whereby the wicked shall ever strive to part with that which they shall never lose and crave that which they shall never procure If it be so great a misery for a starving Prisoner to be kept without bread but for a day or two in a Prison and to see through his grate Passengers laden with that plenty of provisions which he must not so much as touch Oh what a woe will it be for the Damned ever to see the Faithful feasting themselves in the fruition of Gods presence and they to know that they shall eternally starve and yet not dye in the want of the least drop the smallest crumb of that full Banquet of Happiness which the Saints ever enjoy in Gods presence OBSERVATIONS 1. Observ 1. The world without the Word lies in a condition of darkness The Ministers of the Word are the stars the light of the world take them away and every place is full of darkness The people to whom Christ preacht sate before in darkness in the region and shadow of death Matth. 4.16 The Ephesians sometime were darkness saith the Apostle Before the Gospel is savingly delivered we are under the power of darkness and darkness is that term from which we are called when we are brought out of our natural estate And in three respects is the world without the Gospel in darkness 1. In respect of ignorance 1. It knowes not God The Gentiles are said to be such as knew not God The Word only discovers him savingly because it onely makes known God in Christ The wisest of the Heathens till this light came could not know him The world by wisdom knew not God they worshipâ— the unknown God 2. It knowes not the will and wayes of God and this followes from the former for he who knowes not what another is cannot know what he loves The will of God is only laid down in the Word of God There is no service pleaseth him but that which himself prescribes The knowledg of the Heathen only serves to render them inexcusable for not doing what they knew not able sufficiently to understand all they had to do 2. The world is in darkness in respect of wickedness and unrighteousness A man in the dark sits still and forbears to walk as he doth who is in the light Wicked men are unprofitable slothful servants unactive in the wayes of God â—zek 15.45 not those by whom God gaines They are like the branches of the Vine in building good for nothing He who is in the dark wanders stumbles or falls every step that he takes Every wicked action is a falling into a slough and down a precipice a deviating from the way of Gods Commandments and therefore sin is in Scripture called a work of Darkness Yea they who are in the dark are not ashamed of the filthiest garments which they wear or of the uncomeliest actions they perform and they who are without the light of the Word in a night of sin and ignorance blush not in the doing of those things which he who is Spiritually inlightned is ashamed to hear behold or think of What profit saith the Apostle have you in those things whereof you are now ashamed 3. The world is in darkness in respect of fear horror and misery Men in the dark tremble at the stirring of every twig There were they saith David Psal 14.5 in great fear and it is called their fear Fear not saith the Prophet Isai 8.12 their fear It is only the light of Gods countenance which scattereth the clouds of fear Till fury be taken out of God fear can never be removed out of men but through the fear of death they are all their life time subject to bondage Hebr. 2.15 when any misery befals them they tremble as did the Elders of Bethlehem at Samuels coming they not knowing whether it comes peaceably or no nor is it any wonder that the darkness of fear should here seize upon those who expect utter darkness hereafter in the everlasting separation from the light of Gods countenance wherein there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore We see then the true cause that the world hath ever so much hated the word which discovers its deeds of darkness I have given them thy word saith Christ and the world hath hated them Joh. 17.14 and he who was the word Incarnate was also hated by the world because he testified that the deeds thereof were evil Hatred is the genius of the Gospel saith Luther the shadow which ever attended upon the Gospels sun-shine Though Saints are blameless and harmlesse the sons of God without rebuke Phil. 2.15 yet if they wil shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation they must look for opposition but how irrational and groundlesse is this hatred of the world for though the word manifests its deeds of darknesse yet withall it discovers its destruction in eternal darknesse and were the light thereof beheld and loved it would prevent it and lead by the light of grace to that of glory 2 Obs 2 Great is the difference between the light which shines here and that which we shall behold hereafter In the night of this world we have stars to give us light we have a light which shines in a dark place but when the sun shall arise 2 Pet. 2. all these stars shal be put out Prophets Evangelists Pastors Teachers are given but til we all meet in the unity of the faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God Eph. 4.13 and then prophesies and tongues shall cease knowledg shall vanish away when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away when we shal behold the light of the sun we shall no more want star-light or candle-light the immediate vision of God shall abolish these the people of God shal be above Ordinances and Ministry when they shall be above sin and error In heaven all our difficulties and knots shal be untied though here we are doubtful of many truths yet in heaven we shall truly have cause to say now Lord thou speakest plainly and not in parables He who died in his child hood in heaven knowes more then the wisest Solomon ever did upon earth and that little light or speak of joy which here the Saints had shall in heaven be blown into a flame their bud of joy shall there be a ful blown flowre Psal 97.11 here light is sown but there shal be a harvest a fulnesse of joy Oh blessed estate 3. Obs 3 People should labour to walk and work by the light of the Ministry Yet a little while saith Christ is the light with you walk while ye have the light John 12.35 let us walk decently saith the Apostle Rom. 13.13 as in the day The light of the Gospel must put Christians upon a two fold manner of walking and working 1. Speedily 2. Accurately 1. Speedily Our light is not lasting our
one who had himself been an Idolater The Divel loves to wound Religion in the house of her friend and with her own hands and weapons to make Cromwell a Protestant to sentence a Godly Lambert to death Oh how it delights him to overcome Scripture by alledging not of the Alcoran but the Scripture And as he here dealt with the body so he still deals with the Books and Writings of Gods Moses's the men of God For as he fain would have made him who was the greatest enemy in the world to Idolatry while living to have been the greatest occasion of it when dead so still he contends by Hereticks that they who have been the renowned opposers of Heresie in their life time should be accounted the greatest Patrons of it when dead Thus the Papists contend that the Fathers Augustine Ambrose c. are theirs and for their opinions Thus the Pelagians of our time that Augustin Bucer Vid. John Goodwin Sion Colledg vi sited Ball are for free-will But he much more contends and had rather that a living then a dead Moses shoud be a stumbling block to others If one who is holy may thinks he be useful to me by his dust and relicks how much more by his falls his scandals his corrupt examples Of all others let those who fear God take most heed of giving advantage to Satan When without their knowledg or consent they are by Satan only made advantageous to him it should be their sorrow but when they make themselves so it is their great sin 12. Observ 12. The worst persons are oft compelled both to have and express an high opinion of Gods faithful servants Even Moses one who was a great opposer of and greatly opposed by the Divel is yet secretly by this cursed enemy greatly honoured Yea the people who in Moses his life time would have ston'd him would and Satan knew it too after his death have Idoliz'd him Our blessed Lord when he was murdered by his enemies was by some of them voiced a Just man Luke 18.18 Act. 24.25 Mat. 11.19 the young man calls him Good Master even bloody Herod reverenced the Baptist and Felix trembles at the preaching of Paul Wisdome shall sometimes be justified not only by her children but even by her sworn enemies The father of Lies when he alledgeth Scripture to overthrow it strongly argues that it is the strongest weapon and hath greatest power over the conscience God delights to put a secret honour upon his Saints and wayes and to make even those who love them not to praise them Many lewd livers strictly enjoyn their children to be more Religious Every Saint may be encouraged in Holiness God will often make its greatest opposers to extoâ— it and when in their words they revile it in their conferences they shall commend it The praise of an enemy is equivalent to an universal good report In short Let sinners seriously consider how they can answer this dilemma at the last day If the wayes and people of God were bad why did you so much as commend them if good why did you not more imitate them also If Christ were not a good Master why did the young man call him so if he were why did he not follow him 13. Observ 13. The greatest respect that wickedones manifest toward a Godly Moses is when he is dead While Moses was living he was in danger of being destroyed now dead of being adored by the Israelites Joram when Elisha was living opposed him but when dead laments over him in that pathetical speech My father 2 Kinâ— 13.14 my father the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof