very offer Christ had once made to him by this Dragon he came to Christ and said Luke 4. 6 7. All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it if thou therefore wilt worship mee all shall be thine Hee said thus far true that he had a great stroke in the Kingdomes of the world but yet it was limited to him for it's true hee was the god of the world in the time of Heathenish and Popish apostacy He offers Christ he will give it all to him if he will fall down and worship him The Lord Jesus rejects him It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve When he offers such baites and barbarous temptations as these be we are to rejâ—ct him The Devill comes and offers this to the Vicar of Christ as they call him I wil give you government over all the Churches in the world and Kingdoms and States and he in very deed takes Satans offer and doth take all the pomp and state of the world Time was when Naaman the Assyrian offered large matters to Elisha for healing him of his Leprosie but the Prophet would have none of them though he was no Pagan for when he came home they would aske what did it cost you he might say it cost me not a groat but what it cost me in the Innes where I lay this is honour to Religion His servant Gehezi indeed runs after him As the Lord liveth he shall not goe so away but he will have a reward He makes an excuse There are two sonnes of the Prophets come and he desires a talent of silver and two changes of garments and hee very liberally fastens a great deale more on him then he asks What saith Elisha Is this a time to take money and to receive garments and Olive-yards and Vine-yards and sheep and oxen and men-servants and maid-servants Hee meant such money as would buy all these The leprosie therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee And so truly the leprosie of Antichrist and of the Catholick Church cleave to us if we take up any thing that derogates from the simple and naked and sheep-like government of Christ Jesus It will be a Leprosie that wil cleave to us make us grow more more leprous And therefore it must teach us not to regard the profits and pleasures of this world I speak chiefly to men as we are Church-members Such simple government though it hath horns for the Lamb hath horns and can tell how to push yet meeknesse and simplicity is best Just and faithfull Administrations becomes the simplicity of civill government but how much more the Church of Christ that so this great and vast Beast may be kept away from us Lastly it may teach us all as ever wee desire not to grow monstrous and ugly in the sight of the Lord Jesus to take heed of hearkning to any power of Nationall Churches you will finde that this will grow to such ugly deformity that God will turn away his face from you You will never finde him as in times of ignorance Though God hath pardoned what we did in ignorance not knowing what wee did as Christ prayed Luke 23. 34. Father forgive them they know not what they doe And I doubt not but he doth the like for many of our deare brethren who in their ignorance do submit to the Beast and the image of the Beast and doth vouchsafe his gracious presence with them But for us here if we shall in our hearts turn back againe to Aegypt and be content to stoop to these Superstitions and be thus ruled for order and forme of worship believe it then we may looke for an end of all our prosperity and liberty of the Churches here Then look we should grow mishapen and monstrous and look ugly we shall then soon see an end of all the comforts of the Churches here As therefore God hath betrusted us with such a handsome body as hee is pleased to own so continue in your profession and in the maintenance of the same even to death Revel 13. 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the Beast IN these words is described the variation of the state of the Beast in respect of one of his heads 1. John saw it as it were wounded to death and all men thought it unrecoverable that is one State 2. A State of recovery His deadly wound was healed 3. The effects of this healing 1. The worlds admiration after the Beast 2. Their worship both of the Dragon the Beast For a little opening of the words I saw one of his heads You heard before that the Beast had seven heads Now as the Scribes asked Christ concerning the woman that had seven Husbands whose wife shall she be of the seven So here is a Beast hath seven heads and one is wounded which of the seven must it be To this the Apostle John tells us Chap. 17. That five of them were gone they had been but were not now and these are the seven governments of the Roman State These five had been Kings and Consuls Decemviers Dictators Tribunes The sixth yet was and that was the Caesars the Roman Emperours they were the sixth head whether Christian or Pagan it differs not much the state of the Government for they were all governed by Roman Laws under one head or other Now therefore what is this that is here spoken of One of his heads were as it were wounded to death was it the Roman Emperour whether Pagan or Christian you heard reasons before why it could not be Pagan nor indeed Christian Rome 1. That head was crowned but this hath no Crown All the seven heads were crowned they governed and exercised their Administrations in the world Rev. 12. â— But here these heads are not crowned but the Crowns are upon the Horns 2. Neither can it be they because of this wound upon this head The Roman Christian Emperours they never chalenged to themselves Head-ship over the Church of Rome Constantine doth utterly abandon it He professeth he ought to be judged by them and not they by him And Theodosius doth submit himselfe to Ambrose censure and doth not exercise any Head-ship over the Church It was not therefore the Emperours for they were not heads of the Church 3. It is said the wound here given was healed to the admiration of the world Now certaine it is the wound given by the Goths and Vandalls it was never healed to this day but the Eastern part was swallowed up by the Turk And for the Emperors of the West Charles the great and his Successors though they healed a branch of it yet it was far off from healing the wound of the Roman Empire those wounds have decayed and fall short of that which was the
