spirit renewed to live in it feed act and animate it in and for God according to his mind 4. His healing operations are a kin to those Regenerating operations and may be co-incident with his comforting operations too in part they are spoken of as fruits and consequents to Conversion Matth. 13.15 Least they should be converted and I should heal them but by comparing that with Mark 4.12 It includes or stands in the Remission of Sins at least as the necessary mean to it or womb put of which it proceeds for there for healing it is and their sins should be forgiven them Which by way of Metonomy may signifie and take in the consequents of forgiveness also such as 1. The speaking peace to them c. so the quieting pacifying and comforting of the Heart and Conscience in the sight and view of his goodness and knowledge of his love and favour towards it and of the forgiveness of Sins and hope of Happiness in which the heart-broken and disquieted with convincements reproofs and fears is healed 2. A renewing and rectifying the whole man in mind judgment will and affections and conversation sanctifying of him throughout filling him with right wholsome apprehensions and thoughts of God and Christ and himself and all things with right affections to God healing those distempers before in his heart and affections in their out-running after yanities and doting upon Idols taking offence at God and his Truth hateing what should be loved and loving what should either absolutely or comparatively be hated and so healing the passions fears cares anxieties and griefs of mind c. 3. A removing and taking off Wrath and Judgments that might formerly be inflicted on them for their rebellions or stubbornness against him yea and by degrees and in due time taking off altogether the Disease and Judgment that came upon us in Adam and through his Fall the power of natural Corruption â—nd dominion of Sin and the bodily infirmities and Death too in the Resurrection 5. Comforting Operations are in and through his Word or Truth as it is in Christ and by his hand power and spirit working therein and therewith in shewing help and remedy in Christ and in God and causing the Soul to apprehend and see it even suitable helps to all its needs and Exercises and by begetting lively hope in God and Christ for the receipt of that help both under its afflictions and in due time out of them all and by shewing the gracious and good end of God in his afflicting denying crossing suffering or ordering evils to it the lifting up reviving and chearing of the heart and spirit and maintaining the chearfulness and comfort of it in God as in John 14. He comforted the hearts of his Disciples by and through presenting to them God and his goodness towards them as an object therefore worthy to be believed in by them and himself as a constant lover of them that as well went away from them for their good as came and staid with them even for their helpfulness and salvation that he would send them another Comforter who also and more fully should comfort them by leading them into the Truth causing them to understand the Truths he now spake to them and giving them to
know his Presence with them even while to appearance and in his body absent from them c. His comforting Operations may be many or fewer according as he pleases and as he sees good to give and the conditions of his people require and they are meet for but they are all in and through his goodness and grace in Christ discovered as all his other gracious Operations be while he by his Spirit minds men of and opens to them his Love Power Wisdom Faithfulness his undertakings for them promises to them examples of his goodness and faithfulness to others in like cases and therein also sets before them the inconsiderableness of their Enemies Dangers Sufferings the lightness and momentaniss of them in comparison of the good afforded and promised them he raises up and incourages their hearts and fills them with assured hope and consolation 2 Thess 2.16 17. 2 Cor. 4.15 16 17 c. 6. His strengthning and confirming Operations are many of them of the same import and from the same spring with his comforting and healing Operations they are spoken of 1 Cor. 1 Cor. 1.6 7 8. 16.7 8. Eph. 3.15 16. 1 Pet. 5.10 And they differ little the one from the other and therefore I put them both together as under one Head onely his confirming Operations be such efficacies of his grace and workings of his Spirit as in and by which he opening his Truth more clearly to the heart and therein discovering the weakness of all opposite Principles or otherwise also evidencing his Presence with his Truth People and Ways doth make the heart more firm in belief of his Truth and so in resolution to cleave and adhere to it and to him in it and to his people and ways according to it begetting in the heart more assurance of their Rightness and of good success therein His strengthening Operations besides what hath been hinted of them in the foregoing Operations more respect oppositions resistances and assaults against men in Gods way either by Sin in men or by Satan and men from without them as also Afflictions Pressures and the like from the hand of God to stand under which and against all assaults the grace of God in Christ as it is sufficient to strengthen men so it doth it also by presenting such Motives from Rom. 5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11. and considerations of Gods love and goodness Christ's faithfulness to them and care and watchfulness over them and power and promises to save them the good and gracious ends of God in them and assurance of a good Issue out of them with other Arguments as the Gospel or Truth Revealed affords therethrough putting courage