discharged of this burden This was very plausable to carnall reason especially if they gave so much to such a Monastery that they may offer so many Sacraments for them for they look at the bread in the Lords supper as a propiatory Sacrament here were so many means to satisfie the consciences of those that were superstitious as nothing could be devised to give better content to the spirits of men in those dayes any man that knowes it shall finde it true that when the conscience is terrified with the curse of Gods Law and never shewed the true way of fellowship with Christ no man is so tender and conscionable in the performance of all duties as they If you will have them kisse the Popes foot or give so much to a Monastery and by this means Hell shall be shut against them and Purgatory discharged But for assurance of Salvation in Christ they could not endure that they that stood for that they tell them what you will not have men doe good workes away with that faggot and halter for such Hereticks Thirdly there was a third Reason and that was from the great reverence of all Councells and Synods to the Sea of Rome The City of Rome had wont to be the imperiall City now in such a case as this they thought it but reasonable In heathenish Rome they gave all worship to them and so let Christian Rome give all their worship to the chief Head there and so to their mother Church all Catholicks would incourage others so to doe and so by this means there were such incouragements laid for admiration and adoration that you may not wonder at what the holy Ghost saith That when the wound was healed all the world wondred after the beast saying who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him Not the Emperors of the East and West not the King of England France Spain nor all that have been of greatest force they were none of them able to hold up their heads against this great Beast The use of this point is thus much First you may observe from hence that Universality and Prosperity though they be given for two notes of a true Church by the Papists yet indeed they are but sopisticall deceitfull delusions They are not such marks of a Church as are peculiar to a true Church here is Universality All the world wondred after the beast and here is Prosperity all the world adore and admire the Beast Who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him Not all the Princes of the world So that here is externall prosperity for so they call it here are both these concur and they doe indeed argue a Catholick Church as Bellarmine saith but note this that Catholick Church which is visible which is the Roman visible Catholick Church the Scripture holds it forth as a great and ugly and monstrous Beast look not therefore at these as any good marks and signes by which Jesuites and Seminaries are wont to draw to deep devotion to the Catholick Church for all the world have run this way there is but a handfull a few of such as are otherwise minded what is Genevah and some others to Rome what have they been able to doe in comparison of the Church of Rome which is the Church of Churches none have been able to doe as they Secondly we may see the danger of this admiration and adoration the deadly and desperate danger of adoring the Catholick visible Church and the Dragon It is the cunning of these Priests and Jesuites to draw men by all means to be at least devoted to the Catholick Church and to submit their power thereunto for they say there is no union with Christ the head unlesse you be united to the visible head on Earth this is their usuall plea Now marke what the holy Ghost speaks in this Text he doth say that all the worship of this mother Church is but the worship of the Dragon Men are devoutly adicted to give up their souls to the Devill when they give up themselves to the Catholicke visible Church the Lord professeth he is not honoured by them they professe honour to he-Saints and shee-Saints and dead Saints and to all relicks and remnants of them the honour of them is given unto the Devill and not to God That look what Paul saiâ—h of heathen Rome John speaks of christian Rome This I say saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 20. That the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God and I would not that ye should have fellowship with Devils And so this saith John the holy Apostle equall to the Apostle Paul or next him but here guided equally with Paul in the Authentical word of God he saith They that worship God according to the prescript of the Church of Rome they worship the Devils and not God they worship the Dragon the old Serpent So that it is not so light a matter as Gallants at Court and great Kings apprehend they will be reconciled to their mother Church they will goe a Pilgrimage that is devised by the Pope and perform duties as their ghostly Father directs them and have their bead-prayers In all this what do they doe This is a worship to the great beast but this is the issue and substance of it they doe indeed worship the Dragon It is not the Lord Jesus nor God the Father nor the blessed spirit that is thus worshipped but this is indeed the worship of the Devill Thirdly this may serve to teach us to blesse the name of the Lord that hath delivered us from this admiration and adoration from this wofull Captivity and Calamity whereto our Fathers have been enthralled All those of them whose names are not written in the Lambs book of life they were all led this way and it is a marvellous deliverance that God hath wrought for us in taking our Religion from universality and from outward prosperity It is sometimes a snare to Christians this kinde of Government that we have and they are apt to say what doe any of the great Nations of the world for worship and Government did you ever know any such thing authorised in any Kingdome There is an inward principle in us by nature to doe as all the world doe what are we more wise then they It is a great temptation but we have cause to blesse God that hath wrought deliverance for us But what if all the world did worship the Devill as time was when they did what if all the world worship the Beast and the Dragon that gave power to the Beast must we doe so And as they are not grounds of our worship so they are fit grounds of unfeigned thankfulnesse to God that hath delivered us from that Religion by which all the world was bewitched to give their Crownes Honours Bodies and States to the devotion of the visible Catholick Church and to the
favour and large gifts he bestowed upon them Charles the Great had his Empire from the Bishop of Rome and translated it from Constantinople to France and Germany and therefore he had reason to stand to the Authority that set him up And the ten Kings of Christendom that rose upon the demolition of the Grecian Empire which was then called the Empire of Rome their absolute authority did much depend upon the Bishop of Rome if the Grecian Empire had not yeelded they had been liable in conscience to restore these ten Kingdoms In point of State-policy they had cause to be much observant to the Pope But that is not all for they could never have done it had not the Subjects yeelded And what moved them Truly they were all taken with the Religion of the man of sinne That flood of Heresies and Abhominations which the Catholick Church did hold forth as in a cup of poyson to the world these earthly sort of Christians swallowed it all up They were carnall and yet superstitious and devout Carnall for want of saving grace and regeneration And devout for then generally Christians lay under the terrour of the Law as in Rev. 9. 5 6. The locusts came in which were the Fryars and Monkes and they had this power to sting their Consciences even to the death that a man would give all he had for pardon of sinne Now having power to sting mens Consciences but not to heale them to kill but not to make alive they were now fitted to receive the Impression of the Popish Religion and that religion to men so qualified and disposed was fit to heal them overly and to skin the wound of Conscience and there are three things in that Religion that helped to skinne over the Conscience 1. The suitablenesse of it to humane and naturall sences 2. To carnall naturall reason 3. To naturall Conscience For these three concur and that strongly in this Religion to carry all Christendome after it First for naturall sense All that have travayled into Popish Countreys know that their Religion is composed to naturall sence 1. To satisfie the eyes with goodly Images and Pictures and gorgeous Temples and Vestures that young and old are taken with these goodly spectacles 2. For the eares you know in their Cathedralls what curious musique they have both vocall and instrumentall 3. For the smell you have Incense and sweet perfumes to entertaine you 4. For the taste you have double Feasts and solemn Feasts many Feasts full of luxury and ryot 5. For the Touch there is toleration of Stews to give up their names to Stews They will not suffer men to live unlesse they give up their names to be free of such unclean houses And if you commit any lewdnesse then it is easie to come off with some light penancâ—s and especially the purse that will doe all These things marvellously please the sense Secondly for naturall Reason it suits marvellously with naturall reason 1. To hold forth an historical implicite faith Historical the Devils may have and implicite for a man to believe as the Church believes and hee believes this Faith hath power to quench all temptations of the Devill 2. To hold forth such a repentance as consists in Contrition Confession and Satisfaction Judas reached all this For contrition his heart was humbled in sence of his sinne For confession I have sinned in betraying innocent blood And for satisfaction He brought again the thirty pieces of silver He would not meddle nor make with them 3. To hold forth such an obedience as a man may be able to perform and keep the whole Law of God which he thinks to be easie And this doth please naturall Sence to work our own salvation 4. To hold forth pardon of sin for money and for bodily exercises 5. Uncertainty of Salvation 6. Such a frame of Church-government as keepeth all in a politick order and unity That all Popish Churches be subordinate to such a Bishop as he is to some Metropolitan and they to some Primate and all to the Bishop of Rome And why From one unity ascends and it is good to keep unity And so to look at a mans selfe as unworthy to come into the presence of God and to call upon Christ and therefore manners would make a man cleave to some he-Saints or she-Saints and they shall present their prayers to Christ and Christ to the Father which is very plausable to naturall reason And for our Fathers which grew zealous of that Religion we should not damn them to hell Reason abhors that Thirdly for naturall Conscience it will counter-work with God and walk in equipage with God all the way that is to say for a man to look to find according to his works natural Conscience hath this in Nature it is ingrafted in nature from the God of Adam from his Ordinance in Nature or the rudements of it restored 1. Election of Faith or works foreseen 2. Redemption of all men alike 3. Conversion by the power of free-will This is in the natures of all men by the very Law and works of Nature 4. Justification by works naturall Conscience dictates that Do this and thou shalt live do it not and thou dost forfeit the favour of God but receive it and thou hast fellowship with God 5. Perseverance by our owne endeavours 6. Glorification by merits of works All these suit with naturall Conscience that Conscience is satisfied if the work be accomplished if not then they make satisfaction If they faile in these works by giving way to this oâ— that arrogance that the work is not compleat then Conscience hangs in some dispence and demur And if they cannot satisfie all in this world yet they should do what they can by giving to this and that good use and do pennance for their sinne And if all faile they may make satisfaction in Purgatory and not sink downe to the nether most Hell These things be very acceptable to naturall Conscience Thus we see how it comes to passe that to this Beast was given authority and power over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations Obj. You will say to me But doth not this crosse some other Text in Rev. 5. 9. where it is said the Lord hath redeemed his people out of every Kindred and Tongue and Nation If the Pope had this power over every Kindred Tougue and Nation where stands Christs redemption I answer for Christs Redemption it is some out of every Kindred Tongue and Nation whose names are written in the Lambs booke of life but it was but a remnant There is at this time a remnant according to the Election of Grace Rom. 11. 5. But otherwise all Kindreds Tongues and Nations have been swallowed up by the usurpation of this Beast and by their subjection to him So that Christ hath his number out of all these but it is the Beast that carryes away the body of them for that season especially He did rule over them by
