be signifying that hee is an eternall unchangeable being and all other creatures are temporary and mutable This name in the New Testament is given to our Lord Christ Apoc. 1.8 when he is called Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending which is which was and which is to come the Almighty for all time past and to come is aye present before God And to this name Christ alludeth Before Abraham was I am Iohn 8.58 this Name should teach us likewise to have alwaies present in our mind our first creation our present corruption and our future glorification The third Name is Jah Psal 112 c. Psal 113.1 2.3 4 5. which as it comes of the same roote so it is the contract of Jehovah and signifieth Lord because hee is the beginning and being of beings This Name is ascribed unto God so when this Name is absolutely given to God it answereth to the name Jehovah and so translated by the seventy Interpreters for God is so a Lord that he is absolute of himselfe and Lord of all This Name should alwaies put us in remembrance to obey his Commandements to feare his Judgements Mala. 1.6 to submit our selves in all things to his blessed will and pleasure saying with Ely It is the Lord 1. Sam. 3.18 let him doe whatsoever seemeth him good The fourth is God 600. times used in the New Testament which signifieth To burne or kindle for God is light and the Authour both of heate light and life in all Creatures either immediately of himselfe or mediately by secondary causes but when it is properly and absolutely used Note it signifieth the eternall essence of God being above all things and through all things and seeth all things in all places giving life and light to all creatures and preserving and governing them in their wonderfull frame and order therefore let us take heed every where what wee doe in his sight thus farre of the names which signifie the Essence of God The Name chiefely which signifieth the persons in the Essence is Elohim Elohim signifieth the mighty Judges Genes 3.22 Deut. 7.6 it is a name of the plurall number to expresse the Trinity of persons in the unity of Essence the mighty God or all the three Persons in the God-head Math. 21.37 It is derived of Alah hee swore because in all weighty causes when necessity requireth an oath to decide the truth we are onely to sweare by the Name of God which is the great and righteous Judge of Heaven and earth as oft therefore as we read or heare this name Elohim it should put us in mind to consider that in one divine Essence there are three distinct persons and that God is Iehovah Elohim Now follow the names which signifie Gods essentiall workes which are these five especially Math. 27.46 Math. 25.31 2 Chro. 32.8 The first El which is as much as strong God and teacheth us that God is not onely most strong and fortitude it selfe in his owne Essence but also that it is hee that giveth strength and power to all creatures therefore Christ is called El Gibbor the strong most mighty God therefore let not Gods children feare the power of enemies for El our God is more strong then they Secondly Shaddai that is omnipotent by this name God usually stiled himselfe to the Patriarchs I am El Shaddai the strong God Almighty because hee is perfectly able to defend his servants from all evill to blesse them with all spirituall and temporall blessings and to performe all the promises which he hath made unto them for this life and in the life to come This Name belongeth onely to God himselfe and to no creature no not to the humanity of Christ This may teach us with the Patriarchs to put our whole confidence in God and not to doubt of the truth of his promises and the performance thereof Thirdly Adonai which is My Lord this name Analogically is given to creatures but properly it belongeth to God alone it notes unto us the mysterie of the holy Trinitie if I be Adonim Lord Malac. 1.6 where is my feare this name is given to Christ when he saith Cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary that is desolate Dan. 9.17 18. for Adonia the Lord Christ his sake The hearing of this holy name may teach every man to obey Gods Commandements and to feare him alone to suffer none besides him to raigne in his conscience to lay hold by a particular hand of faith upon his Word and Promises and to challenge God in Christ to be his God saying with Thomas Thou art my Lord and my God 4. Helion that is most high this name Gabriel giveth unto God telling the Virgin Mary Psal 9.2 Dan. 4.17.24.25 Act. 7.48 Luk. 1.32 that the childe that should be borne of her should be the Son of the most high This teacheth us that God in his Essence and Glory exceedeth infinitely all creatures of heaven and earth and that no man should be proud of any earthly honour or greatnesse but to desire true dignitie and to labour to have communion with God in grace and glory 5. Abba signifying Father Rom. 8.15 Esay 9.5 Jam. 1.17 2 Tim. 6.16 for God is Christs father by nature and Christians by adoption and grace Christ is called the everlasting Father the prince of Peace because he doth regenerate us under the new Testament God is also called father of Light because God dwelleth in inaccessible light and is the â—â—thour not onely of the sonnes light but also of all the light both of naturall reason and of supernaturall grace this name teacheth us that all the gifts which wee receive from God proceed from his meere fatherly love and that wee should love him againe as deare children and that wee may in all our troubles be bold to call upon him as a father for his helpe and succour thus should wee not heare of the sacred names of God but that wee should thereby be put in mind of his goodnesse unto us and of our duties unto him and then we should finde how comfortable a thing it is to doe every thing in the name of God a phrase usuall in every mans tongue but the true comfort thereof through ignorance knowne to few mens hearts it is a great wisedome and an unspeakable matter for the strengthening of a Christians faith to know how in the mediation of Christ to invocate God by such a name as whereby hee hath manifested himselfe to be most willing and best able to helpe and succour him in his present need and adversitie The ardent desire of knowing God is the surest testimony of our love to God and of Gods favour to us Psal 91.14 15 16. Because hee hath set his love upon mee therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath knowne my name he shall call upon me and I will heare him yea I will be with
it so in contending for this spirituall garland Heaven it cannot but be an extraordinary degree of content and spirituall pleasure to be named in the ranke of best deservers And as malefactors that suffer publique punishment for their offence esteeme the shame more then the paine of their corrections so ought all men to feare the shame they must endure The booke of conscience cannot be defaced but onely by the precious blood of Christ when their conscience disgraceth them before so great a presence as will be at the generall day of judgement For let all men be perswaded that all their faults are so written in the booke of their conscience that there is no meanes to obscure their knowledge and to raze them out neither will the conscience though it bee our owne bee corrupted to connive and dissemble with God but even to our owne faces it will produce all our sinnes whose memory is not blotted out by the righteous blood of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God 1 Pet. 3.21 and seeing the witnesse of our conscience is the evidence whereby wee are all judged either to life or death wee all ought most carefully to avoyd the doing of ought that may offend our consciences Not to offend our conscience but rather to live in feare and awe of conscience because our eternall state dependeth upon the report and accusation of our owne conscience This ought to prevent all unconscionable actions in us and to move a dread in us to have a detestation of every sin because when we have committed sinnes wee have hired so many witnesses against our owne soules to urge our eternall condemnation The silent conscience will be most terrible and loud at the day of judgement Customary sinning duls the sence of conscience Lastly seeing that that conscience which in this life is most silent will notwithstanding at the day of judgement bee most terrible and clamorous it admonisheth all men not to rebell against their conscience and to runne on without checke in the committing of sinne but rather to yeeld themselves to the correction of their conscience left by their customary sinning they dull the sence of conscience and so runne on the race of all unlawfulnesse for though the reproofe of conscience bee very terrible to him that rightly understands it yet ought it to bee carefully apprehended and respected as a moving cause to reformation and repentance and let no man incourage himselfe with common example that because the common sway of mens actions respect greatnesse more then goodnesse and craft more then conscience that this can warrant any ones imitation but rather wheresoever we see unconscionable dealing if in our friends wee ought to admonish them and tell them of their fault if in our enemies we must hate the sin but pity the sinner and labour if it be possible The office of charity his conversion but not his imitation and this direction is both wisedome and charity for he that is wise shall be armed and not harmed by ill example and he that is charitable will doe all the good he can and wish the good he cannot doe Let us therefore constantly endeavour to reduce to memory the severall actions of our life past let us then compare them to the duty of our conscience Good conscience is in hatred with sin and thereby understand in what degree of sinne we are what our conscience shall approve let us continue what it condemneth let us hate be it our pleasure be it our profit be it our neerest or our dearest sin if our conscience call it sin let us despise it let there be nothing shall make us alter or suspend this resolution let us be constant in the love of conscience what we have done amisse let us reforme it by conscience what we have to doe let our conscience judge it lawfull before wee doe it if our conscience presents us profit let us despise it if it be not honest if pleasure and not lawfull let us loath it let us undertake no action nor entertaine no favour but by the direction of conscience in every judgement and in all our actions To consult with conscience let us consult and be led by the rule and voyce of conscience if the world commend a sin and our conscience condemne it let us condemne the world and commend our conscience let us credit our conscience more then common example because our conscience must judge us and not example if our conscience accuseth us secretly of sin wee shall certainly know there is cause let us not silence our conscience from all reproofe let us only avoid the cause of reproofe sin and that carefully when our conscience shall urge us the Law our sins and the condemnation of the Law we have deserved let us not despise our conscience nor despaire mercy but direct our hearts and our eyes of faith to Jesus Christ the strength of our salvation Rom. 5.1 by whose favour wee shall both satisfie the Law and our conscience the hope and comfort we have in his righteousnesse will quiet the trouble of our conscience and hee that hath reconciled God and us will also reconcile us to our conscience Conscience that did accuse will comfort and make it that was our accuser our comforter This direction I propose to my selfe and doe perswade all men as I propose and purpose that in all our actions and consultations we judge nothing convenient that is not lawfull and nothing may be thought lawfull but that which hath the warrant of a good conscience To avoid Security COnsider thou devout soule what a matter it is to be saved and thou shalt easily shake off all security at no time and in no place is there security neither in Heaven nor in Paradise much lesse in the world Genes 3.17 An Angell fell in the presence of the divinity and Adam fell in the place of pleasure Adam was created after the Image of God and notwithstanding hee was deceived by the trecheries of the divell Solomon was the wisest of men 1 King 3.12 and 11.3 and yet his wives turned away his heart from the Lord. Judas was in the Schoole of our Saviour and did every day heare the saving Word of that chiefe Doctor Luk. 22.3 and yet was hee not safe from the snares of Satan hee was plunged headlong into the pit of covetousnesse and desperation and so into the pit of perpetuall punishment David was a man according to Gods owne heart 1 Sam. 13.14 and was unto the Lord a most deare sonne and by murther and adultery 2 Sam. 12.6 7. hee became the sonne of death Where then and when is there security in this life Relie with an assured confidence of heart upon the promises of God and thou shalt be safe from the invasions of the divell There is no security in this life but in the life to come there is no securiâ—â— in this life but
Seeke the Lord while hee may be found and call upon him while he is nigh and let the ungodly man forsake his owne waies and the unrighteous his own imaginations and turne againe unto the Lord so shall he be mercifull unto him and to our God for he is very ready to forgive The Lord alloweth the righteous Psal 11.6 7. but the ungodly and him that delighteth in wickednesse doth his soule abhorre and upon the ungodly he shall raine snares fire and brimstone storme and tempest and this shall be their portion to drinke But if that people Jerem 18.8 against whom I have thus devised convert from their wickednesse I will repent of the plague that I devised to bring upon them For mercy and wrath is with him Eccles 16 11. hee is both mighty to forgive and to powre out displeasure like as his mercy is great even so is his punishment also and he judgeth a man according to his works Therefore feare the Lord 1 Sam. 12.24 25. and serve him in the truth and with all your hearts and consider what great things hee hath done for you but if yee doe wickedly then shall you perish O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse Psal 107.31 43. and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men who so is wise will ponder these things and they shall understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord. But who so despiseth wisedome and nurture Wisd 3.11 is unhappy and as for the hope of such it is but vaine their labours unfruitfull and their workes unprofitable Blessed be the Lord God of Israel Psal 106.46 from everlasting and world without end and let all the people say Amen THE SECOND PART OF THE SOVLES PROGRESSE Leading the way to the Celestiall CANAAN or Heavenly JERUSALEM A divine Direction in the way of Life Declaring the Order and Causes of mans happinesse attained by the imputation of the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ our Salvation Of the New Covenant of the Gospell or the Covenant of Grace THe whole Scripture of the Bible is divided into two Testaments The Gospel the Old and the New which Bookes be of divers natures some Legall some Historicall some Sapientiall and some Propheticall The Old teacheth by Figures Shadowes and Ceremonies Exod. 20. that the Law was given terribly in lightning and thundring to induce the people thereby to the observance thereof by feare The New Testament all Mercy or the Covenant of Grace came in more gloriously with the gentle name of the Gospell and good tidings to induce the people to the observation thereof by love The Story of the Bible from the first beginning to the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ doth for the most part declare the miserable condition of man-kind how hee hath falne from the innocency of his nature which God gave him in his first creation and how he hath continued in sin and the curse of God for sin having no power in himselfe to satisfie the justice of God How to use and apply the Scriptures or to reconcile himselfe to his favour therefore did God give the Law of the ten Commandements the particulars of his revealed Will both to provoke men to endeavour in the exercise of all godlinesse and also that by the knowledge of the Law men might know their owne defects of nature and the frailnesse thereof and by their humiliation might be prepared and made fit for the mercy of the Gospell for though Jesus Christ Gen. 3.15 12 3. Rom. 1.1 2 3 4 5. the substance of the Gospell was in the counsell of God from all beginnings determined to be the Redeemer of man-kinde being also promised to our first Parents and by whom all the faithfull before his incarnation had the pardon of their sins apprehending by faith the promise of his righteousnesse yet was not this grace declared unto them in such plaine and direct evidence as now it is to us in the preaching of the Gospell Hebr. 9. it being then delivered onely in Shadowes Ceremonies Prophesies and in the mysticall sense of Allegories so that few had capacity and grace rightly to understand them all which difficulties are now vanished in the preaching of the Gospell the Gospell presenting us in most familiar and easie demonstrations the Substance without the Shadowes and the Truth without the Figure withall giving directions and infallible rules not onely to know the meanes of our salvation but how to make it ours to apprehend and apply it to our owne particular comfort The great favour and liberty of the Gospel and this grace doth the Gospell give with such favour as that the necessary doctrines exceed not the understanding of men of meanest capacities but that all that will without respect or exception may reach their hands of faith to the crosse of Christ and freely apprehend the meanes of their salvation which is the Lord Jesus triumphing at the conquest of his death over sin hell and damnation This is a blessed alteration in the state of the world for in the time A happy alteration when the grace of the Gospell was hid in the clouds of the Ceremonies the observers of the ceremoniall Law did seldome understand the mysticall sense of the Ceremony which did alwaies allude to some particular grace in the Gospell Therefore The ceremonies of the Law did allude to the grace of the Gospel though God was pleased to accept of their carefull endeavours in the religious observing the Ceremony which indeed was but a Figure of the Truth included in the Ceremony yet they wanted a great part of that spirituall comfort which wee have in the observing the Covenant of grace the Gospell the grace of God appearing to them Tit. 2.11 c. as God himselfe did to the Israelites their fathers at the delivering of the Law in clouds in fire in smoke and thunders Exod. 19.16 but to us he doth appeare more familiarly by Jesus Christ his Sonne the most lively representment of himselfe assuming our nature and conversing with us did wound our sin and healed the wounds sin had made in our soules whose words taught salvation whose actions wrought it This is the difference betwixt the Law and the Gospel What the Law commandeth and what the Gospel the Law commandeth to doe and live if not to die the Gospell all mercy requireth to believe onely and live and this is a wonderfull degree of Gods favour that because wee are not able to keepe the covenants of the Law is pleased therefore to yeeld to our infirmities to alter our obligation and enter new covenant with us the covenant of grace The wonderfull love of God towards us whereby God doth indent with man and binds the justice of the Law in the bonds of his mercy promising salvation to all them that faithfully believe in the merits and mediation of his Sonne Jesus Christ Thus doth
