his minde which he attained to by this means and of that in the rest of the verses This confirmation is declared by a double reason First By an adhortation which he useth towards his enemies vers 2 3 4 5. Secondly By a profession of his confidence that he had in God from the sixth verse to the end of the Psalm In this profession of his confidence the Royal Prophet sheweth that he places his chief felicity in Gods favour towards him And this profession is first illustrated from a comparison with a very unlike and vanishing care of worldly men that they have concerning their owne happinesse or felicity verse 6. Secondly From the effect of Gods favour to wit that it brings with its self wonderfull gladnesse to the mindes and consciences of those that have received it verse 7. In which words the reason and cause is given of the former confession And then this gladness is illustrated by a comparison of a less joy or gladness which yet by the world is taken for a full joy and that is the joy that arises from the plenty and abundance of the goods of this life verse 7. Lastly this profession of the Prophet is illustrated from another effect that it brings with it to wit security and safety from fear and all cause of fear the true cause whereof is placed in Gods protection verâ—… 8. That all these things may be the better understood we must know and observe for the explication of the words that by many in this place all are understood because what is here attributed to many 〈◊〉 to all Secondly That by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not heer understood properly an externall and vocall spâ—…ech but the inward affections desire and endeavour because this saying is affirmed of such also as abstain from outward speech and perhaps cannot speak Thirdly That by this exclamation Who will shew us any good a vehement desire is imported Fourthly That by good all and every thing is understood which appeares delectable whether it seem profitable pleasant or any other way desirable Fifthly That by lifting up of Gods countenance upon us by a constant phrase of Scripture is understood the communication and manifestation of Gods gratious presence and favour for it is a metaphor or speech that seems to be borrowed from the Sun arising and spreading abroad the beams of his light whereby he brings a certain lifâ—… and gladness to all creatures here below Doctrines from hence arising Doct. 1. Our chief felicity and happiness ought above all other things to be regarded and sought after and that throughout our whole life This Doctrine is thus raised and gathered In that David proposeth this as his onely comfort which he regarded in the time of his affliction and which he would regard all his life time Now by the chief good that properly is to be understood wherein our felicity consists in which felicity is contained an affluence or fulness of all desirable good things And this chief good as it is imperfectly here attained to and possessed in this life is properly called our consolation or comfort It is called Comfort because it is that which as it were strengthens and comforts the minde and makes it strong and firm against all oppressing pains griefs and terrours for consolation or comfort is properly a mitigation of pain and grief or a remedy against sorrow and fear Reason 1. The first reason of this Doctrine is because in this chief good the end of our life doth consist and the end in all things is chiefly to be looked on because whosoever doth any thing not in order to a fixed end he doth it but rashly and without reason So he also who lives without having his eye still fixed upon his chief good lives but rashly and at randome and like unto a brute and unreasonable creature Reas. 2. Is because from the regard we have to this end all our actions are to be governed whereof these onely can be called right which as it were in a right or streight line tend to this end and all others are wrong and like crooked lines or by-pathes turning out of the right and streight way He therefore that lives without regard to this chief and last end doth just as he that intending to shoot at a Butte would not yet look at the mark but let his Arrow loose at randome or as he that would commit his Ship to the wind and waves never looking to the load-starre or having any care of the haven whereunto he would arrive Reas. 3. Because the chief good is of chief excellency and worth and therefore also deserves to have the chief place in our thoughts studies and cares Whoso therefore neglecting this suffer themselves to be taken up with other things are like unto children who misregarding commonly things of 〈◊〉 worth busy themselves altogether with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The use of this Doctrine is for reproof against such as seldome or never think of the end and mark whereunto their life should tend and are not carefull about that perfection and chief good whereunto they ought mainly to contend and such mens lives are neither Christian nor rational but rather brutish and bestial Doct. 2. Is this That a mans chief good or happiness cannot be found in the goods of this life And this is gathered from verse 6. where this opinion of worldly men that it may be found in such things is rejected as vain The meaning of the Doctrine is that a mans happiness consisteth not either in riches or in honours or in renown or in power or in any goods of the body nor yet in pleasure nor in any perfection of the minde nor in any other the like created good Reas. 1. Because such goods do not make the man himself good and therefore neither can they make him happy but they are common to the worst of men as well as to good men 2. Because such goods are oftentimes the instruments and means of sin and misery 3. Because there is none of them which ought not to be referred to a further good therefore in them cannot consist the last chief and perfectest good 4. Because none of them can perfect the soul and spirit of man 5. Because most of these goods are common to beasts with men and yet beasts are not capable of happiness 6. Because oftentimes it is a mans vertue and perfection to neglect and contemne such goods so that such are the best and perfectest men that make least account of these outward and worldly goods Use. The use is of reproof against such who esteem as much of these goods seek after them as lawfully keep them with as great care when acquired and are as loath to leave them as if they placed their true and onely bliss and happiness in them Doct. 3. Is That our true and chief good consists in our union and communion that we have with God This is gathered from these words Lift up the light of thy countenance
spiritual distemper and as it were with a drunkennesse and lethargick stupidity whereby he is sensible of nothing rightly and spiritually Reas 3 Because we are so borne in sin that in a manner it becomes natural to us nor ever have had we experience of any other condition As those that are borne with deformed and crooked limbs and never saw aright and well proportioned disposition of all the members do not know that their own limbs are deformed and ill proportioned but esteem their distortion and disproportion to be the right proportion it self even so is it in this case of sin and corruption of nature Use 1. Of Admonition that for this cause we might more and more humble our selves before God seeing that we are so miserable that of our selves we can never know our own misery Use 2. Is of Direction to deny all our natural wisdome that so we may flie to God and seek wisdome from him that we may know our selves and him aright Doctr. 2. The onely way to know sin aright and the cause of our mysery is by the law of God It is gathered from these words For unlesse the law had said c. Reas. 1. Because the law of God doth in some way enlinghten the eyes of our minde Psal. 19. Reas. 2. Because the law of God is the rule of our life and is therefore the touchstone not onely of the straightness but also of all the obliquity and crookedness of it Reas. 3. Because the law of God is set before us as a glasse wherein we may clearly see our faces and quality Iames 1. 23. Now it performs this use of a glass to us by a comparison made between the perfection which the Law requires of us and the manifold defects and deformities that are found in our life Questions hence arising Quest. 1. Whether did not some wise men at least among the Heathen know sin without this Law of God I answer 1. That they were not altogether without this law of God because in part they had it written and ingraven in their hearts But yet 2. They knew not many sins which by the Law might easily have been known 3. They knew not sin under the first and most proper reason of it to wit as it was an offence against God but onely as it was repugnant to reason in man himself 4. They knew not those spiritual miseries which accompanie sin 5. They did not know sin practically and efficaciously so as to be by that knowledge driven to a spiritual humbling of themselves before God Quest. 2. In what manner doth this Law of God shew us our sin I answer 1. It sheweth us our duty or the will of God that we should do 2. It shews us our fault in transgressing of this will 3. It shewes us our guilt whereby for this guiltiness we are bound over unto punishment 4. It shewes also the punishment it self for the threatenings of the Law wherein the punishments are contained and denounced are parts of the Law and belong unto its sanctification or ratification Use 1. Of Direction that in passing judgement upon our lives we follow not either our own fancies nor the tenets and opinions of the vulgar but the law of God alone Use 2. Of Admonition that we often make trial of our life according to that law and that as well for time past for our greater humiliation as for the time to come for our caution and better direction in every part of our conversation The Third Lords Day Rom. 5. vers 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned THe Apostles purpose in this place is to illustrate that Doctrine which he had before taught concerning justification by Iesus Christ for which end he makes a comparison of the likeness between this grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the sin of Adam our first Father after the flesh And the comparison runs upon the efficacy and effects of each of them The Proposition of the Comparison is in â—… 12. and the Reddition to that is after explicated by way of Parenthesis In the Proposition Adam is set forth as the cause of a twofold effect to wit of the bringing in of sin and of the bringing in of Death And the reason of the Connexion of these effects with that cause is given in the last words of this verse to wit from the conjunction that all had with Adam in that first sin in these words In whom all men c. Doct. 1. Sin entered into the world not by Gods creation but by mans defection This is manifest in the Text by man not by God c. Reas. 1. Because God made man upright and after his own image that is not onely free from all sin which may in some sort also be said of all other Creatures but also adorned him with all those endowments and faculties whereby Gods nature might as it were in a pourtrait be expressed and represented and by help whereof in keeping of the law he might have attained unto a certain sort of divine blessedness or felicity For as there is no fault in a pourtrait so it be well drawn or made by a perfect workman unless the fault be in the Original from whence the pourtait is taken so also no fault could be in man created according to Gods Image and that by God himself unlesse some fault be attributed to God himself whose Image man is Reas. 2. Is because God did not onely prescribe a law unto man in the Creation but also engraved it upon his heart by which means it was that man had in himself a most certain Testimony of his uprightness in which and to which he was created and withall a most sufficient and ready means of living well and unblameably to God For the law of God perfectly purely written in the heart of man is as it were a solemn Testimony registred in a Table or Book that man was made fit and able to keep that Law It is as it were the voice of God sent down from Heaven whereby man was called and stirred up to observe that way of living which is taught thereby Reas. 3. Because God added thereunto a pledge and Sacrament in the Tree of Life whereby he would have that Covenant of the Law written in the heart more clearly confirmed also outwardly to wit that he would by the observation of his Law first perpetuate mans life in this world unto the solemn justification of him at his appointed time and then advance him to a further and heavenly Felicity And on the other side he threatens Death unto him in case he should depart from that Will and Law of God all which had been done to no purpose if man had been at first made by God himself in any measure or manner sinfull and perverse Reas. 4. So far was God from being the cause of sin in the first creation of
