justice and judgment and so opened to him a way that he might run head-long to his own utter ruine and destruction So God confounds his implacable enemies two ways here 1. By hardness of heart which ariseth as we said before when God with-draweth His Grace from a man and leaveth him to himself so as he goeth on from sin to sin and never repenteth to the last gasp And we must esteem of it as a most fearful and terrible judgment of God for when the heart is possessed therewith it becomes so flinty and rebellious that a man will never relent or turn to God This was manifest in Pharaoh for though God sent most grievous plagues upon him and all the Land of Egypt yet would he not submit or humble himself save only for a fit while the hand of God was so heavy upon him for when the hand of God was removed he returned to his former obstinacy wherein he persisted until he was drowned in the red Sea And this judgment of God of hardness of heart is the more fearful because when a man is in the midst of all misery he feels no misery 2. God confounds His enemies as by hardness of heart so by final desperation I say final because all kind of desperation is not evil for a man may despair of himself and of his own power in the matter of Salvation which tends to his everlasting comfort But final desperation is when a man utterly despairs of the pardon of his sins and of everlasting life Examples we have in Saul that slew himself in Achitophel and Judas that hanged themselves c. This sin of desperation is caused thus so many sins as thou committest without repentance so many wounds thou givest to thine own soul and in life or death God will make thee to feel the smart of it and the weight of them all whereby the soul sinks down to the gulph of despair without recovery The sins which thou committest lye at the door of thy heart though thou feel them not as God said unto Cain Gen. 4. 7. sin lyeth at the door and if thou dost not prevent them by speedy and timely repentance God will make thee to feel them once before thou dyest and raise up such terrours in thy Conscience that thou shalt think thy self to be in Hell before thou art there They that were sent from the chief Priests c. to apprehend Christ though He had acknowledged I am He and they were astonished and fell to the ground and He had miraculously healed Joh. 18. 12. Malchus his ear yet for all though they had seen his wonderful power both in word and deed they proceed in malice against Him and bind Him as a Malefactor In this we note what a fearful sin hardness of heart is The danger whereof appears in this that if a man be possessed with it there is nothing that can stay or daunt him in his wicked proceedings no not the powerful words and deeds of our Saviour Himself And indeed among all God's judgments there is none more fearful than this of hardness of heart and yet how rife is it among us even in these our days For it is very evident that the more men are taught the Doctrine of Gods Law and Gospel the more hard and senseless are their hearts like unto an anvil the more it is beaten upon with the iron hammer the harder it is So that that denunciation against the Jews Acts 28. 26 27. is fulfilled in them It is such a terrible judgment of God into which when a man is fallen he feels neither pain nor grief Therefore we have cause with fear and trembling to look into it lest it take such hold of us that we be past all hopes of recovery Sin is a deceitful thing and custom in sin brings hardness of heart therefore read that Heb. 3. 13. and Rom. 2. 5. Let us bewail and be humbled for our hardness of heart whereby we are hindered from knowing and acknowledging God aright and from discerning His glory and Majesty from acknowledging God's judgments or our own sins dreaming we are safe from God's vengeance and such perils and miseries which arise from sin whereas all those out of Christ and in this estate have nothing stands between them and vengeance EXERCITATION THE TENTH Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among his people Six days may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest holiness to the Lord. Whosoever doth any work in the Sabbath-day he shall surely be put to death Wherefore the Children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh He rested Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy HEre we have the Commandment of God for the strict observation of the Sabbath-day No one Commandment so often iterated or so much pressed This Commandment requireth at the hand of every man one day of seven in every week to be set a-part unto a holy rest and requireth all persons to separate themselves from their ordinary labour and all other exercises to God's Service alone on that day that so being severed from their worldly businesses and all the works of their Labours and Callings concerning this Nehem. 13. 15. 22. life they may wholly attend to the Worship of God alone wholly to separate themselves to the Worship and Service of God that they may with more freedom of Spirit perform the same If Adam in his perfection had need of this holy day as it was first enjoyned in the state of innocency much more Gen. 2. 2 3. have we To teach man from time to time on the Sabbath-day to withdraw himself from the cares and labours of this life to apply himself in freedom and tranquillity of mind to the meditations and actions of a spiritual life Q. But some will say this fourth Commandment is ceremonial and so it is taken away by the death of Christ A. I answer No but it is constantly and perpetually to be observed 1. For it is placed in the number of the ten Commandments which are perpetual otherwise the Moral Law should consist but of nine which is contrary to God's Word And He declared unto Deut. 4. 13. you His covenant which He commanded you to perform even ten Commandments 2. Because this fourth Commandment among the rest and in the middle of them as a Diamond in a ring was written
reference to the Soul our duty is to arm our selves against the fear of death as not thinking on the paâ—gs of death which Christ hath sweetned and sanctified to all His but upon that blessed estate that is enjoyed after death And look upon death not as it is seâ— forth in the Law so it is a curse but as it is set forth in the Gospel so it is an entrance into Heaven consider also what God hath promised to the death of the Rev. 14. 13. righteous Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them As we die in the Lord both our Bodies and Souls are really joyned to Christ as it is expressed in the Covenant of Grace and though death make a separation of soul and body yet neither of them are sever'd from Christ our mystical union and conjunction with Christ our Head endures for ever c. God as He Isa 43. 2. is present with us in our sickness so especially will He be with us at our Death when the holy Angels are especially also present with us ready to carry the soul into heaven 2. In reference to the body our duty is To seek to preserve life to recover health as by Diet Physick that is such lawful means and worthy instruments called thereunto and this God requires of us to do 3. Concerning our Neighbour our duty is Reconciliation where any difference is forgiving all men and desiring to be forgiven by them serting our Families in order making our Will which indeed much rather should be in the time of our best health 1 Kings 2. 2. 1 Chron. 28. 9. Gen. 18 19. charging those of our Family to learn believe and obey the true Religion c. Thus let us strive to honour God dying as well as living Now Secondly of the second part 2dly bâ—haviâ—â— Death which is a right behaviour and disposition in Death which is a religious and holy behaviour especially towards God when we are nearer the agonie and pangs of death This religious behaviour contains Three especial duties 1. To Dye in or by Faith relying on Gods special love and mercy iâ— Christ As the Israelites stung with the Num. 21. 8 9. fiery Serpents looked to the brazen Serpent and were cured So we when we find death to draw near and his fiery sting to sting and pierce our hearts then let us fix the eye of a true and lively Faith upon Jesus Christ the true brazen Serpent lifted up and crucifi'd upon the Cross for our sins and for mine in particular and so by death we shall Joh. 3. 14 15 never perish but have everlasting life 2dly To dye in obedience to God As we must live in obedience to God's Cammandments so must we dye be ready willing to go out of the world whensoever God calls us and that withour murmuring or repining Imitating our blessed Saviour who said Father not my will but Thy will be Mat. 26. 39. done 3dly The last duty is To resign and render up our Souls into the hands of God as the most faithful keeper So did our Saviour in the very pangs of death when the dissolution of soul Luk. 23. 46. and body drew on He said Father into Thy hands I commit My Spirit and so gave up the Ghost So Stephen when he Acts 7. 59. was ston'd to death said Lord Jesus receive my spirit And so being dead Joh. 11. 11. Acts 7. 60. 1 Thes 4. 13. sob 7. 21. we are said to sleep which is by a Synechdoche part for the whole For the body only lyes in the earth Now I shall sleep in the dust that is my body only Let us then not fear death Christ hath taken away the sting of it from all true believers He hath sweetned it unto us and made it only a passage to our Fathers house And I saw the dead small and great stand before God that is all without exception shall personally appear before God and come to Judgment of what degree rank estate or condition soever whether Emperours Kings Princes or Beggars then there will be no distinction of persons we must all nakedly appear before this Tribunal we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ That every 2 Cor. 5. 10. one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Observe the placing of the words small and great the small are put before the great to shew that there will be then no distinction of persons as I said before but all must promiscuously appear before God Then the high and great wicked ones who here through the pride of their countenance will not seek after God God was not in Psal 10. 4. all their thoughts except to swear by His Name or to curse God dam me but rather they think on their father Joh. 8. 44. Psal 2. 3. Jer. 5. 5. the Devil whose works they do and drink healths to him and wish the Devil take them so running on in the practice of all wickedness that no cords or bonds will hold them They altogether break the yoke and burst the bonds All Laws both Divine and Humane they trample under foot But then when the holy Angels shall most powerfully gather together from all quarters of the Earth and Sea all men and set them before the Judg even Jesus Christ from whose faâ—e the heaven Rev. 20. 11. 6. 14 15. 16. and the earth do â—ly away c. denoting the terror and Majesty of the Judg Himself when there shall be such a conclusion of all things Then those high ruffing Gallants will strive to hide themselves in Caves and Rocks of the mountains and cry to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that setteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. But all in vain for there is no hiding-place but all must appear and Heb. 4. 13. that before Him before whom all things are naked and open and so must be judged according to their works Which brings us to the Second Head that is Judgment I need not prove that there shall be 2. Judgment a Judgment although there are several reasons for it besides the dictates of our own Consciences it is an Article of our Faith And many places both in the Old and also in the New-Testament confirm it For brevity sake I will only cite the Texts and leave them to be read out of the Bible Read Dan. 7. 9 10. Jude 14. 15. Christ's Sermon in Matthew 24 25 Chapters Acts 17. 31. and 1 Thes 4. 16. Heb. â— 27. Now next to speak what this last Judgment is In the end of the world Christ the What is this Judgment Judg shall descend from Heaven in the Clouds in the Glory and Majesty of His Father with His holy Angels and all men shall
complaint for want of glory nor of envying others that have more Christ after the day of Judgment shall remain King for ever for He shall not so deliver up the Kingdom to His Father 1 Cor. 15. 24. that He shall cease to reign But that He may represent to His Father that His Kingdom is compleat and shall remain so for ever The meaning of those words is thus when Christ as Mediator hath been established King of the whole World but especially of His Church to gather together govern and bring unto His Father all His Elect and to destroy His enemies shall have brought His work to an end and so deliver up the Kingdom to His Father that as verse 28. God may be all in all that is the Father with the Son and Holy Ghost in Unity of Essence and Glory shall begin to reign immediately over His Church in a manner altogether new namely by Himself without any outward means without the work of Angels or Men Ecclesiastical or Political Orders as it is in this world and likewise without any adversaries or oppositions filling all His with His light love life and glory Which indeed will not a whit disannul Christs Kingdom but only change the meaner form thereof into a more sublime majestical glorious and most perfect form That God may be all in all that is that God the whole blessed Trinity may immediately and absolutely work fully in all the Elect who shall then be perfectly united unto God and that He may Possess Govern and Rule them for ever Now to speak a little where these glorious mansions are in Heaven Philosophers speak of ten Heavens but we shall wave that and speak according to Scripture-phrase and so there are three Heavens 3 Heavens The first is all that whole space from the earth to the sphere of the Moon where the birds flie therefore they are called the folws of Heaven and whence Mat. 6. 26. the rain hail and snow thunder and lightning wind and other Meteors do descend So God opened the Windows Gen. 7. 11. Deut. 28. 12. of Heaven and poured down rain upon the earth The second Heaven is and consists of all those visible Orbs where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or whole expansion is called the Firmament Gen. 1. 14. 15. Gen. 1. 8. and God called the firmament Heaven and in this God hath placed the Sun Moon and other Stars which are called in Scripture the Stars of Heaven Num. 3. 16. The third Heaven is that where God is said especially to dwell whither Christ ascended whither St. Paul in a 2 Cor. 12. 2. rapture was caught up into this third Heaven and where all the blessed ones shall be for ever This is the Heaven whereof we now speak Objection But some may ask Where the Soul is when it goeth out of the body and in what condition the Soul lives being separate from the body until the day of Judgment The Papists feign a Purgatory that Solution they may be purged from their sins which is contrary to the Scripture For the Scripture teacheth us that not the sire of Purgatory after this life of which there is no mention made in Scripture but the blood of Christ laid hold on and applied by a lively faith while we are here in this life doth cleanse our souls from all sin And 1 John 1. 7. that the souls of the faithful after death are not thrust into a place of torment but that they are gathered unto Christ into Abrahams bosome The meaning Luk. 16. 23. of into Abrahams bosome is thus it is the gesture of a good Father towards his little and tender Children to cherish them in his bosome The souls of the faithful presently after their departure out of the body are carry'd by the Angels up into heaven into the communion of all true believers of whom Abraham was the Titular Father and therefore called the Father of the faithful Rom. 4. 16 I say That presently after death the soul appears before God to Judgment Eccl. 12. 7. either to be gathered into the Mansions of the blessed or to be cast into Hell into the state of the damned from whence there is no redemption and then truly are tormented in those infernal flames but yet are reserved for greater torments against the last Day when soul and body shall be joyned together again And for this the Scripture is very clear So our Saviour said Father into Thy hands I commit my Spirit Luk. 23. 46. Stephen at his death kneeled down and said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Acts 7. 59. Phil. 1. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 8 Paul desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Therefore not in Purgatory So the faithful are desirous and willing to be absent from the body that they may be present with the Lord. And this is the last Article of Faith as the Crown of all I believe the life everlasting or that there is an everlasting life which holds out these three things 1. I believe that after this life there shall be another life in which all the true members of the Church shall be glorifi'd and shall praise God for ever and ever 2. I believe that I am a member of this Church and so shall be a partaker of everlasting life 3. That in this life I have by Faith the beginning of everlasting life For Christ said He that believeth in Me Joh. 3. 36. hath everlasting life So this profit and comfort hence redoundeth unto me that in and through Christ I am justifi'd before God and am an heir of everlasting life Q. Shall we know each other and our Relations in heaven A. Mark the saying of the Apostle Henceforth know we no man after the 2 Cor. 5. 16. flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceâ—orth know we Him no more that is not with an affection meerly humane civil and natural but wholly with a Divine and spiritual affection befitting the state of glory Having premised this I answer in this Syllogism We shall enjoy in heaven every good thing and comfortable gift which may any way increase or add to our joy and happiness But meeting in heaven with our old dear Christian friends knowing of them and enjoying them never to part more either with them or all other the glorious Inhabitants in those heavenly Mansions will ravish us with sweetest delight Therefore we shall know one another in heaven nay our minds being abundantly enlightned with all wisdom and knowledg we shall be able to know not only those holy persons of our former relation or acquaintance but also such as we never knew before in the flesh even all the faithful which ever were are or shall be We shall be able then to say This was Abraham Isaac or Jacob Samuel David c. This was my Father Mother this was my child c. This was he