have deliverance from eternall captivity and torment Thirdly seeing Christ Jesus is the matter of the Covenant of grace betweene God and man it doth also most neerely concerne all men to endeavour all meanes possible A most needfull care is to be had of all men and by their eyes of faith to apprehend Christ who is onely to be apprehended by faith and so to receive the forme and impression of his sacred Image whereby they shall be truely interested in the possession of heaven when those that want this shall be rejected of God with this answer Away from me yee wicked for I know you not because yee have not the Image of my Sonne Fourthly seeing the whole matter of the Covenant of grace is fully contained in the words and workes of Jesus Christ and that all things necessary both to a civill and Christian life are contained in the Story of the holy Gospell it behoveth all men to give that sacred Word preheminence and that no man All directions must be conformed to Scripture neither any state or fellowship of men whatsoever presume to decree or ordaine Canons or Statutes Ecclesiasticall or civill which is any way repugnant or may prejudice the directions of Jesus Christ delivered and set forth in the most holy Gospell but as Christ our Prince our Priest and our Prophet hath given us either by doctrine or example Eccle. 18. Reve. 22.18 19 which needfull directions are necessary and of lawfull use either in a Christian Church or State so no Christian Church or State should presume to innovate or alter those directions which Christ our high Priest and great Prince hath left established unto us but in all directions both in Church and State there must be needfull care that every particular have relation to the truth of holy Scripture and be conformed to the example of Christ for whatsoever direction whether it concerne the soule or society if it bee not either necessarily grounded or agreeth with the Word of God is altogether unlawfull in a Christian Church and State How to square every particular action neither can dispensation make it lawfull or tollerable Therefore by the square of the Scriptures all men ought to measure the Lawfulnesse of every action and direction and that whatsoever shall disagree from God and the holy Scriptures may be judged error and intrusion of disorder and therefore of necessity to be spewed out of every Church and State of Christian men The meditation of this doctrine and these duties should make us serious in our Christian care let us not now content our selves to have onely a generall knowledge of Christ Jesus our Redeemer To consider God in his Majesty onely is terrible but let us labour to understand him in his double nature for if we consider him in his divinity as he is God onely it is a terrour to our remembrance but if we consider him in his double nature it gives us hope and alacrity for the Majesty of God is terrible to sinfull man but his mercy is comfortable and supporteth the falling spirits of our soules which would faint and die in despaire if the grace of God did not succour and give supply to such extremities therefore as God doth most delight himselfe in the use of his mercy so let us delight our soules most in the holy contemplation of his mercy and as Christ Jesus is the most lively character of his mercy Christ Iesus is the character of Gods mercy so let our cares bee most busie in the meditations of Christ his Gospell is the booke of Gods mercies wee have eyes of faith and can both see and read the stories of mercy let us therefore direct our labours and endeavour our studies in the most happy knowledge of our Saviour Jesus Christ Note and in him wee shall finde all goodnesse and infinite variety of matter in him wee shall finde the cause of our redemption Where to finde the cause of mans redemption wee shall finde it in his will wee shall finde it in his working he did cause our good he did effect it also in his will was the cause in his workes was the effect This godly meditation may kindle a zeale in them that were dead in sinne and provoke holinesse where it is not to see the infinite greatnesse Ier. 4.2 Psal 34.20 the infinite goodnesse of God omniscious of God omnipotent to yield himselfe to such a wonderfull difference of fortune he that had all happinesse in the highest degree breathing unutterable pleasure in the bosome of his Father and he that made the heavens and the earth should descend from heaven to earth and there assume the forme of wretched man and in that forme worke such righteousnesse as might satisfie God satisfie the Law for the sinne of man and in that forme to bee borne in poverty to live in contempt and die in disgrace and all this to be done by the onely begotten Sonne of God for the good of man a creature that was become apostate a traytor to God a rebell to his lawes and the very cause and actor of his disgrace death and Tragedy O that I had but words to expresse the imaginations of my soule what formes of mercy we may see in our Saviour Jesus what slackenesse what scantinesse We must meditate what we cannot expresse in words nay what foulenesse of desert we finde in our selves his good and our evill are infinite therefore what we cannot expresse in words or workes let us devise it in our thoughts let us learne to believe and know our Saviour to bee infinite good though we cannot expresse his infinite goodnesse what we can doe to his glory let us by all meanes endeavour it what wee cannot doe our selves let us perswade others let us endeavour any thing that may adde any thing to the honour of our Saviour for in gaining his favour we shall have the fulnesse of all favour and in losing his favour we have naught but tribulation and misery he is the seale of the covenant of grace betweene God and as if wee want our seale wee shall want our assurance and so lose the favour of God A dangerous forfeit and forfeit our eternall estate in Heaven Therefore let us esteeme the favour of our Saviour before all things let us esteeme all things nothing in respect of him if he subscribe not to our pardon wee are but dead the Law hath cast us without him there is no grace no hope of favour no hope of pardon let us direct our eyes of faith unto him upon the bended knees of our heart and when we have found him whom our soule loveth let us resort to him in daily prayer winne his favour by endeavour in faithfull and carefull serving him and make him the sole end of our desires who hath wrought who hath effected our salvation Thus by the assistance of his grace I purpose to doe in my owne particular
is guilty of injustice and must answer the fault at the barre of death for God hee maketh his Sunne to shine upon all indifferently and hee hath given the world and the Creatures therein to mankinde generally and not to one man one family or one kingdome this may both teach and judge the mercilesse who can see and not relieve the extremities of men distressed men their brethren The meditation of this power of this love of God in creating a world of Creatures for the service of man and seeing it hath pleased him to make a reasonable soule and a sharer of these infinite blessings I have resolved with my selfe to declare my selfe in all dutifull demonstrations to my God and to use the Creatures hee hath given mee with moderation as hee hath commanded I have made a covenant with my soule that I will not appropriate that to my private which God hath made common If God give mee abundance I will open my liberality Luk. 16.2 How to employ Gods Talents I will give as God doth to all but carefully to the wants of faithfull men distressed I will remember that what I have I must use what I use not I must bestow lest Gods talents be without imployments and so God discharge mee of trust if God give me wisdome and knowledge more then some others I will not be silenced How to occasion an holy meditation I will not obscure the grace and gift of God I will not deny my God I will not deny the world my service but in whatsoever God shall enable me in that I will be industrious if I can doe nothing of desert or common profit yet will I spend my houres in holy meditation I have resolved I will still travell in holy exercise when I cannot profit generally I will pray generally wee are all the Creatures of one God the Word of God gave forme to every Creature therefore every thing that presents my eye shall move my holy meditations When I shall behold the wonderfull frame of heaven I shall revise on the creation and admire God his Mercy his Majesty I shall remember the happinesse of heaven and refresh my selfe in adversity with hopefull confidence Where to repose our confidence When I consider the earth I shall remember the basenesse of my beginning what I was in sinne what I am in grace this shall teach me to deny my selfe and wholly to depend on the favour of my God When I see unreasonable noysome and evill Creatures I shall have cause of acknowledgement for God might have made me so or worse Lastly when I shall see wicked men pride themselves in their vanities Pitty can respect our enemies I shal both pity and glory pity the misery of their soules and glory in the fortune of my owne and thus with these and such meditations my soule shall breath content Of the Angels their Nature their Office their Fall Moses of purpose did leave to speake any thing of the creation of Angels because of the disposition of the people bent to Idolatry It is supposed they were Created the first day of the Creation as appeareth Job 38. THat the Angels were created is most certaine the time of their creation is not certaine but doubtfully and diversely believed many men have spent their judgements in conjectures all such are more curious than wise because the truth thereof cannot certainly be determined neither if it could the knowledge thereof were not necessary or materiall to salvation for whatsoever knowledge is necessary for the happinesse of our soules is by God himselfe taught in the testimony of holy Scriptures This knowledge of the time of the creation of Angels being not taught by God doth make the search thereof unprofitable unlawfull for God doth nothing at peradventure but all things in judgement and with the advice of his divine wisdome God having denied this knowledge doth forbid the search of this unknowne unprofitable knowledge that which I desire to know which I desire to make knowne is contained in the testimony of holy Scriptures the which denying me this knowledge of the creation of Angells I forbeare to search the knowledge of Gods secrets and rather to be thought ignorant than audaciously bold with forbidden knowledge That which is needfull to be knowne of Angells is their nature their office in their nature must be considered what they are in substance what in quality they be heavenly invisible Creatures pure and spirituall of the substance and nature of our soules eternall in respect of ending without corruption in their quality is considered their power being at all times and upon all occasions able and ready to performe the excution of Gods service their office is that they are Gods messengers their imployment is either in Judgements or Mercies this Compendium is the knowledge of them all in generall The good and evill Angells were all created in one nature before the fall and apostacy of Angels The Angells and those that now are divells being at the first creation of one quality of one power and one excellence of nature after the fall of Angells who for their unsupportable pride were cast from the presence of God into eternall darknesse 2 Pet. 2.4 and damnation the Angels divided themselves the better part keeping their first estate kept their entertainment with God Math. 18.10 and continued his favour and service Iude 6. the worst dividing themselves left the service of God and the fellowship of good Angels and bend their whole endeavour against God and against his blessed Angels and against the Saints that love and serve him this apostacie and division of Angels have divided them in their nature and in their offices The full opposition of the good and evill Angels the good Angels ever labouring the good of men the evill angels to hinder and prevent the goodnesse of God and his good Angels labouring by all meanes to bring mankind to their owne condemnation In their offices likewise they disagree for God doth commonly imploy his good Angels in his workes of mercy and favourable protection the divels hee imployeth in the execution of his judgements and corrections not that hee needeth their service but that hee forceth them against their will to his obedience God can enforce the divels in workes of his own glory These severall imployments of the good and evill angels are not alwaies of necessity though very common for God when hee pleaseth maketh good Angels destroy and inflict vengeance and the divels hee can and doth use in his workes of greatest mercy and this the divels doe not with consent but are either forced by the unresistable power of God or else deceive themselves in the end of their owne working God making that which they intend for evill to tend to a good end farre beyond and contrary to their purpose and expectation Iude 6. The good Angels have both liberty and pleasure in the service of
an Apple perhaps no better or not so good in taste as many other in the garden whereof Adam might have freely eaten without feare or forseit all this doth witnes Gods infinit love to his creature man who gave him so great a power and had purposed so inestimable a reward for so small a service This is the summe of this place But so great is the mischiefe strength and working of sinne that it hath bereft all mankind in the very beginning and first entry of our nature from the purity of good conscience trust in God streightnesse of justice liberty of will to doe good quietnesse of life the honour of being the Image of God of our governance and from the incorruptnesse also of nature and immortality and hath infected it with wicked hypocrisie and brought us into danger of all evill made us slaves of sinne subiect to the wrath of God unto corruption to innumerable calamities and unto death Apulaus not onely of body but everlâ—sting So that the scholler of Plato when he describeth man Man saith hee dwelt upon earth glad of reason able to talke having a soule immortall Jerem. 