A02990:341
A friendly trial of the grounds tending to separation in a plain and modest…A friendly triall of the grounds tending to separation in a plain and modest…
A friendly trial of the grounds tending to separation in a plain and modest dispute touching the lawfulness of a stinted liturgy and set form of prayer, Communion in mixed assemblies, and the primitive subject and first receptacle of the power of the Keys: tending to satisfy the doubtful, recall the wandering, and to strengthen the weak: by John Ball.A friendly triall of the grounds tending to separation in a plain and modest dispute touching the lawfulnesse of a stinted liturgie and set form of prayer, Communion in mixed assemblies, and the primitive subject and first receptacle of the power of the Keyes: tending to satisfie the doubtfull, recall the wandering, and to strengthen the weak: by John Ball.
Cambridge: printed by Roger Daniel printer to the University of Cambridge for Edward Brewster, 1640Cambridge: printed by Roger Daniel printer to the Universitie of Cambridge for Edward Brewster, 1640
Chapter 13: An examination of sundry positions laid down by Mr Jacob in his Exposition of the secon…
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
This is a private conceit,1 affirmed without ground or reason to support it, cross to the commandment and Mr Jacob himself. Contrary to the commandment? for the first commandment enjoineth us to take the true Jehovah to be our God, as in covenant he hath bound himself unto his Israel: But God is not our God in covenant but in and through a Mediator: And therefore the first commandment bindeth us to take the true God in and through a Mediator, that is, Jesus Christ, to be our God.2 Mr Jacob holdeth the tables of the law to be the Lords testimony and covenant, wherein all duties whatsoever,3 even the Evangelical, 4as faith, hope, and repentance, are commanded. But in the covenant of grace, in what commandment the Lord hath bound us to know, believe, hope or call upon him, in the same he hath obliged us to know him in Christ, to believe in him through Christ, and to call upon him in and through a Mediator. For God in Christ, or God and Christ, is the object of Christian religion: and since the fall of Adam there is no throne erected unto which man can come, no way prepared, no liberty granted for man to come, no good success to be expected, but in the name of a Mediator. It is impossible to conceive, how Christians should believe that God is, or that he is a rewarder of them that seek him diligently, but according to ⟨p. 284⟩his covenant of mercy; how they should believe in his free grace and mercy for the remission of sins, but in and through Jesus Christ our only Saviour. The selfsame precept which bindeth Christians to take the true God to be their God, King, Father, Judge and Saviour, bindeth them also to take Jesus Christ to be their sole Mediator, Redeemer, Saviour, King and Priest and Prophet. Not to believe in or worship Jesus Christ, is a breach of the first commandment: so the profession of Turkism is against the first commandment. To believe in or pray unto Angels or Saints departed as mediators, is a breach of the first commandment. All honour and service whatsoever, inward or outward, which is due unto God by virtue of the first commandment, it must be done unto God in and through Jesus Christ: and not to give that honour unto Jesus Christ, or to give it unto any other, is a breach of the first commandment. It is true, that inward and outward worship both, when they are both of one nature or kind, are required in the first precept: