men of most fame and reputation not for command and wealth alone but also for learning and piety These did seek to discredit him out of their repining envy these vilified his Person depraved his best actions and did cast the worst imputation they could upon him They vilified our Saviours person by the basenesse of his parents his kindred and profession Is not this Iosephs son is not Mary his mother and his brethren Iames and Ioses Simon and Iude Is not he the Carpenter They gave it forth that he was a drunkard a glutton a rioter a companion with the basest fellows even Publicans and sinners they depraved his actions 1. His Doctrine as heretical crossing Moses his Law and treasonous that he forbad to pay tribute unto Caesar. 2. His miracles as magical they reported that he did all those miracles for which the people did so much honour him not by the power and singer of God but by the black Art of hellish conjuration even by the aid and working of Beelzebub the chief of Devils These said he was a wicked and prophane fellow a man that did not regard the Sabbath of the Lord. These were bold to lay to his charge that horrible and sacrilegious crime of blasphemy saying Why doth this man blaspheme and for thy blasphemy we seek to stone thee Lo to be traduced of men famous for knowledge and religion and for honour and wealth as a boon companion as a wine bibber a fellow for harlots a prophane polluter of the Sabbath an horrible blasphemer of God this was the bitter cup which our Lord Jesus was fain to drink Could he suffer greater and more intollerable ignominy Nay at one time they were so audacious as to tell him to his face Thou art mad and hast a Devil Now consider thirdly his Labour his travel on foot many a weary step and long journey from Galilee to Ierusalem from Ierusalem to Galilee and from quarter to quarter and Countrey to Countrey sometimes on foot with sweat and toil till he was even weary and tired again glad to sit down and rest him as once at the Well of Iacob sometimes by Sea in a Ship when the furious windes conspired against him and raised such a storm as if the ship must have been swallowed up in the vast belly of the waves and as if the Devil would have watched his opportunity to have drowned him sleeping for as for riding upon a beast he never took that ease unto himself except alone one time and that the last of all that he went to Ierusalem and then poorly mounted upon the bare back of a silly fole of an Ass that was never accustomed to the saddle before with a jerkin or a coat or two cast on him in stead of better furniture A toilsom life indeed to do nothing else but go afoot from City to City and sometimes also to be ready to be prest to death with the throng of a rude and unmannerly multitude You have his Labours now consider Fourthly His Dangers He lived in quietnesse and safety enough during his Carpenters imployment but when he came to be a Minister he was still persecuted At Nazareth his own City where he was not born but bred up the first Sermon as I think that ever he preached there because he was somewhat plain in telling them of their faults they laid violent hands upon him and would have broke his neck down a steep hill on which the Town was built After as he grew more famous for wonders so he was more hated and maligned by the Rulers many times they conspired to take and intrap him sent Officers to apprehend him took up stones to dash out his brains and commanded that whosoever knew where he was should make it known that they might apprehend him and that he which would confesse him to be the Christ should be excommunicated insomuch that he was called A stone of offence and a sign to be spoken against and he saith The world hateth me yea they have hated me without a cause Insomuch that he could not walk openly amongst them but was fain to hide himself after a sort and to flie for his life for they were scarce ever without some or other device to take him and put him to death You have heard of his Perils let us speak Fifthly of his Sorrows He was a man of Sorrows full of grief and tears for he was not a stone or a piece of iron that all these things did not touch him but he was sensible of these evils and felt the heat of his Fathers displeasure against him for our sins for which he had undertaken to answer in all these things and especially the memorial of his last passion did wonderfully grieve and trouble him Luk. 12. 50. How am I straitned or pained till it be accomplished not with such a grief as made him unwilling to come to it but with such as made him desire that it were once over He often set his thoughts a work upon his last sufferings he foretold his Disciples of it some four or five times no question but he considered of it himself many hundred times and not one of them without a vehement working of sorrow as if one of us should know that some two or three year hence he must be put to the rack or burned at a stake he could not but bestow full many a heavy thought upon that hour so did our Lord without all controversie with many frequent requests and humble tearfull mournfull prayers supplicating to God for aid and help against that hour according as the many complaints and praiers made by David his Type in the Psalms do manifestly evince Now come we to the last scene of this Tragedy his end The conclusion of his life just like a Tragedy was most distressed and lamentable of all the other parts whether you consider the things he suffered from God immediatly or the things he endured before in and after his death The first and great work of his Passion was the agony and bloudy sweat grief astonishment and extream heavinesse which he sustained in the garden He began to be heavy and greatly grieved saith one Evangelist and To be astonished saith another and He was in an agony saith the third in so much that great drops of bloud trickled from him to the ground The two tormentingst passions that man doth wrestle withall in this life more insufferable then any rack or disease of the body are sorrow and fear which if they be in the greatest extremity that can be are the greatest miseries that can be Now so they were in him for the word saith he complained thus My soul is sorrowfull round about even to death so much as was enough to have killed him not with the suddennesse of it for that kils easily and quickly but with the extream inwardnesse and weight of it and his fear is called astonishment and amazement There is 1. An amazement
then shine as the Sun and be like the glorious body of Christ. The soul shall be totally freed from all spiritual evils all reliques of sin and all possibility of sin the corruption of the understanding will affections conscience shall be quite taken away 2. From all apprehensions of wrath and eternal death 2. It shall perfectly enjoy all spiritual good 1. The Image of God shall be absolutely perfect in every one of the glorified Saints every faculty of the Soul shall have all grace that faculty is capable of and that in the highest degree The minde shall have all intellectual vertues the will and affections all moral vertues and that in the highest degree they are capable of 1 Cor. 13. 10. The understanding uno intuitu shall know omne sâ—ibile the will shall be fully satisfied with God the conscience filled with peace the affections of love and joy shal have their full content the memory shall represent to you perpetually all the good that ever God did for you God is most Blessed 1 Cor. 11. 31. Rom. 9. 4. 1 Tim. 1. 11. 6. 15. 2 Cor. 11. 31. yea blessednesse it self he is blessed in himself and to be blessed by us Gods blessednesse is that by which God is in himself and of himself All-sufficient Or thus Gods happinesse is that Attribute whereby God hath all fulnesse of delight and contentment in himself and needeth nothing out of himself to make him happy The Hebrews call blessed Ashrei in the abstract and in the plural number Blessednesses Psal. 1. 1. 32. 1. Because no man saith Zanchy can be called and be blessed for one or another good unlesse he abound with all goods Blessednesse is a state of life wherein there is a heap of all good things The Greeks called blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that is not subject to death miseries By the Etymologies and significations of these two words it appears saith Zanchy that there are two parts of blessednesse one to be free from all miseries another to abound with all goods and so to abound with them that thou desirest nothing more A third particle saith he is to be added per se sua natura and a fourth condition that he well know his own blessednesse So that he is truly blessed saith Zanchy which of himself and from his own nature is alwayes free from all evils and abounds with all goods perfectly knowing his own felicity and desiring nothing out of himself but being fully content with himself which description agreeth only to God God is blessed essentially primarily originally of himself such and not by the help of any other thing Reasons 1. He that is the fountain of all blessednesse to others how can he be but infinitely blessed himself He makes all those things happy to whom he vouchsafeth in any sort to communicate himself Wherefore as that which maketh hot and light that is more hot and light then that which is made so so must he exceed all other things in blessednesse which makes all those persons blessed which have any part of blisse 2. Either he hath blessednesse or there should be none for if it be not found in the first and best essence and cause of all other essences it cannot be found in any other thing All men and things affect it therefore such a natural and universal inclination cannot be wholly in vain as it should be if there were no blessednesse to satisfie it The happinesse of every thing stands in the perfect enjoying of it self when it hath all which it inclineth to have and inclineth to have all and only that which it hath then it is fully satisfied and contented and full contentment is felicity Goodnesse filleth the reasonable appetite of mans soul therefore must he needs be happy whose will is filled with good for then he enjoyes himself then is his being truly comfortable to him and such as he cannot be weary of Nothing is happy in enjoying it self and of it self but God alone all other things do enjoy themselves by help and benefit of some other thing besides themselvs And if they enjoy themselves by help favour and communication of a perfect lasting constant eternal and full goodnesse then have they a real solid and substantial happinesse but if by a vain short momentany partial defective goodnesse then have they but a shew and resemblance of happinesse a poor weak feeble imperfect nominal happinesse The happinesse of a man consists in enjoying himself by vertue of the possession of the greatest good whereof he is capable or which is all one by enjoying the greatest good for enjoying it he enjoys himself in and by it and enjoying himself by it he doth enjoy it these are inseparably conjoyned So when a man is possessed of such a thing as doth remove from him all that may be discontentful and hurtful to him and can fill him full of content then is he happy and that is when he hath possession of God as fully as his nature is capable of possessing him Accordingly we must conceive Gods happinesse to be in the enjoyment of himself he doth perfectly enjoy his being his life his faculties his Attributes his vertues I say himself in himself and of himself doth perfectly enjoy himself and this is his perfect happinesse He liveth a most perfect life abounds with all perfect vertues sets them a work himself in all fulnesse of perfection and in all this enjoys himself with unconceivable satisfaction Blessednesse or felicity is the perfect action or exercise of perfect vertue in a perfect life The Lord hath a most perfect life and perfect faculties and also most perfect vertues and doth constantly exercise those perfect vertues and faculties He is blessed because he is strong and enjoyes his strength wise and enjoyes his wisdom just and enjoys his justice eternal and enjoys his eternity Infinite Perfect and that without any dependence reference or beholdingnesse to any other God is Happy First Formally in himself which implies 1. That there is no evil of sinne or misery in him neither is he lesse happy because men offend him 2. That he abounds with all positive good he hath infinitely himself and after a transcendent manner the good of all creatures this is implied in that name when he is called a God All-sufficient he made not the Angels or the world because he needed them 3. That he is immutably happy because he is essentially so Happiness is a stable or setled condition therefore Saints and Angels also are happy but dependently they have it from God Gods happinesse is more then the happinesse of any creature The creatures are happy by the aggregation of many good things together they are happy in their knowledge in their love joy and these are divers things but now God is happy by one act which is the same with his Essence A man here on earth is happy but it is not in Act alwaies it
in nummo aliter in Filio Augustine The Image of God in which man was created is the conformity of man unto God 1. In his soul. 2. In his body for his soul. 3. In the whole person for the union of both The soul of a man is conformable to God in respect of its Nature Faculties and Habits First In respect of its Nature Essence or Being as it is a spiritual and immortal Substance The Scripture witnesseth 1. That the soul of a man is a spirit Mat. 27. 20. Acts 7. 59. as appears by comparing the 1 Pet. 4. 19. with Heb. 12. 9. in Peter God is called The Creator of souls in the Hebrews The Father of spirits in the same sense 2. That it is immortal 2 Cor. 5. 8. Phil. 1. 21 22. 2 Pet. 1. 14. The Sadduces indeed denied the immortality of the soul this opinion of theirs began on this occasion Antigonus Sochaeus the Disciple of Simeon the just said We must not serve God for hope of reward or wages Hence his Disciples Sadok and Baithos took occasion to teach that there is no reward or punishment after this life whereas Antigonus meant that there ought to be in us so great love of the Divine Majesty and of vertue it self that we should be willing to serve God and ready to suffer any thing without looking for any reward or wages Reasons of its immortality 1. Because it cannot be destroyed by any second cause Mat. 10. 28. 2. Being severed from the body it subsists by it self and goes to God Eccl. 12. 7. Luk. 16. 22. 3. Because it is a simple and immaterial substance not depending on matter the minde works the better the more it is abstracted from the body when it is asleep or dying 4. Because it transcends all terrene and mortal things and with a wonderful quicknesse searcheth after heavenly divine and eternal things There is an invincible argument for the thing secretly imprinted in the instinct and conscience of the soul it self Because it is every good mans hope that it shall be so and wicked mans fear 5. The food of the soul is immortal 1 Pet. 1. 23. the evident promises of eternal life prove the soul to be immortal He that beleeveth in me hath eternal life and To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Nothing can satisfie the soul but God 6. Man is capable of vertue and vice of immortal desires and affections 7. The souls of Adam and Eve were not made of any matter but came by immediate Creation in whom God gave a specimen what he would perpetually do with other men That is but a cavil that Solomon Eccl. 12. 7. speaks only of our first Parents See Dr Rainolds of the Passions c. 34. Children are called the fruit of their Parents body to note that they are only fathers of their flesh they have another namely God which is Father of their spirits S. Paul teacheth it Heb. 12. 9. and the use of it And this checks their opinion who will have souls propagated no lesse then bodies Many collect the immortality of the soul and salvation of Iobs children because they were not doubled as the rest of his estate was The soul of man is as it were the breath of God God did not say of mans soul as of other creatures Let it be made Let there be a soul in mans body No but when he had formed the body he breathed the soul into him It was to note that the soul of man had a more heavenly and divine original then any of the other creatures that are here in this world Vide Bellarm. de Amis gratiae lib. 4. cap. 11. See Sir Walter Rawleighs Ghost lib. 2. per totum And Master Rosse his Philos. Touchstone Conclusion 2. The soul of man is conformable to God in respect of its faculties in its Understanding Will and Memory is like the Trinity 3. In the Qualities Graces and admirable endowments of it In the Understanding there was First An exact knowledge of God and all Divine things Col. 3. 10. Knowledge is a principal part of Gods Image by reason he was inabled to conceive of things spiritual and universal Secondly A perfect Knowledge of all inferiour things Adam knew Eve and imposed names on the creatures sutable to their natures He had most exquisite prudence in the practical part of his understanding in all doubtful cases He knew what was to be done 2. In the Will there was holinesse Ephes. 4. 24. God had the highest place in his soul his glory was his end His liberty then stood not in this that he could stand or fall a possibility to sin is no perfection Thirdly The image of God in our affections stood in four things 1. All the affections were carried to their proper objects Adam loved feared and desired nothing but what God had commanded him to love fear and desire 2. They were guided by a right rule and carried in a due proportion to their objects Adam loved not his wife more then God 3. They were voluntary affections he loved a thing because his will made choise of it 4. They were whetstones of the soul in acting From this Image did necessarily follow peace with God fellowship and union He knew God to be his Creator and to love him in all good things he enjoyed God and tasted his sweetnesse Mans body also after a sort is an Image of Divine Perfection Observe first The Majestical form of it of which the Heathens took notice by the structure of the body a man should be taught to contemn the earth which his feet tread upon and to set his heart upon Heaven whether his eyes naturally tend It was convenient for man to have an erect stature 1. Because the senses were given to man not only to procure the necessaries of life as they were to other living creatures but also to know 2. That the inward faculties may more freely exercise their operations whiles the brain is elevated above all the parts of the body Aquinas part 1. Quaest. 91. Artic. 3. he gives two more reasons there of it Secondly Gods artifice in it Psal. 139. 15. Thou hast curiously wrought me and I was wonderfully made Vide Lactantium de opificio Dei Materiam superabat opus of the basest matter dust God made the noblest creature Thirdly The serviceablenesse of every part for its end and use Fourthly There is matter of humiliation because it was made of the dust Gen. 3. 19. Iob 14. 18 19. 5. 15. The Greek name makes man proud cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bids him aspire look up but the Hebrew and Latine humble him bids him stoop look down Adams body was mortal conditionally if he had not eaten of the Tree there could be no outward cause of his death for Gods protection kept that off nor no inward cause because original righteousnesse was in his soul and for old age
Gen. 7. 19. Paradise signifieth a Garden the word being translated out of Greek into Latine and so into French and English In Hebrew it is called Heden which signifieth Delights a Garden of all manner of Delights a place beset with all kinde of fruitful and beautiful Trees Paradise was a little model of Heaven and a sign of the great Heaven assuring Adam that if he continued in obedience to God he should be translated into Heaven to enjoy God supernaturally as there he did enjoy him naturally for the Law saying Do this and live means it of everlasting life So Mr Wheatley held but M Ball seems to differ from him in his Book of the Covenant Man was to die if he disobeyed Gen. 2. 17. which implies strongly that Gods Covenant was with him for life if he obeyed In several other Scriptures the promise is annexed This do and live Negatio fundatur in affirmatione the life promised must be answerable to the death threatned that was not only a miserable condition but a separation from God for ever in hell therefore the life promised was not only a happy condition but a translating of Adam to Heaven and his injoying of God for ever there How long Adam should have lived before he had been translated is not determined There is an innate desire in the soul after the full enjoyment of God here this instinct was not put in men in vain Rom. 3. 23. And come short of the glory of God The word signifies to fall short of the race that price and crown he ran for the full and perfect enjoyment of God See Heb. 4. and what man fell short of by sinne if he had not sinned he should have obtained This is the received opinion of Divines That if Adam had not sinned then as soon as the number of Saints had been accomplished men should have been translated from the earth to heaven from their natural life to spiritual life as we reade of Enoch and Elias Heb. 11. 6. 2 King 2. 11. Dr Hampton on Gen. 1. 26. Though Menasseh Ben Israel de fragil hum Sect. 12. saith That common opinion that Enoch was translated with his body and soul to heaven doth not take place with them and saith that R. Solomon Abrabanel Aben Ezra interpret Gen. 5. 24. of a short death See more there There were two special Trees in it one called the Tree of life the other of the knowledge of good and evil Some say it was called the Tree of Life from the effect because of the hidden power and force it had of sustaining and prolonging mans life Although it be a Dispute Whether it had this force as meat to prolong life or as a medicine to prevent death old-age and diseases as likewise whether this power in the Tree were natural or supernatural Vide Menass Ben Israel de fragil hum Sect. 4. Therefore others say it was called so not from the effect but signification because it was an outward sign that God would give them immortality if they did continue It is questioned Whether the Tree of Life was a Sacrament Paraeus answers That it was a Sacrament three wayes First As an admonition to them that the life which they had they had it from God for as often as they tasted of it they were to remember that God was the author of life Secondly As it was a symbol of a better life in heaven if he did continue in obedience Thirdly Sacramentally of Christ as in whom Adam and Angels did obtain life Revel 2. 7. He is called The Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise but that is only allegorical and allusive so that what the Tree of Life was to Adam in innocency the same is Christ to us in our corrupt estate 2. The Tree of Good and Evil. It was not so called from any internal form as if it self were knowing good and evil nor from the effect as if by eating thereof it would have procured wisdom in man and made him wiser nor yet was it called so from the lying promise of the Devil concerning omniscience for God called it so before they met together therefore it was named so from the Event for God by this name fore-told what would follow if man did not abstain from it that he should experimentally know what was good and what was evil he should practically feel what he had lost and what evil he had plunged himself into Some have thought that those words Gen. 3. 24. should not be understood historically but allegorically that is that God gave him no hopes of coming into this place again but the Text contradicts that some have understood by Cherubims some species and images of terrible creatures as we call Scare-crows but that is simple to think that Adam was so childish to be afraid of those others interpret it of the fire of Purgatory The more probable Interpretation is that by Cherubims are meant Angels who did after a visible manner shake up and down this fiery sword Moses doth therefore call them Cherubims because the Jews knew what he meant having such forms over the Ark. Therefore it is taken for Angels not simply but as they appeared in some shape It is a curiosity to enquire how long they staid there although it is certain they ceased when Paradise was destroyed which was by the Floud Therefore this serves 1. For Information to instruct us 1. That every man and woman hath a soul there is a body and a spirit which enlivens and acts the body for all performances of the Compositum we must glorifie God in both 1 Cor. 6. 20. 2. It is immortal by Gods appointing but in it self endable because it hath a beginning that it may be capable of everlasting weal or woe 3. It is so immortal that it admits of no cessation or intermission the Anabaptists say It is asleep when it parts from the body till the day of Resurrection as soon as it leaves the body it goes either to Abrahams bosome or a place of torment This opinion of the souls sleeping is repugnant to the holy Scriptures Luk. 16. 23. Phil. 1. 23 and an heresie long since condemned in the Church The soul lives after death and in a state of separation Psal. 90. 10. and we flee away that is the soul as a bird out of the shell Eccles. 12. 3. Revel 6. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 1 8 9. See Ioh. 17. 22 24. 1 Cor. 13. 12. and B. Halls Invis world l. 2. Sect. 3. 4. At the last day it shall be united with the body and the body raised up for it and both be happy or miserable for ever 2. Be thankful to God that hath given us our souls and redeemed them by the bloud of his Son Propter hanc Deus fecit mundum propter hanc Filius Dei venit in mundum Chrysost. Blesse him especially for soul-mercies Eph. 1. 3. Ioh. 3. 2 4. and let the soul praise him Psal.
