suffering was the perfecting of all his obedience Reas. 2. Because Christ by his suffering made satisfaction to divine justice and repayed God as much of his honour in our name as he had suffered in it by our sins Therefore Gods justice is now appeased the grace of God hath had its free course that it may derive all good upon us Reas. 3. Because that Christ now by virtue of his passion and consummate obedience as it were of his own right that he acquired makes intercession with the Father for us that we may be and live with him Ioh. 17. 24. Use 1. Of Consolation to the faithfull against the guilt of their sin and terrors of their conscience that arise from sin For in Christ and his sufferings we have a remedy against these wounds that are otherwayes deadly Use 2. Of Admonition that we would detest all sinnes as things that brought our Saviour to death and would wave brought a thousand deaths upon us unless he had turned them away from us The sixteenth Lords day Joh. 10. 17 18. Therefore the Father loveth me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again None taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again This commandment received I from my Father CHrist in these words expounds what he had said before of the duty effect and signe of a good Shepherd to wit that he layes down his life for his sheep This he had applied to himself verse 15. where two things were propounded 1. The Object to which this laying down of the life is referred or which be those sheep of Christ 2. The manner of this laying down the life This is explained in the 16 and these two following verses The death of Christ or laying down of his soul or life is explicated from the efficient cause which is Christ himself I lay down my life 2. From the manner of doing of it that Christ is a cause voluntary and doing it from a counsell and deliberation not of coaction None taketh it from me but I lay it down 3. From the adjunct of this efficiency that he did it not of weakness but from power I have authority to lay it down This is shewn from another effect that followes this to wit from his resuming it again or his resurrection I have authority to take it up again as if he would say he that so layes down his life that with power he takes it up again he layes it not down out of coaction with weakness but voluntarily of his own accord he doth it But I so lay downmy life ergo Which is illustrated here from the impulsive cause the Fathers commandment This commandment I received of my Father 4. From the end and effect to wit the Fathers love and delight or complacency in this Therefore my Father loveth me because c. Doct. 1. Christ so far humbled himself for us that he underwent death it self for us I lay down my life c. Now he underwent a double death for us a spiritual and a corporal death The spiritual is about Christ's descent into Hell This consisted in the separation of God's favour from the soul of Christ for a time not really but as to sense and feeling and that influence from which comfort useth to be felt as also in impressions of divine wrath which with horror did strike all the faculties of the soul so that for the time the soul was at so low an ebbe and concussion of all its happiness as any creature could be that was without sin formally inherent in it self The death of the body is that which consists in the separation of the soul from the body the confirmation and continuance was in the burial of Christ. Now such was the separation of the soul from the body in Christs death that the conjunction and union of both of them with the divine person remained the same that it was before as if one drawing a sword held the scabberd in the one hand and the sword in the other there would be there a separation between the scabberd and the sword but of neither of them from the man that so held them So also in this mystery there is a separation of the soul from the body but neither of them was separated from the divine nature nor person but the person still sustained both in the unity of it self as one person with him The reason is because if there had been any such separation from the di vine person then the second person had ceased to be God-man and so could not for that time have been our Priest or Mediator Also a new incarnation or assumption had been made again in the resurrection of Christ. It is most true therefore which is in the mouthes of many Divines and used proverbially almost That what the Son of God assumed he never laid aside again Reas. 1. Because the perfection and consummation of humiliation is in undergoing death Phil. 2 8. And this also was the first reason why he did not onely undergo death but the most vise contemptible and contumelious death that is the death of the Cross as in that place is more especially set down Reas. 2. Because his charge of redeeming us required this to wit that he should pay that price to divine justice which we did ow and so be subject to the same punishment that we were liable to And this was also the reason why he chose the death of the Cross that he might shew that he did not barely sustain death but that cursed death that was due to us and that in our place or for us Gal. 3. 12. Reas. 3. That by the most convenient way he might procure the death of sin in us by assimiliation and making us conform to himself Rom. 6. from verse 1. to the 8. Use 1. Is of Information for directing of our faith â—…o wit that while we seek remission of our sins and reconciliation and salvation in God we so have our faith in Christ that we may be specially united to him in his sufferings blood-shedding and death Rom. 3. 25. Use 2. Is of Consolation to all those as have such true faith because they are out of all hazard of death or condemnation according to that of the Apostle Rom 8. 34. Use 3. Is of Direction 1. In the study of Sanctification that with Christ we may dy to sin 2. In the study of all obedience love and humility according to the example of Christ in whom all the perfections of these vertues we have marvelously shining to us in a most eminent and excellent way Doct. 2. Christ ordained his own death from certain wise deliberation and power to dispose of it as he pleased I have power to lay down my liâ—…e From which words it appears first that the death of Christ was voluntary For though it was violent also as it came from external
