because as Lyra saith that the Levites sung them on the steps or degrees whereby they went up to the Temple for indeed we read that there were such steps whereof if we beleeve Lyra there were fifteen which opinion as unlikely with Luther I passe over But it is probable that they were sung in an high place where they that were appointed to sing might be both better heard and seen As for the time when they were sung it is thought they were sung at the departure of the people out of the temple for an up-shot to their divine service therefore called songs of degrees or ascensions for songs of conclusions because short However Sine periculo bÃc erratur and therefore more fit to conclude with all If it be thus we see the antiquity of this custom of concluding with a Psalme I return to the Author as he was in office in that therefore he was a King that was the inditer of this Psalme we learn this That Rex pâ—us est reipublicae opnamento Kings and Magistrates should be godly They are to have the practice of piety Many I think have it lying by them or in their hands few indeed have it in their hearts Many would have it if they did know how this is the way yet godly wisdom the practice will follow and this is gotten by going to God Mat. 7.7 God doth give the Spirit of wisdom to such as earnestly desire it Ask and it shall be given you Solomons request to God was for wisdom and he gave it him and more than that None was than more wise then Solomon the Queen of Sheba came from the farthest bounds of the earth to hear him discourse And none was then more wealthy or in so great prosperity Prov. 3.16 Bona throni and bona scabelli because none more wise The way then to prosper is to obtain wisdom of God Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Again I gather from hence That Kings and Governours should not dispose the wisdom which God bestows on them to their own private ends but they must make others of the same rank their sons their subjects partakers of it as here David and Solomon did ut Regis ad exemplum that they might conforme themselves to the like godly courses Which may be a counterblast to all those bastards of the whore of Babylon that have snapped at the credit of some Princes witnesse K. James of blessed memory saying that he was more fit to be a Divine than a King Blind leaders of the blind why not both I mean not my profession In that they are filled with so great a measure of divine knowledge above others they are fitter to be Kings David was a King and a Prophet so was Solomon why should the like then be accounted a fault in others Furthermore he that is the Principal Member of Gods Church within his own dominions should be soundly grounded in Gods word and able to render an account of his faith How were it possible that he and his house with Joshuah should serve the Lord truly if he were ignorant of the points of Religion or of those things wherein he is to serve him Kings must serve God as well as others Reges ut reges saith Austin Worship him all ye gods Psal 97.7 Aug. It was Gods own command Deut. 17.18 where he setteth down what a King must do And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them c. Lastly from this ariseth another observation That Kings and Governours ought to pray for divine Knowledge and Wisdom For in their Kingdoms they are Judges of Ecclesiastical and Civil matters except they wilfully give up their titles of right How can they judge righteously if they be ignorant of the matters whereof they are Judges They must scan matters over and over and sift them for it is the honour of Kings to search out a matter Be wise now therefore O ye Kings Prov. 25.2 Psal 2.10 Psal 119.104 be instructed ye Judges of the earth But how is this gotten Through thy precepts I get understanding saith David Here I limit not my self to Kings but what I say of their duty I say of all Christians for they are Kings through Christ The use then is this Revel 1.6 How far from pleasing God are such as neglect this so great a duty and so great a good that whereas they may have wisdom for the asking or whereas if by asking they obtain it they should use it to the edification of others all is neglected hence instead of pious songs such as Davids Solomons the world is filled with swarms of Pamphlets Let us therefore pray that God would teach all of us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome And this for Preface to what ensues The words are short and sweet being a breviary of the whole Psalm which is partly petitional non voz sed votum from this first verse to the eleventh and partly repetitional of Gods promises non votum sed vox from the eleventh verse to the end all which is sweetly compiled in these words Lord remember David and all his afflictions Two things are here recommended to Gods remembrance viz. David and his afflictions Luth. But what David Not bare David without either welt or gard not David materialiter but David formaliter saith Luther as he was godly David as unto whom God passed his word and promise that when thy dayes shall be fulfilled speaking to David by the Prophet Nathan and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will est ablish his Kingdom 2 Sam. 7. he shall build an house for my name and I will stablish the throne of his Kingdome for ever And this is it that is comprised in this verse and enlarg'd in the rest Therefore saith he remember David that is the promises made to David We can have no better exposition of Scripture than scripture 1 Kings 8.28 Solomon in another place prayes for the same Therefore now Lord God of Israel keep with thy servant David my father that thou promised'st him saying there shall not be cut off unto thee a man from my sight as the originall is to sit on the throne of Israel but on condition so that thy children take heed to their way that they walk before me as thou bast walked before me And now O God of Israel let thy word I pray thee â—e verified c. Again
souls for himself For the first Sinners despair because they cannot be perswaded of mercy only viewing the severity of God and poring upon that Alas I have offended God and am afflicted in conscience I have deserv'd to be a fire-brand of Hell but yet consider the sweet goodness of God he is just to damn stubborn sinners but to such as humble themselves and with penitent hearts beg for mercy he is a gracious God witness Manasses Magdalen Paul c. For the latter Satan will tell thee thou may'st take thy liberty follow thy pleasures needest not be so precise for God is merciful The remedy is to consider not only the mercy but the severity of God also Remember how severely he hath dealt with the Jews for their Rebellion against Christ and his Gospel with David for the matter of Vriah with Moses for striking the Rock when he should only have spoken to it c. For as the act of seeing is hindered both by no light and by too much so the light and comfort of conscience is hindered either by not seeing of mercy or by seeing nothing else but mercy which causeth presumption Here is to be refuted the wicked opinion of the Manichees and Marcionites who held that there were two Beginnings or to speak plainly two Gods one good full of gentleness and mercy the other severe and cruel this they made the Author of the Old Testament and the other of the New But the answer is 1. That Scripture maketh one and the same God both bountiful and full of goodness and the same also severe 2. And though severity and mercy seem to be contrary yet that is not in respect of the Subject for the Divine Nature is not capable of contrary and repugnant qualities But in regard of the contrary effects which are produced in contrary Subjects Like as the Magistrate is not contrary to himself if he shew mercy unto those that are willing to be reformed and be severe in punishing obstinate offenders Or as the Sun by the same heat worketh contrary effects in subjects of a diverse and contrary disposition and quality To conclude then Who have goodness and who have severity If thou repentest and obeyest the Gospel thou art an happy man the sweetness of God and his goodness is to thee But if thou beest a profane unbelieving impenitent wretch and dyest in this estate the most just God will in his great severity cast thee into Hell 1 Sam. 25.29 as out of the middle of a sling The Lord God Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children unto the third Ezra 8.22 Psal 18.25 26. and to the fourth generation The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him With the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful Psal 34.15 16. And with the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry The face of the Lord is against them that do evil Psal 101.1 to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth I will sing of mercy and judgment unto thee O Lord Rom. 11.22 will I sing Behold the goodness and severity of God Of the Mercy of God Mercy as it is referred to God Movet enim pium judicem fragilitas considerata peccantium Cassied Exod. 34. is the Divine Essence inclining it self to pity and relieve the miseries of all his Creatures but more peculiarly of his Elect Children without respect of merit God is most glorious in mercy Shew me thy Glory saith Moses It follows what it was The Lord God merciful and gracious c. In this he is superlative and outstrips Mercy is 1. General 1. In helping his Elect and comforting 2. In scattering and confounding their Enemies 2. More particular 1. In promising 2. In performing And these are the Flagons of wine to comfort distressed souls Mercy is an Attribute in the manifestation of which as all our happiness consists so God takes greatest complacency and delights in it above all his other works He punishes to the third and fourth Generation but shewes mercy unto thousands Exod. 20.5 6. Therefore the Jewes have a saying That Michael flies with one wing and Gabriel with two meaning that the pacifying Angel the Minister of Mercy flies swift but the exterminating Angel the Messenger of wrath is slow The more mercy we receive the more humble we ought to be 1. Because we are thereby more indebted 2. In danger to be more sinful worms crawle after Rain 3. We have more to account for But alas even as the glorious Sun darting out his illustrious beams shines upon the stinking Carrion but still it remains a Carrion when the beams are gone so the mercy of God shines as I may say upon the wicked but still he remains wicked For the Lord is good his mercy is everlasting The Lord is good to all Psal 100.5 Psal 145.9 Micah 7.18 and his tender mercies are over all his works He delighteth in mercy I proceed no further in these only add That for a Creature to believe the infinite Attributes of God he is never able to do it thoroughly without supernatural grace Of the Sacred Trinity De Trinitate THat God should be Three in one and One in three this is a Divine Truth Impossibile est per rationem naturalem ad Trinitat is Divinarum pâ—rsonarum cognitionem pervenice Aquin. Du Bartas ex Lombard Sens. lib. 1. dist 2. more certainly to be received by Faith than to be conceived by Reason for it is the most mysterious of all the Mysteries contained in the Bible which our Divine Poet sings thus In Sacred Sheets of either Testament 'T is hard to find an higher Argument More deep to sound more busie to discuss More useful known unknown more dangerous Some damnable Hereticks especially the Jewes at this day hold an indistinct Essence in the Deity without distinction of persons We assert a real distinction there is but there can be no separation If any stumble at the word Trinity and say it cannot be found in the Scriptures I answer yet the Doctrine is if not according to the letter yet according to the sense Besides there is expresly the word Three 1 John 5.7 from whence Trinity comes The Hebrews of old Siâ—rectè dicuntur tres Elohâ—m etiam recté dici possit tres Dii nam Elobim Latinè sonat Dii vel Deus Drus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 1.1 were no strangers to this Mystery though their posterity understood it not Moses Gen. 1.1 Dii creavit Elihu Job 35.10 God my Makers Solomon Eccl.
flax 3. Bountiful in Porrigendo giving all bread and breath and all things Elizabeth Yong Act. Mon. in the dayes of Queen Mary put in close prison for her Religion hearing that the Keeper was commanded to give her one day bread and another day water answered Sir if you take away my meat God I trust will take away my hunger It was B. Hooper's speech Nothing can hurt us that 's taken from us for Gods cause nor nothing can at length do us good that is preserved contrary to his will GOD is good 1. In himself none good but God 2. Towards others in his works of 1. Creation 2. Preservation 3. Redemption 4. Glorification Pareus coming out of his Study slipping many steps and receiving no harm thought on that promise He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes Psal 91 11 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone God rules by second causes Yet the creatures are instâ—umentum arbitrarium not necessarium Hence an argument against Atheists Let them but look and observe the dependance of causes and works of Providence And then according to the Poetical Allegory they will easily conclude and believe That the highest link of Natures chain must needs be tyed to the foot of Jupiters chair Multa sine voluntate Dei geruntur Orig. Hom. 3. in Genes nihil sine providentia Providentia namque est quâ procurat dispensat providet quae geruntur Voluntas verò est quà vult aliquid aut non vult hinc quid velit vel quid hominibus expediat indicat Si non indicet nec erit provisor hominis nec creditur curare mortalia Well spake a learned Divine We indeed pray to God Our Father in heaven Heaven is the throne of God but Heaven is not the prison of God Gods glory shines most in Heaven but God is never shut up in Heaven Therefore he that is every where Deut non minor est in minimis quà m in maximis can as well do all as any one thing Hence God acts in every thing that acts and there is not any motion in the creature but God is in it They who act against the revealed will of God are yet ordered by his secret will There is nothing done against the counsel and purpose of God though many things are done against the command and appointment of God The greatest confusions in the world are disposed of by the Lord and are the issues of his counsels That wherein we see no order receives order from the Lord. Hence many are as much puzzl'd to interpret what God doth as what he hath spoken In a word Gods Providence is punctual and particular extending even to the least and lightest circumstances of all our occurrences Deus sio curas universoâ— quasi singulos sic singulos quasi solos Aug. The Wheels Were full of eyes The eyes of the Lord are in every place Ezek. 1.18 Pro. 15.3 Mat. 10 2â—.30 beholding the evil and the good Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground Without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbred Humane or rather Christian Providence We are to frustrate the Mines made to blow us up by our own Countermines of Prevention and Diversion Sooner may one prevent than cure a deadly sickness and easilier keep out than thrust out our unwelcom guest True of Sin Aegriùs ejicitur quà m non admittitur hospes As they say in Schools of Art It is easier to oppose than answer So we find it true in Christianity It is easier and safer to obviate and meet danger in the way than to tarry till it come home to our doors There is ever more courage in the assailer and commonly better success A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself Pro. 22.3 but the simple pass on and are punished Original Sin ATque homines prodigia rerum maxima So said our Saviour to the people of the Jews Spuria soboles Ye are a bastardly brood because utterly degenerate from your forefathers faith and holiness The like also may be said of Mankind once made upright but they have sought out many inventions Once planted a noble Vine wholly a right seed but now turned into the degenerate plant of a strange Vine O man thy silver is become dross thy wine mixt with water As all those little ones that ever might have descended from Abel Omnes peccavimus in isto 〈◊〉 homine quid omnes cramus isle unus bomo Aug. In Adamo tanquam in radice totum genus humanum computruit Greg. their blood cryed in his so all that descended from Adam have sinned in him As good parents may beget bad children The parents of the Blind man could see Grace is not hereditary So bad parents may beget good children Dumb Zachariah begat a Cryer But how are they good Not by generation but regeneration Adam ate one soure grape and all his childrens teeth are set on edge Vitrà radicem nihil querere â—portet Chinks are not to be sought where a gate is set wide open By Adam sin entred into the world O durus casus Alas what did man lose what did he find Anselm de laâ—u hominà Original Sin is that old tenant that Peccatum inhabitans which Paul speaks of which like a leprosie hath bespread all the sons of Adam à capite ad calcem beginning when we have our being like the man that Valerius Maximus speaks of who had a Quart fever from the day of his birth to the hour of his death We may now say of Man Quantum mutatus ab illo Homo lasciviâ supcrat equum impudentiâ canem astu vulpem furore leonem Yea we may say of all men Numb 32.14 as Moses of Gad and Reuben Ye are risen up in your fathers stead an increase of sinful men In a word This sin like Pandora's box opened through her curiosity filled the world full of all manner of diseases Man that Was in honour Psal 49.20 Jer. 31.29 Rom. 5.12 Heb. 12.1 and understood not is become like the beasts that perish The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the childrens teeth are set on edge By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us Actual Sin Austin defines sin to be factum aut dictum aut concupitum contra legem Dei. Contra Faustum l. 22. cap. 27. Holy Anselm said He had rather be thrust into Hell without than go into Heaven with sin The reason may be rendred Hell would be no Hell without sin and Heaven could be no Heaven with sin Sin is called in Scripture a Work of darkness for divers
