let us annexe workes to our faith The Lord makes us perfect in workes that our election may be sure He doth not pray to GOD to make them perfect in some good workes but in all As he sayd homo sum humani nihil à me alienum puto So let us say Christianus sum nullum Christianum opus à me alienum puto Herod did many things but because hee did not all he was not saved Heere some trees bring forth Peares some Plumbes some Apples some Almonds There is no tree that bringeth forth all fruit But every Christian must be as a tree planted by the rivers of waters that bringeth forth all fruit We must be ready for every good worke wee must have prayers and almes deedes zeale meekenesse humility patience we must abound in every good worke 3 He doth not say the Lord cause you to begin in every good worke but God perfect you c. We must labour to aspire to perfection daily more and more as Iac. 1.4 So let zeale patience c. Let every grace have his perfect worke Vsus promptos facit use makes perfectnesse scribendo disces scribere use thy selfe to writing and in the end thou shalt write well use legs and have legs so use thy selfe to good workes and be perfect in good workes Milo by using to carry a Calfe when it was young did beare it when it was old So let us exercise ourselves in good workes from our youth as the young man sayes at the length it will bee easie to attaine such a perfection as is acceptable to God Let us use our selves to pray as Daniel did morning and evening Let us use our selves to reading of the Scripture as the Bereans to Preaching as Christ to fasting as Anna to give to the poore and needy as Dorcas and Cornelius At length we shall attaine to some perfection in them c. This is amplified 1. By the rule whereby our workes must bee framed that is the will of God Christ sayd not my will but thine be done So must every Christian say our will is to live at ease to wallow in pleasures to take the Tabret and Harpe to eate the Calves out of the middest of the stall to rejoyce with the instruments of Musicke Our will is never to taste of any misery to have no losses crosses sicknesse if possible not to have our finger ake But let us entreat the Lord that wee may doe His will to say with them Acts 21.14 The will of the Lord be done 1 Thes. 4. The will of God is your sanctification The Lord so perfect us to every good worke that we may possesse our vessels in holinesse and honour that we may serve Him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life 2 It is amplified by the manner of our working That which is well pleasing in his sight not for any worthinesse of ours but through Iesus Christ in whom God is well pleased with us for without him we can please God in nothing Cain and Abel both offered Sacrifices yet God was pleased with Abel not with Cain The Pharisee and Publican both praied in the Temple yet the one was heard and the other was not Why because one was in Christ not the other Let us desire the Lord to accept of our poore and imperfect workes for the worthinesse of Christ in whose name they are presented to him He concludes with a doxologie a song of praise and thankesgiving to Christ the great Shepheard which is God above all blessed for ever to him be glory for ever and ever He it is in whom wee were chosen before the foundation of the world in whom is our life breath and being He it is that in unspeakable love came downe from the pallace of heaven into the dunghill of the earth for our sakes that vouchsafed to take flesh of a woman for us to be borne in a Stable layd in a cratch to endure the speaking against of sinners to be called Beelzebub a bibber of wine a friend of Publicanes and sinners to be blindfolded buffetted spit upon cruelly whipped to be pittifully nailed hand and foote to the Crosse to susteine the wrath of his Father to dye to be buried to rise againe to ascend into heaven there making intercession for us therefore to him be praise for ever and ever He it is that though he bee absent in body yet hath not left us Orphanes poore fatherlesse children he hath given us his spirit to be a father to us to guide us into all truth an heavenly Comforter to comfort us in all distresses to seale us up to the kingdome of heaven He hath left us His Word the foode of our soules the sword of the Spirit to defend us from all enemies of our salvation Hee hath given us the Sacrament of His blessed Supper as a perpetuall memory of him wherein we may daily see him the bread and wine are as pledges of his body and bloud that we may eate him spiritually be one with him and he with us He it is that hath given us his Angels to pitch their tents about us to take our soules at our dying day and to carry them into the kingdome of heaven Therfore let us say with cheerefull hearts to him be praise worthy is the Lord Iesus the great Shepheard of the sheepe to receive all honour and glory prayse power and might now and for ever Amen VERSE 22. 1 AN admonition Suffer the word of exhortation 2. The reason which is taken from the brevity In admonitions I have beene briefe hee spent but three Chapters in them therefore take them the more patiently Such is the pride and perversenesse of our nature we cannot abide to be told of our faults like gauled horses wee are ready to winch and kicke at it Therefore this caveat is very needfull Suffer your selves meekely and quietly to bee reprooved for your sinnes Suffer the Preacher to tell you of your covetousnesse your pride malice c. of your drunkennesse fornication and adultery of your negligence in comming to Church of the little care that is had for the good of the Towne every man is for himselfe none for the Towne Suffer your selves to be admonished of these things it is good for you Ye suffer fooles gladly sayes Saint Paul yee suffer stage players to tell you of your faults and ye laugh at it and will ye not suffer Preachers ye suffer the Physition to give you sowre potions yee send for him and reward him for it and will yee not suffer the Physition of your soules to bee sharpe with you for your salvation Ye suffer Chirurgions to cut you and will yee not suffer us to lanch the soares of your sins that the corrupt matter may issue out Suffer the words of exhortation and magnifie God for them Blessed be thou and blessed be thy counsell sayd David to Abigail So when the Preacher tels us of that which is amisse and exhorts us to
never looke backe but continue with him to the end That this is the native meaning of it is apparant by the words following wherein he corroborateth his exhortation For many deceivers are come into the world which will supplant you if they may therefore walke on stedfastly in the truth VERSE 7. 1. HE warnes them of false teachers 2. He armes them against them verse 8. In the warning 1. There is a signification that they become 2. A marke whereby to know them being come 3. An application of that marke For the former 1. There is the qualitie of them that be come they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 planing subtile cheating deceitfull fellowes they will deceive you with fine words and nise distinctions 2. Here is the quantitie of them They be not a few but many Many Beares many Lions many Foxes If they were but Waspes and Bees yet being many they might scare us and make us circumspect much more these 3. They be not to enter but are already entred 4. Into this wicked world which is a receptacle of good and bad I will give you a marke whereby ye shall discerne them They confesse not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh and so subvert the very foundation of Christianity There be divers kindes of them Some deny that Christ is come in the flesh at all as the obstinate Iewes whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded Some confesse him to be come in a kinde of flesh yet not in true but in phantasticall flesh as Marcion whom Tertullian eloquently confuteth 1. The Angels appeared in true and solid flesh Abraham washed their feete they tooke Lot his wife and two daughters by the hand and lead them out of the city and doe ye thinke that the Sonne of God would dissemble and deceive the world with phantasticall flesh 2. He was borne of a woman he did not passe through a woman as water through a channel He came not out of her wombe transmeatorio but genitorio more not as one that passed through her but as one that was begotten of her The fruit of her wombe ut homines nascerentur ex Deo primò ex ipsis natus est Deus That men might be borne of God God was first borne of men We are commonly borne of a man and a woman He was singularly borne of a woman without a man 3. If his birth were phantasticall then his death was phantasticall then they are not to be blamed that killed him 4. If his humanity was phantasticall then we may justly imagine that his Deitie was phantasticall too Quomodo verax habebitur in occulto qui fallax repertus est in aperto How shall we beleeve him in that which is secret when he was deceitfull in that which is open Againe Some confesse him to have a true body but no soule as Apollinaris His Deity supplied that whereas he saith My soule is heavy even to the death Father into thy hands J commend my Spirit But let us acknowledge with thanksgiving to his Majestie that he is come in the flesh God manifested in the flesh seene of Angels beleeved on in the world ascended into glory Worthy then is the lamb that was borne and killed for us to receive all honour and glory praise power and might for ever Magna misericordia Domini nostri Iesu Christi Great is the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ. Factum esse eum propter nos in tempore per quem facta sunt tempora that he which made time would be made for us in time that he which made man would be made man least that should have perished which he made Then he applies the marke to them before mentioned This is a deceiver and an Antichrist But why doth he change the number Why doth he not say these be the deceivers and Antichrists Catharinus supposeth he doth it to point out the devill qui est verus primus maximus Antichristus who is the true first and chiefe Antichrist that needeth not the alteration of number is frequent in all Authors There were many Antichrists in the Apostles dayes as forerunners of that great Antichrist in time to be revealed That shall sit in the Temple of God and exalt himself above all that is called God VERSE 8. HItherto he hath warned them of false teachers now he armes them against them 1. He wisheth them vitare errorem to eschew their errors 2. Fugere communionem to flie their communion and society verse 10 11. In the former 1. The Caveat then the reasons the caveat look to your selves and looke narrowly too with both eyes with all the circumspection you can We must looke to others too For no man liveth to himselfe none must say with Cain Am I my brothers keeper We must looke to our brethren too yet first and principally to our selves because every one of us must give an account of himselfe to God A traveller must looke to him that travells with him but chiefely to himselfe we must rather be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops over ourselves then over others that is condemned by S. Peter yet some there be that spend more time in other mens Diocesses than in their owne in looking to others than to themselves Multi multò sciunt scipsos nesciunt alios inspiciunt seipsos negligunt Many know much and know not themselves they looke upon others and neglect themselves This caveat he doth enforce by 4. Reasons 1. A damno from the losse 2. A praemio from the reward in this v. 3. Ab incommodo from the discōmoditie 4. A commodo from the commodity in the next He doth not say ye but wee including himselfe in the number the best of us all have neede to be vigilant that we lose not the things for which we have wrought namely the joyes of heaven for the which we have wrought by prayer and fasting by reading of Scriptures by hearing of Sermons and divine Service by a patient suffering of divers afflictions and shall wee now through negligence lose them We must worke for the meate that endureth to life everlasting We must not be idle not unfruitfull in the excellent knowledge of Iesus Christ. Wee must worke for heaven not to purchase it that hath Christ done with his owne precious bloud but to confirme it to our selves Goe worke in my Vineyard Worke out your salvation with feare and trembling But let us so worke that wee loose not our working be faithfull to the end and I will give thee the crowne of life Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations therefore I appoint to you a Kingdome Without continuance no Kingdome A traveller loses his labour though hee have gone 40 or 50 mile if he goe not on to the end of his journey Marriners lose that which they have wrought unlesse they worke till they
that he might the better pittie us that be men that he might be a mercifull high Priest to us all and shall we be unmercifull one to another As the elect of God put on bowels of mercy Col. 3.12 We have a mercifull high Priest Let us be mercifull one to another It is a token of a wicked man of a reprobate to be unmercifull as that rich glutton was that saw Lazarus dayly at his gates and would have no compassion on him True Christians are mercifull as Christ is Iudas came howling to the high Priests and Pharises Oh I have sinned in betraying innocent bloud what is that to us say they See thou to that So such a neighbour is sicke in the Towne such a one is mourning for the death of his Children his Wife c. Such a poore man hath neither meat nor firing nothing to relieve himselfe and his Children withall what is that to us A lamentable thing There is a thorne in the foot that paines it and makes it to swell shall the head and hands say what is that to us We are members one of another and we have an head that is pittifull to us Let us be pittifull one to another that Christ may have pittie and compassion on us both in this world and in that which is to come This may be a singular comfort to us all They say he is happy that hath a friend in the Court especially if he be gracious with the King wee have a friend in the Court of heaven that is deepe in Gods bookes such a friend as hath a feeling of all our infirmities He and we are as Hippocrates twins weeping and laughing together Saul why persecutest thou me If we be sicke or grieved he is c. This was one speciall end why CHRIST assumed our nature that hee might the better have compassion on us in our calamities As the bowels of the true mother yerned when her Child should have beene cut in pieces so if wee bee in any affliction the bowels of CHRIST yerne towards us therefore let us sound forth the praises of CHRIST with a cheerefull heart that tooke our nature on him let us glorifie this our elder brother LORD and Saviour in this life that we may be glorified with himselfe in eternall glory in the life to come CHAP. 3. HItherto he hath entreated of the person of Christ shewing him to be God and man now he proceedeth to his offices As for his regall dignity it might bee perceived by that which he had already spoken of him that he was above the Angels themselves therefore he sayes little of his kingdome in his other two offices he is ample 1. They are propounded joyntly Verse 1. Then opened Severally and particularly 1. Hee begins with his prophesie which is contained in this Chapter and part of the next to Verse 14. Then with his Priesthood in the Chapter following About his prophesie there be two things 1. An admonition with all reverence to listen to this our Prophet 2. Reasons to induce us to it Within this Chapter there are foure The 1. is taken from his fidelity illustrated by a comparison betweene him and Moses à 2. ad 7. 2. From the testimony of the Holy Ghost who stirreth us up to listen to him where we have the allegation of the testimony à 7. to 11. an application of it Verse 12 13. The 3d. reason is taken from the fruit and commodity we shall have by it a society and fellowship with Christ verse 14. 4. From the punishment inflicted on them that contemne this Prophet to the end In the admonition there be two branches 1. A description of the persons that are to attend 2. Of the person to whom they must attend Vnde whereupon Seeing the Prophet and Doctor of the Church is the high and eternall God above the Angels and all creatures seeing in time he became man that by Gods grace he might taste death for all men therefore let us make an high account and estimation of him The parties admonished to listen to this Prophet and Teacher of the Church are described by their estate and condition and by the gracious benefits bestowed on them 1 For their condition they be brethren dulciter eos alloquitur not carnall but spirituall brethren He doth not call them brethren only because they descended of the Fathers and came of the seed of Abraham as he did but because they were brethren in the Lord Iesus Christ. By this sweet and loving title he doth insinuate himselfe into the Hebrewes and allures them to have a reverent opinion of Christ. Yea he cals them holy brethren such as are made holy by Iesus Christ the Holy one of God 1 Cor. 6.11 By nature we are unholy as well as others but Christ sanctifieth us and makes us holy We that bee Christians must not be unholy brethren brethren in evill as Simeon and Levi were but we must be holy brethren As GOD our Father is holy the Church our Mother is holy Christ our elder brother is holy the Angels our fellow-brethren are holy Heaven is an holy place so must we in some measure be holy Seeing you are holy and have all your holinesse from Christ listen to him 2 For their dignity Partakers together with the rest of the Saints of the Heavenly and glorious kingdome whereunto God in mercy hath called us by the preaching of the Gospell 1 Thes. 2.12 Now as GOD hath beene so gracious to you as to make you partakers of his owne kingdome purchased by the bloud of his Sonne so listen you with all reverence to him and cleave to him alone Of the heavenly calling that is Of the preaching of the Gospell whereby we are called to the kingdome of heaven whom God hath predestinated hee hath called The preaching of the Gospell is the bell whereby we are called to eternall glory As by the sound of a Trumpet the people were called together in the time of the Law so the Word is the silver Trumpet sounding in our eares whereby we are called to the Kingdome of Heaven Blessed are they that be partakers of this calling Such are we in England at this present day if we had eyes to see it and hearts to consider it But GOD cals and we refuse to come wisdome hath made ready her Feast she shath sent her maids into the streets to call us to her banquet but we passe not for it The King made a Supper for his Son sent and invited many to it but they made excuses and came not so GOD calleth us continually but some sit at home in their houses some ride abroad c. when God cals them to his kingdome As we are partakers of the heavenly vocation so let us make a precious account of it that we may be called out of the kingdome of darknesse into the kingdome of light and remaine with Christ for ever Then he comes to the admonition it selfe Consider not lightly as they
and a friend of publicans and sinners yet he gave never an ill word againe Hee was buffeted spit on blindfolded whipped a crowne of thornes was set on his head and was pittifully nay led to the Crosse yet he tooke all patiently Father forgive them they know not what they doe Let us bee followers of him hee knew no sinne there was no cause in him why he should be so handled yet was patient We deserve many calamities by our sinnes and shall wee bee impatient Shall not wee take our afflictions patiently patientia est pars fortitudinis a Christian must be knowne by his sufferings ferendo magis quà m feriendo Wee must overcome all our enemies Sundry there be that professe they will put up no wrong they will suffer no injuries at no mans hands I but if we be Christians we must bee patients not agents in evill Ought not Christ to suffer and so to enter into his glory Wee must goe to glory by suffering as Christ did Let us therefore be followers of them that by faith and patience inherite the promises Remember the patience of Iob and what an end the Lord made the end of patience is comfortable therefore let us all bee patient that we may inherit the promises by faith and patience in this life and have the full fruition of them to our everlasting glory in the life to come The reverent opinion and charitable perswasion that the Apostle hath of the Hebrewes Verse 9. is grounded on two arguments 1. From the consideration of the graces wherewith they were adorned 2. From the contemplation of Gods promise wherein 1. A narration of the promise which is as the text 2. An exposition of it or a commentary on the text that consists of two parts 1. An explanation of the oath whereby the promise was confirmed 2. An application of it to us 1. In regard of the end which is the comfort of the faithfull 2. In regard of the effect that ariseth from it a certaine hope of eternall life Where 1. A description of hope 2. A confirmation of it by an argument from the relatives It is described by the similitude of an ancre where 1. The qualities of the ancre 2. The power of it In the end 1. What mooved GOD to it 2. The force and efficacie of it VERSE 13. HEE insists in one speciall example which of all other is most famous Both because Abraham was the father of the faithfull and the Iewes boasted exceedingly of him Here we have 1. A narration of Gods ancient promise made to Abraham 2. His patient expectation of it In the narration 1. A declaration of the promise 2. The confirmation of it namely by an oath 3. The matter of the promise that was so confirmed by an oath Verse 14.4 The performance of it which is 1. set downe then amplified by the time when Verse 15. Abraham by faith and patience inherited the promise bee yee followers of him in faith patience that yee may inherit the joyes of heaven promised unto you The promise was ratified by an oath where we have 1. The person by whom hee sware which was himselfe 2. The reason why hee sware by himselfe because hee could not sweare by a greater Wee must sweare by the greatest of all there is none greater than God therefore he sware by himselfe being God Object GOD the Sonne might have sworne by the Father my Father is greater than I. So in regard of Christs Humanity the Father is greater than he but in regard of the Deity they be equall none greater than another VERSE 14. HEre wee have the matter of the promise that was ratified by an oath Verily Sanè answering to ci Hebr. Some interpret it nisi except it is an aposiopesis Let me never bee believed any more In blessing I will blesse thee That gemination sometimes signifies the certainty of the thing morte morieris thou shalt surely dye Some interpret it with a double blessing temporall and spirituall here it signifies plenitudinem for the certainty was expressed before The performance of the promise is set downe in this Verse VERSE 15. THere were three things promised to Abraham the land of Canaan a great and populous posterity and Christ the Saviour the world For the first Hebr. 11.9 he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaak and Iacob the heires with him of the same promise For the second while he was alive he had but a small seede and as for the third Christ came not many hundred yeares after yet all these he enjoyed by faith he saw the day of Christ and was glad Hee was an hundred yeere old before hee had a child When he had him he was commanded to sacrifice him yet by faith hee stood and by patience obtained the promise we must believe under hope above hope as he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being of a long suffering minde and looking to things that were long to come As patience in Abraham went before the enjoying of the promise So we must patiently endure before we obtaine the promised inheritance of glory and happinesse Patience is an excellent thing The Philosophers though in other things they jarred yet they agreed in the commendation of patience Tertul. God will take the part of a patient man If any offer thee injurie he is ultor if thou hast any losse he is restitutor if thou beest grieved he is medicus if thou beest put to death he is restitutor Tertul. The patient abiding of the poore shall not alwayes bee forgotten There is nothing lost by patience Yee remember the patience of Iob and what end the Lord made The end of patience is comfort It may begin with a Tragedie but ends alwayes with a Comedie The husbandman is faine to have much patience before he have his corne into the barne with great toile and wearying of his body hee plowes his ground harrowes it casts his seede into the earth hee knowes not whether he shall see it any more but rests patiently on Gods providence The Merchant is faine to have much patience before hee can mount up to any wealth many a storme and tempest he endures on the Sea often in danger of his life The Clothyer must have much patience in buying of his wooll in making of it out in selling of his cloth he is faine to stand to many casualities yet hope of a convenient gaine in end makes him with cheerefulnesse to passe through them all They doe it for earthly things that are here to day and gone to morrow and shall not we be patient for heavenly treasures for a kingdome that cannot be shaken but is eternall in the heavens Bee patient a while passe through poverty sicknesse malevolent tongues and all other calamities in this life that wee may at the length be taken up into that place where we shall have need of patience no more for all teares shall be wiped away
faith in him wee have peace with God and a comfortable accesse to his Majesty Ahasuerus held out his golden Scepter to Hester and she drew neere to him So God being reconciled to us by CHRIST holdeth forth the golden Scepter of his favour to us and wee draw neere to him What a prerogative is this that we may draw neere to the high and mighty God which in himselfe is a consuming fire Wee thinke it a great favour to draw neere to an earthly King to kisse his hand to speake our minde freely to him that noble man is greatly honoured that can in such sort draw neere to the King We have all free accesse by Iesus Christ to the King of Kings wee may boldly draw neere to him and preferre our supplications to him wee need not stand aloofe off and goe to God by the Virgin Mary and the Saints triumphing in heaven by the Meditation of Christ alone we may draw neere to God Himselfe and say Our father as Christâ—eacheth â—eacheth us hee beareth such a love to us as that Christ Himselfe protesteth in the Gospell I say not that I will pray to the Father for you the Father Himselfe loveth you Therefore let us with a Christian confidence draw neere to him This may be an unspeakeable comfort to us in all calamities in sickenesse in poverty when wee have crosses in our soules in bodies goods or name when any thing grieveth us let us draw neere to our heavenly father and powre forth our griefes into his bosome he tenders us as the Apple of his owne eye and will not deny us any thing that is good 2. As we draw neere to him in all our troubles by hearty prayer in this life so by Christ our blessed Saviour we shall draw neere to him in his owne kingdome in the life to come where wee shall eate of the hidden Manna and of the tree of life in the Paradise of God for ever Behold then what a singular blessing we have by CHRIST such as the Law could never have given to us therefore let us bee thankfull to God for it let us love the Lord Iesus Christ by whom we draw neere to God let the love of Christ constraine us to forsake our sins which banished us out of Gods kingdome let us glorifie Christ by whom we have this accesse to God in this present world that we may be partakers of his eternall glorie in the world to come VERSE 20. THe third argument is taken from the manner of the institution of both Priest-hoods He that is made a Priest with an oath is greater than they that are made without an oath Christ was made a Priest with an oath the Levites without an oath Ergo. The consequence of the proposition is evident it must needs be a great thing and of singular weight and importance which God Almighty ratifieth with an oath God Almighty swore at the consecration of our high-Priest so did he not at the consecration of Aaron and his Sons therefore he is greater than they Both the parts of the assumption are expressed in the Text and the conclusion is emphatically inferred Verse 22. For so much as Christ was not made a Priest without an oath whereas those in the time of the Law were The word of the high and eternall God which is truth it selfe in whom there is not a shadow of turning is sufficient to procure credit and authority to that which hee speaketh By the word of a King as we use to say nothing can bee more sure Shall not then the word of the King of Kings bee believed but when an oath is annexed to it we ought the rather to be confirmed in it Now there be three principall things which God sweareth in Scripture The first is the eternity and perpetuity of Christ's Priest-hood he hath not onely said but sworne thou art a Priest for ever Which is a singular comfort to us all wee may bee bold to believe Gods oath Our Priest that makes intercession for us lives for ever The second thing is the destruction of the wicked of stubborne and disobedient persons that by Gods voice in the Ministery of the word will not be reclaimed from their sins I have sworne in my wrath that such shall never enter into my rest God sware that none of those that came out of Aegypt save Caleb and Ioshua should enter into the land of Canaan It came so to passe all their Carhasses fell in the wildernesse God hath sworne that such as have the Trumpet of the word continually sounding in their eares and yet will lye snorting in their sins shall perish eternally Therefore let us tremble at it and believe it The third thing that God hath sworne unto in the Scripture is the salvation of the faithfull that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye wee might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Hast thou a true and lively faith in CHRIST which is fruitfull in all good workes as Dorcas was and canst say with Saint Paul I live yet not I but CHRIST in mee c. GOD hath sworne that thou shalt be saved therefore doubt not of it Though the Devill walke about as a roaring Lion seeking to devoure us though he labour to win now us as Wheat though through the corruption of our nature we fall into many sinnes as the holyest of all doth sometimes fall though we be visited with grievous sicknesses though brought to poverty though death is before our eyes yet let us not stagger about our salvation we have Gods Word and oath for it therefore undoubtedly we shall be saved Howsoever wee bee here tossed in the Waves of this miserable world yet at length wee shall arrive at the haven of eternall rest Shall God sweare a thing and not performe that which he hath sworne VERSE 21. WE never reade of an oath when the Priests under the Law were set apart to the Priest-hood On the other side this our high Priest was made with an oath Where 1. The substance of the oath 2. The immutabilitie of it There is a compound verb in the Greek not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the swearing of an oath which is more emphaticall then to say simply with an oath God did sweare an oath when he appointed him to be high-Priest By him that is God the father that said to him Hee introduceth the words of the Psalme tu It is put discretive thou and no other He will admit of no after-thought to amend the former Men repent oftentimes of their words and oaths too but God will never repent of this oath that which hee hath sworne in this oath is immutable Object Gen. 6.6 1 Sam. 15.11 Sol It is a figurative
