Rom. 7.18 In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing And if no good then much evil for there is no medium twixt these which are more opposite then health and sickenesse Vse 1 To let every man see what he is by nature as blinde and darkenesse so unholy and sickenesse full of corruption and uncleanenesse Vse 2 This may teach us why men can so hardly endure the Ministry of the word specially that which reproves and threatens why they account the Ministers grievous and offensive to them and their enemies rather then friends which labour to reforme them t is because sinne and corruption is naturall to them and men can hardly endure to have a naturall sore defect or infirmity pointed at or noted much lesse to be dealt withall when it is not to be cured or removed without force without sharpe medicines cutting or searing or the like Is it any wonder it should be so here when to deale with sinne is like pulling out a right eye or cutting of an arme specially when custome is added to nature and pleasure and profit to both This makes them when they heare of sinne not to entertaine it as an admonition but to shunne it as a reproach and receive such not as Physitians that would cure them but as enemies that would kill them Vse 3 The reason why they account the Law and Commandements of God such a burden and the obedience of them so tedious is because they are sicke men and want health and we know small things are burdensome to the sicke S. Paul complaines though he was in health and had an inward man Rom. 7.22.23 much more such as have nothing but the outward and the carnall man And ye shall goe forth If Christ bring liberty it intimates a bondage before Doctrine Every man naturally is a slave in captivity and bondage to Satan sinne and death Rom. 7.14 Carnall and sold under sinne Rom. 6.16 To whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey John 12.31 The Divell is the Prince of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 The God of this world 2 Tim. 2.26 Who takes men captive at his will Reason 1 Because they serve and obey sinne then they must needs be in subjection to it especially when the service they doe is willing John 8.34 Whosoever committeth sinne is the servant of sinne So Rom. 6.16 and 2 Pet. 2.19 They are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage Reason 2 Because if they be slaves to sinne then to Satan also for sinne is the worke of Satan and also to death for by sinne death entred into the world Rom. 5.12 Sinne the only cause saith one which enlargeth deaths dominions and made all the world to become his tributaries Adam had not died had he not sinned Vse 1 This will teach us and warrant us what to judge of those men whom we shall heare if any man speake of liberty and freedome to chalenge it as much as any like those John 8.33 We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage And yet they live very profanely and wickedly no iniquity subdued but sinne raigning and they subjects to their corruption yea captives to their lusts uncleanenesse ambition pride anger c. When they are Masters of families Magistrates of Cities Captaines of bands Coronels of fields Generalls of Armies Commanders of countries yea Princes yet one base ambitious or covetous or voluptuous lust doth rule over them miserable slaves and if they feel not this their bondage is the greater sinne and Satan have the surer possession when things all are at peace The captivity is the more dangerous the more willing as the malignity of poyson is neere the lesse though it be sweet if yet it be poyson Vse 2 This will confute the Doctrine of Popery who teach that man hath free will to good or to use Bellarmines words that a man may doe things morally good and keep or fulfill the law according to the substance of the things prescribed without the help and assistance of speciall grace But how should this be if he be the slave of sinne We deny not to any man free will for else we should make him no man But we must understand that free will is either good or evill and so according to the distinction of Bernard All that have free wil but to evill are their owne and Satans all that have free will and to good are Gods Gregorius Ariminensis is expresse that to affirme that man by his naturall strength without the speciall helpe of God can doe any vertuous action or morally good is one of the damnable heresies of Pelagius or if in any thing it differ from his heresie it is further from truth And grow up as young calves A further benefit promised of growing up and encreasing in grace and sanctification daily by degrees Doctrine They who are Gods elect and called shall grow up and encrease in graces as in faith hope love and such like As the waters of the Sanctuary they shall rise higher Ezech. 