that there is no joy nor gladness in the practice of godliness and so they shun godliness and the care of it as that which is full of sadness and melancholy But the Scriptures teach otherwayes that the godly are called to this that they may alwayes rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. and that they alwayes are as it were feasting with all gladness according to that of Solomon Prov. 15. 15. The proper cause of this errour is ignorance a depraved sense of their sins 〈◊〉 in this like unto an herd of swine who make it their greatest pleasure and delight to wallow in the 〈◊〉 Use 3. Of Consolation for the godly in that 〈◊〉 their outward condition is yet they have 〈◊〉 of more true joy than can be either felt or understood by worldly men Use 4. Of Exhortation that striving with our utmost indeavour we must labour more and more to receive and be sensible of this joy Now the meanâ—… which we ought chiefly to use for attaining and 〈◊〉 thereof are these 1. We must in good 〈◊〉 remove all hinderances of this joy that is that by repentance a real amendment of life we 〈◊〉 cleanse and disburthen our selves of our sins 〈◊〉 We ought to have a true care that we daily make more sure and constant to our selves our union and communion with God by diligent examination and confirmation of our faith and hope 3. That we 〈◊〉 much and often exercised in the religious meditation of Gods Promises which promise all good things to such as have God for their God 4. Iâ—…â—…duceth much to this purpose if in our selves we exercise and excite this joy in and by the daily praise of Gods name that is as well in private as publick thanksgiving coming from the bottom of our heart for all those blessings with which God hath blessed us in Christ Jesus Doct. 5. That this joyâ—… and this comfort brings a certain holy security to the consciences of believers This is gathered from the last verse of the Psalm And this is that security wherein the Apostle â—…oasts and glories Rom. 8. If God be for 〈◊〉 who 〈◊〉 be against us c. For I am perswaded that nothing can separate me c. And David every where in the 〈◊〉 Why do I fear God is my rock c. This security differs much from carnall security wherein men of this world lye and sleep 1. Because true and prais-worthy security is grounded upon true faith and not upon vain imagination 2. Because it is bred in us by the Word and Promises and by the preaching and knowledge of the word of God It doth not proceed from traditions or mens dreams and customes in sin as that doth 3. Because this security relies alwayes upon Gods protection as it is in the Text Thou onely makest me c. it doth not rely on outward means or on our own strength and wisdome 4. Because this security is fed cherished and advanced by diligent use of calling upon Gods name and of all other means that God hath prescribed and appointed us Reas 1. Because Gods protection secureth believers from all evill at least from the sting of it by reason whereof it is onely truly evill for God hath all things both evill and good in his own power Reas 2. Because Gods presence brings all other good things with it for God is so good in himself that in himself virtually and eminently he contains all things that can be called good Reas. 3. Because Gods goodness towards believers is unchangeable so that there can be no danger of the changing of this happiness into misery Use The use of this Doctrine is for consolation to the faithfull to wit that from this ground they 〈◊〉 and ought to depend upon God and lay aside all those anxieties whereby they may be discouraged from adhering to God with joy and gladness The second Lords day Rom. 7. vers 7. What shall we say then Is the Law sin God forbid Yea I had not known sin but by the Law For I had not 〈◊〉 that concupiscence or lust was a sin unless the Law had said Thou shalt not covet THe Apostle that he might stir up the faithfull to a new obedience had proposed to them the difference of their condition that are under the Law and of them that are under Grace to wit that such as are under the law of the flesh and sin bring forth fruits unto death but such as are under the grace of the Spirit bring forth fruits in a new obedience unto life eternall But because of this opposition between the Law and Grace some might gather that there was then a very great agreement between the Law and sin therefore in this seventh verse this objection is preoccupated by the Apostle 1. Then the Objection is proposed What shall we say Is the Law sin 2. It is rejected with a certain kinde of detestation God forbid 3. The case is plainly set down and resolved in these words I had not known sin c. Where the singular effect and use of the Law is declared to wit that by forbidding and reproving is begotten in man a sense and acknowledgement of sin as of that which is contrary to its self and therefore it cannot be the cause of sin The Explication By the Law is understood in common a way and rule of walking Now this way and rule is imposed upon reasonable creatures by divine authority and the greatest obligations that can be And this is the Law to wit of God which the Apostle heer understands especially the moral Law By sin here is not onely understood the transgression of Gods will but also all those things that follow upon such a transgression which in this Chapter is defined by the name of Death and is called sometimes misery Sin is either known confusedly and speculatively onely or more exactly and practically Now the accurate and practicall knowledge of sin is here understood whereby it is efficaciously concluded in our consciences that sin is a detestable thing and by all means to be avoided Doct. 1. Men of their own nature are so blinded that although they be altogether drowned in sin and death yet of themselves they cannot know it This is gathered from these words I had not known sin Reas. 1. Because the very mind and conscience of man which is his eye and light is corrupted after a twofold manner 1. Privitively In that it is deprived of that light whereby it might rightly judge of it self and of such things as belong unto its spiritual life a. Positively In as much as it is possessed with a certain perverse disposition whence it often calls evill good and good evill For as the eye being put quite out feeleth nothing and as the eye infected with humours and depraved by the indispositions of the organe sees all things otherwise than they are presented so is it with the eye of the soul. Reas. 2. Because the whole man is possessed with a certain
