univocè dicitur say the Schoolmen God is not simply Invisible but in reference to us Angels and Saints above see him they behold his face He is Invisible to a mortal eye as the Apostle speaketh Reasons First God is a Spirit because a Spirit is the best highest and purest Nature God being the most excellent and highest Nature must needs be a Spirit too Secondly God is a most simple and noble being therefore must needs be incorporeal Angels and souls have a composition in them their Essence and Faculties are distinguished they are compounded of Subject and Accidents their Nature and Qualities or Graces but Gods Holiness is his Nature Thirdly God is insensible therefore a Spirit Spirits are not subject to senses Iohn 1. 18. This confutes 1. Tertullian who held God to be corporeal then he should consist of matter and form 2. The Anthropomorphites who ascribed to God the parts and members of a man they â—lledâ—e that place Gen. 1. 27. But some think the soul is the only subject and seat in which the Image of God is placed Grant that it was in the body likewise it being capable of Immortality yet a man was not said to be made after the Image of God in respect of his corporal figure but in respect of Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness Ephes. 4. 23. Col. 3. 10. not in respect of his substance but qualities Object God is said to have Members Face Hands Eyes in some places of Scripture and yet in others he is said not to be a body but a Spirit and consequently to have no hands nor eyes Answ. The word Hand and Eye is taken figuratively for the power of seeing and working which are actions that men perform with the hand and eye as an Instrument and so it is attributed to God because he hath an ability of discerning and doing infinitely more excellent then can be found in man Sometimes again those words are taken properly for members of the body of some such form fashion making so they are not to be attributed unto God who because he hath no body cannot have an hand an eye A body is taken three wayes 1. For every thing which is opposite to a fancy and notion and so whatever hath a being may be called a body in this sense Tertullian attributes a body to God 2. For that thing which hath some composition or change so God onely is incorporeall 3. More strictly for that which consists of matter and form so some say Angels are incorporeal 3. This shews the unlawfulness then of painting the God-head Cajetan disliked it Bellarmine b argues thus Man is the Image of God But man may be pictured Therefore the Image of God may be pictured Man is not the Image of God but in the faculties of his soul which cannot be pictured therefore the Image of God cannot be pictured Although the whole man may be said Synecdochically to be pictured yet is not man called the Image of God in his whole but in a part which is his reasonable and invisible soul which can not be pictured 1. We must call upon God and worship him with the Spirit our Saviour Christ teacheth us this practical use Iohn 4. 24. Blesse the Lord O my soul Psalm 103. Whom I serve in the Spirit saith Paul The very Heathen made this inference Si Deus est animus sit pura mente colendus 1. The Lord chiefly cals for the heart Prov. 23. 26. His eye is upon it Ezekiel 33. 31. 2. He abhors all services done without the heart Matth. 5. 8. 3. It hath been the great care of Gods people to bring their hearts to these services Phil. 3. 3. Motives to excite us when we draw neer to God to bring our hearts 1. It is this only which will make the service honourable Gal. 4. 9. 2. This only makes it acceptable 1 Pâ—t 2. 5. Hos. 14. 6. 3. This only makes it profitable 1 Tim. 4. 7. Heb. 9. 9. Rom. 6. 22. 4. This only will make it comfortable all true comfort flows from the sweetness in fellowship with God and Christ Revel 3. 24. 5. Else in every service we tempt God Acts 5. 9. Isa. 29. 13. How to know when I serve God in my heart or worship him in Spirit 1. Such a ones great care in all services will be to prepare his heart before-hand 2 Chron. 30. 9. 2. Then the inward man is active thorowout the duty Revel 3. 3. 2 Pet. 1. 5. 3. Then one keeps his thoughts intent throughout Matth. 6. 21. 4 The grief after the duty done will be that the heart was so much estranged from God in duty 2. God though invisible in himself may be known by things visible He that seeth the Sonne hath seen the Father Joh. 14. 9. We should praise God as for other Excellencies so for his Invisibility 1 Tim. 1. 17. 2. Learn to walk by faith as seeing him who is Invisible Heb. 11. 27. 3. Labour for pure hearts that we may see God hereafter 4. Here is comfort against invisible Enemies we have the invisible God and invisible Angels to help us 3. God hath immediate power over thy Spirit to humble and terrifie thee He is the Father of Spirits he cannot only make thee poor sick but make thy conscience roar for sin it was God put that horrour into Spira's spirits He is a Spirit and so can deal with the Spirit Lastly Take heed of the sins of the heart and spirit ignorance pride unbelief insincerity 2 Cor. 7. 1. 1 Thess. 5. 23. such as not only arise from but are terminated in the spirit These are first abhorred by God He is a Spirit and as he loveth spiritual performances so he hates spiritual iniquities Gen. 6. He punisht the old world because all the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts were evil 2. Most contrary to the Law of God which is chiefly spiritual 3. Sin is strongest in the spirit as all evil in the fountain Mat. 15. 19. â—4 Spiritual evils make us most like the Devils who are spiritual wickednesses All sin is from Satan per modum servitutis these per modum imaginis We should therefore also take heed to our own spirits because of the danger we are in from these spiritual adversaries 1. They are malignant spirits 1 Iohn 5. 18. and 2. 13 14. 2. The spirit of a man is most maligned by Satan all he did to Iobs name estate posterity was to enrage his spirit 3. The spirit of a man is frequently and very easily surprized few men are able to deny temptations that are sutable 4. When the spirit is once surprized one is ready to ingage with and for the Devil Mat. 12. 30. 5. The spirit will then bring all about for the service of sin the excellent parts of the minde wit memory strength Rom. 8. 7. and 6. 13 19. Iames 3. 15. Matth. 23. 15. 6. It is hard for such a sinner to be
souls of men 2 Cor. 11. 3. Ministers must preach often especially on the Sabbath Our Saviour preacht every Sabbath day Luk. 4. 21. So did Paul Act. 17 2. See 2 Tim. 4. 2. The Fathers preacht twice every Lords-day and almost every week-day Paul bids the Minister preach in season and out of season the Sabbath by reason of the publick meeting is a season of preaching it is requisite therefore for him to preach every Sabbath Again Christs custom was to go into the Synagogue every Sabbath-day and so the Apostles 3. The sanctifying of the Sabbath must be done in the best manner that may be both by Minister and people the Minister must be helpful to the people in the sanctifying of it he may then preach if he will give himself to reading and study as he is commanded 4. His duty is to labour in the Word and Doctrine that is to take great pains in it therefore he must preach Sabbath after Sabbath 5. Every one is required to be plentifull in the work of the Lord therefore the Minister in his special work of preaching must be plentifull and this he is not unlesse he preach at least every Sabbath and if his strength will serve him twice both morning and evening Ministers must in their preaching denounce Gods wrath against sinners 1 Sam. 12. 25. How comminatory are our Saviours words O generation of vipers how can you escape the condemnation of hell And Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites And Woe unto the world because of offences And Woe be unto you that are rich and that laugh There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Paul is sharp 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. For such things sake the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience Tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul that doth evil Moses dischargeth many vollies of curses upon those which break the Law of the Lord. Reasons 1. Because there is in every man an old man to be beaten down the threats of the Word are a necessary instrument for working in a man a hatred of sin 2. There remaineth in the best of Gods servants much presumption whereby they are apt to imbolden themselves in sinning the Law must make way for the Gospel the threats of the Word are a most needful means of humiliation This is the most fruitful and profitable teaching It is good for the impenitent to make him repent and for the penitent to make him repent more if they wisely limit the threats they utter There is a Frierly kinde of preaching to presse resemblances and similitudes too farre and a Jesuitical preaching to declaim much against Hereticks and urge some things of Morality But the best preaching is to convince men of their misery by sin and to shew them the way to avoid it Plain preaching is most profitable for a mixt Auditory He is the best Scholar that can teach Christ plainliest and for my part if I would set my self to be idle I would choose that kinde of preaching which is counted so laborious Dr Taylor on Tit. 9. Paul saith he there being the greatest Schollar of all the Apostles was the most fearful to make the least shew of it Doctor Preston being asked Why he preached so plainly and dilated so much in his Sermons answered He was a Fisherman Now Fishermen said he if they should winde up the Net and so cast it into the Sea they should catch nothing but when they spread the Net then they catch the Fish I spread my Net said he because I would catch the Fish that is I preach so plainly and dilate so much in my Sermons that I may win souls to Christ. Ministers must preach in the evidence and demonstration not so much of Art or Nature as of the Spirit and Grace Many turn sound preaching into a sound of preaching tickling mens ears like a tinkling cymbal King Iames resembled the unprofitable pomp of such self-seeking discourse stuft with a vain-glorious variety of humane allegations to the red and blew flowers that pester the corn when it stands in the field where they are more noisom to the growing crop then beautiful to the beholding eyes There is a kinde of fine neat dainty preaching consisting in well-sounding words and of strains of humane wit and learning to set out the skill and art of the speaker and make the hearer applaud and commend him which a man may well doubt whether ever God will blesse to the winning of souls These self-preaching men that make preaching little else but an ostentation of wit and reading do put the sword of the Spirit into a velvet scabbard that it cannot prick and wound the heart The word of God seems to be most conveniently applied by handling it after the manner of Doctrine and Use this course is of all other the fittest for the memory of speaker and hearer for the capacity of the simple and for the profitable making use of all learning and reading It giveth least scope to wander from the Text and holdeth a man most closely to the revealed will of God It hath the clear example of Christ who Luk. 4. having read his Text first interpreted it then observed the points of Doctrine saying This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears Then he began to apply it by way of reproof which he illustrated with â—it examples out of Scripture and so would have proceeded but his hearers moved with rage interrupted him The Doctrine must be soundly deduced out of the Text and then substantially handled It is a proposition either expressed in the Text or else concluded from it It must be proved by a Text or two of Scripture and confirmed by reason taken from the causes or effects or some other logical argument The Use is a Proposition syllogistically inferred from the Doctrine as the Doctrine is from the Text. The chief kinds of Uses are 1. Confirmation of truth 2. Refutation of error 3. Reproof of sin mixed with terror and dehortation 4. Instruction mixed with exhortation to do well 5. Consolation or strengthening for and in well-doing All Doctrines will not yeeld all these Uses but some one some another wherefore those must be taken that are fittest for time place or matter The preaching of all Doctrines is to end in Use and Application When Christ had laid down all the speculative considerations about the day of Judgement he bids them make use of it Matth. 24. â—2 Exhortation is so necessary that all the ministerial work is called by this name Act. 2. 40. 13. 15. See 1 Tim. 4. 13. 6. 2. In all the Epistles after the doctrinal part followeth the hortatory Tit. 1. 9. See Iohn 4. 9. We have divers examples of such as applied the word particularly to the hearers 1 King 18. 18. Hos. 5. 1. Mal. 2. 1. Luk. 3. 19. This preaching is enjoyned to Ministers under the Gospel Isa. 58. 1. Tit.
