right hand without drinking of Christ's Cup without conformity unto his death whereas the true Predestination is to be made conformable to the Image of the Son of God Rom. 8.29 2. Observe hence the unavoidable necessity which lies upon all the Disciples of Christ which would be saved by him and sit at his right hand and his left in his Kingdom that they drink of his Cup. The Lord Jesus is the Author of Eternal Salvation but to those that obey him Heb. 5.9 And he is able to save to the uttermost but those who are able to drink of his Cup and be baptized with his baptism to those who come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 And there is no other name by which we can be saved Act. 4.12 Nor is there any other way but that living way Heb. 10.20 All Power and Authority in Heaven and Earth is given to him yet hath he no Authority no Power to give the Honours and Dignities of his Kingdom to any other than those who drink of his Cup and are baptized with his baptism The necessity of drinking this Cup Nonne haec oportuit Christum pati atque ità intrare in regnum suum Would God they who are too often in other Cups would seriously and sadly think of this Poculum Salutare this Cup of Salvation that they who strive for an outward baptism would as much or more endeavour after this Alas do they not know that whilst we are sinners Christ dies Rom. 5. Do we not know that the wisdom of God is crucified by our foolishness our errours our lies that the life of God is slain by our deadly sin That the Patience Goodness Mercy Love of God c. all which is Christs suffers from our iniquities Esay 53.4 5. So Arius Montanus and Tremellius Repreh Those who refuse to taste of Christs Cup to be conformable unto his death in dying to sin such as refuse to be baptized into his death This no doubt is the reason even because we refuse to suffer the death of the sin and drink of the Cup of Christs sufferings that the Lord hath given and is yet giving to all Nations the Cup of his fury to drink Thus ye read Jer. 25.15 where the Lord threatens his Judgments unto his own People and all the Nations round about for their disobedience unto the Law and Prophets That they turned not from their evil wayes and the evil of their doings which he signifieth under the metaphor of a Cup vers 15. This disobedience hath brought the Sword among us this continues it yet with us This Judgment Esay 66.14 15 16. applyes to the Nations under these Times of the Gospel as also Zach. 13.7 8 9. the same is the reason of all other Judgments of God as the manifold diseases among us Many of us have often professed to shew forth the Lords death by dying to sin and so have taken the Cup of Salvation and have called upon the Name of the Lord yet have we continued in our sins And therefore the Lord hath caused many to taste the Cup of his Judgment Thus he tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11. Therefore many are sick and weakly among you and many are fallen asleep i. e. die the death even because they have not died unto sin And to what other reason may we refer the present Judgment of God upon us even this immoderate and unseasonable drought what else may be the cause of this but because we refuse to be obedient unto the Law and Prophets we refuse to drink the Cup of Christs passion we refuse to be baptized into his death Say I this or saith not the Scriprure the very same The Astrologers refer our present drought unto the late Eclipse and it cannot be denied but that hath been Gods Instrument in second Causes whereby he hath brought this evil upon us as the like hath been observed in manifold other Eclipses of the Sun in former times But what is that that hath provoked the Lord to send this Cup of his fury unto us to Eclipse the light and beams of his countenance towards us What hath moved the Lord to stop the bottles of Heaven Job 38.37 that he hath not in their season emptied them upon the Earth Jer. 9.12 And doth not the Prophet Zachary refer the same Judgment unto the same cause under these times of the Gospel Zach. 14.16 17. What is it to come up to keep the feast of Tabernacles It cannot be meant literally for that among the rest of the Ceremonies is ceased What then is signified by a Tabernacle or Tent what else but our humane flesh and body 2 Cor. 5.1 4. 2 Pet. 1.13 14. To keep the Feast of Tabernacles then what is it but to have our Tabernacle our dwelling our house with Christ Joh. 1.14 The word was made flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dwelt in us They therefore who refuse to suffer with Christ in the flesh to imitate his death to drink the Cup of his Passion and Suffering with him They shall have no rain of Blessing no rain of Gods Living Word which is compared to rain Deut. 32. Heb. 6.7 no outward rain for as that is one of Gods blessings upon the obedient Deut. 28.12 So is the want of it a Curse upon the disobedient vers 23 24. and for the sin of his People he shuts up Heaven 1 King 8.35 3. They say unto him we are able How able they were appeared soon after when being in company with our Lord when he was now to drink of his Cup they all forsook him and fled What boldness was this what presumption and confidence of their own strength But their confidence and presumption so much the more condemns the despair and unbelief of many of us James and John were yet Carnal they had not received the Spirit of God they knew Christ only according to the flesh As for many of us we perswade our selves that we are Spiritual and know Christ according to the Spirit and believe in his Mighty Power yet when the Cup comes to us when it 's offered to us to drink of it we cannot away with it we have no power no strength at all to drink of it while we are not yet tryed while the Cup is not yet come to us O how valiant we are the Elect the Chosen of God i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chosen men and Mighty men of valour But when now temptation comes either from the world hope of gain or fear of loss or desire of honour and reputation or from our own flesh or from the Devil what ever the temptation is what arrant cowards we are we lye down like great Lubbars and let Satan buffet us Repreh How justly doth this reprove the present Generation of men who look at Christs drinking the Cup of his Passion and Baptism as suffering his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his fore-suffering and his principal passion from the Jews and
sooner they end their torments Repreh Those who consider this and thereupon expose themselves to the hazzard of their lives yea of their Souls being none of Christs friends There is a speech goes currant among us that sin is extinguished with the death of the body and this makes many not valiant like Christians but desperate like Turks Quaere what truth this hath in it surely there is no Scripture whereon it is truly grounded All the seeming ground it hath is Rom. 6.7 He that is dead is ceased from sin Hence they conclude that if they be dead they cannot sin they ascribe more to their own death than to the death of Christ Let such know that the cause and subject of sin is the immortal soul not the body that dyeth and therefore the soul retaineth and carrieth with it the habits of sin contracted and not mortified in this life qui respicit ad pauca de facili pronunciat I am confident that he who gathered that Opinion from this Text considered neither the antecedent nor consequent for vers 6. and 8. speaks evidently of the death of sin as the tree falls so it lyes according to which was Stints speech in his will he gave his sins to the Devil Doubt Wicked men are prodigal of their lives Those who are prodigal of their wicked lives and blame the friends of Jesus Christ as timorous Aristippus Timeo animam Aristippi tu animam nebulonis Exhort To the friends of Jesus Christ to the true Christian fortitude maugre all opposition of outward or inward enemies Examples leading Examples in the Preachers Job 13.13 Let come of me what will Act. 20.24 I count not my life dear to my self Vulg. Lat. Estius and of Epaphroditus Phil. 2.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this regard saith Esther Esther 4.16 If I perish I perish 1 Pet. 3.6 Doing well and suffering evil not afraid of any amazement that Heroical answer Dan. 3.16 17 18. of the three Captives to Nebuchadnezzar O king we are not careful to answer thee in this matter however they hold the conclusion we ought to obey God rather than man Consider the ground of that boldness and confidence in those who are persecuted Not accepting deliverance that they might receive a better resurrection They stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed death which unites unto life which joyns the Spouse unto the Bridegroom with a knot that can never be dissolved Blessed death that enstates us in the everlasting inheritance that brings the thirsty soul to the Rivers of living Waters Blessed death that frees the miserable from all calamities that wipes all tears from our eyes Blessed death that with one stroke makes an end of that work that we have been doing many days with many for thy sake are we killed all the day long Upon far weaker considerations than these Cleombrotus having read in Plato of the happiness of the future life after this impatient of longer stay cast himself from a Rock into the Sea Christian Religion teacheth us no such precipitancy nor had he learned it in Platoes School That we may upon good terms dare to dye Means That we may not fear remember that if not now yet sometime and that ere long how that we must dye and then facilè coetera contemnit omnia qui se cogitat aliquando moriturum He easily contemns all other things who thinks he must sometimes dye 2. If once we fear not to dye what then can be terrible unto us As that noble Spartan When one told him that Philip had made an inroad into Peloponesus and it should then go hard with the Lacedemonians unless they were quickly reconciled to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Semi-viri saith he O ye half-men ye mankins what ill can betide us who are not afraid to dye Only let us make sure of the main He that is dead to sin needs fear no other death Epaminondas the great Theban Commander being deadly wounded understanding that the Thebans were Conquerors and the enemy routed he then said I have now lived long enough for I shall dye a conqueror and so drawing out the spear out of his body he presently dyed Valerius Maximus reports the story somewhat otherwise that Epaminondas asked whether his Shield were saved yea or no and hearing it was saved and the enemy overcome Fellow saith he this is not the end of my life but the better and more noble beginning of it for now Epaminondas is born when he thus dyes O how much rather ought a Christian Soldier to enquire whether his Shield be saved or no whether he be sound in the Faith If so how much rather may he say with that notable Champion I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith c. i. e. my shield is saved Nunc cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo Moriar cum philistaeis Judic 16. Eleazar 1 Macch. 6. shew the vast Elephant and himself dyed with it When Behemoth is dead even the beastly lusts and pleasures as Behemoth signifieth beasts in the plural who then will fear to dye But is there yet a greater consolation than this Doubtless there is if we dye with him we shall live with him It was that which was the greatest consolation unto Philip now dying that he should leave behind him Alexander his Son And for the same reason Antonius pius was content to dye because he should leave behind him his son Commodus But how much rather ought the true Christian Soldier in whom Christ is formed to dare to dye when Christ is born He hath infinitely more true consolation when the true Alexander i. e. the helper and prevailer or when the true Commodus Jesus Christ who was infinitely more worthy of that name than Commodus unworthy So saith Israel to Joseph Gen. 46.30 Now let me dye since I hath seen thy face The true Israel of God rules and prevails with God how much more may he say Laetus Moriar So V.L. Let me dye with joy seeing I see the true Joseph Christ himself alive in me So saith Simeon when he saw Jesus Luk. 2.25 Nunc dimittis Domine Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation So may the true Simeon the obedient man that 's Simeon how much more may he say Lord now lettest thou c. Psal 50. last How much more may he say with Epaminondas I do not now end my life but begin to live I have fought a good fight c. henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of life c. Observ 1. Our Lord foresaw that they who should publish the Doctrine of Salvation should be persecuted for so doing and that not onely by the gain-saying world of heathen men but also that grievous wolves should enter in among them Nay not only the Romanists but even the professing Protestants also it matters not what profession what names men
evil one sinner destroyeth much good Observ 5. The great necessity of a strong Saviour and Redeemer Vide Notes in Rom. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The commadment came Observ 6. Sin is come into the world The Philosopher himself could say from his observation and experience of disorder and confusion in the world that certainly things formerly had been otherwise than now they are And Tully Hominem dicit non ut à matre sed tanquam à noverca natura editum in vitam c. That man was brought forth unto life by nature not so much a mother as indeed a stepdame How Corpore nudo fragili infirmo born naked with a frail and weak body with a mind anxious in regard of troubles and molestations cowardly in regard of fears remiss and idle in regard of labours prone and propense to sloath and lust Rem vidit causam nescivit saith one of the Ancients He saw the matter but not the cause Repreh 1. This reproves their great inadvertency to say no worse of many whereof some Learned men who are engaged in that opinion that there is no original sin but what we call so is contracted by every one in his own person by the example and imitation of others For certainly That there is an inbred propension and inclination unto sin they themselves deny not when they say it is in most men but they will not yield it in all Nor do we say That Original sin is in like measure in all though we say with the Apostle That it is entred into the world and passed over all men which yet is evident in some haply more in some less as I shall shew anon In which respect Alexander Hales said of Bonaventure by reason of his mildness and sweetness of disposition Quod Adamus in Domino Bonaventura non peccavit that Adam had not sinned in Bonaventure what is added that that sin which we call Original proceeds from example and imitation may be disproved by manifold experience of Infants and Children who never had any such example before them for their imitation ye do they declare the fruits of this poisonous plant growing in them as self-will frowardness and disobedience And when they grow a little elder we may discover self grow up in them self-love self-honour self-praise c. and when they grow yet elder lying and excusing and covering sin like Adam Job 31.33 And manifold the like iniquity which Sathan hath bound up in the heart of a child Prov. 22.15 But truly since it appears to all men that the nature of most men say they of all men say we is infected with sin and the whole lump levened It 's better not to dispute whence it became so poluted but rather to enquire into some means how we may be cleansed It 's to little purpose when we see a fire to enquire how it came unless we put to our helping hand to quench it in our selves and others Iniquity burns like a fire saith the Prophet Isai 9.18 and unless it be timely quenched it will burn to the neither most Hell Deut. 32.22 It is said probably that there is no malady without a remedy fire may be quenched the diseased cured what is crooked may be made straight fiery concupiscence concupiscence inflamed may be slaked yea quenched The whole head sick and the whole heart faint yet is not man so desperately sick but he may be recovered The crooked generation may be made straight God made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straight or up-right in the beginning and it may be made straight again by him Thus 't is true By one man sin entred into the world The Apodosis or redition unto this first point is as true vers 15. The gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And vers 19. As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Here then Adam is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the type or figure of him that was to come i. e. of Christ I reserve the special explication of those words till I come to the press handling of them Mean time we here find a similitude grounded on a dissimilitude As by one man sin entred into the world so by one man grace and righteousness entred into the world What the one destroys the other repairs and restores Luk. 10.30 A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho c. It might be res gesta a true story 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jericho by all the Ancients is understood the world They spoiled him of his raiment his robe of original righteousness and wounded him leaving him half dead Supernaturalia sunt ablata naturalia sunt vulnerata The things supernatural are taken away the natural wounded Exhort Unto those who convey the nature of Adam unto Posterity that they endeavour to mortifie and kill the old Adam quench the fomes It is observed that they who have so done have left behind them a more blessed issue for though the old Adam be still propagated yet the more he is mortified the less he is transmitted unto posterity as we may see in the Example of Sampson Samuel Joseph Timothy Thy mother Eunice and thy grand-mother Lois It is the law of Adam 2. Death entred in by sin What death is this I shall not trouble you with all the significations of it but only name such as are most pertinent unto the matter in hand and Death is either 1. Natural and of the body Or 2. Spiritual and inward as the death of the life of God in the Soul Or 3. The whole curse of God that followeth upon this 1. As for the first 't is well yea best known by the name of death but whether that be the death here meant it may be doubted For 1. Whereas Gen. 1.28 Man before his fall was to procreate Children they who are immortal have no such faculty of procreation as our Lord speaks Luk. 20.35 36. 2. Beside man had a natural body before the Fall and therefore a mortal So the Apostle calls man's body a natural body 1 Cor. 15.44 which before he calls vile and corruptible opposeth it to a spiritual and immortal body Thus when our Apostle here saith That death came into the world by sin he saith not that mortality then came into the world or a power to dye but death and a necessity of dying for no doubt man if he had not sinned though by nature he were mortal yet by the grace and goodness of God he might have been preserved from death or if he had been dead he might by the grace of the same God have been recalled to life and made immortal But this grace he lost for himself and his posterity Sin therefore was not a cause of natural mortality but rather of necessary death and so 't is true of death also that by sin death entred into the world 2. Death entred
into the world by sin As this is true of the natural death that by sin that entred into the world so it 's true also of the inward the spiritual death opposite unto the life of God in the Soul that by sin that also entred into the world that dying from the life of God wherrein the first man was created for in that sence the wise man saith That God made man to be immortal Wisd 2.24 his servants ye are whom ye obey whether of sin unto death Rom. 6. Death is there the spiritual death opposite unto the life of God in the Soul This is also as true of death in the third sence that by sin the whole curse entred into the world and what other evil consequences there are of sin So Exod. 10.16 From this death only David prayeth to be delivered Psal 13.3 that I sleep not in death and 18.4 The pains of death gate hold on me and 49.14 Death shall feed on them Prov. 5.5 Her feet go down to death her steps take hold of hell And of all these it is true that death natural spiritual and infernal or hellish death the curse the separation from the presence of God entred into the world by sin The reason will appear 1. In regard of Sathan who hath the power of death 2. Sin the cause of death 3. God the Judge 1. In regard of Sathan he having faln from his Principality and knowing man ordained to be a prince in his stead he envyed him seduced and beguiled him and caused him to sin and sinning to dye So that by the envy of the Devil death entred into the world Wisd 2.24 Thus he is said to have the power of death Heb. 2. 2. In regard of sin it naturally 1. Tends to death 2. Deserves death 1. In regard of sin it naturally tends unto death as a deadly disease And therefore the Wiseman describes sin and unrighteousness by it Injustitia est mortis acquisitio unrighteousness is the procuring of death 2. It deserves death So Rom. 6. ult death is the wages of sin and in equity and justice as the wages followeth the work done so death the wages of sin followeth sin 3. In regard of God the Judge disposing of it He is just And therefore according to the justice of God which being two fold justitia 1. Dicti 2. Facti According to that justice of Word in the day that thou eatest thereof Thou shalt dye the death must follow And 2. That justice of deed God executed his decree so that man was banished from the tree of Life 3. In analysing and resolving of Scripture we meet with some Texts that seem defective and to be supplyed which indeed are perfect if rightly understood I shall name but one 2 Pet. 2.4 they say it is an antipodoton but vers 9. is the reddition to it and so it is full Such is this of this Text the comparison seems imperfect but it is indeed supplyed in gross in the end of vers 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If then we make up the similitude it s thus full As by one man the first Adam sin entred into the world So by one man by Adam that was to come righteousness entred into the world For so Adam answers to Adam one man to one man righteousness to sin and the entrance of righteousness into the world answers to the entrance of sin into the world Here is then a comparison between the two Adams which ye have full 1 Cor. 15.45 The first man Adam was made a living soul The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit vers 47. Let not any man look for these only without him but rather look into himself and he shall find them and therefore vers 48. as is the earthly such are they that are earthly The latter of these is a relief and remedy of the former for whereas the first Adam is impotent and weak and by reason of weakness not able to withstand the temptation of the strong one being too strong for him breaks in and takes possession of the Soul captives and enthrales it Hereupon the second Adam enters in after sin with his righteousness to work out the sin Thus Luk. 11.21 22. The strong man keeps the house till a stronger than he comes who binds the strong man redeems the captive Soul and strengthens him against temptation and arms him with patience wherewith he may possess his soul Who hath not found the truth of this in his own Soul In our child-hood the first Adam ruled and inclined us to divers foolish and hurtful lusts eating and drinking intemperately which weak nature could not withstand So that we served divers lusts and pleasures c. Tit. 3.3 4. Reason on 1. The worlds part 2. On Gods part 1. The Father of lyes had sent his son of perdition into the the World who obtained the Supreme and main possession and became a Prince of it Joh. 12. The world lies in evil 1 Joh. 5.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence mankind is enslaved and the Image of God is defaced and become by the soul spirit Timnah-Sera a foul stinking image Great necessity therefore there is on the worlds part of a strong and mighty Redeemer 2. On Gods part love to his own Image and Creature 1. The Image of God that is defaced depraved and in a sort lost suppressed by the power of Sin and Sathan this the true Josuah takes for his inheritance Josuah 19. vers 50. As the Seeds of all things in the earth would put forth but are clog'd until the Sun which hath the seeds of all things virtually in the beams of it calls out the like seeds out of the earth Even so the immortal Seed the Image of God Psal 85.11 Truth flourisheth out of the earth when righteousness looks down from heaven The Sun of righteousness puts forth his beams that which was called Timnah-Sera is now called Timnah-Hares the image of the Sun Judg. 2.9 The prince of the world is cast forth Joh. 12.13 2. Love to his Creature wherein his Image was pourtraied Portate Deum in corpore 1 Cor. 6.20 a treasure in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son Joh. 3.16 This remedy is proportionable unto the malady for as through the envy of the Devil death entred into the world so through the love of God the Father Righteousness and Life entred in for God sent not his Son to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Joh. 3.17 As I propounded two doubts in the Protasis 1. How Sin entred into the world 2. How by one man So in the Apodosis let us enquire 1. how righteousness entred 2. how by one man How did righteousness enter Two wayes 1. by not imputation of sin 2. by imputation of righteousness 1. Not imputation of sin as Psal 32.1 2. Rom. 4.7 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not his sin yet are we here
check of the Law without remorse of conscience heretofore was this a liberty or a wildness was this a soundness or a sickness was this a life or more truly a death Afflict not thy self too much poor soul for these unruly motions of sin but consider with thy self if these be wicked sinful abominable and loathsome to thee What wert thou when thou wert one and the same with them when thou livedst in them without the Law thou wert one with them thou wert incorporate with them into the body of sin O rather magnifie the grace and goodness of thy God who looseth the bonds of thine iniquities who discovers thy sin to be sin and for sin condemning sin Rom. 8.3 who now undertakes the cure of thy spiritual ulcers This large suppuration and mattering this abundance of filth proceeding from thy wounds is an argument of strength and soundness in the inward parts that thou now feelest the deadly darts of Satan it s a sign of some life in thee where there is sense there is life and è contrà if thou perceivest thine own unrighteousness endeavour to find it more if thou seemest filthy to thy self be more filthy so we understand that Revel 22.11 Exhort Doth the Law come Doth thy sin revive Then let us be exhorted to live no longer without the Law but let us entertain the Law as we would welcome a guest For Motive hereunto consider the manifold blessings upon the obedient Deut. 28.11 The Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods spiritual goods the holy Spirit it self he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord gives thee the holy land or land of holiness Consider the curses upon the disobedient upon the out-laws The penalty of an out-law according to our Laws is loss of goods loss of the graces of Gods Spirit loss of lands loss of the holy Land Yea the out-laws caput gerunt luporum any one that meets thee may kill thee saith the Lawyer They are out of protection of the Laws for meritò sine lege periunt qui secundùm legem vivere recesserunt And such out-laws are we all while we reject the Laws of our God no better than Cain conceived of himself like fugitives and vagabonds upon the earth without any benefit of Gods Laws that who ever findeth us may slay us Aliens from the Common-weal of Israel strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world Eph. 2.12 O Beloved As knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Let us let us I beseech ye so many as are yet out-laws in-Law our selves before the Decree go forth ye know the out-law if sought and called in five several Counties refuse to come in and answer to the Law pro exlege tenebitur he is held as an out-law and those penalties pass upon him O how long how often hath the great King of kings himself sought his out-laws who ought to have sought unto him By how many Messengers hath he rising up early and sending them wooed us to come O how lowly how infinitly below his state hath he stooped to winn us to be merciful to our own souls What a low condescent is that that 2 Cor. 5.20 We are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto God NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS UPON ROMANS VII 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I dyed and the commandment unto life was found to me unto death THE coming of the Law hath a double event 1. One in regard of sin 2. Another in regard of the man 1. In regard of the sin that revived 2. In regard of the man he died I call these events not effects of the Law for effects proceed from and depend upon causes truly and properly so called and so it cannot truly be said that the Law coming caused sin to revive and caused the man to dye but occasioned both for an event answers to an occasion or a cause by accident as an effect answers to a cause per se and truly and properly so called In these words therefore we have two events of the Law coming to the man 1. Sin revived 2. The man dyed I spake of the first I now proceed to the second event of the Law 's coming The man dyed Herein for our berter proceeding we may enquire 1. How he may be said so to dye 2. What death the man dyed 3. How upon the coming of the Law the man dyed 1. What death the man dyed privations are best known by their opposite habits and therefore as life is three-fold so likewise is death There is a life of 1. Nature 2. Grace 3. Sin And there is a death opposite unto that life of Nature Grace Sin 1. Of the first death these words are not to be understood for the man lives his natural life both under the life of Grace and the life of sin The question therefore lies between the two other deaths whether of them two is here to be understood whether the man may be said to be dead unto the life of Grace upon the coming of the Law or rather 2. dead unto the life of sin I find most Interpreters both Ancient and Modern agreeing that the former is here to be understood namely that the Law coming occasioned the death unto the life of Grace and that the Law coming the man dyed from his life of grace But under correction of better judgements I conceive that that death cannot here be meant by the Apostle for if we should understand that upon the coming of the Law the man then dyed from the life of grace then before the coming of the Law the man should have lived the life of grace for he is said to dye from that life which before he lived but that cannot be For before the commandment came he lived not the life of Grace as appears evidently out of the Context for before the commandment came he lived a lawless life a life without the law the life of sin And therefore when the commandment came he is here to be understood to dye from his sinful life which is that life which he lived before the commandment came 2. How may the man be said to dye The man is said to dye when the sin offers it self as a life unto him and he is a dead man unto the motions of it When therefore sinful thoughts represent the objects unto the man and he rejects them he is said to dye unto them Thus when envy pride covetousness c. present themselves unto the man for so many lives and the man still continues in the denyal and rejection of them He may be said to dye so many several deaths As when the Law comes sin revives and puts forth all her force so it comes to pass that the man dyes every day as the Apostle protesteth 1 Cor. 15.31 and 2 Cor. 11.23 he tells us that he was in deaths often 3. But
was the Father that Man should be saved that he spared not his only begotten Son and so willing was the Son that he spared not himself but became obedient to his Father even unto death and ought not we to be at least as willing as obedient and that for our own salvation It 's but our duty for hereunto are we called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 a principal duty which the Sacrament requires of us and which every one of us hath promised and vowed solemnly and stand engaged faithfully to perform For as from the death of Christ the Sacraments have their power and efficacy saith the School so their principal end is our conformity to the death of Christ for know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized into his death Rom. 6.3 And to speak a word in season because the Church now generally addresses it self to the Holy Communion Know ye not that so often as ye eat that bread and drink that Cup of the Lord ye shew forth the Lords death till he come till his life appear in our mortal body As they relate of Artemesia that she drunk up her husbands ashes in wine and erected unto his memory a stately Monument So the Church the Spouse of Christ erects a monument in her self of Christs death by her conformity thereunto For the Cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ and the bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 But good God how few are there of that crowd of men who call themselves Christians that dare follow Christ down this third step of his Humiliation For do not most men believe that it 's enough that Christ died though they die not that this work is done already to their hand or if they think it their duty do they not put it off till hereafter Let us eat and drink for to morrow wee 'l die Or do they not think to commute this duty and turn it into vain jangling and conceive that it 's enough for them to dispute it out whether Christ died for all men or no But as for conformity to his death few words of that or if words yet but words Nay men are so averse from this duty that I make no question but many would rather part with all their estates than their sins as Rabanus Maurus spake by experience of some who had left large Revenues and Patrimonies that they might embrace a Monastick life and die to the world yet had not left their anger and covetousness but would quarrel for the value of a farthing Nay many would not doubt rather to dye a violent death skin for skin and yield their bodies to be burned in defence of some tenent which they have chosen to hold in Religion than die the spiritual death unto sin For since men of divers and contrary Religions have laid down their lives upon terms of contradiction it may hence be concluded that one of them at the least died in defence of his own will not that he might loose his own will and suffer according to the Will of God so that under their favour who think otherwise it 's no good argument this or that man dyed in defence of such or such a tenent therefore it 's a true tenent But if so few dare follow our Lord down this step to be obedient unto death Quid dicam in crucem tolli What shall I say of that lowest step of his Humiliation He became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross that painful that lingering that infamous that accursed death of the Cross So painful that crux is all one with a torment and cruciare to torment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there being then in use no torment thought so exquisite But si grave breve no 't was a long a lingering death so that it might be thought a favour even to dye And ad damnum accedit infamia to so great so long a torment add the infamy of it 'T is the most shameful death in the judgement of all men Gentiles Jews and Christians whether we respect the quality of the Malefactors adjudged so to dye 't was the death only of servants and slaves and of those the basest and most notorious Homine libero indignum quamvis nocente saith Lactantius whence St. Paul was slain with the sword because a free-man the other Apostles crucified or put to other deaths because reputed servants Or whether we respect the place where 't was executed without the gate so base so infamous the Gentiles thought it Extra Portam dispersis manibus patibulum habebis saith the Comedian and the Jews account it the greatest reproach of Christans that they worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a crucified God Nay St. Paul acknowledges it a most shameful death by opposing Glory and the Cross had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory 1 Cor. 2.8 And shame and the cross are all one with him Heb. 13.13 and you 'l think no less if ye remember those who they are without the gate for without are dogs and Sorcerers and whore-mongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Apoc. 22. And among these they reckoned the God of Truth the Lord of Life Nay add but to the shame of men the curse of God that it was an execrable death for cursed is every one that is hanged upon a tree and 't will appear to be the worst of all deaths of all punishmens the worst Summo supplicio i. e. cruce afficiuntur saith the Lawyer O who hath done this wickedness this great wickedness and with so high a hand sinned against God! who but Judas and the Jews they contrived and plotted his death and Pilat he adjudged him so to dye though he himself confessed there was no cause of death in him Alas poor Pilat alas poor Jew you bear all the blame but we we Beloved we are the men who have crucified the Lord of Glory we we also have been his betrayers and murderers For 't is not the Plot of the Jews only but the conspiracy also of all ungodly men Morte turpissimâ condemnemus eum Nor were the Jews the only men that crucified him but all the Nations of the Earth Apoc. 1.7 and we among the rest he was crucified in the great City of the Devil as St. Austin understood it which is spiritually call'd Sodom and Egypt Apoc. 11.8 For what do the Priests else but mock when they preach Christ one way and live another what do they else but imprison him when they know the Truth and hold it in unrighteousness Nay what do they else but crucifie him For they who sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and
things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto Glory to make the Captain of our Salvation perfect through Sufferings Heb. 2.9 10. Wherefore Beloved in the Lord Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that easily besets us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God 2. The Colossians were raised with Christ For the unfolding of this we must first know what the Resurrection here mentioned is And then 2. How the Colossians may be said to be raised with Christ 1. The Resurrection here meant is that which St. John Apoc. 20.5 6. Calls the first resurrection which is nothing else but a change from the death of sin to the life of Righteousness 2. But how were the Colossians raised with Christ As Christ arose from death to life by inchoation Profession and Worship as ye have heard before so the Colossians and all the Faithful with them are raised from sin the true death of the soul unto righteousness which is the true life so much the Apostle teacheth us Rom. 6.4.5 We are buried saith he with him i. e. Christ by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted with him in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection This Resurrection being in the nature of it a motion it is to be considered according to the terms or extremes of it or according to the tending way or passage from one term or extreme unto another The terms and extremes of it are two spiritual death and life 1. Spiritual death is a separation of God from the Soul as natural death is a separation of the Soul from the body Now as natural death may be considered either in it self or as proceeding from such or such a wound or disease even so spiritual death may be considered either 1. In it self as it is a privation of spiritual life and being dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.12 A being without God in the world Eph. 2.12 Or 2. As coming from this or that wound or malady of sin and thus so many several sins so many several deaths Thus Idol-worshipers are dead Hos 13.1 When Ephraim offended in Baal he died 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wanton widow is dead whilest she lives 1 Tim. 5.6 And the prodigal Son was dead saith his Father of him when he spent his Substance with riotous living Luke 15.14 And so ye have a description of the first term or extreme of this spiritual Resurrection i. e. spiritual death 2. The opposite term is spiritual life the life of righteousness which accordingly may be considered either 1. In it self or 2. The causes of it 1. In it self And thus obedience and life are all one Deut. 32.47 Moses tells the Children of Israel that the observation of the Commandments is no vain thing because saith he it is your life godliness and life are all one 2 Pet. 1.3 His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2. This life may be considered in the causes of it So to know God is eternal life John 17.3 and to believe To obey is to believe John 20.31 to repent Acts 11.15 And the Prodigal Son returning i. e. the sinner repenting is alive again Luke 15. ult O that we considered aright that every act of obedience tends to eternal life And thus we have considered this spiritual Resurrection in the terms or extremes of it 2. This Resurrection being considered in the tending or way from one extreme unto another it is the passage from death unto life of which our Saviour speaks John 5.24 This passage from death to life may have reference to both extremes 1. From reference to the extreme or term from which i. e. spiritual death or sin This Resurrection is the crucifying of the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 6. The killing the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit Rom. 8.13 2. From reference to the other extreme or term to which this Resurrection is the bringing forth fruit worthy of amendment of life Matth. 3.8 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 6.9 Such good works as accompany Salvation or are near unto it or touch or lay hold upon it as the word properly signifieth Such as are not far from the Kingdom of God Mark 12.34 And thus the Colossians are here said to be raised with Christ from the spiritual death of sin unto the spiritual life of righteousness Which because it is evident 1. by consequence Chap. 1. and 2. in so many words Chap. 2.12 let us rather enquire into the causes of this Spiritual Resurrection And these we may consider either 1. In Thesi as common to the Colossians with other Christians or else 2. In Hypothesi and in special belonging unto them 1. The common cause is God who raiseth the dead God the Father Son and Spirit for Man by his Fall is so deeply plunged and sunk in sin that not only he cannot rise alone but stands in need also of the whole Trinity to raise him Therefore the Lord raised up a witness in Jacob and a Law in Israel Psal 78.5 which because it is weak through the flesh Rom. 8. and made nothing perfect Hebr. 7.19 nor could give life Gal. 3.21 He raised up Jesus and together with him raiseth up the dead and quickens them And the Son quickens whom he will Joh. 5.21 and so doth the Holy Spirit also Joh. 6.63 But how doth God raise them by an outward or an inward Call for as in the last day the trump shall sound saith St. Paul and the dead shall rise so likewise in this spiritual rising from the dead the Preacher lifts up his Voice like a Trumpet and calls to every one Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead And unto this outward Call is annexed as the power and vertue of it the inward Call the voice of Christ speaking from him Hebr. 12.25 and lifting up his voice aloud unto us like a Cryer as to such as are dead as to Lazarus in the grave or as to such as are afar off Ephes 2.17 whereunto we assenting and believing arise from the dead and Christ giveth us life This lest any one should question Christ himself confirms it over and over with a double asseveration Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Verily verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they