degrees of it are four Labour to dye well two things requisite thereunto 1. Preparation before death 2. A right behaviour in death What is preparation before death Preparation twofold 1. General 2 Particular and that 1. In reference to God 2. Our selves 3. Our Neighbour 2. A right behaviour in death and that in three particulars 2. Of Judgment What it is and that in six particulars When it shall be Four Reasons why the time is concealed Judgment is twofold 1. Particular presently after death 2. General at the last day Difference between the resurrection of the Elect and Reprobates in four things What is meant by the books shall be opened and what by the book of life The act of judgment performed two ways 1. By Examination 2. By pronouncing sentence Two differences between the examination of the Elect and the Reprobates and other things about the administration of it Four Reasons why this last judgment must be Who the Judg is 3. Of Hell Seven Epithites of the place of the damned in Scripture Five acceptations of hell Adireful representation of hell Three Reasons for it Of the punishment of loss and the punishment of sence An exhortation to labour to avoid it 4. Of Heaven What that eternal blessed life is The variety of heavenly joys in four things The three Scriptural Heavens described What is meant by Abraham's bosome The sum of the last Article of our faith in three things Whether we shall know each other in Heaven Proved affirmatively by six Arguments An exhortation to live the life of Grace here that we may live the life of Glory hereafter Books very lately Printed for Edw. Brewster at the sign of the Crane in Paul's Church-yard 1676. 1. THe Apostolical History containing the Acts Labours Travels Sermons Discourses Miracles Successes and Sufferings of the Holy Apostles from Christ's Ascension to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus c. By Samuel Cradock B. D. fol. 2. Mr. Henry Smith's Sermons 4to 3. Cases of Conscience Practically Resolved By the Reverend and Learned J. Norman late Minister of Bridgwater in Sommerset 8vo 4. Christian Advice both to Young and Old Rich and Poor which may serve as a Directory at hand ready to direct all persons almost in every estate and condition under 17 general useful Heads By Thomas Mocket M. A. 5. Moses Revivâ—d A Treatise proving that it is not lawful and therefore sinful for any man or woman to eat blood viz. the life-blood of any Creature 8vo 6. Basilius Valentinus his last Will and Testament which was found hid under a Table of Marble behind the high Altar in the Cathedral Church of the Imperial City of Erford leaving it there to be found by him whom God's Providence should make worthy of it 8vo 7. The Royal Pay and Pay-Master A Sermon preached before the Military Company By William Sâ—later D. D. Minister of St. James Clarkenwell 4to 8. Exodus Or the decease of Holy men and Ministers considered in the Nature Certainty Causes and Improvement thereof A Sermon preached the 12th Sept. 1675. at the Funeral of the much lamented Death of the Learned and Reverend Minister of Christ Dr. Lazarus Sâ—aman late Pastor of Alhallows Breadstreâ—t London By William Jenkyn late Minister of Christ-Church London 4to 9. Lydea's Heart opened or Divine Mercy magnified in the Conversion of a Sinner by the Gospel By William Strong M. A. c. 8vo EXERCITATION THE FIRST Ezek. 16. 8. I entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine GOd in this Chapter by Ezekiel a Priest and a Prophet declares His great mercies to the people of Israel and their horrid and vile ingratitude Among all His mercies this was none of the least that God entred into a Covenant with them There are three things among men that do induce a publick obligation and yet do differ in themselves As 1. a Law 2. A Covenant 3. A Testament A Law and a Testament are absolute and do not imply any consent of the party under them For a Law requires subjection not expecting the consent of inferiours So a Testament or a Will of a Man is to bequeath such Goods and Legacies not expecting the consent of others But a Covenant requires consent and agreement between two parties The Covenant of God with man is twofold 1. That of Works which was made before the fall with Adam in his innocency 2. The Covenant of Grace which was made since the fall The Covenant of Works with Adam before the fall is laid down more obscurely than the Covenant of Grace was Gen. 2. 16 17. after the fall And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of Knowledg of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Do this and thou shalt live â— if thou do it not thou shalt dye And so God enabled Adam to do that which was good for the which he was the more obliged unto God Or thus The Covenant of Works God made with Adam promising him therein an everlasting continuance of felicity and happiness under condition of his obedience unto God but threatning death to him if he were disobedient This Covenant of Works was confirmed by a double Sacrament 1. The tree of life 2. The tree of knowledg of good and evil both seated in the midst of Paradise The use of these was double 1. That by the use of the one and by abstaining from the other man's obedience might be tryed 2. That the tree of life might Seal to man being obedient his perpetuity of happiness and that the tree of knowledg of good and evil might signifie unto man if he were disobedient the loss of the greatest good and the purchasing and procuring of the greatest evil The tree of life was not so called from any inward implanted faculty of quickning in it but a Sacramental signification So also the tree of knowledg of good and evil had this name from the signification of the greatest evil or good with the event and consequences thereof Here in this Covenant needed no Mediator for it was before sin was in the world and Adam then was in perfect familiarity and communion with God It was Sin that brought in enmity fear and shame as well as punishment and death For presently after the fall Adam hid himself from the presence of the Lord and feared c. because of the guilt of Sin and breach of Gods Commandment So he confessed I was afraid Gen. 3. 10. because I was naked and hid my self These are the grounds and reasons to prove that God dealt with Adam in these Commandments by way of Covenant 1. From the evil threatned and good promised 2. Because his posterity became guilty of his Sin and obnoxious and liable to his punishment 3. Because the Apostle Paul in Rom. 5. 12 15 18. makes all
baptized into His death Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it thâ—â— He might sanctifie and cleanse it by the Eph. 5. 25 26. washing of water through the word The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from 1 Joh. 1. 7. all sin As the filthiness of the body is washed away with water so we are purged from our sins by the blood and spirit of Christ Ye are washed ye are sanctified 1 Cor. 6. 11. ye are justified in the Name of the Lorâ— Jesus and by the Spirit of our God That inward washing is made or done both by the blood and by the spirit of Christ 1. Washing through the blood oâ— Christ is Justification So we have it Acts 22. 16 Arise and be baptized calling on the name of the Lord. 2. Washing through the spirit is regeneration when we are by the Holy Spirit regenerated or born again to a new life 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thus far of the action of the Minister now to speak of the action of him or her baptized Every faithful person that is baptized receiveth the outward Baptism of water that there may be signified and sealed up unto him that he is assuredly washed from his sins by the blood and spirit of Christ as surely as his body is sprinkled or washed with water Then will I Ezek. 36. 25. sprinkle said the Lord clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthinesses and from all your Idols I will cleanse you To be washed with the blood and spirit of Christ signifieth to be made partakers of the Covenant of Grace namely to be reconciled to God justified regenerated adopted to be the Son or Child of God and to be endowed with the freedom of the Sons of God All are washed with water but believers only by the blood and spirit of Christ Therefore not all that are baptized receive remission of sins and regeneration but the believers only For without a man have his name in the Covenant the seal set to it confirms nothing unto him To the receiving of the Sacrament as very worthily it is in our Liturgy there must be adjoyned thanksgiving which is presently performed by every person that is baptized if he be adult or of years of discretion or by the witnesses in his stead if he be an infant who when he comes to years of discretion all his life long ought to be thankful unto God for this benefit Q. What are the ends of Baptism A. Especially these four 1. To be a seal to us of our receiving into the Covenant of Grace and fellowship with Christ and His Church 2. By the outward washing to represent and confirm to us the inward cleansing of our Souls which standeth in justification and regeneration Eph. 5. 26. So in this sence Baptism as it is 1 Pet. 3. 21. is said to save us because it sealeth unto us eternal salvation 3. To mind us of repentance and reforming our lives for we are baptized with water unto repentance Mat. 3. 11. 4. To be sealed to the certain hope of resurrection and of an eternal blessed life In Baptism Original sin is washed and taken away especially as concerning the guilt that is to say the fault and the punishment there remaining notwithstanding the vitiation and the sickness namely wicked lusts and inclination to evil and that to this end that we might all our life long fight against sin and the Devil who is the Author of sin But the Papists say that by Baptism rightly administred not only the guiltiness but also the corruption of Original sin is so washed away as that it is not afterward properly accounted a sin But we contrarily distinguish thus of sin sin in regard of the guiltiness or obnoxiousness to the wrath of God and also in regard of the punishment together by one act is taken away in Baptism But in regard of that error and corruption of Nature it is not at the first wholly taken away but successively and by little and little or by degrees it is extinguished even as our renovation or renewing by the Holy Ghost is by little and little begun increased and carried on in us And this we evince by these four reasons 1. Else St. Paul would not so greatly bewail his Original sin if after Baptism it ceased to be a sin when-as he cryed out O miserable man that I am who shall Rom. 7. 23 24. deliver me from the body of this deathâ— I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members 2. Original sin is called a sin exceeding or out of measure sinful and a sin that hangeth fast on or easily encompasseth Rom. 7. 13. us about Heb. 12. 1. 3. Concupiscence is the root of actual sin and therefore after Baptism it must needs properly be a sin 4. Unless that concupiscence were a sin where would or could be that vehement and hot combate between the flesh and the spirit for the flesh lusteth against Gal. 5. 17. the spirit and the spirit against the â—lesh and these are contrary the one to the other Q. Why was Christ baptized what could Baptism signifie or seal unto Him He had no sin to wash away A. â— That He might fulfil all righteousness that is for us and on our behalf Mat. 3. 15. 2. That He might in His own person commend and confirm Baptism against all those who so debase and decry it 3. That He might sanctifie our Baptism in Himself 4. That by Baptism we might know Him to have entered into His office and the execution of it Q. How doth Baptism belong to Infants and how are they capable of performing the conditions required A. I have perused the learned Exercitations of Mr. John Tombes B. D. formerly a Cotemporary with me in Magdalen-Hall who is the best and most learned of that opinion and perswasion who hath many arguments against Infant Baptism which require a large volume particularly to answer I shall therefore only lay down some argument to assert the laudable use of the Churches Infant-Baptism which do fully convince and satisfie me and I suppose by God's blessing on serious meditation and consideration may satisfie those which will not wilfully close their eyes against the truth Arguments 1. Because Infants are comprehended in the Covenant of the Grace of God and therefore both the faith of the Parents themselves and also of the Church 1 Cor. 7. 14. is confirmed by this sign that God will be the God and Saviour as of the faithful Parents so of their seed and children which promise of His He at His good Rom. 8. 29 30. Tit. 3. 5. time performeth in His elect 2. Because to them belongeth also the promise of forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ 3. Because they belong to the Church of God 4. Because they are redeemed by the blood of