spiritual distemper and as it were with a drunkennesse and lethargick stupidity whereby he is sensible of nothing rightly and spiritually Reas 3 Because we are so borne in sin that in a manner it becomes natural to us nor ever have had we experience of any other condition As those that are borne with deformed and crooked limbs and never saw aright and well proportioned disposition of all the members do not know that their own limbs are deformed and ill proportioned but esteem their distortion and disproportion to be the right proportion it self even so is it in this case of sin and corruption of nature Use 1. Of Admonition that for this cause we might more and more humble our selves before God seeing that we are so miserable that of our selves we can never know our own misery Use 2. Is of Direction to deny all our natural wisdome that so we may flie to God and seek wisdome from him that we may know our selves and him aright Doctr. 2. The onely way to know sin aright and the cause of our mysery is by the law of God It is gathered from these words For unlesse the law had said c. Reas. 1. Because the law of God doth in some way enlinghten the eyes of our minde Psal. 19. Reas. 2. Because the law of God is the rule of our life and is therefore the touchstone not onely of the straightness but also of all the obliquity and crookedness of it Reas. 3. Because the law of God is set before us as a glasse wherein we may clearly see our faces and quality Iames 1. 23. Now it performs this use of a glass to us by a comparison made between the perfection which the Law requires of us and the manifold defects and deformities that are found in our life Questions hence arising Quest. 1. Whether did not some wise men at least among the Heathen know sin without this Law of God I answer 1. That they were not altogether without this law of God because in part they had it written and ingraven in their hearts But yet 2. They knew not many sins which by the Law might easily have been known 3. They knew not sin under the first and most proper reason of it to wit as it was an offence against God but onely as it was repugnant to reason in man himself 4. They knew not those spiritual miseries which accompanie sin 5. They did not know sin practically and efficaciously so as to be by that knowledge driven to a spiritual humbling of themselves before God Quest. 2. In what manner doth this Law of God shew us our sin I answer 1. It sheweth us our duty or the will of God that we should do 2. It shews us our fault in transgressing of this will 3. It shewes us our guilt whereby for this guiltiness we are bound over unto punishment 4. It shewes also the punishment it self for the threatenings of the Law wherein the punishments are contained and denounced are parts of the Law and belong unto its sanctification or ratification Use 1. Of Direction that in passing judgement upon our lives we follow not either our own fancies nor the tenets and opinions of the vulgar but the law of God alone Use 2. Of Admonition that we often make trial of our life according to that law and that as well for time past for our greater humiliation as for the time to come for our caution and better direction in every part of our conversation The Third Lords Day Rom. 5. vers 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned THe Apostles purpose in this place is to illustrate that Doctrine which he had before taught concerning justification by Iesus Christ for which end he makes a comparison of the likeness between this grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the sin of Adam our first Father after the flesh And the comparison runs upon the efficacy and effects of each of them The Proposition of the Comparison is in â—… 12. and the Reddition to that is after explicated by way of Parenthesis In the Proposition Adam is set forth as the cause of a twofold effect to wit of the bringing in of sin and of the bringing in of Death And the reason of the Connexion of these effects with that cause is given in the last words of this verse to wit from the conjunction that all had with Adam in that first sin in these words In whom all men c. Doct. 1. Sin entered into the world not by Gods creation but by mans defection This is manifest in the Text by man not by God c. Reas. 1. Because God made man upright and after his own image that is not onely free from all sin which may in some sort also be said of all other Creatures but also adorned him with all those endowments and faculties whereby Gods nature might as it were in a pourtrait be expressed and represented and by help whereof in keeping of the law he might have attained unto a certain sort of divine blessedness or felicity For as there is no fault in a pourtrait so it be well drawn or made by a perfect workman unless the fault be in the Original from whence the pourtait is taken so also no fault could be in man created according to Gods Image and that by God himself unlesse some fault be attributed to God himself whose Image man is Reas. 2. Is because God did not onely prescribe a law unto man in the Creation but also engraved it upon his heart by which means it was that man had in himself a most certain Testimony of his uprightness in which and to which he was created and withall a most sufficient and ready means of living well and unblameably to God For the law of God perfectly purely written in the heart of man is as it were a solemn Testimony registred in a Table or Book that man was made fit and able to keep that Law It is as it were the voice of God sent down from Heaven whereby man was called and stirred up to observe that way of living which is taught thereby Reas. 3. Because God added thereunto a pledge and Sacrament in the Tree of Life whereby he would have that Covenant of the Law written in the heart more clearly confirmed also outwardly to wit that he would by the observation of his Law first perpetuate mans life in this world unto the solemn justification of him at his appointed time and then advance him to a further and heavenly Felicity And on the other side he threatens Death unto him in case he should depart from that Will and Law of God all which had been done to no purpose if man had been at first made by God himself in any measure or manner sinfull and perverse Reas. 4. So far was God from being the cause of sin in the first creation of
