of Faith The greatest Philosophers as the Epicures and Stoiks most resisted Paul Acts 17.18 as our greatest Politicians most scoffe at Religion and at preaching of the Word Vse 2. All are bound to heare and nothing so worthy to be heard as the Gospel Let vs say of hearing as Paul speaks of knowing it 1. Cor. 2.2 viz. that he esteemed to know nothing besides The Nurses song doth not so quiet the babe as the preaching of the Gospell the Conscience It s the hand of GOD offering vs forgiuenes of sinnes Hee therefore who hath eares to heare let him heare He hath wel imployed his eares who hath reuernntly heard the Gospell which the diuell keepes many from hearing lest by hearing they should be conuerted and liue If thou wilt not Now beare that which may profit thee thou shalt heare one day that which will make thy heart to ake euen this Goe you cursed c. For if any receiue you not nor heare your words shake the dust off your feet truely it shall be easier for Sodom in the day of Iudgement then for them Mat. 10.14,15 Vse 3. Ministers must be affected and grieue when they see the company of reuerent hearers so thinne and their labours so fruitlesse The Prophet here complaines of this so Christ grones for the hardnes of the peoples hearts and weepes ouer the stubbornnesse of Ierusalem The shrewdest turne to be done to a Minister is to depriue him of the ioy of his labours and the way to reioyce them is to embrace the Gospel they preach It will be vnprofitable and heauy for the hearers to haue their Minister to complain of them with griefe vnto God Vse 4. Esay and Paul gaue not ouer though they had cause to cōplaine As the Physician omits no point of his Art though the recouery of his Patient be desperate So though vvee preach to many desperate and scoffing hearers we must not giue ouer but rather vse the more diligence For whether they profit by vs or no we shall haue our fee. Not as the husbandman loseth by an ill crop shall I lose If I preach and thou repent not it shall neuer repent me of my paines I will preach still for though my preaching be not a sweet sauour to thee yet euen in thee I am a sweet sauour to God Thou also shalt smart for it for if we be offended when our words are despised much more will God bee at the contempt of his Gospell Vse 5. Although faith cannot be without preaching going before it yet preaching may be without faith following it as that which is to be knowne may be without the knowledge of it The word that sounds without is not sufficient faith if God speake not within in the heart There are two things required to faith the determination of that which is to be beleeued and the inclination and perswasion of the heart to beleeue Aquinas Preaching determines but its God who perswades by preaching God can doe it without preaching but preaching cannot doe it without God Our voyce can say Repent but its God only that giues Repentance Paul preacheth to Lidiaes eare but God hath the key of her heart Pray that God would open our mouthes to speake pray also that he will vnlocke thy heart to beleeue for as Rebecca cookt the Venison but Isaac gaue the blessing so wee may plant and water but its God that giues the increase 1. Cor. 3.7 VERSE 18. But I say Haue they not heard Yes verily c Psal 19.4 their sound went into all the earth and their words vnto the ends of the world THis is spoken of the Gentiles not of the Iewes as appeares by the manner of the next verse In this Paul preuents another obiection occasioned by the words before concerning the sending of the Gospell to the Gentiles as if some Iew should haue sayd If you be sent to the Gentiles why do you preach to them all but only to some choyce Cities and Nations Paul answeres that they doe and shall preach to them all which he vtters by an interrogation and proues by a testimony out of the Psalmes as if he should say Dauid tells you that all haue or might heare for Their sound is gone out into all the earth Question is whether Paul alleadge this testimony or allude vnto it In the Psalme he speaks of works here of the Word Some say that Paul argues from the lesse If God teach all by the great volume of the heauens much more will he teach all by the heauenly doctrine of the Gospell I thinke that vnder the historicall narration of the heauens and of their sound is hid a prophecy of the preaching of the Gospell because the latter part of the Psalme speakes much in the commendation of it and Paul here so applies it And indeed there is a most sweet Analogie betweene the heauens sound and the Gospell There are diuers particulars obserued I thinke these are good The heauens are the worke of Gods hand so is the Gospell reuealed by God The heauens shew the worke of God so the Gospell that wee are Iustified by the worke of God which is faith not by the works of man The doctrine of the Gospell is pure and lightsome as are the heauens The influence of the heauens comforteth cherisheth inferior things so doth the Gospell the Conscience The diuersity of Nations and Languages is manifold which vnderstand not one another yet all vnderstand the excellency of the heauens and the wonderfull worke of God in them So God enabled the Apostles to teach all Nations in their owne tongues the wonderfull works of God Into all the earth and vnto the ends of the world The summe is that the Gospell was preached to all the world Ob. But many Nations were long after the Apostles dayes conuerted as England in the time of Gregory the great the Iaponians and Americans but the other day heard of Christ A. All the earth is either taken for the most part the ends for Countries very farre off or it is spoken of that which should be or it is meant of the 4. quarters of the world or of the Romane Empire And for that of England it is false Indeed in Gregories dayes England by Austen the Monke was first brought in subiection to Rome they before agreeing with the Greeke Church for at the comming of that Austen there were many holy Monks in this Land and some haue written of the conuersion of it in the daies of Eleutherius yea Dorotheus seemeth to affirme that Simon Zelotes was in Brittany if the place be not misprinted And for the New discouered places may be answered that either they were not then inhabited or the Gospell there preached but not receiued or that the fame of the Gospell at the least came thither as the fame of the Israelites came into Canaan doctrine The Gospell was preached to all the world in the time of the Apostles
