sheep but the most are goat some are in communion with him as the sâ—iâ—ns set and growing in the root but the most are out of fellowship with him and are no otherwise knit unto him than a sciens tyed to a tree by a thred I mean by the slender thred of outward profession Now as the Head onely imparteth of the life sence motion protection light and comfort which it hath to the members of its own body and no other even so the Head of this Mystical body quickneth moveth protecteth inlightneth graceth saveth onely such as are in true communion with him for these sheep onely hee giveth his life for these he rose again for these hee spoiled principalities and powers for these he slew hatred yea not for these onely but in these also and in these onely As for all the rest hee prayeth not for the world namely the wicked of the world hee dyed much lesse for them his death killed none of their sins but they are left in their sins and unto the reign and damnation of their sins without all benefit either of the death of Christ or of his resurrection When wee lay then that Christ killed sin wee must bee understood according to the Scriptures onely for and in true Beleevers who only can receive of his fulnesse The latter distinction concerneth sin wherein wee must consider two things 1 the guilt 2 The corruption of it In beleevers the whole guilt of sin is abolished by Christ though not the whole corruption The whole guilt of sin is wholly and at once abolished to all beleevers by means of Christ his Death and Resurrection but not the whole corruption which while they dwel in the body will dwell with them yet so as they neithâ—r live in it not it scarcely live in them For the former the Apostle asketh this Question Rom 6.2 How can wee that are dead to sin live in it and hence it is that such as are in communion with Christ are not onely said to bee dead but buried also with Christ and consequently they leave their sins in his grave even as Christ himself left them there where if they bee left there will bee a â—â—tting and consuming of them away that they will bee every day less than other even as it is with the body that lyeth in the grave and those which remain yet unmortified they will bee even as dead caâ—kases All the motions of sin in the â—â—ct 〈◊〉 only in letting the life of it go loathsome and stinking which above all things the godly desire to bee covered Now how impossible is it that these should be the practices of such as live in sin Nay I say more that all the corruption of sin left in the godly can scarcely bee said to live in them I grant indeed some moving and stirring of it in them but it is such a motion as is in a beast which hath the throat cut it strugleth and striveth in letting life go but the beast is killed and the unclean issues of sin in the godly which indeed are many are like such issues which come from a dead man and are a very parting from them rather than any argument of the life of sin or of any delight in them This is that which the Apostle aimeth at Rom. 6.7 Hee that is dead is freed from sin as the Theef once hanged stealeth no more so sin once dead and executed in Christ liveth no more in state or strength the sinews of this gyant are cut and what strength of motion can bee in it In a word it is in Beleevers but dying sin sin destroyed the whole Host of sin is discomfited though some straglers of the Army wander here and there as Rebels in another mans dominions The second Enemy is Death which entered into the World by sin The second enemy is death and went over all men in that all men had sinned and standeth in full force and state by sin wheresoever it reigneth Now Christ by removing the cause hath also removed the effect for sin being slain death is also swallowed up in victory he hath made his word good O death I will be thy death who although he bee the last enemy that shall bee fully destroyed yet hath hee disarmed him taken away his dart and sting from him and so spoiled him as hee hath left him nothing to harm the elect withall The third Enemy is Hell the gates of which was set wide open by sin for The third Hell In the day thou sinnest thou shalt dye the death namely the second death as well as the former But Jesus Christ by descending into Hell and suffering the sorrows of the second death loosed the same from himself and all such as shall beleeve in his name unto the worlds end Rev. 1.18 I was dead but am alive for evermore Amen and I have the keys of Hell and Death which phrase seemeth to bee borrowed from great Commanders and Conquerours who having won and entered any City presently have the keyes delivered unto them in token of that regiment and authority which now of right belongeth unto them and plainly importeth that howsoever Christ was once dead yet by his death hee hath vanquished Hell and Death and so hath obtained full power and command over them both The fourth Enemy is Satan the arch enemy of mankinde most malitious The fourth Satan being a man-slayer from the beginning and most powerful being the Prince yea the God of this world yet hath the victorious Lyon of the tribe of Judah put to flight this roaring Lyon whose rage and malice made him bold to set upon the Son of God himself that so hee might work his own ruine and overthrow How Christ avoided his sundry fierce assaults and temptations in the wilderness broke his power and forces by his powerful dis-possessing and casting him out of men and women trod upon his neck by the power of his death and resurrection wee might at large out of the Evangelists shew but that wee have spent some time already in this argument so as now the gates of Hell can never prevail against the Faith of the godly the seed of the Woman hath broken the Serpents head the strong man is cast out by a stronger than hee the spoiler is spoyled and lead in triumph by him that appeared for this end to destroy the works of the Devil who hath this Tyrant also in chains reserved for the blacknesse of darkness for ever The last enemy but not the least in strength is the World The fifth the world Satans servant and armour-bearer which by all the power and policy it could use could not keep Christ down in the grave but hee rose again notwithstanding all the opposition of it this is that our Saviour professeth of himself a little before his death Bee of good comfort for I have overcome the world Joh. 16.33 As if hee had said trouble not your hearts although
calling and doing of his Fathers will was preferred before his meat and drink 2 It belongs to the hunger of the soul which is to cleave to God and obey him in his will and so keeps not off the hunger of a natural body 3 Christ did as Abrahams servant did at Bethuels house who having meat set before him would not eat till hee had done his message Genesis 24.33 and yet was subject to hunger Differences between Christs infirmities and ours in fire things Non habuit ex debito peccati Aquin. Quest What is the difference between Christs infirmities and ours Answ 1 They are all punishments of our sin in us but not punishments of his sin in him 2 His humane nature being holily conceived was in it self free from them all and they do not necessarily attend it in respect of it selâ— But our nature being tainted with Original sin hath contracted them inseparably seeing by one man sin came in and death of which these are forerunners by sin went over all 3 Christ undertook them by a voluntary necessity but in us the necessity is forced and absolute will wee nill wee wee must carry them 4 In us they bee the effects of our sin in Christ effects of mercy 5 Ours are often miserable acquisite rising from particular causes or sins but so were not Christs Object If Christ took not all our infirmities what say you to Damascens argument Quod est inassumptibile est incurabile how could Christ cure all our defects and not assume them all Answ All particular defects rise out of the general corruption and infirmity which Christ undertook and cured and therein these also even as hee which stops a Fountain in the head stops all the streams without more adoe Vse 1. Note the wonderful Humility of our Lord Jesus who would not onely take upon him our nature but even our infirmities and was not only a man but a servant also If hee had descended being the Lord of Glory to have taken the nature of Angels or if of man such as Adam was in innocency it had been admirable humility and such as hath no fellow But to bee a worm rather than a man is lower than humility it self Let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Phil. 2 5. Vse 2 His infinite love is herein set forth hee was able to feed many thousands with a few loaves and little fishes yet hee would want Bread and bee hungry himself hee could and did give legges to the Lame yet he would bee weary himself for us hee could fill the hearts of others with the joyes of Heaven yet hee would sorrow he raised others from death and yet he dyed And as this commends his love to us so should it breed in us a love of him to expresse it in imbracing a base estate for him and in giving up at his call our comforts our liberty our bodies and lives so did hee for us Use 3. This is a great comfort for the poor and men in want seeing Christ and his Disciples not seldome wanted what to put in their bellies Mat. 12.1 The Disciples plucked the ears of Corn and began to eat Christ the Lord of glory hath sanctified thy want thy hunger thy penury by his If thou beest in the world as in a barren wildernesse and livest among hard-hearted and cruel men as so many wilde beasts think on Christ in this estate thou art no better of no better desert than hee nor better loved of God than hee and yet thou â—arest no worse than hee Oh murmur not nor repine but say with that blessed Martyr If men take away my meat God will take away my stomack hee feeds the young Ravens and will hee neglect mee Onely turn all thy bodily hunger into a spiritual hunger after Christ and his merits and then thou shalt bee sure not to starve and dye everlastingly Mat 5.6 Rev. 2.17 but to bee satisfied with the hidden Mannah of God Vse 4. Let rich men learn that it is not good alwaies to bee full and prevent hunger but to feel it and know what it means Christ was God and might have avoided it but being man ought not and would not that hee might have sense and feeling of our infirmitie and so be a compassionate High-Priest What else is it that breeds hardness of heart in rich men but want of feeling of the afflictions of Joseph Gluttonous Dives took not to heart Lazarus his want and where are the poor most neglected but where there is fine and delicate Dyet every day Especially the Ministers of Christ should learn to indure want and hunger as Paul had learned to want and abound and to bee contented in every estate else they will do but small good in their Ministry Use 5 Christ is daily hungry in his members Lazarus lieth still at our gates and is not yet quite dead Therefore let us put on the bowels of compassion towards him Would wee not have relieved Christ if wee had lived when hee did or would wee not now if hee should bee in need Oh yes wee say wee would else it were pitty wee should live Well then whatsoever wee do to one of his little ones wee do it to himself and so hee accepts it saying I was hungry and yee gave mee meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink Despise not thy poor fellow-member and turn not thine eye from beholding his penury nor thine ear from hearing his moan and deep sighs If thou shouldest hear Christ himself say I thirst as once hee did on the Cross wouldest thou give him vinegar and gall to drink is that it hee thirsteth after no it is thy conversion and compassion that will satisfie him therefore use him kindly in his members Vers 3. Then came the Tempter to him and said If thou bee the Son of God command that these stones bee made bread WEE have heard how our Lord Jesus Christ entered into the place of combat how hee was furnished attended and exercised all the time while hee expected his enemy Now wee come to the entrance of his adversary and after to the onset In this entrance observe 1 The Time Then 2 The Name of the Adversary The Tempter 3 The manner of his entrance hee came I. The Time Then that is when Christ had fasted forty daies and forty nights and was now hungry Hee was willing and ready to tempt him before and so hee did now and then cast a dart at him as wee heard but now supposing him to bee weak and hungry also hee comes upon him with might and main and thence strengtheneth himself and sharpeth his temptation Note hence Satans subtilty Who watcheth his opportunity Doct. Satan ever taketh us at the weakest and taketh us ever at the weakest Thus hee set upon Eve when shee was alone in Adams absence and set Cain upon Abel when he was alone in the field and helpless Thus was Dinah set upon being alone and was