manner infinite without end so also the punishment which taketh away its measure from the nature of the transgression will be without end infinite and that as wel in the privation of an infinite good as in the endles duration of this privation or losse Neither ought it to seem strange that for a sin which is committed in a short time an endlesse punishment should be inflicted because equity its â—…elf requires this that every one should be deprived of that good of which by his own fault he hath turned from But every â—…inner hath turn'd himself away from an endless good by a fault he can never come out of by himself and make an end of and therefore it is but reason that he be endlesly deprived of that good And moreover because he hath disturbed that order that God set appointed it is but juâ—…tice if he never be freed from the punishment of this fault untill he have repaired God his honor which an unrepenting sinner can never do unto eternity It ought not therefore to move any that sin which is but momentary should be punished eternally Reas. 1. The committing of it is as it were a spiritual wounding and yet a wounding in what â—…ort time soever done doth often leave behinde it a wound of long duration and often endlesse and eternal death Reas. 2. The committing of sin is as it were a spiritual fall or sliding and yet the fall in short time passed may be such that thereby for a very long time or without end the party may remain in the depth or pit whereinto he fell Reas. 3. The committing of sin is as it were a â—…ying with bands or thongs whose nature is that it may quickly be done and yet for ever keep the party bound as long as the bands themselves remain unloosed or unbroken Reas. 4. T is as it were a bargain in which the sinner for the enjoyment or use of some short pleasure out of a madnesse sells himself into slavery Now from a bargain of buying and selling though passed in a short time the right is conveyed to the buyer for ever and the alienation is eternal or endlesse in its own way Reason 1. It is as it were the putting out of a lamp for a sinner once drowning himself in the â—…ilth of sin puts out as it were the whole light of his mind and a lamp once put out though it be done in a moment yet by vertue of that putting out remains of its self endlesly extinct and put out Use 1. Of Condemnation against such as remain in their carnal security and please themselves in this condition over which perpetually hangs the so horrible wrath and anger of God Use 2. Is of Admonition that with all care above all things else we go about this to shew this wrath of God Matt. 3. 7. where also the way to shun it is shewed to be by repentance verse 8. And yet this is not so to be taken as if this shunning lay in our repentance as it is our action and as if that had some vircue of freeing from the wrath of God for Christ alone is our enfranchizer from the wrath to come 1 Thess. 1. 10. We therefore truly flee from the wrath of God when we flie to this mercy in Christ Jesus by true faith in him and repentance unfained Doct. 3. All such speeches as promise impunity of sin and indempnity from the wrath of God are but vain and seducing This is also cleare in the Text. Now that they are vain hence it appeareth because they are against his decree and his will clearly revealed and therefore can have no solid truth in them And that they are seducing is apparent enough also from the first author of such speeches For the devill when he would seduce our first Parents promised them this impunity in these words Ye shall not dye The Fifth Lords-day Rom. 8. 3. For what the Law could not doe in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh THe Apostle in this place expounds why the faithfull may be freed from sin and death by Christ The reason is given as it were from the cause moving God to this giving of Christ. And this moving cause was the needinesse of our want which appears in the defect of power in any other means to produce such an effect as if the Apostle had said because it was needfull for us to be delivered from sin and death and yet this could be effected by no other means therefore God performed it by Christ. The strength and necessity of this consequence depends upon the will of God which tacitly supposeth that God would not have mankinde fall utterly to perish but to be restored again The whole syllogism or reason is this If by no other means faln men could be restored but by Christ then that way was to be taken because God would that some way it should be done but the first is true and therefore also the latter The assumption is proved to wit that man could be restored by no other means by the most likely instance of the law which once had been of great power and of force sufficient to bring man to happinesse For except Christ and the Gospel never any thing was given of God to man that was more perfect and divine than the Law That therefore which the Apostle says here of the law hath the force of such an argument as this If by vertue of the Law man could not be restored than by no other means could he be but by Christ but the first is true and therefore the latter also The Apostle both proves and expounds the Assumption at once from the reason or cause of this defect or weakness of the law to restore man that it is not properly inherent in the law it self but in our flesh or corruption whereby it is that we cannot fulfill the law that so it might save us much lesse by the Law rise up again from Death to life Doct. 1. It is the will of God that miserable men may be delivered from their misery and restored to life eternal This is here presupposed by the Apostle as granted and is used by him as the ground of his reasoning Reas. 1. Is taken partly from Gods mercy partly from his wisdome partly from his power and partly from the stability of his decrees from his mercy God would relieve miserable men therein to shew the glory of his grace and free mercy as it is called Ephes. 1. 6. the riches of his mercy his great love and the supereminent riches or treasures of his grace and bounty Ephes. 4. 7. for unlesse God had helped miserable men that were all drown'd in sin and death he had not accomplished above the half of his goodness and bounty towards mankind For that bounty that was manifested in the creating of us was neither fully
