light and be a peculiar people to him zealous of good works walking worthy of the Lord which is by pleasing him in all things we must be ravished with zeal towards him as he hath been for our good The zeal of the Lord of Hostes hath done it Oh how this rebuketh the scant duty that God hath from us again We receive abundant mercy but return poor sparing obedience what slender zeal in Prayer or works of mercy How quickly are we weary of well-doing What small things will we stick at to God that stuck at nothing to us If he should call us to part with our Goods Country Liberty it were no more then Christ did for us yea if to dye did not he even dye for us It teacheth us also to shew mercy one to another in giving forgiving and the like herein the Lord himself going before us as a patern of imitation It sheweth also the miserableness of our estate that without abundant mercy we can never be saved therefore must we seek for it earnestly and betimes as becometh those that need such an infinite thing which condemns the notable carelesness and desperate boldness and presumption of the World that put off seeking for mercy till the latter end as if they had it at command But do they think abundant mercy is so easily gotten Many have not found it so nay they shall with Esau howl for the blessing and go without it because they despised it when it was so often offered The foolish Virgins sought to enter in when it was too late By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead The means whereby we are begotten to this hope namely the Spirits assuring that Christ Jesus is risen for us and giving us power through his resurrection to rise to newness of life The benefits that come to us by Christs resurrection are many 1. We are hereby assured that he hath fully paid our debt and discharged all for if one sin had remained unsatisfied for the justice of God could not have suffered him to have risen again 2. Hereby we receive power to rise to newness of life 3. Hereby we are assured of the resurrection of our bodies at the last day The same power that did the one shall be able to do the other The head being risen will draw all the members after it We should therefore often meditate on our Saviour Christs resurrection and the benefits thereof especially on the Lords-day the day whereon he rose again by which very day we are put in minde thereof and among other things we must labor by Faith to draw vertue from his resurrection whereby we may be more and more enabled to walk in newness of life for as our Regeneration hath two parts a dying unto sin and rising to newness of life so have these two springs Christs death and his resurrection Verse 4. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that faâ—eth not away reserved in Heaven for you HEre he explains what we are called to namely the lively hope of the Kingdom of Heaven which as it is here termed an Inheritance so is it in the next verse Salvation This is called an inheritance to shew us the nature of it being also described by sundry properties under divers-phrases as if no words could sufficiently express the same Those shew the perpetuity and purity thereof as also how we shall come by it it s reserved for us but where in Heaven where it s out of danger but how shall we come to it being here on earth among many dangers We are kept for it and that by a mighty hand even the power of God by the mean of Faith kept I say unto this Salvation prepared long ago and which shall be shewed us in the fulness of it even at Christs second coming An inheritance Therefore no purchase no wages of a servant but an inheritance given by a Father to his son not such as many heirs have entailed or as any natural son which hath it by a kinde of right after his father but an inheritance of Adopted children taken in as the childe of a Traytor nay a Traytor himself and so made heirs then which what can be freer This is said to be given and what 's freer then gift This serves to confute not onely the gross Opinion of Papists that we God setting us forward and helping us can do such things as whereby we can merit Heaven and Salvation but that which is more nice is of those which say that we have no good of our selves but that it s wrought in us by God alone yet now look for Salvation by their Holiness and Sanctification No God forbid for our Sanctification being imperfect God might justly condemn us for it and count our works a polluting of his grace therefore David saith No flesh before nor after grace can be justified in thy sight not onely by nothing of our own but by nothing that God worketh in us What differ these men from the proud Pharisee he attributed his holiness not to himself but to God and thankt him for it but he thought this would merit that he was not so and so as others and challenge something at the hand of God and therefore was rejected True it is God not onely disproveth not but liketh and accepteth of our works though unperfect yea crowns and rewards his own grace in us yet not for the worthiness of the work but for the persons sake that is in his favor by Jesus Christ whose perfect righteousness is imputed to make a supply of our imperfections and wants Seeing therefore it is an inheritance every way free bestowed upon us onely by right of Adoption in Jesus Christ which by his grace he hath called us unto let us so acknowledge it to the glory of God and like Adopted children love our Father fear him be zealous for his glory and take his part Incorruptible c. Now he describes it rather setting down what it is not then what it is which no tongue can express it is without end perpetual called therefore everlasting life Life for the excellency Everlasting for the continuance God endures for ever and ever so the happiness of his servants no death there to deprive us of it or take us from it no sin there to provoke God to take it from us it abides firm for ever it cannot be moved All earthly inheritances are subject to decay liable to a thousand perils alterations and troubles they may be taken from us and we from them by death How were the Canaanites put out and the Israelites succeeded in their places How did the Chaldeans displace them as themselves were by the Medes and Persians These things below are the meat that perisheth uncertain riches a treasure which moth and canker corrupt and whereto theeves may break in and steal whereof
life for us a Superior for inferiors yea for enemies most of all so far and all this hath Christ done for us How then should this dissolve and break our hearts to love and cause us out of love to serve him O woful dulness in us and unthankfulness that can say We have part in such a Redemption from such a misery to such a glory and by such a price and yet can be ready to think every thing too much for him How dull are we and slow to do his service in hearing the Word Prayer and other duties How quickly are we weary of well doing How think we every little time too much for him that thought not his pains his abasement nay his life and heart-blood too much for us When we have him asking us in his poor members some small refreshing how hardly and sparingly if at all doth it come from us nay we will not part with our lusts and sinful affections at his request Will we give our lives for him and not our lusts how shall we ever martyr our bodies for him that will not martyr our affections of Pride Envy Covetousness unlawful pleasure in gaming c. O shall we grieve him that hath done so wonderful things for us It was grief enough to him that he suffered already though we grieve him not again by our unthankfulness O that we would labor to gratifie him by all means possible To this end do we often meditate of this price come we oft to the Sacrament there may we see it there eat and drink it worthily there sprinkle it upon our Souls and apply it to our selves that so an edge may be set upon our care and zeal 7. In vain do they lay claim to the blood of Christ that yet live in their lust O impudent faces and lyars that they are As of a Lamb without blemish and without spot Here Christ is further described by his innocency and purity compared therefore to a Lamb Where allusion is made to the Lamb in the Old Testament used in the Sacrifices and the Paschal Lamb which as it signified their own guiltiness and danger so yet that there was help not by their blood but by the Sacrifice and satisfaction of another that was signified hereby namely Christ who is termed The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world The Paschal Lamb was to be a Male without blemish of a year old a pure and perfect one signifying the Purity Perfection and Innocency of Christ Jesus so he is called a Lamb to shew his willingness and patience in suffering both from God and men Our Savior Christ was innocent indeed no guile found in his mouth he was most pure and perfect in his birth for he was conceived by the Holy Ghost and so freed from the least touch and contagion of Original sin which was in the Virgin his Mother as also that matter of his body was filled with all holiness that it was capable of and likewise immediately from the first moment of the conception united unto one person with the Godhead the second person in Trinity He was so in his life Who could accuse him of sin so also in his death for he that betrayed confessed the same and his Judge two or three times so pronounced him one of the thieves also that were condemned with him gave the like testimony of him and it was necessary he should be innocent else he could be no Mediator for us he himself had needed a Savior But how could it stand with Gods Justice to punish an innocent He being sufficient to pay our Debt offered himself our Surety to his Father who therefore could not refuse him but imputing to him our sins laid the punishment thereby deserved on him 1. This sets out his love so much the more that being innocent would suffer for us wicked wretches 2. This teacheth us to imitate him and in all things to be innocent as he was for this cause are we thrice termed Sheep and Lambs in our Saviors charge to Peter we must walk holy in the duties of the first Table towards God and righteously in the duties of the second towards our brethren we must walk so exactly that we may not justly be blamed Be we as Job as Zachary and Elizabeth and as Daniel whose enemies could finde no fault in him in respect of his outward conversation and therefore were fain to take another course to entrap him Samuel could say Whose Ox have I taken c. and though we cannot say with our Savior Christ Who can accuse me of sin being privy to our selves of so many corruptions and infirmities as the best of us are yet that we may truly say Who can accuse me of this or that gross sin or of any infirmity that I know by my self and both mourn not for and strive against O it s a shame that Christians should hurt others in their goods in their names that they should revile censure backbite c. consider that there are many eyes upon us Gods his Angels the Devils both good and bad mens 3. In that Christ being so innocent was yet willing to suffer and offer his blood let us imitate him in this also let us be patient in bearing troubles and persecution we must suffer for his sake though causlesly chearfully and willingly being called hereto for it s our honor and we must reign with him To suffer with Christ hath these things in it To suffer as a Member of him To suffer for his cause and to suffer willingly as he did we must also suffer patiently such afflictions as are of Gods immediate sending as in like maner injuries and wrongs from men against frowardness hastiness and revenge Use we meekness and patience these we must follow If Christ were thus innocent how comes it to pass that he was called a Samaritan a friend of Publicans and Sinners a glutton a wine-bibber an enemy to Cesar and Barabbas preferred before him He might be and was innocent for all this The holy Ghost saith not he was never ill spoken of for the Devil and his instruments will speak ill of the best persons and things yea of goodness it self Learn we then not to listen to nor believe all we hear even Elijah will be accused for a troubler of Israel and the yong Prophet called a mad fellow and that Micaiah never prophesied good and that Jeremiah raves and it s not meet that he should live Paul a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition and now adays the true servants of God good Christians called of some Hereticks of others Puritans Factious Proud Singular Shismaticks worse then Papists c. And may they not be the good servants of God for all this You shall have Elimas's ready to buz in yong Gentlemens and ignorant persons ears that begin
hath not But if it be unchangeable then what shall I do I le never stir and trouble my self but take my pleasure c. for if I shall be damned I shall so be whatsoever I do I le never hear Sermon more while I live for all the Sermons of the world will not help me if I be ordained to Damnation O the folly and falshood of this blinde and desperate rage It s not possible for him that is ordained to life to live as he list If thou give thy self so to do thou hast then indeed a mark to thy self of thy Damnation yea what a desperate wretch is he to resolve himself to live like a reprobate before he know whether he be one or no as if one should run to the gallows and put the rope about his neck before he know whether the Judge hath any purpose to condemn him Again know you not that whom God ordains to the end he ordains also to the means Therefore these must be used As for Gods decree towards you the Preacher knoweth not therefore he must preach and call all to Repentance neither do you know therefore must you hear and follow the revealed will of God and by obeying that you shall in time come to know his secret will We must not live by the secret but by the revealed will of God and we must not stand upon that desperately and blindely at first If I be ordained c. but meekly hear the will of God in his Word which being followed of us it will be in time an Argument that we not are onely no Reprobates but such as are ordained to Salvation But if thou wilt desperately shake off the revealed will and onely run upon the secret and cast off all means that should do thee good and run into sin and means of destruction then thou hast a bad sign of Reprobation Whoso stumbleth at Christ and at the Word and live in disobedience and so continue to the end its certain they are Reprobate and so long as any continueth in that state they can have no other knowledge of themselves Thus of the fourth Verse 9. But ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light NOw he returns to the Believers again and having spoken grievous things of the wicked that they stumbled at Christ and the Word and should perish lest they should be dismaid as if this also might be their case some of them having been very grievous sinners he now endeavors to prevent this their fear But ye saith he are a chosen generation as if he should have said They stumbled because they were ordained to it but you shall stand because you are elected of God Thus he comforts them and reckons up a number of priviledges whereof Gods election was the ground as that they were a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people in all which he opposeth them to the Unbelievers You are a chosen generation they a reprobate rout You a royal priesthood they a prophane and base company You an holy nation they whether Gentiles or Jews an unholy company You a peculiar people they the servants of sin and Satan Then sets down the end of all In general observe we two things 1. That the Apostle not onely divides the people into good and bad and sends the Sheep to their fold the Fox to his den but he speaks exceeding comfortably to the good exceeding terribly to the wicked setting forth the ones happiness and the others misery and so must the Ministers of God do 2. That he delivers the Word so warily that the godly might not be dismaid at the threatnings against the wicked Hence may Ministers learn wisdom to give every one their portion and this is to divide the Word aright to cut and part it not to rend it Thus the Prophets having vehemently threatned by and by lest the godly should be cast down adde comforts and promises When they deliver comforts they must bid the wicked stand off so when they speak of judgements they must so speak that the afflicted in Conscience may not be troubled for people are ready to misapply that they hear Wicked men when they catch hold of the Doctrine of Gods mercy they snatch that which no way belongs to them and for humble ones in affliction of Conscience Oh all terrible things they can apply and they work on them but the promises and comforts they cannot fasten on In particular consider we the priviledges here mentioned and the end of them A chosen generation This is the first priviledge Election is the decree of God whereby in himself and for his own glory he hath unchangeably ordained some men to Salvation and life Eternal Where consider 1. That God before the world hath ordained some men to Salvation This is plain from these Scriptures Luke 10. 20. Eph. 1. 4. Phil. 2. 12. 1 Thess. 5. 9. 2 Thess. 2. 13. His election is compared to a Book and the Lord to a General that books his Soldiers names or a Corporation where they book all the Freemens names Again we see some men be saved therefore were it so decreed for whatsoever is was eternally decreed of God 1. This sets out the infinite love of God to mankinde who might have been glorified in the Damnation of us all 2. This confutes that Opinion That God elected none before the World but that he generally appointed all to be saved alike and therefore gave Christ to dye for all and when any receive grace then God elects them Doth every wise man set down certainly his end before he begin his work and onely the God of Wisdom go uncertainly to work And did Christ lay down his life for any other but his sheep vouchsafeth he intercession for any other nay excludeth he not all others If Christ had dyed for them then they should have been saved for his death is infinitely meritorious If he dyed for any and they not be saved he should miss of his purpose Adam and Christ are two common persons and roots therefore as Adam lost all so Christ restored all They are indeed alike in many respects as namely in this That they communicate to others that which was in themselves Adam sin and death Christ righteousness and life but not to both alike Adam lost all Christ recovered but some Then Adams sin was of more force then Christs death and obedience Not so for its easier to destroy then to build If Christ had saved but one it had argued more force then Adams sin to destroy all A childe can break a glass which all the men in the Town cannot make up again yet the childe hath not more force then they Why then is Christ preached to them Christ must be offered to all
where it may be they receive conversion and even that terror of conscience though it were occasioned by some outward thing yet it is the Word that indeed works it as which tells them both of their sin and danger The parts of it are 1. An enlightening of the understanding with a distinct knowledge of the principal points of Salvation 2. The opening of the heart to believe 3. The changing of the whole man from that ill nature that was in him to a quite contrary The Law prepares and make them see their deadly danger and by the Spirit makes to feel it grievously and then the Gospel works by little and little hope to comfort and so a change The cause that moves the Lord to do this to any is his meer mercy and no desert as is Election and Redemption so is our effectual calling free And this inward effectual calling is an infallible argument of Election past and glory to come They are links of the golden chain of mans Salvation that cannot by all the Devils be sundred but have one and have all Hereupon me thinks every mans heart should burn within him to prove his calling that hereby he might have a mark of his Election They that can prove it may have exceeding comfort and they must also beware lest being calling out of the world to God they look any more back or be more and more defiled with the fashions and maners thereof and every day in hearing the Word obey every part thereof and walk worthy of your holy Calling Much are they to be blamed that do no more honor their Calling but drop into things like men of this world yea are overcome of the world and covetousness But haply thou doubtest of thy Calling because thou findest not these fruits or not so plentifully as thou would'st be not discouraged though thou beest dull and full of infirmities and strong corruptions yet unfainedly hating and resisting them and being grieved at them and using the means against them thou art not to call thy foundation into question yet must thou humble thy self and as occasion requires set on more earnestly use the means more carefully and daily renew thy repentance But for those that shew no fruits of their Calling but though they have had the Word and been Hearers yet remain prophane and impenitent altogether or seeming to go some steps yet are not changed throughout through Faith they are not yet called for never imagine that every one that hears Sermons yea usually and with joy and mends many things and lives in some good fashion is straight truly called not onely the high-way ground but even the stony yea thorny which went far and beyond most in Congregations yet were not effectually called and numbers among our selves that think well of themselves are not truly called are not Believers nor turned to God Well let every man examine himself throughly being not called I dare not speak a word of comfort to you in this case you have not onely no mark of Election but the contrary when God hath by all means called as by promises threatnings c. and none have prevailed O now use the means with all diligence and though hitherto you have disobeyed the words of Gods calling yet let them now open the doors of your hearts If you do God will be merciful and blot out all if you will not when you shall hereafter call you shall not be heard and you which would not obey this gracious voyce of the Gospel to believe and repent that you might be saved shall one day hear another kinde of voyce from him which you shall obey nill you will you to your own confusion Out of darkness into his marvellous light Here are the parts of calling both from whence and whereto By darkness is meant ignorance of Christ Jesus and sin which are the works of darkness and tend to utter darkness In this case they were How could these Jews be said to be in darkness which had the Law and were skilful therein and stood not a little upon it They had knowledge of the Law but Christ Jesus the accomplishment of the Law they knew not to know whom aright is life everlasting All knowledge without this is nothing but darkness still so that he means not that they were without the means of knowledge as the Gentiles were for one may have the means and yet be in darkness nor that they were called out of ignorance to some knowledge by the means for one may have much knowledge and yet be in darkness but that they were called out of darkness that is out of ignorance of Christ and Salvation by him out of the state of corruption and sin and working the works of darkness and going to utter darkness To his light that is to know Christ by a saving particular and effectual knowledge to Sanctification and Holiness of life which are the works of the light and so to the hope of the eternal light of happiness Hereunto they were called out of the state of unbelief and sin which tend to death for so sin is called darkness and holiness light Sin is termed darkness because it comes from the Devil the Prince of darkness loves darkness and goes to darkness Holiness comes from light even God the Father of lights loves and can abide the light and goes to light and God the Fountain of Holiness is called light Here note What every mans estate is till he be called even that we are not onely darkened but darkness it self We were all made light in Adam full of knowledge and holiness since the fall we are all darkness and when God means to save any he pulls them out of darkness Darkness hath a power indeed which were it not for the Almighty power of God delivering us therefrom would hold us under for ever and as long as we be in this darkness we have no right to the Kingdom of God nay we have nothing to do with God we are neither his sons people nor servants The man that is not effectually called and sanctified what gifts soever he hath is yet in darkness and never wrought other then the works of darkness He may do good things and the works of light but they be not so in him being darkly performed by corrupt nature without Faith or the Spirit neither tending to the right end This may be said of every unregenerate person though never so old civil or of good parts 1. This confutes the Papists that teach that there are some such pure Naturals left in man some Free-will to goodness which if God stir up a little and help can work and that they can merit of Congruity which crosseth both this and other Scriptures as That the thoughts of mans heart are onely evil continually That the wisdom of the flesh is enmity with God and That
's a way that seemeth good in a mans eyes but the issues thereof are the issues of death To those whom God means to save he sends his Word and Spirit and so opens their eyes to see that they be out of their way and that not onely prophane persons but also some hypocrites that have contented themselves with some common things as Herod did and sometimes civil persons that thought their state very good that God opens their eyes to see it to be woful and make them hasten out of it saying as those in the Acts What shall we do to be saved we finde we are in the way to damnation but most men will not be perswaded of this but go on with a liking of their way though it be to their destruction To this end Ministers must preach the Law and shew men that be out of their way people must take out this lesson and this is the first till this be nothing is 3. As the sheep is most subject to wander but of all Creatures hath least wisdom to finde the way home again so no natural man can come home to God alone we can go further and further from God but to come home one step we cannot we are blinde and cannot see a step of the way have no minde but to wander All the thoughts of mans heart are onely evil continually we cannot think a good thought No man can come to me saith our Savior except the Father draw him If any be come home to God from his wandring state let him give all the glory to God and know that there was no difference between them and those that yet wander if God had not sought them and as it were fetcht them home on his shoulders if God had not thus done for us we had wandred to this hour yea to our dying day as well as others therefore wonder and praise God And for those that yet wander let them not bless themselves as if they could turn to God when they list as many think Oh they will cry God a mercy at their end c. but while you have life and time with the means entreat God to bless the means from Heaven to be mighty to open your eyes and to bring you home from straying into the way that leadeth into eternal life 4. As the sheep that is wandred is in manifold dangers so and much more certainly is every natural man in inevitable danger if he so continue He is out of Gods special providence as the stray sheep is from the tendance of the Shepherd his eye is not over him He hath no certain abiding as Cain knows not what to do he is separate from the company of Gods people and what evil may not then befal him As a sheep is in danger to be carryed away by diverse Lords into whose several grounds he cometh so is a natural man in danger of the Devil the World his own lusts in danger to fall into every sin what hath he to stop him into any plague or punishment that ever fell upon any what promise hath he to the contrary yea as sheep are apt to fall into the mouthes of Dogs and Wolves so may the natural man fall into the paws of the Devil and be turned into Hell he knows not how soon Is not he in danger that is naked in a field and beset with Bills Bows and Guns all bent against him to destroy him so is it with every wicked man as being subject to all the plagues of God Is not he in danger that hangs over a pit by a twig so is every wicked man by the threed of his life over Hell When a wicked man riseth in the morning doth he know what may befal him ere night can he tell but he may fall even into the foulest sins can he tell but that the earth may swallow him a thunderbolt may strike him through he may have any curse befal him or his can he tell but he may be in Hell ere night and at night ere morning and is not this danger enough Thus hundreds of this Land drop into Hell every day and in every corner some at one time or another by one means or another the Devil lays hold on them This may make every wicked man weary of his condition and to have little joy of himself till he be out of this state who can abide to live in a continual danger For them that be gone and of whom Hell hath already caught hold there 's no hope or help You that are alive look to your selves were you out of this condition you could not be overcome you could not be pluckt from God by Angels or Devils all the world could not prevail against you being under Christs keeping he would keep you unto the end But are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls Here 's the safe state of Believers They are now converted not by any power or goodness in themselves but by the mighty power and goodness of God to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls Christ Jesus who having redeemed them will not now lose them but safely preserve and keep them to life eternal both in body and soul. So that All that are come to God in Christ Jesus be in a most safe state for besides that they have pardon of sin the Robe of Christs righteousness being put on them they have the Spirit to sanctifie them from the power of sin and to enable them to please God in a new life Neither can they fall from this estate nor can fall into any sin unto death there 's no condemnation to them neither the Devil nor World shall be able to draw them to their old state Christ that hath redeemed them will never lose them Who will lose a purchase dearly bought but so are we to Christ Who will not keep his Limbs we are made Members of Christ Will he suffer one to be pulled off God forbid Christ having redeemed us commits us to his Fathers keeping and who being under his protection is not in a safe Castle or impregnible Fortress Not onely they are sure they can never fall finally but also Christ hath a care of every sheep to keep him in the right way to fetch him in when he wanders to comfort him being heavy and to binde him up being broken What Christian findes not this by daily experience that God preserves him daily by his grace from many falls comforts him in many heavinesses reduceth him from many wandrings 1. Here 's matter of unspeakable comfort for those that be come into Christs sheepfold If we look to our selves or our Enemies being so strong we have cause to fear but as Elisha said to his Servant There are more on our side then they that be against us We have much opposition against our good and standing but we are not left to our selves Our Salvation now is not
8. 1. Gal. 3. 13. as from the first so far forth as its a punishment and piece of the curse and the nature of it is changed to believers for whom Christ hath dyed it s become a Serpent without a sting yea a blessing as being hereby freed from sin and not before Hereby the soul is let out of the prison of this body into the liberty of Gods Servants and put into the possession of life Hereby also the body is freed from all toils labors infirmities and pains waiting in the Grave for an happy and glorious resurrection In which respect death is termed a sleep an advantage to the Saints and is better in the day wherein they were born So from all forerunners hereof which are curses plagues and punishments in body minde goods and name all which Christ hath born what crosses we meet withal they are to further our Sanctification and Salvation but not punishments for sin or parts of Gods judgement as they be to the wicked 2. We are hereby made partakers of all good God is reconciled to us which is more then to have our sins and punishments quite removed yea and sheweth us the light of his countenance not as David who though he staid his wrath from Absolom at his return home to Jerusalem yet was not fully reconciled to him of two years The Creatures also are at peace with us The Angels become Servants and ministring Spirits for our good in life to direct us protect us comfort us c. and at death to carry our souls to Heaven so all other Creatures the very Devils and wicked men shall do us no hurt we have also right and title to this life we lost it in Adam but have it restored in Christ. 3. Hereby he conveyeth power into the hearts of all that believe in him to enable them to dye unto sin and to mortifie their lusts more and more This is a singular comfort to all that believe in Christ who onely partake of the benefits of his death we need not fear Hell condemnation nor any enemy of our Salvation nor any curse or punishment in this life all shall be for our good we need not fear the first death but rather have cause to desire it O the happiness of such God is at peace with them all Creatures in Heaven and Earth are their friends they have right to whatsoever they have little or much therefore may they rejoyce O happy that ever we were born what pains soever we have taken to come to the knowledge of Christ Jesus by whom we obtain such unspeakable things whatsoever the world esteemeth of believers they are the onely happy persons in the world yea we shall have power to mortifie our strongest corruptions and lusts fear it not beg it and use the means if all these be put together O how happy is a Christian who can value his riches On the contrary they that have not their part in Christs death are most miserable their sins are not removed they lye under them so under the curse of God in this world and the world to come so in danger of the first death which will rend the soul and body asunder that the soul may be cast out into Hell so also of the second O that such would labor for their part in Christ Christ came into the world Christ is now Preached and offered unto us men be in a woful case and are told of it and yet how few regard to embrace Christ how few customers hath Christ one would think that all that hear of Christ should be heartily glad of him and embrace and flye unto him but alas most men for profits pleasures or love of their vile lusts are content to let go Christ and he lies as a dead commodity and they that bring him to the world be unwelcom and so indeed few have part in Christ. The consideration hereof might make us mourn for our sins the cause of Christs death might be a corrasive to eat our sin and make it odious to us might make us serve God zealously and faithfully all our days yea to suffer for his sake and rather to dye with the Martyrs then any way to dishonor him and besides to labor to finde the vertue of Christs death working mightily in us the death of sin and sinful lusts Thus of his death But quickned by the Spirit Now of his Resurrection His body and soul that had been sundred were by the power of his Godhead reunited and he made alive so continuing with his Disciples until his ascension into Heaven Touching it consider that it was so the Reasons thereof the place maner and time with the benefits flowing from thence and the duties thereupon to be performed That Christ rose again is so plain that none needs doubt thereof The Angels that rolled away the stone the Soldiers that watched the Sepulchre Mary Magdalene and the other Mary that came to see the Sepulchre the two Disciples going to Emmaus the eleven Disciples being together c. all were witnesses hereof So his appearances were many as to Mary Magdalene then to her and that other Mary then to two Disciples going to Emmaus then to them all save Thomas then both to Thomas and the others another time to Cephas another time to seven of them at the Sea of Tiberias as at another to Five hundred Brethren at once so when he was to ascend he was taken up in the sight of all those there present all which are so many evidences of his Resurrection Reasons 1. That it might appear he had fully discharged our debt 2. Because being the Son of God and Author and Lord of life it had been unmeet nay it was impossible he should be held under of Death 3. By reason of the second part of his Priesthood which was yet to fulfil One part was to offer himself a Sacrifice Propitiatory to God for the sins of his people this he did by his death now the other is to make intercession for his Church and to apply the vertue of his death to those for whom he dyed This he could not have done if he had not risen again The maner When they had rolled a great stone to the door of the Sepulchre sealed it set Soldiers to watch yet he rose They could as well have hindered the rising of the Sun in the Firmament as his rising An Angel was sent that caused a great earthquake and rolled away the stone c. No counsel or strength can hinder the work of the Lord. Place The same where he was laid which was by Gods providence to avoid cavils in a new Sepulchre hewen out of a rock wherein never man had been laid Time It was the third day early in the morning on the first day of the week the third day as was foretold by Christ himself for he was buried the evening before the Sabbath and rose
To send his holy Spirit into our hearts 5. To make intercession for us And is on the right hand of God In general 1. He gathers his Church by raising up Christian Kings and Governors where he hath any Elect. 2. He governs and keeps the same defeating all subtile plots of his Enemies and confounding all their devices Thus did he on the behalf of the Church in Egypt Thus also by overthrowing Hamans conspiracy Thus did he by dissipating the Spanish Armado and defeating the Gunpowder Plot. 3. Exerciseth his Church with crosses to scour off the rust which usually long Prosperity brings thereon In Particular for the Members of his Church that shall be saved he gathers them guides them and exerciseth them to obedience by crosses and represseth a great part of the rage of their Spiritual Enemies strengthening them against the same and for the Enemies of his Church he brings confusion upon them as on Pharaoh Senacherib Haman Herod c. Thus do we also see many Enemies of Christs Church daily cut off what else would become of the Church Angels and authorities and powers c. That is both good and bad the good willingly the others against their will are subject unto Christ. 1. For the good Angels If such glorious Creatures be subject to Christ then 1. How great a one is he and how glorious is his Kingdom He that hath Kings and Princes under him is an Emperor What 's he then to whom angels and authorities and powers are subject 2. The greater honor and dignity our head hath the more joy and comfort may we have which are his members Again In that he appoints them to watch and guard us then 1. What a great honor is this to us as if a plain Countrey man should dine at a Noble mans Table and have great Gentlemen with gold Chains to attend him 2. How may we hereby be comforted and encouraged against Satans malice 3. We must keep within compass and walk carefully in Gods ways we must take heed we do no uncomely thing lest thereby we make the Angels loath to attend on us or to carry ill tidings of us to God or be Messengers of some displeasure against us They themselves are very zealous for God and accordingly look that we should so be 2. For the evil Angels I shall not need to speak of their number power subtilty malice watchfulness to do hurt as neither of their office and work which is to hinder all good and further all evil Note we onely 1. That all these are subject Christ and he hath triumphed over them 2. That as it s no small honor to him our head to have all these under him so the meditation hereof cannot but be comfortable to us both in regard of him and our selves 3. That those evil Angels cannot do that evil they would and if they cannot much less can their instruments If even the Devils be subject to him that they cannot do what they would much more can he repress the rage of wicked men notwithstanding both of their malice and power But of these points I have spoken at large by way of Catechism CHAP. IV. THis Chapter consists of three parts 1. An Exhortation to Sanctification in general being the common duty of all Christians and belonging to all that shall be saved from Verse 1. to Verse 7. 2. An Exhortation to some particular duties of Sanctification from Verse 7. to Verse 12. 3. A comfort against persecution or an encouragement to the suffering of affliction for Christs and Righteousness sake from thence to the end of the Chapter Verse 1. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same minde for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Verse 2. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God HEre is 1. An Exhortation and 2. A motive to perswade thereto The Exhortation is to resolve to mortifie and subdue the lusts of our corrupt nature and to cease from sin namely living in any sin which is both explained and amplified explained by setting forth the parts of Sanctification severally where 's shewed 1. What must be laid away the lusts of men these we must not follow nor walk in 2. What we must do even walk according to Gods will amplified by the circumstance of time even so much time as remaineth in this life behinde The motive to perswade hereto is For that Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh namely in his humane nature both in body and soul for that are we to understand by flesh in the first place as thereby in the second the mortifying of our corrupt nature or that sinful disposition which is in us called flesh which spreadeth it self both over our bodies and souls and in the third this natural life of ours while the soul lives in this body of ours for us not for himself but our sins for us not angels who are reserved undereverlasting chains of darkness but for us men for us even me and thee whosoever thou art that believest for us the Apostle himself being one for every man must labor to know it to be for him and the rest of Gods elect Forasmuch then I say as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh we must arm our selves with the same minde even not onely to bear afflictions patiently and if it were to suffer persecution for his cause but also to dye unto sin not living any more to the lusts of men but to the will of God As Christ hath dyed for sin so should we dye to sin and not live in that for which Christ paid so dearly and God so hated and from which we are freed but rather in token of our thankfulness for our deliverance we must labor by all possible means to mortifie these our wicked lusts and to lead an holy life to the glory of our Redeemer Our Note may be this That The passion of our Savior Christ ought to be a mean to mortifie our lusts and to kill sin in us for who can love the knife that killed his dearest friend or that would have been his own certain destruction neither can any man have any perswasion upon good grounds of his part in Christ death except he dye to sin for as one end of Christs death was to free us from condemnation so another was to kill sin in us for he purgeth those whom he redeemeth He is a perfect Savior and Redeemer not setting us free from some but out of the tyranny of all our enemies therefore of sin as well as wrath again would Christ dye for a company and have no use of them but leave them still to live in sin As therefore we would not live in sin let us often meditate