our outward words and works as being but the rivulets and branches of our sin we be reformed but that in the fountain and root of this sin dwelling in us we may be cleansed and renewed The Fourth Lords Day Ephes. 5. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience IN these words is contained an argument whereby the Apostle labours to perswade all the faithfull that they may keep themselves from those sinnes whereof he had made mention a little before The Argument is drawn from an adjunct that follows upon sin to wit the wrath of God of which sinnes are not onely the antecedents but also meritory causes certainly procuring it as is intimated in these words For these things The connexion of this effect with its cause is limited and confirmed 1. It is limited by a description of the subject wherein Gods wrath doth alway pursue sin in these words upon the children of disobedience 2. It is confirmed by rejecting of all vain shifts in these words Let no man deceive you The Explication by the wrath of God 1. Is understood Gods vindicative justice 2. His will to inflict punishment according to that justice 3. The punishment it self that is so inflicted And in this place most properly the punishment is understood which in other places is often called death distress severities hot anger and the like This wrath of God is said to come against or upon men because as it were coming down from Heaven it suddenly fals upon and overwhelms and holds as intangled in a net the sinners so that by no means they can escape it In the same sense that not unlike phrase is used Rom. 1. 18. by the expression of the children of contumacie or stubbornness upon whom this wrath comes those sinners are understood which can by no means be perswaded to leave their sins and seek God by true faith and repentance where this is to be marked that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be turned both children of incredulity and children of disobedience but it agrees better to this place to be turned children of disobedience and of rebellion because we read not this phrase the children of saith but of obedience 1 Pet. 1. 14. Doct. 1. Such mens condition is most desperate because they are not onely sinners but also stubborn in their sins It s gathered out of these words Upon the children of disobedience or stubbornnesse So they are named here as men whose condition is much to be abhorred and whose example and company is most to be shunned as appears from vers 7. be not therefore partakers c. Reas. 1. Because such men serve a most miserable servitude to a very base Master that is to sin for sin exercises a spiritual Kingly power and dominion over them because they do all that the lusts of sin commands them and can by no means be perswaded to shake off that slavish yoke and so much the lesse as they perceive that slavery by so much are they the more fully under its command because by this means it comes to passe that their very will it selfe and the spirit of their minde is possessed by this slavery and oppressed For as a brute or a man that comes neer to a brute serving some cruell Master takes no thought for that his condition because of his stupidity neither cares nor wishes for a better is a more full and perfect slave than some free-born and free-minded man who is by force constrained to serve one but yet under such servitude and force keeps a free minde even so it fares in this matter Reas. 2. Because such men are furthest off from repentance and so from the kingdome of God and from salvation For repentance doth most consist in the turning of the heart from sin to God by perswasion of the Word and holy Spirit And to this temper the obstinacy and unperswasibleness of such men is flat opposite who are not onely not perswaded to turn to God but are perswaded to the contrary that such perswasion of converting is not to be embraced or regarded for such are properly called the children of rebellion or disobedience As therefore those diseases are most mortal which admit of no cure and are but the more exasperated the more they are dealt with even so also is it with such kinde of men Reas. 3. Because these men do most grievously encrease their guilt in this that they withstand the means that God hath sanctified for procuring their salvation For while they will not suffer themselves to be perswaded to that conversion unto Faith and Repentance they directly fight against God and not onely so but in this very thing that he would and is some way striving as it were to save them Use Of Admâ—…nition That most of all we be carefull of this stubbornnesse or rebellion which is not onely to be understood in common of that conâ—…umacy whereby men refuse altogether to be converted but also specially and in every part of obedience For if we perceive that God calls us to this or that special duty t is then our part mainly to take care that even in that we present our hearts to God flexible and perswasible whereunto we are invited Doct. 2. Upon the children of disobedience certainly and unevitably the horrible wrath of God comes This is clear in the Text without any collection made from it That this wrath is horrible and altogether intolerable the Scripture every were testifies as Heb. 10. 27. Apoc. 6. 16 17. and elswhere And the thing it self doth sufficiently shew it if we consider Gods anger as to its intensness extensness and duration as to its intensnesse it is called in Scripture a consuming fire Heb. 12. 29. Now this fire of the wrath of God consumes not lightly or light things onely as in the superficies but as it is said Deutro 32. 22. Gods wrath set on fire will burn down to the grave c. Nahâ—…m 1. 6. Where there is a most likely pithy description By all which descriptions is signified that the wrath of God doth throughly peirce not onely into the body but into the soul and inward part of the spirit for which reason in many places of Scripture it is compared unto sharpe arrows peircing into the heart its self and consuming the spirit and life As to the extension this wrath of God contains in it all sort of evils whether corporal or spiritual whether in this life or at the end of it and in death or at death â—…ither belong those catalogues or inventories of curses that are found Deutr. 28. and Levit. 26. 3. As to the duration it remaineth upon impeâ—…ient sinners Iohn 3. 36. not for some short space but unto all eternity and without end For as that obligation whereby we are bound to render God all obedienees without end so consequently the transgression whereby sinners break that obligation is in a
rest that belong to the real practice of religion Use 2. Of Direction that we lean not to our own or to other mens wisdome and providence but to apply our selves alwayes to lay hold on the providence of God that we may rely on it in all things Doct. 2. The providence of God includes in it self not onely the intention but also the attainment of its end For all things are no less certainly for him than they are either by him or from him Reas. 1. Because divine providence is most perfect and therefore alwayes attains what it intends properly For that is the imperfection of mans providence that it often attains not its end but is hindered by some other causes Reas. 2. Because if God attained not his purposed end then would he suffer some change in his blessedness and happiness of condition because it is a more blessed thing to have all ones desires and purposes fulfilled than to fall beside some of them Reas. 3. Because thence also would follow diminution of Gods eternal knowledge For no wise man proposes that to himself to be attained which from the beginning he knows that he shall never attain Use 1. Is of Refutation against such that turn divine providence into a humane providence Use 2. Of Consolation to all believers to whom God hath promised that he will provide and see for them so as all things at last shall turn to their good and eternal happiness Doct. 2. This providence of God extends it self to all things This is clear in the Text. Reas. 1. It is as much extended to all in the world as a good and wise master of a family hath a care as much as in him lieth of all things that are done in his house Reas. 2. It is extended to every thing that was created of God For in the same manner providence follows upon creation as the Apostle teacheth that provision doth upon procreation and seeing to children and others in the family 1 Tim. 5. 8. For God in some sort is called the Father of all things that he created Reas. 3. He hath a care of all noble and great things because the direction of such makes evidently for his glory Reas. 4. He cares also for the least and vilest things as the haires of our head and the like Mat. 10. 29. Because his wisdome being infinite these cannot escape it As from the greatness of them his being is not helped so from the littleness of them he is not hindered to care for them Oftentimes also from least things very great things depend and from vile or base things a noble change followeth either for the better or for the worse Reas 5 This providence is extended not onely to things that of necessity are or must be but to contingents also or things voluntary because contingents they are mutable and subject to many casualties coming from the course of many causes do most of all require the government of a superior power that they may be rightly ordered left all should run into confusion And voluntary things are of a most noble operation and of a higher nature than any natural things are and therefore most of all do depend upon Gods care for them and over them And these things are so cared for of God that their nature is not thereby overthrown but established and governed For it is rightly said of divine providence that though it attains to its end with strength yet even in doing so it disposeth all things sweetly that is according to the nature of all and each that he himself put into them in the Creation and yet conserves and governs by his providence For there is nothing in Gods providence that brings a necessity upon any thing properly so called but onely a certainty which no wayes withstand the nature of contingency and liberty Reas. 6. This providence is extended not onely to things good but also to evill nor yet onely to evills of punishment but also to evils of sin because though evill was not created of God and in this respect is not properly and in it self the subject of divine providence yet because it comes from the creature of God and of its owne nature disorders the work of God and is contrary to the order that God appointed and therefore ought of necessity to be ordered and limited of God otherwise the most noble work of God if he had no care to the contrary would run into great disorder and because there is in sins the greatest confusion and disorder therefore it is moâ—…t of all required here that God exercise the power of his providence in regard of whom onely evill hath some kinde of good in it to wit as far as it is ordered by him and turned to good Use 1. Is of Exhortation that we may alwayes have our affiance firm and immovable and fixed on God because If God be for us who can be against us seeing all things are directed and governed of God Use 2. Is of Admonition that we depend upon no creature but upon God alone because all things are governed of God And then that we learn to reverence and fear God in all things seeing his providence that is to be reverenced and feared hath a hand in all things The eleventh Lords day Act. 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other For there is no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved IN these words is contained the reason of the answer that Peter gave to the multitude being come together to the question they made about the good work done to the impotent man verse 9. The question was How he was healed and delivered from his sickness The answer was that he was made whole by the name of Jesus Christ that is by that divine authority and power whereof Jesus Christ was the author The reason of this answer and deed is taken from the nature and power of Jesus Christ which is shown declared in this verse from its effect to wit that it brings salvation as well spiritual as corporal to men And this effect is so affirmed of this cause that is of Christ that it is denied of all others So that there are two assertions contained in these words whereof the first is that Jesus Christ offereth salvation to men The second that no other can bring salvation The reason of both assertions is given because the name that is the power and authority of saving signified by the name Iesus is given to him and to none else For by name in this place as it is referred to Christ Christ himself is understood as signified by that name of Jesus or Saviour as by the name of God God himself is oft thus understood in Scripture but withall the power and authority of Christ to save is made known in more illustrious persons titles and solemn stiles whereby is declared their quality and what they import For the signification of the name Iesus is here