a kinde of sacred Authority in the consciences of men because he had this absolute power in Churches a great power for 1260. years together whether you reckon from Constantines time or Theodosius his time he had a marvellous power in Kingdomes Nations and Common-wealths But notwithstanding he had this power in those times yet Christ kept the interest in his own chosen as in Rev. 14. 1. where he had 144000. that were spotlesse virgins Answ â— The Lord Jesus will at length challenge all his own purchase them into his own hand when at the calling of the Jews all the Kingdomes of the world shall be given to the Saints of the most high Dan. 7. 26 27. The Lord will take them all into his own hand and power and jurisdiction but he must first throw down this enemy that hath usurped over his purchased possession But in the mean time this Beast swallows up all for so many Ages together For the use of the point First it may be to refute the Papists that give this as a true note of the Church namely amplitude of dominion as the Catholick Church had They give this for an infallible note of the Church now that note you see is here evidently ascribed to the people that worship the great Beast of whom the Lord saith here ver 8. their names are not written in the booke of the Lamb. So that this is a note not of an Apostolicall Church but it may be a note of an Apostaticall Church that is fallen away from the Apostles Doctrine It is a true description of that State of the Church You see here Power was given over to the Beast over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations And therefore amplitude of dominion is not an inseperable character of the Spouse of Christ for it may be given to those that are not the Church of Christ even to those that are but a Beast in the sight of God not his Spouse I may rather say the contrary that amplitude of Dominion was never a note of a Church of Christ since the world began For in the old Testament the State of the Church was Nationall and they had power over one Nation and sometimes conquered others as in David and Solomons time they conquered the Philistims Ammonites and Moabites and Edomites but it was never over all the whole world and that dominion which they had they did not challenge it by Church power but left them still to their own Religion for the Common-wealth propagated their power by arms having first occasion of warre given them by their arrogance to them In the dayes of the new Testament the Church that Christ instituted reacheth no further then to their own members and their own members reach no further then to one Congregation that all might hear and all might be edefied 1 Cor. 14. 23. So that if Church power extends no further then the bounds of one Congregation then that Church that swelleth and strecheth forth her power all the world over Kindreds and Tongues and Nations what an out-ragious swelling Beast is that that reacheth such vast dominion beyond the proportion that the Lord gave to his Church If you should see a body swell to such a vast bignesse that his armes shall reach from one end of the world to another would it not be counted a monster So in this case the Lord hath limited the power of the Church within it selfe it is a great power that they have but not so great as to binde conscience unless it be Ministerially and so they have power to binde Kings in chains and Nobles in lincks of Iron but to have power judiciary power over the Scriptures and over the conscience over and above the application of the word it is such as the Lord never gave to any Church but it is arrogated and usurped by the man of Sinne. Secondly it may serve to teach you the prouenesse of your natures to that which is evill above that which is savingly and spiritually good This power over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations the Lord hath purchased by his death Rev. â— 9. He dyed and rose againe that he might be Lord both of quick and dead Rom. 14. 9. And upon his resurrection all power was given him in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 18. He prayed for this power and the Lord promised to give him it Psal â— 8. Aske of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession This hath the Lord bought with his pretious bloud and paid for by the power of his eternall Spirit and yet never did the Lord Jesus enjoy this power to this day which the man of Sinne hath enjoyed for so many years together He will enjoy it at lenght when he shall call in the Jews and with them the fulnesse of the Gentiles and reigne in Soveraigne Authority both in Church and Common-wealth according to all the Councell of his word and will But yet it was never known to this day that so many Nations did submit their thrones to the Dominion and Government of Christ and to the Truth of Christ and to worship him with the servants of God notwithstanding the purchase which Christ hath made of this Soveraignty and notwithstanding the efficacy of his prayer for obtaining this power that hee might have dominion over all As soon as Constantine brought the world to become Christian the woman she fled into the Wildernesse The true worshippers of Christ were soon troden under the hatches a mountaine of corruption in Church Government overwhelmed them amain that you cannot set the time when so many Nations served him and were as ready to take up arms in his quarrell as they have done for the man of Sinne. You will say did they not for the recovery of the holy Land many Churches conspire and lay their heads together and engaged themselves for this Warre why when they they undertook that Warre was it Christ that commanded any such thing that Churches should engage themselves and their Estates and Lives and Souls and all for the recovery very of the holy City was it not meerly undertaken by the Bishop of Rome and by the motion of the Catholick Church in a Generall Councell The Roman Catholick Church met in a Generall Councell and they agreed to set about this expedition They promised pardon of Sinne to the people and in hope of that and such like things they went about it It was service to the Beast not to Christ God never acknowledgeth it as any service to Christs Kingdome It was for the advancement of the head of the catholick Church but as any grew more wise they grew more afraid of them So that it is a wonder to see never did the the Christian world give that Authority to Christ as they have done unto the Pope and his Institutions which are not Ordinances of Christ Yea let me say another word which is above
this Beast they are described here by their state by their spirituall and eternall state that is to say they are described by a deniall of their elect estate and that is exprest in a deniall of the proper adjunct of that state and that is the writing of their names in the Lambs book of life for that is the proper adjunct of all the elect people of God that their names are written in the book of life of the Lamb these men men therefore being denied this proper adjunct of an elect state they are the refore here described by their damnable condition and state now this therefore is here predicated of them all that their names are not written in the booke of the life of the Lambe who ever they be that worship this Beast and he saith All did worship him save onely they whose names were written in the Lambes booke of life They that did worship the Beast had not their names written in the Lambs book of life So then this book in which their names are said not to be written it is set forth by the end and by the subject of it 1. By the end It is the Book of life Not that it was a living book but because they that are written in that book are written unto life that they may live to eternity to grace and glory 2. It is described by the subject It is the Lambs Book of life either he is the possessor of it God giving it to him that he might take notice of all the names therein and keep them safe to salvation or else he is the subject of it as being the first and principall person who is written in it for he of old hath been observed to be the head and cheif of the elect of God in Ephes 1. 4. He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world therefore he chose him first and us in him as he is well pleased first with Christ and in Christ with us Mat. 3. 17. whether you speak of Gods everlasting complacency or of the manifestation of it in effectuall vocation it is in Christ that he is well pleased first with Christ and in his name with us so he is said to be fore-ordained before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1. 20. So therefore it is said to be the book of the Lamb the Lambs booke of life because that the book is given to him and because also that he is the principall person that is first and primarily and fundamentally written in this book I say it is first given to him as if all the persons that God intends life unto he did give them as it were in a scroul or book to the Lord Jesus but of that I shall speak a little more by and by In the mean time I speak now to the Analysis of the Text but if you shall not trasâ—â—â—e it whose names are not written in the Lambs Book of life but as it is here and indeed so it holds in the Originall the Book of life of the Lambe Though it be the like sence then it may hold out a further notion and meditation and that is this 1. That the Lambe is the subject of that life whereof it is said it is the Book of life of the Lamb. 2. He is the Author of it to the elect people of God in John 14. 19. that holds forth both that he is that life to us Christ as God-man is the subject of this spirituall and eternall life and his man-hood so receives it as a common vessell to all his elect members and because he lives we shall live also therefore he is the Author both of giving and preserving this life to his heavenly Kingdome Now by this Lambe I need not tell you is meant Christ the Lambe without spot John 1. 29. We are redeemed by the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lambe without spot 1 Pet. 1. 19. This Lambe is here described by his suffering which was slain was put to death a violent death and that suffering of his is amplified by the ancient vigour and efficacy of it slain from the beginning of the world Now the note that first offers it selfe from this verse is this That such whose names are written in the lambs book of life they all and they onely are preserved from the worship of the Beast For here it is said That all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him saving they whose names are written in the Lambes Book of life they shall not worship him but all whose names are not written in the book of the life of the Lambe they shall worship the Beast So then they whose names are written in the Lambes book of life they doe not worship him for if their names be written there they are expresly exempted but they that doe worship him they are said not to have their names written in the Lambes book of life So that such whose names are written in the Lambes book of life they and all they and they onely are preserved from the worship of the Beast It is a speech to the like purpose that you read in Rev. 17. 8. and upon the like occasion The Beast that thou sawesâ— was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomelesse pit and go into perdition and they that dwell on the Earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the Book of life from the foundation of the world c. They admire and adore him where he tells you of an ancient act hee doth not tell here when it was written there he doth that ancient book wherein from the foundation of the world they were written and therefore before the world such as were written in the Lambes book of life were lockt up to be preserved from the adoration of the Beast and all the rest were left to worship the Beast For opening this point here a Question or two may be moved for explication of the termes of the Doctrine which have been a little expounded before First Quest 1. Then it may be demanded what is this Book of life Answ You read in Scripture of sundry books according to which our eternall state stands or falls if I may so call them that are said to be opened at the judgement day whether at the last judgement or some representation of the last judgement it is all one for the Doctrine In Rev. 20. 12. it is sayd When the Thrones were set the Books were opened and another book which is the Booke of life So here is one book according to which his Saints were judged besides the booke of life but that also was opened These bookes are truly observed by others to be first the book of Gods Providence in Psal 139. 16. which is also called in Mal. 3. 16. the booke of Gods Remembrance wherein he takes notice of all persons and actions that is keeps as exact account of them as if they were written before him in a book which