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tacit. in Zen. The Children of the liuing God so called in opposition to their Idols which they serued or because of his bounty aâ—… goodnesse giuing life and all happinesse to such as worship him as the Heathens called their chiefe god by a Title so signifying as the Cause of life doctrine The Calling of the Gentiles to the state of Grace and Saluation was long agoe foretold by the Prophets Osee 1.10 2.23 So also Gen. 9.27 Psal 2.8 Esay 49.6 Haggai 2.8 Micah 4.1 Mal. 1.11 c. Vse 1. In all scruples haue recourse to the Scriptures for satisfaction by the example of Paul The Iewes were offended that the Gentiles were preached vnto Paul tels them that it was so foretold by the Prophets It should not therefore haue bred in them scandall but rather confirmation of their Faith seeing the euent to hold correspondence with the Word Let vs apply it thus Many are troubled and puzzeled because of heresies and erroneous opinions and because such as feare God are mocked and hated This should rather confirme vs in the Faith because such things are foretold These things saith our Sauiour Ioh. 16.4 I haue said vnto you that when they come to passe you should not be troubled Many also stagger because some after long profession fall away But this is no other but that which was by our Sauiour foretold Mat. 19.30 Many which are first shall be last and the last shall be first As therefore in the darke thou lookest not about but to the Lanthorne that thou mightest not stumble so in these euill dayes attend to the Word and thou shalt be satisfied Vse 2. We are Gentiles we ought to consider what wee were that we may be stirred vp to thankefulnesse for the grace we are come vnto Ephes 2.11,12 We were without Christ aliants from the common-wealth of Israel Strangers from the Couenants of Promise without hope yea without God in the world and walked abominably But now we are beloued and the sonnes of the liuing God To be the people of God was not alwayes the estate of England but time was when we were like the Indians and Armenians O the darknesse that was ouer the face of our land about 80. or 90. yeeres agoe What grace and light haue we aboue our Forefathers Be thankefull England and shew forth his vertues who hath called thee both out of the darknesse of Heathenisme and Papisme into his maruellous light Yea let euery one in particular apply it What were thou before thy effectuall Calling It may be a drunkard an vncleane person prophane vnconscionable c. but now a Sonne or Daughter of the liuing GOD. Praise thy God who hath loued thee and deliuered thee out of the power of darknesse translating thee into the Kingdome of his deare Sonne I was saith Paul 1. Tim. 1.13 c. a blasphemer c. but God hath shewed grace Therefore to the King euerlasting c. bee praise and honour for euer Vse 3. Highly esteeme of the Word by which so much grace is conueyed vnto thee Many are like proud Seruing-men which are ashamed to bee seene in their Masters liuery If thou beest not ashamed of thy Master Christ bee not ashamed dayly to wait vpon him in thy liuery vvhich is the hearing of his Word and the receiuing of the Sacraments Vse 4. Examine whether thou bee beloued and the sonne of God indeede or Titular only The Iewes gloried that they were the people of God when hee would not acknowledge them And the Diuell can transforme himselfe into an Angell of light and seeme to be one Wilt thou for his faire shew say hee is a good Angell perceiuing the blacke drifts of his Tentations So many seeme to bee the children of God who in their conuersation expresse the affection not of children but of enemies Thy Conscience tels thee thou drunkard thou Strumpet thou painted Sepulchre that thou art a Pagan though thou hast the outward badge of a son of one beloued Nay thou art so much the lesse beloued because bearing the badge of God thou seruest the Diuell If thou beest Gods Spouse keep thy selfe chaste to him if his sonne or Daughter honour him If of his people learne his Statutes and obey them It is a grieuous thing to bee cast out to bee diuorced from God to bee dis-herited of heauen Hee is the euerliuing God to saue his children and to confound them which are his enemies VERSE 27. * Esay 10.22.23 Esay also cryeth concerning Israel Though the Number of the children of Israel bee as the sand of the Sea a Remnant shall be saued 28. For he will finish the c Or account worke and cut it short in righteousnesse because a short worke will the Lord make vpon the earth 29. And as Esaias said before e Esay 1.9 Except the Lord of Sabbath had left vs a seede we had beene as Sodoma and beene made like vnto Gomorrah IN these verses Paul proueth that not all the Iewes yea not many but a very few shall be saued by two Testimonies out of Esay both which are to the same effect The first is verse 27 28. out of Esay 10.21,22 The second verse 29. out of Esay 1.9 In the first Testimony are two things First the thing witnessed Secondly the Amplification The Thing witnessed is that but a Remnant of the children of Israel shall be saued A Remnant notes a small Number in comparison of the whole Saued The Prophet Esay saith shall returne not onely from the captiuitie of Babylon but from sinne as appeares verse 21. They shall returne vnto God Hence one obserues Gualter that none can be saued but they which returne that is which repent The Amplification is foure-fold First from the Person bearing witnesse which is Esay Paul deliuers not this in his own Name which he knew was odious to them but in Esayes a Prophet of chiefe account Paul was not inferiour to Esay nor his Testimony of lesser Authoritie for they wrote by the same Spirit but he knew they would except against him therefore he takes one against whom lay no Exception Obseruation It was a great corruption in the Iewes to examine truth by the person and a foule fault in many among vs who haue the Word in respect of persons If the Preacher bee of their Cut they will heare him and admire him how sillily so euer he speakes but if he be not they esteeme not the Word though neuer so soundly deliuered 2. From the Manner of the Testimonie He cryed wherein some note the Prophets zeale which also should be in all Ministers but others vnderstand it of plainnesse and boldnesse also as if Paul should say to a Iew What Art thou angry because I speake so plainely and boldly of thy reiection Is not Esay as plaine and bold 3. By a Concession Indeed their number is as the sand of the sea