was the Sanctum Sanctorum and in it the Oracle called the inner house of God into which only the High Priest went alone once a year and that in the Feast of expiation wherein all the Jews must fast and afflict themselves A most notable type of Christ for as it was called an Oracle because God thence gave answer in doubtful cases so who is the Fathers Oracle but his Son who is the word of his Father by whom he speaks to us by whom we speak to him and through whom the Father heareth us In this Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant and in this holy place stayed the Ark almost four hundred and thirty years signifying Christ the author of the Covenant between God and us In which Ark or Chest were kept three things 1 The Tables of the Covenant written with the finger of God signifying Christ who is the fulfilling of the Law 2 The Rod of Aaron which had budded a type of the Priesthood of Christ who in the world seemed a dead branch and dry but after his Death and Resurrection began again to flourish and bring fruits of life to Jewes and Gentiles 3 The Pot having Manna a holy type of Christ the bread of life and that Manna that came down from heaven Joh. 6.35 In this Holy of Holies over the Ark was the holy cover called the Propitiatory prefiguring the Lord Jesus whom the Father hath made our Propitiatory by faith in his bloud Rom. 3.25 Here also were the two glorious Cherubims set like Angels on either side the Ark looking upon the Ark figuring the holy Angels ministring to Christ and earnestly desiring to look into the mystery of our salvation 1 Pet. 1.12 These were the chief holy things established in the Temple at Jerusalem but not all for there were besides these the observation of all holy Rites appointed by God the Chair of Moses and in it the Law read and expounded there were the holy persons the High Priest with all his holy garments with Urim and Thummim and on his fore-head Holiness to the Lord there were other the holy Ministers of the Lord who had the Lords holy Oyl upon them of Gods own composition with straight charge that no other should make or use it out of this use Yea here had lived the ancient Kings and Prophets David Salomon Josiah Hezekiah who were special types of Christ In which regard Ierusalem the seat of God and Gods worship is called the City of perfect beauty the joy of the whole earth 3 It is called an holy City by comparison unto other great Cities of the neighbour Countries wherein Idols and Devils were worshipped in stead of God as Babylon or whose worship was the devise of mans brain and no institution of God as Samaria Cesarea and others 2 King 17.33 4 It is called holy in type two waies 1 As it was a type of the Church militant of which the members are holy in part at least in profession For the whole Church of God was gathered together three times every year before the Lord at the feasts of Passeover Pentecost and Tabernacles Psal 122.4 Thither the Tribes of the Lord go up and appear before the Lord. 2 As it was a type of the Church triumphant even that Celestial Jerusalem which is above that new Jerusalem into which no unholy thing can enter but is the eternal habitation of the holy God the Holy Angels and Saints 5 It was called holy or the holy City because it was the fountain of Gods holy Religion which being first seated there by God must be derived thence and sent out to all other Nations Micah 4.2 The Law shall go out of Sion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem Therefore was it the Metropola and mother City the heart of the earth placed in the midst of Nations by Gods own confession Ezek. 5.5 Nay there must the pretious blood of the holy Son of God be shed which must stream and run out to the salvation of all Nations and himself Preached the King of the Jews upon the Cross as upon the theater in Hebrew Greek and Latine and that in the time of the Passeover when there was a concourse of all the people of Jews and other Nations There the Apostles must give their first witnesse of Christ and thence must carry it into Judea Samaria and all nations to the utmost parts of the earth Act. 1.8 And 8.1 the Church of the New Testament was first gathered at Jerusalem and thence by persecution scattered into all Nations In this regard it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy City for all the holinesse of all other Cities was derived thence Doct. 1 Wee learn out of this title what it is that makes places and persons holy even the presence of God of his word and worship Thus the ground was called holy Exod. 3.5 and the place where Joshua stood when the captain of the Lords Host appeared unto him chap. 5.15 1 Whatsoever was in the Law separated to God and his service was called holy the Sabbath was holy the Priests Garments holy Exod. 28. Thou shalt make holy Garments for Aaron thy brother Holy both because they were peculiar to the holy Priesthood for none else might put them on and because they were to bee used in the holy place for when they came forth of the Tabernacle they must put them off and thirdly consecrate to holy uses and to bee an holy type of Christs righteousnesse a precious robe wherein all our Sacrifices are offered The flesh was holy which was offered to the Lord in sacrifice Hag. 2.13 For places Bethel was an holy place when Jacob saw the vision of the Ladder there and the Temple was holy For people the Jews were called an holy Nation and Christians an holy Priesthood and Saints by calling 1 Pet. 2.9 For persons some are sanctified in the wombe to some special service as Jeremy chap. 1.5 and John Baptist Yea every faithful mans heart is as it were an Ark of God in which are kept the Tables of the Law yea the Tabernacle of God and the Temple of the Holy Ghost where hee pleaseth to dwell And thus was Jerusalem an holy City so long as it continued in the true worship of God 2 This appears by the contrary seeing his holinesse was no further annexed to this place than God tyed his presence to it for when as the Jews had crucified the Lord of glory both the Temple and City as prophane were destroyed and delivered into the hand of the Romans and are now in the hands of the Turks a nest of unclean and Idolatrous beasts most savage enemies of Christ and Christian profession 3 That place must needs bee holy where the Lord dwelleth as a master in his house teaching ordering and supplying all necessaries where Christ the Holy Son of God walketh in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks being conversant among the flocks of Shepheards where the Holy
heads to a Kingdome 2 King 10.8 Herod for a Kingdome kills all the male Children Nay it were to be wished that only Kingdoms could draw men to mischief for then should not Ahab murther Naboth fâ—r a field nor Judas betray his Master for thirty pence nor Christians and Protestants lye and swear and forswear and transgresse for a peice of bread How many executions have we for thirty pence or thirteen pence Which shews how degenerate men are from Christ whom all the kingdoms in the world not the greatest things in them could move in the least manner and as it were indirectly to dishonour his Father Nay what shall wee say of them that profess they not no man else can trade and buy and sell to live without some lies and dissembling sometimes These may carry the name of Christ but the mind of Christ is farre from them Others think and say What need men be so nice to stand upon so small scruples as not to accept so good offers and promotions in the world which have some condition or other annexed which their Conscience cannot without offence swallow What may not he call a little evil good and a little good evil that so he may raise his own estate and doe himself and others much good And thus he is every where accused of indiscretion But to these we object Christs example who would not be moved with all the world to doe that he was not warranted for in the Scripture And for the imputation of indiscretion we alledge Moses example who when he was at age saith the text refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter and chose rather to suffer with the people of God And to all such alledgers wee say in one word Either was Christ farre wide in refusing so great an offer or else are they Use 2. As we must prefer the glory of God above the world so wee must promote it by our best means The Magistrate by procuring and stablishing that whereby God may be most glorified not administring justice by affection or reward or sparing Offenders by a cruel mercy who should bee made examples to others or not encouraging the godly All this dishonours God highly The Minister must use his gifts not for any private end but for Gods glory as a good servant that gains all for his Master And every private man must so carry his course of life his trade his speeches as God may bee honoured in all things his light in all things must shine that our heavenly Father may be glorified therefore in every thing whether it will carry the commendation not only of truth and honesty but of Christianity and religion To stir us up to this duty see some motives 1 All Creatures in their kind doe glorifie God and keep their standing the Sun the Starres the heavens declare the glory of God Psal 19.1 The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse the master of his crib Isa 1.3 The Crane Swallow and Turtle know their times Jer. 8.1 What a shame for Israel then not to acknowledge their Benefactor but come so farre behind the unreasonable Creatures VVhat a shame for Christians to come behind the Israelites who partake in farre greater mercies and means than they did 2 Hereby wee manifest our selves to bee the servants of God in resisting the dishonour of God and standing out for our Lord against Satan wicked men hypocrites whose whole desire is to obscure and darken the glory of God and as farre as they can with violence to tread it under foot Especially having vowed in our Baptism so to doe He is a Coward that seeing the readiness and alacrity of the enemy is not by it provoked to stout resistance especially standing in a good cause and sure of victory Can a child endure his father to be dishonoured and wronged by word or deed and put it up Can Gods child seeing a son honours his father 3 Our time is but short we are in our last conflict the time of our full deliverance and introduction into heavenly glory is at hand the Crown is in our eye almost upon our heads already and therefore let us encourage our selves a while to be instant for the glory of God which is our last scope and chief expectation even as a Traveller that sees the Evening come upon him is so much the quicker till he attain the place he desires so we having the evening of our life approach and our last hour should set our selves forward with more speed and alacrity towards our home holding on our right way which is the glorifying of God in all things 4 We have a cloud of examples before us 1 Of holy men who have endured Martyrdom and rejoyced in the flames that they were worthy by their so exquisite torments to glorifie God as Christ told Peter that by such a death he should glorifie God 2 Of holy Angels who spend all eternity in magnifying Gods holiness and glory Isa 6.3 one cries to another Holy holy holy is the Lord the whole world is full of his glory and Luke 2.14 Glory be to God in the highest heavens And shall not we approach to the Angelical life which is the happiest of all creatures 3 Of the blessed Son of God our Head whose whole life was nothing else but a seeking of the glory of his Father And should not the members imitate the Head Have wee so many faithful guides in so dangerous a way and should we be so cold and slow in the imitation of them 5 Our glorification is individually knit to our glorifying of God as 1 Sam. 2.30 Him that honoureth me will I honour Yea Christ claims his glory on no other condition but this but that he had glorified his Father on earth Joh. 17.4 As among men great benefactors are well pleased with small testimonies of thankfulness where ability wants to perform much so the Lord accepts our small obedience and study of glorifying him that hee plentifully remunerates it Means to come to glorifie God in some good measure 1 Pray for wisdome and a sound judgement Phil. 1.10 That yee may discern things that differ being filled with the fruits of righteousness to the glory and praise of God For every thing will not please and glorifie God 2 Renounce thy own glory in doing things Joh. 8.49 50. How can yee which receive honour one of another seek the honour that cometh of God Certainly Christ sought not his own praise but the praise of him that sent him 3 Observe Gods wisdom in his Word and Works his Power Justice and Mercy his benefits and corrections on thy self and others in all things praise him Hee that praiseth me glorifieth me Psal 50.23 4 Honour God in an honest and Christian conversation gracious speeches and an unspotted life honour the Gospel hereby stop the wickeds mouthes and glorifie God 1 Pet. 2.12 II. The manner of this answer of Christ Avoyd Satan which differeth somewhat from Christs other answers being
partly from the Prophets witness 1 For the Apostles they witnessed of such facts of Christ as argued him First a Prophet vers 37 38. Who went about doing good and healing c. for these Miracles served to confirm his heavenly doctrin Secondly a Priest vers 39. Whom they slâ—w and hanged on a tree which noteth his sacrifice Thirdly a King proved by three Arguments 1 By his rising from death vers 40 41. 2 By sending out his Apostles to preach v. 42. 3 By his coming to judge all flesh ver 42. 2 The same truth is confirmed by the witness of all the Prophets ver 43. In the Preface Peter maketh way unto his Doctrin three ways 1 By removing from himself an imputation of levity and sudden change of his mind which might otherwise have been objected against him for all men knew that he being a Jew had been very respective lest at any time he should come near an Heathen or Gentile such as Cornelius and his company were for so it appeareth by his answer in the Vision ver 14. yea and after his vision he was full of doubts whether he might adventure into their company till the Lord adds to his vision a voyce bidding him go in to Cornelius doubting nothing vers 20. Peter therefore most ingenuously in the first place acknowledgeth an error that had stuck by him namely in accounting now after Christs death and Resurrection whereby hee brake down all partition walls such as were uncircumcised an unclean company and like Doggs and Swine to whom holy things might not be cast and offered 2 That the Lord had removed this error manifestly teaching him both by vision and voyce that his grace did now extend it self over all sorts of men and therefore that he came not of his own head moved by remerity or rashness but upon good ground to teach even the Gentiles the mysteries of their salvation 3 He gets not audience only and attention but authority also to his Doctrine by shewing what a good conceit he had of Cornelius and his company that he had not now to deal with prophane and lewd persons but such as the Lord had sanctified to himself according to the vision and voyce What or whom the Lord hath sanctified account not thou prophane vers 15. Whence 1 We have in this holy man a Map of Humane frailty Observ 1. A Map of humane frailty in the Apostle in which wee may see how heavie the best are to their duties for was it not long before given Peter in charge to teach the Gentiles was not his commission large enough when among other Disciples he was dismissed by Christ himself to teach not only the Nations but all Nations Had not he heard often from the mouth of Christ and read in the Writings of the Prophets that the Gentiles must bee called in that the Tents of the Church must bee enlarged her Curtains stretched out and that their own sound must go over all the world yet Peter had forgotten all this and as though Christ had not been come or as if himself had never conversed with him he would still uphold the difference of peoples which his Mr. had destroyed confine salvation to the Jews only as if Christ had not been a common Saviour of Jews and Gentiles he must have new visions and voyces to lift him up to his duty or else he cannot be brought so much as to acknowledge it Let us look upon this example to condemn our own corruption by it yea to watch over it lest following as we are too proue the stream of it we be carried away from the most essential duties which by our calling either general or particular are by God enjoyned us Let the Popish guides also look upon this example and tell us whether Peter erred not 1 In judgement 2 After Christs promise 3 In a weighty matter forgetting his commission and calling yea and the calling and salvation of the whole body of the Gentiles all which he sailed in And then whether it be a sound arâ—und upon Peters person or any promise made to him to build their Popes immunity and freedome from error in matter of faith so long as he siteth in Peters pretended chair Secondly In that the Apostle Peter secretly implyeth an acknowledgement of his error A pattern of special grace in the same Apostle We have in him a worthy pattern of a special grace to be practised of us all namely upon better grounds to lay aside any error in judgement or practice although never so long held or stifly maintained of us before and not be ashamed to profess that we so doe which vertue is a sound fruit of humility and argueth a good heart which is in love with the truth for it self and esteemeth it above his own estimation the observing whereof would cut off infinite controversies which could never bee carried and continued with such burning heat in the Church of God if the contention were not many times more for victory than for truth and rather lest error should bee acknowledged than that truth should triumph over it Thirdly In this Preface every Minister is taught wisely to cut off and remove such leâ—s as might hinder his doctrine among his Hearers and contrarily to win by all good means such credit to his person as that he may preserve a reverent estimation of himself in the hearts of his people So did the Apostle here and not without cause seeing the acceptance of the person of a Minister is a great furtherance for the entertainment of his doctrine not that the faith of God ought to be had in respect of persons but because mans weakness carrieth him beyond his duty herein And again Satan and his instruments seek exceptions against their persons whose doctrine is without exception well knowing that where the person is not first received hardly will any doctrine from him bee embraced Matth. 10.14 He that receiveth not you nor your words Whence the Apostle Paul was constrained to be much and often in the justifying of his person calling and conversation because to hinder his doctrine the false Apostles by all these laboured to bring him into contempt Nay our Lord Jesus himself was forced often to averre his person to be Divine his calling to bee heavenly and his conversation holy and without sin because the Jewes were ever hence disgracing his doctrine because of the meanness of his appearance Now whosoever would retain reverence and authority among his people must shew forth 1 Conscience of his duty 2 Love to his peoples souls and bodies 3 A wise and unblameable carriage and conversation these things if he doe not he hath more disgraced himself than his people can Of a truth I perceive that God accepteth not of persons By person is not here meant the substance of man or the man himself but the outward quality appearance or condition which being offered to the eye may make a man more or less respected