then more sparingly to us more plentifully then under types to us the body is revealed 1. This confutes those that think that those before the Law were saved one way they under the Law another they under the Gospel another 2. It confutes them that hold That every man is saved by his own devotion and religion whatsoever it is so he be zealous in it and live orderly This they would prove hence namely That the Jews were saved by observing of a few Rites and Ceremonies a false foundation must needs lay the building under foot Do not we see that when they were even most zealous in Ceremonies that yet the Prophets cryed out that God was not content but called both for Faith and Love Besides what a folly is it to think that every man shall be saved by his own Religion Is any thing pleasing to God but that which himself hath appointed in his Word not our conceit but his wil is the rule of his Worship The Word sends us to Christ in whom alone God is well pleased without him there 's no Salvation for any 3. It confutes those among our selves which hope to be saved by their good meaning good prayers civil righteousness by their repenting and crying God mercy c. All these are blinde Sodomites they grope for a door where there 's none wil but hit their heads against the wal to their destruction O how happy are we that there being but one way of salvation known but to a few it should be so clearly made known to us were we so happy as to make it good to our selves That they might be judged according to men in the flesh c. Here note from the end of the Gospel that The Gospel calls for sanctification and all the parts thereof for as the Law hath Commandments so hath the Gospel it cals for faith and repentance and in this latter obedience to all the Commandments of the Law The differences are 1. The Law requires obedience but gives no power the Gospel doth both 2. The Law requires strict obedience to the utmost the Gospel requires an upright endeavor onely and to believe in him who hath performed it perfectly The Sacraments and Sacrifices of the old Testament called for this even for truth of heart for faith repentance God bade them circumcise the foreskin of their hearts and under that Law of purging all leaven out of their houses the people were called to repentance So Baptism and the Supper of the Lord the appurtenances of the Gospel call for Sanctification And doth any thing more cal for mortifying of our lusts living to God then the death of Christ for sin wherein we see how hainous a thing sin is in Gods account as also the unspeakable love of God to us in giving Christ thus to dye for us The death of Christ should be a great corrosive to eat our sin This was the end of Christs suffering for us Will Christ dye for a man and yet have no use of him after but that he may live as he list assuredly God would never cause his Gospel to be preached but to bring men to Sanctification 1. This confutes as well the Papists for affirming that we preaching Justification by Faith onely preach a doctrine of liberty to sin but on the contrary this doctrine doth notably establish good works as those among our selves that cry out upon going to sermons O say they we see none worse then they they will deceive they will cut their neighbors throat but of most this is a lye but if some be so let them know that the Gospel teacheth them not so to do 2. This rebuketh those carnal wretches which live under the Gospel yet abide still in their sins They think the Gospel brings onely tidings of salvation but requireth no amendment or mortification If Paul Tit. 2. had gone no further but stayed at Bring salvation we should have had a number of Christians but his other words teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly c. O this part they cannot away with so they could willingly hear Come unto me â—ll ye that are weary c. but not take up the Cross but God hath joyned them together and they cannot be separated he that hath the one must have the other as he that was to have the inheritance was to marry Ruth Hence it is that multitudes have in their mouthes They hope to be saved by Christ and yet remain in their lusts without mortifying the same or giving up themselves to God in an holy life Thus is it with ignorant persons prophane persons civil persons worldlings and hypocrites What impudent wretches are these They hope to be saved by Christ and yet live in their sins thus making Christs death to be a license to all evil Sundry deceive themselves in these days some content themselves with an outward profession some are haply at some times humbled and thereupon conceive themselves to be converted c. but let every man try himself by his Sanctification If this was required of them that lived before Christs coming who had dimmer light and more sparing means and promises then we then think what 's required of us that have heaven set open to us and all the Fathers minde revealed yea Christ dead risen ascended and all fulfilled 3. For Gods children which do indeed hope for Salvation by Christ and have yielded obedience to the Gospel in some measure there is nothing that can become us better then to labor to profit in mortifying our lusts and to shew the fruits of the Sprit more plentifully and powerfully in our lives Every Sermon and Sacrament should put new life in us For what is the profiting by the Gospel but to dye to sin and live to righteousness daily by an effectual knowledge of Christ Jesus O it s our great fault that we grow so slowly that we get not a full mastery of our lusts that sometimes we shrink at the yoke of Christ as thinking some part of it too strait and desiring more liberty who yet thought we could never do enough for the Lord O that our actions should favor so much of the flesh and so little of the Spirit O that we might encrease in our zealous affection to God for his love in Christ and for the Gospel and that our behavior may be daily more answerable thereto as our Salvation doth more nearly approach Vers. 7. But the end of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer THe former part of this verse may be either a reason of the exhortation past and that from the shortness of the time to come or of the Exhortations ensuing unto sobriety watchfulness in prayer charity hospitality c. The end of all things is at hand The end of all things not of men onely or of some creatures not
confutation of an Error 36 Verse 6. 1. VVE must rejoyce in the assurance of our Salvation 37 2. Religion reforms mirth ibid. And moderates lawful mirth ibid. 3. Being assured of Heaven we must rejoyce even in our troubles 38 4. Gods children must here undergo many troubles 39 5. Afflictions are tryals 41 6. Here on earth heaviness and rejoycing may stand together 42 7. The godlies afflictions are short ibid. 8. Afflictions come by the wise disposing of Almighty God 43 Verse 7. 1. A Qualification of their troubles 43 2. Affliction tryeth whether we have Faith 44 3. How we may try our Faith ibid. 4. Affliction tryeth whether our Faith be more or less then we take it 45 5. Affliction serveth to purifie and encrease Faith ibid. 6. Faith more precious then gold 46 7. Faith will be crowned at the last day 47 8 Christ will come on the last day to judge the world 48 9. The godly shall be publiquely rewarded 49 Verse 8. 1. VVHereat Ministers should aim in commending their people 49 2. Through Faith we believe even things above the reach of our reason 50 3. True love the fruit of Faith 51 4. How to try both our Faith and Love 52 5. Faith must directly fasten it self on Christ Jesus 52 6. A proof of the Divinity of Christ 53 7. Joy a fruit of Faith ibid. 8. Why no true joy can proceed from our selves 54 9. The joy of believers is unspeakable and glorious ibid. Verse 9. 1. EVery man is in danger of utter destruction 55 2. The godly by Faith do even here enjoy Salvation ibid. 3. No pains too much to get Faith 56 4. Salvation not the end or reward of our works ibid. 5. We cannot merit Heaven 57 6. Believers shall have also the salvation of their bodies ibid. 7. What those are to look for that follow Christ 58 Verse 10. 1. NO point touching Salvation is to be taught or received but what 's grounded on the Word 59 2. The Prophets took great pains to know the mystery of our Salvation by Christ ibid. 3. The Prophets and old Fathers were saved by Christ as well as we 60 4. The Doctrine of the Gospel not new 61 5. The Prophets foretold of Christ 62 6. The Harmony between the Old and New Testament 62 7. Salvation why called Grace 63 8. The Prophets did partake of Salvation though they saw not Christ in the flesh ibid. Verse 11. 1. VVE must endeavor to know what 's profitable to be known ibid. 2. The Prophets searched into this great mystery through the direction of the Spirit ibid. 3. Gods Spirit the Author of the Old Testament 64 4. A proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost ibid. 5. The sufferings of Christ foretold in the Old Testament ibid. 6. Why it was needful that Christ should suffer for us 65 7. Three degrees of our Saviors Victory ibid. 8. Through afflictions we must come into glory 66 Verse 12. 1. THe Anabaptists confuted ibid. 2. The Covenant of Grace one and the same throughout all ages 67 3. The Author Matter Form and End thereof ibid. 4. The difference about the measure given and persons to whom ibid. 5. Why God sent his Son no sooner ibid. 6. Why theirs was called the time of the Law and ours of the Gospel 68 7. God not to be charged with inconstancy 68 8. The same Gospel which was preached by the Prophets was also preached by the Apostles 69 9. The Apostles have left a perfect direction for all things needful for our Salvation 70 10. Why the Angels desire to see the perfection of the Salvation of Gods Church ibid. Verse 13. 1. DOctrine and Exhortation must be joyned together ibid. 2. The corrupt conceits of the Jews about Salvation 72 3. The corrupt conceits of Christians about it 73 4. The best prize it not as they should ibid. 5. What sobriety is and of sobriety about meat and drink ibid. 6. Sobriety about Apparel Recreation and Profits 74 7. What Faith is with the parts thereof 76 8. What it is to trust perfectly ibid. 9. Salvation a most special grace 78 10. What we are to expect by Christ 79 11. Salvation is not of our own procuring or seeking ibid. 12. The Gospel lays open Christ Jesus unto us 80 Verse 14. 1. THe two parts of Sanctification 81 2. Obedience and Sanctification follow faith ibid. 3. God calls for obedience 82 4. We must obey in all things that are commanded be the Commandment never so strange or unpleasing 83 5. The strict obedience of the Jesuits to their Superiors ibid. 6. We must obey without consulting with flesh and blood whosoever or whatsoever be against it voluntarily and constantly 84 7. What may stir us up unto obedience 86 8. Two parts of obedience ibid. 9. We must forsake evil before we can do good 87 10. Ignorance is the cause and root of a bad life ibid. 11. Why being so well instructed they were termed ignorant 88 12. All knowledge without the knowledge of Christ is nothing ibid. 13. Knowledge without Reformation is but ignorance ibid. 14. Such as have attained knowledge must not live as they did before 89 Verse 15 16. 1. HOliness must be added to abstinence from sin 90 2. This duty needful to be urged ibid. 3. Christians must be holy 91 Holy in all maner of conversation 92 4. God is holy 93 5. A twofold calling 94 6. The parts of the inward calling ibid. 7. The fruits thereof with the marks negative and affirmative 95 8. Why the Apostle doth so earnestly exhort unto Holiness 96 9. Ministers must prove their Doctrine by Gods Word 97 10. Obedience is to be yielded to those Doctrines which are proved by the Word 98 11. Gods word the rule of all truth 99 12. The use of the Apocrypha Books with the respect which is to be given thereto 100 13. Christians must be ready in the Scriptures ibid. 14. The more the Lord bestows on any the more he expects from them 102 15. The Popish Doctrine of Free-will hath no ground from this place 103 16. Nor is it against the married estate ibid. Verse 17. 1. VVHy we ought here to pass our time in fear 104 2. Three kindes of fear Natural Slavish Filial of which the last is often enjoyned 105 3. Whence it proceedeth with the benefits and marks thereof and opposites thereunto 106 4. Means to attain unto the fear of God 107 5. God requires our whole time for his service 108 6. Christians here in this world are but sojourners 111 7. The first reason of the fore-going Exhortation 113 8. Such as call God Father must walk in fear and obedience as Sons 114 9. What the name Father implyeth ibid. 10. The second reason of the foregoing Exhortation 115 11. How God doth and will judge of mens actions in this life at death and on the day of Judgement 116 12. The person of man how taken ibid. 13. Four things required to the being of a
good work 117 Verse 18 19. 1. THe third reason of the foregoing Exhortation 118 2. A man may know himselfe redeemed 119 3. Redemption presupposeth bondage and slavery ibid. 4. There 's a way whereby to come out of our bondage 120 5. The whole life of an unregenerate man is vain 121 6. Children readily follow the evil example of their Parents ibid. 7. Whom we are here to understand by fathers ibid. 8. Popish Religion stands in patches 122 9. Parents must give their children good example ibid. 10. To follow the example of our Ancestors is no sure rule 123 11. The things of this world are insufficient to redeem any out of his spiritual bondage ibid. 12. The things of this world are corruptible vain and uncertain 125 13. Christs blood the true price of mans redemption 126 14. In what respects Christ is compared to a Lamb 129 15. We are not to listen to either believe all we hear 131 Verse 20 21. 1. THe prevention of an Objection 132 2. Christ was ordained before the world 133 3. The world shall not always continue 135 4. Christ how manifested ibid. 5. God is constant and unchangeable ibid. 6. Gods promises are unchangeable 136 7. Christ was then exhibited when God decreed he should so be ibid. 8. What God hath decreed shall be in dwe time accomplished 136 9. Three differences of times and why this called the last 137 10. God will no otherwise reveal his will then he hath already done ibid. 11. We now live in the latter end of the last times ibid. 12. Why Christ came towards the latter end of the world 138 13. What we are to do that others may think well of us ibid. 14. We cannot believe in God but by the Son ibid. 15. In Christs Resurrection the whole Trinity had a hand 139 16. The benefits which they reap that believe in Christ ibid. Verse 22. 1. VVHere there 's no love nor fear of God there can be no true brotherly love 140 2. Where there 's the true fear or love of God there 's also brotherly love ibid. 3. There 's uncleanness in us both in soul and body 142 4. Where there is sanctification of the soul there is also sanctification of the body 143 5. The Word of God is the outward instrument of our cleansing ibid. 6. Why the Word is called Truth ibid. 7. The Spirit is the inward worker of Sanctification 144 8. Till we be cleansed by the Spirit we are unfit for any duty ibid. 9. The end of our Sanctification is to be fruitful in good works ibid. 10. What love is ibid. 11. The properties of love 146 12. Two caveats to be observed of them that for redressing of wrongs make use of the Magigrate 147 13. There 's little love in the world 148 14. The causes of the want of love 150 15. The effects of the want of love 151 16. Reasons inciting to the duty of love 152 19. The fruits of love must accompany the profession thereof 153 20. Brotherly offices must proceed from brotherly affections ibid. 21. Love must reach to all ibid. 22. How we ought to love the wicked 155 23. Love must be without faining ibid. 24. Love must be mutual 156 25. The properties of pure love 157 26. A Christians love must be earnest 158 27. Love must be constant ibid. Verse 23. 1. NO unregenerate person can truly love 159 2. Such as are born again must needs love ibid. 3. What Regeneration is ibid. 4. The Lord the Author thereof 160 5. The Lords will the cause thereof 161 6. Without Regeneration all things else we have are nothing ibid. 7. Regeneration of absolute necessity 162 8. The effects of Regeneration 163 9. A regenerate man is not the same he was before ibid. 10. A regenerate man groweth by degrees 164 11. Why men grow no faster in goodness ibid. 12. A caveat for such as complain they do not grow 165 13. There 's no perfection here in this life ibid. 14. Regeneration cometh not by nature 167 15. Gods Spirit by the Word changeth mans heart ibid. 16. Gods Word is the instrumental cause of our conversion 168 17. God doth not always tye himself thereunto ibid. 18. The Ministers of the Word are appointed of God the instruments to convert souls 169 19. Whence it cometh to pass that the Word worketh Regeneration 170 Verse 24 25. 1. VVHerein mans life may be compared to grass 171 2. How to be prepared for death 172 3. The glory of a carnal man but a vain thing 174 4. Nothing in an unregenerate man can abide the Lords examination 175 5. Gods Word the means whereby to live for ever ibid. 6. The Word by preaching made the instrument of Regeneration 176 7. The Word ought to be preached in every Congregation 177 8. The Word must be so preached as that it may be avouched to be indeed the Word of God ibid. CHAP. II. THe Coherence of this Chapter with the former with the sum thereof and of the first three Verses 179 Verse 1 2 3. 1. REgeneration and the love of sin cannot stand together 180 2. There 's no perfection to be attained unto here ibid. 3. To be is a Christian a work of great difficulty 181 4. Under those here named all other corruptions are included ibid. 5. Most of the corruptions here named are inward 182 6. That 's nought which is forbidden in Gods Word ibid. 7. What malice is with the difference between it and anger 183 8. What we are to understand by guile ibid. 9. Guile is to be avoided as well in smal as great matters 184 10. What Hypocrisie is 185 11. What Envy ibid. 12. What evil speaking ibid. 13. The Word of God cannot thrive in an unsanctified heart 186 14. Our desire toward the Word must be earnest ibid. 15. Our desire toward the Word must be constant 187 16. Our desire toward the Word must be impartial 188 17. Ministers must have store of milk for their spiritual children and store of love and much patience ibid. 18. The Word why compared to milk 189 19. Nothing sweeter to Gods children then the Word 189 20. The Word is the common food of all Christians ibid. 21. The Word why called sincere ibid. 22. Why Christians are to desire after the Word 191 23. Christians must daily grow in grace ibid. 24. Such as finde the Word powerful for their Salvation do the more desire it and affect it 192 25. Christ is sweet to a Christian and sweetens all that he hath 193 26. Christ is every way bountiful to his ibid. Verse 4 5. 1. VVHerein Christs bounty doth appear 194 2. A comparison between the Temple of Jerusalem and that which Christ maketh of all that believe in him ibid. 3. Christ why compared to a stone ibid. 4. To believe in Christ which is to come to him is a great priviledge ibid. 5. Christians must come to Christ 195 6. Christ the foundation that bears up his Church 198
1. EVery natural man is like a beast 378 2. Every unregenerate man is out of his way 379 3. How they come to be misled 379 4. No natural man can of himself come home to God 380 5. The natural man is in continual danger ibid. 6. All believers are in a safe condition 381 7. The Ministers of the Word are Shepherds under Christ 382 CHAP. III. THe contents of this Chapter 385 Verse 1. 1. MArriage in Gods account an high and honorable state 385 2. Both husbands and wives must learn to know their duty ibid. 3. The duties of wives ibid. 4. Why the Apostle insisteth so largely about the same 386 5. Gods Ministers have been at all times liable to be slandered ibid. 6. The prevention of an Objection ibid. 7. Wives must be subject to their husbands ibid. 8. Wherein their subjection consisteth 387 9. Wives must be subject even unto bad husbands 388 10. Wives are not to marry irreligious husbands 389 11. Such as live in disobedience are unbelievers ibid. 12. Good examples excellent preparatives to conversion ibid. 13. Wives professing Religion must shew it by their behavior towards their husbands for their conversion ibid. Verse 2. 1. HOw bad husbands may be won 390 2. Chastity and reverence why required of wives ibid. 3. What chastity is and by whom it is to be observed 391 4. How wives ought to fear their husbands ibid. Verse 3 4. 1. A Preservative of subjection and chastity 392 2. What apparelling it is that the Apostle forbids ibid. 3. How far costly apparel is forbid and to whom and when 393 4. Rules about wearing of apparel ibid. 5. The matter and maner thereof considered 394 6. Reasons against access in apparel 395 7. Objections answered 397 8. An useful meditation upon the putting on and off of our apparel 398 9. A remedy for excess of apparel ibid. 10. Inward purity required ibid. 11. Our principal care should be to adorn the soul ibid. 12. The covetous and curious reproved 399 13. Grace is of an incomparable nature 400 14. A meek and quiet spirit the proper ornament of a good wife 401 15. The worth of grace ibid. 16. It s of great price in the sight of God ibid. Verse 5 6. 1. REasons of the forementioned Exhortation 401 2. The amplification of either reason ibid. 3. The examples of Gods servants are to be followed in all their vertues 402 4. Antiquity joyned with verity is to be esteemed ibid. 5. There have been always holy women as well as men 403 6. Why women are as forward as men ibid. 7. It s needful there should be good women 404 8. Holiness is that which commends one ibid. 9. Marriage no hinderance to holiness ibid. 10. Holiness cometh by faith in Christ 405 11. Holiness may be where there are weaknesses ibid. 12. Wives cannot perform their duty aright unless they be holy ibid. 13. Why more good men then women are mentioned in Scripture ibid. 14. Why wives must imitate Sarahs obedience and reverence 406 15. It s not enough to do duties unless done in a right maner ibid. Verse 7. 1. SUperiority exempts not from duty 407 2. Wherein the husbands duty consisteth ibid. 3. Husbands stand in no less need of instruction then wives ibid. 4. Husbands are to dwell with their wives ibid. 5. In what cases they may be absent 408 6. Husbands must be men of understanding 409 7. In what particulars the same will appear ibid. 8. What honor the husband is to give to his wife 410 9. The particulars implyed therein 410 10. The Reasons thereof 411 11. Sundry sorts of husbands reproved ibid. 12. Objections answered 412 13. Wives are the weaker vessels 14. Wives are no less heirs of the grace of life then their husbands 414 15. Husbands should pray with their wives ibid. 16. Whatsoever may interrupt our prayers is to be avoided 415 Verse 8 9. 1. THere must be between Christians unity in Religion ibid. 2. Who disagree from the truth in the foundation 416 3. Who holding the foundation do yet erre from the truth ibid. 4. Differences for matters of ceremony 417 5. The evils which ensue hereupon ibid. 6. Differences about private Opinions ibid. 7. There must be unity in our conversation ibid. 8. Christians must be of like affection each to other 418 9. That Christians may love one another what they are to do and what to avoid 420 10. What pity is and that we must pity our selves ibid. 11. We must pity the souls of others 421 The Reasons 422 12. Why we must pity the bodies of others 423 13. Means conducing hereunto 424 14. We must be pitiful to our beasts ibid. 15. What courtesie is and that Christians are to be courteous 425 And how it shews it self ibid. 16. Christians must not revenge themselves on their Enemies 426 17. Lawful revenge on our selves and others 427 18. Gods children must even outwardly differ from the wicked ibid. 19. We must requite evil with good ibid. 20. An Objection Answered ibid. 21. Another Objection Answered 428 22. Reasons why we are to requite evil with good ibid. 23. The effectually called are willing to do any thing for God 429 24. The excellency and worth of effectual calling ibid. 25. How to discern hereof ibid. 26. Why many Christians are unsetled herein ibid. 27. The word always perswades us to our good 430 28. Christians are a blessed people ibid. Verse 10 11. 1. VVHy we ought to be patient and requite evil with good 431 2. A peaceable and patient man shall live the longer and the quieter ibid. 3. Life and long blessings of God which his children may desire 432 4. Why the godly are at sometimes taken away by death ibid. 5. Long life proveth not a blessing to the wicked and yet might ibid. 6. In what respects it may be lawful to desire to live 433 7. Whence it is that most are desirous to live long 433 8. In what respects days may be said to be good here and in what evil 434 9. Mens days be usually evil ibid. 10. Mans life short ibid. 11. Good days are a blessing of God ibid. 12. The wicked may live long yet have not good days 435 13. Prosperity why denyed for the most part to Gods children ibid. 14. Whether we may pray for prosperity ibid. 15. Whether we may pray for afafliction 436 16. Whoso would be happy must refrain from evil speaking 437 17. Means whereby to bridle the tongue ibid. 18. Reasons inducing thereunto ibid. 19. We must abstain from the close and covert evils of the tongue 438 20. Guile to be avoided in Religion towards God ibid. 21. Guile to be avoided in carriage towards men 439 22. What the evil of sin is and that we must avoid it 440 23. The evil of sin worse then the evil of punishment ibid. 24. All sins are to be eschewed ibid. 25. They are to be eschewed at all times in all places with all the kindes thereof under
be dismaid and dead as it were on the nest Through this they can even in Prison with Paul and Silas sing Psalms as through this the Martyrs endured the fire Daniel and the Three Children went cheerfully to suffer This also makes a Christian lively to serve God and in every duty to praise him as David Open thou my lips saith he namely with assurance of thy love and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise So to do good to others as being fitted to teach them as well the way of Gods justice against sin as the way of his mercy to them that repent yea hereby we shall be fit to every good duty I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge mine heart namely by the perswasion of thy love and by thy Spirit and the hope of Salvation It s a fault in Christians that they be no more cheerful in this hope but lumpish and soon daunted in afflictions a fault I say that we are no more active and lightsom in Gods business Let every one then labor for it till this we are not alive our soul never prospers nor sees good day This even this is the beginning of life and the first step to eternal life Would any man live and be cheerful and see good days and have that which might keep him from being daunted in adversity persecution death at the day of Judgement let him by all means get this Without this mens hopes are vain their stout courage will fail them in those times when God shall frown It s Faith onely which will carry a man through all things Hereby he shall have a heart to serve God yea both do and suffer the greatest things for him and his sake According to his abundant mercy The moving cause of this benefit of our calling to Faith and hope is Gods mercy nay hit abundant mercy The cause of all the good that ever came to us or ever shall come is no other but onely free favor Why did he elect us before the world but onely of his undeserved love According to the good pleasure of his own will not for works we had done it was before the world not for any we were like to do as who do none till he work them in us So also Why redeemed he us when we were all fallen into condemnation even for his meer mercy was there any thing in us could deserve it when we were utterly unable to do any good nay when his utter enemies why also hath he called us Did we or could we do any thing before our calling to deserve it We were not onely unable to think a good thought but serving the Devil with all our power walking in our lusts after the Prince that ruleth in the children of disobedience See our case in Ezek. 16. both in respect of our Parents sinners and our selves or any thing we can do Nay to cut the throat of all conceit of any merit less or more before or alter he saith His abundant mercy So that a little mercy such as is in man or some reasonable store as in Angels would not serve the turn nor was sufficient to save us or move the Lord to call us to this hope but an abundant deal of the mercy of God which is infinite Was it a small matter that moved God to chuse thee to Salvation rather then thousands of others or was it a small mercy to give us his onely Son to save and deliver us by suffering all the wrath due to us What Not his Servant nor his Friend but his Son his only begotten Son the wisdom of the Father the Image of the invisible God the engraven form of his Person to stoop so low as to become man nay in that base estate to be despised of men to be hated spitted upon mockt shamefully Crucified and he that knew no sin to stand in the stead of most vile sinners and so to be dealt with and that for us no friends but enemies no good persons but vile and wretched ones Was a little love enough to bring this to pass Oh no but a love without measure without example never such another even that any Father gave his only begotten Son to save traitors and enemies It was wonder that the Father did not rather suffer all mankinde to perish then to give his only most blessed Son to suffer the least of these indignites And it was no small love of Iesus Christ that moved him to leave the glory of the Father and stoop to the estate of a man and all his infirmities save sin and to endure all these tortures of men and his Fathers wrath especially It was no small love that made him give us his heart-blood when he shed a few tears for Lazarus the Jews said Behold how he loved him but having shed his blood for us what may we say So also is it a small measure of mercy to call us to the hope of Salvation from our wretched estate when we went on in sin and minded no good nay all evil It must needs be a great deal of mercy to move God to think well to us when we went on madly in our sins and did fight against him so also to forgive so many and horrible offences as we had committed no marvel though David craved the multitude of Gods mercies If they were not infinite our sins could not be forgiven for our sins come as neer infinite as number can make them then to cloath such wretches with the righteousness of his Son then to forget and forgive all that is past and take us into favor and make us here heirs of all his promises and priviledges and of life eternal hereafter who will not admire it Is not this abundant mercy to work this hope in us whom he might have justly condemned and when he might also have been glorified in our condemnation as he was in Pharoahs Plagues So also to adopt us for his children men adopt that have none of their own God had a natural beloved Son men adopt their kinsmen God us nothing of his kin yea his enemies men adopt for some good quality we had no such thing to move God was it not a great deal of mercy that moved God to call Paul that ran a persecuting of him in his members to forgive Mary Magdalen Manasses c. So every one of us What were we when God called us Must not we say that it was abundant mercy that ever we were called forgiven and saved They that have had their part in this abundant mercy must be stirred up to abundant thanksgiving saying with the Psalmist What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me We must testifie our love in â—ealous obedience all the days of our life shewing forth the vertues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous
purgeth scoureth and weedeth us that his graces in us may shine in their perfect colours As the Vine-dresser shreds his Vine and cuts off much which one would think were against the Vine yet makes it more fruitful so doth the Lord deal by afflictions with his servants which are his Vine branches Though the outward man decay by sickness poverty disgrace imprisonment and the like yet is the inner man Faith Hope Comfort c. increased daily for Faith the more its cut the more it grows the more it s trodden on the thicker it comes up And by afflictions there 's purged away a great deal of pride self-love worldliness hypocrisie and the like which long peace gathers whereof Jonah had experience when he was cast into the Sea those tame us also A man that was conceited against his neighbor for smal causes in prosperity in sickness and affliction will be glad to take every one by the hand therefore are the most afflicted for the most part fullest of Faith and Grace and purer then others and a man is never better then when he is in or newly come out of affliction Hence it is that we are willed to be thankfulfor them yea to account it exceeding joy when they come those being blessed that are so affected Being much much more precious c. He sets out tried Faith by comparing it with the most precious mettal we have even gold preferring it by far before the same which is elswhere termed also precious and much more precious is it every way 1. Gold comes out of the earth Faith from Heaven whence every good and perfect gift is 2. Faith is more rare termed therefore the Faith of Gods elect whereas most even of the most wicked are not without gold 3. Faith cannot be purchased with all the gold in the world 4. It s hardly gotten and hardly kept and hath many and strong enemies our own nature the world and the devil are all against Faith but not so against getting of gold 5. It apprehends Salvation and life eternal and so is the instrument of our happiness so is not gold but the instrument of many a mans damnation by unconscionable getting and covetous keeping the same many cast away their souls 6. It will comfort a man with true comfort in his life carry him strongly through troubles and boldly through the gates of death 7. Gold perisheth here canker and rust consume it we may be taken from it as it from us but Faith endureth till Christs appearing to our full Redemption as the fruit thereof for ever The uses hereof are 1. To them that want gold and yet have Faith know that thou art rich richer then he that hath thousands of gold and hath not Faith thou hast enough that hast Faith it assures thee of eternal life and entitles them to Christ yea hath the promises even of this life Seest thou a worldly rich man and wouldst thou change states with him Oh but both would do well Thou canst not tell if both would do so with thee besides God divides his gifts they that have much of the one have less or none of the other therefore as long as we have of the best kinde let us think our selves well dealt with 2. To the rich Rejoyce not that thou art rich but that thou hast Faith Again think all your pains to become you well and well bestowed in getting this precious Faith If any should say What you such wealthy men it s a disgrace to you to toil so in hearing Sermons which few do but mean persons do not these exclude themselves with their own mouthes But do not rich men travel to London and to Markets and Fairs to enrich themselves and take great pains and is it a shame then or a disgrace for them to travel for that which is much more precious then gold Hereat if any wonder tell them You seek that which is more precious then fined gold and that you are so far from thinking your selves too good for this that you highly thank God for vouchsafeng you this favor yea that you are so far from thinking that you credit the Gospel and its beholding to you that you confess freely that its your credit and that if you have any thing in you worth the commendation you may thank the Gospel for it for as for wealth it commends not a man even reprobates are not without it 3. To them that have not Faith poor souls labor after it that you may be made inwardly rich seek for it in the means appointed the preaching of the Word But O poor miserable creatures that regard it not for the most part but think their poverty here shall serve for all but worse in the highest degree remaineth behinde if not prevented in time could any look into your souls they might perceive them more empty of grace then the poorest houses are of provision 4. To rich men that have toiled for gold seek this that is so much better Many toil by Sea and land and undergo no small perils to get gold and to wax mighty but as for Faith they will scarce stir over the threshold for it But will your gold procure a pardon for your sins Alas it s no payment with God for any thing especially sin Will it shelter when Death and Judgement comes Alas no it bears no sway in the other world see Job 36 18 19. Prov. 11. 4. Zeph. 1. 18. No it will not abate your pains in Hell one jot O once consider your folly and labor for that whereby you may have comfort when you draw away and your friends are thinking of a Coffin to bestow you out of the house and thereafter you may enjoy life everlasting May be found unto praise and honor and glory The farthest end of our affliction that our Faith thereby tryed may come forth to our honor at the great day Tryed Faith is better then any thing that can be set by it for all else vanisheth but our Faith will be crowned at the last day Then will it be said Well done good and faithful servant enter into thy masters joy and Come ye blessed of my Father c. They that confess him before men he will confess them before God which shall be no small honor They which followed him in the regeneration shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel and The Saints shall judge both the world and Angels what pains soever we have taken to come to our Faith and to keep it it shall not onely comfort and honor us here in the Church but hereafter also in Heaven What an encouragement is this to them that have Faith and a provocation to all to labor for it It will not onely comfort us now and make us please God but will give us boldness also at the great Day when the fearful and unbelievers