punisheth the sins of the Elect in his own Son when he was made sin he was made a curse 4. How small sins have been punished The Angels for one aspiring thought were cast into hell Uzza struck dead for touching the Ark fifty thousand Bethshemites for looking into it Mr. Peacock felt a hell in his conscience for eating too much at one meal 5. The appointing of everlasting torments We should hate sin for God hateth it and that with the greatest hatred even as hell it self Rom. 129. Sin is the first principal and most immediate object of hatred Paul mentioning divers evils saith God forbid I hate vain thoughts saith David our affections must be conformable to Gods He hateth nothing simply but sin and sinners for sinnes sake 2. Sin is as most injurious to God so most hurtful to man therefore it is in it self most hateful The ground of hatred of any thing is the contrariety of it to our welfare as we hate wild fierce and raging beasts for their mischievousnesse Toades and Serpents for their poysonfulness which is a strong enemy to life and health Sin is the most mischievous and harmful thing in the world Just hatred is general of whole kindes as we hate all Serpents so we should all sins Means to hate sin 1. Pray to God that his Spirit may rule and order our affections and set the same against evil 2. Exercise our selves in meditating of the infinite torments of hell which sin deserveth and the fearful threats denounced against it in the word of God of all sorts of evils 3. We should labor to get out of our natural estate for the unregenerate man hates God Psal. 81. 15. Rom. 1. 30. Christ Iohn 7. 7. and good men eo nomine as Cain did Abel 1 Iohn 3. 10 12. they hate Gods ways and Ordinances Prov. 1. 22 29. This hatred is 1. Causelesse Psa. 69. 44. 2 Intire without any mixture of love 3. Violent Psal. 53. 3. 4. Irreconcilable Gen. 3. 15. CHAP. IX Of the Affections of Anger and Clemency given to God Metaphorically OTher affections which are given to God metaphorically and by an Anthropopathy are 1. Anger and its contrary complacency or gentlenesse which are improperly in God for he is neither pleased nor displeased neither can a sudden either pertubation or tranquillity agree to God but by these the actions of God are declared which are such as those of offended and pleased men are wont to be viz. God by an eternal and constant act of his will approves obedience and the purity of the creature and witnesseth that by some sign of his favour but abhors the iniquity and sin of the same creature and shews the same by inflicting a punishment not lesse severe but far more just then men are wont to do when they are hot with anger Exod 32. 10. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great Nation Gods Anger is an excellency of his own Essence by which it is so displeased with sin as it is inclined to punish the sinner or a setled and unchangeable resolution to punish sinners according to their sins God is greatly moved to anger against all impenitent sinners especially the unjust enemies of his people Rom. 1. 18. and 2. 8 9. 1 Cor. 10. 22. Ephes. 5. 6. and Col. 3. 6. Deut. 32. 21. Psal. 106. 40 because such wrong God He cannot be hurt for that were a weaknesse but he may be wronged for that is no weaknesse but a fruit of excellency seeing nothing is more subject to be wronged then an excellent thing or person for wrong is any behaviour to a person not suitable to his worth And the more worthy a person is the more easie it is to carry ones self unseemly Sin wrongs God 1. In his authority when a just and righteous Governor hath made just and right Laws then it is a wrong to his authority a denying and opposing of it to neglect dis-regard and infringe those Laws Sin is a transgressing of Gods Law and impenitent sin doing it in a very wilful manner with a kinde of carelesnesse and bold dis-respect of the Law-maker God should not have shewed himself wise just good careful of mankinde that is to say of his own work if he had not made his Law for it is a rule tending to guide man to order his life most fitly for that which was the main end of it the glory of his maker and that which was the subordinate end of it his own welfare 2. It wrongs him in his honor name and dignity it is a denying of his perfect wisdom and justice 3. In his goods abusing them 4. In his person sin being offensive to the purity of his holy person Lastly the opposing of Gods people wrongs him in those that are nearest him The properties of Gods anger 1. It is terrible He is called Bagnal Chemah the Lord of anger Nahum 1. 5. His wrath is infinite like himself Rom. 9. 22. if we consider it 1. In regard of its intension for God is called A consuming fire Heb. 12. 29. it pierceth the soul and the inmost part of the Spirit 2. In respect of its extension it comprehends in it all kindes of evil Corporeal Spiritual in life death after death it reacheth to Kingdoms as well as to particular persons or families to the posterity as well as to the present generation 3. In respect of duration it continueth to all eternity Iohn 3. 36. it is unquenchable fire 2. Irresistable compared to a whirlwind God is most wise of great and perfect understanding He is slow to anger never moved till there be great cause therefore he holds out in his anger Great persons inflict great punishments on those with whom they are displeased Object Fury is not in me Isa. 27. 4. Answ. Take fury for unjust undue and excessive anger which riseth too soon worketh too strong and continneth too long so it is not in God but a discreet and well advised motion against any offender by which one is moved to punish him according to his offence anger so taken is in him Anger wrath and rage or fury are sometimes promiscuously put one for another and sometimes distinguished Anger is a boyling of the blood about the heart causing a commotion of the spirits that are near Wrath is the manifestation of that inward distemper by looks gestures or actions tending to revenge but rage is the extremity of both the former Prov. 27. 4. This may humble and astonish impenitent sinners Hos. 8. 5. Psal. 90. 11. We must quench Gods wrath as men do fire at the first by casting in water and taking away the fewel by repentance and reformation pour out water 1 Sam. 7. 8. Ier. 4. 14. Psal. 6. 8. pray earnestly to him Zeph. 3 3. Moses by prayer turned away Gods hot anger from Aaron and
never seen That out of the same earth and water all these kindes should grow by a word spoken with the mouth of God let it be so is a strange and wonderfull thing By vertue of these words there were Sheep Goats Kine Horses Camels and Dromedaries Elephants Lions Bears Dogs Tygers Wolves Foxes Deer What are all these but a most artificiall mixture of earth and water put into a certain shape or form of members having head feet back breast belly brain liver heart guts and other intrails and having power to see hear to touch smell taste to eat drink go generate to remember to have a kinde of thought of things within to imagine and discern having also affections and passions They carry us feede us cloathe us till the ground for us How full of tedious and toilsome pains would our lives be if we had not a horse to bear us up and down from place to place and Horses or Oxen to conveigh all manner of things for us We must magnifie the name of God and frame our selves to sincere thankfullnesse unto him who hath made such a multitude of creatures inferiour to our selves and given to us the use of them O what a wonderfull skillfull workman is he that out of the earth could produce such a number of such creatures And how good was he to us that he did not give reason unto them as well as sense for if they had reason to know their own strength and our Weaknesse we should never keep them under as we do Let us not abuse creatures of God to bad purpose or use them in a cruell and inhumane manner they are our fellow-creatures made of a little courser earth and since they obey us with all chearfullnesse let us be likewise obedient to God There is no creature among all the beasts of the world which so aptly demonstrates the power and wisedom of Almighty God as the Elephant both in respect of his proportion of body and disposition of spirit He is by the Hebrews called Behemoth by way of excellency as the Latines for the same cause call him Bellua and by Iob 40. 15. he is likewise called Behemoth in the plurall number Behold now Behemoth which I made with thee he eateth grasse as an oxe The LXX and Chaldee by Behemoth understand all earthly beasts of great bulk but the Hebrews think the Elephant is only meant whom Thomas Aquinas and Nicolaus Lyranus follow God stirs Iob up to consider well of this huge beast as if he had said If thou dost not yet understand how weak a man thou art and how unfit to grapple with me see how thou canst deal with this great beast Vide Vossi de Orig. progress Idol lib. 3. cap. 50 51. He is wittily called by Iulius Scaliger Bestiarum Heros and by Iob in the same Chapter vers 19. the chief of the waies of God that is the greatest strongest and most understanding of all earthly irrationall creatures as Deodate interprets it Vide Fulleri miscel Sac. l. 4. c. 10. Elephas peregrinum est apud nos animal Indis aliis notissimum obvium Certè turres olim armatorum in praelia ferebant Johnstoni Thaumatographia The Elephants were usefull in the wars they caryed Towers whence ten or fifteen souldiers did cast darts or spears See Mac. 6. 37. If by accident in their fury they kill him that feeds them they so mourn for it afterward that they die through hunger saith Strabo the like I have heard reported of an Elephant here in England Aristotle l. 9. de hist. animal c. 47. makes mention of a memorable thing to make men fly incest The King of Scythia had a Mare of a most excellent race which brought forth most excellent colts among the rest she had one which excelled them all the King was desirous that this colt might horse his damme that so he might have an excellent race of them but the colt when he was brought to his damme would not horse her the King seeing this he caused them to cover the damme that he might not know her But he perceiving afterwards that it was his damme ran away and cast himself over a steep rock and brake his neck Vide Vos de orig prog Idol l. 3. c. 61. There are many things wonderfull in the Dog his sagacity docility fidelity Of this creature and the horse is Plinies Elogie Fidelissimi ante omnia homini canes atque equi A dog in Epyrus in a great assembly of people knowing the man that had murdered his Master flew upon him with open mouth barking and snapping at him so furiously that he was ready to take him by the throat untill he at length confessed the fact that caused the dog thus to rage and foam against him Vide Voss. de orig progres Idol l. 3. c. 61. Alexander the Great being on his voyage toward the Indies received for a Present a very great Dog which the King of the Albanians sent him with advice that he should not set his Dogge against Wolves Bears or Bores but against Lions and Elephants Alexander desiring to see some sport made a Lion to be brought whom the dog overcame and with a trice tare in peeces Then he commanded to set an Elephant upon him longing to see the issue of that fight The dog seeing his adversary begins to bustle himself and to bristle his hair all his body over and casting out a furious bawling maketh the Elephant turn tail and proceedeth so couragiously to the great applause and astonishment of all that beheld it Pliny l. 8. c. 40. See Camerar Histor. meditat l. 2. c. 6. Voss. de orig progres Idol l. 3. c. 56. The dogs which be near unto Nilus lap of the River running still and never stay while they are drinking for fear of the greedy Crocodiles Aegyptio canes è Nil◠nunquam nisi currentes lambitant dum Crocodilis insidias cavent It happened that upon a narrow thin plank that lay for a Bridge one goat met another both coming from divers parts now by reason that the place was so narrow that they could not passe by nor turn about nor yet retire backwards blindely considering how long the plank was and so slender withal moreover the water that ran underneath ran with a swift stream and threatned present death if they failed and went besides Mutianus affirmeth that he saw one of them to lie flat down and the other to go over his back In Sibaris there was a young man named Crathis which being not able to retain lust but forsaken of God and given over to a reprobate sense committed buggery with a female Goat the which thing the Master Goat beheld and looked upon and dissembled concealing his minde and jealousie for the pollution of his female Afterward finding the said young man asleep for he was a Shepheard he made all his force upon him and with his horns dashed out the Buggerers
and all the rest are nought for they came from Satan and serve to set him up in mens mindes and to quench the respect and fear of God Division All creatures in their natural estate are severed and divided one from another 1. They are divided from God the only and chiefest good 2. From the Angels 1 Cor. 11. 10. 3. One from another Isa. 19. begin 4. From themselves We are joyned to Satan and comply with the Idols of our own hearts Ezek. 14. begin 1. The nature of this division is not only local as that of Reuben Judg. 5. 15 16. by the river Iordan or in externals but spiritual which is the worst as spiritual union is the best This makes the difference in mens mindes judgements wils consciences Acts 26. 9. Iohn 16. beg divided in the very ends they propound and the means that lead to those ends and the rule The causes of it are sad the lusts and sins of our own hearts the just indignation of God These sins especially 1. Idolatry Iudg. 5. 8. 2. Covenant-breaking Levit. 26. 25. 3. Pride Ier. 13. 9. compared with 14. 4. Hypocrisie Isa. 10. 6. 5. Apostasie Arguments against division and falling into parties First Divisions are a judgement of God upon a Nation Zech. 13. 14. Secondly Consider the several sins that falling into parties puts men upon 1. It puts them on great thoughts of heart Iudg. 5. 15. 2. Men break forth into bitter censuring and reviling of those which are not of their own party Prov. 21. 24. Iames 4. 11. they set up their own will in opposition to God 3. It causeth men to be glad to hear evil one of another and take up any report for truth Nehem. 6. 6. and glad of any mischief that shall befall them Ezek. 25. 6. 4. This layes upon men a necessity of joyning with any to oppose that party though they be never so contrary in religion or affection Thirdly Falling into parties is a certain way of ruine 1. In the just judgement of God Hos. 10. 2. 2. In the nature of the thing Iudg. 5. 5. In cause of religion every subdivision is a strong weapon in the hand of the contrary part Hist. of Councel of Trent lib. 1. pag. 49. Two earthen pots floting with this Inscription Si collidimur frangimur If we knock we crack were long ago made the embleme of England and the Low countries but may now be extended to all Christians We shall finde in our English Chronicles that England was never destroyed but when divided within it self our civil divisions brought in the Romans the Saxons Danes and Normans Though our Civil and Ecclesiastical breaches be very great Lam. 2. 13. yet God can and will heal all the breaches of his Saints 1. Because he hath promised to do it Isa. 2. 4. 11. 6 7 8 9 13. 30. 26. 32. 18. 33. 20. Ezek. 28. 24. Ier. 32. 39. Zeph. 3. 9. Zech. 14. 9. 2. Christ hath prayed for it three times in Iohn 17. viz. 21 22 23. verses 3. Christ died to make his people one Ephes. 2. from 14. to the later end See 1 Cor. 12. Rom. 8. to the end There are some cementing or reconciling graces faith repentance charity Col. 3. 14. and humility There is much talk of peace and unity peace with truth or peace and holiness are joyned together in Scripture We should pray to Christ to heal our divisions that he would make us one we should put on love which is the bond of perfectnesse Col. 3. 14 15. See Phil. 3. 14 15. Drunkennesse Drunkennesse is a great sin Isa. 28. 1. Deut. 32. 32. Prov. 23. 29 30 31. The Scripture condemns it Be not drunk with wine saith the Apostle Salomon forbids to keep company with a wine bibber the Prophet denounceth a woe to the drunkards of Ephraim Drunkennesse is one of the fruits of the flesh and a drunkard one of those whom Paul excludes from heaven Nature condemns it it trampleth under foot at once the whole Law and Gospel too First For the Law it violates each Commandment The first the drunkard makes his belly his god he cannot exercise knowledge of God love fear confidence remembrance of sin or any vertue It breaks the second Commandment it is a direct breach of our vow made in Baptism and renewed in the Lords Supper for this is one of the works of the Devil which we then renounced Again it hinders a man from praying reading meditating or doing any good and religious duty It breaketh the third Commandment because it is an abuse of one of Gods creatures and so takes Gods name in vain it causeth that one can neither see God in his works nor do any works to his glory nor shew forth thankfulness for benefits nor patience in crosses and because it fils the mouth full of foul and desperate oaths The fourth he is unfit to sanctifie the Sabbath and if one be drunk on the Lords-day it is a great prophanation of it for it is farre from a holy work The fifth it makes one despise Parents Magistrates all Governors it makes him abuse Wife Children Servants and all his Inferiours it makes him lift up himself above his equals and despise all in comparison of himself The sixth it is a hurt to his own body and breeds vile diseases dropsie fever rednesse of eyes makes him rail revile quarrel and kill and commit all insolent injuries and hazards himself to untimely death Gal. 5. 21. The seventh for it fils heart and tongue and all full of filthinesse it inflames the body to lust a drunken Lot will commit incest Rom. 13. 13. The eighth it is a wasting of time and goods and a robbing of a mans self and family it often enciteth to cozenage and beguiling it is grosse injustice The ninth it makes him full of bragging and boasting and backbiting his tongue is as full of vanity as his head of vapours The tenth it fils the minde full of leud imaginations and exposeth him to Satans suggestions Perkins on Revel 2. 14. shews that Popery breaks every Commandment Mr Paget in his admonition touching Talmudique allegations pag. 422. to 436. shews how the Jewish Rabbins break every Commandment It is against the Gospel it oppresseth the heart and takes away reason that a man grows hard-hearted and fils men full of presumption There was a street in Rome called Vicus sobrius the sober street but is there a village in England that may be called Villa sobria the sober village If a man though he loaths drunkennesse should to symbolize with wicked company drink immoderately yet it is drunkennesse it is true he is not ebriosus an old soaking drunkard yet he is â—brius he hath committed the sinne of drunkennesse There is a two-fold privation of reason 1. Aptitudinal when a man drinks so immoderately that there is a disposition to disturb reason yet because he is of a strong brain and
