head of that Church It is cause of everlasting thankfulnesse and watchfulnesse not to be deluded by fine shewes of worldly men but let us see and know where true worship lies as the Lord hath declared himself in Christ and held him forth in the Gospel of truth Forthly let it teach us all where to bestow our admiration and adoration It was a charge that our Saviour gave to the Devill and which accordingly he himself practised and requires us to doe Mat. 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve The Devill askes this of Christ to bow downe to him and worship him The Lords Indignation is kindled his holy Zeale is inflamed against such a Sacriligious request Get thee hence Satan for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve And as we are to worship him alone and no God but him so we are to admire none but him Who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods who is like unto thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders Exod. 15. 11. There is matter of admiration who is a God like unto the Lord that forgiveth Iniquity Transgression and Sinne of which you read Mic. 7. 18. and which the Church holds forth there upon this very ground who is a God like unto thee why what is there in him that you so magnifie him he is a God that forgives Iniquity Transgression and Sinne here is cause indeed of admiration They admire and adore the Pope why Because they had satisfaction to their consciences in their way and an ungrounded hope of a better state in another world and pardon of Sinne in this and now they come to fellowship with Christ by the worship of the Devill But who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity Transgression and Sinne So that here is indeed matter of due admiration and let it be fastned there When a mans soul is brought low with the sence of Sinne and overpoured with the burden that lyes upon his conscience by reason of the guilt of Sinne what is matter of admiration now who is a God like unto thee that passeth by Iniquity transgression sin It is not the Pope of Rome that can take away sin it is not all the cunning of the Dragon that can do it And therefore to what end are all the admirations and worships that are put upon the Bishop of Rome and the Dragon that gave him his power They may please themselves in what satisfaction they apprehend they have but their own principles possesse them that they can never come to see the admirable goodnesse of God in forgiving their Sinnes But now when the Lord sheds abroad a spirit of grace and peace in the conscience and applyes the goodnesse of Christ to the discharge of the burden of Sinne and of quickning the heart in the peace of Christ Jesus this breeds admiration Blessed be God the Father of mercy and God of all consolation that of his aboundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope I say this blessing is worthy of admiration and not onely of wonderment but of acknowledging all glory and blessednes to him When the conscience is not pacified by a sorry duty done from man but by a sealed pardon from the spirit of God witnessed by the breath of the holy Ghost this is such a mercy to the soule as indeed raiseth the heart above all admiration of such a Beast I to a true detestation of this Beast and of the Dragon that hath so long bewitched and carried them captive to the imaginations of their own hearts and in the end to their everlasting perdition But let it be the care of Gods people as ever you desire to be blessed from the admiration of such a worm-eaten Religion so grow to an admiration of the God of mercy and grace and so we shall doe that upon just grounds which our Fathers did without grounds to this Beast and to the head of it Upon this ground this head being wounded and afterwards healed all the world wondred after him Here is an Image of Christ he was wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and he riseth againe and he proclaims all power is given him in Heaven and Earth Now see how this Vicar of Christ as they call him usurps as Christ was wounded and is risen againe so it is with this Beast he is wounded to death and afterwards healed and restored and now all the world admire and worship him Have they forgotten that Christ dyed for our Sinnes and was raised again for our Justification and doe they stand admiring at this Beast as he that was wounded and healed Therefore let it be a ground of true thankfulnesse to the Lord for the great change that is wrought in Christendome and let us give the Lord the admiration that is due to him that we may be preserved from those delusions wherewith others have been deceived and may goe on in this way constantly which the Lord hath established and called us unto Revel 13. 5 6. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue forty and two moneths And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God to blaspheme his name and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven THE events that followed upon the healing of the Beast the first was That all the world admired him The second was Vniversall worship given both to the Beast and to the Dragon that gave power to the Beast of which wee have already spoken The third event remains now to be spoken to and that is the deligation of power to this Beast upon his recovery and the power given him is four-fold 1. There was power given him to speak great things and in particular great blasphemies 2. There was power given him to continue that is as the word signifies to be doing to be active to be powerfull and efficacious in his worke 42. moneths 3. There was power given him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them 4. Power was given him of dominion over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations First There was given him a mouth speaking great things Secondly There was power given him to continue 42. moneths and both these Authorities or Liberties they are amplified by the effect it wrought in the Beast He did effectually take that power which was given him and employed it to the utmost As he had a mouth given him so he opened his mouth in blasphemies and that amplified by the object of his blasphemy against God and God distributed his Name his Tabernacle and those that dwell in Heaven The note then that the words do afford first is this That after the healing of the wounded head of the Beast there was given to him power to speak great things even blasphemies which also he did effectually and abundantly exercise or
very beastly and ugly monsters Fourthly let it be of this use to raise up our hearts in holy thankfulnesse to God that hath delivered us from this Monster both our Fathers from this great beast and our selves from the remnants of the Image of this beast from all Dioceâ—san and National Churches and from Metropollitan Catholick visible Churches that are Images of this great beast You know how much the civill Laws of Christian Kingdoms doe strengthen Ecclesiasticall power that if once a Church excoÌ„municat a man you know the power of the Law if once this or that court excomunicate a man though it be but for not paying fees when it may be he hath no money or thinks it not lawfull to maintain them by his purse yea when he is excommunicate it may be for going to hear a Sermon in another place when he hath nothing but reading at home or if a man fast with his neighbors in his house then what power there is out of such a Court civill Courts of Justice confirme there comes a Significavit that if he shall live so excommunicate and if he continue and stay out a certain time then the Common-wealth apprehends him and never considers whether the cause be just or unjust I confesse there is a liberty to traverse such a cause but if a man want money or want friends he may be taken and carryed to Prison and there he may lie and rott for any of these mishapen Clergy men But I say it is a great liberty to be freed from this great beast that he hath no finger amongst us we are out of his paw and out of his smell It was a matter in question here not long agoe whether the Court should not take a course to punish such persons as stood excommunicate out of the Church if they should stand long excommunicate but it was a good providence of God that such a thing was prevented Let not any Court Ipso facto take things from the Church If such a Law were made the Fathers live not for ever and if such a Law were once established that a Church-member standing so long excommunicated the Common-wealth then should proceed against him were this established it would make a Beast of the Church we are subject to erre and our posterity that comes after us may erre it may be feared worse It is therefore a mercy to be freed from the beast from the paw of the Bear and the mouth of the Lyon It is such a mercy that they that got the victory over these they stood praising God as Chap. 15. 1 2. The Lambs company that stood on mount Siâ—on they stand and praise and wonder at the gracious hand of God in this case And therefore we should in the fear of God be unfeignedly thankfull to God for our present liberties and withall that we may be so Let him that hath an eare to heare heare If you be of Spirituall discerning and know what these mercies mean you will be really thankfull Therefore shew this thankfullnesse not onely in searching the true meaning of the Text and the true nature of this beast described in it but also in standing fast in these great liberties wherewith Christ hath made us free Gal. 5. 1. You shall have many poore creatures that came hither to this Country and will be ready to go back againe they looke at things as mean and poor here believe it such a man hath not an eare nor an eye open he knows not whether he goes Hagar Sarahs maid whether goest thou saith the Lord to her And so may I say to such whether will you goe will you be gone back againe to Egypt God forbid I should count all our Native Country as Egypt but if you goe thither you will have much adoe to escape the paw of of the Bear If you be once incorporated into any of their Parishes you will finde such beastly work in Church Government I may speak it without wrong to any but that I may bear witnesse against what is corrupt that you will then finde the blessing of those that enjoy liberty and piety together you must worship the beast or the Image of the beast A Diocesan or Nationall Church it is but an Image of the great beast it is a plain pattern of the same and you will finde the body of the Church rent from you or you will be rent from the body if you shall walk roundly and sincerely in the ways of God you will finde sad work to have your own officers or others to rise up against you but we have here cause to praise God for our present liberties and therefore you are to be wary what you doe If this be cause of thankfulnesse turn not againe to that from which the Lord by his stretched out arme hath delivered you And this let me say further as it may provoke us to thankfulness so to forego all the Profits of this life rather then to be drawn to subjection to such a Spirituall Government you see what the holy Ghost counts it seven heads ten horns heads full of names of blasphemy horns crowned and here is a beast like a Leopard with feet like a Bear that all the Government of it looks like rapine and robbery catching and snatching rending and tearing this is the sum and scope of it And therefore be not deceived if men shall tender you faire termes that may smell sweet you shall have liberty in this and that and protection of a good State but it is but the smell of a Leopard when you have yielded to such Conditions as may be tendred you will finde such strong hold got of you that you will never get out And then you shall finde what ever Conditions are put in at first the last Edition will be a mouth like a Lyon They will bring you in with subtilty like a Leopard lay fast hold upon you like a Beare and before they have done there will be a mouth like a Lyon And therefore as we are to be thankfull so we are to be faithfull to God that hath purchased these great liberties for us and be no more willing to be intangled with your former state than you would be willing to fall into the mouth of a Lyon or come under the paw a Beare Qâ— But you will say what is this to me I am but a private Christian Answ Private Christians must not live alwayes in a private State for that darkens a mans estate if he knows not the order of Gods house nor addresseth himselfe to it It is true if a man either were in the Temple or looked towards it his prayers were accepted but if a man have no minde to know the orders of Gods house his ignorance of Church matters will darken his own spirituall estate And therefore whosoever thou be Sonne or Daughter If any have eares to heare let them listen to what is here spoken that so by the blessing of God you