day by day were fashioned c. In the providence of God there was a deliniation of all creatures and actions that should come to passe There is truly also the booke of conscience for also in that God registers all our actions according to which we shall be judged the conscience bearing witnesse about our persons and actions so farre as they are enlightned by God And you read also of another booke The word that I have spoken that shall judge them at the last day John 12. 48. he shall judge all the world by it Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel These books will be opened the booke of Gods Providence the booke of the Scripture and the book of conscience by which we shall be judged But there is also the booke of Life by which wee shall be judged in Rev. 10. 12. Now for the book of life that hath a double exception in Scripture for sometimes it is put for the Church register in which all are registred as those that were the living in Jerusalem Isa 4. â— It is said Every one that remaineth in Hierusalem shall be called holy even every one that is written among the living in Hierusalem Or as the word is in the margent or bigger Bibles written To life in Hierusalem In the Originall it is capable of both constructions Every man capable of life is written in Hierusalem There is a book written of them that live there of which it is said Psal 87. 6. the Lord will recount when he writteth up the people that this or that man was born there Of this book also you read in Ezek. 13. 9. where the Lord doth threaten the false Prophets that his hand shall be upon them that see vanity and devine lyes they shall not be as members of my people nor shall they be written in the writing of the house oâ— Israel they shall neither have fellowship with Church nor Common-wealth There is a writing therefore a Register a Record of them which in the Old Testament were counted Geneologies and very carefully did they keep them that if they could not shew their pedigree from this Geneology they were as polluted Ezra 2. 59. as also vers 62. where he tells you of sundry that came in among the people of Israel but because they could not find their names in the Register they were left aside till they could finde further proof of their pedigree they might be received as other Proselytes but not as native Israelites who were counted of the Church from the line of their Parents and some of the sonnes of Barzilli some of the Priests they thought it more honour to fetch their pedigree from their father Barzilli whom David had advanced to sit at his Table and they thought it more honour to be counted of the house of Barzilli then of the order of Aaron And they when they would have presented themselves to the Priests office they were not received why because they were not found in the Churches Register and they had no direction from the Word to take Noble mens sons to be Priests but only of the sons of Aaron So this is the book of Life it is called The writing of the living in Hierusalem This is the book of life the Church-book it is nothing but a counterpane of the book of life but not exactly agreeing to it sometimes we put in more then God doth and sometimes lesse There be that belong to life whom we do not receive Others they do not present themselves or we do not receive through some failings in them or us but if they belong to life they are written in the Lambs book of life they may not be written in the Church book but this is not the book here spoken of the book of the life oâ— the Lamb The Church is the body of the Lamb but they cannot discern who are his The Lord knows who are his so do not we nor the members of the Church therefore you heare here of a distinct booke of the Lambs book of life of which book it is expresly written Rev. 20. 15. That whosoever was not found written in the Lambs book of life was cast into the lake of fire All men therefore that are written in the book of Life or in the book of the Lamb they are written to life Now this we cannot say of the Church-book for as hath been observed of ancient time there are many wolves within and many sheep without Sometimes the Church hath cast out her most precious members both Officers and Members sad experience hath made it true in our times therefore that is not a certaine rule that if a man be left out of the Church he is left everlastingly unlesse there be such contempt of means of grace as in those whom the Lord hath branded for such whom he takes no pleasure in to eternity For it is said whoever was not found written in the Lambs book of life was cast into the lake of fire Therefore this is some other then that booke of the Church What book is that no other but the eternall record and register of Gods election that is the Lambs book whoever is not found he is indeed cast out into the lake of fire being shut out from salvation by Christ and then what hope of salvation is there in himselfe Now of this book it is of which Moses speaks Exo. 32. 33. If thou wilt not forgive the sin of thy people then blot me out of the book which thou hast written not which the Church hath written but which thou hast written which the Lord hath written of life in Christ in which the Lord hath written all the names of his Elect This is the book out of which hee desires to be blotted out of such was the extasie I cannot say of his zeale but he was filled with such ardent zeale that rather then such a reproach should be cast upon God that he was not able to bring them to the Land of Canaan let him be blotted out of the book which he had written let damnation it selfe fall upon him rather then the name of the Lord should be reproached by the uncircumcised Heathens and in that sence Paul wisheth himselfe separate from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen according to the flesh Rom. 9. 3. He doth not say he would be cast out of the Church but he found that zeale for the whole Church and for the Lord Jesus that rather then the Gospel of Christ should be hindered if it may stand with Gods liking he could rather wish such a wretch as he should be cut off then that the whole body of his people should be cast off This is the Lambs book of Life called the book of Life not because the Lord stands in need of a book but because those whom in his eternall purpose he hath decreed to save his unchangeable purpose doth fixe them as
fast in his remembrance as if they were written in a book before him For that end his decree hath taken such particular notice of them that if they were written in a book before him they could not be more stedfastly and particularly recorded It is a phrase borrowed from men that when they would remember such a man or such a freind they set them down in a booke God stands not in need of books but his clear and everlasting love to them is such that they are engraven as on the palmes of his hands as the Shew-bread was present before the Lord continually which represented the 12. Tribes that his eye might be upon them from one end of the week to another and the word which the Septuagints use for Shew-bread it is translated as the word which the Apostle useth Rom. 8. 28. and the Greeke Translators and Hebrew expresse it it is the bread of Gods purpose or of Gods face and what is his purpose it is not with him as it is with us that whiles we speak of one man we forget another but his purpose is alwayes the same and these being the bread of Gods purpose they are ever before him from one end of the week to another and from one end of the year to another now that is the meaning of the Question what is the Booke of life It is the booke of Gods eternall election that is it is the register or record of the names of all whom God hath chosen to life and salvation in Christ Quest 2. If you shall aske why it is called the Lambes Booke of life Answ First because the Lord hath given this booke to Christ and all the names of his elect by name to be brought to salvation and kept in a state of salvation to imortality and therefore you shall read in Scripture when God puts forth an eternall love to his people wrought eternall salvation for us I mean when he did eternally elect us to grace and glory in this eternall election of his there was accompanying an eternall donation in giving them to Christ Christ knew his fathers counsel from eternity and the Lord gave them to Christ by him to be brought and he undertaking that they shall be brought to salvation the Lord requiring that he should keep them to immortality he shall work the means and apply the same effectually to the end of the world This is evident from those Scriptures that speak of the grant and of the gift of them to Christ before their effectuall calling though donation go before that for from that love of God by which he gives us to Christ in our effectuall calling he gives us Christ and faith to receive Christ but before this there is a giving a donation of us to Christ as John 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me So this coming to Christ is believing on Christ and it is so exprest in ver 35. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that beliveth on me shall never thirst To come to Christ is to belive on his name thus much doth hee expresse himselfe that all that the Father give him in his eternall counsell they shall come unto him to wit in effectuall calling him the Father will draw none but whom in his eternall counsell he hath given to Christ and whom he drawes I will not cast out in ver 37. to 44. So then when this act of Gods eternall election passed on those whose persons are designed to grace and glory hee gave all by name to the Lord Jesus as if they were particularly registred in a booke And he promised that in fulnesse of time he would draw them to him and required that the Lord Jesus should keep them under his wing to imortality it is called therefore the Lambs booke of life because he is the subject receptive of it Answ 2. And again it is called the Lambs booke of life because he is the head of all Gods elect they are all elect in him not besides or out of him not as actually believing in him for it is long before any work of ours Rom. 9. 11. Not of workes but of him that calleth the children being not yet born neither having done good or evill that the purpose of God according to election might stand Election iâ— before any worke of ours God gives us in his eternall councell to Christ but we are not then in him by faith faith is an effect of our election not the cause of it As many as were ordained to eternall life believed Acts 13. 46. 48. But this is the thing It is a true distinction that some give in that case we are in Christ not by actuall existence in beleiving nor as so considered but by virtuall comprehension the Lord looks at us as in him we are not in him by faith but the Lord comprehending us in his everlasting decree we are in him by Gods charter even children not born the Lord hath wrapped us in his everlasting armes in his electing love promising in time to give us faith to beleive on him and therefore to come to him and to give him to us that wee may live in his sight therefore it is the Lambs book of life as he is the sonne of man the sonne of the Virgin Mary to be united to the second person in Trinity long before his humane nature was in being Answ 3. And it is called also the book of the life of the Lambe if you have respect of referring to Christ this life then you take Christ as he is the subject of this life in John 14. 19. Because I live you shall live also I live and then you live and he is the author the efficient the procreant and conservant cause of life in us to eternity the Lord hath given us eternall life and this life is in his son He that hath the sonne hath life 1 John 5. 12. So you see the meaning of these words these persons that are thus given to Christ elect vessels to grace and glory that are given to Christ they are preserved from the worship of the Beast and none but they they onely for this purpose you read that false Christs whereof Antichrist is chief Mat. 24. 24. They shall deceive many yea if it were possible the very elect It implies thus much that none of them shall be deceived by all false Christs but all others shall be deceived earthly minded men and such whose names are not written in the Lambes book of life they shall be deceived the Beast shall go into perdition and they with him Rev. 17. 8. Not but that for a time they that are Gods elect may be taken with a fond admiration and adoration of the Beast to beleive as the Church of Rome believes and may look for peace of conscience from the dispensations of the Church of Rome it may be so as Bilney and Latimer that were marvellous devout to that Church though it