All evils of misery are but the issue of sin first sin entred into the world and by sin death 1. Temporal evils All publick commotions wars famine pestilence are the bitter fruits of sin Deut. 28. there is Gods curse on the creature mans body all his relations 2. Spiritual Terrours of conscience horrours of death 1 Cor. 15. 56. are the effects of sin What an evil is a condemning heart an accusing conscience yet this is the fruit of sin A wounded spirit who can bear Some will bear outward evils stoutly nay suffer death it self boldly but sin will not so easily be born when the conscience it self is smitten See this in Cain and Iudas many a one maketh away himself to be rid of this vexation This sils one with shame Iohn 8. 9. fear Gen. 3. 11. and grief Acts 2. 37. The greatest torment that in this life can be fall a sinner is desperation when the soul of a man convinced in her self by the number of her hainous offences loseth all hope of life to come and casteth her eyes wholly on the fearful torments of hell prepared for her the continual thought and fright whereof do so amaze and afflict the comfortlesse soul that she shrinketh under the burden and feeleth in her self the horrour of hell before she come to it 3. Eternal The everlasting absence of all good 2 Thes. 1. 19. and the presence of all evil Mark 9. 49. are the consequents of it Iustum est quòd qui in suo aeterno peccavit contra Deum in aeterno Dei puniatur Sin is finite in the act and subject but of infinite demerit being committed 1. Against an infinite Good therefore it deserves infinite punishment 2. The obligation of the Law is everlasting This was the first Doctrine which was published to man that eternal death is the punishment of sinne Gen. 2. 17. the Devil opposed it Gen. 3. 4. the belief of the threatning would have hindered them from sinne The Socinians say that man should have died in the state of innocency although he had not sinned and therefore that death is not a punishment of sinne but a condition and consequent of nature The holy Ghost assigns death to sinne as the cause See of it Rom. 5. 12. 6. 23. Our bodies were not mortal till our souls were sinful Arminians say That there is neither election nor reprobation of Infants and that â—o Infants can be condemned for original sin Iacob was in a state of election in his mothers womb Rom. 9. 11. All men in the counsel of God are either elect or reprobate But Infants are men or part of mankinde Therefore they are either elect or reprobate 1. Infants are saved therefore there is some election of Infants for salvation is a fruit of election and proper to the elect Rom. 11. 7. There is a manifest difference among Infants between those that are born in and out of the Church Gen. 17. 17. Acts 2. 37. 3 21. Children of unbelievers are unclean 1 Cor. 7. 14. and aliens from Christ and the Covenant of promise Ephes. 2. 11 12. 2. That opinion That no Infants are condemned for original sinne seems to be contrary to that place Ephes. 2. 3. If this were true the condition of a Turks childe dying in his infancy is farre better then the condition of Abraham Isaac or Iacob living for they might fall from grace say they and be damned but a Turks childe dying according to their opinion shall certainly be saved The worst punishment of sinne is to punish it with sin and so God punisheth it sometimes in his own people Isa. 63. 17. Mar. 6. 52. a judicial blindnesse and hardnesse is the worst See Ezek. 24 13. Rom. 1. 26 28. Revel 22. 11. Concerning National sins Sins though committed by particular persons may be National First When they are interwoven into the policy of a State Psa. 94. 20. when sin is established by a Law Rev. 16. 8. 17. 17. 6. 12. Ier. 15. 9. Secondly When they are universal and overspread the whole Kingdom Ier. 9. 2 3. Isa. 56. 11. Thirdly When the people that professe the name of God are infected with those sins Gen. 6. 2 3 4. Fourthly When few or none in the Nation bewail them Ier. 5. 31. Fifthly When they are openly countenanced and tolerated 1 Kings 14. 24. when there are no masters of restraint Iudg. 18. 7. Sixthly When they are the predominant humour of the Nation at that time The sins of Gods people which commonly provoke him to break a Nation 1. Their omissions that they stand not in the gap Ezek. 22. 30 31. improve not their interest in him 2. When their hearts are inordinately set upon the things of this world 2 Chro. 36. 12. Mat. 24. 39. 3. When there is a great unfruitfulness and lukewarmness in the things of God Hos. 10. 1. 4. When divisions are still fomented amongst those that fear God Isa. 9. 21. Desolations in a State follow divisions in the Church The sins which may provoke God against a Nation 1. Idolatry Ier. 5. 19. when the true God is worshipped in a way that he hath not appointed 2. Intestine divisions Isa. 9 ult compared with 10. 6. 3. Incorrigiblenesse under lesser judgements Isa. 9. 11. 4 Wearying of God Isa. 7. 13 18. 5. Unworthy and wicked compliances Hos. 5. 13. CHAP. XI Signes of a Christian in regard of sinne and that great corruptions may be found in true Christians OF the first Signs of a Christian in regard of sin First He is convinced of sin Iohn 16. 9. the Greek word signifies to evidence by demonstration the Spirit so demonstrates it that a man hath nothing to object Psal. 51. 13. Secondly He is free from its dominion as Paul saith Sinne shall have no dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace and after Being freed from sinne Whosoever is born of God sinneth not John They do no iniquity David They serve not sin in the lusts thereof He hath not an habitual resolution to continue in sinne Thirdly He is troubled and wearied with the reliques of it and driven to Christ for pardon and help He is weary of sin and every sin so farre as he knoweth specially his own sin and that iniquity which cleaveth closest to him His flesh is inclined to it but his Spirit is a verse from it and even tired and burdened with it so that he often sighes out in himself the complaint of St Paul O miserable man that I am Still as he prevails more against sin the remainders of it do more afflict him sinne in it self considered is his greatest unhappinesse that he hath so vile a nature is prone to so vile deeds and doth in many things so foolishly offend this troubleth and disquieteth him even then when he hath no other crosse to trouble him and many times imbitters all his prosperity Fourthly He is grieved
that is not altogether blind that David and Peter speak of that which happened to Christ after his death Secondly Others say that Christ after his Passion upon the Crosse did really and locally descend into the place of the damned Many of the Ancient Fathers the Papists some Lutherans and Protestants follow this Exposition One Reverend Divine now with God held that Christ descended locally into hell to suffer in his soul the miseries of the damned and urged for his opinion Ephes. 4. 9. where the Apostle saith he makes Christs descending into the lowest parts of the earth in such a kinde of suffering in the locall hell opposite to his ascending farre above all heaven as the highest degree of advancement and lowest degree of abasement that could befall a creature And Acts 2. 24. 31. to take soul said he there for the dead corpse is so hard a kinde of phrase that howsoever it must be yielded to in some places where the circumstances of the place and the thing spoken of compelleth yet so to take it in a place where there is no such necessity seemeth unreasonable The literall text therefore here saith he is agreeable to those texts which speak of Christs sufferings He made his soul a sacrifice for sin which could not be so well done any way as by giving it to suffer the fulnesse of Gods wrath in the place of extreamest torment which might seem to be signifed by burning the sin-offering after it was killed to shew that not alone death was suffered by our Saviour but also the torments of hell and the words of David saith he Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell may very fitly import so much when he speaks of it as of a strange thing that a soul should be in hell and not left there And Peter Acts 2. 24. telling us that God did loose the pains of death might seem to import so much seeing the pains of death may well be interpreted those pains which follow after death and in regard of which to those that know what death is death is only painfull otherwise from the pains of natural death Christ was no more freed neither were they more loosed from him then from every other man seeing every man sees an end of his outward torments by dying Paul also might mean this in mentioning of a cursed death and saying He did bear the curse for us The greatest part of the curse of the Law is To be cast into the place of the damned and into their torments though not into the sinfull things that accompany their torments David as a figure of Christ saith in one Psalm Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell Now the lowest hell is not the grave but the infernal pit which is farre lower then the grave This saith the same worthy Divine commends Gods justice and mercy and Christs love and shews the abominablenesse and vilenesse of our sins more then any thing else could do All this notwithstanding others hold that Christs locall descent into hell is an unwarrantable conceit and contrary to the word of truth and sound reason Vide Sandford de Descensu Christi ad Inferos l. 3. p. 36 c. Neither in the Creed nor Scriptures where mention is made of hell with relation to Christ is the word gehenna used which is alwaies restrained to the hell of the damned but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word designes the state of the dead in generall and is used of all with no difference In all the New Testament it occurres but once Luke 16. 23. where necessarily it signifies the hell of the damned and yet not there from the force and propriety of the word for it is of larger extent but from the circumstances which are there used For as Bucer learnedly notes the rich man is not simply said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in inferno seu in gehennâ because in torments and in flame 2. The Evangelists have professedly delivered to us the History of our Saviour even to his ascension neither yet have they made even the least mention of this his descent into hell which they would never surely have omitted if they had judged it a thing necessary to salvation Moreover blessed Luke in the Preface of his Gospel tels Theophilus That he having had perfect understanding of all things from the first would write to him in order that he might know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed ad verbum in which he had been catechized but of descent ne gry quidem whence it appears that it was no part of the Catechism which Theophilus learnt and certainly knew 3. Blessed Paul 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 4. where he rehearseth certain chief heads of the Gospel which he had preached to the Corinthians rehearseth the death burial and resurrection of Christ but not this descent into hell yet that was a fit place to have rehearsed it in if he had preached any such thing Therefore it is manifest enough that he preached it not nor is it necessary to be known he affirmeth to the Corinthians that which he preached would suffice them to salvation if they were not wanting to themselves 4. If Christ did go into the place of the damned then either in soul or in body or in his Godhead But his Godhead could not descend because it is every where and his body was in the grave till the third day and as for his soul it went not to hell but presently after his death it went to Paradise that is the third heaven a place of joy and happinesse Luke 23. 43. which words of Christ must be understood of his manhood or soul and not of his Godhead Some think by Paradise no certain place is designed but that is Paradise where-ever Christ is and wheresoever God may be seen because therefore the soul of the thief was to follow Christ and to see God it is said to be with him in Paradise Many modern Interpreters saith Sandford de Descensu Christi ad Inferos l. 3. p. 39. much favour this opinion and cite Austin and Beda as Authors of it quam verè ipsi viderint He saith he cannot approve this interpretation whosoever is the Author of it for Christ spake of that Paradise where then he was not But if Paradise be nothing but the place whence God was seen when the thief hung on the Crosse he was in Paradise Paradise is put often for heaven in the new Testament Rev. 2. 7. 2 Cor. 2. 4. There is an analogy between the first and second Adam The first Adam was cast out of Paradise the same day he sinned therefore the second Adam did enter into heaven the same day he made satisfaction Some say that to descend into hell is a popular kinde of speech which sprung from the opinion that was vulgarly conceived of the receptacle of the souls under
the earth As we use to say commonly that the sunne is under a cloud because it is a vulgar form of speech and yet it is farre enough from our meaning for all that to imagine the cloud to be indeed higher then the sun Thirdly Some almost confound this Article with Christs burial and make one sense of both because those words Sheol Hades Infernus often in Scripture note the grave Both many Ancient and Modern Divines have taken Christs descent into hell in that sense This seems to some to be the reason wherefore the Nicene Creed mentions only Christs burial and no descent into hell and Athanasius his Creed his descending into hell without speaking a word of his burial Neither Irenaeus Augustine Tertullian nor Origen when they recite the rule of faith mention Christs descent into hell Vide Rivet Cathol Orthodox But this seems not so probable an interpretation 1. Because He was buried goes next before these words neither can these be added exegetically because they are obscurer then the former 2. It is not likely that in so succinct and short a Creed the same Article should be twice put or the same thing twice said by changing the words Vide Chamier contract â Spanh Tom. 2. lib. 5. c. 3. Calvin Institut l. 2. c. 16. Sect. 8 9 10. Bellarm. de Christo l. 4. c. 14. Fourthly Some interpret this article of Christs descending into hell by his going to the dead and for a time viz. even to the resurrection continuing in the state and under the dominion of death and this seems to be the most genuine exposition of all for it keeps both the propriety of the words and the distinction of the Articles and it is drawn from Peters words nor is this opinion urged with any great difficulty Hell signifieth the state of the dead the condition of those that are departed this life common to good and bad the being out of this land of the living when the soul and body are separated and do no more walk upon the earth to be seen of men and converse with them The Hebrew Greek and Latine words for hell both in the Scripture and other sit Authors are used for the state of the dead Psal. 89. 47 48. Psal. 30. 3. Isa. 38. 18 19. 1 Cor. 15. 55. Peters words Acts 2 24. sufficiently confirm this exposition The whole state of the dead is called a descent because although some of the dead ascend into Heaven yet all which are buried descend into the earth whence from the first condition of the descent of carkasses the whole other state of the dead is called a descent To descend often in the Acts of the Apostles noteth not a descent from a higher place into a lower but only a deporture from one place into another Sometimes it signifieth to passe from a lower place to a higher See Iud. 11. 37. 15. 11. So Iuvenal Praecordia pressit Ille senis tremulúmque caput descendere jussit In Coelum CHAP. VI. Of CHRISTS Exaltation HItherto of Christs humiliation The first of these kinde of actions he did to fulfill his great Offices in his Person consisting of two Nature◠God-head and manhood I proceed to the second kinde of actions needful to the same purpose For if Christ had not overcome his humiliation but had been overcome of it then had he not been a perfect Saviour then had he not been the Son of God nor the King of Israel for a King Lord and God must conquer Now this Glorification is the raising of himself to a most high and honourable estate for so it is said He was to suffer and to enter into his glory that is that glory which God had appointed for him and he by submitting himself to such meannesse for Gods honour sake fully deserved for himself and all his members with him Therefore the Apostle saith God hath greatly exalted him for this is the mighty one upon whom God had laid strength and he was to divide the spoil with the mighty according to Isaiahs Prophecy Now this Glorification of our Saviour say some hath three degrees Resurrection Ascension sitting at the right hand of the Father Four degrees say Estey and others of which two are past viz. his Resurrection and Ascention one is present viz. his sitting at Gods right hand the last is to come viz. his judging of all the world For his Resurrection that is the first degree of his Glory death had separated his soul from his body and carried his body for a time prisoner into the Sepulchre but it was impossible he should be held of it saith the Apostle and therefore God having loosed the sorrows of death did raise him up again no more to return to corruption Of this Resurrection we have large proof in the Scriptures First Each of the Evangelists insisteth upon the narration of it and the Apostles in their Epistles do frequently mention and affirm it and in their several Sermons declare and publish it unto all the people Matth. 28. 1. describes it thus In the end of the Sabbath that is the Jewish Sabbath which was Saturday as it began towards the first day of the week came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre and behold there was a great earthquake and Mark thus Chap. 16. 2. Early in the morning the first day of the week they came unto the Sepulchre at the rising of the Sunne And Luke thus Chap. 24. 1. Now upon the first day of the week very early in the morning they came unto the Sepulchre bringing the spices which they had prepared Iohn thus Chap. 26. 1. And the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalen early when it was yet dark unto the Sepulchre and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre The women when it was very early upon our Lords day in the morning came out of the City and by that time the Sunne was rising they came to the very Sepulchre and found Christ risen before For so soon as the morning did peep and the first day of the week began to shew it self he reduced his soul unto his body and raised it up the Angel at the same time rolling away the stone and astonishing the keepers and before the women could come into the Sepulchre he was departed thence So he was part of three nights and three dayes in the grave and rose the third day according to that he had foretold He died upon Friday about three of the clock and was buried that even and lay in the grave that part of Friday taking the day for the natural day All Saturday he lay in the grave the night and the day The first day of the week in the morning he lay but a very short space and in the very beginning of it rose that it might appear he lay there not out of necessity but because he thought it fit to stay so long there to make it appear that he
was truly dead The women came and sought him but were inform'd by the Angels that he was risen yet could not make the Apostles beleeve it This Peter did preach Acts 2. this Paul preached Acts 13. this Paul inculcateth 1 Cor. 15. and Peter in his Epistle also It is so necessary a point of our Christian Faith that without it all our Faith is vain and falleth to the ground David fore-told it in all the parts of it as Peter interprets him Acts 2. His soul was not left in hell nor did his body see corruption that is putrifie at all A man consists of two parts a soul and a body there can be no resurrection after the separating of these two unlesse the soul be re-united to the body again and both lifted up out of the state of death therefore did the God-head to whom both soul and body were united restore the soul to the body again preserving it from putrifaction that it might be a fit dwelling place for the soul and so having joyned them together the body rose and went abroad and shew'd it self to the Apostles no longer a weak feeble mortal and corruptible body but a glorious impassible incorruptible and most beautiful body for it lost all its imperfections in the grave And this Resurrection fell upon the third day after his death as himself said Iohn 2. 18. the third day he should rise The day began as we ordinarily account howsoever perhaps by special institution the Sabbaths may be accounted to have begun otherwise at the peep of the morning when men begin to stir about businesse then did Christ stirre also he was to lie no longer then the first day of the week because he intended to challenge that day to himself to be the Lords day and the Christian Sabbath whence it came in processe of time to have that name before the third day he was not to rise that he might shew himself truly dead and stay a sufficient while under the arrest of death for the accomplishment of our satisfaction Now this Resurrection was performed by the power of his Deity for all the while that he continued dead his soul and body were both united to the God-head as it were a sword pulled out of the scabberd which the man holdeth still one in one hand the other in the other and so can easily put the same together again For the Apostle saith Rom. 1. 4. He was declared to be the Sonne of God with power according to the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection of the dead that is by that his resurrection which is virtually the resurrection of all seeing by vertue thereof all his people rise to glory Therefore is he termed The first fruits of them that die 1 Cor. 5. 16. And the first begotten from the dead Col. 1. 18. because by vertue of his Resurrection the Saints rise to glory and enjoy from him this prerogative of overcoming death as the first fruits sanctifie the lump and as the first-born hath the priviledge above all the children In time some rose before him but in vertue none for all that rose did rise by the efficacy and merit of him and his rising again And this Resurrection was necessary for divers purposes 1. To make way for his farther Glorification that he might raign as Lord of Lords and King of Kings for he could not have possessed fulnesse of Glory had he not been still in the Sepulchre The soul indeed might have been perfectly glorified but whole Christ could not have been fully glorified if the body had not risen to partake of the glory of heaven with the soul. Now seeing the body was helpful to and in the performance of the work of Redemption suffering great abasement it was not equal that it should be any longer deprived of the reward when once Justice was fully satisfied upon it It was necessary also to fulfill the Prophecies and Types that went before Davids Prophecy Peter presseth Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption the type of Ionah our Saviour telleth of Matth. 12. 40. and both were to be acâ—omplished Lastly It was necessary for the confirmation of our Faith that we might be assured he was the Sonne of God and had perfectly accomplished this great work he undertook therefore Paul saith That he rose again for our justification that is to declare and prove that he had perfectly fulfilled all that was necessary to satisfie for our sins and to procure for us as the Apostle calleth it everlasting righteousnesse When the Surety is apprehended for the Debtor there is no getting out of the Creditors hand till he have discharged the whole debt therefore when the Surety gets out of prison and is at large the debt is fully satisfied so it is in this case so that we could not have rested upon him as a full and perfect Saviour if he had not risen but now our Faith doth evidently acknowledge him to be a perfect Saviour and hath full assurance to ground upon since in him salvation is to be had And for the end and use of this Resurrection it was to quicken our soul first that we might rise to newnesse of life as the Apostle St Peter saith and at length to quicken our mortal bodies too 1 Pet. 4. 5. that the Head being risen the members might rise with him The Resurrection of Christ should work on us so that we should live to him 2 Cor. 5. 15. Ephes. 1. 19 20. and that four wayes From the knowledge of his Resurrection we should be assured 1. That the Lord will raise the Church or us out of our lowest afflictions Hos. 6 2 3. Isa. 26. 19. Ezek 37. 3 4. and that should ingage us to improve all our power for him 2. That Christ hath likewise power to raise up our souls to spiritual life as our first rising is by the life of Christ as he recovered his life so the increase of it is by the improvement of his Resurrection by Faith Phil. 3. 11. Rom. 6. 4 5. 3. It assures us of the Resurrection of our bodies Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 15. Ioh. 11. 24. 4. Of an inheritance and glorious estate 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. Now you have the Doctrin of the Resurrection as the Scriptures deliver the same The second Degree of Christs Glorification is his Ascension which was a change of place a transferring of his glorified body and soul into the upper Region of the world out of this lower room thereof A body cannot be in more places then one because it is circumscriptible and our Saviours body though glorified retaineth yet still the nature of a body though it have laid aside all the natural imperfections of a body and therefore our Saviours body could of it self move upward because it was rid of that grosse weightinesse which doth alwayes accompany a natural compound body Now this Ascension of our Saviour is in Scripture often related two of the Evangelists