neither as to their worth nor as to their durance nor by any love-worthy quality Reas. 3. Because to this we are called that denying our selves and leaving the world we may seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and glory Reas. 4. Because while we believe and hope in Christ and have the eyes of our mind set upon him as our Captain and patterne of our salvation we must be changed into his likenesse and image 1 Ioh. 3. 3. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Use 1. Of Direction for discerning of our condition whether we have any such faith and hope or no. Use 2. Of Exhortation to stirre up and rouse our mindes to a more earnest and diligent study and care of all godlinesse The three and twentieth Lords day Rom. 3. 24 25. Verse 24 Beiâ—…g justified freely by his grace through the râ—…demption that is in Iesus Christ. 25 Whom God â—…ath â—…et forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his rightâ—…ousnesse for the râ—…mission of sinnes that are past through the 〈◊〉 of God THe Apostle had before proved that all mankind was undeâ—… most grievous guilt of sin aâ—…d therefore had need of justification that they might be saved which justification also he had shâ—…wn that it could not be had from any 〈◊〉 noâ—… from the Law which he had set down as the conclusion of his discourseâ—… in the 20 verse of this Chapter From thenâ—…e he also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 further 〈◊〉 justification is of necessity to be 〈◊〉 in that way of the Gospell which is proposed in Christ Jesus The whole dispute may be summed up in this Syllogisme Men are either justified by Nature or by Law or by the Gospell But neither by Nature nor by the Law and therefore of necessity by the Gospell The Proposition is presupposed and tacitly understood as manifest in it self The Assumption is provâ—…d in the first part of the Epistle unto the 21. verse of this Chapter The Conclusion is proposed and illustrated in that 21. verse to the end of that Chapter and afterwards The words in our Text set down contain a description of this Gospell-justification And it is described 1. From its principal and highest cause God Whom God appointed 2. From the manner of this cause which consists not in commâ—…tative justice that gives like for like or so much for so much nor yet from distributive justice which looks at the worth of men and deales with them in a proportionable manner but in meer and pure grace or free favour in these words we are iustified freely of his free grace or free favour where a singular emphasis or force of speech is laid on this part of the description by this doubling or repetion freely and of his frâ—…e favour 3. It is is described from its impulsive or meritorious cause which becomes also in some sort the formal cause of our â—…ustification to wit our redemption maâ—…e by Iesus Christ. 4. From its instrumental cause which is faith by faith in his blood 5. From its final cause which is the manifestation of the justice and mercy of God for shewing of his justice c. Doct. 1. It is God that justifieth us He is said to justify us not in that he inâ—…useth righteousness unto us or makes us fit to do things that are just which is the errour of Papists placing justification first in the infusion of the habits of faith hope and charity and next in the good works that comes from those habits with which they mix a certain sort of remission of sinnes But therefore he is said to justify us because by his judicial sentence he absolves us from the guilt of all sin and accepts or accounts of us as fully just and righteous for eternal life by the righteousness of Christ which he giveth us This appears from hence that this justification is used in Scripture to be opposed unto a charging with crimes and unto condemnation Rom. 8. 33. And this is done of God as it were by these degrees 1. In his eternal counsell and decree because from eternity he intended to justify us 2. In our head Christ rising again from the dead we were virtually justified in some sort actually as in Adam sinning all his posterity were virtually condemned to death by the Law and in some sort actually because in some sort actual sinners 3. He justifies us fullier actually and formally in our selves and not onely in our head when by his Spirit and our faith the work of his Spirit he applies Christ unto us to our justification 4. And further yet he justifies us actually and formally to our sense and feeling when by our own reflex knowledge and examination of our estate he gives us to perceive this application of Christ made and so to have peace and â—…oy in him Reas. 1. Because ouâ—… sins from which we ought to be justified are done against the majesty of God 1 Sam 2. 25. And none can forgive an offence done against another or an injury done to another in a proper way of speaking Reas. 2. Because the guiit of sin depends on the obligation of the Law and of divine justice and truth And therefore cannot be taken away but by him that is above the Law and knowes what is agreeable to his own truth and meaning in the first making of it Reas. 3. Because by justification we are received into the favour of God and life eternal and God himself in some sort is given unto us all which can no otherwise be done but by God himself alone Use 1. Of Refutation against Papists who set down manners and means of justification from humane tradition and their owne authority unto â—…retched men as if it were in their power to justiâ—…ie men after what way they please when it is God â—…lone that justifieth and that therefore prescribes â—…he manner and means of justification onely Use 2. Of Consolation as it is set down Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to our charge it is God that justifiâ—…th And verse 31. If God be for us who can be against â—…s Doct. 2. This justification is meer pure and infinite grace or favour So in the Text freely his free favour The grace of God in justification appears as it were by these degrees 1. In that God pursues not his right against us and our sins according to that rigour that his Law might have been taken in and his revenging justice might have extended its self to but left place for some reconciliation 2. In that being himself the party offended yet he himself of his own good-will both invented appointed or ordered and revealed both the manner and means of this reconciliation 3. In that he spared not his onely begotten Son for procuring of this reconciliation 4. That without any merits or worth of ours he ingrafts us into his Son and our Lord Jesus Christ and so makes us partakers of that reconciliation which is in him This was altogether necessary that
that there is no joy nor gladness in the practice of godliness and so they shun godliness and the care of it as that which is full of sadness and melancholy But the Scriptures teach otherwayes that the godly are called to this that they may alwayes rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. and that they alwayes are as it were feasting with all gladness according to that of Solomon Prov. 15. 15. The proper cause of this errour is ignorance a depraved sense of their sins 〈◊〉 in this like unto an herd of swine who make it their greatest pleasure and delight to wallow in the 〈◊〉 Use 3. Of Consolation for the godly in that 〈◊〉 their outward condition is yet they have 〈◊〉 of more true joy than can be either felt or understood by worldly men Use 4. Of Exhortation that striving with our utmost indeavour we must labour more and more to receive and be sensible of this joy Now the meanâ—… which we ought chiefly to use for attaining and 〈◊〉 thereof are these 1. We must in good 〈◊〉 remove all hinderances of this joy that is that by repentance a real amendment of life we 〈◊〉 cleanse and disburthen our selves of our sins 〈◊〉 We ought to have a true care that we daily make more sure and constant to our selves our union and communion with God by diligent examination and confirmation of our faith and hope 3. That we 〈◊〉 much and often exercised in the religious meditation of Gods Promises which promise all good things to such as have God for their God 4. Iâ—…â—…duceth much to this purpose if in our selves we exercise and excite this joy in and by the daily praise of Gods name that is as well in private as publick thanksgiving coming from the bottom of our heart for all those blessings with which God hath blessed us in Christ Jesus Doct. 5. That this joyâ—… and this comfort brings a certain holy security to the consciences of believers This is gathered from the last verse of the Psalm And this is that security wherein the Apostle â—…oasts and glories Rom. 8. If God be for 〈◊〉 who 〈◊〉 be against us c. For I am perswaded that nothing can separate me c. And David every where in the 〈◊〉 Why do I fear God is my rock c. This security differs much from carnall security wherein men of this world lye and sleep 1. Because true and prais-worthy security is grounded upon true faith and not upon vain imagination 2. Because it is bred in us by the Word and Promises and by the preaching and knowledge of the word of God It doth not proceed from traditions or mens dreams and customes in sin as that doth 3. Because this security relies alwayes upon Gods protection as it is in the Text Thou onely makest me c. it doth not rely on outward means or on our own strength and wisdome 4. Because this security is fed cherished and advanced by diligent use of calling upon Gods name and of all other means that God hath prescribed and appointed us Reas 1. Because Gods protection secureth believers from all evill at least from the sting of it by reason whereof it is onely truly evill for God hath all things both evill and good in his own power Reas 2. Because Gods presence brings all other good things with it for God is so good in himself that in himself virtually and eminently he contains all things that can be called good Reas. 3. Because Gods goodness towards believers is unchangeable so that there can be no danger of the changing of this happiness into misery Use The use of this Doctrine is for consolation to the faithfull to wit that from this ground they 〈◊〉 and ought to depend upon God and lay aside all those anxieties whereby they may be discouraged from adhering to God with joy and gladness The second Lords day Rom. 7. vers 7. What shall we say then Is the Law sin God forbid Yea I had not known sin but by the Law For I had not 〈◊〉 that concupiscence or lust was a sin unless the Law had said Thou shalt not covet THe Apostle that he might stir up the faithfull to a new obedience had proposed to them the difference of their condition that are under the Law and of them that are under Grace to wit that such as are under the law of the flesh and sin bring forth fruits unto death but such as are under the grace of the Spirit bring forth fruits in a new obedience unto life eternall But because of this opposition between the Law and Grace some might gather that there was then a very great agreement between the Law and sin therefore in this seventh verse this objection is preoccupated by the Apostle 1. Then the Objection is proposed What shall we say Is the Law sin 2. It is rejected with a certain kinde of detestation God forbid 3. The case is plainly set down and resolved in these words I had not known sin c. Where the singular effect and use of the Law is declared to wit that by forbidding and reproving is begotten in man a sense and acknowledgement of sin as of that which is contrary to its self and therefore it cannot be the cause of sin The Explication By the Law is understood in common a way and rule of walking Now this way and rule is imposed upon reasonable creatures by divine authority and the greatest obligations that can be And this is the Law to wit of God which the Apostle heer understands especially the moral Law By sin here is not onely understood the transgression of Gods will but also all those things that follow upon such a transgression which in this Chapter is defined by the name of Death and is called sometimes misery Sin is either known confusedly and speculatively onely or more exactly and practically Now the accurate and practicall knowledge of sin is here understood whereby it is efficaciously concluded in our consciences that sin is a detestable thing and by all means to be avoided Doct. 1. Men of their own nature are so blinded that although they be altogether drowned in sin and death yet of themselves they cannot know it This is gathered from these words I had not known sin Reas. 1. Because the very mind and conscience of man which is his eye and light is corrupted after a twofold manner 1. Privitively In that it is deprived of that light whereby it might rightly judge of it self and of such things as belong unto its spiritual life a. Positively In as much as it is possessed with a certain perverse disposition whence it often calls evill good and good evill For as the eye being put quite out feeleth nothing and as the eye infected with humours and depraved by the indispositions of the organe sees all things otherwise than they are presented so is it with the eye of the soul. Reas. 2. Because the whole man is possessed with a certain
