plucked out of the fire being found to be one of the flock of God once and for ever No marvell then though our Apostle saith Go too now unto the wicked and wealthy in point of Pharisaical excellencies for as the state of death and darknesse discovered by the Gospel doth sharpen and provoke the godly unto joy thankfulness for their deliverance and escape therefrom Even so doth the state of life and peace discovered in the Saints by the same Gospel sharpen provoke the wicked to enmity and despair which is the expelling of the spirit of God quenching the same in themselves Therefore he bids them weep howl for the misery that cometh upon them hereby and by weeping he signifies unto them the departure and loss of all good even that life of the Lord Jesus whom they crucifie afresh unto themselves and make a mock of him in whose life all goodnesse is treasured up and comprehended which unto them is vanished as a vapour therefore he bids them weepe for the losse of good causeth tears and by howling he minds them of that present wrath and torture which abides upon them and possesseth them which however it may lye as Dormant for a time yet this sin of killing Chrst in the Spirit is the same with that of Caines killing his brother and lies at the door as the proper and only in-let of the deluge of Gods wrath into the soule and indeed into the world For it cuts off the Sonne of God from being propagated and brought forth in the world according to the spirit and power proper to himselfe as that wicked act of Cain cut him off from being brought forth in his geneologie after the flesh in the way of Abel and so makes a nullity of Schin that makes all things and therefore must have all guilt in it which is the doore and in-let for execution of vengeance Therefore he adds for the misery that shall come upon you or as the word may be read in the present tense is come upon you For in these twain that is to say in the losse of all good and the possession of all evill perfect misery and wretchednesse doth consist The word translated Howle in the Hebrew is Shadad and signifies to destroy of which Zadai is derived a title given unto God signifying power or Almighty and here is an elegant allusion unto the etymologie of the originall phrase used by the Prophets signifying unto us that no less then Gods Almighty power is exercised and put forth to the utmost in the scattering and destruction of all such as stifle the Son of God in the breathings of his holy Spirit in themselves by preferring glorying in other things before it or as it is in others by vilifying contemning and persecuting it whereupon the next phrase is brought in viz. Vers 2. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are motheaten THat is all the substance they enjoy boast of and glory in is putrified and changed from that which otherwise and else-where it is for they adulterate the holy word of God unto themselves by subjecting and prostrating the same unto their owne lusts of pride cruelty and vain-glory as though such things were the naturall fruits of it they bring them forth and also nourish and foster them by it as a Harlot doth a child in an adulterous way that is after the way of the letter that kills and not in the way of the Spirit that gives out the life of the Lord Jesus Therefore it is that above he calls them adulterers and adulteresses telling them that the love of the world is enmity with God that is that which the world counts love in the height and top of affection is the proper malice and enmity of Caine whereby he kills and crucifies him who is not ashamed to call his Saints brethren being flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone And we must know that there is a unity in the Harlot as well as in the true Espousall For hee that is joyned unto an harlot is one flesh for two saith he shall be one flesh By twaine there is not meant creature and creature joyned together but God and the Creature are become one in that way of the harlot that is they are become one carnall corrupt and sinfull estate for there is as neere a unity between God and man in that man of Sin unto all unrighteousnesse in prophaning all the holy things of God unto destruction in which the holy one is cleare from being a proper actor or agent in any of them all as there is in Christ that man of God unto all righteousnesse and holinesse by setting sinfull man apart to all honour in salvation whereby being joyned unto the Lord is made one spirit with him that is they twayn are but one holy happy and righteous estate and condition wherein man is excluded from being any proper agent or actor as in any thing proper and naturall to the Creature So that man putrifies and corrupts the Son of God in himselfe through principles and aptitudes of mind proper to a Creature but not unto God subjecting the things of God to the law of the carnall Commandement naturally ingraffed and written in mans spirit which is the law of sin and death And God sanctifies and makes holy man in himselfe through principles and aptitudes proper to the Creator himselfe and not unto the Creature by subjecting it to the will of God according to his wisdome which is that state of righteousnesse and law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The proper riches and excellencies of the world then are corrupted and are become the proper mammon of iniquitie for however they may count upon truth to come within the compasse of their estates and reckonings to advance their excellencies thereby yet it is corrupted unto them for they have changed the truth of God into a lye Indeed they lay claime to Jesus as a Saviour on whom they hang all their vanishing carnall and Spider-web like hopes But he is corrupted and as a moth in them being become Shadad or Shedim a waster and destroyer They monopolize Churches and Congregations of God unto themselves but they are corrupted and are become Synagogues of Satan and an assembly of evill doers For they are no true Church of Christ or congregation of the first born of God whose names are recorded in heaven that so expound the word of God as they can but apply some one part thereof as their present ornament and furniture for they may as well as indeed they do lay aside some part of Christ for the present and so divide him and make a nullity of him as to lay aside some part of the word of God as not in present use in their dayes being a garment not holding proportion with their composed body But the true Church knowes that the end of the Law is Christ and can tell how to adorn it selfe in
entire simple and undivided act in him and in them also bearing the same forme containing the same virtue subject to the same reproach by the men of the world as also of like joy and acceptation as of old unto the godly by whom it is said Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Zion shout O daughter of Jerusalem behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just saving himselfe lowly and riding upon an Asse and upon a colt the foal of an Asse Consider the word of God brought not forth in the begining the sun moon and stars or any creature upon the face of the earth to be of one nature and virtue in one age of the world and of another nature and virtue in another time or age thereof no more doth the word of God bring forth the sufferings of the Son of God to be of one kinde and virtue in one man of God and of another kinde power or virtue in another man of God or in one age to be really present with the Disciples and in another age to be far remote for they are all one individuall act in that one multiplyed Saint or holy one of Israel And so are the sufferings of Christ according to the spirit in the man of sin and sons of Beliall which crucifie the Son of God afresh unto or in themselves putting him to an open shame it is not one in Pharaoh and another in Herod it is not of one nature or kinde in Cain and of another in Judas it is not one in the Scribes and Pharasees and another in the wicked Lawyers and Souldiers it is not of one nature and kinde io that Antichrist and son of perdition and of another nature and kinde in the Devil and Satan But it is one simple and eternall act of that one man of sin multiplied into many Antichrists which are now working already in the world according to the power of the Prince of the ayre the spirit which now worketh in the children of unbelief unto which Christ speaks as unto one saying what is thy name the answer implies both the singular and plurall number my name is Legion for we are many For we must remember that what soever the law saith it saith unto them or as the word is in them who are under the law that is whatsoever the law of the spirit speaks now the law of the spirit of life is in Christ Jesus according to which he submits to the will of his Father that ancient of days in all things as also rules over all temporary and carnall power for there is nothing in Christ as wherein he submits but it hath the virtue of authority therein also and whatsoever this law saith it saith it in all that are subjects unto the same and gives being to what it utters as the word did to all things in the beginning so that if it speak of faith in any it speaks without respect of persons according to that impartiality which is in it self so that where it utters faith it is in the powerfull work of faith as a work wherein the Son of the eternall is involved in whom it hath its virtue and power if it utter alone it sheds it abroad in the heart in the labour of it as that wherein God dwels who is composed of it if it speaks of hope it is not deferred but springs up in the soule as that tree of life in the Paradise of God and if it speak of suffering it creates the Crosse not in any other form and virtue but in that wherein it takes its being from the beginning even as it was at the first with the creation in the operation of the word in bringing forth all creatures to exist and have a being When it made the Sun it formed it in that virtue that abides the same in all ages and so it is with all creatures receiving their being and virtue by that word even so whatsoever the law of the spirit saith it gives the same being and virtue thereunto in all that are under that law whether it concerne humiliation or exaltation death or resurrection the being of the Lord the Saviour or the saved of the Lord. For what or in whom-soever it speaks it saith it to the reallizing of it selfe in the thing spoken and that without exclusion of any one particular or including any one more then the rest which are found under the same law For as unto us there is but one God so there is but one Image of that God which is his wisdome made manifest in Christ which is the proper and perpetuated form of Christ wherein soever he is manifest and of all true Christianity in all ages of the world We must therefore either take Christ or a christian forme being under the law of the spirit and then there is no other seat to set him in but under the dominion of the flesh that law of sin and death or else the Crosse expressed and maintained according to that law of the spirit is the same in Christ and in every Christian in all respects For it is that circumcission made without hands that is without any wisdome or ability proper unto or atainable by man namely the cutting off of that superfluous foreskin of the flesh which is superfluous to the fulnesse of Gods wisdome and power which is the proper hinderer and obstructor of the propagation of the Son of God Therefore this circumcission is to be exercised upon every male in the family of God and that by divine institution that is upon every one who have that masculine spirit of the Son of God to acquit themselves like men of God by faith conquering and overcoming the world for this circumcision onely brings the soule of man into a capacity of having the power of God to be exercised therein in which is that fulnesse and perfection that all things natural or proper to a creature are altogether superfluous and therefore it is said to be Circumcision or cutting round so as no beginning or end of this virtue can ever be found out for it is eternall Againe there is also the law of the carnal commandement or the carnall law and whatsoever that speaks it saith it onely in them and in all them respectively that are under that law And this consists in carnall and temporary ordinances and institutions such appointments as fade and perish in the use such as abide not with man or he not with them for ever and what this law saith it saith it in all and every particular that are under the same that is it reallizeth it selfe in every heart wherein it speaks forming and framing a work therein according to the word gone out for she word of God speaks that language in a figure which mans heart naturally speaks taking that by viewing it by his own light to be the substance and reality of the minde of God in his intent but is but a shadow a figure or signification thereof thereby carnallizing
power of the resurrection from the dead as it is said the Lord shall raise him up there is in prayer a Lord-like authority to rise out of that grave of sin and sorrow of death and destruction so as none shall have dominion over it to keep it under for it cannot be held of death but it will remove the stone from the Sepulchre and deface and break open the seal of Herod himselfe though set upon it by the cheif Preists and Pharisees making it as sure as they can it will make the house of the carnall Jews to shake when the Apostles of Christ are gathered together or brought into unity and harmony by that reconciling spirit of interpretation It will make the foundations of the Prison to shake where the spirit of our great Apostle is infringed casting open the doors and laying wast such power to the astonishment of the Jaylors themselves whoever they may be yea it will raise Peter up out of the dungeon and cause his chains to fall off from his hands to his own admiration and wonder In a word prayer hath in it the power and vertue of the resurrection because it is the breathing of the Son of God returned from death to life this word behold he prayeth was an argument sufficient to prove Paul change from a Saul and to be risen up out of that grave and puddle of the Jewish litteral and carnall worships and from that deadly spirit of persecution which ever accompanies such maner of services Thirdly prayer hath in it the power of pardon and forgivenesse of sins for if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him or in the present tence as the word will bear they are forgiven him that is to every one that partakes in this prayer of faith To commit sin here is to be understood in a two-fold respect that is negatively and affirmatively of which the breach of law being sin doth consist now to sin and prove a delinquent in omitting and not doing that which is required is to neglect and leave undone that which the carnal commandement according to the strict spirit of a Pharisee calls for such sin or missing of the rule of the carnall commandement standing in outward ordinances is here to be understood which is the onely sin condemned by a carnall Jew and this law the prayer of faith doth rout ravell undo and abrogate with respect unto the obligation thereof in the true intent of a Pharasaical Jew And against this law doth true prayer sin in all its supplications intercessions and requests for the prayer of faith observes not in the least in any point that law of the spirit of bondage which onely obligeth to the law of the flesh nor can it keep and perform that spirit of enmity which Christ Jesus nailes to his Crosse and slays in himselfe and therefore a sinne in a Saint in way of negation against the affirmative part of the law of the flesh Againe there is a sin committed affirmatively and that is by reall acting and doing according to the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord which the wisdome of man in that carnall law forbids and that under the penalty of errour schism heresie pride blasphemy and death it self For every point of the law of the spirit rightly composed according to the prin ciples and grounds of faith is most heinous wicked detestable sinfull and abominable in the eyes of a carnal man Now the breach disannulling and abrogating of the carnall command for which the Jewes so hated Christ is the truth of the matter the reality and ever carries in it the remission pardon and forgivenes of sins in the Saints as surely as the breach of the law of the spirit and that everlasting Covenant of God carries in it guilt crime and is the condemnation of the world For every sin and blasphemy against the Son of man that is against the wisdome will power and authority of the arme of flesh shall be forgiven or it is forgiven for it hath the acquittance general discharge and release in it self but he that speaks aagainst the holy spirit that is against that law of the spirit or spirituall estate of that holy one of God it shall never be forgiven that is he that breaks the law of the spirit in any word or thing as the phrase imports it hath in it that guilt which can never be wiped out neither in this world that is in time present nor in the world or time that is to come or not in this world that is in the conscience of the party so made guilty nor in the world to come that is in that sentence of the righteous Judge which doth for ever adjudg and condemn it so that as the breach of the spiritual law hath in it an eternall guilt unseperably and enevitably fastned unto it and accompaning the same even so hath the breach or abrogation of the carnall law an everlasting pardon and acquittance before God fastned unto and ever accompaning the same Note in this point that the Levitical law which the Apostle apposeth to the law of an endlesse life doth not condemn because men fall short in some particulars of the fulfilment of the same but it condemns and is death unto him that walks according to the same or lives thereafter Therefore our Apostle saith If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that is if yee live according to the law of the carnall commandement for by it no flesh can be justified or if yee minde the things of the flesh that is as the word signifies if ye frame form or fashon things unto your selfe according to the carnall command art or reason of man concerning the affairs of God it is death but to live after the spirit that is the law of the spirit or spirituall law is life and peace or to minde the things of the spirit that is to form frame and fashion things spiritually that is life and peace and as the one of these is sin according to mans wisdome and his accounts even so is the other sin according to Gods wisdome and his reckoning and account judgement and doom passed upon it by an eternall and unchangeable sentence There is pardon then and power of forgivenesse in prayer because it is God that sitteth upon that throne of grace judging unto justification who then shall condemn for it the spirit of grace and supplication whereof prayer doth consist yea it is the Son of God who is justified who then shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen that holy one of God For wherever the spirit and vertue of Christ is there is power to forgive sins therefore he saith to stop the mouth of those legall Pharisees whether is it easier to say thy sins are forgiven or to say take up thy bed and walke but that you may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive sins on earth therefore I said
in the destroying Angel to cause him to passe over as not having any employment there Even so the blood of Abel shed by the cruelty of Cain as a Lamb slain from the beginning according to the spirit or by the subtilty of Judas betraying him with a kisse hath in it a sufficient cry in the destroying Angel to move the exercise of wrath upon the first born of Aegypt the beginning top of all that strength wherein they trust who cruelly and fraudulently keep back Israel from his advance unto the land of Canaan The one hath in it the voyce and language of peace reconciliation and agreement with God as his first-born and onely beloved The other hath in it breach of brother-hood and fellowship the voyce of a vagabond flying from Gods presence and the glory of his power as in Caine and wrath unto self-murther and destruction as in Judas Iscariot that Confessor or Preacher for hire as his name signifies in whom the word of God in it selfe Lord over all is changed and transformed into an hireling 6. This cry enters into the eares of the Lord for as there is a certaine propencity in the eare of a man to take in any sound that moves the ayre and to give it a true and proper form his heart ecchoing the same thing whether it be matter of joy or matter of terrour Even so there is nothing that moves either in the proper sphere of Gods displeasure or of his acceptation and love but there is a proper and immediate aptitude in his wisdome and power to receive and give a true form thereunto according to the nature thereof ecchoing the same thing in returning an answerable and proportionable measure of wrath or mercy into that heart in which it moves where he hath place of a boad either in way of mercy as man by unity is become the Son of God in Christ or else in wrath as God is by unity also become the sonne of perdition in that way of Antichrist 7. And therefore that terme and title of honour is given him namely the Lord of Sabboth or Sabboths plurally for that which the Prophet Isaiah writes the Lord of Hosts plurally the Apostle to the Romans writes the Lord of Sabboth that is the Lord of Rest or plurally Rests and this declares unto us that wonder of Gods rest or cessation from his work and labour in the beginning and and how he worketh also even untill now For God rests and there is an absolute cessation of all works and operations proper to the Son of God in that way of the fall eating of the forbidden fruit or exercise of the carnall commandement in which no vertue motion or operation of the spirit is found but an utter and absolute cessation from them all and so the earth is sayd to enjoy its Sabboths by Gods laying of it wast from its inhabitants and in this condition the operations of the flesh and power of Satan are found and frequently in exercise Againe God resteth and ceaseth from labour for we never understand the name God in a good and proper sence but with respect unto God in Christ by whom the worlds were made and in him God rests and there is an utter and totall cessation from all the works of sin and death fruits of the flesh and operations of Satan which mans nature is subject unto there is a perpetuall rest cessation and sabbatizing in the Son of God from them all but there is a most glorious operation of the spirit and powerfull work of the Son of God in that estate and condition of Jesus Christ who is that rest that yet remayns in the people of God therefore it is said hitherto the father worketh and I worke and therefore the word Saba in the Hebrew tongue signifies either Sabboth a Rest or an Host or Armie and sometimes the Apostles in Greeke translates it Lord God Almighty to declare that there is an Almighty power of conquest in whomsoever the rest is found for there is an Almighty power of the whole host of Satans enmity in conquering and subduing the spirit and vertues of Christ in themselves resting from them all And there is an Almighty power of the spirit of grace in that Army of Heaven and order of the Son of God in vanquishing and subduing of all the power of sin and Satan unto that perfect rest which ever remayns in that only and beloved Son of God And truly the world may as well preach the temporall sword to be the Rescue Reformer and Conservation of the Church as the best and greatest Councell Synods Synodrians and Assemblies that ever were or can be gathered together only in the strength and power of humane learning wisdome experience and policy for in such the Lord is in array as an host and in rest and cessation but it is to do that work that strong worke of wrath not proper to the Son of the blessed whereby he rests from all his owne operations as the ensuing words do declare Vers 5. Yee have lived in pleasures on the earth and been wanton yee have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter YOu have lived in pleasure on the earth as Dives or that rich man did that is you have taken delight and made it your very living to exercise your selves in earthly and temporary things all your dealings and commerce is in such things as your selves cannot but confesse must have an end and cease to be and therefore earthly as your bodily fasts and humiliations your bodily feasts and verbal thanksgivings for vanishing things your Sabboths only in cessation from bodily labour your earthly victories and honourable achievements these are the food you feed on the things wherein your delight and pleasure is set and must they not have an end If so then are they earthly because they fade and vanish as the flower of grasse Nay the order of your Churches and Elderships the ordination and institutions of your Oracles and Orators will these stand with the Assembly and Church of the first-born of God whose names are enrolled in heaven where every one hath a like share and equall right to all the offices orders and priviledges of the kingdome if not they are earthly composed by the ministery of the letter that kills and not by the law of the spirit of life Add further what is your faith your prayers and righteousnesse are not these earthly and carnall as held and practised by you Can you tell what use to put them unto in your professed world to come I tro not for for any thing that ever I could learn from the common Priesthood of these dayes they have no use of the imputed righteousnesse of the Son of God when once their sanctification is compleated nor of their faith when they have attayned the end of it which they say is at their coming to heaven nor of prayer when they shall need no more to converse with or have supply of