shall stand trembling and be cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brinstone yea though our Faith be tryed by afflictions and persecutions yet we should rejoyce for they will turn to our glory Our shame reproach infamy imprisonment and troubles will turn to our praise and honor and glory at that day when we are reviled by private persons when persecuted by publique Magistrates and false Witnesses coming against us yet we should not be troubled but rejoyce For great shall our reward be in heaven our poverty shall be recompenced with great riches our shame with honor and if we be rejected of men we shall be taken in of God Yet do not our afflictions or persecutions deserve any of this honor as the Papists would gather from hence and from 2 Thess. 1. 5 c. Alas no For the afflictions of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us God indeed will crown his own graces in us and hath promised to reward the sufferings of his servants with glory and so he is become our debtor not by taking any thing of us but by promising us all things We should therefore be comforted in all our sufferings and oppose unto the ignominy thereof the glory and honor we shall then have which is infinitely greater O who would not endure casting out by men being a token that we shall be honored of God and taken in at that day Indeed if there were no day of Judgement nor reward we might be sorry but seeing there is let us lift up our heads and wait for that day As the wicked shall have a second course to mar all their mirth so contrarily the godly to swallow up their sorrow At the appearing of Jesus Christ. Namely to Judgement True it is as we have heard our souls enter into glory at death but our perfect happiness is not till the end of all besides that which we have at death is not seen but to our selves whereas then it shall be manifest to all We must be content to wait for our full Redemption till then on that most solemn day shall we be honored by the Lord himself Then shall our Savior come to judge the quick and the dead and though he defer to gather his Elect and be gone into Heaven yet he will come and that in another fashion then he came first namely in wonderful majesty glory and power which cannot but be a terror to his enemies 1. This must needs comfort all that have and do still embrace Christ Jesus as their Savior and King for he shall be their Judge and therefore shall it go well with them 2. But wo to them that have despised him where shall they appear Not to appear is impossible for He numbreth the stars and calleth every one by their name he will not be bribed for he is more just and besides we have nothing to give To escape also is impossible for he filleth all places and whether can he go that hath this revenging Judge over his head Hell under his feet to swallow him on each side Angels and Devils to torment him within a tormented Conscience and without all the world on fire And to abide his wrath its intolerable for if when it s but a little kindled no man can stand then how when its all on fire to consume his enemies utterly Kiss therefore the Sun seek to be reconciled get him thy Savior and thy King get pardon of that which is past not adding more to the score against thy self One thing more The phrase here used seems to imply that The reward of Gods servants shall not be privy but seen and known yea and that of those that have most hated disgraced and persecuted them accounting them mad and esteeming basely of them even before them I say they shall be honored of God As it will be a torment to the wicked to see Christ whom they have pierced to be in such high dignity and power so will it increase their torment to see them whom they so basely esteemed of as not worthy to live to be received into honor and stand on Christs right hand and themselves of whom they were so well conceited cast out But its just with God that they which willingly and of purpose have vexed and disgraced his servants here on earth should against their wills see the glory that he hath prepared for them Verse 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory HEre he proceeds to commend these believing Jews yet withal admonishing and exhorting them and that for the great measure of their faith and the fruits thereof love and joy which are described by that which might have hindred their faith namely that they never saw Christ and yet believed in him and rested on him for salvation and so loved him as they were well content to suffer for his Name yea and rejoyce with such a joy as for the excellency and greatness thereof could not be expressed In that he commends them it s to this end that he might encourage and provoke them to go on forward and increase more and more To this end doth the Lord commend the good Churches in the second and third of the Revelation and S. Paul in all his Epistles even that he might provoke them to go on in well doing And this must be the end of all good Ministers in the commendation of their people not of flattery that were abominable and being men-pleasers they could not be Christs servants nor out of a conceit that they have gone far enough and now may stand at a stay that were sensless for that we have is nothing to that we might have had or should have and want but to be a spur to provoke them to go on forward it being a shame for them not to satisfie the expectation of such as have a good opinion of them and so must the people take such at any time not being lifted up therewith but rather humbled thereby conceiving that the Minister rather sheweth what he would were in them or should be in them then what is indeed in them and that he would not have them stand at a stay but proceed and go on more and more Speak we particularly first of their faith though last set down as without which there can be no true love They never saw Christ yet they believed in him they saw the Scriptures speaking of him to come they heard of him also by faithful witnesses the Apostles had preached of his person birth life death resurrection and ascension and that he came to save them that were lost This they believed and so believed in him for salvation though they saw him not This shews the nature of true faith namely to believe things not onely that we see
and be well accounted of and reverenced yet when they come before God then they must hide themselves as the Stars and Moon shew a goodly light in the night but when the Sun appears they appear not The Nazarets vow was pleasing to God yet the time thereof being expired there was a sacrifice appointed for the sin of such a one what of such a one as had lived and served God in that strict order yea even they must acknowledge no desert but as they stand in need of mercy earnestly call upon God for it Who will shew mercy to thousands of them that love him and keep his commandments our works then or any thing that we can do cannot bring us sound peace and joy as being imperfect and unable to abide the justice of God but Faith that layeth hold on the all sufficient merit and satisfaction of Christ and his most perfect Righteousness whereby they are made ours brings us great joy as whereby we dare come before God with boldness and confidence Unspeakable and full of glory What maner of joy is that of believers Unspeakable such as cannot be uttered with the tongue why because it is for glory and happiness which is unspeakable for such things as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard therefore such as the glory is such is the joy it s an everlasting weight of glory a wise man joys according to the object of his joy but a fool reioyeth in a trifle of nothing unspeakable things are believed therefore it must needs be an unspeakable joy Full of glory Not a vain carnal or flitting joy that will fail and shame them that have had it but a glorious joy in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ and everlasting glory glorious things believed bring a glorious joy What was Davids when he said Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name c. and What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me What the Virgin Maries when she said My spirit rejoyceth in God my Savior and cannot many a Christian say that after long and heavy seeking after God and Christ Jesus God hath sent down such glimpses of joy into their hearts as they could not express and would think O if this would always last it were a little heaven and so it were indeed for its the same joy for quality that we shall have in heaven though the quantity be but small in comparison Here then see the happy estate of a Christian above all other men and the difference between the joy of all rich worldings that fat themselves in their rich comings in and richly furnisht tables and coastly attire and the godlies for do these bring unspeakable joy O no! there 's indeed small joy in them besides much vexation that accompany them and what a torment is it for such to think that they must be snatcht from this in a moment and are provided for no better neither is their joy glorious but base and childish that turns into shame in a few days their joy is in vain things and not in things that abide they rejoyce in the Creature not in the Creator yea their glory is their shame Verse 9. Receiving the end of your Faith even the salvation of your souls HEre 's the ground of their joy the end and reward of their Faith the salvation of their souls Salvation of their souls why was there any danger of the contrary O yes By nature and through sin we have deserved the utter damnation both of our souls and bodies but through Christ we escape it and obtain the salvation of both every man is in this danger neither is there any help to be had but in and through Christ apprehended by Faith How then doth it behoove every man to bestir himself about this so weighty a matter For what shall it profit a man to win the whole world and lose his own soul yet the most makes small account hereof but rather set themselves altogether about their profits and pleasures O madness to be condemned nay if they see any earnest about this they wonder what they mean what they mean they seek salvation if thou wonder at that wonder still but the time will come when thou wilt wonder at thine own folly that sought'st not after this though thou hadst missed of whatsoever else when thou seest any grieve and mourn wondrest thou what they ail It s for the want of salvation as thou art when thou wantest money if thou thinkest their grief and heaviness to be but melancholly dumps of foolish weak folks which they may shake off at their pleasure and be merry as formerly they were wont thou art much deceived Receiving He saith not you shall receive but receiving in the present tense Whence note that The Servants of God by faith do even here enjoy Salvation and Eternal life even presently we have glory though not in the fulness thereof 1. Because we are as sure of it as if we had it as who have Gods Hand for it even his Word his Seal his Sacrament 2. Because even here we have the earnest of it which is his Spirit when earnest is given between honest men there 's no going back and shall God say and not do it shall he promise and not perform He is not a man that he should lye or repent He that believeth on the Son saith the Son himself hath everlasting life 3. Because by faith we are already entred into the first degree of it being knit to Christ and so perfectly justified we are come to the suburbs of our glory and are as it were at the gate lacking nothing but to be let in by death As we say to our friends having come a long way to a City and are but at the walls thereof and not entred therein Now we are at it ye are welcom to this place so having received the first-fruits of the Spirit we may thereupon affirm that we are in Heaven This sheweth the happy estate of true believers that are so sure of their happiness and as it were entred upon it already Thou therefore that believest be of good comfort thou art even as sure of Heaven as if thou wert there already Rejoyce always serve God chearfully and bear afflictions patiently Being at the suburbs thou wantest but letting in when Death as the Porter shall open the gate Thou hast paid the price and hast good Evidence to shew for it which by thy learned Councel is judged sound and good God hath given thee his own Writings and thou hast sure under his Hand and Seal onely thou wantest Livery and Seisin which thou shalt have in good time which in the mean time is never the farther from thee The end of your Faith Or the reward which God hath promised so often who would not take any
there was an end and had no heaven nor hope of any such thing most vile for 1. God gave them his Word which was to convert their Souls and to be an immortal seed to beget them to eternal life and the Prophets in their times were filled with the Spirit of God but God did not all this for nothing 2. He made a Covenant with them I will be your God and you shall be my people Now to have God to be our God contains not onely Earthly things but Heavenly and Eternal For blessed is the people whose God is the Lord Our Savior Christ saith God is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not of the dead but of the living so that they live not in Soul onely but in Body also to Godward for he will surely raise them up again Jacob speaking unto Pharaoh mentioned the days of his Pilgrimage both he and the rest confessed themselves Pilgrims see what construction the Holy Ghost makes hereof namely That this was in respect of some other Countrey but what Countrey Earthly or Heavenly If Earthly then that from whence they came Caldea but if it had been that they had leasure enough to have returned thereunto but they desired a Heavenly therefore God prepared for them a City even such a one as they desired an Heavenly one Job believed that his Redeemer lived and Abrahams bosom is put for Heaven But such speeches as Jobs are of some few principal men and not of the people with whom no doubt it was as with us most understood not neither believed though others did This comes of a false understanding of the Promises The Lord provokes them to keep his Law and promiseth them a plenteous Land and threatned the loss thereof if they obeyed not But who knoweth not that as Egypt was a Type of their Spiritual bondage so Canaan of Heaven and Heaven promised under it even as the Lamb in the Passover was a Type of Christ the true Paschal Lamb and Christians Passover as the Apostle affirmeth 2. That of those which affirm That they were saved by some other way not by Christ as we and what by the keeping of the Law it s otherwise The Law was not to this end given them that they might be justified thereby more then to us or that they could keep it more then we for never could any keep it but to shew Gods perfect righteousness and their own sinfulness and so drive them out of themselves to Christ the true Sacrifice Notable is that Speech of Saint Peter Now therefore why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the necks of the Disciples which neither our Fathers nor we were able to bear He meaneth not here the Ceremonial Law wherein an hypocrite might go as far as another nor the bodily observance of the Moral Law whereof the yong man bragged so much but the true Spiritual Rule of Righteousness which never any could keep so they were saved by the Grace of Christ as we Abrahams Faith was imputed unto him for Righteousness and he was justified both before he was Circumcised and four hundred years ere the Law was given Who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you The Doctrine of the Gospel is no new device of man nor first Preached by the Apostles but almost as old as the World The Spirit hath given testimony of it in all ages all the Prophets have looked into it some Promises were given unto particular persons some did concern all in general those especially which were delivered by the Prophets This was signified by all the Sacrifices and Washings in the Law wherein there was an acknowledgement of guiltiness and uncleanness and a promise of something to satisfie and cleanse which was not the blood of Bulls or of Goats but of Jesus Christ who is therefore said to wash away our sins by his blood and to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world This condemneth that wicked slander of the Church of Rome that stile our Religion The new Gospel or a yesterdays Religion Nay theirs is a new Religion who knoweth not that though the Mystery of Iniquity began already to work in the Apostles times and the Devil had spread some Heresies yet alass Popery was not then hatcht and it was not come to the top till within these three or four hundred years by-past the whole being at several times patched up with several pieces by one Pope after another and new it is as being of mans brain most things therein having no ground in the Word of God nay altogether contrary thereunto The Prophets foretold of Christ and that very fully of his Nature Offices Birth Life Death Sufferings Patience Resurrection Ascension c. See Gen. 49. 10. Isa. 7. 14. Isa. 9. 6. Jer. 23. 6. Isa. 53. 8. Zach. 12. Psal. 110. 1 4. Isa. 61. 1. Dan. 9. 25. Mic. 5. 2. Psal. 22. 16. Psal. 16. 10. Psal. 68. 18. Hag. 2. 7 c. This sheweth what an agreement and blessed harmony there is betwixt the Old Testament and the New no diverse matters but the same Christ the subject matter of both driven at in the Law pointed out in all the Sacrifices The Old Testament is the New folded up the New is the Old unfolded and opened the one proving the other and hence are these Phrases As it is written And that it might be fulfilled 1. This condemneth them that reject the New-Testament and Christ Jesus and yet retain the Old as the Scribes and Pharisees did and Jews and Turks do but hold one and hold both deny one and deny both O the lamentable blindeness of the Jews that were so well acquainted with the Old Testament which did so foretel Christ and yet when he came in whom all was fulfilled they could not see it a forestalled conceit of an earthly Potentate hindred all 2. It teacheth us to labor to be acquainted with both and reverence both the one giving light unto the other and they especially that are of better understanding and have more time let them read orderly not here and there a Chapter and that most or always in the New-Testament but going on throughout both They that are slow and dull and can read little no matter though they hold themselves most to the New but for the others let them be acquainted with both Are we ignorant of the one its for want of acquaintance with the other Hath God set on work his holy Prophets to Prophefie such things as be greatly for our Confirmation and kept them through so many storms of Persecution and shall we not be conversant therein yea those Chapters that seem of least use in Leviticus touching cleansing of many sorts of uncleanness have this main use even to teach That God cannot abide sin but that it must be cleansed
he should be poured upon us And for the common people they are far inferior to Christians now they saw Christ to come afar off we already come yea that he is dead risen ascended and shall come to judgement They had him under Types and Shadows we have the substance the body it self their 's was as the seed time our time as the harvest they had the twilight we have the noon day And there was great reason that the time when Christ himself should come should bring more glory with it as the coming of a King himself hath more solemnity and priviledges then when the Kings Harbenger comes before and that when the sun of Righteousness should arise there should be more light then before But why did God send his Son no sooner and not in their time rather A. We must not quarrel with God we may as well ask him why he made the world no sooner why he put distinction between the summer and winter day and night We must know that all things are done in infinite Wisdom and Justice by the Lord though we know not always the reasons of his dealings He came in the fulness of time he could come no sooner nor tarry any longer we are to thank God that he is come The difference between them and us is onely in the measure of Revelation and means therefore we call their time the Old Testament or Covenant and ours the New not two but one onely the Covenant to them was sealed in the blood of Bulls and Goats ours in Christs own blood as he himself witnesseth The cause why their time was called the time of the Law ours the days of the Gospel was not but that they had the Gospel also preached as Adam in Paradise so Abraham so the Jews in all their sacrifices and cleansings but because then the Law was so much preached and the Gospel so darkly and sparingly as now the Law more sparingly the Gospel more frequently Neither is God to be charged with inconstancy because he taught his Church otherwise then then now he doth no more then a Father for training his children up otherwise when they be children then when they are men grown he doth both in wisdom The Lord trained on his children in their infancy by those babish rudiments fit for the time reserving greater things for the grown age of his Church yea such is his constancy that he hath never altered the way of Salvation but hath ever been the same from the beginning and shall be Seeing then that the Lord hath honored us to live in these days and revealed his will so plentifully O how joyfully should we embrace Christ Jesus and labor to be found answerable in Knowledge Faith Repentance Zeal and Holiness Our Forefathers saw but a little and took great pains for it and were glad of it How glad then should we be of that we have Simeon waited for the consolation of Israel and was so glad that he had seen and taken Christ in in his arms though then in his swadling clothes that he was willing to dye O how joyful would he have been if he had seen his Miracles heard his Preaching known his Resurrection Ascension and Glory as we do David was so glad of the Word that he accounted it better then gold and silver and sweeter then the honey and the honey-comb and Job esteemed it above his appointed food Alas What a little had David especially Job in respect of that we have we have the whole Old Testament which some of them had not and the New also an Exposition and Commentary thereof which they had not at all How cheerfully then may we come to Christ and believe in him How should we walk that know he is gone up to heaven to prepare a place for us and will come again to receive us But alas if the Lord come to look for these fruits where be they Alas to whom is the Gospel welcom How many be there that would as willingly there were no Preaching as any and are there not many that hear onely for the fashion that will hear but when they list The Lord publisheth his Gospel and offereth his Son to the world but alas men have more minde to their Oxen Farms Pleasures then to imbrace it many savor not of the Gospel many count it rather a burthen then a jewel yea of those that hear the word usually How few are there that hear it with delight how few finde such need of Christ as they desire him more then all the world as they will willingly stoop to his yoke and serve him And as many have no more knowledge then if they had never had the means thereof so even they that have some measure of knowledge make no conscience of their ways are utterly void of Reformation Thus do not they take thankfully this great jewel of the Gospel the onely glory of the World but most unkindely requite the Lord yet what 's their saying They hope to be saved by Christ as they that believe stedfastly in him but how they came by their Faith or any good fruits thereof they can shew none For this God must needs have an heavy controversie with the Land and were 't not for a remnant that he hath to gather we should quickly perceive it O therefore let our conversation be such as becometh the Gospel bring we forth meet fruit to the pains God hath bestowed on us But as for those that live and make no account of nor receive any profit by this Gospel their condition will be heavy God will take his Word from them or snatch them from it and not onely Abraham Isaac and Jacob and old times shall rise up against such but even the good Souls that saw but a little light fifty or sixty years ago and had but a little knowledge for the means were small yet were zealous and godly and sundry gave their lives for the Truth even these I say shall rise up and condemn them Then would they be glad of one of the days they have had but shall not have any Awaken therefore to day while it is called to day for we may fear it draws to night-ward towards the Sun-setting of the Gospel The things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you c. The second part of the commendation The same Gospel preached by the Prophets was also preached by the Apostles since Christ men that were trained up with Christ all the time of his preaching and were witnesses of his Life Death Resurrection and Ascension These have preached this Gospel and that not of their own mindes but by the Spirit of God which was sent down from heaven upon them and that in an extraordinary and visible maner The Prophets preached of the same Christ and that by the Spirit as we have heard so that they and the Apostles agree notably in one
a good Subject or say he is a mans servant and yet doth nothing that he is bidden but is drunken quarrels with his fellow-servants beats his Master children breaks down his windows rails upon him should this be counted a good servant or the other a good subject so the Lord defies that such should call him Father and counts it a disgrace to him to be call'd Father of such miscreants that live like bastards that have no care to please God no fear of offending him nor delight to be in his presence We should take it as a disgrace to have some base and filthy person come in a market to us and call us father yet this may and doth befal men yea good too who have lewd children and such be like them neither in favor nor condition yea there 's scarce one childe like the Father or one like another but it s nor so with God he hath never a childe but is like him and hath his image in him like hearted and like handed to him innocent hands and a pure heart holy as he is holy hating sin as he he doth loving his Word People Righteousness c. as he doth He that is born of God sinneth not Those are true properties of a childe of God yet even others have a father too Christ hath pointed him out Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father you will do Such as care for no goodness nor for Gods children but are Lyars Deceivers Oppressors and the like they are like the Devil God is not their Father but their Enemy with such all the Angels and Creatures are at defiance and wait for their destruction all the judgements of God hang over their heads their death will be a passage to their endless wo and misery Therefore never call God Father till thou change thy maners nor look for any priviledge of a childe from him as either protection or maintenance no nor so much as good look But shall I thus leave these God forbid for though we finde them children of the Devil yet we would be glad to bring them to be Gods Therefore humble your selves confess your sins as the Publican and the Prodigal entreat and sue for Pardon change thy behaviour and when thou canst feel thy heart effected like a Childe or truly desirous so to be then call him Father In the mean time if thou wouldest mourn for thy sins and labor for a contrite heart and abstain from every unclean thing thou shouldest be received thy sins pardoned and God would be a Father unto thee But if thou goest on in this graceless course as thou workest so shall thy wages be 2. But dost thou unfeignedly desire to fear God 1. In thy general calling as a Christian to walk holily righteously and soberly Fearest thou to offend God thy self or to see him dishonored by others carest thou to please him lovest thou to be in his presence dost thou conscionably hear his Word and patiently bare his Corrections 2. In thy special calling art thou careful to glorifie God as a Parent Childe Master Servant c. not onely in ceasing to do evil but in doing good yea and laboring to do it well Thou mayest comfortably and with good leave call God Father and make account of him so to be which is the greatest priviledge in the world Christ is thy Brother thou art Heir with him of all good things in this world and Salvation in the Kingdom of Glory hereafter Angels guard thee nay are thy Servants Afflictions Corrections Death no Death but a passage to Life O let us be perswaded to increase more and more in this care and every time we call God Father we may be put in minde and provoked to labor for the affections of dutiful Children We can readily look that God should be a Father to us that we want nothing but we for our parts can be content to be wanting in our duties many ways we neglect this and that duty yea in those we perform how cold are we little differing from Hypocrites how often do we break out into gross evils how little grieved when we offend or see others offend for these the Lord is often driven to afflict us As it s between natural Parents and Children we see that love descends but seldom ascends They look for all maintenance from their Parents but care little how small reverence or obedience they give them So we deal with God our head must not ake a little but he must presently give ease but we can be slack enough in the performance of our parts Who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man works Here 's the second Reason He whom we call Father is also a Judge and that a very sharp-fighted one that will not be carried away with shows and false glosses of good works but will look into the inside and judge accordingly If they proceed from an honest heart he will surely reward them if not they shall not onely miss the reward they look for but have for all their gay shows their reward with Hypocrites Therefore it stands us in hand not onely to renounce evil and to do good but to do the same with a right affection Here I might speak how God judgeth and will judge mens actions as 1. In this life he approveth the ways of his Servants by his Word and by his blessings upon them outward and inward and disalloweth the wicked actions of the World and their courses by his Word and by his judgements sometimes 2. In the end of this life by receiving the soul of the one into glory and by casting down the other to confusion 3. And especially at the last day by receiving the one into everlasting glory and throwing the other into endless misery Which may 1. Make us all look to our ways to walk in reverence and fear all our days To this purpose peruse Ecles 12. 13 14. Act. 24. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 9. 2 Pet. 3. 11. 2. Be a strong bit to hold back the wicked from running on nay to bring them on their faces for that which is past that it may be here pardoned that they meet not with all their abominations at that day For we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Even they that have been judges of others they that have ben quit yea they that have had their sentence here too shall appear before a wise Judge that cannot be deceived a Just one that will not be bribed from whom they cannot flee as being Infinite But because this is not the main drift of the Apostle I pass it over the more briefly the chief force lying in this That God judgeth according to mans works without respect of persons The person
old time but rather being good and warrantable we are to follow it because Antiquity hath reverence joyned with truth yet we must not follow a thing simply because ancient evil is almost as ancient in the world as good better a new truth that is truth newly revealed then an old error This condemns the Papists most of them have no other reason for their Religion but Thus did our Forefathers So long and so long it hath been and shall we be wiser then they My Father and my Grandfather God rest their souls they did thus c. a poor blinde rule They walked in darkness and so went out of the way will you do so that have the light It s no more a rule for Doctrine or Maners to say Thus did our Forefathers they were of this minde and why am not I so to be then if any should Swear Rail Lye Curse and say I do but as I heard and saw my Father do will this go for payment trow ye Not with corruptible things as silver and gold The things whereby we are not Redeemed are silver and gold These he names in stead of all other worldly things as which answer all and by them Houses Lands yea the most costly things and most precious Pearls are bought By these men may be ransomed and redeemed out of bodily Thraldom but all the silver and gold in the world is insufficient to redeem even one man out of his Spiritual bondage See Mat. 16. 26. The Reasons hereof may be these 1. God hath no need of any of these things and they are his already The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof The gold of Ophir and Havilah as are the beasts on a thousand mountains 2. Our soul is an immortal and incorruptible being a Creature that had a beginning but never shall have end Now gold and silver are things corruptible and vanishing therefore are not of worth or value to redeem or countervail the soul for there must be some proportion between the thing bought and the price given so is there not between the world and the soul of a man one soul is more excellent then the whole world 3. Sin is a transgression against an Infinite God and so deserveth an infinite punishment a death and that eternal and infinite now a death must be paid Gods justice hath set it down no such price therefore will be taken neither are these things infinite all the world is not 4. Many times even for a Trespass committed against men these things will not be taken for a recompence 5. These often when God sends some bodily judgement are unable to do men any pleasure nor can at all pacifie God 6. These cannot redeem a mans bodily life and save it from death for many would give much to procure that nor can they prolong a mans ones own brothers life an hour beyond his appointed time much less can they redeem his soul. 7. These cannot purchase Wit Learning Eloquence for those that want them much less Sanctification and Grace as also if a man were born Blinde Lame Deformed they cannot purchase Sight Strength or Beauty 1. This condemns those gross Absurdities nay Blasphemies of the Church of Rome they by Pardons and Indulgences sold for Money take upon them to forgive sins yea they give those to houses of Gentlemen for many years to come perswading also that by their Masses which they must purchase with their Money they shall be freed from Purgatory and sent to Heaven Among them belike the rich are in a good case they may sin freely but the poor are in an hard taking O cursed Blasphemy None can forgive sins but God onely yea whereas all the Silver and Gold of the world cannot satisfie for one sin yet will they set it at such and such a rate of Money It may be said to them as Peter said to Simon Magus Your Money perish with you because you think that the gift of God such a special gift as is the Remission of sins may be bought with Money 2. We must learn by any means not to hazard or sell our souls for Silver or Gold not for the whole world If a man should sell his soul for the whole world would the same price redeem it again no not if there were ten thousand worlds Then is it a very hard bargain to sel any commodity at such a rate as a man would give a thousand times as much for it again and yet must go without it what shall I say of the common sort which so basely esteem of their souls that they sell them away to destruction for toys of this world How many sell themselves to hell some by Robbery Bribery Oppression Simony Sacriledge Cousenage Lying Swearing c. others for a bare living and maintenance O poor woful Creatures They know not what they do They are like yong Heirs that know not the worth of their Inheritance and so part with all to some couzening companion for a Horse Dog or Hawk nothing to the true worth of it and then fret to think that they had such a living whereby they might have lived in good fashion all their life and now it s gone and they have nothing but like prophane Esau's have lost their birth-right O if men knew the worth of their souls they would then despise the whole world if it were offered for them but an Omnia Dabo pulls most of the world upon their knees to worship the Devil Many Shop-keepers say they would not give their lying for Forty pounds a year but poor blinde Creatures yong Heirs if they gate Forty thousand pounds a year they were great losers for if they would give it and as much more to it it would not recover their souls again from Damnation thereby deserved Oh the soul lives for ever and sin casts it into everlasting Wo and Torment And for enjoying a few short pleasures of sin shall we throw our selves into everlasting torment Moses would not thus do but left Pharoahs court and the delights thereof which he could not hold without sin O le ts be wise at last and royally set such a price on our souls as if the Devil would say as he did to Christ All this will I give thee we may tell him he bids like an higler and if he would give us seven worlds we would not part with our Souls 3. We wust be more afraid of sin then of any thing else seeing the price is so great that must satisfie for it even more then the loss of all that we have If we should commit sin to save all we have we lose But how little account do men make of sin whereas nothing but Christs blood can satisfie for it If we were set to pay Twenty shillings for every sin we commit how shie would we be but considering that the very greatest sum
the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever THis duty of love is of such use and we so untoward to it and so hard a thing for us to love as we ought that it s urged with a Reason True it is so and no more then needs for the spirit that is in us lusteth after envy The Reason is taken from the grace of Regeneration bestowed upon them They were born again and therefore were to shew the fruits thereof as in other things so in this of love Where might be noted 1. That such as are not born again cannot love no more then men can gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles or pour Wine out of a Bottle full of Vinegar but as Grapes are gathered of the Vine so must love come from a Regenerate man not otherwise 2. That the Regenerate man must needs love therefore they that declare no love but hate their Brethren the people of God especially shew they be not born again nor of God But I proceed to the words Being born again Here 's occasion offered to speak of the grace of Regeneration Touching it consider briefly these particulars 1. What it is to be born again It s to be made new creatures to be cast in a new mold to have the corrupt Image of Sin which we have by Nature and wherein we were conceived and born put off throughout and the contrary good one wherein we were at the first created put on to have the understanding enlightned with distinct knowledge of God the heart bowed to the obedience of God c. new thoughts desires speeches actions In the new Creature all things must become new Thus it s done to all that were elect before the foundation of the world They are changed up and down from a good state by Creation to a bad in Adam from thence to a good one in Christ by grace here in expectation of glory hereafter For the wicked they are changed from good to bad and there remain the same but still worse and worse for ever we should give God thanks that made us so good at first be humbled to see our base and woful state now and seeing there is help never to be quiet till we recover our first condition 2. That the Lord is the Author hereof he takes away the stony heart and gives a new heart an heart of flesh It s his work onely nor Man or Angel can change the heart to work a deadly hatred of that which by nature we love as our lives and to love and take delight in those courses duties companies which sometimes were as a Prison Alas the best Paul and Apollos cannot often even of their Children or very Friends not a few remain unconverted though haply in the mean time God bless their labors to convert many others Yea if an Angel should take a man and carry him to Heaven and shew him the Joys thereof and thence to Hell and shew him the Torments thereof yet this would not convert him neither all Mercies Afflictions or Plagues of Egypt It s a great work of God and so great as if all things were not possible to him he could not do it It s a greater work then the Creation of the World In that there was no opposition in this much we have not onely no aptness to good or to be wrought to goodness but a violent opposition against it there but to make the things here both to put out the corrupt nature and to put in the contrary good then he made all of nothing now he makes good of nought As its easier making a thousand glasses then the setting together one that is broke so it was easier to speak quo ad nos for all things are alike easie to God to make the world then to repair the broken Image of God in man It s a miraculous work of God greater then any miracles that Christ or his Apostles wrought our Saviors several miracles upon the bodies of men are all done in the conversation of a sinner sight restored to them that were blinde and darkness it self hearing to the deaf speech to the dumb feet to the lame Devils cast out yea many for the Devil possesseth us and all our Parts and Members Hearts Hands Eyes Tongues Feet c. as any Captain holds a Castle and hath it at command Thus it s a wonderful work of God to see a mans Soul and Life his wit will desires affections and all altered from black to white It was a wonder to see the Criple go and for him that was born blinde to see but it s more marvel to see a man converted for whereas God gave power to work all these miracles the raising of the dead not excepted to men this of regenerating is his own onely If we finde it ascribed to Ministers as Paul is said to have begot Onesimus and as a Father the Corinthians we must not conceive as if it were not proper to God onely but know that it is for that God would keep them the instruments by whom he works from contempt A good Husband or Wife may be a good means each to other but have no power of themselves Adam could easily cast away himself but none could restore him but God onely as a Childe of half a year old may break a glass which all the men in the Town cannot set together again It s wrought of God by uniting us to Christ by Faith through his holy Spirit which works this alteration when pardoning our sins past he taketh away the guiltiness and punishment thereof in his death Let all that can prove it give all glory to God for so unspeakable a mercy even that when they were going headlong to destruction when as vile as any he yet called them passing by thousands which yet lie in their sins And for them that can prove no such thing let them not delay nor put off to the last as the fashion is as though it could be dispatcht in a trice or with a wet finger but seek it both earnestly and quickly in the means appointed Why do men think they shall repent on their death bed rather then now Is it because the pain or fear of death will make them Alas all the Plagues in the world cannot change a man without God and will God be near to work then Nay he that was rejected in health and life will more likely cast off in death and if he will not bless his Word will he work in the end by other means This is little better then Sauls practise to go to the Devil when God would not help him 3. That the Lords own will is the moving cause hereof As he Elected freely and gave Christ of his love so this Nothing in us could move him hereto but whom he elected before the world those doth he of the