take notice of them and give them so to come to Christ and all that the Father hath given him shall come unto him The Lord will draw them and then they shall come in the meane time he keeps them from his Fathers eternal donation in John 17. 17. Those whom thou hast given me I have kept Hee hath not lost any but one that was not given him to keep he prays to God to keepe them through his own name he keeps them by his own spirit and this was agreed on from the foundation of the world when this book was written and it was not written yesterday but before the foundation of the world Rev. 17. 8. His thoughts were about thee and me and whoever is written therein a matter of much praise and glory to God that he should have such marvellous precious thoughts to us Psalm 139. 17. How precious are thy thoughts to me O God And so in Psal 40. 5. we read of the precious thoughts of God towards us that hee should have such thoughts when time yet was not neither we nor our fathers and all he did fore-see in thee and me would but provoke his wrath what was good he must work and that was from his counsell If you see any vanish away or fall away from his grace and from his Saints and he hath no pleasure in them they are not given to Christ you see he is the giver of them but if men be not given to Christ they will fall away All that the Father gives me shall come unto me it is my Fathers will I should not loose one of them If men will not hearken to the Bishop of their souls the Lord Jesus Christ see the desperate danger thereof and the originall root They are not written in the Lambs book of life It may be of singular comfort to all the elect of God whose names are written in the book of Life It is a great comfort that a man is written to life hee might have beene written to death had not the Lord been pleased so to doe You read in the Epistle of Jude vers 4. Of certain men crept in unawares who were of old ordained to condemnation The word in the Originall is fore-written written afore-time to destruction Now I say that a man is not written to destruction but to life and to life in Christ not as Adam that was to stand by his own strength and so long as he useth grace well he shall live but if not he shall dye and he so used it that if God give him not life in Christ he dyed for ever This is in Adams covenant not in Christs that was for a man to live by his own righteousnesse Do this and thou shalt live Levit. 18. 5. How wofull was our condition in this case but to be written to life and to life in Christ that is Because hee lives we shall live also I am the way the truth and the life And by this being written in the Lambs book of life that the Lord should think upon us when we had no thoughts of him nay had no being that he should then undertake for us that when the Father gives us he will receive us and by receiving us keep us spotlesse to his heavenly Kingdome that he wil preserve us from possibility of damnable Errors They shall seduce if it were possible the very Elect Mat. 24. 24. But there is no possibility what a marvellous matter is it that it is not possible that any of those that are given to Christ should be seduced it is such a mercy that may swallow up all discouragements all afflictions all blasphemy of a mans good name and state and wealth and health and all whatsoever this may support him that it is not possible he should be seduced For the Lord knows who are his the foundation of God stands sure the Lord hath written it and he is more constant then Pilate or the Kings of Persians and Medes The Law is written and established by the Kings Ring and God is more stedfast then any of the Kings of the Earth what he hath written shall be accomplished the Lord will draw them to Christ and Christ will keep them not one of them shall perish not one of them shall worship the Beast or if they do they soone see their folly and are recovered out of all snares they shall not prevaile against them It may be of instruction and exhortation to provoke you to make your election sure then you make your salvation sure and preservation from Popery and the world and from the Devill and from your own corrupt Nature sure that you shall not be carried captive with the polutions of the times and places you live in though hundreds run from God one way and ten thousands another way fall off hither and thither yet you shall still be preserved in John 6. 68. where our Saviour asked his Disciples will ye also go away when many of those that were his Disciples went away and fell off from him being offended from something which he had spoken to them and that was that Doctrine that we have now in hand and some other corolaries from it they walked no more with him then saith Christ to the rest will yee also go away Peter answered in the behalfe of the rest Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternall life As who should say whether shall a man go to mend himself Thou hast the words of eternall life and having the words of eternall life how shall they do better else where so it behooves us then as we desire to be preserved from all apostacy and backsliding from God notwithstanding all the temptations of the flattering world or busie world or from the destroying world by persecution and flattering by prosperity and busie world by the cares of the world and continuall cumber about the world and distempers in our hearts on that ground in such a case as this what shall preserve us If our names be written in the Lambes book of life truely we shall be preserved that neither the world nor our passions and lusts shall prevail against us My father saith Christ is greater then all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand and I and my Father are oue my Father and I will keepe them Joh. 10. 27 28. Obj. You will say it is a needlesse exhortation to make our election sure if that be not done long ago for it is not begun in this world but long before it is concluded long before or else we are not written in the Lambes book of life one of these two is concluded in Heaven Christ knows those that are given to him by his Father before he knows them by name John 10. 14. It is worthy of memory that Christ knows them all by name that argues the particularity and singularity of them as he knows all the Stars in Heaven so doth he much
his heart is not right with God It is true in a pang of temptation a man may be wheeled about as Peter and David yet the sight of Gods electing love quickens them to see their sinne how farre they are turned aside from God but there 〈◊〉 soul is bent as it were with the point of a compass touched with a Load-stone it may be jogged by windes and stormes yet it lookes still to the North pole though you may shake it from its course yet let it but stand a while it will directly look to the North pole there it will stand so it is with all the children of God they cannot but worke for Christ in John 16. 14. He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and give it unto you So that the heart that is sincere it workes from Christ and for Christ and with Christ I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me 1 Cor. 15. 10. So that you see what the manner of Gods people in this case is they are from Christ and for Christ and with Christ and it is a seal of Gods election the highest seal is God knowes who are his and that seal he manifests by his spirit in the Gospel it is the spirit that seals up our adoption and here is another seal we set to our seal while we cleave to him with all our heart and soul and seek after him and have none in heaven but him nor on Earth that we desire in comparison of him And thirdly the last assurance of a mans election and calling which I shall name at this time is that which Peter himselfe doth expresse in 2 Pet. 1. Give all deligence to make your calling and election sure How shall they do that he tels us in ver 5. Moreover adde to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge c. He reckons sundry sorts of graces and he calls upon them to adde grace to grace and one degree of grace to another and saith he if these things dwell in you and abound by this means an open entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as if men that did not grow in grace and gâ—ow from grace to grace if they get to heaven at length they must mend their pâ—ce thrust and croud for it but if these things be in you and abound so an open entrance shall be ministred unto you as if the great gates of Heaven were opened to you there must be a growing you are blind else and cannot see afar off you shall not see your state unlesse you grow from faith to faith and from knowledge to knowledge then an open entrance shall be ministred to you that you shall die in full assurance of faith and of the love of God And thus shall a man make his calling and election sure and by so doing he shall make sure to himselfe his preservaâ—ion from this world and shall be translated to everlasting rest wiâ—h the Lord in due time where there shall be neither false Prophet nor Jesuitâ— nor worldlings whose names are not written in the Lambs book of life Rev. 13. 8. latter part of the vers The Lamb slaine from the foundation of the world THere remayns now the latter part of this vers which is a description of Jesus Christ and he is described 1. By the similitude of a Lamb. 2. By his passion He is slaine And 3. By the antiquity of it He is slaine from the foundation of the world The note is this The Lord Jesus Christ was as a Lamb and though a Lamb yet was slaine and though slaine in fulnesse of time about 4000. years after the world began yet in effect he was slaine from the foundation of the world This is the sum of this latter part of the verse Not to stay long in any of these things and put to stay upon them because they are principles of our Christian faith and principles may not be passed over in hast especially considering the handling of them is a speciall branch of our calling Behold the Lamb of God saith John that taketh away the sinnes of the world John 1. 29. 36. It was his particular office to point at Christ and he doth it under the notion of a Lamb So it is said A Lamb stood upon mount Zion Rev. 14. 1. Now why a Lamb In a double respect and I speak of no more then what the Scripture hath respect unto First in respect of his innocency 2ly In respect of his meeknesse and patience 1. His innocency 1. In his birth That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the sonne of God John 1. 35. 2. Innocent in his life It behooves us saith Christ to Iohn to fulfill all righteousnesse Mat. 3. 15. And in 1 Pet. 2. 22. He did no sinne neither was guile found in his mouth 3. Innocent also in his death Pilate bare him that record Mat. 27. 24. when he had heard all things that were born witnesse against him hee tooke water and washâ—d his hands before the multitude saying I am innocent of the blood of this just person And as he was thus innocent as a Lamb So he was meeke and patient as a Lamb and the holy Ghost hath respect unto it Acts 8. 32. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a Lamb dumb before the shearers so opened he not his mouth And therefore there is something respected in his silence and quiet subjection to the slaughter knife And his patience or meeknesse doth expresse it self in two things chiefly 1. In submitting not himself only but his will to his fathers will Father saith Christ in his agony in the Garden if it be possible let this cup passe from me neverthelesse not as I will but as thou wilt And if this cup may not passe away from me except I drinke it thy will be done Mat. 26. 39. 42 And that is properly after Gods own heart when a mans heart is subdued to the will of God in which respect he did not murmure at his Fathers hand nor did expostulate his being delivered into the hands of wicked men 1 Pet. 2. 23. Who when he was reviled reviled not againe when he suffered he threatned not but committed himselfe to him that judgeth righteously And so meek was be in this very kind as that be prayed for his very enemies and persecutors Luk. 23. 34. Then said Jesus Father forgive them for they know not what they do 2. His patience and meeknesse stood in keeping silence in his own just defence As a Lamb dumb before the shâ—arer keeping silence before his Accusers and Judges and Condemners He answered nothing before the high Priest any thing that might tend to his crucifying as he doth expresse If they will make it a point to crucifie him because he said He was the son of God Saith he I came into