God condemning such as justifie the words of wisdome which only sets forth the folly of the world or else it appears not And they only love the works of darknesse and dare not come to the light least their deeds should be discovered 2. They do not only condemn but they kill the Just one and that in a two-fold respect First consider that a thing is said to be killed when it is expelled the proper place of its aboad so it is slain in way of negation and denying it its right and due Deny a fish the water and it is killed take a plant out of the earth and it withereth take water out of the Sea and it moves not in ebbing and flowing and deny any thing the benefit of the ayre and it cannot live no not the water nor the fire it selfe Now man-kind is the proper place of Gods residency and abode in the exercise and manifestation of his wisdome delighting himselfe in the habitable parts of his earth even in the sons of men But where the wisdome of the flesh beares sway and makes its abode there the wisdome of God is denyed any place of residency therefore Christ who is the wisdome of God and the power of God lives not there in any of his operations and vertues for as Jacob said of Joseph he is not that is he is not living in that heart 2. He is killed actually by laying violent hands or administrations upon him to the quenching of his spirit whereby he becomes life-lesse in the world haling him to the places of execution for Christ never appeared or was known in the world but by vertue of an office and institution For how can a King appeare but by vertue of his inauguration or a Prophet but by or in the spirit of a Prophet Or what is a Priest if he have not somewhat to offer for he cannot be a Priest without Christ appears not but by vertue of institution and commission to execute perform and do the will of the Father therefore he saith I come not to do my owne will but the will of him that sent me Now to institute temporary Ordinances and offices vanishing and fading not holding correspondency with the nature and constitution of Christ it is to destroy and thrust out the proper spirit and authority of Christ as it not having a being in the world For to frame an Office or Ordinance of Christ and not to have the spirit of Christ is to destroy and abolish unto themselves that mysticall body of Christ even as a naturall body deprived of the soule that gives it life is thereby abolished and turned to putrifaction Let us consider then how to form Ordinances and establish offices and Officers of Christ for if they have not in them the spirit of Christ they will prove no better then those legall and Jewish services taken up from Moses as representing the letter of the Scripture and accordingly practiced in the dayes of Christ by Herod Pontius Pilate Scribes Pharisees Lawyers and Souldiers and the whole body of the people who cryed out crucifie him crucifie him away with him When water in the River or Pond hath the spirit of life from God in it then we shall count it as an Ordinance of Christ when bread and wine on the Table have the spirit of mortification of the flesh and quickning power of the resurrection of Christ in them then will they prove spirituall Ordinances of Christ beseeming the son of the living God For there is no office exercise or ordinance proper to the kingdome of God that is voyd and destitute of the holy spirit of the Son of God who is that great ordinance of God in whom every particular is wrapped up and infolded and not one of them barren or destitute of the same spirit of life from God otherwise all Ordinances and offices taken up from Christ and his Apostles are of the same nature of those taken up from Moses in Christs days and shall prove of the same effect when ever Christ appears for the one stands upon the proper letter of the Scripture as well as the other and Satan can alledg the Scripture to back his temptation as well as Christ doth for the confounding of him Now if the spirit and life of such Ordinances depend upon the Priests and Elders the Instituters and Conservators of them why should they then contend with those which they call Papists but joyne hand in hand as being one with them Let us remember therefore that If we bereave the body of the proper soule and spirit of Christ we abolish and destroy the Just one and turn him to corruption unto our selves 3. The next poynt is the demeanor of the just And he resisteth you not that is he doth not stay or hinder your project violence from execution he doth not detain nor keep back himself from you but patiently suffers himself to be dispoiled of all his vertues and excellencies in you which are the native and proper operations of the Son of God ceasing from his own work in you that you may take your full swinge in that which is proper and naturall unto you as to exercise your pride and policy your principalities powers of darknesse your spirituall wickednesses in high places according to the Prince of the power of the ayre That wheresoever any heart is empty and destitute of she spirit of God hee insinuates himselfe to be the fulnesse of it that according to that plenty of wickednesse the wrath of God may finde fuell to kindle it selfe upon and so he freely without resistance layes downe his life in the wicked as a ransome that he may take it againe in his Saints and in them live for ever And so much for the death of Christ according to the spirit in the men of the world who crucifie afresh unto themselves the sonne of God and make a mocke of him And from this our Apostle infers an exhortation consisting of divers particulars which do concern the death of Christ according to the flesh as he is considered in the Saints and that is the second generall head in the Chapter which is contained to the 12. verse And with respect unto death in both these respects the Apostle Paul saith God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified in me and I am crucified in the world Vers 7. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord behold the husbandman waiteth for the precifruit of the earth and hath long patience for it untill he receive the early and latter raine Wherein observe 1. The terme or kinde appellation Brethren 2. An exhortation in these words Be patient 3. How long or to what end To the coming of Christ 4. An allusion to a husbandman with respect to his seed-time and harvest 1. ANd first for the term given unto them Brethren which is with respect unto that
supplicant humbly prostrates the cause in the necessity of and with respect unto supply which is the glory of its office so to doe And the suppleo yeelds relief and supplies the necessity and it is the glory of its office so to do and if either of these be wanting in a Christian spirit it subsists not because it is not the spirit of the Son of God in whom is power to forgive sins as well as to make supplication for pardon So that the glory of the speaker in prayer or pleader of the cause before the Judge of all the earth is one reall glory and the glory of the sentence passed thereupon is another real glory but both but one act of the law the glory of the speaker in prayer as Daniel calls it is to open the cause holding plea upon true principles unto the point of issue now Christ is the end and issue of the law in all points of relation and causes depending between God and man whatsoever Againe the glory of the Judge is to passe sentence according to the law in the point of issue so that the cause pleaded and Judgement given is but one act of the law which is Christ and in case either of these be wanting in a Christian he ceaseth to be that law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lordship and is become that law of sin and death So that the party praying and the party prayed unto are one in point of hypostacis and being and the party or office of prayer and the party or office of hearing or answering are twain in point of the variety in reallity of glory for God and man are compleatly in unity in them both else Christ is divided Even as it is said that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive which the Apostle affirms to be the saying of Christ though we finde no such place in Scripture in so many words so that it may seem that the whole Gospel or speech of Christ is summed up therein namely in giving and receiving as he saith to his Disciples in sending them out to preach freely you have received and freely do you give so that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive that is it is another thing a further glory a various vertue in the Sonne of God as if he should say it is a blessed thing to receive moreover or furthermore it is a blessed thing to give for the one is the blessing of giving and hath its reall and peculiar blessednesse really consisting therein and the other is the blessing of receiving and hath its reall and peculiar blessednesse really consisting therein and one of these cannot be without the other for no giver without a receiver and no receiver without a giver and each of them hath whole Christ exercised therein that only blessed one therefore as the hearingeare and the seing eye are both alike of the Lord so it is true of giving and receiving and the difference stands onely in the variety of glory even as in the three witnesses that bear record in heaven no other disproportion can be found For a naturall man can neither perceive so as to give nor effect so as to receive the things that are of God for they are spiritually to be discerned and apprehended and said hold of for none knows the things of God but the spirit of God no more then any other creature can know the spirit of a man but onely he that is of his own kinde And it is the Son of God onely that knows the father and it is the Son only that reveals him for no man knowes the father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveales him We conclude then that prayer consists of whole Christ and that both in point of petition as also in the answer otherwise it is not this prayer of faith and therefore it is that prayer is of that validity and force as to do such mighty things as are here attributed unto it As First saves the sick it hath the vertue and power of salvation annexed unto it which can be ascribed unto nothing but unto Christ alone who never was nor can be known but in the exercise of an office for it is the vertue and power of the spirit of God that makes manifest the Son of God and it is he alone that saves for he hath salvation Therefore it is said deliver my soul from the sword my darling or as the word signifies my alonely soule as having no copartner from the power of the dog and it is he that comes meek and lowly as the Prophet Zachariah saith saving himself and not another for as the father and the Son are one so is the Lord and the Disciple one the Saviour and the saved are one else Christ should not be God-man Salvation then is in prayer as the Scriptures testifie and the time is come that every one or whosoever call on the name of the Lord shall be saved many teach that salvation is only by faith that neither know what faith nor salvation is for faith hath salvation in it onely as it is that hypostacis and subsistance of the Son of God and so Paul teacheth faith without works that is without the works of the law which he calls dead works because the life and spirit of the Son of God is not in them but our Apostle James ascribes salvation unto works and declines faith as being the beliefe of devils that is such faith as hath not the powerful operations of God working in and together with it so that there is compleat salvation in any proper work or operation of the Son of God as well as in faith therefore Christ concludes that the great work and operation of God to be in faith for faith is not without the works of God nor the works of God without faith We are also said to be saved by hope as well as by either faith or work there is salvation also in love for it is the fulfilling of the law and where the law is compleat and full there can be no condemnation but perfect acquittance and salvation yea God is love and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him which canot be without salvation yea salvation is in patience for he that continues to the end shall be saved so that we are saved by it Furthermore we are saved by wisdome for the poor man by his wisdome saves the whole City of God though his wisdome be despised and his words not heard by the wise of the world And to conclude this point salvation is in prayer it saves the sick because it is the subsistance of the mediator-ship of the Son of God which is ever one and the same where when or in whom-soever it appears although it be so little in use and so lightly accounted of in these days wherein we live Secondly it hath in it the vertue and
unto thee arise take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house So that to preach the Gospel to the restauration of the soule from the policy that is from the fear terrors and tremblings of the law as at Mount Sinai to bring it unto Zion giving strength to take up that and carry it unto its proper place as that man carried his bed into the proper place which is his house which before had carried him extravagantly and diseasedly abroad wheresoever the Gospel exerciseth its power to raise up any to walk in the way of God before others in prayer or prophesie or any appointment of God according to the nature and season of it as that man is said to walk before them all to their admiration wheresoever the Gosplel is ministred to that effect there is also in that ministration power to forgive sin for the one is of like case and of like difficulty as the other is yea they are both in one act for he that can preach the Gospel to carry sin into its proper place which must be done or else the Gospel is not truly preached he must of necessity remove it from the chosen of God which is the true remitting and passing of it over unto another He that hath power therefore to preach the Gospel to the healing of the Conscience of the palsie sicknesse or tremblings of the law in the dead works thereof or works of death that man hath power to forgive sins on earth for they are inseperable and Christ in that place alluded unto makes them one for first he saith son thy sins be forgiven thee and in the rehearsall of it he saith his speech was arise take up thy bed and walk go thy way into thy house And we know that Christ saith to his Disciples whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retaine they are retained And again what ye binde on earth is bound in heaven and what ye loose on earth is loosed in heaven to walk and work therefore in the things of God according to the power intended by the word of God are of greater concernment then they would think for to preach the Gospel in the revelation of the minde and will of God as to an onely Son or to present our supplications to God as a father from the minde and disposition of an onely son are of no lesse authority and power then to to give sins for to pray with the spirit and to pray with the understanding also that is to pray according to the mystery of Christs meditation and yet with that wisdome and skill of expression as to unfold and explaine it in the minds of others that they may ascend up unto God together therewith as Manoa's Angel in the flame of the sacrifices this and to pardon sin are of like power skill and authority and a like weight lies upon both to whomsoever communicates in them For to pardon sin is not to change or alter the minde of God toward that party but to explaine and interpret the minde of God concerning that party which minde and will of God is the same in that one faith of the Son of God to all the chosen of God and wheresoever it is rightly unfolded and made manifest in the proclamation of peace and reconciliation of God and man in one if the Son of peace be there he accepteth and receivet the same as the right of his inheritance If the Elders pray or prophecy unto health therefore they pray or prophesie to the remission of sins in whomsoeve commucates in the same his sins are forgiven him To conclude this point it concerns us then to know what sin is that we may rightly conceive of it as it is pardonable and also as it not pardonable for there is a sin saith the Apostle John which is not unto death or which is not in death that is it is not in that way of death and there is a sin that is in death I do not say that you shall pray for it that is you shall not pray for the pardon of it because it is not to be pardoned for where Christ is once crucified in the spirit he never is to live in that heart according to the spirit no more then where he is once crucified in the flesh he never lives in that heart according to the flesh Therefore in the next place he exhorts us unto the confession of our faults in the true acknowledgement of them one to another Vers 16. Confesse your faults one unto another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much In these observe 1. An exhortation consisting of two parts 1. To confesse faults one to another 2. To pray one for another 2. The end wherefore That ye may be healed 3. A reason ground or cause drawn from the nature of prayer which is two-fold 1. It is effectuall 2. It is fervent 4. The qualitie of the person praying that is A righteous man 5. The issue or event of such prayer It avayleth much 1. ANd first for confession of faults sins or oberations from a law For where no law is there is no transgression for sinne is the transgression of a law or as the word is the withoutnesse of a rule Now there is the law of the flesh or carnall commandement which is the law of sinne and death and there is the law of the spirit or power of faith which is the perfect rule of righteousnesse or law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Now the carnall commandement or perfunctory and fading ordinances may be broken yea abrogated and nayled to the crosse as that which is against us and yet forgiven for every breach or piercing through of the sonne of man that is mans institutions and appoyntments composed by that carnall law shall be forgiven or are forgiven for the disannulling of mans wisdome and in that respect to become a foole is the establishment of Gods wisdome in the removall of all guilt and condemnation from the soule And there is the law of the spirit or of that holy Ghost which if a man speake a word against intentionally or blaspheme and pierce through that is abrogate or make a nullity of it It shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come that is neither in the present mind and conscience of him that so doth nor in that holy mind and judgment of Christ from passing sentence against it being so remote and at such a distance from it and contrary unto it for the abrogation of the law of the spirit is no lesse then to disannull that wisdome of God in Christ by which device only the sin and guilt of the sons of men is taken away and no other way for else-where the redemption of the soule ceaseth for ever Confession of sins then one to another This phrase one to another is of like nature as
to emulate decline and reject in all things the spirit that giveth life And at that Judgment-seat behold the summoning in and the assembling of all sin in the fight of God by the crucisication of Christ together with the manner of Gods execution of wrath for your acquittance and escape For in that throne is all sin summed up as in that King of Tyrus for corrupting the wisdome and prophaning the holy things of God see Ezek. 28. Againe in the acknowledgement of the breach and nullity of the law of the flesh appeal to the law of the spirit for it is the perfection and fulfilment thereof for the disjunction from all carnal and diabolicall things is the conjunction of God and man in Christ the crucification of Christ by the ministry of the letter in the world is the raising of him up from that death in the ministry of the spirit in the Saints for it is impossible that the Sonne of God should be held of death so as not to live his proper and native life If we expect unity with all the excellencies and virtues of God we must be loosned and disunited from all carnall relations and bonds and we must either have unity with all the things proper unto God or none for he cannot be devided therefore we must admit of a totall seperation from all carnal things that is such as fade have an end however we know that all things are lawful with due respect unto Gods call in the use of them yet are we not to be brought under the power of any thing as by a bond subjected unto it but to use the world as though we used it not to marry as though we married not and to buy as though we possessed not for the Son of God never acknowledged conjugation or copulation by any carnall tie or bond therefore when his mother told him at the feast that they had no wine he saith unto her woman what have I to do with thee mine houre is not yet come as to have my works and times set and appointed unto me by vertue of any earthly or temporary relation therefore shee bids the servants look unto his time and his command saying what soever he commands you that doe Where the force of earthly relations takes place of the spirit of Christ that state or place of honour shall never succeed well Againe when one told Jesus that his mother and his brethren stood without to speak with him he answered and said to him that told him Who is my mother and who are my brethren and he streched forth his hand towards his Disciples and said behold my mother and my brethren for whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother all relations centred in one also when his mother found him in the Temple Questioning the Doctors saying why hast thou thus dealt with us behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing but he answers how is it that yee sought me wist you not that I must be about my fathers businesse as acknowledging none but that one father of eternity and in such relations stands the band of a Christian and therein is the acknowledgement of his ingagements But from this point it will be gathered by carnall spirits as of old then let us do evill that good may come thereby whose damnation is just if this be true then let us endeavour to undermine extirpate root out and bring to nought all naturall relations and consociations amongst the sons of men 1. To which we answer that no such consequence followes upon the spirit of Christianity for the abrogation of the law of the flesh is to repeal and abolish it compleatly and it confists of an affirmative and negative part the affirmative is to set up adorne and maintain all things honourable in the fight of man according to the nature manner and constitution of the place where it is exercised and to avoyd and abandon the contrary shame and this is but one administration or law for they are inseperably joyned together even as the honourable sentence of the Judge of a Size unto death and the shamesull office of the hang-man are but one administration So that from the office of the Judge you bring in the office of the Hang-man and from the act of the hang-man you include the office of the Judge or else the law is not compleated in that point right so in the abolishing and disannulling of the law of the flesh that it takes not hold as being any yoak or bond upon the Saints it is compleatly repealed and made voyd both in respect of all things that the world makes and accounts honourable and likewise of all things that are dishonourable and shamefull in the same account so that it becomes nothing else but a provocation unto them to guard and fortifie themselves against the one and the other for they are one intire and undivided law or administration The Saints therefore cannot go about to establish that which they abolish for the shamefull acts of the world are nulled unto them as well as the honourable no more then the wicked in making voyd unto themselves the law of the spirit can possibly go about to set up or advance the crosse of our Lord Jesus in the true vertue and power of it 2. We answer that to such a conclusion from our freedome from the carnall command or way of the letter of the Scripture is to lay a hard thought and deep censure upon the spirit and power of God for shall the wisdome and institutions of man that shall vanish and come to naught have power in them to provoke to dilligence to preserve in peace to keep in temporance chastity gravity and moderation in all things and shall not the spirit of God or law of that spirit be sufficiently wise and able to preserve men in modestety chastity gravity and moderation in all things with wisdome care and deligence to use the creature of what kinde soever according to time place and occasion as becomes the nature end and use thereof without lisentious and lascivious liberty surely those that so judge never found nor felt the virtue life liberty and power of the spirit of our only Lordship and salvation Jesus Therefore the reason of our thus appealing follows Namely that yee may be healed The spirit of God makes this manner of appeal the possession to purge out all superfluous humors the soveraign salve to cure all deseases the cordiall medicine against all crudities of soule and peccant humours of spirit this is health to thy navell and marrow unto thy bones If when we see the breach os the law of the spirit of Christ we carry it unto the law of the flesh and observe how that is onely established thereby and when we observe the repeal of the law of the flesh as made of none effect we carry it up into the law of the