Christ 5. Because to them is promised the Holy Ghost 6. Because they are to be discerned from the Children of Infidels 7. Because in the Old Testament Infants were circumcised As Circumcision was then the first beginning or initiating Sacrament into the Jewish Church so is Baptism the first beginning of Christianity There can be no reason given to deprive Infants of Baptism but that which may be given against circumcision the main whereof is the incapableness of Infants of the Grace of the Sacraments But He that said of Infants to them belongs the Kingdom of God knows how to settle upon them the title of that Kingdom And we have no reason to think but that even before or in at or by the act of Baptism the Spirit of Christ doth unite the Soul of the elect Infant unto Christ and cloath it with His righteousness and impute unto it the title of a Son or a Daughter by adoption and the Image of God by Sanctification and so fit it for the state of Glory 8. To them to whom the Covenant belongs to them belongs the seal of the Covenant that confirms the right to them But to the Infants of faithful Parents the Covenant belongs to you Acts 2. 39. and to your Children are the promises Mark 10 13. made and to them belongs the Kingdom of God Therefore we rationally conclude that if the thing it self belongs to them therefore the sign and seal thereof 9. Your Children are Holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. there is a faederal Sanctity or an external and visible Holiness at least in Children of believing Parents and they are to be judged of the true flock of Christ until they shew the contrary Objection But the Anabaptists urge we have no rule or example in Holy Scripture for the baptizing of Infants We read of nothing in Scripture that Solution doth infringe the liberty of the Church therein neither do the Scriptures afford any proofs by consequence of it to deter from it We read of several whole housholds baptized doubtless some Infants were therein And if the Scriptures not expressing directly the baptizing of Infants were a sufficient reason of denying that Sacrament to them is a senseless thing Circumcision was a sign of repentance Deut. 10. 16. Jer. 4. 14. and a sign of faith Rom. 4. 11. and yet Infants were not kept from Circumcision but God commanded them to be circumcised the eighth day which is a sufficient ground to us for baptizing of Infants For the ancient promises of God to the people of Israel belong now to every believer in any Nation whatsoever Sith God under the Law shewed Himself the Saviour of Infants and commanded them to be signed with such a visible sign as Circumcision was it would be a very grievous and a hard thing if the Children of believers now under the Gospel since the coming of Christ should have less priviledg than the Infants of the fathers of old seeing the same promise is to us as was to them And God hath now more manifestly declared His goodness to us in Christ The promise belongs to Infants Acts 2. 37. therefore St. Peter would have his hearers to repent and to be baptized and he adds the reason because the promise belonged to them and to their Children c. whence I argue because they are partakers of the promise therefore they are bid to be baptized Or thus the promise belongs to the adult repentant persons and their Children or Infants therefore adult repentant persons and their Children or Infants are to be baptized for remission of sins The adult or those of years are to be baptized upon their repentance and the Children or Infants of those repenting baptized persons yea before they are actually capable of repentance are to be baptized also for the promise is made unto them upon the account of their Parents So St. Peter there commands them to be baptized and why because the promise is made unto them So also he shews the cause why those adult repentant persons are commanded to be baptized which is not because they were adult or repentant and so Baptism belonged only to them but also it belonged to their Infants and so he proveth that as well the Infants as the adult should be baptized Not because they believe or do not believe but because they are partakers of the promise Regeneration or receiving into Grace is enough for Infants Much more might have been said to several others of their arguments which are many and would digress into a large volume but I shall dwell no longer hereon Although we be but once baptized yet Baptism is unto us a perpetual Sacrament of our washing from sin and of our regeneration that is to say as Baptism doth not only evacuate and wash away Original Sin in the sence before premised but also all other Sins either past or present for they that are baptized are baptized into Christ's death Now Christ's death is available not only to wash away those Sins that are before Baptism but those also in our whole life which follow Baptism Q. What ground or warrant have we for sprinkling which is commonly used with us in these cold Countries A. Our Church allows no other than dipping unless in case of the Childs weakness as most consonant to our Saviour's Baptism where we read of His descending into the water and coming Mat. 3. up again out of the water Others conceive the very action of sprinkling water very warrantable especially in young Children to whom farther wetting may be dangerous to them The reasons are such as these 1. Because neither dipping nor sprinkling is essential to the Sacrament of Baptism but only washing and applying water to the body as a cleanser of the filth thereof 2. As in the other Sacrament that of the Lord's Supper a spoonful of Wine is as significant as a whole gallon so here a handful of water is as significant as a whole river 3. The action of sprinkling bears fit resemblance with the inward Grace as well as dipping and hath authority also in the Scriptures We read of sprinkling of the blood 1 Pet. 1. 2. Heb. 12. 14. of Christ and the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel 4. It is not unlikely that the Apostles baptized as well by sprinkling or pouring water upon as by dipping into it Sith we read of diveâ—â— baptized in houses as well as in rivers However the washing of the body with water is essential though Eph. 5. 26. whether way it be done seems not to be essential so water be applyed to the body for the cleansing of it Q. How do Circumcision and Baptism agree A. 1. In the principal end for the promise of Grace through and by Christ which was the same in all ages is sealed in both of them 2. In both is signified regeneration and a promise of faith and obedience towards God 3. Both Circumcision and
Baptism are the Sacrament of our reception and entrance into the Church Q. Wherein do Circumcision and Baptism differ A. 1. In the Rite or Ceremony which is not the same in Baptism as in Circumcision for in Baptism is only a washing but in Circumcision a cutting off the foreakin of the flesh 2. In the circumstance of the sex or age Circumcision belonged only to Males and at eight days old Baptism belongs to both sexes Male and Female and presently after they are born 3. In the manner of signifying Circumcision on God's part promised Grace through the Messiah to come but Baptism through Christ already come And on their part they being Circumcised were received into Grace by believing on the Messiah to come but we through faith in Him already come 4. In the particular promise Circumcision had also the promise of corporal blessings as of the land of Canaan c. But Baptism hath no such special promise of any temporal benefit 5. In the manner of obliging Circumcision on their part obliged them to the keeping of the whole Law Ceremonial Judicial and Moral but Baptism obligeth us only to the keeping of the Moral Law that is to faith and repentance 6. In the objects and duration Circumcision was commanded to the posterity of Abraham only and the Proselytes and was to endure but till the coming of Christ Baptism is instituted for all Nations that will come into the society of the Church and to endure to the end of the world To close up all with these few heads Aphorisms about Baptism 1. Baptism avails though administred by a contemptible person as much as if it were administred by an Apostle for if Baptism were in the merit or worth of the Minister then it did not belong unto Christ 2. The power of baptizing the Lord hath reserved to Himself it is Christ alone that baptizes with the Holy Ghost the applying of the outward Element Christ hath committed to His Ministers lawfully called and deputed 3. Baptism is the same as He is by whose power and authority it is administred Not as He is by whom it is performed 4. Every true believer in Baptism is made a King and a Priest and Prophet Rev. 1. 5. Christ washes us from our sins in His own blood and so makes us Kings and Priests unto God and His Father So St. Crysostome When as Christ hath washed us from our sins in the laver of Baptism by His blood He makes us Kings and Priests unto God Baptism as we have seen is a high Ordinance of God and a means whereby He hath appointed to communicate Christ and His benefits to our Souls and therefore not to be neglected or slightly esteemed but used with all reverence and thankful devotion when it may be had Yet where God denyeth it either in regard of the shortness of the Infants life or by any other unavoidable necessity there comes no danger from the want of Sacraments but only from the contempt of them The right use of Baptism is when inwardly in thy heart thou feelest some motion to sin through thy lusts then meditate on that solemn vow thou madest to God in thy Baptism And if by infirmity thou fallest once or oftner into some sin still have recourse to Baptism that thy Soul may be encouraged therehence For although Baptism be but once administred yet that once testifieth that all mans sins past present or to come are washed away 1 Pet. 3. 21. Eph. 5. 25 26 27. And never rest before thou hast a feeling of that renewing power signified in Baptism namely the power of Christ's death Mortifying sin and the virtue of His resurrection in the renewing of the Spirit EXERCITATION THE THIRD Of the Lords Supper the second Sacrament of the New Testament IT hath several appellations it is called 1. The Lord's Supper or Caena Domini from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communis caena vocatur à communione vescentium For seorsim prandebant prisci Romani sed cum amicis caenabant About Supper-time the Jews were to eat the Paschal Lamb which circumstance of time the Church hath changed according to the liberty in these things she hath It is called the Lord's Supper because our Lord Jesus Christ sitting at His last Supper ordained it instead of the Passeover 2. It is called the Table of the Lord 1 Cor. 10. 21. 3. A convention of the Church 1 Cor. 11. 20 33 When ye meet together in one place c. And When ye come together to eat 4. The Eucharist because of the usual Thanksgiving 5. A Sacrifice so it was called by the ancient Fathers non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut meritorium not a propitiatory or meritorious Sacrifice as the Papists would have it but an Eucharistical Sacrifice because it is a solemn commemoration and celebration of the propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ 6. At length it was called Missa from the offerings sent by the rich to the relief of the Poor or from a dismission of the Congregation after the publick Ordinances But we retaining the appellation or name delivered in Scripture call it the Supper of the Lord. There are many detestable and abominable differences between the Lord's Supper and the Popish Mass which I think not fit here to recite as not at all for edification I define the Lords Supper thus The instituted and commanded distribution of Bread and Wine by Christ Himself in which Christ is certainly promised to me and all true believers Or thus The Lord's Supper is the distributing and taking of Bread and Wine commanded by Christ to all true believers that He might testifie by these tokens that He gave His body to death for us and shed His blood and that He gave us these to eat and drink to assure us that He will dwell in us and nourish and quicken us to eternal life First He assures and seals that He gave His body for us upon the Cross and that His blood was as truly shed for us as we see with our eyes the bread to be broken for us and the cup to be given to us Next that He by that His body Crucified and by that His blood poured out will as certainly nourish our Souls to eternal life as surely as our bodies are fed by Bread and Wine taken from the hand of the Minister which are reached forth unto us as seals and pledges of the body and blood of Christ The Rites or Signs here are the Bread broken and eaten the Wine distributed and taken or the breaking and distributing of the Bread the distributing and drinking of the Wine The things signified are the body of Christ Crucified and the blood of Christ poured out the eating and drinking of them signifie our union with Christ by faith whereby we being made partakers of Him and all His benefits from Him as branches from a Vine do suck and draw eternal life or nourishment to eternal life Of this our union and communion with Christ
we may and should remember yet God would have a solemn standing Ordinance in His Church for the commemoration and shewing of it forth which Ordinance is this of the Lord's Supper This must be our actual exercise at the time of our eating and drinking at this Holy Table to shew forth the Lord's death The death of Christ then must fill our eyes ears lips and thoughts If any of us could see Christ dying that sight would take us up Here we come as near to see Him dying as can be represented unto us Here Christ is Crucified before our eyes Thus much Gal. 3. 1. for the second part which is a Christian heedfulness in the act of receiving Now of the third and last part a thankful close and shutting up this our duty in this Ordinance 1. By joyful thanksgiving with Prayers 2. Meditation how we are bettered what increase we find of our faith in Christ love to God and all His Saints what strength and power we have gotten against sin lust and corruption what new obedience we shew forth in our lives and what increase and confiâ—ming we find of all other sanctifying and saving Graces in us to help us to lead new lives and to run the ways of all God's Commandments with more strength and alacrity than formerly This do in remembrance of me This is a solemn Memorial instituted by Christ Himself Great Deliverances or Mercies have solemn commemorations Such was the Passeover and the Feast of Purim c. among the Jews Christ did not ordain it for His Nativity Circumcision Ascension c. though all these were for us and our Redemption but in remembrance of His death hereby we shew the Lord's death Because our sins are done away by His death therein in His death was made the Sacrifice of atonement Redemption and Reconciliation was made thereby the Covenant confirmed the justice of God satisfied and everlasting life procured c. 1. Let us make this thankful remembrance to and within our selves what fruit and benefit we receive from Christ and the torments and pains He endured for us both in His blessed body and soul nay His Soul-pains were the sole or chief of all His pains Do not these deserve a thankful remembrance 2. We make this remembrance to others to all the world by our solemn profession of Christ and His death to which we stick for remission of sins and acceptation with God 3. We make this remembrance to God that Christ by His death hath satisfied God's justice and hath made peace through the blood of His Cross Who shall therefore lay any thing to the Col. 1. 20. charge of Gods elect it is Christ that dyed for us c. Rom. 8. 34. I close up with the Allegory of the Paschal Lamb and Christ how the type and anti-type or the thing signified fitly answer and agree in these thirteen things 1. It must be a lamb of the flock so Christ was true man Joh. 1. 14. 2. A Lamb without blemish so Christ was without sin 3. To be killed and roasted with fire to shew the bitter death and passion of Christ 4. A bone of it must not be broken so Christ had not a bone broken Joh. 19. 36. 5. It must be in the evening so Christ suffered in the end of the world Heb. 1. 2. and 9. 26. 6. The posts were to be sprinkled with the blood so Christ's blood is sprinkled on our Consciences and His satisfaction is imputed to us Rom. 3. Isai 53. 6. 7. Seeing the blood the destroying Angel passed over and they were preserved from death so Christ by his blood frees us from everlasting death 8. The Lamb was to be eaten and in every family so Christ by faith is to be applyed by every believer 9. The Lamb was to be roasted whole his head legs appurtenances so whole Christ is to be received and wholly according to all the articles of our faith 2 Tim. 3. 7. 10. Without leaven that is without hypocrisie 11. It must be eaten with bitter herbs with true repentance and bitter grief for sin which caused that bitter passion of Christ He that will be Christ's Disciple must take up the Cross 12. It must be eaten hastily and with their staves in their hands after the fashion of strangers to shew that we are Pilgrims here and travailing to our heavenly countrey have need of such a Viaticum in the way 13. Only Circumcised to eat thereof So only the regenerate feed on Christ by faith and Christ is profitable only unto them Some Sentences 1. Our Union and Communion with Christ doth not mingle the persons nor unite the substances but it consociates our affections and confederates our wills 2. This is to eat that bread and drink that cup to abide in Christ and to have Christ abiding in thee And hereby it follows that he that abides not in Christ nor Christ in him doth not spiritually eat of this bread and drink of this cup although carnally and visibly he eateth of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ 3. To believe in Christ is to eat that bread of life He that believeth in Christ feedeth upon Him and is invisibly fatted by Him because he is invisibly regenerated 4. Believers only eat the bread the Lord wicked men who are against Christ in their practises may eat the bread of the Lord. 5. All Glory to God and Salvation to Men is placed in the death and passion of the Lord Jesus Christ EXERCITATION THE FOURTH Ecclesiastes 12. 13. Fear God The whole Verse runs thus Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep His Commandments for this is the whole duty of Man THe meaning is thus as if King Solomon had said the whole subject of this Book of Ecclesiastes is summarily comprehended in this point that man should lead his life in the fear of God and in holy obedience unto Him So that after this life he may enjoy everlasting blessedness and happiness in Him Now the fear of God is commanded in the first Commandment the scope and meaning of the first Commandment is thus that Jehovah one in Substance and three in Persons the Creator and Governour of all things and the Redeemer of His people is to be entertained for the only true God in all the powers of our soul And that the inward Mat. 22. 37. Prov. 23. 26. Deut. 5. 29. Prov. 4. 23. Mat. 12. 35. and spiritual worship of the heart wherein God especially delighteth and which is the ground of the outward worship may be given to Him and none other and that sincerely without hypocrisie as in His sight who searcheth Jer. 17. 10. and knoweth the heart For this word before Me or before My face noteth that inward entertainment and worship whereof God alone doth take notice And thereby God sheweth that He condemneth as well the corrupt thoughts of mans heart concerning His Majesty as the wicked practise of