that hear shall live But these causes of Spiritual Resurrection are common to the Colossians with other of Gods Saints who are risen from the death of sin There were two other causes more peculiar unto them whereof the one at home with them the other from abroad 1. That at home were Earth-quakes wherewithall the City of Colosse was often shaken by reason whereof Strabo reckons that City in his time among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the smaller towns of the lesser Phrygia which Xenophon almost four hundred years before him had called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rich and great City which then as yet had not been defaced and in part ruined by Earthquakes as afterward it was These Earthquakes we may well assign as an instrumental cause and means which the Lord used for the Colossians Spiritual Resurrection for as when the earth did quake and the rocks rent many bodies arose out of their graves saith St. Matth. 27 51 52. So 't is more than probable that upon the like terrours and punishments of the Colossians whence that City is said to have the name Coloss from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth punishment many souls arose from custom in sin as from their graves unto the life of Righteousness the ruine and destruction of the City proving the raising edifying and building up of the Citizens in their most holy Faith Thus upon that great Earthquake of that great City Apoc. 11.13 wherein the tenth part of the City fell and seven thousand men were slain the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven The Prophet Isaiah speaks fitly to this purpose When the judgements of God are in the earth the inhabitants of the earth will learn Righteousness Isa 26.9 The Lord be mercifull unto us and grant us such Grace that his goodness may lead us to repentance but if judgements shall be needful he sanctifie them unto us and vouchsafe them a saving effect unto us as he did to these Colossians So ye have the first cause peculiar to the Colossians 2. The second cause of the Colossians Resurrection more peculiar unto them was the good neighbourhood of the Seven Churches of Asia Apoc. 2.3 For as there is alwayes aliquid mali propter vicinum malum some evil from an evil neighbour so on the contrary alwayes aliquid boni some good from a good neighbour Such were the seven Churches of Asia to the Church of Coloss all good neighbours to it and surely they are our best neighbours who are most advantageous unto our souls as these Churches were For as the Vine ariseth by the Elm the Hop by the Pole the Ivy by the Oak the smoak by the stock and generally the weak in all kinds are supported by the strong even so the Colossians were raised up and supported by their stronger neighbours especially the Ephesians Philadelphians and Laodiceans and these latter and the Colossians helped one the other to arise from Sin unto the Life of Righteousness by the Apostles appointment as appears Col. 4.16 When this Epistle is read amongst you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the Epistle to Laodicea An Epistle I have seen under that name but I question whether dictated by the same Spirit Now 't is the Apostles Doctrine to the Ephesians That so labouring we should support the weak Act. 20.35 And now these Colossians according to our Saviours charge to St. Peter Thou being converted strengthen thy brethren they being themselves raised up from the spiritual death in sin unto the life of Righteousness They may help to raise us up also if we lay hold on their Example and make use and application of it unto our selves Observe and admire with me I beseech ye the unspeakable goodness and mercy of our God who would not suffer us utterly to perish in sin and death but so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to die and rise again for us That whosoever believeth on him should not perish in death but arise again with him unto the everlasting life If we examine the matter more accurately we shall find that our God had no motive without himself and that it was and is his meer Grace Goodness and Mercy that moved him to raise up the Colossians and us and all other faithful men and women from the death of Sin unto the life of Righteousness For although it be true that our God hath a prescience and foreknowledge of all those who are to be raised from the spiritual death and to be made conformable to the image of his Son in the Resurrection unto Life Rom. 8.29 contrary to their impious Opinion who conceive it altogether contingent yet lest he might be thought to see any thing in us deserving a Resurrection from the dead the Scripture saith expresly that we are then dead in trespasses and sins when this work is begun upon us and ascribes it wholly unto Gods Love Qui non invenit sed facit objectum suum it finds us not but makes us lovely as being then enemies when Christ died for the love of us But because it cannot be denied but that LOVE in the nature of it is carried as well to a deserving as an undeserving object though it is impossible that we should deserve any thing at Gods hand the Scripture therefore joyns to the Love of God his Mercy which represents not merit or desert but misery And both these motives ye have together Ephes 2.4 5 6. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by grace ye are saved see how purposely he excludes all merit and hath raised us up together with Christ 2. Observe what is the most fruitful way of meditating and handling as all other actions of our Saviour so especially this of his Resurrection Omnis Christi actio nostra est instructio all actions of Christ and so this of his Resurrection are instructions to us not that we shall speak much of it as it was of his own person alone for so it is so evident out of the Evangelists story of it that all professing Christianity easily yield unto it But as the Saints and Holy Ones of God have been or else now are or may be followers and partakers of it Thus St. Paul taught the Romans and us That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so they and we should arise and walk in newness of life That having been planted together according to the likeness of his death we should be also planted together according to the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 5. and 6. Thus he taught the Corinthians and us That God hath both raised up the Lord Jesus and will also raise up us by his own power 1 Cor. 6.14 And he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall also
us of endeavouring after an higher and more eminent degree of it 1 Thess 4.1 As ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God See Notes in locum Observ 6. The life of a true Christian Man and Woman is an eminent an high life it must hold conformity with him who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most high God Is it in vain think we that it 's said 1 King 5.1 that Hiram was ever a lover of David and that God gave Solomon wisdom c. and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon vers 12. What is David but LOVE and what is Solomon but Peace which is the effect of Love where ever there is the true love of God and our Neighbour there is Hiram a Lover of David Hiram is the eminent the high life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was a league between Solomon and Hiram Whoever are true lovers of God and peaceable ones they alwayes affect and love the high the eminent life of God Nor is it for other reason that Jehoshaphats heart was lifted up in the wayes of the Lord 2 Chron. 17.6 This is the only high mind that 's good in the sight of the Lord and to this Joshuah exhorted the people in his Speech unto them Josh 23.6 Be ye very couragious to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses Repreh 1. Who seek the things below under a pretence of high things even things above especially Two 1. a lofty soaring knowledge 2. a boundless and licentious freedom 1. A lofty soaring knowledge men will be like unto God while they are yet in their sins and will know Good and Evil that lying promise of the Serpent founds yet in our ears Ye shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. This was figured by the Babylonian Kings Gen. 14.1 Such was Amraphel loquens ruinam c. See 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Kings of Babel confused Knowledge ruled over the Kings of Sodom c. which signifie the fleshly sins for every Carnal Man though never so wicked yet he will be Religious and in our present Babel every one hath his choice whom he will adhere unto therefore the Babylonian Kings reigned over the Sodomites and Gomorrheans c. who when they rebelled the Babylonians came and fought with them and carried them away captive Now see the power of Christ's Resurrection and Ascension Abraham with Mamre Aner and Eshcol arming all his trained Servants c. Gen. 14 13-16 Abram is the High Father the Father of the Faithful he rebells against all iniquity which he had formerly served as well as others before the Lord called him Josh 24.2 that 's his consederate Mamre and having received answer from the Divine Light in him that 's Aner and acted by the holy fire of the Spirit that 's Eshcol he arms all that is within him all his dedicated ones and pursues the Babylonian Kings the Rulers of the darkness of this world the spiritual wickedness in heavenly things Ephes 6.12 unto Dan i. e. to Judgement Babylon must be utterly cut off and have neither Name nor Remnant Isa 14.22 But yet his pursute was limited by Love he pursued them to Hoba i. e. LOVE and leads captivity captive and Lot the hidden Divine Truth long obscured by spiritual internal sins recovers it's lost liberty and lustre and the earthly man recovers his just freedom when the King of Sodom the earthly man meets Abram the High Father the heavenly man in the valley of Shaveh i. e. in equity and moderation Repreh 2. They who affect a lofty towring Knowledge they commonly aspire unto a boundless and licentious Freedom under pretence of the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 Ye read of two Cities called by one name Bethoron but they are distinguished by their scituation the upper Bethoron and the nether Bethoron Josh 16.3 5. Bethoron is domus libertatis the house of liberty or freedom Shurah the daughter of Ephraim is said to have built them both 1. Chron. 7.24 See 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on Bethoron Gal. 5.13 Ye have been called to liberty use not your liberty as an occas on to the flesh They first build Bethoron the nether and pretend Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience to cover their wickedness withall even a licentiousness to do even what they list Repreh 3. Those who sleight and despise the Resurrection and the Life under the names of Morality c. See Notes on Coloss 2.12 Repreh 4. How much are they to blame who not only believe not this Resurrection and Life but propagate and teach their unbelief of it who say that it 's impossible that we should arise from the death of sin unto the life of Righteousness who will ever endeavour to arise from the dead who think it impossible so to do All men justly alledge the cause of Gods fiery indignation to be our continuance in sin and it is most true that Gods wrath burns like fire by reason of the evil of our doings but if we be taught that we cannot turn from our sins but that our iniquity must burn like a fire then Gods wrath must still burn also like a fire and what remedy For when men have exhorted us to turn from all our sins unto our God To cleanse our selves from all pollution of flesh and spirit c. And shall at length say I would not be mistaken lest they should seem to perswade men to be perfect these things cannot be done in this life who will go about that which he thinks cannot be done in this life Impossibility must be in regard of power denied to those of whom God expects the effect of that power now surely the Lord gives a power to his believers superiour to all power of Satan which is meerly a borrowed power superiour to all the lusts that are in the world 1 Joh. 5.4 Therefore all things are possible to him that believeth because his Faith is joyned to him who is omnipotent Ephes 1.19 Phil. 4.13 Isa 13. The people turn not to him that smiteth them c. what is the Reason vers 15. the blame is laid upon â—he Prophet And Lamen 4.13 For the sin of her Prophets and the iniquity of her Priests who have shed the blood of the Just in the midst of her Repreh 4. Those who ascend not with the Colossians as they ascended with Christ nor seek the things above but grovel on the earth as the Canaanites their belly cleaveth to the ground such as these are true Sons of Belial who ascend not such are intemperate persons drunkards 1 Sam. 1.16 a daughter of Belial lascivious Chap. 2.12 inhumane and covetous 1 Sim. 25.17 evil counsellers Deut. 13.13 despisers of Governours and Magistrates 1 Sam. 10.27 false witnesses 2 King 21.10 These are men of Belial and therefore are no Christians for what concord is there between Christ and Belial
weakness we rest not but are moved until we find help Esay 7.2 which sometime we seek where it is not to be found Jerem. 14.10 yea when men are sensible of a spiritual hunger they wander from Sea to Sea to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it The Lord whose name is the Counsellor Esay 9.6 He invites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weary wandering soul Matth. 11. unto himself in whom she may find rest help and deliverance from her weakness which is no where to be found but in Jesus Christ he turns our sorrows into joy John 16. Therefore his third daughter is called Hoglah turning about yea he turns our bondage into liberty and freedom and makes us Kings and Priests unto God the Father Revel 1.6 Therefore Zelophehad's fourth daughter is called Milcah i. e. a Queen This Queen is brought unto the King Christ in her ornaments her raiment of needle-work even the embroidery of all graces Psalm 45.14 And so he presents her unto himself a glorious Church without spot and wrinkle Eph. 5.27 And the King Christ greatly desires her beauty Psalm 45.11 Therefore Zelophehad's fifth Daughter is called Tirzah i. e. desireable and well pleasing as the Lord Jesus saith of his Church that she is beautiful as Tirzah Cant. 6.4 O Beloved if we look inwardly and seek and find all these yea or any of these in our souls how can we but love the Lord Jesus Christ our strong Redeemer and Deliverer c. Exhort To love the Lord Jesus Christ the strong Redeemer and Deliverer who delivers us from the Spirit of bondage and brings us into the glorious liberty of the children of God He among the Romans who was emancipated and made free by his Master from his slavery was yet ever after bound to be thankful to him and serviceable to him for making him a Free-man so that he was called Libertus the freed man of such or such a man and his master was called Patronus the Patron and defender of such or such an one insomuch as if any servant were ingratus Patrono unthankful to his Patron he was ever after bound by the Laws to return to his service again and since he knew not how to use the liberty vouchsafed him he was made to know his slavery again O Beloved if this were thought equal among that people in regard of their outward deliverance from an outward bondage how equal how just is it that all and every one whom our master in Heaven whom our Lord Jesus Christ hath made free should be thankful and more and more serviceable unto him our master ever to acknowledge our selves his Liberti freed by him to acknowledge him our Patron our Deliverer Defender c. Otherwise most worthy we are to return to our bondage and servitude S. Paul was very zealous in this respect 1 Cor. 16.22 He that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha He who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ so loves him not as not to acknowledge him his Lord by all Service and Obedience let him be accursed until the Lord come that 's Maran-atha until the Lord come to avenge himself of his unthankful servant and ye read wherefore he comes Jude vers 14.15 The Lord comes with his holy ten thousands his holy Myriads to execute judgment upon all and convince all that are ungodly c. who say They will not have this man to rule over them Luke 19. O therefore Beloved if the Lord have delivered us from this bondage from fear of death let us serve the Lord out of love and due thankfulness It was the Prophets resolution 1 Sam. 12.10 and let it be ours and it is the end of the Lords Redemption Luke 1.74 That being redeemed out of the hand of our enemies death and fear of death and bondage c. we serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives Observ Christ's deliverance is not of all but of those who through fear of death are subject to bondage c. he makes a great change in the man Here must be understood what is the true liberty Then I shall walk at liberty when I keep the Commandments Observ Those whom Christ redeems and delivers from the slavery of sin and Satan and from the fear of death those he ascertains and assures of the eternal life and this is the only assurance that 's true There is a kind of false perswasion whereby many suffer themselves to be deceived whereby men assure themselves of their salvation while yet they live in their sins yea before the fear of death hath fallen upon them Psal Beloved This perswasion comes not of him that calls us Christ by his death makes expiation for sin and by his spirit mortifies our sins and by the unction of the spirit of adoption the spirit of fear and bondage is removed Isa 10.24 where the deliverance from fear and bondage is compared to that out of Assyria out of Aegypt and out of the slavery of Midian Observ 1. Christ is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is the Deliverer the Saviour the Redeemer this is inferred from his act in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is his Name given him by the Angel before his birth Matth. 1.21 Isa 19.20 Act. 5.31 Rom. 11.26 Observ 2. The Lord Jesus delivers from death and fear of death and bondage indeed from all evils and the dangers and fears of them for in that he saves from sin Matth. 1.21 In that he turns ungodliness from Jacob Rom. 11.26 By the same reason he delivers us from wrath for sin is the incentive cause of wrath judgement hell and death therefore we are to wait on 1 Thess 1.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not who hath delivered us but who doth deliver us that is a concurrent act as he delivers from sin so from fear and wrath Observ 3. The Lord delivers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not those but these i. e. the children so he saves his people he turns away ungodliness from Jacob i. e. from the weak Church as Israel signifieth the strong Church from Jacob that struggles and contends with the iniquity that wrestles with the earthly man as Jacob did with Esau Note hence who may be said to be delivered from the fear of death even they and they only who were before subject unto bondage through the fear of death The Lord Jesus delivers such and only such these are only sensible of their thraldom who have been under the yoke of bondage such as have been wearied and heavy laden Christ invites unto himself who else but these are able and fit to prize their liberty and deliverance Observ 4. We learn then from hence what a change the Lord Jesus makes in these children whom he delivers from the fear of death we shall be able to discern of this if we consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what the terms are from which and unto which they
Gentiles engrafted into the true Tree Note hence O Seed of Abraham that inestimable benefit and blessing vouchsafed unto thee that goodness of God as Christ is called Hos 3.5 given to thee for thy good that riches of God wherewithall he hath end wed thy nature that honour of God as Christ is called 1 Pet. 2. wherewith he honours the 〈…〉 even that honour that comes of God only Joh. 5.44 This is no ground of priding 〈…〉 â—hâ—t the Most High God hath condescended to stoop and take up the fallen Man and neâ—â—◠〈…〉 by the fallen Angels it 's rather an Argument for our greater humiliation and abasâ—â—â—â—â—f our 〈◊〉 in consideration of our unthankfulness our apostacy and our greater misery 〈…〉 need â—reater mercy when our fallen humanity could not otherwise be repaired than by the 〈…〉 God â—ssuming it and laying hold upon it Note here where Ch â—st's 〈◊〉 begins when men begin to be the children of Abraham when men believe in thâ— Lord Jeâ—â—â— Christ Thus Faith in Christ makes a Child of Abraham and Abrahams Seed Gal. 3.7 and they who are Christs are Abrahams Seed then begins Christ's Kingdom Isa 41.10 Observ There is Faith in the Father which must precede Faith in the Son Hebr. 11.6 The Father who gave them c. Joh. 10. He takes not hold of the Angels but takes hold of the Seed of Abraham The words may be considered also conjunctim or joyntly He takes not the Angels but the Seed of Abraham He no where in all the Scripture is said to take the Nature of Angels or to lay hold of the Angels but every where in Scripture is said to take on him or lay hold upon the Seed of Abraham Exhort Yield our selves to the attraction and drawing of the Lord Jesus Christ if we yield our selves unto Christ he blesseth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Notes on Gen. 12. And is there not great need Is there not a contrary drawing Jam. 1.14 have we not need to be drawn to the right hand Heaven-ward and God-ward when our own flesh draws us to the left hand to the Devil towards hell what else means Samlah of Masrescha the drawing to the left hand of vanity and Saul of Rehobah i. e. hell it self whereunto leads the broad way Sign 1. Whether Abraham's Seed Abraham's Seed are of Abraham's house and family See Notes on Gen. 12. 2. Abraham's Seed is prolificative full of the fruits of Righteousness Rom. 9.27 Repreh 1. Who mistake their estate and take themselves to be Abraham's Seed and born of the Free-woman Gal. 4.28 when indeed they are of Ishmael Repreh 2. Who presume on Christ's taking hold of them and neglect themselves let such know that the Lord promiseth to keep thee in all thy wayes Psal 91.11 12. Our Lord was aware of this Matth. 3. Thy way lies between fire and water 2 Esd 7. He hath made thee no promise to keep thee if wilfully thou go out of thy way and run into the fire and water or suffer the evil spirit to cast thee into them The Lord layes not violent hands upon us to uphold us whether we will or no Thou lyest still in the water of concupiscence and cryest out Lord help me Lord save me So did the silly fellow who cryed out to Hercules to help him out of a flow he answered him set thy shoulder to the Cart and whip on thy Horses and then I will help thee use what means God hath outwardly put into thy hand he hath given thee senses and reason and understanding make use of them St. Peter bids the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2. Gen. 20.6 I kept thee Job 33 14-30 If God would give me Grace Thou lookest for some irresistible power which was never given to any man from the beginning of the world to this day nor ever will be Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis at ille Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aevum Repreh 1. This may justly blame those who mistake their own estate c. See Notes on Rom. 7. Repreh 2. Those who will needs be the Seed of Abraham yet complain of impotency and weakness do they consider the mighty power of God imparted to the Seed of Abraham Ephes 1. Do they not read in the Text that Christ takes upon him and taketh hold of the Seed of Abraham Yea do they not remember that great and precious promises are made That in Abrahams Seed which is Christ Gal. All generations of the earth shall be blessed NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS UPON HEBREWS II. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a mercifull and faithfull high Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people THat which of all other things most offended the Jews in the whole dispensation of Christ in the dayes of his flesh was the mean rank wherein he lived and the execrable death he died 1. As to the former they expected a Messiah such as they understood the Prophets to foretell in the pomp and state of a worldly King 2. As to the latter they were prepossessed that the Messiah was not to die but to abide for ever as Joh. 12.34 and afterward reproached the Christians as worshippers of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a crucified God and therefore our Apostle labours most in the proof of this that Christ must die for which he shews cause vers 10-14 15. and that he must die such an execrable death Phil. 2. In these words he resumes the same Argument and gives other Reasons of it which he infers from the former words for in that he took part of flesh and blood and took upon him the Seed of Abraham thence it became him as in death to be like unto his brethren so in all things else behoofful for Abrahams Seed and befitting him who supports and succours his brethren This the Apostle proves from the end of his similitude and likeness to his brethren that he might be a mercifull and faithful high Priest And that in regard 1. Of God in things belonging unto God 2. In regard of Men that he might make reconciliation for the sins of the people 2. He proves this from the adjunct ability and fitness to succour his brethren herein from his experience of their sufferings for in that he suffered being tempted he is able also to succour those who are tempted In this 17th verse we have these Axioms 1. It became Christ in all things to be like unto his brethren 2. It so became him that he might be a merciful and faithful high Priest in things belonging to God 3. Such an high Priest he must be to make reconciliation c. 1. It became Christ in all things to be like unto his brethren Wherein two subordinate Axioms are contained 1. The children of God the Seed of Abraham are Christs brethren 2. It became Christ in all things
Shimei to curse David But how did the Lord command this only by giving occasion to Shimei by Davids low estate to be bold without fear of punishment to curse him for it truly and properly God had given any such command to Shimei to curse David David should have sinned against the Lord in that being now ready to die he gave command to Solomon to punish Shimei for that cause because he cursed him with a most bitter curse 1 Kings 2.8 9. so that had David understood of any such command given to Shimei he should have commanded Solomon to put Shimei to death for obeying Gods command yea had the Lord given any such command to Shimei inwardly or outwardly to curse David God had been properly the cause of cursing and Shimei had been without fault who obeyed the command of the Lord and David had been the only sinner who would have Shimei punished for obeying the command of the Lord but it 's said expresly that God hardened Pharaohs heart and it 's said expresly that God turned the heart of the Aegyptians to hate his people and as expresly it 's said that he commanded Shimei to curse David both which the Lord only gave occasion to do and he only gave occasion to Pharaoh to harden his heart and what occasion was that read the story in Exodus 1. Ye find that the chief occasion was Gods lenity and gentleness and patience and forbearance towards Pharaoh which Pharaoh took as an occasion of hardening himself against all the commands of God by Moses and Aaron and by reason of the favour and mercy shewn to Pharaoh by the Lord which mercy Pharaoh abused The Lord is said to harden Pharaoh as I have shewn so a Father hardens his disobedient child See Examples of this Exod. 8.15 and 9.34 2. Beside Pharaoh considered the punishments inflicted that they were far less than the damage would amount unto from the loss of so many thousand mens labours which he enjoyed for nothing 3. Those plagues also befell his subjects not himself till the very last the death of his first-born so terrified him that he let the people go he then thought himself next 4. And yet another reason he had from his pride he thought it unworthy of him that he so great a King should yield to the commands of another God a God whom he owned not and that to his so great damage and loss and therefore at the first address of Moses and Aaron to him he hardened his heart by these seeming reasons as ye read Exod. 5.1 so that he would not yield to let the people go nor hearkened to the commands nor threats nor plagues inflicted on the Land but hardened himself against them all and in that hardness God left him now if by Gods hardening of Pharaoh we should understand any positive and real infusion impression or imparting of hardness then should God himself be the true cause and author of Pharaohs disobedience and sin which is no less than blasphemy to say yea how can God truly and properly be said to harden Pharaoh or any one in sin which is the consummation of sin when he doth not so much as tempt any one to sin saith St. James chap. 1. howbeit such an operation the Lord had about Pharaoh which did not exclude or hinder Pharaohs hardening of his own heart but if the Lord really and properly had imprinted and made an hardness in the heart of Pharaoh Pharaoh could not truly and properly be said to harden his own heart but necessarily he must yield to Gods over-powering of him and hardening of him and so remain guiltless of all that sin and disobedience wherewith the Scripture every where chargeth him To conclude this let us hear the judgement of one or two of the Fathers who may speak for all the rest Deus indurat corda non impertiendo malitiam sed non impertiendo misericordiam And again Obdurat Deus deserendo non adjuvando so St. Austin and St. Gregory Obdurare per justitiam dicitur Deus quando cor reprobum per gratiam non emollit And truly who impute Pharaohs hardening to God and not to Pharaoh himself they have a worse opinion of God then the Philistines had for they say Why do ye harden your hearts as the Aegyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts 1 Sam. 6.6 Observ 3. They whose hearts have been broken by the Law of God and softned by the Grace of the Gospel they may by unwatchfulness and relapse become hardened again if they be not wary The Psalmist Psal 95. exhorted those who by profession were the people of Gods pasture and the sheep of his hands and the Apostle here exhorts such as thought themselves the house of God and Christ yet saith David there and our Apostle here even to such a people Harden not your hearts Observ 4. Note hence the goodness of our God unto us he disswades and dehorts us from hardening our hearts why what disadvantage is it to the Lord that a man hardens his heart If thou sinnest what dost thou against him or if thy transgressions be multiplyed what dost thou unto him Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousness may profit the son of man saith Elihu Job 35.6 7 8. If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self but if thou scornest thou alone shalt bear it Prov. 9.12 Yet as if the mans hardness much concerned the Lord and he had some notable hurt by it here and elsewhere he affectionately exhorts men from it Why will ye dye O ye house of Israel O do not this abominable thing that I hate Jer. 44.4 Observ 5. The Apostle here as the Psalmist out of whom he quotes these words spake to those who were a divided people Heb. 10.25 and in a dangerous possibility of being hardened and therefore he saith Harden not your hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural of such as were obedient and at unity among themselves the Evangelist saith they had but one heart Acts 4.32 and our Saviour Joh. 14.1 and 16.22 and of one mind Phil. 2.2 these were now divided and therefore they have more hearts then one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the people are at unity and of one accord among themselves they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people and the Jews gloried in those names and would by no means be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a nation though sometimes they are so called but that name they leave for the Heathen and uncircumcised But when they are divided from their God and are schismatical factious and divided among themselves the Lord calls them not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only Nation or Heathen as they understood it but Nations or Heathens So Ezech. 2.3 Son of man I send thee to the children of Israel to a rebellious nation The Hebrew words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
good name among men 2. As the will of the Lord is that no man should say to his Brother Racha so neither is it his will that any man should receive such an evil report of his Brother Exod. 23.1 Thou shalt not take up or receive a vain report 3. If to be called Racha be thought worthy of the Judgment and that he be liable to it who saith so to his Brother how much more liable is he unto the Judgment and worthy of it who is Racha who is a vain man 4. Whosoever shall say to his Brother Racha shall be liable to the Council These words contain the penalty due to the second breach of the Law viz. to be liable to the Council And what is the Council The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word is common to all Sessions of Judges as well to that of 23. and of that three Judges as that of 70. or 72. which is here to be understood As the twelve Sons of Jacob gave names to the twelve Tribes as also the Heads and Princes of those Tribes and afterward the like number of Apostles was appointed by our Lord who had promised to judge the twelve Tribes of Israel So in memory of the LXX Persons who came with Jacob into Egypt Gen. 46.27 They ordained so many Elders and Governours over them and afterward our Lord sent forth the like number of Disciples Unto those seventy Elders the Lord sends Moses Exod. 3.16 and he reported the Lord's message unto them Exod. 4.29 Unto these Moses by the advice of Jethro committed the less matters in controversie to be judged reserving the greater and more difficult to his own cognizance Exod. 18.22 Afterward when Moses complained of his burthen the Lord himself ratifies the Counsel of Jethro and commands Moses to take seventy Elders whom he enabled with the Spirit of Judgment Numb 11.16 This Sanhedrim or highest Council consisted of Priests Levites religious and devout Israelites as appears 2 Chron. 19.8 This Council judgeth of all causes divine and humane civil and capital Reason The spiritual Judge looks at the root of bitterness which is envy pride anger impatiency c. He looks at the fruit growing or like to grow from this root of bitterness this root bears gall and wormwood even bitter words He looks at the direful issue of wrath even death it self Psal 57.3 He shall save me from the reproach of him that would eat me up swords are in their lips Psal 59.7 I have reserved a doubt here to be answered which was proper in part to the former point but here it may receive a more general satisfaction 1. Whether he who was angry with his Brother were liable to the Judgment or who saith Racha to the Council It may be doubted because jus gladii the power of putting Malefactors to death was taken away from the Jews by the Romans according to that of John 18.31 It is not lawful for us to put any man to death Josephus tells us that when Festus was dead Ananus the High Priest called a Council before Albinus came to be President of Judea and cited James the Lord's Brother and many others whom he condemned to be stoned to death But for this he was accused before Albinus the Governour because he called a Council without lieve of the President Now if the Council might not be called without lieve obtained of the Romans how much less might any man be put to death by Authority of the Council Yea the Jews themselves confess that forty years before the Second Temple was destroyed all power of judging criminal and capital causes was taken from the Jews All which if true how then saith our Lord that he who is angry with his Brother shall be liable to the Judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Racha shall be liable to the Council How could this be true when our Lord spake this When the power of judging and sentencing all capital offenders was now taken from the Jews I answer some go about to satisfie this doubt by saying that although the power of judging capital causes were taken from the Jews yet the manner of Judgment was well known out of the Law Deut. 16.18 and other places and the practice of it This answer I conceive no wayes satisfieth the doubt for our Lord doth not tell them only of what was past but warns them of the danger to come Nor doth our Lord go about to terrifie his Disciples with inania terriculamenta causeless fears and scare-crows No our Lord here saith That he that is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be guilty of the Judgment and he who shall say to his Brother Racha shall be liable to the Council Hereby our Lord warns his Disciples that although all civil power were taken from the Jews of judging criminal and capital causes yet there remained a spiritual power of judging and condemning wrath and reproaches proceeding from wrath as murder Yea by these very words our Lord doth constitute a Spiritual Judicature in his Church for otherwise it cannot be shewn what Judgment or what Council the angry man and he who calls his Brother Racha shall be liable unto Doubt 2. But it seems our Lord forbids any such power of judging or ruling among his people Matth. 20.25 26 27. Answer Here is utterly a mistake Our Lord by these words doth not take away Superiority of one over another or Spiritual Judicature since he is the God of Order and the Supreme Judge But he forbids such abuse of power as was among the Gentiles They abuse their power and authority over others looking only at their own Soveraignty without aiming at their good whom they rule This is understood by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we turn to exercise dominion and to exercise authority whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this composition imports the abuse of dominion and authority Obs 1. Take notice from hence that there is or ought to be a Spiritual Judicatory a power of judging spiritual things in the Church of God How doth this follow Surely undeniably for if whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause be liable to the Judgment and there were then no Civil Judicature Our Lord by these words necessarily supposeth a Spiritual Judicature unto which every one who is angry with his Brother without a cause is obnoxious and liable Otherwise our Lord the Judge and great Governour of his Church should be wanting to his Church in a matter of the greatest moment such as a power of judging spiritual things is such as Government is in the Church 2. There are or ought to be spiritual men in the Church who are meet and fit to judge of spiritual things as rash and unadvised anger The Apostle tells us that the spiritual man judgeth all things i. e. all spiritual things whereof he is a competent Judge Why then is there not such a Judgment such a