spirit and know that it is established and confirmed for ever thereby This is the Medicamentosus without which no prayer can be made acceptable unto God for if prayer confirme not the law of the spirit it bindes not over the Lord to be our supply if it comprize not his mercy within the bounds of its proper place which is Christ our boundlesse and common salvation This appeal or prayer must also confirme the law of the flesh or else it carrieth not all sin and sorrow into its proper place of aboad which is Antichrist or Satan that slayer of the Sonne of man from the beginning even as Caine slew his brother because his own works are evill and the works of the Sonne of man good and in these twain stands the health of our souls and is by them preserved for ever viz. a place of the reception of all wickednesse where it abides exercised in the curse for the acquitting of the Saints for ever And a place of reception into righteousnesse and residence of that blessed estate of the Sonne of God in the love and delight of the father for ever in the just condemnation of all enmity The third point is the ground of this sound and healthfull condition by this appeal or prayer and first it is effectuall or forceable without let or hinderance the appeal is made upon such grounds as nothing can stop the bringing of the cause thither either for the stating of sin or of righteousnesse of the curse in the confirmation of the law of the flesh or of the blessing in the law of the spirit of Christ in the one and Antichrist in the other No Supersedias can be sued out no counter-command can be given no obstruction can be made to stop or recall the stating of all abominations in the exercise and practice of the carnall command and all the vertues excellencies and dignities of God in Christ in that law of the spirit for Satan the God of this world which is the wisdome of the world the subtilty of the serpent as he is a murther our from the beginning in slaying and putting to death the Lord of life and glory so is he a lyar and abode not in the truth so is he sacrelegious robing God of his glory making himselfe to be God adulterating the word of God turning the glory of God into shame and is the sole and proper opposer of God in all his excellencies therefore nothing can hinder no law or evidence gain-say but that state is the proper sinck and center of all wickednesse and so of all wrath Also in its appeal to the law of the spirit which is the proper order and composure of the Son of God what can obstruct but that in him are all those dementions of height depth length and breadth of the goodnesse mercy truth life power spirit and love of God for ever therefore this prayer or appeal is most forceable and effectuall it passeth through without let or hinderance for the performance of its work in rendring to each his right in the perfecting of the cause of its appeal 2. It is fervent hot without any intermixture of cold the word signifies to boyle which admits of no cooling thing to come there such is the nature of true prayer it admits no chilly or cold thing to be cast into the love and zeal of God in Christ but findes the coles thereof to be fiery coles yea to have a vehement flame Neither can the spirit of prayer admit of any cooling mixtures in the fume and heat of Gods wrath in the wealthy of the world named above for a fire is kindled in mine anger which shall burn down to the nethermost hell But the Academists of our age they know how to moderate the love of Christ in those whom they call Saints by some cold and decaying humor of the spirit of the world yet tradition is of that strength in them that they dare not impute such to him that was borne of the Virgin but for any sound knowledg they have of him they might as soon do it to him as any of that mysticall body and would for advantage if they had been brought up in Schools of such principles for they have nothing but what they receive from man Likewise they can cool Gods infinite displeasure against sin with graduall distinctions of it as good part in nature some good works wraught some remainders of Gods image in the wicked such sleights of Satan we skill not but are confident the path of fervent prayer never lay in that way nor shall ever be beaten out or found in it by all those carnall and superstitious cuttings and fleshly launsings of the Priests of Baall to uphold Ahabs Throne in all the Statues of his Ancestor Omry The fourth point is the qualification of the person praying and that is a righteous man Now a righteous or just man is he who gives every thing its proper right and due which appertains and belongs unto it if we speak of any thing of God give unto it arise arraign and scope appertaining to God if we speak of any of the ordinances of God give them the vertue property duration and continuance of the Son of God who abides for ever else we give not the Son of God that great ordinance and fountaine of all holy ordinances his right and due who is holy spirituall just and good otherwise they are human and perishing things and we are found unjust in not giving Christ his due the spirit of prayer and this effectuall appeal resides not there Againe if we speak of any thing as not having the Sonne of God in it then give it the spirit and power of the Prince of the aire the spirit that now works in the children of unbeleif or disobedience for the scope and end of all things is Christ in the exercise of mercy in the faith of the Gospel or in the exercise of wrath in that way of Antichrist for we know that we are of God and the world is of that wicked one namely the Devil therefore if we speak of sin give it its due the guilt of making a nullity and falcification of him that made all things in truth If we speak of sinners give them the state and condition of their father the Devill whose works they do and will doe Either clear the innocent whom God in Christ justifies once and for ever and so give them their due belonging unto them and condemn the guilty who reject the manner and way of his acquitting of his Saints or else no person quallified for prayer if you speak of death bring it unto the scope either death unto all transitory and carnall things in Christ or else death unto all spirituall and durable things in Antichrist or else we give not right unto it and so are not that righteous man whose prayer availeth and is the event and issue of this prayer which is the fifth point that is it availeth
SALTMARSH Returned from the Dead In Amico Philalethe OR The RESURRECTION of JAMES The Apostle Out of the Grave of Carnall Glosses for the Correction of the universall Apostacy which cruelly buryed him who yet liveth Appearing in the comely Ornaments of his Fifth Chapter in an Exercise June 4. 1654. Having laid by his grave Clothes in a despised Village remote from ENGLAND but wishing well and heartily desiring the true prosperity thereof John 11. 25. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert and are to be sold at the black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1655. To my honoured and beloved friends in London who in a solitary season in that populous Citie were so great refreshment unto me by their undeserved society WHereas of late I received letters from som of you wherein I read that name which is as an oyntment poured out causing the parties to whom it appeares to fall in love therewith carrying in it a spirit which can produce a reall presence where there is an absence in bodily respects and that not only in respect of divine nature simply considered but also in point of Christian relations and respects which is never destitute of humane considered therein and conversant therewith otherwise the goings forth of the spirits of the Saints could not be peculiar and distinct from that of the wicked which the divine and omnipotent power reachethalso Therefore the Saints communicate in prayers intercessions supplication giving of thanks so as a stranger cannot intermeddle therewith nor with their joy arising there-from And whereas some of you requested mee to write unto you concerning the opening of a portion of the word of God which some years agoe urged my spirit and put me into travell to bring forth but Satan hindered Your letters visited me immediately upon the employment of my spirit in another portion of the word of God which was then the proper strength I walked by which made me to think it might be a refreshment unto you which I could not lay aside till God opened another into which I might enter Neither could wee depart from that place till the cloud removed in-so-much that I was forcibly constrained to employ my selfe about the instruments and services of the Tabernacle to bring the sight thereof unto your selves in the first place And so made bold to set upon the writing of it yea when others slept beeause of my daily occasions and when it was writ I was much urged to endeavour the printing of it that so it might come to more view and being it was written in hast and so would be tedious to read I consented thereto although there is nothing which I have spoken in publique since I saw your faces but I could as freely commend it unto you The occasion of the Ark pitching upon this place which me-thinks looks like Elim in this wildernes where there are twelve fountains of water and 70. Palm-trees Numb 33. 9. For our Apostle writes to the twelve Tribes out of which we may draw plenty of the water of life and there is perfection and fulness of palm trees from which you may gather plenty of branches to carry as signes of victory not only of the abatement of that deluge of wrath but also of overcoming by faith this present world for Faith is the victory whereby we do it I say the occasion of the Arke pitching on this place was this We being met together to exercise our selves in the word of God and prayer there was one who occasionally named this Chap and read some part of it in which action the scope of it seemed to open it self unto me and to deale plainly and faithfully with you my thoughts had never been formerly upon any part of it so as intending to expresse my selfe from it but only as I have read it as other histories and writings of the word of God Whereupon my spirit was moved presently to speak from it what I did receive and immediately uttered to the same effect which I have in the following lines commended unto you out of my love unto you and engagements beyond my expression moved hereunto by your loving christian-like letters joyning themselves unto me like Philip to the Chariot of the Eunuch upon the delivery of it encouraging my heart hereunto which otherwise I had not takenupon me lest it should have been thought a worke not worthy your acceptance But if you please to take the payns carefully to peruse it I doubt not but it may give occasion of further thoughts unto you then can be expressed in so small a volume it may point as with a finger unto such things as to write them the world would not contayn the books the matter being of an infinite and an eternall nature holding proportion with Melchisedech who is without beginning of dayes or end of life Therfore the world cannot contain it unto whom this Scripture as under the motion of the cloud hath brought us where we now abide Heb. 7. For other place of our abode I may not signifie unto you for some of our Neighbours have professed before the state of England that the place of our bodily aboad is a non ens that it hath no being and others have affirmed that we are no people not affording us so much as God gives to the Conies which he calls a people though a small people yet they make their abode in the Rocks and it is that rock of Ages in whom only we desire to be found to take these courtesie a patiently as we do other kindnesses under which we yet abide as in that point of banishment only for such matters as in the following speech we tender unto you Whereas you make mention of a Sermon preached from the Prophesie of Isaiah speaking of the new heavens and the new earth in the restauration of the Church from which it was concluded that such an excellent estate of Religion was to come hereafter as never yet appeared which some could not be satisfied in such Exposition or Conclusion we see it to be not onely the common doctrine but deceipt also of the world not to give Christ a present being but hold men in expectation as in the ancient Jews who when he appears seek his ruine and that is the top of that spirit By new heavens and new earth in that place we understand the state of Christ or of that holy unction or Christianity that as the visible heavens earth to which he alludes make a compleat and fruitfull world even so do God man in Christ make one durable and fruitfull condition wherein righteousness dwells as our Apostle witnesseth which according to that law of the spirit is adorned with infinitely more relations operations and vertues then all the Creations in Heaven and Earth can set forth which hee calls new not with respect unto these visible but with
to be best of all and yet prefers his traffique in some other things before his attaynment of that yea causing the things of God to stand aside and give way to his vaine and lofty lusts of what nature or kind soever to satisfie them That man doth not the good which he acknowledgeth or as the word will beare he is it not that is he is not of the faith of Jesus he is not stated in the condition of the Son of God who seeks only to do the will of the Father and prefers and glories in that above all things and he that doth not that he is of that evill one and doth the things that are proper unto him being under the state and power of sinne which is as a transition into the fifth Chapter Wherein observe two things First The generall scope Secondly The particular parts of it 1. For the scope or end to which the purpose of the Spirit is directed and that is the death or crucification of the Son of God that Just one as he is intitled vers 6. And he that shall take the scope and drist to be otherwise he misseth of that mark which the Spirit of God directs unto and shoots his shafts in vaine and this death is layd down unto us and for us in a double respect 2. For the parts of this Chapter and they are properly four 1. The first sets down unto us the death of Christ as he is crucified in the world by wicked hands or corrupt administrations through the lusts of men unto the decay and death of that law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord in and by the men of the world as once the body of Jesus was crucified and killed doctrinally by those wicked Jews and all sorts of people then united in one and this is contained from the first verse to the seventh 2. It containes the depth of the Lord Jesus as he is crucified to the world in respect of the flesh that is to all carnall and corrupt things contained in the law of the carnall commandement and hand writing of humane Ordinancs which is against us and therefore nailed unto his Crosse And thus he is slaine in the Saints even in all the Subjects that appertaine and belong to his Kingdome which consists not of the matters and affaires of this present world and this is expressed from vers 7. to the 12. 3. It gives out an eminent and universall Prohibition backed with an exhortation together with the danger ensuing the not observing thereof and that is contained in verse 12. 4. It sets beforre us or rather romidgeth our hearts to finde out in us and to bring forth by us those excellent and admirable fruits which spring up in the godly from the death of Christ and observation of the prohibition abovesaid The Irradian beames whereof are shed forth from verse 12. to the end of the Epistle And first of the death of Christ as he is crucified in the world in respect of his proper spirit and vertue that by wicked hands and administrations both of Jewes and Gentiles that is such as are strict in Religion according to the literall command and historicall notion being engaged thereto by that spirit of bondage and of fear and others loose and licentious not having the bond of the spirit of God upon them But using the liberty of the Gospell as an occasion to the flesh surreptitiously encouraging themselves thereby to all excesse of ryot in the inordinate use of carnal and vanishing things that perish in the use and this is done by men of all ranks and qualities that are not become one in that chiefe and principal goodnes reckoning themselves as nothing in account but as themselves their place authority and dignity takes its being and is summed up in that State office and dignity of the Sonne of God otherwise they are such as glory and boast in themselves which rejoycing is evil namely of that wicked one wherefore he saith vers 1. Vers 1. Go too now yee rich men weepe and howle for your miseries that shall come upon you OUr Apostle here expresseth himselfe to the wealthy of the world as rich men or collectively Rich man as of all in one that is man of Sin or men of Belial who greed and gripe after all manner of good falsely so called in the neglect of that one and alone goodnesse in Christ that one thing necessary that better or best part which can never be taken from him who chooseth it as his chiefe and only treasure But to make choise of and to rejoyce and glory in as an only and rich trade and treasure besides that is to stiflle in themselves and suffocate the life and spirit of the Lord Jesus which is thereby extinct and in them breaths not He bids them therefore Go too now or come on as if he would encourage them in their course A like phrase is used Gen. 11. at the building of Babell Go too now or come on give a word of exhortation and encouragement one to another for the furtherance of your worke As if he should say Take your liberty use your accustomed trade and traffique to get and gather in abundance of your corruptible riches that moth and rust can seize upon and spare no pains misse of no opportunity to make your selves excellent and glory in it only with this proviso namely that you will assure your selves of the income and proper return together with your adventure and this your practice upon that condition take your best advantage and full swinge in your course for the just resists you not as is expressed verse 6. For the Gospel of God is not a hinderer of wickednesse in the men of Belial no more then the sop which Christ gave to Judas together with his speech thereupon What thou dost do it quickly hindered him not in the execution of so trayterous an office for it is a savour of death unto death unto the unbelievers and of no lesse power to accomplish it through that spirit which is in the world then it is of vertue to be a favour of life unto life in the Saints through that spirit which is in them And it is as unpossible that one member of that body of sinne should come to the knowledg of the truth as it is that any one of the chosen of God should be deceived with errour and wiles of Sathan which Christ affirms it is unpossible they should be deceived For as Christ keeps his family intire and compleat So that none of them is lost but that sonne of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled in point of wrath proportionable to grace and mercy which sonne of perdition comprehending all the children of destruction was lost once and for ever Even so doth Antichrist mayntaine his interest in all the seed of the Serpent and parteth with none only that lost sheep of the house of Israel as a brand is
to pray or to believe or the grace of remission of his sins expressed and declared in those glad tidings For the grace of Christ is as truly collective in the subsistance of it as distributive whosoever therefore receives freely that party hath a like vertue also freely to give Moreover the world who by wisdome know not God teach by that wisdome that a Christian may be possessed with and have the enjoyment of the spirit of Christ that holy spirit of the Son of God and yet the humane nature of Christ not present but wholy absent and remote in another place these men may aswel upon like ground professe themselves to be members of Christ but not of his body for of his Saints he saith Ye are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone not of another So that the two natures in Christ according to the mystery of salvation in the Gospel are of the same extent that his mysticall body is and are co-apparent to the wisdome of God in whomsoever it is For the spirit of Christ never uttered or manifested it selfe but as the son of sorry man utters and manifests himselfe in and by such principles and abtitudes as are proper and peculiar to the living and eternall God taking their being and form from the wisdome and power of God and not from the policie and power of a creature for without the Coagulation of these twayn there is no spirit of Christ made manifest nor is it in its operation Therefore to separate the spirit of Christ from the humane nature of Christ in any of its operations is to make a nullity of Christ the faith of such persons is vaine their holy garments of the Ministry are moth-eaten their righteousnesse is the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees which enter not into the kingdome and their proper holinesse is the purification of the flesh purging themselves of all the operations of the spirit of life that no ray or beame thereof be found upon them which a wicked man is as careful of as the Saints of God are of being stained and spotted with the flesh For if we gather not up and take in true man into all the operations proper to the spirit of God wee dis-unite and separate that which the wisdome of God hath so curiously embroydered and wrought up together for the spirit of Christ and of God quickneth only to that blessed estate and condition of the Son of God and not to any other even as a rationall spirit filled with artificiall principles to find out the nature and cause of things quickneth only unto that state and condition of man-kind and not unto the condition of any other creature upon the earth Vers 3. Your gold and your silver is canckered and the rust of them shall be a witnesse against you and shall eate your flesh as fire yee have heaped treasure together for the last dayes AS Gold and Silver are the most precious and durable mettals in the account and use of man so righteousnesse and holinesse are the diadem and duration of the Gospel of the Kingdom the son of God and they are reckoned here as their Silver and Gold who crucifie the love of life and glory no otherwise but as sinne is reckoned upon Christ where it is said that he was made sin for us who knew no sinne even so these are made righteous that know no righteousnesse of God in Christ For the just and unjust are made of like yea of the very same matter for God and man are really to be considered both in the one and in the other and otherwise the true state of life and death canot be rightly composed neither is the gospel and faith of the Son of God preached For in what tone sence or respect man may be said to be in that worke of salvation wrought by Christ and participate in the power and glory thereof In like sence may the Sonne of God be said to be and is in that work of destruction and participates in the defect and shame thereof For as the wisdome of God in that way of Christ purifies and cleanseth that earthly and corruptible nature of man in its taking of it into unity from all sin and uncleanesse unto a state and condition becoming the Sonne of the holy and eternal God even so doth the wisdome of man or of the flesh in taking hold of and searching into the things of God corrupt and defile unto or in it selfe that holinesse and puritie which is in the word or Sonne of God unto a state and condition proper and peculiar to that man of sinne and son of perdition for the world by widome knows not God that is through its proper wisdome and Serpentine policie is blinded and become ignorant of him So that there is a true and reall proportion between the mistery of God in Christ and the mistery of iniquity in Antichrist else the state of the wicked could not have in it an Almighty power of wrath and displeasure as the state of the Saints hath in it an allsufficiency of mercy and love for the proper Original and fountaine of each is in themselves and not in another that is to say the proper fountaine of love and mercy is in Christ and not else-where to be found and the proper fountaine of wrath and displeasure is in Antichrist and not founded else-where So that righteousnesse and holinesse of the word of God or Sonne of God for it is not the word but in its creating virtue as it frames it selfe in Christ and this word is canckered in the world for God and man in a mistery are become a corrupt estate and condition in that way of Antichrist directly contrary unto that oriental Gold and seven times purified silver that is in Jesus Christ and that party who is ignorant of the mistery of iniquity in the corrupting and adultrating of the word of God may talk of the unity that is in Christ Jesus purifying making chast mans nature in that word of God but it is onely as he hath received it by tradition from Libraries Councels and Accademical courses but the revelation of the spirit he knows not the onely means of the conveyance of the knowledge thereof The purest mettal thus changed becoms rust and that is first witnesse against them secondly It eates their flesh as fire Rust we know is the putrifaction and filthinesse of mettals contracting it selfe and arising from the not using thereof even so the not exercising and putting into use the righteousnesse and holinesse of the word of God that royal law of the spirit is the contraction raising up of the vision and corrupt desires of the flesh which is the very cancker spot and staine of the soule that it becoms reprobate Silver thereby not to passe for currant to any in the kingdome of God First and this rust by this means contracted is a witnesse against them that they have put the just one to death as
