which men compared to trees are said to yeild 1. The fruits of the Sanctifying Spirit of God Graces and Works brought forth in the hearts and lives of the Saints called fruits because they come from the Spirit of God as fruit from the tree and are as pleasing to him as the pleasantest fruit is to us Thus we read of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 and Fruits of Righteousness Phil. 1.11 Fruits meet for Repentance Matth. 3.8 All comprehended by Paul Ephes 5.9 where he saith The fruit of the Spirit is in all Goodness Righteousness Truth Goodness being that quality contrary to Malice or naughtiness whereby a sinner is evil in himself Righteousness opposed to Injustice whereby one is hurtful and injurious to others Truth opposed to Errors Heresies Hypocrisie c. 3 There are fruits which in themselves and their own nature are bitter corrupt poysonful put forth not only by a corrupt tree but by it as such evil propter fieri in themselves and their own nature such fruits by which the false Prophets were known and whereby men may be known to be wicked men Grapes of Gall and bitter clusters Deut. 32.32 Such works of the flesh as Paul mentions Gal. 5.19 Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Laesciviousness Idolatry Witcheraft Hatred c. 3 There are other fruits which are not evil in themselvs unlawful or intrinsecally evil in their own substance and nature propter esse and fieri because they are or are done but because they grow upon such trees by reason whereof something which should make the production of them good is omitted and sundry deffects cleave unto them and they have evil cast upon them by the agent And sundry fruits of this sort and rank there may be upon such trees as Jude speaks of As 1 The Fruits of gifts parts and abilities in matters of Religion as preaching praying utterance of these speaks Christ Matth. 7.22 Many shall say in that day Lord have we not Prophesied c. And 1 Cor. 12.1 they are called Spiritual Gifts wrought by the Spirit but are not Sanctificantia but Ministrantia not so sanctifying him in whom but helping those for whom they are as a rich man may bestow good and dainty dyet upon a poor woman that nurseth his child not for her own sake but that his child may suck good milk from her such fruits as these indeed may beautifie Grace but yet Grace must sanctifie them These may make us profitable to men not acceptable to God 2 The second sort of these fruits which these trees might bear is a temporary faith Oâ—thodox or sound judgment assent to that which is the very Truth of Gods Word that there is a God infinite in all his glorious Perfections that there are three Persons that Christ was God and man c. and that all who believe in him shall be saved Thus some unconverted are said to beleeve for a while Luke 8.13 thus Simon Magus and Demas believed these fruits are good in their kind and without them there can be no holinesse of life nor happinesse after death and yet they are not good enough they not purifying the heart but only perfecting the understanding they being poured only on the head not running down like Aarons oyntment to the heart and other parts though making a man Protestant in doctrin yet leaving him to be a recusant in his life carrying him out to believe the word as faithful but not to embrace it as worthy of all acceptation to shine with light but not to burn with or work by love 3. A third sort of these fruits might be some heated affections sweet motions receiving the word with joy a finding some sweetnesse in the ordinances Matth. 13.20 John 5.35 Matth. 27.3 1 Kings 21. Ezek. 33.32 Ezekiel was to his hearers as a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice They who shall be cast into utter darknesse may for a season rejoyce in the light and may have sorrow and grief about sin The Israelites were oft deep in their humiliations Psal 78.4 7. they sought God and returned enquired early after God Ahab humbled himself And yet these fruits are not the best they may spring up from a root not good the pleasantnesse or sadnesse of the matter of any doctrine may cause sutable affections of joy or sorrow the novelty or rarity of a doctrine may much delight or the dexterity and ability of the deliverer the sutablenesss of a clearly discovered truth to a hearers understanding the apprehension of the goodnesse of spiritual things may stir up some flashing desires thus they cried out Lord give us ever more this bread thus Balaam desires to die the death of the righteous yea as some have observed corrupt lusts in men such as pride and self-seeking may produce great affections in holy duties The desire of applause may make men in publick administrations enlarged in their affections The more excellent a Prayer or Sermon is the more carnal the heart of the performer may be the stronger the invention is the weaker the grace may be and as ground full of mines of Gold is oft barren of grasse so a heart ful of grace may it may be barren of the ornaments of words and expressions 4. A fourth sort of fruits born even by these afterward apostates might be external appearances of conformity to the Law of God in avoiding of all open and scandalous courses and in performing the visible and outside acts of obedience Thus the Pharisee was not an Extortioner unjust an Adulterer Paul Matth 18.11 Phil. 3. touching the law was blameless the young man professed he had kept the Law in the letter of it from his youth The Pharisees paid Tithes exactly abhorred idolatry made long prayers and frequent were strict in the outward observation of the Sabboth professed chastity temperance c. Thus it 's said of these very Apostates that they had escap'd the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 and 22. that they had been washed And these fruits of outward conformity to the Law of God are highly commendable sincerity of grace can neither be nor be known without them by them it resolves as Elijah said to shew it self they are commanded by God 1 King 18.15 who though he commands not the godly to fulfill the Law perfectly yet permits them not to break it wilfully and though by the presence of external obedience we cannot conclude salvation yet by the absence thereof we may conclude damnation to follow these honour God benefit others Though our righteousnesse satisfies not justice yet in our unrighteousnesse we cannot be saved without injustice nor is any man called a good man for the good which he hath but the good which he doth outward obedience strengthens true grace where it is and is necessary to preserve a justified estate though not as deserving it yet as removing that which would destroy it And yet all these fruits the acts of externall obedience
apprehensions 2. Of their Conversations Or 1. The kind or nature of their knowledg What they know naturally as brute Beasts 2. The effect of that their knowledg In those things they corrupt themselves The first is 1. Propounded and specified in these words What they know naturally 2. Expounded by and compared to the knowledg of the brute Beasts as brute Beasts EXPLICATION Three things here require Explication in this second part of the verse 1 What the Apostle here intends by knowing naturally 2 Why he compares them for this knowing naturally to brute Beasts 3. In what respect by this knowing naturally as brute beasts Naturaliter nôrunt i.e. ipsâ duce naturâ nullo adhibito Magistro Vt sunt ea quae sensu percipiuntur tactu viz. gustu Justinian in loc Naturaliter solis sensibus absque judicio rationis ac si essent bruta animalia cognoscunt viz. quae pertinent ad appetitum sensitivum qualia sunt â—â—tus â—â—bus somnus veneris usus Gerh. in â—et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum Scire naturaliter est scire non consilio ullo non ratione huâ—nanâ non Spiritus Divini luce sed caeco naturae impetu heliuâ—no more Junius in loc they are said to corrupt themselves 1. For the first By this knowing naturally in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood a knowing only by the guidance of Nature meerly by their senses by touching tasting seeing c. a knowing whether a thing please sense or no without any other Teaching or any judgment and reason at all and it respects those things which belong to the sensitive appetite as meat drink sleep c. and hence it might possibly come to pass that Gagneius conjectured though without ground that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they know is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they desire or have an appetite This word Naturally is opposed to reason and judgment these sensual persons onely knew things as carryed to their outward senses The force of nature only ruled them reason never guided them Oâ—cumenius expresseth it very aptly Whatever saith he with natural force or desire without putting difference as irrational creatures they know they violently follow as lustful horses or swine Junius explains it thus To know naturally is to know without counsel humane reason or the light of Gods Spirit and with the blind force of nature and bestial motion only following natural appetite and outward senses 2. The Apostle doth exegetically explain by an apt comparison what he intends by this knowing naturally he saith they know things as brute Beasts in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brute signifies either mute or irrational and brute either without speech Act. 25.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praeter rationem sine ratione Animantia rationis expertia Bez. Animalia muta Vulg. O mutis quoque piscibus donatura cygni si libeat sonum Horat or without reason There being no irrational Creature but is also mute that is though not without a voice so as fish are said more properly to be mute yet without speech which none but man useth naturally Now this knowledg which belongs to brute Beasts is that which arifeth from the instinct of nature consisting in the senses and by the benefit of it brute Beasts discern between the food which is sutable and that which is unfit between that which is beneficial and that which is hurtful unto which is joyned a natural appetite toward such things as tend to their preservation Of this knowledg speaks the Scripture Isai 1.3 The Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters crib And Psal 104.21 The young Lions roar after their Prey and seek their meat from God c. And ver 27. They wait upon thee that thou maiest give them their meat in due season That thou givest them they gather thou openest thy hand and they are filled with good And Job 29.8 The range of the mountains is the pasture of the wild Asse and he searcheth after every green thing And ver 29. The Eagle abideth on the rock c. and from thence she seeth the prey And Chap. 40.15 Behemoth eateth grasse as an Ox ver 20. The mountains bring him food yea Prov 30.25 The ants prepare their meat in the summer And by this knowledg of irrational creatures is that of these sensuallists here by Jude set forth for sundry Reasons 1. In their knowledg of things naturally they desired sensual objects violently and impetuously They laboured not for them with an holy submissivenesse to and dependence upon God but followed them with a brutish fiercenesse They were like the Lion roaring after his prey when they see what they love ther 's no holding them in with the reins either of Reason or Religion they ran greedily after reward subverted whole houses and taught any error for filthy lucres sake Tit. 1.11 They were greedy dogs 2 They received no enjoyments thankfully not considering the giver they drank of the river taking no notice of the fountain filling their vessel with it and then turning their backs upon it They received gifts but regarded not the hand which bestowed them Their bellies were filled with treasures to them hidden Like swine feeding on acorns which though they fall upon their heads never make them look up to the tree from which they come When God opened his hand they shut their hearts denying the tribute of praises which God expects for all his blessings 3 They pleased themselves with the gifts solely never regarding the love of the giver Beasts care not with what affection any thing is given to them so as they have the thing which they want These sensuallists desired not that the gifts which they enjoyed might be turned into mercies not considering that the love of God is the fulnesse of every enjoyment in this worse then some beasts who suspect a snare when provision is plentifullest These never caring whether the heart of God were toward them or no so as his hand were opened and using the gifts of a Creator not regarding the affection of a Father not questioning whether their provisions were bestowed upon them as children with love or whether as condemned prisoners to keep life in them against the day of execution and in short like beasts as the Apostle saith 2 Pet. 2.12 they were made to be destroyed they so knew these sensitive objects as not knowing whether they were fatted by them for slaughter 4 They knew these things so brutishly as not to know how to improve them they cared not to be fitted by them for service Brute beasts onely live to eat and so these made their sensual pleasures the end of their living never referring them to glory-ends not making them vehicula chariets to carry them faster and to raise them up higher to God in a way of love and duty but vincula bonds to keep and binde them down to the satisfaction of sense