47. They are branches in Christ that beare fruit and are purged that they may beare more fruit Joh. 15.2 Phil. 1.6 Jam. 2.5 1 Cor. 1.4.5 Reason 1 Because he will restore in them by Christ that which was lost in Adam and by him his image of righteousnesse and holinesse therefore shall they encrease and grow up towards it which must be got againe in long time and divers progresse though it were lost in a moment Reason 2 Because some doubt else may be whether their graces they have be true sanctified graces which generally ever encrease though some let there may be as a temptation or some sinne but they doe recover themselves and encrease after the more as fire kept down Mat. 25.25.21.26 Vse 1 This may put many a man to a quaere with himselfe and his owne soule if he encrease not but rather goe backeward and thrive not under good meanes but shame their master as if they had no good food like the blasted eares and leane kine that Pharoah dreamed of These may feare themselves that if they approve themselves in this condition and thinke all is well with them they are not right but if they dislike their dulnesse and backwardnesse in profiting and growing on in sanctification if they bewaile their wants and earnestly use the meanes they may be perswaded that what God hath begun he will performe in them to the end and that he will fulfill the desire of them that feare him Vse 2 To perswade every one to endeavour to goe forward and to grow in grace and piety as the wicked grow worse and worse 2. Tim. 3.13 Phil. 3.13.14 To presse forward like runners in a race who looke not how much they have runne but how much remaineth Upon which place Saint August He had said I am not already perfect and yet afterward he saith as many as be
father Here is first the father-hood of God to be considered and so he is in two respects of his Creation and Election out of both we have somewhat to learne Doctrine Men in regard of their Creation being so the sonnes of God ought to honour him and doe him service and obedience thus much the Lords reasoning imports and inforceth It is manifest also by that Deut. 32.6 Doe ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy father that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and established thee Thus much David prayed Psal 119.73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learne thy Commandements this shews he ought to pay so much to God Reas 1 Because by all Lawes humane and divine of God nature and Nations a man owes as much as he hath received and ought to repay it as it is due and is called for Therefore owes a man all he hath unto God and ought to pay it to the service of his Creator unlesse he will be accounted a thiefe and an ungratefull man to him who hath bestowed so great things upon him for he hath received from him his being that is his body with all his senses and his soule with all the powers of it then is he debtor to pay all these Reas 2 Because as nothing else so man is not borne with all perfections he hath many things perfect but many things wanting which must be perfected afterwards Now it is a rule that he must give the complement and perfection who hath begun the worke or given the beginning Therefore it is that every effect lookes to the cause to receive from it his last perfection The Trees search for the Sunne and stretch their roots into the earth which brought them forth Fishes also will not out of the waters which bred them The Chicken no sooner out of the shell but shrowds it selfe under the feathers of the Hen and follows whithersoever she goes The little Lambe after it is borne seeketh to the Dams teate and if there be a thousand sheepe of the same wooll and colour it knows the owne damme and will follow her whithersoever she goes as if she said here I received that I have and here I seeke for that I want Then ought reasonable man not to doe lesse than unreasonable creatures but being not perfect seeke to him and serve him that made him that he may receive perfections Vse 1 This will serve to confute the dreame of Libertines and Valentinians of which not a few in our dayes who have the name of Christians but not the thing who think that the Gospell Christ being come men are not bound to obedience as before whether the Gospell bind or no that will follow after in the next point for this that men are still bound and by the Law for all the Gospell to obey appeares plainely because the Reasons are the same to us now which were then to them Receive they not now all their bodies and soules all the members and parts all the faculties and powers of them from him and as they have those beginnings must they not have the proceedings also and perfections from him If any have not let him goe out free he is bound to no such thing but if all men have then is every one bound even by the Law now in time of the Gospell as before Gods reason stands thus now if I be a father if I have made thee and created thee honour me if thou haddest that thou hast else-where I challenge it not if thou canst have any thing from others without me to perfect thy defects and supply thy wants I challenge no such thing but if not then give me my honour Know thus much that the Law requires honour to God as a Father in regard of Creation which if it be a continuall worke of God for all times and to all men then it follows that now as then Vse 2 To teach men and every one if there be no other reason that this requires of all obedience and honour to God because they are his he their father that made them For if a man build the house whose turne must it serve but the Lords that