for us that are Pastours to teach us what God requires at our hands who witnessed a good confession saieth the Apostle a better confession can none make nay this daunts the hearts of feeble minded Pastours they not dareing to shew forth their faithfullnesse to Christ and this is the maine point both in the confession of Christ the Prince of Pastours and of all that shall succeed him to avouch the Lord Iesus Christ to be King for the world is content of any thing else that wee can say of Christ they will allowe of his propheticall or priestly office but for him to rule and raigne that they will not indure they will not have him to be king It was no offence to Cesar that Christ was called a Prophet or a Priest by office but to call him selfe a King that brought him to his death Cesar cold not endure it so now a daies Kings and Princes will be content to have Christ called by any name that can be given him besides this but you must not say hee is a King the King of his Church every Magestrate now will be King himselfe of the Churche therefore the Papists call the Pope the King of the Church and those likewise that have shakeÌ„ off the Popes authority yet themselves will be Lords in Gods house and if Pastours will stand to maintaine that there is no other king in the Church but Christ alone there is nothing vnder heaven which will more endanger his life then this and yet this is the confession wee must stand vnto vnder the paine of loosing eternall life and this is that which Christ lost his life for and for this wee must be willing to lay downe our lives rather then to suffer any to be the King of Saints but Christ alone and therefore it is that the Apostle calls this a good confession But a man may aske me why this is called a good confession more then to have confessed Christ to be the onely high Priest and Prophet of his Church I answere that both these acknowledgments are good for we must not acknowledge any more high Priests to reconcile us to God but Christ alone and hee is the onely Prophet of his Church whose voice must onely be heard but why is this acknowledgment of him to be king called to be a good confession above the rest Certainly there is great reason for this and it is not without cause that in the scriptures of God this title is given to him more then any other titles all the kings of Israell were but tipes of him Salomon was but a shadow of him therefore the scriptures tell us that when the Iewes shall be gathered together they shall submit to David their king meaning Christ The reason of it is because in the Kingly office stands the crowne of his glory I say it againe that the crowne of his glorie stands in his Kingly office how â—o because God hath not given to any in heaven or earth by which a man can besaved but by the name of Iesus onely Now which is more the Apostle writing to the Ephesians in his first Chapter speaking of the mightie power of God that raised him up from the dead and set him at his owne right hand in the heavenly places far above all principallities and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named not onely in this world but in the world to come and hath put all things vnder his feet and gave him to be head over all things in the Church So the Apostle concludes the greatnesse of the sonne of God by this that God hath made him to be the head of the Church who is the fullnesse of him that filleth all things so that this exaltation of Christ to glorie and the dignitie which Christ is exalted vnto above all men or angells this is the cheife glory and honour of the sonne of God wee shall speake somewhat more of this hereafter how that all the other offices of Christ they are but servile Christ doth abase himselfe to be the Prophet of his Church and hee was not ashamed to take vpon him to teach the law of God to the people with his owne mouth neither was hee ashamed to take upon him to be our Priest to offer to God for sinnes of the world in all these hee was abased and suffered himselfe in a manner to be spoiled of his honour and glorie but when hee comes to his Kingdome which hee sheweth by his resurrection and when hee hath prevailed against his enimies and had subdued sinne and Sathan then hee stands triumphing in heaven and there sits at the right-hand of God and herein stands his dignitie and it is a wonderfull thing that the world considers it not those which were the former offices to be Prophet or Priest in his Church stands in the abasing and humiliation of the sonne of God but in his kingly office stands his exaltation this is his dignity and Royall prerogative hee that medleth with it medleth with the cheifest dignitie of Christ Furthermore as the former 2. offices of Christ are but servile functions so the third by vertue of his exaltation makes the other 2. both effectuall both his word as Prophet or of his sufferings as a Priest depends vpon his Royall power for except hee have power over all things hee were not able to keepe us in his feare nor present us into the favour of God nor make it effectuall to salvation for Sathan and sinne and the world would prevaile against us but Christ by his power is stronger then all so as neither man nor angell can make frustrate that which hee hath done for his Church therefore hee is said to be declared to be the sonne of God by the resurrection from the dead who was ever able to loose the sorrowes of death but hee which is stronger then death Christ therefore by death destroyed death and him that had the power of death the divell and for this cause Christ saieth speaking of the vertue of his exaltation to wit his Blessing when to his owne hee saieth every one that thirsteth should come vnto him and hee would give them the waters of life this hee spake of the spirit because Christ was not yet glorifyed for vntill hee was set in his Kingdome hee could not dispence his spirit to his disciples as afterwards hee did therefore when hee was to depart from his Disciples hee gave them commandement that they should not depart from Ierusalem till hee had indued them with vertue from above the world must be subdued to Christ and therefore hee could not dispence that measure of the spirit till after his ascension then did hee send the Holy ghost downe vpon them and indued them with all vertues necessary to speake all languages constantly to preach the gospell notwithstanding the opposition of men so this was verified likewise in the prophesie of Micha concerning the powring forth of
