of him should not be broken tho theirs that suffered with him were That the Scripture might be in all things fulfilled in him And by the eating and the sprinkling of the blood of this as of that see Exod. 12. Lamb it is but we must do it with our staves in our hands and our loins girt as then i. e. prepared for another country that we obtain the true and everlasting redemption of which that other was but a type from Satan the destroying Angel and from all the plagues which are to fall upon the Spiritual Egypt of the reprobate world even upon all those who have no share in this Lamb who is worthy to receive power and riches c. because he was thus slain and hath redeemed us with his blood Rev. 5. 9 12. CHAP. V. Jesus Christ the Redeemer from Sin the Law Death Satan MAN made upright but under a Law not only disposed by the integrity of nature but enabled by supernatural grace to keep it upon his fall presently Gods justice substracting his violated grace first became a subject and slave ever since to the dominion of carnal concupiscence and of sin stiled also frequently the flesh The old man to obey it in all the lusts thereof and to bring forth perpetual fruits of unrighteousness See this tyranny of sin and slavery of man Rom. 7. 7. expressed so far as that he is said even to be not only captiv'd but slain by it Ver. 11. so Eph. 2. 1. Dead in trespasses c. and Rom. 8. 10. the body dead because of sin and sin reviv'd and I dyed Rom. 7. 9. see Jo. 8. 34. comp 32 35 36 44. Man did not abide in the house and family of God but lost his inheritance because of a Son of God Luk. 3. 38. he became a Servant to sin and a Son of the Devil 2. Upon this he presently incurred a second miserable servitude and bondage unto the law keeping him under as a strict Schoolmaster and still exacting its task of him Debtor to the whole law Gal. 4. 3. -5. 3 and no way able now as before by supernatural grace to perform it and he not performing it It presently wrought wrath against him Rom. 4. 15. pronouncing its curse upon him Gal. 3. 10. and so committing him a child of wrath Eph. 2. 3. into the hands of Gods justice 3. Now the penalty of this law not observed was death and so man became also subject unto bondage all the rest of his life thro fear of death Heb. 2. 15. The wages of his sin Rom. 6. 23. which also reigned over him Rom. 5. 14. the enemy of mankind and of all of them the last subdued 1 Cor. 15. 26. 4. Of this death Satan was to be the Executioner As the first creature that was the object so ever since and that not unwillingly made the instrument of Gods vengeance toward any other creature both comforting his own pains as it were with the society of their misery and satisfying his hate against God in any mischief upon his image And so upon sin we were presently seized upon by this Jaylor his Captives and prisoners reserved for destruction upon whom he inflicts also for the present all other miseries here suffered for sin See 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. Ps. 78. 49. Exod. 12. 23. Rev. 9. 11. 1 Cor. 10. 10. 1 Chron. 21. 1. compared with 2 Sam. 24. 1. Luk. 13. 15 16. And therefore all venemous and noxious creatures to us are called his instruments Luk. 10. 19. But secondly we are not subject to him only as an Executioner and an inflicter of punishment but as the Prince the God 2 Cor. 4. 4. of this lower world that upon the departure of the good spirit presently possessed us as his best house and lodging here below Matt. 12. 44. Col. 1. 13. the spirit that worketh mightily saith the Apostle in the children of disobedience Eph. 2. 2. and we are become of Gods his children Act. 13. 10. Jo. 8. 44. And the lusts of him our Father now we do so that as in innocency we did no good but by the assistance of the good spirit so since the fall we hardly do any evil but by the suggestion of the ill spirit See Act. 5. 3. 1 Cor. 7. 5. 1 Chron. 21. 1. 1 King 22. 22. 1 Tim. 5. 15. 2 Cor. 2. 11. c. So that as he hath power as Gods Sergeant to inflict death at last so he hath power as Gods enemy in this his Kingdom of the Air of Darkness of this world to make us serve him while we live power both regal and paternal over us yet without either the protection of a Prince or affection of a Father making us do that only for which afterward he may punish us God indeed having put enmity between him and man from the beginning Gen. 3. He being told that at last he should be destroyed by the womans seed and therefore rejoycing in nothing so much as to destroy her seed Rev. 12. And into the hands of this his enemy was now man faln And him a very powerful and dreadful enemy Eph. 6. 