else you can talke of that will root it out nor the rod of correction unlesse the blood of the Lamb be sprinkled upon it and then it may be of great use and any other ordinance to bring them to the wayes of Christ Jesus Now if this were well stamped and revetted into the spirits of men it would humble proud flesh and not onely take them off from the free will of Popery and Arminianisme and a pack of such but I hope there is lesse need of speaking against such heresies but to set it home upon our own hearts whatever our fathers have been we their children are not better Some accidentall difference there may be but setting aside such accidentall differences for the substance of prevailing corruptions they have ruled and reigned in the hearts of men since the world began by invincible power unable to be subdued but onely by the blood of the Lamb And therefore you that are children of godly Parents hear this word and know it you bring such engagements into the world with you to the strong man and now are so engaged that unlesse Christ be broken for you and his death suffered for you and his blood shed for you you see how it is with younger and elder people and let all Parents tell it to their children and Masters to their servants and all that have to do with the world be not deluded with a good affection to your own nature you are in this is the state of all since the world began they are all sprauling in wickednesse and there is such a league between the Devil and them that unlesse the Lamb be slaughtered we cannot be saved Secondly Let all the sonnes of nature and all other sons of grace know that if Christ was slaughtered from the beginning of the world and onely to break the Serpents head which had plotted our destruction from the foundation of the world then certainly it is not possible we should live in those sinnes by which we have slaughtered Christ can any man that knows the difference between the right hand and left commit sinne that slaughters Christ Jesus and live and die in it well enough and think with himselfe that notwithstanding the lewd lusts that hurry me I shall do well enough with it an oath is not such a great matter or to sit â—ippling till we be drunk or gaining too much in bargains it is no such great matter I tell thee if it be breach of the law of God thou canst not live in it Christ himselfe could not it cost his breaking I speak nothing to the difference between mortall and veniall sins was it a veniall sin think ye that slaughtered the Son of God they have been breaking him since the world began and is it possible that if he lye a bleeding for sin is it possible that this or that sinne should be veniall and ought to be passed over be not deceived look what slaughter it hath brought of the chiefest of the world even the God of the world it slaughtered him and there are none of all his people that shall be saved by him but must be slaughtered in his lusts and passions they must be crucified with Christ if they have any part in him he was slaine from the beginning and so from first to last they must be crucified from the power of sinne or else they cannot be saved And therefore let no man blesse himself and think he shall do well enough though he continue in sin for the truth is there is no sin but cost Christs breaking and crushing and either thou must lay hold on his death and be conformable unto him or else thou shalt never have part in him it is tough work to slaughter sin let this slaughter of Christ cut off all out-runnings of sinne whether in thoughts words and deeds let it be as a slaughtering knife to all our lusts considering there is no taking leave in this and that for the truth is it cost the very blood of Christ Thirdly It may teach us the unity of our Religion with the Religion of the ancient Patriarks since the world began how did they look to be saved In Acts 15. 11. they all looked to be saved by grace and by the blood of the Lord Jesus as we doe in doing and suffering all for them and we know no other way There is no name under heaven whereby wee must be saved but onely the name of Christ and by that we are saved from the guilt and filth of sinne and supplyed with grace to conformâ— us to Christ Jesus and to make us like to him our head and husband there is the old way of salvation and it is the same now there is unity and true antiquity The Papists speak much of antiquities but let them bring no other way of salvation but the blood of the Lamb and we will look at them as Churches for point of salvation we will grant them the right hand of fellowship if they will look for no salvation neither from free will nor from merits of their own nor from the intercession of Saints and Angells nor from dispensations of the Pope nor from the going on pilgrimage nor from the satisfaction of Saints but that they look for salvation onely from the blood of the Lamb truly we will give them the right hand of fellowship let them have errours there may be many errours otherwise but let them hold there and look for all salvation there and rest not upon any other hopes of salvation but what they receive from the blood of the Lamb by faith in him for so alone it is received faith in the blood of the Lamb breeds and sheds abroad every grace in some measure and makes fruitfull No man hath washed his roabs in the blood of the Lamb but is fit to walk with Christ in white to justification to his sanctification Rev. 7. 14. And so you shall have a true and perfect agreement in Religion if that we agreed upon looking there for salvation and put not salvation else-where but when men magnifie nature and pinch upon and extenuate the blood of Christ and in their deep devotion you shall have pictured here is the blood of Christ and the blood of the sonne of the Virgin when he looks upon the sonne of the Virgin he thinks there is perfect salvation but when he looks upon other things to the miâ—k of his mother oh there is more sweetnesse in milk then in blood when he looks againe to the passion of Christ then he priseth that but when he looks to the tendernesse of his mâ—â—her hee thinkes there is more in that And thus doth their blasphemous devotion hang between the milk of the mother and the blood of the Lamb which argues their religion is transported to a notion of the blood of the Lamb and they are captive hither and thither and any whether rather then to the blood of Christ Fourthly It may be of