to our recreations these bee no holy things sports are inferiour to our lawful Callings which are to be laid aside farr from holy things and unsutable to the Lords Holy-day The like if not more may be said against pampering a mans self and others by feeding or feasting and of drinking or any such wicked passing away the Sabbath The same also is to be spoken of a day of Feasting of publick Thanksgiving which have the reason of a Sabbath Of these and all other Gods holy Ordinances wee may say as the voyce said to Peter What God hath sanctified pollute thou not Doct. 2. A place is no longer holy than God and his Worship is present Was Jerusalem a holy City how then is the beautiful City become an Harlot how is it that this City which was the seat of Gods worship and the habitation and collection of the Saints is now an harbour of Turks and Infidels over-run with Turcisme or Idolatry Surely because the cause of this holiness ceased the worship of God was corrupted the Son of God despighted the Gospel of God rejected the Saints of God murthered the day of Visitation neglected And therefore they being infinitely departed from God and his pure worship God departs from them and God being gone the place ceaseth to be holy Bethel while the vision of the Ladder lasted there was an holy place and so long as Gods Worship continued there but when it admâ—tted the pollution of Idolatry it must be called Bethel no more but Beth-aven When the Congregation of Israel brought the Ark from Gilgal and set it up in Shilo then was Shilo the standing house of God the seat of religion and justice which God had chosen Josh 18.1 but for the sins of this place the Lord rejected it as Jer. 7.12 Goe now to Shilo into my place where I set my name in the beginning and behold what I did unto it for the wickedness of Israel if we will know what look 1 Sam. 4.4 when by the villany of Elies Sons and outrage of the people the Lord was provoked hee gave Israel into the hands of the Philistims there were thirty thousand Foot-men slain the Ark was taken Hophni and Phineas slain Eli the High Priest brake his neck then did the glory depart from Israel and the Ark never came at Shilo more So the Temple at Jerusalem was holy the City holy so long as they continued in the true Worship of God but after they crucified the Lord of life both City and Temple as prophane were destroyed so as Jerusalem although the holy City of God if her filthiness be found in her skirts she shall be had in derision Lam. 1. the most beautiful rod if held out against God shall bee broken yea the Temple of God if it become a denne of Theeves God will depart from it For what is it that can tye God to any place but his own worship to which he hath tied himself by promise Vse 1. Let not the vain Romanist boast of the pretended chair of Peter from which God cannot possibly depart Can God depart from Shilo for the sins of Priest and people where first he put his Name and can he not depart from Rome Can he depart from the holy City where he promised hee would rest and can he not be driven from the great City of the Whore to which hee never made any such promise Can he depart in displeasure from her whose foundations were layed among the holy Mountains Psal 87.1 and can hee not depart from the Whore Revel 11.8 that sitteth upon seven Hills Shall Bethlehem where Christ was born be forsaken and cannot Babylon where Christ is daily Crucified Nay the Lord is long since departed from her and her final confusion is at the door Vse 2. And if Jerusalem once the holy City but now a Cage and Nest of unclean Saracens and Turks bee left of God what a superstitious error prevailed in former times wherein such bloudy Battels were fought for the recovery of the holy Land most superstitiously putting religion and holiness even in the place it self after all the holy things were prophaned and God himself departed The evil success of such Battels ever shewed how God was offended with such superstitious warres and another mischief by them oppressed the Christian world to keep it in blindness For the Pope making his advantage of this blinde devotion if any King or Prince in Christendom stood between him and his proceedings one way or other he would send him out of his own Country in expedition for the Holy Warre and there hold him till he had effected his own designs in that Princes Country and so strengthned himself in all Lands as Histories manifest Use 3. Let us not bear our selves as though we had God so sure as the Papist thinks he hath him in a Box or pretend any vain priviledge that we have to exempt us from danger True it is we have the word with peace liberty and protection but the fear is that our security and deadness of heart with dissoluteness and prophaneness in behaviour will forfeit all God sendeth Jerusalem to Shilo saying Trust not in lying words saying Jer. 7.4 12 The Temple of the Lord but amend your wayes and I will let you dwell in this place but if you will not goe to Shilo and see what I did to it and look for the like So now God sends us to Jerusalem that we may consider what he did to it being once the praise of the earth and if the same sins be found in us as were in Jerusalem the Lord will doe no other with us than he did with it even as he threatned 2 King 21.13 he will stretch over us the line of Samaria that is bring the enemy in our necks and the plummet of the house of Ahab an Idolater take away his holy things and exchange them with filthy Idolatry and wipe us as a man wipeth a dish even turn us upside down What were the sins of Jerusalem but pride idleness fulness of bread and contempt of the poor In all which England doth equal if not goe beyond Jerusalem and yet wee charge our selves as little with our sins as Jerusalem did And if wee look to the immediate causes and fore-runners of Jerusalems over-throw and compare them with our Land wee shall see it high time to look about us for I. In general Jerusalem had grievously sinned and therefore was had in derision Lam. 1.8 Her sins were great many of long continuance with treasured wrath and all this in a place of such means and light Now no place in the world hath more means than wee wee are farre beyond Jerusalem in means and therefore farre beyond her in sins II. More specially 1 They did not hear the words of Gods servants the Prophets nor obey them therefore the Lord made that house like to Shilo Jerem. 26.6 and hence Jerusalem afterward had time enough but too late to charge her self
with rebellion Lament 1.18 and to acknowledge the righteous judgement of God against it Never were the Oracles of Heathens despised so amongst them as Gods holy Word is generally of our people no man almost lets it come near his heart a manifest argument that God will one day speak so as hee will bee heard A Jerusalem would not take knowledge of the day of her Visitation as appears in Luke 19.43 and Matth. 23.37 therefore her habitation was made desolate As little know we the worth of our blessed means but perhaps wee may know it better in the want of them 3 Jerusalem remembred not her latter end therefore she came down wonderfully Lam 1.9 she was careless and never considered the account she was to make of her liberties and so hardned her self in sin and grew to contemn the good means shee had through the daily custom of them This also was the immediate fore-runner of Ninivehs destruction Zeph. 2.13 This is the rejoycing City that dwelt careless and said in her heart I am and there is none beside mee How is shee made wast and the lodging of beasts Every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his head And the reason is shee bore her self upon her priviledges her holy things her strength wealth populous and flourishing estate specially upon the Promises of God which they perverted being all made with condition of obedience which they had long before forfeited yea so likely and constant an estate shee had as none in the world would have beleeved that the enemy should have entered the gates of Jerusalem Lam. 4.12 so as hee came unlookt for The same is our conceit wee think our staffe so strong that it can never bee broken wee remember not what is the end of security when men cry Peace Peace comes sudden war 4 Jerusalem had two sorts of Prophets in her First False Prophets which flattered them and sought out vain things false prophesies and causes of banishment Lam. 2.14 Such was Hanani who opposed Jeremy and said the Lord would within two years break the yoke of the King of Babel Jer. 28.2 and Ahabs false Prophets would bid the King go up to battle against Gods Commandement and prosper This was one cause of her ruine Lam. 4.13 for the sins of her Prophets and Priests not that the people had not sinned but when Leaders and such as should preserve purity of Religion and manners are so corrupt it argues a general corruption running down from the head to all the members which must needs bring the whole to a consumption A second sort were faithful and sincere and the entertainment of these was such in Jerusalem as God most severely revenged Jeremy was cast into the dungeon Micaiah into prison nay our Saviour challengeth Jerusalem of such cruelty against the Prophets as did bring all the righteous blood upon them from Abel unto Zachariah Mat. 23.37 But of all cruelty they filled their measure in crucifying the Lord of the holy Prophets Matth. 