hath given us many means to subdue them therefore will be angry if we keep them not under and grow especially against our strongest corruptions they offend God hurt us glad Satan defile the Temple of the holy Ghost were the cause of Christs death are of long continuance and therefore must be put away And as we must labor daily to mortifie our lusts and old man so to grow in all graces 8. The perfection of a Christian There 's none here in this life we know but in part there be still remnants of sin in us we are indeed perfectly Justified not but in part Sanctified Sin and Grace is mingled in every part not sin in one part and grace in another as heat and cold in lukewarm water light and darkness in the twilight God will have it so to be 1. That we might be saved of mercy and by Christs merit and not by any merit of our own for if we were perfectly Sanctified here then should Christ seem onely to make us fit to merit our own Salvation 2. That his power might be made known in our weakness whereby we are enabled to overcome such mighty enemies of our Salvation 3. That continually we might be kept humble ever thankful to God for daily pardon 4. That there might be continual use of the Word Sacraments Prayer and one of another 5. That there might be something to weary us hence and make us long for Heaven where we shall attain that which here we can never But though these Corruptions remain yet they reign not they are indeed troublesom and hurtful as the Canaanites to the Israelites or Rebels that make Insurrection in a Kingdom but have not the Scepter in their hand but are subdued in time and they dwell in us as unwelcom guests There is always a Civil war in a Childe of God two men in one man the old and the new two laws the law of our members and the law of our minde the Flesh and Spirit fight each against other now the one prevailing then the other yet so as the old man grows weaker and the grace of God stronger It had a deadly blow at first and still languisheth and is in a Consumption as a Serpent that is deadly wounded in his head yet wrigles with the tail or a Soldier deadly wounded in his brain yet thrusts with his weapon The Scripture speaks of the old man in Regeneration as if it were crucified and wholly destroyed because it s so wounded that it can never recover his former strength 1. This condemns all Anabaptists and others that dream of a purity in this life 2. It teacheth us to bear with one another The husband though godly must not look the wife should be without fault nor the wife the husband so the Master the Servant or the Servant the Master there are none without Imperfections we never read of any but noted with some weakness Christ alone excepted therefore think it not strange neither neglect the graces that be in any for one or more infirmities so as they grow to no height 3. Here 's comfort to those that doubt of their Conversion because they meet with temptation and feel sin rebelling in them and their corrupt nature lusting after evil It s not so much a sign you are not converted because you have sin for that 's common to all as that you are because you feel it strive against it and grieve for it This is indeed a sign you have the Spirit in you The godly and wicked sin both but there 's great odds in the maner the wicked sin willingly and advisedly yea delight in it are loath to be hindred from it when they have done are not humbled but go on therein whereas the Regenerate sin not with full consent but haled thereto by force of temptation and strength of corruption being thereafter humbled ashamed grieved If it be thus with thee be of good comfort be still constant in resisting use means to subdue the old man and cherish the new so shall you every day get the victory more and more and when you be overtaken thus it shall not be laid to your charge but pardoned in the Death and Obedience of Jesus Christ Neither shall your corruption recover it self again to rule over you as before but shall still languish and this is the cause why the Scripture speaks as if our Regeneration were perfect our old man destroyed And at last by death we shall get a final and perfect victory and never feel sin more for with laying down our bodies we lay down our sin and not before Not of corruptible seed c. Here is set down 1. The efficient cause of our Regeneration both Negatively where 's shewed what it is not and Affirmatively what is not 2. The instrument thereof the Word of God 3. A description of God that he liveth and abideth for ever Not of corruptible seed Of mortal seed we are born not born again by it we are made Creatures not new Creatures we are not born holy but by being born again we are made holy The godliest Saints of God cannot convey grace into their Children but sin and nature whence it is that even Abraham had an Ishmael Isaac an Esau As we are born of our Parents we are altogether corrupt our understanding seeth little in heavenly things and our Reason is an enemy thereto as that there is one God in three Persons Christ God and Man born of a Virgin the world made of nothing Man saved by the imputed righteousness of another the near Union between Christ and a Believer the Resurrection and last Judgement c. Reason sees them not yields not to them nay being much urged laughs thereat and that which it doth understand it conceives not as it ought the will desires nothing that good is or at least as it ought for it is defiled and so the whole man Again mortal seed begets that that is mortal onely and not immortal but when we be once Regenerate we never dye more but live the life of grace here and shall that of glory hereafter a final fall or the second death can never befal the new Creature Let none therefore trust in this that they were born of godly Parents but desire God as their Father to beget them anew But of incorruptible Namely by the Spirit of God which is the true efficient cause who doth alter and change our hearts and conveys power to kill sin in us and to quicken us to a good life Usually these words and the next are put together and understood of one thing namely that the Word is the immortal seed of Regeneration and after a sort it may be so called but properly the Spirit of God is the seed the Word is the instrument and we know the Word of it self can do no such thing no more then a Tool can
have some one lust or sin that they will not part with Thus some stand cheapning many years together They would fain do well and be saved but have something that they cannot finde in their hearts to do away and so at last come to nothing perish as unbelievers for whosoever shall have part in Christ must be like the wise Merchant who will part with all that he hath to get the Pearl He will part with any with all his sins whatsoever that he may have pardon in Christ He will take up his yoke not in what he list shaking off some part at his pleasure but in every part thereof O poor fools that will lose Heaven for some one lust Are not such worthy to perish 1. This is an exceeding comfort to those that are holpen against all lets that hinder most and do not stumble at Christ but acknowledge themselves utterly lost without Christ that earnestly long after him prize him above the world and are content to part with any thing for him O you are blessed Why should so many stumble at Christ and not you O its Gods unspeakable mercy Flesh and Blood hath not so taught you well may you rejoyce for him the joy and rejoycing of your souls He will be a sure Foundation of happiness to you that will never fail you in this Life in Death or at the day of Judgement 2. Terror to all that stumble at Christ upon what occasion soever that will not see their need of him nor part with any thing for him To these he will turn to their destruction For they hurt not him thereby but themselves as one stumbling at a great stone hurts not it but himself or one running a Ship against a great Rock hurts not it but splits the Ship in pieces so wil it be to all that embrace not Christ for missing him Who shall save them There is no other to be saved by but they must bear their own burthen and shall undoubtedy perish They shall not escape destruction and no marvel For if they that despised Moses Law escaped not unpunished What shall become of them that despise Jesus Christ himself O how happy might we be that have the Lord Jesus the blessed Savior of the world Preached to us so graciously when as few have that favor but most sit in darkness and blindeness 3. Whatsoever hath made any of us stumble at Christ endeavor we to remove the same that so we may embrace him with both arms as our Savior and stoop to him as our Lord and King who will be to us a sure Foundation of Salvation that will not fail us If any will yet go on obstinately and carelesly he shall surely bring destruction upon himself eternally And is it not a grievous thing that Christ should be a cause of mens Damnation and yet he is to all that receive him not as they that come unworthily to the Sacrament eat and drink Damnation to themselves We say its pity fair weather should ever do hurt but is it not wonderful pity that ever Christ should do hurt Even to such as stumble at the Word Some will say they stumble not at Christ If they stumble at the Word that brings news of Christ and will not embrace it or be obedient thereto it s all one And For the Word Most men take occasion to be offended at it that either they will not profess it at all or at least no more then they must needs but to love it delight in it attend on it with diligence and be obedient to it in all things O this few do Why doth the Word give any just occasion to men to stumble O no! It s the the Word of Life and Gospel of the Kingdom able to make us wise unto Salvation to save our Souls It s our Light to guide Food to nourish Armor to defend us Pearl to enrich us all in all Yet will men through their own default and forwardness take one occasion or other not to embrace it being herein stark fools for if they take any occasion to quarrel with this or to shake it off or be strange to it they must needs perish yet there are too too many such The occasions that men take are either from the Word it self or from the Preaching of it or the Preachers and Professors thereof or from themselves Against the Word it self Be these 1. Some say if they knew indeed it were Gods Word they would as good reason they should believe and be ruled by it but that they cannot tell But he that hath not a prophane heart and willing to doubt but is any thing humble and teachable may see enough even by the Scripture it self to satisfie him fully and such arguments as hell it self is not able to gainsay 2. Some finde fault with the Translation of the Scriptures for whose satisfaction Dr. Fulk and others have written largely 3. Some curious Heads and nimble Wits no less prophane then proud stumble at the plainness of the Scriptures the homely and low stile of the same But this is one great argument to prove it to be of God because there is such fulness of Majesty in simplicity of words which is not to be found in any other writing It savors of a man and of weakness whatsoever else is written or if any thing work admiration it is that which is strained out into some lofty and eloquent Stile Unto the Prophet Gods Testimonies were wonderful a giving light and understanding even to the simple yet in some parts of Scripture is not only admirable Eloquence able to set down the proudest and ripest Wit so also we could have spoke it all but some be dark and obscure as may take up the deepest and greatest Learned which the Lord hath done that there might be taken away offence from the wise as the rest is plain to take away offence from the simple 4 Some stumble at some points of Doctrine which they cannot conceive of as of the Trinity the worlds making of nothing the Resurrection that Christ being Man should save us that being dead he should rise again c. This comes of Pride when men will reject that which they cannot conceive But we must be fools in our selves that is captivate wit reason and all to God adoring that we cannot understand and knowing that Gods mysteries are no more fit to be comprehended in our shallow reason then a man can span the whole Earth with his hand for Christ as he was Man and mortal so also is God immortal He that was God dyed but not in his Godhead that had been impossible but in his Humanity and by his Godhead raised up himself being dead and in both natures saved us 5. Again some points be too harsh for some as that of Predestination that God should appoint most men to damnation and that then it s in vain to strive or do any thing for that we cannot alter But
times wherein there are none so bad but others will keep company and joyn with them in all kindes of Societies yea oftentimes even Professors will match their children with such especially if they be wealthy but what a woful yoke is it to have an honest or well minded person or one of good towardness to be yoked with one of an ungodly and vile life one that 's both loose in maners and corrupt in judgement whether Atheist Papist or any other So men care not where they dwell nor with what Neighbors if the ground like them and it be for their profit Our yong Gentlemen are scarce compleat if they go not over to Italy to learn some of Machiavels villany A number of our Merchants care not where they buy or trade so it be for gain though they live amongst all Gods enemies and often defile themselves with bowing their knee to Baal Many care not how vile Servants they have so they do their work which yet proves oftentimes the poysoning of their Children Most are for all companies if good so it is they will frame themselves accordingly if bad they are also for them This is the cause of so much overflowing and overspreading evil in the world for one infects another O how many Youths of good towardness falling into vile company have been spoiled How loath are we that our Children should look asquint or be deformed Ill company will quickly make them look quite awry from God therefore saith David Depart from me ye wicked for I will keep the commandments of the Lord. As we love our selves as we would escape the Judgement of God upon us such as Pain Sickness Poverty and such like here with everlasting Torments hereafter keep we our selves far from the wicked depart we from them in whom we see not the lips of knowledge If we be to choose our dwellings do not we dwell in Mesech as we would not cry with the Psalmist Wo is me c. If already we dwell in such places yet be we watchful over the pollutions there lest we be defiled Haply the wicked will hereupon tax us for pride but better it is that they should speak ill of us falsly then that God should hate and punish us justly If one should wallow himself in a mire and term another in new and clean garments proud for not wallowing as he did or rubbing upon his dirty clothes whereby he might be defiled who would not account him a fool Those I say we must not love neither frequent their company but we must love the Brotherhood frequent the company of Gods people David made choyce of such so Cornelius even of such as did fear the Lord We must love to have fellowship with them both publikely in hearing the Word joyning together in Prayer for a blessing thereon and offering up the sweet perfume of Thanksgiving where thousands have found such comfort and refreshing as they would not give for a world and privately conferring one with another Admonishing Exhorting Edifying Comforting and Encouraging one another Thus we shall strengthen and confirm one another for he that walks with the wise shall be wise Thus stir up and provoke one another to good works whereof considering our dulness and weakness we have great need Thus we may open our temptations one to another and accordingly receive both comfort and counsel The wicked meet to strengthen one another in evil hereby making others twofold more the children of the Devil then themselves and should not we be as wise in our generation Oh! How many have cause to thank God highly for good company by whom upon the discovery of their temptations they have received both comfort and strength by whom being formerly much daunted by Reproaches and other harsh measure used against them for their Profession they have been notably heartened yea even the wicked themselves have been the better for good company as Joash whilest Jehoiada lived and the Sodomites whilest Lâ—t was amongst them Two are better then one and as iron sharpeneth iron so good company proveth beneficial unto such as make use of the same 1. This rebuketh the Brownists that separate and rent themselves from us and our both publike and private Societies as if we were no Church but an Antichristian company having neither Sacraments nor Ministers But we have not onely a true but a worthy Church that maintain all Principles of true Religion as soundly as any Church in the world as in our Articles of Religion appeareth We have also Ministers inwardly called of God with competency of gifts and graced of him by the fruit of their labors in the Conversion of thousands of souls which is a good seal of their Ministery from Heaven and if these have any good in them where had they it but from those Ministers and that Church from which they now separate and on which they most unchristianly rail as Antichristian to whom our Church may say indeed Give me that which you have had of me and then go your ways and see what will become of you What an ungracious part were it in a Son if being grown to some years and able to shift for himself he should turn and miscalling his Father spit on his face calling also his Mother Harlot and Whore and then running away from them when he should shew his thankfulness to them No less ungracious are these men 2. It rebuketh those prophane ones that cannot abide the company of Gods people think an hour there as long as a day elswhere account such a Family a prison wherein there 's reading the Word Catechizing Prayer and the like duties yea when they should be in the house of God they will be at home or in some Alehouse or walking abroad in the Fields or loytering in the Church-yard or if they come it s to no purpose as being against their mindes such straglers are in danger of the Devil out of Gods protection and may fall into any evil What blinde beasts be these that count that a prison that is comfort and joy true and sweet liberty Well if they will not walk with them while they live their end shall not be like theirs sever'd in life sever'd in death But what have they no company then Yes to swagger swill swear game and to all maner of disorder as well on the Lords-day as other times There 's a great deal of such fellowship in this Land falsly called good fellowship indeed hellish fellowship whereof not God but the Devil is the Author and Master of the meeting little brotherly fellowship except it be as Simeon and Levi brethren in evil O the drunken fellowship of these times Some are mad and beastly drunkards others to whom there 's also a wo strong to pour in strong drink glorying in making others drunk but their glory is to their shame and their end will be damnation How few Gentlemens houses can you come to wherein
any thing better becoming us then to please God with all our might Hath he not made us and chosen us to life before the world given his Son to dye for us and save us given us his Gospel and Spirit hath prepared a Kingdom for us and will we not please him yea if a thing stand with our profit though we know it will displease him can we be content to do it O that we should offend so good a God and so merciful a Father as he hath been unto us O do we endeavor to please him whosoever be thereat displeased whatsoever we lose or whatsoever trouble we bring upon us But O the monstrous course of this world that of all things cannot abide what pleaseth God! that so live as if God had nothing to do with them as if they were neither in his debt nor danger as if they were not afraid of them or he could do them no hurt Are you not woful creatures that thus abuse God Are you not in his debt Who gave you these Bodies and Souls who fashioned them whence was it that you were not Toads Monsters mad persons and fools who hath maintained your lives who hath kept you that you have not been ere this consumed or are not now in hell Art thou not in his debt who hath let thee live under the Gospel the means of saving thee denyed to most of the world Should you not then please him Art thou not in his danger Cannot he make the earth to swallow thee the worms to eat thee up Can he not smite thee with an incurable disease in thy bowels Can he not strike thee with madness cast thee upon thy bed and there forsake thee and give thee up to a desperate minde Is he not able to send thee to Hell ere night Can he not make every joynt of thy body every tooth of thy head so to torment thee that thou shalt be weary of thy life Canst thou promise thy meat shall nourish thee or that when thou lyest down thou shalt have one wink of sleep for pain of body or vexation of minde or shalt ever rise again When there is the greatest hope of fruit cannot he in one night by a Frost destroy it all Do we not stand at his courtesie for every shower of Rain for the Bread we eat and every thing else and should we not then please him If he smile on us whose frown need we regard If he frown whose smiles can do us good Who can stand before him when he is angry He rendeth the rocks and maketh the mountains to tremble O that any through fear or to procure the favor of any or for any other by-respects should displease him For this is thank-worthy or acceptable Whence note that The actions of Gods Children done as they ought and may be done are pleasing to God howsoever they are not as the Papists from this and the like places affirm Meritorious They are pleasing to God as being done by such as are justified by Faith in Christ the weaknesses of their actions being covered in his Death and Obedience 1. This is a great comfort unto all such as can prove themselves Gods Children and strive to do their duty in the best maner they can though the same be done weakly yet being done in truth is pleasing to God then which what greater joy comfort and encouragement unto any duty can be wished 2. This may be a terror to all that cannot prove themselves justified persons they never did that thing throughout their whole lives that pleased God A carnal man can no more make a good action then a Painter or Carver can make a living man The actions of unregenerate men want a soul. Till a mans person please God which is not till he be justified through Christ his actions cannot but displease him Even the sacrifice and prayer of the wicked is abomination before him What joy can a man have when being old and full of years he cannot truly approve that ever he spake thought or did that which was good Did men believe this they would endeavor with all speed to come out of their unregenerate condition If a man for conscience towards God endure grief c. Here he shews the maner how servants must do their duty to such unconscionable Masters even for conscience towards God because God so requires the same for if servants should bear quietly with such a Master and do their duty because they know no remedy know not how to help themselves or know that though he be wondrous hasty and boisterous yet to them that can bear with him and let him alone he will be good and bountiful whoso do their duties I say for such respects please not God neither shall have any reward with him what we do for conscience towards God is pleasing to him not otherwise whoso looketh asquint at profit pleasure honor credit favor of this or that man or the like is far from pleasing God whoso doth for conscience sake may with comfort look up to God in life and in death This rebuketh the common sort which do many duties and abstain from many sins but not in a right maner for carnal and sinister respects and not for conscience towards God Such hypocrites shall have their portion with the hypocrites Q. How may we know whether we do our duties for conscience sake or not A. By these Notes 1. If we make most conscience of the greatest things first and then of less in their place and so of the greatest sins for God hates greatest sins most as in Dâ—â—id of whom it s said He walked in uprightness all his days saving in the matter of Uriah He had other faults rashness towards Nabal pride in numbring the people rashness to believe Zibah yet that against Uriah was the worst of all Greatest sins rob God most of his glory do most disgrace the Gospel make greatest wounds in our souls procure most numbness and hardness of heart and greatest outward punishment we must make conscience of all but especially of the greatest Such as seem very earnest against some small things and make no account of greater are Hypocrites like the Scribes and Pharisees which strained at a gâ—at but swallowed a Camel Such were the high Priests they made conscience of putting the thirty pieces of silver into the treasury which Judas returned to them but made no conscience of putting Christ to death They made Conscience of going to the Common-Hall least they should be defiled and made unfit for the Passover who yet made no conscience of shedding innocent blood So the Papists stands altogether upon meats days and such trifles of their own devising making no conscience of Gods great Commandments of the 2 3 4 c. So many among our selves will speak very hardly of some small blemishes in a Professor and Oh! is this agreeable to Gods Word c. who
do yet live in foul sins Again some one hath deceived them or wronged them and they can speak very hardly against falshood and ill dealing who yet can see foul faults in others but such as have not touched them and not speak against them at all Some make great account of their truth and honesty and Oh they would not deceive their Neighbor nor carry away any thing out of his house and why fie on it hath not God forbid it who yet will rob the Lord of a great part of his day which he saith is his Some also make conscience to give their Servants victuals enough but make no conscience to give them any good instruction or to pray for them and with them c. These things they ought to have done and not left the other undone 2. If a man have a care of all Gods Commandments hate all sin and do all good always endeavoring to keep a good conscience in all things He hath an ill conscience that nourisheth any sin He that bears with himself in one sin shuns none for conscience Some are very forward to the Word Sacraments good Company ask why Because say they God requireth the same but why follow they not their calling pay every man his own deal justly doth not God require these also He is an Hypocrite that doth the former but makes no conscience of the latter Contrarily some follow their calling pay every man his own c. who yet robs God of his due and the times of worship Requireth not the Lord as well these as those Again such a man dares not do such and such a sin rob kill steal c. Why because of God and his Word who yet will swear lye rail break the Sabbath hate their Neighbors c. Why hath not God as well forbid these as those 3. If a man be careful to do his duty zealously as in Prayer not to bow the knee onely but the heart also at the Word not to hear onely with the outward ear but from the heart to reverence the same with a purpose to be ruled thereby He that slubbers over duties coldly it s a sign he looks onely to men not God 4. If a man be as careful to do his duties in private as he is in publique as in private to pray as he is in publique to hear so to meditate to be oft making moan for sin begging mercy and grace wrestling against his corruptions c. Every Hypocrite doth outward duties true Christians are in secret the same How many froward husbands will shew much kindeness to their Wives before company whereas he that makes conscience of his ways is most kinde in private So a man must make as much conscience of secret sins as of open sins of private sins in a corner of secret corruptions pride hypocrisie distrustful impatient and lustful thoughts so of wandring thoughts in Prayer and at the Word and Sacraments and of worldly thoughts on the Lords-day He must be grieved for them pray against them 5. If a man be not for a brunt but hold our constantly and continue yea and that in persecution as well where wind and tide is against him and he meets with ill will and hard measure for so doing as when he hath good countenance and may so do without control Thus David Daniel and the three Children though Princes both spake sate and did against them most part do contrarily Some make a shew a little while but quickly through love of the world through fear or favor fall away as questionless if Religion should alter most would go with the strongest side and many which now come to the Gospel would as readily go to Mass yea carry a faggot to burn them that now sit with them in the same seats These be they that know not the truth that receive not the love of the truth that live as they list and will not obey the truth Examine your selves by these Notes and as you are to repent and ask mercy and pardon for all that 's past even your best actions and the maner of your performance thereof so for the time to come do not any duty in Hypocrisie but all for conscience unto Gods Commandment Verse 20. For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God THat which the Apostle said in the foregoing Verse he doth in this amplifie by the contrary and then repeats in the end of this that he said in that In the first clause speak we first of suffering for faults then of patient suffering for the same For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults c. Here note That All suffering is not commendable nor comfortable to suffer for faults is a shame and matter to hang the head for all sin hath shame belonging thereto Therefore when our Savior saith Blessed are ye when men revile you he addeth for my names sake and falsly and Blessed are they that suffer persecution he addeth for righteousness sake Whoso suffereth deservedly for his faults is herein a companion with the Devil and Reprobates a companion of the old world Korah Achan Gehazi c. who were deservedly punished 1. This condemneth them that boast of their sufferings without cause The Papists keep a book of Martyrs executed here in England in the days of our late Queen and King Woful Martyrs the Devils Martyrs if they be any like those which be hanged with us every Assiz for Murther and Robbery and the vilest things they suffer for high Treason for their bloody and devilish conspiracies against their Prince and State They might be ashamed of such if they were not devilishly impudent it s the cause not the punishment makes the Martyr and as one saith None can dye the death of a Martyr but he that beforehand hath lived the life of a Christian so did they never they put to death hundreds yea thousands in former times both here and in other Countreys onely for not yielding to their blasphemous lyes but not one of these hath suffered for Religion but for their Treasonable facts who if they had suffered for their Religion yet had been no Martyrs for their Religion is lyes and it had not been for Christ and the Gospels sake and its possible for an Heretick to be as stubborn and impudent in maintaining a lye as the childe of God can be constant in the Truth yea to dye also for a lye though not with the like comfort as the other for the Truth 2. Among our selves some will say I think I have as many troubles as any body and have been as ill spoken of but if it was for thy faults thou hast no cause to boast Hast thou got an ill name for a Company keeper for suspition of uncleanness for an oppressor for an
of it as an example to move us to suffer and that patiently but continues his speech of it and sets it out by the ends thereof and the many benefits that come to us thereby 1. That we be thereby delivered from our sin and the punishment thereof 2. Enabled to dye unto sin that we might live unto righteousness Having fallen into this argument he sticks in it and cannot easily get out but is like a friend that holds his friend long by the hand being loath to part with him Who Even Christ himself the Son of God Lord of Angels and of the whole world His own self In his own person not by a Deputy without any help in the business Bare That is suffered the intollerable and infinite wait of Gods wrath due to our sins bare our sins and all that was due to them which would have swallowed up men and Angels Our sins Even the sins of the Elect all of them and the punishment of the same In his own body Not but that he suffered in soul and therein his chiefest sufferings were but because he speaks of his putting to death the cruel usage of his body was evident On the tree Namely the Cross which death he dyed by the especial providence of God being that kinde of death which God had pronounced accursed and so fittest for our Savior Christ to endure that he might bear what we had deserved which was to become accursed that we might escape the curse which we had deserved by the breach of the Law For Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them The foregoing words set forth the passion of Christ. The following That we being dead unto sin c. The fruits that come to us thereby As a childe that hath a piece of Sugar in his mouth is loath to let it go down but would keep the sweetness still so doth our Apostle by the Doctrine of Christs passion so sweet comfortable useful admirable he cannot get out of it but doth as it were dwell on it which teacheth us not to be weary in meditating hereon or hearing hereof it should be stil fresh and new to us as the song of the Saints and Angels though the same yet is ever new The Angels themselves desire to see further into this mystery of Gods love to his Church in giving his Son They saw somewhat by the Prophets some more when he was come especially when crucified and risen again from the dead but most of all when they saw the Gentiles called and the Gospel Preached so plainly by the Apostles yet it s said They be not satisfied but stooping down as it were they pray and desire to see more yet is the benefit more to us then unto them and therefore how much more unwearied should we be Herewith our Apostle was so taken as that he desired to know nothing else but Christ crucified and esteemed all priviledges and advantages that he had of being a Pharisee an Hebrew c. as dung in comparison of Christ The Israelites were often told by the Prophets of their deliverance out of Egypt how much more should we be content to hear of our deliverance through Christ whereof that was but a small resemblance and type But alas how quickly are we weary of this argument Because we have heard often of it it s now stale and people have no more minde to hear it then the Israelites could be contented with the Manna which God allowed them but lusted after other Food As they that go to Sea think it strange and for a day or two admire the wonderful works of God but afterward cease therefrom so do we in this matter though most sweet comfortable admirable and of daily use to make us grow in hatred of sin and love of God and would also be a spur to our dulness But to come to the passion it self It s usually referred to that he suffered on the Cross as here because that was a great part and the most visible to all and the end of all but there were also infinite sufferings before and besides his death His whole life was a continual suffering from his birth to his death from the Manger to the Cross all full of Crosses His abasement to take our nature was much and to become subject to all our infirmities sin only excepted and to be in a poor condition persecuted as soon as born living obscurely with his Parents till about thirty years old in the exercise as is supposed of a mean Trade strange abasement for the Son of God as soon as he entred into his Office and was baptized the Devil set sore on him After this as a recompence to his continual toil and travel for mens Souls and Bodies he was not only content to live in a mean condition without any House of his own c. but he was so vilely railed on and slandered as is set down in the foregoing Verse as none have been more or so much yea as sometimes in policy they sought to entrap him so at other times they laid wait and used means to kill him At last they plotted by one of his own Disciples to take away his life as burning with an irreconcileable hatred against him But ere he was betrayed he entred upon his sufferings in a most grievous maner yea no doubt even before he thought thereof at sundry times which did not a little trouble and perplex him as a woman thinking sometimes of the pains of her travel before they come is set on a sweat and quakes for fear thereof But after he had finisht the Passover and instituted the Supper he knowing that the time of his death approached went into the Mount of Olives and there entred into his most bitter Passion taking with him Peter James and John the beholders of his transfiguration and glory and therefore the fitter to behold his abasement but alas pitying them he left them onely giving them a charge to watch and pray and went from them a stones cast for they were not able to behold his agony nor hear the grievous dolour that he could not but make and then began his pains as of a woman in travel save that they were a thousand times greater he fell on his face grovelling and cryed out His soul was heavy unto the death and was in such an agony that he shed drops of blood a thing never heard of and that through the extream force of his pain O it was the intollerable weight of his Fathers wrath due for all our vile sins which was so grievous as it made him pray to his Father for help and to remove that cup if it might be which was but the frailty of his humane Nature without sin desiring help feeling it self almost swallowed up and having that which would not onely have taken away the bodily life of all men