at in Isa 1. 14. Reas. 2. That the prophesies going before of this thing might be fulfilled Reas. 3. That Gods omnipotency in this so divine a mystery and principal a work of God might be evidently shewn Now it was not difficult to the power of God that a son should be born of a virgin For seeing all second causes act by their vertue which they received from God it is not to be doubted but that God can produce all these effects without this oâ—… that cause co-operating which otherwayes use to exist by them Yet not onely the power of God appeared in that work but also his wisdome to which it was most agreeable that so singular a substance of humane nature should in as singular a manner be brought to pass that differed from all others For in three manners all men were made before 1. Without the concurrence of either man or woman as in the creation of Adom 2. Without the concurrence of woman as in the production of Eve 3. By the concurrence of man and woman as in all ordinary generation afterwards And this onely is the proper and peculiar one of Christ by and of a woman without concurrence of a man Reas. 4. That it might easily appear how the contagion of sin might be removed from the humane nature of Christ. Use Is of Confirmation for strengthening of our Faith about the person of Christ to wit that he was both the Messias of old promised and the promised seed of the woman in that peculiar manner as that promise seems to have intended to wit the son of man that is of a woman descending of Adam and other men in ordinary way but made mother of a son not vulgarly or after the common manner but miraculously and without the company of a man begotten and born so that from his first conception all things were in him supernatural about which our mindes being busied ought alwayes to be lifted up to supernatural contemplations laying aside carnal and worldly thoughts Doct. 4. The Holy Ghost was the principal efficient cause of this generation It is from these words in the Text is of the holy Ghost the particle of denotes not any material cause but the efficient so that of the Holy Ghost signifies as much as if it had been said by the power of the Holy Ghost and his operation Now this is attributed to the Holy Spirit for these reasons Reas. 1. Because it was a miracle and all miracles by appropriation are attributed to the Holy Spirit Reas. 2. Because the principal work here was of Sanctification forasmuch as the lump of the humane nature which was to be assumed by Christ was in a singular manner sanctified and cleansed from all spot of sin and all Sanctification peculiarly attributed to the Holy Spirit Reas 3. Because the Holy Spirit was without measure to rest on to dwell in Christ. It 〈◊〉 but reason therefore that the Holy Spirit should prepare and make such a dwelling for himself as he also prepares his dwelling in the sons of God by adoption Quest. It may be thâ—…n questioned whether Christ may be called the Son of the Holy Ghost Ans It cannot be said 1. Because it would bring some confusion of relations and proprieties personal in God and in the persons 2. Because the Holy Spirit neither produced a new person when he made Christ to be begotten or generated neither produced the nature which he produced after his own nature or of the same essence with his own Use 1. Is of Direction in our Faith and in all our thoughts that we have of Christ that we admit of all that is in him to be spiritual holy and full of mystery nor that we ever doubt of any part of this mystery because all this as it is above common order so is it above the reach of common nature Yet we may always receive and conceive this that none of all these things are above the divine power of the Holy Spirit nor any thing impertinent or unfitting in that thing which is wholly mannaged by the Holy Ghost Use 2. Is of Direction in our practice as to the certainty of our salvation which depends upon this if we be sure that we are conformable to Christ in his nativity life death and resurrection And from thence is the beginning of this conformity to be taken if we be spiritually regenerated by the Holy Spirit as Christ was borne of Mary through the efficiencie and operation of the holy Ghost And this is the self same thing which the Apostle Peter admonisheth us to that we study to make our vocation and election sure The fifteenth Lords day 1 Pet. 3. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sinners the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit AN argument is brought in these words whereby all Christians may be perswaded that undeserved afflictions are patiently to be born The argument is taken from the greater to the less in which also is contained the force and nature of a simily or example and also of some dissimilitude For such Logical assertions are oft joyned together in the same thing as they make to the same purpose The argumeat is this If Christ that was just hath suffered for sinnes and for unjust men then much more ought we to suffer afflictions imposed upon us but the first is true and therefore the latter also Christ considered in himself is the greater and his sufferings are the greater and so the argument is from the greater But considered as our head and Saviour he hath the place and nature of a simily or example to be imitated by us in tolerating afflictions so it is an argument from a like or from an example Lastly considered as just suffering for the sinnes of others that are uniust he is altogether unlike unto us and so also some force and emphaticalness of this argument is from the unlikeness They are ordered in this enunciation in which as the assumption of the Syllogism the cause is contained with the effect to wit Christ with his suffering For though suffering of its own nature be an adjunct of the sufferer yet as it 's voluntarily admitted and undertaken it is an effect Yet these arguments are so ordered that they have mixed with them the affection or property of the argument so called from diversit For Christ and his passions of their own nature are dissentaneous When therefore it is said Christ suffered it is as if he had said Though Christ were the Son of God yet was he not frâ—…e from 〈◊〉 That this may be the better understood it is to be known that suffering in this place and in such others is attributed to Christ by the 〈◊〉 of Synecdoche of the more general for the special and that it signifies the special suffering of a grievous evill Then are these two very dissentaneous between themselves that Christ should