required some-what large opening but it is a counsell of God and given of him for this end that it may be expounded and explained And the Lord hath promised blessednesse Chap. 1. to those that read and search this Booke and therefore he would encourage all to search diligently the meaning of it especially as God gives opportunity It was that which John mourned for that he found none worthy to open this book and to loose the seals thereof only the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah I think there is no man shall be diligently studious on this Book depending upon the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah for helpe but he shall find something more then he did expect It is true if a man go in confidence of his own gifts and knowledge he may foole himself but if in modesty of Christian wisdome and in the feare of God the spirit of any Christian Minister or other that layes hold of this Book he shall not be sent empty away What light God hath given me in this particular you have heard opened The use in a word is thus much First it is a word of stay to the soules of Gods people It serves to strengthen our faith that the Lord is exact in his Propheticall expressions Look what he speaks though it be many a yeare or day before he will not faile to bring it to accomplishment in his time It is truly observed if God tarry long a thousand years with God is but as one day till the appointed time come But when his time is come then one day with God is as a thousand yeares God will as soon faile a thousand yeares as one day Indeed till his time be come he thinks it not long though it tarry 1260. yeares but when it is come then he will not faile one day It is a memorable speech that in Exod. 12. 40 41 42. The sojourning of the children of Aegypt was foure hundred and thirty yeares And it came to passe at the end of the foure hundred and thirty yeares even the self-same day it came to passe that all the host of the Lord went out from the Land of Aegypt It is a night much to be observed c. Hee doth not say they dwelt there so long but were sojourners there And it came to passe at the end of the foure hundred and thirty yeares even the selfe same day it came to passe that all the best of the Lord went out from the Land of Aegypt as if God would put some Emphasis upon it The word in the Originall is in the bones of the day It is an usuall Hebraism the strength of a thing they call the bones of it that is in the face of all the people in the strength of the day even when it was full day God kept reckoning to a day he will as well faile a thousand yeares as one day when his time is come and till his time be come we must think it long if he stay a thousand yeares It must therefore strengthen our Faith that God is the same God in the New Testament as in the Old that if we could know times as exactly as God knows them we might write in the bones of such a yeare and day the bones of the Roman Catholick Church is broken and lyes bed-rid as it is foretold Jezebel shall be cast into the bed of affliction and all that commit adultery with her into great tribulation Let it strengthen the faith of Gods people in every time for if God be so exact in every circumstance what time he sets he will keep then it may more strengthen us in substantiall promises and threatnings and what ever the Lord hath spoken be not discouraged the Lord will make good what hee hath spoken he will not faile of a minute of time when his period is come Secondly it may serve to encourage us the more to pray to God for a speedy accomplishment of the power of this great Beast the Roman Catholick visible Church that hath bewitched the world for so many ages together and to grow this way in our prayers for the destruction of him from yeare to yeare and the neerer the time of the accomplishment grows the more earnest should our expectations be to see the accomplishment and the more earnest our prayers should be You read of holy Daniel that when hee understood by books that the Lord had set the captivity for 70. years then he set himselfe by prayer and supplication to seek the Lord in Dan. 9. 1 2 3. He takes this very occasion he found it was written that thereabouts it would be and he found that time was at hand therefore he wrestles with God in fasting and prayer for the accomplishment of that deliverance And so ought we to do and indeed about that time it is that in the Exposition of other Scriptures that holy man of God that hath given light to this Booke some-what after he encourageth to look for no small changes that may befall the State So that it may encourage us to look for such a great mercy It is a great mercy that the Lord hath discovered the vanity of subjection to the Roman Catholick Church from day to day the Lord discovers it more and more to this country and hath given us to see the true platform of a true Church from which the Roman Catholick Church is so far disproportionable to be governed by a supream head instead of a particular Church ordered by Pastors and Teachers there is such a vast distance that well doth the holy Ghost call it a great Beast a lewd Strumpet to undertake such an Institution Therefore as the thing hath been odious in Gods sight long so let us pray that he will go on to break the power of this Beast It hath not been in vain what a blow he hath given to the Image of this Beast by the late stirs in Scotland True it is before great deliverances there will be great afflictions whether here or else-where It is an usuall providence to the most faithfull ones of God But what ever bitter cup the Lord may give us to drink of yet the day of this great Beast is coming wherein he is to go to perdition He hath begun to fall before the Lamb and if he begin to fall before him say the Magicians to the Kings Favourite Haman Esth 6. 13. If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jewes before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevaile against him but shalt surely in falling fall that is fall more and more It 's true there may be some pangs as a Beast when he is going to his last gaspe he will fling with his tayle and with his horns but he is falling and leaves not falling till he finally fall though there be pangs as dying creatures to win the horse or lose the saddle but otherwise he will never stand that there may be a Factotum at that time and will grow
man would choose to live no better life nor keep a better house then his Father or Grandfather but wish their souls might be but as safe as theirs when men are once redeemed by the bloud of Christ and that is sprinkled upon their consciences then the bloud of Christ is warmer then the bloud of Ancestors though the Religion of our Fathers should be strong in the hearts of devout Catholicks as in Bilney or Latimer then alasse for our poor Fathers what is become of them they pity them and see plainly that unlesse the Lord led them a further way then the Religion of those that taught them they are gone everlastingly and then they wonder that God should ever choose such a dunghill thee and me that they see a broad difference between the Religion of their Ancestors and that which they see now but that is the efficacy of the bloud of Christ there is that efficacy in it that it washeth away all relations to Fathers to antiquity and universality he is crucified to them all God forbid saith the Apostle that I should glory save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world Gal. 6. 14. So that though all the world runne after the Beast they will not the world looks at them as base unworthy creatures and so they look at the world And there is a third fundamentall Reason and that is taken from the power and presence of the Spirit of Gods grace in the hearts of his people We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. That is by the spirit of God and by the power of that spirit he keeps our faith and by faith keeps us in the way of his ordinances and in the way of sanctification to salvation Little children yee are of God and you have overcome these Antichrists why for greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world 1 John 4. 4. The power of God is in you they are of the world and the world is carryed away with them you are of God and you hear them not for greater is he thaâ— is in you then he that is in the world These are three fundamentall Reasons which are indeed the demonstrative cause of the impossibility of them to be finally carried to the worship of the Beast the election of God will not suffer it the unchangeblenesse thereof the faithfulnesse of Christ the efficacy of the blood of Christ and the power of the spirit and that which flowes from it is the experience of Gods love and the vertue of their faith in Christ Their faith is unchangeble not possible to be rooted out in Luke 22. 31 32. I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not It may be shaken but it shall not finally fail I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. and that is the proper act of faith Be not high minded but fear his mercy is sufficient for us trust steadfastly on the grace of Christ and though Peter seemed not to trust on the grace of Christ yet in his worst state he knew that all the courses of Satan were vanity and he durst not but in his heart believe that Christ was the Messiah so all the elect of God know the Beast is a Beast and the Catholick Roman Church is a Beast and the head of that Beast is a beastly head and they know that their Doctrine is sensuall and carnall and that they all shall go into perdition and withall their experience doth evidently convince them that were it not in a pang of temptation in which they are not able to abide by it yet by a renewall of the blood of the Lord Jesus sprinkled on their souls they are brought a fresh to see the work of Gods grace stirred up in them but otherwise their constant course is as in Rev. 14. you hear them coming as on a stage representing the Lambe in their carriage and conversation and follow the Lambe wheresoever he goes but for the Beast a stranger they will not follow but both their faith and experience yeild them a third cause and that is the spirit of God carying them an end My sheep hear my voyce and they follow me but they know not the voyce of strangers they see a difference between good and evill and therefore if they hear a man speak and doth not speak of salvation by him but of the world or of himselfe they will not follow him John 10. 45. Thus you see the Reason why none of them worship the Beast But on the other side all the rest of the world doe meaning where Antichrists power comes speaking of those times when there was great power given to him to speak great things and no man might say Sir why do you so in that time when he had power to be active forty two months when he had power to make Warre with the Saints and to overcome them and when all Nations worshipped him and did not shake off that Religion but in former times before reformation of Religion this was an universal practice they all Nations Kindreds and Tongues gave their power to the Beast and the reason of that was from Gods just judgement for their not receiving the truth in love therefore he gave them over to strong delusions to believe lyes Secondly from the efficacy of Satan in the power of deceitfull sophistry and doing wonders And thirdly by the plausiblenesse trumpery and bravery of that Religion so suitable to carnal reason that they were carried away thereto and it could not be but they should be carried away by the man of Sinne. The use first may then be thus much If all that dwell on Earth whose names are not written in the book of life do worship the Beast and none are excluded but those whose names are written in the Lambs booke of life then this will unavoidably follow that a Papist by his Religion cannot go beyond a Reprobate what he may and renounce his Religion is another matter as Bilney and Latimer sometimes did they were written in the Lambes booke of life but by his Religion take them that do believe as the Catholick Roman Church believes and believe no more but practice that which that Religion directs them to and goe no further and they continue and live and die in that then I must pronounce it from the Text they cannot go beyond a Reprobate the reason is evident from the Text for if none of them whose names are written in the Lambs booke of life doe worship the Beast and onely they do worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Lambs booke of life then if they be not written in the Lambs booke of life the Text is very strong clear in Rev. 20. 15. Whosoever was not found written in the Lambs Book of life was cast into the lake