Paul sheweth what is that which justifieth and Iames sheweth what kinde of faith justifieth viz. a lively effectual faith Iames sheweth that faith justifieth Quae viva Paul sheweth that it doth not justifie Qua viva which is a great difference though the Remonstrants scoffe at such a nicety Who would give a Lemmon-paring for the difference Whether Sanctification precede Justification Bishop Downame in his Appendix to the Covenant of Grace doth oppose my worthy Tutor M. Pemble for holding this opinion but perhaps a distinction may solve all As Sanctification is taken for the act of the holy Ghost working holinesse into us so it goes before Faith and Justification so the Apostle puts it before justifying saying 1 Cor. 16. 21. But ye are sanctified justified but as it is taken for the exercise of holinesse in regard of amendment of heart and life so it follows Justification in nature but it is joyned with it in time The Apostle Rom. 8. 30. placeth Vocation before Justification which Vocation is the same thing with the first Sanctification or Regeneration See Act. 26. 18. CHAP. XI Of Sanctification HAving spoken of the relative Change or of our State in Adoption Justification I shall now speak of the moral Change of our Persons and Qualities in Sanctification Although we distinguish between Justification and Sanctification yet we acknowledge that they are inseparable and that one doth necessarily follow the other To sanctifie sometimes signifies First To acknowledge the holinesse of a thing so God is said to sanctifie himself and his own name or to use it according to its holinesse so we are said to sanctifie the Lord and the Sabbath-day that is use it holily Secondly To make holy so a person or thing may be said to be made holy three wayes 1. When it is separated from a common use 2. When it is devoted to God made peculiar to him so one might sanctifie a house or beast 3. When it is cleansed and purged from all filthinesse and naughtinesse In the two first senses it is opposed to common and prophane in the last to unclean in Scripture such are goods houses the Temple What Sanctification is Some describe it thus It is the Grace of God dwelling in us by which we are inabled to live a holy life It is a supernatural work of Gods Spirit whereby the soul and body of a beleever are turned to God devoted to him and the image of God repaired in all the powers and faculties of the soul. It is a resolution of will and endeavour of life to please God in all things springing from the consideration of Gods love in Christ to mankinde revealed in the Gospel Sanctification is a continued work of the Spirit flowing from Christ as the Head purging a man from the image of Adam and by degrees conforming us to the image of Christ. 1. It is an act of the Spirit The special work of the Father is Creation of the Sonne Redemption of the holy Ghost Sanctification The Father proposed and plotted the work of Reconciliation Christ undertook the service but the Spirit is the Unction that takes away all enmity that is within us The Spirit dwels in the Saints virtually and operatively by his Gifts Graces Comforts and by exciting them Some dislike that passage of Luther Habitat ergo verus Spiritus in credentibus non tantum per dona sed quoad substantiam though others of our Divines follow him The Spirit of God is the efficient cause of Sanctification The sanctified are called such as are in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit If we mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit we shall live If any be led by the Spirit he is the Son of God and if any have not the spirit he is none of his Eze. 36. 27. The holy Ghost useth the Word of God the doctrin of the Gospel as its immediate instrument to work this holiness of heart and life Christ sends his Spirit that by the Word works faith and all Graces An act of the Spirit flowing from Christ as the Head common works of the Spirit flow not from Christ as the Head Iohn 1. 16. Col. 1. 19. Christ is the common treasury of all that Grace God ever intended to bestow 1 Iohn 2. 20. the intendment of union is communication 2. A continued work of the Spirit to distinguish it from Vocation Conversion Regeneration it is stiled Vocation because it is wrought by a heavenly Call Conversion because it is the change of a mans utmost end Regeneration because one receives a new Nature and new Principles of action The carrying on of this work in blotting out the image of old Adam and by degrees introducing the image of Christ is Sanctification 2 Cor. 7. 1. therefore we must have supplies of the Spirit Psal. 92. 10. Sanctification is answerable to original corruption and intended by the Lord to be a Plaister as broad as the sore That was not one sinne but a sinne that had all sinne so this is not one distinct Grace but a Grace that comprehends all Grace It is called the new man in opposition to the old man because it makes us new changing from the natural filthinesse of sinne to the righteousnesse and holinesse whereof we were deprived by the fall of Adam and to note the author of it which is the Spirit of God working it in us called the holy Spirit because he is so in himself and works holinesse in us the Divine Nature because it is a resemblance of that perfection which is in God and the image of God for the same cause because it maketh us in some degree like unto him The moving cause is the consideration of the love of Christ to mankinde revealed in the Gospel the matter of it a resolution and constant endeavour to know and do the whole will of God revealed in his Word Psal. 119. 30. 73. 10. the forme a conformity to Gods Law or whole will so revealed Psal. 119. the end principal to glorifie and please God secondary to attain his favour and eternal happinesse The extent must be in all things the subject of it is the whole man the whole soul and body Sanctification reacheth to the frame of his heart David hid the Law of God in his heart the inward man therefore called a New-Creature and outward Conversation therefore called a living to God 1 Thess. 5. 23. The Parts of it are two Mortifying and Crucifying the old man with its lusts and affections quickning the new man bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit The Properties of it 1. It is sincere 2. Constant therefore it is called a walking in the way of the Lord. 3. Imperfect here 4. Grows and proceeds toward perfection A godly life is distinguished 1. From the false goodnesse of the Hypocrite for that is willing sometimes to do Gods will not with such a setled will as to indeavour it and willing in some things not in
Christ should have nothing to give 2. He would exercise his people in prayer and confessions His people ask for themselves in prayer the destroying of corruption and perfecting of grace 3. God loves to have his people nothing in themselves all Christs course on earth was an abased condition God would have his people like Christ low and base 4. The Lord hath appointed that this life should be to his people a warfare Iob 14. 14. Their great conflict is with their own lusts 5. Because he would have his people long to be in heaven 2 Cor. 5. 2. 6. That he might thereby magnifie the grace of the new Covenant above all that he gave in the old God gave perfect grace to Angels and to Adam and his posterity but that vanished away yet now a spark of graces lives in a Sea of corption 7. Hereby Gods patience and forbearance is much exalted to his own people Numb 14. 17 18. Therefore it is hard to discern whether the work of Sanctification be wrought in us or no because of the reliques of corruption Evidences of Sanctification 1. A heart truly sanctified stands in awe of the Word Sanctification is the Law written in the heart a principle put into the soul answerable to the duty the Law requires Iohn 14. 22 23. 2. The remainders of corruption and the imperfection of grace will be his continual burden Rom. 7. 24. 2 Cor. 11. 23. 3. There is a continual combate maintained betwixt sin and grace 4. Where there is true Sanctification it is of a growing nature living things will grow 2 Pet. 3. 18. Mal. 3. 3 4. 5. Where there is true grace you shall especially see it when God cals you to great trials Natura vexata seipsum prodit Gen. 22. 20. Means to get holinesse Only the Spirit of Christ bestowed upon thee by faith Ioh. 7. 38. the Apostles arguments to holinesse are taken from their interest in Christ. Titus The grace of God that brings Salvation Faith in the bloud of Christ Heb. 9. 14. See Act. 15. 9. The Word John 17. 17. 1 Pet. 1. 22. The Word read heard meditated in transformeth the soul into its likenesse The Sacrament is a sanctifying Ordinance the death and merits of Christ set before us prayer pray more for Gods sanctifying Spirit 1 Thess. 5. 23. CHAP. XII The Parts of Sanctification are two Mortification and Vivification I. Mortification VVHere Grace is truly wrought it will be the daily study and practise of those that are sanctified to subdue the body of corruption This is called a dying to sinne putting off the old man crucifying the flesh most usually the mortifying of it There is a twofold Mortification and so Vivification say the Schoolmen 1. Habitual and more Internal the work of Gods Spirit in our first Regeneration Gal. 5. 24. whereby the Dominion of sinne is subdued and brought under the power of Gods Spirit this and internal Vivification are the two parts of our Conversion 2. Actual Practical and External our own work the daily practice of a childe of God while he lives on earth this flows from the other Every godly man walking according to Christianity doth daily in his ordinary course mortifie the body of corruption that dwels in him Rom. 4. 8 9. Ephes. 4. 20 21 22. Col. 3. 5. Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 6. 6. Mortifie or make dead is a Metaphor taken from Chiturgeons whose practice is when they would cut off a member to apply such things as will eat out the life of it so our care must be to make the living body of corruption instar cadaveris Practical Mortification is the faithful endeavour of the soul to subdue all the lusts and motions which are prone to spring from our sinful flesh It stands in three things 1. A full purpose or bent of the heart the minde and will against sinne when my will doth nolle peccatum though it may be active 2. In shunning all the occasions that serve as fewel to it 3. In applying all such means as may subdue his corruptions The Practice of Mortification is 1. A necessary duty 2. One of the most spiritual duties in all Christianity 3. The hardest duty The Popish exercises of Mortification consisting in their kinde of Fasting Whipping Pilgrimage and wearing of Hair-cloth next their skin will never work true Mortification in the heart yet Baals Priests exceeded them in cruelty to themselves 1 King 18. 28. See Rom. 8. 13. Col. 2. 23 1 Tim. 4. 8. In these cases one doth not mortifie his corruptions 1. Such a one as lives in the voluntary practice of his sins Rom. 6. 2. The body of corruption may be wholly unmortified though it break not out in the ordinary and constant practice of any grosse sin the seat and throne of sin is in the soul the slavish fear of shame and punishment from men or eternal damnation from God may keep a man from grosse sins I shall lay down 1. Motives or several Meditations to quicken us to the study of this work every day 2. Means which God will blesse to one that is willing to have his lusts subdued I. Motives Consider 1. This is the great thing God requires at our hands as our gratitude for all the goodnesse he bestows on us that for his sake we should leave those wayes that are abominable in his sight Rom. 12. 1. Ephes. 4. 21 22. 1 Peter 2. begin Deut. 32. 6. Secondly How deeply we have obliged our hearts to it by Vow Oath Covenant in Baptism we have there covenanted to die to sinne put off the old man and so in the Lords Supper we shew forth the Lords death and when we have been in danger Thirdly The manifold evils of unmortified lusts abiding in the heart What makes thy soul loathsom and unclean in the eyes of God and Angels but sin What grieves God pierceth his Sonne fights against him but this What brings any evil upon thee but this What is the sting of any affliction but onely thy sins What strengthens death but it it is only thy sins that keep good things from thee thy unmortified sins Fourthly The absolute necessity of this work if we mean to escape hell and everlasting damnation De necessariis non est deliberandum Rom. 8. 13. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Grave Maurice at Newport battel sent away the boats and said to his men Either drink up this Sea or eat the Spaniards Fifthly The wonderful gain that will come to thy soul if the Lord teach thee this duty 1. In mortifying and destroying thy beloved lusts thou destroyest all other enemies with them they all receive their weapons from thy sins 2. All other mercies flow in a constant current if thou mortifie thy corruptions Gods favour the whole stream of the Covenant of Grace II. Means of Mortification Some use moral motives from the inconvenience of sinne death the fear of hell and judgement some carnal motives as esteem and advantage in
it come to enjoy God which doth eminently contain all good in him it can never come to have full satisfaction Light was the first thing in the Creation and so in the new Creature Eph. 4. 23. he hath a new judgement speculative and practical 1. Speculative he apprehends and discerns those Reasons and Arguments against sin and for grace more then ever he did he is amazed to consider what darknesse and folly he lived in before 1 Cor. 2. 15. 2. Practical He applies the things he knows for his humiliation and exercise he so knoweth truths that he loves them and delights in them he knows them experimentally Conversion of a man is a Divine teaching of him Isa. 54. 13. Ierem. 31. 44. Iohn 6. 45. The Properties of this teaching 1. It is necessary without this all other teaching is in vain David often prayes that God would teach him his statutes open his eyes the Ministers teach the ear God the heart 2. Efficacious Iob 36. 22. 3. Clear and distinct hence Gods Word is called a Light and it is called the riches of the assurance of understanding 4. Practical it is an acknowledgement after godlinesse Verba Scripturae non sunt verba legenda sed vivenda said Luther 5. Abundant under the Gospel All shall know me from the greatest to the least Knowledge shall cover the earth as the waters do the Sea A great part of Conversion lieth in the renewing of the minde Rom. 12. 2. Ephes. 1. 17 18. Phil. 1. 4. This renewing consists First In Knowledge and that 1. Doctrinally of the truths to be beleeved this is the very foundation and that which is called historical faith that is a knowledge with an Assent to those truths which are recorded in Scripture many may have this and more which yet are not converted but yet where Conversion is this must necessarily precede 1 Cor. 2. 2. Whom God converts he enlightens Iohn 6. 45. 1 Cor. 8. 2. mans whole Conversion is called a teaching 2. Practically partly of our own filthinesse Iohn 3. it was necessary for Nicodemus to know his natural filthinesse partly of Christ sinne will overwhelm the soul without this Rom. 7. 24 25. Ephes. 1. 19 20. one must know his own poverty and Christs riches his own guilt and his satisfaction 3. It makes the heart beleeve and assent to these truths the understanding doth not only need converting grace to turn but to assent and firmly to adhere to the truths revealed to the promises manifested for the heart doth not turn to God by knowing the promises but by firm relying on them and this is that which is called trusting so much in the Psalms 4. The judgement is induced to approve of Gods Word his precepts and promises aâ— the best He accounts those things best and worst which the Word doth The converted man esteems of Gods favour and freedom from corruption more then all the glory and riches of the world 5. The minde is in part sanctified in regard of the thoughts they were roving distracted impertinent and very frothy now the minde is renewed about them so that it hath more holy thoughts more composed more profitable and united in all duties and performances more low thoughts of our selves and high thoughts of Christ. 6. It looketh then only to Gods Word My sheep hear my voice To the Law and the Testimony 7. Their minde is renewed in respect of consultations Paul consulted not with flesh and bloud he subjects all to the glory of God and this Word 8. He invents holy purposes means and wayes to propagate Gods glory 9. He discerns things that differ Rom. 12. 7. CHAP. XV. Of the Sanctification of the Will GODS great work in Conversion is in the Will Isa. 1. 19. Revel 22. 17. Ps. 110. 3. Ephes. 1. 19. when ever he converts the soul he subdues the Will 1 Chron. 28. 9. Phil. 2. 13. Grace is a resignation of our selves to the will of God Rom. 6. 17. 2 Cor. 8. 10. Though the will of man be subdued in conversion and made free yet it is not perfectly made free as a degree of blindnesse that remains in the Understanding so a degree of bondage in the Will The work of Conversion is never perfected till the will be gained it begins in the mind Ephes. 4. 23. but ends in the will Deut. â—0 6. All liberty must proceed from Liberum judicium a judgement of the understanding not mislead by sensitive objects Aquinas The Will is renewed in a godly man in these particulars 1. It is made flexible so Paul when he was converted Lord what wilt thou have me to do Psal. 40. 8. 143. 10. This Will is broken which before was contumacious and stubborn Isa. 11. 6. 2. Tender it was hardened before this is implied in that a fat heart that hath no sense or feeling either of Gods displeasure or the fearful eâ—â—aâ—e it is in the man converted hath a heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. which is opposed there to a stony heart that is senslesse and stupid 3. It is moved upon pure motives for the holinesse of the precepts David prizeth Gods Word above thousands of Gold and Silver for the spiritual profit of it it would quicken and enlarge his heart support him in afflictions 4. It is established and setled in a good way the honest heart holds fast the Word of God cleaves to the Lord with full purpose of heart 5. It is made efficacious and fervent in holy things their services are free-will offerings 1 Chron. 29. 14. Rom. 7. 18. 6. In regard of its acts 1. In its election and choice it is sanctified preferring holy and eternal things before sinne and temporal Heb. 11. Moses chose the reproaches of Christ before the treasures of Aegypt Election is an act of the Will about the means and answereth to consultation in the Understanding 2. In its consent it consents to God and Christ Isa. 1. 19. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Rom. 7. 16. 3. In regard of the power it hath over the other faculties for it commands the other powers of the soul as on the understanding to make it think and reason about this or that 2 Pet. 3. 5. it sets the understanding on searching the truth and finding it out and the Will delights it self in good things 7. It is adorned with those habitual graces which are necessary for it 1. Fiducial recumbency and trusting in God the Will renewed rolâ— it self upon Jesus Christ and hath confidence and boldnesse 2. Love to God above all other things therefore he saith I will circumcise you that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart 3. A divine hope which keepeth up the soul in all difficulties Lam. 3. 13. Obedience is the vertue of the will by which it is flexible to Gods will in all things and for his sake Here Coeca obedientia blinde absolute obedience is as necessary and commendable as in Friars to their Superiours it is