In every nation he that feareth God Act. 10. 35. and worketh righteousness is accepted of him To whomsoever feareth God the word 13. 26. of salvation is sent ENCOMIUMS or Praises of the fear of God Behold the fear of the Lord that is Job 28. 28. wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding The fear of the Lord is clean enduring Psal 19. 9. for ever That is the rule of His fear and of all true Religion contained in His Word is pure and clean and it cleanseth and purifieth us it is invariable and incorruptible and produceth the effect of eternal life in them that observe it The fear of the Lord is the beginning Psal 111. 10. of wisdom that is the fear of the Lord is the foundation as well as beginning of wisdom The Lord taketh pleasure in them that 147. 11. fear Him c. The fear of the Lord is the beginning Prov. 1. 7. of knowledg beginning is the chief point or sum of knowledg The fear of the Lord is to hate evil c. 8. 13. that is he that hath the true knowledg and fear of God in his heart it will make him hate sin which is so hateful unto God The fear of the Lord is a fountain of 14. 27. life to depart from the snares of death The fear of the Lord is the instruction 15. 33. of wisdom that is the fear of the Lord is the best and only means to have our hearts framed to receive true wisdom By the fear of the Lord men depart 16. 6. from evil that is they that truly fear God will not willingly run into sin but say with Joseph How can I do this wickedness Gen. 39. 9. and sin against God And this fear of God was a curb to Joseph when he dealt roughly with his brethren when he had cast them into Prison on the third day he brought them Gen 42. 18. out and said this do and live for I fear God So let this fear of God be always before our eyes as a spur to every good duty and a bar against all sin and wickedness Happy is the man that feareth always Prov. 28. 14. that is through the awful respect he hath to God's glorious Majesty fearing to offend Him and being no ways confident of himself that doth so always and at all times it is a special preservative against sin and so happy is that man A man or woman that so feareth the Prov. 31. 30. Lord shall be praised God is greatly to Psal 89. 7. be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about Him God is to be feared above all gods 96. 4. Let us therefore strive as good Obadiah though in the Court of wicked Ahab to fear the Lord from our youth 1 King 18. 3 12. and to fear Him greatly And as Cornelius that religious Captain who feared Acts 10. 2. God with all his house to be faithful Nehem. 7. 2. men and to fear God above many Passing the time of our sojourning here in 1 Pet. 1. 17. fear in carefulness to please God fearing lest we should offend Him Surely I know that it shall be well with Eccles 8. 12. them that fear God which fear before Him David could not express it but breaks Psal 31. 19. out in admiration of it Oh how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men Let us therefore sanctifie the Lord of Isai 8. 13. hosts Himself and let Him be our fear and let Him be our dread Whâ— shall not fear Thee O Lord and Rev. 15. 4. glorifie Thy name for Thou only art holy for all nations shall come and worship before Thee for Thy judgments are made manifest Q. But what fear may Saints have in the Service of God A. 1. There may be a fear of God's wrath they may have apprehensions of Psal 6. 2 3. God's heavy displeasure the hot displeasure of God's wrath may even vex their bones and cause their soul to be sore vexed They may conceive themselves Psal 13. 1. forgotten of God and that God doth hide His face from them to have their soul pained within them and horrour to overwhelm them and think 55. 4 5. Cant. 5. 6. that Christ may with-draw Himself and be gone in regard of any comfortable and sensible enjoyment of His fellowship which they have 2. There may be a great fear even of performing holy Duties they may be startled not dare adventure upon sâ—ch holy performances without much shame of Spirit and holy reluctancy as Ezra said I am ashamed and blush to Ezra 9. 6. lift up my face to Thee O my God for our iniquities are increâ—sed over our heads and our trespass is grown up unto the hâ—â—vens And with the poor woman Mark 5. 33. in the Gospel who came fearing and trembling and fell down before Christ And yet the Saints never depart or fall away from that assured confidence they have conceived of the mercies of God though they have a continual strife with their own distrustfulness In all these assaults faith upholds the Godly and is like to a Palm-tree endeavouring to rise up against all burdens how great soever they may be He that striving with his own weakness resorts to faith in his troubles is already in a manner a Conquerour So David checks his own heart Why art thou cast down O my soul Why art thou thus disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise Him Psal 42. 11. who is the health of my countenance and my God And wait on the Lord be of 27. 14. good courage and He shall strengthen 39. 2. thine heart and so he iterates it wait I say on the Lord. Sometimes the Saints may become even dumb with silence as though their faith were utterly overthrown yet they faint not but proceed in the Battel and by Faith and Prayer do still encourage themselves in God who at length will come in with the saving strength of His own right hand Psal 20. 6. There is great difference between the fears of the Godly and of the wicked The fear of the wicked ariseth out of the evidences of the guilt of sin but the fear of the Godly from a tender apprehension of the greatness goodness holiness and Majesty of God and His most pure eyes which cannot endure Habb 1. 13. to behold iniquity but with indignation and out of a deep sence of their own vileness and unworthiness to meddle with holy things But yet this fear in the Saints never brings any dislike or hatred of God or any wilful disobedience against Him For as the fear of the soul deters so the necessity of the
Therefore Christ said Mat. 9. 12. the whole have no need of a Physitian c. As long as men think themselves well they will not seek out to a Physitian though then they may have need enough but when they are stricken with sickness The poor sin-sick Soul grieved and weary with the burden of sin comes to Christ the great Physitian Fear God are the words first read Q. But we read that the fearful c. Rev. 21. 8. Shall be cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death A. That is spoken of those that faint in their spiritual combates who through carnal fear shall not dare to make profession of the truth or shall deny it Q. What is that fear of God which is here commanded A. 1. To reverence the Majesty and Power of God so as the chief reason of our fear is not any evil that may come to us but the excellent perfection of God 2. When we do most especially fear the offending of God and displeasing Him 3. When we are affected with fear and trembling by beholding the tokens of God's displeasure So Moses said Psal 90. 11. who knoweth the power of Thy wrath according to Thy fear so is Thy wrath Q. What are the special and principal marks of the true fear of God A. 1. Seriously to flee from all those things which are evil in the eyes of God A wise man feareth and departeth from Prov. 14 16. 14. 6. evil By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil 2. If out of Conscience towards God we abstain from those sins which are hidden from the eyes of men and safe enough in regard of man Thou shalt not curse the deaf nor put a stumbling-block Levit. 19. 14. before the blind but shalt fear thy God I am the Lord Now the deaf cannot hear and the blind cannot see any injury when it is done unto them but the fear of God should deter from it So Joseph though he had the importunities Gen. 39. 9. of his Mistress and the opportunity of secrecy yet the fear of God kept him from committing Adultery 3. If we do not only abstain from sins but also hate them and that because God hates them The fear of the Lord Prov. 8. 13. is to hate evil 4. If we are very careful about this thing that we depart not away from Psal 18. 21. God As David said I have kept the laws of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God 5. If we strive not only to abstain from evil but also to do good Eschew 1 Pet. 3. 11. evil and do good seek peace and ensue it Hold fast that which is good abstain 1 Thess 5. 21 22. from all appearance of evil 6. If we fear not men or any other creature so as to deter us from doing our duty Job when he would make a protestation of his uprightness said Did I fear a great multitude or did the Job 31. 34. contempt of families terrifie me that I kept silence c But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and 1 Pet. 3. 14 15. be not afraid of their terrour neither be ye troubled but sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts c. 7. If we use the Name of God and all His holy attributes not lightly but with great reverence These things shew that we truly fear God Thou shalt always fear this glorious and fearful Deut. 28. 58. name The Lord thy God Q. What are the arguments to induce us to the fear of God A. 1. His Almightiness Fear ye not Jer. 5. 22. Me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at My presence which have placed the sand for the bound of thi sea c. Touching Job 37. 23 24. the Almighty we cannot find Him out He is excellent in power and in judgment and in plenty of justice c. Men do therefore fear Him c. 2. Because of His Kingdom The Lord reigneth let the earth tremble Who Psal 99. 1. Jer. 10. 7. would not fear Thee O King of Nations for to Thee only doth it appertain c. I make a decree that men tremble and fear before God for he is the living God and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his dominion is to the ends Dan. 6. 26. of the earth 3. Because of his powerful governing of all things Isai 25. 1. to 6. 4. Because of His particular and severe judgments against sins My flesh trembleth Psal 119. 120. for fear of thee and I am afraid at Thy judgments The just Lord is in the Habb 3. 1â— middest thereof every morning doth he Zeph. 3. 5. bring his judgments to light he faileth not c. When I heard my belly trembled c. 5. Because of the great and general judgment at the last day If ye call on Eccles 12. 13 14. the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here 1 Pet. 1. 7. in fear 6. Because of His threatnings and the punishments attending thereupon So God said to good King Josiah because thy heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy self before the Lord when 2 Chron. 34. 27. thou heardest what I spake against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof c. and hast rent thy clothes and wept before Me I have heard thee saith the Lord. So the repentant thief on the Cross said to the other thief Doest not thou Luk. 23. 40. fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation 7. Because of the benefits and mercies of God there is mercy with thee that Psal 130. 4. 72. 5. thou mayest be feared They shall fear thee as long as the Sun and Moon endure Wicked men say not in their heart Let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth Jer. 5. 24. rain in his season he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest 8. We should fear the Lord because 2 Pet. 1. 3. of all those great and precious promises He hath made to all those that fear Him But of those we have given plentiful instances before Some Sentences more about the fear of God 1. When a good thing is done out of the fear of punishment and not out of the true fear of God it is not well done 2. Why do we fear man when we are placed in the heart and bosom of God and are sure we can never fall away there-hence 3. The fear of God is an especial antidote and preservative against the fear of man 4. Our present fear of God now will bring us everlasting peace rest and security 5. To fear God truly is to omit or neglect nothing willingly which He commandeth 6. In the wayes of the Lord begin with fear and then we shall come to confidence strength and courage 7. He is a
stranger to the grace of liberty whom the service of fear meerly bindeth and obligeth 8. Know thy self that thou mayest fear God know God that thou mayest love Him For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the end of the Commandment is charity Even as out of knowledg of thy self the fear of God comes into thy heart so if thou knowest God as thou oughtest thou wilt be sure to love Him 9. He will easily swerve from the way of righteousness who fears men more than God For the fear of man brings a snare 10. If the love of God cannot keep thee from sin let the dread of Him who is a sin-revenging Judge terrifie thee the fear of hell the snares of death that burning fire the ever-gnawing worm those pains of hell stinking brimstone black flames of fire the blackness of darkness for ever and all those miseries accompanying it which are insupportable to be born impossible to express passing all understanding to conceive at least terrifie thee from sin 11. The fear of man brings distrust but the fear of the Lord brings strong confidence â—rov 14. 26. 12. He that truly fears God loves God and he that truly loves Him fears Him For these in our worshipping of God are conjoyned and cannot be separated 13. When thou hearest that God is merciful see that thou love Him when thou hearest that God is just see that thou fear Him that being stirred up both by the love and fear of God thou mayst be careful to strive to keep His Commandments Pray therefore with David O let me Psal 119. 1â— 1. not wâ—nder from Thy Commandments And O that my ways were directed to keep Thy Statutes Always remembring that frequently iterated precept of our blessed Saviour If ye love Me keep My Commandments EXERCITATION THE FIFTH Psal 62. 5. My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from Him OH how good is it to wait upon God! they alone who have found the benefit of it know how good it is There be three especial ingredients to make up this duty of waiting upon God 1. Faith 2. Patience 3. Diligence 1. Faith which is the substance of Heb. 11. 1 things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Faith is the bottom of our waiting upon God Faith discovers to us on what grounds we may stand as namely upon God's faithfulness and all-sufficiency c. and therefore David still encourageth himself as twice in this Psalm to wait upon God 2. Patience waiting implies delay and delay without patience is insupportable Hope deferred makes the heart Prov. 13. 12. sick Delay is a sore sickness and Patience is the only cure of it without which that sickness will prove death 3. Diligence and activity he that waiteth for a mercy must serve God's Providence in the use of all the means which God hath ordained and appointed for the accomplishment thereof It is Diligence as well as Faith and Patience that must inherit the promises We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not Heb. 6. 11 12. slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Waiting without diligence is nothing but slothfulness and security Waiting signifies a patient abiding and expectation of help from God I waited Psal 40. 