agents and was against Christs internal natural inclinations and in some sort natural also as it was wrought by external causes naturally producing such an effect Yet it was voluntary not onely as to the willing disposition and choice of it whereby Christ set himself to suffer it but also as he suspended his own power of hindering it and averting death and so gave way and power to the enemies inflicting it in which respect also his death may be called miraculous or wonderful because he himself who was dying ordered his owne death and willingly admitted the same So that by doing he suffered and by suffering he acted and had his owne action in it all without which he could not have suffered by any creature whatsoever Reas. 1. Because it became him to dy so that was God For since the humane nature subsisted in the f◅me person with the divine nothing could befall the humane nature either in doing or suffering but as the divine willed and ordained it Reas. 2. Because otherwise Christ in his death had not been together both Priest Sacrifice and Altar For though it be the part of a Sacrifice to be passive and to be offered up to the Father yet it is the part of the Priest by being active about it and ordering the whole to offer up the Sacrifice Use 1. Is of Information for arming our faith against tentations and scandals which use to arise hence in that Christ in whom we believe as our God was subject to death For Christ died not of weakness and coaction but by certain resolution and of his own proper will and power so that the divine nature and power of Christ appeared not onely in his resurrection but if the thing be rightly considered had as great a hand and was as evident in his death also Use 2. Is of Direction for our preparation to undergo death in whatsoever way God would have it come to pass For from these two things that were in Christ that he both willingly underwent death and then also ordered it himself the first of these lies upon us all out of duty that we be ready at such time and such manner to dy as God is pleased we should The other though it cannot be performed by us because we have not the power of laying down our lives and ordering our deaths yet by faith and holy desire to our comfort we ought to seek this of God and look for it that in Christ who ordered his own death for us he would order our death unto our salvation and unto his own glory Doct. 3. Christ underwent this death by his Fathers command It is in the Text This command I received of my Father And this command was neither any of the law of nature nor of the moral ceremonial or judicial but it was a peculiar condition of the mediatory office that was laid upon Christ by the Father and of his own free consent It was therefore a command to the Messias alone as he was our Mediator Reas. 1. Because as by disobedience of the first Adam sin and death entered into the world so by the obedience of the second Adam righteousnesse and salvation shoud be brought us and as the disobedience of Adam was the breach of the command given to him so also the obedience of Christ was to be in the keeping of that command that was given him with his office of mediatorship or whereby the office it self was also imposed upon him Reas. 2. Because in Christ we were to have such an example of obedience as was most perfect in keeping the commandments of God Use 1. Of Resutation against the superstition presumption of popish Monks who have devised a kind of perfection in obedience of councells beside and beyond that which stands in keeping of the commandments of God when yet Christ himself that hath given us the whole pourtraict and pattern of perfect obedience confesses that he went no further than to obey that which the Father cōmanded him Use 2. Of Admonition that we may set our selves to follow Christ in this point that we may even unto death it self cleave fast unto the commandements of God Doct. 4. God the Father loveth Christ for this obedience This is in the Text Therefore the Father loveth me that is is delighted with this obedience and so delighted that he commends it to be looked upon by every Christian and all such as are Christ's Reas. 1. Because by Christ's death God was most glorified by Christ Ioh. 12. 18. and 17. 4. Reas. 2. Because by that death of Christ the counsell of God was fulfilled whereby he had from eternity appointed in himself to communicate his grace and glorious good will unto men Ephes. 1. 5 6 7 9. Use 1. Of Resutation against such as use to conclude from such phrases whereby God is said to love men for this and not for that that such mens works were the first causes of Gods love For Christ was the Son of God beloved of him from all eternity and yet the Father is said to have loved him also for his obedience Use 2. Of Consolation to all such as are in Christ by Faith For as the Father loveth Christ so will he also love them that are in Christ. Use 3. Of Exhortation that with all chearfulness we stir up our selves to obey God because God loveth such as obey him The seventeenth Lords day Joh. 10. 