domestical and familiar converse with him all the while he lived in the execution of his office they might be furnished to this testimony Hence is it that John saith We saw his glory namely in his Doctrin and Works and the things which we have heard and seen declare wee unto you Many worthy points concerning this witnesse of the Apostles were here to be delivered but that I referre them all to the forty one and forty two verses where we shall as fitly and more fully handle the same And now proceed to the matter witnessed namely the Priestly Office of Christ in these words Whom they slew hanging him upon a tree wherein are to be considered 1 The Person that was put to death whom 2 The persons that put him to death they slew namely of Judea and Jerusalem 3 The kind and manner of his death slew hanging him on a tree 4 The use of Christ his Crucifying First the person that was put to death was Jesus Christ whom wee have heard to be Lord of all anoynted with the Holy Ghost and power to work most powerful Miracles who went about doing good and never harm with whom God so was as he never was with any Creature before nor ever shall bee hereafter who subdued mightily the very Devils themselves with one word for all this he was killed and slain How the Lord of life couâ—d be subdued under death Quest But how could the Lord of life be subdued of death yea hee that did only good and was without all sin which is the mother of death Ans Christ the Mediator must be considered in his two Natures 1 The God-head 2 The Man-hood and in that he dyed it was according to his Man-hood so Peter saith he dyed according unto his flesh 1 Pet. 3.18 for his body was dead being separated from his soul and his soul suffered the sorrows of death But yet we must conceive that he suffered not in such a Man-hood as was a naked and bare flesh such as ours but such as was inseparably united and knit to the God-head and therefore the Apostle saith that God shed his bloud that is not the God-head but such a person as is both God and Man Secondly although he had no personal sin to bring him to death yet had he sin imputed unto him even the sins of his whole Church which he willingly took upon himself so as God reckoned with him not for the sins of one man but of all his Church and esteemed him as a captain sinner till the price was paid and men reckoned him among sinners and esteemed him an arch-malefactor Why wicked men prevail against Christ who had vanquished the Devils themselves Quest But doth not this crosse the power of Christ immediatly before mentioned whereby he controlled the Devils themselves that wicked men should thus farre prevail against him Ans No but it argueth a voluntary laying down of his power for the time of his suffering for at his apprehension hee could have commanded twelve Legions of Angels but that the Scriptures must be fulfilled yea and this laying aside of his power was the most powerful work that ever he wrought by which he more foyled and broke the Devils power and forces in men than ever by any shewing himself the true Sampson who more mightily prevailed against his enemies in his death than in all his life Hence note 1 How Christs righteousness is witnessed hee went â—â—â—ut doing good and yet he is slain and teacheth that Christ himself deserved not death but he endured it for some other that had deserved it and indeed Christ dyed for us and in our stead that we should not dye How it standeth with Gods justice to punish the innocent and let the guilty goe free Object But how could he being innocent suffer for us sinners or how standeth it with equity that God should punish the innocent and let the guilty goe free Ans We must consider Christ in his death not as a Debtor but as a Surety or Pledge between God and us who hath undertaken our whole debt and therefore hee suffereth not as guilty in himself but in the room of us that were guilty now it standeth with the course of Justice to lay the Debtors action upon the Surety being 1 Willing 2 Able to pay the debt as Christ was Secondly we may gather hence the hainousnessâ— and odiousnesse of our sins it was no trifle nor a matter of small desert that the Lord of glory the only Son of God yea God himself must shed his bloud for and yet what a small reckoning is made of soul and open sins Thirdly take notice also of the love of God who to free us would lay the chastisement of our peace upon his doâ—â— Son that so his justice might be satisfied Object But how could his Justice bee satisfied who was infinitely offended with such a finite and short death as Christs was The justice of God doth more appear in Christ his Pâ—ssiâ—n than if all the world had been damned Ans By reason of the dignity of the person who suffered being God as well as Man that suffering was in value eternal though not in duration or continuance Lastly we have here the two Natures of Christ lively set before us the one most powerful and glorious in mighty Miracles which forced Legions of Devils to fly before it the other beaten down with wrongs and injuries even to the death it self and it was meet that the Apostle intending to prove Christ to bee the true Messias should mention both these natures which are absolutely necessary to the Mediatour the Humanity that it might suffer death and so satisfy in the same nature that had sinned and the Deity to overcome in suffering so to apply that satisfaction unto beleevers Secondly The persons that put Christ to death were the Jews they of Judea and Jerusalem Object But the Jews had no power to put him to death How the Jews are said to put Christ to death though they had no power to do it the Scepter was gone from them and if the Scribes and Pharisees had had the power in their hands they would never have suffered him alive so long Besides the Judge who was Pontius Pilate was the Romane Emperours Deputy the Souldiers his Executioners were of the Romane band the manner of Death also not Jewish but Romane why is it then said that the Jews slew him and no mention made of the Romanes by whose authority hee was put to death Answ The Jews are justly charged with it because they were the chief causes and abettors in all that violence which the Romans used against him They made way to this sentence and went as far as they could they apprehended him they mocked him they charged him with blasphemy they raised false witness against him they beat him spate in his face they hood-winkt him and bad him prophecy who smote him finally they delivered him to the Romane
4 Your loving respect of me and mine hath been as a continual shadow and refreshing Phil. 2.2 unto mee who may and must truely say with the Apostle I have found no man in these Parts Like-Minded And out of my answerable respect I would set by you for your refreshing a little vessel of comfortable water drawn out of the Scriptures Isa 12.3 the wells of consolation by which you may allay and cool the heat of that fire which every sprig of the bush shall be scorched withall and which perhaps you have not altogether or shall not escape I would also express my desire to put into your hands a weapon against the like fiery assaults of Satan who spareth neither head nor members which while you buckle fast unto you as you have your honourable Fathers name and resemble him in other vertues so herein also you shall imitate his wisdome and prudence of whom I have heard that living in the Court to a great age and usually wearing his weapon about him one asked why he being so weak burdened himself with his weapon his Noble answer was Hee would not lay off his weapon so long as he knew one Papist in the Court A resolute answer of a grave and noble Counsellor This will be also your wisdome so long to buckle your weapon unto you as you know one enemy left to tempt and assault you And now in leaving you let mee leave with you a medicine or receipt against the sting of that fiery Serpent Rabi folia superjecta serpenti interimunt eum Amb. Hexam lib. cap. 9 of power to drive him away For as Ambrose speaks of the leaves of the bramble bush that being cast upon one kinde of Serpent they kill him so much more true it is that the leaves of Gods word which properly belong to the bush of the Church and opposed to Satans poysoned temptations overcome and Master them Deut. 33.16 And thus as Moses requested that the blessing of him that dwelt in the bush might come upon the head of Joseph even so the good will of him that dwelt in the bush come upon your head upon the head of your vertuous Lady upon the heads of your children to the sweetning and crowning of your age vers 13. And blessed of the Lord bee your portion vers 23 for the sweetness of Heaven and for the sweetness of the earth till you be satisfied with favour and filled with the blessing of the Lord. Amen Reading Octob. 28. 1618. Your worships in the Lord to bee commanded THO. TAYLOR A Threefold Alphabet of Rules concerning CRISTIAN PRACTICE The First Precept of every Letter concerning Duty towards God The Second towards our Neighbours The Third towards our Selves Gathered at a Friends request in this order for the helping of the Memory First AWake with God in the morning and before all things give him your first fruits and calves of your lips in 1 Confession of sin 2 Petition of necessaries for body and soul 3 Thankfulness for mercies received especially your late preservation rest and protection of you and yours Josh 24.15 Psa 101.2 Gen. 14.14 18.19 Esth 4.15 2 Account it not enough that your self serve God unless that you see all in your charge do the same 3 Arm your self against whatsoever the day may bring forth and upon all occasions think on your happy redemption with much thankfulness for so happy conjunction of Justice and mercy B 1 Beware of occasions of sin and wisely inure your self in subduing the least that at length the greater may be foiled 2 Beleeve all that God speaketh unto you out of his word but not all that man telleth you 1 Sam. 10.16 Eccl. 3.7 nor tell to any other all that you hear but only the truth and that neither all nor always 3 Before you take in hand any thing Luk. 2.19 2 Sam. 2.1 1 Sam. 30.8 counsel with Gods word if it be lawful and then perform it with prayer that it may bee as successful as lawful C 1 Carefully set your self in Gods presence all the day long that setting him at your right hand you may not fall 2 Carry your self unto all as the weak may be won 1 Cor. 1â— 32. Col. 4.5 the strong comforted and the wicked ashamed 3 Consider the dignity of your soul how beautiful it is to God and his Angels so long as you keep it unspotted Mat. 15.18 Eph. 4. â—3 31. Col. 3.5 â— that so you may cleanse your heart from the first motions of sinful thoughts as lust anger envy pride ambition covetousness fullenness and the rather because the least sin deserveth death D 1 Daily morning and evening at least solemnly on your knees make confession and requests with thanksgiving first preparing your heart to seek the Lord in the morning think that that day may bee your last day and when you go to bed you know not whether you shall rise unless it be to judgement It is safest therefore to use prayer as a key to open the morning and as a bar or lock to shut in the evening 2 Delight to do all the good you can to Gods Children Gal. 6.10 and to receive all the good you can from them 3 Distrust not Gods providence in any matter 2 Chr. 16.3.9.12 2 Cor. 3.5 1 Cor. 3.7 Rom. 1.25 although you see the means wanting neither when you have them let them bee relyed on more than God himself but let him be prayed unto for the prosperous use of them E 1 Exercise your mind in meditating often on the works of God Jer. 12.2 Hâ—b 1.13 Mat. 15.31 as his creating and governing of the world his prospering and punishing the wicked his blessing and correcting his children his preparing of unspeakable Joy for the one and unutterable torment for the other Exod. 10.8 But especially on the Sabbath add to these meditations the holy exercises of prayer Preaching Sacraments holy conference and such like 2 Esteem of every one better than your self Rom. 12.16 and the more you excel another be so much the more humbled Phil 2.3 Rom. 14.23 Prov. 6.14 Zac 8.17 Psa 49.3 3 Examine your thoughts well whether they tend before you fulfil your own desires if you find them unprofitable curious vain or such as you cannot yeild a sufficient reason to God or man for kill them in the shel let them not live or breathe longer in you F Eccl. 12.13 Prov. 5.8 6.27 28 1 Fear God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man 2 Fly and avoid places and persons infectious wanton idle unthrifty and bad company which are to the soul as poysoned and infected air to the body Eccl. 1.13 Gen. 3.19 2 Thes 3.6 3 Follow with faithfulness and diligence your own business in the lawful and particular calling wherein God hath placed you only be careful in your earthly business to carry an heavenly mind
with sound comfort when all outward means doe fail if the heart can say to it self What if God doe not give me my desire by this means or that Faith in this word strengthneth the heart many ways I know God hath more words than one more blessings than one and man liveth by every word And faith strengthens the heart 1 By setting before the eye Gods power in this word how that one word of his mouth is enough to help us one word is able to create innumerable armies of Angels and Creatures one fiat is enough to make all Creatures and all this to come or goe or stand still as most dutiful servants to their Master Matth. 8. the Centurion coming to Christ for the health of his Servant desires him not to come within his roof for he was not worthy of that favour nor to send him any receit or physick to doe him good but only to speak the word and he was sure his servant should be healed A strong faith in a strong word It is but a word with God then how easily how presently how certainly will God doe me good if he see it good for me 2 By assuring the heart that his will is as ready to doe us good as his word is able and it sets the promise before us that nothing shall be wanting to them that fear God The former in the example of the Leper Matth. 8. Lord if thou wilt thou caâ—st make me clean and in the next words to shew he is as willing as able he saith I will be thou clean by which word proceeding out of the mouth of God his Leprosie was instantly cured his will was his word and his word was his work The latter in the example of Abraham whose faith set before his eyes Gods promise that in Isaac his seed should be called and that by Isaac he should be a Father of many Nations and therefore when at Gods word he went out to offer Isaac and Isaac asked him where was the Sacrifice he answered God will provide One eye was on Gods word commanding him to slay his Son another upon this other word that God was able to raise him up from the dead whence after a sort hee received him and that hee also would doe so before his promise should bee frustrate 3 By setting before the Christian heart the blessed issue and success of unwavering confidence in the word of God The Israelites going out of Aegypt and wandring in the Wilderness so many years by the appointment of Gods word he did supply all their wants by his Word and it became all things unto them which their hearts could desire 1 He paved them a way in the Sea and suddainly made the waters a wall unto them 2 He gave them bread from Heaven even Angels food and that in our text was by his word 3 He gave them water out of a rock and that by his word he bade Moses speak to the rock 4 Having no means for clothes his word kept their garments for forty years from waxing old But what need we goe out of our text in which the example of our Head and Lord may best confirm us for wanting bread in the Wilderness hee would not turn stones into bread but waited on the word of his Father till the Angels came and ministred unto him even so the adopted Sons of God treading in the steps of our Lord shall by vertue of the same word always find relief one way or other Who would have thought that ever Job should have swum out of that misery having lost all his Cattel substance and Children but because when the Lord was a killing him in his own sence hee trusted in him the Lord raised him and doubled the wealth and prosperity he had before Who would have thought that ever Daniel should have escaped the Lions denne and teeth being cast in amongst them or that Peter should have escaped Herods sword being bound in Chains and watched of Souldiers to be brought out to death next day But trusting in the Lord this word shut the mouthes of the Lions and opened the Prisons iron doors and brake in sunder the chains and so both of them were wonderfully delivered Surely this Doctrin well digested is full of comfort and quietness and would set the heart at rest and make all outward troubles easie If a man could once get his heart to trust in the word as David did Psal 119.42 it would sustain the soul in many troubles and bring in so sweet a contentment as the world is a stranger unto On the contrary whence is it that mens hearts fail them and they sink in their troubles but because they trust to the means and not to the Word of God at least not to every word of God If God crosse them one way they think hee hath no other way to doe them good Vse 3. If man live by every word of God then take heed of making that a means of living which God hath never warranted but see that what thou livest by proceed out of the mouth of God How doth hee live by every word of God that gets his living either in whole or in part contrary to Gods word Obj. But we see such as use no good means but maintain themselves in good estate by robbing stealing oppressing usury gaming false wares or weights it seems that even these creatures have a word of God to sanctifie them and put vertue in them to such persons or else they could not live by them Ans We must distinguish between the things themselves that are gotten and the unjust manner of getting them The creatures themselves are by a general word of God sanctified and set apart by God to feed and maintain good and bad as well the wicked as honest getters of them even as the Sun and Rain shines and falls upon the just and unjust And the unrighteousness of particular persons cannot alter Gods general decree But if wee consider the special manner of getting such goods that is not sanctified but condemned by the word of God 1 Because the person is not in Christ who restores our right unto us and then he is but an usurper and a bankrupt who builds his houses goes fine in apparel decks up himself and his and spends most liberally but it is all with other mens money He that knows not this thinks him a rich man but he that doth knoweth that he is not either thrifty or wealthy the Creditor comes and casts him into prison and makes his bones and body pay the debt 2 As his person so his course is accursed for the only way to get a blessing from God on the means is to use his own means who hath commanded first to seek the Kingdom of God and then other things and hath accursed all that wealth and maintenance of the body for which a man doth hazard or lose his soul 3 When a man doth live by bread against the word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God it is rather a death than a life his bread becomes poyson and as Rats-bane in his bowels because he hath it without a promise and without blessing Obj. I see no such thing Ans Many poysons are long a working but the end of such is death and the more slowly they work the more slily and certainly they kill And if the Lord doe not invert the order he hath set in nature by cursing the particular creatures be sure he hath in his justice reserved a curse for the unjust person and he shall not avoyd it This doctrin specially applied laies hold upon sundry sorts of men who live contrary to the word They are these I. Such as live out of lawful callings which are one part of the word of God that we should get our living in the sweat of our browes and so long as we are in our way we have his word we shall bee provided for And the word proceeding out of the mouth of God is that he that will not labour must not eat because he eats not his own and such as will not live after this word by Gods word they ought not to live because they are idle and unprofitable burdens of the earth who 1 abuse Gods providence who ties the ends and means together 2 infringe that good order which God hath established for the avoiding of confusion in Church or Common-wealth namely that every man should serve God in the service of man in some warrantable and profitable civil calling 3 As hee is no better than an Infidel that depends only on means seeing man lives by every word of God so he that in a lawful course of life provides not for his family is worse than an infidel Of this sort are our knots of companions of drinking and gaming company and wandring rouges and beggers I knit them together because they are all of a strain and either are Beggers or shall be These commonly come not to Church to hear their duties and therefore they must bee taught by correction and discipline of those that are the executioners of justice II. Such as think they live well enough and yet it is by deceiving others by stealing oppression extortion lying swearing and falshood in buying and selling and why say they may not a man help and shift for himself But consider 1 What a poor help it is when a man will use unlawful means and to shift out of one evil by another Hee doth as the Prophet speaks avoid a Lyon and a Bear meets him Pilate would keep his place by unlawful means the delivering of Christ to bee crucified but besides that hee brought innocent blood upon himself hee lost his place and flew himself 2 Consider That if Gods Word of blessing go not with the means his word of curse doth and so the Prophet Zachary saith that the curse entereth into the house of the swearer and of the theef chap. 5. v. 4. and this curse shall remain in the midst of his house and consume the very timber and stones This curse often scatters ill-gotten goods as fast as they were ever hastily gathered if not in his own daies yet in some unthrifty heir after him 3 Consider how God crosseth the vain conceit of unjust persons they think all that is any way gotten to bee gain and profit but the word is Prov. 10.2 that treasures of wickednesse profit nothing they cannot help a man from the hand of God nay when the evil day comes they are gone and leave a man alone to grapple with death and judgement and turn a man naked to the sentence of condemnation for his wicked getting and holding of them III. Another sort of men who live not by the Word of God Vel minimuâ— fructus ex pecunia peâ—cipâ— non potest sine Dei offensione proximi injuâ— 2. Calv. Epist 226. but against it are Usurers who pull themselves out of all lawful callings and set up a trade for the publike evil and their own private good which were there nothing else against it proves it not to bee of Gods devising for every calling of Gods devising is helpful to men in general but the Spirit of God hath given this a name from biting and hurting But wee have the Scripture most expresly against it whether it bee manifest as is a contract for gain as for ten pound to pay eleven at the years end or covert whereby men find devices which they call mysteries to defeat the laws and seem to contract and either not to lend or not for gain The word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God saith Exod. 22. v. 25. If thou lend money to my people with thee thou shalt not be an Usurer thou shalt not oppress him Mark how usury and oppression is all one And Deut. 23.19 Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother the usury of money meat or any thing that may bee lent But the Usurer that will live by his money and not by Gods word saith Yea but of the Gentiles they might though not of a brother To which I say that now the partition wall is taken away and neither Jew nor Gentile remains all are our brethren in Christ and therefore of no man must usury bee expected unless thou beest worse than a Jew Let the Usurer answer this if he can Again those Gentiles were of those nations of the Canaanites Ab hoc usuram eâ—igâ— quem non sit crimen occultic Amb. which they were commanded to destroy and usury was as teeth given them and allowed by God to eat them up withall Seest thou a man whom thou mayest lawfully kill take use of him but not of thy brother Object I will not take usury of the poor but of the rich Answ But the text is Thou shalt not take usury of thy brother bee he poor or rich though the rich bee better able to suffer wrong yet thou art not by any word enabled to offer it The word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God saith Psal 15.5 Hee that giveth not his mony to usury shall dwell in the Lords Tabernacle and rest on his holy hill and Ezek. 18.17 Hee that hath not received usury and increase c. wherein it is plain without all tricks that either to give out or take in usury excludes out of heaven Object Hee means to oppresse a man with usury Answ Every usury is oppression and every Usurer fears not God Levit. 25.36 Thou shalt not take usury but fear the Lord. Object But that Law was judicial not moral Answ That is false for our Saviour renewed in it the Gospel Luke 6.35 Lend freely looking for nothing again Therefore it is moral Besides that usury is condemned amongst the great transgressions of the Moral law Ezek. 18.13 Object Wee may do as we would bee dealt by and it is charity so to lend as another may benefit himself Answ No man in need would borrow but freely