this life thus 1. In the letter of it though delivered by never so faithful Ministers it is able to do nothing therefore these things are often preacht and men not bettered when the Spirit accompanies it it is efficacious See Rom. 1. 16. Phil. 2. 15. The preaching of the Gospel is 1. The only means of the revelation of this life 2 Tim. 1. 10. 2. It is the divine seed whereby the Lord conveys this life and begets it in the soul 1 Pet. 1. 23 25. This work of the Gospel consists in five things 1. The preaching of the Gospel opens the understanding makes us see the misery of sinne and the excellency of Christ and the things of God Ephes. 1. 2 Cor. 5. 2. It makes the will and affections to relish Christs sweetnesse perswades the heart to chuse him and consent that God and they may be united in a league of friendship this is the work of faith 3. Turns the heart from all evil wayes it walkt in men are said to be pull'd out of the power of Satan 4. Creates in the soul and stampes in it all the Graces wherein Gods Image stands 5. By administration of the promise and instruction fortifieth the soul and makes one do all things belonging to this life Arminians give too much to man and too little to Christ. Antinomians and Familists give too much to Christ and too little to man They give so much to Christ that they abolish the nature and act of the creature they say Christ must do all and we can do nothing They dream of an insensible motion without us place Grace in a naked apprehension there must be not onely a work for us but in and by us The work of the Father is in heaven of Christ on the Crosse of the Spirit within us Col. 1. 29. They deny not onely mans work but the Spirits work in us Rom. 16. 20. Secondly They say Christ must do all and we after we have received Grace nothing there is not a coordination but subordination of our wils to his grace though at our first conversion we were meerly passive yet when Grace is received we may act motion follows life Col. 2. 4. The Familists deny all inherent graces in the Saints because it is said we do not live but Christ he they say beleeves repents as if we lived not at all and he is formally all habits and graces but the Scripture grants habits and graces to be in a man Iohn 19. 28. Matth. 12. 33. 1 Iohn 3. 9. 2. The sins of our actions then could not be charged on our selves but on the faint operations of his grace Marks and Evidences of spiritual life First Every creature which lives values life A living dog is better then a dead Lion If one values his life he will prize 1. Pabulum vitae Attend on the Ordinances the Word Sacrament Prayer Communion of Saints 1 Peter 2. As new born Babes Cantic 4. latter end 2. He will avoid what is destructive to life Beware of grieving and quenching the Spirit Ephes. 4. 30. 1 Thess. 5. 19. by neglecting the motions of it or noysome lusts 3. He will endure any evil and part with any good rather then part with life Secondly This new life brings alwayes a great change along with it when a childe quickens in the mothers womb she findes a great change so when Paul and Manassâ—h and the blinde man Ioh. 9. were converted unlesse they were religiously trained up as Timothy from their youth Thirdly Sense a spiritual sense in the soul senses exercised savour the things of God Rom. 8. Fourthly Every life hath some kinde of motions and actions that are sutable to it as in this spiritual life 1. That inward work of adhering to Christ as their chief portion the fountain of all their good a true faith 2. Repentance labouring to cast out corruption and to turn to God 3. The Spirit of Prayer You have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby you cry Abba Father Our Law judgeth a childe alive that was heard to cry 4. The minding of heavenly things Col. 3. 1 2. 5. Life hath a sympathy a fellowship with those that are members of the body the same quickning Spirit lives in all Christians weep with them that weep and rejoyce with them that rejoyce 6. If we be regenerated we do that to God which children do to their Father 1. Honour him and stand in awe of him 2. Rely on him as the fountain of all our good as children do on their parentâ— for a supply of all their wants 3. Are obedient to him Motives to live to God 1. It is a dishonour to God when the creature seeks to exalt self that which I make my utmost end I make my God Phil. 3. 10. 2. Consider the self-denial of Christ he came from heaven to do the will of him that sent him Rom. 15. 3. Means of spiritual life 1. Labour to get thy miserable condition by nature set close upon thy spirit how thou art dead in sin 2. Study to get into Christ 1 Iohn 5. 12. onely he can quicken he is never got but by Faith Luke 15. the Prodigal is the pattern of a converted soul. See vers 31. CHAP. XIV The Sanctification of the whole Man Soul and Body VVE should live more to the soul then body Psal. 119. 175. 141. 8. 142. 7. 143. 11. 1. The soul is distinct from the body as the operations of it shew 2. It lives when the body dies Eccles. 12. 7. Mat. 10. 28. 3. It is far better then the body 4. The concernments of the soul are higher then those of the body 1 Pet. 3. beginning 5. The sicknesse and death of the soul is worse then that of the body 1 King 8. 38. Ioh. 8. 21 23. 6. We never live to any purpose but when the soul lives 1. Of the faculties of the soul. Grace spreads it self through all the faculties A faculty is an ability of producing some effect or operation agreeable to our nature and for our good implanted in man by nature There are three reasonable faculties proper to men alone 1. The Understanding by which we know truth 2. The Will by which we desire good 3. Conscience a power of ordering our selves to and with God I. Of the Understanding It is that power which God hath given a man to acquaint himself with the Being Properties and Differences of all things by discourse Or it is that faculty by which we are able to inform our selves of the general natures of things Sense alone perceives particulars the understanding abstracts things and forms in it self the general natures of things I see this or that man but understand the nature of man The Object of it is omne intelligibile Truth in general in the utmost latitude and universality of it is the object of the Understanding good in the general in the universality of its nature is the object of the Will therefore till
the Sun runs through them God doth this great work it is thought to be caused by the turning round of the highest Sphere or the Firmament which pulling along with it self the inferiour Orbes makes them to move according to its course but who can give a reason why that Sphere it self should go so swiftly even much more swiftly then the Sun because it is far higher then the Sun as much as that is higher then the earth but the immediate power of God who doth move all in moving this one But that God should make the Sunne fulfil such a daily race to make day and night it highly commends the work Again the usefulnesse of it is great for if it should be in any place alwaies night what could they do how should they live How would any thing grow seeing the nights are cold light and heat being companions and cold and darknesse companions If no light had been in the world the world would not have been a place fit for living things But if one half onely of the world should have had light with it alwaies it would have caused excessive heat and so would have burnt up and consumed all things and been no lesse harmful then the defect of heat but now the succession of one of these to the other viz. light and heat to darknesse and cold doth so temper them by a kinde of mixture that it is in such proportion in every place as is necessary to bring forth all sorts of living things especially the fruits of the earth So God hath assigned such a way and race to the Sun which by his presence makes day and by his absence night as was fit and onely fit for the quickning enlivening and comfort of every kinde of living creature so that upon this course the wel-being yea the very being almost of all things doth depend We should lament and bewaile our exceeding great blindnesse that live day after day and night after night and yet busie not our selves about this work nor seâ— God in it though it be so constant as it was never stopped but twice sâ—nce the beginning of the Creation viz. in Hezekiah's time by going back of the Sun and in Ioshuah's time by stopping of the Sun for a certain time by the immediate power of God We have the profit of the day and of the night but neither in one nor other do we mark the wisdome goodnesse and power of God In the night men rest and refresh their bodier with sleep wilde beasts then wake and hunt for their prey In the day men and tame creatures make and dispatch their businesse and eat and drink and wilde beasts then rest in their dens God is still working for us our thoughts are still idle towards him thir is a proof of our Atheisme and estrangement from him this is the blindnesse of our minds a not being able to discern of things by discourse of reason and the power of understanding for the conceiving of which just and plain reasons are offered unto us There is a natural blindnesse of the eye when it is unable to discern things by the light of the Sun this is felt and complained of but spiritual blindnesse of minde is when it is unable to discern supernatural truths which concern the soul and another and better life by the use of reason and help of those principles which are as light unto it this is not felt nor lamented but it is therefore not felt because it is so natural to us and because we brought it into the world The beginning of the cure of spirituall blindnesse is to see it let us see it therefore and be troubled at it why do not I see Gods great work in making night and day to succeed each other Let us look up to God in this work and meditate on it at fit times in the morning so soon as we are awake and begin to see the darknesse vanquished and the light conquering and that the Sun is raised above our Horizon and is come to visit our parts again it were a fruitful thing to think thus How great a journey hath the Sun gone in this little time wherein I have been asleep and could observe nothing and now returned again as it were to call me up say Lord thou hast made night I have the benefit of it and now light visits me O that I could honour thee and magnifie thy power and the greatnesse of thy hand and use the light of the day to do the services that are required at my hand in my place Again in the evening a little before we sleep we should think of the great work of making day for these many hours the Sun hath been within our sight and shewed its beams and light unto us and hath run a long race for our good bringing with it lightsome cheerfulnesse the companion of the day Now it is gone to the other part of the world to visit them that God might shew his goodnesse to one place as well as to another Where a multitude of things concur to one effect with which none of them in particular is acquainted there we cannot but know that one common wisdome ruleth them all and so it is in the working of the Sun Moon and Stars to make the Seasons of the day and night and of Summer and Winter therefore some common wisdome must over-rule all of them There is a spiritual light in our Horizon whereas Judaisme and Turâ—isme is darknesse and Popery a glimmering light We should pray to God to give us spiritual light and be thankful for it He makes day and night also in respect of prosperity and adversity weeping may continue for a night this vicissitude keeps the soul in growth in good temper as the other is profitable for the body pray to God to send Christ to them which sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death and vouchsafe to make it day with them as well as with us He hath said in his word that he will discover the glory of his Son and all the earth shall see it together CHAP. IV. Of some of the Meteors but especially of the Clouds the Rain and the Sea the Rivers Grasse Herbs and Trees BY the name of Clouds and Waters above the Firmament Gen. 1. We may understand all Meteors both watery and fiery which were then created in their causes and so by clouds and winds Psal. 104. 3. must be understood all the Meteors the great works of God by which he sheweth himself and worketh in this lower Heaven They are called Meteors because they are most of them generated aloft in the aire Zanchius saith there are foure sorts of Meteors others make but three sorts 1. Fiery which in the Supreme Region of the aire are so enflamed by the fire that they are of a fiery nature as Comets Thunder 2. Airy which being begotten of dry vapours of the earth come near the nature
whether may they not be prayed unto The ground and cause which brought in praying â—o Angels is laid down Col. 2. 18. where you have a general prohibition of religious worshipping of Angels with the cause of it There are three causes why they attempted this 1. They entred into things which they did not know as the Papists How can they tell whether the Angels pray for us whether they know our wants 2. They follow their carnal minde because they see in the world that to great Magistrates we use Mediators and Intercessors they dare not go of themselves so here 3. Humility For this they talk as Papists do now We are unworthy to go directly to God and therefore we need the help of Angels but this is vain for Christ is nearer to us then Angels are Ephes. 3. 12. Tutius jucundius loquar ad Iesum quam ad aliquem sanctorum We say that all lawfull and moderate reverence is to be given to Angels which consists in these particulars 1. We acknowledge the great gifts of God in them and praise God for them We confesse it is his mercy that he hath made such noble creatures to be serviceable to us and then for themselves in our judgements 1. We honour them and judge them more noble creatures then man they have greater wisdom holiness and power then man hath 2. For our will and affections we love them because they love us and delight in our good being ready to help us every where 3. We should be carefull of our carriage because of their presence we should not sin because of the Angels 4. We desire to make them examples of our lives that we may do Gods will as they do 5. If Angels should appear visibly to us we should honour them as more excellent creatures but yet still keep within the bounds of civil or sraternal honour as to our fellow servants but yet above us and not honour them with Religious worship The Papists say a Religious worship is due unto them but yet that we may do them no wrong not indeed such as is due to God but secondary yet still Religious and so they say they intercede â—or us not as Christ but in an inferiour way and in this sense they hold they may be worshipped and praied unto Now we will refute their arguments and then confirm the truth with strong reasons For the first All lawâ—ull reverence is commanded by the sust Table and that is Religious or else by the second and that is civil But that manner and degree of their worship is required in neither Therefore it is meerly invented Secondly By general consent Religious worship is that whereby we do acknowledge God to be the primum principium the ultimum finem and summum bonum now this is but one and we may as well say there is a summum bonum secundariò as there is a secondary Religious worship Thirdly There is the same reason of a Religious worship as there is of a Divine act of faith love and hope but if a man should say We may with a Divine faith beleeve in God primarily and Angels secondarily it were ridiculous therefore here if Religious worship were due because of supernatural excellencies then every godly man were religiously to be worshipped Our arguments in generall against this are these 1. Matth. 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Heb. 1. it is applied to Christ. 2. The promise is to those only which call upon him Psal. 51. 15 Call upon me 3. It cannot be of faith for how shall I know whether they hear me whether they be present 4. Colos. 2. 8. It is condemned for will-worship so that Idolatry is here committed that kinde of it Quando divinè colitur id quod non est verus Dâ—us Iohn was reproved for this Rev. 19. 10. 22. 9. Now Iohn might have distinguished I do not worship you religiously as God but in the second place The second question is Whether every man hath his peculiar Angel This is not a question of faith but yet the more to be suspected because it was generally held among the Heathens who did ascribe to every man born a bad angel to afflict and a good one to defend him a good and ill Genius as they called them Becanus brings places of Scripture to prove it but there is altogether silence in the Scripture concerning it for when the Angels are charged to have care over us it implieth that it is all their care The chiefest place which most seems to favour that opinion is Act. 12. 15. where they said that it was his Angel Now to this some answer that the men spake according to the opinion of men then generally received and not according to the truth as we may give an instance concerning the blinde man when they asked Whether he or his parents had sinned that he should be born blinde How could he sin before he was born but some answer that there was an opinion generally received which all the Platonists held and so Origen and many of the Ancients that the soul was created before it was put into the body and as it did good or ill it was put into a well tempered or a maimed body Especially they thought these Angels did appear a little before or after mens death Calvin thinks that it was an Angel peculiarly destinated to Peter for that time of his imprisonment If it were a peculiar Angel then it would follow that he spake and had the same gestures that men have to whom they belong Therefore it may well be rendred it is his messenger as the word is elsewhere translated But you will say then they thought the messenger spake like him No but it might fall out that they thought Rhode did mistake and when he said I am Peter they might think he said I am come from Peter and so it may be answered If every man have one Angel why did more then one carry Lazarus his soul to heaven And he hath given his Angels charge over thee that is many over one particular man Cameron tom 2. Praelect Vide Rainold de lib. Apoc. tom 1. cap. 61. Voet. Thâ—s de Angelis The third question What is the meaning of that Let her be covered because of the Angels Where the Apostle commands a woman in publike duties to have power that is covering in sign of her subjection to God and that because of the Angels Some understand this properly of the Angels the heavenly Spirits but differently some because they are present at our Assemblies and if you ask What need that seeing God and Christ are there they answer That he mentioned God and Christ before and now addeth these as inseparable servants which are sent for the salvation of beleevers Others as probably make it a new argument from the Angels Isa. 6. as they covered their feet before God to shew
and weaknesse the Tree of life would have preserved him from that 3. The whole person consisting both of soul and body was conformable to God in respect of his felicity and dominion over the creatures Gen. 1. 26 28. The image of God doth not principally consist in this but secondarily therefore though the man and woman were created perfectly after Gods image in other respects yet in this respect the woman had not the image of God as the Apostle sheweth The power which Adam had over the creatures was not absolute and direct that God reserved to himself but it was for Adams use then the stoutest and fiercest beasts would be ruled by Adam this dominion since the fall is lost for a great part because of our rebellion against God the creatures rebellion should minde us of ours we may see sometimes a little childe driving before him an hundred Oxen or Kine this or that way as he pleaseth For the infusing of the soul it is most probable that the body was first made as the organ or instrument and then the soul put into it as God did make Heaven and Earth before man was made God did not create all the souls of men at once but he creates them daily as they are infused into the body for that the reasonable soul is not ex traduce Baronius in his Philosophia Theologiae Ancillans Exercit. 2. Artic. 3. proves it well There are these two Questions to be resolved 1. Whether immortality was natural to Adam 2. Whether original righteousnesse was natural to Adam For the first A thing is immortal four wayes 1. Absolutely so that there is no inward or outward cause of mortality so God only 1 Tim. 6. 16. 2. When it is not so by nature but immortality is a perfection voluntarily put into the constitution of the creature by the Creator so Angels are immortal 3. Not by any singular condition of Nature but of Grace so the bodies of the Saints glorified 4. When it is mortal inwardly but yet conditionally it is immortal that is if he do his duty and so Adam was immortal For the second Question The properties of it are these First It is original righteousnesse because it is the natural perfection of the whole man and all his faculties for distinction sake we call it original righteousnesse It is so both in regard of it self for it was the first in the first man Secondly In regard of man because he had it from his very beginning Thirdly In regard of his posterity because it was to be propagated to others Secondly It is universal it was the rectitude of all parts it could not else be an image of God unlesse it did universally resemble him in all holinesse His understanding had all things for truth his will for good his affections for obedience Thirdly Harmonious every faculty stood in a right order the will subject to the understanding and the affections to both Fourthly It was due to him not by way of desert as if God did owe Adam any thing but conditionally supposing God made Adam to enjoy himself and by way of means Fifthly Natural 1. Subjective that which inwardly adheres to the nature of a thing from its beginning 2. Perfectivè that which perfects nature for its end and actions 3. Propagativè when it would have been propagated in a natural way if man had continued in innocency but Constitutivè and Consecutivè supernatural The Papists deny that that was natural to man in innocency and therefore they say mans nature is not corrupted by the fall because a supernatural gift only is taken from him all his naturals being left which is the opinion of the Pelagians who affirm That the nature of man fallen is perfect before the committing of actual sins Paradise is spoken of in Gen. 2. Some of the Ancients as Origen Philo yea and of later Authors have turned all this into an Allegory but now that it was a real corporal place we may prove 1. Because God planted a Garden and put Adam into it and there went a River out of it which was divided into four streams but these were visible and corporeal as Euphrates and Tigris and in the third Chapter it is said That Adam hid himself with the leaves of the Tree therefore the Trees in Paradise were real and not allegorical and lastly Adam was cast out of it The ground of allegorizing all these things ariseth from the vanity of mans mind which thinketh these things too low for the Spirit of God to relate and therefore endeavours to finde out many mysteries 2. In what part of the earth it was Some have thought it to be the whole world but that cannot be for it is said God took Adam and put him into it and likewise that he was cast out of it Others thought Paradise to be a very high place reaching to the very Globe of the Moon but that cannot be habitable for the subtilty of the air Others as Oleaster and Vatablus think it was in Mesopotamia only and that it hath lost his beauty by the floud A Lapide Willet Rivet Zanchius and others say it was about Mesopotamia and Armenia because 1. There are the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris 2. Because Eden is part of Babylonia and this part of Mesopotamia as is manifest from Ezek. 27. 23. Isa. 37. 12. 3. These Regions are in the East and most pleasant and so agree with the description of Paradise Gen. 2. But the safest way is not to trouble our selves any further then Moses Text which saith it was in the Region of the East in respect of Iudaea Egypt or Arabia and as for the limits and bounds of it they cannot now be known Vide Bellar. de gratia primi hominis c. 12 13. Homer had his invention of Alcinous Gardens as Iustin Martyr noteth out of Moses his description of Paradise Gen. 2. And those praises of the Elysian fields were taken out of this story Ver erat aeternum c. Ovid. Metam lib. 2. And from the talk between Eve and the Serpent Aesops Fables were derived Thirdly Whether the waters of the Floud did destroy it Bellarmine and generally the Papists will not admit that it was destroyed by Noahs Floud and it is to maintain a false opinion for they say That Enoch and Elias who are yet in their bodies are the two Witnesses spoken of and that they shall come when Antichrist shall be revealed and then he shall put them to death and therefore they hold that Enoch and Elias are kept alive in this Paradise which they say still remaineth but that this is a meer fable appeareth because Iohn Baptist is expresly said by Christ to be the Elias that was to come because he came in the spirit of Elias Therefore we hold that wheresoever Paradise was yet in the great Floud it was destroyed not but that the ground remaineth still only the form beauty and fruitfulnesse is spoiled
hereditary to all his seed in case of obedience and his sin in case of disobedience 3. There is an after consent on our part to Adams treason Imitation is a kinde of consent Isa. 43. 27. 4. The offering of another Adam to thee in the Church shews that the dispensation is not rigorous so you may share in his obedience as well as the others disobedience It is as agreeable to the wisedom and justice of God by the first Adam to introduce death as to the wisedom and grace of God by the second Adam to introduce life The first Covenant makes way for the second 5. There is a parallel in Scripture between the first and second Adam Isa. 49. 18. Rom. 5. 12. 1 John 5. 11. Christ is caput cum foedere as well as the first Adam Object This sinne of Adam being but one could not desile the universall nature Socinus Ans. Adam had in him the whole nature of mankinde 1 Cor. 15. 47. by one offencr the whole nature of man was defiled Rom. 5. 12 17. Object Adams sin was nor voluntary in us we never gave consent to it Answ. There is a twofold will 1. Voluntas naturae the whole nature of man was represented in Adam therefore the will of nature was sufficient to conveigh the sin of nature 2. Voluntas personae by every actuall sin we justifie Adams breach of Covenant Rom. 5. 12. 19. seems clear for the imputation of Adams sinne All were in Adam and sinned in him as after Austin Beza doth interpret that Rom. 5. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so our last Translators in the Margent And though it be rendred for that all have sinned by us the Syriack Eras. Vaâ—ab Calv. Pisc. yet must it so be understood that all have sinned in Adam for otherwise it is not true that all upon whom death hath passed have sinned as namely Infants newly born it is not said All are sinners but All have sinned which imports an imputation of Adams act unto his posterity Vide Bellarmine Tom. 4. l. 4. de Amiss grat Statu peccati c. 3. Peccatum Adami ita posteris omnibus imputatur ac si omnes idem peccatum patravissent Id. ib. c. 16. and again c. 8. peccatum originale tametsi ab Adamo est non tamen Adami sed nostrum est Some Divines do not differ so much re as modo loquendi about this point they grant the imputation of Adams sin to his posterity in some sense so as that there is a communication of it with them and the guilt of it is charged upon them yet they deny the imputation of it to posterity as it was Adams personall sin But it is not to be considered as Adams personall sinne but as the sin of all mankinde whose person Adam did then represent It was one that made us sinners it is one that makes us righteous prior in semine alter in sanguine it was man that forfeited it is man that satisfied D. Hampton on Rom. 5. 10. The parts of this corrupt estate Sinfulnesse of nature and life and the punishment of sin here and hereafter The division of sin into Original and Actual is gathered out of Rom. 5. 14. and I shall first treat of originall sin or the corruption of nature Sin is an absence of that righteousnesse which should be in us in our nature as originall sin in our actions as actuall sin a morall inconformity or difformity in nature or life to the Law of God This vitiousnesse of nature is not unfitly called Sin Rom. 6. 7. 1. Ex causa it is the fruit and effect of that first transgression of our Father Adam 2. Ex effectu it is the root seed spawn of all actual transgressions in every one of us Originall sinne is against the whole Law which is spirituall and requires perfect integrity in man more specially against the first and last Commandments That there is original sin a defilement in every mans heart as soon as he is born which were enough to destroy him though he break out into no outward acts of rebellion is proved 1. By Scripture Gen. 6. 5 8. Iob 14. 14. 15. 14 15 16. Psal. 51. 5. Sunt qui dicunt quod per hoc innuitur Eva quae non peperit nisi postquam peccavit Porchetus Rom. 5. 12. Eph. 2. 13. 2. By the effects 1. Mans desperate contrariety to good things even from his youth Psal. They went astray from their youth up In Isay Transgressors from the womb A childe is opposite to any good duty and ready to imitate all evil 2. The Lord instituted circumcision to shew the filthinesse we are begotten and born in and which should be cut off Therefore saith Bellarmine it was commanded to be done in that member in which the effect of that sin doth more violently appear and by which mankinde is propagated and by propagation infected The use of baptisme also is to take away the guilt and filth of nature The woman that had a childe was to go offer as unclean 3. It is demonstrated by sicknesse other crosses and death even of infants Rom. 3. 23. 4. The unserviceablenesse of the creatures proves that there is original sin 5. Because there must be a change of our natures 1. Every man is born guilty of Adams sin 2. Every man is born dead in sin Ephes. 2. 1. 3. Every natural man is born full of all sin Rom. 1. 29. as full as a toad of poison 4. What ever he doth is sin 1. His thoughts Gen. 6. 5. 2. His words Psal. 50. 16. 3. His actions 1. Civil Prov. 21. 4. 2. Religious Prov. 15. 18 19. 28. 9. The vile nature of man is apt to commit most foul and presumptuous sins Rom. 3. 9 10 11 to 18. v. Mark 7. 21. Reas. 1. From mans self sin hath come over all together with death 2. The devil laboureth to bring men to the most notorious sins that he may render them most like to himself Ephes. 2. 2. 3. The world is full of such things and persons as may induce an evil nature to most horrible deeds 4. God in justice gives men over to work wickednesse with greedinesse CHAP. II. What Original Corruption is THese names are given to Orignall sin in Scripture It is called sin Rom. 7. 8. The sinning sin Rom. 7. 13. Sin that dwelleth in us Rom. 7. 20. Sin that doth easily beset us Heb. 13. 1. The body of sin Rom. 7. 23. A law in the members and the body of death Rom. 7. 24. It is also called flesh Joh. 3. 6. Rom. 7. 5. The old man Rom. 6. 6. Ephes. 4. 12. Col. 3. 9. The law of sin Rom. 7. 25. The wisdom of the flesh Rom. 8. 6 7. The law of sin and of death Rom. 8. 2. The plague in ones own heart 1 King 8. 38. The root of bitternesse Heb. 12. It is called by the Fathers Original sin It is not a meer want of