4.2 members subject unto death of light and carefull mindes bruitish and servile bodies not like in conditions but like in errours of peevish boldnesse stiffe in hope vaine in labour brickle of fortune every one mortall and yet together continuing ever their whole kind by mutuall succession of their brood changeable their time ever fleeing away long ere they be wise soone dead in their life never content this saith Apulcius which it seemeth he marked well the corruption of our nature though hee knew not the beginning thereof thus it is better to speake to mans understanding with profit then be vainely curious This as doth the former remembers all men how surpassing the love of God is to man-kind who notwithstanding man was made of a matter so base and unworthy as nothing like him yet doth God descend his Majesty to dignifie his basenesse and did heape such honour such favour upon man as made him the most excellent and most happy of all the creatures of God giving him felicity and power to continue it which of all the blessings of God was the greatest for that is thought to be the greatest misery To have beene happy is a misery to have beene happy and to fall from that happinesse and the greatest happinesse is to be able to continue happy which power God gave to the liberty of man to be or not to be happy for ever This extraordinary degree of favour to our first father Adam doth deserve a thankfull acknowledgement from all men because the favour did reach to all the generations of Adam even to us and to them that shall succeed us for ever All men being then in Adam and Adam the Compendium of all men the honour and the grace being conferred to every man in generall without exception of any Seeing God hath thus honoured our father Adam and enlarged his benevolence unto him above the rest of his creatures and seeing this was not given unto Adam onely but to his posterity for ever even to us being the sonnes of Adam and derived from his beginning Let us therefore acknowledge our selves in as great a debt of beholding to our God as Adam our father was to whom God gave these blessings by name and in speciall manner wee being interested in the benefit as well as Adam but as his sinne made himselfe and us his posterity both alike miserable so if hee had continued constant in his innocency he had made himselfe and us alike eternally happy without feare without hazard without forfeit without interruption let us therefore advise and remember our selves what honour what thankes what service is due from Adam and his posterity unto God Let us compare the infinite greatnesse and goodnesse of God to Adams nothing let us measure â—hem in the infinite distance of their worth let us study to know what desert what moving cause of ours could provoke God to these degrees of favour let us search this desert in the excellency of mans nature doubtlesse it is not there to be found though wee search with diligence Let us then resort to the mercy of God and there inquire there wee shall rightly understand this knowledge For thy selfe O God did move thy selfe to these effects Note thy Mercy did move thy Majesty thy favour did move thy Power thy goodnesse did perswade thy greatnesse thy greatnesse did effect what thy goodnesse caused thus was God tempted by himselfe to dignifie our Father Adam therefore Adam could be no cause of his owne honour because it was in Gods decree before Adam had being therefore Adam had greater cause of thankefulnesse that God did please without cause thus to advance him and to multiply his infinite and abundant favours upon him Adams honour was ours Adams duties are ours Resolution wee are as strictly bound in our dutifull obligation to God as our father Adam was let us therefore his posterity be constant in that duty wherein he failed and though Adam hath disinherited us his posterity of that power which hee had to performed his divine acknowledgements yet let us by our best endeavour strive with our nature to reforme our errours to imitate so neere as wee can Adams innocency thus let us ever be resolved to contend against the corruption of our nature and with a holy ambition to covet to equall or exceed the honour and happinesse of our father Adam in his innocency and seeing God did make us so wonderfull in our frame so excellent in our nature let us therefore with modesty and reverence to God esteeme our selves let us understand and remember our selves that God hath made us creatures of note and excellence ordained for holy ends and made us Masters of infinite other creatures let us remember that our soule is the divine breath of God our bodies the temple of the holy Spirit let us therefore bend all our endeavours to fashion the government of our lives in some proportion to â—his excellency of our nature let us hate the company of the wicked and imitation of evill because God hath created us good let us value the posterity of our soule before the possession of the whole world let us be jealous of our selves and carefull to feare to give entertainment to any evill cause that may move deprave or corrupt us let us love our owne salvation above all but God because God did honour us above all but himselfe in our creation Thus may wee lawfully with religious modesty endeavour and esteeme of our selves God did grace us in our creation but then God will double that grace in our salvation for this I doe earnestly intreat I pray I hope Of originall Sinne the Fall and Apostacy of man VVHen man was in the height of his prosperity having all things requisite to make him both happy and great and wanting
that which is infallibly promised in Scripture to those that believe and walke in the 〈◊〉 of the Lord but when we come unto the future happinesse promised unto us then shall wee have full security for in this life Religion and feare are coupled together neither can the one be without the other therefore thinke upon the grievous spots of thy sins and feare him that according to justice will judge thee for the same What are the afflictions of the godly but bitter arrowes sent from the sweet hand of God for their correction many that escape unpunished in this life God thinkes them unworthy of punishment whom notwithstanding he reprobateth for ever Outward felicity is often times a signe of eternall damnation nothing is more unhappy than the happinesse of sinners and nothing more miserable then hee that knowes no misery Augustin Whatsoever thou beholdest with thine eyes thou seest cause of griefe which duly considered are remedies against security Behold God above whom we have offended thinke upon hell beneath which we have deserved thinke upon the sin behinde the which wee have committed thinke upon the judgement before which wee dread and stand in feare of thinke upon the conscience within the which wee have defiled and thinke upon the world without which wee have too much loved consider whence thou camest and be ashamed consider what thou art and be sorrowfull consider whither thou goest and tremble Let a man therefore lament and grieve and shake off all security lest in the just and secret judgement of God hee be forsaken and left in the power of the divell to be destroyed if thou hast grace so delight thy selfe in it and acknowledge it to be the gift of God and that thou dost not possesse it by any hereditary righteousnesse of thine owne Security is a pernicious sin Happy shalt thou be if thou labourest with all care and diligence to avoid security the mother of all evill God will not forsake thee but take heed thou dost not forsake him God hath given thee his grace pray thou earnestly unto him that he would also give thee perseverance in that grace God bids thee be certaine of thy salvation but he bids thee not be secure therefore thou must fight valiantly 2 Tim. 4.7 8. that thou maist at length triumph gloriously thy flesh within thee fighteth against thee and the enemy the neerer he is the more to be feared the world about thee fighteth against thee and the greater the enemy is the more to be feared the divell about thee fighteth against thee and the more potent the enemy is the more to be feared through the power of God feare not to encounter with these enemies through the power divine thou shalt be enabled to obtaine the victory but thou canst not overcome these so great and potent enemies by security but by assiduity in fighting then doe the enemies most gather their forces together when they seeme to grant truce they are vigilant and watchfull and thou sleepy and sluggish they make themselves ready to assault and hurt thee make thou thy selfe ready therefore to resist Many faint by the way and never come home into their countrey Deut. 1.35 how many Israelites did there die in the wildernesse and never came to the promised Land of Canaan how many spirituall sonnes of Abraham doe perish in the wildernesse of this world and never come to enjoy the promised inheritance of the Celestiall Canaan Let it be therefore our onely desire to attaine to the glory which is in heaven wee live in security as we were past the snare of death and the day of Judgement Matth. 24.44 Christ saith he will come to judgement at such an houre that wee thinke not of this saith Truth it selfe And againe he repeats it heare and feare for the Lord will come at an houre wee thinke â—o of Wee have therefore great cause to feare that we come not to judgement unprovided for how shall we be able to endure the strict examination at the day of judgement Seeing we cannot recover for ever that which is lost in this one moment in the shortnesse of this one moment judgement shall passe either to mercy or condemnation what we shall be for all eternity in this one moment life and death damnation and salvation punishment and eternall glory shall be appointed to every one Lord thou that hast given us grace to that which is good give us also grace to persevere in that goodnesse least wee fall into the ensuing danger prepared for the reprobates and the ungodly which is hell and damnation and the torments thereof Of the knowledge of mans corruption and state of his misery in this world and the miserable state and condition in the life to come without we be renovated by Christ which Lord God grant us all grace so to be O Wretched man where shall I begin to describe thy endlesse miseries who art condemnable as soone as conceived lyable to eternall death before thou wast born to a temporall life A miserable change hapned to all posterities by the fall of Adam A beginning indeed I finde but no end of thy miseries for when Adam and Eve being created after Gods owne Image and placed in paradise that they and their posterity might live in happy and blessed estate of life immortall having dominion and rule of all earthly creatures and onely restrained from the fruit of one tree as a signe of their obedient subjection to their Almighty Creator though God forbad them this one small thing under the penalty of eternall death yet they believed the divels word before the Word of God making God as much as in them lay a lyar and so being unthankefull for all his benefits which God bestowed upon them they became male-content with their present state as if God had dealt enviously or niggardly with them and believed that the divell would make them partakers of farre more glorious things then ever God had bestowed upon them and in their pride they fell into rebellion and committed high treason against the most high Almighty and disdaining to be Gods subjects they affected most blasphemously to be gods themselves equall unto God their maker hence till they repented loosing Gods Image they became like unto the Divell and so all their posterity like a traiterous brood whilst they remained impenitent like them Math. 13.42 are subject in this life to all cursed miseries and in the life to come to everlasting fire and damnation prepared for the divell and his angels Consider therefore thou faithfull soule the miserable condition of man and thou shalt easily avoyd all temptations man is vile in his ingresse miserable in his progresse and lamentable in his egresse he is assaulted by divels provoked by tentations allured by delights cast down by tribulations entangled by accusations bestripped of vertues snared in all evill customes and drowned in all manner of vices Lay aside then for a while thy
doting vanities and take a view with mee of thy dolefull miseries which duly surveyed and truly considered I doubt not but that thou wilt conclude with mee that it is farre better never to have natures being then not to bee by grace a practitioner of religious piety consider therefore the miseries in thy life and first of thy infancie Of the wretchednesse of man being conceived in sinne brought forth in uncleannesse and his dayes miserable What wast thou being an infant but a bruit and a lumpe of sinfull flesh conceived in the shape of man and thy body conceived in the heate of lust the secret of shame and staine of originall sinne and thus wast thou cast naked upon the earth all imbrued in the blood of filthinesse filthy indeed so that thy mother was ashamed to let thee know the manner thereof What cause then hast thou to boast thy birth which was a cursed paine to thy mother and to thy selâ—e the entrance into a dangerous and troublesome life the greatnesse of which miseries because thou couldest not expresse in words thou didst shew forth as well as thou couldst in weeping teares Secondly of the miseries of thy youth What wast thou in thy youth but like a wild and untamed beast all whose actions are rash and rude not capable of any good counsell when it is given thee and Ape-like delighting in nothing but toyes and baubles foolish and vaine things therefore thou no sooner begannest to have a little strength and discretion but forthwith thou wast kept under the rod of correction by feare of parents and masters as if thou hadst beene borne to live alwaies in subjection and discipline of others rather than to be at the disposition of thine owne will no tyred horse was ever more willing to be rid of his burthen then thou wast to get out of the servile state of this bondage Thirdly the miseries of manhood What is mans state but a sea wherein as waves one trouble ariseth in the necke of another the latter worse than the former no sooner didst thou enter into the affaires of the world but thou wast enwrapped about with a cloud of miseries The miserable state condition of man in his midle-age thy flesh provokes thee to lust the world allures thee to pleasure and the divell tempts thee to all manner of sinnes feare of enemies affrights thee suits in law doe vexe thee wrongs of ill neighbours doe oppresse thee cares of wife and children doe consume thee and disquietnesse twixt open foes and false friends doe in a manner confound thee finne stings thee within Satan layes snares before thee within thy conscience accuseth thee thy sinnes past dogge behind thee now adversity on the left hand frets thee anon prosperity on thy right hand flatters thee over thy head Gods vengeance due to thy sinne is ready to fall upon thee 2 Cor. 11 25 c. and under thy feet hell mouth is ready to swallow thee up and in this miserable estate whither wilt thou goe for rest and comfort the house is full of cares the field full of toyles the Countrey of rudenesse the City of factions the Court full of envie the Church full of sects the Sea of Pirats the Land of robbers that thou canst be no where safe or free from danger or in what state wilt thou live in seeing wealth is envied and poverty contemned wit is distrusted and simplicity is derided superstition is mocked and religion is suspected vice is advanced and vertue is disgraced Oh! with what a body of sinne and misery art thou compassed about in a world of wickednesse what are thine eyes but windowes to behold vanities what are thine cares but flood-gates to let in streames of iniquity what are thy senses but matches to give fire to thy lusts what is thy heart but the anvill whereon Satan hath forged the ugly shape of all leud affections Art thou Nobly descended thou must put thy selfe in perill of forraigne warres to get the reputation of earthly honour oft times hazzard thy selfe in a desperate combate to avoyd the aspersion of a coward Art thou borne in meane estate Lord what paine and drudgery must thou endure both at home and abroad to get thee maintenance and all perhaps scarce sufficient to relieve thy necessity and to supply thy want and when after much travell service and labour a man hath got something how little certainety is there in that which is gotten seeing thou seest by daily experience that hee who was yesterday rich to day is a begger How sudden is change of state hee that yesterday was in health is to day sicke hee that a yesterday was merry and laughed hath cause to day to mourne and weepe hee that yesterday was in great favour is to day in as great disgrace hee that yesterday was alive and in health is to day dead and thou knowest not how soone and in what manner thou shalt dye thy selfe and who then can innumerate the losses crosses griefes disgraces and calamities which are incident to sinfull man and to let passe the death of wife children and friends which seemes oft-times to be farre more bitter unto us then present death it selfe Fourthly the miseries of old age What is old age but the receptacle of all maladies The condition of old age for if it be thy lot to draw thy daies to a long date in comes bald-headâ—d old age stooping under dotage with his wrinckled face rotten teeth stinking breath testy with choler withered with drinesse dimmed with blindnesse obsurded with deafenes overwhelmed with sickenesse diseased and pained with bone-ach decrepid with age and almost bowed together with weaknesse having scarse use of any sense but the sense of paine which so racketh every member of his body that it never easeth him of griefe till it hath throwne him downe into his grave for the earth is the wombe that hath bred us and the earth is the tombe that must receive us Thus endeth the miseries of the body in this life Of the Meditation of the misery of the body and soule in this life SInfulnesse in man is an universall corruption Ephes 2.3 Genes 6.5 Rom. 12.2 1 Cor. 2.14 Phil. 2.3 Rom. 3.12 Rom. 7.19 both of nature and actions for by nature wee are infected with a pronenesse to every sin continually the mind is stuffed with vanity the understanding is darkened with ignorance the will affecteth nothing but vile and vaine things all her actions are evill yea this deformity is so violent that oftentimes in the regenerate soule the appetite will not obey the government of reason and the will wandreth after and yeelds content to sinfull motions How great then is the violence of the appetite and will in the Reprobate soule which still remaines in her naturall corruption Hence it is that thy wretched soule is so deformed with sinne defiled with lust polluted with filthinesse outraged with passions over-carried with affections pining