degrees of torment in the hell of the damned for Matth. 11.22 It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sydon than for those Cities wherein most of his mighty works were done and they repented not and verse 24. It shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom in the day of Judgment than for Capernaum We read also of the lowest hell Deut. 32.22 My wrath shall burn to the lowest hell and deliverance from the lowest hell Psal 86.13 Thou hast delivered my Soul from the lowest hell and the depths of hell ProV 9.18 Her Guests are in the depths of hell Besides there are seven names of Hell as I shewed before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All which imply that there are divers degrees of punishment in Hell And so although he that saith to his Brother Thou fool be liable to hell fire yet there is a lower hell and the depths of hell prepared for him that murders his Brother because murder is a greater breach of the Sixth Commandment than being angry with our brother without a cause than saying to our brother Racha yea than saying to our Brother Thou fool as I shewed in the example of Cain And sith it is a greater sin in all reason and justice of God and man there must be a greater punishment than for any of these three Yea and saith he who saith to his Brother Thou fool shall be liable to hell fire He who shall murder his brother shall be liable to the lowest hell or the depths of hell This I believe is and seems probable reasonable and just to any understanding man yet if any should deny it or question it I know not how to prove that there be exactly such degrees of torment in hell the murderer shall be cast thereinto What then is there a greater punishment than Hell Surely there is what is that The lake of fire of which we read Revel 19.20 The beast and the false Prophet and they who worship his image shall be cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone But happily this may be Hell it self No for the Devil himself shall be cast into the lake But why may not the Devil himself be cast into hell also That cannot be for Revelations 20. verse 14 15. Ye read that death and hell it self are cast into the lake and whosoever is not found written in the Book of life But yet we read of no murderers cast into the lake See then Chap. 21. 8. There ye find the murderers with all their Companions The fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death So that although he who saith to his Brother Thou fool be liable to hell fire the angry and reproachful murderer who really and actually murders his Brother is liable to a greater Judgment than he who saith to his Brother Thou fool Obser 1. But I say unto you he that is angry with his brother c. Though the truth of God hath been delivered from all Antiquity to all Ages of men yet hath not the truth been taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all at once unto any Age. But it hath been wrapt up in conceptu confuso in dark Speeches and Parables and mystical Representations until the time of Reformation appointed by the Father Thus we read divers names which had Mysteries in them which were not known till after Ages made them manifest The Scripture is full of them Melchizedeck is interpreted by St. Paul Hebr. 7.1 2. The Coathites were to carry the Utensils and Instruments of the Sanctuary but they must not touch the Utensils themselves nor see them Numb 4.15 17 20. The Coathites signifie stupid and dull men such as were not able to see to the end of that which was to be abolished 2 Cor. 3. Obser 2. The Lord expects a greater measure of obedience under the Gospel than he did under the Law I say not that the Lord required not the same obedience under the Law No doubt he did but the Law was weak by reason of the weakness of our flesh and the Spirit that is in us lusts unto envy But under the Gospel God hath given more grace He hath sent his Son in the similitude of sinful flesh c. that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us c. Obser 3. The Law is not only literal and binding the hand from killing and the tongue from reproachful speaking but it 's spiritual also and binds the heart and Spirit from evill thoughts and passions This was meant by Exodus 32.15 See Notes on Rom. 7.12 Obser 4. Hence it appears how great a difference there is between the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and indeed all them who look at the Commandments of God as purely literal and outward and that righteousness which Christ himself teacheth It is no doubt a far greater sin to kill our Brother than to be angry with him yet to kill our Brother according to Pharisaical righteousness makes a man liable to the Judgment only But according to the righteousness which Christ teacheth He that is angry with his Brother without a cause is liable to the Judgment which of all the three penalties is the least as hath been shewn and there remains two greater the Council and Hell Fire Hence it 's evident that there is a dispensation doctrine and discipline of the Father preceeding that of the Son whereof there is yet very little notice taken while men huddle all things together without distinction Men are loath to yield to this least they should for like reason be forced upon the third dispensation of the Spirit Obser 5. The Lord doth not reveal to man his whole duty all at once The generality of men of old knew no other breach of the Sixth Commandment than outward murder Our Lord reveals unto his Disciples a new Law Thou shalt not be angry with thy brother without a cause Not but that the Law-giver would be understood also that his Law was spiritual and reached to wrath which accordingly he blamed in Cain as also the sign of wrath the fall of his countenance Gen. 4. And the Wise men in all Ages knew that wrath and hatred were forbidden by that Commandment And therefore Abraham would have no strife between Lot and him nor between their herds-men Gen. 13. But while the Heir was a Child he was to be brought up under fear And therefore Solomon tells us Eccles 12. That to fear God and keep his Commandments is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole man or the whole duty of man and this is the first degree of wisdom Job 28.28 and Exodus 20.20 The Lord is come to prove you that his fear may be before your faces So saith Moses when he had delivered the Law for the fear of God was the common state of all men under the Law
But the Belief also was preached even then as Numb 14. And therefore the truth of God was revealed from faith to faith and urged under the obedience of faith and there remained a preaching of truth under the obedience of Charity which also was revealed under the Law I will shew mercy to thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments And the Apostle exhorts us to purifie our minds under the obedience of Charity sub obedientia Charitatis 1 Pet. 1. Obser 6. Hence it 's evident that there are degrees of Sins It 's a less sin to be angry with our Brother without a just cause than to break out into reproach and to say unto him Racha And yet a greater sin it is to break out into greater reproach and to say unto our Brother Thou fool To be angry with our Brother unadvisedly undeservedly it 's a sin but it 's the first degree of sin if the Passion be so unruly that it will not endure a check but breaks out into evil words diminishing and detracting from the good name of our Brother it 's an addition and a farther degree of the sin and now the passion is become so strong if therefore it breaks out into such reproach as puts our brother by our testimony into a state of damnation there is the third degree of sin but the greatest of all these is the completing of the murder by the outward Act. Obser 7. As there are degrees of sin as we have heard so are there degrees of penalty and punishment for sin Wrath exposeth us to the Judgment Racha makes us liable to the Council Fool brings us into the danger of Hell Fire But wilful murder casts the murderer into the Lake Exhortation Let us lay the Axe to the Root of the Tree even wrath that root of bitterness which bringeth forth all this bitter fruit The Psalmist exhorts us Psal 37.8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath fret not thy self in any wise 1. As it stirs up a man to say to his brother Thou fool so it proves him that saith so to be a fool for Eccles 7.9 Be not hasty in thy Spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosom of fools 2. And here it is heavy the fool cannot bear it for the Stone is heavy and Sand is weighty but a fools wrath is heavier than them both He cannot bear it it 's too heavy for him and therefore the fool presently declares his anger a fool's wrath is presently known Prov. 12.16 3. And it is the most pernitious to him that hath it for envy and wrath shorten the life Ecclus 30.24 Wrath killeth the foolish man 4. It breaks forth into strife and contention it begets it and nourisheth it for as coals to burning coals and wood to the fire so a wrathful man stirreth up strife Prov. 26.21 5. And from words to blows wounds and death see Onomasticks on the word Rebla B. 6. The Commandment of God is gone out against it Ephes 4.31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour be put away from you c. Col. 3.8 7. A cruel Angel is sent out against it even Abaddon the Angel of the bottomless pit Obser 8. Take notice hence how Christ reforms his Church He begins with the heart and affections with wrath He that is angry with his brother c. How commonly do Christians reform the Christian Church Their first and main business is to take care that the outward ordinances be purely administred that the Word be preached often that the Canonical Scriptures be duly read Psalms sung Prayer made publickly privately in a word all outward Sanctimony all palpable and visible and audible service of God be duly observed And are not all these good duties They are no doubt And God forbid that I should go about to blame them or whatsoever duty Christ hath instituted in his Church Mean time this is not a Reformation like this of our Lord in the Text. The Pharisees made clean the outside of the cup and platter c. Matth. 23.25 26. They thought themselves not guilty of breaking the Sixth Commandment when they did not shed their Neighbours bloud Our Lord begins with the Reformation of the heart and affections there The Pharisees and too many Christians the Pharisees of our time begin their Reformation at the wrong end in those before named and other such like outward duties which indeed may be performed as speciously even by a wicked man as by the best of Christs Disciples Our Lord teacheth us to place our Reformation in such actions as wicked men cannot imitate and remain such in the mortifying of our earthly members suppressing our wrath our envy our malice and hatred Now all these are accounted infirmities and men may and do live in them and say they can do no otherwise while they live here And they are accounted very good Christians if they observe the Ordinances if they hear much and often men in reputation for zeal especially if they joyn themselves to a Congregation then they may be wrathful and envious and malicious c. O Beloved Of what validity of what value are all these pure outward Ordinances be they never so pure if mean time the heart and Conscience be unclean and impure What are they all but plaistering and daubing of a rotten wall What else but skinning of a festered wound Thou Hypocrite saith our Lord cleanse first that which is within A reverend and pious man being chosen a Preacher at one of the Inns of Court some of the Pharisees resorted to him and congratulated his choice to that place because he would cause the young Gentlemen there to cut their long hair The Preacher answered them that that was the least part of his business if he could but perswade them to cut off their affections to mortifie their lusts c. they would of themselves cut off their long hair Obser 9. As there is a spiritual progress for good unto all the obedient Disciples of Jesus Christ so is there also a spiritual progress for evil to all the disobedient and ungodly 1. The Law of the Father points unto Christ and those who have learned of the Father they come unto him The Son also commends his Disciples to the Spirit to whom he promiseth another Comforter 2. There is also a spiritual progress for evil to the disobedient The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment unto the Son The Son tells us that the Spirit shall come and convince the World of Judgment John 16. These three were figured by Saul David and Solomon Saul a Figure of the Law required much but could effect little was troublesome to all but was troubled by Goliah and the Philistins and at length slain by them David represents Christ in the flesh David slew Goliah and conquered the Philistins Rom. 8. Hebr. 2.14 Yet David saith that the Sons of Serviah were too strong for him Such as David could not subdue
pass that a man remembers that his Brother hath somewhat against him The guilt of injury done accompanieth the injurious person a man needs no Art of Memory to remember this if he silence not the clamour of his Conscience and will easily mind him of what he hath done or spoken he may have that by heart Thine own heart knoweth saith Solomon that thou thy self hast cursed or spoken evil of others Eccles 7.2 And whereas commonly men retain in memory nothing more fixt and durable than injuries done unto themselves manet alta mente repostum judicium He who doth injury to another at least every good man hurts himself first and is injured by himself and he himself is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most troubled by himself 2. Although remorse of Conscience awaken men as the Cock crowing to acknowledge their guilt yet this comes to pass by the grace and goodness of God as when the Cock crew Jesus turned and looked upon Peter and Peter remembred the words of Jesus c. Luke 22.60 61. Obser 1. Sins gone past in regard of time yet are not lost they remain upon record yea and may ever remain unless repented of and mortified Obser 2. The goodness of our God who hath given us this Soul and hath given us an helper our thoughts and memory to mind us of what is past and to put us upon our Duty present and to come to God and our Neighbour This the Divine Philosopher understood when he tells us that Mnemosyne is the mother of the Muses c. See Notes on Psal 63. Obser 3. Our memories are witnesses as well against us as for us Reprehend Them who offend their Brother and think not of it remember it not The Italian Proverb is commonly too true among the common sort of men He that offends another he writes it in the Sand but he that is offended engraves it deep in Marble Thus did Josephs Brethren Gen. 37.24 25. when they had stript him and cast him into a pit they sate down to eat c. they had no remorse or memory of what they had done or if they had they went about to put it by but let such know that certainly they shall remember it and that when it is too late as Josephs Brethren accused themselves many years after Gen. Nay if timely they prevent it not they shall be remembred of their injuries and evil deeds when it is too late to correct them Son Remember that thou in thy life time c. Luk. 16. 2. Doth not this more neerly concern us all Have we remembred as we ought the good we have received of our Brother or the injury we have done unto him How unthankful are we to our Elder Brother our Redeemer who redeemeth us from the wrath to come when others yet remain vessels of wrath c. See Notes on Psal 63. Nay do not many oppose and malign the remembrance of their duty to God and Man and Gods remembrances of them and what our Brother hath against them Against such our Lord denounceth an heavy woe c. See Notes ut supra 3. Thou mayest remember there that thy Brother hath somewhat against thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. at the Altar where thou art now about to offer thy gift and why there The place may mind us places are principal artificial means of helping memory But this place the Altar was the place where the people made reconciliation of their Souls unto God And therefore that might well remember us of reconciling our selves unto our Brethren Then and there thou mayest remember when thou art ready to offer the Lord meets us in our good purposes and intentions David had purposed to build an House to the Lord and that night the Lord sends Nathan to him When we desire to know his Will the Disciples were perplexed about what our Lord had said yet a little while and when they desired to ask him he meets the Disciples and prevents their asking John 16.19 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh Righteousness Esay 64.5 When men are busied about holy actions thoughts the Lord helps them David was troubled about the prosperity of wicked men Psal 73.16 It was painful to him until he went into the Sanctuary of God then he understood the end of those men And perhaps many one might little think of reconciliation unto his Brother until he comes to offer his gift and then the Lord minds him of it Obser Note here the goodness of God to the sincere and upright The Lord strikes in in the very nick of time or place inter sacrum saxum inter malleum incudem to prevent evil and further the good He would not that we should offend He minds us often and more at the last least we should offend him more When the Decree went out against the Jews that night the King could not sleep Esth And truly if we heeded well our own good thoughts and purposes we should experimentally find how present our Lord is how truly Immanuel our God is in the furthering of us in every good work preventing us in all our doings hindring our seeming good purposes Wisd 6.12 16. Repreh Them who will not be remembred of their duty towards God and Man but go on without taking notice or calling themselves to account for their actions No man saith what have I done This forgetfulness is noted by the Word of God as a main cause of sin that great sin Idolatry Psal 106.19 20. The greatest Idolater we read for 2 Kings 21.1 is called Manasseh i. e. forgetful Obj. I am busied about Divine matters I preach the Word I pray I read I confer I meditate Answ This men may do yet have no actual memory of God or their duty towards God or their Neighbour The Sons of Eli daily offered sacrifice yet knew not the Lord 1 Sam. I resort to Church I hear the Word I receive the Sacrament c. They who told the Lord Jesus that they did eat and drink at his Table and he had taught in their streets They were answered Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Luke 13. They who build Temples unto God may yet forget God Hos 8.14 Exhor O Beloved let us take heed to the things that we have heard lest at any time we let them slip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest we leak like a riven dish Heb. 2.1 The Lord threatens Manasseh that forgetful King that he will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish wiping it and turning it up-side down 2 Kings 21.13 dreadful is their condition Rom. 1.28 Because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind Hitherto we have heard the Case a man brings his gift to the Altar and remembers there that his Brother hath somewhat against him What is now to be done Here followeth the resolution of the Case wherein we have these directions 1. Leave there thy gift before the
commodity if it prove so that must lie by him while he lives Obser 4. Note hence the wisdom and mercy of the Lawgiver He made man's heart and knows it and lays no greater burden on us than he knows we are able to bear Under the Law the heart of man is stony hard and admits not easily the impressions of God's Law and therefore answerably to the stony heart the Law was written in Tables of stone And out of mercy and goodness the Lord permits many things and tolerates many things which afterward he permits not Heb. 9.9 10. Ye will bear with many weaknesses and frailties in your Children while they are Children alas they are Children and what can ye require or expect from a Child As the Child is so is his strength Judg. Now the Law is the state of Child-hood Gal. 5. Obser 5. Note hence the Wisdom and Justice of God He made us this soul and he knows what strength he hath given us and lays no more difficult or heavy burden no harder Law upon us then he knows we are able to bear If we be under the Gospel he makes good his Promise unto us that he will take from us the heart of stone and give us an heart of flesh what a reproach is it to one that is grown up what alwayes a child when I was a child saith St. Paul I did as a child 1 Cor. 13. 2. Axiom Whosoever puts away his wife unless it be for the cause of Fornication causeth her to commit Adultery To make up the full sence somewhat must be supplyed which is easily done out of the following point viz. If she marry This is to be understood mostwhat of the younger Wives divorced which having been once married are commonly inclined thereto The Apostle speaking of the order of Widows he tells us as much that when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry 1 Tim. 5.11 14. I will saith he that the younger women marry But where our Lord saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes her commit Adultery this is to be understood in a large sence as large as giving occasion to commit Adultery thus 1 Sam. 26.19 they say go serve other Gods Reason Our Lord here implies that the Bond and Oath of Marriage remains here entire and not broken except only in case of Fornication or Adultery if therefore an Husband divorce and put away his Wife and not for the cause of Fornication he causeth her to commit Adultery Obser 1. Hence it appears that our Lord would that we should take heed not only of committing sin our selves but also lest we be a cause or occasion of anothers sin Obser 2. The grand motive and reason which our Lord here alledgeth why men should not put away their Wives is that he who doth so causeth her to commit adultery He doth not take any reason from any other evil of punishment that possibly might befall him who so doth but from the evil of sin that may follow upon so doing whereby our Lord implies thus much That our great care lest we do amiss should proceed from hence lest thereby we should occasion others to sin Thus on the contrary when the Lord moves us to do our duty he useth motives taken from the good effect that will redound from them Psal 81.8 O Israel if thou wilt hearken unto me there shall no strange God be in thee neither shalt thou worship any strange God That 's a great reward of our hearkning unto our God and our obedience unto him that hereby he will drive out all the strange Gods out of us so the Lord promiseth Mich. 5.13 the great reward of well doing is well doing A good deed we say rewards it self Bonum officii is often used in Scripture for bonum premii and truly with good men this Argument is the most prevalent of all others because their main design is which indeed is the end of all Religion to be like unto God in eschewing all evil and doing all good we can since he doth no evil but is the Author of all goodness Such another motive St. Peter useth 2 Pet. 1.8 If these things be in you and abound they will make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ we were made to the image of our God in knowledge Col. 3. and many desire knowledge but the Apostle's motive is taken from the fruitfulness of our knowledge in our obedience Obser 6. How unmerciful is one man to another yea Man to his Wife whom yet he takes to himself as to be one flesh with himself how easily doth he take offence how narrowly doth he seek for a blemish Moses saith if he find any uncleanness in her Deut. 24.1 Men look upon one another for evil with an evil eye to discover what blemish or blame one can see and find in another that thereby we might take occasion to pride our selves in our own supposed excellencies like the Pharisees of old I am not like other men that thereby we might have occasion to hate one another and separate our selves one from another so the V. Latin reads that Prov. 18.1 Occasiones quaerit qui vult discedere ab amico He who would depart from his friend he seeks occasions so to do Oh that we were as curious as prying as searching every one into himself as every one almost is into the lives of others certainly if so we should prove as good Christians as for want of that inward search we are now evil Obser 7. Take hence an estimate how merciful the good God is toward the fallen man He took the Jews he takes us Gentiles to be his Spouse Thy Maker is thy Husband yet what Adulterers what Adultresses have we been yea are we how unchast how unfaithful are we unto our Husband The Lord aggravates this sin Ezech. 16. Jer. 3. Lift up thine eyes to the high places and see where thou hast not been lien with and 5.7 and 13.26 27. Notwithstanding all this mark what the Lord saith by his Prophet Esay 50.1 Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement Jer. 3.1 it 's said If a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another mans shall he return unto her agan shall not that land be greatly polluted But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet return again to me saith the Lord See Notes on Gen. 2.18 Mysticé The Church and People of God are his Spouse his wedded Wife Hos 2. such therefore she must be as a wife unto her husband she must stand before him in love Eph. See Notes as above she must be a meet help unto him ibid. Exhort To be chast and faithful one to another that there may be no ground of divorce of affections as they Man and Wife are one flesh so that they endeavour so to be joyned unto the Lord and one to another that they may be one
rule for our inward communication When Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word speaks unto us answer it with Yea with our consent thereunto When the evil one speaks answer it with Nay Christ speaks in Righteousness mighty to save Esay 63.1 His yea is yea and his nay is nay He is Amen the Faithful Witness Exhort Let our yea be yea and our nay nay to Christ speaking in us he speaks in Righteousness Esay 63.1 He speaks peace Psal 85.8 He speaks to hinder man from his work and hide pride from man Job 33.14 16 17 18. That having purged his Temple he might dwell in us and speak in us and be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Oracle in us The Roman God Locutius spake to the Romans until they had built him a Temple and then ever after he held his peace The Lord Jesus he speaks in us that we may prepare him a Temple and a dwelling place in us Exod. Let them build me a Sanctuary and I will dwell in the midst of them When we have built him a Temple He will then be an Oracle in us Ecclus. 33.3 Then what was before in Letter and History and much pains taken for the understanding of it it shall be an inward word Our Saviour tells the Woman of Samaria John 4. He who shall drink of the waters that I shall give him he shall thirst no more but it shall be in him a well of living waters springing up unto everlasting life The Woman said Sir Give me this water that I thirst not nor come hither to draw Who would not desire this when we are the Lord's Temple He speaks what with great trouble and pain men have studied and gathered out of Books he turns Cyriath Sepher into Deber Josh 15.15 How shall we know what word speaks in us surely if the Living Word he withdraws us from Evil and puts Good in the place and increaseth it if it be the Evil Spirit he withdraws from the Good and puts Evil in the place and increaseth it Means Would we hear the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inward word speaking to us Let us then turn unto our heart Psal 85.8 Let us not add unto his words Prov. 30.5 6. Every word of God is pure He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly add not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar What is more than these comes of evil What is here meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we turn more signifieth excess redundancy superfluity whereof there are two sorts 1. Of Good Mat. 5.47 2. Of Evil Jam. 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word we render evil is taken personally for the Evil One the Devil So in the Lord's Prayer Deliver us from evil Mat. 6.12 and 13 19. then cometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the Essay It may also be taken really as from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iniquity or wickedness Reason From the nature of the Rule adequate unto the mind and will of God which if it be exceeded Vltra citraqué nequit consistere rectum Since therefore there are two great Principles 1. The chief Good the Original of all truth and goodness 2. The chief Evil of all falshood lies sin and wickedness what exceeds the bounds of the one falls under the other Now because all humane actions thoughts and words are to be conformed unto the Divine Rule what exceeds that Note cannot proceed from the Principle of it but from the contrary Be not deceived little children he that doth righteousness is righteous as he is righteous he that commits sin is of the Devil 1 John 3.7 8. Object From hence some reason as they think strongly against Swearing and taking lawful Oaths as conceiving that from this Divine Testimony it 's proved unlawful for a Christian man in any case to swear why because what ever is more than Yea yea and Nay nay is from the evil one and therefore unlaw and evil I Answer this follows not but this indeed follows from hence that usual and customary swearing in our Communication is utterly unlawful and sinful how much more false swearing and lying Object 2. But some will say this which exceeds or is more than Yea yea and Nay nay is from the Evil One and therefore an oath which is more than Yea yea and Nay nay is from the Evil One and so it must be evil I Answer our Lord saith not whatsoever is more than these is evil but it cometh of the evil one A thing may come from the evil one Two wayes 1. Directly and per se 2. Per accidens and indirectly 1. Directly and per se and so an effect naturally flows from the cause of it so wickedness is from the wicked and the evil one is a liar and the father of lies Thus customary swearing comes directly from the evil one 2. Indirectly and by accident a thing may come from the evil one whereof truly and properly he is not the cause but the occasion only And thus the Devil directly and on set purpose excites tempts and stirs up men to sin but that which follows upon sin he is not the cause but only the occasion of it and in this sence a good effect may proceed from an evil cause as repentance from sin But sin is not properly the cause of repentance but of wrath so we say a Fever brings temperance this is no effect per se of a Fever but only by accident for per se a Fever rather tends to death and thus Ex malis moribus ortae sunt bonae Leges Good Laws proceed from evil manners Evil manners properly do not produce good Laws but rather tend to further wickedness as like begets like but occasionally the Magistrate makes good Laws for the repressing of evil manners And thus an Oath though lawfully taken may be said occasionally to come from the evil one As when the Devil the evil one takes away the word of truth out of the heart as he is said to take away the good seed Mat. 13.19 he ingenders in such an heart a lye And because this his work is too frequent and usual hence ariseth in men a fear suspicion and doubt of falshood and lying in those with whom they deal Hence an Oath was introduced and enjoyned by the God of Truth for the clearing and discovering of truth But directly per se a lawful Oath cannot proeed from the evil one because a part of God's worship Deut. 6.13 Obser Swearing any Oath is more than bare affirming or denying Obj. 1. What is more than Yea and Nay is unlawful but an Oath is more c. The communication must be Yea yea Nay nay and no more but an oath is more than these This Objection if well considered brings an answer with its self whether we consider communication or your communication For no doubt but the Christian Communication ought
Blasphemer obtained Mercy Dan. 3. yea he blesseth the most high God and decrees the greatest punishment against those who should blaspheme him v. 28 29. And Simon Magus having blasphemed must pray that the thought of his heart might be forgiven him Acts 8.22 23 24. Reason 1. The mercy goodness and forbearance of God Rom. 2.4 1 Tim. 1. 2. Because sins and blasphemies against the Father drawing by the cords of his love may proceed from ignorance Numb 15.25 because I did it ignorantly 3. It may also proceed from weakness Rom. 8.3 and thus 1 Joh. 2.12 13. All sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men our Lord saith not shall be forgiven unto some men but unto men that is all men who repent and believe and obey the Gospel The word is taken indifferently as appears by places of like sence 1 Tim. 2.4 Tit. 2.11 2 Pet. 3.9 Obser 1. The great Grace and Mercy of God the Father unto mankind Tit. 3.4 Obser 2. If God be so Gracious that through his Grace all sin and blasphemy is forgiven unto men 1 Joh. 4.11 how ungrateful is man who forgives no sin or offence to man no evil speaking against himself a cross word a little disrespect a small detriment or loss cools all love Obser 3. Blasphemy against the Spirit is not forgiven in this world nor in the world to come The blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blasphemy of the Spirit which may be understood two wayes first as this blasphemy proceeds from the mans spirit as the spirit of the man is the cause of the blasphemy and so this blasphemy of the spirit proceeds not from ignorance as that of Paul nor from passion as men of a pettish disposition in their hasty anger sometime blaspheme but out of their Spirit out of the inclination incitement and drift of the highest part of the Soul which is called the Spirit So that the blasphemy of the spirit imports besides the blasphemy the cause of it the promptness and readiness of the mans spirit to blaspheme And the words may well bear this sence for as for blasphemy against the holy Spirit the grievousness of that sin is set down expresly vers 32. As for these words they are not so in the Greek or Latin as we read them in our English for whereas we read holy spirit ye perceive it 's a Supplement in your last Translation And Beza confesseth that he added it to the Text. And whereas we read blasphemy against the holy Spirit there is no against in the Greek or Latin but only blasphemia spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this first interpretation of the words not only Cajetane gives but also Diodati in his Notes to the Italian Bible 2. Howbeit because I find the other reading in the Syriack and Arabick in high and low Dutch as also in the Spanish and French Bibles I shall not so adhere unto the former as to reject the other which we have in our Translation Blasphemy against the holy Spirit shall not be forgiven and in this sense the spirit is taken for the third person in the Deity Thus blasphemy against the truth of God clearly known whereof the conscience is convinced is blasphemy against the spirit of God And such seems to be the blasphemy of the Scribes and Pharisees here understood 3. Though all sin and blasphemy be forgiven to men yet this speech seems to some to be an Hebraism like that Mat. 5.18 with Luk. 16.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esay 54.10 The mountains shall remove This howsoever true yet for the reasons before given I conceive the words positively to be understood Obser 1. Peccata non sunt paria All sins are not alike Obser 2. Though our God be most merciful yet his punitive justice or severity sets bounds unto his mercy 3. Obser Behold the goodness and severity of God how good is he unto all men The Lord the Lord merciful and gracious Behold his Goodness but withal behold his Severity He will not acquit the guilty Behold his Goodness All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men But behold also his Severity Blasphemy against the spirit shall not be forgiven unto men Thus the wisdom of God by his Goodness keeps men from despair and by his Severity keeps them from presumption And therefore neither the upper nor the nether milstone must be given to pawn Deut. 24.6 Repreh Mens rash judgement concerning things which they know not There are many secrets in Nature which are not known ordinarily unto men but are gotten by great study and industry O how much more hidden are the secrets of God which he makes known unto those that fear him Psal 25. yet how rashly how unadvisedly do men judge of both What else do they who impute the Sanatio magnenetica by unguentum hopliatricum the cure by the weapon-salve to the Devil himself Have they forgotten what the Psalmist speaks Psal 72.18 that God alone doth wondrous things if these be his wondrous works in Nature dare they honour the Devil with them The like we may say of the influences of the Planets and Constellations which have a truth in Nature whatever the Professors of that Science are This is near the sin of the Pharisees here who ascribed Christ's Miracles wrought by Divine Power unto the Devil What less do they who speak evil of many precious Truths of God which they know not and call them errours and ascribe them to the spirit of errour which are truly proper unto the spirit of God God grant such men pardon for they speak what they do ignorantly in unbelief Repreh Merciless and ignorant men who because they have received thoughts of Christ according to the flesh what ever they hear contrary to their partial and narrow conceivings they call blasphemy Why because a company of men have agreed together in the meaning of some Scriptures which out of their private spirit and interpretation they have imposed upon them and what is so contrary to these must be blasphemy let them take heed rather lest they themselves blaspheme Exhort Let the patience and long-suffering of our God win upon us O let it lead us unto repentance O let us remember the many ignorances of God and his Truth his Wayes or Works our many frailties while yet under the Discipline of the Father Esay 45.4 5. I have sirnamed thee and girded thee 2 Esdr 1.22 23. Hos 11.1 4. Act. 13.18 Margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. Whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him 1. Who is this Son of man 2. What is it to speak a word against the Son of man 1. The Son of man is no other than the Lord Jesus according to his humanity who therefore calls himself by that Name not only thereby to signifie that he took part of flesh and blood Heb. 2. but also more
or if I have laid wait at my neighbours door then c. for this is an heinous crime an iniquity to be punished by the Judges for it is a fire that consumes to destruction and would root out all mine increase Job 31.11 12. where mark how God the Judge frustrates the ends men aim at in these foolish and wicked actions they aim at increase of Children and these practises root out their increase and so the Lord threatens those who commit this folly and wickedness Lev. 20.20 They shall bear their sin they shall die Childless and again vers 21. They shall dye Childless Exhort Be faithful to our Maker who hath vouchsafed to style himself our husband Sign Vxor coruscat radiis mariti Can we appeal unto him as the Church does Psal 44. Means against Adulteries and Fornications against our God They are both of one kind and the same means will be serviceable for the avoiding of both 1. froward thoughts seperate from God Wisd 1.3 therefore Esay 55.7 Let the wicked man forsake his wayes and the unrighteous man his thoughts c. and return unto me 2. Bacchus Venus Vinum cause and promove this sin 3. There is a drunkenness that is not with wine even a drunkenness with vain and false Opinions 4. Fulness of bread even the word which they practise not therefore it follows 5. Abundance of idleness 6. Above all look to our eyes Oculi sunt in Amore Duces Num. 15.38 Exhort To live soberly temperately and chastly holily and righteously in the time of our health wealth honour and generally in the time of our prosperity it will be our great solace and comfort when any calamity befalls us This was Job's Consolation in the midst of all his miseries and afflictions Job 31. and Hezekiah when the Prophet told him he must now die Yea to shame many who would be thought and called Christians yet spend their time of prosperity in riot lasciviousness and unchastity Zenophon gives them far better counsel when he saith That God is most of all to be worshipped and served in our prosperity when all things go well with us that we may the more securely trust in him when adversity befalls us that we may then call upon him with greater confidence and assurance to be heard of him when we have so lived that we know that he is propitious good and loving to us Out of the heart proceed Thefts Our Lord in the former word discovered that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The evil concupiscence which is called the lust of the flesh 1 Joh. 2. He now makes discovery of another evil concupiscence which is called the lust of the eyes The word here used is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render theft our English word is from the Saxon which hath affinity with the Latin ferre or auferre to bear or carry away as also with the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a thief And because what is stoln is anothers the thief hides what he steals whence the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hide Theft largely understood is an unlawful taking away of that which is anothers whether it be done secretly and so he who offends is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or openly and violently and so he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye have both together Joh. 10.1 Reason It is first forged there for when the eye makes report of what is desirable unto the heart the heart consents and so follows the eye Josh 7. Achan confesseth this method of thievery unto Joshua Obser 1. The heart is a den of thieves Obser 2. A man may be an arrant thief yet non contrectare rem alienam not handle not touch his neighbours goods When thou sawest a thief then thou consentedst to him Psal 50.21 The thief enters in at the windows The Lord presently adds these things hast thou done they are res gestae things which the man hath done though he never put forth his hand to do them Mich. 2.1 2. This is a truth so well known that even out of the dictates of the Law of Nature a Civilian reports it Aulus Gellius lib. 1. cap. 18. quam castè quam religiosè c. we must not omit saith he how chastly how religiously theft hath been defended by our wisest Lawyers Then he tells us out of Sabinus Meminisse debemus furtum sine ulla quaque attrectatione fieri posse sola mente atque animo at furtum fiat annitente Latro est etiam antequam inquinet manus saith Seneca and the same fecit quisque quantum voluit And that of the Poet Has patitur poenas peccandi sola voluntas Nam scelus intrà se tantùm qui cogitat ullum Facti nomen habet Obser 3. There are distinct Dominions Rights and proper Interests in Temporal Things how else can there be thefts since theft is the taking away of that which is anothers if it be anothâ—rs then hath that other a proper right in it which he may call his he hath Dominion over it power to use it spend it alien or sell it Hence it is that the Lord requires in every believer contentation 1 Tim. 6.8 That having food and rayment he be therewithal content Yea the Lord will that every one be provident for time to come Prov. 30.25 The Ants prepare their meat That he may make provision for himself and his house that he be not burdensome to others 2 Cor. 8.12 13. Yea so provident a man ought to be that he may have wherewith to defray publick charges of the Common-wealth Mat. 22.21 that he may supply the necessities of the poor Saints according to brotherly love 2 Cor. 8.12 That he may have to give to him that needeth Eph. 4.28 according to common love Now where there is no proper interest no meum tuum in the world no man could call any thing his own or use it spend or sell it nor should any man have any estate wherewithal he should be content nor would there be any buying or selling giving or receiving borrowing or lending Obser 4. This Right is not founded in Grace so that a man who hath Grace may take away that which is another mans who hath no Grace Our Lord determin'd this long ago when he forbad his own Gracious People to intermeddle with the Land of the graceless Edomites Moabites and Ammonites and that they should by no means invade their possessions and his reason is convictive Deut. 2. which yet will appear more forcible if we consider the end why the Lord gives his temporal good things to graceless men That they might seek out God that they may repent Rom. 2. Know'st thou not that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance If these two things be granted that the Dominion and Right unto temporal things is founded in Grace 2. That a man may be his own judge who is