Saul disobeyes and rejects Samuel when living but when dead he with great pains though no profit endeavors to recal to enquire of him They build and garnish the Sepulchers of the Prophets when dead Luke 11.47 whom living their fathers led by the same Spirit destroyed God often makes the worth of his servants to be known by the want of them and shewes when they are gone that they who in their life time were accounted the plagues and troublers were indeed the Preservers and Peace makers of Israel They shall then know saith Ezekiel Ezek 33.33 that they have had a Prophet among them And it s a work of little cost and of much credit to extol the dead The wicked are not troubled and molested in their wayes of sin by departed Saints Samson could take honey out of that dead Lion with which he fought when living and which he slew because it ror'd upon him The living who rore and lift up their voices against mens sins and labour to rend them from their corruptions shall be persecuted but when dead voiced up to advance the reputation of those who praise them for sweet and blessed men of God The Papists and many common Protestants who speak highly of Christ and call him their sweet Saviour had they lived in his dayes and heard him preach against their Lusts would have hated him as much as nay more then now they hate those who have but a drop of his fountain of holiness And indeed if a Moses a servant of God in his life time please wicked men it is commonly because he is too like a dead man not so quick and lively against their Lusts as he should It s not the Idolizing but the imitating of the Saints that shews our love either to God or them This for the second part of this verse the strife or contention it self The third followes viz. the carriage and deportment of the Archangel in this combate And first to speak thereof as it 's set down Negatively in respect of his inward disposition so it 's said that he durst not bring a rayling accusation EXPLICATION Two things are here to be considered in the Explication 1. What it was which Michael did forbear viz. to bring a rayling accusation 2 Why it was that he did forbear it He durst not bring it 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per Hebraismum idem valet apud Judam quod apud Petrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pâ—scat in Jud. Judâ—cium maledicum Pâ—scat Maledictionis judicium Beâ— Execrabile judiâ—ium Vulg. in Pet. Judicium blasphemiae Vulg. in Jud. For the first The thing forborn is here said to be a rayling accusation The Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an accusation of blasphemie of rayling and Peter 2 Pet. 3.11 calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a railing or blasph mous judgment or accusation both places are rendered by these words railing accusation a judgement or accusation of railing by an Hebraism importing the same in Jude which a blasphemous judgment â—r accusation doth in Peter In the opening whereof 1 I shall shew you what is meant by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred accusation or judgment 2 What the Apostle intends by a railing accusation or the railing of the accusation 3 Wherein consists the sinfulness of that railing
of woes like lightning which smites the highest Towers spared not the greatest if Enemies to God Prophetical zeal struck at sin where ever it found it witness all those numerous threatnings scattered in every leaf of their Prophecies The Apostles had their rod as well as the spirit of meekness and did partake of that spirit which was represented as well by fiery tongues as the shape of a Dove Paul strikes Elimas blind and cursed Alexander Christ himself whose mouth Matth. 5. was so full of Beatitudes no less then eight several times denounceth woes against the Enemies of God It s the disposition of Saints to be holily impatient when Gods glory suffers and though never else then to esteem anger seemly disgraces against their father they cannot put up these injuries they cannot concoct Their Commission likewise requires this temper Isaiah 58.1 Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voyce like a trumpet shew my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins Jer. 1.7.8 Whatsoever I command thee that thou shalt speak be not afraid of their faces A dumb Dog is good for nothing but the Halter Though the Children in the house must not be bitten yet the Thief either without or within Chrysost must not be spared sinful silence and flattery most oppose a Ministers function If sinners will be bold let not Ministers be bashful The most zealous Ministers have lived in the worst times and they who are most hated for their holy vehemency can better endure the hatred of people for the discharge of duty then the wrath of God for the neglect thereof He that reproves shall have favour at the last both of God and man And even here a zealous Reprover is honoured when he is hated and the cause saith one why God makes the world so bitter to the Ministers by sufferings is because they are no more bitterâ— to the world by Reprehensions To conclude this let none no not the greatest be angry with Ministers for their faithfulness in reproving If there were Physicians or Chyrurgians onely provided for the poor and not for the rich the rich would be accounted of all the most miserable and truly they were much more miserable for their souls Crudelis est eorum mollities quibus molesta est nostra vehementia Calv. in Mat. 13. if they onely were debar'd from reproofs the Physick of the soul There is no greater sign of a gracious heart then to be both holily patient in the taking and wisely zealous in the giving of a reproof 2. Thus of the first part of this verse the denunciation of judgement Wo unto them The second followes the amplification thereof from three examples of Cain Balaam and Core and first that of Cain in these words They have gone in the way of Cain EXPLICATION Four things here are to be touched by way of Explanation 1. Who this Cain was 2. What his way was 3. Why it s call'd a way 4. How Seducers are said to go in his way 1. For the first the holy story relates besides the other particulars which I shall note in the second his way 1. His Birth 2. The imposition of his name 1. His Birth is described Gen. 4.1 where it s said that Adam knew Eve his wife and that she conceived and bare Cain This Cain was the first-born of the first Parents in the world and so Elder brother to all the sons of men and Moses to shew the common and constant way of the multiplication of man-kind fully declares his generation Creavit ex terrâ procreavit ex legitimo conjugio Pareus Musc hereby manifesting that Cain was neither form'd out of the earth as was Adam nor of the rib of the man as was Eve that he came not of Adam alone without Eve nor of Eve alone without Adam but that there was a conjunction of both that Adam knowing his wife a modest expression she conceived and bare Cain And withal in this relation of the Birth of Cain Moses discovers that generation to continue to the worlds end derives the corruption of our first Parents to all their Posterity though generation it self be not culpable but natural and by God appointed So that whosoever is now naturally begotten and conceived hath not a holy and pure nature as had our first Parents before they sinned but a nature depraved and corrupted as they had after they had sinned and particularly in relation to Cain he shewes that Adam a sinner and of a corrupt nature knowing Eve who was infected also with sin and she conceiving and bringing forth Cain it s no wonder that this their first-born was of so wicked and corrupted a disposition since he was conceived and born of the seed of sinful flesh nor is it to be thought that Abel an holy man had his holiness derived to him from his Parents as if he had not with Cain been conceived in sin but that by the meer and singular grace of God he had that integrity bestowed upon him of which Gain was destitute 2. For the imposition of Cains name The word Cain is derived of Cana which signifieth a possession for his Mother Eve giving him that name said she had gotten obtained or possessed a man from the Lord. It s here disputed by learned men what Eve intends by saying I have gotten a man ETH JEHOVAH as we render it from the Lord Sundry conceive in regard the Preposition ETH is commonly a note of the Accusative case that Eves words are thus to be read Acquisivi virum Jehovam I have gotten a man that is the Lord as if she had thought that this her first-born was that promised seed the Messiah which God had promised should break the head of the Serpent and redeem man-kind from sin and misery but the Preposition ETH 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certum est particulam Eâ—h ut plurimum esse â—otam Accusativi casus quem verba transitiva regunt sed tamen accâ—pi non raro pro à ex de cum Praepositionibus exempla adfe runt ex scripturâ Grammatici ubi particula illa juncta verbo intransitivo aut Hithpael accipitur pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum Gen. 5.22 Exod. 1.1 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel abs Gen. 44 4. Riv. in Gen. Jun. Trem. Rivet Mercer is oft in the Scripture a note of the Ablative and imports as much as from with by c. as Gen. 5.22 Enoch walked ETH ELOHIM with God Exod. 1.1 The Children of Israel who came ETH with Jacob into Aegypt Gen. 44.4 When they were gone ETH HAIR out of or from the City c. Some there are who take ETH here for the note of the Dative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then the meaning of the words is I have gotten a man to the Lord that is who after our death shall though herein she was mistaken in our stead serve and worship the Lord. But the best expound ETH as I said by