limits and building upon the foundation of the rocke Christ they have erected such a frame as shall remaine to all posterity these holy Ministers were the conducts whereby God did conferre his spirituall waters of life into all the parts of the world who spreading themselves in their painfull travels over all the knowne world spred the Gospell as they went and left in every place where they came a memory of their Lord and Master Jesus Christ After them succeeded others in their example who both taught the Gospel and confirmed it with the testimony of their death these are the holy officers in the administration of the Gospel and all that live in the Church and are truly of the Church of God in their office and in their example shall with them receive the wages of faithfulnesse Lastly is considered to whom the benefits of the Gospel appertaine and that is to the Elect namely such as are most industrious in the faithfull execution of the Law For as it is said God hath not given the Gospel to destroy the Law but to preserve it and revive it that men may be allured by the sweet promises of the Gospell to endeavour with alacrity and hope in the exercise of the Law Joh. 14.15 and therefore Christ himselfe saith If you love me keepe my Commandements that is endeavour to keepe them with all diligence for he that is carelesse in the service of God is not to hope that God will be carefull of his salvation this is proved in the Parable of the labourers in the Vineyard the Master of the Vineyard is God the Vineyard is the world the labourers are the faithfull and painfull Christians Mat. 20.1 c. their wages is the benefit of the Gospel so that not the lookers on but the labourers in Gods Vineyard shall receive the wages of everlasting life These considerations are most weighty in the generall understanding of the Gospel to which is added this admonition that it behoves every man carefully to esteeme worthily and reverently of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because God doth judge the contemners thereof to be guilty of the deserved and eternall damnation 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. and that if God present them the meanes to communicate with the benefit of the Gospel that they then neglect rather all the profits in the world then the rich treasure of the Gospel for it is that one thing that is onely necessary and availeable to salvation and that pearle of price for which wee are advised to sell all that wee have to purchase it for he that hath that precious Jewell Mat. 45.46 hath sufficient wealth and hee that hath all things but that hath nothing if hee hath not that for if one man had that all men have he nothing had unlesse he also had a soule alas what will it advantage a man to win the whole world and lose his owne soule and what enlargement can he desire that hath the hidden treasure of the Gospel in his heart whereby hee hath continuall comfort and thereby is led in the path to his Salvation This doth generally remember all men the admirable degree of Gods favour to man-kind that notwithstanding our apostacy from the favour and service of God and our continuall trade of sinning which might incense the justice of God to destroy us at once and for ever yet doth he continue himselfe in his owne kind a loving God and a father compassionate 2 Pet. 3.9 Pitty in God is most naturall who inclineth rather to pitty then to punish our infirmities therefore did the Almighty God take from man the burthensome condition of the Law and promise him everlasting life upon much more easie conditions the which grace and love of God doth challenge from all men a dutifull thankes to God who hath taken from their neckes the unsupportable burthen of the Law giving a greater liberty and ease in the worke of their salvation Secondly it doth admonish all men carefully to apprehend the grace of the Gospell and not to neglect the present and the pretious opportunity that God hath given them because he that shall breake this Covenant of grace shall doubtlesse forfeit the estate both of body and soule unto eternall damnation for this Covenant of the Gospel as it is the greatest of all the favours of God so it is the last and that being neglected there is no other to be hoped for Thirdly seeing the Gospell doth not destroy the substance of the Law but onely mitigateth and sweetens the severity thereof by a gracious dispensation from the extremity of justice it behoveth all men to be equally as carefull in the performance of the duties of the Law as if there were no other Covenant but the Law to judge them The Law makes us fit for the Gospell Gal. 3.24 for there is no man fit for the grace of the Gospell but hee that is first disciplined and schooled in the Law of Gods Commandements therefore is the Law said to be a Schoolemaster to bring us to Christ by faith because it doth humble us in the knowledge of our infirmities Fourthly seeing the purpose of the Gospell is the salvation of man it behoveth all men to respect the Gospel as they would their salvation and labour by all meanes not onely to advance the prosperity thereof but also to resist the cause that may occasion the slander or disgrace of that sacred Word and Profession Fifthly seeing the matter of the Gospel is the story of the words and workes of Jesus Christ our Saviour while hee was upon earth it doâ—h bind every mans conscience to have a reverent and confident opinion of the truth thereof and that all men labour by all convenient meanes to maintaine the memory and reputation of those sacred writings the which are onely able to guide us without errour in the right way of our salvation And seeing that God of his owne favour without any deserâ— of ours which were falne from him enters this Covenant of grace binding himselfe in the surety of his most sacred Word to give salvation upon the easie conditions of the Gospel to all those that walk in the sincerity thereof through the merits of Jesus Christ who did please to appoint himselfe to take our sins upon him and to descend his Majesty in great humility to establish our salvation in the merits of his holy workes this should move all men to give thanks for so great benefits and to live in godly conversation Sixthly seeing the officers appointed and chosen by Jesus Christ himselfe for the ministration of the Gospel were the holy Apostles and after them the godly and reverend Martyrs in the primitive Church by whose diligence the Gospel spred it selfe over all the knowne world this doth admonish all them that either are Ministers of the Gospell or that have power to make them what choice and care is to be had of their uprightnesse and godly conversation and what
diligence is required of their spirituall travells all which ought to fashion themselves as neere as they can to the example of the holy Apostles Lastly The promises of the Gospell belong to the faithful onely seeing the promises of the Gospell belong to the faithfull onely that is industrious in the service of the Law this ought to provoke all men to contend in godly exercise to exceede one another and to stirre up their frozen and dead desires with the hope of the promise of the Gospel and that they thinke not the Law burthensome being now made easie by the grace of the Gospel and therefore to travaile in the duties of the Law with alacrity and spirituall comfort having their confidence and eyes of faith upon the promise of Christ made in the Gospel Thus if men dispose themselves and their affections they shall find the great and happy difference betwixt Mount Sinai and Mount Sion the Law and the Gospel The difference betweene Mount Sinai and Mount Sion in both which the gracious may finde comfort but with great inequality for unlesse wee be throughly perswaded that our salvation doth flow from the fountaine of Gods mercy and acquaint our selves with eternall election which God hath set forth in the holy Scriptures the schoole of the holy Ghost wherein as nothing is omitted necessary to bee knowne so nothing is taught but that which is expedient for man to know The ministers of Gods Word must therefore beware that they doe not keepe the faithfull from that which the Scripture delivereth unto them lest they seeme maliciously to defraud them Ephes 1. of that which God doth afford unto them or reprove his Spirit as if hee had revealed things fit for some considerations to be revealed The Word is a sure rule to direct our understanding and it is the chiefest point of sobriety in us when wee learne to make God our schoole-master and then to leave learning when hee leaves teaching and when hee leaves speaking wee should leave inquiring hee which curiously pries into Gods secrets runnes himselfe into an inextricable labyrinth and findes not that wherewith his curiosity may be satisfied Religion is not an indifferent thing but wholly to be imbraced and constantly professed The Gospell therefore being a covenant betweene God and our soules our care should be rightly to understand this covenant lest by mis-understanding and false construction we breake the covenant of grace and so runne our selves into a dangerous hazzard Let us therefore search the sence of the mysteries of the holy gospell and if they exceed our understanding let us compare them with the holy writings of the Prophets and Apostles if they exceed our capacity let us consult with the learned expositions of reverend fathers of the Church if all these satisfie not let us daily resort to the servants of this ministration and by diligent observing their sermons expositions and spirituall exhortations we shall both learne what is the covenant we have entred with God and the meanes we must use to keep that covenant and when wee have obtained this forwardnesse 1 Tim. 4.1.2 and hope of better knowledge let us carefully avoyd the dangerous inchauntments of heretiques schismatiques and all false teachers let us beware and not taste of their poyson though they present it in cups of gold let their bayte make us suspect their hookes and their faire and holy pretences their foule and wicked purposes for having found the Lord Christ which is all truth and hath sealed his covenant with us let us preserve that truth from defacing and laying that for our foundation let us build thereon the whole frame of our life and fashion all our actions by the rules of the gospell as the example of Christ hath commanded us that so wee may keepe covenant with our God and obtaine the promise of the gospell which is the salvation of our soules and then with holy Iacob Gen. 45.28 let us boast of our happinesse and say unto our soule wee have enough wee desire no enlargement Againe when wee meditate the matter of the gospell that is the words and workes of our Saviour Christ then it should move us to a reverend esteeme of the story of the gospell and make us delight to exercise our time in the often reading and conferring thereof for if they that have estates of temporall possessions be most carefull to preferre such evidences and writings as is delivered them for their security and assurance and often times spend a great part of their wealth and labour to confirme and continue such estate and such evidence shall we not then much more spend our best diligence and meanes to keepe covenant and understand rightly the writings of the holy Gospel which are the deeds and evidences betweene God and us touching the everlasting state of our soule and carefully to keepe such covenants as give us claime and interest in the possession of a Kingdome Shall men give their substance to Lawyers to maintaine their beggerly possessions on earth beggerly indeed in respect of Heaven though it were the possession of the whole earth and shall we neglect the covenants of everlasting life and may have Law without money let us never doe it Note let us never give testimony of such madnesse let them labour their earthly possessions that will but let us labour the possession of Heaven let them waste their substance on Lawyers wee can have Law and Lawyers much more reasonable Let the Prophets and Apostles be our Counsellors their hands will not be corrupted their judgement cannot erre let us therefore affy in their confidence and endeavour as they direct us Lastly when we meditate upon the particulars of the story of the Gospel let us despise all other histories in comparison of them and the old Testament for the writings of men commonly labour vaine vile and unworthy arguments and those of them that travell in a good cause yet are they defective either in matter or forme but the Gospell and other holy Scriptures being written by the direction of Gods holy Spirit they are nor onely holy in their matter but excellent in their forme and most able to give the desirous Reader infinite variety of content Therefore when wee desire to read of Majesty and great action of Empire warre conquest government policy and infinite other of this kind that depend on greatnesse we may finde both stories and examples in the Scriptures many and unmatchable If we desire to read the stories of mercy love peace humanity civill action and the rest that depend on goodnesse every page in the Gospel can furnish us either with some story or some example of that kind if wee desire to read of wonders and miracles of most admirable credence they are in the Scripture most frequent yet most true in other writings not common yet commonly false Therefore let the holy Scriptures and especially the holy Gospell which is the covenant of our
willingnes of Christ to bee apprehended of the faithfull who is alwaies willing and ready to bee apprehended and applyed to our soules by whom wee onely enjoy the peace of conscience and the hope of Heaven therefore no man ought to affy and have any confidence in the pardons of Popes dispensations indulgences and such trash and merchandise whereby the besotted and blinded people of this world is wonderfully delighted for such dangerous pedling stuffe Note must not bee thought to have equall vertue with the blood of Christ or that they have any power in the cure of soules but on the contrary they surfeit the conscience and poyson the soules of them that trust in them inlarging the wounds both in number and griefe Dangerous Physicke and maketh the soule incapable of cure and most unfit to have the precious blood of Christ Jesus applyed unto it Lastly seeing there is no meanes to apprehend and apply this Christ the physicke and Physitian of our soules but onely by a true and lively justifying faith Christ cannot be apprehended but by a true faith only therefore it most necessarily concerneth all men to have this meanes of apprehending Christ because as it is said The salve though most soveraine cannot profit the sore unlesse it bee applyed by faith that being the maine act of our spirituall health all other offices and duties being but circumstances to assist and forward this act Moreover the faith by which wee apprehend Christ must be more then a generall faith for it profiteth not to our health and salvation to know onely that Jesus Christ is the present cure of our soules unlesse we also by a confident and a lively faith apprehend and apply him to the sore of our soules Againe seeing Christ is our only salvation and seeing faith is the only meanes of apprehending him we ought not to seeke or appoint any other meanes or matter of salvation neither any other manner of applying it and therefore no man ought to ascribe righteousnesse to himselfe or his workes or to the supererogating workes of his friends but onely to Jesus Christ and that this Christ is onely apprehended by a saving faith for by faith we live Note by faith we walke by faith wee are justified and our hearts purified by it we vanquish the world and without it it is impossible to please God Let us therefore often meditate this doctrine of repentance what feare what care what affliction is in the soule at such occasion let us practise it in our selves and pity it in others let us condemne sinne to bee the greatest cause of such misery and let us condemne our selves to be the greatest cause of that sinne When wee exercise this spirituall office of repentance let us bee carefully busie in the duties thereof A necessary resolution let us search the wounds of our soules expell and empty the rottennesse and putrefaction thereof search and dresse them search them by a serious examination of our sins and dresse them by an humble and hearty acknowledgement How to dresse the wounds of our soules let us also examine the actions and particulars of our lives let us compare them with our duties and those that proportion not thereto let us call them our errors and our sinnes and the wounds of our soules let us by meanes of faith and prayer referre our defects to bee supplyed to the most absolute satisfactory righteousnesse of our Saviour Jesus Christ The righteousnesse of Christ must supply all our defects what we finde sin let us call it sin let us not flatter our errors nor smooth our deformities and defects in our selves let us not pretend health when wee are dangerously sicke nor safety when wee are mortally wounded We must not foster nor favour no sinnes let us not favour our sins be it a sin of profit or a sin of pleasure in this cause let us despise both let us be sorry for all acknowledge all and earnestly pray for the remission of all if we have gained possessions and wealth by theft extortion or forged cavillation let us restore as our present estate shall enable us let us be ashamed that Zacheus the Publicane shall restore his extortions foure-fold and we not to restore the principall Shun all such sin as the plague or leprosie because we know that salvation will not come to the house that is so infected but as of necessity all sin must bee cured All sinne of necessity must be cured otherwise there is no cure in our repentance let us hate all sin without dispensation of any otherwise we repent not but flatter our selves in presumption and vaine confidence and because nothing can apprehend and apply salvation to our soules but onely by the hands of saving faith let us therefore bee sure that our faith bee lively and stedfast faith let us trie it by the evidence of our workes they will beare us witnesse and testifie what it is and of what nature Workes must try our faith for as our faith in Christ doth justifie us before God so the workes of our faith doe justifie us in the sight of men If the fruit of our faith be good our faith it selfe then must needs be good and availeable to apprehend and apply Jesus Christ our salvation Let us therefore be plentifull in the exercise of good actions that our conscience may testifie our faith and that our faith may bee able to execute the holy office assigned it We must be plentifull in good workes and why when wee have the assurance of this faith let us then with stedfast confidence looke up to Heaven let us seeke him whom our soule loveth and when we have found him let us expose before him the calamity of our soules and our present condition wee are in let us lay open our sins discover our wounds declare our endeavour and report our faith when we have thus done wee may assure our selves that our Saviour will rejoyce at our recovery be glad of our conversion and returne and will shew us his righteousnesse and will also willingly yeeld himselfe unto our faith and give us free liberty in the use of his righteousnesse Apprehension of Christ Let us busily apply our cares to apprehend him in his righteousnesse and stretch our hands of faith to the altar of his Crosse and with a wonderfull degree of comfort apply his sufferings his wounds and his death to heale the wounds which sin hath made in our soules Note and infuse his most precious blood into them and with that blood shall enter the spirit of health and everlasting safety Thus in an instant shall wee finde the happy alteration of our soules and wee that but then were in spirituall griefe The happy alteration of our soules anguish and tribulation shall now finde joy and strength in our soules and our soules that were before wounded deformed and full of the markes of sinne shall now