Original righteousnesse carentia justitiae originalis debitae inâ—ssâ— The Papists make Adam fallen to be the man in the Gospel that was wounded as he was going to Iericho by theeves and lay half dead The scope of that parable is to teach who is to be accounted our neighbour Our nature is not only void of Gods image Romans 3. 12. but fertill of all evil Genesis 6. Psalm 14. 53. Acts 13. 10. Ephesians 4. 19. It is hard to determine what kinde of positiveness can be in sinne There are two kindes of privations 1. Simple which doth meerly deprive as darkness doth light 2. Compound which besides the meer privation includes the contrary form privatio male disponens as sickness besides the meer privation of health includes the humours abounding Health is affectus corporis ad actum benè agendum disease is the contrary We call it positive because the Scripture describes it by habitual deprivation Ier. 17. 9. When we say such an one is a drunkard it is not only a meer privation of sobriety but a readiness to that sin because of the inhesion of it and to denote the efficacy of it Original sin is an affection ad actum malè agendum It is both a privation of the habit of original righteousnesse and also an evil disposition and proneness to all manner of sinne infecting all the parts and faculties of the soul. B. Down of Justificat l. 7. c. 7. Vide Hoornbeeck Anti Socin l. 3. c. 3. Sect. 1. It is 1. An internal uncleanness Titus 1. 15. It is called concupiscence which is the act of the will 2. An abiding uncleanness it never ceaseth so long as a man liveth to provoke him to sin Rom. 7. 21. Actual sins are but transient acts an affront to Gods commands Original sin is a rooted contrariety to his nature 3. An abounding uncleanness Psal. 14. Rom. 3. It defiles all men and all of men In the first Covenant Adam was made a root of all mankinde therefore all sinned and died in him being all in his loins Heb. 7. 9. Hence all that descend from him are children of wrath Ephes. 2. 3. Sin came upon all by Adam two waies 1. By imputation The Lord in justice imputing the guilt of the first sin to all his posterity Rom. 5. 12 14 19. 1 Cor. 15. 22. see 45 47. verses 2. By propagation The lump and root of all mankinde being corrupted so are the branches Gen. 5. 3. Iob 14. 14. Rom 11. 16. They are dead in sins Matth. 8. 22. Luke 15. 24. Ephes. 2. 1. 1 Tim. 5. 6. under the power of sin naturally under the guilt of sin legally Rom. 5. 15 18. Therefore regeneration is called a creation and resurrection Rom. 6. 5. Iohn 3. 35. Ephes. 1. 19 20. 1. All the faculties of the soul are dead the minde blind Zach. 11. ult 1 Cor. 2. 14. Ephes. 4. 17. and vain in its apprehensions resolutions thoughts Ier. 4. 14. 2. Reasonings The will most desperately shut against Christ and duty Matth. 15. 29. 23. 37. Luke 19. 14. Iohn 8. 44. violently evil Isa. 57. 17. The memory retains toys and lets go solid things The affections are not carried to their right objects we love sin are angry with those that reprove us or not in a right measure we over-love over-joy Col. 3. 5. they are contrary one to another and inconstant The conscience is not active in accusing or excusing Titus 1. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 19. 4. 2. Ephes. 4. 19. 2. They are dead in respect of spiritual duties 1 Thes. 1. 13. Heb. 1. the Sabbath is a burden 3. In their profession Rev. 3. 1. Iude 12. 4. In their whole conversation 4. An active powerfull uncleanness Rom. 7. 23. It is peccatum actuosum though not actuale it acts continually Gen. 6. 5. Sinfull acts and habits both flow from the pravity of our nature 5. A diffusive or infectious uncleanness like a leprosie or plague Psal. 106. 36. it makes all bad that we meddle with to the defiled all things are defiled It may well be called the sinning sin not only because it is the punishment of sin and the cause of sin but because it self is sin as Austin Next unto the sin against the holy Ghost and contempt of the Gospel original sin is the greatest sin Mr Shepheard All the sins of our lives are but original sin exercised and multiplied The will of man is more wilfull then the understanding blinde See Mr Fenners Epist. Ded. to his Hidden Manna or Mystery of saving grace The seat or subject of this sin is the whole man Some say only the passions that we have â—ound reason and and free will every faculty of the soul and member of the body is corrupted but principally the soul Eph. 4. 18 19 23 24. Rom. 12. 1 2. 1 Thes. 5. 23. and in it the understanding will and affections Ephes. 4. 18. The will is primarium peccati subjectum Rom. 7. 14. The Manichees and Illyricus a Lutheran make original corruption to be the essence and substance of a man those places of Scripture where it is called the old man a body of death and the flesh give no warrant for it but the Scripture useth them 1. To shew how near it is to us and inseparable even as our hands and feet and that we have it from our birth 2. To teach us that in all repentance and so in the graces of sanctification the greatest matter lieth within The Pelagians out of hatred to this opinion ran too farre into another extream holding that as man was born sine virtute so also sine vitio and they say That original sin is derived not by propagation but imitation and example We are by nature not imitation the children of wrath Pagans and Heathens never heard of Adam and many sins are commitred that Adam never did and they imitate not him the first drunkard and adulterer had no example The Ancient Fathers against the Pelagians and the Orthodox against the Arminians hold That original sin is propagated from Adam to all his posterity 1. God chargeth this on all the sons of men Ezek. 6. beg Isa. 48. 4. compared with 8. therefore it comes to them by natural inclination 2. The Saints who have studied their own spirits have confest this to be in them Psal. 51. 5. Rom. 7. 18. 3. Adam in his fallen condition must communicate such a nature as he had viz. defiled Iob 14. 4. Adam infected nature and after nature infected the person The continual actings of the depravedness of our nature in our conversation Psal. 58. 3. and the misery that lay on all men by nature even infants prove this Rom. 5. 12. and the necessity of regeneration Iohn 3. 5. The faculties of the soul only not the substance thereof are corrupted otherwise the soul could not be immortall neither could Christ take our nature upon him The substance of man abstractedly considered is Gods creature since
taken off by Christ the Surety Rom. 8. 1. 4. Reatus conscientiae Jer. 17. 1. The whole man is the subject of the pollution of sinne conscience of the guilt Heb. 9. 14. and 10. 17. The properties of this guilt 1. It is in its own nature incurable by all the power of the creature he that breaks the precept of the Law can never break through the curse of it Rom. 5. 12. Iude 6. 2. It is universall morbus Epidemicus Rom. 3. 19. John 13. 10. 3. Hereditary conveighed from parents to children Rom. 5. 17 18. by one man and one offence 4. Lothsome and stinking Psa. 38. 5. 5. Very troublesome a small sin in the conscience is like a mote in the eye 6. Of an infectious and spreding nature Rom. 1. ult 3 ep Iohn 10. Christ was that true scape-goat Lev. 16 22. who expiated the sins of all the elect laid upon him and carried them far from the sight of God that they never appear That is explained by the Prophet Isa. 53. Isa. 11. and is confirmed by the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 21. if Christ had not taken our guilt upon himself saith Sanford de descensu Christi ad inferos lib. 3. We had been guilty to this day There are 3 things saith he in sin the name the fault the guilt which may be imputed the fault that is the fact it self cannot be imputed but to us sinners so either the guilt saith he is imputed to Christ or only the empty name of our sin Fourthly The dominion of sinne There is 1. a virtuall dominion in sin so originall sin reigns 2. Actuall every mans darling and bosome sin 1. The darling sin keeps Christ out of the soul. 2. All other lusts are serviceable to it These things make a reigning sin 1. Soveraignty in the sinne 2. Absolute and uncontrolled subjection in the sinner Soveraignty is a Throne of sin set up in the heart three things concur to this 1. A conquest yet that alone makes it not a raigning but a prevailing sin 2. Possession a standing power in the heart 3. The exercising of that power Secondly On the sinners side there must be a willingnesse Rom. 5. his servants ye are whom ye obey often in that Chapter of the Romans Iude 11. there is a going on notwithstanding warning in the way an obstinacy in sin 2. They ran greedily or powred out themselves there is a free giving of the will to it Sins of ignorance and omission may be raigning sins Hos. 4. 1. 2 Thes. 1. 8. not so much the greatnesse of the sin as the manner of committing it makes it a raigning sin Secret sins may be raigning sins In the Eastern Countries the King was seldome seen abroad Hos. 7. 17. an Oven the more it is stopt the hotter it is ignorance of the act makes it not a raigning sin but of the right doth if one be bound to know it Sins of thought may be raigning sins therein the heart is the Throne Isa. 59. 5. Pray that the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee Little sins such as the world cals little may be committed with a high hand Every man hath some peccatum in delicijs as the Fathers call it some bosome or darling sin as Modern Divines term it Matth. 5. 29. 2 Tim. 2. 25. A man is proner to some sins then others in regard of his temper of body manner of life education age place of living state calling and the like one mans bodily temper inclineth him to anger anothers to lust a third to carnall sorrow a fourth to fear a fifth to carking and worldly cares As envy in Saul covetonsnesse in Iudas ambition in Absalom uncleannesse in Herod This is called in Scripture a mans right eye his own inquity the stumbling block of his iniquity How to know a mans darling sin 1. Nothing is so pleasing to the soul nor so much ingrosâ—eth his thoughts as it maâ—k what thy soul is most prone to take pleasure in Iob 20. 12. and what thou most thinkest of Mat. 6. 21. Iob 17. 11. Hos. 14 11. 2. What the Spirit of God in thy most secret soul-searchings discovers to thee or thy private friends most tell thee of the guilt of it doth most affright thy conscience when it is awakened 3. What it is thy heart is most careful to hide Iob 10. 13. men have several distinctions and excuses for it 4. It is the same which most interposeth in holy duties Ezek. 31. 33. How to know when ones darling sin is mortified Quod non placet non nocet Rom. 7. 17. what displeaseth us shall never hurt us Sin reigneth not 1. If we have purpose against it 2. If we have grief for it 3. If we seek for strength against it Bains Spirit Armour A diligent and constant care to resist a mans own corruption is a sure proof of uprightnesse and such a one shall enjoy the comfort of his sincerity in due time This is Satans great bait and by this sin thou dost most dishonour God and wound conscience because this sin sets up another God against God CHAP. V. Of the Evill of Sinne. 1. IN regard of God it strikes not only at his soveraignty Psa. 51. 4. but his Being Psa. 10. 4. It is contrary to the whole nature of God Lev. 26. 22. Col. 1. 12. If we look on the Soveraignty of God sin is rebellion if on his justice sin is iniquity If on his goodnesse sin is unkindenesse but it especially wrongeth the Holinesse of God in respect of its defilement Zech. 11. 8. Amos 5. 21. Hab. 1. 13. Psa. 5. 4 5. If we consider Gods Holinesse as a Rule sin is a transgression if as an excellency sinne is a deformity It is a separation or aversion of the soul from him in these respects 1. It is a taking off the soul from the love of God as the greatest good and the fear of God and delight in him â—elying on him committing our selves to him ler. 2. 12 13. Iam. 4. 4. 2. A separation from the Law of God as our rule therefore it is a going besides a being without the Law Iohn 3. 4. Mat. 15. 6. In the Law there is 1. A rectitude I have esteemed thy Commandements in every thing to be right sin is a croookednesse Psal. 125. 5. 2. A wisedom wisedom is justified of her children there is a folly in sin the wicked man is called a fool often in the Proverbs Jer. 8. 9. 3. There is a purity and holinesse in the Law Thy Commandements are very pure therefore thy Servant loveth them Rom. 7. 12. sin is filthinesse it self 4. There is a harmony in the Law sin is a disharmony 5. There is a liberty in the Law Iam. 2. 8. sin is a bondage 2 Tim. 2. 26. 6. The keeping of the Law brings a reward but sin shame and death Rom. 6. 22 23. 3. It takes away the soul from the dominion of God we will not have
who doth not love fear trust in him as well as he that sets up an Idol to worship him 2. The first and main evil of sin was in the omission Sin first draws away from God before it enticeth Iam. 1. 22. Ier. 2. 13. To speak exactly there is no sin but that of omission it is a deficiency and coming short of the rule 3. The state of unregeneracy lies mainly in the sins of omission there is much more evil in a state of sin then in the act of it Eph. 2. 12. the reign of sinne is more seen in omission then commission there is a higher act of soveraignty in the negative voice then in any positive Law 4. The ground of every sin of commission is a sin of omission turning away the soul from God Psa. 14. 1 2. Iob 15. 4. Iam. 1. 14. negligentiam in orando semper aliqua notabilis transgressio sequitur Iohn 20. 24 25. Rom. 1. 21. compared with 24. 2 Thes. 2. 10. 5. The greatnesse of sin is measured by the mischief it doth the sinner sins against the Gospel are greater then those against the Law sins of commission make the wound sins of omission keep you from the plaister Iohn 3. ult 6. These are the sins which Christ will mainly enquire after Mat. 25. 42 43. We should loathe sins of omission which in the world are little made of 1 Sam. 12. 23. Wo unto me if I preach not the Gospel saith Paul Peter and Iohn say We cannot but speak the things which we have heard These omissions directly oppose the will law and honour of God as well as the committing of foul faults 2. They will damn us as well as commissions 3. They will make way for grosse evil deeds There are three sorts of omissions 1. Totall non-performances not praying reading hearing meditating Psal. 14 4 â— 2. Seldome performances intermission or performing of duties unevenly 1 Thes. 5. 17. Col. 4. 2. 3. Sleighty performances when we keep a tract of duty but do it customarily pray not fervently and spiritually Rom. 12. 11. Sins against the Gospel are greater then sins against the Law 1. The more Laws are transgrest the greater the sin There are three sorts of Laws 1. The Law of nature which teacheth to do good to them that do good to us Mat. 5. 43. 2. The morall Law which requires subjection to whatever God commands 3. The Law of faith Rom. 3. 27. which requires subjection to God in his Son all these are broken by sinning against the Gospel 2. The more of the minde of the Law-giver is in the Law the greater is the sinne Mens legis est lex Gods minde is clearly seen in the Gospel viz. the exalting of himself in his Son Pro. 8. 30. 3. The more any one sins against light the greater the sin there was never such a discovery of the filthinesse of sin nor of the justice of God upon sin it could not be purged but by the bloud of God Acts 12. 28. See Ephes. 5. 26. never such a discovery of Gods grace as in the New Covenant a second Covenant was never tendred to the Devils 4. They are sins against higher love God loved Adam and the Angels Amore amicitiae they had never offended him he loved us Amore misericordiae Rom. 5. 8. he loved Adam and Angels in themselves us in Christ Eph. 1. 6. 5. These sins make way for the sin against the holy Ghost Matth. 12. 32. Objectum hujus peccati non est lex sed Evangelium The sins of Gods people are greater then others sins In eadem specie peccati gravius peccat fidelis quam infidelis Grace aggravates and heightens sin They sin 1. Against the highest light Ps. 51. 6. 2. The highest love peculiar goodnesse electing love Of all sins to be without God or out of Covenant with God is the greatest sin it is against the great command in the Law the first Commandment and the great promise in the Gospel Those sins wherein a mans self is the object are the worst of all sins self-deceit is the worst of all deceits and self-murder is the worst of all murders The degrees of sin in a mans own heart or the conception birth and perfection of sin there First Injection or suggestion from Satan which stirs up the lusts in the heart 1 Iohn 5. 19. Secondly The soul receives the thought there must be Partus cordis as well as seminarium hostis Bernard Iob 17. 11. Thirdly Delectatio the soul is pleas'd with such thoughts so Eve Fourthly Upon this the will consenteth then lust is conceived Fifthly There is a consultation in the soul how to bring this into act Rom. 13. 14. CHAP. VII That all Sins are Mortal THe Schoolmen and their followers the Jesuites distinguish sins into Venial and Mortal Some sins say they are sua natura in their own nature venial others mortal of which they reckon up seven Veniale quod est praeter mortale quod est contra legem As all sin except that against the holy Ghost Mark 7. 29. is venial in Christ so without him is all mortal and deadly Cartw on Mat. 5. 23. All sinne deserveth eternal death Rom. 6. 23. as appeareth by the opposition of life everlasting which the Apostle joyneth in the same verse Id. ibid. There is the merit of hell in every idle word because the wages of sin as sin is death Every transgression of the Law is worthy of death Gal. 3. 10. Every sinne is a transgression of the Law 1 Iohn 3. 4. Rainold de lib. Apoc. Tom. 2. cap. 164. 165. See Deut. 27. 26. 30. 19. Ezekiel 18. 4. Iames 2. 10. Numbers 15 22 23 24. 1 Cor. 15. 56. Bellarmine seeks to elu de these and that other place with these glosses The soul that sinneth that is mortally shall die the wages of sin that is of mortal sin is death and the sting of death is sinne that is deadly sinne these are tautologies as if the Prophet had said The soul that sinneth a sinne unto death shall die and the Apostie sinne that deserveth death deserveth death He saith they are venial ex natura sua such as if God please to remit the temporal punishment they are so little that he cannot inflict eternal for them they are venial propter parvitatem materiae imperfectionem actus Quodvis peccatum peccantem in rigore lâ—gis morte involveret si persona absque misericordia Dei in Christo judicaretur Episc. Daven Sins may be termed venial or mortal 1. Either comparatè in comparison of others or simpliciter simply and in themselves and that either 1. Ex natura sua of their own nature 2. Ex gratia by favour or indulgence 3. Ex eventu in the issue or event in the two last respects all the sins of the elect are venial but no sins ex natura sua are venial that is such as in their own nature deserve
pardon Nullum peccatum est veniale dum placet sicut nullum mortale si verè displicet August Ambrosius saith All mortal sins are made venial by repentance Object Mat. 5. 22. There are two punishments lesse then hell fire Therefore all sins are not mortal Answ. That which our Saviour speaketh here of three several punishments is spoken by allusion to the proceeding in the Civil Courts in Iudaea and all that can be gathered from thence is but this That as there are differences of sins so there shall be of punishments hereafter 2. Maldonate the Jesuite ingeniously confesseth that by councel and judgement the eternal death of the soul is understood yet with this difference that a lesse degree of torment in hell is understood by the word Judgement then Councel and a lesse by Councel then by hell fire Object Mat. 5. 26. 7. 5. Luke 6. 41. 1 Cor. 3. 12. Some sins there are compared to very light things as hay stubble a mote a farthing Answ. 1. Some sins in comparison of others may be said to be light as a mote is little to a beam a farthing to a pound yet no sinne committed against God may be simply termed light or little Zech. 1. 5. being committed against an infinite God and having cost an infinite price 2. A mote if it be not taken out of the eye hindereth the sight so the least sinne hindereth grace and is sufficient to damn the soul. 3. Christ by the farthing Matth. 5. understands the last paiment of debt not sinne and the Apostle light and vain Doctrine by hay and stubble Purgatory is to cleanse men from their lesser sins but precious Doctrines or good works are there tried by fire Object James 1. 15. Sin When it is perfected brings forth death therefore not every sin not sin in every degree Answ. The Apostle there sets forth the method and order how sin comes to the height the word he useth for sin is of the feminine gender speaking of the conception and production of sin he saith Sin when it is finisht brings forth death actually the least sin merits death or the Apostle shews when death appears to us most not in its conception and production but when it is finisht Object Mat. 12. 36. He saith not we shall be condemned for every idle word but only that we shall be called to answer for it Answ. The same phrase is used concerning all kinde of sins yea those that are greatest and most grievous Object There is a mortal sin 1 Iohn 5. 16. therefore a venial sin Answ. He speaks of a mortal sinne not by nature or by merit but by event the event of which shall certainly be death and the person out of all hope of pardon Vide Bezam Of all words sin hath no diminutive not in any tongue known to us commonly only the Spaniard hath his Peccadillo a petty sin Dr Clark Sinnes considered in reference to the object are all great so Peccata sunt aequalia 2. The least sin that ever was committed had in it the whole nature of sin it is tam peccatum as truly sin as the greatest CHAP. VIII Of the Cause of Sinne. SIn properly is nothing formally subsisting or existing for then God should be the author of it but it is an ataxy or absence of goodnesse and uprightnesse in the thing that subsisteth Psal. 5. 4. 1 Iohn 2. 16. 1 Iohn 1. 5. Hab. 1. 13. Iob 34. 10. The Church of Rome slanders the Protestants and saith that they maintain God to be the cause of sin but we hold that the Devil and mans corrupt will are the cause of it Sin in man at first came from Satan Iohn 3. 8. 8. 44. Iohn 6. 17. Matth. 16. 23. the cause of sinne now man is fallen is from our selves Matth. 15. 19. God hath no hand in the acting and approving of sinne Rom. 3. 5. 9. 14. He is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity with approbation He is the wise permitter powerful disposer and eternal avenger of it God cannot sin or cause others to sin 1. Because his will is most holy and pure and the rule of perfection Isa. 6. He is holy in his Nature Actions he hath so confirmed his Angels in holinesse that they cannot sin 2. To sinne is to turn away from the chiefest and last end therefore he cannot sinne 3. God threatens sinners in his word and punisheth them therefore he allows it not 4. All deservedly hate the Manichees Marcionites and Libertines who would make that sacred and dreadful Majesty the cause of their detestable enormities therefore Bellarmine doth wickedly in imputing to Protestant Divines that which they detest with the greatest loathing That is a great Question in Divinity An Deus author peccati ex reformatorum placitis statuatur Four several kinds of power though not in yet over sinne may be ascribed to God a permissive desertive restrictive and disposing power First A permissive power else it could not be he may permit what he is not bound to hinder Secondly A desertive power it would not be if he withdrew not his grace sinne needs no efficient cause no more then darknesse Causa deficiens in moralibus efficiens Thirdly A restraining power there may be an act of restraining grace on the Devil Fourthly A disposing power whereby he disposeth and ordereth sinne to some excellent and good end his glory When God doth dispose or order the sin of any man 1. He doth not infuse this evil but use it 2. He useth it not as an evil or sin but as an instrument 3. He would not use it to such an end but that he is able to raise more good by it and to counterpoise all the evil in the action 4. God did not infuse malice into Iosephs brethren but made use of it rather to a sale then a murder he sent him before to save much people alive Gen. 45. 8. In the beginning of sin Gods will is exercised First By way of inhibition in giving a Law against it Secondly By way of permission leaying a lawlesse man to a lawlesse way In the progresse of sin God either hinders or over-rules it in the end he either punisheth or pardoneth it And all this without sin or the least blemish of sin For in the beginning of sin he sheweth his Wisdome In the progresse he sheweth his Power In the end he maketh manifest both his Justice and his Mercy Mr Wischart on the Lords Prayer Petit. 3. Those places Acts 2. 23. 2 Sam. 1. 43. besides a permission do expresse an active providence he is said to harden and deceive Gods permission is not otiosa but efficax permissio 1. God permits sin 2. Cooperates to the act as natural 3. Decreed it 4. As a just Judge he denieth grace 5. As the supream Judge he useth all these as instruments of his glory Papists and Arminians allow God no other power about sin but what is