our memories Of late a most divellish and never heard of treason was contrived by some Iesuited Papists to blow up the whole realme the which that it might never be forgotten in England a perpetuall holy day is inacted by act of Parliament wherein publike thankes is given to God for it One way or other such extraordinary mercies are to be imprinted in our memories A reservation of some externall relicke is not alwayes necessary there may be danger in that if some part of the Gunpowder or some of the barrels which they had layd in the vault had beene kept it would not have been so good as a solemne day every yeere for the recordation of it But alas we are all exceeding forgetfull of Gods mercies his judgments are soone forgot the terrible pestilence which at the beginning of the Kings raign swept away so many thousands is not remembred much lesse will we remember the favours and blessings of the Lord beneficia nemo ponit in calendario that is good of our own benefits but we must all put the benefits of God Almighty in the calender of our mindes for ever 2. And Aarons rod that budded The occasion was this Whereas Corah Dathan and Abiram with all that belonged to them were destroyed for their malepart dealing against Moses and Aaron the Israelites began to mutter at it came to Moses and Aaron saying ye have killed the people of the Lord Num. 16.41 whereupon a great number of them were slaine Now to the intent that this murmuring against the Priest-hood might be stayed the Lord by a lively token would make manifest to all posterity unto what an high chaire of honor he advanced it he commanded 12. rods to be taken according to the number of the 12. tribes that tribe should have the preheminence in the sanctuary whose rod budded now Aarons budded and no other therefore he and the Tribe of Levi were to bee acknowledged in spirituall matters above the rest for ever This doth signifie to us what a care the Lord hath of his sacred ministery which through the malice of Satan is ready to bee contemned in the world My people are as they that rebuke the Priest A contemptuous rebuking of Gods Ministers is a sinne of sins q. d. they cannot commit a greater offence then this they have no good successe that resist Gods Ministers Corah and his complices were swallowed up by the earth alive Ieroboams hand was dried up which hee stretched out against the Prophet Iesabel was eaten up with dogs that set her selfe against the servants of the Lord. Vzziah was smitten with a Leprosie for his contempt of the Priests Ananias and Sapphira that went about to play mocke-holy day with Saint Peter were smitten with suddaine death Therefore let us take heed how wee oppose our selves to the Ministers how wee murmure against their authority thinke or speake contemptibly of them The world may seeke to depresse Aarons rod but it shall bud and flourish in despite of them all Therefore let us have a reverent opinion of the Ministers let us esteeme them as GOD 's stewards as his Ambassadours such as are over us in the Lord. Let us submit our selves unto them and receive them with feare and trembling as the Corinthians did Titus when his Ministery is despised God is despised and hee will not put it up at our hands The third thing reserved were the Tables of the covenant The Arke is a representation of the Church which above all other things must have the Law of God in it This golden Candlesticke must hold up the Candle of the Word of God Hence it is that she is called the ground and pillar of truth not as if shee were to determine what is truth but as a pillar upholds the house so the Church the truth Then what a Church is that Church of Rome that banishes the Law that burnes up the Bible that seekes to suffocate the Truth She is no Arke but a prison of the faithfull This doth declare to us that the Law is to bee had in perpetuall remembrance Let us that be Christians not only have it in our bibles Let us not only talke of it with our tongues but let us lay it up in the Arke and closet of our hearts for ever I have hid thy Law in my heart sayes David As the two Tables of stone were laid up in the materiall Arke so let us entreat the Lord to write the tables of his Law in the fleshie tables of our heart that it may be our guide and comfort all the dayes of our life VERSE 5. WEE have heard what was in the Arke Now let us see what was over it the Cherubims of glory which are so termed because the glorious God betweene them did make answer Cirbi tanquam puer Carab they were certaine images like to little Children with faire and beautifull faces and they had wings by those were signified the Angels which are the Guardians and keepers of the Church figured by the Arke Gen. 3.24 Psalm 91.11 Capphoreth of Caphar that signifies to cover and to reconcile or pacifie the covering of the Arke where GOD by the High-Priest was pacified with the people and obtained mercie for them Therefore it is called the Mercy-seate and Christ Rom. 3.25 is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from this Mercy-seate did God speake Numb 7.89 Psalm 80.1 Of the Cherubims vid. Exod. 25.18 The Mercy-seat or covering of the Arke was a type of our Saviour Christ who covers the Church with his righteousnesse which is a propitiation for our sins The Cherubims are the Angels that minister to Christ and his Church Mat. 4.11 and an Angell comforted him in the Garden As they ministred to him when he was on the earth so they be ministring Spirits for our salvation to the worlds end As GOD spake to Moses by the mercie seate so doth he to us by Christ. 2. At the Mercy-seate God shewed himselfe to be favourable to the people so is he to us by Iesus Christ. See in what an excellent estate the true members of the Church are they have many to protect them 1. God as an Eagle doth shadow us Deut. 32.11 2. CHRIST as a Henne doth shadow us the Holy Ghost also is a father to us I will not leave you Orphanes the Angels they shadow us they are ministring spirits for our salvation they pitch their Tents about us and hold us in their hands The King of Tyrus is called the annointed Cherub Ezek. 28.14 and 16. the covering Cherub covering his people under the wing of his protection Sundry uses may be made of this 1. We that be Christians may be more couragious then any other we are better guarded then any other the wicked are guarded with the Devill and his Angels wee with the holy and mighty Angels they have the black guard we the white an armie of ten or twenty thousand men may bee with them but an army of an
one or other every day London Yorke c. are no Cities to continue in Many are taken away daily and GOD knowes when our turne shall be We must out of our Houses Townes Cities we cannot continue here long therefore let us goe out before in affection that when death comes we may willingly goe from all Yet a wonder it is to see how men dreame of a contiuance here and lay up goods for many yeeres as that rich man did and yet this night thy soule may be taken from thee O consider ye have no continuing here Many Townes-men many of thy neighbours be gone and thou must goe too thou knowest not how quickly therefore think upon that Citie which continues for ever Here we have none but seeke one it will not be gotten without seeking Seek the kingdome of God seek the things that be above Seeke it by prayer fasting reading of Scriptures heavenly meditations c. We are like Esops dog that snapt at the shadow in the water and let the shoulder of mutton goe that was in his mouth wee looke for shadowes silver and gold sheepe and oxen and let the kingdome of heaven goe which is the substance of all It doth not appeare by us that we seeke for any City to come we seeke to seate our selves to establish our dwellings here we care not in a manner for the life to come VERSE 15. THE second Vse is the Oblation of Sacrifices 1. of prayse 2. of beneficence 1. the Precept 2. the Exposition of it In the Precept these Circumstances by whom what when to whom wee must offer By Christ. Ioh. 16.23 1 Pet. 2.5 Apoc. 8.3 The Sacrifice .i. Spirituall 1 Pet. 2.5 of praise in it is included petition too The fruit alluding to the first fruits in the law The Rhemists interpret it the host of prayse .i. the Body of Christ in the Eucharist which the Fathers call the Sacrifice of prayse But then every Christian should be a Priest for all must offer this Sacrifice of praise This say they is the fruit of the Priests lips because by vertue of those words that come out of his lips the host is made When must wee offer continually In adversitie in sickenesse in death in prison as Paul and Silas did To whom God is the Fountaine of all good things Iac. 1.17 Therefore hee alone is to bee praysed To his Name .i. to the Glory of his Name Bellar. confesses that a Sacrifice belongs onely to God Infinite bee the occasions that may induce us to the offering of this Sacrifice Let us prayse God for our Creation after his owne Image in making us Lords over all his creatures for the goodly house and furniture of the world which in mercie hee hath provided for us the Sun Moone and Stars birds of the ayre fishes of the sea beasts of the field all are for us Let us praise him for our foode and sustenance How many creatures dye for us and yet wee are more worthy to dye then they Let us praise him especially for his holy Word the silver trumpet to call us to Heaven for our Sanctification by his Spirit Chiefely for our Redemption by Iesus Christ. If hee had not beene borne and dyed for us it had beene better for us wee had never beene borne Therefore let us praise God continually for him Let us praise him for our peace that there bee no warres in England no leading into captivitie no complaining in our streets Let us praise him for our health What a number bee sicke and wee are whole nay let us praise him for his fatherly castigations in correcting us in this world that wee should not be condemned in the world to come Thus did Iob Blessed bee the Name of the Lord. Wee can never want matter of praising of God yet this Sacrifice that ought alwayes to bee offered is seldome offered It may be we will praise God when wee come to Church with the Congregation but little enough at other times Praise yee him Sun and Moone sayes the Psalmist Frost and snow c. The very insensible creatures praise God in their kinde and wee that are endewed with sense knowledge and understanding praise him not The birds of the ayre are chirping betimes in the Summer mornings singing cheerefully to their Creatour when wee lye drowsing on our beds Paul and Silas when they were in prison at mid-night sang and gave thankes and shall not wee that have our libertie Let us stirre up our selves more and more to this dutie As his mercies never cease so let us never cease praising of him Worthy is the Lord from whom wee receive all good things for Soule and body for this life and that which is to come to receive all Honour and Glory c. VERSE 16. 1. THE Precept then the Reason Doe good to all chiefely to them of the houshold of Faith Gal. 6.10 and to communicate wee are not to keepe all to ourselves And forget not wee are ready to forget that With such as these be and with these too Phil. 4.18 Is well pleased Promeretur Meliùs est ut nos reprehendant Grammatici quà m non intelligant populi sayes Bellar. I but Divines will reprehend them nay GOD will reprehend them they breake Priscians head and Pauls too That is all one say the Iesuits If GOD bee pleased with good workes then they bee meritorious I GOD is pleased with the Saints in Heaven yet they doe not merit for when they have all joyes there remaines nothing for them to merit A number there bee that labour to gather goods but they doe no good with them Many a man of small abilitie doth more good in a Towne then some men of great wealth in the Towne Wee have not our goods for our selves alone no man liveth to himselfe nor dyeth to himselfe Yet now men are good for none but for themselves Thou gatherest for thy wife and children so doe the heathen so doe bruit beasts The birds build nests for their yong ones and an hen scrapeth for her chickens If thou beest a Christian thou must doe more good then so As thou art full of goods so thou must bee full of good workes as Dorcas was cloath the naked feed the hungry comfort the comfortles be a father to the fatherles an husband to the widdowes give to the Schooles of learning for the continuance of the ministerie and preaching of the Word doe good one way or other in the Towne and Countrie where thou dwellest If thou canst not doe good with thy purse doe good with thy tongue by exhorting others provoking them to love and good workes every way let us doe good especially with the goods that GOD hath lent us Let us shew our selves good stewards of them It is a more blessed thing to give then to take yet wee are all of the taking hand none of the giving Make yee friends of this unrighteous mammon If yee keepe all to your selves and doe
which is worse I but looke into the 12 of the Acts of the Apostles and the 6 verse and there you shall see how Saint Peter being bound with two chaines betweene two souldiers slept more soundly than many doe on their beds of downe And againe in the 16 chapter of the Acts and the 25 verse And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sung prayses unto God they sung more merrily in prison than many Kings can doe in their Pallaces There were diverse Martyrs Noble men borne and exceeding rich that had no pitty of themselves nor their wives and children neither but exposed them to all torments for Christs sake A good conscience is a continuall feast no joy to that what is our rejoycing save the testimony of a good conscience The third is honour and preferment but in that let us not be worse than Balaam Balack offered him great promotion but saith hee If the King would giue me his house full of silver and gold I cannot passe the Commandement of the Lord. The devill offered Christ all the Kingdomes of the world and the glory of them yet hee refuseth them What advantageth it a man to winne the whole world and lose his owne soule Let us not lose Christs everlasting Kingdome for these transitorie good things The fourth is persecution confiscation of goods bonds imprisonments death against all these let us plucke up Saint Pauls courage I am ready not onely to be bound but to dye for the Name of the Lord Iesus Ignatius went joyfully to the Lyons Policarpus to the fire Laurentius to the gridyron admirable was the boldnesse of Basil the governour threatned to strip him of his goods as for that saith he I have nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a torne gown and a few books I wil put thee to death death saith he shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a benefactor unto me it shall send me to endlesse joyes well said the governour thou art very stubborne consider better of the matter and give me thy answere to morrow saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I to day and to morrow am the same man Let us all be of his magnanimous resolution let not our lives be deare to us so as we may fulfill our course with joy Christ sayd to the twelve Will ye also goe away To whom should we goe saith Saint Peter in the name of the rest thou hast the words of eternall life Let us love Christ as dearely as Ruth did Naomi Entreate mee not to depart from thee I will live and dye with thee insteed of a life of a span long we shall have a life that endures for ever VERSE 10. HItherto he hath wished her to avoyd their errors now hee doth advise her to eschew their companie 1. Non participando in facto not participating with them in deeds 2. Non participando in verbo not participating with them in words verse 11. If any come unto you they be shamelesse fellowes they will not tarry till they be sent for they will come of their owne accord and intrude themselves What any without exception nay and bring not this doctrine namely of Christ but the contrary rather Receive him not into your house why this seemes too great incivility they might receive him and when they perceived that by him turne him out againe I but Turpiùs eiicitur quam non admittitur hospes ye shall have more adoe to eject him than to keepe him out at the first shut up the doores of your house against him It seemes that as Gajus was the Churches Host so this Lady was the Churches Hostesse her house was open to the Preachers and Professors of the Gospell but he warneth her not to receive corrupt teachers 1. It is a thing displeasing to God to give entertainment to his enemies Iehu the seer reproved King Iehoshaphat for joyning with Achab Wouldest thou helpe the wicked and love them that hate the Lord God gave us our houses they must bee for his friends and not for his enemies 2. The godly will be grieved at it and shall we grieve them for whom especially Christ died 3. It may bring a bad report of our selves that we like of them and approve them whereas we ought to abstaine from all appearance of evill and provide things honest before God and men 4. It may indanger our owne soules For their word fretteth as a canker It may over-run us and infect us ere we be aware 5. It may encourage them in their wickednesse 6. It may pull Gods wrath on us and our houses God blessed the house of Potiphar for Iosephs sake and the house of the Shunamitish woman for Elishaes sake His curse will light on those houses where the adversaries of his Gospel are harboured When Saint Iohn heard that Cerinthus the Heretique was in the bathe saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us flie least the Bathe fall on our heads Yet what a number be there whose houses are receptacles for Seminaries Priests and Iesuites and other Sectaries Ahabs house was for Baals Priests But Constantines Pallace was for godly Bishops and Ministers and hee thought their prayers to be the pillars of his house and indeede they were Then for participation in words Where 1. The prohibition 2. The reason of it verse 11. Neither bid him God speed Be so farre in shewing him any kindnesse in deeds as vouchsafe him not a kind word or greeting The Grecians used two words in their salutations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce and doe well celse gaudere benè rem gerere Albinâ—vano as the Poet said Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wish him no joy no comfort vouchsafe him not a good word or familiar speech shew no token of familiarity to him VERSE 11. HE renders a reason of it For he that biddeth him God speede is partaker of his evill deeds And if wee be partakers of their sinnes we shall be partakers of their plagues Salutation is a signe of love We may not love them Therefore not so much as salute them Marcion asked Saint Iohn if he knew him Yes saith he agnosco te primogenitum Satanae I know thee to be the first borne of the devill They are the devils broode Therefore salute them not Dyonisius Bishop of Alexandria would not vouchsafe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Samosatenus the Heretique Some more nise than wise more rigid than solid will not bid any God speed in the high way side least they be partakers of their evill deeds not knowing where about they goe 1. In doubtfull matters it is the propertie of love to interpret the best for love is not suspitious it thinketh not evill 2. We may bid the man God speede though not that where about hee goes unlesse we certainely know that he goes about some mischiefe These are not much unlike them that except against the Letanie in the
is to the company of the faithfull in thy city which may well be Corinth for it was a factious citie full of Sects and Schismes The vulgar translateth it Scripsi forsitan peradventure I had written But Erasmus guesseth shrewdly and truely The word Forsitan was foisted by some unlearned Clarke into the text I wrote saith Saint Iohn to the Church And he speakes it by the way of a Prolepsis Gajus must reply Why Didst thou not write to us all this while about the entertaining of these men I wrote saith Saint Iohn but my writing was not regarded This Epistle of Saint Iohns is not now extant no more peradventure are some which Saint Peter and Saint Paul wrote But wee have so much Scripture by divine providence as is sufficient to salvation we neede not flie to unwritten verities Now let us take a view of the partie resisting He is described by his name and by his peevish quality His name was Diotrephes Some read Dietrepe Quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overturning God then it fits him well for he was an overtwharter of God and all godlinesse but it is Diotrephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nourished by God And Homer cals Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iupiters nurse children and indeede God hath a speciall care of Kings This man had a glorious name Conveniunt rebus nomina saep◠suis. Sometimes men have sutable names The Name of Iesus agreed wonderfull well to our blessed Saviour for he saves us from our sins and there is no Saviour besides him Timotheus and Philotimus were both answerable to their names both pure worshippers of God But some times mens names are different from their doings Iudah is a good name of Iudah a praiser of God yet he that betrayed Christ had that name Simon is a good name Shamaang Obedience yet Simon Magus was disobedient the fountaine of all heresies So this Diotrephes had a good name but he himselfe was a bad man Good names may be meanes to make men good but they doe not make them good without the blessing of God Almightie 2. He is described by a vicious qualitie that was in him hee loved to have the preeminence among them Hee doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath the preeminence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that loves preeminence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 riches are good but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of riches is naught Wine is good but the love of wine is naught He that loveth wine shall not be rich Love it we may moderately but not immoderately The world is good and all things that be in it as they be the creatures of God but the love of the world is evill The upmost places in the Synagogues were good but the Pharisees were evill to love them Eminencie in the Church is good but wee must not love it desire it affect it with a proud minde and ambitious heart as Diotrephes did A paritie in the Ministery is dangerous It is the mother of Sects and Schismes Ex aequo super omnes Ecclesiae fortitudo solidatur Sed Petrus caput constituitur ut Schismatis tollatur occasio The solliditie of the Church is equally founded upon the doctrine of all the Apostles yet Saint Peter was made the head of the Church for the avoiding of Schisme Neverthelesse there is not one Oecumenicall Bishop over the whole world or over all Christendome Major est authoritas orbis quam urbis saith the same learned Father The authoritie of the world is greater than the authority of one citie Vbicunque fuerit Episcopus Wheresoever a Bishop is whether at Rome at Eugubium at Constantinople at Rhegium at Alexandria or at Tais ejusdem est meriti ejusdem sacerdotij he is of the same desert and the Priesthood is the same yet there must be Bishops to have authority over others to preserve the peace of the Church to see that all doe their duties in their severall places and to be as a wall of defence for them that be under them If there were not some in high places in favour with Kings and Princes the rest of the Clergie would soone be troden under foote as the little rivers submit themselves to the greater so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Basil it is necessary it is profitable for the inferiour Ministers to subject themselves to the superiour as were Aaron and his sonnes so sayes S. Hierom are Bishops Priests or Elders Aaron was above his sonnes and Bishops are above them yet both under God and the King let not them that be above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contemne them beneath in the vallyes let not them that be below carry themselves insolently towards them above Bishops and Priests saith Ignatius sunt tanquam chordae in Cithara colligatae as strings tyed together in an harpe if they jarre there will be unpleasant musicke Preeminence is laudable the affectation of it is damnable to be called a Bishop is commendable Sed velle vocari to will it to have an irresistible will to it is discommendable they that will be rich fall into divers snares and temptations so they that will be in high places whether God will or no ensnare themselves ere they be aware There be many retinacula pulbackes to hold us from that 1. It is devill-like he was high enough at the first he would needes be higher therefore he was cast low into the bottomelesse pit of hell and all proud aspiring persons fall into the condemnation of the devill 2. It is not Christ-like he was called to it he intruded not himselfe he invites us to humility by precept Learne of me I am humble and meeke by practise he washed his Disciples feete though he were Lord of all yet he became a servant to all he respecteth it in his followers when they stood upon greatnesse hee sends them to a little child to learne to be little he that is greatest among you let him be your servant 3. It is the joy and glory of all good ministers that they have beene no intruders I have not thrust in my selfe to be a Prophet to this people Lord thou knowest the Lord of the harvest must thrust labourers into the harvest none must thrust in himselfe 4. It is a weighty charge an heavie burden hee that desireth the office of a Bishop desireth a worthy worke Opus non dignitas labor non deliciae opus per quod humilitate decrescat non fasti gio intumescat It is a worke not a dignitie a labour not a delicacie a worke I say that should make a man decrease by humilitie not increase and swell in pride a worke for the which a fearefull account is to be made they watch over your soules as they that must give an account if God call us to that worke let us entreate him to give us strength in some measure to discharge it let us
Gods Councell as the Preachers be at this day the Iewes were honoured that God would speake to them by them but to us hee hath spoken by his onely Sonne therefore our honour is the greater we are set in an high chaire of dignity above them happy are the eyes that see that which we see Many Prophets and Kings have desired to see these things which we see and have not seene them God give us grace to use our happinesse to his glory and the salvation of us all In this the Old and New Testament are equall God is the Author of them both God spake by the Prophets then and he speaketh now by his Ministers The word of the Lord the burthen of the Lord thus saith the Lord. These were the preambles of all the Prophets God spake by the mouth of David as he spake by the mouth of all his Prophets So God speaketh by the mouth of the Preachers at this present day It is not you that speak but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you Wee are the Ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us When we teach God teacheth when we exhort God exhorteth when we reprove sinne God reproveth sin It makes no matter what the man be that speaketh so as he be the lawfull Minister of Christ God speaketh by the man when the man speaketh Gods word When the Ambassadour of the King of Denmark of France or any other Countrey speaketh in the Court the King speaketh whose person he doth represent when my Lord Chiefe Iustice gives the charge at the Assizes the King gives the charge for he sustaines the Kings Person and is a Commissioner for the King so when the Preacher speakes in the Pulpit when he in Gods name gives a charge against pride malice c. God himselfe speakes and gives the charge Oh that this were imprinted in the hearts of all that come to Church the Preacher is a man as thou art but God speakes by him and if thou despise him thou despisest God that speakes in him VERSE 2. WE have seene the estate of them in the time of the Law Now let us take a view of our condition under the Gospell Theirs were the first dayes ours be the last In those that were the first dayes some new Doctrine was daily to be expected but in these last dayes GOD hath opened to us his whole counsell there is no mint of any new Doctrine to be looked for now nothing but the second comming of our SAVIOUR CHRIST is to be expected which hath revealed the whole will of his Father to us If an Angel from Heaven preach any other Doctrine than that which wee have received in these last dayes let him bee accursed 2 In the last dayes there is greatest aboundance of knowledge In the last dayes I will powre out my Spirit on all flesh GOD then was sparing of his Spirit he sent it downe by drops but now he powres it out upon the Church they had the Moone-light we have the Sun-light Therefore if we be ignorant our condemnation shall be the greater as GOD knowes a number of ignorant persons are in this glorious light of the Gospell yea in those Towns where the Candle of Gods Word hath shined brightly these many yeares together The preaching of the Word is a well of water but we will not come with our buckets to fetch water at this Well or if we doe we come with riven buckets the water runs out by and by 3 These last dayes wherein we live are the most dangerous sinne overfloweth with a full streame In the last dayes perillous times shall come Never did sin shew her selfe with such a brazen face as it doth now Men now stick not to set themselves against the Word of GOD it selfe to call the authority of the Scripture in question whether all things be true in it or not To band themselves against the Preachers if not openly yet secretly and to pull downe if possible the Church it selfe these be the last times wherein we live GOD keepe us in them by his holy Spirit 4 Seeing they be the last dayes let us not be so much in love with them Will any be bestowing great cost on his house the last day when he is to goe out of it These are the last dayes of the world wherein we are ready to be turned out of the house of this world therefore let us not be inflamed too much with the love of it In the first dayes when they entred first into the farme of the world they might be merry and jocund we live in the last dayes when we cannot have long to tarry in it therefore let us not be glewed and wedded to it let us use this world as if we used it not for the fashion of this world fadeth away in these last dayes let us so live that whensoever Christ comes to judgement we may meet him joyfully in the Ayre and be translated with him into his kingdome of glory Spoken unto us 1. To the Apostles first that saw and heard him then to all Christians His must be understood Mat. 21.37 But last of all he sent unto them his Son in his Sonne Col. 2.9 For in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily The which Sonne speaketh to us by his Ministers to the worlds end they had servants to speake to them but God hath spoken to us by his Son yet even his Son is little regarded Many of the Pharisies knew him to be the Son of God this is the Heire yet they said come let us kill him I am perswaded if CHRIST were now alive and preached many yeeres together in this Towne yet there be some so maliciously set against the Word and the preachers of it that they could finde in their hearts to kill him Hee that heareth you heareth me and he that goeth about to kill them goes about to kill CHRIST too What a vile age doe we live in What manner of Son not adopted but naturall 1 Heire The Son is the Fathers Heire he hath a right and interest to all his Fathers goods and lands when his Father is dead he hath the same power lordship and authority over all that his Father had So Christ Psa. 2.8 Iohn 16.15 Ioh. 17.10 Yet God his Father never dieth He is Heire as God and Man the King and Mediator of the Church All power is given unto mee in Heaven and Earth God appointed Him He did not intrude Himselfe He was not appointed Heire because being in time made He deserved it by His holy life as Photinus said not only Heire in time but with the Father before all times Of all Of all persons as well as of all things CHRIST hath a right to all he that taketh away any thing bequeathed to the Heire by the Will and Testament of his Father robs the Heire and is guilty of theft if we goe about to take
