John Spilsbury

{1593 - 1668}

 

 

Particular and Effectual Redemption by Christ: Christ hath not by his death taken away the sins of all men; for the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience for their sins. {Eph.5:6} But this is that which he declares Himself to have affected by his death, “that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” {John 3:14-16, Acts 10:43} And it is this given to the elect, and to them only, to believe in Jesus Christ. {Rom.8:29, I Pet.1:2} Christ intended not by his death to save all men from their sins, but thus to save the elect only. {John 10:15, Eph.5:25-27, Heb.2:14, Gen.3:15, I Pet.2:8} Christ hath not presented unto his Father's justice a satisfaction for the sins of all men; but only for the sins of those that do, or shall believe in him, which are his elect only. {Rev.5:9} Those sins for which Christ hath presented a satisfaction to his Father's justice, he hath so fully satisfied for, that they are not to be suffered for again. {Heb.1:3, 9:26, 10:10,14, Rev.1:5, Rom.5:9, Is.53:5, Lev.17:11} It must needs be thus: 1. Because the satisfaction that Christ hath presented to his Father's justice is sufficient for the full and final putting away of all their sins for whom it is presented; and this cannot be denied. 2. Because Christ died as a public person, representing all those for whose sins he presented a satisfaction to his Father's justice. {II Cor.5:21} Even as the first Adam fell as a public person, representing all those that fell by him, and in him; {Rom.5:14-19;} and as the high priest went into the holy place as a public person, representing all elect Israel. {Ex.28:29,30, Heb.9:24,25} Hence it is that we are looked upon as smitten in Christ, and buried with Christ, and revived and raised up in Christ, and with Christ, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. {Hos.6:1,2, I Cor.15:3,4, Col.2:12, Eph.2:5,6} Now surely they who were thus represented by Christ, when he presented to his Father's justice a satisfaction for their sins, shall not themselves be punished for the same sins. 3. Because else the satisfaction presented by Christ would fall short of the type of it. {Lev.4:20,26,35 & 5:10, Heb.9:13,14} 4. Because this satisfaction is accepted of the Father for all those for whom it is presented by Christ. {Is.53:10} For Christ the beloved Son of the Father presented this satisfaction according to his Father's will. 5. Because it were an unjust and unreasonable thing that God should receive a satisfaction presented to his justice for the sins of men, and yet punish the same men for the same sins. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” {Gen.18:25} But reprobates or final unbelievers shall suffer eternally for all their sins. {Eph.5:6, John 3:36, John 8:24, Mt.12:36, Eccl.12:14, Jude 15} Yea, for their sins considered as breachers of the Law. {I Tim.1:9,10, Gal.3:10} Therefore Christ presented not unto his Father's justice a satisfaction for the sins of reprobates, and consequently not for the sins of all men. John Spilsbury {Enlarged by Benjamin Coxe, “Peculiar Interest of the Elect in Christ,” 1646}

Particular and Effectual Redemption by Christ: The Passover {a type of Christ} was not killed for any uncircumcised, but only for the Israelites, and those that were joined unto them. {Exodus 12} Neither were the priests to offer sacrifice for any other. All this was appointed of God to signify, that when the Messiah through the eternal Spirit should offer himself without spot to God, he should present unto divine justice a satisfaction for the sins of the Israel of God, and none other. Whereas it is objected, that many of the Israelites for whom the Passover was killed, and sacrifices were offered, were unbelievers and perished. I answer; so also the high priest himself might be an unbeliever and perish; yet in his priestly office he was a type of Christ notwithstanding that disparity. So the whole nation of the Israelites separated from the world to be a peculiar people unto God were a type of God's chosen Israel. Also; when Christ prayed unto his Father that they for whom he laid down his life, might receive the benefit of the same; he expressly affirmed that he prayed only for the elect, and for none other. {John 17:9} Whereby he sufficiently declared that he did not then present to his Father's justice a satisfaction for the sins of any other, but only of these. Consider as well that; the highest degree of God's love to man as set forth by his Son being given, and giving himself to die for men's sins, that so he might present to his Father's justice a satisfaction for their sins. {John 10:11,15, 15:12,13, Rom.8:32, I Jn.3:13, 4:9, Rom.5:8} If then we shall say, that Christ in his death presented to his Father's justice a satisfaction for the sins of all men, we shall be found to extend the highest and choicest love of God as well to hated Esau, as to beloved Jacob; as well to the seed of the serpent, as to the seed of Christ; which doctrine the Scripture will not endure. John Spilsbury {Enlarged by Benjamin Coxe, “Peculiar Interest of the Elect in Christ,” 1646}