of their works And this is the very doctrine of a Covenant of works And this is all the doctrine of the Arminians onely they do acknowledge justification by faith and differ in point of Faith and the merit of works A third Reason may be this The worship of creatures is a going a whoring from God and so of destruction unto such as go a whoring from the Lord in that way All worship of creatures with divine worship is called going a whoring from God Hos 4. 12. They have gone a whoring from under their God so in Psal 73. 27. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee And the Church of Rome is known to go a whoring after the worship of Saints and Angels and Iâ—ages and thiâ— great Beast mentioned in the Text and the Pope the head of it They place their salvation in beleiving as the Catholick Church beleives They place their salvation in reconcilement to the Catholick Church and are more solicitous of it then of reconcilement unto God by Christ Col. 2. 18 19. You read of some there that do not hold the head but lay hold upon Angels and that is Idolatry now that is spoken of the Church of Rome For a fourth reason of the point Without unfeigned repentance and lively faith there is no hope of salvation Luke 13 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. Now the repentance which the Roman Catholick Church holds forth what is it but such as Judas did performe They require contrition Judas he was deeply wounded and broken Mat. 27. 3. And they require confession He came unto them before whom he had done evill and said I have sinned in betraying innocent blood And they require satisfaction He came and brought the mony and threw it into the Temple and would by no means meddle with it Here is the repentance of the Church of Rome and all for ought I know that they require I finde no rule of repentance in this Catholick Catechise but I finde it in Judas which will end in despaire which is the common end of an hypocritical repentance as Stephen Gardner came unto it and so they will do or else dye in Nabals stoninesse And for their faith The faith of the Elect is described to be a confidence and evidence Heb. 11. 1. So expound Heb. 3. 14. If we hold fast the confidence the word is all one with subsistance it is such a confidence as doth give a being and subsistance unto the thing beleived it doth as truly make them to be as if they were actually extent But what say they to this They look at is as presumption and an abomination yea it will cost a man his life to hold forth such a Faith And for evidence they do professe it to be incompatible to a christian and their Faith is some conjecture but no certainty Now gather up these things If the Roman Catholicks have no better Faith no better repentance then their Religion holds forth if they receive Christ no otherwise and worship God no better and have no more interest in God then their Religion leads them to let all the world look to it for there is none of all the elect of God can live and dye so But why is this a point of so serious and deep consideration and attention that is taken First from the weight of the point as most concerning our salvation Secondly it is a point that generally men are deaf to hear and slâ—w to understand and beleive And therefore he doth cry out and make a solemn proclamation If any man have an eare to hear let him hear Why are they so unable and unwilling to understand They look at it as a monstrous blasphemy to speake thus of the Roman visible Catholick Church Then the Reason why men are so slow of heart to beleive it and none beleive but them which are taught of God is taken First from the spirituallnesse of the things themselves They are spirituall matters and cannot be discerned but by spiritual understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. A naturall man doth not discern the spiritual mysteries of iniquity nor the spirituall mysteries of discerning Grace nor can they because they are spiritually discerned The second Reason why none but faithful intelligent christians do understand it 〈◊〉 taken From Gods gift of Grace unto them to understand it To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven Mat. 13. 11. But being not given unto the world the world doth not understand it For the use of the point First it may serve to refute the damnable principle of the Roman Catholick Religion which is this That for every Nation and Kingdome to be reconciled to the Church of Rome i. is of necessity to salvation Whoever he be that hath ears to heare let him hear saith the holy Ghost that to be reconciled to the Catholick Church and subject to that Church and the head thereof it is of necessity the way to damnation if a soul so live and so dye For this purpose the Text is as plain as possible Rev. 20. 15. Whoever is not found written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire This Roman Catholick Church hath not his name written in that book of life and therefore of necessity they must be cast into the lake of fire Let all Noble men and Gentlemen hear this that they may not listen unto the whisperings and croakings of the Locusts of the bottomlesse pit Much God hath borne with men in their ignorance but if ever men have belonged unto God they have known the way of a better faith and repentance then ever Popish Religion have taught them and the holy Ghost hath helped them in their private prayers and reading or in conference with others to understand the same Obj. 1. You will say unto me but this is a very uncharitable censure Answ Whether doe you thinke it more charity to forewarn men of a desperate danger or to be indulgent to men and to tell them they may be saved in both Religions when the word of God is playn against it What charity count you that to gull men in a charitable but a foolish conceit of their own good estate It is cruell charity and most uncharitable when the Holy Ghost doth professâ— Their names are not written in the Lambs booke of life whosoever worship the Beast Obj. 2. But you will say Are not all the Catholicks in the world perswaded of it that the devotion to the Catholique Roman Church is a way of salvation Catholiques are confident of it and you Protestants dare not deny it And then I pray you whether is it not safer to be devoted to that Church wherein all confesse there is a possibility of salvation then unto that Church in which one say there is salvation the other not Answ We answer So farre
pleased God that Bilney you may read it in his Epistle to Bishop Tonstall that being troubled in conscience he had taken all the courses that their Religion enjoyned him had made confession to the Preists and they enjoyned him pennance and whipping of himselfe but for all these his wound bled as fresh as before till in the end he took an English Testament as it was translated by Erasmus not with any intent to finde any thing in it that might ease his trouble but because he was a perfect Latinist but reading that place in 1 Tim. 1. 15. these words did so affect him that immediately the Lord letting him see his love in Christ Jesus The Lord saith he let me see that I had taken a wrong course all this while I have sought for salvation where it was not to be had and prayed those to whom he spoke not to take it ill for it was not out of any neglect of them but out of his faithfulness having had experience that the course they prescribed that was not the way but it so farre prevailed as that he was marvellously esteemed but he was taken up by Latimer he made Bilney hear him Preach a most fearfull Sermon against Lutherans that were then better then he yet Bilney saw that he had zeal but not according to knowledge and he knew not how to come within him but he went to him in private and desired to speak with him and he must not say him nay then he up and tells him what a miserable wretch he had been how he had wounded his conscience how he had confest his sin to this and that Preist how unprofitable all those meanes were to him which they prescribed and there was no means in the world to finde peace till the Lord applyed that everlasting redemption in the bloud of Christ why saith Latimer he comes to seek for pardon from me to his soul and saith he I saw I stood in more need of being taught by him and therefore stiles him in his Sermon Saint Bilney that caught his soul and revealed that to him which he never heard of Therefore it is possible that Latimer and Bilney may be devout Catholicks for a time but now when this electing love of God puts forth it selfe in the fruits of it which is effectual calling now they are fully satisfied that all this devotion beleiving as the Church beleives they see they are so farre out of the way as faith is contrary to sence and reason So that those whom God reserved and chosen to life they are preserved from totall and finall adoration of the Beast they may for a time through ignorance worship the Beast as the best of Gods servants in those times did and many times have been most zealous for the Catholick cause and yet when the Lord hath called them effectually to his grace then not one that are written in the Lambs book of life doe worship him so that though they worship him before yet now they do not when they come to see their folly and have the love of God made known to them The Reason is first taken from the experimentall knowledg of every child of God effectually called from the evident experience that he hath of the vanity of the Roman Catholick Church and of the emptinesse of calling on any to look from Church power to heale or wound the conscience as of themselves further then they dispence the Ordinances of Christ and then it is not they but Christ in them and for them to look for salvation in the communion of that Church and in reconcilement to that Church They are so experimentally beaten off from that and possest of the contrary by their own experience that you need not take them from adoring the Beast for they see it is a Beast and they shall as wel utterly destroy their souls as worship the Beast and therfore the love of Christ constrains Bilney and he draws Latimer and Latimer draws others till they have propogated the truth of God to all ages But that though it be one reason yet it is the least Let me shew another reason why the elect of God after the electing love of God comes to be dispenced to them in outward execution For before it may come to passe they may worship the Beast but then they will not doe it finally but when the electing love of God is shed abroad in their hearts then they will not do it and the reason of that you cannot give a demonstrative reason but from this to prevent impossibility it is not possible that they should now there are three fundamentall reasons of the impossibility of it two properties there are in Gods electing love There is in Gods election first immutability as God himselfe is unchangeable Mal. 3. 6. so are his decrees unchangeable the foundation of God stands sure 2 Tim. 2. 19. and what he hath purposed he will bring to passe The counsell of the Lord is true for ever in Psal 33. 10 11. he disappoints all the decrees of men but his own counsels they take place for ever in every age therefore it is not possible that any of his should perish and perish they should if they should worship the Beast but it is not possible his unchangeable decree keepes them Again there is another property in his electing love which is the efficacy of it for Gods electing love doth choose us out of the world John 15. 19. And if he choose us out of the world the efficacy of that is that it delivers us from the evill world God electing us out of the world hath redeemed and delivered us from this present evill world Gal. 1. 4. Now if the electing love of God be of such efficacy that when he elects men of his grace he will in fulnesse of time deliver them from the world then they shall not run headlong to the worship of the Beast whom their hearts cannot close withall the Lord redeemes them from that vaine conversation received by tradition from their Fathers I though there be such efficacy in the bloud of Ancestors yet the electing love of God redeemes them from that But that will more appear in the second Reason And that is the faithfulnesse of Christ and the efficacy of of his redeeming bloud All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me and those that doe come unto mee I will by no means cast out John 6. 37. Of those that thou hast given me I have lost none but the sonne of perdition that but is not an exceptive but an adversative he that was never given was lost he did not bring him on to salvation For this is the will of the Father that sent me that of all that he hath given me I should loose nothing c. John 6. 37 38 39. That is his faithfulnesse and with his faithfulnesse there is such efficacy in his bloud that though the bloud of Ancestors run very warme that a
