who doth not love fear trust in him as well as he that sets up an Idol to worship him 2. The first and main evil of sin was in the omission Sin first draws away from God before it enticeth Iam. 1. 22. Ier. 2. 13. To speak exactly there is no sin but that of omission it is a deficiency and coming short of the rule 3. The state of unregeneracy lies mainly in the sins of omission there is much more evil in a state of sin then in the act of it Eph. 2. 12. the reign of sinne is more seen in omission then commission there is a higher act of soveraignty in the negative voice then in any positive Law 4. The ground of every sin of commission is a sin of omission turning away the soul from God Psa. 14. 1 2. Iob 15. 4. Iam. 1. 14. negligentiam in orando semper aliqua notabilis transgressio sequitur Iohn 20. 24 25. Rom. 1. 21. compared with 24. 2 Thes. 2. 10. 5. The greatnesse of sin is measured by the mischief it doth the sinner sins against the Gospel are greater then those against the Law sins of commission make the wound sins of omission keep you from the plaister Iohn 3. ult 6. These are the sins which Christ will mainly enquire after Mat. 25. 42 43. We should loathe sins of omission which in the world are little made of 1 Sam. 12. 23. Wo unto me if I preach not the Gospel saith Paul Peter and Iohn say We cannot but speak the things which we have heard These omissions directly oppose the will law and honour of God as well as the committing of foul faults 2. They will damn us as well as commissions 3. They will make way for grosse evil deeds There are three sorts of omissions 1. Totall non-performances not praying reading hearing meditating Psal. 14 4 â— 2. Seldome performances intermission or performing of duties unevenly 1 Thes. 5. 17. Col. 4. 2. 3. Sleighty performances when we keep a tract of duty but do it customarily pray not fervently and spiritually Rom. 12. 11. Sins against the Gospel are greater then sins against the Law 1. The more Laws are transgrest the greater the sin There are three sorts of Laws 1. The Law of nature which teacheth to do good to them that do good to us Mat. 5. 43. 2. The morall Law which requires subjection to whatever God commands 3. The Law of faith Rom. 3. 27. which requires subjection to God in his Son all these are broken by sinning against the Gospel 2. The more of the minde of the Law-giver is in the Law the greater is the sinne Mens legis est lex Gods minde is clearly seen in the Gospel viz. the exalting of himself in his Son Pro. 8. 30. 3. The more any one sins against light the greater the sin there was never such a discovery of the filthinesse of sin nor of the justice of God upon sin it could not be purged but by the bloud of God Acts 12. 28. See Ephes. 5. 26. never such a discovery of Gods grace as in the New Covenant a second Covenant was never tendred to the Devils 4. They are sins against higher love God loved Adam and the Angels Amore amicitiae they had never offended him he loved us Amore misericordiae Rom. 5. 8. he loved Adam and Angels in themselves us in Christ Eph. 1. 6. 5. These sins make way for the sin against the holy Ghost Matth. 12. 32. Objectum hujus peccati non est lex sed Evangelium The sins of Gods people are greater then others sins In eadem specie peccati gravius peccat fidelis quam infidelis Grace aggravates and heightens sin They sin 1. Against the highest light Ps. 51. 6. 2. The highest love peculiar goodnesse electing love Of all sins to be without God or out of Covenant with God is the greatest sin it is against the great command in the Law the first Commandment and the great promise in the Gospel Those sins wherein a mans self is the object are the worst of all sins self-deceit is the worst of all deceits and self-murder is the worst of all murders The degrees of sin in a mans own heart or the conception birth and perfection of sin there First Injection or suggestion from Satan which stirs up the lusts in the heart 1 Iohn 5. 19. Secondly The soul receives the thought there must be Partus cordis as well as seminarium hostis Bernard Iob 17. 11. Thirdly Delectatio the soul is pleas'd with such thoughts so Eve Fourthly Upon this the will consenteth then lust is conceived Fifthly There is a consultation in the soul how to bring this into act Rom. 13. 14. CHAP. VII That all Sins are Mortal THe Schoolmen and their followers the Jesuites distinguish sins into Venial and Mortal Some sins say they are sua natura in their own nature venial others mortal of which they reckon up seven Veniale quod est praeter mortale quod est contra legem As all sin except that against the holy Ghost Mark 7. 29. is venial in Christ so without him is all mortal and deadly Cartw on Mat. 5. 23. All sinne deserveth eternal death Rom. 6. 23. as appeareth by the opposition of life everlasting which the Apostle joyneth in the same verse Id. ibid. There is the merit of hell in every idle word because the wages of sin as sin is death Every transgression of the Law is worthy of death Gal. 3. 10. Every sinne is a transgression of the Law 1 Iohn 3. 4. Rainold de lib. Apoc. Tom. 2. cap. 164. 165. See Deut. 27. 26. 30. 19. Ezekiel 18. 4. Iames 2. 10. Numbers 15 22 23 24. 1 Cor. 15. 56. Bellarmine seeks to elu de these and that other place with these glosses The soul that sinneth that is mortally shall die the wages of sin that is of mortal sin is death and the sting of death is sinne that is deadly sinne these are tautologies as if the Prophet had said The soul that sinneth a sinne unto death shall die and the Apostie sinne that deserveth death deserveth death He saith they are venial ex natura sua such as if God please to remit the temporal punishment they are so little that he cannot inflict eternal for them they are venial propter parvitatem materiae imperfectionem actus Quodvis peccatum peccantem in rigore lâ—gis morte involveret si persona absque misericordia Dei in Christo judicaretur Episc. Daven Sins may be termed venial or mortal 1. Either comparatè in comparison of others or simpliciter simply and in themselves and that either 1. Ex natura sua of their own nature 2. Ex gratia by favour or indulgence 3. Ex eventu in the issue or event in the two last respects all the sins of the elect are venial but no sins ex natura sua are venial that is such as in their own nature deserve
the fall and therefore good 1 Tim. 4. 4. Regeneration restores not the substance of man but the qualities Dr. Ames saith that Grevinchovius denied original sin and Dr. Twisse proves by this argument that the Arminians deny it As many as teach that all the posterity of Adam have as much power to every thing that is good as Adam in innocency they deny original sin But the Arminians teach that all the posterity of Adam have as much power to every thing that is good as Adam had in the state of innocency for they hold that all Adams posterity have such power to every good work that they want no other help but the perswasion and the concourse of God which Adam himself needed to every good work The Semipelagians also the Socinians and Anabaptists deny this original venome or blot to be a sin the Anabaptists that they might wholly take away Pedobaptisme denied original sin that there might not be a cause why infants should be baptized The denying of this fundamentall Article of Original sin is dangerous What need then of the Gospel what need of Christ himself if our nature be not guilty depraved corrupted these are not things in quibus possimus dissentire salva pace ac charitate Aug. about which we may dissent without losse of peace or charity The Papists say 1. Original corruption hath not rationem peccati but is only a privation of original righteousness The Councel of Trent decreeth it not to have the nature of sin Bellarmine saith it is a simple thing to be humbled for original sin Pighus saith it is no sin at all Andraedeus it s the least of sin 2. That the concupiscence and lust which riseth from the corruption of our nature the motions unto evil that we feel in our selves are no sins but are called so abusively or metonymically because they are from and incline to sin till we consent unto them and obey them till they reign in us See the Rhemists in their Annotat. Rom. 7. 7. and Iames 1. 15. Bellarm de statu peccati c. 9. 10. When our Divines urge that concupiscence is called sin several times in the sixth seventh and eighth Chapters to the Romans Bellarmine saith the Apostle doth not say it is peccatum propriè De statu peccati c. 8. 3. That original sin after Baptism is done away Si quis asserit non tolli in baptisâ—â—ate totum id quod veram propriam rationem peccati habet anathema sit Decret 5. Sectionis Concil Trid. 4. That the Virgin Mary was not conceived in sin Piè ac rectè existimatur B. virginem Mariam singulari Deo privilegio ab omni omnino peccato fuisse immunem Bellarm. de Amiss grat statu pecc l. 4. c. 15. The Spirit of God in the holy Scripture expressely calleth the corruption of our nature sin as Psal. 51. 5. and in the sixth seventh and eight Chapters of the Romans fourteen times at the least Heb. 12. 2. 2. The Scripture saith expressely our original corruption is the cause of all our actual sins Iames 1. 14. 2 Peter 1. 4. 3. Infants that are baptized which have no other sin but original and who never consented to it nor obeyed it in the lusts thereof do dye Rom. 5. 14. therefore it must needs be sin and may be truly and properly so called for sin is the only cause of death Rom. 5. 12. Whatever holdeth not conformity with the rule of righteousnesse the law of God is sin it hath the nature of sin in its irregularity and defect of good and the effects of sin 2. The Scripture expressely teacheth us that this concupiscence even in the regenerate these evil motions that rise in us though we consent not unto them though we resist them are yet a swerving from the law of God and a breach of it Luke 10. 27. nay in the regenerate this corruption of our nature doth not only swerve from the law of God but opposeth and resisteth the Spirit of God Rom. 7. 23. Gal. 5. 17. therefore it must needs be sin This argument convinced Pauls conscience Rom. 7. 7. He means those motions unto evil which the heart doth not delight in nor consent unto When the Apostle saith Rom. 6. Let not sin reign in your mortall bodies By sin saith their Cardinal Bellarmine all men understand concupiscence and Ribera on Heb. 12. 1. saith That by sin the Apostle understandeth concupiscence calling it so with an article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the sin a note of singularity Cajetan in Rom. 7. calleth it formally a sin Vide Cassand Consult art 2. Tit. de Concupisc p. 4. The proper definition of sin being this a transgression of Gods law therefore concupiscence is sin see Exod. 20. 17. Object Cant 4. 7. Iohn 13. 10. Ezek. 36. 25. Ephes. 14. Therefore the regenerate have no sin left in them Answer The Church in this present world is said to be all fair as it wholly shines with its Spouses beauty which it puts on Concupiscence in respect of its own nature is a sin but in respect of the person who is a party regenerate in whom the guilt is pardoned it is as no sin When the Fathers say that lust is taken away in the regenerate they understand according to the guilt not the thing 3. Original sin after Baptism is not done away children are perverse death cannot seize where there is no sin How comes it to passe that infants baptized die before they come to actual offending if Baptism have abolished in them their original stain 4. The Virgin Mary was not conceived without original sin in her song she rejoyceth in God her Saviour Luke 1. 47. 2. 22. Christ came to save that which was lost Matth. 18. 11. See Iob 14. 4 1 Cor. 15. 22. Rom. 5. 12 16. 3. 9. Gal. 3. 22. All the ancient Fathers as far as we can learn out of their Writings believed that the blessed Virgin Mary was conceived in original sin Vide Rivet de Patrum autoritate c. 7. Daille Of the right use of the Fathers l. 2. c. 6. The Dominicans generally hold that she was conceived in sin All are infected with Adams sin 1. The Heathens Pagans Infidels Rom. 1. 18 21 24 26 28 to the last 2. The Jews Rom. 2. latter end 3. Christians Rom. 3. from 9. to 19. 4. Infants Rom. 5. 12 13. They are innocent in respect of actual transgression not in respect of original pollution are born blinde lame 5. Children of beleeving parents All men are equally guilty of original sin 1. In reference to Adam Rom. 5. 12 14. 2. They are equally deprived of Gods image Rom. 3. 9 11. Reprobate to every good work 3. Are equally depraved and corrupted Rom. 3. 12 13 14. Reasons 1. All men are equally in Adam one was not more in his loyns then another Rom. 5. 12 19. 2. All men equally partake of
All evils of misery are but the issue of sin first sin entred into the world and by sin death 1. Temporal evils All publick commotions wars famine pestilence are the bitter fruits of sin Deut. 28. there is Gods curse on the creature mans body all his relations 2. Spiritual Terrours of conscience horrours of death 1 Cor. 15. 56. are the effects of sin What an evil is a condemning heart an accusing conscience yet this is the fruit of sin A wounded spirit who can bear Some will bear outward evils stoutly nay suffer death it self boldly but sin will not so easily be born when the conscience it self is smitten See this in Cain and Iudas many a one maketh away himself to be rid of this vexation This sils one with shame Iohn 8. 9. fear Gen. 3. 11. and grief Acts 2. 37. The greatest torment that in this life can be fall a sinner is desperation when the soul of a man convinced in her self by the number of her hainous offences loseth all hope of life to come and casteth her eyes wholly on the fearful torments of hell prepared for her the continual thought and fright whereof do so amaze and afflict the comfortlesse soul that she shrinketh under the burden and feeleth in her self the horrour of hell before she come to it 3. Eternal The everlasting absence of all good 2 Thes. 1. 19. and the presence of all evil Mark 9. 49. are the consequents of it Iustum est quòd qui in suo aeterno peccavit contra Deum in aeterno Dei puniatur Sin is finite in the act and subject but of infinite demerit being committed 1. Against an infinite Good therefore it deserves infinite punishment 2. The obligation of the Law is everlasting This was the first Doctrine which was published to man that eternal death is the punishment of sinne Gen. 2. 17. the Devil opposed it Gen. 3. 4. the belief of the threatning would have hindered them from sinne The Socinians say that man should have died in the state of innocency although he had not sinned and therefore that death is not a punishment of sinne but a condition and consequent of nature The holy Ghost assigns death to sinne as the cause See of it Rom. 5. 12. 6. 23. Our bodies were not mortal till our souls were sinful Arminians say That there is neither election nor reprobation of Infants and that â—o Infants can be condemned for original sin Iacob was in a state of election in his mothers womb Rom. 9. 11. All men in the counsel of God are either elect or reprobate But Infants are men or part of mankinde Therefore they are either elect or reprobate 1. Infants are saved therefore there is some election of Infants for salvation is a fruit of election and proper to the elect Rom. 11. 7. There is a manifest difference among Infants between those that are born in and out of the Church Gen. 17. 17. Acts 2. 37. 3 21. Children of unbelievers are unclean 1 Cor. 7. 14. and aliens from Christ and the Covenant of promise Ephes. 2. 11 12. 2. That opinion That no Infants are condemned for original sinne seems to be contrary to that place Ephes. 2. 3. If this were true the condition of a Turks childe dying in his infancy is farre better then the condition of Abraham Isaac or Iacob living for they might fall from grace say they and be damned but a Turks childe dying according to their opinion shall certainly be saved The worst punishment of sinne is to punish it with sin and so God punisheth it sometimes in his own people Isa. 63. 17. Mar. 6. 52. a judicial blindnesse and hardnesse is the worst See Ezek. 24 13. Rom. 1. 26 28. Revel 22. 11. Concerning National sins Sins though committed by particular persons may be National First When they are interwoven into the policy of a State Psa. 94. 20. when sin is established by a Law Rev. 16. 8. 17. 17. 6. 12. Ier. 15. 9. Secondly When they are universal and overspread the whole Kingdom Ier. 9. 2 3. Isa. 56. 11. Thirdly When the people that professe the name of God are infected with those sins Gen. 6. 2 3 4. Fourthly When few or none in the Nation bewail them Ier. 5. 31. Fifthly When they are openly countenanced and tolerated 1 Kings 14. 24. when there are no masters of restraint Iudg. 18. 7. Sixthly When they are the predominant humour of the Nation at that time The sins of Gods people which commonly provoke him to break a Nation 1. Their omissions that they stand not in the gap Ezek. 22. 30 31. improve not their interest in him 2. When their hearts are inordinately set upon the things of this world 2 Chro. 36. 12. Mat. 24. 39. 3. When there is a great unfruitfulness and lukewarmness in the things of God Hos. 10. 1. 4. When divisions are still fomented amongst those that fear God Isa. 9. 21. Desolations in a State follow divisions in the Church The sins which may provoke God against a Nation 1. Idolatry Ier. 5. 19. when the true God is worshipped in a way that he hath not appointed 2. Intestine divisions Isa. 9 ult compared with 10. 6. 3. Incorrigiblenesse under lesser judgements Isa. 9. 11. 4 Wearying of God Isa. 7. 13 18. 5. Unworthy and wicked compliances Hos. 5. 13. CHAP. XI Signes of a Christian in regard of sinne and that great corruptions may be found in true Christians OF the first Signs of a Christian in regard of sin First He is convinced of sin Iohn 16. 9. the Greek word signifies to evidence by demonstration the Spirit so demonstrates it that a man hath nothing to object Psal. 51. 13. Secondly He is free from its dominion as Paul saith Sinne shall have no dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace and after Being freed from sinne Whosoever is born of God sinneth not John They do no iniquity David They serve not sin in the lusts thereof He hath not an habitual resolution to continue in sinne Thirdly He is troubled and wearied with the reliques of it and driven to Christ for pardon and help He is weary of sin and every sin so farre as he knoweth specially his own sin and that iniquity which cleaveth closest to him His flesh is inclined to it but his Spirit is a verse from it and even tired and burdened with it so that he often sighes out in himself the complaint of St Paul O miserable man that I am Still as he prevails more against sin the remainders of it do more afflict him sinne in it self considered is his greatest unhappinesse that he hath so vile a nature is prone to so vile deeds and doth in many things so foolishly offend this troubleth and disquieteth him even then when he hath no other crosse to trouble him and many times imbitters all his prosperity Fourthly He is grieved