Particular and Effectual Redemption by Christ: Another place from which an objection is made against our views, is Hebrews 10:29, “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” This is clear that by the blood of the covenant is here meant the blood of Jesus Christ, which he himself calls the blood of the New Testament or Covenant. {Mk.14:24} But who is the person that is here said to be sanctified with his blood? Our adversary say that the sinner is here spoken of. But this sinner is not in Christ Jesus. {Rom.8:1} He is not made a partaker of Christ. {Heb.3:14} He is not sprinkled with his blood. {I Pet.1:2} How then is he sanctified with his blood? Those that are sanctified with this blood of Christ, by one offering Christ hath perfected them forever. {Heb.10:14} Therefore they are saved eternally. It is not therefore the sinner that perishish, but Jesus Christ himself {spoken of by the name of the Son of God in the word immediately afore going} who is here declared to have been sanctified with this blood. There is a sanctifying of Christ spoken of in John 10:36. That was the Father’s setting him apart to the office of Mediator. That is not the sanctifying here spoken of; but that you may rightly understand the sanctifying that is here spoken of, you must remember that Christ did bare our sins. {I Pet.2:24} The Father did lay on him our iniquities. {Is.53:6} And so he was made sin for us. {II Cor.5:21} Now that our sin might neither return upon us, nor still lie upon him, it was necessary that he should purge it away from himself. This he did by himself, Heb.1:3, by his blood, Rev.1:5. Doing this he sanctified himself with his own blood; and had he not done this, he had not sanctified us with his blood as the Scriptures declare him to have done. {Heb.13:12} Therefore when he was near to his death, in which he was to do this work, he said to his Father concerning his disciples, “for their sakes {or, for them, as some understanding the Greek tongue, do say the words may be rendered; that is, for their good} I sanctify myself.” {John 17:19} As this interpretation seems to be genuine and proper, and no way forced, so it fully agrees with the Apostolic scope, which was to hold forth the Excellency of the blood of Christ, that so he might also show their odious sin that count it an unholy thing; and the Excellency of the blood of Christ could not be more clearly declared, then by showing that Jesus Christ when he was made sin for us all {all our sin then lying upon him} was sanctified by his own blood. Thus this Scripture being truly understood, and so made to agree with other Scriptures. John Spilsbury {Enlarged by Benjamin Coxe, “Peculiar Interest of the Elect in Christ,” 1646}

Particular and Effectual Redemption by Christ: Let it be minded that the opposing of the truth which I have now asserted, brings forth {among other} these evil fruits. 1. It makes men deny the truth of the Scripture doctrine concerning Divine Predestination. 2. It robs God of the glory of his special and singular love and mercy to his chosen ones. 3. It tends to puff up professors with pride, persuading them that they have distinguished themselves from the rest of the world, and so save themselves; for Christ for his part did no more for them, then for those that perish. 4. It robs the saints of assurance of perseverance, and so of assurance of salvation; for if men come to be believers by a common grace afforded to all, then they may also cease to be believers through that weakness and corruption that is in all. Now take away from saints their assurance of salvation, and ye take away from them their joy, their thankfulness, their love, their life. 5. It holds forth God as making a show of being equally loving to all, when indeed and in his purpose he is not so; and seeming most graciously to forgive the sins of all men, though he determines to punish the vessels of wrath eternally in hell for all their sins. John Spilsbury {Enlarged by Benjamin Coxe, “Peculiar Interest of the Elect in Christ,” 1646}