it is exprest in Ver. 6. For as the use and exercise of the law of the spirit in the declaration of the virtue of Christ Jesus the contraction and Emitto whereof is the splendant brightnesse of Christianity testifying unto all men that therein consists the crucification of the flesh in all the affections and lusts of it Even so the exercise of the law of the flesh in the contraction and sending forth of the desires and affections thereof testifies unto all men that therein consists the crucification and death of Christ Jesus according to the spirit testifying an eternal guilt upon an act of such nature as that is which is of no lesse concernment then the kissing of the Son of the eternal God Secondly It eates their flesh as fire now we know that as rust eateth and consumeth the mettals in which it breeds so doth fire consume and destroy the fuel in which it fastneth it selfe and taketh hold and without fuell the fire ceaseth for take away fuel and the fire goeth out Now the proper fuel wherein the wrath of God kindleth it selfe is the wisdome of the flesh so that take away that and the fire thereof goeth out it is not without that no more then fire is without fuel and therefore no creature in the world is capable of the eternal wrath of God but onely mankinde no more then any can be in a capacity of the consolation of God but such as are indued with his wisedome For as the consolations of God kindle themselves and become extant through that wisdome of God which hath given it selfe so glorious and an eternal forme in all the virtue relations and respects that are between God and man in Christ without which the consolations could not be no more then the eye can see without light or a house stand without the pillars and joynts of it even so the jealousie and wrath of Almighty God kindles it selfe becomes extant and in exercise through the wisdome of the flesh setting such a forme on the operations relations and respects as are conversant in the state of Antichrist between God and man For the wisdome of the creature or carnal law is wrath unto execution against such as use cruelty to the innocent especially in the highest degree and when the proper operations of the word according to the carnal law are made manifest it shall appear that they have exercised cruelty against the innocent Son of God that then in the highest degree in putting him to death in all that livelyhood and operation of his holy spirit which is not permitted to exercise it selfe or breath in them whereupon they must of necessity by that their wisdome judge condemn and execute wrath upon themselves which could not hold proportion with this their fact but as the power of God kindles it selfe therein yet so as the proper power and spirit of God is not any cause or original thereof that is of their torment but man himselfe is the proper cause and fountaine thereof out of which it for ever floweth For as the soule of man is kindled and inflamed through the wisdome of God with the love and consolations of God yet the soule of the creature is no proper original or fountaine thereof for they are the love and comforts of the Creator and not of a creature yet is the creature conversant and active in them even so the power and spirit of God kindles it selfe through the wisedome of the flesh the literall voice of the Scriptures written in all mens hearts in wrath and displeasure and is conversant and infinitely active therein yet is the spirit and power of God no proper original or fountaine of wrath but the wisedome and spirit of the creature is the proper cause and fountaine of it therefore it is sayd of the Lord fury is not in me We must remember then that when the Scriptures ascribe unto man love joy peace grace mercy glory power and virtue proper unto the Saints they are such as God is the fountaine and cause of and not the creature yet are they the excellency of the Sonne of God who is not without the creature though he be God blessed for ever So likewise when we see the Scriptures ascribe unto God anger wrath fury displeasure and vengence which are proper unto the wicked they are such as the creature is the proper fountaine and original of and not God yet are they not without God but are the proper exercise of that man of sinne and sonne of perdition yea of that Shadad or Shedim that destroyer of man kinde who is the God of this world the Prince that ruleth in darknesse which is accursed for ever And as for such devils as are composed through that conjuration of academicall Nations from literall expressions of the Scriptures as connexions of the dictates of their own hearts we skill not but give glory to God both in mercy and severity in the exercises of them and so the rest is an infallible testimony and witnesse of the nature and practice of Satan himselfe the God of this wicked world therefore the Apostle saith We know that we are of God and the world is of that wicked one as the word is that is of the Devill the off-spring and seed of the Serpent accursed from the beginning 3. He addes therefore in the third place Ye have he aped treasure together for the last day To heap treasure together is to augment increase inlarge and so to fill up as nothing more can be added which is impossible unlesse it be an infinite Treasury and then he who onely is infinite must be in the store so that almighty and eternal God is in the wrath hoarded up against the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgement of God for there is a fulnesse of sin without vacuity either in respect of time place or action for the sinne of the Amorites must be full when Abrahams seed possesse the land or else the fulnesse of our deliverance in Christ appears not for there is a fulnesse in or fulfilment of the letter of the Scripture in that way of Judas in his betraying of Christ unto death as there is a fulnesse in that law of the spirit or fulfilment of the Scripture in bringing forth unto light and of that Emanuel God with us For as Christ being true man naturally mortall is filled with eternal life in the excellency and purity of the Son of God so Antichrist being true God in the unity of his creation immortal becomes filled with eternal death through the lusts and corruption of man for it is whole Christ that dyes and not a part of him he dyes in the Saints unto sinne Satan and all corruptable things So that when the Prince of this world cometh he findes not in him to joyne himselfe with or lay claym unto and he dyes in the unbeleife unto all things of the spirit acceptable unto God and in this doth that ransome consist
the things of this present life and are not these carnall and vanishing then as held and practised by the Doctors of our dayes together with their followers and Pupils where then shall we find the men that take not their delight and place their pleasure in earthly and vanishing things whose religion is not vaporous Whereas the truth is there is nothing of Christ which hath not the nature divine in it or else it is not an ordinance act exercise or vertue becoming the Son of God who in all things is holy and pure and there is no holinesse without the spirit of God therefore they may as well hold and teach that the spirit of God vanisheth and comes to an end in the Saints as that any Ordinance Office Act Exercise or Vertue of Christ vanisheth and comes to an end in any of his mysticall body For if the unity of the Spirit cease in them in any respect then the wisdome and power of the Spirit ceaseth and then that new Commandement or law of the Spirit is abrogated and made voyd which the Apostle saith is true in him and in us because the darknesse is past and the true light shineth which is the substance of the Law in every point and particular of it And where the light of God once shineth to expell darkenesse in us it ever abideth yea in that imputed righteousnssse or righteousnesse reckoned together with us in faith prayer or whatsoever it abides firme and stable as the Son of God is firm and stable And as for eating drinking marrying and giving in marriage with all things of like nature transient having an end they are no proper parts of the Kingdom of God nor any thing whereof it doth consist but are useful in their time and season to the Saints of God and may be exercised with a holy respect unto the Kingdome for the promoting of it therefore it is said Whether yee eate or drinke or whatsoever yee doe let all be done to the glory of God Therefore when they asked Christ that question whose wife she should be in the resurrection who had had seven husbands his answer is that they erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the Angells of God in heaven Therefore it follows And beene wanton That is they joyne with these earthly pleasures wantonnesse they are become effeminate womanish having estranged themselves from that heroicall and masculine spirit which the Apostle exhorts unto Stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong that is behave your selves as men of God going forth in his strength and not in the strength of the arm of flesh which is true weaknesse and womanish But these are become wanton and lascivious doting upon transitory and vanishing things letting the substantiall passe being subdued and overcome with pictures shadows and semblances of things that have no substance nor validity in them and not with the things themselves being taken by the sight of a wandering eye and the hearing of a sensuall eare as the woman was by the words of the Serpent and shew of the fruit in the beginning These Siberificall persons being widdows in respect of any espousall with Christ for they are such as wax wanton against Christ and wil marry in making contracts with forms of earthly Governments forms of Churches forms of ordinances and exercises wantonizing in their carnall copulations with bread wine and water oyle spittle and cream so devoutly that none must intermeddle with their minnions but such as do it by contract according to their law of Carnulentia and if any conceive by any other seed then by their pulse and lentiles which onely serves to make red earthly or Edoms broth that profane fornicatour such persons are presently counted breakers of covenant pernicious persons Hereticks Schismaticks and blasphemers of their gods These have forgotten that ancient and masculine spirit of wisdome and gravity so skilful in geneology and chronology that it can reckon it selfe up together with eternity see Prov. 8. from v. 22. to 31. Which takes its delight and solace only in the compasse or circuit of his earth or of his land which the Prophet stiles the Lords land therefore he presently interprets it and saith his delight is with the children of men where he dwels and in whom he makes his proper abode This spirit threfore in whomsoever it is takes delight in nothing as to place its pleasure in it but in eternal things which God in the Messiah onely is and all other creatures relations and operations are but as so many letters or figures to lead unto and point out what man is in Christ in whom the delight and pleasure proper unto godlinesse is onely set Because nothing else as delightful can be eternal for eternal truth we know none but onely in Christ for he is that way that truth and that life of eternity besides whom nothing can hold correspondency with God so as to be the object or subject matter of his delight and pleasure And howsoever there is in the godly man that which is a creature made within the bounds and precincts of time yet that unity is eternal because in whatsoever the unity doth consist is properly of God who is eternity and not of the creature which is in time if it be love it is the love of God and not of a creature if wisdome it is of God and not of man if it consist in power it is infinite and not finite so that that state and condition of God and man in one is eternall and not temporary it lives the life of God it walks and works by the wisdome of God and not of the creature We know the body of man hath life and wisdome as well as the soul while it is in conjunction with it not another but the same that is in the soule much more hath the soule of a christian life and wisdome in and of God and not another so long as it is in conjunction with God which is for ever or else his Sonne his proper off-spring should not inherit and be posessed with the nature of the father If the mortallists of our dayes knew the way of salvation by Christ they could never conclude like beasts that the soule of man dyes with the body like a beast for God is not onely in unity with the soule as a worker and Creator but hee is also one in the workmanship which is made for the Son of God is as truly said to be made of woman and made under the law as he is said to be the Lord and maker of all things And it is the Image or wisdome of God that gives being and forme unto that glorious workmanship of God in man so that if the soule dye there is not a nullity of the work but also of the Creator the maker of it who gives the proper being and form to the
filling them with the things of the creature so as they become unmeasurable not bounded by any time or season but take in the vast space of eternity and so the state of the wicked is also evelasting in that son of perdition as well as in that Son of God and yet that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit but both perpetuated of like race in respect of time in the sight of God and all that judg and discern according to the spirit of God for as it is affirmed of that eternall word that it was in the beginning In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God So it is affirmed of the wicked one that he is a man-slayer from the beginning and not to abide in the truth but is a lyar and the father of it There is therefore a change and a reall change in Satan for the truth of God is turned into a lye in him but it is in the number and act of his being so that it is as true and reall that he was never otherwise and therefore he is said also to be the fountaine and father of it as he that is so originally even as Abraham that high Father and ancient of dayes is sayd to be the father of the faithfull as the originall and propagator of them all And without this unity of the harlot prostrating and adulterating the word of God unto the lusts of men Satan is not known but works in and by and is conversant with man and man knows it not It is true also that there is a change and a reall change in Christ the son of the blessed for mans nature is changed from its visiosity and vanity proper to the wisdome of a creaeure to become the undefiled of God in the blessing and reality of son-ship but this change is from the manner instant and eternall act of his being so that it is as true that he was never other but that undefiled and reall son of God blessed for ever with respect to time past and that which is to come So that the Son of God is never alive in the spirit but Satan is dead in and to him nor is Satan alive in the flesh but Christ is dead in and to him and by his slaughter the world nourisheth its heart and feasts it selfe so that the mortification of the spirit of the Scripture or word of life is the revivall of the letter which becomes the proper nourishment of the carnall minde which is that state of death for to be carnally minded is death So also it is true in Christ that the mortification of the flesh in the abrogating of that carnall law of sin and death is the slaying of that Leviathan Sea-Dragon or man of Sin who is given to be meate for Gods people in the wildernesse that is it is the revivall of the spirit which becomes the proper nourishment of the sons of God and is that bread from heaven that perisheth not and food of eternall life which abides for ever And as food becomes one with that body that feeds upon it in the nourishing of it so doth the spirit and life of the living and eternall God become one state and condition in that man of God and mysticall body of Christ Jesus our alone Lordship and salvation And so also doth that spirit of death and destruction in that the truth of God is turned into a lye become one state and condition in that man of sin that vile body and mystery of iniquity wherein that eternall death only consisteth and remayneth for ever In the next verse he declares who it is they have killed and the manner of it Vers 6. Yee have condemned and have killed the just and he doth not resist you Wherein observe 1. The act of the wicked Yee have condemned and have killed the just 2. The demeanour of the Just He doth not resist them Their act is two-fold 1. They condemn him 2. They kill him 1. BY the just here as hath been declared is meant the Lord our righteousnesse or our justice as the Prophet calls him Whose path is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day that is hath all manner and motions of glory in it as from the rising of the Sunne unto the height thereof it is he onely in whom perfect justice resides which consists in a Justifier and a justified which is only found in Christ out of whom no perfect justice is found for if the Justifier be one and the justified another individuall or substance there is a fraction in the act it admits of default and imperfection you cannot find it whole in either of them Christ therefore is only just and hence it is that seates of Judicature must either condemn him in the world or else they cannot justifie themselves to have the perfection of the Law so they are sayd here to condemn the just or that just one To condemn implies the giving of sentence as by law for there must be a discerning wch is by a rule or else sentence cannot passe and every thing hath its proper and peculiar law whereby it seeks to effect the conservation and safety of of it selfe in its proper condition and where the wisdom of the flesh and carnall mind gives the proper being unto the condition it hath a certain law bond or engagement upon it in way of argumentall and legall reasoning for the safety and conservation of it selfe in its own principles and achievements and to condemn and sentence whatsoever makes for the bane and overthrow of them and unto that stands bound and engaged in it selfe as to its ruler or god Now the Crosse of Christ in the crucification of the flesh and order of that law of the spirit doth confound humane wisdome in the way of its being and all its enterprizes making it the proper folly of the world for it is written I will destroy the wisdome of the wise and will cast away the understanding of the prudent Where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world hath not God made the wisdome of this world foolishness Therefore the wisdome of the flesh or carnall law doth bind over under penalty of destruction of it selfe to convent arraign convict condemn and passe a finall sentence upon the Son of God that law of the spirit of life otherwise it cannot reteyn and conserve it selfe So that we may as soon and with better acceptation perswade a rationall and ingenuous spirit to lye downe and utterly forsake the nature and activity of his wisdome and to become a beast of the dullest capacity as to perswade a carnall mind where the son of peace is not upon the true and proper conditions of the Gospel to become a son of God It is no marvell therefore though the world love their owne and hate such as are taught of
brother-hood which is in Christ who is not ashamed to call us brethren whereby he declares their disjunction and separation from the men formerly spoken of as not being naturalized or having any part or portion in that manner of death formerly expressed nor any allyance thereunto 2. Whence he infers the exhortation Be patient therefore that is as the Son of God suffers himselfe to be deprived and laid wast of all spirituall glory vertue and operations of his spirit in the world to rescue you and deliver you there-from even so do you suffer your selves without any resistance to be routed and dispoiled of all humane transitory and fading excellencies of the world that as he fully suffereth in the wicked in point of the spirit as being layd waste of all the things thereof for there is a fulfilling or fulnesse of the Scripture in Judas and the Jewes in putting Christ to death in regard of the letter of it So do you patiently endure to be dispoyled and layd waste of all that carnall and temporall glory of the world in whatsoever it may seem to consist for there is a fulfilling or fulnesse of the Scripture in the man of God also even in that Emanuel God with us or in us in regard of the true spirit and life of the word of God therefore the flesh must be abolished that so the fulness of the spirit may appear which otherwise it cannot do The word translated patience is the same where the Apostle John saith I John even your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ or in the Kingdome and under-abiding of Jesus Christ as the word is truly rendered that is a suffering of the losse of all things carnall and transitory through that Princely power of the spirit that reigns in the kingdome of God that so Christ his suffering in the flesh may be as full and compleat as that in the spirit that so the form of the Cherubims on each end of the Mercy-seate may answer one to another from between which the Oracle of God ever utteteth it selfe and else-where expresseth not it selfe in the Sanctuary and hence is Christ said to come or spring up in this place and that is the third point unto what this suffering tends and whereunto it serves and that is to the coming of the Lord. 3. The word translated coming signifies to spring grow up or ascend teaching us hereby that this is the way of the resurrection of Christ and his ascention into all spirituall and heavenly glory for he gives himselfe unto death in respect of any life of the spirit being or existing in the world or any glory of his presence in point of his divine grace ever to appeare there that is in the wicked and this is as a compleat and unvaluable ransome whereby he purchaseth unto himselfe miserable and fraile flesh in that way of his Saints to be possessed for ever in the power of his spirit in all the fruits of righteousnesse being cloathed thereupon with the glory of the sons of God and heyrs of his Kingdom this patience therefore is to the coming of the Lord into unity and brother-hood with fraile man The argument then stands thus If Christ suffer death in the spirit in the men of the world freely giving up himselfe thereunto without resistance to an eternall separation of his spirit and glory of his power from that which he himselfe is namely man Do you in like manner suffer your selves to be deprived of all the excellency glory of this world and freely lay down your life in respect of any living thereunto without resistance for it is not unto separation or departure but to the springing up and coming of the Lord that you may ascend into that which he is in himselfe namely into the state and condition of an only son Let the world take notice that if the Son of God give it its full scope without resistance to set up and exalt it selfe in riches power policy and all wantonnesse and lasciviousnesse what a shame is it to the world to deny him liberty and freedome in his Saints to exercise himselfe in all his vertues offices and operations of his spirit in his house and kingdome but they must be judging him to be factious seditious pernicious erroneous and blasphemous and that by such as are most properly sealed up unto carnall and humane principles in Schools of humane learning so as they dare not give an Exposition upon the word of God but so as it may be consonant to the rules of humane Art unlesse they receive it at second hand by some approved Author that passeth for currant in the state where they live While the world walks and works in this sphear we shall see nothing among the sons of the mighty but meerly Babels confusion For the most curious Artist destitute of the spirit of God exercising in the word of God brings forth the greatest confusion for he is bound to preserve and maintayn the flesh which in all poynts lusteth against the spirit and is contrary thereunto So that it is the division of language for his tongue is divided from God in all expressions if hee be understood according to his true intent 4. The amplification follows by an elegant allusion to a Husbandman with respect to his seed-time and harvest We all know of what nature the patient waiting of a husband-man is with respect to his seed-time and harvest Let us therefore take out the meaning of the allusion wherein is contayned a mystery implyed in this word Behold noting unto us the appearance of a signe or wonder as was formerly sayd of the same phrase Now the Husband-man is the Son of God who sowes good seed in his field But the enemy in this his sleep of death unto the spirit in the men of the world or man of sin sowes tares for it is the word of God that is sown in the world but being received and formed by the would composed of the principle and dictates of humane wisdome which hath in it the very characters of the letter of the Scriptures which is the compleat form of the law of sin and death even as the wisdome of the spirit hath in is the compleat form of the law of the spirit of life and being received and formed in that mould it becomes a pernicious and unfruitfull tare In like manner as the spirit of the creature being cast into that mould of wholsome Doctrine doth through that wisdom of God become in it the true seed of immortality to increase with the increasings of God In the allusion or metaphor we have to consider 1. A wonder noted in the word Behold 2. A patient waiting or abiding The husband-man waiteth 3. For what that is for the precious fruits of the earth 4. The time is with long patience 5. The meanes of receiving them and that is The former and latter raine FIrst for the word Behold