hand to give it to thee to continew it and to restore it when it is taken from thee this consideration is of great moment to preserve us not to offend this God for the pleasure of any Potentate in the world since all the world cannot give mee life nor continue life and when I am dead and life is gone none in heaven or earth can restore me to life except God do it why then should I not be carefull that I offend not this God nay farre be it from me for to do it for any flesh in the world O let us be carefull that wee provoke not this good God to wrath who hath given us life that in his wrath we provoke him not to take it from us againe seeing that God onely gave it mee to honour him am I not bound to consecrate my life to him alone not to obey any creature to disobey him it was not my father or mother that gave mee life but the Lord onely who is the Lord onely who is the Lord of life hee hath put life into me therefore neither for father nor mother should I give my life otherwise then for the honour of God O but some may say if I do so so these men will take away my life from mee have they power to doe it without God saith not Christ feare not them which can kill the body but rather feare him which can cast both soule and body into hell fire and he said againe are not there two sparrowes sold for a farthing and yet not one of them falls on the ground without the providence of our heavenly father how much better are yee then many sparrowes if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground nor any man can take away the life of it without Gods providence than surely all the tirants of the world cannot take away thy life except the Lord suffer them the Lord Iesus himselfe giveth a sweet warning to his disciples when hee saieth to them Rise let us go to Iudea againe his disciples said unto him Master the Iewes of late sought to stone thee goest thou then thither they thought it an hard saying of Christ that they should goe thither againe but Iesus answered them said are there not 12. howers in the day if any man walke in the day he stumbleth not because hee hath the light seeth the light of this world but if a man walke in the night hee stumbleth because there is no light in him What means Christ by this hee meanes by this to tell them that as lōg as the day of mans life doth last which hath a period sett so long he goes without feare as hee that walketh in the day feares not for the Lord is with him but if they walke in the night that is if the time appointed of their life be at an end he must fall then letting us thereby understand that men may walke in their lawfull callings without feare for all the world cannot make him stumble if God give them not leave as Christ said concerning Herod tell that foxe I must walke to day to morrow untill the third day which is appointed of God for mee so that wee may see that none can give us life but God so in the last place when wee are dead none can restore our souls and bodies to life againe but God onely therefore wee must not consecrate our life to any but to God alone these considerations are worthy to be laid up in our hearts Besides these considerations of Gods quickning all things it is an especiall ground of our faith as it is written concerning Abrahā I have made thee a father of many nations before God hee beleeved the word of God even that God that quickneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were and this was that which made Abraham to walke stedfastly with God because hee knew as the Apostle boasteth saying I am persuaded that neither life nor death nor any other creature can seperate mee from the love of God death is not able to keepe me under the power of it for Christ by death hath overcome death as the Apostle affirmeth if the spirit of him which raised Christ from the dead dwell in your mortall bodies even hee that raised the Lord Iesus shall likewise raise your mortall bodies by the same spirit so that this is the ground of our faith and hope to wit that God quickneth all things and this made Abraham to be obedient ready to offer up his sonne Isaack for hee knew that notwithstanding God would not faile to make good what he had promissed in the person of Isaack To conclude this point at this time there be manifold considerations of this argument to strengthen all Pastours especialy in their calling that they pervert not Gods word for any mans pleasure in the world for if I looke to their lives that will oppresse mee or if I shall looke to my owne life I shall finde it to be a great terrour to keepe mee from displeasing God in my calling for any mans pleasure first if I consider their lives they have it from God and as their life is from God so is all their working power that they cannot stirre a foote further then it pleaseth God for God can cut off their daies in an instant is it not then a vaine thing to feare man whose breath is in his nostrils it being so easy a matter for God to take away the life of all flesh how dare I then sinne against God to obey any man Secondly if I cōsider mine owne life I have no cause to obey man and to sinne against God seeing none can take my life away but God and none can give it mee but hee which gave it therefore I should onely feare him who gave mee life and can take it from mee and thus wee see how the spirit of God in this particular consideration of God who quickneth all things laies a strong ground to all Pastours Teachers for to harken unto this Charge that they violate not this commandement OF this great grave weightie Conclusion beloved in the Lord wherewithall the Apostle ends his Doctrine which concernes the ordering of the affaires of Gods howse aright according to the will of God wee began to speake to you the last time and wee did shew you the reason why the Apostle did ad this so weightie grave Charge and Commandement to Timothie a man otherwise of excellent guifts it was to let us see that these things are not of humane invention but of divine authoritie they are things which are not to be dispenced with all as men may dispence with the precepts of men for they are the Commandements of the living God otherwise the Apostle would never have charged Timothie and in him all Pastours in such a manner as in the sight of God and of Christ Iesus to