to know the wicked and ungodly in comparison of such as are worthy his love care bounty and approbation thus Christ is said not to know sin 2 Cor. 5.21 out of this ignorance as I may so call it proceeded that question to Adam Gen. 3.9 where art thou and out of this knowledge proceeded that speech of God to Abraham Gen. 22.12 Now know I that thou fearest the Lord. Thus the Lord is said to do all things Joh. 1. Without him nothing was made so all power is of God Rom. 13. and by me Kings reign Prov. 8. yet the contrary is sometimes read as Hos 8. because God approved not their works they did not reign by his approbation as for the Saints of God he concurrs with them in what they do according to his will Joh. 14. Without me ye can do nothing We are not sufficient of our selves to think a good thought our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3. And thus the Lord saith to the foolish Virgins Verily I say unto you I know you not 1. The reason of this may appear from the disharmony and discord between the nature of God most holy and the nature of the sin evil betwixt which there can be no agreement 2. Reason may be in regard of those who are disowned they have not the spirit of Wisdom Love and Mercy without which there is no acceptance with God Wisd 7.28 for God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom and Chap. 9.6 though a man be never so perfect among the Children of Men yet if thy wisdom be not with him he shall be nothing regarded so Rom. 8.9 Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his He knows none by face but whom the Oyl of the Spirit makes chearful nor does the Lord know any man by voice unless he feel his hands and his neck as Isaac felt Jacob's the neck stiff is a character of pride the hands are workers figuring the iniquity unless he see the lamp and light burning Isa 3.10 Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings 2. The Lord admits into the Bride-chamber only those whom he knows There is and hath much advice been given and taken touching the admission of Communicants unto the Lord's Table who are worthy who are not worthy guests and Tickets have been and are given by some for admission unto the Lords Supper the holy Wedding-feast Abundans cautela non necet O beloved its easie by the art of seeming so generally practised at this day to deceive all men But our God as he is so good that he will not deceive so he is so wise that he cannot be deceived He knows who are his and whosoever names the name of the Lord let him depart from iniquity that 's his Ticket or Token his Seal as the Apostle calls it which cannot be counterfeited these are his his friends These he admits unto his holy Supper these he welcomes Cant. 5.1 Eat O my Friends drink yea drink abundantly O my well-beloved 3. The Lord admits and receives all those who are admitted into the Bride-chamber he also rejects and disowns all those who are rejected and disowned For howsoever it be said Matth. 18.18 Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven yet mark to whom those words are spoken in the 1. Verse of that Chapter even to the Disciples of Christ those who have his Mind his Spirit The final state of all men is not carried by mens scio's or nescio's by I or no by votes or voices of men so as they approve or disapprove know or know not men are admitted or rejected This is that which many in these days ambitiously affect that they may put themselves in place of God admit or exclude others from the Kingdom of God but blessed be the Lord who hath given no such power unto men but the Lord hath that power in his own hand which is a thing that it were to be wished men better considered of than they do It 's a business worthy our best observation especially in these times and in this populous City wherein according to the dependencies and relations of men they are in such or such a way of Religion they walk not considering whether God know that way or not They think it enough that he on whom they depend and by whom they gain goes that way and is of that Faith ye know it was the Argument of Demetrius Act. 19.24 25. 4. Note hence what is the true Cause of Gods disowning and reprobating men and excluding them from his Kingdom so that they never enter into it it is evident what the defect and fail is and that it lies on man's part and not on God's I have shewn in the opening of this Parable that the main defect and fail is the want of Oyl in their Lamps they had Lamps of Faith without Oyl of the Spirit whereby their Lamps of Faith might burn and shine in works of mercy 5. Note hence how unprofitable is late Repentance the Petitioners here were Virgins viz. Christians who had Faith and expected the coming of the Bridegroom and such who went also to buy the Unction 1. Hence those may be reproved who impute the exclusion and rejection of ungodly men to other Causes and lay the blame of the exclusion upon God himself as if he made the Virgins foolish that he might exclude them as if he caused men to sin that he might punish them Nero would have perswaded a Vestal Virgin to folly but she refused wherefore because it was a capital Crime for a Vestal Virgin to be defloured Nero soon caused the Virgin to be forced and defloured and then put her to death for being defloured such a God many worship at this day Nerone Neroniorem who makes men sin makes the Virgins foolish and then condemns them to eternal punishment and excludes them from the Kingdom of Heaven because they are foolish 2. Those are to be reproved also who know not God nor will any of his ways the time is coming when the Lord will not know them ignorans ignorabitur 2. The Lord confirms and ratifies his disowning the foolish and ungodly men Verily I say unto you I know ye not As all the Promises of God are in Christ Amen verily 1 Cor. 1. so are all the Threatnings and denunciations of Judgment and his definitive Sentence of final Reprobation in Christ also Amen This is the Seal of Condemnation Light is come into the world and men love darkness better than light the fix'd Gulf the door of Mercy is shut and locked and bolted and barred and barricadoed against ungodly men for ever Let us therefore be exhorted to acquaint our selves with our God while we have time and while he may be found know the Lord that he may know and own us at his coming
flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it these will not allow themselves food convenient but make it a great part of their Religion to starve yea kill their bodies with austerity of Discipline Oh how these mistake the counsel of their great friend he bids them keep under the body of sin and bring it into subjection And they keep under their natural body as for the body of sin that they pamper and cherish they whip the Cart and let the horses go free Repreh 2. Those false friends of Jesus Christ who fear those that kill the body and forsake their friend This comes near home to those who fear loss and shame among men and for fear of that lose their conscience speak evil of what they know not for gain for safety We all condemn Balaam as a false Prophet but if compar'd to some they come short of him Numb 22.38 Have I now any power to say any thing c. If Balac would give me his house full of silver and gold I will say neither more nor less than what God declares Nu. 22.18 ye have an example of this in infamous Joas that great zealous King for God 2 Chr. 24.17 after the death of Jehojada the Princes of Judah came made obeysance to the king Then the king hearkned unto them and left the house of God made them groves this did Joas for a little honor but Zachary would not consent to them no not to save his life Repreh 3. Those who are fearless caress and secure what befalls their bodies fear not them who kill them yet are not friends of Jesus Christ It is very remarkable to whom our Lord gives his counsel and how qualified they ought to be they are his friends and they do whatsoever he commands them I say to you my friends c. He saith not this to strangers much less to his enemies Let such fear I wish them and take heed of them that kill their bodies they have this present life as an opportunity to reconcile themselves and become friends of Jesus Christ The same Spirit that saith this to his friends fear not c. because they do whatsoever he commands them the same saith to those who do evil fear Rom. 13.1 4. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God Thou mayest give thy body to be burned yet have no charity This is love that we keep his Commandments Consol Of Christ's friends who bear their life in their hand and suffer for his sake if ye suffer for righteousness sake blessed are ye suffering is a greater gift than faith if the Apostle reason right Phil. 1.29 yea it is the chief part of the Christian calling 1 Pet. 2.19 20 21. but innocens morieris So the wife of Socrates told him weeping for him What saith he wouldst thou rather that I should die for evil doing It is our female part in us that suggests such thoughts The death of good men is not to be lamented it is more miserable to deserve death than to dye The death of an innocent man frees the innocent man from woe but brings woe unto them that put them to death Jer. 26. God had sent the Prophet with a message to the Jews to perswade them to repentance otherwise he would make his Temple like Shilo and the City of Jerusalem a curse to all the Nations of the Earth God had given to Jerusalem and to his Temple their great and precious promises which moved the Priests and the Prophets and all the People against Jeremy and they would have him put to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple the People the Law the Place were great priviledges of the Jews and he might be thought to speak against Gods own cause But how doth Jeremy in this case behave himself vers 14 15. Surely God honoured his own Ordinances then as highly as he esteems any outward Ordinances now wherefore when we tell men that the goodness of the cause will not do them good unless they themselves be good meek lowly patient that if they kill all wicked men in the world and kill not their own lusts they are not one jot neerer to God they wax offended 't is Jeremiah's case just To be an innocent man is to be a dear friend of Jesus Christ and by how much the more his friend by so much the more hated of the Scribes and Pharisees and the People that are led by them Mark what our Lord tells his friends Joh. 16.1 2 3 4. Isa 66.5 Your brethren that cast you out for my names sake say let the Lord be glorified but he shall appear to your joy but they shall be ashamed Jer. 50. and 7. their adversaries said we offend not because they have sinned against the Lord the habitation of justice even the Lord the hope of their fathers keep innocency and do the thing that is good and that shall bring a man peace at the last Exhort Jesus Christ exhorts his friends fear not them who kill the body 1. Consider his Divine Presence Omnipresence Psal 3 1-6 2. The fear of man bringeth a snare Prov. 29.25 3. Yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 48. Isa 24.17 4. If ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terrour neither be troubled 1 Pet. 3.1 4. 5. The condition of the daughters of Abraham vers 6. 6. Knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Rev. 21.8 See Notes on 1 Joh. 5.4 Jesus Christ thy friend saith fear not them that kill the body he hath feared nothing not shame not death it self Dedi corpus percutienti I gave my body to the smiter Darius so esteemed the wounds that Zopyra inflicted upon himself that he preferred him before an hundred Cities Jesus Christ was not only wounded but dyed also for thy sake How acceptable unto God was Abraham's offer to offer up Isaac he took the will for the deed How much more acceptable is the real offering of our bodys unto him The fear of God drives out the fear of men as fire fire fear the Lord let him be your dread as the Viper cures the Viper the fiery Serpent on the pole cured the sting of the fiery Serpents Moses his Serpent devoured the Serpents of the Magicians so the fear of God devours all fear of men O Beloved do we not herein most grosly deceive our selves as thinking that we are indeed the friends of Jesus Christ whereas indeed we are not This concerns us all and every one of us so much the more neerly 1. Because 't is an easie matter in this very thing to be deceived 2. then secondly if we be deceived in this it is in a matter of the greatest moment 'T is an easie thing to be deceived and that by how much the more we are busied about Divine Matters both Preacher and Hearer 1. The Preacher who specially is spoken to in
light secret and open sinners close hypocrites and scandalous persons Both these strongly imagine themselves into the life and therefore are said to get in some other way than by the door as by following of a false light and by notions and high flown knowledges falsly so called and by much talking of heavenly things they imagine they have them A great and dangerous imposture and self conceit yet I fear too common amongst us Consol To the poor weak travellers who are passing through this narrow way who are crowding through this strait gate and entring into life who bear about in their bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus c. It is tedious to them This is no hasty no sudden death moriendo morieris we were daily plunged into sin 'T is easie to fall Sed revocare gradus superasque evadere ad auras Hic labor hoc opus est The contention was long between the house of David and the house of Saul 2 Sam. 3.1 but the house of David waxed stronger and stronger c. Nor is this any argument that God loves thee the less that he leaves thee long in the passage unto life He tryes thy faith thy patience thy long suffering there were no use of these if we could enter into life as soon as we desire it He proves thy love whether constant or no But prae Amore exclusit foras Doth he keep me out of doors even for love Yea this is an argument of Christ's love unto us Joh. 11.5 6. O let the love of Christ constrain us Love is strong as death Cant. 8.6 One of David's worthies is called Azmaveth the strength of death or strong as death The Barhumite the son of heat 2 Sam. 23.31 such is the fervour and ardent heat of Love in David's worthies the servants of Love that 's the true David jealousie is cruel or hard as the grave Esay 41.14 fear not thou worm Jacob and ye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye mortals ye dead men of Israel Our translators turn it in the Margent ye few men of Israel I know not why they turn it so except such dead men be few whereas the natural dead are many they are said abire ad plures Why must they not fear There is great reason added I will help thee saith the Lord and thy Redeemer he who hath been thy guide unto death and lead thee into it by his example he shall redeem thee from death Exhort To enter into life and admit the life to enter into us Christ he is the way the narrow way the gate the strait gate he hath said he is the door unless we enter by him his humility resignation meekness c. we cannot enter it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faithful saying 2 Tim. 2.11 if we suffer with him we believe we shall live with him Rom. 6.8 The door whose lintel is sprinkled with the blood of Christ is a sign of safety to him that is therein Exod. 12.22 Heb. 10.19 Means 1. Believe in Christ as the Scripture hath said of him He is the door 2. Love Life Charitas intrat ubi scientia foris stat Love enters in where knowledge is kept without 3. Hereby an entrance shall be administred 2 Pet. 1.11 More NOTES on ROM 5.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned THis is the Progress of Sin and Death the cause or according to another Translation the limitation of it In the words are these Divine Truths 1. All have sinned 2. Death hath passed upon all 3. Death hath passed upon all in that all have sinned The Reddition unto these parts of the Protasis or Proposition is 1. All shall be made righteous 2. Life shall pass upon all 3. Life shall pass upon all in that all shall be made righteous The Reddition or latter part of the similitude is not in the same tense because the malady in nature precedes the remedy that which is natural and corrupt is first and then that which is spiritual and therefore the first Adam is here called forma futuri the type of the second Adam who is to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also the Verb whereunto it answers in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth properly to err from the mark to miss what we aimed at as Judg. 20.16 Also to go astray or miss the way By Metaphor as the word is most used it signifieth to miss the mark whereat all our actions ought to aim the Glory and Praise of our God So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to miss err from the mark 1 Tim. 6.21 They have erred concerning the faith and 2 Tim. 2.18 who concerning the truth have erred To stray from the straight way of Gods Commandments The reason of this is the same with that of the first point in this Text. Observ 1. This discovers the falseness and doubleness of all mens intentions and aims by corrupt Nature They pretend and would seem to aim at and intend the Glory of God which is indeed the true Mark we all ought to aim at but they truly intend their own glory honour wealth pleasure and ease in the flesh These are too ugly that men should suffer them to appear in their own colours and therefore they veil them over with the Glory of God or some specious pretence or other This is that which our Lord means by the evil eye Mat. 6.23 by the evil eye and the dark light is to be understood the false intention misguided by the false light in us our Lord gives instance in Alms Prayer and Fasting Mat. 6. Alms may be given with a single eye and single intention or with a double and a false intention accordingly men may pray and fast but our Lord discovers the false hearts of all men And if the Light be darkness and the aim and intention according to that Light be false and double how can it be but the action when so misguided must also be sinful and miss the mark Psal 78.57 Hos 7.16 Observ 2. See the manifold aberrations and strayings from the way of the Lord falling short of the end Rom. 3.23 fallen short turning to the right hand or to the left 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not in vain called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin that besets us on this side and that side They are all gone out of the way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observ 3. Take notice of the direful increase of Sin it came by one Man into the world yet from that ones Mans sin all have sinned See Notes on Rom. 6.19 Thus Sin opens the windows and death enters in Jer. 9.21 Repreh Why then do we accuse censure judge and condemn one another while yet we are all in the same condemnation all in the pit Exhort To level at the Mark Phil. 3.14 To walk according to the Rule Gal. 6.16 Death passed over all The word which we render to Pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is
diversly understood according to the LXX Translation who by it render divers words in the Hebrew which therefore I shall distinguish 1. According to the term à quo from which the passage is made 2. According to the passage it self and 3. According to the term ad quem whereunto Sin and Death tends 1. According to the term à quo the word by which they render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go forth 1. As a plant out of the Earth and so Death grows up out of the earthly and carnal mind Rom. 8.6 from a Root that beareth gall and wormwood Deut. 29.18 a poysonful Herb. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like that 2 King 4.40 Man of God Death is in the pot a root of bitterness which springing up troubles us whereby many are defiled Heb. 12.15 2. As a Child out of the womb Sin being perfected brings forth death Jam. 1.15 and we read of the first-born of death Job 18.13 3. As the Sun goeth forth out of the East for so the false light goes forth such is Vr Chaldeorum Satan is an Angel of light the light that is in thee is darkness accordingly the LXX turn it by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. It signifieth to go forth as a word out of the mouth and this is the word of Belial i. e. the Devil as the Syriack turns it 2 Cor. 6. which the Devil first spake into our common Mother and thence into all her Seed So what we turn Deut. 15.9 a thought in thy wicked heart Hebr. a word of Belial in thine heart and an evil disease Psal 41.8 An evil disease cleaveth unto him is in the Original a word of Belial or the Devil is poured into him and what we turn Psal 101.3 a wicked thing is Hebr. a word of Belial This is the word whereof the Wise Man speaks Ecclus. 23.12 A word cloathed about with death 5. It signifieth to go out as one goes out to war So the Serpent having by stratagem overcome the Woman he continues the war with her Seed Rev. 12. and leads forth an infernal Army of hurtful lusts which fight against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 2. According to the motion and passage it self The LXX by this word render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to descend and so death natural spiritual and infernal descends as an hereditary deadly disease as the Stone from the Father to the Child an hard and stony heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4.18 a foul leprosie such as that of Gehazi 2. They render it by repere to creep Psal 104.20 for so it steals down upon all the posterity of Adam insensibly without any noise it is that true pestilence that walks in darkness Psal 91.6 So the LXX by it turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk like a walking spirit this is malum irrepens 3. According to the term ad quem or end of the motion or passage So the LXX turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to pitch a Tent by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 13.12 and Isa 13.20 Death takes up the house of the Soul the Curse rests in it Zach. 5.4 it takes a circuit and goes round about as the Devils do 1 Pet. 5.8 who brought death into the world Wisd 2.24 and therefore they render by it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it over-flowes as the Seas and therefore they render by it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the floods of ungodliness the waters which overwhelm the streams of iniquity which go over the Soul Psal 124.4 So the Lord threatned Jerusalem Ezech. 5.17 By all these expressions we understand what the passage of death is and how it passeth over all The reason of this intimated in the opening of the first point is considerable in regard of that first Decree of God In the day that thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt die which is the Statute which the Apostle mentions Hebr. 9. Statutum est omnibus semel mori 2. From proportion of the punishment unto the Sin the Sin common to all and so the punishment 3. Point I shall give no other reason for this Point than the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In quo omnes peccaverunt The words have a double understanding and are urged by men of different judgements Both 1. By those who believe and acknowledge this first sin and so they turn them in that or in whom i. e. in Adam all sinned And 2. those who believe it not and so they turn them quatenus so far forth But truly that Translation profits them not for if so we render the words Death passed over all so far forth as all have sinned they will amount to as much as our present Translation Death hath passed over all so far forth as all have sinned for how far forth have all sinned unless according to that Original pollution contracted from our Common Parent by whom sin entred into the world Observ 1. Spiritual Death is successive and not all at once it passeth upon all in succeeding generations and upon all persons but by degrees Nemo repentè fit pessimus Moriendo morieris i. e. sensim by little and little Observ 2. What is the cause of this overflowing scourge as the Prophet Isaiah calls it Chap. 28.2 What is the reason of this deluge of calamities and miseries which overflow the Land The Apostle tells us the Reason Death passeth over all in that all have sinned we lay the blame one upon another out of partiality and such is our folly we think the cause of these miseries is some other thing than indeed it is our Lord implies as much Jer. 9.12 13 14. 1 King 8.33 When the people be smitten down before the enemy because they have sinned against thee vers 35. When heaven is shut up that there is no rain because they have sinned verse 37. Famine pestilence blasting mildew locusts verse 38. Who shall know every one the plague of his own heart Particular examples are infinite 1 King 16. Vengeance is taken by Zimri on the house of Basha and upon himself and all so ordered by God for his sins sake vers 18 19. And therefore the Prophet Isa 28.1 gives the reason of the overflowing scourge Wo to the crown of pride to the drunkards of Ephraim their pride covers them as a crown and compasseth them as a chain violence covers them as a garment they are swallowed up of wine and therefore the scourge must also swallow up overwhelm and overflow them Hence was the deluge of water which followed the deluge of sin and therefore it is called in the High and Low Dutch the sin-flood or the flood that came by sin Repreh Why then do we go about to hasten the death of one another It was the argument of the woman of Tekoah unto David We must needs all die and are as water spilt upon the ground 2 Sam. 14.14 Exhort Let us consider our
continuance of his reign from Adam to Moses If we resolve these into the Principles whereof they consist they are these 1. Adam was a transgressor or committed transgression 2. Some have sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression 3. Some have sinned and not after the similitude of Adams transgression c. 4. Death hath reigned even upon those who have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression 5. Death hath reigned from Adam to Moses even over them who have not sinned c. 6. From the note of diversity though sin were not imputed when there was no Law yet death reigned And every one of these hath an opposite Apodosis as we shall see in the handling every one of them There was anciently a twofold reading of this Verse 1. One without the Negative As death reigned even over those who sinned after the similitude c. 2. The other with the Negative as we now read the words death reigned who had not sinned after the similitude c. And truly the pious Ancients both Latin and Greek Fathers have followed both readings as well they might and we may without any contradiction The meaning of the Affirmative is this Death reigned over Adam and also over all those who sinned as Adam did and after his Example 2. The other reading with a Negative hath this sence that death reigned over those who either sinned not or not after Adams Example not so heinously as Adam sinned 1. What a Transgressor is I lately shewed 2. Let us enquire what Adam is Though we have often mentioned the first Man in the opening of this Text yet what is signified here by the name Adam which was not named till now we have not yet shewn we shall therefore 1. Consider the name Then 2. the thing signified by it 1. Adam then hath his name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Earth and that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be red or ruddy so that Adam is Man made of red earth As Tyberius by reason of his cruelty was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dust or earth mixt with blood the Apostle alludes to it 1 Cor. 15.47 The first man is of the earth earthy This name may be three wayes understood 1. As the proper name of our Common Parent 2. As the earthly Adam in us the common nature we have in us propagated from Adam Thus Adam gives his name to every one of us as a Father leaves his name to his Children according to which any one may be truly called Adam So the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man ordinarily answers to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is that which we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the animalish or natural man the man of this world 3. This name is also given to the Son of God or the Son of man who is in heaven the second Adam the Lord from heaven heavenly When then we say that Adam was a Transgressor we understand that Common Parent who hath propagated as his name so his nature unto his posterity Now that Adam was a Transgressor so it is in the Syriack or committed transgression as it is plain by the story Gen. 3. it was shewn out of the first point in this Text verse 12. with the reason of it And therefore I shall not trouble you with any thing then delivered only I shall answer an objection which seems point black to thwart this Text. Object 1 Tim. 2.14 Adam was not deceived but the Woman being deceived was in the transgression it seems therefore that not Adam but Eve was the transgressor or committed the transgression I could here trouble you with a long dispute and divers opinions of men which I wave I answer therefore the Man and the Woman are sometime opposed as in that Scripture The Scripture puts Antithesis for Protimesis Misericordiam volo non sacrificium Thou shalt not be called Jacob but Israel Moses gave you not the bread from heaven but my father giveth the true bread from heaven so here Adam was not deceived but the woman Sometime they are taken as one person so Gen. 1.27 In the Image of God made he him Male and Female created he them when yet the Female was not made which ye read first made Gen. 2.18 Thus when Moses recapitulates the Generations of Adam Gen. 5.2 Male and Female Created he them and called their name Adam for they are both as one person and expresly called one flesh so that whether the one or the other be meant or spoken of the name is Adam Besides although the Woman sinned yet was Adam the chief cause of Generation and Propagation both of Mankind and Sin with it and therefore may the transgression be called Adams and Adam be said to be a transgressor Observat Hence then appears the truth of that Psal 143.2 it is the inference of the Holy Ghost Isai 43.26 27. Thy first Father sinned and was a transgressor Where observe the low condescent of our God to our judgement He submits himself to our opinion who can say that he hath merited any thing for himself or others who hath his own demerits and sins Thy first father hath sinned and transgressed and made thee a transgressor from the womb O no in thy sight no man living shall be justified See Notes in Rom. 7.9 Apodosis Christ the second Adam is Righteous He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminency THE JVST ONE Acts 7.52 who have shewed before the coming of that Just One and 22.14 That thou shouldest know his will and see that Just One Yea the wife to Pilate who condemned him acknowledged as much Matth. 27.19 Have thou nothing to do with that Just Man yea he himself who condemned him acknowledged him such vers 24. I am innocent of the blood of this just person so did the Traytor I have betrayed the innocent blood Reason 1. He is essentially such 2. It was necessary he should be such For ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him was no sin 1 Joh. 3.5 Repreh This may justy reprove too many of us who complain of the Old Adam and take no notice of the New who remember these words thy first father sinned but forget that Christ is our second Father yea the Everlasting Father and that he was manifested to take away our sins who complain of a body of sin dwelling in us the Old Adam but remember not that in the New Adam dwells the fulness of the God-head bodily Who pity the Old Man and his lusts Alas it is my nature to be angry to be pettish and froward I am by nature prone to envy to pride to covetousness to gluttony to drunkenness alas I cannot help it I am inclined to it by nature thou art so but what nature is it is it not thy sinful nature is it not thy corruption that is in thee by lusts Mean time thou takest no notice of the Divine
built up for ever Mercy and Truth pretence of Truth without Mercy that would reign It is commonly said that the pride and covetousness and ambition of the former Governours brought the world to that pass wherein it was and truly I dare not excuse them but we are much wronged abroad whether we be teaching or such as would be ruling Elders if we be not altogether as proud and ambitious and covetous as they were and therefore let us take heed lest we continue and increase Gods Judgements among us and provoke him to take away this and all other Government from us Truly the sins of all ranks and orders of men bid fair for such an Anarchy or want of all Rule as ye read of Isa 3 1-8 and therefore we may justly fear that the Lord will make us as the creeping things that have no Ruler over them Hab. 1.14 Consol Here is singular Consolation unto the weaklings the Children that are partakers of flesh and blood who are righteous as yet by the righteousness of the Law and desire to be justified by the righteousness of the second Adam God the Father by his Law hath begotten in them a good will unto Jesus Christ the second Adam and his Righteousness But alas the Law is the strength of sin 1 Cor. 15. and occasions sin to reign more tyrannically and death by sin And because the Children are partakers c. Heb. 2.14 When Pharaoh is most tyrannical the people cry out unto their God and then he sends the true Moses Let us hear holy David speak his experience Psal 18 1-4 The sorrows or the cords Marg. of death compassed me about the floods of Belial i. e. the Devil that hath the power of death Hebr. 2.14 15. vers 5. The sorrows or cords of hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 6. In his distress he calls upon the Lord and what comes of it vers 16 17. the like ye have Psal 116.1 and Psal 142 1-7 Rom. 7.24 25. Repreh 2. Those who in this very nick of time when the Kingdom yea the whole Christian world is in a suffering condition are yet so unseasonably ambitious of Rule that even now they contend for it as the Disciples of Christ when he told them of his passion strove among themselves who should be the greatest Luk. 9.46 This is just Adams property 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is it not much more seasonable to suffer with him As he taught his Disciples upon that occasion Can ye drink of the Cup c. Matth. 20.20 To die with him that we may live with him to suffer with him that we may reign with him Repreh 3. Those who sleight and despise the life See Notes in Col. 2.12 Repreh 4. Those that despise the true sent Ministers of God Luk. 7.32 to be sure the fault is in the Minister If of an austere life as John then he lives like a Monk or if loving and familiar then who is he acquainted with but men without any Religion in them John comes in the way of Righteousness but men will not go out of their own way to meet the Lord in his way And may not this be truly applyed to the men of this Generation who disparage and vilifie the Life that must Reign so far are they from admitting it to reign over them Men are not ashamed to say that the Heathen live better lives than we do Yea that the Jesuites that the Pharisees Difficile est dissimulare diu Death reigned from Adam to Moses These words contain the duration and continuance of the Tyrant Deaths reign with the terms when it began and when it ended I must here remember ye 1. Who this Tyrant is 2. What his reign is 3. What is here meant by Adam 4. What by Moses 5. How Death is said to reign from Adam to Moses 1. This Tyrant Death is not only Natural but also Spiritual and Infernal the first-born of sin the Nephew and Grand-child of the Devil as ye find his Genealogy Jam. 1.15 Job 18. it is otherwise called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we turn Rom. 8.6 to be carnally minded according to the extent of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may turn it the mind and affection of the flesh and so our Translators Col. 3.2 render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set your affection and in the margin mind so that according to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the mind and affection of the flesh which is said to be death So that a carnal mind carnal thoughts reasonings imaginations carnal will love desire hope fear joy grief all these are Death 2. This Death is said to have reigned The word is taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indefinitely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that we may understand it so to have reigned that it doth reign as I fear we shall find it doth for wheresoever there is such a carnal mind will and affection there is the reign of Death 3. By Adam we understand not only the person of Adam the first but the nature and that corrupted in every man which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the souly man or natural man 1 Cor. 2.9.14 and this is here meant 4. Moses may be understood 1. Properly and personally 2. Figuratively 1. Properly according to the history of him Exod. 2. and so ye have his Name and Etymologie of it Exod. 2.10 2. Figuratively and so by Moses we understand 1. The Law given by Moses Luk. 16.29 Joh. 5.45 2. Christ the end of the Law 5. How did Death reign from Adam to Moses The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from may note a time or Epocha and a cause 1. A time and so the reign of Death from Adam's transgression unto Moses's Law is Two thousand four hundred and fifty years 2. 1 From Adam as a cause as a Common Parent polluting and defiling his Posterity vertually contained in him as a common Root So Levi was in Abraham's loyns c. 2. As a common polluted nature in every one propagated from Adam and inclining and disposing every one to the same transgression and it is true That Death reigned from Adam to Moses 'T is also true that sin and death and he that hath the power of sin and death i. e. the Devil reigned from Adam to Moses yea and yet reigns in every man from Adam that common sinful nature in him till Moses till the Law Varro tells us a story that when the Sabins entred Rome the Fort on the Capitol was committed to one Tarpeius He had a Daughter a Vestal Virgin called Tarpeia she let in the Sabins and she covenanted for what they bare on their left arms understanding their bracelets of Gold and Jewels and precious Stones which they wore on their left arms but they cast all their shields upon her and so destroyed her and entred the Fort. So our Mother Eve was taken with the lust of the eyes Gen. 3.6 Adam and every one of us have a Fort to