pracipitur Aaroni Num 6 23. 2. Propheticâ seâ— Patriarchali ut fecit Noah 3. Ex charitate ut unusquisque proxinto fausta omnia precatur The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich Pro. 10.22 Rom. 12.14 and he addeth no sorrow with it Bless them which persecute you bless and curse not Cursing If the Prophets cursed their enemies at any time Gorran it was not livore vindictae sed zelo justitiae Not out of a vindictive spirit but by the instinct of Gods holy Spirit and out of a zeal for Gods glory Austin saith that David's Cursings are rather Prophecies shewing what shall come unto them than any wishes of his own as desiring that such things should come to pass Cursing men are cursed men Witness the Jews who to this day are still great Cursers of Christians they shut up their daily prayers with Maledic Domine Naâ—araeis And how it cometh home to them who knoweth not even wrath to the utmost Epiphamins and Chrysostom falling out about Origin's writings wished a curse to one another and it fell our accordingly The one died ere he came home and the other was unbishoped Polâ—nâ—s tells of one Thomas Linacle Pol. in cap. 53. an English-man who reading Mat. 5.44 Bless them that curse you cryed out O my friends either this is very absurd or we are no Christians We may not curse any saith Hierom no not the Devil Com. in cap. 3. Ep. ad Titum though he deserves to be cursed yet it must not go out of the Arch-angels mouth It may be some uncircumcised Goliah accustoms himself to such grievous things but the tongues of the children of God drop no such gall and poyson but honey and oil and much graciousness If thou sayest Thou art provoked this excuseth thee not but manifests thy cankered nature A 〈◊〉 hath fire in it but unless it be provoked by the Steel it is not seen As the Bird taking her flight from her nest fetcheth a compass and by and by returns thither again So Curses come in where they go out returning upon a mans self as do stones cast against a wall A man that takes up an Adder in his hand or Fire to throw against his enemy hurteth himself most so it is with them that curse their adversaries I have not suffered my mouth to sin Job 31.30 by wishing a curse to my enemies soul Imprecation Holy men of God have sometimes made use of Imprecations Diris se devovens thereby to clear themselves from false imputations The like may be done by us but sparingly and not without great necessity lest if we do it falsly or rashly God say Amen and set his Fiat to it as he hath done in sundry instances in several 〈◊〉 Mention is made in our Chronicles of two that rotted above ground Act. Mons according to their wish And of another hanged which he confessed was just upon him for that in Carding and Dicing he had often wished himself hanged if it were not so and so In Germany Anno 1551. Ioh. Man lot com p. 192. The Devil in a visible shape lifted up a Cursing woman into the air and there-hence threw her down in the view of many people and brake her neck Another brought her daughter to Luther intreating his prayers for her for that she was possessed by the Devil upon her cursing of her For when she said in a rage against her daughter Involet in te Diabolus The Devil take thee he took possession of her accordingly The same Author relateth a like sad story of a stubborn son cursed by his father who wished he might never stir alive from the place he stood in And he stirred not for three years The Jews saying of Christ His blood be on us and on our children God said Amen to this woful curse which cleaves close to them and their posterity As he loved cursing so let it come unto him As he delighted not in blessing so let it be far from him As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment Psal 109.17 18 19. so let it come into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually Violence Robbing is a violent taking away from any 〈…〉 Hence violence and â—obbery are joined together Levit. 19.13 Aâ—oâ— 3.10 Wicked men are said to drink the wine of violence Pro. 4.17 that is They spoil others and what they get that way they live upon make merry with There are secret Robbers doing it by deceit and fraud â— robbing while they pretend to seek for right And so the Law may be made a shadow to many lawless actions He is a Robber that takes his neighbours right from him by pretence of Law as well as he that takes away his purse by the high-way Again others rob secretly while they seem to fell A man may rob with a pair of Ballances or Meâ—ewand in his hand as well as with a Sword or Pistol in his hand And there are also open and violent Robbers who waste â— spoil and destroy all that comes neer them and eare not who sees Such are Warlike robbers who bring power to do what they cannot do by justice Those boysterous sons of Mars 〈…〉 men of blood and violence who make their will their law and think they may do whatsoever they have power to do These have a will to destroy as much as they can but they cannot destroy as much as they will If they could the whole World must fall before them if it will not fall down unto them And truly the usual effect of War is waste and spoil 〈…〉 It is said of the Turkish wars that where the Grand Seignour's horse sets his foot no more grass will grow he makes havock of all Alexander the Great was told to his teeth by a Pyrate taken at Sea and condemned by him That he was the greatest Thief in the world I am condemned said he for robbing at Sea in a little Ship but thou robbest at Land all the world over and art applauded And what was Julius Caesar who said That for a Kingdoms sake Right might be violated 〈…〉 And who robbed his Country of Liberty for the satisfying of his unlawful desire of Greatness And certainly He that hath power hopes he may oppress and go unpunished Some durst not oppress but for the shelter of an high place More there are who steal by reason of their abundance than by reason of their want What they have gives them ability to rob for more These are Nimrods Gâ—n 10.9 mighty 〈◊〉 before the Lord not of beasts but of men whose estates and lives they sacrifice to their own lusts Yet there want not some to commend these Called 〈◊〉 as there were that applauded Cain for killing his brother and that extolled the Sodomites Core and his
before the shadow is behind So was it in Christ to them of old This Sun was behind and therefore the Law or shadow was before to us under grace the Sun is before and so now the Ceremonies of the Law those shadows are behind yea vanished Which are a shadow of things to come Colos 2.17 but the body is of Christ Priest The name of a Priest is an honourable name in the book of God not a name of reproach and contempt Sacerdos qâ—sacer dux docens â—rans â—fferens Artaxerxes in his letter to Ezra gives him an honourable title Ezr. 7.12 There was a worthy and glorious Priesthood under the Law An High Priest in goodly apparel c. Besides him there were a great number of Priests and Levites throughout all the towns and Cities of Israel they offered the sacrifices of the people made an attonement for them and instructed them in the wayes of the Lord. Yet all these are nothing to our Saviour Christ he excels them as much as the sun doth the starres or the body the shadow The Priests lips should preserve knowledge Mal. 2.7 and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts Melchisedeck In the sacred Scriptures he is said to be the Priest of the most high God Euseb hist Eccles l. 8. c. 4. so consecrated and ordained neither by any oile prepared of man for that purpose neither by succession of kindred attaining to the Priest-hood as the manner was among the Hebrews Wherefore our Saviour according unto that order not of them which received signes and shadowes is published by an oath Christ and Priest So that the history delivereth unto us neither corporally annointed among the Jews nor born of the Priestly tribe but of God himself before the day-star that is being in essence before the constitution of all wordly creatures immortal possessing a Priest-hood that never perisheth by reason of age but lasteth world without end The thing concealed by Moses is the eternity of Melchisedeck not indeed but in respect of Moses history He is introduced by him on the suddain as if he came then presently from heaven and returned thither again for Moses never spake of him before nor after Gen. 14. So that whether he were Shem as the Hebrew Doctors and others or some other is not easy to determine The Melchisedechian Hereticks held that he was the Holy Ghost or at least some created Angel Others say it was Christ himself under the habit of a King and Priest It is most probable that he was a mortal man and a Canaanite but yet a most righteous man and a Priest of the most High God by special dispensation and so a pledge and first-fruits of the calling of the Gentiles to the knowledge and obedience of Jesus Christ of whom he was a lively Type And that Kedarlaomer and the other Kings that over-ran the countrey and spoiled it forbeare out of reverence to the man and his office to meddle with his Territories He is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not because he had no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stock or kindred but because there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no mention of it no commemoration of his kindred in the Scripture Without father and mother he was not in respect of generation but in respect cofommemoration his parents are not mentioned no more are Jobs nor the three childrens Chrys Theoph. And for his eternity he was without beginning of dayes quia hoc scriptum non est Christus quia non habet initium Tedious I might be saith Dr. Reynolds in insisting on this point who Melchisedech was But when I find the Holy Ghost purposely concealing his name In Psal 110. Genealogy beginning ending and descent and that to special purpose I cannot but wonder that men should toile themselves in the dark to find out that of which they have not the least ground of solid conjecture and the inevidence thereof is expressely recorded to make Melchisedech thereby the fitter Type of Christs everlasting Priesthood The Lord hath sworn and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever Psal 110.4 after the order of Melchisedech Sacrifice Amongst the Heathens whatsoever was burnt or offered up unto the Gods upon an Altar it had the name of a sacrifice And sometimes it was called victima quod vincta ad ar as stabat because the beast that was to be sacrificed stood bound unto the Altar Sometimes Hostia from an Obsolete verb hostio which is to strike because certain under-officers called in Latine Papae standing by the Altars all their upper parts naked and a lawral garland upon their head did hostiare victimam strike down and kill the sacrifice Others are of opinion that this name Hostia is taken from Hostis Ovid. an enemy according to that of the Poet Hostibus à domitis hostia nomen habet Because either before warre to procure the Gods favour or after warre in token of thankfulness they did hostiam ferire offer up the sacrifice There were divers sorts of sacrifices among the Jews 1. Whole burnt-offerings 2. Trespass-offerings 3. Sin-offerings 4. Peace-offering The sacrifices we are principally to offer up now Vâ—â— Dei est purum gratissima victima pectus Naz. are 1. Christ is to be offered up daily to God as the Propitiation for our sins 2. A brokon and contrite heart 3. Prayer and thanksgiving to God 4. We must offer our selves An Holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice 1 Pet. 2.5 acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Four things commend the sacrifice of Christ 1. Sufficientia quoad pretium 2. Efficacia contra peccatum 3. Gloria quoad Praemium 4. Victoriâ— quoad adversarium As man had sinned so the blood of man must be poured out for the sin of man yea the blood of such a man as knew no sin A sinner cannot satisfy for sinners Neither was he to be a meer man but God and man The power of man is finite the power of God is infinite Therefore he that delivered us from sin offered up himself by his eternal Deity Blood Quid est sanguis quam rubens humor quid caro quam terra conversa in figuras suas Tertul. Robert Samuel Martyr said our bloodshed for the Gospel shall preach it with more fruit Act. Mon. Sanguis Martyrum sâ—men Ecclesâ— and greater furtherance than did our mouths lives and writings as did the blood of Abel and Stephen and many moe As Christ was man consisting of flesh and blood so he was also God an eternal and incomprehensible Spirit From this infinite and unspeakable Deity the blood of Christ receivs a power to make satisfaction for our sins Wherupon it is called the blood of God Act. 20.28 So it is called by a communication of Properties to set forth the incomparable value and vertue thereof The blood of Martyrs was offered up
whereby we are become dead and buried with Christ Rom. 6.3 4 6. This Ark in the judgment of all Interpreters was a type of the Church The Ark was made after God's appointment not Noah's So the Church must be framed by God's will not by man's All were drowned that were not in the Ark So all regularly are damned that are not in the Catholick Church The Ark was neer drowning yet never drowned So the Church may be brought to a low ebbe yet it shall continue still There was in the Ark good and bad clean and unclean So we must never dream to have all holy and sanctified persons that be in the Church In the Ark there were divers mansions and rooms some for men some for beasts And In my Fathers house there are many dwelling places Noah and his family were saved in the Ark yet with much ado they endured much they were in continual danger they passed through many difficulties the smell of beasts little outward light the Ark ready to rush on rocks and mountains So the children of God shall be saved yet through many tribulations Lastly the Ark had but a few in it eight persons yet there was the Church Universality is no necessary note of a Church Christs flock is but a little flock The Ark was prepared 1 Pet 3.10 wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water Ark of the Covenant The Ark is a representation of the Church It was a chest or cabinet wherein to keep the two Tables of the Law Exod. 25. which above all other things must have the Law of God in it Signifying also thereby that Christ is the end of the Law covering the imperfection of our works It had upon it a Crown of Gold to set forth the Majesty of Christ's Kingdom or the eternity of his Deity which as a crown or circle had neither beginning nor end It was transportative till settled in Solomon's Temple So till we come to heaven shall we be in a continual motion It was a visible signe of God himself among them and therefore carried with staves that it might not be touched for reverence sake It was made of Shittim wood which corrupteth not Christ's body could not putrify in the grave c. In a word the several coverings did tipyfy Christ covering the curses of the law in whom is the ground of all mercy Which things the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temple It was exceeding famous Called The Temple of the Lord. Jerem. 7.4 The place where Gods name was 1 King 8.29 The holy and beautiful house Isa 64.11 Gods resting place 2 Chron. 6.41 The mountain of the Lord. Isa 2.3 The desire of their eyes Ezek. 24.21 The house of God Eccles 5.1 David had told Solomon the house he builded for the Lord Si Palatia Principum si aedes privatorum ornamenta sua habent quid in Templa Alsted Architec c. 9. must be exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory through all countreys 1 Chro. 22.5 There were 153â—00 men employed about the work of the Temple 1 King 5. The glory and stateliness of it you may read Cap. 6. It was known far and neare hence it was prophesied Psal 68.29 Because of thy Temple at Jerusalem shall Kings bring presents unto thee It was divided into three parts The Court of Israel the court of the Priests and Gods Court Hence Jeremy the Prophet thrice rehearses these words The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord Cap. 7.4 In the third court or Sanctum sanctorum the Lord did shew himself in a special manner unto the High-Priest once in the year The Temple was built of huge stones as may appear Mark 13.1 I conceive this is meant of the latter Temple re-edified by Zerubbabel Josephus writeth of them that they were fifteen cubits long twelve high and eight broad and so curiously cemented as if they had been inocculated one into another that a man would have thought they had been but one entire stone Quasi tota moles ex unico ingenti lapide in tantam magnitudinem consurgeret But there 's no trusting to forts and strong holds no though they be the munitions of rocks as Isaiah speaketh The Jebusites that jeared David and his forces were thrown out of their Zion Babylon that bore her self bold upon her twenty yeares provision laid in for a siege and upon her high towers and thick walls was surprized by Cyrus So was this goodly Temple by Titus He left onely three Towers of this stately edifice unrazed to declare unto posterity the strength of the place and valour of the vanquisher But sixty five yeares after Elius Adrianus inflicting on the rebelling Jews a wonderful slaughter subverted those remainders and sprinkled salt upon the foundation Hence was fulfilled the presage of our Saviour feest thou these great buildings there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down Mark 13.2 Quod vero Templum habere poscit Deus cujus Templum totus est mundus Cyprâ—dâ— Idóll van Dr. Sibbs c. in nostro dedicandus est monte in nostro consecrandus est pectore And certainly next to the love of Christ in dwelling in our nature we may wonder at the love of the Holy Ghost that will dwell in our defiled souls Delicata res est Spiritus Sanctus Let our care be to wash the Pavement of this Temple with our teares to sweep it by repentance to beautify it with holinesse to perfume it with prayers to deck it with humility to hang it with sincerity The Holy Ghost will dwell in a poor so it be a pure house Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God Which Temple ye are 1 Cor. 3.16 17. First-fruits The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God Exod. 23.19 The import of it seems to be this that the best yea and the best of the best is not to be held too good for God Thus saith the Lord I remember thee the kindnesse of thy youth Jer. 2.2 the love of thine espousals c. Circumcision De circumcisione Praeputii Aurium Labiorum cordis manuum pedum reliquorum membrorum Orig. Hom. 3. in Genes It was the seal of the covenant to the people of God Gen. 17.10 It was also to them a signe of the mortification of the old man and the resemblance holds well for 1. As in outward circumcision the fore-skin by which was signified natural pollution was cut off so by repentance the inward and spiritual circumcision our corruption is cut off from the heart and taken away 2. The body bled in that in this the heart in a spiritual construction And thus outward circumcision was but a signe of the inward that of the body did signify that of the soul the
