of the world being considered in his workes to the intent that they should be without excuse Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neyther were thankfull Now God can not otherwise be glorified but by our cōformitie to the Law by our departure frō iniquitie by our duties of pietie and integritie No other end hee proposeth to himselfe in his afflicted punishments that so they might consider his anger towards sinne to be shie thereof and shunne it He hath determined the Diuels and the Reprobates to damnation to no other ende then to warne the Elect not to sinne and if they sin to saue themselues by repentance and by perfourmance of future obedience The patience of God is to the same purpose His sufferance Rom. 2.4 is only a summons to our conuersion to which end saith the Apostle Despicest thou the riches of his bountifulnes and patience and long sufferance not knowing that the bountifulnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance The common and ordinarie benefites of God redound vnto the wicked The Cloudes droppe downe Fatnesse vppon their Cloddes they haue the gracious dew of his blessing though none of his inheritance That his practise might be president and Patterne to vs of pietie and perfection as he intimateth in the conclusion thereof in this sentence of monition Bee yee also perfect as your heauenly Father is perfect 2 All the Workes of our Redemption are of reference vnto this Our departure from Iniquitie For all the Promises of the Gospell in Christ are to dispell Despaire that we should not as absorpt of Desperation plunge our selues through our sinnes into the pitte of Perdition but contrariwise vnder hope of Grace should repent vs of our Trespasses and depart from our Iniquities Christ the Argument of the Gospell conformed himselfe to the rites of the Law could defie euery aduersarie that could accuse him of Sinne was obedient to his Father to the death that his example should be our imitation according to this his direction in such causes I haue giuen you an exsample that as I haue done so should yee doe Hee that saith hee is in him must walke as hee hath walked Hee cured the Sicke raised the Dead filled the Hungrie with good thinges as for other ends so namely and mainely for this one ende that while they recounted how Sinne brought these euils into the World they should shake off these euils and forsake their sinnes the Caution giuen by Christ to the Palsey-man Now thou art whole sinne no more least a greater euill come vnto thee Hee remitted sinnes that wee should committe no more sinnes wherefore hee sayeth to the adultresse in the Ghospell Jf no man condemne thee J doe not condemne thee Goe in peace The same matter of meditatiō ariseth vnto vs out of the circumstances of his passion Hee did beare the Crosse and suffered the shame for vs to deliuer vs determined to eternall death and to leaue vs an example that it seeme not grieuous vnto vs to suffer all manner of euill vniustly for his sake This vse Saint Peter giueth vs of Christe Passion for vs 1. Pet 4.1 Forasmuch as Christ hat suffered for vs in the flesh arme your selues likewise with the same minde which is that hee the hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sinne that he hence forward should liue not after the lustes of men but after the will of God That is in a word as it is else where deliuered That wee should crucifie the flesh with the lustes thereof He prayed for his Enimies to teach vs to forbeare vengeaunce to beare wronges with patience Hee dieth not onely to saue our Soules from death but also to the end that wee should die to our sinnes The application that Paul maketh of that Article of the Fayth He is buried Rom. 6. that wee also should burie our sinnes and roule a great Stone ouer the Graue of them that they neuer rise againe The inference Rom. 6.4 the same Apostle maketh in the same place Wee are buried then with him by baptisme into his death that like as Christ was raysed vp from the dead to the glory of the Father so wee also should walke in newnesse of life Hee dispatcheth his Apostles into the wide perambulation of the world with this legatiue Commisson to preach the Gospell and Remission of sinnes and to this speciall end that wee should make an end of sin as in the clause of that commission is not obscurely intimated where these wordes are added Teaching them to obserue such thinges as J haue commaunded you Hee ascended vp to Heauen not onely to appeare for vs in the presence of God but also to raise vp our Soules from the nethermost Pitte to the vppermost Heauens that wee might learne in liew of this benefite to lead an heauenly life It is the warning that Paul giueth vs out of the sayd Learning Coloss 3.1.2 If yee be then risen with Christ seeke those thinges that are aboue and not those thinges that are on the earth This was Paules course of conuersation Our conuersation is in Heauen Finally foretelling the finall Iudgement hee inserteth this speciall end hereof to giue to euery one according to his workes Wherefore it standeth vs in hand as much as our