12. For note 1. That as man hath not by his fall so neither the Devil by his lost all the priviledges of his nature and being permitted still his being is allowed also all the operations belonging to it retaining power and subtilty 2 Cor. 2. 11. Eph. 6. 11. according to the measure of the spiritual strength and knowledge of other Angels 2. That tho as man sinning was ejected out of Paradise so he out of the blessed place of his first habitation Jude 6. unto these lower and darker regions of the world called Prince of them because they are the place of his abode yet here hath he not received the final restraint and judgment for his sin which shall be passed upon him when upon others i. e. at the general day of doom as well for Angels as men see Rev. 20. 10. 1 Cor. 6. 3. 2 Pet. 2. 4. 3. That mean while in this dejection As God hath not taken away their natural power of hurting and seducing from wicked men so neither from the wicked spirits which power the Devil exerciseth as a tempter toward the good and as a Prince over the wicked in this his kingdom of the air Only as God restrains the power of wicked by the opposition of good men so of the wicked by the opposition of good Angels of the Holy Spirit of Christ himself King over all and both evil men and angels by the secret limitations of his providence Job 1. 10. and restrains those so much more who are less resistable and this more in respect of some then of others the children of God being more protected from his seducements by a greater power of the Holy Spirit residing in them c. 1 Jo. 4. 4. Luk. 22. 31. the children of disobedience more abandoned to his will and commands 2 Tim. 2.
26. Eph. 2. 3. Thus man being in his lapsed condition the Apostle makes as it were four persons sin the law and death and Satan tyrannizing over him and keeping him in an irremediable subjection possessed instead of the free loving good spirit of God with the spirit of bondage Rom. 8. 15. and of fear and of this world See sin which is called also the flesh and the old man described as a person Rom. 7. 9 11. Jam. 1. 14 15. Gen. 4. 7. 2. The law Rom. 7. 3 4. Gal. 3. 23 24. 3. Death 1 Cor. 15. 26 51. Rom. 5. 14. And they assault him in this order Sin slayes him by the dart of the law for the strength of sin is the law and death slayes him by the sting of sin for the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15. 56. and Satan slayes him by the hand of death As he who hath the power of death from Gods justice Heb. 2. 14. Lastly Satan having no power but from God the justice of God committeth us into the hands of this officer till we shall pay the debt of sin by the first Covenant due unto him Man being in this deplorable condition the Son of God in great pitty to his creature came to redeem him out of the hands of all these that hated him Esai 61. 1. Luk. 4. 18. Col. 1. 13. and to make him a freeman again Joh. 8. 34. comp 32 36. Gal. 4. 23. c. Gal. 5. 1. And that meanwhile justice might be satisfied and every one of the rest also have his due he put himself in our stead into their hands and paid the full ransom and price that was required not silver nor gold Ps. 49. 6 7 8 9. 1 Tim. 2. 6. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. but life for life Matt. 20. 28. 1. To destroy sin in the flesh he came in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8. 3. and after he had endured with the same weak nature all its assaults Heb. 2. 18. Matt. 4. 1. 16. 23. tho he did not sin yet was he made sin for us i. e. liable to undergo the ill consequents of sin as if he had sinned 2 Cor. 5. 21. 2. To satisfie the law he was made under the law also both the moral and the ceremonial in particular reference to the Jew that he might redeem them that were under the law Gal. 4. 5. most exactly keeping it in Circumcision and observation of the Sabbath tho they falsly accused him of the breach thereof and all other ordinances Yet after all this we being under its curse he also tho obedient in every thing to the law for he became a curse or accursed Gal. 3. 13. 3. Death requiring possession where sin had given it a just title and 4. Satan being not a-wanting to use his licensed power in inflicting it Luk. 22. 53. He therefore being first made sin and a curse also underwent the assaults of these two last for us underwent and tasted of death for every sinful man Heb. 2. 9. 1 Cor. 8. 