Vine he sate upon the Well he went from Iericho toward Ierusalem He opened his mouth and taught them he touched the Leaper saying I will be thou clean he did sleep He cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost So he took upon him the very nature of man and was made in all things like unto us but without sinne 6. He had likewise the affections of a man His soul was heavy to death he sighed in his Spirit he was straitned in his Spirit and testified that one of them should betray him he mourned and wept for Lazarus he looked upon them angerly he cried out I thirst Joy Luk. 10. 21. Anger Mark 10. 14. Grief Mat. 26. 38. Love Mark 10. 21. Ioh. 11. 5 13. Zeal Ioh. 2. 17. Fear Heb. 5. 7. as in a man were found in him Now there are divers good Reasons why Christ was to be Man First He was to be a Mediator a middle person betwixt God and Man and therefore was to take upon him mans nature that he might familiarly converse with man and acquaint them with the whole counsel of his Father and therefore the Apostle saith There is one Mediatour betwixt God and man the man Christ Iâ—sus And St Iohn That which we have heard and have seen and have looked upon with our eyes of the word of life He must be man that he might converse with men and be subject unto their senses and so was a fit person to interpose himself and make concord betwixt God and man Secondly He was to be man 1. That he might satisfie Gods justice in suffering for man the things which mans sins did deserve and which were to be inâ—â—â—cted upon man according as it was threatned In the day thou sinnest thou shalâ— dye Mans nature had sinned mans nature must suffer for sin that as by a man came sin and so death so by a man might come righteousnesse and the resurrection from the dead The Godhead was too strong to suffer for it is not possible that the excellent Essence of God should endure or bear any punishment any evil any misery without which yet mans sins could not be expiated therefore did the Godhead cloath it self with flesh that he might suffer in the humane nature that which it was impossible it should suffer in that high and superexcellent nature The Manhood was too weak to bear and overcome in suffering and to deserve by suffering The Godhead was too strong to bear or suffer wherefore the Godhead was to borrow weaknesse as I may so say of the manhood and to lend power to it that that great work might be done which could not be effected without a wonderfull concurrence of exceeding great weaknesse and exceeding great power The Justice of God required that the same nature should be punished that had offended Rom. 8. 3. He could not else have suffered the penalty Gen. â— 24. See Heb. 7. 27. 9. 22. Without shedding of bloud there could be no expiation of sâ—â— there must be active obedience performed in our stead to the Law Gal. 4. 4 5. else he could not have communicated to us Union is the ground of Communion Ephes. 1. 21. Titus 3. 4. 2. That he might honour and dignifie the nature of man by advancing it farre above all Principalities and Powers yea above every name that is named and so God might declare his infinite and unsearchable grace to that frail and feeble nature which came of the dust by making it the chief of all his workmanship and head over all Therefore hath he attained by inheritance a more excellent name then Angels being called the Sonne of God in carrying as I may term it the humane nature to the Divine that nature was exalted above all other natures A woman of some place is dignified by matrimony with a King above all those that were her superiours before so that now of all natures next to the Divine nature the humane nature by being so nearly united to it is become the most excellent and glorious nature So God willing to shew the height and length the bredth and depth of his love which passeth all understanding hath thus glorified the seed of Abraham even above the nature of Angels for he took not the nature of Angels but took the seed of Abraham Thirdly This was done to foil crush and confound Satan so much the more in causing that nature which he envied supplanted and polluted to become so pure perfect and glorious and to triumph over him and lead him captive and tread him under foot and make a shew of him openly The Lord would punish Satan in his envy and make him feel the effect of his power and goodnesse in doing so very much against him by a man to fulfill that that The seed of the woman should crush the serpents head and to cause him to fall from heaven like lightening before the second Adam how much soever he gloried as it were in his conquest over the first Adam Last of all The Lord pleased to do this for our greater consolation and assurance that we might know without all doubt we should finde him a faithfull and a mercifull high-Priest For in that he suffered temptation he knows how to succour them that are tempted Christ was to be a man of sorrow and to have experience of infirmities that by bearing our sorrows he might be fitted to relieve and succour us in all our sorrows for he that hath indured any misery himself is made more tender in compassion and more able in knowledge to afford comfort unto them that must after taste of the same afflictions He knows the weight of sin the intolerablenesse of Gods wrath the violence of Satans temptations and the trouble of being wronged and abused by men We can bring no misery to him but what himself bare or the like so now we are assured to finde him most pitifull to us that for our sakes was content in our nature to be most afflicted You see now that Christ was man and why he was to be so Consider how he was made man and that was wonderfully miraculous above the course of nature and beyond the common custom that he might be wonderfull in his entrance into the world who was to be wonderfull in the course of his life For he was not made of the seed of man by copulation as other persons are but a Virgin did conceive and bring forth a Son Mary descended by direct line from David and Abraham a mean and contemptible maiden whom no man regarded because she was poor she was a chosen vessel to be the Mother of our Saviour and the holy Ghost did over-shadow her and the power of the most High come on her to frame a man in her womb of her substance as you have the Angel telling Ioseph in the first of Matthew and Mary in Luke 1. 35. This was so done 1. Say some of our Divines To free the
Christ should have nothing to give 2. He would exercise his people in prayer and confessions His people ask for themselves in prayer the destroying of corruption and perfecting of grace 3. God loves to have his people nothing in themselves all Christs course on earth was an abased condition God would have his people like Christ low and base 4. The Lord hath appointed that this life should be to his people a warfare Iob 14. 14. Their great conflict is with their own lusts 5. Because he would have his people long to be in heaven 2 Cor. 5. 2. 6. That he might thereby magnifie the grace of the new Covenant above all that he gave in the old God gave perfect grace to Angels and to Adam and his posterity but that vanished away yet now a spark of graces lives in a Sea of corption 7. Hereby Gods patience and forbearance is much exalted to his own people Numb 14. 17 18. Therefore it is hard to discern whether the work of Sanctification be wrought in us or no because of the reliques of corruption Evidences of Sanctification 1. A heart truly sanctified stands in awe of the Word Sanctification is the Law written in the heart a principle put into the soul answerable to the duty the Law requires Iohn 14. 22 23. 2. The remainders of corruption and the imperfection of grace will be his continual burden Rom. 7. 24. 2 Cor. 11. 23. 3. There is a continual combate maintained betwixt sin and grace 4. Where there is true Sanctification it is of a growing nature living things will grow 2 Pet. 3. 18. Mal. 3. 3 4. 5. Where there is true grace you shall especially see it when God cals you to great trials Natura vexata seipsum prodit Gen. 22. 20. Means to get holinesse Only the Spirit of Christ bestowed upon thee by faith Ioh. 7. 38. the Apostles arguments to holinesse are taken from their interest in Christ. Titus The grace of God that brings Salvation Faith in the bloud of Christ Heb. 9. 14. See Act. 15. 9. The Word John 17. 17. 1 Pet. 1. 22. The Word read heard meditated in transformeth the soul into its likenesse The Sacrament is a sanctifying Ordinance the death and merits of Christ set before us prayer pray more for Gods sanctifying Spirit 1 Thess. 5. 23. CHAP. XII The Parts of Sanctification are two Mortification and Vivification I. Mortification VVHere Grace is truly wrought it will be the daily study and practise of those that are sanctified to subdue the body of corruption This is called a dying to sinne putting off the old man crucifying the flesh most usually the mortifying of it There is a twofold Mortification and so Vivification say the Schoolmen 1. Habitual and more Internal the work of Gods Spirit in our first Regeneration Gal. 5. 24. whereby the Dominion of sinne is subdued and brought under the power of Gods Spirit this and internal Vivification are the two parts of our Conversion 2. Actual Practical and External our own work the daily practice of a childe of God while he lives on earth this flows from the other Every godly man walking according to Christianity doth daily in his ordinary course mortifie the body of corruption that dwels in him Rom. 4. 8 9. Ephes. 4. 20 21 22. Col. 3. 5. Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 6. 6. Mortifie or make dead is a Metaphor taken from Chiturgeons whose practice is when they would cut off a member to apply such things as will eat out the life of it so our care must be to make the living body of corruption instar cadaveris Practical Mortification is the faithful endeavour of the soul to subdue all the lusts and motions which are prone to spring from our sinful flesh It stands in three things 1. A full purpose or bent of the heart the minde and will against sinne when my will doth nolle peccatum though it may be active 2. In shunning all the occasions that serve as fewel to it 3. In applying all such means as may subdue his corruptions The Practice of Mortification is 1. A necessary duty 2. One of the most spiritual duties in all Christianity 3. The hardest duty The Popish exercises of Mortification consisting in their kinde of Fasting Whipping Pilgrimage and wearing of Hair-cloth next their skin will never work true Mortification in the heart yet Baals Priests exceeded them in cruelty to themselves 1 King 18. 28. See Rom. 8. 13. Col. 2. 23 1 Tim. 4. 8. In these cases one doth not mortifie his corruptions 1. Such a one as lives in the voluntary practice of his sins Rom. 6. 2. The body of corruption may be wholly unmortified though it break not out in the ordinary and constant practice of any grosse sin the seat and throne of sin is in the soul the slavish fear of shame and punishment from men or eternal damnation from God may keep a man from grosse sins I shall lay down 1. Motives or several Meditations to quicken us to the study of this work every day 2. Means which God will blesse to one that is willing to have his lusts subdued I. Motives Consider 1. This is the great thing God requires at our hands as our gratitude for all the goodnesse he bestows on us that for his sake we should leave those wayes that are abominable in his sight Rom. 12. 1. Ephes. 4. 21 22. 1 Peter 2. begin Deut. 32. 6. Secondly How deeply we have obliged our hearts to it by Vow Oath Covenant in Baptism we have there covenanted to die to sinne put off the old man and so in the Lords Supper we shew forth the Lords death and when we have been in danger Thirdly The manifold evils of unmortified lusts abiding in the heart What makes thy soul loathsom and unclean in the eyes of God and Angels but sin What grieves God pierceth his Sonne fights against him but this What brings any evil upon thee but this What is the sting of any affliction but onely thy sins What strengthens death but it it is only thy sins that keep good things from thee thy unmortified sins Fourthly The absolute necessity of this work if we mean to escape hell and everlasting damnation De necessariis non est deliberandum Rom. 8. 13. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Grave Maurice at Newport battel sent away the boats and said to his men Either drink up this Sea or eat the Spaniards Fifthly The wonderful gain that will come to thy soul if the Lord teach thee this duty 1. In mortifying and destroying thy beloved lusts thou destroyest all other enemies with them they all receive their weapons from thy sins 2. All other mercies flow in a constant current if thou mortifie thy corruptions Gods favour the whole stream of the Covenant of Grace II. Means of Mortification Some use moral motives from the inconvenience of sinne death the fear of hell and judgement some carnal motives as esteem and advantage in
like Paracelsian Physick if it do not cure it will kill 4. None do lose such high services Matth. 7. 22 23. they do not the work of the Gospel with a Gospel-spirit and out of a Gospel principle 5. Satan will insult and triumph over none so much as Gospel-sinners Matth. 12. 43 44. 6. The worm of conscience will not feed so fiercely on any Mar. 9 43. when he compares his former hopes with his present irrecoverable condition because no sinners had those helps nor were raised to those hopes Ponder on your own sins what they are and what they have deserved Look on original corruption the foul sea of all wickednesse which is called a body of sinne Rom. 6. 6. A Law in our members Rom. 7. 23. Consider that thou hast a naughty nature whereby thou art averse from God and goodnesse and extreamly prone to all sin Psal. 51. 5. Isa. 48. 8. all men in every part are under the guilt and power of it Rom. 3. 16 23. 2. Humble thy self Labour to be base for this though thou hast not committed such foul sins as others yet if God should leave thee to thy self and thine own evil heart thou wouldst soon be as bad as the worst 3. Call to minde likewise the grosse actual sins thou hast committed before or since thy calling Wast not thou given to all manner of pollution before the Lord gave thee knowledge of him and since thy calling 4. Consider thy continual daily slips and infirmities thy sins of omission and commission how apt thou art to be angry impatient thy carnalnesse in good duties and distraction in the performance of them thy forgetfulnesse of God and thy later end 5. Consider also whether there be not some unknown secret fault that thou hast not yet repented of and pray to God to discover it to thee Lastly Call to minde what sins thou hast committed since the last Sacrament and bewail them Meditate also on the sufferings of Christ for these grosse sins and daily iniquities His great abasement Psal. 22. 6 7 14. to 19. v. Isa. 53. 3 4 5 6 7. to the 11. v. He was born like a beggar lived like a beggar the Devil tempted him he was falsly accused betrayed by one of his Disciples denied by another forsaken by the rest He was amazed with fear and incompassed with sorrow Mark 14. 34. Two of the most tormentful passions was in an agony and did sweat drops of cloddy bloud in such abundance as it fell to the ground was condemned mocked spit upon whipped with rods after the manner of the Romans crowned with thorns laden with the Crosse nailed on it stretched and retched in all his joynts He suffered much in his body but his chief sufferings were in his soul Isa. 53. 10 11 12. He took our soul as well as body and came to redeem it that being the chief part Quicquid induit Christus obtulit He suffered 1. As a publick person as the second Adam Rom. 5. 14. 2. For our sakes and benefit Isa. 53. he is said six times to bear our iniquities 3. Not only for our good but in our room Heb. 7. 22. not onely nostro bono but nostro loco 1 Tim. 2. 6. Mat. 20. 28. for otherwise he should have suffered no more then other men the Martyrs suffered for the good of the Church Col. 1. 24. 2 Tim. 2. 10. 4. He took upon him the burden of our sins by way of imputation 1 Pet. 2. 24. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Smite on your brests and say For my worldlinesse anger all these evils befell my Saviour Lord for thy mercy sake in Christ pardon and heal me Shall I pollute my body with uncleannesse when Christ suffered so bitter things Shall I ever be angry again O Lord by thy grace I will not Let me have thy power to kill these sins See the strictnesse of divine justice and the dreadfulnesse of Gods wrath God spared not his own Sonne and when his Fathers wrath lighted on his soul he was much troubled and the great evil of sinne it caused Christs humane nature to be â—â—raid Matth. 26. 38. The desert of sinne is seen in Christs suffering 1. In respect of the person who suffered for it Gods only Son who never provoked him Iohn 3. 16. Rom. 8. 31. 2. In respect of the penalties he underwent for sinne it made him to cry sweat and pour out strong supplications Isa. 53. 10. The Law shewed the filthinesse and evil of sinne by the many Sacrifices and aspersions of bloud which it required but they were of beasts and their bloud but the Gospel shews the demerit of sinne more fully and how odious it is to God since Christ must die to expiate it and also the abundant love both of the Father in delivering his own Sonne to death for the salvation of sinners Iohn 3. 16. 1 Iohn 4. 9 10. Rom. 8 32. and of Christ in taking upon him our nature and in exposing himself to so much misery here on earth and at last to an accursed death for us Phil. 2. 7 8. We are to remember Christ in the Sacrament 1. Because the Lord will have in the Sacrament of the New Testament the great end of the Passeover to be accomplisht Exod. 12. 14. 2. That we may answer the goodnesse of Christ to us he hath us alwayes actually in remembrance Exod. 28. 21 29. 3. Because if we have any benefit by this Sacram nt God must remember Christ for us 4. Upon our actual and affectionate remembrance of Christ depends all our benefit by this Sacrament We have dispatched the examination of our sins in the next place our graces are to be examined The graces that must be tried and examined are our Knowledge Faith Re 〈…〉 Love and hungring after Christ the truth growth or wants of them 〈…〉 examined The truth of them 1. Knowledge The words examine shew forth discern and judge all betoken knowledge We must get Knowledge 1. Of the Law of God 2. Of the Doctrine of Redemption by Jesus Christ. 3. Of the Nature Necessity and Use of the Lords Supper We must know our estate by nature and by grace 1. Because otherwise we cannot be thankful to God for his benefits as we ought 2. In the Sacrament Christ is offered and the Covenant sealed By nature we are dead in sin and bondslaves of Satan by grace we come to be children of God and heirs of salvation We must know what the elements and actions in the Sacrament signifie That the bread signifies the body of Christ and the wine his bloud that the breaking of bread betokens the crucifying of Christ that the giving of the bread and wine notes the action of God the Father offering Christ to all and bestowing him effectually upon every worthy receiver the receiving of the bread and wine signifies our receiving and feeding upon Christ by faith 2. Faith is required in those that come worthily to the
2. 24. There is a justification 1. Ad Regnum which brings one into the state of Grace of which Paul speaks 2. In Regno Abraham was justified by works and he was called the friend of God of that Iames speaks Sanctification is of the same time with Justification but Justification doth in order of nature go before it for all the graces of Sanctification are bestowed on a man as in Christ Ephes. 1. 3. so one God made man a holy creature he was peculiarly devoted to Gods service when man fell the devil defiled this Temple God departed from us he aâ—ain cleanseth away this filth and repaireth his image in us * Loc. Commun Class 1. c. 11. There is a total change of the whole man the Mind Rom. 12. 2. Spirit Ezek. 36. 26. Heart Deut. 10. 26. Conscience Heb. 9. 14. Will Phil. 2. 13 Affections Gal. 5. 24. The body it self Col. 2. 11. Rom. 6. 12. Christ is our Sanctification three several wayes 1. Meritoriously he hath purchased it from God by his being an offering for all our defilement 2. As he is the exemplar or copy of it 3. He is by his Spirit the efficient cause that brings into the soul the vertue of his Death to kill sinne and of his Resurrection whereby his life is communicated to us See Dr Willet on Exod. 30. 34. Impuritas uniuscujusque rei consistit in hoc quòd rebus vilioribus immiscetur Non enim dicitur argentum esse impurum ex permixtione auri per quam melius redditur sed ex permixtione plumbi vel stanni Aquinas 2a 2ae Quaest. 7. Artic. 2. Puritan in the mouth of a Drunkard doth mean a sober man in the mouth of an Arminian it means an Orthodox man in the mouth of a Papist it is a Protestant and so it is spoken to shame a man out of all Religion It hath been an old custom of the world to hate and maligne the righteous to reproach them to call them Puritans though very Heathens have acknowledged that there is no Religion without purity Cicero Horace and others describing a man that is religious say that he is an entire man a man pure from sinne Mr Fenner on John 3. 20. See Mr Burrh on Hos. 2. 5. pag. 307. There is 1. A beauty in holinesse 1. Every grace is an ornament 1 Pet. 5 5. See Psal. 45. 1â— 14 16. Ezek. 8. 14. 2. Holinesse is called a new Creation Eph. 2. 10. A Resurrection Ephes. 4. 5. 3. Sinne is a deformity 2 Pet. 3. 14 filthinesse it self 2 Cor. 7. 1. Ephes. 5. 27. Corruptio optimi pessima sinne is not only malum triste but turpe 2. This beauty of holinesse consists in four things 1. It is a conformity to the image of God 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2. Beauty consists in indeficiency when no part is wanting 1 Thess. 5. 23. 2 Tim. 3. 17. they are in parts perfect as children though not in degree 3. Beauty consists in a symmetry a due proportion of parts the understanding guides the man the will submits to the dictates of an enlightened understanding the affections are subject to the command of reason John 11. 33. 4. There is a lustre in beauty the Spirit of grace is called the oyl of gladnesse Psal. 45. 7. because it makes the face to shine Sincerity is the harmony and zeal the lustre or varnish of all graces Psal. 42. 11. 3. There is that beauty in holinesse which is not to be found in any thing here below 1. It is in the inward man 1 Pet. 3. 3. Absolom though outwardly beautifull was inwardly deformed 2. This commends a man to God 1 Pet. 3. 3 4. 3. All other beauty will decay by sicknesse or old-age not this Prov. 31. 30. 4. This prepares you for the wedding the time of this life is the time of Espousals the Marriage shall be in the life to come Revel 19. 7. Holinesse is the image of Christ. Sin is wounded at our first conversion Rom. 6. 13 14. but this work is carried on by degrees till it be utterly extinct Rom. 6. sin is called the the old man for its weaknesse and decay See 1 Thess. 5. 22 23. Anno Christâ— 1262. exorta est secta Flagellantium qui ingenti turba obeâ—ntes pagos oppida nudi umbilico tenus facie tect a sese flagellis cruentabant manfit hic mos Romae ubi septimana quae diom Paschatis proximè antecedit poenitentes longo ordine nudis seapulis larvata facie publicè se diverberant flagellis Quem morem ipsi vidimus Lutetiae sub Henrico tertio Homines ad furorem usque superstitiosi nesciunt Deum amare immutationem cordium non verò dilaniationem corporum Molinaei Hyperaspistes lib. 1. cap. 29. Vide Novar Schediasm Sac. prophan lib. 1. cap. 22. They are hostes naturae not peccati Sin 1. abuseth us Man being in honour continued not a wicked man is called a vile person Psa. 15. 2. It deâ—iles us and stains all our actions Tit. 1. 15. 3. Deceives us Heb. 3. 12. Ephes. 4. 22. 4. It keeps away all good Isa. 9 2. 5. It lets in all evil Jer. 2. 19. The death of Christ is useful for mortifying of sin 1. By way of representation it shews us the hatefulnesse of sin Isa. 53. 10. Consider his agony and sorrow on the Crosse though sin was but imputed to him 1 Cor. 5. 21. 2. By way of irritation it stirs up in the soul a displicency against sin Isa. 43. 24. shall sin live that made Christ die 3. By way of pattern and example therefore the Scripture often expresseth our Mortification by our crucifying Gal. 2. 20. 5. 24. 6. 14. Of all deaths crucifying is the most painful and shameful it notes that sorrow and shame which Christians feel in the remembrance of sinne that which was done really in Christ must be done in us by analogy Phil. 3. 10. 4. By way of merit Christ shed his bloud to redeem uâ— 1. From the world Gal. 1. 4. that it might not be so pleasing an object 2. From our vain conversation 1 Pet. 2. 24. Grace is a part of Christs purchase as well as pardon 5. By way of stipulation and ingagement Christ â—â—ood as a Surety before Gods Tribunal He was Gods Surety and ours on Gods part he undertook to bestow on us not only remission of sins but the Spirit of God to become a principle of life to us and of death to our corruptions Rom. 8. 13. 1 John 3. 19. on our part he undertook that we should no longer serve sin Rom. 6. 13. About means of mortification of sin See Mr Hilders on Psal. 51. 5. Lect. 64 65 66 67. Spiritual life is that supernatural grace by which the whole man is disposed to live to God 1. A supernatural grace because it comes from our union with Christ Joh. 6. 57. 2. By which one is disposed to live to God Gal. 2. 20. The supream or fundamental principle of spiritual