Soules Bodies are worth to looke to our wayes and to follow our iniquities no more 3 Lastly the workes of our communicate Redemption implye the same condition The Apostle shutteth them all vp in foure wordes 1. Rom. 8. Predestination 2. Vocation 3. Justification 4. Glorification 1. The intention of our Election heedeth this condition as where Paul teacheth it saying Ephes 1.4 Hee hath chosen vs in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in loue Of our Vocation wee may say the like For God hath not created vs to vncleannesse but vnto holinesse Wee haue Fayth giuen vs to obey his Call First that thereby we might pertake of the righteousnesse of Christ imputed to vs. 2. Next that wee might obserue the Law and that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in vs. Rom. 6.19 Hence commeth in this Interrogation of the Apostle Doe wee make the Law of none effect through Fayth God forbid yea wee establish the Law Hee Iustifieth vs in pardoning our sinnes that we should be no more factiue instrumentes to sinne 1. Cor. 6. but that we should Giue vp our members as seruantes vnto righteousnesse in holinesse he instilleth his holy Spirit into vs that being made the Members of Christ and the Temples of the holy Ghost wee should take heed how hereafter we pollute and defile our bodyes with iniquities It is the quicke expostulation and question of the blessed Apostle 1. Cor. 15. Know yee not that your bodyes are the Temples of the holy Ghost Hee that shall pollute the Temple of God him shall God destroy All the Religion that we haue in the Church as Preaching Sacraments Prayers Discipline driue at this end to die to sinne to liue to God To conclude our Glorification includeth concludeth the same consideration Then shall God be all in all because then there shall be no more sinne to striue against God Wherefore bend wee and band wee all our Sinnewes and Sides against the sides of Sinne that wee may liue in his feare and die in his fauour and enioy that Place which the Father of old hath prepared Christ of late hath purchased and to which wee are sealed by the Spirit of sanctification To these three Persons and one God be praise and glorie now and euer Amen FINIS
thinges execute their offices in their natures in their seuerall ranckes and classes wherin they were first placed It is because Pouidence that vsshereth the World is not in the Creature no not in the hand of Man or of Angell but in the sole power of the vnchaunging God that holdeth the ball of the World in his hand and so is vnchangeable And hence is it that the execution of supreme prouidence in like sort all the effects thereof hold on so set and setled a tenor and haue so good successe And heere followeth the assurance of predestination as founded vpon the certaine foundation of Gods eternall counsaile Wherefore well saieth Saint Augustine Turiores erimus si totum Deo demus It shall be safest for vs to hold all in Capite and to giue all to God 3. Our next reason is of this fashion The decree of Election as of Reprobation is eternall The Scriptures make this good But whatsoeuer is eternall is inuariable for wee call that Eternall which is without either beginning or ending and not subiect vnto changing 4. Wee further vrge the present cause thus Election is only in the will of God and hath no copartner-ship with workes foreseene either good or euill as in some sort we will prooue towardes the end Now that which is independant of it selfe hath no other proceeding then frō the will of God can by no other by-meanes beside God be dashed or made voyde Now in God himselfe there is nothing at oddes with his Will whereby it commeth to passe that the Will which is in God which we tearme the absolute and the secret Will is euermore the same 5. Moreouer we tender this argument vnto them Election is not without foreknowledge For God hath foreknowne such as shal be saued but Gods foreknowledge is vnerring and so sure as in the sequell of this text we shall shew and so the state of our Election standeth sure 6. I say further let them checke what is said if they can that so many so maine are the meanes that are prepared and set out by God for the common saluation of the Church as they can not possibly passe the handes of God but needes they must be saued 7. Beside all this Gods Will is a worke Psal 115.3 as it is in Psalmodie Our God is in heauen he hath done whatsoeuer it pleased him But it is his flatte Will the Elect should be saued it must therefore needes be so 8. Adde hitherto that he that transposeth his Will is ledde therevnto either out of the prospect to a better prouision by a second wisedome or out of the sense of his insufficiencie for the execution of his primatiue intention Wherefore there is no other shift but when we can not what we would we will what we can But neither of these may be spoken of God for being only wise a better counsaile cannot be conceiued then was first from all eternitie considered of And being omnipotent his armes as Sampsons are not to be manacled but whatsoeuer he proiecteth hee perfourmeth 9. Finallie all thinges worke to the wicked to the worst through their owne wickednesse yea the good things of God as his grace and the graces of his holy Spirit 1. Pet. 2.7 Luk. 2.3 4. 