11. even the death of the cross And his going thus far perchance might have served for the discharge of a debt had we been saving some trespasses past in a perfect and entire condition for the future but besides the fruit already brought forth unto death for which we owed it we were also subjected to the dominion of these enemies to bring forth more still for the future In respect of which no compleat redemption of us could be without a conquest of them as well as a payment And had our Redeemer not made a conquest of them had he been either pierced by sin or broken any point of the Law how then indeed could he have paid that death a ransom for us which had been due for himself Again not breaking these had he yet been any way held by death and Satan since tho the ransom was paid for sins past yet their dominion would have remained still in us for producing more How could he deliver us from this dominion from which he could not save himself In which terms the Devil once began to insult over him on the Cross thou that savest others c. How could he rescue us from death being himself detained in it how by his spirit in us destroy sin if that spirit could not raise him from the punishment of sin for all our spirit and life is only from and in him In whose death all our hopes were also dead 1 Cor. 15. 14. Therefore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 14 17. If Christ be not risen from death ye are yet in your sins See Rom. 4. 25. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Indeed we were not only prisoners for debt to Satan as an Officer of Gods justice Matt. 5. 25 26 but captives to him as Prince of this world and therefore our Savior was our Redeemer also in two senses from debt and from slavery by paying a ransom and by making a conquest which he throughly did For sin could not enter into him nor the law could not accuse him in any point nor could death tho it had him in its arms hold him Act. 2. 24. and so Satan also that had the power of death yet in his reviving from death was overcome Heb. 2. 14. by the power of the holy spirit raising him again from it See Rom. 1. 4. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Heb. 9. 14. Gal. 1. 4. And that he might be a pattern unto us in the way and of the victory of sufferings the manner he chose to conquer these enemies was by subjecting himself unto them and by making himself capable of their assaults and by suffering from them By comming in the likeness of sinful flesh he destroyed sin in the flesh by dying killed and triumphed over death In which Sampson slaying his enemies by his own being slain and Eliah raising the dead child by imitating the same postures were types of him Destroyed the Devils tempting by being tempted by him and in the likeness of the Serpent Numb 21. 9. Jo. 3. 14. being also made a curse like him cured the bitings of the Serpent by submitting to and most exactly keeping the law annulled it Thus he for his obedience being made Lord of the law Matt. 12. 8. and changing the ordinances delivered by Moses Jo. 4. 21. Col. 2. 13 14. Rom. 7. 24 25. Jo. 12. 31. Col 1. 13 14. and translating us out of the kingdom of darkness into his kingdom Tit. 2. 14. Redeemed us from iniquity for good works 2 Tim. 1. 10. abolished death 1 Thess. 1. 10. Delivered us out of the hands of justice Act. 13. 39. Eph. 2. 15. out of the hands of Moses's law And he triumphing first himself over them all thus set us also at liberty At liberty from them 2 Cor. 3. 17. Jo. 8. 32 36. yet not for our selves to be now our own Masters but redeemed us for his service for ever hereafter See 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Rom. 14. 4 7.
of God as the first Adam was before him Luk. 3. 38. 2 Cor. 4. 4. Gen. 1. 27. And heyr of all things and having the dominion over them as Adam in innocence had Ps. 8. 5. comp with Heb. 2. 6. Psal. 2. 8. which are all resanctified and as I may so say redeemed from their former pollution in him as they were unhallowed by the other see Heb. 1. 2. 1 Coâ—… 10. 25 26. Rom. 8. 19. c. -14. 14. Now he readmitted into Paradise Luk. 23. 43. and to the Tree of life Rev. 2. 7. -3. 21. -22. 14. from which the first was expelled For tho he was and had all these from all eternity yet emptying himself as it were of all former rights in becoming man he thus made a new purchase and acquisition of them that so these his honors might be transferred to his seed as were the first Adams misfortunes Which seed hâ—… now began to propagate and to multiply and replenish the Earth with it He multiplying it not as thâ—… first Adam by carnal pleasure but as a vegetable seed increaseth by dying 't is our Saviors own allusion Jo. 12. 24 23. -3. 14 15. Esai 53. 