foolish and unreasonable Vide Daven Determ Quaest. 6. There is a two-fold Obedience 1. Legal so to keep Gods wayes as to do all which the ten Commandments require at all times in all fulnesse without any the least failing in matter or manner which was the bargain made with our first Parents Adam and Eve and which by nature lies on us Do this and live such a keeping of the Law is utterly impossible for Paul saith That which the Law could not do in as much as it was weak through the flesh The Law cannot bring us to heaven because our flesh in breaking it disableth it from giving us the reward which is promised to absolute perfection and by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified if we could perform such an Obedience we needed not any Mediator 2. Evangelical a true striving to perform the former Obedience it is an upright and hearty endeavour after the fore-named perfect Obedience For the Gospel doth not abolish the Law from being the rule of our life but alone from being the means of our Justification and so from bringing the malediction of the Law upon us but it establisheth the Law as a rule of good life tying and inabling us to labour with uprightnesse and sincerity to perform all things written in the Law in all perfection The Obedience of the Law excludes all defects that of the Gospel all wilful defects and allowed sins This Obedience is two-fold 1. Counterseit false and feigned when the will in some things yeelds to Gods will not because it is his will but because his will doth not much crosse the motions of theirs this is the obedience of hypocrites 2. True and hearty when for Gods own sake principally the will frames it self in all things to stoop unto him Of this there are two degrees one perfect when the will is wholly carried after Gods will without any gainsaying with the full sway and whole swinge of it this was only in Adam 2. Imperfect when the will opposeth it self to its own disobedient inclinations and doth consent to obey and is displeased with its own disobedience We must all set our selves to yeeld true obedience to God How often and earnestly doth Moses inculcate this Deut. 4. 1. 5. 1. If ye love me keep my Commandments saith Christ. Peter saith We must yeeld our selves to God as those that are risen from the dead meaning quickened in soul by vertue of Christs Resurrection 1 King 2. 3 4. Reasons First From God 1. In regard of his right to rule he is the author of our being and continuance he hath also redeemed us wherefore it is pressed on the people of Israel that they ought to obey God above all people because he redeemed them out of the hand of Pharaoh Secondly His fitnesse to rule 1. He is most wise and just to make good righteous and equal Laws 2. Most careful to observe the carriage of men 3. Most bountiful to reward obedience 4. Most severe to punish disobedience Thirdly He hath done us already so much good and laden us with so many benefits that we are ingaged Fourthly To this adde the excellency of his holy Nature for wisdome and goodnesse Secondly From our selves Who are 1. Subject to him as being his Children Servants Subjects 2. Foolish and weak in our selves subject to many enemies dangers Thirdly From the Commandments which we must obey 1. They are most just as holding perfect agreement with right reason and equity teaching us to give God and man his own 2. They are fitted to our good as well as to Gods glory confusion would follow if every one might hate and kill whom he would 3. Obedience is most necessary acceptable profitable and possible praying hearing knowledge of God faith The rule of it must be the Word of God the extent the whole Law in every point Deut. 28. 58. Levit. 19. ult Psal. 119. 6. Act. 13. 22. Col. 4. 12. the whole will of God the form of it is conformity to the Word and will of God The end principal that we may honour and please God Mat. 5. 16. As you have received of us how you ought to walk and please God saith Paul The Properties of it 1. Generality or Universality it must be entire Luk. 1. 6. 2. Constancy I will incline my heart to thy testimonies alwayes to the end 3. Sincerity it must be grounded on Gods authority and aim at his glory Motives to Obedience Consider 1. The Majesty and Excellency of him whose servants you are He is the King of Kings Constantinus Valentinianus Theodosius three Emperors called themselves Vasallos Christi Moses My servant Peter Paul a servant of Christ. 2. The honourablenesse of the work His service is perfect freedom 3. The great priviledges and reward of this service II. Means 1. Take notice of and be abased in the sense of our own disobedience 2. Pray to God to give his Spirit to encline our hearts to his testimonies 3. Consider the necessity fruit excellency and equity of Obedience CHAP. XVI Of the Sanctification of the Conscience COnscience is taken 1. More strictly and properly when it is joined with other faculties of the soul as Titus 1. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 5. In the first it is differenced from the minde in the later from the will 2. More largely when 't is put alone and so it stands for the whole heart soul and spirit working inwardly upon it self by way of reflex So Acts 24. 16. It is a distinct faculty the Apostle seemeth to make it so when he saith of unbelievers That their mindes and their consciences are defiled and because it hath the name of the whole heart given unto it 1 Sam. 24. 5. 1 Iohn 3. 10. and because in the working of it it hath a certain general and universal command over all the other faculties It s proper work is to dispose a man aright to Gods word and to set a work all the rest of his powers for that purpose Conscience is an ability in a man to judge of his estate and actions according to a rule prescribed by God it is no further therefore Liberty of Conscience but licentiousnesse then it is regulated by the Word for the Conscience is Regula regulata Est liber animae ad quem emendandum scripti sunt omnes libri Bern. What Conscience is it is hard to finde as in mens dealings the use of it some making it a distinct faculty from the understanding some an habit some an act it is the understanding reflecting upon its self in its acts in regard of the goodnesse or badness of them Or the judgement that a man gives of himself in reference to the judgement of God There is a kinde of syllogism He that believes in Christ shall be saved But I believe in Christ. He that loves the Brethren is passed from death to life But I love the Brethren Converting Grace reneweth a mans conscience 1. Whereas it
of the greatest meanes to keep one from backsliding Ephesus did bear with the bad and had lost her first love The right Means to sanctifie the affections 1. Sanctified affections are not to be found in any unregenerate man Deut. 5. 29. pray therefore much for a new nature 2 Conversing much with Christ and pondering of him will keep thy affections right 3. Let not out thy affections much on any thing in the world Col. 3. 3. 4. Affections are not only ordered but much quickned by knowledge Iohn 4. 10. Psal. 9. 9. Ignoti nulla cupido 5. Pray constantly to God say Lord unite my heart to thee that I may fear thy name love thee CHAP. XIX Of the Particular Affections SOme affections are chearing and comforting as Love Joy Hope some disquieting afflicting as Anger Sorrow Fear Despair to afflict the soul at a Fast is to awaken some or all of these afflicting passions the soul is only afflicted by it self in heaven all afflicting affections cease in their acting in hell they are all exercised According to their subject they are divided into those of the concupiscible and irascible appetite Concupiscible whereby the soul is carried to that which is good When the object is good the desiring faculty draws the heart toward it if it be present good it is joy if the present good be near at hand it is called love if easie to be obtained desire if difficult hope if impossible despair Irascible or shunning faculty from evil if the evil be present it is grief if it make an attempt on the heart if it be vincible it is courage if invincible horrour Mans affections are linked together in their working Love is the chiefest next is desire of attaining the thing loved after comes joy if one have it grief if he have it not anger against those that crosse us of it kindenesse toward those which further us in it fear to lose it and courage to keep it shame if he have it not boldnesse if he have it The chief of the Affections are of two sorts 1. Some simple which are exercised upon Good or Evil it self viz. I. On Good considered 1. Simply in it self Love a motion of being united to it of complacency and liking 2. Respectively to its 1. Presence Joy a motion of injoying it an inlargement of the heart to receive good 2. Absence both in regard of 1. The good it self Desire a stirring of the heart to use means to get it 2. The likelihood of attaining or not attaining it which are 1. Hope a moving and lifting up of the minde toward it 2. Despair a falling from the future good II. On Evil considered 1. Simply Hatred a motion of separating from that which is counted evil as when we see a Toad 2. Respectively to its 1. Presence Sadnesse a pulling together of the heart in the sense of a present evil 2. Absence considered 1. In it self Flight Detestation if it come a motion of flying from it 2. In its likelihood of being shunned or suffered 1. If we conceive it avoidable Courage a motion of rising against it and making resistance 2. As it is likely not to be escaped but suffered fear a kinde of perplexednesse or shrinking from it 2. Some compound being the divers workings of two or more of these together and they respect other things for good or evil viz. 1. The possessors thereof whether I. Our selves 1. Shame for evil or turpitude in regard of evil working by motions of Fear Hatred Grief 2. Boldnesse for good we have done or got in regard of the good esteem of it motions of the contrary affections II. Others 1. For Good we think we see in them reverence differing from simple fear looking to a thing conceived as excellent a joynt working of Fear Love Desire Joy 2. For Evil contempt a motion of vilifying and abasing disdaining one by joynt working of contrary passions to those fore-named 2. The furtherances or hinderances thereof viz. I. The things which further Good hinder Evil viz. 1. Kindenesse well-pleasednesse a melting of the heart toward the thing or person which hath done us good or kept us from evil by the joynt motions of Love Desire Joy 2. Confidence staying of the heart upon any thing or person for good or deliverance from evil by a mixt work of Love Courage and Desire supporting Hope II. The things which further Evil and hinder Good from us viz. 1. Anger a motion of punishing or hurting that thing so to remove it or put it away in Hatred Grief Desire 2. Diffidence a shaking and wavering of the soul from any thing which should but cannot help him to Good or against Evil and is mixt of Fear Abomination and Hatred overthrowing Hope and pulling away the heart from them All these affections which respect good and the furtherances to it and possessors of it should be exercised on God and one also which doth look to evil because God considered as angry is the creatures greatest evil of misery I shall handle them thus among the simple Affections I shall rank three pairs under the concupiscible Appetite 1. Love and Hatred 2. Desire and Flight 3. Joy and Sorrow CHAP. XX. I. Of the Simple Affections THe two first and fundamentall Passions of all the rest are Love and Hatred 1. Love This is the master Bee which carries all the swarm with it a cardinal affection Iohn 11. 35 36. It is the opening or letting out of the heart after some Good proportionable to it self Or It is an affection by which the soul setleth it self in the liking of what is esteemed good as it is good The Schoolmen say It is not only vinculum ligans but pondus inclinans quod pondus in corporibus id amor in spiritibus Amor meus pondus meum Aug. in confess It should be an equal weight greatest to the greatest good our love to all other things should be subordinate to that Fecerunt itaque civitates duas amores duo terrenam scilicet amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei coelestem vero amor Dei usque ad contemptum sui Augustin de civitate Dei lib. 14. cap. 28. The Image of God in this affection was the placing of it on its proper object for Measure Weight Intention Order Degree God is the great and proper object of it from the knowledge of his excellencies and the sense of his ravishing goodnesse Adams heart was wholly carried to him as his chief good 1. The love of concupiscence or desire made out to the possession of God 2. The love of complacency took wonderful pleasure in him 3. The love of friendship was willing to do what God would have him 4. The love of dependance expected good from no other The soul did this 1. Freely without violence 2. Superlatively The second object of mans love in his pure condition was himself all his love to himself was to take delight in that in himself
The activity of grace appears chiefly in our love and desire for the good things of Christians are not yet enjoyed and therefore is this affection so much exercised 1. In general the work of grace is to renew that which our original corruption spoiled in the affections or to repair the image of God once stamped there It takes off the desire from the creature and turns it to the proper object of it in a due order method and measure 2. Particularly 1. The true object of a sanctified desire primary and ultimate is God Christ and all the graces of his Spirit and the means of Grace the Ordinances and in a due place moderately the creature and what ever is helpful to me We ought to desire 1. For our selves only good things Prov. 11. 23. God chiefly Psal. 42. 2. Revel 3. 2. Christs righteousnesse and the vertues of the Spirit the means and helps to grace as the sincere milk of the Word and the company of the Saints and the like helps as Paul desired to see Timothy places and occasions of doing good if we finde our selves furnished for them 1 Tim. 3. 1. Natural benefits and good things health liberty We ought to desire for others their conversion Rom. 10. 1. and growth in grace and salvation the welfare of the Church Secondly The act or measure of it carried to its proper object God and Christ with greatest intensnesse called hungring and thirsting As the Hart pants after the water brook and moderately carried to the things of this world grace is a spur to our desires for spiritual things and a bridle to them for earthly We must 1. Desire spiritual things more then temporal Mat. 5. 6. 2. Among spiritual things those most which may do us most good as Paul bids us covet spiritual gifts chiefly that we may prophesie 3. The publick good more then our own There is no evidence of grace so constantly to be found in a gracious heart as the holinesse of their desires Nehem. 1. 11. The desire of our hearts is toward thee Rom. 7. Cant. 1. Draw me and we will run after thee Reasons 1. Because their good is absent from them the heart which cannot say I pray and believe can say I desire to pray and believe The true desire of grace is grace it self in a degree 2. The Saints of God have ever pleaded their desires as an evidence of their interest in God when they could plead nothing else My soul longeth for thy salvation Marks to try whether our desires after these things be sanctified First Then thou desirest all that is good Christ Grace the Ordinances the Gospel holds out Christ to be good to me therefore one may somewhat desire this and not be sanctified I must desire him to be my King and Lord as well as my Saviour Secondly It hath five Properties 1. It is the greatest and strongest the soul hath of rational not sensitive desires therefore set out by hunger and thirst panting after God Whom have I in heaven but thee and in the whole earth in comparison of thee Desires put out on Election and counsel are put out most on these things 2. It is accompanied with sadnesse and languishing if it attain not the thing desired Hope deferred makes the heart sick 3. They would enjoy the object presently Balaam could desire it at later end If I desire a thing as an end I cannot but desire it presently 4. These desires are constant till the thing be fully enjoyed Ioh. 4. 