God again God tooke those rulers from them again and made their enimies their Lords to let us see the truth of this that it is our sin against God which causeth him to send wicked tyrants over a people to repay them home according as they have dealt with him and it is his mercy to his owne that hee gives them good and gracious rulers Alwais it teacheth us this that reverence must be given to him which God hath sett in authority over us since they are set over us by God To come yet nearer to the point doth not God give power to the divell to be the prince of the ayre How could he prevaile as hee doth over the soules and bodies of men if God did not give him liberty looke to the history of Iob what could he doe against Iob nothing but by the permission of God so in the Gospell when there were two men possessed of the divell which met Christ in the way and hee dispossessed the divells when they were cast out they had not so much power as to possesse the swine till Christ gave them leave so doth God give power to the divell as we read in the Revelation where it is said that he setts up his viccar in the Church who shall exercise the power of the divell in the Church and yet all this is of God to punish the wickednes of the world and to avenge himself upon his enimies which have not the knowledge of God as they should and if God give such power to wicked men it is to make them his firebrands to plague the contemners of God and despisers of his word But to goe farther this is not onely a lesson to teach us not to be afraid of mens terrour and to reverence the whom God hath sett in authority over us but likewise it servs us for another lesson and that is this that Kings and Superiours we are to obey in the Lord no farther for they have a Lord over them who hath made them our Lords therefore I must obey them but in the Lord we must not obey the king against that king that made him a king for God is the king of kings and Lord of all Lords and therefore above all he is to bee obeyed though it should cost us our lives yet we must not obey princes to the prejudice of God it would be thought treason if a subject should harken to an inferiour Magistrate against his own king although the king had made him a Magistrate yet if I should hearken unto him in anie thing against my prince I were a traytor to any prince and is it so amongst men and shall not God have the like authority kings are but Gods subjects and inferiour Magistrates under him and is it not high treason to obey them against God So all obedience that is given unto princes under pretence of subjection to thē being cōtrary to Gods will is rebellion against God and thus much concerning the power of God that he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Now onely blessed we have heard already how that he is the onely potentate Now we shall see that none is so blessed as hee and blessednes can be expected from none but from him alone for who can make a man blessed that is not blessed in himself but God alone therefore it is vain to think to have an happy blessed estate from anie Princes under heaven except from God alone for onely he which hath blessednes without measure can bestow it but let us consider how the Apostle proves it by two things first because he onely hath immortality and secondly because he onely dwells in that light that no man can approach unto and from these two he concludes that he is blessed and he onely can give it He that hath life and an eternall life that is so glorious and a life which is light and is such as makes the glory of him that hath it incomprehensible certainly that must be unspeakable felicity and this is the first point of true felicity and this is the reason why all creatures are said to be subject to vanity because they are subject to death so that all things although they should have their hearts desire in the world yet they cannot be happy for when they dye their happines ceasseth therefore to be truely happy is first to be immortall which is not onely to be exempted from death but to be in such an estate where death cannot come and to have corruption swallowed up of life whē God shall be made glorious in them that beleeve this makes men truely happy therefore the saincts of God have both in the old and New Testament lamented the misery of man in this that his life is but threeskore and ten and it is quickly gone as a race that is runne so vain a thinge is man and if we had nothing els to humble us but this namely our corruption and mortality it were argument enough to know our base estate and farre from being happy in this world in that we are not exempted from death therefore it is that God makes the vanity of man who heaps up riches and cannot tell who shall injoy them as the rich glutton in the Gospell who said soule take thine ease thou hast goods layd up for manie yeares when Christ told him he had not a day to live then thou foole whose shall those goods be the scriptures mock at these vain desires so that be a man what he cā be in this world yet his mortallity makes him wretched and unhappy therfore in regard God is immortall therefore he is onely blessed But it may be objected are not the Angells immortall why then doe ye say God is onely said to have immortality I answer that none have immortality properly but God alone for true immortality requireth true eternity that is to say it is without begining as well as without ending and none is so but God alone therefore none truly is immortall but God alone though notwithstanding God hath made the Angells immortall and the soules of men immortall that is for durance onely and yet indurance simply doth not make immortallity for though the divells indure for ever yet it is not to live for ever A thing may be said to be immortall that is to live for ever and yet not free from Gods wrath as experience shall prove in wicked men and evill Angells and reprobate men but to speake of the blessed Angells and the soules of the elect to speake truely as the matter is the immortality of Angells and of men it is not in the soules themselvs nor in the Angells themselvs what then even from God alone as it is said Acts 17. That in him we live move and have our being and if God should but withdraw his up-holding hand and power neither should the soules of men nor Angells be immortall so that it is not from themselvs but from