though we be never so rich have never so many bags of gold and silver lye on beds of downe have never so many friends and Physitions about us yet if the worme of conscience lye gnawing on us for our sins our murders adulteries drunkennesse c. That we have no hope that Christ died for them in what miserable case are we The Hypocrite would give 1000. Rams 10000. Rivers of Oile the fruit of his body for his soule as a man that is dangerously sick would give any thing for health so a man that is oppressed with the burthen of his sins would give any thing that they were removed Now CHRIST IESUS alone hath purged us from our sins Apply this purgation to thy selfe by the hand of a true and a lively faith and then thou art a happy man if CHRIST had not purged us from sin we had fried in hell for ever Therefore let us magnifie the Lambe that was killed for us and give prayses to him for ever Worthy is the Lambe who hath purged us from our sinnes to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and blessing Againe hath Christ purged us from our sinnes and shall we tumble in them Hath the Physitian purged thy body and made thee whole and wilt thou by ill diet make thy selfe sick Christ the heavenly Physitian hath purged us from sin that made us sick to death and shall we run into sin againe O that men would effectually consider of this great benefit the purging of our sins by Christ Who hath purged us not an Angell but the Son of God with what hath He purged us not with the bloud of Martyrs but with His owne bloud to what end hath He purged us not that like swine we should still wallow in the myre of our sinnes but that we should be an holy Nation a royall Priest-hood a peculiar people to Himselfe zealous of good workes Therefore as CHRIST hath purged us from our sins so let us hurle away our sins and have nothing to doe with them least we crucifie againe the Lord of life That proverb is knowne to us all the Hogge to the myre a Hogge is washed cleane and faire he runs into the myre againe what a filthy sight is that So it is for one whom Christ hath purged from sin to returne to them againe a Dogge to his vomit Who can abide to see a Dogge take up that which he hath cast out of his belly and a loathsome sight it is to see men daily yea hourely to take up the Vomit of their old sins againe How hath Christ purged us from sin when as sin still remaineth in us all If we say we have no sin we deceave our selvs c. The answer is easie there is in sin materia forma the matter still remaines to exercise us withall but the guilt that is the forme of sin which gave an esse to it that is taken away by Christ. In so much as we may say death where is thy sting hell where is thy victory the strength of death is sin but thankes be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. The sixth and last Argument to prove the deity of Christ is taken from His exaltation which is fitly inferred upon the former humiliation He that sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high is GOD but CHRIST sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high Ergo. He doth not say standeth that belongs to Servants and inferiors but he sitteth Kings Senatours Iudges sit when they heare causes He sits not at the commandement or appointment of another but of Himselfe He knowes His place and takes it not at the left hand but which is higher at the right hand His fathers equall Regia majestas the Kings Majesty is more magnificent then to say the King Prov. 25.27 Scrutator majestatis opprimetur à gloria Heb. 8.1 We have such an High Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens Christ could not purge our sinnes but by dying He was faine to shed His bloud and to dye for us yet He rose againe ascended into Heaven and fitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high Out of this we have two notable comforts 1 If Christ sitteth above in the highest places then he beholdeth all things here below A man that is upon the top of some high Tower may see farre and Christ being in the high Steeple and Tower of Heaven can see all things on the earth He that is upon the top of an high Tower may see men but he cannot discerne who they bee Christ sees them and discernes them too If the wicked bee laying of plots and snares against His Children Christ being in Heaven sees them and in due time will overthrow them and He that sitteth in Heaven laugheth them to scorne This is a singular comfort that our Head King and defender is in Heaven and hath equall Power Glory and Majesty with God If thou hast a friend in the Court that sits daily by the King and is in favour with him wilt thou care for any in England we have a friend that siteth on the right hand of God and hath all power in Heaven and earth therefore let us feare nothing he will keepe us none shall doe us any harme but it shall all turne to our good in the end 2 As Christ sitteth in the heavens so we shall one day sit there with Him Many shall come from the East and from the West and from the North and from the South and shall sit downe in the Kingdome of God Yee shall sit on the twelve Seates and Iudge the twelve Tribes of Israel Which is not spoken of all the Apostles for Iudas never sate there nor yet of the Apostles onely but of all Christians Know yee not that wee shall judge the World wee shall one day sit in Heavenly places with Christ wee sit there already in our head but we shall likewise sit there in our owne persons with our head Let this comfort us against all the calamities of this life here the children of God are oftentimes made the wickeds footstooles they sit on them and tread on them no reckoning is made of a godly man A rich man that is a common drunkard and whore-master shall be more esteemed of by many then a godly poore man Here they sit as forlorne persons none regards them Many times they sit weeping and wayling for their sinnes for their children for crosses in goods in bodies in good name the wicked deriding them jesting at them making songs of them in the Ale-houses but let this comfort us against them all how contemptible soever we sit here wee shall sit with CHRIST IESUS though not in that degree of glory yet in the same kingdome of glory with him for ever VERSE 4. THe Iewes in generall were bitter enemies to Christ
bee understood of Salomon then of Christ he is the fairest among men Verse 2. Grace was in his lips he rideth on the word of truth Princes have thrones so hath CHRIST Salomons throne was but for a short time this for ever and ever What manner of kingdome administred in equity Isai. 11.3 swayed with righteousnesse there is no respect of persons with him he is just in his government he will punish the wicked comfort and defend the godly CHRISTS Scepter is a scepter of righteousnesse there is no partialitie no unjust dealing with him If his owne servants sinne he inflicts punishment on them as well as on the wicked judgement beginneth at his owne house first If a King will reforme his kingdome he must reforme his owne court first so doth CHRIST in the government of the world if they of his owne family offend he will begin with them first Moses murmured therefore hee lost the enjoying of the land of Canaan David a man after Gods owne heart committed adultery therefore his wives were deflowred before his eyes and he had like to have lost his kingdome for it Therefore let not us that be within the Walls of the Church flatter our selves in our sinnes wee may drinke c. CHRIST will be mercifull to us nay his Scepter is a Scepter of righteousnesse he must punish sinne wheresoever he findes it VERSE 9. THat the Scepter of CHRISTS kingdome is a Scepter of righteousnesse hee proves by two effects he loves righteousnesse and hates iniquitie ergo it is a Scepter of righteousnesse Hebr. It is because both are good and true The cause of good government is the grace of God and God rewardeth good government Thy God by generation Ours by creation Hath anointed thee Hereby hee is distinguished from GOD the Father as Genesis 19.24 GOD the Father anointed him in respect of his humanity With the oyle of gladnesse with the graces of the Holy Ghost which make the hearts of the faithfull glad and cheerefull to every good worke as they that were anointed in the time of the law were made the fitter to those businesses which GOD injoyned to them Further because they made CHRIST glad to powre downe those graces on his Church IESUS rejoyced in the spirit Luk. 10. We are Christs fellowes as men as members of his body and as his brethren we are anoynted touch not mine anoynted Psal. 105.15 and 2 Cor. 1.21 Wee in measure hee above measure Rom. 12.3 Io. 1.16 Io. 3.34 he is Sanctus Sanctorum Who be those that are Christs fellowes Surely the faithfull wee are his servants and fellowes too The head is above all the members of the body yet the head and members are fellowes the husband hath a superioritie over the Wife yet the man and the Wife are fellowes Christ is our Husband we by his grace and favour are his Wife therefore his fellowes the eldest Sonne and heyre to a Nobleman hath many prerogatives above the rest of his brethren yet in that they be brethren the Sonnes of one Father they are all fellowes So CHRIST our elder brother is above us yet because wee are his brethren wee may bee termed his fellowes By this oyle of gladnesse is meant nothing else save the graces of the spirit The oyntment shall teach you sayes Iohn the Holy Ghost is this oyle or oyntment Where we have many observations and instructions 1. All the oyle that we have comes from God we have no grace but it is of him the uprightnesse of Noah meekenesse of Moses zeale of Phineas sincerity of David the patience of Iob the hope of Abraham the wonderfull faith of the Centurion the knowledge of Ezra and Paul that spake with tongues more than all the courage of Peter all is of God it is he that anointed us with his holy oyle therefore let us be proud of no gift but use all in feare and trembling to the glory of the giver There is one that bestowes precious oyle on thee with that thou anointest thy face and hast a cheerefull looke thou art not to praise thy selfe but him that gave thee the oyle all our spirituall oyle comes out of Gods shop therefore let us magnifie him for all if hee anointed Christ much more us hee was anoynted with this oyle as he was man otherwise as he was God he had all fulnesse of himselfe 2. If Christ were anointed above his fellowes then his fellowes also are anointed though not in that measure hee was wee have a little Crewse full of oyle but he hath a great Pot full of it yet every Christian must have some oyle else he is a Christian in name not in deed Hence it is that we are called Christians of Christ because wee are anointed as he was but none may be called Iesuits of Iesus because there is no Saviour beside him wee may communicate with him in the name of Christ but not in the name of Iesus and if we be Christs members we must have some oyle as well as our head Saint Paul profited in the study of the law above his fellowes therefore his fellowes profited something CHRIST was annointed above us therefore wee must bee anointed too If thou hast no knowledge in the will of God no faith no zeale hope meekenesse patience thou art no Christian therefore let us intreat the LORD to anoynt us with this oyle dayly more and more 1. Oyle was a token of consecration in the time of the law Aaron and his Sonnes Saul David and all the Kings by oyle were consecrated to the Lord and set apart to an holy use Iacob powred oyle on the pillar whereof he was purposed to make an altar to the Lord. So we by this heavenly oyle of the spirit are dedicated to God as a royall Priest-hood an holy nation a peculiar people zealous of good workes 2. Oyle gives a sweet taste to the meat whereupon God commanded that on the meat offering should be powred oyle and incense oyle for the tast and incense for the smell So this spirituall oyle of Gods graces makes us a sweet and pleasant meat to the Lord the wicked he will spew out of his mouth but in us that are seasoned with the oyle of the spirit he takes singular delight 3. Oyle supples the wounds that be in a mans bodie The Samaritane powred oyle into the wounds of the man that lay halfe dead by the high way side so the oyle of the spirit supples us against the wounds of sinne a certaine perswasion being setled in our hearts of the love of God towards us in Christ. 4. Oyle makes a man nimble therefore wrastlers in all ages were wont to anoint themselves with oyle that they might bestirre their joynts the better So the graces of the spirit make us more lively in Gods service to wrastle with great alacritie with Satan and all the enemies of our salvation 5. Oyle keepes the body Soluble and is a meanes to purge it from many grosse humours
thou not often looke upon it The world is the admirable picture of God Almighty in whom the treasure of all wisedome is hidde therefore let us behold it with admiration If the Tabernacle were now to bee seene which was of Aholiabs and Bezaleels making or if the goodly Temple that was of Salomons setting up were now to bee seene we would runne and ride many a mile to take a view of it The frame of the world set up by the wise high and eternall God surpasses them all yet we goe through it we looke upon it and it never carries us to the contemplation of the wisedome and power of GOD. The reason is because it is so common and ordinary a sight They that come first to London and looke on Pauls and Westminster upon the faire Tombes and costly ornaments that be in them are ravished with the sight of them but if they have beene there long they passe by them and regard them not So is it with us because we see the Sunne Moone and Stars the glorious curtaine of the heaven the birds of the ayre fishes of the Sea beasts of the field the goodly coate of the earth dayly which is better arrayed than Salomon was in all his royaltie because these are common they are not esteemed of us Let us remember they be the handy worke of God a glasse wherein we behold the everlasting God-head and in that respect let us view diligently and bee brought to the knowledge the feare and love of God by it that hath made all these things for our sakes VERSE 11. AS CHRIST had no beginning so he shall have no ending The heavens shall decay but not he Thus CHRIST is eternall without beginning and ending who as he is the beginning of the world being before it had a beginning So hee is the end of it who shall continue when it hath an end 2. He is immutable They are young and old so is not Christ he remaines alwayes in the same estate and condition All garments in the world in the end waxe old Deut. 29.5 So the whole fabricke of the world there is not that cleerenesse of light in the Sunne and Moone that there was not that force and strength in the Starres the earth is not so lusty and lively Old things are not wont to be had in any price or estimation who cares for an old paire of shooes that bee not worth the taking up Who regards an old Coate that hath no strength in it but is ready to be torne in pieces Who will give much for an old house the timber whereof is rotten and it is ready to fall on his head Now is the last age of the world it hath continued many thousand yeeres it is now as an old house an old garment that cannot last long therefore let us not be too much in love with it There was some reason why in former times when this building was new and strong when the coate and garment of the world was fresh faire and of good durance that men should set their affections on it but now when the beauty and strength of it is gone why should we be enamoured with it Let us use it as if we used it not and let us long for that day when both the heavens and the earth and we our selves likewise shall be changed and be translated with CHRIST into the kingdome of glory the heavens are most fitly resembled to a garment Observe the similitude and dissimilitude 1. A garment covers a man So doe the heavens 2. The substance of a garment must be before as Silke Velvet Cloth else you can make no garment but CHRIST made the heavens of nothing 3. A garment must have a forme or fashion So has this an excellent one 4. A garment stands in need of mending we need be at no cost nor labour in mending of this garment but CHRIST by the power of his providence upholds it VERSE 12. NOw this vesture of the heavens is spread abroad and cast as a mantle about us then it shall be folded up Esay 34.4 And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scrole and all their host shal fall down as the leafe falleth from off the Vine and as a falling figge from the figge-tree but CHRIST yesterday and to day the same for ever there is not a shadow of turning in Him He is the same both in respect of His essence and promise Properly to speake CHRIST hath no yeeres In the first or fortieth yeare of such a Kings reigne but CHRIST reigneth without yeares This is spoken onely for our capacity Such a King reignes so many yeeres and in the end hee dyes but Christs yeeres never faile The world it shall be changed Plato lighting on the bookes of Moses affirmed that it had a beginning but would not grant it should have an ending which opinion of his Aristotle confuteth for Omne genitum est corruptibile Democritus Empedocles and Heraclitus held that it had a beginning and shall have an ending yea some of them did speake of two destructions of the world the one by water the other by fire There shall not be consumptio but mutatio renovatio mundi 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praeteribunt Marc. 13.31 Non peribunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transit 1 Cor. 7.31 Non interit 2 Figura mundi non natura 1 Cor. 7.31 the fashion of this world passeth away 3 As the old world perished by water so shall the new by fire 2 Pet. 3.6 but the substance of that perished not no more of this 4. It shall be delivered onely from corruption for the which it sigheth 5 There shall be new heavens and earth 2 Pet. 3.13 Apo. 21.1 6 As our bodies shall not perish but be changed of corruptible made incorruptible 1 Cor. 15. And as it is in the little world of mans body so it is in the great world Vid. Aug. lib. 20. de civ Dei cap. 14. 16. CHRIST remaines ever without any change or alteration either in respect of His promise or essence which may cause us both to put our trust in Him to believe whatsoever He hath sayd and to depend on Him as a strong and unmoveable pillar Kings and Princes dye our friends dye our fathers and mothers that were our stayes are taken out of the world but CHRIST the King and protectour of the Church continues for ever King Henry the eight is dead who banished the Pope out of England That worthy Prince Edward another Iosiah and favourer of the Gospell is dead Queene Elizabeth that famous Queene the wonder of the world while she lived a carefull and loving nursing mother to the Gospell is dead King Iames of Blessed memory a great Patron of the Church a just and a peacefull Prince is dead Yet CHRIST lives still His yeares faile not and He will alwayes provide for his Church and children When we heare any ill
them they were not personally united to them as ours are Otherwise there is no great difference no not betweene the Angels and us How are wee to magnifie God that hath so highly exalted man The consideration hereof should cause us to lead a life in some acceptable measure worthy of that honour whereunto we be advanced We are not much inferiour to the Angels yet a number of our lives are as ill nay worse than bruit beasts The Oxe knowes his owner the Asse his masters crib but wee will not know love and feare that God which feedeth us A Dogge will love his Master that makes much of him wee will not love no not those that deserve well at our hands A Dove will keepe her selfe to her owne mate many of us will not keepe our selves to our owne Wives bring an horse to the water to the sweetest water in the world he will drinke no more than will doe him good we are excessive and more than brutish in drinking all places ring of this sinne this beastly sinne of drunkennesse what a vile thing is this How doe wee forget our selves Hath GOD made us but a little inferiour to the Angels and shall we live like bruit beasts and give over our selves to all uncleannesse How doe we disgrace that worthy estate whereunto God hath advanced us As we draw neere to the Angels any kinde of wayes so let us so farre as is possible lead an angelicall life with the Angels in this world that we may remaine with them in the world to come Thou crownedst him He shewes wherein our excellency doth consist he hath made him a King and set a Crowne on his head With many glorious gifts that are a wonderfull honour to man both externall and internall especially with the knowledge of CHRIST wherein consists eternall life One part of that glory is that he hath a Soveraigntie and dominion over all creatures which was given him at the creation Genesis 1. renewed and ratified by GODS seale after the floud Genesis 9. enlarged no doubt to the faithfull by CHRIST 1 Cor. 3.21 VERSE 8. VNder his feete This agreeth to all men in generall to the faithfull in speciall whom God hath made Kings and Lords over all his creatures by CHRIST But principally it is to be understood of our SAVIOUR CHRIST who is the chiefe Lord of the world the King and mediatour of the Church he hath all power in heaven and earth All things yea even the Devils themselves are put in subjection under his feete God hath given him a name above every name that at the name of IESUS every knee should bow Phil. 2.9 We also by him because wee are members of his body and his brethren we have an interest to all creatures all things throughout the wide world are ours The heaven the earth the birds the beasts the fishes the trees the flowers are ours Death is ours the very Devill himselfe is our slave and subject God hath put him under our feet 1. Here we may behold the dignity of Christians all things by IESUS CHRIST are under our dominion O what a bountifull GOD is this that hath given us so large a possession Let us sound forth his praises for it and use his liberalitie to his glory As God said to Peter arise kill and eate when the sheete full of all kinde of creatures was let downe to him from heaven so doth hee say to us all we may freely eate of all creatures whatsoever but let us not abuse GODS creatures to his dishonour and our destruction Let us use them soberly religiously to make us more cheerefull in the service of our God 2 Let us not stand in a slavish feare of any creature of the stars the windes no not of the Devils themselves for all are put in subjection under our feet by Iesus Christ that loved us and hath given us a superiority over all we shall be conquerers over them all a singular comfort to the faithfull Satan may tempt and assault us but God will tread him under our feet 3 For this dominion let us thanke the Lord Iesus Christ. Of our selves we are worth nothing starke beggars in CHRIST and by CHRIST we have all that we have Let us magnifie him for it Then he concludeth from the generall to the speciall If all things be subject to him then nothing is exempted from his Dominion no not the Angels themselves To the former the adversaries againe replied thou talkest of a glorious Empire Rule and Dominion whereunto Christ is advanced but it is an imaginary conquest for we see not all things subdued to him The Kings and Princes of the earth cast away his yoke and submit not themselves to the Scepter of his Word Satan and his instruments rebell against him sin and death still play the tyrants and are not subdued to him VERSE 9. TO that he answers 1. Though we see it not yet all things may be subject to him we see not God yet there is a God we see not our owne soule yet we have a soule Here it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a difference betweene videre and cernere wee doe discerne so as it cannot be denied a man may see a thing and yet not discerne it 2 He answers it by a distinction of submission or subjection The one is externall conspicuous to the eye of the world the other internall seene by the eye of faith Christ's kingdome is not of this world it is not temporall but spirituall all things are subdued to him though he suffer his enemies for the triall and exercise of his children to tyrannize over them for a time A Beareheard may have a Beare under his rule and authority though he suffer him now and then to range abroad so hath Christ the Devill Yet we see Iesus that was made a little lower than the Angels through the suffering of death to be crowned with glory and honor These words Through the suffering of death may be referred to that which goes before or followes after after he had suffered death he was crowned with glory as Phil. 2.9 But rather refer them to the former he was made a little lower than the Angels through suffering of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little while refer it to the time that is during his death passion continuance in the grave 3. dayes and 3. nights all this while he was inferior to the Angels not at the time he lived upon the earth for Mat. 4.11 The Angels Ministred to him as servants to their Lord. But in his Passion and Death the Deity withdrew his power and the humanity was left alone then he was lower than the Angels the Angels are immortall and dye not Christ was mortall and died in that respect he was inferior to them But he was afterwards exalted to all glory and dignity placed at the right hand of God and so superior to the Angels We that are the faithfull see him
meanes that as man by sin had deserved death so by the death of a man he should be redeemed from sin and death The necessity of Christs incarnation he proves first from the end of it He that by suffering for men was to bring men to salvation must be man Christ by suffering for men was to bring men to salvation ergo Christ was to bring many to glory This he could not do but by afflictions and namely by death it selfe for the Crosse must goe before the Crowne therefore it was requisite that in our humane nature he should first suffer It became this was most comely fit and convenient for him namely that God ver 9. which so graciously gave his Son for us that is God the Father by whose grace and mercy Christ died for us It became him for the better illustration of his owneglory for a more lively demonstration of his mercy and justice to the world of his mercy in not sparing his owne Son but giving him up to the death for us of his justice in punishing the sins of the world so severely in his owne Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. These words are to be referred to Christ not to God the Father 1. They are affirmed of him in Scripture 1 Cor. 8.6 Col. 1.16 2. Before hee spake of his humiliation it was meet to premise something concerning his glory power and dignity 3. For so much as it is said he was to be perfected through afflictions by afflictions to mount up to glory that concerning his Deity was well premised that we might know it was no new glory which he took but that which hee had from all eternity as hee was GOD Ioh. 17.5 It became God the Father to perfect the Prince of our salvation through afflictions for whom are all things and by whom are all things after he had brought many children to glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having made them willing by his holy spirit Wee are said also to be drawne Sed trahit sua quemque voluptas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Syntaxis might better be referred to CHRIST than to the Father otherwise the participle should have beene in the dative case to agree with the pronoune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then in the accusative case It ought to bee translated thus for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things to consecrate the Prince of their salvation through afflictions bringing many Children to glory Children not friends but Children begotten by the word made the Sonnes of God by faith Iohn 1.12 knowne by the spirit Rom. 8.14 Not a few but many for he is a powerfull SAVIOUR many shall come from the East c. Not all men because all imbrace him not being offered to them Sundry were called to the feast that came not To glory in the kingdome of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it Sanctifie because of the next Verse but the words are diverse To perfect CHRIST is said to bee perfected because after his suffering hee was glorified in his Humanity as well as in his Deitie CHRIST his afflictions are so farre from being a shame or ignominie to him that they bee solemne rites or sacred ceremonies whereby he was consecrated Bishop of the universall Church Through afflictions in the whole course of his life especially at his death and passion The Arch-duke the Captaine the leader in whose steps wee are to tread the Author of their salvation Acts 3.15 If CHRIST had not become man afflicted and put to death he could not have carryed men into the kingdome of heaven for a purgation must be made for the sinne of man by the fiery furnace of affliction and especially by death therefore it became Christ to be made man too though he were God GOD is the efficient and finall cause of all 1. There is nothing but it is by GOD the Host of heaven the Sunne Moone and Starres are by him the birds of the ayre the fishies of the Sea the beasts of the field the greene and flourishing coat that the earth hath is by him All men yea Angels even the Devils themselves are by him not as Devils .i. malicious accusers of the Saints but as they be invisible and immortall spirits all are by him nay to proceede a little further and yet to keepe our selves within compasse of sound Divinity sin it selfe is not without the providence of God it is not à Deo creante sed disponente he disposeth of all the grosse sins that be in the world to his owne glory as a wise Physition makes a good use even of poyson in his confections Furthermore as all things are by GOD so all for him all serve his holy will and blessed pleasure some unwillingly some willingly GOD makes Satan and his instruments to be for him whether they will or no but the faithfull are willingly for him and serve him with all cheerefulnesse Let us remember that wee our selves and all that we have is for God he made us he redeemed us with the bloud of his Sonne therefore we are his not our owne our wit wealth honour worship learning our soules our bodies our eyes tongues hands feete all are for him with all that wee have we must glorifie him Our tongues are our owne sayd the wicked that is false all that we have is Gods therefore all must be at his commandement The pot is for him that made it and the servant must be imployed about his Masters businesse he must be his masters man not his owne therefore as we were created by God so let us be wholly for him Now it became this high and mighty God for whom are all things and by whom are all things which worketh all as seemeth best to him to consecrate the Prince of their salvation through afflictions bringing many children to glory CHRIST brought them to glory which he could not doe but by enduring many afflictions 1 Here we see that CHRIST could not bring us to heaven without innumerable afflictions which our sinnes had deserved he himselfe knew no sin but he was afflicted for our sins And indeed he was wonderfully afflicted for them from his cradle to his grave A man of sorrowes as the Prophet termeth him he was borne not of a wealthy Lady but of a poore woman base and contemptible to the eyes of the world at his first comming he was not laid in a costly Cradle but in a Cratch not in a Chamber well furnished but in a Stable borne in Winter and in the night when he was an Infant banished into Egypt hee wrought as is thought in the trade of his Father and was a Carpenter he had not a hole to hide his head in women were faine to minister to him of their owne substance as he went up and downe preaching the Gospell he had not bags of silver and gold about him but was faine to send to the Sea for a peece of 20d.