1 2 3. patiently upon the Lord and He inclined His ear unto me and heard my cry He brought me also up out of an horrible pit out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings And He hath put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our God I will wait upon the Lord I will not go back from Him I will try or use no unlawful means but will wait in His Isai 26. 8. way and expect His help and aid and the fulfilling of His promises depending wholly upon Him and His Word Faith apprehends the promise and thereby brings forth Hope and Faith by means of Hope makes them that believe to wait God is not like to man but in whatever He promiseth He approveth Himself most faithful both in His ability and performances I will therefore trust in the Name of the Lord and stay Isai 50. 10. my self upon Him my God This waiting upon God is a virtue Definition whereby we are inclined to the expectation of those things which God hath promised to us If we hope for that we Rom. 8. 25. see not then do we with patience wait for it This waiting this expectation 1. It hath God for its principal object that our faith and hope might be in 1 Pet. 1. 21. God and the less principal objects are all those things whereby as by means and steps we come to God 2. It hath respect to God as the Author and Giver of every good thing which it expects Every good gift and Jam. 1. 17. every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning Commit thy way to Psal 37. 5. the Lord rest also on Him and He shall bring it to pass Every-where in the Old Testament where the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is wont to be rendered Hope it signifies properly expectation And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifies more than bare expectation it signifies patient expectation and that unweariedly from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maneo I tarry so 2 Thess 3. 5. it is rendered into the patient waiting for Christ namely by which expectation we expect till Christ shall come to judge both the quick and dead there it is taken passively for the expectation in or by which Christ is expected by us The Septuagint render these words thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Soul subject thy self to God for my expectation or my abiding continuance patience perseverance is from Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subjectio simply signifies sub alio jacere to lye under another but properly it signifies more as namely to be subordinate or to subject our selves in an orderly way So it denotes an orderly subjection and implyes the reverence of the heart respectful speech and gesture obedience without resisting a willing subjection and in due manner as is required So be subject is a general word comprehending all other duties and services to be obedient in all things The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies tolero sustineo remaneo persevero A man must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stay abide and stand under his weight and burden until God â—ase him Magis significat expectationem longanimitatem quà m adversitatum tolerantiam sic alii Propriè est ipsa laudabilis sub cruce permansio constans in virtute cum crucis tolerantià vel contemptu perseverantia Properly it signifies that laudable constant abiding under affliction and a perseverance in
it or as in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quid deprecabor why shall I pray against it any longer Remember the case of Israel when they were even at their Journeys end near upon the borders of the promised land because of their murmuring and impatiency hear their terrible doom from the Lord As truly as I live saith the Lord as ye have spoken in mine ears Numb 14. 28 to 36. so will I do to you your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and all that were numbered of you from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein save Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshuah the son of Nun. But your little ones which ye said should be a prey them will I bring but as for you your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and bear your whoredomes until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness After the number of the days in which ye searched the land even forty days each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities even forty years and ye shall know my breach of promise I the Lord have spoken it I will surely do it c. in this wilderness they shall be consumed and there they shall dye Take heed of fretting against the Lord and of impatiency of spirit lest the same or the like judgment befall thee But say with David as here My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from Him EXERCITATION THE SIXTH Mark 1. 15. Repent ye and believe the Gospel HEre our Saviour sets down the way that lost man must take to come to God whom doth our blessed Lord invite to come unto Him those that labour and are heavy-laden Repentance Mat. 11. 28. and Faith are the way whereby we come unto God Christ is primarily the way for no man cometh to the Father but by Joh. 14. 6. Him He is the immediate way but these are the ways in and through Him which He hath prescribed 1. To speak of Repentance We must know our sins feel the weight of them be truly sensible of them and that we are no way able to help our selves else we will never come to Christ and never seek out for a Saviour for the whole have no need of a Mat. 9. 11. Physician but they that be sick while we think our selves whole and healthy we are well enough but it is the sin-sick Soul that sees his want and need of this great Physician the Lord Jesus So Desinition then Repentance is a hearty grief for my sins even because thereby I have broken God's holy Laws and offended such a gracious Father which works in me a hatred and loathing of sin and of my self for sin with a resolution to lead a new life Now there is a legal Division repentance which is a grief of mind through the sence of God's wrath threatned against sin without any true hatred of sin There is also secondly an Evangelical repentance which is a through change of a sinner in mind will and actions from evil to good The former of these was in Ahab who put on sack-cloth and went softly c. 1. Kings 21. 26. when he heard the evil threatned against him and his house and this may be in wicked men through fear of punishment and of hell not for their sins against God so upon the next temptation they run into sin again But Evangelical repentance which is because we have broken God's Laws and offended so gracious a Majesty this it makes us more watchful over our ways more desirous and careful to please God more Eph. 5. 15. Gen. 17. 1. Psal 16. 8. 2 Cor. 7. 10 11. fearful to offend Him more circumspect in our walking before Him setting Him before our eyes Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto life not to be repented of whereas legal repentance which is common to wicked men worketh death or is the fore-runner of death whose grief is from an apprehension of their miseries or some wounding of their Consciences for their sins without faith or amendment or conversion unto God whereby all their repentance is in them an entrance or a way to a death But behold the good effects of a serious Evangelical repentance The self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a Godly sort what sorrow it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge I know that some do take the former part of this sentence meerly in a literal sence Wordly sorrow causeth death that is sorrow or grief for outward crosses and losses causeth such anguish of mind so affecting the body that brings sicknesses diseases and death at last We see then that true repentance is an inward and hearty sorrow for sin especially that we have offended so gracious a God and so loving a Father together with a setled purpose of heart and a careful endeavour to leave and Psal 119. 112. forsake all our sins and to live a Christian life according to all Gods Commandments So the parts of repentance are 1. A The parts of true repentance are â—our confession of sin 2. a Bewailing what we have confessed 3. Lifting our selves up with confidence in Gods mercies and Christs merits 4. With a firm purpose of abstaining from sin and obeying Gods Commandments Let us a little farther consider these 1. An humble Confession I acknowledged my sins unto thée and mine iniquities Psal 32. 5 have I not hidden I said I will confess mine iniquities unto the Lord. 2. A bewailing Dan. 9. 6. 8. Ezra 9. 6. of what we have confessed We are ashamed and blush to lift up our faâ—es to thee O our God for our iniquities are increased over our heads c. Psal 38. 18. I will be sorry for my sins 3. A lifting up of our selves in confidence of Gods mercies through Christs merits There Psal 130. 3. is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared In the multitude of thy mercies I come unto thee with the Lord there Psal 5. â— Psal 130. 7. is mercy and with Him there is plenteous redemption And through Christs merits Christ dyed for the ungodly To Rom. 5 6. this end Christ both dyed and rose Rom. 14. 9. and revived that He might be Lord both of dead and living Christ dyed for our 1 Cor. 15. 3. 1 John 2 2. Heb. 7. 25. sins according to the Scriptures He is the Propitiation for our sins And He is able to save to the utmost all that come unto God by Him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Fourth part of repentance is a stedfast resolution of forsaking sin and of obeying Gods holy Commandments I hate every false way whoso confesseth Psal 101. 3. Prov.
that wholly for the Holy Spirit make a through work a through change although usually it is by degrees Here is the term from which and the term to which we are changed 1. The term from which from the filthiness corruption and stain of sin therefore we are bid to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and â— Cor. 7. 1. spirit 2. The term to which is the purity of the image of God which is said to be renewed in knowledge righteousness Coll. 3. 10. Eph. 4. 24. Jam. 1. 25. Rom. 6. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 17. and holiness This is called a conformity to the law of God Newness of life A new creature and the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. There are two degrees of Sanctification 1. Begun and imperfect which is here in this life 2. Perfect and consummate which is in Heaven where alone perfection is to had The parts of Sanctification are two Mortification Viviâ—â—cation 1. Mortification or dying to sin and thereby we have a freedom from the dominion of sin by the death of Christ Ye are dead c. Mortifie therefore your Col. 3. 3 5. earthly members Our old man is crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should Rom. 6. 6 7. not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin 2. Vivification or quickning unto newness of life by the power of Christ's resurrection Blessed and holy is he Rev. 20. 6. that hath part in the first resurrection Or Vivification is the second part of Sanctification whereby the image and life of God is restored in man Therefore Eph. 4. 24. Rom. 12. 2. put on that new man and be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind From this Vivification ariseth in those that are Sanctified a firm obliging of themselves unto God whereby they dedicate and devote themselves unto God and Christ So said the Apostle they gave themselves unto the Lord. 2 Cor. 8. 5. Hence follow these two things 1. A spiritual war which is continually waged between these two parts The flesh lusteth against the spirit and Gal. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 9. the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other So sight I not as one that beateth the air but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection c. And this continual combate must we maintain while we are in this body of flesh 2. A daily renewing of repentance as we daily do sin Now the end of all this is 1. The glory of God He that hath 1 Joh. 3. 3. this hope in him purifieth himself as God is pure 2. Our own Salvation He that purgeth 2 Tim. 2. 21. himself from these shall be a vesseâ— sanctified unto God and meet for thâ— Masters use Q. What must we do that we may bâ— holy A. 1. Subject our whole man to thâ— Word of God for the Word is the sanctifying truth of God Therefore Chrisâ— prayeth Sanctifie them by thy truth Thâ— Joh. 17. 17. word is truth 2. By faith to apply Christ to ouâ— selves as our Sanctification for He of Goâ— 1 Cor. 1. 30. is made unto us Sanctification therefore suck holiness from Christ 3. By a lively faith not only to apprehend and lay hold on the promises iâ— general but also those promises in particular which do more especially belong to Sanctification Then I will sprinkle Ezek. 36. 26 c. clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols I will cleanse you 4. To give our selves to the Holy Spirit that we may be led and guided by Him in all things As many as are Rom. 8. 13 14. led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God So we also are sanctified by the Holy Spirit Being sanctified by the Holy Ghost God hath chosen us to 2 Thess 2. 13. salvation through sanctification of the Rom. 15. 16. Spirit and belief of the truth There are three things must be observed for holiness sake 1. Shamefacedness of body 2. Chastness of mind for we may commit contemplative adultery with wanton glances of the eye so Christ said whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with Mat. 5. 28. her already in his heart 3. Truth of Doctrine It was a notable speech of St. Ambrose Let us learn the envy of former Saints that we may imitate their patience for they shewed no envy in their sufferings but meerly patience and let us know them not to be of a better nature than we are but of greater obedience Not that they did not know vices and corruptions as well as we but they strived more to subdue and amend them He that desires to live and reign with Christ must strive to keep himself from deceit and wickedness If thou wilt live with Christ thou must live after the example of Christ And if thou desirest to have fellowship with the Saints strive to cleanse thy heart from all thoughts of malice and wickedness For the heavenly Palace will receive noâ—e but holy just innocent and pure persons The first degree of holiness is to love holiness and then to love those who live holily For holy persons were not before holiness but holiness was before them He doth speak foolishly who saith that he loves and respects holy persons who sleighteth and contemneth holiness By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God 1 Joh. 5. 2. and keep His Commandments Entertain into thy heart that Holy Spirit of promise If thou hast not the Spirit of Christ thou art none of His. Eph. 1. 13. Rom. 8. 9. He who hath Christ hath holiness for holiness hath a double relation unto Christ 1. As Christ is the principle and fountain of holiness whence it comes 2. As He is the rule and pattern of holiness to which it answers of these two more fully 1. Christ is the principle of holiness by whom it is wrought He Isai 26. 1â— Psal 87. 7. Joh. 1. 16. Psal 133. 2. works all our works in us all our springs are from him Of his fulness we all receive and Grace for Grace The oyntment ran down from Aarons head to the skirts of his garments to denote the effusion of the Spirit of holiness from Christ unto His lowest members 2. Christ is the rule and pattern of holiness to His Church Therefore we 1 Joh. 2. 6. must walk so as Christ also walked Now the works of Christ are of two sorts 1. Incommunicable as these 1. His works of Merit and Mediation and 2. His work of government and influence into the Church His giving of the Spirit Quickning of His Word Subduing of His Enemies Gathering together of His members all these are personal honours which belong to Him as He is the Head of the Church 2. His communicable works which