they feed at the same Table serve the same Master own the same Father so that they shall live together in the same habitation for ever they pattaking of that meritorious blood which is the parchase of the same Inheritance they having all thereby the same Key to open Paradise withal They who receive Christ as Communicants profess to do shal be received One Saint may truly say to another You and I must be better acquainted And what an Engagement to love is this for us to consider we shal for ever live and love together in Heaven Oh! how should Christians begin to do that here which they shall never be weary of doing to all eternity If one house then one Heaven calls for one heart Thus the appellations given to the Sacrament the Table of the Lord the Lords Supper the Communion c. shew it to be a Love-Feast 3. The outward Elements Bread and Wine us'd at the Supper evince the same Separated and several grains and grapes make one and the same Bread and Wine They who are severed and disjoyned from one another Vid. Cvpr. Ep. 76. ad Magnum not onely by sea habitation trades but in heart also and affection are by the receiving of Christ in this Sacrament re-united into one Spirituall Body as the Elements though originally severall are into one artificiall Masse We being many saith the Apostle are one Bread How necessary then is the Lords Supper in these times when Love doth so much decay If the Christians in their Summer season when Love was burning hot did so lay on this fewel what need have we then to do so in this Winter Season when the Love of most grows so cold Confident I am that the withdrawing of this Sacrament that feeds and foments Love hath much tended to the decay therof among us And further this discovers the great policy of Satan not onely in hindering from the Sacrament which was appointed to strengthen Love but in breaking Love by this very Sacrament Who would ever have expected to have heard of a Sacramentary war How many valiant Champions lost their livs in this Land in their Smithfield fights about the controversie of Transubstantiation and how subtilly hath the Murderer of souls mixt his poyson with the Sacramental bread and stoln away the Cup in the Papacy What fierce contestations have there been between Calvinists and Lutherans about consubstantiation Who remembers not the Prelaticall fury in imposing superstitious for Sacramental gestures and oh that the flames of these unchristian quarrels about the Sacrament did not blaze and spread even at this very day Oh the unbrotherly breaches between Brethren about the admission and qualification of Communicants Consider dear Christians whether Satan be not like to prevail when he turns that Artillery whereby we should batter his Forts upon our selves and makes his strongest weapons oâ— War even of Olive Branches Ensigns and Emblemes of Peace and is not Love in danger of death when â—ts Food is dayly poyson'd Who warms his hands at these flames of Contention but only our Adversary Satan as they say of the Lawyer will be the only gainer when you fall out like unkind Brethren about your Fathers will and Testament The Lord humble us for all those unworthy receivings which have made us so unkind and quarrelsome about the receiving this Feast of Love the Lords Supper and he make us for the future in all our opinions about and participations of it to be men in understanding and children in malice Part 1. For the tryals of Love see page 144.145.146 c. 4. Obs 4. Spotted and spotting sinners are unfit guests at holy feasts The Apostle by saying these seducers were spots in the Feasts of Charity notes the unsutableness of such blemishes to Assemblies that should be clean and Christian these spots casting an uncomliness upon those holy Meetings which made those spots appear and set off with the more uglines and uncomlines The mixture of scandalous persons in Church-fellowship is here by the Apostle blam'd and if their meeting at these feasts of Charity be reprehended here by the Apostle if at these Feasts these spots appeared so black and deformed how much more reproveable was their meeting at the Lords Supper which is an Ordinance of Christ wherein approaches to him are more near and ought to be more holy then in those Feasts of Charity Spots and blemishes as Mr. Perkins well spake of his times ought to be washt off by Ecclesiasticall Discipline from the faces of holy Assemblies at the Lords Supper because they pollute it True it is that first there are two sorts of pollution of the Lords Supper the one that which makes the Sacrament no Sacrament but a common or unhallowed thing to those that do receive it as if it were given by those who are no Ministers or to those who are no Church or without the blessing and breaking of the Bread the other sort of pollution of the Sacrament is that which makes the administration thereof to be sinful and those who administer it to be guilty they doing that which is contrary to the revealed wil of God This latter kind of pollution is by admitting spotted and scandalous sinners 2. It s granted that the mixture of the scandalous pollutes not the Sacrament to those who have used all the lawful means against it who have being Officers discharged their duty by exercising Church Discipline and being private Christians admonished the offenders and petitioned those who have the authority for the restraining of them from the Sacrament in that case though the scandalous partake of the Sacrament Indisciplinata patientia Aug. yet officers and worthy Communicants partake not of their sin But otherwise that the admission of scandalous persons to the Sacrament is a pollution of that Ordinance its evident Give not saith Christ that which is holy to dogs neither cast ye your pearls before swine Mat. 7.6 By that which is holy I understand though primarily yet not solely the Word but consequently the Sacraments Prayer Christian admonition Christ doth not speak of one holy thing onely nor doth he say the pearl but he saith that which is holy c. and pearls And by dogs and swine are not onely to be understood Infidels Heathens and open Apostates and persecuters which like dogs bite bark and contradict but also such who like swine prophane trample these Pearls under their feet and by an impure swinish life shew how much they despise holy things And needs must the Sacrament be prophaned when in the use thereof not grace but sin is encreased because hereby the main end of the Sacrament which is to be food to nourish grace and poyson to kill sin is perverted but no grace is nourished in any prophane impenitent sinner he being spiritually dead and so without the life of grace And further his hand is strengthened in sin for by his receiving the Sacrament he is much more difficultly
though not so swiftly yet according to the proportion of its motion in the heavens and so though our love to God be more swift and intense then that to the saints yet this is proportion'd to that without love to a brother we can have no assurance of Gods love to us nor any continuance of our love to God He who hath not the love of a brother toward saints cannot have the love of a son toward God OBSERVATIONS 1. 1. Obs We are very ready to decay and grow remisse in our love to God Keep your selves saith Jude The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep notes such a keeping as wherewith we keep a prisoner our gadding hearts should be kept with all diligence It s hard to get and not easie to keep up our spirituall fervour The love of most growes cold water growes cold of it selfe but it gets heat from the fire we grow remisse of our selves fervent from the Spirit When we goe from prayer Sacraments hearing though our hearts have been warmed yet upon our going into our worldly employments we are ready soon to fall into a spirituall chilnesse as those whose heat having come outward going into the sharp aire are very ready to catch cold A tender person had need to take heed of leaving off any cloathes and our hearts upon leaving off of duty are subject to abate in the heat of their affections God complaines of those who had lost their first love Our hearts are like green wood wherein fire cannot be kept without continuall blowing Grace of it selfe is desectible Rev. 2.4 and without constant supplies of the Spirit it would soon come to nothing It is onely kept by the power of God Parents will not trust their little children to have their money in their own keeping How had we need beg of God to keep this Jewell of love for us and to preserve it from being stolne from us 2. The lest things should be most carefully kept Obs 2. Spiritualls are onely worth the keeping and indeed onely can be kept Men cannot alwayes either keep the world or their love to it Judas threw away his 30. pieces and his love to them at the same time There wil come a time when as we shal say Eccles 12.1 we have no pleasure in these things 'T is good sometimes in a way of duty to part with these things for to be sure wee shall part with them in a way of necessity How poore is that man who hath no better a treasure then that which is at the courtesie of the theif and moth Oh how great is their folly who will keep every thing but that which deserves their care to lay up trash and pibbles under lock and key and to lay their gold and Jewels abroad in the streets If thou canst keep thy God thy love be not troubled though thou partest with thy gold 3. Further How great how full a good is God! Obs 3. Even when we have him and have had him never so long he hath enough within him to draw forth fresh and fresh loves toward him The more we love him the more we should love him The glorious saints in heaven sing a new song because it is a song of love It is new to them and sweet though they have been singing it so many thousands of years We soon grow weary of our worldly toys after we have had them a while As they are withering objects so our delight in them is a withering delight they are fulsome rather then delightfull and filling 'T is true prophane Esau said I have enough and a saint saith I have enough but with as much difference are both these enoughs as when one man saith I have enough by taking a little fulsome Physick and a thirsty man saith I have enough by drinking a sufficient draught of thirst-satisfying water Before worldly enjoyments are had they seeme beautifull but when they are once obtain'd they soone clog the soule Here is the excellency of spiritualls they sweetly fill and satisfie and yet at the same time we ever desire and hunger for more 4. Obs Vlt. The preserving of our love to God is an excellent preservative against Sectaries and false teachers He who loves God will feare to break the unity and peace of the Church Eph. 4.15 also he will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow the truth in love Errour comes from mens affection a cold corrupt suming vapouring stomack makes an aking head A corrupt cold heart which wants the heat of love to God makes an erroneous head And besides God hath bound himselfe to keep them from errour and folly who love him If a man love and keep the commands