Gospel Ordinances: If some godly persons have not had like experience with others of God's effectual blessing following the use of the Ordinances, it may partly be imputed to some weakness of their faith, and partly to their ascribing to the ordinance, somewhat belonging only to Christ. And sometimes God here tries his children, whether they will live by faith, and wait on him in obedience, even against present sense. And some Saints have had experience sometimes of the like deadness in and after prayer, and hearing, and conference; yet these things are neither to be refuted, nor neglected. Let it also be minded that the same false principles whereby men are now taken off from obedience to Christ in the use of his Ordinances, if they be followed home, will also take men off from obedience to all Christ's commands; for upon what ground any one command of Christ may be disobeyed, upon the same ground all may be disobeyed. {“I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.” I Tim.5:21} And if the authority of Christ's New Testament be weakened in one thing, it is weakened in all. To come to particulars; the same principles will take men off from preaching the Gospel, and from hearing the Gospel preached to be edified thereby, and from assembling themselves together, and from joining together in prayer and thanksgiving; yea from meditation and study of the Word of God; for all these are Ordinances of Christ, and are no more appointed in the Word for these times, then Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Mind also that as these principals carry men to the denying of the Church and Ministry, which denial is most contrary to the Scripture; see Eph.3:21; {“unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end;”} and almost the whole Book of the Revelation; and the promise in Mt.16:18 & 28:20; so they carried them by degrees to the rejecting of all the Scripture, and to the denying of faith and salvation; as lamentable experience hath showed in some. And some upon the aforesaid principles have {with as much ease and as fair a color, as the no-church-men dispute from any Scriptures against Ordinances, though with as gross fallaciousness} hitherto wrested our Savior’s words in Mark 16:17,18. The answer whereunto doth fully overthrow the main arguments of the opposers against Ordinances. Indeed if any one of those three witnesses in I John 5:8, {“and there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one,”} were to be excluded and slighted, then were they all to be in like manner slighted, and so all lost. But we know that they are all to be regarded and made use of. It is also observable by what contrary ways the enemy endeavors to make men refute the right use of Christ Ordinances. Sometimes he persuades men that God's people are not yet fit for the use of these Ordinances, because their light is so dim, because they have so small a measure of gifts, of knowledge, of faith, etc.; and sometimes again he persuades men that they are above Ordinances. He might as well tell them that they are above Jesus Christ, who commands the use of his Ordinances, and communicates Himself unto his in his Ordinances. Thus anything shall serve the turn, whereby believers may be diverted from the right use of the Ordinances of their Lord and Master, and from obedience unto Him. Surely the enemy is mindful of the great advantage that he thus gets over believers, and how much he makes them herein to sin against Christ, robbing him, what in them lies, of the Glory; and themselves of the comfort and benefit of his Mediatorship. Oh that the Saints were more sensible of the depth of this mystery of iniquity! I am constrained in my conscience now to speak with earnestness, conceiving the cause to be great; and remembering our duty to contend earnestly for the faith, {Jude 3,} which was once delivered to the saints, where I desire that the force of this word ‘once’ may be well weighed. I therefore advise, and earnestly exhort all them that believe to beware of those doctrines and ways; {how fair soever they may seem to be before they be tried, and what safety soever in these times of trouble they may seem to promise;} which indeed take men off from obedience to Christ, and from acknowledging the authority of the Holy Scripture. Have no fellowship with that doctrine which weakens and questions the power and authority of Jesus Christ, and the perpetual validity of his Testament; which disarms his soldiers, disbands his armies, and so gives them up into the hand of the enemy; which empties men's hearts of faith, and deprives the world of the appointed means of salvation, teaching men to shut up the kingdom of heaven. Beware of that doctrine which making void the authority of the New Testament, pulls Christ's scepter out of his hand, his crown from his head, and himself from his throne. Remember that the saints in their communion and order, are the Lord's portion, the declared object of his love in Christ, and the expressed subject of his promises and blessings; yea they are Christ's relative perfection, as a wife is to her husband, and the body to the head. They are his prevailing army against Antichrist; the standard bearer to hold Him up before the nations, and so the means of the world's conviction, and the conversion of the rest of the elect. You therefore that believe in Christ for salvation, hold forth the confession of Him before men. Remember that by Him you are made the sons of God, and kings and priests unto God. {John 1:12, Rev.5:10} Withhold not yourselves then from worshiping God, and enjoying the appointed privileges of sons. Fear not, but believe; for you being Christ's, all things are yours; and have you not then a right to his Ordinances? Remember Christ's love in giving you his Ordinances to confirm your faith. Remember the need that you have of these Ordinances. And of that effectual blessing with which Christ useth to follow the right use of his Ordinances. Mind your communion with Christ, and so be not slow to have communion with him in his Ordinances. Have fellowship with us; for truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. But especially mind the command of Christ, and that charge of his in John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John Spilsbury {“Saints Interest by Christ in all the Privileges of Grace,” 1646}