21.38 the Housholder sent his servants to receive fruits but they evil-intreated them and beat some and slew others at last hee sent his Son saying They will surely reverence my Son but they said This is the Heir Come let us kill him and the inheritance shall bee ours Now what will the Housholder do He will certainly destroy those wicked men and let out his vineyard to others Expressing plainly in this parable Gods dealing with Jerusalem and theirs with him and what was the immediate cause of their destruction A dangerous thing it is to wrong the faithful Ministers of God Do my Prophets no harm saith the Lord and to persecute Christ in his members shall not bee unrevenged 5 Jerusalem had many warnings before their utter overthrow It was besiedged by Pharaoh Necho by Senachetib in Hezekiahs time in Rhehoboams time by Shishac King of Egypt it was sacked and overthrown 1 King 14.26 It was subdued thrice by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel twice under Joakim and the third time under Zedekiah the City was wasted the Temple burnt and the people captivated into Babylon 2 Kin. 24. and 25 After seventy years when by the permission of Cyrus King of Persia the Temple was builded by Zerubbabel the City by Nehemiah and the law restored by Ezra and the Lord came again to his Temple yet being again provoked some years after it was taken by Antiochus Epiphanes King of Syria the Law burned the Temple prophaned the daily sacrifice removed the sanctuary of strength polluted and the abomination of desolation set up as Daniel had foretold chap. 11. v. 31. and made a wonderful effusion of blood After this the City and Temple was re-edifyed by Judas Assomanaeus and began to flourish but it was not long before it was again taken by Cu. Pompeius a Romane Captain whom Aristobulus called to help him against his brother Hircanus for the Priesthood All these were fair warnings whence they might perceive 1 How righteous the Lord was in not forbearing their sins 2 With how little reason they could stand upon any outward priviledge if they would go on in provoking the Lord 3 How loath the Lord was to reject them utterly if by any means they could bee reclaimed But when no means would do them good the Lord gives them to utterdesolation by Titus and Vespasian who ruinated the City defaced the Temple and left not one stone upon another as Christ prophesied Matth. 24.2 And since that time it hath ever been prophaned and in the hands of the greatest enemies of God and man next Satan himself polluted with most horrible idolatries the Jews driven from thence into all Lands and in all Lands Vagabonds the blood of the Sonne of God lying upon them and their children till this day Oh the patience of God toward us the many warnings and threatnings that wee have had by many treasons conspiracies sundry open and secret practices of our enemies by Sea and by Land Remember 88. and 1605. by sundry plagues of many kinds and every day renewed renews some warning or other And yet how fall wee back more and more how strong are the Papists how bold how malicious and furious as mastives that have been long in the chain Oh that wee were so wise rather to take example by others than to bee made examples to others and to take warning by others harms to prevent our own Why should wee think our selves so safe from the touch of this doctrin or exempted from the lot of all Churches and Lands Where was there ever a more holy place a more holy City a more holy Temple than at Jerusalem yet by security departing from the Lord the Lord left them What Church in all the World whose flourishing estate hath alwaies lasted Cast wee our eyes upon the Churches planted by the Apostles themselves that of Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus the Churches in Asia they had their times but knew it not till it was too late now all are
by which God tryeth the graces of his and manifesteth their infirmitie and out of which his grace giveth evasion and deliverance seem they never so dangerous as for example What a great temptation was that of Israel in the red Sea Yet God brought them out of it So for evil of sin What strong temptations were they that seised on Peter David Solomon wherein they seemed utterly lost Yet the Lord held under his hand and left them sufficient grace to raise them againe Gods faithfulness was such to David and Solomon and Christs prayer that Peters faith did not utterly fail Reasons 1 Wee are the Lords souldiers and servants and therefore hee will help us David thought this a good Argument Psalm 86.2 O thou my God save thy servant that trusteth in thee And this is Gods manner of dealing When hee hath a great work or Tryal for his children hee arms them with boldness constancy and courage as Sampson when hee was to encounter many Philistims what a measure of strength was hee indued withall when the Prophets were to bee sent to rebellious and stubborn people the Lord made their faces as brasen walls Jerem. 1.18 and as adamants Ezek. 3.9 The Apostles being called to the great function of calling in the whole world the Holy Ghost fell first upon them and furnished them with singular gifts fit for that calling How boldly Peter preached and professed Christ at Jerusalem to the beards of those that had put him to death even the Rulers and Elders appears in Act. 4.8 but the cause of this was that hee was full of the Holy Ghost The like wee may observe in Elias his reforming of Gods worship and in the restoring of Religion by Luther who was wonderfully gifted 1 With undaunted courage as appears in his burning the Popes decrees and his disputation at Worms 2 With fervent Prayer 3 With admirable and heavenly preaching So the faithful Witnesses and Martyrs that are called to a hot brunt are first armed with a singular spirit as that Prote-Martyr Steven Act. 6.8 10. who was full of the Holy Ghost full of Faith and power full of wisdome and grace that they were not able to resist the wisdome and spirit by which hee spake And was it not so in Q. Maries daies that poor Creatures were lifted up with such excellent spirits as that all the learning and wisdome of the Doctors or all the power of authority could not daunt them God should lose his honour if any of his servants should be utterly overcome but onely those unmerciful Arguments of fire and faggot could put them to silence 2 The battel and cause is Gods the question between Satan and us is Gods glory and our Salvation This was Moses his Argument why the Lord should spare his murmuring people see Numb 14.15 16. Now if the Devil prevail against us God shall lose his honour which is dear unto him But he will not suffer himself to bee so disgraced as to let us bee overcome by his enemy neither shall the salvation of his bee prejudiced for this were against the truth of God whom Satan accuseth to be a lyar 3 Hee hath armed us with his own armour and furnished us with his own strength and will not have his weapons bee thought so weak and insufficient as to bee foiled in it The Sword of the Spirit is not so blunt The shield of Faith is not so dull the breast-plate of righteousness is not so thin as to receive every bullet that comes to hurt us 4 Christ hath made us members of his own body and when the head can with patience suffer the members which it is able to defend to bee pulled off from the body then shall the sound members of Christ bee pulled away by temptation from him which they must needs bee if they were not conunually supported by his strength Object 2 Cor. 1.8 Wee were pressed out of measure passing strength insomuch that wee desparred even of life Answ 1 The Apostle speaks of humane strength which could never have passed through those tryals But the power and strength of God shewed them an issue 2 The Apostle speaks according to the sence of his flesh and what they were in their own feeling as it is plain in the reason of his deliverance in the next words That wee should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead 3 The very scope of the place is to shew not the unmeasureableness of affliction but a great measure of them thereby to amplify Gods mercy Vse Wee should not bee discouraged though our tryals bee very great for wee shall not want sufficient to strength to carry us through them Yea let us check our weakness while wee torment our selves with needless fears that God takes little or no knowledge of our Tryals or will with-draw his grace and absent himself for ever No hee tenders the weaknesse of his chosen on whom although the Spirit fall not so visibly as upon Christ yet by vertue hereof they have the secret distilling and sensible yea forcible working of the Spirit in their hearts such graces of faith hope patience and boldnesse in case they keep their watch as whereby they may as surely perswade themselves of victory as if they had received the Holy Ghost visibly as Christ did Add hereunto these considerations Strong â—â—â—tives to stand to â—tions 1 That it is impossible to bee exalted to Christs Kingdome if thou bee not assaulted first with temptation thou canst not bee victorious unless thou fight nor obtain the crown unless thou bee victorious Rev. 3.21 2 That if thou beest in great perplexity yet think not the Lord hath forsaken thee For 1 not to bee chastised of God is to bee hated of him 2 He hides his face but for a season from his children as the mother doth till the child get knocks and falls onely to let them see their weakness and more to depend upon him 3 That there is a time when God makes intimation to all his children of their election and salvation and commonly before this that they may bee fitted with hungring desire after grace and make much of it when they have it there goeth a trouble of mind and fear and disquiet so as a man thinks God is quite gone when hee is drawing gratiously unto him and that hee shall never hear more of him when hee is knocking by the Holy Spirit to have entrance into his heart Therefore wee may trust perfectly on this grace and wait Gods time for his full manifestation of it the just liveth by faith and maketh not haste Job if the Lord killed him would still trust Remember Mr. Robert Glover that blessed Martyr at Coventry crying to his friend Austen Hee is come He is come hee looked for the Holy Ghost two or three daies before and made great moan that hee came not yet hee continued waiting and hee came at length but not before he came to the sight of the