10 11. And as the spirit in seed upon its burying in the Earth and dying begins first to operate and dilate it's self So did his spirit to the production of a numberless progeny See Jo. 7. 39. For which seed also as well as for himself upon his exaltation he received the promised spirit to be given them for the present Luk. 24. 49. Act. 2. 33. by which the rebelling flesh should be brought again under its dominion And the Crown of Immortality to be received shortly being the two things we lost in the fall of Adam So that look how much the first Adam contributed to our destruction much more hath the second for our Salvation To number up all whose derived blessings upon mankind more particularly we are first to take notice that sin having entred into the world by the first man and after it death this second Parent was forced in the first place to undo the works of the former and to clear the malevolent influence that came from him before he could impart to us his own and remove the punishment the first brought on us before regain the reward he lost us Therefore as the first Adam sinned and we barâ—… part of his iniquity so we sinning the second Adam bore all our iniquities and as we by partaking the first Adams flesh became heirs of his sin so he by partaking ours became if I may so say heir of our sins And that even of the sins of the whole world as not some few but all mankind were sinners and perished in Adam That the restitution might be as large as the fall This man upon the precious Cross offered a price of mans redemption not only sufficient for all the Sons of Adam and yet limited by him to some few i. e. the saved but also actually tendered to God his Father indifferently without exception for them all See 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. where the Apostle argues that all the sons of the first Adam were dead in sin because the second Adam died for them all See Heb. 2. 9. 2 Pet. 2. 1. Rom. 14. 15. 1 Cor. 8. 11. 1 Jo. 2. 2. Rom. 5. 18. 1 Tim. 2. 6. So those that perish Heb. 10. 29. by apostacy could not be said to have troden under foot the Son of God and the blood of the Covenant if no way pertaining to them and so in the Holy Communion if not his body offered also for and to the wicked how could they be guilty of his body and blood 1 Cor. 11. 27. That therefore this blood becomes not effectual and profiting to all in respect of which that phrase for many is used Matt. 26. 28. it is because of the conditions to be performed on every mans part that it may be beneficial unto him See Joh. 3. 16 17. Or also to take the strictest opinion of predestination because the Father hath so pleased to enable only some of the seed of Adam to the performance of such conditions But the Son in all things obedient and subject to his Father chose or picked out none no not his twelve Disciples but took into his diligent protection those whom ever the Father pleased to give him and even amongst the twelve in submission to his Fathers will chose one of them well foreknowing it Jo. 6. 70. to shed his blood See Jo. 17. 6 9 24. Jo. 6. 65. Act. 13. 48. -15. 13. Jo. 10. 26. Matt. 11. 25. Rom. 11. 7. and with a Divine patience tolerated him robbing him of his necessary provisions before he betrayed his sacred person See Jo. 12. 6. Nothing therefore is there on the account of the universality of his pretious sacrifice why every single Son of Adam may not be saved by the plentiful effusion of that all-meritorious stream of his blood which gushed out from so many Fountains made in his body from his head back breast hands feet nay in that Garden-agony thro every pore And those who make themselves uncapable of the benefit thereof make in as much as concerns them the blood of tâ—…e Son of God who loved them and gave himself for them Gal. 2. 20. to be shed so grievous a crime in vain and this by the Apostle is making themselves guilty of his murther Heb. 6. 6. 1 Cor. 11. 27. Thus he by Gods promise becoming the second head of the body of mankind 1 Cor. 11. 3. whereof we by faith are members by suffering and dying for us and in our stead tasting death for every man saith the Apostle Heb. 2. 9. he thus satisfied Gods justice and appeased his wrath toward us as one member in the natural body oft suffers the punishment for the fault of some other Sicut Homo saith Aquinas per aliquod opus quod manu exerceret redimeret se a peccato quod commisisset cum pedibus For by this Communication of head and members Adam brought in condemnation and death and therefore shall not mercy be enlarged as far as justice by the same relation that also they may be removed For as if one member suffers 1 Cor. 12. 