and resolution virtue and man-hood as it were into them so as to stand it out with patience and magnanimity to the end 7. His conforming Operations are of the like nature with his Renewing and healing and by the same means or mediums even the beholding the glory of Christ and of God in Christ as opened to men and by his Spirit effectually and by a certain creative force or power working therein as also by the same Spirit he will conform the body to his own glorious body at his coming onely there is this difference that in conforming the Soul Mind and Spirit to himself he works upon men in a way suitable to men living voluntary agents and in their exercise of themselves in the ways in which he leads them as in beholding his Glory presented by him before them and therefore men are capable of hindring themselves of their own good in that by turning away their minds from him unto vanity As Naaman might have hindred the healing of his Leprosie by coming out of the Waters of Jordan too soon viz. before he had washed the Seventh time though in continuing so to wash he could not hinder it God effecting it in him by a creative power But in the Resurrection and conforming of the Body to Christs glorious Body Christ will work purely Physically or Hyperphysically rather and irresistably as he wrought in creating things that had no voluntary agency in themselves at least none before he had made them or as he works upon natural agents or things as to make the Earth to Bud or the Corn to grow or more irresistibly then so to even as in making Heaven and â—arth But this pertains to the manner 〈◊〉 God's operation in these his gratious Workings before we speak to which we shall as we propounded consider the other kind of operations attributed to God and see what the Scriptures signifie to us concerning them CHAP. IX Of Operations in Wrath and Judgment attributed to God as Hardning Blinding Deceiving Men c. SECT 1. That the Scriptures Attribute these kind of Operations to God and that yet we are so to conceive of him in them as not to make him the Author of mens Sinnings GOd is said in the Scriptures to harden blind and deceive men and therefore that such Operations or Workings as tend to these things are Attributed to him is evident both in the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles for God is said by Moses to have hardned Pharaoh's heart and he said to Moâ— when he sent him to him that he wouâ— harden his heart so as he would nâ— let the people go Exod. 4.21 and 7.3 aâ— 9.12 And so he is said to have hardnâ— Sihons Spirit and to have made his heâ— obstinate that he might deliver him inâ— Israels hand Deut. 2.30 And Isaiâ— says by way of Expostulation Lorâ— why hast thou made us to erre from thy wayâ— and hardned our hearts from thy feâ— And Paul saith of God whom he will 〈…〉 hardneth And the Prophet Isaiah 〈…〉 quoted by the Evangelist said God haâ— blinded their eyes and hardned their heartâ— Joh. 12.40 It being God who bade thâ— Prophet go and make the heart of thâ— people fat and their ears heavy and shâ— their eyes lest they see with their eyes anâ— hear with their ears and understand witâ— their hearts and be converted and healed 〈…〉 Isa Zeph. 3.5 Jam. 1.13 17. 6.10 And God said to Ezekiel 〈…〉 If the Prophet be deceived I the Lord have 〈…〉 deceived that Prophet Ezek. 14.9 But 〈…〉 how may these things be looked upon aâ— the works and doings of God seeing the 〈…〉 just Lord will not nor can do iniquity 〈…〉 Let no man say when he is tempted 〈…〉 am tempted of God for God cannot beâ— tempted with evil neither tempteth hâ— any man every good gift and everâ— perfect giving is from above and cometâ— down from the Father of Lights with 〈…〉 whom is no variableness nor shadow oâ— turning Surely those things to deceiveâ— â—nd harden and make men obstinate and â—o blind men are the works of Satan â—nd how then can they be ascribed to God â—e most holy God who is of purer eyes â—en to behold iniquity much less then â—ay he make or impel or stir men up â—o do evil Surely therefore
we may find that the same acts or actions are in Scripture ascribed to God and to Man as to purging cleansing making the heart new c. tho yet differently and upon diverse accounts One Scripture saies Circumâ—â—se your selves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of the heart Jer. 4.4 Another saies The Lord will Circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God c. Deut. 30.6 One saying Cast away all your transgressions and â—ake you a new Heart and a new Spirit for why will ye die c. Ezek. 38.31 Another saies A new heart will I give you and a new Spirit will I put into you c. Ezek. 36.26 27. Some Scriptures say God and Christ purify and purge Men Acts 15.9 Tit. 2.14 Ephes 5.25 26. And others exhort men to purify and cleanse themselves and say that believers have purified their own hearts by the Spirit in obeying the truth as 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Pet. 1.22 The reason of which may be seen in what hath been said for therein it appears how both work and that there is an evident distinction between the manner of their workings to the same effect and so distint grounds for the attributions of the same works to both as 1. God is said to do those things and most properly in asmuch as he both prevents men with his grace in and by which he capacitates and inables and then also incites and stirs men up to do those things to cleanse purge and waâ— themselves c. and men yielding up themselves to him in the grace given them in his calls and counsels then his grace and God in and by it works also in with them yea acts in them the things required of them and produces the effects renews their hearts purifies their Spirit c. and