punishment did grow from the fall of our first Parents The punishment of sin which we now speak of is the wrath and curse of God by whose just sentence man is delivered over for his sin into the power both of bodily and spiritual â—eath begun here and to be accomâ—lished hereafter Bodily death is the separation of the â—ul from the body with all personal â—iseries and evils that attend thereon â—â— make way thereunto Spiritual death is the final separation â—f both soul and body from God together with spiritual bondage and all â—re-runners of damnation Or more particularly All the misery â—f man God in this one word Death â—â—th comprehended In the day thou Gen. 2. 17. â—â—est of the tree of knowledg of good and â—â—il thou shalt dye There are four degrees of death 1. There is a spiritual death which a privation of spiritual life whereby man is destitute of saving Grace and â— lives only unto sin So Christ of the â—hurch of Sardis I know thy works Rev. 3. â— â—ou hast a name that thou livest but thou â—t dead 2. The second degree is of afflictions â—d miseries So Pharaoh said to Moses â—d Aaron Pray ye to the Lord that He Exod. 10. 17. â—ay remove from me this death only 3. Corporal death which is a privaâ—on of natural life and a resolution of the body into dust and returning oâ— the soul again unto God Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and Eccles 12. 7. the spirit unto God that gave it 4. The fourth degree is everlasting death or the state of the damned Rev. 21. 8. which in respect of corporal death â—â— called the second death But it is the third of these corporal death which â—â— here meant Spiritual death hath three degrees 1. When a man who is alive in regard of corporal or temporal death lies dead in sins She that liveth in pleasures is dead while she liveth And this 1 Tim. 5. 6. is the case of all men by nature whâ— are children of wrath and dead in sinâ— Eph. 2. 1. and trespasses 2. The second degree is the very end of this life when the body is to be layed in the earth and the soul descendâ— to the place of torment 3. The third degree is in the day oâ— Judgment when the body and soul meâ—â— again and go both to the place of the damned there to be tormented for ever and ever But now we are to speak of temporaâ— or corporal death which is a punishment inflicted on man for sin Deatâ— passed upon all men for that all have Rom. 5. 12. â—inned This death is a miserable priâ—ation of life And yet this death is not so properly as by Gods appointment â—ut from God as revenging on Sin and so properly it is from Sin as the meritorious and procuring cause of it And so this death is not only a simple and a bare privation of life but joyned with a subjection unto misery Therefore it is not an annihilation of the Sinner because the subject of misery being â—aken away then misery it self should be â—aken away also Now sith we must all dye let us labour Heb. 9. 27. to dye well To dye well two things are requisite 1. A preparation 1. Preparation before death before death 2. A right behaviour and disposition in death 1. The preparation unto death is an action of a repentant Sinner whereby he makes himself â—it and ready to dye That which we can do but once how careful should we be to do it well sith there is no place after for amending of errours therein committed This preparation is a duty very necessary to which we are bound by God's Commandment Therefore we are bid to watch and pray As death leaves us so judgment finds us as the tree falleth so Eccles 11. 3. it lyeth This preparation is twofold 1 General 1. General preparation for death 2. Particular 1 General to prepare our selves to dye through the whole course of our life for we know not neither the time of our death nor the place of our death nor the manner how whether of a sudden death or of a lingring sickness Therefore all the days of my Job 14. 14. appointed time will I wait till my change shall come The best Art of living well is to learn the Art of dying well Balaam would dye the death of the righteous Numb 23. 10. and that his latter end might be like to his but he did not care to live the life of the righteous I protest by our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus our 1 Cor. 15. 31. Lord said St. Paul I dye daily That is in preparation for it meditation upon it and expectation of it This will keep us humble and further our daily repentance and help us to be contented in every condition and make us watchful over our selves to fly and avoid Sin careful to grow in Grace and to be frequent in Prayer to God that He would teach us so to number Psal 90. 12. our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom For if we would live for ever we must begin to live that blessed and everlasting life here before we dye to live the life of Grace here which is the life of Glory begun We all with open face beholding as in a 2 Cor. 3. 18. glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory aâ— by the spirit of the Lord that is we by faith contemplating the glorious light of God's mercy truth power c. by which means we are made like unto Hiâ— in the glory of holiness and newness of life by the Spirit of regeneration which hath its progresses in this life until such time as it cometh to its perfection in the life everlasting â— Of particular preparation before 2. Particular preparation â—oâ— death death this contains three duties 1. Concerning God 2. Our selves 3. Our Neighbour â— Concerning God to seek to be reconciled to Him in Jesus Christ This reconciliation is had by renewing our former faith and repentance To see and acknowledg that Visitation of sickness from God's hand and usually it is for sin 1. Therefore make we a new examination of our hearts and â—am 3. 3â— lives search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. 2. Confess we our sins to the Lord and He will forgive the iniquity of our sins If we confess our sins He is saithful and just to forgive 1 Psal 32. 5. Joh. 1. 9. us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 3. Pray earnestly unto God with sighs and groans of the Spirit for pardon of sin and that God would assure us of it and that He is reconciled to us in Christ Jesus our Surety 2. Concerning our duties to our selves and that 1. In reference to the Soul 2. In reference to the Body 1. In
18 There is no fear in love c. And also largely to that place Rom. 8. 15 Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear c. That place in Rev. 21. 8 But the fearful c. shall be cast into the lake of sire c. answered What is that fear of God here commanded farther set down in three particulars Q. What are the special marks of the true fear of God answered in seven particulars Q. What the arguments are to induce us to fear God answered in eight things In way of a conclusion Thirteen sentences about the fear of God Exercitation V. Of waiting upon God upon these words My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from Him Three ingredients to wait upon God What waiting upon God is Four signs of our waiting upon God Four helps for strengthening us against troubles An explanation out of the Greek of waiting and expectation The manner of our waiting in three things Gods waiting upon us Wait upon God only What expectation is What we expect from God Examples of the miseries of those who would not wait upon God Exercitation VI. The way to salvation repentance and faith On these words Mark 1. 15 Repent ye and believe the Gospel What repentance is Repentance is twofold 1. Legal 2. Evangelical What they both are The signs whereby they may be known Four parts of Evangelical repentance Repentance must be renewed What faith is Five acceptations of faith The object of true saving faith The manner of Gods working of it The absolute necesssity of it in every part of Gods worship Encouragements to labour for it Exercitation VII Holiness on these words Psal 93. 5. Holiness becometh thine house O Lord for ever What Holiness is 1. As applyed to God 2. To believers Our holiness must bear a conformity to Christs holiness in four things What sanctification is The terms from which and to which Two degrees of sanctification Two parts of it The ends of it in two things What we must do that we may be holy Four things thereto Three things to be observed for holiness sake Christ is the principle of our holiness and also the pattern of it the comeliness of holiness Of Gods house How holy it is and how holy we must be A Scriptural Prayer to God for Holiness A farther Encomium and praise of Holiness Exercitation VIII Of Swearing On these words Jer. 23. 9 For because of Oaths the Land mourneth A sad complaint of the over-spreading and greatness of this horrid sin of prophane swearing Of taking Gods name in vain Superstitious and foolish swearing How an Oath is to be taken The parts of an Oath The form of an Oath The end of an Oath The divers kinds of an Oath How an Oath is to be performed Is it lawful for Christians to take an Oath Proved affirmatively by four reasons An exploding the Opinion of the Anabaptists c. by six Arguments By whom we must swear About what things an Oath may be taken Whether all Oaths are to be kept How God in Scripture is said to swear The sum of the third Commandment Six Corollaries Of the government of the tongue Exercitation IX Hardness os heart On these words And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also The Plague of hardness of heart Examples of it To harden the heart what it is 1. In reference to God 2. â—o Satan 3. To a mans self Of conscience what it is How did God harden Pharaohs heart and how he did iâ— himself The miseries ensuing hardness of heart Exeroitation X. Of the Sabbath On these words in Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. 20. 8 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy The necessity of a sabbath The morality of it The excellency of the Moral Law above the Ceremonial or Judicial What the sanctifying of the sabbath is the parts of it A short Paraphrase on Isai 58. 13 14. which is borrowed The strict observation of the sabbath belongs more to us then to the Jews the reasons of the alteration of it How the sabbath is a sign Woe to sabbath prophaners and sabbath idlers The right manner of sanctifying of the sabbath Be not weary of sabbath-duties For Reasons why it is called sabbath The many sabbaths of the Jews formerly Three Reasons why God commands us to observe the sabbath We must lay out our strength in sabbath-duties Exercitation XI Of Patience On these words Luk. 21. 19 In your patience possess ye your souls Of afflictions to the Godly 1. For correction 2. For tryal Inferences upon each Examine for what particular sin God so afflicts Afflictions a sign of Gods love Why afflictions are called temptations What patience is Of impatience The good effects of patience Motives to it The true nature of patience towards God our selves and others Four Arguments to strengthen us in our patience The vices contrary Exercitation XII Pride and humility On these words James 4. 6 God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble What Pride is The parts of Pride How it is shewed Of pride against God and of pride towards men Of the sin of the fallen Angels and of the sin of our first Parents Four helps to subdue pride What grace is Several acceptations of grace A description of humility Humility towards God humility towards men Five means to attain humility towards God Three marks of humility towards men Humility farther described and praised Incitations to humility Some additional notes about pride and humility Fourteen Aphorisms about humility Exercitation XIII Of Care On these words 1 Pet. 5. 10 Casting all your care upon God for He careth for you Seven Arguments against carefulness Twofold care of outward things Worldly cares compared to thorns in four respects Irregular cares are 1. Superfluous 2. Sinful We are to do our duty faithfully and then trust in God who is our Father and the great house-keeper of all the earth The fourth Petition in the Lords Prayer fully explained If we rowl our selves upon God He hath engaged Himself to relieve us Outward things are necessary for us in a threefold respect Rest upon Gods Providence What Gods actual Providence is Of the fate of the heathen Philosophers The parts of Providence Depend upon Providence Wait Gods time Live by faith Be we diligent in our callings The tenderness fidelity and wisdom of Gods Providence The twelve miracles observed about Manna More of Gods Providence and twelve Corollaries thereabout Exercitation XIV Of death judgment hell and heaven On these words Rev. 20. 12. 15 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire 1. Of death what death is The causes of it The