14. 5. Such desires are operative otherwise if they put us not on the use of means they are not right Such an one will be at any cost for exalting adorning that thing What is a mans happinesse end glory he desires to make as excellent as may be Who ever truly desires spiritual things desires them as their glory they will give all for the glory of Christ and the beauty of the Gospel How to know whether our desires after the things of this life be sanctified try that by two things 1. In the point of subordination as they may stand with subordination to the great things he desires As farre as these outward things may be usefull and helpfull to the things of Gods Kingdome One thing have I desired saith David as an end Zeâ—h 7. 5 6. Whether you eat or drinke or what ever you doe and so desire do all to the glory of God 2. You shall try it by the moderation of your spirit If you desire these things as inferiour goods 1 Cor. 7. 27. Means or Directions to keep your desires strong and vigorous after spiritual things and to moderate your desires after earthly things Of the first 1. Labour for a thorow knowledge and acquaintance with these spiritual things knowledge of a thing stirs up the appetite Two men did vehemently desire a spiritual communion with God Moses and Paul and none knew more of Christ then these Study the things of God of Christ and Gods Kingdom not only a speculative knowledge but a practical taste of God rest not till thou hast some experience of this supernatural object Other truths quickly â—loy when one understands an Art or Tongue the knowledge of spiritual things quickens the appetite and enlargeth the soul. 2. Labour to be acquainted with thine own emptinesse how empty of all grace and full of corruptions thou art Tecum habita labour to get a sense of these things what a great evil an hard heart is and what it is to be deprived of God so the Lord counsels the Angel of Laodicea 3. Hope of attaining is the whetstone of desiring study those promises He will satisfie the hungry soul and those that thirst after the Well of life and open thy mouth and he will fill it Directions how our desires after the things of this life may be sanctified In general The sanctification of these desires stands in their moderation we must have a care that they be not inordinate First Labour in general for a contented minde Heb. 13. Be without covetousnesse Get a contented spirit which may stand in an indifferency to these things 3. Rules 1. Let thy desires be fully let out after the things of heaven this will moderate them to all other things because they will satisfie them 2. Labour to be rightly informed what all these worldly things are and thy soul will be moderate toward them know six things of them 1. None of all the things of this life have any good in them to us further then they are useful There is a necessity of food and raiment to uphold our natural being but otherwise all these things are but useful in a subordinate way not good further then of good use 2. They are of no use at all to the saving of thy soul I am going to a place said the Martyr where money is nothing worth the thing I am to look after is the saving of my soul. 3. They are all by Gods own appointment most
with them Fifthly Thy body shall be raised out of the dust and made like the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sixthly Look upon thy body in the relation it stands to thy soul it is to be the vessel thy soul should use by defiling it and regarding it more then enough you make the soul a slave to it Seventhly Consider that our bodies without a great deal of looking to and watching over will never be kept clean originall sinne hath over-spread them Eighthly A small temptation prevails over our bodies they are more subject to spiritual then bodily evils Ninthly Satan well knows that although God most looks at the grace and corruption which acts in the inward man for judging of the inward goodnesse or badnesse yet when grace breaks out in the body it is majoris gloriae and when corruption appears there it is majoris infamiae turpitudinis Tenthly In the judgement of God the greatest beauty and comlinesse to be found in our bodies is to have them thus devoted and consecrated to God and thus imployed The bravery of our cloathes washing and trimming is to set out our bodies because we would not appear deformed in the eyes of others Prov. 3. 22 23. Means to possesse our bodies in purity 1. Take heed of over-loving or over-valuing the body then I shall not put my body on any duty of mortification the body is but a Scabberd the soul is the Tool 2. Above all look to thy heart within keep that in a right frame and the body will easily be kept Ierom saith I left the City and went into the wildernesse but I took my wicked heart thither 3. Look to the senses sinne came into the world by our senses the devil spake slattering words to the ear shew'd the fruit to the eye she touched it and tasted of it and perhaps smelt to it Prov. 7. The harlot kist him for his touch she had the attire of an harlot for his eye perfumed her bed for his smell her words dropt as the honey comb for his ear 4. Keep the body as well as the soul in frequent Communion with God exercise thy hands eyes and ears in prayer 5. Because our bodies being filthy vessels ever since our fall and prone to be defiled our care must be to wash them in clean water 2 Cor. 7. 1. Heb. 10. 22 23. We must daily renew our faith and repentance Psal. 51. Besprinkle we with â—ysâ—p and wash me For our external actions they are 1. Sinfull and here is all new the grosse sinfull actions are removed Old things are past away Ye were sometimes thus but ye are washed cleansed Hence they are called Saints and called from the world Let him that stole steal no more 2. Common infirmities are much subdued and what is yet remaining is much bewailed Gal 6. 24. You shall not see the same anger and love as before He that was a very Nabal before is turned to a meek Moses and he that was a Tiger before is changed into a Lamb. 2. Natural and civil actions they are altered 1. They are put upon a right end Whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God so that as God made all things for himself so we desire to live to him whereas naturally a man doth all these actions for himself as the utmost end we eat drink and do every thing to the glory of God either immediately when we give him the glory and acknowledge him the author of these mercies we partake of or else mediately when we do imploy and lay out the strength comfort and profit we have in the way which God hath required at our hands 2. They are made but the accessary and heavenly things the principal Matth. 6. Seek first the kingdom of Heaven John 6. Labour not for the meat which perisheth And what will it profit a man to gain the whole world Naturally a mâ—â— iâ— so â—â—t on the world that he is taken up with it if there were no heaven no soul no better thiâ—gs to be looked after it were another matter but the conversation of the godly is in heaven and their affections are set upon things above 3. In the use of all these they live by faith Hab. 3. The just shall live by faith it is thrice repeated in the New Testament a man depends upon Gods promise in the most trouble some straights believeth in God as a Father Matth. 6. who will provide for him Care and distractions what thou shalt do how thou shalt live oppose the work of converting grace Paul knew how to abound and how to want he saith he had all things because he that by faith hath God as his hath all things of God his wisdom power 3. Their religious actions they are altered For 1. These are done with the inward man with inward sorrow and delight people think that praying and doing other duties is godlinesse it self but here if any where grace makes a great change for whereas before these duties were done out of custom and more verbally now he performs them with more sense of his unworthines the Spirit making groans unutterable and taking away the sâ—oninâ—s of our hearts now they are earnest and â—ervent in prayer and hear the Word diligently 2. They are effects of faith reconciling us to God whereas before his conversion all his duties were abominable things yet he had high conceits of them now they are accepted converting grace working faith in them which laying hold upon Christ doth cover them all with his worth and excellency before they were but the meer desires of nature such as any Heathen would make and they did no more prevail and if God did hear them it was in a common way of providence such as he shewes to the Ravens when they cry to him but now they are the prayers and duties of those which are in Christ in whom God is well-pleased There is as much difference between a beleevers prayer and a naturall mans prayer as between Lazarus dead and him risen again 3. They are done effâ—â—aciously to make us grow more and to get more strength that is the end of prayer of hearing the Word of the Sacraments partly to cleanse us and partly to further us in the way of salvation the godly man faithfully using these Ordinances findeth them such bread that in the strength of them he liveth and groweth but the natural man is never reformed by these though he live under the Minstry he retains the same old lusts and sins 4. They are so done as that we go out of them and relie on Christ only This is a wonderful change wrought on the godly mans heart that he goeth out of all his prayers All our righteousnesse is as a menstruous cloth naturally a man relieth on these and till God make us see the spiritual purity of his Law and all the inward filth of our hearts it spoils all our duties and it is impossible that we should depend upon
Wisdome is one principal part of the excellency of the holy Angels as they excel in power so in wisdome so saith the woman to David My Lord is wise as an Angel of God intimating that wisdome is an angelical thing Salomon being put to his choice asked wisdome at Gods hands and God himself approved and commended his choice and rewarded it also with an addition of other things as it were advantages and appendices to it giving him as a wise heart so likewise store of riches and honour Reasons 1 It perfecteth the best faculty of the best part of the best creature of all that God hath made in this inferiour world Wisdome is a gift peculiar to men beasts have strength swiftnesse beauty Wisdome also is a quality that pertaineth to the best part of man his soul it perfecteth reason the understanding and the will too making the one to judge and discern rightly and the other to choose rightly the one to see the best things the other to take the best and leave the worst and to persist in using the best means for attaining the best things for wisdom standeth in these two things in ability to discern what is most beneficial and good and what helps do most conduce to the getting of it and to sway the soul to a ready choosing of those means and right using them for the gaining of those benefits By wisdome the holy Ghost meaneth not so much the speculative wisdom which is called learning the universal knowledge of all things humane and divine the understanding of great and wonderfull things as one defines it but that which is termed Prudence the ability of managing affairs discreetly the vertue of getting things necessary for our welfare The Scripture telleth us of two sorts of wisdome a good wisdome and a bad the good properly so called because it is worthy that name the bad improperly because of some resemblance it hath in some respects unto the good The good wisdome is first and chiefly spiritual by which the minde is enabled to see and attain its chiefest highest most noble end its fellowship with God its eternal welfare and happinesse called A being wise to salvation 2. Natural which is an ability to see and obtain the natural good even those benefits which God hath provided for men to enjoy in this world Secondly Evil wisdome called by St Iames Earthly sensual and devilish termed so from the objects of it the things about which it worketh even about earthly sensual and devilish things Wisdome is an excellent gift for these reasons also three things commend a thing and make it appear most excellent 1. Rarity 2. Difficulty 3. Usefulnesse and profit First It is a rare thing Eccles. 8. 1. Secondly It is a most difficult thing to get therefore the holy Ghost bids us Dig for it cry for it search for it as for hid treasure Thirdly It is most usefull and beneficial in regard of himself that hath it and others too 1. He that hath it gets by it comfort good successe and constant prosperity 2. It is an honour to him before all men The wise shall inherit glory it will make the face to shine like an ointment Solomons wisdome commended him to all the world Dr. Hall cals him the Oracle the Miracle of wisdome VVhere shall we find a wise man like this said Pharaoh of Ioseph 3. It makes him very beneficial to others A poor wise man delivered a City that was besieged by a mighty man A skill to perform things well and fitly that is meant by the word wisdome in Scripture Bezaleel was filled with wisdome A wise master-builder saith Paul It is such a knowledge of things as inableth a man to order his actions and whole life aright Wisdome whether natural or spiritual all good wisdome is Gods gift the inspiration of the most high giveth wisdome out of his mouth cometh understanding The chief ground The beginning of wisdome is the fear of the Lord. A good understanding and obedience have all they which do his precepts This is the foundation of spiritual and true natural wisdome without which a man may have wit and craft but wisdome he cannot have except such wicked wisdome as St Iames describes These vertues of fearing God and obeying him are both main parts of wisdom and the foundation of it Some common means for attaining both these kinds of wisdome First See our own want of wisdome together with the worth of it that we may earnestly desire it for spiritual wisdome Paul saith If any would be wise he must become a fool that he may be wise his meaning is he must take notice of his own folly 1 King 3. 9. Secondly We must pray for it earnestly Iam. 1. 5. Spiritual wisdome was never obtained without it and the other is not else sanctified to a man Thirdly Converse with the wise Prov. 13. 20. Fourthly Oppose those things which are contrary to it 1. Strong passions especially wrath and anger this dwels in the bosom of fools and exalts folly 2. Conceitednesse of ones self There is more hope of a fool then one that is wise in his own conceit 3. Rashnesse in doing things hastily and on a sudden and of his own head without deliberating with himself and consulting with others 4. Voluptuousnesse He that follows the idle is destitute of heart The special means of getting spiritual wisdome 1. To be constant and diligent in reading and pondering on the Scriptures Gods oracles Prov. 1. 4. Psal. 119. 98 99 100. These writings will make us wise to salvation and teach us also how to be wise in the world and to order all our affairs with judgement To which adde prayer and practice Manifest Signs and fruits of wisdom The Scripture gives some general rules of discretion First To take the due time and fit season of things As the Ant labours in Summer against Winter so Salomon saith the wise man will labour in harvest Secondly To be wary and deliberate walking by advice and counsel and not follow his own head A wise man is of a cool spirit In the multitude of counsellors is peace Thirdly To use due secrecy to know how to keep such things to ones self as should be reserved Fourthly To be somewhat hard of belief A fool believes every thing but a wise man will enquire into matters Fifthly To know and preferre the most needfull things in the first place Sixthly Will take reproof well Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee Great natural wisdome separated from holinesse makes a man the more wicked and mischievous as Ahitophels wisdome 2 Sam. 16. 22 23. enabled him to do more mischief The Apostle saith The wisdome of this world is foolishnesse with God And St Iames tels us That this wisdome is earthly sensual and devilish We may see it evident in the Devil who is of great understanding but utterly unholy and therefore the worst of all Gods creatures