and will of God he shall know his will God never leaves them that will not leave him first A man will not forsake a friend a lover Sweet and sutable is that expression Psal 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him and Psal 145.20 Psal 119.132 The Lord preserveth all them that love him Be mercifull unto me saith David as thou usest to doe to them that love thee Though heresies and false teachers come yet these as Paul speaks 1 Cor. 11.19 shall but make those which are approved to be manifest They shall discover true love to God not destroy it And fidelity will be the more apparent like that of loyall subjects in times of sedition in the treachery of others To conclude this love is a brest-plate as the Apostle calls it 1 Thes 5.8 to repell all the darts of errour Oh then what need have we to goe abroad with this brest-plate in these times wherein these deadly arrows flye so thick And consider here the true cause that so many are wounded with them Christians want their brest-plate their hearts are not kept nor their love preserved for God The last direction which our Apostle prescribes is conteined in these words Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life An excellent and sutable direction The expectation of a reward in heaven countervails and sweetens all their labour and faithfulnesse in opposing the enemies of truth upon earth and withall keeps up their love to God who commands their resisting of errour and seduction Two things are here principally contained 1. A duty The looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ where he sets down 1. What was to be regarded the mercy of Christ 2. How it was to be regarded by looking for it 2 An enducement encouraging to the performance of that duty Eternal life EXPLICATION In the first branch two things are to bee explained 1. What the Apostle means 1. By mercy 2. The mercy of Christ 2. What by Looking for it For the first mercy Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have very largely discoursed thereof Part. 1. pag. 92. on those words Mercy to you To avoid needlesse repetition I only say that mercy as attributed to man is
The reviler lives upon mans flesh and blood as his meat and drink nay upon something better the name being better then life By a good name many have done good after their deaths by the losse of it many have been rendred uselesse while they lived The former have lived when they were dead the latter have been dead while they lived Evil speaking is more cruel then hell for hell only devoures the bad but the hell of the tongue the good and bad too This for the explication of the first branch namely what the Archangel did forbear viz to bring a railing accusation The second follows to be explain'd namely why he did forbear it he durst not bring it Wherein two things are to be opened 1. What is meant by his not daring 2. Why he was not daring 1 For the first The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here expounded by daring hath a double signification in Scripture sometimes it signifieth to endure bear sustain or to be able and fit to undertake undergo such or such a difficulty and thus it 's taken Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mori sustineat Beza 5.7 one dare or will endure to dye for a good man and so the sense will be this Michael durst not that is could not endure was not able to give a rayling accusation But it more frequently signifieth to be bold or to dare to do or to adventure upon a businesse as not being dismaied with any dangers Thus it is taken Phil. 1.14 Mark 15.43 John 21.12 And thus it is to be understood in this place Jude intending that the Archangel durst not be so bold or was holily affraid to bring against the Divel a railing accusation And thus the difference between the seducers and the Archangel by whose contrary practice the Apostle aggravates the sin of the seducers will appear more clear and evident The Apostle telling us 2 Pet. 2.10 that these bold libertines were presumptuous and not afraid to speak evill of Dignities But the Archangel durst not c. 2. Why was the Archangel thus far from daring and adventuring There are three grounds of fear to adventure upon any way or course propounded to us 1. A natural desire of our own preservation causing a dread of any thing which may endanger it This in it self is no sin it having been not onely in the holiest men but in Jesus Christ himself who prayed that if it were possible the Cup of death might pass from him 2. That corruption of nature whereby the creature feareth nothing but the smart of punishment and shuns it only as it is afflictive to sense not at all as it is offensive to God the Party thus fearing having an heart onely filled with guilt and self-accusation and empty of that faith which worketh by love Thus the Divels believe and tremble 3. That Principle of grace whereby persons fear sin as its opposite and displeasing to God whom they dare not offend not onely because he sets himself against sin but principally and in the first place because sin sets it self against God This was the holy fear of David Psalm 119.12 My flesh trembleth because of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements First he feared God and then he stood in awe of his judgements This is indeed to fear sin as Hell and not onely to fear it for Hell This is that fear commended by Solomon Prov. 16.6 for causing us to depart from evil a fear that proceeds more from sense of duty enjoyned then of danger threatned and whereby we more respect Gods will then our own woe In a word a fear which therefore is regardful of Gods wrath because it proceeds from a faith which reposeth it self on his mercy OBSERVATIONS 1. Obser 1. Purity of affection should accompany Angelical illumination Michael had the holiness as well as the wisdome of an Angel he had not onely ability to dispute but care to keep from sin in disputing An head full of knowledge with a heart forward to sin agree indeed to an Angel but t is an Angel of darkness An Archangel given over to wickedness is an Arch-divel Great knowledge without holiness is but a great tentation Si velles intelligere ut Angelus quod non potes cur non vis velle ut Deus quod potes Nieremb de ador in sp ver knowledge saith the Apostle puffeth up Sanctity in a Child is better then all the understanding of Divels A clean heart is better then a clear head If thou desirest saith one well to understand like an Angel why art thou not more desirous to will as doth God The great Diana of worship in the world is brain-knowledge and estimation for an accute and reaching apprehension whereas holiness is esteemed but as a dull contemptible qualification but the glory of Michael here in the Text was to keep himself from sin It s pity that a good head and a good heart should not ever be companions or that the notional perception of truth should at any time go along with the practical refusal thereof Wicked Angels or Ministers who by their Doctrine teach people how to be saved do by their lives teach God how to damn themselves If the Lord hath given thee integrity of heart though thy parts be but mean bless him he hath truly shewn thee the more excellent way afforded thee an angelical excellency 2. Observ 2. It s an high commendation then to shun sin when we are necessitated to converse with sinners Michael disputes with the Divel but yet holily and Angelically He got no infection from his divellish carriage The Divel sets upon our blessed Saviour more then once yet Christ gathered no soil from this unclean spirit It s a sign of a good constitution to continue healthful in a bad and infectious ayre The truth of grace should shew it self in its care not onely to avoid the company of sinners but the contagion by sinners Perhaps we cannot shun the former yet we should and by holy watchfulness may escape the other If we cannot do the wicked good by conversing with them we must take heed lest they do us hurt It s a justly suspected goodness which can onely hold up in good company He who will then be bad rather overtakes sin then is overtaken by it but he who keeps the spark of holiness alive in the midst of damps and quench-coals Psal 120.5 though he may with holy David bewail his condition in respect of bad company yet may he withal rejoyce in the hopes of his own integrity 3. Observ 3. It s our duty to learn this Angelical Lesson of forbearing to bring railing accusations To this end 1. Be much and serious in accusing thy sinful self In this duty t is hard to be severe enough Put not thy eyes into thy pocket when thou art alone at home It s a sign that they who desire to sacrifice
Truth and to give the glory of God reparations as it were by wiping off the blemishes cast upon it by foolish and ignorant men When we have upon grounded deliberation chosen our Love we should zealously express the love of our choice Sinners as they say of young mens thoughts of old think that Saints are foolish but Saints know that sinners are so Let not their prosecution of sin be more zealous then thy reprehension of it nor their opposition of any way of God be more hot then thy contention for it Let thy fire have more purity then theirs but let it not be inferior in its fervor The Christians Serpent must not devour his Dove How good a Master do the godly serve who requires no duty but such as he warrants in and rewards after the doing Satans servants are scepticks and he puts them upon such imployments in the doing whereof they cannot know they do well and afterward they shall know they have done ill and that to their cost 5. Corrupt affections blear and darken the judgement Observ 3. These Seducers hated the wayes of God and deilghted to oppose them and therefore they did not would not know them He who will be disobedient in heart shall soon have a dull head They who love sin will leave the Truth Lust opposeth the entrance of the Light Repentance makes men acknowledg the Truth 2 Tim. 2.25 Every one who doth evil hateth the light John 3.20 Men love not to study such Truths as will hinder them being known from going on in some gainful wickedness It s from unrighteousness that men imprison Truths They who thought the believing of the Resurrection would hinder their course in sin Prov. 28.5 taught that the Resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2.18 Lust perverts Light and makes men in stead of bringing their hearts and lives to the Scripture to bring to draw the Scripture by carnal and wittily wicked distinctions and evasions to both Knowledg is the mother of Obedience and Obedience the nurse of Knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the former breeds the latter and the latter feeds the former Of this largely before Part 1. pag. 616 617 c. Observ 6. Qui prius quam chord as exploraverit omnes simul inconcinnè percutit absonum et absurdum strepitum reddit sic judex qui singulas liâ—ga torum causas non pulsavis nec audivit stultam planè absurdam sententiam pronuntiet necesse est Petrarc 6. It s our duty to forbear speaking against any thing which we understand not He that answereth a matter saith Solomon before he heareth it it is folly and shame to him Prov. 18.13 As men are not to be commended so neither to be condemned before the knowledge of their cause As he causeth an harsh and unmusical sound who strikes and playes upon the strings of an Instrument before he hath tryed and tuned them so he must needs pass a foolish and absurd Sentence upon any cause who passeth that Sentence before he hath seriously heard and weighed the cause to which he speaks Herein Eli manifested his fault and folly 1 Sam. 1.14 rashly and weakly charging Hanna with Drunkenness Thus also David discovered his folly in giving credit to the information of flattering and false-hearted Ziba against good Mephibâ—sheth 2 Sam. 16.3 4. before he had heard what Mephibâ—sheth could alledg for himself Potiphar likewise shewed himself as unjust as his wife shewed her self unchast by an over-hasty heeding of his wives false and forged accusation against righteous Joseph Gen. 39.19 20 To these may be added the ignorant censure of those Scoffers who derided the Apostles filled with the Holy Ghost as if filled with new wine Inter triâ—icum lolium quamdâ—u herba est nondum â—uâ—mus venit ad