17 18. 17 I lay down my life that I may take it up again 18. None taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have authority to lay it down and I have authority or power to take it up again This commandment received I of my Father SEeing the Text is the same that it was before the same analysis that was there may here also serve and be made use of Doct. 5. Christ rose again from the dead For this is it that is understood in the Text by taking up his life again For this taking up again is a reunion of things that were separated before And in this reunion of the soul and body there was a change or motion from an inferior condition to a superior of that which was before in a better also or superior to this from which the change is now And therefore it is properly called a reassumption or taking again and not barely a resurrection The forme then from which this change was made was from his state of humiliation and the forme to which was the state of exaltation and glory the subject of this transmutation or motion was Christs humane nature which had fallen unto the lowest and abjectest condition of his humiliation Christ's own body arose again from true death and from the grave And his soul also is said to have risen again as it was now restored and reunited unto the body and so delivered from the state and dominion of death or as delivered from the privation of its act in the body wherein there was some
diminution in its ralative perfection There were two parts of this resurrection revivification or a quickening again of the humane nature by the renewed union of soul and body and its going out of the grave to make it manifest that it was restored This resurrection was confirmed moreover by Angells by the Scriptures by Christ himself and by the assent and eye-witness or experience of many witnesses in divers apparitions reiterated from time to time during the space of forty dayes Reas. 1. Because it was unbeseeming and impossible that the Son of God and author of life could be long detained by the power of death Acts 2. 24. Reas. 2. That by this means Christ himself might be justified in the spirit or according to the spirit of holiness that is by the power of his God-head justified to be God as well as man in one person justly and fully declared and proved to be God by his raising of himself again from the dead Rom. 1. 4. 1 Tim. 3. 16. and might shew that we were justified by him from our sins for which he died and rose also again to shew that he had overcome for us and delivered us from them Rom. 4. 25. Reas. 3. That being now alive he might powerfully apply to us what before he had purchased by his death Rom. 5 10. Reas 4. That he hereby might be the cause foundation and sign of assurance and earnest to us of our resurrection as well spiritual as bodily Rom. 1 Cor. 15. 12 13 14. Use Is of Information for the direction of our faith that believing in Christ unto justification and salvation we may so lay hold on Christ's death that we still also look upon his resurrection wherein his victory for us was shewn and his power over death and efficacy to work in us appeared and which renders his death full of comfort to us Rom. 5. 34. 1 Pet. 3 2. Doct. 6. Christ's resurrection came to pass by his own proper vertue and power It is clear in the Text I take it up again and I have power of taking it up again For this is the difference between Christ's resurrection and that of others that they rise again by the power of another to wit of Christ as many as are his But Christ by his own power as Lord of life and death and therefore hath the disposing of both as he sees good Neither doth it make any thing against this truth that it is often said that God raised him again from the dead and the Spirit of God For the works of the Trinity from without are undivided common to all the three Persons Reas. 1. Because what is thus attributed to God is therefore also attributed to the Son together with the Father and Holy Spirit and is not taken from him as is clear by our Text. Reas. 2. When Christ is said to be raised by God or the Spirit of God then properly his humane nature is considered as raised by Father Son and Holy Spirit though not alwayes all three expressed but now one now another But when he is said to have raised himself his divine nature and person is spoken of and considered as raising his assumed humane nature together with the Father and the Spirit Reas. 3. Because by the Spirit and glory of God whereby Christ is said to be raised no other vertue or power can be understood than that of the divine nature which was in Christ. Use 1. Of Information to confirm our faith about the person of Christ. For he that by his own power â—…rose from death can not be a bare man onely but must of necessity be acknowledged to have been God also For the raising of a dead body is no less divine a work than the creation of a live body He that raised himself from the dead at the same time while he was dead in one of his natures yet had life and the fountain of life in his other nature to wit the divine at his command whereby he did so great a work as to raise his other nature to life again As Christ therefore by his death proved himself to be true man so also in and by his resurrection he proved himself to be the eternal and natural Son of God and true God especially not by office onelie and that most manifestly Use 2. Of Consolation to all such as are in Christ. For they are in him who hath vertue and power to raise them again from the dead and to give them eternal life Iohn 6. 