innocency and compass thine Altar A man must bring an undefiled spirit if he will pray he must work his heart to sorrow and resolution to amend his late sins for he cannot be welcome into Gods presence that is not cleansed from his wickedness or hateth to be reformed we must be pure if we will come into Gods presence 3. Prayer to God for his blessing must be prefixed to all religious services for our better inabling thereto for of our selves we can do nothing all our sufficiency comes from him who hath promised to hear us when we pray and to grant our petitions so that without seeking a blessing we cannot expect to finde it and therefore the Apostlē saith that all things are sanctified unto us by prayer even exercises of Religion the Word the Sacraments and the like yea and Prayer too by praying God first for his Spirit of Prayer Therefore he that will serve God aright must first crave his help and grace to serve him The fourth and last part of common preparation is by a preconsideration of the exceeding greatness of the Lord before whom we come and of our vileness baseness unworthiness to come before him that so we may be rightly affected with the regard of him Levit. 26. 2. So Cornelius saith that he and the rest were all there before God to hear what Peter should say unto them they had considered with themselves that God came to speak unto them and that they came to hear him for in what service we do not make account that we have to deal with the Lord our God and Maker and do not put our selves in minde what a one he is we shall not carry our selves aright towards him Abraham said he was dust and ashes when he prayed to God therefore the Lord hath set down a Preface before the Lords Prayer acquainting us what a one God is because by the thinking of him and striving to bring our hearts to conceive of him as such a one we should be better fitted to make the requests and supplications following the heart then must put it self in minde what it goes about and to whom it tenders a service I come before the Lord Almighty that hath my soul in his hand to hear him speak to me or to speak to him I draw near to the King of Heaven and Earth I present my self before his face let me frame my self so as befits his holy and all-searching eyes And this is the common preparation for our religious duties Now special preparation for special services follows to be spoken of that is to the Word to Prayer to the Sacraments and to a Vow For the Word The heart is to be framed to a resolution of obeying it in all things this is the honest and good heart whereof our Saviour makes mention in describing the good ground concerning this it is that our Lord saith again If you will do my will you shall know it This will give a man a good memory and a good judgement and the Lord to recompence this obedient resolution will become as he hath promised a Teacher to the humble so shall he be taught of God that comes with a firm purpose to be guided by God and that in all things Before you come to Church you should spend some time with your hearts to encline them and bow them to the testimonies of God and to say unto your selves I am going to hear what the Lord will say unto me seeing he is my Maker I will not harden my heart against him but I will be ready to know what he teacheth and not gainsay any thing that shall to my conscience appear truth and I will undoubtedly yeeld to that I know in practice for it is the word of him that is Lord of the spirits of all flesh then will the Word be powerful to make us able when we resolve before whatever it be to be willing 2. Before Prayer a threefold consideration is necessary of our special wants and sins and benefits that we may accordingly mention them in our Prayers The Lord hath promised he will grant us whatsoever we shall ask we must bethink our selves therefore what be those things that for our present estate we do stand in need of What sins had need to be pardoned and healed what benefits continued or new given and what we have already to give thanks for that we may with more earnestness pray when we know for what we will pray In the next place we must consider of Gods gracious promises that he hath made unto us to help and of his exceeding mercy goodness and power by which we are sure he is able and willing to help even of those Excellencies of God which the title Our Father which art in Heaven doth offer unto our consideration but principally Gods promise to hear and accept is to fill our mindes when we come before him as suppliants Thirdly For the Sacraments the special preparation is 1. By examining and judging our selves as the Apostle speaks that is a more narrow and diligent search for our estate and for our particular offences if we have forgotten any if through carelesnesse or guile we have let passe the sight and acknowledgment of any that now the old leaven may be cast out So saith the Apostle Examine your selves and again If we would judge our selves God would not judge us 2. We must labour to get a good appetite to this spiritual food to stir up in our selves an earnest hungring and thirsting after Christ and his benefits there God cals all that thirst to come and eat As a good stomack is a necessary preparation to our natural meals so to these spiritual meals is a good desire and longing for the grace there offered remission of sinnes past and power to live more blamelesly and holily hereafter Then when a man hath by special examination and judging himself found out his faults and humbled himself for them and also hath brought his heart to long for Christ Jesus to be his Saviour and to save him from the punishment and power of them by his body and bloud he is now fit to come to the Lords Table 3 He must meditate on Christs sufferings Lastly For a vow because this is a very solemn bond betwixt God and us I speak it not of imposed vows but assumed wherein we enter it behoves us very carefully to weigh the nature of the thing and our sufficiency for the same that we may not be rash with our lips to speak before our Maker which is principally spoken of vowing by Salomon for better not vow then not perform for want of which care many men have so intangled themselves as their vows have been occasion of exceeding much misery unto them as we have one fearful example for all in Iephta who though he did not so bad as is vulgarly thought for can any man imagine that the newly reformed Church of Israel at that time after so
determine the matter that is to refer themselves to Gods providence in this case and to make him their umpire is not this an abuse of him Wherefore in such coined doubts God must not be made a determiner unless we will be bold to draw him into the participation of our folly But of true and real doubts existent in nature there are also two kinds for 1. Some are trivial and of no weight 2. Some are of weight and moment I shall propound the opinion of a reverend Divine seeing the thing is much controverted and leave it to the wise to judge To put trifling and toyish differences sportful and ludicrous controversies unto Gods determination saith he is surely to abase and abuse him seeing a lot is an implicite invocation as I said where a man would abhor it to profaness to make such a prayer in word as any heart would in a trifling thing there it were also profaness to make it an act or by signes to signifie it as it is done in a lot But in differences that either of themselves or in regard of the consequents of them be of moment and weight there a lot may and must be used that peace may be setled amongst men none having to finde fault with the division unless he will be so bold and wicked as to finde fault with God So in the division of the Land of Canaan of the Priests Offices of the work of fighting and victualling the Camp a lot was used as also in the choice of an Apostle in Iudas room and of the tythe Lambe in the fold For because infinite heart-burnings and quarrels might have grown betwixt the Priest and people for Tythe Lambs if either the one should have taken or the other have given which he would and that the order of their yeaning could not certainly be known therefore that also was a matter of great weight in regard of the consequents thereof for the constant and universal order and course of tything though for the particular difference betwixt some one or other Lamb the matter was not great So the due occasion of using a lot is a real difference of some moment about the divisions of something to be divided betwixt such or such that may seem to have reason to challenge each what would best content and satisfie himself The manner of using a lot upon such occasions follows and that must be thus 1. With a reverent careful observation of Gods providence in the event of the thing and disposing of the controversie so as a mans heart may say within it self Thou Lord hast done this or that not by the wit and skill or will of any man but the hidden work of thine own providence without any such thing coming betwixt and thou hast manifested to me thy good pleasure that things should be distributed thus or thus 2. It must be used with a quiet submission of our will to Gods will so manifested giving up our selves to be ruled by that hand and providence without murmuring For seeing the disposition of a lot is of God therefore we cannot grudge at the falling of it out so or so but that we shall seem to pick a quarrel with God Hitherto of the right use of such holy actions as come to be used in and with our common affairs It follows to shew how we must order our selves in our common affairs so far forth as in them we have to do with God or any of those things by which he makes himself known to us This is double 1. Inward 2. Outward The inward also is double in regard of 1. Gods Actions 2. Our Actions That which respecteth Gods Actions is also double 1. To see him in them 2. To make a good use of them The first thing we are bound unto for the sanctifying of Gods Name is to see him in all his actions that is to take notice of him as the Authour of them informing our selves that he hath wrought them as David doth Psal. 8. 3. 118. 23. Psal. 44. 1 2 3. Psal. 18. 47 48. Iob 1. 21. Ioseph Gen. 45. 7 8. Psal. 46. 8. All things that are done in all the world natural supernatural common special of mercy of justice good bad of what kinde soever must in some sense even the bad so far as they be actions and means of good be ascribed to God and man must speedily take notice of Gods providence and working in them and say The Lord hath done this or that be it never so small or trifling for his providence extendeth to every motion of every creature seeing in him we live move and have our being 2. The second thing we are bound to in regard of Gods Actions is to make a good use of them by building up our selves thereby in the knowledge of God and in all holy affections of love fear confidence toward him and of hatred of sin love of righteousness and the like as when the people saw that great miracle wrought by the Lord by the hand of Eliah they cried out The Lord is God the Lord is God 1 King 18. 39. So David saith Psal. 116. 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplication So David having said Psal. 33. 6 7. that God hath made all things addeth Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spake and they were created So the Lord himself saith Jer. 5. 22. Fear ye not me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea When we see Gods Works we must see in them the clear demonstration of his Wisdome Power Justice Mercy and other holy Attributes that we may grow in knowledge of him and love and fear and other vertues Now this is a general use to be made of all but there are two special works which he useth to do to mankinde works of Mercy and Justice which require two special uses 1. A thankful receiving of the works of mercy 2. A patient and penitent bearing of corrections Thankful receiving of mercies is so to taste and feel the goodness of God in them that we provoke our selves by them to serve and obey him with more cheerfulness willingness and readiness Each benefit and blessing we enjoy must cause us to be more careful of pleasing him that gave us all those benefits and should make us renew in our minds such thoughts as these It is God which feedeth me preserveth me O why should not I respect honour love serve him Lord I will give my self to thee I will obey thee thou deservest it The duty of thankfulness is required in the first Commandment the improving of all good things to the increase of this thankfulness is a special sanctifying of Gods Name required in this Commandment Psal. 116. 12. Psal. 118. 19. He meaneth there that he will apply himself to the practice of
should appoint and so in the meaning of the Commandment we do now and ever must rest the seventh day for the seventh is that part in order of numbring which doth still come betwixt six having six before it and six after continually and so our day of rest hath and therefore we also rest the seventh day Indeed the period from which we take the beginning of our account is not the same but another for they did reckon from the beginning of the Creation and so forward we from the Resurrection and so forward but ours is as truly and surely the seventh as theirs though reckoned from another period and for the period from whence the count must be made we have no word at all in this precept He saith not six daies from the creation thou shalt labour and the seventh from the creation is the Sabbath of the Lord in it thou shalt do no work but six daies shalt thou labour and he saith not after the Lord blessed and sanctified the seventh day from the creation but the Sabbath day that is the seventh after six of labour Indeed the Lord by a special institution given to Adam Gen. 2. 1. had for the times before Christ appointed that they should reckon from the creation which was the cause of that special institution but this is no part of the Commandment and in that institution God did two things 1. He appointed the period from whence the seventh should be accounted which else Adam according to the Law infused into him would have taken otherwise for those ten were written in Adams heart as is signified by the writing them in Tables of Stone and calling them the Tables of the Covenant for God did not make one Covenant with Israel another with Adam but one and the same with both Indeed the Covenant made with Israel was put in the Ark to shew Christ to be the end of the Law but yet it was the same Covenant for matter and so all the parts of it were written in Adams heart But Adam looking to the Law of his heart and finding it written there as some hold I must labour six daies and rest the seventh would have begun his life with six daies labour and then in course have consecrated the seventh but the Lord by a speciall institution prevented him requiring him to begin his life with an holy rest and to sanctifie that seventh day from the Creation and so forward This was of speciall institution the assigning of that speciall date or period And in this another thing was done viz. the establishing also of the Law of sanctifying the seventh after six of labour wherefore in the reason confirming the Commandment God seemeth to have reference to this institution but so that he maketh it manifest he looked not to that period but to the number and order of the day and so saith He blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day which he had before determined to be the seventh after six of labour not the seventh day as it is said in the words of that institution And the Lords reason is not this What day I rested that thou must rest but I rested the seventh from the Creation therefore so must thou but thus What day I upon occasion of my labouring six and resting the seventh did blesse and sanctifie that day thou must rest But I upon occasion of my so labouring and resting did blesse and sanctifie the Sabbath day that is the seventh after six of labour indefinitely as the words before expresse not from the creation onely Therefore thou must remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it So then this reason I take to be fully answered And for our better satisfaction we must know that we keep the Sabbath just according to this Commandment word for word in that we labour six and rest the seventh and so must do to the worlds end but that we have taken up a new reckoning from a new period even the resurrection we have it from Christs appointment as is plainly shewed us because this day is called the Lords day that is the day which he appointed to be kept constantly This name of the day shews the Authour of the day the Lord and the end the remembrance of him our Lord as the Lords Supper by that name is signified to be also from him and to him And so by the wisdome of God it cometh to passe that because men do labour six and rest the seventh we do eternize the memorial of the Creation according to this fourth Commandment and because we reckon from the resurrection we do also eternize the memorial of that work which is greater then the creation We must not think any thing more to be commanded then what the words do set down expresly or intimate Now neither expresly nor by any necessary consequence or intimation are we pointed to a set period of numbring or to a seventh from this or that date but alone to the seventh after six of labour As for the period it being established by the institution mentioned Gen. 3. no question needed to arise about that If any still argue That day which God did rest blesse and sanctifie is here commanded But God did rest blesse sanctifie the seventh day from the Creation ergo that is here ratified We answer That the Proposition is to be understood with limitation The same day which God did rest blesse and sanctifie the same for order and number not the same for the period or point from whence the number is beginning For so himself doth shew his meaning to be in that he insists upon this order and number saying Six daies shalt thou labour the seventh shalt thou do no work and doth not once mention the period from the Creation as he could and would have done had that been his intention Now the same point concerning the perpetuity of this Law is confirmed plainly by S. Iames Iam. 2 9. where he saith He that keepeth the whole Law and faileth in one point is guilty of all Whence I reason the whole Law and every point of it was of force when S. Iames wrote this Epistle for how can a man break a Law that is abrogated or be guilty of all by breaking any one point if the whole be not and each part equally in force Now this Epistle was written by S. Iames to those which lived under the Gospel wherefore at that time and to those persons the whole Law and each part of it was in force And if any doubt grow what S. Iames meaneth by the Law it is plain he meaneth the Decalogue or ten Commandments thus He that speaketh of a whole Law and after instanceth in particular members of the Law must needs mean the whole number of Precepts whereof those two brought in for instance are members and parts Now for instance S. Iames brings in two members of the Decalogue ergo by the whole Law and each point he must needs mean the Decalogue and