to Hell and made him actually know and confess he was the Son of God but he would not for sundry reasons Christians must overcome adversaries rather by patience than by power 1 To teach us that as he did we must rather overcome Satan by humility and patience than by power as Christ obtained his full victory not by majesty but by abasement and passion 2 To teach us that when wee suffer indignity and wrong of evil men as Christ here of the evil one wee should rather turn our selves to Doctrin and convincing them by the Word than to revenge so did Christ 3 That we might hence know the power of the VVord of God a part of our spiritual armour even the sword of the Spirit put into our hands by God to foyl and vanquish him by for the whole Combate of Christ was exemplary nay hee sustains here our person and wields our weapon for us 4 Christs humility and meekness was now a fitter weapon than power and glory in two respects 1 To the greater vexation of the adversary who thought himself so strong and cunning as no flesh was ever yet able to resist him only he knew God had him in chains but now he is foyled by the seed of the VVoman by the wisdome and weakness of Christ as man and not by his Divine power as God 2 Christs meekness lets him goe on and pass thorough all his temptations to his greater and utter overthrow and silence for if Christ by his Divine power had cut him short at the first hee would have said that God fearing his weakness would not suffer him to be tempted or not to abide in temptation Now his mouth is shut Christ the Son of man foyls him 5 To comfort us 1 By shewing us that there is something else besides Divine power to overcome all hellish and Satanical power withall for else wee that want divine power and are weaker than water could have small comfort but now wee see Satan may bee overcome of weak men by the means that Christ used as fasting prayer and the Word of God 2 By perswading us that if Christ in his humility and abasement could encounter and foil Satan much more can hee now help us being in his glory and exaltation If hee can rescue us out of the mouth of the roaring Lyon when himself is as a Lamb before the shearer much more when hee shall shew himself the mighty Lyon of the Tribe of Judah Hence note that Doct. Christ cut not Satan here so short as hee did sundry wicked men nay Christ not so rough with Satan as with some wicked men nor as with some of his dear Disciples Reasons as hee did some of his beloved Disciples Peter how sharply was he checkt for disswading Christ from Jerusalem and Joh. 21.21 when hee asked curiously concerning John what hee should do Christ said What is that to thee so he might have said to Satan what is that to thee whether I be the Son of God or no but hee doth not 1 Not because hee loves his Disciples and Gods Children worse than Satan but because the Devil and wicked ones must bee let go on to the height of impiety as Satan here and Judas how patiently did Christ bear him all the while yea at his apprehension calling him friend they go on to confusion without check or bands almost in their life and death But he will take up his children in the beginning they must not bee let run too far as good Parents reclaim their children timely 2 God declares his power in taking the wicked at the height as Pharaoh Rom. 9.17 For this cause have I stirred thee up that I might shew my power in thee and that my Name might bee declared to all the world if Pharaoh had been taken at the first the Lord had never had such glory of his overthrow 3 The Lord hereby declares his long patience to vessels of wrath Rom. 9.22 all which bountifulnesse and patience because they abuse and are not lead to repentance by it they are excuseless and condemned justly as having heaped coals of wrath on their own heads Who could so long have indured Pharaoh but patience it self 4 The Lord hereby declares the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy whom hee hath prepared to glory Rom. 9.23 for as hee hath prepared them that is decreed to glorify them so hee daily prepares them to glorious uses as wee do our vessels by rubbing and scouring separating corruption from them and the rust of sin by his rough handling them judging them in the world not to condemn them with the world Use 1. If the Lord bee not so quick with thee in his corrections as with others thou hadst need bee the quicker with thy self to judge thy self The greatest judgement of all not to be judged at all and see what estate thou standest in that thou bee not in the upper stairs and room of sin Take heed of thy self when God lets thee alone to thy self The greattest judgement of all is not to bee judged at all When a man hath cast off his Son and lets him run his own riotous waies as careless what becomes of him it is a certain sign hee shall never injoy his Land so is it with God and the sinner pacing on without controul in his sin Vse 2. If Christ bee thus meek and patient with Satan himself and God use so great patience to vessels of wrath this commendeth unto us the grace of meeknesse towards our brethren much more 1 This is the Commandement of our Saviour who was a special School-master of meeknesse Learn of mee for I am lowly and meek Hee was herein testified to bee the Son of God because the Spirit descended on him in the likeness of a meek and harmless Dove and thus wee must testify our selves the Sons and children of God by the lighting of the same Spirit of meekness upon us Gal. 6.2 2 A meek spirit is much set by of God and preserveth peace with men by soft answers and readiness to forgive and pass by offences Vse 3. This reproves men of a fiery and furious disposition men as meek as rough Esau right Ismaels their hand is against every man and every mans hand against them like Lamech who if hee bee provoked will revenge a word with a blow a scoff with a stab But others let them alone offend them not you shall have them meek enough tractable enough but move such a one but a little by a word or the least neglect as may bee Oh he is presently as meek as David at Nabals churlish answer hee will kill and slay even all presently in his hot blood But is this Christian meekness to bee so boisterous like a suddain wind which thy self scarce knows whence it is or whither it tends no but a brutish meekness for even the beasts will scarce stir unprovoked nay wee say the Devil is good so long as hee is pleased
made far more glorious natures than our selves our keepers To keep thee This custody of the Angels standeth 1 In observing and watching their persons souls bodies and estates and therefore are called watchmen Dan. 4.10 And I saw a watchman and an holy one come down from Heaven 2 In propulsing and averting evil so here There shall no evill come near thee for hee will give his Angels charge over thee 3 In defending them in good as Elizeus and his servant being compassed with enemies 4 In comforting them in trouble as Hagar Gen. 21.17 and Jacob Gen. 32.1 2. and Christ in this place In all thy waies Namely in such courses as God hath appointed and in all these in all times and in all places in all estates and conditions In the way into the world in birth and infancy the good Angels keep Gods little children Matth. 18.10 In the way thorow the world they keep us as the Israelites in the Wilderness Exod. 33.2 In the way out of the World their charge is to keep us as wee may see in Lazarus who when hee dyed the Angels carried his soul into Abrahams bosome In all our waies by day and by night they keep us so long as wee are in our callings They shall bear thee in their hands This is a borrowed speech for Angels have no hands nor bodies sometimes they assume bodies in their ministery to others but these bodies are not theirs neither were they naturally and hypostatically united unto them but for the time created and assumed but from what beginning they were taken or into what end after the ministery they were resolved it is idle to inquire Here hands are ascribed to them as elsewhere wings both improperly one shews the speediness of their motion the other their fitness and tenderness in our keeping For their charge is not onely to foresee danger and admonish us but they must bee actual helpers to bear us up from ground when wee are ready to fall and get knocks as a tender mother or nurse if they see the little child falling will haste and catch it before the head comes to the ground That thou dash not thy foot against a stone That is that thou hurt not thy foot against any rub or occasion Angels are nurses wee are as infants in spiritual matters on every occasion ready to fall into sin and by it into all dangers spiritual and temporal Now the Angels keep us not onely from hurt by others but from bringing hurt on our selves even the least they keep us from hurting our Head yea our Foot Object But how do the Angels perform their charge when some of Gods children not onely stumble but fall spiritually and bodily and take great harm Answ The reason is because no man keeps his way so diligently and uprightly as hee ought If wee did never fail God would never fail us no more would his holy Angels nay such is their love as they would not have us to take the least hurt in the world while wee walk faithfully in the waies and commandements of God Doct. The Angels of God are the tender keepers of Gods children in Gods waies that no hurt can beside them Gen. 32.5 When Jacob was in great fear of his brother Esau the Angel of God met him to comfort and defend him When Sodome was to bee destroyed the Angels came to Lot to forewarn and haste him out of that wicked City Psal 34.7 The Angel of the Lord pitcheth his tents round about them that fear the Lord and delivereth them 1 Because of Jesus Christ our Head Reasons to whom they are subject as to their Lord and Head who hath reconciled things in Heaven and Earth Angels and Men Col. 1.20 In our selves and our own vileness wee could not bee indured by these blessed spirits but now Christ becomes our head and for him they tend us as his members 2 Their love to us is another ground of their custody of us manifested in that they are compared to Nurses neither can they but love those whom they see God loveth now they see God loving us so dearly that hee spares not his own Son but gives him to the death for us and therefore they dearly love us and our good they desire our salvation and promote it they rejoyce that our salvation is wrought and are glad of our repentance by which wee lay hold on it 3 And specially this charge and commandement of God is the cause hereof so as now it is not out of curtesy or the goodness of their nature only that they do us good but by vertue of this charge and commandement of God whom they love as their chief good and to whom they are bound in absolute obedience by the eternal law of their nature so as although they are charged by God yet are they not forced or co-acted but out of their perfect love of God they watch over us for our good Vse 1. This doctrin affords a use of great consolation for when we consider our own weakness and impotency on one hand and the multitude power and policy of our enemies on the other when wee see a whole Army of sins besiedging us and a whole legion of dangers behinde them to oppresse and swallow us now this Doctrin touching Gods providence in the ministery of Angels will be able to support us when wee shall consider not only that Gods protection is as a wall of fire round about us but that he hath set and pirched his Angels round about us as a guard of whom we may say with Elisha for their multitude They are more that are with us Ordo gratiae praeponderat ordini naturae Th. Aqu. than they that are against us and for their power they are called the Angels of Gods power farre stronger than the wicked Angels and Powers that are against us And when wee shall consider that God hath given a charge and that not to one or two Angels but to the whole blessed company of them over every godly man how can wee but assure our selves that wee shall be defended and protected If a man were to pass by ship over a dangerous sea full of gulfs sands rocks and robbers if the King should give him letters of safe conduct it would much comfort him and help him through his voyage but if this King should send a great Navy to conduct him over yea and should not onely go in his own person but call out all his men of war to see him safely arrived this were so comfortable as hee could not wish more But thus doth the Lord with his children not onely himself going with them through the world but guarding them with his holy Angels who willingly afford their ministery because of their love to man but in respect of Gods word and charge much more willingly that of Gods Angels they become our Angels Matth. 18.10 What an unspeakeable comfort is it that when wee lose the watch over our selves many waies