built it if he plant a Vineyard who shall gather the Grapes but he that planted it If a father beget a sonne whom shall he rather serve and honour than his father which begat him And if this then how much more to him that is the Father of Fathers and of all things in earth and Heaven It is heard from many men when they reprove others for some dishonouring of God and often but as they thinke It is not for your profession doth it become a man of that zeale you make shew of professing so greatly as you doe If they speake it that they are more bound it is true but if that they themselves are not bound and more than they can performe it is false for wherein have they dishonoured God by the profession that thy Creation binds not thee to doe or from doing Set faith and repentance aside things invisible not commanded in the Law what is it thou art not bound to either for piety or honesty and that by the Creation for the Law holds fast there and Creation onely binds to all such duties For even as the Heathen man saith Aristotle A man can never returne so much to his father as he ought how can he to God who hath given us more than all the fathers in the world And if to dishonour a father be a vile crime in a sonne what is it to sinne and rebell against God who is father so many wayes Let every man then bethink himselfe of this and see in himselfe how many things he hath to move him to honour God though he never looke without himselfe body soule all the faculties and powers and parts of both because his hands made them And if the Axe may not boast it selfe against him that heweth with it Isa 10.15 how may it against him that made it How may man dishonour his Creator if not the Axe against the hewer how the heart against the master Shall those hands made by him those eyes enlightened by him that tongue made and made speaking by him dishonour provoke and revile with oaths and blasphemies if they doe know that as all things are possible with him and like easie to him he can destroy them as easily as he made them in a word both Oh then let those hands worke the workes of God let those feet walke the paths of God those eyes delight in the wayes of God and that tongue speake the praises of God and that whole man honour him that hath made it for thus he calls If I be a Father where is my honour if I have made you where is the service you doe me Amongst men a Chapman of credit payes as much as hee received and he would scorne not to
day of the mourning for the Gospell is not farre at least in Gods justice and his dealing with others because though corruption hath not seased upon his worship yet contempt of the word is every where Vse 3 The Church and the chiefe in it the Magistrates are here admonished if they desire that the Gospell and his worship should abide amongst us that they take heed it be not corrupted nor contemned which is the very life and breath of the Church the vitall spirits which being corrupted bring death to the whole they ought to make lawes against error and heresie superstition other corruptions and severely to execute them against whosoever dare privately or publiquely secretly or openly sowe any cockle with the pure wheat of Gods word and labor to keep it in as much sincerity and simplicity as may bee labouring to keep the fire upon the Lords Altar the Lampes burning in the Temple and the Levites unforsaken labouring for the mainteynance of the faith which was given unto the Saints Jude verse 3. correcting and punishing all contemners of it who or howsoever lest God doe remove it from us Vse 4 To teach every man as he desireth there should be peace and truth in his dayes so to repent of his corrupting polluting or contemning of this whether before or since his calling and now to labor for his part to keep it in integrity and purity to have it in all honor and high esteeme that if God for the generall doe remove it yet his sinne be not a provocation to it The removing of it will be griefe enough more when he shal be guilty himselfe as a procurer of it As sicknesse and trouble is heavy so more when a man is guilty by his own intemperancy or miscarrying of himselfe by surfetting and such like he hath brought it upon himself and pulled it with his own hands upon him so in this In that you say the table of the Lord is polluted This is the first particular their thoughts according to the phrase often used in this Chapter whence it is not only manifest that the Lord knowes the thoughts of Men and the things they doe in secret but he reveales them to others his liefetenants upon earth his Ministers and Magistrates to reprove or correct and punish Table polluted They contemned the Table because it was but rudely built and the offering because it was burnt to ashes Hierom. Doctr. The thing that makes men contemne holy duties and the worship of God is because they looke too much upon the basenesse of the meanes Vide vers 7. ut ante And the fruit thereof even his meate not to be regarded The Priests part they thought any thing would serve them contemning Gods worship they contemned the meanes of his worship Doctrine The contempt of Gods worship and the contempt of his Ministers goe together they are in one people one age one place the fruit of the Altar and the meate of it despised together So it is here so 1 Sam. 2.17 It is all one whether the cause be just and they justly despised or no. 2 Chron. 