admiration of the Nations Nor was it the healing of this wound from the first time it was given that was the admiration of the world Therefore it must be some head that was so wounded as all the world wondered at it and were captive to it You heard it was not the Roman Christian Emperors it must be him that claimes to be head over all the Churches and who is that but Pontifex maximus It was that which Theodosias abhor'd he thought it an unworthy style for a Christian Emperour to be accounted the great high Priest of the Church but what he laid down they willingly took up to be accounted the great Pastor of the Church and therefore he is the head of the Church For if it be neither Pagan nor Christian Emperours it must be the government that succeeded them they were the sixth and hee is the seventh It is the seventh head that was thus wounded and whose wound was afterward healed Qu. 2. Now a second Question will be If he be the seventh head the head of the Church of Rome If he be this head then when was he wounded Answ When the Goths and Vandalls and Hunnes and other barbarous Nations overwhelmed Italy and the western parts 1. Alaricus about the yeare 415. took Rome aâ—d I remember in a Treatise of Hierom saith he The government which then was left of the Church before was wholly taken away as if a man were beheaded and yet it fell after into worse calamity 2. It was after taken againe by Adulphus who thought to change the name of it and call it Gothia 3. It was taken againe by Gensericus Vandalus 4. Odoacer Rugionus reigned in it fourteen years 5. After him Theodoricus King of the Goths having slaine him his Successor Totilas destroyed it and brought it to such desolation that there was neither man woman nor child seen in it for forty dayes Now this was such a wound that all the Bishops in the world that were wont to give homage to him they now began to neglect his Head-ship that was but a servant at home They despised him to be the head of the Church that was a servant to Barbarians Insomuch that the Bishop of Revenna he challengeth universall Supremacy he takes indignation at him that he will be Lord Paramount But so great was the wound that indeed the Roman Bishop was utterly discouraged and this continued for 140. yeares together and though he would have used many meanes for his cure and have called in help from the Emperor of Greece yet he was not willing to help him for they had fallen out before about worshipping of Images he was constant for Images the other was against them and so he might sinke or swim for them so his wound seemed incurable Quest 3. When was this wound cured and how Answ By degrees 1. In the yeare 555. the Lord stirred up Justinian who by his Generalls Belisarius and Morses drove and destroyed the Goths out of Italy 2. By Justinians novell Constitutions we decree according to the Canons of the holy Councels the most holy Bishop of old Rome to be the first or to have the Primacy of all Priests 3. Phocas the Parricide about fifty yeares after about the yeare 606. healed up the wound granting to Boniface the third that he should be universall Bishop not only the first in order but in honour also and that all the whole world should be his Diocesse And this was the healing of his Head which was so perfectly cured that all the world wondered at the preservation of the head of this Church and began by degrees more and more to adore both the Church and the Head of it Obj. There is an Objection made against this exposition That by this means the Bishop of Rome should be healed before he be a head of Beast for this was his headship when he was allowed to be chief Lord over all the Churches and all the rest to be under him and the Pope was not this head till the Act of Phocas Answ I answer He had not the peaceable possession of this Headship till this time but yet it is evident in story that he did claim this supremacy before he sought it ambitiously and it was given him by the devotion of many Bishops and Churches and Nations it was usually rendred to him long before that time Socrates saith that Ballo the Pope had broken forth into the Government over the Churches And Bellarmine himselfe confesseth when he is put to it that the Bishop of Rome would never goe to any Consultation in the East but sent his Legat for saith he it is not meet the head should follow the members A second reason he gives the Emperor saith he is at least Vice-gerent of the East he well may have the materiall Seat that was taken up by the Emperors where shall the Bishop of Rome sit then and this he gathers out of some of their writings So that it is evident that he did ambitiously desire it and the manner was being elderly men all his beloved and dear children they call him Father and so he takes in good part all their honorable Titles and he destributes to them such parcells of respect as may stand with his own Sumpremacy and their subjection and therefore they need not say The wounded head was healed before he was a head of the Beast for it was in conception long before He did from Constantines time seek Supremacy They confesse little respect was had to him in Constantines time But when order was set in Churches he took all advantages for his exaltation and did take all appeals from others that what others did to him in respect of his gravity learning and understanding he takes as done to him as sitting in Peters Chaire and so did challenge headship in those times and they thought it was meet to give it And after this he was ratified and confirmed and established in peace then was his wound healed Come we then to gather a note or two from the word The first note you may observe is this The ambition and arrogancy of Church Officers clayming headship over the Church of Christ the Lord plagues it with a mortall wound and crusheth it even to the death I gather it out of these words I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death It was one of the heads of the Catholick Church As the body was a Monster so was the head to set a head over such a vast body it was a Monster in Gods sight The Lord wil not suffer him to go on in this ambitious designe but will meet him as he did Balaam when he crushed his foot against the wall and if he had gone on he had sleine him Numb 22. 32 33. So doth the Lord here meet the Bishop of Rome if he will be the head of the visible Church and animate such a Body what will the Lord doe He will wound him to death and