degrees of it are four Labour to dye well two things requisite thereunto 1. Preparation before death 2. A right behaviour in death What is preparation before death Preparation twofold 1. General 2 Particular and that 1. In reference to God 2. Our selves 3. Our Neighbour 2. A right behaviour in death and that in three particulars 2. Of Judgment What it is and that in six particulars When it shall be Four Reasons why the time is concealed Judgment is twofold 1. Particular presently after death 2. General at the last day Difference between the resurrection of the Elect and Reprobates in four things What is meant by the books shall be opened and what by the book of life The act of judgment performed two ways 1. By Examination 2. By pronouncing sentence Two differences between the examination of the Elect and the Reprobates and other things about the administration of it Four Reasons why this last judgment must be Who the Judg is 3. Of Hell Seven Epithites of the place of the damned in Scripture Five acceptations of hell Adireful representation of hell Three Reasons for it Of the punishment of loss and the punishment of sence An exhortation to labour to avoid it 4. Of Heaven What that eternal blessed life is The variety of heavenly joys in four things The three Scriptural Heavens described What is meant by Abraham's bosome The sum of the last Article of our faith in three things Whether we shall know each other in Heaven Proved affirmatively by six Arguments An exhortation to live the life of Grace here that we may live the life of Glory hereafter Books very lately Printed for Edw. Brewster at the sign of the Crane in Paul's Church-yard 1676. 1. THe Apostolical History containing the Acts Labours Travels Sermons Discourses Miracles Successes and Sufferings of the Holy Apostles from Christ's Ascension to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus c. By Samuel Cradock B. D. fol. 2. Mr. Henry Smith's Sermons 4to 3. Cases of Conscience Practically Resolved By the Reverend and Learned J. Norman late Minister of Bridgwater in Sommerset 8vo 4. Christian Advice both to Young and Old Rich and Poor which may serve as a Directory at hand ready to direct all persons almost in every estate and condition under 17 general useful Heads By Thomas Mocket M. A. 5. Moses Revivâ—d A Treatise proving that it is not lawful and therefore sinful for any man or woman to eat blood viz. the life-blood of any Creature 8vo 6. Basilius Valentinus his last Will and Testament which was found hid under a Table of Marble behind the high Altar in the Cathedral Church of the Imperial City of Erford leaving it there to be found by him whom God's Providence should make worthy of it 8vo 7. The Royal Pay and Pay-Master A Sermon preached before the Military Company By William Sâ—later D. D. Minister of St. James Clarkenwell 4to 8. Exodus Or the decease of Holy men and Ministers considered in the Nature Certainty Causes and Improvement thereof A Sermon preached the 12th Sept. 1675. at the Funeral of the much lamented Death of the Learned and Reverend Minister of Christ Dr. Lazarus Sâ—aman late Pastor of Alhallows Breadstreâ—t London By William Jenkyn late Minister of Christ-Church London 4to 9. Lydea's Heart opened or Divine Mercy magnified in the Conversion of a Sinner by the Gospel By William Strong M. A. c. 8vo EXERCITATION THE FIRST Ezek. 16. 8. I entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine GOd in this Chapter by Ezekiel a Priest and a Prophet declares His great mercies to the people of Israel and their horrid and vile ingratitude Among all His mercies this was none of the least that God entred into a Covenant with them There are three things among men that do induce a publick obligation and yet do differ in themselves As 1. a Law 2. A Covenant 3. A Testament A Law and a Testament are absolute and do not imply any consent of the party under them For a Law requires subjection not expecting the consent of inferiours So a Testament or a Will of a Man is to bequeath such Goods and Legacies not expecting the consent of others But a Covenant requires consent and agreement between two parties The Covenant of God with man is twofold 1. That of Works which was made before the fall with Adam in his innocency 2. The Covenant of Grace which was made since the fall The Covenant of Works with Adam before the fall is laid down more obscurely than the Covenant of Grace was Gen. 2. 16 17. after the fall And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of Knowledg of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Do this and thou shalt live â— if thou do it not thou shalt dye And so God enabled Adam to do that which was good for the which he was the more obliged unto God Or thus The Covenant of Works God made with Adam promising him therein an everlasting continuance of felicity and happiness under condition of his obedience unto God but threatning death to him if he were disobedient This Covenant of Works was confirmed by a double Sacrament 1. The tree of life 2. The tree of knowledg of good and evil both seated in the midst of Paradise The use of these was double 1. That by the use of the one and by abstaining from the other man's obedience might be tryed 2. That the tree of life might Seal to man being obedient his perpetuity of happiness and that the tree of knowledg of good and evil might signifie unto man if he were disobedient the loss of the greatest good and the purchasing and procuring of the greatest evil The tree of life was not so called from any inward implanted faculty of quickning in it but a Sacramental signification So also the tree of knowledg of good and evil had this name from the signification of the greatest evil or good with the event and consequences thereof Here in this Covenant needed no Mediator for it was before sin was in the world and Adam then was in perfect familiarity and communion with God It was Sin that brought in enmity fear and shame as well as punishment and death For presently after the fall Adam hid himself from the presence of the Lord and feared c. because of the guilt of Sin and breach of Gods Commandment So he confessed I was afraid Gen. 3. 10. because I was naked and hid my self These are the grounds and reasons to prove that God dealt with Adam in these Commandments by way of Covenant 1. From the evil threatned and good promised 2. Because his posterity became guilty of his Sin and obnoxious and liable to his punishment 3. Because the Apostle Paul in Rom. 5. 12 15 18. makes all
other true believers that God for ever will be the God of His people and of their posterity also if they walk in God's ways and make not void His Covenant And they again promise and oblige themselves to God to be His people to keep His Covenant by believing in Him and obeying His Commandments Let all those that truly endeavour to keep Covenant with God beware of Covenant-breaking if they fail that way be duly humbled for it and be more watchful and wary for the future striving to recover themselves by serious and renewed repentance Let them set God always before their Psal 16. 8. eyes endeavouring to walk before Him Gen. 17. 1. and to be perfect The meaning is let them bear God always in their mind as present with them rest themselves by faith on Him alone depend upon His Providence and regulate all their actions according to His Will revealed in His Word God hath made His Covenant between Him and all such and God declares it is so and enlargeth on it saying to Abraham I will establish My Verse 2. 4. 7. Covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee These words to be a God to thee signifie as if God had said By virtue of my Covenant I will communicate to thee and thy seed the effects of all the perfections of My nature and all that I am in My Self I will be on their behalf and as I do live eternally so will I cause all mine to live likewise And so in reference to our part of the Covenant it is as much as if God had said I will be He alone whom thou shalt serve acknowledge and worship as God and upon whom alone thou shalt absolutely depend forsaking all others For so the words of the Covenant are I will put My Law in their inward Jer. 31. 33 34. parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be My people and they shall all know Me from the least even to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more And in Ezekiel it is laid down thus Ezek. 36. 25 26 27. I will sprinkle clean water upon you even the sanctifying Graces of My Spirit and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you A new-heart also will I give you and a new-spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and ye shall keep My judgments and do them They that are thus brought into the Ezek. 20. 37. bond of the Covenant may say and so said the Apostle Paul I am perswaded Rom. 8. 38 39 that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I entered into Covenant with thee saith the Lord God it is in the Hebrew the Lord Jehovah Where-ever in Scripture in the Old Testament the Word Lord or God is written in great or Capital Letters it is in the Hebrew Jehovah Jehovah setteth out God's eternity in that it contains all times to come or present or past The 3 syllables in the word Jehovah contain the notes of all times The first syllable Je denotes the time to come The second Ho the time present The third Vah the time past God hath His being and is from Himself He always is always liveth and always is the same For He is unchangeable Mal. 3. 6. So none can say IAM but Exod. 3. 14. God alone Thus the title given to Christ which Rev. 1 4 8. is and which was and which is to come is an express interpretation of Jehovah It sets out also God's Self-existency coming from the Verb that signifieth to be God gives a being to Himself to His Creatures and to His Promises When-ever in Scripture some special Levit. 19. 12 14 16 18 25 30 34 37. Mercy is promised or some extraordinary Judgment threatned the Name of Jehovah is affixed or added I am Jehovah To shew that God is just and faithful in the performance both of His promises and threatnings This Name Jehovah as the Hebrews well note consisteth of Letters quiescent or Letters of rest to shew that there is no rest till we come to Jehovah and that in Him we may safely rest There the wicked cease Job 3. 17. from troubling and there the weary be at rest The Septuagint in the Greek Translation do almost every-where render the Name Jehovah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord for He that is Jehovah namely whose essence and being is from Himself who giveth to all their beings and preserveth and upholdeth them therein He is most absolutely and properly Lord. Jehovah sometimes is used essentially for the three Persons in the blessed Trinity joyntly as Exodus 20 2 5 7. Sometimes personally for the Father Jehovah said to my Lord sit thou on my Psal 110. 1. right hand c. that is God the Father to God the Son Sometime Jehovah is used personally for the Son as Jehovah rained from Gen. 19. 24. Jehovah fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah out of Heaven that is God the Father from God the Son For the Father hath committed all judgment Joh. 5. 22. to the Son And sometimes the Name Jehovah is given to the Holy Ghost as it is understood and gathered out of Numb 12. 6. God in the Hebrew tongue in the Old Testament hath been pleased to name and manifest Himself by ten Names whereof three are from His being or ab esse as Jehovah Jah Ehejeh Sum Ero from His eternal Essence Three more from His Almighty Power or a posse as El Eloheh Elohim And three from His being over all or a prae-esse as Adonai Shaddai Jehovah Tzebaoth or Deus exercituum the Lord of Hosts And the last Name of God is from His eminency or ab eminere Gnel jon which signifies God above all or Lord over all This last Name of God is used in Psal 73. 11. Is there knowledg in the most High And in Genes 14. 10. 20. Blessed be Abraham of the most High God the possessor of Heaven and Earth And blessed be the most High God c. He alone is King of Kings and Lord Rev. 19. 16. of Lords By His Name Jehovah hath He been Exod. 6. 3. Isai 26. 4. made known to us Therefore trust we in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength As all things were made by Him and for Him so all things are upheld and preserved by Him He
