a picture that looks every way his religion leaves him not at the Church-doors he retains his purity where-ever he lives He hath a principle like a fountain in him that supplyes him in the time of drought not like a plash of water lick'd up with an hours heat of the Sun The musick allures him not the fournce affrights him not from God 3. As the actings of a sanctified person are from and according to a renewed principle of life so are they for it and that both in respect of preservation of life in himself and also the propagation of it to others 1. A sanctified person acts for his sanctified principle of spirituall life in respect of preserving it in himself which he expresseth 1. In shunning what-ever may prejudice and impair it much more then a man doth avoid that which would shorten a naturall life as sword poyson diseases c. that which parteth between God and the soul being more hurtfull then that which parteth 'twixt soul and body What shifts have some made to scramble from death throwing estates into the sea leaving them and sweetest relations running thorow rivers fire c. And have not holy men suffered more to keep from sin which tends to spirituall death have they not left goods lands children have they not run thorow fire water nay into them even embracing death rather then death temporall rather then spirituall A man would give all the world rather then lose one naturall life but a Christian would give a thousand lives rather then lose the life spirituall Lord saith he I desire but to live to keep Christ who is my life Psal 63.3 Col. 3.4 2. In a prizing his food that upholds life He loves what nourisheth him delights in the Law of God 1 Pet. 2.2 Psal 19.10 hungreth after the sincere milk of the word accounts it sweeter then the honey and the honey-comb hath a most ardent affection to uncorrupted Truths accounts a famine of the Word the sorest esteems the bread of life the staff of life When he was dead he had no hunger the Word was as food in a dead mans mouth found no savour or entertainment now though God give him never so much of other supplyes yet 't is a famine with him if he have not bread like an infant-King that preferrs the brest before his Crown though he be rich in grace yet he is poor in spirit he desireth grace having the grace to desire He never saith I have enough truth of grace ever puts him upon growth 3. A sanctified person labours to preserve his inward principle of life In using the means that may recover him Jer. 17.11 Psal 41.4 when his life is endangered by sicknesse desiring earnestly that God would heal him embracing the sharpest administrations the bitterest reproofs taking down the most loathed pill bearing the heaviest affliction being willing to be cut sawed seared so as to be saved His great request is that he may be whole walk holily that the pain and impotency of his disease the filthinesse and hurtfulnesse thereof were both removed 2. A sanctified person acts for his principle of spirituall life In labouring to communicate it to others as well as to preserve it in himself The life of a spiritually quickned soul is generative of it self All living creatures have a seminary for propagating of their kinde the spirit of life is fruitfull endeavouring to derive it self from one to another You never heard of a soul that loved to make a monopoly of Christ Grace may be imparted not impaired Samson when he had found honey gave his father and mother some with him John 4. The woman of Samaria calls others to Christ being called How diffusive of Christ was blessed Paul like the wall which reflects upon the passenger the Sun shining upon it How sutable was that wish of his to a sanctified soul I would to God that thou and all that hear me this day were almost and altogether such as I am except these my bonds Act. 26.29 Every Christian labours to raise up seed to his elder brother The great design of the soul is to set up Christ more in it self and others to leaven others with grace and this gaining of souls is a Christians greatest covetousnesse This for the explication of the sort or kinde of their first priviledge Sanctification The Observations follow in the second place 1. Obs 1. Grace whereby we are changed much excels grace whereby we are onely curb'd The Sanctification wherewith the faithfull were said to be adorned was such as cur'd sin as well as cover'd it not a sanctification that did abscondere but abscindere not onely represse but abolish corruption Psal 145. The former restraining grace is a fruit only of generall mercy over all Gods works common to good and bad binding the hand leaving the heart free withholding only from some one or few sins tying us now and loosing us by and by intended for the good of humane society doing no saving good to the receiver In a word onely inhibiting the exercise of corruption for a time without any reall diminution of it as the Lions that spared Daniel were Lions still and had their ravenous disposition still as appeared by their devouring others although God stop'd their mouthes for that time But this sanctifying grace with which the faithfull are here adorned as it springs from Gods speciall love in Christ so it is proper to the Elect worketh upon every part in some measure body soul spirit abhorrs every sin holdeth out to the end is intended for the salvation of the receiver it doth not only inhibit the exercise of corruption but mortifieth subdueth diminisheth it and works a reall change of a Lion making a Lamb altering the naturall disposition of the soul and making a new man in every part and faculty 2. From the nature of this Sanctification I note Obs 2. It changeth not the substance and faculties of soul and body but onely the corruption and disorder and sinfulnesse thereof it rectifies but destroyes not like the fire wherein the three children were it consumes the bonds not the garments it doth not slay Isaac but onely the ram it breaks not the string but tuneth it The fall of man took not away his essence but onely his holinesse so the raising of man destroyes not his being but his unholy ill-being Grace beautifieth not debaseth nature it repairs not ruins it It makes one a man indeed it tempereth and moderateth affections not abolisheth them it doth not extinguish the fire onely allay it that it may not burn the house It doth not overthrow but order thy love hatred sorrow joy both for measure and object Thou mayst be merry now thou art sanctified but not mad-merry thy rejoycing will now be in the Lord elevated not annihilated They are mistaken that think Sanctification unmans a man that he must now alway be sad and sowre solitary that as they said of Mary a Christian
meet this ugly guest in any corner of the house but the heart riseth against it this hatred of evill Psal 97.10 is more then of hell it s a killing look that the soul doth cast upon every corruption He that hateth his brother is a man-slayer he that hateth his lust is a sin-slayer not he that hateth the sins or practices of his brother but the person of his brother so not he that hateth the effects and fruits of sin but the nature of sin not he that hateth sin for hell but as hell Every evill by how much the nearer 't is by so much the more it s hated An evill as it is so to our estate names children wife life soul as impendent adjacent incumbent inherent admits of severall degrees of hatred Sin is an inward a soul-foe Love turned into hatred becoms most bitter brethrens divisions are hardest to reconcile the souls old love is turned into new hatred the very ground sin treads upon is hated There 's a kinde of hatred of ones self for sin every act that sin hath a hand in is hated our very duties for sins intermixing with them and we are angry with our selves that we can hate it no more 3. This hatred puts forth it self in labouring the destruction of sin Love cannot be hid neither can this hatred The soul seeks the death of sin by these ways and helps 1. By lamentation to the Lord when going to him for strength with the Apostle Oh wretched man that I am was there ever a soul so sin-pestred Ah woe is me Lord that I am compell'd to be chain'd to this block Never did a slave in Egypt or Turkey so sigh under bondage as a mortifying soul doth under corruption The sorrows of others are outward shallow in the eye the look but these are in the bottom of the soul deep sorrows It s true a man may give a louder cry at the drawing of a tooth then ever he did pining under the deepest consumption but yet the consumption that is the harbinger of death doth afflict him much more and though outward worldly grief as for the death of a child c. may be more intense and expressive yet grief for sin is more deep close sticking oppressive to the soul then all other sorrows the soul of a saint like a sword may be melted when the outward man the scabbard is whole 2. The soul of a sin-subduer fights against sin with the Crosse of Christ and makes the death of Christ the death of sin Ephes 5.25 1. By depending on his death as the meritorious cause of sins subduing of sanctification and cleansing Christs purifying us being upon the condition of his suffering 1 Cor. 6.20 and so it urgeth God thus Lord hath not Christ laid down the price of the purchase why then is Satan in possession Is Satan bought out Lord let him be cast out 2. By taking a pattern from the death of Christ for the killing of sin we being planted into the similitude of his death Rom. 8.5 sin it self hanging upon the crosse as it were when Christ died Oh saith a gracious heart that my corruptions may drink Vinegar that they may be pierced and naild and never come down alive but though they die lingeringly yet certainly Oh that I might see their hands feet side and every limb of the body of death bored the head bowing and the whole laid in the grave the darknesse error and vanity of the understanding the sinfull quietnesse and unquietnesse of my conscience the rebellion of my will the disorder of my affections 3. And especially the soul makes use of the death of Christ as a motive or inducement to put it upon sin-killing Ah my sin is the knife saith the soul that is redded over in my Redeemer's blood Ah it pointed every thorn on his head and nail in his hands and feet Lord Art thou a friend to Christ and shall sin that kill'd him live Thus a sin-mortifying heart brings sin neer to a dead Christ whom faith seeth to fall a bleeding afresh upon the approach of sin and therfore it layes the death of Christ to the charge of sin The crosse of Christ is sins terror the souls armour The bloud of Christ is old sures-be as holy Bradford was wont to say to kill sin As he died for sin so must we to it as his flesh was dead so must ours be Our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6.6 It s not a Pope's hallowing a Crosse that can do it Mr. D. Rogers Pr. Cat. but the power of Christ by a promise which blesseth this Crosse to mortification 3. The soul labours to kill sin by fruitfull enjoyment of Ordinances It never goeth to pray but it desires sin may have some wound and points by prayer like the sick child to the place where its most pained How doth it bemoan it self with Ephraim and pour-forth the bloud of sin at the eys It thus also improves Baptism it looks upon it as a seal to Gods promise that sin shall die We being buried with Christ in baptism that the Egyptians shall be drowned in the sea It never heareth a Sermon but as Joab dealt with Vrijah it labours to set its strongest corruption in the fore-front of the battell that when Christ shoots his arrows and draws his sword in the preaching of the Word sin may be hit An unsanctified person is angry with such preaching and cannot endure the winde of a sermon should blow upon a lust 4. By a right improving all administrations of providence If God send any affliction the sanctified soul concludes that some corruption must go to the lions If there arise any storms presently it enquires for Jonah and labours to cast him over-board If God snatcheth away comforts as Joseph fled from his Mistris presently a sin-mortifying heart saith Lord thou art righteous my unclean heart was prone to be in love with them more then with Christ my true Husband If God at any time hedg up her way with thorns she reflects upon her own gadding after her impure Lovers If her two eys Profits Pleasures be put out and removed a sin-mortifier will desire to pull down the house upon the Philistims and beareth every chastisement cheerfully even death it self that sin may but die too 5. By consideration of the sweetnesse of spirituall life Life is sweet and therfore what cost are men at to be rid of diseases to drive an Enemy out of the Country The soul thinks how happy it should be could it walk with God and be upright and enjoy Christ be rid of a Tyrant and be governed by the laws of a Liege the Lord Jesus How heavie is Satans yoke to him who sees the beutie and tasts the liberty of holy obedience A sick man confined to bed how happy doth he think them that can walk abroad about their imployments Oh saith a gracious heart how sweetly doth such a Christian pray how strictly doth