re-sound as by an Eccho and is applied even by Heathen Writers unto that kinde of teaching which is by word of mouth sounding in the ear of him that is taught and especially unto the teaching of the first rudiments of any Science whatsoever It signifieth any kinde of vocal instruction Acts 21. 21 24. viz. that whereby the principles of Christian Doctrine are made known unto the hearers as Luk. 1. 4. instructed or catechized Gal. 6. 6. taught or catechized See Acts 18. 25. Rom. 2. 18. 1 Cor. 14. 19. Catechizing is a plain and easie instructing of the ignorant in the grounds of Religion or concerning the fundamental Principles familiarly by Questions and Answers and a spiritual applying the same for practice Whatever the catechizing in the Primitive Church was in private for the publick it seems not to have been Dialogue-wise by Question and Answer but in a continued speech with much plainnesse and familiarnesse Catechizing differs from preaching Preaching is the dilating of one member of Religion into a just Treatise Catechizing is a contracting of the whole into a summe Preaching is to all sorts catechizing to the young and rude Catechizing is 1. Plain that none might excuse themselves that the most illiterate might not say at the day of Judgement O Lord thy wayes were too hard for us 2. That the manner of the teaching might be sutable to the hearers 3. That no Governours might pretend the difficulty of it 2. Instructing which implieth that original ignorance and blindenesse we were born with 3. It is such an instructing which is by way of distilling things in a familiar manner our Saviour did not give the people whole Loaves but distributed them by pieces 4. Such an instructing as acquaints them with the meaning of things and spiritually applies the same for practice It is not enough to say the Creed and Lords Prayer but to understand the sense and apply it to practice 5. An instruction by way of Question and Answer which is thereby made more plain and familiar The exercise of Catechizing hath been proved to be most ancient and very necessary and usefull and therefore it should be alwayes continued in the Church 1. Because there will alwayes be found Babes which stand in need of Milk not being able to bear strong meat 2. Because as no building can stand without a foundation and none can be expert in an Art except he learn the principles thereof so none can have sound knowledge in Divinity except he be trained up in the grounds thereof The best way to perform this exercise is 1. By short Questions and Answers the Minister demanding the Question the people answering 2. It must be done purely 2 Cor. 2. 4. 3. Plainly 2 Cor. 3. 2. Heb. 5. 11. 4. Soundly Tit. 2. 7. 5. Orderly 6. Cheerfully and lovingly 2 Tim. 2. 24. praising the forward encouraging the willing patiently bearing with all admonishing such as are unruly Amesius his Christianae Catechesios Sciagraphia is usefull this way and Nowels Catechism in Latine in English there are B. Ushers M. Bains M. Cartwrights M. Balls and M. Crooks Guide and now the Assemblies Here is a fault that both teachers and hearers must share between them Ministers do not teach principles sufficiently happy is that man which can say with Paul I have kept back nothing that was profitable 2. Those are too blame which will not be taught children and servants which are stubborn and unwilling to be catechized some say they are too old to learn but are they too old to repent and be saved Some say they are past principles they are not now to be grounded but we may say with the Apostle Whereas they ought to be teachers they had need themselves to be taught Such people rebell against their Minister or Master whose duty is to teach them and God who commands it Let men be exhorted to practise this duty Ministers Masters Parents Schoolmasters teach the A B C and the Grammer Suffer little children to come unto me Consider 1. Thou broughtst thy children into the world blinde and deformed 2. Thou canst not else have comfort in thy children or servants many are crost in their family for want of this and many at the gallows will cry out If they had lived where they had been instructed they had never died a dogs death Greenham saith Thy children shall follow thee up and down in hell and cry against thee for not teaching them He that will not provide for his family saith Paul is worse then an Infidell and he that will not teach them is worse then a beast The old Nightingale teacheth the young to sing and the old Eagle her young ones to flie Children ill brought up were devoured by Bears to teach Parents that since they have done lesse then Bears who shape their whelps by much licking and smoothing them though Vossius and Dr. Brown deny this they therefore by Bears were bereft of them It is good therefore to season our children with wholsome truths betime a vessel will long keep the savour of that with which it is at first seasoned and the Devil will begin betime to sow his seed Master Belton upon his death-bed spake unto his children thus I do believe saith he there is never a one of you will dare to meet me at the Tribunall of Christ in an unregenerate condition It will be a great comfort to thee and benefit to them when they are instructed in the points of Religion If thy children die yet thou mayest have great hope of them when thou hast acquainted them with the principall grounds of Religion The Papists in the Preface to the Catechism of the Councel of Trent confesse that all the ground we have got of them is by catechizing and let us look that we lose not our ground again for want of it Iulian himself could not devise a readier means to banish Christian Religion then by pulling down the Schools and places of educating children Egesippus saith That by vertue of catechizing there was never a Kingdom but received alteration in their Heathenish Religion within fourty years after Christs passion All ignorant persons though they be grown in years must be willing to be instructed and catechized Ignorance in principles is a great sin 1. The Lord appointed a Sacrifice for ignorance Heb. 9. 7. 2. He requires repentance for it 3. It is the original of all the errours in a mans life both in doctrine and worship 1 Cor. 15. 34. Ioh. 4. 22. such will be a prey to false teachers Col. 2. 8. 4. The ground of all instability in the wayes of God Ephes. 4. 14 15. and of that non-proficiency that is in men the way to damnation Act. 4. 12. Theophilus a Noble-man and of ripe years was catechized as the Greek word shews ignorance bringeth men to the very pit and gulph of destruction Hos. 4. 1. and
vers 14. 1 Pet. 3. 15. Christians should be ready to give an answer to every man which doth ask them a reason of the hope which is in them the foundation is that which is first and surest laid and hath an influence into all the building Men should do all upon trial and solid conviction 1 Thess. 5. 21. 1 Ioh. 4. 1. The Papists would have the people take things upon trust they say those places concerne the Doctours of the Church not the people but compare the 20 and 21. vers in the Thessalonians and 1. vers with 6. in Iohn and we shall see the contrary This trial is profitable First Because truth then will have a greater force on the conscience Secondly This is the ground of constancie 2 Pet. 3. 17. Thirdly Hereby we shall be able to maintain the truth Matthew 11. 19. The Scriptures are fundamentum quo the fundamental writings which declare the salvation of Christians Iohn 5. 37. Christ fundamentum quod the fundamental means and cause which hath purchased and doth give it Iohn 4. 42. The person we must build on is Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. He is called the foundation of foundations Isa. 28. The doctrinal foundation is the written Word of God which is not only the object and matter of our faith but the rule and reason of it Hold Christ as your Rock build on him the Scripture as your rule and the reason of your believing this is general there are some particulars First Some things are simply necessary It were a notable work for one to determine this how much knowledge were required of all Secondly Not absolutely necessary Some make the foundation too narrow some again too wide some say that if a man nean well and go on according to the light he hath though he know not Christ he shall be saved Others say that all are bound to know distinstly the Articles of the Creed Fundamental truths are all such points of Doctrine which are so plainly delivered in Scripture that whosoever doth not know or follow them shall be damned but he that doth know and follow these though erring in other things shall be saved All the principles of Religion are plain and easie delivered clearly in 1. Scripture they are to be a rule to judge of other Doctrines 2. They are very few say some reduced to two heads by Iohn Baptist Mark 1. 15. and by Paul 2 Tim. 1. 13. 3. In all principles necessary to salvation there hath been agreement among all the Churches of Christ Ephes. 4. 5. though they may differ in superstructures Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditur Catholicam est Vincent Lyrin These Fundamentals said a Reverend Divine now with God are twelve three concerning God three concerning Man three concerning the Redeemer three concerning the means of attaining good by this Redeemer Concerning God 1. There is one God which is an Infinite Perfect and Spirituall Essence 2. This one God is distinguished into three Persons or manners of subsistence after an incomprehensible way which we believe but cannot perfectly understand The Father begetting the Son begotten and the holy Ghost proceeding 3. This one God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost is the Maker Preserver and Governour of all things by his Wisdom Power Justice Providence Concerning man 1. That he was made by God of a visible body and an immortal and spiritual soul both so perfect and good in their kindes that he was perfectly able to have attained eternal life for himself which was provided as a reward of his obedience 2. That being thus made he yielded to the temptations of the Devil and did voluntarily sin against God in eating of the Tree forbidden and so became a childe of wrath and heir of cursing an enemy to God and slave to the Devil utterly unable to escape eternal death which was provided as a recompence of his disobedience 3. That he doth propagate this his sinfulnesse and misery to all his posterity Concerning Christ. 1. That he is perfect God and perfect Man the second Person in the Trinity who took the Nature of man from the Virgin Mary and united it to himself in one personal Subsistence by an incomprehensible Union 2. That in mans Nature he did die and suffer in his Life and Death sufficient to satisfie Gods Justice which man had offended and to deserve for mankinde Remission of sins and Life everlasting and that in the same Nature he Rose again from the Dead and shall also Raise up all men to receive Judgement from him at the last Day according to their Deeds 3. That he is the only sufficient and perfect Redeemer and no other merit must be added unto this either in whole or part Lastly Concerning the Means of applying the Redeemer they are three 1. That all men shall not be saved by Christ but onely those that are brought to such a sight and feeling of their own sinfulnesse and misery that with sorrow of heart they do bewail their sins and renouncing all merits of their own or any creature cast themselves upon the mercies of God and the only merits of Jesus Christ which to do is to repent and believe and in this hope live holily all the remainder of their life 2. That no man is able thus to see his sinnes by his own power renounce himself and rest upon Christ but God must work it in whom he pleaseth by the cooperation of his Spirit regenerating and renewing them 3. That for the working of this Faith and Repentance and direction of them in a holy life he hath left in writing by the Prophets and Apostles infallibly guided to all truth by his Spirit all things necessary to be done or believed to salvation and hath continued these writings to his people in all ages Observe those places Act. 15. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Let a man hold this that there was nothing but death in the world till Christ came and that he is come to save sinners Ioh. 17. 3. Secondly There are practical places 1 Cor. 6. 9. Titus 3. 8. Let us 1. See our selves dead without Christ and wholly trust in him 2. Let us be exemplary in our lives and conversations There are other Fundamentals which are only comparatively necessary that is expected from one man which is not expected from another and more from those that live in the Church Have these six Principles of the Apostle not only in your heads but hearts 1. That a man is dead in himself 2. That his remedy lies out of himself 3. Know the Doctrine of the Sacraments 4. The Word of God 5. Have some apprehension of the life to come 1. That there is a passage from death to life 2. That there is a fixed and irrevokable estate after this life 6. Hold the Doctrine of Faith so that Christ may live in you and you be delivered up into that forme of Doctrine lay hold on
soul. 2. It separates the heart from lusts and the world 3. Alters and changeth the customs of men 4. It keeps the heart up against all the power of the devil It quickneth the dull Psal. 119. 93 107. comforteth the feeble Rom. 15. 4. giveth light to the simple Psal. 19. 7. convinceth the obstinate 1 Cor. 12. 3. 14. 24. reproveth errors rebuketh vices 2 Tim. 3. 16. is a discerner of the thoughts 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. and aweth the conscience Iam. 4. 12. 10. The Candour and Sincerity of the Pen-men or Amanuenses respecting Gods glory only and not their own and in setting down not only the sins of others but their own slips and infirmities doth testifie that they were guided by the holy Ghost Moses shews his disobedience Numb 11. 11. Ionah his murmuring Ionah 1. 4. Ieremiah his fretting Ier. 20. 14. David shames himself in his Preface to the 51 Psalm St Mark wrote the Gospel out of Peters mouth and yet the denial of Peter is more expresly laid down by the Evangelist Saint Mark then any other and Paul sets down with his own Pen his own faults in a sharper manner then any other Matthew the Evangelist tels us of Matthew the Publican The Pen-men of the holy Scripture were holy men called sent inspired by the Spirit which had denied the world with the lusts and affections thereof and were wholly consumed with zeal for the glory of God and salvation of men 2 Pet. 3. 15. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Matth. 16. 17. Gal. 2. 11 12. Ephes. 2. 3 5. They learned not of men what they wrote Moses David Amos were Herdsmen Ieremiah was almost a childe Peter Iames and Iohn were in their ships other Apostles were unlearned before their Calling Acts 4. 13. Moses learned of the Aegyptians and Daniel of the Caldeans humane Arts and Sciences but they could not learn of them the knowledge of the true God they themselves being ignorant and grosse Idolaters Neither could they erre in that which they delivered for by them the Spirit of Christ and Christ himself did speak 1 Pet. 1. 11. 2 Pet. 1. 21. Acts 28. 25. 2 Cor. 13. 3. In their own judgement the most holy did erre as 1 Sam. 16. 1. and Nathan 2 Sam. 6. which errour is truly related in the Scripture but when they spake according to the guidance of the Spirit which did ever assist them in the penning of the Scripture they could not erre I have learned saith Augustine to Ierom to give this honour only to the Canonical Books firmly to believe that no author of thâ—m erred in writing from all others he expected proof from Scripture or Reason 11. The wonderful Consent singular Harmony and Agreement of the Scriptures shews that they came not from men but from God Luk. 1. 70. Acts 3. 18. Iohn 5. 46. each part sweetly agreeth with it self and with another and with the whole Acts 26. 22. 11. 17. Luke 24. 27 44. Iohn 5. 46. Matth. 4. 4. what was foretold in the Old is fulfilled in the New Testament If there seem any contrariety either in numbring of years circumstance of time and place or point of Doctrine The fault is in our apprehension and ignorance not in the thing it self and by a right interpretation may easily be cleared See D. Willet on Gen. 24. 38. Doctor Vane in his lost Sheep returned home Chap. 2. saith Seeing no man is infallibly sure that all the answers used to reconcile the seeming contradictions of Scripture are true no man can be assured by the evidence of the thing that there is that perfect Harmony in the Scriptures nor consequently that they are thereby known to be the word of God Moreover if we were infallibly assured that there were this perfect Harmony in the Scriptures yet this to me seemed not a sufficient proof that they are the Word because there is no reason forbids me to believe that it may not be also found in the writings of some men yea I make no question but it is to be found and that with lesse seeming contradiction then is in the Scripture yet no man accounts that this proves their writings to be the Word of God After he saith We believe it to be harmonious because it is the Word of God not to be the Word of God because it is harmonious which we do not infallibly see How well this agrees with what I have in the margent quoted out of Bellarmine who urgeth that as an argument to prove the Scripture to be from God let the intelligent Reader judge Vid. Aberic Gent. Ad. 1. Mac. Disput. c. 10. These considerations strengthen this Argument 1. The length of time in which this Writing continued from Moses untill Iohn to whom was shewed the last authentical Revelation which prevents all conceits of forgery since they were not written in one nor yet in many ages 2. The multitude of Books that were written and of Writers that were imployed in the service 3. The Difference of place in which they were written which hinders the Writers conferring together Two other Arguments may evince this Truth that the Scriptures were from God 1. Miracles both of 1. Confirmation which the Lord shewed by Moses Exod. 19. 16. 24. 18. 34. 29. the Prophets 1 King 17. 24. Christ himself and the Apostles for the confirmation of their Doctrine such as the devil was not able to resemble in shew The raising of the dead the standing still and going back of the Sunne the dividing of the red Sea and the Rivers the raining of manna in so great a quantity daily as to suffice all the multitude in the wildernesse the making of the barren fruitfull My works testifie of me saith Christ and Believe the works which I do if you will not believe me See Ioh. 15. 24. 2. Preservation of the Books of the Scripture from the fury of many wicked Tyrants which sought to suppresse and extinguish them but could not As God caused it to be written for the good of his people so by Divine Providence he hath preserved the same whole and entire Here we have three Arguments in one 1. The hatred of the Devil and his wicked Instruments against the Scripture more then any other Book Antiochus burnt it and made a Law That whosoever had this Book should die the death 1 Macchab. 1. 56. Yet secondly It was preserved maugre his fury and the rage of Dioclesian Iulian and other evil Tyrants Thirdly The miserable end of Iulian Antiochus Epiphanes Herod Nero Domitian and Dioclesian and other Persecutors of this Doctrine The Books of Salomon which he wrote of natural Philosophy and other knowledge the profitablest books that ever were the Canon excepted are perished but those alone which pertain to godlinesse have been safely kept to Posterity which is the rather to be observed since many more in the world affect the knowledge of natural things
