any intimation that Paul sent for him away as we have of his sending for Titus whom he left in Creete intendedly for a longer time but it is very probable that Paul designing to have sailed for Syria came near to him and there discovering the danger that was laid in his way by the Jews which might also have infolded Timothy he brought him away back again with him and so both returned into Macedonia and now winter is over they are setting for Asia again But when Paul and this his company are all going for Asia together why should they not set out together but these go before and tarry at Troas and Paul and some other of his company come after Nay they were all to meet at Troas as it appeareth ver 6. why might they not then have gone all together to Troas The reason of this was because Paul himself was to go by Corinth and not minding to stay there but very little because he hastned to Jerusalem he would not take his whole train thither but sends them away the next way they could go to Troas himself promising and resolving to be speedily with them there He had promised a long time to the Church of Corinth to come unto them and he had newly sent word in that Epistle that he had lately sent that now his coming would be speedy 2 Cor. 12. 14. Behold the third time I am ready to come to you and Chap. 13. 1. This is the third time that I am coming to you Not that he had been there twice before for since his first departing thence when he had staied there a long time together at his first planting of the Gospel in that place there is neither mention nor probability of his being there again but this was the third time that he was in coming having promised and intended a journey thither once before but was prevented 2 Cor. 1. 15 16 17. But now he not only promiseth by the Epistle that he will come but staketh the three Brethren that he had sent thither for witnesses and sureties of that promise 2 Cor. 13. 1 2. that in the mouth of those witnesses his promise might be established and assured Now the time is come that he makes good his promise and whilst the rest of his company go directly the next cut to Troas he himself and Luke and whom else he thought good to retain with him go about by Corinth And now to look a little further into the reason of their thus parting company and of Pauls short stay at Corinth when he came there we may take into thoughts besides how much he hastned to Jerusalem the jealousie that he had that he should not find all things at Corinth so comfortable to himself and so creditable to them before those that should come with him as he desired He hath many passages in the second Epistle that he wrote to them that glance that way For though as to the general there was Reformation wrought among them upon the receiving of his first Epistle and thereupon he speaketh very excellent things of them yet were there not a few that thought basely of him 2 Cor. 10. 1 2. and traduced him and his Doctrine Chap. 11. 12. and gave him cause to suspect that his boasting of that Church to the Churches of Macedonia might come off but indifferently if the Macedonians should come with him to see how all things were there 2 Cor. 9. 4. And therefore it was but the good policy of just fear grief and prudence to send them by another way and he had very just cause to stay but a while when he came there From Corinth in his short stay there he writeth THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS as hath been well supposed by some of the Ancients is asserted by the postscript and may be concluded from these Observations 1. That he saith that he is now going to Jerusalem to bring to the Saints that benevolence that they of Macedonia and Achaia had collected for them Rom. 15. 26. The word Achaia tels us that he now was sure of the Corinthian contribution which he was not sure of till he came there 2. That he commendeth to the Romans Phaebe a servant of the Church of Cenchraea Rom. 16. 1. which Cenchraea was a place belonging to Corinth as was observed before though at some few miles distance 3. That he calleth Erastus Chamberlain of the City Rom. 16. 23. of whom it is said Erastus abode at Corinth 2 Tim. 4. 4. That he calleth Gaius his host or the man with whom he lodged and the host of the whole Church or in whose house strangers had their intertainment Rom. 16. 23. who was a Corinthian 1 Cor. 1. 14. And hence it appeareth that Gaius of Derbe who was one of those that were gone before to Troas was one man and Gaius of Corinth was another It is true indeed that the greetings of some men were sent in this Epistle which were not with Paul at this present in Corinth as Timothies Rom. 16. 20. who was gone to Troas and Sosipaters who was gone thither also for he I suppose is the same with Sopater of Berea Acts 20. 4. and this might seem to infringe the truth of this opinion that holdeth that this Epistle was written from Corinth But when it is considered how lately Paul and these men parted and that it is past doubt that he would acquaint them before their parting of his intentions to send to Rome it is no difficulty to conceive how their salutations came inserted into that Epistle There are indeed some that confess that it was written from Corinth but not at this time but at another namely in that time when Paul travelled Greece of which journey there is mention Act. 20. in which time among other places they conceive he came to Corinth and there wrote this Epistle But 1. it may very well be questioned whether he were at Corinth in these three months travels or no. For whereas he had promised to call on them as he went to Jerusalem 1 Cor. 16. 7. which he intended when he travelled those three months but that he discovered that the Jews lay in wait for him he excuseth himself for not coming according to that promise 2 Cor. 1. 16 17. And if it were granted that he was at Corinth at that time yet 2. he could not write this Epistle at that time because when he wrote it he knew the contribution of the Corinthian Church was then ready Rom. 15. 26. which when he travelled Greece either indeed was not so or at least he knew not that it was as appeareth copiously in his second Epistle to that Church The Apostle in this most sublime Epistle clears fully and divinely the two great mysteries of the Gospel Righteousness by faith and the calling of the Gentiles And in the handling of these he handles the great points Original sin Election and casting off of the Jews He laies this position down concerning
such as I described unto you false Teachers that pretended to the Spirit and to preach and work Miracles by the Spirit And I shall discourse a little concerning the great delusion that is by pretence of the Spirit and this the rather that I may speak something like in subsequence to that I treated upon at our last Meeting Then I exhorted you to hold Communion by the example of Christ. For separation I then told you was the undoing of our Church Now I give caution against the pretence of those that Preach and Expound Scripture by the Spirit For that is the cause of Separation and hath proved the ruine of Religion And although this change of times doth seem to promise that this delusion in time will dye so that the present discourse may seem not so very pertinent yet doth that mischief now live move delude and captivate silly souls little less than it hath done all along Therefore give me leave a little to discover this delusion to you that you may not only be the better fenced against it that it do not deceive you but that you may be the better furnished to stop the mouths of those that pretend to it For the prosecuting this argument you must distinguish between the false pretence to the Spirit of Sanctification and to the Spirit of Revelation By the former men deceive themselves by the latter others They deceive themselves by conceiving they have the former because they have something like it but these deceive others by the pretence of the latter though they have nothing like it There is no grace but there is a false coin minted by the Devil to dissemble it As the Harlot takes the live-child from the unwitting mother and fosters the dead one in the room and so lyes the poor woman deceived and so the poor man is deceived and thinks he hath saving grace when t is but common and the Spirit of Sanctification when t is but the Spirit of Bondage But I shall not insist on this But proceed to the other pretence viz. to the Spirit of Revelation and Prophesie whereby these in the Text deceived others I shall not need to shew you how this hath been the great cheat in all times There were false Prophets before the captivity and false Prophets after it such pretenders almost in all times I shall strip this delusion naked and whip it before you by observing these four things I. No degree of holiness whatsoever doth necessarily beget and infer the Spirit of Revelation as the cause produceth the effect It is the first cheat that these men put upon themselves and others by concluding I am a Saint therefore I have the Spirit and I preach and expound Scripture by the Spirit whereas I say no degree of Sanctification doth necessarily beget and produce that of Revelation I clear this from the nature of the thing it self and by examples First From the nature of the thing The Spirit of Holiness and Revelation are far different therefore the one is not the cause of the other The cause and the effect have a parity and similitude one with another but these are far from being so 1. They are impartible to different subjects Holiness only to holy men the Spirit of Revelation sometimes to wicked men So it was imparted to Balaam Numb XXIII so likewise to Judas and Caiaphas 2. They are bestowed upon different ends Holiness for the good of him that hath it Revelation for the benefit of others 3. They are of different manners and operations The Spirit of Sanctification changeth the heart Paul is a Saul no more Revelation doth not Judas is Judas still 4. They are of different Diffusion in the Soul Sanctification is quite through I Thess. V. 23. Revelation only in the understanding 5. They are of different Effects Sanctification never produceth but what is good Revelation may produce what is evil Knowledge puffeth up Now see what a cheat they are in This to themselves if they believe it themselves and to others that believe it in this argumentation I am holy therefore I have the Spirit of Revelation To the further confuting of this add but two Examples 1. The first Adam He was as holy as created nature could be and yet had he the Spirit of Revelation Not the Spirit at all He was most holy yet had not the Spirit of Sanctification most full of knowledge yet had not the Spirit of Revelation but all his holiness was founded only in his nature as he was created God made him holy and left him to stand upon his own holiness and had not the assistance of the Spirit at all So he had great knowledge yet not the Spirit of Revelation either to know things to come or to know things beyond their natures and causes But 2. Consider the second Adam He was holiness it self yet had he not the Spirit of Revelation by that holiness In Christ there were two things The holiness of his person by union with the Godhead and the Indowment of the Spirit upon his person He was so holy that he was not only without sin but he was impeccable Rom. VIII 2. as we are a Law that cannot but sin so he contra Now this holiness of Christs person or nature is to a clean different end to what the guifts of the Spirit upon him were His person was so holy that he might perform the Law satisfie justice pay obedience conquer Satan But the guifts of the Spirit were to fit him for Mediatorship to cast out Devils to reveal the will of God to work Miracles to confirm that Doctrine As these differ in their ends so are they from different originals holiness from the purity of his nature indowments by extraordinary donation If he had the Spirit in extraordinary guifts of Revelation and Miracles by vertue of his holy nature why was that Spirit given so visible Matth. III. and given when he was to begin his Mediation Consider his own words Mark XIII 32. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son but the Father Some are ashamed to confess their ignorance of any thing yet he doth it plainly For the Divine Nature in Christ acted not to the utmost of its power T is clear from this passage of Christ that by his nature he had not the Spirit of Revelation but he had it by the immediate guift of God For it pleased not God so to reveal that day and hour to him while he was here on Earth So that by this example you may see much more the fallacy of that argument I am a Saint therefore I have the Spirit of Revelation Whereas Christ himself could not say so II. The Spirit of Revelation is given indeed to Saints but means little that sence that these men speak of but is of a clean different nature The Apostle prays Ephes. I. 17. That God would give unto them the Spirit of Wisdom