Nations and that in so many Nations with Spirituall and Temporall Dominion carry all before him will it not be a Monster What a disproportion is this to the Churches of Christ and to the Officers thereof Not to speak of their other monstrous usurpations of the head of this Church but take the body as it is how they speak like a Lyon and hold fast when they get like a Beare and are spotted like a Leopard that they are nothing but hotch-potch and mingle-mangle If any man have understanding let him understand what kind of Church this is that is thus deciphered and described this visible Catholick Church For the Use It may first teach us the great and just reason which all Protestant Churches have to with-draw themselves from the fellowship of the Church of Rome from the Catholick visible Roman Church though they look at those that submit not to them as Schismaticks and Hereticks I pray you consider would they have us submit to this great beast would they have the Lambs of Christ for such are the Churches of Christ to submit to a Lyon Beare or Leopard Hath any Lamb in the world much lesse a Lamb of Christ so many Heads and Horns and such spots and such feeâ— and such a mouth Therefore I pray you consider it is not time for the Lambs of Christ and for all the Churches of Christ to flye off from this Monster and to abandon them utterly as having no part nor portion with such a beast as this Secondly let this be another Use it may teach us how Christian Protestant Churches wrong themselves that leave any footsteps of this government in their Churches For that is part of the image of the beast for the second beast when he was advanced he would have an image of the first beast they must have Provinciall and Diocesan Churches and National Churches and carry I know not how many hundred congregations into one Nationall Church and there must be some Diocesan and Metrapolitan church and the rest must be inferiour to that Though this be not so great a monster as the great Beast yet it is an image of this beast can any brother tell his offence to such a church And will you have him stay till the whole National church meets Or will you have him stay till the Diocesan church meets and carry his offences to the Visitation Do you think they will right his cause then Are a few such kind of men the Chancellor and Register and Surrogate and Apparitor do you think the church that our Saviour bids us tell Are these they that are gathered together that all may heare and all may be edefied Do these serve the Lord Jesus and not their owne bellies I say therefore you may see what great reason men have to with-draw from subjection in spirituall matters to the Image of this great beast that in some measure represent the same state as they Thirdly let it be a seasonable advertisement to all if I were to speak to Princes to all Princes but however to all Magistrates how to make use of their Authority to be as Protectors of the Church in respect of their spirituall estate as children of the church but not to give the horns to the church though horns be for beauty and strength you see it makes the Church a monster and it is to make a beast of the Church And so if you should make Church-Officers Justices of Peace or Councellors or prostitute your own Government to them that if the Church condemn any then you must do so too as heretofore if a man were condemned by the Church and by them delivered to the secular power then burn him presently this puts your Horns upon the Churches head unto monstrous deformity And therefore it is necessary for Magistrates to keep their power in their owne hands and not to take things Ipso facto from the Church but to consider what is done and then they are to confirm what the Church doth according to God Here are ten horns and these are tenne Kings by the holy Ghosts interpretation and they adde to the monstrousnesse of this Beast by giving their power thereto Why doth this mishape a Christian Church for Magistrates to submit their crownes to the Church No God forbid it is an honour and happinesse to them when Kings are nursing Fathers to the church and bow down their faces to the earth Isa 49. 23. But why then doth he put it as a part of the mishapen state of the Church that it had tenne hornes to wit because these Kings did give their strength and power to the Beast that the Beast did act these Horns acording to the power of his lust as Chap. 17. v. 17. as it was truly accomplished in all the Kings of Europe that did submit all their Scepters and Thrones and Crowns and Dignities to the Bishop of Rome That if hee command this or that there must be room for him what ever becomes of Princes Laws and Endeavours and all acts and enterprises of War or Peace He had their horns on his head he might push with them as he would This made the Church a monster when soveraign power was obnoxious to the Bishop of Rome when without Excomunication whether a cause were of God or no Magistrates proceeded if the Church had censured As a Beast that hath horns on his head as hee turns so must the power of his horns be set and put forth If therefore the Catholick Church or any Officer of it shall condemn a man as an Heretick and then deliver him to the secular power they never dispute the cause but take it for granted If their holy mother Church condemn him the Secular Power must push and crush him to the very Earth and trample him under foot and rend his bowels from his body if he once be delivered to them Now this makes the Church a beast that hath this power over the Princes of the Earth that look what is their lust or their ignorance or their errour and the contrary adjudged by them to be Heresie that the Secular power must mayntain the one and condemn the other It is a comfortable thing for Churches to be strengthned and protected by civill Magistrates But if they captivate their power to the Church that what Church Rulers call for not according to the Word but their Lusts that the civill Magistrate must confirm that makes the Church a Beast And therefore be wise now O ye Kings be instructed O ye Judges of the earth serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce with trembling c. Psal 2. 11 12. Kisse the Lord Jesus submit to him and in him to the church Lick the dust off the feet of the church dispensing his counsell and will But when by implicite obedience the Common-wealth must he prostitute to the Beast it makes the Beast more monstrous then it is The authority of Princes in that kind makes such churches to be
discharged of this burden This was very plausable to carnall reason especially if they gave so much to such a Monastery that they may offer so many Sacraments for them for they look at the bread in the Lords supper as a propiatory Sacrament here were so many means to satisfie the consciences of those that were superstitious as nothing could be devised to give better content to the spirits of men in those dayes any man that knowes it shall finde it true that when the conscience is terrified with the curse of Gods Law and never shewed the true way of fellowship with Christ no man is so tender and conscionable in the performance of all duties as they If you will have them kisse the Popes foot or give so much to a Monastery and by this means Hell shall be shut against them and Purgatory discharged But for assurance of Salvation in Christ they could not endure that they that stood for that they tell them what you will not have men doe good workes away with that faggot and halter for such Hereticks Thirdly there was a third Reason and that was from the great reverence of all Councells and Synods to the Sea of Rome The City of Rome had wont to be the imperiall City now in such a case as this they thought it but reasonable In heathenish Rome they gave all worship to them and so let Christian Rome give all their worship to the chief Head there and so to their mother Church all Catholicks would incourage others so to doe and so by this means there were such incouragements laid for admiration and adoration that you may not wonder at what the holy Ghost saith That when the wound was healed all the world wondred after the beast saying who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him Not the Emperors of the East and West not the King of England France Spain nor all that have been of greatest force they were none of them able to hold up their heads against this great Beast The use of this point is thus much First you may observe from hence that Universality and Prosperity though they be given for two notes of a true Church by the Papists yet indeed they are but sopisticall deceitfull delusions They are not such marks of a Church as are peculiar to a true Church here is Universality All the world wondred after the beast and here is Prosperity all the world adore and admire the Beast Who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him Not all the Princes of the world So that here is externall prosperity for so they call it here are both these concur and they doe indeed argue a Catholick Church as Bellarmine saith but note this that Catholick Church which is visible which is the Roman visible Catholick Church the Scripture holds it forth as a great and ugly and monstrous Beast look not therefore at these as any good marks and signes by which Jesuites and Seminaries are wont to draw to deep devotion to the Catholick Church for all the world have run this way there is but a handfull a few of such as are otherwise minded what is Genevah and some others to Rome what have they been able to doe in comparison of the Church of Rome which is the Church of Churches none have been able to doe as they Secondly we may see the