exhibited and given unto them 4. The same promise is sealed in the Sacrament whence it is they are not called signs only but seals also So we have it in the Word Abraham received Rom. 4. 11. the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had c. There are three things required in a Sacrament 1. The outward signs and sacramental actions concerning the same 2. The inward things signified thereby namely Christ Jesus with His saving Graces and Spiritual actions concâ—rning the same 3. A similitude and likeness between them both As for example In Baptism as water doth wash away the filth of the Body so the blood of Christ doth wash away the spots of the Soul As the bread and wine do nourish and feed the Body so the body and blood of Christ laid hold on by true and lively faith do nourish and cherish the Soul to eternal life The signs used in the Sacraments are either 1. Representing as Water Bread and Wine Or 2. Applying as washing eating drinking c. The signs and the things signified in both Sacraments do so agree that the sign doth so fitly represent the things signified thereby that the mind of a Christian is drawn by the signs to consider of the things thereby signified The ends of Sacraments are the sealing of the Covenant of Grace or more fully thus in these three particulars 1. To help our understanding and insight therefore the Sacraments are as clear glasses So the Apostle said to Gal. 3. 1. the Galatians in regard of the celebration of the Lords Supper that Christ was crucified before their eyes that is Sacramentally in the breaking of the Bread and pouring forth of the Wine whereas we know that corporally Christ was crucified at Jerusalem which was far distant from the region of Galatia 2. To help our memories to bring to our remembrance as lasting Monuments Do this said our Saviour in Luk. 22. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 24. remembrance of Me. 3. To perswade our hearts and to confirm our faith as most certain seals and pledges to assure and strengthen us in the promises of Salvation which God hath not only made to us in word but confirmed it by writing and lest we should any ways doubt as naturally we are inclined to do therefore He hath set to His seals that nothing may be lacking to increase and strengthen our faith from whence the Sacraments become not only marks and pledges of our Christian profession but also so many bonds to bind us to obedience So that hereby not only the free Grace of God and the promises are sealed to us on Gods part but also our thankfulness and obedience towards God This is the primary end of the Sacrament and the secondary end is the profession of our faith and charity For there are represented in our use of the Sacraments not only that union which we have with God in Christ but also that communion which we embrace with all those who are partakers of the same union with us We must understand and believe that the efficacy of the Sacrament is not included in the external element but wholly comes from the good Spirit of God as He is pleased to shew His manifest power by those instruments that so He may help our weakness For if we were wholly spiritual as the Angels are then we should be able spiritually to contemplate God and His gifts but now sith we are overshadowed with this lump of our earthly body it is necessary that God should by certain figures as it were by glasses as I said before represent unto us spiritual and heavenly things who cannot otherwise conceive of them in our minds For now we see as through a glass 1 Cor. 13. 12. darkly We enjoy the efficacy of the Sacraments when we receive them by faith Of Baptism NOw come we particularly to speak of the two Sacraments and first of Baptism Baptism is a Greek word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immergo abluo which is primitively derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mergo tingo to dip or plunge into water signifying properly such a kind of washing as is used in Bucks where linnen is plunged and dipt Yet it is taken more largely for any kind of washing rinsing or clensing where there is no dipping at all as Mat. 3. 11. 20. 22 c. Christ no-where requireth dipping but only baptizing which word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies no more than lavatio ablutio washing or ablution which may be done without dipping This word Baptism is used many ways Dr. Featly 1. Generally for washing Luk. 11. 38. Heb. 9. 20. the Pharisee marvailed Christ washed not before dinner 2. Figuratively for great and sharp afflictions Mat. 20. 22. Luk. 12. 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished 3. To sprinkle or wash ones body Sacramentally Mat. 3. 11. John said I indeed baptize you with water c. 4. For the whole work and action of the Sacrament of Baptism as Mat. 28. 19 Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. 5. Spiritually to wash the Conscience Mat. 3. 11 He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire Acts 1. 5. Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost 6. The native and proper signification is to dip into water or to plunge under water tanquam ad tingendum mergo Acts 8. 38. Philip and the Eunuch went down both into the water Mat. 3. 16 Jesus when he was baptized went up out of the water So Joh. 3. 22 23. There is a fourfold Baptism 1. Fluminis seu aquae which is a Baptism of water Mat. 3. 11 I baptize you with water c. 2. Luminis seu doctrinae Mat. 21. 25. the Baptism of John is put for the whole Ministery of John both his Preaching and his Baptism Acts. 18. 25. Apollos knew only the Baptism of John 3. Flaminis seu donorum Spiritus Sancti Acts 1. 5 Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost that is with the gifts of the Holy Ghost 4. Sanguinis seu martyrii a Baptism of Blood or Martyrdom so Christ asked the Apostles Can ye be baptized with the Baptism that I am baptized with Mat. 20. 22 23. Baptism represents unto us two things 1. The forgiveness of Sins 2. Spiritual regeneration Q. But what proportion hath water with these that it should be a sign of these things A. 1. Because the remission of sins is in a sence like unto a laver whereby the sinfulnesses and defilements which are in our minds are cleansed as the filthiness of our body is washed away with water 2. The beginning of our regeneration is that our nature should be mortified as the end is that we should be new-creatures the pouring of water signifies a death and in that runs away from us and we remain not under it it signifies a return unto life as
Christ 5. Because to them is promised the Holy Ghost 6. Because they are to be discerned from the Children of Infidels 7. Because in the Old Testament Infants were circumcised As Circumcision was then the first beginning or initiating Sacrament into the Jewish Church so is Baptism the first beginning of Christianity There can be no reason given to deprive Infants of Baptism but that which may be given against circumcision the main whereof is the incapableness of Infants of the Grace of the Sacraments But He that said of Infants to them belongs the Kingdom of God knows how to settle upon them the title of that Kingdom And we have no reason to think but that even before or in at or by the act of Baptism the Spirit of Christ doth unite the Soul of the elect Infant unto Christ and cloath it with His righteousness and impute unto it the title of a Son or a Daughter by adoption and the Image of God by Sanctification and so fit it for the state of Glory 8. To them to whom the Covenant belongs to them belongs the seal of the Covenant that confirms the right to them But to the Infants of faithful Parents the Covenant belongs to you Acts 2. 39. and to your Children are the promises Mark 10 13. made and to them belongs the Kingdom of God Therefore we rationally conclude that if the thing it self belongs to them therefore the sign and seal thereof 9. Your Children are Holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. there is a faederal Sanctity or an external and visible Holiness at least in Children of believing Parents and they are to be judged of the true flock of Christ until they shew the contrary Objection But the Anabaptists urge we have no rule or example in Holy Scripture for the baptizing of Infants We read of nothing in Scripture that Solution doth infringe the liberty of the Church therein neither do the Scriptures afford any proofs by consequence of it to deter from it We read of several whole housholds baptized doubtless some Infants were therein And if the Scriptures not expressing directly the baptizing of Infants were a sufficient reason of denying that Sacrament to them is a senseless thing Circumcision was a sign of repentance Deut. 10. 16. Jer. 4. 14. and a sign of faith Rom. 4. 11. and yet Infants were not kept from Circumcision but God commanded them to be circumcised the eighth day which is a sufficient ground to us for baptizing of Infants For the ancient promises of God to the people of Israel belong now to every believer in any Nation whatsoever Sith God under the Law shewed Himself the Saviour of Infants and commanded them to be signed with such a visible sign as Circumcision was it would be a very grievous and a hard thing if the Children of believers now under the Gospel since the coming of Christ should have less priviledg than the Infants of the fathers of old seeing the same promise is to us as was to them And God hath now more manifestly declared His goodness to us in Christ The promise belongs to Infants Acts 2. 37. therefore St. Peter would have his hearers to repent and to be baptized and he adds the reason because the promise belonged to them and to their Children c. whence I argue because they are partakers of the promise therefore they are bid to be baptized Or thus the promise belongs to the adult repentant persons and their Children or Infants therefore adult repentant persons and their Children or Infants are to be baptized for remission of sins The adult or those of years are to be baptized upon their repentance and the Children or Infants of those repenting baptized persons yea before they are actually capable of repentance are to be baptized also for the promise is made unto them upon the account of their Parents So St. Peter there commands them to be baptized and why because the promise is made unto them So also he shews the cause why those adult repentant persons are commanded to be baptized which is not because they were adult or repentant and so Baptism belonged only to them but also it belonged to their Infants and so he proveth that as well the Infants as the adult should be baptized Not because they believe or do not believe but because they are partakers of the promise Regeneration or receiving into Grace is enough for Infants Much more might have been said to several others of their arguments which are many and would digress into a large volume but I shall dwell no longer hereon Although we be but once baptized yet Baptism is unto us a perpetual Sacrament of our washing from sin and of our regeneration that is to say as Baptism doth not only evacuate and wash away Original Sin in the sence before premised but also all other Sins either past or present for they that are baptized are baptized into Christ's death Now Christ's death is available not only to wash away those Sins that are before Baptism but those also in our whole life which follow Baptism Q. What ground or warrant have we for sprinkling which is commonly used with us in these cold Countries A. Our Church allows no other than dipping unless in case of the Childs weakness as most consonant to our Saviour's Baptism where we read of His descending into the water and coming Mat. 3. up again out of the water Others conceive the very action of sprinkling water very warrantable especially in young Children to whom farther wetting may be dangerous to them The reasons are such as these 1. Because neither dipping nor sprinkling is essential to the Sacrament of Baptism but only washing and applying water to the body as a cleanser of the filth thereof 2. As in the other Sacrament that of the Lord's Supper a spoonful of Wine is as significant as a whole gallon so here a handful of water is as significant as a whole river 3. The action of sprinkling bears fit resemblance with the inward Grace as well as dipping and hath authority also in the Scriptures We read of sprinkling of the blood 1 Pet. 1. 2. Heb. 12. 14. of Christ and the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel 4. It is not unlikely that the Apostles baptized as well by sprinkling or pouring water upon as by dipping into it Sith we read of diveâ—â— baptized in houses as well as in rivers However the washing of the body with water is essential though Eph. 5. 26. whether way it be done seems not to be essential so water be applyed to the body for the cleansing of it Q. How do Circumcision and Baptism agree A. 1. In the principal end for the promise of Grace through and by Christ which was the same in all ages is sealed in both of them 2. In both is signified regeneration and a promise of faith and obedience towards God 3. Both Circumcision and
Baptism are the Sacrament of our reception and entrance into the Church Q. Wherein do Circumcision and Baptism differ A. 1. In the Rite or Ceremony which is not the same in Baptism as in Circumcision for in Baptism is only a washing but in Circumcision a cutting off the foreakin of the flesh 2. In the circumstance of the sex or age Circumcision belonged only to Males and at eight days old Baptism belongs to both sexes Male and Female and presently after they are born 3. In the manner of signifying Circumcision on God's part promised Grace through the Messiah to come but Baptism through Christ already come And on their part they being Circumcised were received into Grace by believing on the Messiah to come but we through faith in Him already come 4. In the particular promise Circumcision had also the promise of corporal blessings as of the land of Canaan c. But Baptism hath no such special promise of any temporal benefit 5. In the manner of obliging Circumcision on their part obliged them to the keeping of the whole Law Ceremonial Judicial and Moral but Baptism obligeth us only to the keeping of the Moral Law that is to faith and repentance 6. In the objects and duration Circumcision was commanded to the posterity of Abraham only and the Proselytes and was to endure but till the coming of Christ Baptism is instituted for all Nations that will come into the society of the Church and to endure to the end of the world To close up all with these few heads Aphorisms about Baptism 1. Baptism avails though administred by a contemptible person as much as if it were administred by an Apostle for if Baptism were in the merit or worth of the Minister then it did not belong unto Christ 2. The power of baptizing the Lord hath reserved to Himself it is Christ alone that baptizes with the Holy Ghost the applying of the outward Element Christ hath committed to His Ministers lawfully called and deputed 3. Baptism is the same as He is by whose power and authority it is administred Not as He is by whom it is performed 4. Every true believer in Baptism is made a King and a Priest and Prophet Rev. 1. 