and the direction of the holy Ghost should keepe the holy day upon that Lords day or Sunday Apoc 1.9.10.11 agreeable to the practise of the ancient Church and worthily solemnize it on the first day of the weeke in memoriall of the worlds redemption to the honour and praise of the Lord Jesus who rose from death to life upon that day This should stirre up all Christians to a thankfull remembrance of their redemption by Christ his resurrection from the dead Hebr. 2.5 2.11 5.9 And note that with the day the blessing of the day is likewise translated to the Lords day because all the sanctification belonging to this new world is in Christ and from and by him conveyed to Christians and because there cannot come a greater motive or cause then the new creation of the world therefore the worship of God is fitler solemnized on this day then on any other The holy Sunday is the Lords market day for the weeks provision Esa 55.1 2 3. wherein he will have us to come unto him and buy of him without gold or silver the bread of Angels and water of life the wine of the Sacraments and the milk of the Word to feed our soules tried gold to inrich our faith Apoc. 3.18 Gen. 2.2 3. Exo. 20.10 11. precious eye salve to heale our spirituall blindnesse and the white rayment of Christs righteousnesse to cover our filthy nakednesse Of Christs Ascension MEditate upon thy Saviours ascension by a holy contemplation Joh. 20.29 thou faithfull soule for Christ withdrew his visible presence from the faithfull to exercise their faith by holy contemplation and blessed are they that see not Mat. 6.21 Act. 8.21 Colos 3.2 and yet believe where our treasure is there let our heart be also Christ our treasure is in heaven let our hearts therefore be set upon those things that are heavenly and meditate upon those things that be above let us put our confidence in the pledge of the holy Spirit which the Lord left unto us at his departure let us put our confidence in the body and blood of Christ which wee receive in the mysterie of the holy Sacrament and let us believe that our bodies which are filled with this incorruptible food shall at length be raised up againe and that which we now believe in faith wee shall then see with our eyes and our hope wee have now in Christ shall then be reall fruition to our soules the Lord is present unto us here but in part Colos 3.4 but in the mansion of his heavenly kingdome Act. 1.9.10.11 12. we shall behold him in his glory and know him as hee is which is our life our Saviour ascended up from the Mount of Olives the Olive is the signe of peace and joy therefore not without great cause hee ascended up from Mount Olivet because by his passion and holy sufferings he hath purchased peace and tranquillity for amazed and terrified consciences not without cause did hee ascend up from the Mount Olivet for the court of heaven exceedingly rejoyce to receive him the Mount doth not onely put us in minde but doth also call and invite us to heavenly things and seeing we cannot follow him with the feete of our body let us follow him with the feete of our holy desires The disciples stood lifting up their eyes Vers 11. and looking towards Heaven so let all the true Disciples of Christ lift up the eyes of their heart to behold and desire heavenly things Sweet Jesus what a blessed and glorious alteration followed thy passion Oh happy and sodaine change how didst thou suffer on Mount Calvary for our sinnes and how doe I now behold thee in the Mount of Olives there thou wast alone here thou art accompanied with many thousands of Angels there thou didst ascend up to the Crosse in disgrace Luke 24.52 here thou didst ascend up into Heaven in a cloud and in glory there wast thou crucified betweene thieves here thou dost rejoyce amongst the company of Angels and Saints there thou wast nayled to the Crosse as a condemned man here thou art at liberty and dost deliver those that were condemned Eph. 5.23 30 there suffering and dying here rejoycing and triumphing Christ is our head and the Saviour of the body we are his members Rejoyce therefore and bee glad thou faithfull soule for though our sinnes doe hinder us yet the communion of nature doth not repell us where the head is there shall the members be also our head is in heaven therefore the members have just and great cause to hope for entrance there not onely so but they are assured already that they have possession there Christ descended from Heaven to redeeme us and againe hee ascended up into heaven to glorifie us unto us was he borne Note for us did he suffer and for us did he ascend our charity is confirmed by Christs passion our faith by Christs resurrection and our hope by Christ ascension Let us strive to follow Christ our Bride-groome not onely with our ardent desire but also with our good workes Acts 21.27 Acts 1.10 for nothing that is defiled shall enter into this heavenly City The Angels that came from heavenly Ierusalem appeared in white robes by purity and innocency is figured that no pride can ascend with the Doctour of humility nor no malice with the Authour of goodnesse with the lover of peace there ascends no discord and with the sonne of the Virgin there ascends no uncleannesse after the parent of vertue there ascend no vices and after the just person there ascends no sinnes Therefore he that desires to see God face to face let him so live here in this world as in his sight and hee that hope for celestiall things let him contemne terrestriall things Our Saviour Christ promised unto his Apostles that after his departure he will send unto them from his father a comforter John 14.26 15.26 Luke 24.47 Vers 47. John 24.17 the holy Ghost the Spirit of truth to testifie of him and to teach them all things and to endue them with power to preach repentance and remission of sinnes in his name among all Nations saying Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you Therefore let not our hearts be troubled neither let us feare but that our Saviour which redeemed us will also through his merits and mediation glorifie us in Heaven O sweet Jesus draw our hearts unto thee whether thou art gone before and that in the meane time wee may immitate thy goodnesse mercy truth and patience and follow thee in the same Amen Of the holy Ghost OUr Lord Jesus ascending up into the Heavens and entring into his glory Acts 2.4 Vers 1. Exod. 10.11 sent the holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Penticost as in the old Testament when God proclaimed the Law in Mount Sinai he came downe unto Moses So when the Gospell was
in the Spirit And if like those good Thessalonians we receive and believe the Gospell and entertaine the word with joyfulnesse notwithstanding all afflictions 1 Thes 1.5 6 9. 1.3 4. if wee turned God from all our false Gods our owne delights and vanities to which wee have wedded our hearts and if our faith increase and our love abound and if we have faith and patience as they had in all our crosses and afflictions then may wee assure our selves that wee are effectually called as they were John 10 c. out of the vastâ— wildernesse of this woefull world unto Christ our Shepheard for our Saviour Christ saith that his sheepe know him heare his voyce and follow him If therefore wee know acknowledge and embrace Christ if we heare and hearken unto his voyce and doe it if we study to resemble imitate and follow him in love meeknesse patience humility justice fidelity truth confidence and compassion then we may confidently assure our selves that wee are his sheepe effectually called home into his fold Mortification being of such necessity in the ordinary meanes of our salvation as that wee cannot be regenerate before wee carefully discharge this office of mortification let us therefore endeavour this duty with all diligence let us denounce a bloody and generall warre against all our sinnes let us entertaine favour and correspondencie with none but let those sins that have beene our delight be in our hatred let us not love them for their profit because transitory Wee must not foster our sins neither for profit nor pleasure neither feare them for their number If sin overcome us we are their slaves let us not favour them for their pleasure because moment any let us not feare them for their number though infinite many nor for their strength though they have conquered a world of people let us have confidence in God because hee is on our side and hath a care of us when sin got the upper hand of us and wee victoried by them we were then their servants their slave when wee overcome and have victoried them let us make them our slaves perpetually let us bind them in chaines cast them in prison and for ever utterly destroy their evill power Let us have no pity no favour Note no compassion on sin because when we were overcome by sin sin was mercilesse against us let us not as did Saul spaire any for their dignity or worth but with David let us mortifie and destory all let us hate the sins of youth and despise the sins of age let us not be partiall in our owne particulars let not prosperity alter us neither let poverty tempt us but having undertaken to warre with sin let us be full in opposition against it let us not end our warre without victory Let us strive to overcome sin with a constant resolution let us not interrupt it by truce but let us be resolute in our purpose and constant in our resolution and at all occasions and in every distresse let us resort to the throne of Gods mercy and crave the assistance of his holy Spirit hee is our Conductor hee is our Commander and the Generall in this spirituall warre let us consult with that Oracle and by it receive direction let us fight with the arme of his might and win the garland of holy victory for having God on our part whom then shall we feare and if he be with us who can be against us his policies cannot be prevented nor his power with victory opposed What wee want of spirituall power in our selves Psal 18.1 c. shall be abundantly supplyed by the infinite power of the holy Ghost for by him wee shall be able to overthrow an host of sin and by the strength of our God Note wee shall overcome all extremities and avoyd all dangers hee is the end of our hope and the maine battell of our power wee are but the reare hee is our Generall Hebr. 12.2 we are his souldiers his holy Crosse is our colours his holy Word our weapons And being thus appointed we dare confront all the enemies of our soule the Divell our sins and all that doth oppose us wee dare undertake their conquest spoyle their power discipline their errors and by the perpetuall death of our sins obtaine a perpetuall quiet of our conscience and the everlasting peace of our soules Of Regeneration VVHen all things was first created every thing was perfectly good no defect no blemish no need of correction Quest. the first defection was sin the first sin was the sin of Angels the next the sinne of man Here may be demanded a question why God did permit Adam to fall from his integrity and suffer him and his sonnes to revolt and fall into sinne and did not hinder the fall which hee could have done if it had pleased him Answ But hee would not hinder it because such was his pleasure for certaine causes best knowne unto himselfe in the meane let no man thinke that God was injurious for he was not indebted to us Job 36 23. to confirme us by his grace and to keepe us from declining but this fall was permitted by God for the greater benefit of his elect for their glory procured by Christ Esa 46.10 11. doth farre exceed and surpasse the glory which was given them in their creation which had never beene if man had never falne by sin great are the evills which we suffer by reason of that first offence but what faithfull man would not endure farre greater rather then to want so great a Redeemer God not bound to let did permit this fall yet it is not to be ascribed unto him as the cause thereof but to mans owne will for hee did not incline Adams heart unto sinne nor did he infuse the least corruption into his soule Jam. 1.13 14 15. neither did he withdraw any grace from him before hee inspired into him but hee fell by his free will through his owne default at the perswasion and suggestion of the Divell man was therefore the cause of his iniquity in his owne proper will and not from Gods predestination As God brought man into the state of life so man brought himselfe into the state of death for if any man decline from piety and justice hee runs headlong of his owne will hee is drawne by his owne concupiscence and is beguiled through his owne perswasions the Father hath no hand in this fall the Sonne is no agent of this sinne Note the holy Ghost is no worker of this wickednesse therefore the fault of mans choosing of that which was forbidden is not by any meanes to be transferred or ascribed unto God for God punished the sin of Angels in their owne particulars only for they were to derive their natures to posterity by generation and naturall descent because they were ordained for the service of God in certaine particular offices assigned them in the
to him will I give power over Nations Not hee that endevoureth the beginning the middle or a part of his life but hee that endureth to the end he shall be saved This salvation by Christ Jesus is the crowne of glory for which all men strive which none can gaine but he that runneth the race of his life faithfully and constantly 1 Cor. 9.24 therefore Saint Paul saith So runne that ye may obtaine that is endeavour your strength with your time to the utmost for though ye begin well it is nothing unlesse ye also end well for as the tree falleth so it lyeth Note and as men die so shall they rise to judgement for the grave can give no holinesse no perfection but doth onely continue us in the state it found us earth and corruption The manner of regeneration is how the children of God bee borne a new and how it is caused by the secret working of Gods holy Spirit in the children of grace John 3.8 he giveth an instance by the moving of the ayre that is when wee heare a whistling of the wind we know it bloweth yet doe we not know from whence it commeth so in the act of regeneration when we feele in our hearts the motion of Gods holy Spirit breathing salvation into our soules and when our workes and consciences give us an undoubted testimony that we are regenerated and borne of God it is then as vaine a care to search into the secret working of the Spirit of God was to enquire of the mind from whence it commeth or whether it goeth this thing is not necessary though regeneration is most necessary and not to be neglected upon paine of condemnation Seeing regeneration is of such absolute necessity to salvation Iohn 3.5 that Except a man be regenerate and borne anew of water and of the Spirit hee cannot enter into the Kingdome of God neither bee sonnes nay the servants of God though we never so much endeavour in the service of other Christian duties This doth admonish all men to have principall care to labour all meanes possible to have faithfull and sufficient witnesses both from their consciences and by testimony of their workes that they are the adopted children of God established in the assured hope of their salvation being knowne and sealed of God with the marke of regeneration for it must needs bee sufficient to resolve a conscience of Gods favour when we know we are his children it is a grounded cause to make us hopefull and confident in the trust of Gods mercy And seeing regeneration is an act of the holy Ghost every man ought so to rectifie and reforme the errors of his life as that the Spirit of God may not take loathing to enter our soules but rather that by mortification and holy excercise wee may be prepared to entertaine that sacred guest into our hearts least when hee commeth hee finde us as God will finde the reprobate in the day of judgement unprovided carelesse and secure and so not seale us for his sonnes but marke us the children of death and the friends of Antichrist Againe seeing the regenerate are made the children of God it ought therefore to be a principall care of every man to be regenerate because regeneration is the undoubted witnesse of the child of God 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore Saint Peter admonisheth all men to give diligence to make our calling and election sure which can be no way better assured us then by assuring our regeneration which is the certificat and testimony of our election and seeing the workes of regeneration must be both constant and faithfull by constancy is meant perseverance by faithfulnesse a choyce of lawfull particulars therefore every man ought to exercise his devotion and zeale in lawfull argument and that hee run in the spirituall race which God hath proposed him and not in the by waies of error of false and selfe opinion and that in this course he faint not in his spirituall courage but that hee hold out the race of his life with alacrity and hopefull confidence to win the garland of salvation which all shall both win and weare that constantly and faithfully endeavour themselves in godly actions The ordinary outward meanes to bring us to holy and godly action 2 Thes 2.14 is the preaching of the Gospel Saint Paul saith whereunto you are called by the Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Iesus Christ. The Law serves to prepare our hearts for grace but it is the oyly drops to the Gospel by the power of the Spirit that doe soften and mollifie the heart and makes it supple and pliable and like Balme it doth revive and comfort the heart and senses and makes them pliable to that which is good and godly Rom. 1.16 the Gospel is the power of God that is the instrument of Gods power unto salvation to all them that believe also good examples afflictions losses crosses want sicknesse and the like are by the blessing of God 1 Pet. 1.23 good preparatives to grace but the preaching of the Gospel is the proper instrument of the Spirit for the effecting of grace for by the word of the Gospel God speakes to the eares of the soule and by it as by a pipe hee conveyes his graces into the cisternes of our hearts Regeneration then being of such infinite excellent worth and of absolute necessity let us take off our cares and endeavours from worldly occasions and apply them to this holy purpose for being regenerate wee shall avoyd the danger both of sin and death and live in the favour of God and be graced with the honorable title of his Son then let us remember them that proudly vaunt and boast their pedigree and their descent from honorable parents let us pity their errour and despise their vaine glory let us compare such honour with the honour of Gods regenerate children wee shall find an infinit distance of their worth their 's to be transitory passable and of short continuance vaine and full of bitter mixture this without comparison to be eternall and infinite infinite in worth infinite in time let us therefore despise that to gaine this let us desire no other honorable title then to be called the children of God To be the child of grace is the greatest honour in the world that will give us the most sufficient and greatest reputation that can be for that in the least degree will exceed and out-glory all earthly honour in the highest degree let us not care how base the world repute and esteeme us nay though the world persecute us let us not faint nor feare for wee know that our Saviours kingdome is not of this world neither is the glory of his children of this world but in him that hath begotten us by the grace of his holy Spirit is our glory and by him wee are made honourable let us therefore despise the world and the vanities