39 40 Doct. 7. Christ's resurrection was for us or to do us good This is hence gathered because in the Text the common end of laying down his life and taking it up again for all is mentioned For for such as he laid down his life for such also he took it up again Now the resurrection of Christ turnes to our good in another way than his death doth For his death hath the account of satisfying and deserving for us But his resurrection not so but it hath the place and account of a samplar and efficient cause and some way of an efficacious and powerfull applier and perfecter Reas. 1. Because Christ in his resurrection represented some way all the elect of God and by a virtuall containing had them all in himself and brought them all back from death Reas. 2. Because the same Spirit that raised Christ again from the dead by a certain sort of communicating the same resurrection quickened as well the soules as bodyes of the faithfull that they may be made conforme to the likenesse of his resurrection Rom 8. 11. Reas. 3. Because that same Spirit quickens us by the power and vertue of the resurrection of Christ. Reas. 4. Because the whole reparation of our nature will be after the image and pattern of the resurrection of Christ Rom. 6. 5. Use 1. Of Consolation because in the resurrection of Christ as brought to pass for us or for our good we have our victory over Death Devill Sin and Hell and all our Enemies ready purchased and prepared for us It is not therefore left to us to fight that we may overcome but onely in sincerity that we may mind this to lay hold on the victory already acquired by Christ for us and that in the same manner we may strive to keep it prosecute it and more and more put ourselves in perfect possession of it by faith in Christ. Use 2. Of Admonition that by no means we suffer sin to reigne in our mortal bodies but that we may spiritually imitate such as arise from the dead The eighteenth Lords day Mark 16. 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God HEre is explicated a singular act of Christ after his resurrection Where mark 1. The motion wherein the act is designed And 2. The thing brought to pass by that motion The motion is but the means The thing done by the motion was
are made partakers of this mystery by eating and drinking 2. Is about the manner of this action which is specified to us in the word 〈◊〉 And this manner is again contained in three acts whereof the 1. is that which is set in the last place that every communicant discerne the Lord's body 2. Is that he try himself 3. Is that he furnish himself with such a disposition as is worthy of so great a mystery And these three acts are set down in these three words discerning the Lord's body let a man examine himself and he that eats 〈◊〉 drinks unworthily Doct. 1. All our work that is ours onely in the Lord's Supper is to eat and to drink the body and blood of Christ. It is gathered from these words Let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup and not discerning the Lord's body Reas. 1. Because this is the Sacrament of our spiritual nourishment in and by Christ. Reas. 2. Because in the very institution of this Sacrament no other thing is prescribed but that we should take eat and drink to wit as the signs with our bodies so the body and blood of Christ spiritually or by faith to the nourishment of our soules Reas. 3. Because nothing else is represented in the external signes and actions but this nourishment on Christ which by the institution of Christ is in this Sacrament used Use Of Refutation against Papists What the difference is between the Supper and the Popish Mass because Papists have taken away the Sacrament that was instituted by Christ and have set up in its place the Sacrifice of the Mass that was devised by men And this is the difference between a Sacrament and a Sacrifice that the formal reason of a Sacrifice consists in this that in it men offer something to God and God receives something from men But the formal reason of a Sacrament is in this that God offers something to men by visible signes and men receive it from God on the conditions and manner that he offers it In this Supper God offers Christ unto us for our spiritual nourishment and we receive Christ as the food of our soules by eating and drinking of him by faith Hence the popish Mass is a meer stranger to Christ's institution while they make its principal use to be a Sacrifice for the quick and the dead and while they officiate their private Masses wherein the people neither eat nor drink while in the publick Masses they take away the cup from the people so that though they eat in some sort yet they drink in no manner while they hold up the Host or Sacrifice that is the consecrated bread and wine rather to be adored and worshiped than to be eaten or drunk while lastly they do all this in an unknown tongue so that the people cannot understand either what or how they should eat or drink Doct. 2. That we may rightly partake in the Lords Supper it is chiefly required that we rightly discerne the Lords body By this discerning of the Lords body is understood an act of the understanding whereby we observe the difference between this bread thus consecrated to be a signe and exhibitive seal of the Lords body that is of all his benefits and graces to our faith and common bread Or it is that judgement of our mind whereby we have a right apprehension and pronounce right sentence concerning this whole mystery or business The want of this discerning is that which is reproved here by the Apostle Reas. 1. Because without judgement and