the world the same that is sayd of himselfe what is it that can impaire or diminish that light So that as wicked men have changed the truth of God into a lye and have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man so they have changed the light of God into darknesse in themselves And herein Christ hath given himself as a ransome compleat and every way proportionable for ever unto that condition which man-kind is brought back and redeemed into which is to be the son of the eternall and living God to dwell with him in that inexcessible light which no flesh can approach unto and it is alike holy and precious act in God to give his holy Son to be judged condemned and executed in the world and yet be no proper cause thereof as it is to save man by nature sinfull and God himself the plenary cause thereof for to justifie the wicked condemn the just are alike abhomination yet God hath found a way wherein the Just one by nature is and ever shall be so in the Saints is in the world condemned and also that wicked one who is and ever shall be so in the wicked is justified and saved in himselfe that is in the Lord. Grudge not therefore brethren by unity and contract in creation one against another though in act of conception and springing up from that one Embryon or formlesse substance you become thus un naturalized and divided into two Nations in direct antithesis one to another quarrell not against the work of God herein but admire his wisdome who hath hereby brought to passe our salvation by the stopping of the mouth of all flesh that glory may for ever redound to him and not to the creature For it is as voluntary an act in the wisdome of man to choose the way of death in the preferring of the things proper to a creature before the things that are of God as it is in the wisdome of God in Christ to prefer and make choise of things proper to the eternall before those which are momentany and mortall so that the worke shall never say to the work-man why hast thou made me on this fashion For nature would not give in exchange its own nature disposition for another because its life and being cleaves thereunto which the nature of another must of necessity be death unto it which is declined by all things Do not murmure then nor grieve let not the works of God be any way vexatious unto you but behold with joy and admiration that wonderfull wisdome of God in that comely order of his justice who hath adorned himselfe with as glorious ornaments of wrath in the execution thereof on the world as he hath done in the distribution of his grace and mercy in that way of his onely Son in the one is the thing given as a purchase and in the other is the thing purchased Our father Abraham was well acquainted with this poynt when he bought that burying place of the sonnes of Heth for him and his to be buryed out of sight he would not take it as a gift but gave out the just proportionable worth thereof in money by weight for he knew according to the truth of Justice that as there was a valuable consideration given for a place wherein to be buried out of sight as Abraham saith of Sarah a like riches and dignity should be in the inheriting and possessing of the land by his seed to teach us this point that according to the worth of that which is given to be buryed in the world which is the Son of God where none of his vertues nor graces is declared alike shall be the worth of that estate and condition of such as are risen again in Christ according to the rule of justice which is no lesse then Son-ship unto the eternall and living God This was in the heart of David moving him not to accept of that kind offer of Araunah the Jebusite concerning that threshing floor oxen and instruments but would pay a valuable price for them because he would not worship the Lord in offering of that which cost not a valuable price And this is written according to the letter as all other Scripture is in every mans heart and utters it selfe if not stifled through desire of gaine in all merchandizes of the world Such therefore as have critically brooded upon the Scriptures to hatch a temporary and humane death only to be the death of Christ Jesus the Son of God telling us of an ayry vertue or efficacy thereof meerly imaginary for they know not how any reality thereof should reach unto us through ages past for say they his death was so long ago and but of part of three days and three nights continuation for whole ones they cannot make them all and it was only the humane nature that dyed which is only a separation of soule and body and neither separated from God By which doctrine it follows that mans resurrection and life is only a rejoycing of soule and body without any unity or conjunction with God which is the overthrow and destruction of the doctrine of Christ and so of the state of the Sonne of God and of salvation For there is as reall a departure from God in the day of the wicked whose state and condition consists of God and man otherwise no eternall wrath as there is a coming to God in the way of the Saint of Israel whose state and condition consists of God and man otherwise there were no eternall mercy and favour the doctrine of the world therefore teaching a monarchicall Christ and a kingdome bounded by time at least in point of time past it is of proper use to whet and sharpen the spirits of men to hunt and seek after a State and Kingdome of that nature and constitution which man exerciseth and not the Sonne of God These men have tyed all sin originally to one man in the fall as they by tradition call it but yet know not how nor by whom the entrance of sin came But carry us to imaginary Angels sutable to the rest of their doctrine neither know they the way of the derivation of it which is of so great concernment Even so they having tyed all righteousness unto one particular and individuall man in his resurrection compassed and surrounded by time but are ignorant of the way and manner of the derivation of it for it is whole Christ derived or else salvation is imperfect and maymed But the spirit of Christ or as some mince it the influence of the spirit without the body compleat is but a part of Christ the Son of God divided as by this way of derivation he is is as sound a doctrine as to say Paul was crucified for you To conclude this point therefore the work of God in ordering of the state of the wicked truly known and rightly judged of is of no more disquiet grief or vexation
well as that of the Sonne of God who is the Lord our righteousnesse the very kingdome it selfe and the inlet thereinto also Yea there is a faith of Devils as well as the faith of the Sonne of God as the Apostle declares Thou beleives there is one God thou dost well the Devil also beleives and trembles The phrase of Scripture therefore without the scope and intent thereof is the common deceipt of all the world where the Scriptures are read and the rest have the substance thereof written in their hearts So that no humane learning which is but the Dilucidation or Lucifer of those principles can possibly give light to lead to the true knowledge of the Scriptures The mis-apprehending of this point running away with the phrase as men by their Concordance heap up phrases of Scripture to confirm their doctrine whereas every one is of severall interpretation never minding the intent but onely the sound of words is the very cause of all the principalities powers the rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesse or wicked spirits as the word is in high places which are so elevated consecrated and judged of such necessity in the world for from hence ariseth the unction of the King as being set in that office and roome of that King of Salem Prince of peace and from this is the Bishop consecrated and installed as bearing the office and place of that great Bishop and feeder of our soules and out of this mistake ariseth all those offices and officers respectively standing in relation to the one and to the other whereby the pure word of eternity comes to be prostrated and adulterated by bringing it into copulation with vanishing things which perish in the use Submitting it unto the glory of the creature and not the creature to the glory of him who is God blessed for ever Amen Note here that the laws and orders of men in the world standing upon the letter of the Scripture in sound of word and not in the sence in the history which alters in form and not in the mystery that abides for ever hence it is that they are built upon the sands as Christ reports And when any people comes to see into the defects of the foundation which another people stand upon they encourage themselves to pull down the building of another to make their own more firme so that which the world takes to be the strength and safety of it selfe comes in few years to be the depopulating and ruine thereof For it is as possible to give as good ground and argument for one way and order set up upon the sayd principles as for another as for water in baptisme and men of ripe years as wine in the supper and infants counted the seed of the Church debarred and for the cutting off the fore-skin of the flesh as wel as either of them both and upon this ground comes in that continued work and great imployment of reformation in the world and shall never be accomplished by the change of titles of officers and formes of institutions so long as they are placed upon the same foundation namely the bare letter of the Scripture but the best perfection it will be brought unto is to persecute Joseph for interpretting the dream In this point of the letter or phrase of the Scripture and the true intent and scope thereof consists that threefold temptation brought in by Satan against Christ and Christ his effectuall answer thereunto in the one stands the subtilty of the Devill and in the other the wisdome and minde of the Son of God 2. And hence he brings in the direction leading us to the Prophets as to a pattern how to come to the true knowledge of the minde of God that is to the true interpreters of the Scriptures for the Hebrew word Nabi and the Greek Prophetes signifies speaking interpretting and uttering words and Oracles that come immediately from God So that we have no true example copy extract draught or pattern of the law of God the order and composure of the kingdome of God but by having recourse to the true interpretation of the word of God And there is no true Prophesie of any private interpretation but holy men of God speak as they are moved by the spirit of God that is there is no true interpretation given of any part of the word of God when it is bounded to any particular time or age or confined to any particular time or age or confined to one particular person alone but as the spirit of God remains the same in its motion so doth the word of God in its expression and creating virtue accompanying the same in Christ and it is a thing too sublime to be congealed into inke too secret and hidden to be printed upon paper too precious to be piled up in Libraries and of too prince-like a spirit to enter into contract with or be subservant unto any school of humane learning For it is the spirit of the Sonne onely that knows the minde of the father and it is he and not another that must reveale it unto us So that if ever we receive that fiery law of the spirit we must ascend into the mount of God namely into the height of the condition of him who sits at the right hand of God being that whereby he manifests his wisdome and skill power and glory even as a man manifests his art and skill by his right hand which no art power nor policy of man can ever reach or attaine unto This pattern is set before us in the Prophets onely or in that one great Prophet in the interpretation and unfolding of the word of God or in the translation of the originall language that is in declaring how the things of God are transformed through the carnall conceptions of men into the principles and rudiments of the creature and so is in them become a profane Grecian which makes the Son of God so complaine that his vissage is marred more then any man and his forme more then the sons of men And this is a language will speak in Cain and all his posterity when inke and paper shall vanish as smoke There is also a skil to translate the spirit of man into the principles and excellencies of the Sonne of God as being thereby become that holy Hebrew of Heber yea the seed of Abraham and Sonne of God to speak according to that voyce of the blood of sprinkling which hath in it power to passe over the destroying Angell for ever if these were as truly translated or interpretted in the world as the letters and sillables of the Bible are into our native tongue wee should see more eminent and excellent Schollars appeare then now we do 1. And here the Prophets are described to be such as speak in the name of the Lord that is in the power and authority of the Sonne of God for to speak in the name of God is to speak in
of the Father of the faithfull who staggered not Therefore the end of this Crosse is manifested to be son-ship unto God as it is sayd My sonne my sonne despise not that is honour and embrace the chastning of the Lord in the cutting off of all superfluity of naughtinesse which mans nature is subject unto for the end thereof is that child-like disposition being naturalized unto the Lord. Yea Gods end herein is to receive and embrace us as his peculiar ones For whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every sonne whom he receiveth This is that through which we participate in his holiness and are possessors of that integrity which is in none but himself For hee correcteth in cutting off all superfluous branches to this end that we may be made partakers of his holinesse Yea the end of the Crosse is to invest us in our filiall portion for if you endure chastning God dealeth with you as sonnes for what sonne is he whom the father correcteth not and that for this very end namely to fit him thereby to exercise and bear up his own spirit nature office and authority Such is the Lords end and intent in our undergoing of the Crosse to bestow a double portion on us as he did to Job which is the proper right of the first borne of God appointed by the Law in Israel For where it is said the Lord gave Job twice as much the word is Added double The same phrase is used by Elisha where he desires to receive a double portion of the spirit of Eliah or that spirit of partition whereby to divide Jordan aright as his Master had done before him the word properly signifies the mouth exercising the part of two which is the spirit of Prophesie considered in a double or two-fold respect that is as it contayns the spirit of intercession in laying open and interpretting the state and condition of man-kind before God from which the Saints are freed and delivered as also the laying open before the sons of men the state and condition of the Son of God opening and interpretting that to which we are delivered both these were in Job the one signified in his praying for his friends that they might be delivered from unrighteousnesse and the other in the names given to his daughters declaring his present joyous and delightfull condition Likewise the spirit of Prophesie is signified unto us in that he seeth his seed unto the fourth generation which number foure hath in it the mystery of the extension of things as in the gathering of the elect from the four winds or foure corners of the earth so also in that four times ten or forty dayes fast of Christ his continued act of obstinance from the wayes of sin and death is signified as in that four times ten or forty yeares travell of Israel in the wildernesse declares the Saints sight and acknowledgment of the works and wayes of the Nations in all their performances to be unto them as a barren dry wild and way lesse wildernesse for ever Likewise Gods visiting of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him is for ever for whom he hates once he hates for ever which visitation the holy man Job seeth his seed freed from by the spirit of Prophesie in this estate and condition of his restauration and eternall enriching by God in way of this double portion For as the office of Kingdome and Priest-hood are the inheritance of the first-born in the family so also is this double portion in Prophesie or mouth performing the part of twaine that is he hath the mouth to perform the part of the sonne of Man namely in exercise of the spirit of God in interpretting and laying open the state and condition of all flesh and by the vertue and authority of the high Priest of God which is done not unto terrour griefe or controversie but unto peace joy and reconciliation with God as one that is entered within the vale And thus the mouth and breath of prayer is opened and drawn out with boldnesse before the Lord at the throne of grace as coming in that name and authority of Jesus Christ who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Againe in this double portion is the mouth of the Sonne of of God exercised as from heaven opening and interpreting unto the world the mind of the Father in that state and condition of Jesus Christ freely offering and making tender of the love bounty good will and mercy of God unto the Saints and this is done in that Princely spirit and bounteous riches and liberality consisting in the power and authority of a King which things are comprehended in the right of the first born and are the portion of Job in this his restauration wherein we see the end of the Lord and in whom the state of all the Saints is personate and involved and no other end is aymed at or effected by God in all the sufferings of the Saints but to give in exchange for transitory and vaine things an inheritance mortall and undefiled which fadeth not reserved for us in heaven or in the height of of that estate and condition of the Son of God For the confirmation whereof he brings in that argument propounded in the next place which is the fourth point For the Lord is very pittifull and of tender mercy To pitty spare or to be indulgent is to refraine from imposing any penalty or burthen it is to forbeare to vex in the least even as not in pittying or sparing a person or a people is to execute destruction to the uttermost This pity is exercised in the spirit of Christianity and of Christ as when the sonne of sorry man is acknowledged to be such as there needs no other weight but his own proper propensity to cast himselfe down unto death for ever nor any other subtilty but his own to intrap and ensnare him unto the will of Satan for ever then only do the compassions and pitty of a father move upon that heart so as to adde no sorrow thereunto Againe to pitty or commiserate is to redeem release and deliver from whatsoever might annoy or disquiet the party which is subject to distresse therefore it is sayd that in his love and pitty he redeemed them and bare them as out of the reach of any harm all the dayes of old So that when the heart declineth the help of all creatures as insufficient to lend a hand from any of their proper abilities to help or rescue out of trouble and that wretchednesse whereunto all flesh is by nature subject then doth the pitty and compassion of a father as being author of all tendernesse and compassion move upon that soule effecting Gods end by suffering of the loss of the abilitie and power of the creature For when Job abhorred himselfe as being but dust and ashes then the Lord stirs up himselfe to release him not only