thereof to gaine this honour and for to gaine this honour let us spend our houres spend our actions and our endeavours nay let us spend our honours and all to make this purchase let us run our spirituall course with alacrity seeing this honour is proposed us when we have it let us esteeme it precious it was given by grace it cannot be redeemed by nature let us esteeme it as it is worthy and having once obtained the honour to be the childe of grace nay the childe of God let us carry that honourable title to our grave and with that wee will present our selves in the day of judgement before God our honourable Father and before the honourable company of Angels and Saints and then it will appeare by direct evidence before all the world whether our honour in being the childe of God regenerate and made the sonne of God which the world despised Jerem 4.2 or their transitory honour and prosperity of fortune wherein they gloried and proudly exalted themselves be of better proofe worth or esteeme when God shall call us his sonnes and bid us enter the Kingome of our joy and call them reprobates and bid them enter their prison bonds Matth. 25.46 John 5.29 and paines perpetuall this will be the blessed priviledge our honour will then give unto us therefore to be regenerate thereby to have God our Father and our friend let us not care what neglect what scorne and what disgraces the world cast upon us for as those will vanish with time yet so will our honour be as God our Father is infinite in joy infinite in worth infinite in time let us therefore infinitely esteeme of it and by all meanes strive to attaine it Amen Of Sanctification SEeing that hee which is regenerate is also sanctified and made holy but it is not derived to us from our parents Ephes 2.10 But Almighty God is the fountaine and proper efficient cause of our sanctification and holinesse whose worke-manship wee are created in Christ Jesus unto good workes Colos 1.13 who in mercy hath translated us out of the kingdome of darkenesse and hath delivered us from the power of the Divell and made us fit for the Kingdome of his beloved Sonne Ephes 2.4 5. in whom hee hath quickened us through his love and riches of his mercy together with Christ even when wee were dead in sins him hath God lifted up with his right hand Acts 5.31 to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto his chosen Hebr. 2.4 and forgivenesse of sinnes and albeit our sanctification be the worke of the whole Trinity yet it is immediately performed by the holy Ghost because hee doth set us on fire and inflame us with a zeale of Gods glory with a care of our duty and with a love of all men Sanctification is the very translation and alteration of the heart and life of man or a spirituall reduction and conversion of a man from his wickednesse unto God and from the uncleannesse of sin to true purity and Christian sanctity The persons sanctified are such as are elected Rom. 8.30 called and justified therefore the Apostle saith that whom God predestinated called and justified them also he glorified these are truly sanctified whom he maketh to be the temples of his Spirit Sanctification of the body is that whereby the members thereof are made fit instruments for the soule regenerated to worke the workes of God with it being become obedient to the minde illumined 1 Cor. 6.19 and the heart reformed through the worke of the Spirit who now hath made it the temple of his holinesse whereas before it was a slave to the flesh and a shop of uncleanenesse and iniquity Ephes 2.8 It is a most gracious and free worke of the Lord without all obligation or merite of ours for the Spirit of God bloweth with the blasts of his grace both when how where and on whom he lifteth and the Apostle teacheth us Verse 4 5. that wee are quickened together with Christ through whose great love and grace wee are saved this is the vertue of Christs resurrection by the power of his God-head raising up his man-hood and releasing him of the punishment and tyranny of our sins by which vertue and power wee are quickened and restored that wee might live unto God in holinesse and newnesse of life Note Now the sanctification of the soule consists in the alteration of the mind the renovation of the will Note the sanctification of the memory and the regeneration of the conscience in the alteration of the mind whereby ignorance is by little and little abolished and the mind enlightened to know the true God and his mercy in Christ and to know and understand a mans selfe and his secret corruptions against the Law of God and to know how to behave himselfe towards God and man as also to prove the things of God and to mind and meditate on things spirituall and celestiall The renovation of the will is when God gives a man grace truely to will good as to believe honour feare and obey God the sanctification of the memory is an aptnesse by grace to keepe and to bee mindfull of good things especially of the doctrine of our salvation and such like the regeneration of the conscience is when it is fitted to give true testimony to a mans heart of the remission of his sinnes and of the carefulnesse of his care to serve God and to doe other good duties concerning our Christian brethren it consists also in the spirituall transformation of the affections as joy love sadnesse feare anger and such like whereby a man that is justified doth so temper them by his reason refined and by the light of the Law with the helpe of the holy Spirit that they do not break out as in the wicked that give the reines to their lusts but are held in some good order howbeit in this life this is not done without much strife and reluctation of the flesh and Spirit and is rather affected then effected Here we must observe that sanctification doth not alter the substance of man but onely his corrupt and sinfull qualities it rectifieth affections but abolisheth them not it corrects and moderates mirth sorrow anger and such humane passions but takes them not quite away it tunes the jarring strings of a mans heart but breakes them not in peeces As the fall of man did not abolish a mans essence but corrupt his faculties even so the raising up and renovation of man doth not alter his very substance but doth onely change his corrupted qualities and powers this visible reformation of a man is when hee dedicates himselfe unto God and good duties to his neighbours whose sinnes bee abandoned which before raigned in his heart This worke of the Spirit is wrought in the whole man but it belongs chiefely to the faithfull and elect of God for civill moralities and
Justification to be in the workes of the Law and doth absolutely ascribe it to the power of faith in Christ and he giveth a reason of this doctrine for saith hee If righteousnesse be by the Law Gal. 2.21 then Christ dyed without cause So then the very cause why Christ died was that righteousnesse might be imputed and apprehended by faith to all them that believe seeing that by workes it is impossible and therefore saith the Prophet David Psal 32.1 Blessed is he whose unrighteousnesse is forgiven Verse 2. and whose sinnes are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sinne so hee thinketh them most righteous that have their unrighteousnesse forgiven them and them most holy that have not their sins imputed unto them Rom. 4. The fourth to the Romanes the whole Chapter is an earnest and sufficient proofe of this argument and doctrine where the Apostle laboureth by direct evidence to satisfie all doubt as if hee had fore-knowne the stiffe and unreconcileable oppositions of these times against this doctrine of Justification in which Chapter he maketh Abraham his instance in whom there was as much cause of boasting and as much righteousnesse as in any other particular save Christ Jesus onely yet he there proveth that Abraham upon whom God had founded his peculiar people was not justified by the righteousnesse of his workes but that this faith was imputed unto him for righteousnesse and for proofe alleadgeth Scripture Gen. 15.6 And Abraham believed the Lord and hee accounted that to him for righteousnesse so that the matter of our justification is the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ onely and the meanes of apprehending it is onely by faith This doctrine howsoever it is made strong and unresistable by many testimonies of holy Scripture and though it be zealously maintained by men of great learning and religious judgement yet it hath endured violence and suffered disgrace both by ignorance and envie this age maintaining such oppositions of error as the ignorance of former times first occasioned thereforâ— at this day this argument of justification is one of the maine controversies of the world the one maintaine justification by faith onely the other by workes that defending truth this opposing it and though a faithfull man would be willing to quarrell in defence of faith Note Psal 91.4 faith being our shield of defence against all gaine-sayers sin and the dwell yet know not how to give addition of strength to them that have already exceedingly travelled in this manifest truth and whose faithfull paines have maintained this quarrell with valour and victory against all opposition neither is it in the purpose of this businesse to dispute questions of truth but to deliver truth as it is by admonitions and plaine teachings to men of simple easie understanding for whose Christian good these paines are principally taken whose simplicity might most easily be confounded in the intricate search of cunning arguments for these respects And because all contention and strife of words is in the hatred of my nature I will as I finde it written downe sparingly deliver my selfe in a large argument and strike onely one blow at the enemy of faith that I may bee knowne to be an enemy of that enemy and that by a familiar proofe I may instruct the knowledge of them that are lesse learned For they that deny justification by fayth and approve it by works would frame this argument from the testimony of Saint James Jam. 2.17 c. who speaking of a generall faith doth utterly disable it from the office of justification and therefore he saith that Faith without workes is dead in it selfe for as the body without the spirit is dead even so faith without workes is dead also Therefore say they that the Apostle concludeth that of workes a man is justified and not of faith onely To this is answered it is most true that fruitlesse faith is dead neyther can justifie and that good workes are the spirit and soule of a living faith for as the body without the soule is not a living man but a dead carcase so faith without workes is not living is not saving nay is not true faith but onely beares a generall name and with Saint Iames wee may conclude against all such faith But if there be a faith that hath a necessity depending of good workes as necessarily as the soule to the body and the fruit to the tree and that this faith declare it selfe to bee plentifull in good actions the fruits of a living faith we may then with Saint James conclude against them for hee doth not as they doe disinable all faith in the worke of justification but onely that faith which is dead Note and without workes So both opinions imply a necessity of workes the one as the cause of justification and the other as an effect in them justified It were easie to be large in numbring authorities and in reporting such distinctions and shifts as the deceived use in supporting their erroneous opinions they are but inventions therefore without respect wee will passe them over Note but advise the Christian Reader to beware of both extreames and modestly and moderately to understand the meanes of his justification that his zeale carry him to no extremity but to the vertuous meane onely and not to ascribe all to fayth and nought to workes but to give them both their necessary respects for as wee are not justified but by fayth so our fayth is not justified but by our workes for if our works be not faythfull our fayth working we are not justified neyther can be saved For when it is said that fayth onely justifieth it is meant and not denyed that charity is joyned with that fayth which justifieth being inseparably united unto it but that onely fayth and not charity is the meanes by which we embrace Jesus Christ our justification righteousnesse As for example the fire hath heate and light which qualities cannot bee severed in that subject Note yet the fire burneth by heate only and not by light now if they will reason say if the heate of the fire only burn Similitude then it burneth without the light of the fire but that it cannot do such is their reason against justification only because it cannot be separated from charity Likewise though the parts of mans body bee joyned together and one is not without another in a perfect body yet the eye onely sees and the eare onely heares and every part hath his distinct office and so hath faith and charity Thus may the seeming difference betweene Saint Paul and Saint Iames bee reconciled Heb. 11. but such fayth and workes as Saint Paul meaneth justifie us before God but such fayth and workes as Saint Iames meaneth justifie us before men but God doth justifie effectually fayth doth justifie apprehendingly and good workes doe justifie declaringly that is we doe declare our selves by our workes
unto men to bee justified therefore good workes doe not precede a man to bee justified but follow him being justified as the effect and fruit of faith that is our workes shall bee our witnesses what wee are in heart and what wee are in fayth Rom. 4 22.23 Eph. 2.10 but by faith wee are justified and made righteous in the sight of God Saint Paul saith not that wee are the creatures of God in Christ through good workes but that wee are created of God in Christ to doe good workes Againe you are saved by grace through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Vers 8 9. not of workes least any man should boast himselfe Math. 9.22 29. Marke 5.34 10.52 Luke 7.50 8.48 Acts 26.18 John 1.12 Our Saviour Christ as it is in sundry places of the Evangelists recorded saith often thy faith hath saved thee onely believe believe onely and thou shalt receive remission of sinnes and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in mee as many as believe in me to them hath God given power to become the sonnes of God whosoever believeth in me shall not be condemned shall not perish but have everlasting life these be the words of our Saviour Christ now Saint Paul saith Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 16 31. and thou shalt be saved Gal. 3.8 Rom. 4 3 c. God doth justifie through faith we are blessed by faith we are the children of Abraham yea we are the children of God by faith the righteousnesse of God commeth by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe If therefore thou confesse with the mouth of the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raysed him from the dead thou shalt bee saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousnesse Rom. 3.24 c. and with the mouth man confesseth unto salvation Wee are freely justified by his grace through faith but justification is onely proper to Gods children so that all prophane and ungodly people are out of possibility to bee justified and made righteous in the sight of God this is proved by Saint Paul to the Romans Rom. 8.3 Whom he predestinated them also he called and whom he called them also be justified And againe justification is a righteousnesse in the sight of God that is such as have a true a living and a saving faith and by faith wee doe apprehend the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ God is content to accept of such in the righteousnesse of his Sonne and to obscure their sins and to make them to appeare and stand before him as actually and verily just by his imputative righteousnesse as if they had wrought it personally in the practise of their owne lives If any make demand how can these things be I answer with the Apostle Vers 33 34. Rom. 5.1 It is God that justifieth who shall condemne Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ Thus farre Saint Paul whereby we may see that if justification and salvation should bee attributed to the merits of mans good workes it would occasion boasting and glorying in the flesh and challenging of our justification and salvation as due to the merit of our good workes and so much abâ—te and abase the glory of Gods