and Spirit in this life that wee may have entrance into the holy Hierusalem in the life to come If CHRIST and we are all of one much more are we among our selves A King and a beggar are of one a rich man and a poore man are of one a faire and beautifull man or woman and they that want beauty are of one we descended all of Adam and were taken out of the dust of the ground therefore let us not insult one over another GOD for a season hath advanced one above another the Magistrate above the Subject the Father above the Son the Rich man above the poore man and every one is to be honoured according to that place whereunto God hath exalted him yet if we look back to our originall to the stocke from whence we are taken we are all of one The Wax that hath the print of the Kings seale on it is the same in substance with the waxe that hath the print of the seale of a meane man yet it is honoured in that the Kings seale is set on it So we are all of one weake and waxie nature save that it pleaseth God to set a more honourable print upon one then on another Therefore let us not thinke highly of ourselves and contemne our brethren but submitte to them of low degree using the greatnesse that GOD hath given us to the glory of the Giver Seest thou a poore Lazarus full of sores desirous to bee refreshed with the crumbes that fall from rich mens bordes Contemne him not in thy heart he and thou though thou farest deliciously every day and rufflest out in silkes and velvet are both of one This he proveth by the relatives They that be brethren come of one Father and Mother CHRIST and wee are brethren therefore we are of one of one Adam which is our Father and of one Mother which is Eve Whereas some interpret it of one God of one heavenly Father it is impertinent to the Text. He doth not simply say they are his brethren but hee is not ashamed to call them brethren Prov. 19.7 All the brethren of the poore doe hate him how much more doe his friends goe far from him He pursueth them with words but they are wanting to him But Christ thought it no disparagement to his glorious Deity to call men his brethren Though there be wonderfull ods betweene Christ and us hee the Creator we the creatures hee the LORD and Master we his servants he without sinne we defiled with sinne in Soule and body he mervailous rich heaven and earth being his we poore men of our selves not worth a groat yet Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren If a man come once to be Lord Major of London hee will scant acknowledge his poore brethren and Sisters when they come to him Christ is not a Lord for a yeere and a day but an everlasting King yea the King of Kings yet he vouchsafes to call us brethren One Iudge will call another brother and if he be a Sergeant he shall have that name but every pettifogger and paltrie Lawyer shall not be the Iudges brother yet Christ the Iudge of the whole world calls us all brethren O the humility of Christ and the dignity whereunto he hath advanced us VERSE 12. THis he proved out of the Psalme 22.22 Many things in that Psalme are in the New Testament applyed to CHRIST as Verse 1. Verse 16. Verse 18. The Prophet speaketh this of himselfe that when GOD had delivered him from his enemies he would declare his name to the people which were his brethren though GOD had exalted him above them But prophetically also he speaketh of the Messiah after that CHRIST was delivered from Satans fury and the rage of his instruments from the power of death and of the grave hee would declare the name of GOD to his brethren This he did while he was alive Ioh. 17.6 but especially after his resurrection when hee sent his Apostles to preach the Gospell to all nations CHRIST was not only the Author and matter of the Gospell but he was also the proclaimer and Preacher of it he declared it in his owne life time by himselfe after his Ascension by his Apostles The name that is the power mercie and goodnesse of God By brethren here are understood not the Apostles or faithfull onely though they in more speciall manner bee the brethren of CHRIST Matth. 12.49 Ioh. 20.17 but all men generally for CHRIST and all men came of one which is Adam and were made by one God Mal. 2.10 CHRIST will not declare his name in a corner but in the middest of the Church In the middest of the Church among the rest of my brethren as fellow singers Christ did sing with his Disciples after the supper he prayed worshipped and sung as we doe CHRIST hath many Brethren 1. All men in respect of our humane nature which Christ assumed to himselfe are his brethren hee a man as all are 2. In regard of Country and lineall descent the Iewes are his brethren of whom Christ came according to the flesh Rom. 9.5 Deut. 18.18 3. In respect of consanguinity the kinsfolke of CHRIST in the Scripture are called his brethren Iames the brother of the Lord that is the kinsman of the Lord. 4. In respect of the Ministery the Preachers of the Word are CHRIST his brethren for hee was a Minister and Preacher of the Gospell as we are although in gifts and graces he excelled us all as the Sunne doth the Starres But more neerely and properly the faithfull are his brethren being made the Sonnes of GOD by faith in CHRIST IESUS I goe to my God and your God to my Father and your Father Ioh. 20.17 1. As CHRIST is not ashamed to call us brethren so let us doe nothing so neere as wee can that may shame this our Brother Is it not a shame that the Kings brother should bee a common drunkard whoremaster or such like Doth not the King take himselfe disgraced by it And shall wee that are Brethren to the King of Kings take such courses as that great ignominie should redound to CHRIST by it As hee is not ashamed to call us brethren so let us doe nothing that may pull a shame on him and his Gospell 2. Can a brother that is a wealthie man of faire revenewes and ample possessions see any of his brethren goe a begging will hee not rather receive him to his owne house and set him at his table CHRIST which is the Lord of heaven and earth is our brother therefore let us feare no want so long as wee feare him This may be a comfort to us in all our calamities that CHRIST and we are brethren VERSE 13. AN other argument to prove the humanity of Christ it is drawne from the effects Christ putteth his trust in God therefore he is man Hee that trusteth to another is inferiour to him to whom hee trusts the party whom he makes his pillar
people the way to heaven to pray for the people in the congregation to carry their prayers to God to celebrate the Sacraments these be the lysts of the Minister The Magistrate hath his bounds and the Minister his Vzziah though a King must not meddle with the Priests office and Azariah the High Priest must not intrude himselfe into the Kings office yet that High Priest of Rome will have both swords hee will bee a Priest and a King too he will be for matters of the world as well as for GODS matters Boniface the eight shewed himselfe one day in the attyre of a Priest another day in the attyre of a Prince affirming that hee was both Bellarmine of late hath somewhat minced the matter that the Pope hath no power in temporall matters directè yet indirectè quoad bonum spirituale he may play Rex In respect of the spirituall good of the Church he may depose Princes at his pleasure and dispose of their kingdomes as pleaseth him So as a man get into an house it makes no great matter whether directly or indirectly and the Papists so as they may thrust the Pope into the possession of temporalities they care not whether directly or indirectly If one kill a man whether directly or indirectly all is one So as the Pope may play the butcher with Kings and Princes at his pleasure what availeth it whether directly or indirectly this is indirect dealing by an indirect distinction to breake downe the wall of partition that God Himselfe hath set up betweene the Priest and the Magistrate Every one shall finde enough to doe in his office and to guide his owne boate though he intermedle not in the office of the other and put his rudder into another mans boate Let the Magistrate look well to his temporall things and let the Minister keepe himselfe to his spirituall things they be both Gods deputies the one in things that belong to God the other in things that perâ—â—ine to men Let them discharge their offices to Gods glory and the good of them that be committed to their charge He insisteth in one particular pertaining to GOD that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sinnes that is for the expiation of sinnes The Iesuits will have a perpetuall Priest-hood to be heere described and ordained in this place There must be Priests to the end of the world to offer sacrifice for sinne whereas it is as cleare as the noone day that this description is borrowed out of the law to set forth the spirituall Priest-hood of Christ withall The Apostle here teacheth us not what must be in the time of the Gospell but what was in the time of the law applying it to Christ. An externall sacrifice propitiatory for sin as they will have it is injurious to the blessed and perfect sacrifice which Christ offred on the Crosse for the sins of the world All outward sacrifices for sinne must now cease the bloud of Christ shed on the crosse having purged us from all sinne Yet the Ministers of the Gospell have now some sacrifices to offer up they bee either common with all Christians or proper to their ministerie 1. They must offer up themselves soules and bodies as an holy sacrifice to God as all Christians are bound to doe 2. They must bee plentifull in the workes of mercie to their power as other Christians are for with such sacrifices GOD is well pleased But there be other spirituall sacrifices that are also proper to them 1. To present the prayers of the people to God Ezra praised the great God of heaven and all the people said Amen So the Minister as the mouth of the congregation as a Spirituall Priest must offer up the prayers of the people to God and they in an holy zeale subscribe to him saying Amen Amen 2. We by the preaching of the Word doe sacrifice the people to God The Priests in the time of the law took a knife and cut the throat of a Calfe a Sheepe a Goat and so sacrificed them to the Lord. We by the sword of the Spirit cut the throat of sin of covetousnes pride malice uncleannes and so offer up the people as a glorious sacrifice to the Lord an odour that smelleth sweete Happy are they that bee sacrificed by the Ministers of the holy Word these sacrifices wee must offer to the end of the world and pray for us that we may offer them to Gods glory the comfort and salvation of you all VERSE 2. HE must not only execute his office but in such a manner as God requireth not in rigour and severity but in love kindnesse and compassion Which is illustrated by the persons on whom he must have compassion and the cause why If any sinne on ignorance or weakenesse hee must have compassion on them Such as are seduced by others and carryed out of the way what and if they sinne on knowledge Must they not be pittied Yes God forbid else but if they sin on malice against the knowne truth we must not so much as pray for them nor bee touched with any compassion towards them Pray not for this people neither lift up a cry for them There is a sinne unto death I doe not say that yee shall pray for it Saint Paul had no pitty on Alexander the Copper-Smith but prayed against him Otherwise if any of the people through infirmitie fall into a sinne if upon weakenesse of braine he be overcome with drinke if by the flattering entisements of the flesh he happen to be carryed into Adultery if hee bee somewhat too much in love with the world if he be a little tinckled with pride if he happen to be seduced by any Heretickes that come with a shew of Religion with faire and sugred words and so beguile him ere hee bee aware wee that be the Preachers of the Word must have compassion on such A Minister must not have an heart of flint but of oyle ready to melt at the consideration of the infirmities of the people and there is good cause why Because he himselfe is compassed with infirmities as they are as with a gowne that covers him from top to toe VERSE 3. ANd that he proveth by an evident signe A Minister is compassed with the same infirmities that the people are The Lycaonians would have sacrificed to St. Paul and Barnabas but they refused it O doe not so we are men of the like passions with you Cornelius fell downe at Saint Peters feet but hee tooke him up saying I my selfe also am a man Elias was a rare and admirable Prophet yet a man subject to like passions as we are Though we be never so wise learned or holy yet let the best Preachers in the world remember that they be men cloathed with the ragged Coate of infirmities as others bee Hence it is that Ministers yea famous Ministers doe often fall As Noah did into drunkennesse David into Adultery and murder Peter
and the continuance in it Here are many excellent instructions Love is laborious If thou lovest a man thou wilt labour for him thou wilt runne and ride for him thou wilt relieve him in his wants according to that ability wherewith God hath blessed thee Love not in word and tongue only 1 Ioh. 3.18 I will not give any thing for such love as hath nothing but words Shew mee thy love by thy deeds and labour Art thou ready to doe what thou canst for thy brother art thou willing to part with thy mony thy meat and drinke for the relieving of him then thou lovest him hic labor hoc opus est this is the true labour of love indeed doest thou visit him if he be in prison for righteousnesse sake doest thou goe to him and comfort him if he be sicke never prate of love unlesse I may see the labour of thy love Iacob loved Rachel therefore he laboured for her For the glorifying of his name Here we have the end of a good worke which makes it a good work indeed when it is done for the name of Christ. The Pharisees gave almes yet because it was to procure a name to themselves it was not a good worke they have their reward amongst men they shall have none at the hands of God If thou givest to the poore because the statute compells thee or because thou shalt be hardly thought of if thou givest not or that thou mayest bee counted a liberall man and that the world may talke of thee and commend thee it looseth the title of a good worke whatsoever we doe let us doe all to the glory of God and he will recompense us Why what was this work of theirs they ministred to the Saints One speciall good worke is to minister to the Saints There were certaine women that ministred to Christ of their owne substance the woman of Shunem ministred to Elisha prepared a chamber and other necessaries for him Onesiphorus ministred to St. Paul which oft refreshed him and was not ashamed of his chaine Dorcas ministred to the poore widdowes in clothing them Doe good unto all especially to them who are of the household of faith If any Saints are in want minister to them In this sence we must all be Ministers this is a glorious service a worthy ministration in ministring to them wee minister to Christ in as much as yee have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren yee have done it unto mee and let it not grieve us to minister to Christ which hath ministred his own bloud to us The times are hard wherein we live all victualls are at an high rate many poore Saints fare hardly lye hardly goe hardly let us open the bowels of compassion and minister to them This worke above all others shall be recompensed at the day of Iudgement when I was hungry yee fed mee c. Therefore let us occupy our selves in this ministration But what doe they content themselves with their former ministring doe they set downe their staffe there No and yet Minister It is not sufficient to doe well for a time but we must continue in well doing Many soothe up themselves in their former good workes they vaunt of them such and such a thing did I. O how bountifull were we to our Preachers How kind have we beene to them O I but are you kinde still have yee ministred and yet do yee minister have yee beene zealous and yet are yee zealous have yee beene diligent hearers of the Word and yet are yee diligent have yee beene liberall to the poore and yet are yee liberall That is a worthie commendation then are yee good Christians indeed In earthly blessings wee cannot away with was or had hath any great list to bragge I was Rich I had land I had my health wee had rather say an hundred times I am rich I have my health I was good is not so much but I am yet good I am more and more good that is an excellent thing Yet there bee many that have beene good in the praeterperfecttence that are not in the present They were sober they would looke at no Ale-house but now they are common drunkards they were chaste but now are adulterers they were wont to keepe their Church well they would never misse a Sermon but now come seldome to Church every trifle will keepe them from a Sermon they were liberall but now are covetous that is a miserable thing a dolefull tune Let us so behave our selves that it may be affirmed of us we are yet good yet zealous yet religious and let not this yet be given over so long as we live This is an excellent place as any in all the bible to encourage us to good workes God will never forget them As hee puts our teares into his bottle so he puts our good workes into his booke and keepes a register of them all Men may forget the good turnes to them they wryte their injuries in steele and their benefits in water many will not acknowledge them that have beene their benefactors Pharaohs butler quickly forgate Ioseph though he foretold him of his delivery Men are forgetfull but God is not hee neither forgets us nor our workes Can a woman forget her sucking Child that shee should not have compassion on the Sonne of her wombe yea they may forget yet I will not forget thee God remembred the prayer and teares of Hezekiah 2 Reg. 20.5 The almes deeds of Cornelius went up into remembrance before God Acts 10.4 God remembers our prayers our fastings our joyfull hearing of his Word he remembers what money we have given to the poore the Cloath wherewith we have clothed them the kindnesse we have shewed to his Ministers if wee have given but a cup of cold water hee remembers it and will reward it Mat. 10.42 This should make us all zealous of good workes Now a dayes by our preaching faith in CHRIST we have through the corruption of the people preached good workes out of the Church the people nourish this conceit in their hearts we cannot merit heaven by our workes therefore it is not a pins matter though wee doe none I but God will not forget your good workes he will reward them both in this life and in the life to come he will give heaven to your workes as they are the fruits of faith though he give it not for the worthinesse and dignity of your workes therefore be full of them Good workes are not the meritorious causes of heaven yet they are the way to heaven and yee cannot goe to heaven but by the way of good workes therefore make your calling and election sure by them Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them Your houses and land silver and gold tarry behind when yee bee dead but your workes follow you God will not forget them but
and holy men yet let us strive in some sort to attaine to that holines which is in him Thou canst not bee so rich as such a man is wilt thou therefore labour for no riches at all A Scholler cannot write so well as his sample shall hee not therefore endevour to come as neere his sample as hee can So wee cannot attaine that holinesse that is in CHRIST shall wee therefore not imitate it Yes wee must bee an holy nation a royall Priest-hood a people zealous of good workes Learne of mee said CHRIST for I am humble and meeke So learne to bee holy as he is holy As the oyle powred on Aarons head stayed not there but ranne downe to his beard yea to the very skirts of his clothing So the heavenly oyle of holinesse powred on Christ our high-Priest must be conveyed to all yea to the lowest that be in the Church Thou art none of Christs if thou beest not holy as he is But alas for the most part we are unholy yea even we that professe ourselves to be the members of Christ. A great number that would seeme to belong to Christ that have Christ and his Gospell in their mouthes but are impure unholy prophane in their lives beastly drunkards that stincke of drink wheresoever they become filthy adulterers like fed horses neighing after their neighbours wives covetous misers meere mucke wormes that scarce believe there is any heaven but in this world We should be Saints in some measure as Christ the Saint of Saints is but a lamentable case we are Devills in our conversations we should be Eagles mounting up into heaven where Christ our high-Priest and Saviour is but we are Swine wallowing in the puddle of all iniquity As Christ is holy so let us endeavour to be in some poore measure else wee shall never set foote into the kingdome of heaven It is called the holy Ierusalem no dogs enchanters Whoremongers uncleane persons that bee not sanctified by the Holy Ghost shall come into it therefore let us be holy as Christ our high-Priest is that being partakers of his holinesse we may be partakers of his glory in the life to come Christ was a simple man all the treasures of wisedome were hid in him he was wiser than Salomon then any politicke Achitophel then any Matchiavel whatsoever yet a simple man He would not imploy his wits and wisdome about such things as might be hurtfull to any So Iacob was a plaine man and Nathaneel a true Israelite in whom there was no guile Such must all Christians bee though GOD have given them never so sharp a wit so reaching a head never so great wisedome experience and learning yet they must not use it to the hurt of any but to the good of all so neere as they can We must bee harmelesse as Christ wise as Serpents yet as innocent as Doves Yet a number there be that have the Serpentine wisdome and want the Dove-like simplicity they thinke they cannot be wise men unlesse they be crafty and hurtfull men they are more like the Devill then Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Devill hath a plaguie wit a subtile pate of his owne but hee never doth any good with it but all the mischiefe he can so doe those that are the Devills brood they have wit and wisedome enough the children of this world are wiser c. but what good doe they with it Nay what hurt how dangerous be they in a towne or a Country we must so live that wee be harmelesse as Christ was Yet a pittifull thing it is we are altogether set upon hurt we are harmefull and not harmelesse persons as CHRIST was There be two kindes of harmefull men in the Church covered with the Cloake of Christianity the one open the other close and secret and yet not so close but that God can disclose them and make their treacheries knowne to all the world the one are Foxes the other are Wolves the one Serpents the other Beares and Lions Some there bee that blush not to offer open harme and violence to their neighbours Such a one as Iesabel was that slew Naboth and tooke away his Vineyard all the world might see the injurie Such are they that grinde the faces of the poore that wring house and land from them and as Zidkiah smite their brother on the face that all may see the blow these be impudent wretches yet few of these Owles dare appeare in the glorious Sun shine of the Gospell Now men are waxen not more religious but more cunning they will be no hurtfull persons they doe no harme to any not openly perhaps yet secretly not above hand but under hand As he said I will kill Ismael and no man shall see it We will undermine the Preacher supplant our neighbours doe hurt and mischiefe in a towne and no man shall see it These are worse than the other those dogs are worst that will bite before they barke and the Serpent that lyeth in the greene grasse destroyes more than those that bee in high wayes a man may espie the one sooner than the other These are like Iudas that would kisse Christ at the same instant when hee betrayed him these will speake faire to a mans face and yet by secret perswasions by politicke devices by alienating the affections of others cut his throat behinde his backe A vile generation of Vipers yet all their plotting consulting their devising of mischiefe is knowne to him that knowes all secrets who will one day reveale them to their open shame before God and his Angels unlesse they repent fie upon this dealing let us labour to bee harmelesse as our Saviour Christ is It is an easie matter to bee harmefull if we will sell our selves to the Devill Let us strive to doe good to all but harme none neither openly nor secretly by word nor deed by our selves not by others We that bee Christians must bee good men as Barnabas was full of good workes as Dorcus was but not bad men hurtfull men full of evill workes Let us all so carry our selves in the Towne and Country where we dwell that it may bee affirmed of us we are harmelesse as Christ was Yet as we reade of one that was famous for nothing but for burning Diana's Temple so some are famous for nothing but for the hurt they have done and doe dayly they doe not only no good themselves but disswade others from doing of good As Christ is undefiled so must we be These are they that have not defiled their garments that have not defiled themselves with women Though we live in a filthy and defiled world yet we must not bee defiled with it Like the Sun that shineth on a dunghill yet is not polluted with the dunghill so though we live in the dunghill of the world yet wee must not be defiled with it wee must bee undefiled from covetousnesse drunkennesse pride malice envy and other sins that reigne amongst
parts and were off the stage therefore he must needs be a Priest in heaven not in the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 performe divine Service or which serve with great reverence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a particle that increaseth the signification in composition and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tremo much more should we serve in the Gospell 1 Cor. 2.3 To the patterne or sampler or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being understood which serve in the patterne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is subostensio obscura repraesentatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2.17 which was but a type or shadow of heavenly things All that was in the ceremoniall Law were types of our Saviour Christ and of the kingdome of heaven The Sanctuary a shadow of heaven the Tabernacle of Christ's body the High-Priests of Christ their sacrifices types of his the brasen Serpent a figure of him they had the shadow and we the substance This he proveth by the testimony of God Himselfe Divinitùs admonitus Moses did not make it of his owne head but by Gods appointment and direction When hee was about the making and finishing of the Tabernacle for it was begun that it might be finished Syriac dum conderet tabernaculum Supply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not in the Hebrew Text yet it may bee derived out of Exodus 25.9 The Lord in a vision shewed heaven our Saviour Christ and all things appertaining to him to Moses Now according to that patterne were the Tabernacle and Temple to bee framed that might praefigurate and shadow out those heavenly things to the Iewes In earthly buildings the patterne of the house is not so glorious as the house the patterne is drawne in paper in darke lineaments but this patterne farre exceeded the whole beauty of the ceremoniall Law it might draw a little neere to it but it could not expresse it to the full The Ministers of the New Testament are more glorious than the Priests of the Old Testament In this wee agree wee are both servants the servants of God and of the Church but here is the difference they served the patterne we the thing patterned they served the shadow wee the truth and substance shadowed by them they shadowed CHRIST to come to the people wee preach Christ already come Iohn Baptist was greater than all the Prophets but we in a one sense are greater than Iohn Baptist the least in the kingdome of heaven is greater than he In this respect our Ministery should be more highly esteemed of the which notwithstanding is little regarded by many The Devill in the maide spake honourably of Paul and Silas some of us will speake contemptibly of Christ's Ambassadours They were the moone light we are the Sunne-light we serve to shew you the way to heaven plainly and perspicuously therefore honour our service and Ministery Where had they this patterne from Moses and hee from GOD. Moses might not swerue from his patterne All things must bee squared according to that patterne which God hath left to us in his word The Magistrate must rule the common-wealth according to the patterne that God hath set downe in his word The Governours of the Church must order it according to the patterne that God hath appointed the disposers of the Mysteries of God must preach according to the patterne of Christ and his Apostles not in the entising words of mans wisedome but in the plaine evidence of the spirit and with power The father must so governe his Children the Master his servants the Husband his Wife according to the patterne prescribed by God This patterne of the most wise God must be observed by us all If wee follow the devices of our owne braine and leave this patterne of God Almighty wee justly incurre his wrath and displeasure Vriah the Priest must make the Altar in all points like the fashion that King Ahaz sent from Damascus 2 Reg. 16.11 A Carpenter and Mason must make the house according to the patterne received from him that is the Author of the house he must frame the house to the will of him that sets him on worke and not after his owne will A Sempster must sow according to the Sampler A Scholler must write according to his Coppy Wee are angry with a Barber if he doe not trimme us as we would have him and displeased with a Taylor if hee make not the Coate as we wished him and must not the high and eternall God bee justly incensed against us if we follow our owne patterne and forsake his therefore let that patterne so neere as we can bee carefully observed by us all Neither must we follow it in one or two things alone but in all See that thou make all things according c. In some things peradventure which like us well we can be contented to be directed by Gods patterne but in all things wee will not In some things wee will bee carryed by our owne will and affection Herod did many things that Iohn Baptist bade him he followed the patterne in some things but he would not doe all Let Iohn preach his heart out he will keepe his sweet sinne of incest still Saul followed Gods patterne awhile in his government but at length he departed from it As Zachary and Elizabeth walked in all Gods Commandements so wee must observe Gods patterne in all things hee that keepeth the whole Law and offendeth in one point is guilty of all and if ye breake Gods patterne but in one thing especially wittingly and willingly he will require it at your hands A Scholler must not write two or three letters according to his coppie but all if he make one awry his Master will be offended with him Therefore in all things so farre as it is possible let us follow the patterne that God hath set before our eyes that yeelding not a lame and halting but a full and complete obedience to him we may have a full weight of eternall glory in the life to come But what and if we have not all things according to this patterne shall wee in a pelting chafe hurle all away God forbid If thy garment be not made in all points according to thy minde wilt thou cast it away and not rather have that amended which is defective If thine house be not in all respects built as thou desirest wilt thou pull all down Though there should be some men in the Church and common-wealth that draw not so neere the celestiall patterne as were to bee wished yet let us not in a rage fling out of hose Churches and common-wealths Such is the infirmitie of man and the malice and subtilty of the Devill that no Church in the world can bee found wherein there are not some imperfections comming short of the patterne delivered to us yet let us not separate our selves but hold the unity of faith in the bond of love VERSE 6. THe fourth argument to prove the advancement of Christ's ministration above the Leviticall is