we are to consider wherein an oath doth consist which the Apostle to the Hebrews describes in a two-fold respect that is the oath of God and the oath of men The oath of men is never taken in the way of Christ but without the oath of God he exists not the oath of God is never taken in the way of Antichrist but without the oath of man he never was And first for the oath of God we are to consider the speech of the Apostle where he saith That when God made or built the promise in Abraham because there was not a greater to sweare by hee swore by himselfe where he transforms the promise into the oath making them as one thing 1. For the Promise of God the Covenant of God and the Oath of God are but one intire act or state of the Son of God only differ in variety and reall distinction of glory The promise being Gods voluntary and free tender of himselfe in Christ together with mans acceptation in a voluntary and free return of thankfulnesse It is in God voluntary without compulsion free without any restraint in himselfe or desert in man It is the tender of himselfe else could not have in it the bounty and benignity of God And it is accepted by man in a thankfull acknowledgment thereof in Christ which is voluntary without compulsion for the Son of God is not compelled to acknowledg the bounteous liberality of the Father and it is free without restraint of himselfe for he makes a compleat surrender of himselfe unto God and without any desert in God as considered in the vilification of the spirit in the men of the world wherein is no desert or thanks worthy at all but in himselfe and exaltation of the same spirit in Christ most worthy of all renown and acknowledgements as the author and giver of all things Even as the unworthinesse of man consists in that state of the exaltation of the flesh in the man of sin or men of the world but as it is submitted unto God in Christ so the man Christ is he to whom of due desert every knee shall bow and tongue confesse the worth and dignity of that Lord Jesus the man of God and Saviour of the world 2. Again for the Covenant of God it is a mutuall and conjugall engagement of God and man in the faith of Christ whereby they become mutually and reciprocally at the service and use of each other for therein is that speech made good and fulfilled The man hath not power of his own body but the woman neither hath the woman power of her own body but the man God vouchsafing unto the Son of man all that help and glorious supply that is in himselfe and man bringing forth and making manifest in himselfe all those glorious excellencies and vertues which are in the Son of God and so is due benevolence given with respect unto all conjugall duties appertaining and belonging unto that holy Covenant and Contract in that Espousall of Christ Jesus the Son of God 3. The oath of God is the immutability and unchangeable condition of this estate of our spirituall Abraham taken into the promise and hopefull expectation of God taken into the Covenant and present enjoyment of God taken into the oath of confirmation and unchangeable estate and condition of the Son of God wherein it is impossible that ever God should faile or forget himselfe as not to abide and remayn the same so that he sweares by himselfe wherein Abraham is a party else it cannot be an engagement and so is involved in the same condition with God for where it is said God sware by himselfe it is word for word If I blesse thee not that is if thou be not blessed I am not blessednesse my selfe Therefore he saith Surely in blessing I will blesse thee and multiplying I will multiply thee that is if I be blessed then thou art the same if I be multiplyed in my vertues and excellencies then thou also art and dost the same Note from hence that a Christian and God-like oath never swears by a thing greater then he that swears for if he do he divides himselfe from Christ divorcing himselfe from God in falsifying the Covenant in adulterating that holy and perpetuated bond And therefore he adds the oath of man to be such as swears by a greater then himselfe which is to make God and man to be two estates and conditions which is that which hath ever made a nullity of Christ who is one and holds the soule in a state of unbeliefe and is properly that oath which God swears in the way of his wrath which excludes men from ever entring into his rest in the one man is in the oath but no cause originall of the unity and contract between God and man and in the other God is a party in the oath but no cause or originall of that breach or separation from God exclusion out of the land of the living or undergoing of wrath The one is the shutting of the gate of heaven unto the world by that close and undivided estate of God and man being the same condition the other opens the grave for the Rebels in the wildernesse that Hades and state of death by separating God and man from being the same existence and so ever look after a greater then themselves for the obtayning of whom they return back in their hearts into Aegypt seeking shelter and protection in the power and authority of the arm of flesh exercising it selfe in the men of the world It stands the world upon therefore to maintayn engagements between creature and creature as the intent of the word of God and so in all things to have a respect to one greater then themselves which must be another and not their condition which is the only strengthning of the arm of flesh and buckling of the joynts of the kingdome of darkness together to become their only refuge Even as it doth the Saints of God to maintayn God and man to be one and the same condition in Christ in the knitting together of that mysticall body of Christ in the perfect supply of every part unto a perfect man and so make that undefiled and all-sufficient Son of God the only place of their refuge The oath of man is framed by the wisdome of man and is the very top and pinacle of his prefermens and perfection And the oath of God is framed by the wisdome of God being the master-piece of his work the beginning or head of his Creation The wisdome of God is his counsell held or advice taken with fraile man arguing from cause to effect and from effect to cause concluding both in one individual act and being the result properly springing out of divine nature which comprehends all times concluding man together with it selfe in the same condition and that upon such undenyable principles as cary in them the bond of an oath of the most highest and most eminent
into the state and condition of Christ or else it is not an acknowledgment and confession of faith And so sin is confessed upon the head of the Scape-goat to be carryed into the wildernesse which is desolate and way lesse unto the people of God neither is he nor it that is the goate nor the sin in that true respect found in Israel any more and so sin it set on its probase and place of its perpetuall aboad not only in time to come but past also that is in Babylon in the land of Shyner the place of confusion wherein note that the strictest order composed by the wisdome of man which is in truth and substance consonant to the letter of the Scripture men being tyed thereunto as a rule to walk by is that proper confusion of Babell unto a Christian unity because it makes man the fore-runner and not the Lord Christ who only enters within the vale where the true oracle is uttered even as it is true that when the will of God according to the law of the spirit is the most distinctly made manifest it appears to be the only confusion in a carnall mind because it layes wast those proper principles whereby it adorns it self with all its ornaments Note here how necessary it is for mans wisdome to moderate it selfe in the making of Lawes and binding men under penalties to take them as rules for all to walk by And here we propound a question whether one Law of God be not of like weight as another for that distinction of the first Table being more eminent then the second is meerly humane for doth not Christ center both in two commands and affirms them to be of like weight and the Apostles bring all into one saying love fulfils the whole law So that the two Tables do teach unto us the unity of God and man and that both according to the letter of the Law and also of the spirit and therefore the Law is broken by Moses at the foot of the Mount as considered in the Leviticall Priest-hood exercised in the Rebels in the wildernesse and the Law is preserved and kept by Moses in the Arke unto this day as the Scripture affirms as it is exercised in that way of the Spirit in Joshuah or Jesus who leads into the land as that Captain of our salvation But however the question stands concerning strictnesse of Law in two commands of the second Table which are of the same weight and importance to every Christian the one as the other and that is the not killing but preservation of life and the not committing of adultery in the preservation of chastity Is there not then a like care to be had and provision made for the preservation of life in respect of its existance and being as there is to preserve chastity that so man may appear in honour and temperancy If there be a like care to be had in both then I demand how it comes to passe that men make a law to execute death upon that fact of adultery which reacheth unto the very Embryon and unformed substance of man in the womb that so they may prevent a Bastard-like brood and that impure and incontinent conversation of men in the world Why are they not alike carefull to ordaine and execute a law upon men in case man and wife know each other when there is no possibility of conception whereby the life of man seems to be destroyed and cut off as considered in the very same capacity and principles and so upon the like ground murder committed This case may seem to be the very point of Christs argument brought forth by his practice against the Scribes and Pharisees who stood so strictly upon the letter of Moses writing when they brought that woman taken in adultery unto him who in pretending the fulfilment of the Law out of a malicious spirit seeke to ensnare the Son of God to kill him and put him to death which murthering litterall spirit of theirs he convicts them of and acquits the woman in that double act of his in writing on the earth having respect unto the writing of the two Tables of stone signifying unto them that killing letter bearing sway in themselves whereby they sought to take away his life rather then the womans by putting the force and dignity of the Law to stand in carnall and fleshly observance and so convicted them in his first writing upon the earth as having broken the Law as Moses did the first Table and therein their consciences accuse them as guilty of murder and so they absent themselves from Christ And in his second writing on the earth hee signifies that law of the spirit which is for ever kept and preserved in himselfe wherein is found no condemnation but an acquittance from all sin and unrighteousnesse and therefore the woman escapes without condemnation when none but Christ according to that law appears with her A Commentary might be writ of this point but thus much only as closely as may be in way of caution to prevent men in their so confident prosecutions formed from the letter of the Scripture as they piece-meale it out of the wisdome of man left it prove no better in conclusion then the wisdome of the Serpent that whilst they entice to the eating of the fruit of one tree because of the fairnesse and benefit of it they do not corrupt and destroy another in themselves in so doing before they be well aware of it For if such mens wisdome and wills had taken place in the dayes of Juda and Thomas they would have made a breach in the Geneology of Christ And if they say they would have stopped execution till the children had been born then they would not have stoâ—d to the glory of the Law which after it be truly discerned stands in seleritas inexequendo Wee are then to attend the mind of the spirit of God in this namely that our yea be yea and our nay nay wherein the scope of the Scriptures do consist being the state of man-kind with respect unto God which is in one act and for ever and not in the relation of any one Creature or Creatures with respect unto others that is to any meer creature or creatures which may now be yea it is and immediately nay it is not but in Christ it is not so who is the end of all law the scope of all relations and the very end which all operations drive at presse unto as he is crucified according to the flesh or else according to the spirit in which respect yea remayns yea and nay remayns nay both in the way of Christ and in the way of Antichrist So that he that teacheth another thing to be the intent and meaning of the word of God what ever it is that may one time be and another time not be in the same state condition of man-kind considered that is a doctrine under the state of condemnation Therfore
were corrupters of the Law walking according to the oldnesse of the letter and not in the newnesse of the spirit for arguments of that nature are not consistant with the doctrine of the Gospel and faith of Christ Jesus For to affirm that man is sometimes in Christ and sometimes out of Christ in the same individuall is all one to affirm that the Sonne of God is sometimes in favour with the Father and sometimes out of favour with him which is no lesse then to say that sometimes Christ the Saviour of the World is true God and sometimes he is no God and then no Saviour at that time at all And note here for the conclusion of this point that the doctrine of the Gospel is not yea and nay but yea and Amen once and for ever That the Son of God never was nor is considerable knowable or speakable but in the compleatnesse of his mystcall body in the contriving and device whereof the wisdome of God doth properly yea solely consist for all other things point as with the finger thereunto So that to deprive Christ of that work-manship at any time first or last is to deprive God only and infinitely wise of that his wisdome then the which greater Sacriledge cannot be What change therefore may be concluded to appertain and belong unto the Son of God the same also belongs unto the Saints of God and that is once for ever For as there is but one death of Christ so there is but one change as one eternall act and as death is considerable in a two-fold respect so is the change and are of the same rise in point of time past and of the same race or duration for time to come No marvaile therefore though men cannot calculate the time when Angels according to their Doctrine were created or when the Devill as they form him took his beginning and rise But a word of the next point objected against this eternall Gospel which that Angell that flyes through the midst of heaven preacheth being at a like distance from every part of it all things being beyond comprehension and he is a like neare unto all for the midst of heaveen is the center of the world where all points of the heavens meet and unite themselves in one And this second Objection consists in the Confessions of the Saints of God and is a confirmation of the poynt for which we will instance in one for all and that is the Apostle Paul who is said to be first a Saul and afterwards a Paul who first breathed out slaughters against the Saints and afterwards payers Behold he prays once sayd to be the chiefe of sinners and againe not inferiour to the chiefest Apostle of Christ once a persecuter of the Church and afterwards a Preacher of righteousnesse in the constitution of the Church once a blasphemer and afterwards utters the high prayses of God once engaged to the high Priest of that carnall and degenerate Synagogue of the Jewes by letters received to execute their enmity on all that call on the name of Jesus and afâ—terwards so engaged to the Saints of God as to be sacrificed or poured out as a drinke-offering upon the service of their faith To which we answer That whatsoever is said of this holy Apostle in point of evill with respect unto that vitious and depraved nature of man it is spoken of him only as personated in that corrupt course and condition of the carnall Jew so as to declare and set out unto all the world that stock and race of which by nature he comes even as all men spring out of the dust which is the proper meate of the Serpent wherewith he is nourished and kept alive according to the flesh and according to the proper bent and propencity thereof brings forth nothing but enmity corruption and subtilty For it is dust and Gods image which are the materials of mans being in his Creation for there is the seed of mans wisdome as a creature as well as the seed of Gods wisdome as a Creator which twayn are mayntained for ever or else Gods workman-ship should faile and come to nought but it is to abide in both respects and that in the height and eminency of each of them which could never be in one and the same subject undivided for they are inconsistant therefore man-kind cannot be known but with respect unto seed and generation and so these are both found in their height in Caine and Seath who is set in Abels stead and in them the whole work is brought to light which before lay but as in the Chaos or Embryon in the man and the woman so that neither is to be annihilated No man shall kill Caine a mark is set on him by God as a seale to confirm his life to the flesh the very prints and characters of humane wisdome turning it selfe as seale to the wax to the word or wisdome of God So that as the Sun which hath dominion of the day and the Moon having dominion of the night shall never faile but are those faithfull witnesses of heaven so the sight of Gods wisdome hearing rule in the day of salvation and the wisdome of man as that other great light ruling in darknesse over all those Lucubrations of the men of the world are those faithfull witnesses of Gods mercy and severity for ever Paul therefore sets forth himselfe that is what he and all men are with respect unto that wisdome exercised in that legall and literall worship of such as put Christ to death namely the carnal Jew thereby declaring unto all men from whence and from what the word of life hath rescued and delivered him in whom the state of all the Saints is personated and involved for the word of God is not of that narrow scantling and capacity as to center it selfe only in one particular man but it takes in all men that belongs unto that proper inheritance which it intends in its expressions The scope of the Scripture then in Paul as in all other of the Saints is to preach Christ and centers not in any particular man otherwise and so declares from what he is changed as he is man to be made the holy one of God for ever Not that Paul was in any time of his life of that corrupt and carnal spirit of the wicked Jew for blasphemy against the spirit of God shall never be forgiven Also he saith of himselfe that he was called and sanctified from the womb and that hee saw Christ as one borne out of due time or as an abortive that is he reckons himselfe in the wisdome of God which gives him his being and makes him to be that which he is as one born out of time that is before all time for no time can comprehend that and as one that never saw the Sun that is the glory of the Creature to place an excellency therein but only in that light which shined round about him in the
another is the wisdome of man that perisheth and comes to nought and not the wisdome of God which abides the same for ever and is that light which guides unto the Elders who are the onely governours and rulers of this universall Church called into communion and fellowship with this sick party and they are the first borne of every tribe having upon them the office of King Preist and Prophet in every family and inferiour to that dignity doth not this sicknesse call for any to come to visite it knowing all others to be Physitians of no value for this kinde of sicknesse summons none but the first borne of God into communion and fellowship with it that call which Cornelius gave to Peter that Elder of the Church was like unto this that when he spake of that unction of Christ the spirit of God descended upon those that heard it insomuch that Peter challengeth all men whether they can forbid water that those should not be baptized who had received the holy spirit as well as themselves as if he should say can any deny the signe of unity between Jew and Gentile which is communion and fellowship seeing they have the ground and substance thereof namely are partakers of the spirit of God that holy anoynting which is the truth and substance of all community whether we be present or absent in body we are one in that spirit of the Lord. The word of Prophesie therfore which is ever accompanied with prayer as in Cornelius or that word of true interpretation of the word of God knows how to give summons unto and call in the life and spirit of kingdome and Preisthood into fellowship with it selfe which is that healthfull spirit or unction that is by Jesus Christ Add further this sicknesse is the very foot of the throne upon which that great Elder even the ancient of dayes sits for when Daniel beholds through this spirit of interpretation he sees thrones set up or as the word will bear thrones cast down at you may see how the translators give it in both phrases signifying thereby that the power and glory of the world is cast down wheresoever this great Eldership is set up which is of no lesse antiquity then is the eternall that gives Judgement into the hands of the Saints of the most high and possesseth them with the kingdome for none but the eternall can give an eternall inheritance and he gives it not but as he sits on this throne namely the glory of man cast down and the gravity of this ancient of days set up whose garments are white as snow and the haire of his head like pure wooll and such is the royalty and authority of the Eldership here intended who are not brought in by any other call but by the Prophesie or interpretation of the minde of God therefore it is that the vision speaks so punctually and particularly where and with whom Peter is to be found Note here that even as the life of the flesh through the crucification of the spirit admits none into unity nor invests any into its proper condition but onely such as are of its own kinde so the life of the spirit which is in Christ Jesus through the crucification of the flesh admits none into fellowship nor invests any into its proper state and condition but its owne kinde For what is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit and therefore none but the first-born of God are of this Eldership or callers of them into the exercise of their proper virtue and authority even as it was with the Apostles when they pronounce peace if the son of peace be not there their peace returns upon themselves and their abode is not in that house of family 3. By these Elders then in the third place we see what we are to understand by the Church they are of that is that unity and fellowship which the selected and chosen people of God are of and have in that fellowship and faith of Jesus Christ as they are considered not in one age much lesse in one Parish or company of people gathered together but as they are universally considered in all ages and times of the world For such as is the extent of the spirit by which every Saint lives and of those offices of Christ by vertue whereof the exercise of such extent is the true Church ever to be held and taken otherwise the Church is carnallized and cast into the mould of the letter that kills and not into the mould of the spirit that gives life So that to thrust up Christ as into a corner as in one age of the world or to monopolize him amongst a handfull of people is all one as to put him in the grave though with Nicodemus a Ruler among the Jews and that rich man Joseph of Arimethea both night Disciples for fear of the Jews they may seem to differ from Herod in that they perfume the dead body and wrap it in clean linnen being affected therewith but it is but according to the custome of the Jewish Sinagogue for they put it in the grave and roll a great stone thereupon as men without hope or desire of the resurrection having that common spirit that now lives in the world to beg leave of the Pilates and great men thereof before they dare adventure to trim up the dead body of Jesus and fit it for the Sepulchre But this universall Church of which these Elders are is called by the Apostle mount Zion the City of the living God the new Jerusalem the generall assembly and Church of the first-born which are enrolled in heaven And such as constitute and set up a Church not of this nature and comprehension they build it up upon mount Sinai under the terrors of the law and sprinckle the instruments and officers there of as with the blood of Abel speaking from the ground or earthly heart of Cain and not on mount Zion in that blood of sprinkling which speaks better things in that peaceable agreement and reconcilement of God and man in Jesus Christ Note here that where two or three are gathered together in any part of the world or at any time we deny it not to be the true Church of Christ but what is it which gives it its capacity to be that Church of Christ is it not he who is in the midst or in the heart of them as the word is who is no lesse then that everlasting father or that ancient of dayes what bounds then can be set unto it lesse then that which gives it its capacity to be such a thing who extends himselfe to the whole family of heaven for unto him all faces looke and every knee bowes and if once it be so in our selves we see it in the whole family and flock of God in all the elect So that the true sum volume of all their doctrine and prayers is of no lesse extent then the