Sacrafice to Baal for that was one of the worst dunghill gods It is out of Gods righteous judgement when a man will not be reclaimed when the Lord wounds and crushes him and brings him to the last gaspe if he have a licourish affection still now it is an usuall thing with God to pay men to their own perdition And therefore in Rev. 17. 11. It is said the beast that was and is not shall goe into perdition that 's the head of this Beast that is the next newes you heare of this second beast here in the Text and therefore it is called both the beast and the head of the beast where the first beast is presented in the form of a great whore who is to be brought to the last gaspe A whore she was but he presents her to John as a great beast Now hee gives him leave to rise againe to his own perdition and of many thousands more Thus you see the truth of the point Now for the use of it First it may be a just watch-word and warning to all the Sons of men to beware of Gods checks When the Lord checks you crushes your Crowns and exposeth you to this and that danger in one kind or other beware of this whether you be the children of God or not yet come home effectually to him for this you shall finde if you be in distress and call he is ready to heare He will heare Ishmael and he hears the Lyons that roar and seek their meat of him He will many times once or twice or thrice do thus But if the Lord once strike and almost crush you beware now that you lay aside all carnall ends and ambitious designes for otherwise if you shall recover againe and persist in your former wayes without repentance then the next news is you goe on to perdition And therefore when ever the Lord affects us and afflicts us in any kind it is heavenly wisdome to be warned by the least phylip of his finger be warned by any sicknesses crosses danger by Land or Sea by any thing whatsoever the Lord is pleased to exercise you with this is both childrens bread and the bread of strangers Beware you goe not on still but if the Lord check you then turn back again but if you go forward be sure you go to God-ward and according to Gods will and after Gods ends This is that which God calls for that you walke more exactly and more accurately Ephes 5. 15. See then that yee walke circumspectly not as fooles but as wise redeeming the time because God hath thus and thus taken paines with you and hath thus and thus been as a Leopard in your paths It is a strong speech that in Amos 3. 5. Will a man lay a snare and the word is a deadly snare will a man lay a deadly snare and take it up and catch nothing The Lord will catch a prey when he layes a trap for us and he will not leave till he have girded our loynes and our hearts close to him and made us more exact in our way or otherwise if he let us slip it will be to perdition And therefore let all that heare the word ever be sensible of the least wounds checks especially if they grow to some bulky frame I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and this deadly wound was healed and it was healed to immortall perdition and therefore all that wonder after the Beast they are such as have no part in the Lambs book of Life they have no part in Christ Secondly It may teach us the more earnestly to wrestle with God by faithfull and earnest prayer for any of the Churches of Christ in any parts of the world that if the Lord give them an opportunity to wound the head of any Image of the Beast any of his heads or horns then it will be necessary that all such Churches do take the hint and opportunity that God puts into their hands and that they do not rather close with such heads whom God wounds and be loath to lay hold of those liberties that he procures for them But let this be the constant care of Christians to desire that such heads may not be usurping but if the Lord gives an opportunity the Lord looks that all Christians should improve it to vindicate themselves when the Lord gives any hint thereof When he gives an opportunity then is the time when the iron is hot then strike Intreat God that when he puts a prize into their hands that they then may learn to get wisdome and not in their hearts turn to tolerate arrogant designes and such as are ugly in the sight of God When God wounds the head of Enemies and casts shame upon them and hath rescued his people from them If Churches shal again comply with them then what will the end of that be It is a fearfull thing such kind of Heads goe to perdition and those that dote upon such Heads It is a check especially for this great beast of Rome but it will be dangerous for other States too This will be the finall issue they shall have enough of it they shall be filled with Hirarchicall power and with their Agents in Civill States their feete like a Beare will raven in all that they shall all be weary of the burden and shall be so filled with them as to spew them out of their mouths And therefore how should we help the people of God to traverse that wounded Head that it never rise up more Thirdly this may serve to teach such whose Heads have at any time been wounded As there is none of the servants of God but sometimes he will have them sacrifice their Isaac that which is most deare to them The Lord will rend away our most desirable comforts he will follow us there where we most of all are affected And let this teach the people of God that if the Lord then bow their hearts to unfeigned repentance turning from all evill in their hands and hearts how then If the Lord will restore the wounded head of a beast a beastly head of a beastly shape will he not much more restore the hearts of his servants that seek to him for healing of all their corruptions and scattering all their temptations that they may walke before him according to to his will What saith the holy Ghost Hos 6. 1 2. Hee puts words into their mouths come let us return unto the Lord He hath torne and he will heale us he hath smitten and he will bind us up after two dayes will he revive us and the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Wherein he shewes the meanes whereby the Lord will apply this medicine to his own servants namely by the death and resurrection of Christ to which he doth allude that as Christ dyed and rose the third day so shall all that have part and portion in him