above all others Oh! it rebukes our cold serving him which will scarce lay down our lusts at his request who yet laid down his life for us our proud lusts revenging lusts covetous and worldly lusts unclean lusts c. O fearful unthankfulness And how hardly are we brought to do duties No forwardness therein negligence every way and when we do them how cold and careless are we O lamentable Is a cold drowsie service suitable to such a love as this we may be even ashamed herein And for suffering alas we have no will no not to endure a mock a frown of a great person we will make friendship with the world rather then to endure the least disgrace we will forbear many duties nay to keep company with Gods servants onely lest we should be counted Puritans How shall we then be able to go to Prison and death for the cause of Christ 3. To all that mourn in Sion to all that are heavy laden hungring after Christ Jesus and willing to take up his yoke and to all other Believers this is matter of most unspeakable consolation Their sins be gone and all the punishment due to them no punishment shall befal them here as on the ungodly no wrath or condemnation hereafter Their afflictions are merciful corrections to further their Salvation To them death is no death but a passage to life that whereupon their Souls are received into Heaven their bodies committed to the earth both which at the Resurrection shall be joyfully reunited O how should we walk worthy of this in all holiness and honesty But to all that shall not have part in Christ there remains unspeakable misery it had been good for them they had never been born they must bear their own burthen and sink to Hell there to be for ever and ever This will be the portion of most because so few receive Christ so few are humbled so many through pride and profaneness refuse to be guided by him O how few will cast away their lusts and yield up themselves to be ruled by him and his Word It will be most woful to the Turks Jews and Pagans that shall perish without Christ but yet of all others their judgement will be most fearful which have had him preached daily and by the Ministers of God have been so often besought to embrace him and yet have despised him would none of him Oh it will encrease their torment to consider that they had offer of Christ and many believed in him and were converted by the same Sermons whereat they themselves were no whit moved O this will fret hearts O le ts consider this we that live in this happy time One would think every man should receive and imbrace Christ Jesus but alas how few do this for them that do not it will be their undoing O give no rest unto your selves till you can get a discharge in and by Christ confess bewail crave pardon cry to God and resolve to turn to him The water is now stirring step into this Pool of Bethesda 4. This condemneth all false ways for Salvation for other then Christ never was any neither is or shall be therefore all that reject him as Jews and Turks or embrace him onely to halves as the Papists are in a fearful case as all among our selves that trust to any thing else besides him That we being dead to sin c. Another main end of Christs death and another great benefit redounding unto us thereby namely That he dyed for us not onely to free us from sins and wrath and damnation deserved thereby but also to kill sins in us to deliver us from the power thereof and to dissolve the works of the Devil in us that being dead unto sin we might live unto righteousness Of the words first in general then in particular In general note we thus much that For whomsoever Christ dyed he dyed to kill sin in them for he dyed not to free us of half our misery and leave us in the other half nor to be at a great deal of cost with us and for us and yet leave us in a case fit to do him no service as if one should ransom a man out of the Turks galleys and leave him in the midway but hath done all this that we might be fit to do him service thereupon giving us his Word and Spirit to humble us and so to change us that sin may be mortified in us and we made live He is not onely made of God unto us Redemption but also our Sanctification as he hath redeemed us so hath he purged us to be a peculiar people unto himself Christ affords both and from him we may as well look for the one as the other yea whosoever hath indeed his part in the one cannot be without the other and in token of our thankfulness we ought to labor by all means to shew forth this latter 1. This confutes that wicked slander of the Church of Rome We talk say they that we must be saved by Christs death and by Faith in him onely and not by any thing we can do and therefore that we set men at liberty to do what they list and open a gap to all licentiousness but as the Gospel is not a Doctrine of liberty so neither do we by preaching give way unto licentiousness The Gospel requires as strict obedience as the Law doth to every of Gods Commandments though not in extremity neither freeth it us from any duty to God or men yea teacheth us That denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world and that none have nor can have part in Christ which give not themselves to good works 2. This setteth forth the wonderful goodness of Christ Jesus that hath not onely freed us from Gods wrath and the punishment of our sins which is unspeakable goodness but hath appointed to give us his Spirit to free us from sin for if we should all our life here have lived after our own lusts or under the power of Satan what a base and woful life had this been that we might both in heart and body serve him in the works of holiness and a godly life 3. This condemneth all those that lay claim to the death of Christ and yet live in their sins and old lusts Numbers in these days have got this by the end They hope to be saved by Jesus Christ They be no Papists that look to be saved by their works but they believe in Jesus Christ with all their hearts and yet they are not washed from their old filthiness but abide still in security in all or some of their lusts But let such know they speak impossible things God hath joyned these two ends of Christs death and they divide them yea blasphemous things that Christ dyed to set men at liberty to live as they list O woful
wretches that can say They hope to be saved by Christ and that he dyed for them and yet can follow every vain pleasure and wicked lust to redeem them from which it cost even the blood of Christ more worth then a thousand worlds what is this but to set light by Christs death which none can do who hath his part therein yea what is it but to crucifie him again and to make a mock of his death what beastly unthankfulness is it for any to say Christ dyed for me and yet to live in sin nay whosoever have faith to believe their pardon in Christ it purifieth their hearts and the assurance of such a love to us must needs work love again in us and that love will constrain us yet who useth not this shift who flyeth not hereunto as Joab unto the horns of the Altar but as there he found no shelter from the Sword of Benaiah so they that flie to Christ as their refuge having nothing to do with him they shall be cut off and cast down into Hell for ever O that the death of Christ which ought to be the greatest corrasive to eat out sin out of our hearts as which cost such a wonderful price should be made a boâ—ster for sin As beggers go with their licences boldly from place to place so do worldlings sin boldly because they can say O they believe in Jesus Christ and he hath dyed for them c. but as most of their licences being found counterfeit and made under a Bush are taken from them and they themselves cast into Prison So when God shall come to examine those this shall not free them or serve their turn but they shall be cast into utter darkness If you live in your lusts or have the love of any one â—in in you as yet ye have no part in Christs death 4. This may be a great comfort to those that can finde and feel sin dying in them and themselves dead to all sin and the love of any one and that they are renewed to live the life of God and yield obedience to all his Commandments Though this be not as they would yet if their hearts can bear witness with them that this in truth let them be assured they have their part in Christs death Having their part in the latter benefit thereof it s an argument of the former For how come they to be now so changed into an hatred of all the sins which before they loved and such a true and earnest care to please God Flesh and blood hath not so taught them but Gods Spirit and that 's an argument we are his even his Spirit that he hath given us But many that would not willingly offend God for any thing and having failed in the least thing are more troubled then most be at great matters yea and study and strive for nothing so much as to please God yet cannot be perswaded that Christ dyed for them Oh! I fear that Christ dyed not for me will such a one say because I feel such a corrupt and rebellious nature within me and I am often overcome of sin and Satan It s not the mark of such as Christ dyed for that they are freed from sin altogether but that they hate all sin that they resist it and often prevail against the same whereof if at any time they be overcome yet they rise again by unfained repentance and stand up upon their watch for in the best of Gods Servants there will some of the Canaanilist brood remain as pricks in our sides but so long as we keep them Tributaries we must not be discouraged though our corruptions salley out upon us sometimes yet if we make war upon them and chase them home and so weaken them they shall not prevail over us The Church is not in this world without spot except it be by imputation of Christs righteousness for in respect of Sanctification it s but begun to be cleansed and shall be perfected in the world to come Thus in general In particular the two clauses here mentioned contain the two parts of Repentance or Sanctification namely Mortification and Vivification or dying unto sin and living unto righteousness Dead unto sin It s the duty of every Christian in token of his thankfulness to God that hath delivered him from this most woful state to set himself to mortifie his lusts and all maner of evil and that every day more and more Though we cannot be dead to sin at once it being a work of our whole life yet must we be dead to the love of all sin open or secret outward or inward and so dye daily as Christ dyed so should we labor and be more and more dead to our lusts as he was crucified so should we crucifie them c. And can we live in sin that cost the price of the blood of Christ Who would not abhor and cast from him the knife that killed his dearest friend Thus did sin to our Savior Christ it was that which brought him to his death 1. The thing then that best beseems a Christian is to mortifie his vile lusts to finde them out to hate and pursue them to the death to apply all means to the weakning and killing thereof ever hacking at the roots thereof by continual Prayer and Meditation applying the Word Mercies Corrections all to the throat of our Corruptions for as nothing is more unbeseeming a Christian then to be carried away of any lust so this should be our continual exercise to be continually weakning our Corruptions This is true Religion it stands not in hearing Sermons but in mortifying our lusts and bringing our rebellious hearts in subjection to the will of God And as we are to labor for the subduing of all so are we especially of our strongest corruptions that have most foiled us most broke our peace most dishonored God and have been of worst example 2. This rebuketh a wonderful fault in most Christians that howsoever they have general purposes to resist sin and to do well yet think that they are not continually to labor for the mortifying thereof wherein failing they do sometimes yield and give way to their lusts to break out into open evils vain speeches slight oathes worldly talking on the Lords day gaming and the like So for their inward lusts of pride covetousness frowardness security dulness to duties unbelief coldness and customariness in the service of God Alas these they look not after but almost lay the reign on the neck of them so that if they reign not in them yet they break out at every turn and are very rank in them and shew forth themselves grosly to Gods dishonor their own discomfort and the continual breach of their peace with much evil example to others As we would prove our selves Christs let us labor to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof let us deal
present state They were once in a poor case in a piteous taking in a miserable and dangerous case but now through Gods mercy they were come home to Christ who most carefully did and would protect them to their Salvation Before they came to Christ their case was woful and dangerous as is the state of all unregenerate persons but now having taken hold of Christ their condition was safe happy as it s with all believers and penitent persons For ye were as sheep going astray Speak we first of the miserable state of all unregenerate men of all men without Christ they are as sheep going astray 1. Every Natural man is like a beast who is therefore in Scripture compared to several sorts of beasts for one ill quality or another as to Dogs for their malicious barking and biting at them they live with to Wolves for their greedy devouring of the poor to Lyons for their cruel tyranny to fat fat Bulls for their proud abuse of their prosperity to Hogs for their rude and unreverent base esteeming of Spiritual things as the Word and Sacraments and Gods Ministers to Foxes as Herod for their craft so to Horses and Mules for their ignorance and unruliness yea sometimes the beasts are preferred before them to shame them and sometimes they are sent to school to them nay all Gods Creatures are more serviceable then Man they obey God in their kind and abide in their first estate the Sun Moon and Stars obey God in their courses the huge Sea rageth and is calm at his bidding if he command it to stand as a wall it doth so to let Israel go through and will return again upon the same warrant and drown Pharaoh if God bid the Whale swallow Jonah and cast him up again it obeys him in both if he forbid the Lyons to touch Daniel they stir not though very hungry as the fire did not burn the three Children c. But man that should be best of all and for whom all were made as he for God yet walk stubbornly and rebelliously omitting what 's required of him and doing what 's again and again prohibited therefore God calls all Creatures to witness against man yea they are many times to set themselves against us as when the heavens become as brass and the earth as iron c. and to groan because of us as being weary of doing any further service to such as we are O how ought this to humble all that be such that know no mark of conversion or change in themselves from their unregenerate condition small cause hast thou to be proud the Horse thou ridest on is far better then thou art it doth that for which God did ordain it but thou doest not that which the Lord requireth of thee nay the Dog that keeps thy Yard and ears bones under thy table is in a better case then thou art its serves God in its kinde thou never didst any thing that God set thee here for O humble thy self before God crave of him to work an alteration in thee for he onely can do it and that by the Ministery of his word Thus can he bring it to pass delivering thee from thy brutish nature turning thee into a Christian man renewing in thee his image and working of grace that so thou mayest serve him in a better maner then other creatures either do or can do so shalt thou be more happy then they for they as they have no pain so they shal have no glory but thou shalt go from hence to everlasting glory in the Kingdom of Heaven But as for all that continue in their Rebellion as they are worse then beasts in their life so shall they be in their end for their death is but a beginning to eternal misery O how happy were it for every man that shall dye in his sins if he were turned this day into a Dog or Toad and no further account to be taken of him 2. As a Sheep that wandereth is out of his way so is every natural and unregenerate man quite out of his way out of the way to Peace and Happiness We were created in the right way but in Adam all went astray we have no minde but of wandering and roaming further and further the longer we live till God take us into the right way so that whosoever dyes in the way he was born in and lived in first must needs perish it s the way of ignorance of sin the broad way to destruction Some go out of the way by ignorance some by superstition some by prophaneness by hypocrisie by trusting to civility c. naturally we do all go from God and Peace to Hell and the Devil Abraham was out of his way whilest he was an Idolater so Paul whilest he was a Persecutor The wicked they go astray even from the womb they wander from every good work and do nothing well or pleasing to God They delight to wander and take pleasure in their sins yea that they thus wander may appear by these signs They refuse instruction and reproof whether publike or private whereas the regenerate account those to love them indeed which tell them of their faults they live even in known sins they are altogether for the world having no communion with God in holy duties they have no love to good company but associate themselves with others like themselves and of their own stamp If they do good duties it s for sinister respects not out of conscience Thus the Devil misleads some Antichrist seduceth thousands by false Doctrine and miracles as wicked Ministers by seldom or erroneous teaching and bad lives So is the world a great deceiver by bad examples by false reports of the servants of God and by the profits and pleasures thereof yea a mans own heart is a great deceiver as whereby many think they are in the way to Heaven when they be in the way to destruction Ignorance also of the Scriptures is a great cause of being deceived Ye erre saith our Savior not knowing the Scriptures nay God in justice gives some over to believe lyes as Ahab was seduced by false Prophets to his destruction they may provoke God so long by their wandering that he will never reclaim or bring them home but swear in his wrath they shall never enter into his rest they may despise the means so long as no Sermon shall do them good These are in a fearful state marked to destruction as Trees to be felled This also should humble men for what are they but stragling creatures and make them desire to get into the right way But how few will take knowledge they be out of their way thinking still their case to be good enough as the Lord complained by Jeremiah I hearkened and heard but none spake aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done c. There
can any thing cover them from the sight of God but the white raiment of Christs Righteousness if we put on this then shall not our filthy nakedness appear then shall we abound in knowledge wisdom zeal humility patience This is Royal apparel this will keep us from the Storms and Tempests of Gods heavy wrath and displeasure that will break out like a whirlwind against the ungodly who will be found naked The more we have of this we shall appear the more comely and beautiful before God his Angels and all good men This is the most costly apparel that can be of Gods own making and which none but his children wear This is apparel for all Sexes ages degrees and callings whatsoever and which doth well become and fit each of them neither are great ones to despise it for that mean ones wear it for this doth not derogate from its worth onely they that are Gods people wearing it This is never out of season as serving both for Summer and Winter never out of fashion It fits in Youth in Age in Life in Death and is to be worn as well by night as by day in sickness as in health yea is then in great account when other apparel is laid aside and not regarded yea this apparel we carry with us out of this world when we leave our gay Robes behinde us and this apparel lasts ever being the better for the wearing 1. This rebuketh those that though they go plain enough outwardly yet have no care of their soul their mindes being altogether led away with covetousness there be moe ways to Hell then one even these shall no less perish then those which are wholly addicted to costly apparel This will not serve their turn Oh we be not proud we go plainly What then if thou beest covetous if thou art not careful for the decking of thy soul what art thou the better It rebuketh also those that are very curious and careful for outward attire but are altogether careless of this inward How many wear brave clothes which have no inward adorning They savour not of this they have no leisure for it it s the inside and so not seen but God seeth it men also see it by the outward and it will be seen and found naked when God shall come to Judgement such though outwardly brave be inwardly base their souls are not onely void of good but filled with all evil and noysom lusts they are like a dead Corps stuck with flowers and like painted Sepulchres yea like the Heathen Temples especially the Egyptians whose Proches were curiously carved painted and engraven with gold and all the bravery that might by but within nothing but the base Picture of a Cat Crocadile or some ugly Serpent How gorgeous soever they are outwardly they have not inwardly in their souls the image of God shining in Spiritual graces but rather Crocadiles and ugly Serpents even noysom and beastly lusts and so are like a dunghil covered over with Snow They wanting the inward beauty of grace to commend them set out themselves as gorgeously as they can in apparel as the Painters servant who being set to make the Picture of a very beautiful woman and wanting skil to make the face beautiful dawbed on a great deal of gold on her clothes Those howsoever they please themselves herewith in their prosperity yet in sickness their deep Ruffs must be laid aside and all their costly toys and then what shall comfort them O their misery at death but especially on the day of Judgement Then shall they for ever be clothed with shame and confusion as not being here clothed with grace 2. Let all therefore be wise and moderate themselves for outward apparel if it be comely and according to our degree it s well Herein le ts be careful even to advance and enrich the soul This becomes us well and will assuredly afford comfort in sickness in trouble in death and on the day of Judgement In that which is not corruptible Grace is of an incorruptible nature and abides for ever and is not taken away from any that is possessed thereof it abides in sickness tarries with us at death and we shall carry it with us into Heaven and wear it there for ever and ever This he lays down by way of opposition to outward apparel that is vain transitory subject to Moths to be stollen lost burnt worn out worn by them that are corruptible who know not whether shall last longer themselves or their clothes so vain a thing is man Such as prefer Grace take hold of the substance as they that prefer costly attire thereunto embrace the shadow take hold of vanity The ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit This is a particular vertue most fit for wives The very proper ornament of a good wife is a meek and quiet Spirit This is the mean to comfort any husband and to draw on those that be backward to a love both of their persons and profession Oh! what a comely thing is it in a wife not onely not to provoke her husband but not to be easily provoked by him winking at small unkindenesses and bearing with their natural infirmities passing by some occasions of grief with silence as others with a soft answer O how pleasing is it for an husband to have such a wise how comely is it also for them to be quiet with their neighbors no meddlers no tale-bearers or talehearers void of contention gentle peaceable so with their family and servants not to be always chiding and complaining to their husbands but governing them in as milde and peaceable a maner as may be and especially to be peaceable and quiet with them in their husbands hearing They that are thus by grace for some are of a soft and still disposition by nature and so slow to wrath are of great wisdom They are endued with that wisdom which is from above and their meekness is out of the fruits of the Spirit Then this nothing becomes them better if they were clothed with beaten gold and pearls it were nothing to this This reproveth those that be curst cruel and vexatious to their husbands through their continual unquietness Such are fit to keep Bridewel or be Dames of some house of correction there were fit objects for their chiding and fighting Some there are who having no children or servants to bait at work their teen upon their husbands and weary them not onely out of their houses but out of their lives Wives were appointed helpers but these help their husbands no way except to their grave These certainly have no goodness in them not refraining their tongue their Religion is vain They are right fools for anger resteth in the bosom of fools Let them therefore fight against this vice mourn under it and endeavor to be of a meak and quiet spirit Which is in the sight of God of
when he is angry 3. God hates it and such as commit the same 4. It brought misery into the world with shame and confusion upon us all and hath always been the cause of all evils For this the Angels were cast out of Heaven Adam out of Paradice the old world drowned and Sodom burnt c. yea it wounds the Conscience which God hath set in us as a Monitor Notary Accuser Judge and Tormentor 5. It bringeth eternal destruction both of body and soul O who would not hate that Mother which brings forth no better children Besides we shun lesser things therefore should shun this much more we shun crosses exceedingly which yet are so far from hindring our Salvation as that they further the same but sin is the destruction of our souls That sins is worse then all crosses appears by the Devils practice who is that subtile one he had rather draw Job to commit sin against God by impatiency then have power to take away all his goods he did this to bring him to that and its true if a man should break an Arm or Leg or lose all he hath it were not so bad or so much to be shunned as is sin To eschew this is the note of a man that loves God of a man that fears him for eschewing this are Gods Servants commended in Scripture as on the contrary the wicked branded for committing the same We are to Eschew all evil even the least we must not give way unto any one no not the least idle thought or word even one is able to destroy us yea and he that breaks one is guilty of all Yea and All persons are to eschew the same not the greatest excepted Gods Law bindes them be they Princes Magistrates Ministers Householders c. They should eschew it most for by their example they do most hurt and as no mans greatness will bear him out so will not any mans meanness excuse him in doing of evil And as all persons are to eschew it so must they shun it At all times Amonst all the times which the Preacher setteth down there 's none for sin we must serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life Some things be in season at one time some at another but sin is never in season Many make the Lords days the times of disorder and they that will be orderly all the year yet at Christide they take liberty to ryot gaming drinking c. as if those times were not to be as well if not better employed then others We must also eschew it In all places God is the God of all places neither can any place change the nature of sin thou must eschew sin as well abroad as at home in thy House Chamber Shop as well as at Church All kindes of sin are also to be avoided Error in judgement and wickedness in Conversation evil against God our Neighbors or our selves We must also shun and avoid evil under what colour or pretence soever it comes as Usury is pretended to be lawful on the behalf of Orphans to kill ones self to preserve Chastity to separate from the Church lest they partake with the wicked c. whosoever doth command it as appears by the examples of the three Children Daniel Peter and John whose example soever we have for it for we are not to follow even a multitude though of great learned men in evil though it be never so gainful What got Achan Gehazi Judas by their booties Our Savior would not listen to the Devils proffer that of fered him All the Kingdoms of the world and we should be losers if we did gain the whole world with the loss of our souls never so pleasannt for though it be sweet in the mouth it will be gall afterward bite like a Serpent and sting like a Cockatrice for a vain short pleasure to sell our souls to everlasting pain were folly indeed yea though we could bring to pass some good thereby we must not do evil that good may come thereof better that good be left undone then that it should be purchased with Gods dishonor as to steal or take usury that we may do good to the poor c. nay we must so hate and eschew evil as we may eschew the very appearance thereof as to go to a place that is of ill report though having no ill purpose c. and must avoid the occasions leading thereunto as going in the twylight by the Harlots house anger multitude of businesses the company of angry persons multiplying of words c. yea if even things good and lawful in themselves be an occasion of evil and cause us to offend we must forbear them as some in using their recreations break out into impatience and anger and others cannot leave the same in any time better for such to pluck out this their eye cut off this their right hand and to eschew this we must eschew the persons and places where in likelyhood we are to be drawn thereunto as the company of bad persons and private familiarity with wicked doers and that not for any sinister respect but because its evil though haply we may be hated for our labor eschewing especially those sins that be most incident to our nature complexion and calling and whereunto we have been most accustomed 1. This condemns them that be so far from hating and eschewing evil though it be as poyson as the Plague that they love it with their hearts live in the continual practice thereof drink it down like water running thereunto as the horse rusheth into the Battel This is the state of most they are workers of iniquity the whole world lieth in wickedness they love not the means nor persons whereby they may be pulled out of their sins but eschew them and goodness as much as they can What Rebels be these against God their Maker Preserver and Soveraign Being made to honor him will they do nothing but dishonor him and so requite all his blessings will nothing serve those to play with but swords and fire-brands and mortal things nothing please them but to cross God and nothing like them but their own poyson Have they sped so well formerly that have done thus Do they provoke the Lord and not themselves to the confusion of their faces If they have vowed they will have their pleasures and lusts whatsoever comes of it then it must be so what remedy These have no love of God neither is there any fear of God in them They are prophane and godless persons which may look for wages answerable to their work shame and the wrath of God in this world and eternal destruction in the world to come For life is in the way of righteousness but death is in the way of sin and the paths thereof tend to Hell O that these persons would hear the
in their work It will be demanded of us whether Magistrates Ministers Housholders or others what good we have done 4. This condemneth all those that fail in the doing of good or in the maner thereof and so lose their labor and have no comfort of themselves as they that will do some good duties not others as Read not Pray come to the Word not to the Sacraments come to both but omit Family duties They that do not good duties at all times but take liberty to shake them off and banish them so did not David nor in any places haply devout at Church careless elswhere nor in all companies doing good onely as Saul among the Prophets nor to all persons some will seem to give God his due in the mean time dealing unjustly with men as some with civil persons are careful in this careless in that Others also will do well to strangers but not to their Families as others to their friends but cannot away with their enemies and others though submiss to their Superiors yet are harsh to their Inferiors so they that will then onely do good when they finde it easie to be done who yet in the mean time take great pains to do wickedly so they that will not do any good except when they may be commended for it and have good will for their pains so they that still say they will and they will do good but defer the same so long that death takes hold on them so they that think to do good in their end who should do it in their life the present time is indeed the time wherein to do good so they that do good for a while but after break off so they that do good things but in a corrupt maner without Faith and seeking themselves therein or meerly in hypocrisie All these mark me well that make their practice of doing good in this fashion it s as good never awhit as never the better I deny not but a good man may herein at some times fail through weakness or by reason of some temptation but whosoever usually thus doth doth bewray himself to be but an hypocrite and as he thus worketh so accordingly shall he have his reward with hypocrites 5. This serves for consolation to all those whose hearts are unfainedly affected to good and which are ready to every good God requires of them in their general or special callings at all times in all places towards all even in things most difficult and dangerous desiring unfainedly to do them in a right maner they do what 's good in the sight of the Lord hereupon they shall have comfort for the present and hereafter life everlasting Such are indeed of God 6. This is also for instruction to us all that we give our selves with greater diligence to that that is good and to do much good in our general and special callings taking pains thus to do both publikely and privately such as joyn not with us herein shall want their part in our comfort This shall be our Crown and will accompany us to life eternal the more good we do the more joy shall we have in our lives the more comfort in death and the greater glory in the world to come Let him seek peace and ensue it Another duty to be done of all those that would live long and see good days They must seek peace and ensue it Men that seek not peace shall not finde it and without peace what comfort can any have of their life Neither can any enjoy eternal life that seek not after peace for God is that God of peace and all that are his must love peace and therefore hath God given us his Gospel of peace as to reconcile us to himself in Jesus Christ so also to teach us to live in peace one with another We must therefore not onely keep it when we have it and accept it being offered but wanting it seek after the same seek after it as covetous men do after Money the hungry after meat Hunters after their prey if it run or fly from us we must run and fly after it This is again and again both commanded and commended is a fruit of the Spirit and of the wisdom that comes from above Now we must seek after peace 1. By living innocently and harmlesly with our Neighbors such as harm them either in word or deed are enemies to peace 2. By living helpfully and doing good in our places as Magistrates Ministers c. 3. By passing by such small wrongs as are done unto us not so much as taking notice thereof and for others of more moment to compound them of our selves or refer them to indifferent neighbors which notwithstanding if they must needs be determined by Law must not break off peace or occasion the omission of any neighborly duty 4. By parting with some of our right to have peace Herein we must not stand upon terms though haply it were fit our adversary should come to us as being Yonger Inferior in place or who first gave the cause of offence yet rather then contention should continue we must pass by all those and go to him even Abraham yielded to Lot And this we must do nor with some persons onely but even with all not with the rich onely but the poor also as being our fellow servants members of Christ as we are and such of whom we may stand in need both in prosperity and adversity neither with the meaner sort onely and not with the rich and wealthy as if it were of a brave minde to stand out with them and not to regard them but with the one as well as the other yea nor with the good onely though with them chiefly but with the bad also even Abraham maintained peace with Abimelech yet so as that we may keep our peace with God not consenting with them in their evil nor doing evil or neglecting our duty for their good will A just War is better then an unjust Peace A Nation may have with Infidels a League of Peace though not of Amity so we must have peace but not with ill conditions to yield to unlawful things Wo be to that peace that makes partition with God and breaks the peace of our own Conscience our Savior Christ came not to bring such peace but the Sword It will be better by being faithful to have favor with God and peace in our selves though we reap the ill will of our Neighbors then that God should curse us for our unfaithfulness and the wicked also in Hell for following their ways Thus must Husbands and Wives Ministers and People c. keep peace one with another otherwise we must be contented rather to be counted troublesom and breakers of peace This we must seek after 1. Because it s so pleasing to God he is the God of Peace and by the Spirit often
happy indeed but Moses had respect hereunto and did clearly discern the same Q. May we then offer our selves to trouble A. Ordinarily we must not If any in extraordinary times should feel an extraordinary zeal and desire hereto as it seems the Apostle Paul had when he would needs go to Jerusalem questionless they should have joy in their sufferings we must tarry till God call us Q. May we flee persecution A. If God make make us a way we may as who haply are not as yet so fully fitted and resolved to suffer as were meet or who know not whether God will have us scatter his truth further or remain to be as feeds thereof for afterwards but if we see that its Gods minde we should be sâ—ffer then it s our duty willingly and chearfully to put forth our selves This confuteth the foolish world that judging it to be a most miserable thing thus to suffer will therefore never come at it either not professing Religion at all or else revolting therefrom in time of trouble yet would they be happy but they take a contrary course they being ashamed of Christ here he will be ashamed of them hereafter In saving a transitory life they lose life everlasting yea how do we our selves shun sufferings as if they were miserable which do suffer whereas the Spirit of God hath pronounced them blessed Happy are they that suffer for a good cause for righteousness for Religion for conscience sake such as stick fastest to the truth provide best and most wisely for themselves what can their enemies do to us If they take away our goods we shall have a thousand fold more in this world and in the world to come life everlasting If they mangle our bodies God will raise up the same gloriously If they separate our souls from our bodies by death the Angels will carry them into Abrahams bosom If our cause be good we have cause to rejoyce in our sufferings so are we enjoyned so did the Apostles in their sufferings so also the holy Martyrs I might to this purpose alledge the story of Alice Driver of Priests wife in Exeter of the Christians in Edessa c. but that they may be read at large in the Book of the Martyrs O that we should be so discouraged at a mock at a frown of our betters O that we should be as soon ready to give over as to begin to do well though the more religious we are the more we esteem of the word the better both God his angels and people like us yet is it not so with the world they liked us better before but do not now approve of our course howsoever this is our duty hereof shal we have the benefit yea to be disliked to suffer for this will be our honor our advancement As David being mocked of Michol resolved to be yet more humble so should we be so much the more for goodness as we see the world oppose it and set themselves against us because of the same We must not be discouraged at the very greatest much less at small trials We know not what we shall suffer For yet we have not resisted unto blood onely let us be careful that we suffer for Righteousness and for a good cause for though we have some good things in us yet haply we may be brought to suffer for some fault in us and therein we can have small peace Beware we suffer not as Separatists that flie out against and from the Church that we suffer not for contempt or usual neglect of our Ministers if they preach the Word truly that we suffer not for rash heady hasty and violent carriage of our selves that we suffer not for our censuring for our meddling with things or persons wherewith we have nothing to do or for passing our bounds in things beyond our reach Servants must beware that they suffer not for their carelesness in their places as those which having liberty granted them to hear the Word upon their not profiting thereby are restrained therefrom so if they shall suffer for being negligent untrusty sloathful stout in answering again c. they suffer deservedly not for righteousness sake yea this their carriage makes the godly housholders to grieve and those that be not so well seasoned to think ill of the profession and it makes the name of God and his Gospel ill spoken of and hereupon many say Oh I le never meddle with these Bible-wenches c. fie upon it what a fearful thing is this The like may be said of the poor which neglect their callings and are caraless of their Families c. Note further That A godly man is blessed happy in what condition soever He is happy not onely in prosperity but even in sufferings even in the very lowest abasement nothing can make them miserable having God and a good conscience though they meet with affliction from God or persecution from men as here yet are they happy Imprison him fetter him let no creature come at him put Lyons to him c. yet he is still and shall be the childe of God the member of Christ the heir of Heaven a Kings son c. and how can he be miserable that hath the Comforter within For the wicked nothing can make them happy let a wicked man have Sampsons strength Absoloms beauty Ahasuerus his wealth Nebuchadnezzars stately Babel Dives his costly apparel c. yet is he miserable he is under the curse of God there 's but a step between him and Hell As Jonah was asleep whilest God was offended with him the winds raged against him the Whale was ready to swallow him so do the wicked eat sleep and are jovial while God is offended Heaven is shut up against them Hell gapes for them and the Devil waits on them as his prey Their security will end in a fearful wakening they shall be snatched from their beds of ease and cast into everlasting torments 1. This may encourage Gods servants to suffer for righteousness They shall not be the less happy let the world do its worst it cannot make them miserable They are every way happy in poverty sickness persecution and the like O who would not labor to attain this honor and happiness 2. It may disswade the wicked from their mischievous plotting against Gods servants For why do they pursue them To make them miserable its impossible They may indeed make them the more to shine forth through their constancy in Faith and increase their glory in Heaven and so make them more happy but to make them miserable they cannot O that they would break off this their course and be weary thereof for so long as they be wicked how rich soever or how high a pitch soever of honor they have clambered to they are miserable yea these and the like make them more miserable as being fuel to their lust being to