owe and pay a duty that we owe to them and that upon as urgent obligations as likely can be and those are the duty of Charity and the preciousness of every soul or to knit them both in one Charity to every one because of his Soul If we should question why we are to love our Neighbour as our self What is the proper Answer Because God hath commanded it But did God command it without reason And what is the proper reason of the Command Does not that lye especially in reference to the Soul of every man David hath a saying Psal. XXXIII 13 c. The Lord looketh down from Heaven and beholdeth all the Children of men He fashioneth their hearts alike From whence some argue that the souls of all the Inhabitants of the Earth are alike And so indeed as to their essential constitution they are all alike That very thing may hush all exceptions against the loving of every man and may quell malice and enmity against any Consider these things First That man that loves not every man for his souls sake knows not the value and excellency of a Soul For did he that very thing would move affection in him towards it Beauty of it self is an Attractive of affection and it doth as it were charm the heart to love it and delight in it And if a Soul in its essential constitution be not beautiful and lovely what thing upon earth can be counted beautiful and lovely A Soul that carries the image of God in its very constitution a Soul that is like to the nature of Angels in its essence and being a Soul that is capable of the Divine Nature a Soul that is capable of Eternal Life and Glory If this be not lovely what is lovely It is accounted a great piece of Policy to study Men to observe and take notice of the tempers humors passions carriages of men and some have come to be great Statesmen by such observation I am sure it is a great piece of Wisdom to study Souls and to observe the nature worth price excellency both of our own and other mens And there is not a more general and comprehensive cause of the ruine of Souls than mens ignorance of and unacquaintedness with their own souls And it is no wonder if men be not tender of the souls of otherss when they are thus regardless of their own And the cause of that is because they are so unacquainted with the great value of any Soul Secondly I might insist to shew that he that is not tender of the Soul of another is not tender towards his own because he neglects so great a Duty viz. his being regardful of his Neighbours Soul the Duty of that great Command Thou shalt love thy Neighbour I might shew also that a heart that is right softned and made tender by Grace and Charity and Religion is soft and tender to every one towards every thing wherein Religion and piety and goodness may be concerned A heart of stone is a heart of stone throughout and no softness in it It is not softned toward God to love him nor toward its own Soul to love that nor to its Neighbour to love him But a heart of flesh is soft and tender throughout towards every thing toward which it ought to be soft and tender Yea as Solomon will tell you A good man is merciful and tender towasds his very Beast when the very mercies of the wicked are cruel But what affection is it that we owe to every Soul in the World Must we come up to write after this copy of the Apostle before us to be content and wish that our own souls should perish on condition other mens souls should be saved So far you will say he was within compass to tender their souls to desire that they might not perish and to mourn for their perdition this is something within reason But to wish that himself might perish that they might escape it to be accursed from Christ that they might not be so Who required this at his hands And must our Christian Charity come to that pitch or we come not to the right pitch of Charity Toward the answering this Question let me first ask another Would he have wished thus in behalf of any other Nation but his own Would he have been content to have been accursed from Christ for the people of Edom Syria Greece Italy or any other Country You will say It may be he would not for they were not so near akin to him as the seed of Israel was But kindred was the least thing that wrought with him here though that was somewhat but that his people perished the old people of God perished the old Church of God perished there was an end of the Covenant of God with them an end of the Promises to their Fathers and they that had been more to God than all the world besides were now to fall under his wrath and curse more than all the world besides this wrought deeply with him An Occurrence such as the like was never to occur again an Occurrence so strange and dreadful that the ruine and destruction of that Nation is commonly charactered in Scripture as the ruine and destruction of the whole world as if Heaven and Earth passed away when that Church and State passed away and as if Sun and Moon and Stars fell to the ground when the state and Ordinances of that Church fell Lay all these things then together as on heaps of misery and sadness and conceive our Apostle looking on them and we shall see both the reason of his extraordinary sorrow which we have in part seen already and warrant for his extraordinary Wish He sees with sad eyes and tears in them his whole Nation and blood and kindred to be rejected scattered destroyed ruined It fetcheth more tears to think that all those Souls must perish as well as their outward estate But it makes the tide flow above measure to think of a whole Church destroyed the Ordinances of God laid in the dust all the Providences of God for that people come to such an end The Children of the Kingdom cast into outer darkness and the Name of God blasphemed by the enemy for their sakes These indeed you will say were very just causes of his grief but were these just warrants for him to make such a wish against himself that he might be accursed for them This strange Wish I say again as I said before came not from passion or over-sight but from Charity and Zeal And it was Charity and Zeal above the ordinary measure as the man whose they were was a man above the ordinary state of men As he had more revelation from God of the things of the Gospel and Heaven than ever man had as having been rapt into Heaven to contemplate them So had he more Zeal and Charity we may justly say than ever man had Zeal for God and Charity for Souls And it were no
speaketh of one that letted vers 6. And now ye know what withholdeth and ver 7. He who now letteth will let is of some obscurity we may without offence give this conjecture As the term The day of the Lord is taken in Scripture especially in this double sense for his day of judging the Jewish Nation and for his day of judging all the world so are we to understand a falling away and a Man of sin of the Jewish Nation before the former and a falling away and Antichrist betwixt the former and the later This last is readily concluded upon to be the Papacy and he that letted to mean the Imperial power but what was he that letted in the former that the Antichrist among the Jews was not revealed sooner I should divide this stake betwixt Claudius the Emperor who by his decree against the Jews in Rome Act. 18. 2. give a check by the appearance of his displeasure to all the Jews elsewhere that they durst not tyrannize against the Gospel whilest he lived as they had done And Paul himself who by his uncessant travelling in the Gospel and combatting by the truth every where against the Jews did keep down very much their delusions and Apostacy whilest he was at liberty and abroad but when he was once laid up then all went to ruine as see Act. 20. 29. 2 Tim. 1. 15 c. Paul when he departs from Corinth leaves a Church fairly planted there but how soon and how miserably it grew degenerate we shall meet with cause to observe before it be long He cometh to Ephesus and striving to get up to one of the Feasts at Jerusalem he leaves Priscilla and Aquila there Thither ere long cometh Apollos an excellent Scripture-man but one that knew only the baptism of John but they instruct him better Not that these Tent-makers turned Preachers but that having had so much converse with Paul they were able in private conference to inform him better then yet he knew from what they had learned from Paul ACTS CHAP. XIX from Vers. 1. to Vers. 19. OThers at Ephesus there were that were no further gone in Christianity neither then the knowledge of the Baptism of John Paul asks them Have ye received the Holy Ghost They answer We have not yet so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost be In which words they refer to a common and a true tenet of the Nation which was that after the death of Ezra Haggai Zachary and Malachy the Holy Ghost departed from Israel and went up Juchas fol. 15. and they profess they had never yet heard of his restoring And it is very probable that they had never heard of Jesus whom when Paul had preached to them they imbrace and the Text saith they were then baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Not that they were rebaptized but that now coming to the knowledge of the proper end of Johns baptism namely to believe in Jesus as ver 4. they own their baptism to such an end and construction For 1. What need had they to be rebaptized when in that first baptism they had taken they had come in to the profession of the Gospel and of Christ as far as the doctrine that had brought them in could teach them It was the change of their profession from Judaism to Evangelism that required their being baptized and not the degrees of their growth in the knowledge of the Gospel into the profession of which they had been baptized already How many baptisms must the Apostles have undergone if every signal degree of their coming on to the perfect knowledge of the mystery of Christ might have required nay might have admitted a new baptizing 2. If these men were rebaptized then must the same be concluded of all that had received the baptism of John when they came to the knowledge of Jesus which as it is incredible because there is not the least tittle of mention of such a thing so is it unimaginable in the case of those of the Apostles that were baptized by John for who should baptize them again in the name of Jesus since Jesus himself baptized none Joh. 4. 3. 3. These men had taken on them the baptism of repentance and the profession of Christ in the baptism of John that they had received therefore unless we will suppose a baptism of faith different from the baptism of repentance and a baptism in the name of Jesus different from the baptism in the name of Christ it will be hard to find a reason why these men should undergo a new baptizing And if it should be granted which is against reason to grant that these men were really rebaptized yet were not this a warrantable ground for rebaptization now in regard of these main differences betwixt the case then and now 1. That great controversie then on foot about Whether Jesus were the true Messias or no which caused their rebaptization if they were rebaptized 2. The visible conferring of the Holy Ghost upon them upon their baptism if they were rebaptized as being a main induction of such a thing if such a thing were that the name of Jesus might be so apparently glorified upon their being baptized in the name of Jesus which indeed was equally glorified when they received those gifts upon their acknowledging of Jesus and owning their baptism that they had of old been baptized with as a badge of that acknowledgment though not baptized again CHRIST LIII CHRIST LIV CLAUDIUS XIII CLAUDIUS XIV ACTS CHAP. XIX from Ver. 9. to Ver. 21. THE Apostle hath a long time to stay at Ephesus in which he first begins for the space of a quarter of a year to dispute in the Synagogue and then when divers were hardened and believed not he separated the Disciples and disputed daily in the School of Tyrannus Hitherto what converts there were to the Gospel they resorted still to the publick service in the Synagogue where Paul reasoned daily for the truth of the Gospel but finding dangerous opposition he gets away the Disciples from thence and in the School of one Tyrannus they are a particular Congregation In these great Towns where there were many Jews both in Judea and elsewhere they had a Synagogue and a Divinity-School This Divinity-School they called Beth Midrash and thither they used to go every Sabbath day after they had been at the Synagogue whereupon they had this for a common proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Synagogue to the Divinity-School In the Synagogue they had prayers and reading of the Law and plain Sermons of Doctrine exhortation and comfort In the Divinity-School were discussed and taught dogmatical and controversial points concerning the difficulties of the Law and other high matters And hence it may be those different titles and administrations of Pastor and Teacher Ephes. 4. 11. and He that teacheth and he that exhorteth Rom. 12. 7 8. took their pattern if Pastor mean one of the Ministerial function In the time of