termination or resting is made by the Father For thus through the Holy Spirit his teaching and assisting or helping us we begin to pray that is conceive and make our prayers here and our prayers so conceived or made ascend and enter into Heaven by Jesus Christ and lastly they are ultimately heard and accepted by the Father The ninth Lords day Rev. 4. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord that thou shouldst have glory and honour and power because thou didst create all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created A Reason is given in these words why all glory should be given to God and it is taken from the effects For that is more praise-worthy that it be taken from the effects because the power and virtue of the cause whereunto the praise is due exists and is properly seen in its effects The effect of God is creation which in this place is illustrated First By his effects which are declared by the universality conjoyned with them in these words because thou didst create all things Secondly From his manner of creating that God out of a wise purpose created all things and for thy pleasure c. Thirdly From the adjunct of duration or lasting and for thy pleasure they are and were created For one thing is understood by the words they are and another by thou createdst c. as might be evident from the tense thou createdst in the preter-tense they now are in the present-tense by which the duration of things is evident Doct. 1. All things that now are in the world were produced and made out of nothing by God Reas. 1. Scriptures evidenceth this truth Reas. 2. Partly also all nations testify it because there is no Nation which believeth not and tells us not something concerning its beginning Reas. 3. The world it self witnesseth this of it self for as much as in all creatures almost there appeareth such imperfection in their power and mutability whereunto they are subject that of themselves they could not have their own act and first existence but of necessity they must depend upon some pure and perfect act and that is God Reas. 4. The world also witnesseth this same for as much as in its parts a certain perfection appeareth which is such as that it cannot be the first and yet it is such as must needs be from the first perfection Such are these perfections that use to be observed in this sentence whereby all things are said to be made in number weight and measure Where by measure is meant the perfection that each thing hath in it self and number that which is referred to others as to defect or excess and weight that of motion and inclination that all have to their own ends and uses as well particular to themselves as common to others and the whole Reas. 5. Lastly all right reason confirmes the same because in all order of causes and things existent common reason brings us to one first cause and to one first existence Besides it implies a manifest contradiction to conceive the world to have been eternal For if the world was from eternity then infinite dayes were before this day and so these dayes are not yet ended and consequently this day exists not because it cannot exist but after the other dayes before it were ended and gone Also if the world was from eternity there was no one day of the world before there was a thousand years of the same world because in eternity no point or moment of time can be defined before which there were not many thousand of years But this is a manifest contradiction that one year of the world that is made up of many dayes should be together at once with the first day or that there is no day of any year before which there was not a thousand years or lastly that there were as many thousands of years already as there were dayes in the world Use 1. Is of Instruction that in this part of our faith we study more and more solidity to ground and strengthen our selves because this ground being well laid our faith and affiance doth much more easily freely make progress about all such things as God hath revealed in his Word that either he hath done or will do about this world or some parts of it or other things that require the like might and power to that which was snewed in the creation of the world Use 2. Is of Admonition That we suffer not our mindes to cleave to this world or stick there but that we lift them up higher and adhere to him that made the world For it were a very great folly and perverseness if after we know that all these things were made by God we love the world better than God and for the love of the world should forsake God Doct. 2. God of his wise purpose and good pleasure created all things not out of any necessity It is gathered from these words and for or by thy pleasure or will c. There be some Philosophers that have said that all created things do come from God by way of emanation as little rivulets come and flow from their Fountain But that which doth proceed in this kinde must be part of that River from whence it flows which cannot properly be affirmed of things created if we reflect on God the Creatour Others are of opinion that the universe came from the Creatour even as the forme or fashion of him that looketh into a glass passeth from him into the glass Neither is this fitting to be affirmed because the universe is in no other subject as the shape is represented in a glass or mirrour Others have said that the universe went from God as a shadow from its body But this is altogether impertinent because a shadow goes not out of its body but followes it by a privation of light and by reason of the interposition of the opacous or gross body between the light and that place Others have said that the universe went forth from the Creatour like 〈◊〉 the footstep is made by the print of the foot of one that walkes But God had nothing without himself upon which by his walking he could imprint such a footstep All these had a good intention though they spake not accurately and properly enough For even as these comparisons are otherwise profitable to raise the minde of man in the contemplation of the eminency and majesty of God the Creatour For they point out the eminency of the Creatour to be incomparably greater than that of the whole universe it self and the vanity or at lest littleness of all things even such as seem greatest in the world if they be compared with Gods perfection For they are in respect of God as little streams or as little droppings are in respect of an ever and over-flowing Fountain or of the whole Sea or as a light resemblance of ones feature appearing in a glass is in respect of the solid substance or party
taught Lastly regard is had to our Faith which properly lookes at the name of Jesus Christ and of God the Father that is Christ and God the Father as they are proposed to us and as it were named in the Gospell Doct. 1. Iesus Christ saveth us from all our sins This is it that is signified by the appellation of his name and is proper to the name containing in it self the whole summe of our Redemption and its application The end also of his incarnation humiliation and exaltation Now Christ saves us by his satisfaction merit and efficacy By satisfaction because he removes the guilt of sin and wrath of God that were the hinderances of our safety and could not be removed by us By his merit because he procures to us the favour and right to all those blessings that use to be communicated to the sonnes of God By his efficacy because by his Spirit he effects indeed works all in us that belongs to our salvation In this sort therefore doth he save us from all our sins as to the guilt to the punishment and to the andduration to the defilement Reas. 1. Because he was given of God his Father for this end that is he was for that end eternally predestinated from the beginning promised in the fulness of time exhibited for this end I say as himself professeth that he might save sinners in which speech the Apostle Paul glorieth much as in a 〈◊〉 1 Tim. â—… 5. Reas. 2. Because he was fit every way to produce this effect that is to procure this salvation which followes most certainly even from this that he was for this end sent of God For God sends none to performe any duty whom he instructs not and makes fit for the accomplishment of it Hither belongs also all that before was said of the divine and humane nature of Christ and what hereafter shall be said of the spirit resting upon him without measure and the like Reas. 3. Because willingly and of his pleasure he gave himself to the performance of all these things that were necessary for our salvation Use 1. Is of Direction that we may yeeld up and give over our selves wholly to Christ to be saved Use 2. That with all Admiration of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we may live to him that is as being saved by him we may yeeld him all thankfulness and strive to do him all honour and homage to his glory Doct. 2. Beside Iesus Christ there is no Saviour This is expresly enough in the Text Neither is there salvation in any other c. There are no other Saviours neither in whole nor in part nor joint with him There are no other causes of our salvation neither subordinate nor ministrating properly so called Not total Reas. 1. Because none is like or equall to Christ that could do the same that Christ did for our salvation For he is the onely begotten Son of the Father the onely Immâ—…nue God with us God-man in one person the onely Medrator between God and man 1 Tim. 2. 5. Reas. 2. Because God gave and proposed none oother Saviour to us as it is in the Text. Reas. 3. Because if there were any other Saviour then such exclusive assertions could have no place as every where occur in Scripture Whosoever believeth not in Christ he shall dy The wrath of God shall abide upon him Without him we can do nothing and the like Nor yet Mediators in part Reas. 1. Because Christ perfectly saveth those that believe in him so that they need not in any sort to seek salvation in any other Heb. 7. 25. Reas. 2. Because our salvation cannot be so divided into parts that part from one and part may be sought from another for so it might come to pass that one might be partly saved and partly damned Neither yet subordinate and ministring causes Because properly he saves us by himself Heb. 1. 3. Now the Saviours that were typical and the Ministers of the Word who now also are said to save many together with the Word and Sacraments which save also all these are onely said to save because they are the adjuncts and instruments of this onely Saviour serving him in the application of salvation before purchased by himself not that they are causes together with him of his salvation and have in themselves power and vertue of saving any if we speak properly Use 1. Of Refutation against Papists who many wayes joyn other Saviours to Christ as 1. While they thrust Angells and blessed spirits upon us for Saviours to be religiously invocated 2. While they teach men to place their trust and hope in satisfactions of men and pardons or indulgences of Roman Bishops 3. While they will be saved by themselves by merit of their own workes and place in them some faith and confidence Use 2. Of Exbortation that in every great and lesseâ—… part of our salvation we not onely fly to Christ but depend also purely onely and wholly on him saying with the Psalmist Whom have I in heaven but thee and I delight in none on earth beside thee Psal. 73. 25. Doct. 3. All that is made known to us in Scriptures concerning our Lord Iesus Christ to be done ought most of all to be done by us as bringing salvation to our souls For in this sense it is said in the Text not simply that Iesus saves us but that the name of Jesus Christ doth it that is Jesus Christ as he is proposed to us in Scriptures to be apprehended by Faith Reas. 1. Because such is the nature of our Faith as it differs from sight which we are to have in the life to come that it is not carried simply and absolutely to Christ but onely as he is proposed to us in Gods Promises Reas. 2. Because in the word of God nothing is taught of Christ which doth not directly make for our Faith and for advancing and confirming of oursalvation Ioh. 20. 31. Reas. 3. Because that charity and thankfulnesse that we owe to Christ requires this that we make high esteem of all things that belong to him seeing otherwayes we are not worthy of him Use 1. Is of Reproof against the slowness and sluggishness of our mindes who can hear and read many things concerning Christ without any affection or lifting up of our hearts to him Use 2. Is of Direction that we may get unto our selves that knowledge of the name of Christ that may be sufficient to us in all our necessities and that we put this in practise and use it when we are pressed either with our sins or our inward corruptions or the Devills tentations or the worlds allurements or with afflictions or when we are in the midst or danger of death For thus in the name of Christ we have a Magazine or rich Well from which at all times or any occasion we may draw or take something of salvation according to that of the Prophet Isa. 12. 3. When ye have drawn