keep against the Devil our weak and vain thoughts which the Apostle compares to Eve 2 Cor. 11. they parle with the enemy and let him in Perversa sunt quae à sinistris sunt Prov. 4.2 3. The enemy casts his shield of unbelief upon her and so entred and took possession of the Soul Touching this Death consider 1. the term à quo from which from Adam 2. Ad quem to whom Moses 1. What by Adam supra 2. What by Moses 1. His Name Exod. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because I drew him out of the water By Moses we understand 1. The Law or rather the Law of God given by him so Luk. 16.29 They have Moses and the Prophets Joh. 5.45 Ye have one that accuseth you even Moses because the Law was given by Moses Joh. 1.16.3 Christ the end of the Law is understood by Moses A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you c. Deut. 18. Acts 3. Exhort Let the God of Life the living God let Christ the Life arise and reign in us O beloved the Devil with his first-born sin and the first-born of sin death these keep under his kingdom in us The kingdoms of the beast have ruled the Lord hath promised this unto David 2 Sam. 3.9 we all pray for it thy kingdom come we have all covenanted this according to the Word of God the government though the very best without the life and spirit of Christ is to little purpose See Notes in Hebr. 1. until he makes his enemies thy foot-stool Sign This life is inseparable from Charity Mercy and loving Kindness He that hateth his brother is a murderer mercy and truth meet together in the kingdom of life Psal 133. ult Means Before this can be done Satan Sin and Death must be dethroned for this end the Law is serviceable to discover sin Abner brought Israel to David See Notes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hebr. 1. The preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may imply a cause as well as a simple term 1. A cause and so it notes the efficient cause And thus Adam may be understood as a Common Parent or Nature 1. As a Common Parent Heb. 7.10 As Levi is said to have been in the loyns of Abraham so Abraham himself and every man may be said to have been in the loyns of Adam and thus its true that Death reigned from Adam to Moses i. e. from Adams transgression death entred and reigned 2. Adam as a common nature in us the reason is Sin and Death remains undiscovered until the Law make Sin appear 2. Nor is the misery known but by the Law Rom. 3.20 By the Law is the knowledge of sin Doubt 1. Did Sin and Death reign without mans knowledge before the Law was given Surely no for Cain Gen. 4.13 and Pharaoh Exod. 9.2 knew their sin which they could not but by the Law Rom. 3.20 and 7.7 I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked Beside the Lord punished the sin of the Old World by the Sin-flood as it is called in the High and Low Dutch And Sodom and Gomorrah were over-whelmed with a rain of fire and brimstone from Heaven the Law of Nature therefore was known but not testified as yet outwardly by God as afterwards it was in Mount Sinai In which respect the Gentiles though they had the Law of Nature written in their hearts yet they are said not to have the knowledge of Gods Law Psal 147. ult Doubt 2. Did Death reign ever a whit the less after Moses's Law did it not reign so much the more surely yes for when the Law came Sin revived saith the Apostle Rom. 7.9 See Notes in locum Here I must remember you of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used when Christ came Herod was troubled when there came news of a King Adrian saw the Christians poor and therefore had no fear of a King among them It is worth the observing how the Apostle expresseth this Rom. 7. very warily sin taking occasion by the Law Doubt 3. Did Death reign from Adam to Moses what shall we then say of Abel of Seth of Enoch of Noah of Abraham of Isaac and Jacob c. all which lived before Moses of whom the Scripture gives honourable Testimony that one was Righteous another walked with God c. I doubt not to say of these and all other that Death sometime reigned over them and that all who were born into the world came of Adam the Transgressor and have in themselves the similitude of Adams sin in their Seed and in their institution for they are not only the Children of sinners but the Disciples also Whence the Apostle saith That the vain conversation is received by tradition from our fathers 1 Pet. 1.18 But when they come to Age and the Law written in their hearts is reveiled and they have attained to the discrimen honestorum turpium and can distinguish between good and evil then they discern of things that differ then some walk in the way of their Fathers as the Scripture speaks of some evil Kings or else they walk in the way of the Lord their God For instance it s said of Cain and Abel that after certain dayes they offered sacrifice Cain transgressed according to the similitude of his Father But what shall we say of Abel I know well that in after times they were wont to sacrifice at the end of the year when they had gathered their corn which was a Law in Israel Levit. 23.14 But why may we not say of Abel that Sin and Death at the first reigned even over him till after certain dayes he looked unto his Maker Sure I am it is said of Abraham the father of the faithfull that the Lord called him out of Vr of the Chaldees And Joshuah in his Oration to the twelve Tribes remembers them That their fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time even Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor and they served other Gods Josh 24.2 The like we may say of the rest that according to the transgression of Adam Death reigned over them till God the Father made them meet by faith to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light and delivered them from the kingdom and power of darkness and translated them into the kingdom of his dear Son Col. 1.13 Observ 1. Sin and Death hath a kingdom in the world Amos 9.8 The eyes of the Lord are upon the kingdom of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ar. Mon. Regnum peccati Wisd 1.14 The kingdom of Death upon the earth Observ 2. Deaths kingdom had a beginning in the world from Adam Observ 3. The kingdom of Death is not from God Wisd 1.13 14. contrary to their profane tenent who say God contrived a way to bring sin into the world Observ 4. There is a time when Sin Death
sinful man he desires to be filled with the husks but cannot See Theoph. in Luk. 15. 1. Who will keep an idle servant the Lord expects that we do all that he commands us when ye have done all say ye are unprofitable 2. A servant as such sets not up for himself 3. Not for another Not for your enemy my meat I ought not to give to Baalim They that eat of my bread laid great wait for me ye trod under foot the Son of God We say we go Sir yet do not but he that gives a cup of cold water because ye belong to Christ hath his reward ye are of his Retinue Observe the cause of Gods wrath and all his heavy judgements The wickedness of men was great in the earth and every imagination of the heart was evil continually for this cause he brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly 2 Pet. 2.5 the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was great and their sin very grievous Gen. 18.20 Therefore God turned those Cities into ashes condemned them with an overthrow making them an ensample unto those who afterward should live ungodly 2 Pet. 2.6 And to what other cause can we referr those all the other heavy judgements of God upon his people the whole book of the Judges is a large proof of this point but more special those two National Judgements the one upon Israel 2 King 17. where after a large Catalogue of all the great and manifold uncleannesses and iniquities of the Ten Tribes vers 17. They sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight Hos 9.9 Profundè peccaverunt they deeply sinned The other upon Judah 2 Chron. 36.14 All the chief of the Priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen therefore the Lord brought upon them the King of the Chaldeans and that final heavy judgement of God upon that whole Nation who killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and please not God and are contrary to all men To fill up their sins alwayes for the wrath of God is come upon them to the utmost fulness of impiety required the fulness of Gods wrath and can we expect other measure beloved from the Lord upon the fulness of our uncleanness and iniquity the full vials of his wrath to be poured out upon us Whence it is that sin and the punishment of sin have the same name Gen. 4.7.13 and 19.15 Levit. 20.20 2 King 7.9 Zach. 14.19 a treasury of sin is the treasury of wrath Rom. 2. Ains in Gen. 4.7 Did we believe the Truth that tribulation and anguish is to every soul that doth evil we would repent and turn from our evil wayes but because we believe not therefore 2 Thess 2.12 he sent them strong delusions Observe the great need of a Redeemer the Apostle convinceth the Gentiles of this and brings in a large evidence against them that they were servants of uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity See a Catalogue of the crimes they are charged withal Rom. 1.18 Nor were the Jews more free than the Gentiles he convinceth them Rom. 2. and are we any better than they No in no wise for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin Rom. 3.9 and if the former proof will not serve the turn he recites the heads of their capital crimes vers 10-18 Here then is the triumph and glory of free grace for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 25. Ephes 2 1-8 Man falling would never cease till he came to the pit did not the Lord lay hold on him Exhort To free our selves from this abominable and insufferable thraldom the slavery of our members under these tyrants uncleanness and iniquity even unto iniquity These many Masters they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1. Men-stealers ye call them Spirits they rob God Will a man rob God Malac. 3.8 these rob God of man and of his image in man and enthral mans body and soul and all his members they rob man of his God more truly than they of the Tribe of Dan robb'd Micha the Idolater Judg. 18.24 though that speech of his be full of argument ye have taken away my Gods saith he and what have I more Truly if our God be taken from us what have we more we complain that somewhat else robs us of our God but indeed it is our uncleanness and iniquity that robs us of him your sins have separated between you and your God Isai 59.2 They hinder us from drawing near unto our God from having communion with him they kindle Gods wrath against us and provoke him to plague us with divers diseases and sundry kinds of death and therefore it is excellent counsel If any of you be a blasphemer of God an hinderer or slanderer of his word an adulterer or be in malice or envy or any other grievous crime and these are the tyrants that rule over most men bewail your sins and come not to this holy Table lest after the taking of this holy Sacrament the Devil enter into you as he entred into Judas and fill you full of all iniquities and bring ye to destruction of both body and soul he 'l enslave you from one iniquity to another These are the Plagiaries which rob us of our Religion and steal away our hearts from our God and his service How often hath every man here prayed that he might ever hereafter serve and please God in newness of life yet have these Plagiaries robbed us of the effect of our prayers and enslaved us to iniquity and tyrannized over our members Means How shall we free our members from this servitude O repent that ever ye yielded your selves slaves unto them trust to the Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ and continue in his Word his Word is the Truth and the Truth shall make thee free and if the Son make you free ye shall be free indeed How will he free thee By conforming thee unto his death 't is the Apostles counsel Coloss 3.5 Mortifie your earthly members that 's the death for he that is so dead is freed from sin Kill these tyrants spare not one of them I am as tender of shedding blood as another but here the greatest mercy is to be most cruel why 't is your own argument but I am sure more fitly and properly used These are Gods enemies these are true Amalekites with whom God will have war from generation to generation Amalekites who are they Delinquentes populum they who turn us away from the service of our God O spare them not if ye love your God spare them not the sparing of them cost Saul his Kingdom and it will cost us the Kingdom of Heaven if we spare them
Moses to name only Moses and the Heathen Law-givers against whom the Prophet Isaiah denounceth a wo Chap. 10.1 Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees and write grievousness which they have prescribed And truly both these would follow were it so that the Law per se directly and properly were the cause of our passions and motions stirred up in us by the Law and of the fruits brought forth unto death The Apostle therefore wisely and timely distinguisheth between what the Law directly and properly doth and what sin doth by occasion of the Law 1. First he tells us what the Law directly and properly doth vers 7. What shall we say is the Law sin God forbid and he proves it For that which discovers sin to be sin is not it self sin But the Law discovers sin to be sin And therefore the Law it self is not sin Now that that which discovers sin to be sin is not it self sin appears from hence because no man on set purpose doth that which he knows to be sin but what he thinks good saith Dionysius Areop because either true or apparent good is that which all men naturally desire Seeing therefore the Law discovers sin to be sin yea forbids sin yea accuseth the sinner for sin it cannot be the cause of sin but rather indeed the cause why a man should not commit sin and therefore the Law is not sin no the Law is holy just and good vers 12. But how then comes it to pass that the motions of sin are stirred up by the Law This comes to pass by accident not causally but occasionally therefore 2. The Apostle shews what sin doth by occasion of the Law vers 8. Sin taking occasion by the Commandment it wrought in me saith he all manner of concupiscence and vers 11. sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me and vers 12. Sin by the Commandment became exceeding sinful For greater manifestation of this he transfers the business as to himself by a particular and personal instance which is the Text I was alive without the Law once wherein we have a two-fold estate of the man 1. Before the Law came 2. after the Law came 1. Before the Law came and herein for explication two things must be opened 1. Of whom the Apostle speaks this of himself or some other man when he saith I was alive without the Law 2. How he is to be understood when he saith he lived without the Law 1. Who is this I and of whom speaks the Apostle this Who this I in the Text is and of whom to be understood there hath been and yet is among some great disputation such a strife as was for Homer by the seven Cities My purpose is according to my profession and my engagement when I first entred upon this argument without taking part or siding with flesh and blood and without acrimony or bitterness which commonly attend on controversie to endeavour according to the irrefragable dictates of Gods everlasting truth to compose the differences among us concerning the Law And therefore I shall not name the Disputants lest I should revive their disputes They say Juvenal occasioned at least many to be lewd and vitious by too open and plain discovery of their vices Some of the Ancients that I say not also some of latter times who have presumed by their Authority to be Mallei haereticorum to beat down hereticks and their heresies have in the event proved Mallei haereticorum in a worse sence the forgers and contrivers of heresie And whereas they thought to beat down a few they have hammered out a many 1. There are who understand this man in his pure naturals But in what man can any one instance since the fall that was in his pure naturals that this Text may be understood of him 2. There are who understand this man to have been a rational man since the fall but was there ever any such rational man since the fall without a law to regulate his reason for surely he had either the written law or the law of nature born of him 3. Others conceived him to be a man under the Law but that he could not yet actually be as he saith himself I was without the law once and we now speak of him as such as without the Law for the avoiding therefore of further disputes we may understand That the man here mentioned is the earthly the natural man who although he have had some knowledge of the Law though the Law hath not hitherto wrought upon him it hath not yet made any discovery of his sin it hath not come home pressly to him like Nathan to David and said Thou art the man And if we understand the man in the Text thus It matters not much of what person definitly the Apostle speaks this of himself or of some other since he himself and all others have been in the very same condition But you 'l say he speaks of himself yea vers 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I my self what more plain Answer He doth so yet this may be docendi gratiâ as we speak as we are wont for instance sake to name our selves or some other Thus in the Civil Law Titius and Sempromus are the subjects of many Law Cases And we have persons also in our common Laws who are the subjects of many Cases But doth the Apostle use any such kind of Rhetorical Figure Answer You shall judge 1 Cor. 1. The Apostle reproving them for the contentions and divisions among them vers 11. It hath been declared unto me saith he that there are contentions among you Now this I say that every one of you saith I am of Paul and I am of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ Were Paul and Apollo think you two of the persons whom the Corinthians strove for ye shall hear him speak for himself 1 Cor. 4.6 These things brethren I have in a figure transferred to my self and to Apollo for your sakes that ye may learn in us not to think of men above that which is written that no man be puffed up for one against another a sin too too usual among us and I fear more frequent than it was in Corinth However this may be true that the Apostle spake of himself in the Text or of another I contend not so we understand himself or some other to have been in this condition as most certain it is the Apostle and every man else hath been he lived without the law once But 2. How can this be understood that he lived once without the law What law is here to be understood Here is again a controversie what Law is here understood the Law Natural or the Law Moral It is not material whether Law we understand since the moral or written Law is founded in the Law of Nature But the question here is how the man could live without the Law since the Law followeth the sin close at the heels as Jacob did
and the Vulg. Latin Castellio and Erasmus have reâ—ixit and the ancientest English Manuscript that I believe is extant turns the Text thus When the Commandment was comen sin lived again which may be understood according to the mans knowledge of it Jerem. 31. according to the power and strength of sin 1 Cor. 15. Sin therefore is said to revive when having been dead as it were she now puts forth her strength and sheweth her self to be alive but how upon the coming of the Commandment doth sin revive Not as if the Commandment caused the life of sin and so positively quickened it and enlivened it as a cause of it for the Law is the greatest enemy of sin and most contrary to it and in all things opposeth it and tends to the destruction of it but as by Antiperistasis one contrary is by another intends and strengthens another as in the summer time while the weather is hot the heat of the fire doth not put forth it self but when the cold winter comes then the heat encreaseth so while we live without the check and correction of the Law sin puts not forth it self in its strength but when the Law comes which is contrary to the sin as cold to heat then the heat of concupiscence discovers it self The fire lies hid and raked up in the ashes and appears not but if you cast water on it then it discovers it contrary nature And as contrary is the Law to sin as water is to the fire and though it lie hid while the man lives without the Law yet when the Law comes then sin shews it self then iniquity burns like a fire as the Prophet speaks The Lion when he walks as also the Cat which resembles him he puts not forth his talents but when a prey appears The reason in regard of Satan all his goods are in peace Luk. 11.21 till the Law come to disturb his possession and then he perceives that his kingdom in the man is toward an end and that he hath but a short time Revel 12.12 which is not to be understood only of some certain time of the Church though so it be very true but in respect of every man it 's when he rules and the Law comes therefore he bestirs himself the more his free-hold the mans mind heart and will is called into question and therefore so he deals with us as we with him Mar. 9.17 20. He cast down him that was possessed and some said he was dead In regard of his Serpentine subtilty for whereas the Law consists most what of prohibitions forbidding such and such acts to be done Thou shalt not steal commit adultery covet c. The subtle spirit in the man suggests unto him a suspicion it is not for any evil in the act forbidden but rather surely it must be some notable good pleasure profit or credit in the doing that act which is prohibited otherwise it would not be forbidden him and that it is not love but envy in the Law-giver which made him forbid the act unto him As for example in positive Lawes if men of mean rank and quality being forbidden to play at Cards or Tables which others of greater rank might do should suspect that it is not for any evil in the Game but rather there might be some singular pleasure in them which therefore the great men envied them and would keep proper to themselves Such a suspicion as this was conceived by the Mother of all Living and is inherited by her Apostate Children who live without the Law The Serpent deceives us also by his subtilty and makes us suspect that the Law-giver inhibits us the eating of the forbidden fruit meerly out of envy lest our eyes should be opened and we should be as Gods knowing good and evil and so we should be too wise and therefore maugre all prohibitions we will taste of the forbidden fruit though it cost us a Fall as it cost them 2. In regard of this false assumed freedom for the man that lives without the Law is impatient of any curb or check from a Law but conceits that the most equal and just laws of God infringe the liberty of the Subject and this is the condition of our first birth we are born as the wild Asses Colt saith Zophar Job 11.12 and we can by no means endure to be tyed by the bonds of the Law but when they are laid upon us then we will not be bound See Notes in Psal 94.12 3. In regard of the Law which howsoever weak and impotent and not able to expel sin yet an enemy it is unto the sin and though not able altogether to rout it yet it can discover it trouble it and tye it provoke it and stir it up like a weak purger c. As it is said that the children of Israel could not drive out the inhabitants of the Land which were too strong for them Josh 13. Observ 1. Observe here how the Scripture warily distinguisheth between a true cause properly so called and an occasion the Commandment coming is not a cause that sin revives but an occasion only for if we look at it as a cause being directly adverse and contrary to sin it would rather kill the sin then quicken it and give life unto it and therefore the Apostle saith not That the Commandment coming gives life or quickens the sin but upon the coming or appearing of the Commandment sin revived This distinction is of great consequence and for want of observing it we are subject to run into manifold and great errours for oftentimes it comes to pass that the Lord puts an occasion into our hands which for want of right distinction we take for a cause Thus the King of Babylon's Present was the occasion not the cause of Ezechiah's Fall 2 King 20.12 Deut. 13.1 2 3. The Prophet perswades to other Gods and this he doth by giving a sign and this sign comes to pass is not here then a fair occasion of following of other Gods No saith the Lord for the Lord your God tryeth you c. For this end the Lord left of the Canaanites to prove the children of Israel Judg. 2.22 whether they would continue in the ways of the Lord and walk therein as their fathers had yea or no and Judg. 3.1 5. Did this concern them only or us also Surely these things were written for our Examples which yet we understand not aright but mistake these as if they were a cause which indeed are only an occasion for what is more ordinary than to say that the reliques of sin which are the Nations remaining in our Land are left to humble us The Lord saith otherwise as that they were left as occcasions thereby to prove Israel whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein as their Fathers did or not They were left there to prove Israel by them That the children of Israel might know and teach them war Judg. 3.1 2. For though the
Lord be no cause of evil yet he ministers occasion of doing evil He exposed his own Son to the power of darkness yet he who betrayed him had the greater sin and the greater punishment it had been better he had never been born This is the more to be heeded because some think that when providence offers an occasion to do otherwise than the Law commands we may embrace the occasion though contrary to the Law of God Davids men were of this mind 1 Sam. 24. When David had Saul at a great advantage his men said to him Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou mayst do to him as shall seem good unto thee And by this they stirred up David â—o kill Saul Yea Saul himself was of the same mind vers 18.19 But did David himself embrace this occasion which God put into his hand No David did not examine the Will of the Lord by the providence which he put into his hand but by the commandment of God which forbad him to stretch forth his hand against the Lord 's Anointed And therefore I shall propound this necessary Rule to your consideration whereof we shall have manifold use in this life especially in these times Examine not the Commandment of God by the providence and occasion put into in thine hand but examine the providence and occasion put into thine hands by the Commandment of God and act thou accordingly Observ 2. Observe it is no good Argument that sin is mortified in us and that we live as we ought the Christian life because the motions of sin appears not in us Sin may be asleep and not dead or like one in Lipothymia in a swoon When the commandment comes then 't will discover its self that it was not dead but only in a dead sleep like the Snake in the Fable benumb'd with cold but gathered heat from the fire so doth the sin which seems dead but when the fiery law cometh it revives like the water that appears clear till it be stirred and then it discovers it self all mudd at the bottom As the wakening of a sleepy dog As the stirring of a Wasps nest They are quiet enough till they be moved Observ 3. See the truth of that which the Psalmist tells us Psal 143.2 That in the sight of the Lord no man living can be justified which our Apostle expounding Rom. 3.20 saith by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in Gods sight which he repeats Gal. 2.16 where the Emphasis is to be set not only upon the sight of God because no man can be justified in his sight but also upon no man living which is not to be understood as we do in in our common speech when we would express our selves more vehemently we say No man living but in such a sence as our Apostle useth it in this Chap. 7. vers 1.2 The law hath dominion over the man so long as he liveth c. Ainsw in Levit. 13.13 14 15. Thus no man living that is while the man lives and God and Christ lives not in the man its impossible that any man living should be justified But when God lives in the man when Christ lives in the man then he justifieth the man It is God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 And therefore what the Psalmist saith no man living the Apostle turns no flesh no carnal no earthly man it is impossible that any living man that any flesh should be justified by the works of the Law Observ 4. Learn then from hence the absolute necessity of a strong mighty and powerful Saviour The Law discovers the sin but it cannot take it away yea sin revives by the coming of the Law and is made more powerful more violent than before it was As when Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh with a message from God about the deliverance of the people Pharaoh laid a greater and a more unreasonable heavy task upon them Exod. 5.20 So deals the spiritual Pharaoh when the Law-giver sends his Law unto us he lays load upon us such as no man living is able to bear And therefore the Lord he graciously promiseth to his people oppressed in the Spiritual Egypt Revel 11. That when they cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors he shall send them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we turn a Saviour and a great one Esay 19.20 The words are a Saviour and a Prince So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth and so Christ is called Act. 5.31 A prince and a Saviour whom God hath exalted with his right hand to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins And by him all that believe are justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all things what things are they The most Ancient English Manuscript hath it from all those sins from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.39 When the sin is now by the force of the Law spread abroad in the man and become exceeding sinful like a leprosie then the high Priest Jesus Christ he cleanseth the Leper Levit. 13.12 13. we turn it he shall pronounce him clean The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. mundificabit he shall make him clean as Arias Montanus turns it well But on the contrary vers 14.15 if he see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. living flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall make him unclean not pronounce him only If we would judge our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 1 Joh. 1.9 But if there be any living flesh any flesh that would live by the law the Lord makes that unclean he stains the pride of all glory because by the works of the law no man living no flesh can be justified But here the poor disconsolate soul complains I was alive without the law once I found nothing amiss in my self no regreeting no remorse of conscience But now when I see a better a greater light I find my self in a greater darkness the motions of sin were quiet before now the Law comes they are stirred up in me violently As he who in a fight reeceives many a wound yet then feels them not nor thinks himself to be wounded at all till he cools and then he feels them In the pursuing of the heat of our concupiscence we receive many a fiery dart of the Devil which yet as then we perceive not but afterwards in cool blood I was whole and sound once but now I find wounds and bruises and putrifying sores mine iniquities are gone over mine head and are an heavy burden too heavy for me to bear my wounds stink and are corrupt through my foolishness and there is no soundness in my flesh wretched man that I am Till now indeed thou wert a wretched man thou livest frolickly without curb without
prove as much 4. Besides the last Resurrection as most men understand is of the dead Bodies not of the mortal bodies which are here spoken off 5. The last Resurrection is in a moment in the twinkling of an eye saith St. Paul But this first is gradual and in time the last is the work of God only who raiseth the dead But in the first the works of Faith is required on our parts as I shall shew anon what then is here meant by the mortal Body The Body here is not that which our Apostle calls the Body of sin for that is not to be quickned but to be destroyed Rom. 6. nor is it the mortuum Corpus but mortale not dead but mortal liable to death The Bodies here meant are our natural Bodies even those which we bear about us liable to natural or violent death The Spirit is not said to quicken this Body with a vegetative or sensitive or rational life which it is supposed to have already But with such a life as is to be advanced unto and as it were spiritualized by the Spirit of God For although our natural Bodies live the inferior life vegetative and sensitive yet by a gracious redundance and overflowing of the Heavenly life in the inward man our Bodies are all to be purged and purified from all sinful pollution and sanctified and beautified with all those graces whereof they are capable which although they have their root and original in the Soul and Spirit yet have they their exercise in our mortal Bodies as sobriety temperance charity continency moderation c. for by the actions of our mortal Bodies is manifest what life we live Yea by what other means can we discover the life but by the exercise of it in our mortal Bodies for hereby is made known whether our Members be the Lords or an Harlots 1 Cor. 6.13 The Apostle having said The Body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the Body He adds God hath raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ So Eccles 19.20.32 A man may be known by his look and one that hath understanding by his countenance when thou meetest him A mans attire and excessive laughter and gate shews what he is The Apostle speaks home to this 2 Cor. 10.11 Alwayes bearing about in our Bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ that the life of Jesus may appear in our mortal Body for we who live are alwayes delivered unto death for Jesus sake that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal body or flesh Reason of this may be 1. In regard of God the Father 2. Of Christ 3. And those who are Christs For God the Father he is not once named in this Text though he be mainly concerned in it and the reason is both in this and many other Scriptures lest by frequent use it might become less venerable and so be prophaned for the same reason God is not named in the whole Book of Esther although his Providence Preservation and Government of his Church in that History be wonderfully declared His great Name signifies Being and that was not often mentioned among the Jews The Lord would rather his Being and works should be known than his Name too frequently taken into our lips and may we not learn the like by the same omission not to call our selves too often by Titles and Names of Gods People but rather to let our lives and actions speak what we are But to return from this digression in this reason 2. What is held forth unto us In the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ is signified and required as in the exemplary cause and pattern to be pourtrayed and copied out in the Church and every Member of it If Jesus Christ be raised up from the dead then must the Church be raised up with him from the death of sin and therefore the Apostle reasons from the one to the other negatively and affirmatively If there be no Resurrection from the dead then is Christ not raised 1 Cor. 15.13 and Vers 15. If God raised not up Christ then the dead are not raised God hath raised up the Lord Jesus and will also raise us up by his own power 1 Cor. 6.14 They are one Body and one Spirit acts in both 3. In regard of his Office he is the Saviour of his Body and as the Body is for the Lord so is the Lord for the Body 1 Cor. 6. 2. Again in regard of the Spirit which raised up Christ from the dead it s an Eternal Spirit a mighty powerful Spirit for whereas a Spirit is that whereby every thing is powerful and active that Spirit which hath less matter hath more power how much more the Spirit of God who is a Spirit Besides the more lustful sluggish and idle the object is whereon the Spirit works the more power is required The mortal Body therefore requires a mighty Spirit to quicken and enliven it 3. They who are Christs must be like unto him as his Spouse holy in Body and Spirit 1 Cor. 7.34 Bear his Cross crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts be conformed unto his Image Rom. 8.29 Obs 1. This is a fruitful way of meditating and speaking of our Lords Resurrection Col. 3.1 Obs 2. As there is a renovation or renewing in the spirit of our mind whereby we are raised up by the Spirit of God to think and will to love and desire those things which are above so is there also a renewing or renovation in the mortal Bodies of those who are raised up with Christ and renewed in the spirit of their mind for as the Body partakes of the punishment for iniquity as the Prophet complains there is no soundness in my flesh by reason of my sin Psal 38.7 so both cry out for help unto God Psal 16.9 My heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope Obs 3. Note hence we are by corruption of Nature become dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. Examples whereof we have of the wanton Widow and the prodigal Son as well as our own experience Wherefore to be raised with Christ is to be changed from the Spiritual death in sin to the righteous and holy life wherein we have great reason to admire the unspeakable love and mercy of our God Col. 3. This takes away all excuses men are wont to use when in defence of themselves yet lying in their fall and living in their sins they say they have mortal bodies bodies of clay and how can these be quickened to the life of righteousness Did the Apostle think we suppose we had immortal Bodies when he exhorts Rom. 6.19 I speak saith he after the manner of Men because of the infirmity of your flesh as ye have yielded your Members Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity eveâ— so now
our sorrow to exceed in regard of the natural death considering that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS UPON ROMANS IX III 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh OF all the causes of Contention whereof there are too many in the world this seemeth to have been the greatest touching the way of Life and Salvation and the reason is the business is of the greatest concernment yet hath least evidence of sense and therefore what is wanting in reason is commonly made up with passion and fury whence it is observable in story that the Bella Sacra were the most bloody of all other Men wrangle and quarrel in the dark Of all these kinds of Contention they have alwayes been the sharpest and most implacable When any one hath formerly been of such or such a Church and worshipped God their way and afterward hath left them and betook himself to another though the better then he is an Heretick an Apostate and ends in the flesh For Religion being that according to which a Religious man most esteems himself when that is undervalued he takes himself to be most of all depretiated and despised In this case many have written Apologies for themselves and for their doctrine Justin Tertulliam and others for Christianity wrote of old to the old Romans and Reverend Jewel wrote his Apology to the new Romans And this was St. Paul's case here he had been a man most forward in the Jews Religion exceeding zealous for it and against Christianity Gal. 1.13 14. He is now become a Christian and as zealous for Christianity as ever he was for Judaism His Apology is three-fold 1. A defence of his own person vers 1.5 2. Of his Doctrine vers 18. 3. His Office vers 25. ad finem 1. Of his person he was condemned of disaffection to his own Nation from this he vindicates himself by remonstrance of intense and continual grief for them and love towards them and acknowledgement of all their just priviledges and one more than they claimed that of them according to the flesh Christ came All this he attests and proves by the testimony of 1. Christ 2. the holy Spirit and 3. his own Conscience This day is a day of fasting and that in the Text such as ye never heard of the like except that of Moses nor shall read of elsewhere The Apostle is willing to fast from the bread of heaven so he might save his Nation As the Roman Praetor sitting in Judicature upon malefactors and now about to pronounce sentence of Condemnation usually either wept or made a mournful Speech as it were a Funeral Oration to express his grief for the demerits of the offenders and the penalty to be inflicted on them So St. Paul here a true Praetor or Praeitor one set over us in the Lord and to go before us in the way of life being now to pronounce sentence of rejection or reprobation of the Jews goes about it with a great deal of sorrow and grief for them and love and commiseration towards them I made choice of this Text for this day of Fasting and Humiliation that it might not be done as the Prophet saith the Jews Fasts were Isai 58.4 For strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness but in love i. e. in God 1 Joh. 4.8 in whom all what we do ought to be done 1 Cor. 16. This Text propounds a rare pattern for our imitation in these Two Points 1. Paul loved his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh extreamly well 2. He wished himself an Anathema from Christ for their sake Ye perceive I begin with that which stands last in order of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Sapiens incipit à fine it is the end that steeres the action Paul's transcendent love unto his brethren and kindred which moved him to wish himself an Anathema from Christ It is the Object or Subject which specifieth the act and makes it either lawful or unlawful it is the end cujus or cui which one wisheth or to whom one wisheth any thing which qualifieth the wish and renders it good or evil of that therefore first Herein although the Apostles love be not expressed yet as God himself who is the Universal Agent and first mover of all and whose name is LOVE 1 Joh. 4.8 He works all yet is invisible So the Apostles Love here is like the spring of the waters unseen which caused his great and continual sorrow for his brethren and kindred vers 2. his wish his hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel Rom. 10.1 Now whereas love is two-fold 1. Abundantiae and Benevolentiae or 2. Indigentiae 1. The first is that wherewith God loves his Creatures and Parents love their Children for their good not for any good that may acrew to God or the Parents 2. Indigentiae whereby men wish good unto others but for their own ends and private advantage and thus men commonly love God and Children their Parents and 't is all the love that people commonly have among them Vulgus amicitias utilitate probat The former love is here to be understood for the Apostle had no ends of his own no plots upon them for his own advantage but aimed only with a single eye at the everlasting good and salvation of his brethren and kindred according to the flesh So that we have two ends which the Apostle aimed at Cujus and Cui as we say in Logick 1. Cujus for whose sake the salvation of Israel Rom. 10.1 2. Cui to what end and that end two wayes considerable 1. According to their number many 2. According to their Relation unto St. Paul two-fold 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Brethren as all the Jews were his brethren 2. More special of his house and family his kindred according to the flesh 1. We may consider them according to their number and thus our first point is That the true Spiritual and Christian Love is a publick Love which desires to communicate and spread it self unto many yea if possible unto all The reason of this appears from that common gracious aspect which God hath upon all that common respect which he bears towards all men 1 Tim. 2.1 5. That common impression which God hath made in the heart of man inclining him to do good unto another He gave every man Commandment concerning his neighbour Ecclus. 17.14 The common nature of those gifts which he vouchsafeth to men for the benefit of all 1 Pet. 4.10 As every one hath received the gift so minister the same as good stewards c. Salvation it self is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jude vers 3. The Commandment of God is to improve these gifts for the benefit of all Gal. 6.10 As we have opportunity let us do good unto all men Observ 1. Whence we may observe the