are imitable by us and which we ought to follow so our Sanctification consists in a conformity to the ways of Christ's ordinary obedience So we read that Christ went about doing good No guile Acts 10. 38. 1 Pet. 2. 22. Joh. 4. 34. was found in His mouth He made it His meat and drink to do his Fathers will when he was reviled he reviled 1 Pet. 2. 23. not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously He learned obedience by the things which He suffered Heb. 5. 8. Luk. 22. 42. Joh. 13. 14. Joh. 2. 14 17. He resigned His will to God's will He shewed us an excellent pattern of humility in washing His Disciples feet shewed admirable zeal for the glory of God and when He was thereunto called meekly resigned His Soul Luk. 23. 4â— into the hands of God And so the whole life of Christ was an exemplary precept unto men and we ought not to follow men any farther than they 1 Cor. 11. 1. Rev. 14. 4. follow Christ Let us follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth Now if Christ be a rule and pattern of holiness unto us then let us take heed that we be not a rule to our selves Every thing that Moses did about the material Tabernacle was to be done according to the pattern which he had seen in the Heb. 8. 5. Mount And every thing which we do in these spiritual Tabernacles we are to do it after the pattern of Him who is set before us looking unto Jesus the Heb. 12. 2. Author and finisher of our faith So let us be regular in all our speeches and actions doing all according to rule walking exactly and accurately as the Apostle bids us so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Eph. 5. 15. in the Original signifies Not as fools but as wise though the wise fools of the world may think us too precise therein And let us enquire out of the Scriptures whether Christ would have done this or that or no at least whether He allow it or no. And as many as Gal. 6. 16. walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God And thus while we follow Christ we are out of all danger whoso thus Prov. 1. 33. hearken to Him shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil being sure to be upheld and kept by Him in His way The more we follow Christ the nearer still we come unto Him Let us deny our selves our natural self and our sinful self and Christ will be all in all unto us He will guide us comfort counsel 2 Thess 2. 17. settle strengthen stablish us in every good word and work in this our Pilgrimage in the life of Grace here and Psal 73. 24. at length in His own good time bring us safely to the life of glory hereafter Thus we see what a comely and becoming thing holiness is what holiness is and the parts of it and how to attain it Holiness is a becoming thing As Moses when he had long conversed Exod. 34. 29. with God his face did shine So the Saints whose fellowship truly is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ do shine as lights in the 1 Joh. 1. 3. â—hil 2. 15. world Holiness makes us comely as in the sight of God so also in the sight of men So the promise is In that day that is Isai 4. â— in the times of the Gospel the Branch that is Christ shall be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely that is the Spouse and people of Christ who are chosen out of the world and who live upon the earth they shall be excellent and comely So the Saints are comely through Christ's comeliness which He hath put upon them Oh how great is his goodness Ezek. 16. 14. Zech. 9. 17. Psal 149. 4. and how great is his beauty he will beautifie the meek with Salvation The Sanctification of the Elect and chosen of God it is to be taught by the Holy Spirit through the Ministry of the word in the Gospel of the good-will of God towards them to be regenerated and through faith to be made the temples of God and members of Christ that they may mortifie the deeds of the flesh and walk in newness of life going on in that way apprehending comfort â—nd joy in God and so are kept to life everlasting God's sanctifying of us and our sanctifying of God do differ for we sanctifie God by believing by attributing to God His holiness that is all His holy attributes which He claims to Himself in His Word by acknowledging and confessing them and by our holy obedience Sanctifying of God contains the whole worship of God God sanctifieth us by making us inviolable safe and secure against Sin Hell the World Death Devil Enemies and all Evils God sanctifieth us in teaching us by His holy Spirit through the Ministry of the Gospel of His good-will towards us by regenerating us and by faith making us the temples of God and members of Christ to mortifie the flesh and to walk before God in newness of life and so are kept to life eternal Thus far of holiness and the word becometh Now of the next words Thine house O Lord for ever The house of God in Scripture hath several acceptations it signifies and it is taken sometimes for 1. Heaven which is God's upper house His house of Glory of which Joh. 14. 2. Christ said In My Fathers house are many mansions And St. Paul calls it a building 2 Cor. 5. 1. not made with hands eternal in the heavens Here even the poorest Saint who hath not an house to put his head in upon earth hath yet an house in Heaven into which no unholy thing shall enter 2. It is taken for the Church and people of God whether 1. Distributively every pious person is God's house Whose house Heb. 3. 6. are we 2. Collectively and then it is taken sometimes for a particular assembly So St. Paul said to Timothy that thou mayst 1 Tim. 3. 15. know how to behave thy self in the house of God which is the Church of the living God c. And sometimes it is taken for the Catholick Church and this Heb. 3. 2 5. is here meant whether the whole Church of God or every individual person holiness becometh them and is required of them 3. By the house of God in Scripture sometime is meant the true Religion taught and professed within the Church of God The zeal of Thine house hath Psal 69. 9 eaten me up 4. The temple at Jerusalem whereof it is spoken My house shall be called the Luk. 19. 46 house of Prayer The temple of God is holy whose temple 1 Cor. 3. 17. we are Every thing about the material temple and in it was holy
search wherefore the Lord hath done so unto us For God hath holy ends and purposes in all His dispensations towards us Hath God taken away a near Relation from me as a loving Husband tender Wife or a hopeful Child to instance in these which was the desire of mine eyes and the joy of my heart if God hath taken Ezek. 34. 16. them away with His stroke did not I dote or depend too much upon them did not my heart run out too much after them did I use them so as I should when I did enjoy them ask thy self these and the like questions Commune Psal 4. 4. with thine own heart and be still go to God in Prayer and say wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto me what meaneth the heat of this great anger Deut. 29. 24. But be sure to fall out with thy sins and not with God So search and try thy ways and turn unto the Lord Lam. 3. 40. with thy whole heart for He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children ver 33. of men Are they dead death hath passed and will pass upon all men for Rom. 5. 12. that all have sinned It is appointed to Heb. 9. 27. all men once to dye We must needs dye and are all as water spilt upon the ground 2 Sam. 14. 14. which cannot be gathered up again We are strangers and sojourners here as all our fathers were our days on the earth are but as a shadow and here is no abiding If we did not dye we should 1 Chron. 29. 15. always be subject to sin and misery death freeth the Saints from all for Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord yea so saith the Spirit for they Rev. 14. 13. rest from their labours and their works follow them But see if it be not for any particular sin of thine this affliction is befallen thee if upon serious search thou findest it so to be then be humbled for it repent and amend and walk more closely with God for the future That it may not be said of thee as formerly of Ephraim gray hairs are here and there Hos 7. 9. upon him yet he knoweth it not that is he considered not God's Judgments knew not nor was humbled for his sins waxed old in his wickedness yet did not he know it or lay it to heart God doth now empty thee from vessel to vessel Jer. 48. 11 and doth not suffer thee to be at ease to be setled upon thy lees O therefore let not the taste of thine old corruptions remain in thee to rellish of them and like them as formerly and thy scent not to be changed when thou art as worldly and wicked as ever Zeph. 1â— 12. For the Lord will surely search thee as with candles and punish thee and all those that are setled upon their Lees. Whatever was good and commendable in thy Deceased Relations that follow practice and imitate and make good use of This affliction of thine is a tryal Ezek. 21. 13. Isaiah 48. 10. God will try thee now in the Furnace of affliction This may be a sign unto thee that thou belongest unto God who hath his â—ire in Zion and his Furnace Isaiah 31. 9. in Jerusalem Although God may let some run on in outward prosperity and to have even more than heart can Psal 73. 7. Gen. 15. 16. Mat. 23. 32. wish and others to run on in sin till they have filled up the measure of their iniquities God would purifie thee Oh be thou purified and clensed hereby That the tryal of thy faith being 1 Pet. 1. 7 much more precious then of gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire might be sound unto praise and honour and glory at the appearance of Jesus Christ Thus we see that the afflictions of the Godly are for correction and for tryal Blessed are they whom thou chastenest O Psal 94. 12. Lord and teachest them out of thy Law When Instruction and Correction go together that is a happy and a blessed Correction Think also on the Saints of God who through faith and patience inherit the promises Heb. 6. 12. Labour to set Faith on Work yea let the tryal of thy Faith work in the patience and let patience have its perfect Jam. 1. 3 4. work that thou mayest be perfect and entire lacking nothing Thou canst not be a through-out and perfect and an accomplished Christian unless thou hast obtained this excellent grace of Patience see that thou abound in this grace also 2 Cor. 8. â— Q. But why are afflictions call'd temptations as blessed is the man that endureth Jam. 1. 12â— Jam. 1. 2. temptations And count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations I answer All temptations are not evil but some are tryals of our Faith and Hope in God if we can live by Faith and rest upon the promises and so they make much for our good And in this regard they are pronounced that fall into divers temptations Therefore ought we not simply to pray and without exception to be delivered from them but only from the evil of them As God led Israel 40 years in the Wilderness to humble them and to prove them to know what was in their Deut. 8. â— 13. 3. heart whether they would keep his Commandments or no. And to prove them whether they would love the Lord their God with all their hearts and with all their souls So afflictions are called temptations because by them God tryeth our Obedience to notisie our faith and patience both to our selves and others whether we will follow him or not And therefore we may be assured that so often as we beat back or overcome the temptations we have so many undoubted testimonies of Gods love unto us So then Patience is from the acknowledging of Gods Wisdom Providence Justice and Goodness to be Obedient unto him in bearing all adversities and crosses or losses which the Lord hath brought upon us and through grief not to murmur or repine at any of his dispensations nor to do any thing against his Commâ—â—â—ements but in the midst of our grief to retain assured hope and confidence of Gods help and to crave aid and deliverance from him and in this confidence and acknowledging of Gods Will to moderate our grief Psal 37. 7 8 34. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him Fret not thy self in any wise to do evil So we see that patience is a duty belonging to the First Commandement not only because it 's a part of that inward obedience which we owe to God and he immediately requires it to himself at our hands but also because that from our acknowledging of God our confidence in him and our love and fear of him do follow as necessary effects To this Christian patience impatience is contrary and opposed which impatience is when through ignorance or distrust of
proud either directly or indirectly 1. Directly when he simply preferreth himself above another 2. Indirectly and interpretatively when he will not submit himself to another to whom he ought to be subject In this last respect as it is pride against man not to be subject to Superiours and Magistrates whom he ought to submit unto which he is enjoyned to do and Rom. 13. 5. that for Conscience sake So also it brancheth it self out in the second place in reference to God 2dly Pride against God is shewed when men will not be subject to God's Will and refuse to hear and obey His Word Then spake all the proud men Jer. 43. 2. saying to Jeremiah Thou speakest falsly the Lord hath not said so To these the same Prophet in another place speaketh Hear ye and give ear be not proud for 13. 15. the Lord hath spoken There is another sort of pride also simply against God when a man is proud of his Gifts and Graces or of the performance of duties or any enlargedness therein which of all pride is most devilish O watch thy heart here-against for Satan will be apt to tempt thee lest thou fall into the condemnation 1 Tim. 3. 6. of the devil be humbled for it and Pray against it For what hast thou that thou hast not received wilt thou then boast or be puffed up with pride as if thou hadst not received it 1 Cor. 4. 7. But to speak a little more of pride towards men which we should have done before and then to proceed in speaking more fully of pride immediately towards God Pride in reference to men is toward Superiours or Inferiours or Equals 1. Toward Superiours when proud men will not be subject to them 2. Toward Inferiours when they will not behave themselves so towards them as is meet but scorn them and trample upon them 3. Toward Equals when they desire to be or seem to be higher than they This pride is either in heart or in speeches or in outward gesture 1. In the heart then it is called a lifting up of the heart so it is spoken of Amaziah when he had smitten the Edomites â— Chr. 25. 19. then his heart was lifted up So Ezech. 28. 2. of the King of Tyrus because thine heart is lifted up c. 2. In speeches then it is called boasting when a man 's own tongue Prov. 20 6. proclaimeth his own goodness 3. In outward gestures The daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes walking and mincing as they go c. Isai 3. 16. To speak a little more of pride against God Oh this pride Some learned men do hold that it was this sin of Pride that did cast the Angels out of Heaven mistaking that place Isai 14. 13 14. which is meant of the King of Babylon The sin of the Angels comprehended pride envy and more too Being an utter falling away from God and that holy standing which God had placed them in especially to minister to man's good So also pride was a great ingredient in the sin of our first Parents though in general it was disobedience the degrees whereof were first infidelity then pride and lastly the disavowing of subjection to God Gen. 2. 16 17. 3. 6 7. by eating the forbidden fruit which they imagined should be the means to attain to a higher degree of blessedness but proved to be the sin that procured their fall Thus we see the rise and original of pride and how odious it is to God and the dreadful consequences of it It made the Angels become Devils and God spared them not but 2 Pet. 2. 4. threw them out of heaven and cast them down to hell and delivered them into Jude 6. chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment So also it cast our first Parents out of Paradise brought upon them and all their posterity sin guiltiness and punishment which three do always follow one upon another all manner of miseries death yea everlasting death and damnation without Christ's merits and God's mercies This is the fruit of pride and yet we are still so wicked and such fools to hug this serpent this viper of pride in our bosomes This was the iniquity of Sodom Pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her c. and they were haughty c. Therefore said the Lord I took them away as I saw good And Ezek. 16. 49 50. still this pride reigns in Sodom's children though God hath revealed His wrath from Heaven against it by such terrible vociferations Pride and arrogancy Rom. 1. 18. Prov. 8. 13. do I hate They that are lifted up with pride fall into the condemnation 1 Tim. 3. 6. of the Devil A man's pride shall bring him low Pride goeth before destruction Prov. 29. 23. Prov. 16. 18. and a haughty spirit before a fall When pride cometh then cometh shame Only Prov. 11. 2. Prov. 13. 10. Oâ—ad 3. Isai 23. 9. by pride cometh contention The pride of their heart will deceive them when God shall stain the pride of all glory this shall they have for their pride they shall lye Zeph. 2. 10. Dan. 4. 37. down in sorrow Those that walk in pride God is able to abase them and will abase them This made the holy Prophet Jeremiah tell the Jews My soul Jer 3. 17. shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears yet the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek Psal 10. 4. after God God is not in all his thoughts Though their pride testifyeth to their face yet do they not return to the Lord Hosea 7. 10. nor seek him for all this but have their hearts lifted up and their minds Dan. 5. 20. Psal 31. 23. Prov. 15. 25. hardened in pride Though the Lord will plentifully reward the proud doer and will destroy the house of the proud Every one that is proud in heart is abomination to the Lord though hand joyn in hand though he use all outward Prov. 16. 5. means of prevention yet he shall not be unpunished Think upon what God said of Babylon heretofore She hath been proud Jer. 50. 29. 31 32. against the Lord behold I am against thee O thou most proud saith the Lord God of hosts for thy day is come the time that I will visit thee and the most proud shall stumble and fall and none shall raise him up and I will kindle a fire in his Cities and it shall devour all round about him Wherein they deal proudly God will be above them Dost Exod 18. 11. thou think to resist God when He sets Himself in battel-array against thee Who can stand before Him when He is angry If he doth but touch the mountains Psal 104. 32. and they smoke Assure thy self thou canst not contend with