Lord who gave himself to the death for them Use 3. Is of Admonition that we subject our selves wholly to this Lord and his will and do him all honour in all and every part of our life and conversation The fourteenth Lords day Mat. 1. 20. But while he thought on these things behold the Angell of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph thou son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost THese words contain a reason given by the Angell of the Lord why Ioseph should receive his wife Mary And the reason is from removing the cause for which Ioseph might have been induced to put her away Now the cause was that she appeared to be with child by another than her own husband This cause is removed by putting another unblamable cause in its place and this cause is determined by the Angell to be the Holy Ghost The effect then is placed with its causes in this enunciation The effect then is Jesus Christ as to his humane nature The causes are two to wit the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary Mary is the efficient cause less principal and supplier also of the material cause but the Holy Ghost is the most principal and first cause which brings the less principal efficient and the material together into acting for the production of this effect Doct. 1. Christ the Son of God took unto himself into the unity of his person the nature of man truly such together with the conditions of humane weakness This is taught in the Text. When it is said In time a man born and begotten of a woman it is but the same expressed in these words of the Creed conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary c. He might have assumed the nature of another creature as of Angells he might also have assumed mans nature in its greatest perfection as Adam was made who was never in propriety of speech either conceived or born an infant But it was his pleasure to assume the nature of man truly such and in this manner of sinless imperfections and not of Angells Reas. 1. That he might do mans businesse and work that is make satisfaction for them and save them Reas. 2. He would also take this our nature in its weak and low condition First Because he would come down as farre as could be without sin into the same very place and condition out of which he intended to lift us up higher Secondly That by this means he might some way sanctify all the states and conditions of humane life least any might imagine that any such low estate separateth a man from communion with Christ. Thirdly That he might leave this to us in his own experience as a pledge of his knowledge and like sufferings and affections with us from whence he might look upon our infirmities Use 1. Is of Information for establishing our Faith on this behalf that we give no place to phantastical imaginations of Hereticks who impugne directly or indirectly and fight against the humane nature of Christ which sort of errours are some way countenanced by Papists in their Doctrine of Transubstantiation and by Ubiquitaries in theirs of Consubstantiation in as much as they attribute omnipresence and other the like divine attributes to the humane nature which is no way agreeable unto the same Use 2. Is of Exhortation to extoll and solemnly to praise the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with all admiration and thanksgiving who not only vouchsafes to become man for us but also in the nature of man disdained not to become an infant to be conceived and born after our manner and to undergo other the like infirmities and humiliations for our sake it is that the Apostle points at Heb. 2. 16 17. Use 3. Is of Consolation that we should make no difference between an infant newly conceived or born and a perfect man or one of age or between any other conditions of the nature and life of man as to our interest in Christ as if any sinless condition of nature could make us less regardable by him 〈◊〉 exclude us from him For Christ descended to the lowest and imperfectest sinless degree and condition of the life of man in that he was 1. conceived and 2. shut up in his mothers womb the ordinary time of other births and 3. born Doct. 2. Christ assumed this humane nature from Mary as from his Mother For though he is said in the Text to be begotten in her yet elswhere he is said to be made after the flesh of the seed of a woman and a woman is said to have conceived him and to have born him as her son hence also he is called the son of Mary the son of David the son of Abraham and the like whereby that phrase is expounded and the truth of it confirmed Reas. 1. He should have been born of a woman as of his mother to the end that that first Evangelicall promise of the seed of the woman that was to tread down the serpent's head might be fulfilled Reas. 2. It was according to right that he was born of Mary that so it might be certain how he descended of the Tribe of Iudah and of the Family of David according to the promises and prophesies that went before of him Use 1. Is of Refutation against Anabaptists and such like who phantastically think that the humanity of Christ onely passed through Mary and was not assumed from her nature Of which imagination the first reason seems to have been that some simple men could not conceive how any could without sin be born of a woman after the fall But the Anabaptists afterwards though they took away this ground of their errour of denying original sin yet they adhered to this conclusion of meer wilfulness without any reason Use 2. Is of Information for directing our Faith about Christs son-ship For he is the Son of God and the son of man both yet so as he is not two sons but in a certain way twice one son in one person The first from eternity the next in time and consequently two wayes a son as both by generation eternal and by generation in time yet but one son of God and of man because but one person who according to his divine nature is the Son of God and according to his humane nature is the son of man So is every man twice a Son in essence first to father and paternal generation and then to mother and maternal generation Doct. 3. Christ was born of Mary remaining still a virgin after he was born This is gathered from the scope of the words the question being about this whether Mary were a virgin or no and the words of the Angell were to assure him that she was Reas. 1. Is that this might be a singular and miraculous signe to the whole house of Israel and this is it that is pointed
at in Isa 1. 14. Reas. 2. That the prophesies going before of this thing might be fulfilled Reas. 3. That Gods omnipotency in this so divine a mystery and principal a work of God might be evidently shewn Now it was not difficult to the power of God that a son should be born of a virgin For seeing all second causes act by their vertue which they received from God it is not to be doubted but that God can produce all these effects without this oâ—… that cause co-operating which otherwayes use to exist by them Yet not onely the power of God appeared in that work but also his wisdome to which it was most agreeable that so singular a substance of humane nature should in as singular a manner be brought to pass that differed from all others For in three manners all men were made before 1. Without the concurrence of either man or woman as in the creation of Adom 2. Without the concurrence of woman as in the production of Eve 3. By the concurrence of man and woman as in all ordinary generation afterwards And this onely is the proper and peculiar one of Christ by and of a woman without concurrence of a man Reas. 4. That it might easily appear how the contagion of sin might be removed from the humane nature of Christ. Use Is of Confirmation for strengthening of our Faith about the person of Christ to wit that he was both the Messias of old promised and the promised seed of the woman in that peculiar manner as that promise seems to have intended to wit the son of man that is of a woman descending of Adam and other men in ordinary way but made mother of a son not vulgarly or after the common manner but miraculously and without the company of a man begotten and born so that from his first conception all things were in him supernatural about which our mindes being busied ought alwayes to be lifted up to supernatural contemplations laying aside carnal and worldly thoughts Doct. 4. The Holy Ghost was the principal efficient cause of this generation It is from these words in the Text is of the holy Ghost the particle of denotes not any material cause but the efficient so that of the Holy Ghost signifies as much as if it had been said by the power of the Holy Ghost and his operation Now this is attributed to the Holy Spirit for these reasons Reas. 1. Because it was a miracle and all miracles by appropriation are attributed to the Holy Spirit Reas. 2. Because the principal work here was of Sanctification forasmuch as the lump of the humane nature which was to be assumed by Christ was in a singular manner sanctified and cleansed from all spot of sin and all Sanctification peculiarly attributed to the Holy Spirit Reas 3. Because the Holy Spirit was without measure to rest on to dwell in Christ. It 〈◊〉 but reason therefore that the Holy Spirit should prepare and make such a dwelling for himself as he also prepares his dwelling in the sons of God by adoption Quest. It may be thâ—…n questioned whether Christ may be called the Son of the Holy Ghost Ans It cannot be said 1. Because it would bring some confusion of relations and proprieties personal in God and in the persons 2. Because the Holy Spirit neither produced a new person when he made Christ to be begotten or generated neither produced the nature which he produced after his own nature or of the same essence with his own Use 1. Is of Direction in our Faith and in all our thoughts that we have of Christ that we admit of all that is in him to be spiritual holy and full of mystery nor that we ever doubt of any part of this mystery because all this as it is above common order so is it above the reach of common nature Yet we may always receive and conceive this that none of all these things are above the divine power of the Holy Spirit nor any thing impertinent or unfitting in that thing which is wholly mannaged by the Holy Ghost Use 2. Is of Direction in our practice as to the certainty of our salvation which depends upon this if we be sure that we are conformable to Christ in his nativity life death and resurrection And from thence is the beginning of this conformity to be taken if we be spiritually regenerated by the Holy Spirit as Christ was borne of Mary through the efficiencie and operation of the holy Ghost And this is the self same thing which the Apostle Peter admonisheth us to that we study to make our vocation and election sure The fifteenth Lords day 1 Pet. 3. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sinners the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit AN argument is brought in these words whereby all Christians may be perswaded that undeserved afflictions are patiently to be born The argument is taken from the greater to the less in which also is contained the force and nature of a simily or example and also of some dissimilitude For such Logical assertions are oft joyned together in the same thing as they make to the same purpose The argumeat is this If Christ that was just hath suffered for sinnes and for unjust men then much more ought we to suffer afflictions imposed upon us but the first is true and therefore the latter also Christ considered in himself is the greater and his sufferings are the greater and so the argument is from the greater But considered as our head and Saviour he hath the place and nature of a simily or example to be imitated by us in tolerating afflictions so it is an argument from a like or from an example Lastly considered as just suffering for the sinnes of others that are uniust he is altogether unlike unto us and so also some force and emphaticalness of this argument is from the unlikeness They are ordered in this enunciation in which as the assumption of the Syllogism the cause is contained with the effect to wit Christ with his suffering For though suffering of its own nature be an adjunct of the sufferer yet as it 's voluntarily admitted and undertaken it is an effect Yet these arguments are so ordered that they have mixed with them the affection or property of the argument so called from diversit For Christ and his passions of their own nature are dissentaneous When therefore it is said Christ suffered it is as if he had said Though Christ were the Son of God yet was he not frâ—…e from 〈◊〉 That this may be the better understood it is to be known that suffering in this place and in such others is attributed to Christ by the 〈◊〉 of Synecdoche of the more general for the special and that it signifies the special suffering of a grievous evill Then are these two very dissentaneous between themselves that Christ should