he live how close is he in duty how fruitfull in conversing But I alass how feeble how dead how unable I am held under by a tyrant oh that I could be his death 6. By recollecting its former folly in loving of sin thinking thus Formerly I loved that which now I see would have murdered me What a deal of pains care cost time laid I out to satisfie my lusts oh that I could recall these follies as I recollect them but since I cannot make them never to have been I 'll labour to hinder them for time to come Oh that my hatred might be greater then ever my love was to them A soul that hath been mad upon sin afterward is as vehement against it This is the Apostles argument As ye have yeelded your members servants to uncleannesse Rom. 6.19 1 Pet. 4.3 so now to righteousnesse and The time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles 7. By with-drawing those things that have been as fuell and fodder to corruption Fire is put out as well by taking away wood as casting on of water A sin-mortifying heart forbears the using of that which it hath heretofore abused it knows that often Satan lieth in ambush behinde lawfull enjoyments He that hath taken Physick in wine afterward is ready to loath that very sort of wine in which his loathed medicine was given him he that hath been sin-sick dreads those tentations in which Satan was wont to wrap sin up he considers that he that alway goeth as far as he may sometime goeth farther then hee should he feeds not without fear Jude ver 12. but trembles in every enjoyment lest it may be an in-let to sin and his own corruption get advantage by it he fears a snare under his very trencher and poyson for his soul in every cup of wine especially if he hath been formerly bitten therby Whereas a carnall heart engulfs it self in occasions of sin if in themselves lawfull sees no enemy and therfore sets no watch he makes provision for the flesh Rom. 13. he cuts not off the food which relieveth his enemy whereas a Sin-mortifier as an enemy that besiegeth a City hinders all the supplyes and support of lusts that so he may make himself more yeeldable to holinesse 8. By re-inforcing the fight after a foyl by gaining ground after a stumble by doubling his guard after unwarinesse strengthening the battell after a blow praying more earnestly contending more strenuously laying on more strongly after sin hath been too hard thus Paul was the more earnest with God against sin he besought the Lord thrice after the messenger of Satan had buffetted him 2 Cor. 12.8 9. By a holy vexation with the constant company and troublesom presence of sin Thus was holy Paul put upon opposing of sin he complains sin was always present with him Rom. 7.21 even when he would do good And sin is call'd Heb. 12.1 encompassing easily besetting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It dwells in us It s a leprosie not ceasing till the wall be pull'd down the house of our mortality dissolved it s as neer as the skin upon the back bowels in the body it goeth along with a saint in every duty Sabboth Ordinances like Pharaoh's frogs into the Kings chambers pestering a Saint at every turn the apprehension hereof puts the soul upon endeavouring sins ruine The neerer an enemy is the more hatefull he is the closer the conflict is the quicker are the strokes the fiercer the fight To conclude A holy insulting and rejoycing in God follows if at any time he hath given the soul victory and any fore-skins and heads of these uncircumcised it blessing God as Panl Rom. 7.21 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord going about duty more cheerfully and yet humbly A man may read the good news of a victory in a Saints countenance Doth he not say to Christ when some lust hath been smitten as Cushi to David I would that all the enemies of my Lord were as that one young man Lord When will there be a perfect riddance of these vermin Oh how sweet will heaven be when I shall trample upon every Goliah and see every Egyptian dead upon the shore when I shall have neither tear in my eye nor lust in my soul This for the first thing in the nature of Sanctification viz. Mortification 2. The second follows which is Vivification wherby we live a new and spirituall life The Scriptures proving it are abundant I live saith Paul Gal. 2.20 yet not I but Christ liveth in me If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that are above Col. 3.1 The life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortall flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 As the death of Christ is the death of corruption so the same power of God by which he raised Christ from the dead Eph. 1.20 doth frame us to the life of Christs holinesse Christ by the power of his Deity wherby he raised himself having derived spirituall life to all his members as life is derived from the head to the other members enableth them to manifest it accordingly As Christ was raised up from death by the glory of the Father even so we walk in newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 and ver 11. Reckon ye your selves alive unto God through Jesus Christ Eph. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Joh. 15.5 He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit These brief considerations may shew in what respects a sanctified person lives a new life a life of holinesse 1. A sanctified person liveth a holy life in moving and acting from a principle of holy life All vitall actions are from an inward principle A body without a soul lives not moves not naturally nor without an internall principle of spirituall life received from Christ doth any one live spiritually The body of every living creature hath a heart which is the forge of spirits and the fountain of heat Joh. 3.9 Jer. 32.40 Jer. 31.33 True holinesse proceeds from an implanted seed the fear of God in the heart the Law put into the inward man Sanctity unlesse Christ be in us is but a fable Gal. 2.20 Rom. 6.11 Joh. 15.5 Gal. 4.19 Col. 1.27 Christ liveth in me saith the Apostle and so he speaks of living to God by Christ Christ must abide in us he is formed and dwelleth in us The actions of a sanctified person are from a vitall principle the spirit within the holinesse of another is but from without beginneth at his fingers ends he is drawn by outward inducements his motions are not the motions of a living creature but like those of a clock Duceris ut nervis alienis mobile lignum Hor. Ser. l. 2. or some image that move not from within but from weights and plummets without when his weights are
Saints complaints of his wants and deficiences rather prove him covetous then poor his strong appetite rather speaks him healthfull then empty his desires of cloathing rather growing then naked he desires that the Dominions of Christ may be as large as ever were those of Sin even extending to the whole man He is not like an upstart Gallant who unable to furnish himself with new attire for every part is new and adorned in some parts and uncomely in all the rest he labours for furniture for every room to see whole Christ formed to have graces for every faculty There 's no grace he sees in another but he wisheth he had it too he never thinks he hath lived enough or done enough for God he never thinks his work done while he is on this side heaven Who ever was the man that so throughly mortified sin as to leave no life in it who ever had such a degree of spirituall life as not to want a further increase Thy sword must never be thrown away while so many enemies remain The means of preserving a holy life must never cease till grace be consummate in glory He that hath holiness enough never had any Sanctified persons are alwayes adding to grace and taking away from sin Sanctification is a progressive work The least Saint hath grace enough to be thankfull the greatest not enough to be idle To negelect the helps of sanctification never was a Scripture sign of sanctity to live above Ordinances is to live below a Saint Abstinence from spirituall food is so far from proving a strong Christian that it proves but a sick Christian at the best He who gives over never truly began he who goeth not forward goeth backward Till the flame be out we must never cease crying for water till sin be quite extinguish'd we must ply the blood of Christ How short do the best come of their duty of what God doth and they should desire 9. Out-side Obs 9. superstitious Mortification is but a shadow of the true Penance Fasts Starvings of the body Abstinence from Marriage are not blessed to kill sin they have no blood in them Sin and Satan fear no such holy-water It s the death of Christ that must be the death of sin the mortifying or macerating of the carcass is but the carcass of the duty there 's more labour required to let the blood out of our corruptions then out of our bodies A child of God takes more pains with his heart in a day then a Papist with his skin in a yeer the one indeed whips himself but the other denyes himself the one scratcheth his skin the other puls out his right eye the one afflicts the flesh the other the soul the one somthing without himself the other his very self 10. Obs 10. I note The Lord esteems of his people by the better part their bent and strain not their defects They are here called sanctified but alass how imperfect is their Sanctification Yet their Father looks upon them as they would be not as they are or do Not I saith the Apostle Rom. 7. but sin that dwelleth in me Corn full of weeds we call corn Christ loves what he seeth of himself in the midst of much more he sees of us he casteth not away the honey because of the honey-comb he spyeth a grain of grace in a heap of corruption he considers what we aim to be now and what we are to be hereafter more then what we are now The owner of an Ort-yard that knows the goodness of every tree in it although a tree which is of a good kinde hath fruit upon it which for the present is green and as hard as a stick yet he will say This is an excellent apple c. considering what it will be when ripe and what its kinde is to be 11. Obs 11. How causelesly doth the world complain of those that are truly sanctified The contentions of a Saint are most with himself the destructions he makes are bloodlesse if after any blood he thirsteth 't is that of a lust the tyrants he brings to punishment are those in the soul Were all his enemies in the world overthrown and those in the heart spared those Mordecaies still in the gate what would all avail him Men have little reason to blame sanctity for distracting of the times there 's more reason to blame the want of it If a good man carryeth himself turbulently 't is because hee is no better not because he is good He is or should be at peace with every thing but sin If he shuns any company 't is not for hatred of the person but the plague-sone if he reproves Duplici sub specie divinus Spiritus se mundo ostendit Columbinâ igneâ quia omnes quos im plet Columbae simplicitate mansuctos igne Zeli ardentes exhibet Greg. z. p. past cap. 11. Moses causam populi apud Deum precibus causam Dei apud populum gladiis allegavit Greg. Charitas piè solet saevire patienter novit irasci humiliter indignari Bern. Ep. 2. ad Fulc Molcstus est Medicus furenti phrenetico pater indisciplinato filio ille ligando iste caedendo sed ambo diligendo Aug. Ep. 1. ad Bon. he wounds not destructively but medicinally His greatest heats are pious God is in his flame his very anger is patient his indignation humble he participates of the Dove as well as of the fiery tongues as the Spirit that fils him had both shapes Doth he reprove sharply and openly he prayes for thee secretly A Saint when he acts like himself is alway doing good diffusive of holinesse a benefactor to the age wherein he lives a conduit-pipe of blessings to a whole Kingdom If his endeavouring to make thee holy make thee hate him he will be hated still This for the Explication of and Observations from the kinde of their first Priviledge Sanctification The handling of the Author thereof God the Father followeth And of this also 1. By way of Explication 2. By way of collecting Observations 1. I shall briefly explain two particulars 1. How they are said to be sanctified by God 2. How by God the Father 1. How by God 1. Not transferendo Essentiam 1. Eph. 2.10 Acts 5.31 1 Thess 5.23 Heb. 12.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by transferring his Essence unto them but operando gratiam by way of operation and working holinesse in them not by bestowing his Deity upon them but by setting up the divine nature in them 2 Pet. 1.4 as fire warms by its vertue and operation 2. God was the Author of their Sanctification not excludendo media as if he made not use of the Ministry of the Gospel for the accomplishing therof The Word cannot sanctifie without him and ordinarily he will not sanctifie without it he sanctifies by the Word Joh. 17.17 enlivening and actuating it making it his power to salvation bestowing upon it an enlightning power to