vanting that he scoured the prisons And ever as any one came to suffer he commanded the executioners to end him with such deliberate tortures as that he should be sure to feel himself to die involving many deaths in one and causing men that were to die to live even in death that they might die with more pain THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY THE Jewish and the Roman For the Year of CHRIST XL. The third Year also of CAIUS CALIGULA Being the Year of the WORLD 3967. And of the City of ROME 792. Consuls Caius Caesar II. L. Apronius Celianus or Cestianus ACTS IX Vers. 32. And it came to pass as Peter passed through all quarters THE occasion of Peters travail at this time may be well apprehended to be for the setling and confirming of those Churches that were now begun by the Ministery of the dispersed Preachers One thing was most necessary for these new founded Churches which the Preachers themselves could not provide for them and that was Ministers or Pastors unless they would have stayed there themselves which in all places they could not do and in many places they did not if in any place at all they did longer than for a little space the necessity of dispersing the Gospel calling them from place to place Therefore it was needful that the Apostles themselves should go after them to ordain Ministers by the imposition of their hands with which they did not only instal or institute into the office of the ministery but also bestowed the Holy Ghost for the inabling of those that they did ordain for the performance of that office which gift the other Disciples could not bestow and this may be conceived one reason why ten of the twelve Apostles were absent from Jerusalem at Pauls coming there as was observed before namely because they were dispersed abroad over the new planted Churches for this purpose And this was one cause why Peter travails thus at this time the plantations of the Churches still increasing and his comforting confirming and setling the Churches was another Through all quarters This referreth to those places mentioned in the verse preceding Judea Galilee and Samaria only whereas that verse speaketh of the places themselves this Verse in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of the masculine gender referreth to the people of the places and this is all the difference And therefore Baronius is besides the Cushion who upon this very place and out of this very word would conclude that Peter in this his peregrination did found the Episcopacy at Antioch His words are these Luke saith he being intent as it appeareth to commend to memory the more remarkable miracles wrought by Peter hath omitted in silence the rest of his actions performed in this visitation of the province and among other things the institution of the Church of Antioch which that it was erected by him in this very year we shall easily shew by the testimony of the ancients Eusebius may be alledged as one of these ancients and one for all who speaketh much to the same purpose and somewhat further but only with this difference that he hath set down this matter a little before the death of Tiberius Peter the Apostle saith he founded the Church of Antioch and having there gotten his chair he sate five and twenty years Thus Eusebius ad annum Christ. 38. Parisiis 1511. Now to take up this position and story in its several particulars almost every parcel will prove a stumbling block and before belief can be given to it it must pass thorow and overcome these difficulties 1. Whereas his journey to Antioch is laid in this visitation it is strained beyond the Letter and beyond the Spirit and meaning of the Text. For that speaketh only of the Churches of Judea Galilee and Samaria and then how came in Antioch in another Country And those words through all quarters run at a very uncertain randome if they be uncircumscibed by the Verse before 2. It is past all peradventure that as yet there was no Church at Antioch at all much more that there was no Episcopal Chair and See there For it is a year yet to come before there be any mention of a Church there Act. 11. and that that story of the first beginning of that Church lieth in its proper place and without any transposition or Hysteron-proteron is so plain to him that will but view it that it needeth no proof 3. How is it consistent with Peters imprisonment at Jerusalem Chap. 12. to sit Bishop in another Country Much more is it inconsistent or rather to speak plainly impossible that he should sit five and twenty years at Antioch and as many at Rome and yet go thither in the second of Claudius as he is held to have done Now Baronius hath espied these two stumbling blocks and laboureth to remove them but in his striving about the one he throweth dirt into Eusebius his best Authors face for he saith he is corrupted and indeed he doth little less about the other For whereas Eusebius saith in plain terms ibi sedit Peter there sate this his Paraphrast glosseth that it sufficed though he never came there For with him Peter was as a Creator of Churches and Bishopricks for if dixit factum est if he but spake the word be he where he would there was a Metropolis or an Episcopacy created in any place whatsoever But not to spend much labour where we are sure but of little profit let it suffice the reader to have but a Catalogue and particular of his arguments and let him censure them according to his own judgment Argum. 1. It was Peters office to oversee and take care of the whole flock and for this he visited all the Churches that lay round about Jerusalem pag. 306. But that draweth on another question which will be harder to prove than this and it maketh Paul but an intruder that took upon him such a care Argum. 2. Peter taking opportunity of the Churches tranquility pag. 306. visited all the Christians which were in Syria pag. 309. But here he is besides his warrant of the Text and maketh a History of his own head Argum. 3. Peter wheresoever he was might raise an Episcopal or Metropolitical See at any place distant where he pleased by the Authority wherewith he was indowed pag. 309. When this is proved we may believe the other that he would prove Argum. 4. The number of Eusebius of his sitting 25. years at Antioch is an error crept into the Text but the number of his 25. years at Rome in him is right pag. 306. But if he be at liberty to suspect the one sure we may have the like liberty to suspect the other Argum. 5. The Hierachical order seemeth not to indure that the prime Church that had been as yet instituted should be governed by any but the prime Apostle pag. 309 330. It will be some work to prove any Hierarchical order at all or Peter Prime
VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But every woman I. IT was the custom of the women and that prescribed them under severe Canons that they should not go abroad but with their face vailed If m m m m m m Maimon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 24 a woman do these things she transgresseth the Jewish Law if she go out into the street or into an open Porch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there be not a vail upon her as upon all women although her hair be rolled up under a hood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What n n n n n n 〈◊〉 fol. 72. 1. is the Jewish Law Let not a woman go with her head uncovered This is founded in the Law for it is said of the suspected wife The Priest shall uncover her head Numb V. 18. And the tradition of the School of Ismael is that the Daughters of Israel are admonished hence not to go forth with their heads not vailed And o o o o o o Schab â— â—0 1 Modest women colour one Eye with paint The Gloss there is Modest woman went vailed and uncovered but one Eye that they might see and that Eye they coloured p p p p p p Bava Kama fol. 90. 2. One made bare a womons head in the street she came to complain before R. Akiba and he fined the man four hundred Zuzees II. But however women were vailed in the streets yet when they resorted unto holy Service they took off their vails and exposed their naked faces and that not out of lightness but out of religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q q q q q q 〈◊〉 fol. â—â— 1. The three feasts are the Scabs of the year The Gloss is The three feasts Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles are the breakings out of the year by the reason of the association of men and women and because of transgressions Because in the days of those feasts men and women assembled together to hear Sermons and cast their Eyes upon one another And some say that for this cause they were wont to fast after Passover and Pentecost From whence it may readily be gathered that men and women should not so promiscuously and confusedly meet and sit together nor that they should so look upon one another as in the Courts of the Temple and at Jerusalem when such innumerable multitudes flocked to the Feasts but that women should sit by themselves divided from the men where they might hear and see what is done in the Synagogue yet they themselves remain out of sight Which custom Baronius proves at large and not amiss that those first Churches of the Christians retained When the women therefore did thus meet apart it is no wonder if they took off the vails from their faces when they were now out of the sight of men and the cause of their vailing being removed which indeed was that they might not be seen by men The Apostle therefore does not at all chide this making bare the face absolutely considered but there lies something else within For III. This warning of the Apostle respects not only publick religious meetings but belongs to those things which were done by men and women in their houses and inner chambers for there also they used these rites when they prayed and handled holy things privately as well as in the publick assemblies r r r r r r Hieros Avâ—â—ah Zâ—râ—h fol. 4â— 1. Rabban Gamaliel journying and being asked by one that met him concerning a certain vow he light off his horse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and vailed himself and sat down and loosed the vow So R. Judah Bar Allai on the Sabbath Eve when he composed himself in his house to meet and receive the Sabbath they brought him warm water and he washed his face and hands and feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And vailing himself with his linnin cloth of divers colours he sat down and was like the Angel of the Lord of Hosts So in the example of Nicodemus lately produced He went into his School alone privately and vailed himself and prayed So did men privately and women also on the contrary baring their faces privately A reason is given of the former namely that the men were vailed for reverence towards God and as being ashamed before God but why the women were not vailed also the reason is more obscure A more general may easily be rendred viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That a woman was loosed or free from the precept that is from very many rites to which men were subject as from the carrying of Fringes and Phylacteries from these or the other forms and occasions of prayers and from very many Ceremonies and Laws to which men were bound s s s s s s In Menachoth fol. 43. 2. R. Meir saith Every man is bound to these three benedictions every day Blessed be God that he hath not made me a Heathen that he hath not made me a woman that he hath not made me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stupid or unlearned But Rabb Acha bar Jacob when he heard his Son saying Blessed be God that he hath not made me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlearned stuck at it and upon this reason as the Gloss interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because a Heathen and a woman are not capable of the precept but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rude or unlearned man is capable Deservedly therefore God is blessed that God made him not a Heathen or a woman By this Canon that a woman was loosed from the precept they were exempted from covering the face during Religious Worship when that precept respected men and not women But if you require a more particular reason of this exemption what reason will you find for it It is almost an even lay whether the Canonists exempted women from vailing because they valued them much or because they valued them little In some things they place women below the dignity and without the necessity of observing those or the other rites and whether in this thing they were of the same opinion or that on the contrary they attributed more to the beauty of the faces of women than of men is a just question But whether the thing bend this way or the other the correction and warning of the Apostle doth excellently sute to this or to that as it will appear in what follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dishonoureth her head Dishonoureth her head What head That which she carries upon her shoulders Or that to which she is subjected As the man to Christ the woman to the man That the Apostle is to be understood especially of the later appears from the verse before and indeed from the whole context For to what end are those words produced vers 3. I would have you know that the head of the woman is the man c. unless that they be applyed and make to the Apostles business im the verses following Nor