a long time knitting together But an Opinion that divides them like Sampsons Foxes and sets all a fire it scatters them like Babel O Beloved These things ought not to be What if the Lord hath given unto thy Brother a greater illumination and a larger sight of the Heavenly things than thy narrow brain can comprehend Is thine Eye evil because God is good Or lyes it in his power to change the truth of God that he may agree with thee in thine errour There may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall a little breach cause a perpetual rupture and division The Saints of God should be like the more subtil and purer Creatures like the more Spiritual Natures as when the Sun beams are divided they immediately unite themselves again Nay the Air and Water as Solomon observes Wisd 5. they do the like Of the wicked be it spoken that they are like Vessels of dishonour broken and not to be made whole again or like the fall of the Devils never to be repaired The bruit Beast can teach us this lesson The Naturalist tells us that two Sheep such Christians should be meeting on a narrow Bridge where neither can go back nor pass by other one lies down and suffers the other to go over it Ought not Christs Sheep to do so for Peace sake to yield one to other to submit our selves one to other 1 Pet. 5.5 Remembring that narrow is the way which leads to life 'T is an hard task yet such as the Saints of God have undergone David was a Servant to his generation Acts 13. St. Paul though free from all Men yet made himself a Servant unto all that he might gain some unto Peace That there are so few thus minded shews the truth of this That narrow is the way and strait is the gate and few there are that find it because few there are that shall be saved Much less do they preserve this Peace with others who are not as yet the Sons of Peace but are too apprehensive of offence like tinder or touch-wood kindle with a spark O Beloved Our Lord and Saviour compared himself to the green Tree that will not soon take fire Charity is not easily provoked 1 Cor. 13.5 But rather like that Earth which the Egyptian Wizards smote Exod. 8. thinking to bring forth Lice for such a loathsome excrement such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is contention strife and debate but that earth would afford them none whence the Magicians concluded that the finger of God was there that the Spirit of God is there for the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness Gal. 5. These fail in the intension of their peace 2. Others fail in the extension of it they labour for peace but not with all but only with a few of their own this was Nabals sin who is David and who is the Son of Jesse c. Shall I take of my bread and of my water and flesh c. 1 Sam. 25.10 11. Nor let any man think lightly of it 't is easie to observe who they are that are thus inclined such as are of the Pharisees Religion which our Saviour reproves Matth. 5.43 c. They are such as account themselves the only Children of God and yet are not at all the Children of God I pray you mark our Saviours reasoning vers 44.45 3. Others fail in the radication of this duty Now they are peaceable now again implacable they are off and on Yet is not every peace here commanded there is a peace which even corrupt nature teacheth men to maintain As they that are rich preserve a kind of peace one with other for their mutual advantage and help one of another in their Trades and Callings 4. Others are held together by the teeth Nor doth this shelter our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as please themselves most in being omnium horarum homines but Rom. 15.2 Agreements these are which commonly continue as long as their causes continue but no longer nor are they any solid unions and commonly they vanish into a peace not of God but against God a peace in sin a quietness in evil this kind of peace is but pargetting a rotten wall but skinning a festred wound 't will break out again But how fearful is their condition that neither maintain nor preserve peace with others nor suffer peace to prevail with them The Ismaels whose swords are against every man and every man against them unquiet turbulent spirits such as Nabals servants said he was such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak unto him 1 Sam. 25.17 such implacable sons of Belial such as think the Saints of God the only men that are contrary unto peace they must have Jonas cast over-board and then they may have a calm And Elias they think is the troubler of Israel and Amos is such an insufferable fellow that the Land cannot bear his words and Judas Macchabeus hinders the peace Such unquiet distempered spirits as these are 't were much to be wished they were either bound to the Peace at home or sent abroad to the wars to break their bruitish fury upon such as are like themselves Vtinam tollerentur c. I would they were taken away that trouble you saith the Apostle Galat. 5.12 A sharp remedy you will say but it cannot be helped Potiùs pereat unus quà m unitas When such gangreens as these invade the body of Christ 't is not enough to prick a blister but we must cut off a limb Hymeneus and Alexander must be delivered unto Satan But what shall we say to such as abet and countenance and hearten on these in their contention and strife and blow up the coals The sin of these men is far greater than the other So the Apostle argues Rom. 1. ult Such as know the judgement of God that they who do such things as are worthy of death not only do the same but consent and take pleasure in them that do them Let these Davi these turbatores omnium troublers of Israel please themselves as much as they will because there are many of them and so they consent together their condition is dreadful and truly and properly devillish for if the peace-makers be the Sons of God as our Saviour speaks Matth. 5. then as truly are the perturbers and troublers of the peace the Sons of the Devil As for their agreement 't is but a faction but a conspiracy against the Truth and Peace of God like that Psal 2. like the Jews against Christ who is the peace of God like that Prov. 2. like the Devils that herded together to vex one man and run together into the pit of destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it be possible they make bate nodum in scirpo quaerunt untempered mortar Ezech. 13. all his goods are in peace a covenant with hell and let them know that the Devils have an agreement otherwise how could their kingdom stand as our
must not grosly conceive any corporal or bodily participation of the one or the other as the Jews did Joh. 6.52 How can this fellow give us that flesh of his to eat But we are to understand it according to that Analogie which earthly and bodily things have to heavenly and spiritual Edere est credere to believe is to receive the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Thus we call Communicating receiving when we believe receive and partake of that Mystical and heavenly food But here we must say as the Deacon did Sursum corda The Deity stoops low when it condescends to our ordinary natural actions We must here conceive a mystical partaking of Christ for the more distinct understanding of this we may consider the mystical eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ both 1. In similitude And 2. Dissimilitude unto the partaking of earthly and bodily food 1. To eat it is to partake of the nourishment 1 Cor. 10.17 18. As for the similitude unto the participation of bodily food the Bread Flesh or Meat you know is first masticated or ground with the teeth whence it 's conveyed into the stomach where by the heat partly of it and of the neighbour parts it looseth it self and is turned into Chyle and thence after discretion or separation made of the good from the bad it 's transmitted into every part as every part hath need 2. As for the Wine or whatsoever liquor else we drink it goes down as we say without chewing and after a like change and distinction made in the stomach it accompanieth the more solid meat throughout the body Even thus the heavenly Manna is to be received that is believed Joh. 1. Col. 2. Thus it is to be chewed and ruminated and meditated upon as the Isralites said of their Mannah What is it And so transmitted into the judgement the stomach as it were of the Soul which destributes to every part and faculty supply of the heavenly food For the enlivening and convenience of this food The Spirit accompanieth it For it is the Spirit that quickens Joh. 6. and helps our weakness of concoction Rom. 8. as Wine helps to digest solid meat Thus far they agree and many more resemblances might be found between them But the dissimilitude is greater For 1. Although our corporal food be turned into our bodies and receives a life from them yet Christ the Spiritual food is not so to be transformed into our Souls nor does he receive life from them But contrariwise this heavenly nourishment transforms our Souls and Assimilates them unto it self as the Cion or Graft suppose of an Apple or a Pear is not changed into the Nature of the stock which parhaps is a Thorn or a Crab but it turns the stock into its own Nature So saith St. James Chap. 1.21 Receive with meekness saith he the engrafted word which is able to save your souls To this purpose is that of the Apostle By one Spirit saith he we are all baptized into one body c. And we have been all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 2. Nor doth this nourishment receive life from us but gives life unto us for the case is different in this exceedingly Our bodies must first live before they can be nourished for a dead body cannot be nourished But except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you saith our Saviour Joh. 6.53 And the bread that I will give him is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world vers 51. And he that eateth me even he shall live by me vers 57. 3. A third dissimilitude is the Belly cleanseth Meats Mar. 7.19 But this Meat cleanseth us Bodies and Souls Joh. 13. 5. To shew forth the Lords death what is it but to be conformable thereunto as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. It also seems to have respect unto that custom of the Jews in the Passover To reveil the Mysteries of it unto their Children which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schindl in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But how by eating this Bread and drinking this Cup do we shew forth the Lords death The Analogie seems to be this The Bread we eat and Drink we drink looseth its own Nature and becomes of the same Nature with our Bodies to which they are adjoyned Even so by eating the Flesh of the Son of God and drinking his Blood we become one with him and he one with us and being thus joyned unto him we become conformable unto his death The cause of this why they who eat the Flesh of the Son of God and drink his Blood shew forth the Lords death till he come who can it be but God himself who as he alone can give the thing signified so also to him alone it belongeth to appoint the signs 1. Learn from hence who are the worthy Communicants The Text teacheth us who but they who shew forth the Lords death 2. What the Christian calling is which Christ invites us unto What else but the imitating of his death Joh. 12 23 24. Rom. 6.3 Phil. 3. 3. The Christian Profession is no easie Profession strait is the gate narrow is the way compared to the pangs of Child-bearing Joh. 16.21 4. Our Profession of Christ's death it must be made known shew forth the Lords death The like exhortation ye have elsewhere Let your light so shine before men Let your moderation be known unto all men By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Exhort Shew forth the Lords death The words may be read thus as others We may be moved thereunto by these Arguments 1. Argument It 's but Reason Rom. 12. 2. Argument It 's most necessary For if we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him 3. Argument It 's an Argument that we love God no greater love than to dye for another 2. Till he come This imports continuation without interruption and extent until Christ come 1. Of the first speak these places Matth. 16. Thou must take up thy cross daily 1 Cor. 15.31 Dye daily proper te mortificamur toto Die Rom. 8. 2. Thou must always bear about in thy body the dying of the Lord Jesus We who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4.2 Phil. 1.6 Gal. 4.19 1 Tim. 6.14 2 Pet. 1.19 Repreh 1. It reproves those who have quickly done shewing forth the Lords death They must remember it was the task laid upon us Moriendo morieris and Crucifixion is a long lingering death Far easier it is to dye so than to dye and dye eternally as otherwise we must Repreh 2. It reproves those who will needs be shewing forth the vertues of him that hath called them before they have shewn forth the death of Christ NOTES on 1 ROR. XI 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But let a man examine himself and so let him eat
in the Letter and outward part thereof Our Lord tells his Disciples That except their righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they shall by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven How could they exceed their Righteousness but by their obedience unto the spiritual Law of God Observ 4. The Preacher may preach and all in vain the Sacraments may be administred and yet in vain Jesus Christ may be set forth evidently before mens eyes crucified in them and all in vain After all is done it 's possible men may not obey the Truth and then all this labour is lost How often have Christians received the holy Communion yet have they not shewn forth the Lords death in dying to any one sin which yet is the end the principal end of this holy Sacrament Yea the end of all our coming to Church the end of all our reading hearing all our fasting humiliation receiving the holy Sacrament it is our obedience Yea the end of all Christs Humiliation Christs humbling himself to the death the painful lingering infamous accursed death of the Cross it is our obedience that the same obedient mind might be in us which was also in Christ Jesus who humbled himself c. Observ 5. Men are then said not to obey the Truth when they follow not when they imitate not the actions and passions dyings and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Thus Jesus Christ was manifest in the flesh This even the Devil knew and confessed But every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God That he is come in thy flesh and mine and formed in us for so the word was made flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Jesus Christ bare our sins in his body on the tree that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousness 1 Pet. 2.24 And forasmuch as Christ hath suffered in the flesh arm your selves with the same How is that For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin 1 Pet. 4.1 2. So 1 Cor. 15.17 If Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins How does that follow The same Apostle tells us Rom. 8. If we dye with him we believe that we shall also live with him For the following of Christ in his Resurrection is rising from the death of sin unto the life of Righteousness And thus Christ dyed for our sins that we might also dye to them and rose again for our justification that we might arise unto Righteousness and a new Life So that if Christ be not risen and we with him we are yet in our sins and this is that which by some is called motus antitypi Axom 4. Some or other had bewitched the Galatians that they did not obey the truth The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence is derived the Latin word fascino which signifies either to bewitch or to envy and both may very well fit this place of Scripture 1. To envy and so the Apostle may expostulate with them what Jew yet in the state of servants hath envyed you the liberty of sons 2. Or who hath bewitched you who hath so cast a mist before your eyes who hath so dazled your sight with deceptio visus that ye think ye see what ye see not or cannot see that which is visible and easie to be seen for so no doubt the evil one being the prince of the air can make the Species and Images of things appear which really and truly are not and so intervert and turn aside the Images of things which are that to some they do not appear For if we consider him who bewitches them viz. the grand impostor the Devil we shall find that he according to the Degree of that Divine Power manifested or put forth in men by the Father Son and Spirit he also puts forth his power of darkness to oppose it for as there is the holy Trinity in the Divinity so is there also an infernal trinity in the Devils nature a father of lyes a son of perdition and a spirit of error As therefore when Moses came into Egypt the father of lyes sent forth Jannes and Jambres which withstood Moses So when the Lord Jesus sent forth his Disciples and Apostles to preach the Gospel of Christ crucified then the Devil sent forth Barjesus Act. 13.6 who transforms himself as if he were Jesus the Son of God to oppose them and therefore he is called Barjesus the son of Jesus For as Jesus the Son of God saves his people from their sins Matth. 1. So Barjesus this son of the Devil as he is called endeavours to delude and save the people from grace and righteousness vers 8. Observ 1. That the Lord is not the cause of our disobedience either by any antecedent Decree or by any present instinct nor motion inclining us unto sin O no the Wiseman warns us that we should not say or think so Ecclus 15.11 12. Say not thou it is through the Lord that I fell away for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth Say not thou he caused me to err for he hath no need of the sinful man No doubt were he the cause he would not reprove he would not punish eternally the disobedient souls Observ 2. Disobedience is a kind of witchery Samuel saith as much in so many words Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word in the Text which signifies to envy and to bewitch And the Wiseman tells us That by the envy of the Devil sin entred into the world The Devil himself is the grand Sorcerer by this envy of him also iniquity the great witch the old witch she came into the world So the Wiseman tells us of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the witching of naughtiness or wickedness Wisd 4.12 This grand Sorcerer hath also his Ministers who are great Inchanters of the people 2 Cor. 11.4 Sometimes these bewitch the multitude with their doctrine as there are some plausible doctrines which bewitch Christians that they do not obey the truth such is that which would perswade us 1. That the Law of God belongs not unto those that are in Christ then if no law no transgression 2. That God sees no sin in his people where yet sin is to be seen Psal 50.21 22. 3. That Christ hath done all things already to our hands and left us nothing to do but believe it Matth. 7.21 4. That as soon as we have begun to do well there 's no fear of falling away when the Apostle faith Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall 5. That sin cannot be subdued no not by Christ in us while we live here when yet faith is the victory that overcomes the world 1 Joh. 5.4 Phil. 4.13 I can do all through Christ who strengthneth me These and such as these are obligamenta magica magical tyes which bind men from walking in
Gods ways tye their hands from doing his Will tye their tongues from speaking to his praise in a word bewitch men that they obey not the truth And therefore it was observed that they who were afterward condemned for witches were formerly very frequently at Sermons where such doctrines were preached such doctrines as they aimed at and all disobedient men and women extremly love for by these and such as these the kingdom of Satan their great Master stands and continues in the hearts of men Sometimes again these bewitch the people with great names as precious men powerful preachers as Simon Magus a great one was called the great power of God And to such men give heed be cause of a long time they have bewitched them with Sorceries It is St. Lukes reason Act. 8.11 ye know these late times have been extreme notable for witchcraft among us but exceedingly among our neighbours of Scotland and when hath there been a time of greater disobedience This practice is by maleficiating and holding the eyes that they see not what is visible and the like spiritual witchcraft is wrought by blinding the eyes of men and their understandings with false principles whereby the Truth of God is hidden And this is also practised by blinding the parties bewitched with oaths and covenants that they are not Orthodox if they believe not and live as they do Necte tribus nodis ternos Amarylli colores And the Syriack word in the Text that we turn is bewitch is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies ligare to bind And this witchery prevails with those who are yet but babes in Christ for so saith the Wiseman Satan binds up folly in the heart of the child And as the old Sorcerer whom ye read had bound a daughter of Abraham I say as he obscures things that are virtuous and good and binds the understandings of men therefrom So by his wiles and witchcrafts he perverts the affections also and sets them on things that are ill as the Wiseman speaks in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wheeling about of the appetite the vertigo the vagary the inconstancy the wandring of the concupiscence perverts the simple mind when a man is drawn away by his own lusts and enticed Jam. 1.14 Observ 3. Disobedient men are bewitched which will appear if we compare the effects said to be wrought by witchcraft with those of disobedient men such are binding and blinding men wasting them and causing them to consume away yea killing them and if they yet live buffeting them The Wiseman tells us what is that old mother witch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisd 4.12 This binds folly up by the fall in the heart of a child and tyes and contracts the heart covetousness blinds men it 's call'd aviditas and the covetous man avidus the eyes of his understanding are blinded by covetousness the lust of the eyes the same causes men to wither and consume away such withering is that of a withered hand Envy is an old Witch that slayeth the silly one Job 5.2 Carnal wisdom in the Text bewitched the Galatians that they obeyed not the truth And let us look upon the present Generation and see whether almost generally it be not bewitched The reason why some or other had bewitched these Galatians may be considered either in regard of the parties bewitched or him who bewitched them 1. The parties bewitched were yet in the state of the spiritual child-hood Gal. 4.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and although they had begun in the spirit they did now seek to be perfected in the flesh And therefore whereas witches are said to have power over young children This fascination or witchery is not only a deceiving of the sight but also a hurting of the eye especially in young children whence that Verse Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos For it was believed that the eyes of envious old women had that power on the eyes of children and other young creatures whether it were indeed so or not saith Saint Jerom Deus viderit Whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to kill with the eyes The Apostle therefore having here to deal with the Galatians whom he calls children he implys that some have hurt their eyes alluding to that old supposed witchery that the witch fastening her evil eyes upon the infant imprinted a venemous quality So the false Apostles are here understood to have fastened their eyes i. e. imprinted their false wisdom upon the simple souls of young converts whom he calls little children Gal. 4.19 Observ 4. The Gospel of Christ crucifies unbewitches undeceives and ravels all the grand Impostor's work For as Rebellion and Disobedience is as Witchcraft the Gospel brings in the obedience of Faith and what sin the envy of the Devil brought into the World the love of the Father drives out of it St. Paul had been bewitched as well as others Tit. 3.3 We our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy c. till the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared And as there are lusts of the present evil world which bewitch the men of this world and as the witchery of wickedness blinds the eyes So the Lord Jesus sends his Apostles to open their eyes as the bewitching of naughtiness obscures things that are good so the light discovers Whereas Satan binds Christ comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he may loose Observ 5. The Apostle does not excuse the Galatians of their disobedience because they were bewitched but rather blames them so much the more for being bewitched For what was it for them to be bewitched what else but to have been disswaded from obeying the truth Now this is the Nature of perswasion and disswasion and upon the matter of all counsel it lays no force upon any mans will but when all is done it leaves him free who is so counselled to do or not to do according to the counsel given Hence it is that he who is counselled and prevailed withall and bewitched from doing or not doing what he ought is as lyable to reproof and punishment as if he had not been counselled or bewitched The reason is the counsel left him free This was the cause why Eve though bewitched by the old subtil Serpent yet bare her own punishment Gen. 3. This discovers the false hearts of many who rather than they will own their own sins the brats of their own thoughts and evil affections they will lay them at any ones door Ahab who had committed two of the greatest sins Idolatry and Murder at least by connivance yet owns neither But saith to Elijah Art thou he who troubles Israel 1 King 18. And Judah will have Thamar to be burnt though the incest were his own Gen. 38. Nor would David have owned his sin unless Nathan had wisely couched his reproof
hath two Sons the one a Child the other a young Man you command them both to fetch you a stool or chair the elder who hath both age and strength 1 Joh. 2.12 I wrote unto you young men that you are strong he presently takes one up and easily brings it to you the young Child lifts and heaves at it he hath as much love to do what you command him as would carry two or three such burdens but alas he wants age and strength he is too young too weak to bear it From this weakness proceeeds that seeming hopeless exclamation Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death The cause of this why beginners in Religion are such little Children we may conceive from the consideration partly of God partly of these younglings themselves partly of the food and sustenance of these little children 1. From the consideration of the father of these younglings who begins the work he is a god of order and so he works both by his ordinary power in nature for so we say Natura non facit saltum and by his special Grace too in his children And they both considered 1. In themselves And 2. In respect of Christ 1. And in themselves This is Gods orderly proceeding from very small weak base despised nay no beginnings at all to speak of to raise his children to perfection 1 Cor. 1.27 28. The earth brings forth fruit of it self first the blade and then the ear then the full corn in the ear A grain of mustard seed the least of all seeds in the earth grows up and becomes greater than all herbs it becomes a tree so great the Rabbins also say they were wont to be in Jury to these two the Kingdom of God in man is likened by our Saviour Mar. 4.26 32. Such also are the works of God in his children if considered in respect of Christ for so the father predestinates his children to be conformed unto the image of his Son Rom. 8.29 Now this is he whom Daniel means by that stone Dan. 2.34 That little stone refused by the builders which yet becomes a corner-stone a mountain the greatest of mountains no mountain but it self a mountain that fills the whole earth vers 25. Vnto whom ye new born babes for to them the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 2.2 ye coming as unto a living stone ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house 1 Pet. 2.4 5. This is he whom the Prophets call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. as the LXX turn it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jerem. 33.15 The branch of righteousness or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jerem. 23.5 The rising Sun of Righteousness That as he grew up before God as a tender plant Esay 53.2 and encreased in wisdom and stature Luk. 2.52 So God pouring his Spirit upon his children they also spring up as among the grass as willows among the water-courses Esay 44.4 From babes in Christ they grow up unto him in all things unto a perfect man Eph. 4.13 And as that day spring Luk. 1.78 That Sun of Righteousness Mal. 4.2 arose hy degrees until he came to shine forth in his perfect strength So these children of light shine forth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 A second Reason is from the consideration of these young ones themselves and that both in respect of mind and understanding and in respect of strength 1. In respect of mind and understanding they are but narrow brained in this their non-age and not capable as yet of much like narrow mouthed Vessels if ye pour in much at once ye pour the most beside little budds so little that they scarce appear at first but like the Sun-flowers they enlarge and open themselves in time to a great wideness according as the day star as St. Peter speaks ariseth higher and higher in their hearts 2. In regard of strength they are as yet meer weaklings by reason of their passions and affections as yet unmortified untamed and violent I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual saith our Apostle to the Corinthians his children for ye were not able to bear it and as the child is so is his strength Judg. That 's the second Reason 3. The third is from the consideration of the food and sustenance of these little children which is that part of the Word of God which is prepared for children and therefore resembled in Scripture unto food of light and quick digestion butter and honey Esay 7. and milk and such like childrens meat 1 Cor. 3. Heb. 5. The very first principles of Divine Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word of the beginning of Christ Heb. 6.1 Strong meat another part of that word it is for men of perfect age who by reason of use habit and perfection have their senses exercised to discern between good and evil Heb. 5.14 And thus much for explication proof and reason of the first Point Now as Eliah stretched himself upon the widows son that he might restore it unto life 1 King 17.21 So that we may give life unto this Doctrine of little children let us apply our selves unto it and it unto our selves And it may serve I fear me for a standing measure to mete the growth of many who take themselves to be tall grown old men in Christ and would be taken by others to be such When alas they are yet but in their nonage they are but meer children Nay they are not yet of so much growth as these little children these Galatians were whether ye respect their obedience to the Word of God or their love to the Minister of it 1. As for their obedience unto the word they exempt themselves from the Law which the Galatians observed though erroneously in some sort yet most zealously And they take it for granted that they are in Christ And Christ they say hath done all for them So that there 's nothing left for them to do but to believe that it is even so And that they shall be saved as what will not self even upon no grounds perswade us Whatever their sins are now they are but infirmities and may stand well enough with assurance of Salvation And then what remains but to live not as they ought but as they list And this is their Christian obedience 2. As for their love to the Ministers of the Word These little children the Galatians as St. Paul bears them Record vers 15. They would have plucked out their own eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it might have been done as an old Translation hath it But many of these pretenders unto a greater measure and growth of Christianity unless the Minister be a creature of their own cut and stamp whatever that is they would rather of the twain pluck out his eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it might be done As the late hellish practices of some have sufficiently proved Or because they dare not
heartily wish and desire the entertainment of this holy Seed saying unto the Lord and to his servants sent unto us Be it unto me or Oh that it might be so unto me as thou hast spoken Psal 110.3 To men thus affected to men of such a good will Christ is born so saith the Angel that Christ is born hominibus bonae voluntatis to men of good will Luk. 1. so the Old Latin hath it And Chrysostom and others of the Ancients read in their Greek Copies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to men of good will not as we since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the difference is but in one letter and that in the end of a word which easily might since be lost 2. After Conception also something there is carefully to be avoided and something as carefully to be provided 1. A woman in this case O how shy she is of taking Physick or any thing inwardly that might suffocate the Child how circumspect how wary she is to avoid all slips and falls which might make her venture to miscarry or cause abortion and with no less foresight nay with more if it may be ought we to shun what e're might choak the Seed of God as worldly cares do Matth. 13. to avoid all relapses and fallings again into sin and what ever might cause a miscarrying womb lest we should receive the grace of God in vain or spill the Seed of God in us We ought saith the Apostle to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest we leak and run out and so the Seed of God become abortive and of none effect unto us Hebr. 2.1 2. But a Woman having conceived is not only wary to decline things hurtful but also careful to procure things convenient and useful and therefore she keeps a good diet she nourisheth and cherisheth her Embrio she provides the most able and experienced Midwives and so provident ought we to be would we have Christ formed in us And therefore such meats we ought to feed on as best agree with Christ that holy thing conceived in us one of them is Faith which we must feed upon Psal 73.3 yea it must be our daily repast for the just man lives by his faith And when we keep so good a diet the holy Embrio is enlivened and quickned in us I live saith St. Paul yet not I but Christ liveth in me His reason makes it good for the life saith he that I live I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 Ephes 3.17 2. Another Service is the doing of the will of God for Christs meat it is to do the will of him that sent him Joh. 4.35 Now the will of God is not only our own sanctification and the keeping of our own vessel in holiness and honour 1 Thess 4.3 but also the doing of good works to others also to fill our selves with this food as Dorcas was full of good works and alms-deeds to communicate unto the necessities of the Saints God likes so well of this Service that it 's called a Sacrifice wherewith God is well pleased Hebr. 13.16 And this is a way to feed Christ also for Christ professeth that when we give meat or drink to the least of all his brethren we give it unto him Matth. 25. And he that thus doth the will of God becomes a mother of Christ Luk. 8.21 Pregnant Women also provide themselves of skilful and able Midwives such also must we provide Spiritual Midwives or Grace-wives as some call them helpful Ministers of the Word the obstetrication of the old Saints of God who have passed through the same pains and throws and perils of Child-bearing such an one was Paul and his true yoak-fellow and those women Phil. 4.3 But besides care of diet and provision of a Midwife wise and holy women are wont in this case more intimately to acquaint themselves with God Thus did Sarah whose daughters holy women are while they do well thus did Rebeccah Gen. 25.23 thus did Rachel and Leah Gen. 30. and to name no more thus did the Mother of our Lord Luk. 1.40 When she had Conceived she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth how was that even as we must also do Would we have Christ to be formed in us we must visit and have recourse unto and meditate upon the Oath and Covenant of our God for so much Elizabeth signifieth for Elizabeth or the Covenant of God is the Mother of John i. e. of the true Grace of God Lastly holy women then in a more special manner as they acquaint themselves with God by holy meditation and conference with him so also by hearty prayer and humble supplications unto him so did gracious Hannah 1 Sam. 1.10 prayers also were made by others for them Thus Eli prayed for and blessed Hannah 1 Sam. 1.17 Even so in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known unto God And let us desire the prayers of others also for our well-doing and the blessing of Eli i. e. of our strong and powerful God that the Child being come to the birth there may be strength to bring forth and that the Dragon may not devour the Child but that he may grow and wax strong that he may be filled with wisdom and that the grace of God may be on him And for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant us according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inward man that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith that we being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which yet passeth all knowledge that we may be filled with all the fulness of God Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us Vnto him be glory in the Church which is in Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS UPON GALATIANS V. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts YE have heard before a discovery of some false Glosses and misinterpretations touching the Woman and her Seed Gal. 3.15 and the words I have read are obscured by like false Glosses But beside whereas we heard lately out of vers 17. of an Enemy a dangerous home-born enemy the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and our best friend withstanding him and contending with him The Spirit lusts against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other that we may not do the things of the flesh that otherwise we would do The words I have now read point us to a means how this
and drink to do his Fathers will and shall it be ours to do our own will His will was resolved and emptied into his Fathers will his humanity was wholly without it self 't was instrumentum Dei divinitati conjunctum saith Lyra an instrument at hand for the Deity to work by Such an obedient mind hath been alwayes in the Servants of God mine heart is ready mine heart is ready saith holy David and our Apostle Lord what wilt thou have me to do nay rather what wilt thou do with me their will was so resolved into Gods will that they seemed to do nothing themselves but were without themselves like serviceable instruments to be acted by their Masters hand and ready for God to work by 't is St. Luke's ordinary phrase Paul and Barnabas rehearsed what God had done with them Act. 14.27 and 15.4 Such an obedient mind was in Christ and in all that are Christs and that not only in speaking and doing but also in suffering according to the Will of God which is the third step of our Lords Humiliation He was obedient unto death Rare and singular obedience for whereas obedience is alwayes the greater by how much the good is the greater which we undervalue for obedience sake what goods are greater than either those of name and honour but what contradiction of sinners did he suffer against himself they thought they said well when they said he was a Samaritan and had a Devil or those of fortune but he became poor and had not where to lay his head or those of body as beauty stature strength c. But he was weak and had neither form nor comliness or those of Soul and of all the rest the Will but not my Will but thy Will be done or those of the whole man as Liberty but he was captivated and led away like a sheep to the slaughter or that of all the rest which is the fountain of all the rest the Life but he became obedient even to the death he undervalued and parted with every desireable good only for obedience sake But the Son of Man must be killed saith he himself and he was delivered up to death by his Father it seems therefore his death was necessary yea constrained and violent for he was betrayed bought and sold by Judas and the Jews who procured his death and he himself was unwilling to die if therefore there were necessity from God if coaction from men if in him unwillingness to die surely there was no obedience unto death The Answer to this doubt may serve also for a fundamental reason of this third step or degree of our Lords humiliation for 't is most true the Father delivered up the Son unto death both by cloathing him with a mortal garment which he might put off and die and by inspiring a Will into him to die and by allowing his betrayers and murtherers power and opportunity to deliver him up unto death and by so disposing and ordering his death contrary to their malicious designs that by a conformable death he might repair the life of the world according to the speech of Joseph his type Ye thought evil against me but God intended it to good c. to save much people alive Yet did he not constrain his Son to die either immediately predetermining his Will by an antecedent peremptory decree or over-ruling it and taking away the liberty of it by constraint or mediately by giving any coactive power over him into his enemies hand which 't is manifest they had not and though they had the power they had from God yet not for any such end so that God cannot be said to be the cause of his death though he gave them power to kill him no more than he that lends his friend a knife may be said to be the cause of a murder committed with it so that here was no absolute necessity or compulsion either from God or Man only a necessity of consequence there was which as the learned know may consist with things contingent and free agents But he was unwilling to die how then obedient unto death he seemed indeed unwilling to die and that was lest he should seem not to be a man for what maw simply or absolutely was ever willing to die when he would shew in his flesh the weakness of our flesh saith Tertullian he said Father let this Cup pass from me but in order and submission to his Fathers Will he curb'd his own Will and complyed with his Father in eodem volito and was willing to die Read the story of his Passion and see if he be not so O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour Yea he was so thirsty after the Cup of his passion that he called Peter Satan for suggesting a contrary motion the Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it The Father gave it him and he took it the Father delivered him up unto death and he delivered himself up unto death Ephes 5.25 both willingly as Zeno Veronensis speaks of Abraham and Isaac which figured out our Lords passion Ille gladium exerit iste cervicem eodem voto c. the one draws out his sword the wicked which is thy sword or a sword of thine saith David and the other puts forth his neck And surely great reason there was for this Joynt-will of the Father and Son touching the death of Christ whether we respect the Righteousness of God or the salvation of Men For whereas the Righteousness of God is either facti of deed whereby he doth all things befitting himself It became him to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings or dicti of Promise for those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer he hath so fulfilled And he suffered for our Salvation the general end which we confess in the Creed which salvation in respect of the term à quo is from sin from the wrath of God for sin from the curse of the Law for sin from eternal death the wages of sin from Satan who hath the power of death in sin Tit. 2.14 Rom. 5. Gal. 3.13 Hos 13.14 For Chrlst by his death put to death these enemies of our Salvation as Sampson his type by his death the Philistines In regard of the term ad quem as we confess in the Collect on Easter day by his death he opened unto us the gate of Everlasting Life that he might bring us unto God 1 Pet. 3.18 that he might bring us unto Glory that by means of death we might receive the promise of the Eternal Inheritance Hebr. 2. and generally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gregory Nyssen nay summa voluntatis c. the whole summ of Gods will is the salvation of men saith Tertullian So willing