the minde of God and of goodnesse to the will of God the first truth and goodnesse is in him those passages therefore in some mens writings had need to be well weighed Quaedam volita quia bona quaedam bona quia volita God wils some things because they are good as if some things were antecedently good to the will of God His will is the rule of all goodnesse Non ideo volitum quia bonum sed ideo bonum quia volitum The power of grace mainly consists in a ready submission to the will of God Reason 1. Grace is the Law written in the heart Ier. 31. 33. when there is a disposition there suitable to every Commandment Praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati saith Augustine 2. The highest subjection of the soul to God is the subjection of the will He will be obeyed as well as worshipped as a God 1. You are his servants his will should be subdued to his Masters ends he is to have no will of his own 2. You are said to be married to God Hos. 2. 19. The woman is to subject her will to her husband Gen. 3. 16. 3. Because the act of the will only is the act of the man Actus voluntatis est actus suppositi Psal. 119. 30. that is an act of a man which if he were free he would choose to do Psal. 40. 6. 4. The main power of sinne lies in the will the blame is still laid upon that Israel would have none of me you will not come to me that you may have life I would and you would not I am bound saith Augustine Meaferrea voluntate 5. The main work of the Spirit in the omnipotency of it is seen in subduing the will Eph. 1. 19. Psal. 110. 3. 6. Our sanctification shall be perfect when our wils shall be perfectly subjected to God Heb. 12. 23. We should be careful 1. To do his will cheerfully speedily sincerely constantly a Christian makes God in Christ his portion that is his faith and the word of God his rule that is his obedience 3. Be patient under the hand of God in all afflictions for nothing can befall us but that which is the good pleasure of our heavenly Father 3. We should not depart from the Word of God but make that the warrant of all our actions for there is nothing sinne but what God forbiddeth and nothing acceptable but what he commandeth A man may with a good will will that which God nils as if a good Sonne desire his Fathers life whom God would have die and one may will with an ill will that which God wils with a good will as if an ill Sonne should desire his Fathers death which God also wils 4. Pry not into the Lords secrets they belong not unto thee but be wise unto Sobriety 5. We should be afraid to sinne against God who can punish how he will when he will and where he will God wils seriously the conversion of all men by the preaching of the Word Voluntate approbationis by way of allowance but not Voluntate effectionis intentionis not effectually by way of full intention to work it in them It is one thing to approve of an end as good another thing to will it with a purpose of using all means to effect it Gods Commandments and Exhortations shew what he approves and wils to be done as good but his promises or threatnings shew what he intendeth effectually to bring to passe Under Gods will are comprehended affections which are attributed to God and are divers motions of his will according to the diversity of Objects Yet they are not sudden and vehement perturbations of God as they are in man rising and falling as occasion serves but constant fixed tranquil and eternal Acts and Inclinations of the will according to the different nature of things either contrary or agreeable to it There are in man some habitual and perpetual affections as love and hatred much more hath the Eternal will of God Eternal affections whiles it moves it self to the objects without alteration impression and passion God is so far affected toward particulars as they agree or disagree with the universal and immutable notions and Idaeas of good existing in God from Eternity so God hates evil and loves good both in the abstract and universal Idaea and also in the concrete in particular subject as farre as it agrees with the general CHAP. VIII Of Gods Affections his Love Hatred THe Affections which the Scripture attributes to God are 1. Love which is an act of the Divine Will moving it self both to the most excellent good in it self and to that excelling in the reasonable creature approving it delighting in it and doing good to it Iohn 6. 16 35. Rom. 5. 8. In which definition two things are to be noted 1. The Object of Gods Love 2. The Effect or Manner of Gods Love The primary object of Gods Love is himself for he taketh great pleasure in himself and is the Author of greatest felicity and delight to himself The Father Son and holy Ghost love one another mutually Matth. 3. 17. and 17. 5. Iohn 3. 33 35. and 5. 20. and 10. 17. and 15. 9. and 17. 24. The secondary Object of Gods love is the reasonable creature Angels and men For though he approve of the goodnesse of other things yet he hath chosen that especially to prosecute with his chiefest love for these Reasons 1. For the excellency and beauty of the reasonable creature when it is adorned with its due holinesse 2. Because between this onely and God there can be a mutual reciprocation of love since it onely hath a sense and acknowledgement of Gods goodnesse 3. Because God bestows Eternity on that which he loves but the other creatures besides the rational shall perish Gods love to Christ is the foundation of his love to us Matth. 3. 17. Ephes. 1. 6. God loves all creatures with a General Love Matth. 5. 44 45. as they are the work of his hands but he doth delight in some especially whom he hath chosen in his Son Iohn 3. 16. Ephes. 1. 6. Psal. 106. 4. God loves his Elect before they love him his Love is actual and real in the purpose of it to them from Eternity There are four expressions in Scripture to prove this 1. He loves his people before they have the life of grace Ephes. 4. 5. 1 Iohn 4. 19. Rom. 5 8. 2. Before they have the life of nature Rom. 9. 11. 3. Before the exhibition of Christ Iohn 3. 16. 4. Before the foundation of the world was laid Ephes. 1. 3. 2 Tim. 1. 9. Therefore God loves the Elect more than the Reprobate and our love is not the motive of his love Object How could God love them when they were workers of iniquity Hab. 1. 13. Psal. 5. 3 4. He loved their persons but hated their works and wayes God loved Christs person yet was angry with him when
is a twofold glory 1. Essential infinite everlasting this is called gloria it receives neither addition nor diminution by any created power 2. Accidental finite temporary called glorificatio this ebbs or flows shines or is overshadowed as goodnesse or gracelesnesse prevails in the world It serves 1. To shew the vilenesse and basenesse of all wicked men which oppose Gods glory and strive to obscure it dishonor this glorious God setting light by him in their hearts and blaspheming him with their tongues a sinner in sinning lifts up himself above God preferring his own wisdom before Gods and his will before his therefore David worthily concludes the 104 Psalm with an imprecation against sinners God will gain glory of them in despight of their hearts by magnifying his justice 2. We should labor to partake of Gods Image that we might be partakers of his glory we must earnestly desire that Gods glory may be communicated to us that he would send forth his Spirit of glory to rest upon us by which means we shall commend our selves to God Christ the Angels and Saints and our own consciences 3. We must learn to contemplate the glory of God with admiration by this one principally differs from a beast He hath not a capacity to behold the excellency of Gud the Saints in Heaven are even taken up and filled with beholding Gods glory set your eyes round about to behold Gods works and his glory in them so as you may admire God this will make your souls to enjoy God Paul saith In the mystery of the Gospel we behold as in a glasse the glory of God be much in this exercise 4. We must long to go out of this world to behold Gods glory fully Iohn 17. 24. raise up your hearts to heavenly desires wish earnestly to be in Heaven Every one would be willing to go to Heaven when he dyeth but we must desire to leave this life to go thither 5. This should comfort us 1. Against reproaches and contempt in the world if God be glorified we must sacrifice our names as well as our lives to him 2. Against death then we shall no more dishonor God 3. The day of judgement should be longed for because it is Gods glorious day 2 Thess. 1. 10. we run to glorious sights on earth as the Queen of Sheba 6. We should ascribe all glory to God the fountain of glory 1 Chron. 29. 11 12. Psalm 115. 1. God challengeth this from men Give unto the Lord glory and strength give unto the Lord the glory due to his name He is very jealous of his glory and will not suffer the least part of it to be given to the creature 7. Take heed of those Tenets which oppose Gods glory as 1. The lawfulnesse of giving religious honour to images the Popish Doctors have wearied themselves and wracked their brains to coin distinctions how divine worship may be given to Images but the second Commandment forbids Image-worshipping and God acknowledgeth himself a jealous God and saith He will not give his glory to another 2. Attributing too much to our free-will or setting up our merits this is robbing God likewise of his glory Let us first live to his glory and do all for his glory 1. Because he intended it 2. He hath joyned our happinesse and his glory together 3. It is infinitely more worth then all the world 4. It is his condescending that he will take this for glory 5. He will have glory of us against our wills 6. The Creatures glorifie God in their way 7. How much glory do we give to things of an inferior nature 8. God will hereby give us glory We should do all we do for him and to him even to shew forth our apprehension of his name Doing whatsoever good we do and leaving whatsoever evil we leave that we may declare our high esteem of him and make it appear that we do judge and repute him most wise good just excellent worthy all the service that we can do and more too And whatsoever is not thus done with reference to the name of God as the motive and end of it doth want so much of goodnesse as it wants of this reference Nothing is good farther then it hath reference to God the chiefest good If we aim at onely or chiefly and be moved onely or chiefly by temporal benefits and respects of this kinde looking to our selves our deeds are hollow and seemingly good alone not real If we look to our selves alone even in respect of eternal benefits and not above our selves to him and his name that also is but hypocrisie But this is truth to make our ends and motives the same with Gods and to have an eye still above and beyond our selxes even to Gods name that we may cause it to appear to him and our selves and others that we know him and confesse his great name Omnibus operibus nostris coelestis intentio adjungi debet Aquinas It is a great question among the Schoolmen and some of our Divines Whether one should actually propound the rule and intend the end in every service Adam and Christ did so though lapsed man cannot do it it is a duty neverthelesse it is good to do it as often as possibly men can In serious and solemn actions our thoughts should be actual in lesser the habitual intention sufficeth God glorified himself Iohn 12. 28. Christ glorified him his whole life was nothing but a seeking of his Fathers glory Iohn 17. 4. See Phil. 2. 11. the Saints and Angels spend eternity in setting forth his glory Isa. 6. 23. Rev. 4. 10 11. 7. 9 10. all the creatures do glorifie God in their kinde Psalm 145. 10. 148. the worm is not exempted therefore that man saith Chrysostome which doth not glorifie God is baser then the basest worm This is all the first Table of the Decalogue and above half of the Lords Prayer the three first Petitions concern Gods glory and the conclusion likewise hath reference to it We should glorifie God in all conditions in adversity as well as in prosperity Psalm 50. 15. in all the parts of our bodies in our hearts 1 Pet. 3. 15. with our mouthes Rom. 15. 6. in our lives 1 Cor. 6. alt Mat. 5. 16. Let us often think of the personal glory and excellency which the Saints shall enjoy when they come to Heaven 1. In Body 2. In Soul The bodies of the Saints in Heaven shall be 1. Perfect free from all blemishes and every way for the souls use 2. Incorruptible not liable to sicknesse weaknesse mortality 3. Spiritual 1. In regard of state and condition because they shall be upheld by the Spirit of God without the use of meat drink and sleep 2. In regard of quality and operation active and agile as a Spirit they shall move swiftly upward downward any way at the command of the soul. 4. Glorious the bodies of the Saints shall
Gen. 7. 19. Paradise signifieth a Garden the word being translated out of Greek into Latine and so into French and English In Hebrew it is called Heden which signifieth Delights a Garden of all manner of Delights a place beset with all kinde of fruitful and beautiful Trees Paradise was a little model of Heaven and a sign of the great Heaven assuring Adam that if he continued in obedience to God he should be translated into Heaven to enjoy God supernaturally as there he did enjoy him naturally for the Law saying Do this and live means it of everlasting life So Mr Wheatley held but M Ball seems to differ from him in his Book of the Covenant Man was to die if he disobeyed Gen. 2. 17. which implies strongly that Gods Covenant was with him for life if he obeyed In several other Scriptures the promise is annexed This do and live Negatio fundatur in affirmatione the life promised must be answerable to the death threatned that was not only a miserable condition but a separation from God for ever in hell therefore the life promised was not only a happy condition but a translating of Adam to Heaven and his injoying of God for ever there How long Adam should have lived before he had been translated is not determined There is an innate desire in the soul after the full enjoyment of God here this instinct was not put in men in vain Rom. 3. 23. And come short of the glory of God The word signifies to fall short of the race that price and crown he ran for the full and perfect enjoyment of God See Heb. 4. and what man fell short of by sinne if he had not sinned he should have obtained This is the received opinion of Divines That if Adam had not sinned then as soon as the number of Saints had been accomplished men should have been translated from the earth to heaven from their natural life to spiritual life as we reade of Enoch and Elias Heb. 11. 6. 2 King 2. 11. Dr Hampton on Gen. 1. 26. Though Menasseh Ben Israel de fragil hum Sect. 12. saith That common opinion that Enoch was translated with his body and soul to heaven doth not take place with them and saith that R. Solomon Abrabanel Aben Ezra interpret Gen. 5. 24. of a short death See more there There were two special Trees in it one called the Tree of life the other of the knowledge of good and evil Some say it was called the Tree of Life from the effect because of the hidden power and force it had of sustaining and prolonging mans life Although it be a Dispute Whether it had this force as meat to prolong life or as a medicine to prevent death old-age and diseases as likewise whether this power in the Tree were natural or supernatural Vide Menass Ben Israel de fragil hum Sect. 4. Therefore others say it was called so not from the effect but signification because it was an outward sign that God would give them immortality if they did continue It is questioned Whether the Tree of Life was a Sacrament Paraeus answers That it was a Sacrament three wayes First As an admonition to them that the life which they had they had it from God for as often as they tasted of it they were to remember that God was the author of life Secondly As it was a symbol of a better life in heaven if he did continue in obedience Thirdly Sacramentally of Christ as in whom Adam and Angels did obtain life Revel 2. 7. He is called The Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise but that is only allegorical and allusive so that what the Tree of Life was to Adam in innocency the same is Christ to us in our corrupt estate 2. The Tree of Good and Evil. It was not so called from any internal form as if it self were knowing good and evil nor from the effect as if by eating thereof it would have procured wisdom in man and made him wiser nor yet was it called so from the lying promise of the Devil concerning omniscience for God called it so before they met together therefore it was named so from the Event for God by this name fore-told what would follow if man did not abstain from it that he should experimentally know what was good and what was evil he should practically feel what he had lost and what evil he had plunged himself into Some have thought that those words Gen. 3. 24. should not be understood historically but allegorically that is that God gave him no hopes of coming into this place again but the Text contradicts that some have understood by Cherubims some species and images of terrible creatures as we call Scare-crows but that is simple to think that Adam was so childish to be afraid of those others interpret it of the fire of Purgatory The more probable Interpretation is that by Cherubims are meant Angels who did after a visible manner shake up and down this fiery sword Moses doth therefore call them Cherubims because the Jews knew what he meant having such forms over the Ark. Therefore it is taken for Angels not simply but as they appeared in some shape It is a curiosity to enquire how long they staid there although it is certain they ceased when Paradise was destroyed which was by the Floud Therefore this serves 1. For Information to instruct us 1. That every man and woman hath a soul there is a body and a spirit which enlivens and acts the body for all performances of the Compositum we must glorifie God in both 1 Cor. 6. 20. 2. It is immortal by Gods appointing but in it self endable because it hath a beginning that it may be capable of everlasting weal or woe 3. It is so immortal that it admits of no cessation or intermission the Anabaptists say It is asleep when it parts from the body till the day of Resurrection as soon as it leaves the body it goes either to Abrahams bosome or a place of torment This opinion of the souls sleeping is repugnant to the holy Scriptures Luk. 16. 23. Phil. 1. 23 and an heresie long since condemned in the Church The soul lives after death and in a state of separation Psal. 90. 10. and we flee away that is the soul as a bird out of the shell Eccles. 12. 3. Revel 6. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 1 8 9. See Ioh. 17. 22 24. 1 Cor. 13. 12. and B. Halls Invis world l. 2. Sect. 3. 4. At the last day it shall be united with the body and the body raised up for it and both be happy or miserable for ever 2. Be thankful to God that hath given us our souls and redeemed them by the bloud of his Son Propter hanc Deus fecit mundum propter hanc Filius Dei venit in mundum Chrysost. Blesse him especially for soul-mercies Eph. 1. 3. Ioh. 3. 2 4. and let the soul praise him Psal.