the words of God when hee urgeth them spoiled of the right sense of the holy Ghost 2 Hee perverteth the right order of Gods spirit in his allegation for whereas Gods Spirit first suggests the word and then frames the heart to obedience of it for the property of the sheep of Christ is first to hear the voice and then to follow Joh. 10.27 Satan first will have men to conceive opinions or attempt practices pleasing to him and themselves and then afterwards seek out some Scripture to justify them Thus Johanan and the Captaines were resolved to go into Egypt but sent for Jeremy to see if they might have the word of God to go with them Jer. 42.3 compared with vers 20. 3 Hee wrests the right end for whereas all Scripture is written that wee might not sin 1 Joh. 2.1 hee abuseth this part of it to draw Christ to sin and whereas all the precious Promises of God should hold us in the awe and fear of God this Promise must occasion Christ to presume upon an unlawful action 4 Hee willingly mistakes the persons for whereas that Psalm and the great Promises of it hold true in Christ our Head yet notwithstanding it was principally written for the godly members of Christ and the adopted Sons of God neither can every thing in that Psalm bee so fitly referred to Christ in himself as in his afflicted members Besides that the Angels minister otherwise to Christ himself than to his members Christ by his own power bears up himself and Angels and all things Heb. 1.3 5 Hee falsifies the text by adding partly to the words partly to the sense To the words hee addes lest at any time which addes no small strength to the temptation including even that time wherein hee should bee jumping between the Pinacle and the pavement To the sense thrusting his dart into the sense of the place as if that place said so much in effect to him Cast thy self down which Chrysostome hath well observed saying Cast thy self down Homil. 5. ex vaâ—â—â— in Matth. was not written but was the poyson of the Serpent cunningly mingled with the sweet comfort of the Scripture 6 Hee puts out and conceals that which most makes for Christ and against himself namely those words in all thy waies which most warreth against this headlong casting down of himself for it is not the way of a man to cast himself from such an height but to seek the stairs or the ordinary way And these words were not unawares omitted but maliciously and purposely for if Christ shall hear him speak of his waies and consider that this casting down of himself pertained not to his way one piece of his own argument had overthrown the whole 7 In this allegation hee commits the sallacy of division intending Christs overthrow by dis-joyning the things which God hath coupled together for whereas the words of that Text in the right sense consist of two parts namely 1 A promise of protection and preservation Satanaâ— promissionem objicit Christo conditionem vero abjleu Par. in locum 2 The condition of keeping a mans self in his waies without which condition no promise of God belongs unto us for godliness hath the promise of this life and the life to come Satan rejects the condition wholly and divorceth it from the promise This is Mr. Junius his observation 8 From every part and word of a most excellent Text hee can urge his most hellish temptation and make all fair weather when he intends nothing less as if hee should say If thou bee the Son of God cast down thy self I do assure thee nay the written Word assures thee of protection and safety for in such a Psalm namely the ninety first vers 11. thou hast the word of thy Fathers promise yea in one promise a number of promises for 1 If thou wilt know the parties that shal support thee they be Angels Creatures swift mighty and powerful 2 If thou doubtest of their will they must doe it they can neither will nor chuse it is their charge they are commanded so to doe 3 If thou ask the manner how they must bear thee up that if thou wouldst thou canst not fall 4 If thou doubtest of their cheerfulness or willingness or diligence there is no fear for they must doe it as Mothers or Nurses as the word signifies who out of their tender love bear and carry or lead the infant with great watch and circumspection that it fall not and so come to hurt 5 If thou thinkest there is any limitation of their Commission there is none for they must bear thee up at all times 6 To take away all suspition of fear from thee they must save thee not only from great danger as breaking thy bones or neck but from the least danger thy foote the lowest and basest part shall not stumble or be hurt much less thy head thy self Thus subtilly intending to hold with the Hound and run with the Hare Satan hath pickt out a place which seemeth forcible enough to perswade any reasonable man to his purpose Hence note that Doct. A principal wile of Satan is to assay if he can by no means else to overthrow men by the overthrow of Scriptures Gen. 3.1 Hath God indeed said yee shall not eat of every tree of the garden It were strange and marvellous hee should say so seeing hee knows it would better your estate In this his first temptation of all other he chuseth to make Gods Word a means of their and our overthrow thinking it not an easie thing to destroy Gods Image in the soul unless he could first destroy the word of God out of their heart 1 Sam. 28.15 when the Devil would delude Saul and hasten his death he lays the ground of it in Gods Word and taking on him the person of Samuel saith The Lord hath done even as he spake by my hand abusing and alleadging that Scripture in 1 Sam. 15.28 The Lord will rent the Kingdom from thee this day and hath given it to thy neighbour who is better than thou Mar. 1.23 the Devil comes to Christ and tells him he knows him well enough Thou art Jesus of Nazareth even that holy one of God that holy One that was promised figured and expected even that Redeemer and holy One of Israel Isa 41.14 Even that holy One fore-told by the Angel Luke 1.35 And all this was by Scripture to overthrow both Christ himself and the faith of beleevers as though there were some secret compact and familiarity between him and them and perhaps hence arose that speech By Beelzebub hee casteth out Devils Reasons 1 Satan knows that Scripture is the will of God revealed and hath sway in the conscience as being inspired by the Holy Ghost as the only rule of faith and life and if he can turkis the Scripture out of his right sense and shape he perverts judgement and holds the conscience in error and these errours are
as 1 To serve God is to reign and to be a King over the world fleshly lusts c. and to suit with Saints and Angels 2 God hereby becomes our protector maintainer and revengeâ— a David often prayeth Lord save thy servant teach thy servant revenge the cause of thy servant c. 3 Servants of unrighteousness meet with the wages of unrighteousness 4 All our comfort in crosses and afflictions stands in our service of God and a good Conscience or else we have none 5 To fear and keep his Commandements is the whole duty of a man and that which makes him fâ—lly happy Notes of a good servant of God 1 Labour to know the will of the Lord which hee hath revealed in his Word as David prayed Psal 119.125 For in the Scripture hee hath laid but our work for us and let us expect our calling to every business there let us be ready to hear not lightly absent nor present for custom but conscience 2 Let us serve him in affection and be glad to doe any thing to please him and grieve when we fail either in doing that wee should not or in not doing that we ought or not in that manner that may please the Lord. 3 Be ever imployed in his work How know I a mans servant but by his labouring in his Masters business Yee are his servant to whom yee obey Rom. 6.16 and Joh. 15. Yee are my Disciples if yee doe whatsoever I command you If I see a man spend his time in the service of sin of lusts of games pleasure the world c. I know whose servant he is certainly he is not in the service of God hee is not in Gods work 4 Intend thy Lords profit and glory A good servant knows his time and strength is his Masters and hee must bee profitable to him and seek his credit It will be with every servant of Christ as with Onesimus Phileus 11. being converted howsoever before grace he were so unprofitable and pilfering as he was unfit for any honest mans house and much more the house of God yet now he profits the Lord and credits him and takes not his meat and drink and wages for nothing 5 A good servant sets forward his Masters work in others hee will provoke his fellow-servants and not smite and hinder them as the evil servant did he will defend his Lord he will venture his life for him he will stand also for his fellow-servants while they are in their Masters business he will be a law to himself if there were no Law no Discipline he will not idle out his time his eye is upon the eye of his Master his mind upon his account his endeavour to please him in all things Vers 11. Then the Devil left him and behold the Angels came and ministred unto him HAving by the assistance of God now finished the two former general parts of this whole History which stood in the 1 Preparation and 2 The combate it self we proceed to the third and last which is the issue and event of all which affordeth us the sweet fruit and comfort of all our Saviours former sufferings from Satan and of our labours and endeavours in opening the same In this issue two parts are to bee considered 1 Christs victory 2 His triumph His victory and conquest in that the Devil left him His triumph in that the Angels came and ministred unto him In both which shine out notably the marks of his Divine power which even in all his lowest abasements did discover it self to such eyes as could see it and gave shew of a person far above all that his outward presence seemed to promise as for example His conception was by the Holy Ghost His birth as mean and base as might be but graced with a Star and the testimony of Angels and his Circumcision with Simeons His Baptism performed by John in Jordan but graced by his Fathers testimony and the Spirits descent in a visible shape of a Dove His civil obedience causeth him to pay tribute but hee sends for it to a Fish His person was called Beelzebub but Beelzebub confesseth him to be the Son of God At his Passion what greater infamy than to be hanged between two Theeves What greater glory than to convert and save one of them At his apprehension they that took him fell backward to the ground Joh. 18.6 In death he trod upon Deaths neck and being shut up in the Grave he opened it So here he is carried and recarried in the hands of the Devil but as one weary of his burden hee is forced to leave him on the plain field and to give up the bucklers because a stronger than hee is come This is the great mystery of God manifest in the flesh 1 Timothy 3.16 In the victory of Christ consider three things 1 The time when the Devil left him Then 2 The manner hee departed from him 3 How long hee left him and that is in Luke for a season Then This particle may have reference to three things 1 When the temptations were ended saith Luke namely all those which his Father had appointed him to indure at this time in the Wilderness For as the Son of God knew how much to suffer so Satan would not give over till hee had spent all his powder and had exercised all his malice in these most hellish Temptations wherein hee used all his skill strength and malice if he might possibly in this seed of the woman overthrow all the Sons of men and in the Head kill all the members Whence wee may Doct. Observe The obedience of the Son of God who stood out resolutely and departed not the field at all nor expected any rest till all the Temptations for this time were ended Christ could have confounded Satan in the beginning of the temptations and so have freed himself from further molestation but he continues and abides all the trial to the end And why Reason 1 His love to his Father made him submit himself to the lowest abasement even to the death of the Cross and refuse no difficult service for which his Father sent him into the World of which this was a principal The speech of David was most proper to this Son of David Behold here am I let the Lord do with mee even as hee will In his greatest agony hee said Not my will but thy will be done For he that loveth God his Commandements are not grievous to him 2 His love to his Church made him stand out the uttermost peril in this dangerous combate Eph. 5.25 Christ loved his Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and exposed himself for it and made himself liable to all wrongs and dangers for it as a loving Husband steps between his Wife and danger 3 Hee persisted in the Combate to teach us to hold out after his example in temptation and to expect freedome from temptation when wee have indured all but not before It is absurd to expect the
liberty than hee affords if thy affections be rough and stirring against Gods children thou hast not yet subjected thy self to Christ 4 A mighty work of power in Christ was that he was able to soyl temptations and stand out against all hellish powers so that the Devil found nothing in him Now findest thou the power and strength of Christ in the spiritual combate Doest thou chase Satan afore thee and the whole band of his temptations Wouldest thou refuse a whole world rather than sin against God or gratifie Satan and thy self with the least displeasure of him All the power of Christ was set against sin and Satans Kingdom And if thou hast part in this power of Christ it abolisheth sin in thee and strengthneth thee with full resolution against all sin 5 A mighty work of Christs power is to enrich his children with all necessary graces tending to salvation and to lead them into the fruition of their eternal inheritance It cost Joshua some labour before he could bring Israel into the good Land that abounded with good things it cost our JOSHUA more Findest thou this fruit of Christs power that thy face is set towards Heaven and is it with thee as with those that entred into that good Land who tasted of the fruits aforehand Hast thou received the first fruits of the Spirit Doest thou grow in grace Doest thou with patience expect the promises and begin the heavenly life already Hast thou hope joy love of God zeal for God constancy in the truth for these are purchased by this power of Christ Then here is a creating vertue put forth a fruit of Christs mighty power magnifie this grace of God and hope for the accomplishment and finishing of the same work by the same power the which shall preserve thee to salvation 6 A mighty work of Christs power was the perfect fulfilling of the Law Whether doest thou partake in this power art thou perfect in the way sincerely obeying God in all his Commandements Doest thou subject thy self to the Law as the rule of thy Law Doest thou aym at the perfection thereof Christ loved his Father with all his heart and his Neighbour as himself yea above himself and if this power of Christ prevail with thee this will bee the scope and aym of all thy actions For though the obedience of the Law bee not necessary to Justification yet it is requisite to Sanctification 7 Another work of Christs power was that it set him free from all corruption and infirmities which hee undertook for us without sin Labour to finde this power of Christ in thy soul daily freeing thee from the corruption of thy sin and daily infirmities If the Son set you free you are free indeed not only the reign of sin is thrust down but the corruption of sin is lessned David desired the Lord to give him again his free Spirit Psal 51.10 11. he well knew that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty that is not only a redemption from Damnation by our justification but from corruption and vain conversation by our sanctification 8 Christs power was mighty in ruling and ordering his own powers and faculties his understanding was able to see God perfectly his will only just right and wise never bowing from the will of his Father Not my will but thy will be done His memory could never forget any good thing but he retained his whole duty ever before him His affections were ordered according to right judgement His appetite never exceeded the bounds of sobriety and moderation His speech was gracious his actions all exemplary no spot in him from top to toe And this same power of Christ is in some measure manifest in all his members this power enlightneth the minds of beleevers formerly blind to see God in part and perswadeth the will and boweth it to obey Gods will which before was captivated to the will of the Devil it inspireth godly desires and gracious resolutions and strengthens the memory to retain good things being before as rimy as a five it guideth and altereth the affections making the beleever to love good things and good men and whatsoever sets forward Gods glory and to hate zealously the contrary Christs power in the soul orders the appetite to sobriety in the seasonable and thankful use of outward mercies makes a man speak the language of Canaan and his whole course savour of Christ Whence it is plainly concluded that ignorant persons malicious persons Libertines intemperate Drunkards Gluttons filthy talkers Swearers loose in their behaviour open enemies to this power of Jesus Christ not submitting themselves to the rod of his mouth shall bee laid under his rod of iron Use 4. This teacheth us to goe on fearlesly in good duties seeing this power of Christ is with us and for us He is of power to protect us against enemies and dangers Of power to strengthen us in our duties when we are weak and feeble he will perfect his power in our weakness 2 Cor. 12.8 Of power to make us invincible in our sufferings Phil. 4.13 I can doe all things through him that inableth me Of power to reward our least labour of love undertaken for him Of power to answer our prayers and to doe abundantly above all we ask or think Of power to perform all his gracious promises which shall be made good to us in due time Of power to supply us with all good means in his service hee can give wealth and make the latter end better as he did to Job the Divine power giveth all things pertaining to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 Of power in death it self to keep that which wee commit unto him till the last day Of power to rebuke Diseases and command Death and after death to raise our bodies to eternal life being cloathed with corruption and wrapped with deaths garments 1 Cor. 6.14 God hath raised up the Lord Jesus and shall raise us also by his power Vse 5. Lastly this doctrin assureth us of our perseverance in grace begun Christ by his power lays such fast hold on us no seducer is able to deceive the elect nor pluck them out of his hands for the weakness of God is stronger than men 1 Cor. 1.25 and when we cannot comprehend him so fast as wee would he comprehends us and preserves us by his power to salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Neither doth this Doctrin maintain any security but the security of faith which is ever attended with the fear of God and fear to sinne The Second thing in the victory of our Saviour is the manner of Satans leaving him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Matthew St. Luke more plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies a bodily departure and sensible as we have formerly shewed his presence to be Quest What kind of departure was this it seems to be a willing and voluntary subjection to Christ he bids him depart and he is gone Ans Indeed it seems obedience