Sixthly Those that are used to great visions of God Salomons heart departed from the Lord that appeared to him twice Eclipsis lunaris nunquam contingit nisi in plenilunio The Saints of God are often gainers by their sinne Rom. 8. 28. Good comes to them this way by accident the Lord over-ruling it by his wisdom and grace First Hereby a man is discovered to himself sees that in his own heart which he never saw before 2 Chron. 32. 31. Secondly The work of his humiliation and repentance is perfected this use Paul made of his grievous sins I was a persecutor saith he Thirdly The work of regeneration is perfected Luke 22. 32. Fourthly He exalts the grace of God so Paul Fifthly It makes him watch over his own heart and shun the occasions of sinne the more Sixthly It makes him the more compassionate to others when they fall Gal. 6. 1. CHAP. XII Two Questions resolved about sinne Quest. 1. HOw can grace and corruption stand together so that corruption poisons not grace nor grace works out corruption when the admitting of one sin by Adam kill'd him presently Answ. Perfect holinesse cannot stand with any corruption but when the first lines only of Gods Image are drawn they may stand with corruption If corruption should destroy grace or grace corruption formally yet they may be mixed together in gradu remisso God hath undertaken not to withdraw himself from them God though he could take away the seeds of sins yet suffers such remainders of corruption to abide in his people for divers good reasons 1. Because the Lord delights in this world rather to shew grace to the persons of his servants then to their natures 2. Because he would humble them as Paul when exalted above measure and have them live on free grace 2 Pet. 1. 9. The Devil tempted Adam though he was created perfect telling him he should be as God if from a state of sin there should be such a sudden change to perfection men would be apt to swell The Antinomians will have nothing to do with the Law and then since by the Law comes the knowledge of transgression they think they are without sin and after that they are perfect like God 3. He delights in their fervent hearty prayers he would have his children daily begging of him 4. He would have them long to be dissolved and to be at home with him 5. That he might magnifie the power of the in-dwelling vertue of his Spirit that a little grace should dwell amidst great corruptions 6. That we might deal gently with our brethren when they fall Gal. 6. 1. Quest. 2. Wherein lies the difference between a man sanctified and unsanctified in regard of the body of corruption Answ. There are these apparent differences 1. An unregenerate man hath a body of corruption in him and nothing else all his thoughts in him are only evil continually a regenerate man hath a body of grace as well as of corruption 2. The natural man carries the guilt of it with him the reward of his body of sinne is death and destruction but in the regenerate man the guilt that is the power to binde him over to the wrath of God is wholly done away in the bloud of Christ Gods displeasure doth not redundare in personam the person is pardoned though the sin remain 3. The body of corruption hath the whole rule in the unregenerate man it is the active principle from which all is wrought but in the other grace strugleth against it The Papists say 1. There is no such body of corruption left in a man when he is regenerate in Baptism or when Regeneration is wrought the body of corruption is taken away 2. They say Concupiscence never was a sin but was in Adam in the state of Innocency 3. That the good workes of regenerate men are perfect This may minister consolation to the people of God who finde these reliques of corruption they are unteachable sinful can do nothing well 1. This is the condition more or lesse of all the servants of God 2. These corruptions are not imputed to thee the Lord loves thee as well as if thou wert rid of them 3. Thy loathing thy self for them is as pleasing to God as if thou couldst perform perfect duties 4. Christ will reign in thee in the midst of these his enemies 5. He will deliver thee from these reliques of corruption when he hath done good to thee by them 6. This should make thee humble and watchful CHAP. XIII Of the Saints care to preserve themselves from sin and especially their own iniquities GODS people must and will carefully preserve themselves from wickednesse 2. They must bend their care most against their own sins The first Proposition is proved out of 1 Iohn 5. 18. Our Saviour saith Take heed to your selves of the leven of the Pharisees and take heed of covetousnesse take heed to your selves that your hearts be not oppressed with surfetting and drunkennesse Paul bids Timothy to keep himself pure 2 Cor. 7. 11. Among other fruits of godly sorrow the Apostle begins with care or diligence which is the duty we are now speaking of viz. a care not to sin Psal. 119. I hid thy law in my heart that I might not sinne against thee I took pains to with-draw my self from sinne Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity Reasons 1. Why the people of God ought to keep themselves in this manner 2. Why they can and will do so First They are bound to do so in divers respects 1. Because of the many advantages which sinne hath against them in regard of which they will be miserably overtaken with it if they do not look to themselves 1. A naughty nature within them by which they are apt to all sinne as occasion temptation and their natural ability doth serve which if it be not opposed will break forth very much 2. We have an enemy the Devil who doth observe and watch us with all subtilty and malice with unwearied diligence it is his businesse to draw us to sinne to suggest evil fancies into us and to work upon our corruption we see how he impoisoned our first parents when they were not careful 3. The world is stored with variety of means to draw a man to every sin objects to every sense incouragements provocations examples Great danger of sinning requires great diligence to prevent the danger 2. We must consider of the hurt that will befall us from sinne if through our carelesnesse we suffer it to get the better of us not to speak of the mischief of eternal death a holy man may run into great sins and shall surely do so without great care and watchfulnesse and those will be very hurtful unto him they will break off his communion with God interrupt the peace of his conscience deface Gods Image in him and disable him from praying or doing any good duty and fill him
and all the rest are nought for they came from Satan and serve to set him up in mens mindes and to quench the respect and fear of God Division All creatures in their natural estate are severed and divided one from another 1. They are divided from God the only and chiefest good 2. From the Angels 1 Cor. 11. 10. 3. One from another Isa. 19. begin 4. From themselves We are joyned to Satan and comply with the Idols of our own hearts Ezek. 14. begin 1. The nature of this division is not only local as that of Reuben Judg. 5. 15 16. by the river Iordan or in externals but spiritual which is the worst as spiritual union is the best This makes the difference in mens mindes judgements wils consciences Acts 26. 9. Iohn 16. beg divided in the very ends they propound and the means that lead to those ends and the rule The causes of it are sad the lusts and sins of our own hearts the just indignation of God These sins especially 1. Idolatry Iudg. 5. 8. 2. Covenant-breaking Levit. 26. 25. 3. Pride Ier. 13. 9. compared with 14. 4. Hypocrisie Isa. 10. 6. 5. Apostasie Arguments against division and falling into parties First Divisions are a judgement of God upon a Nation Zech. 13. 14. Secondly Consider the several sins that falling into parties puts men upon 1. It puts them on great thoughts of heart Iudg. 5. 15. 2. Men break forth into bitter censuring and reviling of those which are not of their own party Prov. 21. 24. Iames 4. 11. they set up their own will in opposition to God 3. It causeth men to be glad to hear evil one of another and take up any report for truth Nehem. 6. 6. and glad of any mischief that shall befall them Ezek. 25. 6. 4. This layes upon men a necessity of joyning with any to oppose that party though they be never so contrary in religion or affection Thirdly Falling into parties is a certain way of ruine 1. In the just judgement of God Hos. 10. 2. 2. In the nature of the thing Iudg. 5. 5. In cause of religion every subdivision is a strong weapon in the hand of the contrary part Hist. of Councel of Trent lib. 1. pag. 49. Two earthen pots floting with this Inscription Si collidimur frangimur If we knock we crack were long ago made the embleme of England and the Low countries but may now be extended to all Christians We shall finde in our English Chronicles that England was never destroyed but when divided within it self our civil divisions brought in the Romans the Saxons Danes and Normans Though our Civil and Ecclesiastical breaches be very great Lam. 2. 13. yet God can and will heal all the breaches of his Saints 1. Because he hath promised to do it Isa. 2. 4. 11. 6 7 8 9 13. 30. 26. 32. 18. 33. 20. Ezek. 28. 24. Ier. 32. 39. Zeph. 3. 9. Zech. 14. 9. 2. Christ hath prayed for it three times in Iohn 17. viz. 21 22 23. verses 3. Christ died to make his people one Ephes. 2. from 14. to the later end See 1 Cor. 12. Rom. 8. to the end There are some cementing or reconciling graces faith repentance charity Col. 3. 14. and humility There is much talk of peace and unity peace with truth or peace and holiness are joyned together in Scripture We should pray to Christ to heal our divisions that he would make us one we should put on love which is the bond of perfectnesse Col. 3. 14 15. See Phil. 3. 14 15. Drunkennesse Drunkennesse is a great sin Isa. 28. 1. Deut. 32. 32. Prov. 23. 29 30 31. The Scripture condemns it Be not drunk with wine saith the Apostle Salomon forbids to keep company with a wine bibber the Prophet denounceth a woe to the drunkards of Ephraim Drunkennesse is one of the fruits of the flesh and a drunkard one of those whom Paul excludes from heaven Nature condemns it it trampleth under foot at once the whole Law and Gospel too First For the Law it violates each Commandment The first the drunkard makes his belly his god he cannot exercise knowledge of God love fear confidence remembrance of sin or any vertue It breaks the second Commandment it is a direct breach of our vow made in Baptism and renewed in the Lords Supper for this is one of the works of the Devil which we then renounced Again it hinders a man from praying reading meditating or doing any good and religious duty It breaketh the third Commandment because it is an abuse of one of Gods creatures and so takes Gods name in vain it causeth that one can neither see God in his works nor do any works to his glory nor shew forth thankfulness for benefits nor patience in crosses and because it fils the mouth full of foul and desperate oaths The fourth he is unfit to sanctifie the Sabbath and if one be drunk on the Lords-day it is a great prophanation of it for it is farre from a holy work The fifth it makes one despise Parents Magistrates all Governors it makes him abuse Wife Children Servants and all his Inferiours it makes him lift up himself above his equals and despise all in comparison of himself The sixth it is a hurt to his own body and breeds vile diseases dropsie fever rednesse of eyes makes him rail revile quarrel and kill and commit all insolent injuries and hazards himself to untimely death Gal. 5. 21. The seventh for it fils heart and tongue and all full of filthinesse it inflames the body to lust a drunken Lot will commit incest Rom. 13. 13. The eighth it is a wasting of time and goods and a robbing of a mans self and family it often enciteth to cozenage and beguiling it is grosse injustice The ninth it makes him full of bragging and boasting and backbiting his tongue is as full of vanity as his head of vapours The tenth it fils the minde full of leud imaginations and exposeth him to Satans suggestions Perkins on Revel 2. 14. shews that Popery breaks every Commandment Mr Paget in his admonition touching Talmudique allegations pag. 422. to 436. shews how the Jewish Rabbins break every Commandment It is against the Gospel it oppresseth the heart and takes away reason that a man grows hard-hearted and fils men full of presumption There was a street in Rome called Vicus sobrius the sober street but is there a village in England that may be called Villa sobria the sober village If a man though he loaths drunkennesse should to symbolize with wicked company drink immoderately yet it is drunkennesse it is true he is not ebriosus an old soaking drunkard yet he is â—brius he hath committed the sinne of drunkennesse There is a two-fold privation of reason 1. Aptitudinal when a man drinks so immoderately that there is a disposition to disturb reason yet because he is of a strong brain and
Saviour even such and such a one they were Types of Christ the great Saviour That saveth us out of the hands of our enemies as that holy man telleth in this Song This is the first Title Jesus and the reason of it and it was his Name by which he was commonly known and called and now known and called a name of infinite sweetnesse to us of infinite honour and praise to him For how much comfort did oppressed Nations receive at the hearing of such a Deliverer How much honour did they shew unto him And therefore when the Apostle telleth us of our subjection unto Christs Authority he ascribeth it unto this Name as shewing us that this is the foundation of his requiring and our yeelding all honour and obedience to him He takes not upon him to be honoured onely because he will be honoured or because he is in himself worthy of it in regard of Excellency but because he hath deserved it at our hands and is perfectly worthy of it in regard of the things he hath done for us Baptism saves representatively Ioshua temporally Ministers instrumentally Jesus principally Christ delivers his people from their spiritual slavery the bondage of sin Satan the Law Death Hell The slavery of sin and Satan is all one the Devil hath dominion over the soul only by sinne our lusts are his strong holds Satan is cast out when sinne is broken 2 Tim. 2. 26. See 1 Ioh. 3. 8. Where he comes to be a Saviour First He breaks all the yokes of sinne Rom. 7. 14 17. 8. 2. He delivers his servants 1. From the guilt of sin whereby the sinner is bound over to punishment Christ hath discharged the debt for us Rom. 8. 1. Gal. 3. 13. 2. From the stain and defilement of sinne 1 Cor. 6. 11. and that partly by repairing the image of God in the soul which sinne had defaced and by imputing all his righteousnesse to them so that the soul stands covered over before God with the beauty of Christ Jesus Revel 1. 5. 3. From the reigning power of sin by his Spirit Rom. 6. Acts 3. 26. Titus 2. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18. Secondly Christ delivers his people from the yoke of the Law both Ceremonial and Moral 1. He hath totally delivered his people from the ceremonial Law those ceremonies that concerned the publick external Worship of God and their private conversation multitude of observations and some costly 2. He hath freed them from the burden of the Moral Law 1. From it as a Covenant of life they have life by Christ. 2. From the curses of it Gal. 3. 13. 3. The rigor of it 4. As it brings wrath and the Spirit of bondage 2 Tim. 1. 7. 5. From the irritation of it for by accident it provokes a mans corruption Rom. 7. 8. 6. As it increaseth the guilt of sin Christ hath taken all the guilt upon his own shoulders Thirdly Christ sets all his servants free from the yoke of Death and Hell the first and second death this is proved out of 1 Cor. 15. 25 26 54. Ioh. 11. 26. Revel 2. 10. 20. 6. 1 Thes. 1. ult Christ delivers his people from the curse of Death 1. Meritoriously by undergoing death Heb. 2. 14 15. In morte Christi obiit mors he endured the wrath of God due to all Gods people 2. He effectually applies this to his people in the administration of the Covenant of Grace The Papists abuse the name of Jesus four wayes 1. In making it a name of wonder using it idly and foolishly in their talk O Iesus 2. In a superstitious worshipping of the letters and syllables bowing at the sound of the word Vox Iesus vel audita vel visa is worshipped by them They say this is the name which God gave his Son after he had submitted to death for us This name Jesus was given to Christ long before his exaltation It is common to others Iesus the sonne of Syrach and Ioshua Heb. 4. 8. They doe not bow at the Name of Christ or Immanuel or at the mention of any other Person in the Trinity 3. In making it a name of a Sect the Jesuites are so termed from it Vide Bezam in 1 Cor. 2. 21. They should rather be called Ignatians of Ignatius the first author of their Society and Order 4. In abusing it for a charm to cast out Devils The Scripture indeed saith By thy Name but the meaning is by thy power have we cast out Devils They abuse that place Acts 3. 16. His Name hath made this man strong that is say they the Apostles pronounced the Name Jesus and the pronunciation of this name hath a force of driving away Devils or doing other miracles the Name of Christ there is Christ himself or his power The Jews out of the word Iesu make the number of â—16 by the Letters and there they have curses and blasphemies scarce to be named Calverts Annot. on the blessed Jew of Morocco The Arminians say Salvation may be had without knowledge of or faith in Christ Jesus Vide Musaeum contra Vedel c. 9. Act. 4. 12. Some of the ancient Fathers before the rising of the Pelagian Heresie who had so put on Christ as Lipsius speaks that they had not fully put off Plato have unadvisedly dropt some speeches seeming to grant that divers men before the Incarnation living according to the dictates of right reason might be saved without faith in Christ. The Quession is not Whether a Gentile believing in Christ may be saved But Whether a man by the conduct of Nature without the knowledge of Christ may come to heaven The assertion whereof we condemn as wicked Pelagian Socinian Heresie and think that it was well said of Bernard That many labouring to make Plato a Christian do prove themselves to be Heathens The Patriarchs and Jews believed in Christum exhibendum moriturum as we in him Exhibitum mortuum Gen. 12. 3. 49. 10. Psal. 27. 8. 110. Bowing at the name of Jesus is defended by Mountague Orig. Eccles. part 1. pag. 123. And Parre on the Romans seems from Zanchy and Paraeus to justifie it but it is generally disliked by the soundest Divines The second Title by which he is termed is a Redeemer by which is expressed in part the manner how he saved us even by buying us out of the hands of our enemies For to save signifieth to deliver without intimating the means of delivering but to redeem noteth also the way how the deliverance was accomplished even by paying a price a valuable consideration in regard of which the party captived and forfeited to death or bonds should be restored to his liberty and good estate again And this kind of deliverance is the fairest deliverance the only way of procuring deliverance when a person is made miserable by his own default and fallen into the hands of Justice joyned with perfect strength so that there is neither reason
and hooting at him out of disdain as accounting him undoubtedly a blasphemous impostor because pretending to be the Messiah from whom they looked for the restitution of their earthly Kingdom he was so farre from doing that as now he could not so they thought deliver himself from the hands of men Then Pilate sets him in balance with a seditious murderer and they require the murderer to be saved and him to be crucified renouncing him and denying him before Pilate as not the lawfull King of the Jews but a grand Impostor and will have no nay but with importunate clamours inforce the timerous Judge to condemn him Now is sentence solemnly pronounced upon him That for as much as he was a Seditious person a Traitor and one that went about to usurp the Kingdom against the Royal dignity of Câ—sars Imperiall Majesty therefore he should be taken by the Roman Officers and led to a place without the City where malefactors used according to the fashion of the Romans with their basest slaves to be nailed to a Crosse and so hang till they were dead No sooner was the sentence passed but that it began to be executed The souldiers seize upon him and having gotten him as a Dove among Kites a Sheep among Lions they sport themselves with mocking deriding and abusing him by words and gestures of counterfeit honour which are the greatest dishonours thereby upbraiding him with folly that would needs make a King of himself To the place of crucifying they lead him bearing his own Crosse till he being spent with watching bleeding wearinesse and grief was no longer able to bear it then they compelled another whom they met to bear one end of it after him So being arrived at the dismall place of dead mens skuls they offer him the potion of malefactors wine mingled with myrrhe as it is thought to intoxicate his brain which he refusing they stretch his hands and legs till all his bones might be told and so nailing one hand to one horn of the Crosse the other to the other and his feet to the stump at the bottom they leave him hanging and that also betwixt two theeves with a scornfull superscription of his fault I. N. R. I. Ierusalem was chosen for the place of his suffering Ibi peractum est verum hoc summum sacrificium ubi reliqua legis sacrificia umbrae istius Ludovic Viv. de verit Fid. Christ. l. 2. c. 15. His soul was filled with unspeakable grief in the sense of the curse of the Law which there he bare and so vehement was his anguish that he cried out for thirst when they gave him the cold comfort of a little vinegar and gall with a scoff to make it relish the bitterer Let us see if Elias will come All the people wagge their heads at him the Pharisees they insult over him with Oh thou that didst destroy the Temple His poor mother and some friends stood by and lamented him till at the end of three full hours he mightily crying did give up the ghost into his Fathers hands So he died a most vile and shamefull death a most hard and painfull a most execrable and cursed death the death of the Crosse. The death of the Crosse was 1. A shamefull death Heb. 12. 2. 13. 13. Isa. 53. 12. A filthy death Alexander ab Alexandro so termeth it Mors turpissima Bernard Therefore Iulian called Christ the crucified or staked God And the Jews continue still in railing on Christ and cursing him and ignominiously call him Talui him that was hanged in which the Christians glory Gal. 6. 14. They teach their children to curse Christ. The Turks mock us at this day with our crucified God He died In medio latronum tanquam latronum maximus He was counted a malefactour by wicked men Matth. 26. 65. Good men lookt on him as an Impostor Luk. 24. 21. God lookt on him as a malefactour Heb. 9. 28. Tully saith Facinus est vincire civem Romanum scelus verberare quid dicam in crucem tollere It is a great offence to binde a Citizen of Rome a greater to beat him the greatest to set him on the Crosse. 2. It is a painfull death He endured the crosse Heb. 12. 2. Christs strong cries like womens in their travell argued strong pain Acts 2. 24. see Lament â— 24. Bruising hath pain Gen. 3. 15. Isa. 53. 10. He was nailed in the hands and feet the most sinewy and sensitive parts Psal. 22. 16. 3. It was a cursed death Gal. 3. 13. that is yielded himself to a cursed death for us so the Fathers glosse it It was a cursed death by the decree and appointment of God Deut. 21. 23. Christs hanging on the Crosse seems to be prefigured by the Heave offering of which the Law makes mention and the brazen Serpent Numb 21. 1. was a Type of Christ crucified Iohn 3. 14 15. 12. 32 33. The reason was That he might free us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. The Prince of darknesse would not let so great an advantage passe without proving once more whether in this last hideous pang of death he might not prevail to have fastened some stain of sinne upon the pure soul of that immaculate and now dying Lamb of God He could not have fitly been said to have triumphed over them on the Crosse if he had not properly grappled and fought with them there wherefore assuredly the whole band of that hellish kingdom of darknesse was let loose upon our Saviour he having at once the Creator and the creatures men and devils against him and yet maintaining himself in perfect faith and patience might indeed make a full satisfaction to the Divine justice for the miserable disobedience of man Christ died for the reprobate five waies 1. By way of proclamation Remission of sins is proclaimed to thee if thou wilt beleeve Luke 24. 47. Act. 13. 38. 10. 43. 2. By way of obligation Thou art bound to beleeve that thy sins may be forgiven thee in Christ Mark 1. 15. Rom. 7. 2. 3. By way of obsignation 4. By way of generall merit Iohn 3. 16. 5. By way of special intention too for all that thou knowest Act. 8. 22. M. Fenners Hidden Manna That is an Argument of great fame but little credit used by the Arminians Quod unusquisque tenetur credere hoc verum c. That which every one is bound to beleeve is true But every one is bound to beleeve that Jesus Christ died for him Therefore it is true that Jesus Christ died for every one The first object of faith is not to beleeve that Christ died for us but that there is salvation in no other Act. 4. 12. To beleeve that Christ died for me is one of the heights of Religion Rom. 8. 33. Gal. 2. 20. Faith is grounded on the word assurance on experience A wicked man going on in sin is not
bound to beleeve that Christ died for him Adams disobedience is generall and universall not in power alone but in act too it maketh all sinners The obedience of Christ hath a potentiall universality and is sufficient to make all righteous but actually it justifies the faithfull only Dr Hampton on Rom. 5. 19. Every man is bound upon pain of damnation to beleeve in Christ according to the first degree of faith Iohn 3. 18. that is by a true and lively assent to beleeve That Jesus is the Saviour of all that truly beleeve in him and having this faith thou art bound to beleeve that he is thy Saviour that he died for thy sins and rose again for thy justification but every individual person is not bound to beleeve that Christ died for him for then the greater part of men should be bound to beleeve untruths so some answer it Others say that all generally have the offer of Christ to whom the Gospel is preached Act. 13. 38 39. yet Christ died not alike for all as the Arminians hold but for the Elect more especially so as not only to save them if they beleeve but also that they may beleeve and so be saved Iohn 17. 2 6 9. Acts 13. 48. Phil. 1. 29. Vide Davenant Dissertat de morte Christi Mori pro aliquo propriè est morte sua aliquem à morte liberare seu mori alicujus loco ut ipse vivat 2 Sam. 18. 33. Rom. 5. 6 8. 2 Cor. 5. 15. 1 Joh. 3. 16. 4. 9. Act. Synod nation Dordrecht Artic. 2. exam Vide plura ibid. Testatur Scriptura Christum pro omnibus mortuum nusquam autem pro singulis nec disertis nec aequivalentibus verbis Quamobrem Omnes in hac propositione aut not at gentes pariter Iudaeos Rom. 3. 9. aut not at varia hominum genera ut 1 Tim. 2. 5. aut denique omnes singulos fideles ut 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Id. ib. p. 133. Vide plura ibid. Ponit enim aliquando Scriptura pro omnibus multos Gen. 17. 4. 22. 18. Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 20. c. 23. Now after his death follow two things more for his further humbling viz. his burial and his descending into hell For his burial the Scripture is plain in it Matth. 27. 59 60. Luke 23. 53. and there are good reasons for it 1. To fulfill the Scripture Isa. 53. 9. 2. To shew that he was truly dead for none but those that are dead use to be buried and Pilate would not grant that he should be buried untill by diligent search he found that Christ was dead 3. To bury sinne Rom. 6. 4. 4. That his resurrection might be the more evident to which the manner of his buriall belonged for therefore was he laid in a new sepulchre in which none yet ever lay least they should say that he rose again not by his own vertue but by the touch of some other there buried 2 King 13. 21. 5. To sanctifie our burial and sweeten the grave to us 6. That he might conquer death in his strongest hold Iob 17. 13. It was an honour to be buried of so worthy a man and with such store of ointment but to be put prisoner into the dungeon of death the grave and to seem to be swallowed up of death by giving so farre way unto it that it might also bear him as it were captive into its strongest hold this was an abasement Had our Saviour rose again so soon as the souldier had run him through the midriff with a spear or so soon as Ioseph had taken him down from the Crosse and then shewed himself in glory in an instant all his enemies would have been dismaied and he should have put them to confusion but in tarrying so long afore he rose till he might be laid in a Tomb as other dead men are he even yielded himself as it were for a space to the flouts of his enemies this was to abase him yet lower then dying Now for Christs descending into hell there is a deal of quarrelling about it in so much that one saith It is a kinde of descent into hell to reade the Controversies about it This Article is grounded on most evident words of Scripture Psal. 16. 10. Acts 2. 25. St Austin might justly say Quis ergo nisi infidelis negaverit fuisse apud Inferos Christum And all men agree in this as Bellarmine de Christo l. 4. c. 6. hath well observed that Christ some way descended into hell but the question saith he is altogether about the exposition of this Article for the whole difficulty lieth in the word Hell The Word Scheol is taken four waies in Scripture 1. For the grave Psal. 16. 10. 2. For the place of the damned Luke 16. 23. 3. For the torments of hell 1 Sam. 2. 6. 4. For extream humiliation or abasement Isa. 14. 15. In like manner saith Altingius to descend into hell is taken four waies 1. To be buried Gen. 42. 38. 2. To come into the place of the damned Numb 16. 33. 3. To feel the torments of hell 1 Sam. 2. 6. 4. Extreamly to be abased Matth. 11. 23. I shall rehearse four severall expositions of this Article and deliver my judgement at last First Some Interpret it of the inward sorrows of Christs soul which were very great as the Scripture testifieth Mark 14. 33 34. and as appears by Christs prayer thrice repeated to his Father that the cup might passe from him by his agony and bloudy sweat Luke 22. 24. By his words uttered upon the Crosse and lastly by that testimony of the Apostle Heb. 5. 7. The word Hell is often put Metaphorically for great and grievous troubles here suffered Psal. 18. 5. 116. 3. Psal. 86. 13. Ionah 2. 2. But this exposition can in no wise stand with the order and series of the Creed for since there is mention made of Christs descent into hell after his death and burial it cannot be understood of that which happened before his death They which expound this Article thus give this reason thereof The former words Was crucified dead and buried do contain say they the outward sufferings of Christ. Now because he suffered not only outwardly in body but also inwardly in soul therefore these words may be so interpreted But this reason is invalid for neither is it true that by the first words only bodily torments are expressed but those of the soul also are meant for Christ was wounded for our transgressions bore our iniquities and made his soul an offering for sin And by the words of David and Peter whence this Article hath its foundation and originall it is most evident that these words ought to be understood of that which Christ suffered after death For the word Hell is not to be taken otherwise in the Creed then in those places of Scripture whence the Creed is taken but it is manifest to any one