therefore very much deceived who think that Absalom let his hair grow out of pride when he did so indeed by reason of a vow at least a feigned vow of Nazarite-ship The Jerusalem Talmudists say very truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d d d d Nazir fol. 51. 2. Absalom say they was a perpetual Nazarite Very truly I say in this that they assert he was a Nazarite but of the perpetuity of his vow we will not here dispute See 2 Sam. XV. 7 8. There is in Tacitus a wicked Votary not unlike him Civilis by name of whom thus he speaks e e e e e e Hist. lib. 4. cap. 14. Civilis barbaro Voto post coepta adversus Romanos arma propexum rutilatumque crinem c. Civilis by a barbarous vow after armes taken up against the Romans laid down his long red hair the slaughter of the Legions being at last executed The Jews if they were not bound by the vow of a Nazarite cut their hair very often and however they did it at other times certainly always before a Feast and that in honour of the Feast that was approaching Whence a greater suspicion may here arise that these Corinthians by their long hair professed themselves Nazarites These f f f f f f Moed Katâ—n cap. 3. hal 1. cut their hair in the feast it self He that comes from a Heathen place and he that comes out of prison and the excommunicate person who is loosed from his excommunication The sense of the Tradition is this Those who were detained by some necessity before the Feast that they could not cut their hair might cut it in the Feast it self But if no such necessity hindred they cut their hair before the Feast and commonly on the very Eves of the Feast g g g g g g Piske Tosaph at Moed Katon Art 78. When any man cuts not his hair on the Eves of the Festival day but three days before it appears that he cut not his hair in honour of the Feast We cannot here omit this story h h h h h h Hieros Avodah Zarab fol. 41. 1. A certain Travailer who was a Barbar and an Astrologer saw by his Astrology that the Jews would shed his blood which was to be understood of his Proselytism namely when they circumcised him when a certain Jew therefore came to him to have his hair cut he cut his throat And how many throats did he cut R. Lazar ben Jose saith Eighty R. Jose ben R. Bon saith Three hundred VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her hair is given her for a Covering THE daughter of Nicodemus being reduced to miserable poverty going to Rabban Jochanan to speak to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i i i i i i Bab. Chetubb fol. 66. 2. vailed her self with her hair and stood before him The poor woman had no other vail therefore she used that which was given her by nature and she used it shall I say as a sign Or as an Instrument and mark of modesty and shamefacedness VERS XXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every one taketh before other his own supper I. I Wonder the Agapae The love Feasts of which S. Jude speaks vers 12. should among Interpreters receive their exposition hence In those Feasts saith Beza which they call Agapae that they used to take the holy Supper of the Lord appears from 1 Cor. XI Of which thing discourse is had in Tertullians Apologetick Chap. XXXIX and in other writings of the Ancients So he also speaks at Act. II. 42. And upon this place The Apostle saith he passeth to another Head of this Discourse namely the administration of the Lords Supper to which the Love-feasts were joyned c. And upon the following verse The Love-feasts although they had been used a long while in the Church and commendably too the Apostles themselves being the Authors of them yet the Apostle judgeth them to be taken away because of their abuse So also Baronius The use of a most commendable thing persevered as yet in the Church that what Christ had done at his last Supper and had admonished his Disciples to do in remembrance of him that Christians meeting in the Church should sup together and withal should receive the most holy Eucharist Which nevertheless when the Corinthians fulfilled not as they ought Paul doth deservedly reprove He that should deny such charitable Feasts to have been used in the Church together with the Eucharist certainly would contradict all antiquity but whether those Feasts were these Agapae of which the Apostle Jude speaks whether those Feasts had Christ or his Apostles for their Authors and whether these Corinthian Feasts were such if any doubt he doth it not without cause nor doth he without probability believe the contrary Of these Corinthian Feasts here what Sedulius saith Among the Corinthians saith he heretofore as some assert prevailed an ill custom to dishonour the Churches every where by Feasts which they eat before the Lords Oblation Which Supper they began a nights and when the rich came drunk to the Eâ—charist the poor were vexed with hunger But that custom as they report came from the Gentile Superstition as yet among them Mark that I should say From the Jewish Superstition The very same is in Primasius II. If I may with the good leave of Antiquity speak freely that which I think concerning the Agapâ— of which the Apostle Jude speaks take it in a few words Those Agapae we suppose were when strangers were hospitably entertained in each Church and that at the cost of the Church And we are of opinion that this laudable custom was derived from the Synagogues of the Jews l l l l l l Gloss in Bavâ— Bathra f. 3. 2. In the Synagogues they neither eat nor drink c. But there was a place near the Synagogue in which Travellers were wont to sleep and eat Hence that in Pesachin m m m m m m Fol. 101. 1. where it is asked why they consecrate the day which was usual over a cup of wine in the Synagogue And it is answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Travellers also may do their duty who eat and drink and feast in the Synagogue Here the Glosser enquires whether it were lawful to eat and drink in the Synagogues when it is forbid by an open Canon n n n n n n Megil fol. 28. 1. And at length among other things he answereth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chambers which joyned to the Synagogue are called Synagogues also and from thence travellers heard the Consecration There was therefore a certain Hospital either near or joyning to the Synagogue wherein travellers and pilgrims were received and entertained at the common cost of the Synagogue Compare Act. XVIII 7. But now that a custom of so great charity was translated into the Christian Church there are many things which perswade as also that
insist That our Saviour held in Communion with the Church of the Iews in which he lived in the publick exercise of Religion And I might add in conformity to the common custom of the Nation in Civil Converse An Observation that the Text plainly affordeth those considerations laid to it that I have mentioned For look upon this Feast as a thing of Religion and Religious Observation he is present at it as holding Communion with the Church in the publick exercise of Religion or look upon it only as a civil Commemoration and of a civil Institution he is present at it because he kept in conformity with the common customs of the Nation in civil Converse I begin with the former And we are upon a Subject very seasonable in these times of our great Divisions and Separations and not unseasonable for your Meeting and Feast of Love and Unity And I know no point that may more usefully and profitably be studied and looked into toward the reconciling our great Separations than this if so be the example of our Saviour be of Authority and value with us For clearing the way of our discourse let me first Observe these things to you I. That when I say he held Communion in the publick exercise of Religion I mean their National Religion by which indeed they were a National Church A National Religion and a National Church are phrases that will not now be allowed of by many among Christians though they will allow them for current among the Jews Though indeed there can be no clear reason given of the difference T is true indeed that no Nation can now be said to be a National Church in that restriction that the Jews were who were so a National Church that no people were of the Church besides yet is there the very same cause that made them a National Church that may make other Nations so now Their being a peculiar people did not make them a National Church for that made them only an only Church Nor did their Ceremonial Rites in Religion make them a National Church for that made them only a distinct Nation But that that did properly make and denominate them a National Church was the Worship of God and the exercise of Religion went through the whole Nation And I see not why Christian Nations where there is the very same reason may not also cary the very same name In the Apostles times indeed there was no National Church of the Gospel and that is most true that they plead that hold the contrary to what I assert namely that it is not said the Church of Achaia the Church of Galatia Indaea Macedonia c. but the Churches And there is very good reason why it is so said For those whole Nations had not yet received the Gospel but as there was a Christian Church in one place so there was a Heathen Temple in another and a Jewish Synagogue in another nay it may be three for one ten for one But when the whole Nation came to profess the Gospel and there were no Church but Christian then whole Achaia whole Macedonia c. were National Churches Observe that in Esay XIX 24 25. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the Earth When the Lord of Hosts shall bless saying Blessed be Egypt my people c. Assyria the work of my hands and Israel mine inheritance Israel was a National Church because the whole Nation professed Religion and Worshipped God Egypt and Assyria could not be called so when Heathen Temples and Idolatrous Worship and Jews Synagogues and Judaismes were intermixed but when all Egypt and all Assyria came to own the same Religion and Worship of God in the way of the Gospel why might they not hear the same name of National Churches as well as Israel We mean then that Christ held Communion with the Church of the Jews in the publick exercise of that Religion which was the seated and fixed Religion of the Nation and which went through the Nation II. The Religion of the Pharisees Sadduces and Esseans was not the National Religion but Sects and excrescences from it therefore it no whit denies Christ Communicating with the Religion of the Nation though he did not Communicate with the Religion of these Sects You may take up in your thoughts the whole Nation of the Jews when Christ came among them in two parts and you may very well so take them up under the representation of an overflowing flood Let Jordan their own River be the instance It is said in Jos. III. 15. That Jordan overflowed his banks all barley harvest Then a great part of the water ran in the channel and another part flowed over the banks and wasted what was in the way So the greatest part of the Nation kept in the channel of their National Religion and a great part namely these Sects overflowed the bounds went beyond the proper current especially the first and the last and spoiled all with overdoing Now out of whether of these two parts did Christ gather those thousands nay those several ten thousands as Act. XXI 20. that came into the profession of the Gospel Some indeed from among those Sects but the far greatest part from among them that kept in the channel of the National Religion For observe what sad doom the Scripture passes upon those Sects severally and jointly The Pharisees single Christ curseth and denounceth wo against Matth. XXIII over and over again The Pharisees and Sadducees together John proclaimeth a generation of Vipers Matth. III. The Pharisees and Sadducees and Esseans altogether the three evil Shepherds that mislead the people Christ professeth that he hated them as they did him Zech. XI 8. Now it is no wonder if Christ Communicated not with the Religion of them that were so abominable in themselves and to him and their Religion so wild and it had been a wonder if he should not have Communicated with them to whom he came more especially to be a Minister and from among whom he was to gather so great an harvest And now having premised these things to come to prove and clear the assertion before us we shall first consider the obligations that lay upon Christ and bound him to hold Communion with the Church wherein he lived and the examples and instances that shew he did so The former will evince de jure the latter de facto I. Need I to prove that Christ was a member of the Church of the Jews And if that be granted it can hardly be denied that he was bound to keep Communion with the Church of which he was a member The Apostle in Rom. IX 5. tells us that Christ was of the blood of the Jews and was he of their Nation only and not of their Church He was Minister of the Circumcision and was he not of the Church of which he was Minister II. I need as little to