too and fro with the winds Ministers are oft removed by God from one place in anger for its unfruitfulness to another and tossed by the winds of persecution hither and thither the Church nevertheless by their dispersion gaining moisture and spiritual benefit 3. In regard of their situation clouds are above us Ministers are dignified by God over us in the Lord and they as clouds ought to be nearer heaven and more having their conversation there then others Phil. 3.20 They are not clods but clouds yea stars yea angels 4. Clouds they are in respect of sustentation upheld by the powerful Word of Gods providence else as clouds under their loads they could never be upheld they are as dying yet behold they live stars in the right hand of Christ 5. In respect of fulness usefulness and beneficialness A cloud is both umbrifera and imbrifera bringing shadow and moisture to the earth a faithful Minister cools and refresheth a scorched conscience by preaching the righteousness of Christ he is a messenger an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto man his uprightness Job 33.23 his feet are beautiful Rom. 10.15 as welcome to a scorched conscience as the rain to the parched earth these spiritual clouds drop down the fruitful showrs of heavenly doctrine 2 Tim. 2.24 Good Ministers are apt to teach 6. Like clouds they spend and consume themselvs in dropping on others like salt and Torches they melt themselves to benefit others like Silk-worms they weave out their own bowels to cover others nakednesse But secondly Explicat 2. from what sort of Clouds doth our Apostle draw a resemblance to sute with these Seducers 1. From empty Clouds without water 2. From unstable Clouds carried about c. 1. From empty Clouds they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clouds without water Here two things ought to be explain'd 1. VVhat it was to be without VVater 2. VVhen it was a sin to be so For the first as in Scripture the Prophets and Ministers are compared to Clouds so their heavenly Doctrine to Water or Rain showred down from those Clouds My Doctrine saith Moses Deut. 32.2 shall drop as the rain my speech shall distill as the dew as the small rain upon the tender herb And Isa 55.10 11. As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud c. So shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth c. And Heb. 6.7 The earth drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it bringeth forth herbs c. 1 Kings 17.14 Job 5.10 Job 36.27 Psal 104.13 147.8 Psal 65.10 Prov. 19.12 Ier. 31.12 Deut. 28.12 Ier. 5.24 Isa 44.3 Es 30.23 44.14 And most fitly may the Word be compared to rain 1. For its originall God gives Rain Jer. 15.22 Are there any among the vanities of the heathen that can cause rain or can the heavens give showers Art not thou he O LORD c. Deut. 11.14 I will give you the rain of your land Lev. 26.4 I will give you the rain in due season God can onely give us a Word It s called the Word of the Lord. He appoints what Ministers should preach and he teacheth them how to Preach and he makes the Word effectuall 2. Rain is of a searching insinuating nature soaking to the roots The Word searcheth the heart Fontes ficâ—os â—os appeliâ—t Fontâ—s scilicâ—t quòd acceperint agnitionem domini Christi siccos autem quia non congruenter vivunt Aug. de fid Op. c. 25. Vbi fons sine aquá ibi lutum erroriâ— peccati nâ—c lavat sed Coinqunat Glos Irenaeus l. 1. c. 33. haereticos vocat fungos Augustin lib. de Haeres Fabulones Philologesnon Phâ—losophos Folia dant non fructus verba non scientiam sophismata non solida argumenta jactant crepantque Scripturam sed eam non intelligunt imo pervertunt Aperiunt quasi â—ontes scientia qui aquam non habent doctrinarum promittunt imbrem velut nubes Prophetica Hiron 2. contra Iov pricks the heart and purgeth it Act. 2.37 Heb. 4.12 3. Rain cooleth and refresheth the earth and plants the Promises of the Word delight the soul the chapt gasping thirsty soul Isa 44.3 4. Rain softneth the earth though hard like Iron The Word maketh the heart tender and pliable obedient Jer. 31.37 Ezek. 36.26 and fit to be moulded according to Gods mind 5. Rain causeth the earth to be fruitfull the Word makes us fruitfull in every grace and good work It s an instrumentall cause of spirituall growth 1 Pet. 2.2 Psal 1.3 1 Pet. 3.16 So that these seducing teachers were Clouds 1. Without the water of holinesse and sanctification of heart life and example they made shew to be the onely sublime Saints and Christians of the first magnitude and that others in comparison of them were but in the lowest form of godlinesse and Religion yet these ungodly men had not in them a drop of true Sanctity they onely had a form of godlinesse 2 Tim. 3.5 but denying the power thereof and these waterlesse wells as Peter cals them had nothing in them but the mud and filth of sin not to cleanse but pollute and defile 2 They were without the water of true Knowledge they pretended to be the onely knowing Persons that they onely had two eyes and all others but one They assumed to themselves the title of Gnostici for their great pretended insight into the Doctrines of Faith They lookt upon others as the Pharisees upon the people who they said knew not the Law and were accursed or as Caiphas upon the other Priests he telling them that they knew nothing and yet for all this they were empty and without the water of saving Knowledge and Instruction Their doctrines were but wind chaff and idle speculations vain janglings contentions about words not profiting them who are exercised therein improving no soul heaven-ward making it after all their empty discourses no further admitted into communion with Christ cleansed from sin in love with holinesse fitted for death in a word their verball triflings never made a Proselite to Jesus Christ but onely to an opinion They had perhaps the wisdom of Words but not the words of wisdom They left the Scripture and onely regarded dreams and fables They were blind leaders of the blind and erred from the right way Desiring to be teachers of the Law they understood neither what they said nor whereof they affirmed And in stead of being Clouds that bedewed their hearers with the drops of heavenly instruction 1 Tim. 1.7 they were clouds onely to darken their mind with error and to hide from them the Sun-shine of Truth as Oecomenius glosseth 3. They were without the water of Consolation and Refreshment for those who expected benefit and relief from them Who so boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds without rain saith Solomon Prov. 25.14 All the glorious promises
Christ That which they entertained meerly for fear they present to others as a doctrine of Faith These are reeds that bow and hang according to the standing of the winds such a reed shaken with the winds was not John Baptist but rather an Oak which will sooner be broken then bend by the winds by an holy Antiperistasis his zeal was doubled by opposition These false Teachers were like a man that goes to Sea for pleasure not for Traffick if a storm arise he will come back or put to the next shore Like that ship Acts 27.15 they bear not up into the wind Jer. 9 3. they are not valiant for the truth Tit. 1.9 nor hold they fast the faithful Word but let it go if enemies contend to pull it away 3. They were carried about with the wind of pride and ambition They gaped after the breath of applause old truths are of no reputation among the giddy sort hence it was that these were carried to teach that whereby they might be voiced and cryed up for some rare men dropt out of the clouds and seeing further then all the rest of their times They could not tell how to get above others unless they taught something different from others truth was counted but a dull stale business and therefore they chose rather to be accounted such as excelled by being erroneous then such as were onely equall to others Vento superbiae omnes haereses animantur by delivering the truth The wind of Pride is the life and soul of Error it is the element wherein it moves and breaths Seducers were puft up as Paul speaks Col. 2.18 vainly by their fleshly minds a humble soul will not easily either teach or follow an Error It hath ever been the property of Seducers to follow the peoples humour with Errors that so the people might follow them with applause 4. They were carried about with the wind of earthly mindedness They taught any false doctrine for filthy lucres sake 2 Pet. 2. they would rarely be carried with any wind but such as blew them some profit they steered their course by the compass of gain their Religion began at their purse strings They served not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies Rom. 16.18 This was that wind which carried Balaam about from country to country from Altar to Altar he and his followers loved to be of the Kings Religion Thus Erasmus said that one poor Luther made a great many rich Abbots and Bishops he meant that by preaching against him they were wont to get their great livings and preferments Demas forsook truth to embrace the present world OBSERVATIONS 1. The want of the showrs of a faithful Ministry spiritual rain is a singular curse and calamity Consciencious Ministers are clouds and their Doctrine rain As no rain is so useful and profitable as the rain of the Word so neither is it so great a misery to be deprived of any as of this God often in Scripture promiseth Showres and Teachers as great Blessings Deut. 28.12 The Lord shall open to thee his good treasure the Heaven to give thee rain c. Joel 2.23 Rejoice in the Lord your God for c. he will cause to come down for you the Rain c. And for instructours see Jer. 3.15 Jer. 23.4 I will give you Pastours according to mine own heart which shall feed you with knowledg and understanding Isai 30.20 Though the Lord give you the bread of Adversity and the water of Affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a corner any more