the peace and unity of the Church but we must doe as Saint Augustine did submit our selves to the authority of the Christian Magistrate not only for feare but for conscience sake if he command any thing we are sure is repugnant to the Word of God then obey God rather than man but if it be a thing indifferent then obey both God and man Beza himselfe sayes of the Crosse in baptisme that is used in the Church of England utantur libertate sua for these things all Churches have their liberty and let them use it in the feare of God The Old Testament had her ordinances the New Testament hath hers one Church hath this ceremony another that For the peace of Sion let us not contend about these things but bee thankefull to God for the pearle of the Gospell continuing among us And as they had a Sanctuary to the which they resorted unto the publike worship of God so have we our Churches and places of holy meetings which are carefully to bee frequented by us O how love I the place of thy habitation sayes David and that where thy honour dwelleth but wee love our owne houses our burling parkes loomes shops barnes and stables above the place of Gods worship 2. We have here a cooling epithete Whatsoever things are worldly wee ought not to bee too much in love with them The Iewes Sanctuary how sumptuous soever it was the glorious Temple at Hierusalem the wonder of the whole earth was but a worldly thing The great Cathedrall Churches that be in this land so stately and magnificent all inferiour Churches and Chappell 's where wee serve God yea even the kings Chappell if you looke at the fabricke of them are worldly things all faire and costly buildings the Royall Exchange the new Burse all Lord-like and regall pallaces are but worldly things silver and gold which we all hunt after silkes and velvets all fine and gallant apparell a table richly furnished with all kinde of delicates large lands and ample revenews a great troupe of serving men following us at our heeles all these are but worldly things vaine fickle transitory they vanish away like the smoake We our selves are but worldly things out of the earth we were taken to the earth we must returne therefore let us not be enflamed too much with the love of these worldly things the glory of this world fadeth away like a flower therefore let us use it as if wee used it not let not this world be our Paradise let us remember it is but a strange Country by the which we passe as travellers They be the wicked that are the men of this world let us be men of another world and have our conversation in heaven VERSE 2. HE begins with the tabernacle which hee tells us was divided into two parts for the tabernacle was disposed of after this manner so the word Verse 6. The first verely wherein c. It is described 1. By the things it had in it 2. By the name of it It had three things in it The Candlesticke which was so framed that it had seaven lights on it three on either side one aloft Some reade it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plurall number but it comes all to a reckoning Exod. 25.31 This did signifie that the Ministers should bee full of light Matth. 5. You are the light of the world The shaft that sustained the branches whereon stood the Lampes was a figure of Christ which sustaineth those lights that be in the Church without him the light of the ministery would bee extinguished and fall to the ground 2. The Table on the which stood the shew bread Here it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hypallage they were so called because they were apposed or set upon the Table by the Priests Matth. 12.4 Exod. 25.30 Lechem panim Hebr. panis facierum because they were set face to face one over against another and because they were set on the table before the face of the Lord. It is called Panis jugis Num. 4.7 because it was to be continuall and holy bread 1 Sam. 21.5 The Table did signifie Christ which is as a rich Table well furnished for us all The Shew-bread set upon it did signifie the preaching of the Gospell the subject whereof is Christ or it did signifie the Church as bread nourishing the body so that the soule 1 The shew-bread might never be wanting no more must the preaching of the Gospell where prophesie faileth c. 2 As Matth. 12.4 So we must be made spirituall Priests before we can truly feede upon the Gospell In the Old Testament there was one Table in the New wee have two Tables the one is a Sacramentall-table in this life 1 Cor. 10.21 We call it the Communion-Table but we might call it the Lords Table the Table of the Lord Iesus whose Ghests we are at his Table Vpon that Table stood the Shew-bread upon this Table stands Christ Iesus the Bread of Life to be eaten of us all after a spirituall manner the other is an heavenly Table in the life to come Luke 13.29 Let us behave our selves well at this Table in this life comming to it with all reverence and feeding on Christ to the comfort of our soules that we may be partakers of that celestiall Table where we shall eat of the hidden Manna for evermore Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the singular number holy but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plurall as the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 3. how thou my God walkest in the Sanctuary VERSE 3. FOr there were two vailes the one in the entrie of the first tabernacle which separated it from the place where the people were the other at the end of the first tabernacle which separated it from the Holy of Holies Exod. 26.33 and 36.40.27 The Holy of Holies deus Deorum the song of songs that is the most holy place This Tabernacle is described by the scituation the name the things contained in it VERSE 4. ANd that had two things in it The golden censer it may bee in Davids or Salomons time a golden censer was put into the Sanctum Sanctorum The word doth signifie either a censer to hold incense or an Altar to burne incense now neither of the significations seeme to agree to the place 1. We read not in Moses of any censer that was laid up in the Holy of Holies if there had beene one he specifying lesse matters then that would not have buryed it in silence 2. As for the Altar of incense that stood in the first Tabernacle not in the second Exod. 40.26 in the same Tabernacle where the Table was Verse 24. Iunius is of opinion that the Holy of Holies had two parts the one a Porch or entrance into it the other the magnificent place it selfe Now in the entrance stood the Altar of the incense Exod. 30.6 the Holy or Holies had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
undefiled we are bought with a price and that a deere price even the bloud of the Sonne of GOD. Our swearing drunkennesse c. these cost the bloud of the Sonne of GOD we are washed from them in the bloud of Christ and shall we wallow in them is not this the water said David for the which three worthy men ventured their lives he would not drinke of it though very thirsty So when we are provoked to sinne to drunkennesse covetousnesse adultery let us reason with our selves Indeed the water of these sins is sweete but did it not cost the bloud of CHRIST therfore away with it we think sin to be nothing yet all the Martyrs on the earth all the Angels in heaven could not have freed us from sin The Son of God must shed his bloud for it therefore let the consideration hereof bee a perpetuall bridle to restraine us from sin CHRIST 's bloud is the price of our redemption he sweat drops of bloud when hee was in his agony in the garden at the commandement of Pilat hee was extreamely whipped so that the bloud came exceedingly out of his holy body he had a Crowne of thornes platted on his head that made the bloud runne about his eares being nailed hand and foote to the Crosse the bloud came out in great measure a Souldier thrust him through with a speare and out of his side came water and bloud So that this our High-Priest redeemed us not with the bloud of beasts but with his owne bloud How then are wee to love CHRIST IESUS that spared not his heart bloud for us There was no bloud almost left in this immaculate Lamb he spent all for our sake Wee will love them that give their money for us and shall wee not love CHRIST that gave his bloud for us yet the love of Christ is not so deepely fixed in us as it ought to bee We love the trash of the world the pleasures of the flesh above Christ. This love of Christ should constraine us to forsake our sinnes Wilt thou make much of the knife that cut the throate of thy friend or father Sinne was the knife that cut CHRIST 's throate therefore let us hurle it away but this bloud of CHRIST by the which we are washed from our sinnes is little regarded for all that wee wallow in the mire of our sinnes forgetting the LORD that bought us as Saint Peter speaketh Wee are redeemed from our drunkennesse covetousnesse pride c. by the bloud of CHRIST therefore let us have no fellowship with these sins 2. Heaven is an holy place there dwells the holy God there bee the holy Angels and holy Saints they that remaine unholy shall never enter into it dogs enchanters c. are without By nature we are all unholy borne in sin conceived in iniquity pulling sinne to us with Cartropes and iniquity with Cords of vanity but wee are made holy by the spirit of Sanctification Such were some of you drunkards c. but yee are washed but yee are sanctified but yee are justified in the name of the Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 They that continue in sin without repentance shall never set a foote into the kingdome of heaven Noah was once overtaken with Wine but he forsooke that sin David fell into adultery but hee washed it away with his teares Peter denyed Christ but he wept bitterly for it Manasseh left his idolatry Paul his persecuting of the Church of God Mary Magdalen her uncleannesse even so if through the corruption of our nature wee have beene carryed into any sin let us by repentance rise up out of it againe Let us strive to be holy in this world holy in heart in conversation that wee may enter into the holy Hierusalem in the world to come Follow peace and holinesse without which none can see God The wicked mocke at them that be holy I but except yee likewise be holy ye shall never reigne with Christ in the Holy Hierusalem 3. By CHRIST wee have a plenary redemption of soule and body out of the clawes of Satan As the Bird is in the fowlers net so were we in the Devills snare but we may say with them in the Psalme the net is broken and we are delivered yea wee are delivered eternally we shall never fall into that bondage againe The afflictions whereunto we are incident in this life are temporall but the redemption is eternall sicknesse poverty malevolent tongues imprisonment death it selfe is temporall our joy is eternall Let that comfort us in all the calamities of this life A burning agew the tooth-ach the stone lasts not alwayes but my joy in heaven shall be eternall here I may be in griefe for a time but there I shall reigne with Christ for ever Wee love them that obtaine a temporall redemption for us If a young man bee bound Prentise to an hard master for tenne or twelve yeeres and if one should buy out his apprentiseship and set him free would hee not take himselfe much beholding to him Wee were bound Prentises to Satan hee kept us in his snare at his will and pleasure being his bond men wee should have remained in hell fire world without end Now Christ Iesus hath redeemed us and made us the free men of God Cittizens of heaven how are we indebted to him If thou wert a Gallislave under the Turke and one should rid thee out of it wert thou not much obliged to him Christ hath brought us out of the gally of sinne and damnation therefore let us sound forth his praises all the dayes of our life Let us say with them in the Revelation worthy is the Lamb that was killed and hath obtained eternall redemption for us to receive all honour and glory and blessing for ever and ever VERSE 13. THat Christ by the shedding of his owne bloud hath obtained an eternall redemption for us is confirmed by an argument à pari à minore from the sacrifices of the Law to the sacrifice of Christ. 1. What they were 2. What was the fruit and effect of them If the bloud of Bulls and goates c. being an outward thing could sanctifie the flesh that was an outward thing then the bloud of Christ being a spirituall thing in force and power everlasting must needs sanctifie the conscience which is a spirituall and internall thing yea this rather than that for many respects as we shall see but the one ergo the other The Protasis is in this 13. Verse Because hee would enwrap the whole Ceremonial Law hee reckons up other sacrifices and rites then those which the High-Priest used when hee went into the Holy of Holies 1 Chron. 29. Verse 21. Among the rest he makes mention of one solemne ceremony whereunto the Iewes adscribed much Num. 19.1 A Red Cow was commanded to bee taken which was without spot and never accustomed to the yoke she was to be burnt to
in token of that his voluntary service But hee could not have his eares prepared for the doing of the will of his Father unlesse he had a body Therefore the Seventie to make it more cleere sayes a body hast thou prepared for me wherein I should doe thee service and suffer for mankinde And because all the Sacrifices in the Law could not take away sin therefore was this body of Christ prepared by the Lord that should be sacrificed for the sins of the world No other sacrifice was able to make satisfaction to Gods justice for the sins of men Verse 10. There is joy when any man child commeth into the world but much more have we all cause to skip for joy at Christ's comming into the world Vnto us a child is given to us a Sonne is borne behold I bring you tidings of great joy sayd the Angel to the Shepheards when Christ came into the world The Angels sung at his comming which needed not to be redeemed by him and shall not we men sing for his comming for whose redemption he came into the world it had beene better for us we had never set a foot into the world if he had not come into the world Therefore let us praise God all the dayes of our life for his comming into the world When he commeth into the world that was the maker of the world For by him all things were made nay that which is more when hee commeth into the world that was the Saviour and redeemer of the world that reconciled the world to God and yet found no kind entertainment in the world he was rayled at spitted on buffetted whipped crucified he came into the world but the world received him not And shal we that be Christians imagine to find any kindnes in the world it hated the Head and wil it love the members no we must look to have a step-mother of the world as Christ had we must looke for crosses and afflictions in the world as he had As Christ came into the world so in the time appointed by the Father he went out of the world again and so must we There is a time to be borne and a time to dye as we came into the world so we must go out of the world Where we came we may know but where we shall go out we cannot tel Let us glorifie Christ while we be here that at our departure out of the world we may live with him in eternall glory He saith not so soone as he came into the world when he lay in the cratch but he said in the time of his humiliation in the world And how came he into the world after a base and ignominious manner borne of a poore woman affianced to a Carpenter that was brought to bed in a stable in the Inne where hee was laid in a Manger wrapped up in meane swadling clouts This was the manner of his first comming contemptible in the eyes of the world But his second comming shal be most glorious when he shall come in the clouds with all his holy Angels attending on him Now he came as a Lamb to be killed therefore he came meanely then he shall come as a Lion and a King to reigne for ever Therfore that shall be a glorious comming it shall be terrible to the wicked but most comfortable to us that be the wife of the Lord Iesus A true body made of a Woman the fruit of her Wombe as ours is not an aerie or phantasticall body as some Heretickes dreamed A body in all substantiall things like to ours differing only in one accidentall thing and that is sinne him that knew no sinne did God make sinne for us God ordained him a soule too The deity did not supply the office of his soule as Apollinaris did imagine he had a true soule too as we have wherein he suffered for our sakes my soule is heavy to the death But because the body is conspicuous so is not the soule and because he was to dye in his body he could not dye in respect of his soule therefore the spirit of God nameth that God hath ordained a body for every man but a more speciall and excellent body for our Saviour Christ a body conceived not by the conjunction of a man and a woman but extraordinarily by the Holy Ghost that being a most pure and sacred body not infected with the least spot and contagion of sinne it might be a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world Ours are most wretched and sinfull bodies that because they are poysoned with sin must one day see corruption and bee consumed to dust and ashes Lazarus body did stincke when it lay foure dayes in the earth Ours in regard of sin are stincking bodies but Christ's was a most glorious body and for that cause saw no corruption Absalom had a beautifull body yet a wretched body Saul had a comely body yet a miserable body The body of the fairest Lady on earth is a vile body only Christ's was a glorious body The Martyrs bodies that were burnt for the profession of the Gospell were in some respect to be honoured because they were the Temples of the Holy Ghost and sealed up the truth of the Gospell with their bloud yet all their bodies joyned together nor the bodies of all the holy men in the world could make satisfaction for one sinne therefore God ordained Christ a body for this purpose to be offered up for the sins of us all As for our bodies let us labour to offer them up as a lively sacrifice to God in all obedience to him in this life that Christ may change them and make them like his glorious body in the life to come VERSE 6. THe reason why thou hast prepared this body for me is because in burnt offerings and sinne offerings thou hadst no pleasure These would not content thee therefore I come with my body into the world Supply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here he reckons up two other sacrifices used in the Law which God likewise rejected Loa shealta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense is all one VERSE 7. FReely of mine owne accord as 1 Reg. 22.21 Isai. 6.8 as an obedient child sayes to his father loe I come father if it be to preferment a man will say loe I come but if it be to the Gallowes for another who will say loe I come Why because in the beginning of thy booke that mooved him to it that the things written of him might be performed Hebr. Bimgillath in volumine in the scrowle For the Bible with the Iewes as it is at this day was wrapped up in a scrowle not printed as it is among us Megillath of Galal volvere The Seventie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath bred diversity of interpretations Some referre it to the beginning of the Psalmes Psalm 1.2 whereas that is spoken of all the godly others to the first verse in all the Bible In the
Politicall or Ecclesiasticall Even civill meetings about the affaires of the towne where God hath set us are with care and conscience to be kept as also the meetings at the houses one of another for the encrease of love have yee not houses to eate and drinke in Hee likes it well that wee should meete in our houses he gives us a license for that nay he forbids us not to goe to the house of an infidell and yee will goe Surely they that live wholly to themselves that will not come at their neighbours house nor bid any to theirs that will neither be feastmakers nor feast-takers they are guilty of the breach of good fellowship Either they be cynicall Diogenes's or greedy and miserable Nabals that love to make feasts for none but for themselves We must not be Epicures ever feasting faring deliciously every day with the rich Glutton neither must we be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of all good fellowship and humane society If there be any meetings of neighbours about the townes good wee must not draw in a yoke alone but associate our selves with them If the whole towne be on fire what shall become of thine house art not thou a part of the towne a member of it and doest thou not care what become of the body God said to the Israelites concerning Babel in the peace of it shall be thy peace They were to seeke the good of Babel and shall not we of Sion should not every bird have a care of her owne nest The towne is the nest wherein thou sleepest and doest thou not care though it goe to ruine doth not the safety of every passenger consist in the ship If water come into the Ship ought not all to prevent it to their power The towne is the Shippe wherein thou saylest and doest not thou care though it be drowned in those things that concerne the civill good of the towne let us not forsake the fellowship we have among our selves God will require it at our hands But especially let us beware how we forsake Ecclesiasticall meetings where wee have the preaching of the Word the ordinary ladder that leadeth to heaven the comfortable use of the Sacraments for confirmation of our faith and where we have the prayers of so many holy ones to joyne with us These meetings above all others ought highly to be esteemed of us and the curse of God will light on them that forsake them We are commanded to go out of Babylon but we are never commanded to forsake the spouse of the Lord Iesus for some spots that be in her The corne doth not skip out of the barne because chaffe is with it Christ did not pull downe the Temple but purged it The V. Mary was an heavenly and a singular woman yet she would not be apart by her selfe she would joyn with the Church of God Woe to them that forsake her that be the brethren of the separation as they terme themselves Fie on such a brother-hood Gods vengeance doth apparently follow them wanting the light of the true preaching of the Word they become Atheists in the end Let us make much of fellowship we have in the publike assemblies of the Church let our hearts skip for joy to see them as Davids did It doth him good to see the tribes going to the house of God and he went himselfe with them One thing have I desired of the Lord that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to visit his Temple This one thing is more to be esteemed of then all others things in the world There are sundry motives to stir us up to the embracing of the fellowship of the Saints 1. Let us make much of all kinde of Christian meetings propter mutuam supportationem Vae soli If hee fall who shall lift him up but if we be among the faithfull one brother may helpe another up 2. Propter participationem suffragiorum The prayer of one righteous man is available if it be fervent how much more of many righteous together If the heart of a Father will be pierced with the cry of one of his children how much more with the cry of many Let this make us desirous of their company that we may be helped to heaven by their prayers 3. Propter terrorem daemonum Cant. 6.9 If an army bee scattered some here some there it is the sooner exposed as a prey to the enemy so if Satan that roaring Lion that walkes about seeking whom he may devoure if he find any of CHRIST 's Sheep stragling from the rest hee will sooner catch them in his clawes hee tooke Eve when she was alone from her Husband But if hee see us in an armie united and coupled together the Generall whereof is Christ Iesus he will be afraid of us 4. Let us delight in the fellowship of the Saints propter divinum consortium where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the middest among them Therefore let us be in the company of the faithfull that Christ Iesus may be in our company Let none on pride vaine glory singularity or any other sinister respect rent themselves from the fellowship of their brethren but let us rejoyce in the society one of another There is a fellowship among drunkards thieves adulterers swearers swaggerers and shall there be no fellowship among good Christians There should be the greatest good fellowship among them The Communion of Saints is an Article of our Creede we say wee believe it but we do not practise it All my delight is on the faithfull that are upon earth Let us take pleasure in the fellowship of the faithfull in this world that we may have the fellowship of Christ his Saints and Angels in the world to come Love the brother-hood The forsaking of that is a step to the sin against the Holy Ghost Christians are brethren It might be objected why some forsake the fellowship why may not we doe the like quia vivitur legibus non exemplis Some travellours goe out of the way wilt thou doe so too Some fall into a water and drowne themselves shall we doe so too Some are so madde as to leape into a fire and burne themselves and shall we doe so Though others take the way to hell fire yet let not us doe it It is the manner of some to sit quaffing at the Ale-house all the day long let not us doe so It is the manner of some for supposed corruptions that be in the Church to forsake the Church quite but let them goe alone let not us follow them we have no such custome nor the Church of God Let us follow them that follow Christ and forsake them that follow the Devill let them goe alone for all us Some imagine they are safe if they have example to alleadge Such and such doe so That is a crooked rule
yee shall meete with bad examples every where but let us not be seduced by them To this he induces us by a forcible reason Ye may see it with your owne eyes Almost all the signes are passed already they be blind that cannot see this Here then it is cleere that there is a day of judgment and that day drawes neere If it were neere in the Apostles time how neere is it now a thousand and odde yeeres being passed since Let not us bee like them that put farre from them the evill day not like that servant which saith my Master defers his comming and falls a beating of his fellow servants not like those mockers that say where is the promise of his comming but let us make a just reckoning that this day is drawing neere indeed that CHRIST is ready to open the heavens and to descend in the cloudes and to assemble all nations before him Behold I come quickly said he in the Revelation he comes and he comes quickly therefore let us so live in a carefull discharge of all duties to God and man that our account may bee joyfull at that day that then wee may meete Christ in the ayre and be translated with him into the kingdome of glory If the Assizes at Bury draw neere will not they that have nisiprius to trye provide their Lawyers and have all things ready the generall Assizes of the world is neere therefore let as consider how we shall answer then VERSE 26. WEE had need to make much of the fellowship we have among our selves and provoke to love and good workes for the danger is great if we doe not If we It is good for all to looke to it He doth not simply say if we sinne for then it were woe with us all because in many things we sinne all Neither doth he say if we sinne contrary to our knowledge or if we sinne upon weakenesse and infirmitie as the deerest children of God may doe David sinned against his knowledge when he committed adultery and murder So did Peter when he denyed Christ. But if wee sinne willingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yeelding our selves voluntarily to Satan maliciously opposing our selves to Christ and his Gospell and rending our selves from the society of his Church and members suffocating and choking the knowledge of the Lord Iesus revealed to us as appeareth by the next words There is a great difference betweene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 volens and voluntariè A man may sinne willing his will consenting to it yet upon a suddaine passion of the minde drawne to it in some sort against his will But he that sinneth willingly doth it upon a mature deliberation with a resolute purpose to doe it come on it what will which indeed is rather a wilfulnesse than a willingnesse Such as doe wilfully and maliciously resist Christ and his Gospell that fall utterly away Not being blind and ignorant but when we have received of Gods gracious goodnesse and as it were with both hands taking some delight in it at the beginning having a taste of the good Word of God Hebr. 6. What the acknowledging of the truth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acknowledging it to be the truth of God it being sealed up to them in their hearts and consciences by the HOLY GHOST Their own consciences did tell them that it was the truth of God yet they sinned willingly and oppugned it That Christ is our only King Priest and Prophet that hee by the sacrifice of his owne body hath purchased to us remission of sins and the kingdome of heaven That there is no way to be saved but by him yet this blessed truth they afterwards condemne and resist it by might and maine Their estate is lamentable For the expiation of their sinnes this sacrifice being rejected by them wherewith alone the sinnes of the world are taken away there can be no sacrifice for the abolishing of their sinnes they can have no remission of sins and therefore no place in the kingdome of heaven Their sins are sealed up in a bagge This is it which he said before Heb. 6. It is impossible they should be renewed to repentance and that which Christ said Matth. 12. This sin cannot be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come For the better explication of this place errors are to bee avoyded The Novatians have egregiously abused this place sucking this poysonfull doctrine out of this sweete flower that whosoever sins after baptisme is damned no hope of forgivenesse of sin for them In baptisme we have remission of our sins therefore if any sinne after this generall pardon there remaineeh no remission of sinnes for them In baptisme we receive the HOLY GHOST therefore to sin after baptisme is to sin against the HOLY GHOST and there is no expiation of that sin Who then shall be saved Alas then we are all in a wofull case and none should set a foote into the kingdome of heaven Peter sinned after baptisme and after the receit of the HOLY GHOST yet he wept bitterly for his sinne and was received into mercy The incestuous man in the Church of Corinth that lay with his fathers wife sinned fowly after baptisme yet Saint Paul would not have him to bee swallowed up with griefe but admitted into the Church againe The Church of Ephesus had fallen after shee was baptised yet CHRIST raises her from that fall againe Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and doe the first workes At what time soever a sinner repenteth him of his sinnes though it bee twenty times after hee bee baptised I will put his sinne out of my remembrance We are to know that not all sins after knowledge are the sinnes against the Holy Ghost Aaron knew the Commandement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image yet he made the Israelites a golden Calfe for all that he obtained mercy at the hands of God David knew adultery and murther to be grievous sins yet he fell into them St. Peter contrary to his knowledge denyed CHRIST hee said I know not the man yet hee knew him well enough hee denyed him not once but thrise he added an oath a curse an execration to his denyall yet hee sinned not against the HOLY GHOST It is a dangerous thing to sinne against our knowledge for hee that knowes his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes It had bin better for them they had not knowne the way of truth c. yet not every sin against knowledge is the sin against the Holy Ghost But this may be a fruitfull caveat to all whom God hath enriched with knowledge They are the most subject to the sinne against the Holy Ghost Ignorant persons may be condemned for the Lord Iesus shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance unto them that doe not know God