suffering was the perfecting of all his obedience Reas. 2. Because Christ by his suffering made satisfaction to divine justice and repayed God as much of his honour in our name as he had suffered in it by our sins Therefore Gods justice is now appeased the grace of God hath had its free course that it may derive all good upon us Reas. 3. Because that Christ now by virtue of his passion and consummate obedience as it were of his own right that he acquired makes intercession with the Father for us that we may be and live with him Ioh. 17. 24. Use 1. Of Consolation to the faithfull against the guilt of their sin and terrors of their conscience that arise from sin For in Christ and his sufferings we have a remedy against these wounds that are otherwayes deadly Use 2. Of Admonition that we would detest all sinnes as things that brought our Saviour to death and would wave brought a thousand deaths upon us unless he had turned them away from us The sixteenth Lords day Joh. 10. 17 18. Therefore the Father loveth me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again None taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again This commandment received I from my Father CHrist in these words expounds what he had said before of the duty effect and signe of a good Shepherd to wit that he layes down his life for his sheep This he had applied to himself verse 15. where two things were propounded 1. The Object to which this laying down of the life is referred or which be those sheep of Christ 2. The manner of this laying down the life This is explained in the 16 and these two following verses The death of Christ or laying down of his soul or life is explicated from the efficient cause which is Christ himself I lay down my life 2. From the manner of doing of it that Christ is a cause voluntary and doing it from a counsell and deliberation not of coaction None taketh it from me but I lay it down 3. From the adjunct of this efficiency that he did it not of weakness but from power I have authority to lay it down This is shewn from another effect that followes this to wit from his resuming it again or his resurrection I have authority to take it up again as if he would say he that so layes down his life that with power he takes it up again he layes it not down out of coaction with weakness but voluntarily of his own accord he doth it But I so lay downmy life ergo Which is illustrated here from the impulsive cause the Fathers commandment This commandment I received of my Father 4. From the end and effect to wit the Fathers love and delight or complacency in this Therefore my Father loveth me because c. Doct. 1. Christ so far humbled himself for us that he underwent death it self for us I lay down my life c. Now he underwent a double death for us a spiritual and a corporal death The spiritual is about Christ's descent into Hell This consisted in the separation of God's favour from the soul of Christ for a time not really but as to sense and feeling and that influence from which comfort useth to be felt as also in impressions of divine wrath which with horror did strike all the faculties of the soul so that for the time the soul was at so low an ebbe and concussion of all its happiness as any creature could be that was without sin formally inherent in it self The death of the body is that which consists in the separation of the soul from the body the confirmation and continuance was in the burial of Christ. Now such was the separation of the soul from the body in Christs death that the conjunction and union of both of them with the divine person remained the same that it was before as if one drawing a sword held the scabberd in the one hand and the sword in the other there would be there a separation between the scabberd and the sword but of neither of them from the man that so held them So also in this mystery there is a separation of the soul from the body but neither of them was separated from the divine nature nor person but the person still sustained both in the unity of it self as one person with him The reason is because if there had been any such separation from the di vine person then the second person had ceased to be God-man and so could not for that time have been our Priest or Mediator Also a new incarnation or assumption had been made again in the resurrection of Christ. It is most true therefore which is in the mouthes of many Divines and used proverbially almost That what the Son of God assumed he never laid aside again Reas. 1. Because the perfection and consummation of humiliation is in undergoing death Phil. 2 8. And this also was the first reason why he did not onely undergo death but the most vise contemptible and contumelious death that is the death of the Cross as in that place is more especially set down Reas. 2. Because his charge of redeeming us required this to wit that he should pay that price to divine justice which we did ow and so be subject to the same punishment that we were liable to And this was also the reason why he chose the death of the Cross that he might shew that he did not barely sustain death but that cursed death that was due to us and that in our place or for us Gal. 3. 12. Reas. 3. That by the most convenient way he might procure the death of sin in us by assimiliation and making us conform to himself Rom. 6. from verse 1. to the 8. Use 1. Is of Information for directing of our faith â—…o wit that while we seek remission of our sins and reconciliation and salvation in God we so have our faith in Christ that we may be specially united to him in his sufferings blood-shedding and death Rom. 3. 25. Use 2. Is of Consolation to all those as have such true faith because they are out of all hazard of death or condemnation according to that of the Apostle Rom 8. 34. Use 3. Is of Direction 1. In the study of Sanctification that with Christ we may dy to sin 2. In the study of all obedience love and humility according to the example of Christ in whom all the perfections of these vertues we have marvelously shining to us in a most eminent and excellent way Doct. 2. Christ ordained his own death from certain wise deliberation and power to dispose of it as he pleased I have power to lay down my liâ—…e From which words it appears first that the death of Christ was voluntary For though it was violent also as it came from external