2. Cor. 2.16 Rom. 2.4 Gal. 5.13 1. Cor. 11.27 for Christ is to them A Rocke of offence and a stone to stumble at appointed for the ruine and fall of many The Gospell is a sauor of death vnto death The long sufferance of God that citeth them to repentance through the iniurie they offer it serueth to the enlargement of the hardenesse of their heartes Their Christian libertie is to them an occasion to liue licentiously The Supper of the Lord their spirituall refection becommeth their poyson Wherfore contrariwise all things sort out for the best to the elect as Paul saith yea their very sinnes themselues as rightly Augustine sayth To graunt a mutabilitie in God is to bring in these absurdities with a strong hande that Gods will may be chaunged his foreknowledge deceiued His illimited power restrained His action hindred which to graunt is to denie him to be God for hee is a goodly God indeede whose knowlede may be blemished with errour his will with variablenesse his power with weakenesse his action with frustration But what say wee all this while to our sinnes do not these driue at the very foundation and serue to vndermine it truly there is nothing that put so forcibly therevnto as they So that name these and name al Exod. 32 33. according to this denuntiation of iudgement Who so euer haue sinned against mee J will put him out of my Booke But bee yee not dismaide The hand of that Scripture setteth the Axe only at the roote of presumptuous and malicious sinnes continued to the death Heb. 6.6 such as is our obdurate rebellion against Christ wrought in a very wilfulnesse accompanied with a final impenitence Our daily falles enforced through the infirmitie of the Fayth in vs as beeing but in Herba et non in Spica In the Grasse and not in the Eare in Inchoation not in Perfection will not doe the deede I denie not that our sinnes deserue so much and that they draw out the sword of Gods vengeaunce out of the scabberd of his patience to strike vs both wayes inwardly and outwardly as he dealt with Dauid But withall mindfull of his trueth and goodnesse and for the obedience sake of his sonne Christ his decree of sauing vs which is our Foundation is sure on our side for our sinnes are cancelled that is they are not to death imputed He endueth vs with Fayth Repentance whereby we are raysed set vpon our feete The cause hereof is for that as he hath chosen vs vnto life so he hath withall ministred the meanes of Fayth and Compunction that bring vs vnto this life Wherefore as we haue a feeling in our selues of Fayth and conuersion so of our assured Predestination vnto Glorie let vs make no further question For if our sinnes into which by ineuitable necessitie of nature we were to fall God foresaw the same were not able to make stoppage of the course of Gods purpose of predestinating vs to eternall life in his sonne Iesus Christ as a woorke of his free grace surely after our his falles into them this eternall gratious stedfast election can neuer be voided By grace our names had first enrolement in Gods register So by grace they there stand still I say further because wee are separated to saluation by Gods grace it is that we are kept from those sins of contumacie and impenitencie for which the Reprobate which were neuer there written are said to haue the wipe-out of the Booke of life when as what they are by degrees they are manifested that is to say such as neuer had been enrolled Dauid neuer despaired of his recouerie for his adulterie and murther Nor Peter for
vs to be heere Let vs taste of the Tree of Life and our eyes shall bee opened Let vs sprinckle our heartes with the blood of the Lambe and the destructiue Angell shall not hurt vs Let vs say with the Spouse Cantic 3.4 in the Canticles J haue found him whom my Soule loueth I will hold him fast and will not let him goe The forgiuenes of our finns is an Article of our Christian faith so that hee that beleeueth it not is not a Christian This Faith is required of vs through our whole life but cheifely about the time of our death when our Wealth and Wel willers our Senses and Sensualities and all outward sollaces and succours forsake vs. For then Faith enforceth vs to goe out of our selues and to runne to the mercie of God as to our Cittie of refuge Then is Faith the hande of the Soule by which wee draw in Christ to our selues with all his Benefites Then is Faith the mouth of the heart by which wee feede on Christ as on a restoratiue eating his Body and drinking his Blood vnto eternall life Then is Faith the Foote of the minde which enableth vs to walke with God the meanes whereby wee are familiar with him Then is Faith the Eare by which wee heare God speaking to vs out of the word Then is Faith the Tongue of the Soule by which wee talke with God and inuocate his most holy and reuerende name Wherefore Luther was wont to say That men become best Christians when they are at Deaths doore When