devoured the soul after all remaining as lean as before for want of seeking God aright for a blessing 7. Obs 7. I observe How carefull we should be to maintain that which God hath set up in us and how fearfull lest it should be pul'd down by Satan Christ destroys the works of the Divel and Satan labours to oppose the work of Christ Every plant indeed that God hath not planted is to be pluck'd up but the plants that Gods own hand hath planted are to be nourished What God hath joyned together none should separate Grace and the Soul are of Gods joyning together Who laments not the destruction of mans workmanship the overthrow and demolishing of beutifull buildings the rooting up of corn-field and pleasant gardens by Swine But what are these to the destructions made by sin in the hearts and lives of people Who can give way to sin but it must be with a sinfull patience Keep thy heart with all diligence Pro. 4.23 the best endowment is to be most carefully preserved Who loves not to keep his body healthfull and yet who regards the keeping of his soul holy The whole Trinity of Persons adorn the heart with holinesse every of them is to have a corner in it nay the whole Let not Satan have wells which he never digg'd inhabit houses which he never built If the Philistims tread not on the threshold on which Dagon fell let not Satan lodg in the heart that God fanctifieth This for the first Branch considerable in the description of the parties to whom the Apostle wrote Sanctified by God the Father The second follows Preserved in Christ Jesus The second branch of the description of the faithful to whom Jude wrote Wherein I consider two particulars 1. A priviledge or enjoyment received viz. Preservation Preserved c. 2. The means or way of enjoying it and that was In Christ Jesus Of both these briefly 1. The Priviledge bestowed is Preservation To them that are preserved c. In the handling whereof I shall briefly give 1. The Explication of it 2. The Observations from it 1. For the Explication The word used by the Apostle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies solicitously to be kept as a thing lest it be lost or taken away by others 1 Joh. 5.18 it s spoken of a regenerate persons keeping himself from being touch'd by the wicked one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keepeth himself as with watch and ward gardeth himself so accurately as he that watcheth a prisoner for fear of his escape So Act. 4.3 it s said the Apostles were put by the Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hold So Act. 5.18 they put them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in prison And of these preserved ones it s said They are kept by the power of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kept as a Town is kept with a garison from the enemies praesidio circumvallati Conservati nè decepti à seductoribus pereant Estius in loc incircled with a military strength so are these Saints preserved by Christ lest being deceived by Seducers they should perish This preservation of the Godly is three-fold 1. Temporall and of the Body 2. Spirituall chiefly of the Soul 3. Eternall of both in heaven 1. The first though it be not here intended as indeed being frequently denyed to the faithfull yet it s often in Scripture bestōwed upon them and that severall wayes sometimes when their enemies want means to effect their desires upon them 2 Sam. 8.2 1 Sam. 24.27 Judg. 7.22 2 Sam. 17.16 though they have poyson yet no power no arms or instruments of force or when the enemies of the Church have outward strengths and forces but are diverted another way by reason of enemies coming against them from an other place or when the enemies spend their hatred and forces upon one another or when their forces are by the providence of God timely discovered so that the people of God taking refuge in some place of security strength or distance the enemy cannot at all come at them or when there is such a curb of restraint put upon the spirits of enemies as though they finde them and have them in their hand yet they shall not be able to put forth their inward poyson against them Dan. 3.26 thus even the naturall force of fire seas beasts shall be bridled up when God will from hurting his people 2 King 7.6 or when the enemes of the Church are discomfited either by their own preposterous fear or oversight Judg. 5.20 or the instrumentalnesse of the senselesse creatures against them or the puissance of the Churches forces not onely spirituall 2 Sam. 17.23 but even visible and worldly or when the faithfull being taken are delivered out of their hand by making escape Gen. 33. or when God makes an enemy of his Church to be his own destroyer to twist and use his own halter or when God enclines the hearts and dispositions of the haters of his people to pity tender and favour them though they be far from love to their grace or when God works a really sanctifying change upon their hearts Act. 16.31 making them to wash the stripes and lick the wounds whole which they have made or when God takes his people out of this life from the evill to come housing his flock against a storm taking down his ornaments when he purposeth to destroy the house and this he ordinarily doth by a natural death though he can translate his people and take body and soul immediatly into heaven as in the case of Elijah 2. But principally the care of God is in this life expressed toward his people in spirituall preservation This spirituall preservation of beleevers in this life is 1. From punishment The curse of the Law the wrath of God Gal. 3.13 Not from the Law of God as giving precepts but as being a Covenant Rom. 6.14 1 Tim. 1.9 exacting perfect obedience and condemning for a not perfect performance From the terrour of the law forcing for fear of punishment as bondslaves by the whip Rom. 8.15 the people of God being made a voluntary people Psal 110.3 and worshipping God without servile fear The faithfull also are preserved from the guilt and condemning power of sin Eph. 1.7 2 Cor. 5.19 God not imputing their trespasses Preserved from the curse of all externall punishments as they are the effects of vengeance Sin may be and may not be in the godly it is in them by habitation not by dominion so punishments are on them and are not on them on them as sensible pains on them as castigations to better them on them as consequents of sin and Gods expression of his dislike of sin not on them as curses not on them to satisfie wrath The wrath of God lies not upon them when the hand of God lies upon them Every affliction is medicina not laniena sent to kill sin not the man the
edge the soul the sting the malignity of every trouble is removed so that it hath little more then the notion of a misery Gods people are not delivered from evils as oppressive to nature but as satisfactory to Justice whatsoever they suffer though it be death it self they may say Christ hath laboured John 4. and we enter into his labours he hath born the heaviest end death lost its sting in his side There 's honey in the carcasse of this lion this Serpent is but a gentle rod being in his hand 2. This spirituall preservation of beleevers is from Sin and in the state of holinesse their grace being preserved and the image of God never totally obliterated in them God preserving the jewel oft when not the casket a mans self his soul though not his carcasse and from that which is the greatest enemy and evill sin so oft in Scripture call'd the evill John 17.15 Mat. 5.37 and that which makes the very Divel himself both to be and to be called the evil One he both having most and dispersing most of that evil the world to be call'd an evill world Luk. 6.45 1 Joh. 5.18 Gal. 1.4 and men evill men And so this priviledge of preservation from sin and in the state of holiness aptly follows Sanctification the elect being not onely made holy but kept holy Hence we read of him that is able to keep us from falling Jude 24. of Christ praying that his disciples should be though not taken out of the world yet kept from the evil Joh. 17.15 the world kept out of them though not they out of the world of the faithfull their being kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Of the evill one's not touching him that is born of God 1 John 5.18 and of his not sinning of Gods delivering of Paul from every evill work 2 Tim. 4.18 of preserving blamelesse to the coming of Christ of finishing the good work begun unto the day of Christ Eph. 1.6 All which places intend this spirituall preservation mentioned by Jude which is that gift of God whereby the elect being united to Christ by his Spirit and faith continue in him and can never totally and finally fall from holinesse Sundry wayes doth God preserve from sin and in holinesse 1. Somtime by keeping his people from the very outward tentation to sin if he sees it would be too hard for them often dealing with his servants as the people did with David 2 Sam. 21.17 who would not let him go down to battell lest the light of Israel should have been put out as Gideon dealt with his souldiers suffering not the fearfull to go to fight Judg. 7.3 as we use to keep in a candle in a windy night putting it into a lanthorn 2. Sometime by making them conquerors even for the present over the tentation he strengthens them so with his Spirit as that they break the strongest cords with Samson bearing away the very gates of the City and overthrowing whole troops of tentations Gen. 39. Thus was Joseph preserved as Chrysostom expresseth it in a fiery fournace even when it was heated seven times hotter then ordinary the power of God being put forth therein more then in preserving the three children Thus were the blessed martyrs preserved from sin we read in that holy Martyrologie Heb. 11 35. they were tortured not accepting deliverance How many have overcome fire with fire the fiery flame with love to Christ hotter then fire their holy resolution rising the higher the more opposition they had as a flood that meets with an obstacle or as a ball the harder it is thrown against the ground the higher it mounts in the rebound 3. Alway God so preserves his Saints from sinning Luk. 22.32 that they sin not finally they sin not away all their holinesse their faith fails not ther 's somthing in them that sins not the seed of God a grain of mustard-seed a principle of holinesse which Gratia nec totaliter intermittitur nec finaliter amittitur as it opposeth so it will overcome their distempers as a fountain works out its muddinesse when dirt is thrown into it as life in a man his diseases A Saint is not delivered fully from the being of sin but from the totall prevalency of it from finall Apostacy so that his soul still continues in the state of grace and hath the life of holiness for the essence