of fire and brimstone But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs booke of life that is in the Text Here are two propositions very evident All that are written in the Lambs booke of life doe not worship the Beast But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs baok of life Then the conclusion is They shall be cost into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone That if it appear that this Beast is the Roman Catholick Church and the head of this Beast is the Pope The conclusion will be most evident that no man living and dying a Papist can go beyond a Reprobate I dare not say but some that are ignorant whom devotion hath carryed to that Religion it is possible some of them when they come to death may see the vanity of that Religion of worshipping Saints and of confining their Faith to them but that is not by their Religion but if they dye in that Religion and if their faith and worship be thrust upon them from the Roman Catholick Church and they worship Saints and Angels and believe in their owne merits for their justification I do pronounce to you that a Papist living and dying a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate I meane such an one was not written in the Lambs booke of life And they that are not are cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone that is the issue And therefore what a fearfull thing is it in such that do all they can to reconcile Nations to the Church of Rome and are mad upon Romish religion what desperate service do they undertake to bring men to such a religion as destroys many millions of soules It is true Those that are written in the Lambs booke of life God looseth none of his sheep but it is evident they are bloody Butchers of many Christians not chosen yet devout Christians many an one under pang of Conscience with sence of many sinfull passions and lusts are not able to get out but by a Priests absolution and if they be covered with a Fryars coule they hope they shall do well enough Such a conscience as can be opened and healed by such wooden keys as these if they know no more such cannot be saved I will not enlarge it but it were necessary to be pressed and urged in some places look not at it as a matter of curiosity and circumstance what Religion a man dyes in and think as some States-men doe that if it were not for hot-spur'd Jesuites on the one side and hot-spur'd Puritans as they call them on the other side Protestants and Papists might be easily reconciled These are the whisperings of flesh and blood but that which is written in the word doth bear expresse testimonie against such a conclusion For if Jesuites were removed and Puritans too yet if there were any left that thought they could worship the Church of Rome as they require that you must believe as they believe your faith is built upon the Church and upon the dispensation of the keyes of that Church such a faith and obedience as fals short of Christ Jesus that all salvation is to be expected from him if both Jesuites and those they call Puritans were removed if there were none but that take up their faith and obedience in that worship they hold forth I say there is not any one of them that so live and so dye knowing what they believe that can be saved Indeed you read in Rev. 3. many know not the depth of Satan and it is another matter what God may dispence to them in private but men that know what they do and believe according to the doctrine of that Church and worship according to the direction of it I say men living and so dying there is not one of them whose names are written in the Lambs book of life and therefore shall be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone This may teach us a true ground of any mans preservation from the pollutions of the world bewitching pollutions sometimes a Catholick Strumpet carries all the world after her as in those times Sometimes the world swallows up the Church and every man thinkes him happy if hee may be clad with thick clay others are taken up with provisions for their belly and sensuall Epicurean lusts there be a world of such people Now what doth preserve the people of God that they are not carryed away either with the Catholick religion or with worldly ambition they are not taken with these but see the vanity of them what are any of us better then those that have been bewitched by these but what puts the difference The originall difference is God hath written them in the Lambs book of life and what hee hath written he hath written as Pilate sayd Hee hath written such to life and his decree is irrecoverable My counsell shall stand and I will do all my pleasure Isa 46. 9 10. Therefore there is the Originall from thence it flows the Lord Jesus Christ concurring with the Fathers counsell he hath given us redemption from the blood of Ancestors and redeemed us from the present evill world and will seek up every stragling Lamb and presents us spotlesse to his heavenly Father and then the spirit of God by which he works all in the hearts of his people that receives us for Christ and the spirit for Christ comes and takes possession of us and so thereby girds up our loyns to a dependance on him and his grace that we are preserved and saved from those fearfull temptations that overcome others and all the world are over-whelmed withall It may teach us the marvellous freedome of the love of God and therefore to admire the wonderfull love of God the cause of all this our preservation from such prevailing evills as swallow up the whole world how doth it appear why I pray you consider when the Lord wrote down thy name or mine or any mans name who stood by at his elbow if I may so speak to put him in mind of my name or thine he thought of us if our names be there and he set us downe and he delivered us to Christ Jesus by name what ever thy name is he took notice of thy name such a man in such a place he will live in this or that Countrey he is one take notice of him lay down a price for him in fulnesse of time send a spirit into this heart if he live in a Popish Countrey save him from Popery If in a worldly Countrey save him from the world where ever he lives save him from himself and bring him to my heavenly Kingdom but what was there in us that could commend us to God or what could there in us but what he appointed but what he should put into us he could not fore-see any thing but that hee must work it therefore it must certainly be his undeserved love that must