divers grounds and roots of Apostacy 1. Unbelief Heb. 3. 12. ult Faith unites the soul to Christ and preserves it in him by it we stand 2. The love of the world 1 Tim. 6. 9. 1 Iohn 2. 15. 3. Living in the practice of a known sin 2 Thes. 2. 10 11. 4. Carnall security 5. Needlesse society with wicked men and base fear Remedies against Apostacy 1. Labour to be well principled in the grounds of Religion 2. Keep your hearts in continual fear Blessed is he that feareth alwaies this will keep a man low in his own eyes Pride of parts and gifts betrayes men to errour 3. Be sincere live up to your knowledge 1 Tim. 1. 19. He that begins in hypocrisie many times ends in Apostacy Blasphemy According to the notation of the Greek word it signifies to hurt ones fame or credit yea in the Hebrew also a blasphemer of God is said to strike through the name of Jehovah Lev. 24. 16. It was so detested of old that whereas it had a name yet they did expresse it by an Antiphrasis and used the word blessing instead of cursing 1 King 21. 10. The Jews were wont to rend their garments at the hearing of the name of God blasphemed Isa. 30. ult 37. 1. Acts 14. 14. to expresse the rending of their hearts with grief and indignation The School Divines thus describe it If one deny any thing concerning God which agrees to him or affirm any thing of him which doth not agree to him or when that is attributed to the creature which belongs to the Creator Vide Aquin. secunda secundae Q. 13. Art 1. The Name of God is blasphemed in regard of the matter and manner In regard of the matter God is blaspheamed two waies either Privatively by taking away from him that which is due unto him and wherein his honour consisteth Or Positively By attributing that unto him which is unbeseeming his Majesty dishonourable to his great Name In regard of the manner when any thing is spoken of God ignominiously contemptuously as Exodus 5. 2. 2 Kings 6. 33. Dan. 3. 15. I would I were able to resist God said Francis Spira Gregory the 9th reckoned three famous impostors of the world Moses Mahomet and Christ. Iulian blasphemed Christ living and dying The Heathens would never suffer their Gods to be blasphemed but punished such as were guilty thereof by the power of the Magistrate Socrates was put to death for blaspheming their multiplicity of Gods Master Burroughes Irenicum chap. 5. The very Turks who account of Christ but as a great Prophet and powerfull in word and deed inflict death upon that man that speaketh blasphemies against Jesus Christ. Hereticks ought to be put to death now as well as false prophets under the law the equity of the judicial law remains of putting blasphemers to death Cartw. against Whit. When Servetus condemned Zuinglius for his harshnesse he answers In aliis mansuetus ero in blasphemiis in Christum non ita In other things I will be mild but not so in blasphemy against God For immediate blasphemy against God himself it was capitall Levit. 24. 16. The Civil law herein followeth the Divine law Blasphemi ultimis suppliciis afficiantur Others have punished this sin with cutting off or plucking out the tongue and that deservedly for that tongue is unworthy ever to speak more that shall dare once to speak against its Creator Lewis the 9th King of France stiled the Saint publisht an Edict for the burning of blasphemous persons in the lips A Noble man having offended in that kinde and being brought to the King many interceded for him that such an infamous punishment might be changed to another The King would not hearken to their requests but said he himself would take it for an honour to be marked so on his forehead if by that means he might drive away that enormous sin out of his Kingdom Helps against it 1. Labour for a distinct well-grounded knowledge in the principles of Christian Religion Iude 10. 2. Receive the love of the truth 2 Thess. 2. 11. 3. Walk in the truth 2 Iohn 4. 2 Cor. 13. 8. 2 Tim. 3. 14. 4. Pray earnestly Iude v. 24. It s a Question among the Schoolmen Utrum damnati blasphement Aquinas thinks it credible that after the resurrection they shall vocally blaspheme as the Saints shall vocally praise God And some say Damnati dum blasphemant Deum in hoc peccant because they are bound to an eternal law After this life the demerit of sin ceaseth you shall give an account for the things done in the body 2 Cor. 5. 10. The soul sins after but shall not be judged for those sins as in heaven good actions Pertinent ad beatitudinis praemium so in hell evil actions Pertinent ad damnationis paenam saith Aquinas in the same place Of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost It is called the great transgression Psal. 19. 12. and blasphemy against the Spirit Matth. 12. Blasphemy against the Spirit is When a man doth maliciously and proudly revile and despite the truth of the Gospel and Word of God which he certainly knoweth It is called the blasphemy against the Spirit because it is against the knowledge wherewith a man is lightened by the Spirit of God Cartw. on Matth. 12. 31. It is called the sin against the holy Ghost not that it is only against the third Person in the Trinity the three Persons make but one Divine Essence but because it is a direct opposition and resistance of the light of knowledge with which the holy Ghost hath enlightened it Non dicitur blasphemia Spiritus ratione personae illius sed ratione propriae ipsius in hominibus energiae quatenus Spiritus Sanctus est is qui in veritatis lucem introducit Rivet in Exod. 30. Vide Thom. Aquin. 2da 2dae quaest 14. Artic. 1 2 3 4. It is called sin against the holy Ghost not in respect of the Essence but of the Office of the holy Ghost this sin is all malice wilfull without any infirmity he being pleased with malice for it selfs sake Capell of Tentat part 2. c. 3. Origen as Bellarm. l 2. de Paenitentia c. 16. alledgeth thought that every sin committed against the law of God after Baptism was the sin against the holy Ghost so Novatus Austen makes it finall impenitency The Shoolmen say any sin of malice It is conceived by some that the presumptuous sin in the old Testament is the same with or answers to the sin against the holy Ghost in the new and that which leads to this apprehension is because no sacrifice was appointed for that under the Law as this is said to be unpardonable under the Gospel Heb. 10. 20. but by Psal. 19. 12. it seems to be a pitch of sinning beyond presumption It is described to be a general Apostacy and revolt of a man wilfully fallen from the truth known even to a malicious persecuting
to God 1. That God might manifest 1. His hatred of the corruptions of his elect 2. The truth of his threatnings In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death 3. The exactnesse of his Justice both in punishing those that are out of Christ when Christ himself suffered so much from his Father and in pardoning his people Rom. 3. 25 26. give Christ unto us but of Justice to pardon those that were in Christ. 4. His mercy mixt with justice to all men that are saved now justice is satisfied and mercy magnified that which is done by our Surety is counted as done by our own persons Secondly In reference to Christ 1. To declare the transcendency of his love rather then we should be forsaken for ever he would undergo for a while the losse of his Fathers love Mat. 27. 46. in his apprehension 2. To shew the reality of his Incarnation he had not only the excellency of our nature but all the common infirmities 3. To shew his great condescention he denied himself in all his glory for a time 4. To declare the compleatnesse of his satisfection he had all manner of calamities in sense and the losse of his Fathers love the Divine Vision was suspended 5. That he might by all this declare himself to be a perfect Mediator Thirdly In reference to Satan That he might answer all his objections he desired nothing more then the death of Christ he had his desire and his Kingdom was overthrown by it Fourthly In reference to his Children That they might have encouragement to come to God by him that they might have strong consolation our remission is more honourable to be forgiven on satisfaction sets the person offended in the same state of Innocency that before our happinesse is more sure being by the bloud of the Son of God Christs death is not only to merit but also to satisfie for there is a difference between merit and satisfaction merit properly respects the good to be obtained satisfaction the evil that is to be removed As a man merits a reward which is good but satisfieth for that fault which is committed 2. Merit properly respects the good of him that meriteth or him for whom he meriteth satisfaction respects the good of him for whom the satisfaction is made Three things make up satisfaction 1. Ordination of the Judge 2. Submission of the Surety 3. Acceptation of the sinner Satisfaction is nothing but that quo alicui plenè satissit This the Scripture expresseth by Redemption Expiation Reconciliation Satisfactionis vocabulum in hoc negotio Scriptura non usurpavit rem tamen ipsam docuit manifestissimé Rivet Disp. 13. de Satisf Christi The word satisfaction is not found in the Latine or English Bibles applied to the death of Christ In the New Testament it is not at all in the Old but twice Numb 35. 31 32. But the thing it it self intended by that word is every where ascribed to the death of our Saviour there being also other words in the original Languages equivalent to that whereby we expresse the thing in hand It is a term borrowed from the Law applied properly to things thence translated unto persons and it is a full compensation of the Creditor from the Debtor Hence from things real it was and is translated to things personal Isa. 53. 12. The word Nasa argueth a taking of the punishment of sin from us and translating it to himself and so signifieth satisfaction so doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by Peter 1 Pet. 2. 24. in the room thereof Mr. Owen of Redemption l. 3. c. 7. Of Christs Priesthood you have heard now you shall hear of his Prophecy a work annexed to Priesthood for the same persons were to teach the people that were to offer up Sacrifice for them although some did teach that might not offer up Sacrifices These Titles are given to Christ in respect of this Office He is called Dan. 8. 13. Palmoni The revealer of secrets The Doctor Matth. 23. 28. Law-giver Jam. 4. 12. Counsellor Isa. 9. 6. Revel 3. 18. Chief Prophet of his Church Act. 3. 22. 3. 37. that Prophet by an excellency Mark 2. 6. John 1. 18. 15. 15. 3. 32. 14. 25. The Angel of the Covenant Mal. 3. 1. The Apostle of our profession Heb. 3. 1. A faithful witnesse Apoc. 1. 5. A witnesse Isa. 55. 4. The light of the Church and of the world Isa. 60. 1. Luk. 2. 32. and The author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12. 2. He is the great Prophet like unto Moses yea farre above Moses whom God hath raised up in his Church to teach them all truth The Prophets Office was to teach the people the things which pertained to their duty that they might please God and attain his promises Now Christ is also the teacher of the Church which taught the will and whole counsel of God concerning our salvation that Prophet whom Moses did foretell and whom the people expected for this end in that time that he lived as the words of the Samaritan woman shew See Deut. 18. 8. Iohn 15. 15. 17. 8. The matter or parts of this prophetical Office was teaching or revealing the will of God This teaching of Christ is double External and Internal externally he taught 1. By the Ministery of his Prophets in the times that went before his coming into the world whom he raised u◠for that end that they might reveal so much of his will as was necessary for them to know Peter telleth us that he spake to the Spirits that were then in prison and that the Gospel was preached to them that were dead meaning his Prophets in former time whom Christ by his Spirit stirred up for that end 2. He taught himself in person when he had taken our flesh upon him for the space of three yeers and a half or as some think of four yeers going up and down and teaching the Doctrine of the Kingdom saying Repent and believe the Gospel and confirming his Doctrine with miracles and signs of all sorts to the astonishment of all that heard the report of them as the Story of the Gospel written by the four Evangelists doth plainly shew 3. He taught by his Apostles Evangelists and Prophets men which he stirred up with extraordinary gifts and power to preach every where sending them out first whilst himself lived into all the Countrey of Iudaea and then after into the whole world and not only so but moving some of them to write in books and leave to the Churches use those holy Scriptures which are the perfect rule of our Faith and Obedience and do sufficiently plainly and perfectly instruct the whole Church and each member of it to the saving knowledge of God and Christ so that if there were never another book extant in the world yet if a man had these writings for all substantial points truly translated into a tongue understood by him and had
and hooting at him out of disdain as accounting him undoubtedly a blasphemous impostor because pretending to be the Messiah from whom they looked for the restitution of their earthly Kingdom he was so farre from doing that as now he could not so they thought deliver himself from the hands of men Then Pilate sets him in balance with a seditious murderer and they require the murderer to be saved and him to be crucified renouncing him and denying him before Pilate as not the lawfull King of the Jews but a grand Impostor and will have no nay but with importunate clamours inforce the timerous Judge to condemn him Now is sentence solemnly pronounced upon him That for as much as he was a Seditious person a Traitor and one that went about to usurp the Kingdom against the Royal dignity of Câ—sars Imperiall Majesty therefore he should be taken by the Roman Officers and led to a place without the City where malefactors used according to the fashion of the Romans with their basest slaves to be nailed to a Crosse and so hang till they were dead No sooner was the sentence passed but that it began to be executed The souldiers seize upon him and having gotten him as a Dove among Kites a Sheep among Lions they sport themselves with mocking deriding and abusing him by words and gestures of counterfeit honour which are the greatest dishonours thereby upbraiding him with folly that would needs make a King of himself To the place of crucifying they lead him bearing his own Crosse till he being spent with watching bleeding wearinesse and grief was no longer able to bear it then they compelled another whom they met to bear one end of it after him So being arrived at the dismall place of dead mens skuls they offer him the potion of malefactors wine mingled with myrrhe as it is thought to intoxicate his brain which he refusing they stretch his hands and legs till all his bones might be told and so nailing one hand to one horn of the Crosse the other to the other and his feet to the stump at the bottom they leave him hanging and that also betwixt two theeves with a scornfull superscription of his fault I. N. R. I. Ierusalem was chosen for the place of his suffering Ibi peractum est verum hoc summum sacrificium ubi reliqua legis sacrificia umbrae istius Ludovic Viv. de verit Fid. Christ. l. 2. c. 15. His soul was filled with unspeakable grief in the sense of the curse of the Law which there he bare and so vehement was his anguish that he cried out for thirst when they gave him the cold comfort of a little vinegar and gall with a scoff to make it relish the bitterer Let us see if Elias will come All the people wagge their heads at him the Pharisees they insult over him with Oh thou that didst destroy the Temple His poor mother and some friends stood by and lamented him till at the end of three full hours he mightily crying did give up the ghost into his Fathers hands So he died a most vile and shamefull death a most hard and painfull a most execrable and cursed death the death of the Crosse. The death of the Crosse was 1. A shamefull death Heb. 12. 2. 13. 13. Isa. 53. 12. A filthy death Alexander ab Alexandro so termeth it Mors turpissima Bernard Therefore Iulian called Christ the crucified or staked God And the Jews continue still in railing on Christ and cursing him and ignominiously call him Talui him that was hanged in which the Christians glory Gal. 6. 14. They teach their children to curse Christ. The Turks mock us at this day with our crucified God He died In medio latronum tanquam latronum maximus He was counted a malefactour by wicked men Matth. 26. 65. Good men lookt on him as an Impostor Luk. 24. 21. God lookt on him as a malefactour Heb. 9. 28. Tully saith Facinus est vincire civem Romanum scelus verberare quid dicam in crucem tollere It is a great offence to binde a Citizen of Rome a greater to beat him the greatest to set him on the Crosse. 2. It is a painfull death He endured the crosse Heb. 12. 2. Christs strong cries like womens in their travell argued strong pain Acts 2. 24. see Lament â— 24. Bruising hath pain Gen. 3. 15. Isa. 53. 10. He was nailed in the hands and feet the most sinewy and sensitive parts Psal. 22. 16. 3. It was a cursed death Gal. 3. 13. that is yielded himself to a cursed death for us so the Fathers glosse it It was a cursed death by the decree and appointment of God Deut. 21. 23. Christs hanging on the Crosse seems to be prefigured by the Heave offering of which the Law makes mention and the brazen Serpent Numb 21. 1. was a Type of Christ crucified Iohn 3. 14 15. 12. 32 33. The reason was That he might free us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. The Prince of darknesse would not let so great an advantage passe without proving once more whether in this last hideous pang of death he might not prevail to have fastened some stain of sinne upon the pure soul of that immaculate and now dying Lamb of God He could not have fitly been said to have triumphed over them on the Crosse if he had not properly grappled and fought with them there wherefore assuredly the whole band of that hellish kingdom of darknesse was let loose upon our Saviour he having at once the Creator and the creatures men and devils against him and yet maintaining himself in perfect faith and patience might indeed make a full satisfaction to the Divine justice for the miserable disobedience of man Christ died for the reprobate five waies 1. By way of proclamation Remission of sins is proclaimed to thee if thou wilt beleeve Luke 24. 47. Act. 13. 38. 10. 43. 2. By way of obligation Thou art bound to beleeve that thy sins may be forgiven thee in Christ Mark 1. 15. Rom. 7. 2. 3. By way of obsignation 4. By way of generall merit Iohn 3. 16. 5. By way of special intention too for all that thou knowest Act. 8. 22. M. Fenners Hidden Manna That is an Argument of great fame but little credit used by the Arminians Quod unusquisque tenetur credere hoc verum c. That which every one is bound to beleeve is true But every one is bound to beleeve that Jesus Christ died for him Therefore it is true that Jesus Christ died for every one The first object of faith is not to beleeve that Christ died for us but that there is salvation in no other Act. 4. 12. To beleeve that Christ died for me is one of the heights of Religion Rom. 8. 33. Gal. 2. 20. Faith is grounded on the word assurance on experience A wicked man going on in sin is not