though not alway in the same degrees he may aliquo modo recedere non penitus excidere Grace may be abated not altogether abolish'd he may peccare Actus omittitur habitus non amittitur actio pervertitur fides non subvertitur concutitur non excutitur defluit fructus latet succus jus ad Regnum amittunt demeritoriè non effectivè Pr.l. Effectus justificationis suspenditur at status justificationis non dissolvitur Suffr Br. p. 187. Secundùm quasdam virtutes spiritus recessurus venit venturus recedit Gr. Mor. l. 2. c. 42. not perire sin but not to death intermit the actings of of grace not lose the habit Faith may be shaken in not out of the soul the fruit may fall off but the sap not totally dry up 'T is true Grace in it self considered as a creature might totally fail our permanency is not respectu rei but Dei not from our being holy but from our being kept holy We are kept by the power of God and if so it will be to salvation Notwithstanding the power of sin in us and the power of Satan without us the frowns and the smiles of the world the musick and the fournace the Winde and the Sun the tide of nature and the winde of example holinesse though in the least degree shall never be lost to be of no degree Satan doth soli perseverantiae insidiari he only aims to take away grace he would never care to take away gold or names or comforts c. if it were not to make us sin He that offers to give these things to make us sin would not snatch them from us but for that end God was not delighted that Job should be tormented but that his grace should be tryed nor Satan so much that Job should be tormented as that his grace should be destroyed But though he winnow never so violently Luk. 22.23 he shall winnow never out all our grace All the power of hell shall never prevail against the God of heaven The immutable eternall decree of God is the foundation of perseverance Isa 46.10 Now the counsel of God shall stand The elect cannot be deceived Matt. 24.24 The impossibility of seduction is grounded upon the stability of election the foundation of God abideth sure 2 Tim. 2.19 it can never be moved out of its place The purpose of God according to election must stand Rom. 9.11 Of all that God hath given Christ by election he will lose nothing John 6.39 And
the disturbing of their own unsound the accepting of him that deserves the true peace and the walking in the ways of holinesse But peace from God is never desired for men to continue in a state of warr against God 4. Rom. 5.9 10 Rom. 5.1 Eph. 1.6 Hebr. 2.15 1 Cor. 15.31 Job 15.20 21 Jude 19. Gal. 5.22 Ephes 2.12 Rom. 12.12 The faithfull onely have taken the right course to obtain peace They alone are freed from Gods wrath more dreadful then the roaring of a Lion or the wrath of all the Kings of the world it destroying body and soul in hell they onely have pardon of sin the other like guilty malefactors are in an hourly expectation of the worst of deaths through the fear whereof they dye before they dye The faithfull onely have Christ who is our peace and the Prince of Peace the Spirit of God of which peace is a fruit and effect they alone rejoyce in hope and live in expectation of a crown incorruptible an everlasting kingdom others live a hopelesse heartlesse life 2. The part of these parties in which this peace resides is the heart and conscience Col. 3.15 The peace of God rules in the heart Joh. 16.22 Your heart shall rejoyce and Psal 4.7 Thou hast put gladnesse into my heart and Phil. 4.7 The peace of God shall preserve your heart in which respect 1. T is a sustaining strengthening reviving peace so long as the heart is kept safe a man fals not faints not when the heart is relieved with a Cordiall a fainting man revives Now the peace of God keeps up the heart it brings aid and relief to it in all dangers when sin and Satan temptation and persecution lay siege to it It brings strong consolation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 4.7 Act. 16.25 Act. 21.13 2 Cor. 1.3 4 Rom. 5.3.5 Heb. 10.34 Heb. 6.18 It s a Banner over us in warre a Cordiall an Antidote against all Poyson It makes Paul and Silas sing in Prison Paul to be ready to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus the faithfull to be comforted in all tribulation and consolation to abound as sufferings abound it making the faithfull in a cold winter of persecution to be warmest within making a Martyr to go as merily to a Stake as another to a Feast 2. The seat of this peace the heart notes as our sustentation by it so the soundnesse truth and reality of it 't is not in cortice but in corde in the heart not in the habit in the conscience not in the looks It 's in the breast not in the brow not suffering a man to be like some Prisons beautifull without but full of horror blacknesse chaines and dungeons within It 's a Peace not residing in the hall of the senses but in the closet of the heart A Saints peace is a silent calmnesse an unseen quietnesse meat of which those without know not like the windows of Salomons temple narrow without Pro. 14.10 broad within the worst the unbeautifull the black-side of his cloud is seen when the bright is hidden 3. The seat of this Peace the heart implyes it's seriousnes weightinesse Tu illum judicas gaudere qui ridet animus debet esse alacer Res severa est verum gaudiam caeterae hilaritates leves sunt frontem remittunt pectus non implent Sen. Ep. 23. Ego neminem posse scire arbitror quid sit nisi acceperit Bern in Cant. Melius impressum quam expressum innotescit In his non capt intelligentia nisi quantum attingit experientia Id. ibid. greatnesse that the ground of it is not slight and toyish but some great matter not lightly pleasing the fancy and superficially bedewing the senses but like a ground-showr soaking even to the heart-root The peace of a Saint is not like the mirth of a Child caused more by a gay or a toy then by a conveyance of a thousand pounds by the year or like our laughter which is more at a jest than at the finding of a bag of gold of ten thousand pounds No his peace is not idle frothy and ludicrous meriment but deep and affecting the heart with apprehensivenesse of an interest in the great things of eternity a peace that passeth understanding Light either griefs or contentments are easily exprest not so those which are deep and weighty these are joyes unspeakeable and glorious superabundant 1 Pet. 1.8 2 Cor. 7.4 4. The seat notes the safety of this peace the heart is too deep for a man to reach a Saints peace is laid up in a Cabinet that man cannot open Joh. 16.22 men may break into his house but not into his heart Your joy saith Christ no man taketh from you The power of adversaries is but skin-deep There is a three-fold impotency of man in reference to a Christians peace 1 Man cannot give this peace 2 He cannot hinder it from entring 3. He cannot remove it or hinder it from abiding It continues like a Fountaine in the hottest Summer and is warmest in the coldest Winter of affliction like a Candle which is not overwhelmed or quenched in the dismall darknesse of the night but is made thereby to give the cleerer light David in greatest straits comforted himselfe in God 1 Jam. 1 2. 2 Cor. 7.4 Rom. 5.3 1 Thes 5.16 2 Cor. 14.5 Phil. 4.4 Heb. 12.11 the faithfull glory in tribulation they are commanded to rejoyce evermore as the sufferings of Christ abound in them so their consolations abound by Christ The faithfull have oft drawne matter of joy from their sufferings they yeeld the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse A sick man may rejoyce at the coming of the Chyrurgeon though he knows he will put him to paine Phil. 1.19 2 Cor. 4.17 I know saith the Apostle that this shall turne to my salvation The light affliction that lasteth but for a moment procureth an exceeding excessive eternall weight of glory If we suffer for Christ 2 Thess 2.12 Rom. 8. we shall also reigne with him None can separate us from Christ and therfore not from peace the Spirit of peace by us may for a time be sinn'd away but he cannot by enemies be persecuted away The Sun may as easily be blown out with bellowes as true peace be driven away by sufferings 5. The seat of this peace the heart imports the spiritualnesse and sublimity of it it is not sensuall earthly and drossy the heart is no more relieved with worldly comforts then are the belly bags and barnes fill'd with grace and holinesse What is it to the soule that thou hast goods laid up for many yeares The rarest delicacies of the earth are not such food as the soule loves spirituall blessings of Communion with God Illud verum solum est gaudium quod non de terrâ sed de Caelo est quod non de creatura sed de Creatore accipitur Bern. Ep. 114. enjoying of Christ a view of our names as
of sight and troubles not his lusts or from some accidentall circumstantiall Ornaments which attend the Ministery and Truth as wit learning expression elocution or credit of visible conformity to them not from an inward apprehension of the proportionablenesse sutablenesse and fitnesse of Christ to all his desires and capacities Luke 7.47 1 Joh. 4.16.19 as being the fairest of ten thousand or from any reall interest and propriety in Christ which are the grounds of love when true and sincere 2. This love to God is superlattive it surpasseth all other loves the soule in which it abides seeing infinitely more lovelinesse in one God then in all the combined assembled excellencies of all worldly Objects loves him infinitely more than them all It often not only steps over them but kicks them away not only laying them down as sacrifices but hating them as snares when they would draw from Christ When Christ and the World meet as it were upon so narrow a bridge that both cannot passe by Christ shall go on and the World shall go back Christ in a Christian shall have no Corrivals as Christ bestowes himselfe wholly upon a Christian wholly upon every one as every line hath the whole indivisible point so a Christian gives himselfe wholly to Christ he shares not his heart betwixt him and the world all within him he sets on work to love Christ keeping nothing back from him for whom all is too little The greatest worth that it sees in any thing but Christ is this that it may be left for Christ ever rejoycing that it hath any thing to which it may prefer him To a soul in which is this love Christ is as oyle put into a viall with water in which though both be never so much shaken together the oyl will ever be uppermost or as one rising Sun which drowneth the light of a numberlesse number of Stars It loves the world as alwayes about to leave and loath it not as that for which it doth live but as that without which it cannot live The world hath not the top and strength of it's affection It loves nothing much but him whom it cannot love too much It lodgeth not the world in it's best room and admits not such a stranger into the closet of the heart but only into the hall of the senses 3. It 's a jealous or zealous love suspicious lest any thing should and burning in a holy heat of indignation against any thing that doth disturb the Souls beloved Love is a solicitous grace and makes the soul account it selfe never sufficiently trim'd for Christs imbracements never to think that any thing done is well enough done All the soul is and can is esteemed too little for him who is its optimus maximus its best and greatest the more brightly shining the beams of love to Christ are the more motes and imperfections doth the soule ever see in its services It s fear only is lest by sinne and unsutable carriage it stirs up Gal. 4.11.16 Act. 15.2 17.16 18.25 19.8 Jude 3. and awakes the beloved It cannot put up a disgrace expressed by the greatest against Christ It zealously contends for his Word Wayes Worship Worshippers Kingdome All it's anger is against those intercurrent impediments that would stop it in the advancing of Christ it labours to bear down those hinderances of Gods glory with a floud of tears if it cannot with a stream of power The meekest soule in love with God knowes how to be holily impatient and like Moses though when with God to pray for men yet when with men to contend for God Every sin by how much the nearer to it by so much is it more detested by it Of all sins therefore its own have the deepest share of hatred for