spâ—cam grandis similitudo eft in disceruendo aut nulla aut perdifficilis distanâ—ia Praemonâ—t ergo Dominus ne uâ—i quid ambignum est cito sententiam proferamus sed Deo judici terminum reservemus Hieron Ut nobis exemplum proponat ne mâ—la hominum ante praesumamus credere quam probare Gr. Mor. l. 19. c. 23. Doubtful cases are to be exempted from our censure The wheat and courser grain saith Hierom are so like to one another when newly come up and before the stalk comes to the ear that there 's no judging between them and therefore the Lord by commanding that both should be let alone till the Harvest admonisheth as that we should not judge of doubtful things but refer them to the judgment of God Even God himselfe who clearly discernes the secrets of the heart and needs not examine any cause for his own information determines not by sentence till after examination that so he might teach us by his example the method of judging Gen. 18.21 Which is to know before we censure They who to make shew of what they have not a quick understanding and nimble apprehension will take off a speaker in the midst of his relation and make as if they knew all the rest of his speech which is to follow and others who though they will hear the whole speech out yet not clearly understanding it scorn to have it repeated again lest they might be thought slow of apprehension by their foolish and ill accommodated answers do often grosly bewray their ignorance and folly And this speaking of any thing ignorantly should principally be avoided by Magistrates and Ministers By Magistrates because their passing of a sudden and overhasty answer is accompanied with the hurt of others and withal by so much the more should they take heed of this folly because when they have once passed though a rash and unjust sentence Vid. Cartw. in Prov. 18.13 yet so great a regard must be had forsooth to their Honours by themselves already dishonoured that seldom or never will they be induced to retract or recal any unrighteous censure when once they have uttered it Which sinful distemper appeared not only in those Heathen Governours * In their censuring of John and Christ Herod and Pilate but in that holy man David in the case of Mephibosheth By Ministers likewise should this speaking ignorantly and doubtfully of anything be avoided whose work being to direct souls and that through greatest dangers to the obtaining of greatest happiness they cannot be blind Leaders and ignorant Teachers without the infinite hazard of their followers How unlike are they who will be Teachers before they themselves have been taught and Affirmers of what they understand not to him who spake only what he knew Joh. 3.11.32 and testified onely what he saw and heard Thus of the first part of this verse their malicious and unchristian ignorance They speak evil of what they know not The second followes their sensual knowledg What they know naturally as brute Beasts in those things they corrupt themselves In which words two things are mainly considerable 1. The sensuality of their
but not with his heart and that little he bestowes upon them is not to recompence hypocritical but to encourage sincere obedience on Jer. 35.19 God often as Calvin saith rewarding the shadow to shew how the substance of vertue would please him Wicked men are hence 1. Cautioned not to leave holy duties undone The certainty of their sinning in performing them must not Simon Magus was commanded to pray Acts 8.22 cannot abrogate the Law of God which enjoynes them Nor is our duty impaired with our power to serve the Lord. When a thing done is evil not in its substance and because it is done but because of our irregular manner of performing of it we ought still to do it notwithstanding the defects cleaving to it 2 They should likewise hereby be made willing to go out of themselves to Jesus Christ for his spirit and merit Till Paul saw all that he could do to be but dung and dogs meat he never could duly esteem the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Till we account our owne righteousness to be but filthy rags we shall never esteeme Christs to be a beautiful robe 6. Observ 6. Envy is a pernicious and yet a groundless and foolish wickedness It was the entrance of Cains way and the in-let of his murder It 's a sin that breaks both Tables at once the first by discontent with God the latter by injuriousness to man Who is able to stand before Envy Cant. 8 6. Calamitas sine remedio est odis se foelicem Cypr. lib. de Zelo Livore Adhuc divitem malicia non descrit quem jam possidet poena qui non se ad Lazarum duci postulat sed ad se Lazarum â—ult deduci Chrysel Ser. 122. It 's as jealousie cruel as the grave it 's a Calamity without a Remedy Some understand that request of the rich Glutton that Lazarus might be sent to him with water to cool his tongue to proceed from Envy he desiring rather that Lazarus should be tormented with him then himself eased by Lazarus and he craving not that he should be carryed to Lazarus but that Lazarus should be sent to him It was the cruelty of Envy that sold innocent Joseph and that sought the destruction of good David From Envy it was that the Divel overthrew our first Parents and by it he puts Cain upon killing his innocent Brother and the Jewes upon murdering the holyest person in the world Plainly also doth this Envy of Cain discover the groundlesness of this sin The fault of Abel was not that he had hurt Cain Nusquiam melius invidos torqucre poteritis quà m virtutibus gloriae serviendo Aug. Ser. 18. ad frat in Erem but that God accepted Abel Truly is Envy therefore said to be worse then Covetousness The Covetous is only unwilling to distribute his own goods but he loves to see others communicate theirs but the Envious neither will do good himself nor is willing that others should do so he is angry that God is so bountiful It s worse then hatred and anger for these in desiring the hurt of another have their rise from the Offence which is offered by him but Envy hath its rise meerly from its own malignity Risus abest omnis nisi quem fecere dolores Successus hominum carpÃtque et carpitur una Supplicâ—úmque suum est And in some respect it 's the worst of all sins for when the Divel tempts to them he draws men by the bait of some delight but the Envious he catcheth without a bait for Envy is made up of bitterness and vexation Other mens welfare is the envious mans wound To him the Vine brings forth Thorns and the Fig-tree Thistles De melioratione deterioranâ—â—r sola miseria invidiâ caret Nothing but misery pleaseth him nor is any thing but misery spared by him Every smile of another fetcheth a sigh from him To him bitter things are sweet and sweet bitter And whereas the enjoyment of good is unpleasant without a companion Nuliius rei possessio jucunda sine socio Senec. One seeing an envious man very sad said I know not whether this man hath received some hurt or another some good the Envious had rather want any good then that another should share with him A certain Prince they say promised an Envious and a Covetous man that he would give them whatsoever they desired of him upon this condition that he who ask'd last should have twice so much as he who ask'd first when both were unwilling therefore to ask first the Prince commands the Envious man to ask in the first place and his request was that one of his own eyes might be put out that so both the other mans eyes might be put out also Superbia mihi aufert-Deum invidia prâ—ximum ira meipsum Hug. de S. Vict. August in loc Non illos malos faciendo sed istis bona quibus mali facillimè pessent invidere largiendo incitasse dicitur ad odium How contrary is Envy to Charity which without my labour makes all the happiness of another mine own Hence Envy is said to take away from every man his Neighbour It s said Psal 105.25 that God turned the heart of the Egyptians to hate his people which God did as Augustin interprets it not by making the Egyptians evil but by bestowing upon the Israelites those good things for which the wicked were ready to envy them To conclude envy is its own punishment a saw a scourge not so much to him upon whom it is set as to him in whom it is It 's a moth which breeds in us and corrupts us 'T is a natural sin The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy Saints have been overtaken with it Peter Joh. 21.20 21. Joshuah Numb 11.29 Qui faucibus invidiae carere desiderat illam haereditatem appetat quam numerus possidentium non angustat Greg. Let us labour against it To help us herein let us love such good things which one yea many may have without the detriment of others which may be enjoyed by be distributed to every one without diminution and withal beat down the love of our selves and the apprehension of our own Excellency Could we understand our owne baseness and unworthiness we should not envy those who are above us but wonder that any should be below us 7 There is no measuring of Gods love by outward events Observ 7. Wicked Cain stands over bleeding Abel whose Sacrifice was first accepted and now himself sacrificed Death was denounced as a curse for sin yet behold it first lights upon a Saint No man knows love or hatred by any thing which befals the outward man We cannot read or understand Gods heart by any thing he dispenseth outwardly with his hand Eccles 9.1 He oft suffers an Abel to be killed in love and a Cain to survive in hatred Prosperity and impunity often slay the sinner when
written in the heart can command and change the heart and destroy in it the love and propension to sin Here is clearly applicable that of the Psalmist Psal 114 5 What ailed thee Oh thousea that thou fleddest thou Jordan that thou wert driven back ye mountains that ye skipped like Rams and ye little hills like Lambs The answer is Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord. Who but God can stop the Sun in its career and make it go backward Who but he can stop a Saul in his Journey and make him go back as well in heart as in body and become more earnest in praying then ever now he was in persecuting The Church complaing that she was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoak Jer. 31.18 aptly adds Turn thou me and I shall be turned The giving of a clean heart is a work of Creation Create it in me saith David Nor is the Goodnesse of God herein less observable then his Power How great is that love which doth us good against our wills and turned us when we were running greedily to our own destruction when we regarded the perswasions of men no more then doth the wild Ass as Job speaks the cry of the Driver When all the means which friends parents Job 39.7 Ministers could use to reclaim us were lost upon us nay we much worse as was the woman in the Gospel by going to the Physician then what love was it nay was it not for Christ to teach to touch the heart and to turn us when we had run even to Hel gates Nor was the smartest dispensation the most unpleasing stop the most pricking thorny hedg any other then an unspeakable mercy that hindred thee from finding thy way to Hell and running greedily to thine own damnation How much better was it to be diverted then damned 7. They who strive to hinder sinners in their course Observ 7. are like to meet with unkind returnes of opposition Till God turnes their hearts how angry are men with stops and vexed that bridges are broken down when they are running greedily and marching furiously All the hatred which Ministers meet with is because they would stop sinners in their way to hell and will not suffer them to be at peace when they are going on to eternal paines Never did any meet with so many cruel and bloody contradictions from sinners as he who in his life Doctrin and death did most oppose sin Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth saith Paul He who was sent to turn people from Satan to God had all the rage of people and Satan turned against him Hatred saith Luther is the Genius of the Gospel Sauls Javelin followed Davids Musick It s very likely that he who is quiet among sinners suffers them to be quiet in sin We should pity sinners though nay because they oppose us if we turn them they will love and thank us and whensoever they come to be their own friends they will be ours However the Lord will reward even