find almost in all the Epistles of the Apostles more especially in the second Epistle of S. Peter and in this Epistle of S. Jude throughout These are they that the Text saith were spots certain deceivers crept in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 4. men that took on them to have the Spirit but were sensual not having the Spirit vers 19. and filthy dreamers vers 8. These were the Spots What these Feasts of Charity were is some scruple The more general opinion is that they were Solemn Meals which every Congregation had and eat at together at receiving the Sacrament some think instantly before some after And the groundwork of this opinion is that I Cor. XI 21. In eating every one taketh before other his own supper Thereupon Beza without any sticking At those Feasts saith he which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they received the Sacrament as is plain out of I Cor. XI Whereas such Feasts as these Suppers were as far from the Apostles meaning as the Apostle is far from commending or approving them For you may observe that he doth not only nor so much condemn the misdemeanors at those suppers as he doth the suppers themselves as a misdemeanor For 1. He tells plainly that by them they vilified the Church or the place of their publick meeting 2. That they shamed the poor who could not bring in so good commons and victuals And 3. That if they were so hungry they should eat everyone at home There are such dreadful and terrible glosses made of the unworthy eating and drinking at these Feasts here mentioned that many Christians now a days are terrified from partaking of the Lords Supper for fear lest they fall under this unworthy eating and drinking and the Judgment consequent upon it Whereas I know you will think it strange if I say it yet I fear not to say it that I believe there is not a Christian now in the World that receives the Sacrament unworthily in that sence the Apostle speaks of unworthy receiving there Mistake me not I say in that sence that the Apostle speaks of there For whereas all Churches consisted then of Jews and Gentiles and this of Corinth particularly as appears in the story of its first planting Acts XVIII and hence were their divisions this was the cause of their other divisions I Chap. I. 12. The Gentile party saying I am of Paul c. The Jewish party even in all Churches in this Church undoubtedly hankered too much after their old Judaism this old leaven that the Apostle gives them caution against Chap. V. 8. Two smacks of Judaism you find them tainted with which the Apostle hints in that XI Chap. before he speaks of their misreceiving of the Sacrament The first was that the men would not pray but with their faces covered Which was a meer Judaizing superstition And the other that they wore long hair as it appears by his so smartly reproving the thing which relished of the rite of Nazarites a meer Judaick custom Upon that very account did Absalom wear his long hair which some think he did of pride because that kind of pride is grown into fashion among us But he did it as being or pretending to be under a Nazarites vow II Sam. XV. 8. And as they thus Judaized in those two things and I might shew their speaking with strange Tongues c. had a smatch of Judaism also So did they Judaize about the Sacrament It was a common and generally received opinion among the Jewish Nation That Messiah when he came should no whit alter much less abolish any of their Mosaick Ordinances but should inhance them to a greater glory That he should make their Sacrifices Purifications Sabbaths Festivals and all other usances far more resplendent and glorious than ever they had been According to this opinion did these Jewish Christians of Corinth understand and conceive concerning the Sacrament They observed not that it was a Remembrance of Christs death which the Apostle minds them to observe vers 26. nor did they discern the Lords body at all in it as the Apostle lasheth them for not doing vers 29. But they reputed it only as a farther inhancement of their delivery out of Egypt and that Christ had only ordained it as a further addition to this Passover and to that Memorial Hence those Procoenia were in imitation of the Passover-suppers Judaizing in them and in their opinion and receiving of the Sacrament Which were as far from being any ground for these Feasts of Charity in that sence that they are commonly interpreted in as Judaism from Christianity Error from Truth as a thing odious and to be abhorr'd in Christianity from a thing laudable and of divine approval If therefore I may have liberty to dissent from an opinion so generally received I should say these Feasts of Love were the Entertainment of strangers It was a constant custom among the Jews that at every Synagogue a place and persons were appointed for the reception of strangers as appears by their own Writings That this custom was translated into Christian Congregations may be concluded partly by the necessity of such a thing at that time when the Apostles and Disciples went abroad to preach without mony or provision of their own and could not have subsisted without such entertainments and partly because we read of Gaius Rom. XVI 23. and Phaebe vers 1. and women that washed strangers feet So did these false Teachers walk abroad and came as strangers for they crept in unawars vers 4. taking on them to be true and so the Churches entertained them in such entertainments in those Feasts of Charity at the common charge looking on them as true Ministers and Disciples but they proved Spots and Rocks for so the Greek word signifies in those entertainments Spots that shamed the company they conversed with and soiled them with the filth of Errors and false Doctrines and Rocks at which multitudes of Souls dashed splitted and shipwracked Faith and their Salvation I am not ignorant of the variety of Reading and Interpretation of these words as much as in most places but I shall not insist upon that for it would be but expence of time since both Antiquity embraceth the Reading as we do and an easie discovery might be made by what mistakes other Readings and Interpretations took place In the words there are three parts I. The Persons in the first word These II. One particular act of theirs hinted in the last words they crept into their Feasts of Charity III. What and how they proved there they were Spots or Rocks and did mischief I might take up words by way of Descant upon the present occasion and tell you what are Spots in the Feasts and Entertainments Riot and Drunkenness obscene and filthy Communication Quarrelling and Contention Uncharitableness and Forgetting of the Poor these and other things are Spots But I keep close to the Apostles meaning and consider the persons he speaks of
other standers by reviled him with If he be Christ let him come down from the Cross And let God deliver him if he will have him And so it doth magnifie Divine grace the more if it checkt him in his very reviling and made that tongue that reproached Christ in the very next instant to confess and adore him So Saul was happily checked even while he was breathing rage and revenge against the Church and he brought to be a most special member and minister in it The cause of this mans Conversion we must all ascribe to Gods infinite grace and goodness But the means that that grace and goodness used for his conversion I cannot but ascribe to these two things a Doctrine and a Miracle as in those times Doctrines and Miracles went very commonly together I. I cannot but suppose that the darkness that then began to be over all the Land wrought something with this man to bring him to some consideration with himself of the present case which he had not before His fellow Thief it seems was not moved with it at all but I cannot but believe that This was so deeply affected with it that it proved a means of his Conversion They both of them knew very well that Jesus suffered meerly because he professed himself to be the Christ. That is plain by their saying to him If thou be the Christ save thy self and us And now this man seeing so strange an occurence as had been not seen or heard of at any mans Execution before begins to be convinced that he was the Christ indeed for whom such a wondrous miracle was wrought and manifested And then II. It may very probably be conceived that he remembred those passages of the Prophet Esay describing his Passion and suffering Chap. LIII and particularly that vers 12. He was numbred with the transgressors A clause which the Jewish Expositors wrest some one way some another because they cannot abide to hear of Messias sufferings But which we may very well think that as Divine grace brought his Soul to the acknowledgment of Christ so it brought also that prediction of Christs sufferings and with such company to his remembrance as a means to work him to that acknowledgment For how might he argue This Jesus after all the great miracles that he hath done agreeable to the working of Messiah hath asserted and maintained that he is Messiah to the very death this strange and wondrous darkness that is begun over all the Land cannot but bear witness to such a thing And when it is so plainly prophesied by the Prophet Esay that he should suffer and be numbred with such Malefactors as I and my fellow are I am past all doubting that this Jesus is the promised Messiah Therefore He said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom A great faith that can see the Sun under so thick a Cloud that can discover a Christ a Saviour under such a poor scorned despised crucified Jesus and call him Lord. A great Faith that when he sees Jesus struggling for his own life and no deliverer come to him yet sees reason to cast himself upon him for his Eternal state and Everlasting condition and pray to him Lord remember me A great Faith that could see Christs Kingdom through his cross and grave and death and where there was so little sign of a Kingdom and pray to be remembred in that Kingdom I doubt the Apostles reached not to such a Faith in all particulars They acknowledged Jesus indeed to be Christ while he lived but when he is dead they are at it We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel Luk. XXIV 21. But now they could not tell what to make of it But this man when he is dying doth so stoutly own him They looked for a Kingdom that Christ should have indeed but they little looked that Christ should suffer and so enter into his kingdom as it is intimated in the same Chapter vers 26. But this man looks for it through and after his sufferings That it is no wonder if he sped at the hands of Christ when he brings so strong a Faith with him and that when he pours out his Prayer Lord remember me c. in such strength of believing it is no wonder if he hear from him in whom he so believes Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And could such a Faith be without a parallel and sutable measure of Repentance Our Saviour very well saw that it was not And the Evangelist gives some intimation that it was not For he tells that he confessed his own fault which is one sign of his Repentance We are here justly and receive the due reward of our doings And that he reproveth his fellow and would fain have reduced him which is another Fearest thou not God seeing thou art in the same condemnation And that he pleadeth for the innocency of Christ which is a third This man hath done nothing amiss And in what words and meditations he spent the three or four hours more that he hung alive upon the Cross it is easie to conjecture though the Evangelist hath spoken nothing of it The great sum and tenor of the Gospel is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And as Christ himself did seal the truth of the Gospel with his own death so was he pleased that that main truth of the Gospel should be proved and confirmed by this noble and notable example even whilst he was dying And accordingly it hath pleased the Spirit of God to give a demonstration of this mans believing in the Lord Jesus Christ more copiously and apparently than of his repantence though he hath given very fair demonstration of that also That as all posterity was to read that great Doctrine of Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation so they might have this illustrious and lively Commentary of the truth and proof of it in this mans believing and in his Salvation And now having seen this great monument of Faith and Repentance and Pardon What say we to it As the Evangelists tell us that they that had seen the passages at Christs death returned from the Cross striking upon their breasts and no doubt very full of cogitations So what are the thoughts of our hearts upon this passage which was not the least remarkable among them A great matter that the light of the Suu should be so darkned and not a small that such a dark soul should be so enlightned A great matter that the Earth should quake the Rocks rent and the Vail of the Temple be torn from top to bottom and not a small matter that such a stupid soul should be moved that such a strong heart should be dissolved broken and brought to softness The spactators then present considered of those things Our present work is to consider of these and what do we think of them I