what it cannot remove Rom. 7. Heb. 12. it mourns heartily crying out of the body of death the sin that doth so easily beset it as of the constant companie of a noysome carcasse endeavouring that every sin may be more bitter to remember then 't was ever sweet to commit looking upon the want of sorrow after sinne as a greater argument of want of love then was the sin it self 4. It 's a chast a loyall love not set upon what God hath so much as upon what God is not upon his but him not upon his rings but his person not his cloathes but his comelinesse upon a Christ though not adventitiously adorned his gifts are loved for him not he for them he is sweet without any thing though nothing is so without him Love desires no wages 't is wages enough to it selfe it payes it selfe in seeing and serving the Beloved A Nurse doth much for the child and so doth the Mother but the former for the love of wages the later for the wages of love Love carries meat in the mouth the very doing of Gods will is meat and drink to one who loves him A heart in love with Christ is willing with Mephibosheth that others should take all so it may behold the King Worldly Comforts shall not fallere but monere Nil dulcescit sine Jesu only they shall be used to admonish how much worth is in Christ not to bewitch the soul from Christ Si ista terrena diligitis ut subjecta diligite ut munera amici ut beneficia domini ut arrham Sponsi Aug. Med. as spectacles by which the soul may read him the better or as steps by which it may be raised up to him the nearer and no further shall they be delighted in then as they are pledges of or furtherances unto the injoyment of him Should God give all to one who loves him and not give himselfe he would say with Absalom What doth all availe me so long as I see not the Kings face Communion with God is the Heaven of him who loves God It 's heaven upon earth for God to be with him and the Heaven of Heaven for him to be with God 5. It 's an active John 14.24 Psal 119.68.140 Esay 45 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say some 2 Cor. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stirring expressive love the fire of love cannot be held in 't will break out at lips hands feet by speaking working walking Love saith as Elijah to Obadiah as the Lord liveth I will shew my selfe the strength of love will have a vent The Love of Christ constraineth and as the word used by the Apostle signifieth hemmeth in shutteth up pinfolds the heart that it cannot winde out from service and cannot chuse but do for Christ Love is a mighty stream bearing all before it It cares not for shame or losse It carries away these as did Samson the other gates upon it's shoulders 'T is strong as death A man in love with God is as a man who is carried away in a crowd who cannot keep himselfe back but is hurried without his own labour with the throng Love
contend the crown that rewards us Holy fervour is never so seemly as in contending for a holy faith It 's storyed of Scanderberg that in fighting against the Turks he was so earnest that the bloud would often start out of his lips Indifferency better becomes our worldly contentions between man and man than spirituall contentions between men and divels 3. We must contend for the faith unanimously and with one consent How easily will errour prevaile when Faith's Champions are divided among themselves How shall they adventure their lives one for another in war Phil. 1.27 who will not do so much as love one another in peace Excellent is the counsell of the Apostle Stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel 4. We must contend for the faith against errour universally impartially for every doctrine of faith and against every opposite errour We must contend for discountenanced disowned persecuted faith and take it into our doors when the most would have it laid in the streets and give it entertainment when 't is death to harbour it Nor ought we to to spare preferred Quò major est Princeps eò minus ferantur ejus vitia Nomina potestatum metuenda sed vitia contemnenda Luth. favoured errour The snake of errour must be struck at though in the field of a King 5. We must contend for the faith constantly We must never give over our conflict as long as one enemy is left We must continue in the things we have learned and hold fast the name of Christ. It 's not contention but constancy therein which crowns We must be faithfull to the death if we expect a crown of life 2 Tim. 3.14 Rev. 2.13 It 's easier once to persevere than often to begin No Christian is too old to go out to fight in this spirituall warfare As soon as we cease to fight we begin to flye Christianity knows no cessation of Combating We must take heed of losing the things which we have wrought and fought for 2 John 8. It 's as great a vertue to hold what we have as to get what is worth the holding If the faith be bad why did we begin if good why did we give over our contention for it 6. We must contend prudently and with judgment Christian prudence is not inconsistent with Christian fervency Sundry wayes must a Christian shew his prudence in this contention 1. He must oppose those enemies most that most oppose the faith The greatest errours with greatest zeal and place most forces where there 's most dan ger not being as some fervent against disciplinary and superficiall against doctrinall errours The former do but scratch the face the latter stab the heart of truth 2. He must contend for the faith soberly not passionately God wants not the beesom of passion to sweep down the cobwebs of errour Soft words and strong arguments are good companions We may at the same time spare the person and yet be merciless to his errour 3. We must contend for the faith orderly not extravagantly The Minister must not contend like the Magistrate by politick government nor the people like the Minister by publick preaching Every souldier in this war must keep his rank Never did more contend against the faith than in the times wherein all are suffered to contend how they will for the faith 4. We must contend for the faith preparedly not weakly Faith deserves not obloquy but victory A weak judgment often hurts the faith as much as strong passion An able mind is more needfull in spirituall than an able body is for worldly warrs What pity is it that a good cause should have a feeble champion 1. Observ 1. The goodnesse of any cause and course exempts it not from opposition What more precious then Faith and what more opposed Odium genius Evangelii Luth. John 17.14 Superbus sio quod video nomen pessimum mihi crescere gaudeo rebellis dici Luth. Gratias ago Deo quòd dignus sum quem mundus oderit Hier. Hatred is ever the companion of Truth As that which Satan opposeth must needs be good so that which is good must needs be by him opposed A good man once said He much suspected his own faithfulness in delivering that Sermon for which he got not some hatred from wicked men Hatred as one saith is the Genius of the Gospel I have given them saith Christ thy word and the world hath hated them Wicked mens rage should rather make us thankfull than discouraged I am proud saith Luther because I hear I have an ill name among bad men I blesse God said Jerom that I am worthy of the worlds hatred 2. Observ 2. The best things require most contention for them Not trifles Nostra impatientia non est pro reculis honoribus c. sed pro contemptu verbi pertinacia impietatis ubi anathema est esse patientem Luth. fancies or fables but doctrines of faith deserve our earnest contention How poorly are most mens contentions imployed How happy were we could we but as earnestly contend for Christ his cause faith and our own salvation as wicked men do for riches honours interest nay for hell by striving to out-sin one another How unsutable is it that a greater fire should be made for the roasting of an egg than for an ox that men should be more contentious for bubbles than blessednesse 3. Observ 3. Satan will fight though he cannot prevail Though he conquer not he will yet contend Though he be unable to overcome yet he will oppose the faith Such is the hight of his malice that rage he will be it insuccesfully If he cannot disappoint the saints of their end he yet pleaseth himself in disturbing them in their way Satans rage should not dismay us His furious onsets do not prove his endeavours succesfull rather his great wrath speaks his time short And if he fight who knowes he shall be foyl'd how earnestly should they contend who know they shall both conquer and be crowned 4. Satan labours most to spoyl us of the best things Observ 4. those whereby God is most glorified and we most benefited If he may have our faith heavenly things from us he cares not to leave earthly blessings behind him Eph. 6.12 Chrysost Musculus Perkins vid. Heb. 8.5 Hence it is that the Apostle saith We wrestle against spirituall wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in heavenlies i. e. as I humbly conceive for heavenly things whereby is noted the cause of Satans contention which is to bereave us of blessings of an heavenly nature In the tempting of Eve he aimed at the bereaving of our first parents of their happiness and Gods image It was Peter's faith he sought to winnow He blinds mens eyes that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should not shine unto them 2 Cor. 4.4 In the troubles of Job Satan aimed at a greater matter
esset c. In adversis um braest vel similitudo non ipsares Ansel 2 Cor. 6.9 Put sin into its best dresse and it s but gilded condemnation 2 Spirituall judgements are ever the sorest In Gods withdrawing his grace and delivering up to a reprobate sense there is something of Condemnation The soul of a judgement is its seizing upon the soul The greatest misery which can befall the body is but for the soul to leave it and what proportion bears this to the misery of Gods leaving the soul The death in death is the miscarriage of the soul If a man be not heart-sick though otherwise distempered he is not feared and if not soul-sick and the union between God and him weakned there is no danger Bodily miseries are but appearing and opinionative and there is a vanity in outward troubles as well as enjoyments The Apostle makes the greatest suffering of the body to be but as such rather a dream then a reality of suffering The poorest Saint never had a drop of condemnation in a sea of calamity His affliction is not laniena but medicina not Butchery but Chirurgery nay the end of Gods chastning is that he may not be judged 1 Cor. 11.32 How different is the condemning of a Malefactour from the reprehension of a Son the Fathers rod from the Executioners axe Heb. 12.7 Ne timeas flagellari sed exhaeredari If we endure chastning the Lord deals with us as with sons Strive not so much to get the rod taken off thy back as to get it into a Fathers hand How madly merry is every obstinate sinner in all his worldly enjoyments How unsutable is thy musick when thou art sacrificing that which should be dearer to thee then thy dearest child celebrating the Funerals of thy precious soul Si doles condoleo si non doles doleo magis Who would not commiserate his mirth who goeth dancing to his own execution whose only strife is to double his misery by shunning the thoughts of that which he cannot shun Be not taken with what thou hast in gift but what thou hast in love In receiving of every mercy imitate Isaaks jealousie and say Art thou that very mercy that mercy indeed which comes in the blood of Christ Art thou sent from a Father or a Judge Satius est ut vim qualemcunque mihi inferas Domine quam parcens mihi me in meo torpore securum derelinquere Observ 3. What do I receiving if I shall never be received It 's infinitely better that God should correct thee so as to awaken thee then by prospering to let thee sleep in sin till it be too late to arise It was better for the Prodigall to be famish'd home then furnish'd out 3. These condemned ones should warn us that we incur not the like condemnation with them Saints should be examples of imitation and sinners of caution A good heart will get good even by bad men and take honey out of the carcasse of a Lion These Seducers were mentioned and stigmatized by Jude with this black mark not only to shew that God was righteous in punishing