unsuccessful faithfulness and to be sure we can much better bear hatred from the wicked for doing then from God for neglecting our duty 8. Observ 8. The best way by which to try our sin cerity is willingness to be stopt in any way in which our lusts would make us run most greedily If sinners run greedily and violently after their Lusts then none but Saints can rejoice when they are stopt in the prosecution of them and bless God as David did for Abigails counsel when they are hindred in any sinful career God promiseth to his Elect a thorny hedg Hos 2.6 if they will be gadding and they look upon it as a singular mercy they being thereby turned back to their first husband Only the people of God love that preaching which most opposeth their Lusts and that Angel most or Messenger of God which stands with the drawn Sword of the Word to hinder them in their unlawful journey Exangue nobile quoddam Martyrii genus The patient and thankful enduring of stops and stroaks when we are sinning is a very Noble though a bloodless Martyrdom a true note of true grace 9 Observ 9. Men have most cause to suspect their courses are is bad when swift When they run greedily that they run wickedly when they run fast that they run wrong When we are in any way of God commonly we do but go or rather creep but in the way of sin after the Error of Balaam we are ready to run and that greedily too we are here carryed with wind and tide our own inclinations and Satans impulsions the Jewes cryed out against Christ they not so much as whispering against Barabbas It was misguided Zeal when the Disciples desired that fire might come down from heaven When ever we are furious in any March we should fear that we are in Balaams Journey I mean we ought to suspect the goodness of that undertaking wherein we are most violent and to doubt that we are sailing to a wrong Port when with a full gale and a strong tide A smooth if a false way should not delight us nor should a rugged if a right way dishearten us It s no sign thou pleasest God or speakest the Truth because men do not oppose thee in what thou dost or sayest We must be wiser then either Christ or his Apostles if we have got the skil to please the most in doing that which is best The peaceableness of sinners is but impiety not opposed Rather should I hope that what I do is right when wicked men most rage and roar against me for doing it When the Divel roars saith Luther it s a sign I have struck him right that is good which Satan hates To conclude this Embrace no opinion because it is maintained with multitudes and violence Fire and faggot of old were but weak arguments to prove the truth of Transubstantiation As strong passions destroy a good so do they not seldom discover a bad cause 1 Cor. 4.19 Non vociferatio sed ratio Paul resolved to know not the speech but the power of them who were puffed up The worship of Diana is cryed up with more rage then that of the true God is advanced with Zeal 10 Observ 10. Little do they who run down the hill know where they shall stop These Seducers poured forth themselves to the utmost Who knows in what a sad agreement the very Parley and Treaty with any Lust may end The more modest motions which it makes at first may end in an excessive immoderate pouring forth and a profuse spending of what we have and are our time estates yea strength of body and soul and all which is in our power to bestow upon it Men foolishly may think that when they have gone thus or thus far they will go no further and stop at their pleasure and that their Lusts will grow dry as he in
Daniel ub supr in the Reign of Henry the Seventh who though the greatest Peer in the Realm and laden with many Favours and great Offices yet was a man of that exorbitant and unbounded Ambition that nothing would please him but a Preferment which used to go to the Kings Eldest Son Though Peleon be layed upon Ossa and one Mountain of greatness upon another yet will an ambitious mind look upon them all as too low Kingdom added to Kingdom and could it be so world to world would but be a drop to the belly of the Elephant Ambition The best way to satisfie the thirst of one in a Feaver is in stead of giving him drink to cure his Distemper and he who hath the Itch shall more wisely take away the inward cause there of then think to allay it by scratching Le ts not think to satisfie our Lusts by making provision for them its Christian wisdom rather to study to kill then content inordinate desire and more to bring our hearts to our condition then our condition to our hearts Let us look upon that station of life wherein God hath set us as the best for us A garment which fits us is better for us though it be plain then one which is gaudy and three or four handfuls too big God best knowes how to order our Estates Should we be our own carvers we should often cut our fingers Let us also compare our Receipts with our deserts * and our selvs with our inseriors Observ 6. Naturae bonitas nisi pietate confirmetur facile illabescit Cart. Harm and though the former seem small when they stand by themselves yet if we set them by the latter they will appear of a large size and a tall stature 6. A meer man is firm and steady in no relation Natural relations unless back'd by grace are very slippery and unstable foundations of friendship Corah a wicked man though a neer kinsman to Moses proves his greatest Adversary Abels brother Josephs brethren Davids son could not be kept from Murder and Treachery by the bond of nature It is not the alliance but the renovation of nature that can establish friendship easily break the bonds of nature as Samson did his cords till his locks his Lusts be cut off No natural man accounts his own brother that lay in the same womb with him so near to him as the lust that lodgeth in his heart He provides friends most wisely for himself who either finds or makes them friends to God An enemy to God will not long be a friend to thee Natural love oft ends in an unnatural hatred A bad man will not conscienciously be a good husband son brother Grace doth not slay but sanctifie not annihilate but elevate nature turns water into Wine and Spiritualizeth carnal affection How just with God is it that he whom thou dost not desire to make Gods friend shall prove thy foe that thy child which is most cockered by thee in sin should afterward prove the greatest grief to thy heart God suffering to thy sorrow him to rebel against thee whom thou hast suffered and seen without sorrow to rebel against God 7 Innocency is no shelter from opposition Observ 7. The goodness of no person nor cause can exempt either from hatred No man meeker then Moses none better beloved then Aaron none more beneficial to Israel then both no cause more Righteous then the holding a Government to which they were appointed by God himself yet neither the persons nor their cause could be free from the conspiracies and contestations of sinners Jesus Christ himself endured their contradictions Heb. 12.3 and gainsayings It s no sign of a good man to have few opposers nor of a good Cause to have many abettors He who is not opposed by the stream goeth with it The world will hate where God loves So far is Holiness from exempting the Godly from the ill will of sinners that it drawes it forth Let other qualifications of Learning sweet nature Birth c. never so much abound yet Grace marrs the taste of all these in a carnal palat Antipathies can never be smothered reconciled The meekest Moses will he be a Moses shall be gainsayed notwithstanding his meekness The wicked rise up against the Faithful not for doing any evil against but for not doing evil with them If in our keeping close to God we meet with unkindness from the wicked let us not wonder if with love let us be thankful but yet withal suspicious of our selves that we do or at least cautelous that we may not sinfully correspond with them 8. Instruments of publick good Observ 8. often meet with unkind requitals Moses and Aaron Israels deliverers and defenders were gainsayd by an unthankful people Israel owed to these saithful Governors under God their provision peace and protection but for this the tribute which they paid was Conspiracy and Rebellion Nothing is so easily forgotten as the benefits we enjoy by Governors The lightest injuries are easily remembred and are like feathers that swim on the top of the water weighty favours like a piece of lead sink to the bottom and are forgotten Gideon had been a famous Deliverer of Israel Judg. 9.5 but the benefits which that unthankful people enjoyed by him are so neglected that they slew his sons 2 Chro. 24.21 22 Though Jehoiada was the renowned Restorer of Israels Government and Peace yet was his son destroyed by them who next to God owed all that was dear to them to his Faithfulness and Wisdom It s a Kingly honour to meet with unthankful returnes from those to whom we do much good The mothers brest gives milk to the froward Infant that strikes it God would have all especially Publick Officers in all the good they do to eye his Glory and command and not the applause of men No opposition must discourage us in the Faithful discharging of our places nor chase us from the station wherein God hath set us 9 Excellency and Superiority are the marks of Envy Observ 9. Invidemus inferiori ne nobis aequetur pari quia nobis aequatuâ— superiori quia ei nou ae quamur Though Moses and Aaron cannot be opposed for their sin yet they may be envyed for their Power As Equals are envyed because they are such and Inferiors lest they should be our Equals so principally Superiors because we are not equal to them Joseph was envyed because he was higher then his brethren in his fathers favour Nullae necessitudinis jura tam sancta et inviolaâ—a quae suâ—â— invidiae stimulos non pariuntur praescrtim cum quis inter cognatos ad impertum promovetur Mendez in 1 Sam. 10.16 Paterna largitatis memor non est qui est fraternae immemor charitatis haedum sibi datum negat qui tantam substantiam accepit Chrysol Ser 4. Senior dicitur eò quòd cito aliquis per invidiam consenesâ—â—t Ambr. in Luc. Haec est
of Gods love towards them as deserved unfeigned and fervent affections in them toward one another The Sacrament of the Lords Supper then promotes and testifies confirmes and contributes to the mutual love which ought to be among Christians The Passover but a shadow of the Lords Supper tended to increase the love of the Receivers 1. It was to be one whole Lamb. Exod. 12.2 3 6 8 15 19 46 49. 