Christ should have nothing to give 2. He would exercise his people in prayer and confessions His people ask for themselves in prayer the destroying of corruption and perfecting of grace 3. God loves to have his people nothing in themselves all Christs course on earth was an abased condition God would have his people like Christ low and base 4. The Lord hath appointed that this life should be to his people a warfare Iob 14. 14. Their great conflict is with their own lusts 5. Because he would have his people long to be in heaven 2 Cor. 5. 2. 6. That he might thereby magnifie the grace of the new Covenant above all that he gave in the old God gave perfect grace to Angels and to Adam and his posterity but that vanished away yet now a spark of graces lives in a Sea of corption 7. Hereby Gods patience and forbearance is much exalted to his own people Numb 14. 17 18. Therefore it is hard to discern whether the work of Sanctification be wrought in us or no because of the reliques of corruption Evidences of Sanctification 1. A heart truly sanctified stands in awe of the Word Sanctification is the Law written in the heart a principle put into the soul answerable to the duty the Law requires Iohn 14. 22 23. 2. The remainders of corruption and the imperfection of grace will be his continual burden Rom. 7. 24. 2 Cor. 11. 23. 3. There is a continual combate maintained betwixt sin and grace 4. Where there is true Sanctification it is of a growing nature living things will grow 2 Pet. 3. 18. Mal. 3. 3 4. 5. Where there is true grace you shall especially see it when God cals you to great trials Natura vexata seipsum prodit Gen. 22. 20. Means to get holinesse Only the Spirit of Christ bestowed upon thee by faith Ioh. 7. 38. the Apostles arguments to holinesse are taken from their interest in Christ. Titus The grace of God that brings Salvation Faith in the bloud of Christ Heb. 9. 14. See Act. 15. 9. The Word John 17. 17. 1 Pet. 1. 22. The Word read heard meditated in transformeth the soul into its likenesse The Sacrament is a sanctifying Ordinance the death and merits of Christ set before us prayer pray more for Gods sanctifying Spirit 1 Thess. 5. 23. CHAP. XII The Parts of Sanctification are two Mortification and Vivification I. Mortification VVHere Grace is truly wrought it will be the daily study and practise of those that are sanctified to subdue the body of corruption This is called a dying to sinne putting off the old man crucifying the flesh most usually the mortifying of it There is a twofold Mortification and so Vivification say the Schoolmen 1. Habitual and more Internal the work of Gods Spirit in our first Regeneration Gal. 5. 24. whereby the Dominion of sinne is subdued and brought under the power of Gods Spirit this and internal Vivification are the two parts of our Conversion 2. Actual Practical and External our own work the daily practice of a childe of God while he lives on earth this flows from the other Every godly man walking according to Christianity doth daily in his ordinary course mortifie the body of corruption that dwels in him Rom. 4. 8 9. Ephes. 4. 20 21 22. Col. 3. 5. Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 6. 6. Mortifie or make dead is a Metaphor taken from Chiturgeons whose practice is when they would cut off a member to apply such things as will eat out the life of it so our care must be to make the living body of corruption instar cadaveris Practical Mortification is the faithful endeavour of the soul to subdue all the lusts and motions which are prone to spring from our sinful flesh It stands in three things 1. A full purpose or bent of the heart the minde and will against sinne when my will doth nolle peccatum though it may be active 2. In shunning all the occasions that serve as fewel to it 3. In applying all such means as may subdue his corruptions The Practice of Mortification is 1. A necessary duty 2. One of the most spiritual duties in all Christianity 3. The hardest duty The Popish exercises of Mortification consisting in their kinde of Fasting Whipping Pilgrimage and wearing of Hair-cloth next their skin will never work true Mortification in the heart yet Baals Priests exceeded them in cruelty to themselves 1 King 18. 28. See Rom. 8. 13. Col. 2. 23 1 Tim. 4. 8. In these cases one doth not mortifie his corruptions 1. Such a one as lives in the voluntary practice of his sins Rom. 6. 2. The body of corruption may be wholly unmortified though it break not out in the ordinary and constant practice of any grosse sin the seat and throne of sin is in the soul the slavish fear of shame and punishment from men or eternal damnation from God may keep a man from grosse sins I shall lay down 1. Motives or several Meditations to quicken us to the study of this work every day 2. Means which God will blesse to one that is willing to have his lusts subdued I. Motives Consider 1. This is the great thing God requires at our hands as our gratitude for all the goodnesse he bestows on us that for his sake we should leave those wayes that are abominable in his sight Rom. 12. 1. Ephes. 4. 21 22. 1 Peter 2. begin Deut. 32. 6. Secondly How deeply we have obliged our hearts to it by Vow Oath Covenant in Baptism we have there covenanted to die to sinne put off the old man and so in the Lords Supper we shew forth the Lords death and when we have been in danger Thirdly The manifold evils of unmortified lusts abiding in the heart What makes thy soul loathsom and unclean in the eyes of God and Angels but sin What grieves God pierceth his Sonne fights against him but this What brings any evil upon thee but this What is the sting of any affliction but onely thy sins What strengthens death but it it is only thy sins that keep good things from thee thy unmortified sins Fourthly The absolute necessity of this work if we mean to escape hell and everlasting damnation De necessariis non est deliberandum Rom. 8. 13. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Grave Maurice at Newport battel sent away the boats and said to his men Either drink up this Sea or eat the Spaniards Fifthly The wonderful gain that will come to thy soul if the Lord teach thee this duty 1. In mortifying and destroying thy beloved lusts thou destroyest all other enemies with them they all receive their weapons from thy sins 2. All other mercies flow in a constant current if thou mortifie thy corruptions Gods favour the whole stream of the Covenant of Grace II. Means of Mortification Some use moral motives from the inconvenience of sinne death the fear of hell and judgement some carnal motives as esteem and advantage in
made better 2 Cor. 7. 10 11. 1. In general it is a marvellous help to Repentance it brings forth Repentance never to be repented of There are two comprehensive duties Faith and Repentance Repentance is the turning of the soul from evil unto good it stands chiefly in our affections and consists in turning them from evil godly sorrow and hatred do this 2. More particularly it worketh great care and fear of being overtaken with sin indignation and zeal it makes the soul very humble 3. It is an excellent help to patience and meek subjection to the hand of God I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Some think it is a crime to mourn for their own sins and those that would be counted Christians of the higher form they say Ministers which presse this duty are legal the Gospel taketh not away the conscience of sinne though it doth the fear of damnation To scoff at mourning and humiliation was once a badg of prophanenesse Those that say justified persons must not mourn for sins may as well say they must not have an heart of flesh Marks of godly Sorrow Consider 1. When we mourn whether we grieve for sinne when we are quiet from crosses and when our sinne is kept from the world and when we have no terrours of conscience then our sorrow for sin is because we have offended God Sin is made grievous indeed by the other effects and when they come the sorrow is made more and more troublesome 2. For what sins we mourn If for such sin as will not bring discredit in the world yet if they offend God more we grieve more this is a good sign 3. In what sort we behave our selves in mourning if we go to God complain against our selves to him confesse to him lament before him seek to reconcile ourselves to him Iudas ran crying to the high-Priest Peter wept to God in secret Motives to godly Sorrow First It is a great evidence of thy love to God Ezekiel 16. later end the Church mournes when he was pacified to her to thinke how she had grieved him Secondly Often meditate of the wonderful fruit godly sorrow brings forth in the soul of man the mournfull Christians which grieve when God cals for sorrow are the most fruitful in afflictions Means or Helps to godly Sorrow 1. Meditation 1. Of the necessity and profit of it if we bewail not our sins we cannot attain pardon of them for Christ is sent to binde up the broken in heart to comfort mourners to refresh and give rest unto the weary soul Zech. 12. 10 12. 13. Iames 4. 8 9. Voluntary sorrow or remorse of heart whereto the soul doth of it own accord strive to work it self by taking pains with it self is exceeding medicinable it hath a purging power a healing vertue Gods Spirit doth work with and by it to the making clean of the heart and hand Godly sorrow breedeth Repentance that is Reformation of heart and life Only the bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ can cleanse from the guilt of sinne and deserve by way of merit the remission of the punishment thereof but the tears of penitent sorrow will help to wash away the stain and filth of sinne and to break the dominion of it from off the soul and to confirm the heart against it a man must grieve for his sins here or howl for them hereafter and by this he shall prevent many chastisements and be armed against carnal sorrow and be made capable of sound consolation 2. Prayer to God that he would perform his promise of taking away the stony heart and giving a fleshy heart in stead of it 3. A good man must represent his sins unto his own soul as exceeding grievous and dangerous and loathsome He must aggravate sinne to himself and cause his understanding to apprehend it a very vile thing worthy to be lamented and wept for more then any thing in all the world besides and to that end he must consider 1. How exceeding many and innumerable his sins are 2. The greatnesse of some of them in regard of aggravating circumstances most grosse and palpable for matter presumptuous for manner against plain and evident light conscience reproofs purposes vows and all helps made even a trade of them I know your great sins saith the Prophet And this people hath committed a great sin saith Moses and so David Forgive mine iniquity for it is great 3. The hatefulnesse of sin in regard of the vile effects thereof First It doth wrong and offend God in his Soveraign Authority and greatnesse and in his wisdom and in his right to the creatures who is so excellent and great Secondly It hath brought much misery upon all the creatures the earth is barren the Sea troubled the air infected and every thing out of order because of sinne We have lost the state of innocency are cast out of Paradise deprived of Gods favour his Image the dominion over the creatures that we had forfeited our right to heavenly glory lost our knowledge of God and of all his excellent creatures The soul of man is dead in sins by reason of sin and his body mortall and both subject to eternall death We are cursed in all that we put our hands to because we have transgressed the Law of God Thirdly Consider Christs sufferings in which we may see the odiousnesse of sinne Fourthly The torments of hell which the damned do suffer because they did not in time bewail their transgressions and we shall endure if we grieve not Fifthly Call to minde the examples of those which have mourned for sins David Peter Mary Magdalen The affections of the irascible appetite follow viz. those which respect their object with difficulty of attaining or avoiding of it CHAP. XXV Hope and Fear I. Of Hope 1. THe Nature of this Affection Philosophers call it Extentionem appetitus naturalis It is an earnest and strong inclination and expectation of some great good apprehended as possible to be obtained though not without difficulty It is a great Question Whether it be more difficult to trust in God for spiritual or temporal blessings The promises for temporal things are not so expresse and they are not fulfilled in the letter On the other side there are more natural prejudices against pardon of sinne then daily bread We do not so easily believe Gods supply of temporal blessings because bodily wants are more urgent He that will not trust in Christ for provision for his body will not trust in him for salvation of his soul. First The object about which it deals is some great and sutable good especially salvation Gal. 5. 5. Col. 1. 3. The good is thus qualified 1. It is Futurum Hope is of good things to come Joy is in a good present fear is of evils to come 2. Possibile else we never expect it herein it differs from despair 3. Difficile because it ever
another I. The rectitude of it In the state of Innocency there was little use of it while man did not offend God nothing offended him Christ was perfectly holy and yet angry at the hardnesse of mens hearts and the pollution of the Temple so man might have been angry at the sin of the devils when he knew it Then it would have been no perturbation to his spirit nor blinding of his minde II. The corruption of it Wherein observe 1. The Object this corrupt anger is conversant about and the measure of it 2. The Causes which produce it 3. The many cursed Effects it produceth in mens lives Of the first There are many Objects of anger The right object is dishonour done to Gods name sin that only displeaseth God The object of it is mistaken 1. When I am angry with God he is exempted in regard of his excellency and spotlesse holinesse Ionah was faulty this way and Salomon notes it of men who have perverted their wayes that they fret against God 2. When I am angry with my Superiours it being the passion of correcting punishing the faults of such should grieve us not anger us therefore Ionathan was not altogether blamelesse for being angry against his father Saul in the behalf of David 3. When I am angry with an innocent party where there is no fault there should be no displeasure Lastly In most cases to be angry with unreasonable or senslesse creatures which are too mean to be the objects of anger as Balaam was wroth with his Asse so to be angry with a horse for stumbling or starting unlesse when they be exorbitant from their natural goodnesse as when the Lion and Bear would worry a sheep Secondly One offends in the measure or quantity of anger when he is angry more then enough The proper end of anger is to awaken courage and set it a work to chastise evil or to resist and beat it down that the minde may not be surprized with it such a moderate stirring of this passion as doth serve thus to set the minde a work to resist and oppose a fault or evil thing is allowable but if it come to a greater heat or flame then so then it exceeds and is naught If it be more vehement where the offence is less then it is excessive There may be a fault in the defect when we are not moved a just occasion of anger being offered as in admonishing reproving or correcting Secondly The Causes which produce it Since the fall the natural humours of the body The immediate cause of it is pride and arrogancy the fruit of self-love Proud and haughty scorner is his name that deals in fierce wrath Should such a one as I be thus dealt with 2. Our low esteem of others in comparison of our selves 3. Those things which should cause us to be meek and quiet as learning wisdom any affront done to that excellency which God hath given us whereas these should cause us to be meek our weaknesse which should also make us meek puts us into passion simple and sick folks are most passionate Thirdly The cursed Effects and fruits of this passion of anger 1. It produceth a great deal of sorrow and woe in this world The angry man never wants woe who hath reproaches enemies 2. It disarms the soul of its own force and layes it open to be invaded by an enemy In patience possesse your souls Prov. 25. ult 3. Puts out the eye of our reason Ira furor brevis Eccles. 7. 9. Impedit ira animum ne possit cernere verum Ionah said to God I do well to be angry to death 4. It hurries all the other passions of the soul it s own way 5. It is destructive to one of the principal ends of mans being to humane society Prov. 22. 24. 6. It sets the tongue on fire whence comes reviling raging Moses when he was angry spake unadvisedly with his lips 7. It produceth abundance of wicked actions swearing cursing quarrelling hurting and rude carriage crying stamping staring 8. It hinders a man from any communion with God 1. From hearing Receive the ingrasfed word with meeknesse 2. Prayer 1 Tim. 2. 8. Unbelief and anger hinder our prayers 3. The Sacrament that is a feast of love 9. It quencheth all the motions of Gods Spirit and closeth with the devil he by it possesseth the very soul Ephes. 4. 26 27. Mans nature is enclined to causlesse ungrounded and excessive anger 1 Sam. 20. 30 31. Eliab was angry with David when he spake valiantly Nebuchadnezzar raged against the three children for not worshipping his golden Image and against the Wise-men of Babel for not being able to declare his dream Herod also was wroth against the Wisemen because they returned another way and brought him not word back again concerning the childe Jesus whom they came to enquire of and worship A godly man may fall into passionate fits be over-cholerick as David and Ionah Reasons why man is so prone to this unreasonable distemper 1. The abundance of those vices in every one which concur to the working of unjust anger 1. Self-love which makes one prone to anger because it is so wakeful jealous observative 2. Folly Anger rests in the bosom of fools A fool in the day of his wrath is known An angry man exalteth folly gives it a high room in his heart makes it a great ruler and commander within him now all men are in the corruption of nature fools and have that title given them by the holy Ghost 3. Pride By pride alone cometh contention saith Salomon 2. Anger is a common fault therefore Salomon saith Make no friendship with an angry man lest thou learn his wayes 3. Men make small account of it a little passion choler they say 4. The bodily temper in the farre greater number furthers it the fiery choler which is in a mans body is the instrument of this hot vice So having a soul defiled with those vices which beget anger a body consisting of such humours as will set anger on work finding many examples of it and making little account of it no wonder if a man do prove a wrathfull creature This anger is greatly disgraced in Scripture Prov. 12. 16. 14. 17 29. 21. 24. 19. 19. 22. 24. 29. 22. it is a fruit of the flesh Lastly The work of grace in sanctifying anger 1. The efficient cause of holy anger The principal cause is the Spirit of God in planting a new nature in the soul and so in this affection Morall Philosophy may go a great way in moderating anger but the Spirit of God only makes it holy 2. Sanctified reason is the immediate caller of it out and orderer of it if it be holy anger it is a grace and therefore must be called out by reason Secondly The motive or occasion of it we are angry for what we should 1. Grosse and presumptuous sins done wilfully openly as Christ was angry
of their salvation with him so they minister half a Sacrament of salvation Cartw. against the Rhem. on Iohn 6. Our practice and profession is the receiving the Communion in both kindes for which I joyn issue with all Papists living that it is the prime original institution of our Saviour which giveth birth and being to a Sacrament that it is sacriledge to alter it therefrom that it was never otherwise used in the Church of God for above two thousand years after Christ. Let all the Papists living prove the contrary and I will subscribe to all Popery B. Mountag Answer to the Gagger of Protest Sect. 36. This was the custom in all the Fathers times as I could deduce almost out of every one This is every where the custom in all the world unto this day but in the Romane exorbitant Church as Cassander saith and was not quite abolished in that Church till about thirteen hundred years after Christ and by much art colluding and fine forgery was retained from being cast out of that Church in the late Conventicle of Trent only kept in for a faction but mightily opposed by learned honest and conscionable Catholicks Id. ibid. First If none may drink of the consecrate wine but the Priests then none should eat of the bread but Priests for to whom Christ said Take and eat to those he gave the Cup and said Drink ye The signs being both equal all Communicants must drink of the one as well as eat of the other there being the same warrant for the one that there is for the other Secondly The Cup is a part of Christs Will and Testament Galat. 3. 15. Hebr. 9. 16 17. the dead mans Will may not be changed The Lords Supper is a Sacrament proper to the New Testament Luke 22. 20. Thirdly The bloud of Christ shed upon the Crosse belongeth not onely to the Pastors and Teachers but to all the faithfull that come to the Table of the Lord Matth. 26. 28. Luke 22. 20. why then should the Cup of the Lord be barred from them Fourthly All the faithful that come to the Lords Table must shew forth his death untill be come and this is done by them as well by drinking of the Cup as by eating of the bread therefore all the Communicants must receive the Sacrament under both kinds To which these reasons may be added 1. From the institution for Christ commanded them to drink the wine as well as to eat the bread therefore this is a violation of Gods command 2. The Apostle bids every one to try themselves and so to eat of that bread and drink of that wine so they did not only eat and drink then but they were commanded so to do 3. To celebrate the Sacrament otherwise is to make void Christs two main ends in appointing the Sacrament 1. To represent his death and bloud shed out of the veins 2. To shew that Christ is full nourishment to the soul as bread and drink to the body The bread and wine being the matter of the Sacrament may not be changed in the Lords Supper Reasons 1. The institution of the Supper and the example of Christ himself whom the Church is to imitate and follow 1 Cor. 11. 25. 2. No other signs are so significant and effectual as these are for this purpose to strengthen and comfort them that are in trouble and almost in the present estate of death Psal. 104. 14 15. Prov. 31. 6. 3. The matter and form of every thing do constitute its essence So it is in the Sacraments where the signes are the matter and the words of institution the form 4. If the bread and wine might be changed in the Supper and yet the Sacrament in substance remain then in like manner water in Baptism might be changed and yet be true Baptism but the Minister cannot baptize with any other liquour or element then with water as the matter of that Sacrament 5. If we grant a change in the signs at the pleasure of men why may we not also change other parts of the Sacrament why may we not in stead of the Minister appointed oâ— God and called by the Church admit private persons and receive other alterations inforced upon the Church by the Papists Bucan institut loc 48. Beza Epist. 2. think that where there is no store of bread and plenty of wine sufficient for this purpose some other thing may be taken in stead of them Thus it may come to passe saith Attersol that we shall have nothing which Christ commanded and sanctified by his example and yet boast that we have his Supper and do that which he appointed For whereas we make four outward parts of this Sacrament the Minister the Word the Signs and the Receiver There are which hold there is no necessity of the Minister Others that there is no necessity of the words of Institution Others that there is no necessity of the Signs Others that there is no necessity of the Receiver So if we once admit any alteration in any of the parts we open a gap to all innovation and being in great uncertainty in the Sacraments Whether the breaking of the bread be an indifferent Ceremony Some make the breaking of the bread to be simply necessary and an essential part of the Supper so that without it there can be no Sacrament 1. Because the Sacrament is called the breaking of bread and this breaking of bread is said to be the Communion of the body of Christ â— Cor 10. 16. 2. Others make this breaking to be meerly indifferent and not necessary accidental and not of the substance 3. Others hold a middle way between both extreams that it is necessary yet not as an essential but an integral part The Ceremony of breaking bread was continually observed by Christs first institution by the practice of the Apostles by the ancient and universal custom of the whole Church of Christ as well Greek as Latine This act of breaking of bread is such a principal act that the whole celebration of this Sacrament hath had from thence this appellation given to it by the Apostles to be called breaking of bread it is also a Symbolicall Ceremony betokening the crucifying of Christs body upon the Crosse 1 Corinth 11. 24. But the Papists yet doe not break it but gâ—ve it whole and this they pretend to doe for reverence sake least some crums of bread should fall to the ground Three Evangelists mention the breaking of the bread It is not material whether the bread be broken or cut but it is more probable that Christ broke it from the custom of the Jews saith Vossius but Balduinus the Lutheran saith they receive a perfect Sacrament who intermit this fraction in the use of the Supper because Christ broke the bread that he might distribute it therefore say Gerhard and he Perinde est sive in ipsa actione coenae sive antea â—rangatur Balduin quotes Beza