politick as is found in worldly Cities or Commonwealths but unto a natural body such as is that of man Now it is called the body of Christ for its most neer union that it hath with Christ as being as it were flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone as it is in the Text. Reas. 2. Because of that dependance it hath from Christ as its head For as all sense and motion of a sensitive creature is derived from the head into every particular member so also all spiritual vertue is derived by influence from Christ into his Church Reas. 3 Because of the union and communion that the faithfull have amongst themselevs in Christ which is the communion of Saints and the joynts whereby these members are coupled together The bonds also of this conjunction are the Spirit Faith and Charity By the spirit they are properly conjoyn'd with God in Christ and also amongst themselves but by Faith they are properly conjoyn'd to God in Christ onely and by Charity most properly they are conjoyn'd amongst themselves Use 1. Of Consolation to all believers because they are made partakers of so great dignity as to be assum'd to the body of Christ on which behalf they may also certainly expect all good things from Christ. Use 2 Is of Admonition that we dishonour not this most holy body of Christ with our life and manners but with all our care and diligence may go about this that our conversation may be such as is worthy of them that have so neer a conjunction with Christ and his most holy servants Doct. 3. The Church in that acception of the word as she is mystically considered is one onely holy and universally Catholike These things are understood of her mysticall estate because in her visible or external estate she is neither one nor Catholike nor altogether holy These things are thus gathered from the Text she is one because she makes but up one body of Christ neither hath he more bodies but one She is holy because she is said to be sanctified and purified by Christ to wit by separation from the world by pardon of her sins in justification by renovation of our inherent righteousness in sanctification of this life and perfecting of it in the life to come She is lastly Universal or Catholike because all the elect or faithfull of all Nations and of all times and places make up but one and the same mysticall body of Christ. Use 1. Is of Resutation against Papists who wrest all that are proposed to be believed and spiritually understood of Christs mystical body unto the Popish state of their Romane visible Church which is neither one because not now the same that she was when the Apostles wrote to her neither holy because by their own confession many Popes that is heads of the Romane Church were most wicked beasts nor is â—…he Catholike or Universall because it implies a contradiction that one particular Church as the Romane properly is should be Universall in any propriety of speech Use 2. Is of Consolation to all believers because in this very thing that they are actuall believers they are members of this Church that is proposed to us to be believed and they are in the same condition as to the main business in which the Patriarches Prophets and Apostles and all the Saints were that ever lived or shall live hereafter in any place or time of the world Doct. 4. Unto thâ—…s Church all those benefits relate and belong that Christ hath procured for men by his death It is gathered from hence because Christ is said to have done all that he did out of love to his Church Reas. 1. Because it was the wise purpose and intention of God gloriously by Christ to communicate his grace unto certain men For else the whole dispensation of Christ's incarnation life and death had been of uncertain success or event Reas. 2. Because Christ not onely promerited this but also brings it to pass and that to perfection by his efficacy or power Use Of Consolation chiefly to all true believers For whatsoever is said of the whole Church in common is extended unto each member of the same because the Church is nothing else but a collection of believers or believers considered as gathered together or conjoyned in one body or multitude The two and twentieth Lords day Phil. 3. 20 21. Verse 20 For our conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for a Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. 21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself A Reason is given in these words why believers should rather follow the true Apostles than false Teachers and it is taken from the comparison of unlike things The unlike qualities are a care for the things of the world in false Teachers and a care for things heavenly in the true Apostles This care of the Apostle is illustrated by a double argument 1. From the adjunct manner which is set out to us by the similitude of Burgesses 2. From the efficient cause of this care which is faith and hope of the glory that is to come This glory again is illustrated 1. From its principal cause which is Christ Jesus 2. From the subject of it which is extended also to the body and not to the soule alone 3. From the quality of the body which is pointed out to us by a similitude with the body of Christ. 4. From the virtue and power of that efficient cause aforesaid for producing such an effect which is no other than omnipotency according to that mighty power whereby c. Doct. 1. The resurrection of mans body is certainly to be This is taught in the Text 1. In that a transmutation of our bodies is determined on 2. In that it is said they shall be made conformable to the body of Christ which by its resurrection was raised unto glory The foundations or grounds of that article are two The power of God and the truth of the Scriptures as Christ himself teacheth in his answer to the Sadduces Ye erre to wit about the resurrection now knowing the Scriptures and the power of God By the power of God the raising of our bodyes again is possible it being as easie to God to do that as at first to make all things out of nothing yea as to make man out of the clay of the earth For it is easy to conceive that the same efficient cause can again joyn the same principles which once before he did conjoyn and moreover made them all out of nothing As for the Scriptures the truth and certainty of this resurrection is expresly declared by its testimony Reas. 1. Because man was created for eternity and therefore must be set free from death which assaults the whole race of man kind against its nature that so it may again attain to eternity Reas. 2. Because
