that a Christian Church too a Church of Christ and the sufferings of the people of God the rebukes of Christ though then the people of God had not the Title yet they had the Religion of Christ and albeit in outward expression and denomination they were not called Christians till long after at Antioch Acts 11.26 yet such they were really and in truth For Beleevers before Christs comming and since are admitted into the same Covenant of Grace because consigned by the same Sacraments not indeed in the same Signes but in the Spirituall thing signified 1 Cor. 10.3.4.5 And did all eat the same spirituall meat And did all drink the same spirituaell drink for they dranke of that spirituall Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ But with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the Wildernesse which did Scale the same promises though not so immediately as ours but under a covert of temporall things even ever since that Grant the Seed of the Woman c. Gen 3.15 and is the expresse affirmation of the Apostle Gal. 3.17 And this I say that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was foure hundred and thirty years after cannot disanull that it should make the promise of none effect which relateth to the same object Jesus Christ Heb. 13.8 Acts 3.25 4.12 for the same excellent purposes of mercy remission of sins reconciliation with God and life eternall So the Covenant was the same for substance though not for circumstance and fashion and so their Faith and Religion the same For Christ was the Lambe slain from the foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 So Aug. Epist 157. ad opt Eadem fides nostra illorum quoniam hoc illi crediderant futurum quod nos credimus factum And therefore here we may say with Saint Paul Rom. 11.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the riches both of the Wisedom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out And with David Psal 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wouderfull works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more then can be numbred But to this I have said somwhat before in the first Part and 8. Page and 1. Observ 8. To suffer with the people of God The people of God are eo nomine so far from being exempted from the common calamities of man-kind that they are the greatest sufferers of and sharers in them And if judgement begin at the House of God where shall the ungodly appear Gods People are a persecuted People But of this largely also before and more is to be said after 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esteeming That which put Moses on this choice was a well-grounded conviction of Conscience that it was a duty and a right enformed judgement for resolution and action without warranty and sufficient grounds of conviction is but perversnesse and obstinacy sin and impiety the mistaking of evill for good will necessarily inferr evill doing Hence sins are called the Works of darknesse Eph. 5.11 and Heathens darknesse ver 8. Walking in the vaenity of their minds Having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart Eph. 4.17.18 And the Apostle notes this when he tells us of the unbeleeving impenitent Jews They err in their hearts and so they have not known my wayes Heb. 3.10 and therefore he admonisheth them ver 12. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeliefe in departing from the living God And hence Minutius Faelix concludes Non minoris est seeleris Deum ignorare quam laedere Ignorance of God is as bad as Sacriledge Hos 5.4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God for the spirit of whordoms is in the midst of them and they have not known the Lord. On the contrary the right discerning and separating evill from good conduceth much to the eschewing of evill and doing good to deny the world and self and chuse Christ and Heaven And therefore the Apostles supplication for the Philippians Phil. 1.9.10.11 is that they may abound in all judgement To what end that they may approve or try things that are excellent and differ be able Christians to distinguish betwixt evill and good And to what are such abilities required that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ Being filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and prayse of God And his Petition for the Colossians is to the same purpose Col. 1.9.10 For this cause we also since the day we heard it doe not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the Knowledge of his will in all wisedom and spirituall understanding That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the Knowledge of God As the bodily Eyes guides our feet so the understanding is the leader of the will and affections Hence those Prayers of David Psal 119.18.34.73 125. Open then mine Eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law Give me understanding and I shall keep thy lay yea I shall observe it with my whole heart Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn thy Commandements I am thy Servant give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies And hence that Exhortation of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.20 In understanding be ye men otherwise ye will prove Children tossed too and fro still Children and never come to be perfect men Eph. 4.13.14 10. He had respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He first looked on the Duty now the Reward that to set him forward this to encourage and back him that as principall this as second to his choice that to leade and command this to fortifie and strengthen that as finis agentis his designe this as finis rei his happinesse and felicity See here and admire admire and acknowledge the great love of God to man who not onely gave us understanding to know our Duty but furnisheth with ayds and helps to further and assist us in our Duty he not onely teacheth us what to doe but supplies strength for to doe and affords means to preserve that strength he deals with us in those wayes which are most proper for us by threatnings and perswasions punishments and rewards Deut. 11.26 Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse The Lord knoweth our frame Psal 103.14 and so frameth all his dispensation accordingly he considers we are but men weak and impotent creatures and therefore he gives Grace Yet withall he considers that we are men
objects and led by customes that reasonable men should be in their duty rationall or from the assurance of reward and how dull men are to apprehend and beleeve future good things and to live by hope every one saying Let me have it in my hand and so make sure work is frequently experimented and so this very consideration is an abatement to the power of Precept But Examples makes all these respects and obligations good for if the command run thus Doe this not because it is commanded but because this is the practise of the wisest and the best or the most honourable they have done so before you and been very successefull in their doings what is thus exemplified and experimented is readily and faithfully observed and most confidently which is the quickning and forwarding of action expected Examples and experiments of this kind are many and frequent and indeed ' it s the chiefe end of all Historicall Relations and the Writing of the Lives of the Jewish Christian and Gentile Worthies For Mollissime suadetur exemplis though Examples be not argumentative cogent proofs to profound judgements and strict disputants yet to most men they are most effectuall because more fit to perswade And therefore Aristotle lib. 8. Top. cap. 2. thus resolves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Argument is more pressing proose an Example more obliging an Argument drawes the understanding an Example leads and faciliùs dueimur quam trahimur the affections that indeed more powerfull yet this more prevalent Themistocles saw Miltiades Trophces and this occular demonstration did prevaile with him for imitation above any either precept or reason but this one to follow so brave a President Achilles his same set Alexander on action and Alexanders Julius Casars and Casars honour hath made many thousand adventurers since And to come somwhat neerer and close to our holy Profession Hath not Christ upon this score set himself for an Example Hath not the Apostles proposed themselves subordinate Patternes under him and required us to look to the former times and take the Prophets Patriarkes c. for Presidents to us and our actions And hath not this very Apostle brought in and summed up a Cloud of Witnesses to confirme an infallible truth and to provoke imitation Nay Doth not the Christian Rule strictly require exemplary Piety in all Beleevers that they be not onely burning having Zeal in themselves but shining lights by their practise communicating and diffusing it to others give visible proofs of that hope is in them For thus runs the rule Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Mat. 5.16 And so 1 Peter 2.11.12 Dearely beleved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstaine from fleshly lusts which war against the soule Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speake against you as evill doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorisie God in the day of visitation And here we may see and admire the infinite love and goodnesse of God towards man that he for a supply and succour to our frailties and prejudices seconds all his Precepts with Promises and impowers these by Examples and Experiments that whereas as our God and Lord he might use onely his Word of command and strictly and upon the severest penalty exact conformity yet he is pleased to consider that we are but Flesh and therefore not to make use of his absolute and Soveraigne Power over us but as an Indulgent to win and gain us over to himself by such Arts and Methods as have the greatest influence with weak infirme men great Promises and good Examples Promises to encourage Examples to leade even to leade if we will not drive If Power prevaile not goodnesse may Nay God in this Instance hath not onely so far condescended to our infirmities as to prove the reasonablenesse of his dictates to us to convince our understandings but he hath ex abundanti afforded Promises to whet and excite our wills and Patternes to guide and conduct our affections And here also we may see and admire the rare composition of the Book of God the holy Scriptures which not onely declares unto us the Will of God but furnisheth us with Arguments ad hominem strong perswasives to confirme thereto it abounds with perswasives of all sorts So that we may justly take up Tertullians Devout Contemplation and expression