danger of this admiration and adoration the deadly and desperate danger of adoring the Catholick visible Church and the Dragon It is the cunning of these Priests and Jesuites to draw men by all means to be at least devoted to the Catholick Church and to submit their power thereunto for they say there is no union with Christ the head unlesse you be united to the visible head on Earth this is their usuall plea Now marke what the holy Ghost speaks in this Text he doth say that all the worship of this mother Church is but the worship of the Dragon Men are devoutly adicted to give up their souls to the Devill when they give up themselves to the Catholicke visible Church the Lord professeth he is not honoured by them they professe honour to he-Saints and shee-Saints and dead Saints and to all relicks and remnants of them the honour of them is given unto the Devill and not to God That look what Paul saiâ—h of heathen Rome John speaks of christian Rome This I say saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 20. That the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God and I would not that ye should have fellowship with Devils And so this saith John the holy Apostle equall to the Apostle Paul or next him but here guided equally with Paul in the Authentical word of God he saith They that worship God according to the prescript of the Church of Rome they worship the Devils and not God they worship the Dragon the old Serpent So that it is not so light a matter as Gallants at Court and great Kings apprehend they will be reconciled to their mother Church they will goe a Pilgrimage that is devised by the Pope and perform duties as their ghostly Father directs them and have their bead-prayers In all this what do they doe This is a worship to the great beast but this is the issue and substance of it they doe indeed worship the Dragon It is not the Lord Jesus nor God the Father nor the blessed spirit that is thus worshipped but this is indeed the worship of the Devill Thirdly this may serve to teach us to blesse the name of the Lord that hath delivered us from this admiration and adoration from this wofull Captivity and Calamity whereto our Fathers have been enthralled All those of them whose names are not written in the Lambs book of life they were all led this way and it is a marvellous deliverance that God hath wrought for us in taking our Religion from universality and from outward prosperity It is sometimes a snare to Christians this kinde of Government that we have and they are apt to say what doe any of the great Nations of the world for worship and Government did you ever know any such thing authorised in any Kingdome There is an inward principle in us by nature to doe as all the world doe what are we more wise then they It is a great temptation but we have cause to blesse God that hath wrought deliverance for us But what if all the world did worship the Devill as time was when they did what if all the world worship the Beast and the Dragon that gave power to the Beast must we doe so And as they are not grounds of our worship so they are fit grounds of unfeigned thankfulnesse to God that hath delivered us from that Religion by which all the world was bewitched to give their Crownes Honours Bodies and States to the devotion of the visible Catholick Church and to the
he goeth They kept themselves undefiled of this Antichrist of Rome were not defiled with the whoredome of this great beast in all things they consented with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and their hypocrisies and whoredomes and coveteousnesse were things that would by no means be borne therefore the Pope who was the great head discerning he was thus contested against and as they say blasphemed he thinks he does nothing though he destroy Turkes and Sarazens and Aegyptians and whoever took the Sepulcher of Christ as long as those Heretickes at home were not subdued therefore he thinks it as meritorious a worke to subdue them as ever to fight for the holy Land But there was another thing that made the war for no warre can be made but by levying of Forces on both part◠And therefore a second was their taking up of Armes in the just defence of their liberties both of conscience and outward man For if the Catholick Church had raised up all these Forces and they had quietly submitted themselves like sheep to the slaughter there had beene no warre then there had been massacres It would have amounted to that as the massacre in Paris that a man did not lift up his hand but they were slaughtered like dogs in the street Though they come with fire and sword yet unlesse they resist with fire and sword it cannot be said to be war Some set in against them though their weaknesse caused them to presume but it was to weak a businesse for flesh and bloud Wee wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers and spirituall wickednesses They which trust to flesh and bloud shall be deceived as these men they stood out and sometimes prospered while the Earl of Tone and some other Princes joyned together though they were but few they prospered but war is not one Battel or two and in the end they were overcome and this Beast prevailed and that 's the reason of the 2 d part how he came to make warre against the Saints For the 3 d How came he to overcome them Truly not by strength he had very little that way but First he overcame them by their a little too much confidence in the arme of flesh when they see the King of Aragon set on they come to be a little set on by the power of the King and a great Battell recoyled by trusting to the arme of flesh You read in Heb. 11. 34. That by faith the Saints waxed valiant in Fight turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens but when our faith runne in another channell that we grow confident not in the Lord Jesus by trusting in him but on the arme of flesh we know what is said in Jer. 17. 5. Cursed be the man ye though he be a good man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord It withers it cannot stand against the potent Army that rise up against them though their enemies were never lesse in number nor never lesse provided yet they prevailed more then ever before The second Reason was by their attention to politick and deceitfull Treaties of peace for when they saw the men were good Souldiers valient in battell and able to fight it out and they found the 3000. that were to fight for plenary pardon three years had served out their time and they had got as they thought their souls saved they would go home now and they had got peace by this carnall confidence of theirs So they perceived this war would be troublesome and the Hereticks were like to prosper therefore they gather in the cheif Leaders to Treaties about peace and great pitty that such bloud should be shed therefore for the honour of Rome it were needfull to cease the warre and so would draw their cheif Leaders to firme leagues of Peace and then they kept their best Generals in Prison and thus when they had got them to yeild to their pretences then they had their neckes under their girdles and their throats under their axes they might hew them out of measure Insomuch that the King of France hearing of such cruell massacre he sent to know what their Religion was and though he sent expresse charge that none of his Souldiers should offer violence to them yet they concealing his Letters they went on in massacring the poor Saints and scattering them up and down in so much that they prevailed partly by the Saints cleaving to the arme of flesh and by trusting their false pretences And there is a third Reason mentioned in the 10. vers saith he Here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints It was Gods pleasure to make it the season of the Patience of the Saints It was the season wherein Antichrist should swell to his height and the Saints be brought low and their Patience be tryed to the utmost and it being a time of the Saints Patience it must needs be a time of their suffering and suffer they did with much patience but yet they were not utterly exterpated for some fled to France and some to England and so propagated Christian Religion which after turned to the conversion of many John Husse and Jerome of Pragues Doctrine grew and spread more till God raised up Luther to set forward the power of the Gospell Thus you see the truth of the Doctrine For the use then First it may serve to let us see whence is the power of waging war for the Text saith it was given To him it was given to make war with the Saints All men cannot receive this as our Saviour saith in another case but they to whom it is given It is not an easie matter for any to be 〈◊〉 to wage war it requires great store of persons and great store of Treasury and Fountain to maintaine both And besides all this it require◠no small measure of Wisdome and Policy to undertake such designes all these you see the Lord gives and gives them to those that his soul take no pleasure in and to those that in his esteem are men of beastly spirit◠yet he gives them power to make warre He may blesse himself in his rule and bravery that they were able to 〈◊〉 against Infidels and after against Heriticks as they called them but indeed the Saints of God but you see God gave power unto this Beast which is therefore no cause of triumph or glorying that he hath recived such a power for you see it may be given to these that are enemyes to the Lord Jesus Secondly observe this much That the Lord himselfe doth acknowledge even his poor children on Earth to be that which is commonly by priviledge sequestred to the holy Saints in Heaven He calles them Saints We think Saint-ship is a peculiar priviledge to the Saints in Heaven when they have ended their dayes in peace and a good conscience then they are accounted Saints and Angels but the Lord accounts