that is not altogether blind that David and Peter speak of that which happened to Christ after his death Secondly Others say that Christ after his Passion upon the Crosse did really and locally descend into the place of the damned Many of the Ancient Fathers the Papists some Lutherans and Protestants follow this Exposition One Reverend Divine now with God held that Christ descended locally into hell to suffer in his soul the miseries of the damned and urged for his opinion Ephes. 4. 9. where the Apostle saith he makes Christs descending into the lowest parts of the earth in such a kinde of suffering in the locall hell opposite to his ascending farre above all heaven as the highest degree of advancement and lowest degree of abasement that could befall a creature And Acts 2. 24. 31. to take soul said he there for the dead corpse is so hard a kinde of phrase that howsoever it must be yielded to in some places where the circumstances of the place and the thing spoken of compelleth yet so to take it in a place where there is no such necessity seemeth unreasonable The literall text therefore here saith he is agreeable to those texts which speak of Christs sufferings He made his soul a sacrifice for sin which could not be so well done any way as by giving it to suffer the fulnesse of Gods wrath in the place of extreamest torment which might seem to be signifed by burning the sin-offering after it was killed to shew that not alone death was suffered by our Saviour but also the torments of hell and the words of David saith he Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell may very fitly import so much when he speaks of it as of a strange thing that a soul should be in hell and not left there And Peter Acts 2. 24. telling us that God did loose the pains of death might seem to import so much seeing the pains of death may well be interpreted those pains which follow after death and in regard of which to those that know what death is death is only painfull otherwise from the pains of natural death Christ was no more freed neither were they more loosed from him then from every other man seeing every man sees an end of his outward torments by dying Paul also might mean this in mentioning of a cursed death and saying He did bear the curse for us The greatest part of the curse of the Law is To be cast into the place of the damned and into their torments though not into the sinfull things that accompany their torments David as a figure of Christ saith in one Psalm Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell Now the lowest hell is not the grave but the infernal pit which is farre lower then the grave This saith the same worthy Divine commends Gods justice and mercy and Christs love and shews the abominablenesse and vilenesse of our sins more then any thing else could do All this notwithstanding others hold that Christs locall descent into hell is an unwarrantable conceit and contrary to the word of truth and sound reason Vide Sandford de Descensu Christi ad Inferos l. 3. p. 36 c. Neither in the Creed nor Scriptures where mention is made of hell with relation to Christ is the word gehenna used which is alwaies restrained to the hell of the damned but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word designes the state of the dead in generall and is used of all with no difference In all the New Testament it occurres but once Luke 16. 23. where necessarily it signifies the hell of the damned and yet not there from the force and propriety of the word for it is of larger extent but from the circumstances which are there used For as Bucer learnedly notes the rich man is not simply said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in inferno seu in gehennâ because in torments and in flame 2. The Evangelists have professedly delivered to us the History of our Saviour even to his ascension neither yet have they made even the least mention of this his descent into hell which they would never surely have omitted if they had judged it a thing necessary to salvation Moreover blessed Luke in the Preface of his Gospel tels Theophilus That he having had perfect understanding of all things from the first would write to him in order that he might know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed ad verbum in which he had been catechized but of descent ne gry quidem whence it appears that it was no part of the Catechism which Theophilus learnt and certainly knew 3. Blessed Paul 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 4. where he rehearseth certain chief heads of the Gospel which he had preached to the Corinthians rehearseth the death burial and resurrection of Christ but not this descent into hell yet that was a fit place to have rehearsed it in if he had preached any such thing Therefore it is manifest enough that he preached it not nor is it necessary to be known he affirmeth to the Corinthians that which he preached would suffice them to salvation if they were not wanting to themselves 4. If Christ did go into the place of the damned then either in soul or in body or in his Godhead But his Godhead could not descend because it is every where and his body was in the grave till the third day and as for his soul it went not to hell but presently after his death it went to Paradise that is the third heaven a place of joy and happinesse Luke 23. 43. which words of Christ must be understood of his manhood or soul and not of his Godhead Some think by Paradise no certain place is designed but that is Paradise where-ever Christ is and wheresoever God may be seen because therefore the soul of the thief was to follow Christ and to see God it is said to be with him in Paradise Many modern Interpreters saith Sandford de Descensu Christi ad Inferos l. 3. p. 39. much favour this opinion and cite Austin and Beda as Authors of it quam verè ipsi viderint He saith he cannot approve this interpretation whosoever is the Author of it for Christ spake of that Paradise where then he was not But if Paradise be nothing but the place whence God was seen when the thief hung on the Crosse he was in Paradise Paradise is put often for heaven in the new Testament Rev. 2. 7. 2 Cor. 2. 4. There is an analogy between the first and second Adam The first Adam was cast out of Paradise the same day he sinned therefore the second Adam did enter into heaven the same day he made satisfaction Some say that to descend into hell is a popular kinde of speech which sprung from the opinion that was vulgarly conceived of the receptacle of the souls under
was truly dead The women came and sought him but were inform'd by the Angels that he was risen yet could not make the Apostles beleeve it This Peter did preach Acts 2. this Paul preached Acts 13. this Paul inculcateth 1 Cor. 15. and Peter in his Epistle also It is so necessary a point of our Christian Faith that without it all our Faith is vain and falleth to the ground David fore-told it in all the parts of it as Peter interprets him Acts 2. His soul was not left in hell nor did his body see corruption that is putrifie at all A man consists of two parts a soul and a body there can be no resurrection after the separating of these two unlesse the soul be re-united to the body again and both lifted up out of the state of death therefore did the God-head to whom both soul and body were united restore the soul to the body again preserving it from putrifaction that it might be a fit dwelling place for the soul and so having joyned them together the body rose and went abroad and shew'd it self to the Apostles no longer a weak feeble mortal and corruptible body but a glorious impassible incorruptible and most beautiful body for it lost all its imperfections in the grave And this Resurrection fell upon the third day after his death as himself said Iohn 2. 18. the third day he should rise The day began as we ordinarily account howsoever perhaps by special institution the Sabbaths may be accounted to have begun otherwise at the peep of the morning when men begin to stir about businesse then did Christ stirre also he was to lie no longer then the first day of the week because he intended to challenge that day to himself to be the Lords day and the Christian Sabbath whence it came in processe of time to have that name before the third day he was not to rise that he might shew himself truly dead and stay a sufficient while under the arrest of death for the accomplishment of our satisfaction Now this Resurrection was performed by the power of his Deity for all the while that he continued dead his soul and body were both united to the God-head as it were a sword pulled out of the scabberd which the man holdeth still one in one hand the other in the other and so can easily put the same together again For the Apostle saith Rom. 1. 4. He was declared to be the Sonne of God with power according to the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection of the dead that is by that his resurrection which is virtually the resurrection of all seeing by vertue thereof all his people rise to glory Therefore is he termed The first fruits of them that die 1 Cor. 5. 16. And the first begotten from the dead Col. 1. 18. because by vertue of his Resurrection the Saints rise to glory and enjoy from him this prerogative of overcoming death as the first fruits sanctifie the lump and as the first-born hath the priviledge above all the children In time some rose before him but in vertue none for all that rose did rise by the efficacy and merit of him and his rising again And this Resurrection was necessary for divers purposes 1. To make way for his farther Glorification that he might raign as Lord of Lords and King of Kings for he could not have possessed fulnesse of Glory had he not been still in the Sepulchre The soul indeed might have been perfectly glorified but whole Christ could not have been fully glorified if the body had not risen to partake of the glory of heaven with the soul. Now seeing the body was helpful to and in the performance of the work of Redemption suffering great abasement it was not equal that it should be any longer deprived of the reward when once Justice was fully satisfied upon it It was necessary also to fulfill the Prophecies and Types that went before Davids Prophecy Peter presseth Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption the type of Ionah our Saviour telleth of Matth. 12. 40. and both were to be acâ—omplished Lastly It was necessary for the confirmation of our Faith that we might be assured he was the Sonne of God and had perfectly accomplished this great work he undertook therefore Paul saith That he rose again for our justification that is to declare and prove that he had perfectly fulfilled all that was necessary to satisfie for our sins and to procure for us as the Apostle calleth it everlasting righteousnesse When the Surety is apprehended for the Debtor there is no getting out of the Creditors hand till he have discharged the whole debt therefore when the Surety gets out of prison and is at large the debt is fully satisfied so it is in this case so that we could not have rested upon him as a full and perfect Saviour if he had not risen but now our Faith doth evidently acknowledge him to be a perfect Saviour and hath full assurance to ground upon since in him salvation is to be had And for the end and use of this Resurrection it was to quicken our soul first that we might rise to newnesse of life as the Apostle St Peter saith and at length to quicken our mortal bodies too 1 Pet. 4. 5. that the Head being risen the members might rise with him The Resurrection of Christ should work on us so that we should live to him 2 Cor. 5. 15. Ephes. 1. 19 20. and that four wayes From the knowledge of his Resurrection we should be assured 1. That the Lord will raise the Church or us out of our lowest afflictions Hos. 6 2 3. Isa. 26. 19. Ezek 37. 3 4. and that should ingage us to improve all our power for him 2. That Christ hath likewise power to raise up our souls to spiritual life as our first rising is by the life of Christ as he recovered his life so the increase of it is by the improvement of his Resurrection by Faith Phil. 3. 11. Rom. 6. 4 5. 3. It assures us of the Resurrection of our bodies Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 15. Ioh. 11. 24. 4. Of an inheritance and glorious estate 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. Now you have the Doctrin of the Resurrection as the Scriptures deliver the same The second Degree of Christs Glorification is his Ascension which was a change of place a transferring of his glorified body and soul into the upper Region of the world out of this lower room thereof A body cannot be in more places then one because it is circumscriptible and our Saviours body though glorified retaineth yet still the nature of a body though it have laid aside all the natural imperfections of a body and therefore our Saviours body could of it self move upward because it was rid of that grosse weightinesse which doth alwayes accompany a natural compound body Now this Ascension of our Saviour is in Scripture often related two of the Evangelists
this life thus 1. In the letter of it though delivered by never so faithful Ministers it is able to do nothing therefore these things are often preacht and men not bettered when the Spirit accompanies it it is efficacious See Rom. 1. 16. Phil. 2. 15. The preaching of the Gospel is 1. The only means of the revelation of this life 2 Tim. 1. 10. 2. It is the divine seed whereby the Lord conveys this life and begets it in the soul 1 Pet. 1. 23 25. This work of the Gospel consists in five things 1. The preaching of the Gospel opens the understanding makes us see the misery of sinne and the excellency of Christ and the things of God Ephes. 1. 2 Cor. 5. 2. It makes the will and affections to relish Christs sweetnesse perswades the heart to chuse him and consent that God and they may be united in a league of friendship this is the work of faith 3. Turns the heart from all evil wayes it walkt in men are said to be pull'd out of the power of Satan 4. Creates in the soul and stampes in it all the Graces wherein Gods Image stands 5. By administration of the promise and instruction fortifieth the soul and makes one do all things belonging to this life Arminians give too much to man and too little to Christ. Antinomians and Familists give too much to Christ and too little to man They give so much to Christ that they abolish the nature and act of the creature they say Christ must do all and we can do nothing They dream of an insensible motion without us place Grace in a naked apprehension there must be not onely a work for us but in and by us The work of the Father is in heaven of Christ on the Crosse of the Spirit within us Col. 1. 29. They deny not onely mans work but the Spirits work in us Rom. 16. 20. Secondly They say Christ must do all and we after we have received Grace nothing there is not a coordination but subordination of our wils to his grace though at our first conversion we were meerly passive yet when Grace is received we may act motion follows life Col. 2. 4. The Familists deny all inherent graces in the Saints because it is said we do not live but Christ he they say beleeves repents as if we lived not at all and he is formally all habits and graces but the Scripture grants habits and graces to be in a man Iohn 19. 28. Matth. 12. 33. 1 Iohn 3. 9. 2. The sins of our actions then could not be charged on our selves but on the faint operations of his grace Marks and Evidences of spiritual life First Every creature which lives values life A living dog is better then a dead Lion If one values his life he will prize 1. Pabulum vitae Attend on the Ordinances the Word Sacrament Prayer Communion of Saints 1 Peter 2. As new born Babes Cantic 4. latter end 2. He will avoid what is destructive to life Beware of grieving and quenching the Spirit Ephes. 4. 30. 1 Thess. 5. 19. by neglecting the motions of it or noysome lusts 3. He will endure any evil and part with any good rather then part with life Secondly This new life brings alwayes a great change along with it when a childe quickens in the mothers womb she findes a great change so when Paul and Manassâ—h and the blinde man Ioh. 9. were converted unlesse they were religiously trained up as Timothy from their youth Thirdly Sense a spiritual sense in the soul senses exercised savour the things of God Rom. 8. Fourthly Every life hath some kinde of motions and actions that are sutable to it as in this spiritual life 1. That inward work of adhering to Christ as their chief portion the fountain of all their good a true faith 2. Repentance labouring to cast out corruption and to turn to God 3. The Spirit of Prayer You have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby you cry Abba Father Our Law judgeth a childe alive that was heard to cry 4. The minding of heavenly things Col. 3. 1 2. 5. Life hath a sympathy a fellowship with those that are members of the body the same quickning Spirit lives in all Christians weep with them that weep and rejoyce with them that rejoyce 6. If we be regenerated we do that to God which children do to their Father 1. Honour him and stand in awe of him 2. Rely on him as the fountain of all our good as children do on their parentâ— for a supply of all their wants 3. Are obedient to him Motives to live to God 1. It is a dishonour to God when the creature seeks to exalt self that which I make my utmost end I make my God Phil. 3. 10. 2. Consider the self-denial of Christ he came from heaven to do the will of him that sent him Rom. 15. 3. Means of spiritual life 1. Labour to get thy miserable condition by nature set close upon thy spirit how thou art dead in sin 2. Study to get into Christ 1 Iohn 5. 12. onely he can quicken he is never got but by Faith Luke 15. the Prodigal is the pattern of a converted soul. See vers 31. CHAP. XIV The Sanctification of the whole Man Soul and Body VVE should live more to the soul then body Psal. 119. 175. 141. 8. 142. 7. 143. 11. 1. The soul is distinct from the body as the operations of it shew 2. It lives when the body dies Eccles. 12. 7. Mat. 10. 28. 3. It is far better then the body 4. The concernments of the soul are higher then those of the body 1 Pet. 3. beginning 5. The sicknesse and death of the soul is worse then that of the body 1 King 8. 38. Ioh. 8. 21 23. 6. We never live to any purpose but when the soul lives 1. Of the faculties of the soul. Grace spreads it self through all the faculties A faculty is an ability of producing some effect or operation agreeable to our nature and for our good implanted in man by nature There are three reasonable faculties proper to men alone 1. The Understanding by which we know truth 2. The Will by which we desire good 3. Conscience a power of ordering our selves to and with God I. Of the Understanding It is that power which God hath given a man to acquaint himself with the Being Properties and Differences of all things by discourse Or it is that faculty by which we are able to inform our selves of the general natures of things Sense alone perceives particulars the understanding abstracts things and forms in it self the general natures of things I see this or that man but understand the nature of man The Object of it is omne intelligibile Truth in general in the utmost latitude and universality of it is the object of the Understanding good in the general in the universality of its nature is the object of the Will therefore till