2. Not one bone of it was to be broken 3. It was a joynt action wherein every one was to communicate and therefore to be performed with joynt affection 4. It was to be eaten in one house to shew that there was to be among those who did eat an unity and harmony of hearts and affections One house will not hold those who are at jars and dissensions and divided in affection 5. The eating of the Passeover was to be done at one and the same time month day hour and that in the Evenning when they were all in their cold blood the injuries and offences of the day forgotten and forgiven the Sun being not to go down upon our wrath when their affections were as calm and quiet as the evening 6. The partakers of the Passeover were all to be ordered in the receiving thereof by one Law There was but one Law for the Stranger and the Home-born both did unanimously submit to the same rule and consent to the same direction 7. It was to be eaten without leaven whereby as the Apostle expounds it was noted the keeping the Feast without the leaven of Maliciousness and Wickedness 2 Chro. 30.12 1 Cor. 5.7 8. And when Hezekiah restored the Passeover it s expresly said that to all Judah was by the good hand of God given one heart and that they met at one time and in one place and that they kept the Feast of the Passover with great joy But if we look from the Shadow to the Substance Amâ—r dignitatis nesciuâ— dignationis dives we shall see this Love and Unity of the Faithful more clearly manifested 1. Our Saviour being to ordain this Sacrament gave all his Disciples an example of Christian and loving condesoension Joh. 13.4 34 even to the washing one anothers feet After this institution he presseth upon them the Commandment of Love as the chief Commandment and their principal Duty both by the president and precept of Love shewing that his Supper was a Communion of Love 2. Consider the appellations of this Sacrament It s called the Communion the Table of the Lord the Lords Supper Coena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word not noting the time of but fellowship in eating Eating together was ever held a token of friendship Josephs love to his brethren was testified by feasting them 2 Sam. 9.7 Davids love to Mephibosheth by causing him to eat bread at his Table continually David calls his familiar friend Stuck Antiq. Conv. l. 1. c. 3. one that did eat of his bread Psal 41.9 The eating at one Rack hath bred peace between the very savage Beasts And that hatred which was between the Jewes and Egyptians could no way be more fitly exprest then by their mutual abominating to eat bread one with another Men by nature are directed to express their loves and reconcilements by Feasts and Invitations and this Communion which by eating and drinking the Faithful have one with another the Apostle tells us comes from their partaking of one Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 The Cup of Blessing which we bless saith he is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ and the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread that is we partaking of the same Christ and having Communion in his Merits and Benefits have thereby Communion also one with another in the Lords Supper And we all partaking of that one Bread broken and divided into divers parts are made one Body and one Bread though we be never so many The Faithful then partaking all of one Christ and every one of them having Communion in his Body and Blood have also communion among themselves nor can this but be a Communion of much dearness and nearness which ariseth from the partaking of this one Christ and all his Benefits and Merits for hereby 1. They are all children of the same Father Gal. 3.26 We are all the Sons of God by faith in Christ and to as many as received him he gave power to be the Sons of God and what nearer bond then to be the children of the same Father In the Lords Supper the Faithful sit like Olive branches round about their Fathers Table Love as brethren saith the Apostle How good and pleasant is it saith the Psalmist for brethren to dwell together in unity 2 By partaking of this one Christ the Faithful are all Members of the same Body Ephes 4.15 and they grow up into him who is the head and from him receive life and grace being as Members animated with the same Spirit and therefore the Apostle speaks of drinking into one Spirit in the Lords Supper incorporate into his mystical Body now what can more aptly express the near union dear affection tender sympathy between Christian and Christian then this being fellow members of one body One member accounting the woe and welfare of another ven as its own 3. By partaking of one Christ in the Sacrament they profess themselves to be of the same Faith and Religion Religio à religando to expect life and happiness the same way for Christ is the way and this sameness of Religion hath bound those who have been of false Religions very strongly together Now that by feeding together in the Lords Supper there is profest a Communion in the same Religion the Apostle strongly proves 1 Cor. 10.18 from the practice of Israel after the flesh that is the Jewes who descended from Jacob or Israel by carnal propagation these carnal Israelites who lived in his time and denyed Christ were saith the Apostle by eating of the Sacrifices partakers of the Altar that is professed themselves to be of the Jewish Religion and Worship and to approve of the same 4. By partaking of one Christ at the Lords Supper the Faithful profess themselves to be the servants of one Lord and Master Fellow servants must not fall out and beat one another Luk. 12.45 The servants of this one Lord should be of one mind If Christ be not divided his servants should shun division 5. Hereby they profess that they are to be pardoned by the same blood shed for many for the remission of sins Matth. 28.28 And what inducement stronger to move us to forgive a few pence who have been forgiven so many pounds What wil quench hatred if the blood of Christ will not 6 Hereby they profess as that they all live in the same Family here where
lips like Isaiahs Isai 6.6 must be touched with a live coal and he must partake of that Spirit which came down in the likeness of fiery tongues to fire the affections of his Hearers and to make their hearts burn within them with love to holy duties It was said of Basil that he breathed as much fire as eloquence 4. The gift of comforting the distressed conscience of speaking a word in season to him that is weary Isai 50.4 of declaring to man his uprightness of binding up the broken heart and of pouring oyl into its wounds of dropping the refreshing dewes of the Promises upon the parched Conscience In a word of giving every one his Portion like a Faithful and wise Steward 5. Lastly They must have the water of Grace and Sanctification Of this their hearts and life should both be full If a Beast was not to come to the Mount where the Law was delivered much less may he who is a beast deliver the Law The Doctrine of a Minister must credit his life and his life adorn his Doctrine Dead Doctrine not quickned with a holy life like dead Amasa lying in the way stops people that they will not go on cheerfully in their Spiritual warfare Doth God require that the Beast which is offered to him should be without blemishes and can he take it well that the Priest who offers it should be full of blemishes He then who will win souls we see must be able and wise A Minister must be throughly furnished as Paul speaks There is some wisdom required to catch Birds 2 Tim. 3.17 Fish and Vermine how much more to catch souls The best Minister may blush to consider how unfit he is for his Calling and when he hath gotten the greatest abilities he should beg pardon for his unableness and pray and study for a further increase of his gifts They are none of Christs Ministers who are not in some measure gifted for their work He that sendeth saith Solomon a Message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet Prov. 26.6 and drinketh damage he is sure to suffer for it it being all one as if he should cut off a mans legs and then bid him go on his Errand To conclude how unworthy and profane are they who bestow such of their children upon the Ministry as are the dullest and most unfit of all their number who say that when a child is good for nothing be is good enough to make a Preacher whose children as Doctor Stoughton speaks in allusion to his speech who called Basil the Gift of an Ague he being preserved from the violence of an Arian Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he recovered his son of a dangerous Ague may be called the gift of some lameness infirmity deformity Offer it now to thy Governor will he be pleased with theâ— 4. Ministers are sustained and upheld in their work by the mighty power of God It is much to be wondred Mal. 1.8 that the Natural Observ 4. but more that the Spiritual clouds are kept from falling It s God who bindeth up the waters in the cloud so that it is not rent under them Job 26.8 He that established and made a decree which shall not pass for the waters above the Heavens Psal 148.4 6. It was God who preserved Elijah when Jezabel had vowed his death God delivered Paul out of the mouth of the Lion he kept Isaiah in his Ministry during the Reign of four and Hosea during the Reign of five Kings he continued Noah an hundred and twenty years against the opposition of the old world Jeremy notwithstanding all his enemies was upheld in his work till the Captivity God promiseth the Church that their Teachers should not be removed into corners but that their eyes should behold them Isai 30.20 Luke 13.32 A Minister of Christ may say as Christ of his working of miracles I preach the Word to day and to morrow and do the world what they can they shall not hinder me till that day be come that Christ hath appointed The Ministers are stars in Christs hand So long as there 's any one soul which these Lights are to guide to Heaven all the blasts of Hell can never extinguish them God sets them and God keeps them up he erects he upholds he gave and he continues their commission Durante beneplacito they are Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5.20 whom he calls home when he pleaseth Let not then the servants of Christ fear man in the doing of the work of their Lord. He who hangs the earth upon nothing and keeps the clouds from being rent under the burthen of the waters can uphold them under all their pressures Their times are in Gods hand they are neither in their own nor in their enemies They shall fight against thee said God to Jeremy but they shall not prevail against thee Jer. 1.19 for I am with thee Let faithful Ministers fear none but their Master and nothing but sin and unfaithfulness Not outward evils because he sleeps not who preserves them but inward evils because he sleeps not who observes them Let Ministers undauntedly make their faces hard against the faces of the wicked In their own cause let them be as flexible as a reed in Gods as hard as an Adamant who can powerfully say to the strongest enemies of his Ministers Do my Prophet no harm and who will turn the greatest harm which they receive for his sake into good and make even a fiery chariot to carry his zealous Elijahs into heaven Hence likewise people are taught how to have their faithfull Ministers continued namely by making God their friend who at His pleasure removes and continues them How carefull were they of Tyre and Sidon to be at peace with Herod because their Country was nourished by the Kings Country Acts 10. â—0 T is doubtlesse greater wisdom to make God our friend by whose Care and Providence our Country is nourished spiritually and supplied with those who should break the Bread of Life unto us If People would keep their Ministers let them keep and love no sin Upon the repentance of the Jews God promised them that his sanctuary should be in the midst of them for evermore Ezek. 37.26 Let them bring forth likewise the fruits of the Gospel The Husbandman layes his ground fallow when he perceives it will not quit Charges The Kingdom of heaven saith Christ shall be taken from you and given to a Nation which will bring forth the fruits thereof Mat. 21.43 Lastly let them be importunate with God in Prayer to uphold his Ministers Importunity held Christ with the Disciples when he was going away Luk. 24.29 Say Lord Thou shalt not go till thou hast blessea me with more spirituall blessings and grace by the means of grace Oh! lay hold upon God as Galeacius's children hung about his legs when their Father was going from them to live at Geneva The Prophet complains Isa