them was the greater matter whether of them the greater work Was not the Resurrection Not indeed in regard of the Power that effected both but in regard of the effect or concernment of man 1. By his Resurrection he had destroyed him and that that had destroyed the Creation viz. Sin and Satan and did set up a better world a world of Grace and Eternal Life 2. Had it not been better that Man as he now was sinful had never been created than Christ not to have risen again to save and give him life As it was said of Judas It were better if he had never been born so it were better for sinful men if they had never been born than that Christ should not have been born from the dead to restore and revive them Observe that the Resurrection of the Heathen from their dead condition took its rise and beginning from the Resurrection of Christ as Christ himself closely compares it from the example of Jonahs rising out of the Whales belly and converting Nineveh To that purpose is that prophesie Esai XXVI 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust The dead Heathen that had lain so long in the grave of sin and ignorance when Christs body rose had life put into them from that time and they rose to the life of grace For by his Resurrection he had conquered him that had kept them so long under death and bondage Now was it not most proper for the Church of the called Heathen to have a Sabbath that should commemorate the cause time and original of this great benefit accruing to them A SERMON PREACHED upon EXODUS XX. 12. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee THIS is the First Commandment of the Second Table and it is the first with promise Eph. VI. 2. Why it is the first of the second Table the reason is easie because when the second Table teaches our duty towards our Neighbour it is proper to begin with the Neighbour nearest to us such is our Father and Mother and with the Neighbour to whom we owe most peculiar Duty as we do to those that are comprehended under this title of Father and Mother But why this is called the First Commandment with promise is not so easie to resolve The difficulties are in these two things I. Because that seems to be a promise in the Second Commandment Shewing mercy unto thousands c. II. And if it be to be understood the first of the Second Table that hath a promise annexed unto it that is harsh also because there is no other promise in the Second Table and the First Commandment with promise argues some other Commandments with promise to follow after Now to these difficulties I Answer First That in the Second Commandment is rather a description of God than a direct Promise A jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children c. and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me As much Gall is mingled there as Honey as dreadful threatnings as comfort and therefore not to be looked on as a clear promise but as an argument and motive to Obedience taken from both mercy and judgment Secondly It is true there is never a promise more in the Second Table that comes after this but there are abundance of promises after in the rest of the Law And so may this be understood it is the First Commandment with promise in the whole Law from the Law given at Sinai to all the Law that Moses gave them afterwards And the first promise in the Law given to Israel is the promise of long life That thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee So that here especially are four things to be spoken to I. The nature of the promise that it is a temporal promise concerning this life II. The matter of the promise Length of life in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee III. The suitableness of the Promise to the Command Honour thy Father and Mother that thy days may be long c. IV. The extent of the Promise to all that keep the Commandment Which four heads will lead us to the consideration of several Questions The first leads us to this Observation That the Promises given to Israel in the Law are I. most generally and most apparently promises temporal or of things concerning this life First look upon this Promise which is first in the Law and whereas it may be construed two ways yet both ways it speaks at first voice or appearance an earthly promise There may be an Emphasis put either upon Thy days shall be long or upon Thy days long in the land Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long that thou mayst have long life Or Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. That thou mayst have long possession of the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and mayst not be cast out of it as the Canaanites were before thee Now take it either way what speaks it else but a temporal promise and that that refers to this life and to our subsistence in this world And so look upon those promises that are in Levit. XXVI and Deut. XXVIII and you find them all referring to temporal and bodily things And hereupon it may be observed that you hardly find mention of any spiritual promises especially not of eternal in all Moses Law No mention of Eternal Life joys of Heaven Salvation or Everlasting glory none but of things of this life Hence it was that the Sadducees denyed the Resurrection and the world to come because they only owned the five Books of Moses and in all his Books they found not mention of any such thing And therefore when our Saviour is to answer a Cavil of theirs against the Resurrection Mark XII 18 c. observe what he saith vers 26. Have you not read in the Book of Moses c. For he must prove the thing out of Moses to them or they would take it for no proof And observe also how he proves it by an obscure collection or deduction viz. because God says I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Therefore they lived though they were dead Which he would never have done had there been plain and evident proof of it And which if there had been they could never have denyed it And that which we are speaking to that the promises of the Law are of temporal things is also asserted by that Heb. VIII 6. He is the Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises If the promises of the Law had been Heavenly promises there could not have been better promises Had they been of Grace and Glory there could not have been better promises but those of the Law were
lost the power of Judging Malefactors p. 1111 1112 c. They had a high conceit of their own Nation p. 1112. They were highly severe and strict about little inconsiderable Customs but very remiss about things of great Moment and Necessity p. 1113 1114. They were rejected by God not only for putting our Saviour to death but before also for their cursed Traditions and crying wickedness p. 1114. The calling in of the Jews expected by some is not probable and why p. 1123. The Jews were dispersed before our Saviours time p. 1144. They were cast off to a reprobate sense before the destruction of Jerusalem p. 1145. They crucified the Lord of Life out of the very Principles of their Traditional Religion p. 1177. The Jews and the Jewish Religion were very corrupt under the second Temple p. 1199 1200. The Church of the Jews was only a child under age till Christ came 1334 Jezabelites impudently oppose the Decrees of the Apostles 695 696 Ignorance and Error the common cause of them is because Men will not know and embrace the Truth 1286 1287 Image of God in Adam what p. 1153. Image of God upon Man not lost by sin though the likeness of God be 1302 Images in the Church of Rome are Idols 1312 1314 Imposition of Hands in ordination a fundamental Point as well as the Doctrin of Faith and Repentance proved from Hebrews 6. 2. 1040 Imputation of the sins or good Deeds of Parents to the Children supposed by the Jews not to be in the days of the Messias p. 569. Imputation of Parents sins to Posterity is real and rational 1316 1317 Incense the way of burning it with the manner of the Priests and Levites getting ready in order thereunto 380 381 Indifferent Things and such as were not sinful of themselves although of humane invention and used in the Jewish worship did not cause our Saviour to leave that communion nor to forsake the way of Worship but he joyned therein rather than he would give offence 1037 1038 1039 c. Infant Baptism argued for 273 274 Infants in the womb supposed by the Jews to be in a capacity to commit some sin 569 570 Institution divine defiled by corruption but not extinguished Page 165 Intercallated Month or Year what 185 226 Interpretation of the Holy Text the judgment of the Jews concerning a just Interpretation 784 Interpreters in the Synagogues stood by the Readers of the Law and Prophets to turn the words of the Hebrew Text into the Language understood by the people at the same time Commenting or Preaching upon the words p. 132 134 707. Interpreters of the Law part of their work what 803 Invention humane less dangerous to be brought into Divine Worship under the Jewish Law than under the Gospel and why 1038 Invisible Things are the greatest things of our concernment 1284 Jod of it s not passing away or eternal duration 137 138 John Baptist in all probability was no Eremite 387 388 John the most punctual of all the four Evangelists especially in giving an account of the Festivals that intercurred between Christ's entrance into his publick Ministry and the time of his death p. 1033. John the beloved Disciple was him to whom the Revelation was delivered 1196 Jordan the waters thereof were opened twelve miles when Israel passed through p. 46. The Country beyond it what p. 363. Little Jordan was from the spring of Jordan to the Lake Samochonitis but from that Lake being much a larger stream it was Jordan the greater p. 62 63 64 298. Jordan had over it two bridges at least besides other passages 492 Jordan-transmarine its division 363 Jose and Joseph are one and the same Name 640 Joshua where buried 373 374 Jot of it s not passing away or eternal duration 137 138 Journey Sabbath days Journey the length of it was two hundred cubits or one mile 485 486 Joy wicked in a strange instance in the Gunpouder Traytors 1184 Joy in Heaven over a sinner that is converted what 1267 Isaiah the Prophet say the Jews was cut in two by Manasses the King 593 Iscariot a Name given to Judas the Traytor whether given before or after his death If after his death it emphatically shews his miserable end p. 176. As a Betrayer he was to have no part in the World to come his going to his place intends his going to Hell 176 177 Iturea its situation 365 366 Juda for Jehuda and why 97 Judaism the twofold sense of the Word p. 1051. The Jews held this Maxim That if a Jew forsook his Judaism he should have no part in the World to come p. 1087. Judaism and Nicolaitism were two Errors on each hand the Gospel into which some Primitive Christians did fall 1097 Judas was present at the Eucharist p. 261. He was carried by the Devil into the Air there strangled and then cast down to the Earth and there burst assunder 264 639 Judea a sight and division of it p. 9. It was priviledged above other Parts of the Land of Israel p. 10. A description of the Coast of it p. 10. The Mountainous Country of Judea what p. 11. The South Country of it what p. 13. The North Coast of it 19 Judges what Benches of them there were among the Jews 755 Judgment Judgment to him that is angry what p. 141 142. Judgment might be unrighteous when the Judging was righteous 1106 Judgment the Day of Judgment put for Christ's coming with vengeance to Judge the Jewish Nation six differing ways of expressing it p. 346. The Last Judgment proved p. 1101 1102 1103 The objections of the Sadducces and Atheists answered p. 1101 c. Noah's Flood was a prognostication and an assurance of the Last Judgment p. 1104. The destruction of Jerusalem is set forth in Scripture terms seeming to mean the Last Judgment p. 1104. The several and providential assurances that God hath given of the Last Judgment p. 1103 1104 1109. The prosperity of wicked Men is an argument of the Last Judgment p. 1105. Assizes are an assurance and a fit representation of the Last Judgment p. 1104 1117 1119. Conscience is an assurance given by God of the Last Judgment p. 1104 1119. The manner of giving the Law is an assurance of the Last Judgment Page 1119 Judgments Capital always began on the Defendants side among the Jews and not on the Accusers p. 609. Judgments were distinguished into Pecuniary and Capital among the Jews 754 Julian the Apostate part of his character or part of what he was and did 1238 Julias There were two Cities of this Name one built by Herod the other by Philip the later was before called Bethsaida where situate 83 Just a just person or the just two sorts of them p. 448. How distinguished from the Penitent p. 449. Just Men distinguished by the Jews into two sorts and to which of them they gave the preference 1266 Justification is a great Mystery in several respects p. 1051 1052. What it is