for our transgressions I mean to dissolution of soul and body And so by the wickednesse of men he was accused condemned and accordingly executed What think you of him saith Caiphas you have heard his blasphemies and they answered and sayd he is guilty of death Mat. 26. 66. And Pilate himselfe though he thought him to be guiltlesse yet delivered him to be crucified Mat. 27 26. And the people sayd We have a Law and by our Law he ought to dye John 19. 7. Thus was he delivered by the wickednesse of men and Pilate knew they did it of envy Mat. 27. 18. So that it was a great wickednesse in Pilate to gratifie the people and to suffer such an innocent Lamb to be crucified yet rather then he will loose the favour of Caesar and of the people he delivers him to be crucified And which is more then so as he dyed by the justice of God and the wickednesse of men so by the malice of Satan for our Saviour saith in Luke 22. 52. This is the very hour and power of darknesse The gates of Hell were opened to powre upon him all the vengence they were able It was fore-tould in Gen. 3. 15. It shall bruise they head and thou shalt bruise his heel The Serpent should bruise his heel that is Christ the seed of the woman His heel you will say that falls far short of death to pinch a man on the heele it may make him go lamely but not kill him but the holy Ghost intends that all the mischief that Satan works against Christ or any of his members it doth but reach to the bruising of the heele It bruised his heele that implies that Christ should have a body like ours and his heele that is the lower part of Christ his humanity Satan should bruise it And he shall break thy head it is the same word and therefore you may take them both for breaking or both for bruising therefore Peter expounds it well in 1 Pet. 3. 18. when he tells you Christ suffered for sinne The just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh His heele was brused that is his flesh So that though the Lord suffered unsupportable misery to be forsaken of his Disciples betrayed by one and forsworn by another to be forsaken of his Father in regard of any comfortable fellowship he had with him Though he suffered all this in inward and outward man to such extremity that made him sweat drops of blood and in the end to gâ—ve up the ghost yet all this was but the heele the lower part of Christ as it were for his personal union is not in the least measure intercepted his head and councel stands sure and all his indeavours will finde a blessed accomplishment Whereas the Lord breakes the head of Satan not onely cuts him off from all hope of fellowship in grace but all his plots shall be disappointed at length and all execution of his designes they shall be brused the Sonne of God comes to dâ—ssolve the works of Satan to undoe them Thus comes the Lamb to be slaine The reason of the point is double First to fulfil all the former types of the Legall Sacrifices The Israelites were to slay the Paschal lamb in the evening at the ninth hour of the day Exod. 12. 6. about the same time he was slain And all other Sacrifices for reconciliation were to be killed necessary therefore he should be slain The daily Sacrifice which consisted of a Lamb in the morning and a Lamb in the evening were both slaine though without blemish and so was Christ But that was but a shadow for Christs suffering was rather the cause of them but it is the Scripture phrase this was done that this and that may be fulfilled because such a thing in after times was fulfilled Secondly the cheif reason why it was requisite Christ should be slaine and why he would be slaine was That he might lay down his life for a ransome or price for his people Mat. 20. 28. The Sonne of man came to give his life a ransome for many A ransome of what or price of what The Scripture holds forth a price of Redemption and a price of Purchase A price of Redemption We are not redeemed with Silver and Gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. He paid a price for our redemption that so he might discharge the debt of our sinnes which lay upon us Rom. 6. 23. Gen. 2. 17. What day soever thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye And partly by this means to satisfie the justice of God who had threatned according to the curse of the Law that cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to doe them Behold saith the Lord I set before you life and death obey it and live do it not and dye This is the sanction and ratification of the Law of God throughout the books of Moses And therefore that he might satisfie the Law and the wrath of God Ezek. 18. 20. The soul that sinneth it shall dye that he might discharge the debt wee ran into and satisfie for our defects it was necessary to pay this price of redemption to save us from death and all evils that drew on death And consequently therefore he hath saved us from sinne Rev. 1. 5. He hath loved us and washed us from our sinnes in his bloud He hath redeemed us also from the world Gal. 1. 4. Who gave himselfe for our sinnes that he might deliver us from this present evill world and he hath also given himselfe unto the death that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death that is the Devill Heb. 2. 14. So this is one part of the reason and the sum of the ends why Christ gave himselfe to be slaughtered and his life as a price of redemption to redeem us from evill for redemption is from captivity and bondage from sinne and Satan and the world This was a principal end of his death but it was but part of it Here is a price to redeem us from evil from so many captivities wherein we were overwhelmed But there is a price given of purchase to the praise of his glory Ephes 1. 14. It is a price of purchase of some glorious possession and for that end it was also given in a principal manner Now what is the purchased possession which the Lord hath given his bloud as a price to pay Truly as the Lord hath redeemed us from the three great enemies of our souls so he hath purchased the three greatest blessings the sonnes of men are capable of and they are the greatest blessings they can reach to 1. He hath purchased reconcilement with the Father He hath reconciled us by the death of his Son Rom. 5. 10. God loved us indeed from eternity when he chose us