the Church as it was in the Ark so was it like the Ark of Noah against which the waters had a time to increase and a time also of decreasing What a night of trouble was the Church in all the while it was in Aegypt a stranger for four hundred years especially when they were oppressed with burdens and had their infants drowned in the river but a change came God sent and saved a Moses by whom hee will deliver his people but so as they must be acquainted with this continual enterchange in their estate they must be no sooner delivered out of Aegyps but be chased into the bottom of the Sea but there God makes them a way and no sooner out of the Sea but into the Wilderness and from thence the good Land takes them and in that good Land they never rested in one estate but sometimes had the better of their enemies and sometime for sin their enemies had the better of them as all the History of the Judges witnesseth In the time of the Kings how was the Church troubled and wasted in the time of Ahab and Jezabel when all Gods Prophets were slain and true religion was quite troden down But what a sudden change was there even when things were at the worst did the Lord bring a strange alteration by Elijah who slew all the Prophets of Baal and restored true religion How great misery suffered the Church in the time of Manasseh and Ammon but how happily was it changed by the piety of good Josiah in whom God made his people more happy than formerly miserable But who would have thought but that the Church had been utterly wasted in the seventy years captivity wherein it sate in the shadow of death Yet it was happily restored by Cyrus But when his godly Decrees concerning the building of the Temple were hindered by Cambyses his Son God stirred up Darius who favoured the Church and commanded the continuance and perfection of the work but not without many vicissitudes of stormes and calmes even after their return as appeareth in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah What a raging storm was that wherein our Lord and Head of the Church was put to death now the whole Church lay bleeding and dead with him But what a change was there the third day by his glorious resurrection In the Apostles daies how was the Church wasted when Saul had letters from the High Priests to carry bound to Jerusalem whosoever called on the Lord but when hee that breathed out nothing but slaughter and threatning was once converted then the Church had for a whilâ— rest and peace Act. 9.31 After the Apostles what a continual storm arosâ— against Christians which lasted three hundred years under the ten monsters of men those bloody men Nero Domitian Trajan Antoninus Severus Maxâ—minus Decius Valerianus Aurelianus and Dioclesianus whose rage was such as a man could not set his foot in Rome but tread upon the graves of Martyrs But after this night a fair Sun rose up in the East Constantine the Great who chased before him that horrible darknesse and brought a blessed calm But this lasted not long but his second Son Constantius far short of his Fathers piety with all his strength set up and maintained that Arrian heresy which his good Father had condemned in the Nicen Council by which as bloody persecution sprung up in the Church as ever was before which lasted almost eighty years until Constance the youngest Son of Constantine for up again the Nicen faith in the Western part of the World as Italy Greece Africk Illiricum and banished the former poyson After this what a black darknesse of Mahometisme possessed the Eastern part of the World under which it lies sunk at this day And as pitchy and palpable darkness of Antichrist and Popery occupied the Western part of the World But what a light did the Lord raise up in the midst of Popery his zealous servant Luther since whom the light hath mightily prevailed to the blasting of Anti-Christ and the consuming of him upon his nest Yet not this without a cloud for To speak of our own Church After the long darknesse like that of Egypt had prevailed and covered for many hundred years the face of our Countrey it pleased God that the light of the Gospel should peep into our Land in the daies of King Henry the eighth but yet much clouded and opposed almost all his daies In his Son Edward the sixt Englands Josiah it began to shine more brightly and a more thorough reformation was undertaken But this Sun-shine lasted not long but in Queen Maries daies the truth was again cast into the fire and the bodies of Gods Saints pitilesly destroyed God in mercy for his Elecâ—s sake shortened those daies and raised up our late Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory in all posterities who was semper cadem in the maintenance of the faith and left Christ sitting in his Kingdome and the truth triumphing over Popery and Anti-Christian falshood which by Gods mercy wee enjoy under our gracious King This hath been the changeable estate of the Church from the beginning and cadem est ratio totius ac partium the same truth discovers it self in the particular members As for example Abraham now a poor man in Egypt presently enriched and made heir of the Land of Promise now rejoycing in his Isaac and a while after stretching out his hand to kill his only Son who also herein was a notable type of the Church now bound and presently loosed and raised up after a sort from the dead Jacob was now afraid of Esau when he came in warlike manner to meet him with four hundred men at his heels but in a little season God lets him see a suddain change who had inclined his Brothers heart to do him no harm against his often former purposes to slay him Joseph is now hated of his brethren after a season honoured of them now sold as a slave to the Ismaelites afterward made a governour of Potiphar a Princes house now accused by his Mistresse and cast into Prison but after fetched out by Pharaoh and made ruler of all his Princes and the whole land of Egypt David sometimes cast down and God hath forgotten him a while after so confident in God that hee will not fear to walk in the vale of the shadow of death sometimes pursued by Saul as a traytor and rebel sometimes by Saul acknowledged his good Son and more righteous than himself and when Saul is dead and ceaseth his persecution his own son Absolons shall rise against him to depose him from his Kingdome And Jobs messengers of evil tydings still overtook one another And to spare further examples our own experience can teach us that for the most part wee have not rid our selves out of one temptation but another insueth such are our changes in this present estate And why 1 Satan goeth for a while from Christ himself Reasons his holy flesh in
bring light out of darkness as once hee did in the Creation Rom. 8.28 we know that all things are turned to the best to them that love God His wisdom and power turns things not only good into good nor only afflictions and trials but even their sins and infirmities like a good Physician that tempers poyson to a remedy and of the Vipers skin makes a remedy to heal the Vipers sting 2 This is the godly mans priviledge above wicked ones to find God sweet to their souls either in afflictions or in the ending of them 1 Because their persons whatsoever their estate is are accepted with God whereas the other are rejected 2 They are sealed with the earnest of Gods Spirit and can goe unto God in fervent prayer whereas the other want the Spirit and cannot pray to be heard Psal 18.41 They cried but there was none to save them even to the Lord but he answered them not 3 They have the grace of repentance which removeth sin the cause of affliction and are come out of Babylon though they live in Babylon being as so many Lots in Sodome Whereas the other are impenitent and never removing the cause the effect lies ever upon them and grows every day heavier than other 4 They have peace of conscience and can sing the new song to God and the Lamb having a set of sweet Musick in their souls and with peace they have patience supporting them unto Gods seasonable deliverance Whereas the wicked are as the raging sea and hath no peace nor patience but a sensless unfeelingness of his estate their hearts being either ignorant ascribing all their smart to Fortune or Constellations or fatal necessity or secundary causes being not able to ascend so high as God the Auhor or descend so low as their own sins the just meritorious causes of their evils or hardned and feared or sensless as Nabals whose heart was as a stone dead within him 3 It is one end of Gods extream humbling and afflicting his children not to sink or forsake them but that at the last the powerful work of God may bee shewed on them both for his glory and for theirs The poor blind man Joh. 9.3 carried his misery a great while from his birth to his mans estate and yet our Saviour witnesseth that it was neither for his sin nor his parents but that the work of God might be shewed upon him in the miraculous cure of him when all the power of Nature and Art could doe him no good Lazarus was extremely humbled dead buried lying in the grave stinking who would have thoughr beyond Mary that he should ever have been raised till the last day and yet our Saviour saith that even that death of his was not unto death but for the glory of God Yea the Lord never bringeth any evil upon his children wherein he intendeth not in the end to shew them some great good as Deut. 8.16 The Lord tryed humbled and proved his people in the Wilderness that he might doe them good at the latter end Job 23.10 Hee knoweth my way and trieth me and what was the issue I shall come forth like the gold And the Apostle affirmeth that the trial of our faith which is much more precious than gold shall be sound to our praise and honour and glory as tâ— appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.7 4 God hereby manifests his care and faithfulness in his promises for hee hath promised how ever he suspend his comfort for a time to return in due season neither can his mercies come to an end nor himself leave his mansion finally Therefore it is that sometimes he fore-tells his children of evils to come that they should not come suddenly on them neither distrust his care in them nor be ignorant of a good issue out of them Sometimes he numbers them out and tells how many and how long they shall be Dan. 9.25 There shall be seven weeks that is thirty nine years and there shall bee sixty two weeks that is four hundred thirty four years and then the Messiah shall come c. And always he that setteth the setting of the Starrs and the bounds of the Sea setteth much more the period of our troubles and the furthest limits of his childrens trials which suppose they reach even to death it self they can follow them no further but then is a rest from their labour a reaping of the fruits of their sufferings a joyful harvest of a sorrowful seed-time wherein the Lord meets them with a full and final deliverance and putteth them in full possession of all his most glorious promises Vse 1. Let the godly consider of their priviledge to provoke their patience and constancy in their greatest trials which cannot make them unhappy For 1 The godly mans present estate is the best for him bee it what it can be the Furnace is the fittest place for gold 2 His trial shall bee turned to good because God hath the disposing tempering and moderating of it 3 His trial shall be but light and momentany not in respect of the present sense but because the time of temptation shall be swallowed up by the time of victory 4 The end of it shall be happy and all is well that ends well here shall be a most blessed issue And therefore let drossie Christians fear the fire who are sure to be wasted in it whilst the godly rejoyce in tribulation and with David walk fearlesly in the valley of the shadow of death because God who led him in was with him to lead him out Vse 2. Let the godly judge of themselves not always according to their present estate or feeling which may occasion their feet almost to step but look to the happy end of their trials And though the smart continue long yet let them be assured that the Lord keeps all their bones so that not one of them shall be broken Neither let us be weary and faint in our mindes for although God seemeth not to hear us yet he hears us well enough And though he seem to stand afarre off us it is but a delay no denial of our request And though he seem to neglect us let us not neglect him but hold on in the prayer of faith Vâ—e 3. Let this serve as a ground of comfort and encouragement to us that when with Israel we stand as it were on the Sea-brink beset with dangers then we may be still and expect the salvation of the Lord. For as the Prophet speaketh Hab. 2.3 The vision is yet for an appointed time but at the last it shall speak and not lye if it tarry wais for it shall surely come and shall not stay Let us not make haste nor limit the Lord in prescribing him a time and means but leave all that to his wisdome lean upon his arm relye upon his word he hath a mind to doe us good and that when it shall be most for his glory and our salvation We are not yet perhaps
them to God his Father so as being now redeemed and bought with a price they are no longer their own but the Lords that bought them 1 Cor. 6.20 3 Because when he hath thus dearly purchased his Church he contracteth himself in spiritual Marriage with her and so becometh her Lord Hos 2.18 I will marry thee for ever unto my self yea I will marry thee unto me in righteousnesse in judgement in mercy and in compassion Ephes 5.23 As the husband is the wives head so is Christ of the Church So as if a man bee a Lord of that which is given him of that which he hath redeemed and ransomed of her whom he had married into his bosome in all these regards by as good right is Jesus Christ the Lord of his Church and every member of it Object But how can Christ be a Lord and a servant too Isa 42.1 Behold my servant I will leaâ—e upon him and hee took upon him the form of a servant Phil. 2.7 Ans Christ considered as Mediator is after a special manner both his Fathers servant and yet the Lord of his Church In all the work of mans Redemption he served and obeyed his Father being sent of his Father for this end he was subject to the death he prayed unto him gave him thanks learned obedience by the things he suffered not as God equal to his Father but as our Mediator and Surety and yet by all these things he became our Lord and the King of his Church And herein the Apostles travel as in their main scope to prove that Jesus Christ whom the Jews put to death hath shewed himself the Lord of glory and the true Messias Acts 2.34 Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that Jesus which they crucified Lord and Christ. Object But how can Christ be the Lord of all seeing many yea the most will not obey him Ans Doth a King cease to be the Lord of all his Country because some which were his subjects are gone out in rebellion against him besides howsoever it standeth with his glory and grace to suffer with patience the vessels of wrath yet at length he shews his power against them in bringing forth his whole displeasure upon them Vse Hence in that Christ is in general Lord of all we learn that all Creatures are his and therefore we must never use any of them without leave from him or without return of praise and thanks unto him none of them are sanctified to our use without the Word and Prayer And if wee have leave from him we ought in sobriety to use them 1 Cor. 10.26 Eat whatsoever is sold in the shambles making no question for conscience sake Hence followeth it also that he having an absolute power over all hee may doe with his own what he will who shall hinder a Potter to frame one vessel to honour another to dishonour which I speak because many cannot endure to hear of a decree of reprobation who must frame their judgement to his will who cannot but be just and good and leave off to reason with God Hence also he may make one rich another poor at his pleasure The rich and poor meet this Lord maketh them both Secondly in that Christ is in special Lord of his Church sundry things are to be noted as first That none can have Christ to be a Jesus that is a Saviour who have him not for their Soveraign and Lord whosoever thou art that challengest him for thy Saviour see thou acknowledge him thy Lord. Quest How may a man have Christ to be his Lord A man hath Christ his Lord by four things Ans By the practice of four duties 1 By preserving in the heart a fear and reverence towards his person Malac. 1.6 If I be a Lord where is my fear Lordship requires subjection Psal 45.11 He is thy Lord and reverence thou or bow unto him Now this fear must proceed from love for if any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be accursed and wheresoever this love is it must needs bee attended with a fear to displease him 2 By professing him to bee thy Lord as servants by their livery or cognisance speak and proclaim to all men to whom they belong so if Christ bee thy Lord thou must not bee ashamed of him but bee ever speaking of him commending his goodness thou must glory of such a service accounting it thy greatest honour that thou art become his servant thou must defend his name where ever thou hearest it called into question thou must suffer with him and take part with him in affliction 1 Pet 4.13 an unfaithful servant is hee that can bee dumb in his Masters dishonour but especially if his Master be assaulted and in danger then to forsake him when hee hath most need of him 3 By acknowledging thy self to bee countable unto him for all thy waies and for all thy receites Make account to be countable of all to this Lord of all The servant not being at his own hand must go about no business but his Masters whatsoever matter of trust hee receiveth from his Master it is not his own hee is faithfully to discharge himself of it by a true and just account Thus therefore must thou reason the case with thine own heart what am I now in my Masters work had I commandement from him did his word or warrant set mee about the business which is now in my hands Again what gifts have I received of body minde wealth authority credit I am to be countable for all all the Talents I have are his If I gain nothing I am unprofitable If I gain I must be profitable unto him By absolute obedience unto his will revealed To this Lord only must be given absolute obedience Thus himself being to give his Law beginneth thus I am the Lord thy God thou shalt do thus and thus other Lords and Kings must bee obeyed in him yea disobeyed for him if they command contrary unto him onely hee must ever by Kings themselves bee obeyed absolutely in all the parts of his will revealed Which may bee considered in three heads 1 It is his will that wee beleeve in him Joh. 6.40 The will of Christ reduced to three â—eads This is the will of him that sent mee that every one that seeth the Son and beleeveth in him not onely beleeving his word to bee true but leaning upon him only for thy salvation If a Master should promise a servant that if hee will but beleeve him and seek to please him hee will provide for him for ever it would adde cheerfulness to such a servant and hee would think none of his Masters commandements burdensome but yet wee having larger and surer promises are slow of heart and hand to beleeve or yield obedience 2 It is his will that wee shew forth this faith of our hearts in the fruits of sanctification 1 Thess 4.3 This is the will of God even