whole mysticall body of Jesus Christ otherwise it is not the word or Gospel of the kingdome nor the spirit of intercession which is by Jesus Christ Object But it will be sayd that these things crncern the invisible Church and not the visible for the true visible Church is otherwise to be considered Answ To which we answer that it is a work of as great curiosity to frame a visible Church of Christ as to frame and compose a visible body of Christ therefore the Apostle comparing the true Church to a body sayth For as the body being one hath many members and all the members of that body being many are but one body so also Christ And agayn hear what the spirit sayth by the Apostle John viz. As he is so are we even in this world where he speaks of the Son of God So that to frame and compose a visible Church and to frame and compose a visible Christ are of the same nature and of like ease and difficulty and are alike strange unto the world and of the same acceptation to bring into manifestation and appearance Yet we know that Christ in both respects for otherwise we know him not is truly apparent and visible as also secret and unseen For Moses by faith saw him meaning Christ who is invisible that is he saw him who is unseeable and both are really true in a diverse respect And they who frame a Christ visible in one age of the world and not in another they do by the same argument conclude the visible Church to appear and to be manifest only within the same confines and precincts of time wherein Christ appeared For the Church was never known to appeare but in the reall form of Gods righteousnesse and wisdome which is Christ for he is the wisdome of God and the righteousnesse of God by saith which is the reality of the Church and as for all imaginary Churches we skill not for they will vanish and come to nought together with the professors of them as they have done in all ages Again such as form a Christ unto themselves to appear visibly unto a carnall eye so as to accept and approve of that his way of appearance at the carnall and perfunctory worshippers of the Jewes did Know this that whensoever the true Christ appeareth he will receive at the hands of such the same measure which was measured out unto Jesus born of the Virgin by Herod Pontius Pilate Scribes Pharisees with the cry of all the people saying Crucifie him crucifie him away with him crucifie him Even so they that frame unto themselves a visible Church so as to appeare unto a carnall eye or understanding as being in a capacity to approve and like well of it at the least for a certaine season Whensoever the true Church makes it selfe visible it shall receive like measure at the hands of such persons to the utmost of their power and ability as Christ did when he appeared unto the Jewes For in such persons and in that spirit is the zeale of persecution properly founded in the visible and apparant exercise thereof Moreover they that form a visible Church as not having the invisible vertue alike efficatious in every part and member thereof they also form unto themselves a visible Christ to appear without aving the compleat vertue of the wisdome and power of God in all respects in him either in point of his being or in the order and manner of his being and this is that great Image of Nebuchadnezzar which hath beeen so long erected and set up in the world where the Scriptures are traditionally acknowledged and read w ch all must bow down unto at the noise of their instruments and institutions or else the fiery tryall must passe upon them that obey not Only this is our comfort that the Son of God will so appear with them or in them that so much as a smell of that zeal or fiery fume and wrath of the world shall not appeare upon them but serve only to the destruction of such as are zealous actors in such matters of the worlds melody The next point is the exercise of the Elders and the first is they pray over him or for him or without any wrong to the Text with him that is in communion and fellowship with him for there was never prayer of faith made unto God out of which any elect or chosen vessel was excluded the reason is because every acceptable prayer hath in it the vertue of the intercession of Christ otherwise it is not in his name and authority and the spirit of Christ neglects not any one that appertayns to his mysticall body for if it should that soule could never be inspired with the spirit of prayer without which there is no participation in the mediation of the Son of God and then no acceptation with the Father therefore prayer is communicative to all the Saints if it be as the prayer of faith it is as the life-blood running into all the veyns of the whole body for none can enter into the holy place but he that carries all the Tribes upon his heart it is not our temporary and private wants which can bring forth a faithfull prayer to God for as prophesie is not of any private spirit or interpretation but holy men speake as they are moved by the holy Ghost of like publique spirit is true prayer So that this sick party is in unity with the prayer here spoken of for the eldership of this Church or that eternized fellowship in the ancient of dayes never appears unto any in that miraculous vertue of healing but in way of unity with the party healed Therefore it is that Christ will have the stone rouled away from the Sepulchre that nothing interpose betwixt Lazarus and himselfe when he restores him from death to life Also Elisha will be shut up in the same roome with the widows sonne when hee rayseth him up from the dead and Paul the Apostle falls upon Eutichus and embraceth him when he brings his spirit into him agayn Furthermore where this true Eldership appears it ever communicates a like vertue to every individuall of the body for the spirit is not received by measure for that which in it selfe is emence cannot be received by measure they that go about to perswade men that some have a greater portion of the spirit and some have a lesse measure thereof they may upon as good grounds perswade men that some shall be saved and be happy and blessed a long time and some a shorter time for if the spirit of God in any poynt of our salvation be subject to measure in latitude it is as truly subject to be measured and bounded in longitude and then salvation is voyd which is the doctrine of the most of our Elders in these dayes but the spirit of glory and of God that rests upon the Saints through this sicknesse and suffering is neither given out nor received by measure
but is unmeasurable in all its operations whether in prayer or in prophesie for they are so neare in allyance that that which is the spirit of Prophesie in Eliah in the history in his shutting up of the heavens and restraining them from raine and also in the opening of them to give rayn in abundance is sayd here by our Apostle in this Chapter to be prayer Prayer therefore and Prophesie are of like nature and of like fame in the the house of God so that to prefer one before the other or to contayne the one harder to be attayned then the other or that one is of more use in the Church then the other is not according to the judgment of God but only in humane wisdome and the Serpents subtilty and policy that things are so carryed in the world to lead men along in blindnesse by speaking of the word of God in such unknown languages which are not to be heard in the house of God for there is no office of Christ whatsoever or exercise of his spirit that one ought to be preferred before another only the call of God makes every one chief and principall in its time and season If men would well consider this they might as well lay out money upon their children in the Schools to learn them to pray as to teach them to preach in case the Spirit of God might be bought for money But the poynt is that true Prayer and Prophesie do give and proclaym a like honour vertue and power to Christ in whomsoever he appears and they are so near a kin that the Apostle appoynts one and the same law in the exercise of them both that is in prayer and prophesie the man is to be uncovered and in prayer and prophesie the woman is to be covered And it is â—suall in Scripture to use one phrase that signifies both as in the Psalms Let God arise prayer-wise or as the word may be as truly read God will arise or God shall arise and his enemies shall be scattered prophetically The reason is because none but a Seer can be a supplicant if he behold not the thing by the spirit of interpretation or prophesie to give a true form unto it he can never sue for it because he knows not what it is To conclude this point this act of the Elders may either be taken to pray with him or prophesie with him for we see the spirit of God useth them indifferently the one for the other as in that instance of Eliah which he brings in in teaching this doctrine for the one is as healthfull and necessary for the recovery and well-being of the soule as the other and of as wonderfull and miraculous effect for remission and confirmation and cannot be in exercise by any either the one or the other but as it is accompanyed with the holy oyle even that annoynting which teacheth all things and hath no need to be taught of man that is it hath no need of humane skill which fals infinitely short of that which it brings the soule unto and instructs and teacheth it in and that leads us to the second poynt in the exercise of the Elders They annoynt him with oyle 3. This sick party therefore or all such as are dead to the law of the letter or carnall command that is to the word of God as it is formed and fashioned through the wisdome art and skill of humane principles which the Schools of Learning among the sons of men in the world are only exercised in and conversant about or else they should undermine their owne foundations and so let fall their building for Gods wisdome once layd in the descention of the Son of God overthrows it all as it comes of the Serpent and so is Satanicall folly But we must know that the Eldership of Israel consists of the first-born of God and no other unto whom the Scriptures look in the first-born of every Tribe or family of Israel to instruct us in that family which the Apostle speaks of that the whole every part thereof is named or hath its renown and authority only of and from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as Paul affirms to the Ephesians as being of no other but of his true and proper off-spring so as to make a difference of the sons of God none excepted as one being of greater eminency birth breeding or excellency then another is to cast reproach upon that one only father of whom every one is named that appertayns to that family as though he were not of like power and glory with respect unto them all or as though he changed his act in producing of his only son which tends to nothing else but to make the seed of the bond-wman heire with the seed of the promise and guil efully to give the wicked interest in the promise whereas the word of the curse is only their inheritance But the children of this off-spring having the name of this one Father called upon them or they called by his name holy and blessed for ever every one as a first-born of God bearing his name and authority is King Priest and Prophet by vertue thereof in the family and there cannot be any inferiour among such as to whom God communicates himselfe in the whole off-spring nor can one be in account and reckoning before another For of his owne will begate he us by the word of truth that we should be the first fruits of him who is no lesse then the eternall father So that it is impossible that this Eldership should appear and not be annoynted with the holy oyle for it is their proper patrimony and birth-right and therefore they ever appeare invested therewith which ever carries in it the same vertue of healing this sick party in all ages and times of the world and a like miraculous recovery and restauration where-ever they are called for by the spirit of true interpretation or prophesie for they cannot with-hold but must impart to every one in the family that which themselves are blessed withall For none can know what is the right of the first-born of God and be possessed therewith but he must freely impart it to every one in the family For the Spirit of Christ is ever like it selfe in all ages only men deceive themselves by mistake of the variety of figures wherein God in one Christ or holy annoynting commends himselfe unto us doting upon the shadow wherein the substance is wrapped up as under Moses vale and they see it not nor can endure the glory and shine thereof But to whomsoever Christ unveyles himselfe hee imparts whole and compleat salvation to every one else it cannot be the salvation of God for he or it cannot be divided and therefore the holy unction is alike shed forth to every one in this Kingdome and they that have it must of necessity annoynt every one into whose fellowship they are called according to the nature of the call of
when Moses cast down his rod on the earth of Aegypt it became or as the word is it was to a Serpent when it was on the ground it was a Serpent a quite contrary thing then when it is in his hand or Ministry the one declaring the Dragons fury in that government of Pharaoh in Aegypt and the other that rod or scepter in the rule of Christ as that Shepheard and feeder of Israel as the word rod signifies a Scepter So that when we confes sin that is the breach of the law of the spirit in the world through the observation of the carnall command where Christ is bereaved of all his proper vertues operations of his spirit it is unto another that is that state is become another thing as Moses rod was then the son of God for it is that son of perdition even Sathan himselfe though under the figure of an Angell of light in the eye of the men of the world Again when we confesse sin that is the breach or abrogation of the law or carnall command that Christ is bereaved and dispoyled of all glory power and vertue of the arm of flesh so that his own arm saves and gets the victory not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts We confesse this sinne against the carnall command unto the unity of the spirit and the fulfilling of the law of Christ or of that rule of righteousnesse that is by faith in him which is to another that is to another thing state and condition then that of the letter that stands in outward observations temporary engagements and performances and this is that one and alone good thing desirable that Christ of God that carrieth and abideth for ever To confesse sin therefore or to make profession of any thing that is to praise or acknowledge it is to give the thing its nature and properties unto the utmost extent and so it must be here to an utter contrariety vast and perpetuated distance of the law of the flesh and that of the spirit otherwise we contradict the command of God by plowing with an oxe an asse together by wearing a garment of linnen and woollen and by sowing our field with two kinds of seed Quest Here ariseth a necessary question Whether in the acknowledgment of the nullity of the law of the carnall commandement unto that unity that is in Christ a Christian doth not thereby reckon and accâ—unt all the vertue of the Son of God to be his own proper portion and patrimony as also whether in acknowledgement of the nullity of that law of the spirit unto the unity of the harlot he doth not as necessarily reckon unto himself as his due and proper right and inheritance all those vicious abominations that rest and abide in the bosome of that man of sinne which is Antichrist Answ To which we answer that there is a like truth and reality in the acknowledgment of the one as there is in the other taken in a due respect as the mind of God commends the same unto us where he saith So then with my minde I my selfe serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin For a Christian must be plain down-right and reall in his acknowledgments before God whether of sin or of the fruits of righteousnesse yea in the root and originall both of the one and of the other Object But a Christian by faith professing the fruits of righteousness and fountaine out of which they flow is endewed with the life and spirit of them according to their native property in that blessed subject of Christianity else his confession of them is but as a fire paynted upon a wall or the picture of a man carved out of wood or stone that wants soule and spirit the ground of motion and operation For what is it to professe or acknowledge the love of God unlesse it be kindled in our hearts to a flame that many waters cannot quench neither the world drown or to confesse the power of Christ unlesse through him we be able to do all things or to praise the Kingdome Priesthood and propheticall office of Christ unlesse we have the power of rule reconciliation and interpretation in us Will it not then also follow that if he deale faithfully and sensibly in the confession of sin as that he hath not the understanding of a man that he persecuted the Church of God that he is the chiefe of sinners that the terrours of the Almighty are upon him that out of the belly of Hell he cries unto God that he is shut up and cannot come out If he deale playnly in that and be reall will it not follow that he hath in him the vicious desire of the flesh the state of the Devill if he be the chiefe of sinners and partaker of the terrors of Sathan sensibly if he cry out of the womb of hell that if the creature man participate of joyes celestiall and eternall in confession and acknowledgment of them So the creature or man must partake of all abominations of sinne and state and condition of the Devill if he be reall also therein in his acknowledgments Answ We answer in the name of God that no such consequence follows upon a reall confession of sin But through the wisdome and device of God it proves an eternall separation of the spirit of a Christian from all such sins and sorrows justly and really acknowledged in and upon man-kind or that matter whereof a Saint doth consist and this is proved by a true and reall distribution of man or of the creature according to the word of the Lord gone out in the disposing of it as a reall subject of mercy and severity of love and wrath We are to take a man in a two fold respect according to the intention and expression of the word of God which rightly judgeth and determineth all things 1. As it speaketh on this wise All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth because he is the son of man Againe whether is it easier to say Arise take up thy bed and walke or to say thy sins are forgiven but that ye might know that the sonne of man hath power to forgive sins So also blessed is the man or oh how happy it is and well for us that man going right forward not turning aside to the right hand nor to the left The Hebrew word Ashrei imports that simple and immixt condition of man which is only found in that man of God Christ Jesus who is God blessed for ever being that beginning head or fountaine of the creation of God that new creature and in this sence is man or the Creature considerable in the answer of this objection 2. We are to take man also in another sence infinitely remote from this where it is said man being in honour abideth not but is like the beast that perisheth and wo unto that man by whom the Son of man
is betrayed it were good for that man if he had never been born also if an enemy had done it I could have born it but it was thou Oh man my familiar I speaking of the trechary of Achitophel and Prophecying of Judas into whom Satan entred which is that man of sin that Antichrist and deceiver of which spirit and power there were many in the Apostles time but the Preisthood of our times have collected them into one man only and crowded him up only in that corner of the world called Rome that so notice may not be taken of their opposing and rejecting of Christ to the deceiving of the people as that spirit ever doth into him or into them Satan enters or takes his beginning in them for as the Son of God hath no beginning but in man so Satan or the Devil hath no beginning but in man even in that man of sin and son of perdition for as the Scriptures give the word of truth a being from the beginning for in the beginning was the word even so it gives Satan to be a lyer from the beginning and one that abides not in the truth and this two-fold estaâ—e man to be taken in else know we not how to acknowledge sin nor how to praise God for our deliverance into those fruits and happy estate of righteousnesse by Christ We answer then that when a Christian confesseth acknowledgeth or praiseth the excellencies of God in Christ giving them their proper and full vertue and extent as love joy mercy gentlenesse kindenesse bounty power and eternall goodnesse man participates thereof the creature really and sensibly possesseth and enjoys them in the unfeigned and just confession of them that is the man of God the new creature which is that work-manship of God in Christ Jesus and man-like Son of God standing in that one alone sonship of God not found extant but in Christ that annointed one But man or the creature that is that man of sin made to be taken and destroyed ungodlike men that man of Beliall that vaine and empty man of faith without works of which beleife the Devill is yea that Antichristian spirit wherever it is that molds the worship of God into a form tying him to appear in the same figure and posture Againe we say that man or that creature hath no fellowship with the things proper to the Son of God as peace joy love nor any of the fruits of the spirit which are by Christ he is a stranger unto them all and therfore intermeddles not with the joy of the saints though they be reall forceable and effectuall in the man of God or saint by calling when ever they are uttred or expressed Even so there are the terrors of death vexations of spirit guilt of sin condemnatory sentence of conscience that ever accompanies the sins confessed by a Saint really beyond any shadow or semblance and that not bounded by time but are eternall and yet the man or the creature that is the man of God or the new creature participates not in the least in any of their distresse guilt or fear no more then the wicked partake in the joys of salvation in Christ he hath no taint or tincture of the enmity of the Serpent nor sence unto pangs and vexation of the guilt of corrupt and defiled conscience and yet saith truly and unfeignedly this is my sin this is my death and this abomination is in me that is in my flesh or in that carnall estate out of which I am taken where dwels no good thing but is a cage of all unclean and abominable filthinesse and wickednesse So that in a true confession of sin according to faith not onely it but all its appurtenances are carried forth and set upon their proper base that is in that land of Shiner which is Babylon that confusion gone over all the earth which is that strict composure of things by mans wisdome according to times places persons and temporary respects whatsoever which makes a nullity of Gods order who is a God composed thereof and all things therein are illimitted not any thing tyed to time place person or any temporary or fading bond whatsoever otherwise it is not the order of the Son of God but a device and inventions of man unto confusion whether the Epha of wickednesse is carried and is the house built for it where for ever it shall remaine and abide Thither all sin and sorrow in true confession is carried as fully as all righteousnesse and peace is carried onely into that happy estate and incomprehensible order that is of God by Jesus Christ the carnall minde or man therefore is onely sensible of sin in the way os Gods displeasure but not of that vertue of reconciliation and the spirituall minde or man is onely senfible of all righteousnesse in way of the peace of God but not of that horror which comes through that breach of the everlasting Covenant And yet is neither the one nor the other voyd of sence with respect unto the others condition For the wicked from the sight of the Saints being lifted up in that holy unction and taken into an everlasting reigne and authority by unity with an omnipotent and all-sufficient power are filled with fear and terror at the fight and apprehension thereof as having the glory of a righteous Judge also the Saints of God beholding themselves lifted up and taken out of that fearful and abominable state and condition of the wicked rejoice thereat with joy unspeakable and full of glory even as Noah when he saw the waters over-whelm and destroy the world was by the same waters lifted up to heaven as sase from all rocks mountaines or hills that might annoy him so the Saints seeing how the Son of God hath given himselfe unto death in the world never to live the life of the Son of God in them as a ransome whereby he is lifted up unto the throne of Gods glory in the Saints everlastingly which carries with it a holy shout harmonious and melodious singing and rejoycing for ever to see the terrors of death captivated under eternall darknesse which can never seize nor intrench upon that Sun of righteousnesse which shineth in the saved of the Lord. The second part of the exhortation is to pray one for another or appeal one to another the word for and to are indifferently taken as you may see by the difference of translations One saith a Psalm for the sons of Corah and another saith a Psalme to the sons of Corah so that here it is taken for one to another that is in your confessions of the nullity and breach of the law of the spirit by that wicked one do you appeal to the law of the carnall command which is of sin and death which is thereby established and confirmed in the world whereby the men thereof are effectually bound over under that spirit of bondage to walk and work according to the letter that kills and