4 Do wee know that God himself is the chief good and should not wee cast our eyes beyond our selves sinful lumps and heaps of dust that all the springs of our affections might run into this main Shall wee bestow the pitch of our affections upon lower things as earthly-minded men do when wee may satiate them with God himself and the things of his glory 5 There is no loss in neglecting our selves for God but great advantage for his eye is upon us to bee a speedy faithful and royal rewarder of us The preferring of our Lords cause above our selves is the preferment of our selves in the end Hee that loseth his life for my sake saith Christ shall find it And therefore as Caesars eye made his Souldiers prodigal of their blood so Gods eye upon us should make our selves small in our own eyes that his glory may bee maintained and reserved wholly to himself Moses preferred Gods honour before his own for hee looked for the recompence of reward Vse 1. The Use hereof belongs to such as are specially set forth to set up Gods causes The Magistrate is not now a private man to seek himself or to set forward his own designs or to shew his heat in his own private causes but to prefer Gods causes before all mens his own or others David a King how calm was hee in his own case when Shimei trayterously railed upon him and Abishai would have fetched his head Oh no said hee God hath bid him rail c But when Gods cause was in hand Oh then away from not yee wicked and I will have no wicked person in my house I will timely destroy the wicked from the house of God Good Nehemiah neglecteth his own allowance and departed from his own right for the peoples sake chap. 5. but cha 13. how zealous is hee for God hee will not let God lose his right not one whit of the Sabbath must bee allowed to any use but Sabbath-duties Such a courage for God and the Truth ought the Magistrate to have as neither for fear of men nor any mans favour or affection hee neglect any thing which God would have him do especially for the house of God and the Offices of it Alas how many Magistrates are of Gallios minde to think religion but a matter of words as if God made them governours of men only but not of Christians keepers of the second Table to preserve Peace and Justice and not of the first to preserve Piety and Religion and if they bee so why are not Blasphemies and horrible Oaths and innumerable prophanations of the Sabbath severely punished why are not Popish and prophane persons compelled to come into the house of God Shall a pilferer of a trifle of a mans goods know that the Magistrate bears not the Sword in vain and shall not hee that robs God of his Glory by Cursing Swearing contemptuous breaking of the Sabbath know the contrary The calling of a Minister is more specially to promote the causes of God which therefore must affect him above all his own respects How earnest was Christ in his Fathers work when his Parents came to seek him at twelve years old hee rebuked them for interrupting him whereas in all private converse hee gave them reverence Luk. 2. When his Disciples brought him meat hee neglected that also saying It is my meat and drink to do the wilt of my Father And if preferring Gods causes will not suffer us to respect our selves much less will wee bee hindered by others wee cannot tune our songs to mens ears but must deal faithfully and plainly though wee displease men How zealous was Christ against the Hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 23. though it created him much envy and malice When hee saw the invincible hardnesse of Heart in his hearers how did hee mourn in his spirit and looked angerly about him Mark 3.5 Surely if wee go about to please men or set up our selves in the World Gods causes will affect us slenderly Therefore it shall bee our happy portion to set the top of our ambition the glory of God and in our judgements and practice prefer the winning of souls before the winning of the World Vse 2. Let every man learn to consider what businesse God hath put in his hand to do and not bee hindered in that for that is Gods work Gods cause upon which depends some part of Gods glory And whatsoever he may glorify God in for which hee can warrant his calling let him set that forward and let no respect hinder him let him not suffer God to bee dishonoured in his family nor where hee can hinder it let the spirit of patience swallow a number of private and personal wrongs but when God comes to be wronged let him stir up the spirit of zeal and courage Vse 3. Here many are reproved who fail against this Doctrin as 1 Men that follow nature abandoning religion hot and fiery in their own quarrels not a word can bee sooner uttered against them but they are ready to draw and to stab Their own names may not be mentioned without all due respect But for Gods causes and quarrels let others look to that How hâ—t was Cain in own cause but so much the cooler in Gods causes and service Haman how busy in his own private quarrel to bring Mordecai to death yea to destroy the whole Church had not his gallows caught himself Oh beware by these examples of more zeal in thine own cause than in Gods in thy own name than in God 2 Such Ostriches as can digest any high contempt of God without indignation or reproof and can suffer men to swear and curse by God and Christ his blood wounds and tear him to small peeces It would bee thought disloyalty to hear the Kings Majesties name or title contumeliously spoken of and not bring the party to condign punishment It was an old Law among the Romans that if any man did swear by their God Janus it should bee death unless the Senate approved it or it were made before a Priest why that it might bee either punished or reproved It were well if wee had such a Law amongst us 3 When care of our own houses eat up the care of Gods house Things shall be neat and convenient at home no care how Gods house lies When base trifles are preferred before Gods Word and the good setling of it as stage-plaies and enterludes When Gods Sabbaths and time must give place to our callings or recreations or are passed away in Gods Worship more heavily than holy daies or work-daies Here is a man affected more with his own sin than the highest causes of Gods glory III. The reason of our Saviours denial For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Our Saviour had sharply reproved Satans impudence in his bold onset this third time but yet because it is not sufficient to thrust off an adversary with heat
but it is nothing less than true obedience for 1 He came of his own motion but went away by Christs who spake a powerful word which he could not nor durst resist 2 He goes when hee can stay no longer his commission for this time was now expired his liberty was restrained the temptations were ended God permits him now no further and now he leaves the Son of God and so left he Job in the same reason when he had vexed him as much as he could obtain leave to doe 3 Satan could not change his wicked nature in leaving Christ hee leaves not his malice against him only hee leaveth the exercise of it for the present 4 He returns again afterward and sets upon our Saviour with new assaults which is a plain argument he went now against his will Doct. To doe that which God commandeth and to leave undone that which he forbiddeth is not always a sign of true grace The Devil is commanded to give over tempting of Christ and he giveth over is commanded to be gone and he goeth yet this is no argument of true grace and that which is incident unto the Devil cannot be a sign of grace in any man but as there is a forced and feigned obedience in Satan himself so in all his instruments which proceeds not from any true grace let them flatter themselves in it never so much Cain offers Sacrifice as well as Abel and brings a shew of obedience but his heart being filled with murderous thoughts was voyd of all grace Balaam was commanded not to curse the people of God and hee professed that if Balac would give his house full of silver he would not doe it as if hee had made great conscience of Gods Commandement but it was much against his will for having received an answer from God not to curse them he would not be answered but went again and again to know the mind of God not content to test in that answer with which he was not pleased And after that he giveth balac wicked counsel to send his people to Sittim to offer to their Idols where Israel was likely to fall in love with women and so commit fornication with them by which he brought the curse of God amongst them whereby numbers of them were destroyed Here was a seeming obedience without any grace in the heart Exod. 8.19 Jannes and Jambres and the rest of the Enchanters of Aegypt stood out in resisting Moses and Aaron so long as they could and then gave over but not of any conscience but because in the plague of the Lice they saw the finger of God against which they could not prevail The like was the obedience of the Jews when they desisted from persecuting the Apostles Acts 5.35 because Gamaliel a Doctor of the Law perceived that they did fight against God Adde hereunto the example of Judas who after his sin of betraying his Lord made a fair shew of repentance confessed his sin restored the mony bewayled and justified his Master but all this without all grace in his heart for he went away and hanged himself 1 A man only by repressing and restraining grace Reasons may both doe many things which God hath commanded and leave undone what God hath forbidden as Haman refrained himself from Mordecai Hest 5.10 though his heart was full of wrath chap. 3.5 Many other things might hinder him from the present execution of his rage against Mordecai as that Mordecai was as in a Sanctuary the Kings gate that he was the Kings servant that it was better to reserve him to a shameful death and effect it by a kind of form of Law than to embrue his own hands in the bloud of the Kings servant and so endanger himself But the chief cause is Gods restraint of wicked mens fury that they cannot execute what they can determine against his Church though hee use sundry means to restrain them Nay further a wicked man may be restrained from some evils which the child of God may fall into he affects an outward form and credit and glory of an outward profession sometimes and to attain this end in which he notably deceives himself he cannot enjoy the pleasures of sin with greediness not because he conscionably hateth these sins but hee is bridled with the credit of his profession 2 Obedience proceeding from true grace is so qualified Conditions of sound obedience â—our as neither Satan nor any wicked man is capable of it For 1 it is an effect of the love of God and of goodness Deut. 30.20 Choose life by loving the Lord and obeying his voice and cleaving unto him Josh 22.5 Take heed to the Commandement and Law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you that is that yee love the Lord your God and walk in all his waies and keep his Commandements and cleave unto him Love excludes all coaction and constraint Now wicked men resembling their Father the Devil cannot love God nor goodnesse but notwithstanding all their pretences are haters of God and enemies of righteousnesse they care not for his favour above life they love not his presence nor to bee with him nor his Image in his Child nor his will in his word nor his house nor his holinesse to resemble him nor his glory but are more troubled at the loss of a grain of their honour than all his 2 This obedience is a daughter of faith for without faith it is impossible to please God whereas wicked men have nothing above corrupt nature much less such a supernatural indowment as faith is which so uniteth unto Christ as it makes him more precious than all the World 3 It proceedeth from a man wholly renewed and changed such good fruit must come from a good tree which is the work of sound grace onely 1 The understanding is inlightened to discern between good and evil according to Gods Word 2 The will is sanctified and made willing 3 The heart is purified by faith and made a good treasury to send out good speeches and actions 4 The conscience is purged and being perswaded of the love of God in Christ it seeks to preserve it self good and pure and in all his waies out of Conscience indeavours in the good that God requires and avoids the evil which hee forbids 5 The affections are renewed and are sweetly perswaded by Gods Spirit to hate all evil and cleave to that which is good to grieve they can do no more glory to God but are at their best very unprofitable But wicked men are never a whit changed but are all impure even their mindes and consciences and out of the abundance of the heart the tongue speaketh the hand worketh neither can a bitter fountain send out sweet waters 4 Sound Grace within sendeth forth an obedience which is cheerful 1 In the undertaking love makes labours light and nothing is hard to a good will 2 In the manner of doing it is not forced but lead ruled by the word