your sanctification Colos 1.10 filled with the knowledge of his will and waâ—k worthy of the Lord c. thou must not only speak for but live to the credit of thy Master in thy speech actions attire eating drinking and whatsoever else carry thy self like a Christian else thou discreditest thy Masters house and dishonourest himself Were not hee a notable Traytor that being sworn of the Kings guard and professing all service to the King should instead of the Kings armes and coat wear the enemies so the thing it self speaketh against him who professeth Christ his Lord and yet never appears or sheweth himself in the street or abroad but in Satans livery his swearing his covetousness his filthiness his lying his whole life lead in all intemperance bewrayeth to whom hee hath given himself to obey 3 It is his will also that wee obey as well in suffering as in doing his pleasure and the reason is plain he is my Lord I am but a servant if he please to buffet and blow mee I must with all meekness submit my self yea and more be thankful for his government 2 Sam. 15.26 If hee say I have no delight in thee let him do whatsoever seemeth good in his eyes 1 Sam. 3.18 When the Lord had threatned heavy things against Heli his whole house hee answered It is the Lord let him do whatsoever seemeth good in his eyes I was dumb and opened not my mouth saith David because thou LORD didst is Psal 39.9 Thus must wee obey Christ as a Lord giving up our bodies and souls unto him by living unto him and dying unto him and this is the Apostles ground wee are the Lords Rom. 14.7 and therefore none of us liveth unto himself and none of us dyeth unto himself but living and dying wee are the Lords otherwise what a trifling and mockery were it onely to yield him a title of Lord or Master and deny him his service Why call yee mee Master Master and do not the things I speak Luk. 6.46 All which if it bee true how few shall finde Christ a Saviour for how few make him their Lord few there are that esteem this well-beloved above other well-beloveds not a few are ashamed of him and his profession many white-livered souldiers are daunted with Peter at the speeches of silly and simple persons most men never look to the hands of this Lord to acknowledge either receit of Talents or return of accounts fewest of all obey him in faith who yet are overcarried with presumption of his favour or in true sanctification though they can pretend it or in patience if they could get out of his hands if it were by flying to the Devil for help Well if Christ have no more but a title of a Lord from thee thou shalt have but a title of salvation from him and not the thing it self and if a name that thou livest content thee when thou art but dead the time commeth that when thou commest to seek thy name among the number that are saved by him thou shalt finde thy name left out of that role and set in the number of those that shall dye in their sins Christ being our Lord no other Lord can lay 〈◊〉 unto us Secondly if Christ bee the Lord of all Then have wee obtained much freedome by him both from all spiritual bondage and all that tyranny which those hard Lords Sin Death Hell Satan exercised over us our Lord hath paved the uttermost farthing and wrought a glorious redemption for us and hee having thus set us free wee are free indeed both from the guilt the punishment and service of sin Wee are free also from all Papal bondage for wee have but one Lord in Heaven who can save and destroy to whom simple obedience belongeth and to whom the Conscience is only subject The man of sin indeed would bee Lord of all and maketh laws to bind conscience where God hath left it free but as the Scriptures acknowledge but one Lord no more do wee and say more that wee cannot serve two Masters commanding such contrary things Wee are also hence freed from the fear of all earthly Tyrants if wee belong to this Lord for if hee stand with us who can bee against us Matth. 10.28 Fear not them which can kill the body onely but him who can cast both body and soul into Hell The true fear of him will eat out all those false fears of men Observ 3 Thirdly If Christ be Lord of all Then wee and all beleevers are fellow servants All beleevers are fellow servants to this Lord. and therefore ought to live and love together making no dissention or schism in our Masters house which is the Apostles reason Eph. 4.4 perswading the Ephesians to keep the Unity of faith because there is one Lord. This shall bee done if all of us who profess Christ could learn to deny our selves to follow his will not our own or other commanders yea to follow his blessed example learning daily of him to bee humble and meek patient and tender-hearted one to another forbearing and forgiving offenders hard to exasperate and easy to bee intreated And these things should wee rather strive in that according to the Apostles precept the same minde might bee in us which was in Jesus Christ Phil. 2.5 Vers 37 Yee know the word which came through all Judea beginning in Galilee after the Baptism which John Preached THE holy Apostle here beginneth the confirmation of that which hee had formerly spoken that Christ is the Messias and Lord of all to prove which hee beginneth orderly with the History of his life and death of which even these Gentiles could not bee ignorant therefore hee saith yee know the word Where if it be asked how they should come to know the doctrin of the Gospel seeing the Apostles were not yet turned to the Gentiles and Peter was now sent extraordinarily to teach them concerning Christ which had been in vain if they knew the word before we must observe Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by the word here is not meant the word preached as in the former verse but as the word is different in the original so also is the signification and betokeneth rather a thing done than a word uttered as Matth. 18.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word or fact be confirmed Luke 2.15 Let us goo to Bethlem and see this word that is this thing which the Lord hath brought to passe The plain sence then is this Yee know the word that is the same of Christ which was quickly dispersed through all Judea in the mouthes of common men Which fame that they should not mistake him or themselves he describeth 1 By the place where it arose beginning in Galilee 2 By the time when it most prevailed after the Baptism which John preached which some expound thus After the Baptism of Christ by
John which he preached that is administred but the natural sence is after the doctrin which John preached concerning him for usually in the New Testament by Johns Baptism especially which John preached is meant all his doctrin and his whole Ministery Matth. 21.25 The baptism of John whence was it that is the doctrin as the words after imply Why did yee not beleeve him and all men held John for a Prophet Mark 1.4 He preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins that is the doctrin of repentance for 1 Else it were improperly said to preach baptism 2 Johns doctrin was this Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand Acts 18.25 Apollos knew only the baptism of John that is his doctrin and therefore is it said in the next verse that Priscilla and Aquila took him home and shewed him the way of God more clearly And in Acts 19.3 4. Into what were yee baptised that is into what doctrin were yee initiated and instructed they said into Johns baptism that is into Johns doctrin the which interpretation notably freeth that hard text from the false collection of Anabaptists who thence would gather that those were by Paul rebaptised who were formerly baptized by John but the difficulty will be removed if the words of Paul be wisely distinguished from the words of the Evangelist and Writer of that History John baptised saith Paul the baptism of repentance that is taught the doctrin of repentance saying that they should beleeve which when they heard namely they which heard by Johns Ministery they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus namely by John not by Paul Then addeth the Evangelist â—ers 6. And Paul put his hands on them and the Holy Ghost came on them and furnished them with such gifts as they by their own confession ver 2. had not heard of before And thus according to the plain sence of other Scriptures is that difficult place made very plain also Quest But why is the ministery and preaching of John called his baptism The ministery of John called his Baptism Why. Ans Because his doctrin was first of all sealed with the seal of Baptism in which regard as his person is called the Baptist so is his doctrin by the name of baptism Quest But why is this circumstance of place noted that this fame began in Galilee Ans 1 To note the accomplishment of that Prophecy in Isa 9.1 which also was observed by the Evangelist Matthew 4.14 2 To shew that this fame was no bare or ungrounded rumour but raised upon just cause for Jesus was baptized by John not farre from the borders of Galilee about Enou Joh. 3.23 And presently after he returned by vertue of the Spirit and came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom Mark 1.14 and made no end till he had taught all their Cities in all their Synagogues Luke 4.14 adde to his Baptism and Doctrin that he wrought his first Miracle of turning Water into Wine at Cana a Town of Galilee and that he called his Disciples in Galilee all which beginnings must needs raise a rumour and fame of him which as Luke reporteth went through all the adjacent region round about 3 This circumstance notably befitteth this argument to prove him Lord of all both Jews and Gentiles because he begun and was so famous in Galilee of the Gentiles Quest But was not Christ sent to the last sheep of the house of Israel Did hee not come to his own how then did hee begin his ministery in Galilee of the Gentiles Ans Galilee of the Gentiles is so called not because it was not in Judea but 1 To distinguish it from another Galilee which was also in Judea and called Galilea inferior in the tribe of Zabulon where Nazaret was situate But this was called Galilea superior or Gentium in the tribe of Nephtali not farre from Capernaum 2 Because there were twenty Cities in Galilee given by Salomon to Hyram a Gentile 1 King 9.11 3 Because being in the extremity of Palestina near the Sea and not farre from Tyrus and Sidon they were ever mixt with many Gentiles that were foreiners besides that they were so seated within that Country in Salomons time as they could never after bee removed Gâ—lilaea geâ—tium vel populorum 4 M. Junius thinketh it to be so called not only because of the abundance of Gentiles there but also because it was a most populous Country full of inhabitants above the rest of Palestina Quest But why should Christ begin his Ministery here rather than at Jerusalem was it for any singular disposition or good which hee found in them above other I answer No for they were in regard of the Gentiles who were mingled among them Why Christ begun his Ministery in Galilee of all other most ignorant most superstitious most rude and indocible for so they are noted Matth. 4.15 A people sitting in darknesse and in the shadow of death saw a great light But hereby the Lord Jesus shewed himself Reasons 1 A most merciful Saviour ready to releeve those who of all other were most miserable yea in that he vouchsafed to make the first offer of his grace even to the worst who least of all deserved it 2 Hence he manifested himself a true Prophet who would rather hide himself in the furthest and most remote parts of the Country amongst a barbarous and rude people than ambitiously affect the principal City to get himself a name or applause in as false Prophets use to doe Permixtum à Judaeis Gentibus inhabitata fuit Chem Har 35 c. 3 Not obscurely hence would he be noted the Lord of all both Jews and Gentiles in that he beginneth his Ministry in this Country whose inhabitants were mixed of Jews and Gentiles Object But this seemeth to crosse sundry places of the Scripture which affirm â—hat the preaching of Christ must begin at Jerusalem not in Galilee Luk. 24.47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Ans 1. That place is meant of the preaching of Christs Apostles and not of his own as this is 2 That of their preaching of him after his Death and Resurrection this of his own in his life time 3 That was a Ministerial publishing of Christ this place speaketh only of a voyce fame and good report in the mouthes of the common people such as followed extraordinary Prophets and therefore such places cannot crosse this Now for the other circumstance of time when this fame went of Christ namely after the Baptism which John preached it is not without weighty cause added by the Apostle 1 To note the truth and accomplishment of those Prophecies which concerned John himself as Mal. 3.1 Behold I send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me which prophecy Christ himself applyeth to John Mat. 11.10 that by this consideration they might be one step nearer the acknowledging of the true
of God which is the curse of the Law and not onely Ceremonially and typically as they were This the Apostle Paul teacheth Gal. 3.13 that Christ was not onely dead but made a curse for us his reason is because hee dyed on a tree and therefore are wee admonished Phil. 2.8 to consider not only that Christ was obedient unto the death but to the death of the Cross for any other death had not so much concerned us Fourthly This death which so much concerned all the Church of the Jews and Gentiles must not bee obscure and therefore the Lord would not have Christ to dye in a tumult or in secret but most conspicuously and apparently at Jerusalem the great City of the Jews but tributary to the Romans as it were upon the Theatre of the World at a solemn feast when all the Males out of all quarters must appear before the Lord upon a Cross high erected that all might see him and on the Cross himself proclaimed King of the Jewes in three several Langages the Latine Greek and Hebrew that all sorts of men might come to the knowledge of it and further because in his death standeth our life hee must bee thus lifted up that all men might see him certainly dead and that he dyed not in shew and appearance only but in deed and in truth really and perfectly for which cause also our Apostle doubleth his affirmation they slew him and hanged him on a tree which most necessary ground of Faith and Religion Satan hath mightily by many Hereticks sought to overthrow the Turks at this day are held off from the faith in this Messiah by that Diabolical suggestion that not Christ himself but Simon the Cyrenian was miraculously crucified in his stead And therefore because the assurance of the death it self assureth us more fully of all the fruits and benefits of it the Scripture is careful so pregnantly to confirm it as that it cannot be denied not only that he was in the sight of a number of thousands dead on the Crosse but by his three days burial by the peircing of his side out of which came water and bloud by which was manifest that the very Call of his heart was peirced by the confession of his very enemies who would beleeve nothing but their own sences and lastly by the fact of the Souldiers who whereas they hastened the death of the Theeves by breaking their leggs they broke not his because the text saith they saw that he was dead already The fourth point is the use of Christs Crucifying First in Christ on the Crosse take a full view of the cursednesse and execration of sin and consequently of thine own wretchednesse both in regard of thy wicked nature and cursed practices every sin being so loathsome and odious in the eyes of God as the least could never be put away but by such an ignominious death of the Son of God himself If thou lookest at sin in thy self or in thy sufferings yea or in the sufferings of the damned in Hell it will seem but a slight thing but behold God comming down from Heaven and him that thought it no robbery to bee equal to his Father in glory taking flesh in that flesh abasing himself to the death of the Crosse on that Crosse sustaining the whole wrath of his Father and so becoming accursed for it and thou shalt see it in the native face of it And indeed this one consideration setteth a more ugly face upon sin than the Law possibly can for that sheweth our sins to bee a knife to stab our selves withall The most ugly visage of sin that can be but this to be the very spear that went to Christs heart which is the most odious apprehension in the world all the sin that ever was committed on the earth could not bring a man so low suppose one man had committed them all as the least sin of the elect brought the Son of God seeing he that falleth lowest falleth but from one degree in earth to another but Christ falleth from the glory of Heaven into the very sorrows of Hell whosoever thou art then that makest light account of sin and pleadest that God is merciful look a little in this glasse wherein behold Gods Justice and sins desert in the Fathers just indignation against his wel-beloved Son whom nothing but the cursed death of his only Son in whom he professed himself well pleased could appease Secondly seeing all the knowledge of Christ profitable to salvation is of Christ crucified let us desire to know nothing in comparison but Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 seeing such a great Apostle as Paul was desired to know nothing else Now to come to the distinct knowledge of it we must consider these three points 1 The vertue and power of this death in it self 2 The application of it unto our selves 3 The fruits which must appear in us by such application For the first Look upon this death of the Son of God not as of another dead man neither think or speak of it as of the death of another ordinary felon executed but as of a death which slew all the sins of all the beleevers in the world and as a destroyer of all destroyers a death wherein was more power than in all the lives of all Angels and Men that ever were or shall bee More power in Christs death than in the lives of all men and Angels yea such a death as hath life in it quickning all the deaths of all that have benefit by it Here we have a mighty Sampson bearing away the gates of his enemies by death killing death by suffering his Fathers wrath overcoming it by entring into the Grave opening it for all beleevers by his Bloud shedding upon the Crosse reconciling all things Col. 1.20 never was there such an active suffering of any man which tormented and crucified the Devils themselves when the Devils instruments were tormenting and crucifying him it is peerlesse and unmatchable no Martyr ever thus suffered though Popish doctrin would match as Corrivals some of their Saints sufferings with it the most faithful Martyrs suffered but dissolution of soul and body but Christ besides suffered the whole Wrath of God due to mans sin they suffered in way of Christian duty and service but he to make a sacrifice of expiation of sin they having their sins removed and taken off from them but he bare all theirs and all beleevers sins in his body upon the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 Howsoever therefore Humane wisdom stumbleth at this death of Christ yet must we by the eye of faith labour to espy glory in ignominy esteem of the Crosse as an honourable Chariot and rejoyce in a triumph made as the Jews scoff by an hanged man thus shall we see the foolishness of God wiser than man and the weakness of God stronger than man thus also shall we imitate the holy men of God who looking back to the Cross of Christ could