God also threatens the keeping away of rain and the taking away of Instructers as dismal curses Deut. 28.23 Jer. 3.3.14.4 Amos 4.7 Isai 3.2 1 Sam. 3.1 Hos 4.5 Ezek. 3.26 Psal 57.9 The Heaven that is over thy head shall be brass thy rain shall be powder and dust Lev. 26.19 I will make your Heaven as iron and your earth as brass Zach. 14.17 Vpon them shall be no rain Never was a greater plague on Israel then when in three yeers and a half it rained not on the earth in Ahabs time And concerning the Prophets the Lord saith Mich. 2.6 They shall not Hebr. drop Prophesie and Isai 5 6. God threatens his Vineyard that he will commands his clouds his Prophets that they shall rain no rain upon it God threatned a great judgment in great displeasure against the people Ezek. 3.26 when he told Ezekiel that he would make his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth and that he should be dumh and no reprover to them and when he threatned that he would remove away the candlestick of Ephesus out of its place Rev. 2.5 The want of Spiritual is a much greater woe then the want of natural rain The withholding of showâ—s from Heaven can but produce a Famine of bread the want of a faithful Ministry brings a Famine of the Word of the Lord Amos 8.11 And this famine of the Word of the Lord is a Soul-famine And 1 Opposeth not Natural but Spiritual life The separation of the soul from the body is but the shadow of death True death stands in the separation between God and the soul Where vision faileth people perish Prov. 29.18 My people perish for want of knowledge Hos 4 6. Salvation and Life eternal stand in Knowledg Joh. 17.3 1 Tim. 2.4 2. Bodily famine takes away our natural strength and vigor whereby we perform our ordinary and worldly actions but a soul-Famine destroyes that Spiritual strength whereby we are enabled to heavenly Employments Praying Repenting Believing Holy-walking 3 Bodily Famine makes the outward man look pale deformed lean unpleasing soul-famine brings a leanness into the soul deformity and profananess into the face of our conversation Who observes not in Congregations whence the Word is taken the miserable change of men and manners In Elies time sin abounded and the reason is set down 1 Sam. 3.1 In those dayes the word of the Lord was precious 4 Bodily Famine as other external judgments may be a help to bring men to God by causing Repentance and bettering Obedience as in the Prodigal but the famine of the Word puts men farther from God and by it men grow more obdurate in sin 5. Bodily Famine may be recompensed and made up with Spiritual food Isai 30.20 Though the Lord give the bread of Adversity yet he countervailes that loss by giving them to see their Teachers whereas Spiritual famine cannot be recompensed by having bodily food because when God takes away the food of the soul he takes away himself the tokens of his presence and Grace and what can be given in exchange for God himself 6 Of bodily Famine people are sensible they cry out thereof and labour for a supply but the more soul famine rageth the more people disregard their misery and slight their wretchedness by fasting forgetting how to feed and with their food losing often their stomacks too How much then are they
that of trees dead they are spiritually dead because without and severed from that root of every good tree the Lord Christ The old Adam is the root upon which they still stand and therefore they are without all spiritual and supernatural life as from the root flows life into all the branches of the tree so from Christ all who are united to him by the Spirit through Faith have by those means the life of holiness derived unto them as in Adam the first root who hath now lost the moisture and vigour of holiness and is become a dryed root all die so in Christ shall all and onely they who are really united to him live Hence it is that as they are without the root and therefore without life so without all spiritual growth and fruitfulness the inward principle of life being wanting needs must the effects that flow from that principle all vitall operations be wanting likewise for though abiding John 15.5 and living by Christ we bring forth much fruit yet sever'd from him we can do nothing It is true that as the wicked have something from Christ like the Spirit of life Heb. 6.4 1 Cor. 12.6 7. so thereby they bring forth something like to good and spiritual fruits I mean those forementioned fruits of gifts assent to the truth sweet affections acts of external obedience but though in the producing of these the Spirit helps them yet it never changeth the nature of the trees but they still retain the natural sowrness of their roots and though God gives them the Spirit to edifie others yet not to sanctifie themselves though Saul had another spirit and sundry Matth. 7. did prophecy and cast out Divels yet all these were but works of ministration not renovation though the Spirit works as an outward efficient cause breathing on them and is in them as in Organis Instruments and Ministers yet not as in domiciliis as in habitations Members for as the soul works not as a form to any part that is not united to the body so neither doth the Spirit of Christ work savingly but in the body of Christ In the wicked it may be spiritus movens a moving spirit in the godly t is onely spiritus inhabitans an inhabiting indwelling Spirit The Spirit of God in an Hypocrire is like an Angel appearing in some outward shape of which he is only an assisting not an informing form for which cause his assumed body hath neither life nor nourishment but the Spirit of God in the godly is like the soul in the body not only assisting but informing and working in them spiritually vitall and supernatural operations And notwithstanding the best workings of the Spirit of God in the wicked they are oft left more fleshly self-confident less poor in Spirit and sensible of their want of Christ then before And thus these Seducers were spiritually dead Or 3. Death is eternal the effect of the former which eternal death is that most miserable condition of the Reprobate after death wherein they are deprived of all the blessedness and glory of heaven standing in the enjoyment and unitive vision of God Visi◠unitiv◠T is indeed the spiritual death continued and perfected As in heaven or eternal life in the enjoyment of God by Christ is begun in this life and completedin the next so is hell or eternal death in the losse of God begun in this and consummate in the next world The presence of God is the heaven of heaven the joy of heaven the life of heaven and of all who shall come thither 2. For the second In what respect these Seducers may be said to be twice dead The word twice Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken two wayes sometimes indefinitly or as a definite put for an indefinite a certain for an uncertain number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Job 33.14 Thus Job 33.14 God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not That is God doth by his gracious ways and means sufficiently abundantly and frequently acquaint man with his will although man be so stupid and senseless as not to understand what the meaning of God is therein So Psal 62.11 God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth to God that is God hath abundantly oft several times or sundry wayes by his Word and works asserted and discovered that he is eminently and transcendently powerfull Thus the Apostle commands That the Elders that rule well 1 Tim. 1.17 should be accounted worthy duplici that is multiplici honore double much manifold honour So the Prophet prayes Jer. 17.18 that his enemies may be destroyed with a double destruction i. e. with a severe through totall destruction so 2 Kings 2.9 Elisha desired that a double portion that is a large abundant portion of the Spirit might be upon him Thus some take the word twice in this place as if by the signification of the very word the Apostle intended that these dead trees were finally dead and past all hopes of recovery such as could never be bettered by all the pains and cost digging dunging c. that could be laid out upon them That our Apostle here intends that these Seducers were like Trees irrecoverably and totally dead I easily grant but withall because trees may be said to be twice dead in respect of their very dying twice or a second time this word twice seems to import in this place a definite certain number and to intend a double or twofold death of these Seducers who are here compared to trees in their dying twice as well as in all the other three respects viz. Their having withered fruit their being without fruit and being pluckt up by the roots Trees then are said to be twice dead thus the first time a tree is said be dead when in the former spring it decayes fades withers in its leaves blossoms or newly formed fruit from this decaying or dying for a dying it is as to leaves and fruit a tree is oft by pruning dressing recovered but if in autumn or the later spring which is the critical or climacterial time of Trees to discover whether their disease be mortal or not the tree fadeth again if then the leaves or what ever it bears wither the rine grow dry and it be as they say sick the fault is then ab intra the root is rotten and the very substance of the tree is inwardly corrupt and putrified no more labour or cost is now bestowed upon it it s now dead twice or the second time and therefore totally and irrecoverably and as I have understood from those who are exactly skill'd in the nature of trees it hath been oft known that trees which have seemed to die in the former spring have afterward been recovered but never did they know that any languishing in the former spring and then after some overtures of reviving in the later spring fading and decaying again ever were recovered and restored