be added to the natural or else little good will be done and these are two 1. Let them pray often to God to link their hearts together 2. Let them be frequent in performing all holy exercises one with another and specially in praying one with and for another Spiritual exercises breed spiritual affection and nothing is more binding then Religion Religious duties do both expresse and increase the image of God and that is amiable So much for love Now follow trustinesse and helpfulnesse both which we will put together as Solomon doth saying of a good wife Prov. 31. 11 12. That the heart of her husband doth trust in her And again She will do him good and not evil all the daies of his life God did make man and woman for the good each of other her to be his helper and him to be her guide This trusty helpfulnesse must be to each others bodies souls names and states Bodies in the careful avoiding of all things whereby they may bring sicknesses or diseases each on other and the willing and ready providing of all things that may continue health and recover it as attendance physick and the like Souls in shunning all such carriages as may provoke each others passions or other infirmities and using all good means of loving advice and admonition to help each other out of the same Namely in concealing each others infirmities and keeping each others secrets States in joyning together in diligent labour wise fore-cast and vertuous thriftinesse Thus for themselves Now in regard of their families they must joyn together in the planting of Religion amongst them by instructing and teaching them and by reading and praying with them the man as chief the wife as his deputy in his absence also they must oversee the waies of their family by looking what is done by them and seeking to redresse by admonishing and correcting what is amisse In regard of children they are 1. To bear moderate affections toward them Rachel and Hannah immoderately desired them others mutter because they have so many 2. To train them up in the fear of God Solomon who was the tender beloved the darling of his parents makes this the instance of their love in that they taught him wisdome and acquainted him with the Laws of God It was said of Herod that it was better to be his hog then his son 3. To reprove and chasten them for their iniquities Ely a good man came to a fearful end for neglecting this So much for their joint duties Now the several duties of each come to be handled and first we begin with the wife and then proceed to the husband The wife ows in one word subjection and this twofold to the husbands Person and to his Authority To his person 1. By acknowledging her self to be his inferiour God saith to Eve Her desire shall be subject to her husband and he shall rule over her The female sex is inferiour to the male and every woman as a woman is lower and meaner then a man as the Apostle proves because the woman was after the man and for the man and she was first in the transgression therefore she may not use Ecclesiastical Authority not speak in the Church as a Minister But to her husband not as a woman onely but as a wife she is inferiour and bound in conscience to be subject to his power and jurisdiction for this is a word of eternal and constant truth He shall rule over thee which she that will not yeeld to is an enemy to God and nature and cannot be a good wife 2. She is to reverence her husbands person both inwardly in heart and outwardly Inwardly Ephes. 5. ult she must fear him not with a flavish but awful fear that is she must have her soul so disposed to him as to be afraid to offend or displease him She must shew outward reverence also in her gesture behaviour and speech This is subjection to the husbands person Now to his Authority She owes 1. Cheerful obedience to all his lawful commands as the Church obeys Christ. 2. A quiet and fruitful receiving of his reprehensions as the Church also is patient toward Christ. Thus we have heard the wives duty The husbands duties are 1 Wisely to maintain his authority not so much by force as by vertuous behaviour avoiding especially bitternesse and unthriftinesse 2. He must wisely manage his authority The end of using his authority must be the good benefit and comfort of his wife and family for all government is by God ordained for the good of the whole not the pleasure of the Governour The husband must use his authority to edification and hearken to her when she speaks the Word of God as Abraham to Sarah Isa. 11. 6. 2. The things in which he is to use his authority he is to command what is to be done and forbid what is not to be done and reprehend where she offends 3. The manner of using his authority is with three vertues Wisdome Mildnesse Justice 1. Wisdome in commanding nothing but what is useful and weighty and grounded upon good and due reason 2. In his reproofs he must choose fit time when he and she are calm and fit place when none is present 2. Mildnesse or gentlenesse rather perswade then command if he chide her let it be with compassion and without bitternesse 3. Justice in willing allowing of maintenance to her according to his place and means in cherishing what is good and seeking to reform what is evil He must walk in all wisdome and knowledge 1 Pet. 3. 7. he should be an example of judgement gravity holinesse and wisely passe by many imperfections because they are fellow-heires of grace if there be not this wise carriage their prayers will be hindered contentions hinder such duties Thus much for private persons viz. Parents and Children Masters and Servants Husband and Wife Now follow the duties belonging to publick persons which are either in Church or Common-wealth In Church as Minister People In Common-wealth as Magistrate Subject Of Ministers and People The duty of the people 1. They ought to reverence their Ministers for the place in which God hath set them Isa. 52. 7. Rom. 20. 15. 2. They ought exceedingly to love them Gal. 4. 14 15. 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. 3. They must obey their Doctrine taught truly out of the word of God Heb 13. 17. 4. They must yeeld sufficient maintenance unto them 1 Cor. 9. 11. Rom. 15. 27. Gal. 6. 6. 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. The Anabaptists deny that Ministers may receive a stipend so doth Weigelius he cals them Stipendiarios praecones Vide Crocij Ante-Weigel part 2. cap. quaest 2. 5. They must defend them against the wrongs of bad men Rom. 16. 4. The duty of Ministers to their people Their duty is laid forth 1. By Titles as Watchmen Ezek. 3. 1. Labourers Matth. 9. 37. Light and Salt Matth. 5. 13 14. Shepherds
provoke and incite this desire in our selves or others Secondly In regard of the act it self there is required an utter abstinence from using that power so long as a man continues in single life and a preserving our selves pure and untouched as it is spoken of the virginity of Rebekah that she had not known man And these be the duties out of marriage now in marriage there are required 1. A right contracting of it 2. A right use of it First I say a right contracting of it for it is not in the power of a man or woman whether they will marry or no but if they cannot contain let them marry for it is better to marry then to burn If any man or woman finde themselves unable to hold their desires in due measure and compasse they are then bound in conscience to pray to God and use means to attain the help of a lawful yoke-fellow If God have called any man to a single life in regard that he cannot attain an help this way doubtlesse he will help and assist him in a single life but when God leaves it at his choice and gives him not the gift of continency then doth he call him to another estate and he must know that he shall sinne if upon unbelief or worldly considerations he refrain from following Gods Ordinance In contracting matrimony he must proceed according to Gods direction in making a right choice of a yoke-fellow and in making a right proceeding in it not marry another of a contrary religion nor within degrees of the consanguinity or affinity forbidden or without consent of Parents Some things are necessary for the proceeding the agreement of the parties and a contract as some hold which is a passing of the right of two fit persons either to other by a serious promise of marriage There is likewise required a right use of matrimony which consists in a communicating of themselves to each other in the Marriage-bed and a mutual dwelling and abiding together for that purpose and a total abstinence from all dallying behaviour toward any other whatsoever This is the chastity of the married estate and these things are directly commanded Indirectly there are commanded in regard of our selves 1. Shamefac'dnesse 2. Temperance 3. Painfulnesse 4. Shunning occasions of time place and company that may solicite In regard of others sober and modest carriage and attire First Shamefac'dnesse is a disposition whereby a mans heart irks and refuseth to give him leave for blushing to do any act that may savour of uncleannesse chiefly in the presence and sight of others a great curb to restrain lust and must be maintained the contrary being condemned in the leud woman that she had an impudent countenance and shamed not to utter her evil passions Secondly Painfulnesse is a constant attendance upon the works of a mans calling whereby one is so imployed that he hath no leisure to be inordinate this way Thirdly Temperance is moderation in meats and drinks framing our selves to such a measure and quality or way as may be most fit to give strength to the body without increasing evil desires and for shunning evil company places times who cannot tell what it is and how needfull that hears Salomon giving warning of the corner of her house The last thing is a sobernesse and modesty of carriage and attire such as may expresse gravity and a disposition farre from willingnesse to be that way either assaulted or overcome These be the Duties which this Commandment requires it forbids many sinnes Some things it forbiddeth directly some things indirectly Directly it forbids some things inwardly some things outwardly Inwardly it condemns inordinate lust Lust is inordinate in three respects 1. For the Degree of it 2. For the Object 3. For the End For the Degree when it comes to be burning that is a desire so sharp and eager that it is not under the power of will and reason yea that it detains the soul under its tyranny and makes the will to runne along with it so vehemently that all other thoughts and desires are almost devoured by it For seeing the action is a mean action and shamefull and a meer bodily action and doth not essentially pertain to the felicity of man therefore the desire of it should be moderate and give place to other more necessary desires but when it wastes the soul takes up all the room to it self consumes all holy inclinations and desires and carries away the soul with a kinde of irresistible violence this is sinfull and displeasing to God though it be not directed to any particular person but much more when it is to a particular person which is that thing men usually call being in love with some body as Amnon and Iosephs Mistress were sick with their lust after others When lust grows so violent that a man cannot represse it without distemperature and unquietness of minde when it wins the consent of his will to evil and carries his desire headlong then it is sinful and this is that the Apostle means by the passion of lust Secondly This inclination is inordinate for the object when it tends to one whom God hath not authorized a man to desire viz. any but that woman who is at least in the mutual purpose of both sides with the allowance of Superiours assigned to be his wife for God hath limited the desires of a man to one woman alone and of a woman to one man alone and he that is destitute of a yoke-fellow may lawfully wish that he had such a single woman to his wife and having hers and her friends consent may lawfully desire in due time to enjoy her neither are those inclinations which he shall finde toward her in the interim betwixt the motioning and consummating sinfull but all desires assented to that one would put in practice if he had means towards any other but a party to whom he is thus interessed are sinful and wicked For he that looks upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Thirdly There is an inordinatenes in lust in regard of the end when a mans desires of that way tend not to the lawful ends of procreation and of preventing fornication but alone to the pleasure of the action and satisfying the voluptuous motions of his heart without any more ado For this is to be brutish the unreasonable creatures that have not capacity to conceive of the end of their actions are carried to them by a kinde of violence a strong motion in which the pleasure of their senses over-rules them but man should not be so sensual yea his desires should be ordered by his reason and he should know and consider why he desireth any thing and be carried in his desires by right motives and inducements These be the disorders of lust or desire of generation in regard of the Measure Object and End thereof Now follow the outward disorders in Word and Deed. In a
Halls Apol against them p. 579. M. Lyfords Apol. for our publick Min. and Infant Bapt. Concl. 2. Woe to those Pastours qui non pascunt sed depascunt gregem Ezek. 34. 2 * 1 Sam. 12. 23. * Augustine and Chrysostom preached every day in the week and year at least once or twice without fail Ye heard yesterday ye shall hear to morrow is common in their Tractates and Homilies M. Balls trial of Separat pag. 81. The Papists by way of scoff called the Evangelical Ministers Praedicantici Whereas Paul judged preaching his chief Office and would not baptize least it should be an impediment Bellarmine and the Councel of Trent style preaching Praecipuum Episcopi Officium 1 Tim. 3. 1. Exponere voluit quid sit Episcopatus quia nomen est operis non honoris Aug. de civit Dei l. 19. c. 19. The Jewish Ministers were not separated by Christ himself nor by others at his command Matth. 21. 45 46. Mat. 23. 1 2 3. Luk. 17. 19 11. 52. The Pastour which hath care of souls and is non-resident Non est dispensator sed dissipator non speculator sed spiculator The most learned Divines in the Councel of Trent did generally protest against it as appears by their several Tractates See Ezek 44. 8. He whom thou substitutest is either more deserving then thy self and then it is fit he should have more means or else he is equal then it is fit he should have as much or he is inferiour and then he is not fit to represent thy person See Doctor Chaloâ—ers Sermon on Matth. 20. 6. entituled The Ministers Charge and Mission Tit. 2. 7. 1 Pet. 5 3. As the measures of the Sanctuary were double so their sins were double Greenham It is Onus Angelorum humeris formidandum Chrysost. 2 Cor. 2. 10. Melch. Adam Exod. 28. 39. Omnes disputando pauci bene vivendo vincere adversarios studemus Casaub. Epist. 123. Heinsio D. Hill on Ephes 4. 15. M. Burrh on Hos. 6. 5. Constantine when he entered into the Synod of Nice bowed himself very low unto the Bishops there assembled and sate not down until they desired him Iosephus Antiq. Iud. l. 1. c. 8. records that Alexander the Great coming with his Army against Ierusalem the high-Priest did meet him arayed with his sacred and magnificent attire Alexander dismounted himself and in the high-Priest worshipped God who as he said had in a dream appeared unto him in that habit Vide Mont. Appar 6. p. 224. The Ministery of the Gospel is much more excellent glorious then that of the Law 2 Cor. 3. 7 8 9. Phil. 2. 29. 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Heb. 4. 13 17 See Act. 10. 25. Gal. 4. 15. Stupor mundi â—lerus BritaÌ„nicus See B. Down on 1 Tim. 3. 1 2. p. 73. almost to the end The devil laboured to suppresse the Gospel Mendaciis inopia Luther Roberts Epist. to the revenue of the Gospel See more there Some say they will preach and take no tithes 2 Cor. 11. 12 Vid. Aquin. 2a 2ae quaest 87. Art 1. 3. See M. Hildershams two last Lectures on Psal. 51. It is a giving of the sense of the Scripture and a more large opening of points of Doctrine to men joyned with Reproofs Exhortations Comforts and a right applying it to the hearers Praedicatio verbi est medium gratiae divinitùs institutum quo res regni Dei publicè explicantur applicantur populo ad salutem adificationem Boules de Pastore Vide plura ibid. Rainold de lib. Apoc. Tom. 10. praelect 2. Doctor Donne on Matth. 5. Apage vesanam illam prophetandi libertaâ—eÌ„ imò licentiam blasphemandi ut liceat malè seriato cuique tyroni prodigiofissima cerebri sui phantasmata in apricum producere populo commendare praelo Concio D. Hal. ad Synod Nation Dordrecht Neither do the Independents only but the Socinians and Arminians also cry up Libertas prophetandi Mr Gillesp. Miscel. cap. 10. For a publick formal Ministerial teaching two things are required in the Teachers 1. Gifts from God 2. Authority from the Church he that wants either is no true Pastour For the second such as want Authority from the Church are 1. None of Christs Officers Ephes. 4. 11. 2. They are expresly forbidden it Ier. 23. 21. 3. The blessing on the Word is promised only to sent Teachers Rom. 10. 15. Mr Owens Duty of Pastors and people distinguished pag. 46 47. Inprimis displicet mihi illa quam tuentur libertas prophetandi certissima pernicies religiouis nisi certis sinibus acriter coerceatur Casaub. Epist. 320. Joanni Lydio That sending Rom. 10. 15. must needs import an authoritative Mission according to the clear etymology of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which manifestly alludes to the name of an Apostle a name given by Christ himself to them who were first by his command to preach the Gospel Luke 6. 13. It signifies one that is sent as the Embassadours of Princes use to be sent with their Masters Mandates Church-member set in joynt by Filodexter Transylvanus See Deodat in loc Mr. Cottons Keys of the Kingd In Ecclesia primitiva juit exercitium quoddam propheticum à concionibus distinctum 1 Cor. 14. 31 32. Ad hoc exercitium habondum admit tebantur non tantum ministri sâ—d et ex fratribus prim arii vel maximè approbati pro donis illis quae habuerunt sibi collata Ames l. 4. de consc c. 26. See Mr. Wards Coal from the Alâ—ar Most of the writings of Cypriâ— Athanasius Bafil Nazianzen Chrysostom Ambrose Cyril Augustine Leo Gregory were nothing else but Sermons preacht unto the people 1 Cor. 15. ult In the consecration of Bishops a Bible is put into their hands and these words used Accipe Evangelium vade praedica populo tibi commisso The Ministers words must be like goads to prick men to the heart and when they are soundest asleep they must be like Cocks that cry loudest in the deadest time of the night King Iames said well of a Reverend Prelate of this Land Me thinks this man preacheth of Death as if Death were at my back Master Fenner â—n 1 John 2. 6. * Et hac uimirum expedita concionandi methodus Iesuitica quam mihi etiam Spirae Wormatiae Moguntiae aliquando observasse visus sum alta voce sed frivolis rationibus cont ra haereticos clamitare moralia in quibus Christum Iesum fidem justificantem omnium bonorum operum fontem semper desideres identidem suis inculcare quae ipsa tamen melius forsan ex Seneca Plutarcho quam ex concionibus illorum didiceris Scultet de curriculo vita pag. 18. Verba volvere celeritate dicendi apud imperitum vulgus admirationem sui facere indoctorum hominum est Hieron Epist. ad Neporian Ab allegationibus authoritate Patrum veterumque Ecclesiae doctorum abstinebit Pastor Ecclesiasticus Zepperi lib. 2.