constrained to fell one of his sons into perpetual bondage that he might thereby save the rest from a present famine who calling all his dear children unto him and beholding them as Olive-branches round about his table could not resolve which he might best spare His eldest son was the strength of his youth even he that called him his father and therefore not willing to part with him his youngest boy was his nest-chick whom he dearly beloved A third resembled his progenitors having his fathers bill and his mothers eye and for the rest one was more loving and another more diligent a third more manly c. Therefore he could not afford to part with any Like as a Father pitieth his children Psal 103.13 Mother The Greeks commonly called their children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latine Chari 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 darlings and so they are especially to mothers which usually are most tender of them There is an Ocean of love in a parents heart a fathomlesse depth of desire after the childs welfare in the mothers especially I was my fathers son Prov. 4.3 tender and onely beloved in the sight of my mother Widow It is a calamitous name The word by which a widow is expressed in the Hebrew as well as her condition calls for help and pity It comes from a root that signifies either 1. To bind indeed the widow may be so called both because she is as it were bound about with afflictions and sorrows As also by the rule of contrary speaking bound that is she is not at all bound but free and loosed from her husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 7.1 2 3. 1 Cor. 7.39 Or 2. To be silent death having cut off her head she hath lost her tongue and hath none to speak for her When the Apostle saith of the widow indeed that she is desolate he seemeth to allude to the Greek word for a widow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desolor destituo which comes of a verb that signifies to be desolate and deprived So the Latine Vidua à viduando God therefore pleads for such as his Clients and takes special care for them The Pharisees are doomed to a deeper damnation for devouring their houses Mat. 23.14 And Magistrates charged to plead for them Isa 1.17 And all sorts to make much of them and communicate to them Deut. 24.19 20 21. Plead for the widow Isa 1.17 Fatherless These two desolate names are often found alone but oftener as one in Scripture the widow who is dis-joyned from her husband and the fatherlesse who are bereaved of their parents Per viduam Pupillum omne genus miserorum hominum significatur Pined are commonly joyned together And in a large sense these two names signifie any that are in distresse and need out charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tenebrae orphans are as it were darkling We are orphans and fatherlesse saith the Church Lam. 5.3 And we are all Orphans said Queen Elizabeth in her speech to the children of Christs Hospital let me have your prayers and you shall have my protection Judge the fatherlesse Isa 1.17 Infant As a tree by the roots is fastned to the earth and by the fibrae the little strings upon them draws nourishment from the earth so is it with an infant in the womb the Navel fastens it to the mother and by the veine and arteries in the Navel it fetcheth in nourishment and spirits Hence Plutarch likens the Navel to the roap and Anchor which stayes the Infant in that harbour of the mothers womb and when it is cut the Infant goes from harbour to the sea and stormes of the world Hence some make the Infants tears a presage of sorrows as if he wept to think upon what a shore of trouble he is landed or rather into what a sea of stormes he is lanching when he comes into the world such storms as he shall never be fully quit of till he is harboured in his grave Infants are not innocents Infantes non sunt insontes but estranged from the womb they go astray as soon as they be born Psal 58.3 The first sheet wherein they are covered is woven of sin and shame Vt uâ—tlea statim urit cancri retrecedunt â—â—hiuus asper ell Ezek. 16. Infants have sin though unable to act itâ— as Pauls viper stiffe with cold might be handled without harm yet was no lesse venemous But no sooner can they do any thing but they are evil-doing as young nettles will sting young crab-fish go backward and as the young urching is rough Therefore an Infant as soon as he liveth hath in him the seeds of death Not onely is man acting sin but nature infected with sin the subject of and subjected to the power of death Rom. 5.14 Sin is the â—eed of death and the principle of corruption God doth Infants no wrong when they die their death is of themselves for they have the seed of death in them The Macedonians being to conflict with the Grecians took their young King in his cradle and brought him into the field thinking either they could not be beaten their Soveraign being present or that none would be so inhumane as to hurt an helplesse infant Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not Luke 18.16 for of such is the kingdome of God Birth The first woman was in a sense born of a man Mulier dicitur virago quia de viro sumpta from which she receives her name but since all men are born of a woman That is the formation and production of man is from the woman in her the body of man is framed by the mighty power of God and all the pieces of it put together and in her man receives his life and quickning Hence it was that Adam who at first called his wife woman because she was taken out of man calls her afterwards Eve because she was the mother of all living And upon this ground some Nations have made a Law that all descents should be reckoned by the mother because the mother gives the greatest contribution towards the birâ—h and bringing forth of man Plut. de clar Mulâ—er cap. 9. Apud Lycios siquis percontetur quà familiâ ortus c. A matribus genus suum repetere solebant quod plurima substantia quâ constamus materna sit The birth of man speaks two things his 1. Frailty 2. Faultinesse For he is born of a woman the weaker vessel who both breedeth beareth and bringeth forth in sorrow a weak sorry man And is ante partum onerosa in partu dolorosa post partum laboriosa every way calamitous neither is the child in a better condition And as that which is weak cannot produce that which is strong so neither can that which impure send forth that which is clean An Heathen could say cum primum nascimur in omni continuo
pravitate versamur Damnatus home antequam natus As soon as ever we are born we are forthwith in all wickedness And Austin man is condemned as soon as conceived Our great Grandmother Eve did not bring forth before she had sinned therefore corruption is conveyed by the impurity of the seed being in it incoativè as fire is in the flint Therefore man is at his birth overspread with sin as with a filthy morphew In ancient times and the custome in some places remains to this day great men and Princes kept the memory of their birth-dayes with feasting and triumph Gen. 40.20 And Herods birth-day was kept Origen in his fragments upon Matthew affirms that the Scripture gives no testimony of any one good man celebrating his birth-day I say an ancient and commendable custome if in honour of God for his mercy in our creation education preservation c. But indeed Our sospitator while we reflect upon our birth-sin we have little cause to rejoyce in our birth-day The birth-day of Nature should be mourned over every day the birth-day of Grace is our joy and glory and is worthy to be rejoyced in Eternity which is the day of glory is one continued triumph for our birth-day in grace Behold I was shapen in iniquity Psal 51.5 and in sinne did my mother conceive me Bastard The Greeks call such children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they are subject to contumelies The Hebrews call them brambles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a one as Abimelech Judg. 9.14 as growing in the base hedge-row of a concubine Nothus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spurius quasi ignotus Judg. 11.1 It is an ignominious thing to be a bastard Bastards are despised by all many brands of infamy are set on them by the Law 1. A bastard properly is not a son Qui nati sant ex prostibulo planè incerto patre sed certissimâ infamiâ Abraham was Pater when he had Ishmael but not filii Pater till he had Isaac so that he cannot inherit his fathers lands unlesse he be made legitimate by Act of Parliament 2. A bastard may be advanced to no office in Church or Common-wealth without special licence favour and dispensation A bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord Deut. 23.2 even to his tenth generation Children Children if good are a great blessing what can more rejoyce our hearts than to see our children It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blessed misery saith he the work of Gods hands framed and fitted for Gods building But if otherwise to be childlesse is a mercy saith Euripedes and Aristotle concludeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no blessing unlesse it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to have a numerous issue unlesse they be vertuous It is said that Pasiphaes issue were ever a shame to the Parent None are so ready to drink in false Principles and corrupt practices as young ones Plato reporteth of one Protagoras that he gloried of this that whereas he had lived sixty years in all he had spent forty of them in corrupting of young people What a wretched childe was that who when his father complained that never father had so undutifull a childe as he had Fâ—l Holy state answered yes my gâ—ardfather had That regenerate men may have unregenerate children Regeneratus non regenerat â—ilios â—arnis sed generat ut Oleae semina non Oleas generant sed Oleastros Idem Mat. 19.13 Austin illustrates thus 1. As corn that is never so well winnowed brings forth corn with chaffe about it 2. And the circumcised Jew begat uncircumcised children so holy parents do beget unholy children begetting their children not according to Grace but according to Nature for grace is personal but corruption is natural It is our duty to present our little ones to Christ as well as we can 1. By praying for them before at and after their birth 2. By timely bringing them to the Ordinance of Baptisme with faith and much joy in such a priviledge 3. By training them up in Gods holy fear A populous posterity is the blessing of God Let us not take too much thought for providing for them God hath filled two bottles of milk against they come into the world He that feedeth the young ravens will feed our children if we depend on him Lo Psal 127.3 children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Boy Girle Si puellam viderimus moribus lepidam atque dicaculam laudabimus exosculabimus Haec in matronâ damnabimus persequemur Puerilitas est periculorum pelagus childhood and youth are vanity Eccles 11.10 Education Erasm de vitá c. Origenis pag. 1. Refert nonnihil ubi nascaris sed magis refert à quibus nascaris plurimùm verò à quibus a teneris instituaris Education consisteth in three things viz. 1. Religion 2. Learning 3. Manners Touching the former David and Bathsheba joyned together to season the tender years of Solomon with sweet liquor of celestial Piety Chrys Hom. 2. By the meanes of Hanna Samuel came presently from the corporal to the spiritual Dugge Evince taught Timothy the holy Scriptures from his childhood Hierom would have Lâ—ta to teach her daughter Paula the Canonical Scriptures Ad Letam beginning with the Psalmes and ending with the Canticles the Psalmes as the easiest and sweetest the Canticles as the hardest To this end catechizing is very requisite For education in learning Pharaoh's daughter trained up her adopted son in all the learning of the Egyptians Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel Aristippus that famous Philosopher was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught by his mother The eloquent tongue of Cornelia was a great means of the eloquence of the Gracchi her two sons Philip procured two Schoolmasters for his son Alexander Plu. Aristotle for his Teacher and Leonides for Directer and Informer And Constantine procured three several Tutors for his three several sons One for Divinity Euseb the other for the Civil Law the third for Military Discipline Concerning behaviour we must bring up our children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in instruction and information that may formare mores frame their manners and put a good mind into them as the word imports Let not these things be delayed Thou mayest be taken from thy children or they from thee who then shall teach them after thy departure Moreover Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit adorem Testa diu great trees will not easily bend and a bad habit is not easily left Besides dye cloth in the wooll not in the webb and the colour will be the better the more durable Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old Prov. 22.6 he will not depart from it Espousals Contracts or espousals before marriage were a very ancient and laudable custome both amongst