but that we might not be unrighteous and wretched in imitating them And that we may not 1. Neglect not undervalue not the truths of the Gospel Rom. 1.26 Shut not thy eyes lest God suffer Satan to blind them How severely did God punish the Heathens for opposing the light of nature and will not Christ when clearly discovered and unkindly neglected 2 Thes 2.9.10 much more heighten thy condemnation If Christ be not a rock of foundation hee will be a stone of stumbling Fruits which grow against a wall are soon ripened by the Suns heat and so are sins which are committed under the Sun-shine of the Gospel The contempt of the Gospel is the condemnation of the world John 3.12 2 Pet. 2.1 it brings swift destruction 2. Preserve a tender conscience Tremble at the first solicitations of sin which make way for eternall by taking away spirituall feeling This deluge of impiety in which these Seducers were drowned began with a drop Many knots tyed one upon another will hardly be loosed every spot falling upon the cloathes makes a man the more regardlesse of them and every sin defiling the conscience makes a man the more carelesse of it He who dares not wade to the ancles is in no danger of being swallowed up in the depths Modest beginnings make way for immodest proceedings in sin The thickest ice that will bear a cart begins with a thin trembling cover that will not bear a pibble As these Seducers crept in by degrees into the Church so did Satan by degrees creep into them 2 Tim. 2.16 They increased to more ungodlinesse They went down to this condemnation by steps and after they had begun they knew not where or whether they should stop 3. Take heed of turning the grace of God into wantonnesse of abusing his goodnesse either to soul or body to impiety Take not occasion to be sinfull because God is mercifull to be long-sinning because God is long-suffering to sin because grace abounds to make work for the blood of Christ to turn Christian liberty into unchristian libertinisme This must needs incense even mercy it self to leave and plead against thee and what then will justice do They who never enjoyed this grace of God go to hell they who have it and use it not run on foot to hell but they who abuse and turn it into wantonnesse gallop or go to hell on hors-back This for the first way in which the punishment of these Seducers was considerable viz. Its severity This condemnation The second followes namely its certainty they were before of old ordained to it EXPLICATION In this two things require Explication 1. What this ordination is of which the Apostle here speaks 2. In what respect it is said to be before of old For the first Metaphora sumpta ab tis qui in codicillis scribunt memoriae causâ qua statuunt agere Haec Metaphora inde sumpta est quòd aeternum Dei consilium quo ordinati sunt fideles ad salutem Liber vocatu◠Calv. De quibus olim praenuntiatum est in Scripturis quòd deventuri sunt in judicium Est in loc The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated Ordained properly signifying forewritten enrolled bill'd book'd or registred It seems say some to be a Metaphor taken from Records in Courts wherein things are set down for an after remembrance of them Or according to others from books of remembrance wherein for the greater surenesse of doing any thing men write down what they purpose to do and desire not to forget Calvin draws the allusion from Scrip ture in which the eternall counsell of God wherein the faithfull are elected to salvation is called a Book Sure we are 't is a Metaphoricall speech and by none of our Protestant Divines as I remember is that interpretation imbraced
Si quis labori ob infirmitatem se subtraheret capitalis noxa judicabatur Philo lib. 1. de vit Mos the Egyptian rigour is continued and the people of God who after all their toyling received no other rewards but stripes and scorns are worse handled then Egyptian beasts So great was this crueltie that as Philo reports if any Israelite through sickness of body abstained from labour it was accounted a crime deserving death Eusebius saith That by reason of their excessive labour and heat many were taken away by the pestilence By this we may gather why the Lord tells them Levit. 26.13 Deut. 4.20 I brought you forth out of the land of Egypt that ye should not be their bondmen and I have broken the bonds of your yoak and made you go upright Servitude is a kinde of death nay by free people accounted worse then death who have often chosen rather to die valiantly than to live slavishly Nor is it any wonder therefore to read of the groaning sighing and crying of the poor Israelites Exod. 2.23 24 Exod. 6.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuag yea of their anguish shortnesse and straitnesse of spirit by reason of cruell bondage 2. The second discovery of the crueltie of the Egyptians towards the Israelites Exod. 1.15 was in the bloody commands for the taking away of the lives of the male children This was a blow at the root 'T was out of policie not any tendernesse of conscience that this murderous command took not in the females also The females did not constitute families the taking away of the males would suffice to hinder the multiplying of the people The females could not make war joyn with the enemies of the Egyptians or by force endeavour to depart from Egypt and the sparing of some might make the murders lesse suspected From bondage these Egyptians proceed to blood and from slavery to slaughter Women are suborned to be murderers and those whose office is to help must destroy the birth the Midwives were put upon this bloody work because as they had more opportunitie of doing so would others have less suspicion of them for doing the mischief The male children must be born and die at once and poor babes they must be kill'd for no other fault but for their Stock and their Sex because they are Israelites and males pure and downright bloodiness Needs must the Hebrew women contrary to all others not joy but mourn when they saw men-children born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 7.19 This device of imploying the Mid-wives not succeding the tyrant gives commission to all his own people to cast every son that is born into the river Josephus writes This seems to be opposed by Exod. 1.22 that the command was given also to the Hebrews to kill their own children but most barbarous it was although it were only given to the Egyptians Pharaoh's crueltie smoked before now it flames out 1 Obstetricum dolo nisus est c. 2 apertâ persecutione Rupert He practised secretly in his commands to the Mid-wives he now proclaims it openly to all the world No Egyptian now could be obedient unless bloody every man is made an executioner the reins are laid upon the neck of Cruelty Every Egyptian may rifle the houses of the Israelites and search for children as for prohibited commodites How difficultly are these poor babes hid and yet how dangerously found They who had no armour but innocence and tears are exposed to authorised rage How poor a shelter is the arm of an indulgent mother against the command of a King and the fury of his heathen Subjects whose vigilance and violence were so great that as the mother of Moses was unable long to hide him so was she more willing to trust him with the mercy of beasts and waters than of Egyptians And how hard was it for the strongest faith of the best Israelite to bear up against this tentation So long as the Israeltes saw themselves increasing though oppressed their faith in Gods promise of blessing the seed of Abraham might be comfortably relieved but now this cruell Edict of murdering their children by whom the seed of Abraham was to be propagated seems to cut off all hope and to make void all the promises 2. The Egyptians from whom the Israelites were delivered may be considered as heathen Idolaters and so enemies to the Souls of the Israelites Had the outward ease and prosperity of Israel in Egypt been never so great yet eminent had been the mercy of being drawn out of such perill for the soul as was in idolatrous company Joshua thankfully records the mercy of God to Abraham in bringing him out of Vr of the Caldeans where his Ancestors served strange gods And how great this mercy was appears by observing the forwardnesse of the Israelites to be infected by the contagion of Egyptian idolatry The Egyptians were a most idolatrous people Isa 19.1 Jer. 43.12 Jer. 46.25 Exek 20.7 8 whence it is that so often we read of the idols and gods of Egypt No people idolized so many and such vile creatures as did the Egyptians the Mole the Bat the Cat the dung-flie Monkies Birds Crocodiles Pâ—r allia ccpe porros jurant Plin. l. 19. c. 6. Crocodilon adorat Pars haec illa pavet saturam serpentibus ibim Effigies sacri nitet aurea Cercopitheci Porrum et Cope nefas violare et frangere morsu O sanct as animas quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina Juv. Sat. 15. Sanctius in Ezek. 20.7 Nauseas Symmach Inquinamenta Aquila yea Leeks Onions Garlick c. were adored by them as Gods So grosse was their superstition herein that the Heathens deride them for it Pliny saith that they were wont to deifie and swear by their Leeks Onions and Garlick And Juvenal lasheth them for adoring these garden Gods And from the vileness of those creatures Sanctius supposeth that the gods of the Egytians are called abominations It is evident also that the Israelites were too forward to worship the ldols although they were weary of the oppressions of the Egyptians Hence it is that Ezek. 20.7 8. the Prophet complains of their rebelling against the expresse prohibition of God that they should not defile themselves with the idols of Egypt and that they did not forsake those idols And the same Prophet Chap. 23.3 reproving Israel for their early adulteries by which he means their idolatries saith that she committed whoredoms in Egypt in her youth i. e. when the Israelites were but a young and new Nation And vers 8. that she left not her whoredomes brought from the Egyptians for in her youth they lay with her and bruised the brests of her Virginity Clear likewise to this purpose is that command of Joshua to the Israelites Chap. 24.14 Put away the gods which your fathers served in Egypt Nor are there wanting learned men who conceive that the reason why the Israelites in the wildernesse
in They beleeved God too little and man too much by their unbelief making God as man and man as God Gen. 12.7 13.15 15.18 17.7.8 26.4 Deut. 1.8 Exo. 3.17 and 6.8 2. God had afforded many helps and antidotes against the unbeleef of the Israelites God had given promises first to their Fathers and afterwards to these Israelites their posteritie of his bestowing upon them the land of Canaan for an Inheritance His promises like himself were faithfull and true and impossible it is that he who made them should lie These promises were often repeated to their fore-fathers and themselves and the very land of Canaan is called the Land of Promise Heb. 11.9 1 King 8.56 And afterward Solomon professed There hath not failed one word of all Gods good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses All his promises are yea and Amen The promises of giving to Israel the land of Canaan Gen. 22.16 Gen. 26.3 Psal 105.9 1 Chr. 26.26 Gen. 17.10 God had sundry times confirmed by oath the oath God followed with his seal of Circumcision whereby was confirmed the promise of the earthly and heavenly Canaan To all these God had added the abundant examples of those their holy fore-fathers who openly professed their beleeving of the promise that their Seed should inherit Canaan Heb. 11.9 Act. 7.5 Hence Abraham sojourned contentedly in the land of promise where he had not so much room as to set his foot on without borrowing or buying Hence also he purchased a burying place in that land In terra promissâ sibi emit sepulchrum ut spem suam vel mortuus testaretur Rivet Exerc. 