all that are not as they should be whereas they should by a wise meek and moderate defence and kinde perswasions win credit to the truth which they defend and so do good they on the contrary cause them to speak evil and to think that it s but a preposterous hate and pride of heart in them so to speak and so do hurt Some sober Christians do much good and win on many that at first were opposite when they hear the wait of their reasons rather then the bigness of their words and seeing they do it in the fear of God and for conscience sake Some are not so milde as others but of an hotter nature this must in any wise be tempered with wisdom yet are not we to part from any part of the truth but to stick as close thereto as we may Verse 16. Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good conversation in Christ. TO our constancy in the confession of our faith we must have a good conscience not so onely as it may be known to our selves but we must so walk that others even our adversaries may perceive the same that thereupon changing their mindes and being ashamed that they have spoken so evil of us they may cease to blame such as walk in so good a conversation as becometh the Servants of Christ Before I come to handle the points particularly laid down herein I will shew 1. What conscience is 2. The offices thereof 3. Resolve some questions about it and 4. Treat of the kindes thereof For the 1. Conscience is a faculty or power placed by God in the soul of a man which determineth of his thoughts desires words and deeds either with him or against him in the sight of God I say It s a faculty or power not a bare act for many actions are ascribed thereto as to accuse excuse comfort terrifie c. Placed by God for God being the creator of the soul he must accordingly be the creator of all the faculties of it In the soul called also the heart and the Spirit of a man Herein there be diverse faculties as the understanding whereby we conceive what is true and what is false what is good and what is evil the will whereby we will or nill choose or refuse any thing whereto are joyned the affections joy grief love hope fear c. and the memory whereby we hold fast things conceived or else call to minde and remember things past So also is conscience another faculty thereof whereby the soul reflects upon it self whereby I know that I do know such a thing that I think this or that that I affect or desire love or hate this or that for its one thing to know a thing think a thing remember a thing c. and another to know that I know it think it remember it Now in which part of the soul it hath its place as whether in the understanding or will or in every part of the soul I will not stand it s enough for us to know that there is such a faculty in mans soul. True it is it not only gives witness of all the faculties tels what I think desire affect c. but it useth and worketh upon all the faculties as the understanding for by it it directs and according to it it doth accuse so as if the judgement be well informed the conscience will give right witness if ignorant or ill informed then it gives wrong testimony So the memory accusing or excusing for things past so it worketh upon the will by provoking it to choose or refuse this or that so it worketh upon the affections raising up in us comfort and joy upon well doing fear and grief upon ill-doing Now though it have to do with all yet it may have its proper place in the understanding and minde according to the judgement of most Divines Of a man for no Creature on earth hath Conscience but man True the Angels are not without it the good having a good comfortable excusing joyful Conscience the evil a woful ill accusing and tormenting Conscience which is so much the worse for that they know so much and be so maliciously bent against it so that even when they be not in the place of torment but have leave to range the world yet they carry Hell with them even a tormenting Conscience whereof their trembling according to Saint James is an evident testimony But no other Creature hath it for having no Reason they have no Conscience therefore we say in our speech of a bad and unconscionable man he hath no more Conscience then a Dog or as much Conscience as an Horse whereby we mean none at all for these Creatures have none Man then hath a Conscience yea every man yet as the use of Reason may be lost by folly phrensie c. so the use of Conscience in such So by notorious wickedness a man may lose the use of his Conscience for a time whereupon we say of such a one he hath no Conscience yes every man hath a Conscience though as the use of Reason is taken from one deeply drunk so custom of sinning hath taken away use of Conscience so that it doth not admonish him before he do ill nor check and accuse him after or hath such an erronious judgement thinking good evil and evil good that he hath also an erronious Conscience But this benummed or beguiled Conscience will be awakened at one time or other in life or death or at the day of Judgement for no mans Conscience dyes but lives and shall meet him at the last day and though his sins be now as words written with the juyce of Lemmons nothing to be seen yet when their Conscience comes to the fire of Gods Judgements then every little dash idle words vain thoughts c. will be perceived Though men choak and smother Conscience though they strangle it or so drown it in their cups yet it will and doth abide still what made Joseph's Brethren troubled in Egypt but Conscience which told them of the sin committed by them twenty years before So Conscience told Pharaoh that he and his people were wicked which determined of his thoughts desires words and deeds or more briefly beareth witness either with us or against us in the sight of God It meddles not with other folks actions for that is science or knowledge but with our own and that is Conscience Conscience that is knowledge with another that is either another knowledge when I knowing any thing do know that I know it and so know my self and what is in me or another person that knows with me what I know and that as well as I or rather far better namely God who made the Conscience and will judge it and is privy to all that is in it for so is no other neither man nor Angel and accordingly the
what he calls the power of God our Apostle calls the Spirit both which are in effect one 2. Hereby cannot be meant the Fathers and godly for he speaks onely of the disobedient and Reprobate ones 3. He speaks onely of those that lived in Noah's time and no other age of the world 4. This Prison was an unhappy and miserable place and not Abrahams bosom nor the place of the Fathers 5. Even after our Saviors Resurrection when our Apostle wrote this they were then still in Prison therefore Christ had not delivered them nor fetcht them out but they that had been there were there still And where they say he went to Preach to the Reprobates this will not stand neither for he speaks here onely of the Reprobates of Noah's time and why should Christ in his soul go unto them rather then unto any other Besides to Preach to them and do them no good nor intend any is against the nature end of preaching But that there are any such places as Limbus patrum Limbus puerorum or Purgatory the Scripture gives not any inkling 1. That the Fathers went to no such place is certain but that their souls loosed by death went to Heaven Jesus Christ yesterday to day and the same for ever They had the same benefit by Christ as we after their death 2. They also believed in Christ as well as we Abraham saw my day and rejoyced They ate the same Spiritual meat and drank the same Spiritual drink and so were partakers of the same benefits of Christ. 3. Their Spirits went to God that gave them they enter into peace and so not into the Prison 4. Abrahams bosom into which Lazarus was carried by the Angels was above not beneath an happy not a miserable place Christ therefore went not to fetch them out thence there being no such place For Purgatory they say there 's such a place in the brim of Hell where the pains be almost as bad as Hell pains and the fire as hot into which are sent the souls of the godly that dye in faith and repentance but yet have not suffered the punishment of their sins in this world therefore must make up their sufferings in Purgatory for they teach that for our sins and punishments both committed before Baptism Christ suffered but for those after Baptism though Christ takes away the sins yet the punishment must be suffered by our selves and that partly in this life by penances c. and the rest by suffering in Purgatory that for every sin is due seven years of payment in Purgatory and therefore the Pope gives Pardons sometimes for fifty sometimes for an hundred years c. and therefore they say Masses for the souls of them that have been dead many 100 years and when they have suffered for all their sins paid the utmost farthing then come the souls out after they have been a while refreshed in a fair green field ful of pleasant flowers which is hard by Purgatory then they go up to Heaven notwithstanding oftentimes through the mercy of the Popes those pains are mitigated We say 1. That as they themselves do not agree about the place c. So neither is it otherwise grounded but on unwritten verities The Scriptures mention but two places whereinto the souls go immediately after death Heaven which is for the godly and Hell which is for the ungodly for the godly that they do immediately go into an happy place all the Scriptures sound with Simeon they depart in peace go not to Purgatory scorching pains Christ is to them as in life so in death advantage Having finished their course henceforth there 's laid up for them a crown of righteousness They have after the dissolution of their earthly Tabernacle a building of God an house not made with hand eternal in the Heavens Christ hath prayed for them that they may be where he is even in Heaven The thief on the right hand had as much need to have gone to Purgatory as any other yet on that day wherein he dyed he was with Christ in Paradice Blessed are they which dye in the Lord saith the Spirit for they rest from their labors After death presently comes the judgement that every man shall stick to Among all those things which God spake to Moses there 's not a word of this among all the Sacrifices that God ordained there were none appointed for souls in Purgatory and amongst all the cleansings and purifyings of all kinde of impurities of Leprosie and Issues c. there 's not a word of this What was God so unmindeful of his Church and people then Neither is there in all the new Testament any word for it 2. What a wretched thing is it to hold that our sufferings should satisfie the wrath of God and punishment of our sins when the least sin deserves eternal destruction both of soul and body And for their distinction that Christs death gives power to the pains of Purgatory to satisfie is an idle and ridiculous conceit 3. To say that Christ should satisfie for our sins and take them away but not our punishment is it not a wicked abuse of Gods justice where he forgives the sin doth he not also forgive the punishment True he chastens his servants but they are no part of satisfaction of his justice onely a means to prevent sin to come and humble for that which is past as if I had a quarrel against a man I might forgive him and yet if I see him in an Appoplexy or Swoon I may hit him a blow to fetch him again The truth is Purgatory was devised partly of a blinde and curious devotion of some Monks that thought that they that had some beginnings as they thought of goodness and so dyed it were no reason they should be damned c. who were therefore to be purged in Purgatory and so come to Heaven and that seeing most men have much sin in them even when they dye it were unreasonable they should go straight to Heaven for no unclean person shall come there and therefore they must suffer and be cleansed in Purgatory Who doth not see the absurdity of these conceits when the Scripture saith Whosoever believeth in him shal not be condemned that whosoever dyeth in the Faith all their sins and corruptions are done away and they received into Heaven But principally the Pope and his Clergy out of covetousness were chief founders hereof for hereby they did infinitely enrich themselves and every where enjoyed the very fat in the Land It was devised for the pampering of the living not the punishing or purging of the dead Through their covetousness meeting with the peoples ignorance Purgatory was hatched But what a cruelty is this of the Pope who hath power as he saith to deliver as many as he lists out of Purgatory yet will suffer so many so long to
most earnest and labor by all possible means to win men to God when we have done all that we can do we may finde by woful experience that all is too little When we see the holy Ghost going from a matter and to it again and dwelling upon it and pressing it with manifold reasons know we That diligence and carefulness is required in us about the same For the time past of our life may suffice us c. He doth not here approve of their former living as though that might be born with or speaks as we do in a lawful thing as meat drink recreation c. It s enough now leave off O this would have been a plausible Doctrine that men might have taken a time till they had had their fill prettily well in sin so they then returned Our Apostle hath no such meaning but rather schools them that the badness of the time past should humble them and make them careful to spend the rest better and to hasten thereto Whence thus much may be noted That The time past of every mans life mispent ought to be a great spur to repentance Reas. 1. The time spent in sin we know how much it is but what is behinde we know not The Devil is sure of his part but what God shall have whether half or a quarter so much is uncertain If we knew we should live twenty years more to serve God as we have done twenty years in sin God should have but the half but we know not whether we shall live twenty days Should we then defer Should we not make haste 2. Time is very precious above gold and silver and hereof we have squandered away a great part 3. There is no time to be spent in sin but we are to serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life We must remember our creator even in the days of our youth Therefore having rob'd him of some of his due is it not well he will take this that remains and put up that wrong at our hands that is past though we adde no more 4. Whatsoever time is spent till we return to God is all going out of the way and if a man hath gone out of his way but till eight or nine a clock assuredly that 's more then enough 5. Whatsoever time is spent that way is but doing that that must be undone again and repented of and we must with grief and shame wish we had not done it Is not a little of this too much who will willingly so do his work that it must be ript or ravelled out again we use to chide our Children if they do their work so nay who perceiving that he hath thus wrought will not grieve who will not hereupon say It was a good turn I spyed it so soon c So should we grieve at all our former mis-spent time withal blessing God that we did so soon perceive it 6. All that is done this way is for the Devil our sworn Enemy for whom even the least is too much It s for the flesh to which we owe nothing and for the world which is our deadly though subtile Enemy 7. It s all done against God to whom we owe all and is it not then sufficient we have wronged him so far and is it not a great mercy if he will pardon all that is past though he adde no more to the heap 8. And all is against our own souls and is it not sufficient we have wronged yea wounded our own souls hitherto the welfare and salvation whereof we should now at least seek 9. It s all done in such filthy work as God never set them about nor gave them soul and body for the doing thereof 1. This rebuketh those youths that being called on to repentance yet think its too soon and that that 's not sufficient which they have done already What Have they not yet spent time enough that way do they know there is so much more behinde you would repent ere you dyed would you not you would Must you not then do it to day for you know not but that you may dye to morrow Have you squandered away already so much precious time as that some would even give the whole world for one day thereof and will ye yet go on in that course O do it not lest God snatch you away suddenly lest God give you up unto your hearts lusts and so ye fulfil the measure of your iniquity 2. This rebuketh also those unreasonable people as middle aged folks of forty or fifty years which are now as deep in the world and their profits as before they were in their pleasures and yet it s not sufficient for them they can finde no time of thinking truly and throughly to turn to God 3. It rebuketh also those that do still defer till towards their end and then they will turn to God Is not God much beholding to them O let these sluggards know that poverty will come upon them suddenly and strongly If they will needs stay till almost Sun-set ere they set out shall they not with the Levite and his Concubine be benighted and shut out of doors Their condition shall be the same with the five foolish Virgins If a man had a long journey and had gone out of the way all day till three of the clock in the afternoon would he being informed thereof go on still and say When it s almost Sun set I le turn into the right way yet thus doth the world Men defer till they think they shall dye then have they to come back all the way of their life and then must they lead the contrary good life and ere they can do this the night of death overtakes them and they be shut out with Dogs and Inchanters c. O let such be wise in time ere it be too late and let them think it more then high time to turn head and to ride hard too to redeem the time It s past Noon with many of us nay past three of the clock in the afternoon it draws towards night with some O then is it not time for us to draw near to God! Note further from hence That Where God bestoweth means of Salvation he expects fruit answerable while a place lies wilde and common like a Heath there can be nothing expected but Bryars and Thorns but if it be paled in and digged and planted then may fruit be expected therefrom when a people want the means especially the Gospel what can be lookt for at their hands having it their life and conversation must be answerable See Rom. 13. 12. Eph. 4. 17. 1 Thess. 4. 5. and 5. 4. 1. This discovereth the woful state of this Land which so aboundeth in iniquity notwithstanding the clear light of the Gospel amongst us Our sins are more then in times of Popery then among Turks and Pagans Our Saviors woes
was dishonorable and dangerous and murther most odious and fearful he gave way to the third which was drunkenness but then when he was drunk fell into both the other for having committed folly with another mans wife the husband coming in he killed him This puts out the eye of the soul and takes away the use of Reason for a time even that whereby a man differs from a beast and indeed makes a man so that being drunk he knows neither what he doth nor what is done to him as it fared both with Noah and Lot For a man to cut or hurt his own flesh were bad but to hurt the principal part the soul how dangerous is it That were but as if one should kill a Subject this as if he did take the Prince and binde him hand and foot and turn him out of his place of Government Who would put out his bodily eyes but too too many do thus put out the eyes of their soul. This disguiseth the body which is Gods workmanship and comely and ought to be preserved in holiness and honor and kept as a Temple for the holy Ghost and makes it the stye of the Devil From hence are red eyes an inflamed face a swoln body the hands quiver the feet reel and stagger yea it not onely disguiseth but endangereth it it dulls the wit spoils the memory breeds diseases Dropsies Imposthumes Palsies oppressing and drowning the natural heat before the time as a Lamp with too much oyl or a candle thrown into the water ere it be half burnt and so bringing untimely death They that are addicted hereunto are self-murtherers and though they had need to prolong their lives while they can unless they were fitter for death yet do they long as it were and hasten to be in Hell This is a stinking sin both to God and all good men It s a wicked abuse of Gods Creatures appointed to be received with prayer and thanksgiving to the glory of the giver thereof It s a wasting of the portion which God hath given us whereby we might live comfortably and do much good to others in Church and Common-wealth O how many do hereby squander all away rob Church Common-wealth Poor yea their own Families their Wives portions and Childrens Patrimony all going down their throat What cruel murtherers be these If he that provides not for them is worse then an Heathen then what is he that having already wherewith to maintain them thus pulls it as it were from them This also is a wicked mispending of our precious time This brings infamy and reproach with God and men This brings beggery along with it many having spent all on strong drink in their youth are fain to drink water in their age This hath wo sorrow and wounds attending thereon Many in their drunkenness have been stabb'd as others have come to the gallows for that they have done in their drink yea custom and continuance herein breeds not a delight onely but from thence another nature and a kinde of necessity upon the body that they cannot leave it they swallow not the wine so much as the wine swallows them up and they are buried in wine as unfit for any good as one that is buried to do the work of a living man Hereunto may be added that as there are fearful judgements threatned against this both in respect of this and the life to come for the cup of the fierceness of Gods wrath is prepared for such to drink to the bottom and the full Vials of his judgements will be poured out upon them eternally so amongst others this is the main that they seldom or never repent I have known some toucht at the Word because of this weep for it promise yea vow against it who have yet again fallen into company and could never get out 1. If this be so horrible a sin what shall we say to the Land wherein it is grown to such an horrible height and to abound in such a fearful sort It was wont to be the sin of other Countreys now we have got it and may we not boast of our gettings think ye It was wont to be rare but is now common in all places wont to be done in a corner and the parties ashamed thereof now it staggers abroad in the open streets none being ashamed of the same wont to be the sin of base ones according to the Proverb He is as drunk as a beggar but now it s the sin of Gentlemen and herein our Yeomens sons exceed to the wasting of their Revenues St. Peters argument were now a very slender one for men rise early to drink strong drink yea men are now grown into such an horrible height of impiety as that they labor and strive to excel therein they get Beer of extraordinary strength and call it by names Snapdragon and which is most horrible Blasphemy Hosanna in the highest c. drink by the yard by the dozen in pails in crooked horns that cannot be set down make matches who shall drink each other drunk under the Table O fearful Is this the fruit of the Gospel and of this peace and light It s indeed a work of darkness though it abounds in the light of the Gospel a lust of the Gentiles and so not beseeming Christians Do we marvel at unseasonable Weather at Famine and Scarcity c we may rather wonder at Gods patience And were it not that our Governors and the chief of the Land have taken it to heart and Enacted good Laws to suppress it both by prescribing a penalty upon it and preventing it by diminishing of Ale-houses the sinks of all disorder and mischief and by forbiding excessive strong Beer and enjoyning a moderate size thereof c. We might have looked for some notable judgement of God but when men of authority take sin to heart and seek to punish the same then God takes it well and is pacified Contrarily when Magistrates have not grace and courage to put life into his Laws by the due execution of Justice the Lord is enforced to take his rod into his own hand 2. This condemneth those which are addicted unto this sin of drunkenness What Think they that God gave them their souls and bodies their goods health wealth his good creatures and their precious time to use thus hath he bestowed on them the days of the Gospel that they should make themselves Beasts unfit for any goodâ— what answer and account think they to make to Almighty God for these things They may justly fear some notable judgement from God to be inflicted on them as of late there hath been on divers and do not these things affright you dare you go on in the like were they not sent for your admonition and to be warnings unto you Awake therefore you Drunkards and howl humble your selves on the knees of your soul confess your horrible wickedness to Almighty God
cry for mercy and pardon and if it be possible turn from this base vice renounce hate detest vow covenant swear against it pray also to be kept therefrom avoid all company of lewd ones which will either by flattery allure you or if you yield not to them reproach and mock you But what do I speak to them that have lost their wits Is there any hope of repentance for such Well yet nothing is impossible to God The harder it is labor the more and weep and lament for that is past redeem the time to come give your souls and bodies to please God in all good life and sober conversation you have spent your goods and time hereon do so no more If thou wiltst not be perswaded but go on still and hate to be reformed thou mayest look for some one or other dreadful judgement to be here inflicted on thee and at thy death to be cast into utter darkness who hast wallowed in the works of darkness and for thy drunkenness to drink off the full cup of Gods judgement for ever and ever Neither are common drunkards onely to be rebuked but such also as will now and then drink with their friends and sit so long talking and bibbing or gaming and drinking that they be caught and are scarce wise enough to finde the way home they may count themselves wise men but Solomon saith nay to it they shall not be counted innocent Nor are those only to be condemned that be so drunk as they be like beasts but even such as take delight to quaff and to carouse and spend their time in swilling having yet strong brains to bear it and herein they glory that they can drink others under-board and because they be never so drunk but they can carry it away therefore they think themselves no such persons but they are as bad drunkards and as guilty as the other they waste as much time as much wine or strong drink as the others they waste also their substance and delight in this course nay haply they drink much more then the others for some are so weak brained that a little tâ—rns them over There 's a wo denounced against such their brain was not given them for this end but for the service of God they should prove their strength in good things and strive to exceed others in goodness not in dishonoring God by abusing his Creatures There are also that delight to see others drunk that allure or enforce them so to do to delight herein how horrible is it how ill a sign no childe can delight to hear or see his father misused he is else a bastard not a son Gods Children delight in his Commandments in his Sabbaths in his Saints in the publike performance of his worship contrarily they are grieved and vexed as David and Lot at the dishonor which is done unto him so are not the wicked but God will laugh at their destruction and mock when their fear cometh when judgement cometh those mourners for sin shall scape when as these rejoycers therein shall not go unpunished and who indeed could laugh to see a man running on his own sword or casting himself in the fire To make others drunk enticing them hereto and to this end under colour of kindeness to drink to them often as is usual in Gentlemens Butteries and Cellars in Inns and Taverns c. where men will be at great cost to dishonor God this also is fearful these be zealous Servants of the Devil But if one should allure another to go in such a way where he were sure to fall into a pit or be drowned or be robbed c. would not every one cry out of such a treacher no less treacherous are those which make others drunk We are willed indeed to provoke each other to love and good works to call one another to the house of God to exhort and edifie one another but in no sort to destroy one another as those allurers and enticers do To compel others to drink till they be drunk or to drink more then they can bear is usual to refuse is accounted of sundry ruffians in our days a matter of great disgrace which they will not put up and therefore stab or challenge to the field those that will not drink as many and as big carouses as they that have begun them What inhumanity is this what folly hath nature made all alike can one of low stature reach as high as he that is far taller can a weak man bear as heavy a burthen as a strong man Besides what greater wrong then to force a man to do that which will hinder his health shorten his life wound his conscience and destroy his soul But especially what an outragious wickedness is this against God cannot we our selves be content to do wickedly but as ringleaders we must enforce others whosoever scape such traytors shall not What woful wretches are those have they not sins enough of their own to answer for but they must needs desperately pull other mens sins on their heads whereof they themselves are the principal cause For those they shall answer on that dreadful day Against such shall Ahasuerus his injunction though an Heachen rise up for their condemnation It s the duty of all those which as yet are free from this sin to be truly thankful to God for keeping them therefrom They must also endeavor for the time to come to avoid the same with all the occasions inducing thereto God gives us his benefits to provoke us to well-doing we must not use them to sin like the Mastiffs that flies in his face that gives him meat Wiltst thou so foully dishonor God shall thy body and soul appointed for Gods service be for the service of the Devil in this base sin Wiltst thou thus make thy self unfit for any good in danger to run into any evil Wiltst thou so disguise thy self as to make thy self a scorn so abuse Gods creatures to hazard thy health bring diseases and untimely death on thy self Wiltst thou so wound thy conscience and provoke the Lords judgements against thee here and hereafter O God forbid Be earnest always with God to keep thee see the ugly face of sin think of the judgements denounced and lighted upon many that are past help how pleasant soever it be at the first in the end it will bite like a Serpent Flie from Alehouses and Taverns as from infected houses think it an odious disgrace to be seen in any such house except in travel or for necessity flee the company also of such as are addicted to this vice as infectious and dangerous together with their enticements and provocations follow also your calling diligently whereby both this and other sins may be prevented together with the judgements due thereto 4. It s the duty of all those which are in Authority to set themselves against this sin whether Ministers Magistrates
such a destruction and desolation as hath been of some particular Cities and Nations nor a destruction of some Creatures in all places as was in the Flood but the end of all things that is All things shall come to that end that God hath appointed them to come to many and most Creatures to an utter end the heavens and earth to be purged by fire men and women not to come to an utter end but to live immortally in joy or wo but to be at an â—nd for living here so that as the world had a beginning it shall have an end the same God that created it shall destroy it Is at hand That is draweth near therefore these are called the last times and the Apostle saith Time is short and That upon them the ends of the world were come Obj. How could this be true that it was near when now 1600 years are past since and yet it is not come did the Apostle speak as he thought or onely to scare the people Answ. He spake as he was perswaded and that truly 1. Either in respect of the times before Christ it was nearer then to those under the Law or 2. In respect of God to whom 1000 years are but as one day or 3. In respect of eternity a thousand years are nothing to the time to come which is for ever it s as little as a drop of water to the whole ocean Sea Obj. But did the Apostle think that it was thus far off and should last thus many years as it hath since he spake this A. It s likely he thought it nearer for Christ Jesus being come and all the Prophesies of him fulfilled the Gentiles called and the mystery of iniquity begun already to work why might he not think this and though some things were yet to be accomplished touching the calling of the Jews yet might he think that that might quickly be dispatched Howsoever that that time was the last time they knew and that God would never speak after any new maner to his Church as he had done before from time to time and the Apostle Paul though he would often signifie the end to be approaching yet he knew it was not to be by and by but that some things must first fall out though haply he conceived that the same might have been dispatched in lesser time then it hath been But we have the advantage of them because we have the Book of the Revelation left to the Church by the Ministery of John the last living Apostle containing things to come from that time till the worlds end whereof many things be already accomplished which makes the Book more lightsom other things are yet to come touching the ruine of Antichrist calling of the Iews destruction of the Turks but in what time the Lord will finish these things we know not What if the day be yet some scores of years off yea some few hundreds as we may well think that is the utmost is it not then near by It was near in the Apostles time much nearer now then began the last time now is the end thereof But that is not so much the force of the Reason as this That we live in the last times nearer the worlds end then our Forefathers before Christ therefore ought to minde earthly things less and seek more after heavenly and lead an holy and godly life But say the day of Judgement were not so near as it is yet every of our particular ends is at hand we know not how soon when where how to day or to morrow and that is to us as if the world were at an end for any use thereof and for our state it shall be with us at the last day as when we dye 1. This may provoke us to Sanctification and a godly life seeing we live in the clearest times when the last day draweth near They that lived long ago were to live godly much more we having so short a time we must so live that when our Master cometh he may finde us so doing If death or judgement take us in our sins how miserable is our condition 2. It may reprove such as so live here as if here they were to live for ever eating and drinking and beating their fellow-servants c. others also that go on carelesly either making no profession or contenting themselves with a shew thereof as the five foolish Virgins every one must prepare himself that he may be found in peace at Gods coming 3. It may comfort the godly in bearing the Cross patiently yet a little while and we shall be in heaven from the same yea that day draweth near wherein God will be glorified in the sight of all his enemies See Phil. 4. 5. Heb. 10. 36. James 5. 8. 4. We should not set our mindes on these transitory things but on them that endure for ever The things of this world are vain uncertain perishing the world it self shall be consumed and our selves be most frail of all we must therefore be sober in seeking these earthly things laboring after grace life everlasting and the means thereof Be ye therefore sober Now of particular duties one helps another The former reason strongly enforceth these duties From the coherence note 1. That as before he exhorted to Sanctification in general so he doth now in particular for we are subject to deceive our selves Many be good in the gross not so in particulars they think they love God above all and their neighbors too and that they live holily but come to particulars it s nothing so 2. That as he forbade the forementioned lusts and vices so he now exhorts to the contrary duties the one must not be without the other see Acts 26. 18. In particular we are to be sober both in the use of riches and in the use of pleasures but of this last with the appurtenances thereof Meat Drink Apparel Recreations we shall speak afterward For sobriety in Riches Riches as Gods creatures be good in themselves and promised by God to his servants as blessings nay given to some of them as blessings as to Abraham Isaac Jacob Job c. They are encouragements to duty and well-doing and may be great helps and furtherances to us in and unto many good duties and that both towards our selves for we may spend the more time and have more freedom about matters of our soul and to others in shewing liberality and mercy and to the children of God that use them well they are as pledges of better and everlasting good things as Canaan was to the godly Jews a type of heaven But it may seem needless to speak of the goodness of riches seeing most men count them the onely good but the truth must be taught we speak of the things themselves yea some have utterly hated them as evil as Crates and among the Papists there be some that profess voluntary poverty
it therefore none ought to require of me to give out of it but as I list my self Alas what if it be so as thou sayest yet its Gods free gift for thou hast made many forfeitures whereby thou hast deserved to have it taken away for any thing thou hast any Land Living Place Skill give glory to God for it thou hast no cause to be proud what hast thou which thou haâ—â— not received were it not absurd for one to brag of a borrowed suit of apparel as if it were his own and he were able to maintain the like He that gave it thee found thee without it unworthy of it and could have given it to any other and can yet take it from thee and give it another nay rather be humble because of of the account As the Master of the Talents called his Servants to an account so will the Lord call thee To whom much is given of him is much required The more gifts and the greater the more is thine account thou art the farther in debt and therefore should be the less proud As every man hath received the gift even so minister the same c. Here 's the main duty required every man must be faithful in communicating the gift which he hath received and after that measure that he hath received it For the kinde Though a Christian be the freest man in the world as being freed from Satan Sin Hell the Law c. yet is he to be of all others the most serviceable He must employ his gifts as a member of the body for the good of the whole He must not put his light under a bushel nor hide his Talent in a Napkin The Magistrate must administer justice duly and truly relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless defend the widow break the jaws of the wicked c. as he who beareth not the sword in vain The Minister must do service with his gift Preaching in season out of season c. The Housholder must instruct and train up his Family employing all the wit and knowledge he hath to this end as Abraham he must pray with them and go before them in an holy example The Husband must minister his gift by living with his wife as a man of knowledge c. The wife must live in subjection and build up her house and as a mother lay out her breasts for her yong ones if God hath given her milk and strength The Servant must put out his gift in his business and not be idle untrusty an eye-servant c. He that hath knowledge must teach the ignorant admonish the disordered exhort them that begin to slack comfort the heavy c. If any hath wealth he must distribute thereof as need requires If any have skill in Physick or in any thing that is useful to man yea or to beast they must minister it nay there 's not the meanest work done in faith and for conscience which pleaseth not God as a Preacher in the Pulpit or Magistrate on the Bench. Reasons 1. As the Sun shines not for it self nor the Earth bear for it self so have not we our a gift for our selves but for the common good 2. The perfection of gifts consists not onely in the having of it but in the use thereof 3. The Communion of Saints which we believe requires it and this makes a man likest to God 4. This brings most peace to our consciences both in life and death 5. This procures credit while we live as a good name and memory when we dye 6. We are divers ways partakers of the gifts of others and so must make them partakers of ours 7. Our gifts encrease by using the more we bestow them the more we have them nay even for outward things he that soweth liberally shall reap liberally 〈◊〉 1. This rebuketh those that employ not their gift at all and that either through discontentedness because it s not so great as they would or others have but he is unworthy of more that will not make use of one talent one well used would encrease or through envy as desiring to be singular or through laziness both Magistrates Ministers Hous-holders c. failing this way these are warts and scabs no true members of the body droans and not true laboring Bees 2. It rebuketh those which employ their gifts not for the common good but meerly for their own private advantage as most men would not work or employ themselves in a calling were 't not for their own ends and to grow rich thus were it base and mercenary in a Minister to Preach for filthy lucre thus many do their work and make their wares so slightly and deceitfully that others are thereby cousened though themselves be enriched 3. It rebuketh such as do hurt with their gifts as if a Magistrate by his authority would pervert judgement oppress the righteous maintain bad causes or persons c. If a Minister would by his preaching discourage the godly and strengthen the hands of the wicked If a Lawyer would employ his wit and skill to finde quirks and quillers to hinder a good cause or make good a naughty matter If a Chyrurgion would keep his Patient long in pain and keep back his cure that he might gain the more by him If a strong man would abuse his strength to pour in strong drink If a wealthy man would abuse his means to oppress his inferiors hunt good men out of their places set up disorder and riot c. If such as have wit would abuse it in devising mischief If any having knowledge in the Scriptures would cavil against the truth defend sin give ill counsel to others c. might they not be taxed for ministring their gifts cursedly It had been happy not onely for others but even for themselves as whose condemnation will be the greater that they had never had these gifts If even he that hid his talent doing no good therewith was so severely punished and if even the fig-tree was cursed that did baâ—e no fruit then what shall become of them that bring forth bad fruit that employ their talents for the hurt of others Even here judgements do attend them They shall not be established upon Earth they shall hot live out half their days evil shall hunt them to destruction For the measure Every man must minister according to the measure he hath received having received much he must not minister a little he that had five Talents was called to an account for five to whom men commit much from them they look for the more Obj. The Apostle saith If there be a willing minde God accepteth of a man according to that he hath Answ. True it is not beyond that he hath but according to that he hath he doth and will account with men This rebukes those that having received much yet care not how little they distribute Many men of great knowledge yet