consciences and the judgments of all others 9. The empty are also unstable Observ 9. These clouds without water are by the Apostle said to be carried about of the winds The Apostle 2 Pet. 3.16 joyns the unlearned and unstable together and Heb. 13.9 he mentions the establishment of the heart with grace A heart then empty of saving knowledg and true holiness is soon unsetled and needs must it be so being not firmly united to and set into Christ by faith unbelief and distrust make a man carried up and down like a Meteor He who is not built upon the Rock can never stand if a Reed be not tyed to some stronger thing it can never be kept from bending and shaking where grace the fruit is not there Christ the root is not and where there is no root there is no stability Further where there is a total emptiness of holiness there is an emptiness of peace and contentment there is no peace to the wicked And he who wants true contentment will ever be looking out for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where it is not to be had without joy life is no life and if it be not gotten one way another will be tryed Who will shew us any good is the language of natural men they have still hopes to be better and like men in a Fever they toss from one side of the bad to the other in hope to finde coolness and refreshment but a soul that exerciseth it self in the ways of holiness tells every temptation You would draw me away to my lose 2 Cor. 7.32 35 Cor non tutum nisi totum Scinditur in certum studia in contraria Yet again a heart void of grace is divided in the service of God and therefore an unsetled heart t is not united to fear Gods Name it serves not the Lord without distraction all of its love fear joy runs not one way but having inclinations not wholly bestowed upon God and several ways of the hearts out-going from God being allowed its never safe and certain when the scales are even in weight they tremble and waver sometime one is up sometime another they who will serve two Masters God and the creature and are double-minded and will divide their hearts between them will often be wavering and shew themselves sometimes for Religion sometime for the world grace fixeth and weighs down the heart for God and to God and chuseth him onely Here 's the true Reason then in the general why men are so tossed and carried away from the truth of the Gospel they are empty of the truth of grace they go from us because they were never of us they are a Land-flood a Cistern onely receiving from without and void of an inward living principle and fountain 10. Observ 10. Christians should beware of unstedfastness of being carried away with any winds from their holy stedfastness in the truth Continue in the things which you have learned 2 Tim. 3.14 Be not as children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine To this end 1. Let the Word of Christ ballast your souls store them with the knowledg of saving Principles of Religion Empty Table-books are fit to have any thing written in them and a soul empty of the knowledg of wholsome truths is a fit receptacle for any error Do ye not err saith Christ because ye know not the Scriptures Mat. 22.29 Stones will easily be removed unless fixed upon a foundation He who buyes commodities without either weighing or measuring them may easily be deceived the Scripture is the measure and ballance of every opinion How easily may he be cheated with Errors in stead of truth who buyes onely in the dark Ignoran◠Christians are like Infants which gape and take in whatsoever the Nurse puts to their mouths 2. Labour to get your hearts fastned to the truth by love as well as your heads filled with the truth by light he who never loved truth may easily be brought to leave truth and to imbrace error He who embraced truth he knew not why will forsake it he knows not how the heart which hath continued deceitful under truth may soon be deceived by error a literal without an experimental knowledg of the truth may quickly be drawn to error from that wherein we find neither pleasure nor profit we may easily be enticed But when once we feel the truth both enlightning and delighting unloading its treasures of glory into our souls quieting our consciences quelling our lusts changing us into the Image of the Lord quickning our graces Seducers will not be able to cheat us of this Jewel because we know they can bring us nothing in exchange for which we should barter it away 3. Let there not be any one lust * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph in Rom. 16. allowed within thee to loosen thee from the truth They who are not sound in the fear of God may easily become unsound in the faith of God A remisse heart will close with remiss principles The mystery of Faith must be held in a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.9 which some saith the Apostle having cast away have made shipwrack of the faith he comparing conscience to a ship and faith to a treasure therein imbarked which must needs miscarry if the ship be cast away any corrupt affection entertained the soul like an unwalled and unfenced City lies open to the rage and rapine of and ruine by any enemy If Seducers sute their bait to the unmortified lust of a sinner Prov. 25.8 he is easily made their prey Of this at large before Particularly beware of Pride the proud Christian Page 615 616 617 part 1. like a light puft bladder will easily be puft any way of Error a Bird of a very small carkass and of many Feathers is easily carried away with the wind Pride is the mother of Heresie the proud man it is who consents not to wholsome Doctrine but dotes about questions 1 Tim. 6.3 4. Humility is the best fence against Error an humble man is so small in his own eyes that the shot of Seducers cannot hit him and lies so low that all their Bullets fly over him God teacheth the humble but the proud person is Satans Scholler 2. Fence thy soul against worldly mindedness a worldly heart will be bought and sold at every rate The truth can never be safe in the closet of that heart which Error can open with a golden picklock The covetous both make merchandise of others 2 Pet. 2.13 14. and will be made merchandise by others The hook of error is easily swallowed down by a worldly heart if it be baited with though filthy lucre Take heed of being a servant of truth Fraus malitia haereticorum vel dolend a est tanquam hominum vel cavenda est tanquam haereticorum vel irridenda tanquam imperitorum Aug. for gain for if so thou wilt soon be a slave unto error for more
the roots 2 Therfore I understand with Reverend Mr. Perkins and others that these words without fruit are as it were a correction of the former as if the Apostle had said they are trees whose fruit withereth or rather without fruit altogether the fruit which they bear not deserving so much as the name of fruit as trees that bear no other then withering fruit are esteemed no better then unfruitfull trees and thus notwithstanding their withering fruit they may be said to be without fruit in sundry respects 1. They were without fruit in regard that all their forementioned fruits were not produced by the inward life and vigour of the spirit of sanctification in their souls Their fruit grew upon a corrupt tree and proceeded from an unclean bitter root They were not the issues of a pure heart and faith unfaigned but the streams of an unclean fountain The fruitfulnesse onely of slow-bushes Crab-trees and brambles cannot make the year be accounted a fruitfull year A corrupt tree saith Christ cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.18 How can ye that are evill speak good things Mar. 12.24 Their best fruits were but fruits of nature coming from an unregenerated heart That fruit which before his conversion Paul accounted as precious as gold he after esteemed as base as dung 2. They were without fruit in regard their fruits were not brought forth to a Divine end they were directed to no higher an end then selves Riv. in loc Israel saith God is an empty Vine though bringing forth fruit for it followes he bringeth forth fruit to himself I am not ignorant that some Interpreters expound not that Text concerning the fruit of works though yet they grant the place may be by consequence drawn to take in them likewise As these fruits were not fruits of righteousnesse Phil. 1.11 so neither were they to the praise of his glory If thou wilt return O Israel saith God return to me Jer. 4.1 They returned saith the Psalmist but not to the most high The pipe cannot convey the water higher than is the fountain head from whence it comes and these fruits being not from God were not directed to him Fruits brought forth to our selves are rotten at the core they are not for his taste who both looks into and tries the heart 3. They might be without fruit as not producing works in obedience to the Rule The doing of the thing commanded may possibly be an act of disobedience God looks upon all our works as nothing unlesse we do the thing commanded because it is commanded This onely is to serve him for conscience sake A man may do a good work out of his obedience to his lust As its possible for a man to believe 1 Thess 4.3 1 Thess 5.18 not because of Divine Revelation so is it possible for a man to work and not upon the ground of Divine injunction Be not unwise but understand saith the Apostle what is the will of God Eph. 5.17 Mans wisdom is to understand and follow Gods will 4. Without fruit as to their own benefit comfort and salvation The works of Hypocrites are not ordained by God to have heaven follow them at the last day all they had or did will appear to be nothing and when the Sun shall arise then the works which here have shined like glow-worms shall appear unglorious and unbeautiful of all that hath been sown to the flesh shall nothing be reaped but corruption God crowns no works but his own nor will Christ own any works but those which have been brought forth by the power of his own Spirit 5. Lastly Without the fruit of any goodness in Gods account because without love to God 1 Cor. 13. Love is the sweetness of our services If I have not love saith Paul I am nothing and as true is it without it I can do nothing the gift of an enemy is a gift and no gift As love from God is the top of our happiness so love to God is the sum of our duty There is nothing beside love but an Hypocrite may give to God with Gods people it is the kernel of every performance God regards nothing we give him unless we give our selves also Its love which makes a service please both the master and servant Now wicked men in all they bring forth though they may have bounty in the hand yet have no love in the heart they have not a drop of love in a Sea of service This for the Explication of the second aggravation or gradation of the sin and misery of these Seducers they were without fruit The third follows in these words twice dead These words I take to express a further degree of their spiritual wretchedness under the continued Metaphor of Trees 'T was bad to have withering fruit worse to have no fruit at all worse yet to be not only without all fruit but even altogether without life twice dead Two things are here to be explained 1. In what respect these trees may be said to be dead 2. How to be twice dead For the first Death is 1. Temporal and Corporal that which is a privation of life by the departure of the soul from the body 2. Spiritual befalling either the godly or the wicked 1. The godly are said to be dead spiritually three wayes 1. Dead to sin Rom. 6.2 1 Pet. 2.24 the corruption of their natures being by the Spirit of Christ subdued and destroyed 2. Dead in respect of the Law Ceremonial Col. 2.20 dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world Moral Gal. 2.19 So Paul saith he was dead to the Law and Rom. 7.4 Ye are dead to the Law it being not able to make them guilty who are in Christ nor to terrifie their consciences nor to irritate them to sin 3. Dead to the world Gal. 6.4 so Paul was crucified to the world either because the World contemned and despised him as a dead man or else because the world had no more power to entice and allure him from Christ then the objects of the senses have to work upon a dead man 2. Spiritual death befalls the wicked and unregenerate they being without the Spirit of Christ to animate and quicken them which Spirit enlivens the soul supernaturally as the soul doth the body naturally hence they are said to be dead in sins Eph. 2.1.5 Col. 2.13 and dead Mat. 8.22 Luke 9.60 Rom. 6.13 Joh. 5.25 and to remain in death 1 Joh. 3.14 Their works hence are said to be dead Hebr. 9.14 As the immortality of the damned is no life but an eternall death so the conjunction of the souls and bodies of wicked men is not properly life but umbratilis vita a shadow of life or rather a very death they being without spiritual feeding growth working all vital operations and lying under the deformity loathsomness insensibleness in a spiritual sense of such as are dead or according to the resemblance here used by our Apostle which is