5. Christ washes us from our sins in His own blood and so makes us Kings and Priests unto God and His Father So St. Crysostome When as Christ hath washed us from our sins in the laver of Baptism by His blood He makes us Kings and Priests unto God Baptism as we have seen is a high Ordinance of God and a means whereby He hath appointed to communicate Christ and His benefits to our Souls and therefore not to be neglected or slightly esteemed but used with all reverence and thankful devotion when it may be had Yet where God denyeth it either in regard of the shortness of the Infants life or by any other unavoidable necessity there comes no danger from the want of Sacraments but only from the contempt of them The right use of Baptism is when inwardly in thy heart thou feelest some motion to sin through thy lusts then meditate on that solemn vow thou madest to God in thy Baptism And if by infirmity thou fallest once or oftner into some sin still have recourse to Baptism that thy Soul may be encouraged therehence For although Baptism be but once administred yet that once testifieth that all mans sins past present or to come are washed away 1 Pet. 3. 21. Eph. 5. 25 26 27. And never rest before thou hast a feeling of that renewing power signified in Baptism namely the power of Christ's death Mortifying sin and the virtue of His resurrection in the renewing of the Spirit EXERCITATION THE THIRD Of the Lords Supper the second Sacrament of the New Testament IT hath several appellations it is called 1. The Lord's Supper or Caena Domini from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communis caena vocatur à communione vescentium For seorsim prandebant prisci Romani sed cum amicis caenabant About Supper-time the Jews were to eat the Paschal Lamb which circumstance of time the Church hath changed according to the liberty in these things she hath It is called the Lord's Supper because our Lord Jesus Christ sitting at His last Supper ordained it instead of the Passeover 2. It is called the Table of the Lord 1 Cor. 10. 21. 3. A convention of the Church 1 Cor. 11. 20 33 When ye meet together in one place c. And When ye come together to eat 4. The Eucharist because of the usual Thanksgiving 5. A Sacrifice so it was called by the ancient Fathers non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut meritorium not a propitiatory or meritorious Sacrifice as the Papists would have it but an Eucharistical Sacrifice because it is a solemn commemoration and celebration of the propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ 6. At length it was called Missa from the offerings sent by the rich to the relief of the Poor or from a dismission of the Congregation after the publick Ordinances But we retaining the appellation or name delivered in Scripture call it the Supper of the Lord. There are many detestable and abominable differences between the Lord's Supper and the Popish Mass which I think not fit here to recite as not at all for edification I define the Lords Supper thus The instituted and commanded distribution of Bread and Wine by Christ Himself in which Christ is certainly promised to me and all true believers Or thus The Lord's Supper is the distributing and taking of Bread and Wine commanded by Christ to all true believers that He might testifie by these tokens that He gave His body to death for us and shed His blood and that He gave us these to eat and drink to assure us that He will dwell in us and nourish and quicken us to eternal life First He assures and seals that He gave His body for us upon the Cross and that His blood was as truly shed for us as we see with our eyes the bread to be broken for us and the cup to be given to us Next that He by that His body Crucified and by that His blood poured out will as certainly nourish our Souls to eternal life as surely as our bodies are fed by Bread and Wine taken from the hand of the Minister which are reached forth unto us as seals and pledges of the body and blood of Christ The Rites or Signs here are the Bread broken and eaten the Wine distributed and taken or the breaking and distributing of the Bread the distributing and drinking of the Wine The things signified are the body of Christ Crucified and the blood of Christ poured out the eating and drinking of them signifie our union with Christ by faith whereby we being made partakers of Him and all His benefits from Him as branches from a Vine do suck and draw eternal life or nourishment to eternal life Of this our union and communion with Christ
for ever And when He said take and eat He commanded Heb. 5. 6. us not to offer up His body but only to feed on it So also another abuse of the Papists is to deny the Cup to the people whereas Christ in His institution said Drink ye all of this It is a high Sacrilegious impiety thus expresly to go against Christ's institution in His own words It is by faith alone we eat the body and drink the blood of Christ And yet we say not that the body of Christ is included in the Bread and His blood included in the Cup but if we will enjoy the truth and reality of the Sacrament we must have our hearts lifted up heaven-wards and look upwards where Christ is in the glory of His Father and from whence He shall come to be our Judge for he that seeks Him corporally in these corruptible elements manifestly errs So for me to eat the body of Christ crucified for me and to drink His blood shed for me is not only firmly to believe the whole passion and death of Christ and by it to obtain remission of Joh. 6. 35. to 54. sins and everlasting life but also by His Spirit which dwelleth in me to be more and more united to His blessed body as Christ there said He that eateth My Joh. 6. 56. â—lesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him So that although Christ is in Heaven and we on Earth yet we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone Eph. 5. 30. 3. 16 17. 4. 15 16. Joh. 6. 57. Even as all the members of the body are quickened and directed by one soul so are we by one and the self same S-pirit So then our eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ which is not corporally but spiritually done signifies four things 1. Our believing of the passion and death of Christ 2. Our receiving remission of sins and everlasting life by faith in Him 3. Our union with Christ by His Holy Spirit which dwelleth both in Christ and us 4. The benefit of quickening by the same Holy Spirit So to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ is to believe that we through the merits of Christ are received by God into grace and favour and by the same faith we receive remission of sins and are reconciled unto God and that the Son of God that Word which was made flesh who hath Joh. 1. 14. united to Himself our humane nature which He personally took doth dwell in us and hath joyned us to Himself and His assumed humane nature by pouring upon us His Holy Spirit by which He regenerates us and restores light in us righteousness and eternal life the same which shineth in His assumed humane nature Or more briefly thus to eat the body of Christ is 1. To believe in Him 2. By faith to receive remission of sins 3. To be united unto Christ 4. To be made partaker of the life of Christ or to be conformable to Christ by His Holy Spirit which worketh the same things both in Christ and in us This our eating is our communion with Christ which the Scripture teacheth and which in this Sacrament we do profess namely our spiritual union with Christ such as is of the members with the head and of the branches with the vine This eating of His flesh Christ teacheth in John 6. and confirmeth it by these outward signs in the Lord's Supper For in the Lord's Supper as we do eat the Bread and drink the Wine even so there as surely Christ gives to all true believers His body to eat and His blood to drink This is clearly manifested to us in the words of institution Mat. 26. 26 27 28. 1 Cor. 11. 23 24 25. And this promise is repeated by St. Paul 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ For we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread To explain this briefly It is called the cup of blessing or of giving thanks because it is received to this end that we should give thanks to Christ for His death and passion for us or that we should use it so as to put us in mind of Christ's benefits towards us and for these to give Him thanks Communion of the blood of Christ Communion is a participation of a common thing the Communion of the body and blood of Christ is by faith to be made partakers of Christ and all His benefits the same Spirit being in us which is in Christ and working the same thing in us which he doth in Christ It is a spiritual communion which believers have with Christ as members with the head and as branches with the vine For the Bread and Wine are the Communion that is the sign and testimony of our Communion with Christ This Communion as the Apostle there said consisteth in this that we being many are one body This makes against the corporal eating of the Papists in this Sacrament for our communion with Christ is only by faith and by the Holy Ghost Christ is the common head His benefits are common and communicated to all His members Hence also it follows that the members are common among themselves whence should flow mutual love and amity The Papists to uphold their Transubstantiation do say that we must take the words litterally and so immediately after the words of consecration at the last syllable of the last word that the Bread is transubstantiated or changed into the very body of Christ and the Wine into His blood But this is a Sacramental speech of Christ This is my body As St. Austin to that general rule about Sacramental actions adds this instance of eating the body of Christ This is a certain way said he of finding out whether such a phrase or speech be proper or figurative that whatsoever in Divine Word or holy Scriptures cannot be done by honest and good manners nor be properly referred to the truth of our faith we must know it to be a figurative speech And shortly after instances in that place Vnless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man Joh. 6. 53. and drink His blood ye have no life in you Doth our Saviour here command such a nefarious act to have the Jews fall upon Him kill and â—ley Him to eat His flesh and drink His blood No it is a figurative speech there Christ commands them to communicate with the passion and sufferings of the Lord and most sweetly to lay it up in remembrance that for us His body and flesh was crucified and wounded So also this is a figurative speech when our Saviour speaks of the Bread This is my body and of the Cup This is my blood This Cup is the New Testament in My blood where the
name of the thing signified by a Sacramental Metonymie is given to the sign So the words of Christ must be understood Sacramentally the Bread is called the body of Christ because it is the sign of the body of Christ and the Cup or the Wine in the Cup is called the blood of Christ because it is the sign of the blood of Christ And the Cup is called the New Testament because it is the sign of the New Testament So the true sence and meaning of Christ's words This is my body which is given for you is thus This Bread which is broken by Me and given to you is a sign of My body which is given to death for you and is a certain sign of your conjunction and union with Me so that he that believeth and eateth this bread he doth truly feed on My body But according to that impious fiction of the Popish transubstantiation many absurdities follow As 1. Christ brake bread not His body therefore the bread is not really the body of Christ 2. The body of Christ is given for us and not bread therefore bread is not really the body of Christ 3. Christ did not say under these species is My body or My body is contained under these species therefore Papists pervert Christ's words and keep not to the institution 4. Christ said not of bread let this be made My body but this is My body 5. Notwithstanding their transubstantiation the bread is neither annihilated nor changed into the substance of a body but remaineth bread still 6. In every Sacrament there are two things the sign and the thing signified but transubstantiation taketh away the sign namely Bread and Wine therefore it doth wholly overthrow the Sacrament 7. Transubstantiation takes away the analogy between the sign and the thing signified But no more of this I will only add four Reasons against the carnal or corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament Reason 1 If the bread were turned into Christ's body then there would be two Christs one that giveth and one that is given for our Saviour gave the bread c. Reason 2 If the bread be the very body of Christ there would then be no more sign of the thing signified and so no Rom. 4. 