them Saints while they live upon the Earth whiles they are the Church Militant a warfaring Church while men undertake warre against them and overcome them by warre even then they are called Saints And which is wonderfull Saints when they are overcome and that by their owne sinfulnesse for they loose not the Saintship when they loose the victory The Lord looks at his poorest children here as Saints though there be a miserable body of death hang about them that they cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death Rom. 7. 24. Yea though they complain of their Pride and Passion and Lusts and Hypocrysie and many offences they finde against themselves though they think themselves more flesh then any though they thinke themselves as Paul did Carnall sold under Sinne Rom. 7. 17. yet then the Lord accounts them Saints when they are encompassed about with a body of Sin Yea which is worse then that when they give way to their own Sinnes for a time and doe withdraw their confidence from the Lord in this and that act and put their trust in the arme of flesh When they are so childish as to trust Popish pretences when they are warred against and overcome by enemies and by their own folly as David saith in Psal 69. 5. O God thou knowest my foolishnesse and my Sinnes are not hid from thee The Lord knew it but yet he did not know it to hurt them and loath them and dishearten them but yet they are Saints and such as he account to be his and not onely in regard of Regeneration and the holinesse of Christ but in regard of the fruits of holinesse begun in them as he saith Rev. 14. 4. These are they which are not defiled with women They are sincere in their course and keep faith and a good conscience in the main and where they do fail they judge themselves Indeed in darknesse of Temptation they may be surprised but they judge themselves for it and God looks at them as though they were without fault before his Throne when it comes to the Throne of God the Lord Jesus covers it with the Robe of his Righteousnesse and in the intentions of their hearts and endeavours they are according to God if they be carried aside it is by humane frailty Now this is comfort that the Lord accounts them Saints when they are warred against as here in the Text and all the world thinks it a matter justly deserving Salvation to shed their bloud like water then doth the Lord beare witnesse they are Heriticks So that let every christian soul carry this home with him that it is not every act of unbeleif that makes a man no Saint for these trusted too much upon the forces of others and if they had prevailed for God never failes any that put their trust in him never do the Saints fail in any expedition to men but when they faile in trust to God 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith He that believeth in the Sonne of God for Redemption and Protection and turnes not asside whether he go forth with many or with few it is all one for that if it were but David with a sling and a stone he shall prevaile against Goliah The Lord is faithfull never did any faithfull soul perish till his faith failed and shrunk and then when Peters faith shrinks he begins to sinck But it may be a ground of much consolation to any Saint of God the Lord doth not dissaint a man or cast him out of the Catalogue of Saints for this and that failing but still they are Saints a Saint in peace and a Saint in warre even when they are overcome when they are in calamity and the plowers plow upon their backes and make large furrows they are the Saints of God still leaning to the Voice and Councell of the Lord and when they start asside to Popish pretences Onely when they cleave to the Lord and trust steadfastly upon him then they prosper and flourish but if they begin to shrink in their faith and to harken to pretences and terms of peace then wonder not if you see them overcome yet still faith is invincible and their cause and Religion is propagated by their dispertion it was not destroyed And therefore if the Lord accounts us Saints it behooves us to be ashamed of every passage of our lives that doth not become the Saints of God When Religion came low and Antichrist overspread the world the Lord accounted his faithfull ones to be Saints in this battel there was a Generation of Saints whom he owns and therefore how much more should we that live in dayes of peace and liberty bring forth fruits of holinesse in our conversation that the Lord may account us his Saints whoever came to make war against us Thirdly this may serve to teach us the lawfulnesse of christians waging warre in their own just defence You see it evident here the Beast did make warre against the Saints and did overcome them at length though at first the Saints overcame them and killed divers of them they stood upon their own defence and it it is not laid to their charge but still they are accounted Saints while they make warre It is true their confidence in the arme of flesh and listning to Popish pretences was an argument of weaknesse and timerousnesse but it was not their failing to resist and had they not hearkned to those suggestions brought to them by those that lye in wait to deceive had they not leaned to humane policy and trusted to humane strength they had certainly prospered It is true indeed when the Laws of a State are armed against Religion though christians be fewer or more in number they are to submit and not take up armes and that was the constant practice of the Primitive Church the Laws of the Empire being for Idolatry they willingly suffered though they were more then the rest Or secondly when the Laws of a State are ordayned for Religion private christians must lift up their hands to right the abuse of the Laws and therefore David being a private person he would not lift up his hand against Saul the Lords Annointed though he did against Law But yet neverthelesse if the Law be for the maintenance of Peace and Trueth and true Religion and Governours and Princes will against Law and beyond Law and consequently against the Oath which themselves have taken to maintain the Laws and Religion if they will make warre against the Saints and Religion and Truth or against the way of Justice and happinesse which they are sworn to maintain now in such a case as this It is as lawfull to take up armes of defence as it was for these men to take up war in their own just defence Now they are not private persons but in the place of the Country The Lord he put the power of the
fast in his remembrance as if they were written in a book before him For that end his decree hath taken such particular notice of them that if they were written in a book before him they could not be more stedfastly and particularly recorded It is a phrase borrowed from men that when they would remember such a man or such a freind they set them down in a booke God stands not in need of books but his clear and everlasting love to them is such that they are engraven as on the palmes of his hands as the Shew-bread was present before the Lord continually which represented the 12. Tribes that his eye might be upon them from one end of the week to another and the word which the Septuagints use for Shew-bread it is translated as the word which the Apostle useth Rom. 8. 28. and the Greeke Translators and Hebrew expresse it it is the bread of Gods purpose or of Gods face and what is his purpose it is not with him as it is with us that whiles we speak of one man we forget another but his purpose is alwayes the same and these being the bread of Gods purpose they are ever before him from one end of the week to another and from one end of the year to another now that is the meaning of the Question what is the Booke of life It is the booke of Gods eternall election that is it is the register or record of the names of all whom God hath chosen to life and salvation in Christ Quest 2. If you shall aske why it is called the Lambes Booke of life Answ First because the Lord hath given this booke to Christ and all the names of his elect by name to be brought to salvation and kept in a state of salvation to imortality and therefore you shall read in Scripture when God puts forth an eternall love to his people wrought eternall salvation for us I mean when he did eternally elect us to grace and glory in this eternall election of his there was accompanying an eternall donation in giving them to Christ Christ knew his fathers counsel from eternity and the Lord gave them to Christ by him to be brought and he undertaking that they shall be brought to salvation the Lord requiring that he should keep them to immortality he shall work the means and apply the same effectually to the end of the world This is evident from those Scriptures that speak of the grant and of the gift of them to Christ before their effectuall calling though donation go before that for from that love of God by which he gives us to Christ in our effectuall calling he gives us Christ and faith to receive Christ but before this there is a giving a donation of us to Christ as John 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me So this coming to Christ is believing on Christ and it is so exprest in ver 35. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that beliveth on me shall never thirst To come to Christ is to belive on his name thus much doth hee expresse himselfe that all that the Father give him in his eternall counsell they shall come unto him to wit in effectuall calling him the Father will draw none but whom in his eternall counsell he hath given to Christ and whom he drawes I will not cast out in ver 37. to 44. So then when this act of Gods eternall election passed on those whose persons are designed to grace and glory hee gave all by name to the Lord Jesus as if they were particularly registred in a booke And he promised that in fulnesse of time he would draw them to him and required that the Lord Jesus should keep them under his wing to imortality it is called therefore the Lambs booke of life because he is the subject receptive of it Answ 2. And again it is called the Lambs booke of life because he is the head of all Gods elect they are all elect in him not besides or out of him not as actually believing in him for it is long before any work of ours Rom. 9. 11. Not of workes but of him that calleth the children being not yet born neither having done good or evill that the purpose of God according to election might stand Election iâ— before any worke of ours God gives us in his eternall councell to Christ but we are not then in him by faith faith is an effect of our election not the cause of it As many as were ordained to eternall life believed Acts 13. 46. 48. But this is the thing It is a true distinction that some give in that case we are in Christ not by actuall existence in beleiving nor as so considered but by virtuall comprehension the Lord looks at us as in him we are not in him by faith but the Lord comprehending us in his everlasting decree we are in him by Gods charter even children not born the Lord hath wrapped us in his everlasting armes in his electing love promising in time to give us faith to beleive on him and therefore to come to him and to give him to us that wee may live in his sight therefore it is the Lambs book of life as he is the sonne of man the sonne of the Virgin Mary to be united to the second person in Trinity long before his humane nature was in being Answ 3. And it is called also the book of the life of the Lambe if you have respect of referring to Christ this life then you take Christ as he is the subject of this life in John 14. 19. Because I live you shall live also I live and then you live and he is the author the efficient the procreant and conservant cause of life in us to eternity the Lord hath given us eternall life and this life is in his son He that hath the sonne hath life 1 John 5. 12. So you see the meaning of these words these persons that are thus given to Christ elect vessels to grace and glory that are given to Christ they are preserved from the worship of the Beast and none but they they onely for this purpose you read that false Christs whereof Antichrist is chief Mat. 24. 24. They shall deceive many yea if it were possible the very elect It implies thus much that none of them shall be deceived by all false Christs but all others shall be deceived earthly minded men and such whose names are not written in the Lambes book of life they shall be deceived the Beast shall go into perdition and they with him Rev. 17. 8. Not but that for a time they that are Gods elect may be taken with a fond admiration and adoration of the Beast to beleive as the Church of Rome believes and may look for peace of conscience from the dispensations of the Church of Rome it may be so as Bilney and Latimer that were marvellous devout to that Church though it