Duty Faith: What every man is commanded by God to believe, that I grant to be true. Nevertheless, God commands every man to believe what He affirms, and declares, and no more. This then, He declares to be truth, and so commands every man to believe it, that through Christ’s name, whosoever believes in Him, shall receive remission of sins, Acts 10:43. This I say, God commands every man to believe, and to receive it as the true and good word of God, and so to rest upon it, and obediently to depend upon Jesus Christ held forth in this word, as the Prince and Savior exalted of God, Mark 1:15; John 12:36. When a man thus believes, then both the Spirit and the Word of God does testify and declare that Jesus Christ has presented unto divine justice a satisfaction for His sins in particular, and that accordingly his sins are forgiven unto him. This then he is now (and not till now) bound to believe as a certain truth; as indeed it is and now appears to be. And touching the unbelieving and disobedient person, who obeys not the gospel of Jesus Christ, this is one part of the truth that God reveals, and commands all to believe; viz., that persons still continuing such, remain under the curse and wrath of God, and must be judged, condemned, and punished for all their sins, John 3:18; Jude 15; 2 Thess. 1:8,9. As also has been already fully proved. Now God does not command any man to believe contradictions. John Spilsbury {Peculiar Interest of the Elect in the Death of Christ, 1646}

Constitution of a Church: It is the promise, or the Covenant of Grace, that produces a Christian, and gives him a being in such an estate of grace, and so consequently the Church itself; for that which is true in a part, is the same in the whole. Now for the constituting causes by which God ordinarily uses to effect this work, they are these: 1. The Word of God, which is to fit and prepare the matter for the form. 2. The Confession of Faith, which is to declare the fitness of the matter for the form. 3. The free and mutual consent and agreement of the particular persons, upon the practice of the same truth believed and confessed, as aforesaid. 4. And lastly, the Spirit of Christ, uniting and knitting up their hearts together, in and by the same truth; and of each of these a word. First, of the Word of God, fitting and preparing of the matter; and this appears in the Ministry of John the Baptist, who was to go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elisas, for to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedience unto the wisdom of the just, and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, as Luke 1:17, compare with this Luke 3:4, 5, 6; where he is said to prepare the way of the Lord, and to make His paths straight. And now the manner how this is to be done, is to fill up every valley, and to bring down every mountain and hill, and to make the crooked ways straight, and the rough ways smooth. And so verse 6, the valleys are to be understood of such whose hearts were possessed with fear, either of God's displeasure against them for sin; or fear of the dangers, straits, and difficulties, that attend the Gospel of Christ, in the true profession of the same. From both which the hearts of such are to be freed, that are fit to follow Christ, and prepared subjects for His Kingdom. Luke 14:26. In which sense the Gospel is a preparative means to fill up such valleys, by pouring in the great abundance of God's rich grace, and free love in Christ towards all such as believe and His all-sufficiency to preserve such as suffer for His name's sake. And for laying low the Mountains and hills; that is, to humble and bring down the proud heart of man, that exalts himself, and cannot submit unto the simplicity of the Gospel, and to that low and mean condition of Christ upon His cross, as Isa. 2:11, 22; with 2 Cor. 10:4, 5,6; and for the crooked to be made straight; that is, the crooked and Serpent-like