he looked to be accepted in Christ Jesus so Enoch is said to have walked with God Gen 5. 24. and no man can walke with God except he be reconciled with God Amos 3 3. And is there any reconciliation but in the blood of the Sonne of God We are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne Rom. 5. 10. It is said of Abraham that by faith he left his country and his fathers house and his kindred and went out not knowing whether he went Heb. 11. 8. Gen. 12. 1. How comes Abraham to be redeemed and rescued from the blood of his Ancestors and from his fathers house We are redeemed from our vaine conversation received by tradition from our fathers not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Which argues plainly and evidently that Abraham himself if he had not been washed in the blood of this Lamb he could not have been saved from hankering after the blood of his Ancestors if the blood of Ancestors had been more warme in him then the blood of Christ he would not have been redeemed from his fathers house but now in his old age he leaves his country and goes to seek that seed in whom they all should be blessed in that country It is said in Gen. 15. 6. That he beleived in the Lord and it was counted to him for righteousnesse and all justiffication is by faith saith the Apostle in the blood of Christ Rom. 3. 23 24 25. We all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus c. For all the sinnes that have passed us from the beginning of the world the Lord received atonement for them in the blood of his sonne and our father Abraham if he were justified it was by faith in the sonne of God How came it to passe that Joseph was able to overcome the strong and subtile temptations of his Mistresse in Gen. 39. 9. How shall I do this great wickednesse and sinne against God Can he mortifie a lust by any power of his own No let the Apostle answer it in Gal. 5. 29. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts for so it is it is not affections but all the sinful passions that hang about the soules of men the Lord frees us from them all by the blood of his Sonne So that if you see Joseph crucified to his lust and Abraham 〈◊〉 from his fathers house and justified if you see Abel offering a more acceptable sacrifice then Cain Look at all these as lively fruits of the blood of the Lamb slaine from the beginning of the world whence also springs their faith heavenly mindednesse their sanctification their power of godlinesse was as great and in many things greater as in those that have lived since his crucifying on the crosse Now if it had not been as effectuall and reall before his coming as when he did come doubtlesse the efficacy of his death would have been lesse powerfull and more weak in them that lived before his coming but when you see such livelinesse spring from the virtue and power of it then you see the efficacy of it from the foundation of the world onely the manifestation of it was not so clear as afterwards whence it comes to passe that the generality of Christians now are or ought to be more cleare and more pure then the generality of Christians then but in some men you have had them that exceeded those that lived in Christs owne time and since 5. There is a fifth respect in which Christ is said to be slaine from the beginning of the world and that is in respect of the faith of Gods elect who lived from the beginning of the world As soon as there was a man on the earth the same day the Lord put emnity between the seed of the woman and the Serpent now the seed of the woman looks for salvation in the seed of the woman and they did even then look to the Lord Jesus the Messias as much as we do since in John 8. 56. Your father Abraham rejoyced to see my day he saw it and was glad that was the day of the coming of Christ into the world to be an attonement for the sinnes of his people If Abraham saw it then Enoch Noah Abel and Adam and Eve and who ever lived by Jesus Christ they all saw Christ afar off yet they saw him notwithstanding they saw his day the day of his Incarnation and Passion and Resurrection and it is said in Heb. 11. 1. That faith is the subsistence of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seene that is it did give the Fathers before Christ as clearly to see Christ already present to them as if he had been actually come in the flesh and so it is with all the Saints at this day look as we do as really believe the Resurrection of the body that by faith gives it substance as verily as if it were present and as we believe the salvation of our soules as verily as if it were accomplished and it is as clear I meane as certaine as if it were already done and in some measure as evident for so he saith It is the evidence of things not seen he speaks in the Apostle words The confidence and evidence of things not seen Hence it comes That the fathers saw the promises embraced them but did not receive them Heb. 11. 39. That is did not receive them accomplished for they never saw Christ in his death but they were perswaded of them and embraced them and did verily look for them in expectation as if they had been present with them that is if Christ had been come they would not have done nor suffered more then they did which argues that faith gives a basis and subsistence to what it layes hold on and makes it so reall that we shall neither do more nor suffer more if it were present They did believe that the time would come when the Messias being bruised himselfe he would break the Serpents head These are the severall respects in which Christ is said to be the Lamb slaine from the foundation of the world In regard of the purpose of God in regard of his promise in regard of the types of him in the Sacrifices that were shadowes of Christ and did really hold him forth in regard of the vertue of it and in regard of the faith of Gods people that lived from the beginning of the world in regard of all these Christ was slaine from the beginning of the world For the Reasons of the point All the ways and respects I have spoken to are as so many Reasons yet if a man should stand upon a Reason I would first say this the first may be from the eternity of that which is infinite what ever