unworthily and the scandal given to others Our hearts are deceitful Ier. 17. 9. sinne is deceitful Satan is full of stratagems The holy Ghost often warns us Be not deceived Let no man deceive you James 1. 26. Of all deceit self-deceit is the worst Vers. 28. Examine himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is borrowed from civil affairs For among the Athenians before any were admitted to any office or place of Magistracy they were examined whether they were fit or no. And so let him c. Do it in Christs manner and to his end Eccl. 5. 1. 1 Sam. 16. 5. 2 Chron. 35. 6. The Church of Christ in all ages have required solemn preparation for the Sacrament as the Liturgies and Directories of Reformed Churches shew In the Primitive Church there was rather an excesse then defect Zanchy observes that it was the occasion of instituting of Lent because of their coming to the Sacrament at Easter The ancient Fathers and primitive Christians the night before they received sate up and prayed which they called their vigiliae Reasons First Because of God the Lord and Master of the Feast Iob 13. 11. Prov. 23. 1. Observe five things in that Parable Matth. 22. 1. The King comes to see his guests God observes what hearts we come with into his presence 2. He makes diligent enquiry takes notice of every one personally there was but one without the wedding garment and he could not lie hid 3. Mark his impartiality as soon as he espies him he saith Friend how caâ—â—est thou in hither 4. How inexcusable those are that abuse the Ordinance when he was charged that had not the wedding garment he was silent 5. The rigour and indispensablenesse of the sentence v. 13. Secondly Because of the Feast it self being heavenly and for the soul. At this Ordinance we have the highest and most solemn intercourse with God that we have in any Ordinance we renew not the Covenant in prayer and reading the Word Thirdly Christs practice before his institution doth teach as much in that he washed his Disciples feet Iohn 13. Fourthly Our hearts are naturally prophane and wicked and indisposed to this duty if we were so perfectly holy as we should be we should be ever ready for holy performances but our hearts gather soil exceedingly Purge out the old leaven before you come to eat Christ our Passeover that was sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. What he meaneth by the old leaven he telleth you in the next verse it is the leaven of malice especially that we must be carefull to purge out According to our preparation will our profit be if one come fitly it is a means of a great deal of good Communion with God sealing the Covenant the Lord and we are made friends under seal partaking the body and bloud of Christ. It is like our evidences in the time of trial when our Land is questioned 2 Chron. 30. 3. our hope in the Resurrection lies in this Iohn 6. 54. it seals our initiation and exhibits our growth in Christ. A Sermon will confirm but one particular grace as patience or the like but the Sacrament confirms the body of graces and a man receives an influence of grace into his whole soul. The Apostle in the Conclusion of the 1 Cor. 11. appoints this as a great remedy to prevent the judgement of God for their abuses about the Sacrament to judge our selves 1. Self-abasing will follow self-judging 2. Justifying God Rom. 3. 4. 3. Sin will be bitter to such an one 4. He will not judge others Rom. 14. 3 4. A childe of God may receive unworthily 1. By coming carelesly and negligently to the Sacrament 2. By coming in the guilt of any one sin unrepented of Fifthly Because of the danger of coming unprepared Matth. 22. the Devil will enter into â—s as into Iudas Luk. 22. 3. compar'd with Iohn 13. 27. If we receive not Christ we receive Satan Cyprian saith of the Lords Supper Pâ—tro remedium Iudae venenum 1 Cor. 11. 17. 27 29 36. The staying away will not prevent the danger Matth. 22. those that would not come to the Supper when invited were destroyed as well as those that came without the wedding garment Not to come is to starve our souls to come unworthily is to poison them One is said to be guilty of the bloud of Christ 1 Cor. 11. 27. that is a murtherer of Christ divers wayes 1. Christ is really present though not corporally and locally he looks upon the injury done to the Elements as done to himself if one wrong insignia majestatis the Kings coin or the like it is treason 2. The same bent and disposition of heart that carries a man to prophane the Elements would carry him to crucifie Christ Christ is sacramentally united to the bread and wine 3. In the Sacrament Christ is set forth as crucified Gal. 3. 1. Isa. 53. 6. our sins crucified him he whose heart is not affected with such an object allows the deed of the Jews is an accessary post factum 4. There is a great resemblance between Iudas his act and yours 1. He was a Disciple so thou a Christian. 2. He did betray Christ for a small matter Zech. 11. 10 11. so thou preferrest a base lust before him 3. He betrayed him with a kisse thou at the Sacrament 5. Thou wouldst make Christ die in vain Christs death is useful for satisfaction and sanctification satisfaction of Gods wrath and sanctification of our hearts we trample his bloud under our feet as unholy that is common Vers. 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation or judgement to himself Damnation if he be a reprobate and impenitent hypocrite judgement though he be regenerate and a true beleever M. Hilders God punisheth this sin in his children with inward and outward chastisements The Lord abhors the like offence in the Sacrifices Mal. 1. 7. This worthy receiving is not a legal worthinesse Secundum absolutam dignitatem wherein one can plead that the thing he doth deserves the thing he would have but an Evangelical worthinesse Secundum divinam acceptationem The original of all our worthinesse is the change of the Covenant Exod. 12. 43. Every man by nature is under the Covenant of works he that was uncircumcised might not partake of the Jewish Passeover Circumcision notes two things 1. A change of the Covenant 2. Sanctification of a mans nature Col. 2. 11. He that was uncircumcised was out â—of Abrahams Covenant and unregenerate This change of the Covenant comes by the change of your Head your union with Christ Gal. 3. ult Corpus Christi non edunt qui de corpore Christi non sunt We must seriously examine our state whether we be in the state of grace 2 Cor. 12. 5. The children of God mistrust their own searching and desire God to search them Psal. 139. lat end Thou must be a new
repentance When God called his people to renew their Covenant there was a special humiliation before Ezra 8. 21. Isa. 6. When Ioshua was called to build the Temple and be an high-Priest to God Zech. 3. When they were to come to the Sacrament they were to examine themselves thorowly and judge themselves so Exod. 19. 14. Else our unworthinesse may stand as a bar that we shall not comfortably go on in the work of the Lord Gen. 35. begin Fourthly When we look to receive any special mercy when we either need or expect by vertue of a promise that God will do some great thing for us as Isaac when he lookt for his Fathers servant to return with a wife Dan. 9. The whole Chapter is the humblest exercise of repentance that we reade of the occasion was he expected that the Lord would now break the Babylonian yoke Moses called the people to deep humiliation and repentance when they were to possesse the Land of Canaan Fifthly The time of death when we expect our change then is a special time for the exercise of the duty of repentance that is a fitter time to finish then begin repentance then we should specially look to our hearts and examine our wayes It was the commendation of the Church of Thyatira that their last works were best and it is the last time that we shall have to do with repentance we carry love and joy to Heaven and most of the Graces except Faith and Hope there shall be no use of them when we go hence we go to the greatest Communion with God that the creature is capable of Esther the night or two before she went to lie with Ahashuerus was most carefull to have her body perfumed and oiled Motives to provoke us to the practice of Repentance two especially which are the great Motives to any duty 1. The necessity of it 2. The Utility of it I. The Necessity of it Repentance is necessary to remission 1. Necessitate praecepti Ezek. 18. 30. 2. Necessitate medii one must condemn his sinne and loath himself and prize a pardon afore he obtain it Ezek. 20. 43. Luke 7. 47. The Schoolmen demand why repentance should not make God satisfaction because it hath God for its object as well as sin 2 Cor. 7. 10. The offence takes it measure from the object the good duty from the subject therfore Christ only could make satisfaction It is necessary because every man must appear before the judgement seat of Christ and receive an everlasting doom and our plea must then be either that we have not sinned or else that we have repented Except ye repent ye shall all perish while one remains impenitent his person and services are abominable in the sight of God Isa. 1. Isa. 66. liable to all the curses written in the book of God The Jews have a Proverb saith Drusius Uno die ante mortem poenitentiam agas Repent one day before death that is every day because thou maist die tomorrow There is an absolute necessity of Repentance for a fruitful and worthy receiving of the Sacrament First Without this there can be no true desire to come to this Supper Faith is the hand Repentance the stomack by a sight of sin we see our want and need of Christ. Secondly Without it there can be no fitnesse to receive Christ. We must eat this Passeover with bitter herbs Thirdly All should labour to have assurance of the pardon of their sins This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud for the remission of sins without repentance there is no remission Act. 5. 31. Fourthly Because sinne is of a soiling nature and doth deâ—ile Gods Ordinance to a mans soul and if we come in sinne we cannot profit by the Lords Ordinance II. The Utility of it The Necessity of it should work on our fear the Utility of it on our love the two great passions of the soul. First It is infinitely pleasing to Almighty God Luke 15. per totum the intent of three Parables there is to shew what content it is to God to see a sinner to turn from his evil wayes him that had lost his Groat his Sheep and the Prodigal Sonne Secondly The benefit of it is unspeakable to thine own soul. 1. It will remove all evil 1. Spiritual all the guilt of sinne and the defilement of it 1 Iohn 1. lat end Isa. 1. 16 17 18. no more prejudice lies against thee then if thou hadst never sinned against him Mary Magdalen was infamous for her uncleannesse yet Christ first appeared to her after he rose from the dead all the curses due to sin are laid on Christ. 2. Outward Evil When I speak concerning a Nation if they repent I will repent of all the evil I thought to do See Ioel 2. 2. Bâ—ing all Good it brings Gods favour that flows on the soul God hath promised grace and means of grace to such Ier. 3. 13 14 15. Prov. 1. 23. temporal blessing Iob 22. Everlasting life is their portion it is called Repentance unto life Act. 11. 18. Unto Salvation 2 Cor. â—1 10. it is a means conducing to that end Means of Repentance 1. Diligently study to know how miserable your state is without it reade over thy doings that have not been good every day See the evil and danger of sin Acts 2. 21. 3. 17 18. 26. 18. Ier. 31. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 25. 2. Repentance is the gift of God he granted also repentance to the Gentiles beg earnestly at Gods hand that he would make sin bitter to thee and cause thee to hate it Zech. 12. they mourned apart then God poured on the house of David the Spirit of supplication Ier. 3. 18. Turn me Lord and I shall be turned 3. Attend upon the Ministery of the Word the preaching of the Word is called the word of Repentance the preaching of the Law Gods word is a hammer to break the hard heart especially the preaching of the Gospel the discovery of Christ They shall look on him whom they have pierced Rom. 2. The goodnesse of God should leade thee to repentance 4. Faith in the bloud of Christ when thou seest thy self lost and undone venture thy self upon the free grace of God revealed in the Gospel faith in Christ will purifie the heart Acts 15. that is instrumentally the holy Ghost is the principal agent You have received the Spirit by the preaching of faith Three things are required in Repentance 1. The sight of sin by the Law 2. Hearty and continual sorrow for sin by considering the filthinesse and desert of it Gods judgements due for sin his mercies bestowed on us Christs suffering for our sins our own unthankfulnesse notwithstanding Gods benefits 3. Amendment an utter and well-advised forsaking of all sin in affection and of grosse sin in life and conversation Renewing of Repentance lies 1. In renewing a mans humiliation and godly sorrow 2. In renewing his obligation to duty The
adultery when one alone either man or woman is married and the other not married as if Ioseph had abused his Mistresse here if the woman were either married or contracted both were to die if the woman be single we reade no Law of death there is also a double adultery when both the man and woman are married as David and Bathsheba which deserves death also by the Law so married folks do break this Law in regard of others Also secondly in regard of themselves both for the entrance into matrimony and use of it for entrance by a sinfull choice and a sinful proceeding Choice if one choose one within degrees prohibited as he in Corinth his fathers wife his step-mother or one formerly contracted and not justly severed from another Also for manner of proceeding when it is without consent of parents such a marriage is unlawful And so much for the breach in the entrance in the use it is by aversnesse to each other and by abuse These are the things directly forbidden in this Commandment indirectly there are forbidden all occasions of filthinesse and all appearances of it occasions to ones self and others To others by garish and overcostly attire especially the manner of the attire when it is light and fantastical also by impudent and immodest carriage Occasions of lusts to ones self are chiefly three 1. Idlenesse and sloth when men do give themselves leave to neglect their calling this we have examples of in Sodom David and this the Heathens by light of nature have discovered Quaeritur Aegystus quare sit factus adulter In promptu causa est desidiosus erat Secondly Intemperance provokes and nourisheth lust whether it be in meat or drink the Sodomites after fulnesse of bread fell to strange flesh especially drinking wine and strong drink to the inflaming of the body Drunkennesse and uncleannesse commonly go together Hosea 4. 11. Ephesians 5. 18. Iames 5. 5. 1 Pet. 4. 4. Reasons 1. The body is enflamed and the minde then made uncapable of those wise and holy considerations which should resist Satans temptations wine takes away the heart the reason turns a man into a Swine and then into a Goat or Horse 2. Intemperance banisheth modesty which is the keeper of chastity Prov. 47 8 13. Tit. 2. 3. Thirdly Another occasion of lust to ones self is indiscreet venturing upon solitary places chiefly in the dark and conversing with such persons as a man findes himself inclin'd unto in this affection for then is a man out of Gods protection then the Angels cease to guard him and the Spirit to confirm him These be occasions of evil appearances also are light behaviour light attire suspected company Lust is 1. Unseemly for man it makes us unlike God and the holy Angels Alexander knew by two things that he was not God by his lust and sleep 2. It makes us unlike Christians and like Heathens 1 Thess. 4. 5. The Turks keep their Festival-day on Venus-day and the happinesse they did look for is a Paradise of bodily pleasures nay this makes you like the beasts 2. Full of vanity it doth not satisfie Ezek. 16. 18 29 30. Messalina was tired but not satisfied with her lust 3. Full of vexation how many are the fears jealousies and quarrels in the pleasures of lust CHAP. IX The eighth Commandment THou shalt not steal THe sixth Commandment gave charge for preservation of mans life the seventh for the honesty and chastity of the body to keep it holy and undefiled now the Lord cometh a degree lower and sheweth that he doth not onely care for our lives and for our bodies that they may be kept holy but also for our goods and cattel our corn our wares our gold and silver and whatsoever they have that they may be in safety This Commandment enjoyneth men a due carriage in regard of worldly goods This carriage is 1. Inward in judgement will thought affections 2. Outward which concerns the goods of every mans self and of others For our own goods in regard of getting keeping using For getting here is required the having of a lawful Calling and using it lawfully with diligence discretion cheerfulnesse and moderation For keeping is required thrift for using liberality Now for the goods of others there is required justice that is the vertue of giving every one his own The common rules of which are Do as you would be done to and Serve each other in love and the parts are truth and fidelity plainnesse and equity There are several kinds of Iustice. 1. Commutative consisting in a right exchange of one thing for another the principal sorts of which are 1. Buying and selling 2. Setting and letting with taking 3. Borrowing and lending 4. Hiring and labouring for hire 5. Partnership 2. Distributive Iustice stands in a right division and parting of things all things civil in four chief things Matter of Law about meum and tuum publick Lands and Stocks publick Payments and forfeitures and in things sacred Things profane and common wherein we have to deal with man must be rightly distributed and so must things sacred wherein the Lord of Heaven is interessed But one observes that it is an error to be noted among the Expositors of the Decalogue that they rank Sacriledge as a sin of the eighth Commandment when it is a sin of the first Table and not of the second a breach of the loyalty we immediately owe to God and not of the duty we owe to our neighbour To steal or alienate that which is sacred is to rob God not man for he is the proprietary of things sacred Mal. 3. 8 9. He that commits this sin indirectly and by consequent robbeth men too viz. those who live of Gods provision Iulian the Apostate robbed the Church of the Revenues thereof and took away all contributions to Schools of learning that children might not be instructed in the liberal Arts nor in any other good literature He exaggerated also his Sacriledge with scornful jests saying that he did furthâ—r their salvation by making them poor seeing it was written in their own Bibles Blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven All manner of stealing is expresly forbidden Ier. 7. 9. Ephes. 4. 28. Theft is a taking away secretly of another mans goods the owner not knowing of it One is guilty by consenting and agreeing with a thief Rom. 2. or giving him counsel or hiding his fact This is so peculiar a sin in servants as the Latine words which now signifie theeves did at first signifie servants onely as fur was a servant Quid facient Domini audent cum talia fures So latrones robbers were first those which did à latere stipari Object God commands the Israelites to borrow of the Egyptians Exod. 3. 22. to borrow and not to pay is a sin against this Commandment Psal. 37. 21. Answ. 1. The use onely of things is in us the propriety is