with him The words of the verse contain two things 1 The assertion of Christ his resurrection Him God raised up the third day 2 The manifestation or evidence of it and caused that hee was openly shewed The former part is laid down in four distinct points 1 The person raised him 2 The person raising him God 3 The action it self raised 4 The time when the third day First the person raised is Christ where First It will bee demanded how Christ can bee said to bee raised How Christ can be said to rise seeing neither his Deity nor the soul of his humanity arose seeing hee consisted of a Divine and a Humane nature whereof the first could neither fall nor rise and for the second that also consisted of soul and body the former of which being the principal part dyed not but was in Paradise Seeing then neither the Deity nor the soul of his Humanity nor his person did rise but only his body how can Christ bee said to bee raised Answ In sundry other places of Scripture besides this wee meet with such synechdochical phrases and forms of speech wherein somewhat is attributed to the whole which is proper but to one part and that ascribed to the whole person which belongeth but to one nature which cometh to pass by reason of that straight and personal union of the two natures in Christ Thus wee read that God purchased his Church by his own blood Act. 20.28 and that the Lord of glory was crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 of the sons being in heaven and in earth at one time Joh. 3.18 of Christs being before Abraham was Joh. 8.58 of his being omnipotent c. All which are spoken of the whole person but properly are to bee referred to the several natures to which they do agree Thus the Apostles sometimes expound them and teach us so to do 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ was mortified according to the flesh and quickened according to the spirit 2 Cor. 13.4 Hee dyed according to the infirmity of his flesh and was quickned according to the power of God and to help our conceit herein serveth that school distinction Lords Christus non totum Christi which saith that whole Christ is said to do this or that which the whole of Christ did not yea our own common form of speech saith a man is dead whose soul liveth and a man is asleep when his body only sleepeth 2 Wee have hence to note that the same body was raised which had been laid down in the Grave and no imaginary body neither any other body for it for never was any other laid there before Of all which himself against all Hereticks giveth sufficient evidence as in the manifestation following remaineth to be cleared 3 That this person raised was not a private person but the same who had as a publike person been abused accused condemned and executed and now as a publike person also raised from the dead in whom all his Church and every member of it rose again for whosoever have interest in his death have their part also in his resurrection 4 Here is a further thing in this person to bee noted than ever was in any the first Adam was a root also and a publike person when hee sinned hee sinned for himself and us and having sinned and we in him he dyed away and left us in that sin and being dead wee hear no more of him and the Scriptures though they record at large the Histories of the holiest men that have lived yet when once they come to this that such or such a man dyed wee hear no more of him but with Christ it is not so who was not onely as another Sampson who bewrayed the greatest power in his death but herein unmatchable and peerless that hee did greater things after his death than ever hee did in all his life Contra. Faust lib. 16. insomuch as Augustine was wont to say that the faith of Christians was Christs resurrection Wee must not then content our selves with common people that Christ is dead for all and no more but fasten our eyes upon his resurrection so much the more diligently by how much it is easier to beleeve that hee was dead than that hee rose again And what other thing can more fitly bee collected from that practice of all the Evangelists who in other things while some of them omit one History some another or else some of them briefly point at and lightly touch and pass over some other Histories all of them set themselves of purpose to bee copious and large in this of Christs resurrection that the faith of Beleevers might bee firmly grounded herein and the rather because no benefit of his resurrection none of his death and without the certain apprehension hereof all Preaching and Hearing and Faith were in vain and wee our selves were yet in our sins To which Apostolical practice this of our Apostle is not unsuitable in this place in hand 1 Cor. 15.17 18. who while hee almost in one word maketh mention of the death of Christ hee at large prosecuteth and proveth the truth of his resurrection The second point is to consider the person that raised Christ Him God raised that is God the Father Act. 2.24 And have crucified and slain whom God had raised 3.15 Ye have killed the Lord of Life whom God hath raised from the dead More plainly is this work attributed to the mighty power of the Father of glory working in Christ and raising him from the dead Eph. 1.17 20. and to him at whose right hand hee sitteth so Rom. 4.24 Wee beleeve in him which raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead Object But Christ raised himself Joh. 2.19 Destroy this Temple and in three daies I will raise it again and hereby was hee mightily declared to bee the Son of God by raising himself from the dead Rom. 1.14 In like manner is this resurrection of his ascribed to the Holy Ghost Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him which raised up Christ c. therefore the Father raised him not Answ Here is no contrariety the Father raised him and hee raised himself For 1 There is but one Deity of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which is the common foundation of all their actions 2 There is but one power common to them all three and this is the power that Christ challengeth hee hath to lay down his life and take it up again Opera ad extra communia tribus personis 3 There is but one common act in them all three for the putting out of this power unto any external action without themselves of which Christ speaking Joh. 5.19 saith whatsoever the Father doth the same things doth the Son also In these respects holdeth the speech of the Apostle These three are one 1 Joh. 5.7 that is these three 1 In the true and real distinction of their persons 2 In their inward proprieties as to beget to bee begotten and proceed
and 3 In their several offices one to another as to send and to bee sent these three are one in nature and essence one in power and will and one in the act of producing all such actions as without themselves any of them is said to perform Secondly Although here is no contrariety yet here is an order in the working or administration of the person to bee observed for the Father as the first efficient in order raiseth Christ as man by the Son as a second efficient in order and by the Holy Ghost as a third For as it is in all the matter of creation so is it in all the works of redemption they are ascribed unto the Father especially not because they agree not unto the other two persons but because hee after a peculiar manner worketh them namely by the Son and by the Holy Ghost but they not by him but from him and so neither this or any other such place where it is ascribed to the Father to raise his Son Jesus must bee conceived either as making Christ as the Son inferiour in power to his Father or as excluding his own mighty power in raising himself for they shew onely the order of the persons but make no inequality in essence or power or will or working Thirdly where the Son is said to bee raised of the Father it must not bee understood of the person of the Son but in respect of his nature assumed that is his humanity Whence observe that as the former point shewed that Christ was a true man because hee was in the state of the dead whence hee was raised so this consideration sheweth him to bee a true and glorious God and notably concludeth that which the Apostle aimeth at who would hence prove him to bee Lord of all in that by his own power hee raised himself from death and so mightily declared himself the Son of God Rom. 1.4 Ubi resurrectio non passive sed active accipitur cum sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deitatis Christs Deity cleâ—red by his glorious resurrection and Lord of all blessed for ever This is it which maketh him the fit object of our Faith and if hee had not expressed himself as well a true and perfect God as a true and entire man wee ought not to have beleeved in him wee beleeve not then as the Jews scoffingly say in a crucified God but in a God raising and exalting to glory by his own omnipotent power an assumed humane nature even then when it lay under the curse of all the sins that ever have or shall bee committed by the true members of the Church the which thing no power of man or Angel nor any created nature could ever turn hand unto could ever have stood under and much sess have swum out with conquest and victory neither indeed had he himself if there had remained the least sin of any the elect to have been accounted for wee need then no other sign to be given us to prove his Deity but this sign of Jonas and when the Jews demanded a sign why hee took such authority upon him hee gave them no other but sent them hither destroy this Temple and I will rear it on three daies Joh. 2.18 19 c. It was necessary that Christ should rise again reasons The third point is the raising it self wherein three points are to bee opened 1 The necessity of Christs rising 2 The manner 3 The fruit or ends of it First it was necessary that Christ should rise again in three respects 1 For the accomplishment of things fore-appointed and foretold it was from all eternity decreed and appointed by God and therefore it behoved Christ to rise from the dead the third day Luke 24.46 and it was impossible that he should be held down of death Act. 2.24 Again the Scriptures must necessarily bee fulfilled all which beat upon these two points 1 His sufferings Luk. 24.26 2 the glory that should follow 1 Pet. 1.11 And more specially all those predictions and types of his resurrection inforced this necessity Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my soul in grave which our Apostle proveth cannot bee meant of David whose body saw corruption but that David spake concerning him Isa 53.10 when hee shall make his soul an offering for sin hee shall see his seed and prolong his daies Besides his own prediction of his resurrection must either bee fulfilled or hee could not have been the onely true Prophet of his Church for himself had said that the Jews should slay him and crucify him but the third day shall hee rise again Matth. 20.17 and this the High Priests and Pharisees remembred well when they came to Pilate and said Sir wee remember that this deceiver while hee was alive said within three daies I will rise command therefore that the sepulchre bee made sure c. Adde hereunto that all the predictions of his ascension of his triumph and of the last judgement depended hereupon Further the types which fore-shadowed his resurrection must not bee frustrate but answered in the truth of them as that of Jsaac bound upon the wood but yet reserved alive whom his Father received from the dead after a sort of Sampson escaping the revenge and malice of his enemies by carrying away the gates wherein hee seemed fast shut of the two goats one slain for sin the other a scape-goat shadowing Christ both slain for sin and yet escaping Levit. 16.5 of the two sparrows the one killed the other let flye and the most express of all that of Jonah which Christ himself mentioneth Matth. 12.39 and most properly applyeth to this very purpose Neither the person of Christ nor any of his Offices could suffer him to abide long under death 2 It was necessary in respect of himself whether wee consider the excellency of his person or of his office For his Person hee was by nature the eternal Son of God the Lord of Life and Glory and by no better means could hee bee discerned to bee this true and natural Son of God or the resurrection and life than by raising himself from death to life by his most glorious power Hence it was that himself a little before his death prayed in these words Father glorify thy Son Joh. 17.1 As for his Office as hee was set out by his Father to bee a perpetual Mediatour between God and the Church so was hee to bee an everlasting King of Glory Not his kingly of whose Kingdome there must bee no end Luke 1.33 according to that Prophecy of Daniel 7.27 The Kingdome of the most High is an everlasting Kingdom And according to the oath of the Lord recorded Psal 89.36 I have sworn once by my Holinesse that I will not fail David his seed shall endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before mee hee shall bee established for evermore as the Moon and as a faithful witnesse in the Heaven Selah 2 He must be also a
manner had the promise of the Kingdom but in the mean time he was so traced and hunted by Saul that he said in himself I shall surely one day fall by the hands of Saul but howsoever the Lord still deferred his promise he knew not how to break it the Kingdome was rent from Saul and given to him that was better than he Why God delayeth to answer his children Reasons Now the chief Reasons of this dealing of the Lords with his Children are these 1 In Gods delaies there is a seasonable time for all the graces which he giveth to be set on work such as are faith patience hope prayer all which cease in the accomplishment Secondly hee will have his childrens case often desperate that his own hand may bee acknowledged in giving them unexpected deliverance How could Israel but acknowledge his out-stretched arm in their delivery when they saw nothing but the mountains before them the enemies behind them and the sea as a wall on either side and if the Lord had delivered them before they came into the bottom of the sea as he easily could have done the glory of his work had been obscured which all ages since have admired and extolled till this day How did Jonah and the Ninevites acknowledge the finger of God in calling him to that Ministery when as he seemed utterly cast away being buried in the Whales belly three days and three nights for when by the powerful Word of God the Fish was commanded to cast him on the dry ground what a worthy fruit of conversion it had in them generally the History doth declare What great glory the Lord won to himself by saving Daniel not from the Den but from the Lions teeth in the Den and the three children not from the Furnace but the very fire in the Furnace it appeareth in that the very Heathen Kings themselves made publick Edicts that no God but Daniels and no God but Shadrachs c. should bee worshipped through all their Dominions because no God could deliver their worshippers as hee had done Thirdly the Lord often longer absenteth himself from his own children that when he is returned they might make the more account of him it pleased him to deal herein as a Mother with her child who although she bee tender enough over it will sometimes get her out of sight and behind a door in the mean time the child falleth and getteth some knocks and all this to make the child perceive its own weaknesse and depend upon her so much the more Example hereof we have Cant. 3.4 when the Church had sought her beloved in her bed in the streets among the Watch-men and found him not at last after much seeking and sorrowing after him she findeth him whom her soul loved then she took hold on him and would not let him goe till she had brought him to the house of her mother Vse 1. Tedious and heavie afflictions may not bee an argument of Gods hatred It is a simple opinion of simple people that God loveth not that man who is exercised with any strange crosse especially if it be more lasting and lingring upon him Lingring afflictions no sign of Gods hatred Why dost thou not consider ignorant man that the Lord suffered his own wel-beloved Son to lye in the Grave till the third day before he raised him up What sayest thou to the Israelites in Aegypt did they cease to be the people of God or to be dear to God when the heaviest tasks were laid upon them Whose bloud was it that Manasseh made the streets of Jerusalem run with but the Saints In the Persecutions of the Primitive Church we read of thirty thousand of the dear Saints of God put to death in seventeen days under the Tyrant Maximinian and as many chained under met al 's and mines Who was it that asked if the Lord would absent himself for ever and whether his mercy was clean gone for evermore Was not this the voyce of David a man after Gods own heart Wouldst thou hear the style of Gods children in the Scriptures thou hearest them called worms of Jacob dead men of Israel Isa 41.14 Wouldest thou know their state neither is that unanswerable to that stile read Heb. 11. from verse thirty five to the thirty ninth They wandred in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins and they of whom the world was not worthy were banished the world as unworthy to live in it Impossible therefore it is as Salomon teacheth to know love or hatred by any thing before a man Eccles 9. A man may be a Dives and a Devil or little better another may be a Lazarus and a Saint Fat pastures for most part threaten slaughter when lean ware need not fear the Butcher 2 In tedious and heavy afflictions and graves of misery prescribe not unto God neither the time nor the manner of thy release but leave all to him in whose hand times and seasons and means of deliverance are Wee would not by our good wills lye one day no not one hour under affliction our spirits are as short as Jehorams was what shall I attend any longer upon the Lord is not this evil from him Some crosses more smart and durable why And hence are all those murmurings and complaints Oh never was any in such misery or so long as I am But the Lord knoweth what hee doth and whom hee hath in hand Hee seeth perhaps 1 That thou hast strong hidden corruptions thy hard knots must have hard wedges as hard bodies strong potions 2 It may bee thou wast long in thy sin before thy conversion and thy Cross is the longer to be a means to bring thy old sins into fresh memory that so thou maiest renew thy repentance 3 It may bee thou hast since given some great scandal to the Church and so thy correction abideth till thou hast testified thy repentance 4 Thy heart perhaps can tell thee that some other crosses of some other kinde have been neglected or would not have smarted half so much therefore the Lord will have this to stick by increasing the smart and with-drawing his comforts till thy great heart bee made to stoop 5 Look whether some lust as yet not denyed lendeth not a sting to this cross above all the former whether thy heart bee over-mastered or fretful and peevish for even so wee deal with our Children who when a little smart doth but set them on frowardness wee meeken and overcome with more stripes 6 Or else the Lord in mercy lingringly doth correct as thou are able to bear to bend thee and work thee to good whereas if hee should bring his chastisements roughly and at once it would break thy heart great cause therefore hast thou to subscribe to his wisdome whose waies are all justice and mercy 3 Hence wee fetch our assured comfort The Lord will seasonably remember his children at least the third day That as God delivered his Son the third day so will
hee also seasonably deliver us What if wee seem to be dead in our graves despised neglected and forgotten one day yea the second yet the third day commeth Hos 6.2 After two daies hee will revive us and in the third day hee will raise us up and wee shall live in his sight This made Abraham hope above hope In waiting I waited saith David that is I continued waiting on God Job after darknesse hoped for light It may bee the third day is not yet come Thou art not yet come to the Mountain where God will provide nor thou art not yet in that extremity which is Gods opportunity Isaac must not sit at home but take a journey of three daies to bee slain hee must not bee sent back the first of second day but the third day yet not before hee bee bound on the altar and the stroke of death a fetching is hee taken from off the wood Is the Lord a killing thee yet trust in his mercy God seemeth indeed not to know his own Children sometimes but to bee deaf at their prayers to have broken the bottle wherein hee was wont to preserve their tears but hee knows us well enough saith Paul 2 Cor. 6.9 though wee think our selves unknown and therefore wee are sometimes as dying but yet wee live chastened but not killed yea killed but not overcome Hee seemeth now to know none better than the wicked but the third day commeth and putteth as great a difference between them as it did between Pharaohs Baker and Butler Gen. 40.13 19. the third day shall lift up the head of the one and restore him to his office but the same third day shall take the head from the other and shall hang the body on a tree for the birds to eat the flesh from it And caused that he was shewed openly Vers 41 Not to all the people but unto the witnesses chosen before of God even to us which did eat and drink with him after hee rose from the dead NOw wee come to the manifestation of Christ his resurrection Which is described first by the persons to whom hee was so manifested set down 1 Negatively not to all the people 2 Affirmatively but to us who were chosen of God to bee witnesses Secondly by the facts of Christ towards these witnesses which are two the former in this verse in that hee admitted them to eat and drink with him after hee rose from the dead the latter in the next verse in that hee sent out his Disciples with commandement to preach unto the people and especially to acquaint them with the Article of Faith concerning his comming again to judge the quick and the dead In which two actions namely of sending out his Disciples and judging of the world his Kingly office doth notably put forâ—h it self And caused that hee was shewed openly 1 It behoveth Christ to make open shew and manifest knowledge of his resurrection It was necessary that Christ should manifest his resurrection for these reasons 1 Because as hee had been openly put to death and openly buried that none could doubt of the truth of either so this being as main a beam as lyeth in all the frame of our Religion it was meet that it should bee as sufficiently cleared and as litâ—le liable to exception as any of the former which it had not been if it had not been as openly confirmed and therefore he would for the space of forty daies Act. 1.3 by many bodily appearances to many credible persons at once and by many other infallible tokens make it evident that the same body which was crucified having the same hands feet and side which were peirced and wherein the prints yet remained even the same finite and circumscribed body which was to bee seen and handled and no other was now raised from the grave and loosed from all the bands of death 2 Because some things remained to bee done by Jesus Christ between his Resurrection and Ascension which craved his manifest presence As 1 Hee was further to instruct his Disciples in the things which appertained to the Kingdome of God namely in all the Doctrin they were to teach and all the Ordinances they were to observe in the external government of the Christian Churches unto the end of the World and therefore the Evangelist sheweth us how Christ begun at Moses and all the Prophets and opened unto them in all the Scriptures the things that were written of him Luk. 24.27 32. and not onely the Scriptures but their eyes and their hearts to understand and bee warmed and affected with the same 2 Hee was to establish and send out into all the world in his own person the Apostles to Preach the Gospel which hee pleased to defer till this time when by his glorious resurrection they might see that all power was given him in heaven and in earth Mat. 18.19 3 Hee was to confirm this their extraordinary Ministery by an extraordinary Sacrament namely breathing upon them and giving them the Holy Ghost Joh. 20.22 that is some smaller measure of gifts as a pledge for the time but directing them also when and where to expect the plentiful pouring out of the Spirit upon them after his departure as it was most miraculously performed in the day of Pentecost after they had a while waited at Jerusalem for the Promise of the Father Act. 1.4 4 Hee was by Miracle to confirm to his Disciples the truth of his Resurrection that they might bee the better fitted to the testimony of it as hee did by that miraculous draught of fish whereby they knew that hee was the Lord Joh. 21.7 12. 5 In that also hee was according to that which the Scriptures had foreprophecyed of him and himself also often foretold to ascend up bodily and visibly into Heaven whence he descended so to shew himself the Son of God and our High Priest lifted up higher than the Heavens Luk. 14.33 cum 51. to open Heaven for us and carry our flesh before hand thither where in the mean time hee maketh requests for us it was meet in the presence of all the eleven Act. 1.9 and they all beholding that hee should openly and according to his body bee visibly and locally taken up as the Angels witnessed Act. 1.11 Now though in these and other regards it was meet hee should shew himself openly yet would hee not so openly shew himself as to all the people but only to such as his wisdome thought fit to behold him Quest But why did not Christ after his Resurrection ride in an open triumph before all the People In all reason it would have made much to the confusion of his enemies and the comfort of his friends It could not have been but if he had risen in the sight of the Souldiers and had gone into Jerusalem among the Scribes and Pharisees into the Temple among the Doctors into Pilates Palace they would all have been stricken down and confounded in the