the conscience of his faithfulnesse herein being more sweeter as it is more secret In favours done his memory is frail in benefits received never failing He is the joy of life the treasure of earth and no other than a good Angel cloathed in flesh It is said of Augustus that he was ad accipiendas amicitias rarissimus ad retinendas verò constantissâ—mus Euripides saith that a faithful friend in adversity is better than a calme sea to a storm-beaten Marriner The world is full of Jobs comforters and friends miserable ones who instead of comforting reproach vizarding themselves under the cloke of amity when their hearts are no better than lumps of hypocrisie But true friendship is Hercules knot indissoluble And like Mercuries staâ—â—e whereon are placed two snakes both the male and the female alwayes clipping and clasping together One asking a poor man how he would prefer his children his answer was Zenophon Cyrus is my friend But O happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help Psal â—46 5 and whose hope is in the Lord his God Kisse To kisse noteth 1. Worship and service 1 Kings 19.18 2. Duty and obedience Psal 2.12 3. Love and affection As a sign of unity and onenesse Salute one another saith Paul with an holy kisse Rom. 16.16 As it is the fashion among us for men meeting with their friends to shake hands So was it among the Jewes as appears by many places in both Testaments for men to kisse men at meeting and parting The Apostle intends a true conjunction of minds and affections forgetting all former offence This Peter calleth the kisse of charity and Austin Osculum columbinum the Dove-like kisse But there are unholy kisses The unchast kisse of the Harlot The idolatrous kisse of the Israelites to Baal The flattering kisse of Absolom and the trayterous kisse of Joab and Judas Above all its good to kisse him in whose lips grace is seated Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth Cant. 1.2 for thy love is better than wine Enemie Wisdom tells us it is good to keep a bit in the mouth of an enemie but much more of our spiritual enemies Fury fights against the soul like a mad Turk Fornication like a treacherous Joab it doth kisse and kill Drunkennesse is the master-gunner that sets all on fire Gluttony will stand for a Corporal Avarice for a Pioner Idlenesse for a Genleman of the company And Pride must be a Captain Let us therefore put on our spiritual armour To love our enemies is a hard task but Christ commands it and it must be done be it never so contrary to our foul nature The spirit that is in us lusteth after envy but the Scripture teacheth better things and God giveth more grace This is our Saviours Precept and this was his practice He melted over Jerusalem the slaughter-house of his Saints and himself Called Judas friend Prayed Father forgive them And did them all good for bodies and souls And all his children in all ages of the Church have resembled him Abraham rescueth Lot that had dealt so discourteously with him Isaac forgives the wrong done him by Abimelech and his servants and feasteth them Jacob was faithful to Laban who changed his wages ten times and alwayes for the worse Joseph entertained his malicious brethren into his house Elisha provides a table for them that had provided a grave for him And Stephen prayes heartily for his persecutors Lord lay not this sinne to their charge and prevailed as Austin thinketh for Pauls conversion In doing some good to our enemies we do most to our selves for God cannot but love in us that imitation of his mercy who bids his Sun to shine on the wicked and unthankful also Love your enemies Mat. 5.44 blesse them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you c. Read Rom. 12.20 21. Money It was and still is a common medler It is the worlds great Monarch and bears most Majesty What great designs did Philip bring to passe in Greece by his gold The very Oracles were said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to say as Philip would have them Antipater non tenuis fuit pecuniae ideo praevalidae fuit potentiae saith Egesippus he was a well-monyed man and therefore a mighty man But what security is in money Doth the Devil balk a lordly house as if he were afraid to come in Dares he not tempt a rich man to lewdnesse Let experience witnesse whether he dare not bring the highest gallant both to sin and shame Let his food be never so delicate he will be a guest at his table and perhaps thrust in one dish at his feast Drunkenness Satan will attend him though he have good servants Wealth is no charm to conjure away the Devil such an Amulet and the Pope's Holy-water are both of a force An evil conscience dares perplex Saul in the throne and a Judas with his purse full of money Can a silken sleeve keep a broken arm from aking then may a full barn keep an evil conscience from vexing Hell-fire doth not favour the rich mans limbs more than the poor's Dives goes to hell out of his purple-robes to flames of the same colour The frogs dare leap to King Pharaoh's chamber into his sumptuous pallaces The rich Worldlings live most miserably slav'd to that wealth whereof they keep the key under their girdle Esuriunt in Popina They starve in a Cooks shop The Poet tells us that when Codrus his * A little cottage in the forrest house burns he stands by and warms himself knowing that a little few sticks straw and clay with a little labour can rebuild him as good a tabernacle But if this accident light upon the Usurers house distraction seiseth him withall he cries out of this Chamber and that Chest of this Closet and Cabinet Bonds and Mortgages Money and Plate Strabo saith That Phaletius feared lest in digging for Gold and Silver Effodiuntur opes c. men would dig themselves a new way to Hell Plutonem brevi ad superos adducturos And bring up the Devil among them Gold is that which the basest yield the most savage Indians get servile Apprentices work miserable Muckworms admire and unthrifty Ruffians spend Yet the danger is not in having gold and silver so as these metals have not us Minut. Octav. so as they do not get within us But that is too often verified of which an Antient complaineth and not without cause Divites facultatibus suis alligatos magis aurum consuevisse suspicere quâ—m coelum That rich men mind Gold more than God and Money more than Mercy If wealth be wanting they sit down in a faithless sullen discontent and despair And if they have it they rise up in a corky frothy confidence that all shall go well with them Money answereth all things Eccl. 10.19 Clothing
up in victory We may easily perceive Mille modis laethi miseros mors una fatigat Et tum quo que cum crescimus vita decrescit Sencc how all this our Contexture is built of weak and decaying pieces Tully writeth of Hortensius that after his Consulship he decayed in his rare faculty of Eloquence though not so sensibly that every auditor might perceive it yet in such sort that a cunning Artist might observe that he drew not so clear a stroke in his pieces nor cast on them so rich and lively colours as before Mors hominis pecudum differt In pecudibus perit anima cum corpore redit in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil Non verò ita homines anima rationalis non perit cum corpore sed corpori tandem adjungetur anima unde domicilium templum aeternum Dei erit Death Serpent-like meddles with nothing but a godly mans dust When death takes hold of the Body as Potipher's wife did of Joseph's cloak the Soul leaves it as he did that and flies to God One reason of dying is God will have our Bodies to be new cast and come out beautiful and bright This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality Under the Law persons were unclean till the evening so are we till death because we shall never utterly lay by our body of corruption till we lay aside our earthly body Omega nostrorum mors est Owen Epigram Nec dignus est in morte accipere solatium qui se non câ—gitavit esse moriturum Cypr. mors alpha malorum is true of wicked men And sad it is for any to say at death Omnia fui nihil sum Yet as the Vipers flesh is made a preservative against her poyson so from the bitter cup of Death ariseth to a child of God health joy salvation Who is afraid to die said Bradford but such as hope not to live eternally Death once a curse is now turned into a blessing as Levi's curse of being scattered better fitted them to teach the Tribes in every City The godly Cautator Cygnus Funcris ipse sui at their death knowing that out of their labour they must receive a plentiful harvest they rejoyce to see the troops of Angels and are so much the more ravished with joy as they draw nearer to their death by which they are delivered from the prison of the flesh the floods of misery and the deceits of the Devil drawing nearer to the Crown of glory and fruition of eternal rest and felicity with the Saints of God Bolton said on his death-bed He hoped none of his Children durst meet him at the great Tribunal of Christ in an unregenerate estate Satan tempts forest at death The Coward when we are at weakest when entring into Heaven though he cannot hinder us yet he will be treading upon our heels and troubling us But be of good comfort Serpens nunquam nisi moriens in longum est Meeting two Boats on the water we think the other moves ours stands still Even so we are usually more mindful of the mortality of others than our own But there are two rules never to be forgotten That the Son of God died for thee And that thou thy self though thou livest long must die nay art shortly to die Nihil sic revocat hominem à peccato quà m frequens meditatio mortis Aug. If thou shouldest live in the utmost part of Ethiopia where men so long live as are called Macrobians yet die thou must nor canst thou know where when or how The death of the Son of God who did acquit thee from eternal death and thy own death being so certain must be as two spurs of love to drive thee through the short race of this momentany life unto the goal of eternal happiness Consider 1. The time we have to live is less than a Geometrical point 2. How wicked the Enemy is who promiseth us the Kingdom of this World that he might take from us a better 3. How false Pleasures are which only embrace us to strangle us 4. How deceitful Honors are which lift us up to cast us down It is the sublimity of wisdom to do those things living Hic est apex summae sapientiae ea viventem facere quae morienti essent appetenda which are to be desired and chosen by dying persons Let every man in the address to his actions consider whether he would not be infinitely troubled that death should surprise him in the present dispositions and then let him proceed accordingly Austin with his mother Monica was led one day by a Roman Practor to see the Tomb of Caesar Himself thus describes the Corps It looked of a blue mould the bone of the nose laid bare the flesh of the nether lip quite fallen off his mouth full of worms and in his eye-pits two hungry toads feasting upon the remanent porâ—ion of flesh and moisture and so he dwelt in his house of darkness This meditation might be a means to allay our sinful appetites make our spirits more sober and desires obedient But some are as unwilling to meditate of Death as a child to look into the dark If they make their Will they think they are nearer to it But let us acquaint our selves with Death as when a horse boggles we ride him up to the object Yea as Christ said when the Disciples were afraid let us handle it and see Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum And let us always be ready in what corner soever we are that when God calls we may with Abraham say Behold my Lord here I am Death like the stream of Jordan between us and our Canaan runs furiously but stands still when the Ark comes Blessed is the death of those that have part in the death of Christ Death every where expecteth us If thou therefore be wise Mors. ubique nos expectâ—â— tu fi saplens cris ubique illam expectabis Senec. Heb. 9.27 do thou expect Death every where To this end remember Austins admonition Be afraid to live in such an estate as thou art afraid to die in It is appointed unto men once to die Purgatory Lo say some quoting Heb. 9.8 Heaven was not opened in the time of the Law till the passion of our Saviour Christ therefore the Patriarchs and others that died then went not to Heaven but were in a place of Rest distinct from Heaven This is their Limbus Patrum which they have forged But quickly to stop their mouths It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A gate in the Kings Pallace may be opened though not known The way to the Holiest of all that is to Heaven prefigured by their Sanctum Sanctorum was not yet manifested it was obscured under Types and Figures darkly revealed to them That one place of Scripture following puts out the very Fire of Purgatory For if
Our creation our preservation do both plead for and challenge it at our hands a regular conformity to his will for we are his people and the sheep of his pasture but much more our redemption the end whereof is that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear Luke 1.74 75. in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life This obedience is 1. Internal wrought and seated in the heart 2. External profest and made conspicuous by outward expressions For the former it is internal wrought in the heart for the outward motions of our service and observance to God have their proper dependance upon the good operations of the heart as it is affected moved and ruled by the Spirit of grace In nature the heart is primum vivens the first part in man that lives and communicates natural life and motion to the rest So in grace the heart is the very first that receives new life from above according unto which all the other parts become instruments of righteousness and Gods glory from being instruments of sin and Gods dishonour The heart then once subdued to the obedience of God the rebellion of our nature being suppressed and the love of God shed abroad in them by the holy Ghost which is given unto us there is by the effectual working of the power of the most High begotten in us an ardent love of God which is that spiritual flame of pure heavenly fire that makes us zealous of good works that actuates the whole man in piety putting us awork in the serious disquisition of the affairs of heaven and making us fiery hot in the Christian pursuit of Gods glory and our eternal quiet The Apostle defines it to be the fulfilling of the Law so that upon it depends our obedience there being no obedience without it Wherefore to conclude this with S. Bernard on the Canticles Dilexit nos Deus dulciter sapienter fortiter dulciter quia carnem induit sapienter Bern. quia culpam cavit fortiter quia mortem sustinuit Sic nos diligamus Deum dulciter ne illecti sapienter ne decepti fortiter ne compressi deficiamus God loved us sweetly wisely sirmly Sweetly because he assumed our nature wisely because he eschewed and declined our sin firmly because he sustained death for us In like manner let us love God sweetly lest allured wisely left intrapped and firmly lest constrained and fore urged we revolt and apostatize from him Let our affections then be once heartily endeared unto him as they ought to be and the whole world shall not remove our standing nor make us forsake our obedience due to God For the latter This honour consisting in obedience as it is internal wrought in the heart and seated there by love so it is external profest by outward expressions It must not be lockt up in perpetual silence nor buried in endless obscurity but our lips must be open to shew forth his praises and our light must so shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven This honorable obedience is exprest two ways 1. By good language 2. By good actions First it is exprest by good language The heavenly host of Angels be assembled together to give the good time of the early day to the Son of God now made the Son of Man Sing and rejoice not only because the vacant places of Apostate Angels were to be filled up and supplied with the redeemed Israel of God but also because we are by his most happy Incarnation made most happily the sons of God of the sons of wrath and partakers of their happiness of being partakers of great misery Wherefore joy was proclaimed from Heaven in the sweetest dialects by the Divine Heralds of Honor because the Author and Giver of Joy was come then into the world which was the best day that eâ—er than beheld made more glorious by the glorious rising of the Sun of Righteousness Joy again is commanded because enmity betwixt God and man the just cause of sorrow is removed Questionless Glory in the highest degree and largest extent is to be rendred unto God which our first Parents by their unlawful transgression would have taken away And if the Angels thus sing and rejoice how much more are we engaged in the performance of the like since he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the nature of Man since unto us that Child was born and for us that Son was given Sing and fear not then as the Angels said because he was born who hath taken away all cause of fear The Israelites did lift up their voices with Jubile 2 Sam. 〈◊〉 when the Ark of the Covenant was brought unto them which was but a shadow or figure of the Lords Incarnation how much more ought we to rejoice unto whom the Lord himself is come and hath honored us with the assumption of our flesh unto him Abraham rejoiced when he saw by faith the day of the Lord afar off how much greater ought our rejoicing to be now that he was Immanuel God with us He rejoiced when he saw the Lord in an humane shape assumed for a time appearing unto him what should we do now that Christ hath coupied unto himself our nature by an everlasting covenant and inviolable union Our souls ought to magnifie the Lord our God and our spirits to rejoice in God our Saviour A new song is expected of us being the old things are passed and all things become new With the Heavens ought we in a more special manner to declare the glory of the God of Heaven and sound forth in the choifest language and with most chearful heart from generation to generation the everlasting praises of our God for the wondrous work of our Redemption God commands us Good Angels invite us all things prompt us to make our tongues as pens of ready writers to set forth that good matter is indited in and by our hearts concerning the King of Kings Psal 45. whereby we may make his name to be remembred in all ages and the people to praise him for ever and ever Secondly This honorable obedience is exprest by good actions To speak well and do ill is simulata sanctitas counterfeit sanctity deliverâ—d by some to be duplex iniquitas a double iniquity Being that the true Light is gone into the world from the Father of Lights who dwelleth in that Light which is unaccessible We who are the Children of Light by profession ought not to be imployed in the works of Darkness by dissimulation Our behaviour and conversation must be candid and unstain'd if our souls have received the true stamp and character of goodness For this purpose God gave Christ and Christ gave himself that he might redeem us from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Enoch walked with God and Abraham pleased