by bad means to be suspected sundry instances page 201 Accusers mouths how to be stopped four rules page 19 Against false accusation seven rules page 17 Adversaries must bee overcome rather with patience than power page 72 Adoption called into question by Satan for present adversity five reasons page 58 Allegories must not be stuck too fast unto page 170 Christs Allegation of Scripture with some addition and change of words five reasons page 217 Angels called Gods Angels three reasons page 151 Angels tender keepers of the godly three reasons page 153 Concerning Angels three observations page 154 Angels come not in unto Christ before the Devil is gone from him four reasons page 258 Angels cannot bee in two places at once why ibid Angels have bodily shapes by way of 1. description 2 dispensation page 259 Angels minister unto Christ and how page 262 Christ was more Angry in the last temptation than in the two former four reasons page 214 Apochryphal books not authentical three reasons page 86 In the Ark were three things kept page 105 Assemblies in the Church of England holy meetings four reasons page 107 Avoid signifieth three things page 213 B BAd causes are thrust on by bad means four reasons page 2â—0 Behold signifieth five things in Scripture page 257 Blame thy self sinning more than the devil page 139 Blessing more desirable than means page 90 Blind and bloody battels for the holy land more for the Popes profit than Gods glory page 115 Boasters resemble the Devil page 303 To get Bread out of stones three waies page 70 Gods way to get bread contrary to the devils in three things page 71 C TO live out of a lawful calling wicked three reasons page 94 Calling to bee well carried two rules page 97 Special Calling requires the practice of four vertues page 98 Christ was locally carried to the Pinaclâ— four reasons page 123 In Christ Satan would have cast down all mankind page 133 Satan would have us cast down our selves why page 139 Causes of God must affect us above our own five reasons page 214 Changes here good for us five reasons page 254 To be chearful in trials four motives page 10 Chair of Rome a frivolous pretence page 114 Christ subject to temptations notwithstanding his perfection of 1 nature 2 grace 3 power page 5 Christ chose to be tempted in the wildernesse four reasons page 13 Christs going into the wilderness no ground for Popish Eremites four reas page 15 Chriâ—t would be tempted four reas page 11 Christ by being tempted succoureth us four waies ibid. Christ after among wilde beasts than wicked men page 29 Christ not so rough with Satan as with some wicked men no or with his own disciples four reasons page 73 Christ revealeth himself onely to such at will make right use of his knowledge four reas page 75 Christ as able to defend us as himself from wilde beasts and Devils page 29 Christs priviledge above all Creatures in the ministery of Angels three reasons page 263 Christs combate exemplary as victorious page 15â— Christians must he reasonable even to most unreasonable adversaries three reasons page 71 Church no competent Judge of Controversies page 158 Church hath no authority over Scripture four reasons page 159 Church of England not to bee separated from for some corruptions four conclusions page 108 Comforts for weak Christians in temptation four grounds page 5 Circuit of Satan is the compasse of the earth page 13 Comforts from Christ being tempted four grounds page 24 Comfort of the creatures a greater blessing than the creatures themselves page 90 Comfort in that Satan cannot overcome him who is not willing to be overcome page 139 Comforts from the custody of Angels page 154 Comforts of God bid for a time but at length shine out upon his children four reasons page 260 Bad Company worse than solitarinesse page 15 Comforts when temptations come thick on us three page 180 Compacts with Satan 1 open 2 secret page 204 Means to avoid Satans Compacts five page 206 Conference of Scriptures beateth out the true sense of them see instances at large page 165 Councils no competent Judges of controversies four reas page 160 In the inner Court of the Temple were four things of note page 104 D DAy of sicknesse and death most unfit to resist Satans temptations three reas page 42 Death enters the Soul by the windows of the Senses four real page 187 Devil is not driven away by holy water reliques nor the naming of Jesus page 7 Difference between the love of God as God and of God as a Father page â—9 Directions for the fortifying of faith three page 56 Distinction of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 1 silly 2 ignorant 3 novel page 223 Doctors and Fathers no competent Judges of Scripture five reas page 160 Doing of what God commaundeth not alwaies a sign of true grace three reasons page 247 God draweth neer his Saluts in trouble three waies page 61 E EFfects of the spirits assured governance in troubles three page 12 Eminent persons must be so much the more watchful page 186 Ends and means must be tyed together page 179 Equivocation a Jesultical trick discovered page 150 Three Estates Satan especially would cast men from 1 of innocency 2 regeneration 3 office in Church or Common-wealth page 133 Evill men cleave one to another because all of them hate Christ page 103 Excellency cannot exempt a man from Satans temptations three reasons page 6 How to avoid Satans extremities three rules page 129 F FAmily-worship of God stands in five things page 111 Fasting the kinds 1 civil 2 religious 3 miraculous page 31 Fasting of Christ differeth from Popish in eight things page 32 Christ fasted his fast for four causes ibid Fast of Christ no longer or shorter than forty daies five reasons page 33 Forty nights of Christs fast expressed two reasons ibid Fasting a necessary Christian duty three reasons page 34 Motives to fasting six page 35 Faith his ablions about the means of safety if present three 30. if absent three ibid Overthrow of faith the aim of all Satans temptations five reas page 54 Faith must be so much the stronglier fortified as Satan more furiously assaileth it page 56 Faith his excellency in four things ibid The least Faith can pray for more page 57 Properties of Faith in want of means three page 64 Faith how it demeaneth it self towards the word of Gods providence three Rules page 94 Faithfulness in Promises enforced by five reasons page 198 G COmmon Gamesters live by no word of God page 97 Generality of obedience in four things page 250 Gifts of God differ from the devils in four things page 205 Glory of God must bee preferred above all the world six reas page 210 Motives to promote the glory of God five page 225 To glorify God in good measure means four page 213 God glorifieth himself in our tryals four waies page 254 Glory of the world falsly claimed by Satan for
wickedness with tears pray for pardon promise amendment beg prayers of others as Pharaoh one would think them very penitent themselves think they are so also but the Moon changeth not so often as these spiritual lunaticks who hence may know that the evil spirit hath taken possession of them because they are never long in a good minde These few notes instead of many I thought good to set down to help men that are desirous to see how secretly Satan worketh in their souls and how hee can cunningly most forceably keep possession when hee seemeth most to disclaim it that thus they comming to perceive the disease may run out of themselves to seek for remedy Which what it is wee are now in the next point to declare The third point in the words to bee considered is The mighty power of Jesus Christ who onely could heal those that were thus oppressed and enthralled by the Devil and here consider 1 The ground 2 The proof or manifestation of it The ground was because God was with him How God was with his Son and how with his Servants It will bee objected that God is said to have been with many of his servants who yet had not this power as with Joseph Joshuah Moses and others Answ God was indeed with them onely by manifesting his presence in some powerful or loving effect which hee wrought in by or for them But never was God present with any of his Saints as hee was with his Son who had not the vertue onely and power of the God-head effectually and energetically working with him which was all they had but the god-head it self was after a sort bodily with him yea the fulnesse of the God-head was not only with him but in him bodily Col. 2.9 as elsewhere God is said not onely to bee with Christ but in Christ reconciling the world unto himself 2 Cor. 5.19 So as hee of himself performed the works which proceeded from him which they did not and his actions as from himself were divine Quest Why then doth not the Apostle more shortly and plainly say that Christ was God as that God was with him Answ Hee might indeed have so said as truely but for the time spareth the weakness of his hearers contenting himself to deliver Doctrin as they were able to receive it in great wisdome by little and little instilling into their minds the knowledge of Christ and by degrees laying such grounds and foundations as whereby themselves might more easily rise to that high point of Divinity which the Apostle calleth a great mystery namely God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.26 Secondly For the proof or manifestation of this Divine power of Christ Christ powerfully treadeth Satan under his feet â—n overthrowing the power of Satan and treading him under his feet is evident in the Scripture The first promise that ever was made to man fallen is That this seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head According to which prophecy hee not onely put Satan to flight in his own person Mat. 4. but took also his strongest holds where hee had strongly fortified himself in the persons of others as every where the History of the Gospel recordeth Hee rebuked the unclean spirits and made them cry for grief and anger Mark 9.25 Hee forced them to silence and would not suffer them to confess him Mar. 1.25 By his very word hee chained and bound them whom no