prudence agreeable to the thing undertaken nothing can be rightly or perfectly done or performed Reas. 2 Because in the Sacraments where the external appearances are bodily and gross and yet a spiritual mystery or secret as to sense lies hid in them there is need of spiritual heed and judgement that we may rightly pierce and dive into that spiritual secret it self Reas. 3. Because the want of this discerning brings with it a prophanation of this holy feast as appears by the example of the Corinthians For who so discerne not what it is about which they are busied can never fit themselves so as to behave themselves arightly in handling of such a business Use Is both of Direction and Exhortation together that every one earnestly set his mind and iudgement arightly to discerne before he come to the table of the Lord what it is that is there done and what it is that himself should there do Now the special points that ought by all communicants to be discerned are these 1. The occasion and necessity that there was that Christ should be broken and given for us and to us which was no other but the deepest guilt of our sin heaviest punishment due to it and the misery that to us would thence have followed 2. The proper cause and reason of this donation which was the infinite mercy of God towards us 3. The manner in which Christ was given for us which was both in body and soul to the sufferance of death though they were the soul and body of God personally that by this his obedience we might be both freed from death and the consequent of its misery and made partakers of all the blessings of grace and glory and happiness which were in him prepared for us and he had deserved to us 4. The meanes by which Christ is thus applied unto us and made ours as in this Sacrament externally by the signes of eating of bread and drinking of wine and internally by the operation of the Holy Ghost and our faith stirred up by him to rely upon Christ for life and nourishment and growth unto life eternal and all the blessings aforesaid Doct. 3. The second duty required unto a right communicating or partaking of this Sacrament is that we seriously examine or try our selves The object of the former duty was the Supper it self instituted of God The object of this is our selves wherein by a reflex act we behold and consider our selves that we may understand how our disposition and condition agrees or disagrees with the nature and use of this institution And this inquiry should be made with greatest care and diligence as the word used for it doth sufficiently express wherein is properly expressed the Goldsmiths pains in diligently trying of silver and gold that he may know true coyne from false Reas. 1. Because it would be in vain to discerne the Lords body unless we discern aright also how our selves agree with or disagree from the Lords body and whether we have such requisites as necessarily we must for the saving participation of his body For in the Sacrament there is a mutual relation between the gift offered and our receiving of it nor doth it bestead us at all to know of what sort and how precious the gift is unless we know also that our selves are such as to whom this gift doth belong Reas. 2. Because great is the deceit of mans heart whereby men
rewards and punishments were more justly and equally to be distributed where it should be ill with evill men and not well at all and should go well with good men and not ill at all Which reason seems also to be confirmed by our Lord himself Luke 26. 15. and the Apostle Paus 1 Cor. 15. 19. Now after this life while the Soul remaines separate from the body the judgement of God is not compleat nor fully accomplished because it is not passed upon the whole man in his full being as he was in this life while he committed the things that were to be judged Therefore another and fuller â—…udgement than that on the souls departed onely followeth to be looked for which is this last judgement and shall be certainly in its own time Reas. 2. It is most convenient agreeable to Gods glory that God in by Christ in a most glorious manner should make manifest before all as well Angels as men as well his mercy as his justice that he might have the publick and solemne glory of both mercy and justice and this is the thing that at that time is topass come in that universal and last judgement Reas 3. This belongs also to the glory of God the joy of the faithfull and just confusion of the unfaithfull that before their faces they may see the promises and threatenings of God almost perfectly and accurately fulfilled not onely particularly on their own persons now in the body as before death but universally upon all others both men and Angells Which shall then onely be when this last and universal judgement shall be held Use 1. Of Information that we take care to have our faith and hope solidly confirmed and strongly rooted about this article least we be any wayes troubled with prophane blasphemies and mockings of Infidells and Heathens who first cast downe and trample upon the profession of this article by their life and manners and then also by words and speeches fight and dispute against it Concerning whom we are admonished by the Apostle St. Peter 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. c. Use 2. Of Admonition that with all fear and trembling we watch over our wayes as those that certainly mind and look for the day of this judgement 1 Pet. 1. 17. 2 Pet. 3. 