11. Sacrament Reason 3 Then the wicked receiver might eat and drink Christs body and blood as well as the true believer Reason 4 The Minister cannot give the inward Grace but the outward elements only in the administration of the Sacrament There is another gross error also of Consubstantiation Consubstantiation is a coexistency of two substances in the same place or the presence of the body and blood of Christ not under the species of Bread and Wine but under the very Bread and Wine Luther was of this opinion that it remained bread still but under in or with the bread is the body of Christ And this is the common tenent and opinion of those who this day are called Lutherans Against this these few reasons may suffice 1. The whole action of the Lord's Supper is done in remembrance of Christ what need have we of that if Christ's body were really present either under with or in the elements 2. Christ's body is in Heaven and the Heavens must receive Him until the times of restitution of all things Acts 3. 21. 3. This is an essential property of every magnitude and therefore of Christ's body also to be in one place and circumscribed or encompassed of one place 4. If Christ's body were eaten corporally then the wicked as well as the Godly partake of the flesh of Christ but to eat His flesh is to believe in Him and to have eternal life 5. It is absurd to think that Christ sitting with His disciples did with His own hands take His own body and give it wholly to every one of His Disciples This is the Sacrament not of the living or of the glorious body of Christ but of His suffering and crucified body So Christ said This is My body which is given for you it is the Sacrament of Christ's body delivered unto death for us And that these two ways 1. It is a visible sign bringing to our remembrance or representing to us the body of Christ that as with our bodily eyes we see the bread of the Lord so with the eyes of our Soul we may see Christ's body crucified for us 2. It is a seal sealing to our faith that Christ's body was certainly delivered to death for us and is become the bread of life unto us We must not therefore seek Christ's body in the earthly element but by faith lift up our hearts to Heaven whither Christ ascended and where He is So in our Liturgy at the celebration of this Supper we are admonished to lift up our hearts Now let us come to speak of the outward actions both of the Minister and also of the Receivers 1. The actions of the Minister are these four 1. To take the Bread and Wine into his hands and to separate it from ordinary Bread and Wine Which is to signifie to us that God in His eternal decree separated Christ to be our Mediator and that He was set apart for this office Him hath God the Father sealed 2. To bless and consecrate the Bread and Wine by the Word and Prayer Which signifies to us that God in His due time sent Christ into the world and sanctified Him furnishing Him with all gifts needful for a Mediator 3. To break the Bread and pour out the Wine Which signifies the passions and sufferings of Christ with all the torments which He endured both in soul and body for our sins 4. To give and distribute the Bread and Wine to the receivers which signifies that God gave Christ and that Christ gave Himself to us and that whole Christ and all His merits are freely offered to all sorts of receivers And that God hath given Christ to the faithful receivers to feed their souls unto eternal life Joh. 3. 14 15. Joh. 6. 50 51. 2. Next we come to the Sacramental actions of the receivers and they are these two 1. To take the Bread and Wine offered by the Minister every one into his or her hand This signifies his taking and laying hold of Christ freely offered from God the Father by the hand of faith Joh. 1. 12. Or the receiving of Christ with all His benefits into his soul by faith They and they only have benefit by Christ crucified which thus apply Christ to themselves by a true and lively faith To as many as thus receive Him to them gives He power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on His name 2. To eat the Bread and drink the Wine receiving them into the body and digesting them And this signifies our uniting to Christ and enjoying of 1 Cor. 11. 26. Him or our application of Christ by faith that the feeling of our true union and communion with Christ may be increased We
we may and should remember yet God would have a solemn standing Ordinance in His Church for the commemoration and shewing of it forth which Ordinance is this of the Lord's Supper This must be our actual exercise at the time of our eating and drinking at this Holy Table to shew forth the Lord's death The death of Christ then must fill our eyes ears lips and thoughts If any of us could see Christ dying that sight would take us up Here we come as near to see Him dying as can be represented unto us Here Christ is Crucified before our eyes Thus much Gal. 3. 1. for the second part which is a Christian heedfulness in the act of receiving Now of the third and last part a thankful close and shutting up this our duty in this Ordinance 1. By joyful thanksgiving with Prayers 2. Meditation how we are bettered what increase we find of our faith in Christ love to God and all His Saints what strength and power we have gotten against sin lust and corruption what new obedience we shew forth in our lives and what increase and confiâ—ming we find of all other sanctifying and saving Graces in us to help us to lead new lives and to run the ways of all God's Commandments with more strength and alacrity than formerly This do in remembrance of me This is a solemn Memorial instituted by Christ Himself Great Deliverances or Mercies have solemn commemorations Such was the Passeover and the Feast of Purim c. among the Jews Christ did not ordain it for His Nativity Circumcision Ascension c. though all these were for us and our Redemption but in remembrance of His death hereby we shew the Lord's death Because our sins are done away by His death therein in His death was made the Sacrifice of atonement Redemption and Reconciliation was made thereby the Covenant confirmed the justice of God satisfied and everlasting life procured c. 1. Let us make this thankful remembrance to and within our selves what fruit and benefit we receive from Christ and the torments and pains He endured for us both in His blessed body and soul nay His Soul-pains were the sole or chief of all His pains Do not these deserve a thankful remembrance 2. We make this remembrance to others to all the world by our solemn profession of Christ and His death to which we stick for remission of sins and acceptation with God 3. We make this remembrance to God that Christ by His death hath satisfied God's justice and hath made peace through the blood of His Cross Who shall therefore lay any thing to the Col. 1. 20. charge of Gods elect it is Christ that dyed for us c. Rom. 8. 34. I close up with the Allegory of the Paschal Lamb and Christ how the type and anti-type or the thing signified fitly answer and agree in these thirteen things 1. It must be a lamb of the flock so Christ was true man Joh. 1. 14. 2. A Lamb without blemish so Christ was without sin 3. To be killed and roasted with fire to shew the bitter death and passion of Christ 4. A bone of it must not be broken so Christ had not a bone broken Joh. 19. 36. 5. It must be in the evening so Christ suffered in the end of the world Heb. 1. 2. and 9. 26. 6. The posts were to be sprinkled with the blood so Christ's blood is sprinkled on our Consciences and His satisfaction is imputed to us Rom. 3. Isai 53. 6. 7. Seeing the blood the destroying Angel passed over and they were preserved from death so Christ by his blood frees us from everlasting death 8. The Lamb was to be eaten and in every family so Christ by faith is to be applyed by every believer 9. The Lamb was to be roasted whole his head legs appurtenances so whole Christ is to be received and wholly according to all the articles of our faith 2 Tim. 3. 7. 10. Without leaven that is without hypocrisie 11. It must be eaten with bitter herbs with true repentance and bitter grief for sin which caused that bitter passion of Christ He that will be Christ's Disciple must take up the Cross 12. It must be eaten hastily and with their staves in their hands after the fashion of strangers to shew that we are Pilgrims here and travailing to our heavenly countrey have need of such a Viaticum in the way 13. Only Circumcised to eat thereof So only the regenerate feed on Christ by faith and Christ is profitable only unto them Some Sentences 1. Our Union and Communion with Christ doth not mingle the persons nor unite the substances but it consociates our affections and confederates our wills 2. This is to eat that bread and drink that cup to abide in Christ and to have Christ abiding in thee And hereby it follows that he that abides not in Christ nor Christ in him doth not spiritually eat of this bread and drink of this cup although carnally and visibly he eateth of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ 3. To believe in Christ is to eat that bread of life He that believeth in Christ feedeth upon Him and is invisibly fatted by Him because he is invisibly regenerated 4. Believers only eat the bread the Lord wicked men who are against Christ in their practises may eat the bread of the Lord. 5. All Glory to God and Salvation to Men is placed in the death and passion of the Lord Jesus Christ EXERCITATION THE FOURTH Ecclesiastes 12. 13. Fear God The whole Verse runs thus Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep His Commandments for this is the whole duty of Man THe meaning is thus as if King Solomon had said the whole subject of this Book of Ecclesiastes is summarily comprehended in this point that man should lead his life in the fear of God and in holy obedience unto Him So that after this life he may enjoy everlasting blessedness and happiness in Him Now the fear of God is commanded in the first Commandment the scope and meaning of the first Commandment is thus that Jehovah one in Substance and three in Persons the Creator and Governour of all things and the Redeemer of His people is to be entertained for the only true God in all the powers of our soul And that the inward Mat. 22. 37. Prov. 23. 26. Deut. 5. 29. Prov. 4. 23. Mat. 12. 35. and spiritual worship of the heart wherein God especially delighteth and which is the ground of the outward worship may be given to Him and none other and that sincerely without hypocrisie as in His sight who searcheth Jer. 17. 10. and knoweth the heart For this word before Me or before My face noteth that inward entertainment and worship whereof God alone doth take notice And thereby God sheweth that He condemneth as well the corrupt thoughts of mans heart concerning His Majesty as the wicked practise of
the body for our thoughts are before His face The easiest way of explaining or understanding the Commandments is by dividing the obedience due to every Commandment into its proper virtues as parts and then the vices contrary to those virtues will easily appear As there are these seven virtues or parts of obedience due to the first Commandment 1. The acknowledging of God 2. Faith in God 3. Hope 4. Love of God 5. Fear of God 6. Humility 7. Patience But here we are to speak only of the fear of God The true fear of God is to acknowledge the extream anger of God against sin and His power to punish it and to esteem our displeasing of God or offending Him and consequently an estrangedness from Him as the greatest evil and therefore extreamly to hate and detest sin and to be ready rather to suffer any evil than to offend in any thing Or thus The fear of God is from acknowledging of His Wisdom Power Justice and Right which He hath over all creatures and out of subjection unto Him not willing to offend Him Levit. 19. 14. Thou shalt fear thy God I am the Lord. God is feared as He is just and powerful to punish in regard of the evil of punishment which He can inflict So we stand in such a Godly fear as not to do any thing but that which maketh for God's glory and yet this is not a servile fear whereby one is afraid to be damned but an awful filial fear whereby we are afraid to offend our Maker and Heavenly Father So our Saviour bids Mat. 10. 28. us rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell So St. Peter bids us to pass the time of our sojourning 1 Pet. 1. 17. here in fear Let us have grace whereby Heb. 12. 28. we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear For as a Father pityeth his Son so the Lord pityeth them that fear Him Whereas all carnal fear and especially the fearing of any thing more than God is here condemned Fear ye not their fear neither be afraid Isai 8. 12 13. but sanctifie the Lord of Hosts Himself and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread I even I am He saith the 51. 12 13. Lord that comforteth you who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the Son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker c. and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressour as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressour Fear not them which kill the body but Mat. 10. 28. are not able to kill the soul but rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell We should be more afraid to displease God than any other and this fear of God should be stronger to move us to do good than the fear of man to move us to do evil There is a twofold fear of God 1. Filial 2. Slavish 1. Filial which is from acknowledging of sin and the anger of God against it and from a serious grief for sins committed because of offending God thereby and in regard of calamities that we and others endure for sin and a fear of future sins and punishments with an ardent desire of avoiding those evils through the acknowledging of God's mercy shewed to us in and through Christ This is usually called filial fear because it is such a fear as dutiful Children have toward their Father grieving for the anger and displeasure of their father and fearing least they should offend him again and so be punished for it and yet are always perswaded of their fathers love and good-will towards them and therefore love him and through this love do grieve the more because they have offended him So we read of Peter that when he had denyed his Master he went forth and wept bitterly Mat. 26. 