they may procure much credit though they ask but little cost Besides natural conscience will not be put off with a total laying aside of duty and if Satan can cheat poor souls with putting a Pibble in stead of a Pearl into their hands he thinks it as much cunning as if he put nothing into their hands at all nothing doth so dangerously hinder men from happiness as the putting off themselves with shadows and appearances of that which is really and truly good He who is altogether naked may be sooner brought to look after the getting a garment then he who pleaseth himself with his own rags wherewith he is already clad A man who is smoothly civil and morally honest is in greatest danger of being suffered to go to Hell without disturbance he snorts not in his sinful sleep to the disturbing of others and he is seldom jogged and disquieted nay perhaps he is highly commended Christians please not your selves in the bare profession and appearances of Christianity that which is highly esteemed among men may be abominable before the Lord let not the quid but the quale not the work done but the manner of doing it be principally regarded examine your selves also concerning the principle whence your actions flow the righteousness whereby they are to be accepted the rule by which they are regulated the end to which they tend and as the Apostle speaks Let every one examine his own work and consider whether his duty be such as will endure the Scripture Touchstone 2. Withering and decaying in holinesse Observ 2. is a distemper very unsuitable and should be very hateful to every Christian It was the great sin and wo of these seducers and should be look'd upon as such by us and that upon these following considerations 1. In respect of God Decayes in our Christian course oppose his nature in whom is no shadow of change Mal. 3.6 Psal 102.24 I am the Lord saith he I change not He is eternally I am and ever the same his years are throughout all generations And what hath inconstancy to do with immutability how unlike to the Rock of ages are chaffe and stubble no wonder that his soul takes no pleasure in those who draw back and that they onely are his house who hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of the hope Hebr. 10 38. Hebr. 6.6 firm to the end If a frail weak man will not take a house out of which he shall be turned within a few years how unpleasing must it be to God to be so dealt with 2. Spiritual decays and witherings are unsutable to the works of God His work is perfect Deut. 32.4 he compleated the work of Creation he did it not by halves Gen. 2.1 The heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them God finished the building of his house before he left His works of providence whether general or special are all perfect he never ceaseth to provide for and sustain the creatures the doing hereof one year is no hinderance to him from doing the like another and another nay the day week month Psal 23. Psal 71.17 18 Christus perseveravit pro te ergo tu pro illo perseveres Bern. de temp 56. Ibi tu figas cursus tui metam ubi Christus posuit suam Idem Ep. 254. Obtulerunt ci Judaei si de cruce descenderet quòd crederent in illum Christus vero pro tanto munere sibi oblato noluit opus redemptiâ—nis humanae inchoatum relinquere inconsummatum Perald p. 216. year generation end but Gods providentiall care still goes on he upholds every creature nor is the shore of providence in danger of breaking he feeds heals delivers cloaths us unweariedly goodness and mercy follow us all the dayes of our lives he regards us from our youth and forsakes us not when we are gray-headed Most perfect are his works of special providence Redemption is a perfect work Christ held out in his sufferings till all was finisht Though the Jews offered to beleeve in him if he would come down from the Cross yet would he not leave the work of mans Redemption inconsummate He finisht the work which was given him to do he saves to the utmost delivers out of the hands of all enemies nor doth he leave these half destroyed they are thrown into the bottom of the Sea he hath not onely toucht taken up but quite taken away the sin of the world Nor will he leave the work in the soul imperfect he is the author and finisher of our Faith His whole work shall be done upon Mount Sion he will carry on his work of grace till it be perfected in glory where the spirits of just men shall be made perfect and the Saints come unto a perfect man 3. Spiritual witherings and decayings are opposite to the Word of God 1. The Word commands Spiritual progressiveness Be thou faithful unto the death Rev 2 10. Let us not be weary of well doing Gal. 6.9 Look to your selves that we lose not those things which we have wrought John Eâ—p 2. v. 8. Let us go on to perfection Hebr. 6.1 Perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Take heed lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Hebr. 3.12 2. The Word threatens spiritual decays If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledg of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearfull looking for of vengeance and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Hebr. 10.26 27 31. I have something against thee because thou hast left thy first love Rev. 2.4 If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Hebr. 10.38 3. In aternum se divino mancipat familatui Ob hoc inflexibilis obstinatae mentis punitur aeternaliter malum licet temporaliter perpetratum quia quod breve fuit tempore vel opere longum esse constat in pertinaci voluntate ita ut si nunquam moreâ—etur nunquam vâ—lle pecâ—are dâ—sineret ita â—ndefessum presi icuâ—â— stud â—m pâ—oâ—profectione reputatur Perald ubi supra The Word encourageth proceeding in holiness I will give thee a crown of life Rev. 2.10 Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Hebr. 10.37 Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me Rev. 22 12. He that endureth to the end shall be saved Nor need it seem strange that the proceeding of a godly man in holiness for a few years is rewarded with eternity for as the sin of the wicked is punisht eternally because they being obstinate and inflexible would sin eternally should they always live so the sincere desire and endeavour of the godly to proceed in holiness is crowned eternally because should they always live they would always and progressively be holy 4. Spiritual
are as none How should this humble the proudest hypocrite Could he bring to God all the gold and silver in Solomons Temple it were brought by him nothing incomparably below one broken hearted grone for sin and fiduciall breathing after Jesus Christ All his truly good works 〈◊〉 be summed up with a Cypher and though they glister here glow-worm-like in the dark night of this world yet in the bright disquisition of the day of judgment they shall all vanish and disappear Oh! how great will the shame and disappointment of hypocrites be who at that day shall see that all their dayes they have been doing nothing To close this what a comfort may this be to the poorest child of God that God in the midst of all his wants of these common blessings hath yet bestowed one upon him which is distinguishing God bestowes those blessings upon others which a Saint as such needs not have and that blessing upon him which the wicked as such cannot have And how may a child of God improve this for comfort in the weaknesse smallnesse deficiencies if they be his trouble of his grace considering it is fruit true fruit and it s more though it be but one little basket full nay but one small cluster of grapes than all the hypocrites in the world can shew and the least cluster as truly shews that is a vine which bears it as doth the plentifullest increase that ever any Vine brought forth 5. Obs 5. Incorrigibleness in sin is a dismal condition These Seducers were trees twice dead the Apostle despaired of their future living becoming fruitful and this was an estate that argued them extreamly miserable It s a wo to have a bad heart but it s the depth of wo to have an heart that shall never be better Sicknesse is an affliction but sicknesse past recovery a desperate sicknesse is a desperate evil How did it fetch tears from the eyes of Christ that the things belonging to Jerusalems peace were not onely formerly unknown but that now they were utterly hid from their eyes O Ephraim saith God what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I dâ— unto â—hee If ye will not hear saith Jeremy to the incorâ—igible Jews mine eyes shall weep in secret places for your â—ride and miâ—e eyes shall weep sore c. Jer. 13 17. Raâ—hel wept for her children and would not be comforted not because they were ill or sick but were not This incorrigiblenesse in sin which frustrates and disappoints all the means of grace provokes God to a totall and angry removall of them and makes him say I 'le take no more pains with this desperate sinner Rev. 22.11 Prophet ando non optando He that is filthy let him be filthy still It s that which as the Prophet speaks wearies God Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more Isa 1.5 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredome Hos 4.14 Ephraim is joyn'd to idols let him alone v. 17 When a tree is utterly dead Pertinax sterilitas when 't is pertinaciously barren the hedg and wal shall be taken away and broken down if it will be fruitlesse it shall be fencelesse it shall neither be prun'd nor dig'd the clouds shall be forbidden to rain Isa 5.6 When the Physician of souls sees men rend in pieces his Prescripts and pull off his Plaisters and throw away those wholesome Potions which he ministreth to purge them he gives them over and suffers them to perish in their sins Punish them he will chasten them he will not Cut them off he will cure them he will not Jer. 6.29 VVhen in stead of being refined in the fire the mettall wil after all the hotest