pleased God that Bilney you may read it in his Epistle to Bishop Tonstall that being troubled in conscience he had taken all the courses that their Religion enjoyned him had made confession to the Preists and they enjoyned him pennance and whipping of himselfe but for all these his wound bled as fresh as before till in the end he took an English Testament as it was translated by Erasmus not with any intent to finde any thing in it that might ease his trouble but because he was a perfect Latinist but reading that place in 1 Tim. 1. 15. these words did so affect him that immediately the Lord letting him see his love in Christ Jesus The Lord saith he let me see that I had taken a wrong course all this while I have sought for salvation where it was not to be had and prayed those to whom he spoke not to take it ill for it was not out of any neglect of them but out of his faithfulness having had experience that the course they prescribed that was not the way but it so farre prevailed as that he was marvellously esteemed but he was taken up by Latimer he made Bilney hear him Preach a most fearfull Sermon against Lutherans that were then better then he yet Bilney saw that he had zeal but not according to knowledge and he knew not how to come within him but he went to him in private and desired to speak with him and he must not say him nay then he up and tells him what a miserable wretch he had been how he had wounded his conscience how he had confest his sin to this and that Preist how unprofitable all those meanes were to him which they prescribed and there was no means in the world to finde peace till the Lord applyed that everlasting redemption in the bloud of Christ why saith Latimer he comes to seek for pardon from me to his soul and saith he I saw I stood in more need of being taught by him and therefore stiles him in his Sermon Saint Bilney that caught his soul and revealed that to him which he never heard of Therefore it is possible that Latimer and Bilney may be devout Catholicks for a time but now when this electing love of God puts forth it selfe in the fruits of it which is effectual calling now they are fully satisfied that all this devotion beleiving as the Church beleives they see they are so farre out of the way as faith is contrary to sence and reason So that those whom God reserved and chosen to life they are preserved from totall and finall adoration of the Beast they may for a time through ignorance worship the Beast as the best of Gods servants in those times did and many times have been most zealous for the Catholick cause and yet when the Lord hath called them effectually to his grace then not one that are written in the Lambs book of life doe worship him so that though they worship him before yet now they do not when they come to see their folly and have the love of God made known to them The Reason is first taken from the experimentall knowledg of every child of God effectually called from the evident experience that he hath of the vanity of the Roman Catholick Church and of the emptinesse of calling on any to look from Church power to heale or wound the conscience as of themselves further then they dispence the Ordinances of Christ and then it is not they but Christ in them and for them to look for salvation in the communion of that Church and in reconcilement to that Church They are so experimentally beaten off from that and possest of the contrary by their own experience that you need not take them from adoring the Beast for they see it is a Beast and they shall as wel utterly destroy their souls as worship the Beast and therfore the love of Christ constrains Bilney and he draws Latimer and Latimer draws others till they have propogated the truth of God to all ages But that though it be one reason yet it is the least Let me shew another reason why the elect of God after the electing love of God comes to be dispenced to them in outward execution For before it may come to passe they may worship the Beast but then they will not doe it finally but when the electing love of God is shed abroad in their hearts then they will not do it and the reason of that you cannot give a demonstrative reason but from this to prevent impossibility it is not possible that they should now there are three fundamentall reasons of the impossibility of it two properties there are in Gods electing love There is in Gods election first immutability as God himselfe is unchangeable Mal. 3. 6. so are his decrees unchangeable the foundation of God stands sure 2 Tim. 2. 19. and what he hath purposed he will bring to passe The counsell of the Lord is true for ever in Psal 33. 10 11. he disappoints all the decrees of men but his own counsels they take place for ever in every age therefore it is not possible that any of his should perish and perish they should if they should worship the Beast but it is not possible his unchangeable decree keepes them Again there is another property in his electing love which is the efficacy of it for Gods electing love doth choose us out of the world John 15. 19. And if he choose us out of the world the efficacy of that is that it delivers us from the evill world God electing us out of the world hath redeemed and delivered us from this present evill world Gal. 1. 4. Now if the electing love of God be of such efficacy that when he elects men of his grace he will in fulnesse of time deliver them from the world then they shall not run headlong to the worship of the Beast whom their hearts cannot close withall the Lord redeemes them from that vaine conversation received by tradition from their Fathers I though there be such efficacy in the bloud of Ancestors yet the electing love of God redeemes them from that But that will more appear in the second Reason And that is the faithfulnesse of Christ and the efficacy of of his redeeming bloud All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me and those that doe come unto mee I will by no means cast out John 6. 37. Of those that thou hast given me I have lost none but the sonne of perdition that but is not an exceptive but an adversative he that was never given was lost he did not bring him on to salvation For this is the will of the Father that sent me that of all that he hath given me I should loose nothing c. John 6. 37 38 39. That is his faithfulnesse and with his faithfulnesse there is such efficacy in his bloud that though the bloud of Ancestors run very warme that a
of fire and brimstone But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs booke of life that is in the Text Here are two propositions very evident All that are written in the Lambs booke of life doe not worship the Beast But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs baok of life Then the conclusion is They shall be cost into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone That if it appear that this Beast is the Roman Catholick Church and the head of this Beast is the Pope The conclusion will be most evident that no man living and dying a Papist can go beyond a Reprobate I dare not say but some that are ignorant whom devotion hath carryed to that Religion it is possible some of them when they come to death may see the vanity of that Religion of worshipping Saints and of confining their Faith to them but that is not by their Religion but if they dye in that Religion and if their faith and worship be thrust upon them from the Roman Catholick Church and they worship Saints and Angels and believe in their owne merits for their justification I do pronounce to you that a Papist living and dying a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate I meane such an one was not written in the Lambs booke of life And they that are not are cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone that is the issue And therefore what a fearfull thing is it in such that do all they can to reconcile Nations to the Church of Rome and are mad upon Romish religion what desperate service do they undertake to bring men to such a religion as destroys many millions of soules It is true Those that are written in the Lambs booke of life God looseth none of his sheep but it is evident they are bloody Butchers of many Christians not chosen yet devout Christians many an one under pang of Conscience with sence of many sinfull passions and lusts are not able to get out but by a Priests absolution and if they be covered with a Fryars coule they hope they shall do well enough Such a conscience as can be opened and healed by such wooden keys as these if they know no more such cannot be saved I will not enlarge it but it were necessary to be pressed and urged in some places look not at it as a matter of curiosity and circumstance what Religion a man dyes in and think as some States-men doe that if it were not for hot-spur'd Jesuites on the one side and hot-spur'd Puritans as they call them on the other side Protestants and Papists might be easily reconciled These are the whisperings of flesh and blood but that which is written in the word doth bear expresse testimonie against such a conclusion For if Jesuites were removed and Puritans too yet if there were any left that thought they could worship the Church of Rome as they require that you must believe as they believe your faith is built upon the Church and upon the dispensation of the keyes of that Church such a faith and obedience as fals short of Christ Jesus that all salvation is to be expected from him if both Jesuites and those they call Puritans were removed if there were none but that take up their faith and obedience in that worship they hold forth I say there is not any one of them that so live and so dye knowing what they believe that can be saved Indeed you read in Rev. 3. many know not the depth of Satan and it is another matter what God may dispence to them in private but men that know what they do and believe according to the doctrine of that Church and worship according to the direction of it I say men living and so dying there is not one of them whose names are written in the Lambs book of life and therefore shall be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone This may teach us a true ground of any mans preservation from the pollutions of the world bewitching pollutions sometimes a Catholick Strumpet carries all the world after her as in those times Sometimes the world swallows up the Church and every man thinkes him happy if hee may be clad with thick clay others are taken up with provisions for their belly and sensuall Epicurean lusts there be a world of such people Now what doth preserve the people of God that they are not carryed away either with the Catholick religion or with worldly ambition they are not taken with these but see the vanity of them what are any of us better then those that have been bewitched by these but what puts the difference The originall difference is God hath written them in the Lambs book of life and what hee hath written he hath written as Pilate sayd Hee hath written such to life and his decree is irrecoverable My counsell shall stand and I will do all my pleasure Isa 46. 