75. But servile and slavish fear is such as of Servants to their Masters to avoid punishment without faith and without a desire and striving to amend and is usually joyned with despair and a with-drawing from God and fleeing away from Him Filial and slavish fear differ in these three things 1. Filial fear proceedeth from our trust and confidence in God and love to Him But servile fear ariseth from a sight of sin and sins flying in the face with the sence of judgment and of the wrath of God 2. Filial fear principally turneth away from sin which displeases God but not from God Himself But servile fear is a fleeing from and a hatred not of sin but of punishments and judgments of God and so at length with a fleeing from and a hatred of God Himself 3. Filial fear is joyned with some assurance of salvation and everlasting life and so draws us nearer to God But a servile fear is joyned with an expectation of everlasting damnation and casting away from God and so drives farther from Him which is so much the more in them as their doubting or despair of the Grace and Mercy of God is more or less This slavish fear is in the Devils and wicked men and is the beginning of everlasting death which the wicked and ungodly do feel even in this life So said Cain to God My punishment is Gen. 4. 14. greater than I can bear Behold Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face I shall be hid and I shall be a fugitive a vagabond in the earth c. So Ahaz his heart Isai 7. 2. was moved and the hearts of his people as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind And so Saul he was afraid 1 Sam. 28. 5. and his heart greatly trembled The Jam. 2. 19. Devils believe and tremble There are some things do oppose and resist the fear of God in defect and some in excess 1. In excess as servile fear and despair of which we spoke something before 2. In defect as 1. Prophaneness 2. Carnal security 3. Contempt of God 4. An Idolatrous fear The wicked are utterly devoyd of all fear and reverence of God they have Psal 36. 1. no fear of God before their eyes an idolatrous fear is not that fear alone which is from idols as the poor Heathen Indians worship the Devil because he should not hurt them but that fear also which is from men and from the world when a man fears them more than he fears God Some carnal security may be in the Godly yet it is otherwise with them than in the wicked It is so in the Godly that the fear of God is not altogether cast out of their heart but the 1 King 14. 9. wicked like Jeroboam cast God behind their back So God complains of the Ezek. 33. 35. Jews they had forgotten Him and cast him behind their
back and that they had cast away the Law There is no fear Isai 5. 24. Psal 36. 1. of God before their eyes Like the unjust Judge who neither feared God nor regarded man We may have cause to Luk. 18. 2. fear such as Abraham said of the Philistins at Gerar Because I thought that Gen. 20 11. 1 Sam. 21. 10 23. 26. the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wifes sake So David fled for fear of Saul There are many acceptations of fear in Scripture 1. It is taken for natural fear which is a certain natural affection whereby men are stricken by reason of some natural or hurtful evil either true or imagined So Jacob said of his brother Gen. 32. 11. Esau I fear him lest he will come and smite me and the mothers with the children So the City of Jericho feared because of Israel So Peter being on the Josh 2. 9 11. Mat. 14. 30. 28. 4. Sea when he saw the wind boysterous was afraid and cryed out c. This natural fear is in it self neither good nor evil It was in Christ Himself as He was man It becomes evil and sinful Heb. 5. 7. Mark 14. 33. when distrust is mixed with it 2. There is a free voluntary fear and reverence which inferiours shew to their superiours making them careful to obey and loth to offend and that for the Lord's sake Let the wise see Eph. 5. 33. that she reverence her husband but the word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that she fear her husband So render to all their due fear to whom fear Rom. 13. ◠belongeth 3. Fear sometimes in Scripture is taken for the thing or danger feared the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me said Job and that which I was Job 3. 25. Prov. 1. 27. afraid of is come unto me When their fear cometh as desolation c. that is when that which they feared cometh c. 4. For the person which is feared In this sence God is called the fear of Isaac So Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac that is by God whom Isaac Gen. 31. 42 53. feared a Metonymie 5. Fear in Scripture sometime is taken for an holy affection of the heart awing us and making us loth to displease God by sin in respect of His great goodness and mercies and for a love we bear to righteousness There is mercy Psal 130. 4. with Thee that Thou mayest be feared This is a filial or child-like fear spoken of before The Godly are commanded Job 1. 2. Acts 10. 2. thus to fear and are commended for it so is Job and so Cornelius that they feared God 6. For a terrour in the heart of wicked men fearing God as a Judge being loth to offend Him by sin in regard of His punishments and not from any hatred of wickedness Thus Felix trembled Acts 24. 25. and feared This is servile and slavish fear spoken of also before 7. Fear is taken for the whole worship of God Thou shalt fear the Lord. In every nation he that feareth God and Deut. 6. 13. Acts 10. 35. Prov. 1. 7. Psal 112. 1. 128. 1. worketh righteousness is accepted of Him Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord where is a Synechdoche of the part for the whole For where the fear of God is truly planted there will follow the whole worship of God 8. To think upon dangerous things which breed fear So thine heart shall Isai 33. 18. meditate fear 9. For a great terrour and fear from God which was sent on the hearts of the men of those Cities of the Canaanites that they pursued not after the sons of Gen. 35. 5. Jacob to slay them And the fear of 2 Chr. 17. 10. God was upon those cities round about them c. Thus we see the several significations and acceptations of fear in Scripture and also what the true fear of God is which is whereby we so fear and reverence His holy Majesty and His Word that we take heed by all means of offending so gracious a Father not so much for fear of punishment as out of true love to God Several encouragements out of Scripture to fear God 1. God wisheth it Oh that they would fear Me that it may be Deut. 5. 29. well with them and with their children and for their good alwayes 6. 24. 2. The secret of the Lord is with them Psal 25. 14. that fear Him and He will shew them His Covenant He will teach them 119. 102. 3. There is no want to them that fear Him The young lyons shall lack and Psal 34. 9 10. suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord shall lack no good thing 33. 18 19. Prov. 22. 4. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches honour and life There is Psal 11 1. 5. 112. 1 2. Prov. 15. 16. Psal 61. 5. a special heritage belongs to those that fear God therefore David said Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name That is as these present so also eternal good things which properly belong to God's Children wherein they of the world have no part at all 4. The Lord is nigh them that fear Psal 85. 9. Him And blessed are they to whom the Lord is nigh to hear and help Moses described the happiness of Israel herein and said What nation is there so great Deut. 4. 7. who hath the Lord so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is to us in all things that we call upon Him for Surely His salvation is nigh them that Psal 85. 9. fear Him c. In the fear of the Lord is strong considence Prov. 14. 26. and his children shall have a place of resuge The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting Psal 103. 11 to everlasting on them that fear Him c. He will fulsil the desire of them that 145. 19. fear Him He also will hear their cry and save them For the Lord taketh pleasure in them 147. 11. that fear Him in those that hope in His mercy The fear of the Lord prolongeth days Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of 14. 27. life to depart from the snares of death The fear of the Lord tendeth to life 19. 23. and he that hath it shall be satisfied To you that fear My name shall the Mal. 4. 2. Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings c. His mercy is on them that fear him Luk. 1. 50. from generation to generation Who is among you that feareth the Isai 50. 10. Lord that obeyeth the voice of His servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon His God
even so must we be and that in all the faculties and powers of our souls and in all the members of our bodies Let us therefore have holy and heavenly thoughts holy and gracious speeches Let our speeches be always gracious Col. 4. 6. seasoned with salt with the salt of wisdom and discretion that it may Eph. 4. 29. minister Grace unto the hearers that others may be edified and bless God for our holy and religious speeches and discourses And let our affections be set upon heaven Col. 3. 2. Phill. 3. 20. and heavenly things and our conversation be in heaven but the word here rendered conversation is in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City holding forth thus much that we are Burgesses Citizens free-Denizens of Heaven and therefore it is the property as well as the glory of all holy persons true believers to whom only Heaven belongeth to live in this world as if they were in Heaven already Sith God when we Eph. 2. 5 6. were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus The meaning is thus there is a most strict union between Christ our glorious Head and us His members that which is done to the Head is done and belongeth to all the members therefore the members of Christ's body in right and in virtue of the infallible cause and in certainty and assurance of faith are already raised up and glorified and at the appointed time shall really and effectually be so Thus as members of so blessed an Head in Heaven let us so live in this world as if we were in Heaven already bending all our thoughts and desires all our speeches and actions that way having heavenly thoughts when we are about our earthly and worldly employments And so walk in that way which is called the way of holiness that holiness to the Isai 35. 8. Zeâ—h 14. 20. Lord may be written both on our hearts and foreheads for the Lord hath called us not unto uncleanness but unto holiness that God may establish our hearts unblameable 1 Thess 4. 7. 3. 13. in holiness before Him That our holiness may not be like the righteousness of the Israelites as a morning-cloud and as the early dew that passeth Hos 6. 4. away therefore God threatned them That they should be as a morning-cloud and as the early dew that passeth away as the chaff that is driven with a whirlwind Hos 13. 3. out of the floore and as the smoak out of the Chimney that is they should not be stedfast or established but quickly dispersed and brought to nothing But let us walk as becometh holiness Titus 2. 3. how much soever holiness is slighted and derided by the prophane ungodly wretches of this world yet strive we to go on perfecting holiness in the fear of 2 Cor. 7. 1. God For without holiness no man shall Heb. 12. 14. see the Lord that is to his comfort So that yeilding our members servants Rom. 6. 19 22. to righteousness unto holiness we may have our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life To sum up this last briefly Hath God quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ That is not only so hath done spoken in the Preterperfect tense for the Future tense that He will assuredly do it or that it is as sure as if it were already done for that we do believe But this expression signifieth something more that as we are mystical members of the body of Christ quickned and raised up together with Him and made to sit together in heavenly places in Him How then should we have raised thoughts sanctified affections and a holy and heavenly conversation being cloathed with the long white robes of the Imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness to have the Moon Rev. 12. 1. which is in the lowest Orb that is all these sublunary and lower earthly things under our feet Therefore what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and Godliness looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of God c. And sith we look for such things to be diligent that we 2 Pet. 3. 11 12 14 may be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless Wherefore as we are thus partakers Heb. 3. 1 2. 14. of the holy and heavenly calling let us consider the Apostle and great High Priest of our profession even Jesus the Son of God 6. 20. who as our forerunner is for us entered into the heavens and is gone to prepare a place for us so will He come again and Joh. 17. 17. 19. receive us unto Himself that where He is there we may be also that we may for ever behold the glory which His Father and our Father hath given Him Who when He was here upon earth prayed to His Father to sanctifie us through His truth his word is truth And for our sakes did he sanctifie himself that we also might be sanctified through the truth For both he that sanctifieth and they who Heb. 2. 11 are sanctified are all of one therefore he is not ashamed to call us brethren For our sake did he sanctifie himself the meaning is though He was perfectly holy and sanctified in His humane nature wherein for us He did accomplish all righteousness and all manner of holiness He did consecrate Himself to the death of the Cross to cleanse us from all our sins and to procure for us the gift of the Holy Ghost to regenerate us in a holy and permanent newness of life We are Gods house the Temple â—eb 3. 6. God's house under the Law was overlaid within with pure Gold Let us especially look to our hearts our inward parts and strive to cleanse our 2 Cor. 7. 1. selves from all filthiness of the spirit as well as of the flesh For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries Mat. 15. 19 â—0 c. These are the things which defile a man Oh these heart-wickednesses The heart is as a cage full of unclean birds The heart of man is deceitful Rev. 18. 2. above all things desperately Jer. 17. 9. wicked who can know it Let us give our hearts to God as He Prov. 23. 26. commands us For the Lord searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and hath 1 Chron. 29. 17. pleasure in uprightness God is the great heart-maker He must be the heart-mender Go to God in these or the like expressions and pray O create in me a clean heart O Psal 51. 10. God and renew a right spirit within me Let my heart be perfect with Thee 1 Kin. 8. 61. that I may walk before Thee in truth in righteousness and in