put him to an open shame And when the people hear his word and call him their Lord and King yet do not that which he commands them what do they else but crown him with thorns and put a reed in his hand unless they make him a Lord of misrule that will allow them to do what they list And when they bow the knee and uncover their head at his name yet are wilfully disobedient what do they else but deride and mock him as the strangers did and trample under foot the Son of God We pitty St. Peter who denyed his Lord and we would not have done it had we heen in his case no not we but in our works we deny him which is far worse if our Apostle reason right Tit. 1. But to be a Judas to have betrayed our Lord with a kiss and made sale of him who among us that tenders his own reputation would not think it a better report to have had his end Yet what do we else but betray our Lord with a kiss when in praying and praising and singing and preaching we draw near unto him with our lips but our hearts are far from him And I appeal unto thee Merchant Tradesman or other when there stands but a lie between thee and a good commodity dost thou not think it a cheap penny-worth and dost thou not then sell thy Lord He is the Truth and that for a little gain perhaps for less than one of his thirty pieces a goodly price we value our Lord Truth at when we pass him away for a trifle when we transgress for a piece of bread as if the Truth were of all other the cheapest commodity that 's bought or sould And when we contemn the present Grace of Christ when we resist and oppose a known Truth what do we else but spit in Christ's face blindfold him and buffet him But what are these wounds in thine hands These are they wherewith I was wounded in the house of my friends Zach. 13. And who are they that monopolize the friendship of Christ but those weak ones in Religion who would be thought the strongest men and stoutest professors of it These these are his friends who pierce his hands i. e. enfeeble his power cornua in manibus ejus c. He had borns in his hands and there is the hidings of his power saith the Prophet Habakuck 3.4 These hands they pierce who have a form of godliness but deny the power of it 2 Tim. 3.5 And of all Sects in the Christian World these are the men who most of all upbraid others with this place yet are they the men who of all others most pretend infirmity and weakness and that in this day of Christ's Power Psal 110. And what do the rich and voluptuous but put to death the Author of Life Ye have lived in pleasure and been wanton saith St. James Jam. 6. ye have condemned and killed the just one i. e. the Lord Jesus saith venerable Bede Oecumenius and the interlineary Gloss and he mean time doth not resist you Thus he is oppressed and he is afflicted yet he opens not his mouth He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter as a sheep before the shearers is dumb so opened not he his mouth Esay 53. but even unto this death this painful tedious ignominious execrable death He became obedient even to the death of the cross If we desire a Reason more proper to this point 't was that he might shew us in how base esteem we have had the Truth the Wisdom and the Righteousness of God saith Lactantius Institut libr. 4. cap. 36. How we have accounted the life of Christ madness and the end of it without honour Such such hath been his repute always in the world He was dispised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him He was despised and we esteemed him not yet 't was that he might sanctifie us that he suffered without the gate Heb. 13.12 That he might redeem us from the curse of the Law that he became a curse for us Gal. 3. 'T was that no man no not the basest of men should be excluded from the benefit of his death 'T was that he might draw all men unto him that he was thus lifted up The cause of these and all what ere he did and suffered is the Love the great Love of Christ wherewith he loved us and gave himself for us For so he seems really and in effect which is the truest word to speak to every one of us from off his Cross Behold O man what I suffer for thy sake Lo I have disrobed my self of mine Honour my Majesty and Glory and taken upon me thy flesh the rags of thine humanity and all the weaknesses and frailties of it all the basest conditions of it I have been apprehended like a thief accused spit on blind-folded buffeted derided stript scourged and all for thee I have been accounted a Worm and no Man the very shame of men and outcast of the people a mad man one that had a Devil not only sinful not only the worst of sinners but even sin it self for thy sake I have taken a body for this end that I might die for thee and which is yet worse than death I am suffering the torments of a painful tedious ignominious accursed death upon the Cross for thee Behold all that pass by and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow Yet is not the sorrow of my Passion which thou seest equall to that which thou seest not of my compassion for thee I am forsaken of my Friends of Angels of Men of my Disciples of my God and Father and left forlorn desolate and exposed unto the malice and temptation of the Devil and all wicked Spirits And all this as it proves for malicious and graceless men for mine enemies for an unthankful world which makes no other use of my sufferings but as of a cloke to cover their wiekedness withall and to hide themselves as they think from the eyes of Omnisciency Lo I am become a man of sorrows that I may lead thee through sorrow into joy I am exposed to the power of darkness that I may bring thee from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God I am now dying for thee that thou by a like death mayst enjoy the everlasting life yea I endure a shameful and accursed death for thee that I may lead thee from shame to glory from a curse unto a blessing I have left all and am left of all for thy sake and oughtest not thou to leave all for my sake I have left whatever is in this world good and delightful for thy sake And oughtest not thou to leave all whatever is evil however it seem to thee good and delightful for my sake yea for thy own sake shall I not see the travel of my soul Thus thus the Son of
the truth and loves the light while it speaks to him in general terms but when it speaks to him by name as it were thou art the man as when John Baptist told Herod it is not lawfull for thee to have thy brothers wife then he hates light reproving Veritas lucens amatur redarguens odio habetur he who hath been in a very dark dungeon and hath seen no light he 'll fly in his face that brings it to him ye may perceive this when a candle is brought to you before ye are altogether awake Observ 2. This is the reason that sometime the Preacher pleaseth a man as while he speaks that which is not so proper to his condition and doth not touch his sin sometime again he displeaseth him exceedingly because he reproves Judge in your selves Beloved I beseech you is it not so Should I discourse of truth in general all would be well but when I urge obedience to truth and tell them they hold the truth in unrighteousness then they are troubled Herod heard John Baptist willingly till he reproved him and then he was not worthy to live Ye shall observe this in one short Sermon of our Saviour Luk. 4 16-29 and 11.45 46. Demetrius could be content to hear Paul speak of Jesus he hoped it 's like he should have gained by making some Crucifixes as goes now the trade at Rome but when he taught that they were no Gods that were made with hands and discovered the polutions of Idols Act. 15.20 he and his fellow tradesmen cry him down Act. 19.24 They gave him audience to that word Gentiles Act. 22.22 A faithful Minister of God hath experience of this daily for if he cry down the Antichrist of Rome and his fall such and such persons and such and such outward things then he is cryed up do I now favour either the Antichristianity or Iniquity either of persons or of things God forbid I would to God the Antichrist and all Iniquity in High Places and all wicked men and favourers of Iniquity were brought low but beloved unless that Antichrist within us our sin and every mans Antichrist in his own heart his own sin were put down What is it unto us though all the Antichrists in the world were put down He who cryes down outward evils leaves the inward untouch'd and so pleaseth well But alas to what purpose is it to remove any thing without us if the abomination of desolation stand where it ought not The Chirurgeon when he useth Cataplasmes Fomentations and Anodines which ease and asswage pain O he is a good man but when he useth Cauteries Burning Lancing Cutting O then he is a cruel man what 's the reason of this different opinion the Chirurgeon is the same man the Patient is not the same The like we may understand of the spiritual wounds and bruises and putrifying sores which sometime must be mollified and eased and then the Chirurgeon pleaseth us well sometimes they must be lanced or seared and then we utterly dislike him the man is the same the difference is not in him but in our selves our high-swoln sins make the Chirurgeon cruel But when the Chirurgeon hath lanced the tumour and let out the corruption and the Patients healed O then he is a good man again and when reproofs and reprehensions have now healed the soul then O then the Minister pleaseth indeed And truly beloved however for the present he who discovers our sins may be hated and loathed by us yet the time will come when he who rebuketh us afterward shall find more favour than he that flattereth with his lips Prov. 28.23 when he tells the people ye are the Saints and of the state of bliss like a Castle in the air without a ladder to go up to it That which is our own we love though perhaps in it self it be not at all lovely nor to another as Parents love their own children though deformed and ill-favoured for the same reason we love our own sins because our own is the brood and spawn and children of our own heart and therefore we love any thing that nourisheth and cherisheth them as that in the Complaint of a Sinner that the righteous man offendeth seven times a day O 't is a comfortable saying which some account one of David's Psalms and the speech of the holy Prophet David but I beseech ye consider it well for if this were the speech of David a man after Gods own heart and such a righteous man should sin seven times a day how might men reason then for the cherishing of themselves in their sins surely then an ordinary Righteous Man may sin seventy times seven times a day a dangerous consequence But I sufficiently confuted that errour lately only I shall entreat you that since ye abhor humane inventions as ye ought to do ye would not take that complaint of a sinner especially in that part of it for one of Davids Psalms or any part of Gods holy Word Exhort Suffer our selves to be purged from our sins Motive 1. The turpitude and filthiness of sin it 's stiled by all those names which in nature are odious unto our sense or fancy so filthy is every sinful man in the sight of God those names of diseases as the Leprosie c. Motive 2. It 's the cause of all the calamities which befal us we accuse one another and condemn one another as the cause of these evils mean time the true cause lurks within us for whereas all outward calamities are either 1. Positive as slaughter and pestilence c. Or 2. Privative as famine and drought Our sin is the cause of all these 1 King 8.33 When the people are smitten down before the enemy because they have sinned against heaven vers 35. when heaven is shut up c. because they have sinned against thee Famine vers 37 38. Captivity vers 46. Lament 1.8 9. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned therefore she is removed her filthinesses are in her skirts she remembred not her last end therefore she came down wonderfully Ephes 5 3-6 Jer. 7.8 9.15 Coloss 3.5 6. 3. It 's the end why Christ was given unto us he gave himself for his Church that he might cleanse it c. Ephes 5.26 4. Nothing unclean enters the Holy City 5. It 's Gods command wash ye make ye clean Isai 1. and an easie command it is so saith Naamans Servant 2 King 5.13 'T is easie if we consider the beauty of holiness that consideration devours all the labour of washing Sign Purging of sin is the removing of it if therefore it remains it is not purged even the least sin renders us unclean in Gods sight Offendens in uno omnium reus It 's said of Jehoram the Son of Ahab that he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord but not like his Father and his Mother no sin is right in the sight of the Lord be it never so small as a line is not right if it have
not so for we never read that he was sick or that he laughed because these are not common to all men for some are of so happy a constitution of body and mind and healthful that they are never sick nor is that so generally true that the Philosophers should define a man by it unless it be meant of the power to laugh because some are reported very seldom or never to have laughed and were therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But a more special reason there was why our Lord Jesus never laughed Among the manifold ends of his incarnation this was one and a principal one he came to be an example unto us of mortification and therefore though the Scripture propound him to us to be followed as our pattern in Love John 15. Eph. 5. in humility and meekness Matth. 11.28 John 15. S. Peter singles out mortification as that wherein he is principally to be imitated 1 Pet. 2 21. Hence we understand that though Christ according to his Divine nature be the power of God and wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 yet as he takes part of flesh and blood he partakes also of the infirmities and frailties of flesh and blood as to us a child is born Esay 9. So as a child he is said to be weak 2 Cor. 13.4 We are weak with him and he is said not to know some things as a man Object But some will say what need any one labour to prove that Christ was incarnate or made man this Article of Faith is so well known that it needs neither proof nor explication No although it were well known and to all yet the declaration of it were not needless for things well known are commanded yet to be declared as the Passover Exod. 12.26 27. Christs death 1 Cor. 11. Shew forth the Lords death until he come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But what if we say that Christ's incarnation is not yet well known Then surely it will be needful to explain it and declare it Now certain it is that Christ's incarnation is not well known to all for mysteries great mysteries are properly of things hidden See Notes on Matth. 13.11 Do ye not read of a Mystery of God and of Christ Col. 2.2 which Paul very highly esteemed of Eph. 3.4 Now Christs incarnation is a mystery and therefore not so well known as men commonly conceive 1 Tim. 3.16 Great is the mystery of godliness God made manifest in the flesh c Beloved all which is commonly known and spoken of Christs incarnation as his manifestation in the flesh amounts not to a mystery but is so easie that a child of eight or nine years old may understand it and if they who call themselves the Ministers of the Gospel teach the Doctrine of Christs incarnation no otherwise I know not how they will approve themselves such as they would be accounted 1 Cor. 4.1 It is a Mystery of Godliness Christ made manifest in the flesh Christs taking part of our flesh and blood I say of our flesh and blood for whereas a main benefit is here intended to the children of God if he took flesh only in his humane person what would that profit the children what benefit to you and me ye remember John 15.45 Abide in me and I in you and he that abideth in me and I in him c. There is a mutual communication and participation between Christ and those that are Christs and therefore when he takes part of flesh and blood with us and becomes man he mans us with himself inwardly and outwardly 1. Inwardly and that passively with a soft meek suffering spirit 2. Actively imparting to us an heart of flesh Ezek. 11.19 and 36.26 Zach. 12.10 This is no other than that like mind of suffering wherewith the Apostle exhorts us to arm our selves for the spiritual battel 1 Pet. 4.1 He suffers of us and in us for our sins cause with us and bears all the weakness and injuries of flesh and blood in not resisting sin yet in conspiring with it Gal. 3.1 2 3. James 5.6 Ye have condemned and killed the just one i. e. the Lord Jesus Christ Rev. 13.8 The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Esay 53.5 He was wounded of our transgressions and bruised of our sins and iniquities He suffers with us hath a sympathy and fellow-feeling with us when we suffer sorrows for our sins or failings and the remaining of our enemies In all your afflictions he was afflicted Psalm 80.15 also when we mourn for the absence of the Bridegroom Esay 63.9 Revel 3.20 2. He mans us also actively when he works in us what is pleasing in his sight when he speaks in us 2 Cor. 13.3 prays in us Rom. 8.15 We have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father praiseth in us the Father Heb. 2.12 I will sing praise to thee in the midst of the Church He takes part also of our flesh and blood outwardly when by his spiritual incarnation in us we become his Temple 1 Cor. 3.17 and 6.19 a portable Temple Verse 20. When we become members of his body Verse 15. yea of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.20 yea so far his as not our own 1 Cor. 6.20 yea so far as to maintain life of his flesh and blood He gives his own flesh and blood from Heaven John 6.53 Which truly may justly blame very many of us I fear who though the Lord Jesus bring his flesh and blood and offer us participation of it yet we yield to him as little of our flesh and blood as may be Thy Brother thine own flesh and blood hath offended thee now what saith the Spirit of Jesus Put on as the elect of God bowels of mercy forgiving one another c. Col. 3.12 13. He that is not ashamed to call thee Brother he inwardly speaks unto thee to shew compassion towards thy Brother he tells thee vengeance is not thine but his But dost thou reply flesh and blood cannot endure such an affront such an injury Nor shall flesh and blood enter the Kingdom of God Many are content that Christ should take part of their flesh ond blood so far as to take away their sins or rather to cover their sinful flesh and blood with his holy flesh and blood but remember that though men bless themselves c. Esay 32.1 There is a woe denounced to the covering that is not of his spirit Esay 30.1 Exhort Let us yield our flesh and blood unto the Lord Jesus let him take part of us what is it unto us if he take part of all other if not of us receive him If he have taken part of our flesh and blood then is he in us and if Christ be in us the body is dead because of sin the spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8.10 Christ if so in us is not idle in us but works in us the spiritual Circumcision Col. 2.11 So that wheresoever and in whomsoever
wherein they are as S. Paul did 1 Cor. 9.20 Some are Professors i. e. Jews He who hath attained unto the true freedom to the Professors he becomes as a Professor some think they are bound by their own strength to be obedient unto the Law to become unto such as one of them to them who account themselves free from the Law and without as one without the Law What should a man be a Libertine Should he rant because others rant No the Apostle having said to them who are without the Law as without the Law adds though under the Law unto Christ There are some weak ones even as babes and children to them he became as weak So did the Apostle to the Galatians Gal. 4.19.20 They were children he speaks to them as unto children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire to be with you and change my voice as a Nurse doth to a child 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so 1 Cor. 3. to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as mothers use diminutives to their little ones so the Lord calls Israel by the name of Jeshurun i. e. Rectule from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my little right one Esay 44.2 Observ 5. Take notice then how near the Lord Jesus is unto all those who are willing towards him and towards his righteousness That appears from the word in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is a near neighbour to us Deut. 4.7 The word is near thee Rom. 10.8 9 10. Cant. 2.9 He dwells in our house of clay Job 19. appears in our flesh and blood as John 1.14 He looks through the windows His eyes are intentive upon us observing what we do and what we suffer Flourishing or blossoming Where-ever he takes part of flesh and blood he discovers himself in fruitfulness Through the Lattices He lets in light into our souls for such light belongs to the children as through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 Observ 6. Take notice what a mighty Divine power inhabits our humanity even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the indwelling Divinity the Christ the power of God He lays hold of us if we be the Seed of Abraham see what a blameless holy sober just patient long-suffering humble meek obedient life he lived among wicked men in this world he gave us an example and pattern of the same life and if we be the Seed of Abraham Believers in him he is the principle of the same life in us also for know ye not that Christ Jesus is in you unless ye be cast-aways He is in us to impower us to the same holy sober righteous humble meek patient long-suffering obedient life the life of God Wherefore either acknowledge thy self an unbeliever and none of Abrahams Seed or apply thy self to the same principle of life in whom thou pretendest to abide and dwell in him and he in thee for he who saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk as he walked 1 John 2.6 It is not enough that Christ so walked for he therefore so walked that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. Exhort The love of the children constrained the Lord Jesus to take upon him our nature O let the love of Christ constrain us to love him again and conform our selves unto him that as his love inclined him to partake of our nature which was meerly beneficial to us so much more may our love to him incline us to him that we may partake of his Divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lusts Among all these reasons whether from the impulsive causes or from the ends for which our Lord took flesh and blood we find not one wherein the Lord Jesus sought himself or any self interest that which among most men is commonly the first mover and the last end that finds no place at all in our Lords so great condescent all he aimed at was the Will of his Father and the good of his Children Joh. 10.15 18. But though he aimed not at any end of his own but at his brethrens good yet no end he aimed at was that we should live as we list but unto him 2 Cor. 5. That they who lived should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them and rose again More NOTES on HEBREWS II. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood c. Axioms 1. THe Devil hath the power of death 2. Christ took part of flesh and blood c. that he might destroy the devil 3. That he might deliver them that through the fear of death were all their life long subject to bondage In these words we have two Articles of the Christian Faith 1. That Christ was born of the Virgin Mary 2. That he suffered under Pontius Pilate 1. The Devil hath the power of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hitherto we have heard some causes alledged and implyed why our Lord took part of flesh and blood 1. The Children were his brethren for the sanctifier and they who are sanctified are all of one His love to his brethren inclined him as our Apostle now shews us the ends why our Lord was partaker of flesh and blood and these are in order one to other he took part of flesh and blood 1. That he might die 2. He took part c. and died that by death he might destroy 3. He took part c. died and destroyed that he might deliver those 4. He took part died that by power of his death he might deliver that he might be in all things like unto his brethren that he might be a mercifull and faithful high Priest The first end is implyed and considered only as a means to the second He took part c. that by death c. wherein are two things 1. That the Devil hath the power of death 2. Christ took part 1. that he might destroy him that had it and 2. that he might deliver those who feared Quaere What are meant by 1. Death 2. the power of Death 3. the Devil 4. how the Devil may be understood to have the power of death 1. Death being generally a privation is best known by what is opposite thereunto which is Life Now Life is either 1. Natural as of Plants Animals or Rational Creatures or else 2. Spiritual that which by eminency is called the Life of God in all holiness and righteousness which God requireth And therefore Death opposite hereunto is either 1. Natural or 2. Spiritual both kinds of death may be here understood 1. The Natural Death for God having said in the day that thou eatest thereof moriendo morieris by eating thereof Man became liable to death which became natural to his posterity And 2. That not only a separation of the soul from the body but also an immersion or as it were imprisoning the Soul 1. In a more gross inert and sluggish body of the Elements than the Soul was at first
received by Moses and Juvenal Satyr 15. writes of Moses Tradedit arcano quaecunque volumine Moses Wherein the Satyrist though a stranger to the Common-wealth of Israel yet acknowledgeth more than many who seem to be great knowing Christians will confess that Moses's writings were mysterious 2. What offices had Moses and what is it for God to appoint Moses unto these offices 1. Moses is most taken notice of for a Prophet and indeed he was an extraordinary Prophet as appears Numb 12.6 7 8. from whence our Apostle takes part of this Text for there the Lord saith Moses is faithful in all my house the faithful Prophet and Ambassadour of the Lord unto his people but besides Moses his Prophetical Office he was a King and Priest also 1. He was a King Deut. 33.5 He was King in Jeshurun 2. Moses had also a third Office he was a Priest an extraordinary Priest who consecrated Aaron and his Sons to the Priest's Office Exod. 40. and more plainly Levit. 8. where he not only sanctifieth Aaron and his Sons but also himself executes and performs the Priests office so that ye perceive he was a King a Priest and a Prophet a figure of him whom he saith God would raise up like unto him who was a King a Priest and a Prophet but there is another kind of making which precedes all this dignifying and honouring viz. that inward operation of God in the hearts of men whereby he fashions them according to his will as Job 10.8 Thy hands have fashioned me and made me Psalm 33.15 He fashioneth all their hearts and informs them with his Image his Christ without whom nothing was made that was made 3. When the Apostle saith that God appointed Moses to his office the word our Translators turn appointed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make now making may be understood either for producing a thing out of nothing as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to create is sometimes used The word is sometimes taken for advancing and dignifying one as by appointing him to some great place or office and thus the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here used and answers to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is taken often in the same sence The Lord made Moses 1 Sam. 12.6 Acts 2.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord hath made this same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Thus the Lord Jesus made Mark 3.13 Twelve whom he called Apostles he advanced and appointed them to the office of Apostles Reason Why did the Lord appoint Moses to his offices He knew the employment he would set him about would require a skillful and able workman not any one of his offices but might take up the whole man and therefore he so ordered by his providence that he should be brought up in all liberal Arts and Sciences in all the Learning of the Egyptians Acts 7. that he should be trained up in Martial Discipline also for Josephus relates Stories of Moses's Martial Feats as the war waged against the Ethiopians wherein Moses was Commander in chief for the Egyptians indeed what education could the reputed Son of a Princess want Observ 1. Our God is not inert not idle in the world he is making somewhat purissimus actus non potest non agere My Father worketh hitherto saith the Son of him and I also work He is not such as the Epicureans feign him without providence he orders the world sets up Government among men Observ 2. Note here the special advancement and Dignity of God's people they are such as God hath made And hath not God made all men Yea all the creatures And what Prerogative then is this of God's peculiar people that he hath made them It is true that God hath created all men but his peculiar people are made anew Deut. 32.6 Esay 43.7 The Lord thus advanceth every one that is called by his name I have created him I have formed him yea I have made him he hath made us and not we our selves And could any think that any man could make himself The Holy Spirit speaks of the better creation and making as it presently follows He hath made us c. We are his people the first fruits of his creatures Observ 3. The true Dignity and Advancement is from God Repreh 1. The bruitish man who takes no notice of God's work in him Psalm 92.5 6. Repreh 2. Who blames his maker for his own sin as if God had made him wicked It is true The Potter may do what he will with his clay But what wise Potter will make a Vessel to break it in pieces And therefore it is not said Jer. 18. that the Potter himself marred the Vessel but that the Vessel was marred vers 4. and who marrs that but thy self Thy destruction is of thy self O Israel Consider in reason can God be said to endure with grief with much long-suffering and patience which he himself is the maker of Thy child or servant takes ill courses wasts his time and thy goods he is thy child and servant and thou hast bowels of compassion and bearest with him couldst thou in reason be said to be patient towards him if thou wert the cause of his lewdness if thou settest him a work Now see what thy God doth towards thee Rom. 9.21 22. Who fits these vessels to destruction but themselves There 's no cause named and surely God cannot be the cause of their sin it must be the Devil and men consenting to him and doing his lusts John 8. Yet thou hadst rather impute thy sin to God than to the Devil or to thy self What an hard opinion hast thou of God Axiom 2. Moses was faithful to him that appointed him Not to trouble you with the many significations of faith and faithfulness and how Moses may be said to be faithful to him that appointed him Faithfulness is taken here for constancy and truth according to the Orators description of it Fides est dictorum conventorumque constantia veritas The constancy and truth of what is spoken and promised Accordingly a man is faithful who is constant in performing what he is commanded and promiseth Thus God is said to be faithful The faith of God that keepeth Covenant Deut. 7. 1 Cor. 10.13 Hebr. 11.11 and when we keep Covenant with our God we are said to be faithful to him that makes us Acts 16.15 Moses was highly commended for this and that by God himself Numb 12.7 Reason Why was Moses faithful to him that appointed him The Reason may be in regard of 1. The office appointed him 2. Him who appointed him to that office 1. An office what ever it be committed to any ones charge and undertaken by him brings with it an obligation of faithfulness a kind of moral necessity 1 Cor. 4.2 1 Cor. 9.16 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. In regard of God who appointed him He was the maker of Moses he who advanced him to his high
the words we have these divine axioms or points of Doctrine 1. The Patriarchs and holy men of God inherit the promises 2. The Patriarchs through faith and patience inherit the promises 3. We ought to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises 4. We ought not to be slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises 5. And lastly the Apostle and the Saints with him intreat them in vers 11. that they be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promses 1. The Patriarchs inherit the promises wherein we must enquire 1. What are the promises 2. Who they are who inherited them 1. The promises are sometime set down in types and figures as the holy Land is called the land of promise as also power and strength to overcome those who were inhabiters of the Land of promise Numb 14.7 8 9. Sometime they are propounded unto us in their truth and nakedness as 2 Pet. 1. Great and precious promises which are two 1. Participation of the divine nature 2. Escaping the corruption that is in the world through lusts 2. What is it to inherit these promises and what is an heir Haeres est qui defuncto succedit in jus universum Heb. 1. This description of an heir though it cannot fit Christ the Heir of all things in regard of God the Father who is the living immortal and everlasting God yet it may well befit all believers in regard of Christ by whom and with whom they are heirs for as he is heir of all things so he makes his believers heirs together with him for his name is Pater futuri seculi Isa 9. and he by his death makes a purchase of the eternal inheritance for all those who are heirs with him it is the qualification required Rom. 8.17 Heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ if we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him chap. 9.15 For this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance See Notes on Hebr. 1. The reason why the Patriarchs and all holy men and women inherit the promises is the free Grace of God Rom. 4.16 This Inheritance is promised and obtained through Jesus Christ the heir of all things for for this cause He is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death believers may inherit the promises But here we seem to meet with a doubt the Apostle Hebr. 11.13 speaking of the Patriarchs All these saith he died in the faith having not received the promises it seems therefore that the Patriarchs have not received the promises To which I answer Abraham had not possession of the Holy Land nor the Kingdom nor the City promised God was not known to him by his name Jehovah the performer of his Promises Exod. 6.31 He knew they were to be fulfilled four hundred years after As for the spiritual promises the entrance into the highest heavens and possession of them figured by the Land of Canaan that was reserved for the honour of Christs resurrection and ascension The Apostle Hebr. 9.6 7 8. teacheth that the Holy Ghost thus figuring or signifying that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first Tabernacle was standing and Chap. 10.19 20. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated or made new Marg. for us through the veil that is to say his flesh c. through this new and living way Abraham and the other holy Patriarchs entred into the Eternal Inheritance Observ 1. Hence it appears that the Eternal Inheritance was made known even from the beginning Observ 2. Whence we may note the goodness of God in all Ages exciting and stirring up all men even the ungodly to well-doing by the promise of the Eternal Inheritance If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted Gen. 4. Observ 3. There have been in all Ages some who have inherited the promised Inheritance 4. Observe hence how great is the honour of the Saints of God they are Sons and Daughters of God they are heirs it's the Apostles gradation Gal. 4.7 No more a servant but a son an heir heirs according to the hope of eternal life Tit. 3.6 heirs of the kingdom Jam. 2.5 whence we may consider how great is Christ himself who is the heir of all things 5. Observe here how great is the goodness and condescent of the Lord Jesus who being heir of all things admits believers to be coheirs with him Rom. 8.16 17. Rev. 3.21 and 21.7 Axiom 2. The Patriarchs and holy men of God through faith and patience inherit the promises wherein we must enquire what is Faith and what is Patience Faith is an assent unto a testimony as here it is to be understood we may take the Apostles description of it Hebr. 11.1 Faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ground or confidence of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen This Faith is concrete and compounded with Hope and so as by Faith we credit and believe the Divine Testimony witnessing the truth goodness and love of God so Hope raiseth the soul to relie on the might and power of God for the obtaining of what we believe and hope for 2. Patience is sometime called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here they differ in degree for whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies bearing or enduring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here adds continuance and perseverance unto patience and therefore it 's rendered long-suffering patience may be described the bearing of Christ's Cross Phil. 2.8 1. The reason why through Faith and Patience we must inherit the promises 1. The promises cannot be inherited unless that be removed which is opposite unto them the inheritance is an undefiled inheritance 1 Pet. and therefore no unclean thing can enter into it so that it 's of necessity the heart must be purified by faith Act. 15. 2. There is an end and finishing of our Faith and the will of the Lord is that patience should have her perfect work and both these are finished or perfected when the inheritance is obtained receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls 3. Reason The Promises were and are lost by unbelief and impatience and therefore they are to be recovered by faith and patience Observ 1. Hence is when we have done and suffered all whatever is to be suffered and done in order to eternal life it is an inheritance and given and received out of gift Donatio est liberalis datio the gift of God is eternal life When Joshuah and the Israelites had fought and subdued the inhabitants of the Land of Promise it was then given them out