9 10. Therefore there is the Originall from thence it flows the Lord Jesus Christ concurring with the Fathers counsell he hath given us redemption from the blood of Ancestors and redeemed us from the present evill world and will seek up every stragling Lamb and presents us spotlesse to his heavenly Father and then the spirit of God by which he works all in the hearts of his people that receives us for Christ and the spirit for Christ comes and takes possession of us and so thereby girds up our loyns to a dependance on him and his grace that we are preserved and saved from those fearfull temptations that overcome others and all the world are over-whelmed withall It may teach us the marvellous freedome of the love of God and therefore to admire the wonderfull love of God the cause of all this our preservation from such prevailing evills as swallow up the whole world how doth it appear why I pray you consider when the Lord wrote down thy name or mine or any mans name who stood by at his elbow if I may so speak to put him in mind of my name or thine he thought of us if our names be there and he set us downe and he delivered us to Christ Jesus by name what ever thy name is he took notice of thy name such a man in such a place he will live in this or that Countrey he is one take notice of him lay down a price for him in fulnesse of time send a spirit into this heart if he live in a Popish Countrey save him from Popery If in a worldly Countrey save him from the world where ever he lives save him from himself and bring him to my heavenly Kingdom but what was there in us that could commend us to God or what could there in us but what he appointed but what he should put into us he could not fore-see any thing but that hee must work it therefore it must certainly be his undeserved love that must
the world to bear witness unto that When Pilate did accuse him he answered nothing and the Governour wondred at it knowing that hee could tell what to answer He marvailed that so just a man in so just a case did not answer a word which did so narrowly concern him But he did not know what the cause was that he was as a Lamb dumb before the shearer and before the slaughter also What might be the reason then of this Lamb lik innocency and meeknesse of Christ They are principles and ought to be incultated often The first ground is To fulfill the types that went before of him Exod 12. 5. The paschall Lamb was without blemish And Exod. 29 39. The daily Sacrifice was to be a Lamb without spot and blemish therefore Christ must be such The second Reason is taken from his personal union with the second person in Trinity For in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily Col. 2 9. that is personally So that Christ must be a sinner if in any thing Christ had failed either in doing or suffering which were blasphemy to say And hence springs an utter impossibility of his manhood acting any thing without the Gâ—d head acting by him for the Son can do nothing of himselfe but as he seeth the Father do Thirdly there is a further necessity of his Lamb-like innocency From our necessity of such a Sacrifice and such an high Priest as was holy and blamelesse and undefiled Heb. 7. 26 27 28. Such an high Priest it behooved us to have Yea it was requisite the Sacrifice should be blamelesse Levit. 1. 3. And the Priest that offered it to be so also Levit. 21. 18. For otherwise he could not make attonement for us nor could his attonement be accepted But why was he thus patient silent and meek a double reason of that First That his Sacrifice might be voluntary and so accepted of the Father Sacrifice and offering for sinne thou wouldst not neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the law Then said he Loe I come to doe thy will O God Heb. 10. 8 9. Whoever was to offer a Sacrifice was to bring it himselfe and deliver it up and himselfe with it and it must be offered willingly Wheeher it was the Congregation that had committed a sinne or whether it were any particular person they were to bring their oblation Any Sacrifice that a man would have accepted he must bring it to the door of the Tabernacle Lev. 4. 4. 14. 23. The Priest must not fetch it If any would bring their Sacrifice they might but if they were extorted from them they were not accepted So the Lord Jesus must come and freely offer up himselfe as one that was to be presented in the stead of all the Elect Hee offered himselfe a Surety of the Covenant we should have brought it but we had it not in our hearts But hee brings himselfe and layes downe his life of himselfe and takes it up againe John 10. 18. And 2ly why did he expresse his patience in that silence of his The reason was from this very cause even From the want of sufficient matter to give a just Answer in our behalfe by all things that he could alledg for us If hee had stood in his own person and had had nothing to do but to cleare himselfe he had had a world to have answered for himselfe and this Pilate saw for he said that he was a King but a King of another world and Pilate knew that there was no Cesarian Law that did forbid a Kingdome in another world but standing in our persons hee knew not what to answer What could there be charged upon Christ but we have been guilty of it Can it be sayd that none of the Elect of God did blaspheme and that none of them did destroy the Temple of God and can it be justified that all the Elect of God have been freed from commotions Can any undertake that defence for the elect of God What sinne can you charge upon him but some of the servants of God have been guilty of it Therefore it is that the Lord Jesus answers not He doth not deny he doth not out-face them in the businesse It is not so with him He is not such an Advocate He pleads with a good conscience when he pleads and he is clear but he cannot clear his Elect ones from Church-censure and Civill censure Nor doth he plead with God about any kind of hard-ship in putting upon him that extremity he knew the elect of God had deserved such And though he knew that they dealt wickedly yet standing in our room hee had not a sufficient plea let them charge him with what they will A man cannot charge him with any sinne but some of his Elect have been guilty of it and therefore what can be answered Therefore he was not willing to excuse himselfe He doth neither deny nor extenuate any Crime that can be layd agâ—inst him but take it in its full rigour and the accusation doth stand good They stand not good against the Principall but against the Surety as hee is a Surety they stand good against him for as it is in Job 9. 2 3. How should man be just with God If hee will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand Let a man stand before the Tribunall of the justice of God and he cannot answer one of a thousand And if Christ be to stand for all the elect of God hee cannot answer one of a thousand And therefore when the King came to see the man in the room that had not on the wedding Garment the man was speechlesse which plainly shewes us that if Christ stand in the room of Gods people the case stands so that Christ cannot answer for us to excuse us Job could not answer one of a thousand though he was the perfectest man in his Generation and I know not whether any man after him that was more innocent then he And what shall others of Gods called ones be able to doe and what they are not able to doe the Lord Jesus Christ hee doth carry it in the same manner as one that cannot excuse them from being guilty of those sinnes no more then himselfe can Thus you see the reasons both of Christs innocency and patience The use of the point is First to convince us of the guilt of all the elect people of God and their guiltinesse even of violent death and unexcusablenesse under that death If so be we had been innocent what needed Christ to have been so patient as hee was so Lamb-like in his innocency His Lamb-like innocency is an argument of our guiltinesse The servants of God especially such as take any more narrow search of their own waves they see themselves full of blemishes spots and wrinckles and many such things Isa 64. 6. We are all as unclean things and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
ragges They are all as the clouts of a mensteruous woman even all our best righteousnesse This this the condition of us all full of uncleanesse and pollution and deformity And whâ—ch is worse then that unexcuable in all for if wee couâ—d have told what to say and to say justly Christ would have sayd it much more fully then we could for he is our Advocate and it were a shame for an Advocate if the party of the cause could defend his cause better then his Advocate Christ is more skilful in the Law then we but his silence doth professe that he knows not what to say to stand out in our defence He might have excused some of Gods elect from this or that actual grosse Sinne but he could have excused none from a guilty pronenesse to all manner of Sinne There is a vicious pronenesse in us to all sinne and therefore Christ could not tell what to say And as there is a pronenesse in us to all sinne so there is an actuall commission of many sinnes And in many things we sinne all James 3. 2. And there are few or none of Gods elect that if so be a man that is privy to all their dealings were to give an account of them he could not justifie them from the guilt and stain of all sinne Now this is the case of Christ he hath been acquainted with all our wayes and if he be examined of what hath been done wickedly before the Church and before the Common-wealth he is not able to deny but both Church and Common-wealth might proceed against us all And this may cast a holy blushing upon us in the presence of the Lord and of this Lamb Christ could have told what to have answered if ought had been to be answered but when he stands in our room he stands silent he could not with truth bear witnesse unto any of us touching our guiltinesse knowing what he knew by us it would make us unfit for both societies either of Church or Common-wealth And it is a just humiliation for a man to know that he stands in such a state of which no good account can be given A man that is skilful indeed and knows the Law as well as Christ did standing in our room he hath nothing to answer for himselfe and the Lord knows it and time was when this considered did muzzâ— his mouth he was like a lamb dumbe before his shearer you cannot rake up such a base accusation against him but he knows where the dint of it will fall and therefore he is very sensible of the truth of all that is laid unto his charge Let God come upon us with spiritual dissertions we must know that it is just with God to dissert us and though the Church should spue us out and the Common-wealth cut us off from the land of the living who can plead for us If Christ stand in our persons he hath nothing to plead Secondly it doth teach us where to look for all our justification and reconcilement with the Father Truly brethren not in our own righteousnesse for the Lord himselfe that knowes it better then we do he knows that it will not hold out before the judgement seat of God He might have pleaded that David was a man after Gods own heart he might have pleaded the wisedome of Solomâ—n and the truth of Josias heart and the zeal of Phineas and the patience of Job but he knowing the Law well enough and what thâ—y have been and we have all been he hath nothing to plead and therefore we must not plead our own righteousnesse let no man think that his own pleading will reach his own justification whereas Christ himselfe could not reach it for him All have sinned all have been out of the way and there is none that doth good no not one Psal 14. 