apart to their several offices by laying on of mens hands upon them even so God laid his hands on these that is Christ immediately by his own voyce called these to be witnesses unto him which was one of the priviledges of the Apostles 2 The Apostle in the words expresseth himself by limiting them to themselves to us namely Apostles who ate and drunk with him not only who before his death lived as it were at bed and board with him but after hee rose from the dead that we might not be deceived in our witnesse of him 3 To us whom be commanded to preach and testifie namely to the whole world these things together with his coming again to judgement Now for the further clearing of this publick witnesse of the Apostles wee will consider three things 1 That these twelve were appointed by Christ himself to this witnesse which the Apostle Peter plainly concludeth Act. 1.22 where speaking of one to be elected into Judas his room he saith he must be chosen of one of them which have companied wâ—th us all the time that the Lord Jesus was conversant among us beginning at the Baptism of John unto the day that he was taken up implying that whosoever was not thus qualified he was not fit to be made such a publick witnesse with them of his resurrection because to the making of an Apostle was necessary either an ordinary converse with Christ upon earth or else an extraordinary sight of him in Heaven by which latter Paul who made an honourable accesse to that number proved himself an Apostle Tâ—e second thing is how they were furnished to this witnesse By what means the Apostles were furnished to their witness and this was suâ—â—y ways 1 By their senses they ate and drunk with him that is were in a familiar sort conversant with him after he rose again 2 By word of mouth he gave them charge and commandement to doe it of both which wee are to speak in the text 3 By a Sacrament or sign of breathing upon them he confirmed them to their vocation saying As my Father sent me so I send you 4 By adding thereunto the thing signified for he opened their understandings and made thâ—m able to conceive the Scriptures and unfold all the Mysteries therein so farre as was behoveful for the Church 5 By bestowing sundry other great gifts upon them sending the Holy Ghost upon them in the likeness of fiery Tongues whereby they received the gift of Tongues he gift of Miracles of casting out Devils of healing the Sick by imposition of hands of preserving from poyson and deadly things of the Apostolical rod whereby death it self was at the command of their word either to take place as in Ananias and Saphira both struck dead with the word of the Apostle or to give place as in Dorcas who by a word of the Apostle was raised to life being dead By these means the Lord put into the hands of the Apostles great power to give witnesse of the resurrection of Christ Act. 4.33 The third thing is By what means they witnessed or gave testimony to Christ Ans Because they were to bee authentical and faithful witnesses to all the world and that both in the age wherein they lived as also in all the succeeding ages to the end of the world therefore was it necessary that they should give witnesse two wayes 1 By zealous and painful preaching by voyce while they lived 2 Even after their death by the holy Doctrin left behind them in their Works and Writings and thus doe they still remain publick witnesses to us on whom the ends of the world are come Doct. Hence observe that the office of the Apostles was to give testimony unto Christ after a peculiar manner Acts 1.8 When the Holy Ghost shall come upon you yee shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth I say they were to bee witnesses after a peculiar manner for these reasons The Apostles were to bee peculiar witnesses to Christ and why 1 To distinguish their witness from ours who are ordinary Ministers for every Minister is called of God to give witness to Christ but properly to speak they are rather Preachers and Publishers of things witnessed than witnesses or if witnesses yet herein they differ from the Apostles that they are not oculate or ear-witnesses nor such sensible witnesses as they were for this is an Apostolical speech and manner of preaching not derived to ordinary Pastors and Teachers to say That which wee have heard and seen and our hands have handled that we testify unto you 1 Joh. 1.1 2 They were all faithful witnesses and faithful men endued with faith and full beleef of the things they wrote and testified as all ordinary Ministers are not Whence the Evangelist John professeth of them all that they knew the testimony to bee true Joh. 21.24 True for the matter for they delivered the whole Counsel of God and kept nothing back that was fit to be known and true for the manner they all speaking as they were moved by the Spirit of God 2 Pet. 1.21 and therefore exempted from all error in their witness as we are not 3 And hence followeth that their witness is to bee beleeved as infallible being the witness of such as with their eyes saw his Maâ—esty vers 16. who did not at any time deliver any thing which they either heard not of Christ or saw him not doing or suffering but all other ordinary Ministers are so far to bee beleeved as they consent with these and so far as they testify no other thing than what these oculate witnesses have left in writing Object But Christ needeth not the witness of any man hee hath a greater witnesse than John or than any Apostle therefore there is no use of the Apostles witness Answ Christ hath indeed three greater witnesses than the witness of his Apostles namely 1 His Father that sent him beareth witnesse of him 2 The Scriptures if they bee searched testify of him 3 His works that hee did bear witnesse of him Joh. 8.18 5.39 5.36 but yet howsoever in regard of himself hee need no other testimony of man that wee might beleeve and bee saved hee useth the witness of men 〈◊〉 John and the Apostles and of this Divine Testimony in the mouth of the Apostles may bee said as Christ did of the voice from heaven Joh. 12.30 This voice came not because of mee but for your sakes In divine things we must lean upon a sure word Vse 1. From this Doctrin wee learn how necessary a thing it is in causes of Faith to lean upon true and certain things and not upon tottring traditions or unwritten verities which are the main pillars of Popish Doctrin Oh how good hath our God been to this Church and Land of ours in giving us a surer word of the Prophets and Apostles to become a light unto us in
is framing a bill of inditement against this day of general assize 2 This consideration must move us to carefulness both of our receits and expences whether they bee gifts of mind or of body Be careful of thy receipts and expenses becâ—use thou fittest in another mans to whom thou must be countable or of our outward estate Hee that spendeth and walleth his own need care the less because none can call him to reckoning why hee doth so but hee that sitteth in another mans or hath a matter of trust in his hands and cannot mis-spend but out of another mans stock had need look about him bâ—cause hee is to bee countable and must make good whatsoever his reckoning commeth short in Ask thy self What have I which I have not received of my Master How came I to bee so rich Is all the Wealth I have of my Masters gift or have I gotten goods into my hands by wronging or injuring some other men Again I remember I received at such and such a time a great summe of my Maâ—ters mony hee betrusted mee with a great pâ—rtion how have I laid it out that I may give him up a just and comfortable reckoning to which I am sure to bee called Thus much I have spent upon sutes in Law Thus much upon my pleasures and sports my dogs have ravend up a part of my revenue my Hawks have flown away with another end Cards and Dice have cost mee no little and a great deal is wasted by compassing my sin uncleanness pride revenge gluttony and the like But O thou unfaithful Servant that hast thus wasted thy Masters goods how much hast thou given to the poor how much to good uses to works of mercy to a settled Ministry to help Joseph out of his affliction oh no here hee can set down little or nothing the Dogs are preferred before Lazarus by many a Dives who if they timely look not better to their reckonings must make the foot of their account to bee this no sooner to bee dead than to be buried in Hell according to the sentence Take that unprofitable servant bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness there shall bee wayling and gnashing of teeth 3 This striâ—t account sheweth that a man cannot bee too strict No man can bee too precise because the judgement shall be thus precise too precise or too careful of his waies Men generally cast the reproach of purity upon men that desire to approve their hearts and lives unto God and count them more nice than wise and say it were hard if every one that were not so preâ—ise and curious should bee damned But what doth not the Scripture â—ay plainly that he Master is an hard man that is a most just God that will straightly stand for justice shall not every idle word every ungodly thought and motion though not attended nor assented unto come unto judgement and if it must is it more than needeth for men to look to the door of their lips yea to keep out if it were possible every vain and wandring thought out of their mindes shall not hee that breaketh the least commandement bee the least in the Kingdome of Heaven that is have no place at all there shall not all omissions and failings in duty bee set upon the heads of sinners seeing the sentence shall run In that yee did not these things depart from mee yee â—â—â—sed or shall wee thiâ—â— that the least carelesnesse of men shall be justified in this judgemâ—nt or the ungodly be taken by the hand far bee it from the Judge of all the world not to judge with righteous judgement howsoever loose persons wrap themselves in the woe of those that call good evil and evil good Now for the general use of this Doctrine of the last judgement To what other end hath the word so expresly discovered this holy Doctrin and enjoyned us to teach it in the Church 1 Cor. 15. but that every man should lay it to heart and benefit himself by it and therefore First The godly are to comfort themselves with these words The godly may lâ—fâ— up their heads in expectation of this day of redemption seeing they hear of this day wherein they shall bee gainers receiving their sentence of absolution and therefore 1 Perfect redemption from all the danger of all spiritual enmities the first fruits whereof they have already attained hence is it called the day of their redemption 2 Perfect security and safety against aâ—â— the molâ—stations of sin death the grave the gates of Hell temptation and tribulation for all these shall be cast into the Lake 3 Perfect glory with the Saints for they shall be from henceforth ever with the Lord and enjoy the sweet â—â—uit of that prayer which the Son of God in the daies of his flesh râ—quested and was heard in Father I will that where I am they may be also that they may behold my glory Joh. 17.24 Why should not wee then lift up our heads in the expâ—ctation and ardent desire of this day which the very dumb creature 〈◊〉 for Rom 8.19 Godly must address them selves to thiâ— judgement two waies Secondly Let every man labour to fit and addresse himself unto this judgemâ—nt that hâ—â— may â—ee able to stand before the Son of Man And that by two thingâ— 1 By making full account and reckoning of it 2 By using the best 〈◊〉 afâ—re-hand to pass through it happily The 〈◊〉 iâ—â—harged upon us by that precept which commandeth us to bee like the Servant that waiteth for his Masters comming and hath every thing iâ— a â—â—adinâ—ss and that at all watches and by that of Peter 2 Pet 3.11 Seeing aâ—â— these terrors of the Lord what manner of men ought wee to bee in all holy conâ—erâ—atâ—on Two thingâ— hinder this câ—re Anâ— for the furthering of this care two things must carefully be 〈…〉 which shut it quite out of the hearts of the most The fiâ—st i◠〈◊〉 â—â—â—ry and deadnesse of heart which is a slumber of spirit and slâ—â—pâ—â—â—ss of the sâ—ul which hath bound up all faculties and powers of the 〈…〉 as â—â—ttle move oâ— stir in the actions and affairs of heavenly 〈◊〉 sâ—iâ—â—tual â—se as a man when he is in a dead sleep can move or bestir himself to 〈…〉 natural a tion The minde till God awaken it never serâ—ously thiâ—keâ—h of God or of his own estate The conscience never or seldome accuseth for 〈◊〉 committed The will inclineth not to any thing truâ—ly good The affeâ—tiâ—ns remain unmoved at Gods word oâ— works The wholâ— man iâ— sâ—nselesse and careless of Gods judgements either present or to come and whence is all this but from a profane delusion of the heart that the Master will not yet come they shall not yet bee called to their reckoning there is time enough behind to repent in they crave but an hour on then Death-beds and that they hope they shall have In the mean time they
in prison and at length they see there was no heavenly husbandry in all this Thirdly In confessing our sin and pleading guilty Prov. 20.13 this is the covenant that whereas he that hideth his sin shall not prosper he that confesseth shall finde mercy Psal 32.4 I said I will confesse mine iniquity and thou forgavest me the punishment of my sin Job 31.33 It is too neer joyned to our natures to hide our sin with Adam and conceal it in our bosome or else to sum up all in a word without special grief for any special sin and herein they think they have peace which is but unfeelingnesse But those that belong to God he bringeth them to found humiliation he maketh them sick in smiting them and setteth their sins in order before them like a bill of parcels to the breaking of their hearts and the utter acknowledgement of themselves to be miserable bankcrupts For this purpose he maketh their own Consciences also to be judges of their actions pronouncing sentence of guiltinesse and death against themselves As David Against thee against thee have I sinned and again I am the man and again I have done very foolishly but these sâ—eep what have they dâ—ne The penitent Thief thus judgeth himself we are righteously here To conclude this point he was never truly humbled nor â—ver aright judged himself that is more ashamed to confesse than to commit sin Fourthly After pleading guilty in pleading for pardon as for life and death and as the poor Malefactor condemned to dye câ—ys for mercy and all his hope and longing is for a pardon even so this is noted to bee the practiâ—e of the Church Hos 14.2 3. Oh Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take unto you words and turn to the Lord and say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously And which of the Saints have not placed all their happinesse in the pardon of sin or have not preferred the shining of Gods countenanâ—e upon them above all the outward happinesse that the earth affordeth Now in the seeking and suing for pardon because God will not hear him that regardeth wickednesse in his heart for wicked Esau shall finde no repentance nor favour with tears therefore thou must forth-with cease to doe evil as being ashamed of it and learn to doe well lay Laws upon thy self be more severe against thy self in the things wherein thou hast displeased thy God watch diligently over those corruptions which have most foyled thee this is the way both to make and preserve thy peace Bring thy self then with fear and trembling before Gods righteous Judgement accuse thy self and bewayl thy sins bee not ashamed to confesse but to commit them again be so farre from purposing any wickednesse in thy heart as rather thou bee strongly armed with full purpâ—se against it And thus remembring thy sins God will forget them thus wiâ—â—ing them deep in thine own books God will blot them out of his Thus if thou hide them not but cast them out of thy heart and life he will hide them for ever and cast them utterly out of his sight so that if thou canst thus judge thy self afore-hand thou shalt never be judged of the Lord. Vers 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his name all that beleeve in him shall receive remission of sins THe Apostle Peter although he hath sufficiently proved whatsoever he hath formâ—rly delivered concerning the Doctrin and Miracles Life and Death Resurrection and Ascension and the coming of Christ again unto Judgement yet as though no proof could be too much or as if he could not satisfie himself in enforcing this holy doctrin and binding it upon the consciences of his Hearers he shutteth up his Sermon in this verse with another assured testimâ—ny above all exception drawn from all the Prophets who all consent and conspire with the Apostles in all their doctrin concerning him the sum and main end of all which is that through beleeving in his name the elect should receive remission of sins which is the sum and effect of this verse Where first may be asked Why the Apostle inferreth so many testimonies concerning Christ Reasons why doth the Apostle induce so many testimonies one in the neâ—k of another In the answer whereof we shall see that none of them are needlesse or superfluous For 1 All the points of Christian religion are above and against corrupt nature as appeareth in the Heathen whâ— still esteemed the preaching of Christ foolishnesse 2 Corin. 2.23 and in the Athenians who when they heard Paul preaching of the Judgement Day and Christs Resurrection from the dead they mocked him Acts 17.32 The hardened Jews at this day on whom the Wrath of God is 〈◊〉 me to the uttermost doe the like and well it were for many if professed Christians in the midst of such a light made more reckoning of our painful preaching of Christ who teach the same points than some of the former which were they so slight matters as most account them what need they be so enforced We are therefore hence fitly enformed both to make more high account of such great Mysteries which the Spirit of God is so careful tâ— commend unto us as also to bewayl the infidelity of our hearts that need so much working upon them to entertain such necessary truths as these be 2 Because although he was an Apostle yet would he shew his care that in all his Sermon he taught nothing of his own which the Prophets had not formerly taught Which teacheth all Ministers much more to beware lest in any of their Sermons they broach such doctrin or bring in such stuff of which they cannot prove the Prophets and Apostles to bee Patrons and Publishers For this was the commandement of the Apostles that wee teach no other doctrin 1 Tim. 1.3 neither contrary nor diverse from it no private opinions which are the causes of Schisms and Heresies nor vain conceits or jangling which breed questions but no godly edifying 3 It was not only their precept but practise also as Act. 26.22 Paul spake no other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come to wit that Christ should suffer and that he should bee the first that should rise from the dead Nay the Lord of the holy Apostles Jesus Christ himself preached no other Doctrin of whom it is said Luk. 24.27 that be began at Moses and all the Prophets and interpreted unto them in all the Scriptures the things which were written of him shall the Son of God who might have made every word hee spake Scripture tye himself to the Scriptures and make them the ground of all his Sermons and shall not weak men who cannot without error depart an hair breadth from them be careful to contain all their doctrin within the limits of them especially seeing nothing else bindeth the conscience of the hearer 3 The Apostle knew