decayed things in which respect many things of greater excellency than others are called new in comparison to the other And this new man is said both to be repaired and to be put on because as these inward dispositions in the spirit of our minde are acquired they are the renewing of the man and the innerman verse 23. and the same is said to be put on as a garment as both outwardly and inwardly it hath full hold of us and wrappes us wholly up in it self so that it containes not oney imputed righteousnesse but together also that of inherence which consists in the actions of a new obedience Reas. 1. This new man must be put on because it is according to God or the image of God as it is in the Text. For it is our duty in our whole life to live unto God and to aspire to be like to the image of God according to which we were created and whereunto we are now again called Reas. 2. Because in this new man or in this image of God our spiritual perfection consisteth and so are almost the chief parts of our glorification Reas. 3. Because as by this image we please God who delighteth in his owne image so by the same alone we are made fit and apt to glorifie God as we ought Reas. 4. Because we cannot be freed from the corruption and perversenesse of the old man but by vertue of this new man as darkness is not removed out of this or that place but by letting in of light Use That with all care and by all means sanctified of God for this end we may more and more labour to put on this new man Now he is put on 1. By virue of that effectual desire purpose we have to please God in our first repentance 2. By vertue of Christ's resurection applied to us by faith 3. By vertue of the Holy Spirit given us in the word of Christ and in his Sacraments Doct. 5. The old man brings us errours and coruptions and the new man brings forth righteousnesse and true holinesse verses 22 23. The old man corrupts 1. The understanding with all secret errours 2. The other faculties by all sorts of lusts and concupiscences 3. The life and conversation by all sort of misleadings from the right way In all these there is corruption properly so called because there is want of such a life and perfection as should not be wanting and a perturbation of that order that belongs to the state of perfection Now that the new man produceth the workes of righteousnesse and holinesse appears by these reasons Reas. 1. Because he observes the rule of righteousnesse which is the Law of God Reas. 2. Because he belongs to our spiritual perfection wherein we resemble the divine nature according to our proportion which is our holinesse Reas. 3. Because he brings alwayes forth kindly fruits or like unto himself seeking both his owne conservation and improvement from the common conspiration of all our inclinations Use Of Exhortation that with the same care and zeal we may labour for the mortification of the old man and vivification of the new wherewith we desire to shun corruption and death and to attaine unto an holy and blessed perfection The thirty fourth Lords day Exod. 20. 1 2 3. Ver. 1 And God spake all these words saying 2 I am the LORD thy God which brought thee out out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me IN these words are contained the preface of the Moral Law and the first precept thereof In the preface is contained the definition division and confirmation of the Law The difinition is pointed at by circumstances which are as it were the specificative or differencing notions of it whereby this Law is distinguished from all others Whereof the 1. is that God himself spoke it or immediately by himself pronounced the words of this Law 2. That then he spoke it that is after such a singular preparation of the people as never was used in the giving of any other Law The division of it is contained in these words that God is said to have spoken all the words of it that is of both the Tables or all the tâ—…n words where respect to the whole and to its parts is plainly pointed at The confirmation or perswasion used to confirm it is verse 2. where a most strong argument is brought to induce to obedience suitable to this Law and it is twofold 1. In general from the Covenant I am thy God 2. From a special benefit bestowed upon them by vertue of that Covenant The first precept it self is verse 3. whereby is injoyned us that we have Iehovah for our God or Iehovah alone So that in it two points are together injoyned us 1. That we acknowledge Jehovah to be the true God and none else 2. That with all religious honour and worship we worship him and that with all our heart c. For that is to have Jehovah for our God and not to be understood speculatively onely but practically effectively and really Doct 1. This Law of God contained in the decalogue or ten words that is brief sentences is the most perfect rule for directing of the life of man This is gathered from the definition which we said before was pointed out in two circumstances because it hath not onely God for its author but is also given with singular majesty in the perfectest manner as after extraordinary preparation That we may understand all perfection that can be desired in any Law is to be found in this Reas. 1. Because it prescribes all the duties of man whether they look at God himself directly as in the first Table or our neighbour as in the second Reas. 2. Because in all those duties it not onely requires the workes themselves but also the most perfect way of working them to wit that they come from the whole heart and from the bottome of the heart that is from the intire strength of the whole man and with perfect purity and sincerity and that they be directed to the glory of God Reas. 3. Because it containes in it self a delineation or draught of that perfection whereunto man in his first or innocent nature was created according to the image of God And therefore also it is called the Law of Nature because that rule of life which was written in the heart of man according to its primitive and pure nature is in this Law explained Reas. 4 Because it belongs not onely to one Nation as the Judicial Law did nor unto some certain time onely as the Ceremonial Law did but it is the Common-Law of all Nations Times and Persons Use 1. Of Information that we esteem this Law of God as we ought that is that we think no otherwayes of it than as of the will of God omnipotent and as of that will of his which most intimately belongs to us as the onely