26. all the members suffer with it so all the members are counted to suffer what any one doth For all the members of one body being many are one body and so is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. and we This is certain the first Adam hath brought no guilt or misery on his members which the second hath not or shall not in due season take away Nay saith the Apostle he hath taken away far more then the first brought to wit all our own personal guilt too For one only sin of the first was enough to undo not only himself but all his posterity and to bring in death but many millions of sins besides that could not hinder the second to procure us notwithstanding them
salvation and eternal life Rom. 5. 16. Now since all our benefit by him comes from our ingrafting and incorporation into him that so his sufferings may be accounted for ours the Sacrament or religious Ceremony instituted to convey unto us this first effect of the second Adams dying for us and so freeing us from the condemnation and washing us with his blood from the stains of our former sins is Baptism After which tho the infirmity of concupiscence still remain for the benefits of the second Adam are not fully perfected till this life is ended yet is both the strength thereof much abated and the reatus or guilt thereof totally removed i. e. that none shall be condemned for the solicitations and importunings thereof which will happen till our redemption is compleated so they be by him sor which he is enabled with sufficient grace mastered and supprest Therefore are we said in the Scripture to be baptized into Christ to put on Christ. Gal. 3. 27. Rom. 6. 2. to be in Christ Rom. 8. 1. Phil. 3. 9. by one spirit to be baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12. 13. To be baptized into his death to be co-planted in the likeness of his death and to be buried with him in Baptism Rom. 6. 3 4. c. 1 Pet. 4. 1. by baptism to be saved from death and sin 1 Pet. 3. 20 21. c. and therefore as Baptism is called our death so his death by him is called a Baptism Matt. 20. 23 Luk. 12. 50. What by him was really performed being by us too represented and acted in Baptism For our Savior is supposed see Rom. 6. chap. to represent till his death a son of Adam as we are and one that had took sin upon him tho he had none in him and so to suffer the punishment and dy to it as well as for it that is no more afterward to be charged with it Rom. 6. 10. and then to rise again a new man according to which we true sinners in baptism are supposed to dy with him to sin Rom. 6. 2. no more to live in it and then to be born again of him to begin a new life a life to holiness called also newness of life Rom. 6. 4. life spiritual opposed to the former carnal see Gal. 6. 1. 1 Cor. 2. 15. Rom. 7. 6. according to which we are said to be already risen with Christ. Col. 3. 1. That is from death in sin Baptism signifying 1. both our putting on some think signified by the expression borrowed from the pulling of old clothes and putting on new a Ceremony used at Baptism in the Apostles times and after them in the primitive Church and being ingrafted into Christ so that we have right to his sufferings c. and 2. then by virtue of his death our being cleansed from sin typified by the water washing us and then 3. our putting to death crucifying and putting off the old man Rom. 6. 6. the son of Adam and so dying to sin signified by the ancient manner of immersion of the body under water nothing of it to be seen and 4. then our putting on the new man and Christ our being born again of water and the spirit and being made a new creature represented in the emersion and elevation again out of the water See Col. 2. 12. -3. 10. Jo. 3. 5. As if you stood by those curing waters of Bethesda nâ—…w stirred by an Angel and saw a son of the first Adam consisting all of flesh diving into those waters all polluted with sin and dying in them which thing one man in every ones stead did for us and then springing up a new child out of this old stock the son of the second Adam consisting of spirit Jo. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 6. 17. washed clean and pure to live a new life in obedience 2. After he hath thus Communicated unto us as many as are his members absolution from sin by his dying to it for us and our implantation into his death by baptism the second blessing he derives upon his seed is Righteousness Rom. 5. 15 18. 19. Luk. 1. 