1 2 3. he speaks of us by nature and we were natural before we came to be spiritual Therefore saith the Apostle What things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may 〈…〉 and all the world may become guilty bâ—fore God Rom. 3. 19. 〈…〉 use the Apostle himselfe makes of it Vers 23 24 25 We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redempâ—ion that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sinnes that are past through the forbearance of God So that I say this 〈…〉 of our justification the Lord Jâ—sus hath borne and suffeâ—ed for us when he was silent in our behalfe and could not tell what to say Papists can bring you many argumâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 justifie themselves they will bring you many instances of this Saint and that Saint and of the Virgin Mary above all others of their purity and righteousnesse and how able they are to plead for others They may be wise for themselves and do as Procters are wont to do regard their fees and not their Cause but the Lord Jesus is faithful and yet he cannot plead as guiltlesse Nor must you think as sometimes poor christians will do I cannot say much for my selfe but such a brother such a sister they may indeed give a better account of me then I can do of my selfe but truly nothing to satisfie Gods justice can any give account for Christ himself could not do it And indeed so marvellously did God accept this kinde of defence that our Saviour makes that he hath crowned this faithfulnesse of Christ with everlasting honour unto all ages he hath so fully so gratiously accepted him as that he hath for ever ratified it in Heaven that no man shall ever passe away righteous from the judgement seat of God that can plead any righteousnesse of his own Whoever he be that will not stand righteous before the judgement seat of God by any righteousnesse of his own he must stand mute as Christ himselfe stood and if he be just he must be just by his righteousnesse Christ could plead nothing for us of our own not our active obedience nor any passive obedience of ours but he having suffered for us the punishment that all the wickednesse of the Elect have deserved Now he doth ever live to make intercession for us Heb. 7. 25. Now he hath arguments enough to plead If any man sin now we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 2 John 2. 1. Why did he not plead before Truly he could not open his mouth before because he had not yet suffered but now he hath suffered the just for the unjust and now that he hath borne the censure of Church and Common-wealth now he hath enough to plead in the behalfe of the poorest christian And if so be that any plead against his Saints and servants and say that they are guilty of these these sins God wil say Deliver him from going
down to the pit I have found a ransome Job 33. 24. He now pleads satisfaction to the justice of his Father and having satisfied for all there is a sufficient plea in his mouth for all the Elect of God whatever our actual transgressions have been the Lord hath aboundant plea for all his people that so he may both obtain of the Father the spirit to bestow good things upon us and having given us such things as faith and love and repentance he may plead our sincerity of heart and that argues communion with himselfe and saith in his bloud But that which doth make us stand righteous before him is this that he himselfe was a Lamb without spot and yet did not plead his own innocency but did bear all for us and for us all that we might ever be righteous in the sight of God And thus will God have all his servants plead or else they shall not have salvation First to plead silence That then thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Ezek. 16. 63. Secondly to plead our iniquity Psal 51. 3 4. I acknowledg my transgression and my sinne is ever before mee Against thee onely have I sinned and done this evill in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest c. But purge me with by sope and I shall be clean Looke therefore unto this point mainly and principally that if we come to plead before the Lord our God hee doth require we should examine our selves and in the end be so surprized when we have done as not to have what to answer Christ could not tell what to answer and we must not wonder if wee doe not finde what to answer For here God magnifieth his love in setting forth himselfe unto a believer to be a God justifying him that cannot justifie himselfe He seeth there is the way of the grace of God the Lord hath done this in Christ and the manifestation and declaration of it doth so possesse the hearts of Gods children that it causeth them to cleave unto him for all their righteousnesse and peace And this is of great necessity and of continuall practice for the Saints of God to attend unto that we might not be at a losse in this great question of our soules Conscience cryes out unto us and wee know not in the world what to say for wee are wicked beyond measure in the sight of God our own sincerity will not plead our righteousnesse before God But all it will do will come to this end that we shall be convinced we have nothing to say Nay an Angel nay the Sonne himselfe could not tell what to say for us but wee look to be justified freely by his grace And the God of all grace doth so justifie Christs cause that all the world that are justified shall be justified by his plea who hath done all things for us that concern our everlasting salvation For a third use of the point it may be for reproof to unconscionable Advocates but I have not I thinke so much cause to speak of it here but in most places of the world I might speak of it It might teach all Advocates to take heed of bolstering out a bad Case by quiâ—ks of wit and tricks and quilets of Law the Lord abhors such things If you will have the Lord to smell a savour of rest plead the cause of the faithful and of the widow but thou shalt not accept the person of the poor nor of the rich And for men that professe Religion as many Lawyers do to use their tongues as weapons of unrighteousnesse unto wickednesse it is a professed practice against the doctrine of mortification For a man to give his tongue his glory as David calls it to become a member of unrighteousnesse to plead in corrupt Causes and to strain the Law to that purpose were I to speake in place where I should think it meet to speak more But I shall not be accounted a good Lawyer may some say No Christ was the best Advocate that ever was and yet he could not answer Let the cause be what it is where the tree fals let it lye If Christ do keep silence in point of our righteousnesse let us keep silence also in point of our own Fourthly It may be a use of instruction unto all those that professe fellowship with Christ and the saving knowledg of Christ Jesus You see here how Christ is described a Lamb slaine from the foundation of the world None more innocent and yet none more meâ—k and paâ—ient If you speak of Christ as a Minister the spirit of a Dove doth come upon him For the Sacrifice he is a Lamb. The wolfe shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye downe with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lyon and the Faâ—ling together and a little child shall lead them And the Cow and the Beare shall feed their young ones shall lye down together and the Lyon shall eate straw like the Oxe and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the Aspe and the weaned child shall put his hand on the Cock-atrice den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountaine Isa 11. 6. to 9. Doe you see a man boysterous in his spirit and in his own will and wayes and will not be willing to see a difference in himselfe from the spirit of Christ Jesus as it is possible that a child of God may be rough in his way yet hee dare not allow himselfe long in it it is a body of death But if you see a man that doth allow himselfe in a passionate frame of spirit that a man will have his owne will and will not be crossed in it whether it be right or wrong doubtlesse this is not the spot of Gods children It is not the spirit of those whose names are written in the Lambs bâ—ok of life God did not indeed elect us because either we are such or would be such but he did elect us to be made such first or last before we come to enjoy the everlasting Inheritance which this book hath written us downe unto And therefore it must cut off all our boysterousnes and churlishnes of spirit all this ruggednesse and churlishness it must be taken off The wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye downe with the kid and a little child shall lead them Therefore all bitternesse of contention and pangs of passion that prevaile that are farre from the spirit of love must be removed But this will prevaile in all Gods people that God will carry an end your spirits in conformity to the spirit of his own Be of that spirit therefore in all your Transactions that is to say mild and patient and innocent And so it will require all the children of God in the same
the Churches and Saints of Christ that have been overcome or have suffered any hard-ship from any of these Those that have been troublesome to Gods Churches and people the Lord will one day visite them all and he will one day root them out of the land of the living They shall one day know what pillars and scourges and fire and faggot meanes what torments meane what bloody inquisitions meane They shall be recompenced seven-fold into their bosomes Here is the patience and faith of the Saints The third note is this The Lord doth as much acknowledg and accept the patience and faith of his Saints that have suffered under the Roman Catholique Church as he did the faith and patience of the Primitive Saints that suffered under the Roman Pagan Emperours against Heathenish idolatry The Papists themselves are full of acknowledgment of the Primitive Martyrs and will write many Legends of them as the Pharisees they did build the Sepulchers of the Prophets and yet killed their Successors Fulfill saith Christ the measure of your fathers You garnish the sepulchers of the dead bodies and yet you kill their Successors They will acknowledg them the Primitive Martyrs but what are those that suffered in Switzerland in France in England in Germany They look at those as Lolards and Hereticks But what saith the Lord of them Even of them as well as of those that suffered in former times the Lord doth accept their sufferings and saith of them Here is the patience and faith of the Saints Wherein the Lord doth acknowledge the faith by which they overcome this Beast and patience to be the patience and faith of the Saints The world saith otherwise but the Lord saith of those that suffered under this Beast Here is the patience and faith of the Saints So in Rev. 12. 