119. in Gen. of which though living he had not possession yet dying nay dead he shewed his expectation How holily solicitous was Jacob and Joseph that their bodies after their deaths should be carried out of Egypt into that Canaan where their hopes and hearts had been while they lived To all these Examples God had given them to prevent unbeliefe their own multiplyed and astostonishing Experiences of his former Power and Love Could not he who by the lifting up of the arms of one Moses destroyed an Armie of Amalekites as easily overthrow the Armies of the Canaanites by the hands of six hundred thousand Israelites Could he who commissionated the very lice and flies to plague Egypt and at whose command are all the hosts of heaven and earth want power to deal with the sons of Anak Could not he who made the weak and unsteady waters of the red Sea to stand up like walls as easily make the strongest walls of the Canaanitish Cities to fall down Psal 78.32.42 But they believed not for his wondrous works they remembred not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the enemie 3. Their unbelief most of all robb'd God of his though not essentiall yet declarative glory It was a bold sin it rifled his Cabinet and took away his chiefest Jewel Isa 42.8 1 Joh. 5.10 Rom. 4.10 even that which he saith he will not give to another 1. It takes away the glorie of his Truth it no more trusting him then if he were a known Lyer and as we say of such a one No further than we see him It endeavours to make God in that condition of some lost man whose credit is quite gone and whose word none will take now to discredit is to dishonour a man Unbeleevers account it impossible that he should speak true for whom to lye it is impossible After all the promises of giving them Canaan though repeated sworn sealed Israel beleeved not God 2. The Israelites by their unbelief obscured the glory of Gods Goodnesse They did not onely labour to make their miserie greater then Gods Mercy but even his very Mercy to appear Tyranny They often complained that he had brought them into the wilderness to slay them Num. 14.3 Psal 106.24 and they despised that pleasant land which God had promised them yea as some note in regard that the land of Canaan was a type of the heavenly Canaan See M. Perkins on the place they beleeved not that God would bring them to heaven and give them inheritance in that eternall Rest by means of the Messiah So that they rejected at once both the blessings of the foot-stool and the throne the earthly and the heavenly Canaan at the same time 3. Their Unbelief did blemish the glory of his Omnipotency Psal 62.11 They proclaiming by this sin that He to whom power belongs and nothing is too hard who can do all things but what argue impotencie as lying and denying himself who made heaven and earth with a word Isa 40.15 and before whom all the nations of the world are as the drop of the bucket and the small dust of the balance could not crush a few worms nor pull down the height of those Gyants whom by his power he upheld 4. Of all sins the Unbelief of the Israelites most crossed their own Professions They voyced themselves to be and gloryed in being the people of God and they proclaimed it both their dutie and priviledg to take God for their God They sometimes appeared to beleeve him but the unbelief of their hearts gave both God and their own tongues the lye they professed that they beleeved the power of God and remembred that God was their Rock Psal 78.34 35 36 37. but at the news from Canaan they shewed that they beleeved that the Anakims and the walled Cities were stronger They professed that they beleeved the Mercy of God and that the most high God was their Redeemer but at the very supposall of danger they thought that they were brought into the wilderness to be slain They professed that they beleeved the Soveraignty of God They returned and enquired after him and promised obedience to him but upon every proof they shewed themselves but rebells So that by reason of their unbeleef and unstedfastnesse of heart in Gods Covenant they did but flatter God with their mouth and lye unto him with their tongues How hainous a sin is it for Gods professed friends do distrust him How shall a stranger take that mans word whom his most familiar friends yea his own children will not beleeve Thine own Nation said Pilate to Christ have delivered thee unto me Thine own people may heathens say to God wil not trust thee and how should wee 5. Of all the sins of the Israelites unbeliefe was that which properly did reject the mercy by God tendred to them Canaan was by him frequently in his promise offered and though all the sins of the Israelites deserved exclusion from Canaan yet they did not as unbeleef by refusing the offer of it reject the entrance into it As the faith of the Ninivites overthrew a prophesie of judgement Psal 78.32 33 so the unbelief of the Israelites overthrew the promises of mercy The brests of the promises were full of the milk of consolation and
And custome without truth is at the best but the antiquity of error The old path and the good way are put for the same Jerem. 6.16 If the removall of the ancient bounds and landmarks which our fathers have set be a sin so frequently prohibited how heinous is the violation of the ancient boundary of holinesse which at the first was fixed by God himself 3. The depravation of nature Observ 3. introduceth all disorder in practice When these angels had left their originall purity they soon forsake their originall employment and Mat. 7.18 the divel abiding not in the truth becomes a murderer All the irregularities of life are but derivations from unholy principles The corrupt tree yeelds not good fruit Luk. 6.45 Out of the evill treasure of the heart are evill things brought forth The wheels of the Clock going wrong needs must the hand do so the Translation will be according to the Original We see at what door to lay all the prodigious impieties in the world which are but the deformed issues of corrupted nature How foolishly are men angry with themselves for outward and visible transgressions in their lives when they tamely and quietly endure an unchanged nature like men who dung and water the roots of their trees and yet are angry for their bearing of fruit How preposterous and how plainly begun at the wrong end are those endeavours of reformation which are accompanyed with the hatred of renovation If the tree be bitter and corrupt all the influences and showrs of heaven cannot make the fruit good When these angels had lost the integrity of nature even heaven it self did not help them to it How miserable lastly is he who hath no better fountain than corrupted nature for the issuing forth of all his services Even the best performances of an unrenewed person cannot be good coming not from a pure heart Phil. 1.11 Eph 2.10 a good conscience and faith unfained they are but dead carcasses embalmed and at the best but hedg-fruit sowre and unsavoury till they who bear them are ingrafted into Christ and partake of his life 4. Corrupt nature cares not for the joyes Observ 4. joyned with the holinesse of heaven As soon as these angels had left their first estate of integrity they forsook even that holy though most happy habitation Heaven it selfe was no heaven to them when they became unholy A sinner may not unfitly be compared to a common beggar who had rather live poorly and idly than plentifully in honest imployment How great is the antipathy of corrupt nature to heavenly performances when they will not down though never so sweetened The enmity of sin against God and holinesse is not to be reconcil'd How little are we to wonder that heaven is a place only for the pure in heart and that Christ at the last day will say to the workers of iniquity Mat. 7.23 Job 22.17 Depart from me since they not only in this life say to God Depart from us Job 21.14 but should they be admitted into that habitation of blisse with unholy hearts they would be unwilling there to continue with him Let it be our care to be made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light if we expect to have nay to love the joyes thereof 5. Observ 5. How irrationall is every sinner There 's no person in love with any sin but is indeed out of love with his owne happinesse These angels for a meer supposed imaginary happinesse of their own contriving part with the reall blessednesse of enjoying the satisfying presence of the blessed God None can become a divell till first he become a beast A sinner can with no better plea of reason yeeld to any tentation of sin Jud. 16.6 then could Samson to that motion of Delilah Tel me where thy great strength lieth and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee Wicked men are rightly call'd unreasonable 2. Thes 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jud. 10. Psal 49. ult or absur'd such whom no reason will satisfie and brute beasts led with humour and sense against all reason Who that had not laid aside even reason would lose his soul for a trifle a shadow and die as Jonathan said for tasting of a little hony He who accounts it unreasonable to part with the poorest worldly commodity without a valuable consideration much more to exchange a conveyance of a thousand pound per annum for a painted paper is yet much more absur'd in sinning against any command of God which is back'd with the very height of reason both in respect of our duty to the Commander and benefit by the command 6. It s a sin for any even the highest Observat 6. to exempt himselfe from service Angels have their tasks set them by God which they must not leave There 's no creature but hath an allotment of duty Though we cannot be profitable yet must we not be idle God allowes the napkin to none upon whom he hath bestowed a talent nor hath he planted any to cumber the ground and only to be burdens to the earth If wee are all of him we must be all for him It s not consistent with the soveraignty of this great King to suffer any subject within his dominions who will be absolute and not yeeld him his homage nor to his wisdome to make any thing which he intends not to use The first who adventur'd to cease from working was a divel and they who follow him in that sin shall partake with him in the sutable punishments of chains and darknesse It s a singular mercy to have opportunities of service abilities for it and delight in it at the same time It s the priviledg of the glorious angels to be confirmed in their work as well as in their happinesse God never is so angry with any as those whom he turns out of his service 7. The glorifyed are in heaven as in an habitation Observ 7. Luk. 16.9 Joh. 14.2 2 Cor. 5.1 Heb. 11.10 16 Heb. 13.14 Heb. 4.9 Omnis homo est advena nascendo incola vivendo quia compellitur migrare moriendo Aug. in q. 91. sup Lev. Heaven is in Scripture often set out by expressions importing it to be a place of stability setlement and abode as Everlasting habitations a Fathers house Mansions a building of God an House not made with hands eternall in the heavens A city a city which hath foundations a continuing city a Rest How sutable are fixed and immovable affections to this permanent and stedfast happinesse everything on this side Heaven is transitory The fashion of this world passeth away here we have no continuing city Our bodies are tabernacles and cottages of clay which shortly shall bee blown down by the wind of death * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isid Pelus l. 1. ep 65. yea their falling begins with their very building and this whole world is an habitation which ere long will be