Adoro plenitudinem Scripturarum So we we adore the fulnesse of the Scriptures It s full of cleare Prophesies holy Praecepts gracious Promises glorious Examples It s full of Prophesies and they are full of truth these forewarne us to fly from evill to come Full of Praecepts and these full of Piety to exhort us to be fruitfull in good works Full of Promises and these full of mercy and sweetnesse to incline and move us to beleeve his Prophesies and obey his Precepts Full of rare Presidents and these full of Evidence to ascertain his Promises Prophesies to prepare Praecepts to command Promises to encourage and Examples to leade us the way to the way the truth and the life Prophesies shews us fully the infinite wisedome of our Lawgiver and that it is our wisedome to beleeve them and none else Praecepts declare his infinite Power and Soveraignty and that it is our duty to observe them Promises proposeth his infinite goodnesse in rewarding us for our duty and it is our Piety to hope for and depend on them our comfort that we have them and so good a God who will reward us far above our deserts Examples to evidence his infinite truth in performing his Word of Prophesie and Promise to them who performed their duty in obedience to his Praecepts and it is our glory and happinesse to partake of the benefit of these experiments by following exactly those good Examples Yet no Examples work so strongly and leave such deep and lasting impressions as the Examples of those whom nature teacheth us to love and honour to imitate and depend on our famous Progenitors from whom we have our extraction and discext and so as we esteem it an honour to be of a Noble Family either civilly or religionfly or both as the Jewes and these Hebrews took themselves to be and so their glory was We have Abraham to our Father and their Rule was Quod accidit Patribus siguum est Filiis so generally posterity strive to resemble their Parents in their qualifications and are ashamed to degenerate as if they had no affinity with them And hence it is that we take all disparagements of our ascendants so unkindly and every reproach of degeneration for the highest affront and indignity because we are so neerly concerned by a principle of selfe love in their honour and reputation Thus the Heathens as for example Priamus concludes from an unworthy Villany commiated by Pyrrhus that he was none of Achilles his Progeny At non ille satum qu◠it
then his Preservation God gratifies her Religious good Nature with larger bounties she had also the delight and comfort to Suckle and Swadle him and not onely by connivence or permission but by speciall Favour and Commission from Pharaohs Daughter not upon her own proper costs and charges but with a certain Honourable Salary and Stipend and with full expectation of high preferment in Pharaohs Court for a surplusage So true is that of the Apostle Eph. 3.20 God is able to doe exceeding abunndantly above all that we can aske or think And the Psalmists supposition is here in some sence affirmatively true When his Father and Mother forsook him then the Lord took him up Psal 27.10 for Moses his Parents durst not take notice of him neither was there any to look for or after him but a timerous Damosell who yet but looked at a distance God took the care then upon himself who is a present help when all other second auxiliaries faile to all distressed persons but above all others to exposed Infants Their Angels in Heaven when no Guardians on Earth doe alwayes saith our Saviour Mat. 18.10 behold the Face of my Father stand before and about him as his Guard continually to attend and wait for Orders towards their protection and preservation And as he appointeth his noble Hosts to be their Overseers and Assistants so he maketh the most honourable among men to be the instruments of his good providence Kings shall be their Nursing Fathers and Queens their Nursing Mothers as was here in effect demonstrated and was in some part proved and experienced by David and so by him witnessed and attested Psal 22.9.10.11 4. The experience of Gods mercifull dispensations and gracious dealings is a great ayd and assistance to our Faith and a strong and powerfull encouragement for our chearfull dependance on Gods good providence It was an experiment which satisfied Peters scruple removed his error and prejudice and produced that determination and conclusion of Faith Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons Acts 10.34 And it was an Argument of sense which fetched that answer and confession of Faith from Thomas My Lord and my God But as it is an help to Faith so it is the settlement and strength of hope and obedience former favours provoke us to thankfulnesse in prosperity and good dayes and encline us to confidence and resolution in adversity in dangerous and difficult times take a proofe and instance of both Josephs rejection of his Mistrisse her solicitations was grounded on his Masters favour and Gods goodnesse in his former deliverance and present preferment Gen. 39.8.9 Behold my master c. as if he had said Such an unworthy complyance and condiscention as she moved was both a sin against God and an iniustice against Pharaoh the former an act of irreligion the latter of ingratitute both a great wickednesse When Benhadad was in straits and knew not which way to turn himself his Servants