the sufferings and patience of Jesus Christ so also in the life to come we shall be made partakers of his glory Rom. 8. 17. Doct. 4. Christ together with his highest dignity bath also highest power This the Text evidenceth in as much as God's right hand signifieth his power and sitting down on his right hand signifies the highest communion and society with God in this power that can be Reas. 1. Because dignity and power might so have the same degrees For dignity separated from power is no more but a dead title and therefore seeing Christ hath highest dignity and glory it followes also that he is endued with highest power Reas. 2. Because Christ is constituted Lord as well to correct governe as to preserve glorify his Church He must therefore of necessity both have the power of right and the power of strength fitting and competent for these ends For the Lord hath both a power of right and of might to exercise and put in execution all this as well immediately and by himself as mediately and by instruments or servants And this is that power that Christ professeth was given unto him in Heaven and on earth Mat. 28. 18. Now it is given to Christ and agreeth to him most properly as he is Mediator or as man assumed to the unity of one person with God but not so properly as God and therefore it is said to agree to him as he is the son of man Ioh 5. 27. Use Is of Consolation For though this divine power of Christ be terrible to his enemies yet to believers it brings firm hope and affiance and comfort because as Christ himself saith Ioh. â—…0 24. such an one hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life And hither also tendeth Rom. 8. 34 35. when there the Apostle proves that nothing can separate from the love of Christ because he sits on the right hand of God Doct. 5. Christ hath the quiet and unmovable possession of this power For in this sense it is that he is said to sit on the right hand of God Reas. 1. Because he hath overcome all his enemies virtually and shall actually in his own appointed time subdue them all fully and bring them under the yoak Reas. 2. Because there is nothing on earth or under the earth can in the least trouble or molest this his possession Reas. 3. Because this state and condition of Christ is not onely immortal and free from all change by vertue of Covenant and divine Promise but also of its own nature being now accomplished according to free Covenant and such will the happiness of the least Saint be Use This also is of Consolation which though it may strike terror and amazement in the hearts of Christ's enemies yet it raiseth and rouseth up the dejected and drooping spirits of all such as put their trust and confidence in him for he sitteth on the right hand of God in power and majesty there making intercession for us The nineteenth Lords day Mat. 25. from verse 31. to 39. Vers. 31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angells with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory 32 And before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on the left 34 Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world 35 For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in 36 Naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me 37 Then shall the righteous answer him saying Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink 38 When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee IN this place the acts or procedure of the last day are expounded The parts are two Christ's coming and the end of his coming which is the last â—…udgement In this last judgement 1. The preparation thereto is described 2. The execution of the sentence In the preparation Christ's majesty and glory in which he shall then appear is câ—…iefly here set down 1. From his train and attendance that shall wait upon him consisting chiefly of the glorious Angells 2. From his glorious Throne 3. From the effect of this coming to wit to the gathering of all mankind together and separating of the good from the bad The sentence to be pronounced is twofold 1. Of salvation to the good 2. Of condemnation to the evill The sentence of salvation is declared 1. From its causes 2. From its adjuncts The principal cause is God's good will which is shewn 1. From the effect of that grace or favour that is the cause of our salvation which is the blessing of God 2. From the relatiou that thence ariseth which is that of a Father giving an inheritance and of a Son 's receiving the same 3. From the adjunct of time that this salvation was not then first appointed for them but prepared for them from the beginning of the world The adjunct signs also whereby this salvation is declared are good works which by the Trope or borrowed manner of speaking called Syneâ—…doche of the special put for the general by the learned are designed by the works of mercy and are amplified by that relation which these works have to Christ himself whilest they are exercised towards his members The sentence of condemnation is quite contrary to the former handled by the comparison and proportion of like things The execution of the sentence is briefly set down in the last verse of this Chapter Doct. 1. The universal or general judgement is most certainly to come to pass This judgement is called universal that it may be distinguished from that particular one which in some sort is exercised on the greatest part of men even in this life upon every one in particular when they pass out of this life For this comprehends all men together and therefore is called universal It may be also called universal or understood so because in it upon all mens and angels deeds and matters generally without exception sentence shal pass It is also called the last judgement because after it no new judgement is to be looked for but the execution of that judgement only shall follow upon it Reas. 1. Because before that time the judgement of God towards men is not compleated and fully perfected because in this life through God's forbearance and long patience evill men in joy many good things and good men are oppressed with many evills From this consideration many of the very Heathens themselves collected that
the godly look desiring nothing more than still to apprach nearer and nearer unto God The ungodly on the contrary shunne nothing more than God and such things wherein God hath appointed to shew and impart his gracious and singular presence Reas. 2. Because man's happiness not coming of man himself is therefore to be sought from without himself and that from his union or conjunction with the greatest good and that is the cause and fountain of all good Therefore of necessity it consists in communion with God and from deprivation of this communion greatest misery must needs follow Reas. 3. Because the perfectest act of our life is that which is most closely and intimately carried towards God as all that we do well consists in this that therein we live unto God and the privation of such acting its want and absence all misery must accompany Use Of Direction that even in this life we may wholly be taken up with this to seek communion with God and shun and take heed of all separation from him Doct. 7. The certaine signes and tokens of this blessing are good workes and of this curse are evill workes This is largely and clearly laid open in the Text. Reas. 1. Because good works came from the same grace or favour of God from which the blessing it self comes upon them and evill workes joyned with obstinacy and impenitency comes from that same malice and malignancy which God hath cursed and adjudged Reas. 2. Because God of his free grace hath promised the blessing unto good workes and of his unspotted justice hath appointed the curse unto evill workes Reas. 3. Because in good works there is a certain disposal and preparation of the way to obtain the blessing and in evill workes there is not onely the proportion of a way but of deserving or a mertitorious cause even unto the curse Use Of Admonition that we have great care of our actions through every part of our life because according to them men are either condemned or saved For such as the life is such is the end The twentieth Lords day 1 Cor. 6. 19. What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own IN the words of the Text are contained a most powerfull argument against Fornication and the like sinnes and it is taken from the contrary end because the end of Christian's bodies is quite opposite to this sin And that end is declared from the subject possessed and possessor and indweller of it the Holy Ghost The subject is again explained by a Metaphor of a Temple because namely our bodies are as it were houses consecrated to him And that this argument may be made the clearer and stronger the Apostle ads that so the holy Ghost is the possessor of this Temple or house that he himself also is the indweller of it And both these relations that we have to the Holy Ghost are illustrated from their efficient cause to wit that they are of God and from their consequent effect and adjunct to wit faith and certain knowledge of these relations between our bodies and the Holy Spirit in these words Know ye not brethren c. Doct 1. The Holy Ghost is true and coeternal God with the Father and eternal Son The Text doth give many reasons for this Doctrine Reas. 1. Because to have one and the same spirit with God is all one as to be glewed or joyned to God vers 17. Reas. 2. Because a Temple is not lawfully consecrated to any but to God much less could it be lawfull that a man in stead of or for a Temple should be consecrated to that which is not God But here such a Temple which is most sacred is said to be consecrated to the Holy Ghost Reas. 3. Because the Holy Ghost is so said to be in us as that we become his of right and of duty that is God's rightfull possession as the scope of the words clearly demonstrate Use 1. Of Information for directing our faith arightly not onely unto the Father and Son but also unto the Holy Ghost as the same one and true God Use 2. Of Admonition that we diligently take heed to our selves that we neither contemne nor neglect any holy thing that comes or is breathed from the Holy Spirit as the whole Scripture is said to have come from the inbreathing or inspiration of the Holy Spirit and all the motions of godliness are onely attributed to the Holy Spirit as to their Author Likewise all the gifts of grace are bred in us from and by this Spirit of grace In these all therefore we must take heed that in no wise we resist the Holy Ghost or wittingly and willingly sin against him Doct 2. The Holy Ghost himself is given unto the faithfull This appears in the Text. Reas. 1. In that our bodyes are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost Reas. 2. In that he is said to be in us Reas. 3. In that we are said to have him or to get him from God Now the Holy Ghost is said to be given unto us when he hath a singular relation unto us and that for our good that is for our sanctification salvation of our soules moreover because he powerfully works these things in us that are agreable to his most holy nature and which can no way be derived to us from flesh and blood And hence it is also that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are called the Holy Ghost also by that trope or borrowed kinde of speech whereby the cause is put for the effect which Schollers call a Metonymie Use 1. Of Exhortation as well to thanksgiving to God that gives so divine a gift as to religious prayers and calling upon God's name that he would keep unto us and more and more communicate to us this divine gift Luk 11. 13. Use 2 Of Admonition to take heed of all such things whereby the Holy Spirit is said either to be grieved or extinguished that is from the grievousness of all such sin as fights against the holiness of this divine Spirit so that he cannot delight to dwell in us but wholly or in great measure withdrawes himself from us Doct. 3. The Holy Spirit is not communicated to our soules onely but to our bodies also It is in the Text when our bodies are also called the Temples of the Spirit Reas. 1. Because as Christ redeemed not our soules onely but the whole man so also the Holy Spirit ought to bring into subjection and possession the whole man to God and to Christ. Reas. 2. Because many duties of a spiritual life must be performed by the body also and therefore the body ought to be subject to the Holy Spirit and as a vessell or instrument be wholly in his power Reas. 3. Because our bodies are made liable to sin and by sin to death from which we must be freed by the Holy Spirit dwelling