Religions that we may not know the true So that the members which divide Religion according to St. James are two 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain Religion is the one 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure and undefiled Religion For neither is vain Religion pure nor pure Religion vain And seeing these two are contrary the comparing of these two together may be an illustration unto both 1. Vain Religion is such a service of God as is unprofitable such a service of God as doth not attain unto the end to which it tends for it is all one to serve God in vain and to have no profit by walking humbly with our God Mal. 3. Therefore this is that worship which from the event is termed by Tully Timor Deorum inanis From the Object or the manner of the action it 's called by others false Religion for it is false Religion ubi falsi coluntur Dii aut ubi falso cultu colitur Deus 1. It 's vain impure and false Religion if the Gods be vain impure and false which we adore it 's vain because vain Gods cannot recompense them that serve them whether they do good or evil Baruch 6. 2. Impure it is both 1. In respect of God And also 2. In respect of them that use it 1. In respect of God because it doth prophane his holy name who will not give his honour to another for it changeth the glory of the incorruptible God into a creature subject to corruption Therefore some expositors do thus interpret the words of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then began the name of the Lord to be prophaned Gen. 4.26 2. Impure also in respect of them that use it because they do corrupt themselves thereby Deut. 4.16 For the Lord spake unto his servant Moses saying Go get thee down for the people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them they have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed thereunto And said these be thy Gods O Israel which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt Exod. 32.7 2. Finally if the Gods we serve be false then our service i. e. our Religion cannot be true for whatsoever is done among them is false This also is the Prophet Baruch his argument whose Testimony in this case I hope will not be judged Apocrypha therefore that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which we have such frequent mention is referred unto this false impure and vain Religion Neither can the Religious worshipping of Angels nor the invocating of Saints departed be reduced to another head for though there is due unto those excellent creatures civil honour respect and reverence yet the truth it self concludes that the object of Religious worship is God alone for thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve St. Matth. 4.10 Therefore their Religion must needs be vain who make their belly their God and their glory their shame for that which is spoken of the Cyclops may be applied to them Haud ulla numina expavescunt Coelitum Sed victimas uni Deorum maximo Ventri offerunt Deos ignorant Caeteros In a word if we live according to the course of this wicked world in luxury covetousness or pride our Religion must needs be false because the Father of lyes the Devil the God of this wicked world is the Numen which we adore 2. Religion for the manner of the service may be false although the God whom we intend to serve be true This will appear most evident if we do observe what fruits ignorant zeal and needless fear brings forth for some among the Jews were strict observers of the legal Ceremonies and in observing of those outward Rites they placed their Righteousness but not knowing Christ the Truth whom they did signifie they were more zealous to confirm the figure than willing to obey the Truth They had indeed a zeal of God but not according to knowledge And being ignorant of Gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness they submitted not themselves unto the righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 What should I speak of that fiery zeal of which our Saviour prophesied saying The time shall come that who so killeth you will think he doth God service that is who so putteth such as you to death will think he hath declared himself religious And what is the cause of this distemper but zealous ignorance For this will they do unto you saith our Saviour because they have not known the Father nor me St. Joh. 2. I will have mercy and not sacrifice but they are all for Sacrifice but not at all for Mercy 2. And what doth needless fear beget but disobedience to just commands for the men of this generation despise government fearing lest it should abridge their Christian or to speak more truly their carnal and antichristian liberty These fear they shall be over lorded where there is no parity therefore speak evil of dignities as though that policy swayed them more than Piety These though they know no evil in the Churches Discipline yet will not obey it lest they should admit an introduction to some new Religion Thus do they omit obedience unto Government honour unto Governours reverence unto God and good duties upon a vain suspicion but do not fear the contrary Acts as rebellion and disobedience clamorous and reviling speeches irreverend and rude behaviour although most manifest evils if therefore by the fruits the tree be known then by these works may all men know it is not pure and undefiled but false impure and vain Religion 2. Wherefore in the second place it followeth that pure and undefiled Religion is the upright service of the God of Truth ubi verus Deus vere colitur For the only true God whose pure eyes will not behold corruption is the only object unto which pure and undefiled Religion tends And that Religion by which the God of Truth is purely served is undefiled and pure 1. First the only true God whose pure eyes will not behold corruption is the only object unto which pure and undefiled Religion tends For thus spake Samuel unto all the house of Israel saying if ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts put away the strange Gods Baalim and Ashteroth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistins Then the children of Israel put away Baalim and Ashteroth and served the Lord only 1 Sam. 7.3 Baalim and Ashteroth were in the East like Jupiter and Venus in the West names by which the Gentiles gods were signified the people by forsaking Baalim and Ashteroth and by serving of Jehovah only were required to renounce all false gods and to devote themselves unto the service of the true To this the ancient and laudable
unto Faith where there are fruits and works contrary unto faith 3. Abraham offered up his son Isaac upon the Altar The History is very well known Gen. 22. Doubt But how can he be said to have offered up his son who yet was not offered up but preserved alive To offer therefore is here taken pro actu destinato inchoato non perfecto as much as lay in him he offered up his son he bound him he laid him on the Altar he drew the sacrificing knife to slay him He did all he was commanded which he had not done unless he had done also what he was counter-manded Reason 1. In regard of God his precept unto Abraham 2. In regard of Abraham his Faith and obedience complying with Gods Precept Observ 1. The mighty power of Faith it conquers the greatest temptations The Jews observe that Abraham was ten times tempted of God 1. To forsake his Country 2. To go into Egypt 3. When his Wife was taken from him 4. When severed from Lot 5. When he overcame the Kings 6. When he cast Hagar out of doors great with child and that by him 7. When being old he must be circumcised 8. When his Wife was taken away by Abimelech 9. When again both Hagar and Ishmael must be put out of doors 10. When he must offer up Isaac These were all temptations but not one so called but this the greatest of all Abrahams Faith conquered all Observ 2. Abrahams belief of God's command and that one of the most difficult that ever God gave unto man so many words so many darts so many goads pierce his heart Take now not an Ox or Sheep But 1. Thy son if thou hadst more thou mightest give one for many 2. Thine only Son 3. But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a son not a son as the Jews proverb is let him sink or swim O but this was thy Son whom thou lovest and he most lovely 4. Isaac thy joy thy delight the son of thine old age in whom all thy hopes all the promises of God were comprised take Isaac 5. Offer him up May not a servant do it No thou thy self 6. And for an whole burnt offering not one part of him left all must be turned into Ashes 7. And all this forthwith 8. Yet he must be tryed three days he must go three days journey tempted sometime with the command sometime with the Love of God love of the flesh present delight future bliss All these were as if Abraham indeed had been to be offered not Isaac by faith Abraham obeyed this most horrible command O with what courage did the good man overcome all this So that we may say of him what Pyrrus said of Fabritius that it 's more easie to divert the Sun from his course than Fabritius from his purpose Observ 3. God accepts the will for the deed He offered up c. See Notes before in Jam. 1.22 Repreh 1. The perverse and presumptuous imitation of the great God in his commands proceeding from his Soveraign Power Herein Satan will be like the Highest Hence came the offering unto Molech Repreh 2. A strong eviction of our great unbelief and disobedience Abraham being commanded believed and readily obeyed this command as to man most horrible most unreasonable though God according to his absolute power might command that same The Lord gives no such commands to us it came not into his heart Jerem. This command to us is unreasonable he propounds to us most reasonable commands what sacrifice so reasonable as the offering up of our bodies Rom. 12.1 our resignation of our selves in our reasonable service yet who offers up this sacrifice who offers up a sorrowful spirit a contrite heart Psal 51. And if we be so backward to offer up our bodies quid dicam in crucem tollere What shall I say of taking up our cross daily and following our Lord if the Prophet Elisha had commanded us some great thing oughtest thou not to do it c. If Elisha God our Saviour command c. Wash and be clean This is so reasonable that Mich. 6.6 7 8. Esay 1 16-20 Love thou the Lord it 's an argument of forgiveness There is no doubt but Simon the Pharisee though a Leper unclean himself yet will condemn thee for a sinner They who are yet under the Law will condemn those who are under grace Eli accounted Hannah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like these are those who perform blind obedience to their presumptuous superiours who usurp an absolute power over them Cassian reports of Matius an Abbot who at the command of his Superiour would have cast his son of eight years old into a River and drowned him An Example admirandum nay demirandum magis quam imitandum as that which exceeds all the lawful bounds of precept and obedience for no superiour can command the death of his inferour without just cause warranted by the Law of God And therefore there was more blindness than due obedience in submission to such commands So that to countenance this rash folly of the Abbot there was great need to feign a Revelation declaring how acceptable the fact was to God Hac eum obedientiâ Abrahae patriarchae opus implesse But we have a more sure word of prophecie according to which sammum vitae necisque Dominium The absolute power of life and death belongs to God only Like to these are they who dare impose upon the life of men their opinions and dictates for God's Oracles which they have received from mortal men or false collections of their own out of the Word of God The Apostle who I am sure had more authority than they all he disclaimed all such usurpation of rule over the hearts of men 2 Cor. 2.24 Mysticé Abraham offered up Isaac his son upon the altar The Letter hath offered us somewhat for our edifying but the Spirit will afford us more Who doth Abraham figure but the great and high Father God the Father Who is Isaac but a Type of Jesus Christ whom the Father spared not but delivered up to death for us all Rom. 8.33 And what was the Altar but a figure of the Cross of Christ for so Mount Moriah had three divers tops 1. Upon one of which the City of David was built 2. Upon another Solomon's Temple 3. Upon the third Isaac was offered and afterward our Lord was crucified This is affirmed by divers of the Ancients August de Civitate Dei lib. 16. chap. 32. Hieronimus presbyter scripsit se certissimé à sermonibus Judaeorum cognovisse quod ibi immolatus sit Isaac Adam sepultus ubi postea Christus est Crucifixus Exhort Let us offer up our Isaac upon the altar And what is our Isaac but our joy What is the Altar and what is the Cross but the patience of Jesus Christ Unto thee then be it spoken Abramida O thou son of Abraham if thou wilt prove thy self to be so by doing the works of Abraham offer
thou shalt be justified c. but how should a man full of talk be justified Job 11.2 No for in many words there is vanity Eccles But when he that speaks speaketh as the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4.11 Christ speaking in me 1 Cor. 9.1 2. so thoughts are works but then we must not think our own thoughts or speak our own words Those who do good works are justified Rom. 2.13 By what works was Abraham justified Even by the works of God wrought in him and by the same works is every Son of Abraham justified Man is said to believe yet is belief Gods work Joh. 6.29 30 33. life and resurrection is operative by works of obedience 1 Joh. 3.23 24. Jer. 51.10 Protulit Dominus justitias nostras Venite narremus in Sion opera Domini Dei nostri For as Faith is the work of God in us even so the works of Faith are wrought in God Joh. 3.21 who worketh all our works in us Isai 26.12 he is the light and the fruit of light which shines forth Ephes 5.9 Vulg. Lat. Syr. The Tree of Life brings forth fruits of Righteousness Ephes 2.4 10. So that neither light nor shining Phil. 1.11 nor Tree of Life nor fruit is ours but Gods Object But this seems harsh to some for how can our works justifie us Are not Faith and Works ordinarily opposed in Scripture Here the Apostles profession Phil. 3.9 10 11. he renounceth his own Righteousness and Works by the Law That which our Lord said Joh. 16.19 Yet a little while and ye shall see me Our Lord seems to allude to that of the Prophet Habak 2.3 whence the Apostle yet a little while and be that shall come c. Hebr. 10.3.7 faith in him that is to come and he becomes a Tree of Life in us whereby the just man lives And that which was Abrahams operative Faith here must also be every Sons of Abraham Hebr. 11.17 18 19. He believed that God was able to raise up Isaac from the dead And it is our belief if we be Abrahams Children that God is able to raise up the true Isaac from the dead Rom. 4. 1 Pet. 1.21 1 Joh. 3.3 the operative faith in the operative power of God who raised up Christ from the dead This conformity unto Christs death and suffering with him works the salvation and justifieth us 2 Cor. 1.5 where Christs works in us are our conformity unto his death That God should raise the dead was the promise made of God unto the Fathers Acts 26.6 7. that appears v. 8. This was no dogmatical point or tenent in Religion but obedience and practice v. 7. Phil. 3.9 10 11. and why should it seem incredible to us c. v. 8. since it 's testified by Moses and all the Prophets v. 22 23. But truly it seems so incredible unto most men that he who shall affirm it shall be thought a mad man as Paul was by Festus vers 24. Object How then doth Faith alone justifie The eye alone sees and the ear alone hears but neither if taken from the body and alone See Notes before on Jam. 1.22 Observ 1 Hence it appears how contrary it is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that a man should be justified by the works of the Law Rom. 3 20-28 Observ 2. How presumptuous a tenent it is that our works should merit eternal life which is purely out of Grace and the free gift of God when ye have done all that ye are commanded ye are unprofitable servants Observ 3. A Reason of the instant ruine and desolation upon us which yet we heed not regard not but lay the blame every one on that party which is opposite unto us when the true cause is the forsaking of Gods Law and not hearkning to his voice the want of Faith and obedience of faith want of that Righteousness which is testified by the Law and the Prophets this is the true cause of our ruine and we know it not Jer. 9.12 I know well we boast every one of his Faith but where are the works where is the obedience of faith to the Commandments of God where is the most holy faith resâ—aining us from sin and iniquity where is the shield of Faith that might now protect us Our wicked lives our disobedience our self-love c. these declare plainly that it is not the true and precious Faith we boast of but presumption 1 Kings 14 22-27 The people did evil c. thereupon came Shishack King of Aegypt Rehoboam is interpreted by the Wise Man Ecclus. 47.23 The foolishness of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that broad way wherein the people walk and needs must they be foolish for the broad way wherein the foolish Virgins walk See Notes on Matt. 25. with their Lamps of disobedient knowledge and dead faith This faith hinders not their looseness of life they provoke the Lord to jealousie with their spiritual fornication yea by this dead faith and disobedient knowledge they are puffed up 1 Cor. 8. they build themselves high places 1 King 14.22 23. When they did evil then they rejoyced Jer. 11.15 and were puffed up when they should have mourned 1 Cor. 5. Now comes Shishack poculum laetitiae the cup of our own joy c. this bereaves us of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge This Shishack takes away all the shields of Gold the shields of their precious faith and Rehoboam makes brazen shields i. e. presumption instead of faith and hence they are bold one against another as Numb 14. Acts 19. Observ 4. Abraham was justified by works it is not said that Abraham justified himself by works the works are Gods and God wrought them It was the sin of the Jews that they knew not the righteousness of God and went about to establish their own righteousness Rom. 10.3 Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not in use in the Active or Cal because it is none of mans business to justifie or save himself He that shall save his life shall loose it i. e. He who by his own wayes and means will go about to save his soul c. Matt. 16.25 Observ 5. Hence it appears that in some sence justification and sanctification are all one for as Righteousness and Holiness are sometime all one and the same so in reason the making righteous and the making holy must be the same Now that Righteousness and Holiness are sometime the same 't is evident Heb. 12.11 12. what he calls Holiness he presently calls Righteousness if not the same left out Rom. 8.30 Thus those whom the Apostle calls justified ones he calls also sanctified ones 1 Cor. 6.11 ye are washed i. e. baptized and being baptized ye have received the Holy Ghost and so are sanctified and being so sanctified ye daily proceed in virtue and virtuous actions Revel 22.11 And as we are justified by faith Rom. 5.1 so likewise sanctified by faith Act. 26.18 Observ 6. Nor Son or Daughter of Abraham is
his work-house But if the man assumeth this unto himself as if this were befel him for some notable worth in himself as he were soul and body c. he is now become spiritually proud And what house wisdom was building folly pull's down with her hands Prov. Like the flye sitting upon the Axel-tree of the Cart O quantam ego vim pulveris excito The Ass that carried the mysteries of Isis prided himself and pricked up his ears as if the people had worshipped him Such a silly Fly such a simple Ass is such an one as arrogates God's works to himself Yea this arrogancy and assuming somewhat to a mans self of the good the Lord doth in him and by him moves him off the centre of his Faith Joh. 5.44 Prov. 20.6 Observ Abraham believed and obeyed and so obeyed that he wrought that heroical work of obedience and that faith that obedience of faith was accounted to him for righteousness He first believed and obeyed and then that operative belief that obedience of faith was accounted unto him for righteousness We see that Abrahams obedience and perfecting of his Faith was in order before his being accounted Righteous his Faith was perfected by works and so the Scripture was fulfilled which said Abraham believed c. Therefore to place obedience and doing good works among the consequents of justification and salvation is to make obedience and the doing of good works arbitrary and then they are like to be well done indeed who will then do any if but gratuitous See Notes before on Jam. 1.22 And there is reason they should be remiss in their obedience and doing good works who conceive it arbitrary so to do for who will go about so difficult a business as obedience if he be already sure of the main by justification And therefore some will grant that good works are necessary but how not as causes but as means c. Vide ubi supra Repreh Who think to fulfil the Scripture by a complete and full justification but fulfil not perfect not their Faith by works of Sanctification And therefore they thank God for their Justification that 's sure and firm because they imagine it so And then thank God for their Sanctification in part They believe that can never be otherwise This is gross unbelief See Notes on Col. 2.12 Observ The reason of that abundance of iniquity which our Saviour fore-told should be in the last days the want of Faith in Jesus Christ And therefore Joh. 16.8.9 The spirit shall reprove the world of sin because they believe not in Christ who takes away the sin There is no belief in the Divine Power of Jesus Christ the Power of God Luk. 18.8 few there are that know him otherwise than according to the flesh Men have thoughts of his humanity and believe in him His enemies acknowledge him a powerful man so did they Matth 13.54 they acknowledged the wisdom and mighty works done by Christ But in that they believed not his Divine Power see what followeth vers 58. So did his friends as they Lvk. 24 19. Spake as much in honour of Christ as might be But vers 25. O fools and slow of heart to believe c. He that believeth in me as the Scripture hath said Joh. 7.38 Thus he is the Lamb passover door vine the fountain They glorified God in me Vnless ye believe that I am ye shall dye in your sin Joh. 8.24 Repreh 1. Their preposterous and imagining belief who boast of a Plerophory a fulness and perfection of Faith before they have the beginning of the true Faith Tantum absunt à perfectione maximorum operum uti ne fundamenta quidem jecerunt build Castles in the air before they have laid the foundation They are in heaven before they have passed by the gates of hell as the Jews would have a sign from heaven whom our Lord points to learn a sign from hell as he calls it Jonah 2. They offer up their Isaac before they come out of Vr they talk of perfection before they know they own imperfection they are familiar with God in the clouds on the top of the ladder before they have lyen down with Jacob at the foot of it Surely these begun their Faith and Religion at the wrong end These are thieves and robbers who enter in another way Joh. 10. Repreh 2. Who deny a possibility of perfecting either Faith or any other Grace Consol What consolation must this needs be to the misgiving soul fainting fearing and ready to despair Act. 16.31 It was the Roman Law that the Jaylor who let any prisoner escape should suffer the same punishment which he should have suffered And therefore he chose rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common effect of despair but a most foolish one stultum est ne moriare mori Do thy self no harm fear not despair not believe in the Lord Jesus It was no new doctrine to the Jaylor but the same which he had now sometime preached at Philippi the obedience of faith But alas I am dead in trespasses and sins Ephes and fear an eternal death stipendium peccati mors he that believes in me although he be dead yet shall he live Joh. 11.25 Psal 138.7 8. Vntil the day dawn c. 2 Pet. 1.19 Be not discouraged there are degrees of Faith there is a beginning of faith Heb. 3. and there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fulness of it nothing can be perfected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all at once Art and Nature have their gradual increase Nihil simul inventum perfectum est saith Tully in his Publ. and it is true in Rhetorick that the first Orators had a more rugged stile which they of after ages polished and made more terse till at length they brought that Art unto perfection The first Painters nor knew nor used more than four colours which Art yet afterward was perfected by Apelles and others with great variety Et natura nihil magni voluit effici cito Quintil. The greater creatures stay longer in the womb and are born with greater difficulty And even so it is in the Divine Nature and the Divine Art of life Phil. 1.6 Repreh Those who rest in an imperfect faith They think low thoughts of God Herein Abraham and Sarah offended and it is the sin of their children while yet they are young Zachary the father of John for this cause was stricken dumb Can he give bread to his people This offended the great God so much Psal 78 20-30 It is a common sin that men rather propound to themselves the lowest condition of Faith in the believer yea almost the unbelief to be imitated than the highest The reason is there is little or no Faith nothing like love among us that believeth all things were there such a Faith we would believe that we should receive the Spirit of Jesus yea as Elisha did a double portion whatsoever ye ask believing ye shall obtain Matth. 21.23 3.
But the Apostle tells us That the flesh lusteth against the spirit And so it will do But to whom doth the Apostle write so Is it not to the Galatians they were as yet little Children young and weak ones Gal. 4.19 And doth not the Apostle say That the spirit lusts against the flesh Yes but I find a strong inclination to my former lusts and would gladly do them Yea but follow thou the lusting of the spirit and by that means thou mayst not do the things that thou wouldst Thou wouldst hate thine enemy and because hatred is universi generis thou wouldst hate all that belong to him even to his beast Exod. 23.5 If thou seest the asse of him that hateth thee lying under his burden and wouldst forbear to help him thou shalt surely help him walk in the spirit and follow thou the lusts of it and thou shalt not fulfil the lusts of the flesh But alas I have tryed often and have been often foiled God sometimes suffers the weak silly man to fall that he may know how weak he is in himself and may seek his strength in God Thus Peter was over hardy and presumptuous of his own strength he would dye with Christ that he would And therefore the Lord suffered him to be foil'd and be afraid at the voice of a silly maid Thus a wise Commander in war will cause some cowardly Lubbar to be well cudgelled and beaten that he may find his strength But thou art yet but a child and therefore though thou be foiled yet there 's pardon for thee So our Apostle assures thee 1 Joh. 2.12 I write to you children that your sins are forgiven you The Lord expects no more of thee than thou art able to do and though he set thee to fight with a stronger enemy than thou art able at present to grapple withal yet be not dismayed what thou canst not do he 'l do for thee for he knows well what thou art able to do and will not suffer thee to be tempted above what thou art able and as the child is so is his strength Judg. 8.20 21. There Gideon bad his son Jether fall upon the two Kings of Midian but Jether was afraid saith the Text because he was a child The two Kings of Midian now terrifie thee Midian who are they the false judgement these Midianites are a very potent people the young children of God are extremely afraid of them they fear the false judgement of the world they stand much upon their reputation in the world especially they fear the two Kings of Midian who are they Zeba and Salmunna i. e. killing and bloudy zeal and commotion and tumult two terrible Kings that now reign and thou art afraid of them because thou art a child but Gideon pardons thee he who breaks and destroys Midian so Gideon signifieth and when he bids thee kill them he doth it himself Esay 9.4 And as he doth so do thou likewise consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind Heb. 12.3 But I shall one day perish before mine enemy as David speaks despairingly then what shall become of me The Lord whose Soldier thou art he takes notice of all and every one who fights his battles And indeed I fear they are not so many but that they may be easily noted by him who tells the number of the stars and calls them all by their names Thou art enrolled in his matricula Though thou dye in his quarrel and thine enemy be not throughly overcome yet it is the Soldiers honour that he dyed fighting the crown of life is laid up for thee I have fought a good fight saith the old Soldier I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which God the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not only to me c. 2 Tim. 4.8 Mean time thy name is written in the Book of the Lords war and warriours Numb 21.14 In the book of Jashar among the righteous And comfort thy self and others with these words 3. This is the victory that overcomes the world our faith This is somewhat an hard saying and will require some explication of two terms what 's meant 1. By Faith 2. Victory 1. Faith is here not abstractly and nakedly to be understood but concretely as joyned with hope which we call confidence and with patience and other graces annexed thereunto And thus the Apostle understands it Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward for ye have need of patience Heb. 10.35 36. Confidence is compounded of Faith and Hope And as the Apostle here understands it it includes patience also And where Faith is called a shield Ephes 6. It 's not properly to be understood of Faith but as concrete with patience whose property it is to defend and keep possession of the soul as our Saviour speaks In patience possess ye your souls Luk. 21.19 Thus where it is said be faithful unto the death and I will give thee the crown of life patience is involved in Faith whose property it is to endure vincit qui patitur This Faith is said to be the victory a speech which according to us seems very improper The meaning is Faith is the cause of the victory Faith is the weapon the Saints use for obtaining of the victory 1. I shall make proof of this point 2. Shew the reason of it 3. Answer an objection 4. Lastly make use of it to our selves 1. The proof of this is evident as by other places of Scripture so especially Heb. 11. which is a list of all the notable Captains and Soldiers of the true Josuah who by faith overcame kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises waxed valiant in sight put to flight the armies of the Aliens 1. They overcame kingdoms typified by all those seven Kingdoms in the Land of Canaan overcome by Josuah Thus as the Heptarchy in this Land was reduced to the soveraignty and dominion of one Kingdom so it is in this our Land when the seven Nations the Heptarchy is subdued in us when the many Lords that have ruled over us are now subdued and all brought under the subjection of one King then the Lord our God and Christ is all in all then his Kingdom is come and his will is done Esay 26. therefore 't is added they wrought righteousness Thus when the Lamb hath overcome the kings Apoc. 17. 't is added that they who were with him were called and chosen and faithful 2. The reason of this will appear from the consideration of that power which is imparted unto the Saints of God through Faith in Jesus Christ vers 5. for whereas all power is given to the natural Son of God Jesus Christ Matth. 28. So that he is equal with God Phil. 2. and so the Jews themselves argue Joh. 5.18 He said God was his Father making himself equal with God Hence
spirit 2 Cor. 5. Exhort Be we chast unto our true Husband thy Maker is thine husband See Notes on Gen. 2.18 1. He destroys all who commit Fornication against him Psal 73.27 2. Let there be a consideration of his Dignity He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings 3. There is in all living creatures a desire of perpetuity and immortality not only the sin it self is to be avoided but the danger and occasion of it to our selves and others The Apostle's exhortation is weighty let us judge this That no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way Rom. 14.13 3. Axiom Whosoever marries her who is divorced committeth Adultery This is an hard saying what shall an innocent woman whom her husband puts away out of the hardness of his heart and not for any default on her part shall such an one be debarr'd from a second marriage yea shall he who marrieth such a one without any other crime on his part be for so doing esteemed an Adulterer Surely as the Law speaks to them who are under the Law so the Gospel and the Author and subject of the Gospel speaks to those who are under the Gospel unto those our Lord's words are directed as to those who are obedient unto his doctrine So the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.10 11 12. Vnto the married I command yet not I but the Lord. Let not the wife depart from her husband but if she depart let her remain unmarried or be reconciled unto her husband this latter clause seems to be the Apostles Counsel and let not the husband put away his wife It is true this saying is hard to flesh and blood but it is an hard thing to be saved and flesh and blood shall not enter into the Kingdom of God The Disciples themselves thought it an hard saying and therefore when our Lord had treated on this very argument Mat. 19.9 at v. 10. His Disciples say unto him if the case of the man be so with his wife it is not good to marry but our Lord answers all men receive not this saying It is not as our Translators read it all men cannot receive this saying there is neither may not nor cannot in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all men receive not this saying but they to whom it is given Either men are born without desire of women or they are disabled for marriage by men or they have obtained of God that power over themselves for the Kingdom of God's sake There is no doubt but a man may do much more than he doth and few men endeavour and pray heartily unto God for power over their appetite which they secretly desire to follow Reason of this why he who marrieth her who is put away committeth Adultery may be considered 1. In regard of the Covenant of marriage and 2. in regard of the parties to be joyned together in that Covenant 1. As for the Covenant of marriage that stands firm unless it be broken by Fornication or Adultery and therefore if marriage be contracted where there is no such breach made he who marries her who is so divorced commits Adultery 2. As for the parties to be joyned together in the Covenant of marriage he who shall speedily marry her who is divorced he gives a ground of strong suspition that all was not right before divorce Toties quae nubit adultera lege est Such often I fear are those whom men call their seconds Besides what ever is contrary to marriage according to God's estimate is Adultery and so comprehended in the Commandment Obs 1. Here then are two mischiefs that follow upon divorce he that puts away his Wife except it be for Fornication causeth her to commit Adultery and he whosoever marrieth her who is divorced committeth Adultery Add hereunto what our Lord saith Mat. 19.9 He whosoever puts away his wife except it be for Fornication and marrieth another committeth Adultery that 's a third mischief that follows upon divorce and from every one of these incontinent and adulterous conjunctions commonly proceeds a respective bastardy and an adulterous generation How fruitful is sin Three kinds of Adultery proceed from divorce so true is that of the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One absurdity granted a thousand follow O how good how seasonable how necessary a conflict is it principiis obstare by all good means by Faith by Prayer by Fasting by Self-denial by Patience and taking up our Cross to withstand evil motions in the beinning they are then but weak and in our power if we give them a way they 'l prove head-strong and too mighty for us to master them Obser 2. Marriage doth not alwayes priviledge married persons from Adultery here are three Adulteries committed by married persons Obser 3. We ought not only to take heed lest we our selves commit sin but lest we occasion others to commit sin also What can be more grievous not only to commit sin our selves but also to cause others to sin Every man hath burden enough of his own sin and hath little need to load himself with other mens sins Is it not enough that our Lord teacheth us to pray forgive us our trespasses but that we should draw upon our selves a necessity of praying Lord forgive us the sins and trespasses of other men whom we have provoked and occasioned to sin Mysticé He who marrieth her who is put away commits Adultery There is a Wife that is worthily put away even the evil thoughts thus ye read the thoughts compared to Eve 2 Cor. 11. These thoughts are to be divorced and put away the thought of foolishness is sin Prov. 24.9 vain thoughts Jer. 4.14 prophane thoughts as if the most Righteous God were with us and of the same mind with us as well in the sin as in the righteousness as well in evil doing as in well doing an arrant ranting principle the Lord reproves and divorceth such a Wife Psal 50.18 21. when thou sawest a thief c. and thou thoughtest that I was such a one as thy self of one mind with thee in thy thievery in thine adultery in thine evil speaking in thine obloquy and slander but I will reprove thee and the Lord be pleased to reprove all such thoughts and enable us to put them away as the wise man gives us counsel Ecclus. 25.26 cut her off c. when she is put away she must not be married again he that marries such a one that is so put away commits Adultery Mysticé What a good husband the Lord our God is unto his Spouse the Church He warrants her to call him her husband Hos 2.16 He will make a Covenant for her with the Creatures v. 16. yea a covenant of marriage with himself v. 19. and he hates putting away Axiom 4. Our Lord Jesus saith this I say unto you whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication c. and he that marrieth her committeth adultery These words are a
Divine Testimony wherein we may take notice of that main motive whereby our Lord diswades from divorce lest it might be an occasion of sin See one main reason of Christ's appearing in the flesh to set all right again to reduce all things to their primitive and first institution thus he tells us that it behoves us to fulfil all righteousness Mat. 3.15 He speaks of John and himself as in the flesh but it 's most true of the second Elias and himself that they shall restore all things So he saith from the beginning it was not so but now in the end it must be so as it was in the beginning When we have departed from the unison what a jarring what a disharmony there is and no full concord 'till we come to the eighth therefore the eighth day is the Diapason wherein respondent ultima primis as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be Axiom 5. It hath been said indeed if a man shall put away his Wife c. but I say unto you c. Doubt 1. Did our Lord Jesus Christ then come to destroy the Law surely no he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it as he himself speaks Dovbt 2. But what then shall we say to permission did our Lord come to destroy that Permittere est concedere sinere to permit is to grant or suffer a thing to be for the vertue of a Law consists in these three acts to command forbid and permit or suffer to be done Ipsam Legum indulgentiam significat saith the Lawyer it signifieth the indulgence and favour of the Laws and therefore it implies that the thing permitted is unlawful according to that permitti dicitur illud quod illicitum est ut magis illicitum vitetur that which is unlawful is permitted that that which is more unlawful may be avoided whence it is that since evil is not nor can be perpetual therefore the permission of evil cannot be perpetual and so we shall understand the reason why our Lord abolisheth divorce except in case of fornication 1. It is evil and permitted for the avoiding of greater evil 2. It was not from the beginning and therefore it is not said it was said to them of old time but only it was said 3. Permissum ad certum tempus censetur exacto illo tempore prohibitum that which is permitted for a certain time when that time is past it 's judged to be forbidden 4. The Lord Jesus appeared for this end to take away this permission the evil permitted and the cause of that evil for whereas by reason of the hard heart Moses permitted men to put away their wives Mat. 19.8 which in the beginning was not so neither must it be so in the end when Christ comes to take away the hard and stony heart and give us an heart of flesh according to the promises Ezech. 36.26 Obser 1. Hence it appears that Christ came not to mollifie the Law or to abate any thing of the just requiring of it but to teach it and fulfil it truly and fully Obser 2. Hence observe in what estate thou art O man who ever thou art if a Christian man if a Disciple of Christ know that there is more required of thee then of those who were or yet are under the Law It is a false and groundless opinion that the Gospel is a doctrine of indulgence and favour and abates of that righteousness which the Law commands This proceeds meerly and soly out of self love True it is that in the Gospel the mercy of God is more revealed and more of the truth of God is made known also more strength and power is given yea grace and truth and peace and remission and pardon of sin comes by Jesus Christ but to whom surely to the penitent to the believers to the converts to the willing and to the obedient ones Here is a difference between the Law and the Gospel Mysticé Take notice how Grace through the Gospel superabounds Moses permitted men to put away their Wives the Lord Jesus hates putting away Mal. 2. yea he commands Hosea to marry an harlot that was put away Hos 1. and what is Hosea but the Saviour who invites the harlot that hath been put away Jer. 3. Thamar incestuous Thamar and Bathshebah the adulteress are both in our Lord's Genealogy Mat. 1. that it may appear that there is no sin no foul but the true Hosea the Saviour comes to take it away and purge us from it Repreh Those who abuse the Grace of the Gospel and the lenity of the Lord Jesus Christ It is true he hates putting away yet he hath rejected first Aholah then Aholibah Ezec. 23. And our Lord Jesus threatens the Jews that the Kingdom of God shall be taken from them and that their house shalt be left unto them desolate It is true the Lord hates putting away but he more hates idolatry ingratitude disobedience obstinacy and rebellion these may provoke him to do the thing that he hates even to do his work his strange work Esay 28. O think sadly of this who ever thou art who goest on still in thy sin Repreh 2. Who reject and divorce the true Spouse of Christ by reason of some blemish some uncleanness This was the Jews hardness of heart Deut. 24.1 as the Lord interprets it Mat. 19. Repreh 3. But much more are they to blame who reject and divorce the true Church of Christ and esteem her an adulteress and an harlot and that because of her purity and cleanness what else do they who condemn such for erronious and heretical who hope and endeavour to purifie themselves as Christ their husband is pure 1 John 3.3 There is a story in Heliodore of a black woman who brought forth a fair white Child many thereupon condemned her for an harlot and would have her to be put to death but equal Judges making enquiry into the business found that the picture of Andromeda a fair white picture hung in the chamber where she lay whereupon because phantasia habet opus reale the fancy produceth real effects they judged that the woman by her fancy in her conception had wrought like impression of colours and proportion in her child and thereupon acquitted the woman And truly a man would think that equal Judges such especially as pretend to purity and holiness if they shall consider that Christ is the pure and spotless mirrour the brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person and that he is the example and pattern set before us for our imitation if they consider this they should not censure those to be erronious and heretical who behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord with his open face and are translated into that image from glory to glory Surely if Christ be formed in them they are not harlots and adulteresses they are not erronious who bring him forth to life in them the more pure they