that this was a convincing argument if he could perswade his hearers that hee did deliver nothing but prophetical Doctrine for all men Jews and Gentiles were easily perswaded that Moses and the Prophets spake directly from God yea and the most blinded and wilful Jews at this day profess that if wee can prove Christ the Messiah from Moses and the Prophets they will beleeve in him so as in great wisdome did the Apostle adde this testimony to all the former knowing that that is the onely sound ground of teaching when men can bee perswaded that what they hear is uttered from the mouth of God as by this testimony his hearers were Now in the verse we have three thing to consider of 1 The generality of this testimony That all the Prophets bear witnesse unto him 2 The scope and end of their witness that men might beleeve in his Name 3 The fruit of this beleef that beleevers might receive remission of sin A proof that all the Prophets witness unto Christ For the first wee will by a brief induction make it appear that all the Prophets bare witness unto Christ and then gather some observations from it To begin with Moses who by Christ his own confession writ of him Joh. 5.46 In Genesis the first thing after the creation and fall is the main promise that the seed of the woman should break the Serpents head Exodus setteth out Christ our Passeover Leviticus in all those sacrifices pointeth out Christ our Sacrifice Numbers setteth before our eyes Christ our brasen Serpent lifted up upon the Cross Deuteronomy describeth Christ our chief Prophet whom whosoever will not hear he must dye the death Deut. 8.18 19. Act. 3.21 Joshuah beareth his name and most lively resembleth him in slaying the enemies of Gods people and bringing them into the promised land The Judges were all Saviours and types of him The book of Ruth sheweth he family whence hee sprung Samuel Kings and Chronicles his Genealogy and the very persons of whom hee descended especially David and Solomon both eminent types of him Ezrah and Nehemiah built the second Temple into which hee was to enter and so to become the glory of it as both Haggai and Malachy foretold Job knew that his Redeemer lived and that he should see him at last on the earth David in the Psalms acknowledged that the stone which the builders refused was become the chief stone of the corner and expresseth the peircing of his hands and feet Solomon in the Proverbs describeth his wisdome and eternity In the Canticles his contract and espousals with the Church Isay is called the Evangelical Prophet than whom no Evangelist could more lively express his Person his Doctrin his Life Death Burial Resurrection and Ascension that hee rather seemed to write an History of something past than a Prophecy of things to come Jeremy plainly stileth him the Lord of Righteousnesse Jer. 23. Ezekiel in all his dark shadows figureth out the government of Christ from point to point Daniel reckoneth the very year and time when the Messiah shall be slain at the end of whose seventy weeks Christ was put to death The small Prophets testify of him also with as joint consent 1 Malachy mentioneth with him his forerunner John Baptist 2 Micha describeth the place of his birth Micah 5.2 And thou Bethlem of Ephrata art little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall hee come forth that shall be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from the beginning and from everlasting 3 Zachary nameth the place of his education which was Nazaret Zach. 6.12 There must hee grow that must build the Temple of the Lord. 4 Haggai prophecyeth of his comming into his Temple and purging it 5 Nahum wisheth Judah to behold on the mountains the feet of him that declareth and publisheth peace Nahum 1.15 which tydings none can bring but through Jesus Christ the prince of peace 6 Obadiah promiseth to Judah and Jerusalem such Saviours as should advance and set up the Kingdome of the Messiah Obad. v. 21. and so the Kingdome shall bee the Lords that is Christs who shall reign in his Church for ever and of whose Kingdome there shall bee no end 7 Jonas in his own person preached his Death Burial and Resurrection in that hee was swallowed of the Whale and lay three daies in the belly of it and in the third day was cast alive on dry Land 8 Hosea recordeth his triumph and victory over death Hos 13.14 O death I will bee thy death O Grave I will bee thy destruction 9 Habakkuk the sending out of his blessed Gospel into all the World by his Apostles so as all the earth should bee filled with the knowledge of God as the Waters cover the Sea 10 Joel foretelleth of his ascension and the pouring out of his Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 11 Amos of the calling of the Gentiles a fruit of that ascension which hee calleth the â—â—sing of the Tabernacle of David Amos 9.11 as James notably applyeth it Act. 15.16 12 Zephany shadoweth his second coming to judgement and sheweth what a fearful and terrible day it shall bee to all the wicked of the earth Thus have wee shortly seen all the Prophets witnessing unto the doctrine taught in this Sermon by our holy Apostle And that the chief aim and drift of all these Master builders was to lay this the main foundation of all our Religion that Jesus Christ the Son of Mary was the Son of God the true Messias the Lord of all and the onely Saviour and Redeemer of the World First note hence Consent of the Church to any doctrin to be received with these cautions what is the true consent which all Teachers must aim at in the delivery of any Doctrin unto the people of God namely the consent of the Prophets and Apostles it forceth not a Doctrin to bee Orthodox or Ancient for a man to say all the Fathers are of this mind which is the Popish cry for all their Heresies but to this Doctrin give all the Prophets and all the Apostles witnesse and therefore it is sound and perswasive Yet wee refuse not but challenge to the Doctrin which wee teach the consent of the ancient Church but with these cautions 1 With the Primitive and Apostolical Churches which as they were most ancient so were they the purest 2 With the Churches which were after them five or six hundred years so far forth as they consented in doctrin and discipline with the former for many Popish errors are ancient and the Apostle telleth us that Antichrist begun to work in a mystery even in their daies And some of the Fathers were carried into some superstitions and errors and so not espying the mystery helped up Antichrist whom they intended to hold down 3 The Holy Ghost hath revealed every Doctrin necessary to salvation more holily more clearly and more eloquently than all the Fathers put together who if they had
within 2 Examine them whence they come and whither they go 2 Examine thy thoughts whence they come and whither they go and what they do in thee By which means thou shalt banish a number of idle and wandring thoughts which like roaving vagrants being worth nothing come â—ver to steal something either time or grace and so shalt thou make and keep room for better And do this betime because the first motions of sinful thoughts defile a man This rule is in 2 Cor. 10.5 to draw weapons against every strong imagination that is exalted against the knowledge of Christ 3 If thy thoughts concern the world pull them back keep them from the world 3 Pull them from the world save as much as needs must for the moderate maintaining of thy self and thine lest heavenly thoughts be drowned and hindred 1 Tim. 6.9 The reason is because our hearts being earthly do presently conceive a sweetness in earthly things and are presently distracted from the love of the Creator to the love of the creature Now spiritual wisdome requireth that wee diminish the love of the creature that wee may increase our love of the Creator But if they will run upon the world then turn the course of them a little to consider the vanity and misery of this evil world the painted vizor of the pleasures of it the uncertainty of life the deceitfulness of riches how they bee not ours what evils and incumbrances wee have received from the world what fools they have made us in treasuring on earth whose home and expectation is in heaven 4 If thy thoughts concern thy self or others thy brethren If they concern thy self or others see they be humble labour to think better of others than thy self for thou seest no such thing in them as in thy self Phil. 2.3 Let every one esteem better of another than of himself Yea the more thou seemest to excel others in gifts the more humble labour to bee An hard rule and difficult to bee practised and therefore it is often commended to us as Rom. 12.16 Make your selves equal to them of the lower sort and elsewhere For this purpose conceive not onely what thou hast received but what thou wantest and what good things thou art without and then with Paul say thou hast not yet attained to perfection Phil. 3.12 5 If they concern sin be sure it be to haâ—e it 5 If thy thoughts concern any sin bee sure it bee to hate and renounce to bewail and mourn for it in thy self or others For there is a sliness and subtilty in sin which while wee think of it easily gaineth some tickling and consent which at least hindreth that thorow-hatred that wee ought to maintain against it The third rule for the inner man concerneth the Will namely Rules for the will that our care must bee there bee but one will between God and us for so hath the Lord taught us to pray Thy Will bee done Concurrence of our wil with Gods will 1 Revealing 2 Determining 3 Prescribing 1 Wherein soever God hath revealed his will to us in that wee must rest 2 Whatsoever his will determineth of us that wee must account holie and just whether with us or against us 3 Whatsoever his will prescribeth to us whether obedience to the Law or faith of the Gospel wee must hold our selves fast bound in conscience unto it let it seem never so cross to us or contrary to his Law as Abrahaâ— â—â—id in offering his son 4 Whatsoever his will disposeth to us 4 Disposing prosperity or adversity sickness or health life or death or whatsoever else all is from a most wise hand disposing every thing for the good and salvation of his Elect and so should bee entertained Thus Eli said 1 Sam. 3.18 Isa 39.8 It is the Lord let him do what is good in his eyes And Hezekiah The word of the Lord is good even when it threatned the overthrow of his house and Kingdome So David Psal 39.9 I held my tongue and said nothing because thou Lord didst it And Job The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh Chap. 1. v. 11. blessed be the name of the Lord. CHAP. IX Rules for the Conscience THe fourth sort of rules for the inner man concerns the conscience Rules for the conscience 1 Beware of a blinde conscience Joh. 16.2 1 Beware of doing any thing with a blinde Conscience A blinde man swallowes many a gnat and a blinde conscience swalloweth any sin This is a wicked conscience to which no sin so great shall come but a man shall think hee doth God good service in it as Christ speaks of them that would slay his Disciples Why do Heathens persecute Christians and Papists pursue Protestants even to death but out of blinde zeal and conscience that they root out a false Religion And whatsoever a man doth by an erroneous and seduced conscience is sin The rule of conscience to Heathens being the Law of nature and to the Church the Law written even the whole word of God as a pillar of cloud and fire to direct it in all the way to Heaven Therefore let the Word of God dwell plentiously in you in all Wisdomâ— Col. 3.16 2 Do nothing with a doubting conscience Conscientia nobis anima Tertul. 2 Do nothing with a doubtful conscience for whatsoever is done with a scrupulous conscience is sin and is not onely an offence of God but of the conscience too which is as a little God within us for it is not of faith nor obedience to the known will of God Rom. 14. ult Hee that doubteth is condemned because his action is not of faith Therefore verse 5. hee saith Let every man bee fully perswaded in his minde 3 Get a good conscience above all things 3 Labour to get a good conscience above all things Act. 23.1 I have endeavoured in all good Conscience till this day A pure conscience by nature hath no man but made pure by the blood of Christ sprinkled upon it by faith in that hee hath obtained full remission of sin and by his blood also merited the Spirit of Sanctification by which the conscience of the beleever is daily cleansed 4 Aim 〈◊〉 a pure conscience 4 Labour to get a pure conscience in all things A man by observing many things may get himself good credit but a good conscience must bee in all the things of God Joh. 1â— 28 The Pharisies might not go into Pilates Judgement Hall lest they should bee polluted and yet at the same time they could dispence with their conscience to crucifie the Son of God a sin defiling Heaven and earth whiles the Sun was ashamed and the earth trembled at it The Papists may not eat flesh in Lent their consciences will not suffer them but to kill Kings and blow up Parliament-Houses their consciences give them good leave Many Protestants will not steal kill commit the act of adultery but
comes amiss to an idle person Besides discredit bad report and poverty come as an armed man upon such a one Prov. 6.11 3 To others 3 To others whether wee bee Masters or servants as knowing that in our Calling wee are to practise most Christian duties as love to our brethren patience truth fidelity uprightness as being ever under Gods eye 3 Be not busie in other mens Callings 3 Another point of Wisdome in our Callings is not to meddle with other mens business but follow our own close 1 Thes 4.11 Study to be quiet and to do your own business And every where the Apostle reproves busie bodies who going beyond their own bounds thrust their sickle into every mans harvest and being out of their own places and business intermeddle with that which no way concerns them And these are disturbers of peace and civil tranquillity kindling and blowing up contentions for lack of other work The same rule is for women also that they bee not gadders but house-keepers Tit. 2.5 4 In earthly business carry an Heavenly minde Phil. 3.20 4 In all earthly business study to carry an heavenly minde A Christian while hee converseth in earth must have his conversation in Heaven And know that in all the ways of this present life hee ought never to step out of the way to eternal life Neither shall a man bee a loser by this course seeing wee have an express promise that if wee seek Gods Kingdome first and principally these outward things should so far as they are needful for us without such carking care bee cast upon us 5 Intend most the most necessary duties of them 5 As all duties of the Calling must bee profitable in themselves and for the publike good so the most profitable must bee most intended and specially performed A Minister must read the Word but must apply himself more to Preaching as being more necessary A Magistrate must execute Justice upon transgressors of mens Laws but especially against open transgressors of Gods Law Masters of families must provide for the bodies and health of their family but especially for the good and salvation of their souls CHAP. XII Rules of Wisdome concerning a mans estate and first for adversity THe rules of Wisdome concerning a Christian mans estate are these One general Rule for all estates is to think the present estate best for thee First General Secondly Special The general rule for all estates is this Bee prepared for any estate contented in every estate and assure thy self the present estate whatsoever it is is best for thee though not ever in thy sense yet in Gods gracious and wise ordering of it This lesson the Apostle Paul had well learned Phil. 4.11 12. I can want and abound I can bee full and hungry I have learned in all estates to bee contented The special rules are either for prosperity or for adversity Rules for affliction Concerning adversity and afflictions these are the rules of Christian wisdome 1 Consider thou art not placed here in the world by God 1 God may as well be injoyed in Adversity as Prosperity to injoy the pleasures of the World but to injoy God which thou mayest do as well in affliction as in prosperity and to cleave to him in his service looking for nothing but afflictions as a Pilgrim going to thy Country the way whereunto lyeth through afflictions This ground not laid men count troubles a strange thing 1 Pet. 4.11 and start at the mention of them as the Apostles Joh. 11.8 when they heard Christ speaking of going into Jury where the Jews had lately sought to stone him And note it to bee a corruption of the heart to bee more grieved for thine own troubles than the troubles of the Church for private than publick evils 2 Lay up strength and comforts aforehand As first Humility 2 Lay up strength and comfort aforehand to over-master and tame the pride and rebellion of our hearts and to bring in contentedness to sweeten our troubles and our labour will be well spent for if wee can relish the hardest part of our life our whole life else will assuredly bee more sweet and joyful 2 Grow up in the knowledge of God which will make thee rise up in much comfort and will bring in comfort against that confused heaviness distrust and dangerous affections and passions which else in trouble might beat us down and off him 3 Get assurance of faith which will sweetly warm the heart in the sense of Gods love in Jesus Christ The fruit of which will bee first To inable us to trust our selves with God in any estate and bee assured the Lord is with us in fire and water in the midst of the Valley of the shadow of Death Secondly to depend on him for strength Psal 23.4 for howsoever Satan would make us beleeve our affliction is greater than it is or wee are for it yet wee shall assure our hearts that the Lord hath measured it out for our strength and not above Thridly 1 Cor. 10.13 to wait upon him for a good issue and seasonable deliverance who hath promised to turn it to the best This shall keep us from fainting distrust and despair Rom. 8.28 3 In all evils of punishment take occasion to set upon the evil of sin 3 In evils of punishment to set upon evil of sin and revenge upon that complain of it to God and men murmure and grudge at nothing else If affliction bee sharper than ordinary it is sure some sin or lust addes a sting unto it But this rule mortifies sin and unruly passions and will weaken the heart and make a man say with the Church Mic. 7.9 I will bear the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned 4 Make them no heavier than God maketh them by impatience 4 Make them no heavier thâ—n God hath made them frowardness and looseness of heart God sometimes layes on a little finger and the froward heart lays on the whole hand and loyns to make the burden heavier with faithless heaviness and distrust which is but an addition of new and worse troubles than the former How inconsiderately do many men load themselves with troubles too too light in themselves and on the shoulders of wise men who can make a vertue of necessity and step over a number of rubs which others stoop to remove and infinitely toil themselves How do many in smaller troubles as discourtesie of neighbours unruliness of children unfaithfulness of servants smaller losses and crosses in Family-matters give place to unquietness impatience and passion till their folly have by seeking to case their burden increased it from a dram to a talent And now how unmeet are they for the service of God How unprofitable in any Christian society How sowr and heavy in countenance disguised in speech Levius sit pationus Quicquid corrigere est nosas Horat. and impotent in their behaviour All which