justifying faith is fruitfull of good works 2. That good works are the end and perfection of faith for faith is said to co-operate with good works because together with the command of God it furnisheth its strength and force of working for producing of good works And that works are called the perfection of faith it is not so to be understood as if they were the internal and formal perfection of faith as the form is the formal and essential perfection of every thing But in that they contain and shew the external perfection of faith in as much as they flow from it and as every effect contains in it self some perfection of its course to wit as it partakes of the force and vertue that comes from the internal perfection of the cause Doct. 1. Our good workes are no wayes the cause of our justification but the effects and fruits of a man justified It is gathered from the Text for as much as workes are the effects of faith And faith and justification according to the nature of relatives are at once or together in nature A true believer and a justified man are the same thing If therefore good works are the effects of a believer then are they the effects of one justified also And that works justify us not is apparent from four reasons Reas. 1. Because believers are not now under the Covenant of workes and therefore cannot be justified by works but are all condemned by them if we stand to them in that point because none of them come up to what the Law requires and so are sinfull and imperfect Reas. 2. Because all our good workes are debts and therefore they can never properly merit or deserve pardon Reas. 3. Because the good works we do came not from our own strength but from the grace of God Reas. 4. Because our best good works are in themselves imperfect and defiled with many uncleannesses Object 1. Our good workes are perfect as they come from the Holy Spirit whose workes are all perfect Ans. 1. If in respect of us they be imperfect they cannot as ours be of force to our justification though in some other respect they may be perfect 2. That perfection which they have in reference to the Holy Spirit doth not redound properly unto our meriting or deserving by them because the holy Ghost is no wayes united unto us into one person which is the onely ground why the works of Christ had a divine merit and worth in them namely because they were divine workes as being his that was as man personally united unto the God-head and person of the Son so as they made but one person The Holy Spirit then though he be the principal cause of our good works yet this is in its own manner as an external efficient as having no personal union with the party working Object 2. Our reward is given according to our works Ans. That reward is not of our merit but of God's free grace and favour For there is a reward of servants and a reward of sons the reward of servants lookes not to the person but to the merit or desert of the work but the reward of sons lookâ—… at the person chiefly and so is given of grace and good will to the person of the worker more than to the merit of the work For the Father in his Sonne crownes that with reward which in it self deserves no such thing for the most part Otherwayes he were unjust not to reward it so in servants likewise Use Of Admonition that we never glory in our selves or our own workes before God but alwayes acknowledge when we have done all that we can that we are but unprofitable servants as our Lord himself teacheth us to do and that we depend wholly on the grace of God putting no trust in our own works Doct 2. Good workes by a necessary coherence follow true faith It is gathered from this that faith is to work together in and with good works and by good works to be brought to its end Now good works are necessary to a believer 1. By necessity of precept because God from that right and power he had to do so was pleased to command us them 2. By necessity of means without which we cannot attain the end And that 1. In respect of God or his glory as the end because without them we cannot attain to the enjoyment of God nor to glorify him as we should and must for that attainment 2. In respect of the Church and others without the Church whose edification without good works we cannot attain and good men are edified by good workes as by examples more and more and to others a hoping light is as it were held out whereby they may discerne their right way Let your light so shine before men c. 3. In respect of our own salvation because good works are necessary to salvation though not as meritorious causes yet as dispositions qualifications and wayes that must be had and insisted in because our election and calling is to them and by them our salvation and these other are made surer to our consciences For in them consists that way of a new obedience and Gospell thankfulnesse which onely leads unto life also as holinesse not onely internal but also external is such an inseparable disposition or qualification from such as are to be saved as that without it none shall ever see God to his comfort or happiness 3. They are necessary by necessity of the end because election redemption vocation tend and look to this end that we may live to God and to Christ in all holinesse and righteousnesse And a necessity as well of thankfulnesse as of covenant lies upon us that with all our vigour and with all our strength we endeavour to attain unto this end 4. Good works are necessary by a certain sort of natural necessity For just as good fruits come of a good tree and sweet waters come from a sweet fountain by a like manner and necessity good works come from true faith Or as our vital operations and motions do alwayes accompany natural life so also spiritual life which is from faith whereby the just man liveth puts forth it self alwayes in good works as the proper operations and acts of a spiritual life It may sometimes happen that as in one in a swound scarce any matter or operation doth appear though yet the â—…fe it self remain so also by some extraordinary â—…entation for some time the seed of faith may remain in the heart of this or that man the fruits whereof can hardly be discovered But this is 1. As much against the nature of faith and of a faithfull man as sicknesse is against health and life 2. It is an extraordinary case by which we must not judge of the ordinary operations and fruits of faith nor of its nature or the necessity of good works 3. In such a case both the degree of faith it self is deminished and the comfort of
we are both baptized into Christ and have communion with him in his body and blood in his Supper And wâ—…en Christ is exhibited there all the blessings that are prepared for us in Christ are together with him exhibited to us Reas. 3. Because the blessings of life and salvation cannot be separated from one another as for example effectual Vocation Justification Adoption Sanctification Consolation and eternal Glorification When therefore one of these blessings is directly represented indirectly also and by consequence all the rest are signified and sealed Use 1. Of Information 1. That we may learn rightly to distinguish between compleat Sacraments and other Sacramental signes For other signes and ceremonies that do not signify and seal the blessings of the New Covenant as they are such though they are sacred signes yet are they not presently Sacraments to speak properly that is they are not of that nature and rank with Baptisme and the Supper That we have in great esteem Christs most holy Sacraments because in them we go about no less than all that belongs to our eternal happiness Use 2. Of Admonition that we never separate what God hath joyned together in the use of the Sacraments which useth to be done by such as seek onely for remission of sins but not for sanctification and preservation from sin and that because they have not determined with themselves to amend their lives Doct. 4. By the Sacraments these blessings are not onely signed generally but also particularly to all that partake of them with true faith This is hence gathered in that Aâ—…raham particular ly is said to have received the seal of his own righteousnesse in particular Reas. 1. Because the Sacraments are not so proposed to us that they may seal on this condiâ—…ion tâ—…at we have faith but they alwaves presuppose faith alâ—…eady to be in us and so then they are offered to confirm and do singularly confirm it Reas. 2. Because to every one in particular and by name they are exhibited for their confirmation and not in common onely as the Word is preached publickly Reas. 3. Because the manner of administration and the Sacramentall actions that belong unto them as washing in Baptisme taking eating drinking in the Lord's Supper consist in a particular application of the signes and therefore also they signify a particular sealing of the things signified unto particular persons Use 1. Is of Comfort against scruples and doubts wherewith our minds are sometimes troubled Because in the Sacraments duly administred to such as have right God as it were from Heaven stretcheth out his owne hand and holds forth in it his grace and all the spiritual blessings of the Covenant alike unto every one of us thus participating in our own proper and singular persons particularly Use 2. Of Admonition that we neglect not the Sacraments but diligently both prepare and fit our selves for them and then seek after them receive them because to neglect them were to neglect our owne proper and singular consolation in particular Use 3. Of Direction how we may rightly use the Sacraments to wit â—…o as in a singular manner we seek our edification and advancement in this that we see Christ there offering and giving his grace to us by name and in particular and accordingly thus sealing to us in particular our salvation The six and seven and twentieth Lords day Mat. 28. 19. Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost HEre is expounded the command of Christ which being now about to ascend into Heaven he left unto his Apostles It contains two principal duties 1. The preaching and publishing of that Doctrine taught by Christ. 2. The administration of the Sacraments by him appointed For in this place by Baptisme according to that usual borrowing of speech called Synecdoche that puts sometimes one sort for the whole kind and sometimes contrarily the other Sacrament of the Supper is understood but here Baptisme is rather named than the other 1. Because it is the first Sacrament and that of initiation and receiving solemnly into the Church on which the other for this cause doth depend 2. Because it chiefly belonged unto the Apostles office by themselves or by others to see this Sacrament rightly administred who were rather sent to plant and gather or build Churches from their first beginnings than to feed govern and further build or advance them after they were first planted And Baptisme belongs particularly to the first ingrafting into Christ and to planâ—…ation and the Supper unto feeding and growth after planting Now Baptisme is expounded in this placeâ—… 1. From its object or parties to be baptized Baptizing them that is such as are already trained up in Christ's Doctrine or â—…ade his 〈◊〉 or â—…lars as the Greek word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make them my â—…chollars or Disciples 2. From the â—…orme or manner of doing it to wit in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost By which forme or modell are designed 1. The efficient causes by whose authority Baptisme is exercised and made effectual and that is by the name or authority and power of Father Son and Holy Ghost â—… The union of the baptized that they are to have with the Father Sonne and Holy Spirit in the participation of all their graces of justification sanctification adoption c. that from the Father in the Son and by the Spirit are derived unto all the heirs of eternal salvation and in the profession and practice of all the outward Ordinances and meanes that Christ taught them whereby to attain to those inward graâ—…es and to keep and advance them by the same Spirit in the Son and from the Father Doct. 1. Baptisme is the Sacrament of our ingrafting and initiation or first reception into Christ. This is hence gathered in that all that are already taught Christ's Doctrine and made his Schollars professedly are theâ—… presently to be haptized that so they may be registred as it were amongst the domesticks or housholders of Christ. Reas. 1. This appears in that baptisme came in the place of Circumcision and Circumcision was the Sacrament of first admition amongst the people of God Reas. 2. In Baptisme is represented the death of fin and mortifying of the old man a washing and cleansing from sin and bringing of a man from death to life All which do most properly denote our first vocation and therefore also Baptism is called by Scripture it self the Sacrament of regeneration or washing of regeneration Reas. 3. Because by our Baptisme our first solemâ—… reception into Christ's Family and Kingdome is represented and therefore also we are said to be baptised into Christ by this therefore Baptisme is distinguished from the Lord's Supper because however it seal the same blessings as to the main businesse that the other doth yet it doth it not after the same manner but Baptisme denotates their beginning and the