13. Here is the patience of the Saints Write blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from hence-forth as well as in ancient times Blessed are they that dye in the faith of Christ Jesus in the hottest and highest times of Popery The Reason is evident First because the faith of such Christians and their patience was the faith and patience of Christ That is to say that which both fastned upon Christ and bore witnsse unto Christ and suffered patiently for Christ as did the Primitive Christians in the ten Persecutions And it was such a faith as by which they overcame the world 1 John 5. 4. It was faith in Christ Jesus even that faith by which they chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season Heb. 11. 24 25. It was that faith by which they despised honour Even the same case of Christ in Moses hand and in their hands and the point is of like nature Roman Idolatry is but another Edition and their Errors are as fundamentall subvertions to that which shouâ—d be the faith of Gods elect And their Government is directly contrary unto the Gospel-government of Christ Jesus as light is to darknesse When their faith in the cause of Christ do carry them along in suffering for him it is then the patience of Christ It was the like faith and patience of Christ to suffer under Annas and Caiaphas as under Herod It is true in the one he suffered as an enemy to Caesar in the other as a blasphemer but the case is all one No matter what the persons 〈…〉 Christian in profession Iâ— the cause be the 〈◊〉 of Christ it is the patience and faith of Christ which is in his 〈…〉 whomsoever they suffer 〈…〉 Reason is from the greater exercise of saith and 〈◊〉 to discern and suffer under Christians against Christians 〈…〉 Pagans 〈◊〉 Heathen persecutors For the use of the point Fiâ—st it cryes downe all the scandalous sentences that Courts have given against the Saints of God they say here are the suffering of Lolards and Hereticks Jesus Christ from heaven saith Here is the faith and patience of the Saints Do not therefore count it obstinacy and contumacy in heresie nor pravity It is the faith and patience of the Saints if Chrâ—st calls it so his word must carry it When they shall all appear before his Judgment-seate whose word shall stand then his or theirs He will say here is the cruelty and outrage of the persecution of Antichrist that puts the Lambs of Christ to death Secondly It may serve to teach us how much the Lord delights to honour his patient and faithfull servants Hee writes upon their Toomb-stones as it were so many Saints or faithfull Martyrs of Christ are those who have thus suffered This doth the Lord Jesus Christ write upon their stakes where they are burned in Smithfield or else-where and upon the chains wherewith they are bound A great encouragement it is unto Christians to be constant in the profession of the Gospel and to contend earnestly for the faith once given to the Saints We must not therefore be afraid to stand fast in the profession of the Truth and to hold it to the death If we should dye in his Cause in a way of persecution to be slaughtered by the outrage of ungodly men what ever the world say of it the Lord will from heaven beare this witnesse to it That it is the patience and faith of the Saints Thirdly it must teach all who would suffer for the name of Christ to be well assured of their cause and then to adde constancy to their suffering in their cause Otherwise unlesse it be the cause of Christ it is no patience but obstinacy blindenesse and ignorance But see that your cause be the cause of Christ and then cleave unto it by the invincible â—aith of Gods elect to overcome the world and look Lyons and Dragons in the facâ— without fear and astonishment and look at punishment and tortour as not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed It looks at them as things that Christ hath endured greater and other of the Saints of God have gone before uâ— in the like or a greater martyrdome Therefore first look to the cause and then believe in the truth of the cause and the faithfulnesse of Christ that will maintaine his servants stable and firme and cause them to hold out unto the end But do not take up your reformation upon custome nor side with any thing for custom of the country where you are because your Magistrates and Elders do commend it to you for it behooves every christian man to know well what he beleives and practise and to know the doctrine of Christ and the Government and the worship of Christ and that not because men say so but because you see light for it from the word of the Son of God Then your next care is to look that you depend upon Christ for strength that as he suffered for you you may be able to suffer for him ther 's the faith of Gods children And for
kind of Civill and Ecclesiasticall power mingled together that a Cathedrall Church forty or fifty miles off shall send terrible censures to cut off the poor Saints of God and they must obey it and if they stand in an Hereticall course as they call it there is no living for them they will kill their Propheticall life as they did the two Witnesses or if they do in any effectuall manner work they will not stick to call them to account and cast them out and deliver them to the Secular power and they shall deliver them to fire and sword So then see the danger of such Constitutions it was wrought by the Bishop of Rome and lives by life from him the life of the Law of God breaths not in the pulses of it any that know them know how far they be from the pattern of the Scripture how ridiculous they be to such as discern the state of them You see also what mighty power they have that all civill States have been contented to deliver such to fire and sword whom they have delivered up as Hereticks They soon loose the protection of the Civill State if they loose the favour of imaginary Churches well doth he call them images they are images of the Pope and images which God forbids and the inventions of the sonnes of men Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image in the second Commandement You shall make no Images of Officers nor Government nor worship but that which Christ himselfe hath set up Fifthly it lets us see how dangerous it is to annex civill penalties ipso facto upon such as are cast out of the Church an usuall thing in Popish Churches or in the Images of such First they suspend them from the Sacrament but then it comes with an Excommunication no man must buy nor sell he hath refused to honour the image of the Beast It is dangerous to bring in civill Authority immediately upon Church-censure A warning to us here that if men be excommunicated not to deny them civill Commerce or to say such as stand out excommunicated so long shall no longer enjoy the priviledges of the State The Church may cut them off from fellowship with it selfe there may be just reason so to do they may discover such hypocrifie as may make them unfit for the Church but yet they may not altogether be unfit for the Common-wealth Sixthly It may serve to humble us so farr as in times past we had any thing to do with this Beast eyther in the loynes of our Fathers with this first Beast the Roman Catholick visible Church or as in our own time we have had any communion I meane Ecclesiasticall communion with the image of this first Beast that is with Provinciall Diocesan Cathedrall National Churches You know it is not my manner to fall into speeches of Christs in other parts it is best for us to look to our owne but when the Text is just so fit now to be silent were to deny the children of God the bread of their portion If it be such a Church as is of the Popes devising as hath provoked the jealousie of God and hath not been derived from the primitive institution that Christ hath established then so far as we have had to deale with them either in office or out of office receiving their Sacraments and their Censures or have published their Censures though God it may be mercifully kept us from publishing such as we did conceive unjust yet forasmuch as there hath been any submittance in this kind any Church-communion whereby we have been admitted into Church-office by the Image of this beast or installed by the ordination of the first beast or so far as wee have submitted to the first or second Beast so far as we have partaked in the holy things of God which flow from Church-communion as Sacraments and Censures do verily so farre we have cause to be humbled though the Lord kept any of us from thinking it any necessity to be reconciled to the Church of Rome or kept us from sundry things in our practice which the Image of the Beast required and though he kept us also from receiving all their Dictates without controll yet for our practice in entring into our calling and our dispensations which have been but images of the first beast and so far as our fellowship in Ordinances with them have cleaved to that Church verily the guilt of that will lye upon such soules as have not unfeignedly bewailed it before the Lord. What think you might be the cause that Christians do complayn of so much deadnesse under such plenty and as some say power of Ordinances I might as justly blame the world for as great part that men think they are forced to lanch out in building and planting an evill haunt and custome hath been rivetred into mens spirits that they have much ado to be content any where but this is not all Nor can I lay it wholly upon over-much confidence in Ordinances we have heretofore thought men happy that had liberty of Ordinances though out in a duty of humiliation God will let you see the emptinesse of all Ordinances that there is no life in them further then he puts in them but I will not put in neither of both these though both these may challenge a part of the deadnesse of the Countrrey and may because of humiliation But giue me leave to say I feare this chiefly that men thought it enough that they were got out of the reach of Summoners and Pariters and such like whose offices have been by the power of the beast the remnants whereof hang in those places where they should not stand I feare men have rested in turning their backs upon such troubles as they were put unto when they have not been serious in judging themselves for these Images of jealousie when they are so loft to be rent from them I feare the Lord hath not humbled them for their old contagion and therefore they are not so dead for what is an Image but deadnesse truly because we are rather in bodily presence then in heart departed from them therefore there is such deadnesse what 's the reason that upon the least motion men are ready to remove to a new Plantation as if they removed from old England to New in a pang If men had a calling upon just grounds to come hither then when we come where the Ordinances of God are we should sit down under the Ordinances under the shadow of the Almighty and never look for more But when that doth not satisfie that we enjoy Ordinances all that liberty we did desire we do enjoy and yet it doth not satisfie certainly there is some sinne lyes in the breast still for which the Lord pursues men with a restlesse frame they are not yet purged from the image of Romish pollution and therefore the Lord sees it not meet to give us rest no not in Sion because in