grace that grace should then no more deserve the name of grace The Scripture is full of proofes in this argument looke Gal. 2.16 Rom. 3.21.22.28 30. Act. 13.38 Rom. 1.29.30 31. but if Justification and Salvation be as it ought to be wholly given and ascribed unto Gods grace and mercy promised unto us in Christ Jesus which we doe apprehend and lay hold of onely by faith as the onely instrumentall cause under Gods grace then is all the glory and honour of our justification given onely unto God without any merit of man and so as it is said before is concluded that we meane not by faith onely to exclude the doing but the meriting of good workes Seeing that none can be saved but those that are first justified and seeing none can be justified but they that have a true living and a working faith It behoveth all men to have a principall care to have the assurance of this faith that so they may be sure to be justified that they may be sure to be saved And because all men are naturally prone to deceive themselves with flattery and favourable opinion of themselves and their owne actions because Saint James and so the Scripture James 2. in many places doth utterly dis-inable an idle dead and a fruitlesse faith from the office of Justification it therefore neerely concerneth all men seriously and without private respect to examine their faith and compare their faith and their workes together that their workes being good those workes may justifie their faith to be a living and a saving faith and that they content not themselves with a bare and common historicall faith the which the Divell and the damned soules may have but that their faith may be approved good by the sufficient testimony of their good works without which their faith cannot be good For as the tree is knowne by his fruit and as it is impossible to gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles even so is our faith judged by our workes and so it is impossible that good workes should proceed from an evill faith or that a good faith should not produce good works good works being a necessary dependance upon a good faith This ought to provoke all men to an emulation of godly exercise to contend to exceed in holy actions and to square and fashion all their workes by their faith Note and to make every act of theirs a testimony that they are truly faithfull For he that is not with us is against us and those workes of ours that witnesse not for us will be witnesses against us and will condemne us in the sight of all men that our faith is not good or not at all and that therefore wee are not justified neither can be saved This may judge all those actions of men that disproportion a good faith and a good conscience For though men flatter themselves and promise peace to their soules and thinke to be justified and saved by a bare acknowledgment of God and their common historicall faith yet in a time when they thinke not on 't Note their ungodly workes will make warre upon their soules and bring upon them a sure and a sudden destruction Againe seeing justification is a meanes ordained by God to bring us to salvation this ought to move all men to a faithfull acknowledgement of Gods love who onely is the principall and first moving cause in every circumstance of our salvation and that we doe acknowledge our selves in great humility to be altogether defective and unable in the worke of our owne salvation and that every grace in us is
both caused and continued in us by the secret power of God our selves being meerly passive and moved to divine exercise by the onely direction of the holy Ghost and therefore that we doe ascribe the honour of every good action to God by whom it is caused and utterly disgrace our selves in our owne estimation because Gods grace doth leade every man to every particular action of goodnesse Note Againe seeing that by faith in Christ God doth both cancell and abolish our sinnes and repute us righteous in his presence it doth remember all men the admirable degree of Gods favour and the powerfull operation of faith First Gods favour towards us hee being pleased to forgive us our sins and deserts of condemnation and to give and impute the most absolute righteousnesse of his deare Sonne Christ to all men upon this easie condition of faith that such who have a true faith to apprehend him shall be accepted in his favour as sonnes and shall appeare in the presence of God as equally righteous as if themselves had actually performed righteousnesse in their owne particular persons Secondly Heb. 11.1 c. wee are taught the powerfull operation of true faith that it is able to enter heaven and to apprehend and apply Christ and his righteousnesse to reconcile the favour of God unto us and to satisfie his displeasure to wash off the leprosie and spots of our sins and to put on us the garment of righteousnesse even Jesus Christ the Sonne of God by whom and through whom wee are justified in the fight of God and by whom also wee shall be saved Let us therefore carefully endeavour our selves in a constant exercise of all godly actions not that we repose our justification in the vertue or merit of our owne workes but that by the testimony of our good works we may approve our selves to be faithfull and that our faith is more than a common or a generall historicall faith even a living and a saving faith which is and must be the onely meanes of our apprehending Christ who is the all-sufficient and onely matter of our justification and let this be the onely glory and pride of our well-doing that this witnesse of workes shall gaine us the reputation of Gods servants and that Gods faithfull children here on earth shall esteeme and repute us to be of their fellow-brethren then which let us never desire a greater cause of boasting and this judgement of good men must needs rise from the testimony of good workes because there is an inevitable necessity of consequence and necessary dependence betweene faith and workes they being as inseparable as the heat from the fire and as necessarily depending as the body and the soule let this provoke us to a zealous forwardnesse of all godly actions because thereby we shall conclude the assurance of our justifying faith and thereby satisfie the desire of our owne soules and that doubt which otherwise might justly be had of us in the common opinion of men From this argument must needs follow this conclusion that seeing we have the fruits of faith Note good works therefore we have also the cause of workes true faith and that therefore this faith thus working is a tree of Gods owne planting this is that use this is that comfort and consolation which wee shall understand and find in the nature of our best deserving workes thus let us esteeme them and but thus let us therefore avoid and abolish that dangerous opinion of meriting by workes because it is farre better to want honour then to force it from God by violence nay let us rather disgrace our selves then to dis-inable our Saviour Jesus Christ for if righteousnesse be from our selves it is not onely from him and then would follow that absurd and blasphemous conclusion that he is not the onely Saviour neither hath perfected the worke of mans salvation let us therefore doe all the good we can Note but let us repute our deeds though never so good to be the effect and not the cause of goodnesse in us let us also confidently hold that nothing is able to merit salvation but onely the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ let us therefore utterly disclaime our selves and our owne power which is nothing but weaknesse and wholly ascribe all vertue and all power to our Saviour Christ for it is safer to give him honour then to take it from him and it will farre better become our Christian modesty to acknowledge our weakenesse and infirmities then proudly to boast and advance our selves above our deserts and worthinesse If therefore God by the moving of his holy Spirit doe incline our hearts unto godlinesse hee will also give us grace to continue in the same and give us a desire and power in godly exercise which when it makes us grow plentifull in the demonstration of holinesse let us ascribe the glory thereof unto God to whom it is due onely and onely acknowledge our selves to be that instrument whereby his holy hand of grace is pleased to work with to our salvation Of Faith FAith is the ground the foundation and the pillar of the truth 1 Tim. 3. and it is the constant assent of the heart unto those things which bee taught and promised by the word of God for to believe is to assent unto the same which we doe heare it is also a certaine and sure perswasion of the heart What it is to believe that there is a God whereby wee doe believe certaine things of God as that there is a God and that there is but one and none other besides him that hee is omnipotent the creator of heaven and earth that he is just doing good to the righteous and punishing the wicked that he is good gentle and mercifull to them that doe amend their sinfull life that he is true and keepeth promise that he is able to performe what hee hath promised that hee is everlasting and many other things that bee reported of him in holy Scriptures and to beleeve also of Christ that hee is the onely begotten Sonne of God the word of God made flesh true God and true man our onely Lord redeemer Saviour and Mediatour hee was crucified dead buried and rose againe taken up into Heaven touching his manhood and that he sitteth at the right hand of the father and that he shall come at the end of the world to judge the quicke and the dead and many other things set forth in the Evangelists and Apostles and to believe of the holy Spirit that he is of the same Godhead equall with the Father and the Sonne that he is of the light giver of the minds the comforter teacher reliever renewer sanctifier and governour of the elect of God this maketh a great matter to the salvation of man how it be grounded in their hearts Secondly To believe God that we doe believe God also that is to credit and to believe his word as the word of
and obey God in every one of his commandements but if at any time through frailty thou slippest into any sin wallow not in it but speedily rise out of it by unfaigned repentance praying for pardon till thy conscience be pacified thy hatred of sin increased and thy purpose of amendment confirmed God gives many blessings lest through want being his childe thou shouldest despaire and he sendeth thee some crosses lest by too much prosperity playing the foole thou shouldest presume but in all thy will have an eye to Gods Will lest thy selfe action turne to thine owne destruction count therefore Christ thy chiefest joy and sin thy greatest griefe estimate no want to the want of grace nor any losse to the losse of Gods favour and then the discontentment which grows by outward meanes 1 Tim. 6.8 9. shall the lesse perplexe thine inward mind and bestow no more thought of worldly things then thou needes must Col. 3.1 2. for the discharge of thy place and the maintenance of thine estate but still let thy care be greater for heavenly then for earthly things and be more grieved for dishonour done unto God than for an injury offered to thy selfe but if any private injury be offered unto thee Psalm 139.21 c. Eccles 28. Rom. 12.13.20.21 beare it as a Christian with patience Never was an innocent man wronged but if patiently hee bare his crosse he overcame in the end but if thou frettest and vexest at thy wrongs offered the hurt which thou doest to thy selfe is more then that which thine enemies can do unto thee neither canst thou more rejoyce him then to heare that it throughly vexeth thee but if thou canst shew patience on earth Deut. 32.35 36. God will shew himselfe just from heaven but if thine enemy still continueth in his malice and increase in his mischiefe give thou thy selfe unto prayer Jerem. 11.20 committing thy selfe and commending thy case unto the righteous judge of heaven and earth and in the meane while waite with David on the Lord Psal 27.14 be of good courage and he shall comfort thine heart undertake not an evill case for no mans sake for it is not that man but God that shall judge thee doe not therefore preferre the favour of men before the grace and favour of God and esteeme no sinne little For the curse of God is due to the least and the least would have damned thee had not the Sonne of God died for thee Ezek. 9.4 Mark 3.5 bewaile therefore the misery of thine owne estate and as occasion is ministred mourne for the iniquity of the time pray to God to amend it and be not thou one of them that make it worse in thy conversation be thou courteous towards all grievous to none familiar with few live piously to God-ward to thy selfe chastly to thy neighbour justly shew favour to thy friend shew patience to thy enemy let thy good will be towards all and shew thy bounty to them that have need thinke often of the shortnesse of thy life and the certainety of thy death and wish rather a good life then a long die daily to thy selfe and mortifie the vices of the flesh so in death thou shalt live unto God let mercy appeare in thy affection goodnesse in thy action curtesie in thy countenance humility in thy attire modesty in thy neighbourhood and patence in tribulation alwaies thinke upon three things past the evill which thou hast committed the good which thou hast omitted and the time which thou hast pretermitted thinke alwaies upon three things present the brevity of this life the difficulty of being and the paucity of them that shall be saved alwaies thinke upon three things to come death then which nothing is more horrible judgement then which nothing is more terrible and the paines of hell then which nothing is more intolerable Every evening reconcile thy selfe to God by prayer for thy sins past that day and give thankes to God for giving thee time to repent there are three things above thee which never let slip out of thy memory the eye that sees all the eare that heares all and the dreadfull Judge which punisheth all bewaile the evils past remember thy sinnes grieve for them and pray for amendment remember Gods justice that thou maist bee kept in feare remember Gods mercy that thou maist not dispaire as much as thou canst withdraw thy selfe from the world and the vanities therof and addict thy selfe wholly to the service of God study to please none but Christ and feare to displease none but him pray unto God to pardon and forgive thee what is past and to governe and amend in thee what is to come God hath communicated himselfe wholly unto thee therefore communicate thou thy selfe wholly unto thy neighbour that is the best life that is busied in the service of others shew reverence and obedience unto thy superiour instruct and defend thy inferiour give counsell and ayd unto thy equall let thy body be subject to thy minde and thy minde to God for thy workes doe not passe away but are cast as certaine seeds of eternity Gal. 6.8 Therefore if thou sowest in the flesh of the flesh thou shalt reape corruption if thou sowest in the Spirit of the Spirit thou shalt reape life everlasting after death the honour of the world shall not follow thee neither shall thy heape of riches follow thee Revel 14.13 neither shall thy pleasures follow thee neither shall the vanities of the world follow thee but thy workes shall follow after thee Therefore to day appeare to be such in the sight of God as thou desirest to be esteemed at the day of judgement learne to live in this life as thou wouldest obtaine eternall life for in this life is eternall life obtained or lost therefore let holy meditations bring forth in thee knowledge Prov. 15.8 and knowledge compunction and compunction devotion and let thy devotion make earnest intercession unto God by prayer for the silence of the mouth is a great good for the peace of the heart James 1.19 O the shame when a man 's owne tongue shall be produced as a witnesse against himselfe to the confusion of his owne shame Therefore let thy words be few but advised forethinke whether that which thou art to speake be fit to be spoken affirme no more then what thou knowest to bee true and be rather silent then to speake to an ill or no purpose Let thy heart and tongue ever goe together in honesty and truth 1 Pet. 2.1 hate lying and dissembling in an other detest it in thy selfe or God will detest thee for it for he hateth a lyar and his father the divell alike let not thine anger remaine when thou seest the cause removed and ever distinguish twixt him that offendeth of infirmity and against his will Prov. 6.30 Acts 3.17 1 Tim. 1.13 Psal 59.5 and him who offendeth maliciously and of set purpose