72 75. that by this we may attain life eternal as by deliverance from sin we escaped death And this righteousness this second Adam conveighs unto us in two manners As Adam in like manner did sin to his posterity 1. For first as we derived both from the example of Adams disobedience and from the propagation of his flesh a natural soliciter even in mans innocence for its own delights without regard of their lawfulness Gen. 3. 6. but much more after the fall a pronity to evil and by loss of the Spirit inability to good so from the example of Christs obedience and the traduction of his spirit we receive a new ability inclination and pronity to good and aversion from evil See Eph. 2. 10. Tit. 2. 14. Jo. 8. 39 41 44. Rom. Rom. 13. 14. Eph. 4. 23 24. Rom. 11. 16. 2. Again as his posterity for Adams one sin and disobedience was made sinner and judgment and condemnation came upon them who sinned not after the similitude of his transgression for not their but his disobedience and that also one onely disobedience of his Rom. 5. 12. c. to the 20th The branches being holy or unholy as the root is See Rom. 11. 16 28. Heb. 7. 9 10. So the posterity of Christ both when they yeild obedience yet for his obedience and righteousness not theirs is accepted theirs whether devotions or good works at least many of them being by reason of the remains of the old man as yet only crucified in part weak and imperfect but his compleat and exact for which therefore all the imperfections of theirs by faith are pardoned And when they disobey their obedience likewise being not constant their repentance if it be rightly performed i. e. by now dying to their new sin since baptism in pennance and mortifications and commemorating the Lords passion in the Communion Matt. 26. 28. 1 Jo. 2. 1 2. serving to the remission of sin as they died before to their old ones in Baptism and then by living afterward according to the spirit for his sufferings and obedience is also accepted for obedience So that we are made righteous in Christ see Rom. 8. 1. comp Heb. 7. 9. 10. as well as from Christ in our selves by his spirit as also we were sinners in Adam Rom. 5. 12. as well as from Adam in our selves by the flesh derived from Him See Rom. 5. 15 19. Phil. 3. 9. Rom. 8. 1. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Eph. 1. 4 6. 1 Pet. 2. 5. Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 17. 3. Thus Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2. 1. derives to all his members righteousness and life spiritual opposed to carnal Next He for this righteousness advanced by God to Immortality Kingdom Glory c. derives upon his seed the reward of Righteousness life eternal opposed to this
history divulged most early to lesson all posterity not to adjudge prosperity only to the godly nor affliction to the wicked But it was so with single persons but not so with nations because they had promises of temporal happiness then upon holiness first and have they not so still Doth not God still temporally bless both persons and nations that fear and serve him the preachers tell them so And for righteous men are there none now that may say with David Psal. 16. 6 But if temporal prosperity be the promise of the law and affliction the lot of the Gospel then as then we argue Israel Gods people when prosperous we must argue them so still because now most distressed Nay further them then not to be Gods people because no nation seems to have suffered more then the Israelites not to a final extirpation of them for whom mercy is in the last place reserved but for all manner of tyranny and oppression over them if we do but together with their short felicities in Joshua's and Davids and Solomon's time c. consider their condition in Egypt after in the wilderness in the time of the Judges under the invasions of the kings of Syria Babylon Egypt Antiochus Romans For as the temporal prosperity of those who are Gods people depends only on the continuance of their holmess God judging here those more whom he will not judge hereafter and visiting the sins of his servants almost alwaies with temporal afflictions tho he deals not so with others because reserved for future and greater punishments so they never continuing long without offending God it comes to pass that they never long abide temporally happy And we see the very life of holy men not unoften ending in the temporal punishment of some sin as good Josiah's and Moses's and the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11. 30. comp with 32. Only the certain comfort to these whether men or nations is that Gods judgments alwaies end to them in mercies mercies everlasting And Gods proceedings with them are alwaies such as are described Psal. 89. 