heartily cry in a low straine of humility Pecoav◠against thee thee 〈◊〉 O Lord have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight If we can confidently set up our whole rest in our Redeemers alsufficiency we may presume that according to his promise he will extend his mercy and his favour unto all of us For this very purpose did he send his Son unto us that he might be well pleased with us in him in whom alone he is well pleased and was content from all eternity with the death of his Son to manifest in the fulness of time his good will towards men This is the reason why the Prophet Isaiah cals the year of Christs Nativity Isa 61.2 or the whole time of the Gospel The acceptable year of the Lord for the Lord accepts of us in him and no otherwise than as we are in him and being in him he gives us of his good will a secure conduct through all the various casualties of mortality wherefore saith the holy singer Thou Lord wilt blesse the righteous Psal 5.22 with favour wilt thou compasse him as with a shirld To make good this his good will further unto us he hath together with his Son made us a deed of gift of all things Rom. 8.32 For he that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all would not but with him also freely give us all things Should I go about to describe the immense amplitude of my Gods liberality my words would rather extenuate than enlarge it not being able to reach to so holy a slrain as the excellency and worth thereof requires His love beside his gifts is boundless without all limits of time from eternity to eternity I use the Apostles words as wanting of mine own for a fit expression he did praedestinate us before the foundation of the world unto the Adoption of Children Eph. 1.5 6 7. by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Whereupon it is to be infer'd that without Christ there is no hope of mercy God in him expresses his good will to us in him we are elected by him called through him saved In solo dilecto suo Jes◠Christo Robertus Stephous in glos Deus charos sibi reddit quotquot in hoc selegit faith Stephanus in his gloss as many as God hath selected out of the world to be a peculiar people to himself are indeared unto him in his dear Son So that every one that belongs to the election of grace according to the dispensation of his immortal riches may truly say as Abraham did to Sarah it may be well with me for thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee The Lord when he looks upon his Son and on us in him remembers mercy You may be pleased to call to mind what use the rain-bow serves for which is a pregnant figure of Christ our Saviour whereby we are inform'd to use the words of a reverend Prelate that when either the dark blackness of ugly sin Dr. Babington Bish of Worcester in Gen. 9. or the thick clouds of grief and adversity do threaten unto us any fearful overthrow we should clap our eyes upon our rain-bow Christ Jesus and be assured that although that blacknesse of sin be never so great yet in him and by him it shall be done away and never have power to undo us Although those mists and fogs of adversity be never so thick yet shall they by him as by a hot and strong sun be disperst and never able to drown us The greatest rain we know shall end ere it come to such a flood again and so shall these things before we fall Ecce signum behold Christ is put for a sure signe and token of Gods good will towards men But now I will close neerer and shew what in his good will he hath done for our souls I can pass by Gods sending of his Son as presupposed being the occasion of this blessed ditty but I can never pass by our restitution unto grace by him the greatest act of good will that ever was for when sin had overblackt us with such deformities as left no part cleare when we stood in direct point of diameter to his holyness and could not avoid the sentence of condemnation through his tender mercy the day-spring from on high did visit us and the light of his countenance did shine upon us to give light unto us that sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the wayes of peace Whereby we now stand on firmer and fairer terms of happiness and prosperity than before our first declination There is a more established safety in the condition we have by Christ in Christ than in that first wherein we were lest unto our selves For we fell from that first from this last we cannot and being fallen from that a better a surer cannot be compassed but by him Soul and body were so debilitated through the corruption of our degenerated nature and we so desperately praecipitate in sinful deliberations as that we could not help our selves in this time of need Potui per me sancte Pater offendere sed non valui per me placare saith Aug. in his Manual O my God I could easily offend thee Aug. Manuale cap. 8. by my self but by my self never appease thee nor expiate my offence God therefore unwilling to strive with man for ever who for ever without his mercy he found inclin'd to mischief in a relenting affection remembring we are but dust Pathetically pities our case and in his good will sends us a Redeemer for which the Angels sing Beleeve me O ye servants of my God beleeve me my God can as soon cease to be God which is impossible as cast away his eyes of pity and mercy from us but like as a father pitieth his children Psal 103. so doth the Lord the Workmanship of his hands Blesse the Lord O my soul saith David and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies Boys Postil Ephes 3. The love of God saith one in his Postils is like a Sea into which when a man is cast he neither seeth bank nor seeleth bottom Accordingly saith the Apostle The length the breadth the depth and the height of this love passeth all humane knowledge And as his love is thus without all measure greater by infinite degrees than that of Jonathan to David so are his favours innumerable It was a Martyrs speech worthy registring to posterity To
God no man all spirit no body And besides it argues an impossibility for no creature can be changed into the Creatonr no finite body into an infinite and eternal substance It sufficeth us to know that Christ's soul and body were conditioned according to the description given when he entred into his glory And thus much of the person exalted Christ who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despising the shame Hebr. 12.2 and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God We are next to consider Christ's exaltation the degrees of which are threefold the first degree is his Resurrection answering to the first degree of his humiliation which was his death The second degree is his ascension answering the second of his humiliation which was his burying The third degree which is the height of his exaltation is his sitting at the right hand of God opposed to the lowest of his humiliation which was his descâ—nt into hell his remaining in the state of the dead By these degrees Christ entred into his glory My text limits me to the first degree of his exaltation which is his Resurrection from the dead It was a cruel conflict that Christ had upon the crosse he had his own Father against him taking vengeance upon him for the sins of the world he had Satan against him who out of a malicious disposition plotted and attempted his ruine he had the world against him in bruing their hands and their hearts in his blood his blood be upon us and our children say the Jewes The chief Priests the Scribes the common people the souldiers bandied themselves together against the Lord and against his annointed So close was their pursuing of him that indeed he received the foile they pierced his hands and his feet with nailes and his sides with a speare in the end they ended his dayes the height of their malice But not long after he reviv'd for the third day he rose again which he did for his own greater glory for his and our enemies more shamefull overthrow and for his disciples firmer consolation This was foretold by himself this was testified by men and Angels and is beleeved that he rose the third day Our faith in this is underpropt not only by the testimony of Angels and men Luk. 24.46 but also by Scripture and Arguments Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day By Arguments containing manifest demonstrations of the truth of his resurrection drawn from 1. His body 2. His soulâ— In that which is drawn from his dody Christ doth declare three things 1. That his body was a true real substantial and sollid dody And not framed onely in the imagination or compos'd all of an airy substance Feele and see saith he a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have 2. That his body was a humane body by shewing how that he had the true and perfect effigies and expressions or a man to be seen by the eye 3. That it was the very same numerical body which he hâ—d before by laying open to the view the grievous wounds which he suffered in his body Behold my hands and my feet that it is my self The wounds in his body discover the naked truth of his resurrection In the Argument which is deducted from his soul reunited to his body his resurrection is proved and that by the operations and works of the threefold life proceeding from the soul whereof man is partaker 1. By the works of the nutritive life in that he did eat and drink with them 2. By the works of the sensitive life his answers to his disciples giving evidences of his hearing his discerning them from others of his seeing 3. By the works of the intellective life in his discourses and explications of the profound mystery of the crosse Moreover the time when he rose was the third day He lay not dead in the grave three compleat dayes under the dominion of death for then he should not have risen till the fourth day So that he was but one day and two pieces of two dayes in the grave for he was buried in the evening before the Sabbath and rose in the morning the next day after the Sabbath The Friday evening he was buried the sunday morning he rose again which was the first day of the week and is now our Sabbath observed in memory of his glorious rising who is the Sun of Righteousness from death unto life And as in the first Day of the first World Light was commanded to shine out of darkness upon the deeps So in the first Day of this new World made new by Christ this glorious Sun after its Eclipse come to its period appeared in the brightness of his glory and gives light for ever to those that sit in darkness and dispels those clouds of obscurity that were under the Old Testament from the Christian world So long he rested in the grave as three days yet not full for a demonstraiton of the truth of his death And no longer that his body might not see corruption For had he risen presently we might doubt of the truth of his death Had he remained longer in the grave or unto the end of the world his body would according to the course of nature be corrupted and we might doubt of the truth of his Divinity which required for the manifestation of his power a quick resurrection of his body and a reuniting of the soul thereunto To confirm therefore our faith in both He rose the third day from the dead to enter into his glory As for the power by which he was raised it was not by any other than his own Though this act be attributed to the Father Act. 2.24 yet it is his power too For whatsoever is the Father's is his because He and the Father are one It was the power of his Divinity Superas evadere ad auras Hic labor hoc opus est that effected this great work Destroy this temple and within three days I will raise it again Joh. 2.19 I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again cap. 10.18 Secundum Divinitatis virtutem corpus resumpsit animam quam deposuerat anima corpus resumpsit quod dimiserat sic Christus propriâ virtute resurrexit saith Aquinas According to the mighty working of the Godhead his body reassumed the soul which it did resigne and the soul that body out of which it parted and thus Christ by his own proper power did rise from the dead For indeed it was not possible that he should be holden of it Act. 2.24 for then should he not enter into his glory Here come two points occasioned by these words to be treated of Viz. 1. The Necessity of Christ's Resurrection 2. The Ends thereof Of the Necessity of his Resurrection As it was necessary that Christ should
not shut against you his fatherly providence is tendred to you he withholds no good thing from you he sent first his Son and now that his Son is ascended to him he sends the Spirit of his Son to you into your hearts that by that meanes he may abide with you for ever But why compared â— the love of God to the love of man mans love in respect of Gods not being so much as a grain of mustard-seed to the whole earth or the whole earth to the vast heavens or the smallest drop of water to the whole Ocean I answer for my 〈◊〉 thus that by the marvellons defect and straitness of the one you may in some though in the smallest measure conceive survey you cannot the infinite greatness of the other He sent his Son but his Son return'd in his presence was joy in his absence griefe wherefore God bereaving us of his Sons bodily presence in his tender love sent the Spirit of his Son to raise our dead spirits to comfort us without him comfortless he adopted us sons being his enemies by his Sons coming now for farther confirmation and stronger assurance he signs it he seals it by sending the Spirit of his Son into our hearts Because sons Not natural but elected adopted sons such as many justly challenge the prerogatives and liberty of sons God That is the Father Hath sent forth As Kings do their Ambassadours to signify their pleasure and desires they neither adde nor diminish from their Commission so the Holy Ghost what he receives from the Father shows to them to whom the Father sends him he speaks not of himself but what he hears he speaks what he receives he delivers The Spirit That is John 16.13 14 the Holy Ghost the third person in Trinity Of his Son To wit of the natural Son of God Jesus Christ Gods Son begotten by eternal generation time out of mind 〈◊〉 your bear tsâ— Into your 〈◊〉 Crying Making you with confidence and assurance to cry the Spirit properly cryes not for then it should cry and pray to it selfe Sic ipse Spiritus postulat i.c. ad postulandum cos quos replevit inslammat but it is said to cry when it works that effect in us according to that Rom. 8.15 Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby ye cry Abbâ— Father We are said to cry by the Spirit as a man to see by the eye Abba Father Abba it is an Hebrew word derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyes to be willing here it is translated Father and the reason of that name is rendred to be because of the propensity of the will and desire of a father towards his children being their chiefest wel-willers and wel-wishers The intention then of the words is this The adoption and free election thorough Jesus Christ into the right and liberty of sons pertains not to the Jews alone but to the Gentiles also to the Galatians by the redemption wrought by the Son of God for this purpose annointed by the Father ye receive the adoption of sons God thus making you sons sent his Spirit to you his Spirit sent to you dwells in your hearts and dwelling in your hearts makes you cry with an assurance of his good will Abba Father Of the words there are these parts 1. A person sent the Spirit of the Son 2. A person sending God 3. The sending it self sent 4. The place whither God sends the Spirit of his Son into your hearts 5. The office or effect of the Spirit Crying Abba Father 6. The reason moving and prevailing with God to send his Sons Spirit into your hearts because sons Of the first the person sent the Spirit of the Son the Holy Ghost It will be judg'd in me to be but a labour in vain to endeavour to prove that there is such a Spirit except there be some as I hope there are none so grosly ignorant as those disciples spoken of in the 19. of Acts who profest they did not so much as hear whether there were an Holy Ghest or no. This is a Principle of Religion to be taken of all for granted not to be call'd in question not to be proved to spend words and time in the demonstration hereof is to no more purpose than to prove 't is day when the sun shines this being sufficiently manifest in the works of nature that sufficiently apparent in the effects of grace Divine truth contained in the sacred Word of God stops all gainsaying proceedings in this point None but who will oppose God will oppose it if any man teach otherwise or doubt of the verity hereof he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words he is a man of a corrupt mind and destitute of the truth carried away with the spirit of giddiness and of error I will therefore spare my pains in convicting such rude and giddy-headed spirits for I direct my lines to Christians well instructed in this Article of our faith not to Turks and Mahumetans and by Gods assistance teach and write what shall be more fit all things well weigh'd for them to learn and me to deliver 1. Why the Holy Ghost is called a Spirit 2. Why he is called the Spirit of the Son The third person is called a Spirit because 1. He is a spiritual incorporeal and invisible essence whose being is not like that of Angels though spirits they are but ministring spirits of Almighty God finite but he is infinite whom the world cannot contain whom the most piercing eye cannot see whom the most sublime wit cannot conceive The reâ—ulgene glory of those heavenly spirits dazzles our understanding in our meditations and discourses of them our imaginations cannot reach their transcendent and Metaphysical nature far distant from our spheare much more are we unable to fix our bodily or intellectual eye upon that spiritual being whose being and glory is absolutely in comprehensible dwelling in that light to which there can be no accesse and in that height to which no created nature can aspire He is called a Spirit 2. Nescis torda mâ—li â—â—ina gratiá Spiritus Sancti Ambros In regard of the mighty power and unresistible efficacy it hath in operation implyed in the rushing wind on the day of Pentecost and the fiery tongues His wonderful activity is made sufficiently manifest by the creation of the world and well known in the hearts of sinners by their conversion and new creation a work not of small importance Act. 2. a concurrence of all the powers of nature cannot effect it Men and Angels can do much but not so much let men of the rarest parts most eminent endowments and of the best quality laying grace aside do what they may say what they will they shall find themselves scanted of ability to begin much lesse to go thorough with so great a work The wind blowes strong and fire is very active so the Holy Spirit blows down the strong