36.14 15 16. Nehem. 13.10 11. Reas 1 Because all the honour and account that the Ministers can have or looke for is for their worke for the worship and service of God they performe amongst them 1 Thes 5.12 13. Now if their worke once grow into contempt and disgrace they needs must which was the reason why Demetrius pleaded so hard for the honour of Diana for their owne gaine and honour knowing that they were honoured for her who if once dishonoured would make them to be dishonoured Acts 19.24 c. so in this of the true worship Reas 2 Because the corruption of man is such that when he should respect the Minister for his worke the chest for the treasure he respects the worke for the Minister the treasure for the chest Therefore if he once grow to dislike him he will dislike it Vse 1 This noteth the cause why the worship of God and his service is in these dayes in that contempt that we find it to be in all places it is amongst us still God hath not taken away the Arke of his presence but it is in small account little esteeme and reverence It is no marvell seeing the Lords Ministers are in such contempt as they are what difference or distinction soever men make of them yet herein they differ not but are all in contempt No sort nor condition of men no men of any profession in the Land are any thing like neere in the like generall contempt and disgrace that they are by Courtiers and Countreymen by Citizens and men abroad by rich and poore by old and young they are as 2 Chron. 36.16 marked despised misused Is it then any marvell if the worship of God be contemned when the Embassadour is contemned the embassage will and must be worse liked of when the Physitian the physick he brings Nothing that Micha can say or doe can be liked Ahab dislikes his person And againe è converso this layes out unto us why the Ministers are in such contempt the worship it selfe is in contempt They are deprived of their double honour in the most part because the most honour not the Word and worship of God When as the message of David sent by his servants is misconstrued by the Ammonites then are his messengers abused 2 Sam. 10. so when the worship of God then the Ministers These are two twinnes as it were the contempt of the one and the contempt of the other it is hard to tell which first comes forth happily some may thinke the one some the other as with the twinnes Gen. 38.28 c. Vse 2 This must instruct the Ministers of God if they have any desire that the worship of God should be had in account and reverence and not in contempt that they carry themselves wisely and discreetly sincerely and soberly both in the worke of their Ministery and in other carriage of their life that they give no just cause of contempt of the Word but that they may rather adorne it So Saint Paul perswades both Timothy and Titus and in them other Ministers for his charges were not personall nor temporary 1 Tim. 4.12 2 Tim. 4.5 Titus 2.7 8. for if all must so live and carry themselves that the Gospell of God may be well spoken of and his worship regarded if servants Titus 2.10 if women even young women verses 4 5. if all professors Titus 3.8 much more ought Preachers they ought so to handle those mysteries and worship of God that they may strike reverence and esteeme into the people so to carry themselves that they may get account and estimation to themselves and so to the worship of God for when the Ministers of God handle the Word simply and profitably and other parts of Gods worship with great reverence and when they practise it carefully then will it be better affected and reverenced of others
and then Iam. 2.13 There shall be judgement mercilesse to him that sheweth no mercy and mercy rejoyceth against judgement Reason 2 Because God he professeth himselfe the helper of the helplesse and the patron of such as are without succour and friends therefore as he must right their wrongs so must he relieve them oppressed and revenge their oppressions Vse 1 This may admonish those who are in authority and place of justice This will make them like unto the Lord to defend the widowes cause when it comes before them or what power soever they have in their hands as Isaiah 1.17 Plead for the widow whether she be rich or poore for if rich it is but justice but if poore it is both justice and mercy That many will do and it is lesse thanke worthy because they are able to recompence them by some gratefullnesse and other meanes In whom there is a shew of justice but no justice indeed and in truth but a desire of gaine The other is the harder and as just so mercifull and hath the promise of good from God as in the generall Luke 14.14 And thou shalt be blessed because they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompenced at the resurrection of the just Those shall be recompenced of men these of God This they ought then to doe chearefully and not as the unrighteous Judge unwillingly but as Iob 31.16 who would not suffer the eies of the widow to faile Vse 2 Then may all