man shall set upon thee to hurt thee It is endless to quote all the texts in the Old and New Testament to this purpose I will only add a few Corollaries 1. God will have glory attributed Corollarâ—â—â— to Him not only as He is the Creator and Upholder of Heaven and Earth but also the most High Wise Just and Great Governor and Directer of all things This is against the Figments of the Bpicureans and Pelagians 2. This Doctrine of Providence may confirm and strengthen our hearts against the Blasphemies of the Manichees and Libertines who say that God willeth sin as it is sin Whereas He willeth the act but not the evil of the act c. 3. Against the Opinion of the Stoicks for all things are govern'd by Gods most free and unchangable Decree 4. Therefore He will be acknowledged and praised by us as the Author Fountain and Worker of all good things for nothing in any creature is or can be of good unto us but by Gods Will affectually working in it and by it 5. Seeing all good things are from God Let us not sacrifice to our own â—â—â— 1. 16. nets or burn incense to our own drag that is not resting in creatures or second causes by which we may be benefited but giving all glory and praise to God to acknowledg the creatures are but instruments and ministers in His hand and by His ordering to do good unto us 6. Sith nothing rashly or casually happeneth to us but all things betide us by Gods most Blessed Just and profitable Decree and Good-will towards us Let us effectually be stirred up by knowing and acknowledging hereof to exercise patience in all our adversities As Psal 39. 9. David said I was dumb and opened not my mouth because Thou hast done it Job 1. 21. And Job the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. 7. Let our confidence and comfort be sound firm and established in the Lord who will defend and preserve us in the midst of all enemies and dangers moderating and ordering all evils so that they tend to our good and salvation For we know that all things work Rom. 8. 28. together for good to them that love God 8. By all our past and present afflictions let us be bettered and amended Sith not by chance but by God they are inflicted upon us that we may say Psal 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted c. 9. For future crosses and afflictions seeing they are signs and tokens of Gods anger against sin Let us fear them and strive to avoid them by fleeing and abstaining from sin the cause of them 10. Let us not faint much less despair when we are in dangers troubles or adversities when the outward means of our deliverance fail and the creatures seem to be against us because God is not ty'd to help by them For man lives not by bread alone c. The Mat. 4. 4. 16. 18. gates of Hell shall not prevail c. There 1 Sam. 14. 6. is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few He can deliver either by means or without means or against means 11. Seeing all events are ordered by God and no wholsome counsels can be undertaken without Him neither doth any thing please Him but what we undertake according to His Word Let us not be lifted up in confidence of our own wisdom and power c. but demeaning our selves in the fear of God let us pray that all our actions may be directed by Him and so blessed unto us and that we may never depart from His Will revealed unto us And then confidently wait on Him for sâ—ccess 12. Sith we know as before we said God hath a care of all things especially of mankind and most principally of His own Children whom He peculiarly loveth and careth for so as Christ said the hairs of our head Mat. 10. 31. are all number'd and we are of more value than many Sparrows Let us in doing our duty faithfully in our places rest confidently on the Providence of God Casting all our care on Him for He careth for us EXERCITATION THE FOURTEENTH Rev. 20. 12 15 Verses And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire EXpect not a Logical Analysis of the words and a procedure thereon accordingly that I leave to Divines in their Sermons But according to my use in my former Exercitations to chuse out some heads out of the words read and so meditate and dilate upon them And here we may consider these four heads 1 Death 2 Judgment 3 Hell 4 Heaven Accordingly we shall frame our ensuing discourse 1. Death out of these words And I 1 Death saw the dead c. First there must be death before they could be dead 2. Judgment out of these words 2 Judgment Stand before God c. and they were judged c. 3. This Judgment shall be according to their works They that have done good shall go into life everlasting and 3 Heaven they that have done evil into everlasting 4 Hell fire So it is in the Creed of Holy Athanasius And so also in the Apostles Creed I believe that Christ shall come to judg both the quick and dead I believe the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting So also in the Nicene Creed That is everlasting life for the good in heaven and everlasting life for the wicked in hell in those never Mark 9. 44. dying flames where the worm dyeth not and the fire never goeth out First to speak of Death Death is the 1 Death fruit of Sin Sin brings shame misery and death 1. Sin brings shame for before the fall our first Parents were both naked Gen. 2. 25. and were not ashamed But since the fall sin causeth shame in all men and women except those who are come to that height of impudence that they are past shame of whom the Prophet speaks Were they ashamed when they had Jer. 6. 15. committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Therefore said the Apostle What Rom. 6. 21. fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed c 2. Sin brings all sorts of miseries calamities losses c. I have wounded them Jer. 30. 14 15. with the wounds of an enemy with the chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of thine iniquities because thy sins were increased I have done these things unto thee 3. Sin brings death the end of these Rom. 6. 21. things is death So we see that sin guiltiness and
punishment did grow from the fall of our first Parents The punishment of sin which we now speak of is the wrath and curse of God by whose just sentence man is delivered over for his sin into the power both of bodily and spiritual â—eath begun here and to be accomâ—lished hereafter Bodily death is the separation of the â—ul from the body with all personal â—iseries and evils that attend thereon â—â— make way thereunto Spiritual death is the final separation â—f both soul and body from God together with spiritual bondage and all â—re-runners of damnation Or more particularly All the misery â—f man God in this one word Death â—â—th comprehended In the day thou Gen. 2. 17. â—â—est of the tree of knowledg of good and â—â—il thou shalt dye There are four degrees of death 1. There is a spiritual death which a privation of spiritual life whereby man is destitute of saving Grace and â— lives only unto sin So Christ of the â—hurch of Sardis I know thy works Rev. 3. â— â—ou hast a name that thou livest but thou â—t dead 2. The second degree is of afflictions â—d miseries So Pharaoh said to Moses â—d Aaron Pray ye to the Lord that He Exod. 10. 17. â—ay remove from me this death only 3. Corporal death which is a privaâ—on of natural life and a resolution of the body into dust and returning oâ— the soul again unto God Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and Eccles 12. 7. the spirit unto God that gave it 4. The fourth degree is everlasting death or the state of the damned Rev. 21. 8. which in respect of corporal death â—â— called the second death But it is the third of these corporal death which â—â— here meant Spiritual death hath three degrees 1. When a man who is alive in regard of corporal or temporal death lies dead in sins She that liveth in pleasures is dead while she liveth And this 1 Tim. 5. 6. is the case of all men by nature whâ— are children of wrath and dead in sinâ— Eph. 2. 1. and trespasses 2. The second degree is the very end of this life when the body is to be layed in the earth and the soul descendâ— to the place of torment 3. The third degree is in the day oâ— Judgment when the body and soul meâ—â— again and go both to the place of the damned there to be tormented for ever and ever But now we are to speak of temporaâ— or corporal death which is a punishment inflicted on man for sin Deatâ— passed upon all men for that all have Rom. 5. 12. â—inned This death is a miserable priâ—ation of life And yet this death is not so properly as by Gods appointment â—ut from God as revenging on Sin and so properly it is from Sin as the meritorious and procuring cause of it And so this death is not only a simple and a bare privation of life but joyned with a subjection unto misery Therefore it is not an annihilation of the Sinner because the subject of misery being â—aken away then misery it self should be â—aken away also Now sith we must all dye let us labour Heb. 9. 27. to dye well To dye well two things are requisite 1. A preparation 1. Preparation before death before death 2. A right behaviour and disposition in death 1. The preparation unto death is an action of a repentant Sinner whereby he makes himself â—it and ready to dye That which we can do but once how careful should we be to do it well sith there is no place after for amending of errours therein committed This preparation is a duty very necessary to which we are bound by God's Commandment Therefore we are bid to watch and pray As death leaves us so judgment finds us as the tree falleth so Eccles 11. 3. it lyeth This preparation is twofold 1 General 1. General preparation for death 2. Particular 1 General to prepare our selves to dye through the whole course of our life for we know not neither the time of our death nor the place of our death nor the manner how whether of a sudden death or of a lingring sickness Therefore all the days of my Job 14. 14. appointed time will I wait till my change shall come The best Art of living well is to learn the Art of dying well Balaam would dye the death of the righteous Numb 23. 10. and that his latter end might be like to his but he did not care to live the life of the righteous I protest by our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus our 1 Cor. 15. 31. Lord said St. Paul I dye daily That is in preparation for it meditation upon it and expectation of it This will keep us humble and further our daily repentance and help us to be contented in every condition and make us watchful over our selves to fly and avoid Sin careful to grow in Grace and to be frequent in Prayer to God that He would teach us so to number Psal 90. 12. our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom For if we would live for ever we must begin to live that blessed and everlasting life here before we dye to live the life of Grace here which is the life of Glory begun We all with open face beholding as in a 2 Cor. 3. 18. glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory aâ— by the spirit of the Lord that is we by faith contemplating the glorious light of God's mercy truth power c. by which means we are made like unto Hiâ— in the glory of holiness and newness of life by the Spirit of regeneration which hath its progresses in this life until such time as it cometh to its perfection in the life everlasting â— Of particular preparation before 2. Particular preparation â—oâ— death death this contains three duties 1. Concerning God 2. Our selves 3. Our Neighbour â— Concerning God to seek to be reconciled to Him in Jesus Christ This reconciliation is had by renewing our former faith and repentance To see and acknowledg that Visitation of sickness from God's hand and usually it is for sin 1. Therefore make we a new examination of our hearts and â—am 3. 3â— lives search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. 2. Confess we our sins to the Lord and He will forgive the iniquity of our sins If we confess our sins He is saithful and just to forgive 1 Psal 32. 5. Joh. 1. 9. us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 3. Pray earnestly unto God with sighs and groans of the Spirit for pardon of sin and that God would assure us of it and that He is reconciled to us in Christ Jesus our Surety 2. Concerning our duties to our selves and that 1. In reference to the Soul 2. In reference to the Body 1. In
air to meet the Lord But the Reprobate together with the Devil and his Angels shall with great horror and confusion be drawn into the presence of Christ then Rev. 6. 15. the Books shall be opened whereby we understand partly the Omniscience of God or His knowing of all things and partly the conscience of every man and woman And another book shall be opened which is the book of life Which is to shew that the salvation of the godly is not from their works buâ— from the eternal Grace of God whereby they are written in the book of life The wicked shall have their unbelief and wickedness so laid before their eyes by the testimony of their own consciences that they shall not be able to contradict or deny any thing at all I will reprove thee saith God and Psal â—0 21. Mat. 12. 3â— set thy wickedness before thy face The Act of Judgment shall be performed two ways 1. By examination 2. By pronouncing Sentence 1. By examination and that â— By 1. Examination the Law of God which hath been revealed unto men whether it be the Law of Nature only which is the remainder of the Law written in the hearts of our First Parents and conveyed by the Power of God unto all men to leave them without excuse for the Rom. 1. 20. invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even His eternal Power and God-head so that they are without excuse Or whether by the Law of God we understand that written word of God vouchsafed unto the Church in the Scriptures first of the Old and after of the New Testament as the rule of faith and life For as many as have sinned without Rom. 2. 12. Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law 2. This examination shall be by the evidence of every mans conscience bringing all his works to light whether they be good or evil his conscience bearing witness with him or against him together with the testimony of such who either by their doctrine company or example have either approved or condemned him Which Mat. 12. 27 41 42. shew the work of the law written in their Rom. 2. 15. hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another But there shall be a great difference in the examination of the elect and examination of the reprobates For 1. The elect shall not have their sins remembred Christ having satisfied for them All their transgressions that Ezek. 18. 22. they have committed they shall not be mentioned unto them Their transgressions are forgiven and their sins are covered Psal 32. 1. But their good works shall be remembred I was hungry and ye fed me c. their good works do follow Rev. 14. 