holds of Sat an erected in the hearts of sinful men disperseth all chaffy cogitations of wickedness and filleth every corner of the soul with heavenly inspiration with transporting thoughts and meditations of an higher than an earthly nature and as fire it inflames the heart with the love of God whence proceeds zeal of Gods glory that fire of heaven and a fixt resolution as in Martyrs to suffer fire and fuggot for the profession of his name By reason or the working thus of his mighty power the Scripture stiles him by the name of the power of the most high Eâ— operante creabatur homo eo operante recreatur As by his working power man was created by the same renewed and born again As by his power he gave life Luk. 1. so he gives newness of life by his power Spiritus est qui vivificat it is the Spirit that quickens us before dead in sins and trespasses He is called a spirit 3. Because he is breathed from the Father and the Son that is he is that person by whom the Father and the Son do immediately work heavenly motions and saving graces in the hearts of the elect Spiritus à spirando wherefore when Christ breathed on his Disciples he said unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost Job 20.22 These I conceive to be the reasons why the third person in Trinity is called a Spirit Now must I shew the reasons why he is called the Spirit of the Son they as I Imagine are these First because he proceeds from the Son by an eternal procession and intelligible emanation the essence of the Son is communicated to him hence coeternal coessential consubâ—antial with the Son he is called the Spirit of Christ Contra Arianos Rom. 8.9 not as one saith by way of allenation nor by way of multiplication of the divine essence which can be but one but by communcating the very same numericall essence wherein the Father and the Son subsist unto him in an incomprehensible manner whence he is term'd also the Spirit of the Father Galat. 3. for the essence of the Father is the essence of the Son and the essence of them both the essence of the Spirit he proceeds from both not simply as from two persons but in that they are one in essence not more principally from the Father lesse principally from the Son as Lombard and the schoolmen of this age affirm but from the person of the Father and the son in the unity of essence without any such distinction for upon the admission of this distinction we may justly infer an inequality of the persons of the Deity a thing without blasphemy not to be admitted the Spirit of holyness equally proceeds from both as from one beginning against the definition of the Greek Church but non voluntate sed natura seu necessitate naturae licet secundum voluntat is modum not by the act of the will but by the act of nature or by the necessity of nature according to the manner of the wills working which I cannot conceive in other terms than these that is God willing it He is called the Spirit of the Son 2. Because he is in the Son and the Son in him as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son to wit by their eternal essence And besides this the Spirit dwelt in him in the dayes of his flesh inriching his humane nature with all fulness of grace And at his baptisme the heavens opening Mat. 3.16 John saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him He is called the Spirit of the Son 3. Because the Son sends him to seal our adoption to us Joh. 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testify of me He sends that which is his and gives it too Joh. 20.22 receive ye the Holy Ghost And not onely the Son but the Father also sends him but in the Sons name whom the Father will send in my name saith Christ Joh. 14.26 Which shall testify of me Royard in Joh. 14. saith he Joh. 18.26 the Father sends him in his Sons name that is saith Royard to the glory of his name in which respect he is term'd the Spirit of the Son He is called the Spirit of the Son 4. Because he receives the wisdom and knowledge of the Son who is the wisdom of the Father and reveals it unto us He guides us into all truth Joh. 16.13 for as it followeth he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he shall shew you things to come Verse 4. He shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Verse 15. All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you All saving knowledge and divine graces coming from the Son in whom the hidden treasures of pure wisdom do rest are confer'd upon us the sons of God by adoption by the Spirit of the Son of God by eternal generation From which discourse may be deduced three conclusions 1. That this Spirit of the Son is a Person he proceeds from the Father and the Son not as an accident but as a Person It was the grosse conceit of some heretical mistaken spirits erroneous in their judgments that this Spirit of the Son is only a motion or quality wrought by God in the hearts of his children or some divine inspiration infused from above by divine grace into the soules of them whom God had chosen out of the world to be more eminent than others Those conceits may seem plausible to corrupted reason not discerning the things of God which are spiritually discerned yet they contradict that which by Infallible consequence may be deducted out of the sacred truths of Gods word and right reason Laying therefore these two Gods word and right reason as two sure foundations and uncontrolable Principles which may justly sway our judgments I will presse the truth of this conclusion against all opposites The Spirit of the Son is a person Because he appeared in a visible shape The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon Christ and he appeared like cloven tongues of fire and sate upon each of the disciples and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance What motion what quality what inspiration can appear in such or any visible similitudes or bodily shapes or give utterance to men He is a person because called God When Peter taâ—t Ananiâ—s of his double dealing he told him he had lyed to the Holy Ghost and in lying to the Holy Ghost Act. 5. thou hast said he to him not lyed unto men but unto God The Essence of God is Tota in qualibet personâ Deitatis whole
in every one that is called God And forasmuch as the Essence and the Persons are inseparable whatsoever is properly called God is a Person What Motion what Quality what Inspiration can be called God He is a Person because we are baptized in his Name He is the Author of this institution He is the Director of the whole act by his authority by his command by his power the water is sanctified the baptized are renewed the whole work is happily accomplished For all is done in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost not in the name of a Motion of a Quality of an Inspiration He is a Person because the properties of a Person are attributed to him Luk. 11.12 Joh. 16. Joh. 14.1 Cor. 12.11 Act. 13.2.1 Joh. 5.7 Rom. 8. He is sud to teach us heavenly knowledge to lead us into all truth to comfort the afflicted members of Jesus Christ to distribute gifts and graces according to his good pleasure to call and send Apostles to bear witness in heaven with the Father and the Son to bear witness with our spirits that we are the sons of God to cry in our hearts Abba Father to make intercessions for us with groanings that cannot be uttered These are not effects proper to a Motion or a Quality or an Inspiration Lastly He is distinguished most manifestly from the Gifts of God Dona honoraria There are diversity of gifts but the same Spirit the same Spirit distributing these gifts so divers where it will Thus it is apparent that the Spirit of the Son is a Person And as he is a Person so is he 2. A distinct Person from the Father and the Son Non aliud sed alius Not essentially differing noted by the first word but hypostatically noted by the last And as he is a Person so is he 2. A distinct Person from the Father and the Son Non aliud sed alius Not essentially differing noted by the first word but hypostatically noted by the last And that because he is the Spirit of the Father and the Son He cannot be said to be his own Spirit as the Father cannot be said to be his own Father or the Son his own Son that is as absurd as this Again because he is said to be another from them both I will ask the Futher Joh. 14.16 and he shall send you another Comforter Christ whilst he was on earth was a Comfort unto his Disciples wherefore lest diffidence and despair by reason of the great persecutions they should suffer after his departure should break their hearts and sorrow ruine them he prays the Father to send them another Comforter and promiseth he will see it done for their assurance cap. 15.26 He will send him from the Father Furthermore He hath a relative property and characteristical note several from theirs putting a difference betwixt them and him He onely proceeds from the Father and the Son He onely appeared under the form of an innocent Dove and of fiery cloven tongues By his immediate operation Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin and by his immediate operation Gods children are throughly sanctified and furnished unto every good work Last of all The Father sends him that so sends him whence he is neither the Father nor the Son but one from them It is a marvellous impropriety of speech that a man should be said to send himself but proper it is to say he comes of his own accord Forasmuch therefore as the Spirit is said to be sent from the Father and the Son and as here God sent forth the Spirit of his Son He is a Person distinct from them both Which is the thing I intended to demonstrate As he is a Person so is he the third and last Person not last in time nor last in nature nor last in dignity but last in the order and manner of subsisting and of performing such works as are common to them all called works ab extra as Creation Redemption Preservation Justification Sanctification c. Having briefly gone over these two points I shall endeavour by Gods grace to do the like in the next which is this 3. That there are Three Persons in the Deity to whom the Divine Essence is communicated The Father the Son the Spirit For humane Reason fully to conceive so high a mystery is impossible What therefore we must learn hereof the Scripture teacheth Faith receives and Reason must not contradict Rather imbrace those depths of knowledge with admiration than by an over-curious inquisition to dive into it and return unsatisfied and sore troubled Yet because Ignorance needs information and Curiosity requires confirmation I will say somewhat though little of it The Platonists acknowledge in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mind or Understanding a Word a Spirit By Understanding they understand the Father by the Word the Son who by S. Joh. 1.1 is expresly called the Word by Spirit the Third Person proceeding from the Father and the Son called The Love of God Hence Divines conceive the matter thus The Father is quasi Deus intelligens God understanding The Son who is the express Image of the Father is quasi Dens intellectus God understood callâ—d the Wisdom of the Father the Image of the Father the Word of God as a word is but the image of the understanding The Spirit breathed and proceeding from the Father and the Son is quasi Deus dilectus God is Love saith S. Lombard John hence by Lombard said to be that Love wherewith the Father loves the Son the Son the Father So the Text reckons up three the Father the Son the Spirit God sent forth the Spirit of his Son This is indeed a deep mystery Yet as abstruse as this Divine mystery of the Trinity is Nature can give us some insight by similitudes though imperfect of the possibility and truth of it We see that in the Sun there is an indesinent fountain of light a brightness and splendor springing out of it and a quickning and reviving heat proceeding from it yet none will be so foully mistaken as to conclude out of these three that there are three Suns there being still but one So though the Essence of the Godhead be but one yet we must know it is communicated unto three Persons and though communicated unto three Persons yet still the Essence is but one We see that in Man there are two diverse and far different natures a Body and a Soul yet these two make not two Men but one these reteining the unity of one Person If two diverse Natures met together make one Person why may not one Nature and Essence be communicated to Three and those Three having one and the same Essence still remain one God We see that in the Soul of Man there is a Will which is the immediate beginning ab intra of every act proceeding from our selves commanding this or that to be done sic volo
enemies God in Christ Jesus his Son hath adopted us to be his sons And because thus sons behold a further pledge of his never failing-favour to us he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts Crying Abba Father So that upon the Spirit of God confer'd is confer'd the gift of prayer for in whose hearts he dwels he is not idle neither is he as that spirit that Christ did cast out of the man in the Gospel dumbe a dumbe spirit but a crying spirit not that the spirit properly cryes Abba Father for God the Father is not the Father of the spirit but of the Son and the beginning or fountain from whom as also from the Son the Spirit doth proceed but that it makes them in whom he ever is to be ever crying Abba Father Wherein is to be observed 1. An act Crying 2. The Object Abba Father This crying is praying and not every kind of praying but a vehement and ardent praying with all the affections and powers of the soul assembled together whereby the desires of our hearts are made known unto the God of heaven the soules voice is drawn up to the height Thus our Saviour in the dayes of his flesh is said to have offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears Conqueror tibi lachrymis Jesu Christi said one unto him that was able to save him from death Hebr. 5.7 We read how Jacob wrestlest with the Angel and would not let him go untill he had blest him Even so the spirit of prayer makes us to strive and wrestle with God and never cease crying until he hear us untill he grant us our requests It is so with us as it is with children that cannot relieve themselves without the aid of others they raise the strong cry and so continue without intermission untill their wants be contented and supplied so do we who are the children of God cry continually unto him who is the giver of every good and perfect gift until our desires be accomplished And forasmuch as we are compassed about with a world of infirmities so that sometimes we have not the heart to cry or at least cry not with all our hearts Quom do enim non exauditur spiritus à Patre qui exaudit cum Patre Aug. then the Spirit helpeth our infirmities And seeing our ignorance is so great as that wee know not what we should pray for as we ought the Spirit it self makes intercession for us informs us what we should ask for or â—od knowing the spirits intentions grant us what indistinctly and indirectly we beg by the Spirit Hence he is called the Spirit of Supplications Zech. 12.10 I will poure upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Hierusalem the spirit of grace and supplications Hence he is called again an Intercessor for he makes continual intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Rom. 8.27 and in the 15. vers of that chapter the Apostle certifies the Romanes that they have received the spirit of adoption whereby they cry Abba Father Wherefore when the sons of God perceive the fiery darts of Satan flying about their eares on every side and themselves subject to infinite perills they fall a praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit Eph. 6.18 and watching thereunto with all perseverance When the children of Israel as is reported in the book of Judges were in the heat of Gods anger sold unto their enemies many a time opprest many a time in desperate cases many a time vanquished for their revolting from God and forgetting his loving kindness they are said then to cry for life unto God whose eares were ever open to receive their hearty prayers Psal 40.1 Thus saith David I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry This crying is either mental only conceived in the heart or mind alone and only or vocal published by the mouth alone The mental cry onely conceived in the heart by the spirit is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that confidence and assurance which the Sons of God have that they are the Sons of God and that all things are theirs in Christ Jesus or more plainly it is the elevation of the heart to God in a secret manner preferring their petitions unto him with confidence that he will grant them what they humbly and earnestly sue for according to his will altogether this crying is internal Moses egit vacis silentium ut corde clamaret yet God to whom all hearts are open hears it as a cry when Moses spake not a word to God but onely desired in the secret cogitations of his heart his aid and protection at the red sea against the Egyptians the Lord sard unto him Wherefore cryest thou unto me Exod. 14.15 When Hannah prayed unto God for a manchild she spake with her heart onely her lips moved but her voice was not heard 1 Sam. 1.13 When Nehemiah made request unto King Artaxerxes concerning the City which was the place of his fathers sepulchres he had not at that instant any time to pray to God with his voice to prosper his suit yet saith the texts he prayed to the God of heaven Such indeed may be the sorrow and anguish of the heart as that the tongue shall not be able to utter the intentions of the soul and this doubtlesse was the case wherein Moses Nehem. 