Dauid sawe nothing but present death before his eyes 1. Sam. 30.6 the People determining with themselues to stone him his Quietus est that he immediately tooke out was in the Lord his God And the vse that he made to himselfe of the Promises of God was the argument of his Ioye Psal 119.49.50 and the lifter vp of his head in the time of trouble where he sayth Remember the promife made to thy Seruant wherein thou hast caused mee to put my trust It is my comfort in my trouble for thy promise quickned mee As else where where he sayeth Psal 73.25 My Flesh and my heart faileth But God is the strength of my heart my portion for euer The Jsraelites Ioh. 3.14 when they had beene stroken by firie Serpents in the Wildernesse and their wounds were deadly they cast vp their eyes to the Brazen Serpent as God would haue them and they were forthwith healed So when the fiery Dart of death striketh vs at the very heart fixe wee the eyes of our fayth vpon Christ lifted vp vpon the Crosse and so by the Path-way and Region of death wee shall haue the through passage and entry vnto eternall life All this while I deny not but that this fayth in the best of the bunch skirmisheth with doubtes Hee that neuer doubted of his election neuer yet beleeued it As he that is in health feeleth many grudginges and motions vnto sicknesse which he should neuer feele were hee not sound So the true beleeuer feeleth many quaimes which he should not haue had had he not beleeued For in Man there is a double estate as he is compounded of Nature and Grace By the first Rom. 7.5 that is Nature hee and his flesh as Man and Wife maketh but one Boody wherfore the one consenteth and is accessary to the other When the flesh sinneth man also sinneth that consisteth of Flesh yea when the Flesh perisheth the Man perisheth as a louing couple they liue and die togeather By the second albeit his Flesh be about him Rom. 7.17 Rom. 8.1 yet hee and his Flesh haue made a diuorce This Diuorce is made when a man beginneth to displease himselfe and to hate the Flesh and the filthy fruites thereof Now vpon this Diuorce they are no more one but twaine and are so deuided as the one hath nothing to doe with the other In this case although the Elesh bringeth foorth sinne and perisheth yet the Christian is not in the state of damnation Therefore howsoeuer the Flesh fathereth doubtes recount with thy selfe this Diuorce and that thou art now wedded vnto Christ and so disclaime thy sinnes as none of thine basely begotten and bastardly brattes Say I doubt but I detest my doubtinges I am no cause of them But my Flesh is the occasion which shall perish when as my Soule shal be saued by Iesus Christ In the meane while cure this Disease of thy doubtinges with these preseruatiues I prescribe thee 1 That it is Gods positiue and expresse precept thou shouldest beleeue in Christ 1. Ioh. 3 23. His Precept runneth thus This is his commaundement that wee beleeue in the Name of his sonne Jesus Christ Thou darest not breake the eight Commaundement of the morall Law Thou shalt not steale And why art thou so bould as to breake this this being as forcible a binder as the other 2 That God his promises of saluation in Christ are indefinite and generall excluding none Let one of them heere stand in the roome of manie So God loued the world Ioh. 3. that he gaue his only begotten Sonne that whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish but haue euerlasting life When the Prince sealeth his generall pardon for all Felons euery man taketh the benefite of it though he bee not set downe by his name in it But God hath gone further with thee thē so he hath particularly signed thee thy Pardon 1. First in the Seale of Baptisme 2. Secondly by that of the Supper of the Lord wherfore stand fast in the faith which thou hast made and doubt no farther of it 3 That Distrust and Despaire Rom. 4.18 displeaseth God almost as much as any other sinne for thereby thou art no longer the Childe of Abraham To hope against hope as thou oughtest Thou robbest God of his Glory in asmuch as thou makest his infinite Mercie an vnderling to thy sinnes Thou makest God a lyer who hath plighted this promise to thee of forgiuenesse of sinnes Nay thou doest iustifie Sathan before God for God hath sayd it sworne it sealed it with the redde precious blood of Christ and yet wee rather beleeue the suggestion of Sathan that the Iustice of God is not to be appeased This Despaire is a maladie immedicable for thereby wee doe as the wilfull diseased man who when as the Chyrurgian would heale his soare hee thrusteth his Nayles againe into it and setteth it backward But all this while how should a man know that hee is thus Sealed and hath this indeleble character of Fayth stamped on his Soule For many a mans Fayth is but fayned and formed to the times And such do but beguile themselues while they stand in opinion they doe beleeue and beleeue not at all I answere that such resemble them that dreame that they are Princes and great States and awake starke Beggars Such as truly beleeue doe know they beleeue euen as hee that hath a