that Royal Father that said All power is given to me in Heaven and Earth and it is a copy of her father He himself hath drawn his own picture in it in little as he sitteth in his Royal Domination and given that image of himself to you to wear always about you Let me therefore only tell you the story of a King that always wore his Fathers picture who had been a worthy Prince about him and ever and anon would look on it and say Ne quid unquam faciam indignum tali patri O may I never do any thing unworthy such a father Your wisdom and worth will make the Application A good Magistrate hath one part of the image of Christ more than other good men as Adams dominion over the Creatures was part of the image of God upon him as well as holiness and righteousness was the image of God in him So is his Power and Commission to rule Kingdoms in the World the very image of Christ ruling and judging if Righteousness and Holiness be added and Adam in all his glory was not arraied like such a Person I am unwilling to insist and spend time to prove that Magistracy is Christs ordinance lest I speak but as he did at Rome who had written a large discourse in praise of Hercules he was but jeered for his pains and folly to go about so seriously to commend Hercules whom none said they did ever discommend What sober man does or can deny Kingship and Magistracy to be of Christs ordaining and I am unwilling by being urgent in the proof of it so much as to seem to undervalue the judgment of any in the Congregation so far as to think this great and important truth needs any proof to him Only let me say this to those that do deny it That it is a very strange Logick they make when they conclude thus Jesus is King Jesus and he is Lord and Ruler of all therefore he will endure no Kingship else no Potentates no Civil Government Thou thoughtest me like unto thy self is the complaint of God against the prophane in Psal. L. 21. Men that would Rule and would have none to Rule but themselves would perswade you Christ is of that mind and so make that perswasion a stalking-horse to their ambition I am sure God himself concludes after another manner in the second Psalm I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion what infers he thereupon Not Therefore O ye Kings give up your Kingship Nor O ye Judges of the Earth judge the Earth no more But therefore be wise O ye Kings c. and do your duty in your places When our Saviour Christ came to set up his Kingdom of the Gospel as among the Jews he took away and abolished only that of their Laws and Ordinances that were Ceremonial and that that related only to them as peculiar people but let that stand that was Moral and that that was not of that peculiar relation so among them Gentiles when he made them his Church he took away and destroyed only that that was sinful and abominable among them and which did most properly denominate them Heathenish as strangers and enemies to all Goodness and Religion but that that was innocent useful and necessary he perpetuated among them Among the Jews he abolished the worship at the Temple as purely Ceremonious but he perpetuated the Worship of the Synagogue Reading the Scriptures Praying Preaching and Singing of Psalms c. transplanted it into the Christian Church as purely Moral So among the Gentiles he destroied their ignorance Idolatry corruption of manners delusions of Satan as purely Heathenish But he perpetuated Kingship Magistracy civil Government as useful and profitable and taken up upon the very pure light of nature and inevitable necessity I may compare what he did in this to what he did about Baptism He found when he came that it had been in use among the Jews for admission of Proselytes to their Church many hundred of years before he himself or John Baptist were born and hence he was not sollicitous to give rules what persons and ages were to be baptized nor in what manner now for that was known both then and many generations before he came as well as we know it now but he took up Baptism as he found it continued in the Christian Church only he inhanced the dignity of it by Sanctionating it for a Gospel Sacrament So when he came among the Gentiles he found that Magistracy and Civil Government had been among them in all generations and he takes it up as he found it and continues in the Christian Church only he inhanced the dignity of it in Sanctionating it now for a Gospel Ordinance And I must add for a Gospel Mercy II. And that is it that I observe from the second clause in the Text They sat upon them A Christian Magistracy is a Gospel Mercy Christian Kings are Inthroned and Christian Magistrates are Impoured for a mercy unto Christians The context for several verses together speaks of several things as Gospel mercies and my Text coming in the midst of them speaks of that that is of the same nature and qualification It was a Gospel Mercy that the Devil was chained up that he should deceive the Nations no more as he had done in the verse before the Text. It is a Gospel Mercy that those that suffer for Christ and die for Christ are not lost but reign with him in glory in this same verse with the Text. It was a Gospel Mercy that the Heathen that had been so long dead in ignorance and all manner of sinfulness should have a Resurrection and come to the life of grace and glory in the fifth verse And it is a Gospel Mercy in the Text that Christians are set up to be Kings Rulers and Judges among Christians We need not go far for proof of this for the flourishing condition of England both in Church and State under such Government and Governors gives evidence and example sufficient in this case And vox populi the universal joy and acclamations of all the Nation upon the happy restoring of his Sacred Majesty speaks the sense and attestation of the whole Nation nay of the three Nations unto the truth and their sensibleness of this mercy The shout of a King of a most Christian King was among them I know your own thoughts prevent me in the proof of this and read the truth of it in this days occasion who is here that is a lover of right and honesty that is a son of peace and order and deserves indeed the name of a Christian whose heart rejoyceth not within him to see such occasion as these Justice looking down upon us from Heaven Deputies sent us from our great King in Heaven as well as from his Sacred Majesty and they of our own Nation Religion Profession of the same Body Church and Nation with our selves administer Judgment among us to relieve the
oppressed to pull the unjust gotten prey from the jaws of the cruel to punish the evil to incourage the good and to cause Righteousness to run down like a stream and Judgment like a running brook If any desire further proof I must remit him to such Prophetick prediction as these Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers c. And I will give them Judges of themselves and Rulers of their own people And let them but compare the difference of the Jews condition when they were under the Government of Heathens in their own Land Persians Grecians Romans and when they were under the Government of those of their own Blood and Nation And it deserves more observation than most men bestow upon it that Paul appealed from the Bench of his own Nation to a Heathen tribunal a thing I believe hardly ever paralleld in that Nation but it shews what a wretched condition they were then come unto Now I call that a Gospel Mercy 1. That is for the benefit of those that profess the Gospel And that Christian Magistracy is so he knows not the meaning of Christianity and Christiâ—â— Magistracy that can deny it 2. That is a Gospel Mercy that is dispensed by Christ in a Gospel way of dispensation and that Christian Magistracy is so I shall evidence to you by this demonstration There is a Magistracy in Turkey China and Tartary as well as in England and there were a Senate at Rome as well as a Parliament in England and all disposed by Christ who is made Lord of all but there is as much difference betwixt the way of dispensation as there is betwixt Christs ruling over all the World as he was Creator and dispensing common bounty and his ruling in his Church as Mediator and dispensing peculiar mercy As much as betwixt his ruling in all Nations as the Conqueror of all Gods enemies and his ruling in his Church as the Saviour and Mediator of his people God hath made him Lord and Christ Act. II. 36. There is more distinction in the words than many are aware of He is Lord over all He is Christ to his own chosen 3. That is a Gospel Mercy that doth promote and advance the efficacy of the Gospel And that a Christian Magistracy doth so if it need any proof I shall shew it by this one instance There are great promises in the Prophets of mercy to be exhibited under the Gospel which seem incredible and which some look for still to be accomplished according to the letter and hence their expectation of such glorious times to come whereas they are accomplished long ago and accomplishing daily but never were nor ever shall be according to the letter Such are That in Esa. II. 4. They shall beat their swords into plough-shares And that in Esa. XI 6. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb And that in Esa. LXV 20. There shall be no more thence an Infant of days c. What shall we say to these things Were they ever fulfilled according to the letter No nor ever shall be And yet God is faithful and hath performed his promise he hath done his part of what was promised and his own people partake of the promise and why should we look for any further There will be warrings in the World whilst there are lusts in the World for warrings come from lusts Jam. IV. 1. And there will be lusts in the World while there are men in the World for every imagination of the thoughts of mens hearts are evil only evil and evil continually Gen. VI. 5. But God hath done his part he brought the Gospel of peace into the World that might have taught men and wrought men to better but it is their own faults and wretchedness that they are not better And though Saints of God have this promise accomplished in themselves and they are knit together in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of Peace and what accomplishment more can be expected And so there will be Woolvish and Serpentine affections and actions of men in the World where there is sin in the World and there will be ignorance in the World and men will be infants in understanding whilst there is Fleshliness and Worldliness in the World yet God hath done his part he hath brought the Gospel into the World that might tame mens brutish affections and curb their actions and the Saints of God have this effect wrought upon them but some men will be Wolves and Lions still He hath brought the light and knowledge of the Gospel into the World that men need not to be infants in understanding and the Saints of God that imbrace the Gospel come to be aged men in knowledge but men will be ignorant still Hath not God therefore performed his promise As Esa. V. 4. What could God have done more to this purpose than he hath done in affording the means for the effecting of this as much as could be afforded And here comes in the work and imployment of the Magistracy God is so fully a performer of his promise that he hath left the issue not only to the bare preaching of the Word but he hath ordained also the Sword and Authority of the Magistracy to restrain men from their fightings and brutishness and to force them out of their wilful ignorance when the only preaching of the Word will not perswade them As when the Priests with the sounding of their Trumpets will not serve the turn to subdue Jericho an host of men of arms must be ready to assist the work and to do it It is in mercy to mens Souls that God hath ordained Magistracy as well as it in mercy to their Estates and for the securing of their Persons It is a bond of love whereby he would draw men from their own ruine and the ruining of others a holy tender and loving violence whereby when the Ministry of the Gospel cannot perswade them to be good he would restrain them from being evil and would constrain them to be better than they are A holy violence that would make men good whether they will or no. Such a mercy is a Christian Magistracy An Ordinance stamped with Christs own Kingly picture and sent for a token to his Church of special love and mercy As Aaron in his brest-plate of Judgment carried Urim and Thummim Light and Perfection So Magistrates in the Brest-plate of Judgment they always carry about with them have written there as it were with Christs own finger Power and Mercy Power derived from Christ to them and mercy derived from Christ by them to the Church The Pagans and Infidels Magistracy that is among them it is true is an ordinance of Christ Rom. XIII 2. The powers that be are ordained of God But these are but crums that fall from his Table of common providence as he is the great Ruler of all the World But Christian Magistracy is a full furnisht Table of mercy from him as the Father and cherisher of his