into His rest hereafter Now a little to speak farther of the right sanctifying of the Lords day summarily and we have done Our care must be over-night having laid aside all our earthly affairs to begin to fit our selves for the Lords-day and His Service thereon Rising as early or earlier on the Lords day as we do on other days for our own businesses as David said O Lord thou art my God Psal 63. 1. early will I seek thee when we are dressing our selves let us have heavenly thoughts as to put on the garments of Christ's righteousness to be as a Bride trimmed to meet the Bridegroom of our Souls Then to retire our selves and pray to God that He will prepare our hearts aright for the preparation of the Psal 10. 17. Prov. 16. 1. heart is from the Lord. That God would enable us for to sanctifie His holy name in all our duties of worship for He will be sanctified of all that draw Levit. 10 3. near to Him Then if we are governours of families to call our family together and strive to prepare them likewise so to Psal 42. 4. Josh 24. 15. Acts 16. 14. Mat. 15. 10. go to the house of God together that we and our family may serve the Lord Attend diligently to the Word of God hear and understand and hear as for our lives so to hear as our souls Isai 55. 3. Deut. 30. 19. may live it is not a vain thing it is for our lives take heed also be not forgetful hearers of the Word but doers of it Jam 1. 22. that we may be blessed in the deed else we deceive our own souls and that is the greatest deceit and of most dismal consequence Let us joyn with the Congregation in Prayer Sing with the Spirit and sing with understanding also 1 Cor. 14. 15. If the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper be administred having duely prepared ourselves let us receive it When the Sacrament of Baptism is administred Pray for the party baptized give thanks to God for adding one member more to His outward visible Church and remember we our vow made to God in our Baptism to be humbled for the breaking of it and resolve by God's Grace to perform it better for the future And depart not from the Church before the Minister hath pronounced the blessing And so let us not turn our backs on any of God's ordinances When we come home let us feed in fear and season it with meditation and speeches of holy things After Dinner let us meditate confer on and repeat what we have heard examine and catechize our families and strive to make that we heard to be our own ruminating upon it as those only were clean beasts under the Law which did chew Lev. 11. 3. the cud Then to return in season to the afternoon Publick Worship and demean our selves as in the morning When we return home then to do as before we did after dinner If we are enforced to walk through the fields then to contemplate the works of God His Providence and Mercies After Supper to confer read meditate sing Psalms instruct exhort encourage c. And close the day with Prayer craving pardon for sin and for the iniquities of our holy things Pray for more Grace to profit by all we have heard for it is God alone that teaches us to profit and that we may persevere therein Isai 48. 17. unto the end blessing God that hath given us one Sabbath-day more and hath in any measure assisted us in the performance of our duties Thus sanctifying the Sabbath God hath made it not only our duty so to do but also an essential means of His bestowing Mercies Blessings and increase of Grace on us in this our religious observation of the same Thus God blessed the Sabbath-day Isai 56. 6 7. When we lye down in our beds examine we our hearts how we are bettered what increase of knowledge and Grace what strength against corruptions what heavenly-mindedness more we have obtained And so repose our selves to sleep in the arms of our heavenly Father having heavenly thoughts in our hearts that we may be able comfortably to say How precious are thy thoughts to me O God that is my thoughts which I have of Thee how great is the sum of them when I awake Psal 139. 17 18 I am still with Thee Be not weary of Sabbath-duties and exercises like those wicked Jews who said When will the sabbath be gone that Amos 8. 5 Mal. 1. 13. we may go to our worldly businesses and what a weariness is this and so snuffed at it These men and women are far from tasting how gracious the Lord is and from those who by reason of use 1 Pet. 2. 3. Heb. 5. 14. have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil They see no such excellency and preciousness in Christ they find no sweetness in His ordinances to say with Peter Lord it is good for us Mat. 17. 4. to be here They are far from David's temper to have their souls to long yea even to faint for the courts of the Lord Psal 84. 1 2. and cry out when shall I come and appear before God our blessed Saviour for us spent a whole night in Prayer to Luk. 6. 12. God Heaven will be no Heaven to Rev. 4. 8. 11. such persons as these where we shall for ever be praising God And like as God rested the seventh day from all His works Heb. 4. 4. 10. as one would say God did retire Himself to the quiet enjoyment of Himself His glory and blessedness So we being by death freed from the works of this life from all our labours and toâ—ls from all sin and suffering from all sorrow and misery when God shall wipe away â—â—v 7. 17. â—â—â— 35. 10. all tears from our eyes and sorrow and sighing shall flee away then shall we altogether live with God in the perfect rest of glory For there remaineth a rest or keeping an everlasting Sabbath â—â—â— 4. 11. to the people of God Sabbath in Hebrew signifies Cessavit Addition quievit vacavit a Sabbath-day is a day of rest It signifies not such a rest as when one sitteth still and doth nothing but a resting and ceasing from doing that which he did before So God called this day a Sabbath which He dedicated and consecrated to His own publick Worship 1. Because on that day God rested from His creation of all those new species but not from conserving and propagating of them by the continual generation of individuals 2. Because the Sabbath is a representation of that spiritual rest from sin and of that rest in everlasting life 3. Because that we must on that day cease from all our secular and worldly employments that devoting our selves wholly to God's Worship He may work His work upon our hearts and exercise His works in us 4. That our
man shall set upon thee to hurt thee It is endless to quote all the texts in the Old and New Testament to this purpose I will only add a few Corollaries 1. God will have glory attributed Corollarâ—â—â— to Him not only as He is the Creator and Upholder of Heaven and Earth but also the most High Wise Just and Great Governor and Directer of all things This is against the Figments of the Bpicureans and Pelagians 2. This Doctrine of Providence may confirm and strengthen our hearts against the Blasphemies of the Manichees and Libertines who say that God willeth sin as it is sin Whereas He willeth the act but not the evil of the act c. 3. Against the Opinion of the Stoicks for all things are govern'd by Gods most free and unchangable Decree 4. Therefore He will be acknowledged and praised by us as the Author Fountain and Worker of all good things for nothing in any creature is or can be of good unto us but by Gods Will affectually working in it and by it 5. Seeing all good things are from God Let us not sacrifice to our own â—â—â— 1. 16. nets or burn incense to our own drag that is not resting in creatures or second causes by which we may be benefited but giving all glory and praise to God to acknowledg the creatures are but instruments and ministers in His hand and by His ordering to do good unto us 6. Sith nothing rashly or casually happeneth to us but all things betide us by Gods most Blessed Just and profitable Decree and Good-will towards us Let us effectually be stirred up by knowing and acknowledging hereof to exercise patience in all our adversities As Psal 39. 9. David said I was dumb and opened not my mouth because Thou hast done it Job 1. 21. And Job the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. 7. Let our confidence and comfort be sound firm and established in the Lord who will defend and preserve us in the midst of all enemies and dangers moderating and ordering all evils so that they tend to our good and salvation For we know that all things work Rom. 8. 28. together for good to them that love God 8. By all our past and present afflictions let us be bettered and amended Sith not by chance but by God they are inflicted upon us that we may say Psal 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted c. 9. For future crosses and afflictions seeing they are signs and tokens of Gods anger against sin Let us fear them and strive to avoid them by fleeing and abstaining from sin the cause of them 10. Let us not faint much less despair when we are in dangers troubles or adversities when the outward means of our deliverance fail and the creatures seem to be against us because God is not ty'd to help by them For man lives not by bread alone c. The Mat. 4. 4. 16. 18. gates of Hell shall not prevail c. There 1 Sam. 14. 6. is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few He can deliver either by means or without means or against means 11. Seeing all events are ordered by God and no wholsome counsels can be undertaken without Him neither doth any thing please Him but what we undertake according to His Word Let us not be lifted up in confidence of our own wisdom and power c. but demeaning our selves in the fear of God let us pray that all our actions may be directed by Him and so blessed unto us and that we may never depart from His Will revealed unto us And then confidently wait on Him for sâ—ccess 12. Sith we know as before we said God hath a care of all things especially of mankind and most principally of His own Children whom He peculiarly loveth and careth for so as Christ said the hairs of our head Mat. 10. 31. are all number'd and we are of more value than many Sparrows Let us in doing our duty faithfully in our places rest confidently on the Providence of God Casting all our care on Him for He careth for us EXERCITATION THE FOURTEENTH Rev. 20. 12 15 Verses And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire EXpect not a Logical Analysis of the words and a procedure thereon accordingly that I leave to Divines in their Sermons But according to my use in my former Exercitations to chuse out some heads out of the words read and so meditate and dilate upon them And here we may consider these four heads 1 Death 2 Judgment 3 Hell 4 Heaven Accordingly we shall frame our ensuing discourse 1. Death out of these words And I 1 Death saw the dead c. First there must be death before they could be dead 2. Judgment out of these words 2 Judgment Stand before God c. and they were judged c. 3. This Judgment shall be according to their works They that have done good shall go into life everlasting and 3 Heaven they that have done evil into everlasting 4 Hell fire So it is in the Creed of Holy Athanasius And so also in the Apostles Creed I believe that Christ shall come to judg both the quick and dead I believe the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting So also in the Nicene Creed That is everlasting life for the good in heaven and everlasting life for the wicked in hell in those never Mark 9. 44. dying flames where the worm dyeth not and the fire never goeth out First to speak of Death Death is the 1 Death fruit of Sin Sin brings shame misery and death 1. Sin brings shame for before the fall our first Parents were both naked Gen. 2. 25. and were not ashamed But since the fall sin causeth shame in all men and women except those who are come to that height of impudence that they are past shame of whom the Prophet speaks Were they ashamed when they had Jer. 6. 15. committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Therefore said the Apostle What Rom. 6. 21. fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed c 2. Sin brings all sorts of miseries calamities losses c. I have wounded them Jer. 30. 14 15. with the wounds of an enemy with the chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of thine iniquities because thy sins were increased I have done these things unto thee 3. Sin brings death the end of these Rom. 6. 21. things is death So we see that sin guiltiness and