13. them 2. Because they be in Christ therefore they and their works shall not undergo the strict Tryal of the law simply in its self but as the obedience thereof doth prove them to be true partakers of the grace of the Gospel Thus we have seen the first Act of judgment which is by Examination Now of the second Act which is by the 2. Pronouncing of sentence pronouncing of sentence The sentence shall be pronounced by the Judg Himself our Lord Jesus Christ according to the evidence and verdict of conscience touching works who shall adjudg the Elect unto the blessing of the Kingdom of God His Father And the Reprobates with the Devil and his Angels unto the curse of everlasting Fire So then men shall be adjudged to salvation or damnation for their works sake 1. The wicked shall be condemned for the merit of their works because being perfectly evil they deserve the wages of damnation For the wages of Rom. 6. 23. sin is death 2. The Godly shall be pronounced just because their works though imperfect do prove their faith whereby they lay hold on Christ and His meritorious righteousness to be a true Faith As Jam. 2. 18. Gal. 5. 6. working by love in all parts of obedience This last Judgment is administred by Christ as a King for the power of judging is a part of the Royal Function 1. In respect of the faithful this Judgment is from Grace and is a Function of the Kingdom of Grace essential to Christ as our Mediator 2. But in respect of the wicked From His Power and Dominion granted to Him by the Father Hence it is as I said before the sins of the Godly shall not come into Judgment for in this life by the Sentence of Justification they are taken away and coverd And this last Judgment shall be a confirming and manifestation of the same Sentence Therefore it is not consentaneous or meet that they should then be brought to light again Christ shall judg the world not according Isa 11. 3. to the sight of the eyes or hearing of the ears But He is the knower and searcher of all hearts who can discern the Hypocrites from the truly Godly and He will do no wrong to any The judg of all the earth will do Gen. 18. 25. right He will not acquit the wicked nor condemn the just He will manifest the secrets of all hearts and render to every one according to his works then shall the upright have praise of God Q Why must this last judgment be A. 1. Because of God's decree He hath decreed it and said it shall be 2. That God may obtain the end of creation of man God made all men for His glory if wicked men would not glorifie Him here He will judiciarily be glorified upon them in their everlasting confusion God shall be praised and glorified by His Elect to all eternity 3. That God may shew His perfect goodness and mercy to His Elect who were so excruciated troubled and afflicted here in this world that they may 2 Thess 1. 8. have rest 4. For His perfect Justice and Truths sake that He may shew His Justice in punishing the ungodly who do flourish in this world where they have all Luk. 16. 25. the good that ever they shall have Therefore it must be according to God's Justice and Truth in His Promises that the righteous shall have recompence in everlasting life both in body and soul Q. But it is said The Saints shall 1 Cor. 6. 2. judg the world And the Apostles shall sit upon thrones judging the twelve Luk. 22. 30. tribes of Israel A. I answer Christ alone in His humane nature shall appear judg and pronounce the sentence on all and execute it yet not excluding the Father and the Holy Ghost God is invisible For this judgment is the work of the whole individual Trinity but according to the visible act promulgation and execution of the sentence so it is the judgment of Christ For Christ being
that hideous cry Art thou come to torment us before the time This terrible fire these hideous torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels all wicked Mat. 25. 41. men must enter into and remain in and and that for ever Oh that dreadful word Eternity never never to have end The damned might think themselves some ways mitigated to endure these horrible pains and extremest horrors more millions of years than there be sands on the Sea-shore or stars in the firmament c. they would still comfort themselves with thinking that their misery will once have an end But alas this amazing word Never will rend their heart in pieces with much rage and hideous roaring and give still new-life to those insufferable pains and sorrows which infinitely exceed all expression or imagination There are in Hell both Corporal and Spiritual plagues and torments The punishment of loss and the punishment of sense 1. The pain of loss the privation of Gods glorious presence and eternal separation from those everlasting joys happiness and blessedness in Heaven which is a most unutterable and inexpressible torment 2. The pain of sense the extremity exquisiteness and perpetuity thereof no tongue can possibly express or heart of man conceive It doth not only exceed with an incomparable disproportion all possibility of patience and resistance but also even ability to bear it And yet notwithstanding it must of necessity be born so long as God is God They shall weep to see how that weeping it self can nothing prevail yea in weeping they shall weep more tears than there is water in the Sea for the water of the Sea is finite but the weeping of the reprobates shall be infinite Their Consciences shall ever sting them like an Adder when they think how God used all means for their Salvation how Christ wooed them by His Ministers to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5. 20. offering them freely remission of sins and the Kingdom of Heaven if they would but believe and repent and how easily they might have obtained mercy in those dayes and yet they suffered the Devil and the World and their unruly lusts to lull them asleep and keep them still in impenitency and unbelief and how the day of mercy and grace is now past and will never dawn again Oh that men and women would timely and seriously think hereupon that they may never come into this place of torment to lye as it were in fire and brimstone kept in the highest flame by the unquenchable wrath of God and that for ever Where they shall have nothing about them but darkness and horror wailing and wringing of hands desparate yellings and gnashing of teeth Their old companions in sin and vanity cursing them with much rage and bitterness wicked Devils insulting over them with Hellish cruelty and scorn the never-dying worm of conscience feeding upon their Soul and flesh for ever and ever the smoak of their Rev. 14. 11. torments ascending also to all eternity This is the estate of the reprobates in Hell this is the second death the general perfect fulness of all cursedness and misery 4. Come we to the last head mentioned 4 Heaven Heaven When Christ by His Almighty power and Ministry of His Angels hath cast the Devils and all the reprobates into hell the righteous Psal 58. 10. shall rejoyce to see the vengeance and glorifie God in the confusion of His enemies and have cause then to say Verily there is a reward for the righteous verse 11. verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth Then the elect shall be by Christ carried up into Heaven and put in possession of His glorious Kingdom where they shall be unspeakably and everlastingly blessed and glorious in 1 Cor. 13. 10 12. Body and Soul Being freed from all imperfections and infirmities yea from such graces as imply imperfection as Faith Hope Repentance c. and endued with perfect Wisdom and Holiness possessed with all those rivers of pleasures Psal 16. 11. Rev. 3. 21. 2 Tim. 4. 8. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Psal 17. 16. 1 Thess 4. 17. Heb. 12. 22. which are at Gods right hand seated as Princes in thrones of Majesty Crowned with crowns of glory possessing the new-heaven and new-earth wherein dwelleth righteousness beholding and being filled with the fruition and enjoyment of the glorious presence of God and of the Lamb Jesus Christ in the company of innumerable Angels and holy Saints c. The efficient cause of this eternal blessed life generally is the whole Trinity But especially the Lord Jesus Christ who by His merits hath obtained it for us and by His effectual Power gives it unto us Hence He is called the eternal Father or rather the Father Isa 9. 6. of Eternity And the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. And He also calls Himself metonimically I am the life John 14. 6. This eternal happiness shall be clearly seen by our freedom from all evil both of sin and suffering and by the variety greatness and eternity of all joys and happiness God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes and there shall be Rev. 21. 4. no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away The variety of those Heavenly joys may farther appear and be seen in these following particulars 1. In the glorification of the whole man both Body and Soul 2. In the pleasantness and sweetness of those Heavenly mansions 3. In the blessed Society of the Angels and Saints 4. But above all in our communion with God To insist briefly upon these The variety of Heavenly joys appear 1. In the glorification of our whole man 1. Our bodies shall be endued with impassibility that is never capable to suffer more with nimbleness and agility with subtility and clearness shining as the light and as the Dan. 12. 3. brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever and fashioned like to Christs glorious body 2. Our Phil. 3. 21. Souls shall be far more perfect then shall we have understanding without error light without darkness wisdom without ignorance reason without obscurity memory without forgetfulness c. 2. The pleasantness and sweetness of these Heavenly mansions was shadowed by the temple of Solomon and the New-Jerusalem Glorious things are spoken Revel 20. 10 to 27. Psal 87. 3. of thee O thou city of God 3. The blessed Society of Saints and Angels we shall not only have a communion Mat 22. 30. Luk. 28. 36. with them but we shall be as Angels 4. The communion we shall have with God shall be such as we shall see Him without end love Him for ever and praise Him without weariness In Psal 16. 11. whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right-hand are pleasures for evermore God so of His gracious good will distributeth glory that none shall have cause of
the words in our Church-Catechism are a death unto sin and a new-birth unto righteousness So said the Apostle buried with Christ in Baptism wherein also we are risen with Him through faith c. Col. 2. 12. God who usually accompanies His own Ordinance with His blessing will not frustrate our expectation in any of those good things which He hath promised therefore we must strive to be perswaded that remission of sins and regeneration or a renewedness of life by Baptism is offered unto us and that we receive it therein In as much as by Baptism we are incorporated into Christ and receive His Holy Spirit unless we reject the promises there made unto us and so render them unprofitable to our selves The right use of Baptism is placed in faith and repentance if thou wouldst use Baptism aright as it should be then repent and believe so we read in sundry places of the Gospels and also in the Acts of the Apostles that is that we be perswaded that we are purged by the blood of Christ from our sins and be sensible that we have His holy Spirit dwelling in us and so daily to meditate of mortifying our corrupt flesh and of yielding obedience to all Gods commands Baptism is a Sacrament of the New Testament by the washing of water representing the powerful washing of Eph. 5. 26. the Blood and Spirit of Christ and so 1 Cor. 6. 11. Heb. 10. 22. sealing up our regeneration or new birth our entrance into the Covenant of Grace our ingraffing into Christ and into His mystical body which is the Joh. 3. 5. Tit. 3. 5. Church Acts 8. 27. This Sacramental washing sealeth to those that are within Gods Covenant their birth in Christ and entrance into Christianity The Covenant which is in general to all believers is in Baptism especially made and established with every one of the faithful And it is always ratified and sure even to them that fall when they do repent Although Novatus and his Sect taught otherwise Neither do they enter into a new Covenant after their falls but that which was entered into is restored renewed and confirmed again We must often meditate on and consider of the Covenant made and entered into in our Baptism Baptism came in place of circumcision and keepeth analogy and proportion with it for both of them were a Sacrament of entrance or of receiving into the Covenant of Grace Baptism came in place of circumcision 1. By the command of God God sent John to baptize with water so we have it Joh. 1. 33. 2. By the Ministry of John therefore he was called John the Baptist so we have it Mat. 3. 1 In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness c. 3. It was sanctified and confirmed by our Saviour Christ Himself being baptized by John Mat. 3. 13. 4. By his giving commission to His Apostles and Ministers to continue the Mat. 28. 18. same in His Church unto the end Baptism is therefore also called the circumcision made without hands or tâ—ue regeneration in the Spirit in puting off the body of the sins of the flesh Col. 2. 11 by the circumcision of Christ That is by virtue of the gift of regeneration which is the spiritual circumcision whereof Christ alone is the workeâ— Buried with Him in Baptism c. So Baptism is our Circumcision on comes to us in the place of Circumcision that is by which the same things are confirmed and in all things assured to us in the Nâ—w Testament which were confirmed and conferred on those in the Old Testament by Circumcision The words of institution of Baptism are recorded in Mat. 28. 19. Mark 16. 14. Go ye into all the world and preach theâ— Gospel to every creature that is to every rational and intelligent creature or Teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned To be baptized in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost signifies and imports these things 1. That it is done by the command of God 2. To testifie that by this Rite and Ceremony that he that is thus baptized is received into Grace and favour by the eternal Father for and through His Son and is sanctified by the Holy Ghost We must still understand this of believers and them alone for Mark 16. 1â— He that believeth not shall be damned and that for all his Baptism unless he believe So here is the principal end of Baptism 3. To be baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is to shew that the pâ—â—son baptized is bound to know and acknowledg to believe and trust in to worship and fear to honour and call upon this true God Father Son and Holy Ghost and this is the second end of Baptism which St. Paul shews in these words 1 Cor. 1. 13 Were ye baptized in the name of â—aul â—â— as much as if he had said ye must be His to whom in Baptism ye have given and obliged your selves given your names unto and in whose name ye were baptiâ—eâ— Of Baptism there are two parts 1. The water of Baptism 2. The lawful use thereof 1. By the water of Baptism is signified both the Spirit and the Blood of Christ spilt upon the Cross This is that blood of sprinkling which speaketh better Heb 12. 24. things than that of Abel We are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without 1 Pet. 1. 19. spot This is the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Zech. 13. 1. As the Blood of Christ so also the Spirit of Christ is signified by the water of Baptism Therefore said our Saviour If any man thirst let him come unto Me Joh. 7. 37 38 39. and drink he that believeth on Me out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive John indeed baptized with water but Acts 11. 16 â—e shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost The lawful use of the water of Bapâ—ism is perceived in the action both of the Minister administring it and also of the faithful who receive Baptism The action of the Minister is twoâ—old 1. The Sanctification of the water 2. The outward washing 1. The Sanctification of the water is the setting it apart to this end to signifie the Blood and Spirit of Christ by His ordinance and institution which the words of institution do declare 2. The outward washing is a most sure sign pledg and seal of the inward washing whereby we with the Blood and Spirit of Christ are washed from out sins He hath washed us from our sins Rev. 1. 5. in His own blood So many of us as Rom. 3. 1. are baptized into Jesus Christ are