yet 2. Men are said to do the same things inasmuch as through his grace theâ— yield up themselves to God and his grace to do those things in them in listening to him looking to and waiting upon him in the strength and motion of hiâ— grace preventing and accompanying them and in the meanes he vouchsafes them And so in acting forth by their powers and members the things which grace yielded to worketâ— in them to will and to do of good pleasure as that in Deut. 30 may clear it in that it renders the circumcising work of God to love and obey him as a consequent work to their being brought in the strength of his preventing grace in and with his afflicting them and again returning to them to call and subdue them afforded to them to listen to his voice and turn to him And so also doth that in 1 Pet. 1.22 and that in Rom. 6.12 13. and 8.13 Which speaks of yielding up our Members Weapons and Instruments of Righteousness to Holiness of mortifying the deeds of the body by the Spirit and purifying our souls by the Spirit in obeying the Truth clearly implying that both the Man and the Spirit are Agents differently working together in the same Works Much what like as a Scholar and his Master when the Master guides the Scholars hand and by it frames a Letter the Master doth it by the Scholars hand as an Instrument or Subordinate Agent and the Scholar by the Master as the Principal Agent Director Framer c. The Scholar yields his hand and the Master uses it even so the Spirit doth those things in us by our Faculties and in our Obedience and we in obeying the Spirit do them by the strength power and guidance of the Spirit So as that neither doth the Spirit those things in us without our compliance and obedience nor do we noâ— can we do them in and of our selves but by the Spirit yielded to by us and leading strengthning and governing of us Thence the Scripture also represents the believing Man or Man called of God as a third person between two others calling for his subjection and obedience the new Man and the Old the flesh and the Spirit the flesh moves him to give up his mind and members unto it and its motions and the Spirit on the contrary challengeth them for his and moves excites and provokes to his service If the man yield up to the Flesh it becomes his Master and He its servant framed more into its mind and if the man through the grace of God yield up himself to the Spirit then the Spirit in and by him as his Master works the works of God creates him in Christ Jesus to good works and renews him more and more by his Divine Power and influence as is to be seen Rom. 6.11.12 13 14. c. and 8.2.4.12 13. Gal. 5.16.17 18. Ephes 4.17 18.20 21. But yet let this be also minded that that which God requires of man is not properly and formally Gods working or operation no more then the Childs yielding his hand to his Master and moving it in his Motion is properly and formally his Masters holding and guiding his hand and framing the Letter with it And so neither doth God fault men for not doing that of and by themselves which is properly the work of his power to do nor for not doing that that is properly his operation but for not doing that which is theirs to do by his grace afforded them That is their not yielding themselves to him and moving in his Motion for their two operations are so distinct Ezek. 24.13 Isa 48.17 18. Jer. 13.10 11. Rom. 2.4 5. as that they may be also seperated and the withdrawing of the one prevent or hinder the other whence God is said to have purged Men and yet they not purged to teach Men and yet they not taught by him to make Men cleave to him and yet they not cleave to him but refuse to hear him to lead Men to repentance and yet they not led of him inasmuch as God prevented and followed them with his grace to have moved and provoked them to those things which yet they refusing to yield themselves to him in were not done the effects of Gods grace and profit of his teachings missed by them Which stubbornness of Men in refusing him and his operations provokes him to leave them and then the things he offers to work and in some sence is working in them as the fire burneth under the Pot that purges the Scum from the Water Ezek. 24.3.4 5.13 that it might be cast off by the Servant are never effected nor can be but they perish in their Sins For as God worketh not such effects in Men without their Members and Powers yielded to him and working instrumentally and subordinatly under him So neither can Men work or effect those things in themselves without God and his Spirit or he withdrawing from them which should provoke us to diligence in listening and yielding our selves as obedient Children to him not quenching his Operations in us nor provoking him to wrath against us least in his wrath he
so fore-known and purposed to be by some more special irresistible way brought in to God and preserved with him by such grace as for the want of which the rest must needs perish because denied to them 4. That though the Universalists Conclus 4. so called do deny the foresaid apprehension of the Particularists or Limiters of the Grace of God as in the close of the foregoing Conclusion is rejected yet it folâ—ows not that they must needs be Aequaâ—ists as to matter of dispensation or opeâ—ation or purpose thereabouts according to Arithmetical proportion or evenâ—ess for they grant as hath been shewed That 1. There are diversities of dispensations to and operations in and upon Unbelievers to bring them to believe not all so openly called by the Gospel as some not all Persecutors so struck down as Saul not so strangely and strongly prevented yea it 's remarkable as to this that there is difference between the first setting up the Name and Church