fires and the constant blowing of the bellowes continue inseparable from its drosse when the bellows are burnt in the fire and the founder melteth in vain reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them Jer. 6.29.30 VVhat is it but hell upon earth for sinners to go to hell without controle to be given up to their hearts lusts to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and in a word to be as bad as they will Oh wofull recompence of spirituall pertinacy The earth which under all the drinking in of rain beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing Heb. 6.8 This double death and irrecoverablenesse in sin is a kind of fore-taste of the second death As perseverance in holinesse crowns so pertinacy in sin condemns he who is obstinate in sin unto the end shall undoubtedly receive the curse of eternall death How sore a judgement is it so to be past feeling that nothing cooler then Hell-fire and lighter then the loyns of an infinite God can make us sensible though too late Oh! let us beware of the modest beginnings of sin which certainly make way for immodest proceedings therein every commission of sin is a strong engagement to a following act of wickednesse be who begins to go down to the chambers of death knows not where he shall stop In short let no help to Holinesse leave thee as bad for if so it will leave thee worse then it found thee and present unreformednesse will make away for incorrigiblenesse under the means 6. Obs 6. It s our greatest wisedome and ought to be our chiefest care to be preserved-from Apostacy Take heed of being twice dead i. e. Of adding a death by Apostacy to the death by Originall corruption To this end Let us 1. Be sure to have the truth of spirituall life in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely the externall appearances of life the shews and leaves of Religion the form of godlinesse and a name to live he that would not die twice must be sure he truly lives once hypocrisie will end in apostacy where the truth is not truly loved it will be truly left A tree that is unsound at the root will soon cease from its faint puttings forth the hollow heart will not hold out the outward form without the inward power of godlinesse continues not in times of temptation Labour for a faith of reall reception and please not thy self with that of meer illumination the bellows of persecution which blow the sparks of sincerity into a flame blow the blaze of hypocrisie into nothing 2. Forecast the worst that can befall thee and the best that can be laid before thee to take thee off from the love and wayes of holinesse reckon upon opposition in every way of God he who meets not with the hatred of a man may justly suspect his love to the truth and he who expects not that hatred will hardly cantinue his love to truth when thou enterest upon Religion think not that thou goest to sea upon pleasure but imployment not for recreation but traffick lest in stead of holding out to thy intended Port thou presently makest to the next shore upon the rising
is an Evah to himself We must not altogether blame suggestions and temptations without The Divel tempted David to number the people and to see Bathsheba naked but after both he confesseth that he had sinned Commonly volenti It may in this case be said Nolenti non fit injuria None can hurt him that will not hurt himself Every man is tempted when he he is drawn away of his own lust Poyson would never hurt unlesse taken in The strongest enemy cannot hurt us nor the falsest delude us if we will be true to our selves Were there not a complying principle outward objects of sin would draw out nothing but detestations as in Christ in whom because the Divel found nothing he could do nothing against him And it is the duty of the godly to make use of ungodly examples not for imitation but greater abhorrence Saints like fire in cold weather should be hotter and holyer for living in times of greatest coldnesse and prophaneness The best men have oft lived in worst places as Lot Elijah Obadiah c. and shined as lights in the midst of a crooked Nation and redeem'd the time although nay because the dayes were evil 'T is not outward power and opportunity to sin but inward poyson that makes us sin and therefore in all our humiliations we should more angrily smite upon our own thighs than upon any outward occasional furtherances to sin 9 The servitude and slavery of a man that follows his lust is very miserable Tit. 3.3 Serving divers lusts Obser 9. Oh how true a drudg is hee that is a lacquey to his lusts and who hath lusts for his Leaders and Commanders 1. A servant is hindred from doing any thing but what his Master pleaseth A servant to his lusts is in the bond of iniquity hindred not onely from doing but even from willing to doe any thing but what pleaseth his lusts He is alienated from the life of God cannot hear pray meditate holily Sometimes he is in arcta custodia in close custodie not so much as able to go about the very outward works of holiness at least he is in libera custodia he cannot do them any further then his lusts allow never spiritually hee is Satans captive Gaol-bird The Romans cu◠off the thumbs of their slaves that so they might be able to handle the Oar but not the Sword so the Divel hinders his slaves from holy services but leaves them in a posture of activity for sin Satan gives some of his slaves longer line then hee gives to others but he ever keeps them in his power 2. A servant is servilely imployed The Gibeonites were hewers of wood and drawers of water A Sinner is put upon basest and hardest works like the Israelites in Egypt who had their shoulders under burdens and were put upon base and dirty drudgeries Issachar couched under his burden like an Asse A wicked man takes pains to go to hell his imployments are most painful and vile the workie-dayes of a Saint are better then the holidayes of a Sinner Christs yoak is easie and his burden light 3. A servant is beaten belly-beaten back-beaten Oh the wounds of conscience that sinners get in the service of their lusts there 's no peace to them they carry furnaces in their brests silent scourges Not to speak of the wounds upon their bodies healths names estates 4. A servant is rewarded but what are the sinners wages Sum'd up they are in that one word how comprehensive Death The very work of a Saint is abundant wages the very wages of a sinner his greatest wo. After sinners have drudg'd for lusts all the day of their lives Satan lodgeth them in flaming sheets at night Hee who hath now been their Tempter wil then be their Tormenter And yet how unlike is a servant to lusts to a servant unto men 1. The work of a mans servant is at length at an end A sinners work is never done peccator nunquam feriatur sinners have no holidayes they drudg without intermission on the Sabbath they sin in prayer hearing Sacraments in eating drinking recreations on earth in hel 2. A mans servant is weary of his servitude groans like the Israelites under his bondage and desires delivery A slave to lust loves to be so stil he is a boared slave that wil not be free but accounts every one his enemie that would deliver him hee thinks his servitude his liberty his prison his palace 3. Among men one master hath many servants but spiritually one servant hath many masters serving saith the Apostle Tit. 3.3 divers lusts and pleasures Quot habet Dominos qui unum non habet yea these masters are contrary some haling this way others another Covetousnesse hales one way prodigality and pride another ambition drags one way uncleanness another A sinner by these lusts is drawn as by wild horses 4. Among men the master is better and more honourable then the servant but a servant to lusts serves masters that are infinitely below and baser then himself a man never goes below himself but when he serves them Every lust is the divels brat and Satans excrement how unworthy is that servitude when a heaven-born soul hath such a master Only sin disennobles intellectual nature making men sinners Angels divels Concerning the means of opposing and overcoming of lusts see at large before The third proof which our Apostle brings to shew that these seducers were ungodly men Vulg. Superba Bez Tumida Tigur vehementer fastuosa Alii praetumida supra modum turgida immen sa Projicis ampullas et sesquipedalia verba Horat. and to be judged at the last day is set down in these words wherein he taxeth them of their proud arrogant boasting their mouth speaketh great swelling words These words Great swelling words are in the Greek expressed in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth not only big bulkie bunching out or swelling but all these to a very great measure or as some beyond measure the composition increasing the signification and importing that these seducers spake words of a vastly rising swelling H 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De educ lib. mountanous bignesse Thus Plutarch useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turgid or swelling speech is very unfit to be used about civil affaires And a very apt and true accusation is this brought against these false teachers by Jude it having been the constant course of hereticks to speak very high and bigly swelling words Descripsit sermo apostolicus Jovinianum loquentem buccis tumentibus et inslata verba trutinantem Hier. l. 1. Contr. Jovin of arrogant boasting Hierom applyeth this expression of swelling words to Jovinian whom saith he the Apostle describes speaking with swoln cheeks and puft up expressions Two things may here be opened 1. What the Apostle meant by great swelling words 2. Wherein stands the sinfulness of using them For the first In