rule of our life and as of such a rule as hath no defect but is both perfect in it self and requires all perfection in us Use 2. Of Admoniâ—…ion that with all reverence we give heed unto this Law and beware of all neglect and contempt of it as we would shun death Doct. 2. The Moral Law is divided into diverse words or precepts It is gathered from this in that God is said to have spoken all these words They are called words because they are short and as it were spoken summarily or in one word The chief division of them is into two Tables the next into ten Precepts or Commands Reas. 1. That we might the more easily understand the will of God by parts delivered which wholly together and at once declared as it were in heaps we could not so well understand For the parts in a distribution or division make much for the declaration and illustration of any whole Reas. 2. That by this meanes our memory may be helped because naturally our memory is strengthened from the order of the parts amongst themselves Reas. 3. That in every part and act of our conversation we may have light of singular direction from some part of this Law Use Of Admonition that we neglect nor contemne no word of this Law because they are all parts of one and the same Law and have the same sanction of authority so that who so stumbles against any one is guilty of them all Iam. 2. 10. Doct. 3. Whatsoever is commanded in any part of the Law we are bound for may causes to perform the same to God This is gathered from that confirmation of the Law I am Iehovah c. Reas. 1. Because God commands us nothing he may not with very good right require from us as well by reason of his absolute power and dominion as of our dependance on him by which we require to be supplied and upheld by him in all things Reas. 2. Because he requires nothing from us the observance whereof he did not deserve at 〈◊〉 hands before as well by spiritual benefits and blessings as temporal and bodily in regard whereof out of thankfulness we owe him all obedience as is plain in the Text I brought thee out of the Land c. Reas. 3. Because God is ready to reward our obedience most abundantly in every point Use Of Direction that by often meditation of the manifold obligations whereby we are bound to performe our obedience to God we may more and more stir up our mindes to a care of observing him in all things Doct. 4. Every command of the Law requires the whole obedience of the whole man That is as well inward as outward of the heart as of the mouth and hand or worke Thou shalt have no other c. Make not unto â—…hy self c. Are formes of speaking whereby formally such an universal obedience is required Reas. 1. Because God the giver of this Law ought to be glorified with obedience of the whole man as well of soule as of body and of both these parts of man Reas. 2. Because this is the excellent perfection of the Law of God whereby it goes beyond all humane Lawes in that it subjects unto it self the heart and the reines and the most inward retirement of of men as God himself alone who is the author of this Law knowes what is in man Reas. 3. Because this Law is the rule of spiritual life and so ought to peirce even to our spirits themselves Use 1. Of Information that for the right understanding of this Law we look not onely to such things or think that they onely are contained under the Law as in express words are there contained but all such things also as belongs to such an head of obedience whether they be outward or inward For in every command as is certain by the summe of entire and whole obedience the words are to be taken not according to the bare letter but in a modification of diverse tropes or borrowed sorts of speaking as agree to the perfection of such a Law of nature The trope of Synecdoche that puts the special for the general to be understood by it is here frequent as when abstinence from some one vice by name is put for the whole obedience whereby we not onely abstain from all faults of that kind but also are bound to the performance of the contrary affirmative good and when some action is put for all of its kind and of affinity of nature with it The trope also of Meâ—…onymie is every where in these commands whereby all the adjuncts are understood under the name of their objects the effects in their causes and contrarily with which is complicated the trope of Metaphor some way so as all the decalogue is Metaleptick or to be understood by Transsumption And these rules must of necessity be understood in the explication of every precept as our Saviour's exposition of them and other Scriptures make clear Use 2. Of Admonition that we rest not nor please our selves in obedience of any sort done to the Law but that we may aspire to the entire and perfect observance of it and ever acknowledge just matter of our humbling in this that we are so farre from that perfection that it requires Doct. 5. The first and greatest command is that which containes our duty to God Hence is it that it is both put in the first place and hath also the expresse testimony of Christ Mat. 22. 28. Reas. 1. Because God himself being the object of this duty from him a sort of noblenesse and dignity is derived unto the duty it self Reas. 2. Because more and greater things are contained in our duty to God than either can or may be used in duties to man as is clear by that form With â—…he whole minde and the whole heart c. Reas. 3. Because this duty is the foundation and principle of all others in as much as in God and for God onely we ought to perform all other duties and so the duties of the second Table are thus virtually contained in the first Commandment Use Is of Direction that our first and chief care may be taken up in those duties that belong to God Doct. 6. The principall duty to God is that we have him onely for our God And to have God for our God is in general to give God that honour which is due unto his excellent Majesty And to this are required 1. That we seek the true knowledge of him with all care as he hath revealed himself in his word because we cannot honour him rightly whose nature and will we are ignorant of Iohn 4. 12. Rom. 10 14. 2. That from a most humble reverence we subject our selves unto him because the honour that we give to God as to our God is the honour of a Creature towards its Creator of a Son towards his Father of a Servant towards his Master and that such a Master as hath power