Precept The thirty eighth Lords day On Exod. 20. 8 9 10 11. Verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy 9. Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work 10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy Gods in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy cattel nor thy stranger that is within thy gates 11 For in six dayes the LORD made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day Wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it THis fourth command which is about the time of more solemn worship is explicated 1. generally vers 8. Remember c. 2. speciall vers 9 10. that this is the seventh or one of seven whereunto is adjoyned the duty about keeping this day This duty consists of two parts to wit of rest and of the Sanctification of that rest the rest is a ceasing from all our workes and is illustrated from its causes by a distribuition neither thou nor thy son c. The sanctifying of this rest is consecrating or holy application of it to Gods worship And this sentence is not onely proposed but also confirmed and that with a double reason whereof 1. Is taken from a tacit comparison of the greater God hath promised us six dayes for our works and therefore by very good right and reason he may challenge the seventh to himself to be consecrated to his worship â—… Reason is taken from the exemplar cause because God by his own example of resting on the seventh day went before us as it were to give us a coppy to follow 3 Reason is from the efficient that is Gods institution or appointment which consisteth of two parts sanctifying of it and blessing it The sanctifying of it was the separating of this day from a worldly use to an holy The blessing of it was the promise to blesse them that rightly blesse this day Doct. 1. Certaine times are both privately and publickly to be appointed and set apart for more solemn worship This is understood in the command by that Synecdoche that names the special for the general Those times in general are due unto publick worship which are most agreeable to the societies in which we live And to the private exercises of godliness by night order some part of the morning and of the evening time is due and this is alwayes the practice of the Prophets and Apostles approved in Scripture and proposed unto us as an example to be followed Reas. 1. Because we ought to have this care that we orderly and decently worship God which cannot be without setting apart such a certaine time 2. Because our vanities and straglingnes of mind and forgetfulness about spirituall duties requires of us the help of such an ordinance as this 3. Because these appointed times keep us from many sins while in our thoughts we are either preparing our selves for these exercises or else keep still the fresh remembrance and power of them in our memories Use is of Reproofe against their negligence who though they professe themselves to be worshippers of God yet can scarce finde any time to give God the worship that is due to him Doct. 2. That one day of seven be holily observed is of morall and perpetuall duty as with us the Lords Day Reas. 1. Because this is expresly commanded in this morall law as spoken immediatly by God himself together with the other commands and written by his own finger on tables of stone as they were which things were onely proper to the morall law Reas. 2. Because it was thus ordain'd from the beginning of the Creation Reas. 3. Because it is never lesse necessary that some seventh day be observed than it was at the first institution And that the Lords day or first of the week or seventh is now by Divine authority appointed to us that it be holily kept appeareth 1. From the ground and reason of the change because as God from the beginning appointed the seventh day of the week or septenary circuit of dayes for his rest from Creating of things So Christ appointed the first of the week or of the seventh days of ordinary recourse because on that day he rested from his penall and afflictious labours of his humiliation or emptying himself whereby he restored and created the world as it were new again unto a better condition than it had lost 2. By the frequent apparitions of Christ in the convention of his Disciples on this day 3. From the sending and shedding abroad of the Holy-ghost on this day 4. By the practise of the Apostles 5. By Apostolike constitution 1 Cor 16. 6 From the very title and name of the Lords day that it hath in the New Testament 7. From the rigorous observation of this day in the Primitive Church by occasion whereof they were accounted worshippers of the sun because this first day of the week was by Heathens attributed to the Planet of the Sun as the rest were to the rest of the Planets Use Is of Exhortation that out of conscience towards God and obedience to this command we have a care of observing the Lords day Doct. 3. One part of our duty is that on the Lords day we cease from all our own works It is gathered from the Text In six dayes shalt thou doe all thy work but on the seventh day thou shalâ—… doe no work c. That is no work that is thme Now that work is said to be our work which neither directly belongs to the worship of God nor yet is otherways imposed upon us by any necessity from God but is chosen by our selves for some humane or worldly end Now such are 1. All our common and merâ—…enary works 2 All things that call away our mind from that intention that is required unto the worship of God on that day though otherwaies they be not servile Yet such things are not forbidden as either belong unto common honesty or are of a very urgent and not of a made necessity of our own The reason of this rest is that we may be at convenient leisure for divine worship For worldly businesses do in divers wayes withstand this more solemn worship of God Reas. 1. Because the very external acts of both are for the most part such as that they cannot consist or stand together at one time Reas. 2. Because the minde being distracted with such worldly businesse cannot compose or settle it self in good order to perform solemn worship to God as it ought Reas. 3. Because the taste and savour and power of holy exercises is impaired and dulled at least or blunted by mixture of such things with them which in comparison should be but vile to them Use Is of Reproof of such as easily break the rest of this day either by their ordinary and vulgar occupations or with merchandizes or with sports or plays or
obedience For otherwise in all believers is found such a perfection or integrity and sincerity as is opposed unto fainednesse and dissimulation and such as is opposed unto halting or lamenesse by which some duties seem to be looked after but not all and such a perfection also as is opposed to lukewarmnesse For all believers both worship God sincerely and desire to keep all his Commandments and pant after a compleat obedience also Yet the Law is not for this proposed to us in vain though we be unable to keep it fully For hence we understand 1. What is our duty 2. What are the defects under which we lie 3. What we may require of God to wit that we may be freed from guilt renewed to a performance of duties 4. That we have a mark set us whereat we may aim in all our endeavours 5. That we may in part take notice of the perfection of that life which we shall enjoy in another world The forty fifth Lords day On Ephes. 6. 18. Praying alwayes with 〈◊〉 prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication fâ—…r all Saints THe Apostle after explication of our spiritual armour which every Christian ought to furnish himself with addes exhortations to prayers by which this spiritual armour is taken up put on strengthened made sure and of proof and is encreased In the Exhortation it self several things are expounded as the Duty of praying which duty is declared 1. By a distribution with all prayer and supplication 2. From the adjâ—…nct of time alway or at all times 3. From the obâ—…ect unto whose good these prayers are to serve to wit not onely for our selves but for all Saints 4. From the efficient cause by the Holy Ghost 5. From its singular manner that must accompany it which consists in watching and in perseverance Doct. 1. Prayer is amongst those pâ—…incipal duties which ought to be had a care of by us It is hence gathered from the Text because the Apostle so carefully urgeth it Reas 1 Because it gives very great glory to God for God in all our prayers is acknowledged the principle and fountain of all our good Reas. 2. It contains mans greatest subjection and homage to God 1. Because it seeks all things of free gift and grace 2. Because the soul and conscience themselves are prostrated before God and cast at his feet as it were when we pray Reas. 3. Because by prayer we receive all the spiritual gifts of God Reas. 4 Because by the same we sanctifie to our selves all the corporal gifts of God Reas. 5. Because by Prayer we flie unto God that in him we may be secured from all evill Reas. 6. Because we have most sweet communion and communication of the grace of God in the exercise of Prayer Reas. 7. Because in Prayer either expressely or implyed we give up our selves unto God so as after and from prayer we rise more obliged and bound to God than we were before because all Prayer hath alwayes adjoyn'd to it some promise of thankfulnes for hearing our prayer and granting our desires Use Is of of Exhortation that we may more and more give our selves to this holy exercise of Prayer as well in publick as in private Unto which care many considerations ought to stir us up As first That holy Prayer is so acceptable to God that in Scriptures it useth to be called Incense or Perfume and Sacrifice 2. In that it is so proper to the godly that in Scriptures godly men and such as call upon the name of God are without difference put for the same 3. In that it is so inseparable a fruit of the holy spirit dwelling in the heart of a believing man that from thence it is called the spirit of Prayer and Prayer is almost the same to spiritual life as breathing is to naturall or animal life Moreover that by prayers we best resist all sort of temptations whence also it is that we are bid resist the Devill by Praying and to pray and watch that we fall not into temptation Lastly in that all grace is stirred up and increased by the exercise of Prayer Doct. 2. In prayer we ought to exercise our selves in all the kindes and sorts of it This is hence gathered in that the Apostles exhorts us here to all prayer and supplication and thanksgiving Reas. 1. Because our manifold necessities as well in respect of evils wherewith we are pressed as in respect of good things that we want or for receiving whereof we ow thanks as also the necessities and occasions of others unto whom we ow this duty of Prayer do require manifold sorts of Prayer Reas. 2. Because by this means not one onely or another but all the graces of God are put forth and exercised in us according to their proper objects and natures Reas 3. Because God by this means is many ways glorified of us Use Is of Direction that we rest not on forms of Prayers as if the saying over of such were enough for the fulfilling of our duty in general because according to divers occasions we ought to betake ourselves to divers manners or wayes of Praying Doct. 3. In Godly prayers the holy spirit exercises a speciall power of his own From the words by the holy spirit Reas. 1. Because we of our selves know not neither how nor what to pray for And although we be taught about such things in the word of God yet for the practise it self a special direction of the holy spirit is requisite Reas. 2. Because our weaknesses are so many in the exercise of Prayer that they must be helped by the holy spirit Reas. 3. Because no prayers can be holy and acceptable to God unlesse they come from the holy Spirit Use Of Direction that in making our prayers we trust not to our own wit and volubility of gifts and to our own strength but that we rely alwayes on the grace and help of the Holy Spirit Doct. 4. In some sort or other we ought alwayes or at all times to be praying From the words Praying alwayes Reas. 1. Because we ought always to have a praying disposition of minde or a mind ready to pray For in this consists the right disposition and ordering of our minde Reas. 2. Because we ought to take all just occasion of this exercise of Prayer Reas. 3. Because we ought not to passe over our set and established times of prayer Use Is of Reproof against such as are so far from this exercise that they cannot onely passe over whole dayes but weeks also without any serious thoughts of Prayer Doct. 5. The manner of Praying is as much to be taken care of as prayer it self This is here gathered in that watching unto prayer is commanded in the same manner with prayer Now watching unto Prayer belongs unto the manner of Praying and in some sort it contains all things that belongs unto it For First We ought to watch before