But ignorant persons cannot commit the sin against the Holy Ghost they must be men of knowledge that fall into this sinne therefore the more knowledge we have the more carefull wee should be that we be not carryed by little and little into this sinne Knowledge puffeth up knowledge breeds pride and pride may tumble us into hell before we be aware The Devill at the first and so hee is still was of wonderfull knowledge he saw what was in heaven yet he was carryed into the sinne against the Holy Ghost he sinned maliciously against the knowledge which hee had received The Pharisees were men of singular knowledge sitting in Moses chaire reading Divinity lectures to the people most skilfull in the Law of God these fell into this horrible sinne many of them as is apparant in the Gospell Therefore let them that have knowledge looke to themselves Let us not thinke highly of our selves for our knowledge least we fall into the condemnation of the Devill To whom much is given of them much is required Therefore the more knowledge GOD hath given us the more often let us be in prayer that we may employ it to the glory of the giver The more we know the more humble let us be and crave the gracious assistance of God's Spirit to guide our knowledge to his glory the good and benefit of our brethren As wee have science so let us have conscience and as we abound in knowledge so let us abound in practice and be plentifull in the fruits of righteousnesse by Iesus Christ. 3. Every sin that is done willingly is not the sinne against the Holy Ghost David lay with Bathshebah willingly and for the most part we sinne willingly with joy and delight but this sinne hath malice annexed to it as we shall see afterwards They fall toti à toto in totum scienter volenter malitiosè irrevocabiliter It is as cleere as the noone day that the sinne against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven it is peccatum irremissibile This is so cleere in Scripture as that the Papists cannot deny it yet they will smooth it with the oyle of distinction it is called irremissibile ordinariè non absolutè as Bellarmine speaketh because ordinarily it cannot be forgiven not because forgivenesse is absolutely denyed unto it aegrè difficulter it can bee forgiven yet with much adoe and seldome it is forgiven But Christ sayes it can never bee forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come not it can hardly be forgiven but never Saint Iohn calls it a sinne to death not a sinne neere death that cannot be forgiven without great difficulty but such a sin as strikes the party with the dart of death without recovery Every sinne is to death without the mercy of GOD in CHRIST but this is a sinne to death without a remedy The death of CHRIST cannot cure this sinne Without Repentance none can bee forgiven These men cannot repent Ergo it cannot bee forgiven There remaineth no sacrifice for this sinne the sacrifice of CHRIST cannot abolish this sinne because it is contemned by them and was never ordained for them A lamentable sin Let us entreat the Lord above all sins to keepe us from this There is a sacrifice for Idolatry for common swearing for prophanenesse for theft treason adultery murder these bee horrible sinnes and the Lord preserve us from them yet these may be washed away in the bloud of Christ sacrificed on the Crosse for us but there is no sacrifice for these sinners Lord keepe mee sayes Dauid from presumptuous sinnes But much more let us pray Lord keepe us from this sinne of sinnes the sinne against the HOLY GHOST and undoubtedly hee will keepe all his from it for they that are borne of God cannot sinne unto death VERSE 27. BVt on the contrary side Hee doth not say the present judgement of GOD shall light on them but that which is a mervailous torture to their conscience a fearefull and continuall expectation of it being assured it will one day come upon them as a condemned man lookes every houre to dye The godly stand in a joyfull expectation of CHRIST his comming and wish for it Come Lord Iesu come quickly but the expectation of his comming strikes a continuall terrour to the wicked which is as a racke to them in the meane season The devils believe there is a God and tremble so these apostats believe there is a day of judgement and quake at the recordation of it And the Zeale or fervency of fire goe ye cursed into everlasting fire Fire is terrible therefore the paines of hell are described by it Fire is devouring it devoures an whole towne This is a devouring fire it shall alwayes be a devouring of them and yet never fully devoure them they shall ever be burning and never burned Whom them that are opposite to Christ that wage battle against him open and professed enemies set on the other side against Christ yet under a kind of pretext and colour as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth import inverting to themselves some colourable reason why they should doe so This is that which hee said Heb. 6. They are a reprobate earth whose end is to be burned Here it is evident to us all that there is a day of judgement There is a lake burning with fire and brimstone The wicked would not looke for that which is not they looke and that with feare and horrour for the judgment to come Felix trembled therefore there is a judgement The thieves would not be afraid of the Assizes if there were no judgement The very devils and all the wicked know there is a judgement to come Why art thou come to torment us before the time they knew there was a time when they shold be tormented but they complained that CHRIST with his holy presence tormented them before the time Therefore let us all after a godly manner feare this judgement As for them that thinke there is no judgement they are worse than the Devill 2 Thes. 1.8 There is a violent fire that shall devoure the adversaries an unquenchable fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels Doe not imagine that ignis gehennae is ignis fatuus It is said of the Sodomites that they suffer the vengeance of eternall fire God hath appointed a day wherein hee will judge the world in righteousnesse and wee must all appeare before the judgement seat of CHRIST Therefore let us often thinke upon it and let it be as a bridle to restraine us from sinne Whether I eate or drinke said Ierome mee thinkes the trumpet soundeth in my ears surgite mortui venite ad judicium Even now when wee are eating and drinking making merry at the Nativitie of our Blessed SAVIOUR even now when wee are in the middest of all our mirth and Christmasse games let us remember there is a judgement and let us live here that wee may stand without trembling before the Sonne of
for this faith Ergo. Elders whom we are to reverence which went before us and lived longer than we Reported of adorned by the testimony of God and man the testimony of the Lord is pure As the Father testified of Christ this is my beloved Sonne So also of Noah that he was a just and upright man and one that walked with God Abraham the friend of God Moses the meekest man upon the earth David a man after Gods owne heart hast thou not considered my servant Iob how none is like him in the earth an upright and just man one that feareth God and escheweth evill Of Nathaneel Christ said behold indeed an Israelite in whom there is no guile This also got them a goodreport among men all their famous exploits were done by faith Verse 29. A good name is above Gold and silver it is greatly desired of all but all take not the right course of getting it Some thinke to get them a name by building as they that set up the tower of Babel they imagine to be famous by sumptuous buildings some by hunting as Nimrod some by drinking as Fâ—cidius some by whoring as Hercules some strive to get them a name by their courteous behaviour as Absalom did by a counterfeit kinde of kindnes towards all some by liberality and house keeping and I would there were moe of them some by their great variety of learning but all these misse the marke they begin at a wrong end The best foundation for a good name is faith she will leave a sweete savour behinde her wheresoever she become she will procure us favour with God and man when the name that the wicked have gotten shall rot the faithfull shall be had in perpetuall remembrance therefore let us all beg faith at the hands of God that we may be renowned in this world and eternally famous in the world to come VERSE 3. SEcondly it is illustrated by an instance in one particular which is famous by this we understand the world was made of things not seene therefore faith is the evidence of them Ages or times The world mas made in time hath continued in time and shall end in time Omnibus numeris absolutus no commoditie no pleasure wanting To this end that we might all understand c. We believe the Scriptures as Agrippa did they tell us that the world was made by GOD. In principio creavit Deus therefore we believe the creation of the world Aristotle held that the world was eternall Plato that GOD made the heavens and Angels but the Angels made the bodies of men and beasts but we by faith understand that God made the world yea that all creatures were of his making and that without him nothing was made he made the high and celestial Angels the Sun Moone and the whole host of heaven birds of the ayre fishes of the Sea all trees men and beasts on the earth and all these did he make by his owne bare word he commanded and they were created let there be a firmament and there was one let there be a Sea birds and it was so only he paused and deliberated at the making of one creature which was man because he was to be his vicegerent and a King over all creatures By his omnipotent word all were made And of what was the world made what timber what stones had God to make this building withall Surely nothing yet hee made it Not so much as any atomes even materia prima was made of him he found it not in the world before O mighty and puissant God! Let us all feare him that made heaven and earth O how wonderfully am I made said David of himselfe much more of the whole world how wonderfully was the world made of nothing The world came not by chance or fortune it was framed by no earthly artificers Aholiab Bezaleel made the Tabernacle Hyram the Temple God the world and this did he make principally for sinfull man All creatures were made for us the Sun Moone Birds Fishes c. that we might freely eat of all yea the Angels were in a sort made for us that they might be ministring spirits for our salvation Therefore let us praise God all the dayes of our lives that made the glorious pallace of the world for us Now as the world was made so it must have an end 2 Pet. 3. therefore notwithstanding all the pleasure and wealth of this world let us use it as if wee used it not for the glory thereof fadeth away they waxe old as doth a garment Therefore let us lay up our treasures in a better world From hence the Iesuites make this collection we must believe the world was made out of nothing though wee doe not see it so we must believe that the body of CHRIST is corporally in the Lords Supper though we cannot see it But they might see there is a different reason Wee believe the world was made of nothing though we see it not because the Word of God hath avouched it God's Word never teacheth us that the body of CHRIST is in the Sacrament corporally but in heaven therefore there is no cause why we should believe it VERSE 4. NOw hee returnes to the examples 1. At large then summarily Verse 32. before the floud and after before the entrance into Canaan and after 1. A commendation of Abels fact 2. An approbation of it In the former 1. What it was that gave a relish to his sacrifice 2. To whom it was offered 3. The eminencie of it Caine had the more worthy name Caine acquisitio as if she had gotten the Messiah Abel vanity or weeping 2. He had the worthyest trade bread is the staffe of life 3. He was the first borne 4. He built a City Yet Abel is preferred before him A fuller sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kissed Caines sacrifice was voyd of faith therefore empty Cain tooke absque delectu Abel chose 2. Corne was not so lively to represent CHRIST as Sheepe and Lambes 3. His more sparing Abels more plentifull rather better for his faith By the which faith not sacrifice as Verse 2. and in the end of this Verse The second thing is the approbation 1. In his life 2. After his death In life internall in his owne heart and conscience that he was righteous believing in the Messiah externall either by word Gen. 4 4. or by action as Levit. 9.24 1 Reg. 18.38 1 Chron. 21.26 2 Chron. 7.1 Some have beene of opinion that Adam was damned because he is left out of the catalogue of the faithfull but if none should be saved save those that be in this calender few should be saved The salvation of Adam and Eve may bee concluded by probable reasons rendred by Irenaeus Epiphan Chrys. Aug. 1. It is not like that GOD would cast away the first man that he made the first borne is greatly beloved Seldome doth any father disinherit his first borne Adam was the first that God
imprisonment till yron entred into his soule hee tryed Iob with the losse of seven thousand Sheepe three thousand Camels five hundred yoke of Oxen and she Asses he tryed him with the death of seven Sonnes and three daughters at a clap after a fearefull manner the house fell on them as they were banquetting and they were crushed in pieces he tryed him with boyles in his body from the Crowne of his head to the sole of his foote The arrowes of the Almighty stucke in his soule he tryed him to the full Others have had their severall tryalls but Iob had all tryalls yet he stood immoveable in them all he tryed Lazarus with extreame poverty hee desired crumbs and could not get them hee tryes some women with churlish Husbands as he did Abigail he tryes some with froward Wives as he did Iob he tryes some with stubborne and disobedient Children that make them weary of their lives as he did Isaac and Rebeccah with Esau he tryes some by taking away their Children one after another on whom their greatest delight was fixed he tryes by taking away our goods by fire water thievs gatherings for fire almost every weeke hee tryes some by tedious sicknesses and diseases that continue long together a wearisome tryall hee tryes us by malevolent tongues that cast aspersions upon our names He corrects every Child So he tryes every Child GOD hath many wayes to try us that the tryall of our faith being more pure than gold may be more illustrious in this world and we made more fit for the celestiall Hierusalem in the world to come Let us entreat him to strengthen us by his holy Spirit in all tryalls As hee seemes to cast us downe with one hand so let us be suiters to him to uphold us with the other that we may stand stedfast and immoveable in all tryalls and temptations to his glory and the salvation of us all Let that suffice for the author of the worke Now to the exequution of it Where 1. A bare narration of the worke then an amplification of it Offered up Isaac Nay bate me an ace of that Offerre caepit or offerre voluit Voluntate he did it though non re intentionaliter though non actualiter He pretermitted nothing on his part for the offering of him up therfore God accepted of it as if it had beene done Gen. 22.16 he extolls it to the skies There be Martyrs desiderio facto Origen was a Martyr in desire when he was a Child If his mother had not kept away his Cloathes hee had gone to bee burnt with his father So Abraham Conatu desiderio offered up Isaac David built the Temple in will and desire hee made a great preparation for it three thousand Talents of gold seven thousand Talents of fine silver 1 Chron. 29.4 So Abraham made all ready for the offering of his Sonne The wood was ready the fire was ready the Altar was ready the knife in his hand was ready to cut his throat which hee would have done if GOD by his voice from heaven had not stayed him therefore he might well be said to offer him up There is an amplification of it ex parte patris on the Fathers behalfe and ex parte pueri on the Childs behalfe Not only he that begat Isaac but that had received the promises concerning Isaac that in him all the Nations of the earth should he blessed he had not only heard of these promises but received them into his brest and bosome locked them up as precious Iewels in the closet of his heart there keeping and nourishing them yet he that had received the promises must kill him that was the foundation of the promises a great shaking of his faith 2. Ex parte pueri not a servant but a Sonne Not an adopted Sonne but begotten of him the fruit of his body and his owne bowels Not one of many but all that he had begotten in lawfull Matrimony and to whom alone the promises were tyed Ishmael was his begotten Sonne too but he was begotten of his maid Isaac was his only begotten Sonne of his Wife in lawfull marriage 2. He was his only begotten Sonne ratione promissi the promise was made to Isaac and to no other quantùm ad istam conditionem hee was anigenitus Lyra. VERSE 18. THat which hee said of the promises he confirmes by Scripture To the which Abraham his father it was said of him Gen. 21.12 This hee heard not from others but with his owne eares and that from the mouth of God that cannot lye The promised Messiah shall come of Isaac yet hee must bee offered up Then what shall become of his seed and the salvation of the world God here seemes to bee at variance with himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith warres with faith one Commandement warres with another and the Commandement warres with the promise as Saint Chrysostome well observeth That promise was that in Isaac should his seed be called and that the Saviour of the world should come of Isaac yet now Isaac must be slaine before he had any seed A strange tryall Againe the Law of nature written in Abrahams heart said love thy Child preserve thy Child especially such a rare Sonne as this is rarely borne and endewed with rare qualities This Commandement crosses that and saies kill the Child What a contrariety was this how did this perplex Abraham and cast him into the bryars but faith did reconcile all and all these obstacles set aside hee offered him up A most worthy and unmatchable example The like is not to bee found againe in the whole world As Ioel saith of the Grasse-hoppers and Caterpillers in his time hearken ô yee elders heare all ye inhabitants of the land whether hath such a thing beene done in your dayes or in the dayes of your fathers so may we say of this hearken all yee that live on the face of the earth though yee be as old as Methusalem whether hath such a thing as this beene done in your dayes for a Father to offer up his only Sonne at the commandement of GOD Manasses caused his Sons and his Daughters to passe through the fire to his Idols so did other Idolaters but they offered them up to devills not to God contrary to the will of God in a blind superstition at the instigation of the Devill that was a murderer from the beginning and delights in bloud but Abraham did it in a pure devotion to testifie his obedience and love to God at the commandement and provocation of God to glorifie him withall Those Idolaters it may bee were not present at the offering of their Children or at least they offered them by others Abraham with his owne hands offered him himselfe Wee reade of a Woman in the Maccabees that saw seven of her sonnes cruelly tormented before her eyes because they would not eat swines flesh yet she was not the tormentour of them herselfe Mauritius that good yet unfortunate Emperour
one that is thy junior thy inferiour lifted up in wealth honour and dignity above thee grudge not at it it is Gods doing be contented with it 3. Here we have a patterne in old father Iacob how to behave our selves at the time of death when wee see and heare death knocking at our doores then especially we must be occupied in heavenly duties we must not be cursing but blessing as Iacob was then above all other times we must be worshipping of God praying to him praysing and magnifying him for his mercies as Iacob was upon our beds and upon our staves Though we be weake and impotent wee must be glorifying of God when Hezekiah received that message set thine house in order for thou must dye then hee turned his face to the wall and prayed earnestly to the Lord. When our Saviour was going out of the world he was blessing his Disciples and here Iacob is blessing and praysing to his dying day so must we be We must not then be swearing cursing and banning quaffing and swilling as many be like the Epicures let us eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall dye Then we must be preparing of our selves for a better life where we shall remaine for ever The neerer the time approcheth that a tenant must goe out of his farme the more carefull he will be to improve it to his best commodity the lesser time that a man is to enjoy money lent to him the greater advantage he will make of it if hee can even so when we perceive wee must depart out of the farme of this world let us use it most to Gods glory and seeing God hath lent us our life as a summe of money to be payd to him praestituto die the neerer the day of payment comes the more conscionably and diligently let us be in the use of it to the honour of God and our owne profit When the steward in the Gospell saw that he was to goe out of his office he makes the best of it he can so let us doe of our life when we are to part with it They that be actours in a Comedy or Tragedy will have a speciall eye to the last act that they may have a joyfull plaudite of the people So this life being as a stage whereon wee play our part let us chiefely look to the last act at our departure out of the world that it may be joyfull to our selves and all those that be round about us our whole life should bee a continuall glorifying of GOD but especially the closing up of our life with death that wee may leave a testimony behind us of that lively faith which wee have in the Lord Iesus Let us be praying meditating blessing talking of heavenly matters to the last gaspe VERSE 22. IN Ioseph there be two things 1. A memorandum given to the Israelites 2. A Charge for the removing of his bones which were both lively demonstrations of his faith Hee presaged his death Gen. 50.24 either by the nature or quality of his disease or by divine revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drawing to his end Memoriae prodit brought to memorie Out of Aegypt often promised by God which he had received from his fathers he makes a certaine prediction of it He bound them with an oath Gen. 50.25 Not so much for feare of Idolatry lest the Aegyptians should worship him when he was dead as Chrys. in Genesin and August de mirabilibus Sacrae Script l. 1. c. 15. they had opportunity to doe it before his bones were removed but to confirme the faith he had in the promises of God he was so sure that they should have the land of Canaan as that hee would have his bones carryed away before-hand 2. Because the land of Canaan was a type of heaven he would be there buryed 3. Because in life and in death he would be with the godly Rhemists the translation of reliques or Saints bodies and the due regard and honour wee ought to have to the same are proved hereby Bel. l. 2. de reliquiis Sanct. c. 3. upon this example concludeth non ergo superstitiosum neque novum est transferre ossa Sanctorum 1. The Israelites were bound by oath to translate his bones not so they 2. They kept not those bones to shew to the people or to carry them about on festivall dayes but they buryed them Ios. 24.32 3. Those were translated into the land of Canaan because it was a type of heaven So is no speciall Country now Therefore that is no president Ioseph a great man the ruler of Aegypt yet dieth death over-rules us all The rich man dyed as well as poore Lazarus It is appointed to all once to dye He rubbed their memories put them in remembrance of their departure out of Aegypt whereupon the booke of Exodus hath his name containing the departure of the Children of Israel You are well seated here in the land of Aegypt you are planted in Goshen the fattest of the land It is like for my sake ye shall finde favour for a time yet set not up your staffe here but remember yee must depart hence the land of Canaan is your Country promised to Abraham Isaac and Iacob let your mindes run on that land As for this world it is a kind of Aegypt flowing with all pleasures and profits yet let us know that this is no place of abode for us we must depart from hence The time of my departure is now at hand sayes St. Paul 2 Tim. 4.6 Luk. 9.31 If he had need of such a Memorandum much more we for this end Philip had his Vsher who daily said to him memento Philippe te esse mortalem The Israelites were too much wedded in their affections to Aegypt they desired to be againe with their Onyons and such like fare as they had in Aegypt We are all too much in love with this wretched world it likes us as well as the Mount did St. Peter Many wish that they might make Tabernacles here for ever yet let us all know that this is no abiding place wee must all depart eximus è vita tanquam è theatro Farmers from their farmes Gentlemen Knights Lords from their beautifull houses yea Kings must depart out of their Pallaces A voice came from heaven to Nebuchadnezar Oh King thy kingdome is departed from thee Let us seriously thinke of this departure of ours When a Travellour comes to his Inne hee lookes about him and sayes here is a fayre Inne here I have a brave Chamber and I have plenty of all things for my money yet this is not my home I must not tarry here I must depart even so though we have the world at will and all things as heart can wish beautifull houses large lands ample possessions yet here is no place to abide in we must depart leave all goe away with a Coffin and a winding sheete Let us use this world as if wee used it not let our
hearts bee on a better world that in the end wee may depart in peace with Simeon and reigne with CHRIST for ever in the world to come Ioseph had beene a brave Courtyer trained up and bearing sway in Pharaohs Court many yeeres together abounding in all wealth honour pleasure and prosperity yet all this while hee forgets not God he lived well and dyed well he is heavenly minded at his departure out of the world he is not now talking of his honours as Haman was the day before he dyed not talking of the injuries which his Mistris offered to him in casting him into prison and taking order for the revenge of it he is not now conferring with his brethren about the solemnizing of his funerall with what pomp they should carry him to the grave but now he is talking of matters belonging to the kingdome of heaven Though we live in never so prophane a place as irreligious as Aegypt as full of carnall entisements as Pharaohs Court yet let us keepe our integrity as Ioseph did let not the pleasures of the earth pull us from the joyes of heaven Obadiah kept his zeale and sincerity in Achabs Court Daniel in Nebuchadnezars Palace Nehemiah in the Kings buttery and at his table and there were rare and excellent Christians in Neroes house most of all they of Caesars house-hold they were more mindfull of the poore Saints of Philippi then others Let us not condemne them that be in heathenish and irreligious places GOD can preserve his pearles even in dunghills his roses among thornes hee will have a Rahab in Iericho a Lot in Sodom a Ioseph in Aegypt wheresoever wee bee let us keepe our selves unpolluted of the world 2. Here we are taught what must be the object of our talke of what matters we must be talking when death approacheth not of worldly matters but of heavenly as Ioseph was Elias was talking with Elisha about profitable matters when he was taken from him into heaven as they were walking and talking the fiery Charriot tooke him away Our Saviour was talking with his Disciples about matters belonging to the kingdome of GOD till the cloud tooke him away and Ioseph here dying is speaking not of those things appertaining to the earthly Court but to the Court of heaven Navita de ventis de tauris narrat arator every man for the most part both in his life time and in the time of death is speaking of those things which hee most mindeth the things that be most in the heart are most in the tongue A covetous miser is talking of his gold and silver houses and lands of the trash of the world even when he lyes on his death bed A drunkard will then bee talking of drinke an adulterer of fayre and beautifull women but a godly man will be talking of Gods matters as Ioseph was It is very like that Ioseph ere this time had made his will and set his outward estate at a stay therefore that doth not trouble him now his minde runs about better matters it is not good to deferre the making of our wills till we see no other way but death the last thing we talke of should be celestiall not terrestriall things 3. Wee must not bee too scrupulous about the place of our buryall Now no land is a type of heaven as the land of Canaan was before the comming of CHRIST Out of any Country on the earth yea out of the bottome of the Sea out of the Lions mouthes out of the fire wherein we are burnt to ashes for the name of Christ we shall have a comfortable passage into the kingdome of heaven yea our buryall with the wicked shall not prejudice our entrance into heaven Saint Peter sitting at the same table with Iudas when he was alive was not hurt by him much lesse should he have beene hindred out of heaven if hee had lien in the same grave with Iudas Though wee bee buryed among Thieves Traytors Idolaters Drunkards Murderers Adulterers c. If our lives have beene good that cannot keepe us out of heaven Yet if conveniently it may be superstition being avoyded as we lived with the godly so let us be buryed with them as we were companions with them in their life so let us be in death if it seeme good to the prouidence of God Ruth sayes to Naomi where thou art buryed I will be buryed and Ioseph would have his bones to lye with the bones of Abraham Isaac and Iacob So wee shall give notice to the world how deere the Saints were to us when they were alive Yet let not the place of our buryall trouble us at our dying day as some take too much thought for that wheresoever wee be buryed God will send his Angels at the latter day to gather our bodies from all the ends of the world and to carry them up into heaven Hee gave no commandement touching his flesh he knew that would be consumed before Then why should we pamper this flesh so much that is so soone brought to dust and ashes caro mea inimica mea onus meum laqueus meus paramus escam vermibus Let us subdue our bodies lest like horses they overthrow their Riders His bones were durable therefore hee gives a charge of them If hee had not looked for the Resurrection of those bones hee would not have beene so carefull for the translating of them into the land of Canaan Psal. 34.20 Ezek. 37.1 The bones of a dead man are scattered hither and thither tumbled out of one grave into another yet these shall rise and come to their place againe Bucers bones were burnt in Queene Maries dayes yet the same bones shall rise againe and be a witnesse against the enemies of the truth Not our bones alone but our flesh every part and member of our bodies shall be restored to us againe with these my eyes shall I see him the very palmes of Iezebels hands that were eaten up with dogges shall rise againe Let us not sing the Epicures song let us eat and drinke for to morrow we shall dye Let us not give our selves wholly to pampering of our flesh and the fatting of our bones but let us employ all our members to GODS service in this life that we may be partakers in soule and body of his eternall glory in the life to come VERSE 23. BEfore of the Patriarcks now of the Lawgiver Where wee have 1. The commendation of his Parents faith 2. The commendation of his owne faith The faith of his Parents is commended by a worthy act of theirs the preservation of their Child which is amplified 1. By an attractive cause that drew them to it the beauty of the Child 2. By a retractive or disswasive cause that might have withdrawne them from it 1. The Kings commandement which in an heroicall magnanimity they feared not Moses Exod. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catachresticè he useth this word because his
Aegypt greater in glory and perpetuity The reason is rendred Hee did not looke on their present but future estate Genesis 15. Verse 1. They should be greatly rewarded in the life to come therefore he would be one of them Mockes and taunts banishment imprisonment losse of goods burning at the stake for the name of Christ these are greater riches than all the treasures in the world without Christ and so let them bee esteemed of us al after these follows heaven and at the taile of them comes hell in that respect it is the greater 2 Cor. 4.17 for this light affliction which is but for a moment causeth unto us an eternall weight of glory The councell of Trent Bellar. Stapleton and our English Iesuites in their annotations on this place doe falsely father this assertion on us that wee teach it to bee unlawfull benè operari intuitu mercedis whereas wee hold no such opinion It is a meere slander of theirs We confesse there is a reward layd up for the godly and wee may lawfully looke up to it yet in that our looking two things are to be observed 1. We must not respect that Solùm nor praecipuè it must neither be the only thing nor the chiefe thing that sets us on worke The principall motives to good workes must be Gods glory and the love of Christ. GOD hath created all for his owne glory our light must so shine before men that they seeing our good workes may glorifie our Father in heaven I will abstaine from sinne because it dishonours GOD. I will adorne the Gospell with good workes because they glorifie God 2. The love of Christ must constraine us thereunto As he hath dyed for my sins so I will dye to sinne 3 The consideration of our owne duty must presse us to it All that wee can doe is a debt which wee owe unto our GOD therefore wee must alwayes bee paying our debt to our lives end The 4th is that rich and ample reward reserved for us which is as a bell to toll us to good workes this we may respect but it is not the chiefest thing propounded to us in well doing The Philosophers could say that nuda virtus is to be desired so God is to bee loved and served for himselfe alone without any other by-consideration They that doe good workes only for the reward are mercenary as a labourer will not doe a dayes worke unlesse hee may have a shilling and they that have no respect to the reward that regard it not at all are unthankefull to God who hath prepared a reward for us Let us looke to the reward by the which he allures us as a father doth his Children to well doing but let that neither bee the sole nor principall marke wee ayme at but the glorifying of our heavenly father for whose glory we were created and redeemed 2. Let us expect a reward for our well doing yet not upon merit but upon promise Paul being ready to dye looked at the reward from henceforth there is layd up for mee a Crowne of righteousnesse But what Crowne not which hee had merited but which GOD had promised and for his promise sake would give to him This is the surmise of some Papists that merces meritum bee relatives though promissum merces are relatives yet merces meritum are not Wee looke for a reward because God hath promised it not because wee have merited it for when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants Otherwise let us be bold to cast up our eyes to the reward Christ himselfe had respect to the recompense of the reward Hebr. 12.2 and we that be Christians may imitate him in that Though a child have a poore man to his Father that is not able to leave him a Groate yet he is bound to honour him but much more if hee be a rich man and willing to leave him a fayre inheritance Our father is rich hee will reward us with a kingdome therefore let us the rather serve and honour him great is your reward in heaven behold I come and my reward is with me Here wee meete with many crosses in our mindes bodies goods name in our Wives Children Cattell here are many occasions of weeping but let us cheerefully endure them all One day we shall be taken up into that place where all teares shall bee wiped away from our eyes for ever Let us looke to this recompense of reward VERSE 27. THe second notable thing in Moses is a necessary crosse imposed on him which is amplified by a corrumpent and a conservant cause of it The corrumpent was the fiercenesse of the King which he feared not the conservant was the sight of God standing by him The greatest part of Interpreters expound it of Moses departing out of Aeyypt when hee carryed the people with him then and in the dispatchall of his message and office he feared not the fiercenesse of the King but contemned it That is true yet it seemes not to be the proper meaning of the place 1. Then the Apostle should invert the order which hitherto he hath not done nor hereafter doth in this Chapter hee should set the departure out of Aegypt before the Institution of the Passeover 2. This departure out of Aegypt is included Verse 29. it should be now unseasonable to speake of it 3. Then Moses did not forsake Aegypt but hee went as a Conquerour out of Aegypt They that forsake a Country leave it for some cause in regard whereof they cannot safely tarry in the Country Therfore it is rather to be referred to the flight of Moses when after the killing of the Aegyptian he left Aegypt and fled into the land of Midian This might seeme to have proceeded from infidelity yet the power of faith is to be seene in it Moses perceiving that now the King being incensed against him and the Israelites as yet not acknowledging him for their deliverer there was no convenient time to prosecute his office therefore he flieth for a season committing himselfe to the providence of GOD and expecting a better opportunity for the delivering of the Israelites in the meane season by faith he forsaketh Aegypt for a time There is one only thing that opposeth itselfe to this Interpretation Here it is said that he feared not the fiercenesse of the King yet Exod. 2.14 it is as cleere as the noone day that he feared it and fled upon it 1. The participle may be rendred in the praeterpluperfect-tense as Verse 31. by faith Moses forsooke Aegypt having not feared the fiercenesse of the King namely in killing the Aegyptian according to his commission received from God not that he feared it not afterwards 2. Though hee feared a little at the first yet that feare was allayed afterwards in a couragious magnanimity he forsook Aegypt and feared not the fiercenesse of the King in pursuing after him It may be this fierce Lion will sent messengers after me