2.4 Curae leves loquuntur tngentes stupent Hannah and Nehemiah were David profest as much Psal 77.4 I am so troubled that I cannot speak bodily infirmities may cause this silence for we see that men at the last gasp when the soul is ready to flie out of the body and they in a manner by reason of the weaknesse of the Organ of speech not able to utter one syllable they lift up their eyes to heaven thereby signifying the hearts raising of this crying unto God Hence proceed those groanes in the children of God when their speech fails them which are the onely messengers of their thoughts and they are said to be the spirits groanings in their hearts whereby intercession is made for them They are called unspeakable groans unspeakable say some for their greatness and so indeed they are great in the ears of God unspeakable say others by reason of their weakness caused either by outward crosses or inward pressures of the soul expressions they are certainly of a good heart listed up to God and though weak proceeding from the special instinct and proper motion of the Spirit of prayer And albeit they be weak and confused in the hearts of Gods children so that they themselves can hardly discern or utter them in themselves Rom. 8.27 yet God who is the searcher of the hidden things of the heart knows the mind and meaning of the Spirit so that by the cryes sigh's or sobs to God never so small and in a manner insensible and seeble
like the saint pulse at the hour of death yet if they thereby by the Spirit make requests unto God it shall be heard of him and albeit those things which they sigh after be not alwayes manifestly and the Spirit moving thereunto distinctly seen of them yet God who is infinite in knowledge doth perceive their desires or rather the desires of the Spirit in them This mental crying is not common to all but proper to the children of the regeneration 1 Cor. 12.3 without which none can hardly call God Father as none can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost The next kind of crying is that which is only vocal consisting only of words Thus Hypocrites cry and pray for fashion not for conscience sake Vox praeteria nihil all voice no hearts they can cry loud enough in a Pharisaical pride Lord Lord and none shall stop their mouths but such heartlesse Christians shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven These are they that draw near unto the Lord with their mouth and with their lips do honour him but have removed their heart far from him as he complains Isa 29.13 This is saith one Precationis inane simulachrum and in truth that prayer or cry which is only a lip-labour not proceeding from the heart is but as sounding brasse or a tinkling Cymbal it is like the Play called the Motions wherein though there is motion yet no life and although there be never so glorious and pompous observation of outward ceremonies and in that complemental manner only come before God and offer up their prayers unto him yet shall they have the repulse for their vain ostentation Thus Isaiah the first the Lord speaking of the hypocritial Jews that were curious in the external worship and service of God and would seem to pretermit nothing therefore professeth unto them because their services were not performed with the heart that when they made many prayers he would not hear them And the same Prophet Cap. 64.7 in effect calls such prayers no prayers when as be saith There is none that calleth upon the name of God he that cryes not to God with his whole heart cryes not at all to God for he that worships God must worship him in Spirit and in Truth not in bare formalities This kind of crying is but a vain beating of the aire is anothing available whereof the Spirit is no author and unless the Spirit cry in the heart there can be no true but a false crying Abba Father There remains yet a third kind of crying or praying viz. both mental and vocal wherein both the heart and the voice are directed to God the mind and the mouth both consonant both jump together here out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And this is that pure language which the Lord speaking by the Prophet Zephany said that he would turn to the people that they might all call upon the name of the Lord. The Prophet Hosea advertiseth the Israelites Cap. 3.7 Cap. 14.2 Nec lecta neé neglecta Psal 77.1 to take to them words and to turn to the Lord that is such words as may make a true report unto God of their hearty conversion to him and lively saith in him Thus saith David I cryed unto God with my voice even unto God with my voice and he gave ear unto me Such a cry as is this is no false alarum but a true testimony of a sanctified soul of our confidence in him and is ever powerful with God The prayer of the faithful availeth much saith St. James for it is framed and composed by the admirable Art of the Spirit of God in their hearts ere it be uttered with the tongue The voice then reflecting on the heart the heart is made more zealous and then what is said of fame may be said of it Vires acquirit eundo it gathers strength in the uttering Let your voice therefore in prayer be conformed and correspond to the affections and wishes of your hearts that they may run together and let the affections and wishes of your hearts be guided by the Holy Ghost which if ye do it is without all contradiction a most certain Argument that God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father From the act of crying I passe to the object Abba Father The Spirit saith the Apostle beareth witnesse with our spirits Rom. 8. that we are the sont of God This testification of the Spirit in our hearts who is an infallible informer of the things that are given us of God makes to cry Abba Father For we can never call God Father except we be first informed and perswaded by the Spirit that we are the sons of God The Hebrew or Syriack word Abba and the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in the Original here together gave occasion to some to observe that hereby is intimated the calling and union of Hebrews and Greeks of Jewes and Gentiles into one Church whereof Christ is the head But though this be true yet this Text is no sufficient warrant for this observation and therefore not to be insisted upon The gemination here Abba Father which is Father Father noteth the earnest affection and vehement zeal of Gods children in crying and praying unto the Father of Spirits their prayers are pressing and urgent cries and never satisfied until heard which ardency of theirs is grounded 1. Upon the sence of their wants necessity constrains them to use all earnestnesse in their own behalf they must knock hard they must seek hard they must cry hard Father Father ere they shall be heard or their suits obtained 2. Upon the knowledge of their own insufficiency and disability of furnishing themselves with corporal necessaries pertaining to the body or spiritual blessings and habiliments pertaining to the soul They know that the blessings of this life and the life to come must come from their Father which is in heaven 3. Upon Gods willingnesse and readinesse to do them all the good he can He is faithful in promising and as faithful in performing The word Abbah signifieth to be willing from whence God hath this Appellation a father is willing to protect his child from all dangers and to relieve him upon all occasions and although just cause of anger be offered him yet nature in time will work it out Even such is the tender affection of our heavenly Father known to his beloved sons that they are hereby the more emboldened to prosecute what they would have brought to passe They have his heart to be set upon them his eares alwayes to be open unto them his eyes continually watching over them his best wishes ever with them and all his blessings reserved for them These are encouragements for them to approach unto him who is more forward to give unto themall things than they themselves to demand any thing Hence it comes to passe that coming unto
him as unto our Father we come boldly we may come confidently there is nothing more requisite than to put on a good face and a good courage when we sue to God No denial must be taken at the first entrance for this were too dejected pusillanimity The widow in the Gospel through her importunate sollicitation obtained what by a sleight intreaty she could not compasse O let us therefore saith the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 4. ult come boldly unto the throne of grace that we obtain mercy and find grace in time of need God hath erected a throne of grace where he sits to receive and to hear all suits directed unto him for mercy He hath a Court for mercy as well as for justice where humane merits must not be pleaded but Gods mercy above all advanced if then any child of God who hath been prodigal in mis-spending what God hath given him come but to him in the time of need modestly bold he shall return with a contented mind and shall find rest sufficient for his soul This may be term'd a holy presumption Upon whom should children presume if not upon their parents Upon whom should we be bold if not upon our provident Creator What father of the flesh will give his children a stone for bread or for fish a Serpent If our fleshly parents know how to give good things to their children when they ask of them how much more knoweth our heavenly Father to confer good things to them that rely upon his Providence and cry to him Since therefore we have free accesse to God cry with all boldnesse unto him who will prosper our endeavours and like an indulgent father fill us with good things and will not return us empty away We may come confidently with assured perswasion of his favor and lenity the very name of Father is of force enough to repel out of our minds all diffidence Christ hath obtained this boon for us at the hands of God that we shall have what we ask in his Name What things soever saith our Saviour Christ Mark 11.24 ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them The Lord Qui exprobrat reposcit Tacitus He giveth liberally without upbraiding to them that ask in faith nothing wavering James 1.5 6. The hope of children must rest on the parents care so ours on God And when we come unto him we come not to him as to a severe revenger of sin and rigorous Judge but as unto a most compassionate Father The Spirit teacheth us and maketh us to cry Abba Father Wherefore learn hence upon all occasions Apage terra quod utinam Deus in Caelo jam tecum essem quid enim est in terrâ quod me vel tan tillum retineat Bern. whether in prosperity or adversity to have recourse unto him Whom have we in heaven but thee saith the Psalmist and saith every Christian and whom in earth do we desire beside thee Do we offend he forgives our iniquities are we sick he healeth all our diseases are we in danger of destruction he redeemeth our life and crowneth us with loving kindness and tender mercies are we bitten with hunger he satisfieth our mouth with good things Provoke we him to anger He is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy he will not alwayes chide neither will he keep his anger for ever he deals not with us after our sins nor rewandeth us according to our iniquiries but as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psal 103. Then having such free entrance to him and so great hopes of compassing our defires if we come not boldly we come not confidently we are justly worthy to lose our labour and return with shame Let nothing therefore disswade us from calling upon him at all times Remember our Saviours counsel and comfortable promise Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you And if our leisure will not serve us to pour out our souls and to make known our intentions in humble supplications unto the most high in a continued and ample speech we may use a short ejaculation of mind Crebras habere orationes sed brevissimas raptim ejaculatas which is a Prayer short and sweet wherein proceeding from Faith we shall be certainly heard For if we cannot speak we may sob sigh groan and weep unto which God will have a gracious respect The efficacy hereof depends upon the operation of the Spirit in our hearts by whose power we are made to sob to sigh to groan to weep and to cry of whom none are partakers but sons and by whom none but sons cry Abba Father And thus much for the effect of the Spirit in the hearts of the sons of God The last part that remains to be treated of is the ground of the Spirits being in our hearts crying thus Because sons There are sons by nature and so there are no sons of God but one Christ Jesus called the onely begotten Sonne of God and though the regenerate be said to be born of God it is spiritually to be understood of a new creation called regeneration not of any natural descent There are sons of God by creation so Angels and men are called the children of God There are sons of God by Participation Thus Kings and Magistrates are sons to whom he doth communicate some part of his power and Majesty There are sons of God by ageneral Profession of Religion so they who live in the visible Church of Christ professing the true worship of God in Christ Jesus are called sons of God And theâ—e sons of God by adoption or special grace of which sort are all they into whose hearts God sends forth the Spirit of his Son Herein we are to note two things 1. The ground of our Adoption 2. The benefits that redound unto us thereby The ground of our Adoption as of our salvation through the tender mercy of our God is Christ Jesus for for this end came he into the world for this end by his precious blood did he redeem us whereas before we were his enemies and sons of wrath This is exprest in the fourth and fifth verses of this Chapter where it is said that God sent forth his Son made of a woman John 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nonnu to redeem us that so we might receive the adoption of sons As many as received Christ by faith hath he given power or as Nonnus renders it heavenly honour to become the sons of God We must first have spiritual being in Christ which is done by faith ere we can be reputed sons The Apostle tells us Ephes 1.5 6 7. that our sonship was decreed in heaven from all eternity God did predestinnte us saith he unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself according to the good