These most abominable ones in that most abominable generation we have been speaking of and the Text speaks of were such as had been once in the right way in the profession of the Gospel but now were utterly revolted from it and become most contrary to it And so our Saviour shews the very topping up of the wickedness of that generation in that Parable of the Devil cast out by the Gospel but come in again with seven evil Spirits worse than himself So saith he shall it be with this generation Mat. XII 45. Of such the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. IV. 1. Some that should depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils And he saith that such a falling away would discover the man of sin and child of perdition 1 Thes. II. 3. And the Apostle 1 Joh. II. 19. saith that many Antichrists were abroad come out from them that professed the Gospel but now were become Antichrists And this our Apostle in this Chapter vers 2. intimates that they had once known the way of righteousness but were turned from the holy commandment that was delivered to them And being thus turned out of the way and fallen from the truth they were fallen into all manner of abomination Read but this Chapter and the Epistle of Jude at your leisure and you will see the full Character of them In little take this account of them 1. That like Balaam for love of filthy lucre they made merchandize of souls and cared not what became of them that they might get gain And accordingly 2. That they led them into all loosness and libertinism to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed to Idols to â—iot in the day time and indeed to account any thing lawful I might produce Scriptures for all these but I suppose you remember them 3. They were direct enemies to the power and purity of the Gospel and bitter persecutors of the sincere professors of it The Apostle gives evidence enough of this in those few words 2 Tim. III. 8. As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth I shall spare more picturing of them read but the places I have cited and you will see them in very sad colours And now let us look upon them as very justly we may as a very sad spectacle such another as the spectacle of the fallen Angels once Angels but now Devils these once Christians but now brute beasts Atheists Devils incarnate In the cursed copy and example before us Balaam and these his disciples or followers we may see the fruits of two as cursed trees as any grows by the lake of Sodom Covetousness in Balaam and Covetousness and Apostacy or revolting from the truth in these that came after him Covetousness that makes him to sell a whole Nation to Gods curse and plague and their own ruine for the wages of unrighteousnes He hath got a bag of mony and twenty four thousand men of Israel are destroyed for it and the anger of the Lord brought upon the whole Camp And what cares Balaam for all this so long as he hath got the mony Oh the cursed fruits of covetousness that might be reckoned heaps upon heaps I shall but mention one and that may be enough Covetousness made Judas sell the very son of God for mony A monster of villany that the very Devils themselves might stand amazed at but that he played their own game And as for Apostacy or revolting from the truth how horrid fruits and effects have followed and do follow upon it Scripture and History give such evidence and instance that to speak of them would take up more time then even this whole day would afford us We shall only speak of one perticular wherein all Apostacy and all the fruits of Apostacy are met and convened and that is that which this day gives us occasion to commemorate and remember viz. the Church of Rome When you read of those that have forsaken the right way and gone astray remember Rome for who is there that hath done so more and when you read of following the way of Balaam and loving the wages of unrighteousness remember that Church and City for who hath done the one and who doth the other more than she she cavils at us as if we had forsaken the right way when we forsook her but we most truly answer that we forsook her because she hath forsaken the right way The Church at Rome was once in the right way indeed and celebrated for it through the whole world as the Apostle tells us Rom. 1. 8. But how long did it continue in that way I may very well answer as long as it was built upon the rock Christ but when it began to build it self upon Peter then and thenceforward did it forsake the right way For certainly he forsakes the right way that leaves to build upon the sure foundation Christ and builds upon the sand the person of a meer man If I were to render an account of my belief concerning the first Founders of a Church at Rome I should have recourse to that passage Act. II. 10. That there were at Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost was poured upon the Apostles Strangers of Rome Jewes and Proselytes Did not some of these believe and returning to Rome carried the Gospel thither with them If any doubt it I shall name two of them that did Rom XVI 7. The Apostle from Corinth saluting the Church that was then at Rome among others names there Salute Andronicus and Junius my kinsmen and Fellow-prisoners who are renowned among the Apostles and who were in Christ before me Here are two men that were very highly respected among the Apostles and that before Paul was an Apostle and where and when could this possibly be but at that time at Jerusalem these being of those that are mentioned in those words There were then at Jerusalem Strangers of Rome Jews and Proselytes By these men and some other that we cannot name a Romanist must give me leave to believe that the Gospel was first planted in Rome and a Church first founded there And I must believe that the Church by them planted there was watered by Paul and that before ever he came to Rome That ye may think a Solaecism to say that he watered the Church of Rome before ever he came at it But the Church came to him For if you observe that Act. XVIII 2. That Claudius had expelled all the Jews out of Rome and that the Apostle met with Priscilla and Aquila and divers others of that Church mentioned Rom. XVI you must conclude that when they returned to Rome again after the death of Claudius as it is plain they did they returned fully furnished with the doctrins and instructions of that blessed Apostle and so there is a Church there then pure and holy and in the right way and renowned as the Apostle tells us through the world but how
long it so continued is not easily determined but that it did not always so continue is as easily proved The Apostle gives us cause to suspect that some corruptions were crept in there even in his own time when in his Epistle to them Rom. XVI 17. he speaks of divisions and scandals as it seems among them contrary to the Doctrin they had learned And in his Epistle to the Philippians written from Rome he intimates that some preached the Gospel as it seems there not purely but of strife and contention Phil. I. 14 15. However though we cannot punctually determine the time and degrees by which the Church of Rome did degenerate yet that it is degenerate from the purity of that first Church there and from the purity of the Gospel primitively professed there is written so plainly that the dimmest eye may read it if a man will not shut or put it out How is the faithful City become an Harlot righteousness once lodged there but now murtherers is the sad question and complaint of the Prophet Esay concerning Jerusalem in his first Chapter How and by what degrees it came to be an Harlot and to what an high degree of harlotry it was come the former was not easie to determine and the latter not easie to express yet that it was so was but too plain And the very like may be said in this case and of this City The City once faithful is become an harlot but how and by what degrees and to what a degree let her look to that at her peril It is not so very material to determine of the time and degrees of her degeneration as to consider how grosly she is degenerate If we should go about to particularize in every thing concerning faith and manners wherein that Church hath forsaken the right way and is gon astray we had need to take up the longest day in summer to speak out that matter rather than to confine our selves to a piece of an hour and it would require our examining even their whole doctrine and practice We we will touch but two instead of two hundred First The Apostle Chap. I. 8. saith the Faith of the primitive Church at Rome was renownedly spoken of through the world Now do you think it was such an implicit faith as the Church of Rome teacheth now That it sufficeth if a man believe as the Church believes though he know not what either the Church or himself believeth Do we think that the first Founders of the Church in that City be it Peter as they will have it or Paul as he had some concurrence to it or those that I have mentioned do we think I say that they ever broached such a doctrine there It is enough if you believe with an implicite faith or as the Church belives The right way of believing in Christ the Apostle laid down most divinely in such expressions as these Let every one be assured in his own mind I know whom I have believed Have Faith in God and if thou hast Faith have it to thy self c. importing a knowledge and certainty of what is believed and not that faith should grope in the dark and believe it cannot tell what but only as others believe The right way that the Primitive Church of Rome was in was the way of knowledg and understanding that they knew and understood the things of salvation and were acquainted with the things of God and the way of eternal life Can he that reads the divine Epistle to the Romans think otherwise Or that hears the Apostles commendation of them think otherwise Now hath not that Church forsaken the right way that teacheth That Ignorance is the mother of devotion and practiseth accordingly to keep the people in ignorance Was Paul of that mind think you when he writ his Epistle to the Romans He might have very well saved that labour of instituting them in those many high and excellent poynts that he doth in that Epistle if he had been of the mind the now-Church of Rome is that the way to build people up in devotion is to keep them in ignorance His counsel is Be not Children in understanding but theirs By all means to make them in understanding children And when as our Saviour tells that blind guides lead blind people into the ditch these teach that blindness is that that will lead to Heaven Have not these forsaken the right way to Heaven that choose the ways of darkness to lead thither Secondly Certainly that Church hath forsaken the right way that goes clean contrary to the right way If the right way is to search the Scriptures as Joh. V. 39. then they have forsaken the right way for their way is to keep men from searching them If the right way is to use a known tongue in publick worship as 1 Cor. XIV their way is to use a tongue not understood If the right way is to administer the Cup in the Sacrament their way is to forbid its administration The right way is Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve certainly they have forsaken the right way that worship Angels and Saints departed that worship Crucisixes and Images that worship and adore a piece of bread Thirdly In a word for it were endless to reckon all their aberrations Is there any wrong way in the world if blowing up of Parliaments be not out of the right one If this be the right way then Pharaoh was in the right way when he plotted the drowning of the Infants of Israel Jezabel was in the right way when she murthred the Prophets of the Lord. And Nebuchadnezzar was in the right way when he threw the three young Nobles of Judah into the fiery furnace Either this is not the right way or the best of the Saints of God were in the wrong for they ever walked in a way clean contrary to this kind of dealing They were many of them slain for the truth you shall never find so much as one of them that slew any for the truth Do you think that Peter the founder of their Church as they pretend would ever have consented with them had he been alive to the blowing up of a Parliament And do they find any direction or encouragement to such a thing in any of his writings Though he was once so fiery as to draw his sword and cut off the High Priests Servant's ear yet I believe he would never have been perswaded to have been a Faux a Garnet or a Catesby in such a design as this His Master had cooled his courage for swording it again with that Cooler He that smiteth with the sword shall perish with the sword And these men might have learned that lesson if they had been either his or Christs Disciples When the two Sons of Zebedee James and John misconstruing the meaning of their name Boanerges would have fired a village of the Samaritans our Saviour checks them with You know