all make account of malevolent tongues yea and sometimes those that should be Bees will prove Waspes they that should have the best tongues have the worst Therefore we have need of patience while we are a running in this race our house may be burnt our goods stollen our children may dye our cattle may be taken from us we may be attached with a grievous sicknesse driven out of our Countrey in danger of our lives if we have no other crosses we may be sure of malevolent tongues therefore let us have patience in this our race and at length wee shall bee crowned by God Almighty and raigne with him for ever VERSE 2. THis admonition is pressed by three arguments 1 From the patterne and president of our Saviour Christ Verse 2.3 2 From a defect in their former afflictions Vers. 4. 3 From the profitable use of afflictions wherewith they shall meet in this race In the patterne of our Saviour Christ. 1. The delivering of it Vers. 2. Then the applying of it Vers. 3. In Christ we are to consider 1. What he is 2. What hee did 3. The reward of his doing Quis imitandus in quo imitandus quare imitandus Looking exactly accurately considerately as they that cast account their eye and minde shall never be off it So let us looke wishly to Iesus Christ not as the Whirry-man that lookes one way and rowes another but let our heart and feet goe with our eyes Let us looke steadfastly to Christ as Elisha did 2 Reg. 8.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking from that is from the afflictions we meet with in this race to Christ that hath obtained the gold and tarrieth for us Our Saviour Christ is here described 1. by his name 2. By his benefits Of our faith whereby we lay hold on Christ and eternall life If Christ be both the Author beginner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arch-Duke Leader and Finisher of our salvation what is left to us just nothing Therefore the whole prayse must be ascribed to him alone Ioh. 15.3 Phil. 1.6 It is not enough to begin a house or a garment but they must be finished neither is it enough for Christians to begin the race that is set before them but they must finish their course in Christianis non quaeruntur initia sed finis The Ministers must fulfill their ministery 1 Thes. 3.10 Not onely all the faithfull in the Old Testament have run this race before us but Christ Iesus our blessed Saviour whom we must all be content to follow First the motive that set him on worke 2. The acts performed by him Some interpret it instead of the joy which he might have had if he would rather for the joy having an eye to that joy setting it before his eyes as Hebr. 11.26 Ioh. 17.5 The thing that hee did is amplified by the end or impulsive cause So wee have joy set before us Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4.17 Act. 5.41 This joy was the everlasting glory hee should have in his owne person and in his body the Church which by his sufferings should be assumed into heaven to him Endured the Crosse. Though it were a cruell death 1. It was long he was many houres a dying on the Crosse. 2. It was ignominious betweene two Thieves 3. It was cursed Gal. 3.13 Christ suffered foure kindes of wayes 1. Libenter for the joy 2. Graviter the Crosse. 3. Turpiter shame 4. Vtiliter sitteth at the right hand of the Throne of God And despised the shame To endure was much but this was much greater Shame goes to the heart of many Christ despised it hee regarded it not The Shame of our Saviour was wonderfull great being Lord of all he took on him the forme of a servant Is it not a shame for a King to be in a beggars weede his supposed Father was a Carpenter his Mother a poore woman brought to bed in a stable hee had not an hole to hide his head in he was spit on blindfolded buffeted mocked by Herod and his Souldiers pittifully whipped Loe here is the man derided in a manner of all when he hung on the Crosse. Yet Christ counted all this nothing in regard of the joy Christ will not be ashamed of us when he comes in glory with his holy Angels What fruit hath hee by it what is his reward he sits at the right hand of the Throne of God Hebr. 1.3.8 1. If a man have an excellent runner before him the sight of him will make him to run more couragiously why should not I run on as well as he Alexander would run if he might have Kings to run withall Therefore here he propounds a notable example to us We may looke to the Patriarckes before and after the floud to Enoch Noah Abraham Isaac c. to David and all the Prophets to the blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Apostles but especially wee must look to Christ he is exemplar exemplarium he ran without sin all others with sinne he ranne and never took a fall all the rest fell at one time or another Therefore let our eye be chiefely on him To whom should the servant looke rather than to his Lord and Master The Souldier rather than to his Captaine The Wife rather than to her Husband Christ is our Captaine Head and Husband our forerunner into heaven therfore let us in this race looke to him As Abimelech said to his followers as yee see mee doe make hast and doe the like so sayes Christ to us as yee see me run so run yee I have run through thicke and thinne prosperity and adversity good report and evill death and life so doe yee How did CHRIST runne Who was so handled as Christ was yet for the joy set before him he endured all and ran on to the very end So let us doe Our crosses may be great but our joy shall be farre greater The afflictions of this life are not worthy of the glory which shall be shewed to us they are but a flea biting in respect of the joyes we shall have Our light affliction which is but for a moment causeth unto us a farre more excellent and an eternall weight of glory This is it which bred such courage and constancy in the holy Martyrs for the joy that was set before them they were sawen in pieces stoned racked put to the sword broyled alive on hot Grydyrons The consideration of this hony did sweeten all their afflictions This made Bishop Ridley to say to Latimer come my brother though we have an hard breakefast yet wee shall have a comfortable dinner So let this joy hearten us all A Merchant and Marrinour endures many stormes and tempests for the haven that is set before them a Souldiar endures the heate of the battell for the spoile a sicke man endures better pills and potions yea cutting for the health set before him and let us endure all calamities sicknesse poverty banishment imprisonment death of friends and
are never mentioned in Scripture but to their disgrace Let there bee no Traytor among you as Iudas no grosse and open Idolater as Ieroboam that made Israel to sinne no Strumpet as Iesabel whose adulteries were in great number no worldling is Demas no drunkard as Falcidius qui superavit totam Asiam bibendo If their names be registred to posterity it is with a perpetuall blot of infamy His prophanenesse doth appeare by a Sale that he made The Gardarens were prophane persons which had rather forgoe Christ then their Hogs The Pharisees were prophane persons that laughed at Christ when he preached against covetousnesse That Iudge was a prophane person that neither feared GOD nor reverenced man Those Philosophers that mocked at the resurrection and those Epicures were prophane persons that said Let us eat and drinke to morrow wee shall dye They that sit quaffing and swilling in Tavernes and Ale-houses in Sermon time they know there is a Sermon in the Church yet wittingly and willingly they continue in the Ale-house still What are these but prophane persons For a little drinke they loose the sincere milke of the Word whereby they might grow to everlasting life All covetous Misers that are glued to their wealth that had rather lose the Kingdome of Heaven than their riches are prophane persons the pottage of this world is sweeter to them than the joyes of Heaven Let mee live merrily while I am here let me have the world at will and let them take Heaven that can get it O miserable wretches Farre unlike Moses that preferred the rebuke of CHRIST before the treasures of Egypt They count Heaven but a Tale of a Tub whereas we ought to Count all as Dongue that wee may winne CHRIST Let there bee no such prophane persons among us where the sound of the Word ringeth daily in our eares let us have holy and heavenly mindes Yet are there not prophane persons among us that count all preaching prating that no credit is to be given to the Scripture full of contradictions shall we beleeve them They have gotten such a savour in drinking and whoring that the very Scriptures seeme bitter to them VERSE 17. THE second thing considerable in Esau is the punishment of his fact Where 1. A desire to have it againe 2. A denyall of it He would have had it againe but could not his repentance was too late Ratified by their owne testimony for ye know how that afterward being exercised in the Scriptures The blessing which depended on the birthright Then hee would have had it with all his heart but could not get it he begged it earnestly at his Fathers hand but could not get it Shall a man seeke repentance and not finde it At what time soever a sinner repenteth of his sinnes from the bottome of his heart c. Esau sought not repentance but was grieved for the punishment not for the sinne he grieved non quia vendiderat sedquia perdiderat primogenita as one speaketh Neverthelesse this is not referred to Esau his repentance but to Isaac His Father Isaac would by no meanes repent of that which hee had done Iacob hee had blessed and hee should bee blessed Esau could not move him to reverse the blessing doe what hee could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sought it earnestly with teares with howling and crying too There is no necessity in the Greek to supply the word blessing The pronoune may be referred to the word repentance immediately going before he found no place of repentance that is of his fathers repentance though hee sought it with teares All his crying would not make his father repent Iacob had the blessing and hee should enjoy it Esau had a kinde of blessing too concerning temporall things but not like that of Iacobs For ye know I speak to such as are acquainted w th the word of God The Sadduces did erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God but all good Christians must know the Scriptures they must have their senses exercised in them they must search them daily as the Bereans did that when the Preacher speakes of any History in the Bible he may speake as to men of knowledge But now a dayes a number even in the Countrey are better Lawyers than Divines more skill in the Statutes and Lawes to wrangle with their neighbours than in the Law of God This is the foolish nature of man There be many rich and excellent blessings which we make no reckoning of when we have them which afterwards we would willingly have and cannot get them When David had free liberty to come to Gods house hee was not so much inflamed with the love of it but in exile he longed after it then the Sparrowes and Swallowes that build their nests by GOD's Altar were in better case than he When the prodigall Son was at home in his fathers house where he had aboundance of all things he set light by it but when he was keeping Swine ready to starve for hunger than hee would bee as one of his fathers hired servants his fathers Table could not content him before now hee would bee glad to sit at the servants Table While Esau had the birth-right and the blessing too he regarded it not now he howles for it and cannot get it Let us make much of good things while we have them So it is with us we live now in peace and prosperity there is no leading into captivity nor complaining in our streets we may come to Church without any feare of the enemy sicknesse doth not keepe us at home as it doth many Yet these benefits are now scarse worth a good mercy What care we we will not set a foot over the threshold to go to Church now But I pray God that the time come not that we shall not onely wish but howle and cry for them and not get them Let us use with all thankfulnesse the gracious mercies of GOD while we have them least afterwards we seeke for them when it is too late While we have the light let us walke worthy of the light while ye have the word make much of the word while ye have health use your health to Gods glory and the salvation of your soules 3 Esau found no place to repentance All that he could doe or say could not make his father to repent If we have done a thing that is agreeable to the will of God we must never repent of it Psal. 15.4 Iacob had laid his righthand on the head of Ephraim Ioseph would have removed it but he could not Isaac had blessed Iacob he would not reverse the blessing Pilat had written The King of the Iewes the Scribes and Pharisees could not move him to alter it What I have written I have written If it be a bad thing let us repent quickly of it Let us not persist in an evill thing for that is stubbornnesse and wilfulnesse but in a good thing let us persevere to
people I have beene ample in this text heretofore I will now bury it in silence But Christ is the Mediatour of the Gospell the which hee hath established with his owne bloud The Heretiques called Melchisideciani made Melchizedec our Mediatour Epiphan contr haeret l. 2. tom 1. Some Papists will have all the Angels and Saints in heaven to bee our Mediatours together with Christ. Aquin. p. 3. q. 26. art 1. He freely confesseth that Christ is our Mediatour simpliciter perfectivè yet the Angels and Saints also must bee our Mediatours dispositivè ministerialiter They are much beholden to this distinction of principall and ministeriall some unskilfull physitions give one drinke or one medicine for all diseases so these men apply this distinction of principall and ministeriall to salve up all soares among them Christ is the Chiefe Head of the Church the Pope is a ministeriall head under him So Christ is the principall Mediatour Angels and Saints are ministeriall Yet if a woman should heare she had a Chiefe husband and a ministeriall husband she could hardly indure it 1 Tim. 2.5 One God one Mediatour they might as well say there is one Principall God but many ministeriall Gods under him as to say there is one Chiefe Mediatour and many ministeriall and he tels us who it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is of the feminine gender 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee alone and no other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mediatour betweene God and man must be both God and man hee must have aliquid simile Deo aliquid simile hominibus sayes Saint Aug. confess l. 10. c. 42. That hee may mediate betweene them both If he were onely man hee could not goe to GOD if hee were onely GOD he could not goe to man As for Angels they be neither God nor men therefore they cannot be our Mediatours As for the Saints in heaven they bee halfe men they have soules but as yet they have no bodies and they are not God therefore they cannot bee our Mediatours Nay properly to speake the Holy Ghost the third Person in the glorious Trinitie cannot be our Mediatour for though hee be God yet hee is not man much lesse can the Angels and Saints bee our Mediatours There is but one Mediatour of the new Covenant and that is Christ Iesus who being GOD above all blessed for ever vouchsafed likewise for our sakes to become man The Mediatour of the new Covenant hath established the Covenant with his blood It is Christ alone that by the bloud of hit Crosse hath set at peace all things in heaven and in earth Col. 1. Therefore hee is the onely Mediatour of the New Testament No Testament is of force without the death of the Testatour Let them proove that any dyed for us besides Christ and then wee will acknowledge other Mediatours As hee trode the wine presse alone so hee is Mediatour alone it is sacriledge to adjoyne others to him Therefore as he tooke the paines alone so let him have the honour alone Heaven indeed is opened by Christ but wee are sinners we shall not be admitted into it Yes for our sinnes are washed away in the bloud of Christ. Where 1. Sanguinis larga effusio 2. Effusi excellens utilitas The bloud that speaketh better then that of Abel Oecum 1. In the Greeke it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erasmus reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so doth Oecum referre it to Abel not to his bloud 2 Hebr. 11.4 hee is said Yet to speake It comes all to one reckoning Saint Chrys. reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 melius but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plurall number The bloud of Abel spake well in his kinde it is meete that sin should be avenged but this speakes better in his kinde to the joy and comfort of us all 1. Abel spake on earth this in heaven 2. That spake against Cain and Elias made request against Israel Rom. 11.2 This speakes for us all 3. That was the bloud of a meere man this is the bloud of him that was both God and man 4. That cryed murder murder my brother hath murdered mee this cries I have beene murthered and killed for my brethren 5. That did Tsagmah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clamare send forth an hideous cry this doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speake sweetly to us that did cry after a terrible manner this doth speake after a more joyfull manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more splendid more significant more sweete and comfortable A cry is fearefull and lamentable so is not a voice 6. Abels bloud had no power of cleansing this hath it washeth us from our sinnes This Saint Ambrose paints out in most lively colours Ille vindictam clamavit hic indulgentiam Ille peccatum fratris accusat hic peccatum mundi remisit Ille prodidit crimen hic texit as it is written Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata Ambr. de fuga saeculi c. 5. Blessed are they that are come to the sprinkling of his bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vulgar reads it as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adsanguinis aspersionem Hebr. 10.22 v. 19. Hebr. 9.13 Exod. 12.22 As the bloud of the lambe was sprinckled with a bunch of hysop on the doore posts of the Israelites and they escaped the destroying Angel so Christs bloud sprinkled on our consciences the devill that Abaddon hath nothing to doe with us Let the Papists glory of the bloud of Saint Thomas By the bloud of Saint Thomas which hee for thee did spend grant we may goe whither Thomas did ascend Let them magnifie the bloud of Saint Peter Saint Paul Saint Iames. Nay Let them magnifie the bloud of their Pseudomartyrs yet we will rejoyce onely in the bloud of Iesus wherewith we are washed from our sinnes By which we have an entrance into the most holy place O sweet Iesus that would dye for us The Master for the servant the Creator for the creature he that knew no sin for miserable sinners O the unmatchable love of Iesus that sheddest thy bloud for thine enemies Many and grievous are our sins moe in number than the hayres of our head as red as crimson and skarlet but Lord Iesus wash them away in the bloud of thy sprinkling and then I shall be found whiter than the snow that I may stand without trembling before thee at the dreadfull day of judgement Generosus animus magis ducitur quà m trahitur a good nature will sooner be moved with loving perswasions than drawne with threatnings GOD hath beene more gracious to us than to them They had the tart vinegar of Gods judgements we have the sweet oyle of his mercy they came to Moses that terrified them with the curse and malediction of the Law we are come to Iesus
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if every Mystery should be a Sacrament there should not be seven but seventy Sacraments and more neither doth he speake of mariage but of the conjunction of Christ and his Church in that place We will fight against them with their owne weapons 1. As the covenant is common so ought all Sacraments the Seales of the Covenant to be common If mariage be a Sacrament why is it not common to all Christians Why doe they deny Ministers to marry 2. Every Sacrament must be celebrated by a Minister Goe teach all Nations baptising them c. A Minister as Bell. contendeth is not necessary in the celebration of mariage the parties contracting are sufficient Therefore to speake properly it is no Sacrament Though the Councell of Trent of late hath taken some further order in it We may not honour mariage so farre as to make a direct Sacrament of it yet it is honorable A number there be that have exceedingly dishonoured and disgraced it Marcion as Epiphan recordeth of him called matrimony inventionem Diaboli mulierem ipsum opus Diaboli Saturnius Basilides as Iren. lib. 1. cap. 22. writeth of them blushed not to affirme that Nubere generare were à Satana Hier. treading in Tertullian's steps wrests some sentences of Saint Paul to the disgrace of mariage Saint Paul sayes Melius est nubere quà m uri A goodly commendation As if a man should say it is better to have a lame leg than none at all Melius semper comparationem deterioris respicit That is not so it is better to take Physick than to live in paine is it therefore evill to take physick So it is better to marry than to burne is it therefore evill to marry Let them all say what they will mariage is honourable and to be honoured by us all 1 It was instituted by the most honourable person that ever was namely by GOD Almighty he saw it was not good for man to bee alone therefore Hee provided an helper for him Hee cast him into a deepe sleepe tooke a rib out of his side of it hee made a woman and brought her to the Man 2 It was ordained in the most honorable place that ever was on the face of the earth namely in Paradise the Garden of the Lord. 3 It was appointed in the most honourable time that ever was in the time of innocency Then a woman was needfull for a man much more now in the time of corruption 4 It was preserved in the most dangerous time that ever was in the great deluge that overflowed the whole World Noah and his wife his sons and their wives were saved in the Arke An argument that GOD made a precious and honourable account of mariage 5 It was honoured with the presence of our Saviour Christ and graced with the first miracle that he wrought 6 By the judgement and practice of all Nations it is ratified to be an honourable estate For they that bee maried in all places have the upper hand they have the higher roome in all meetings in the Church and at the Table which argues that honourable estimation which all have of it in their hearts 7 It hath honourable effects by it the number of Gods elect is accomplished the kingdome of Heaven replenished the Church is furnished with worthy Preachers that are as Gods arme to pluck up men into the Kingdome of Heaven The Common-wealth is provided of wise Governours of stout Souldiers of all kinde of estates and conditions mariage is the pillar that upholds the world the seminary of Church and Common-wealth Therefore it must needs be confessed to be a glorious and an honourable estate Let none open their mouthes against it 8 Because it is an excellent meanes to keepe our vessels in holinesse and honour as we are commanded 1 Thes. 4.4 And now seeing mariage is an honourable estate let us be bold as occasion serveth to flye to it If thou hast deflowred a virgin that is none of thine as Amnon did Thamar though it have beene in thy secret chamber the doores fast locked up be ashamed of it If thou art an impure strumpet as Iesabel was tyring thy head and painting thy face to allure lovers withall be ashamed of it for if thou persistest in that sin without repentance Christ will be ashamed of thee when he commeth in his glory with his holy Angels In regard thereof thou mayest be ashamed but be not ashamed of mariage This is no sin in it selfe nay it is an honourable thing thou needest not to be ashamed of it When Mordecai was carried through the City with the royall apparell on his back with a crowne set upon his head with this Proclamation so shall it be done with the Man whom the King will honour was there any cause why he should blush at it No because it was an honour appointed to him by the King If the Lord have given unto thee a godly wife being a man or a wise husband being a woman thou needest not be ashamed of this crowne which the King of Kings hath set upon thy head We may be bold as occasion serveth to flye to this honourable Sanctuary Yet let us not rush rashly and unadvisedly into this honourable estate When S. Peter being in the Mount saw the externall glory of his Lord and Master that his face shined like to the Sun by and by he is enamoured in a love of that place and saith Master it is good for us to bee here but the Text witnesseth that he wist not what he said even so a great number of rash and heady young men set their love upon a maide before they have learned to love GOD. When they are carried up as it were into the Mount where the glory of mariage is shewed unto them and by by they say in their hearts It is good for us to bee here But if they were rightly examined of the things appertaining to mariage they might take up that speech of S. Peter's and say We speake we cannot tell what Though it is a most worthy estate yet it is not without a godly premeditation to be undertaken we must take a diligent view of those spurs that put us forward to mariage It must not be the bare satisfying of our greedy lusts and raging affections though a respect may be had unto them but the glory that we may procure to God by it our mighty Creator and Mercifull Redeemer The good that we may purchase unto the Church and Common-wealth in that estate must be set before our eyes A wise choyce must bee made with great advice deliberation of that yoke-fellow which we propound to our selves We must not onely fixe our eye upon the externall beauty of the body as Shechem did upon Dinah because she was faire Beauty indeed is the good gift of God and many godly women have had it as Sarah Rebeccah Rachel Hester and such like neither is it to be contemned unlesse it
twaine 7. Wee must bee as innocent as doves A dove hath but one mate Hee speakes there of a woman whose first husband was an heathen hee would not have her to marry a heathen againe if shee marryed a Christian hee should be as her first husband because the former being an infidell was as no husband 8. 1 Tim. 3.2 A Bishop must bee blamelesse the husband of one wife c. This tyes all Christians as the other to rule the house well to be no strikers no evill speakers not to be given to wine to be the husband of one wife at once for Polygamie began at that time to be frequent in Asia Howsoever some have unadvisedly declamed against them the Scripture allowes second marriages 1 Cor. 7.39 Loquitur indefinite sayes Saint Augustine de bono viduit ca. 12. he doth not say if her first husband but husband whether first second or third c. 1 Tim. 5.11.14 Yonger widdowes S. Paul would not have to bee admitted to office in the Church because they might marry and hee wishes them to marry and beare children Our Saviour CHRIST Iohn 4.18 reprooveth the woman of Samaria for keeping a paramour instead of an husband but he doth not checke her for having had five husbands Hierome de monogamia makes mention of a man that had buried twenty wives and of a woman that had two and twenty husbands No question but all marriages are lawfull yet as Saint Paul sayes all things are lawfull but all things are not expedient There is more inconveniency in regard of diversity of children of the diverse disposition of sundry wives and husbands c. in the second marriages then in the first therefore greater care wisdome circumspection is to be used in them Yet as God hath ordained mariage for all so all may flye to it Notwithstanding because the time is short as the Apostle speaketh contracted into a more narrow roome than it was before Let them that have wives be as if they had none Let us use this world as if we used it not for the glory and pleasure thereof fadeth away So much of the estate Now let us come to the bed and use of mariage The estate peradventure is honourable but the bed is dishonorable nay sayes the Holy Ghost Bell. l. 1. de Sac. Bapt. c. 5. sayes there is turpitudo immundities in the act of mariage abusing that place Apoc. 14.4 Where it is apparant the Spirit of God metaphorically cals all the Elect Virgins that shall triumph with the Lambe in the life to come Otherwise no maried persons should be in Heaven Men may be defiled with women that be Harlots but not with an holy and religious use of their wives And the bed undefiled Either the Verbe substantive may be supplied in the middest of the sentence and then the sense runneth thus And the bed is undefiled meaning the mariage bed it is no polluted bed as the bed of adulterers and fornicators is it is no polluted thing or else the beginning of the Verse must be repeated and bed undefiled is honorable whereunto I doe rather leane because such repetitions are usuall It is a profitable caveat to married folkes instructing them how to behave themselves in the bed of mariage They are so at all times and in all places to carry themselves as that no dishonesty be admitted into that honourable estate nothing that is repugnant to the Law of nature or Christian modesty is to be committed No doubt but that a great liberty is permitted to them that be maried they may have their lawfull sports and honest recreations one with another Isaac sported with Rebeccah neither did he incur any just reprehension for it If he had thought he had beene in the sight of Abimelech he would not then have shewed such familiar tokens of love yet wheresoever they be they must doe nothing but that which may be warrantable by the Law of Nature and the Word written As the Psalmist speaketh Whither shall I goe from thy presence If I climbe up into heaven thou art there c. So all maried persons may say within themselves in the middest of all their delights Whither shall I goe from thy presence If I walke abroad with my wife into the fields and pleasant pastures thou art there if I sit with her at the Table or by the fire side thou art there if I be with her in my chamber and bed thou art there therefore I will doe nothing in this estate which may be displeasing in thy sight This is the bed undefiled that is honourable and well-pleasing unto the Lord. God grant it may be so among us all The bed it selfe is undefiled As they bee put together in the Church so they may meet together in the bed for the procreation of children that may be mutuall comforts to them both and may be as Olive branches round about their Table which may be profitable members both in Church and Common-wealth and Citizens of Heaven Yet let them take heed they be not drowned in the pleasures of mariage Let them not say with him in the Gospell I have maried a wife therefore I cannot come I cannot pray heare sermons reade the Scriptures c. A wife is appointed as an helper to further thee to Heaven not as an hinderer to keepe thee out of Heaven That may suffice for the commendation of mariage now to the condemnation of all uncleane persons that neglect or violate mariage Whoremongers Graec. fornicators when either the one or both parties be unmaried then it is either simple or joynt fornication The Greeke word is derived of the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to sell such as sell their bodies as victuallers doe their meat so doe fornicators They make a sayle of their bodies from Christ unto whom it is due unto an harlot that hath no interest in it Adulterers The filthinesse committed betweene maried persons which is more detestable GOD. Which is the Lord of Hosts having all creatures in Heaven and Earth to be his executioners whensoever it pleaseth him Though the Magistrate be negligent in punishing of them yet GOD will judge them Iudge That is metonymically he will punish the cause being put for the effect There is a but against them Iustice is good but unjust dealing is nought So mariage is honourable but fornication and adultery is abominable What need I have a wife of mine owne when I may borrow of another man I but Whoremongers and Adulterers GOD will judge GOD judgeth them sundry kinde of wayes in this life and in the life to come In this life 1. His judgement is on their soules which are translated from GOD to the Devill Wine and adultery take away the heart the heart of an adulterer is more on his Harlot than on God and that is a fearefull judgement A covetous man makes his money his God and an adulterer makes his queane his God 2 His judgement is