of God amongst people and his after-drawings thereto In the first setting up a place for his Name or making known his Truth and Worship God went forth with stronger hand and stranger works for evidencing his Truth and manifesting Himself that people might more clearly know where to seek him and wait upon him than afterwards when he had made such discoveries of himself and of the places and people where his Name more gloriously dwelt As in bringing in Israel to himself at first and taking them for to be a peculiar people for his Name he went forth more gloriously with Signs and Wonders and mighty Works confirming his Truth and manifesting his Church and himself in it than afterward as expecting that when he had set up a Church and discovered as it were the place of his residence people should after ward resort to him upon the account 〈◊〉 his first discoveries though all undâ— those dispensations and mighty operation in and amongst them received not hiâ— Grace alike So also when he first glorified his Son Jesus as come in the flesh and upon the Jews rejecting him took out of the Nations a people for his Name that so and there the residue of men might seek him he bare witness to his truth and people by more glorious evidences and demonstrations from Heaven by many Signs and Wonders and Gifts of the Holy Ghost than since he hath done as Acts 2.22 23. and 15.14 15 16 17. with Verse 12. Heb. 2.4 5. as expecting that all after-ages his truth and people being so discovered should resort and cleave to those truths and ordinances to which he hath given so clear testimony that they be his though neither did all under those dispensations receive his Grace alike 2. It is dispensations to and operations in believers are not all in that sense equal or alike to some even of them is more given to some less and in some he works more and otherwise than in others distributing to and working in every one according to his good will 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6 7. yea and as Christ on earth was pleased to manifest more love and endearedness in more choice ways to some of his Disciples than others as it 's said Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus with a kind of intimated emphaticalness John 11.5 and John is called his beloved Disciple John 13.23 so he yet pleases to love some believers more than others as to manifestations of love and love-secrets to them and to the making them of or fitting them for more usefulness to men Though 3. His dispensations to and operations in all believers as such are of more special and choice favour though perhaps not with so great outward means and priviledges in means as to some than to and in other men not believing His operations in them may be with less strife and wrastling with them than in those that believe not because he finds less reluctancy usually The more grace is got into and is retained by any one with the more facility he is usually led as Prov. 2.10 11. Psal 119.32 I will run the ways of thy Commandments says David when thou shalt have enlarged my heart but yet his dispensations and operations are of a more owning approving and justifying nature and of more sweet and comfortable concernment to them than to any others 4. Yea we assert his liberty in general to make of the same lump one Vessel to honour and another to dishonour as in the case of Jacob and Esau one to be highly priviledged and another of the same lump to be for meaner imployment and service and yet so as may stand with real love to both so as that he is ready to accept the vessels of dishonour in their submission to his government and seeking him as Grace is afforded as an Edomitâ— might find room in the third generation to be admitted into the Lord's Congregation to be united with the honoured Nation Deut. 23.7 8. Yea if any man cleanse himself from pollution by the Grace afforded him he shall be a vessel of honour fitted for the Master's use 2 Tim. 2.20 21. Vessels of dishonour may be made vessels of mercy and honour too Jer. 18.4 5 10 11. When as vessels of honour lifting up and abusing themselves in their honour may be made vessels of wrath and dishonour as in the Angels that fell and as in Jer. 9.25 26. and and 22.24 Though Coniah were a signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck him thence c. Such our apprehension and judgment according as we conceive to the Scriptures alledged So that though we be Universalists in asserting God's grace in Christ for and to all and Equalists in asserting the equity of his dealings with all yet we be not Equalists in asserting like Dispensations and Operations as to measure manner or continuance afforded to all Thus for the Conclusions SECT 2. Positions touching God's Grace and Mans Will in the Work of Conversion I Shall add some few Positions about the working of God's Grace and the Will of Man in or in tendency to Mans Conversions Positions that I had sometime intended for a Neighbour Minister had providence so ordered and he accepted They are these that follow 1. Position 1. That the Will or Soul of Man is by nature wholly bond and thrall as to any Spiritual motion or action so as it hath no liberty from sin to move Godward Eph. 2.1 2 3. Joh. 8.32 33 34. 2. That the Will or Soul as capable of willing is at liberty naturally to chuse or refuse civil and moral actions and external and natural objects as to go to the Church or Ale-house to read the Bible or a Play-book though naturally much readier to the worse than to the better John 21.18 Acts 5.4 1 Cor. 7.36 37. 3. That God in and by his calling and preventing men with his Grace in Christ doth effect in them some freedom and liberty beyond what they have naturally in themselves before such