institution of a Sacrament to be celebrated in all Christian Churches till the end of the world as the Apostle teacheth us from 1 Cor. 11. from vers 23. to 28. especially at the 26. vers as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup. ye shew the Lords death till he come This the Apostles in their persons could not fulfill for they lived not till Christs second coming they must of necessity therefore be extended to all that in succeeding ages should be present at the Lords Supper who are as much bound by this precept of Christ to communicate with the Priest or dispenser of the Sacrament as the Apostles were to communicate with Christ himself when he first in his own person administred it otherwise if the precepts Takâ— Fat Do this in remembrance of me appertained to the Apostles only What warrant hath any Priest now to consecrate the elements or administer the Sacrament Nay what command have any faithfull at all to receive the Communion The Sacrifice of the Masse being idolatrous it is not lawful to be present at it 1 Cor. 10. 20. In their Masse-book they call the Crosse it self our only hope Those Texts are against going to Masse Psal. 26. 4. 1 Cor. 10. 7 14. 2 Cor. 6. 14 16 17. 1 Ioh 5. 21. Many will say They keep their hearts to God though they be present at a Masse This is as if a man should catch his wife in the act of adultery and she apologize that the other had her body but he her heart 1 Cor. 6. 27. Rom. 11. 4. Gods people have their knees for God as well as their hearts 1 Kings 19. Origen said he could not bend the knees of his body to God and the knees of his heart to Satan See B. Daven Determ 7. Revel 7. 3. They have a mark in the fore-head because they must not be ashamed of their profession that mark is obvious to all the world Our Saviour by this policy might have over-reacht the devil himself who required only externall bowing keeping his heart still unto God Matth. 4. 10. In some case a man may be present at Masse and not sin As 1. When he is there by violent compâ—lsion this is not his sinne but theirs 2. If in travel a man be in a fit place to see and observe their folly so as he shews no reverence at all or approbation by bending his knee uncovering his head or otherwise King Edward the 6th would not suffer the Lady Mary to have Masse in her house Foxes vol. 2. p. 653. The bowing of Naaman spoken of in 2 King 5. 8. was genuflexio obsequii not imitativa a bowing to the King not to the Idol 2. Elisha's words do not necessarily import an approbation or permission of that which was propounded but a meer form of valediction as if he had said in our language Adieu or Farewell or there may be an Enallage temporis very usual in the Hebrew and have relation to the time past Of private Receiving of the Lords Supper The Passeover was to be eaten in such a Family Exod. 12. 46. to signifie that the Church was then but a handful or houshold in respect of the fulnesse of the Gentiles which were to follow but the Lords Supper was not to be eaten in a private separated Family but the Church was to come together and to stay one for another 1 Cor. 11. 33. that in the confluence of the people and publicknesse of the action the increase and multitude of the Church might be expressed 1 Cor. 11. 22. Paul opposeth the Congregation wherein the Lords Supper should be taken unto a private house where men satisfie their hunger It is noted of a Christian Jew desperately sick of the Palsie that he was with his bed carried to the place of Baptism The purest and best reformed Churches this day in Savoy Germany France and divers others administer the Sacraments only in the ordinary meetings In my judgement saith Master Cartwright it is unmeet to administer either of the Sacraments in private houses and it is lesse tolerable in the holy Supper which hath a special mark and representation of brotherly Communion more then Baptism The Necessity of the Eucharist The administring of the Communion to Infants is a Rite as ancient as Cyprians time and a Rite that did continue in the Church above 600 years Innocentius the first and Augustine concluded a necessity of childrens receiving this Sacrament from Iohn 6. 53. it may well conclude for those which are of years and capable of that mystery for though it speaketh rather of a spiritual eating and drinking yet because the sacramental is a sign and pledge of that and whosoever doth indeed spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his bloud cannot choose but also be willing and forward to do it sacramentally when opportunity is offered and there is no impediment to hinder Christ requireth in all persons about to communicate three principal acts of reason one is before and two are at the time of receiving The first is 1 Cor. 11. Let â— man examine himself The second to discern the Lords body The third is to remember the Lords death untill his coming again All which three being acts of judgement cannot agree unto Infants being persons void of judgement The Ends for which God hath instituted the Sacrament of the Lords Supper They are four First The remembrance of the death of Christ Luke 22. 19. This do in remembrance of me 1. Christs person Phil. 3. 8 9. we can have no interest in his benefits till we be united to him Cant. 5. 10. to the end 2. His actions and sufferings 1 Cor. 11. 24 26. 3. The benefits that flow from these all that Christ did and suffered was not only satisfactory but meritorious Luke 22 20. 4. With what affection Christ instituted this Sacrament his bowels were then full of compassion to his people it was the last solemn act of his life Secondly It is a strengthening Ordinance the Lord hath appointed it onely for those that are new-born the elements there are our greatest matter of nourishment Thirdly It is a sealing Ordinance The New Testament in my bloud Fourthly An Ordinance of the Communion of Saints whereby that should be renewed all are one bread and one body Iohn 6. 54. 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. The Lords Supper is 1. A badge of a Christians profession 2. A seal of the Covenant of grace 3. A map of heaven 4. A means and pledge of our Communion with Christ 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Supper promotes this Communion 1. Because it is a visible profession of our union with Christ. 2. A lively resemblance of it meat and drink are converted into our substance made a part of us there are significant rites invested with a promise and the assurance of a blessing 3. It is a pledge and seal Christ is there conveyed over to a believers use This is my
Body a pledge whereby whole Christ with all his merits and all that he is is made over to a believer 4. A means of exhibiting Christ to the soul. The Sacraments are Instrumenta quadantenus moralia they are accompanied with the power and vertue of the holy Ghost We must therefore receive the Sacrament To confirm our faith Communion with Christ and all saving graces in us to keep in remembrance the Lords death untill he come again and to testifie our love one towards another 1. Our Faith God is able and willing to save us 1. Able to save to the utmost look upon him 1. In his Natures God-man Man that he might suffer God that he might satisfie 2. In his Offices he is a Prophet Priest and King Mat. 8. 2. 2. Willing he died to save humble and penitent sinners Rom. 8. 34. Rom. 4. ult if he spared not his life for us he will spare nothing else There is merit and grace enough in him what ever my sins are or have been for pardon of them and salvation 2. Communion with Christ and all saving graces in us Gods end in instituting of Ordinances is that we might meet him there and have Communion with him Exod 20. 24. it should be our end in frequenting Ordinances Gods eye is specially on our end in all religious duties Matth. 11. 7 8. Hos. 7. 14. Zech. 7. 5. 1. He pondereth the heart 2. He judgeth of our actions by the end 3. The answer will be sutable to our end The Sacrament is the nearest and visiblest Communion with Christ on earth We come to God by Christ in prayer as our Intercessour in the Word as our Teacher in the Supper as the Master of the Feast Rom. 6. 11. 3. To keep in remembrance the Lords death until he come again 1 Cor. 11. 26. that is 1. The Doctrine of it the bread represents his body the wine his bloud we shew our belief of this Doctrine 2. The Necessity of his death we hereby testifie to God our consciences fellow-Christians the world our need of Christ as bread is necessary for our bodies 3. The Sufficiency of Christs death no two creatures are more universally sufficient for all sorts of men then bread and wine therefore God made choice of them for this purpose 4. The Application of Christs death it is the receiving of bread and wine into our stomacks that nourisheth us when the conscience beginneth to be oppressed with the hainousnesse of sinne and the fear of Gods vengeance we should consider Christ bare the curse for our sins upon his body that we might be delivered from them and made perfect satisfaction to his Fathers justice that we might be received into favour Rom. 8. 34 35. 4. To testifie our love one toward another that I shall speak of afterward Of duâ— Preparation for the Sacrament We must labour to perform all holy duties in a right manner God requires preparation to every service to the Sabbath Sacrament Some say the scope of the first Commandment is that Iehovah alone must be our God whom we must worship of the second that he must be worshipt alone with his own worship of the third that he must be worshipt after his own manner God is more delighted with Adverbs then Nouns None might approach to the holy things of God having his uncleannesse upon him Nadab and Abihu through carelesnesse or hast brought common kitchin fire whereas it should have been heavenly fire therefore God punisht them God makes admirable promises to prayer yet if we perform it not in that manner which God requires he abhors it Psal. 109. 8. The word is the power of God to convert and strengthen us 2 Cor. 2. 16. The Sacrament is a seal of the Covenant yet if it be received unworthily it is a seal to a blank Iudas took the Passeover at least and the devil entred into him See 1 Cor. 11. 18 20. so the great duty of fasting if not rightly performed is unacceptable Isa. 14. 12. See 2 Chro. 25. 2. and prayer Prov. 15. 8. Reasons 1. Because the Lord requires and orders the manner as well as the matter our obedience must have Gospel-perfection sincerity and integrity In the Passeover the Lamb must be perfect of the first year the man and the Lamb prepared and it offered in the appointed time See Exod. 12. 9. 2 Chron. 30. 18 19. There were four dayes preparation for the Passeover the Lords Supper both succeeds and exceeds it The Ark was to be carried on the Priests shoulders 1 Chron. 15. 13. God made a breach on them because they sought him not after the due order 2. The manner of performing the duty is the most spiritual part of it Non tantum considerandum est id quod agimus sed etiam quibus circumstantiis This shews the true cause why our attending upon God proves so unprofitable and uncomfortable to us because we rest in the work done Secondly We should labour to perform the Ordinances aright and that we may do so 1. The person must be accepted God had regard to Abel and his offering Cains Sacrifice for the matter was as good as Abels the person is onely accepted in Christ This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased in him with us 2. Ever bring God the best thou hast in thy approaches to God bring the best devotion affection Cursed is the deceiver that hath a whole one and brings a blemished one Mal. be troubled thou canst bring no better 3. Come in faith rest upon the promise of Christ that thy services shall be accepted mingle faith with hearing prayer 4. Bring an humble Spirit Let thy soul be rightly possest with the majesty and holinesse of that God to whom the duty is tendred Revel 4. 3. The Lord is to be lookt on as a King in his Glory in his Throne we have a principle of envy in us whom we envy we undervalue 5. Bring a right estimation of the excellency and ends of the Ordinance Isa. 2. 3. Hear and thy soul shall live Take heed how you hear with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again according to your diligence in the duty will God measure out his blessing 6. There must be a serious meditation before-hand of the spiritual manner of performing the duty Heb. 12. 28. Do not utter indigested prayers a Minister should speak as the Oracles of God 7. One should labour to stir up the graces sutable to the duty and keep down the sins opposite thereto 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Iam. 1. 18 19. It is the duty of Christians in a special manner to examine themselves that they may come prepared to the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. 20. to the end the Apostle proves the necessity of preparation both from the nature of the Ordinance or the institution of it the benefit that we reap by coming prepared and the mischief that befals those that come
consideration of our Saviours death for our sins should be unto us a most powerful motive to repentance Two things are necessary in the point of repentance for sins past to confesse and lament them before God humbly craving pardon and for the time to come to reform and amend our lives casting away all our transgressions and applying our selves to all holinesse and righteousnesse Now to the performance of this duty the death of Christ must needs be to him that considers of it the most effectual argument and mighty motive in the world Do we not here see that the sins we have lived in are most loathsome to God for had he not hated them with infinite hatred would he have inflicted such horrible punishments upon our Saviour his only Son by them Do we not see that they are most dangerous to our selves exposing us to the suffering of intollerable evils unlesse by vertue of Christs death we be freed from them which can never be but upon our Repentance God hath in the death of Christ discovered such infinite abomination of sin and withall such infinite grace to the sinner that this should prevail with us Paul saith All we which are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death and we are buried with him by baptism into his death and we are crucified together with him that the body of sinne may be abolished We must be made partakers of the death of Christ if ever we will be made partakers of his resurrection we must be made conformable to his death if ever we will live and reign with him Marks to know whether our repentance be right 1. If it be speedy and without delay Satan alwayes saith it is either too soon to repent as in youth or too late as in old-age 2. Constant not cast it aside because we repented at our first conversion 3. Voluntary and so a filiall not a forced repentance voluntary repentance speaks love to God forced love to our selves 4. It must be deep and thorow repentance sutable to our sins the greatest sinners if gracious have the greatest sorrow and their joy is the more full after Psa. 22. 4. 2 Sam. 14. 14. III. Love This is a special grace of the Gospel it is a longing desire for the good of our brethren or a willing that good to one which is proper to him There is a double Union First Mystical with Christ the Head by faith and with one another by love Secondly Moral an agreement in judgement and affection Ioh. 17. 11. See 21 22 23. v. Act. 4. 32. Christ was 1. Incarnate for this end that his people might be one Ephes. 1. 10. 2. This is often inculcated in Christs Sermons Iohn 15. 17. He came from heaven on purpose to propound to us a patern of charity Ephes. 5. 2. Unity is the beauty strength and safety of the Church Act. 1. 14. See Isa. 11. 6. 3. Christ died for this end Isa. 2 15 16. 4. Christ aimed at this in his Ascention and pouring out of his Spirit Ephes. 4. 5. 5. It is the end of Christs Ordinances in the Church of Baptism 1 Cor. 12. 13. and of the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 10. 17. Every one is bound to love four things saith Augustine First God who is the chiefest good and therefore deserves the chiefest love Secondly Himself God gives no commandment for one to love himself because he commands one to love God as the chiefest good and so to love him as to enjoy him which one cannot do without love of himself Thirdly To love man as man 1 Thess. 3. 12. Fourthly To love all the Saints the brotherhood 1 Pet. 3. 17. those which love Saints as Saints or because Saints must needs love them all Ephes. 1. 15. Col. 1. 4. Philem. 5. Our love must be 1. Sincere or without hypocrisie Rom. 12. 9. it is so when we cleave to what ever is good in him and abhor what is evil in him 2. Fervent 1 Pet. 1. 22. 3. Constant a friend loveth at all times We must also love our enemies Matth. 5. 44 45. It is reported of Iohn that in his old-age being unable by weaknesse to speak long unto the Congregation he would stand up and â—n stead of a long Sermon ingeminate this precept Diligite filioli diligite Little children love love one another The subject of his Epistle is love 1 Iohn 3. 18. He is called the beloved Disciple because he was so full of it himself Christ cals it the new Commandment because excellent or because solemnly renewed by him Iohn 13. 34. These are my Commandments that you love one another This is the great grace which distinguisheth the children of light from the children of darknesse Iohn 13. 35. He that loves not is not of God There are high Elogies of it 1 Cor. 17. We must love our neighbour as our selves Iam. 2. 8. We must neither wish nor do them any more hurt then we would wish or do to our selves 2. We should really promote his good as our own 1 Cor. 10 24. We are 1. To pray for them Heb. 13. 3. 2. Counsel them Heb. 3. 13. 3. Relieve them in their wants Mat. 25. lat end The Sacrament is a Seal of our Communion that we are all one bread and one body It is evident that Christ upon his death instituted that Supper As to be a seal of that Covenant of grace between God and us ratified therebâ— So also to be a communion the highest outward pledge ratification and testimony of love and amity among his members themselves M. Thomas Goodwins Christ the universal Peace-maker part 2. Sect. 2. Yet the great wall of separation between the Papists and us is the Sacrament of the Altar and those that are called Lutherans and Calvinists the Lords Supper And this is a grace pressed with the like necessity toward man that saith is toward God The Christians in the Primitive Church did kisse each other at the Sacrament this was called Osculum pacis the kisse of peace in sign of love D. Clerk Some keep themselves from the Sacrament because they are not in charity These men shew manifest contempt to Christ and his blessed Ordinance that rather then they will forsake their malice they will want it 2. Such professe they will live still in malice and have no desire to be reconciled for if they had they need not refuse to receive 2 Cor. 8. 12. The Love-feasts were appointed to signifie their mutual love one to another they were immediately before the receiving of the Sacrament 1 Cor. 11. 21. St Chrysostome makes the love-feasts to be after the taking of the Eucharist They were used to have a great Feast to which all the poor people were invited on the charges of the rich This they did partly in imitation of our Saviour who instituted the Sacrament after a full Supper and partly in expression of their perfect love towards all men These Agapae or Love feasts
up the Authority of the Law The End of the ninth Book THE TENTH BOOK OF Glorification OF THE General RESURRECTION THE LAST JUDGEMENT AND Everlasting Misery of the wicked and Happiness of the Godly CHAP. I. Of the General Resurrection REsurrection from the dead and eternal judgement are two of the principles of the Apostles Catechism Heb. 6. 1. There shall be a Resurrection of the body In the New Testament the thing is so perspicuous and obvious that it would be too long to rehearse the several places Matth. 22. 32. Iohn 5. 28 29. Acts 17. 31. 24. 16. Revel 20. 12 13. Paul proves it by divers Arguments 1 Cor. 15. Tertullian hath written a famous book of this subject and begins his Book thus Fiducia Christianorum resurrectio mortuorum The confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead 2. Of the self-same body the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 53. speaks by way of demonstration and as it were pointing at his own body This corruption must put on incorruption Credo resurrectionem hujus carnis said the old Christians Iob 19. 25. Non enim resurrectio dici potest nisi anima ad idem corpus redeat quia resurrectio est iterata surrectio ejusdem autem est surgere cadere Aquinas Supplem 3. part Quaest. 78. Artic. 1. 3. It shall be genoral of the good and bad Matth. 22. 31 33. Dan. 12. 2. Iohn 5. 28 29. The wicked rise in virtute Christi Iudicis the godly in virtute Christi capitis the wicked shall arise to death and shame the resurrection of the Saints shall be glorious they shall rise first 1 Cor. 15 2. Every one of them shall have a perfect body without defect or deformity they shall arise in perfect beauty 3. Their body shall be immortal 4. Spiritual and glorious like Christs body Phil. 4. ult Aquinas shews that Subtilitas est proprietas corporis gloriosi Supplem 3. part Quaest. 83. Art 1. and that it is ratione subtilitatis impalpabile Ib. Art 6. Vide ibid. Qu. 84. Art 1. Qu. 85. Art 1 2. The Resurrection may be proved by reason 1. From the power of God he made us of nothing therefore he can raise us out of the dust Facilius est restituere quam constituere Qui potest facere potest reficere saith Tertullian Mat. 22. 29 Phil. 3. 21. 2. His justice the body is partner with the soul in sin or holinesse 3. Christ rose again and he rose as the publick head of the Church Luke 24. 46 47. He rose as the first-fruits 1 Cor. 15. 21. He bought soul and body 1 Cor. 6. 20. He is united to a whole believer Iohn 6. 40. 4. That the glory of God and Christ and the Saints may be manifested The world derides the resurrection of the body the Philosophers could not attain to it but it is the Christians chief consolation Iob 19. 27. Hope and resurrection of the dead are joyned together Act. 23. 6. 24. 14. There are as great things past as to come our bodies may as well be in heaven as Christs body be in the grave Rom. 8. 32. Although the Resurrection shall be by the power of the whole Trinity yet it shall be peculiarly by the voice of Christ the dead shall hear the voice of God and live by an Archangel ministerially The end why Christ shall raise them all is to bring them to judgement The Schoolmen say Omnes resurgent in eadem aetate and urge Ephes. 4. 13. but Christ rose say they in his youthful age about thirty three years but the Fathers interpret that place otherwise The godly then need not fear persecution it toucheth but the body Matth. 10. 28. nor death it self It is but a sleep Act. 7. 60. 2 Thess 4 13. the grave a bed of rest Isa. 57. 2. Those that sleep likely rise so shall thy body be raised up at the last day CHAP. II. Of the Last Iudgement BErnard distinguisheth of a three-fold coming of Christ 1. Ad Homines John 1. 11. 2. In Homines Matth. 28. ult 3. Contra Homines Revel 1. 7. The usual distinction is of his first coming in great humility when he was incarnate and his second coming in Majesty when he shall openly manifest and declare his excellent glory in the sight of all his reasonable creatures Angels and men good and bad The knowledge of the time is reserved to God alone Acts 1. 7. The day is appointed by God the Father and not revealed to any creature saving the humanity of Christ and was not revealed to that it seemeth while he lived in the earth in basenesse Christ shall suddenly descend from heaven with the voice of an Archangel with a mighty shout and with the trump of God and then shall he cause all the Saints to rise and with the living Saints shall cause them to meet him in the clouds and after he shall cause all the sinners to arise also and there publickly shall adjudge all his Saints to his heavenly Kingdom making known and rewarding all their good deeds but shall adjudge all the wicked to eternal damnation making known to all the world all their wicked and ungodly deeds words and thoughts even those which before were most secret which having done he shall then yeeld up the Kingdom to God his Father not ceasing to be lesse glorious himself because he hath shewed the infinite glory of God to which all things are to be referred as their proper end but perpetually enjoying glory and blisse with him in another manner and in no lesse full measure even as a mighty man under some great Prince having conquered some Kingdom against whom his Prince did send him then resigneth the office of Lord General because there is no farther use of it but yet liveth in as much honour in the Kings Court as that military title and function would afford him So our Lord and all his members with him after the last day shall remain for all eternity unspeakably glorious though the manner of administration of things which is now in use by Gods appointment shall be finished and determined that God may be all in all Two things are to be considered 1. That all universally are to be judged 2. That Christ shall be Judge of all For the former there is a two-fold Judgement 1. Particular and private which is given concerning every one immediately after death 2. Universal and publick when all men shall be judged together called the day of Revelation Rom. 2. 5. and of this judgement the Creed speaks when it saith From thence he shall come to judge the quick and dead From thence viz. Heaven He that is Christ Jesus the second person in Trinity Shall come to judge the quick and dead that is all men that ever were or shall be That in the end of the world there shall be a day of Judgement and that all men shall then be judged it appears First From
but the faithful which died before Christs ascension Revel 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth presently from the time of death 1. Christs death was efficacious to believers before his coming as well as since Heb. 13. 8. 2. The faithful before Christ expected heaven when this life was ended Heb. 11. 11 14 15 16. 3. The believing thief was with Christ in Paradise that day Luk. 23. 43. which Bellarmine de Beatitud Sanctorum l. 1. c. 3. interprets to be heaven this was before Christs Ascension Luke 16. 23 26. Abrahams bosome is a place of comfort for Abraham was there comforted 2. There is a great Chaos which signifies an infinite distance between Abraham and the rich glutton which utterly overthrows the dream of Limbus which signifies a border or edge and supposeth that place to be hard adjoyning to that of torment CHAP. IV. Of Everlasting Life THe last prerogative of the Church is Life Everlasting which being the summe of all desires is fitly placed in the last place Here are two things 1. Life it self 2. The continuance of life noted in the word Everlasting See Acts 13. 48. Eternal life is three wayes promised 1. As the free gift of God without any respect of any worthinesse in us Rom. 6. ult Iam. 1. 12. 2. As our inheritance purchased by Christ Ephes. 1. 14. 3. As a free reward promised and given to obedience Rom. 6. 22. In the first respect our salvation and all the degrees is wholly to be ascribed to the gracious favour of God in Christ. In the second to the mercy of God and merit of Christ. In the third to the mercies of God redoubled and multiplied upon us and not to any desert of ours B. Down of Justification lib. 2. cap. 4. Life is that whereby any thing acteth liveth and moveth It is either natural or spiritual and that last hath two degrees the life of grace and glory First That there is everlasting life is proved 1. From the love of God to his servants that is everlasting 2. Because God will be eternally glorified 3. It is the aim of the Saints 1 Cor. 1. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 9. It is 1. A transcendent or surpassing life it exceedeth natural and spiritual life 2. A satisfying life Psal. 17. 15. there shall be all good and perfect good and perfectly injoyed God shall be all in all he is a satisfaction to himself much more to us 3. A glorious life there is a glorious God a glorious Christ there are the glorified Saints and Angels 4. A most joyful life Enter thou into thy masters joy we shall delight in God and he in us 5. Eternal life eternity heightens either happinesse or misery It is called eternal life not properly but by a Catachresis it hath a beginning but no end it is not temporary defined by any certain term obnoxious to any change it shall continue for ever without end Some question Whether one may propound eternall life as an end to aim at It is lawful for Christians that most deny themselves to make eternal life the great scope they aim at nay it is needful for them so to do 1. From the glorious precepts of God obliging the soul to propound such an end 1 Tim 6. 12 19. Phil. 2. 12. 2 Pet. 1. 10. 1 Cor. 9. 24. 2. The promises of God encouraging Matthew 5. 11 12. 1 Timothy 4. 8. Matth. 19. 28. 3. We have the presidents of believers that denied themselves in this world Heb. 11. 24 25 26. v. 35 36. Iude v. 21. 4. Eternal life was Gods end Heb. 2. 10. 1 Pet. 3. 8. It was the end of Christs incarnation suffering ascention intercession Iohn 10. 10. 17. 24. we should aim at Gods end 5. It was Gods design from all eternity to bring men to eternal life 1 Cor. 2. 7. 6. The great condition on which God promiseth eternal life is that we might seek and endeavour after it Rom. 2. 7. 7. We are much concerned in it What proportion is there between time and eternity How to know whether we make eternal life the end of this life 1. Then we will have high thoughts of eternity the comforts that are eternal are worth regarding and the miseries that are eternal should chiefly be avoided 2. We will then seriously enquire after the way to heaven Ier. 50. 5. Ps. 16. ult David often begs of God to teach him his waies 3. We will then make it our main work to come to heaven Phil. 3. 11 13 14. one thing is necessary 4. We will be content with no reward on this side eternal life Psal. 17. lat end 41. 4. 5. We will rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God 2 Tim. 4. 8. Titus 2. 13. Iude v. 21. 6. It will be our aim then to overcome the fear of death 7. We will often review our evidences for heaven Heb. 2. 11. and desire God to search and try us Psal. 139. ult It is a Question An sancti fruantur beatitudine ante ultimum judicium It was a current opinion among most of the Fathers if not all That the souls of men after their death do not go immediately to heaven but are in a receptacle or mansion-place till the day of Judgement and some of late have followed it especially the Anabaptists The souls immediately departed have not the compleat fulnesse of that happinesse which they shall have yet they are not excluded from the enjoying of God Luk. 23. 43. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Phil. 1. 23. Some say there is a difference of those that are raised again as Lazarus and some others for it is likely say they that their souls went not into heaven but were detained by God who would unite them again to shew forth his glory The accidental joy of the Saints say the Schoolmen shall be greater both extensively because it shall be in soul and body and intensively because the soul shall rejoyce to see the body glorified 2. The essential glory shall increase extensively because it shall redound unto the body The souls of the godly immediately after their departure hence from the body are said to be in rest Heb. 4. 11. in consolation Luke 16. 25. in security Iohn 11. 15 18. therefore they presently go to heaven to God and Christ. Consider the names given to the state of glory it is called Life These shall enter into life Rest finde rest go to rest our home our Fathers house a purchased and glorious inheritance A Kingdom the Kingdom of heaven Ioy our Masters joy everlasting joy Glory weight of glory eternal weight of glory The City of our God The Scripture cals it Paradise a place of all delight and pleasure alluding to that Paradise planted by Gods own hand to make it a delight for the innocent state of man and Abrahams bosom wherein the Saints receive refreshing which is a borrowed speech taken from Fathers carrying and cherishing their little