of fire and brimstone But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs booke of life that is in the Text Here are two propositions very evident All that are written in the Lambs booke of life doe not worship the Beast But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs baok of life Then the conclusion is They shall be cost into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone That if it appear that this Beast is the Roman Catholick Church and the head of this Beast is the Pope The conclusion will be most evident that no man living and dying a Papist can go beyond a Reprobate I dare not say but some that are ignorant whom devotion hath carryed to that Religion it is possible some of them when they come to death may see the vanity of that Religion of worshipping Saints and of confining their Faith to them but that is not by their Religion but if they dye in that Religion and if their faith and worship be thrust upon them from the Roman Catholick Church and they worship Saints and Angels and believe in their owne merits for their justification I do pronounce to you that a Papist living and dying a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate I meane such an one was not written in the Lambs booke of life And they that are not are cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone that is the issue And therefore what a fearfull thing is it in such that do all they can to reconcile Nations to the Church of Rome and are mad upon Romish religion what desperate service do they undertake to bring men to such a religion as destroys many millions of soules It is true Those that are written in the Lambs booke of life God looseth none of his sheep but it is evident they are bloody Butchers of many Christians not chosen yet devout Christians many an one under pang of Conscience with sence of many sinfull passions and lusts are not able to get out but by a Priests absolution and if they be covered with a Fryars coule they hope they shall do well enough Such a conscience as can be opened and healed by such wooden keys as these if they know no more such cannot be saved I will not enlarge it but it were necessary to be pressed and urged in some places look not at it as a matter of curiosity and circumstance what Religion a man dyes in and think as some States-men doe that if it were not for hot-spur'd Jesuites on the one side and hot-spur'd Puritans as they call them on the other side Protestants and Papists might be easily reconciled These are the whisperings of flesh and blood but that which is written in the word doth bear expresse testimonie against such a conclusion For if Jesuites were removed and Puritans too yet if there were any left that thought they could worship the Church of Rome as they require that you must believe as they believe your faith is built upon the Church and upon the dispensation of the keyes of that Church such a faith and obedience as fals short of Christ Jesus that all salvation is to be expected from him if both Jesuites and those they call Puritans were removed if there were none but that take up their faith and obedience in that worship they hold forth I say there is not any one of them that so live and so dye knowing what they believe that can be saved Indeed you read in Rev. 3. many know not the depth of Satan and it is another matter what God may dispence to them in private but men that know what they do and believe according to the doctrine of that Church and worship according to the direction of it I say men living and so dying there is not one of them whose names are written in the Lambs book of life and therefore shall be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone This may teach us a true ground of any mans preservation from the pollutions of the world bewitching pollutions sometimes a Catholick Strumpet carries all the world after her as in those times Sometimes the world swallows up the Church and every man thinkes him happy if hee may be clad with thick clay others are taken up with provisions for their belly and sensuall Epicurean lusts there be a world of such people Now what doth preserve the people of God that they are not carryed away either with the Catholick religion or with worldly ambition they are not taken with these but see the vanity of them what are any of us better then those that have been bewitched by these but what puts the difference The originall difference is God hath written them in the Lambs book of life and what hee hath written he hath written as Pilate sayd Hee hath written such to life and his decree is irrecoverable My counsell shall stand and I will do all my pleasure Isa 46. 9 10. Therefore there is the Originall from thence it flows the Lord Jesus Christ concurring with the Fathers counsell he hath given us redemption from the blood of Ancestors and redeemed us from the present evill world and will seek up every stragling Lamb and presents us spotlesse to his heavenly Father and then the spirit of God by which he works all in the hearts of his people that receives us for Christ and the spirit for Christ comes and takes possession of us and so thereby girds up our loyns to a dependance on him and his grace that we are preserved and saved from those fearfull temptations that overcome others and all the world are over-whelmed withall It may teach us the marvellous freedome of the love of God and therefore to admire the wonderfull love of God the cause of all this our preservation from such prevailing evills as swallow up the whole world how doth it appear why I pray you consider when the Lord wrote down thy name or mine or any mans name who stood by at his elbow if I may so speak to put him in mind of my name or thine he thought of us if our names be there and he set us downe and he delivered us to Christ Jesus by name what ever thy name is he took notice of thy name such a man in such a place he will live in this or that Countrey he is one take notice of him lay down a price for him in fulnesse of time send a spirit into this heart if he live in a Popish Countrey save him from Popery If in a worldly Countrey save him from the world where ever he lives save him from himself and bring him to my heavenly Kingdom but what was there in us that could commend us to God or what could there in us but what he appointed but what he should put into us he could not fore-see any thing but that hee must work it therefore it must certainly be his undeserved love that must
more know all his elect if he know them all by name hee then particularly observes them and prevents us with blessings of goodnesse and preserves us from prevailing evills but if it be recorded of God is it not in vain to exhort to make it sure Answ If it were in vain methinks the Apostle should not have used it 2 Pet. 1. 10. Then that is it that lyes upon all Christians some think it is not possible but then it were a vain exhortation Make your calling and election sure if you do a wide and open door of entrance shall be minished unto you well then though I cannot make sure my election in it selfe for it is sure in it selfe but the Question is whether it it is sure to me that is my duty for he knowes who 〈…〉 and knows them by name and keeps them in his name and hath given his Angels charge over us and they will all watch over us and therefore our Saviour in Luke 10. 20. saith to his Disciples Rejoyce not in this that the Devils are subject unto you but that your names are written in Heaven Our election is sure enough in heaven no stormes will alter it there But now in a word can we make our election sure the Apostle intimates when you make your calling sure you make your election sure your calling that is but the actuall execution of this eternall election but they are so neere that many the Lord puts them one for another he tells his Disciples you have not chosen me but I have chosen you John 15. 16. he means of his selection his calling them out of the world then he doth communicate his electing love to such it is wrought for us before in Christs death in Gods councell and in his effectuall redemption wrought for us on the Crosse but yet it is not manifest to our consciences till calling but make your calling sure and then election is sure When you are called according to his purpose Rom. 8. 28. that is this book of life that is his purpose that we are in Gods purpose written to life look to that he hath saved us and called us Not according to our workes but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 1. 8. that is the book of life and grace of free grace purposing us to life and you read in Rom. 8. 30. Whom he predestinated them he hath called and whom he called them he justified now if a man be effectually called to grace that doth search election let me briefly touch it that which makes sure calling 1. In our effectuall calling there is a declaration of Gods love to the soul in Christ Jesus by the spirit of grace in the doctrine of the Gospell for that is Gods call in our calling God calls for his part by his grace and spirit and we answere that spirit by that faith which by the call of God is wrought in our hearts I say God calls effectually to his grace by manifesting the rich grace of God in Christ electing freely calling freely from the obedience of sinne and Satan to the liberty of the sons of God as to those in Queen Maries time when they wandered up down like Lambs in a large place Bilney he fetches in that one word in his lost and forlorn condition He read this promise and the spirit of God applies it Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chiefe This being applyed by the spirit it falls on him with power and he sees the goodnesse of God in Christ and the vanity of all things else and seeing so much glory in Christ and in particular to him also this lets him see the vanity of all other courses for this manifestation of Gods spirit doth effectually and manifestly open our eyes to see and hearts to believe what the Lord offers for faith is said to receive what the Lord gives of grace here is then that which makes calling sure for otherwise how can we know it but by the manifestation and declaration and revelation of the Spirit The things that eye never saw nor eare heard nor ever entred into the heart of man but he hath revealed them by his spirit 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. As no man knows the things of man but the spirit of man so no man knows the things of God but the spirit of God And we have not received the spirit of this world but the spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God The spirit of God it is that searcheth all things even the deep things of God and reveals them to us and lets us see the treasures of grace and lets us see them thus applyed this is the ground of effectuall calling God calling by his spirit and we answering that call and from both these springs another fruit of our effectuall calling which is likewise a certaine pledge of it that being thus called Blessed be God saith the Apostle that hath called us to the fellowship of his sonne actually and effectually 2. Thence it comes to passe that wee choose the Lord for our God We have none in heaven but him nor none on earth that we desire in comparison of him Away then with those beautifull Strumpets and all works of iniquity and wayes of darknesse wayes of ambition these are all blasted now I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2. 2. and now it is that he rejoyceth in nothing save in the Crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 14. Now this electing love in that we elect God we could never choose God had not he chosen us and in some measure discovered what his electing love was to us this brings the heart back again to choose him and none but him now that is another security of our election and therein it differs from all others a man may have a kinde of sanctification by common gifts which will leave him still to work for himselfe but this is to abuse the very gifts of God which the spirit hath wrought in us though they be not such as accompany salvation still we are not lift up above our selves but when we are called effectually to Christ now no motion swayes us but as we see the will of God in it we cannot beleive as the Church beleives but we beleive our brethren and the Church as we see the Church follows the foot-steps of the will of God If I now please men saith the Apostle I am not the servant of Christ 1 Thes 2. 4. Nor of men sought we glory when we might have been burden some as the Apostles of Christ If a man be left to fast for himselfe or pray for himselfe or worke for himselfe and all is for himselfe that he work◠from a principal respect unto himselfe truly this will darken a mans effectuall calling and if it be his constant course doubtlesse