day of hope but to the wicked their day of feare Death then in these divers respects of good and bad men hath a sting and yet cannot hurt is dead and yet living and by opening the gate of temporary death doth admit the entrance either into eternall life or eternall death the one is the most happie condition of Gods chosen the other the most miserable state of the Reprobate and damned for as this life wherein we breathe is but a sacrament or little resemblance of that which is to come so the terrour of a temporary Death hath no proportion with the torments of everlasting Death wherein both the body and the soule shall suffer such affliction as is beyond the power of imagination infinite in measure infinite in manner infinite in time To undertake to report of Heaven and Hell Salvation and Damnation otherwise then is set forth in this Booke is not in my purpose or power to describe them but this we may know that both are infinite Heaven is infinite in time and happinesse and Hell is infinite in time and torment the one as Gods resemblance is infinite good the other as the Divels is infinite evill the one is hoped for the other feared to which all Mankinde must make their resort and by the gate of Death passe their temporall life to one of these to eternitie Seeing our sinne was the cause of death and from our selves had his first originall it ought to humble all men in their own estimation and to acknowledge the great corruption of our nature which makes us powerfull onely in doing evill and in producing such bad effects as cause our owne destruction and the consideration of this may correct their proud opinion that vainely arrogate such power unto themselves as to be the meanes in cause of their owne salvation fondly and falsely thinking that their eyes of nature are not blind in spirituall judgement but imagine to have in themselves that vertue and power which they only have by imagination for if Adam by his sinne did produce and give life to such a monster by birth as death is what expectation then can bee had of our weake ability who are in all respects but sinne Adam's farre inferiours and by much lesse able in the performance of any spirituall duty Secondly seeing death hath universall power over all flesh and seeing that there is no partiality in the execution of this office no dispensing of favour no lengthening of time but commeth certainly but not certainely when this may advise all men to godly action and to live to day as if they were to die to morrow lest otherwise death commeth unexpected and so prevent their good determinations which being onely determined and not done availe us to no other end but griefe and unprofitable repentance Againe seeing all must die and bee reduced againe to earth Iere. 13.18 this should controll the proud ambitious natures of men who in this life insult over men of inferiour state and dignifie themselves in their owne estimations as if God had not made them of earth or that the grave would not humble them and make them earth againe These men that value themselves rich by having the beggarly gifts of fortune and despise the most rich treasure of Grace Iere. 4.2 where it liveth in the banishment of poore fortune these that despise death most when they live P. l. 34.20 Note and feare him most when they die are here admonished to reforme this insolent behaviour and to remember themselves that how proud soever they be yet they must be humbled in the grave and that the wormes and corruption will destroy their pride and in despight of greatnesse make them inferiour to the meanest beggar on earth and yet can death heape a greater calamity upon them and open unto them the passage to everlasting death and afflict them with the damned in torments perpetuall and infinite thirdly seeing that Christ by death hath slaine death and hath taken his hurtfull sting from him whereby he might be hurtfull to Gods Elect it doth admonish a zealous duty of thankfulnesse in them in the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ their Saviour By whose meanes death is no death to them but rather life and advantage by whom they have the doore opened to everlasting salvation for so ought all men to understand of death Note as the common Jaylor of all flesh the world is the prison wherein we are shut death when he openeth the doore delivereth from prison leadeth the parties delivered either to liberty or judgement for so are all that die transported from earth either to heaven which is their liberty or to hell the place of execution Death then is that one key that openeth the double passage the one to heaven the other to hell the one leadeth to salvation the other to damnation Lastly seeing that death is a repose and rest from earthly labours it ought to sweeten the sorrowes of this life with hopefull confidence alacrity and spirituall comfort notwithstanding most men doe repute the professours of holinesse but base and abject people and deride their simplicity in wicked worldly policies making holinesse a note of folly and their owne audacious impudence the onely marke of wisedome and deepe discretion yet should not this discountenance a good cause but rather confirme a Christian resolution and give boldnesse and Christian courage to beare off with patience the contempts and disgraces of evill and wicked men and secretly scorne at their base estimations having their eyes of faith still fixed on the end of all things death with a settled confidence that death will not onely give them rest from all their troubles and adversities but admit them also into the blessed fellowship of God the holy Angels and Saints from whence they shall see their proud enemies cast into utter darkenesse and obloquie and with miserable desperation acknowledge their wilfull neglects in Christian duties thus the meditation of death may give disgraced and afflicted Christians a life of hope in the height of their extremities Therefore let not the faithfull doe as the wicked doe feare to die but hope to die intending the spirituall passage and course of their lives Acts 12. so as that their end may give them comfort without terrour let us reduce to memory what the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs have done in this cause how carefull they have beene to preserve their lives in the memory of honest and godly reputation how carelesse also have they esteemed their lives for the defence and reputation of the Gospel Acts 7. being content nay carefull not onely to give up their lives but to give them up with torment for the testimony of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour To these men let us frame our imitation let us care for our lives as they cared let us also care to die as they cared in every work of our life let us remember our end and at our end
salvation be our continuall exercise let us exercise our pleasure in reading and meditating the excellent variety of matter and Majesty of the phrase in the Gospel being the rhetorique and eloquence of the holy Ghost let us also exercise in studying rightly to understand the covenant of our salvation to keepe which covenant wee shall therein often be admonished by promises threats intreaty and by examples in all which the knowledge and meditations of the Gospel will instruct us This doctrine is very usefull and solatious and may be applyed to many notable purposes for it shewes us the true causes of all our happinesse it also confuteth the Pelagians who ascribe salvation to mens owne strength and merits and it serves to correct the course of those that hinder their owne happinesse by their owne presumption diffidence incredulity prophanenesse sensuality and other irregular and irreligious courses Lastly it proves the deity of Christ for in that he hath elected his faithfull unto eternall life we conclude that he is very God for these respects and reasons let us enter covenant with our soules to be carefull in keeping our covenant with God Of the Incarnation of the Word Christ IT is necessary and meet to shew something of the Incarnation of Christ for because that the same doth chiefly belong to the worke of our Redemption we will note those things onely which shall seeme to helpe towards the stay of the purity and certainnesse of our faith and to cut off all curious and unprofitable questions it is needfull for them that will consider the mystery of the word Incarnate Not of mans word but of Gods Word For as much as this Incarnation is reported not of every word but of the Word of God it is first needfull for the confirmation of our faith that wee doe heare the testimony of holy Scripture that the word is in God it is declared even in the beginning of Genesis wherein the History of the Creation of all things is so oftentimes reiterated Gen. 1 c. and God said let it be and it was done he said and they were made he commanded and they were created and in another place By the Word of the Lord the heavens were fastened in the beginning was the Word John 1.1 and the Word was God and God was the Word Paul saith By the vertue of his Word and the brightnesse of his Glory Hebr. 1 c. upholding all things by the word of his Power Againe By faith wee understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God Hebr. 11. so that our faith is confirmed in this by the testimony of holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament that we doe believe the word to be in God of which thing there be found sufficient testimonies also in the writings of the Ethnickes which did attribute unto God-head the Mind the Word and the Spirit wherefore wee Christians may so much the more stedfastly stand unto our faith because that those things which wee doe believe of God the Father and his Word are so certaine and manifestly true that they be approved not onely by the infallible testimonies of holy Scriptures but of Ethnickes also Act. 7.51 c. and doth openly reprove the blindnesse of the unhappy Jewes but how the word is in God no Christian man must be too curious to search those things which be spoken of God which be so attemperate unto our capacity that they be spoken upon some likenesse rather then according to any exact property of Gods Nature and Essence And because we should not thinke of God to be onely but an Essence but as a most high and excellent Essence dissevered and separated from all others as well spirits as bodies he is called Jehova Ebrew word as existent every where in all places and making Greeke preserving and governing all things and is called God which is piercing and passing thorow and to signifie that he is the same to the end of the world as the minde is in man they called him the Mind the Word and the Spirit to give us to understand that the same infinite Essence in Godhead doth not altogether rest in it selfe and keepe his vertue goodnesse and wisdome to himselfe alone but rather set it forth and reveale it even as the mind of man cannot be idle but doth expresse in word whatsoever it doth conceive in it selfe by the meane of the spirit which is as it were the Conduit whereby the word is brought forth from the deepe secret parts of the mind Similitude As for example Imagine that God the Father were like as a lively and endlesse Fountaine and his Sonne the Word to be as a River continually flowing out of this Fountaine and that the holy Spirit might be the very moving and flowing out whereby the water floweth out of the compasse of the Fountaine which moving cannot be without the moving of the aire The Word is the Sonne of God Now whereas this Word is called the Sonne of God it is like as if a man should call the River the sonne of the Fountaine and our word that wee doe speake the sonne of the Mind but all this is but by way of accommodation to our weakenesse for no Angel were able to utter nor no man able to understand him if he did only speake of the Nature and Essence of God as it is in it selfe What wee ought to judge of this Word of God no man is able better to set it forth then the holy Scripture did expresse by the Evangelist Saint John where he saith In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word John 1.2 3 4 5. the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by it and without it was made nothing that was made In it was life and the life was the light of men and the light shined in the darkenesse and the darkenesse received it not and a little after Verse 14. and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among uâ— and we saw his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten Sonne of the Father full of Grace and Truth Now touching the Incarnation it is said 1 Joh. 4.3 that the Word was made flesh which is nothing else but the Word was made man now whereas hee saith that the Word was made man of which he said now before that it was God he doth without contradiction say that God was made man or flesh and though the Apostle saith God the Word is made flesh it is not said of the Father neither of the holy Spirit but the Word to be Incarnate not onely for that that he is the Sonne in Godhead and that by him the world was made but for this cause also chiefly because the Word is that Counsell coeternall with God the Father purposed to save man-kinde in whom our Redemption is predestinated even from everlasting in whom also wee
be chosen into the adoption of the children of God as we may see in the first to the Ephesians Ephes 1.4 wherefore the worke of our Redemption was not ordained to be brought to passe but by this Word this way being agreeable with the eternall predestination of the Will of God The Word is made flesh for Christ is the Incarnate Word God and man to admonish us whereof Christ is that is of the Word and flesh so that wee must consider that in his nativity there is not onely the nature of man but the nature also of God joyned together personally with the nature of man wherefore we must use and hold most firme and stedfast this circumlocution of Christ Christ taketh the man-hood into his Godhood as is expressed by the holy Spirit for though it is said the Word is made flesh hee doth not meane simply flesh but the soule and spirit with the flesh also that is the whole man for by the word of flesh there is not meant that man onely whom the Virgin did beare was received of the word into this conjunction but the very nature of man-kind for the redeeming and restoring of which this Incarnation of the Word was predestinated from everlasting so that wee must judge that the Word was made not onely the Sonne of the Virgin Mary Luke 3. but surely also the sonne of Adam and of Eve which is diligently expressed by Luke in the genealogie of Christ The weaknesse of man taken upon the word the word flesh also signifieth mans weaknesse that we may also know that the Word of God is not so made man that it tooke those things only upon it which pertaine to mans spirit and foule but it tooke the infirmity of our flesh also saving sinne onely Mat. 21.18 Mar. 14.33.34 which is sufficiently expressed in the very race of his dispensation when he hungred and thirsted ate and dranke was made merry slept wept was made sorry and after suffered death all which things were not fained by him by counterfeiting but truely declared according to the truth of mans nature What can be more conjunct and more united then that everlasting Trinity in the God-head of the Persons yet it cannot be said that the Father is made the Sonne or the holy Spirit or the Sonne the Father or the holy Spirit An excellent note to be observed or the holy Spirit the Father or the Sonne as it is here spoken of the Word that it is made flesh Why because the unity of the holy Trinity is of godly nature and not of person that is to say consisteth not Ephes 5.31 The communicating of nature doth consist in getting and bearing and not in creating and making of one and the selfe same person but of one selfesame nature Againe the man and the woman be so joyned and united by wedlocke that they doe become into one flesh for saith the Apostle They be not two but one flesh and yet no man can truely say that the man is made the woman why because the man and the woman be not coupled into one selfesame person but in wedlocke they bee two persons joyned together into one flesh and nature but it may bee sayd that the word was made flesh though it did not simply take our flesh but ioyned it selfe unto it in unity of person Personall unity and the condition of personall unity that albeit it doe comprehend divers natures yet it is reported of the one that it is the other as in this cause it is reported of the word that it is made flesh he doth not say that the word was changed into flesh but the word was made flesh for then this change must have had an alteâ—ation of nature which cannot bee or take place in Christ for the word is not changed but still retaineth his nature neither it receiving flesh It is not possible God can leave to be God left his nature it is not possible that God can leave to be God the nature of God suffereth neither change nor end for it is immutable and infinite neither could the dispensation taken in hand beare it that the nature of man joyned unto the nature of God should loose those things which be proper unto it for so it might be inferred that Christ were not true man nor truly conceived nor borne of the Virgin Mary did not suffer dyed not nor rose againe from the dead which notwithstanding the holy Scriptures doe manifestly ascribe all these things unto him Wherefore the whole universall Church doe hold firmely and rightly that God was made man he tooke upon him that which he was not and lost not that which hee was neither doth the unity of person require the change of natures but doth reteine them both perfect and sound A similitude The soule and spirit is heavenly immortall and incorruptible but the flesh is earthly mortal corruptible The testimony of the Godhead and manhood of Christ cannot be vain Coloss 1. The person of man being one doth consist of a soule and body personally joyned together the soule is of a heavenly nature and beginning the body of an earthly the soule is immortall and not suffering corruption the body is mortall and corruptible and yet they be joyned together without confusion that in both remaineth still his owne nature The testimonies of the Godhead which bee given unto Christ in holy Scriptures should bee altogether vaine if the word were changed into flesh And againe if the flesh had beene changed into the word then all those testimonies and writings which the Evangelists doe set forth of the true manhood of Christ were not worthy to be believed The Apostle saith that all things are by Christ and that there dwelleth in him bodily all fulnesse of the Godhead take from him the nature of the word and this testimony of the Apostle is of no weight The Euangelists and Apostles doe witnesse of him Math. 1.1 Rom. 1.3 4. that hee is of the seed of Abraham and of David according to the flesh the fruit of the wombe of Mary conceived in her body and according unto the fulnesse of time appointed to women with child borne and such other things as they doe make mention of the course of his dispensation to manifest unto us that he was true man Eph. 5.30 passing over that which the Apostle witnesseth of him that wee are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh therefore all these things shall be false if the flesh of him lost that her nature by the conjunction of the word and turned it into godly nature Wherefore wee must diligently looke to our selves in this matter for because of false Doctors which doe bereave Christ of the true nature of our flesh because hee saith The word was made flesh Thus briefly to note of the beginning of the flesh of Christ whereby it is manifest enough how wicked an opinion they had which denyed the