nature, and evil dispositions of men, these shall be changed; and made conformable to Christ. And so for the making of the rough smooth; that is, the hard and rough turbulent spirits of men, that will admit of no rule, order, or peaceable society, at all, shall by the Word of God be made soft, smooth, and of such a meek temper of spirit, as that all such shall live together in love, innocent and harmless, with unity, peace, and uniformity to Christ in all things, as Isaiah 11:6, 7, 8, 9. All which Christ Himself often affirmed, that except a man deny himself, he cannot be His disciple. All which charge thus upon the hearts of men, is by the power of the Word of God, by which they as matter are fitted and prepared for the form. James 1:18. The second constituting cause, is the confession of faith, which declares the fitness of the matter for the form; which confession of faith is produced by the power of the Gospel, shinning into the heart of man, and draws away the same after that which is by the gospel revealed. Which truth is of such a working nature, that it will not be kept in, but like unto leaven which so seasons and sweetens the whole man, that as fire at length it breaks forth and discovers itself, or rather such as have it, and not only so, but it brings them together by which they come now to confer about the same, so that at length they come to be one and the same mind and judgment in it, and withal convinced of their obedience thereunto. And upon this, here follows a third constituting cause, which is their free and mutual consent and agreement upon the practice of that truth so by God revealed, and by faith received, as His will in their obedience thereunto; which agreement is between God and them in His truth, Who by His power subjects them to Himself by the same, and where this is in truth. Matt. 3; Mark 16; Acts 2; Acts 8; Acts 10; Psa. 110:3; Eph. 2; Eph. 4; Col. 2. Now comes the cause in the last place, which effects and concludes the whole work, and that is the Spirit of grace and power, going forth in their hearts by faith, uniting and knitting them up together in one, for the manifestation of their obedience to God, in their practical subjection to Christ in the said truth, by them received and agreed upon as aforesaid, and this is the Covenant that forms the Church, which ever goes in order before the external administration of any other ordinance than the matters agreement together for orderly practice; for persons must be informed of the truth in judgment, and bound by the same in conscience, and agree upon the practice, before the same can orderly be put into execution; which union is the Holy Ghost's conjoining and uniting the said persons together in one and the same truth by faith, and so consequently into an orderly body among themselves, immediately under Christ their Head. Which conjunction is called in Scripture the unity of the Spirit, Eph. 4:3; and the gracious covenant, by which God becomes their God, and they His approved people in such a visible relation, Gen. 17; as Deut. 29:12, 13; with Deut. 26:17, 18; Ezek. 16:8; Jer. 31:3. This is called also a joining to the Lord, as Jer. 50:5. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thither ward, saying “Come let us join ourselves unto the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.” And the son of the stranger that joins himself to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love His name, and to be His servant; &c. Isa. 56:6. And he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, I Cor. 6:17. And of the rest durst no man join himself unto them, Acts 5:13. And when Paul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself unto the Disciples, Acts 9:26. And the whole body fitly joined together, &c. Eph. 4:16. And fitly framing of matter together for a house or habitation of God, as Eph. 2:21, 22. John Spilsbury {Treatise Concerning the Lawful Subject of Baptism, 1652}