far forth as children transgresse not any of Gods commandments in obeying their parents they ought to obey Rom. 1. 30. 2 Tim. 3. 2. Titus 1. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 13. 13. Ever the blessing or curse of the parents hath a prophetique power joyned with it Flores Regij by King Iames Deut. 27. 16. The punishment which by the Law was appointed to disobedient and rebellious children was a publick shameful death Deut. 21. 18. to 22. Parentis effigiem filo corporis exprimere hoc omnibus cum aliis commune est virtutes patrum tam rarum natis est exprimere quam patribus virtutum suarum ac morum exempla suis relinquere posse Jos. Scalig. Epist. Christoph. Augustino Puteanis Postquam ex parentum consensu vel expresso vel tacito in sua potestate sunt constituti tum patria potestas propriè sic dicta cessat quamvis nunquam cessare possit debitum gratitudinis observantiae pietatis filialis Ames de consc lib. 5. c. 22. The four Cardinal duties of a parent are prayer admonition example correction a Gen. 22. 2. b Gen. 25. 28. Ibid. The childe set at liberty makes the mother ashamed Prov. 29. 15. See Dr. Gouges Domest duties on Ephes. 6. 4. Deut. 6. 7. See 2 Tim. 3. 15. and Master Baxters Saints Rest. part 3. See Dr. Gouge ibid. sect 46 47. Discant hic matres se debere per se suas proles nutrire lactare natura enim hoc illis onus imposuit Hinc Mammillas ubera veluti lagâ—nulas quasdam ad proles nutriendas aptas illis largita est Plin. l. 28. c. 9. scribit lac Maternum esse utilissimum naturae prolis convenientissimum Vide Aul. Gell. l. 12. noct Attic. c. 1. Scribit Lampridius Titum filium Vespasiani Imperatoris toto vitae tempore adversa valetudine laborasse eò quòd à nutrice infirma lactatus esset de Tiberio quoque Caesare fertur quòd fuerit magnus potator quia nutrix ipsius talis erat secundò ex eo quòd filius non lactetur à propria matre sit ut mater filium filius matrem minus amet Vnde naturalem parentum ac filiorum amorem majorem videmus in communi plebe quam in familiis nobilium quoniam ferè nobiles foeminae infantes suos per nutrices lactari curant à Lapide in Gen. 21. 7. Origo vocabuli servorum in Latina lingua inde creditur ducta quod hi qui jure belli possent occidi à victoribus cum servabantur servi fiebant à servando appellati quod etiam ipsum sine peccati merito non est Aug. de civit Dei l. 19. c. 15. Servitus conditionalis usualis See Ephes. 6. 5. Coloss. 4. 22. 1 Tim. 6. 2. Tit. 2. 15. Prov. 10. 26. See Dr. Willet on Exod. 21. Quest. 8. 9. Dr. Gouges Domestical duties on Ephes. 6. 5 6 7 8. Servants must obey their Masters but in the Lord and therefore the Apostle ever joyneth some clause of restraint Col. 3. 22. Ephes. 6. 6. 1 Cor. 7. 15. A servant is not sui juris must do his Masters work is a living instrument in the hand of another 1 Pet. 2. 18. Servus non est persona sed res saith the Civil Law one describes him thus A servant is a person that yeelds himself to the command of a master and submits to his authority to do his will Rom. 6. 16. So the Centurion describes a servant Matth. 8. 9. Psal. 101. 6 7. 1 Tim. 3 4. See Dr. Gouges Domest duties on Ephes. 6. 9. Naamans servants called him Father Deut. 15. 13 14. See Dr. Gouges Domest duties part 2. Without their union of hearts their uniting of bodies and states will be a death Ephes. 5. 25. Love is such a natural property of that relation that God to shew his affections to his Church when he would comfort her saith that he is her husband See a rare example of wively affection Speed in Edw. the first p. 542. 1 Cor. 7. Not beauty wit wealth kindnesse received these things may alter Matrimonial love that is such as beseemeth that neer knot and conjunction Where the bond is closest the love must be strongest His soul must rest it self in her as the onely woman under Heaven for him and hers upon him as the onely man under Heaven for her Prov. 5. 19 20. As if he had said If thou do not love thy wife thou wilt look after Harlots or at least art in danger so to do * Religio à religando Gen. 2. 18. It is not said a help onely for so are the living creatures and therefore called jumenta à juvando but a fit or meet help In the Original it is before him and with a note of similitude as before him that is answering to him Prov. 31. 1. The wives relation-grace is subjection in the Lord the Apostle twice or thrice cals for this subjection and obedience 1 Pet. 3. 5 6. 1. This is there made the great ornament 2. The Apostle shews there the benefit of this subjection The titles and names whereby an husband is set forth do imply a superiority and authority in him as Lord 1 Pet. 3. 6. Master Esth. 1. 17. Guide Prov. 2. 15. Head 1 Cor. 11. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 2. Sarah called Abraham Lord. Ephes. 5. 24. 1 Cor. 11. 7. 1 Cor. 14. 25. Men are commanded to receive them in the Lord to hold them in reputation to know them as over them in the Lord to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake to hold them worthy double honour and to obey them Phil. 2. 29. Ministers must be faithful in their Calling Faithfulnesse is a constant and diligent performing of all the parts of the duty of a Minister from the right grounds and for the right ends sincerely because God requireth and for his glory and the salvation of the people It was a wonderful thing in Paul 1 Cor. 4. 4. that he knew nothing by himself that is no notorious defect in regard of his Ministry He should have Thummim integrity of life as well as Urim light of learning It was said heretofore Stupor mundi Clerus Britannicus The wonder of the world is the Clergie of Britain 1 Tim. 4. 13. Ieroboam made the basest of the people to be Priests 1 Kin. 12. 31. 13. 33. and some would make the Priests to be the basest of the people Prov. 24. 2â— 1 Pet. 2. 17. See Tit. 3. 1. Rom. 13. 5. What one doth for conscience sake he should do willingly A great burden lies on the Magistrate Unicus tantum est subjectus in civitate Magistratus Luth. Psal. 82. 5 10. Zach. 7. 4. Acts 4. 19 20. Iulianus Imperator quamvis esset apostata habuit tamen sub se Christianos milites quibus cum dicebat Producite aciem pro defensione Ecclesiae obediebant ei cum autem diceret eis Producite arma in Christianos tunc
of the glorified Saints Revel 14. 10. Isa. 66. â—4 B. Bilson Bellarm. Aquinas with Mr Wheatley and others say it is below Constituunt enim Scholastici communi consensu intra terram quatuor sinus â—ive unum in quatuor partes divisum unum pro damnatis alterum pro purgatorio tertium pro infantibus siue baptismo abe untibus quartum pro justis qui morichantur ante Christi passionem qui nunc vacuus remanet quorum sufficientia sumitur penes genera poenarum sunt enim haec omnia loca poenalia omnis autem poena aut est tantùm damni aut etiam sensus rursus aut aeterna aut temporalis pro poena ergo solius damni aeterna est limbus puerorum pro poena solius damni temporali erat limbus Patrum pro poena damni sensus aterna est infernus pro poena damni sensus temporali est Purgatorium Bellarm. Tom. 2. controvers 3. lib. 2. c. 6. De loco Purgatorii Incentro collocant inferuum damnatorum circa â—anc Purgatorium tum limbum puerorum ad extremum limbum Patrum Chamier tom 2. l. 5. c. 8. Proxima pars gehennae est Purgatorium Purgatorio proximus limbus puerorum puerorum limbo proximus Patrum limbus Rainold de lib. Apoc. tom 1. praelect 79. Tom. 2. controv lib. 1. de purgat c. 1. Abbot against Bishop Clamandum ergo non modò vocis sed gutturis ac laterum contentione Purgatorium exitiale Satanae esse commentum quod Christi crucem evacuat quod contumeliam Dei misericordiae non ferendam irrogat quod fidem nostram labefaâ—it evertit Calv. Instit. l. 3. c. 5. Sect. 16. Duo sunt habitacula unum in igne aeterno alterum in regno aeterno August in lib. suo de verbis Apost 18. Serm. Nec est illi ullus medius locus ut possit esse nisi cum diabolo qui non est cum Christo l. 1. de peccat meritis remissione cont Pelag. c. 28. * Dr Fcatleys Stricturae in Lindomastig Chap. of Indâ—â—â— Bellarm. lib. 2. de Puâ—â—â— 14. ait poenas in Purgatorio esse atroâ—â—â—mas cum iâ—cis mâ—llas poenas hujus vitae comparandas esse docere constanter Patres ex Thoma minimam poenam purgatorii esse majorem maxima poena hujus vitae Vide Bellarm. l. 2. de purgat c. 3. Vide Bellar. â—ib c. 4 5 6 7 8. Petrus Cottonus Iesuita in Christianissimi Regis aula Patrum nostrorum memoria nobilissimus cum in quandam enâ—rgumenam incidisset neque tam opportunam occasionem negligendam putaret homo discendi cupidissimus inter caetera quae à malo quidem sed tamen calido docto daemone sciscitanda in chartula quaedam annotaverat etiam disertè praescripserit Quis evidentissimus Scripturae locus ad probandum purgatorium invocationem Sanctorum ut est ab amplissimo viro Jacobo Augusto Thuano in historiarum libris proditum Dallaeus de poenis satisfact l. 1. c. 18. Vide defense de la Fidelite de traductions de la S. Bible Faites à Geneve par Turretin Preface an Lecteur verification 43. Touchant le Purgatoire Limbus accipitur propriè pro parte insiâ—â—a vestis muliebris imos pedes contingeute vel pro fascia extremitatem vestium circumquaque ambiente Si pro alterius cujus dam rei margine accipiatur id â—it metaphora quadam in qua aliqua â—it analogia necesse est Limbus verò Papisticus cum juxta autores suos â—it part inferni ac secundum Bellarminum paâ—s superior saltem ille qui patribus assignatur debebant prius doccre qualis fit inferni figura ut sciri possit num Limbus fit superior vel inserior item an sint duo cum infantum Limbus habeatur pro inferiori Riveâ— in Cathol Orthod See D. Willets Limob-mastix De finâ— Abrahae Limbo Patrum Vide Cam. myroth Capel Spicileg ad Luc. 16. 22. Chamier ad Heb. 11. 39 40 Vocatur futura piorum gloria 1. Vita ut distinguatur ab infoelicissimo miserrimo damnatorum statu qui mortis nomine exprimitur Intelligitur autem vitae nomine non nuda viventis existentia ab animae corporis unione dependens ea enim piis in coelo damnatis in inferno crit communis sed beatissima foelicissima viventis conditio quae à beatifica Dei viventis visione corporis animae glorificatione dependet per quam pii à damnatis vel maximè distinguuntur Gerrh loc commun All amor mercedis is not amor mercenarius Vide Montac Apparat. 1. pag. 50 5â— 52 53 c. Antiqui certè patres unanimi concentu consensu docent antiquos sanctos aut in loco aliquo subterraneo secreto fuisse repositorio aut alibi dispositos ubi Deo visum non autem in coelo summo beato glorioso quem appellant Paradisum Montac orig Eccles. Tom. prior parte posteriore p. 418. See Heb. 11. 39. opened in my Annotat. The end of our faith is sight of our hope possession of our love enjoying Ubi est summum bonum ibi est summa foelicitas summa jucunditas vera libertas perfecta charitas aeterna securitas secura aeternitas Bern. meditat cap. 4. Three things will be perfected at once a mans sanctification communion and comfort We shall be made like unto God 1 Joh. 3. 2. We shall be assured that our happinesse shall continue for ever as the misery of the damned is to be without hope so they shall be without fear The matter of the Saints communion in heaven shall be the redemption of Christ the praising of â—his wisdom and justice Luke 9. 31. Gods providence concerning them Gods righteous judgements Revel 5. 9. See Dr Prid. on 2 Pet. 3. 16. Death puts an end to finne the beatifical vision perfects our sanctification and makes the soul impeccable say the Schoolmen Many of the Fathers believed that the just were not admitted to the beatifical vision before the day of Judgement but kept in sâ—cret receptacles There is 1. Plena adeptio 2. Summa delectatio Psal. 16. 11. 3. Perfecta quietatio That there shall be different degrees of glory in heaven It hath been the ancient and constant tradition of the Church testified by the unanimous consent of all the Fathers was never questioned by any untill that Peter Martyr in this last age first began to doubt thereof and others since more boldly adventured to contradict it M. Mede on Mat. 10. 41. See more there Aureolae deferuntur 1. Martyribus propter victoriam de mundo 2. Virginibus ob subjugatam carnem 3. Praedicantibus propter profligatum diabolum D. Prid. Scholast Theol. Syntag. Mnemon cap. 7. Dav. de justitia actuali c. 60. Dicimus cum Calvino quod pro gratiae mensura in hac vita suis concessa Deus quoque gloriae gradus in futura distribuat Vide Calvinum in Institut l. 3. c. 25. Sect. 10. in Matth. 13. 43. Matth. 20. Scio alios doctos pios viros in contrariam sententiam concessisse inter quos agmen ducit Petrus Martyr quem alij etiam hoc tempore sequuntur Talemque esse controversiam judico de qua salvo fidei fundamento in utramque partem disputari possitâ— Quia neutrae parti desunt suae rationes quae probabilltate suae non carent Rivet in Cath. orthod Supplem 3. part q. 94. Art 1. Isa. 66. 24. That place 1 Joh. 3. 15. to some seems unanswerable to prove that eternal life is begun here but perfected hereafter therefore glory wherein doth consist the perfection of eternal life doth but gradually differ from grace wherin the inchoation of that life doth consist There is 1. A holy shame which is aningredient into true repentance the object of this is sin Eze. 16. 61 2. Sinfull shame when we are ashamed of Christ and his word and people Mark 16. ult 2 Tim. 1. 8. Pudor à rebus putidis Scal. It is the blushing of the face upon the apprehension of doing something unseemly Shame is defined by Aristotle a grief and trouble of minde arising from such evils as tend to our disgrace l. 2. Rhet. c. 9. Pudor est metus quidaâ— infamiae Arist. â—thic 4. â— 15.
foolish and unreasonable Vide Daven Determ Quaest. 6. There is a two-fold Obedience 1. Legal so to keep Gods wayes as to do all which the ten Commandments require at all times in all fulnesse without any the least failing in matter or manner which was the bargain made with our first Parents Adam and Eve and which by nature lies on us Do this and live such a keeping of the Law is utterly impossible for Paul saith That which the Law could not do in as much as it was weak through the flesh The Law cannot bring us to heaven because our flesh in breaking it disableth it from giving us the reward which is promised to absolute perfection and by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified if we could perform such an Obedience we needed not any Mediator 2. Evangelical a true striving to perform the former Obedience it is an upright and hearty endeavour after the fore-named perfect Obedience For the Gospel doth not abolish the Law from being the rule of our life but alone from being the means of our Justification and so from bringing the malediction of the Law upon us but it establisheth the Law as a rule of good life tying and inabling us to labour with uprightnesse and sincerity to perform all things written in the Law in all perfection The Obedience of the Law excludes all defects that of the Gospel all wilful defects and allowed sins This Obedience is two-fold 1. Counterseit false and feigned when the will in some things yeelds to Gods will not because it is his will but because his will doth not much crosse the motions of theirs this is the obedience of hypocrites 2. True and hearty when for Gods own sake principally the will frames it self in all things to stoop unto him Of this there are two degrees one perfect when the will is wholly carried after Gods will without any gainsaying with the full sway and whole swinge of it this was only in Adam 2. Imperfect when the will opposeth it self to its own disobedient inclinations and doth consent to obey and is displeased with its own disobedience We must all set our selves to yeeld true obedience to God How often and earnestly doth Moses inculcate this Deut. 4. 1. 5. 1. If ye love me keep my Commandments saith Christ. Peter saith We must yeeld our selves to God as those that are risen from the dead meaning quickened in soul by vertue of Christs Resurrection 1 King 2. 3 4. Reasons First From God 1. In regard of his right to rule he is the author of our being and continuance he hath also redeemed us wherefore it is pressed on the people of Israel that they ought to obey God above all people because he redeemed them out of the hand of Pharaoh Secondly His fitnesse to rule 1. He is most wise and just to make good righteous and equal Laws 2. Most careful to observe the carriage of men 3. Most bountiful to reward obedience 4. Most severe to punish disobedience Thirdly He hath done us already so much good and laden us with so many benefits that we are ingaged Fourthly To this adde the excellency of his holy Nature for wisdome and goodnesse Secondly From our selves Who are 1. Subject to him as being his Children Servants Subjects 2. Foolish and weak in our selves subject to many enemies dangers Thirdly From the Commandments which we must obey 1. They are most just as holding perfect agreement with right reason and equity teaching us to give God and man his own 2. They are fitted to our good as well as to Gods glory confusion would follow if every one might hate and kill whom he would 3. Obedience is most necessary acceptable profitable and possible praying hearing knowledge of God faith The rule of it must be the Word of God the extent the whole Law in every point Deut. 28. 58. Levit. 19. ult Psal. 119. 6. Act. 13. 22. Col. 4. 12. the whole will of God the form of it is conformity to the Word and will of God The end principal that we may honour and please God Mat. 5. 16. As you have received of us how you ought to walk and please God saith Paul The Properties of it 1. Generality or Universality it must be entire Luk. 1. 6. 2. Constancy I will incline my heart to thy testimonies alwayes to the end 3. Sincerity it must be grounded on Gods authority and aim at his glory Motives to Obedience Consider 1. The Majesty and Excellency of him whose servants you are He is the King of Kings Constantinus Valentinianus Theodosius three Emperors called themselves Vasallos Christi Moses My servant Peter Paul a servant of Christ. 2. The honourablenesse of the work His service is perfect freedom 3. The great priviledges and reward of this service II. Means 1. Take notice of and be abased in the sense of our own disobedience 2. Pray to God to give his Spirit to encline our hearts to his testimonies 3. Consider the necessity fruit excellency and equity of Obedience CHAP. XVI Of the Sanctification of the Conscience COnscience is taken 1. More strictly and properly when it is joined with other faculties of the soul as Titus 1. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 5. In the first it is differenced from the minde in the later from the will 2. More largely when 't is put alone and so it stands for the whole heart soul and spirit working inwardly upon it self by way of reflex So Acts 24. 16. It is a distinct faculty the Apostle seemeth to make it so when he saith of unbelievers That their mindes and their consciences are defiled and because it hath the name of the whole heart given unto it 1 Sam. 24. 5. 1 Iohn 3. 10. and because in the working of it it hath a certain general and universal command over all the other faculties It s proper work is to dispose a man aright to Gods word and to set a work all the rest of his powers for that purpose Conscience is an ability in a man to judge of his estate and actions according to a rule prescribed by God it is no further therefore Liberty of Conscience but licentiousnesse then it is regulated by the Word for the Conscience is Regula regulata Est liber animae ad quem emendandum scripti sunt omnes libri Bern. What Conscience is it is hard to finde as in mens dealings the use of it some making it a distinct faculty from the understanding some an habit some an act it is the understanding reflecting upon its self in its acts in regard of the goodnesse or badness of them Or the judgement that a man gives of himself in reference to the judgement of God There is a kinde of syllogism He that believes in Christ shall be saved But I believe in Christ. He that loves the Brethren is passed from death to life But I love the Brethren Converting Grace reneweth a mans conscience 1. Whereas it
is naturally cauterized 1 Tim. 4. 2. it puts feeling and apprehension into us this is the first work of Grace converting upon the soul when it begins to be tender Act. 24. 16. and is not able to endure those heavy burdens of sinne which before though mountains it never felt is also now active that was silent Dan. 9. 8. Ezra 9. 6. 2. Whereas naturally it is self-flattering it will accuse when it ought naturally it stirreth in a false way promising heaven and salvation when there is no such matter Deut. 29. 19. Davids heart soon smote him and Psal. 51. he acknowledged his sinne and bewailed it and again I and my house have sinned Conscience speaketh the truth Thus often thou hast prophaned the Sabbath abused thy self and that in all the aggravations this makes the godly lie so low in their humiliation 3. The erroneousnesse of it is taken away the mischief of an erroneous conscience is seen in Popery and other heresies how they make conscience of worshipping that which is an Idol if they should eat meat on a fasting-day not odore the Sacrament how much would their hearts be wounded this erroneous conscience brought in all the superstition in the world but the godly obtain a sound judgment conscience is to be a guide 4. The partial working of it about some works but not others is taken away as Herod Psal. 50. those that abhorred Idols did yet commit sacriledge they neglect the duties of one of the tables as the civil mans conscience is very defective he will not be drunk unjust yet regards not his duty to God is ignorant seldome prayeth in his Family the hypocritical Jews and Pharisees would have Sacrifice but not Mercy Secondly Inward motions and thoughts of sinne as well as outward acts his conscience now deeply smites and humbleth him for those things which only God knoweth and which no civil or worldly man ever taketh notice of So Paul Rom. 7. How tender is Pauls conscience Every motion of sin is a greater trouble and burden to him then any grosse sinne to the worldling Hezekiah humbleth himself for his pride of heart Matth. 5. the Word condemneth all those inward lusts and sins which are in the fountain of the heart though they never empty themselves into the actions of men the conscience of a godly man condemneth as farre as the Word it is not thus with the natural mans conscience nor with the refined Moralist he condemneth not himself in secret he takes not notice of such proud earthly motions they are not a pressure to him Thirdly In doing of duties to take notice of all the imperfections and defects of them as well as the total omission of them his unbelief lazinesse rovings in the duty I beleeve Lord help my unbelief All our righteousnesse is a menstrâ—ous ragge A godly man riseth from his duties bewailing himself Fourthly To witnesse the good things of God in us as well as the evil that is of our selves it is broken and humbled for sinne yet this very mourning is from God Fifthly About sins of omission as well as commission whereas the wicked if they be drunk steal have no rest in their consciences but if they omit Christian duties they are not troubled Mat. 25. 36. Sixthly In the extremity of it being rectified from one extream fals into another from the neglect of the Sacrament they fall to adoring of it this is rectified by grace it will so encline him to repent as that he shall be disposed to believe so to be humble as that he shall be couragious Seventhly Converting grace also removes 1. The slavishnesse and security of conscience and puts in us a spirit of Adoption Rom. 8. All the men in the world could not perswade Cain but that his sins were greater then could be pardoned 2. That natural pronenesse to finde something in our selves for comfort men think if they be not their own saviours they cannot be saved at all Phil. 3. I desire to know nothing but Christ and him crucified and count all things dung for his righteousnesse 3. The unsubduednesse and contumacy in it to the Scripture Conscience is wonderfully repugnant to the precepts and holinesse of Gods Law in the troubles of it contradicts the Scripture way of Justification CHAP. XVII Sanctification of the Memory MEmory is a faculty of the minde whereby it preserves the species of what it once knew 1 Chron. 16. 15. Memory is the great keeper or master of the rols of the soul â—rariâ—m animae the souls Exchequer Sense and understanding is of things present hope of things to come Memoria rerum praeteritarum memory of things past It is one part of the sanctity of the memory when it can stedfastly retain and seasonably recal the works of the living God A sanctified memory consists in three things First In laying up good things concerning God Christ Gods word his Works experiments Mary laid up these things in her heart Secondly For a good end sinne to be sorry and ashamed of it Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sinne against thee Remember the Sabbath to sanctifie it Thirdly In seasonably recalling them thy personal sins on a day of humiliation Gods mercies on a day of thanksgiving good instructions where there is occasion to practise them A sanctified memory is a practical memory as the Lord sayes Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy Psal. 109. 16. A Countrey-woman after the hearing of a Sermon met as she was going home with the Minister he asked her where she had been she told him at a good Sermon he asked her the Ministers name and Text she answered she knew not him nor remembred the Text her memory was so bad but she would go home and mend her life Another complained that for the expressions and other things delivered in a Sermon he could remember but little but he had learned by it to hate sin and love Christ more CHAP. XVIII Sanctification of the Affections THe affections were called by Tully perturbations by some Affectiones or affectus by others passions The affections are different from the vertues which are called by their names They are certain powers of the soul by which it worketh and moveth it self with the body to good and from evil Or They are powers of the soul subordinate to the will by which they are carried to pursue and follow after that which is good and to shun and avoid that which is evil They are the forcible and sensible motions of the will according as an object is presented to them to be good or evil 1. Motions Rom. 7. 5. Anger Love Joy are the putting forth of the will this or that way The Scripture cals them the feet of the soul Psal. 119. 59 101. Eccles. 5. 1. 2. Motions of the will Some Philosophers place them in the sensitive soul but Angels and the souls of men separate from the body have these affections 1