counselled him to joyn with them in a submission to Ahab King of Israel and the motive to this their counsell and his acceptance and all their submission was this Behold now we have heard that the Kings of the House of Israel are mercifull Kings c. 1 Kings 20.31.32 Doubtlesse it is a good Argument God hath been found in this and such emergencies when we sought unto him therefore let us seek again to him he hath heard when we called therefore let us call again David frames such an Argument when from an induction of mercies he concludes a continuation The Lord that delivered c. 1 Sam. 17.34.35.36.37 And Saint Paul from the former experience of mercies builds his future hopes of a succession 2 Cor. 1.8 9.10 So true is that of the same holy Apostle Rom. 5.4.5 Patience worketh experience and experience hope not an hypocriticall presumption which hath the luck alwayes to be bafled but a grounded dependance which maketh not ashamed as all hypocrites shall be when their vain confidences fayl them which alwayes obtains either what it expects or better or more and is therefore a rejoycing hope because an obtaining ver 2. or which is more pertinent Because the love of God is shed abroad c. ver 5. former receipts of mercies hath produced in our hearts an assurance that God loveth us and if so then we know that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 3.28 and none but such God loves so as to reward And this made the Psalmist use that Exhortation Tast and see that the Lord is good c. Psal 34.8 and that solemn and sacred Protestation I will remember the years c. Psal 77 10.11.12.13 5. Acts of nature and reason if performed in Faith are taken in and converted into Religion Moses Parents did an act of naturall affection in Faith as was before cleared and so they were not onely naturall but religious and faithfull for so doing and the ground hereof is That as not the opus operatum not the doing of a work of Religion is a duty abstractedly and simply considered removed from all adjuncts and circumstances for even the most wicked transgressors may doe that which for the substance of the work is Religious and yet they are not Religious in doing it because of a defailance in the right manner of performing as in Jehu his Zeale the Pharisees Prayers the Hypocrits Almes for they doe them not in ayme respect and order to God and his Laws but to other ends and purposes as is expressed Hos 7.14.16 Zach. 7.5 so the most common acts of life of nature and civility may become acts of Faith and holy Religion if they be duely circumstantiated done spiritually and divinely with relation and reference unto God obedience and submission to his will for it is the manner of doing and the end which differenceth and distinguisheth holy and prophane actions acts of Faith and acts of Reason of Grace and Nature and therefore those acts which materially are naturall and ciuill rationall and morall if performed with a desire a care and conscience to please God they are formally and truely Religious and Christian as the Philippians Contribution sent by Epaphroditus is called a Sacrifice acceptable a Sacrifice acceptable because done to him with an Eye and respect to God the liberality was to Paul the Sacrifice the Service to God and this sauctified it and adopted it into an holy office or an act of Faith Aug. lib. 19. de Civ Dei cap. 25. throughout 6. To denominate an act a duty of Faith it is sufficient to walk and move according to that degree and measure of light we have received and to beleeve proportionably to the evidence of the Revelation That which stayed Moses his Parents their Faith and for which they were reputed faithfull was not a clear Philicall or Mathematicall demonstration for this carries its evidence so strongly along with that it commands and forceth assent neither was it
things of good report 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 4.8 For though it be true that a good report and opinion of men be no good foundation to build upon yet it is a good stone in the building and he that intends to rayse a faire Structure must not onely have a good Foundation that is for the most part invisible but he must have faire stones which alwayes appear a good report is a good mans comfort not his confidence that wherein he may rejoyce not that whereunto he must trust and he will seek it not so much that he may find it as it may follow him not because he affects it but deserves it Sequi debet gloria non appeti It is servile to Court a good name it is dessolute to contemne it But though these all obtained a good report yet they obtained not the Promises God having provided c. Not the Promises that is not the objects or things Promised or rather the full draugth of what was represented in those Promises For indeed Promises they had and they received what was Promised in particular reference unto themselves as it is above expressed ver 33.34 But the generall Promife or that happinesse which concerned them as a community or whereof they were participate as a full body or society with all Beleevers from Abel to the end of the World with all these their Predecessors and all their Successors in the holy Faith they received not inasmuch as this consisted in a state of perfection which they could not receive till they were incorporated into the society of Beleevers under the Dispensation