dust that it cannot yeeld fruit his ascending up into heaven in a fiery Chariot The spirit of God is pleased to commend all his honourable deeds unto the world in this one act of prayer to stand and to be as his memoriall for ever Prayer therefore is garnished with all the ornaments of a Prophet oâ— God and cannot be lesse then a most honcurable monument and memorizing of the Saints where-ever it is found extant 2. Prayer hath all the vertues and ornaments of Priest-hood in it Never was Aaron fitted and adorned with greater variety of vestments and vertues to minister before God in the holy place and according to the variety and change of the multitude of sacrifices and offerings then the spirit of prayer contayns in it and according to occasion puts on and brings forth when the vertue power of our great high Priest after the order of Melchisedech is brought in it is all summed up in the spirit of prayer as he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech who in the dayes of his flesh when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares unto him or in him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that which be feared That is he was heard in all things or for the accomplishment and bringing to passe all things that concern life and salvation Now that all things that concern the Kingdome of God is involved in this prayer is thus proved The word translated feared is in the Greek dispaired about which men have much contended how it may be said of Christ But the thing is really and substantially to be considered though men do wrest and bend mince and strayn the word to suit it to humane reason For it is as true that the Son of God in and by the spirit of the world and principles proper to humane wisdome doth dispair and relir quish all hope and expectation of being delivered or set at liberty from that infinite wrath and displeasure of Almighty God as it is true that the son of sorry man is in and by the spirit of God and principles proper to the wisdome of God established and confirmed in the love power truth righteousnesse and glory of God and of his Kingdome everlastingly If men be ignorant hereof how Christ is said to feare or dispayr in all things they may talk of eternall life but they know not how a creature can live eternally and be possessor of all things Want of this knowledg breeds your Mortallists that know not by vertue of what the soule becomes eternall either in life or death as also your Generallists that say God will save all whereas there may be as reall and undenyable arguments used upon like ground that God will destroy all and so they must be left to the height of their doctrine which will amount to no more then the condition of a beast yet doth it make them such men as it had been good for them they had never been born For the rest that have gotten a tract of salvation and damnation by tradition from schools books naturall phylosophy and observation not having the knowledg of the nature of this Priest-hood comprized in the spirit of intercession They believe such things but they must not be curiously searcht into that is we cannot know them of these we say as the mind without knowis not good so these mens faith is dead For wilt thou know oh empty man that faith without works is dead For the spirit of God never works in way of life but in its own light therefore ignorance in any point must be voyd of the work of faith and so of the saving vertue that is in the life of Christ But prayer comprehending the whole Priest-hood of Christ is a work of that honour and power as to memorize the name of a Saint for ever and to set him up as a monument of the wisdome and mercy of God 3. Prayer is a work that comprehends the Kingly authority of Christ for when the Apostle Paul had shaken off the traditions and rudiments of the carnall Jew the power of the high Priest in that prosecuting spirit of binding and imprisoning all that were of the way of Jesus calling on the name of the Lord and when the Lord would proclaim him and make it manifest that he was a chosen vessell fitted to beare his name or carry his authority before the Gentiles Kings and the children of Israel Yea when he would put all that honour upon him which the Psalmist foretells saying There is little Benjamine their ruler the head of the Tribe a Prince of God he comprehends and concludes all in this act of prayer to give satisfaction to Annanias behold he prayeth As if he should say it is enough to know that miraculous change from Saul unto Paul from the service of the Synagogue of the Jewes to be a ruler over Kings the Gentiles and children of Israel for the name of God is by his word advanced over all which he was to beare this is sufficient to give satisfation to all Behold he prayeth So that none can deny a Princely spirit of power and authority where the spirit of prayer bears sway and a princely excellency is of honour sufficient to eternize the record of a Christians name 4. There is in prayer the power of victor or a victorious renown consisting of the noblest conquest that ever was Jacob by prayer overcame the man that wrestled or combated with him which man is said to be an Angell but it is the Angell that blest him in the way and therefore is declared to be God for Jacob said I have seen God face to face in which act of prayer his name is changed from Jacob to Israel to declare a prince-like promise in prevailing with God as the Prophet explayns his name and act saying And by his strength he had power with God yea he had power over the Angell and prevailed he wept and made supplication hee found him in Bethel and there spake with us or in us for if the spirit of God had not spoke in our father Jacob and so in all of his race he had never prevailed Was ever the like Conquest made as to overcome omnipotency which could never be but through the requests of his owne spirit which he cannot deny but must yeeld himself over thereunto Prayer therefore consists of a combate which ever hath conquest therefore of sufficient honour and renown to memorize a Saint who-ever he be that exerciseth the design and skill thereof 5. Prayer hath salvation contained in it nay it is salvation For whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved or in the present tense as the word will admit is saved for he that thinks he knows Christ any otherwise then in the vertue of an office exercised in such a subsistance or by such a manner or subsisistance exercised in
as things of old from eternity and new as in present use fitting and beseeming the present oration and opportunity This phrase therefore is like that where the Apostle saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe till Christ be formed in you not as though they had now defaced Christ who before was formed in them but he declares hereby the effect of his doctrine from which some were turned aside unto the rudiments of the Law as unto another Gospel which he saith is not another but the same Gospel perverted by false Teachers telling them that some are entangled with the yoke of bondage thereby for he that is bound to any particular of the carnall commandement as to be circumcised or any outward form of bodily action He is bound to keepe the whole law and shews that such have abolished Christ and are faln from grace such effect he shews his Doctrine had of some as a savour of death unto death but there were others unto whom hee there speaks on whom his doctrine had a more noble effect as being a savour of life Therefore he saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe or I have brought you forth not in a second act but in another manner and way namely to the forming of Christ in you or framing you into the similitude of the Son of God once and for ever Even so it is here He prayed againe that is the spirit of intercession hath a secondary or other manner of effect then that which is before specified not another prayer but another manner of wonder accomplished by the same prayer for now the heavens gave raine and the earth brings forth her fruit We are to know then that as the Gospel opens the treasuries of the Kingdome of God unto an abundant freedome liberty and plenty of the going forth and exercise of the spirit of grace in the Saints even as water poured upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground through that office of intercession peculiar unto our Eliah without any hinderance or engagement of any bond of the flesh when through the spirit of prayer that cloud of witnesse or rayn of liberality ariseth as a hand or administration thereof even as the word of the Lord is sayd to come by the hand of Haggie and by the hand of Malachie and by the hand of all the Prophets which so covereth the heavens as no parching sun of the beams of mans wisdome and device taketh place no more then they doe in those over-shadowings of the Virgin by that holy spirit of God in the production of Christ Even so doth Prayer set at liberty the works of the flesh in the men of the world by opening the sluces and flood-gates thereof unto condemnation and destruction for the waters of the great deep mystery or bottomlesse pit are opened for the destruction of the world as well as the flood-gates of heaven for the safety of Noah and his houshold in bearing up the Ark fifteen cubits above the great mountayns of the States of this earth or of the world And this prayer doth not simply accidentally but ministerially and effectually in the same sence That the Gospell is a savour of death unto death Not only by gleaning of all the fruits of righteousnesse out of the wisdome of the Serpent or men of the world which centred in the Saints are the proper cause of the transcendencies of their estate above all humane excellencies so doth it also gleane all the vicious desires of the flesh out of that state and condition of Christ centring them in that state of unbeliefe whereby man descends infinitely beneath a state of simple humane or properties of a meer creature and by fashioning and corrupting the holy things of God becomes satanicall and diabolicall and such as seek to finde an excellent or commendable betwixt these twayn it cannot be better described or diciphered for the solidity of it then by that partition that divides Purgatory and Hell in those of that mercinary conceipt The abundance of spirit therefore in the Saints and that plenty of the spirit of the Prince of the power of the ayre which now works in the children of disobedience hold proportion in way of Antithesis otherwise an infinite and an eternall wrath could not take place in the wicked as an infinite and eternall glory doth in the Saints For he made but one speaking of that state of Christ with an elegant allusion unto the high Priest and wherefore but one seeing he had abundance of spirit namely that there might be a holy seed that whatsoever the fruits are that are by one Lord Jesus Christ of the same nature and dignity are all the fruits of happinesse produced and brought forth by that one mystical and spirituall body and so in a diameter respect are all the fruits of sin in the wicked This plenty in this two-fold respect is signified by warning given to Ahab to betake himselfe to his Chariot for I heare a noyse of much raine which Ahab flyes from as a terrible thing as it contayns the spirit of Eliah betaking himselfe to Chariot and horse in the furnitures of this world and Eliah flyes from it as it hath the spirit of Ahab and Jezebel as that which brings destruction upon them only hee betakes himselfe to the strength of Gods spirit to take the gates of Iesreel The plenty of Eliah's spirit is seen and taught in that duration and plenty in the cruse of oyle and barrell of meale raising up the womans sonne from death to life and annoynting Hazael and Jehu for the ruine of Ahabs house Elisha to be a Prophet in his stead and in the destruction of all those false Prophets of Baal And the plenty of the rayn of that spirit of wickednesse appears in Ahab and Jezebel their cruelty towards the Prophet of God their miserable and horrible overthrow and in their desire and endeavour to nourish and maintayn such plenty of a false spirit of prophesie upon the face of the earth and in this plenty of rain seed-time and harvest are continued for the world sow unto the flesh and the flesh they reap and inherit corruption and the Saints sow unto the spirit and inherit everlasting life And from this power of prayer he assumes the power and vertue of doctrine in which he concludes the Epistle to shew that where the power and vertue of the one resides there is the power and vertue of the other The prayer of Faith is never without the spirit of Prophesie and prophesie according to the spirit is never without the life and power of prayer and where one of these is wanting they are both absent from that party in the true exercise of them for a formall prayer is never accompanyed with the life and power of sound doctrine but as they have composed a prayer by mans invention gathering up expressions sutable in the understanding of a man so do they compose a
then there could be no want to be supplyed so that the whole spirit of Christianity prayeth viz. God and man in unity so it is here the spirit that turns is God and man in unity and is as true a change from that which is and ever shall be Satanicall as the wicked erre from that which is and ever shall be holy and righteous and they are both of one and the same time in the rise of them For in the beginning was the word and that word is with God and is God And Satan is a lyar from the beginning and abode not in truth no more then Christs soule was left in hell or that holy one suffered to see corruption but was ever taught in the way of life and in that reall presence at whose right hand there is fullnesse of joy for evermore Therefore the Prophet saith that Christ comes meek and lowly saving himselfe that is compleatly and not apart only and therein the worth and dignity of salvation stands that it hath that weight substance of account and reckoning in it and upon this ground the Disciples are comforted against all feare whatsoever where it is said Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and yet one of them falls not to the ground without the good will of your heavenly father of how much more worth are ye then many sparrows Can you set a price and rate of so mean a thing and doth God take care for the preservation of it Of what esteem price and respect then is the state of a Christian in which not a part but the compleat spirit of the Son of God is involved and by a ransome given and payd in the world proportionable thereunto purchased This point contains a mystery which the common Priest-hood of the world so far as I have heard or seen in books is altogether ignorant of though life and death yea the spring and originall fountaine of all things is involved in it So much for the proposition the injunction followes Le him know or acknowledge c. The word let is of like signification here that it is in the beginning Let there be light let us make man c. having the power of a command and vertue of propagation to bring forth being of the nature of the word Amen so be it or so it shall be without all gainsaying or contradiction having in it a creating power and vertue to give being to the thing uttered That is that the party thus turning or turned for both are true and the word implies both one that turns and one turned for both are in that state of Christ and he that preacheth any thing but Christ and him crucified he goes beyond our Apostle as far as the common apostacy The word Let then establisheth in the heart of him and no other that turneth a sinner from the errour of his way a certaine power of acknowledgment of such a condition or royall and noble acts which here follows but first see here the nature of the confession or acknowledgment of sin it is his way that turneth naturally but it is confessed to the change or converting it unto the state of the Sonne of God even as truth may be sayd to be their way naturally who are in errour but they have perverted the same into falshood turning the truth of God into a lye and his grace into wantonnesse so that their way with respect to that which they have perverted is holinesse and is and ever shall be so in Christ but there remayns nothing but sin and wickednesse in the perverters thereof So also a Christian may confesse that the evill of sin and errour is his way with respect to that which is converted and is and ever shall be so in the wicked but in that state of the turned and converted there is no sin nor errour to be found at all there is then a reality of the Saints confession of their sin but it is to the removing of it to another where it abides for ever as there is a reall confession of a holy one in the wicked but it is ever in removing it unto another which they are not which is the proper spirit of Python that unperswaded or unfaithed one as the Apostle gives the wicked the title of Apeitheis unperswaded or disobedient so that their acknowledgment of holinesse in another subsistance is the unfaithing or unbetrothing of the soule from God it is its proper and perpetuall divorce So that he that knows not how to clear the state of Christianity from sin and fill the world with wickednesse he will come to make a bankrupt-like account when ever his estate comes to be discovered Therefore the wealthy estate noble acts and royall prerogatives following are only entailed and made over to him that turns the sinner from the errour of his way errour collectively as all considered in one otherwise Christ is not cleered and made the holy one of God and then not risen from the dead We are yet in our sins the substance of the common doctrine at this day in the world The first point or act of honour given to him that turns is that he saves a soule from death not as the world thinks by preaching the terrours of the Law and frighting men from some grosse and bruitish acts they have thereby converted and saved souls the most part of those that thus save did strive to pluck men out of the hands of the Bishops that the people might be instruments to lift them up into the like seat if not worse no such conversion coms in here it is abhominable but it is a true and faithfull distribution and opening of Gods righteous and holy manner of working in the absolution of his holy son made sin in being acquit from all sin and the just condemnation of that wicked one who in being made Lucifer the morning starre became the Prince and power of darknesse From such an originall we must fetch salvation and destruction or else all our doctrine of the decree of election and reprobation will prove no better then reprobate silver not passing for currant in the Kingdome of God 1. But the thing to be acknowledged by such a one as turns or is turned is he saves that is the power and spirit of the Saviour is there when once we know of what nature the spirit of the world is namely that wee are of God and the world is of that wicked one then wee shall learn to acknowledg that salvation never appears but there is the Saviour wee thinke to honour Christ by binding him up in one individuall man in point of the mystery of the Gospel it is a carnall and humane honour not beseeming the Son of God the common Priest-hood hath blinded and besotted the world in this point setting up an idoll in mens minds and not the mystery of life that is by Christ but it is taken for blasphemy in these dayes to talk of the Son of God
or a Saviour any where but as lockt up in a humane body in heaven that men may stand here in his room till he return from thence to suck up all the glory of the earth It was not so in ages past and men spirituall for Joshuah Moses Minister was called Jesus a Saviour as the Apostle interprets his name and the Lord acknowledgeth in raising up Judges in Israell that he raised up Saviours unto them And Paul was not affraid to tell Timmothie that in taking heed to himselfe that is how God hath composed salvation in his consisting in Christ and unto learning or doctrine that is how it ought to be layd out and distributed to others that in so doing he should be a Saviour of himselfe and them that heare him 2. A second point is what he saves that is a soule or a life this is not meant of the life of a meer creature but it is the life of the Son of God as our Apostle affirms Now I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live is by or in the faith of the sonne of God So that a Christians life is the life of Christ and there is no life of man-kind but either the life of the Saviour or else the life of Sathan that destroyer for heaven and earth conspire together in the making of man Let us speaking with respect to that plurality in our image that is in our image earthly as well as heavenly for there is a heavenly body and there is an earthly body and God is as just and righteous in the making of the one as of the other and every way as honourable the one in mercy and the other in severity And man cannot be known in a simple act of creation for that multiplies him not but propagation or generation must be brought in also else the son of God nor the seed of the Serpent can be known so both are brought forth in that first act of generation in Cain and Abel wherein the seed of the Serpent appears in the same act as in Jacob and Esau together with Christ in Abel dead by Caine in the spirit and in Seth that sett one in life for evermore who is set in the room of Abel crucified in the world So that the life of Christ and of Antichrist are both from one act even from as early dayes the one as the other and without the true knowledg of that we know neither of them and for other life in man-kind we know none worthy the name of life beyond other creatures but as it serves to the setting forth of the one or of the other of these and so they transcend the life of all other creatures as far as the image of God did the frame of any other creature or that earthly image descends below them all even to a bottomlesse pit which no other creature is subjected unto but only man 3. There is a third point what he saves from that is death namely a death that holds correspondency with that infinite and eternall life of the Son of God in way of Parathesis in all points for Christ is saved from whatsoever Sathan is hath or undergoes and Sathan is destroyed from whatsoever Christ is hath or is advanced unto therefore that conceit that Sathan was an Angell that is a meere creature at the first and in acceptation with God is a meer humane tradition and philosophicall fiction and is a point of greater concernment then men are aware of for it is as safe to say that the son of God was for a time out of the Fathers favour as to hold that the Devill at any time was in acceptation with God for whatsoever is out of Gods favour can never return into againe and what is accepted of him for a moment caâ— never be rejected 2. A second royalty or act of fame that is to be acknowledged by him who turns the sinner from the errour of his way changing him into truth it selfe that is the covering or hiding of a multitude of sins This is taken from the speech of Solomon Hatred stirreth up strife but love covereth all sins which our Apostle calls a multitude of sins the word signifies the deep of the troubled ocean intimating that huge multitude of torturing and troubling trespasses proper to that great gulfe of the bottomlesse pit Now to turn from the error of a mans way is to turn to truth and no man can turn to truth but by that unity that is in Christ none turns to truth but hee that becomes truth for there is no terme or title given in Scripture but being rightly interpretted and rightly applyed the truth substance and being of the thing is there for God useth no expression but he intends under that the truth and substance of the thing expressed To turn to truth is not only truth in word but truth in act also yea to be that very thing as Christ saith I am the way the truth and the life Now that unity that is in Christ is the fulfilment and compleating of the law of the Spirit for if the love of Christ be in us and constrayn us to all acknowledgments of him we know that love is the fulfilling of the Law and where the Law is fulfilled there sin utters not its voyce nor hath it a face to appear it is altogether hid and covered for ever Christ is the eâ—d and scope of the law for righteousnesse and more it aymes not at nor more it cannot require for it is the sonne of God that is justified who then shall condemn him The law is fully satisfied from what ground then shall any accuse yea our Apostle saith that the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us that walke not after the flesh but after the spirit No hiding of sin therefore but by fulfilling of the law but what law not the law of the carnall commandement generally taught in the world by which no flesh can be justified but it is the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus or which consists in that unction office or spirit of the Saviour Againe how do the wicked hide righteousnesse that none appears in them but only the spirit of the wicked one namely by walking according to the law of the flesh For he that walks after the law of the flesh he cannot please God so that all righteousnesse is hid and covered in them yea even by fulfilling the law of the flesh for the more they conform themselves thereunto the more their condemnation doth appear for it is not because men cannot perform all the works of the law in that respect that they cannot be justified thereby but because they do any of them for it is against the nature of that law of the carnall Commandement and every part thereof to justifie for it is its proper nature and office to condemn for we may as well say that the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus is a law of sin and death as to say the law of the carnall command can give life or peace no not in the compleat performance of it For every part thereof is a breach of the law of the spirit And whatsoever is a breach of the law of the spirit is a crucifying of the Son of God afresh and putting of him to open shame so that every performance of the law of the flesh according to the intent thereof is a breach of the same law of the spirit and he that breaks one breaks all therefore all righteousness is hid and covered in the wicked even so the true keeping of the law of the spirit of faith in any part of it is a nullifying of the whole law of the carnall Command therefore no law of sin and death is found in them all sins and sorrows are hid and covered therefore the man is blessed whose trespass is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man and he only unto whom the Lord imputeth accounteth or reckoneth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Amen By Sam Gorton Professor of Christ FINIS