afterward In like manner these seducers of whom Jude speaks had a double death or were twice dead first they were dead in respect of their natural condition by being as are others born in sin and so as the Apostle speaks Ephes 2.1 dead in sin from this they were so far recovered as that they seem'd to live and as Peter speaks 2 Pet. 2.20 to have escaped the pollutions of the world and by visible profession to flourish and to give fair hopes of bearing good fruit notwithstanding this first death they were not given over as irrecoverable but their later death which was by Apostacy from the faith of Christ by reintangling themselves in the pollutions of the world and returning to their vomit and wallowing in the mire brought them into such a hopelesse deplorable condition that our Apostle no more expected their recovery then the restoring of a tree dead twice or the second time Indeed there is an Apostacy of impotency of affection and prevalency of lust a recidivation or relapse into a former sinfull condition out of forgetfulnesse and falsenesse of heart for want of the fear of God to ballance the conscience and to fix and unite the heart to him This was the frequent sin of Israel in breaking their Covenants Psal 106.7 8 9 12 13. and this falling from our first love and returning again to folly though it be exceeding dangerous yet God is pleased sometimes to forgive and heal it as he promiseth to some Hos 14.3 But there is another kind of Apostacy which is proud wilful stubborn malicious and whereby after the taste of thâ— good word of God and the powers of the world to come Men set themselves to hate and oppose godlinesse to do despight to the spirit of grace to rage against the word to trample upon the blood of the Covenant and when they know the spiritualness and holiness of Gods waies the innocency and piety of his servants they do yet set themselves against them for that very reason though under other pretences This speaking against the Spirit this opposing persecuting the doctrine worship waies servants of Christ so as that the formal motive of malice against them is the lustre and holinesse of that spirit which appeareth in them and the formal principle of it neither ignorance nor self ends but very wilfulnesse and immediate malignity is that daring height of enmity against godlinesse which shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come i. e. say some Matth. 12.32 neither in this life by justification nor in the world to come by publick judiciary absolution or rather as others shal be plagued and punished in this life and in that which is to come In the former spiritually in the other eternally and God leads those who thus offend forth with the workers of iniquity as cattle are led to slaughter or malefacters to execution And hence it was that Peter Epist 2 2 20. said their later end is worse then their beginning and that it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousnesse then after they have known it to turn from the holy commandments delivered to them Nor is the irrecoverablenesse of such backsliders any wonder 1. This their Apostacy in the formal nature of it is quâ—tâ— contrary to faith and repentance John 6.37 by faith we come to Christ cleave to him prize Christ as infinitely precious but by this apostacy we draw back depart from him let him go vilifie set him at naught and after covenant entred into with God fling up the bargain and deal with our sins as the Israelites did with their servants dismiss them and then take them again and in a word so repent of our former that our heart is incurably hardned against future repentance Luke 12.47 2. And further such of all sinners most provoke God to beat them with many stripes a much sorer punishment do they deserve then did those who died without mercy they sin wittingly and willingly not out of ignorance but against knowledg not only against light but love also and they trampling upon the blood spurning against the bowels of Christ even mercy it self becoms their enemy and pardoning grace frequently tendred Ex perversâ voluntate facta libido Dum servitur libidini facta consuetudo Dum consuetudini non resistitur facta necessitas Aug. l. 8. Conf c. 5. and seemingly received but truly rejected now condemns them so that they cannot sin at so cheap a rate as they who never had the knowledg of Christ 3. Besides their foreheads are now steeld and they are made impudent in sin The oftner a thief is imprisoned the less he blusheth Custome in sin makes the heart brawny insensible and seared as with an hot Iron lust causeth custome and custome contracts necessity and every return to sin makes the sinner more unable to resist it When a disease first meets with a strong constitution it finds an enemy to grapple with as it weakens the body so the body weakens it both their forces spend together one upon another and they fight upon some terms of equality But suppose the body gets the victory Debilitas ad resurgendum in recidivante augmentatur and the disease departs yet if a new adversary a new sicknesse soon sets upon it again here is great odds the one is fresh the other quite out of heart it is not now strong enough to bear the means of recovery but altogether lies at the diseases mercy In the first estate of sin the soul perhaps did grapple with sin and if it were foyl'd yet not without reluctancy it could endure reproof and suffer the word of exhortation but sin returning upon it again the soul is so weakned that it makes no resistance sin entring as an enemy upon a weakned and depopulated Country When Satan returns to his house saith Christ he finds it empty that is empty of the Spirit of God and the power thereof Matth. 12 44. which might oppose him as well as swept and garnished i. e. adorned with all those unbeautiful and deformed beauties which please him All the former profession of an apostate serves but to make him take the deeper die in sin and no colour is so lasting as when profanenesse is laid upon appearing holinesse Lastly Satans reentry is with more fiercenesse and resolution then was at the first his Entry when he returns to his house from whence he came out as he finds the house empty and swept c. so he brings seven spirits with him worse then himself After he was compell'd to go out of the man he found no rest saith the text yea all the while he was banish'd out of him he was as a man living in a dry and desert wildernesse Quamdiu domicilium in hominibus non inveniat omnia loca vel cultissima squalidas solitudines existimat Cartw. harm for such is every habitation to Satan in
considered alone by it selfe as a distinct Covenant for so it gendereth onely to bondage Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing of faith q d. ye receved the spirit by hearing the gospel 2 Cor. 3.8 The gospel is call'd the ministration of the Spirit 2. 'T is kept by following his motions and suggestions Make much of his presence the Spirit is a delicate thing grieve him not by negligence in using his gifts pride Eph. 4.30 eagernesse after the world sensualitie ungodly company premeditated repeated sins c. If the Spirit be gone thy best friend is gone 'T was Davids prayer Take not thy holy spirit from me Without the spirit thou art like lockless Samson as another man poor weak Samson when the Lord was departed thou art like a ship winde-bound No stirring without the spirits gales Lord what were my life if I could not pray it would even be my burden and how can I pray without thy spirit As a man cannot preach without externall mission so not pray without internall motion 7. How happy are saints in all straits Obs Vlt. they have the spirit to help them pray Ther 's nothing but sin can drive or keep away the spirit Sufferings prisons banishments c. cannot and hast thou the spirit 't is better like Jonah to be praying in a Whales belly then without the Spirit to be devout in a gilded chappel Suppose thy friends cannot will not visit thee the Spirit is a guest that cannot be excluded Like Joseph he delights to manifest himselfe to his when all are gone out Holy Mr. Dod was wont to say never despair of him who can but pray Suppose men cut out thy tongue or stop thy mouth they cannot hinder thee from praying in the Spirit because not the Spirit from praying in thee Ver. 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to Eternall life THe fourth direction whereby the Apostle guides them to observe his exhortion to contend for the Faith against seducers and seduction is contain'd in these words Keep your selves in the Love of God A very apt and sutable mean and course for the foresaid end and purpose for he that will be a friend to God can never be in love with errour which drawes the soul away from God and his truth Two particulars are here in this direction contained 1. That thing about which the Christians were to be employed or the object The love of God 2. How they were to be imploy'd about it viz. By keeping themselves therein Ther 's the act EXPLICATION So that by way of Explication two things may be enquired after 1. What the Apostle intends by the love of God 2. What by keeping themselves therein 1. For the first by the love of God I here understand not that love whereby God loveth man but that whereby man loveth God resteth in him and cleaveth to him as the most absolute good of this both in respect of its severall kindes and properties as also in severall Observations I have very largely spoken in my first part Page 124.136 148. c. To avoid tediousnesse and repetition I shall refer to that place 2. For the second by keeping themselves in this Love I understand perseverance in the loving of God or a preserving of the love of God in their hearts from all those things whereby they might be enticed to let it goe and part with it and this preservation or keeping thereof stands in using those meanes which God hath ordained to preserve in us our Love toward him which is done by sundry 1. Considerations 2. Pactises 1. Considerations 1. Of Gods Lovelinesse and soule-ravishing perfections and his blessed sutablenesse to our soules exigencies Part 1. pag. 152. when we know him to be a full good as having all the scattered Excellencies of all the world and all the persons and things therein in himselfe and infinitely more a filling good and able to satisfie our desires to the brim 2. By considering that he loves us loved us first and perseveres and rests in his love The more we walke in this sun the hotter we shall be nay were our hearts as cold as stones Zeph. 3 17. the sunshine of his love upon us should heat us with love toward him againe Of this at large before part 1. pag. 152.153 3. That every one of us keeps up a love to something the poorest of us hath a love and if not for God for that which is infinitely below him yea which is unworthy of us 4. That we have nothing besides love to give him 5. That he accepts of it in stead of all other things seeks it bespeaks it Deut. 10.40 6. That we alway professe we love him and have chosen him Josh 24.12 7. That its a greater dishonour to him to cease to love him then never to have begun to love him at all 8. That the keeping of our selves in his love is the true keeping of love to our selves Deut. 5.19 We are the gainers by loving him we forsaking his love and our own mercy at once 2. By practises As 1. By keeping our selves in a constant hatred of all sin As love to sin growes love to God will decay These are as two buckets as the one comes up the other goes down 2. By keeping our selves in the delight of Gods friends and favourers who will ever be speaking well of him and by taking heed of those misrepresentations that sinners make of him and his wayes 3. By keeping our selves in the delight of the ordinances wherein his glory and beauty are display'd and Communion with himselfe is enjoyed and our love is increas'd by these in exercising it 4. By endeavouring for an holy remissenesse in loving other things when we love the world as alwayes about to leave and loath it A soul weaned from these brests will onely feed upon Communion with and the enjoyments of God 1 Joh. 2.15 If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him No outward object should be further beloved then as it is either a pledge of Gods love to us or an incitement of ours to him in short nothing should be loved much but onely he whom we cannot love too much 5. Lastly by keeping up and increasing of Brotherly love among our selves for though the love of God be the cause which makes us love our brethren yet the love of our brethren is not onely a signe but an excellent preservative of our loving of God In every saint we may see Gods image he is Gods best picture now though the love of a man makes us love his picture yet the often delightfull looking upon his picture continues and inflames our love toward him the fire of love to God will be extinguisht in an heart cold and frozen to the saints our love to God and the godly grow and decay together the Sun on the dyal moves