in the salvation of penitent and beleeving soules the glory of his justice in the condemnation of obdurate and perverse malefactors As it is a perfect law so it is a law of liberty oppos'd to the Mosaical which is lex senvitutis a law of thraldome The liberty of this law in respect of our twofold condition is twofold 1. Gracious here in the life of grace wrought by Christ the Son of the everliving God if the Son make us free we are free indeed Joh. 8.36 Wherefore we have a free accesse at all times to call upon the Father of mercys imploring his powerful assistance in holy actions and invincible protection from all evil 2. Glorious in the life of glory called Vindicationis libertas the liberty of compleat redemption the creature being delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God Phrasis qulgatissima est Deum colere Non secus at que agri fertiles inprimis optimi sic Dei cultus fâ—uctus fert ad vitam aternam uberrimos Of this twofold liberty there are these parts 1. A liberty from sin our submission to the Gospel and faithful embracing of the promises of God in Christ frees us both from the raigning power of sin and from the condemning power For being made free from sin we become servants to God and have our fruit unto holiness and the and everlusting life Rom. 6.22 2. A liberty from the yoke of the ceremonial law and bondage of the morall From the yoke of the ceremonial law which was so ponderous as that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear but now by Christ and the law of faith it is blotted out quite abolished and taken out of the way And from the bondage of the moral law in these ensuing particulars 1. From the curse and consequently from the punishment of sin the transgression of the law Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Gal. 3.13 Rom. 8.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Apostle certifies us that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus 2. From the rigour and exaction of the law requiring of us for our justification perfect righteousness inherent in us and perfect obedience to be practis'd by us 3. From the terrour and coaction of the law which ingendereth servile fear in those who are under it and compelleth them through the horror of torment as bond-slaves by the whip or rack to the outward though unwilling performance of it But those that are under the law of grace are zealously addicted to good works and services of God which are over done by them with the free consent of a plous mind the original cause whereof is not any natural disposition but the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto us 4. from the instigation of the law for which reason saith Pareus on 1 Cor. 15.56 it hath got the name of the strength of sin whereby sin appears more sinfull which is not caused by any fault in the law in it self good and condemning sin but through the viciousness of our unregenerate nature that takes occasion from the sacred prohibitions of it to transgresse which irritation is accidentall not essentiall to the undefiled law of the righteous Lord. Another part of this liberty is a liberty from death which is twofold the first and the second They that are effectually in subjection to the Gospel the glad-tidings of peace are free from the first death as it is a punishment And from the second over them the second death shall have no power Tollitur morâ— non ne fiat sed ne obsit Aug. To them the nature of the first death is changed and made but transitus ad vitam a passage from death to life it is the end of sin and misery and the beginning of our unspeakable happiness the high-way from the vale of teares to the Kingdom of glory and Celestiall joyes the Period of a mortall life and the innitiation of a life immortal Last of all there is a liberty from Sathan and the world granted to the sons of God adopted in the Son of God the Son of God hath over come the strong man Not imperium Principis but Carnificis à Lapide and bound him as being stronger than he thorough death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devil and delivereth them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 Get thee behind us Satan as Christ said to Peter and let the wicked world follow thee which Christ hath over-come Joh. 16. ult And since O loving Saviour we live free men free from sin reigning condemning free from Satan and the world under the easy yoke of thy Evangelical Law and under the protection of thy wings We will with thy disciples follow thee whithersoever thou goest and run after thee whither thy good Spirit shall lead us Thus it is apparent how the Gospel of Christ is a perfect Law of liberty into which whoso looketh and continueth therein he being not a forgetfull hearer but a doer of the work shall be blessed in his deed From the bottome of the stairs or ladder we now go up the steps the first whereof is speculation whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty Joh. 5.39 Audite saeculares comparate vobis Biblia animae Pharmaca Chrysost Prono capite propenso collo accurate in trospieere 1 Pet. 1.12 It was a good advice blest be the mouth that gave it Search the Scriptures which is made good by the reasons rendred for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of me saith our Saviour hence this search must not be slight this speculation not vain this looking not perfunctory our Knowledge of Christ and eternal life depending on it This is intimated in the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying an exact and accurate prying into a thing as if one to find out somewhat difficult to find out should stand in this posture with his body or head bended towards the earth his eyes contracted and fixed upon some object as if he did intend to look it through and so to inform himself fully Thus when we attempt to look into the abstruse mysteries of divinity to acquaint our selves with the sacred Principles of Religion a superficial view is of no avail Profound matters require a serious and frequent meditation an indefatigable study hence the Apostle St Peter describing the desire of the Angels to know the hidden mysteries of salvation expresseth it by the same word the Angels desire to look narrowly into the things revealed to us by the Holy Ghost a work worthy their and our pains not to be posted over with a careless run but to be stuck close unto and prosecuted until finished and the mind in
shall please God than put unworthy hands to hold it up Nil defensoribus istis indiget Ecclesia 'T is a fearful doom they shall undergo when God shall require the peoples blood at their hands who perish for want of knowledge however these men cannot be denied the benefit of their Clergy if they can but read As for them that cannot preach yet presume their presumption speaketh their folly yet such mâ—lapart audacity is sooner crowned with the Lawrel than a modest ingenuity Upon the first hearing they are nois'd famous when indeed they offer but the sacrifice of fools It was a religious wish of a wise man God forbid that every man that can take unto himself boldnesse to speak an hour together in a Church upon a text should be admitted for a Preacher though he mean never so well A setled brain a good sad temper a studious disposition a well-grounded learning is fittest for this enterprize Therefore we may justly admire the valour of some men that before their studies dare ascend the Pulpit and do there take more pains than they have in their library This makes some to use an inculcation of vain tautologie others as one saith such fugitive Divines that like cowards they run away from their text I say no more of them but wish with all my soul that ere they lookt abroad they had looked well into the perfect law of liberty at home and so I dismisse them As Ministers must look into the Word of God first so must the people after The lips of the Priest preserve knowledge for the peoples use Non libro sacerdotis sed labrâ— non codice sed corde conservatur scientia their blood will be required at his hands if they through his default wander out of the way and perish in their sins if otherwise their blood will be upon their own heads Your practice then dear brethren in looking into the Word must be To hear the Word when preached to hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with joy rejoyceing with David to go into the house of the Lord and to dwell there for ever To hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all readinesse of mind 1 Pet. 2.2 and longing after it Psal 119.131 To hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all humility like Paul sitting at Gamaliels feet To hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with fear and reverence as in Gods presence like Cornelius hearing what God saith To hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with patience and a retir'd attention like Mary laying aside all cumbersom thoughts of the world that may distract your souls The Romans held their Censors so reverend that they thought him worthy of no small punishment that did but yawne before him and shall not God judge them think you that care not how they hear his Embassadors holding forth the word of reconciliation Heathenish Alexander and Attila that received Jaddus and Leo as the Lord himself and the foolish Galatians that received Saint Paul as an Angel of God even as Christ hiraself shall rise and condemn all perfunctory Auditors of his truth Take heed then how you hear and follow not the steps of that untoward generation of the Jewes in their peevish incredulity shutting their eyes upon the glorious light of saving truth Like that sullen tree in the Indies which they say closeth it self against the beams of the rising Sun and opens only to the dampish shades of the night What a shame will it be to you shall that conceit of a new invention be fulfilled in you Christians had once blind Churches and lightsom hearts but now blind hearts and lightsom Churches It was the complaint of one in his time that the fathers had plowed sowen reaped fan'd the wheat and set the bread upon the table but the children had not a mouth to eat it Let it not be so said of you for if it may for truth in truth you perish your souls everlastingly Solomon confirms me he that despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Prov. 13.13 Carefully look then into the Word by hearing so shall ye suredly passe that danger Again your practice must be to read the Law of your God whilest your tongues read your souls hear God speaking The circumspect reading of one Chapter whereof I speak it by experience sets me a thinking more than I can imagine it elevates the soul above it self which rests satisfied without expecting farther Enthusiasms or new Revelations such heavenly doctrine is thereby dropt into the heart as fits the reader to render a reason of his faith Those faithful witnesses of Christ in Bohemia called Thalorites if they had not diligently plyed the Scriptures could not have been so skilful in them as Aeneas Sylvius their profest enemy reporteth them Aeneas Sylvius de dict fact Alphons lib. 2. c. 17. Many hath fame crowned for wise men that read much but none for more wise than those who delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate therein both day and night Which meditation is the souls Perspective-Glasse whereby in her long remove she discerneth God as if he were near at hand Nothing can carry us so near God and heaven as this do but joyn them together and they give up a man to raptures and irradiate the soul with such high apprehensions that all that wisdom which this world hath hereby appears contemptible Now for the better understanding of the mind of God it will not be amisse in reading in meditating to confer Scripture with Scripture As the clouds clashing together in the aire above throw them at the length a most bright lightning so do the Scriptures when parallel'd The reason is strong Ireneus gave it Ireneus Ostentiones quae sunt in Scripturis non possunt aliter ostendi quà m ex Scripturis The demonstrations in Scripture cannot be otherwise made good than by Scripture A good wit invented this allusion the striking of two or three strings together directeth the Musitian for the tuning of his instrument so the comparing of several texts of Sacred Writ leadeth us to the true intention of the Spirit Thus if we read thus if we meditate we shall read we shall meditate with understanding Furthermore your practice must be to confer with the learned dead with the learned living so Christs disciples did with Christ the Eunuch did so with Philip. Hierom highly commends Marcella for the like and Fiabiola for the like zeal With the learned dead in their works breathing instructions are more effectual all grant but these have their operation And being the number is but small as the number of Pearls in comparison of baser stones the want blessed be our God is well provided for by their living monuments which we may use as a traveller doth a Map the better to find out the way or as Joseph did the mans help that advised him to leave Sechem and seek his brethren in Dothan But to what purpose is all this The Patrons
the Word they feed all Nations by two and two to signifie the calling of two people Jew and Gentile Rom. 3.29 The Jews thought that God was confined unto them Is he the God of the Jews onely is not he also of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also Therefore our Saviour sent them as well to the Gentile as to the Jew They are likened to the bells of the High-Priest they depend on the vertue of the Eternal Priest after the order of Melchisedeck Psal 19. Rom. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that as the Psalmist reports there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard their sound went into all the carth and their words unto the ends of the world They are like the middle bar in the midst of the boards in the Tabernacle which reach from end to end Exod. 26.28 They are the Chariots of the Lord Bernard who by saith hope and charity carry the Trinity through the world Non corporis praesentiâ sed mentis providentia saith Bernard not in bodily presence but in the wisdom of the mind providing for future things like Ezekiels chariot going to the four corners of the world Quae regio in terras nostri non plena laboris Thus Christ sent Now a little of the Apostles sending That they should go unto the Gentiles and we unto the Circumcision Nihil hîc statuunt Apostoli quod non ante statuit Deus Here the Apostles ordain nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith a Greek Father that was not preordained of God It was Gods own voice to Ananias Paul is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel Act. 9.15 Paul was Gods chief Hearld the Gospels loudest Trumpeter It was Gods own voice unto Paul himself I will send thee far unto the Gentiles Act. 22.21 It was Gods voice unto the Prophets and Teachers that were at Antioch Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Act. 13.12 Whereupon they immediately went and preached unto the Gentiles And here note the wisdom of God Paul a Gentile full of wisdom was sent here unto the Gentiles who sought for wisdom Peter a Jew excellent for working miracles sent unto the Jews who sought always for miracles and signs a sign of their infidelity all working togeher for the good of his elect of one mind when farthest asunder Now seeing the Jews have rejected the yoke of Christ and the Gentiles of whom we are a part have taken it on them We may say of them as they sometime of us We have a little sister and she hath no breasts Amazon-like she hath one breast the Old Testament but wants the other the chief breast the New Let us pray for them as they did for us that they may hear Christ crying out aloud to the Church Cant. 6. Return return O Shulamite return return that we may look upon thee and see as it were the company of two Armies the one of Jews the other of Gentiles all one Church one flock We pray thee then O Heavenly Father to call the uncalled Jew and Gentile to comfort the comfortless and to make an end of these dayes of sin wherein we live and cause our Saviour to appear in the clouds for our full and perfect Redemption Do it for his sake that died for us To whom with Thee and thy Holy Spirit be given all glory As it was in the beginning so now and ever shall be world without end Amen FINIS Deo soli Gloria ERRATA PAg. 5. lin 18. read earth p. 6. l. 17. r. us p. 7. l. 13. carnal p. 9. l. ult place p. 11. l. 1. then Marg. r. via p. 13. l. 46. ipse p. 14. l. 35. recusat vivere marg r. diligere p. 15. l. 6. that l. 10. replenisht l. 14. through marg absit p. 16. l. 16. loquentes p. 17. l. 37. Jerusalem p. 18. m. infimis p. 23. l. 42. Man p. 25. l. 9. vertue l. 10. godliness p. 27. l. 5. offence p. 28. l. pen. to p. 31. l. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marg in uudis p. 32. l. ult with p. 34. l. 6. parvae l. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 35. m. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 37. l. 34. conversationis l. 36. distraction l. 48. Spirit l. 49. Bernard p. 46. l. 43. good p. 50. l. 7. eum p. 53. l. 1. know p. 72. r. generatione l. 44. in p. 73. l. 41. Spirit l. 45. add of p. 74. m. ille p. 77. l. 51. grants p. 78. m. vocis p. 79. l. 19. nothing l. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 80. l. 24. add may p. 81. l. 27. add are p. 84. l. 49. r. sapientissimum p. 96. l. 14. through p. 100. l. 50. either p. 106. l. 19. r. Divesses p. 107. l. 16. parts l. 47. his p. 108. l. 47. she p. 109. l. 44. indifferent p. 113. l. 16. get l. 19. then marg ornamento p. 114. l. 7. vox l. 30. placed p. 115. marg calce p. 129. Mercury p. 130. l. 23. add in l. 31. mercies marg vulgatissima p. 131. m. introspicere p 134. l. 30. r. thence p. 135. l. 52. commends p. 136. m. egerint p. 140. l. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 142. m. ratis p. 148. l. 19. r. columna es A TABLE Of the Principal THINGS contained in the EXERCITATIONS A. ADam's fall what misery to mankind Pag. 4 Angels rejoyce at the good of Gods Church Pag. 18 What to be admired in God Pag. 20 Ardency in prayer how grounded Pag. 79 80 Ground of our Adoption Pag. 81. Benefit of it Pag. 81 82 Gods dearest children subject to Afflictions Pag. 117 God sends not Angels but Men-Angels to preach the Word why Pag. 128 Apostles called Pillars why Pag. 147 forward B. THe glory of our Saviours Body and Soul in his state of Exaltation Pag. 58 Brittle estate of man Pag. 85 Bishop what Pag. 126 Baseness of the Popish Clergy Pag. 135 Blessedness Pag. 136 C. GOD would have mens hearts prepared for Christ Pag. 4 Christ ordered our High-Priest by Covenant Pag. 6 Purity of Christs conception Pag. 12 Peace of Conscience what it produceth in man Pag. 31 32 Civil peace Pag. 33. Peace with the Creatures Pag. 38 Converts stand upon firmer terms in Christ than before their first declination Pag. 40 Christs cruel conflict upon the Cross Pag. 59 The best in this life partly carnal Pag. 71 Comfort unspeakable a benefit of the Spirit Pag. 75 Crying of the Spirit in our hearts Pag. 77 forward Crying in prayer what ibid. and forward Calling not to be neglected Pag. 87 Christ the Head of the Church how Pag. 104 forward Pag. 145 Cross of Christ Pag. 137 Conflict and Conquest of Saints Pag. 141 forward D. CHrist must die a cursed Death Pag. 8. His Dignity Pag. 15 16 A Doxology Pag. 18 Our divisions cause Papists insult Pag. 37 The