The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed and Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered, by Roger Williams CHAP. CXI. The very material, gold and silver, of Canaan’s images, typically to be abhorred. CHAP. CXI. The very material, gold and silver, of Canaan’s images, typically to be abhorred. Thirdly. The very materials, the gold and silver of the idols of this land, were odious and abominable, and dangerous to the people of Israel, that they might not desire it, nor take it to themselves, Deut. vii. 25, 26, lest themselves also become a curse, and like unto those cursed, abominable things. Whereas we find not any such accursed nature in the materials of idols or images now; but that, the idolatrous forms being changed, the silver and gold may be cast and coined, and other materials lawfully employed and used. Yet this we find in the antitype, that gold, silver: yea, house, land: yea, wives, children: yea, life itself, as they allure and draw us from God in Christ, are to be abominated and hated by us, without which hatred and indignation, against the most plausible and pleasing enticings, from Christ Jesus, it is impossible for any man to be a true Christian, Luke xiv. 26. The land of Canaan ceremonially holy. Fourthly. This land, this earth, was a holy land, Zech. ii. 12. Ceremonially and typically holy, fields, gardens, orchards, houses, &c., which holiness the world knows not now in one land or country, house, field, garden, &c., one above another. Greater holiness in the antitype under the gospel, than in the types under the law. Yet in the spiritual land of Canaan, the Christian church, all things are made holy and pure, in all lands, to the pure, Tit. i. [15;] meats and drinks are sanctified, that is, dedicated to the holy use of the thankful believers, 1 Tim. iv. 5; yea, and the unbelieving husband, wife, and their children, are sanctified and made holy to believers, insomuch that that golden inscription, peculiar to the forehead of the high priest, Holiness to Jehovah, shall be written upon the very bridles of the horses, as all are dedicated to the service of Christ Jesus in the gospel’s peace and holiness. The land of Canaan Jehovah’s land. Fifthly. The Lord expressly calls it his own land, Lev. xxv. 23; Hos. ix. 3, Jehovah’s land, a term proper unto spiritual Canaan, the church of God, which must needs be in respect of his choice of that land to be the seat and residence of his church and ordinances. But now the partition-wall is broken down, and in respect of the Lord’s special propriety to one country more than another, what difference between Asia and Africa, between Europe and America, between England and Turkey, London and Constantinople? Emanuel’s land: so no land or country more than another. This land, among many other glorious titles given to it, was called Emanuel’s land, that is, God with us, Christ’s land, or Christian land, Isa. viii. 8. But now, Jerusalem from above is not material and earthly, but spiritual, Gal. iv. [25;] Heb. xii. [22.] Material Jerusalem is no more the Lord’s city than Jericho, Nineveh, or Babel, in respect of place or country: for even at Babel literal, was a church of Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. v. [13.] It is true, that anti-christ hath christened all those countries whereon the whore sitteth, Rev. xvii., with the title of Christ’s land, or Christian land. The blasphemous titles of the christened and Christian world. And Hundius, in his map of the Christian world, makes this land to extend to all Asia, a great part of Africa, all Europe, and a vast part of America, even so far as his unchristian christening hath gone. But as every false Christ hath false teachers, false Christians, false faith, hope, love, &c., and in the end false salvation, so doth he also counterfeit the false name of Christ, Christians, Christian land or country. The material land of Canaan was to keep her sabbaths, so no material land or country now. Sixthly. This land was to keep her sabbaths unto God. Six years they were to sow their fields, and prune their vines, but in the seventh year they were not to sow their fields, nor prune their vineyards, but to eat that which grew of itself or own accord. But such observations doth not God now lay upon any fields, vineyards, &c., under the gospel. God feedeth his sometimes immediately. Yet, in the spiritual land of Canaan, the true church, there is a spiritual soul-rest or sabbath, a quiet depending upon God, a living by faith in him, a making him our portion, and casting all care upon him who careth for us: yea, sometimes he feedeth his by immediate, gracious works of providence, when comforts arise out of the earth, without secondary means or causes, as here, or as elsewhere, manna descended from heaven. Seventhly. Such portions and possessions of lands, fields, houses, vineyards, were sold with caution or proviso of returning again in the year of jubilee to the right owners, Lev. xxv. 23. Such cautions, such provisos, are not now enjoined by God in the sale of lands, fields, inheritances, nor no such jubilee or redemption to be expected. The jubilee of Canaan a type of restitution and redemption in the gospel. Yea, this also finds a fulfilling in the spiritual Canaan, or church of God, unto which the silver trumpet of jubilee, the gospel, hath sounded a spiritual restitution of all their spiritual rights and inheritances, which either they have lost in the fall of the first man Adam, or in their particular falls, when they are captive, and sold unto sin, Rom. vii. [14,] or, lastly, in the spiritual captivity of Babel’s bondage. How sweet then is the name of a Saviour, in whom is the joyful sound of a deliverance and redemption! Canaan’s land a type of the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. Why Naboth refused to part with a garden plot to his king, upon hazard of his life. Eighthly. This land or country was a figure or type of the kingdom of heaven above, begun here below in the church and kingdom of God, Heb. iv. 8; Heb. xi. 9, 10. Hence was a birthright so precious in Canaan’s land: hence Naboth so inexorable and resolute in refusing to part with his inheritance to King Ahab, counting all Ahab’s seeming reasonable offers most unreasonable, as soliciting him to part with a garden plot of Canaan’s land, though his refusal cost him his very life. What land, what country now is Israel’s parallel and antitype, but that holy mystical nation, the church of God, peculiar and called out to him out of every nation and country, 1 Pet. ii. 9. In which every true spiritual Naboth hath his spiritual inheritance, which he dares not part with, though it be to his king or sovereign, and though such his refusal cost him this present life.