of the Gospel and New Testament for whom it was chiefly and principally intended without whom none of all these were in a capacity to receive this perfect consummation and blisse So that here the enquiry will be First What was the Promise which they received not What the provision made for us What the full perfection of all both them and us But because one Resolution will satisfie all these Demands and Interrogatories And the clearing any one of the three will be the decision and finall determination of the rest Therefore I shall return onely one Answer to the Quaeries yet in order thereunto I shall give you the severall conjectures and judgements which I find in this instance declare what I conceive most rationall and satisfactory allowing to others the same liberty which I challenge to my selfe to take what they like best or ought to doe according to the Rules of Art and Religion And there are foure severall Opinions in this Point The first and in my conceit the worst as being meerly conjecturall and phantasticall is the received interpretation and common Tenet of the present Romish Doctors who affirme That these received not the promise because immediately after death they were not received into Heaven But as they fancy the separated foules of these faithfull ones departed into a subterraneous place bordering upon the confines of Hell or rather the upper or higher Region of Hell which they call Limbus Patrum where they were in durance and detained Prisoners untill Christs Ascention into Heaven whereupon having received their liberato and dismission they were received and admitted into the Seat of Glory Whereas Beleevers under the Gospel have an higher Priviledge thereby even to passe immediately after their departure into Heaven This is their Resolution But in truth what measures or degrees of felicity these all received by Christs Ascention or what immunities or liberties is not the postulate or matter of inquiry here For it will be granted that they received larger favours then before were indulged to or allowed them and that thereby their joyes and felicities were encreased and multiplyed For if the Angels themselves obtained by Christs comming into the World an addition and augmentation of light and knowledge and so consequently of glory and happinesse as the Apostle very positively assirmes they did Eph. 3.10 that new c. then we need not scruple to give to the Soules of Beleevers some accidentall measures and increments of felicity thereby neither can it be any prejudice to the Faith to acknowledge that God would and did perfect their beatitudes and blisse at divers times and in different degrees for their blisse was not completed simul semel altogether and at once and that the most eminent principall and noblest perfection was reserved for this great solemnity of Christs Resurrection and Ascention And yet further it may be granted as very probable that the degrees of future happinesse shall be proportioned to the measures and degrees of Grace and Revelation which God hath respectively and in severall successions imparted to his Church And if so then it will follow That as confessedly God hath exhibited greater abundance of Revelation and Grace unto the Beleevers under the Gospel then to those under the Law so those shall be partakers of higher Formes or Sears of happinesse then these all could Neither doe these liberall concessions any whit advantage the Romanists perswasion or conceit because they no way conclude or infer their Position for they peremptorily exclude the Soules of these all from Heaven and not onely so but keep them under restraint confine shut them up in under ground Vaults and Cells not far from Hell And this Position we reject as contrary to an Old Testament Revelation Eccl. 12.7 the spirit returns unto God who gove it Which words of the Wise Man though they doe not in terminis terminantibus expresse Language determine whether their Soules return to God mediately or immediately upon their separation yet the context makes the meaning plain and the Text a clear proof of their immediate return for as the dust immediately after the departure of the Soule returns to what it was even so the Soule after its divorce from the Body returns immediately to its Creator And this is also agreeable to Gods just and gracious dealings with his chosen in all Generations to reward the work of Faith labour of love patience of hope to order and appoint to Travellers when at their Journyes end their resting place To Runners when their Course is finished the Prize To Crown his Souldiers who have fought the good fight of Faith with Glory To receive his Servants when they performed their duty and done their work into his presence and to enter them into their Masters joyes settle and possesse his Children of their Inheritance which resting Place Prize Crown of Glory Glorious Presence Joyes and Inheritance hath been purchased and bought and so demised and granted to the these all in this place as well as to the succeeding Generations For although then Christ had not actually suffered and so they not actually ransomed yet even then he being the Lambe slain before the Foundation of the World Legally or in the Eye of the Law or rather of the just Judge and Soveraigne Lord he did suffer and they were Redeemed inasmuch as God had Decreed that satisfaction made