Confession of Faith: Objection - It may be some will ask me, If I condemn all Churches, but only such as I have described. Answer - To which I answer, that I condemn no Church that God approves of in His word; for I go not about to show who are false, but what is true, and it is enough for me, if such a Church as has been spoken of be granted to be true, and let all others alone, to stand and fall to their own Master; and in regard of those reproachful clamors cast upon all without exception, that seem to be of my judgment, I shall yet make bold with my Reader, briefly to declare a word of my faith, what I believe and hold to be truth, and desire to practice the same, and so leave all to God, and for the godly Reader to judge, what difference there is between him and me, in the main, that men should be so incensed against me, as to seek my life, as some have done, the Lord in mercy forgive them, and lay it not to their charge. And now for my faith briefly in a word: 1. I do believe that there is only one God, who is distinguished in three persons; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; yet but one in nature, or essence, without divisions, and incommunicable, who made the world, and all things therein, by the word of his power, and governs them by his wise providence. 2. I believe that God made man in his own Image, an upright and perfect creature, consisting of soul and body; which body God framed of the earth, and breathed into the same the breath of life, and man became a living soul. To whom God gave a law, upon his keeping of which depends all his happiness, and upon the contrary attended his misery, which took effect; for he breaking that law, he fell under the curse, and the wrath of God lay upon him and all his posterity. By which fall man lost the knowledge of God, and utterly disabled himself of all ability ever to recover the same again. 3. I believe God out of the counsel of his will, did, before he made the world, elect and choose some certain number of his foreseen fallen creatures, and appointed them to eternal life in his Son, for the glory of his grace; which number so elected shall be saved, come to glory, and the rest left in sin to glorify his justice. 4. I believe that God in the fullness of his own time, did send his son, the second person, who in the womb of the virgin Mary, assumed mans nature, and in the same he suffered death upon the cross, only as he was man, to satisfy his Father’s justice, for the sins of his elect, and that he lay three days and three nights in the grave, from whence he arose the third day by the power of his Godhead, for the justification of all for whole sins he died, and that in the same body Christ died, he arose from the dead, and afterwards ascended into heaven, the place of glory, where he was before, and there to remain until he comes at the last day to judge the world in righteousness. 5. I believe that God of his grace, in his own time, effectually calls such as shall be saved to the knowledge of the truth, who is said, of his own will to beget us by the word of truth; in which work of grace, nature is as passive, as a child in the parents begetting of it; and so God by His Spirit works faith in the hearts of all such to believe in Christ, and his righteousness, only for justification. And thus they are made righteous before God in Christ, and so conformable to the will of God the Father through the Son; and also made holy through the work of regeneration, and the holy Spirit of grace dwelling in them; yet all such have still, as long as they live here in the flesh, remaining in them, an old man, that original corruption, the flesh that wars against the spirit, which hinders them in their obedience both to God and to man, and many times draws them to that which is evil, and contrary to their intentions; yet all of them shall through Christ overcome, and safely be brought to glory at last. 6. I believe the holy Scriptures to be the word of God, and have the only authority to bind the conscience to the obedience of all therein contained, and are the all sufficient rule, by the Spirit of God to guide a man in all his obedience both to God and man. 7. As for the absence of original sin, and power in the will to receive and refuse grace and salvation being generally offered by the Gospel, and Christ dying for all persons universally, to take away sin that stood between then and salvation, and so laid down his life for a ransom for all without exception, and for such as have been one in God's love, so as approved of by him in Christ for salvation, and in the Covenant of Grace, and for such to fall so as to be damned eternally, and all of the like nature, I do believe is a doctrine from beneath, and not from above, and the teachers of it from Satan, and not from God, and to be rejected as such that oppose Christ and his Gospel. 8. I do believe the resurrection of the dead, that all shall rise and come to judgment, and every one give account of himself to God, and receive according to the things done in their bodies, whether they be good or bad; therefore no conscience ought to be forced in the matters of Religion, because no man can bear out another in his account to God, if in case he should cause him to sin. 9. I do believe the powers that are, as the civil Magistrates, and so, are of God, to whom God hath committed the Sword of justice, for the punishing of evil doers, and for the good of such as do well, in which respect they ought to be honored, obeyed, and assisted by all men, and of Christians especially, and that out of conscience to God, whose ordinance and ministers they are, and bear not the sword in vain, Rom. 13, I Pet. 2, Tit. 3. And lastly, I do believe that there is an holy and blessed communion of Saints, that God of his grace calls such as belong to life by election, unto the fellowship of his Son by the Gospel, of which matter, God by his word and Spirit joins them together in his Covenant of grace, and so constitutes his Church, as I have before showed; and as God hath thus built for himself an holy habitation of such pure matter, and also after so holy a manner, even so hath he provided a way of preservation and safety for the same; as Isa. 26:1. “We have a strong City, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks;” which City is said to have a wall both great and high, and built upon twelve foundations; great, that none shall break through, and high, that none shall overtop or get over, and strong in the foundation, that nothing shall shake it, and God hath said, that he will be a wall of fire round about, and the glory in the midst of it, and that he will keep it, and watch over it by night and by day, that nothing shall hurt it; and as God hath built himself a house after his own mind, and is a guard to the same; even so he is also said to beautify the same with salvation, and to make the place of his feet glorious, and that he will lay all her stones with fair colors, and her foundations with Sapphires, and her windows of Agars, and her gates of Carbuncles, and all her boarders of pleasant stones, and all her children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of her children. And as Christ does thus signify unto us the nature of his church both in respect of her matter, her form, her grace, and comely order in Him her Head; even so he holds forth his love to her, and delight in her, by these and the like expressions of comfort and solace. The Lord hath chosen Zion, &c. Pas. 132.13,14; Eph. 2:21,23. Pas. 87.2,3; Gal. 4:26,31. Isa. 2.2; Isa. 62. 1,12, Ezek. 48:35. Rev. 21. 12,14, Zech. 2.5, Isa. 26.3, Isa. 4. 11,12,13. Rev. 21. 11,18,21, Cant. 4.7, Psal. 45.13. FINISH. John Spilsbury {Treatise Concerning the Lawful Subject of Baptism, 1652}

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Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle
and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Hebrews 3:1