the Churches and Saints of Christ that have been overcome or have suffered any hard-ship from any of these Those that have been troublesome to Gods Churches and people the Lord will one day visite them all and he will one day root them out of the land of the living They shall one day know what pillars and scourges and fire and faggot meanes what torments meane what bloody inquisitions meane They shall be recompenced seven-fold into their bosomes Here is the patience and faith of the Saints The third note is this The Lord doth as much acknowledg and accept the patience and faith of his Saints that have suffered under the Roman Catholique Church as he did the faith and patience of the Primitive Saints that suffered under the Roman Pagan Emperours against Heathenish idolatry The Papists themselves are full of acknowledgment of the Primitive Martyrs and will write many Legends of them as the Pharisees they did build the Sepulchers of the Prophets and yet killed their Successors Fulfill saith Christ the measure of your fathers You garnish the sepulchers of the dead bodies and yet you kill their Successors They will acknowledg them the Primitive Martyrs but what are those that suffered in Switzerland in France in England in Germany They look at those as Lolards and Hereticks But what saith the Lord of them Even of them as well as of those that suffered in former times the Lord doth accept their sufferings and saith of them Here is the patience and faith of the Saints Wherein the Lord doth acknowledge the faith by which they overcome this Beast and patience to be the patience and faith of the Saints The world saith otherwise but the Lord saith of those that suffered under this Beast Here is the patience and faith of the Saints So in Rev. 12. 13. Here is the patience of the Saints Write blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from hence-forth as well as in ancient times Blessed are they that dye in the faith of Christ Jesus in the hottest and highest times of Popery The Reason is evident First because the faith of such Christians and their patience was the faith and patience of Christ That is to say that which both fastned upon Christ and bore witnsse unto Christ and suffered patiently for Christ as did the Primitive Christians in the ten Persecutions And it was such a faith as by which they overcame the world 1 John 5. 4. It was faith in Christ Jesus even that faith by which they chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season Heb. 11. 24 25. It was that faith by which they despised honour Even the same case of Christ in Moses hand and in their hands and the point is of like nature Roman Idolatry is but another Edition and their Errors are as fundamentall subvertions to that which shouâ—d be the faith of Gods elect And their Government is directly contrary unto the Gospel-government of Christ Jesus as light is to darknesse When their faith in the cause of Christ do carry them along in suffering for him it is then the patience of Christ It was the like faith and patience of Christ to suffer under Annas and Caiaphas as under Herod It is true in the one he suffered as an enemy to Caesar in the other as a blasphemer but the case is all one No matter what the persons 〈…〉 Christian in profession Iâ— the cause be the 〈◊〉 of Christ it is the patience and faith of Christ which is in his 〈…〉 whomsoever they suffer 〈…〉 Reason is from the greater exercise of saith and 〈◊〉 to discern and suffer under Christians against Christians 〈…〉 Pagans 〈◊〉 Heathen persecutors For the use of the point Fiâ—st it cryes downe all the scandalous sentences that Courts have given against the Saints of God they say here are the suffering of Lolards and Hereticks Jesus Christ from heaven saith Here is the faith and patience of the Saints Do not therefore count it obstinacy and contumacy in heresie nor pravity It is the faith and patience of the Saints if Chrâ—st calls it so his word must carry it When they shall all appear before his Judgment-seate whose word shall stand then his or theirs He will say here is the cruelty and outrage of the persecution of Antichrist that puts the Lambs of Christ to death Secondly It may serve to teach us how much the Lord delights to honour his patient and faithfull servants Hee writes upon their Toomb-stones as it were so many Saints or faithfull Martyrs of Christ are those who have thus suffered This doth the Lord Jesus Christ write upon their stakes where they are burned in Smithfield or else-where and upon the chains wherewith they are bound A great encouragement it is unto Christians to be constant in the profession of the Gospel and to contend earnestly for the faith once given to the Saints We must not therefore be afraid to stand fast in the profession of the Truth and to hold it to the death If we should dye in his Cause in a way of persecution to be slaughtered by the outrage of ungodly men what ever the world say of it the Lord will from heaven beare this witnesse to it That it is the patience and faith of the Saints Thirdly it must teach all who would suffer for the name of Christ to be well assured of their cause and then to adde constancy to their suffering in their cause Otherwise unlesse it be the cause of Christ it is no patience but obstinacy blindenesse and ignorance But see that your cause be the cause of Christ and then cleave unto it by the invincible â—aith of Gods elect to overcome the world and look Lyons and Dragons in the facâ— without fear and astonishment and look at punishment and tortour as not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed It looks at them as things that Christ hath endured greater and other of the Saints of God have gone before uâ— in the like or a greater martyrdome Therefore first look to the cause and then believe in the truth of the cause and the faithfulnesse of Christ that will maintaine his servants stable and firme and cause them to hold out unto the end But do not take up your reformation upon custome nor side with any thing for custom of the country where you are because your Magistrates and Elders do commend it to you for it behooves every christian man to know well what he beleives and practise and to know the doctrine of Christ and the Government and the worship of Christ and that not because men say so but because you see light for it from the word of the Son of God Then your next care is to look that you depend upon Christ for strength that as he suffered for you you may be able to suffer for him ther 's the faith of Gods children And for