reference to the Soul our duty is to arm our selves against the fear of death as not thinking on the paâ—gs of death which Christ hath sweetned and sanctified to all His but upon that blessed estate that is enjoyed after death And look upon death not as it is seâ— forth in the Law so it is a curse but as it is set forth in the Gospel so it is an entrance into Heaven consider also what God hath promised to the death of the Rev. 14. 13. righteous Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them As we die in the Lord both our Bodies and Souls are really joyned to Christ as it is expressed in the Covenant of Grace and though death make a separation of soul and body yet neither of them are sever'd from Christ our mystical union and conjunction with Christ our Head endures for ever c. God as He Isa 43. 2. is present with us in our sickness so especially will He be with us at our Death when the holy Angels are especially also present with us ready to carry the soul into heaven 2. In reference to the body our duty is To seek to preserve life to recover health as by Diet Physick that is such lawful means and worthy instruments called thereunto and this God requires of us to do 3. Concerning our Neighbour our duty is Reconciliation where any difference is forgiving all men and desiring to be forgiven by them serting our Families in order making our Will which indeed much rather should be in the time of our best health 1 Kings 2. 2. 1 Chron. 28. 9. Gen. 18 19. charging those of our Family to learn believe and obey the true Religion c. Thus let us strive to honour God dying as well as living Now Secondly of the second part 2dly bâ—haviâ—â— Death which is a right behaviour and disposition in Death which is a religious and holy behaviour especially towards God when we are nearer the agonie and pangs of death This religious behaviour contains Three especial duties 1. To Dye in or by Faith relying on Gods special love and mercy iâ— Christ As the Israelites stung with the Num. 21. 8 9. fiery Serpents looked to the brazen Serpent and were cured So we when we find death to draw near and his fiery sting to sting and pierce our hearts then let us fix the eye of a true and lively Faith upon Jesus Christ the true brazen Serpent lifted up and crucifi'd upon the Cross for our sins and for mine in particular and so by death we shall Joh. 3. 14 15 never perish but have everlasting life 2dly To dye in obedience to God As we must live in obedience to God's Cammandments so must we dye be ready willing to go out of the world whensoever God calls us and that withour murmuring or repining Imitating our blessed Saviour who said Father not my will but Thy will be Mat. 26. 39. done 3dly The last duty is To resign and render up our Souls into the hands of God as the most faithful keeper So did our Saviour in the very pangs of death when the dissolution of soul Luk. 23. 46. and body drew on He said Father into Thy hands I commit My Spirit and so gave up the Ghost So Stephen when he Acts 7. 59. was ston'd to death said Lord Jesus receive my spirit And so being dead Joh. 11. 11. Acts 7. 60. 1 Thes 4. 13. sob 7. 21. we are said to sleep which is by a Synechdoche part for the whole For the body only lyes in the earth Now I shall sleep in the dust that is my body only Let us then not fear death Christ hath taken away the sting of it from all true believers He hath sweetned it unto us and made it only a passage to our Fathers house And I saw the dead small and great stand before God that is all without exception shall personally appear before God and come to Judgment of what degree rank estate or condition soever whether Emperours Kings Princes or Beggars then there will be no distinction of persons we must all nakedly appear before this Tribunal we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ That every 2 Cor. 5. 10. one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Observe the placing of the words small and great the small are put before the great to shew that there will be then no distinction of persons as I said before but all must promiscuously appear before God Then the high and great wicked ones who here through the pride of their countenance will not seek after God God was not in Psal 10. 4. all their thoughts except to swear by His Name or to curse God dam me but rather they think on their father Joh. 8. 44. Psal 2. 3. Jer. 5. 5. the Devil whose works they do and drink healths to him and wish the Devil take them so running on in the practice of all wickedness that no cords or bonds will hold them They altogether break the yoke and burst the bonds All Laws both Divine and Humane they trample under foot But then when the holy Angels shall most powerfully gather together from all quarters of the Earth and Sea all men and set them before the Judg even Jesus Christ from whose faâ—e the heaven Rev. 20. 11. 6. 14 15. 16. and the earth do â—ly away c. denoting the terror and Majesty of the Judg Himself when there shall be such a conclusion of all things Then those high ruffing Gallants will strive to hide themselves in Caves and Rocks of the mountains and cry to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that setteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. But all in vain for there is no hiding-place but all must appear and Heb. 4. 13. that before Him before whom all things are naked and open and so must be judged according to their works Which brings us to the Second Head that is Judgment I need not prove that there shall be 2. Judgment a Judgment although there are several reasons for it besides the dictates of our own Consciences it is an Article of our Faith And many places both in the Old and also in the New-Testament confirm it For brevity sake I will only cite the Texts and leave them to be read out of the Bible Read Dan. 7. 9 10. Jude 14. 15. Christ's Sermon in Matthew 24 25 Chapters Acts 17. 31. and 1 Thes 4. 16. Heb. â— 27. Now next to speak what this last Judgment is In the end of the world Christ the What is this Judgment Judg shall descend from Heaven in the Clouds in the Glory and Majesty of His Father with His holy Angels and all men shall
visibly seen of all shall pass sentence and execute it on all But the Saints are said to judg the world because they shall applaud approve and wholly subscribe to the righteous sentence of Christ Let us always live in expectation of the coming of the Lord Jesus with Oyl in our lampâ— Grace in our hearts and so prâ—pared for it praying Come Rev. 22. 20 Luk. 12. 43. Lord Jesus come quickly Blessed it that servant whom his Master when He cometh shall â—ind so doing He shall say unto him Well done good and faithful Mat. 25. 21. servant enter into thy Masters joy But as for the wicked and ungodly they 2 Thess 1. 9. shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power Which brings us to the third head we mentioned at first which is Hell Having spoken to the first two 3 Hell Death and Judgment come we now to the execution of the sentence of Judgment which shall presently follow the sentence given the wicked shall go Mat. 25. 46. away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal Whosoever is not found written in the book of Rev. 2. 15. life shall be cast into the lake of fire This place of the damned in Scripture is called by divers names 1. Hell as Mat. 5. 23. 2. A furnace of fire where shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 13. 42. 3. A place of torment Luk. 16. 28. 4. A prison 1 Pet. 3. 19. 5. A bottomless pit Rev. 9. 1. 6. A lake of fire Rev. 20. 15. 7. A lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Revel 21. 8. The place where Hell is we ought not to be too inquisitive to know sith it is not manifested in the Scripture But the extreme horrour and dreadfulness of the place is described unto us that we may use all the means which God hath prescribed in His word that we may never come there The word Hell in Scripture hath several acceptations 1. It is taken for the place appointed for the torments of the reprobates after thâ—â— â—ife So Luk. 16. 23 And being in hell in torments 2. For most deep and deadly sorrows Psal 18. 5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about 3. For Satan the Prince of Hell with the whole army of wicked Spirits Mat. 16. 18 The gates of hell shall no prevail against c A Metonymie signifying all the power and policy and strongest assaults of the wicked for heretofore they had their seats of Judicature in the gates of the City where the Elders the wisest and all the Sages met and these gates of the City were and still are the strength of the City 4. Hell is taken for the grave and the estate of the dead therein So we have it Psal 16. 10 Thou shalt not leave Acts 2. 31. my soul in Hell c. 5. For the belly of the whale wherein Jonah was shut up as in a grave Jonah 2. 2 Out of the belly of Hell cryed I c. By Hell-fire is signified the whole extream pain of the damned in Hell where 1. They are separated from the presence and glory of God 2. They are punished with eternal confusion and most bitter reproaches because all their secret wickednesses and sins are revealed 2 Thess 1. 9. Mat. 23. 41. 3. They have fellowship with the Devil and his Angels 4. They are wholly in body and soul tormented with an incredible horrour and exceeding great anguish through the sense and feeling of Gods wraâ—â— Isa 66. 24. to be poured out upon them for ever Hereupon is the punishment of the damned called hell sire a worm never dying but always gnawing on the Conscience weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth and utter darkness and such like By Hell-fire is not meant any bodily flame but these are Metaphors and resemblances for the weakness of our earthly and dull capacity that we may a little apprehend it and have a glimpse of it that so we may use our utmost endeavours to avoid it For as no tongue of Men or Angels can rightly set forth the joys of Heaven so no tongue can express the torments of Hell But these expressions of Hell c. signifie the seizing of the fearful and terrible wrath of the Almighty both on body and soul and all the powers and faculties parts and members thereof for ever For howsoever the body be subject to burning with bodily fire yet the soul being spiritual cannot burn and therefore Hell-fire is not a material fire A material fire yieldeth light but here is nothing but blackness of darkness for ever Hell-fire is a most grievous torment fitly resembled by fire which to our apprehension is the most direful and dreadful thing And torments by fire are of all others the most fearful and terrible Reasons Reasons for it 1. The quarrel with sinners is Gods own the controversie His own the injuries and indignities have been done to Himself and His own Son the challenges have been sent to Himself and His blessed Spirit And therefore no marvel if He take the matter into His own hands sith He hath been so provoked to revenge it by His own immediate Power 2. Revenge is His Royalty and peculiar Prerogative To Him belongeth Deut. 32. 35. 41. Heb. 10. 30 31. Jam. 2. 13. Rev. 14. 10. vengeance and recompence Thence the Apostle infers It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God and that for these reasons 1. It shall be Judgment without Mercy there shall be a cup of pure wrath poured out upon them without mixture c. that is not a drop of sweetness and ease but all is poyson and bitterness there shall not be afforded â—â— drop of water to a Lake of fire a minute of ease to Eternity of torment 2. It shall be in fury without compassion that is in vengeance without any pity 3. It shall be in revenge and recompence in reward and proportion and a full and everlasting detestation For as the wicked did here hate God and set their hearts and courses against Him and His Laws in their eternity in all that time they lived and sinned here and so would have done if they had lived never so much longer So God will hate wicked men and set His face and fury against them in His eternity also and punish them there with everlasting destruction 3. The torments of wicked Angels whence can they come There is no creature strong enough to lay upon them a sufficient recompence of pain and punishment for their sins against Gods Majesty And for the disputes of School-men about corporal fire in Hell the degrees of it c. they are but the niceties of men ignorant of the terrour of the Lord Heb. 22. 29. who is Himself a consuming fire The Devils acknowledged Christ their tormentor when He did but rebuke them which wrang out from them Mat. 8. 29.