bolts could hold nor any other means subdue such was his power and glory though men saw little of it that the Devils could neither fly from him nor yet abide his presence A whole legion of them ran to meet him a far off and worshipped him Mar. 5.6 most submisly intreated him that hee would not torment them and earnestly sued unto him that seeing they could no longer inhabit the man they might have power over the swine By all which examples and many more that might bee added appeareth what command Jesus Christ hath over the Devils and that by his onely word hee healed all those that were oppressed by them Quest It is true that Christ hath this power and glory in himself How the power of Christ foyleth Satan for us because God is with him but how commeth this power to bee so saving and soveraign unto miserable creatures who are held under the power of the Devil and that most justly Ans In healing all our diseases Mat. 8.16.17 among which this cute is numbred wee must knit and combine those two things which in Christ were inseparable namely his glory and his grace the latter of which makeeth the former soveraign unto us and appeareth in two actions in removing from us the next causes of all our diseases namely our sins For as the Physician in working a cure first removeth the distempered humours of his patient which are the matter of the disease so doth our heavenly Physician imply that this is the beginning of his cure and therefore often his first word is Thy sins are forgiven thee and his last word is goe and sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee 2 By taking our diseases upon himself which 〈◊〉 Physician doth or can do but this Lamb of God taketh away the sins of the world by taking them upon himself for he bare our infirmities Col. 2.22 and carried our sorrows and sins in the body of his flesh even to the cross where they were fastned with him buried them in his grave yea cast them into Hell and there left them by which most glorious triumph of his the snares and letters wherewith wee were chained to death and the Devil are broken and our souls as a bird are escaped Christ onely by his Pâ—opes power casteth out Devils Hence note 1 That no man can cast a Devil out of a possessed party or ever did as a principal efficient cause but as an instrument and that onely by this power of the Lord Jesus to whom all power in heaven and earth is given and to whom all the honour of this power must bee ascribed for what power can countermand Satans but onely Gods I grant Satan may give place to beelzabub and depart his habitation for his greater advantage and forsake a body to get faster hold upon the soul or to delude many beholders but such hostile conquest over Satan argueth a mighty power of God which all the Devils in hell cannot resist Secondly That whosoever finde themselves any way molested of Satan must hasten themselves to Jesus Christ who onely can batter down the holds of the Devil In all thy spiritual captivity repair unto Christ and work their deliverance Feelest thou thy self held under any spiritual captivity or bondage doth the Law of evil present with thee toyl thee with heaviness and unchearfulness to any thing that is good seest thou in any measure Satans secret trains working against thy salvation Oh come unto Christ not faintly as the Father of the possessed child Mark
domestical and familiar converse with him all the while he lived in the execution of his office they might be furnished to this testimony Hence is it that John saith We saw his glory namely in his Doctrin and Works and the things which we have heard and seen declare wee unto you Many worthy points concerning this witnesse of the Apostles were here to be delivered but that I referre them all to the forty one and forty two verses where we shall as fitly and more fully handle the same And now proceed to the matter witnessed namely the Priestly Office of Christ in these words Whom they slew hanging him upon a tree wherein are to be considered 1 The Person that was put to death whom 2 The persons that put him to death they slew namely of Judea and Jerusalem 3 The kind and manner of his death slew hanging him on a tree 4 The use of Christ his Crucifying First the person that was put to death was Jesus Christ whom wee have heard to be Lord of all anoynted with the Holy Ghost and power to work most powerful Miracles who went about doing good and never harm with whom God so was as he never was with any Creature before nor ever shall bee hereafter who subdued mightily the very Devils themselves with one word for all this he was killed and slain How the Lord of life couâ—d be subdued under death Quest But how could the Lord of life be subdued of death yea hee that did only good and was without all sin which is the mother of death Ans Christ the Mediator must be considered in his two Natures 1 The God-head 2 The Man-hood and in that he dyed it was according to his Man-hood so Peter saith he dyed according unto his flesh 1 Pet. 3.18 for his body was dead being separated from his soul and his soul suffered the sorrows of death But yet we must conceive that he suffered not in such a Man-hood as was a naked and bare flesh such as ours but such as was inseparably united and knit to the God-head and therefore the Apostle saith that God shed his bloud that is not the God-head but such a person as is both God and Man Secondly although he had no personal sin to bring him to death yet had he sin imputed unto him even the sins of his whole Church which he willingly took upon himself so as God reckoned with him not for the sins of one man but of all his Church and esteemed him as a captain sinner till the price was paid and men reckoned him among sinners and esteemed him an arch-malefactor Why wicked men prevail against Christ who had vanquished the Devils themselves Quest But doth not this crosse the power of Christ immediatly before mentioned whereby he controlled the Devils themselves that wicked men should thus farre prevail against him Ans No but it argueth a voluntary laying down of his power for the time of his suffering for at his apprehension hee could have commanded twelve Legions of Angels but that the Scriptures must be fulfilled yea and this laying aside of his power was the most powerful work that ever he wrought by which he more foyled and broke the Devils power and forces in men than ever by any shewing himself the true Sampson who more mightily prevailed against his enemies in his death than in all his life Hence note 1 How Christs righteousness is witnessed hee went â—â—â—ut doing good and yet he is slain and teacheth that Christ himself deserved not death but he endured it for some other that had deserved it and indeed Christ dyed for us and in our stead that we should not dye How it standeth with Gods justice to punish the innocent and let the guilty goe free Object But how could he being innocent suffer for us sinners or how standeth it with equity that God should punish the innocent and let the guilty goe free Ans We must consider Christ in his death not as a Debtor but as a Surety or Pledge between God and us who hath undertaken our whole debt and therefore hee suffereth not as guilty in himself but in the room of us that were guilty now it standeth with the course of Justice to lay the Debtors action upon the Surety being 1 Willing 2 Able to pay the debt as Christ was Secondly we may gather hence the hainousnessâ— and odiousnesse of our sins it was no trifle nor a matter of small desert that the Lord of glory the only Son of God yea God himself must shed his bloud for and yet what a small reckoning is made of soul and open sins Thirdly take notice also of the love of God who to free us would lay the chastisement of our peace upon his doâ—â— Son that so his justice might be satisfied Object But how could his Justice bee satisfied who was infinitely offended with such a finite and short death as Christs was The justice of God doth more appear in Christ his Pâ—ssiâ—n than if all the world had been damned Ans By reason of the dignity of the person who suffered being God as well as Man that suffering was in value eternal though not in duration or continuance Lastly we have here the two Natures of Christ lively set before us the one most powerful and glorious in mighty Miracles which forced Legions of Devils to fly before it the other beaten down with wrongs and injuries even to the death it self and it was meet that the Apostle intending to prove Christ to bee the true Messias should mention both these natures which are absolutely necessary to the Mediatour the Humanity that it might suffer death and so satisfy in the same nature that had sinned and the Deity to overcome in suffering so to apply that satisfaction unto beleevers Secondly The persons that put Christ to death were the Jews they of Judea and Jerusalem Object But the Jews had no power to put him to death How the Jews are said to put Christ to death though they had no power to do it the Scepter was gone from them and if the Scribes and Pharisees had had the power in their hands they would never have suffered him alive so long Besides the Judge who was Pontius Pilate was the Romane Emperours Deputy the Souldiers his Executioners were of the Romane band the manner of Death also not Jewish but Romane why is it then said that the Jews slew him and no mention made of the Romanes by whose authority hee was put to death Answ The Jews are justly charged with it because they were the chief causes and abettors in all that violence which the Romans used against him They made way to this sentence and went as far as they could they apprehended him they mocked him they charged him with blasphemy they raised false witness against him they beat him spate in his face they hood-winkt him and bad him prophecy who smote him finally they delivered him to the Romane