paterns and means to confirm us in our sufferings for Christ The Apostle Paul used this as an argument to move Philemon to grant his request for that he was aged and a prisoner for Christ. Hereof this our Apostle informs them even that notwithstanding all their troubles whereof haply some might have conceived him careless they were dear unto him This rebuketh those that make account of men while they be in prosperity and the world smiles on them but when the times frown and they be discountenanced and in disgrace and trouble then cast them off or shrink from them shewing them no countenance nor kindeness a sign either of mungâ—els or at last of dastardly Christians Think it not strange concerning the fiery tryal Here 's the matter exhorted to By fiery tryal is meant All kinde of persecution in what degree soever compared to the fire for that as the fire tryes the gold so persecution tryes men Think it not strange wonder not at it as at some strange think come out of a far Countrey whereof the like was never either seen or heard of it behoved you to have prepared for it before and now make a reckoning of it that so you flinch not from it when it comes Here note that The want of fore-thinking of trouble makes it the harder to be born and the stranger when it comes When a man hath time to put on his armor or draw his Sword ere the Thief come he is more safe then if a Thief should rush upon him on the sudden As those which are not used to sickness bear it worst so such are most cast down in the time of trouble which in the time of prosperity do not so much as think thereof 1. This teacheth us even in the time of prosperity to think of troubles in the midst of health we must think of sickness and how we shall bear it and accordingly provide for it so in the time of wealth of poverty so having Children if God should take them from us of our Friends if they should hate us how would we behave our selves How could we do as such and such a Christian c So in life we must think of death and when any one dyes think that we may be the next and thereupon finde out how we are prepared for it These thoughts are profitable they will make us use our prosperity the more soberly and thankfully while we have it and walk more humbly and be better prepared for troubles if God shall lay them upon us Neither will they come the sooner for thinking of them howsoever we shall be the better enabled to bear them when ever they come What 's written of the Basilisk that if it see us before we see it we dye for it but if we see it first we live is true of troubles If we see them ere they come we be much better but if they come on us unlooked for they prove the more dangerous Now every man sits under his own vine and under his own figtree Now we go to the house of God in peace Now we profess Religion with good liking But what if the case alter ere I dye shouldst thou say What if I be haled to prison lose my goods be convented condemned tortured banished c. what shall I then do 2. This rebuketh most that seldom or never have any such thoughts May not we have changes why do we not then think of them Oh such sad thoughts do not well le ts be merry while we may sadness will come time enough Thou wrongest thy self thy case will be the worse thy condition the more fearful if either sickness poverty pain or any other calamity should take thee unprovided For persecution who is there that now thinketh of any such matter most think that they shall never be moved and that they shall dye in their nest whereas alas it may fall out far otherwise Have we not many enemies and what doth not our sins deserve God hath indeed wrought for us many deliverances as from the Spanish Invasion and Gunpowder Treason c. but are we sure he will do so still Hath not our grievous unthankfulness deserved the contrary Do we think that our enemies do not now plot mischief against us No doubt they make use of peace to prepare for war and they will plot now towards their latter end to uphold their tottering Babel and do as fishes feeling the water almost gone from them flush and make a stir and when death draws near men they have strong pains So what now at the last the Lord may suffer them to do against us we know not It s the more likely there wil be some judgement because all men cry Peace and Safety and are so sensless if there should be any such alas how unprovided are we nay what were all our provision strength multitude of men c. if God should set himself against us On the contrary if we have God on our side as he was with Gideon and his three hundred with Jonathan and his Armor bearer we need not fear them though never so many so strong Now if any such judgement should come on the Land which the Lord turn away for his mercies sake wherein multitudes should be slain with the Sword others made Slaves and carried away our Wives and Daughters abused before our faces our houses and chests rifled the godly imprisoned and brought forth to torment except they would forsake their Religion O Lord how far are we unfit for any such matter and the rather for that we never think of it Never would any Land think trouble and misery more strange then we which have been used so delicately O then let us think and provide for this before that if it should come it may not be strange unto us If we look to our selves have not we cause enough to be humbled and purged from our dross and for the world shall we wonder if they hate and persecute us Haply we think because we be honorable persons the Sons of God they should not so deal with us It s true but alas they know not our Father much less know they us his Children Haply we think because we be now godly and make conscience of all our ways and love God and live with our brethren Christianly and desire nothing so much as to please God that therefore all should make much of us True God Angels and good Men will do so and that must content us but the world is the world and will hate us the more for our goodness which hath been thus ever since Cain hated Abel we need not think it strange for may not the Lord justly after long schooling us now call us out to try what we have profited Again hereby he would have the wickedness of the wicked break out that he might get glory in confounding them Also he will hereby confirm the hearts of the weak
glorious before God and man that be endued therewith it makes them shine more gloriously then the Sun And this the Apostle opposeth to the ignominies and reproaches wherewith the world doth besmear them It s as if he should say Though the world reproach you as vile yet know that you are glorious in Gods account because of his Spirit that dwells in you 1. Therefore be not dismaid though the world stain us and accounts us vile yet are we glorious to God 2. We must esteem of the Servants of God in whom we see the Spirit of God as of glorious persons yea though the world disgrace them and count them as off-scourings and not worthy to live we must count them as Gods worthies and Warriers as his principal Servants we must count them such as the world is not worthy of They that esteem basely of them do not consider that Gods Spirit is in them and resteth on them Contrarily they that have not the Spirit of God in them are base and vile let the world make what reckoning of them it will 4. That there 's no small difference between the common gifts of the Spirit that the Reprobates have and the Spirit of Sanctification which is bestowed on Gods Elect those may be lost this cannot it resteth on them yea abideth and continueth with them On their part he is ill spoken of Here note that They that rail upon and revile the Servants of God for their well-doing they speak ill of the Spirit of God they think they have but to do with the men and them they will be bold with to speak their pleasure of but they deceive themselves in speaking ill of Gods Servants they speak ill of the Spirit of God as the Israelites when they murmured against Moses and Aaron murmured against God He that despiseth you saith our Savior despiseth me Therefore when TURKS and JEWS mock and reproach us for believing in CHRIST they reproach both the Word that so teacheth us and the Spirit that thus guideth us and assureth our hearts herein as he that reproacheth a Servant for doing that his Master commands or a Schollar for speaking as he is taught reproacheth the Master and Teacher So when the Papists call the Doctrine which we preach and profess Heresie and us Heretiques do they not reproach the Word that so teacheth and the Spirit that so assureth us So they among our selves that rail on men for their zeal and forwardness in hearing the Word keeping the Sabbath shunning some sins and corruptions that the world swallow up c. What do these but reproach Gods Spirit We do not these things of our selves but by the warrant of the Spirit Take heed therefore that that be evil which thou speakest against else whilest thou reproachest goodness in thy Servant Childe Neighbor Tenant c. thou art a caviller against God The common sort that cannot abide the true obedience of Gods Commandments nor that any should be more precise then they list to be despise the Word and Spirit they be like Ahab to Micaiah Wouldst thou have God to make new Scriptures more loose to serve thy turn or to be like thy self No know these Scriptures shall stand firm as to the comfort and salvation of all that are willing to be guided thereby so to the confusion of all that kick against the same or hate to be reformed If therefore you list not to be ruled by the Word and Spirit yet speak not against the same for so you shall encrease your sin and make your judgement greater which howsoever will be great enough If you will not walk in obedience to Gods Laws yet suffer others that would On your part he is glorified Another Reason to move us to joyfulness in persecution Thereby we glorifie God we honor the Spirit when undaunted we stand constantly against all our enemies Hereby we shew that the Spirit of God is of puissance and force to make the weak strong We glorifie him also when we so love him as we will suffer for his sake so we give glory to him when we trust him of his word who hath promised eternal life to them that hold out so when we obey him and do that willingly he calls us to so many praise God for our constancy whereby they be strengthened and God is honored that they cannot prevail against us but though they take away our lives yet they cannot make us yield to them We should therefore willingly and joyfully suffer that so we may glorifie God we may think our selves happy if by any means whether in life or death we may effect this Verse 15. But let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busie body in other mens matters Verse 16. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf LEst any should think that he commended suffering in respect of it self so that all suffering should be blessed and were to be rejoyced in he tells us That there 's another kinde of suffering then that he hath been speaking of which is not to be rejoyced in namely when men suffer reproach and punishment or whatsoever else for evil doing for their just deserts Those sufferings are base and shameful whereof Christians must beware but for the sufferings which are for Christ for Righteousness sake for a good Conscience there 's no shame belonging to them but rather glory and rejoycing Here then are two kindes of sufferings laid down the one forbidden whereto shame belongs namely to suffer for ill-doing which is to be avoided the other enjoyned and wherein we are to rejoyce namely in suffering for well doing But let none of you suffer as a murtherer c. Not that if any be a murtherer or thief c. he should not suffer the punishment due thereto but flie from it for that herein he resists the Magistrates Sentence on his deserts sets himself against God but he would not have men do any such evil as to procure or deserve any such sufferings Obj. But none can walk so circumspectly but that he may and shall do evil and so deserve punishment at the hand of the Lord. A. True but he speaks of foul vices and punishable by men which Christians should be far from and for the frailties of Gods Servants he will not impute them to them The words afford this Doctrine that Sufferings for ill-doing are not glorious but shameful Sufferings are good onely in respect of the cause if that be good then they be good if that be evil then they be shameful The same sufferings for kinde and measure may be to one person glorious to another infamous the one may have cause of joy the other to hang down their heads Both Abel and Jezabel were killed but he for his goodness she for her badness both Joseph
their work God will not put it up but defend even the meanest Servant in his Family 4. It may be for direction let us prove our selves his true Servants Covenant-Servants and no hang-by's for as about Princes and great Mens Houses be many that be not in Covenant for wages nor are setled Servants of whom any charge is taken So in the Church the Lords House there are a number that work not the Lords work but the Devils and are of his Family for he hath two Families one of reprobate souls in Hell the other of unbelievers and wicked here on Earth These work earnestly for the Devil yet they will come into Gods House and the Devil is content they should so long as they keep their heart and life to him yea they will put over their leg and sit down at the table to eat of the bread prepared for the Lords Family but he will come in and view them and finding them without a wedding Garment and such as be not in Covenant with him he will cause them to be bound hand and foot and cast into utter darkness These shall have their wages where they have done their work Hast thou been such a one humble thy self before God bid adieu to thy old master and come in good earnest and enter Covenant and purpose to be a true and dutiful Servant to God and he will have mercy on thee and take thee into his Service and then mayest thou have comfort and challenge the priviledge of the Family If it first begin at us c. Here note 1. That the Apostle puts himself in the number of such as were of Gods House So that its possible for us to come to be assured that we are of the Lords Family Labor we therefore to attain hereunto else what joy can we have of our lives we are bid make our calling and election sure and why do we it not wouldst thou know to what family thou dost belong thou mayest by the works thou doest If we work the works of God of Holiness and Righteousness in our general callings and be faithful in our special callings then are we of Gods Family if the works of sin then are we of our Father the Devil You may come into Gods House as many an hypocrite and Beast doth but of his house you be not try whose work thou doest Thou doest some work of Gods and some of the Devils no if we do any work willingly for the Devil we do none for God aright nor that he accepts Again if thou dost not believe nor repent thou art none of Gods Family if thou art an unrighteous person thou art none of his yea if we be of Gods house we cannot abide to hear our Master ill spoken of nor any of our fellow-servants for their goodness but our hearts will rise against it contrarily if we be such as dishonor God reproach the sincerity of the Gospel and power of Religion with them that desire so to walk yea or can hear them ill spoken of and are not grieved thereat it s a sign we be none of Gods Family but the Devils 2. That there 's no small difference between the state of Gods children and the wicked even the state of the godly notwithstanding the many troubles wherewith their life is filled is to be preferred before the state of the wicked notwithstanding their present jollity The state of the godly is infinitely better then the wicked's both in this life in death and at the day of Judgement Those are freed from the curse and wrath of God and all evil are reconciled and made the children of God and are covered with Christs righteousness These are in danger of all condemnation remain children of the Devil Enemies to God altogether in their own filthiness all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth are at Peace with those but all at odds with these Angels guard the one the other are a prey to the Devil the one working the works of holiness are acceptable to God and shall have eternal life the other the filthy scullery of the Devil shall have Hell the one are beloved of God the other hated the person and prayers of the one are acceptable to God the others abominable in his sight of the one all things their afflictions yea their sins turn to their good to the other the mercies of God yea his holiest Ordinances turn to their hurt Those are called the glory these dross those are as a tree planted by the rivers of waters c. these as the chaff which the wind driveth away those are as wheat for the garner these cockle and tares to be bundled up for the fire the wicked seem more excellent outwardly but they are like painted Sepulchres like rotten wood shining in a dark night the godly are like a plain leather Casket with a precious Pearl therein of unspeakable worth Turn them which way you will if both in prosperity infinite odds one being the childe of God the other of the Devil the godly hath more joy and peace in well-doing then the wicked of all their jollity the ones prosperity is a pledge of better things in Heaven the others is sent in wrath to fat them to their destruction If both in adversity alike yet infinite odds the one chastened of God as a Father doth his children for their great good the other pursued in vengeance by a just Judge as fore-goers of greater plagues for the one Gods arrows are dipt in poyson for the other the poyson is taken away in Christs Sufferings On the one God hath promised to lay no more then they are able to bear the other have no such promise the one have Gods promise to comfort and uphold them in them as also assurance as of good by it so of a good and happy end and after this life their joys to begin that never shall end but the other have no such promises nay when this life ends then shall begin their Torments which shall never end nay put the godly in the greatest misery that can be and the ungodly in the greatest jollity like Dives and Lazarus or if ye will chain the one in a Dungeon about his feet middle and neck and let the other ride in all pomp and with all the attendance and honor that the world can afford yet the one is infinitely more happy then the other In death the Righteous have hope the wicked none but are either full of horror or blockish After death these go to Hell those to Heaven the children are taken up into the Chambers of Christ the Dogs and ungodly are cast out of doors At the day of Judgement the one shall stand with comfort on the right hand the other with terror on the left both being raised up The wicked shall have the wound that death gave them healed up as Traytors be healed of their hurts that they may come to execution and
in my minde But I will not spend any time to approve or disapprove the one more then the other but speak something of both as in some such cases is not unusual nor amiss when both may very well stand and it be difficult to say which is the true meaning of the place this or that For the first The duties of people towards their Ministers laid down in the fifth commandment stand in these four things 1. They must reverence them for the dignity highness and excellency of their Calling in which respect they are termed Angels Stars the light of the world Gods Ambassadors 2. They must yield obedience to them in their Ministery 3. They must willingly allow them a sufficient maintenance that they may wholly without distraction attend on their souls 4. They must pray for them both that their Ministery may be fruitful and that they may long continue amongst them of those the second is the principal Namely that People must submit themselves to the Ministery of the Word in the mouths of their Ministers as we stand bound to preach so do you to hear and obey For Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it that are doers as well as hearers God hath not appointed us to Preach in vain but for the conversion of people The Ministery is ordained to work faith to convert souls it was the peoples request with promise to hear and do God hath yielded and sanctified it to be the onely ordinary means not reading not preaching by an Angel even the foolishness of Preaching by the hand of men to save them that believe If Ministers must be called to an account for Preaching shall not the people how they have profited and if a wo to us if we preach not is there not to them if they repent not For this cause our Savior upbraided those Cities wherein his mighty works were done not because they would not entertain him nor hear him as the Gadarens but because they repented not we have done you no good nor have you heard well till you have repented and be converted till you have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered you The Law humbleth the Gospel woâ—â—th Faith both bring to a reformed new and godly life we hear aright when we go away pricked in our hearts Till then there 's no good wrought on us as appears by the Prophets complaints Isaiah 49. 4. and 53. 1. Jer. 6. 10. else no mark of Election faith being a demonstration hereof we make sure our Election by our effectual calling The Apostle also termeth the Thessalonians Elect of God because the preaching was not to them in word onely but in power and they received the word in much affliction and became followers of us c. and that they received his preaching not as the word of man but as it is indeed the Word of God not to hear and obey is rather a mark of reprobation as in Eli's Sons If we be Christs sheep we hear his voyce in the Ministery and follow him O what an excellent harmony would this make if Ministers preach faithfully and the people become converted and then built up in all obedience thereby 1. Then this rebuketh the woful contempt of the world at most hands for how few yield obedience thereto look in all Towns how many ignorant persons that have no knowledge neither will have any give their mindes to none but pul in their heads that they might not see the light that would glister in their faces who so blinde as he that will not see These are far from conversion This is condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather more then light So how many prophane persons that live in some known sin though some more outragiously then others as in Drunkenness Whoredom Malice c. That hear not though the Charmer charm never so wisely and do even stop their ears God knocks at the door of their hearts but they will not open his Ministers cry out against their sins yet they rush on every one after his own hearts lust and hateth to be reformed having a pardon brought and offered them if they would come in they stand out What will become of these having refused to hear a gracious voyce offering mercy they shall hear a fearful voyce denouncing judgement not hearing a voyce calling them to him they shal hear a voyce commanding them from him and as he called and they refused so shall they call but not be heard or regarded What shall these have to say for themselves Their iniquity shall stop up their mouth How many civil persons are there also that be not converted if they so continue they shall perish unless they be born again truly humbled planted into Christ obey in all things not in the duties of the second Table onely giving men their due but of the first also giving God his they cannot be saved What should I speak of worldlings that are so glued to the world as they savor not at all of Heaven or heavenly things no such thing can enter into their hearts either they hear not the Word at all or the thorny cares of the world quickly choak that seed What of Hypocrites some professing outwardly and yet living in some known sin others not so bad that yet fall far short having gone some steps and hoping that all is well These were never as yet truly humbled and so not converted so had not that that accompanieth Salvation these hear but not aright Every man therefore must examine himself how he hath heard and whether the Word hath been a means of his true conversion and whether he make conscience to submit himself to the precepts thereof They that can prove themselves thereby converted how comfortably may they go on walking in obedience thereto Contrarily the care of others is dangerous for think not that our preaching will go away unregarded or that it s no matter how you have heard Oh! Preachings and Sacraments be dangerous things life or death can do a great deal of good or as much hurt to them that obey its Salvation but to the disobedient it s the savor of death unto death This is a fearful sin in this Land and the cause of all our plagues by reason whereof we may fear worse Remember the wo pronounced against Chorazin and Bethsaida 2. This may be for exhortation to all that as they come and hear so to submit themselves and pray God to make his word effectual by his Spirit So shall God be glorified if of Lyons we become Lambs If won from Satan to God The Ministers shall rejoyce as having the greater Crown The Angels in Heaven will rejoyce having new fellow Servants yea God himself will rejoyce the Father as having a new Son Christ as having another member the Holy Ghost another
most part of old folks are so silly and ignorant that they have no good counsel in them nay are blockish and unteachable they spent their own time badly and never made conscience thereof therefore do not they call on others not being converted how can they strengthen others Many also are so far from rebuking them for disorder and making the wicked afraid as they will sit still on their benches and look upon youths rioting dancing c. and laugh at them aud so they strengthen them in their naughtiness and if a yonger man reprove them whether Officer or other they do not make any reckoning thereof for why such an ancient old man will stand and look on us and when they see such coming they are so far from fleeing as were meet as they are the more emboldned because they know they shall be countenanced by them yea these do in effect as Saul who held the garments of those that stoned Stephen others there are who though they will not stand looking on them yet will pass by and say nothing to them but rather bid them God speed and so are partakers of their evil These also should give good example be paterns of piety godliness hatred of sin zeal for Gods glory love to the house of God c. as those that have had much time many means and now have but a while to live If their example be good it may do much good if ill then no hoe Abraham Isaac Jacob were godly old men so Noah Job Samuel Simeon their example did much good But Oh how vain frothy and unsavory are the words of some being so prophane as youths might rather open their mouth to reprove them then give any attention to hear them Some talk as filthily as if they had never repented of the whoredom of their youth some talk and tell to youths and laugh at the lewd pranks of their youth so reading their Lectures of evil they shew themselves zealous to do evil that not onely will do so themselves as long as they can but would that others should after them the contrary is a good sign Some also even aged are Swearers Sabbath breakers Alâ—househaunters c. some also though for the time they might have been Teachers though not publique ones yet of the youths had need to be taught even the easiest Principles of Religion they can onely tell you of old Stories they can remember since King Henry went to Bulloign and can remember the old learning and that they helpt the Priest say Mass many a time If they could remember that they had repented of it it were well or could remember of any good they did forty years ago or that they were greatly moved at a Sermon and ever since have made conscience of their ways took such and such pains to hear such delight to read in the Scriptures and other good Books have sate up half nights in doing good O this were well If they could talk of our Saviors birth life miracles death of his Apostles their acts of the Israelites carrying into captivity coming out of Egypt so of the Flood of the Creation c. these things indeed would become them as they can tel you how old they are and in what Kings Reign they were born so if they could tell you when they were born again and how old they are in Christ it were happy But alas in such things they have no more skill then Nicodemus had when he first came to our Savior They are dumb when they are put from their old Stories I knew his Grand-father his great Grand-father c. the older a man is the worse he is if he be not godly O that such would consider why they came into the world how near death is what good counsel or good example they have given whom they have kept from evil or furthered in good what good they have done for their own Souls how they should have served God in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life and that they have not thus served him for which they have a fearful answer to make Though there be no great hope in respect of your dullness as also that God will not accept such a lame Sacrifice and the Devils leavings who requireth the firstlings and lest the Devil will not be put out nor sin accustomed unto be done away yet nothing is impossible to God therefore despair not onely ply you with exceeding haste lest you be shut out and that you may turn to God get some assurance of his love redeem the time make some amends do some good ere you dye as the good Thief that rebuked his fellow If old folks would not live without being desired nor be a burthen nor dye without being mourned for let them live to good use and do good so shall their age be honorable and honored There be some good old ancient men but alas their â—umber is but small and they not so zealous as they should be old men also in Towns must use their power and place to the good of the yonger and Church wherein they live and not to ease their own bodies or purses laying the burthen on their inferiors and as old men so are old women also here meant who must give good instruction and do good also by example they must speak graciously and to good purpose not given to Tale-telling Malice idle Talking c. as most are 2. For youths it rebuketh the notorious pride and malepart boldness of the youths of our times in their gesture carriage speech to their elders whether in publique or private what a universal complaint do men make of their children what a complaint especially of Servants that there were never the like for pride idleness untrustiness c. never looking for more maintenance never less duty In former times when they had not the tythe of the means they now enjoy servants were plain diligent trusty careful to please painful c. What a shame is this Hereupon they that be ill minded blame us and the Gospel never good servants since so much preaching O woful mouth is our preaching or the Word of God in the fault Is there one word in the Bible or doth any one come from us at any time that teacheth them so to do Do not we teach them the quite contrary and do not you give God a good mends for the Gospel There are some which do even profess Religion that yet suffer civil servants to go beyond them in diligence and trustiness and gentleness and good behavior Oh what may we not fear upon the Land for the ungraciousness of this generation seeing they will not bear the easie yoke of Government of their Elders they may look for some heavy yoke or other God will set up houses of Correction for such How few youths make any account that it belongs to them to be Religious or that their youth should be otherwise spent then
Deu. 13. 6. Mat. 5. 29. Luke 14. 26. Dan. 3. 17 18. Acts 4. 19. Speedily Voluntarily Constantly 1 King 13. 24. Gal. 6. 9. Reasons Use 1. See Exod. 5. 2. Iob 21. 14 15. Ier. 6. 16. and 44. 16. Psal. 50. 22. Use 2. Exod. 10. 26. 1 King 3. 26. Acts 15. 9. Simile Use 3. Gen. 13. 8. What may stir us up unto obedience Use 1. Use 2. Simile Obj. Sol. Simile Two parts of obedience Isa. 1. 16. Rom. 12. 9. Col. 3. 10. We must forsake evil before we can do good Simile Use. 1 Cor. 9. 24. Ignorance is the cause and root of a bad life Simile Simile Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Iohn 3. 19. Use 4. Why being so well instructed in the Law they are here termed ignorant Rom. 2 17 c. All knowledge without the knowledge of Christ is nothing Phil. 3. 8. 1 Cor. 2. 2. Knowledge without reformation is but ignorance Use 2. Such as have attained knowledge must not live as they did before Rom. 12. 2. Rom. 13. 11 12. Eph. 4. 17. 5. 8. Use. Iohn 9. 41. Luke 12. 47 48 Phil. 1. 27. Gal. 5. 25. Holiness must be added to abstinence from evil Tit. 2. 12. Luke 13. 7. Mat. 3. 10. Mat. 25. 30. Verse 41. This duty needful to be urged Use. Psal. 51. 13. Luke 11. 23. Iudg. 5. 23. Neh. 13. 17. Acts 16. 28. Christians must be holy 1 Thess. 4. 3. Ioh. 15. 3. and 17. 17. Eph. 1. 4. Luke 1. 74 75. 1 Cor. 6. 20. 1 Thess. 4. 7. Iam. 1. 18. Heb. 12. 14. Mat. 5. 8. Acts 20. 32. Use 1. Rom. 6. 22. Use 2. Holy in all maner of conversation Psal. 145. 17. Use 1. 2 Pet. 1. 5. Col. 3. 17. Eph. 4. 29. 1 King 20. 23. Simil. Use 2. Dan. 2. 32. 2 Pet. 1. 11. Rom. 7. 19 24. God is holy Isa. 6. 3. Rev. 4. 8. Lev. 20. 8. Exod. 3. 5. Use. Mat. 5. 48. Mat. 11. 29. Psal. 84. 7. Lev. 12. 3. Hab. 1. 13. Psal. 94. 20. A twofold calling Rom. 8. 30. Eph. 4. 1. 1 Thess. 5. 24. The parts of the inward calling Acts 16. 14. Col. 1. 13. Eph. 2. 1 2. Rom. 6. 17. 1 Cor. 6. 11. The fruits of this inward calling Use. Rom. 8. 30. 2 Pet. 1. 10. Marks of effectual calling Negative Affirmative Eph. 5. 11. 1 Sam. 2. 25. Heb. 6. 8. 2 Cor. 4. 3. Acts 13. 48. Isa. 6. 9 10. Hos. 4 17. Rev. 22. 11. Prov. 1. 24 c. Why the Apostle is so earnest in exhorting to holines Use 1. Use 2. Lam. 3. 40. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Ministers must prove their Doctrine by Gods Word Luk. 10. 25 26. Acts 12. 22. Use 1. Use 2. Obedience is to be yielded to those Doctrines which are proved by the Word Reason Amos 3. 8. Deut. 5. 27. Use 1. 1 Cor. 10. 12. Use 2. Iohn 8. 47. Gods Word the rule of all Truth Use See Isa. 8. 20. Iohn 5. 39. 20. 24. 1 Cor. 4. 6. 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. Sadael de verbo Dei Scripto Rev. 22. 18. The use of the Apocrypha Books with the respect which is to be given thereto Rom. 3. 2. Simile Christians must be ready in the Scriptures Iohn 5. 29. Col. 3. 16. Iosh. 1. 8. Psal. 1. 3. 119. 97 98 99 101. Use 1. Use 2. Numb 11. 29. Use 3. Simil. See the Book of Martyrs The more the Lord bestows on any the more he expects from them Use. The Popish Doctrine of free-will hath no ground from this place Nor is it against the marryed estate Tertull. Hieron Rom. 14. 17. 1 Cor. 7. 32. Ibid. 34 Heb. 13. 4. Why we ought here to pass our time in fear Hereof see Dr. Taylor on Acts 10 p. 108. Three kindes of fear Natural Heb. 5. 7. Mat. 14. 31. Slavish Simile Filial See Mortons Threefold estate pag. 122. This last often enjoyned Psa. 2. 11. Eccles. 12. 13. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Phil. 2. 12. Whence it proceedeth The benefits hereof Pro. 1. 7 Eccles. 12. 13. Heb. 11. 7. Gen. 25. Rom. 3. 18. The opposites hereunto The marks hereof Prov. 8. 13. Gen. 39. 9. Neh. 5. 15. Joh. 31. 15 21 23. Isa. 50. 10. 66. 1 15. Use. 1. See B. Halls 3. epistle of his 6. Decad. Use 2. Prov 31. 30. Psal 112. 1. 128. 1. 1 King 18. 3â— Prov. 19. 23. Means to attain unto the fear of God A great drought Anno 1615. Mal. 3. 8. Deut. 28. 58. 59 65 66 67. Iob 15. 2. God requires our whole time for his service Prov. 23. 17. 28. 14. Luke 1. 35. Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Use 4. Simile Use 5. 1 Pet. 4. 18. Num. 20. 10 11 12. Prov. 23. 17. and 28. 14. Heb. 11. 39. and 13. 14 Doctr. Christians here in this world are but Sojourners 2 Cor. 5. 1. Iam. 4. 14. Iob 9. 25. Psal. 10. 9. Psal. 39. 5. Gal. 6. 10. Eccles. 9. 10. Iohn 9. 4. Psal. 90. 12. Use 1. Isa. 22. 13. Use 2. Simile Eccles. 9. 4. The first Reason of the foregoing Exhortation Doctr. Such as call God Father must walk in fear and obedience as sons Exod. 20. 12. See Mal. 1. 6. 2 Cor. 6. 18. What the name Father implyeth Use 1. See Psal. 50. 16 Ier. 3. 3 4. Luk. 6. 46. Psal. 15. 2. ver 15. of this 1 Iohn 3. 9. Ioh. 4. 48. See 2 Cor. 6. 17. Use 2. 1 Iohn 1. 12. The second Reason of the foregoing Exhortation How God doth and will judge of mens actions 1. In this life 2. At death 3. On the day of Iudgement Use 1. Use 2. 2. Cor. 5. 10. See Rev. 1. 7. and 20. 12. The person of man how taken Deut. 16. 19. Use. See Psal. 51. 6. Rom. 2. 2. Isa. 1. 15. and 58. 4. See Mic. 6. Gen. 4. 5. 1. Sam. 16. 7. Iohn 4. 24. Prov. 23. 26. 1 Chro. 28. 9. Four things required to the being of a good work Gen. 4. 4. Rom. 14. 23. 1 Cor. 10. 31. Use 1. Splendida percata Object Sol. Use 2. Use 3. Use 4. The third Reason of the foregoing Exhortation The parts of this verse Doct. A man may know himself redeemed 1 Iohn 3. 14. Use. Doctr. Redemption presupposeth Bondage and Slavery Use. Iohn 8. 33. Doct. There 's a way whereby to come out of our bondage Use 1. Luke 4. 18. Iohn 17. 10. Object 1 Iohn 2. 2. Sol. Use 2. Rom. 6. 13. 1 Cor. 6. 20. Iam. 2. 20. Psal. 33. 17. Doctr. The whole life of an unregenerate person is vain Use. Obs. Children readily follow the evil example of their Parents Gen. 18. 18. Acts 24. 14. Whom we are here to understand by Fathers Mat. 15. 4 5 6 c. and 23. 23. Mat. 15. 9. Mat. 15. 4 5 6. 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. 1 Sam. 15. 22. Lev. 10. 1 2. Popish Religion stands in patches Doct. Parents must give their children good example See 2 Kings 17. 41. 2 Chro. 22. 3. Psal. 101. 2. Use. 1. Use 2. Doctr. To follow the examples