require it we eate that which is on the Altar the Altar it selfe we cannot eat Therefore it is a figurative speech Which serve the Tabernacle that be servants unto it The direct meaning of the place is this we have a Sacrifice on an Altar Iesus Christ that was sacrificed on the Altar of the Crosse for us whereof they have no authority to eate that are still wedded to the Tabernacle and the rites of the Ceremoniall Law The Tabernacle and Christ cannot stand together If ye will needs retaine the shaddow still ye have no right to the Body If in this cleere light of the Gospell when Christ the end of the Law hath appeared ye will keepe the Law still then ye have no interest to Christ no benefit by him Gal 5.4 Therefore away with the Ceremonies of the Law The like may bee affirmed of the observation of any thing with Christ for the obtaining of eternall life either have Christ alone or have him not at all VERSE 11. THE confirmation of this proposition Where first the type secondly the thing signified by it They that served at the Altar could not eat that which was burnt The bodies of the beasts representing Christ were burnt without the host therefore they could not eate of them no more can they that now cleave to the Tabernacle eat Christ. VERSE 12. THE thing signified is Christ. Whereof the bloud of the beasts was but a type Not within the Citie of Ierusalem but without in the place called dead mens skuls as malefactors at this day for the most part suffer without the Towne and Citie the Gallowes stand without They that thinke to bee sanctified by any other thing than by Christ cannot have the benefit of his passion Iesus the Saviour of the world the Sonne of the High and eternall God Which otherwise could not be sanctified The bloud of Goats would not serve the turne It must be his owne bloud After a most base and ignominious manner he was crucified betweene two thieves He humbled himselfe to the death yea the death of the crosse O the wonderfull love of Christ Christs love should constraine us that as he hath dyed for our sins so we should dye to them We are redeemed from our old conversation not with silver and gold but with the precious bloud of Iesus the Son of God Let this constraine us to forsake our sins David would not drinke of the water for the which the Worthies ventred their lives and shall we drinke of the water of sinne which cost Christ his life Christ shed his bloud for our drunkennesse and uncleannesse pride malice c. And yet shall we wallow in them We lay not to heart the price of our redemption We forget the Lord that hath bought us Wee are bought with the bloud of God Acts 20.28 Therefore let us not serve the devill but him that hath bought us We are Christs not our owne he hath paid deerely for us even his owne bloud therfore let us serve him VERSE 13. THE Vse is double 1. A departure out of the world Without the Campe of this miserable world where wee have so many enemies This is enforced 1. By the example of Christ. When Christ went out of the Campe he bore reproach he bore his owne crosse a while till he could no longer for faintnesse he was nailed to the crosse shamefully reproached many wayes A Crowne of thornes in derision was set on his head because he said he was a King All that went by mocked him We goe out of the world two wayes actu at our dying day affectu in our life-time We are in the world but we are not of the world We are Citizens of the heavenly Ierusalem therefore our conversation must be in Heaven Let us goe out of our faire houses sweet gardens pleasant pastures Let us goe out from our sheepe and Oxen gold and silver wives and children Let us so use them as if wee were ready to depart from them The time must come when I must leave you all Therefore in the meane season let us goe out of them Let us set our hearts on nothing in the world but on God alone Let us use this world as if we used it not for the glory thereof fadeth away Yet for all that we are loth to goe out nay we dwell in the world continually we are in the world all the weeke long yea even on the Lords-day too We are like them Phil. 3. Whose belly is their God which minde earthly things the world the world nothing but the world Let Heaven goe whither it will If it were possible we would make our Tabernacles here as S. Peter would have done in the Mount Goe out of the world that is an hard saying who can abide it Let us follow Moses in refusing a Kingdome Monica whose song was volemus in coelum How must we goe out of the Campe of the world not dreaming to live in a paradise here but preparing our selves for afflictions being content to be reproached as Christ was We must not thinke to goe to Heaven in a feather-bed to sayle alwayes with a faire wind through many tribulations we must passe thither and be tossed with the winde of many reproaches by the way Christ was reproached and shall we imagine to goe to heaven without reproaches Let us arme our selves for the bearing of reproaches and let us in a manner glory of them I beare in my body the markes of the Lord Iesus It is better to have Christs markes than a purple gowne on our backs or a triple Crowne on our heads as the Pope hath and let this be a comfort to us our reproach if it be for Christs sake is Christs reproach If men mock us they mock Christ if they imprison us or kill us for his Gospell they kill Christ and let us suffer with him that we may be glorified with him VERSE 14. 2 IT is inforced by an argument taken from our estate and condition in the world If we have no time of continuance here then let us be content to goe out If a Tenant know that his lease is expired he must be willing to goe out Wee have not so much as a lease no not for a yeere moneth weeke day nor houre therefore let us be willing to goe out But why should we goe out of the Campe of the world The world is a warme nest and we have a long time to continue in it Nay we are deceived the Cities themselves are of no continuance the windes blow them downe the enemy may sack them and make them even with the ground waters may overflow them fire consume them many goodly Cities have beene burnt At the furthest they shall all downe at the day of judgement then the earth with the workes thereof shall be burnt with fire We our selves have no time of continuance in them The Major of a Citie dyes the Aldermen dye the Citizens dye there is dying of
sees it as for the other wee shall feele it to our woe if wee doe not repent So much for the good conscience which wee must have from our entrance into our places Now let us come to the exequution of our calling being entred Wherein wee must examine our consciences about two things our preaching and our life In our preaching must bee observed the matter of our preaching and the manner 1. For the matter let us with a watchfull and circumspect eye see what wee deliver what foode wee minister to CHRISTS Lambes what bread wee breake to the people Let there bee nothing in our Sermons at any time that is contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Paul speaketh to sound sincere and upright doctrine As there was not a blemish nor a soare by all probability in Absaloms body from the crowne of his head to the soale of his foote so let there be no blemish so farre as is possible no sore of corrupt doctrine from the beginning of our Sermons to the end Let all bee consonant to the Analogie of Faith as the Apostle speaketh Let us have never a drop of doctrine but wee are sure it flowes from the fountaine of GODS Word A lamentable thing it is to consider how many Preachers in the light of the Gospell partly for the ostentation of their owne wit and learning partly on an unstayed affection and unsetled judgement deliver dangerous points that make much hurlie burlie among the people Inter curas maxima cura est refraenare curiosos they are to bee avoyded etiamsi nescio qua umbra honestatis liberalium Studiorum nomine velatae atque palliatae sint O res indignas vigilijs lucubrationibus Episcoporum Aug. Epist. 56. Deliver those things rather that may pierce the hearts of the people to Salvation then that which may tickle the eares of the people with a carnall delight and to damnation in the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in a Countrey Village where be many Farmers to inveigh against Lords and Land-lords in the eares of the people to declaime against the vices of Ministers in the Church to lay open the blemishes of the state and governement ô this is as honey to them A famous Preacher a couragious Preacher I warrant you hee cares for none Alas what profit have the people by this applie every plaister to every soare Speake that which may be most fit for the edification of that auditorie to whom thou speakest Labour to beate downe Poperie Brownisme which sprouteth too fast bring whom yee can to the Church but scare none from the Church give no occasion by your preaching to runne out of the gates of Sion Above all things in your Sermons have a Christian regard to the peace of the Church wherein yee live which as a loving mother reacheth out to you the dugs of the Word of GOD which you may sucke to your comfort Pray for the peace of Ierusalem sayes the Psalm and if wee must pray for it wee must preach for it Therefore say I preach for the peace of Ierusalem wherein ye live that wee may see the peace of it if it be the will of GOD all the dayes of our life Of this preaching wee shall have great comfort to our consciences 2. Let us have an eye to the manner of our preaching In it let us seeke the glory of our master not our owne glorie A great number of Preachers have more respect to their words then to the matter to the sound of a syllable in the eares of the people then to the sounding of the trumpet of the Gospell in their hearts I will not denie but that the man of GOD may bee eloquent the Holy Ghost himselfe is most eloquent in the Scripture He that hath but halfe an eye may see that Sedeloquentia as Aug. speaketh tantò terribilior quantò purior tantò vehementior quantò solidior it must bee senilis not puerilis Divinae not humana It is the foolishnesse of preaching as the world accounteth it that must save us if any thing save us Crucifixi virtus in Paulo sayes Chrys. fuit Poetis Rhetoribus Philosophis potentior Let there bee a maternall eloquence in Preachers such as becometh the gravitie of the Word of God As Hester that had beauty enough of her owne required nothing of the Kings Eunuch but went in to him as she was and yet she was better accepted of then they all So the Word of God is beautifull enough of it selfe it needs no colours of over-affected eloquence and Rhetoricall painting to set it out withall this goes but to the eare it never enters in the heart where on the seed of the word shall fall for the most part it makes the Auditours to laugh and to smile in their sleeves but as Saint Ierome admonishes us lachrymae Auditorum laudes tuae sunto it is a greater commendation for a Preacher to make the people weepe being pricked in their hearts for their sinnes then to moove them to laughter Let us all strive to have a good conscience even in the manner of our preaching that when the Sermon is ended our consciences may beare us witnesse wee sought Gods Glory not our owne Saint Chrys. cryes out upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vix ullus est Sacerdos qui ad eum non allidit etiam hodie animus meus ab inani gloria capitur Let us all strive against it with might and maine For our preaching in the exequution of our office that shall suffice now let us come to our life which is either generall as common to all Christians or speciall as peculiar to our selves As all Christians are bound in conscience to adde to their faith vertue temperance c. to eschew all vices that may bee a disgrace to the Gospell and to embrace all vertues that may be an honour to it so especially the Preachers of the Word Magistrum vitae in vita offendere is a grievous thing as the heathen himselfe could say the offence of a Minister is a double offence quia peccat facto exemplo Abimelech said to his souldiers As yee have seene mee doe so make haste and doe the like If a Minister doe evill hee neede not say so to the people they will make haste to doe the like fast enough Nulli jam illicitum esse videtur quod ab Episcopo tanquam licitum perpetratur Id homines credunt esse laudabile quod Episcopus habuerit delectabile If the Minister bee a drunkard a frequenter of Tavernes and Ale-houses c. the people take licence thereby to commit the like sinnes If covetousnesse were a sinne would our Minister bee covetous c. Thus hee doth not onely sinne himselfe but hee makes others to sinne Therefore for conscience sake wee had need all to have an eye to it tanquam in coelo peccat sayes Saint Bern. Qui in Clero iniqua facit
3 4. the other is Hospitalitie 5. his Sincerity is set forth by the joy wherewith Saint Iohn was ravished in regard of it The joy is first specified v. 3. then amplified v. 4. In the specifying of this joy there is 1. The greatnesse of it 2. The ground of it He did not envie it as Iosuah did the prophecying of Eldad and Medad but he joyed in it not a little but greatly vehemently as the Wise men rejoyced with an exceeding great joy when they saw the starre againe There is gaudium in carne in the flesh that is the adulterers joy gaudium in vindicta in revenge that is the malicious mans joy gaudium in mundo that is the worldlings joy gaudium in Christo that is the Christian mans joy We must rejoyce at the good things that be in others The ground of his rejoycing was a report that came to him of Gajus when the brethren came Preachers and common Christians that were with Gajus and testified to the truth boare witnesse of the truth that is in thee 1. Of thy sincere dealing and liberality to all The good things that be in others must not be smoothered or buried in silence our tongues must be as trumpets to sound them abroad that which the woman did to Christ in powring a boxe of precious oyntment on his head must be spoken of throughout the world the faith of Abraham the zeale of Phineas the patience of Iob the Centurions Synagogues Cornelius almes and the bountifulnesse of Gajus shall be propagated to all posterity Fame is like a ship that receives all passengers like a wagon that entertaines all good and bad Bad things goe abroad and good things goe abroad but here is the difference 1. Bad things goe speedily good slowly the one flies like Eagles the other creeke like Snailes Davids adultery went further then his sweet and heavenly songs 2. The one are inlarged the other diminished the one halfe of Salomons wisedome came not to the eares of the Queene of Shebah 3. The one all heares of but a few of the other Thousands heare of a false report as that Saint Paul preacht against the Law and Moses hundreds do not heare of the other 4. Bad things goe without ceasing men are like flies that are ever insisting upon soares the report of good things is like an hue and cry that quickly fals downe in the Countrey 5. The one we tell of with delight we take little pleasure in talking of the other the one shall be at ordinaries the other shall finde never an ordinary yet we ought rather to testifie of the one rather than of the other God and his Angels take delight in the one the devill in the other Let us witnesse of the vertues wherewith God hath adorned any It shall redound to his glory and it shall be a spurre to pricke on others to the like This is illustrated a pari Even as thou walkest in the truth 1. In the truth of the Gospel which thou dost adorne by thy good workes Thou dost not content thy selfe to beginne in the truth but thou walkest in it like a good traveller till thou come to the end of thy journey to the Celestiall Canaan VERSE 4. THen this joy is amplified by a comparison Some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greater grace But most Greeke Coppies have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joy In the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greater joy than these Some referre it to the brethren mentioned before then in these men that relate this of thee Some Greeke Coppies have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greater joy than this So the question were at an end Yet the plurall for the better exagarating of it may be put for the singular as if all joyes were comprehended in this What is that Then to heare that my children walke in the truth Why Saint Iohn was a perpetuall Virgin He had no children acording to the flesh but he had spirituall children among whom Gajus was one because he preached the Word of truth to him Preachers are fathers mothers and nurses too Fathers Though ye have ten thousand instructors in christ yet not many fathers I have begotten you through the Gospel Mothers My little children of whom I travel in birth againe till Christ be formed in you Nurses We were gentle among you as a nurse cherisheth her children Therefore we are to be loved and honoured of the people Some rejoyce to see their children flourish in wealth and honours of the world then in the graces of the Spirit It is more joy to them to see them Gentlemen Knights Lords c. than to see them upright and constant Christians It was not so with St. Iohn no more must it be with us We may joy to see them great men in the world but no joy to this to see them great in Christ. VERSE 5. THe second vertue commended in him is his hospitality and charity Whereof there is 1. A relation of it in this and part of the 6. ver 2. The prosecution of it 6. 7. 3. The necessity of it Not in him alone but in all christians ver 8. In the relation 1. The manner how he did it 2. The persons to whom it was extended Touching the manner Thou dost faithfully whatsoever thou dost In the Greeke not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou doest a faithfull deede making a faithfull demonstration of thy faith by thy workes as it becomes every faithfull man to doe Shew me thy faith by thy workes We must not onely doe bonum but doe it benè not onely that which is good but we must doe it with a good intention for God is not so much pleased with Nounes as with Adverbs This Gregorie sets downe excellently well 1. We must not doe them superbè proudly with a proud opinion of our selves thinking highly of our selves because we have done them as the Pharisee did which spread the Peacocks feathers of his works before God in the Temple In knowing of them we must not know them though they be recta good things yet we must account them minima little in our own eyes acknowledging when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants God may find many blemishes in our best workes 2. We must not doe them ambitiosè with an ambitious minde to get glory to our selves as the Pharisees did who had a trumpet sounded at their gates for the publishing of their almes Vaineglory is a secret thiefe that accompanies us privily in all our best actions to cut the throat of the soule when we have done them 3. We must not do them mundanò for wordly lucre and commodity hoping to enrich our selves by it as Iudas did by the boxe of oyntment he pretended the benefit of the poore but he intended his owne benefit If we doe them for these sinister ends we lose our reward The only scope we aime at must be
of honour and so consequently an embracing analysis 24 of dishonour the which is amplified by the circumstance of time when he did it The honour refused by him was the title and appellation of Pharaohs daughters Sonne the time when he refused it was when he was of mature age Being great not in credit and estimation though that bee true for Moses was in great repute with all but in yeeres that is the native signification of the Hebrew word Gadal and Saint Stephen being a good commenter expoundeth it when he was full fortie yeeres of age This the Holy Ghost mentioneth least this his refusall should be adscribed temeritati or imprudentiae Young men want knowledge and experience often times they doe they cannot tell what if they had had moe yeeres on their backes they would have beene wiser and many times they doe that rashly upon weaknes and impotency of affection which they repent them of afterwards many a young man in a proud conceit of himselfe refuses a living which he would gladly have afterwards and cannot Moses did not so make this refusall Hee was great in yeeres of a ripe and mature age wise circumspect considerate enough yet he refused c. He denyed disclaimed that title horruit aversatus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysost. expounds it Whether he did deny it in words is not expressed in Scripture peradventure he did The Aegyptians saluted him gladly by that name here comes our young Prince the Kings daughters Sonne he disclaimed and said I am not the Sonne of Pharaohs daughter I am such a womans Son which is an Hebrew I am an Israelite I am no Aegyptian I had rather be accounted the Son of a meane woman of the Israelites then the Son of the greatest Lady in Pharaohs Court If he did it not in words at the least in deeds he is declared by his deeds in the visiting the Israelites in taking their part in revenging their wrongs to be an Israelite not an Aegyptian Pharaohs daughter had done much for him shee saved him from drowning shee paid for the nursing of him shee brought him up at her owne proper cost and charges shee put him to Schoole trained him up in all the learning of the Aegyptians she adopted him to be her Son and now doth he thinke scorne to be called her Son No doubt but hee was thankefull to her for all the kindnesses she had shewed him and behaved himselfe reverently and dutifully to her honour thy father and mother She had beene as a mother to him and out of all question hee honoured her yet hee would not honour her above God he was appointed by God to be the deliverer of the Israelites out of Aegypt Israel was the Church of God to them the promises were made the Aegyptians were a prophane company strangers from the covenants therfore though he might have gained a kingdome by it he would not be in their Calendar he professed plainely he was an Israelite one of Gods chosen people he was none of Pharaohs daughters Sonne hee was the Sonne of GOD by faith in the promised Messiah Hester concealed her people when shee stood on a kingdome yet Moses for a kingdome will not conceale his the time was now come when he was to open himselfe to the world what hee was hee set not a straw by that magnificent title in comparison of the affinity and consanguinity hee had with Gods people Together with this title he refused all the appendices that belonged to it the crowne of Aegypt all the honours riches profits and pleasures that were appertaining to the Crowne A strange and admirable refusall being with Pharaohs daughter hee might live in all ease rest and quietnes none durst give him a foule word much lesse offer him any wrong in deed He flourished in the pomp and honour of the world all the Court reverenced him capped and bowed to him by reason hereof he was in some probability of the Crowne hereafter for Iosephus writeth she had no naturall Sons of her owne but intended to make him her heyre yet this regall title with all the golden appurtenances he refuses Quis nisi mentis inops oblatum respuit aurum much more quis respuit oblatum regnum men will doe any thing for a kingdome yet he desires to bee counted one of Gods people how meanly soever he lived in the world An admirable faith This he did not when hee was under age in his minority but when hee was of full age and capable of a kingdome if it had descended to him Iosephus recordeth that when he was a Child Pharaohs daughter glorying exceedingly in his beauty and towardlines presented him to the King her Father who to please his daughter withall set the Crowne on Moses head the which he suffering to slip off and fall on the ground stamped it under his feete which the South-sayers of Aegypt presaged to bee ominous to the kingdome That he did when he was a boy if it be true but now being a man of compleat age he contemneth as it were the crown of Aegypt he sets not a straw by it because God had called him to another kingdome It is not a thing unlawfull to appertaine to the Court of earthly Princes or to be reputed in the number of their Sons When David was urged by Sauls servants to take Michal the Kings daughter he said to them seemeth it to you a light thing to be a Kings Sonne in Law but he did not say doe yee not know that it is an ungodly thing to be a Kings Sonne in Law Ionathan was Sauls Sonne Salomon Davids Hezekiah the Sonne of Achaz Iosiah of Ammon CHRIST said no man can serve God and Mammon but he never said no man can serve God and Caesar or all yee that will be saved come out of Kings Courts and Pallaces Sundry of the deere Children of God have beene advanced to great honour and dignity in them Ioseph was Ruler of all the land of Aegypt David was Lord Keeper to Achish King of the Philistims Nehemiah was butler to Artaxerxes Daniel was the second man in the kingdome of Babylon Hester was Wife to Ahasuerus a ruler of one hundred twenty seven provinces and Moses himselfe who now refused to be called the Sonne of Pharaohs daughter was afterwards Sonne to Iethro Prince of Midian Riches are excellent things honour and promotion is a glorious thing God oftentimes bestowes them as tokens of love on his Children hee made Abraham rich and he gave David a name like the name of the great men on the earth but if either GOD or they must be forsaken away with all the riches all the kingdomes of the world The Devill offered Christ all the kingdomes of the earth but he would none of them When the Virgin Mary tooke more on her then became her Christ said to her woman what have I to doe with thee so if honour or promotion riches or pleasure draw us from God let
us shake them off as St. Paul did the Viper and say what have I to doe with you my God must be dearer to me then you all Because the kingdome of Aegypt and Gods glory could not stand together Moses refused a kingdome then let us be content to forsake a Lord-ship a small quantity of ground a simple house a little silver and gold for the Lord whatsoever we have be it more or lesse let us count all as dongue for Christs sake In the time of prosperity let us weane our selves from the pleasures and commodities of this life that in the time of tryall and persecution wee may not bee glewed to them as the young man to his riches but may be willing to forsake all for Christs sake and so much the rather because wee know not how nigh tryall is how soone the wind of affliction may rise and make a difference between them that love Christ and his Gospell sincerely and betweene them that love this present world as Demas did If wee have but a little house and land one hundred or two hundred and should bee loath to leave it for CHRISTS sake how would wee leave a kingdome for him as Moses did It must bee Gods worke not our owne Therefore it is said that Moses did it by faith he did it not by any naturall strength or power by vertue of education though he had famous Schoolemasters and was trained up in all the learning of the Aegyptians he did it not by the advice of any witty or politick Achitophel he did it by faith Faith in the promised Messiah mooved him to it As Abraham saw the day of Christ and was glad so Moses saw Christ and the kingdome of heaven by the eye of faith this made him not to set a rush by the kingdome of Aegypt I shall be heyre of a far more glorious kingdome then a straw for Aegypt The kingdome of Aegypt lasts but a while death one day will remove me from it but I shall have a kingdome that cannot be shaken that endures for ever and ever Therefore let Aegypt goe If wee have a true and lively faith in the promises of God a sight of the joyes reserved for the faithfull in the life to come it will withdraw our mindes off from these earthly things A worldly man can never doe it he will say it is good sleeping in an whole skinne a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush I know what I have here I cannot tell what I shall have afterwards but faith is an evidence of things that are not seene This caused the Martyrs in Queene Maries dayes some to leave their Bishopricks as Cranmer Latimer Ridley some their lands and great revenewes as the Dutches of Suffolke some their liberty some their Country for the Gospell and if we have a true and lively faith indeed it will make us to leave all for a good cause therefore let us make this prayer Lord encrease our faith let it bee so strong as that neither riches honour nor any thing else may separate us from thee When not when hee was a Child for then it might have beene deemed to be want of witt and discretion as Children refuse gold and take Apples but when he was great of a good and convenient stature about fourtie yeeres of age when he knew well enough what he did he did it not puerili temeritate sed judicio virili when he was in the prime and flower of his yeeres Young men about fortie are most fit for honour and promotion This may be an admonition to young men to consecrate their best yeeres to the Lord. Wherewithall shall a young man clense his wayes I write to you young men sayes St. Iohn Timothy was exercised in the Scriptures from his Child-hood We read of a young man in the Gospell that said he had kept all the Commandements from his youth he was no swearer blasphemer rayler fighter quarreller stealer cutter whoremonger but our young men cannot abide to heare of godlinesse tell them of forsaking of pleasures and honour as Moses did they cannot abide to heare on that eare As the Devill said to Christ why commest thou to torment me before the time So this is a torment to them When they be old they will thinke of Religion in the meane season they will bee swash-bucklers as Lamech haters as Esau Ruffians with Absalom they will follow their lusts with Amnon It seemes a paradoxe for a young man to be a Martyr to leave the Court the honours and pleasures of this world as Moses did VERSE 25. WHy did hee refuse to be called the Son of Pharaohs daughter did she refuse him or was he in hope of a better kingdome in the world no verily it was put to his owne choyse hee was not compelled to it neither the King nor his daughter gave him over but he gave them over How did he choose it not halfe against his will but rather he had rather a great deale have this than that Which is amplified by the thing elected and rejected What did hee chuse to suffer adversity rather than to reigne in glory Electio ex duobus ad minimum here two things were propounded to Moses choyce pleasure and paine the one is welcome to all by nature the other abhorred of all by nature yet Moses chuses paine and refuses pleasure To Hercules appeared virtuâ— and voluptas the one horrid promising labour and sorrow yet hee chose it A travellour sees two wayes the one fayre that leadeth him quite another way the other fowle that carries him to his journeys end hee chuses rather the fowle way because it is most commodious for him Pharaohs Court was a fine and delicate way the afflictions of the Israelites a foule way yet because that lead to hell this to heaven Moses rather chose it this was not the worke of nature but of faith He chose to be afflicted to be evilly intreated malis premi As if a man should refuse honey and take worme-wood before he lived in honour and dignity now hee chose to live in contempt and disgrace before hee was at a table every day furnished with all delicates now hee comes to his leekes and onyons with the Israelites before he was in all jollity now in all affliction The affliction is illustrated by the companions with whom hee was afflicted and they were the people of God Affliction simply is not to bee chosen but affliction with the people of GOD that is the sugar that sweetens afflictions To bee afflicted with thieves for theft with Traytors for treason with Idolaters for Idolatry hath no comfort in it but to bee afflicted with Gods people is full of comfort for Gods cause he had rather be afflicted with Gods people then to live with the Aegyptian Courtyers in Pharaohs Court which were none of the people of God Then to have the temporary fruition of sinne But the word importing such a fruition as is joyned