32. and Esai 54. 7 8. yet that moment contains their sufferings at this day as appears by v. 9. c. and speaking of their last conversion 3. That prosperity was observed under the old Testament to be the ordinary inheritance and port on of the wicked see those many expostulations we find every where in the ancient Scriptures See Jer. 12 1 2. Job 21. 1. c. and whose friends were reproved by God for maintai ing throout that discourse the contrary Job 42. 7 8. Psal. 73. 1. c. Mal. 3. 14. Psal. 17. 14. which wonderment is as much now as it was then and proceeds not from a right supposition of any promise God made either then or since of perpetual prosperity to the godly and adversity to the wicked but from an human short-sighted non-consideration of the future endless happiness of the one and destruction of the other which only is the word of the Almighty and shall stand fast for ever But we will needs conceive their end already past when they are but entring upon an eternity of being 4. That temporal prosperity under the new Testament is not to be denyed to the godly see Mark 10. 30. 1 Tim. 4. 8. Matt. 5. 5. comp Psal. 37. 11. from which it seems to be taken Jam. 5. 11. Where the Apostle proposeth Job's reprosperity for an example to Christians And that long life promised to obedience to parents and blessings not only upon themselves but their children to those who obey Gods Commandements are since the Gospel antiquated and these events altered who dares to affirm Or what good man is there that hath not long stories of Gods several temporal merâ—…ies to him in this world And when I consider the temporal condition of the greatest sufferers tho 't is true 1 Cor. 15. 19. to the eye of men and the little enjoyment of any good things of this life they are of all men most miserable yet in such condition for the present also they seem of men the most happy only if you suppose their hopes to be true for I find them tho not freed from adversities yet alwaies sure of protection in and deliverance from them See S. Pauls words 2 Cor. 1. 10. and 2 Tim. 4. 17 18. agreeing with the doctrine of Ps. 37. and Ps. 34. 19. So that his bonds assured with such mercies made others bold and Phil. 1. 12. c. and their joyes solid and true and not counterfeit and far exceeding and making them even senseless of their sorrows see 2 Cor. 1. and when I look on their life ending in a violent painful and ignominious death yet when I consider the wages for it it seems that it ought not to be called an affliction but an extraordinary service undertaken for to attain a greater reward eternal then others shall have who take not the same pains See Heb. 11. 35 26. But concerning temporal prosperity of Saints two things we must note 1. That it is not for the most part so constant as the wicked's is see the reason before because all men sinning the just God punisheth in this world those of his servants c. the reason of this because he punisheth them not hereafter but according to the qualification inserted Mark. 10. 30. interlined with afflictions and consists more in protection in and deliverance from then vacancy of all crosses yet which things make it to them infinitely more pleasant as war and conquest is then a constant peace and hunger and a feast then constant satiety and that it is a happiness as succeeding evils so succeeded by them like the condition described Psal. 106. but good and peace alwaies the last Ps. 37. 37. 2. That when it is it is more secret and within and less discerned whereas that of the wicked is more external and specious and obvious to the eye So that the world sees much more of the one and much less of the other then indeed there is To conclude this point from the premises I think we may safely pronounce 1. That a constant prosperity excepting some evils of no moment hath sometimes happened to the wicked but never to any good man 2. That constant adversity never happened either to evil or good Not to the evil because they purchase evil to come only by the pleasures of some present sins nor to the good because God delivers as he afflicts 3. That to the good more worldly dissatisfaction then worldly content either from his not having or at least his not using and enjoying its good things 1 Cor. 7. 29. hath alwaies happened 4. That for the people and Church of God in general ever since the beginning the latter afflictions thereof have been and shall be still greater greater therefore under the times of the Gospel then of the law see Matt. 10. 34. and greater still the deliverances all Glory be to the infinite wisdom of