1 Cor. 13. 5. Use. 1 Sam. 30. 23. Hest. 4. 16. Obs. Love must be constant Heb. 13. 1. Eph. 4. 3. Psal. 34. Use. Iames 4. 5. Tit. 3. 3. Observ. No unregenerate person can truly love Observ. Such as are born again must needs love 1 Ioh. 3. 10. What Regeneration is 2 Cor. 5. 17. The Lord the author thereof See Deut. 29. 4. Psal. 51. 10. Ezek. 36. 26. Iohn 1. 13. 3. 5. Acts 11. 21. 1 Iohn 3. 9. Simile Acts 3. 10. Iohn 9. 8. 1 Tim. 4. 16. 1 Cor. 4. 1 Cor. 7. 16. Use. The Lords will the cause hereof Iam. 1. 18. Iohn 3. 16. Without regeneration all things else that we have are nothing Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Use 4. Use 5. Regeneration of absolute necessity Iohn 3. 3 5. Revel 21. 27. Mat. 5. 8. Col. 3. 9 10. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Rom. 8. 1. The effects of Regeneration See also the notes laid down 2 Cor. 7. 11. 1 Iohn 2. 29. 1 Pet. 2. 2. A Regenerate man is not the same he was before Gal. 2. 20. Use 1. Gal. 6. 8. Use 2. A Regenerate man groweth by degrees Use 1. Use 2. Why men grow no faster in goodness A Caveat for such as complain they do not thus grow See Wilson of Sanctification pag. 11. 12. There 's no perfection here in this life 1 Cor. 13. 9. Eph. 5. 27. Reasons hereof Rom. 7. Gal. 5. 17. Simil. Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Observ. Regeneration cometh not by nature See Iohn 3. 6. Psal. 51. 5. Iob 14. 4. Mat. 16. 17. 1 Ioh. 5. 18. Observ. Gods Spirit by the word doth alter and change mans heart 1 Iohn 3. 9. 5. 1. Iohn 3. 5. Use 1. Iam. 1. 18. Use 2. Use 3. Eph. 4. 30. Obser. Gods word is the instrumental cause of our conversion Rom. 6. 17. Ioh. 15. 3. Isa 11. 6 7. Ioh. 5. 25. God doth not always tye himself hereunto Luk. 16. 29 31 1 Cor. 2. 4 13. 2 Cor. 10. 4. Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Prov. 29. 18. Use 4. Use 5. The Ministers of the Word are appointed of God the instruments to convert souls 2 Cor. 5. 20. Use 1. Dan. 12. 3. 1 Pet. 5. 4. Use 2. Whence it cometh to pass that the Word worketh Regeneration Use 1. Heb. 4. 12. 2 Cor. 10. 4. Use 2. Psal. 103. 15. Wherein mans life may be compared to grass Mr. Midman at that time so kild Heb. 9. 27. Eccles. 1. 4. Use 1. Dan. 5. 22 23. Use 2. Use 3. How to be prepared for death Luke 21. 34. Use 4. Iam. 4. 13. Use 5. Eccles. 9. 10. Gal. 6. 10. Use 6. 2 King 2. 3 5. Exod. 4. 19. Matt. 2. 10. Use 7. Doct. The glory of a carnal man is but a vain thing Eph. 1. 8. 1 Cor. 2. 14. Rom. 1. 23. See Gen. 6. 5. Isa. 64. 6. Rom. 7. 18. 8. 7. Eph 2. 1. Mat. 5. 20. Use. Observ. Nothing in an unregenerate man can abide the Lords examination Doctr. Gods Word is the means whereby we may live for ever Iohn 5. 25. Prov. 29. 18. Use 1. Psal. 19. 10. 119 72 127. Psa. 147. 19 â—0 Use 2. Ioh 6 68. 1 Cor. 9. 2. Doct. The word by preaching is made the instrument of Regeneration Rom. 10. 14. 1 Cor. 1. 21. Acts 8 3â— See Neh. 8. 8. Use. Doct. The Word ought to be preached in every Congregation Use. Obser. The Word must be so preached as that the Ministers thereof may avouch it to be indeed the Word of God Use. 1 Pet. 4. 11. Isa. 55. 10. 11. The coherence of this Chapter with the former The sum of this Chapter The sum of the first three Verses Doctr. Regeneration and the love of sin cannot stand together Rom. 8. 1. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 13. 1. 2 Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Doctr. There 's no perfection to be attained here 1 Iohn 3. 9. 1. 11. Use 1. Luke 17. 10. Use 2. Rom. 7. 24 25. Simil. Doctr. To be a Christian is a work of great difficulty Luke 9. 23. Use 1. Use 2. Obs. Vnder those here named all other corruptions are included Col. 3. 5. Heb. 12. 1. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Use. Observ. Most of the corruptions here named are inward Iam. 1. 26. 1 Thess. 5. 23. Use 1. Use 2. The Author was absent at this time three weeks Obser. That 's naught which is forbidden in Gods Word Iohn 3. 4. Use. What malice is The difference between it and anger Eph. 4. 31. Col. 3. 8. Use 1. Eccles. 7. 9. Use 2. Mat. 5. â—3 2 Sam. 16. 11. Iob 1. 21. What we are to understand by guile Prov. 20. 14. Prov. 11. 1. 1 Thess. 4. 6. Object Sol. Object Sol. Object Sol. Prov. 12. 3. Matt. 6. 33. Obs. Guil is to be avoided as wel in small as great matters What 's here to be chiefly understood by hypocrisie What Envy is Gal. 5. 21. What we are to understand by evil speakings Iames 1. 26. See Iam. 3. 5. Psal. 120. 4. Doct. The Word of God cannot thrive in an unsanctified heart Use. Observ. Our desire towards the word must be earnest Iob 23. 12. Psal. 42. 1. 119. 20 103 111 227. Psal. 119. 98 99. 2 Tim. 3. 15 16. Iam. 1. 21. Use 1. Use 2. Prov. 2. 3. and 8. 17. Constant. Psal. 27. 4. Psal. 119. 20. Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Vnpartial Use. Obser. Ministers must have store of milk for their spiritual Children Mal. 2. 7. Obser. Ministers must have good store of love Acts 20. 31. 2 Tim. 4. 2. Obser. Ministers must have much patience 2 Tim. 2. 25. The Word why compared to milk Isa 55. 1. 1 Cor. 3. 2. Heb. 5. 12. Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Psalm 19. 10. Obs. Nothing sweeter to Gods children then the Word Obs. The Word is the common food of all Christians The Word why called sincere Use 1. Isa. 8. 20. 1 Pet. 4. 11. Psal. 119. 129 130. Use 2. Acts 11. 17. Why Christians are to desire after the Word Eph. 4. 11. 15. Use 1. Use 2. Acts 20. 32. Rom. 15. 14. 2 Peter 1. Doctr. Christians must daily grow in grace 1 Thess. 4. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 18. Rev. 2. 19. 2. 4. Use 1. What we are to understand by tasting Doctr. Such as finde the Word powerful for their salvation are the more desirous thereof and affectioned thereto Use 1. Use 2. Iohn 8. 47. 11. 27. Use 3. Obs. Christ is sweet to a Christian and sweetens all that he hath Use. Obser. Christ is every way bountiful to his Use. Wherein Christs bounty doth appear A comparison between the Temple of Ierusalem and that which Christ maketh of all that believe in him Christ why compared to a stone Obser. To believe in Christ which is to come to him is a great priviledge Object Sol. Ioh. 6. 35. Doctr. Christians must come to Christ. Reason 1. Reason 2. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Reason 3. Isa 55. 1. Use 1. Use 2. Iohn 6. 29. Obj. Sol. Luke
particulars implyed herein Gen. 31. 4. 1 King 5. 14. Gen. 21. 14. Reasons hereof Eph. 5. 25. Col. 3. 19. Use 1. Sundry sorts of husbands reproved 1 Sam. 25. 17. Eccles. 7. 9. Prov. 14. 29. Objections answered The 1. The 2. Gal. 6. 2. Iames 3. 17. The 3. Exod. 4. 14. Wives are the weaker vessels Reasons Use 1. Use 2. Simil. Use 3. Simil. Wives be no less heirs of the grace of life then their Husbands Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Husbands should pray with their wives Reasons Use. Psal. 14. 2. Whatsoever may interrupt our prayers is to be avoided Use. Simile See 1 Cor. 1. â—0 There must be between Christians unity in Religion 1 Cor. 3. 11. Iohn 14. 6. Prov. 23. 23. Iohn 17. 3. Reasons 1 King 12. 27. Who disagree from the truth in the foundation 1 Iohn 2. 23. Who holding the foundation do yet erre from the truth 1 Cor. 13. 9. Difference amongst our selves for matter of Ceremony Note The evils which ensue hereupon Differences amongst Christians about private opinions Mal. 2. 7. There must be also unity between us in our conversation Eph. 4. 2. Rom. 15. 5. Simil. Acts 4. 32. Eph. 4. 26. Isa. 11. 6. Psal. 133. 1. Gen. 13. 8. 2 Cor. 13. 11. Christians must be of like affection each to other Rom. 12. 15. Psal. 122. 6. Gal. 5. 21. Psal. 37. 1. Gal. 6. 2. Heb. 13. 3. 1 Cor. 12. 26. See Acts 9. 4. Neh. 1. 4. 2. 1 2 3 c. Use 1. Psal. 137. 7. Prov. 17. 5. Iob 31. 29. Pro. 24. 17 18. Use 2. Use 3. Amos 6. 4. That Christians may love one another What they are to do 2 Cor. 16. 14. What they must avoid Use 1. Use 2. Use 3. Gen. 13. 7. See 2 Thess. 1 2. What pity is We must pity our selves Use. Simile We must pity the souls of others Isa. 49. 23. Psal 78. 72. Rom. 13. 3 4. See Eze. 34. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 15. and 4. 2. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Eph. 6. 4. Reasons Psal. 103. 13. Iohn 3. 16. Phil. 2. 8. Luke 19. 41. Mat. 9. 36. See Mat. 16. 26. Use. 1 King 16. 26. Simile Exod. 21. 24. Iames 2. 13. See Ier. 20. 6. Hos. 4. 6. Matth. 5. 7. 1 Tim. 4. 16. Dan. 12. 8. 2 Tim. 4. 8. 2 Cor. 2. 15. We must pity the bodies of others See Isa. 58. 6. Luke 14. 13. Rom. 12. 15. Heb. 13. 3. Simil. Reasons Psal. 112. 9. Signs Use 1. 1 Iohn 3. 17. and 4. 20. Iames 1. 27. Prov. 21. 13. Matth 5. 7. Use 2. Luke 6. 36. Pro. 11. 24 25. Eccles. 11. 1. Acts 8. 2. Psal. 37. 26. Matth. 5. 7. and 25. 21. Use 3. Means conducing hereunto Luke 10. 33. We must be pitiful to our beasts Prov. 12. 10. Exod. 23. 4. Psal. 104. 21. and 147. 9. Deut. 25. 4. Exod. 20. 10. Use. What courtesie is and that Christians are to be courteous How it shews it self Rom. 16. 16. 1 Pet. 5. 14. Psal. 129. 8. Rom. 12. 10. Luke 14. 8. Ephes. 4. 2. Col. 3. 12. Num. 12. 3. Iohn 18. 23. 2 Sam. 15. 6. Use 1. 2 Sam. 15. 6. Christians must not revenge themselves on their enemies Lawful revenge on our selves On others Gods children in respect of their outward conversation must differ and be contrary to the wicked We must requite evil with good See Iohn 31. 16 17 18. Rom. 12. 20 2 1 Thess. 5. 1â— Mat. 5. 44. An Objection answered Another Objection answered Exod. 17. 14. Reasons why we are to requite evil with good Mat. 5. 45. Mat. 5. 46. Prov 15. 1. 1 Sam. 24. and 17. 2 Sam. 1. 24. See Psal. 35. 13 14. Acts 7. 60. Luke 23. 34. Use 1. 2 Sam. 9. 7. and 19. 38. Gen. 40. 23. Use 2. See Iohn 7. 7. and 10. 32. Whoso findes himself effectually called what will he not be willing to do for God Luke 9. 23. The excellaâ—â—cy and worth of effectual calling How to discern hereof Why many Christians are often unsetled herein The Word always perswades us to our good Christians are a blessed people Psal. 85. 8. Use. Why we ought to be patient and requite ill with good Psal. 34. 12. The parts herein considerable A patient and peaceable man shall live the longer and the quieter Psal. 140. 11. Isa. 29. 20. Gen. 16. 12. Use 1. Use 2. Life and long life are blessings of God which Gods children may desire Phil. 2. 27. Reasons An objection answered Why the godly are at sometimes taken away by death 1 Cor. 11. 30. 2 King 22. 19. Isa. 57. 1. Iob 21. 7. Long life unto the wicked might prove a blessing but doth not Phil. 1. 23. In what respect it may be lawful to desire to live Whence it is that most men are desirous to live long 1 Iohn 2. 15. Iob 14. 5. Use 1. 2. 3. 4. What we are to understand by good days In what respects days may be said to be good here In what and to whom evil Psal 94. 12. Hos. 6. 3. Mens days be usually evil Mans life short Good days are a blessing of God Deut 29. 9. Psal. 119. 165. Gen. 39. 2 23. 2 Sam. 5. 10. The wicked may live long yet have not good days Prosperity why denyed for the most part to Gods Children See Deut. 32. 15. 2 Chron. 12. 1. and 26. 16. Isa. 1. and 5. Prov. 1. 32. Isa. 5. 17. Use 1. See Deut. 8. 10. Iob 62. 9. Use 2. Whether we may pray for prosperity Gen. 28. 20. Prov. 30. 8. Mark 10. 23. Use 3. Whether we may pray for afflictions Whosoever would be happy here and hereafter must refrain from evil speaking Iames 1. 26. Rev. 21. 8. Use 1. Psal. 12. 4. Matth. 12. 34. See Prov. 10. 20. and 23. 33. Iam. 3. 6. Mat. 12. 36 37 See Iude 14 15 See of these examples in the Book of Martyrs Use 2. Means whereby to bridle the tongue Psal. 141. 3. Psal 39. 1. Reasons inducing thereto Iames 3. 3 4. Iames 3. 7. Mat. 12. 35. See Psal. 37. 30 31. We must abstain from such evils of the tongue as be close and covert Guile to be avoided in religion toward God Psal. 51 6. and 32. 2. Mat. 7. 21. Deut 5 28 29. Psal. 78. 36 37 In carriage towards men Acts 12. 22. Prov. 27. 14. Veritas odium parit Psal. 28. 3. Mat. 22. 16. Psal. 55. 21. Ier. 9. 8. See Downâ— on Psal. 15. Two objections answered Psal. 34. 13. Use. Amos 3. 6. Isa. 45. 7. What sort of evil is here meant Iam. 1. 17. 1 Iohn 3. 4. What the evil of sin is and that we must avoid it Reasons 1 Sam. 15. 23. Psal. 106. 29. Ier. 7. 19. Psal. 5. 4. Deut. 28. 15. Lev. 26. 14. Rom. 6. 23. The evil of sin worse then the evil of punishment Psal. 97. 10. Iob 1. 1. All sins are to be eschewed Mat. 12. 36. Of all persons At all times Eccles. 3. 2 c. Luke 1. 75. In all places With all the kindes
must settle 3. It teacheth us to search the Scripture laboring by all means that the Word of Christ may dwell in us plentifully that so we may be grounded If we hear God speaking in his Word we must sit down by it all mouthes must be stopt if not we must not be carried without it Again He alleageth the Old Testament as Christ and the other Apostles did for the Old was the same in substance with the New and of the same Authority Further In that he nameth not the place nor the Prophet it sheweth their skill and rebuketh our ignorance that have not the book of God clasped against us as in Popery but open if we can take our time for the place it self it s alleaged with some alteration of the words though not of the sence 1. He leaves out a word or two and takes that which fitteth his purpose 2. He turneth these words of the Prophet He that believeth shall not make haste into these He that believeth on him shall not be confounded The Prophet sets down the effect the Apostle the cause for unbelievers being ashamed it makes them run up and down in their misery for some other help seeing themselves disappointed and deceived The occasion of that promise there was to comfort the good in respect of the great threatnings against the bad and contemners namely that they should not be destroyed and cast off among the rest and that the wicked might not scorn them and think all Gods promises made to them fallen to the ground Behold This being a word to stir up attention implieth that What the Lord saith he doth He is true of his word the Almighty and who cannot be hindred He saith not Such a stone shall be laid but Behold I lay it whereby he confirms the good and puts them out of doubt who by reason of the threatnings were grown weak fearful and in doubt Here see our infidelity in Spiritual things especially if we see any things against us such was Zacharias So was not Abraham he looked not to carnal lets but rested on Gods Word had enough that God spake it so should we If we have any promise of Gods mouth we should be of good comfort and believe and not be dismaid at our sins and unworthiness Come unto me saith our Savior all ye that are weary and laden and I will refresh you c. What promise more comfortable and yet many seeing their sins and danger cannot be comforted and perswaded But we must give God the glory to believe him on his word and know that nothing can make him break promise or change his minde either any hinder him from performing what he hath promised I lay It s God that layes the Foundation of his Churches Salvation All the Men and Angels in the world cannot lay one stone in this building unto this Foundation Though God use the Ministery of his servants Men to this purpose yet its God that by his Spirit makes them fit and couples them hereto therefore much less could they lay this corner stone Paul saith he laid this Foundation By Preaching the same to the people not otherwise That Foundation which God had laid before the world and appointed to be Preached that he taught to the people and that was all he did If God gave Christ generally for his Church then for every humble soul that seeth his need of Christ and cometh with an heavy heart to him and desires him above all the world assuredly he will give him to such In Sion That hill in Jerusalem is put for the Church whereof it was a type and because the Gospel was first preached there Christ there revealed and from thence conveyed into all nations far and wide so that now by Gods mercy we have him no less preached unto us then the Jews had and have also our part in him as largely O unspeakable mercy A chief corner stone A chief stone a foundation stone This is the principal point in this first part of the Verse but of this on the fourth Verse where was shewed That he is not a stone as others be in the building but the foundation on which they are all built which sustains and holds them together there being no other foundation but he This the Papists overturn and that both in respect of his Kingly Prophetical and Priestly Office For his Kingly Office which is to rule over the consciences of his subjects by his Spirit and to have power to make Laws to binde their consciences they take it from him for with them the Pope may also make Laws of his to binde the conscience as much as any of Christs and doth and may repeal some of his at his pleasure For his Prophetical Office which is to be the onely Teacher of his Church and to reveal all his Fathers minde in the Books of the Prophets and Apostles this they take away by adding as if the Word were altogether imperfect unwritten Verities and mens Traditions which say they are of absolute necessity to be obeyed to Salvation For his Priestly they abolish both parts of it 1. His Sacrifice All sufficient and once offered on the Cross for all by their blasphemous Mass wherein they offer Christ daily as they say as a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the quick and the dead 2. His Intercession wherein they joyn many Saints with him What Salvation can there be for such le ts pray for and keep our selves far from them Elect Christ is chosen of God to the work of our Redemption and furnished for it therefore make we choyce of him for our portion wo to them that refuse him He that believeth on him shall not be confounded Hereby is meant a true particular justifying Faith Such as have this shall not be ashamed or seek at any time as confounded or deceived of sufficient help and Salvation therefore he shall never be put to make haste to seek any other The true Believer shall never be confounded but finde enough in Christ to satisfie him to the full to deliver him from all evil and make him partaker of all Happiness Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption and enough to make his minde peaceable and quiet and to stablish him against all that his own conscience or any yea the Devil himself can lay to his charge but he findes enough to answer all at large As Thou art a sinner and hast deserved Damnation and God is just R. I grant all but I have a surety able enough who hath born all Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It s God that justifieth c. His heart is fixed he believeth in the Lord In his life he hath that wherein he may quiet himself and never be to seek but may draw new life and grace from Christ to enable him to
hold on In his death he shall not be comfortless but finde enough in Christ to carry him to heaven though through the gates of death He knoweth whom he hath believed At the day of Judgement he shall not be ashamed but lift up his head with great joy when he shall see Christ coming in great glory and power to save all them that have embraced him and to receive them into the glory which he hath prepared for them then shall he be our Judge who hath been our Surety and Savior Contrarily they that believe not in Christ are never in quiet as the Papists that hope to be saved partly by Christ and partly by Works are often even the wisest of them distracted and cannot tell when they have done enough to rest in and so are ever suspitious and doubtful tost to and fro as one upon a ship mast So the wicked among our selves that believe not in Christ though some securely flatter themselves are for the most part doubtful having ever and anon thoughts that all is not well and so not knowing what shall become of them and though they love their lusts so well that they will not part from them for Christ yet often do their thoughts accuse them of their Whoredoms Deceits wicked Courses their hearts misgive them and so indeed their lives be as if one should lie in a bed too strait and the clothes too short and so they cannot sleep whereas he that is assured of his happiness and his heart witnesses his upright care to obey Gods will his bed and clothes be large enough he sleeps quietly and rests on a soft pillow his good conscience In the hour of death they are fearful disquieted and in death they are confounded when they see the Devil ready to carry their souls to hell At the day of Judgement how will the Jews and Turks that altogether reject Christ be ashamed and confounded when they shall finde that their imagined Christ and Mahomet hath deceived them and led them into a false hope O what a case will they be in when they shall see the true Christ whom they have rejected come to judge them O what wailing will there be how will they run up and down and what would they not do if they knew any way to help themselves then shall they finde it too late to sue to him Then will they sue to the hills to fall upon them and the mountains to cover them a poor request which yet shall not be granted them So all wicked men among us that have not kissed the Son but broke his bands and cast his cords from them that have had him offered to them but have not embraced him nor believed in him chusing rather to continue in their lusts then to have their part in him their condition is fearful O that all would embrace Christ whilst they may who else shall have sorrow and shame for their portion This phrase also implyeth That Believers can never fall away wholly nor finally as the Papists teach for then they might come to be ashamed They may be shaken for the tryal and strengthening of their Faith but overcomed they cannot be by all the gates of Hell Verse 7. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner Verse 8. And a stone of stumbling and rock of offence even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed NOw that which the Apostle had cited out of the Prophet and was indefinitely spoken of all and every one he comes to apply particularly to the Jews that he wrote unto both believers and unbelievers shewing the happy state of the one and the miserable condition of the other one and the same Christ being to them diverse To Believers precious and fruitful to Salvation and all good but to the unbelievers and disobedient a stone to stumble at c. though not of his own Nature yet through their infidelity so that they should not onely have no benefit by him but destruction stumbling at the word that foretold of him and now testified of him But least any should wonder at this madness in men the cause is set down that as God ordained some to life and so to embrace Christ unto Salvation so some others to stumble against him to their ruine Besides this he also removes a common and great scandal and log out of the weak and common peoples way and that was that whereas he had spoken so much of Christ they could not see him to be such a one and their learned Doctors and Rabbies Scribes and Pharisees High Priests and Elders they could no way think well of him they judged him a deceiver and pursued him also which they would never have done if he had been the Savior and corner stone as you speak c. But for this faith the Apostle If it were a new thing that you never had had warning of it were somewhat but this is no other then was foretold in Davids time so long ago therefore it needs not seem strange to you yet their strugling was in vain for in despite of them he was made the head stone of the corner This had been indeed a great temptation if they had been to consult onely with reason For what should they have thought but as they were taught and learned of their gave Teachers of whom that People had a very great and high opinion But considering Gods decree and that he had foretold it should be thus and that God would save his Church by such a way that worldly wise men thought not of and would effect his purpose not onely without the help but even against the will of the great men of the world it could not much trouble them And in that the Apostle doth apply that which was indifinitely said of all to particular persons we may learn how to use the promises of God laid down in Scripture even to endeavor to apply them to our selves particularly This is the nature of true Faith It s but a cold and dead thing to believe those things in general to be true which Hypocrites yea Devils do but this to make them ours as David My Lord My Castle My Refuge and Job My Redeemer and Thomas My Lord and my God and Paul Who loved me and gave himself for me is that we must labor for This particular Faith is that which is to Salvation signified by eating and drinking and Faith is compared to an hand and in our Creed every one of us is particularly bound from our hearts to say I believe How may we come to this particular perswasion A person humbled and seeking earnestly God sends his Spirit to witness to his of the same wherewith that it may appear that it s no presumption nor deceiveable
as well as man he both endured the infinite wrath of God and besides his person was of such infinite worth as gave such value to his sufferings as fully satisfied the justice of God 1. This confutes the Papists who make Christs sufferings imperfect two ways namely by teaching that we our selves must suffer the punishment of our sins hence are all their masses penances pilgrimages alms-deeds and charitable Works to take away the punishment of their sins after Baptism and by their renewing of Christs Sacrifice in the Mass which is as they say a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the quick and dead Their distinction of bloody and unbloody is but a shift 2. This is a wonderful comfort to all Gods children that our debt is so fully dischaarged that there 's nothing remaining for us to suffer Thus of the first The second concerneth the quality of the person which suffered He was that just one the Lamb of God which was undefiled and without spot conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin had he not been such a one he could not have been our Savior Though he was innocent yet were our sins imputed to him and though we have not suffered neither of our selves have Righteousness yet as verily as he had pain and sorrow we shall have mercy and Salvation through him what can be more comfortable Thus of the second The third concerneth the persons for whom he suffered The unjust not the Devil nor Reprobates but for the Elect which yet are by nature unjust and wretched servants of sin and children of wrath as well as others He hath suffered for them that be never so unjust provided they feel their misery and have course unto him for help 1. Then for them that be in great distress for their sins and think they be so many and so great that they cannot or shall not be forgiven let them be comforted Christ came to dye for the unjust to call sinners to repentance to seek and save that which was lost If being weary you will come unto him as he invite you you shall be refreshed Though their sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Paul was a great sinner yet forgiven 2. Let such as bad as they be yet come to Christ and be truly humbled He came to save such as thou art as Mary Magdalene Zacheus the Jaylor and such others His mercy on them may put thee in hope and provoke thee to seek unto him Thus of the third The fourth Why he suffered for sins for our sins to take them away for they onely are our wo our sins caused all Christs sorrow and his sorrow is our happiness Thus of the fourth The fifth To what end he suffered that he might bring us to God Ever since Adams fall we are gone from God and born strangers nay enemies to God and therefore further and and further off from God and are gone to the Devil indeed Now Christ by his death reconciles us to God and him to us and makes a blessed peace so as we may look up to him as to our Father and come into his presence with comfort He also gives us grace by his holy Spirit to be renewed sanctified and so to do works pleasing unto God and when we dye brings our souls to God as afterwards possesseth both body and soul of Heaven 1. Then how infinitely are we bound to God how welcome should Christ Jesus be to us all One would think all should flock unto him for as none are with God but such as came by him so neither shall there be All that mourn for their sins come to him believe in him and obey him he will bring them to God such as continue in their enmity against God shall for ever be separated from him Many hope to go to God that were never reconciled to him through Christ nor sought after it but it s as possible for a dog for the Devil to enter into Heaven as for us without being reconciled to God by faith in Christ Is it not lamentable that Christ should have so few that enquire and search after him nay that reject him being offered again and again 2. How welcome faithful Ministers should be to the world The worst hurt we wish you is but to bring you to God we are appointed Christs instruments herein we must Preach him and perswade you to embrace and believe in him by whom you may be brought unto God we have a worthy task and work and so must not either be idle or by false teaching and wicked living drive you from Christ but be faithful that your Salvation may be our Crown yet of all persons and kindes of people the world thinks we may be best spared and are unto most of all others most unwelcome But not alone Ministers but even every private man must help men to God as much as he can They that by vile counsel bad example or otherwise drive men from him are not Christs but the Devils instruments and Factors Thus of Christs sufferings Being put to death in the flesh This clause concerneth his death as the following his resurrection He was put to death concerning his Humane nature for as for his Godhead it could not dye and he was quickned and raised again by his Divinity and Godhead By flesh is meant his whole Humane Nature as in the following By Spirit his Divine Nature Our Savior suffered not onely in body and soul things intollerable but he also dyed gave up the ghost as all the Evangelists set down and other Scriptures testifie as they also that speak of Christs blood of his offering himself a Sacrifice for our sins of his bearing our sins on his Body on the Tree and the like This was prefigured of all the Sacrifices of the Old Law The Prophets also foretold that he should be slain Neither could it have been otherwise or otherwise he been a Savior for us for our sins deserved death and God had pronounced that death should be the reward thereof This his death was voluntary accursed as we had deserved it for our sins and for a common good Which meets with that wicked opinion of the Jews that neither think it voluntary nor that it is a propitiatory Sacrifice for sin as it is indeed and wherein our happiness lyeth and without which we must all have perished for ever The benefits ensuing to us hereby are divers 1. We are delivered hereby from all kindes of evil from the first and second death and all forerunners of both and from our sins the cause of all It s the blood of Christ that cleanseth all our sins So from all Spiritual enemies See Luke 1. 71 74. Col. 2. 15. Heb. 2. 14. 1 John 3. 8. So from the second death Rom.
will but either will live in all their sins or onely yid in what they list and so trample the precious blood of Christ undeâ—â—eir feet and despise the gracious offer of mercy One would think thâ—very man hearing such a gracious voice and offer of a Savior shâ—ld flie to it and that it should suffer violence every one saying O â—me embrace it let me as they did at the Pool of Bethesdai O â—t at the stirring of the water some might step in There might bâ—ne at once but here if an hundred would they should all be closed 2. O then me your benefit of the Gospel by yielding obedience thereto Belie and repent and then happy are ye that ever ye heard else you shall câ—t the time that ever you heard the Gospel O ungrateful world unhappy company It will vex them and encrease their torment â—ee that mercy was offered so often and yet they like woful caytiffs despise the same to obey the Gospel is the note of a good christian let appear by thy hearty obedience thereto that thou art such a one Verse 18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear HE proceeds still in the foregoing reason taken from the comparison between the good and the wicked whereof the former though they have many troubles and afflictions yet they shall in the end be eternally blessed and saved in Heaven though with some difficulty the latter though they flourish and prosper for a while and many of them persecute the former yet they shall end their life with misery that cannot be expressed and have a fearful appearance before God on the last day If the righteous Servants of God get hardly to Heaven the wicked how glorious soever in this world shall never be able to appear in Judgement before God but in a most fearful maner which is not set down by a bare affirmation but by way of interogation for the greater force where there is comfort for Gods Children notwithstanding their troubles and the wickeds prosperity they shall be saved and terror for the wicked notwithstanding all their present jollity their end shall be fearful Speak we first of the position The righteous are scarcely saved then of the comparison if it be so where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear If the righteous Hereby we are to understand not such as be perfectly righteous in themselves and without sin for if there be any such as there is none they should not scarcely and with difficulty be saved but according to that do this and live easily and without stop Even the most perfect have not been without their own failings there was impatience in Job infidelity in Zachary c. not meant the righteous in their own conceits for these shall never be saved as for whom Christ came not nor such as having attained some common gifts as of knowledge to profess to reform some things c. seem to themselves and others righteous but yet are not so truly but as the seed sown on the stony ground and the house built on the sand but such as be truly righteous though not perfectly yet in some respect perfectly to namely 1. By the righteousness of Christ Jesus imputed unto them by Faith They that have their sins pardoned in his death and his righteousness imputed to them are truly righteous yea and perfectly too as ever they shall be in heaven 2. By inherent righteousness wrought in the hearts of Gods Children and Believers by the Spirit of Sanctification whereby they be sanctified throughout though not perfectly yet those God vouchsafeth to call righteous though they be but so in part and have remnants of corruption abiding in them yet they are so called from the better part as an heap of corn that lies on the floor though there be chaff in it and that much 3. For that they endeavor and daily labor after more righteousness as one is called a Schollar or by the name of the trade he is entred into though happily he can do but a little onely endeavors for skill and knowledge therein Of which elswhere 1. This setteth out the exceeding goodness and mercy of God that vouchsafeth thus to come and call such poor and sinful creatures as we be pestred with such a deal of blindeness and so manifest corruptions yet seeing he seeth an heart in us to hate them and suppress them he will not reckon of us after them and though we have but a little grace yet because it is true and of his own working that we have and that we would fain have more he accounts of us according to that we would be and not that we are 2. This is an exceeding comfort to Gods true Servants can we believe Christs righteousness imputed to us and feel we an universal and true change in us then may we rejoyce God calls us by glorious names Saints Holy ones Righteous let us not then be dismaid at our imperfections or corruptions which we labor to mortifie le ts not say with some because of them we are none of the Lords we have such sinful hearts c. Neither let us suffer the Devil to pluck our Crown from us or rob us of our comfort making us believe that we be none of the Lords as some few be thus in danger especially at first though many Christians make too light of their sins as long as God speaks so graciously let us not believe what Satan our adversary saith onely let us care to grow more and more in grace 3. This rebuketh those wretched mockers that reproach the Servants of God that labor to please God and dare not do as they O you be of the righteous you be so righteous c. Is not this right like Ishmaels mocking of Isaac O you be the Son of the promise you are the dainty one c. Such shall be shut out with Ishmael unless by repentance they prevent it Why say you thus because you think it to good a name for them Is thine eye evil because Gods is good what hast thou to do seeing God calls them so or is it because thou wouldst not have them so Yes but if thou beest not also so thou shalt never inherit the Kingdom of Heaven Scarcely be saved Hereby is not meant rarely or that but a few righteous ones shall be saved For whosoever believeth shall be saved and to every one that doth good shall be glory and honor and immortality and There is no condemnation to them or any of them that are in Christ Jesus Nor is it meant that there will be difficulty at the day of Judgement whether they should pass or no have or miss Salvation no for God knoweth who be his and their names be all written in the Book of Life and if they were righteous here and had the Spirit the seal of their Redemption and earnest of their Inheritance as they
pass to it at death so shall they have no stop at the day of judgement Among earthly Judges when a cause hath gone current on a mans side a great while yet at last either by corruption of Jury or Judge or by some evidence come to light not seen before all may be dasht and turn'd the other way It shall not be so at Gods judgement seat there will be question made of the damnation of some but no question made of the salvation of any of the godly But the difficulty is in this life it s an hard thing for a man to get to heaven called therefore a Straight gate and Narrow way a hard thing to come to be a Christian a converted person and an hard thing to continue therein and grow forward God hath much ado to bring us to grace and then much ado to hold us therein as he had a great deal ado to get his people out of Egypt and into Canaan sometimes themselves by murmuring lingering c. and sometimes others as Pharaoh the Red-sea c. proving hinderances thereto so hath he to get one of us out of the bondage of the Devil out of the Egypt of sin The Devil holds the world hinders yea our own wretched nature is not willing to come out What a stir hath he how many Sermons Threatnings Promises secret gripes of Conscience Warnings of the Spirit purposes to come out and yet keep in still ere we will yield yea how is God fain almost to pull us out by some crosses or sharp afflictions as the Angels pulled Lot out of Sodom how hardly are we throughly humbled for our sins when cast down how hardly comforted when we have got it how hardly do we keep it what a stir with our hearts to leave our old courses and take new and when we have begun yet what ado to hold out what revolting and backsliding hearts have we ready to wax cold and to linger after our old lusts so hard it is to do any good duty well The Devil like Pharaoh pursueth us and labors by all means possible to hinder us from all good altogether or from the right performance of it so also to draw us to all evil Then the world like Pharaohs Soldiers labors to hinder us by their ill example by ill counsel by vails of profits and pleasures and if these not by reproaches and troubles that it will raise up Our own Nature is worst of all as having a lingering after our old sins as the Israelites after the fleshy pots of Egypt sometimes we think like them we shall never hold out there be such lets in the way high walls and Anakims c. so that we get forward hardly as a man that were to go up a steep hill and had three great weights hung at his back so that we have such continual need of the Word Sacraments Prayer Meditation Conference Watchfulness that unless hereby we wax cold and grow out of order nay notwithstanding all these yet what ado to keep our hearts and lives in order and our selves within compass but we slip and stumble and grieve and up again and down again yea if the Lord to all these means should not adde some one or other affliction it would be yet more hard The Lord is fain to pull us with that strong cord also and this is chiefly meant here they are scarcely saved even because they are forced to be brought through many troubles so that as a man that is to climb such a steep hill as he cannot fasten his feet but is fain to get Daggers in his hands and sticking them into the ground c. may be said hardly to get up and as when two Armies fight for a Town one while one part prevails another while the other at last the better side prevails but notwithout much pains many wounds shrewd blows and continual labor we may say They got the Town hardly the like may be said in this particular Who knoweth not the truth hereof in his own experience how hardly canst thou be humbled how hardly drawn to renounce thy lusts how art thou fain to wrestle before thou canst do any good what continual need hast thou of prayer good company c. yea who knowing any thing seeth not he hath need of his crosses and that it was good for him that he was afflicted 1. This crosseth the most gross and yet most common conceit of the world that its an easie matter to be saved that there 's no need of such preciseness but that if men mean well God will be content and though one have lived badly yet at what time soever they repent for which a quarter of an hour is enough it shall be well with them and hence it is that the Word and our Preaching is of such small account and that so few take any pains to be saved but take pains for the belly and back and to grow rich c. Ignorant persons look not out but content themselves with a blinde good meaning without any part of a good life so prophane persons so worldlings so civil ones Though the Scripture requires us to labor strive give all diligence study seek yet will not they take any pains nay not onely so but they laugh and gibe at them that labor herein as fools or idle persons What art thou woful wretch that darest cross the Lord so directly He saith It s a strait way and few finde it and to this end bids Strive Thou sayest it s no such matter If it were as thou dotest Christ might not onely have spared those speeches but indeed the whole Scriptures for what use of any but to bid people live as they list and at last cry God mercy and all is well No God must make new Scriptures and chalk a new way to Heaven ere ever thou shalt finde that thou lookest for But what art thou that neither wiltst take pains to save thine own soul nor canst be content that others should Dost thou think that they be idle persons that take pains to hear the word O they could follow the world and that too hard but that they know one thing is needful Could they not sit at home in their chairs or keep their beds as well as rise and toil c. but that they know that they cannot so get Heaven but that they have need to use all means and that little enough though thou seest no such thing Indeed to lead a careless life to do good if it come in the way and if ill come in the way to be as fit for that c. a few Sermons and little hearing may serve for such a life but this is not the way to get Heaven If ever thou wouldst be saved thou must change thy minde and practice and believe the Scriptures that its a strait way and accordingly bend thy self to begin to take pains to see and confess thy sins to labor for faith to turn