Which is the second branch to be opened 2. The inducement encouraging to the duty of looking for the mercy of Christ It was a mercy whereby they should bee brought to eternal life Of this though wee shall enjoy it so much yet can we speak but little Under two words eternal life the Scripture frequently sets forth the state of the Saints of heaven which for its blessednesse is câ—lled life and for its durablenesse eternall 1. Life There is a threefold Life 1. Naturall consisting in the conjunction of the body and soule 2. Spirituall which is eternall life begun in respect of grace here 3. Eternall life in respect of glory hereafter whereby is understood all the happinesse to be injoyed in heaven As under the word death the greatest of evills are comprehended all the miseries inflicted for sin in this and the next state so in that of life of all things the most precious and the most set by are contained all the blessings to be enjoyed here and hereafter but because our happinesse cannot be perfect and consummat til we come to heaven that condition is principally and frequently called life Which life stands in our immediate communion with God in an unitive vision or in seeing and enjoying him Mat. 5.8 1 Jo. 3.2 Psal 16. ult c. Heaven is a low thing without God saith Angustin Whatever is lesse then himselfe is lesse then our desires In him is contain'd infinitely more then either we want or all other things in the world have his presence shall be our life and as it were enliven all things else which without him as here they are so there would be dead things In the immediate full and perfect not in respect of the object but subject uninterrupted reflexive unmixed enjoyment of this God stands life 2. Which in respect of its duration is call'd eternall as never to be interrupted and intermitted so without any end or amission and indeed this it is which makes all the enjoyments of heaven to be truly such and as the faggot-band whereby all the particular parcells of happinesse are bound and tyed together and without which they would be all scattered and lost Frequently is the life of glory said to be eternall Joh 3.15.8.51.11.25 c. pleasures for ever more a treasure in the heaven that faileth not Luk. 12.33 Extra jactum fortunae Extra periculum jacturae an eternall weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 a treasure beyond the reach of theefe and moth c. God the fountaine and treasury of life can never be exhaust The saints can never be willing to part with this God Enemies shall never be able to separate them A compleat happinesse to be truly and necessarily happy also OBSERVATIONS From the whole part 1. Obs 1. The hope of salvation is an helmet to keep off tentations to sin Eph. 6.8 The looking for the mercy of Christ quickens us in our course of Christianity The Apostle directs them to contend for the faith by looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus c. 1. It purgeth the heart from fin Whosoever hath this hope purifieth himselfe 1 Joh. 3.3 He who looketh for Christ looks to be like him and therefore he conformes himselfe to Christ in purity He who lookes for great revenues within a few yeares will not cut off his hopes We may say of sinners as of some men who are adventurous in the world they have no thing to lose but rather remove impediments The looking for mercy and the living in sin cannot stand together The love of sin is the confutation of our hopes 2. The looking for this mercy damps our affections to the things of the world He who beholds the glorious sunshine of Christs appearance hath his eyes so dazled that he can behold no beauty in any thing besides He is like Jacob who when he was to goe to a rich Egypt and a deare Joseph was not to regard his stuffe Earthly objects which to earthly mindes seeme glorious 2 Cor. 4.16 to be a beleever have no glory by reason of that glory which excelleth Though Jezabel paints her face he throwes her down and treads her under foot 3. It makes us conscientious in holy duties Paul chargeth Timothy to keep the command without spot by an argument drawn from Christs appearance and upon this ground of looking for a reward from the chief Shepherd Peter warneth the Elders to feed the flock As we cannot conceive what manner of mercy for its glory it is which we look for so neither can we express what manner of persons we should be 1 Cor. 15.58 or what manner of performances ours should be for holinesse What manner of persons saith the Apostle ought we to be 2 Pet. 3.11 4. It engageth to patience under every difficulty and distresse Behold I come quickly hold fast that thou hast Rev. 3.11 Thus. 1 Joh. 2.28 Little children abide in him that when he shall appeare we may have confidence c. Non sunt condigna passiones ad cul pam quae remittitur ad gratiaÌ„ qua immittitur ad gloriam qua promittitur He who beholds a Kingdome appointed for him will abide with Christ in his tentations The drawing nigh of the Lords coming is the Apostles ground of patience Jam. 5.8 and 2 Thes 1.6 7. John Hus and Jerom of Prague appealed from the unjust sentences of men to the righteous judgment of Christ This dayes misery is not worthy of that dayes mercy Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4.17 No more comparable with it then is the uncovering of the head a trouble comparable to the honour of receiving a crown 1 Sam. 10. ult Saul held his peace though he were despised because hee was King How easily should our sea of honey swallow up our drop of vinegar Though godlinesse brings sufferings yet it affords encouragements like Egypt which though it were full of poysonous creatures yet full of Antidotes The reason why wee are cast away in tempests is for want of this anchor of hope of the mercy of Christ Let then O Christians the looking for this mercy engage you to duty Remember such mercy to be received deserves better services to bee performed Psal 36.5 As Gods mercy and faithfulnesse are put together so let not his mercy and our faithfulnesse bee severed Brethren if any shame could befall the Saints at the day of judgement it would be for this that they who have done so little on earth for God should receive so much in heaven from God Mercy It s mercy not merit Obs 2. that must stand us in stead at the last day Of this largely pag. 100. Part. 1. as also to this part may be reduced Pag. 101 102 103 104 105. Obs 3. the six Observations there handled concerning Gods mercy Of our Lord Jesus Christ How much are they mistaken who expect mercy and yet have no interest in Christ 'T is the mercy of Christ Christlesse persons are mercilesse
slaying and death shall benefit the Saint Worldly enjoyments are given us that we by them should testifie our love to God not by them to got assurance of Gods love to us Oh how slender an evidence of heaven is that with which so ordinarily men go to hel Thou canst only understand that the heart of God is set upon thee by finding that thine is set upon him The least dram of Grace is an earnest of heaven The greatest sum of outward enjoyments amounts not to the least part of payment or pledg of happiness 8. Observ 8. They who are corrupt in their judgment go in the way of cruelty Not to intimate what some have said of cruel Cain that he was the first Heretick sure I am he was after the Divel the first Murderer and these Seducers were as full of hatred as they were of Error They went in the way of Cain They were cruel to souls which by their Errors they poisoned and destroyed cruel to the names and dignities of their Superiors of whom they speak evil They were as the Apostle speaks afterward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fierce and raging waves ver 13 such as uttered hard speeches ver 15. against the Godly especially Ministers who opposed them in their way of sin Not to speak of the cruelty of Idolaters recorded in the Old Testament as of Pharaoh Hâ—man Ahab Jezabel Manasseh not yet converted Nebuchadnezzar Antiochus nor of the Heathenish Emperors within the first 300 years after Christ by which Tyrants the Apostles suffered violent death and whosoever made profession of their Doctrine were cruelly murdered of Nero Domitian Trajan Antonius Verus Hadrian who crucified Ten thousand Christians in one Mount of the last of the Ten Persecutions wherein in the space of one Month were slain seventeen thousand Martyrs I say to pass by these What lively Expositions upon this Text and the cruelty of Cain have the bloody actions of those been who would have been counted of the Church nay the only Church and friends and brethren to the members thereof as Cain was brother to Abel I might here relate what Ecclesiastical History mentions concerning the cruelty of the Arian Hereticks Theod. l. 1. c. 29. their banishing and false accusing of Meletius and Eustatius Bishops of Antioch and Athanasius of Alexandria the latter of whom hardly escaped with his life l. 5. c. 21. Socrat. l. 2. c. 7.16 for the cruel Arians finding that they could not destroy him by false witness purposed by violence to tear him in pieces the banishing and desposing Paulus from Constantinople by the Arrian Emperor Constantius and at last Socrat. l. 4. c. 22 Theod. l. 4. c. 21. Sozom. l 6. c. 19 Vid. Centur. Magd. p. 79. Cent 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Solit. the cruel murdering of him by the bloody Arians not to mention with these the vast number of examples of Arian cruelty recorded in Ecclesiastical History Socrates Theodoret Sozomen c. consent in this that the Arians banish'd imprison'd cruelly whip'd mock'd tore with nails burnt and exercised the cruellest punishments against the Orthodox and that they were more cruel against them then the Heathens who Tyranniz'd in those times Athanasius saith The inhumanity of the Arians exceeded all expression I might likewise mention what Augustin in sundry Epistles relates of the Cain-like cruelty of the Donatists of his time who pretended to so much Purity as that they held that the Church was no where in the world to be found Epist 50. Quis non