God that they have their immortality and therfore the objection takes not away this truth that God is onely immortall Again observe this that although the Lord give immortality to my soule and unto Angells yet neither man nor Angell can give immortality to anie creature in the World God onely is able to doe this therefore hee onely hath immortality because hee onely hath it of himself and because hee onely is able to give it to others therfore must hee needs continue to be immortall that hath the onely keeping of it himself and dispences the same to others at his pleasure so that in this point God is onely happy for man may begett children but we cannot make them immortall onely the Lord must doe this nay we cannot make ourselvs immortall doe we what we can reade Psalm 43. and you may see the spirit of God taxeth the miserable vanity of men that thinke their names great on earth and yet he saith no man can redeeme his brother from death all must goe to the grave the rich dye aswell as the poore and yet vain man he will call his Lands by his own name and all is but in vain so that this is proved that God is onely blessed We know that the divell did speake true to God concerning Iob when the Lord said unto him Hast thou not considered my servent Iob who is a righteous mā that doth no evill but good what saith the devill to God skin for skin and all that a man hath will a man give for his life Wheras the hand of God being stretched forth against Iob in his children in his estate yet it could not make Iob to blaspheme God but the devill thought that if God would stretch out his hand upon his own person that it would make him to blaspheme God a man will part with anie thing so as he may have his life for what is riches unto a man if he cannot injoy them without life there is no conceite of happines let men therefore learn this that their life and the continuance of their life the eternity of their life is in the hands of God alone and since it is so that he onely can give eternall life why then should I for the pleasure of anie man in the world offend this God and make him to be mine enimie can anie Prince in the world give me eternall life but he onely why then should I for the pleasure of anie man offend him in whom my life stands unlesse I care not what become of mee whether I be cast away into hell or whether I have eternall life If I desire life let me then make conscience not to greive this good God since he onelie can give life and he onely can take it away this is still but one part of his felicity and of our felicity in him if we obey him he hath promised to give eternall life unto us and they that remember not this promise that God hath promised to them that feare him certainlye that man cannott walk as a Christian To come then to speake of the 2. pointe of the felicity of God which is thus sett downe be dwelleth in that light which no man can attain unto I will consider two things in these words first that he dwells in the light secondly he declares what manner of light this is it is such a light as no man can approach unto The first shewes the infinite glory of God in that the very place of his habitation is light it self and such a light as the sunne cannot give it is a light surpassing all created light yea this light coms from God himself 1 Iohn God is light if anie man say he hath fellowship with God and walk in darknes he is a lyer for God is light and they which have fellowshich with God walk in the light and therefore those that are called of God they are called the children of light and God is said to call us out of darknes into his marvellous light that is God calls us from death to life so hee doth call us from darknes to light and this is the second part of our felicity for in this we must be like God in whom is no darknes for when God shall translate our vile bodies unto his glorious light then shall the light of the sunne be inferiour to this bright shining light of this mortall flesh what glorious creatures shall we be in that daye when this our mortall flesh shall not onely bee made immortall but our bodies shal be raysed in glory as the Apostle saith they are sowen in weaknes but they shal be raysed in glory glorious bodies even like unto the sonne of God who is now at the right hand of his father so that whatsoever is in mans body that makes it defective it shall then be taken away and the glorie of God himself shall be put upon our bodies in that day so this is the first thing to be considered of us that God dwells in the light What use should we make of this it should teach us where to lay the blame if we see not God for in the dark we can see nothing but in the light we can see anie thing now if thou canst not see God it is not because God is in darknes for God dwells in the light something therefore must be the reason why thou canst not see him and the reasons are one of these two First if thou seest not God at all the reason is this because thou art a child of darknes and the light of life was never putt into thy soule therfore the wicked are said to be of them which know not God and what wonder is it they doe not know him since they were never called out of darknes to the light of God the want of this calling out of darknes is the reason why they cannot see nor know this God as for example if a man be in a dark dungeon or prison that hath no windowes in it to shew light he cannot see such a man in such a place cannot see the sunne for untill he be taken out of that darke place he cannot see anie thing so untill men be taken out of that beastly blindnes wherin he is conceived and born he cannot see God But the second thing will bring us to a non plus in this point for suppose I be called out of darknes what will that help mee what the better am I for this calling if I cannot approach to this light this is the second thing that we are to mark in the felicity of God that besides his dwelling in the light he dwelleth in such a glorious light as is unspeakable which no man can approach unto which shews the unspeakable glory of the Majesty of God But then it may be objected what availes this light of God since we cannott approach unto it To understand this more clearely the words following make this doubt greater where he saith