down to the pit I have found a ransome Job 33. 24. He now pleads satisfaction to the justice of his Father and having satisfied for all there is a sufficient plea in his mouth for all the Elect of God whatever our actual transgressions have been the Lord hath aboundant plea for all his people that so he may both obtain of the Father the spirit to bestow good things upon us and having given us such things as faith and love and repentance he may plead our sincerity of heart and that argues communion with himselfe and saith in his bloud But that which doth make us stand righteous before him is this that he himselfe was a Lamb without spot and yet did not plead his own innocency but did bear all for us and for us all that we might ever be righteous in the sight of God And thus will God have all his servants plead or else they shall not have salvation First to plead silence That then thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Ezek. 16. 63. Secondly to plead our iniquity Psal 51. 3 4. I acknowledg my transgression and my sinne is ever before mee Against thee onely have I sinned and done this evill in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest c. But purge me with by sope and I shall be clean Looke therefore unto this point mainly and principally that if we come to plead before the Lord our God hee doth require we should examine our selves and in the end be so surprized when we have done as not to have what to answer Christ could not tell what to answer and we must not wonder if wee doe not finde what to answer For here God magnifieth his love in setting forth himselfe unto a believer to be a God justifying him that cannot justifie himselfe He seeth there is the way of the grace of God the Lord hath done this in Christ and the manifestation and declaration of it doth so possesse the hearts of Gods children that it causeth them to cleave unto him for all their righteousnesse and peace And this is of great necessity and of continuall practice for the Saints of God to attend unto that we might not be at a losse in this great question of our soules Conscience cryes out unto us and wee know not in the world what to say for wee are wicked beyond measure in the sight of God our own sincerity will not plead our righteousnesse before God But all it will do will come to this end that we shall be convinced we have nothing to say Nay an Angel nay the Sonne himselfe could not tell what to say for us but wee look to be justified freely by his grace And the God of all grace doth so justifie Christs cause that all the world that are justified shall be justified by his plea who hath done all things for us that concern our everlasting salvation For a third use of the point it may be for reproof to unconscionable Advocates but I have not I thinke so much cause to speak of it here but in most places of the world I might speak of it It might teach all Advocates to take heed of bolstering out a bad Case by quiâ—ks of wit and tricks and quilets of Law the Lord abhors such things If you will have the Lord to smell a savour of rest plead the cause of the faithful and of the widow but thou shalt not accept the person of the poor nor of the rich And for men that professe Religion as many Lawyers do to use their tongues as weapons of unrighteousnesse unto wickednesse it is a professed practice against the doctrine of mortification For a man to give his tongue his glory as David calls it to become a member of unrighteousnesse to plead in corrupt Causes and to strain the Law to that purpose were I to speake in place where I should think it meet to speak more But I shall not be accounted a good Lawyer may some say No Christ was the best Advocate that ever was and yet he could not answer Let the cause be what it is where the tree fals let it lye If Christ do keep silence in point of our righteousnesse let us keep silence also in point of our own Fourthly It may be a use of instruction unto all those that professe fellowship with Christ and the saving knowledg of Christ Jesus You see here how Christ is described a Lamb slaine from the foundation of the world None more innocent and yet none more meâ—k and paâ—ient If you speak of Christ as a Minister the spirit of a Dove doth come upon him For the Sacrifice he is a Lamb. The wolfe shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye downe with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lyon and the Faâ—ling together and a little child shall lead them And the Cow and the Beare shall feed their young ones shall lye down together and the Lyon shall eate straw like the Oxe and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the Aspe and the weaned child shall put his hand on the Cock-atrice den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountaine Isa 11. 6. to 9. Doe you see a man boysterous in his spirit and in his own will and wayes and will not be willing to see a difference in himselfe from the spirit of Christ Jesus as it is possible that a child of God may be rough in his way yet hee dare not allow himselfe long in it it is a body of death But if you see a man that doth allow himselfe in a passionate frame of spirit that a man will have his owne will and will not be crossed in it whether it be right or wrong doubtlesse this is not the spot of Gods children It is not the spirit of those whose names are written in the Lambs bâ—ok of life God did not indeed elect us because either we are such or would be such but he did elect us to be made such first or last before we come to enjoy the everlasting Inheritance which this book hath written us downe unto And therefore it must cut off all our boysterousnes and churlishnes of spirit all this ruggednesse and churlishness it must be taken off The wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye downe with the kid and a little child shall lead them Therefore all bitternesse of contention and pangs of passion that prevaile that are farre from the spirit of love must be removed But this will prevaile in all Gods people that God will carry an end your spirits in conformity to the spirit of his own Be of that spirit therefore in all your Transactions that is to say mild and patient and innocent And so it will require all the children of God in the same
for our transgressions I mean to dissolution of soul and body And so by the wickednesse of men he was accused condemned and accordingly executed What think you of him saith Caiphas you have heard his blasphemies and they answered and sayd he is guilty of death Mat. 26. 66. And Pilate himselfe though he thought him to be guiltlesse yet delivered him to be crucified Mat. 27 26. And the people sayd We have a Law and by our Law he ought to dye John 19. 7. Thus was he delivered by the wickednesse of men and Pilate knew they did it of envy Mat. 27. 18. So that it was a great wickednesse in Pilate to gratifie the people and to suffer such an innocent Lamb to be crucified yet rather then he will loose the favour of Caesar and of the people he delivers him to be crucified And which is more then so as he dyed by the justice of God and the wickednesse of men so by the malice of Satan for our Saviour saith in Luke 22. 52. This is the very hour and power of darknesse The gates of Hell were opened to powre upon him all the vengence they were able It was fore-tould in Gen. 3. 15. It shall bruise they head and thou shalt bruise his heel The Serpent should bruise his heel that is Christ the seed of the woman His heel you will say that falls far short of death to pinch a man on the heele it may make him go lamely but not kill him but the holy Ghost intends that all the mischief that Satan works against Christ or any of his members it doth but reach to the bruising of the heele It bruised his heele that implies that Christ should have a body like ours and his heele that is the lower part of Christ his humanity Satan should bruise it And he shall break thy head it is the same word and therefore you may take them both for breaking or both for bruising therefore Peter expounds it well in 1 Pet. 3. 18. when he tells you Christ suffered for sinne The just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh His heele was brused that is his flesh So that though the Lord suffered unsupportable misery to be forsaken of his Disciples betrayed by one and forsworn by another to be forsaken of his Father in regard of any comfortable fellowship he had with him Though he suffered all this in inward and outward man to such extremity that made him sweat drops of blood and in the end to gâ—ve up the ghost yet all this was but the heele the lower part of Christ as it were for his personal union is not in the least measure intercepted his head and councel stands sure and all his indeavours will finde a blessed accomplishment Whereas the Lord breakes the head of Satan not onely cuts him off from all hope of fellowship in grace but all his plots shall be disappointed at length and all execution of his designes they shall be brused the Sonne of God comes to dâ—ssolve the works of Satan to undoe them Thus comes the Lamb to be slaine The reason of the point is double First to fulfil all the former types of the Legall Sacrifices The Israelites were to slay the Paschal lamb in the evening at the ninth hour of the day Exod. 12. 6. about the same time he was slain And all other Sacrifices for reconciliation were to be killed necessary therefore he should be slain The daily Sacrifice which consisted of a Lamb in the morning and a Lamb in the evening were both slaine though without blemish and so was Christ But that was but a shadow for Christs suffering was rather the cause of them but it is the Scripture phrase this was done that this and that may be fulfilled because such a thing in after times was fulfilled Secondly the cheif reason why it was requisite Christ should be slaine and why he would be slaine was That he might lay down his life for a ransome or price for his people Mat. 20. 28. The Sonne of man came to give his life a ransome for many A ransome of what or price of what The Scripture holds forth a price of Redemption and a price of Purchase A price of Redemption We are not redeemed with Silver and Gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. He paid a price for our redemption that so he might discharge the debt of our sinnes which lay upon us Rom. 6. 23. Gen. 2. 17. What day soever thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye And partly by this means to satisfie the justice of God who had threatned according to the curse of the Law that cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to doe them Behold saith the Lord I set before you life and death obey it and live do it not and dye This is the sanction and ratification of the Law of God throughout the books of Moses And therefore that he might satisfie the Law and the wrath of God Ezek. 18. 20. The soul that sinneth it shall dye that he might discharge the debt wee ran into and satisfie for our defects it was necessary to pay this price of redemption to save us from death and all evils that drew on death And consequently therefore he hath saved us from sinne Rev. 1. 5. He hath loved us and washed us from our sinnes in his bloud He hath redeemed us also from the world Gal. 1. 4. Who gave himselfe for our sinnes that he might deliver us from this present evill world and he hath also given himselfe unto the death that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death that is the Devill Heb. 2. 14. So this is one part of the reason and the sum of the ends why Christ gave himselfe to be slaughtered and his life as a price of redemption to redeem us from evill for redemption is from captivity and bondage from sinne and Satan and the world This was a principal end of his death but it was but part of it Here is a price to redeem us from evil from so many captivities wherein we were overwhelmed But there is a price given of purchase to the praise of his glory Ephes 1. 14. It is a price of purchase of some glorious possession and for that end it was also given in a principal manner Now what is the purchased possession which the Lord hath given his bloud as a price to pay Truly as the Lord hath redeemed us from the three great enemies of our souls so he hath purchased the three greatest blessings the sonnes of men are capable of and they are the greatest blessings they can reach to 1. He hath purchased reconcilement with the Father He hath reconciled us by the death of his Son Rom. 5. 10. God loved us indeed from eternity when he chose us