love our own souls and the souls of others since Christ manifested such love to our souls 5. We should not crosse the ends of Christs suffering 1. He died to redeem you from this present evil world 2. To destroy the works of Satan We should live to him * 〈…〉 are some particular cases wherein it is not safe for some particular persons at that time â—â—â— in 〈…〉 to pâ—t them to try themselves by signs But for the general it is necessary and the duty of all people to â—â—ok to signs and to try themselves by them M. Hooker on Rom. 8. 10. A two-sold knowledge is required of every receiver 1. A diâ—cernning of the body and bloud of Christ he must be able in some competent measure to understand the Doctrine Nature Use and End of a Sacrament by whom it was instituted and why and for what end 1 Cor. 11. 29. they were to instruct their children what this and that action signified in the Passeover 2. Of himself implied in the duty commanded of examining our selves Edere Christum est credere in Christum Quâ—d paras dentem ventrem Crede tantùm manducasti August He that comes without faith receives Sacramentum notâ—em â—em Sacramenti Iesus Christus isque crucifixus debet esse proprium sidei nostrae objectum Rivetus Instruct. Praepar ad Coenam Domini cap 10. Prayer profits not without faith Rom. 10 13 14. Mark 11. 24. Luk. 18 lat end Mark 9. 23. Faith only makes up the union between Christ and us John 6. 56. The people of God have a four-fold glorious sight in this life John 14. 20. 2 Cor. 5. 19. 1. They see God in Christ. 2. They see Christ in God 3. They see Christ in themselves 4. They see themselves in Christ. See Rom. 8. 9 10. Common people say they have believed as long as they can remember and they thank God they never doubted While men are in their natural condition they think it is nothing to believe in Christ though they walk contrary to him but when sinne is fully discovered and one sees the severity of Gods justice it is then hard to believe Rom. 1. 17. 2 Thess. 1. 3. Consider 1. Thy natural estate is a state of death damnation John 3. 18. Gal. 3. 23. 2. So long as thou abidest out of Christ thou abidest in death John 3. 36. 1 Joh. 3. 14. All sins de merito are damnable they deserve death but not de facto no sinne necessarily brings death but unbelief because it keeps a man off from Christ the fountain of life John 6. 5 7. 3. Thou canst not be the fountain of thine own life 4. Life is to be had in no other but Christ John 5. 40. 5. There is no way of having life from him but by union with him 1 John 5. 12. the first thing that grace puts forth in the soul is an instinct after union Faith is an instinct put in by the teaching of the Father after union with Christ. The sole way to get this supernatural grace is with hearty â—amenting of its absence and weakness to beg it of him who is able to work it in the heart and to feed and nourish it by a continual meditation of his greatness and great works which he hath formerly wrought for our confirmation Poenitentia est dolor de peccato cum adjunctâ— proposito melioris vitae Luth. in loc commun de poenitentia All the Sermons of the Prophets and Apostles run on this Christ commanded his Disciples to preach it It is one of the two parts of the Gospel the summe of the Gospel is Faith Repentance It is Praeterita peccata plangere plangenda non committere Aug. It 's secunda ta bula post naufragium medicina est spiritualis animi vitiorum say others See Mr Calamy on Act. 17. 30. and Cameron on Mark 1. 15. Our sorrow for sin should be our chiefest sorrow because sin is the greatest evil and it is so in respect of the intellectual part and in respect of the displicency of the will wherein the strength of repentance lieth According to the multitude of thy mercies blot out all my offences and create in me a new heart and a right spirit Lord do away the sinne of thy servant Petit 5. It is not only among the precepts but promises and priviledges of the Gospel Act. 9. 18. Da prâ—â—s poenitentiam postea indulgentiam Fulgentius They are therfore Ministers of the Gospel not legal preachers which preach repentance There is one act of faith to be done once for all to lay hold on Christ and be united to him and justified by him yet I must live by it and do every duty by it so for repentance Isa. 27. 9. Jer. 2 19. Heb. 12. 11 Before the Supper and the offering of a childe in Baptism then Christs death is represented Rom. 6. 4. Gal. 3. 1. a On a mans death-bed the day of repentance is past for repentance being the renewing of a holy life the living the life of grace it is a contradiction to say that a man can live a holy life upon his death-bed D. Taylors Rule of holy living chap. 4. Sect. 4. That place Ezek. 33. 14. is it which is so often mistaken for that common saying At what time soever a sinner repents him of his sins from the bottom of his heart I will put all his wickednesse out of my remembrance saith the Lord. Let not that be made a colour to countenance a death-bed penitent D. Taylor on Jer. 13. 16. Serm. 2. One may repent on his death-bed as well as the thief on the Crosse but it is dangerous to put off repentance till then it will be harder to come in It s a rare sight saith one to finde a young man godly and an old man penitent We acknowledge that as God cals some at the first hour so may some be called at the last hour of the day yea inter pontem fontem D. Iackson indeed hath an opinion that a man may proceed so farre in sin in this life that the door of repentance may be thâ—t upon him none of our Divines deny the possibility of any mans Salvation while he lives in this world D. Twiss ag Hord. p. 45. There is a Gospel-command to repent Mat 9. 13. Act. 17. 30. 2. The very space of repentance is a mercy and given you that you may repent Revel 2. 21. 3. It is the natural fruit of a regenerate heart Ezek. 11. 19. 4. It is repentance to salvation 1 Cor. 7. 10. There is more joy in heaven for one sinner that repents then for ninty nine that need no repentance as if he had aimed at the Antinomians * Act. 5. 31. 11. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 12. Whosoever hath truly repented is 1. Low in his own eyes so Paul 2. Fears sin ever after Eccl. 9. 2. 3. Is pitiful to others in their fals Gal. 6. 1. 4. There will be a growth in the
And so much for the Matter of true Worship The Manner followeth which is as carefully to be looked unto as the Matter neither shall any service we perform be acceptable unto God further then the manner of performing the â—anâ—â— is agreeable to his will Know four things are required to the right performing of Gods Services in this kinde 1. Sincerity 2. Diligence 3. Faith 4. Reverence And when we do worship truly diligently faithfully reverently then we also worship him acceptably and fruitfully For sincere worshipping of God we may learn it by the Apostles denying it of some that preached Christ of contention what we do for a right end attainâ—â—g of grace and for the right motives Gods Commandment and Honour that is done truly for truth in this case is the agreement betwixt the shews we make and meaning we have To the sincere performing of the acts of Worship three things are requisite 1. That we do it upon a right motive which must be Gods Commandment because he requireth us so to serve him not pray to be seen of men 2. For a right end which must be the shewing of our obedience to God and winning of grace from him according to his promise 3. With the joyning together of the inward and outward man the Soul and Body The Scripture requireth this in prayer by special name saying that God is neer to all those that call upon him in truth that is with a true intention to please him and a true desire to get grace from him The thing which ought to make a Preacher preach is that he may be Gods Instrument in converting and edifying souls seeing God hath appointed to do this work by the Ministry of men The thing which should make the people come to Church is that by hearing their souls may live seeing God hath appointed preaching to save men When we do in our souls aim at the right end of the several kinds of Worship we perform seeking to approve our selves to God so in them that by them we may profit according to his institution this is Truth The second thing is Diligence which will follow upon Truth and is joyned with it for alwaies they go together as the contrary vices and therefore in the Hebrew one word signifies both negligently and guilefully in that speech Cursed be he that doth Gods work negligently He that would serve God acceptably must serve him heedfully Eccles. 5. 1 2. Mark 4. 23 24. Heb. 2. 1 2. Reasons 1. Because of Gods peculiar presence in his Ordinances Ezek ult ult Revel 21. 3. he is there present 1. In Majesty Exod. 40. 34. 2 Chron 5. 14. Isa. 6. 7. the Ordinances of the Gospel are compared to a wedding Feast Matth. 22. where the King comes in therefore we are said to come to a throne of grace 2 In holiness Isa. 6. 3. Psal. 48. 1. Ezek 45. latter end Rev. 4. 8. 3. As a Judge Ezek. 22. 2. Rom. 2. 14. Iob 9. 15 4. In jealousie as in the second Commandment which is quicksighted Iosh. 24. 19. 2. Look to the rule of all your converses with God Rom. 12. 1. word-service it may be rendred as 1 Pet. 2. 2. It is 1. A straight rule Psal. 19. 7. one may quickly go awry 2. A spiritual rule Rom. 7. 12. 3. An harmonious rule Iam. 2. 10. 3. Consider the evil frame of your spirits that are to walk with God in this rule 1. There is much enmity in them to every duty 2. Much inadvertency in the things of God 3. Looseness and vanity in the thoughts Ier. 4. 14. 4. God is more honoured or dishonoured in your religious duties then in all the actions of your lives there they actively intentionally and solely intend his glory therefore more of their spirits should be laid out in these duties then in all their other actions Psal. 103. 5. 5. The Devil is there present Matth. 13. 19. 1. As an accuser as of Iob. 2. As an Opposer Zach. 1. 2. 3. As an Executioner Isa. 29. 13 14. This diligence is a setting ones self to procure to ones self the benefit of the exercise an indeavour and striving in good earnest to have the graces wrought in us which these exercises are to work This Diligence consists in three things 1. A taking pains to fit and prepare our selves for these Exercises before hand 2. A due carriage of our selves in them 3. A due use-making afterwards For the first we must all know that there is a very great natural unfitness in our hearts to perform any religious work any good work at all that which is of it self unfit to effect any thing must be fitted for the work before it be imployed in the same The heart of the best man is very apt to be out of tune as it were for Prayer Meditation hearing when it is exercised about worldly matters it is made very unapt to matters of godliness because it cannot converse in the world in that holy and discreet manner it ought wherefore it must be new tuned and that is to be the first pains of a good man without which his following labour is lost This preparation is double 1. Common to all Exercises of Religion 2. Proper to some special Exercises The common Preparation stands in four things 1. In knowledge of the Exercise to be performed both that it is by God required and what good he intends by and how he would have uâ— perform it For it is impossible that any man should well worship God in anything who hath not received convenient information of the nature and use of that thing No man can pray except he know what it is to whom to be made in whose Name and what good he shall attain by it Nor reade nor hear unless he know the needfulness and nature of these Ordinances For it is the Word of God by which all things are sanctified in that our minds are thence instructed of the lawfulness and manner of performing them This is the foundation which must be first laid to all that follows to be made acquainted what the exercise is what good it will bring how necessarily required that so a man may do what he does out of this knowledge and not serve God he knows not with what 2. A man before he comes into Gods presence about such works must repent of his sins yea renew his repentance bethinking himself of the several things which he latest committed to work a fresh measure of grief in his soul with a full determination of heart to strive more against them for God cannot endure to be served with a foul hand The sprinkling water must be sprinkled upon us and we must purge our selves from all uncleanness if we draw near to him So in the old Law they were to wash their clothes after some pollution and when God came to them to put off their shooes And that is it which David saith I will wash mine hands in