11 12. Doct. 2. Our Lord Iesus Christ will be Iudge in this judgement Reas 1. Because it belongs to his Kingly office and power whereby he was made Lord and King and had all judgement committed to him Reas. 2. Because Christ is he from whom and by whom the faithfull have salvation adjudâ—…ed unto them even in this life and from whom also unbelievers have death adjudged unto them Now it is the same judgement that in this life both wayes is begun and in the last judgement shall be fully manifested and perfected Reas. 3. Because at that time it is that Christ should fully and actually triumph over all enemies and opposite power and crown all his own servants souldiers and adherents And this is most conveniently and gloriously done in forme of publick and solemne judgement Use Is of Consolation chiefly to the faithfull because they shall have him for their Judge whom they received for their Redeemer Justifier Sanctifier and Intercessor or Advocate from whom therefore they may with all confidence expect all good Doct. 3. Christ's glory at that time shall be incomparable It hence appears from the Text that if the Angells so glorious shall then be his Ministers of State and attendants and his Throne with all the rest of that procedure shall be so glorious it mmst needs be that Christ himself be excellent in glory above all that we can think of Reas. 1. Because the exercise of this judgement belongs to the manifestation of Christ's highest exaltation Reas. 2. Because the very end of his coming was to give glory to such as sought God in him It is fit then that Christ appear in greatest glory Reas. 3. The majesty of the supreme Judge of the world and the terror and confusion of his enemies that they must be put to require that he should come clothed in the greatest glory Use Of Consolation to the faithfull against the crosses and contempts they are liable to in this world together with Christ because as now they are partakers of the cross of Christ so then they shall be partakers of his glory Doct. 4. In this judgement the condition of the godly and ungodly shall be quite unlike and opposite one to another This is taught in the Text by the separation of the sheep from the goats by the right hand and the left by â—…ome ye blessed and go ye cursed Reas. 1. Because there is a great unlikeness and opposition in the lives and wayes of the godly and ungodly while they are in this world Reas. 2. Because there is a great dissimilitude or opposition between the promises that belong to the godly and the threatenings that belong to the ungodly Reas. 3. Because there is great disparity and opposition between the manifestation of greatest mercy and of greatest execution of justice Use Of Admonition that we separate our selves from ungodly men as much and in such manner as we can that is if we cannot separate in places yet in internal affections as well as external conversation we should be as unlike unto them as can be in that wherein they are ungodly Doct. 5. The cause of any blessing to the godly is the mercy of God but the cause of any caâ—…se to the ungodly is their own sault This is clear in the Text when the godly are called blessed of the Father But the ungodly barely are called ye cursed not of the Father nor from the Father nor from God because though it is God that curseth them yet the first cause of this curse is in their sins Reas. 1. Because all good is from God who is the greatest good and chiefly good in himself But all evill of punishment ariseth from evill of fault and this evill of fault is from the creature it self breaking the Law and Order that God hath set to it Reas. 2. Because the blessing of life is the meer free gift of God but the curse of death is the reward or wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. Reas. 3. Preservation from the curse which is by Gods favour is necessary for our blessing but to incur the curse there is nothing more needfull but onely to neglect or contemne that way that leads unto the blessing Use Of Direction that we may alway give God the glory in every good thing that we either have or seek or look for and alwayes blame our selves for any evill that befalls us Doct. 6. The blessing of the godly consists in the communion that they shall have with God in Christ and the curse of the ungodly in the separation of them from such communion This is plaine in the words come ye blessed and go ye cursed Reas. 1. Because this is the end whereunto all
the godly look desiring nothing more than still to apprach nearer and nearer unto God The ungodly on the contrary shunne nothing more than God and such things wherein God hath appointed to shew and impart his gracious and singular presence Reas. 2. Because man's happiness not coming of man himself is therefore to be sought from without himself and that from his union or conjunction with the greatest good and that is the cause and fountain of all good Therefore of necessity it consists in communion with God and from deprivation of this communion greatest misery must needs follow Reas. 3. Because the perfectest act of our life is that which is most closely and intimately carried towards God as all that we do well consists in this that therein we live unto God and the privation of such acting its want and absence all misery must accompany Use Of Direction that even in this life we may wholly be taken up with this to seek communion with God and shun and take heed of all separation from him Doct. 7. The certaine signes and tokens of this blessing are good workes and of this curse are evill workes This is largely and clearly laid open in the Text. Reas. 1. Because good works came from the same grace or favour of God from which the blessing it self comes upon them and evill workes joyned with obstinacy and impenitency comes from that same malice and malignancy which God hath cursed and adjudged Reas. 2. Because God of his free grace hath promised the blessing unto good workes and of his unspotted justice hath appointed the curse unto evill workes Reas. 3. Because in good works there is a certain disposal and preparation of the way to obtain the blessing and in evill workes there is not onely the proportion of a way but of deserving or a mertitorious cause even unto the curse Use Of Admonition that we have great care of our actions through every part of our life because according to them men are either condemned or saved For such as the life is such is the end The twentieth Lords day 1 Cor. 6. 