secret which hath made so many publick examples 6. Behold examples in a way of particular application not with selfe exception but as bringing thee tydings of thine own ruine Without repentance never say What is this to me unless I repent I shall likewise perish Most hearing of examples of Gods judgment say to themselves as Peter to Christ These things shall not be to us Look not upon any outward thing as able to ward off the blow or priviledge thee from punishment Wealth cannot raise a ransome power cannot prevail wisdome cannot contrive secrecy cannot shelter one from wrath God hath as many arrowes in his quiver as he had before ever he began to shoot any We have no protection against the arrest of justice Outward priviledges nay saving grace it selfe can give thee no dispensation to sin 5. With an eye of prudent prevention Fly from that wrath of which thou art now warned it 's easier to keep out then to get out of the snare even beasts will avoid the places where they see their fellowes have miscarryed Happy would they who are thy examples think themselves had they the opportunities of preventing that which they now feel While the enemy is in the way agree with him while judgment is approaching consider whether thou beestable with thy ten to meet him that cometh against thee with twenty thousand Oh weak sinner while he is as yet through his forbearance at some distance send an Embassage and desire conditions of peace in the way of sincere turning to the Lord. All the armies and examples of vengeance which compasse thee about in the world shall retire from thee if thou wilt throw the head of Sheba over the wall the sin that God strook at in others 6. Lastly Look we upon examples with humble thankfulnesse Not as rejoycing in the sorrows of others but as blessing God for his mercy towards our selves How happy were we and how cheap our Schooling to have all our learning at the cost of another Admire that free grace which made a difference between us and the filthiest Sodomites our sins have some aggravations which neither these nor the sins of thousands in hell admitted It was the meer pleasure of God that Sodomites were not in our room and we in theirs and that we should not equalize those in punishment whom we have exceeded in sin VER 8. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh despise dominions and speak evil of dignities HEre Jude sets down the second part of the Second Argument which he brought to incite these Christians earnestly to Contend for the faith opposed by the Seducers The Argument was taken from their certain destruction In the managing whereof having first mentioned sundry Examples of Gods Judgement upon the Offenders of former times He now in the second place adds that these Seducers lived in those sins which God had punished in others and this he prosecutes in the eighth ninth and tenth verses In the eighth verse two parts are considerable 1. The faults with which these Seducers are charged 2. The Fountaine from which these faults issued 1. For the first the Faults c. We may consider 1. Their Specification 2. Their Amplification 1. Their Specification 1. Defiling of the flesh 2. Opposing of authority set down by the Apostle here in two branches 1. Their despising of Dominion inwardly 2. Their speaking evill of dignities outwardly 2. Their Amplification in these two words Likewise also They sinn'd both as the former sinners had offended and although they knew they were punished 2. The Fountain from which these their faults issued viz their spirituall security and delusion both contained in the word Dreamers EXPLICATION Concerning the Explication of the first fault specifyed in these Seducers their defiling the flesh which was the abuse of their bodies by Fornication and carnall unchastity even as Sodom had done before them I have at large spoken in the fore-going verse and therefore I shall here that I may forbear needlesse repetitions passe it over only three Observations I note and then shall proceed to their next fault OBSERVATIONS 1. Sins of carnall uncleannesse are peculiarly against the body or flesh of men In many if not all other heinous sins the thing abused is without the body as in murder theft c. but in this the body it selfe is abused More doth the body as concur to 1 Cor. 6.18 so suffer by this sin then any other both by dishonour and diseases Dishonour in the stayning and defiling that noble piece of workmanship curiously wrought by the finger of God himselfe By Diseases this lust being not only a conscience-wasting but a carcasse-wasting enemy Sensuall men kill that which they pretend most to cocker Wherein are the inslaved to this lust wiser then Samson in his discovering to Delilah where his strength lay though that impudent Harlot plainly told him shee desired to know it to afflict him I have heard of a drunkard that said having almost lost his sight by immoderate drinking He had rather lose his eyes then his drunkennesse And of an old Adulterer who was so wedded to and yet so weakned by his lust that he could neither live with or without his unclean companion Were not these boared slaves Truly such sinners are no better then the Divels hackneys meeting with nothing but stripes and drudgery and when they can no more the filthiest ditch even hell it selfe is their receptacle Our bodies did never cost the Divel any thing and he like the harlot who was not the mother of the child pleads indeed vehemently to have them for his own but yet withall cares not though they be cut in pieces The worshippers of Baal slash'd their poor carcasses for a God that was not able to hear them Idolaters have not thought their own dear childreen themselves repeated Sacrifices too dear for Moloch How do Papists tear and marcerate their bodies in their wil worship among them the Fratres flagellantes who once as Hospinian reports for thirty three days together went up and down slashing their carcasses with whips till they had almost whip'd themselves to death expressed more madnesse then mortification Superstition neglects and punisheth the body Col. 2. ult How different from these how gentle and indulgent even to the poor body are the services of God! he calls for honourable services Laxus et liber modus abstinen di ponitur cunctis Prud. Hymn post jejun and mercifull sacrifices nay mercy and not sacrifice Chastity Temperance c. are severe only to those lusts that are cruel to us even fasting it selfe which seems one of the sorest services furthers the health of the body God might and yet mercifully too have appointed since the body is such an enemy to the soul that like medicines given to those that are troubled with contrary diseases the services which are beneficiall to the one should have been hurtfull to the other But so meek and indulgent a master is the Lord
hurt few Let all means be tryed before the last be used A Magistrate must not be bloody when he sheds blood the Master Bee alone is they say without a sting If a Butcher may not be of the Jury much lesse may he be a Judge In a doubtfull case it is better to spare many nocent then to punish one innocent nor must vehement suspicion but clear evidence satisfie a Judge Punishment delayed Potest poena delata exigi non potest exacta revocari may afterward be executed but being once executed cannot be recalled and even when the Malefactor is condemned the man should be comiserated though as an offender his blood be debased yet as a man it is precious This for the Explication of the first thing considerable in this part Dominion In the second wee are to enquire What is to be understood by Despising of Dominion The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Beza properly signifies to remove something out of the place as unworthy any longer to abide and remain therein Propriè signicat aeliquid suo loco ut indignum amovere Bez. in 6 Mar. 26 and it is in Scripture either spoken of Persons or Things when of Persons it is declared saith he most fitly by disdain or contemn as Mar. 6.26 Luk. 10.16 1 Thes 4 8. and it is spoken of Things properly which being removed from their place are accounted of no value effect or force and thus it is declared by rejecting Luk. 7.30 Disannulling Gal. 3 15. Casting off 1 Tim. 5.12 and here because we reject that which we despise it s rendred despise Now these Seducers did not reject disanull cast off governing so as to make it cease to be that was not in their power but in their judgement desires insinuations and as much as in them was they laboured to make it accounted void abrogated and of no value or force And their pretence for this practice was the liberty which was by Jesus Christ purchased for them with which they taught that obedience to Magistrates was inconsistent This seems to be plain by that more generall sin which the Apostle layes to their charge ver 4. Of turning the grace of our God into wantonnesse Of this more hath been said upon that place i.e. the goodnesse of God in bestowing liberty by Christ into Libertinism And hence it was that these Seducers 2 Pet. 2.19 allured their poor seduced followers under the pretence of liberty obtained by Christ 2 Pet. 2.19 to all manner or wickednesse and licenciousnesse of life bearing them in hand that as they were not now bound to any holinesse of life so particularly that Christ having redeemed them they were free from all subjection and obedience to others A Doctrine which as its very taking with flesh and blood so is it frequently by the Apostles Paul and Peter opposed who grant indeed a liberty wherewith Christ hath made a Christian free Gal. 5.13 1 Pet. 2.16 but yet withall they add that this liberty is spirituall a liberty from the law sin death and hell not an immunity from civill obedience and therefore not to be used for an occasion to the flesh or for a cloak of maliciousnesse Nor indeed is any thing further from truth then that because of Spirituall liberty Christians should be free from civill subjection For as this liberty exempts us not from obedience to the commands of God for as the Apostle saith Rom. 6.18 Being made free from sin we became the servants of Righteousnesse and ver 22. servants to God so neither doth it exempt from obedience to the Magistrate ordained by God Yea so far are the godly commands of a Magistrate from opposing spirituall liberty that they rather advance it for true liberty stands in the chusing of good and the rejecting of evill and this is furthered by the righteous commands of superiors Licenciousnesse is not liberty but slavery and makes inners to affect their owne insensible bondage 3. Quamvis in acquisitione usu potestatis potest esse deordinatio tamen in ipso ordine superioritatis in quo consistit Dominium non potest esse deordinatio sicut ordo non potest esse deordinatus Vid. Durandum de Origine jurisdictionum Aug. de C. D. l. 5. c. 21. Et. qu. ex vet Test c. 35. Aug. Tr. 116. in Joh. Gerh. in 2 Pe. 2 Pareum in Rom. 1 King 15.27 1 Kin. 16.2.7 1 Kin. 14.14 Dan. 4.17 25. Pro. 8.15 Lastly by way of Explication we shall enquire upon what ground the Apostle condemns them for this Despising of Dominion Of this briefly 1 This was a sin against an Ordinance of God By me Kings reign Prov. 8.15 There is no power saith the Apostle but of God The Powers that be are ordained of God And though Magistracy be an Ordinance of man in regard of the subject it being born by man the object it being imployed about men the end also the good of men the kinde or sort thereof left unto the choice of severall Nations yet not in regard of the Invention or Institution thereof which is onely from God In it are considerable also The Power it self The Acquisition thereof and the Execution of it The acquisition may be from the Divell by bribery fraud cruelty intrusion invasion The execution or manner of using this power may be from him likewise as when Superstition is set up in stead of Religion and cruelty for equity by those who govern But Authority it selfe Dominion Principality are from God though not Tyranny Riches gotten by Usury Extortion c. cease not to be good in themselves yea and the gifts of God And as the owner of these unjustly procured riches may be said to be a rich man and he who hath Learning though procured by unlawfull means may be said to be a learned man so the possessor of a most unjustly obtained Authority may be said to be a Magistrate and in Authority 2. This sin of the Seducers was a sin against the welfare and happinesse of the Publick They being weary of Magistracy were weary of all the comforts and blessings of Peace and in being desirous to throw down the pillars they endeavoured to pull down the building upon their own and others heads What would Nations be without Government but the dens of wild beasts Judah and Israel dwelt safely every one under his vine and fig-tree all the dayes of Solomon 1 Kin. 4.25 Even Nebuchadnezzar was a tree under which beasts of the field had shadow in whose boughs the fowls of the heaven dwelt and of which all flesh was fed Dan. 4.12 The funerals of a Political Parent millions of Children wil celebrate with tears Over Saul who was wicked and tyrannical doth David bid the daughters of Israel to weep who clothed them in scarlet 2 Sam. 1.24 Nor was it according to some any of the best of Kings who is called the breath of our nostrils Lam. 4 22. And it 's observable when God