of God which is the curse of the Law and not onely Ceremonially and typically as they were This the Apostle Paul teacheth Gal. 3.13 that Christ was not onely dead but made a curse for us his reason is because hee dyed on a tree and therefore are wee admonished Phil. 2.8 to consider not only that Christ was obedient unto the death but to the death of the Cross for any other death had not so much concerned us Fourthly This death which so much concerned all the Church of the Jews and Gentiles must not bee obscure and therefore the Lord would not have Christ to dye in a tumult or in secret but most conspicuously and apparently at Jerusalem the great City of the Jews but tributary to the Romans as it were upon the Theatre of the World at a solemn feast when all the Males out of all quarters must appear before the Lord upon a Cross high erected that all might see him and on the Cross himself proclaimed King of the Jewes in three several Langages the Latine Greek and Hebrew that all sorts of men might come to the knowledge of it and further because in his death standeth our life hee must bee thus lifted up that all men might see him certainly dead and that he dyed not in shew and appearance only but in deed and in truth really and perfectly for which cause also our Apostle doubleth his affirmation they slew him and hanged him on a tree which most necessary ground of Faith and Religion Satan hath mightily by many Hereticks sought to overthrow the Turks at this day are held off from the faith in this Messiah by that Diabolical suggestion that not Christ himself but Simon the Cyrenian was miraculously crucified in his stead And therefore because the assurance of the death it self assureth us more fully of all the fruits and benefits of it the Scripture is careful so pregnantly to confirm it as that it cannot be denied not only that he was in the sight of a number of thousands dead on the Crosse but by his three days burial by the peircing of his side out of which came water and bloud by which was manifest that the very Call of his heart was peirced by the confession of his very enemies who would beleeve nothing but their own sences and lastly by the fact of the Souldiers who whereas they hastened the death of the Theeves by breaking their leggs they broke not his because the text saith they saw that he was dead already The fourth point is the use of Christs Crucifying First in Christ on the Crosse take a full view of the cursednesse and execration of sin and consequently of thine own wretchednesse both in regard of thy wicked nature and cursed practices every sin being so loathsome and odious in the eyes of God as the least could never be put away but by such an ignominious death of the Son of God himself If thou lookest at sin in thy self or in thy sufferings yea or in the sufferings of the damned in Hell it will seem but a slight thing but behold God comming down from Heaven and him that thought it no robbery to bee equal to his Father in glory taking flesh in that flesh abasing himself to the death of the Crosse on that Crosse sustaining the whole wrath of his Father and so becoming accursed for it and thou shalt see it in the native face of it And indeed this one consideration setteth a more ugly face upon sin than the Law possibly can for that sheweth our sins to bee a knife to stab our selves withall The most ugly visage of sin that can be but this to be the very spear that went to Christs heart which is the most odious apprehension in the world all the sin that ever was committed on the earth could not bring a man so low suppose one man had committed them all as the least sin of the elect brought the Son of God seeing he that falleth lowest falleth but from one degree in earth to another but Christ falleth from the glory of Heaven into the very sorrows of Hell whosoever thou art then that makest light account of sin and pleadest that God is merciful look a little in this glasse wherein behold Gods Justice and sins desert in the Fathers just indignation against his wel-beloved Son whom nothing but the cursed death of his only Son in whom he professed himself well pleased could appease Secondly seeing all the knowledge of Christ profitable to salvation is of Christ crucified let us desire to know nothing in comparison but Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 seeing such a great Apostle as Paul was desired to know nothing else Now to come to the distinct knowledge of it we must consider these three points 1 The vertue and power of this death in it self 2 The application of it unto our selves 3 The fruits which must appear in us by such application For the first Look upon this death of the Son of God not as of another dead man neither think or speak of it as of the death of another ordinary felon executed but as of a death which slew all the sins of all the beleevers in the world and as a destroyer of all destroyers a death wherein was more power than in all the lives of all Angels and Men that ever were or shall bee More power in Christs death than in the lives of all men and Angels yea such a death as hath life in it quickning all the deaths of all that have benefit by it Here we have a mighty Sampson bearing away the gates of his enemies by death killing death by suffering his Fathers wrath overcoming it by entring into the Grave opening it for all beleevers by his Bloud shedding upon the Crosse reconciling all things Col. 1.20 never was there such an active suffering of any man which tormented and crucified the Devils themselves when the Devils instruments were tormenting and crucifying him it is peerlesse and unmatchable no Martyr ever thus suffered though Popish doctrin would match as Corrivals some of their Saints sufferings with it the most faithful Martyrs suffered but dissolution of soul and body but Christ besides suffered the whole Wrath of God due to mans sin they suffered in way of Christian duty and service but he to make a sacrifice of expiation of sin they having their sins removed and taken off from them but he bare all theirs and all beleevers sins in his body upon the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 Howsoever therefore Humane wisdom stumbleth at this death of Christ yet must we by the eye of faith labour to espy glory in ignominy esteem of the Crosse as an honourable Chariot and rejoyce in a triumph made as the Jews scoff by an hanged man thus shall we see the foolishness of God wiser than man and the weakness of God stronger than man thus also shall we imitate the holy men of God who looking back to the Cross of Christ could
the dead 1 Pet. 1.3 and for this cause our Saviour was careful after his departure hence to send out his Spirit in more plentiful and abundant manner than before that hee might continually inspire his people with ardent desires after the beginnings of that life eternal unto which Christ himself is risen who then manifest themselves members of such an advanced head when this new life manifesteth it self in them Thirdly our perfect salvation is also hence fully assured us for if our Lord Jesus hath soyled all the powers of Hell Death and Darkness in himself when hee was yet dead how much more doth hee it for us his members being now alive if hee could drive back and disperse all spiritual enmitles even when hee was in Hell it self after a sort how much more now being ascended far above all moveable and aspectible Heavens Eph. 4.10 for wee must not behold the victory and triumph of Christ What or who shâ—ll separate us from the love of God seeing it is Christ that is dead or rather risen from the dead as performed onely in and for himself but as the ground and pledge of the victory and conquest of all the Beleevers in the World Look upon this Son of David prostrating the great Goliah of Hell for all the Israel of God casting out the strong man not only out of his but of our possessions that he might take us up for his own use spoyling him of his kingdome and weapons for us yea and in us And hence as out of a well of consolation wee shall draw this comfort to our selves that look as the gates of Hell could not prevail against him our head no more shall they ever be able to prevail against us his members although they never so fiercely and forcibly assayl us And it spiritual enmities shall not be able to cut us short of our Salvation much less shall temporal dangers for by vertue of this resurrection also even in the most troublesome deeps when the waves of sorrows overtake one another and go over our souls when with Jonas we are ready to say We are cast from the face of the Lord Jonah 2.4 even then we have hope to rise out of such evils and because out head is above in short time comfortably to swim out Adde hereunto that death itself nor the grave shall stand between us and home for this rising of Christ is both the cause and confirmation that we shall rise again If the head bee risen so shall also the members if Christ the first fruits of them that sleep be raised so shall also the whole bulk and body of beleevers if we beleeve that Christ is risen from the dead even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thess 4.14 and if the same spirit which raised Jesus from the dead dwell in us then he that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies Rom. 8.11 for Christ hath not redeemed the soul alone from death but the body also else had this second Adam been interiour to the first if not able to save by his rising all that which was lost by the fall of the former Oh how would this meditation well digested sweeten the remembrance of death and the grave when a Christian shall consider that look how it was with Christ when his soul and body were separated yet both of them were united to the Deity which brought them together again even so I am taught by the Scriptures that when my soul and body shall bee separated yet shall neither of them be sundred from Christ my head but he will reunite them like loving friends that they may participate in his own glory How would this meditation bring the soul not only to be content but to desire to bee dissolved and bee with Christ accounting that the best of all Phil. 1.23 III. The third benefit befalling us by the resurrection of Christ iâ— that because Christ is risen we know it shall not only goe well with us but with all the Church of God the prosperity of which so many as would prosper must rejoyce in for hence it is that Christ calleth a Church out of the world which after a sort riseth even out ot his own grave hence is it that being ascended on high he gave gifts to men for the gathering and preserving of his Church hence is it that the Church shall alwaies have the light of the Gospel Pastors Teachers and the Ministry till we all meet to a perfect man hence is it that this Church shall bee defended from Wolves and Tyrants seeing â—one is stronger than he nor able to pluck any ot his sheep out of his hands Let the Church be pressed it shall never be suppressed Let the Kings of the earth band themselves and forces against it the Lord hath set his Son upon his holy Mountain and he shall crush them like a Potters vessel Let Hereticks and Antichâ—ist send armies of Locusts Jesuites and seducing vagrants to waste the Church and bereave it of the truth and light leading to life they shall only seduce such as whose names are not written in the Book of life and of the Lamb for seeing Christ is risen so long as hee who can dye no more liveth he will preserve his darling he will send out the Stars that are in his right hand for her relief who like Davids Worhies shall break through the Hosts of the enemie and bring the pure waters of the Well of Life as we are for ever thankfully to acknowledge in those worthy restorers of our religion Lastly let flouds of persecution rise and swell so as this Dove of Christ cannot find rest fo the sole of her foot one means or other Christ will use for her help for he will either send her into the Wildernesse or the earth shall help the Woman and drink in the waters that they shall not hunt her or he will provide for her one of the chambers of his providence as he did for Joash against the rage of Athaliah wherein she shall be safe till the Storm bee blown over These are the principal benefits procured us by Christs resurrection which belong not unto all but only to such as are risen with him Quest How shall we know that we are risen with Christ How to know that we are risen with Christ that they mat assuredly belong unto us Ans The Apostle setteth himself to resolve this question Col. 3.1 where he maketh the seeking of things above where Christ is and infallible mark of our rising with him for as when Christ was risen he minded not things below any more but all his course was a preparation to his ascension to which all things tended so now if thou be risen with him Heaven will be in thine eye and thine affections are ascended thither where Christ is if Christ were on earth thou mightest fix thy soul and senses here on earth and yet be a Christian