Dominus servum suum timere compulsus est Quis quem libet poterat exigere debitorem Quorundam oculi extincti sunt Cujusdam Episcopi manus lingua praecisa est taceo crudelissimas coedes Epist 68. Conclericos nostros plagis immanissimis quassaverunt Quendam immaniter coesum gurgite coenoso volutatum c. Nos fustibus quassant ferróque concidunt In oculos extinguendos calcem mixto accto incredibili excogitatione sceseris mittunt Epist 166.159 Lacerati sunt viri tractae sunt Matronae Infantes necati abacti sunt partus nulli licuit securum esse in possessionibus suis Optat. cont Parl. l. 23. but in that corner of Affrick wherein themselves dwelt In his fiftieth Epistle hee tells us that the Masters stood in fear of their servants that were gone over to the Donatists that no man durst demand the money which his Debtors owed him for fear of clubs and fire the houses of any that offended them were burnt or pulled down and they pulled out the eyes of the Ministers and put them out with Chalk and Vinegar cut off their hands pulled out their tougues cruelly whipt and slew them and then tumbled them in the mud and then carryed them about afterward in derision And though these Sectaries pleaded frequently for toleration and liberty of conscience yet when under Julian the Apostate they had gotten power Who can declare saith Augustin what slaughter they made of the Orthodox All Affrica was filled with blood and desolation men were rent Matrons drag'd Infants slaughtered women with child miscarryed none were secure in their houses But if ever the spirit of Cain breathed in any since his time or if ever any wrote after Cains copy in letters of blood certainly they have been those of the Papacy how deservedly may their Head and Father the Pope be called a Cain in chief and is he called the Son of Perdition as being not only appointed to perdition but the Author of Perdition and destruction How evidently is his Antichristian cruelty set forth by being Drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus Rev. 17.6 It s said by some that There is no day in the year which might not be dedicated to an hundred several Martyrs whose blood hath been shed by the Papal power 1. Papal cruelty spareth not pitieth not any degrees sex order age condition of men opposing their Religion Act. Mon. p. 814. 751 874 710 766 Alphonsus Diazius another Cain barbarously killed his own brother John Diazius because he was a Protestant With what inhumane cruelty have Protestants been compelled to discover for slaughter their dearest relations parents children brethren wives to carry faggots to burn their godly and painful Pastors and which might surpass belief among Heathens children have been constrained to set fire to their own fathers And Thuanus reports That a certain woman having fled to a secret place to shun the rage of her enemies being drawn out of it by them was in the sight of her husband shamefully defiled and then was forced by some of them who ordered her hand to give her husband his deaths wound with a drawne sword Horrid was that spectacle of the child which sprang out of the womb of a woman burnt at Gernsey which being saved out of the fire was by the bloody Executioner cast in again p. 1864. 1879 because it was a
young Heretick A child of eight years old was by them scourged to death for Religion and a boy under twelve years condemned for the six Articles yea Popish cruelty forbears not either to bury the quick p. 816. as one Marion was condemned to be buryed alive or to unbury the dead by violating of their graves digging out the bodies and burning them thus they dealt with the bodies of Bucer Fagius Wickliff c. How frequently hath Papal power made Kings and Princes Wolves and Tygers one against another and sent forth Cut-throats and Villains with pardons to stab and poison the Kings and Potentates of the earth their lives by any Art they hold may be taken away if the Pope hold them excommunicate Emanuel Sa affirms it lawful for one to kil a King Latâ sententiâ quisque potest fieri executor In Aphor. de Rege Regis Instit l. 1. c. 6. if the Pope have sentenced him to death though he be his lawful Prince But Mariana gives direction how it may be done with the best convenience He thinks Poison to be the best way but yet for the more secrecy Quod si evaserint instar magnorum Heroum in omni vita suscipiendi si vero secus accidat gratam hominibus gratam superis hostiam cadere nobili conatu ad omnem posteritatis memoriam illustratos judicamus Marian. l. 1. de reg c. 7. that it be cast upon the Saddles Garments Chaires of the Prince And he further tells us that if they who kill such Kings shall escape they ought to be looked upon and received as long as they live as great and noble Worthies but if it fall out otherwise that they lose their lives in the undertaking that then they are a sweet smelling Sacrifice to God and man and that their names shall be illustrious to all posterity This book of Mariana was approved by the gravest and learnedst of the Jesuites Order and so with a special Commission from Claudius Aquaviva their General with their approbations and other solemn priviledges it was printed at Toledo and Mentz and lastly inserted into the Catalogues of the books of their Order It s not lawful saith Bellarmine for Christians to tolerate an Heretical King Nonlicet Christianis tolerare regem haereticum si conetur pertrahere subditos ad suam haresim Bâ—llar l. 5. de Rom. Pont. c. 7. Potestas spiritualis debet coercere temporalem omni modo viâ Id. l. 5. c. 6 if he labors to draw his subjects to his Heresie and saith he its lawful for the Spiritual power to restrain the Temporal by all means and wayes and when the Pope hath passed sentence upon a King then after this publick sentence they generally affirm it lawful for any to kill a King So Bellarmine Gregory de Valentia Tolet Suarez Molina Lessius c. Nor 2 doth Popish cruelty less discover it self in the numbers then in the ranks and degrees of those whom they destroy for Religion These Popish Cains destroy multitudes of Abels Infamous is the cruelty of that savage Minerius the Popes Champion in his bloody Enterprise against the Merindolians he destroy'd twenty and two Townes and murdered the Inhabitants whether they resisted or not and when the men of Merindol flying from his Army left behind them their tender wives and children this Popish blood-hound practiced all manner of Villany and Cruelty upon them The Town of Cabriers upon condition that he would use no violence against them was yeilded into his hands but he falsified his promise hewing thirty men in pieces in one place putting forty feeble women some with child into a barn full of straw caused it to be set on fire at the four corners and such who got out he caused to be cut in pieces In this one Town were thus mercilesly murdered above a thousand Protestants To these I might add the cruel murdering of about eight hundred Protestants in two Townes in Calabria fourscore whereof had their throats cut one by one white way to the Church Digr 50. yet so as that every one was left but half dead by the Excutioner And the French Massacre wherein in thirty dayes were thirty thousand slaine Farnesius vowed to ride his hoâ—se to the saddle in the blood of Lutherans not to speak of that incredible effusion of blood which the Spaniards have made among the poor Indians under pretence of converting them to the faith they having in the space of forty years slaine Seven and thirty millions of people famishing in three Months seven thousand children at one time massacring two thousand Gentlemen and murdering with such cruelty that to avoid it poor men would hang themselves with their wives and children Lastly and principally this bloudy disposition of Cain discovers it self in the cruel and savage manner of murdering Minerius forementioned cut off the paps of the poor mothers of sucking children and the children looking for suck from their dead mothers were starved to death It hath been their practice to hold men in death so long as they could Moriatur ut sentiat se mori inflicting as it were a thousand deaths in one and making them so to dye as to perceive themselves to die Acts Monum p. 869 805 860 What should I speak of their burning men by piece-meal and that with Brimstone pitch and tar c. with barrels of pitch and tar dropping upon their heads Joannes de Roma a Monk having got a commission to examine the Lutherans used this torment to force them to accuse themselves He filled boots with boyling grease and put them upon the legs of those whom he suspected and tying them backward to a form with their legs hanging down over a soft fire he examined them To this Cain-like cruelty of the erroneous Papists I might add that of the Anabaptists in Germany who were as bitter and bloody enemies to the Reformed party as were the Papists and more opposed God and Orthodox Christians then they did the Papists themselves they alway voicing Luther to be worse then the Pope I shall not mention the bloody uproars made by Munzer John Mathias John Becold Knipperdolling John Geles Henry Goethlit James of Kemp c. with their followers at Wormes Ausburg Bazil Shafhuse Berne Munster Amsterdam c. filling all places with bloud and slaughter murdering their own natural brethren yea their wives and pursuing the doctrine of the Gospel and the professors thereof especially the godly Ministers with cruel fury It will be more then sufficient to set down the words of one concerning this savage crew See Sleidan Bullinger Heresbachius Hortensius c. Mr. Bayly who hath taken much pains in examining their Doctrines and practices his words are these The spirit of Mahomet was not so hellish in making an open trade of bloodshed robbery confusion and Catholick oppression through the whole earth as the spirit of Anabaptism Nor need we think it strange concerning the fiery