but the faithful which died before Christs ascension Revel 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth presently from the time of death 1. Christs death was efficacious to believers before his coming as well as since Heb. 13. 8. 2. The faithful before Christ expected heaven when this life was ended Heb. 11. 11 14 15 16. 3. The believing thief was with Christ in Paradise that day Luk. 23. 43. which Bellarmine de Beatitud Sanctorum l. 1. c. 3. interprets to be heaven this was before Christs Ascension Luke 16. 23 26. Abrahams bosome is a place of comfort for Abraham was there comforted 2. There is a great Chaos which signifies an infinite distance between Abraham and the rich glutton which utterly overthrows the dream of Limbus which signifies a border or edge and supposeth that place to be hard adjoyning to that of torment CHAP. IV. Of Everlasting Life THe last prerogative of the Church is Life Everlasting which being the summe of all desires is fitly placed in the last place Here are two things 1. Life it self 2. The continuance of life noted in the word Everlasting See Acts 13. 48. Eternal life is three wayes promised 1. As the free gift of God without any respect of any worthinesse in us Rom. 6. ult Iam. 1. 12. 2. As our inheritance purchased by Christ Ephes. 1. 14. 3. As a free reward promised and given to obedience Rom. 6. 22. In the first respect our salvation and all the degrees is wholly to be ascribed to the gracious favour of God in Christ. In the second to the mercy of God and merit of Christ. In the third to the mercies of God redoubled and multiplied upon us and not to any desert of ours B. Down of Justification lib. 2. cap. 4. Life is that whereby any thing acteth liveth and moveth It is either natural or spiritual and that last hath two degrees the life of grace and glory First That there is everlasting life is proved 1. From the love of God to his servants that is everlasting 2. Because God will be eternally glorified 3. It is the aim of the Saints 1 Cor. 1. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 9. It is 1. A transcendent or surpassing life it exceedeth natural and spiritual life 2. A satisfying life Psal. 17. 15. there shall be all good and perfect good and perfectly injoyed God shall be all in all he is a satisfaction to himself much more to us 3. A glorious life there is a glorious God a glorious Christ there are the glorified Saints and Angels 4. A most joyful life Enter thou into thy masters joy we shall delight in God and he in us 5. Eternal life eternity heightens either happinesse or misery It is called eternal life not properly but by a Catachresis it hath a beginning but no end it is not temporary defined by any certain term obnoxious to any change it shall continue for ever without end Some question Whether one may propound eternall life as an end to aim at It is lawful for Christians that most deny themselves to make eternal life the great scope they aim at nay it is needful for them so to do 1. From the glorious precepts of God obliging the soul to propound such an end 1 Tim 6. 12 19. Phil. 2. 12. 2 Pet. 1. 10. 1 Cor. 9. 24. 2. The promises of God encouraging Matthew 5. 11 12. 1 Timothy 4. 8. Matth. 19. 28. 3. We have the presidents of believers that denied themselves in this world Heb. 11. 24 25 26. v. 35 36. Iude v. 21. 4. Eternal life was Gods end Heb. 2. 10. 1 Pet. 3. 8. It was the end of Christs incarnation suffering ascention intercession Iohn 10. 10. 17. 24. we should aim at Gods end 5. It was Gods design from all eternity to bring men to eternal life 1 Cor. 2. 7. 6. The great condition on which God promiseth eternal life is that we might seek and endeavour after it Rom. 2. 7. 7. We are much concerned in it What proportion is there between time and eternity How to know whether we make eternal life the end of this life 1. Then we will have high thoughts of eternity the comforts that are eternal are worth regarding and the miseries that are eternal should chiefly be avoided 2. We will then seriously enquire after the way to heaven Ier. 50. 5. Ps. 16. ult David often begs of God to teach him his waies 3. We will then make it our main work to come to heaven Phil. 3. 11 13 14. one thing is necessary 4. We will be content with no reward on this side eternal life Psal. 17. lat end 41. 4. 5. We will rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God 2 Tim. 4. 8. Titus 2. 13. Iude v. 21. 6. It will be our aim then to overcome the fear of death 7. We will often review our evidences for heaven Heb. 2. 11. and desire God to search and try us Psal. 139. ult It is a Question An sancti fruantur beatitudine ante ultimum judicium It was a current opinion among most of the Fathers if not all That the souls of men after their death do not go immediately to heaven but are in a receptacle or mansion-place till the day of Judgement and some of late have followed it especially the Anabaptists The souls immediately departed have not the compleat fulnesse of that happinesse which they shall have yet they are not excluded from the enjoying of God Luk. 23. 43. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Phil. 1. 23. Some say there is a difference of those that are raised again as Lazarus and some others for it is likely say they that their souls went not into heaven but were detained by God who would unite them again to shew forth his glory The accidental joy of the Saints say the Schoolmen shall be greater both extensively because it shall be in soul and body and intensively because the soul shall rejoyce to see the body glorified 2. The essential glory shall increase extensively because it shall redound unto the body The souls of the godly immediately after their departure hence from the body are said to be in rest Heb. 4. 11. in consolation Luke 16. 25. in security Iohn 11. 15 18. therefore they presently go to heaven to God and Christ. Consider the names given to the state of glory it is called Life These shall enter into life Rest finde rest go to rest our home our Fathers house a purchased and glorious inheritance A Kingdom the Kingdom of heaven Ioy our Masters joy everlasting joy Glory weight of glory eternal weight of glory The City of our God The Scripture cals it Paradise a place of all delight and pleasure alluding to that Paradise planted by Gods own hand to make it a delight for the innocent state of man and Abrahams bosom wherein the Saints receive refreshing which is a borrowed speech taken from Fathers carrying and cherishing their little
word all wanton and uncleanly speeches phrases songs that may be and is called wanton which tends to satisfie unlawful lust in ones self and to provoke it in another Words that may enkindle and enflame grosse words tales of unclean acts and sonnets that have such a kinde of description of those actions as tend to set the minde on fire with them This is that which the Apostle cals rotten communication when he saith Let no corrupt or rotten communication come out of your mouths and again It is a shame to name the things that are done of them in secret When a man talks of any impure action with delight when he maketh mention of any impure part or deed with intent to stirre up others especially when he doth sollicite another unto this deed by such speeches or means this is an horrible sinne for nothing then stands betwixt words and deeds but want of opportunity This is the breach of this Commandment in Word Now follows the breach of it in Act or in Deed. And that is in regard of things leading to the action or the action it self 1. In regard of things leading to the action there is wantonnesse or lasciviousnesse so the Scripture cals it in the several parts of the body the eye the ear the foot the hand And 2. In the whole body as all impure imbracings and kissings which is called by the Apostle dalliance or chambering and mixed dancing of men and women especially if it be a wanton dance with a wanton ditty Thus is this Commandment broken by actions leading to the leud deed Now by the deed it self either out of Matrimony or in Matrimony Out of Matrimony by two sins 1. Uncleannesse 2. Fornication Uncleannesse is all strange kinde of pleasure by this act where it is done otherwise then according to the rule of nature this is either with others or with ones self There is a self-pollution 1. Speculative in wicked and unclean thoughts therefore God is said to be The searcher of the heart and reins which are the center of those lusts Matth. 5. 28. 2. Practical in unclean acts Some Divines say polluting of ones self is a greater sinne then the polluting of others because it is against a greater relation but in polluting others they pollute themselves therefore that is the greatest sinne Fornication is when two single persons that have not entred into a Covenant of Marriage do abuse each others bodies It is called Fornication à fornicibus in quibus Romae solebant meretrices prostrare from the vaulted houses where such strumpets used to prostitute themselves 1 Cor. 6. The Apostle hath several arguments there to prove fornication to be a great sin vers 13. 1. It crosseth the end of Gods Creation The body is not for fornication but for the Lord. A third Argument is drawn from the glorious resurrection vers 14. glory and immortality shall be put on the body therefore it should not be polluted here A fourth Argument is drawn from the spiritual relation between the body and Jesus Christ it is a member of his mystical body ver 15. A fifth from the spiritual Union between the body and the Lord vers 16 17. A sixth from the intrinsecal pollution that is in the sinne of fornication above other sins vers 18. No sins are more against ones own body A seventh Argument is taken from the inhabitation of the Spirit in them vers 19. They are dedicated to the Lord no unclean thing might come into the Temple when it was dedicated to the Lord 1 Cor. 3. 17. The eighth is drawn from the voluntary resignation that the people of God have made of themselves soul and body unto God Ye are not your own vers 19. therefore Gods it is an act of justice suum cuique tribuere The ninth is drawn from the act of redemption v. 20. You are bought with a price Christ hath purchased the body as well as the soul therefore you should gratifie God with both It is a fearful sinne No fornicatour shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor. 5. 11. 6. 9. Reasons 1. It is a cause of many other sins Prov. 23. 28. 2. A punishment of other sin Eccles. 7. 26. Prov. 22. 14. Rom. 1. 24 26 28. 3. It is directly opposite to sanctification 1 Thess. 4. 3 4 5 7. 4. No sinne is committed with such delight and pleasure as this is and therefore it must bring in the end more bitternesse to the soul therefore the Scripture speaks so often of the bitternesse of this sinne Heb. 12. 15 16. Iob 13. 26. These tricks of youth will be bitter to men one day Prov. 5. 3 4. Eccles. 7. 27 28. See Iob 3. 12. Prov. 6. 30 31. Heb. 13. 4. Rev. 21. 8. The Turks thus punish whordom they take the paâ—ch of a beaâ—â— new killed and cutting a hole thorow thrust the adulterers head in this dung-wallet and so carry him in pomp thorow the streets Some Countreys punish it with whipping others with death The punishment which in the Old Testament was appointed to be executed against it by the Civil Magistrate was death Levit. 20. 10. Thus is this Commandment broken out of marriage in marriage it is broken by the married in regard of others or themselves In regard of others by the sinne of adultery which is coming near another mans husband or wife For whoremongers and adulterers God will judge and those that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of Heaven He that committeth this sinne doth his neighbour greater wrong then if he had robbed and spoiled him of all other his goods and possessions whatsoever Therefore the Lord in the Decalogue hath placed that Commandment as a greater before that of theft and Salomon Prov. 6. 30 35. maketh the Adulterer farre worse then a thief because he may make satisfaction to a man for the wrong he hath done him so cannot the Adulterer That is a dreadful Text Prov. 2. 19. The mother of Peter Lombard the Master of the Sentences and Gratian the Collector of the Decrees and Peter Comestor an Authour of School-Divinity was but a whore and she being near unto death confessed her sinne and her Confessour reproving the crime of her adultery committed and exhorting her to serious repentance she answered she confessed adultery was a great sinne but when she considered how great a good followed thence since those her sons were great lights in the Church she could not repent of it A Papist in Queen Maries time taken in adultery in Red-Crosse-street said Yet I thank God I am a good Catholick Sylla sirnamed Faustus hearing that his Sister had entertained two adulterers into her service at once which were Fulvius Fullo and Pomponius whose sirname was Macula he put it off with a jest upon their names Miror inquit sororem meam Maculam habere cum Fullonem habet Of this sinne there are two kindes First Single
one another this company adds to their misery Of Purgatory Limbus Infantium Patrum Because the Papists divide hell into four regions 1. The hell of the damned the place of eternal torment 2. Purgatory where they say the souls of such are as were not sufficiently purged from their sins while they were upon earth and therefore for the thorow purging of them are there in torment equal for the time to that of the damned 3. Limbus Infantium where they place such Infants as die without Baptism whom they make to suffer the losse of heaven and heavenly happinesse and no pain or torment 4. Limbus Patrum where in like manner the Fathers before Christ as they hold were suffering no pain but only wanting the joyes of heaven and because I have not yet spoke of these I shall handle them here being willing to discusse most of the main controversies betwixt us and the Papists Of Purgatory Bellarmine saith there are three things to which the purging of sins is attributed and which may therefore be called Purgatories 1. Christ himself Heb. 1. 3. 2. The tribulations of this life Mal. 3. 3. Iohn 15. 2. 3. A certain place in which as in a prison souls are purged after this life which were not fully purged in this life that so they being cleansed may be able to enter heaven into which no unclean thing shall enter about this saith he is all the controversie Therefore whereas we distinguish the Church into militant here on earth and triumphant in heaven he adds and labouring in Purgatory We believe no other purgation for sinne but only by the bloud of Jesus Christ 1 Iohn 1. 7. through the sanctification of the holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. The Papists charged Luther that he spake of Purgatory such a Purgatory there is said he meaning temptation Hoc Purgatorium non est fictum If there be a Purgatory it should be as well for the body as the soul because it hath been partaker of those pleasures and delights for which the souls pay dear in Purgatory fire but they deny any Purgatory for the body Epiphanius saith Thus shall the judgement of God be just while both participate either punishment for sinne or reward for vertue Origen excepted all the expressions of the Fathers this way appear clearly to have been understood not of a Purgatory but only of a Probatory fire whether they meant that of affliction or of the day of Judgement My L. Digby in his answ to Sir Ken. Digb We say with Augustine We believe according to the authority of God that the kingdom of heaven is in the first place appointed for Gods elect and that hell is the second place where all the reprobate shall suffer eternal punishment Tertium locum penitus ignoramus imò nec esse in Scripturis sanctis invenimus The third place we are utterly ignorant of and that it is not we finde in the holy Scriptures It is not yet agreed among the Papists either for the fire or the place or the time of it only thus farre they seem at length to concurre that souls do therein satisfie both for venial sins and for the guilt of punishment due unto mortal sins when the guilt of the sin it self is forgiven Dr. Chaloner on Matth. 13. 27. See Dr. Prid. Serm. 2. on Matth. 5. 25. pag. 58. to the end Mr. Cartwrights Rejoynd pag. 34◠c. Ezek. 18. 22. Micah 7. 18. 1 Iohn 1. 2. Rom. 8. 1. If our sins shall not be so much as mentioned surely they shall not be sentenced to be punished with fire Ier. 50. 20. From which Text we thus argue All their sins whom God pardoneth shall be found no more then to be purged no more especially after this life The learned Romanists generally accord That Purgatory fire differeth little from hell but in time that the one is eternal the other temporal they believe it to equalize or rather exceed any fiery torment on earth The Apostle calleth the Church the whole family in heaven and earth whence we reason thus All the family whereof Christ is head is either in heaven or upon earth Now Purgatory is neither in heaven nor upon the earth but in hell wherefore no part of the Family of Christ is there Papists will not grant that God imputeth to us the merits and sufferings of his Sonne although the Scripture is expresse for it and yet they teach that merits and satisfaction by the Pope may be applied to us and that they satisfie for our temporal punishments Purgatory is described by Gregory de Valentia and Bellarm. l. 2. de Purgat cap. 10 11. 14. to be a fire of hell adjoyning to the place of the damned wherein the souls of the faithful departing in the guilt of venial sins or for the more full satisfaction of mortal sins which have been remitted are tormented which torment is nothing differing from the punishment of the damned in respect of the extremity of pain but only in respect of continuance of time which may be ten or a hundred or three hundred years or longer except they be delivered by the prayers Sacrifices or alms of the living And the confession of this Purgatory saith Bellarmine lib. 1. de Purgat cap. 11. is a part of the Catholick Faith The principal places of Canonical Scripture which they urge for it are these In the Old Testament Psal. 66. 12. Isa. 9. 18. Micah 7. 8. Zech. 9. 11. Mal. 3. 2. In the New Matth. 5. 25 26. Luk. 16. 6. Acts 2. 24. 1 Cor. 3. 11 13. 1 Cor. 15. 29. 1 Pet. 3. 19. All which places have been taken off by learned Papists And also by Calvin in his Institut lib. 3. cap. 5. and Chemnit in his Examinat Concil Trident. and others If the Scriptures before urged had been so evident for Purgatory Father Cotton the Jesuite needed not to have enquired of the devil a plain place to prove Purgatory as some of the learned Protestant Divines in France affirm I shall conclude therefore with that saying of Bishop Iewel in his Defence of the Apology of the Church of England part 2. cap. 16. The phantasie of Purgatory sprang first from the Heathens and was received amongst them in that time of darknesse long before the coming of Christ as it may plainly appear by Plato and Virgil in whom ye shall finde described at large the whole Commonweal and all the orders and degrees of Purgatory Of Limbus Infantium Patrum Limbus signifies a border or edge and is not used in the Scripture nor any approved Author in their sense Limbus Infantium is a peaceable receptacle for all Infants dying before Baptism This is so groundlesse a conceit that the very rehearsal of it is a sufficient refutation Limbus Patrum is a place where the Papists say the souls of the godly that died before Christ were But Col. 1. 20. God could reconcile none to him in heaven