19. What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own IN the words of the Text are contained a most powerfull argument against Fornication and the like sinnes and it is taken from the contrary end because the end of Christian's bodies is quite opposite to this sin And that end is declared from the subject possessed and possessor and indweller of it the Holy Ghost The subject is again explained by a Metaphor of a Temple because namely our bodies are as it were houses consecrated to him And that this argument may be made the clearer and stronger the Apostle ads that so the holy Ghost is the possessor of this Temple or house that he himself also is the indweller of it And both these relations that we have to the Holy Ghost are illustrated from their efficient cause to wit that they are of God and from their consequent effect and adjunct to wit faith and certain knowledge of these relations between our bodies and the Holy Spirit in these words Know ye not brethren c. Doct 1. The Holy Ghost is true and coeternal God with the Father and eternal Son The Text doth give many reasons for this Doctrine Reas. 1. Because to have one and the same spirit with God is all one as to be glewed or joyned to God vers 17. Reas. 2. Because a Temple is not lawfully consecrated to any but to God much less could it be lawfull that a man in stead of or for a Temple should be consecrated to that which is not God But here such a Temple which is most sacred is said to be consecrated to the Holy Ghost Reas. 3. Because the Holy Ghost is so said to be in us as that we become his of right and of duty that is God's rightfull possession as the scope of the words clearly demonstrate Use 1. Of Information for directing our faith arightly not onely unto the Father and Son but also unto the Holy Ghost as the same one and true God Use 2. Of Admonition that we diligently take heed to our selves that we neither contemne nor neglect any holy thing that comes or is breathed from the Holy Spirit as the whole Scripture is said to have come from the inbreathing or inspiration of the Holy Spirit and all the motions of godliness are onely attributed to the Holy Spirit as to their Author Likewise all the gifts of grace are bred in us from and by this Spirit of grace In these all therefore we must take heed that in no wise we resist the Holy Ghost or wittingly and willingly sin against him Doct 2. The Holy Ghost himself is given unto the faithfull This appears in the Text. Reas. 1. In that our bodyes are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost Reas. 2. In that he is said to be in us Reas. 3. In that we are said to have him or to get him from God Now the Holy Ghost is said to be given unto us when he hath a singular relation unto us and that for our good that is for our sanctification salvation of our soules moreover because he powerfully works these things in us that are agreable to his most holy nature and which can no way be derived to us from flesh and blood And hence it is also that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are called the Holy Ghost also by that trope or borrowed kinde of speech whereby the cause is put for the effect which Schollers call a Metonymie Use 1. Of Exhortation as well to thanksgiving to God that gives so divine a gift as to religious prayers and calling upon God's name that he would keep unto us and more and more communicate to us this divine gift Luk 11. 13. Use 2 Of Admonition to take heed of all such things whereby the Holy Spirit is said either to be grieved or extinguished that is from the grievousness of all such sin as fights against the holiness of this divine Spirit so that he cannot delight to dwell in us but wholly or in great measure withdrawes himself from us Doct. 3. The Holy Spirit is not communicated to our soules onely but to our bodies also It is in the Text when our bodies are also called the Temples of the Spirit Reas. 1. Because as Christ redeemed not our soules onely but the whole man so also the Holy Spirit ought to bring into subjection and possession the whole man to God and to Christ. Reas. 2. Because many duties of a spiritual life must be performed by the body also and therefore the body ought to be subject to the Holy Spirit and as a vessell or instrument be wholly in his power Reas. 3. Because our bodies are made liable to sin and by sin to death from which we must be freed by the Holy Spirit dwelling