those who are vexers oppressors and injurers of widowes know what they are to looke for from the Lord that howsoever they thinke all safe and he is farre off yet he will come nigh to them to judgement and be swift when they thinke he is slacke either to make their houses destitute or their wives widowes or to bring some such fearefull judgement against them besides the afterclaps that which is to come after this life But who are these that some men may see themselves touched Verily there are divers sorts of them some injure rich widowes who left by their husbands under whose shadow they prospered well are by unjust Executors long kept without their portions and widowes part and never recover it but by long sute in law where the best part is spent before the other is recovered If they have it without any such troubles then are they by unconscionable kindred bought and sold by a peece of money to a man that hath neither wealth vertue nor grace many a man labouring for her making great shew of wealth which in truth many pounds is worse then nothing for poore widowes utterly forsaken of all kindred and friends on both sides never deserving the commendations given by Boaz Ruth 2.20 for they soone cease to do good both to the living and dead And doing thus to kindred what can be expected of those who are not allied to them but that they should leave them destitute and soone subvert their cause or not right their wrong but be readier to vex them some as the Creditors of that widow 2. Kings 4. though in this generally this City lesse capable if they find any reasonable dealing Vse 3 This may perswade every one to avoid this sin if he have no love to justice no affection to mercy yet if he have any feare of punishment let him vex neither the rich nor the poore neither his friend nor one that is friend to him But if he would have his curse turned into a blessing he must have care and do his best that when he rejoyceth and is full the widow may be so too as is commanded in the feast of the Tabernacle Deut. 16.13.14.15 and let her have a part with thee both of the field and vineyard Deut. 24.19.20.21 that thou maiest pray with more boldnesse before the Lord. Deuter. 26.13.15 Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God I have brought the hallowed thing out of mine house and also have given it unto the Levites and to the strangers to the fathers and to the widow according to all thy commandements which thou hast commanded me I have transgressed none of thy commandements nor forgotten them Looke downe from thy holy habitation euen from Heaven and blesse thy people Israel and the land which thou hast given us as thou swarest unto our fathers the land that floweth with milke and honey And the fatherlesse The third particular of oppression when they injure and vex the fatherlesse such as are without all helpe and hope Doctrine The Lord will come nigh to judgment to all such as vex oppresse and injure the fatherlesse such as are left yong not able for age and counsell and advice to defend themselves So here so in Exod. 22.22.23 And Deut. 27.19 Jer. 22.3.5 Iob shewes this was just with God Job 31.21.22 If I have lift up my hand against the fatherlesse when I saw that I might helpe him in the gate let mine arme fall from my shoulder and mine arme be broken from the bone Reasons as in the former Vse 1 To perswade all in authority to judge for the fatherlesse when his cause comes before them as is commanded Isaiah 1.17 which is not that they should accept persons and pervert justice for the fatherlesse because he is so a thing forbidden by God and horrible before him to favour the person of the poore as to feare the great and rich in an unjust cause but that when the poore fatherlesse cause comes before them against some great men or rich deceivers that seek to vex them they should defend their cause though they sue but in forma pauperis and respect the justice of it as if they were rich and do for them that which is right so shall they shew themselves Gods for where the name is given to them there the duty is injoyned them Psal 82.1.2.3.4 For the Magistrate is specially ordained for these not for such as are great men who neither will doe right nor suffer wrong able enough to right themselves and defend their own causes or not so much for these as for the poore orphanes widowes and such like As the defence is for the little coppes and small trees of grooth not for the great okes they have not such need of fencing against beasts as those Vse 2 Then may many men expect the judgments of God who vex and oppresse for their owne gaine many pore orphanes and fatherlesse children sometimes colourably sometimes openly Often they colour it by pretence of law and are legall oppressors who obtaining Wards do fell them from one to another as men do horses and when they are marriagable tender them such matches as they must live miserably all their lives with if they accept them so far different in nature state religion and such like or if they accept not when they tender of purpose such as they know they wil not regard then make they a further commodity of them that they happily recover not that oppression of many yeares