in us Rom. 8. 11. Use 1. Of Admonition that we suffer not sin to reigne in our natural bodies that we offer not our members weapons of unrighteousnesse to sin but weapons of righteousnesse to God Rom. 6. 12 13. Use 2. Of Exhortation that we glorify God in our body as it followes in the Text verse 20. For we ought to have that care of our body in order to things spiritual that is due to the Temple of God as in the Text and to an offering to be offered up in the Temple of God Rom. 12. 1. Doct. 4. The indwelling of this Spirit is a flat enemy to the 〈◊〉 of sin in us This is the consequence of the argument in the Text to wit that the Temple of God cannot be prostituted to whoredome and other such sinnes without Sacriledge Reas. 1. Because there should be an agreement between the Temple and him whose temple it is or to whom it is dedicated as it is 2 Cor. 6. 16. what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idolls For by a like reason we may say What agreement hath the temple of God with reigning sin Reas. 2. Because therefore the Holy Spirit dwels in believers that he might impart holiness to them and as his nature and name so also his indwelling and operation is an enemy to all ungodliness Reas. 3. Because if the Kingdome of sin should prevail in the Temple and dwelling of the Holy Spirit this would turn to the disgrace and dishoâ—… of the Holy Spirit himself And this is indeed the thing that is done when some prophane men blaspheme and mock at the name of God of the Holy Ghost because of the unworthy carriage of those that make profession to be led by this Holy Spirit Use 1. Of Reproof against such as turn the Temple of the Holy Ghost into 〈◊〉 Den of Thieves or into a Cage of unclean birds Use 2. Of Admonition that we give no place to sin either in our soules or bodies but as farre as is possible that we imitate Christ who as it is written Mat. 25. did cast out of the Temple of God even buyers and sellers and the tables of money changers and Iohn 2 15. with a wlâ—…ip drave out of the Temple sheep and beeves Doct. 5. All the faithfull ought to have both faith and experience about this indwelling of the Holy Spirit in them This is intimated in these words Do ye not know brethren that is ye ought not to be ignorant of this but to believe this and 〈◊〉 know it from your own proper experience or feâ—…ling Reas. 1. Because this is amongst the greatest benefits that belong to our salvation Reas. 2. Because from this benefit depends the knowledge of all the rest that God hath freely given to us 1 Cor. 2. 12. So that the same may here â—…e said that is said of Christ 2 Cor. 13. 5. Know ye not that Christ is in you c. So here Know ye not what the Holy Ghost is in you c. Use 1. Of Direction that we try our selves in this point and never rest as if it were well with us untill unto our comfort we can perceive that the Holy Spirit dwelleth in us Use 2. Of Exhortation that we study to have this knowledge lively and powerfully according to the intent of the Apostle here who intimates to us that this knowledge if it be such as it should be cannot consist with whoredome or any such like impurity of life The one and twentieth Lords day Eph. 5. 25 26 27. Vers. 25 Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing But that it should be holy and without blemish IT is the Apostle's purpose in this place to stir up men to the duty of love to their wives And he illustrates this duty and perswades it from the example of Christ's love to his Church and in the example the love of Christ towards his Church is declared from its effects whereof the first is that he laid down his life for her The second is the end and effect of the former to wit that by vertue of his death he sanctified and purified the Church unto himself The third is the effect and end of both the former that he namely makes her glorious The fourth is the conjunction and union that the Church hath with Christ to wit that she is his body and of his flesh and bones verse 30. The manner of which union and its nature is shewn to consist in a mystery and not in any carnal or bodily way but in a most spiritual and hidden way Doct. 1. The Church is the whole company and community of the elect This is hence gathered because she is here described and designed by Christ's spiritual love to her as ought the love of an husband to be to his wife Now this love includes alwayes in it self a differenceing of her beloved separating of her from all other and so it is nothing else but an election or choice made of her before others This is to be understood of a company chosen unto eternall life Now this company is considered of two manner of wayes First as election lies in the absolute and internal counsell of God Secondly as it is described and manifested by its effect of calling and the blessing that followes on it They that are chosen the first way they are members of the Church onely virtually and potentially to be such in time but such a power as is determinate and certainly to be brought forth into act in due time by the decrees of God Therefore the elect not yet called are not yet actually and in themselves formal members of the Church The second way as the act of vocation and effect of election is there it makes men actual and formal members of the Church Now that first effect of election internal which is proper to the elect is effectual calling which 〈◊〉 a kinde of external election as it were made in time Therefore the Church hath her name rather from this calling than from justification sanctification or glorification unto which this accrues moreover that by this meanes the company or community of actual believers is fitly designed seeing that none are ordinarily called effectually but such as by actual faith answer that call Use Is of Direction how we may obtaine to our selves the certainty of our election to wit if we can be certain of our effectual calling that is be sure by inward feeling and experience of our true faith and unfaigned repentance of their operations on and in our hearts and by the effects that thence follow Doct. 2. This Church is the body of Christ. Reas. 1. It is called his body by way of proportion or similitude not unto a body